Automated Transcript
[00:00:02] Amen. Good singing this morning. Our children are going out to Cheryl’s church with Miss Paula, Mr. Stacy, and they’re excited about it. Y’all need to take notes.
[00:00:19] I was y’all coming here. That excited.
[00:00:27] Good services so far. And the singing. And I know I put David and the pianist and all that and an organist on the spot, but that’s just how I roll sometimes. But I love you, Lord. I don’t think we ought to ever pass up the opportunity to tell Him how much we love you.
[00:00:46] So we just had to throw that in there. Sorry, guys, but not sorry. All right, good singing. If you will turn in your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter five. We’ll be looking at the verses there.
[00:01:00] And I just want to sort of talk with you some. I really didn’t plan this, but maybe a carry on from last week as we talked about the names of God. What do we call God? Who is he to us? And we come up with a conclusion and saw that he is our Father and we are his children.
[00:01:19] We call God father. What an awesome privilege that we have in that and that Jesus has even told us. And give us an example that when you pray, pray our Father, which art in heaven, so we call him Father. And I was really encouraged, I hope you were, by that message and what we learned from that. And so today I want to go on into speaking of our Father, who he is and who we are in him and what all that entails and what that means.
[00:01:52] As I thought about this message and I sort of putting my thoughts together, I think how strange it is that sometimes we act this like our parents. I’ve even heard people say before, and they do something, they say, oh, my goodness, I’m acting like my mother. And a lot of times we wonder if that’s a good thing or not. And I even call Robin Ethel sometimes because she’s acting just like her mama. Of course it’s all good.
[00:02:23] All the good traits of her mother. I would never focus on negative. But we do imitate our parents, and I catch myself sometimes. And Robbins told me, he said, wow, you sound like your dad with that. And it could just be the way I cleared my throat.
[00:02:39] I mean, my dad has all these things, and I guess I just sort of imitate the things he does. And the older I get, it seemed like the more I am. I think my dad used to do that. My dad used to say that. And I see my children telling their children the same thing I told them when they were children.
[00:02:55] So they imitate their parents and what their parents taught them. And guys, I just want you to know and telling your wives, you act like your mother. Don’t ever say don’t ever compare her to your mother. Okay? Is that clear?
[00:03:09] Guys, you will get in bad trouble, okay? It’s all right for them to act like their mother, but don’t compare them to your mother, all right? Just a little word of wisdom for you. No extra charge for that. But we do sound like our parents in a lot of ways.
[00:03:23] And like I said last week, we looked at the names of the God as our Father. We are his children. Do we imitate our Father in heaven is what I want to ask you today. And so today, I hope is encouraging, but it’s going to be a little bit of soul searching. Am.
[00:03:41] I like my Heavenly Father. And Paul is talking to the people at Ephesus here, and he’s dealing with the first few chapters of how the Gentiles that’s us are adopted before the foundations of the world. God had ordained that we too would be saved. That’s what he’s talking about in Ephesians, chapter one, where we are predestined. I don’t believe that’s predestined an individual, but predestined the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike, to be one in the family or in the body of Christ.
[00:04:16] And so he deals with those things and talks about this mystery that was held from the Old Testament and is now revealed. And now he goes on toward the end of Ephesians, chapter five. Now that you have done this and you have become part of the family of God or the body of Christ, live like it, act like it, act like your Father which is in heaven. He starts out these verses that be therefore followers of God as dear children. Father, as we study Your word this morning, I ask you that you’d give me every word to say to speak through me the truth of Your word that the Holy Spirit would be free to move and to teach, to reveal to us all truth and to place it upon our hearts that we would be doers of Your word.
[00:05:05] We just thank you for this time today and this often privilege that we have to study Your Word. Lord, just lead and guide in all that we say and do. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. So if you are born again as we talked about last week, you are trusted.
[00:05:23] Jesus as your personal savior. You’re sealed by the Holy Spirit. You’re adopted into the family of God. In Romans chapter eight, which we’ll talk about some in just a little bit, then you are his children. You are his dear children.
[00:05:37] He said. Therefore, followers of God as his dear children, and if you are born again through faith in Christ, you are a partaker in the divine nature of God. Now let that sink in a minute. You say, wow, I don’t feel like too much of the nature of God. He’s holy, there is no sin, and that’s true.
