The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'Not Even Named Among Us,' explores Ephesians 5:1-7, emphasizing the call for believers to be imitators of God and walk in love, mirroring Christ's self-sacrificing love. It highlights the stark contrast between living a life that reflects God's love and the counterfeit lifestyle of sexual sin, which includes fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness. Sexual sin is defined as seeking outside marriage what God intended for marriage, and it stands as a great contradiction to the Christian calling. Paul insists on cultivating a culture among believers where sexual immorality is so absent that its mention would be met with skepticism, emphasizing the importance of community vigilance. The sermon also discusses the concept of Christians as 'saints,' set apart for God's use, and underscores the necessity of radical measures to prevent sin, encouraging believers to actively pursue holiness. Ultimately, it calls for a community where there is not even a hint of sexual immorality, aligning with the high calling of living in Christlikeness.

Ephesians 5 verses 1 through 7 I'll be reading. Starting in verse 1, Therefore be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an undolitor has any 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 be partakers with them. Amen. You can be seated. The title of the sermon this morning is not even named among us.

It's a continuation of our study in the book of Ephesians, Paul's letter to these precious believers in Ephesus. And he uses this phrase, not even named among you, in the verse. We just have one verse we're tackling today, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 3. And he's speaking of a dynamic that is to be so completely absent from their life together that this dynamic would not even be named among them. So that is what's before us today.

It's been two weeks since we've been in Ephesians, so let's just calibrate on where we are. Chapter 4 begins with the Apostle Paul exhorting us to walk worthy. So chapters 1 through 3, he just piles up the riches of the believer. These wonderful riches purchased for us by the blood of Jesus Christ. And then he starts chapter 4 by saying, because you have received those riches, endeavor to walk worthy of this high calling with which you've been called.

And he starts to get specific. He says, essentially, what it means to walk worthy is to put off this old man. Put off the corruptions from the old life that God has called you out of, put off the old man, and here are some of the things of the old man. Put all those off as he gives us a list. And then put on the new man.

There are things that are consistent with this new life bought for us by the blood of Jesus, and those things that are consistent with the Gospel, and the new life purchased for us by the Gospel are things that should begin to characterize us more and more and more and more as we live in Christ. And then in chapter 5, in verses 1 and 2, he describes our disposition as we do this. Our disposition is to be a disposition of imitating God as dear children. So we're not slaves cowering to a taskmaster, although God is our master, but that isn't to be our disposition. It's not the disposition of a slave who is cowering to a taskmaster.

It's a disposition of a dearly loved child who delights in the things that his father delights in. That's to be how a Christian walks out his or her life. Now what does that look like? Well it looks like, verse 2, chapter 5 verse 2, it looks like the self-sacrificing life of our Lord Jesus. It looks like a life of love, not a moment in time where we look up onto a loving moment.

Most humans can lay claim to that. No, no, no. It's a walk of love. Jesus had a pattern of life of love. A perfectly loving life begun and ended in love.

So it's not just a moment, it is a pattern of life walking in love. And of course walk is a word that we've already encountered a couple of times and we're going to encounter a couple of more times. It's a major theme and it has to do with the pattern of life of the Christian. So as we come to verse 3, let's ask for help. God, I pray that we would have a tremendous sense of a need for help, and also a tremendous sense of how willing you are to help your children.

You love us. Those of us who are joined to your Son by faith are so dearly loved by you. And though we are very needy, you are very free in giving. So We approach you that way, acknowledging our need and acknowledging also how free you are as a giver. Desiring that you would help us in so many ways during this time to acquire wisdom and knowledge from your word and to be able to live it out, to walk in these things.

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. So I'm going to give you three major points from this one verse, Ephesians 5 verse 3. There are really three phrases in the verse, so we're just going to go phrase by phrase. Point number one will be phrase number one. Point number two will be phrase number two.

Point number three will be phrase number three. So point number one is this. The great contradiction, sexual sin. The great contradiction, sexual sin. We have this first phrase here, the Apostle Paul begins this verse, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness.

So he starts out by saying but, he's drawing the contrast, he's establishing a contrast, he's saying we have polar opposites here, We have direct opposites here. Now what is the contrast? Well we are coming out of him talking about a life of imitating God as dear children. Loved by God. Children loved by God who because they enjoy that status are pleased by the things that please their father, and learn to hate the things that are hated by their father, and furthermore, and walking in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

So it's a contrast with that. A contrast of imitating God as dear children and walking in love as Christ walked. So that is contrasted with its counterfeit. A counterfeit is the fake version of a thing. The seeming but not real version of the thing is its counterfeit.

