Ephesians 4 (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Expository Preaching and the Big Picture of Ephesians

Well, as many of you know, there are different preaching styles. Some people like to preach topical messages. There�s a topic in Scripture, Heaven, and then the pastor explains from all the Bible what does Heaven mean, where is it, who goes there, who doesn�t go there, who owns Heaven.

Nothing wrong with that, but as a normal course, what we do here at the church is something called expository preaching. It�s kind of a fluid term. Everyone has their own definition of expository preaching, but really the root is expose.

We want to make sure we expose you to the text that you have in your hands. The opposite of exposition would be imposition. I try to have an idea in my mind, and I want to try to jam it into the Bible, and so that wouldn�t be a good thing.

Many people, when they do exposition, go verse by verse, and I think that�s the right way to go about it. But sometimes if you go too slowly, you don�t see the entire broad overview that Paul, in today�s case, wants you to see.

So I�d like you to take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 4, and one of the reasons why we�re going chapter by chapter, at least two sermons a chapter, is I want you to see the overview, the sweeping, not necessarily details, although that�s true, but just a sweeping overview.

What happens is if I only did one verse a week, and then now we�ve got a week in between that one verse, sometimes we can�t step back and say, �Oh, I see how Paul weds doctrine, Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, to how we should live out that doctrine by the grace of God in chapters 4, 5, and 6.

In other words, maybe if you spent years and years in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, you might not think you had any responsibilities to obey God in light of what He�s done. And then if you spend tons of time in Ephesians 4, 5, and 6, you might think that the essence of Christianity is, in fact, doing things.

So one of the reasons why we�re just going at a fast pace is because I want to make sure you just grasp the epistle as a whole, so we don�t have isolated text saying this, that, or the other. Today we�re in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 through 32, we�ve been going chapter by chapter, two sermons a chapter, and it�s already kind of warm in here with all these people in here, and I feel like I�m ready to get in a three-point stance and start sweating because we need to move quickly.

Last week somebody came up and they said to me, �You spent more time on the first verses than you did on the last verses in our section. I said, �And Your point is? Remember, this is driving you to see the big picture, right?

Ephesians would be read in its entirety when you would receive that letter, and I also want you to say, �Oh, if he would have talked about that a little bit more, maybe I should go home and pull up a commentary online, read it on my own, et cetera.

Paul has been extolling the Lord Jesus in chapter 1. He just praises God the Father for choosing him, for having the Son die for him, and having him sealed, and that�s exactly what the Lord has done for us.

It talks about how we were dead in trespasses and sins in chapter 2, remember, but God. We were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, but now in chapter 2. We come to chapter 4 where there�s that hinge verse.

In verse 1, �I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling by which you�ve been called. This sounds like Romans 12 to me. �I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.

This is who we are, now this is who we should be in our actions. So for outline today, if you want to take notes, I�m going to give you three exhortations from Ephesians 4, 17 through 32, and they�re kind of fun.

Don�t be who you used to be, act like who you are, become more of who you are. Maybe you don�t think that�s fun, but I kind of think it is. Were, are, become. What you were, don�t do that anymore, remember who you are, and then become more of who you are.

That�s essentially what he�s saying. That�s biblical, holy living. Let�s look at the first one, which really is an extension, by the way, this entire passage rather, is an extension of God has created you in Christ Jesus for good works, has he not, Ephesians 2 .10.

Don't Be Who You Used to Be

First exhortation, preaching exhortation, don�t be who you used to be. That�s not worthy of your calling, verses 17 through 19, and for all of us who are Christians, we had a past, we had sin, we were slaves, we were dead in sins, and you think, well that might have been fun, sin�s fun short term, but when you really think about what it was like, who would want to go back to that disaster.

Verse 17, now this I say in testifying the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, pagans, how do they walk in the futility of their minds, they�re 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 become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Paul wants you to remember what your old life was like, don�t go back to it. You look back and you think, oh, just how gross was that, maybe I had good manners and maybe I could get along, maybe I still climbed the corporate ladder and I was a good mom, but don�t go back, it�s kind of shocking when you think, oh, just how gross is an unbeliever�s life.

Paul is trying to say that it�s important that the believer�s life, follow what he is, and he is a Christian, and now he should live in a Christ-like way. See how important it is for Paul, verse 17, kind of is a double affirmation, I say therefore, that would be enough, and affirm together with the Lord.

It�s like, okay, I�m going to put my hand up and swear in the court of law as a witness, this is important, this is not just amen, I say it, this is amen, amen, verily, verily, it�s serious, it�s an impression on the people hearing that he wants you to walk in a manner, what�s the text say?

