Transcript
It’s time to begin our service today, and I am so glad you are here with us. The hymn that played at the beginning is called “The Gift of Love.” It is a really beautiful song, and I hope you enjoyed it. If you are from the places I come from, you have probably never heard a song like that before. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It is essentially 1st Corinthians chapter 13 set to music, and I find it very beautiful. I thought it was fitting with this series of lessons we have been on the past couple of months about walking in love.
If this is your first time joining us and you wonder who we are and what we are up to, my name is Charles Paisley. I am, and most of our listeners here are, formerly members of the cult following of William Branham known as The Message. The Message is a global doomsday cult with millions of members. It started here in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and spread all over the world. I am formerly associate pastor of the second oldest Message church in the world, right here in the Jeffersonville area. This is a little mission we operate to offer encouragement to those leaving the Message and to take a look at the plain reading of scripture as we seek to wash out of our minds what, for most of us, has been a lifetime of indoctrination.
I want to send my greetings to all our friends around the world. There are so many other people, ministers, and brothers and sisters who are walking this same path with us, and we are keeping you all in our prayers. I am thankful for all the different ones who I had a chance to meet and talk with this past week, and I appreciate all of your support, love, and prayers.
We are picking up today in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn there with me to follow along. I will be reading from verse 1 down to verse 8. The Apostle Paul writes:
Ephesians 5:1-8 (ESV)
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 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.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Introduction
Well, brothers and sisters, we have some harder verses to look at today in our lesson. One of the good things about going through a book of the Bible verse by verse, as we have been, is that it means we don’t skip anything. We get the full counsel of the Bible in that way, and we have to confront everything in the book. It is also a good way to do it because when you come to passages, people realize that you are not targeting any particular person. You are not pursuing an agenda against someone specific. We are just reading the verses as we come to them and taking them at face value for what they say.
The verses we are looking at today are not very popular in the world we live in. In fact, most surveys and studies I’ve read or seen say that 95% of Americans have committed the very sins that Paul is warning the Ephesians about here. 95%! That is pretty much everyone. If you are like me and find yourself in that tiny five percent minority, and most of us from the background we share, that is our reality. We are part of that tiny minority. Where we come from, most people have never engaged in sexual immorality. So, when we come to passages of scripture like this, our minds tend to think about this primarily in terms of people who were outside of our Message communities.
This is something very pervasive in our culture, and talking about things like this tends to make a lot of people angry. But we are going to look at these verses today as honestly as we know how, not to cut anyone down, but because these verses are what comes next on the page.
As we approach these verses, let me remind us where we are overall in the book of Ephesians. Starting back at the beginning of chapter 4, Paul began to speak about Christian conduct—how we should behave and conduct ourselves as followers of Christ. As we saw in our last lessons, Paul has been giving explanations of both what to do and what not to do.
Paul’s framework is very clear. We see Paul using it even at the very start of chapter 5. Paul is appealing to the authority of Jesus Christ for everything he is saying. Paul is not going to the Old Testament. Paul is not appealing to Moses. Instead, Paul is looking to Jesus Christ himself, obeying the words of Christ with his explanations, and framing all of his dos and don’ts around the example shown by Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know you are my disciples.” From that one command that Christ gave us hangs our entire Christian lifestyle. It is the command to love each other as he loved us. As we read all these instructions, it’s important for us to recognize and understand that this is the angle Paul is approaching all this from. The things he is telling the Ephesians to avoid and withdraw from are things that are not compatible with loving as Christ loved.
Paul’s rationale remains the same as he writes about sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is not compatible with the love of Christ.
Introduction
Well, brothers and sisters, we have some harder verses to look at today in our lesson. One of the benefits of going through a book of the Bible verse by verse, as we have been, is that it means we don’t skip anything. We get the full counsel of the Bible that way and have to confront everything in the book. It is also beneficial because when we come to certain passages, people realize that you are not targeting any particular person or pursuing an agenda against someone specific. We are simply reading the verses as they come and taking them at face value for what they say.
