Don't Be Deceived!

PDF

This week on the 31^st, we celebrate the Reformation, the beginning of the Reformation. It was on October 31^st, 1517, that Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" against the practice of indulgences, practices practiced in the Roman Catholic Church to the door there in Wittenberg. Lord willing next week, I want to share some thoughts with you about that, but that's coming up on the 31^st of October.

This morning, I want us to turn again to Ephesians 5 because the next part of the passage we've been studying together is very appropriate for a morning on which we take of the Lord's Table because it's a passage that calls us to self-examination, that calls us to some introspection which is exactly what Paul tells us we should do in his letter to the Corinthians. Before we take of the Lord's Table, we're to judge ourselves. We're to evaluate, as he says in 2 Corinthians, to test whether or not we're in the faith. And so, this morning, we return to Ephesians 5 and to a call to self-examination in light of sexual sin.

Let me read this paragraph for you again. Ephesians 5, beginning in verse 3,

But immorality or any impurity or greed [the Greek word there is "covetousness", the same as the word down in verse 5, but immorality or any impurity or greed] 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; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light, (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.

For this reason it says,

"Awake, sleeper,

And arise from the dead,

And Christ will shine on you."

The theme of this section, as I've already pointed out to you, is in verse 8, "you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light." If we are going to walk worthy of our calling as we're reminded in 4:1, then we must walk, according to this paragraph, in sexual purity. In this passage, our Lord provides us with several very practical strategies that are absolutely essential in our daily battle for sexual purity. We've already looked at two of the strategies. And if you weren't here for those messages, I encourage you to go online and listen because they're foundational for what we'll talk about today.

The first strategy we looked at together is found in verses 3 and the first part of verse 4, and it is adopt God's standard of moral purity. We cannot lower the standard. God's standard is: not even a hint of these things in our lives. The standard is the moral and sexual purity of Jesus Christ. We must embrace that standard and not our own flawed perspective.

Secondly, we noted another practical strategy and that is we must use the biblical means God has provided for pursuing sexual purity. Use the biblical means. We talked about the wrong means and then we addressed the biblical means that are at our disposal. One of them is found here at the end of verse 4, and it is the active habit of giving thanks because it's the opposite of sexual craving. Other means we looked at that help us to put off sexual sin and put on sexual purity were properly using the Word, prayer, running away, rehearsing the consequences of sexual sin before the temptation, enjoying the gift of married love, and most importantly, living by faith in Christ alone, not thinking that we can pursue these things on our own, in our own strength, but solely because of Christ.

What did Christ say in John 15? He said, "Without Me you can do (what?) nothing" - nothing. We cannot even use the biblical means for pursuing sexual purity in our own strength. As Paul reminds us in Galatians 2, we are to "live (our lives as Christians) by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us." He is our only hope of sexual purity.

Now the rest of the paragraph that I just read for you provides us with a third practical strategy for pursuing sexual purity. Not only must we adopt God's standard for sexual purity, not only must we use the biblical means that He's provided us for pursuing sexual purity, but the third practical strategy is this: we must understand the proper motivation toward sexual purity. We must understand the proper motivation. And really, this is the rest of the paragraph beginning in verse 5 and running all the way down through verse 14.

We shouldn't be surprised by the fact that Paul is going to help us understand why this is important. We've already learned in the first half of this book that knowing is crucial to doing, that our practice (chapters 4 - 6) is built on the foundation of our position (chapters 1 - 3). So, Paul then sets out in the rest of this paragraph to help us understand, to increase our knowledge, to help us understand why it is that sexual purity is so important. You and I need to understand what is at stake in this battle if we're going to be serious about the fight – the motivations.

Today, I want us to look at just the first two motives that Paul provides here in this final section for leaving sexual sin and for living in sexual purity. The motivations – let's look at the first motive for pursuing sexual purity. It's found in verse 5. A life of sexual sin excludes from God's kingdom. A life of sexual sin excludes us from God's kingdom. Look at verse 5: "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."