And sexual sin is the counterfeit of imitating God as dear children and walking in love as Christ did giving Himself for us. Now, what is sexual sin? Children, let me define that for you. Sexual sin is seeking outside of marriage what God has given as a good gift to be inside of marriage. So it's not that sex is bad and no sex is good.

That's not the teaching of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It's that sex is a good gift given by God to be enjoyed within the context of marriage. So sexual sin is seeking outside of marriage this physical bond and unity that God has designed to be preserved only for marriage. It's a good gift to be enjoyed inside of marriage. So Paul names three things.

First, fornication. There's three terms used here. Fornication is a very broad term for this physical act happening outside of a biblically defined marriage. God meant it to be preserved for inside the marriage relationship, but now this physical act is found outside the marriage relationship. And that can have a variety of forms and so it's a broad term.

If you go to Leviticus 18 and 20 and look at those whole chapters, they're really the definitive chapters in the Bible on this broad category of sexual sin and it names all kinds of sexual sin. It actually talks about it quite modestly, it uses the phrase, uncovering the nakedness of, and it's a modest way to speak of this physical union occurring outside of the bonds of marriage. And it includes adultery, which is married people engaging in this physical act outside of their marriage. It includes unmarried people engaging that way. It includes homosexuality and incest or close family relationships engaging in that.

It includes bestiality. So it takes various forms and that's why the broad term is used here by the Apostle Paul. But it's the actual physical act of sexual sin. That's the first term fornication. The second, Paul says, all uncleanness.

The NASB and the ESV and the NIV render it impurity. Both of those are very good translations. All uncleanness or all impurity. Now there are words here in all uncleanness and covetousness that Paul has already used in the previous chapter. So we ought to just look back at how he used them in chapter 4 because it really informs us of his usage here in chapter 5.

Look back at Ephesians 4, 17-19. Exact same words used in 19, but I'm going to start in chapter 4 verse 17. Paul wrote there, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Look at verse 19. Who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

So here in verse 19 it's the working of all uncleanness with greediness, but it's really the same Greek words all the way with what we find in chapter 5 verse 3, all uncleanness or covetousness. They're just rendered slightly differently, Greediness in chapter 4 and covetousness in chapter 5. But it's the same Greek words being translated. So what Paul is saying in chapter 4 is all of this is completely consistent with the mind and life of the unbeliever. And you used to be unbelievers.

Your minds used to fit that label. Your lives used to fit that label and it made perfect sense. Those outside of Christ think that way and live that way but Christians shouldn't. This is part of the old man that is to be put off in favor of putting on the new things that are consistent with Christ's likeness. So he says in chapter 4, you used to live that way, And it was fitting for the unbelieving mind, darkened, feudal thoughts, to be consistent with that, but not consistent for the believer to be that way.

So now in chapter 5, Paul is Again calling them out of that. I believe Paul is being totally consistent with what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 5 so turn there Matthew chapter 5 Jesus taught on This same topic and really taught the same thing with different words. But he unfolds it some in Matthew chapter 5 in a helpful way. So let's look at exactly what Jesus says in Matthew 5 verses 27 through 30. And in Matthew chapter 5 verses 27 through 30, Jesus is actually correcting a wrong view of the Ten Commandments and the commandment against adultery that would reduce that commandment down to just a physical act among married people.

That's the technical definition of adultery is engaging in that physical act outside of the bonds of your marriage. But to take that as the command against adultery, to only include that is wrong. And so Jesus is correcting that in Matthew chapter 5 verses 27 through 30. Jesus says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell." So we're always wanting to whittle down the commandments into something very manageable, but Jesus does the exact opposite here. He expands it out and says it's not just the physical act, it's actually what happens in the in the meditations of your heart, in your thoughts. You can actually violate the commandment, do not commit adultery, without ever doing any physical act right in the sanctity the privacy of your own mind no one else knows but God knows because God knows your thoughts and that if this is occurring you should take whatever radical measures are required.

If it's your right eye causing you to sin, you should pluck it out because it's better to go to heaven with one eye than to go to hell. So Whatever radical measures are required, the Christian is willing to take those radical measures. So the physical act itself is the most scandalous. So Paul starts with fornication to talk about the physical acts which are most outward and most scandalous and most destructive to the testimony of the church. But God's concern goes way beyond that because all of our thoughts are open to him.

