Ephesians chapter 4, and I want to read verse 17 through
verse 19. Ephesians 4, verse 17 through
verse 19. This I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, 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, who
being past filling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness
to work all uncleanness with greediness." Now Paul began this
chapter here in verse 3 that you and I have studied on for
quite some time talking about unity. In verse 3 he talks about
the unity of the Spirit. That's a divine unity. Because
it's a spiritual unity. We're one in Jesus Christ. There's one body. We have unity
in truth. We have unity in love. We have
unity in peace. We have unity in the gospel.
And this unity was accomplished by the Lord Jesus upon Calvary's
tree. We read that in chapter 2 of
this book. There's where every obstacle
was removed between us and God, and that brought peace. And every
obstacle is removed between every believing sinner. Whatever personal
convictions we have or preferences we have doesn't affect our unity. We're all different, aren't we?
We're all different. But in Christ, Glenn, you read
it this morning, we're one in Christ. And He speaks there of
the body. He goes on to say in this chapter
in verse 4 that there is one body. That's why we have unity. One body. That's the body that
God chose. That's the body that's been redeemed
by blood. He loved the church and gave
Himself for it that He might wash it, cleanse it, present
it to Himself. This is the body that's been
called You and I looked here last week in verse 16 at the
tremendous blessing and privilege it is to belong to the church.
Not just to come here and belong to Sovereign Grace Church, but
to truly be in the body of Jesus Christ the Lord. The greatest
blessing, the essential blessing between the eternities is to
be in the church. And we read that scripture in
Psalms, glorious things of thee are spoken. And we saw this last
week, didn't we? About how we get in the church.
The Lord joins us together. He takes us out of this world
and He puts us in His body. He joins us fitly. He puts us just where we belong,
in the body of Christ. And there's these bands that
we looked at that holds us together. Bands of peace. Bands of love. Bands of the graces of the Holy
Spirit. The bands of the Gospel. And He feeds us. He nourishes
us in this body. No matter if you're the most
extreme member of the body of Christ, you have the same life
in you. that is in the head, that's in
Christ. And He nourishes you and He cherishes
you, each member of this church. And then as we realize that,
as the church realizes what a blessing it is and the privilege it is
to be in this body, what happens then? We edify one another. That's
what we looked at last week was, we edify one another in love. And that helps preserve the unity.
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of
peace. You and I are just individual
members in this glorious body that Christ is joining together
and will someday present it to Himself without spot or wrinkle
or any such thing. And He's doing it Himself. He's
doing it Himself. He shall build my house. And tell what we read this morning.
Christ is building the church. And isn't it a wonderful blessing
to know that He's included you. He's included you in His church. He's put you in His body. Brothers and sisters, if you
find a Christian anywhere in this world, And he gives some
evidence that he truly is a Christian. Then love that person. Maintain
unity with that person because you're going to heaven with him.
And you're going to spend eternity with that person. And here's
a question that sometimes arises. How can we know that person is
in the body of Christ? He doesn't believe everything
exactly the way I believe it. His conviction is just a little
bit different than mine. How can I know that that person
is my brother in Christ? This is why you and I need the
eyes of our understanding opened that we may know. We need the
eyes of our understanding opened that we may know. It's not just
a bunch of facts. It's not just a head full of
knowledge that we need, is it? It's the eyes of our understanding
open that we may see, that we may grasp, that we may perceive,
that we may truly know. I know of nothing in our day
that's more needful than for Christians to have the eyes of
their understanding enlightened. That's the first thing the Apostle
Paul prayed for when he started this epistle. The first prayer
that he prayed, he said, I pray for you that God would give to
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation that the eyes of your
understanding would be enlightened. That's what we need today. The
example of this, this book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul had
been presenting to these young converts these glorious truths
of election and redemption And calling, when you were dead in
sins, He has quickened us together with Him. God Himself creating
us anew in Christ. And our hearts having this love
of God and love of Christ yet abroad in it. And having all
this power available to us in this inner man. These are some
things that the Apostle Paul has been preaching to us in this
epistle. How has these truths affected
you? As we've been reading and studying through the book of
Ephesians, have you seen these glorious truths? Have you been
able to enter into them? How has it affected you as we've
been studying this epistle? When we read over there in the
third chapter, Paul was telling us about Him strengthening us
with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Have you experienced
that? Have you had the eyes of your
understanding enlightened to see that, to grasp something
of it? You know, that's why I say, what we need in this day more
than anything else is to have this to happen to us. Is to have
the eyes of our understanding opened. Have these great truths
affected us. Have they stripped us? Have they
humbled us? Have they left us filled with
joy and gratitude and awe to Him that has called us and included
us in His great and eternal purpose? How has it affected us? That's
why I say I know nothing more than this that's more important
today than having the eyes of our understanding enlightened. It's always been difficult to
know who are we supposed to have unity with. It's nothing new. It's nothing new to the church. The church has always had difficulty,
who am I supposed to have unity with? Where does unity end? The church has always had that
problem. You remember when James and John and Peter went out to
cast out devils, and they found this one guy casting out devils
in the Lord's man, and they stopped him. And they came back, and
they were so sure they were right to do that. And they told the
Lord, we found this fellow, he was preaching and casting out
devils. And we told him to stop it. Because he didn't follow
us. He just wasn't in perfect agreement
with us. So we told him, we ain't got
no unity with you. You remember what the Lord Jesus
said to those fellows? He said, don't you forbid that man, because
he's doing that in my name. He knows me. He knows my power.
