“Let No One Deceive You” (Part 1 of 2)

There are many people who claim to be Christians, but is it enough to simply say we believe or does saving faith require something more? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg examines what it really means to know and love and follow Christ in a message titled, Let No One Deceive You. Our study comes from Ephesians chapter 5, but Alistair begins in the book of Psalms. Psalm 130, a song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD, O LORD, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope. My soul waits for the LORD, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the LORD, for with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption, and he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Amen. Well, I invite you to turn to Ephesians chapter 5 as we continue our studies in Ephesians, and we'll read the first six verses, and our focus this morning will be primarily on verse 5 and into verse 6. Ephesians 5 and verse 1, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 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 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.

Amen. We said that it is important to realize that in these verses, particularly when you come to verses 3 and 4, he is not admonishing the culture but he is addressing the church. Secondly, he is absolutely clear that God's standards are high, and they are absolute.

He doesn't equivocate in any way at all. These things that he describes in verses 3 and 4 are completely out of place, he says. It is improper for those who are the sons and daughters of God to cultivate this kind of ethos amongst themselves, to allow themselves to think down these tracks, to include this kind of nonsense and immorality in our conversation. And then, thirdly, we said that it is only through the gospel, through the story of all that God has done for us in Jesus, that any of us are ever enabled to live as God requires.

We also said on that morning that if we start at the wrong end with these things, we will immediately go wrong. If we're tempted to think that the message of Christianity is ultimately about us or ultimately about our happiness, then, of course, we won't know how to deal with life as difficulty and disappointment comes along. And therefore, it's wonderfully reassuring and helpfully challenging to realize what we said then and reinforce now, that God's interest in us is not our happiness, which may be a byproduct, but it is in our holiness—in our holiness. And this is not an emphasis unique to Ephesians. For example, when he writes to Titus in chapter 2, encouraging Titus in Crete to be a minister of the gospel, he reminds Titus to remind his people, quotes, that he—that is, Jesus—gave himself for us, that he might—notice the verb—purify for himself a people for his own possession. So he is in the business of purifying a people for his own possession.

Now, that is an ongoing process, as we're going to see this morning. And it brings us through all kinds of changes and experiences in life, some of which are not immediately accessible to us or amenable to us. And we have to realize what God is doing. That's why we need our Bibles. That's why, for example, when you think along these lines, it's important to realize what the writer to the Hebrews is doing when he encourages the people in chapter 12. And he encourages them to realize that every good earthly father disciplines his children. It's a nonsense to think that ill-disciplined or undisciplined children are a testimony to anybody at all.

And so the writer argues from the lesser to the greater. And he quotes the Old Testament, and he says, Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the LORD disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

He then goes down to verse 9. He says, We earthly fathers who disciplined us for a while, and we respected them. How much more, then, shall we be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

They disciplined us for a short time, it seemed best. But he disciplines us—that is, the Father disciplines us—for our good, that we may share his holiness." That we may share his holiness. So the disciplinary action of God in our lives, the fashioning of us—we could say quite honestly that just in the same way that there are times when we have had occasion to go up to our bedrooms greatly discouraged and unhappy because of the intervention of our earthly fathers, thinking that our earthly fathers know nothing at all of who we are or what we need or what we're like or what is best for us, only to discover further down the line that they knew all that is best for us, and they were protecting us as well as providing for us. In other words, it was through unhappiness that we were to discover real holiness. And oftentimes in our Christian lives, there will be that which comes in that we can make no obvious explanation of. And it is helpful, at least to me, and I hope to you too, to realize what God is doing. He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. That's because his plan is to make us increasingly like Jesus. Now, Paul then continues to speak with great clarity. And he does so because this matter is absolutely crucial. When he goes from verse 4 into verse 5, you will realize that there's a conjunction there. For—the little word for, we could translate it, because. No crude joking.

Thanksgiving. Because you can be sure of this. Sure of what? Sure of the fact that the actions to which the kind of conversation that he has just negated in verses 3 and 4 leads is the kind of activity that disqualifies a man or a woman from any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, as he puts it uniquely here.

That kind of activity is a disqualifying factor. Now, let's just leave that sit for a moment. And notice how he begins. You may be sure of this.

Or, if you like, colloquially, you can take this one to the bank. You can stake your life on this, is what he's saying. You may be absolutely sure of this, that everyone who then is acting in this way is disqualified. Now, you will notice, I hope, if your Bible is open, that in verse 3, the three elements that he mentions, he comes back to in verse 5. Sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness. Well, it's not even supposed to be talked about, he says.

