| |
Book: Ephesians
 Print ( PC Only )
Ephesians 4:17
I. Walk not as other Gentiles walk.
A. In this second section of the epistle to the Ephesians which
begins with chapter 4 Paul begins to discuss the walk of the
believer. In 4:1 he tells them to walk worthy of the calling
they had received.
B. In verse 17 he exhorts them not to walk as other Gentiles walk,
He then begins to define what he means.
C. In the emptiness of their minds.
1. Mindlessly.
a. Have you ever noticed how mindless so many
things of the world are?
b. Halloween night on the news, they showed some
footage of the celebration in San Francisco.
The adults wore such foolish and outlandish get
ups, and milled around the streets. That takes
an empty mind.
c. To be honest, I have great difficulty with the
robes and miters worn by the pope and the
cardinals. Can you imagine Jesus dressing like
that?
d. So many things of the world just do not make
sense.
e. If people would just stop to think, they would
not do so many of the things they are doing.
f. Did you know that there is a Federal law
against picking up wild bird feathers and
keeping them in your home?
ISA 44:18 They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes,
that they cannot see; [and] their hearts, that they cannot
understand.
ISA 44:19 And none considereth in his heart, neither [is there] knowledge
nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire;
yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have
roasted flesh, and eaten [it]: and shall I make the residue
thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a
tree?
ISA 44:20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside,
that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, [Is there] not a lie
in my right hand?
2. Having the understanding darkened.
a. Paul in another place speaks of their foolish
hearts were darkened and professing themselves
to be wise, they became fools for they began to
worship and serve the creature more than the
creator, who is blessed forevermore.
b. Again Paul speaks of the God of this world
having blinded the minds of those that believe
not.
c. Paul declares that because they did not want to
retain God in their knowledge, He gave them
over to reprobate or depraved minds so that
they do things that ought not to be done.
d. Educated men with Phd's will travel to India to
live in filth at the Ashram of an Avatar who
has supposedly attained to godhood. They will
consume his body wastes thinking that they are
somehow becoming related to god.
3. Being alienated from the life of God through the
ignorance that is in them.
a. In chapter 2 Paul speaks of being aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel.
b. This is even worse, being alienated from the
life of God.
c. They are living in the fallen state, a two
dimensional life consisting only of body and
soul, as such, living like animals. The mind
occupied by the body needs and appetites.
d. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must
worship Him in Spirit and in truth. But the
spirit of the heathen is dead because of
trespasses and sins.
e. This is the record, God has given to us eternal
life, and this life is in the Son, he that has
the Son has life, and He that has not the Son
has not life. i.e. the life of God.
f. It is amazing to me how ignorant man is of God.
That ignorance is inexcusable, for God has
revealed Himself to man, through His word, and
finally through His Son.
g. A man came up to me at the door last Sunday
announced that he was an agnostic, he wondered
why I always pictured the world in a negative
light, why didn't I mention some of the good
things in the world. I thought poor man,
ignorant of the life of God, but there is no
excuse for that. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that
God is revealed through the things He has made
so that they are without excuse.
h. The ignorance is the result of the blindness of
their heart. A old proverb declares, "None so
blind as those who will not see."
i. Paul speaks of the god of this world blinding
their eyes so that they cannot see.
j. Jesus said of the Pharisee's
MAT 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the
blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
MAT 23:16 Woe unto you, [ye] blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall
swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by
the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
k. I believe that Jesus will reveal God to every
man who in sincerity seeks to find God.
MAT 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the
Father, save the Son, and [he] to whomsoever the Son will reveal
[him].
l. This word translated blindness is in the Greek
porosis. The poros was a stone that was harder
than marble. Something so hard that if cannot
feel at all.
4. Who being past feeling. What a phrase. This is what
they are telling us about this new generation, that
they are past feeling. They seem to have absolutely no
remorse for the horrible crimes that they have
committed.
a. Paul speaks to Timothy of the latter times when
men will have their conscience seared as with a
hot iron.
b. I believe that we are starting to reap the
whirlwind from the seeds we have sown to the
wind, in allowing our children to be exposed to
so much violence on T.V.
c. From the time they can first comprehend they
sit glued to the T.V. as Elmer Fudd beats the
rabbit flat.
d. They have seen so much violence and brutality
that their feelings have become numb.
e. There is a word wanton used in the Bible which
means no shame. When a person can sin without
feeling or shame they have become wanton.
5. They have given themselves over to lasciviousness. The
absence of restraint. No inhibitions. An insatiable
desire for pleasure.
a. The Greek word here is aselgeia.
b. It means that a person does not care how
shocked people might be of his actions, he is
willing to insult all decency that he might
gratify his own lusts.
6. To work all uncleanness with greediness. akatharsis.
katharsis is clean, the negative prefix a means
unclean, usually in a moral sense.
ROM 1:24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the
lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between
themselves:
ROM 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for
ever. Amen.
ROM 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even
their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature:
ROM 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working
that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that
recompence of their error which was meet.
ROM 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
are not convenient;
ROM 1:29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate,
deceit, malignity; whisperers,
ROM 1:30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors
of evil things, disobedient to parents,
ROM 1:31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful:
ROM 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such
things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them.
B. Paul saw the heathen as men whose hearts had become so hardened
that they could sin without feeling. Without any pangs of
conscience.
1. They were son controlled by sin that they had no shame.
2. They were so given over to their lusts that they did
not care who saw them, they did not seek to hide their
shameful desires.
II. "But you have not so learned Christ."
A. What an understatement.
|