He may not see everything as you do. But seek unity with that man.
And yet we come to the book of Acts chapter 8, and Philip baptized
Simon the sorcerer. unity with Him. And Mel thought
he had some unity with Him until Peter came down and Simon said,
I'll give you some money if you'll give me the Holy Spirit. And
Peter said, you don't have neither part nor lot in this matter.
Your heart is not right with God. Why didn't Philip say that?
Well, maybe the guy just didn't give himself away. But Peter
saw it, didn't he? And you know why Peter saw it?
He had the eyes of his understanding enlightened to see. When you
and I talk about When you and I talk about seeking unity and
maintaining unity, I think you and I are going to find out that
we need more understanding. We're going to need more understanding.
And I tell you, it's not going to get any less difficult. The longer this world stands,
the more perilous times we're going to be facing. Did you know
that? Right now, men, religious people,
are seeking unity. Religions that up until this
time had nothing in common. But now they're seeking unity
because they realize how perilous times things are. We've almost
lost our country if we haven't lost it. And they say, we've
got to get together. So these people that before never
even had anything in common with their religious views are now
saying, we've got to have some unity here. And you just wait
until it gets closer to the end. And there's going to be a huge
temptation to say, what we need to do is unite. We're going to
lose this thing if we don't. And a lot of people are going
to give in to that. And you and I need the eyes of our understanding
enlightened to say, here's where unity is, and here's where it
is not. We can have unity with this person,
and with that person we have no unity. Here in chapter 4 and verse 17
we see a good example of what I'm saying about concerning the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Let me say it like
this. Paul was writing here to these
Ephesians, these great truths, and telling them their interest
in these things. And they had heard, they had
heard what he was saying. And as they read this epistle,
they saw more and more of the glorious things that the Lord
had called them into. And don't you imagine they made
copies of these epistles? Don't you imagine they got them
and said, we want to write these epistles down because we want
one to take home with us. And we want one to hand out to
our relatives, our loved ones. So they began to read this epistle. And they'd come back and say,
read it to us again. Read it to us again. We knew
something had changed in us. Oh, we knew the Lord had done
something for us. But look at this epistle. Look
what He's been saying in this epistle. We never heard of these
glorious things before. And they wrote these down and
they took them home and they meditated in these epistles.
What happened to these men? Do you know what happened to
them? They had the eyes of their understanding enlightened. You
say, Bruce, how do you know that? Paul had already prayed for that.
He had already prayed to that end. And then when He wrote this
epistle to them, it's as though He was saying, I know when you
read this epistle, you're going to be amazed at what I'm writing
to you. Why? Because you're going to
have the eyes of your understanding enlightened. And you're going
to be happily amazed what the Lord has called you to. And how
He's chosen you and redeemed you. And you sit together in
these heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So He comes here to verse 17
and He says, I know you're seeing these things. And you're caught
up in them. And then He uses these two little
words here to instruct them. They're very important. This
is how I know that they were seeing what he was writing to
them. They were seeing these glorious things, and the blessing
and the privilege. Because he comes here to verse
17, and he says, This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that
you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. See what he's
saying to them? I say, therefore, that your walk
is different now. I say, henceforth, as you read
this epistle, you see that you're different. The Lord has made
a difference in you from henceforth. Therefore, don't walk like all
these other Gentiles walk who know not God. It's impossible
and discouraging to instruct unregenerate persons how to walk. It's impossible to do. And you'll
discourage yourself to death if you try to get an unregenerate
person to walk as a Christian walks. At best, you'll make outward
hypocrites or moralists out of them. And you'll put a burden
upon them that they cannot and will not bear. But when a person
is regenerated, and as the eyes of their understanding is opened
more and more, These two words, therefore and from henceforth,
become very instructive and very easy for them. You go to an unregenerate
person and you say, therefore, don't you walk like that about
anything. And you go to an unregenerated person and say, now I've explained
this to you from henceforth, you're different. It won't make
any difference. But you go to a regenerate person, You go to
a person who's had the eyes of his understanding enlightened,
and you say, therefore, boy, he knows what you're saying.
