HEARTWEAR FOR THE CHRISTIAN Ephesians 4:17-24 INTRODUCTION

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1 HEARTWEAR FOR THE CHRISTIAN Ephesians 4:17-24 INTRODUCTION Paul has taught the Ephesians, prayed for them and exhorted them. There are essentials of the faith they are to keep. God has given them gifted leadership for the growth of the Body. They are to mature. There is a danger they could remain immature, unstable and gullible unless they mature by the Word of God, prayer to God and realize that trials and sufferings are used to grow us up in Christ. In light of all that God has said and done; we are to be different. In Paul's prayer of chapter three we are to be strengthened with might through His Spirit (v.3:16). If we make room for the Holy Spirit He will make room for Jesus Christ who will be at home in our hearts (v.17). The presence and nature of Jesus will cause us to demonstrate love, real love, overwhelming love (v.19) and the self life will disappear and be replaced with all the fullness of God (v.19). Having done all this, we are able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think because God is able and is not limited to our thoughts, our dreams or anything else. The Christian can be different. We are given a whole new set of clothes to wear. When I was in the third grade something happened that changed my outlook on life. At school a person asked me; "Why do you always wear the same clothes to school every day?" It seemed like a fair question. I didn't know. So I went home and asked my mother the same question. She told me the reason was that we were poor and she couldn't afford to buy new clothes for me and my brothers and sisters (5 of us in all). I was satisfied with her answer. The reason I wore the same clothes because they were all I had. Before you and I came to the Lord Jesus Christ we only had one set of clothes. We wore the soiled spiritual garments, stained from birth by sin. They are not real clothes but a spiritual wardrobe that we wore in our hearts. In verses we are given a description of what kind of life we had without Jesus. Paul pleads with all his apostolic authority not to return to that life. Christians are to move from a position of detachment from the world to attachment to Jesus Christ. Heartwear. The spiritual wardrobe. In verses we have a description of the old closet. In verses we have the new closet. Paul first looks in the old closet to see what we used to wear. THE OLD CLOSET (VV ) 1. Paul gives a graphic description of the clothes we used to wear. Life apart from God is like falling down a moral staircase. John Stott has outlined these verses this way: (1) hardness of heart and then moves to (2) darkness of heart, and then

2 (3) deadness of heart and finally (4) recklessness --unrestrained abandonment to sin!. You may say that you didn't dress that bad before you became a Christian! All those who do not know Christ do not plunge to the same depth of sin, but I think Paul's description of pagan Gentile lifestyle is still accurate. What's more, the pagan Gentile lifestyle in the first century mirrors our cultural lifestyle in America and Western Europe. If you read the tabloids (don't waste your time) or have had the unfortunate experience of sitting through talk television, Oprah, Sally Jessie, Geraldo or the grandfather of television debauchery Phil Donahue, in bright clear and graphic descriptions; the media celebrates hard hearts, dark hearts dead hearts and deep sin. 2. (v.18) Hardness of Heart. Look at the bottom of verse 18: "because of the blindness of their heart;" or as the NASB translates this verse "because of the hardness of their heart". Paul's point is that they are darkened in their understanding and excluded from the life of God because of ignorance and hard hearted rejection of God. The Greek word for "hardening" is porosis which comes from the word poros, which fundamentally meant "a stone harder than marble". In the modern vernacular we might say a heart of stone. This same word was used to describe the religious leaders who took council to kill Jesus after they witnessed Him heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath. "And when He (Jesus) had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness (emphasis added) of their hearts, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other." (Mark 3:5) The very next verse the Pharisees and the Herodians join forces to plot His death. Both in the Mark passage and here in our own text "the hardening of the heart describes an inability and an unwillingness to hear the truth of God and obey the truth. God has spoken to mankind through nature, and through special revelation. "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to un in His Son" (Heb.1:1-2(a)). Humans must go out of their way to not listen to what God has to say. Like small children who plug their ears or cover their eyes when they refuse to see or hear; so mankind has blind-folded their spiritual eyes to avoid seeing and plugged spiritual ears to avoid hearing. In Romans Paul describes "men who suppress the truth by their wickedness" (Rom. 1:18) or who cover up the truth by their own evil deeds. They "hold down" the truth like the little boy who smuggled his little dog into his room. When the boy heard his parents coming he threw the little dog into the toy box and sat on top of the box. While he talked with his parents he tried to ignore the whining and scratching dog on the inside. Paul is talking about people who go out of their way to substitute the truth for a lie. This is the root condition of the heart. Hardness. And a Hard Heart leads to a Dark Heart. 3. (v.18a) "having their understanding darkened" or as the Amplified Bible reads;

