Ephesians: God's Plan for God's People | Out with the Old, In with the New | Eph 4:17-24 | Jan 15, 2023
Good morning and welcome to Mission Church. My name is John and I serve Mission as the lead pastor. I am humbled and honored to be with you this morning. Our mission is to partner with God to see His kingdom come in Las Vegas as it is in heaven and we accomplish this as we Love Jesus, Live like Jesus, and Lead others to Jesus. This morning, we are continuing in our study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians..... A journey that we’ve entitled, “God’s Plan for God’s people.” It is absolutely amazing that God has invited us to be a part of His plan for the world. Despite our brokenness, and regardless of our weaknesses, God plans to use His Church to transform the world for His glory!
Now....If you would, please grab your copy of God’s Word and open it to Ephesians 4. The first three chapters of this letter focus on how it is we receive a new life in Christ. And..in Chapter 4…Paul pivots from teaching us the contents of the gospel to how we are to apply and live out the gospel. We left off last week with Paul instructing us on how we are to live out the Christian life....specifically in the context of the local church… and we were challenged to intentionally use the gifts of grace God has given us for the ministry of our local church. Now…over the next few weeks…Paul is going to lay out for us.... in detail.... the characteristics of the new identity we received when Jesus saved us.
I have entitled this morning’s sermon “Out with the Old, In with the New”, and if you are able to, I would like to invite you to stand for the reading of God’s Word.
Pray. “You may be seated”
Have you ever heard the saying, “clothes make the man?” The idea is this.....the way you dress determines how people will perceive you. If you want to be seen as powerful then you need to wear a power suit. If you want to be seen as hip then you need to wear a fresh new pair of Air Jordan’s. If you want people to think that you don’t care then you need to spend way too much money on a pair of worn out and tattered jeans. After all.....“You are what you wear!”
At my age, I try not to care about what others think about my clothes. Let’s be honest, I am not the most fashionable. But…when I was a kid…my identity was wrapped up in how I presented myself. The clothes and the shoes I wore defined who I was …they determined what friend group I had....what hobbies I enjoyed..and what table I would sit at in the cafeteria.
Now…of course…this idea is not physically true....you are not defined by how you dress..... but this concept is spiritually true. When you become a Christian, you get a new set of clothes…you are clothed in Christ, and these clothes make the man....or the woman. You see..... when Christ saves you…He clothes you in Himself, you receive a new spiritual identity, and you are given new responsibilities.
And.....In our text this morning.... Paul …he instructs us to take off our old garment of corruption and to put on a new garment of grace.... and he uses this metaphor of clothing to point us to our deepest problem and our greatest need.....you see.....Humanity’s greatest issue is that our hearts have been corrupted....and this corruption has hardened our hearts producing all kinds of desires that are in opposition to God. And so.....Paul warns us that…if these corrupt desires are not dealt with......they will ultimately deceive us and lead us to death. But How do we deal with them? What do we do?
Well…from our text....Paul gives us a diagnosis and a prescription .....he gives us a remedy that can heal our corrupt hearts and free us from deceitful desires as we pursue a life that loves Jesus, lives like Jesus, and leads others to Jesus. Let’s first take a look at Paul’s Diagnosis. Paul begins with an urgent and authoritative instruction....look at v17
Ephesians 4:17 (CSB)
17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: In other words...because you have a high calling in Jesus Christ....because you have been called to salvation…because you have been unified in the Body of Christ, and were gifted by the Holy Spirit.... You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do...
Now, this word Gentile is being used... not in an ethnic sense ....but in a moral sense…much like we would use the word pagan…or ungodly. Paul is essentially calling Christians to stop living like those who don’t know Jesus.
Now....Ephesus was a leading commercial and cultural city within the Roman Empire. It was famous for the great pagan temples of Artemis and Diana, which are considered today as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Much like the church in Las Vegas....the church in Ephesus was surrounded by godlessness and immorality. What happened in Ephesus stayed in Ephesus…it was a leading city of debauchery and sexual immorality. Many historians have titled the city to have been the most lascivious and depraved city of its time. So with this in mind…we can imagine the church in Ephesus as a small island in a sea of wickedness…a sea that most of the believers had at one time swam in....and Paul says, “Look , you have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ…now…live like it.”
Now…underline or make note of this word, “walk” ....this word is not just speaking about how we are to live.... it’s much more detailed than that.....rather it is highlighting our deliberate, step-by-step lifestyle choices. In other words…by God’s grace in Christ we have been saved and reconciled to God…we have been united to Christ...we are now members of His body....the Church....and so Paul is appealing to us to live out our new identity in Christ…he is telling us that we are to live with a deliberate…thought- through pattern of life.....and the first step to this new distinctive walk is to stop walking as we did before we met Jesus.