[00:06:02] We live in a sinful world. We’re still in our fallen state. Well, we’re in our sinful bodies. Our old nature fights with our new nature. Even though the old man is crucified with Christ, we still have those times in which we sin.
[00:06:17] I’m not saying we’re perfect, but there ought to be things in our lives that reveal that we are children of our Heavenly Father and he’s telling them to do that. Be followers of God. Be like him. Two peter. One.
[00:06:33] Four. Whereby are you given? Whereby are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises that by these you may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now, I told you before, a lot of people say you hear the word lust and you automatically go to the super bad know in a terrible you shouldn’t be talking about that, Brother Kenny. Lust is nothing but your selfish desires.
[00:07:05] Anything you desire more than God, and that could be houses, cars, jobs, whatever. That’s feeding your flesh, that’s lust of the flesh that you want to satisfy the desires that you long for inside that are not of God. That is lust. And he says you don’t fulfill those things that you have a divine nature to want to follow God if you are his children, to be like Him. And then going back to Ephesians two or Ephesians five, verse two, he says if you are his children that you are therefore followers of Christ as dear children and walk in love.
[00:07:50] As Christ also hath loved us and given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savor. See, first thing he says if you’re his children, if you have his divine nature within you, what’s the very first thing you’re going to do?
[00:08:12] Come on, y’all.
[00:08:16] Love. That’s the very first thing he said. If you’re his children, you have his divine nature. You want to follow as God does. The very first thing you’re going to do is love.
[00:08:28] Isn’t that what Jesus said when they asked Him? What’s the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. The second is like the first love thy neighbor as Thyself. In all this, the law is fulfilled.
[00:08:43] So the first thing we do as his children is love one another. Do I need to repeat that? I don’t know. This doesn’t apply to none of us here. I know we’re a great church and we have no flaws and we love everybody, right?
[00:08:58] But that is the first command is to love God and one another as his children. That ought to be something that we imitate or something that comes out of us because of who is in us. So he says, walk in love. This is not something strange to a Christian. This ought to be very evident in the new nature.
[00:09:24] You all understand the new nature. The old man and the new man and all the bad that Paul talks about in Romans chapter seven that we’re still in this body, this sinful body. But yet I have a new nature within me through the Holy Spirit that wants to do good. Yes, I war with my flesh and my desires. Fleshly desires.
[00:09:44] But I want to. Please, God. And what I want to please God with I just don’t quite do it. And those things my flesh, I don’t want my flesh to do. I do those things.
[00:09:54] Paul says that’s Romans chapter seven that’s talking about the conflict within us to know and to do, want to do right. But we don’t quite get there because it’s still in our flesh. We are still not in our glorified body. But this thing of love ought to be elementary. That ought not be very difficult.
[00:10:18] If we understand the love of God and how much he love us and gave his Son for us. It ought to be simple for us to love one another and to love them that aren’t of this household. It ought to be simple to first John four eight. He that loveth not loveth, not knoweth, not God. For God is love.
[00:10:49] So if we’re imitating our Heavenly Father and as children following Him and doing the things he’s doing, first John tells us if we don’t love, we don’t know the Heavenly Father like we should. We don’t know it because God is love. Now, a lot of people I want you to understand that, yes, God is just. Yes, God, he has to judge sin. And a lot of people look at God as this white haired old man with a long beard and he’s got this staff with lightning bolts and he’s aiming at just waiting for somebody to mess up.
[00:11:25] That’s not God of the Bible. That’s not the God I read of in the Bible. God is love. He gave his only begotten son for God so loved the world. God is love.
[00:11:41] And if God is love, as his children, we ought to love. See, how do I get this love? How do I do it? Because some people nowadays are just hard to love. David Burgess ain’t here today, so I can’t pick on him.
[00:11:57] I hope he’s watching online. I love David, I really do. But some people are just difficult to love, right? Some people are just contrary. Some people don’t agree and don’t see things like I do and just make me so mad, so frustrated.
[00:12:17] Come on, Church, you know what I’m talking about. I’m not up here by myself. We’re to love them as God loves them. How can I do that? That’s almost impossible.
[00:12:28] I can’t love somebody that molests little children. I can’t love somebody that mass murders people by the thousands. It’s hard to love somebody. Jesus died for them, just like he did you. For God loved the whole world, even them.
