Walking away from the World

Introduction

Ephesians 4:17–24 ESV

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. 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 sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

When I was a kid, I would get in trouble as kids often do. My parents would rebuke me for what I had done.

There were a lot of things that they could say, but the one that hurt the worst was this phrase, “You know better.”

That stings, because when we do know better, we feel a sense of shame.

In the passage today, Paul is saying, “Don’t follow the gentiles, because they don’t know better, BUT YOU KNOW BETTER.”

Paul doesn’t say this to shame believers, but that they might remember all that they have in Christ.

CIT: Christ followers, because of the knowledge great knowledge they have of the grace of God, follow Jesus instead of the world.

Explanation

Ephesians 4:17 “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.”

Christ followers do not walk the way the gentiles walk.

The world lives one way and the Christian lives another.

Christ followers must choose to either live for Christ or the world as the gentiles do.

We are all gentiles, so is Paul talking about us?

No. Paul is addressing gentiles who do not know the God of the Bible and thus have never lives as though He existed.

Many people live as though God does not exist. It is a worldly way of life.

The mind of the gentile is futile.

Incapable of being useful.

Nothing that a gentile things or does is useful.

A gentile can build a big house, have a nice car, have a great job, contribute to charity, and NEVER profit in the slightest way concerning eternity.

Jonathan Edwards once prayed, “Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs.”

May everything that I say, think, and do have an eternal weight to it.

For the gentile, nothing has eternal weight. For the Christ follower, everything has eternal weight.

Ephesians 4:18 “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.”

What is wrong with the way the Gentiles live? Four things.

Darkened in their understanding

I will tell you something that you learn in doctoral work. You learn just how dumb you actually are.

Teachers present concept that you didn’t even know existed.

I spent my whole life not even knowing that was a thing! What in the world?

Unbelievers don’t even know what they do not know. They think they have everything that they need.

Alienated from the life of God

Unlike the Jews who knew Yahweh, and simply rejected Jesus as the Messiah, gentiles lived their whole lives without even knowing God.

Less and less people know what the Bible is and who Jesus is.

Thus, they have no concept of living the way Jesus would want them to live.

Ignorance in them

Ignorance isn’t an insult when its true. Paul isn’t insulting them.

He says, “They just don’t know.”

Darkness in their heart.

They are hopelessly lost in sin until someone reaches them for the sake of the gospel.

The role of the Christian is not to mimic the world, but understand that they world must be saved for the cause of Christ.

Ephesians 4:19 “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

How can we know if we are walking in the way of the world? Our actions look like the actions of the gentiles.

Callousness

Is your heart hardened for the things of God? We can diagnose hard hearts by seeing

Hearts that are casual about the word of God.

Hearts that do not see the danger and damage of sin, and do not feel the weight of sin.

Hearts that have drawn away from God.

Overcome by sensuality

Sin gains a large and prevalent foothold in our lives.

When we are saved, we are given victory over sin. However, many Christians fall back into sin, and they allow it to enslave them again.

Greedy to practice impurity

Many Christians relish the opportunity to sin.

Do you generally run towards sin or away from it?

Do you relish that one sin that you count as a reward for living such a good Christian life or are you trying to rid your life of EVERY sin?

Ephesians 4:20 “But that is not the way you learned Christ!—”

Christ provides a different path. How do we walk in it?

We know better.

Put off the old self and put on the new self

The Old Self

former manner of life // The way you once lived.

deceitful desires // At one time, whether you were eight or eighty, you believed the lies that the world told you. You lived for yourself instead of God.

The New Self

created in likeness of God // We are renewed in the image of our Creator (Col 3).

righteousness and holiness // We get rid of sinful desires, and we begin to walk in the Lord. ]

Tony Merida gives a great illustration for the way these final verses show the way we change.

A School (v 20-21)

In school, you don’t can’t look back and pinpoint everything that you learned in any given year, but at the end of the year, you know more than you did the year before.

You learn to be more and more like Christ slowly and steadily.

Every person has a few extraordinary experiences with God, but everyone also has the everyday ordinary where they meet with God and obey his voice.

The extraordinary experiences can change the direction of your life, BUT the everyday ordinary walking with God is what is mostly responsible for changing you.

We are transformed little by little into the image of God by our knowledge of him.

Changing Clothes (22-24)

As your desires change, you put on less of the world and more of Christ.

When I went to Mississippi State, I put on Maroon. I wore more and more maroon, because my desires changed.

I fell in love with the school and environment, and my life changed accordingly.

I had to choose to wear maroon over something else.

New Creation (24)

All of this happens, because we have been made into something new.

God, by the power of the holy spirit, makes someone completely new in Him.

Invitation

Give your life to Jesus.