Let us turn once again to Ephesians
chapter 4. I'm going to begin again this
evening with verse 17, Ephesians 4 and verse 17. This I say, therefore,
and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. You notice back in
verse 1, the apostle used this word walk. Therefore, the prisoner
of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling
wherewith you are called." Sometimes in the scriptures, walk is used,
it's a metaphor, and it's used to describe the life of every
child of God. In Hebrews chapter 12, we have
the metaphor of the race Wherefore, saying, we also are encompassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every
weight and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set before us. These are metaphors,
the Christian life, compared to a race, compared to a walk. Our passage tonight again speaks
of the believer's walk, or his life in this world. We've seen
a couple of films that were made in Australia, and the term stood
out to me. I heard it in both of the films
I'm thinking about, walkabout. In these films, one of them I
remember in particular, it was about the Aborigines. in Australia
and the term walkabout. A person would go on a walkabout. And I looked up the meaning of
the term and I also spoke with Lance Heller yesterday, I believe
it was, about this term because I know he has worked with Australians
and has visited Australia and continues to do so many times,
he said, yes, he said, I'm familiar with the term walkabout. And
it seems to me, just walkabout conveys the idea that you don't
have any destination. You just walkabout. And Lance
said, yes, it may mean that, but also There's no time period
connected with it. A person may go on a walkabout
and walk for a day, a week, a month, or even a year. He just goes
on a walkabout. How different is the life of
every child of God when we think of it as a walk? It has a definite beginning when
we are first converted, when we first come to know the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Savior. It is then we begin to walk,
and we begin to walk with the Lord. We know that it has a destination,
and that is to spend eternity with our Father in glory. And we know also that there's
a time which God has determined as to how long we walk in this
world. As there's a beginning, there's
also an end, and that God has determined the days of our lives
when it shall come to an end. We read in the Old Testament
of a man by the name of Enoch. Scripture says Enoch, I think
he was the sixth from Adam, I'm not sure about that, I believe
that's so, the sixth from Adam. Enoch walked with God, and he
was not. Isn't that amazing? He walked
with God for many years. In fact, he began to walk with
God when his son was born. He began to walk with God. I
remember reading B.H. Carroll's comments on that particular
truth, and he pointed out that many times men, adults, when
they have children, they are impressed with the need to get
serious about life. I don't think that's the case
with Enoch. He began to walk with God when
God revealed himself to him, when God called him. But he walked
with God, and the scripture says, and he was not. One day, his
wife and children, they, where's Enoch? He's gone. Gone where? I don't know. We can't find him. He's gone. He walked with God, and he was
not, for God took him. He's one of two men that we read
of in the scriptures that God carried to heaven, Enoch and
Elijah. Elijah, of course, went to heaven
in a chariot of fire. The angels carried him there.
Enoch walked with God. Then the question in the book
of Amos we have, can two walk together? Can two people walk
together? Can a man walk with God? The
two, can they walk together? The question is, can two walk
together except they be agreed? They be agreed. When a person
is converted, when a person is brought to know Christ as his
Lord and Savior, then he is in agreement with God. He is reconciled
to God. That barrier And that obstruction
that existed called sin has been removed by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, reconciled unto him by the death of his son.
We began to be in agreement with God and walk with him. Now, the passage that we're looking
at tonight, I think is more to do with the conduct, the conversation,
as the King James translation uses that word. The conversation,
the lifestyle might be a more familiar way of saying this in
our day. The lifestyle of a believer. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy, that your lifestyle be
such as is worthy of the calling wherewith you have been called."
That calling is a holy calling, it's a heavenly calling, and
it's a personal calling. God has called you. He hasn't
called everyone, but He's called you. Now walk worthy. Let your life, your conduct be
worthy of His calling. And now again in our text, verse
17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you
henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of
their mind. How are we as believers to walk? How are we as believers to walk? Well, first we see there is this
negative. We are not to walk as other Gentiles
walk. One of the great distinctions
between the Jews and the Gentiles, remember in the letter of Romans,
the apostle Paul proves how that both Jews and Gentiles are all
guilty before God because we've all sinned and come short of
God's glory. And he shows how that there's
one way of salvation, there's one way of redemption, there's
one way of being reconciled unto God, whether a person is a Jew
or a Gentile. It's not by circumcision, it's
not by being born a direct descendant of Abraham, although that's what
the Jews believed at that time. that if you were a Jew, if you
were born a child of Abraham, you were saved. You were one
of God's sons. You were on the way to heaven,
sure as anything, just by being an Israelite after the flesh. And remember, Paul brings in
the letter of Romans several questions, rhetorical questions,
One of the first questions is, he knew what the Jews would say
when they read that they were sinners as well as the Gentiles,
needed a savior as well as the Gentiles. What profit then? This is a question he knew they
would ask. What advantage then have the
Jews? If what you're saying, Paul,
is true, that all men are sinners, no matter their nationality,
If all men are sinners and all are guilty before God, what advantage
then is it to being a Jew, to being a descendant of Abraham? And remember, he asked the question
so he could answer it. And he answered it like this.