You've never thought a thought that he hasn't known beforehand and doesn't see and know completely. Listen to Hebrews 4.13. In some ways a comforting verse and in some ways a terrifying verse. Hebrews 4.13. And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but All things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

We'll all stand to give an account. Everything is naked and open to him because he knows everything. He sees it all. The things that have been hidden from your friends, from your family members, from your neighbors, maybe even from your spouse are open and naked before God and you will Give him an account. Don't ever forget that.

We tend to think, as long as it's not outward, it's not hurting anyone. God wants to be honored in the heart. Above all things, God wants to be honored in the heart. Not just that we cultivate an exterior that is acceptable in the community, but that our hearts love him and that our hearts honor him. So that's the second thing that Paul addresses is all uncleanness.

It doesn't even have to be the physical act of fornication. All uncleanness has to do with these cravings in our hearts, their ungodly lusts that make us guilty of, against the commandment not to commit adultery because it includes the heart, our minds, our motivations, our hearts. The third thing Paul says is or covetousness. All uncleanness or covetousness. This is clearly in the context of sexual sin.

In fact he uses uncleanness and covetousness in Colossians. It's in the context of sexual sin. He uses uncleanness or covetousness together in Thessalonians. It's in the context of sexual sin. For the believer this is a craving for something that God in His perfect loving fatherly wisdom hasn't given you.

This is the nature of ungodly lust and ungodly acts. The nature of it is a craving in the heart for something that God in His perfect loving fatherly wisdom hasn't given to you but you say I crave it I'll have it and you take it. That is the nature of sexual sin whether the physical act itself or just the yearnings for it in the heart is covetousness. Or the NASB and the ESV and the NIV render it greediness. Greed.

It is to crave something that God, your Father who loves you, has wisely withheld from you, but you say, I crave it, I'll have it, and you take it. That's the nature of it. Saying, I crave sexual pleasure, God hasn't given me what I crave, so I'll take it anyway, is perfectly consistent with the old man. Paul has been telling us for a chapter and a half now, put off the old man. Put off the old man.

It's inconsistent with Christ-likeness. We're to be putting on Christ-likeness, putting off the things that were consistent with our old nature before we became believers in Christ. My friends, all of these things are counterfeits. They're fake. They make promises that they don't deliver on.

Fornication is a counterfeit. All uncleanness is a counterfeit. Covetousness, craving things that God in His wisdom is holding you back from because He loves you is a counterfeit. They're all a great contradiction to this calling to walk worthy of the riches that we've been called into. So that's point number one.

The great contradiction, sexual sin. Point number two from the second phrase, the culture Paul is insisting on among believers. The culture that Paul is insisting on among believers. Paul insists that the people of God cultivate a certain culture, the second phrase, let it not even be named among you. Let fornication not even be named among you.

Let all uncleanness not even be named among you. Let covetousness not even be named among you. So this is what Paul is calling for, quote unquote, among you, among the Christians in Ephesus. That fornication and or all uncleanness and or this covetousness and greediness that is clamoring for something that God in His love has withheld, in His wisdom has withheld, that these things be so utterly absent from their life together that any mention of it occurring would be met with skepticism. These things would be so utterly absent from their community life that any mention of it would be met with skepticism.

It can't be! They're too vigilant to honor the Lord in their patterns. They are too careful over their lives. It isn't even mentioned because even the appearance of it has been so carefully guarded against. That's what the Ephesians are called to.

That's what God's people are called to. A community life where sexual sin isn't even mentioned because even the appearance of it has been so carefully guarded against. The NIV renders the first part of this verse, but among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality. Not even a hint among you. As is often with the NIV, that's not great translation, but it's good commentary.

I like word for word, give me the word for word, but the thought for thought, I think they got the thought right. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality. The calling is for this Christian community to build a culture, to cultivate a culture where this powerful and yes explosive human dynamic sexuality is so proactively and intentionally and carefully reserved for the marriage relationship that these counterfeits, these contradictions to the Gospels are not even hinted at. You can't find a trace of them. And so this community, the community, The group is above credible accusation.

