Taught by the Heavenly Schoolmaster - Brandon Scalf

The Call to Walk Worthy in Ephesians 4

All right everyone grab your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 as we will be continuing on in our series through Paul's letter to the churches in Ephesus. Ephesians chapter 4 and we will begin today looking at the second half of chapter 4 beginning in verse 17.

So Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17 and we will be looking at verse 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 today. And so if you would please stand with me for the honoring and reading of God's holy infallible and all-sufficient word.

The title of today's message is taught by the heavenly schoolmaster. Verse 17 this is the word of God. Therefore this I say and testify in the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind being darkened in their mind alienated 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 heard him and were taught in him just as truth is in Jesus the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God endures forever. Amen amen.

Go ahead and have a seat and get your eyes back on verse 17. As we begin this morning I want to ask you a very pointed question a question that is no doubt probing and a question that maybe you haven't asked yourself before in all seriousness and that question is this.

Are you a Christian. Are you a Christian. And here's a follow-up question. How do you know that you are in fact a Christian. Is it a fuzzy feeling that you have or is it maybe a objective kind of standard that you've created in your head if you can answer yes to this question is it because you feel as though Christ is everything that he has taught you in him.

Or is it rather that you have tidied up your life in such a way that you no longer look like the guy you used to be or the woman that you used to be before now. Heart posture matters when we answer this question for instance in Luke 18 there is a parable that is given of a pharisee and a tax collector and these two people are compared against one another.

The pharisee in Luke 18 verses 11 and 12 goes to pray to God and this is his prayer. I thank you that I am not like other people swindlers unjust adulterers or even like the tax collector. I fast twice a week I pay tithes of all that I get.

And so you see his heart is one of me me me me. But the other man the tax collector who is commended in this parable. In Luke chapter 18 verse 13 has a much different prayer standing some distance away from this pharisee unwilling to lift up his own eyes to heaven because of maybe the shame or guilt that he had felt I was beating his chest and he was saying God be merciful to me a sinner.

Well the good news is you don't have to wait too long to find out whether or not your answer to this question is one that is right or wrong. This text here in many ways is going to be the school house of the soul where our heavenly school master Jesus Christ the righteous is calling people through his servant Paul to a life that looks like a life that would be a saved life.

And this is no ordinary classroom. And here in these halls of divine instruction namely the scriptures the lessons come not in textbooks and chalk but from the Holy Spirit as he applies the truth himself a curriculum etched in the hearts and the minds of those who've been called out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

And so as we look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17 though we are most certainly caught up in the flow of an argument Paul is addressing the Ephesian believers with the weighty urgency that it is to walk worthy.

Right. We've already looked at this in Ephesians chapter 4 Paul exhorts right all of the Ephesian church members and us by extension to walk worthy of the calling with which we have been called. And then he gets into some unifying pieces and shows us why we are to do that and and who we are to do that in and by what authority as we have transitioned from doctrine to duty.

And here he's going to put some skin on it in a very big way. So in many ways though we're leaning into this concept of what it means to be a new man or a new creature in Christ Jesus in many ways it's a continuation of what it means to walk worthy.

And the way in which we walk worthy according to the text in front of us is to abandon sinful ways. In other words people who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ people who have been rescued from Satan sin death and hell no longer live in it no longer prize and prioritize it and no longer think like sinners.

And this is profound. It's profound especially in context because the Ephesian church was an Ephesian church that is that it was in Ephesus. And Ephesus if you remember was full of carnality full of idolatry full of the worst kind of sin that you could ever even imagine.

It was the in many ways cultural hub of the Roman Empire. Everything that it had to offer by way of debauchery was there as a matter of fact one of the seven great wonders of the world there the the temple to Artemis where there was temple prostitution going on and many many other horrible things like sorcery and and whatnot.

Which is why when there was this great revival in the book of Acts in the city of Ephesus they went and burned their books because they were filled with man's wisdom and sorcery. And it was not God's word.

