A Stirring Summons to Purity, Part 3

Some view moral purity as a barrier to personal liberty. Maintaining godly standards feels like a restriction.

And yet the biblical paradox suggests otherwise. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll is teaching from the fifth chapter of Ephesians. In the first seven verses, Paul delivers a bold call to upholding God's standard for wholesome relief. As we'll see, purity not only protects us from harm, but it's the pathway to contentment as well. No matter your age or status in life, these biblical principles apply to us all.

Chuck titled today's message, A Stirring Summons to Purity. Paul is writing to the people of Ephesus, some of whom lived in it before the cross. And so he is addressing the behavior of the Christian as being altogether different from the pagan lifestyle of their past.

So he gets specific. This kind of writing would have never been found among the intellectual secular writer of that day, or any writer from the pagan world. This is unique truth, even in the day in which it was written. Now, if that isn't enough, he goes a little further and talks about filthiness. It's translated filthiness here. The same word, look at verse 12, is translated disgraceful.

See that in 512? It is disgraceful. Same Greek word. The next term is called silly talk.

Look at that. Silly talk. Interesting colorful Greek word. It means pointless and unnecessary talk. In this context, it would be unnecessary dirty comments.

Shaded words. It's not referring to those who are intellectually deficient, but those who are morally debauched. Silly talk. Obscenities. Silly talk. Coarse jesting.

Look at that. There must be no filthiness, silly talk, or coarse jesting. That word means turning something that is said or done, no matter how innocent, into something suggestive, sensual or immoral. This world has come in like a flood and contaminated the mind so that as a result we have picked up the Victorian mentality that all of it is dirty. And once you have that family, don't even touch each other again. No, he says, keep on giving thanks. Before I move on beyond this, I want to, I hope, help by adding a couple of three thoughts here as to what is wrong with falling into the trap of these other things, these six areas we've touched on.

Let me give it to you really quick. Number one, it plays too near the edge, it plays too near the edge of what can degenerate into what is inappropriate. It plays too near the edge of that which can degenerate and become inappropriate. Teach your children this, by the way, rather than, no, no, no, no, no, stop, stop, don't, don't, quit, stop, don't.

Explain why. Explain to them why it's best that they stay away from this. It gets you too near the edge of what can degenerate into that which becomes inappropriate. Second, it breaks down the resistance within us. The Lord is working to cultivate an intimacy with himself. When you deal with the dirt, you break down the resistance and you're not able to be intimate with God. Three, it promotes a warped and degrading view of sex that hinders marital intimacy. Now, you say, well, you know what, Chuck, I know people who absolutely can't get past it.

I mean, it's like it's in every other, every third phrase. I understand. I did a hitch in the Marine Corps. I was in a barracks for 16, 17 months in Okinawa, 8,000 miles from home, living around depravity. Me, a married man, red-blooded, the cookie jar was open every day. And I'm telling you, I heard sex talked about and described about 27 hours a day, may have been 28 hours a day, until you'd want to throw up. I'm not a prude.

I have more fun than most people around. And I didn't come across as some kind of friar or bishop or pious saint. But I'll tell you, even I, a red-blooded American boy, finally just got sick of it. It was everywhere. The disease in our outfit was scandalous, 93%, either head-head or head at the time of venereal disease.

It was everywhere. You say, Chuck, I know people that are like, I mean, if I start bringing this message, wait a minute. I have just described the unsaved, who have no power to change that, to try to get them to clean up their mouth is trying to get the pig out of the slop. They have a nature that's depraved, and therefore they have a mouth that's depraved.

They have a mind that's depraved. Look at verse 5. Know this with certainty. No immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. You know what he's saying? He's talking about a blatant continuation in a sinful lifestyle, unchanging, and listen, unchangeable. When you come through the cross to Christ, you are able to be changed. Until then, you're a lost soul. You can't change. Attempts at it are futile. You're dead in trespasses and sins.

There is no hope for there to be a change. That's why I never address the lifestyle of the lost and condemn them for it. That's how they live without Christ.

This is not behavior for the lost person. This is behavior for the one who says he believes. Paul makes it clear that there is a category of those who will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. And then he says, now don't be deceived, because some are standing on the fence.

Don't be deceived. Verse 6. Don't let anyone deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

What does that mean? There will be some who will want to deceive you and think, look, God is too kind to condemn anyone. There couldn't possibly be an eternal hell. He's a God of love, a God of grace, a God of goodness. They never mention righteousness, purity, holiness.

