A Stirring Summons to Purity, Part 1

The virtue of moral purity seems to ebb and flow with the times. Our society's ethical boundaries are drawn not by timeless biblical wisdom but by the intangible whim of cultural forces. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll teaches from Ephesians chapter 5, pointing to a stern warning written by the Apostle Paul. His Spirit-inspired words, although penned centuries ago, set the benchmark for moral purity in our times. Paul wrote these strong words, let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Chuck titled today's message, A Stirring Summons to Purity.

Go back to that song sheet you were singing from and take a look at who wrote the text of a couple of them. It's the same person, you've heard his name, Charles Wesley. A wonderful history, just a quick little glimpse, a little snapshot from the Wesley family. Susanna Wesley was Charles Wesley's mother. She had 19 children.

That'll encourage every mother here today. You know, aren't we glad she didn't quit at 14? She would not have had John, the older brother of Charles. Charles was 18 in the family. They didn't all survive, but if you've studied Susanna Wesley, you know she was a woman of enormous discipline, and she had rules for rearing children, and she was consistent with those rules. Anyway, the boys grew up and Charles became the hymn writer, the artist of the family, if you will, and John was the theologian.

John traveled 225,000 miles on horseback. He did a study in the original text, both Old and New Testament, from the Hebrew and the Greek, graduate of Oxford, as was his brother Charles. In fact, they together began a group that had a real method that they would follow in their disciplined devotional life. Method led to Methodism and the Methodist Church that grew from the Wesley influence, and there's a whole theology called the Wesleyan theology.

You see it coming through. Part of Wesleyan theology teaches that you can be perfected to the point where you have the old nature emancipated. That's what you sang, whether you know it or not, as you got to that second stanza, take away our bent to sinning.

Sorry, it won't happen. Great words, but wrong, and also believe that you could lose your salvation, also incorrect, and I won't exposit the hymn and ruin it for you, but you see theology coming out in the writing of hymns. Anyway, Charles left 8,000 hymns in his legacy, and the church still sings, many of them today, and for the most part, they're magnificent. The last line is one of my favorite to quote, as he refers to being lost in wonder and love and praise. I think that's probably the finest amplified definition of worship you could read, where we are no longer concerned with who's sitting around us, or what they're wearing, or what they're thinking. We are lost in wonder and love and praise. Easy in church stuff to get wordy, to just talk, and to fill space with words. Tozer wrote on that on one occasion. He wrote on everything, it seemed, and this one was a great subject, he said, may not the inadequacy of much of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit of skipping through the corridor of the kingdom like children in the marketplace, always chattering about everything, and pausing to learn the true value of nothing.

Let's guard against doing that, just chattering about everything, and not learning the true value of any of it. We really take the preaching of the word seriously here. We really take the book of God literally. We really believe it is from Him, and it is sharper than the surgeon's scalpel.

No surgeon can ever do work on the soul and the spirit. Hebrews 4, 12 says the Word of God is alive and active and sharper than a makairah, is the Greek word. It was a kind of a modern invention by the time of Paul and the first century writers. You could cut both ways as a warrior.

Until then, the sword only had the sharp blade on one side, but the makairah came in and became like a long dagger, which the centurion and his troops would carry as a part of their armor, and you could cut both ways when attacking the enemy. He says the Word of God is like a two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joint and the makairah, and it is a kritikos. Isn't that a great word? It is a critic of the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. In Ephesians 5, where—I'm not preaching, I'm just getting warmed up here, so forgive me, I get a little carried away there. Ephesians 5 cuts like a two-edged sword, and it'll strike the soul and spirit if you let the truth hit home, and I know you want to do that. Let me read for you from the first seven verses of Ephesians 5, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love just as Christ also loved us, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you.

The New International Version, I think, says there must not even be a hint of it. It must not even be named among you as is proper among saints, and there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. Every time you see the word partaker, especially in the New Testament, just transfer the word to partner. You get the idea.

Therefore, do not partner with them. That's a thought. And the New International Version of Ephesians 5, I notice a number of you as I'm reading the Bible don't have a copy of the scriptures with you, and I would urge you, as you begin to grow in your Christian life, to purchase a copy, and you can keep it handy and have it for your own reading and always bring a copy with you when you come for worship. It's just an important part.

It's like tools for the trade. We can't grow without the truth from God, and this book is His truth. Let's pray. Our Father, we are about to embark on a stirring summons to purity, and this is a very convicting message that has already begun to work its way deeply into my own soul as it should and needed to, and it will soon be implanted on the soil of all the souls who will hear these words.

