Ephesians 4 (Part 4) :17-24 • Putting On Christ

we're in Ephesians chapter 4 so to open your Bible there please Ephesians chapter 4 we've been kind of taking our time here going through the book of Ephesians and particularly in this chapter this is our this is our fifth installment in this chapter alone but I've been careful not to go too quickly because of the the this is the stuff that's here we're picking it up in verse 17 and we're gonna read down through verse 24 so follow along as I read it goes like this 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're 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've become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality greedy to practice every kind of impurity but there is not excuse me but 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 to 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 stop there please let's pray Heavenly Father thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to gather in this place and to dig into your word and we pray that as we do that you would impart wisdom and insight according to all that you desire to say to us from this passage Lord we believe that you moved powerfully upon the Apostle Paul to write these things we believe that your Holy Spirit guided him and directed him in the writing of it you have preserved these words for these many years and now we believe Lord that your Holy Spirit is still at work imparting insight and understanding to us as we dig in and unpack the information that is contained in these verses we thank you Father that you are the teacher we desire to learn and so we humble ourselves before you that you might minister to our hearts we believe Lord God that you've given us ears to hear and spiritual eyes to see we ask you Lord God now to enable us to really receive from you today in Jesus name we pray amen amen you know last week we covered the the leadership giftings that paul talked about here in this section of ephesians chapter 4 you'll remember we talked about the fact that my job as a pastor teacher is to equip you to do the work of the ministry and I told you last week that really it is more appropriate to call you a minister than it is even me and and so I don't know how many of you went home and changed your stationery but anyway you are a minister you are called to go and minister in in in the world and in the church we talked about how important it was that we look at verses like that where we see a biblical design for the church we've had 2000 years to muck up the church you know God gave us a biblical outline of how the church is to be and we've added so many man-made things over those 2000 years to it and it's it's you know it's really neat because I think there's a move in some sectors of Christianity to kind of break away from that you know and kind of clean away the muck and the stuff that's man-made and and there's so much of it so many so many questions that I feel during a given week from people about you know the Bible and church and stuff are are predicated upon man-made things you know even how we even the things we call one another you know so anyway yeah or what we call people in leadership so we we felt that you know it was very very important you know to to kind of counter that gravitational pull away from biblical understanding of what the church is supposed to be you'll remember that Paul said that when were we we're doing what we're supposed to be doing when you are being the minister's that God has called you to be and I'm being the pastor teacher that God's called me to be equipping you to do the work of the ministry that God's called you to do we are building one another up the Bible says we're strengthening one another and we're stabilizing our lives against challenges that come our way such as something Paul mentioned last week winds of doctrine man if we seen winds of doctrine blow through the church even in the last 30 40 50 years there have been just so many emphasis and when I say winds of doctrine you know I'm probably referring like two weird crazy wacky things that have come along I want to be careful I want to you know don't hit too close to home but I know some of you some of you have been in churches in the past where you just dealt with whatever new fad the pastor kind of locked on to through the latest popular Christian book and you guys remember some of you going to church in years past that you know for six months you'd be following the the pastor would be preaching on whatever book he happened to be reading at the time or then the next 12 months you'd be dealing with something else because he latched on to another book about something else and then after that there's maybe 18 months worth of you know preaching that you heard all about the latest you know book fad whatever that it kind of hit the church or whatever and and you get to the end of all that and you realize you know I don't know the Bible any better than I did when I started I've just gone from fad to fad to fad well when we're doing what we're supposed to be doing when I'm teaching the Word of God you know the and and you are being equipped and you're then you're ministering one to another the but Paul says that we are actually guarding ourselves against that kind of junk you know those wins of doctrine and we're going to be insulated from following or or being led after those kinds of things you know and and it's a it's it really is a beautiful kind of a picture of the operating as its supposed to operate and if you missed any of that from last week you can or anything frankly in the previous studies from Ephesians you can go to our website and at CC Ontario comm and you can catch up on all of those the Apostle Paul in this section that we're reading and looking through today begins with this eye idea or this exhortation that he lays out before us and he says in verse 17 now this I say and but and then he adds the authority of the Lord by saying and testify in the Lord and and that's to say he's speaking in the authority of the Lord he says you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do and Paul is using a Jewish term for unbelievers here and that term is Gentiles now the fact of the matter is Gentiles are just simply a group of people who are non-jews and you and I I assume are Gentiles unless you have some Jewish blood in you but if you don't then you're like me you're a Gentile and obviously the people that Paul was even writing to here in Ephesus were largely