Christian Wisdom 4 (Ephesians 4:17-24)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:06.280 Let's turn our attention to Ephesians, chapter four, Fusians four, verses seventeen 2 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:12.349 through twenty four. Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that 3 00:00:12.429 --> 00:00:16.710 you must no longer walk, as the gentiles do, in the futility of 4 00:00:16.789 --> 00:00:21.899 their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of 5 00:00:22.059 --> 00:00:26.980 God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of 6 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:33.219 heart. They have become callous and given, have given themselves up to sensuality, 7 00:00:33.939 --> 00:00:38.689 greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But this is not the way 8 00:00:38.729 --> 00:00:44.009 you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him, and we're taught 9 00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:48.009 in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your own 10 00:00:48.329 --> 00:00:53.079 old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through 11 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:57.759 deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and 12 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:02.359 to put on the new self created after the likeness of God, in True 13 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:08.590 Righteousness and holiness may be seated. We saying him before we started. I 14 00:01:08.629 --> 00:01:11.909 want to read to you again. Be requested this one hundred and seventy two 15 00:01:14.670 --> 00:01:19.340 the things that are spoken of in this hymn are very much what is spoken 16 00:01:19.379 --> 00:01:23.739 of in our passage one hundred seventy two. Speak O Lord, says. 17 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:26.579 Speak O Lord, as we come to you to receive the food of Your 18 00:01:26.659 --> 00:01:30.780 Holy Word, take your truth, plant it deep in us, shape and 19 00:01:30.980 --> 00:01:36.370 fashion us in your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today 20 00:01:36.489 --> 00:01:38.769 in our acts of love and our deeds of faith. Speak a Lord, 21 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:44.930 and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory. And the other two 22 00:01:45.010 --> 00:01:49.400 verses are along these lines. To sway that this this prayer that, as 23 00:01:49.519 --> 00:01:53.519 God would speak, not only would we begin to see rightly, but that 24 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:59.719 our lives would be changed by it, that something would happen by the power 25 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:04.269 of his word, the power of the word of the truth, as Paul 26 00:02:04.310 --> 00:02:08.270 says here in Ephesians, that is, in Jesus Christ. This is an 27 00:02:08.310 --> 00:02:15.819 extremely important connection, because there are people who will claim that when you preach 28 00:02:15.060 --> 00:02:22.060 and teach a strong Gospel, a clear Gospel message, that were saved not 29 00:02:22.259 --> 00:02:27.020 of ourselves but of Jesus Christ and him alone, that people will abandon all 30 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:31.250 good works, that people won't care about the law and even be against the 31 00:02:31.409 --> 00:02:38.530 law, or sometimes they're called Antinomians, anti law Ian's is another way to 32 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:44.400 put that. The idea is it's or the accusation as if you tell people 33 00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:51.400 that Jesus is the soul source of their salvation and that everything is given freely 34 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:57.000 in him and that they contribute nothing of their own works to that, that 35 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:00.550 they'll just live of lives that are ungodly, that they won't try anymore, 36 00:03:00.669 --> 00:03:05.789 what do you you'll have churches that are full of rotten and terrible people, 37 00:03:05.830 --> 00:03:09.909 people that claim to be of God but show nothing of that in their lives. 