Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. What's your real identity? You are children of light. Walk that way. Be what you are. You have been saved from this impurity. You have been sanctified. You have been made right. Live as you are.

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's episode, Pastor Bryan shares the second half of a lesson from Ephesians 5. Dr. Chapell highlights Christ's sacrifice and the way in which we as believers should reflect the care and character of Christ to the world.

You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for Pastor Bryan's commentary on the book of Ephesians, which he wrote for the Reformed Expository Commentary series. Dr. Chapell reveals how when we lift our eyes beyond ourselves to share Paul's expansive vision, then we too will join his doxology for God's amazing grace that transforms the world. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the second half of the lesson, "The Smell of Jesus."

Bryan Chapell: Would you open your Bibles this morning to Ephesians chapter 5, as we will be looking at verses one through eight of Ephesians 5? The title for today's message is "The Smell of Jesus." Now, that is not original to me. That title was actually put together by a friend of mine, a pastor in a town, and there was a billboard on a major street announcing the title of his messages every week.

And he put that title on the billboard, "The Smell of Jesus," and the one most to object was his wife. She said, "You can't talk about the smell of Jesus. You need to talk about the fragrance of Jesus or the aroma of Jesus. If you talk about the smell, you sound like you're talking about gym socks, not Jesus." My friend replied, "You know what? If that title gets half as much attention as you're giving it, we're going to have a packed house on Sunday. So I'm leaving it the same."

Actually, the title is meant to be offensive because what is described in this portion of Ephesians is even more offensive. The smell of Jesus is the smell of sacrifice. If you were a Jew in an ancient society, then temple and town would regularly smell like the fires of sacrifice.

But God is saying here, through his apostle, that it was Christ's own sacrifice that was a sweet savor to God as he delighted to save us by the work of his son. But now we're told one more thing, that that smell of sacrifice is to be on us too. We're the cologne of Jesus, not Axe, not Old Spice, not Irish Spring, but rather the sacrifice of Jesus is to be what characterizes us so that the world notes in us his character, his care.

Let's stand and read of Christ's work in our behalf and what it means for us. Ephesians 5, verse one: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no 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 become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." Let's pray together. Father, we pray for your mercy this day. We cannot deal with these topics without there being cause for virtually every one of us to hang our heads. But we are here to hear the gospel, to be convicted of sin, yes, but also to be convinced of grace.

For it is your word that would change us, the word that washes us and strengthens us and equips us for the life of godliness to which you call us, that the world about us might long for the Savior because they have seen in us such love and joy that they long for it. Away from the passions of this world, draw them and us, that we walking with Christ might know the beauty and the joy and the peace that you intend. Grant us, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

The opposite of immorality in this passage, the opposite of immorality is not morality, but love. Why would the apostle not say the opposite of immorality is morality in Ephesian culture? Because in Ephesian culture, if morality is simply being described by social convention, by what's acceptable in the culture, then everything goes.

Instead, what he is saying is you are not called to immorality, but to love, which is saying that immorality is by definition in this context taking advantage of or using another for self. That love is the opposite of immorality. Now that, of course, excludes some obvious sins if we're going to avoid this immorality: affairs, pornography, assault, sexual expression outside of marriage.

But if we're defining immorality as lovelessness, then we also should understand that this lovelessness is forced or selfish love even inside of marriage. Simply because the culture accepts it, the apostle is not going to accept it. Immorality is using anybody else's body or their passions or their insecurities for the sake of self, which ultimately is the apostle saying even another person's consent does not make it moral.

Because the believer is to be motivated primarily for the spiritual good of another, for them to understand their preciousness to God, for them to be maintained in relationship with God. So that what we are doing in our relationships as we are caring for others is caring for them. What's the example? The example he's already said: as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

What's curious here is not only is the apostle saying the opposite of immorality is not morality but love, he is saying the antidote to immorality is not strength—"I'll just resolve to do better, I'll just be stronger"—the antidote to immorality is not strength, but sacrifice. To yield, to give oneself for the sake of another.

It's Luther's theology of the cross, where Martin Luther said that a true follower of Christ, to be like Christ, we must also sacrifice ourselves for the sins of others. That to some extent we give of ourselves, so that the reason that I would not engage in pornography is not just because I know it deadens my own senses or may damage my marriage or become addictive to me.

But I'm actually thinking about the impact upon those who are being consumed by the customers of pornography, who are in sexual slavery, who are being made to do things that no one in their right mind would want to be in, to be put in that position by my observation, by my money, by my facilitation. The concern is not just for me, but just for others as well.

The reason that I turn away from an affair is not just because it won't hurt my family, but because I'm thinking about the other person and their family. The reason that in dating life I'm concerned for sexual purity is not just to keep myself pure, but because I'm aware for a Christian brother or sister that they themselves at some point, if God's planned it right, if God has planned it according to his plan, that they will be in a relationship with someone else.

And that part of the union of an early married life is people in innocence discovering sexual expression in trust with one another. And that to take somebody away from that is actually to hurt their ability to be united as God intended. The whole notion in our culture today that, regardless of what *The Bachelor* or *The Bachelorette* says, that we're going to find out if we're sexually compatible before marriage so that we'll find out if we're sexually compatible in marriage is ridiculous.

There is no study that confirms that. Every study says that if you're sexually active before marriage, you end up in the comparison mode with other people and you end up in some ways questioning the relationship you're in now that you're in it. It doesn't stay the same. It's damaging before you even get there, not just for yourself. The sacrifice of Christ means I'm thinking of the other person too. That how I dress and how I behave, all those things are part of my responsibility not just for me, but toward the other person because I'm called to walk as Christ did in sacrifice for others. Purity is actually part of mission.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. The apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians to declare God's plan that the gospel of Jesus Christ would reach the world through weak and sinful people like you and me. He writes that God has redeemed us to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

When we lift our eyes beyond ourselves to share Paul's expansive vision, then we too will join his doxology for God's amazing grace that saves individuals, empowers the church, and transforms the world. Yes, such grace really is possible and Pastor Bryan's commentary on the book of Ephesians clearly teaches the details of this amazing truth.

As a thank you for your support of our ministry here at Unlimited Grace, we would like to send you a copy of Dr. Chapell's commentary, which he wrote for the Reformed Expository Commentary series. You can request your copy of the commentary on Ephesians when you donate online at unlimitedgrace.com or by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. And now, more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: We know that in the ancient Roman world, Christianity spread so rapidly in some ways because the Romans themselves had grown so sick of their own profanity and obscenities. And they looked at Christians as those who, in all their innocence and naivete and seeming kind of non-sophistication, had glorious, wonderful families.

And there was something deep in the heart of the Roman culture that wanted that special treasure again, of a family of love and innocence where people truly lived for one another. How do we live that way? These are not particularly rocket science types of ideas. The apostle says something like this. Sexual immorality, verse three, purity, covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.

Now, you say he says it shouldn't be named among you and he just named them. No, it's the notion of these things should not be labels upon you. This should not be the label of Christians, that you are immoral, that you are involved in covetousness. That is, remember, coveting somebody else's wife. Verse four: "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."

I must tell you, when you read those words, you think, "Is the Lord really so petty that he's bothered by a dirty joke? I mean, it can be really funny." No, I don't think that's the point. I don't think the Lord is terribly offended by words that he knew before you said them. I think the Lord is recognizing that what happens in human endeavor is we see what we say.

So if from the time that we're young, if at the time that we're palling around with other people, we begin to identify certain people or body parts or sexual functions with words that are vulgar and profane, then when there is that time of treasured intimacy with someone that you love most in the world, it's hard to see that person as the treasure, as the beauty, as the sensual, as the sensitive one that you intend because you've got other words and images in your mind.

The evil one knows what he's doing. If I can get you to think in images and words and phrases that now make you see another person as object so that you're willing to take advantage of them for your own pleasure, even though they're consenting, do you not recognize what lovelessness now will do if the sexual act itself becomes just something of satisfying self instead of honoring and respecting, pleasing and cherishing another?

As God is talking here in just plain words, he says this. Listen, the other thing that you must know is you will not only see what you say, ultimately you will do what you say. If in a culture the conversation just becomes common filthiness, if if the entertainment and the arts and so forth get turned and people just make it part of their everyday conversation that it gets more and more coarse and coarse and coarse, then we will lower our inhibitions by the way we talk to one another.

We're just looking here at the apostle saying what he says, what the Bible says in Proverbs, really: don't put your foot on the path of the wicked. Don't go near the path of the wicked, but turn and go the opposite direction because there is a progress of sexual sin. And so the apostle ultimately is saying to us not only listen, you need to treasure your identity, you should treasure your purity, what God intends by his character and care for you and your family.