Brothers and Sisters.....the moment you believed and confessed that Jesus is your Lord …you were spiritually born again…you experienced a complete spiritual transformation . Consider .....
Romans 6:4 (CSB)
4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
consider also
2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
You see ......you did not simply receive something new ....you have become someone new....and your new nature is not added onto your old nature but replaces it....if you are in Christ then you have been completely transformed and you have been given a completely new nature.
Now…you may be thinking, “But John, if that is true …then why do I still sin? Why do I struggle with sin? Do we continue to sin after we become Christians?”
Paul is helpful and answers this question in ....
Romans 7:17–18 (CSB)
17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.
In other words..... Yes....you are a new creation....and ..yes…you have been given a new nature in Christ…It’s true that your old self died and your new self lives but its also true that there is a remaining garment of sinful flesh that causes you to sin. You see…as a Christian you are transformed but you are not yet wholly perfect.
However......although we still have residing sin we are no longer controlled or ruled by sin…we are no longer a slave to our old sinful nature.... we are no longer corrupted by sin …rather we are new creations awaiting the completion of the work that God has begun in us.
Now.....with this in mind ....we can understand that our new nature demands a change in behavior…and Paul helps us by first describing what our life before Christ looked like…a lifestyle that should no longer describe us or define us. So....what exactly does it look like to walk like a Gentile?
Well....Look back at v17
Ephesians 4:17–19 (CSB)
17 ...You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. 19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.
Paul’s description of an unbeliever is bleak and dark ....and this downward spiral of life begins with a hardened heart
Man’s condition has at its root the hardening of the heart......you see…Paul is not speaking of a merely “hard” heart but a “hardened” heart. Paul is referring to a certain stubbornness and is speaking of one who repeatedly makes the wrong choices....one who constantly chooses to sin... which ultimately results in the the heart becoming calloused. Callouses are a result of deliberate choices repeatedly made against God’s good rule and reign …and the result..and the danger of these callouses is a life that is insensitive to God’s will and God’s ways, and has an inability to respond to God’s truth.
Consider Romans 1:18
Romans 1:18 (CSB)
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
They suppress the truth....or they hold down the truth much like the little boy who smuggled his dog into his room to spend the night. When he heard his parents approaching, he put the dog in his toy box, sat on the lid, and talked with his parents, ignoring the repeated thumps and the howls of the poor dog.
You see....Paul is talking about an aggressive suppression of the truth....knowing what is right but refusing to obey or knowing what is sin and choosing to still commit it....and when you choose to sin…those choices rub against your heart so often that they ultimately leave it calloused…making it insensitive to God’s will and God’s ways.
Remember....Paul is writing this to believers. Tell me.....Why do Christians need this kinds of warning? Well....The answer comes when we consider the allure of temptation....whatever that may be for you....whether the temptation is to gamble....view pornography, or simply to waste time…we can try to convince ourselves that it’s almost innocent....as we think things like.....“Nobody gets hurt,” “nobody needs to know”, and “we can stop at any time,” But what really happens? Well.... sin hardens our hearts, darkens our minds to the evil of what we are doing, and ultimately makes us less sensitive to the moving of God in our lives.
You see.... when we embrace what the world promises will satisfy ......we inevitably discover that it drives the tenderness and the feeling out of our hearts....ultimately leaving us unfulfilled. Then.....with a hardened heart no longer pumping life-giving blood, the mind itself grows dull and dark…you see....a hard heart leads to the darkness of heart
This phrase in v.18 ....“They are darkened in their understanding.” speaks of the absence of spiritual understanding. Now....of course unbelievers are capable of obtaining knowledge....but they are incapable of obtaining wisdom. Sin darkens our understanding in every way and the more you suppress the truth the less capable you are of discerning spiritual reality.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden…their first thought was to hide from God (Gen. 3:8). A futile task for no one can hide from God…but sin had mangled their mind …sin had caused them to think that the good and gracious God was someone to hide from…..You see..... their thinking became futile…worthless....and empty..... because sin darkened their understanding.. That’s what sin does.
In fact Paul says, apart from Christ our minds are worthless....our thoughts are futile…and.....a futile mind can’t accomplish what it’s supposed to accomplish…because…a futile mind produces empty ...pointless…and vain thoughts. You see.... God designed our minds for a purpose but sin has corrupted our minds and has made them hollow. Ultimately ignorance and sin are inseparable.
And....from a hardness of heart and darkness of heart comes a dead and immoral heart
Paul says in verse 18: “they are excluded from the life of God.”
Before Christ saved you …you were spiritually dead . You see....The unsaved person is not just lost…or in need of improvement …but he is spiritually dead.... and…to be spiritually dead means that you are unable to respond to spiritual things. You see...a spiritually dead heart cannot produce desires for God …but…that does not mean that a dead heart is an empty heart.....rather it is an immoral heart that is a cauldron of sinful desires.....and a dead heart produces a lifestyle in which the senses indulge themselves in without restraint.
Look back at Eph 4:19
Ephesians 4:19 (CSB)
19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.
Paul is ultimately making the connection that those who have not been saved by Christ....they practice all kind of impurity and are never satisfied......and that’s because they have given themselves over to promiscuity.....owing to the futility of their mind…because they are darkened in their understanding.....because they are excluded from the life of God because of the hardness of their heart.....that is they have become callous. And Paul says .... look …you are to no longer live or look like a unbelievers.
Now.....this may seem harsh, but it’s the truth. This is reality....and it’s important that we embrace this assessment of how radically lost the world is without Christ because it is only when we see the depths of our depravity that we can understand the good news of the gospel and see why we cannot save ourselves and why we need Jesus!
Now we turn from the Paul’s gloomy diagnosis to His hopeful prescription.
The good news is that God, by His grace, can make anyone a new creation! And as new creations in Christ, we are to think differently.....and live differently.... And .....as we will see in a moment .....only God can enable us and empower us to live the life he has called us to live.
Look at v 20
Ephesians 4:20–21 (CSB)
20 But that is not how you came to know Christ, 21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus,
Underline or make note of the word “know”. This word is not just speaking about head knowledge but of relational knowledge. He is not talking about simply knowing some truths about Christ but about actually knowing Christ. You see..... When you become a Christian, you do not merely learn about the teaching of Jesus......but you develop a relationship with Him. This Jesus that we worship is not merely a historical figure or a religious concept. He is real and living, and by his truth his Spirit testifies of his reality in our lives. Not as a history lesson but as the truth of a living personality.....You see..... we are invited to have a relationship with the One who created all things and loves us eternally.
FF. Bruce once said that
This reminds me of what Jesus said in John 10:16
John 10:16 (CSB)
16 But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Jesus’ sheep hear his voice! They know Him and they follow Him. And as we follow Him....Jesus infuses us with the very antithesis to the downward spiral of the world that is plunging recklessly after deceitful.. sinful desires. You see....instead of a hard.....dark .... dead…and immoral heart.... Christ has shined His light and life into our lives softening and making our hearts tender....ultimately enabling us to live according to what He has taught us.
Now.... What does this life look like? Well I am glad you asked....Paul helps us by pointing out 2 specific Gospel truths.
Look at v22
Ephesians 4:22 (CSB)
22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires,
Now....Paul’s command.... to take off our old self.... points back to his earlier description of who we once were .....he reminds us that at one time our hearts were corrupted by deceitful desires....and in his instruction he also reminds us of the fact that when Christ saved us .... He made us a new creation.
Think back to Steven’s testimony and Baptism last Sunday.........Baptism symbolizes what took place when Christ saved us.....As we go under the water we are proclaiming that we are dead to sin as we join Jesus in His death and as we come up out of the water we are alive to God in Jesus as we join Him in his resurrection
And now we are to be intentional about taking off sin practically, daily, and continually. In other words.....we must live differently since we are new people. But.....Let’s be honest.....none of us succeeded at shedding the garments of our old life with a one and done attempt. This life of following Jesus involves a repeated …some times daily....and intentional taking off of sin. The problem is that for some of us......our old garments are so comfortable and natural that we sometimes cant even tell that we are wearing them still.
I used to have a really old and comfortable shirt that I used to wear around the house. It was stained…had holes all over it and my wife hated it....and she always threatened that if I didn't throw it away ..well..it would one day go missing. in other words ...She would throw it away. Well…i really loved that shirt but I loved my wife more…so I threw it away.
In the same way…there are some nasty old garments of our old life that …with the help of the Holy Spirit…we need to daily and intentionally take off. Maybe for you its lust …or pride or bitterness or jealousy....but whatever it is that describes your old former way of life …you need to take it off …and kill it before it kills you. There are many Christians who stumble because they don’t realize the truth…that we will all have sins that we will have to intentionally flee from for as long as we live.
Now…it’s not enough to put off our “old self”....or to flee from sin....but we must also “put on” our new self....we need to put on the grace clothes....
In other words …we are called to pursue that which is righteous…holy…and pure…we are called to pursue a life that lives like Jesus.
Look back at Eph 4:24
Ephesians 4:24 (CSB)
24 and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
Underline or make not of the word “New”… this word speaks to the amazing reality of salvation…and it does not mean renovated.... or improved but rather entirely brand new…new in species and new in character…and this new self is new because it has been created according to what God is. Peter says it like this in 2 Peter 1.
2 Peter 1:4 (CSB)
4 By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.
You see…those who confess Jesus Christ as lord are made new and they share in the divine nature of God,
Paul says it like this in Galatians 2:20
Galatians 2:20 (CSB)
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You see....the “new self” refers to our new identity in Christ....and the language Paul uses echoes Genesis 1:26
Genesis 1:26 (CSB)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness...”
God made humanity in His image.....but sin entered the world at the fall…which led to the image of God being lost in Adam…But now, through Christ, the image of God is gloriously restored and at salvation we are re-created into His image…. and so when we put on Christ, we put on a new person that is defined as Holy and righteous.
Brothers and Sisters…if you are in Christ....you are defined as holy and righteous…and not because of anything you are or have done but because of what Jesus has done and because of who Jesus is…your new identity is not a result of your work it it’s God’s creation and gift. ......and now as we live out our new identity in Christ....as we intentionally remove the old garment of sin....and simultaneously pursue a life that matches our new holy and righteous nature. You see Paul is instructing us to daily put on that which we already possess.
Now…what does this look like in practice? Well…the other day…I lost my temper with my kids. I recognized that I was wearing my old self…so I apologized to my kids…I repented of my sin and took off the old garment. But.... in that moment... i did not completed my responsibility until I also put on love and patience.
Now....I was only able to do this because of God’s grace. Works have no place in obtaining salvation or in gaining merit in the Christian life. The Christian life is sola gratia, grace alone. Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul instructed us in
Philippians 2:12–13 (CSB)
12 ...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
Brothers and Sisters.....God is at work in you...... But as a child of grace you also have to work at your Christian life. You see....We have our part in dressing ourselves with the divine wardrobe …spiritually speaking…you are what you wear and so we must daily take off the nasty rotting garments of our old self....we have to reject sensuality and selfishness…and pride and materialism and bitterness…and we have to put on the new garments of holiness and righteousness. We must work out our salvation by doing those things that will develop a Biblical mind. We must put on our new, shining garments of light. We must put on what we are!
Now the question is begging to be asked.....How? How do we do this? Well the answer is sandwiched between the putting off and the putting on. Look back at v23
Ephesians 4:23 (CSB)
23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
So…how do we live according to what we were taught? How do we take off the old and put on the new? Well…we do so through the renewing of our spirit and our mind.
We have to be intentional about reading the Bible and asking God to renew our minds. You see…this renewal of our mind takes place as we live our life obedient to the Word of God....this is not a one-time accomplishment but the continual work of the Holy Spirit in you. In fact we need a continual renewal of our minds…we need to constantly be reminded our new identity....we need a constant reminder of the good news of the gospel....we need a constant reminder of the fact that God created us but sin separated us form Him....and its only through Jesus that we can be new creations that reflect the glory of God by living holy and righteous lives as God’s redeemed image bearers.
I am reminded Romans 12:2
Romans 12:2 (CSB)
2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
And this is done by reading and studying God’s Word and by asking the Holy Spirit to continue his renewing work in us.
As we study God’s word.....His Word gives us God’s very thoughts, and as we prayerful meditate upon Scripture....God will infuse his mind into ours in constant renewal.
With this in mind.....I want to challenge you to grab one if the reading plans off of the resource table and commit to regularly—daily and expectantly—reading God’s Word. and pray that God would speak to you through his Holy Spirit.
Brothers and Sisters.....we must leave behind our former non-Christian lifestyle and we must pursue a life that matches the new identity we have received in Christ.
You see...The way we once lived was due to the fact that our thinking was corrupt and depraved…we had at one time lived according to the futility of our minds…our minds were dark and ignorant and our hearts were hard and calloused.
But....if you have come to know Jesus.....You are a new creation and you have a mind that is being renewed…and you are being empowered by God to live a life that loves Jesus, looks like Jesus, and leads others to Jesus!
The truth is…we need new hearts…new desires. and new minds and this is what we received when Christ saved us.
Lets pray