Ephesians - Rooted 10
Ephesians Rooted • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
The Christian Walk
The Christian Walk
As we continue our study of Ephesians we are looking at the second half of chapter 4 this morning.
We are looking at the Christian walk in this section.
The Bible was written to be obeyed, and not simply studied.
Paul in a way is telling the Ephesians believers here is what Christ has done for you.
Now, in light of this, here is what we ought to do for Christ.
We are to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only.
The fact that we have been called in Christ ought to motivate us to walk in unity.
The fact that we have been raised from the dead should motivate us to walk in purity, or, as Paul told the Romans, walk in the newness of life.
We are alive in Christ, not dead in sins; therefore put off the old man and put on the new man.
17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
There are some negatives in the Christian life, and here is one of them: walk not as other Gentiles walk.
The Christian is not to imitate the life of the unsaved people around them.
Unbelievers are dead in their trespasses and sins, while believers have been raised from the dead and given eternal life in Christ.
Paul explains the difference between the saved and the unsaved.
To begin with, Christians should think differently from unsaved people.
Salvation begins with repentance, which is a change of mind.
The whole outlook of a person changes when they trust Christ, including their values, goals, and interpretation of life.
What is wrong with the mind of the unsaved person?
One their thinking is futile or in vain, that is it leads to no substantial purpose.
Since the unbeliever does not know God, they cannot truly understand the world around them, nor can they understand themselves.
The unbeliever’s thinking is futile because it is darkened.
That is they think they are enlightened because they reject the Bible and believes the latest philosophies, when in reality they are in the dark.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
The unbeliever thinks they are wise.
Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelievers because he does not want them to see the truth in Jesus Christ.
It is not simply that their eyes are blinded so that they cannot see, but that their minds are darkened so that they cannot think straight about spiritual matters.
The unbeliever is dead because of this spiritual ignorance.
Truth and life go together.
When a person believes God’s truth, then they receive new life in God.
A true believer in Jesus Christ cannot pattern their life after the unbeliever, because the believer has experienced a miracle of being raised from the dead.
The believers life is not futile, but purposeful.
The believers mind is filled with the light of God’s Word, and their heart is filled with the fullness of God’s life.
The believer is to give their body to God as an instrument of righteousness, and not to sin for the satisfaction of their own selfish lusts.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Paul reinforces this with an argument from the spiritual experience of the reader.
The emphasis is on the mind, or the outlook, of the believer.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
He did not say learned about Christ, because it is possible to learn about Christ and never be saved.
To learn Christ means to have a personal relationship with Christ so that you get to know Him better each day.
We can learn about Sir Winston Churchill because we can obtain books about his life.
But we can never learn him because he is dead.
Jesus Christ is alive!
Therefore, we can learn Christ through a personal relationship and fellowship with Him.
This relationship and fellowship is based on the Word of God.
We can be taught the truth as it is in Jesus Christ.
The better we understand the Word of God, the better we will know the Son of God, for the whole Bible is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The unbeliever is spiritually ignorant, while the believer is intelligent in the things of the Word.
The unbeliever does not know Jesus, while the believer grows in their personal knowledge of Christ day by day.
We have believed the truth; we have received the life; we will walk in the way and not walk after the example of the unbelieving world.
Salvation goes deeper, because it has resulted in a whole new position before God.
The old man (the former life) has been put away, and we can now walk in the newness of life through Christ Jesus.
As believers we have not simply changed our minds.
We have totally changed our citizenship.
We belong to God’s new creation in Christ, and therefore, the ideas and desires of the old creation no longer should control our lives.
Paul’s argument here is believers no longer belong to the old corruption of sin, believers belong to the new creation in Christ.
Because we belong to this new creation in Christ we need to take off the graveclothes, that is take off the old ways.
How do we take off or get rid of the old ways, by being renewed in the spirit of our mind.
Through Christ, once and for all, we have been given a new position in His creation, but day by day, we must by faith appropriate what He has given us.
The Word of God renews the mind as we surrender our all to Him.
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
As the mind understands the truth of God’s Word, it is gradually transformed by the Spirit, and this renewal leads to a changed life.
Physically, you are what you eat, but spiritually, you are what you think.
7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is.
He says to you, “Eat and drink!”
But his heart is not with you.
This is why it is important for the believer to spend time daily meditating on the Word, praying, and fellowshipping with Christ.
In verse 25-32 Paul names five different sins and tells the believer to avoid them and why.
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
The first sin Paul names is lying.
A lie is a statement that is contrary to fact, spoken with the intent to deceive.
If I tell you it is noon, and then discover that my watch is wrong, I did not tell a lie.
