Now you find in your Bible once
again that portion of Scripture. Ephesians chapter 4. I want to try to bring a study
this evening from verse 17 down through verse 24. This I say
therefore, and testify in the Lord, in the Lord, that you henceforth
walk not Walk not as others, others walk, as other Gentiles,
unbelievers walk. How do they walk? They walk in
a vain show. They walk into vanity, the vanity,
the emptiness, the emptiness of their mind because their understanding
is darkened, alienated from God, ignorant, hard-hearted. Pretty
vivid description. of fallen humanity, what we are
in ourselves. Now, we have given to us as believers
in Christ Jesus these wholesome and gracious words of instructions
to live by and to die by. These are words to live by and
words to die by. These things are given by God's
inspiration concerning our daily walk our daily experience as
we live and conduct ourselves as believers before this God-hating
world. Notice, he says, first of all,
in verse 17, this is the testimony of God. This is the testimony
of God. This is Paul's testimony, but
also it is the testimony, the true witness of God given unto
us. For what Paul speaks and writes
is God-given, God-breathed. These are the instructions of
God explicitly given to us as believers. For what Paul writes and speaks
is God-given. He speaks by the authority of
God for all Scripture is God-breathed, God-given, God-inspired. Now here's what he's reminding
us, that you henceforth Henceforth, now that you know Him and are
one with Him, that you walk not as others, walk not as the ungodly
Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. Now before our conversion,
before salvation, we walk as all others walked and lived.
Isaiah says all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned
everyone to our own Way before we met the true and living God
We walked just as all others walked in the vanity of their
mind He reminds us over in chapter 2 you remember these verses in
verse 2 chapter 2 Ephesians verse 2 he said wherein in time past
We were dead in trespasses and in sin. You see that in verse
1? Wherein time passed, you walked according to the course of this
world. How is that? Away from God. Away from God. Not toward Him, away from Him.
According to the prince of the power of the air. Influenced
by the demonic spirit, Satan himself. Influenced by him. Maybe inspired by him. The spirit
that now works in children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conduct. Wait a minute now, Saul of Tarsus,
he was a very religious man, was he not? He was a Pharisee,
a self-righteous man, but he said we all had our conduct in
times past. Here he's confessing in the lusts
of our flesh. fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. What was his desire in the flesh?
To kill believers. I mean to murder believers. And
he carried that out until God stopped him. In the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and
we're by children, we're by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. Look at verse 4. But God. Now
here's the difference. God has made us to differ. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins." Now, he says again, remember,
in the same chapter, verse 12, he said that at that time, you
were uncircumcised Gentile, that at that time you were without
Christ. Now, that's us by nature. Without
Christ, alien from the commonwealth of Israel. We were idolaters. We were strangers to any covenant
promises, having no hope, the hope we had was a false hope,
having no real lasting true hope without God in the world. Verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus,
you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. what we are by nature and what God has made us in Christ
Jesus by His grace. Before our conversion, for our
salvation, we walk as all others walked and lived. And we may
have been very religious, but yet we were lost. You know, it's
hard to find a lost man. Everybody knows God these days. But when, by God's grace, believers
are made new creatures in Christ, we no longer walk and conduct
ourselves as we did before we met the true and living God.
He has made us to differ. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God. That's His work in us. in us. You remember chapter 4
verse 1? I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling wherewith
you call. That's our desire, to honor Christ,
to honor the gospel of God's saving grace in Christ Jesus. We are plainly told not to walk
and live and conduct ourselves as we once did. And believers,
that's their desire, that's their heart's desire. Now he mentions
several things here. And I believe this describes
us to a tee what we were before God in mercy brought us out of
the pit of ruin and translated us into the kingdom of God's
dear Son. Vanity of mind. Vanity of mind. We thought at one time God owed
us salvation. That's a vain thought, is it
not? We know now that the wages of sin is death. The gift of
God is eternal life. In the vanity and emptiness of
our carnal, fleshly, godless, mindless, we lived as an unbeliever. This is the essence of all idolatry
and vain religion. The vanity of mind. Vain thoughts about God. Vain thoughts about self. And you know how this takes form?
