Onward Christian Soldiers

Introduction

I. Our Past Failures

Every Christian came to the place in their life where they realized that they were not right with God and that they needed salvation.

This means that even the best Christian you know was at one time a failure. What happened is they failed to keep the commandments of God, they sinned, and their life was marked by sin and shame, no matter how young they were saved.

And the Bible says that there was a particular way that we walked in those days, and it says in v. 17, that we should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Then, the Bible gives three descriptions of how the Gentiles walked, and how we walked when we were in sin.

A. A Futile Mind

Ephesians 4:17 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,”

That word “futility” means “vanity” or “aimlessness.”

This simply means that people today are walking around with no real purpose, no real direction, just living. We have so many people today that call themselves philanthropists, or people who say that they are trying to improve the lives of other people here on earth, but their aim is worthless. If I help a man to have a better life on this earth, all I have done is make him more comfortable on his way to Hell.

Matthew 16:26 “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

When you became a Christian, all of a sudden the world began to make sense to you and you had an answer for all of the problems we are facing. If you don’t, then Paul is talking to you here, not to be futile in your thinking, but to think of things with a heavenly perspective.

Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”

When we think in terms of the earth, when we, even as believers, have not been freed from futile thinking, we say things like, “I just don’t understand how the world could be this way.” or “I don’t understand how that person could behave that way.” Well, friend, I do…and it’s because of sin and a world full of people walking in the futility of the mind.

We also used to walk this way…and it is possible for us to still walk this way. So, as Paul commands us here on the authority of the Lord Jesus, we ought not walk that way anymore, because we now belong to the Lord Jesus Who gives us soundness of mind.

Colossians 2:6–8 “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

When we are not futile in our mind, we will not taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit, but we will press on to glory.

B. A Darkened Understanding

Ephesians 4:18 “having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God”

Now, the Bible says that the Lord Jesus is the Light of life. When we were alienated from Him, we had no choice but to walk in darkness. Without Him, there is no light.

We can easily make a return to this hopeless condition when we value the wisdom of the world over the wisdom of God.

How do we get the wisdom of God?

James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Now, when the Bible talks about wisdom, it is speaking of discernment. What you are asking for when you ask God for wisdom is you are asking Him to show you if the advice that you are receiving, or if the way that you are living is aligning with His word.

Now, this requires some action on your part.

You are going to need to know His word. There is such thing as the spiritual gift of discernment, but that is not a gift that gives people permission to know the deep dark secrets of another person. The spiritual gift of discernment is a spiritual gift that opens a person’s mind to the Scripture and allows them to see everything through the lens of Scripture in a super-natural way.

But you don’t need to have the gift of discernment to be discerning. What you need to have wisdom, what you need to have discernment, is an intimate relationship with the Word of God.

We don’t get this intimate relationship by simple study, even though it does involved study…we generate an intimate relationship with God’s Word when we meditate on it, understand it, and then apply it to our person.

What we do instead of seeing things through the lens of Scripture is we find an “expert” on the internet, in the office space, or in academia to tell us what we need and what’s best. Sometimes, what can be worse, is we find someone who is a false teacher of God’s Word, and because we ourselves aren’t intimate with God’s Word, we can’t tell that they are a false teacher, and now we are back walking in darkness, without the wisdom of God.

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

When we choose to walk in ignorance of God’s Word, then we walk in darkness. When we walk according to God’s Word, then we walk in light, for His Word is a light to our path.

C. A Blinded Heart

Ephesians 4:18–19 “having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”

Literally, this is saying that they are “hard-hearted.” This is why it follows in v. 19 that they are past feeling, because their conscience has been seared, and they can no longer feel the shame for what they are doing in broad daylight.

I remember the first time I got caught committing what we as people consider to be a great sin. I was heart broken, I was embarrassed, and I was ashamed at who I was. But, the more I sinned, the less I felt. It was because my conscience was being seared, and my heart was becoming hard, and I wasn’t ashamed of my sin anymore, I just didn’t want to get caught and face the consequences.

But when you become a Christian…that sensitivity returns because God’s Holy Spirit has taken your heart of stone and given it life. And, even though you still sin, there is something different that happens inside of you. You feel the supernatural need to go and to confess that sin before God so that you can be made right with Him.