Gentiles and that doesn't mean they were necessarily ungodly people but the term came to mean unbeliever and the reason it did is in a Jewish mind is because the Gentiles had not received the Word of God they had not received the morality of the law of God they knew nothing of the the wisdom of God and their lives showed it they basically lived a very secular immoral lifestyle and so the term Gentile came to mean or be synonymous with unbeliever or worldly person which we would say today you know I wouldn't probably say to you hey don't walk like the Gentiles walk because we're Gentiles I would say don't walk like the world you know don't don't mimic the world don't live like unbelievers atheists godless people whatever you want to call them and and he even describes how they used to walk there in that verse 17 he says they walked in the futility of their minds that's an interesting word ëifí because that word futility is it interesting because it means pointless or useless actually the Greek word literally means empty empty don't walk in the emptiness of the Gentiles or if you will of unbelievers don't walk in the futility in the uselessness the pointlessness do you guys remember before you came to Christ do you remember the things that dominated your mind your heart your lives I do I mean I you guys know that I surrendered to the Lord finally at the age of 25 and so I'd been living you know just the secular lifestyle the all about me make me happy whatever I want kind of a lifestyle and I remember it and I remember how futile it was I mean the things the things that I focused on we're all about me and we're all very temporal and they were all about how I feel and how to make myself feel better you know the mantra of the world is I just want to be happy which is a very temporal thing and it's empty and if you want to be reminded of just how empty it is hop on to the Facebook page of one of your old high school friends who didn't come to the Lord and just scroll through their page and and and you're going to be reminded of just kind of what that empty life is is all about it's it's you'll find post after post of memes and pictures depicting much of that which is pointless or empty it might be humorous it might even be interesting but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter it doesn't it doesn't go anywhere there's there's no eternal value to anything because the world doesn't doesn't really believe any in eternity and so they live their lives in the scope of the day-to-day then now the what I can get out of it sort of a thing you know it's it's it's all about what Solomon wrote about in the book of Ecclesiastes that how long it's been since you've gone through the Old Testament book of ecclesiastes but here Solomon's smartest man in the world more wisdom than any other man given has this incredible resource of wealth and he essentially sets out to try to find meaning to life apart from God which he refers to as under the Sun in other words life on earth and he sets about doing all kinds of things you know seeking pleasure starting building projects planting vineyards I mean he you name it he tried everything and you guys know how his conclusion he says it's all pointless it's all vanity in fact he called it vanity of vanities which is to say there's just nothing to it you know there's no eternal value you yep-yep you you mow the lawn only - it needs to be you know mode again a few days later you know it's that sort of a repetitious cyclical nothingness you know you amass wealth and then you die and you came and take it with you he says you know and it's just it just pointless you know it's it's vain it's empty which is the whole thing now Paul goes on here in verse 18 to begin to describe why you and I were so fixated before Christ on the temporal and the empty look that he says in verse 18 he says they and we might as well say we were because this is us before Christ he says 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 Wow let me think about that and then what is the result of that look at verse 19 they have become callous and which is to say unfeeling and they have given themselves up to sensuality greedy to practice every kind of impurity that just means greedy for more now when the Bible says that people give give themselves over to sensuality you need to understand something about that that sounds really awful and it might be but it doesn't necessarily have to be it's just essentially focused in other words let me give you an example we talk about people who are thrill-seekers today you know people who like to go bungee jumping or jump out of a perfectly good airplane which I can't figure out the delight of that but I understand some people find that you know I mean it's just it's an adrenaline rush right we call them adrenaline junkies and the world that we live in think about it that's all they got that's all they got they got their five senses and to titillate or to excite the senses is really the height of their existence to make my self feel good to be excited to be scared in a fun sort of a way you know to be just you know enveloped in the sensation it could be food yeah you know and an overindulging that goes with that and or it could be emotional you know I love to read romance novels you know this is there's the feeling it's just all about sensuality it's all about what I can feel whether physically emotionally or when that's it when you think about it that's that's all the people of the world live for because that's all they have and so when Paul says they're given over to sensuality it's very simply saying that they're living for that and he then but there's there's only one problem with living for sensuality you can never get enough the more you you know kind of stroke that that desire to feel the more you want to you know if I go to a horror movie and I it's a slash killer sort of a you know thing it's like ooh that was a lot of fun and now I got to go to one that's a little bit worse you know a little bit more on the gory bloody side and and if it's something I'm doing like jumping off a mountain and and I need to get a higher mountain now and I have to build the rush you know there's the now I'm talking about things that are fairly socially acceptable I mean nobody's gonna look down on somebody for jumping out of an airplane it's like wow that's fun but what if that sensuality is something that is very dangerous or base or sinful you know that has maybe sexual connotations