Off with the Old, On with the New, Part 1 B

This whole thing of learning and teaching and mind and knowing as opposed to ignorance. The mind is the issue.

The point being this, and here's the key, Christians think different than pagans. And as a man thinketh in his heart, what's the rest? So is he. So is he. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Who hasn't heard these words from poet Robert Frost? Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Well, not to spiritualize that poem, but certainly you know that the Christian road is the less traveled way.

As Scripture says, few find it. You can think of John MacArthur's current study on grace to you as something of a road map, charting a course for growth in Christ, and pointing out the sinful behaviors and attitudes you're equipped to avoid because as a Christian, you are no longer a slave to sin. So follow along as John begins today's look at what he calls the portrait of a new life. Take your Bible, will you, with me, and let's look at the fourth chapter of Ephesians together, verses 17 through 24. We're going to see a contrast here in verses 17 through 24 between the old walk and the new walk, the old man or lifestyle and the new man or lifestyle. First the old walk, and he gives four characteristics and then will go with a new walk, four corresponding characteristics.

They are contrasting characteristics. Verses 17 to 19 is the old walk. And by the way, as I finished all of this and I began to read it over again, I had all my thoughts ready, my notes all taken, and something struck me. I read through the passage and I was struck with the fact that the issue here is the mind.

And I had never really keyed in on that, although it was there. That the whole issue here, frankly, people, is how you think. Look for example at verse 17. It ends with the mind. Verse 18 begins, the understanding. Verse 18 also talks about ignorance. Then as you come down to verse 20, you have the word learned. And in verse 21 you have the word taught. And in verse 23, the word mind again. In other words, this whole thing of learning and teaching and mind and knowing as opposed to ignorance, the mind is the issue.

The point being this, and here's the key, Christians think different than pagans. And as a man thinketh in his heart, what's the rest? So is he.

So is he. We've got to think different. And when we think different, we will act different. Salvation, beloved, and I just remind you of this. Salvation, first of all, is a change of mind. It is a change of mind.

It is a new thinking process. Unsaved people can't think right. Salvation is a change of mind, a new thinking process. He says it in verse 20. You have not so learned Christ. We've told you enough about that so you understand that Christianity is cognitive before it's experiential. It is a thinking that draws us to God. We think different about our sin than we used to think. We think different about God than we used to think. We think different about Christ than we used to think.

We think different about what we ought to do with our life than we used to think. And a new thinking process brings us to salvation. And salvation is a change of mind.

That's really what the word repentance means, to change your mind. New thinking process. So the pagan thinks one way and we think another way. Now, how does a pagan think?

Well, he's got some problems. He shows us four elements of pagan thinking. First is self-centeredness. You could also call it useless thinking, but let's call it self-centered.

Verse 17 says that you not walk as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. Their mind is the big deal. Their thinking, their desires, their whims. In other words, they chase the bubbles that they blow. They run in the circle they made.

They sleep in the bed of their own device. Their mind is everything. I tell you, this is a great coverall for the whole area of human opinion. Well, I think. Well, it's my opinion.

Well, I think. Whatever you think, whatever you want, that's what governs your behavior. In the second chapter of Ephesians, almost the same thing is said when it says in verse 3 that the unbelieving people have their manner of life in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the...what?

Mind. They function based on their own mind. But he says here, their self-centeredness is vanity. Now vanity is not like we think of it. We think of vanity as, you know, fixing your hair because we have little things called a vanity. But vanity is an interesting word in the Greek, mataios, and it means that which is empty, futile, useless, vain. It's useless.

It's the best word for it. Pagan thinking is useless. You know why? It goes nowhere. It accomplishes nothing. It performs nothing. It gains nothing.

It is useless. Perfect illustration of this can be seen in the book of Ecclesiastes. The wisest man, the richest man, the man with the most women, the man with the most prestige, sums it all up and opens up his book this way. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. He closes the second chapter of his book as everything is vanity and vexation of spirit. Nothing means anything to me.

Never ceases to amaze me how people will blow their money, blow their bodies, blow their minds, and sometimes blow their head off trying to find something that's never, ever, ever there. He says their thinking is empty, useless, goes nowhere, produces nothing. And it's, in other words, what Jesus said, without me, ye can do what? Nothing.

Nothing. There's a second thing that characterizes pagan, lifestyle, the old man. Not only do they function in their own heads, doing their own thing that they dream up. And by the way, that's in contrast to us, isn't it?

We function in response to God's thinking and His will and His purposes and there's purpose and meaning. But the second thing is they're ignorant of the truth. Not only self-centered and empty, but ignorant of the truth.

