A Stirring Summons to Purity, Part 1

The virtue of moral purity seems to Evan flow with the times are society's ethical boundaries are drawn not by timeless biblical wisdom, but by the intangible whim of cultural forces with 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 about 10 centuries ago, set the benchmark for moral purity in our time, Paul wrote these strong words, let there be no sexual immorality, impurity or greed among you, Chuck title. Today's message stirring summons to appear go back to that song sheet you were singing from and to go look it wrote the text of a couple of them. It's the same person you've heard his name Charles Wesley of wonderful history. Just a quick little glimpse will snapshot from the Wesley family. Susanna Wesley was Charles Wesley's mother should 19 children that will encourage every mother here today and you know are we glad she didn't quit it 14 or 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 studied Susanna Wesley you know she was a woman of enormous discipline and should action rules for rearing children and she she was consistent with those rules.

Anyway, the boys grew up in the Charles became the Sven the hymn writer of the artist of the family.

If you will, and John was the theologian John traveled 225,000 miles on horseback. He did a study of the original text, both old and New Testament from the Hebrew and the Greek graduate of Oxford as 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 grew from the Wesley influence and there's a whole theology call the Wesley and theology you see it coming through part of the Wesley M. Theology teaches that you you you can be perfected to the point where you have the old nature emancipated. That's what you saying what you know it or not, as you got to that second stanza take away our event to sending sorry it won't happen. Great words but wrong and and also believe that you could lose your salvation. Also incorrect in I won't expositor the hymn and ruin it for you but I but you see theology coming out in the in the writing of him anyway. Charles left 8000 hymns in his legacy and that the church still sings many of them today and for the most part, the magnificent, the last line is one of my favorite quote as he refers to being lost in wonder and love and praise. I think it's probably the finest amplified definition of worship you could read where we are no longer concerned with who sitting around us or what they're wearing or what their thinking, we are lost in wonder and love and pray easy and church stuff to get wordy to just talk and to fill space with words pose a wrote on that on one occasion he wrote everything, it seemed than this one was a great subject.

He said my 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, pausing to learn the true value of nothing. Let's guard against doing that just chattering about everything and not learning the true value in the we we really take the preaching of the word seriously. Here we 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 412 says the word of God is alive and active and sharper than a Makyla is the Greek word, it means that it was a kind of a modern invention to the time of Paul in 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 Makyla came in and became like a long dagger which the centurion and his troops would carry as a part of their armor. 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 marrow, and is a critic costs a great word. It is a critic of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

In Ephesians 5 where I'm not preaching I'm just getting warmed up here so I forgive me a good little carried away there. Ephesians 5 cuts like a two-edged sword, and it'll it'll strike the soul and spirit. If you let the truth hit home and I know you want to do that when you 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 in offering and a sacrifice to God is a fragrant aroma, but immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, the new international version. I think says, and must not even be a hint of 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. I noticed 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 you can keep it handy and have it for your own reading and always bring a copy with you. You come for worship suggested an important part. It's like tools for the trade, we can't grow without the truth from God. In this book is his truth.

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 on the soil of all the souls who will hear these words. I pray the soil will be prepared for the sewing of the good seed of your word. Now I realize also Lord that we live in a in a world in 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 whirling is thinking straight. Help us to put that in proper order. As we meet together from week to week not guard us in the process from foolish pride or some kind of pious personality that 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 tight rope. We walk father and we 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 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 the Lord. We are not self-sustaining. We are not that individually. We need your help.

And that's why we pray maybe be a body of the men and women in this church to 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 in 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've been the most attractive individual who ever cast a shadow across the spirits terrain in great measure father. We trust you, for Jesus sake and everybody sent in the Christian life and belief and behavior always go hand in hand. To quote a 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 in the 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 be behavior to back up the beliefs, not only would you be a hypocrite. You will cause confusion among those searching for truth and answers as a matter 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 anyone you would want to meet and better than most. Therefore, his classes were popular and well attended. He was what I would call of 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 was able to stand on his own. All 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 that 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 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 the 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 it's the frog in the kettle analogy, if the water becomes hotter ever so slowly it will stay there till it boils to death.

The problem comes when there is the first realization that the water is just beyond tepid and the heat is increasing and the frog doesn't chop 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'm a friend of mine who calls this the cookie jar syndrome can't choose who pastors effectively at the college church in Wheaton, Illinois, tells the story a little boy's mother had just baked a fresh batch of cookies and place 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.

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 1 through 32 behavior chapters 4 to 6, and his favorite word for behavior is a four letter word wall walk walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

He says it right out of the chute in verse one of chapter 4 verse 17 of chapter 4 don't walk any longer as the Gentiles.

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 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 5 tying in to that one description in chapter 4 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 1, two and three. Let me help you now know how to walk chapters for five and six wonderful letter balanced even in the number of chapters on both on either side. That's not enough to motivate you look at his opening line of chapter 5, 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 it's like the neck of a of a funnel. Everything comes down to this point and you 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 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 the word clone clone God. In fact, it's reasonable because were 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 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. These good to be good he's kind. Let's be kind, 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 imitators of God takes intentional effort is 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.

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Swindoll.

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