3 "Their moral understanding is darkened". This means the absence of spiritual understanding. Unsaved people may have a moral sense of right and wrong but because they suppress the truth they do not have the ability to discern spiritual reality. Paul elsewhere wrote to the Romans "their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Rom 1:21). Although they claimed superior spiritual wisdom they became morally empty. "Although thy claimed to be wise, they became fools"(rom. 1:22). People trapped in occultic and metaphysical practices may think they are learning superior principles of spirituality. They are in fact deluded by demonic doctrines. The classic example is the New Age spokesperson Shirley Maclaine standing on Malibu beach with her arms embracing the universe shouting "I am God! I am God! I am God". If she persists in her foolishness and darkness one day she will find herself on a Crystal beach next to a golden throne shouting; "oh God, oh God, oh God; how could I have been so wrong!" But then it will be to late. 4. v.18 "being alienated from the life of God". To be alienated from the life of God is to be dead while you live. This is the exact description Paul states earlier in chapter 2:1; "and you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins". "From hardness and darkness come deadness"(kent Hughes). A hard heart and a dark heart can lead to profound separation. The most successful murderer of all time was an Indian thug (from India) who strangled 930 victims with his yellow and white strip cloth between 1790 and In March 1990 a man threw an incendiary device into a New York night club because he was mad that his girlfriend broke up with him. 87 people died in the blaze. Only 6 people survived. One of the survivors was Lydia Feliciano the girlfriend. When this kind of darkness sweeps the soul, humans are capable of unspeakable acts. John Gacy, recently executed who tortured, molested and killed over 30 people and buried them in his basement, is a classic example of the dark heart. It was said that he had no remorse at all. Jeffrey Dahmer, molested, killed and cannibalized his victims. Ted Bundy assaulted and killed with calculated precision. The horror is that the F.B.I. estimates that there are not just hundreds but thousands of serial killers at large at this very moment. Darkness is not limited to individuals. When a nation of people with hard, dark and dead hearts unite, you get 26.3 million deaths in Communist China under the brutal reign of Mao-Tse -Tung. The Walker report, published by the U.S. Senate Committee of the Judiciary in July 1971, placed the deaths between 1949 at million and 61.7 million. Reliable estimates of the victims of the Holocaust are placed at 5.1 to 6 million Jews. Shortly after I graduated from high school the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, but before that event they killed more than one third of the 8 million Khmers. In the last few months more than 200,00 people have been wiped out in the nation state of Rwanda. The depth of sin defies imagination. This death-state of mind makes it possible to call good evil and evil good and to "put darkness for light and light for darkness" (Isa. 5:20). 5. (verse 19) "In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves (a prey) to unbridled sensuality, eager

4 and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity (that their depraved desires may suggest and command) (Amplified Text). The NEB has 'They stop at nothing to satisfy their foul desire." Reckless hearts allow for people to indulge in deep sin. Deep sin from a dead heart. This death results in a wanton recklessness that defies description. "who being past feeling"(nkjv) literally means they were beyond feeling--like a hard callous. One 19th century Bible scholar wrote "having got beyond the pain" nothing hurt. They performed every kind of sensuality, explored new forms of immorality, and perversity. But Sensuality does not satisfy. It only creates a bigger vacuum and a deeper void. I read a quote from "Fabio" the real life model of popular romance novels saying he thought rock and film star Madonna was seriously harming children with her sexually explicit performances. "Madonna is rebellious in a bad way." (Is there rebellion in a good way?) "She's self-destructive, and its very sad to see someone like that influence our kids. She's promoting perversion--s and M (sadism and masochism), raw sex. "People just don't need any more examples like her." So it is for those who are caught in the cross-fire of pornography, prostitution and perversity. We live in a very sick world. Psychopaths are heros. Drag-queens are models. One famous athlete published in his autobiography that he had engaged in 10,000 sexual relationships. Rock stars photograph and then publish books describing behavior that would rival Caligula and Nero in Ancient Roman descriptions of unrestrained filth. The Bible describes these people as past feeling. That doesn't mean they have no feelings, rather it means their feelings don't restrict their behavior. Some people think, if I feel no guilt or remorse, then it must be OK. Thank God not everyone, not all unbelievers have sunk to such depths of sin. Yet our culture provides an open an accepting environment for their life-style and direction of sin. I no longer believe the media are solely responsible for pushing the envelope of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. They are simply giving hard hearts, dark hearts, dead hearts, reckless hearts, what they really want. I would remind you of Paul's statement in verse 17: "this I say and testify in the Lord"; when Paul uses that expression he is saying in effect; "I would like to give Jesus' perspective on this whole deal. This is how the Lord Jesus Christ sees the lost world. Those who live apart from God and the Lord Jesus Christ are lost. The world is radically lost. When we are able to comprehend the depths of sin we can appreciate the fact that we cannot save ourselves. We need Jesus. Without Christ the world is nothing more than the object of God's Holy and Complete Wrath with the channel changer on pause. When you lose the biblical view of man and the world you may sadly be duped into thinking that there is some measure of goodness or redeeming quality in man apart from Christ. No wonder Paul said that in me, that is in my flesh dwells no good thing.

