INTRODUCTION:
Tonight we are continuing our discussion on the Christian Life. We finished some
time ago a series on contentment and this evening we will move again to some other
areas being guided by Paul’s instruction to the Ephesian Church in 4:17-32. We will
discuss topics such as anger, bitterness, slander, forgiveness, lying, truthfulness,
kindness etc. But first I think it is fitting to introduce this passage by looking carefully
at verses 17-24.
QUICK REMINDER:
Ephesus was a small church in a large city full of mess.
John MacArthur, “The church at Ephesus was a small island of despised people
in a giant cesspool of wickedness.”
Like most of us, the believers had once been a part of that paganism. They
frequently passed by places where they once caroused and ran into friends with
whom they once indulged in debauchery. They constantly faced temptations to revert
to the old ways. No doubt like many of us today they had fined tuned excuses and
rationales for lifestyles that did not measure up. No doubt Paul had heard them all:
• Well nobody’s perfect
• I’m just human like everybody else
• Well that’s just how I am
• I haven’t been saved all that long you know
• I don’t really think it takes all that
• If that’s the case nobody can be a Christian
• If only you knew MY situation
• I guess I’m just weak
• Hey at least I admit how I am
In the midst of all of the excuses of the Ephesian believers and the believers in Illinois
and the USA, the Word of God states emphatically that we cannot accomplish the
glorious work of Christ by continuing to think and live the way the world thinks and
lives. The Scripture clearly teaches that when a person believes and confesses
Jesus Christ as Lord we are born again, a transformation takes place in our basic
nature. Salvation does not improve upon or rehabilitate what had previously existed.
It is a total transformation. As a result the New Testament says believers have a new
mind, a new will, a new heart, a new inheritance, a new relationship, new power,
new knowledge, new wisdom, new understanding, new righteousness, new love,
new desire, new citizenship, new name, and many other new things—all of which
are summed up in newness of life (Romans 6:4).
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk
in newness of life.
This is precisely what Ephesians 4:17-24 is about and as a matter of fact this is
what the remainder of Ephesians is about. In Ephesians 4:17-24 Paul makes three
observations regarding the Christian Life – one observation will be covered this
evening and the other two observations will be covered in subsequent messages.
THERE IS AN ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION, 4:17-19
THERE IS A CLEAR INSTRUCTION, 4:20-24A
WE ARE A NEW CREATION, 4:24B
1. THE ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION – 4:17-19
(v. 17) The Futility of their Mind: (Intellectually Futile) refers to that which fails to
produce the desired result, that which never succeeds. A synonym for empty,
because it amounts to nothing. The spiritual thinking and resulting life-style of
unbelievers—is inevitably empty, vain, and void of substance. The life of an
unbeliever is bound up in thinking and acting in an arena of ultimate trivia. He
consumes himself in the pursuit of goals that are purely selfish, in the accumulation
of that which is temporary, and in looking for satisfaction in that which is intrinsically
deceptive and disappointing. The unregenerate person plans and resolves
everything on the basis of his own thinking. He becomes his own ultimate authority
and he follows his own thinking to its ultimate outcome of futility, aimlessness, and
meaninglessness—to the self-centered emptiness that characterizes our age.
(v. 18) Being darkened in their understanding: Built in inability to know and
comprehend the things of God. This darkness is coupled with being excluded from
the life of God due to ignorance, which is self imposed (Romans 1:21-22,24, For
even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.
Professing to be wise they became fools…Therefore God gave them over in the lusts
of their hearts to impurity).
Hardness of their heart: Unbelievers are unresponsive to truth. Hardness (porosis)
was used by physicians to describe the calcification that forms around broken bones.
The heart of the person who continually chooses to sin becomes hardened to
spiritual truth, utterly insensitive to the things of God.
(v. 19)Having become callous: This is a rejection of all standards of
righteousness. Two outcomes are inevitable when a person or society becomes
callous.
1. Refusal to own up to wrong.
2. Open and blatant indulgence. When self-desires rules, indecency runs wild.
Those who are being destroyed and who are dying are desensitized to that which is
actually killing them.