[00:12:48] So it is difficult. So how do I do it? Romans five five and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. In other words, the love of God is given to us in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us, see, when we are saved. That’s why I said the Holy Spirit comes to indwell you, to seal you.
[00:13:15] The Holy Spirit, god’s Spirit within you, causes you to love even the most vile person. You may not like them, you may not like what they do, but you got to love them, because God loved them. He died for them, just like he died for you. So we love because of God’s Spirit within us, just to touch on the part of. So he hath given us Christ in verse two, as an offering, as a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savor.
[00:13:50] That doesn’t mean that God was happy that he had to sacrifice His Son on the cross. That’s not what those verses are telling us there. It means that God is pleased with the sacrifice to atone for sin, to satisfy God’s holy and perfect law is what Jesus did when he came and lived his life, and he died on the cross in my place and in your place. God was pleased with that sacrifice.
[00:14:21] Our sin is atoned for, paid for in full. God is satisfied with the blood of Jesus. It is complete. You don’t add anything to it. You don’t take anything away from it.
[00:14:34] It’s only by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift of God, his son. And he’s satisfied with that? So that’s what he’s talking about, this sweet smelling Savor, this satisfaction of the Father, of what the Son has done for us on the cross. So now, verse three.
[00:14:57] I’ll just be honest with you, I don’t like these verses. You ever heard a preacher say that? Now you have. I love these verses. I don’t particularly like them, I’ll be honest with you.
[00:15:11] I struggle a lot of times. These list of people and things are mentioned about four times in Scripture.
[00:15:21] And sometimes there are verses in Scripture that you read and you’re just like, wow, that just doesn’t I don’t know, I just can’t get my head wrapped around that. Well, sometimes these sets of verses are the same, I know what it’s saying, I know what it means, but I just sort of struggle sometimes with the full revelation of it. And I’m not sure I’m even there yet today. But I’m going to try my best to explain you as I understand it, because in these verses reason I don’t like them is because one, as a Christian, you can read this list I’m about to read and you can have full condemnation on you because one or the other of them in one of the four places in Scripture that are mentioned, you qualify. So it can just really discourage you as a Christian, as a non believer, they can look at it and say, well, I’m not so bad.
[00:16:21] I don’t break all those things. I don’t continually live like that. So I’m good to go, I’m on my way to heaven, yet they don’t believe in Jesus Christ. So see, where my dilemma here? How do I make this revelation come full circle where you and I both understand it?
[00:16:42] And I’m praying for that. Pray for me now as I go through this and try to explain it. That not, I tell you, but the Holy Spirit revealed to you the truth that God gives me the words to say here because I’m honest with you as I can. I don’t claim to know everything. I don’t have a full understanding of all of Scripture.
[00:17:03] Anybody that would, any preacher stand up and say, oh, yeah, I got it all. You better just walk out the door. No, you better run out that back door and leave. I don’t think any of us got it all. But we try and we try to understand.
[00:17:17] That’s what I’m going to do with you here today. Verse three. But fornication and Uncleanliness Covetousness, let it not be named once let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. You say, well, I’m pretty good there. I think I’m good.
[00:17:41] Covetousness. Covetousness. Anybody got a nicer tractor than you got, guys? Well, you’d like to have that one? Well, he got a brand new truck.
[00:17:52] I wish I could get a brand new truck. Wanting what? Somebody else that’s coveted to us. Anybody guilty? You don’t have to raise your hands.
[00:18:02] I know you all are, most of you all except for Miss Tony. She’s got it all. We all envy what she’s got, but we all qualify. That’s why I’m saying, one way or another, and as Christians, we can look at that and say, wow, I messed that up. Well, let’s read on.
[00:18:22] Neither filthiness nor foolish talking. Anybody ever been guilty of foolish talking?
[00:18:31] Guilty nor jesting, which is not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. See these lists that he gives as dear children, these are not characteristics of your heavenly father. That’s why he’s saying, don’t let them be named among you. You’re not acting like your father. You’re not acting like children that your father wants you to act like.
[00:19:00] If you’re guilty of any of these, and I think if we looked at these, we’d say we are guilty. And we keep reading here verse five. For this ye know that no hormonger or unclean person or covetous man I guess you women are excluded from that. No, you’re not. Who is an idolater hath any inheritance.