He knows what you're saying. As these young believers read
this epistle, they knew that the Lord had done
something for them. Before they ever read this epistle, they
knew it. They knew the gospel that came to them. And the difference
was inside. They said, we were dead in sin.
We realized that. And the Lord gave us life. All
this came about when Paul came to us and preached this gospel
to us. And now they begin to read this
epistle. And what do they say? We are
different. There is a difference. I'm not
what I used to be. I don't think like I used to
think. The things that I used to love, I hate now. The things
that I used to hate, I love now. And it was all because of this
Gospel. And now Paul writes unto them,
and he says, therefore, don't you walk like other Gentiles
walk. And what do you think their reaction
was? Oh, they said, Paul, I could never walk like that again. Oh,
I could never live like that again. By the grace of God, I
could never be like that again. He saved me from that. See the
difference when we use these words, therefore and from henceforth. This is very critical. Listen
to this. This is very critical. This is so critical. The Christian's
walk must not be forced. The Christian's walk is a reaction. I think I could say that. The
Christian's walk is a mere reaction. of what he's heard and what he's
already believed. He walks and he does what he
does because he's heard what he's heard, and he's believed
what he's heard. It is not force. That's why you
read these epistles, and we've always got our doctrine first.
Always the doctrine first. This is what we're instructed
to believe. And as we believe it, it changes
us. And we go out therefore and from
henceforth. Having heard and having believed,
everything else follows, doesn't it? Let me offer you some scriptural
proof of this. You remember when our Lord was
preaching to that great crowd in John chapter 6. And he was telling them about
his blood that was drank indeed, and his flesh, his broken body
that was made indeed. You drank my blood, and you eat
my flesh, you'll live forever. And they said, this is too hard
for us. We've never heard this before,
and we don't believe it. We don't understand it. We can't
see it. It's art. And they went away. They walked
away. And the Lord looked at Peter and the other apostles,
and the Lord said, will you walk away with them? Will you walk
away with Him? And you remember what Peter said?
He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? In other words, no. By your grace, my answer is no. And then he made this amazing
statement, and it proves my point. He said this, you have the words
of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ. See what he says? We know something.
You've opened the eyes of our understanding, and it's affected
us. I can't go with him. You know
if he forced himself to follow Christ, the Lord would never
have stood for that. If Peter's heart was going back
with those other folks, but his body was following Christ, our
Lord would have detected that. He would have turned and said,
Peter, your heart's not with me. You're not following me. But the reason Peter said, no,
I'm following you, is because his understanding had been opened. He knew Christ. He saw Him. And he said, I'm following you. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8,
12, If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted. See that? The walk of a Christian is a
walk of a willing mind. I tell you, I've had to spend
most of my time, especially as a pastor, praying, Lord, give
me a willing heart. Give me a willing heart. Why
do I pray that way? Because I know that if I don't
have a willing heart, it's not accepted. If I'm forced If it
has to be forced, it's not accepted. We have a duty. And I love that
word duty. But if that's all it is, is a
duty and it's forced, it's not accepted. Those that give in
David's day give of a willing heart. That's why they call it
a free will offering. It's not forced. It's not forced. It's a therefore. from henceforth. Here's what you know. Here's
what you believe. Therefore. That's why doctrine
is so important, isn't it? Paul said, If you be risen
with Christ. If you be risen with Christ.
Therefore seek those things which are thine. If you be risen with
Christ. I tell you, let our hearts get
a hold of this truth of what Christ has done for us, and what
we believe concerning God in Christ. And then this word, therefore,
it will come easy. And henceforth will come easy.
We have a good example of that too here in the fourth chapter
of Ephesians, verse 20. Look at this. 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. See that? The truth is in Jesus. We must
hear Him, be taught by Him, and believe Him. Verse 17 suggests
something else to us, not only that we're understanding this
epistle, and we're glorying in what the Lord's done for us,
and therefore, we go out and our walk is different, and it's
not a forced walk. But something else is suggested
to us here, and it's concerning disunity. And he says again,
I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk." Now, what's he suggesting here?
