Ephesians 4:17-24

Have you Bibles? Let's go back to Ephesians,

and Ephesians chapter 4.

We've already worked our way through part of

chapter 4. The text and context we're working

through now is verses 17 through 24. So I

invite you to turn there. We're going to read

that whole text verses 17 through 24. Apostle

Paul writes, "So this I say, and affirm

together

with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as

the Gentiles also walk in the futility

of their mind, being darkened in their

understanding, excluded from the life of God

because of the

ignorance that is in them, because of the

hardness of their heart, and they, having

become callous,

have given themselves over to sensuality for

the practice of every kind of impurity with

readiness. But you did not learn Christ in

this way. If indeed you have heard Him and

have been taught in Him, just as the truth is

in Jesus, that in reference to your former

manner of life, you lay aside the old self,

which is being corrupted in accordance with

the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in

the spirit of your mind, and put on the

new self, which in the likeness of God has

been created in righteousness and holiness

of the truth." Now, let's think back, if you

can, to what we learned and looked at last

time in this text. We talked about how when

you come to saving faith in Christ, you get,

remember, one new nature. Christians don't

have two natures. We don't have an old nature

and a new nature. We have one new nature, and

remember the illustration we used from

MacArthur that is encased in this smelly old

coat called the flesh, in which dwells no

good thing. And so the new nature fights the

inner redeemed spirit against the old smelly

coat. That's what happens. And what happens in

this text, 17 to 24, is that Paul makes

a contrast, and he starts out by describing

the old way of life, and then he's going to

contrast that with the new way of life, and

that is part of where we started all the way

back in chapter 4, verse 1, where he is impl

oring us, remember, to walk worthy of the

manner

in which we were called. So we're still doing

that. Verses 17 to 19 describe the old walk,

the old man, and then 20 to 24, the new walk

and the new man. It's really, it's an

important

text for us to understand about the process of

our sanctification, sanctification being

what we're going through in the time period

from regeneration to actual physical death.

And so last time we looked at these

characteristics, four of them, of the old man

in verses 17

through 19. And let's just try to, we want to

refresh ourselves a little bit of that

so that we can make this contrast with Paul

today. So remember, at the end of verse 17,

Paul said that they walk in the futility of

their mind. That's really quite a phrase.

And what we learned out of that by way of

application is that those who are lost, those

who have not come to saving faith in Christ,

they live in self-centered emptiness. Remember

that? Anyone who does not have God's thoughts

going through their mind, God is defined by

Scripture, only have in their mind their own

thoughts to work with. And that results in

the big picture, really, in a vain, empty,

useless life. Now, understand the sense in

which I mean that. A person who has not come

to saving faith in Christ, they might have

a great career, they might be very busy, they

might have, make tons of money and be looked

upon by the world as really smart, hardworking

, got lots of stuff and all the rest. But

everything

that they have, if they haven't come to saving

faith in Christ, one day it's going to end.

Their money is not going to matter anything.

Their achievements on the day of judgment

for them, whether they die before Jesus

returns or when they stand before Him in

judgment at

the second coming, I don't care if you are a

president. If you haven't come to saving

faith in Christ, nothing that you did, nothing

that you engage yourself in will count for

anything on that day. And so that's how we can

say, while it may seem very rewarding

and fulfilling and all of that now, to people

in the world in the biggest picture, in the

spiritual picture, no matter what they did,

that's a vain, useless life when you're

standing

before Christ without His righteousness having

been imputed to do you while you lived in

this world. And then secondly, where you have

that happening in a person, look in verse

18. You will also, and remember there's a

progression here, being darkened in their

understanding, excluded from the life of God,

because of the ignorance that is in them,

because of the hardness of heart. So there's a

progression there. The godless person lives

in total ignorance of the truth. What do they

decide? Well, it's what you decided before

you came to Christ. Hey, I'll be the master of

my faith. I'll be the deterrent of my

own destiny. I'll make this life go how I want

it to go. I will determine that. But

what that betrays is an ignorance of the truth

. Folks that are going their own way, what did

Brother Moat used to say, pushing their own

buttons and pulling their own levers, right?

