Believers are called to walk as new creations in Christ, distinct from the vanity and darkness of the Gentile mindset. This transformation involves actively 'putting off' the old self, which is corrupt and deceitful, and 'putting on' the new self created in righteousness and true holiness. The sermon contrasts the futile, darkened understanding and alienation from God characteristic of the unregenerate with the renewed mind and spiritual life available through Christ. This new identity, established by Christ's sacrifice, empowers believers to live a life consistent with their redeemed status, reflecting God's character in their daily conduct.
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And we trust that not all of you slept in your cars last night. And I will say this, that a nice air-conditioned room over at the end without any kids running around at five o'clock in the morning saying get up or whatever they were doing was very, very nice. And all I can say is I really appreciate it. Now, there are two people I have been very thankful to see here this week besides many, many others. One was this morning when I saw Brother Ernest Woodhouse get here. I was very thankful for that for some very obvious reasons. And we did talk him out of his coat, though. We got, not us, but somebody else up there. I saw he had his blue coat on.
I said, oh, no, don't do that to me. But anyway, so I'm very glad to see our brother Woodhouse here this morning. And also last night, it was a thrill for me to see our brother, Hal Green. And I know that You've all been praying for him and the brain surgery that he did have. And I'm just thrilled to see the rapid recovery we've already seen in Hal's life. I've not seen him since he had the surgery up in Mayo. And we're just thrilled to even have him here this morning to be with us. I don't know if he's here this morning or not. He kind of overdid it last night, I think. He was a little tired. But keep praying for Hal. And we just praise the Lord for him being here and being able to be with us during this conference.
Well, I'm not going to ask how many of you read Ephesians four, seventeen to twenty-four since last night. So let's read it together this morning. Ephesians chapter four, beginning at verse seventeen. Now let me, Eddie, Johnny, what time am I supposed to be done before I get shot? How about twenty-two after? Eleven? No. Oh, okay. Thank you. Verse seventeen. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk, not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts.
who, being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, And that she put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Last week we were kind of with my parents in kind of a family reunion for a couple days. And we're looking at the pictures that Prince Charles and Princess Diana celebrated their first anniversary.
And they had their little baby boy who is now second in line to the throne of England. Now Prince Charles is first. I don't know if he can't wait until his mother gets off the throne, I don't know. But anyway, behind Prince Charles now is his son with that nice long British name. I wouldn't try to repeat all the names that their young son has. But he now second lines the throne. But just imagine this young son who is the one who is going to inherit the throne of England maybe in the days to come. And all of a sudden he gets up to be around a teenager and he decides, you know, I really don't like this king thing. I don't like this royalty fit that I have to go through.
So I'm going to go out and I'm going to live like a pauper. I'm going to go out and live like one of the typical bums out in wherever the skid row is in London. And I'm going to do my thing. I'm going to do all the grubby and I'm going to do the whole thing. And so he acts, looks, and smells like a very, very grubby person. But the reality of the matter of this whole situation is that this young boy, whether he likes it or not, at this point, of course that goes beyond the illustration. But whether he likes it or not, he will always be the son of Prince Charles. And he will be second in line to the throne of England. Now, of course, we know he can abdicate. He can do other things like that. But we know that he is royalty. And that is part of what the Apostle Paul is trying to appeal here to, is that we are King's kids.
We are children of God. We are in Christ, and Christ is in us. And the lifestyle that He's appealing to us to live is to be a life that is consistent with those who are in Christ, those who are children of God, those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Now, last night we talked about the beginning of this section with this appeal, this urging, this beseeching that He talked about in verse one. And He picks up the same idea again in verse seventeen when He says the word therefore. He's going back to his urging. He's going back to his appeal, to his beseeching and begging. But he goes on with a little bit stronger terms, terms that have a little bit of an ominous overtone. This word for testify here is a word that goes beyond just a courtroom testimony.
It can be that, but it goes to a place where it is almost a warning. And he talks about, and this message, by the way, I'm really excited about. Even though there's some really dark things in this message, there is an exciting message that I'd like to communicate to you as we get on up to verse twenty. Now, the first thing he starts off and talks about, he talks about the negative side of what we are no longer. He says that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. Now, he's not saying there, by the way, that you don't walk as those who are non-Schwarzes. Okay? That's not what he's saying. He's not using this in racial terms between Jew and Gentile.
Other portions in the Word of God where you see this word Gentile, it refers to a religious system, a system that is without God, that denies the presence of God in their lives. So he's not talking about non-Jews racially. He's talking about people who are separated from the Commonwealth of Israel in the terms of the kingdom of God. That we no longer are part, that these people are not part of the family of God at all. They're Gentiles. And it says we're not to walk, not to have our lifestyle like that anymore. And he gives a six-fold description in verses seventeen down through nineteen of the way the Gentiles walk. Now, please note, as you're taking a look at this, that's a cruciality of the words that have to do with mind.
