Inheritance of the Kingdom of Christ

Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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Ephesians 5:5 ESV

5 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.

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INTRO:

Last week it was discussed that what helps us get through temptations to sin without sinning is getting better perspective of that temptation: that sin will not give us the inheritance of the kingdom we all want but rather will lead to the opposite.

This week, I wanted to settle again on verse 5 to solidify why kingdom inheritance is better than idolatry even when the temptation is overwhelming.

For in the moment of overwhelming temptation there is a truth that you can tell yourself and believe that will shrink the temptation to manageable levels:

the paradigm of inheritance is always better than the paradigm of idolatry—from the very creation in the beginning to the practice in your lives.

I. The Paradigm of Inheritance

a. Life, pleasure, joy collectively known as good

Psalm 16:11 “11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Things are good when they have a positive impact on us. Things are bad when they have a negative one. When something is life, we say it is good, when something is death we say it is bad. When something brings joy we say it is good, when something brings sadness we say it is bad. When something brings pleasure we say it is good, when something brings displeasure we say it is bad.

b. Good is who God is of essence

Psalm 107:1 “1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

Luke 18:19 “19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

c. This essence is displayed in his creation.

Genesis 1:31 “31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Genesis 2:18 “18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.””

Psalm 145:9 “9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.”

d. For the purpose that we can know of his goodness by using creation.

Psalm 34:8 “8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

e. Thus, creation becomes a means to the end of knowing God

Genesis 2:25 “25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Inheritance of the Kingdom of God is to use creation to experience the goodness of God.

God—Creation—Man

Man—Creation—God

Creation is a means not an end itself.

While it is true that creation has a goodness of itself, it is not of itself. It is derived from God.

Thus, as you see creation, you must always associate it with a display of God’s essential goodness that you could not know without creation.

You cannot know God like you can know another creature since he is not a created being. But you can still know God through his creation.

Thus creation is always a means to know God, not an end itself.

Thus it is true that creation has a goodness of itself since it was created by God, but its purpose is to reveal the God who is good.

PARADIGM PRACTICE

Thus the practice of this paradigm is to taste God in everything ounce of this creation.

Since God is good, to taste him in all that he has made is the height of having all good: life pleasure and joy.

II.The Paradigm of Idolatry

a. The danger of separating God’s good creation from God who is good is idolatry. And this is what Satan used to bring the fall of man.

b. A wedge was thrust by the devil unto the happy state of man—creation God with a temptation to enjoy the goodness of creation not as a way to experience the goodness that is God

Genesis 3:6 “6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”

The problem is, the goodness of creation was separated from the good God since he commanded them not to eat.

Thus, with Adam and Eve thrusting a wedge influenced by the tempter, they created a rift between Man—Creation and God.

The result?

Genesis 3:7–8 “7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

c. Theological implications later revealed

Romans 1:24–25 “24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Romans 3:10–12 “10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””

Romans 3:18 “18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””

Psalm 16:4 “4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

Ephesians 5:5 “5 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.”

The devastation of being condemned and guilty before God is that we are cut off from using the goodness of his creation to know him.

And so we use his creation as an end to itself which is the poison fruit of idolatry

PARADIGM PRACTICE:

Ephesians 5:6 “6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”

God’s wrath is in part, an absence of God’s goodness.

And this wrath is in part today for those who practice these things, and a fulfillment in the next life:

Imagine making a wonderful anniversary party for your parents only to fail to invite your parents to the party—there may be good things at the party but since the reason for that party is essentially missing, the party cannot be truly enjoyed.

Like the party for the missing couple, you can still enjoy an aspect of the good party, but without the couple you cannot truly enjoy it the way it was meant to be.

There is a wrath for people now as they so abuse God’s good creation, but there is a final wrath coming in which all aspect of God’s good creation is totally gone, and all that is left is a vacancy of God’s goodness, replaced by his wrath

2 Thessalonians 1:9 “9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,”

As opposed to

Revelation 14:9–12 “9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” 12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”

III. The Paradigm of (Gospel) Inheritance

What do we need? We need the man—creation—God paradigm restored.