The question was, what advantage then hath the Jew? He answered,
much, much, much. in every way, chiefly, number
one, chiefly, because unto them were committed the oracles of
God. They had the word of God. One
nation, a small nation, no doubt, among many nations in the world
at that time, they alone had the oracles of God. They had the Word of God. Paul
said, chiefly, that's the advantage that the Jews had. They had the
Word of God. The Gentiles are presented as
a people, no matter what nation they came from, as a people sitting
in darkness. Darkness. The worst kind of darkness. Spiritual darkness. Because they
didn't have the Word of God, which is a light. They didn't
have it. Paul begins the text, and I walk
not as other Gentiles walk. They were in darkness. And most
of these that were in the church at Ephesus were Gentiles. They
were converted. from paganism by the gospel of
Jesus Christ. There were Jews in the church
as well, but most of the membership evidently were Gentiles. And
Paul says that you walk not as other Gentiles walk. And this begs the question, how
did Gentiles walk? How did these people who didn't
have the word of God, who had not had the gospel preached unto
them like the Jews did through all the types and the shadows
and ceremonies of the tabernacle and the temple? Gentiles didn't
have any of that. They had the heavens, which declared
the glory of God. They were without excuse. They had natural things which
testify that there is a God. They did have that. But mainly,
they walked in darkness. The first thing Paul says about
the way Gentiles walk, look at the text, they walked in the
vanity of their minds. This I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
in the vanity of their mind. The word vanity means, among
other things, but especially means empty. The mind of lost
men is not altogether empty, Because yes, it does have vain
thoughts, but it is empty of the true knowledge of God. There's no fear of God in a mind
that is vain, that is empty. It's empty of the fear of God,
which is the beginning of wisdom. And it's empty of faith and love
of God. It is empty of the saving knowledge
of God. Empty. empty. As I said, it's
not empty of vain thoughts. And you think about man and you
remember in your life before the Lord saved you, you had thoughts
in your mind and usually our thoughts are empty. We thought
about what it would be like to, to, uh, Inherit a million dollars,
maybe. We thought what it would be like
if we were more handsome or more pretty or whatever. Vain thoughts. Empty thoughts. We all had them. We all had these empty thoughts.
What if I'd been born a hundred years ago? Empty thoughts. But our mind
was empty of thoughts about God. That is the true God. Any thoughts
we had of God were of a God that we had imagined. So that's the
first thing Paul says. This I say therefore and testify
in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. Well, how do Gentiles walk? They
walk in the vanity of their mind. And notice the second thing he
says, Gentiles walk having the understanding darkened. He is not, of course, saying that
the understanding of lost men is completely vain or darkened. We know that men have been able
to do many things. Men have been able to step on
the moon. Having an understanding, I don't
know anything about the relationship of the men who worked on those
projects, but men have been able to do great feats. To visit the
moon, that's something, isn't it? Been able to split the atom. Been able to find, discover cures
for many diseases. But the mind is darkened when
it comes to the things of God. And that's what he's talking
about. It means that when it comes to the things of God, the
natural man's mind is very, very dark. How could a man who is made in
the image of God, how could he ever make an idol and call it
God? How could a man do that? Because
his mind is darkened. Look back with me, if you will,
to Isaiah 40. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 18, to whom then will you
liken God? Or what likeness will you compare
unto him? The workman melteth a graven
image. And the goldsmith spreaded it
over with gold and casted silver chains. He that is so impoverished
that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot. Well,
that's commendable. I'm gonna make myself a god.
I sure don't wanna make him out of a tree that rots. I wanna
find a tree like a cedar tree maybe. not an ash tree, a cedar
tree, some tree that good would. He seeketh unto him a cunning
workman to prepare a graven image. He doesn't just take the cheapest
workman that he can contract, no, no. He finds somebody who
really knows what he's doing. My, he can carve that wood like
you won't believe. He can make that wood almost
come alive. Like Michelangelo, when he finished
the Statue of David, someone said all he needed to do was
touch it and say live. No, he couldn't do that, could
he? God good, but not man. Have you not known? Verse 21.
Have you not known? Now think about this. These words that we're reading
here were written to man who had the oracles of God. That's
a sad thing, isn't it? These men who to whom these words
were given were men who had the Word of God. And not only did
they have the Word of God, but they had a history of men who
knew God and walked with God. They'd had King David, man after
God's own heart. They'd had Aaron. the saint of
God, the first high priest, and Moses. And yet here they are with a
darkened understanding. Have you not known? Have you
not heard? Hath it not been told you from
the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth. and the inhabitants thereof are
as grasshoppers that stretcheth out the heavens
as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. You know, when you get up high,
when you're flying, you look out the window of the plane and
you get up to a certain altitude there, You can't even distinguish
people on the ground. You may fly right over them.
They're so small, so nothing, so little. What about God? What about God Almighty looking
at the inhabitants of the earth like grasshoppers? And we're going to make an image
of Him. We're going to prepare something
to worship that is like unto him who hath stretched out the
heavens as easy as we open the curtains in our room, that bringeth
the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted. Yea, they shall not be sown.
