Sex, Idols, and Darkness, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. I'm talking to those of you who think you belong to God but refuse to give up something you know that He is forbidden. You will not walk away from a relationship that is wrong. You will not walk away from adultery or a porn habit. You think you've come to God but you've never taken repentance seriously. And let me give you a crystal clear warning. I want you to hear it as clear as I can say it. If you have not repented, you are not saved. Welcome to another day of teaching here on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. So we've all heard it before, imitation is the highest form of flattery. And it's something that we should aspire to in our relationship with God. After all, being like Jesus shows a watching world just how much He means to us.

But let's be honest, that's a whole lot easier said than done. Today, Pastor J.D. describes the key to being more like Jesus as he continues our study of Ephesians called mystery and clarity. If you've missed any of our previous messages, you can listen now at J.D.

Greer.com. Now grab your Bible and pen as we join Pastor J.D. for a challenging message today in Ephesians chapter five. Verse four, look at this. Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place. But instead, there ought to be thanksgiving.

I really struggled with this for a while this week, too. Because I thought, do I really, do I violate this? Because I don't really have what you would call a, you know, as a Victorian sense of humor. You know, I mean, sometimes I think crude things are really funny. You know, I was with a group of pastors this week who are all pastors of churches our size or larger and one of the guys, he's in his like late 40s, brought one of those little, what do you call those, trying to come up with a polite word, flatulation simulation machines.

How's that, okay? A little remote control thing. And so he's putting it around the room and, you know, making this thing go off. And I'm like, I thought this was funny in high school.

I think it's funny now, you know, watching this thing. That's crude. Is that what he's talking about? Am I in violation of this verse?

No, okay? Honestly, I'm not. Because it's not what he's talking about. It may be in poor taste. It may be in poor taste, but it's not what he's talking about here. When he says crude joking, he's not talking about making jokes about flatulation. He's saying that we should not joke about sexual immorality.

That's what he's saying. In other words, guys, we should not ever make jokes that objectify women or we should not talk about sex with women who are not our wives or for you girls. It means we shouldn't read and discuss trashy romance novels or TV shows or movies like he's just not that into you.

That's what it means. Our language and our behavior should not be like that of people who are enslaved to sensual lust and saturated by self-serving desire. There should not even be a hint of that in us, but instead we should sound like people who rejoice in and love in and delight in God.

Verse three, again, look at this. Covetous. The other thing that should not be named among you is covetousness. Covetousness means desiring intensely something that you don't have to the point that you couldn't imagine being happy without it. That's what covetousness means.

Desiring intensely something that you don't have to the point that you couldn't imagine being happy without it. Why is that not proper? Well, the same reason it would be improper for me to talk with my wife about how awesome another woman was. Imagine if every night I talked with my wife about how awesome somebody else's wife was. I was like, oh, wouldn't it be great to be married to her? I bet life with her is awesome.

Or if we walked past a girl in the mall and I'm like, man, I would love to come home to that every night. That's not proper for a guy who is married. In fact, it insults my wife. It's even more improper if I sat around and talked that way about her to you.

You'd probably be like, man, Veronica is not much of a woman. If JD is always wishing for another, it dishonors her. And the same way for you to sit around all the time and covet things that you think you need to be happy is an insult to God. Verse five, the next verse, Paul calls covetousness idolatry. That is, we let something play the role of God in our lives.

God and his presence should be the one thing, the only thing that we absolutely must have to be happy and content in life. When your attitude is I just got to make this much money or I can't be happy or I just got to get into this school or I've got to have that job or I've got to get this promotion or life is no good if I can't have a relationship with him or if I can't lose this 20 pounds. That is improper because it is insulting to God. You have given God's place to something else in your life. When you are not joyful in some circumstance that you're in, you insult God in the eyes of the world because you're telling him he's not enough.

I'm not saying you're never sad or disappointed about certain things, of course not. I'm saying that underneath even your sadness and your disappointment is a joy that you belong to God and God belongs to you and that can never be taken away. So Paul says, see verse four, instead our speech should overflow with thanksgiving and joy in God.

You see how they're opposites? If you really worship and value God in whatever circumstance you're in, you'll always be giving thanksgiving. You won't be coveting another situation.

You'll be giving thanksgiving because wherever you are and whatever you're going through, you have the presence and the love of the almighty God. Verse five, here's your fourth reason Christians do righteousness. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God. Number four, if we haven't given up our idols for God, we are not saved.

Just to put that kind of plainly. If we haven't given up our idols for God, we're not saved. See Paul is talking here to a church.

