Sermon Tone Analysis

Escape from Futility

 

September 2, 2007

*Ephesians 4:17-21*

* *

/“This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 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; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus.”/

Why am I preaching on this particular text?

One reason is that many of us have sensed the need to ponder the significance of our faith in the area of personal relationships and related practical matters.

Do we treat each other the way Christians should?

The other reason is that I am deeply convinced that the upshot of this whole series on Ephesians should be a new way of life in all its most ordinary parts.

That's what this portion of Scripture is about.

I think it would be a fair question if someone were to ask, "Why do you focus our attention on such small, personal matters when there are large social and global issues to be concerned about?

What about racial unrest in South Africa, and religious oppression in Russia and eastern Europe, and war in the Middle East, and the export of terrorism, and the threat of AIDS, and the almost forgotten hunger and refugee problems.

My answer would not be antagonistic, because I really believe that the Christian message of salvation in Christ does have something to say about every problem the world faces.

I would simply say two things:

*1.

The More Common Application in the New Testament*

First, when you read the New Testament, what you find is that by and large, God inspired the writers to apply the great doctrinal truths of his Word to the most ordinary personal matters and daily relationships of family and work and neighbors.

I read on the internet recently a letter in which the person said, "Theology is not optional or a toy.

It is intensely practical.

My view of God will determine how I live every day.

It will determine how I respond when my computer crashes."

That's absolutely right, and biblical preaching will reflect this emphasis.

*2.

The Humbling Scrutiny of the Word*

The other thing I would say is that the reason for this personal focus in the New Testament is probably because on the one hand it is fairly easy to be a crusader for a distant cause, say in South Africa or Central America, and yet at the same time be a very self-exalting, corrupt, and God-belittling person.

But on the other hand it is very hard to endure the personal, practical scrutiny of New Testament commands about our eating habits and sexual habits and the way we use our tongue and our money—it's hard for us to stand under this kind of moral searchlight and not be humbled by the corruption of our hearts and feel the need for a deep work of renovation in our very nature.

And wouldn't you agree that the message of Scripture is that what the world needs most—from South Africa to Central America and from Libyan terrorism to North Korean oppression—is the supernatural, spiritual renovation of human hearts?

For Jesus said in Matthew 15:19, "/Out of the heart come evil thoughts,"/ thoughts like atheistic oppressions, and racial degradation, and calculated terrorism/—"out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander."/

And therefore the world is full of futility, because hard and darkened hearts have not been renovated.

And so that is where our very practical text begins today.

It begins with a very penetrating analysis of the hardness and darkness and ignorance and corruption and futility of the human heart.

Why does Paul do this?

Because it's so important that the root of our problem be recognized.

There is no point in going on in this text and telling people how to manage their anger and their money and their sexuality and their time and their tongue if you don't help them to know and heal the disease that turns all these things into futility.

If we want to escape from futility in the practical affairs and relationships of our daily lives, we have to first of all become deep people—people who look deeply within ourselves for the cause of our futility, and people who don't settle for quick fixes and superficial, upbeat attitude changes.

We don't want the surgeon to keep back anything!

Tell us everything you found, God!

We want to be healed.

We want to be free from the very root of futility.

So in 4:17–19 we get the surgeon's report on the human heart.

/“Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live [literally: walk] as the Gentiles do, ~*in the futility of their minds; 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; they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness.”/

Paul’s readers were once among this number; in fact, Scripture says we were ALL among this number; in other words, apart from the renovation that Christ brings, what we read here is the universal condition of the human heart.

/The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

Who can know it?/

(Jeremiah 17:9)

This is what God sees when he looks into the human heart.

Until we see this clearly and agree that this is what we are by nature, we probably will be healed very lightly and very superficially, and the disease will break out more easily, and we will wonder why our external clean up operations so consistently fail.

We haven't seen the real disease and haven't severed the root of our futility.

As I have meditated on these three verses I have seen six levels of evil in my own heart that stand in opposition to Christ and the work he is doing.

*1.

Hardness*

First, the deepest problem is hardness (v.

18 at the end): "due to their hardness of heart."

My deepest problem is that apart from the free and sovereign grace of God my heart is hardened against God.

I am like a stone toward all that is spiritual.

It does not move me, attract me, delight me.

This is a far deeper problem than ignorance.

It is the cause of ignorance, and the guilt of ignorance.

Do you see this in the last two phrases of verse 18? /"The ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart."/

The hardness is deeper than ignorance.

And therefore my ignorance of spiritual things is not innocent.

It is evil.

It is blameworthy, because it comes not from lack of truth or evidence, but from a deep hardness in my heart against God.

That is the first and deepest problem that the surgeon shows me about myself and why my life is so futile.

*2.

Darkness*

Second, there is in me a deep darkness that swallows up my understanding, and keeps me from seeing the glory of the gospel or the excellency of Christ: /"they are darkened in their understanding."/

Notice 5:8/: "Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of the light."/

/Before the Lord shined in my heart, I was darkness/ says Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4–6.

/There was no light in me/.

And Jesus said in John 3:20 that I would not come to the light because I hated the light.

And this is true whether I am a college professor or an illiterate native.

*3.

Deep Ignorance*

Third, the result of this darkness is a deep ignorance of reality (v.

18): /"alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them."/

I say it is a DEEP ignorance, for there is a superficial knowledge in the darkened mind of man.

Apart from spiritual light I can know ten thousand things, but I can't know the true meaning of anything—not one thing.

Because to know the true meaning of a thing is to know why it exists.

But Colossians 1:16 says, /"All things were created through Christ and for Christ."

/So until I know in my heart that every molecule in this universe exists for the sake of Jesus Christ, I don't know the true, deepmeaning of anything.

I misunderstand everything, until the darkness of my mind is taken away.

*4.

Licentiousness*

Fourth, the hardness and darkness and ignorance of my heart results in licentiousness.

Verse 19: /"They have become callous [which is the same as 'hard'] and have given themselves up to licentiousness."

/The sense of the passage seems to be that when a person is ignorant of the true meaning of things, and the true values of  as God sees them, that person will make his goal in life something other than God.

It may be the gratification of his body in sex or drink or drugs or food.

Or it may be the gratification of his ego with more refined intellectual and cultural pursuits.

Anything but God, and everything apart from God.

The heart that is hard and dark and ignorant of God will also be a licentious and covetous heart.

*5.

Uncleanness*

Fifth, inevitably the hardness and darkness and ignorance and licentiousness spill over into practices of uncleanness.

Notice how verse 19 ends: /"greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness."

/Literally, their covetousness drives them to pursue practices that in God's eyes are impure.

So we have finally reached the level of outward behavior, or what verse 17 calls "walking" or "living"—"/don't walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds."/

In other words, Escape from futility!

Live a different way.

Walk a different path.

But now that we have read the surgeon's report in verses 17, 18, and 19, we know that the disease is massive.

The cancer of hardness and darkness and ignorance and licentiousness has spread everywhere.

And we will never be healed, we will never escape from futility by means of a psychological quick fix or a superficial, up-beat seminar on how to change our attitude.

Why do I call seminars, even good ones, superficial?

How many of you have been to a great inspirational seminar or study in the last year?

Hands up! Okay, now how much do you remember?

See what I mean?