Sermon in Phoenix 11.03.2007

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us unite our hearts together in opening for a thanksgiving.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You this morning, dear Father, that Thou hast brought us together here this morning, that we can be encouraged to believe through the preaching of Your Word. Lord, we pray, dear Heavenly Father, that Thou would give us those ears of a disciple to hear, that Thou would reveal Thy Word in truth, and that Thou would give us that heart of a believer, so that Your Word can be manifested in our lives, so that that candle of faith can glow brightly, and that our light can be shown unto the world.

Father, we thank You, dear Heavenly Father, for this gift of living faith, for that grace, for calling us into this kingdom here upon this earth, for forgiving us our sins, and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. We pray, dear Heavenly Father, for those who are on the outside of this kingdom, that they too could receive of this same grace and mercy. And we pray for our friends and those who also would receive this grace of repentance.

We thank You, dear Heavenly Father, also for those temporal blessings here in this life. We pray that Thou would allow us to be content here in this world, that we can be content with Thy grace and Thy mercy, and that we know through living faith that Thou will provide us with those temporal gifts that we need to raise our families and to nourish our body in this life.

But most of all, dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Thy dear Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus, into this world, that He, through His love for us, suffered and died on that middle cross of Golgotha, so that we could also be clothed with those robes of righteousness.

We pray even in that perfect way that He has taught us to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

For our text on this third Sunday of Lent, we will read from the book of the Ephesians, as it's recorded for us, in chapter 5, verses 1 through 11. And the words are as follows in Jesus' name.

Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. For fornication and all uncleanliness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.

For this ye know, nor uncleanliness, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Amen.

Amen.

First of all, I bring those greetings of love and God's peace from our brothers and sisters in Prescott. And certainly, these words here of the Apostle Paul, which he wrote unto the Ephesians, are encouraging words unto us. For he encourages the congregation to walk in love.

And the same love we know is throughout the kingdom of God here upon this earth, whether it be from the believers in Prescott or as far away as Ecuador or Africa, or wherever the Spirit of God rules the heart of man.

The text that we have read is a text that's set aside for this Sunday. The Gospel text for this Sunday speaks of how Jesus cast out evil spirits from men. And the subject matter for this Sunday is how Jesus is more powerful than those evil spirits, how He casts those spirits out of the heart of man, how He casts out evil spirits from men.

Are we following in this life? Are we following the Lord and Savior Jesus? Or are we following the tempter?

Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians. Paul had actually lived in Ephesus for three years of his life, teaching the Word of God to these believers. And this particular letter is written, we could say, as a general epistle.

Some of the epistles are written in such a way to some of the congregations where there are problems in those congregations. And through the letters he is, with love, rebuking those congregations.

But in this particular letter, we can say that it is a letter of instruction to those that he knew and had spent much time with. And it is also a letter that tradition is that this letter was perhaps circulated amongst many different congregations.

So it is a letter of much love. And it is a letter also of instruction.

And in this particular portion that we read, he encourages the believers to be followers of God, to be followers of His Word. And he speaks of how we should walk in love, how Christ has loved us and gave Himself for us.

We often, it is good to stop and sometimes consider how much our Lord and Savior actually did for us. How He became a man conceived of the Holy Spirit, yet born of the corruptible flesh. And He lived that life here upon this earth where He was able to abstain from sin, although He was oftentimes tempted.

And He suffered for us and He died on that cross. And He carried the whole sins of the world in His death. And He suffered there in hell for three days. And then was raised from the dead by God.

When we consider how He served us and how He loved us and how He gave Himself as a sacrifice for us and how He gave us this same love through His Spirit. And we have certainly experienced that love throughout our lives.

Many of us, or some of us, perhaps have been called from the darkness of this world into this kingdom of light. And perhaps there are some that have left this kingdom for a period of time and through the grace of God have again received the grace of repentance.

And truly, we can say that the love of God is great, and His mercy is so long-suffering.

And all that the Heavenly Father asks of us as children here in this kingdom is that we are obedient, that we hear His Word, and we receive this Word into our hearts, and that we confess those sins that come upon us, and that we have that desire to receive the blessing of the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

And when we travel in this way, we know that those fruits of the Spirit will become prevalent in our lives. We see these fruits in the lives of our brothers and sisters in faith. And we know that they are traveling in the grace of God.

But nevertheless, here, Paul again provides these instructions which are so necessary in the life of a believer. He speaks of named sin. And he instructs these believers and he instructs us to avoid a sinful life.

And he goes on to name in this way, but fornication and all uncleanliness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.

For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

We children of God are so fortunate to live under grace and mercy and forgiveness. Yet we know that the enemy of the soul, the tempter, is here in this world.

This world, as we know, was created by God and as such it belongs to God. Yet we know that the enemy of the soul is in control of this world. And as such, he and his angels, those angels of death, are here in the midst of this world.

People and their desire is to deceive the child of God, to draw the child of God away from this kingdom of light into that kingdom of darkness. And he does so in many deceitful ways.

We remember so vividly that picture in the Garden of Eden where he was able to tempt the woman through doubt. And we often find ourselves in these very same situations.

Each and every one of us has certain temptations that are close to us. And the enemy of the soul is certainly there whispering in our ears, "Did God truly say this?" Or, "Is this such a great sin?"

And we know that there are many dangers that lurk around us.