Keep that in mind. Evidently a lot of people in the Ephesian church thought that they had an inheritance in the kingdom of God, but they've not given up their sexual sin. They thought, yeah, we know. We want God to be a part of our lives. We want to be saved.

You don't want to go to hell, but we'll just keep doing this stuff over here on the side because after all, everybody's doing it here at Ephesus and it's not all that bad. And Paul says, verse five, let nobody deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. There is an age-old deception that our enemy has put in every generation of the church and that is that you can be a Christian and still do all those things. In other, in churches today you hear it said like this, accept Jesus, right, pray this little prayer, hear the ABCs of Christianity, admit, believe, call. One day you might learn to obey him, but you know that's later. Right now you just need to trust Jesus.

Paul says it plainly, you cannot become a Christian and continue to practice idolatry and pursue sin. In fact, there's a story, it's a pretty disturbing story from the life of Jesus where a guy comes to Jesus who looks like he is a prime candidate to be a Christian. They call him the rich young ruler. He is young, he is successful, he is rich, he is moral, he knows religion, he can spout Bible verses off to you. If that kind of guy came into most of our churches today, you would put him on a leadership track, you would make him a small group leader, put him in the pipeline to become an elder.

He's got everything. Jesus looks into his heart and sees that even though everything's right on the outside, this guy loves money more than he loves God. And so Jesus says, fine, give up everything you have and come and follow me. And the guy can't do it because what Jesus realizes is that there is a condition on his obedience. And even though he's going to live like a model Christian deep down in his heart, there is something that conditions his obedience that he won't obey Jesus in. And Jesus says to him, if I can't be Lord of all of your life, I won't be Lord of any of it. So he says, renounce all you have and follow me. Now understand, he's not saying every follower of Jesus as a rite of passage signs away all their possessions to the poor.

Some of them might. He's not saying everybody does that. But he is saying that following Jesus means that nothing, nothing could ever get in the way of your obedience. And if God commands you to give all of it away to the poor, you do so without question. If he commands you to tithe, you do so. If he tells you to go to Africa, then you go.

If he tells you you should not be dating this boy or you should not be sleeping together, you obey. The only way to come to God, only way, is with absolute and unconditional surrender. Other religions teach you that if you do more good than bad, you're fine. The Gospel says the only way you can come to God is complete surrender. And Paul says, let nobody deceive you with empty words.

Let me speak candidly to you for a minute. Unfortunately, a lot of churches have grown huge audiences with the preaching of empty words. And we have told you, accept Jesus. In fact, even that word accept Jesus, it's like A.W. Tozer says, as if Jesus is sitting around with his hat in his hand, needing to be accepted by us. He doesn't need to be accepted by us.

He's not sitting around wondering if he's got good self-esteem and needs us to accept him. We need to be forgiven and accepted by him. He's the Lord. We need his forgiveness. I even heard one girl say one time, well yeah, I've accepted Jesus as my Savior. I've just not accepted him as my Lord yet. I was like, it's not a solid bar.

Right? You don't take parts of him and leave parts of him. He is the Lord and the only way you come to him is in absolute surrender. When Jesus calls followers, called followers, he told them, take up your cross.

You know, for us that's become a sentimental symbol and rightfully so. But for the people that first heard that, that was an instrument of torture and execution. It would be something like saying, take up your electric chair, strap it to yourself, hook on the things that with Joe electricity your body and follow me. He said, renounce all that you have, which means nothing could ever come in the way of your obedience, not even precious relationships to you like family. You got to admit, take up your cross, renounce all that you have. That's pretty different than admit, believe, call, pray this prayer and everything's going to be fine, isn't it?

And maybe we pastors have preached empty words to fill up our churches but we are filling it up with people who have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Now listen, I am not talking about those of you who genuinely struggle with sin, who've got something in your life you just keep struggling with. I'm talking to those of you who think you belong to God but refuse to give up something you know that he is forbidden. You will not walk away from a relationship that is wrong. You will not walk away from adultery or a porn habit. You think you've come to God but you've never taken repentance seriously. And let me give you a crystal clear warning.

I want you to hear it as clear as I can say it. If you have not repented, you are not saved. You have no inheritance. And yes, this applies to a lot of us that are in these rooms that I'm talking to right now. You're playing games with God and my prayer is that you better wake up before that illusion gets shattered before the throne of God. He says, do not be deceived by empty words. You practice these things, you are unrepentant about these things, you have no inheritance to the kingdom of God. Verse seven, reason number five.

Look at this. Therefore do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them to things that are going on here in these verses. Verse number five, we do righteousness because we realize the sinful idolatrous world is doomed. We do righteousness because we realize the sinful idolatrous world is doomed. See verse 11, it says unfruitful works of darkness.