Well, he's suggesting this. Unity is limited. Unity is limited
to the body of Christ, the church of Christ. Walk not as other
Gentiles walk. Well, Paul, we were understanding
you to mean that we had unity with everybody. He said, you
misunderstood me. Unity is in Christ. Unity is
for the church, the body of Christ. But when it comes to those who
know not God, the other Gentiles, don't walk like them. You've
got nothing in common with them. Don't walk like them, don't be
like them, nor run with them. Another place, he said, be not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Then he went ahead
to say, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
What communion hath light with darkness? What accord hath Christ
with Belial? What part is he that believeth
with an infidel? What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For you are the temple of the
living God. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord." Be you separate from this world. Don't seek unity
with them. Unity stops at the church, doesn't
it? Look here what he says in chapter
5 and look in verse 4. He's talking about walking, walk in love, in verse
2. And in verse 4 he says, Don't
let filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient,
but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is not an idolater,
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no
man deceive you with vain words. Because of these things comes
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them. Be not ye therefore partakers
with them. For you were sometimes darkness,
but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable
unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them." See what he says in verse
8? You were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the
Lord. Walk as children of light, as
opposed to what? Look in verse 6 again. Let no
man deceive you by any means, for because of these things comes
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." Where did we
read that before? Where did we read the children
of disobedience before? Ephesians 2. And what did we
read there? That's what you were. That's
the way you walked. But he says, from henceforth,
don't you walk like that. Because you're not like that.
And don't have unity and don't have fellowship with the other
children of disobedience. For God's sake, don't be mean
to them. For God's sake, don't hate them. For God's sake, love
them and be good to them and pray for them and witness to
them. But don't take them as your bosom buddies. And don't
have unity with them. There's no unity. That's what
he said. There's no unity with them. We have no unity with the world.
The church is separate. I'll tell you what we're seeing
today. We're seeing today the church wants to be like the world
in its doctrine and its practice. I don't know what all the motives
are. I've got my suspicion. But it's got to the point now,
in doctrine and practice, you cannot tell the church from the
world. Now, ain't that the truth? And Paul said, brethren, that
can't be. Henceforth, and if you're like
the world, here's what you need. You either need to be regenerated
or you need the eyes of your understanding opened. And here in verse 17 through
verse 19, we're told why the church has no unity with the
world. And the problem is not with the church. It better not
be. But the problem is with the world. And what's the problem
with this world? Look at the last portion of verse
17. Walk not as other Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind. What's the problem with an unconverted
person? It's his mind. His mind. That's his problem. His problem
is not first and foremost what he does. His whole problem is
his mind. They walk in the vanity of their
mind. Their mind is not only empty,
that's one of the meanings of that word vanity, but it means
more than that. It means useless. It doesn't
matter what it's filled with, it's empty in regard to spiritual
truth and understanding. It's empty in the things of God,
and it's filled with the things of this world. Solomon, when
he wrote Ecclesiastes, one statement he kept making was, everything
that takes place under the sun, everything that takes place in
this world, is vanity and vexation of spirit. And that's what's
the matter with the mind of the unconverted. It's full of vanity. It's full of world. You and I are like our relatives.
All of us have relatives that we love dearly. But I tell you,
know this to be true, there's a limited amount of time that
you can spend with them. And the reason is this right
here. Vain minds. I mean, you can only talk about
this world so much, can't you? And then you say, I've got to
get out of here. I love my dear brother. I love
my dear sister. But all they know is vanity. All they know is this world and
the things of this world. I'm sick. I'm sick. Vanity. The major problem with an unconverted
person, therefore, is his mind, and the only thing that will
remedy his situation is a whole change of it. A change of mind. I will put my laws into their
hearts and write them in their minds. That's where a work of
grace must be done, in the mind. Let this mind be in you that
was in Christ. We have the mind of Christ. How can we say that? Well, I'll
tell you this much, we have Christ's life in our mind, don't we? We
have the life of Christ in our mind. We have the law of Christ
in our mind. We have the faith of Christ in
our mind. We have the Spirit of Christ in our mind. We have
the desires of Christ in our mind. Father, not my will, but
Thine, be done. But it's not so with any unconverted
man until the mind is regenerated. And until that takes place, there's
no unity. There's no unity. There's the
first thing, there's the major thing wrong with this world,
with the unconverted. Our problem today is not politics,
is it? If we could just get a bunch
of conservatives in our political offices. You talk about a change,
but that won't change theirs. I wish we could get a bunch in
there too, just for the simple reason we're broke. My grandkids
are going to be a paying artist. Politically speaking, that's
what we need. But I tell you, spiritually speaking, conservatives
are just as lost as liberals. Because the whole problem is
not our politics, it's our minds. Walking in the vanity of their
minds. And then he goes on in verse
18, he says this. I guess you might say this is
the result of it all. Having the understanding darkened. There is none that understandeth."
