People, I think that what's happening in the church today in this area of divorce and the breakup of marriage and infidelity and all of this is based simply on this one principle. Christian people will not walk in love as God defines them.
They won't. It's time wasted. The consequences of that kind of confusion?
Relatively minor. But if you're confused about what love is, that can take you down a road with serious consequences. And in fact, the most serious consequence of all? Eternal separation from God's love. Consider that point today on Grace to You as John MacArthur answers the question, what does it mean to love the right way? God's way? It's part of his study titled, The Portrait of a New Life.
And now to pick up where he left off yesterday, here's John. Ephesians chapter 5. We're looking at verses 1 through 7. Ephesians 5 verses 1 through 7.
Let me read them to you as a setting for our message. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no fornicator nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
Now this is a tremendously potent passage, and it's very important for us today. Let's look at Ephesians 5 verses 3 and 4 specifically. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. If God's love and the love of God's children is self-sacrificing, forgiving, and unconditional, then be sure that Satan will pervert that, and the love of the world will be selfish, self-centered, unforgiving, and conditioned on what it gains, not what it gives.
That's the point. So when the world says love, it isn't using God's definition. It means desire, self-pleasure, lust. Oh, I'm not denying that now and then there's some self-giving in it, that now and then there's the milk of human kindness, now and then there is some magnanimity in it, now and then there is some generosity in it. There are times when love, human love, does reach a higher level than at other times, but the basic commodity is self-pleasure, self-gaining, and it is a conditional thing.
I never cease to be amazed. How many people say, well, we're getting a divorce because you don't meet my needs anymore. Well, whoever said love was all about somebody meeting your needs, love is all about you meeting somebody's needs. Physical desire, personal gratification is a fickle dream. It's an elusive bubble, and if you want to chase your whole life long to find the ultimate fantasy, you'll wind up desperate, destitute, and never having realized it.
The world says I love you for what you do for me. It is shallow, selfish, sensual, sexual. Satan tries to sell this to the world, and it's incredible to me that Christians fall into the trap. People, I think that what's happening in the church today in this area of divorce and the breakup of marriage and infidelity and all of this is based simply on this one principle. That Christian people will not walk in love as God defines it.
They won't. Paul says I'm not talking about the world's love, fornication, uncleanness, covetousness. That shouldn't be once named among you, not one single time should that be heard of. The word fornication, you know that word. It's mentioned in its noun forms at least 35 times in the New Testament. It's a big problem.
Now, when something is mentioned 35 times, it's a problem. The word porneia means sex, sin, and it means any kind, any kind. There is a term in the Greek, enkratia, and that word means, it's a great word, it means discipline and self-control.
That's its basic meaning. And it denotes the power of control that a person has over himself, enkratia, a good word. Socrates said it is one of the chief virtues.
So did Plato and so did Aristotle. The word was self-control, self-discipline. By the way, it is used 10 times in the New Testament and it always means self-control, sometimes translated temperance but meaning the same thing.
But watch where its real significance is. The ancient Greeks used it to refer to sexual self-control, sexual self-control. They said it is the ability to transcend one's passions, to transcend one's desires sexually. Now, in the New Testament it is used in that way also. In Acts, for example, 24, 25.
Let me just show you this very fascinating word. And Paul here is talking about, talking to Felix, and as he reasoned, he's talking to Felix, he talked to him, watch this one, this is really powerful, about righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come. Now you say, well, that's a pretty general message, a little righteousness, a little self-control, a little judgment to come.
No, sir. You know what he was doing? Listen, Felix married Drusilla in an adulterous relationship and here is Paul in front of Felix, this powerful man. And he says to him, I'd like to give you a sermon, Felix. It has to do with righteousness as opposed to lack of self-control, sexual self-control which leads to the judgment of God. Listen, what he was doing was nailing Felix to the wall on his own relationship to his wife.