And Paul is wanting them to understand here like I'm wanting you to understand now that where you are doesn't really matter all that much. Here's what I mean by that. And Paul understood when he said these words the Ephesus church that was still going to be in Ephesus but now they are also in Christ.

He knew that the church in Ephesus was going to be among the Gentiles but they were no longer allowed to look like Gentiles. And in many ways though we are in Tulsa we are not to act and think like Tulsans.

Though we are in America we are not to think and act like Americans. We are citizens of a different kingdom now does that mean that we don't engage the political political sphere and care about what's going on around us.

Not at all. But what it does mean is that we have a different walk and that means we have a different pattern of life. And so this message is for us today as much as it was for the Ephesians then it is demanding it is convicting it is clarifying.

But more than that it is Christ drenched and it is beautiful. And so as we examine these texts let us sit at the feet of our great under teacher Paul here and as he points to the great teacher of our souls that we might grasp the truths here and that we might receive them with reverence and that we might love them and cherish them because they are what help us walk with God.

And so look with me at verse 17 the first thing that I want you to see the first thing that I want you to note is the apostolic admonition to abandon sin. And I know that's a mouthful. The words that start with a are long the apostolic admonition to abandon sin.

Look with me at verse 17 Paul begins by a really continuing on right. Because that's how Paul operates. Paul says therefore because of the things I have just said this I say. And what are the things he just said.

Well we've just gotten out of a huge huge treaties basically on what it looks like to be the church that we have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and that we have been given gifts. Right. We have been given gifts to serve the body.

So salvation is given. We are unified by the spirit in the body of Christ and we are given gifts to serve one another by the Holy Spirit and built up by men gifts or the gifted men given namely shepherds and teachers or shepherd teachers as well as evangelists.

And we should therefore walk no longer. Because of that you will see as the gentiles do. Therefore because of everything I've just said that you've been saved unified and given gifts and men gifts this I say and testify in the Lord that you walk no longer just as the gentiles also walk now.

I want to pause here because I want you to see that this is no ordinary suggestion but this is in fact a command. It's a command uh that carries with it not only apostolic authority but you see here he says I testify in the Lord.

This word here that's used is the same word that we get our word martyr from but it carries with it the weight of a sworn witness. In other words Paul here is bearing witness in the Lord. And in so doing is essentially communicating this idea.

It's as if when he says these words he's standing on holy ground. It's as if Jesus is standing right next to him making this same plea children. Would you look at me. I want you to think about it like this.

Have you ever been to or seen a a court where people are trying to figure out whether or not people who have committed crimes are guilty or whether they are innocent. Well there's usually someone standing right next to him.

And that person standing right next to him is what is called a lawyer. It's someone who has this person who is being tried or standing in front of the judge. It's it's it's someone who has his back and has his best interest in mind or you could think and so and so when he speaks it's as if the other person is speaking.

It's kind of like that. It's kind of like that. And so we must take this command seriously just as the Ephesian church took it seriously. And what is the command. The command is that we would walk no longer or the Ephesian church and us by extension would walk no longer just as the gentiles also walk.

In other words Paul is trying to get the Ephesian church and us by extension to understand that we must if we are to actually be Christian if we are to actually be a member in the body to no longer no longer do what we used to do all of us.

For all of us fall short of the glory of God. And for all of us were according to Ephesians chapter 2 dead. In our transgressions and sins we were all unable to respond to spiritual stimuli. And here the command is to abandon sin to abandon a former way of life to abandon those things in which we used to live to abandon the things that we used to love and cherish and to resolve to cut ties with our sinful nature.

And why is that. But because of Christ we have a new one right. We have a new one we have a new heart we have new desires and we have a new way of living life. And it means cutting ourselves off from that old life and every bridge of return before moving further.

It must be stated and we will state again more plainly the salvation is not a matter of self-improvement or even of perfection of what has previously existed. And what i mean by that is when we are transformed by the holy spirit we are not just improved but we are made new.

