Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Ephesians chapter 4, the passage
that we read and reading for our text, verses 20 and 21. But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him
and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Ephesians chapter 4 and verses
20 and 21. The apostle is setting forth
before the Ephesians how they ought to walk as a Christian. He says, walking worthy of the
vocation wherewith ye are called. Now, of course, we'd all understand
in a natural way if we were called, or I think of my own calling
as a mechanical design engineer before a ministry that vocation,
if I was to walk worthy of that, then I would be very careful
to apply my learning to those designs, to make those machines
and deal in a way that magnified that profession so that men would
say that he is a competent engineer or worthy of being an engineer. The same with an accountant,
if he was working with his accounts but falsifying them, making mistakes,
the books didn't balance, inconsistencies, not applying to the laws of the
land. All of those things you say he
is not walking worthy of the vocation that he is called. He's not walking worthy of being
an accountant. And so it is with the case of
being a Christian. The Apostle Paul, when he writes
to the Philippians, he says in chapter three and verse 14, I
press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. He viewed it, and you and I should
view it, as the high calling. In fact, the highest calling
that one could ever be called to. You say, but surely it's
a high calling to be called to be a king or a queen or a prime
minister. A high calling in this world,
but when this world is done, then those who've been in that
position, they must return the same as all of us. The dust return
to the dust from whence it came. But what of that calling in Christ
Jesus? It's an eternal calling. It is
a position of being in Christ, part of his body, which is the
picture that is set before us here in Ephesians, part of his
church, part of his bride, part of that body of which he is the
head, part of the living church of God, which has members in
it that are not just living at this present time, but are joining
with Abel and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all of those that
have gone before and all those that will follow after, put in
the number of that people, which have a very common thing, they
are all in this lifetime called by God called to be a Christian,
a follower of Christ, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, all
giving abundant evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ has died
for them on Calvary's tree, he has suffered for them, he has
bled for them, he has redeemed them, he has saved them from
their sins. And that is not just saved from
their sins, be with him in heaven, but saved from sin in this life,
from the power and dominion of it. And so this is why the apostle
here with the Ephesians is writing to people that a great change
had been made in their lives. And he is saying to them that
if they had a profession of being a Christian, that they were to
be walking worthy of that vocation wherewith ye are called. And it is a message to us, it's
a message to the church to the end of time, that they which
have been called be careful to maintain good works, be careful
to show forth the praises of him who hath called them out
of nature's darkness, and into his marvellous light. You know,
every student, everyone that professes to be a follower of
another, they really either will credit that person or discredit
that person. If one said, well, I have been
to such and such a university, but then found that they were
woeful at English, they're hopeless at maths, and you would really
question and you'd say, did you really study in that place? What a terrible reputation it
would have for its teaching, not by someone that had actually
been there being taught, by those who saw those that were taught
there or professed they were taught there and saw how they
were acting and how they were behaving. And so how the people
of God act. And Peter says that there shall
be those in the last time that by reason of such the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. And there'll be many that the
world will point to and they say, well, they say they're Christians,
but look at what they do and look at how they act. And they
blacken then the name of Christ. There will be, of course, those
that will blacken the name of Christ and of those that are
the people of God, because they are walking in the fear of the
Lord. They are walking in the right
ways of the Lord. But the way is set before us
here. Here is the appointed way, and
here is what the apostle says before us, worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called. Now, he says in the first word
of our text here, but ye have not so learned Christ. What is
he talking about? He's been speaking about those
that are walking as the other Gentiles are walking in the vanity
of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with
greediness. And he says, but ye have not
so learned Christ. Very clearly he says to them,
this is not how you have learned from Christ. This is not his
way. This is clearly not the way of
righteousness. If you see one walking in this
way, then you know they have not learned that from Christ. You have not so learned Christ. This amazing thing, when he writes
here to the Ephesians, he's writing to those who he has described
in the first chapter of the letter, to those that are the faithful
in Christ Jesus. He's writing to those who have
been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, those who have been chosen in him before the foundation
of the world, and why that we might be, should be holy and
without blame before him in love. He's not writing to a church
and he says, well, you as a church, You're not really Christians.