[00:19:24] Not only don’t let it be named among you. Those who do those things, those who are those things has no inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. That means you’re not going to heaven. And in Galatians 521, one Corinthians six nine, as we saw last Wednesday night, and Revelation 21 eight, he gives this list and pretty much says the same thing. Go to Revelation 21 eight real quick.
[00:19:53] I want you to read that because you may be sitting there thinking, I’m pretty good, Brother Kenny. I don’t really qualify for any of those, so let me just straighten you out on that.
[00:20:07] But the fearful, you ever been fearful? You ever worried about anything? Not certain of the outcome of something? Ever been fearful? I know none of you guys have, but all the women have.
[00:20:20] All of us have the unbelieving and the abominable. Abominable and murderers and hormongers and sorcerers and idolaters. That’s a bad group of people, isn’t it? Boy, they’re terrible group of people. And liars.
[00:20:44] You ever told a lie? Just a little white lie. It was a gray area, brother Kenny. Just a little white lie. God calls it a lie.
[00:20:56] It listen what he says.
[00:21:02] Have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
[00:21:13] These are my concerns. Or these. When I read this, I’m like, guilty as charged, Lord. Does that mean I’m not going to heaven? That might mean that I’m not.
[00:21:28] No, I don’t think it does. I have explained these for years, that these are people who practice this day after day after day. Anybody ever know a habitual liar? I know a few. Bless his heart.
[00:21:45] I know one guy. I’ve witnessed to him. I’ve tried my best, but this guy would lie to you and tell you it was cloudy outside and the sunshine. He don’t know anything. But to lie has nothing to do with God.
[00:22:01] He don’t want anything to do with God. And his life shows it. He’s a habitual or his lifestyle is lying. There are those whose lifestyle is to live in adultery. There are those whose lifestyle is idolatry.
[00:22:18] That’s worship of anything other than God, the true God. That can be your job, that can be your house. For some of you here. That’s your farm, that’s your car, that’s your children, that’s your wife. Anything you put before God is idolatry.
[00:22:41] Wow. It’s pretty quiet in here. I think you’re with me on the same page. Wow. Brother Kenny, this is not very encouraging, but I think, as I’ve said, that these are people who that’s their lifestyle.
[00:22:57] That’s the way they live. That’s all that they know. But we do know that these are not characteristics of God. These aren’t things that the children of God ought to be doing. So what does it mean as unsaved people?
[00:23:13] They can look at this list and I don’t think if you list it at the four references, galatians five, Ephesians six and Revelation 21, and here in Ephesians five where these lists are mentioned, you can’t read this list and exclude yourself from none of them. We’re all guilty, saved and unsaved. So what is the answer here? Let’s go back to our text. What does he say in verse one?
[00:23:43] He says be you followers of God as dear children. Romans tells us that we are the children of God. When God looks at us in Corinthians, he explains this, that God doesn’t see us, he sees the righteousness of His Son. When we accept his Son, when his blood pays and takes away our sin, thank God he doesn’t see Kenny Heinzel in my sinful state, in my unrighteousness and all my weaknesses and failures. He sees the blood of His Son that has covered my sin.
[00:24:21] When I see the blood, I will pass over you. It’s all about the blood of Christ. That makes me accepted into the family of God, that makes me righteous. So it’s not by this list of works. So what are this list of works talking about?
[00:24:39] What is he referring to? We are his children, right? If we’ve trusted Jesus as our personal savior, we understand that this morning, right? We are in Christ, christ is in us. His righteousness is given to us.
[00:24:58] His right, not mine. But this list here, who are that no hormonger or unclean person. It’s not so much the act, it’s the identity. So if I am in Christ and my identity is in Christ as God’s, dear child, that’s who I am. Y’all, listen to me here.
[00:25:33] I want you to really understand this. The best I can understand it, I am not called an adulterer. I better choose another one of them. I’m not called a liar. Even though I may lie and I may fall short, that’s not my nature.
[00:25:51] That’s now how I’m identified in Christ. I’m identified as a child of God, as a believer in Jesus Christ. That is my identity. It’s no longer me, but Christ who lives in me. Does that make sense to everybody?
[00:26:07] But if you don’t have Christ that lives in you, your identity is a whoremonger, a liar, an adulterer, an idolater. Does that make sense? Do you see that he’s not talking so much? I mean, yes, these are the acts that they do that show who they really are. But that’s what he’s talking about here.
