Portrait of a Changed Life, Lesson 1
By Pastor Matt Black
09 December 2007
Lord's Day morning & evening
Ephesians 4:17-20
Theme and Title: Take your Bible and we’re going to look at Ephesians 4:17-20. We are beginning a series in Ephesians called: The Portrait of the Changed Life. And the title of our first message is “If You Claim to be a Christian, Live the Life!” A changed life has metamorphosized into something completely new! A Christian has a clean and pure life. He’s different. A small cat and a large rat may look similar, but if you look very closely they are different. They both may get into your home, but you’re not going to be snuggling up to that nasty rat. There is a clear difference!!
Introduction
Sled Illustration: Yesterday after caroling, Mike Klikas and Cindy and Mary and Jonathan and did something that is very dangerous to our health! Have you ever been sledding? I thought I knew about good sledding hills, but this one is better than I’ve ever seen.
We decided to try it. Little Mary was right in the front of the sled with me! We start going down the hill, and about half way down, we start to turn, and before we know it we are going backward!!! Then we finally turn forward again doing a 360, and there’s a group of kids right there.
The best advice I can give you in that situation is: avoid hitting obstacles at all costs. That would be disastrous. Well this morning we’re talking about avoiding that which will hurt you.
What we’re going to see this morning is a clear difference between the saved and the lost person. There’s as much difference between the saved and lost as there is between the dead and the living! You see if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are a changed person. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
I want you to be reminded that the Holy Spirit’s heart in this passage in Ephesians is to draw a clear difference between the saved man and the lost man. We talk a lot about there being a clear line of demarcation between the old life and the new and the transfer from the kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of God, and here it is.
It is a clear difference between a man controlled by Christ and the lost man controlled by his flesh. He is a NEW creation! He has a NEW heart, a NEW mind, a NEW Lord!! There is no gray with God. As I have said before, there are no half-way Christians. The greatest heartache we could have at Tabernacle Baptist Church would not be the building burning down, or somebody breaking in here and vandalizing this place. The most grievous thing would be somebody who slipped into this church, who knew all the right answers, who could tell us that they believed all the right things, though they didn’t. And one day they stand before God, and the Lord says, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity, because I never knew you.”
The picture of the Christian life in the Bible is that there is this awesome change. We see this change so clearly in Ephesians 4:17-20. Let’s stand this morning as we read about this amazing contrast, this line of demarcation.
Reading of the Word Ephesians 4:17-20
Look at it with me will you? “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord”… Paul says ‘these aren’t my words, this is God speaking. He says, “that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk” – and that word “walk” means living that lifestyle, the lifestyle of the world. He says don’t walk like they do “in the vanity of their mind,” and that is right where we are going to camp out on this morning. Hopefully when we say ‘amen’, you will walk out of these doors here and have a grasp of the futility and emptiness of the mind untouched by grace. Not only that, we are going to find out that the lost person is one “18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,”—that’s a powerful word—Paul says lost people are ignorant. If you call somebody ignorant at your job, you’ll probably get fired over it! But again, this is not a boss’s assessment, or a school teacher’s assessment or even a Pastor’s assessment. This is God Almighty’s assessment of the lost person. Paul says they are ignorant “because of the blindness of their heart”. Notice how like a snowball this description just continues to accumulate. He says “19 Who being past feeling”—they have no feeling in their conscience, and because of that they “have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness”. This is referring to an addiction to lust—you greedily want to give your flesh whatever it wants. If this describes you, then you are lost.
And verse 20 draws the line, “But ye have not so learned Christ”. You Christians have not so learned this. Those who are in Christ can’t live this way any more because you are indwelt by the Spirit of God. Some of you who have been living like this in your life, you need to be saved.
If you are a Christian this morning, I want you to hear this loud and clear: You must no longer walk like the ungodly!! You are to have NOTHING TO DO—“no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). Let’s pray and ask God to open up our hearts to this truth this morning.
[Prayer for guidance]
This morning I want to expose the works of darkness. These verses were written to expose the dark intensions of this world. Is there anything good in this world?? This world leads to destruction, “for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13).
I. First we need to have a Passion for Holiness like the Apostle Paul.
A. Paul is Fervent. He is as fervent as a the platoon captain is who has just received word from the 5 star general to “advance”. Paul is under orders here. He speaks with Divine Authority in saying we need to FLEE from the way of the ungodly. Paul makes it clear to the Ephesians: “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord” (verse 17a). This is the NT equivalent of saying “Thus saith the Lord!” Yet Paul also has the lovingkindness of the Lord. Don’t think of Paul just laying down the law here.
