Eph 5:3-14 “3 Motivations to Turn from Sexual Sin”
(Preached on 2.16.25 at Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville)
Intro: Are you a Christian? What motivates you to obey God in the face of temptation?
-Different motivations to help us: love for God; gratitude for salvation; don’t want to feel far from Him; our witness.
-Today: 3 MOTIVATIONS TO HELP US TURN FROM SEXUAL SIN.
*M.I.: As Christians, we turn away from sexual sin because it is unfitting, serious, and not who we are!
Context: We are saved through the gospel, by grace through faith. (Eph 1-3)
-Now, we learn how to live out our new identity by obeying the instructions from the apostle.
TODAY: Paul calls us to unlearn the ways of our past and honor God with our bodies and minds in sexual purity.
-3 Motivations: 1. Sexual Sin is Unfitting; 2. Sexual Sin is Serious; 3. Sexual Sin is Not in line with who we are.
*As Christians, we turn away from sexual sin because it is unfitting, serious, and not who we are!
Motivation #1: Sexual Sin is UNFITTING for a Christians to Engage (3-4)
*SEX: -OUR CULTURE: CONSENT is all that matter; Sex before marriage and cohabitating; Identity: LGBTQ
-EPHESUS: Similar to how our views sex today:
ARNOLD: “Illicit sexual activity was an enormous problem for new Gentile Christians to overcome in the early church. Adulterous relationships, men sleeping with their slave girls, incest, prostitution, “sacred” sexual encounters in the local temples, and homosexuality were all a part of everyday life. There was not an accepted social standard with regard to sexual relations…”
-BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: Sex is a good thing, gift from God, to be enjoyed in marriage (1 man and 1 woman)
*LIVING AS A CHRISTIAN=Unlearning ways of thinking from past and present culture:
-Apostle’s INSTRUCTION: No Hint of Sexual Immorality or sexual crude joking (3-4)
-Sexual immorality=desires, thoughts, actions which are contrary to God’s good design
-Premarital sex; porn; adultery; perverted fantasies; leering looks; etc…
-Sexual joking=dirty jokes and sexual humor.
-APP: Put away sexual sin! We must unlearn our old ways and ways of the culture around us.
-MOTIVATION: Sexual sin is unfitting for us as saints: as is proper among saints…. which are out of place
-As a “saint” (holy person saved by Christ) it is unfitting for us to engage in sexual sin.
Unfitting: cellphone at concert, mud on Mona Lisa, swimsuit in the snow
-Sexual sin if unfitting for Christians because we are holy people now. [Sin and holiness do not mix!]
APP: This helps when faced with temptation. (Such an attitude or action is unfitting for me as a Christian!)
-Use this motivation to help you next time and cry out to God for help.
-‘Help me see this attitude or action is unfitting!’
-A DIFFERENT WAY TO LIVE: let there be thanksgiving
-Christians pursue gratitude and thankfulness: OPPOSITE OF COVETOUS DESIRE.
–QUESTION: Is this your attitude? Are you full of thankfulness?
Motivation #2: Sexual SIN is SERIOUS (5-6)
Matt 5:27-30: SERIOUSNESS OF SIN and REALITY OF HELL.
–Seriousness to sexual that Paul reminds us of here: It is deadly and not something to take lightly.
-This motivation helps us to turn away when tempted, and to urge others to turn from it as well.
-WARNING (READ 5): Sexual Sin leads to hell.
-This is not just an opinion: 5 For you may be sure of this,
-Sexual Sin will keep you out of heaven: “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.”
*CLARIFICATION: Everyone has sinned in these ways in some degree (heart or life)—Matt 5:27-28
-Paul is referring to an unrepentant, habitual lifestyle of someone, not a believer striving to turn from it.
-Those who embrace this lifestyle—even if they claim to be Christians—are going to hell.
-ANOTHER WARNING (6): Don’t let others tell you something different. Let no one deceive you with empty words,
-In Paul’s time (and ours) many downplay sexual sin and redefine it as acceptable.
STOTT: “In his day Gnostics were arguing that bodily sins could be committed without damage to the soul, and with no danger of punishment. In our day there are many deceivers in the world, and even in the church. They teach that God is too kind to condemn anyone, and that everybody will get to heaven in the end, irrespective of their behavior on earth. But their words are empty and their teaching deceitful. Universalism is a lie.”
-Conversation from 24 years ago with my former Episcopal priest
-Churches that have the rainbow flags and don’t call people to repent of sexual sin are DECEIVING people.
WRATH IS COMING (6b): for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
-Wrath is God’s just, furious anger toward sin.
-Present reality (Rom 1) and FUTURE reality (Return of Christ and HELL).
APPLICATION: Let the seriousness of sin help you turn from temptation.
Motivation #3: Sexual Sin is Not Who We Are! (17-14)
LIGHT AND DARKNESS are categories we have in movies and the world.
-Biblical worldview: God is light and in him there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5)
-Gospel we are in the light and now we reject sexual sin because it is not in line with our new identity in Christ!
INSTRUCTION: Don’t partner with others in sexual sin (7, 11)
-Don’t join others in sexual sin.
–EPHESUS: Temple of Artemis (prostitutes); Greco-Roman culture: sex outside of marriage.
–TODAY: Unbelievers Actions (Activities; Shows); Attitudes; Entertainment (pics/clips)
-TEENS AND SINGLES: God’s wise and good design to save yourself for marriage!
-MARRIED: Enjoy your spouse, be faithful to them, and pursue contentment.
*EPIDEMIC OF PORNOGRAPHY: Don’t fight alone, let’s fight together.
-NEW IDENTITY (8): Darkness to Light (8)8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
-In the gospel this happened to us! A rescue (Col 1:13-14)
-LIVE IT OUT! (8b-14)
-Walk (live) as Children of light (8b)
–LIGHT EXPLAINED (9) (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
–NEW PURSUIT (10): 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
–TAKE NO PART BUT EXPOSE THE DARKNESS (11-14a)
-Conscious refusal to partake.
-Willingness to expose the darkness (especially in Christian community)
-Spreading of light when people come to Christ.
-CONVERSION: SLEEP TO AWAY, DARKNESS TO LIGHT (14b)
Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
MOTIVATION: When tempted with sexual sin, preach this to yourself: ‘Sexual sin is darkness and God has rescued me from this. I am a child of light and want to walk in the light.”
-SEE sin for what it really is: DARKNESS
-SEE you for who you really are now as a Christian: LIGHT.
*As Christians, we turn away from sexual sin because it is unfitting, serious, and not who we are!
GOSPEL APPEAL:
Unbeliever: Sticker ‘Porn will send you to hell.’ Partially true: all unrepentant sin sends us to hell, and porn addicts can be saved.
-Merely abstaining from sexual sin will not get you into heaven.
-The only way to be saved from sexual sin is through Jesus
-Come to Him and believe in Him. Call on Him to deliver you and bring you into the light.
-If you believe in Christ, you will be saved (Eph 2:8-9)
Believer: the gospel really is our hope in the face of sexual sin and temptation.
-Christ has washed you and made you clean and brought you into the light.
-He covers all our sins and leads us back to God.
-He can also restore broken relationships now—a friend who went through adultery and restoration.
*As Christians, we turn away from sexual sin because it is unfitting, serious, and not who we are!