[00:26:32] As children of your heavenly Father, imitate your father, you’re going to do those things that your father does. If your father is the heavenly Father in heaven, the first thing you’re going to do is love, you’re going to forgive, you’re going to have long suffering, you’re going to have joy and peace. Does that mean you’re not ever going to have bad times? Absolutely not. You will have bad times.
[00:26:57] But as Miss Molly sits right here with joy understanding, she’s going through difficult times. She has joy in knowing her heavenly Father is in control of all things. And whichever way it goes, whether he heals or whether he doesn’t, she has a home in glory and God’s going to take care of her. That’s the joy even in trials. That’s the peace that only God can give.
[00:27:26] I’m encouraged by her testimony. I’m encouraged by what I see and others around that are going through difficult times. I think, wow, I’d love to be like you. I’d love to be more like that. Is the Father within you as your child revealing what’s in you?
[00:27:45] If your Father is the devil, then he will reveal who he is in you. And Jesus said, he’s a liar, he’s a deceiver, he’s an idolater, he’s a whoremonger. And if you’re like your Father, the devil, you are the same thing. It’s who your identity is in. Is that clear?
[00:28:09] Do you understand these verses now? Does that help you just a little bit? Say but we can say through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, only through God’s grace and his love that he gives that I can say I’m a child of the King, not by my righteousness, not by my works, but by his. He has made me righteous. So I hope that maybe clears up these verses.
[00:28:39] And I wanted to be honest with you. Look at them. And this is the best I understand them right now. Maybe the Lord will show me a full revelation of that one day, and I’ll be glad to share it with you, because these verses can be troubling. There’s other verses in Scripture.
[00:28:58] I remember when I first read the depart from me, you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you, boy. The first time I read that, cold chills run up and down my spine. That’d be awful to get to heaven and see our Lord Jesus tell you that. But you got to understand in the context and understanding of the whole Scripture, and we can’t lose our salvation. And it’s only by grace are you saved through faith.
[00:29:23] And what he’s talking about, those who worked for their salvation, those people he’s talking about were doing things hoping it would get them into heaven. They were working their way to heaven. They weren’t resting on the shed blood of Jesus Christ for to save them and Him alone. So I’m okay with that matthew in those verses, in Matthew, now I understand them, and sometimes we have that in Scripture. And I just want to be honest with you and tell you that this morning.
[00:29:58] These verses can be very discouraging for a Christian, can be confusing for a non believer, but I believe it’s talking more of identity. Who you identify, who is your Father in the context of what he’s saying here? Who are you following? Who are you imitating your heavenly Father in heaven? Or are you acting like the world?
[00:30:24] It’s a soul searching thing. It doesn’t mean that us as Christians, if our heavenly Father and we are saved, that we’re sinless. It just means we sin less. The older the closer we get to God, the less I believe we will sin. But it’s often weird, and I’m just sharing my heart with you right now, I guess not even in my notes, like isaiah in chapter six, when he was before the Lord.
[00:30:54] Isaiah was a great prophet of God, and he gave many woes to Israel and warned Israel of their disobedience and all the rest. But when Isaiah was high and lifted up, he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and he was in the presence of God Almighty. He says, I am a man of unclean lips. The closer you get to God, the more you understand how sinful you are, but understand how sinful you are. You understand how much he’s done for us and what Jesus sacrificed on the cross means to you.
[00:31:31] So I think it doesn’t mean we don’t sin, but we sin less. Let me go on just these next few minutes, but be not therefore partakers with them, he says not only don’t act like them, don’t participate in what they’re doing, don’t encourage it. Don’t want to be like them, don’t act like them. For ye were sometimes in darkness, but now you are in light. But now you are the light and the Lord walk as children of the light.
[00:32:06] We ought to be examples. We ought to be imitating our Heavenly Father here on earth as a light to the world, to reveal the light of Christ in us, the hope of glory. One corinthians six nine. Be you not unrighteousness, do you not know the unrighteous? And not even inherit the kim?
[00:32:26] Be not deceived, neither, fornicators are dry. This is the list. Nor infamate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covenant or drunkards, or revilers, or extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are sanctified.
[00:32:46] Your identity is different now. You’ve been washed in the blood of Jesus. You’ve been sanctified. You’ve been set apart for God, for his purpose, for his glory. You’ve been justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of God.