Sensuality: absence of all moral restraint, especially in the area of sexual sins. This
is perhaps the final level before the depraved mind completely takes over. This is
often seen in the mindlessness of the self-indulgent individual who loses his sanity,
and often his life because of sensuality. The rapid increase in mental illness today
can be laid in large measure at the feet of increased sensuality of every sort. The
corruptions of our present society are not the result of psychological or sociological
circumstances but the result of personal choices based on principles that are
specifically and purposely against God and His way.
Practice (ergasia), business enterprise. Every kind of impurity: The ungodly
person makes a business out of every kind of impurity. “Many of the books
published in the U.S. rival the drippings of a broken sewer.” Pornography,
prostitution, X, R, PG, PG-13 films, suggestive TV programs, from perhaps the
largest industry in our country.
Greediness: The world of sensuality and impurity rotates on the axis of greediness.
Greediness is the unbounded, covetous, and uninhibited lust for that which is
wanted. There is no holding back, no person too precious not to take advantage of,
no lie too horrific to tell, only one thing matters and that is what I want and nothing
can divert me from getting it.
SUMMARY:
Paul is coming against the modern day preoccupation by believers with goals that
are purely selfish, with the accumulation of that which is temporary, and the constant
looking for satisfaction in that which is fleeting, deceptive and disappointing. He is
furthermore dealing with the tendency we have to reject righteous standards and
refuse to own up to and repent of unrighteous behavior and the constant subjection
of our selves to immorality, and every kind of impurity. This, says Paul, is walking like
the Gentiles and we are not asked but commanded to “NO LONGER” walk as the
Gentiles walk.
There must be an “ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION” between what and who we used to be
and what and who we are now.
Because we are called to salvation, unified in the Body of Christ, gifted by the
Holy Spirit, and built up by the gifted men (4:1-16), we should therefore…walk
no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. We cannot live the glorious Christian life
by continuing to live the way the world lives. There must be an “ABSOLUTE
DISTINCTION”.
Tonight we are continuing our discussion on the Christian Life. We finished some
time ago a series on contentment and this evening we will move again to some other
areas being guided by Paul’s instruction to the Ephesian Church in 4:17-32. We will
discuss topics such as anger, bitterness, slander, forgiveness, lying, truthfulness,
kindness etc. But first I think it is fitting to introduce this passage by looking carefully
at verses 17-24.
QUICK REMINDER:
Ephesus was a small church in a large city full of mess.
John MacArthur, “The church at Ephesus was a small island of despised people
in a giant cesspool of wickedness.”
Like most of us, the believers had once been a part of that paganism. They
frequently passed by places where they once caroused and ran into friends with
whom they once indulged in debauchery. They constantly faced temptations to revert
to the old ways. No doubt like many of us today they had fined tuned excuses and
rationales for lifestyles that did not measure up. No doubt Paul had heard them all:
• Well nobody’s perfect
• I’m just human like everybody else
• Well that’s just how I am
• I haven’t been saved all that long you know
• I don’t really think it takes all that
• If that’s the case nobody can be a Christian
• If only you knew MY situation
• I guess I’m just weak
• Hey at least I admit how I am
In the midst of all of the excuses of the Ephesian believers and the believers in Illinois
and the USA, the Word of God states emphatically that we cannot accomplish the
glorious work of Christ by continuing to think and live the way the world thinks and
lives. The Scripture clearly teaches that when a person believes and confesses
Jesus Christ as Lord we are born again, a transformation takes place in our basic
nature. Salvation does not improve upon or rehabilitate what had previously existed.
It is a total transformation. As a result the New Testament says believers have a new
mind, a new will, a new heart, a new inheritance, a new relationship, new power,
new knowledge, new wisdom, new understanding, new righteousness, new love,
new desire, new citizenship, new name, and many other new things—all of which
are summed up in newness of life (Romans 6:4).
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk
in newness of life.
This is precisely what Ephesians 4:17-24 is about and as a matter of fact this is
what the remainder of Ephesians is about. In Ephesians 4:17-24 Paul makes three
observations regarding the Christian Life – one observation will be covered this
evening and the other two observations will be covered in subsequent messages.