Notice he begins with the word "for". He introduces us then to one of the reasons we should not tolerate these sins in our lives. "For this you know with certainty" – literally, the Greek text says, "for this you know knowing". He uses two different words, Greek words, for "know," and there are a couple of options about what he could mean. This could be a command. Paul could be saying, "Know this with certainty." Or as I think he intends and the NAS translators take it, it could be an affirmation, a statement. Paul is saying, "For this you know with certainty."

Now how did the Ephesians know this with certainty? Well, they would have known about sexual sin and the need to turn from it in Paul's initial presentation of the gospel. In Acts 20 when he talks to the Ephesian elders, he says when I came to you, I preached the gospel, and I preached "repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." For Paul, repentance wasn't extra; it was part of the gospel message. It was turn from your sins to God in faith in Christ. And so, in the initial presentation of the gospel, they would've learned that they could not tolerate sexual sins in their lives and be followers of Jesus Christ.

And if you doubt that, we could turn to Romans, and we won't do that, but you remember in Romans Paul presents the gospel. He says I'm going to tell you the gospel, and when he gets to the problem, why we need the gospel, in the first three chapters, in the middle of that section, he says this: 'Listen. You pride yourself on being teachers of the law. Well, let me ask you this,' Paul says in 2:22, Have you taught people not to commit adultery and then do you turn right around and commit adultery yourself? And so even in the gospel, in helping people understand their sinfulness, he brought in the issue of sexual sin. So, they would've heard it from Paul, the Ephesians would have, through the gospel.

But then, remember that Paul was with them for three years. Paul lived in Ephesus, taught them as he says in, in Acts 20 "… publicly and from house to house …" for three years. And he says in Acts 20 I taught you the whole counsel or the whole purpose of God. So, Paul would have made clear to them in those three years that a life of this sexual sin they had lived before was incongruous, incompatible with their profession of Christ. So then, Paul could say "this you know with certainty" - absolutely no legitimate question in your mind about this.

Now what were they so certain about? Look at verse 5 again: "… that (here's what they had a certain knowledge of, that) no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Now those three sins – immoral, impure and covetous – are exactly identical back up in verse 3. It's translated, the third word is translated "greed" there, but it's the same Greek word that's translated "covetous" here. In one case, it's the sin in verse 3. In verse 5, it's the person committing the sin.

Now, let me just remind you of what these sins are because it's been several weeks since we looked at them. "Immorality" or the immoral person – that has to do with all illicit sexual intercourse with another being, with another entity. It's the word "porneia" from which we get our word "pornography", but it has to do with all sinful sexual intercourse with another being or another entity, whether it's adultery or premarital sex or bestiality or incest or whatever it might be.

The second word, "impure" or impurity as it is back up in verse 3 – that describes all the misuses of the gift of sexuality that are not included in the word "porneia". It includes all kinds of sexual aberrations, including sins such as fetishes and sadomasochism, etc. So, these first two words, "immoral" and "impure", have to do with those people who commit sexual acts other than the honorable enjoyment of a sexual relationship in marriage.

The third sin is covetousness, "the covetous man". This is sexual desire, we found in, in the context of Ephesians this word is only used to describe sexual desire, the sexual desire to have someone other than your spouse. It is sexual lust. While this word is normally it has to do with coveting things, here in Ephesians Paul only uses it two times and both times it has to do with coveting another person. It's sexual lust. The most common expressions that this sin takes are physically looking at another person and sexually desiring them, pornography and sinfully craving a relationship with someone other than your spouse and often craving the physical intimacy that comes with that relationship.

Paul says that no person who practices those sins is a part of the kingdom of God. Now Paul does not mean that Christians cannot sin in these ways. Of course, they can. David is an example of a true believer who, for probably a period of about nine months before he was confronted by Nathan the prophet, lived in a pattern of unrepentant sexual sin. Christians can sin in these ways. They can sin horribly in these ways. They can even remain unrepentant for a time. Paul is not denying that reality here.