They don't have any answers at all to the most

important issues of life. They're cut

off, this verse says, from the life of God.

And when you're cut off from the life of God,

as we looked at last time, as time goes on,

the harder and harder your heart gets until

that consciousness totally seared, as

Scripture says, as with a hot iron. That's why

you see

so many people commit suicide. It's a fact

that most Americans don't like to think about.

But when you look at the statistics of death

by gun, at the top of the list is suicide.

It's not murder. And then next in verse 19,

this also includes the fact that they are

shameless. Look at verse 19. And they having

become callous. I love the phrase that the

King James has, past feeling. It means they

have no shame. They have no sense of regret

about anything that they do. They have no

morals. They have no standards. That's when

the conscious becomes so seared, it says next,

having given themselves over to sensuality

for the practice of every kind of impurity

with greediness. This is a total giving over

of themselves and to a lifestyle that we see

far too often paraded in our day. And some

examples you could think about of what happens

at pride parades and the things that they

do in the parade in front of children. And

then you can see it displayed in a drag queen

story hour. These are people who are totally

given over to reprobate minds. They can't

even think straight. I mean to think that a

man can be a woman. You're not thinking

straight.

You have a reprobate mind. And there are many

more examples. I'll just point those out as

the most obvious. And as I said last time,

what Paul was dealing with here in this city

of Ephesus, remember, I told you about the

temple of Diana and what was happening in

there with temple prostitution. I mean, it was

anything goes literally going on in that

temple. And think about these people that he's

writing to in this church. They've been rede

emed.

But many of them, Gentiles, especially, they

used to be in there. And then at the present

time, they had family members who were still

in there that they had to deal with and

friends

and co-workers, people totally given over to

reprobate minds. And you may say, well, okay,

that's those kind of people. But not everybody

's like that. I mean, not everybody takes their

lostness to the point that Paul is describing

here. But let me tell you what's also true

is the fact that that no person, nobody in

human society or the history of the world

has the natural resources to restrain

themselves from going that far. Nobody does.

It's only

by the common grace of God that falls upon the

just and the unjust in general society

and also the persevering influence of the

church and the Holy Spirit and dwelling

believers

that keeps anybody from not ending up in the

pit of a reprobate mind. That's how I mean,

can you imagine what the world would be like

if God after the fall had not ordained law and

order?

Well, we found out one time in just a matter

of hours in the New Orleans Superdome

during Katrina when the people inside the

Superdome that had fled there to escape the

flooding waters, when they realized that there

were no police in the whole Superdome. Do you

remember what happened? It was an absolute

nightmare inside the same building, the same

exact building

that we just had the Super Bowl in last week,

where there was a heavy presence of security

and there was not one incident of any type of

crime that happened that I know of,

that I made in the news, at least, inside

there with that security. But when there was

no security,

what happened? Within minutes, a horrific

nightmare, especially for women in that Superd

ome.

Imagine a world like that every day. All God

would have to do right now

is remove His restraining influence and common

grace, and we would be living in Mad Max

beyond

Thunderdome within days. If you know that

movie, it's a post-apocalyptic world with Mel

Gibson.

And while not everybody, of course not

everybody as bad as they can be, you know

people who are

very moral, who are not Christians, who may

belong to other faiths, or even atheists for

that matter,

but we've still got people everywhere who are

totally given over to wretched, reprobate

minds. And we see it all the time played out

in television and social media.

Look at 2nd Timothy 313. Paul gives us some

idea of how things are going to go in the

world,

but evil men and imposters will proceed from

bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Isn't

it something to think about? Think about our

nation. In less than one generation, we have

gone

from network television not being able to show

Elvis Presley from the waist down, literally

now in less than one generation to having the

most horrific images your mind can conceive of

in the palm of your hand in 4K HD, and you can

pull them up anytime you want to, and

everybody's

got one of these. Think about that. One

generation of time. Now there's nothing new

under the sun

with human behavior. That's true, but that's

not true when it comes to technology.