Unfruitful literally means futile, useless, or having no point. What's going on here is we realize that there's no point in investing our lives in the sinful passions of this world because they have no future. When I first came to Christ when I was 16 years old, this is exactly what I saw. I didn't know this verse but this is what I was seeing.

I saw that the works of darkness were unfruitful. I realized that, first of all, I had a couple things I thought. If there is a God then he rules for all eternity and if there is a God then those who live for themselves ultimately have no future beyond the grave and ultimately only those who live for God will have a future in eternity. The second thing I realized was if there is a God and he is the creator then ultimately his way is best. As a 16 year old, I didn't know that in my heart. I didn't sense that, yes, I just desire God. I didn't wake up one day and thought, man, I just want to have my quiet time today and I want to spend time with God and not spend time with doing sin. I didn't think all that.

I just knew it to be true. I saw that it was unfruitful and the reason I say this is some of you are wondering what's wrong with you because you're like, well, I don't really feel it yet. You're like, you know, you're always talking about there being more joy in God but to be totally honest, I feel like there's more joy in sin.

I wish I felt like you but I don't. What starts this is a understanding, a belief that the works of darkness are unfruitful and sometimes it is a faith commitment where you realize that something is leading nowhere even when you don't understand it's leading nowhere even when you don't feel it. Now, 20 years later, I can tell you there's more joy in God than there is in sin but I didn't know that starting out. I had to recognize it was unfruitful and take a calculation. See, faith is living today in a way that you know there comes a day when you'll be glad that you did.

That's what faith is. Or just think of it like this, picture a scene with me. Imagine you got a great job on one of the top floors of New York City's nicest buildings. You got a cup of coffee in your hand, you're making a huge salary, you're leaning back in your chair, you put your $600 Italian Pirelli shoes up on your desk and you look out your window from the top of Manhattan there and you think about how you've got it all, money and power. What else is there?

One more detail, this scene is taking place in tower number one of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 at 8 a.m. It changes everything, doesn't it? What good is all those things that are only going to last a few more minutes?

Coming to God means saying, God, I believe that you are God and I believe that ultimately all the works of darkness are leading nowhere. And even though I don't feel that right now, even though I don't sense it, I choose to believe it's true and I arrange my life around that. For example, when I gave you that reasoning on sex, maybe you don't track with that. Maybe you're like, that doesn't make any sense to me. I feel like sex outside of marriage is actually really good.

I think it's okay. Fine, place your bet against God. But see, what you need to realize is that even if it doesn't make sense to you, ultimately God's ways are the right ways. And if you believe that, then you bring your heart into conformity with that even when you don't feel it.

Again, faith is living today in a way that you know one day you'll be glad you did. One more thing in this passage I want to show you and this is number six. We want to honor God before a community of people who dishonor Him. That's the final reason Paul gives you to obey. You see there in verse 11, we want to honor God before a community of people who dishonor Him. Verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them.

Verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. You see, we know we live in a doomed world and most people live in darkness. And so we want to live, Paul says, in a way that others see the light of God in the midst of their darkness. It's kind of like we're the moon. You know, the moon comes out at night when it's dark.

It's dark all around, but you can look up and you can see the moon and reflected off of the moon is the light of the sun. And the light of the sun, even though you can't see the sun, the light of the sun coming off the moon is a reminder that the sun is coming back on in a few hours. Believers ought to be like that in a world of darkness where they have the light of Jesus reflecting off of them so that others are reminded that God is coming back and that it is God's world. And the only way that you can do that is by being up close to unbelievers and having the kind of life that puts the light of God on the display of God on display.

Being up close to unbelievers and having the kind of life that demonstrates and puts God on display. See, sometimes people have used this passage, I've heard this passage preached before, as an excuse for believers to sequester themselves off from unbelievers. They go back to where it says, you know, I have no partnership with the works of darkness. Well, see, we shouldn't be anywhere around unbelievers. We need to be away so that we fellowship and we need to rebuke the works of darkness. And I've heard that used for Christians to stand in their pulpits in churches and rebuke the world. Don't get close to it, rebuke it.

Don't get dirty. That is definitely not what that word means. In fact, the word literally is expose. Expose the works of darkness. You live in a way that exposes the darkness they're in. You live in a way that demands an explanation and then you're able to give that explanation. And you gotta be close enough to them for them to be able to see that. Expose does not mean you're walking through the mall, you know, rebuking like you were dressed like a skank and God is not pleased with that.

