Don't Walk Like the World — Eph 4:17-24

Good morning, and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

My name is Pastor Simon, and we have the immense joy to hear from God's Word

today so that we can learn to grow in serving the Lord together.

Here in Dillingham, we do not have much of a population, so that when the Alaska

court system for our region needs jurors,

those who do not have criminal records are called up again and again, at least once a year.

During a trial, the jurors are to listen to the evidence and arguments that

the district attorney and the defense attorney bring in order that the jury

can decide on, beyond a reasonable doubt.

Whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.

Part of the way that jurors are to make up their minds is that they have to

listen to the testimonies of the eyewitnesses and the officers at the scene

of the crime or alleged crime.

This is generally the purpose of the jury and witnesses in the U.S. court system.

Yet in the court of Almighty God, there is no jury.

God will decide a person's guilt or innocence based upon the person's faith

in Christ in response to the gracious shed blood of Christ on the cross.

Yet in this life, God has sent His witnesses to testify to the truth of God

so that those who do not know Christ as Lord would come to salvation in Christ

and that Christians would stay in the new life that they have been graciously

given by God. Let us pray.

O Heavenly Father, I come before you and praise you and bless you.

Thank you for your new life that you have so wonderfully bestowed upon us in Jesus.

Lord, I pray that for all who are listening and myself included.

That you would grant us your Holy Spirit so that we would stay in you,

that we would remain and abide in you as we trust you and obey your word. Thank you, Father.

Use us, and may we continually live in the new life that you have so overwhelmingly

bought us in Jesus Christ.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been studying Paul's letter to the

Ephesians, which is focused on the unity or the oneness of God displayed through

the church of Jesus Christ as we live in godly unity together.

In Ephesians chapter 4, where we had been studying,

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

we learned that God had given the offices to the church, the apostles,

prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to equip Christ's body for the

work of service to Christ, until all Christ's church reaches oneness in Christ

as we trust in Christ together.

We also learned that the purpose for being equipped to serve Christ is so that

we can know Christ and experience a relationship with Him filled with the power

and life of the Son of God.

Moreover, God is equipping us as part of Christ's body to do the service of

the ministry, to reach to the level of maturity of one who is full of Christ.

Additionally, we have learned that all believers are to be careful to keep to

the true teaching of Scripture that we have been equipped with by those in church office over us,

as we humbly serve the Lord and those around us, so that we are not swept away

by the currents of false teaching.

Furthermore, the truth of God's Word must be taught and spoken to each other

in our local congregation so that we can grow up to become like Christ.

Using the grace we receive from Christ our head, we as Christians must take

the gifts that God has given us and use them in the love of God so that Christ's

body will grow and be built up.

And today we're going to continue on in Ephesians 4, verse 17 to 24,

Ephesians 4:17–24

where Paul taught the Ephesians,

Therefore this I say and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer just as

the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their mind,

alienated 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 been given themselves over to sensuality

for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way. If indeed you heard him him,

and were taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus,

to lay aside in reference to your former conduct the old man which is being

corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit,

and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man which

in likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

As we study our passage today, I want you to see two opposing ways of life that Paul is contrasting.

The first way of life is the one that God, through Paul, warns the Ephesians about.

This is the way of life that we are going to focus on today.

That those who walk with Christ do not walk as unbelievers do.

This is what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4, verses 17-19.

Ephesians 4:17–19

Therefore I say and testify in the Lord that you walk no longer just as the

Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind,

being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the

ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.

And they have become callous, have been given over themselves to sensuality

for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

I want you to notice that the seriousness that Paul started off in verse 17

with, Therefore this I say and testify in the Lord.

Previously, Paul taught the Ephesians that Christ's church, the body of Christ,

is the recipient of the love of God,

generously given gifts by God to share the wondrous gift to salvation with the world,

and entrusted to keep, teach, and share the right teachings of God's Word in

love so that the body of Christ grows up in unity and in the love of God.

And as a result of the church being given such love and such responsibility

as to be the conduit of God's love in the world,

Paul testified to the Ephesian congregation with the same importance as one

testifying for the court of God.

That they were not to walk or conduct their lives any longer in the way the

Gentiles or those of the nations or of the world do.

I believe the emphasis here is that some of the Ephesian congregations may still

be living according to the ways of the Gentiles, and Paul was pleading with

them not to go back into that old life.

What can we learn from Paul's warning in Ephesians 4, verse 17?

Ephesians 4:17

Although we as Christ's disciples have been saved from that life without God,

there is something in our tainted fallen flesh that still yearns for the old life.

Paul is warning us not to fall back to living life the way we used to before we were saved.

It may be challenging for those who have been raised in the church,

but for those of us who were saved later in life, we remember what that old life was like.