This wasn't any generalized message. He was saying, Felix, you're a living illustration of God's righteousness violated by a failure to have sexual self-control which ends in judgment. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, the word is used again, and there it is used in reference to marriage where the Apostle Paul is teaching and he says, if they cannot have self-control, let them marry for it's better to marry than to burn, and it means sexual self-control. If you have a problem with that, get married.
Don't try to say I have the gift of singleness, but it sure is difficult because I have this tremendous desire for marriage. No, if you have that desire and you do not have self-control, sexual self-control, then you're better to be married. In other words, I want you to see that the word encrateia is a word that refers to sexual self-control. Now the Greeks said that that word had an opposite, and the opposite was porneia. So now you can see by the opposite what it means, a lack of sexual self-control.
That's porneia. It is an antonym of encrateia. It is behavior out of control.
It is undisciplined. It is beyond the limits that God sets. And by the way, it means bestiality, homosexuality. It was used to speak of pedophilia, which is sex with children, child molesting, any kind of unchastity, prostitution, harlotry, anything comes under that term, any lack of sexual self-control. Porneia. There's a Greek word grafe, which means to write. Porneia and grafe is pornography, to write about sex sin.
That's where the word comes from. There's no place for this in our life. He says, this shouldn't be once named among the saints. Not one time. You'll remember in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 how the apostle Paul says there's no place for this in our life.
None at all. Such were some of you, he said. You used to be like this. This is in the past. But since you've come to Jesus Christ, that's all gone. That's all done away with. That's all in the past. There's no place for that. In the Corinthians, of course, we're throwing up all kinds of stupid arguments about the fact, well, meat for the body and the body for meat.
Remember that? I mean, it's only biological. It's just like eating. After all, it's just a biological thing. The apostle Paul says it isn't biological at all. Don't you know your body is a member of Christ, and when you join yourself to a harlot, you join Christ to a harlot.
And by the way, a harlot's anybody who has sex outside of marriage. And when you do that, it's not just a biological thing. You're taking Jesus Christ with whom you are one, and you're joining Jesus Christ to a harlot.
It's not just biological. If you're living in any kind of a perversion of love, you're a blight on the church. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and the apostle Paul writes, he says it's reported commonly there's fornication among you. And he says, instead of being stricken about it, instead of being mournful and broken about it, you're puffed up and you have not mourned. And he says, your glorying is not good. And he says to the church, you put that person out of the church, deliver him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
Don't let that leaven destroy the lump. And he says, if you find a fornicator in the church, I write unto you not to company with a fornicator. If he calls himself a brother and he's a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner, don't even eat a meal with him. 1 Corinthians 5, put him out. You're a blight on the church. You need to be removed from the church if you live that way, to say nothing of the fact that you're definitely not walking as a child of God. 2 Peter 2, he calls people that do that scabs and filth spots on the assembly.
Satan will always introduce a counterfeit. Now look further, and we won't go over these words in detail because we have in the past, but he says neither fornication nor uncleanness. Remember that word? Akatharsia, uncleanness. It means the vile, rotten stench that goes with sexual sin.
It refers to immoral acts, thoughts, passions, ideas, all the way on to orgies, every bit of it. That's not love. People say, but it's so wonderful, we're in love. And Jesus says it's the same word that speaks of the rotten filth and decay of a body full of maggots. Pretty strong language. Do you say, but we're in love?
No, you're not in love because love doesn't do that. We have sex madness, I'm afraid, even in the church. It really shocks me, some of the books that are now being written by Christian people. You know, sex for Christians.
I've thrown some in the trash can. I've had some books sent to me written by Christians, published by Christian publishers, dealing with the issue of sex, read about three pages and pitched it in the trash. You know what's happened is the world is selling this so effectively that the church is coming in the back door and buying some of it and sort of trying to sanctify. Let's sanctify this. I heard one person say in his premarital counseling, he advised the couple to see each other naked before they were married so that they would have some idea of what they were getting into.