The verses we are looking at today are not very popular in the world we live in. In fact, most surveys and studies I’ve read or seen say that 95% of Americans have committed the very sins that Paul is warning the Ephesians about here. 95%! That is pretty much everyone. If you are like me and find yourself in that tiny five percent minority, and most of us from the background we share, that is our reality. We are part of that tiny minority. Where we come from, most people have never engaged in sexual immorality. So, when we come to passages of scripture like this, our minds tend to think about this primarily in terms of people who were outside of our Message communities.
This is something very pervasive in our culture, and talking about things like this tends to make a lot of people angry. But we are going to look at these verses today as honestly as we know how, not to cut anyone down, but because these verses are what comes next on the page.
As we approach these verses, let me remind us where we are overall in the book of Ephesians. Starting back at the beginning of chapter 4, Paul began to speak about Christian conduct—how we should behave and conduct ourselves as followers of Christ. As we saw in our last lessons, Paul has been giving explanations of both what to do and what not to do.
Paul’s framework is very clear. We see Paul using it even at the very start of chapter 5. Paul is appealing to the authority of Jesus Christ for everything he is saying. Paul is not going to the Old Testament or appealing to Moses. Instead, Paul is looking to Jesus Christ himself, obeying the words of Christ with his explanations, and framing all of his dos and don’ts around the example shown by Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know you are my disciples.” From that one command that Christ gave us hangs our entire Christian lifestyle. It is the command to love each other as he loved us. As we read all these instructions, it’s important for us to recognize and understand that this is the angle Paul is approaching all this from. The things he is telling the Ephesians to avoid and withdraw from are things that are not compatible with loving as Christ loved.
Paul’s rationale remains the same as he writes about sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is not compatible with the love of Christ.
Sexual Immorality
And lets ask the question – what is sexual immorality? Lets just define that before we go any further. Because, there is healthy normal sexuality which was designed by God, and then there is sexual immorality, which Paul is warning us not to become involved in. So its important for us to define good and bad here.
And if we wanted to find that in scripture, one of the best places is in the book of 1st Corinthians, where Paul gives a pretty lengthy explanation about healthy sexuality there in chapter 6 and 7. I encourage you to go read those chapters if you would like to have something to accompany what we read here today.
And in those chapters, Paul spoke about appetites. And we have an appetite for food. And God gave us a mouth, he gave us a stomach, he gave us digestion. And so it is, quite apparent that God made us to eat food. And having an appetite for food is a normal and a healthy thing.
Paul used that as an analogy, in 1st Corinthians. And He explained that it is only natural and normal to have our desires and appetites because that is how God created us.
There is a right way and a wrong way to go about feeding our appetites. We realize we cannot just go eat anything and everything. That would be the sin of gluttony. We cannot let our appetite control us, in that way. Because, if we have an uncontrolled appetite, it ultimately is something that is unhealthy for us. If we go around eating in an unrestrained way, it’s going to cause us to have problems.
We know, that there is a healthy way to consume food. And then there is an unhealthy way to consume food. And the same is true with all of our appetites.
Paul explained in 1st Corinthians, in chapter 7, that every man should have a wife, and every woman a husband, so that they are not tempted into something that is unhealthy. And that is God’s given way for sexual relations. God created that in men and women from the very beginning. In the book of Genesis, after he made Adam and Eve, he blessed them. He joined them together in marriage and said they would be as one flesh. He told them be fruitful and multiply. And we know that involves marital relations. And so, God himself commanded Adam and Eve to enter into that sort of a relationship. And that helps us understand that the institution of marriage, and marital relations, was something designed by God. And in that marriage framework which God created, it is perfectly normal, healthy, appropriate thing.
Marriage is a holy institution. It was created by God himself. You might say God performed the very first wedding himself. And when we are in that marital relationship, God blessed and sanctions the union. The apostle Peter wrote, that the marriage bed is undefiled. And that is the relationship God has sanctioned.
That relationship brings forth children. And the children come into a home with two parents who can raise those children, a mother and a father, who can provide a stable home and environment for them. God knew what he was doing when he designed marriage.
There is a father and a mother in the home to love and care for and teach the children. There is a man and a woman to support each other, and help each other with the trials of life. And there is a binding relationship that sustains people.
And in that framework, God blesses that marriage, and marital relations are a part of that relationship.