What he does mean is this: no person who is characterized by these sins (notice he calls them an immoral person or an impure person or a covetous man, no person who is characterized by these sins) has any part in the kingdom of God. Those who habitually practice these sins without restraint, without repentance, are in fact not Christians. I don't care what prayer you may have prayed. I don't care how many times you walked an aisle, how many cards you signed. I don't care how many times you were dunked in the water. I don't care how much you've been involved in the life of the church. If you are habitually involved in these sins in an unbroken, unrepentant pattern in your life, then Paul says you are not a Christian.

Peter O'Brien writes, "What is envisaged here is the person who has given himself or herself up without shame or repentance to this way of life." You see, it's one thing to fall in the mud. You can do that and then get up. It's another thing to lie in the mud and wallow in it. In one case, you're a person who hates the mud; in the other case, you're a pig who loves it.

Kent Hughes writes, "We conclude on the authority of God's Word that anyone who is living a lustful life of sensuality and is unwilling to turn from it is lost and has no inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ." Folks, that is the message of Paul in Ephesians 5.

It is also the message of the apostle John. Turn back to 1 John 3. Let me remind you that John wrote his first letter, chapter 5 tells us, "in order that we may know that we have eternal life." So, his little letter, his first letter, is written to provide us with the tests of whether or not we really have eternal life. And there are a series of tests, look at 3:4,

Everyone who practices sin (that is, as an unbroken pattern of life) also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And Christ appeared to do away with sin; and in Him there is no sin (so it's incompatible that you would continue to live a life of sin and be in Christ). No one (verse 6) who abides in Him (who is truly in Christ) sins (as an unbroken pattern of life); no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. [By the way, the Greek text through this passage makes it clear by the tense of the verb that we're talking about that sort of habitual, unbroken pattern of life.] Little children (verse 7), make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is (has a right standing in God's sight), just as He is righteous. [We don't earn a right standing by our acts of righteousness. We prove we have a right standing with God by our righteousness.] Verse 8, the one who practices sin (as a pattern of life) is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared … to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is truly born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot practice sin like that, because he has been born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

John couldn't be clearer. In his language, a person who is practicing sin is not a true child of God. If there is in your life an unbroken, unrepentant pattern of sin, if your life is characterized by sin, you are not a true child of God. In Paul's language, if you are characterized by those sexual sins, you have no inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ. That's what Paul says in Ephesians 5.

Now he also says that in a number of other places. He makes this same point in a number of other places. Look at 1 Corinthians 6. This is a very familiar one, 1 Corinthians 6:9. As he writes to the church there in Corinth, he says, "Or do you not know …" This is Paul's less than subtle way of chastening them. He's saying, 'Listen. Are you kidding me? You don't know this? Of course, you know this! Verse 9,

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals [those two words go together - one being the passive partner in a homosexual relationship, the other being the, the male partner if you will in a homosexual relationship, verse 10], nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers (none of them who are characterized by that), will inherit the kingdom of God. [Paul includes sexual sin, and he says that sexual sin as a pattern of life shows you are not going to inherit God's kingdom.]

Look over at chapter 5 of Galatians, Galatians 5. He makes the same point. Verse 19,

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are [these and he lists these sexual sins]: immorality (there's our word "porneia"], impurity (the word "uncleanness" we've been looking at), sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these [in other words, this isn't a complete list], of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things [as a pattern of life] will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now did you notice that, in both 1 Corinthians 6 and here in Galatians 5, Paul uses the future expression "will not inherit" – in the future. But look back in Ephesians 5 and notice how he expresses it differently. Verse 5, "Know this, that (none of the people committing these sins) "has ('is having' literally) an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." It's a present reality. As a present reality, such a person is not having today an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