Ludicrous. This isn't something clinical. It can be dealt with in that fashion.
There are some who even suggested premarital sex relationships for Christians before they were married. Look at the next word. It shouldn't be any of that. No uncleanness or covetousness. You say, what does covetousness have to do with this?
Pleonexia. Covetousness could be translated greediness. And you know what it says? If you go back to Exodus 2017, when it's talking there, you shall not covet. It says you shall not covet this and this and this, nor your neighbor's what? Wife.
You want to know something? People in our society, they covet other people's wives. They covet other women.
They covet women they see on TV or the movies or ads or magazines or books or whatever. This is sin. This is the counterfeit. It is part of the lie, the elusive bubble, the fantasy that never is, that never happens.
You know those beautiful, magnificent movie stars that are supposed to be so wonderful that fill up the fantasies of so many plain people are the same ones who can't stay married to anybody. It's a fantasy. It's a lie. It's a deceit. It's elusive.
It isn't there. Greediness. People go after women and women go after men like notches on their belt.
And so the Bible says there will be a counterfeit and let it, look at the end of verse 3, not be once named among you, not one time. People say, well, I couldn't help it. I fell in love outside my marriage. That's not a proof of love. That's not a justification for divorce. That's simply a proof of the rotten, sinful heart that you've got.
That's all. People say, well, we couldn't help it. We're so in love and I don't love Him anymore. Then you're a sinner because you're commanded to love that one. You're a sinner and that isn't going to justify a divorce.
That condemns it. You're, in addition to not loving your husband or not loving your wife or whatever starts this thing, you're a coveter too because you've coveted something that was not yours and was outside God's laws and outside God's will. And outside God's plan so you're not only sinning, not loving as you should, but you're sinning, coveting what isn't yours.
And you ought to read David and Bathsheba. You'll sin again because you'll steal what isn't yours from whatever person it belongs to. And so your sin just keeps going. Let it not be once named.
Not even one time. Look at the end of verse 3. It has become hagias, holy ones. How could holy ones be characterized by unholy love, unholy lust, selfish, conditional, and unforgiving?
We are set apart. We are holy. How can holy ones be engaged in unholiness? How can those who are the children of the holy God be doing unholy things? You say, well, boy, I've never done that.
I'm sticking with Mom here all through the years and hanging in there. It's good. But just so nobody gets off the hook, verse 4 says you shouldn't have any filthy talk, foolish talk, jesting, but only giving of thanks. You say, well, what's this?
Listen, not only are you not to do it, you're not even to talk about it. Now that ought to just literally devastate our society. Filthiness, by the way, means general obscenity. The literal root is that which is disgraceful. And it has to do with words.
It basically has to do with words. Verse 12 of the same chapter, it is a shame to speak of things which are done of them in secret. You don't even talk about that stuff. That's why it bothers me that there's so much license, even within quote-unquote Christianity, to talk about that area of sexual life in a way that I don't feel the Bible allows.
And whatever happened to the glory of discovery for two people set apart by God to marriage? Disgraceful talk is what filthiness means. It has to do with words that are disgraceful. You can't read a book without that garbage in it from the world. You can't see a television program.
You can't see a film. You can't hardly have a conversation with some people. And yet it is never to be ours to be indulged in. Never once are we to be in a filthy conversation.
Never once are we to listen to disgraceful talk. We are called to holy conversation. Read James 1. We are called to holy conversation. When you open your mouth, it ought to be the words that come from the mind of God, the heart of God, the lips of Jesus, not the stuff that the world talks about. I don't know how people can go sit in a movie and watch all this stuff and listen to all of that.
I don't know how you can do that with your television. I don't know how you can read books like that or magazines like that or laugh at jokes like that when the Bible says it should never be once named among you. Not only filthiness, but look at foolish talking. Morologia. Morologia.
From moro we get moron. It means stupid talk. It's talk coming from somebody who has an intellectual deficiency. I call it low obscenity.