Look at verse 18. 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. Not only are they self-centered and useless, but they are ignorant. Now, you know, you can't really face people in our world that don't know Christ and tell them they're ignorant as a general rule, because we're such an educated society that people take that as an insult. And no society in history has ever been much more educated than we have. We're drowning in college graduates.

We don't even know what to do with them all. We've got all kinds of people with quote-unquote religion. But as the Apostle Paul said, they are ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Men have a natural inability to understand the things of God.

They just can't. They have a useless mind and a useless mind can't gain truth. In Romans 1 21, it says they have a vain imagination and their foolish heart was darkened. And they thought they were wise, but they were fools, see.

So men in the world without God are not only self-centered and useless in their thinking, but they are ignorant. By the way, the word darkened here is the most interesting perfect participle. Having the understanding darkened, a perfect participle, it simply means to make blind.

And a perfect participle means something that happened in the past with continuing results. So they were darkened in their blindness and ignorance and it's been that way all since. It's a continuing problem. But there's a kind of a Paul that hangs over this verse that I want to point out to you.

It's kind of a circular picture. They have their understanding darkened. Well, when did that happen?

When did they get it darkened with continuing result? Oh, it's almost the feeling of judicial acting of God. It's almost as if God did it. It's almost as if God is the acting subject acting on them. I think that's true.

Why? Being alienated from the life of God, they were cut off from God's life, ignorant in their hearts, and blind and the better word is hardness of heart. Now watch. Because man willfully is alienated from God, willfully ignorant, and willfully hardens his heart, he gets his understanding darkened judicially by a sovereign God. In other words, it's God affirming forever the choice that man makes.

It's a serious thing. It is judicial blindness enacted upon one who willfully chooses to live without God. It's kind of illustrated with Pharaoh. You read in the story of the Exodus, and Pharaoh hardened his heart, and Pharaoh hardened his heart, and Pharaoh hardened his heart, and all of a sudden like a thunderbolt, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. If you choose a certain lifestyle and are confirmed in that lifestyle, God judicially and sovereignly acts to keep that lifestyle a permanent thing, the perfect participle blinded with results.

Serious. Look again at verse 18. The problem is that this is an individual alienated from the life of God. God is the truth.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And if you are alienated from God, you can't know the truth. You can't know it because you're dead to God's dimension. You're like a corpse. A corpse doesn't hear a conversation in a mortuary, nor does a spiritually dead individual hear God. That's something you can't comprehend.

There's just no connection in those dimensions. And so it is that being alienated from the life of God, there's no life of God in them. And in their deadness they are ignorant, and they pursue it, and they get harder and harder and harder, and then they have their understanding darkened. This is Romans 1. What happened in Romans 1? When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, and thinking themselves to be wise, they were fools. And then it says, and God gave them over. God gave them over, and God gave them up. In other words, they chose the way to go, and God confirmed them in the choice. God judicially acting upon those who choose to live a life alienated from Him.

There is a thought, too, at the end of verse 18. The word blindness is an interesting word, porosis. And it was used in medical terms for the kind of callous that forms around a broken bone which is harder than the bone itself. It has reference to something that is hard, paralyzing. It is even also used in some extra biblical medical source to refer to the kind of thing that forms in joints like calcium forms so that the joint ceases to function. It is an interruptive kind of hardening.

It is a negative kind of hardening. That's what a pagan man's life is like. It's just like he just every time he acts against God, every time he takes another step of willful rejection, he pours more concrete into the hardening of his heart. And the more we do it, and the more we do it, and the more we do it, the less remorse we feel and the less guilt we feel, and finally real guilt is pushed so far down it isn't felt at all. And the Bible says our conscience becomes seared as with a hot iron, and there's a petrified heart that is insensitive. And when it gets to that point, then it says their understanding is darkened.

Judicially, God moves in in response to a constant act of the will. You can see this distinction clearly by looking at John, for example, chapter 12, verse 37. And you'll see, quoting from the record of Isaiah, in verse 37, John 12, though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. They had sufficient information, but they chose to be alienated from the life of God. They chose to be ignorant. They chose to petrify their hearts with constant rejection, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who hath believed our report? To whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe.

Did you see that? In verse 37, they would not believe. In verse 39, they what? Could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. Listen, Satan knows that Christianity and the truth of God is an issue of the mind. He knows it's the mind, it's the thinking. And so in 2 Corinthians 4, it says the God of this world has blinded the what? The minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Satan blinds the mind. And as man goes on willfully acquiescing to the activity of Satan, he gets to the place where God blinds his mind. That becomes the permanent state of having the understanding darkened. You wonder why people in our society don't ever seem to get the message.

