Pastor MacArthur’s message is about 27 minutes in length, minus the moment or so intro and closing. I wrote a list of sermon highlights and pasted them in below his sermon.
Also, below the sermon highlights, is a link to Bible Hub Strong’s concordance on Ephesians 5, for those who would like to read the definitions John MacArthur used to explain the concepts of his sermon.
Sermon text:
Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. 3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 nor filthiness and foolish talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no one sexually immoral or impure or greedy, 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
SERMON HIGHLIGHTS [bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine]:
- Pastor John Macarthur (JM) read Ephesians 5:1-7 [each verse will be inserted when it is discussed below]
- Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma
- This chapter begins on a high note: we are children of God who draws us to Himself via the new birth and adoption
- We have been loved by Him from eternity past to eternity future
- We are never more like God then when we love; consider:
- John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life
- Imitating God is about loving like He loves
- Divine love is known for its forgiveness. He loves us enough to offer unconditional, self-sacrificial, forgiving love; He asks the same from us
- Verse 1 above, is the plea; verse 2, the pattern; Christ demonstrated this love at Calvary
- Eph 5:3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
- This is the antinomian nightmare
- [Dictionary.com: Antinomian: a person who maintains that Christians, by virtue of divine grace, are freed not only from biblical law and church-prescribed behavioral norms, but also from all moral law]
- If you think that God’s grace permits you to live as you please, then this verse will jerk you back into biblical reality
- Eph 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience
- Satan always counterfeits God’s perfect creation:
- God’s love: self-sacrificial; unconditional and relentlessly forgiving
- Satan’s counterfeit love: self-indulgent; conditional; unforgiving [as seen in Aleister Crowley’s The Law of Thelema “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” “Thou wilt” here means to live by one’s own True Will]
- The world means, self-love, when it talks about love: physical desires; personal passions; selfishness. Unconverted people love because of what someone gives, or does for them
- That is, illicit love, love perverted from God’s design
- In the following verse, Paul states that Satan’s love is not to be seen in the church
- Eph 5:3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;
- [porneía, gen. porneías, fem. noun from porneúō (G4203), to commit fornication or any sexual sin. Fornication, lewdness, or any sexual sin.]
- [The full Strong’s definitions for the words JM explains, can be seen via link to Bible Hub below]
- JM noted that Socrates and the Greek philosophers speculated about the virtuous life, but could not live it, one must have the Holy Spirit to do so; he explained the following GK word that is listed among the antonyms of porneia
- egkráteia (G1466) which means self-control, temperance [as in fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5]
- Porneia indicates the absence of self-control; for example, premarital sex; adultery; homosexuality; pedophilia; prostitution; harlotry; transgenderism… all are swept up in the term porneia
- Pornography comes from two GK words: porneia [sexual sin], and graphe [to write]
- Since JM is defining another word from verse 3, I am pasting in the KJV + Strongs so you can see where he is getting his material: [this tool comes free with e-Sword]
- Eph 5:3 [KJV + Strong’s] ButG1161 fornication,G4202 andG2532 allG3956 uncleanness,G167 orG2228 covetousness,G4124 let it not be once namedG3366 G3687 amongG1722 you,G5213 asG2531 becomethG4241 saints;G40
- G167 akatharsía; gen. akatharsías, fem. noun from akáthartos (G169), unclean. Uncleanness or filth in a natural or physical sense (Mat_23:27; Sept.: 2Sa_11:4); moral uncleanness, lewdness, incontinence in general (Rom_6:19; Eph_4:19; Eph_5:3; 1Th_2:3 of avarice; 1Th_4:7); any kind of uncleanness different from whoredom (2Co_12:21); any unnatural pollution, whether acted out by oneself (Gal_5:19; Col_3:5), or with another (Rom_1:24 [cf. Rom_1:26-27]; Sept.: Eze_22:15; Eze_36:25).