Paul is calling for the community, not one person, not one family, but for their community to be above credible accusation in the category of sexual sin. Now friends think of how exactly opposite this is to the spirit of our age. You Puritans, you legalists, You Puritans, you legalists, stop being so uptight, stop being so precise and unyielding. Precise and unyielding in our culture, you will have to be uptight and precise and unyielding or you will be swept into sexual immorality. I don't think you have to be a Puritan.

I actually think Puritan is a compliment, but we're in a small corner of the world. But I don't think it requires you to be a legalist. Stop being so uptight, stop being so precise, and unyielding is exactly the opposite of what Paul is saying here in Ephesians. Exactly the opposite. And what he says in Colossians, and what he says in 1st Thessalonians, and what he says in 1st Corinthians, as he writes to these Gentiles who are trying to get clear of paganism.

So when we advocate for deep parental involvement in the forming of marriages, whether you call it courtship or don't call it courtship, deep parental involvement in the forming of marriages. And when I say my mantra for the thousandth time, no pairing up prematurely, What I mean by that is we don't set our teenagers to go and develop emotional entanglements in hopes that it won't lead to physical entanglements. Children who are not ready for marriage but are set free to emotionally entangle when I say for the thousandth time, no pairing up prematurely. If you haven't heard that out of my mouth, I'm sorry. When we advocate for chaperones and short engagements, what we're after is not even a hint.

A community that is above credible accusations because we've been vigilant and careful. Because we understand that so much depends on it. Parents, the inclination of our teenagers, regenerate and unregenerate alike, is to think in their heart of hearts that these things are dumb and unnecessary. I'm not thinking, I'm not saying that's what they think all the time, but there is an inclination in them. I know because I've been a teenager, I've been an unregenerate teenager and a regenerate teenager.

I've been both. And I know that they have an inclination in their heart of hearts to think that these things are dumb and unnecessary because they're not 50 like me and they haven't seen the things that I've seen or seen the things that you've seen. And they're not dumb and unnecessary, they're smart and necessary. And they have to have parents with a backbone who will hold the line when they push to move the line. And our church is taking a test and either passing or failing it every day and week and month and year.

Whether we will be a community that is vigilant and careful to stay above credible accusation. Maybe you're newer to Sovereign Redeemer. Maybe you're a new-er to Sovereign Redeemer. Some of you are here for the first day and you're saying, what have I got myself into? That's alright.

You only have to be here one Sunday for Riley and Chelsea's sake. Maybe you haven't been around long enough to know that in our history we had joint membership with our sending church and we excommunicated a man because his patterns could be described as nothing less than predatory. Grooming vulnerable women and we excommunicated him. Or that in our own church we had an instance of adultery. It had a happy ending in the sense that this man repented but if you knew a fraction of what I know about the devastation that brought into his life and his family, you would want to rename happy ending.

That we've had multiple instances of sexual sin within families. That we have men and women here who have struggled with pornography and still struggle every day to keep free of it. Friends, this is not out there. You thought, I came to a reformed church. I came to a family integrated church.

That one of these churches that sort of skims the cream off of the other churches, that's not here! That's never been here! We are reformed, we are family integrated, We have all the same sins and temptations as every other church on the planet. And if you're not vigilant and careful every day, week, month, and year, the boundaries get moved little by little and you end up excommunicating people because of the dishonor that they bring to the name of Christ in any church. No, this is a battle happening every day and we must engage it together.

And the decisions that I make impact you. And the decisions that you make impact Janet and me and our efforts to live in a way that honors the Lord and bring up children who live in a way that honor the Lord. This is a community exhortation. Among you. Let it not even be named among you.

So that's the second phrase and the second major point the culture Paul is insisting on among believers. Paul insists on it. Number three, the basis, our separation to and for God. Paul gives us the basis of why it matters. Our separation to and for God.

Look at that last phrase of the verse, as is fitting for saints. Paul is talking about what is fitting, what is appropriate, what is consistent with holy ones. Look back at chapter 1 verse 1. Paul started the letter this way. Here's how Paul starts the letter to the Ephesians.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus, full of faith in Christ Jesus. He's writing to the saints. Don't think of someone who's done three miracles and has been voted in. Saints means believers, believers means saints. Christians are saints.

If you're not a saint, then you're not a Christian. If you are a Christian, then you are a saint. It just means separated out to God for God. Called out of a dying world, a perishing world, a condemned world to be alive and not condemned. No condemnation in Christ.