Parents, I would just encourage you to think of your home as a temple. I recognize that you can bring all kinds of things in that you have every liberty to do as an adult. But if what you're saying is, "Listen, I'm going to control the TV and I'm going to control what my kids see because I'm concerned for their eternal identity," then learn the value of the DVDs, learn the value of you choosing what they see rather than somebody else choosing what they see.

We make choices for our children and we look at our homes as a place of spiritual oasis for our children. We can't protect them from everything, but we can in our homes establish what is saying, "This is what is safe and this is what is good and this is the treasure that God means for families to have," even as a husband and wife love each other in intimacy and warmth and unity, what unites them in such beauty as God intends.

To make that point, the apostle finally ends by saying you need to treasure even your security before God. That's what will help the most. Verse five: "For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater)..." You know, this is just a reminder: if it's sexual immorality, it's impurity because it's against God. That's temple language.

But it's idolatry as it's also sin against neighbor, covetousness, coveting your neighbor, coveting someone that God has not intended for you to have. If what you're doing is you are saying, "I need that person's body or attention or passion in order for me to be happy, even though God has not ordained it for me," I need that person to be happy. That person or that passion has become your god.

To covet what God does not intend for you to have in another person's body, relationship, or being is actually to make them your god. They are my form of happiness. And so God says that's idolatry and it's got consequences. Do you remember? For these people, the sexually immoral or impure or the covetous have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Verse six: "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." These are stern warnings. To be persistent in immorality, to turn others into a path that is going to be damaging to them, to their future, and to their families, there is wrath being promised. God is simply saying, "Do you not recognize that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience for these very things? Why would you go do that?"

Now, if you're a thoughtful person, you're saying, "My goodness, I thought Pastor Bryan was the pastor of grace. Where is grace in all of this?" Listen, if the Lord did not love you, he would not warn you. The wrath of God is coming upon people for taking advantage of others like this. How could we possibly think we could do the same thing with total, total lack of concern?

Because God loves us, he says, "You should recognize God's judgment is coming upon the unbeliever for these things. Why would you think you could do it with no consequence?" Now, what's so precious is verse seven that follows right on those words: "Therefore do not become partners with them." English teachers in the crowd, this is the wonderful third person. Do not become partners with them.

Here the apostle has said, "Yes, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Yes, you should know that this is horrible for people and that's why the wrath of God is coming. But you are not them. Do not become partners with them." The apostle has said there's a line of demarcation. There are those who are the beloved of God, who he knows can be tempted, who he knows can be hurt by this sexual temptation that's in their culture.

And yet he, knowing the worst about them, says, "You are not like them. You're on this side of the line, not necessarily because you have never engaged in the sexual problems, but because you believe something different. You have a different life." And that life is so wonderfully spelled out in verse eight: "For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light."

What's your real identity? You are children of light. Walk that way. Be what you are. You have been saved from this impurity. You have been sanctified. You have been made right. Live as you are. It's meant to be a powerful corrective to recognize how secure they are, so that it's actually in God's hand that they are willing to grab and come back to him. Just to make the point, I'll tell you my own weakness.

Some years ago, there was a child in our family who had really done wrong things. Embarrassed and hurt and betrayed our family. And I was very angry. An anger that gripped me that I had trouble dealing with. And at some point my wife Kathy said to me, "Bryan, you want to hurt him, don't you?" And I said, "I honestly do."

And she said to me, "That is not who you are." It was like ice water thrown in my face. That's right. What am I doing? Wait, that is not who I am. That type of anger toward my own child, that is not who I am. Would it be a surprise to you? I can't even remember what he did anymore. All I remember was my anger and how good it was that Kathy reminded me, "That is not who you are."

What the apostle is doing to people who are caught in another kind of passion, who are drawn into sexual sin, he is saying to them, "That is not who you are. Why would you go back there? Why would you hurt yourself or others in that way? That is not who you are. You're a child of light. You have been claimed by God. You are the beloved. Remember who you are." It is the word of God to us by an apostle. Remember who you are. You are the one who has been saved to save, given light so that you might be light. You are the beloved of God. Now that you know that, live that way. Remember who you are.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If this message has been an encouragement to you, you can find a collection of more valuable resources at unlimitedgrace.com. When you visit, you will find today's message and many others from Pastor Bryan. Also, be sure to request a copy of Dr. Chapell's commentary on Ephesians.

We'll send you this book right away as our way of saying thank you for your most generous financial support. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com or you can give by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace.

This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.