If I give you the wrong time so that you are late to a meeting and I would benefit from it, that would be a lie.
Satan is a liar, and he wants us to believe that God is a liar.
Whenever we speak the truth, the Spirit of God works, but whenever we tell a lie, Satan goes to work.
The first sin that was judged in the early church was the sin of lying.
In Acts 5, we hear the story of Ananias and Sapphira they sold their property and came to the apostles saying they were giving it all to the church, but kept some back for themselves.
Because of this they both died.
26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.
The second sin that Paul names is anger.
Anger is an emotional arousal caused by something that displeases us.
In itself, anger is not a sin, because God can be angry.
Several times in the Old Testament the phrase appears, the anger of the Lord.
The holy anger of God is a part of His judgment against sin.
It is difficult for us to practice a truly holy anger or righteous indignation because our emotions are tainted by sin, and we do not have the same knowledge that God has in all matters.
God sees everything clearly and knows everything completely, and we do not.
It is possible to be angry and not sin, but if we do sin, we must settle the matter quickly and not let the sun go down on our wrath.
The fire of anger, if not quenched by loving forgiveness, will spread and defile and destroy the work of God.
Jesus says in the sermon on the mount, that anger is the first step toward murder, because anger gives the devil a foothold in our lives, and satan is a murderer.
Satan hates God and God’s people, and when he finds a believer with the sparks of anger in their heart, satan fans those sparks, adds fuel to the fire, and does a great deal of damage to God’s people and God’s church.
28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
The third sin Paul names is stealing.
Thou shalt not steal is one of the Ten Commandments.
Just as satan is a liar and a murderer, he is also a thief.
10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
We should work, and not steal, so that we might be able to give to him that needeth.
If we steal, we hurt others.
It was a fundamental rule in the early church that if you do not work you do not eat.
10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.
Paul was not writing to believers who could not work because of handicaps, but to those who would not work.
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
The fourth sin named by Paul is corrupt speech.
The mouth and the heart are connected.
34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.
Jesus used the word corrupt in the sermon on the mountain when talking about bad or corrupt fruit cannot come from a good tree.
Paul in our text says unwholesome or corrupt word.
This is more than just cussing.
Sometimes we go along with the crowd and try to impress people with the fact that we are not a goody like they may think.
Peter may have had this motive in mind when he was accused by the girl of being one of Christ’s disciples.
74 Then he began to curse and swear, “I do not know the man!” And immediately a rooster crowed.
The appetites of the old life sometimes show up when we permit filthy communication out of the mouth.
Before we were saved, we lived in spiritual death, our personal corruption produced things that was not pleasing to God.
The remedy is to make sure the heart is full of blessings.
We need to fill our hearts with the love of Christ so that only truth and purity can come out of the mouth.
We need to keep in mind that our words have power, either for good or evil.
Paul tells us to speak in such a way that what we say will build up our hearers, and not tear them down.
Our words should minister grace and help to draw others closer to Christ.
Satan, of course, encourages speech that will tear people down and destroy the work of Christ.
James talks about the power of the tongue in the third chapter of his letter.
30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
The fifth and final sin Paul names is bitterness.
These verses warn us against several sins of the attitude and amplify what Paul wrote about anger.
Bitterness refers to a settled hostility that poisons the whole inner man.
Bitterness leads to wrath, which is the explosion on the outside of the feelings on the inside.
Wrath and anger often lead to brawling or blasphemy.
The first is fighting with fists and the second is fighting with words.
Paul gives three reasons why we must avoid bitterness.
First, it grieves the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit lives within the believer, and when the heart is filled with bitterness and anger, the Spirit grieves.
The Holy Spirit is happiest in an atmosphere of love, joy, and peace, for these are the fruit of the Spirit, that He produces in our lives as we obey Him.
The Holy Spirit cannot leave us, because He has sealed us until that day when Christ returns to take us home.
We do not lose our salvation because of our sinful attitudes, but we certainly lose the joy of our salvation and the fullness of the Spirit’s blessings.
The second, reason we must avoid bitterness is our sins grieves God the Son, who died for us.
Third, it grieves God the Father who forgave us when we trusted Christ.
The basic cause of a bitter attitude is that we cannot forgive people.
An unforgiving spirit is the devil’s playground.
If somebody hurts us, either deliberately or unintentionally, and we do not forgive them, then we begin to develop bitterness within, which hardens the heart.
We should be tenderhearted and kind, but instead we are hardhearted and bitter.
We must understand that we are not hurting the person who hurt us; we are only hurting ourselves.
Bitterness in the heart makes us treat others the way Satan treats them, when we should treat others the way God has treated us.
In His gracious kindness, God has forgiven us, and we should forgive others.