Technology

increases, and right now technology is

continuing to increase at rates and levels we

've never known

before in human history. And as it does, and I

'm thinking about AI right now, we're just

seeing the

tip of the iceberg, what's coming with AI. It

's going to be, I think about back when I was

in

high school, I couldn't even conceive of the

internet. I couldn't even conceive of a device

in

my hand. I could ask any question I want and

get the answer immediately. That was something

that you

didn't even, it didn't even enter your mind. I

'm telling you right now, there is technology

coming

that we can't even predict. We can't even

imagine right now in less than one generation

from now

unless Jesus comes back first. And that's why

we say come quickly Lord Jesus, right? I mean,

what we're fixing to get into the things I've

learned so far about AI, it's going to blow,

blow all this out the water. And this is going

to be like the Stone Age very, very soon. So

Paul is giving us some of these extreme

examples of the old life, especially as I said

, these Gentiles

who lived in Ephesus. And again, that's why we

say, he says this in verse 17.

Look at it, that you walk, walk, remember,

banner of living, that you walk no longer as

the Gentiles

walk. So he's thinking about all those people

in the temple, in that culture, and he's

saying

to these Ephesian Christians, that is not your

life anymore. You are not to live like that

anymore.

And I'm telling you, this is one of those

things that's hard for me to convey. It will

never,

ever not be just absolutely sonnating to me,

how the miracle of regeneration

really changes your nature. I mean, I'm

fascinated. I think about it all the time. It

makes you think

and behave so differently. And it's not out of

any kind of obligation. That fascinates me in

itself.

It's out of a real, true desire. All of a

sudden, you really desire to live a life that

's pleasing

to God. And then when you don't, in those

moments that you don't and you fail and you

sin,

you get convicted. That's something that never

happened before this change. I'm telling you,

I'm still amazed by this. There is just no way

possible, no possible way that I could have

ever, ever just decided to start living like I

live now on my own. No way. I find it very

hard

to explain that to somebody unless they've

gone through it themselves. But folks, that is

what

genuine faith in Christ does to a person. It

changes a person tremendously.

Christy says, "It's like we live two different

lives." And it really is. And look, even if

you

were saved at a young age and you grew up in

church and you never went through all the

things,

say for example, that I did. Even if your

story is not anywhere like my story, guess

what? We both

ended up with a nature that was changed and a

desire to live our lives out in such a way

that

doesn't come natural to anybody, right? No

matter what your story is, we both end up

really, truly

wanting to live a life that brings glory not

to just any God, but the God of the Bible.

Nobody naturally wants to do that. All of a

sudden, you have this love for the brethren.

I mean, no matter how different you might be

from them on an earthly level, no matter how

different your background may be, if they have

the indwelling Holy Spirit and they love

Christ and

genuine, you love them. You have that in

common. You have that in common which you don

't have

at all with people who have not come to Christ

. And we all sit here and we're in here and we

believe

that this book is God's word and we really

want to live according to his precepts. And as

I said,

when we fail, we get convicted and we keep

short accounts with God and we keep going back

to him

and asking forgiveness where we failed. And

that's very important to us. That's not

natural.

And then think about it. We all love coming to

church on Sunday and singing hymns that are

centuries

old and listen to the preacher carry on for

sometimes an hour. And then sometimes we come

out of the church not feeling very good. We

come out convicted and then we say, that's

good.

It's good that I was convicted. Folks, none of

that is natural. I mean, we get used to it,

right?

But it's not natural. All of those things and

more give evidence of this tremendous change

that has occurred in us. And so Paul here in

our text has just taken us through these

extremes of the old life and the old way of

life in verses 17 to 19. We looked at that

last time.

Now he wants to contrast that with this new

walk and this new way of life. And the first

contrast

is between the old, self-centered and useless

and the new, Christ-centered and purposeful.

I mean, that alone is quite a contrast, right?

That alone is quite a change. Can you identify

with that? Your life used to be self-centered

and useless. And by faith in Christ, it's

become

Christ-centered and purposeful. That by far is

the best way to live. Christ-centered and

purposeful.