Walk in a manner, what? Worthy in chapter 4, verse 1, now he says, don�t walk as the Gentiles do. Walk, what�s that? It�s just a metaphor for lifestyle, and in the old days, when you would walk, it wasn�t just a lifestyle, it was, you have to look where you walk, I always loved to go places with my grandma Nona, and grandma Nona always found money, whenever we walked to the fair or whatever, why did she find money?

Because old people have to look down when they walk, right? And so they don�t look around, and so similarly, it�s, you know, a path in Israel or whatever, you�re always looking down, it�s deliberate, like out of the hospital I could walk 22 steps, and every step I would look right in front of me, a deliberate kind of walking.

Well, Christians should walk deliberately, but they should literally not walk like they used to in this kind of gross, immoral lifestyle. First Thessalonians, not in lustful passions like the Gentiles, who do not know God.

I don�t know if you�ve been to Ephesus before, I�ve taken a group of you there years ago, and Ephesus is this cauldron, this cesspool of sin, especially sexual sin. Diana, this gross goddess that they�ve got, with things on her that are just unmentionable, serving all the temple prostitutes and people running around saying, �I�m not a woman, I�m a man.

They�re homosexual, perverted in every single area. Looked kind of this weird idol that looked like a cow wolf, just a weird thing. And Paul is saying, okay, God has saved you, God has graced you, God has called you, don�t go back to that old life.

Why go back? For your own good and for the glory of God. And what�s at the top of the list for unbelievers� lives? It says in verse 17, �In the futility of their minds. Unbelievers have broken minds, defective minds, minds that don�t do what they were made to do.

They were made to worship God and receive His Word, and now they�re just empty, they�re vain, purposeless, uselessness, worthlessness, futile minds. That reminds me of Romans 1, �They became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened.

Oh yes, they might be smart, they might have a high IQ, but their brains are broken, their minds don�t work rightly, it�s been affected by the fall. No wonder Paul says in another epistle, �Set your minds on things above, not on things on earth.

And that�s exactly what an unbeliever would do. I did it, you did it, setting your minds on things on this earth. The futility of the mind, go back to Adam and Eve. This good God, this gracious God, this kind God, this benevolent God, and all of a sudden, with a little help from Satan, they now begin to think wrongly about God.

He�s holding out on us, He�s not good, He�s a vengeful God, He�s not gracious. Instead of having communion with Him, a futile mind says, �We want to run from Him. And as Augustine said, �The punishment of sin is sin.

Look at verse 18, that�s exactly right. It�s just this spiraling down, this cascading. Futile minds are now darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of hearts.

It�s as if God says, �Okay, the way of the transgressor is hard, you don�t want me, you don�t want to understand me, I�m going to just turn the lights down. Everybody here knows what a dimmer switch is, and you can just imagine, you go to your living room, there�s the dimmer switch for the light bulb, and you just slowly turn that thing down.

The futile mind, the mind that�s just getting darkened, darkened, darkened, darkened, you want sin, here�s more sin. Spiraling down into ungodliness, darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God.

And you see kind of the root cause, do you notice, because of the ignorance that is in them. They know idols, they know Diana, we know our own idols very well in a very personal way before we were saved, but they don�t know God.

They�re deaf, dumb, and blind, dense and unresponsive, stalagmatites and, what�s the other ones? Stalagmatites grow up, stalagmatites and stalagmites. I knew that. There was a widow that had a mite, I want you to know.

I used to work in the operating room, and I remember one time going in for a case I�d never been in on before, and they said, �This is a carotid endarterectomy. And I said, �What�s that And he said, �Well, there�s a bunch of plaque in the carotid artery, and it�s not letting the blood flow, and so we have to go in there and take it out.

And so they open it up, it�s a dangerous procedure, and there was this kind of white, just hard, weird, rubbery stuff that they took out, and I said to the doctor, �What�s that feel like And he said, �Put a glove on.

Because normally I just had to stand like this and watch. �Put a glove on. And so he dropped that thing into my hand, this hard and gross, callous thing. I said, �How do you get these And he said, �Genetics and potato chips.

Remember when we had hearts of stone? You might even have had a friend that preached to you, and you�re like, �Forget you, stiff-arm you, I�ve got my own life to live. We were just cold-blooded spiritually.

Verse 19, they�ve become calloused, they�ve given themselves up to sensuality. I mean, they�re all in, why hold back at all? Just swipe right, go for everything. Greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

It�s like the shame meter is no longer there. You first commit some sins, you kind of have shame, you can�t sleep, you want to take a shower, you want to clean yourself off, you want to do this, you want to do that, I vow never to do it again.

