Ephesians 4v17-24
Personal Holiness Matters
I might try and convince you that I’m getting better, but my wife will probably still tell you I’m not very good at DIY. Handyman stuff.
And even Iwill admit that I do really appreciate it when the household appliance I buy comes with a very simple set of instructions. Take off this tag. Twist this lid. Apply this amount. I’m really grateful for instructions like that.
But have you noticed that sometimes the manufacturers of products give such simple instructions that they almost give the impression that the buyer must be stupid. Surely we know that already. Did they really need to print it on the product? Here some real examples.
On an American airlines packet of nuts. Instructions: open packet. Eat nuts.
Pretty basic
On Stainsburys peanuts there was a warning: warning: contains nuts. Just in case you allergic to nut products and you don’t realize that a packet full of peanuts might contain some nuts.
On a hotel provided shower cap it was printed, fits one head. In case you wanted to try and stretch it onto two heads.
On a nightoll sleep aid it says warning: may cause drowsiness. You would think so. It’s a sleep aid
On a bread pudding. Warning: the product will be hot after heating. Ya, that’s what normally happens when you heat something.
On a child’s superman garment. This garment does not allow wearer to fly.
On a string of Chinese Christmas lights. For indoor or outdoor use only. I’m not sure what other use they thinking about?
And then a very funny one. On a Korean kitchen knife: warning: keep out of children.
Well anyway. You know sometimes the Bible gives us very simple instructions. And you almost think to yourself. This is so basic. Why do I need to be told this? And yet its amazing how often we forget to keep and to apply instructions. We do need to be reminded of them again.
This morning we come to a passage a bit like that in Ephesians chapter 4.
We continuing with the second half of Ephesians. The first half was mainly doctrine. What God has done for us. The second half is mainly response. How should we live in the light of what God has done.And the key turning point came in chapter 4 verse 1. I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
And we’ve been seeing that this command involves more than just us as private individual Christians trying to live lives that please God. Our calling is into a united church. And so a life that’s worthy of that calling involves relationships with other believers.
So in verses 2-6 we spoke about unity. we need to maintain the unity we have in Christ.
In verses 7-16 we spoke about maturity building - each of us must play our part to build up the body.
Andits in that context that Paul nowbegins to focus more on us as individuals. If we wanna play our part to build up the church, then we need to take care of our personal godliness.
We not gona build up the church if we living in sin. And so that’s what wegona be focusing on the next couple of weeks we gona see some very practical instructions on how to be godly. And this is very important for us as a church to receive.
At the time when Paul wrote this letter there was a teaching going around which argued that the important thing about you was your soul. yourphysical body wasn’t that important. And so there were some people who teaching that it doesn’t actually matter what you do with your physical body. It doesn’t affect your soul. And so your personal holiness. You can sin physically. And it doesn’t really matter. They were downplaying personal holiness.
Similarly today, we have teachers today downplaying the importance of holiness.
I once heard of a man who was raised in a Christian background. He went to a missionary school. But after getting married, he got the opportunity to go and study German in Germany. And his wife got an opportunity to go and study medicine in London. And so they separated for a while to pursue their studies. But while this man was in Germany he began to visit the red light district to sleep with a prostitute. And a Christian friend he’d made there noticed this.. And he challenged him about it.
how would you feel if you found out that your wife was doing the same thing in London. And he replied: “Oh, I’d kill her.
Isn’t that a bit of a double standard ,his friend asked. And he said,
You don’t understand, Where I come from, the husband has the right to sleep with many women, but if a wife does it she must be killed.”
But you told me you were raised in a mission school, his friend replied. You know that the God of the Bible doesn’t have double standards like that.
And this was the man’s response. He simply smiled and said, “Aah, God is good; He’s bound to forgive us; that’s his job.”
And I think that’s the way many people think today. God won’t reject us. He’s a God of forgiveness and love. Surely He’ll accept us. He’s bound to forgive. That’s His job.
And so just like in Paul’s day we also have people downplaying the importance of holiness. And so we need to hear these words this morning. Its not okay to just continue in sin
Look at the strong language Paul uses in verse 17.