He's a God of love and goodness, and he loves you too much to put you there to let that happen. That is called empty words, and they are deceptive. I have a friend who attended a church where they just loved him and loved him and never told the truth, and they loved him and loved him, and finally he got exposed to the truth, and he said, you know, as I look back on that ministry, they would have loved me right into hell.

What a comment. This isn't church bashing. This is standing for truth. And the world is being deceived into being told, look, it's not that way anymore. That's dated.

Oh, no, this is timeless. This has nothing to do with first century, 12th century, 21st century, or 30th century culture. This is truth for all of time. And so he says, let the beliefs, let the behavior square with one another.

And remember, there will be those who will want to tempt you with clever reasonings and very appealing and fully humanistic thinking. For this reason, the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore, verse 7, don't be a partner with them.

Do not become a partner with them. It's another way of saying don't be unequally yoked. Let me wrap this up. Can I do that with three or four principles that I think will be helpful?

I hope so. Each one of them ends with a never, so maybe that'll help underscore them. Number one, sexual perversions degrade our humanity. Sexual perversions degrade our humanity.

They never enhance it. You are never enhanced in your character because you are engaged in sexual immorality and perversion. Second, sensual talk and gutter humor serve no beneficial purpose. Sensual talk and gutter humor serve no beneficial purpose. They never make us better people.

You'll never be a better person because you engaged in gutter talk and sensual innuendo. It's pointless. It's wasteful.

The cookie tastes rotten when you eat it. Number three, constant trafficking in these things is incompatible with the Christian faith. Constant trafficking in these things, and I mean constant. The habitual constant trafficking in these things is not compatible with the Christian faith. It's never appropriate for the Christian. Staying away from anyone who wishes to convince you otherwise is wise. Staying away from anyone who would wish to convince you otherwise is wise.

I often call it cheap grace, where people use the great term grace and then without apology try to convince you that an immoral life is not all that much of a problem. Now I want to say something to you without looking at my notes, okay? I've pretty well delivered that. I want to tell you how honored I am to pastor this church. I said to Cynthia late last evening and then over coffee early this morning, I said, I can't wait Sunday morning. I can't wait to be with these great people. She says, I know I can tell. You love it, don't you?

I said, I just absolutely love it. I want you to know how much I believe in the work of God in our midst. I don't want this ever to be named among us.

I want you to know how jealous I am for our flock. I want us to have fun forever, good fun, clean fun, great laughter. I don't think the laughter belongs in the bar. I think the laughter belongs in the church.

But because the church stopped laughing, it wound up in the bar. This is a great place to laugh without a hangover. This is a great place to have fun and to laugh at ourselves and at life, never at God. But what a great place to live free and to cultivate a grace kind of living. And I don't know of a better place to start than right here at Stonebriar Community Church. I don't have a better place to infect our kids with a good positive dose of winsome Christ-like Christianity than here.

If there were a better place, I'd be there. But don't think the enemy hasn't heard every word that's been said. And before you are in your car with your little key in your little ignition, start in your big car. Before that happens, he's going to start convincing you, you know, Chuck has these old convictions that just don't fit the 21st century.

Well, that's when you've got to make a decision. Please introduce to me a person lost in immorality, who is fully satisfied, happy, free of any of life's concerns. And I'll think about retracting my words. They don't exist. I want you to look at a verse, and I'm going to close with a story. Romans 13, the last two verses. Romans 13, 13 and 14. I want to read the verses, then I want to tell you the story. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but, I love this, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust.

Isn't that a great couple of verses? Take another look at the movies you spend time in. Take another look at the programs you continue to watch. Take another look at the magazines you spend time over.

Take a look. Are they enhancing your character? Great. Don't stop. Are they taking a toll? Stop.

It's only smart. Don't make any provision for the flesh. Augustine, in his unregenerate days, was held captive by the sin of lust. He says so in his book, Confessions. He told a story of his miserable bondage and his ultimate emancipation, which was remarkable. At the crisis of his conversion, he was plunged in horrible distress between the force of inclination on the one hand and the call of conscience on the other.

But it was a power far above his own that rescued him at last. He was sitting in a garden with his companion, Alipius, when he suddenly rose to seek a lonely place where he might give way, unobserved, to his emotion and his sins. As he went, he heard a voice, as of a boy or a girl playing, which said, Take and read. Take and read. He turned back, and lifting a book, which happened to be the epistle to the Romans, from the table at which his companion was still seated, he let his eye fall on the first words which met him, and they were these.

Romans 13, 13 and 14. Which in his rendering read, Let us behave decently as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Eugene Peterson renders them, We must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed. Get dressed. Don't loiter and linger waiting until the very last minute.