Let me show what I mean. Low obscenity. This is the sin of the drunk, the sin of the fool, the sin of the gutter mouth, the low class obscene stuff. Just filthy gutter talk. Senseless, profitless words with a filthy connotation. Low obscenity. Morologia.
Moronic. But the next word is very interesting. It's the word jesting. And it is the word utrapale. It doesn't mean low obscenity. It means high obscenity.
You say, what in the world is that? Well, the word literally means able to turn easily. Have you ever known anybody who can take something that is said and turn it easily into something dirty? That's the clever wit of the talk show host, you know? The late night guy who no matter what you say, he twists it to have a filthy innuendo. So on the one hand, you've got the moronic stupidity of the drunken or the fool who just talks filthy gutter talk.
On the other hand, you've got the sophistication of the clever man who's not stupid but who has a clever dirty wit who can easily turn anything to have an innuendo. In both cases, it's garbage can mind. In both cases, it is talking about something that is evil, and Paul says you don't do it in verse 3, and he says in verse 4, you don't talk about it.
Clean up your life, clean up your talk. On the other hand, verse 4 says we are to give thanks. We are to give thanks.
That's pretty clear. You know why we're to give thanks? And I want – just get this. If you don't get anything else, I say get this. Because thanks is the most unselfish thing you do.
Did you get that? Thanks. Absolutely unselfish. Instead of seeking selfish things, sexual fulfillment, uncleanness, coveting, instead of indulging in all these self-fulfilling things, stop and say thanks. That's why, you see, it says in 1 Thessalonians, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you. Nothing you ever do in your life will teach you unselfishness like giving thanks. You spend all day giving thanks and you'll step right outside yourself because thanks has to be offered to gods.
Don't be self-centered is what he's saying. Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks. Express your love to God. Express your love to others. Let your life be characterized by saying thanks.
And I believe you can go even from God here to those around you. Instead of wanting everything from everybody, instead of wanting to take, why don't you love in a way that says thanks? Thanks for what you mean. Thanks for what you are. Thanks for what you allow me to give you. Just be a thankful, unselfish person instead of selfish.
God's love is unselfish and thankful and the world's love is thankless and selfish. And finally, the plea, the pattern, the perversion leads to the punishment. It's clear what it is.
We'll see it quickly. Look. This you know. No fornicator. No person who lives in fornication. No unclean person. No covetous person who is an idolater because if you covet something, it's an idol.
And he lists all three of the same things that are in verse 3. Persons like that have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. If you live like that, you're not what? You're not saved. You're not in God's kingdom. You better examine yourself. No fornicator.
Did you get it? None. No unclean person and no covetous man who is an idolater or has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. That's not our lifestyle.
Those people are in the world. There's no room for doubt about God's attitude toward immorality. No wonder you shouldn't do it.
No wonder you shouldn't even talk about it. We're the children of God. Do you see this in the text? We're the children of God in verse 1. We're the beloved of Christ. We're the holy ones. The end of verse 3.
We're the citizens of the kingdom and we must act consistent with our identity. He says, look at verse 5, this ye know. This isn't any big mystery. You know this. And by the way, I'm afraid some people don't know this.
And we want to accept everybody. Well, so and so I know they're constantly living in fornication. I know they're living with the person all the time. I know they do this all the time. I know they're homosexuals, but after all, they made a decision. Listen. This you know that no fornicator is saved.
No person who lives like that. It's going to be a change. Oh, maybe there will be a time when a believer falls into the sin of fornication, but that is not going to be the continuing characteristic of his life without a break. From the time he was converted, there's going to be a change because salvation is based on repentance. If you ever learned anything when you were saved, you learned that. Titus 2, 11.
Listen to this. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Now when you got salvation, it says this, teaching us. Did you know your salvation teaches you something? It teaches you denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.