And then after a while, the shame is just gone. You just are insensitive to pain, insensitive to feeling. That�s all judgment, that�s what unbelievers do. Yeah, whatever. Spiritless, impassive, and they are all in.

It�s interesting, this giving themselves over. Nobody holds a gun to your head as an unbeliever and says, �Sin, you just want to do that. What a life, what an awful life. God gave them over to the lust of their hearts, Romans 1.

Three times it says that. They loved, we loved as unbelievers, the world with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That�s a lot different than Ephesians 5, �To walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself for us.

While we give in to everything, the Lord has given up everything. Somebody ever meets you and they say, �Oh, what do you do for a living Sometimes when I sit down in an airplane, somebody will say, �What do you do for a living

And I�ll say, �Well, there�s two kinds of people you don�t want to sit next to in an airplane for six hours, insurance salesman and me, a pastor, a Bible teaching pastor. Oh, ear buds go back in. No, no, I meant mine.

I was just kidding. What do you do for a living? When an unbeliever gets asked that question, basically it�s sin, sin, and sin. And I return to my own vomit over and over and over and I don�t care. It takes work to sin like this.

Look at the passage, �Practice every kind of impurity with greediness at all costs. It�s like drinking the sin of salt water. It�s just like, you know, I just get thirstier and thirstier. Proverbs 10, �Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool.

Paul says, �Don�t be that way. We shouldn�t go back to our past and just rehearse all these sins all the time, living in our past and sometimes thinking how fun some of those sins were. I�m not saying any of that.

I am saying, though, for Paul, for God, it�s important for you to just look back once in a while and say, �That�s not how I want to live, mind broken, heart calloused, darkened, sinning, greedy, giving myself over to everything that I want.

And this, by the way, isn�t just for unrighteousness, but self-righteous people do this too. It�s not just for prostitutes. This is for people that say, �You know what? I think I can get to heaven based on my own morality because I�m a good mom, I�m a good dad, I�m a good grandfather and I do some religious things.

Don�t be who you used to be. Ephesians 4, 1, �Walk in a manner worthy of your calling. And this isn�t the way we want to walk. Side note unrelated to the next point, but aren�t you glad you don�t have to live like you used to?

Aren�t you glad? Waking up with those headaches and waking up with a shame and purposeless, aimless, hoping it will all work out, not understanding life, death, heaven, hell, not understanding the wisdom from God, just a minion just following the rest of the crowd.

So let�s not go back to that. Let�s not live in that. Don�t be who you used to be. Well, Paul goes on and now he says in verses 20 -24, our second preaching exhortation, �Act like who you are. Act like who you are.

This is all about identification. This is who you are as a son or a daughter in the kingdom with God as father. You used to be this, now who are you? Because in verses 25 and following he�s going to say, �Do things.

But right now he�s going to say, �Remember who you are. And this is really the forgotten, the missing link in sanctification. Just tell me what to stop doing, tell me what to do. It�s fine to do that after this section.

If I had one thing that I wanted to really, really hammer home today, it�s that we immediately think as Christians, don�t live like we used to, now give me the list of things to do without remembering who we are in Christ.

By the way, that�s one of the reasons why we have the Lord�s Supper today because it�s so easy to forget who we are in Christ. Let me read verses 20 through 24. And you, dear Christian, along with me, need to remember what happened at your salvation and who Jesus is to you, even now.

But that is not the way you learn 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. What were you taught? You were taught to put off your old self, which belongs to the former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires.

What were you also taught? To be renewed in the spirit of your mind. What were you taught in Him when you heard about Him and the way you learned Christ? And to put off the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

So Paul starts by saying, you might have learned Diana this way, the false god at Ephesus. You might have learned this from the person who taught you about life, but you didn't learn this from Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 11, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

How do you learn Christ? Well, here's what we talk about a lot at Bethlehem Bible Church. We talk about what Jesus does, not just for your sins, pardon, but also for your holy living power. He gives you not just, I mean, just think about if God said, I'm going to forgive you all your sins in Christ Jesus, you've trusted in the risen Savior, and now you're on your own to live.

How far would we go? We need to be reminded about who Jesus is, not just for our initial salvation. I could put it this way. Did you know, dear Christian, that Jesus died for the sins of Christians too?

Jesus lived to try to help you live a holy life. Here he says, you didn't learn Christ that way. By the way, I know we have a math teacher here in our congregation, at least one, and a math major in our congregation.