outside of marriage or you know or whatever and now I'm living for that kind of sensual pleasure and I'm needing more and more and more you get the picture Paul is making a picture for us here let me let me let me put these on the screen and we'll just kind of outline them here I call this the futility of life or the emptiness of life apart from God and Paul talks about they are darkened in their understanding they are alienated from God because of that and they are hardened in heart unfeeling and uncaring given over to living for sensual pleasure and delights and constantly wanting more of the same and it is is it any wonder that Paul is exhorting us not to walk in that any longer we walked in it at one time now don't do it anymore is basically what he's saying he says to you and I in verse 20 if you look with me there again that is not what you learned that's not the way you learned Christ or as the NIV puts it you didn't come to know Christ that way he says in verse 21 assuming that you have heard about and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus and then he lays out that truth in verse 22 here it is to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and he says is corrupt through deceitful desires and then also to be renewed in the spirit of your minds he reminds you and I that we've been taught to do this this is the life that we've been taught to live now that we've come to Christ we didn't come to Christ receive him as our Savior and then we weren't told now go out and just do what you wanna do it's no big deal just live wow we weren't taught that way we were taught in fact to resist the flesh right we were taught to yield to the Holy Spirit to the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives and and so he says I want to remind you of that because if you're living after your four manner of life that's living a corrupted life style and of course the old life or the old former manner of life is the way we used to live before we met Jesus as our Savior it's basically living after fleshly desires deceitful desires and that's what corrupts that nature to begin with and it's a very accurate description of you know me before Jesus me BC you know that was me I remember I hadn't been that long I mean it's been a while but I still remember I remember living for myself and so Paul says make sure you put off the old corrupted way verse 24 he says put off the old corrupt away and then in verse 24 and put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness now I want you to stop there for just a minute because I want to talk to you the reason Paul is exhorting you and I to put off the old self and to put on the new self which is Christ in us right is because now we have the freedom to do that we didn't before back before I knew Jesus I didn't have the power to say no to my flesh my flesh dominated my life my flesh called the shots and I was a slave to my flesh and so were you before Christ when Jesus came into our lives we received the Holy Spirit and we received the benefit of what Jesus did on the cross for us he broke the dominion of the sinful nature in our lives in other words he took away the power of the sinful nature to say listen you got to do what I want you got to do what I say now I don't have to bow to that as a Christian I can say uh-uh right no uh I don't have to do that anymore and I don't and neither do you why because we've been set free the Bible says that that him whom the son sets free right is truly free so I am now free I say no to this info I can I can actually put off the sinful nature and I can put on that new nature which is in Christ and I can choose to live a different way I couldn't choose before I didn't have that capability now I can we can choose to live however we want here's the rub though I can choose to go back and live in slavery I'm free to do that too as a Christian I've been set free to choose my path and I can even choose the wrong one because you know what if I'm not free to even choose the wrong path then I'm not really free and again him whom the Sun sets free is free indeed that means I can choose the right or I can choose the wrong now I don't want to choose the wrong and it would be really stupid for me to do that Paul warns against it in in the book of Galatians he says listen guys do you know why Jesus sent you free I'm paraphrasing here in Galatians chapter 5 he says do you guys know how wide you Jesus set you free it's to be free now be free and don't go back and live a life of slavery but we don't we understand from that passage we are free to go back and live a life of slavery if we want to I can go back and put the chains back on don't know why I would I'd be stupid to do it but I can do it I'm free to do it you see that's such an important thing to remember let me show you how Paul talked about this in Romans chapter 6 verse 16 love this passage he says don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey Him as slaves you are slaves to the one whom you obey whether you're slaves to sin which leads to death or to obedience which leads to righteousness do you understand that he says listen you're free you're free to go back and live that life of slavery if you want to but just to understand this you will be a slave to sin and it leads to death but you can also choose now you're free also to choose to live a life of obedience to God which leads to life right but you have that freedom and Paul tells us to choose the life of Christ here's how he says it he likens it to like getting dressed in morning you put off your bedclothes your jammies whatever and you put on that's your old it's kind of like that's a picture of your old life and you put on the you know the clothes that you know you're going to use for the day now the picture here is the old life the old rotten sinful nature take it off and put on the clothing that is in Christ created to be like him and righteousness and holiness and you know and and so there you go just doesn't it sound easy it's like hey guys just put off the Old South put on the new South just like that wouldn't that be fun if it was that easy you know the reality of people who talk to me anyway about sin in their lives is is one of struggle I went with Dwayne out to the prison last night to meet with the inmates out there and one of the one of the guys one of the inmates was talking and asking about an area of sin in his life that he's just still it's still challenging him on a regular basis and I could see it I