By the way, as just a little theological aside, the construction in the Greek text – it's reflected here in the English. This expression "the kingdom of Christ and God" is a statement of Christ's deity. By a rule of Greek grammar that some of you may recognize called the Granville Sharp Rule, God and Christ in this expression are one in the same person. So, it's a statement about the deity of Christ. But it's the same kingdom over which God rules, over which Christ rules, but there's a nuance of difference. If we were to trace, and I'm not going to take the time to, but if we were to trace the expressions "kingdom of Christ" and "kingdom of God" in Paul's writings, you would find that the phrase "kingdom of Christ" often points to the present aspect of God's rule – that is, God's spiritual rule over the hearts of His followers today, Christ's spiritual rule over our hearts. That's the manifestation of Christ's kingdom today. If you're a Christian, Christ rules over your heart, He rules over my heart. We are the kingdom over which He rules today. That is the present manifestation of the kingdom of Christ.

The phrase "the kingdom of God" in Paul's writings often points to the future aspect of God's rule – that is, that literal, geopolitical reign of Christ on a future restored earth. Together they're comprehensive, having to do with the rule of Christ today and the rule of Christ in the future. So, here's what Paul is saying. Listen carefully. A person who is characterized by these sins, whose life is an unbroken pattern of these sins, who is seeing an increasing pattern of these sins in his or her life, has no part in the spiritual kingdom over which Christ rules today, and in the future, will not inherit the physical kingdom of God. It comes down to this. You cannot be a slave of sexual sin and a slave of Jesus Christ at the same time. As Jesus said, "No man can be a slave to two masters."

In fact, if I were to take you to the end of Revelation in Revelation 22, at the very end of it after it's done describing heaven, it describes those in heaven as those who've been washed. And it describes those outside – that is, those who are outside of heaven, that is, who are in hell – and it lists a series of sexual sins. They don't have a part in the kingdom.

Now why is sexual sin such a terrible sin? Well, look here in Ephesians 5 because Paul tells us. At the root of sexual sin is sexual covetousness. And then he defines sexual covetousness. Notice how he defines it in verse 5, "the covetous man, who is an idolater." So, if you go all the way down to the very basic nature of sexual sin, you will find sexual covetousness. And sexual covetousness is nothing else but idolatry. If you are involved in an unbroken, unrepentant pattern of sexual sin, it has sexual covetousness behind it, and that means you are an idolater. It is no different, understand this. In the mind and eyes of God, it is no different than if you had erected a wood or stone image in your home and every day of your life you fell down in front of it. In the mind of God, it is exactly the same.

So, what are you worshiping? Well, you're either worshiping another person or persons, or you're worshiping yourself and your own self-gratification. Either way, the creature has taken the place of the Creator. As Peter O'Brien writes, "Sexual lust is an idolatrous obsession. It places self-gratification or another person at the center of one's existence and thus is the worship of the creature rather than the Creator."

Paul says, "Understand this. If you are involved in a pattern, an unbroken, unrepentant pattern of these sins in your life, then you are not a Christian. Don't deceive yourself," Paul says. Don't kid yourself. Don't convince yourself otherwise. Don't go back to some date you wrote in the front of your Bible. Don't go back to some experience. "If your life is like this," Paul says, "you are not a Christian." It's a serious call to self-examination. "Don't be deceived," Paul says.

John Stott writes, "If we should fall into a life of greedy immorality, we would be supplying clear evidence that we are after all idolaters, not worshipers of God. And so, we would be heirs not of heaven, but of hell." A life of sexual sin excludes from God's kingdom.

There's a second motive: we should pursue sexual purity. It comes in verse 6. A life of sexual sin guarantees God's judgment. A life of sexual sin guarantees God's judgment. Look at verse 6, "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." "Empty words" - that is, words devoid of truth, false ideas, bad theology, a skewed understanding of God's ways and God's words. Don't be deceived about the seriousness of sexual sin.