Dress yourself up in Christ and be up and about. The story continues. These were God's own words, and in the hand of God gripped him. He felt that the long struggle had been taken in hand by the one mightier than himself.

Christ had redeemed him from that time forth, and then on he became a holy man of God. I'd like us to bow our heads. I'd like us to close our eyes.

We won't linger here needlessly. Sometimes messages are delivered and they just have a way of sticking. Maybe you remember the congruent triangles. Maybe you remember the story of the college professor who lived a lie, and it was finally exposed. Maybe one of those six descriptions pricks your conscience.

Maybe more than one. You've gotten loose and you've drawn others into it. I don't know where you are in this. I just know that I'm convicted by it. And I'm not here today to promise that once you come to terms with this, that you're freed then from any further temptation.

You know better than that. Maybe you need this day as the day to put down the stake, to drive it in, date it. Date it in the margin of your Bible.

Put it in your journal. Today is the day before God. I determine that I'll deliberately put it in to the immorality and the impurities and the filthy talk and the coarse jesting and the moronic, needless comments, the innuendos, the junk today. If you find yourself hopelessly lost and without power to change, the answer is because you don't know Christ. You don't know the Savior.

If you are habitually in this lifestyle, unable to find the power to change, it's because you haven't the power. You've never come to the cross. At the close of virtually every one of our services, someone comes to know Christ to talk to us. We remain here up front to talk to whoever would wish, and they share how they've just in their seats sitting right there come to terms with their salvation.

I invite you today. That's where you find yourself. Oh, Lord, I thank you for helping with the strength that was needed to deliver this message. I thank you for convicting me of it all through this week, for giving me the passion to deliver what I believe to be the truth and to say it in a way that is reasonable and accurate with the text and applicable. Oh, Lord, the last thing we need is to feel pious, as though this is good that somebody else heard it. The other extreme is to feel that we're absolutely out of touch with the real world.

Lord, show us the balanced answer here. Help us to come to terms with it, to remain easy to live with, to be people of great joy and great grace, but pure hearts and clean minds and wise lips. May we become an influence for good in this lonely and aching, lost world in which you've left us. You've not isolated us, you've insulated us, Lord, and we pray that we will live insulated by your Spirit in touch with those who've never met you.

May our lives be for them an attraction, a magnet because of the contrast between the way we live and what they would wish were true in their lives. And now unto Him who is able to guard us from stumbling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior. Be glory and majesty and dominion and power now and forever as we live out the truth of what we have heard.

In Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Before we hear from Chuck, if you're looking for a resource that will guide you in your daily pursuit of godliness in the coming year, the kind that Chuck described today, then we're recommending a devotional book called Good Morning, Lord, Can We Talk? It contains 365 devotions, providing a brief and refreshing oasis for every single day in 2021. Walking in spiritual purity requires that we stay focused on the truth of God's word, and this devotional will help you do that throughout the new year, and it would make a thoughtful Christmas gift as well. So to purchase Chuck's devotional book Good Morning, Lord, go to insight.org slash store or call us if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. If Chuck's November letter has arrived at your home, then you've had the delight of reading his personal expression of thanksgiving for all God has accomplished in 2020, in spite of the forces of darkness pressing into our world today. It's been a remarkable year, and in many respects, it's drawn us closer together as followers of Christ, because in times like these, we truly need each other. So from all of us at Insight for Living Ministry, please accept our profound thanks for your support during this tumultuous year. Your voluntary donations have allowed us to touch lives all across North America, and now all around the world through eight languages.

Chuck? As the senior pastor of a growing congregation, you'll never hear me refer to Stonebriar as my church. And likewise, as the Bible teacher on Insight for Living, for more than 37 years, again, you'll never hear me call it my ministry. Insight for Living is your ministry. Oh sure, the program carries the sound of my voice, and the ministry originates here in the city where I live, where we have our international headquarters.

But truly, without loyal friends like you, we could not possibly accomplish our mission. It's your investment that God uses to reach people with the message of Insight for Living Ministries. So when you give your special end-of-the-year donation, remember this. You're not giving to me.

You're really not giving to Insight for Living. In a very real sense, you're giving a gift to someone you may never meet who needs to hear the liberating truth of the gospel. I can assure you that your donation will make a difference. Large or small, your investment is multiplied many times over as the seed of God's Word is planted in fertile soil. You see, we hear from grateful listeners every day who tell amazing stories of life changes when they applied biblical principles to their lives. Let's pull together as a family one member at a time. Indeed, Insight for Living is your ministry. Thanks so much for doing your part. I so look forward to hearing from you soon.

Join us again tomorrow when Chuck Swindoll continues the series Becoming a People of Grace, 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.