983. How We Should Not Walk

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones, Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today, that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from the University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, Dr. Steve Pettit, President of Bob Jones University, is continuing a study series from Ephesians entitled, New Life in Christ.

Steve has written a study booklet for this series. If you would like to follow along, you can order a printed copy from the website, thedailyplatform.com. Today, Steve will show us in Ephesians 4, 17 through 19, how we as Christians should not walk. Would you please take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4 today. We're going to look at the first three verses in our study as we have begun our study in the New Life in Christ. We started with basically an introduction and then the understanding of the overall message of Ephesians. And so beginning today to the rest of the semester, we will take an expositional look that is studying the scripture, bringing out what the Bible is saying and then applying it to our lives. And so this morning we'll look in verse 17 to verse 19. Hear God's word. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ. Learning is a lot like a battery.

You both need a negative pole and a positive pole in order for it to work properly. We often learn just as much by what we should not do as by learning what we should do. In Ephesians chapter four through chapter six, Paul describes the behavior of the believer in five walks. Four of those walks are positive.

One is negative. We are commanded to walk in a right way and we are commanded to not walk in a wrong way. We are told what we should do and we are told what we should not do.

In my own experience of life, the things that I often remember were the times that I was corrected for what I should not be doing, especially when it was my mother doing the correction. This section that we're looking at today and this semester is actually telling us how we should not walk. And notice the opening of the verse. He says in verse 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. So essentially this morning we're going to look first of all at who are these Gentiles because he's telling us not to live like them. And then secondly, we have to understand how is it that they live? How do they walk? What's their lifestyle like?

And then we'll finish up with just a couple of applications of the urgency of what he's trying to say. So when Paul says don't walk like other Gentiles, who are the Gentiles? Well essentially the scriptures divides the ancient world spiritually into two kinds of people groups before the coming of Christ. Those two groups were the Jews and the Gentiles. Now the Jews were from the family of Abraham, we discovered that in Genesis chapter 12. The Gentiles however, were from the family of Noah.

The Jews were God's chosen people, they were given the law of God, they were given the scriptures, the promises and the covenants. The family of Noah however were made up of the 70 people groups that were divided by God at the Tower of Babel. We read in Genesis 10, 32, these are the families of the sons of Noah. After their generations in their nations, the word nation there is the word for Gentile. And by these were the Gentiles, the nations divided in the earth after the flood. So actually God gives them this name. He calls them Gentiles. And they included all the nations and all the people groups of the world apart from the family of Abraham and all Gentile nations were idol worshipers. Only the family of Abraham received the knowledge of the truth, the light of God and who he is. But everyone else worshiped God in their own image and in their own darkness.

That's where we get of course all the mythology from Roman period and Greek period. Now if you'll go to Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 11 and 12, the apostle Paul describes the Gentiles from a spiritual perspective. And he sets forth the spiritual handicaps or the spiritual deficiencies of the Gentiles. And look at verse 11 in Ephesians 2. He says, wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands.

What he's simply saying here is that the term uncircumcised was a term of derision that the Jews used against the Gentiles. Now notice the next verse, verse 12 where he describes what their spiritual handicaps were. He says at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

What did he say about the Gentiles? Number one, they were without a Messiah. They were without Christ. The hope of the Jewish people was the coming Messiah. But the Gentiles had no expectation of a coming deliverer, a coming Messiah, a coming rescuer.

They had no hope for their future. These are those who live BC before Christ. And then notice secondly, the Gentiles were without citizenship in the nation of God's people. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. The Jews, chosen by God, were given an exclusive and special spiritual position and relationship with God. But the Gentiles were outside of the family. They were not a part of God's people. And then notice thirdly, the Gentiles were without any promises from God. The covenants that God made to the Jews, these agreements, these promises were about their future. For example, the Abrahamic covenant spoke of the coming Savior. The Davidic covenant spoke of the coming King. The Mosaic covenant helped the Jewish people understand who their God was and how that they were to have relationship with Him. And all of the covenants were for the blessing of the Jewish people and the Gentiles, they didn't understand any of it.

And then number four, the Gentiles were without hope. Think about it. If God does not pay you attention, then what kind of hope do you have? The answer is none. Only despair.

May I ask you a question this morning? What would your life be without God? I mean, really. Take all your faith, take all the Bible, take all the knowledge of God, take everything that you've ever known about God and delete it in your mind and suddenly you're now living your life without God. What would your life be like?

It would be a life without hope. And then finally, number five, the Gentiles were without God in this world. The Jews had God as their son, He was their light. They had God as their shield, He protected them. They had God as their shepherd, He guided them. They had God as their salvation, He rescued them from the penalty of their sin. This was the condition Paul sets forth of the Gentiles, what they were like. But, when Jesus came, it changed everything for the Gentiles. And Matthew summarizes this when Jesus began His ministry around the Sea of Galilee and listen to Matthew chapter four beginning in verse 13. And leaving Nazareth, Jesus went and He lived in Capernaum by the sea.