And that is healthy and acceptable. I think it is important to know what God does approve of. Because, the truth is, even that is somewhat confused in the places we come from. In part because of the serpent seed teachings. And different ideas that have went around through the years. There have even been preachers who taught celibacy, and broke up marriages. They forbid getting married even. And those teachings are ultimately harmful, because they take something God created and provided to mankind. And it leads to all kinds of problems for the homes and lives impacted by those false teachings.
Marriage is godly, marital relations are totally acceptable to God. It was created by God. And God even performed the first marriage and told them to be fruitful and multiply. It is God ordained. And there is nothing wrong with entering into that relationship, if that is what you want to do. And the preachers who tell you otherwise, are just wicked and dishonest. When we get down to the second half of this fifth chapter, we will see Paul deal more the healthy side of marital relations.
But now at the start of chapter 5, Paul is dealing with sexual immorality. He is dealing with situations that are outside of a healthy relationship. And as we consider that within the larger framework Paul putting all this in, we can clearly see that Paul is speaking about things that are incompatible with love.
Let me remind you what Paul said about love. He said, love is patient, and kind, is it humble, its not selfish. Love does not behave itself unseemly. Love thinks of the good of others. He said love endures all things. Love is forever.
And when we bring that back to sexual immorality, we see how that violates what love is.
When a man or a woman commits adultery. Someone in that situation is being hurt. Someone is being cheated on. Someone is being betrayed. That is not compatible with true love.
Or when a man and woman have relations before marriage. They are putting each other at risk. And there is a chance there could be a conception. And they are also putting that child at risk.
And, what is more common, is they go through a string of partners. One after the other. But love endures all things. Love is patient and longsuffering. But people engaged in those sort of relationships, that come and go, and usually end on bad terms. That is not love – and it proves to not be love.
And most people, in our world today who have relations outside of marriage live together. And they there is an agreement that they are just trying things out. They are not ready to commit to each other forever – its just a trial basis. But what happens, in that situation where one of them changes their mind? And worse, what happens when there are children involved? What happens when mommy or daddy leave? What happens when someone’s heart is broken, because the other person is selfish, and puts themselves first, and walks out?
Because, that is exactly what happens in many many cases. I think we could say, the truth is – that is what happens in the majority of cases. The majority of children today are not living in the same home as both of their parents.
And that sexual immorality ended up with someone having a broken heart. And in the worst cases, it ends up with little children crying over mommy and daddy, living in broken homes. And that is happening right now, millions of homes all over our country today. People enjoyed themselves for awhile. They fed their appetites for awhile. And then they decided to go feed their appetite somewhere else. And then they walked away and left irreparable harm and damage behind them. In the form of broken hearts, and broke lives, and broken homes.
Sexual immorality has a very high risk of harming people. It absolutely does. It harms the very people who engage it. And we are living in a day where, as I said, the majority of this past generation has grown up as the victims of that sort of living. And the truth is – if you listen to them – they recognize something is wrong. They recognize it was bad for them, to grow up in that sort of an environment. And many of them are taking steps to not repeat those mistakes. And in some ways, it is possible that we will see the tide start to turn on some of those numbers as this current generation grows up, and we see how they react.
But my point here is that, with sexual immorality, the harm is not limited to themselves. Sexual immorality can also harm their partner, their children, and their families.
And when we greenlight sexual immorality – it is inevitable that these harmful things will happen. When people pursue sexual relations in an unrestrained way, it is inevitable that people are going to be harmed, that lives are going to be turned upside down, and that homes are going to be damaged.
People can say all they want that it is love. But it wasn’t love that broke up a marriage. It wasn’t Love that brought a child into the world without the benefit of a two-parent home. It wasn’t love that left people shedding tears and trying to figure out how to get on with their lives.
So fornication and adultery are two forms of sexual immorality. But there is a third we need to mention here too. And that third is homosexual acts. And the bible does clearly tell us that committing homosexual acts is sexual immorality.
And the reasons are the same. It hurts people. And we can say it hurts them in a very clear measurable way. Did you know the average life expectancy for a practicing homosexual is much shorter than everyone else here in America? And why do you think that is? It’s because that lifestyle takes a toll on the human body. A human body is not designed to work that way. And when you engage in that sort of thing, it shortens their lifespans. It is literally harming them physically. And when people engage in that, they are indeed harming the other person. Whether they would admit that or not.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9923159/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093261/
And there are other ways in also hurts people. Many times, the men or women who transition into that lifestyle, walk away from people they are already married to. They leave their spouse and children in the lurch. And people end up hurt and harmed.