We are all according to second corinthians chapter 5 new creations in Christ Jesus. That means when the Lord saves us we get a new mind a new will a new heart a new inheritance a new relationship new power new knowledge new wisdom new perception new understanding new righteousness new love new desires new citizenship and i could keep going.

It's all new. Jesus is in the business of as he said in the gospels making all things new not all things fixed not all things rehabbed all things new. That's important. It's important because the command here is no longer to walk in old ways.

But we know that if we are saved then the old ways are no longer ways that we have because there's a new way to walk and walk. Of course we visited this already in the book of ephesians but just for the sake of repetition.

Let me explain it to you again when the bible is saying walk. When paul is saying walk he's not talking about a stroll down the street he's talking about a way and pattern of life. So does this mean that none of us if we are saved will in fact never sin.

No but the pattern of our life will be one that is consistently growing in christ like likeness and looking like christ because christ has taught us and revealed himself to us and changed us and regenerated us and made us new.

And we can see this as we continue on through our passage specifically as we look at verse 22 and following after. Um you know we examine what we are examining today where it says that we are to lay aside in reference to our former conduct the old man that one who clings which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit and be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to be put and we are to put on the new man which is in the likeness of god and it has been created in righteousness and holiness and in truth.

So in other words to walk worthy is to no longer walk like the gentiles walk but to walk like a new man throwing off the old man that so loves to cling. And so gentiles here is representative of all ungodly unregenerate pagan persons do not act in other words like sinners because your sin has been paid friends.

Do you not understand that to continue to wallow in sin and to pursue pagan uh values and so on and so forth is is essentially like a man who has been freed from prison for a crime and he is more thankful in the moment of that freeing than anyone could ever be.

But then for some unknown reason decides that what would be best for him is to return to his cell to ask for the key to lock it back up and to throw it away. That's what paul is saying here. It is absurd for a christian to return to and wallow in his sin because that sin has been paid for and he has been brought into a body of believers to help him to continue to walk worthy.

Paul's admonition here then urges everyone to walk as freed and not to walk as prisoners of darkness not to be like israel who preferred their chains. So let me ask you this what areas of your life. What what chains are you preferring.

What sin are you still clinging to. What are you absurdly engaging in knowing that in christ we have been set free that we are no longer slaves of sin but slaves under righteousness. Will you forsake whatever came to mind at the voice of christ.

And i ask that because this is the word and this word is the voice of christ we as christians paul is testifying in the lord are not too long to to walk as sinful human beings. And how they walk. And that is in fact the admonition of the apostle paul.

The Futility of Fleshly Thinking

The second thing that i want you to see is this. And this is my second point the futility of fleshly thinking. Paul is now going to give us four reasons why it's absurd why it's stupid why it makes no sense to engage in running back.

Right. And the first one of course is under the futility of fleshly thinking. Look with me again at our theme verse verse 17 after he has testified in the lord and charges the people of ephesus and us by extension not to walk as the gentiles walk.

He then begins to explain what that walk looks like and how ridiculous it is. The first thing is that um they do so envy. And this is the second half of the verse. And the futility of their mind being darkened in their mind alienated then from the life of god because of ignorance that is in them.

So here we see kind of an umbrella encapsulating the idea that the mind is foolish. It's it's not right thinking. Paul here is describing the darkened state of the unconverted mind of those who know not god or as paul would say elsewhere god does not know them.

And he's warning against the vanity of worldly wisdom. This term futility and the greek really conveys emptiness. Nothing's there a mind as it were running in circles chasing down shadows that are playing tricks on someone.

In other words what paul is trying to get across is the reality that when you think like a sinner when you engage in fleshly thinking it is a dead end road with signs of knowledge but no true wisdom to engage in certain sins might even seem wise in the moment but when you are governed by your flesh but the reality is it's all smoke and mirrors.

And so what does this say. It's their the futility of their mind. It's the ineptness of their mind. Right. Because something happens in genesis chapter three the world gets thrust into sin. And one of the things that it touches because it touches everything is the mind.