We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. When you were saved, you learned that much. Your salvation taught you that much that you couldn't go on living in lusts and ungodliness. Salvation teaches that's basic stuff.
So he says those people, they don't have any part. You say, well, what about a Christian who's drawn into a sin in that area? Or a Christian who does do that foolish talking or filthiness? Well, the Lord will forgive.
Sure. 1 John 1-9, he keeps on cleansing us. And there will be times when we as Christians do fail maybe in those areas.
It isn't necessary. But there may be times when it happens and God will forgive. But it will not be the flow of your life to live like that.
Not at all. Holiness is a change in your life at salvation and then a decreasing frequency of sin. Well, verse 6, he says, this is the punishment now. They're not going to enter the kingdom and let no man deceive you with vain words. Don't you let anybody tell you you can do this and be a Christian. Don't you let anybody tell you you can live like this and God will forgive you. Don't you let anybody tell you you're going to be all right, you're going to get in the kingdom. It will be okay. You made a decision. You did your religious thing.
It's all right to live like this. Don't let anybody deceive you with those empty words. They're empty. They're meaningless.
They're useless. For because of these very things, what things? Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, and jesting, comes the wrath of God on the sons of disobedience. Do you see? These are the very things for which God damns people to hell.
Don't let anybody deceive you. These are not characteristics of children of God. They are characteristics of children of disobedience.
Do you see the contrast? Verse 6 ends with the children of disobedience. Verse 1 began with the dear children of God. There's a difference and the result of it all is a final word.
Listen and I'll close. Verse 7, be not ye therefore what? Partakers with them.
The word partaker means partners. Don't join the world in its evil. The past, beloved, is past. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur. Thanks for being with us. John is looking at the contrast between your life before your conversion to Christ and after it.
He calls his current study the portrait of a new life. Now, these are basic foundational truths, but you know, whether you're a new Christian or a long-time Christian, it's impossible to spend too much time digging into the foundational truths that we've covered in this study. And of course, that's true for all of God's word. And this time of year, John, our listeners have a great opportunity to give their loved ones a tool that will draw them into the riches of Scripture day after day. Yeah, I think if you thought about it and asked yourself, what would I want to give to somebody I love? Of all the things that you could give, that which made the greatest spiritual impact would be number one choice. And I think we have to think like that.
I mean, who needs to take back another sweater? People don't need something that perishes, something that passes away, something that grows old, something that's going to be obsolete. If you really love someone, give them something that's going to be transformative. And that means it's going to have to be something supernatural.
It's going to have to be something from heaven. And that, of course, is the Word of God. And we've been mentioning this.
I'm going to mention it again. The MacArthur Daily Bible. It enables you to read through the Bible in one year, 365 daily readings, a portion from the Old Testament, a portion from the New, and then a portion from Psalms and Proverbs. And it just plants the Word of God in your mind.
And the study notes are going to help you to navigate the truths that you're reading on a daily basis. If you don't have a copy of the MacArthur Daily Bible, you need to get one for this Christmas for yourself and pick up several more for the folks you love. Yes, this is a great resource if you or someone you know is struggling to read God's Word consistently. To order the MacArthur Daily Bible, contact us today.
Call our toll-free number, 855-GRACE, or go to gty.org. Again, the MacArthur Daily Bible makes it easy to read through the entire Bible in 2022. And if you haven't read the entire Scripture in a year because some parts were difficult to understand, the MacArthur Daily Bible can actually help with that. It includes notes by John that clarify the confusing passages. The MacArthur Daily Bible costs $16, and shipping is free. To order, call 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. And remember, too, John's current audio study, The Portrait of a New Life, is available free of charge in MP3 or transcript format. So if you've missed a lesson in this study, download any or all of the six messages free of charge in MP3 or transcript format at our website, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to look for Grace To You television this Sunday, and then be here when John looks at what it means to walk in the light, as he continues his study, Portrait of a New Life, with another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Monday's Grace To You.
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