Poor unconverted man. He exists in a kingdom of darkness. The Lord said it like this, if
any man walk in the day, he doesn't stumble because he has the light
of this world. But if a man walks in the night,
he stumbles because there's no light in him. He has no light
to show him the way. He that follows me shall not
walk in darkness. But if a man is not following
Christ in His light, where is he? He is in darkness. It is like this. You and I are
walking and we have this light. We are walking in light. We were
children of darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. And
we are walking and we can see, can't we? We can see. The Lord
has shined. We sat in darkness, but a light
has shined into us. But we look over here, and it's
almost like a line drawn here. And just the other side of that
line is total darkness. And we can see people in there
just stumbling and falling around. And they don't even know where
they're at. They can't find out where they're at. They don't
know where they're going. But we see it, don't we? Why can't
they see it? They're in darkness. And it all
has to do with this understanding. Their understanding is darkened. Unconverted men are in the kingdom
of Satan. And it's a kingdom of darkness.
And that darkness has blinded their understanding. The Lord
Jesus preached so plainly to these Jews. And yet they said,
this is a hard saying. We can't say it. What was their
problem, brothers and sisters? Darkness in their understanding. We see it all around us, don't
we? We see it all around us. But he goes on and says this
in verse 18, not only that the understanding being darkened,
but also they're aliens from the very life of God. They're foreigners to the very
life of God. They don't have the life of God
in them, and they don't know God who gives life. The Lord
Jesus said, this is life eternal that they might know Thee, the
only true God. That is life. But they don't
know God. They're aliens. If you ask a
lost man who God is, who is God? What's He like in His nature?
What's He like in His attributes? In His eternality? In His immensity? In His grace, in His love, His
goodness, His justice. Would you tell me about God?
They can't do it. They can't do it. They're not
caught up with Him. Aren't we caught up with the
living God? Don't we glory in Him? Don't we say with Moses,
show me your glory? Oh, I want to know you. I want
to see you. I know you're this glorious being. And I'd give
up everything just to know you. Why isn't the world saying that?
They're alienated from the life of God. They just don't know
Him. They don't know who He is or
anything about Him. And why does the unconverted
man know God? Well, he went on to tell us.
Look on here again in verse 18. Having the understanding darkened.
Being alienated. Aliens from the life of God.
Look at this. Here's why they don't know it. Through the ignorance
that is in them. Ignorant. Boy, I tell you, that's
a repulsive word, ain't it? I mean, it's repulsive. Somebody
tells me, Bruce, you're ignorant. That's a repulsive word to me.
That hurts my feelings. But I didn't use it and you didn't
use it. The Holy Spirit did though, didn't He? Why don't people know
God? They're ignorant. I can't explain
ignorance, but I know it when I see it. You go downtown somewhere
in one of the big stores, and you see some people in there,
and you see the way they're acting and everything, and you think,
man, you're talking about ignorance. You're talking about ignorance.
That's just ignorance. Those people need to be taught.
Those people need to be trained Look at that little ignorant
child. Look what it's saying. Look what it's doing. That parent
needs to train that child. But you know this is a spiritual
ignorance. You don't see it just among the
baster sort of people. You know, you go down into some
poor place in town, and you've seen the difference, Turner,
working there at the company. You've seen it. You go down to
some poor place in town, poverty-stricken, you can see the ignorance that's
there in natural fact. That's why a lot of them can't
get out of that place. It's just ignorance. It's ignorance. But
when we talk about men not knowing God due to the ignorance that's
in them, you ain't just talking about those people in poverty
with no education. Go downtown to your bankers.
Go to your big law offices. Go to your elite, your educated
people, your scientists. Go to those people who are brilliant
in everything else. And this applies to them. Why
don't you know God? Because you're ignorant. You're
ignorant. And when a person tells you that
I can work out a righteousness that God will accept me in, we
just have to remember Romans chapter 10. They've been ignorant
of God's righteousness. And going about to establish
their own righteousness. Why don't people know God? Why
do they remain alienated from the life of God? Ignorance. Ignorance. Through the ignorance that is
in them. But look at this. Boy, you add something to this.
