Text---Ephesians 5:1-15
Today, when Will is baptized, as he comes up out of the baptismal waters
I will quote Romans
6:4 when I say, "Raised to walk in the newness of life."
We die to self, we are raised, and we walk. Baptism depicts this so clearly.
Because of Christ (for His sake) God has forgiven us (see 4:32).
"Therefore" is a reference back to
this.
It all boils down to being "FOLLOWERS OF GOD AS DEAR CHILDREN"
As you walk you are going to follow somebody. As Bob Dillon would
say, "It may be the
devil or it may be the Lord" in his song "You've Gotta' Serve Somebody".
Jesus put it this way in John 8:12, "Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the
light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the
light of life."
If we are going to do this there will be certain things that we will
do and certain things that we
won't do.
I. WALK IN LOVE (V. 2)
Notice that it does not say "sit in love" or "rest
in love" or "speak of love". It involves
movement and the connotation is that we move about
looking for ways to show the love
of Christ.
A. Our immediate family
B. The church family---especially the children of
the body of Christ. I can see Jesus
gathering the children
unto himself and chastising the disciples for failing to see the
necessity of nurturing
the little ones (Mark 10:13-16)
C. The "dry bones" of the world---that is where Jesus
spent most of His time in ministry.
Zacchaeus.
D. The down-and-outs of this world---John 3:17-18---But
whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother
have need, and shutteth up his bowels [of compassion] from
him, how dwelleth
the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word,
neither in tongue;
but in deed and in truth.
II. WALK WITH A GODLY UNDERSTANDING OF LOVE
Love is not what the world defines as love which
can be summed up in the next few
verses.
A. Fornication---Greek word--porneia. Does
that sound familiar. It includes adultery.
B. Uncleaness---akatharsia--"impurity physically
or morally". Momma always said,
"Cleanliness is next to
Godliness." Maybe that is where she got it. It begins in the
heart and is manifested
it many ways but speech is one of them (v. 4).
C. Covetousness---greediness
Thou shalt not covet
thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife,
nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that
[is] thy neighbour's.
All three of these things
can be classified under idolatry which is putting something ahead
of God. It has to
do with what we are clinging to.
We have a chimney sweep that
fell down the chimney. I have never seen anything with
claws like this thing has.
Once he hangs on he just will not let go. That's the way idolatry
is. What are you hanging
onto?
It does not become saints
to walk in any of the above and God's stern warning is "let it not
be named even once among
you." The person who walks down the road of fornication,
uncleaness and covetousness
will have no inheritance in the kingdom of God---and don't
let anyone tell you otherwise
(vv.5-6).
III. WALK IN THANKSGIVING (V. 4)
This prevents all of the above. When we see
what Jesus has done for us and we ponder all
that God has blessed us with we just have to be
thankful and if we walk in thanksgiving
we will be content with what we have and desire
to please God with our lives.
Terry's computer--$300 less than mine and it is
three times as fast and does three times as
much. When I first booted it up I was amazed.
I glanced over at my dinosaur and then
back at Terry's dream machine and after a twinge
of covetousness I thanked God for what
He has blessed me with and for the fact that Terry
has a very nice computer that will open
up his world beyond his imagination.
IV. WALK IN THE LIGHT (v. 8)
Why?---because we are the light of the world.
Now wait a minute---did not Jesus say He
was the light of the world? Yes, in John 8:12---Then
spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life.
We must walk in the light because that is what defines
us. It is who we are and whose we
are. Those that walk in darkness are defined
by the darkness. 1 John 1:6 makes this
perfectly clear. Paul says in verse 8 that
we used to be darkness---now we are light.
There is no indirect lighting in the kingdom of
God.
How do we make sure that we walk in the light?
A. Prove what is acceptable unto God---discern, examine,
test (against the word)
acceptable---"fully agreeable"
(v. 10)
B. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness (v. 11)
fellowship--to share company
with, co-participate in
C. Reprove the works of darkness (v. 11)---convict,
convince, tell a fault, rebuke,
reprove. That does
not mean to sit around and talk about it (v. 12). It means to shine
the light of Jesus Christ
in the darkness and expose the works of darkness for what
they are.
vv. 14-15---Wherefore he
saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall give
thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not
as fools but as wise, redeeming
the time, because the days are evil.
Will Good, our candidate for baptism today, has taken that step of faith
in Christ and has begun his
walk. He will be looking to us to see how to walk. May
we as a church never give him cause to
stumble.