As we look at our passage for today we see that Paul’s concern is once again straightforward and clear. He is concerned that there are people in the church at Ephesus who call themselves Christians but do not live like it. I think his concern for the Ephesian church is born out of two deeply held desires. Number one he desires that the name of Christ would be honored and lifted high. And number two he desires the best for the people in the Ephesian church. He wants Christ to be honored and he wants the best for the Ephesians.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ! – 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17 – 24 ESV)
Last Week…
We concluded our time together last week after six weeks in Ephesians 4:7 – 16 with a call to grow up and to no longer be children. We remembered that we’ve studied this book for nearly a year and we have devoted thirty-eight sermons to the themes of who we are in Christ and what it means to walk in holiness as we follow Christ.
The challenge last week was to speak and to hear the truth in love; to submit and surrender to Christ wholeheartedly and to grow up in a growing community. And we considered Joshua’s call to Israel to choose you this day whom you will serve. And in conclusion last week we also considered the response of Israel who agreed to serve the Lord and then Joshua’s reply that he didn’t trust them and that they would turn in rebellion against the Lord. And he set up a rock that neither breathes nor hears anything as a witness against Israel should they ever decide to turn in rebellion and serve other gods.
The call to us last week was to grow up and to no longer be spiritual children but instead become spiritual adults who choose to serve the Lord daily and we have this rock right here on this table with a date as a reminder to those of us who heard and responded to the Word of the Lord. Last week was fearful sermon to preach. It was confrontational but it was clear. And I have to confess that I needed to hear that message. I needed to be reminded that God has called me away from serving my fear like a fatherless child. I needed to be reminded that he has called me to serve him in the strength and the courage of a blood-bought child of God.
This Week…
As we look at our passage for today we see that Paul’s concern is once again straightforward and clear. He is concerned that there are people in the church at Ephesus who call themselves Christians but do not live like it. I think his concern for the Ephesian church is born out of two deeply held desires. Number one he desires that the name of Christ would be honored and lifted high. And number two he desires the best for the people in the Ephesian church. He wants Christ to be honored and he wants the best for the Ephesians.
You can feel and hear these two desires seeping off the pages during his two prayers for the Ephesians earlier in this letter. (1:15-23; 3:14-21) If you want to hear a man’s heart, listen to the content of his prayers and then use those prayers as filters for his thoughts, words and actions.
The Joshua / Judges Connection…
Paul’s concern for the Ephesians reminds me again of Joshua’s concern for the people of Israel. And if you do a quick study of Joshua you’ll find that his challenge to them to choose you this day whom you will serve comes right before his death and right before the end of the book of Joshua. And the book that immediately follows Joshua is the book of Judges. The book of Judges is a history book that chronicles the years following Israel’s promise to serve God alone.
It’s a deeply concerning book to read because the theme of the book is centered around hundreds of years of ups and downs with the people of Israel. And the reason for the concerns in the book of Judges is that every person in Israel did what was right in their own eyes rather than doing what right according to God’s Word. They were foolish. They walked in darkness. They lived apart from the presence of God. Their hearts were hardened towards God’s Word. They lived in reckless pursuit of satisfying their every desire. Every person did what was right in their own eyes instead of doing what was right according to God’s Word.
This appears to be similar to the concerns that Paul has for the Ephesians in our text for today. He’s concerned that the Ephesians are infatuated with foolishness; walking in darkness; living separated from the presence of God; having hearts that are hardened to the Word of the Lord and are recklessly pursuing the pleasures of the world while dressing things up in moralism. Paul is concerned that God’s people are still doing what is right in their own eyes instead of doing what is right in accordance with God’s life-giving Word.
Concerns For The Well…
I have the same concerns for us here at The Well. I am concerned that we could be infatuated with foolishness. I am concerned that we would walk in darkness and deception while claiming to walk in the light. I am concerned that we could claim to have a relationship with Jesus while living day-to-day totally alienated or separated from God like he is a far off, impersonal, inaccessible being.
I am concerned that some of you hearing this message today might think you have the Lord fooled with your religious activity but in reality your hearts are hardened toward him because of the deception that lurks around in your heart. I am concerned that some of you don’t just live your lives foolishly while rejecting Biblical wisdom but you actually live in reckless private and public pursuit of gratifying your sinful desires. I am concerned that you would live your life doing what is right in your own eyes rather doing what is right according to the Word of the Lord.
I am concerned about this because I see patterns of the old life in us where there should be patterns of the new life. Some of us are known to be careless and foolish in the way we handle romantic relationships. Some of us are known for walking in darkness in the ways we handle entertainment and money. Some of us are known to be deceptive and naïve and careless in the ways we approach sexual sin. Some of us are known to be insensitive to the commands of God that are designed to keep us safe and healthy. Some of us are known as people who still walk in the patterns of our old lives.
God’s Word To Us Today…
Through Paul, God says that we must no longer walk in the patterns of our old life if in fact we can authentically claim to have a new life at all. God is calling us to put on the clothing of our new lives.