The Wolves and the Eskimos

There is a tribe of eskimos that live in what’s called the Cumberland Sound in Canada.

In the 1800s, they were having problems with wolves invading their campsites, so they developed a method to kill the wolves.

What they would do is they would coat a sharp blade in deer blood, freeze it, coat it, freeze it, etc…and place it for bait.

And as those wolves would lick the blood off of that knife, because of the cold weather, they lost sensitivity in their tongues, and when they got to the knife’s edge, they couldn’t feel it until they had cut their tongues badly enough to do some real damage.

That’s how sin works in the life of the person with the seared conscience, they just keep sinning and sinning, never understanding how damaging it is for them.

II. Our Present Hope

We aren’t supposed to be living in our past failures anymore, we are supposed to be walking according to Our Present Hope.

Ephesians 4:1 “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,”

Because of the Holy Spirit of God living in us, we now have the ability to understand all of the truth of Scripture so that we don’t have to walk with a futile mind, a darkened understanding, or a blinded heart…for the Bible says that we can finally understand the truth of God’s Word.

1 Corinthians 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”

What has been freely given to us?

A. A Sincere Conviction

Ephesians 4:20–21 “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:”

When Paul writes, “But you have not so learned Christ,” he is not speaking about simple intellectual knowledge, but he is talking about a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus that you grow in each and everyday.

It is by conviction, by faith, that we trust in the Lord Jesus, and it cannot be a half-hearted pursuit, it must be something done in sincerity of heart.

Then Paul writes that we have been taught by “the truth.” The truth is none other than the Word of God.

John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

We cannot have fellowship nor deepen our conviction to follow the Lord Jesus by any other way than by learning to treasure His Word. For Jesus says that the Word of God testifies of Him, that we might know Him more and more.

John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”

That is, it’s not just the words on the page that give us eternal life, it is not just the reading of His word that changes us, but it is the fellowship that we have through the Lord Jesus when we allow the Scriptures to reveal Who He is that deepens our understanding of the truth.

We get to know Jesus through the application of His Word to our daily lives. As we have fellowship with Him through His Word, our faith is deepened, and then we have that sincere conviction to follow Him closer and closer.

B. A Renewed Mind

Ephesians 4:22–23 “that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,”

The “spirit” of a man is his inner disposition. Whatever a man serves is where his spirit pushes him to. For instance, if a man is a servant of money, he has a spirit of greed. If he serves a sexual appetite, he has a spirit of perversion. But if a man begins to serve the Lord, the spirit of his mind is being renewed from a spirit that serves deceitful lusts to a mind that serves the Lrod.

This is not a one and done, it is a transformation, but the good news is that the Lord has given us all the power to be released from a spirit that serves anything else other than Him.

1 Corinthians 6:20 “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

The spirit of a man talks about his inner disposition, and it talks about his course of action. So, as the Holy Spirit begins to renew the spirit of your mind, you go from a person who has a mind set to sin, to a person who has a mind set to service, unto God.

Romans 12:1–2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

The will of God in your life is that you have a mind set on serving and glorifying Him.

C. A Regenerated Heart

Ephesians 4:24 “and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Where we once had a heart that was blinded and hardened, we have a heart that pulsates with life.

This is more than just a refurbished heart, this is a heart that has been remade into the image of God. For, if God judges the heart of a man, and God sees us as perfectly as He sees His son Jesus, then we have been restored into the image of God.

This goes against our thinking…because we say that everyone is made in the image of God. We certainly believe that all life is valuable, because Jesus died for every person, but that doesn’t mean that we are in the image of God as we were in the Garden.

What happened there in the garden is we took on sin and the image of God in us was marred, and we became the image of sin. Jesus tells those Pharisees in John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.”

But, when we give our hearts to the Lord Jesus, we are purchased out of sin, we are made to be in right standing with Him, and we are adopted into His family.

What God does through the Holy Spirit is He makes what was once defiled, clean; and what was once dead, alive.

III. Our Future Victory

We end this chapter with 5 things to “put away.”

The truth is that we are going to sin, we are going to mess up, and that we have a lot of work to do, but in our lives, we can know, based on God’s Word, that we already have the victory.