[00:33:02] You can walk boldly into the throne of grace, being justified, sanctified, placed in the body of Christ as his dear child. Now act like it is what Paul is telling them. Understand what we have. In Christ, verse nine, he says that he gives a list of what the fruit of the world is now. He says the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
[00:33:35] And with the Spirit within us proving what is acceptable to the Lord, the Holy Spirit will convict you of your sin. The Holy Spirit will lead you in what is got acceptable to the Lord, and have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
[00:33:58] If you’re a flashlight and your light’s on, are you ever in darkness? Some of you wise people say, well, the batteries might run down. Let me tell you, my battery never runs down with Jesus Christ. His light shines. Now, I might not shine so bright because of me sometimes, but still I have.
[00:34:25] The light of Jesus in me that never goes out. And it ought to shine for those around me. They ought to see Christ in me. They ought to see the light of the world, the hope of the world. And he’s saying this you can’t have fellowship with darkness.
[00:34:41] You can have nothing with it. If you’re a flashlight, you’re never in darkness. You can’t have any fellowship with the world. If you’re in Christ, if you’re his child, he says, don’t do this. This is not what you do.
[00:34:57] But what should we do is reprove them. Reprove them? Reprove those who are in darkness. I didn’t think we were supposed to judge people. He didn’t say judge people.
[00:35:07] He says, reprove them. Your light ought to so shine that others around you unsaved. Those who are in darkness around you ought to just by nature say, I’m not going to cuss around Miss Tony because I know she’s just a good woman, she’s a good Christian lady, and I would not offend her that way. That’s letting your light shine and she never said a word. That doesn’t mean you go around with a big Bible under your arm.
[00:35:36] You’re going to hell. No, that means let your light shine as you go through this world, letting the light of Jesus Christ shines. They’re going to see it. A lot of them going to run from you because they don’t like what it shows them about themselves. That’s why these pews ain’t full.
[00:35:55] That’s why people don’t want to come to church, because God’s word is read here. And when God’s Word is written or read out and we look into God’s Word and we see the truth of the Word, it reproves me. It brings my sinfulness to light, and I don’t like it. This is what a lot of people say. I don’t like it sometimes, but I know my Heavenly Father knows what’s best for me.
[00:36:22] I know he’s trying to show me things, and so therefore, I want to hear it. I want to know. I want to be like him. I want to imitate my Heavenly Father, not run from it, not avoid it. That’s why they run.
[00:36:36] That’s why the pews aren’t full here. They don’t want to hear that nobody wants to have their sinfulness brought to light. But we can do that without saying a word. I know I got some good friends that have nothing to do with church, the fireman friends, nothing. And we meet occasionally and go eat lunch, and I doubt they ever do it when I’m not there.
[00:37:02] But every time I’m there, when we get our meal, they take their hat on. They say, you going to pray? I never say anything. I’ve never told. Hey, guys, wait a minute.
[00:37:11] We’re gonna pray first. The light of Christ that shines out of me, they want to respect that. Not me, but Christ that lives in me. They know where I stand, and they say, let’s have prayer. Let’s bless the food.
[00:37:30] See what I’m saying? I didn’t make them do it. That’s something they want to do, because they see Christ in me. They see that me imitating my heavenly Father. I’m not trying to say I’m all that in a box of chocolates, you know, I’m just saying maybe as an example, we can be we can reprove, we can show the world the light of Christ without beating them over the head with a Bible or screaming in their face.
[00:37:55] Just our lives that we live before them as we imitate our heavenly Father will. Show them where they are, he said, but don’t have fellowship, reprove them, for it is ashamed of those that even speak, which are done of them in secret. And all these things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. That’s what I was talking about. Their sinfulness is revealed by the light of God’s.
[00:38:27] Word is made known to them. And whatsoever doth make manifest is light wherefore he said, awake, thou that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that you walk circumspectly not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time, for the days are evil.
[00:38:56] See, I meant to tell you a little earlier. Paul here too, I think, is addressing a group of Christians that were going around and you’re saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves. It’s a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. True, very true. But what they added to that, well, since the blood of Jesus covers all sins, and you’re saved by grace alone, and all of our righteousness is at filthy rags, go live how you want, do what you want.