You're not a true church. You're not the Lord's people. He's acknowledging them as the
Lord's people and yet exhorting them to walk in this way. What does it tell us? What does
it tell us? No, God's dear children, they
still have an old nature. They still have that nature that
will go back, that will return to those things that they've
been brought out of. The path of the people of God
is a fight, fight the good fight of faith. Those who are called
are called to do a daily battle with the corruptions of their
own heart. It tells us that the People of
God, they do, the real people of God, those who are truly called,
do need to be exhorted in these things, that they do need to
be reminded of what the true vocation of the people of God
is. It tells us that we are to really
examine as to what we are walking by, by what we have been taught
or learned from Christ, or what is our old nature, or what we
have learned from the world. Remember the world and Satan
especially, he would dress everything up in words that are not the
words of scripture. It's very necessary for us to
call things by right names. Remember right at the beginning,
that the Lord called the light day and the dark that he called
night. And right the way through the
scripture, sin is to be sin, evil is to be evil. Those things
that are set before us in the word of God with names that clearly
state that they are stealing or murder or fornication or adultery
or unclean. works of evil, they are to be
called by those names and we are not to be deceived in calling
them some other names. So the Apostle writes to the
Ephesians and in doing so a message to us concerning how we have
learned Christ. And remember, in connection with
this here, the gospel is always in two parts. It is a saving from and it is
a saving to. Saving from hell and saving to
heaven. It is a saving from condemnation
under the law to there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ
Jesus. It's saving from. a life without
God and saving to a life with God. Saving from an empty profession
and saving to a profession that is of the Spirit. A false religion
to a real religion. From an empty way to a full way. Two sides are always put together. We have in the psalm, Psalm 97
and verse 10, ye that love the Lord hate evil. And then repeated again in similar
words in Amos, and we have there in chapter five, verse 15, or
verse 14 as well, see good and not evil, that ye may live, and
so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you as ye have
spoken. Hate the evil and love the good,
and establish judgment in the gate. There is not a neutral
line for the people of God. A real evidence of our love to
the Lord Jesus Christ who died to put away our sin, who rather
than just pass by it, must suffer and bleed and die. Sin is to be hated where we love
the Lord. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. And again, evil is to be defined
in the words of scripture how easy it is for us to look at
others and to look at things that maybe we are not tempted
with at all. And we say, well, that is evil,
and they are evil, and they are the wicked ones, but we are not
like them. And yet we're turning a blind
eye to those sins and things that we're doing, which are just
as evil And so the difference is set forth before us here. Paul is exhorting the Ephesians
and the Holy Spirit through Paul to us in the way that we should
walk as having learned Christ. Now, Paul warns them in this way, and then
to the further end of this chapter, he exhorts them to how they should
walk, and both putting off the former conversation, the old
man, in verse 22, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
and then on the other side being renewed in the spirit of your
mind that you put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. In exhorting them to this, he
is supposing three things in the words of our text that prove
that we have been taught by Christ that we are in a position to
be exhorted in this way. You know, the law clearly makes
known sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. But the law alone, it will never
give man power to depart from those sins. Law and terrors do
but harden, all the while they work alone. And however you might
seek to, by the deeds of the law, modify or change your behavior
and life, then that won't profit. What is vital is that in all
of our fight with sin, that it is taken all to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It won't be in any doubt with
the child of God that the help that he has comes from the Lord. You feel his weakness, feel the
sin of his heart, feel the desperate wickedness of his heart, but
be able to say my help comes from the Lord which made heaven
and earth. And it is seeking that help from
not a dead saviour but a living saviour, one that hears and answers
prayer, one that would have us follow him and do what we do
because of what he has done for us and one who has taught us. But ye have not so learned Christ. So what are those three things?
And these will be our three headings this morning that Paul is supposing
belong to these Ephesians and may we be able to see they belong
to us as well in making these exhortations and really saying,
yeah, cool, this is your vocation and this is what you have partaken
of. Well, the first is this, that
they have heard Christ. In verse 21, we read, if so be
that ye have heard him. If this is true, that ye have
heard him, that is the first point. The second is that they
have been taught by Christ. In the words, and have been taught
by him. And the third thing is that what
they have been taught is as the truth is in Jesus. These three things are supposed
by the apostle to those that he makes these
Exhortations. The first is then that they have
heard Christ. Our Lord is very clear in John
10 that he has sheep and that he is the good shepherd. He is
also clear that there were those that were listening to him then
that were not of his sheep. He also joins together that it
is the sheep that he lays down his life for. I lay down my life
for the sheep. He says of the scribes, the Pharisees,
ye are not of my sheep. And what is the difference between
those that are his sheep and those that are not? It is comprised
in this our first point. My sheep, they hear my voice
and they follow me. Ye are not of my sheep, therefore
ye hear not my voice. This is the distinctive thing. The ear is opened, to hear the
word of God. And you might say, well, those
that were listening to Christ then, they heard him, all right.