That's not what he's talking about. Expose means you live in a way that begs a question. And everything you do, you put him on display in your generosity, in your love, in your holy living, in our worship. It's like the old phrase that some of you've heard goes, you're the only Jesus some will ever see and you're the only Bible some will ever read. So church, that's the final question for us.

What kind of reflection are you giving about the nature and the beauty of God? This passage would warn us that when you and I joke about sin, when we are stingy with our money, when we do sloppy work, when we're short-tempered, when we worship apathetically and well, accidentally, we obscure others' vision of God. Church, as I've often told you, we are the ultimate apologetic for the gospel in a skeptical world. We have to show people the difference that the glorious Jesus makes in our lives.

That's what we do. So these are the six reasons he gives you to obey. We imitate God because we love him. We're responding to the love of God. We realize that if we are pursuing idols that we're not really believers. We realize that if that that that we're putting God on display. We realize the sinful, idolatrous world is doomed.

We put God on display in the midst of a dark world. So I've got an assignment for you this week. I want you to make a list and I want you just to think through these areas and the gospel in these areas in your life. And I want you to ask whether or not you're imitating God, whether or not you're putting God on display in these areas. In fact, I want you to write them down right now, write them down, and then rate yourself later one to ten, ten being the best, one being the worst, about how well you display God in these areas.

And then I want you to get your spouse to rate you, okay. Generosity, patience, what you talk about, what you watch, your work ethic, what you do with your free time, and ask do I demonstrate the glory of Jesus to the world in those areas. Wherever God has put his finger in your life, whatever area he has placed it on right now, to God I want to put you on display in this area. I want to demonstrate you.

Let me take it back one step farther while some of you are doing that. The question is have you ever received the gospel? As I explained at the beginning, this is a free gift. God's acceptance of you, his forgiveness, his righteousness, the right to be his child, is given to you as a gift. Have you ever received that gift? If not, you can do that right now, right now. It's not something you earn.

It's not something you earn. You just say, Jesus, I received the gift you offer. I received it and I yield full control of my life to you. Jesus, say this in your own words, Jesus, I received the gift that you offer and I yield full control of my life to you.

All I have is yours. Now change me. God, it has been my prayer that we would be people that are gospel saturated, gospel loving, that we would be changed by you. I pray that you would do that for the glory of Jesus and for the sake of a dark world who desperately needs to see who he is. I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Ask God to help you apply the gospel to those areas of your life.

We need his power to reflect him most accurately to a watching world. You're listening to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian, J.D. Greer. If you happen to join us late today, you can listen again right now at jdgreer.com. I recently sat down with Pastor J.D. and asked him about an underlying question that so many of us have about our lives. Am I more than what I do? Am I more than my occupation? Am I more than being a mom or dad?

Who am I? Yeah, I don't think we think about these questions all the time, but they're always just underneath the surface, like you said, Molly. Our culture defines who we are by what we do, right? I mean, think about the second question you ask somebody.

Right after you ask them their name, what do you do? We assess somebody based on their occupation. I'm going to go ahead and tell you, that's a terrible answer because it means when you're doing well, you feel good about yourself.

When you're doing poorly, then you feel poorly about yourself. The Bible gives you a better answer. God tells us who we are, and he says that who he is making us in Christ, who we are already in Christ, is the defining reality of our lives. It becomes the rock, the foundation, the anchor through which you can go through any trial, you can overcome any temptation, and you can withstand any assault. So that's a good question. I'll ask it to you listeners.

Who are you? That's the question the book of Ephesians answers, and over nine sessions in our new study guide that goes along with this series, we're going to look at how Paul answers these questions. Our brand new study will expose the transformational truth of the gospel in all its resplendent glory, verse by verse. I want you to reserve your copy right now today.

Just go to jdgrare.com. To help you get a better understanding of God's love and also a better understanding of who you are in light of that, we'd like to send you a copy of our exclusive Summit Life Mystery and Clarity Bible Study. It comes with our thanks when you donate to support this ministry at the suggested level of $25 or more. Ask for your copy of this new nine-session study through the book of Ephesians when you call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220. Or request the study when you give online at jdgrare.com. If you'd rather mail your donation and request for the study, our address is JD Greer Ministries, P.O.

Box 122-93, Durham, North Carolina, 277-09. I'm Molly Benovitch, and I'm so glad that you joined us today. Join us Wednesday on Summit Life when Pastor JD Greer reveals that the Christian life is far from boring, like some people think. In fact, it's an all-out war with a whole lot of action. Hear more from our study of Ephesians Wednesday on Summit Life with JD Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.