[00:39:26] The blood of Jesus covers you. You’re okay? That was popular in this time. It’s pretty popular today, but it’s real prevalent that time. And I believe Paul in these scriptures and maybe the other four references, he was referring to those people, they thought, oh, you can do what you want.
[00:39:46] But he addresses that in Roman. If I’m saved by grace, as the blood of Jesus has covered me, do I continue in sin? He says, God forbid. No. If you have that, if you’re bought with a price, with the blood of Jesus Christ, you’re placed in the family of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit, you’re his child.
[00:40:05] Act like he’s your father. Live like he’s your father, your Father. This light of Jesus will shine through you. You won’t act like the world anymore. You won’t want to sin like the world anymore, because you understand what Christ did for you on the cross.
[00:40:26] Pretty quiet in here this morning. Y’all getting this this morning? Is this pretty clear? I just want to read a few more verses real quick so as children do this, wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is? What is the will of the lord that you be like your Father in heaven first.
[00:40:53] That God’s will is that you trust and believe in His Son and his finished work on the cross. After that, his will for you is to be like His Son, to glorify your Father, which is in heaven. That’s the will of the Lord, he says, not be drunk with wine, we’re in excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. We talked about this Wednesday night in Bible study. This is not pertaining to drinking, even though he mentions it.
[00:41:21] The idea here is what controls you if you’re an alcoholic? What controls you? Alcohol. If you’re a Christian, what controls you? The Holy Spirit.
[00:41:37] Be led by the Holy Spirit, not by the things of this world. That’s good stuff. And then look at here. He said as children, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing and making melody in your heart and the Lord. Our worship service, our song service is just as important as what we’re doing here today.
[00:42:03] We’re worshiping a holy God in song. He’s saying, do this as his children. Be thankful, sing praises to God for all that he’s done for you and giving thanks always for all things unto God for the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said other earlier in this, he gives this list, but don’t be babbling in this unnecessary and this silly speaking and all these if you can’t do anything else, don’t waste your time on that. Praise God.
[00:42:37] Worship him. If you can’t come up with anything better than that, he’s saying worship Him. That shouldn’t be our last resort, by the way. That should be our first. But in the comparison that he gives and going back, redeeming the time.
[00:42:51] Because the days of evil, I believe it’s possible in the very near future, it’s going to become more and more difficult for us to even and we already see it the name of Jesus in public. We barely can pray in public anymore. A lot of those things will be taken away. They are attacking Christianity and all that it is. And it may become more and more difficult for us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:43:20] And Paul says here guys, redeem the time. Take every opportunity you have to show the love of Christ to let your light shine, that others may see your Father in you. Because they live in darkness. They need hope, they need peace, they need Jesus. Take advantage of every opportunity and time you got to show them the love of God, to show them what Jesus did for you on the cross.
[00:43:53] Let his light shine that’s what we’re doing here. Some people may think we’re crazy for church like this building, a big old building like that. We’re taking advantage to get kids in here and youth in here and people in here to show them the love of Jesus Christ. We’re taking advantage of every opportunity and every time God gives us and boy, he has blessed us, he continues to bless. I’m excited about what he’s going to do through all things here.
[00:44:24] Let’s take advantage of every opportunity he gives us. Let’s don’t waste it on our foolish desires of our flesh. Let’s act like his children. Father, we thank you and we love you. Lord, we fail you many, many times, but Father, you still love us.
[00:44:44] We’re still Your child because of the blood of Jesus, because of what Your Son has done for us on the cross. Lord, we just stand here in Him made righteous. We are justified in Your eyes. And Lord, we just praise you and thank you even in our weaknesses and our failures, Lord, and we know that you will correct us and you can’t overlook our sin sins. But Father, our sin is covered.
[00:45:16] We just thank you for that, and we become Your children. We thank you for the truth of Your word. I pray, Father, the Holy Spirit would just even after this service, would just prick our hearts. Let these words just resonate through our mind throughout the day, throughout the week, Lord, until we get it, till we understand it, till it comes full circle and we understand who we are in Christ and that we are your dear children and you are our Heavenly Father. Lord, I pray that we act like you, that we imitate you in all that we do.
[00:45:54] Lord, help us to take advantage of every minute, every second, every opportunity, that there’s a world out there that needs to hear the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We just thank you and praise you for Your word today. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.