We need the kingdom of God

This is what Paul means in part when he says idolators will not inherit the kingdom of God

But, the kingdom of God is not just putting things in proper order so that goodness can be had again (man—creation—God)

It is also, labeled the Kingdom of Christ because it fixes the issue that has caused this problem to begin with via salvation

Ephesians 5:5 “5 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.”

a. An encouraging sign at the end of the fall of man

Genesis 3:21 “21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

God was at work to cover the guilt and shame, or rift, that was now between God and man.

b. Which is realized with the coming of Messiah

Matthew 3:2 “2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.””

Turn away from idolatry, and enter into the kingdom God has provided to return the healthy Man—creation—God.

c. Jesus always pleased the Father

John 8:29 “29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.””

d. The Father was always pleased with Jesus

Matthew 3:16–17 “16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.””

e. In reverse order, Jesus rejected the things of this world outside of God’s will

Matthew 4:8–10 “8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ””

With the ultimate expression as he looked to the cross

Matthew 26:36–39 “36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.””

PARADIGM PRACTICE: Temptations with an option to separate or embrace.

God has us now in a state of rejecting making his good creation an idol as Adam has failed.

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The first section needs to underline that life, pleasure and joy are together known as good. And it needs to highlight why having them as a separate category is both needed but misleading without proper understanding (we cannot know God of his essence but can know him by creation). Here lies the proness to idolatry.

Psalm 16:11 “11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

What is life, joy and pleasure?

If we can be deceived into thinking things are filled with life, pleasure, and joy when they are not, there must be a reality of it beyond our experience that gives meaning to those terms.

A good way to understand these things is to group them together into the word good.

And if we continue down to the essence of what is good, we will see that the road leads to God himself.

God is, of his essence good. While all things coming forth from his goodness is good not as they are of themselves, but as they reveal the goodness that is God.

Genesis 1:31 “31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Genesis 2:18 “18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.””

God is good, he created to reveal his goodness, and he made man to experience God as good in creation.

Genesis 2:25 “25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

What this means is that God’s goodness was on full display in creation with man and his wife in creation receiving of the goodness (with no shame)

Psalm 145:9 “9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.”

Psalm 145:15–16 “15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 16 You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

Psalm 107:1 “1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”

And so what we have here is God—creation—man

And the way for man to enjoy the goodness that is of creation is to see it pointing to the God who is good: Man—creation—God.

Creation was always meant to be the medium of goodness given to man from a good God. And us enjoying a good God by his creation.

Creation is not the end but the means to the end of experiencing God as good.

But what happens when this gets messed up?

What happens when man tries to enjoy creation without God, as if creation had a goodness from itself?

This is the very definition of idolatry—which Paul tells us not to be deceived into thinking we can receive the inheritance of God with it.

Idolatry is man trying to enjoy the goodness of creation without the God who is goodness itself.

We see this with the fall of man

Genesis 3:6–7 “6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”

What Eve saw was God’s creation displaying goodness. But she engaged in the goodness separated from God, and so a rupture is created in the needed man—creation—God continuum.

And so the result is instant shame. That leads to...

Genesis 3:8 “8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

So now, man will be in God’s creation separated from God himself.

That does not mean that the creation ceases to display the goodness that is God, but it does mean that man will no longer be in creation with that proper mindset.

Man will now behold the goodness of creation, and try to enjoy it of itself, instead of as it is displaying the goodness that is God (idolatry)

Essentially what you have is idolatry.

And so what Satan does as he is leader of this darkness, he uses the goodness that is the creation to make sin compelling, but sucks any ultimate goodness from it.

Since it is from God who is good, there is still a goodness associated with creation, but since it is enjoyed outside God that good feeling is short lived with death following.

Example: Sex is pleasurable as it comes from a good God. But practiced separated from God the feeling is still there with ill effects surrounding it.

A resemblance of the good is retained while it is dunked in suffering.

Thus the deception of Satan is to retain enough of the goodness from the creation to make it appetizing to the sinner, but to enjoy it in disobedience or separated from God—which always leads to death, pain and sadness

Go ahead and contrast:

Sex within the bounds of a happy marriage

Sex displayed in Hollywood and pornography

The gathering of saints on a Lord’s day morning to worship Christ

And the gathering of people at a club on a Friday night

A family enjoying games on a family night

And a son addicted to video games playing until his eyes fall out

The deception of idolatry is to abuse the good things of creation by not using it to enjoy the good God

And it always leads to death, pain and sadness

Psalm 16:4 “4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;

Ephesians 5:5 “5 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.”