THERE IS AN ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION, 4:17-19
THERE IS A CLEAR INSTRUCTION, 4:20-24A
WE ARE A NEW CREATION, 4:24B
1. THE ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION – 4:17-19
(v. 17) The Futility of their Mind: (Intellectually Futile) refers to that which fails to
produce the desired result, that which never succeeds. A synonym for empty,
because it amounts to nothing. The spiritual thinking and resulting life-style of
unbelievers—is inevitably empty, vain, and void of substance. The life of an
unbeliever is bound up in thinking and acting in an arena of ultimate trivia. He
consumes himself in the pursuit of goals that are purely selfish, in the accumulation
of that which is temporary, and in looking for satisfaction in that which is intrinsically
deceptive and disappointing. The unregenerate person plans and resolves
everything on the basis of his own thinking. He becomes his own ultimate authority
and he follows his own thinking to its ultimate outcome of futility, aimlessness, and
meaninglessness—to the self-centered emptiness that characterizes our age.
(v. 18) Being darkened in their understanding: Built in inability to know and
comprehend the things of God. This darkness is coupled with being excluded from
the life of God due to ignorance, which is self imposed (Romans 1:21-22,24, For
even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.
Professing to be wise they became fools…Therefore God gave them over in the lusts
of their hearts to impurity).
Hardness of their heart: Unbelievers are unresponsive to truth. Hardness (porosis)
was used by physicians to describe the calcification that forms around broken bones.
The heart of the person who continually chooses to sin becomes hardened to
spiritual truth, utterly insensitive to the things of God.
(v. 19)Having become callous: This is a rejection of all standards of
righteousness. Two outcomes are inevitable when a person or society becomes
callous.
1. Refusal to own up to wrong.
2. Open and blatant indulgence. When self-desires rules, indecency runs wild.
Those who are being destroyed and who are dying are desensitized to that which is
actually killing them.
Sensuality: absence of all moral restraint, especially in the area of sexual sins. This
is perhaps the final level before the depraved mind completely takes over. This is
often seen in the mindlessness of the self-indulgent individual who loses his sanity,
and often his life because of sensuality. The rapid increase in mental illness today
can be laid in large measure at the feet of increased sensuality of every sort. The
corruptions of our present society are not the result of psychological or sociological
circumstances but the result of personal choices based on principles that are
specifically and purposely against God and His way.
Practice (ergasia), business enterprise. Every kind of impurity: The ungodly
person makes a business out of every kind of impurity. “Many of the books
published in the U.S. rival the drippings of a broken sewer.” Pornography,
prostitution, X, R, PG, PG-13 films, suggestive TV programs, from perhaps the
largest industry in our country.
Greediness: The world of sensuality and impurity rotates on the axis of greediness.
Greediness is the unbounded, covetous, and uninhibited lust for that which is
wanted. There is no holding back, no person too precious not to take advantage of,
no lie too horrific to tell, only one thing matters and that is what I want and nothing
can divert me from getting it.
SUMMARY:
Paul is coming against the modern day preoccupation by believers with goals that
are purely selfish, with the accumulation of that which is temporary, and the constant
looking for satisfaction in that which is fleeting, deceptive and disappointing. He is
furthermore dealing with the tendency we have to reject righteous standards and
refuse to own up to and repent of unrighteous behavior and the constant subjection
of our selves to immorality, and every kind of impurity. This, says Paul, is walking like
the Gentiles and we are not asked but commanded to “NO LONGER” walk as the
Gentiles walk.
There must be an “ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION” between what and who we used to be
and what and who we are now.
Because we are called to salvation, unified in the Body of Christ, gifted by the
Holy Spirit, and built up by the gifted men (4:1-16), we should therefore…walk
no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. We cannot live the glorious Christian life
by continuing to live the way the world lives. There must be an “ABSOLUTE
DISTINCTION”.
| Sunday Evening, April 29, 2007 Sermon Outline "The Christian Life" Series THE ABSOLUTE DISTINCTION Ephesians 4:17-24 |
New Life Fellowship Church
Ephesians 4:17-24
Ephesians 4:17-24
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