could see it in his face there was a genuine sorrow I mean struggle it's like this is this is a struggle pastor Paul this thing I'm going through this sin that keeps rising up and and grabbing ahold of me and I hate it I hate it I hate when I do it I hate when I fall to it and see that's the reality and so when when when the Apostle Paul comes along and goes hey put off the old nature put on the new we kind of go ah it sounds a lot like an oversimplification because our experience of dealing with sin is a challenging one it's it's like take off sin is it that easy just to do you guys remember the The Chronicles of Narnia when CS Lewis what a great writer he was he fashioned so much of Christian theology into his stories but there's the story and I forget which one it was but it was where Huestis the cousin of the original kids that went into Narnia whoo annnnnd Huestis was a jerk he goes to Narnia with the kids and he's just he's just a jerk and he eventually becomes who he is on the inside he becomes this fire-breathing dragon you'll remember in the story and over the course of time he is brought to understand the depravity of his heart and he wants to be rid of this horrible thing that he now sees himself as in in the movie and in the book Huestis takes his claws and tries he scratches at himself he just wants to be rid of this corrupted rotten flesh and he's like get it off me sort of a thing you know and an Aslan comes along and says that's not the way it's gonna work you can't do that yourself and and in the story you know Aslan breathes on him and of course he's made new but but it's that picture you know of how we struggle with sin you know and we want to take it off and I I I'm like oh you know when I talk to people who are struggling with sin they want to be rid of it they're not like going I really like the sin thing they're usually by the time they come to me they're like please help me because I hate myself every time I stumble into this area of sin and there I think of Huestis that drag and trying to scratch it off you know and yet Paul makes this statement about just putting off the the flesh and I want you to understand something your struggle and my struggle with getting rid of that sinful flesh putting off the old nature is not a reflection of any lack of what Jesus has done to secure that victory for us or that ability for us in other words the fact that you and I struggle to put off sin is not a reflection of what he did it's a reflection of us it's kind of like he said the Spirit is willing the flesh is weak it's you and I that are struggling with this issue of sin but I want you to know something I want you to know that Jesus has made every provision for you and I to be free from those areas of sin that dog us on a regular basis and the reason I emphasize that is because we've got to get our eyes off of our sin and on - the solution for our sin when I was talking to that inmate last night at the prison I could just see in his eyes as he was and he didn't go into detail about his sin sometimes people do but but you could you could just see that this was where he was focused this is what his eyes were looking at he was he was saying pastor Paul if just there's this area of sin in my life and I just really want to be free from it and and I can tell what was going on in his heart he was really focused on that area of sin but can I tell you what happens when you focus on your sin it just gets bigger it gets bigger and tougher and harder and there's really and you become overwhelmed and what you and I are supposed to do in order to walk in the victory against our sinful nature is that we need to begin to focus on the solution that God has provided through His Son Jesus Christ to set us free and it's not wishful thinking it's putting our eyes on the solution rather than the problem because again the more you look at the problem the bigger it gets and the stronger it gets and see that's why when I'm talking to people about their sin and they're telling me about their sin it they're describing a giant that has power over their lives and their and theirs and they're describing it to me that way you don't understand pastor Paul this thing has me by the jugular and I can't get free because this thing is powerful and I want to say I want to introduce you to something that's more powerful over this thing that has a hold of your life and it is the power of the Holy Spirit living in you let me share some scriptures with you related to this the first one is from 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 3 love this passage his divine power has given us everything we need for what both life and godliness and then and Peter tells us there that it comes through our knowledge of him who has called us by his glory and goodness I want you to notice and emphasize in your heart and mind those promises here that his power has given us everything we need for godliness that's why I said when you and I struggle with sin it's not a prob on his end he's given us everything we need everything we need for godliness okay and then first Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible it's all about temptation and he writes that no temptation has overtaken you that is not entirely common to man but he writes God is faithful and he'll not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it this is one of those passages that busts us we're busted when we read this because what it tells us is when I'm tempted to sin and I fall to that temptation it's not because God didn't do his part this passage tells me that he promised he promises never to allow a temptation in my life that is beyond my ability to endure and when I am tempted he will provide a way out right new Christians get so discouraged when they after they've come to the Lord and then they fall back into sin or whatever you know I've talked to many over the years as a pastor Paul what's wrong did I not say the prayer right or something cuz I didn't I fell back into sin and I'm so discouraged and so disgusted you know with myself and so forth and and the the the the the response that I have for him is not one that they want to hear because I tell him the reason you went back into that sin is because you chose to see Jesus set you free that's what he says in his word you've been set free from the power and dominion of the flesh but you chose to go back and live it you chose to go back and do it now this was your choice you didn't have that choice before you