Last night I was reading a journal of a soldier who served in Vietnam and he spoke of being with his platoon on a high mountain and controlling that mountain. Yet they oftentimes had to go into the jungle. And of course they were always looking for the Viet Cong.

Yet one time he heard something and because he was in such a high state of alert, he turned in shock. And that something happened to be a cobra which was ready to strike.

And I thought about that when it comes to even our own personal faith. That sometimes we are aware of those temptations that are close to us, those sins that are close. Yet the devil in his own way might come to us in a different form to tempt us and to try to draw us away from this kingdom of God.

He's there ready to strike in many different ways.

So here the apostle is again encouraging these believers to be watchful, to walk in the love of the congregation, to avoid sin, to turn to your brothers and sisters in faith in time of need.

Once a child of God does fall into a named sin, we know that there is truly yet grace and forgiveness. Yet we also know that the enemy of the soul as shown to us even in that Garden of Eden will try to cause each and every one of us to hide that sin, to somehow cover that sin in our own way, justifying in our own mind that it is not necessary to bring that sin into the light.

But we know that we are encouraged so many times through God's Word that we are to put those matters, bring them forth into the light of God's Word, to seek out a trusted brother or sister in faith, and to speak of those matters that are on our hearts, to talk about the way and the journey.

Even as Paul writes here, be not ye therefore partakers with them, meaning those who are traveling in unbelief, but ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

How do we walk as children of light? When we travel with the Spirit of God in our hearts, when we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd as He is speaking unto us, whether it be from the pulpit, or whether it be in Bible class or Sunday school, or with our other trusted brothers and sisters in faith, that it is truly revealed unto us what is acceptable in the life of a child of God.

And when sin does come upon us, we need to remember those words of the Apostle John, the Apostle of love, that if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.

This is truly a wonderful message, this living gospel. And that gospel, we know, means good news. And this is good news to each and every one of us who are traveling and living faith, knowing that we have this grace privilege of God to be able to put those matters away in the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

Paul writes, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And again, he encourages us, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

We know that Jesus, during His ministry, had much fellowship with unbelievers, those who did not have the Spirit of God. And He befriended many. Yet, He was able to speak to them of the gift of living faith.

And when Paul writes that we should have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, what he means by this is that we can certainly have friends here in this world. We have friends in our workplace. We have friends in our schools. And we have neighbors that we oftentimes speak with.

Yet, we are encouraged to avoid those sins and those temptations that are put forth by our worldly friends. Have no fellowship with those unfruitful works of darkness.

We remember that Jesus despised and hated sin, yet we know that He loves the sinner. And as children of God, we travel here in this world with that light of faith.

And oftentimes in our own selves, as we examine our own hearts, we oftentimes do not even see this light. We know that we are sinful and we are corrupt. We often wonder how can we even show our light of faith unto the world.

Dear brothers and sisters in faith, we can believe that when we are walking according to God's Word, when we are living our lives according to His instruction and His encouragement, that the light of His Word will come forth both in our speech and in our actions.

And in this way, we can encourage those ones who have not yet received this grace and this mercy to also repent of their sins.

Paul writes here that for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. This is after, the verse after the text that we have read.

We are children and we know that it's children of God that we are sealed vessels. And if our brothers and sisters speak unto us of their faults and their temptations, that we would wish to keep our lips sealed, yet we would wish to offer them the blessing of the gospel.

And even this morning hour, each and every one of you here today can lift up your hearts and believe all sins, doubts, and temptations forgiven and washed away in Jesus' precious name and atonement blood.

Certainly we have a Heavenly Father that is full of love and mercy. And all around us we have those angels of God who are there to help us on our journey of faith.

Love and we know and we have experienced that love of God in our lives. We recently experienced those winter services here in Phoenix, and I would have to say from my own heart that those were truly uplifting days.

Yet as soon as we turn back to our normal day-to-day temporal duties, we know that the enemy of the soul was right there tempting us in many different ways.

Yet, the Heavenly Father still calls and encourages us to gather around His holy and precious Word that we would continue to be followers of God as dear children. And we would continue to walk in love as Christ also hath loved us.

And remember that no matter what situation we find ourselves in, in this world, that we know that our Lord and Savior Jesus is there comforting us and guiding us as we travel on this journey towards our home in heaven.

And certainly this is even why we are here today in this kingdom of God here upon this earth. We are here because we have that desire to travel in living faith. We have that hope of everlasting life in heaven.

And as we heard so often even during those winter services that our greatest joy of all in this life is that our names are written in that book of life in heaven.

And one day we can put aside the sin-corrupted flesh. One day we will no longer be challenged by the enemy of the soul. One day we will be called before the Heavenly Father. And we will be judged according to the works of our Lord and Savior Jesus.

And the Heavenly Father will see us with those white robes of righteousness that have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

God, I will be to God, I will be encouraged your brothers and sisters in faith to continue traveling on this journey which leads to that eternal home in heaven.

You can even this moment lift up your hearts and believe all sins, doubts and temptations forgiven and washed away in Jesus' precious name and atonement blood.

And I would also ask, can I even yet believe my own sins forgiven? And I promise to believe with you, dear brothers and sisters in faith.

In Jesus' precious name, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Let us unite our hearts in closing prayer and benediction.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for these moments that we have had to worship Thy Holy Word. Give us strength as we continue in our day-to-day lives, that strength that comes through the power of the Gospel.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make His face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up His countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.