Look at verses 20 to 21. But you did not learn

Christ in this way if indeed you have

heard him and have been taught in him just as

the truth is in Jesus. Now, I didn't learn

Christ

to then just go on through life walking in the

vanity of my own mind. You didn't either.

When I learned Christ and heard him and was

taught by him, what was the purpose? It was in

order to follow him. Him, not my way of

thinking. And that starts in the mind.

Remember what Jesus

said in John 10, 27. He said, "My sheep hear

my voice and I know them and they follow me."

That's

the purpose. This is real. When we come to

saving faith in Christ, we do hear his voice

and we are

taught by him and we do learn from him, from

his word and his working in our life. And that

teaching

and that hearing and that learning, it starts

the moment that we're saved and it never stops

till we die. You never stop learning. This is

the old saying and it's so very true. The more

I know,

the more I know, I don't know. I find that to

be very true. And then when we go home,

our real home, to be his presence as we talked

about earlier, I think that's when

we really start learning him in a way we can't

conceive of. I personally think our brains are

not capable while we're here of learning him

in the way we will learn him in heaven. And

because of

all of this, folks, as Christians, our lives

are not useless. Our lives are not wasted.

Our lives are infinitely purposeful. Think

about that. My life counts to God. Your life

counts to God, not because I'm so great or you

're so great. We all deserve wrath. We all

deserve

hell, but because Christ died as my substitute

to save me, to save you, and to give us the

ultimate

purpose for living, bringing glory to God with

our lives. I mean, ever since I was first

saved,

all I ever wanted to do out of really true

gratitude, because God not only saved me from

wrath,

he saved me from that pathetic life that I was

living. When I was left on my own to live life

for myself, it was a disaster. My life was a

disaster, so he saved me from myself. And so,

almost immediately, all I ever wanted to do

was serve him as an expression of thanksgiving

.

And currently, I've been serving with the

opportunities given to me here now for almost

15 years. And if something happened and I had

to go somewhere else, I would just hope, Lord,

please send me an opportunity to serve him.

And I will serve until I die. One old preacher

said this, preach the gospel, die and be

forgotten. Next man up. That's the idea right

there,

selfless, right? Next man up. I'm nothing. He

's everything. Don't look at me. Just look at

him

using me to proclaim him. That's the idea. I

mean, how great is it to know why you're here

on

this earth? How great is that? You should get

up and thank God every day that you know why

you're

here, that you know what your purpose in life

is, and more than that, you know exactly what

's

happening when you die. That's it from the

body present with King Jesus. I mean, I can't

imagine

now being a middle-aged man stuck in Groundhog

Day. I just, I mean, no purpose. Just living,

just surviving, just going through life, no

thoughts of God, just working hard every day

and

hoping that there's going to be enough money

in retirement. I mean, how sad, right? And

then what

you're going to do when you retire? What you

're going to do? You watch TV? At some point, I

will

retire from secular work, but I will never

retire in serving the King. I mean, even if I

'm

bedridden, I'll start a prayer ministry there

in the bed. But listen, think about this.

To retire, and some of you here are retired

from secular work, to retire with Christ-

centered

purpose in your life is by far the greatest

retirement there is on earth. You have retired

from your secular work with a Christ-centered

purpose in your life, and then when you die,

you get the ultimate retirement. That's what

we talk about amongst my pastor friends, you

know.

The work is hard, but the retirement plan we

got is the best there is, right? We go to

heaven.

So, Christian, that first contrast is you have

a Christ-centered purpose,

not a self-centered emptiness with your life.

Second, instead of being ignorant of the truth

,

like they are in verse 18, church, you know

the truth. Look again at verse 21. This is

speaking

of Jesus. "If indeed you have heard him and

have been taught in him just as the truth is

in Jesus."

When you come to saving faith in Christ, it is

simultaneous with surrendering your life to

his Lordship. As one preacher said, we don't

make him Lord of our lives, as some say. No,

he already is Lord over everything, whether

you want him to be or not. The issue is, do

you surrender

your life to his total rule over your life,

his total Lordship over your life? It is my

position

that there is no way to even become a

Christian without surrendering to Christ as

Lord simultaneous

with having faith in him. And when you give

him your life, what you're saying is, you rule

.