It is the mind. This is what theologians have called the noetic effects of the fall. That means the things that we think even if they seem to be based in knowledge and facts are in fact not our ability in other words to reason though not completely obliterated is most definitely sin marred and sin stained.

And it affects the way in which we view things. This is most clearly seen if you want to turn back with me to romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 gives us kind of a 30 000 foot view of god giving people over to their reprobate mind or their mind of futility in verse 18 just beginning where paul begins here he says.

For the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who do what suppress the truth and unrighteousness. So as we think about darkness in relationship to our text which is the next thing he says in verse 18 right being darkened in their mind.

So their their mind is futile but also it's darkened it is a willful darkness. And later we will see a little bit further on after it speaks about being alienated from the life of god that it is ignorance that is in us.

So our minds are darkened. We are blind. We can't see our thinking apart from christ is is nothing but futility. And we are ignorant of the things of god. And the reason for that is because we don't want to.

This says here that the men of unrighteousness suppress the truth and unrighteousness. So in other world words when we look at the world when we look at people who don't know and love christ we're looking at a bunch of people who aren't just not agreeing with us or not just not seeing what we want them to see when we go do apologetics for example or we go and do evangelism.

We're not trying to teach somebody something that they aren't already aware of whether they know it or not we're trying to convince them or show them rather that they're living inconsistently because they're borrowing the christian worldview.

And how could they not. Because they're all made in the image of god. But more than that they it's not that they don't know the truth. They're just spending their sinful life suppressing it pushing it down ignoring it pretending it's not there you see paul makes this argument as he continues in verse 19 of romans 1.

Because that which is known about god is evident within them. For god made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes for both his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse.

In other words nobody's gonna be able to stand on judgment day. Look jesus in the face and go man if somebody would have just made a better argument right. God's gonna go. I made the best argument. And you looked at it every day.

When you walked outside your door. When you were able to feed your family when you took every breath of air that you took. Verse 21. For even though they knew god a roman says they knew god. They did not glorify him as god or give thanks.

But they became futile in their thoughts. So not glorifying god leads to futile thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened. Do you want to guard yourself from sin. You want to guard yourself from living like those who have not been freed.

I'll just make sure you don't glorify god. But if you glorify god that's protection. Verse 22. Professing to be wise they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible god for an image in the likeness of corruptible man and of the birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures of sports.

Of course speaking of idolatry here. Therefore god gave them over in the lusts of their hearts which we'll talk to about here in a minute to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.

For they exchanged the truth of god for a lot and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. And then verse 26 26 says. For this reason god gave them over to dishonorable passions.

For their females exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way the males abandon the natural function of them female and burned in their desire toward one another. Males with males committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge god god gave them over to an unfit mind. You see what happened here is that god poured down his wrath on humanity that rejected him refused to glorify him by giving them fire from heaven.

No by giving them what they want because he knew that that would be far more judgment than to just burn them up. To burn them up but just stop them. Oftentimes we need to think about judgment in our own lives or in a nation much like this.

Sometimes judgment is god giving you exactly what you. That's the scariest thing that can happen to some people who will not listen to the truth who will not bend their knee. Go. Show me how much happier you'll be.

Show me how much joy will be in your life. Show me how this really is better. And so this judgment produce a mind that cannot think god's thoughts after him that can desire god but rather desires idolatry.

And paul is saying don't be like that don't walk like that don't don't think like that. And the reason it begins here. And the reason that paul begins here is because man's sinfulness flows out of his mind.

Right. Romans chapter 12 tells us what that we are to be renewed in our minds. Transformation must begin with the mind. Everything works its way through the brain to the heart because our minds govern the way that we think about things.

And the way that we think about things influences everything else. Here's what this means. Guys and i hate to be the bearer of bad news. And i'm not just saying this because i like to get degrees. It's just true.

Christianity is cognitive before it is experiential. You have to know truth before you can believe and know experientially the truth which means getting into the verses getting into the greek getting into all of these things matters.