When he claimed that his father was in heaven and that he always
did the will of his father, then they sought to kill him because
they said that thou being a man, make us thyself God. They heard
him, they understood he was claiming that he was God. There is an
outward hearing of the ear. There's even a rising up against
what is heard, a fighting against it, yes. The world, the unbeliever,
hear the word of God, and the Lord says in John 17, I have
given them thy word, that is, his people thy word, and the
world hath hated them. They hate the word of God, they
hate what it actually says for. So when we says, if so be that
you've heard him, there's a difference amongst the hearers. How those
hearers hear the word that is spoken to them. In the early
church, the preaching of the gospel was met with different
receptions. Some believe the word spoken
and some believe not. As many as were ordained unto
eternal life believed and there was the difference that was made. The hearing, how we hear, how
the ear is open. That's why at the end of every
one of the letters, the seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3
to the seven churches in Asia, Ephesians being one of them,
the church at Ephesus. It was he that hath an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So Paul supposes
this, that here is a people that have a hear. an ear, ye have heard him, ye
have heard Christ. When Paul spoke to the Thessalonians,
he says of them that ye receive the word, not as the word of
man, but as it is in truth, the word of God. And it is vital
in this that we do esteem every word of God as being pure. There's so much today, even amongst
the professing church, that quite apart from hearing the word of
Christ, they will say, well, that is the word of Paul. And
they will say, well, that is Moses, or we cannot receive that. take the penknife and we start
cutting the Word of God. And instead of esteeming every
Word of God as being pure, not just the words of Christ in red
in the New Testament as being His words, but in all the Scriptures,
the Lord gave the Word. Great was the company of them
that published in Christ in all the Scriptures. It is the Holy
Spirit that is the inspirer of the Word of God. But as John
says in the first chapter in his gospel, in the beginning
was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God
and the Word was God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the written
and the incarnate Word are one and the same. And so when we
have our ears opened, and it is spiritually so, we are dead
in sins, we're dead in trespasses and sins, so dead that we hear
outwardly but do not hear inwardly. We don't realize the real teaching
and import of the word as regards our own souls. But one thing
that is absolutely vital is that we do have literally the Word. This was the dark ages before
the Reformation when the Word was shut up in Latin and shut
up in the Roman Catholic Church and the common people did not
have the Word. They could be told anything and
the great need was that the Word literally was there. They did
have a Bible. They did have the Word of God. And it is vital for us to be
able to say from Genesis to Revelation, we have the Word of God. We don't have to sift out what
is God's Word and what is not. We believe it is so. And every
confession, whether it be the Westminster Baptist Confession
or whatever it is, it will always start with saying that all the
truths, the doctrines that are contained in that confession
are to be found in the Word of God. That is established first. And that any controversy in scripture
or in doctrine always goes back to the Word of God in the original
Hebrew and Greek. But for most things we only need
to go to that which in God's providence He has given us, a
faithful translation in our own tongue, comparing scripture with
scripture. There is the one author of the
word of God. So that is vital first, if we
have heard Christ, to be able to say, but how we've heard him,
we've heard him in the words of the Bible. David says, thy
word have I hid in mine heart. Well, that wasn't a strange language,
that he hid in his heart, it was a language he understood
and a very clear word as well. We don't seek for revelations
additional to the word of God, we seek that which is the very
word of God. Paul is very clear when he writes
to the Romans in chapter 10, what saith the word or what saith
the message of the gospel, the word is neither even in thy mouth
and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach. And so that is the very word
of God. So Paul says with the Ephesians,
and of course in writing to them, ministering to them, where they
didn't have the New Testament as we have here, they had the
words that we have here, written for us now, but spoken to them,
the Ephesians, the letter to them, and they had the Old Testament,
they had all of the teaching, from the apostles, and they had
that, that God was speaking through the apostles. They spake the
word of God to them, but they were to hear not the apostles,
but Christ. I often think with Samuel, when
the Lord first spoke to him, he thought it was Eli. that God
was speaking to him. And it's important for us that
we recognize that we have heard the Lord, that the Lord has spoken
to us through his word. We have in the first chapter
of Hebrews, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. And that is
the gospel, he's spoken unto us by the gospel. Our Lord, when
he spoke to the two on the way to Emmaus, they didn't know who
he was, but they heard his voice, and they heard his voice, preaching
to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Moses, the Psalms, the prophets,
the eunuch, he had the gospel Christ preached to him through
Isaiah 53. So the first mark is, if so be
ye have heard him, to hear his voice. Where the word of a king
is, there is power. A difference in hearing. That was the same with Paul.