You rule over it. You are most important. It's

not my plan, it's your plans. And when you do

that,

you fall under his truth, the truth. And

rather than being ignorant, you know the truth

. So many

people are on a quest for the truth. You hear

them talk about my truth and all that nonsense

.

John McArthur says, that's the most traveled

road in human history. The quest for the truth

.

But the problem is, the natural inclination of

man is to look everywhere possible for the

truth,

except the only place that you can find it.

They don't want to look under that rock.

And it leads many people in their quest for

the truth to where Pilate was. You remember

what he

said to Jesus? What did he ask Jesus? What is

truth? That's just complete, cynical, giving

up the

search because they can't scratch that itch

because they don't want to look at the only

place that

you can find it. Because there's only one

truth, Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life

. Look

at St. Corinthians 11-10. What a great thought

, how it starts out, as the truth of Christ is

in

me. Wow. That's for all Christians. What a

thought that is. Just think about that for

just a minute.

The truth of the Creator, Sustainer, King, and

Ruler of all things is in us. Nobody really

even understands the real, true, big picture

reality of everything going on in the world,

in the universe, and human existence, except

Christians. And that's not arrogant. That's

through grace alone that we know it, but that

's true. 1 John 5, verse 20. And we know that

the Son

of God has come, and look what He's given us.

He's given us understanding so that we may

know

Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true

in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God

and eternal life. You think John's wanting to

get something across to you there?

And if all actual truth is in Christ, look

what John says in the very next verse,

verse 21, "Little children, guard yourselves

from idol." Why does he say that? Well,

there's no useful information in any idol.

Branch that out. There's no useful information

in any other religion of the world that's ever

been invented or will be invented,

except biblical Christianity. None of it is

any good. None of it is useful.

Many people don't like to hear that, but that

itself is a part of the truth that salvation

and knowledge of the truth are found in Christ

alone. So back verse 21, "If indeed you have

heard

Him and taught in Him, just as the truth is in

Jesus." I want you to just think about all the

truth that you know, that you've learned since

becoming a Christian, the truth about God. You

know the truth about Christ, about the Trinity

. You know the truth about man. You know the

truth

about sin. You know the truth about creation.

You know the truth about life and death. You

know

the truth about true history. You know the

truth about eternity. You know the truth about

salvation.

You know the truth about joy and happiness.

And you understand the difference. You know

the truth

about purpose and meaning. You know the truth

about heaven and hell and angels and demons

and grace and faith. And only we know the

truth about all of that and more. That's not

even an

exhaustive list, right? And because we know

the truth and because the truth of Christ is

in us,

as the verse says, instead of being shameless

without behavior, instead of having no

morality

or any real purpose in our life, what happens?

We are people who are sensitive to sin.

And that's why Paul goes next into verse 22.

Look what he says.

"That in reference to your former manner of

life, you lay aside the old self which is

being

corrupted in accordance with the lust of dece

it." Now this is interesting. We can walk and

chew

gum at the same time here. There is one sense

in which that describes repentance from sin

and

submission to God in salvation. And keep going

, verse 23 and 24. "And that you be renewed in

the

spirit of your mind and put on the new self,

which in the likeness of God has been created

in

righteousness and holiness of the truth." So

in one sense, those verses are describing what

takes

place when you repent and believe and then you

lay aside the old self. And then there's a

renewal of

the mind, which brings about a transformation

from the old self to the new self, which verse

24,

"in the likeness of God has been created in

righteousness and holiness of the truth." That

's

in salvation, but it's interesting. There's

also another application that can be made here

.

"Once you become a Christian, immediately you

are in a battle with the world, the flesh, and

the

devil." Right? And as I said earlier, your new

self struggles with putting back on that st

inking

old coat of your flesh. And so in this sense,

Paul is saying, "Don't do that. Put it off.

Lay it aside.

Put back on the new self, which is in the

likeness of God has been created in

righteousness and

holiness of the truth." And that is not

something that you do one time, right? I mean,

yes, we make

distinctions here. There is a one-time

repentance unto salvation that you have when

you come to

faith in Christ, but then you enter into the

Christian life. And then repentance and

putting

off that stinking old coat of your flesh.