#1: You Must No Longer Walk In The Patterns Of Your Old Life… (17 – 19)
In verses 17 – 19 Paul says, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
When Paul says that we must no longer walk in the patterns of our old lives he insists that this isn’t just the words of a mere man but it is the testimony or the Word of the Lord. If the Ephesian church rejects what he is saying they are not rejecting a mere man they are rejecting the very words of God. In a very real sense, if they reject what Paul is saying then they are choosing this day to continue walking like the Gentiles do in the patterns of their old lives.
In this context Paul is using the image of the Gentiles in a very negative way to stir up the emotions and the thoughts of his audience. The Gentiles were known to be pagans who did not follow Christ. There were definitely some Gentile believers but by and large the image of a Gentile for a Jewish Christian was the image of an unbeliever who walked in foolishness and walked in darkness and walked in separation from God and walked in ignorance of the hope that is found in Christ and walked with hearts of stone that were hardened against the ways of God and walked in reckless pursuit of anything that would satisfy their sin-filled senses through impure and unholy things because they were calloused against God. Their necks were stiff and their senses were unfeeling towards God.
And Paul says you must no longer walk in the patterns of your old life. This is most clearly seen in verse 22 where Paul says that the Ephesian Christians had been taught “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.”
So the Word of the Lord to you today is to put off your old patterns of foolish living. Put off your old pattern of walking in darkness. Put off your old pattern of walking in separation from God. Put off your old pattern of being ignorant of the hope we have in Christ. Put off your old pattern of hardening your heart against the Word of God. Put off your old pattern of recklessly seeking to satisfy your sin-filled senses and your deceitful desires. The Word of the Lord to you today is that you must longer walk in the patterns of your old life.
#2: You Must Put On The Clothing Of Your New Life… (20 – 24)
In verses 20 – 24 Paul says you must no longer walk in the patterns of your old life because, that is not the way you learned Christ! – assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul reminds us that our old patterns of foolishness, darkness, hardness, ignorance, distance and recklessness are not the way we learned Christ. That is, if we have actually learned Christ. Learning Christ is not merely learning about Christ. Learning Christ is to receive Christ directly from Christ himself. Learning Christ is to be taught in Christ as the truth is in Christ. Learning Christ is literally to experience the presence and the voice of Christ speaking the truth into our foolishness and our darkness and our hardness and our ignorance and our distance and our recklessness.
When Christ comes to a person and saves a person and takes up residence in that person’s heart they receive a brand new heart that hears from Jesus personally and experientially and relationally. And in the experience of learning Christ from the Spirit’s work deep within the hallways of the heart you and I are enabled to put on the clothing of wisdom instead of foolishness; light instead of darkness; softness instead of hardness; truth and knowledge instead of ignorance; nearness instead of distance and newness instead of recklessness. This is what it means to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. This is what it means to put on the clothing of the new life.
Application…
So how do we apply this message today? What do we need to believe and what do we need to obey? If you are hearing this message today and the Spirit of God is convicting you that you have been walking in foolishness, walking in darkness, walking in ignorance, walking in distance from the Lord and walking in recklessness pursuit of satisfying your sinful senses then how should you respond? What do you need to believe and obey?
If you know that you’ve been walking according to what is right in your own eyes rather than walking in obedient trust in God’s Word then what are some ways you can begin to believe and obey God’s Word moving forward? What are some ways that you can no longer walk in the patterns of your old life and instead put on the clothing of your new life?
#1: Put on the wisdom of Christ instead of walking in foolishness…
Put on the mind of Christ and take every thought captive to the Word of God, which is mighty for the pulling down of demonic strongholds and uprooting of sinful roots. Every step you take in your romantic relationships your entertainment choices, your budgeting decisions and your use of time must be submitted to the wisdom of Christ instead of the foolishness of your own thoughts.
#2: Put on the truth of Christ instead of walking in ignorant darkness…
Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and in him there is light and if we claim to walk with him while we walk in darkness then we have no relationship with him and we have deceived ourselves and we treat God like he is a liar. The truth is not some mere piece of knowledge that we come to know in our heads. The truth is a person and his name is Jesus and he says that if we know the truth personally we will be set free from stumbling around in ignorant darkness.
Every step you take in darkness as it relates to your romantic relationships, your financial expenditures, your late night addictions, the thoughts and fantasies you entertain and the isolation from others that you’ve created will lead you into further darkness. What you and I need to do is to constantly make war against the ignorant darkness within us by bringing every thought and every intention and every desire of our hearts into the light of the presence of Christ where the darkness goes to die. So put on the truth of Christ instead of walking in ignorant darkness.
#3: Put on union with Christ instead of walking distantly from God…
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. This is the explicit promise of the cross throughout God’s Word. But the problem is that instead of doing the hard work of drawing near to the Creator we work hard to draw near to His creation. We believe that God’s creation is the answer to all that our hearts long for. More money. More sex. More love. More job security. More popularity. More influence. More respect. More friends. We spend more time drawing near to creation than drawing near to the Creator and this leads to distance from our Father who loves us.