The question is, deceived by whom? Well, we can be deceived by the pagans around us. Think about what we're told by the unbelieving people around us. These are quotes very similar to what I have read and heard, and perhaps you have. They tell us, "Listen. Everybody does it. It's okay. One person can't fully meet your needs. You need to live together to see if you're really suited to one another. Listen. An affair will actually spice up your marriage. You still love your spouse. It's just a little peccadillo. Pornography will actually improve your relationship with your spouse. Haven't you heard denying yourself sexual fulfillment will stunt your personal development?" That's what the culture says. Paul says, "Don't be deceived with empty words."

We can be deceived about the seriousness of sexual sin by false teachers within Christianity. In the first century, there was a sort of early form of Gnosticism. They taught that matter was all evil – that is, everything physical was evil, and the spiritual was good. Well, that was handy because that meant that sexual sin didn't really matter because it was connected to the body, and it was evil anyway. So, it didn't really matter what you did with your body. You could sin all you want with your body, and it wouldn't contaminate your spirit.

If you want to read about this, study the Nicolaitans that are mentioned in Revelation 2. Clement of Alexandria wrote about the Nicolaitans. They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence. They were in the church. Nicolas was teaching people that they could live however they wanted in sexual sin and still be accepted by God. They distorted the gospel of grace and turned it into a license to sin.

Let me tell you what it looks like in our day. Somebody says something like this: "Listen. You're forgiven. You're justified. So, you can live however you want. God'll forgive you." Paul anticipated that in Romans 6 after he explained the gospel, you remember? He says, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? (God forbid!) May it never be!"

Peter anticipated this from false teachers in his second epistle. Second Peter 2:18, he says, "they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality … they promise freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whatever a man is overcome, by this is he enslaved."

Jude 4. Jude, our Lord's brother, warned us that this would happen, "certain people (he says) have crept in unnoticed … ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness" - into license. You can do whatever you want. You can live however you want. Don't believe it. It comes from false teachers, but don't be deceived.

Don't be deceived by other Christians. You know, sometimes other Christians will tell you things that are not helpful or are patently wrong. I have counseled people who've been told by well-meaning other Christians things like this, "Listen. Your spouse is a loser. You need to check out of that marriage. You need to look around. God is loving and forgiving. You go ahead and do what you want to do. Even if it's not entirely right, God'll forgive you. You can divorce your spouse for this other person. It's clear that he or she doesn't love you, they aren't emotionally supportive of you." Don't be deceived.

We can be deceived by our own heart. I've heard people tell me in counseling who were pursuing sexual sin things like this, "Well, God wants me to be happy. It can't be that bad because God's the one who made me this way. I deserve this sin. You know, it's okay because, after all, my spouse isn't meeting my needs. I know it's not right, but it's what I want and, and God is forgiving. He'll forgive me." Paul says, "Don't be deceived by empty words" - whether they come from pagans around you, from false teachers, from other Christians or from your own sinful heart.

Notice in verse 6 he says, "Don't be deceived … for because of these things (that is, the sexual sins listed in verse 3, repeated in verse 5, because of these things) the wrath of God comes.…" Notice he doesn't say "will come". He uses the present tense. The wrath of God against sexual sin comes today and will still come in the future. You understand that? God is showing His wrath against sexual sin even today. How? Well, that's really another message for another time, but let me just give you a couple things to think about.

Through the wrath of consequences – in Romans 1, he talks about homosexuality, and he says those who are involved in it, committing these indecent acts, "receive in their own persons the due penalty of their error." First Corinthians 1, or excuse me, 6:18 says, "Every sin a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body." There are consequences that come with sexual sin and that is part of the wrath of God.

There's the wrath of temporal judgment. Do you realize that God sometimes unleashes judgment in this world now because of sexual sin? If you doubt that, read Genesis 18 and 19 when He destroyed two entire cities because of sexual sin. Or look at Leviticus 18. In fact, turn there just for a moment - Leviticus 18. This is a very fascinating passage. Moses is laying down the law of sexual sin, those things that are forbidden. And notice what he says in verse 24. After he does that, he says to the children of Israel:

"Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these (watch this) the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so that the land has spewed out its inhabitants."

God says, "The reason I'm using you, Israel, to drive out those other nations, to defeat them, is because of their sexual sin." And it's as if the land itself has become nauseated by their sin, and it has to vomit them out. What will happen in our country?

God even brings temporal judgment – that is, judgment here and now – on believers because of unrepentant sexual sin. We call it chastening. Scripture is clear. God disciplines believers today for sexual sin. First Corinthians 5:5 – sometimes He does it through the church. Paul says about the incestuous man in the Corinthian church, "I'm turning him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh."

Sometimes God does it directly. In Revelation 2, the church in Thyatira has a woman there, a prophetess, who is called Jezebel – probably not her name for herself, probably John's name for her, Jesus' name for her. She's acting like Jezebel. She was teaching the people to behave with immorality, and God says, "I'm going to … put her on a bed of sickness, and … [I'm going to smite] those who follow her … [with] great tribulation…."

There's the wrath today on sexual sin, of consequences, of temporal judgment. There's even the wrath of God today on sexual sin of abandonment. Read Romans 1. Three times in Romans 1, God says, "God gave them over", "God gave them over", "God gave them over". Do you understand that God's act of giving men and women over to pursue their sin unabated is actually an act of divine wrath? And He does it again and again today.

But those things, as bad as they are, merely provide a preview of coming attractions. The fullest expression of the wrath of God against sexual sin is still in the future. If I had time, I'd take you to the end of Revelation. In Revelation, Jesus comes back, you remember, in chapter 19? And that's wonderful for us who are in Christ, but listen to how it's described for those who aren't. It says He comes, and it uses an image of a vineyard. It says He comes "to tread the wine press (it's like human feet trodding down the grapes, He comes to tread the winepress) of the fury and wrath of Almighty God."

And part of what He comes to deal with is sexual sin because over in Revelation 21, listen to what I read in verse 8, "… for the cowardly and [the] unbelieving and [the] abominable and [the] murderers and [here we are the] immoral persons … and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

It's coming. The wrath of God is here today, and it will come in all its fury in the future. Don't be deceived. Understand this, beloved. Not one sexual sin of thought, not one sexual sin of speech, not one sexual sin of action will ever, ever go unpunished. Every single sin in that category and every other you have ever committed will receive the full fury of the wrath of God. Every single sin you've ever committed will receive the full fury of God's wrath. It will be either on you for all eternity or, if you're willing to believe in Christ, God will have poured out that wrath in its full fury on Christ on the cross. But not a single sin will ever go unpunished.

That's why I love Romans 5. Turn there as we close our time together. For the person who's willing to repent and believe in Jesus, here's what's promised for us. Verse 9, "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood (for those who've come to Christ in repentance and faith, were declared righteous before God, and here's what happens for us, verse 9), we shall be … [rescued] from (what?) the wrath of God through Him."

Listen. When you come to Christ, God treats Jesus on the cross as if He had committed those sins, and during those six hours on that Friday two thousand years ago, God poured out every drop of His fury that every dirty sin you have ever committed deserved, and Christ paid it all. "Jesus took the blame, He bore the wrath. We stand forgiven at the cross."

Let's bow our heads together.

Our Father, we thank You for this beautiful reminder of our Lord and of His cross, of what He accomplished there for us.

Father, help us to remember that as we leave this place. May we embrace the motives Paul gave us today. May we want to put off sexual sin from our lives, O God, because it excludes those who practice those things from being a part of Your kingdom now and in the future apart from grace. And Father, because it guarantees Your wrath, both in this life and in its full culmination when You pour out the full fury of Your anger against those who have rebelled against Your ways. Father, help us to put off sin because of how serious it is to You.

We pray in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.