B. Paul is Loving. He is incredibly concerned about the wickedness that these people were faced with day after day. Paul loved these people. Don’t think of Paul just as belting out commands. He is doing that, as a father says to his child to stay away from the fire. Paul says “I…testify in the Lord”, that is, with divine authority, I command you DO NOT WALK “as other Gentiles walk”. You can hear the love in Paul’s broken voice, because he deeply loved these people.
Acts 20:31 records the words of Paul at his departure from Ephesus. He says to the Ephesians just before he boards his ship to go to go to another Gentile land—Tyre, Paul says to the Ephesians, “Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” Paul’s love for these people was so deep that the believers in Ephesus were torn apart when Paul left. Look at verse 36, “And when he [PAUL] had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. 37 And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him, 38 Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.” Paul loved these people and these people loved him because he told them the hard things they needed to hear to protect them.
Now I in that same spirit want to plead with you this morning. DO NOT WALK “as other Gentiles walk”! Don’t walk the ungodly! Now this is not a suggestion.
C. Paul is Urgent. He is incredibly concerned about these people’s holiness!
Illustration: If my son were about to pet a poisonous viper, I would say “Son, get away from that viper!!!!” Paul says with the authority of God Himself “Get away from the ungodly!! They’ll kill you!! They’ll destroy you spiritually!” And I say to you and testify to you with God’s voice—that your behavior as a Christian ought to be radically different than the uncoverted.
Why was Paul so urgent? Because wickedness was all around the Ephesians like flies on a peanut butter sandwich.
II. I want you not to see the Plight you will face if you want to live a holy life. God is not asking you to live holy in a heavenly world. This world is not my home—I’m just a passing through! You might think that living the new life in today’s culture is tough, but it was just as trying in Paul’s day. The Ephesians were living on the same godless earth as you and I!
A. Ephesus was a Merchant City. There were people from all over the world that would enter this city as sailors or businessmen, and almost all of them were looking for debauched pleasure. They probably had a slogan similar to Las Vegas: What ever happens in Ephesus stays in Ephesus! Paul was planting a church in a this city of 300,000 people.
B. Ephesus was a city with all the Moral Chaos and darkness that we have today, but perhaps even more.
C. Ephesus was the Sodom and Gomorrah of the first century, home to the most Immoral Religious Cult ever assembled. There, Diana was worshipped as the goddess of sensuality and prostitution. This kind of living was what was esteemed most in Ephesus. It was a cesspool of rank depravity on every level of society.
At the very center of this godless society was the Temple of Diana, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. There was not a more beautiful building in the ancient world. The entire structure was made of pure marble. But this gigantic shrine was not just a center of worship. Underneath its roof, it was more like a small city. The interior of the building occupied an area of almost 100,000 square feet and towered 60 feet high.[1]
1. As you walked inside, you would see hundreds of eunuchs, priestesses, temple prostitutes, singers, and dancers all leading the people in their WORSHIP. One writer said that the worship was a type of hysteria where the people, with shouts and music, worked themselves into frenzies of shameless immoral activity.[2]
2. On the walls and throughout the building was displayed the ancient world's largest collections of ART including silver statuettes, sculptures, and beautiful paintings.
3. A quarter mile-wide perimeter served a gigantic PRISON for criminals.
4. The Ephesian BANK was the greatest financial institution in the ancient world. A sacred temple was the perfect place for a bank in those days because the people feared vengeance from the gods.
5. The Temple was also the center of COMMERCE. Ephesus was a port city, and so tourists visited from everywhere. Pilgrims came by the thousands to worship. Because sensuality was the chief aspect of their religion, it was extremely popular.
6. The big COMMODITY was making little silver idols for tourists. Pilgrims from all over the ancient world would travel to Ephesus for one of these idols. Silversmiths made a fortune selling these idols. These idols were everywhere—in people’s homes, around their necks, on their wrists or ankles, and some even fastened them to the front of their chariots. Acts 19:23-41 records that when Paul came to the city, he caused a revolt of silversmiths who feared his preaching would ruin their business.