All of those things are cheap substitutes for the only one who makes good on his promises. And you won’t know this in a keeping and stabilizing and experiential sort of a way until you draw nearer to Him who is in you than you do to his creation. So put on union with Christ instead of walking distantly from God.
#4: Put on a renewed sensitive spirit instead of walking with a hardened heart…
God gives us brand new hearts when we trust in him and our brand new hearts come with brand new affections and brand new desires. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. But if we are not careful our hearts can become hardened by ongoing sin and foolishness. God’s Word is full of warnings and instructions on how to walk out the Christian life in repentance and wisdom. And when we ignore those instructions or we reject Biblical wisdom our hearts become insensitive and hardened to the voice of God. When we reject Biblical wisdom and justify foolishness, our hearts become more prone to the sinful patterns of our old lives. We become calloused to God’s Word and sensitive to sin instead of sensitive to God’s Spirit.
We must constantly restrain our desires and ask the Lord to renew a right spirit within us and to help us to walk in wisdom and righteousness. The church is full of people today who have hardened their hearts against the Lord. They have justified their foolishness and their sinfulness with arguments against legalism. And though we need to be careful not to communicate a works based righteousness (righteousness earned by good works) we must be equally as careful not to live in licentiousness (perversion of grace that enables sin and foolishness). We need to be sensitive to our weaknesses, wounds and sinfulness and seek God’s Word for strength, healing and repentance instead of hardening our hearts against the Lord and his servants who attempt to help us walk rightly.
Again, the most common places of application for us is in the areas of romantic relationships, entertainment, money management, career paths and possessions. We must work hard to have hearts that are sensitive and inquisitive about how to handle these moral and ethical matters of day-to-day life. We must not give into a go-it-alone attitude that shrugs off the counsel of wise and biblical brothers and sisters. We need to put on a renewed sensitive spirit instead of walking with a hardened heart.
#5: Put on righteousness and holiness instead of walking in reckless pursuit of your sin-filled wants…
When God calls you to follow him he calls you to take up your cross by faith and follow him in a manner that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called. This is the essence of righteousness and holiness. It’s to be like Christ in every desire, every thought and every step of our lives. We should strive to work out our salvation in fear and trembling because it is the Lord who does the work of saving and sanctifying (making us holy) through the message of the cross of Christ.
Christian brothers and sisters should not be known for their reckless pursuit of romantic love. We should be known for patiently seeking the voice of the Lord through his written word, in prayer and in community before making our move. Christian parents should be known for teaching and training up their children in the ways of the Lord rather than letting our children rule our homes with their every desire and complaint. Christian homes should be known for their wisdom in money management and generosity to the church and their community instead of selfishness and careless spending.
Christian men and women who struggle with addictions of all kinds should be known for their high levels of accountability, high levels of boundaries and the seriousness with which they make war on their weaknesses and sin. A pornography addict should have all sorts of restrictions on their devices and an alcoholic should not be frequenting alcohol-serving establishments alone.
If we live by anything less than these standards of holiness and righteousness then we walk in foolish recklessness. We must put on righteousness and holiness instead of walking in reckless pursuit of satisfying our every want.
In Conclusion…
I think Paul would insist on everything I’ve said today. The entirety of the Bible would insist on everything I’ve said today. I think that you and I can insist on all of this with confidence that it is the Word of the Lord instead of what is right is our own eyes.
The Word of the Lord to us today is that we must no longer walk in the patterns of our old lives and we must put on the clothing of our new lives in Christ. We must trade foolishness for wisdom; ignorant darkness for truth and light; distance for nearness; hardness for sensitivity and recklessness for righteousness and holiness. And the question is, will you make that leap and will you make that trade or will you continue to do what is right in your own eyes?
Will we be a church that is known for foolishness and ignorant darkness and distance and hardness and recklessness or will we be known for wisdom and truth and light and the presence of God and sensitivity and righteousness and holiness? Will we be known as a church of people who listen to and act upon the Word of the Lord or will we be known as a church where every individual does what is right in his own eyes?
Here’s the final thing… I know a Savior who died a horrible death for a sinful bride. Jesus has a jacked up marriage. I know a King who stood in the crowd with his wife standing naked on an auction block selling herself into sexual slavery and when the auctioneer asked who would purchase this woman I hear her husband saying I will pay the price. I will pay any price to make her mine and to wash her clean and to give her new clothes.
His name is Jesus and his invitation to you is to step off that auction block of your old sinful and foolish and darkened and ignorant and hardened and reckless patterns of walking. This same Jesus offers every one of us a brand new life with brand new clothing and brand new names. This same Jesus is calling out to you today and he is calling you to trade in your old life for a brand new life. What will you do? Will you continue walking in a way that seems right to you or will you submit and surrender to him today and will you put on the clothing of a new life in Christ Jesus?