We think this vain thinking is foolish thoughts about God, low
thoughts about God, and thinking high thoughts about self. Low thoughts about God. The psalmist
wrote these words, God speaking through him, and God says, that
I was altogether such a one as thyself." Oh no, God's not like
us. He's holy. He's high. He's the absolute God. Nothing
is more godless and vain than for a sinner to try to establish
a righteousness of his own rather than trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's a vain show. That's walking
in the vanity than the vexation of your own wicked mind trying
to establish a righteousness by your own hand. That's a vain
mind. That's how we walk before we
met the true and living God in a vain show. Doing what we thinking
by not doing something we gain God's favor or by doing something
we remove God's wrath. We only gain God's favor in Christ
Jesus. And God's wrath is only removed
because the Lord Jesus Christ took our sin in his own body
and took all the wrath due my sin. But that's what he's reminding
these pagans. And when Paul walked into Ephesus,
he didn't walk into a place that was thriving with
believers. These were pagan idolaters. I mean, they were dancing around
totem poles, they were worshipping idols of stone. You say, well,
I never did that. Any vain idea of God that's less
than the absolute God is idolatry. You've whittled out an idol of
your imagination rather than worshipping the true and living
God. See what he's saying here? in a vain, vain show. The second
thing he mentions is this, verse 18, having the understanding
dark, dark, dark understanding. Now the natural man, the old
Adam nature, he's born in darkness and he lives there till God turns
on the light switch. Have you ever walked into a dark
room Ever walked into a room that's full of darkness? You
don't go in there hunting for something on the shelf in a dark
room. You walk through the door and
the first thing you do, I guarantee it every time, the first thing
you do, you turn on the light switch, don't you? You're a fool
if you don't. You turn on the light switch
to find illumination and then you can find what you're looking
for. The natural man is in the dark until God turns on the light. We'll never see the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. God must command the light to
shine. That's what it says exactly in 2 Corinthians 4, 6. God must
make the light to shine. The natural man, you know what
it says in John 3, 19? The natural man loves darkness,
not light. You know why? Because it goes
on to say, his deeds are evil and he will not come to the light
because it exposes his deeds as being nothing but evil. Understanding
darkened. That's where we were before God
turned on the light and shined in our heart. Totally ignorant. A person may be very intelligent
about many natural things, but yet, being totally ignorant of
the true gospel and in the dark and blind to the truth. And that's all men, apart from
God, turning on the light, understanding darkened. When it talks about
salvation, it talks about us being translated out of the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of God, dear Son. How does that
happen? By grace, sovereign grace, by
the power of God. We read in 1 John 5, 20, the
Son of God has come, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's given
us an understanding. If He doesn't give us an understanding,
we'll never understand the truth and never believe the truth because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. The natural man will not
receive the things of the Spirit of God, will not. God must give
us light and God must give us understanding. God must give
us a new mind, a new heart, take away that stony heart, give us
a new mind. So, vanity of mind, understanding
darkened. Thirdly, he mentioned being alienated,
being alienated. Aliens, we're aliens. Aliens to God's love aliens to
God's mercy having knowing nothing of God's love and mercy total
total Being alienated totally from
the life of God Salvation in Christ the life of God through
ignorance blindness of heart hardness of heart being alienated
from salvation in Christ Jesus through our own willful Ignorance
and sin against God. Separated from God because of
sin. Ignorant of our own sin and ignorant
of a true and living God. Now, it's not nice to call somebody
ignorant. If you walked up to a stranger
on the street, or walked next door to your neighbor, knocked
on his door, and said, Mr. Jones, you know, you're ignorant.
He'd probably pop you in the nose. And maybe you have a good
reason to pop you in the nose for being arrogant. They're calling
somebody ignorant, but you know the Word of God calls anybody
who goes about to establish his own righteousness ignorant. Ignorant
of God. They're ignorant of God, therefore
they're going about to establish their own righteousness by the
doing of their hand. Alienated, ignorant, blind. Boy, that's a vivid description.
Does that offend you? That's a description of what
we are. before God saved us in mercy.
Vanity of mind, understanding darkened, aliens, ignorant, and
blind. Hard-hearted. Hard-hearted. Blindness of heart. Blindness
of heart, which includes the mind, the will, the understanding,
the affections. And that's our whole sinful nature.
Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked who can know it. The carnal mind, our natural
fleshly mind, Romans 8, 7, is enmity against God. The natural man is not in love
with God, not the true and living God. He hates God. Hates the true and living God.