Paul, when he was a Pharisee, he heard the voice of the prophets
as they were read, but when the Lord spoke to him from heaven,
he says, who art thou, Lord? And he was the first to hear
the voice, not that we need that voice from heaven. We need to
know that we have a more short word of prophecy, whereunto you
do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place. An ear opened by God will hear
the voice of the Lord through the word of God and through the
word that is faithfully preached and set forth so that we listen
to that word and have an ear opened. Not everyone has an ear
open. This is a blessing that God says
marks out his sheep. He causes them to hear his voice. If that is you, Bless the Lord
for him. Bless the Lord for the time that
he has first caused you to hear his voice, where there has been
an authority, where there has been a word that has entered
into your heart, where a word has been the word of a king. If so be that ye have heard him. I don't know how many of us can
go back to times when we're in our home, where there's been
in prayer, where there's been under the preaching of the word,
that we have heard the voice of the Lord. The Lord has spoken
to us through his word. All scripture is pure and precious,
but for the people of God, there'll be some Scriptures that are more
so because the Lord has spoken to them through those words. If so be ye have heard him. The
apostle then says to these Ephesians, I write to you these things,
I exhort you these things, on the surmise that ye have heard
Christ. If so be ye have heard him. The
second thing is that they have been taught by Christ and have
been taught by him. So these are not just random
words. And I often think this regarding
evangelism or speaking words to those who know not the things
of God. We might just drop a word or
give them a passage of scripture from time to time and they might
say, well, we have heard you or we have read that scripture
you've given to us. But that's a different thing
than actually teaching. And this is what is set before
us here, and being taught by him. Again, going back to Paul
himself, the writer of this epistle, he had been taught at the feet
of Gamaliel, the doctor of the law. And so he knew the old scriptures
well, but he didn't see Christ in them. But when her Lord met with him
and then taught him, he immediately preached that Jesus of Nazareth
was the Christ. The Lord uses means. with Cornelius, there was the
miracle of the angel that appeared to him, that did not teach Cornelius
and his household of Christ, but bade him to send for Peter,
a sinner, to come and preach to him, thereby so clearly showing
that we're not looking for angels and revelations from heaven in
that way, but to hear the preaching of the word through sinners sent
by God. It was so with the eunuch that
Philip was sent to him. Understandest thou what thou
readest, how can I except some man guide me? Who is the prophet
speaking of, himself or another man? And Philip, he begins at
the same scripture and preaches unto him Jesus. And at the end
of that sermon, he desires to be baptised. He had been taught
through that sermon that the prophet was speaking of Christ,
that Jesus was the Christ, and that those that believe are to
be baptised. The commission had been set before
him He had been taught, not by Philip, yes, through the means
of Philip, but the promise is, all thy children shall be taught
of the Lord. Great shall be the peace of thy
children. They shall not teach every man
his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord, they shall all know me,
from the least unto the greatest. And we know that in the ministry,
though we must be careful, to preach and to teach and to set
forth the word, and of course in this chapter, the gift to
the church is in verse 11, gave some apostles and some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. God has given these. Our Lord
speaks through them and he teaches through them. and it is traced
back and have been taught by him. That which the Lord has taught
will be holy and pure from above, consistent with the scriptures,
the teaching of the Holy Spirit, the teaching of Christ through
the means that he has appointed. It will have that one stamp that
really eclipses all the teachers of the world. It's an amazing
thing when you think about all the nations of the world, the
different languages, and yet God says that, well, it is not
my body, the church of God, being taught by these multitude of
teachers that will probably end up with a church that have all
these different notions and different ideas. Yes, there are differences
in unessential things, but as regard that which is absolutely
vital, the redemption in Christ Jesus, the separation from sin,
the call to holiness, the reliance solely upon Christ's work at
Calvary and a salvation by grace through faith alone, not by works
of righteousness which we have done. The teaching of the Holy
Spirit is consistent throughout the whole world and consistent
through the Word of God. They are all taught by Christ
through the Spirit. And so he surmises this with
the Ephesians. We may ask ourselves, have we
been taught by him? Not just received words, but
teaching, doctrines, practice. This is what is said before us
here, a very practical part of the Word of God. have we been taught? The third thing that he surmises
is what they have been taught, as the truth is in Jesus. When our Lord was upon earth,
and this is what John in his gospel emphasises, that Jesus
is the Son of God, that all the truths of redemption, from the
beginning of the Word to the end of it, all meet in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Pilate asked, Our Lord, what
is truth? Our Lord had told his dear disciples
in John 14, I am the way, the truth and the life, No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. He said to those in John 8 verse
30, 31, those that believed on his name, if ye continue in my
word, ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. The truth, the truth of God,