A slavery of it, being controlled by our appetites or addictions or strong desires

that we had turned evil, a totally wrong thinking about life,

especially not understanding the grace of God.

Did we really want to go back to that life?

Before I was saved in Christ, I was focused on working for my salvation,

and no matter how I tried, I just couldn't conquer my sin.

I was an alcoholic, a drug addict, definitely a computer game addict,

and was controlled by many other evil impulses.

I left a wreckage of broken relationships.

And I'm so grateful to the Lord that He has saved me and brought me out of that life.

Yet I find that when I get lazy or distracted from abiding in Christ.

Then that is when my thoughts wander back to the evil things that I have left behind.

I want to strongly encourage you that are listening to this message to stay

diligent in abiding in Christ as you trust in his love,

as you read and pray and obey God's word and stay in fellowship with your local church body.

I say this because as Peter in 1 Peter 5, verse 8 warned, be of sober spirit, be watchful.

1 Peter 5:8

Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

So far in Ephesians 4, Paul witnessed to the Ephesian believers in Christ by

telling them to no longer live as the Gentiles or those of the world do.

However, to stay in the new life in Christ, Paul instructed the Ephesians on

the reality of what that old life really was that they were to leave behind.

And thus, Paul lists for the Ephesians characteristics of those living as the world does.

I want you to see three aspects or characteristics of what it means to live

like the Gentiles or those who do not believe in Christ as Lord.

The first characteristic that I want you to notice is that unbelievers live in futility of mind.

Now, the word that Paul used for futility meant uselessness as a consequence

of being purposelessness or incapable of producing results.

Meaning that those who do not know Christ do not have the true purpose of God in their lives.

They fill their lives with things or purposes that are eternally meaningless.

Paul wrote about this concept in Romans 1, verse 21-23.

Romans 1:21–23

For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks,

but they became, and here it is, futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible

God for an image in the likeness of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed

animals and crawling creatures.

Secondly, the Gentiles are being darkened in their minds.

What Paul meant was that without Jesus, who is the true light of the world,

those whose minds are being darkened do not have the light of Christ.

Their minds are not illuminated to the truth that there is something or someone

far better out there for them.

They cannot see that Christ is the only way, the only truth and the life.

They cannot see that they are

enslaved to their sin and that they are controlled by Satan and his lies.

It's like the time when we had a men's conference at Camp Polaris,

and I left my cabin in the middle of the night to use the outhouse.

I did not bring my flashlight with me because I thought that the moon was bright enough.

But then the clouds covered the moon, and I was in darkness.

I knew the general way to the outhouse, but the path was covered with big tree

roots, so I kept on stumbling and tripping my way to the outhouse.

Without the light, I did not know what was there in front of me.

And this is the same way as it is for those whose minds are darkened.

They just cannot see the futility of their life without God,

because they do not have the light of Christ.

In John 3, verse 3, Jesus was responding to Nicodemus.

John 3:3

And Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you,

unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

What Jesus was saying was that unless someone is born again into the new life

of Christ by the Holy Spirit, then that person cannot understand the effects

of Christ's kingdom that it has on this world.

Even as Christians, as we live in our human mortal bodies,

we can physically see or cannot physically see with our eyes the spiritual world

of God's kingdom that is right here all around us.

Yet, when we are born again, God gives us the ability to understand through

faith in Christ what God has done in Christ,

what He's doing now and will do in the future, and what our part is in His kingdom.

However, through being born again in the Spirit, we also get to physically see

the kingdom in God and heaven after we die.

And one One day, when the new kingdom is established on earth and in the new universe,

we will get to experience and be a part of all that of what God will do during that time.

Oh, the glory and the wonder of it.

That we will get to see and experience what God will do.

But, and here is Jesus' and Paul's point, that without being born again in the

Spirit, a person's mind is darkened and they cannot see and they cannot understand God's kingdom.

The next characteristic of those in the world who are not of Christ is that

they are being alienated from the life of God because of ignorance.

This word alienated means to consider foreign and consequently separate from

another country or citizenry.

After Abigail and I were married, we were separated by our respective countries

for about six or seven months.

We were living in Canada, where I'm still a citizen, and Abigail was a U.S.

Citizen living in Canada under a student visa.

Her student visa ran out, and my visa for the U.S. had not yet arrived.

And the United States government's perspective, I was an alien to the U.S.

From Canada's viewpoint, Abigail was an alien to Canada and was not allowed to live there.

Thankfully, everything got straightened out, and I am now a citizen of the U.S.,

and we're living here together in Alaska.

My point with this story is to illustrate to you that without being saved by

the grace of Christ, through faith in Christ,

the people living out in the world or outside of Christ are aliens to God and

his kingdom, and they are not allowed in.