And this pretty much puts the male in the coffin. Because of
the blindness of their heart. Yes, they're ignorant. They're
ignorant. But why don't they sit and learn?
Why don't they listen? Why don't they get on their face
and open their Bible and say, Lord, I'm ignorant. Teach me. Open my understanding. Make me
to know your Lord. Why don't they do that? Oh, this
word right here explains why they don't. This blindness is
hardness. They remain ignorant because
their heart refuses to be taught. They've hardened their hearts
against God, against the Spirit of God, against the preaching
of the Gospel, against the reading of His Word. It almost comes
out then to be a willful ignorance. No. Through the ignorance that
is in them, because... See how these things link one
to another? Because of the hardness, the hardness of their heart. He that being often reproved,
and hardens his heart, stiffens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed,
and that without remedy. This is what you and I are seeing
all around us today. Men refuse to listen. Men refuse
to be taught. Why? Their hearts are as hard
as an atom of stone. And I tell you, when the Lord
goes to convert somebody, He's got to break through this hardness.
Hearts of stone will have to crumble with just one touch of
the Master's hand. The old prophets used to pray,
Lord, come down and melt these mountains Melt these rocks. That's what they said the heart
of man was. Break these mighty cedars of the leaven and speak
to them and break them. But you know, it's an awful sad
thing. It's a dangerous thing for people to harm their hearts.
Look what he went on right into verse 19 and saying. I'll look
at this and we'll quit. Who be in past fillings have
given themselves over to lust, to work all uncleanness with
greediness." See how he keeps going down and down? He begins
up here and says, look at their mind. It's just worldly, worldly,
worldly. Vanity. Full of everything but
that which is spiritual and good. Their understanding is darkened.
They're alienated from God. They're ignorant. Their hearts
are hard. And then what happens? They become
past feeling. They reach the point where they
sear their conscience. Brother Glenn has said it so
many times, if a man won't hear, God will fix it where you can't
hear. And the heart is hardened. And then what happens? It becomes
much easier to go out into even open and profane sin. You and
I have seen it. You and I have seen it. It's
broke our hearts. It breaks our hearts. But we've
seen it over and over and over again. A man hardens his heart
and stiffens his neck, and the Lord lets him go. And boy, he
can commit sin as easy as he can breathe. And except the Lord
do a special work of grace in that person's heart, he's gone
forever and makes his own damnation sure. Now, I ask this question,
brothers and sisters. In the light of this, can we
have unity with this? Could we possibly have unity
with this whole attitude? Why, no! Joe and I were watching
Glenn Beck yesterday, and I agree with Glenn Beck on a lot of his
political views. But we were watching his show
yesterday, and he had three preachers. He had four people on there,
and three of them were preachers. He said, now listen. They're
just going on all this talk. And he said, now listen. He said,
now I'm a Mormon. Can you fellows fellowship with
me? Can we unite together and you fellows fellowship with me?
And the one fellow raised up real quick and said, well, yes,
yes. And I got this little old button. I'm not sure what you
call it, but you stop the TV. And I stopped it. And I said,
look at those other three Two fellows, three guys sitting there.
Joe, I said, look at them sitting there. I said, they know better
than that. They know better than that. They
know what Mormons believe about Jesus Christ. That He's a mere
creature. They know that. And they know
right now that right now they either say, no, we have no unity
with you, or they're going to have to compromise. And you know
what they did? Every one of them agreed. We
got unity. We got unity. And there they
sat, and their minds were full of vanity. Their understandings
were darkened. They were hard in their hearts
against the truth. Sitting there talking about George
Whitefield and what a great preacher he was. If they've ever read
George Whitefield, then their mind has been blinded that they
forgot what he preached and the Christ that he preached. And what Paul is saying here
is this. He's getting ready now to leave this unity and the doctrine
of it. And he said, brothers and sisters,
you're different from the world. The Lord's done a work in your
heart. He's put you in His body. And you're different. Now live.
Live that out in your life. And when it comes time to take
a stand, remember this. You're just standing against
these vain people. You have no unity with them.
It's as natural as it can be for you and I to seek unity one
with another. We love it, don't we? Because
we know unity has been established. But it's also as natural as it
can be not to seek unity with people who hate Jesus Christ.
Ain't that the truth? Let's pray.