It is our thinking that makes us consider the gospel. And our thinking that causes us to believe the historicity and the reliability of the historicity of the claims made in the bible. It is also our thinking that helps us to apprehend after we of course get help from the spirit apprehend the truths of the gospel and to receive christ as lord and savior.

That is why the first step the first step in repentance is to change is a change of mind. Repent and believe is the message of john the baptizer. Repent and believe is the message of jesus christ. Repent and believe is the message that has been repeated over and over and over and again throughout the pages of the new testament.

It is a complete change of mind about what oneself one spiritual condition and god himself. What i mean by that in order for one to correctly repent they've got to correctly ascertain what the bible has to say about them.

This is why it's so damnable when every preacher not every preacher that's too strong when a lot of preachers in our city feel fine or in our nation feel fine getting up behind a pulpit or whatever they get behind and saying we don't need to talk about repentance.

People hear bad things enough. Now the problem that exists in our churches and in our world is people don't actually hear it enough that they've not come to the cognitive position that they need a savior that they must change their ways and that they are sinners.

And that their minds do not understand the truth that is offered to them oftentimes that our spiritual condition is one that is dire that we are spiritually dead and that we need to be spiritually revived and that god is holy and that god has sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh to ransom souls.

So here we see that the mind is futile it's darkened. Our understanding doesn't work shrouded in blindness beneath a cloud of ignorance unable to see the beauties and glories of the gospel. Our sin gets in the way of us hearing the gospel and paul's saying listen if you keep thinking like a gentile you're either proving you're not a christian or you're going to make it extremely hard for you to grow in christ's likeness.

Because you must have ears to hear. And you must not be so perverted in here that you can't hear what's coming from out here. And what's interesting is in the bible ignorance and sin stupidity and sin being blind and sin are always inseparable.

As we have looked at second timothy in the evenings you remember paul saying to timothy that that there are men who exist who are always learning. They're they're always stuffing their brains with stuff.

They do know all the greek words they do have all the commentaries open. They do have teaching positions in churches or even in seminaries or even have tv shows where they're teaching the bible. And yet they never are able as paul says in text second timothy 3 7 able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Why. Well before we answer the question why. Let's look at the other part of this. Because of that they are alienated from the life of god. The word alienation here if you continue on right uh in the futility of their mind 18 being darkened in their mind and also alienated from the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them.

So they are ignorant of the things of god because they are alienated from the life of god. That is that people who suffer from such a mind are separated like a stranger barred from entering a city. The gentiles the sinners as it were although we are all sinners don't hear what i'm not saying here.

But the people who live in it love it want it prize and prioritize it. These people have an ignorance that is not innocent right. They're alienated from the life. Not because god has done something but because they have been ignorant.

They have walked in the futility of their mind and have willingly been darkened in their understanding. It's a willful ignorance. And it's a heart-hardening truth. Spiritual deadness marks those without christ and it makes them unable to receive christ.

And so oftentimes when we think about salvation it must be important to note that people who christ has not predestined as paul talked about right in in chapter one it's if they have not been predestined if they have not been chosen if they have not been pursued then they will never come to christ.

And it's not because christ said they're not allowed to but because it's because they won't. They can't because they won't. It's not because they won't because they can't. They can't because they won't children.

Would you look at me for just a second think about it this way. Have you ever played a game in the dark when i was younger uh the church that i was a part of. And maybe this is an idea i don't know. They would create a maze in the building with boxes and they would put it in a dark room and you'd have to like go through it.

And it was extravagant. It had like multiple stories if you will and it was really cool. But you couldn't see a thing which made it even cooler. And you're just groping around and in certain places in that play in in that maze there were there was sometimes candy or or bibles or or different random things and you wouldn't even know what they were.

And you'd have to you'd have to like use your hands to find where you're going. And if you found something you may not even know what it was till you get out. It was really fun. Maybe you've played a game like that where you have been in the dark or maybe you've gotten up in the middle of the night and you've tried to find your parents and you're using your hands because you don't know what's going on.