Now we live in a world very similar to the Ephesians. Our world is every bit as empty and vain as Paul’s was. And we must as Christians be as the people of Israel, and dwell “as strangers in the land of Egypt”. We are not of this world!
If Paul could see radical transformation in that culture, don’t you believe that God can change people today?
We’ll he’s not going to change this world by using people who are just like this world. That’s why Paul says—you’ve got to be different! You cannot be like the world!! Don’t be like the ungodly all around you!!
III. Now we need to see the Prohibitions for Holiness. Paul gives three and a half chapters of deep and profound and sacred doctrine, and the first thing he speaks with divine authority, and he says, whatever you do, “walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (verse 17).
Paul says, don’t do it!! Holiness is positive, but it is also negative! If you love the Lord, you’ve got to hate sin. If you love purity, then you’ve got to hate filthiness. You can’t be neutral. Paul speaks and gives a testimony from the Lord Himself that the Ephesians should (verse 17), “walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind”.
The principle here is that we should not allow people who are ignorant and blind of the Gospel and have no relationship with Jesus Christ to influence our lives!! We need to see lost people as they really are and avoid their influence!!
How are we to live differently? The best way is to be reminded again of what our life used to be like, and indeed, what the life of every single lost person in the world is like right now.
A. Avoid Vanity. Verse 17b, The ungodly “walk in the vanity of their mind”. The word vanity means “emptiness”. Don’t get caught up in things that have no eternal value!
What is the real meaning in life? Why are we here? Is it to have as much fun, and make as much money, and experience as little hurt as possible? Is man’s chief end his own happiness? That is vanity!
Jeremiah 10:2 says it this way, “Learn not the way of the heathen”. Paul’s admonition that we would not walk as Gentiles walk in their vanity is as old as David’s words in Psalm 1:1, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” 1 John 2:15 says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
The world is vain! It promises meaning and purpose and fulfillment, but it is not true. We cannot trust the outward presentation of this world. There is a trillion dollar marketing industry that deals in images trying to convince you that the world is full of meaning and significance. Everywhere you look the lost world is plastered on billboards and magazine covers with smiles. They would like you to think they have happy meaningful purposeful lives. The Bible tells a different story. When we look through the lens of Ephesians 4 and verse 17, we find that these people are walking “in the vanity of their mind”.
We need to lay aside the lens with which we often view our world, through our human senses. God tells us throughout His Word that there is a reality that goes beyond what our physical senses are capable of understanding. There is a spiritual reality. We need to “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
We need to give a good assessment to the things of this world. Like Paul in Philippians 3:8, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,”
The things of this present world are worthless. All that we held important as lost people is not worthless.
Avoid the vain show that this world offers you!! “It's tragic how people will exhaust their money, their bodies, and their minds trying to find meaning in life, only they never find it. Why? Because their thinking is empty and useless, accomplishing nothing.”[3] Why? Because they do not have Christ. Jesus said, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). The life of the ungodly is a life without Jesus. It is vanity!!!
B. We also need to Avoid Spiritual Blindness, verse 18, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart”. Lost people are blind to eternal things. Everything you do, you must do in light of Judgment Day. You must live in the light of Jesus presence continually and make every decision accordingly.
1. The ungodly have a spiritually Darkened understanding.
The Greek word translated “darkened” means "to make blind." The lost, the ungodly have “the understanding darkened” as far as spiritual things. They cannot understand spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
2. The ungodly are Alienated from God.
Verse 18 says they are “being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness [willful hardening] of their heart.”
They may say they believe in God. They may go to church. But for all practical purposes, they have no communion with God!! It’s all a show. Now what is the cause of this? Two things:
a. Ignorance: they have never been spiritually introduced to God through the Holy Spirit. They are as Ephesians 2 says “dead in trespasses and sins”. As Romans 1:28 says, they do not “like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind”.
So spiritual ignorance—they have not as verse 20, “learned Christ”. They’ve never had an encounter with the living Christ. Why is this? It’s not because He is not manifest everywhere…. NO it is because of spiritual blindness.
b. Blindness
· The Greek word translated "blindness" (porosis) refers to a stone harder than marble.
· It was also a medical term that referred to the callus that forms around a broken bone.
An unbeliever's life is like that—hard and without feeling toward God. Every time he takes another step of willful rejection, he pours more concrete on his heart. The process is obvious—a man sins and feels guilt and remorse, sometimes very deeply, but tries to deny it. The more a person tries to eliminate his guilt by rationalization, self-justification, transferring the blame, or by denying sin and eliminating morality, the further away he pushes his guilt until he can't sense it anymore.
So the question you are asking is can man come to God through his own will? No he must be drawn, that is true. But man’s will is so hard that if God himself came down to him, he would not believe. There must be a supernatural work in the heart!
John 12:37 says, "Though he [Jesus] had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him." The people had sufficient information to believe in Jesus, but they willfully chose to be alienated from the life of God, to be ignorant, and to petrify their hearts with constant rejection. Verse 38 continues, "That the saying of Isaiah, the prophet, might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them" (verses 38-40). They could not believe!! Why??? Because they hardened their own heart? Yes. But also because God himself left them in that hardened condition. As Deuteronomy 29:4 says, “Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”
Man’s greatest need is a new heart! Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Avoid Spiritual Blindness!
C. Thirdly Avoid Shameless Living. verse 19a, “Who being past feeling”. The idea here is that people don’t have a tender heart—they are not spiritually sensitive, they are beyond blushing. A true believer has a vulnerability to people and especially to God.
When unbelievers continue in sin and turn themselves off from the life of God, they will become shameless--past any feeling. They become insensitive and apathetic, unconcerned about the consequences of their behavior.
Illustration: According to an old story, a Spartan youth stole a fox but ran into the man who owned the fox. Not wanting to betray the fact that he'd stolen the fox and that it was hidden under his tunic, the youth remained motionless while the fox tore at his midsection. Our society stands just as motionless while sin tears it apart. People have become so good at wearing a mask that they don't feel anything. That gives rise to more shameless behavior because all standards of morality are ignored.
D. Avoid Satisfaction through the Senses. We call that sensuality. As verse 19b indicates, these are people who show they are lost, because eventually they give “themselves [COMPLETELY] over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” The Greek word translated "lasciviousness" (aselgeia) refers to the person who is so dominated by sin that he doesn't care what people say or think. He is not shocked by his own sin—he has no sense of decency or shame.
1. Lasciviousness: All that the world knows is fulfillment through what they see and what they hear. To get satisfaction, they watch another movie, smoke another cigarette, take another drug, watch another sport’s game, drink another bear, and lust after something else in this world. Their desires are never fulfilled, but they keep wanting more through “greediness”. This world never satisfies, so the sins get worse and worse, and it leads them to uncleanness.
2. "To work [Gk., ergasia, "business"] all uncleanness with greediness" implies those people make a business out of evil and lust. And they are!! There was a day when dirty business was hidden; now it's wholesale. Just about product you buy today is sold not by marketing the product, but by marketing lust with the product. Pornography, prostitution, X-rated films, suggestive TV programs, and all types of uncleanness have a huge market share in our country. The wickedest lifestyles are seen as normal. It is in the highest offices in our land. Our congressman are promoting it. Even our Vice President is seen publically supporting
Illustration: Forbes magazine[4] ran a lead article entitled "The X-Rated Economy" by James Cook. He began by stating the obvious: "Pornography is ... no longer an illegal business. The market for pornography ... is not confined to perverts or other emotional cripples. To the contrary, the largest part of the market ... is middle class people.... In an increasingly ... permissive society, those who enjoy pornography are free to revel in it" (p. 81).
Cook went on to say that according to the California Department of Justice, the nation's pornographers do more than four billion dollars' worth of business a year--more than the combined incomes of the often supportive movie and music industries.” By the way, this article was written in 1978. The number is now $57 BILLION dollars worldwide, with 2.5 billion dollars spent on Internet pornography.
Application: I’m telling you, you had better watch out!! You may not be involved in this stuff, but your neighbors are. And the internet is!
According to a recent study[5]…
· 12% of total websites on the World Wide Web are pornographic.
· 25% of total search engine requests are porn-related.
· The largest consumer of internet pornography is the 12-17 age group
This world is after you and your children, and it takes one moment of time to scare your mind or your mind or your child’s mind forever!! “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me” (Psalm 101:3).
Don’t be influenced by this world! Everything you can control in your life ought to be clean and above reproach. Get filters for your Internet! Get accountability! Get rid of your cable television. You say, I don’t watch the bad channels. I don’t know anyone who has cable television who has never seen anything offensive from time to time. Don’t put that before your eyes, and don’t pay to support this industry. You are being influenced by the ungodly.