If you love God as He's revealed in this book, as the absolute,
holy, sovereign God, it's because God has made you to differ. The
only reason. Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ in Matthew 15? He said, Out of your heart. You
remember they had the controversy with the Pharisees about they
were offended because the disciples didn't wash their hands before
they ate food? That's good to wash your hands before you eat
to try to keep from maybe picking up some kind of germ or bug,
but that doesn't have a thing to do with a sinner's salvation.
Now, that's not going to recommend you to God because you wash your
hands, but those old Pharisees, they were upset with the disciples
because, you know, they didn't wash their hands. And the Lord
said, it's not what you put in your mouth that's your problem,
it's what flows out of your heart. You see, what's in the well of
the heart comes out through the bucket of the mouth. And our
Lord said, out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, contrary to God. And that's us. That's us, evil
through and through, none righteous, no, not one. Look at verse 19,
he goes on. It's bringing us way down, isn't
it? It's describing us what we really are, what we really are.
Look at verse 19, who being past feeling, who past who being past feeling
have given themselves over unto all manner of wickedness, lasciviousness. What a terrible word, just to
pronounce it, lasciviousness. To work all uncleanness and with
greediness. Greedy, unclean, and wicked.
That's us. That's us in ourselves. A further
description of our former idolatry. Having no Remorse, having no
conscience of guilt against God. Now we may have had some temporary
remorse because we got caught in some kind of mischief. But
no real godly sorrow to repentance, sinning against God. Having no
conscience that we've sinned against God and violated His
holy law. No remorse for sin against God. given over to wicked desires
of the sinful nature, given into whatever the corrupt nature desires. How awful to be given over to
self and to be left in the wicked desires of our own wicked heart
against God. That's a terrible place to be.
But that's our state by nature. Look at verse 20. There's that
big little word, B-U-T, but, but, you see verse 20, but God
who is rich in mercy, but you have not so learned Christ, if
so be that you've heard him and have been taught by him as the
truth is in Christ Jesus, verse 20. Thank God we've been delivered
from such an awful state of darkness, idolatry, enigma, and have been
made to know the true and living God. This is all of God's grace,
for it's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but
it's God that shows mercy on us according to as as he will. Believers in Christ Jesus are
filled with the knowledge of Christ because we've been taught
by him And to us the Lord is altogether
lovely, but you have not so learned Christ." See, He's been our teacher
and He has taught us the right lesson. And the Lord to the believers
is altogether lovely. To you who believe, He is precious.
We've been taught something of our own sinful nature and depravity,
haven't we? We can say with the Apostle Paul,
wretched man that I am, We've been taught how sin is put away
by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's taught us
that, how sin is put away. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. We've been taught that the Lord
Jesus Christ is all in salvation and everything in salvation.
Christ is all and in all. There's neither, neither is there
salvation in any other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And we've
been taught that the Lord Jesus Christ is all of our righteousness
before God. This is the thing that we have
learned by His grace. Learned by His mercy. Now look
at verse 21. If so be you've heard Him. Now who have you heard? Well,
I heard the preacher down the street. Did you hear him? Did
you hear the Lord Jesus Christ? Did you hear Him? If you've heard
Him, and have been taught by Him, and have learned of Christ,
as the truth is in Him." Have you heard Him? Have you been
taught by Him? Have you learned the lesson that
He teaches? That salvation is in Him, as
the truth is in Christ Jesus. Seeing it is true that you've
heard Him, and have been taught by Him, and have been conquered
by Him, as the whole truth of salvation is in Him, He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the
Father but by and through Me. Seeing it is true then, that
you've heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is
in Him, He is truth. Look at verse 22. Now put off. Put off. Put off concerning that
former conduct. that former idolatry. Be done
with it. Be done with it. That old man. That old nature. Which, now notice
how this is said. Which, it doesn't say which was
corrupt. It says it is. Put off, put down,
suppress that old sin nature. Which is corrupt according to
deceitful lust. Now seeing it's true, we've been
delivered as believers from the bondage of sin, from the curse
of the law, put off, put off the old man. What does that mean?
It means to put down, put him down. Continue to discard the
former conduct and the thoughts of the old man, the old out of
nature which is corrupt with deceitful lust. Put it off. Now make sure you understand
this. Now make sure you get a hold of this. In regeneration, the
old sin nature is not eradicated. He's still there. The old sin
nature is not eradicated. The old sin nature no longer
reigns, but He still remains in us and still rages in us.