knew Jesus now you chose to go back now don't be condemned God's gonna forgive you and it doesn't mean you're not a born-again Christian let's get up and let's move forward again you know let's keep walking with Jesus you know we create habitual behaviors in our life habitual responses to life and just because you came to Jesus Christ doesn't mean those habits aren't going to persist for a period of time in your life because they often do right and we end up responding out of the same sort of emotional whatever that we did before we knew Jesus and those things have to be kind of unlearned but listen it doesn't mean that God hasn't given you everything you need because he has Paul writes in Romans chapter 6 verse 6 and actually goes on to verse 11 I didn't put it at the top but we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus this is such a wonderful passage in the Bible but it starts off with the words we know we know what does he say we know we know that our old self was crucified here's my response do we really know that I mean do we know it in the sense of believing it no when we're going through an area of sin and where we're having this besetting sin you know what we know we know we're caught that's pretty much all we know and when people come and to me and want prayer or encouragement for an area of sin that they've fallen into really all they know is their sin and that's that's pretty much it and they'll just like and that's because that's what they talk about they talk about this area of sin pastor do you know what kind of sin I'm dealing with do you know do you know my sin well do you know that when you came can we put that back up please do you know that when you came to Jesus Christ that the old self was crucified did you know that did you know that the body of sin has been brought to nothing so that it no longer has to dominate your life do you know that well see those are not things that we know well we might know them but we don't really believe them to be honest with you and because we don't believe by faith that we've been set free from the Dominion of the flesh it constantly rises up and grabs us and says you got no choice in the matter I'm the master you're the slave get down on your knees and Paul says no that's not the reality of the situation he says I want you to consider yourselves dead to sin the word consider means belief I want you to believe in your heart that you're dead that this that this sinful nature that used to dominate your life is now dead to you it has lost its ability to dominate your life I want you to believe that it's hard to believe when you're messing up isn't it I mean because you know when you're messing up you're kind of like I feel like I'm just a slave of sin but you but you're not the reality is you're not a slave of sin you've been set free from that slavery now Paul says I want you to live it I want you to live like you are no longer enslaved to sin I want you to believe in your heart that Jesus Christ severed that tie that connection with the sinful nature that's a hard thing to do admit a very difficult thing to do but it is critical that we that we do it that we begin to believe this thing no longer has power over my life and so the Scriptures I just gave you there I think are great ones too I hope you wrote them down they're great ones to memorize and to speak out in faith when sin rises up and tries to grab you again and say that it's in charge you know there's another wonderful passage I want to share quickly with you it's from first John I love this walk about walking in victory over the flesh John writes beloved we are God's children now he says in what we will be has not yet appeared and that's because Jesus has not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is in other words face to face and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure here's what John is saying there's this progressive work of sanctification that God is doing in our life now day by day by day by day but do you know guys and I want to encourage you with this there's coming a day when Jesus is gonna come for his church and we're gonna see him face to face and and and on that day we're gonna be transform and we're gonna be like him because we will see him as he is here's the beauty of it he lets us see him as he is today through his word through the power of the holy spirit and that is why day by day we are being transformed from glory to glory we're not gonna be fully and finally changed until he returns and that'll be wonderful but we can't just say well some day because today he wants to work on our hearts today he wants to transform our lives and that happens as we continue to look at him and see him through his word and and so forth I want to end here today with a quote by a the man who wrote the hymn amazing grace John Newton who was a fairly amazing man he probably wouldn't say so but this is something he said which I found very cool he says I am NOT what I ought to be I am NOT what I want to be I'm not what I will be but thank God I'm not what I used to be not a great quote you know and we're all right there aren't we I'm not what I want to be both thank you Jesus that I'm not what I used to be and I and God is not done it's it's a work that's ongoing but we need to get our perspective right we need to get our perspective to the place where we understand that listen I did the work and now I have everything I need to live that life of godliness I just need to keep my eyes fixed on him and I need to stop focusing on my sin because it just gets bigger nastier and meaner but when I focus on Jesus the solution to my sin his power begins to take hold in my life and I begin to find that those areas of sin that once dominated me are falling away because by faith I believe that I have entered into his crucifixion the crazy crazy thing about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ you and I get to get up there on the cross with him and we get to experience a death with him but ours is a death to self his was a death burying our sin but we die to self and just like him who was raised from the dead we also get to experience a resurrection unto new life and that is the Christian life your Christian life is a resurrection unto new life where we get to live that new life you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

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Length: 38min 29sec (2309 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 22 2018