Many cases they've got a petrified heart. Well, they are not only ignorant and self-centered and useless in their thinking, but there's a third characteristic. And this one we could talk about a lot, but it doesn't really need it. It's simple enough.

You can fill in the illustrations. They are shameless. One thing about pagans, when they continue in sin and they turn themselves off from the life of God, they will become shameless. Verse 19, who being past feeling.

You can stop right there, past feeling. They just don't feel anymore, apathetic, insensitive. They don't care.

There are no standards. They don't care what the consequences are. They don't mind shocking people. Their whole processes of thought are just destroyed. According to an old story, a Spartan youth stole a fox and ran into the man who owned the fox and didn't want to betray that he'd stolen the little fox. So he had the little fox under his tunic and he stood without moving a muscle while the fox tore out his vital organs.

Our society is so smug. It stands there with all of its sin while it just eats it out. But it's so good at wearing the mask for so long that pretty soon it just doesn't care anymore.

And there's nothing more to hide. And off comes the tunic and who cares? Shameless, past feeling. They don't even feel anything.

You get so petrified that you just, you don't even feel it anymore. The conscience is seared. What kind of a life is this? Self centered and useless, ignorant of the truth so it just plays with error, shameless so there's no morality, there's no code, there's no ethics, there's no standards, nothing. Which finally results in what we could call, borrowing a term from Romans 1, a reprobate mind. That's the fourth point, a reprobate mind. The end of verse 19, they have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Shameless thinking, people, leads to shameless action.

First of all, center on yourself. That's where it starts. Pagan centers on himself, all his own thing, his own attitude. Centering on himself in his useless, purposeless, pointless existence, he turns God off and then he begins the hardening process that hardens him against God and pretty soon he has no sense of shame. He'll say anything, do anything he can get away with.

The only ethic becomes, can you get away with it? And then he literally is given over to a reprobate mind. He gives himself to lasciviousness and he works all uncleanness with greediness. He can't get at it fast enough.

He's greedy to do evil. Now let me tell you a little about the word here, lasciviousness, asulgeia, familiar word in the New Testament. It means shameless wantonness. It means unblushing obscenity. Its primary reference being with sexual obscenities. Basil defined it as, quote, a disposition of the soul incapable of bearing the pain of discipline, end quote.

It is an undisciplined obscenity. You know, the bad man sometime in his life tries to hide his badness, but the man who has asulgeia couldn't care less who he shocks, couldn't care less how indecent he is as long as he gratifies his own sick, warped mind. You know what a reprobate mind is? Romans 1, a reprobate mind is a mind that is no mind. It is a mind that does not think. It is a mind that is no mind at all. It cannot reason. It cannot produce logic. It cannot receive the truth. It is no mind at all. It is the kind of mind we see in our world today. It is a blown mind.

It is incapable of thinking. Listen, you choose to drink and take another drink and another drink and another drink and another drink. You just keep giving yourself over and over and over to lasciviousness and your unblushing obscenity that allows you to do that without fear of shocking anybody, could care less how indecent it is and that kind of behavior and pretty soon you have a mind that can't think. Do the same thing with homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual activity, lying, cheating, stealing, anything.

It becomes a way of life to which you commit yourself. By the way, he adds this statement that's interesting, to work all uncleanness with greediness. The word work is very interesting. Aragase is a word that means business. It can mean actually business. They make a business out of uncleanness. Now that's true of our society.

You know that? There was a day when dirty business was sort of on the cuff, right? It was sort of hidden, up your sleeve. You know, you had to sneak around a little bit to find the dirty business. Nowadays it's wholesale. They make a business out of it.

We've got it all. Filthy dirty movies and even the quote unquote good movies, many of them imply a filthy thing, implicit rather than explicit or by innuendo, an evil thing. And so it's a matter of business. Filthy books produced constantly, just never ending. The books published in America rival the drippings from a broken sewer.

Pimps, prostitutes, bars, et cetera, big, big, big business, big business. Beloved, what part do we have with that? What part do we have with that? They do it with greediness. The Greek word means an unlawful desire for things that belong to others. They're after you. They're after the purity that belongs to you, the sanity that belongs to you, the money that belongs to you, the morality that belongs to you, the character that belongs to you. They want it all.