Guess what, folks? I hate to tell you, it's

something

that you have to do every single day. You

struggle with that coat every day of your life

. But that,

gloriously, is the process that you go through

as God is conforming you to the image of

Christ.

That battle with that old coat and laying it

aside is part of the process in God bringing

you to

greater and greater levels of spiritual

maturity. It's a glorious process. It's not

meant to be

easy. It's meant to be hard for our good. And

we are certainly not left to ourselves

with no resources to help us in this process.

Along with the Holy Spirit that indwells us,

we have two primary resources. Number one, the

Word of God. Remember 2 Timothy 3.16?

All Scripture is inspired for God and

profitable for teaching, for reproof, and look

at these

last two, for correction and training in

righteousness. Do you need correction and

training and righteousness as you're

struggling with putting off that old coat? Yes

, you do.

Well, expose yourself to the Word of God. It's

all the answers are in here.

That's why Paul told Timothy that. And then

the second resource is prayer.

You pray for wisdom. You pray for ever-incre

asing levels of sanctifying grace. Lord, I need

more

grace. I need more grace. And in your prayers,

daily repentance. Ask God every day in your

prayers

for the forgiveness of your sins, because you

're in time sinning. But then you get through

that,

as I tell you all the time, then you turn to

the ultimate resource. The ultimate resource

is Christ

Himself. And you see Him there. You see Him

there as you turn to Him as He's hanging on

the cross,

really and truly paying the penalty that you

owe for all of your sins,

past, present, and future. The one whose

perfect righteousness is put on your account

through

faith alone in Him. It's that daily preaching

the gospel to yourself, and you're recognized

all at the same time that while you're

struggling and fighting to put off that code

every day,

at the same time while you're doing that, you

also are knowing and understanding more and

more at

deeper and deeper levels that it's not your

performance in the Christian life that makes

you right with God or keeps you right with God

. And then with great joy as you turn to Christ

and

look to Him, more and more you realize it's

His performance. It's His performance on my

behalf.

It's that perfect fulfillment of the law, that

actual righteousness that He attained

while He was here on this earth. It's that

very righteousness when I surrender my life to

Him

that God puts on my account. That is the tot

ality, folks, of the balance that we keep in

this Christian

life that we're, yes, we're struggling with

putting off that old code, we're sinning,

we're failing, we're asking forgiveness, and

then at the same time you're turning to Christ

and

you can exhale. Grace makes you exhale. Grace,

God's grace, Christ's righteousness

is the righteousness that gets you into heaven

and it takes work. It takes time in God's Word

and prayer for you to be able to keep that

balance. If you're not using those resources,

you're not going to keep that balance. I can

promise you that. You're either not going to

care

and get some serious chastening in your life

or you're going to get real legalistic.

And then when our last day is done on this

earth,

folks, we are going to realize and understand

more than we could possibly understand right

now

after everything that we went through in our

life, all the heartaches and adversities of

our

sanctification, all the times we failed God,

everything that we went through when we leave

this world and we are absent from the body and

we are present with Christ. We are at that

moment

and then all eternity, we're going to resonate

Romans 8/18. Look at it.

"For I consider, Paul said, that the suffer

ings of this present time are not worthy to be

compared

with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

Hang on to that promise and let's pray. Father

,

we thank you for that promise and all the

promises of Scripture. We say yes and amen.

Oh, how much we need to learn down in our

bloodstreams, how much we don't deserve your

grace

and your mercy for doing all of this for us.

But this is your plan and this is your purpose

and

we rejoice today in all of the benefits of

what it means to put all that old self and put

on a new

self and a new nature. And Lord, if there's

anyone here who has not surrendered to the

Lordship of

King Jesus and saving faith, I pray that you

would use your words combined with the power

of your

spirit to draw them and save them and for all

of us who are adopted by grace and the family

we

say thank you Lord for another Sunday that we

got to come to your house and freely worship

you

and bring you glory. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

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