However, and this is so important Paul gives two reasons why those in the world

have futility in mind Why they are being darkened in their minds And why they

are being alienated from the life of God And what are those reasons?

The people in the world have those characteristics Because

of their ignorance and hardness of heart Ignorance

because they do not know any better They

do not know that they have been captured by Satan Enslaved by their sin Held

in a prison of darkness far away from the light And since they do not know anything

else They will not and cannot escape on their own And they will continue to

do what they have always done.

Secondly, the people living in the world live the way

they do Because of the hardness of their hearts This

is similar to working hard with our hands And we start to get calluses on our

hands Now at the beginning The calluses are not yet hardened And they hurt But

over time they harden And they build a protective layer over our hands So that

our hands do not get hurt As much as they did.

Because of their ignorance Those lives,

living in darkness of Satan's world.

They harden or callous their hearts so they cannot see the light of Christ.

And it's only through the power of Christ living in us through the Holy Spirit

that the message of the gospel can break through the protective walls that they

have built up around their hearts.

Paul went on in Ephesians 4, verse 19, and they, having become callous,

Ephesians 4:19

having given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of

impurity with greediness.

The word that Paul used for sinful abandon referred to indulgence in sinful

or sensual pleasure, unrestrained by convention or orality.

For those living in the Satan-controlled world,

their hearts are calloused and hardened against the truth of God,

and as such they give or abandon themselves over to indulgence in sensual pleasures

and immorality without restraint.

More than without restraint, they want more and more.

We see this in the news. We read this and see it in social media and it's obvious

in the mainline movies and television.

Now I have to make a note here.

Not all people in the world are as unrestrained to sexuality or as hardened as some are.

And I believe this is because the Holy Spirit has been working in their lives

or their families or even the culture of their society.

They're not saved yet. They're still living in darkness, but morally,

they just aren't to the level of depravity that they could be.

There are two ways that we can apply these verses to us as Christians.

First off, it is so important for us as Christians to treat unbelievers with

compassion and mercy because although unbelievers can hate us and possibly attack

us, they do not know any better.

They are trapped and they need rescuing.

Through using us, you and me, as we prayerfully surrender to God,

Christ can rescue people from slavery to sin and darkness.

Christ can save them, but we must treat them with the loving mercy and compassion

that we did not deserve, that Christ treated us with.

The second application that I see from these characteristics of a worldly life

is that as Christians, we...

Have to become guarded against becoming hardened and calloused against God's truth.

One of the ways that Christians can harden their heart towards God is by giving

in to sin and then getting entrenched in it to the point that in order to stay in that sin,

they have to darken their belief in Christ, or at least certain parts of their faith doctrine.

The more and more they blind themselves to the truth of Christ,

their hearts get calloused or hardened, and the truth of God can't get in.

It reminds me of having blackout curtains in the summertime to cover our windows

in order to block out the sunlight.

God, through Paul, is strongly witnessing to us that as Christ followers,

we must guard our hearts from being hardened and darkened so that we no longer can hear God's truth.

What then has God been teaching us today? The first truth that Paul testified

to us with the same authority as one testifying for the court of God,

that we are not to walk or conduct our lives any longer in the way those who belong to the world do.

Secondly, we were taught about three characteristics of what it means to live

like those who do not believe in Christ as Lord.

Those characteristics were futility of mind, where those who do not know Christ

do not have the true eternal purpose of God in their lives.

Secondly, those in the world are darkened in their minds, meaning that they

cannot understand the truth of God.

And lastly, those who are not in Christ are alienated or foreigners to the life

of Christ and are not part of His kingdom.

I want us to remember that Paul wasn't

directing these hard truths to unbelievers, but to us as Christians.

Because once we've tasted the goodness and wonder of the life of God,

it would be such a travesty for us to betray Christ and turn back to our old life of sin.

I want to encourage you all to make the most out of the new life that God has

so generously given you by trusting Christ as your only Lord,

obeying Him as we believe in His love. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you.

For the great and wondrous privilege that you have given your son, Jesus Christ,

on the cross for his death,

his slaughter for us, so that our sins may be forgiven, that our blood debt

had been paid through his shed blood so that we ourselves didn't go to hell,

so we ourselves didn't have to pay with our own lives or our own blood.

The debt that we owed to God. Thank you, Father.

I pray, Lord, that as believers and those who are listening,

who are followers of Christ, that we would all stay abiding in you,

in your life that you have given us, Lord,

and we don't go back to the old man, the old way of life that you have so wonderfully

saved us and removed us from. Help us, Lord.

Strengthen us, encourage us, and use us for your mighty purposes of sharing

the most wonderful truth of God, your gospel, to the world.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

I'll leave you with benediction from Jude 24-25.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless

before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior,

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, and now and forever.

Amen. Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.