They want it all. What do we have to do with that stuff? Paul looks at the pagan evil world and he sees its terrible self-centered, purposeless, fantasizing, useless thinking that leads to a darkened understanding and a hard heart which leads to an insensitivity to any sin and a shamelessness which leads to a blushing obscenity. We tolerate everything.

And we make a business out of it to capture people. And he says, I love this, verse 20, look at it, but you have not so learned Christ. What part do you have in that? Put that smelly, stinking, old man off. You don't have any part in that. See, verse 22, put off concerning the former manner of life, the old man.

Verse 24, put on the new men which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. You don't have any part in that stuff. You're different. You're new. You see the whole point of what he's saying. Beloved, you know, people say, well, you know, it's kind of borderline.

Should I or shouldn't I do this? Listen, you shouldn't even be messing around on the border. You know, we ought to be so far away from that stuff that we are a light on a hill.

Right? That we are apart from that. That's not our life.

We have no part with that. And as I said, the tough thing that Christianity faces today is that, you know, we like to play around on the edges with the world. I'm not going to tell you what you can't do and what you can't do. But I'll tell you one thing.

The Word of God doesn't make specifics. It just tells you to get so far away that nobody will ever for one moment miss the point that you're different. You're different.

That's the issue. A city that's set on a hill can't be hid. We crawl down where the rest of them, they don't see us. We've got to stand as light and salt.

If we're corrupted by the system, it's useless. Let God speak to your heart. But I believe for me, I've got to be as far away from that stuff as I can possibly be. As far away, as different. I don't want to be odd in my personality or unloving or unaccepting.

I just want to be different, unique and set apart. Let's just covenant in our hearts, people. Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ purchased us at the cost of His own blood, right?

Gave us a new nature which is holy and undefiled and sanctified forever. And then He simply says, would you live up to that? Would you throw off the old life and live the new life? Let's just cut the connections.

And let's be so different that we don't even play on the borderline. That encouraging lesson is from John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. His current study from Ephesians 4 and 5 is a look at the portrait of a new life. You know, it's fair to think of this study as a how-to on living a life that honors God. And John, I know you would say that no life can honor God unless it is consistently exposed to Scripture. A Christian just needs to build a habit of Bible intake. God's Word is what sustains us. Yeah, I mean, it comes down to what David said, your word of, I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.

How simple is that and profound at the same time? And again, this speaks to the issue of the fact that you have lots of people who go to lots of sort of quasi-Christian events and would call themselves believers in Jesus Christ, but have really no understanding of the Bible. How many church services have you watched on television in megachurches where they're sitting in the dark?

They're sitting in an auditorium in the dark watching a show with a guy and a spotlight on him. Nobody's got a Bible. Nobody cares about a Bible. Once in a while, somebody might throw a Bible verse up on the screen. This does not model faithful study of the Word of God, and that's why megachurches don't have Bible teachers because they don't produce them. They don't focus on the Bible.

They focus on the personality, so counterproductive. So you have a generation of so-called Christians who know little or nothing about the Bible, and that's a formula for spiritual disaster, because your only protection—go back to Psalm 19. It is the word that protects you from committing the great sin, the psalmist said. So you need to know the Word of God, read it, understand it, and I just want to remind you that that starts with a daily commitment to reading the Word of God. I want to remind you that we have made so many efforts to put in your hands tools that explain the Bible, not least of which is the MacArthur Study Bible, but I want to mention another one, the MacArthur Daily Bible.

It divides the whole Bible down into daily portions to be read 365 days a year. Now is the time to pick up several copies before Christmas and before 2022 gets started. So take advantage of the discounted pricing on the Daily Bible and nearly everything else. The sale runs through Friday, November 12. Contact us today to place your order.

Yes, and this is a great resource. I use one for my daily devotions, and I encourage you to do the same, or perhaps read it with your family. To purchase the MacArthur Daily Bible, contact us today.

To order, call 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org. The MacArthur Daily Bible gives you a portion of scripture to read from the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Psalms, and the Proverbs. It also includes notes from John to help you better understand the passage you're reading.

So call now to order 800-55-GRACE or shop online at gty.org. And while you're at gty.org, make sure you tap into the thousands of Bible-related resources that are available there free of charge. You can read the Grace To You blog and find out what John and the staff have to say about topics like spiritual growth, evangelism, and much more. You can also catch episodes of this broadcast that you may have missed, or you can download any of John's 3500 sermons for free in MP3 and transcript format. Again, you'll find all of those free resources and many others at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here at the same time tomorrow when John looks at how you can receive God's Word with humility and experience its transforming power. Join us for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.