The word learn is where we get our word math. So there you go, there's the Greek word for the day, math, learn. You've got to learn if you're going to be in math class. And you heard about this Jesus, verse 21.

You've been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus. You heard initially, got saved, converted, you've been taught in him, ongoing sanctification. I'd like you to turn your Bibles to Colossians 3, a sister passage to Ephesians.

Keep your finger in Ephesians 4 and turn to Colossians 3 because this will help you see what is sometimes not clear in the English text. All right, here's my point. What we're doing is we're saying something happened to you at salvation, you're in Christ now, you're united with Christ, your sins are forgiven and you have power to live a holy life.

Were you taught that when you got saved? Before you put off and put on and you stop lying and telling the truth and don't be angry and everything else, be angry and don't sin, something you have to remember.

So look at Colossians 3, 8 through 10. But now you must put them all away, angry anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another. This is by the way what Paul is teaching in Ephesians 4.

Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Oh, okay, now I get it. Do you see what he's doing?

He's not saying I commend you to put off and to put on. Put off the old man, put on the new man. He's saying at salvation that happened. Now sadly, let's go back to Ephesians chapter 4, we see the word self there.

Of course we know that if I say man, it could be human, it could be men and women. People are very sensitive now for trying to make sure the Bible is gender neutral at times and even sometimes ESV, I think they got caught here, put off the old self, Ephesians 4 .22.

Put on the new self, Ephesians 4 .24. But he's not saying self, he's saying man. If I say to you at salvation the old man was put off, what should you be thinking? If I said to you at salvation when God saved you, he forgave you and he said you know what, your old self is gone, your new self is here.

What would you be thinking with self? I wouldn't know what to think of a self, but what if I said man? If I say to you first man, last man? If I say to you the first man ever, what do you think of? Who do you think of?

Adam. Did you know, dear Christian, before you say I need to love my wife more, I need to be kinder, I need to do this, I need to do that, I need to put off and put on, before any of that starts, this is what you need to be reminded of.

You're not who you used to be. You're a new creation in Christ Jesus and now you have the ability and power to say no to sin. You had no ability to say no to sin when you were an unbeliever, but now you do.

The first part of sanctification is something happened to you and it's more than forgiveness of sins. The old Adam, I remember Thomas Goodwin by the way, you should read Thomas Goodwin, he said every person is hanging on one of the two Adam's girdles.

I thought that was kind of funny because I never thought, been a pastor now for 25 years, that I'd ever say the word girdle from the pulpit. You're either hanging on Adam or you're hanging on the last Adam.

He wants you to, and you say, Mike, why are you belaboring this? It's just kind of like this mental thing. No, no, I'm going to just stop and just let it just sink in. Before you begin to say I shouldn't be anxious, I should trust.

I should put off, I should put on. That's in 425 and following. But here he says, you know what? You don't have to do it anymore. Something happened to you. Who are you in Christ Jesus? Hey son, hey daughter, this is not how we act because you're an ebendroth, an officer.

You're an officer, there should be conduct befitting an officer. It'd be one thing if you don't know how to act, but you are an officer. Over and over need to be reminded about who we are in Christ Jesus.

How to work catechism 43. What further benefit do we receive from the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross? I mean, we get forgiveness, further benefit answer that by his power, our old man is crucified, slain and buried that so the evil lust of the flesh may no more reign in us, but we may offer ourselves unto him a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Christian, you're not who you used to be. You're not hanging on Adam. You're hanging on Christ Jesus by the grace of God. What is sanctification? Westminster Shorter Catechism. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness.

Do you know God is working in you? You say, I'd like to not lie so much and tell the truth more. As a Christian, I struggle with that at work. I want to remind you, you are being sanctified. God is doing this working in you so that you now can say by the spirit's power, no to sin and yes to righteousness.

Does this sound familiar? What should we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How can we who died in sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

We were buried therefore with him in the baptism of death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead but for the glory of the father. So we too might walk in the newness of life. This is Ephesians language right in Roman six for we have been united with him in a death like his.

We shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Christian, you're no longer a slave to sin. You can say no. Before, it's like you go to the road and it's got a right turn and a left turn and you always had to take the left sin turn. You couldn't turn to the right.

Do you know as a Christian, you can say no to sin. Jesus is alive, he's your savior. The Holy Spirit is in you, sanctifying you. So before you want to do anything, Paul says I want you to be reminded who you are.

You have a new identity in Christ Jesus. Sinclair Ferguson, when we trust in Christ, the ties that bind us to Adam are broken. We're adopted into a new family and culture. We now belong to Christ, the new Adam and representative head of God's people.