5 Is it all doom and gloom? Are we all gong to hell in a hand basket? Is there no hope? Are we forced to wear the soiled garments of sin in hopes they will burn off in hell? Not so! We have a new set of clothes. A royal wardrobe given to us by the Prince of Peace and the King of Kings. THE NEW CLOSET OF CLOTHES (VV.20-24) 1. Thank God for verse 20. That's not the way you learned about Jesus. Here Paul will introduce three pedagogical terms (that is teaching terms, words that a teacher would use to get the point across). Jesus is the lesson (v.20). Jesus is also the teacher (v.21a) Jesus is the environment or atmosphere (v.21b). What do I mean by lesson? Verse 20 reads "But you have not so learned Christ". The lesson Jesus gave is very different. When Paul was with them he did not just teach them facts about Jesus' life, they learned him--they learned his life, and the way he loved, and the things he taught, the way he wept over Jerusalem, the way he died, his approach to morals and ethics and even his ambience. 2. "and have been taught by Him "(v.21). Surely you heard him. (you must have heard Jesus speak loud and clear) Perhaps they had never heard Jesus in his earthly ministry teach, but they heard him. Dr. F.F. Bruce states: "Christ Himself is the Christian teacher, even if the teaching is given through the lips of his followers; to receive the teaching is in the truest sense to hear him". Jesus himself stated that His sheep hear His voice (Jn. 10:16). Real preaching takes place when Jesus is invisibly in the pulpit and walking up and down the aisles speaking to his own. The doctrines or teachings of Jesus stand in bold contrast to the teachings of this world. The world say: "love yourself" make sure you are taken care of and satisfied." Jesus says "If anyone comes after me, they must deny themselves take up their cross and follow me." In the world the first are first and the last are last. In the Kingdom the first are last and the last are first. In the world, the person with power is the person who calls the shots, makes the decisions and calls on others to serve. In the kingdom the greatest is the person who is the servant of all. 3. Jesus is the subject; Jesus is the teacher; and now we see Jesus is the environment or atmosphere or schoolroom. "the truth is in Jesus". When people say that "all truth is God's truth" I would rather say "the truth is in Jesus". Saint Patrick said: (in the 5th century) Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. May I be bold? The truth is in Jesus. The truth is not in the unproven theories of men. The truth is not in idle speculation. The truth is not in religion, or science or psychology (most certainly not psychology!) The truth is not in A.A. or self-help or 12 steps 2 steps or country dancing. The truth is not in failure or sin or self. The truth is in Jesus. When something is true it conforms to the facts, it conforms to knowledge, truth is real or

6 actual, a statement is true when proven true not simply accepted as true. When something is honest and it conforms to reality, when it is devoid of lie it is said to be true. The truth is in Jesus. What exactly is this truth that is in Jesus. Paul has noted that for the pagan, hardness and darkness and deadness lead to reckless uncleanness. What is the truth that sets Christians free and leads them to righteousness? The next verses give the answer. (verses 22-24) 4. Three things are given in verses (1) verse 22: "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires." (2) verse 23: or "be made new in the attitude of your mind" and (3) verse 24: and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 5. (v.22) We are to dump the old life. "throw the old life away". It is a dirty garment, not even worthy of garage sale material. Those old clothes need to be burned. The problem is they are so comfortable. Sometimes we put them on and we hardly notice. But then the Holy Spirit reminds us to ditch the dirty laundry of the old life. Wherever the battle lies, with pride, or anger or theft, or lust, or bitterness we must ditch those old clothes. It makes good sense to take off the dirty clothes in order to wear the clean clothes. When you soil your clothes you need to wash them. Have you ever been in a circumstance where you had to wear the same stinky clothes day after day? Can you imagine the moral odor that reeks in heaven when you allow hatred or bitterness or unforgiveness or prayerlessness to be worn day after day? Change your clothes. 6. (v.23) I can't take these stinky clothes off. I don't have anything else to wear. Oh really? Paul makes a suggestion (more like a command). Change your mind. Change your attitude. Think different thoughts. Remember the people in the world think thoughts that are futile. They walk (or live) in the futility of the mind." (v.17). Isn't it interesting? Most issues of lifesyle reside in the mind. Unbelievers and Christians are to think differently. Because Christians think differently they are to act differently. When it comes to spiritual and moral issues the unbeliever has twisted thinking. They don't think straight. The Christian is to think thoughts that conform to Christ. We are not to be conformed to this world, but rather we are to transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are to have the mind of Christ. Because we have experienced a new creation we have a new mind. 7. (v.24) The old clothes were corrupt. That is in the process of disintegration. The OLD MAN was dominated by lusts, that is uncontrolled passions. The new clothes and the new man have been created in righteousness and holiness. These are the new Redeemer-designer jeans. The old lusts were deceitful. The new desires are true. Corruption is contrasted with the new creation and passion and holiness are set at odds. Deceit and Truth are colors that simply don't match in the new wardrobe.