the key as it were, is the Lord Jesus Christ. It all centres
in Him. How solemn with the Jews that
believe not that Jesus is the Christ. They have not the key
to the truth. You might say, well, there's
many, many religions, there's many places of worship, and they'll
all say that they follow Jesus. But in their practice, there's
great difference. But there is a truth that is
in Jesus. And again, we come to the word
of God. the teaching of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. And if we have been taught that
truth that is in Him, then it will lead to a path of holiness. This is what is emphasised here. This is what Peter emphasises. Remember, through sin is corruption. Through sin is evil. and the
Lord Jesus Christ is to save his people from their sins. The church of the Old Testament
church, they could worship God, they could meet together, they
could have their sacrifices, they could go into the temple,
they could make their bows to the temple, but then they'd turn
around and worship their idols and serve their other gods And
they'd continue in their ways of wickedness and sinfulness
and uncleanness, joining together the two. And what we said here,
that there is two opposites, there's no neutral ground in
the truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a separation, there's
a change. And every child of God that has
been taught that in the Lord Jesus Christ, will know the difference
between their old nature and their new. They'll know the conflict
between the two. The solemn thing, if there are
those that have a profession of faith in Christ but never
have a conflict with the old nature, that they're at peace
with sin, at peace with the world, that there's never a clash But
God's people are called out of this world. They're separated. They're not to be lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God. They are to fear the Lord. They are to be a people that
are unashamed of the difference that God makes in calling them
to such a vocation as to be a follower of Christ. Bought with Christ's
blood, separated unto him. When we think of the saints of
God before us, Moses choosing rather to cast in his lot with
the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. We think of Abraham who went
out knowing not whither he went. We think of Lot plucked as a
brand out of the burnings of Sodom in all their wickedness. We think of Noah, the eight that
were with him in the ark, saved and the rest of the world destroyed
for their wickedness and sin. It ever has been through the
word of God. The Lord has a remnant. a separated
people, a people despised by the world and ridiculed by the
world, but who have an ear opened and are taught by the Lord and
are taught the truth, not lies, but the truth that is in Jesus. The Lord says, if they have persecuted
me, they will persecute you. If they have received my word,
they receive your word. Come ye out from among them,
touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and ye
shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. It is
a path so contrary to nature, and each child of God will know
that conflict within, a constant reminder day by day, and such
were some of you, and such still could be some of you, if we were
left to give rain and with no restraint all the wickedness
and sin that is in our hearts. But so did not I because of the
fear of the Lord. And it is as the Lord teaches
us and shows us the consequences of sin, the evil of sin, the
grieving of the Holy Spirit, the withdrawing of His Spirit,
then we know that to follow in the way of our wicked heart,
he grieves the Lord, he withdraws his sweet presence, he chastens
us, he corrects us, our own sins correct us, and we are left in
a barren, dry and hard place, wounded, cast down, accusing
devil, stranger to our dear brethren. No, when the Lord teaches us
these things, then what the Apostle is exhorting here, we will say,
Lord, give me grace to follow it. Give me grace to embrace
it. Give me grace to walk this way. Help me not to grieve the Holy
Spirit of God. Verse 30, and grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God. whereby ye are sealed unto day
of redemption. Our prayer will be, Lord, let
not bitterness overcome me. I feel it rise, and let not wrath
that rises up, let that be subdued and put down. And O, do touch
my tongue, that there be not evil speaking. And the malice,
let not that ruin and govern my life. And our prayer will
be, make me tender-hearted, make me to be forgiving one another,
even as Christ, God for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. And those things that are set
before us here, are set before us lovingly, as taking it for
granted as it were, or on this premise of our text, if so be,
ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is
in Jesus. If we have learned Christ, and
learned Christ rightly, it will then be reflected in our lives. And those passages of the word
like this, then they'll be heeded. There'll be lessons. We'll be taught by them. Yeah,
the old nature won't like it. The flesh won't like it. make
excuses for it, fight against it. The flesh dislikes the way,
says the hymn writer, but faith approves it well. So may the
Lord give us that witness that we have learned Christ, we have
heard him, have been taught by him, and the truth as it is in
Jesus. And where we may be so struggling
with our sin and old nature, may we take courage, be encouraged
here. Paul doesn't say, well, if you
need all of these exhortations, you can't really have been taught
by God. If you need this, you can't have
a new nature, you can't be changed. No, God's people do need exhorting,
and they can be. The world, there's no life to
exhort. There's no open ear to hear. There's no desire to be taught
by Christ at all. With God's dear people there
is, though it may be but feeble and struggling under a weight
of sin, yet there is a people that are taught, are instructed,
and may be found amongst them. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.