Psalm 1:1-2, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.’ And it says you be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
If you plant your self by the TV and the Internet, you will shrivel up!! How much do you watch TV and surf the NET? Do you surf and watch more than you pray and read the Word? If that is the case, I guarantee you are having serious spiritual struggles.
Why not cut it off? Get accountability!! Has your Christian growth in HOLINESS halted? Media is probably a big factor in it!
IV. Finally as we close, I want to look at what we have learned in the book of Ephesians thus far and give you the six Pillars of Holiness & Christian growth. These are six non-negotiable elements that will keep your life growing and changing! I want to give you six “A”s of a Changed and a Changing Life. In other words, these are six necessary elements of Christian growth:
As they say in the city, “Are there two of yous out there?” Is there a difference between your public and private persona? One to impress people, and the real you that is seen in private? Is there the church you and the neighborhood you? Are you one way at home, and then before you walk into the church doors, you put on your plastic smiles? Are you a Christian only on Sunday, or every day of the week? Listen, if there is a difference between your secular life and your spiritual life, then you have a false concept of what it means to live the Christian life. A Christian is accountable, not because of a pastor or a counselor, but because of the Holy Spirit of God! We take the Holy Spirit everywhere we go! And a true Christian is constantly asking God to remove all hypocrisy from his life, no matter what it takes. We want to all be Nathaniels that are children of God “in whom there is no guile”: real, genuine, sincere. So you must have an awareness of your continual ACCOUNTABILITY by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
I’ve seen pastor-centered churches and Word-centered churches. A man-centered church will have its candle put out, but the churches that last hundreds of years realize that men are expendable, but the Word of God is not expendable. Now the office of God’s man is respected, we have one Lord, and we this morning are all brethren. It is the Word of God that has rule over us. And whenever the Word of God speaks, we are not dealing in the realm of opinion. It’s not something that we can just take or leave. Where the Word speaks we are bound as believers to obey it, to submit to it, to walk in it. Believers are known by their fruit of obedience to the Word of God. If you love me, keep my commandments. The more God’s Word rules your every decision, the more you are growing. The proportion of the rule of God’s Word over your life is the measure of your Christian growth. And any model of Christian growth that ignores the AUTHORITY of God’s Word, or replaces it with the voice of a man, is in grave error.
The new birth is Christ living His life through you! It’s not something you pick up and you put down. It’s not something you try today and if you don’t like that’s ok. People say “Well, just try Jesus”. You don’t try Jesus! You see we don’t live a certain way to become different. That’s legalism. That’s trying to change yourself. We live a certain way because we have been changed by God!! We have been saved so that we will live differently. So, you say you are a Christian? Is there enough evidence you of being a Christian?
So just to review, the six necessary elements of Christian growth are:
Conclusion: Now today, we took a trip to Ephesus. And there were three types of people in Ephesus, just like there are three types of people here today.
Which person are you? Are you still living in and loving vanity. Let me draw the line of demarcation for you as verse 20 says, “ye have not so learned Christ”.
That means if you are lost, then you have no power over your flesh, and you need to come to Christ. You don’t learn vanity from Christ. If you know Christ you reject vanity and all the rest.
Believers shouldn't be dabbling in any of the sin characteristic of unbelievers. We are to be a light on a hill, separate from the evil around us. We are to be different. The Lord Jesus Christ purchased us at the cost of His own life’s blood. He gave us a new nature that is holy, undefiled, and sanctified forever. He simply asks us to live up to what He has given us by discarding our old lifestyle and taking on our new one.
If you are a child of God, would you covenant with God that He can have your hands and your eyes and your mind? If you claim to be a Christian, then life like it! As 2 Timothy 2:19, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal [THIS MARKING, THIS LABEL, THIS IDENTIFICATION MARK], The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
Closing Hymn: 229 O Come, O Come Emmanuel
[1] Pliny recorded the length of this new temple at 425 feet and the width at 225 feet. There were 127 columns, 60 feet in height, supported the roof (Pliny the Elder, XXXVI 21).
[2] Diogenes Laertius: Lives of Emminent Philosophers, 2 vols., R.D. Hicks, ed. [N.Y.: Putnam, 1925], 2:409-10.
[3] John MacArthur, “On with the Old, Off with the New, Part 1” study.
[4] [18 Sept. 1978] :81-92
[5] From http://www.internetfilterreview.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html - September, 2003