Because we are in Christ, everything he did for us becomes ours. You say, can you make it as simple as possible? You're kind of losing me. Paul says, here's who God is, chapter 1, 2 and 3. Here's what he's done.

Don't go back to your old life. And by the way, before you want behavior modification and law keeping, remember who you are. Remember who you are. You are united with Christ. Ferguson goes on to say, we do not naturally think about ourselves this way.

We need to be taught. We need to learn it better. We need to learn Christ. That will lead us to discover that our old identity is gone. We have been given a new identity in Christ. Our lives can never be the same again.

This has happened. No imperatives here. This is something that has happened. You took off the old Adam clothes and you put on the new clothes because they were put on you by God. All right, now we come to the last section.

Become More of What You Are

Don't be who you used to be. Don't forget your identity in Christ. And number 3, become more of what you are. Become more of what you are. There's going to be five things he tells us here in Ephesians chapter 4.

There's going to be something negative, something positive, and a reason. If I just told a group of people this is what you need to do and forgot to remind them who they are in Christ, I would fail according to Paul.

But since we've gone over that, now we'll just get into this put off, put on. Somebody comes to you and they say, I'm struggling with this area in my life. We're tempted to say stop it. Remember that old Bob Newhart counseling video, stop it.

You can pull that up if you'd like. Those that laughed, understand. He who has ears, let him hear. It's okay. Somebody says, I'm struggling with sexual sin. Run, flee. That's what 1 Corinthians 6 says.

But that's not all it says. There's something on the positive side. So there's no to something and there's yes to something. And the positive side is, I don't know, work on your holy living so that you can find a woman and marry her, or be sacrificial to your wife, etc.

There's a put off and put on. After we know who we are, we're identified with Christ, the Spirit of God dwells in us, we can do it, we're no longer slaves of sin. So how do I live a life commensurate to the calling?

There's five of them. The first one is don't lie, tell the truth. Don't lie, tell the truth. Anytime you struggle with a sin as a Christian, there's a put off and a put on. But before that, there's identification with Christ, union with Christ.

But now we come to these specific commands. Verse 25. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. As we go through this list, the list of don't lie, tell the truth.

Be angry, do not sin. Don't steal, but work. Nothing corrupt out of your mouths, but what is edifying? Bitterness, wrath, anger, gone, be kind to one another. He could be saying, since you're a Christian, act like one, because this is, you know, you think about Jesus.

In every one of these, you could think through what Jesus did. Did Jesus ever lie? Did Jesus ever become angry with sinful, unrighteous anger? Did Jesus ever say anything inappropriately? Did Jesus ever slack off in his work from his Father?

Did Jesus ever act anything but kind and tender-hearted and forgiving? Every one of these, it's like, well, you call yourself a Christ, this is what Christians do, because this is who Christ is. If Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, of course, we're going to want to make sure we tell the truth.

He's not saying, do better. He's not saying, do more. He says, negatively, don't lie. Positively, tell the truth. How do you learn Christ? I don't lie anymore. I tell the truth. God is not a man that he should lie, Numbers 23, and followers of Christ Jesus who believe in him shouldn't lie.

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. The psalmist David said, thy law is truth. The work of the hands is truth. We need to put that behind us. Remember in chapter 4, it talked a lot about unity.

You don't know a bad thing for church unity is people lying to one another, in a local church even. It's the satanic lie, the father of lies, to say it's okay to lie. Outright lies, white lies, exaggeration, cheating on taxes, false excuses, plagiarism, fraud, manipulation, betraying of confidence, false flattery, they're all included in this.

This is not how we're to live. And why does he say we shouldn't lie? You might think Paul might say at the end of verse 25, because God hates liars. But it says, for we're members one of another. We're a member of a body.

There's a head and there's hands and toes and feet. We shouldn't lie. If you tell a lie, you're damaging yourself. You're doing harm to the body that you're a part of. Well he goes on, there's another put on, put off, after we know our identity.

Don't lie, tell the truth. Verse 26, oh here's a good one, this should make your ears perk up. Be angry, but don't sin. Did you know there's a command in the Bible, be angry? That's right from Psalm 4, be angry.

But don't sin. Be angry and don't sin. Don't let the sun go down in your anger. True or false, Jesus was angry at times. True. You think of the temple, right? With righteous indignation for zeal for his father's house, he goes in and he drives people out.

John chapter 2. But we want to make sure we don't fall into the temptation of getting so mad we sin. Good things can turn often into bad things. John Trapp said, it's not a sin to be angry, but it's hard not to sin when we're angry.