That has to be dealt with every day. Therefore, there is within
the believer that constant battle of flesh and spirit. As it says
in Galatians 5.17, the flesh lusted against the spirit and
the spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary one to
another so that you cannot do the things you would. I would
worship God with a perfect, perfect thought. Never have... I would
have... I would, if possible, this old
man, never have a contrary thought to the will of God. Never have
an evil thought. But that's not reality. I still
have this old rotten nature that still roars and rages that must
be dealt with every day. Put the old man off. We battle with him. Our Lord
said that which is born of the flesh is just flesh. Thank God one day this old Adam
nature will put it in the ground. We'll put this old body of sin
in the dust and we'll go to be with the Lord to worship him
like we really want to. One day, though, I'll have a
new body without sin, not even capable of sin. I won't have
that old nature to contend with. In Romans chapter 13, verse 14,
Paul says, it puts you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not
provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Put off the
old man. My pastor, Brother Mahan, used
to say, starve him out and don't feed him. Don't feed him, starve
him out. And ask God to give you a repentant
heart. Repentance is something that
we never, never get over. We continually repent. Lord,
forgive me for that thought. Lord, forgive me again. I need
to repent of my repentance. And it's so, so weak. So put off the old man which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. And then verse 23, and
be renewed in the spirit of your mind. be renewed, be refreshed
in the spirit of that new mind, that new mind given in Christ
Jesus. What a contrast here between
verse 17 where it talks about the vanity of the mind and that
spirit of a renewed mind made new in Christ Jesus. What a contrast. Find over here
in Colossians chapter 3, Colossians, a few books over, Colossians
chapter 3 verse 10. Look at verse 9. He said, "...Line
up one another, saying, You put off the old man with his deeds,
put on the new man which is renewed in the knowledge after the image
of him that created him. Where there is neither Jew nor
Greek, Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian
nor Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all."
That's the spirit of a renewed mind. Christ is all and in all. We know Him. We know Him. Now listen, the old outward fleshly
nature is decaying and dying each day. Yet the inward man
is renewed by grace each day. That's right. Turn over here
to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians, back to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. He talks about this old man,
verse 16. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 16. for
which cause we faint not, though the outward man perish." This
old Adam nature, this old fleshly sin nature is perishing, yet
the inward man is renewed day by day. You see that? Renewed
day by day. The old fleshly nature is dying. The inward man, that new nature,
is renewed every day. Daily grace, daily mercy. The
new nature given in regeneration is renewed, refreshed, and revived.
How is it revived? How is it refreshed? That new
nature that you've been given in the new birth is revived by
prayer, by worship, by study of the Word, and by the hearing
of the Gospel. So then starve out that old nature
and feed that new nature in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 24,
in closing, verse 24, And he says, be renewed in the
spirit of your mind, and verse 24, put on the new man, feed
that new man, which after God is created. Now look at that,
created in righteousness, created in true holiness. Put on the
new man, that is not to make ourselves new creatures in Christ,
that's entirely the work of God. He makes us new creatures in
Christ. Do you remember over here in chapter 2 of Ephesians?
Do you remember over in verse 10, we are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus? So to put on a new man is not
to make ourselves new creatures in Christ. That is entirely the
work of God for us and in us. For it is God that regenerates
and God that quickens us. As it says in Ephesians 2 verse
1, you have to be quickened who were dead in trespasses and in
sin. This new nature, and what he's
talking about here, this new man. Now, here's the contrast. We still have that old Adam nature,
don't we? And Adam all died. Even so, in
Christ shall all be made alive. The believer in Christ Jesus,
he still has to contend with that old Adam, fallen, sinful
nature. But in regeneration and in the new birth, he's given
us a new nature. He has implanted within us a
new, holy nature. created in righteousness and
true holiness. And that divine nature that Peter
talks about that we have received cannot sin. So here in this one
person, old Tom, I have that new holy nature implanted by
the hand of sovereign grace, sovereign mercy. It's the holy
nature of Christ in you, the hope of glory. And yet I have
that old rotten nature that I drag around. And that's why the Apostle
Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? And then he says, I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Peter talks about that divine
nature when he writes these words, Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
of a divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. This new nature implanted is a new birth.
It is a new birth of God. It's the creation of God. It's
not the improvement of the old nature, but entirely something
new that was never there before. It's a divine nature that's created
in absolute righteousness and through holiness, and it's the
peculiar and sovereign work of God to create and to give, to
justify, to sanctify, and to redeem. So, be renewed in the
spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness.