PT-1 "The Punishment" (Eph. 5:5-7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/1/2019 9:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  PT-1 “The Punishment”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:5-7

 

            Message of the verses:  “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. 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 be partakers with them;”

 

            Let us look at the first few words in this section “For this you know with certainty,” and as we look at this we can be very sure that this is something that either Paul taught the Ephesians when he was there or other perhaps reinforced this the teaching he is about to remind them of as he continues in these verses.

 

            I remember way back when I was in school and the teacher would give us a difficult test on a difficult lesson and no one in the class would be able to pass the test except perhaps the really smart ones, and so the teacher would use a curve scale so us “less smart ones” would have a chance to pass the difficult test.  Well God does not grade on a scale, in fact it is either 100% or you fail as God does not tolerate sin, and perverted love leads to punishment.  Sin has no place in God’s kingdom and no place in His family either.  John MacArthur writes “Immoral, impure, and covetousness are from the same basic Greek words as immorality, impurity and greed in verse 3.  Covetousness is a form of idolatry.  The covetous man, therefore, is more than simply selfish and immoral; he is an idolater (cf. Col. 3:5).”  “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” 

 

            Sometimes it is hard to distinguish whether or not a person is a true believer in Jesus Christ or not.  When I get to heaven I am told that there will be three surprises there, first that people that I thought would be there are not there, second that people I did not think would be there are there, and third that I am there.  As we are around people who confess that they are believers we cannot look into their heart and see if they truly are believers, and we cannot be with them 100% or the time to see how they act when they are alone.  Paul is telling us that those who commit the sins mentioned in verses three and four, that are practiced by anyone, and when I say practiced I mean habitual, doing them because it is their nature to do them, then they will not be a part of God’s Kingdom.  By habitually doing these sins it shows that they are truly not a believer in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.

 

            When a person is truly born-again they have God’s nature and the habitually sinful person proves that he does not have a godly nature, as seen in 1 John 3:9-10 “9  No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 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 MacArthur writes “The kingdom of Christ and God’ refers to the sphere of salvation, the community of redeemed and the place of eternal glory.  The ‘kingdom’ is the rule ‘of Christ and God,’ which includes the present church, the future Millennium, and the eternal state in glory.

 

            “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age’ (Titus 2:11-12).  Every person who is saved, and is therefore a part of that glorious rule of ‘Christ and God,’ is instructed by the Holy Spirit and by the inclination of his new nature to forsake sin and to seek righteousness.  The person whose basic life pattern does not reflect that orientation cannot claim God as his Father or ‘the kingdom of Christ and God’ as his ‘inheritance.’”

 

            We will continue looking at his subject, Lord willing, in our next SD.

 

Today’s quotation is from E. M. Bounds “God regards the personal purity of the man more than He regards any sacrifice or any ceremony.”

 

6/1/2019 10:33 AM