You, or yea, their stocks shall not take root in the earth. And
he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the
whirlwind shall take them away as double. To whom then will
you liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Walk not
as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, with a
darkened understanding. What does this reveal? Let's
go back to the text now. Ephesians 4. What does this reveal
about those who walk in the vanity of their minds with their understandings
darkened? What does this reveal about them?
Well, I have three things I have down here. It reveals that they're
spiritually dead. That's what it reveals. They're spiritually dead. They
have natural life. But, as this verse tells us,
they are alienated from God. Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them. Alienated, that word tells us
and reminds us that this has not always been the case. Man
was not always alienated from God. When man came from the hands
of his creator, he was not alienated from God. God walked with him
in the cool of the day. But it was when sin came in and
Adam, our head, our federal head, he became alienated from God
and you and I along with him. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. This spiritual life may
be called, as it is here, the life of God, alienated from the
life of God. The life of God in believers,
as John Gill said, it is infused by the spirit of God. This is
the reason it's called the life of God, the eternal life, the
new life that God gives. It is infused by the Spirit of
God, and the Word of God is the means of it. And I think that's
very important. The Word of God is the means
of it. We know the Bible teaches us
that God saves sinners, that it's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. But
friends, God has chosen the preaching of his Word. to call out his
people. Preaching is important. Attending
worship service is important. We had someone come here back
a few months ago, and he wrote me a letter later and told me
the message. I said something about the fact,
in the name of Christ, and I think I had four or five things that
the scriptures speak to us about in the name of Christ or in his
name, And one of them was, where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I. And he said, you act like if
you come together, there's a fuzzy, warm feeling. But I never said
that. I never said that, that there's
a fuzzy, warm feeling when we come together. But I will say
this, God blesses the fellowship of his people. the worship of
his people. I will say that. And I know this,
if he's here and he's promised to be here when we gather in
his name, that's a good place to be. That's where I want to
be. Well, let me go back to that
quote by Gil. The life of God and believers,
it is infused by the Spirit of God, and the Word of God is the
means of it, and it is supported and sustained by the power of
God, and it's according to the will of God, and it's directed
to the glory of God. So the first thing it reveals
is that they're spiritually dead. Number two, it reveals that they
do not know God. We're talking about these Gentiles,
walk after the vanity of their mind, their understandings being
darkened. It reveals that they do not know
God. There's an ignorance in them. And as I said a while ago, a
person may be very highly intelligent in the things of this world,
but This knowledge that we're talking about is spiritual understanding. And it reveals that they do not
know God, because the Lord Jesus Christ said in his prayer, and
this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true
God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. They don't know God. And number three, it reveals
that they have a hard heart. Look at that in the end of verse
18. Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Now
you should have a marginal reading before the word blindness. And
when you look in your margin, you will see it is hardness. Lost men have a hard heart, a
stony heart. One of the blessings of the new
covenant is, God said, a new heart also will I give you, and
a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh. This is what it reveals, those
who walk in the vanity of their mind and having their understanding
darkened. reveals that they are spiritually
dead, they do not know God, and that they have a hard heart.
Hard heart. Now there's a judicial hardness
of heart, and that is spoken of in verse 19. Who being past
feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work
all uncleanliness with greediness. There is Judicial blindness,
when men reject the truth, turn away from the truth, go away
from the truth, will not receive the truth. And many times they
are blinded judicially. The Jews in our Lord's day, they
were judicially blind. They had eyes, but they didn't
see. They had ears, but they didn't hear. Well second, and I'll be very
brief here, how are believers to walk then? Walk, notice this
in verse 20 and 21. Walk, here's the way to walk. Walk as you have not so learned
Christ, if so be that you have heard him and have been taught
by him as the truth is in Jesus. Some read verse 20 like this,
as you are not so. Now Paul's writing to believers
here. Gentile believers, yeah, yes. But you're not so, or you're
not so, you have learned Christ. You're not to walk as other Gentiles. Why? Because you have learned
Christ. Those who are saved and given
a new life in Christ are not as other men. Therefore, they
shouldn't walk like other men. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. All things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. They do not walk, or at
least we should not walk, in the vanity of our mind and in
the emptiness of our minds. We should walk as our minds are
filled with God, with a saving knowledge of God in Christ. Their
minds or understandings are no longer darkened as they once
were, but are enlightened to see what they did not and could
not see before. They are enlightened. You say,
well, how does a person know if he is enlightened? A person
who is enlightened is able to see his or her lost condition. His or her lost condition. Came into this world, born a
sinner, lost, alienated, estranged from God. A person who is enlightened
is able to see that. And he's able to also see, enlightened
to see that Christ is the only Savior. And he's the only Savior
because of who he is, both God and man in one person. He's the
only one who's able to reconcile us unto God. Paul said, you have heard him.
Look at the verse again. But you have not so learned Christ,
if so be that you have heard him, not just heard the gospel
with these ears, but heard the gospel in the power of God the
Holy Spirit, where it's written upon the heart. You heard the
gospel message of him, and not just in word only, but in power,
and so you have been taught of Him. Next time, the Lord willing,
we're going to continue and we'll look at some of the specifics
that the Apostle mentions concerning the believers' walk in this world.
Well, I trust this will be a blessing to all of us here tonight.