So if it's not even supposed to be talked about, then it's no surprise that in verse 5 he says, everyone who is actually not just talking about it but living in this has no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let me give it to you in a sentence, stolen from my good friend Sinclair. This is how he puts it. Now, I think this summarizes it.

If we get this, we get it. We cannot be heirs of a heavenly kingdom while living as citizens of a sinful one. We cannot be heirs of a heavenly kingdom while living as citizens of a sinful one. Now, one of the things that inevitably must come to mind is, well, is this a peculiar emphasis, or is this something that we find routinely in the Bible? Well, I think you know your Bibles well enough to know the answer to that.

It's everywhere. So, for example, when Paul writes to the church at Corinth—again, writing to the church at Corinth, not writing to the culture of Corinth, no to the church—he says to them, Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Says to them, Don't you know?

Well, of course, the answer is, Yes, we do know. And then his point is, So why are you living the way you're living? He says, So then there's things going on in your place that don't even have it among the pagans. And he's not talking about the bathhouses of Corinth. He's talking about the communion services in Corinth. Same emphasis in 1 John. And 1 John, you remember, says that he who has this hope within him purifies himself even as he is pure. In other words, he says, If you say that you have the hope of the gospel in you, that you are looking forward to entering into the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, let me tell you how you'll know—the purity of your life.

That's the indication that you have the hope. You know, when you're getting ready for your girlfriend coming, all of a sudden you take a big, big interest in, you know, how you're looking. If she's not coming and she doesn't see her for four or five days, you don't have to preen yourself and do all those things. But when you know that she's about to appear, you'd better be on your best behavior.

You'd better be looking as good as you can. There's no legalism in that, is there? Nobody gives you a big rule book.

No, you just do it. Why? Because you want that to be the case. So he says, the one who looks forward to the embrace of God purifies himself even as God himself is pure. Therefore, impurity in my life either says I don't know God, or actually I'm not really interested in going to meet God. Now, I wasn't going to mention that.

You got that for extra. I was going to quote this verse in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 4. Same emphasis, 1 John 2 for, whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Whoever says I know him and doesn't keep his commandments is a barefaced liar. That's what John says.

That's striking, isn't it? You say, Well, I don't like these apostles. I much prefer Jesus. I think we should spend far more time with Jesus.

Well, I couldn't agree more. But you think for a moment the apostles were saying anything other than Jesus had taught them? You don't know your Bible if you say that. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, he's just given a little piece on, You'd better make sure that your tree is bearing fruit, because it is the fruitfulness of the tree that allows people to understand what kind of tree it is. Good fruit, good tree, bad fruit, bad tree. Then he follows it up with a punchline.

Here it goes. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. One day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Or, in Ephesians 5, you sons and daughters of disobedience. See that? Many will say, but the indication is in what we do.

So, what does this mean? Are we to deduce that Ephesians 5 and these other passages, to which I have now referred, are we to assume that the Bible is teaching that if ever a person falls into one of these sins, that they are then eternally excluded from the kingdom of heaven? Well, I think you know your Bible well enough to know the answer to that question as well, don't you?

The answer to that is no. That's why we read from Psalm 130, not arbitrarily, but I wanted to read verse 4, but with you there is forgiveness. This is the message of the gospel—that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just, and he forgives us our sins, and he cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

That's the amazing story. And that is at the heart of it all. Hence the incongruity that Paul now addresses and hence the danger that attaches to it. What he's referencing here are the lives of men and women that are, if you like, settled in this way. It's the life of an idolater.

It's the life of the person who in these terms has become sexually greedy. He does not respond—or she does not respond with thanksgiving to the precious gifts of God in the realm of human sexuality—but instead has made a lifestyle out of engaging in all kinds of things that take that individual and those in contact with him or her beyond the bounds of that which God has established for the well-being of his people. With that said, it is not uncommon to hear people say, Well, as far as I understand it all, once you are declared righteous in Jesus because of what Jesus has done, then in actual fact, your lifestyle is pretty much your own deal. Because after all, if I understand, quotes, justification, then you are forgiven—past, present and future—and so the person says, as in Romans 6, Why don't I just go out and sin so that grace may abound and prove that I really understand the doctrine of justification? The answer is, you clearly don't understand the doctrine of justification. Because to put it in a nutshell, God does not justify those whom he does not sanctify. So you can't take one piece of the puzzle and separate it from the unfolding drama of God in salvation. So the justified person is the being-sanctified person.

And the person who is not being sanctified or is not giving any evidence of it either has never been justified or doesn't understand what it means to live within the framework of God's great salvific purpose. There's regeneration, the imparting of the Spirit of God in our lives, without which we cannot even understand one jot or tittle of the Bible. Without the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, the Bible could have been written in Chinese for most of us, because we've got no grasp of it at all. What is it that one day suddenly allows us to see the truth of the Bible, suddenly to read it and care, suddenly to open it up and find that it speaks to me?

This is the power of God's Spirit. He is the one who regenerates. He is the one who illumines. He is the one who justifies. He is the one who sanctifies.

He is the one who will bring it to completion. But when a person comes alongside and says, Oh, I don't think so. I don't think it matters. Christ bore the penalty of my sin, he met the demands of the law, and therefore I'm free from all obligation to the law. I hear it all the time.

I don't have to deal anything with the law. That's the Old Testament, they tell me. The kingdom of God was different. The kingdom of Christ is new. Notice the translation, No one has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. I think what Paul is saying is this.

Don't play that stunt. Don't play the idea that the Old Testament was really concerned about this and the New Testament isn't concerned about it at all. And if you have any doubt about that, then just keep reading your Bible. Romans chapter 8. And as Paul makes it clear that the law could never put a person right with God, because nobody could ever keep the jolly thing.

We've all broken the law. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So, if our view of Christianity is, what you're supposed to do is you get involved with a group of people, and then you just try your best for the rest of your life, and hopefully you'll be able to overcome some of the bad stuff you've been doing.

If you have a bad week, then try and have a good week, offset the bad week, and so on. Nothing could be further from the truth. Here we have it, verse 3 of Romans 8. God. God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. How has he done it? By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

For those who live according to the Spirit set their mind on the things of the Spirit, for the things of the flesh is death, and so on. He goes with his argument. Now remember where he has started.

He started gloriously. There is now, therefore, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, those who have been justified by faith. Romans chapter 5, verse 1.

And he has gone through six and the challenge there, and he's rebutted that. Why don't we just do what we want? He said, God forbid, you've never even understood justification. Into chapter 7, the good that I want to do I don't do, the bad I don't want to do.

I end up doing it. I'm involved in a continual and irreconcilable war. Well, then, who am I?

What am I? The struggle of seven is more than matched by the reality of eight. I do wrestle against all these things. Because Christ lives in me, but sin lives in me. Therefore, I know the reality of that.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm making any progress at all in my Christian life. And that's why, if you like, chapter 7 is like the north side of the house, or it's like January in Cleveland. Right? It's cold, and it's threatening. But Romans 8 is the south side of the house.

It's like yesterday afternoon, it's eighty-eight degrees and gorgeous. Who would live anywhere else? But we live in both sides of the house. The reality in Romans 7 is a reality. The reality in Romans 8 is a reality. You don't get out of Romans 7 to get into Romans 8. You live your entire Christian life in seven and in eight. And it is the reality of seven that is met by the glory of chapter 8. But in case they were going to go wrong, he says to them, by the way, what the law could not do, God has done in the person of his Son in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

Not so that we can be lawless. We are looking at what real, saving faith looks like in a message from Alistair Begg today on Truth for Life. We'll hear more on this topic tomorrow. If you're enjoying Alistair's teaching in our series titled Love, Light, Wisdom, you can own Alistair's complete study in the book of Ephesians. It's a nine-volume series titled Grace and Peace.

There are eighty-three messages in this series, all available on a convenient USB for just five dollars, and the shipping is free in the US. Look for it in the mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash store. Our message today reminds us that the Christian life is a process. God's purpose is to make us holy. That comes as God disciplines us, but it also comes as we learn to pursue holiness by practicing spiritual disciplines.

But we can't practice what we don't know. So today we want to recommend a book titled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. This book draws from scripture to uncover the practices that God uses to make us more like His Son. You probably expect things like prayer and Bible reading to be on that list, but what about things like journaling or learning? These are disciplines that may not be as familiar to you, and yet they may just be the very disciplines God uses to further your spiritual growth. You're welcome to request your copy of the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life when you donate to support the ministry of Truth for Life. Go to our website truthforlife.org slash donate or tap the image you see in our app. I'm Bob Lapine. Followers of Jesus stand forgiven because of Christ's work on the cross. Jesus paid it all, but does that mean we're now free to live any way we choose? Be sure to listen tomorrow as Alistair Begg delivers a warning for all of us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.