I pray the soil will be prepared for the sowing of the good seed of Your word. Now, I realize also, Lord, that we live in a world and a culture that's lost its way. We are impacted by it. We are influenced by it and some even intimidated because of it.

So, twisted is the thinking of the society about us in this global atmosphere of the cosmos that it is easy to begin thinking we are the weird ones and the worldling is thinking straight. Help us to put that in proper order as we meet together from week to week. Now, guard us in the process from foolish pride or some kind of pious personality that comes across as a freak or a fanatic that is no longer connected with the real world, like this one. And so, it's a tightrope we walk, Father, and we need Your help to do it right so that we don't turn off our neighbors with too much scripture quoting or we don't turn away a partner in life because of too much preaching and not enough living.

Help us know how to relate in the business world without compromising good, solid ethics and integrity. Make us to become people of our word in the details of life, like keeping our promises with our family members, like paying our bills, like cleaning up our mouth. Help us, Lord, because it is irritating to live in a world of irritable people.

Everything within us screams to strike back and to get even, and Your admonition to love like You have loved falls on deaf ears at times because love is at times because love seems somehow lost in the road rage of our culture. Help us, Lord, to know how to swim upstream in such an attractive way that others want to change direction. Remind us that we are the only gospel most folks will ever read. Now, Lord, we are not self-sustaining.

We are not that individually. We need Your help, and that's why we pray. May we be a body of men and women in this church who do what we say we will do as we live out the message of Christ. We need a lot of help, Lord, given to the habits of the past and wanting to be liked rather than to be right, wanting to be popular instead of being pure, and so help us with that today. And, Lord, in the process, may we continue to be easy to live with, like Christ must have been the most attractive individual who ever cast a shadow across this earth's terrain. In great measure, Father, we trust You for Jesus' sake. And everybody said amen. In the Christian life, belief and behavior always go hand in hand.

To quote the line from the old song, you can't have one without the other. And they go in that order. First, belief, and then behavior.

If you remember your days in geometry in high school, you have triangles that need to be congruent. The belief triangle and the behavior triangle need to match. Now, there have always been those who have gotten that mixed up. There are those who will try to convince you that the behavior is not really all that important. On the other hand, you don't need to be all that serious about your beliefs.

Don't believe either one. You need to be very serious about what you believe, and you need to be able to articulate that fairly well. But most importantly, you must learn the techniques for putting the beliefs into action.

Because if there isn't behavior to back up the beliefs, not only will you be a hypocrite, you will cause confusion among those searching for truth and answers. As a matter of fact, there is great confusion and sometimes scandal caused if the Christian is fairly well known, whose behavior is out of line with his or her beliefs. My mind goes back a number of years to a man who was truly a biblical scholar. He served on the staff, on the faculty, of a fine Christian college in that area, well respected first for his education, which was splendid, and earned doctorate in the discipline of theology. He was able to articulate the faith as well as he could be. He was able to articulate the faith as well as anyone you would want to meet and better than most.

Therefore, his classes were popular and well attended. He was what I would call a vigilant defender of orthodox theology. He carried the flag for monogamy.

He spoke often against the turning of the tide of his times, as others would begin to bring in certain messages that would not square with the teaching of the scriptures. He was able to stand on his own. All of that crashed and burned when it was discovered that he was having an adulterous affair. And to make matters worse, not only was he having it, he did not confess it and had to be caught, and even when confronted, would not admit it, but lied and denied until the person who confronted him said, you have been followed and photographs have been taken. And that person sitting right over there has the pictures.

If you want, I'll have him show you the pictures. At that point, he did confess, and to make matters even worse, it was discovered that this was not the first time. Now what was wrong?

There was a set of beliefs very carefully in place and squaring with scripture, but there wasn't the behavior to follow it up, to back it up, to give it force, authenticity. Whenever that occurs, there is a sweeping confusion that occurs. Disillusionment swept that campus. The church where the man had been serving as a leader and an official in the church was scandalized. The family was fractured. Now as I say, as I tell you that true story, I realize that most of you will never, thankfully, will never know such a journey. You know of similar journeys, of course, but most of us, by the grace of God, will not go there. So please don't think it must be that dramatic for it to be important. Understand that the problem is one of erosion.