38 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:15.979 But what the hymn says and what the scriptures say is that's not what 39 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:21.780 happens. We've just gone through a passage on before this that emphasized that the 40 00:03:21.979 --> 00:03:27.449 Lord Jesus, in his ascended glory, works in his church through the Ministry 41 00:03:27.610 --> 00:03:31.009 of the word, that he pours out gifts on his church and evangelists and 42 00:03:31.090 --> 00:03:37.449 pastors, teachers, apostles prophets to be ministers of the word, to establish 43 00:03:37.490 --> 00:03:40.439 us and make us strong, to help us grow into maturity into the head 44 00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:46.680 who is in Christ. And then here in this passage, after emphasizing the 45 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:51.479 gift of that Ministry that Christ gives to us and the benefits of it, 46 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:55.590 now he talks about the way in which our lives are changed. He commands 47 00:03:55.629 --> 00:04:00.349 us on the basis of these things that God has promised, these things that 48 00:04:00.469 --> 00:04:04.310 God is doing, this grace alone that we have in Christ alone. He 49 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:11.539 tells us how that affects our walk. Teaching centered on the word of Christ 50 00:04:12.139 --> 00:04:15.980 has an effect, and that's true of every lesson right that's truly learned. 51 00:04:16.459 --> 00:04:19.740 Right, if I teach a student to fight, take a cellow student, 52 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:24.100 let's say, and I teach them how to hold the bow properly and on 53 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:27.810 your pinky goes here and your index finger goes here and you want to wait 54 00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:30.290 it this way. I could tell them all that, I can show them 55 00:04:30.410 --> 00:04:33.209 pictures, but until they take the bow in their hand, hold it properly 56 00:04:33.329 --> 00:04:39.040 and draw it across the string and make a beautiful sound, the lesson really 57 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:42.720 hasn't been learned, at least not for this objective, not that, for 58 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:46.720 the objective of making beautiful music on a cello. Well's the same thing with 59 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:53.949 Christ. God's objective in teaching US Christ as not so that we might be 60 00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:57.790 able to list off a handful of things that are true about him, like 61 00:04:57.990 --> 00:05:00.910 memorizing a chart or a graph, even as those things are true, but 62 00:05:00.990 --> 00:05:05.910 it's that our lives would be changed, that they would be conformed to him, 63 00:05:06.029 --> 00:05:10.379 is, to his image. God's goal, as he says, is 64 00:05:10.540 --> 00:05:13.139 that we would be renewed in our minds, that we would put on the 65 00:05:13.220 --> 00:05:16.620 new self, as he says in Verse Twenty Four, created after the likeness 66 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:25.170 of God, in True Righteousness and holiness. Well, I get frustrated sometimes 67 00:05:25.250 --> 00:05:30.050 as a when I teach cello, occasionally that I'm not able to produce the 68 00:05:30.170 --> 00:05:32.810 results that I want. Not Always, most of the time, but not 69 00:05:32.889 --> 00:05:39.600 always occasionally. There are instances where it seems like work and we'll work and 70 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:45.240 we'll work, and yet we struggle still to reach the objective. God, 71 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:49.149 however, always reaches his objective, his word. It never goes out and 72 00:05:49.350 --> 00:05:57.509 returns to him empty. They he changes our lives, he makes wisdom truly 73 00:05:57.589 --> 00:06:01.629 happen. So when the spirit of Christ accompanies the word of Christ, we 74 00:06:01.670 --> 00:06:06.379 might say that beautiful music is made in our lives, beautiful music for the 75 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:12.899 praise of God. That's what this passage is about and it's it's a way 76 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:19.370 of helping us to see and understand and live in very clear terms the way 77 00:06:19.449 --> 00:06:21.730 we ought the way we ought to live, the way we ought to to 78 00:06:21.889 --> 00:06:28.490 walk. What does he say? Paul says now, on the basis of 79 00:06:28.529 --> 00:06:31.170 all these things, now this I say and testify in the Lord, that 80 00:06:31.329 --> 00:06:38.079 you must no longer walk as the gentiles do in the futility of their minds. 