Called out to be that. Simply a saint is someone who has been set apart to and for God. Set apart to God. Set apart for God. Whatever his pleasure is, then he does with what he sets apart to himself.

Let's give Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones a say here. Here's what Lloyd-Jones says. What is a saint? He is a holy person.

One that has been set on one side by God for his own pleasure and his own use. We find the same word in the Old Testament in Exodus and Leviticus and elsewhere. We read about the vessels that were to be placed in the tabernacle and on the altar. They were called holy vessels. That is to say they were not to be used for ordinary cooking or ordinary eating and drinking, but were set apart for a particular purpose and for God's own use.

And the same thing is true of Christians. Say to yourself, I am a saint, I am a separated person, I am in the world, but I am not of it, and there are certain things therefore which I must never do or even dream of doing. That's what Paul is saying. But because we are set apart for a specific purpose and for God's own use, there are things that we must not do or even dream of doing so there's Not even a hint of these things among us. Paul actually says it even better, not surprisingly.

Paul writes, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Making you a holy person, setting you apart, cost Jesus Christ the blood of his veins, his life blood. You are bought at a price, so you are no longer your own. And So we glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits.

Paul is calling all believers to walk worthy of the calling with which they were called. It is a high calling. It is a calling that comes with riches upon riches upon riches. Go back and look at Ephesians 1-3 again. It is fitting for believers to walk in such purity that there's not even a hint of this in our community.

It is unfitting for believers to walk in such carelessness that there's even the appearance of it. In conclusion, let me make one final point by asking and answering a question. What does this have to do with Christlikeness? The essence of putting off the old man and putting on the new man is to grow in Christlikeness, the perfect sinless man looking less like what we were and more like what Jesus has always been. When we think of marriage, what should we think of?

Christ and the church. We're coming to that at the end of Ephesians. So when we think of sexuality, we should think of Christ and his unfailing faithfulness. You buy the argument that I'm making here. If it's true that when Christians think of marriage, we should always think of Christ and the church because marriage is just a picture of Christ and His passionate love for the church.

If that is true then when we think of sexuality this core thing related to marriage that we should think of Christ and His persistent perfect passionate faithfulness to his people that never fails. So to grow in Christ-likeness is to grow in faithfulness. Especially for married Christians in this category. This is about more than just what we do with our private parts. This is about growing to be like Christ who passionately loves his bride and saves all of that passion for his bride.

Applications, let me give you two. Number one, listen to Jesus and immediately take whatever radical measures are needed. There are people who are hearing this sermon right now, and only radical measures will do. And you knew that, and you held back, and you wouldn't do it because your eye is too precious to you, your hand is too precious to you. Jesus says, it's better to give up any member than to go to hell.

Well, I'm a Christian, so I can play with this sin and still be saved. If that is the thought that occurs to you, be very afraid that you're self-deceived about your own state. Christians ought not think like that. Christians don't think like that in their normal state. What radical measures are needed?

Take it. Take it. You won't be losing anything. You'll be gaining. What radical measures are needed?

What specifically? What is it? Like decide in your mind right now what it is and then go take it. Don't delay to take it. Delay is death in these things.

You'll talk yourself out of it. Number two. A comment. And then I'll give you the application. The comment is this, Paul is not calling for the Ephesians to maintain this.

There's not even a hint, Ephesians, of sexual immorality among you, so just keep up the good work. That is not what Paul was saying. He's saying, win it, and then maintain it. I gave you some of our church history, mercifully without the details. It cannot be said of us and our church history that there's not even been a hint of sexual immorality among us.

That We could never be credibly accused of it. We could be convicted of it. So we're probably not much different than the Ephesians that Paul was writing to. Not telling them to keep up the good work. He's saying, go win this in your community and then maintain it.

That's for us to do. With the decisions that we make today, the next week, the next month, the next year, the next decade. Because it's hard won and it's hard kept. Let's pray. God, your word is such a treasure.

I Find myself pleased to contemplate fine points and then shocked to be brought face to face with something so major again. God, your people are dearly loved children. And I pray that you would teach us to have that disposition towards our imitating you. Throwing off the disposition of a slave who's cowering before a task master, but wanting to love the things that our loving Father loves. And wanting to learn to hate the things that our loving, good, perfectly wise Father hates.

Never clamoring for things that you have in your wisdom and love withheld from us. Set us at rest, Lord. Set us at peace. Not clamoring for things that dishonor you anymore. Pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.