- JM – when Paul uses the above word which is translated ‘uncleanness’ he is talking about the reality behind the sins, the motives driving one to physically indulge in the sin – the passions, lusts… of the thought life
- Today, people contradict Paul when they say it is okay to indulge in the thoughts as long as one does not indulge the physical act: for example to say, “I am same-sex attracted; but I abstain from acting it out.”
- [Jesus covers that in Matthew 5, when He states that to lust for a woman other than one’s wife is to commit adultery]
- It all constitutes what Paul calls greed: JM is referring to the second underscored word in Eph 5:3 KJV above:
- G4124 pleonexía; gen. pleonexías, fem. noun from pleíōn (G4119), more, and échō (G2192) to have. Covetousness, greediness (Luk_12:15; Rom_1:29 [cf. 1Co_5:10-11]; 2Co_9:5, “as bounty or blessing on your part, and not as covetousness on ours, not as extorted by us from you” (a.t.); Eph_4:19; 1Th_2:5; 2Pe_2:3, 2Pe_2:14; Sept. Jer_22:17; Hab_2:9). Pleonexía is a larger term which includes philarguría (G5365), love of money to hoard away, avarice. It is connected with extortioners (1Co_5:10); with thefts (Mar_7:22, covetous thoughts, plans of fraud and extortion); with sins of the flesh (Eph_5:3, Eph_5:5; Col_3:5). Pleonexía may be said to be the root from which these sins grow, the longing of the creature which has forsaken God to fill itself with the lower objects of nature.
- The last phrase above = idolatry
- In G4124 above, JM noted that when people get caught up in sexual sin, there is a level of greed in that sin that is just insatiable;
- 1 Thessalonians 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you
- In verse 6 above, ‘defraud’ is a reference to sexual sin; to stealing something from a person that does not belong to you, that God has not given to you
- Eph 5:3 But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints
- Examples: because you love a girl, you believe it is okay to engage in illicit sex before marriage; because you love one who is not your spouse, you think it is okay to have illicit sex
- In 1 Corinthians [5 and 6] Paul indicated that the above is not appropriate for the saints
- Eph 5:4 nor filthiness and foolish talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks
- JM explained the difference between foolish talk and coarse jesting: the former he called low obscenities, such as come from a drunkard or a fool; the latter, from a witty sophisticated person who easily turns innocent remarks into sexual innuendos
- In the Christian life, there is no room for sensual thinking; greed; and low/high obscenities
- Why? It is not fitting for the children of God, the holy ones to act in such ways
- Instead of all of the above, children of God are to be thankful: to change their focus from pleasing themselves to pleasing God [to have gratitude for His providences to you instead of rejecting those and murmuring like the Israelites in the wilderness that so displeased God]
- 1 Thes 5:18 in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus
- Eph 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for building up what is needed, so that it will give grace to those who hear
- Never should anyone hear, from a child of God, anything that shows any interest in the deceptive false love of illicit sexual impulses
- Thus far we have seen the PLEA: imitate God; we have seen the PATTERN: be like Christ in loving sacrificially, unconditionally and forgivingly; and we have seen the PERVERSION, via verses 3 and 4 above; now we see the PUNISHMENT:
- Eph 5:5 For this you know with certainty, that no one sexually immoral or impure or greedy, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God
- If that defines you , then you’re not in the kingdom of God
- He is saying, why would you do the things that the people outside the kingdom do?
- Because you are a child of God; you’re the temple of the Holy Spirit; you’re beloved of the Father, of Christ; a holy one; a citizen of the kingdom
- Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
- Everything in the grace of God that has brought us salvation, teaches us to live godly lives
- Eph 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience
- Such deceiving words as: you can be a Christian and have sex out of wedlock
- Or, you can be a Christian homosexual
- Since the above are the kinds of behaviors for which the wrath of God comes; therefore
- Eph 5:7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
- If you do so, then you have another god, your own sexual desire, as in G4124 above
Link to Ephesians 5:3, Strong’s dictionary at Bible Hub: https://biblehub.com/strongs/ephesians/5-3.htm
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