And, of course, there are many people who might argue with me, and say what I am telling you is totally wrong. And that nobody is hurt or and nobody is harmed.
But, besides what we can observe with our five senses about this, we also do have the bible. And Paul is very clearly telling us, that sexual immorality is not compatible with the love of God. And, while people may find ways to argue that it fits their definition of love, it does not fit the bible’s definition of Love. And the love that we are concerned with, as Christians, is the kind that Jesus patterned and that Jesus taught. Godly love is not selfish. Godly love doesn’t harm other people.
And Jesus very clearly taught sexual relations are reserved for marriage between a man and woman. You will find that in Matthew chapter 5.
At the end of the day – people who disagree with these things, are actually disagreeing with Jesus. Which comes back to what Paul says in verse 2.
It takes a love for Christ and the Love things he taught in order to be able to accept and understand these things. And unless we have that love for Christ, these things can just sound ridiculous.
Now let’s walk through these verses one at a time.
Love is the Emphasis – Not the Problem
Let me read verse 1:
“1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Paul starts out by letting us know love is the objective here. What he is going to say next is not compatible with Christian love. There can be other things that people might label as love, but it is not the sort of love Paul is speaking about.
“1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Notice now that Paul starts the next verse with the word “But.” This next thing is not compatible with the love he is speaking of:
“3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.”
So, we see very clearly that the argument some people might use—that sexual immorality is just a form of love—is thrown out by Paul from the start. The idea that sexual immorality is a valid expression of love is ruled out of hand. Sexual immorality is an invalid expression of love. The only way we can get around that is to start to argue that the Bible itself is wrong, which is not a road I am willing to go down. If the Bible is not authoritative, then we might as well not bother. Why go to church? Why preach? Why even believe in Jesus? If the Bible is fundamentally wrong, Christianity is a false religion. There is no point in even preaching. There is no point in any of this. If the Bible is not authoritative, then Christianity is just whatever you want to make it to be.
Some people believe that Christianity can be whatever you want it to be. But we might as well go back into the cult if we take that view because that sort of idea is the same as “only believism”—only believe whatever you want to make up, only believe and it will be okay. Who cares what the Bible says? But if the Bible can mean anything, then really, at the end of the day, it means nothing.
I just can’t go down that road, not in good conscience. With that being the case, I have to read this passage and conclude that sexual immorality is not a valid way to express love. That is not to say people don’t have genuine love for another person in their hearts. Two people who commit an act of sexual immorality may indeed love each other, and loving someone is not a sin. But sexual immorality is not a valid expression of love. I can conclude nothing else from what I am reading. It is perfectly fine for two people to love each other, but it is not okay for two people to engage in sexual immorality.
Sexual Immorality Is Placed All In One Category
Another thing I would like to point out from this verse is that Paul lumps all forms of sexual immorality into one category. He does not break it out into levels of one thing being worse than another. All sexual immorality is equally bad and equally unacceptable, whether it is adultery, fornication, or sodomy. Whatever form the immorality takes, it is all something to be avoided.
“3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.”
It is important to take notice that Paul lumps it all together here. There are people who treat certain kinds of sexual immorality as bad and then tolerate other kinds of sexual immorality. They will condemn sodomy but then tolerate fornication. There are millions and millions of people in that camp—they have no problem with fornication but are strongly against sodomy.
But Paul does not break it out here. He just puts it all together. It is all equally lumped together here. It is important for us to realize that this sort of thinking is deeply hypocritical. Sexual sin is sexual sin. The fornicator is in the same position as the sodomite in the eyes of God. There are no levels of badness here, and I see no reason to treat one differently than the other in terms of the magnitude of the sin.
Here is the thing: 95% of the people in America have committed fornication. That is a real statistic you can find when you look it up.
We should make sure we are treating everyone with the same kindness and respect. The pot should not be calling the kettle black. People in these situations are still people, and we are to show mercy, kindness, and understanding wherever we can. That is how we reach them, help them, and show them Christ.
Paul is not telling us to treat one class of sexually immoral people worse than another class of sexually immoral people. He is telling us it is all something we should avoid as Christians. He puts it all into one category of sexual immorality.
“3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”
So here in verse 4, Paul takes this one step further. Not only should we not engage in sexual immorality, but those things should also not be part of our jokes. We should not talk in a way that is crude or dirty about sexual immorality. As we think about verse 4, that would include talking down to people in those lifestyles. We should not talk down to people in those lifestyles, make crude jokes towards them, or at their expense. We should not talk filthily or foolishly towards them. Verse 4 is not just prohibiting us from making dirty jokes to each other but also from talking down to the people engaged in those lifestyles.
Let me read it again to make sure you catch that part:
“4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”
If we have a conversation about people engaged in those things or with people engaged in those things, Paul lets us know where we should focus our conversation. It should be on things that praise God and draw attention and thanks towards Him, not something that descends into the depths of depravity.
In verse 5, Paul says something really strong. Let’s read that next:
“5 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. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
When we read that, it is hard to find much wiggle room. Not only does Paul tell us that those lifestyles will be punished with the wrath of God, but he also warns us about anyone who tries to tell us otherwise. There are fair speakers in the world. They were there in the days of Paul, and they are still around today. They will try to find ways to convince you that something is not really bad and harmful. But Paul locks this down. He says, make no mistake—this is a lifestyle that brings on the wrath of God, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a deceiver.
Paul makes a clear and unmistakable point. While people can find ways to argue about all these things, there is really no way around the words of Paul. There is no way to open up a door into sexual immorality without throwing away the Bible. It is something that we cannot endorse or treat as acceptable behavior.
Grieving the Holy Spirit
We might ask a question: Isn’t the grace of God bigger than our sin? Could a real, born-again Christian fall into sexual immorality? Is such a thing possible? Because as Paul writes here, it almost sounds like there is no hope for anyone who commits sexual immorality. It really sounds like they are doomed on the first read.
But we need to consider all the scriptures, including those written by Paul, to get a full picture. One thing that may come to mind is what Paul said at the end of chapter 4. If you recall, Paul spoke about people grieving the Holy Spirit by whom they have been sealed. Back in chapter 4, Paul seemed to leave open the possibility that a person who has been saved and who is sealed until the day of redemption may actually stumble into committing some of these things he has been warning against.
That is my view. I believe it is indeed possible that someone who is a genuine Christian can stumble into these sins.
You and I can never be sure what is in the heart of a man or woman. We cannot ever say with certainty what is happening inside of them because we are just men and women. We can’t see their hearts.
If they profess Christ as their savior, even if there may be something wrong in their life, we have to be very careful in the way we approach their lifestyle. There is an appropriate way to approach it and an inappropriate way.
This comes across here as Paul writes in Ephesians. On one hand, a person may be genuinely saved, but they are doing something that grieves the Spirit of God—we can’t take away anyone’s salvation. But just the same, sexual immorality cannot be tolerated in the Christian community. Paul said, “Don’t even let it be named among you.”
When we think about those two sides of the same coin, there is actually a specific case in scripture we can use to help us think about it. That case also involved the apostle Paul. If we read the book of 1st and 2nd Corinthians, we discover the case of a certain man, which Paul addresses in both of those epistles. The man was engaged in sexual immorality—a very serious form of sexual immorality—he was having relations with his stepmother.
The man had been confronted with what he was doing and asked to stop. But the man refused to stop after being given a fair chance to cut out the immorality. After he refused, Paul told the Corinthians to break fellowship with him and expel him from their church community. That is the scriptural pattern for people living in an immoral lifestyle like that. If they profess to be Christians, give them a chance to make it right. But if they don’t, we have to ask them to leave.
In that example, we see that the benefit of the doubt is given. The man was given a chance to show that it was just a lapse, a temporary failing, and he had a chance to change his ways. Their immediate reaction was to give him a chance to change his ways.
But after he refused to change, he was asked to leave. Then in 2nd Corinthians, the same man returns. Although he initially refused to change his ways and had to be asked to leave, after he left, he finally decided to change his ways and broke off his immoral relationship.
After he changed his ways, Paul told them to let him come back and treat him like a brother.