This is the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali. So that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled that the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who lived there in darkness have now seen a great light. And those who dwelt in the region and the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned. The coming of Jesus Christ was the coming of light to the Gentile people. And through Jesus Christ, He brought the Gentiles close to the Father to have a relationship with the Father just like the Jewish people had. Now think of this, Paul is reaching the Ephesians and the Ephesians by and large were Gentiles and they had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and now they've come into this relationship with God. So that's who the Gentiles were.

So, how did these Gentiles live prior to their conversion? And if we look, if you will please in verse 17, he begins to unfold the anatomy of the inner life in the inner mind of the Gentiles. He explains how they think. He gets into their head.

And Paul does this for a reason because Paul's approach in spiritual living always started with the way that you think is what drives the way that you live. Many years as I worked with our team members that traveled with us and I would have to talk to them about issues. I never asked them what did they do. I asked them what were you thinking? What's going on through your head? And Paul gets inside the head of the Gentiles and he explains their thinking and he begins first of all with a very general statement.

Notice what he says. He says that the Gentiles were walking in the vanity of their mind. Paul is describing God's perspective on the overall viewpoint of the Gentiles thinking about life. We would call it their worldview. Paul is saying that their inner thinking, their desires, and their choices could be summed up with one word, vanity. What does it mean, what does vanity mean?

It means to be incapable of producing any useful result. For example, let's say you come to Bob Jones University as a freshman and you start taking classes. And at the end of the first semester here at Bob Jones University you flunk every single class. However, you're not going to quit. So you come back second semester and once again you fail every single class.

But, you're not prone to quitting. So you come back a second year, you're still a freshman. You haven't passed anything. And you go your second year and you still fail every single class. Now, since we need your money, we let you come back the third year. And once again, you failed every single class.

You've been here three years and you never passed any classes. Now let me ask you a question. How many of you would eventually ask yourself, why am I doing this? What's the point? This is a total waste. That's what the word vanity means. It means that you're living life without any point. Meaningless.

It's interesting to me that in the world when people will go out and get drunk, they will often say they went out and they got wasted. Do you know anybody in the scripture who wrote about the vanity of life without God? Who was it? A guy named Solomon. What's the name of the book that he wrote that spoke about the emptiness of life? It's a book of Ecclesiastes. And essentially Solomon is writing out of his own experience because Solomon was in a place of life that he could satisfy every human desire that you would ever want satisfied. Everything a person could ever want.

Pleasure, possessions, prestige, money, fame, power, wisdom, beauty, houses, lands, sex. Let's be honest, a dude had three hundred wives. And seven hundred cucumber vines.

A thousand. I mean, I don't even want to go there in my mind. And yet, he discovered that in all of this, life was empty without God. And he writes in Ecclesiastes 1 verse 2, vanity of vanity, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? His point is that life doesn't make sense and has no meaning without God. And from God's perspective, Gentiles live every moment of every day and they never discover life's purpose. And by the way, that is why it is so important that all of us get the, the importance of evangelism. Because what are we doing? We're taking light to those who are living life without any purpose or meaning. That's the way God views the Gentiles in a general way.

But then let's take it a little deeper. Now he speaks more specifically. How Gentiles think in a specific manner. And notice what he says beginning in verse 18. He says, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God. Here he's speaking about their condition. The word understanding is the ability to think things through in a reasonable manner and then make good, make good decisions.

We do that all the time. He says their understanding about life is darkened. The word darkness is, refers to the absence of the knowledge and presence of God. The worst blackout in US history took place on the 14th of August, 2003.

It affected eight US states, Ontario, Canada, and a total of 55 million people were involved. Paul is saying a spiritual darkness has come over the minds of Gentiles. The lights have been turned off and they have never been turned back on. In other words, they really don't understand in their thinking and their decisions how to make choices about life from God's perspective. And then he says they're alienated from the life of God. Alienated means to be a foreigner.

It's like going to another country where you don't understand their language, their customs, and their culture. And Gentiles are foreigners to the life that we have in God. They don't understand your life.

They don't understand what has happened in your heart, why it is that you make the choices that you make. And Peter writes about this. Peter writes about the reaction of the Gentiles to the unwillingness of believers to live sinfully like other Gentiles. And I'd like to read to you 1 Peter 4 because this is a verse that jumped out of me when I was a student at the Citadel living amongst people that were unbelievers and I had been converted and they were mocking me and making fun of me that I would not go out and do what they were doing. What a comfort this verse was to me. Verse 3 of 1 Peter 4. I'm going to read it in the ESV.

I think it's a little clearer. For the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

By the way, that's called college. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you. They speak evil of you. May I say to you that if you are never maligned by an unbeliever for your lifestyle, I'd like to ask what kind of Christian are you? If you're never mocked because of what you don't do, then what kind of Christian life are you living?

This is Peter writing. He is saying that Gentiles do not understand why we are the way we are. And why is it they don't understand?

Because they're in satanic bondage. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost because the god of this world hath blind to the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them. When the light shines, sin is exposed and we flee the darkness and we run to the light. That's the thinking of the unbeliever.

And what's the reason for this? Notice what Paul says. We'll read on here in verse 18, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God and now he gives the calls. He says through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. The word ignorance there is the root word for agnostic. It means that they know nothing about the existence and the nature of God. Practically they are atheists, but this ignorance is basically rooted in their ignoring the truth. Paul says it this way in Romans 1 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened.