Romans 3:18 “18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.””

What do we need?

We need the man—creation—God restored.

We need the kingdom of God

This is what Paul means in part when he says idolators will not inherit the kingdom of God

But, the kingdom of God is not just putting things in proper order so that goodness can be had again (man—creation—God)

It is also, labeled the Kingdom of Christ because it fixes the issue that has caused this problem to begin with via salvation

Ephesians 5:5 “5 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.”

Mark 1:14–15 “14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

We needed Jesus who always pleased the Father

John 8:29 “29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.””

We needed Jesus who the Father was pleased with

We needed Jesus who rejected the things of this world for the sake of God—in reverse order of Adam

With the ultimate expression as he looked to the cross

And then connect this with ourselves and how this life becomes an opportunity to deny the deed of Adam and put the order back in place—man, creation, God.

Thus temptations become proving grounds of the work God has done in us—it becomes part of our inheritance in the kingdom of Christ

And now with our lives we reject the

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Goodness of God

God is goodness itself. Thus we go to him for him. And we can only experience him through the creation.

A major twisting of this is that we can find goodness in the creation itself. The whole truth needs to be understood that God is goodness himself and we enjoy him through creation.

When God created the heavens and earth, he proclaimed all things to be good, as they came forth from him and said something about his essence.

And then he placed man in the creation to experience that goodness.

And so long as man enjoyed creation through God, all things were set in its proper place for man to enjoy life, joy, and pleasure or goodness.

But when man sinned against God, they tried to enjoy the goodness without the good, and it only results in idolatry and misery.

The proper way: God, Creation, Man with all things flowing from God to man

The idolatrous way: God is taken out and man just has creation

On paper it might work. Creation is good because it comes from goodness himself, but in actuality, it spells disaster.

And so the kingdom of God and Christ becomes the realm of salvation in which

Man is brought into a right relationship with God once more (justification)

Man is enabled to walk in accordance to this right relationship (sanctification)

Man has the hope that one day all will be perfectly made right with no possibility of experiencing badness (glorification)

And so when we talk about you inheriting the kingdom of God and Christ we are talking about you turning away from your pursuit of finding good without God

You turn from your sin and idolatry and you submit to God through Christ

This causes you to go from condemnation to being right before God

And then you walk this life in conformity to God, which is a using this creation to glorify him which enables you to truly enjoy it.

I need examples....tangible examples which will make this go from painfully abstract to tangible.

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God’s wrath is a ceasing all goodness from the creature in rebellion against him. Sin is enjoyable to the rebel since he is mingling it with what is good from creation, but wrath is when all goodness it taking away in which no enjoyment can be had.

God—Creation—Man

Man—creation—God

God acted in this way so that we would act in our way. To use creation to enjoy God.

God’s goodness is revealed in grace and wrath—an upholding of his very nature.

Psalm 119:68 ESV

68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.

Psalm 33:5 ESV

5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

Psalm 145:15–16 ESV

15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. 16 You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Psalm 136:25 ESV

25 he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 145:9 ESV

9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Titus 2:11 ESV

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

Grace is goodness to people

Psalm 107:1 ESV

1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!

Psalm 107:8 ESV

8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!

Often times because of our sin and the constant flow of God’s display of goodness we do not thank him but rather expect it

Romans 2:4 ESV

4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Nahum 1:7 ESV

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 34:8 ESV

8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Nahum 1:7 ESV

7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 84:11 ESV

11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

What is good is what works for me (enlightenment)

What is good is what feels good to me (Romanticism)

Truthfully though, what is good is what reveals God.

Actions become marked with whether you are using it to experience God’s goodness, or to experience goodness without him

Sex becomes a huge litmus test especially for men because there is a great goodness involved that you have to decide if you will be deceived into using it as if God does not exist and its just between you and the goodness, or if you will use it in light of God to get a taste of the goodness that he is.

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