81 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:43.360 He says this in a very interesting way. Right he's talking to these 82 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:50.550 Ephasians who themselves were gentiles, the meaning those who are not biological children of 83 00:06:50.629 --> 00:06:55.430 Abraham, those we are not Jews. He speaks to them as gentiles, 84 00:06:55.990 --> 00:07:00.459 and usually the contrast in scriptures between the gentiles and the Jews. But notice 85 00:07:00.500 --> 00:07:03.540 what he says. He doesn't say I want you to no longer walk as 86 00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:08.339 gentiles. Instead I want you to walk as Jews. He says I no 87 00:07:08.459 --> 00:07:11.699 longer want you to walk as gentiles, I want you to walk in the 88 00:07:11.819 --> 00:07:16.050 way that you learned, is cry in Christ, which is not disconnected from 89 00:07:17.529 --> 00:07:21.569 what we have in the Old Testament. But there is something that's remarkably new. 90 00:07:23.529 --> 00:07:27.329 He wants them no longer to walk his gentiles, but to walk his 91 00:07:27.449 --> 00:07:32.920 Christians, and it's a different kind of way. These Ephesians used to live 92 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:39.160 one way and now they ought to live another way, and that's important to 93 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:43.639 note. That there is a different way of Christ. There are people who 94 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.230 think, or pretend sometimes, that they can talk about Jesus with their lips 95 00:07:46.269 --> 00:07:53.509 and yet fail to love them with their hands. They are deceived, and 96 00:07:53.670 --> 00:07:58.069 that's because, as he says here, they've either not been taught properly or 97 00:07:58.310 --> 00:08:01.259 they've refused to learn. Bad teacher, bad students, one or the other. 98 00:08:01.899 --> 00:08:07.500 But he says, notice what he says. He says Verse Twenty. 99 00:08:07.579 --> 00:08:11.019 But this is not the way that you have learned Christ, assuming that you 100 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:15.769 have heard about him and we're taught in him, as the truth is in 101 00:08:15.970 --> 00:08:18.490 him. There is a way of Christ, in other words, and this 102 00:08:18.569 --> 00:08:22.649 is important, to know, a way of walking, and it's a way 103 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:28.879 that is marked by contrast from the gentile way. It's the opposite of ignorance, 104 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.960 it's the opposite of sinfulness, it's the opposite of callousness, and you 105 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.159 can learn something there. If you do not know, or if you do 106 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:45.190 not care about knowing Jesus, if you have a callous heart, if you 107 00:08:45.269 --> 00:08:48.230 don't feel the importance of his commands or have a desire to obey him, 108 00:08:48.269 --> 00:08:54.990 if you are, as he describes, greedy not just for things but greedy 109 00:08:54.190 --> 00:09:01.340 to practice impurity, like that's the thing that you're thinking about meditating on. 110 00:09:01.899 --> 00:09:05.899 What are the ways in which I can practice impurity? Then you should know 111 00:09:07.059 --> 00:09:11.409 that you're not a Christian. You're not walking in the way that you learned 112 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:16.049 in Christ though. You are walking in darkness and ignorance, in the ways 113 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:20.370 of the gentiles. In other words, as we have testified in many places 114 00:09:20.450 --> 00:09:24.720 throughout scripture, the way you walk can tell you about who you are. 115 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:31.440 So what is the Christian way then? Paul says it's putting off these old 116 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:39.029 things and setting them aside, putting taking off the old man and putting on 117 00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:46.029 the new man. There's this old spaghetti western that I like to watch from 118 00:09:46.029 --> 00:09:52.470 time to time and it begins with this cowboy who's being drug through the desert 119 00:09:52.590 --> 00:09:58.899 on a horse. It's very slow, goes on forever, but he's he's 120 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:03.940 being drugg by this horse. He's on a kind of Cot that's at an 121 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:09.129 angle, so the top parts attached to the horse somehow and then the bottom 122 00:10:09.169 --> 00:10:13.210 parts just dragging along the ground and he's going through the desert and all this 123 00:10:13.450 --> 00:10:18.009 dust is being kicked up and he's just sleeping through the whole thing and, 124 