Joshua and Jericho

Those sins that stand in our way of being holy are like the cities that stood in Joshua’s way of conquering the Promised Land.

There may be some casualties, there may be some strong resistance, but God Himself has already said that He has won the battle for us.

What are the things we ought to put away?

A. Put Away Lying

Ephesians 4:25 “Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.”

A lie is not something told by mistake, a lie is something told with the intent to deceive. It is something told so that there is a benefit. If someone makes and honest mistake, and there is no benefit for the mistake, then it cannot be a lie. The Devil is a liar, and his plan is to deceive the Christian, and when we lie, we become like the Devil.

Earlier in the chapter, we discussed how the Christian’s life is supposed to be governed by what is true, and that is why we have fellowship with the Lord Jesus in His Word, which is truth. When we fail to put away lying, we lose the battle.

What’s important to note about this chapter is that Paul is trying to unify this church, and he says very plainly that we are supposed to speak the truth with our neighbors (church family) because we are members of one another. To deceive someone in the church with a lie is a sin against the entire body and the head Who is Christ.

But, if we are really in Christ, we know that we can simply put it away because the Lord has already won the victory.

B. Put Away Anger

Ephesians 4:26–27 ““Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”

Anger by itself is not sin, because the Bible says that God gets angry. Obviously, we know that Jesus was angry when He cleansed the temple. But I want to remind you that you are not God and you are not the Lord Jesus, and what we so often think is justifiable anger is just sin.

Whenever Paul gives this instruction, he says, “do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” Often times in the Bible, anger is illustrated with fire. And when we let a fire burn out of control, it will cause serious damage.

But there is something else that happens to us internally…we might not have outbursts of wrath, but what we can have is malice

Malice is anger that is contained inside of us. It is like a fire that is still burning underneath the ashes. It might not have a visible flame, but it will still burn things. Some people live their whole life with anger inside of them, and it something that a Christian has to put away.

How do we put it away?

We put it away the same way that we would completely put out a fire, we soak it in water. By the truth, we extinguish the flames of anger.

C. Put Away Thieving

Ephesians 4:28 “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.”

It seems as though Paul was having some trouble with some of the slaves that had converted to Christianity who were prone to stealing because they didn’t have much.

The Bible doesn’t make any excuse for stealing, the Bible tells us that we need to work for our masters as if we are working for the Lord Himself. This is not an easy thing to do, but the Lord tells us to do this so that we will learn to respect authority.

Almost all of society’s woes could be solved if people would do what they were responsible for doing and submitting to who they were responsible to submit to.

Thievery shows (1) that we are not relying on God to provide for us, which is why we would classify gambling as thievery, because with a spirit of thievery, you’re hoping that someone else’s loss is your gain. (2) That we are operating with a spirit of covetousness. By definition, thievery is taking what rightfully belongs to someone else. Covetousness is desiring what rightfully belongs to someone else. (3) We are not operating in faith, but we are operating in the flesh, because the Bible describes Satan as a thief.

Paul says that Christians are not supposed to be takers, but that God’s people are supposed to be a people of faith who (1) labor, (2) give generously. And you can, because the Lord has already put that in you.

D. Put Away Filth

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”

Here he is talking about our speech, but the Bible says that out of our heart our mouth speaks. If you gossip, then something in your heart is out of alignment with God. If you swear and curse when anger hits, then something in your heart is out of alignment with God. If you say something with perversion, then something in your heart is given over to what the Bible calls lewdness.

Instead, our words are to be used to edify one another and to be an administer of grace. But if we want our tongues to speak blessings to other people, then we have to claim the victory over our futile minds and our hardened hearts. We cannot have a heart filled with negativity, self-centeredness, and vile lusts and still be an encourager to other people.

When we allow the Lord to encourage us through genuine praise and the application of His Word to our life, then we are able to impart grace to our hearers. And it shouldn’t be an afterthought…you know that your heart is right with the Lord when your first reaction is a reaction of grace, truth and integrity.

E. Put Away Bitterness

Ephesians 4:30–32 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

Bitterness grieves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has a hard time sharing your heart with a spirit of bitterness. It causes turmoil in the heart much like it would in the home.

The Bible says that the remedy for bitterness is to forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Conclusion