When we look at this particular case and compare it to the instructions Paul is sharing with the Ephesians, it helps to give us a fuller picture. It lets us know that someone can be a genuine Christian but still be tempted into an immoral situation, just like that man in the Corinthians church. That person should be given the benefit of the doubt regarding their salvation because we can’t be certain—we can’t see into the hearts of people.
In that sense, we can only judge by what we can see. If they won’t change their ways, if they won’t take any action to step away from immorality, then we have to break fellowship with that person. Not treat them like dirt, shun them, or do them harm, but they need to exit the church. They can’t come sit in the church and partake of the worship and service while engaged in that sort of lifestyle. That situation of sexual immorality is harmful to others, and the church cannot go along with it.
But We Never Know What is Really in a Person’s Heart. It could well be that, like that man in Corinth, a person might be a genuine Christian who has just fallen into temptation. If that is the case and they finally step away from that immorality, we can welcome them back into the church. We cannot ever just assume there is no hope for them and that they are a lost person.
This goes back to love. Remember, Paul, in all of this, told us to walk in love. And love hopes all things. Love hopes for the best in all situations for people. As Christians, we hope for the best in all situations, even in cases where someone falls into sexual immorality. We hope and pray it is just a temporary lapse. We hope and pray they will walk away from that. And then we rejoice and welcome them when our hopes prove to be right.
That is Christian love, like the prodigal son.
But we have to recognize that these sorts of immorality harm people. When people are being harmed, we absolutely have to deal with that. The man having relations with his stepmother—that was harming people. People having relations out of wedlock today, committing adultery today, and engaging in harmful acts of sodomy today—those things do harm people, including themselves. As a church community, we have to respond to those things when they happen, with love and compassion for everyone involved. Our ultimate objective is to see people kept safe and souls preserved, which includes expelling immoral people who refuse to reform.
There is just no way to read the Bible and come away with another conclusion. Paul said, “Do not let these things be named among you.” He says, in verse 7:
7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Paul is not forbidding us from being kind to others, and he is not instructing us to walk on the other side of the street when we see people like that coming. But he is saying that people who are engaged in that sort of lifestyle and are not interested in reforming their behavior are not people we can partner with in the church.
And I think we can say, even more specifically, do not partner with them in their immorality. It takes two people, two partners, to engage in the immorality that Paul is speaking of. So don’t partner with people in those immoral deeds.
It really doesn’t matter what form of sexual immorality it is; Paul puts it all in the same category:
5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone [Paul does not break out categories here; he says 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. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
We are fooling ourselves if we think this sort of behavior is acceptable to God. Sexual immorality is incompatible with the Christian lifestyle. Regardless of what anyone may argue in this world, the Bible plainly tells us it is not a valid expression of godly love.
Instead, God has given us marriage. God has given us an institution and a manner in which there can be an expression of godly love.
The World We Live In Today
There’s one more point I want to make to you. It goes back to something often said to us in the doomsday cult we come from. Many times we’re told we live in the most evil age, that there’s never been anything like this day before. But the truth is, brothers and sisters, that’s really just not true.
There have been many different times in history that have been worse than today, and sadly, a lot of people are just very unfamiliar with history. There have been times in the past when sexual immorality, and even homosexuality, have been rampant in society. It was rampant in the days of the apostle Paul. The days in which Jesus lived, the situation in the Roman world was worse than the world today. The world in the days of Jesus’ ministry was more evil than the world today. Throughout history, these sorts of things have been like a tide—you have high tides and you have low tides. Today, we’re living in a time of a high tide; sexual immorality is pretty rampant. But if you let history be your guide, the tide comes in, and the tide goes out.
Today, we are living in the second and third generation of this stuff being rampant. The people who live through these things experience that it’s not all that it is cracked up to be. If you are watching and listening, you are starting to see people and groups come together. It is made up of people who spent their lives in those lifestyles. Their mom and dad were in it. Grandma and grandpa were in it. They even were in it. They start to see that this is not what it is cracked up to be. This is not giving us this great, wonderful thing we have been looking for. Because that is how they sell it—come live this lifestyle. It’s great; you can feed your appetites, you can be filled, you can be happy, you can be satisfied and fulfilled. But so many people, after decade after decade, have discovered that they really have been sold a bill of goods.
They are getting older. They are seeing people die. Their experience is telling them that it never produced what they were looking for. When they find it’s not the panacea, it’s not the great thing they thought it was, then their hearts open up to hear something else, something better. I believe we might just be living at a tipping point. If you look, I think it is possible the tide is starting to turn in some of these areas. Maybe that is just wishful thinking. But, I will be honest with you, I think I am seeing that beginning in some places.
You’re starting to see people wake up, come out of those lifestyles, and start to testify what it did to them and how it ruined their lives and how it harmed them and how it wasn’t what they were led to believe. You see even young people who had surgeries and had their bodies altered, and now they are 30 and 40 years old. It ruined them, and they are speaking out. They are saying, “Stop, don’t do this. Look at me, look what this did to me. It ruined my life.”
The truth is, it’s those sorts of people who experienced it firsthand and can testify firsthand that these lifestyles are not beneficial. Those are the kind of people best equipped to reach the people in those communities who are being affected by that immorality. It wouldn’t surprise me to look back in another twenty or thirty years and discover the tide has changed direction. People’s hearts will open up to something better. It has to get dark before people start looking for dawn. If we can be a truly Christian people, truly forgiving and gracious people, then we’ll be there to help people when their hearts begin to desire something else. We will be there to give an example of something better.
If we have a heart and a desire to help people living in these immoral lifestyles today, one of the best things we can do is to support the people who are trying to help them out of it. There are ministries and people out there who are doing that, and most of them are led by people who have escaped those sorts of lifestyles. They have their horror stories and their own testimonies that connect with people in a way that you and I probably cannot.
As I bring this lesson to a close today, if you are listening in, and maybe there is sexual immorality in your past, I say leave it there. There is forgiveness with Christ. It is wiped away as though it never was. You are entitled to walk in peace and freedom today. When the woman was caught in the act of adultery, what did Jesus say to her? He said, “I do not accuse thee, go and sin no more.” That is what I would say to you if you have sexual immorality in your past: I do not accuse you—go and sin no more. I believe that is exactly what we should say to anyone who has sexual immorality in their past. The truth is, that is 95% of the people in our communities. Ninety-five percent of our neighbors have sexual immorality in their past. Ninety-five out of every hundred people you see on the street have sexual immorality in their past. We do good to treat them respectfully.
Now, if there is sexual immorality in your present, and if the Holy Spirit is abiding within, you already feel the conviction from it. I don’t really need to tell you anything, but I will tell you to listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you. That is to flee from immorality.
If you are outside of the kingdom of heaven, my words today are not to condemn you. My words are to let you understand what the Bible says about these things. If you disagree with the Bible, that is your business. I will still treat you respectfully.
But if anything I have said makes you feel the least bit burdened, then I want you to know that Jesus Christ has already paid the debt for sin. He died to pay for sins, just like the ones you may be living in. He is not someone who turns his back on people who come to him for deliverance and forgiveness. Whosoever comes to him, he will never cast them out. Never. That includes you, no matter what place you find yourself in. That includes you.
I will tell you the same thing I tell some of the people who are trapped in the doomsday cult I escaped. When you get to be an old person and have lived a long life, if you sit down and reflect back on everything you have been through and all the hopes you had in your lifestyle and in your beliefs, and when, at the last, you see that none of it ever panned out like you had expected, and the things you hoped for never arrived, and that all your pursuing things never delivered what you really were looking for way down deep in your heart—when that day comes, I want you to remember that it’s not too late to ask Jesus to save you. Whenever it is, wherever it is, and whatever situation you find yourself in, it is never too late to ask Jesus to save you.
Amen.
Prayer
Let me close here in prayer.
Lord God, I thank you for our savior Jesus Christ, who came into the world to set us free from the curse of sin. We have all sinned and fallen short. We all had a death penalty on us. But Jesus came to take our place. Instead of punishing us for our sins, you punished Jesus for our sins. When we recognize him as our savior, when we are united with him in saving faith, then our sins are also punished in him, and we can go free. We will not experience your judgment on us because you have already carried out your judgment on your dearly beloved son. Forgive us where we come up short. Help us to pattern ourselves after your dear son. As the song said, “Come Spirit, come, our hearts control. Our spirits long to be made whole. Let inward love guide every deed, for by this, we can all be made free.” We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.