00:10:18.169 --> 00:10:20.129 as is a dust everywhere, dust everywhere. Well, he finally reaches his 125 00:10:20.210 --> 00:10:24.080 destination. He closed times into a bath. The bath turns, you know, 126 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:28.679 dark with mud. Basically finally gets out of the bath a little bit 127 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:35.120 cleaner. He takes his shirt, does one of these fool things, fills 128 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:39.710 the fills the air throughout the room that he's in with dust, I guess, 129 00:10:39.789 --> 00:10:41.710 just this big cloud of dust, and then he puts on his shirt 130 00:10:43.149 --> 00:10:46.830 and and leaves. It's a funny scene and it but it's a way of 131 00:10:46.909 --> 00:10:50.779 introducing this character. It tells you something about him. One thing it tells 132 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:54.500 you about this particular character is that he's lazy. He just doesn't want to 133 00:10:54.539 --> 00:10:58.179 do any work. He doesn't want to do anything. The other thing it 134 00:10:58.299 --> 00:11:01.740 tells him it tells you that this is a guy who doesn't change. He's 135 00:11:01.820 --> 00:11:05.809 set in his ways. In that character gets played throughout the movie. I 136 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:09.250 always think about this scene when I think about this language of putting on and 137 00:11:09.370 --> 00:11:16.690 putting off and how ridiculous it is to take our sins and our dirt and 138 00:11:16.809 --> 00:11:20.919 our crime to be made new in Christ, to be baptized into the name 139 00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:24.120 of the father, the sign of the Holy Spirit and the todake care old 140 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:31.360 sinful flesh and just put it right back on. Right. When Christians put 141 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:35.070 off the way of life, they're putting off something that's corrupt, something that's 142 00:11:35.190 --> 00:11:41.149 dirty, something that's impure. You don't put that kind of thing back on 143 00:11:41.350 --> 00:11:46.110 after you've been baptized, after you've been cleansed, after you've been washed and 144 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:52.659 regenerated. Instead, we are to put on new, clean clothes. And 145 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:54.860 you know what that feels like, right, if you've been working out in 146 00:11:54.940 --> 00:12:00.259 the yard and you're dirty and sweaty all the way down there through every single 147 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:03.529 layer, and you take a bath and you come out and you put on 148 00:12:03.690 --> 00:12:09.490 fresh, clean clothes, it feels great. If that's true for working in 149 00:12:09.570 --> 00:12:13.730 the yard. Can you imagine whether that is? How true that is in 150 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:20.919 spiritual terms and eternal terms? And the way that we put on is not 151 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:26.720 some arbitrary way, it's not of a bunch of random rules that somebody came 152 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:31.389 up with. It is the very way, the very law and love of 153 00:12:31.710 --> 00:12:39.070 God, the way in which Jesus himself locked. As you read through the 154 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:46.379 Gospels and see Jesus acting and interacting in various ways, you ought to always 155 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:52.539 be amazed at how pure he is, how wisely he always act, how 156 00:12:52.620 --> 00:12:56.059 I acts, how loving he always is. Think about this example that we 157 00:12:56.139 --> 00:13:01.009 read earlier in the service with him. In this rich young man, young 158 00:13:01.129 --> 00:13:03.889 man, comes to him and ask them this question. What must I do 159 00:13:03.009 --> 00:13:07.769 to have eternal life? and Jesus says, you know, just do all 160 00:13:07.809 --> 00:13:11.769 the commands. Well, I've done that right, the young man says, 161 00:13:11.809 --> 00:13:13.679 I've. Well, which commands? Tell me first. Which commands do you 162 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:16.120 mean? He says, well, you know, honor Your father and your 163 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:20.399 mother, don't murder, don't commit adultery, you know the law. And 164 00:13:20.440 --> 00:13:26.480 he says, I've done all that. Then Jesus cuts to his heart and 165 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:31.429 he says give away your possessions to the poor. He tells him this because 166 00:13:31.429 --> 00:13:37.990 the man had great possessions and was treasuring them above all things. But the 167 00:13:37.029 --> 00:13:43.340 man didn't want to follow Jesus. Man didn't want to give those things away. 168 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:48.580 He didn't want to follow and serve things that were lasting and eternal. 