Erosion is always silent, subtle, and slow. It's the frog in the kettle analogy. If the water becomes hotter ever so slowly, it will stay there until it boils to death. But the problem comes when there is the first realization that the water is just beyond tepid and the heat is increasing and the frog is higher and the heat is increasing and the frog doesn't jump. If you will allow me that analogy, I want to say to you today that my hope is to help you jump.

Help you jump. I have a friend of mine who calls this the cookie jar syndrome. Kent Hughes, who pastors effectively at the college church in Wheaton, Illinois, tells the story a little boy's mother had just baked a fresh of cookies and placed them in the cookie jar giving instructions that no one touched them until after dinner. But it was not long until she heard the lid of the jar move and she called out, son, what are you doing? A meek voice called back, my hand is in the cookie jar resisting temptation. You have reason to laugh because if the hand is in the cookie jar, it is beyond the point of resisting. It is only a matter of time before the cookie is taken. And we are surrounded, folks, with open cookie jars.

In fact, we are made to look foolish if we do not take some and, in fact, enjoy them. Paul's whole approach when he gets to the fourth chapter of Ephesians is to turn from the subject of belief, that's chapters one through three, to behavior, chapters four to six. And his favorite word for behavior is the four-letter word walk, walk. Walk in a manner worthy of your calling, he says it right out of the shoot in verse one of chapter four. Verse 17 of chapter four, don't walk any longer as the Gentiles walk. He goes back beyond the cross, he goes back to the days of the lost condition of his readers, and he says you Gentiles walked in that manner, and then he even spells out the reasons that did that and how it worked its way out, including verse 29, unwholesome words that are not to be a part of your vocabulary. I mentioned that specifically because today's thoughts in chapter five tie in to that one description in chapter four, verse 29. But the point here is the Apostle is saying I want your behavior to be in league with your beliefs, and now that we have established what is right to believe regarding salvation, chapters one, two, and three, let me help you now know how to walk chapters four, five, and six. Wonderful letter balanced even in the number of chapters on both on either side. Now if that's not enough to motivate you, look at his opening line of chapter five, verse one. Therefore, this is one of those words you see why it's there for, and it always is a summation. It is a culmination.

It's like the neck of a a funnel. Everything comes down to this point, and you've come right to this place, and he said in light of all of these things, therefore, here is the exhortation, be imitators of God as beloved children. The word translated imitators has at the root of the Greek the word mimic. Isn't that enlightened?

Isn't that colorful? Mimic God. When you mimic someone, you act out what they're doing. You say what they're saying.

You may even, if you wish to do it dramatically, dress as they are dressing. We have the word clone. Clone God. In fact, it's reasonable because we're God's children like father, like son, like parent, like children. One of the reasons we all enjoyed the singing of the cats in the cradle on Father's Day is that it is so true my son is grown up to be just like me, like father, like son. Our father is is God. He is our Heavenly Father.

So it stands to reason, as beloved children, we are to carry on our lives with the characteristics that are true of Him. He's good. Let's be good. He's kind. Let's be kind. He's just.

Let's be fair. He is holy. Let's be pure. He is full of grace. Let's demonstrate and live out grace. He is righteous. Let's think clearly about that and demonstrate righteousness.

And the list goes on and on. In fact, the apostle mentions one that you would expect. He so loves this word and has written more on it than any of the other writers of the scriptures. Walk in love.

He's back to his word again on behavior. Walk. Walk in love just as Christ loved you. Becoming an imitator of God takes intentional effort.

It's not a passive process. You're listening to the Bible teaching of pastor and author Chuck Swindoll. He titled our study in Ephesians 5, A Stirring Summons to Purity. And there's much more teaching ahead on Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. To help you in your daily pursuit of godliness, we've highlighted several helpful resources on our website.

Take a look at insight.org slash store. Walking in love, kindness, grace, and purity. These are biblical virtues we're hoping to instill not only in the people of North America, but in men and women all around the world. To that end, we're calling on friends like you to join Insight for Living in the all-out effort to bring God's message of grace to all 195 countries of the world.

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I really thank God because He's transforming my life. And another said, I've been listening to Insight for Living here in the Philippines since my elementary school years, and now I'm 58 years old, and I'm blessed and inspired to serve and love God with all my heart. It's comments like these that motivate us to venture forward with Vision 195. To give a contribution today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888.

You can also give through our mobile app or directly online at insight.org slash donate. Listen again Friday when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe A Stirring Summons to Purity right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, A Stirring Summons to Purity was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.