So I tell you this, and insist on it, in the Lord”
When Paul uses that phrase, “in the Lord” he’s talking about his authority. He speaks the words of the Lord.
And so he’s speaking with insistence. He’s speaking with authority.
We must not live as the Gentiles do.
And when Paul talks about Gentiles, he’s talking about pagans. In those days, the gospel had just begun to reach the Gentiles. And so generally speaking the Gentile world was still separated from God. Ungodly. Full of wickedness.
Look at verse 19. Here’s a pagan Gentile lifestyle. Verse 19
“Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality. (That’s just satisfying your senses) so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”
If you sitting here this morning as someone who doesn’t know God. Either this is what uralready like. Ur living to indulge your senses. Whatever feels good. Whatever looks good. Whatever tastes good. You pursuing those things.
Either that’s what ur already like.
Or else. That’s where you headed. That’s the direction ur life is going.
And in these first few verses Paul takes us to source of this kind of impure wickedness. Where does it come from?
And the first thing we see is that it comes from wrong thinking. Look at verse 17 again. Notice how many times Paul refers to the mind. Verse 17.
So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking.
If somethings futile it means its got no real value.
It can be sport. It can be money. It can be fame. Things that don’t have long lasting value. That’s what pagans think about.
Look at verse 18.
They are darkened in their understanding.
So there’s no light that comes on when they hear God’s Word. They darkened.
Verse 18 again.
They separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.
They ignorant. They don’t know the truth.
And so you see how Paul focuses on their minds.
Their wicked lifestyle comes from their darkened minds.
And so please don’t think you can go through your life resisting God’s truth. Not reading your Bible. Not listening to sermons. Pushing the truth out of your mind.
Don’t think you can do that without it affecting your life.
Romans 1 verse 28 makes the same point. Notice the link between wrong thinking and wicked living.Romans 1 verse 28. “Since theydidnt think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God,(so they ignored God’s truth. What did God therefore do?) He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.”
Again wrong thinking leads to wicked living.
But we still haven’t reached the deepest source of wickedness.
Look at verse 18 again. Where does a darkened mind come from?
Ephesians 4 verse 18.
“They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them
Why?
due to the hardening of their hearts.
And so you see the link?
A wicked lifestyle comes from a darkened mind. But a darkened mind comes from a hardened heart.
You see everyone in this world has some access to truth. Even the unreached tribe on an island who’s never heard about Jesus. Even they have receivedsome revelation of God. From creation
And so the ignorance that exists in all people is due to a hardened heart. We don’t want to think about God. We don’t want to believe in Him. We ignore Him. We push the truth out of our minds.
And so this is the downward spiral of wickedness in these verses. If youignoring God in your life then this is the direction ur headed.
A hardened heart
Leads to a darkened mind
Leads to unrestricted wickedness.
And the main point Paul is driving home in our passage is that this cannot be a description of us.
A Christian cannot live this way.
The way of Christ is radically different
Look at verse 20. You however did not come to know Christ that way.
You see when you come to know Christ the downward spiral gets reversed.
Instead of a hardened heart, your heart gets softened.
Instead of a darkened mind, you mind gets enlightened.
And so instead of giving yourself to unrestricted wickedness, you should want to get rid of your sin.
And so that’s what we focusing on for the rest of our time this morning: how can we do that? How can we stop our sin.
And we get some really practical instructions here. I can summarize them for you in three words.
Stop. Renew. Replace. You might wanna write them down
Stop. Renew. Replace.
I hope you’ll always remember these words so that whenever you fighting a sin. These three words will come to mind. And I knowI’v found them very helpful in my struggle with sin. (Ever since I heard them in a sermon that was preached by Clint Lombard)
But the first thing we need to be clear about here is that we talking now to Christians.
You see, Paul doesn’t jump straight from the wicked life described in verses 17-19. Straight across to living the good life. the steps to stop sinning. Verses 22-24. In between that he speaks about coming to know Christ. In verses 20-21.
Look at verse 20. Notice the emphasis on Christ. Verse 20.
“You however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.”
You see its when you come to know Christ. When you find a relationship with Him. That’s when you start wanting to apply these steps to fight sin.