169 00:13:50.419 --> 00:14:01.210 He wanted his stuff and he went away a sad jesus, in this whole 170 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:07.690 interaction, speaks perfectly in accordance with truth. Doesn't have to use a lot 171 00:14:07.690 --> 00:14:11.720 of words. Even there is this he says what he says and love and 172 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:18.519 an honesty. He offers the man eternal life. Follow me, he says, 173 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:22.519 let go of the things of this world. This is what our Lord 174 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:28.549 is, this is what he does. And Paul says that this is what 175 00:14:28.990 --> 00:14:35.350 we become, this way of holiness and wisdom and Righteousness, true righteousness, 176 00:14:35.669 --> 00:14:39.259 True Holiness, not just pretend righteousness. Yes, of course I do all 177 00:14:39.299 --> 00:14:45.139 the Commandments, but righteousness that is from God. Righteousness, this from Jesus, 178 00:14:46.059 --> 00:14:48.220 when we are renewed by the spirit, when we are created, he 179 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:52.820 says, after the likeness of God and True Righteousness and holiness. This is 180 00:14:52.889 --> 00:14:58.129 what we become. So let me ask you for a second. What does 181 00:14:58.289 --> 00:15:01.730 that life look like? Right? So, if you were to describe this 182 00:15:03.210 --> 00:15:07.519 way of life, this way of Christ, a life of a living in 183 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:15.799 him, what might that look like? What kind of ways would you what 184 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:20.549 kind of ways would you desire to walk? Well, Paul tells us he 185 00:15:20.629 --> 00:15:24.190 doesn't leave it to our imaginations, although certainly we could come up with some 186 00:15:24.350 --> 00:15:28.669 good things and relying on our memories in the word, but listen to what 187 00:15:28.750 --> 00:15:33.149 he says and verses twenty five through following. This is the verse is right 188 00:15:33.190 --> 00:15:37.500 after our passage for this evening, he says. Therefore, having put away 189 00:15:37.539 --> 00:15:41.820 falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for 190 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:46.340 we are members one of another. Be Angry and do not sin, do 191 00:15:46.460 --> 00:15:50.289 not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to 192 00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:54.210 the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but let rather let him 193 00:15:54.210 --> 00:15:58.049 labor doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something 194 00:15:58.730 --> 00:16:03.210 to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your 195 00:16:03.250 --> 00:16:07.679 mouths, but only such as good for building up, as fits the occasion, 196 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:11.440 that it may give grace to those who hear, and do not grieve 197 00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:15.480 the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of 198 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:19.629 redemption. But all bitterness and wrath and anger or and clamor and slander be 199 00:16:19.750 --> 00:16:25.149 put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, 200 00:16:25.350 --> 00:16:30.710 tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, 201 00:16:30.990 --> 00:16:37.779 be imitators of God as beloved children, and Walk In love, as 202 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:41.980 Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice 203 00:16:42.059 --> 00:16:47.529 to God. He continues on this way through the rest of the chapter outlining 204 00:16:47.610 --> 00:16:52.690 these various ways in which we we walk the way of Christ, that we 205 00:16:52.850 --> 00:17:00.600 live learned in him. The Paul doesn't say it explicitly here because he's been 206 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:07.599 saying it explicitly in all the verses before this, but Paul is Paul has 207 00:17:07.799 --> 00:17:14.279 very much in mind that this life is not ours by some kind of a 208 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:18.309 personal strengthen us. It's something that's given to us. Remember he said you 209 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:22.630 were dead in your trespasses and sins. You have been saved by grace. 