It's not that you don't know, it's that you don't want to know. It is an ignorance that you are responsible for. And then he really summarizes it in the statement because of the blindness of their heart. He's here writing of the primary calls and reason for your darkness, alienation, and ignorance. He is saying blindness means stubbornness, an unwillingness to learn, someone who is not teachable. And Paul is saying that everybody is culpable for the condition of their own heart. When my children were growing up at home, I said whatever you grow up to be like, it is your fault.

You cannot, you cannot blame your mom and dad, the way you grew up, the family you grew up in, whatever disadvantages you think you didn't have, you cannot blame us. If you walk away from God, it is your fault. That's what he's saying here. He is saying the blindness of the heart is the unwillingness to receive the truth and respond to the truth.

And it is a hardness that develops over time. Let me just stop here and say one of the biggest dangers of coming to Bob Jones University is called chapel. Chapel is dangerous.

You know why? Because truth is being preached from this pulpit in the power of the Holy Spirit and God is speaking to your heart. And what you do with that truth is what is going to determine your direction, your future, your spirituality. That's why you can sit here and you can get hard or you can get soft and whatever happens to you, you are culpable for the condition of your own heart.

You are responsible. And what he is saying here, the reason why the Gentiles are the way they are, it's not that they don't know, it's not that they can't know, it's that they don't want to know. And what is the consequence of this way of thinking? Notice what he tells us here in verse 19, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness. The word past feeling there means losing the capacity to feel any shame or embarrassment or guilt. It's like getting calluses. I had a friend of mine in college who was a gymnast and I remember he would come back after swinging on the parallel bars in the afternoon and his hands were filled with blisters and he was in miserable pain for about one week.

And then finally those blisters turned to calluses and about two weeks later he would come back and show me the calluses and then he would take pens and he would stick them in the calluses and he would hold up his hands with pens sticking in his hand and he would not feel one thing. Who being past feeling. When our hearts are hardened against truth, our hearts get hard. And the feeling that we should have for disobedience is a sense of shame and guilt. Folks, guilt is not bad. Guilt is good because guilt is from God. The absence of guilt means the absence of God.

If you abandon God then God will abandon you. Who being past feeling have given themselves over, have handed themselves over to lasciviousness. What is lasciviousness? It is behavior that is lacking in moral restraint. It's being loose with your morality.

And he says here to work all uncleanness with greediness. The idea here is that you are engaged in sexual activity and once is not enough. So I would like to say to all of you here because you're college students. You're 18 to 23 years old.

You're at the height of your time in your life emotionally. The only way to control sexual appetites is not by law but by grace. By God. It is only God that can give you strength to say no to what your flesh wants to say yes to. But if you are giving into immorality, listen to me very carefully, you are turning God off. You cannot sit here and say you love God and live in sin.

You cannot do that. It's one or the other. And so Paul is saying that these, this is the lifestyle of the Gentiles. Now as we finish this morning what does this all mean? Well go back to what he says in verse 17 and look at it. He says, this I say there and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. What is he saying? He says don't live this way.

Don't even live this way. Do you know what? Sexual immorality should never ever ever happen on the campus of Bob Jones University. You know why? Because we're Christians. Christians don't play loose with their morals. But I want to say that if that's the only way to look at this passage we're really not looking at it at a deeper level. Because Paul makes two statements that take us to another level. Notice he says in verse 17, this I say there and testify in the Lord. Paul is referring back to what he has written in the beginning of chapter 4 and he writes about the unity of the people of God. And he says in order to cultivate unity there has to be purity. God's new society demands new standards. And Paul is speaking as if he was a martyr about to die and he's testifying. That's what the word testify means. It means to be a martyr. And all he's simply saying here is he is declaring with a sense of urgency the importance that we as believers don't live this way.

Why? Because this is what destroys the church. And then as we finish go back down to verse 20 and he says but you have not so learned Christ. What he's saying here is when you learned about Christ it's the opposite of the life of vanity and immorality and the lifestyle of a Gentile. What Paul is saying here is the idea is that a believer living like a pagan is utterly impossible. When you learn about Jesus this is not what you learn. When you're taught the Gospel there is no opportunity for life of vanity and ignorance and immorality. This is not genuine biblical Christianity because the new life requires a new lifestyle. And so he's saying walk not as the Gentiles live.

Put off. Put off that old and put on that beautiful new life that is in Christ. Would you bow your head and close your eyes please? As we pray this morning may I urge you may I urge you that if you are involved in thinking like and acting like the Gentiles then then don't live that way.

You are culpable for your own hearts choices. God grant you the grace not to get hard but to get soft and tender and pliable and moldable in the hands of our good and gracious God. Father thank you for your word. Bring forth fruit in our lives bring forth the fruit of holiness in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you. You've been listening to a sermon from Ephesians chapter 4. This sermon is part of the study series called New Life in Christ by Dr. Steve Pettit, President of Bob Jones University. Thanks again for listening. Join us again tomorrow as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform.