Learning to Live in Truth

In C.S. Lewis’ book “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” the main characters are on a journey to find the lost Lord’s of Narnia. During this journey, they land their ship on an uninhabited island and while they walk around, they find a nice spring to rest beside. While they are resting, they find the belongings of one of the Lords and then they look down into the water and find what appears to be a life-sized statue of a man made of pure gold. The adventurers decide to try to get it but before they jump in, Edmund sticks his spear in to see how deep it is. This is when he discovers something amazing. The water turns things, even people, to pure gold. When they discover this, two of the leaders become totally consumed with greed until Aslan breaks them from its curse.

This is much like how life in this world is for us. It seems to promise us everything we could imagine, it sucks us in promising refreshment or riches or power, but it only leads to us being utterly consumed with sin and in the end is death. But there is an option for us today, that option is which voice are we going to listen to? Are we going to walk in the way of Christ which we have learned? Or are we going to walk in the old ways of the World which are full of heartache, pain and insanity? This is the question that we are going to consider as we look in Ephesians 4:17-24 today. It reads,

Ephesians 4:17–24 ESV

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

In this world where everything is calling for our attention, I want us to learn today that instead of looking to the world, or looking in our hearts, we should learn how to live from Christ. In this passage we will notice three things: (1) To Examine the World Closely, (2) Be Honest About Our Sinfulness, and we are to (3) Learn at the Feet of Jesus.

Examine The World Closely.

As we look here in verses 17-19, we find Paul describing the mind of the world apart from God. He seems to almost describe things in a downward spiral. First, in the end of verse 18 we see that they have hardened their heart, the NKJV translates it as “blinded.” The word here comes from a world that originally meant, “a stone that is harder than marble.” (R. Kent Hughes 138) Paul is describing the world as people who willfully hardened their hearts against God. They do their best to drown out the truth of God’s Word, they aggressively suppress the truth.

Second, we find that this leads them to the darkening of their minds in the beginning of v18. This world has drowned out the truth with such hatred that they don’t have the ability to understand reality properly. It was Jonathan Edwards who said, “The Scripture is the key to understanding the true meaning of everything else.” And boy, have we seen the results of a society that rejects the truth when we see people claiming that young children can identify as other genders, that men can be women and women can be men, and that a home can function just as well with two moms or two dads. We live in a culture that has a darkened mind due to their hatred of God’s truth.

Third, we see that from this hardness and darkness comes deadness in verse 18. They are “Alienated from the life of God...” And this death of soul leads to recklessness in verse 19.

Fourth, verse 19 says, “who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” This is a people who drink sin like it’s water. They are in happy rebellion against God and they are numb to the horrors of sin.

It is this society that begs us to join them as they walk the wide path that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 7. They claim that there is room for you and all your pet sins, and wicked ideologies that you can want, as long as their culturally acceptable of course. They promise us popularity, belonging, comfort and fun. But they don’t tell you it leads to eternal separation from God. This group writes the books that every celebrates and the movies that we all run to see, they right all the songs and make all the ads that we look at and listen to. They are everywhere and they aren’t just making things to make them. They desire to influence us to think the way they think. Now, I know that people often talk about listening to your own heart, being your own person, or marching to the beat of your own drummer. And if hearing about the way of the world makes you think, “I’m just going to do what I think is right.” Let me show you how Paul frames that here in point 2 as we learn that we need to:

Be Honest About Our Sinfulness

In 1981 a band called Rush released a song called Tom Sawyer which was about a free thinking, independent man who wasn’t reliant on anyone or anything but totally thought for himself and walked to the beat of his own drum as they frequently sang, “His mind is not for rent..” throughout the song.

Well, I want you to notice in verse 17, Paul writes, “You should NO LONGER WALK as the rest of the Gentiles walk...” and in verse 22 he writes, “Put off, concerning your FORMER conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts...” Paul is reminding us that apart from Christ, we are just like them. We can’t see the truth on our own, we can’t walk the right way on our own. We need Christ!

It’s easy for people to sit around and complain about the media, or the government, or their neighbors. But how often do you hear them complaining about their own sinfulness? Paul says the world is full of blinded sinners who are chasing sin night and day and they love it and we are just like them without Christ.

As we look at this life, there can be no such things as, “I know the Bible teaches this, but I personally see it another way.” We must fully commit to Christ all of our desires, plans and thoughts. One author wrote, “Desires are not bad in themselves. They are God-given assistants for living, but they need a Lord.” The desire for friendship is good, but if we don’t submit that to Christ we will want to be liked so much that we will compromise on the truth just to please those around us.

So, we can’t follow the world, and we can’t trust ourselves. It is Proverbs 1:7 which says,

Proverbs 1:7 ESV

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So, if we are going to walk wisely, we must walk knowing the Lord is the One who we must look to. Which leads us to point 3, which is

We are to Learn at the Feet of Jesus

If this text you will notice a lot about the mind. In verse 17, Paul says, “In the futility of their mind.” Verse 18 he mentions, “Understanding and Ignorance” and here in verse 20-21 we read, “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.”

Multiple commentators were quick to say how this sounds like schooling with Jesus being the subject, teacher and atmosphere for our learning and that it is from Him that we learn, hear and were taught of. What Paul seems to be communicating is that if the world’s wisdom is darkness and death, in Jesus we learn of truth and recreation. Oldness vs Newness. Now, I want to point out an interesting tid-bit in verse 21. In the NKJV it says, “You have heard Him..” not, “Heard of Him.” I like that a lot. You see, when the Bible is taught correctly, it is Christ who is using His teachers and preachers to speak directly to His people. So, as we teach you here at Beacon, it is Christ teaching us through His Word by His people. And what do we learn here? 3 quick things

To Live In Daily Conflict With The Old Man (22)

i. R. Kent Hughes wrote, “Many Christians stumble because they don’t realize this. But the truth is, our sins will have to be put off daily for as long as we live.”

To Live With Daily Consumption of God’s Word (23)

To Live With Daily Commitment to Walking in Truth (24)

i. Nice back to school clothes*

ii. It is not that we should simply quit being liars, we must put on the new man as Christ taught us and live in truth. It is a daily commitment to walking in the truths of God’s Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

—Live your baptism.

Lessons:

We should be careful not to just go with the flow or join in on whatever is popular.

We should not buy into the popular mentality of “You Do You!”

Sanctification is a lifelong process. We must daily consider the Word of God and rest on His strength to mold us into Christ-likeness day by day.