210 00:17:23.509 --> 00:17:26.990 In other words, we walk differently because of what God has done in our 211 00:17:27.109 --> 00:17:30.660 lives. Notice verse thirty that I just read a moment ago. Do Not 212 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:34.980 Grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day 213 00:17:36.059 --> 00:17:41.900 of redemption. We act in a way because God has done something. According 214 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:47.529 to his ways and his life. Paul has been teaching us that our hope 215 00:17:47.730 --> 00:17:52.529 comes not from our personal holiness or our actions, but by the actions in 216 00:17:52.650 --> 00:17:57.759 the power of God who has saved us in Christ. So if you think 217 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:04.920 that you can obtain life in God and and take his power and His Holiness 218 00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:10.960 out of Heaven, kind of like plucking an apple from a tree, you've 219 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:15.950 not been listening. You don't understand what it means to walk in this way, 220 00:18:15.589 --> 00:18:21.710 to walk in Christ. We don't obtain life in God by grabbing it 221 00:18:21.869 --> 00:18:26.299 from him, by taking something from ourselves which does not belong to us. 222 00:18:27.500 --> 00:18:33.740 No, we obtain life in God when he takes us like a dead branch 223 00:18:33.579 --> 00:18:40.940 and grafts us into himself and then does this miracle so that what is dead 224 00:18:41.380 --> 00:18:48.849 comes to life by the power of his life in us, his spirit in 225 00:18:49.930 --> 00:18:57.039 you. That's how we begin to grow and that's why we trust Jesus and 226 00:18:57.200 --> 00:19:03.440 his strength for our righteousness, far a way of living, for forgiveness for 227 00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:07.000 doing all of these hard things that Paul outlines, and other hard things he 228 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:14.349 will say to some of them up using five verse when he says be imitators 229 00:19:14.470 --> 00:19:19.750 of God. If you want to do that, apart from God, good 230 00:19:19.789 --> 00:19:23.339 luck. I don't know what else to tell you. I it's it's it's 231 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:30.220 going to be a vanity, a striving after the wind, but with God 232 00:19:30.339 --> 00:19:34.859 working in you, with the spirit of God who has sealed you for the 233 00:19:34.900 --> 00:19:40.730 day of Redemption, with Christ who is ruling over you and working in you, 234 00:19:40.809 --> 00:19:48.210 you cannot you cannot fail, because God will not fail. He will 235 00:19:48.289 --> 00:19:52.920 work in you and perfect you and purify you and in one day he will 236 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:59.799 glorify you and make you more alive than you've ever experienced in your entire life. 237 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:06.960 This passage, then, is about the way of growth. The live 238 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:12.190 branch produces fruit, the dead one lying on the ground does not. The 239 00:20:12.269 --> 00:20:18.950 Christian walks by faith in this new way. The unbeliever walks in unbelief, 240 00:20:18.589 --> 00:20:25.460 in the old ways of sin. If you are a Christian, don't walk 241 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:30.380 in the old way. Why would you want to when you've been given this 242 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:36.890 very gift of God? If you're not a Christian, then God's message to 243 00:20:36.970 --> 00:20:41.329 you tonight is that you are in danger. God's message is that the callousness 244 00:20:41.369 --> 00:20:48.289 of in your heart towards the things of God makes you ignorant and alienated from 245 00:20:48.329 --> 00:20:52.519 him. You know what it is to be calloused, right? Let's few 246 00:20:52.839 --> 00:20:56.000 burn your hand really badly and it creates a callous, or something like that 247 00:20:56.279 --> 00:21:00.160 on it, so that you cannot feel any more. That's what it's like 248 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:04.509 when our hearts are calloused. We we don't feel any more, our consciences 249 00:21:04.750 --> 00:21:12.349 aren't pricked by the things of God. Being