That's what's happening to sinners apart from christ. It's as if they are groping through a pitch black maze. And they are completely oblivious to the way out because they don't want to know the way out which would be different than that scenario.

But all analogies begin to break down at some point. So i think at this point paul wants us to consider how often we imitate this type of thinking the world's futile thinking. How often we trust in worldly philosophies.

Or how often we empty ourselves of christ. That is emptying ourselves of what we believe about him and what he has done for us. How often do we let the world influence our minds not understanding that the bible ought to govern and renew our minds because there's only one wisdom that leads to life and that is the wisdom taught by christ.

The Callousness of Corrupt Hearts

Now the plot deepens and this is my third point. This is another thing that i want you to know. The callousness of corrupt hearts. The reason that our minds are so defiled and deficient is because our hearts are corrupted and callous.

Once again the mind and the heart are also not often separated in the bible in the way in which we think about it in the western world. And so it's important to note this reality. Look with me at the end of verse 18 it says.

Because of the hardness of their heart. So gentiles sinners apart from christ are few futile in their thinking. They are darkened and willingly blind. They are alienated from the life of god because they're ignorant of the things of god.

And the reason for that is not because their thinker is broken though it is and it's part of it but the heart of the matter is the heart itself. In other words the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart with piercing clarity.

Here paul shifts from the mind to the heart and describes for us a desanitation of sin. In other words what he's doing is saying when we think like that it's because we have a heart that doesn't see sin as sin.

They become callous in their hearts. Their consciences have been seared this heart a calloused heart means a heart that is well first of all it's one that feels no shame. It's a heart that feels no sorrow it only craves and cherishes the sin that they love the greek here.

And when he uses the word hardness is speaking of something that is thick. The idea here is a heart that that is rock hard. And that makes sense when you think about the promises of the gospel and say jeremiah 31 and ezekiel 37 where he's going to take this heart of stone out of us and he's going to give us a heart of flesh one that bleats red with blood for him.

But you see when we walk like the gentiles or we are apart from christ we are engaging the world and the things around us in our own sin with a heart that literally can't even feel the sin in front of it.

And this is why unregenerate people do what they do all the time and it only increases in severity. And this is why when people fall into sin and they continue in that sin they continue to grow that sin because the heart becomes hard and the more hard it becomes the more they give their sin a pass and the more they engage in it.

This word is used and was used in this time period by physicians to describe even the calcification that forms around broken bones and becomes harder for the bone itself to heal. Now i don't know anything about how that works medically but i do know by experience that one time i broke my finger i was just a little boy and i was hanging out in tennessee with my family and my uncle went to go leave and my family is from the hollers and so you know the best thing that we had available to keep windows open at that time was a really um you know very unsound ruler and but these were old windows and so they were about 157 pounds apiece and so i be the little boy that i was not caring about anything ran up and was like hey man see y 'all see you later come on back whatever i don't know knocked this ruler out window fell down on my hand broke my uh you know opposite ring finger ring finger.

And my mom thought i was just being a baby and so she didn't take me to the hospital now she wasn't a neglectful mother anything like that don't hear what i'm not saying. I know how that might sound coming out of my mouth right now mom if you're watching i'm not calling you a neglectful mother uh but i didn't wind up going to the hospital right away but i i didn't ever stop complaining about it and so my mom was like well there's probably something wrong here if he hasn't just moved on and we go to the hospital they're like yeah this was a nasty break.

I'm going to have to rebreak it because the bone has already started to heal and it already started to calcify and so if we want to fix this thing and for it to grow right we got to break it again and so he was like give me your finger and i was like you are insane.

I'm not gonna let you break my finger. You just told me what you were going to do right. But that's what's going on. Our hearts become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin by the deceitfulness of sin.

And we love it we love it. And we become then unresponsive to the truth. This is why in first thessalonians chapter 4 verse 5 paul says. Not in lustful passion. Like the gentiles who do not know god. You see not knowing god produces lustful passions.