And I really want to stress that. Because you might be visiting us this morning and you hear this talk about how to stop sinning. And you might think that that’s what Christianity’s all about. As if it’s all about behaviour modification.
But that’s not what Christianity’s all about. Christianity’s all about? Christ
Its about a personal relationship with Jesus.
And you might be tempted to think, if I can just apply these three steps in my life. and get rid of the sin.then maybe I can earn my acceptance with God.
But that won’t work. If Youstand before God on the day of judgment and say: “Look God! I followed Kyle’s three steps on how to stop sinning.”
He’ll say: depart from me I never knew you.
You can’t earn favour with God by following these three steps. Youonly accepted in Christ. And so all we doing this morning is talking about those of us who’ralready in Christ. We’ve been accepted. And now we wanna please Him. He’s been so good to us. We hate our sin. We wanna stop. How can we do that?
Well there three very practical steps. And they very basic steps.
And in fact these are steps you should have learnt when you first became a Christian. In verse 22 Paul says these are steps we were taught. past tense. We’ve already learnt these things.
When you first became a Christian then you were told that you need to stop. You need to repent of the way you were living. If you didn’t hear a call to repent, then you didn’t hear the true gospel.
Secondly, you were told that you need to be renewed. You need to change your thinking. There’s new Christian teaching you need to receive. You need to be taught.
And thirdly you were told that you need to start doing good. You need to replace your bad behaviour with good behaviour. Start living a new life.
And so these are all things you should have already heard. They very basic steps of Christian living. But its amazing how often we forget them. We must keep on applying them in our lives.
So lets look again at the first step. Verse 22. We must stop doing bad things. 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.”
The word to “put off” literally means to disrobe. As if you taking off your clothes. And that’s what Paul’s saying: take off that old behaviour. Stop doing it.
And so you might think this is really obvious. Okay here we got three steps to stop sinning. Step number 1 … stop. Well Thanks a lotPaul. But you need to realize this is a crucial step.
And its amazing some Christians seem to think they can bypass this step. As if they can just sit in church on Sundays. Do their quiet times in the mornings. Say their prayers.And then somehow just magically their sin will just stop. Without any decisive commitment. Without any plan ofaction to deal with their sin.
There was once a cartoon in a newspaper of a man about to jump out of a high rise building. with a suicide note in his hand. Getting ready to jump. But on his back he had strapped a parachute.
And his wife was leaning out of the window, saying: “Just can’t commit to anything can you Larry?”
It’s a funny cartoon. But it makes a telling statement of what we are often like. And especially when it comes to our sin. We so often half-hearted in our commitment to stop.
And so this is a crucial first step.
Psalm 119 verse 106
‘I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow Your righteous laws.”
That’s commitment.
And along with commitment goes decisive action.
Matthew 5 verse 29 says: “if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off ands throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
You see we gotta take decisive action. Even radical costly action.
Gouging out an eye. That’s pretty radical.
Cutting off an arm. But its true.
But its true. Compared to being thrown into hell. Its worth it. And so if that’s the only thing that’ll help. Then you must do it.
But I wanna suggest there might be steps you can take before you gouge out your eye or cut off your arm.
They might be costly. But here some examples.
You might be struggling with porn on your tablet or ipad. Get some app like covenant eyes that filters what you look at. Get an accountability partner who asks you regularly what sites uv visited
If you struggling with gossip, then avoid meeting with other people who gossip. Or another thing you could do if you know someone you often gossip with. Then you could go up to them and say: I’m sorry for gossiping with you. That’ll make it pretty hard for them to gossip to you again.
Or If you in a dating relationship with someone and you want to be sexually pure. Make a commitment never to be in alone in a room together. That’s asking for trouble.
And all of these might be hard. They not easy. But not compared to gouging out an eye. Or cutting off a limb. They much easier than that.
And compared to continuing in our sin and eventually being thrown into hell. Well they definitely worth it.
And so I wanna urge all of us. Before the end of this day. Find some quiet time.Even if its just fifteen minutes.
Identify the main sins in your life. Write them down.