alienated from his life being callous 250 00:21:12.430 --> 00:21:17.390 to his things. We are enslaved, tricked by the deceits of our own 251 00:21:17.390 --> 00:21:21.180 hearts. If you are not a Christian and you continue to walk in the 252 00:21:21.259 --> 00:21:26.380 gentile ways and in the darkness and ignorance of your heart, then in a 253 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:32.660 sense, you might say you are a trapped soul, trapped not by something 254 00:21:32.700 --> 00:21:38.329 outside of you but by something inside of you. Your soul is held captive 255 00:21:38.529 --> 00:21:45.009 by its very own nature. You lust after impurity, and impurity you get. 256 00:21:45.009 --> 00:21:49.319 But these desires, this impurity, leads nowhere but to the grave, 257 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:55.759 or corrupting talk, like he says. Why? Why is it called corrupting? 258 00:21:55.799 --> 00:22:03.670 Because it leads to death, to corruption. The way of the gentiles, 259 00:22:04.549 --> 00:22:12.150 the way of unbelief, leads nowhere but down. Momentary pleasures exchanged for 260 00:22:12.230 --> 00:22:18.339 eternal alienation from God. And if this is the way in which you walk, 261 00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:25.220 this is a dangerous way, is a way of death. But perhaps 262 00:22:25.259 --> 00:22:32.329 you knew this already. There is, however, a second word for you 263 00:22:32.490 --> 00:22:36.809 here as well, if you're not a Christian, though Paul writes to the 264 00:22:36.930 --> 00:22:41.849 Ephesian Church, though he writes to Christians. What the Christian has is what 265 00:22:41.009 --> 00:22:47.240 you can have as well if you turn to Christ. The thing you've got 266 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:51.440 to remember is that the Christian who's sitting next to you tonight is nothing special. 267 00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:57.670 They're just like you. As you heard from this passage. They were 268 00:22:59.190 --> 00:23:03.589 trapped, enslaved, greedy in their former way of life, just like you. 269 00:23:04.910 --> 00:23:10.509 What happened? What changed? What happened was that they heard the way 270 00:23:10.549 --> 00:23:14.339 of Christ, that they were taught the way of Christ, just as you 271 00:23:14.500 --> 00:23:19.619 have been taught tonight. They heard the call to follow him and they did 272 00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:26.259 not because of any kind of greatness in them, but because God was working 273 00:23:26.259 --> 00:23:30.809 in their lives. The Light of the Gospel shined into their lives and they 274 00:23:30.849 --> 00:23:36.009 followed the light. They let it draw them out of the darkness. Will 275 00:23:36.049 --> 00:23:41.519 you, and if you are a Christian, let this be reminder to you 276 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:48.000 now that the you belong to him. There is still a battle inside, 277 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:52.160 a battle between the old man and the new men, the things of the 278 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:57.589 flesh and the things of the spirit. God has not completely finished his work 279 00:23:57.710 --> 00:24:03.509 in you and he calls you to be a part of that work. He 280 00:24:03.630 --> 00:24:06.950 calls you to be wise in the truth that you have learned, to walk 281 00:24:06.990 --> 00:24:11.099 according to the light that he has given you, to become more and more 282 00:24:11.339 --> 00:24:15.420 sensitive to His grace and his ways, to not put to put off the 283 00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:19.539 old, dirty garments of sin and to put on the clean robes of righteousness. 284 00:24:22.619 --> 00:24:26.529 You will tell me that this is difficult. You will tell me that 285 00:24:26.089 --> 00:24:33.170 the ways of the devil are deceitful and trick you. You will tell me 286 00:24:33.569 --> 00:24:37.839 that the battle is hard. Am I answer to you? Is I know. 287 00:24:40.759 --> 00:24:45.039 I know, but, as will come to eventually in chapter six, 288 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:51.000 God has not left us alone, but he's given us armor to put on, 289 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:56.309 the armor of God, which is strengthened by Christ himself, by his 290 00:24:56.349 --> 00:25:00.150 spirit who is at work in us. So how do we walk in the 291 00:25:00.230 --> 00:25:06.349 way of Christ? In the same way we began in Christ, by faith, 292 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:11.299 by trusting in him and everything that he is for us. Let's pray