Notice verse seventeen, in the vanity of their mind. Verse eighteen, having their understanding darkened. The life of God through them, the ignorance. And then you go on and see more as we see later on. The cruciality of the mind. You know, I was just reading about a report of the criminal mind, a report that was done by two penologists or criminologists. And it used to be that people said that criminals were a product of their society. Those of you who have ever seen or the West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein that they have a song in there on Officer Krupke.
And in that song, they say, we're depraved on account of we're deprived. And so the idea behind that song is that depravity, reprobation, or the psychopathic, sociopathic mind is a result of bad environment, bad circumstances, growing up in a slum, growing up in poverty, growing up in adverse situations. And they say that that's what's causing the criminals. That's why all the prisons are so full of because of circumstances. But this study that came out, they said, no, that's not true. That we're finding that Crime is not a result of circumstances or environment or situations that people are born into, but that crime is a result of a mindset the way people think.
And this, of course, reminds us of the words of Solomon when he says, As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Now, the Gentiles, the religious system that leaves God out, has a certain mindset. And this mindset is described here in verses seventeen through nineteen. Now, the first thing it says, it says in a vanity of their mind. Now, that word vanity is the word I'm sure that you're acquainted with, is the word, it means empty. It's full of nothing. It's useless. It's pointless. It's purposeless. It has no goal, no motivation, no orientation. Now, I find that very interesting because I graduated from the University of Illinois in Chicago.
And I'll never forget, after I first became a Christian, that I was subjected. Now, we'll use that word, subjected to a humanities course. And in this humanities course, this man had us reading all different kinds of books, and he just, every class spirit, he expounded on the wonder of evolution and how man through the product of eons, of ages, and we're the epitome of creation. He said, oh, man, he was really persuasive. Of course, I had the unique opportunity of talking to R.J. Little at the time when he was still alive, and R.J. Little gave me some really neat ammunition. So one day in class, I stood up, I raised my hand and said, Professor, could I ask you a question?
Yes, and at this point he didn't know I was Christian. I said, if you were walking through a desert and you saw three bricks on top of one another and with mortar in between, what would you conclude? Well, I conclude, man's been here. I said, well, I take a look at all of this creation and all of the handiwork that I see around here, and I conclude, God's been here. How about, how about, how about? It was really kind of funny watching that, and he says, well, I don't see it that way at all. But, you know, he could see the three bricks, and you take a look at this. I'd much rather see this than three bricks. But anyways, Then I used another one on him.
He says, well, I've read the Bible through and through. And I heard another one that's used on people like that. And I said, that's what you get for reading other people's mail. You know, because he wasn't. But anyway, but the idea, this guy, he's a doctor. He's a PhD. He has all that the world has to offer. He's gone to the world's well. And he's drunk deep. And he came out empty. And that's the Gentile mind. They say, we're so full. They got PhD, LLD, DLs, and all these different things that they got behind their names. And they say, we've got it all. And the reality of it is they've got nothing. But the Gentiles are walking with an empty mind, a mind that is full of vanity.
And then it says, having the understanding darkens. That this mind that you, you know, thinks of us having the Spirit of God coming in and having illumined our lives and lightened up our lives on the inside and we read the Word of God and it's plain to us. It's obvious. And you sit there and you try to show it to them. And, huh? And they just don't seem to understand what you're talking about. They don't seem to be able to relate what you're talking about at all. I don't understand this. And we're last night. You know, one of the advantages of being in a motel. I did a Nancy, I turned on a TV on a crisis-to-crisis program last night with Barbara Jordan. And, of course, you know, Barbara Jordan is the Congresswoman, the Black Congresswoman, is an attorney who has gained a great deal of fame during the Watergate trials, that she was one of the ones who interrogated all the people with Sam Irvin and company during the Watergate trials.
And she was doing a report on the portrait of a religious zealot. And it was Ed McIntyre, who was the president of Roundtable. And, of course, you'll see Barbara Jordan, who is a very precise individual. She says her words very plainly, very distinctly, you know, exactly what she's saying. And you could see, you know, the sarcasm. And yes, the films were really kind of good. You know, we've got some good Baptist revivals, had Jerry Falwell and James Robinson and all these different things. And the gospel, how to be saved, and all these different things. And, of course, They were putting this on.
See what we're being subjected to? What this religious right is like? Amen. So keep going. It really sounds pretty good. So see, the problem that they have is their understanding has darkened. And the things that lightened up in us because God is living on the inside, they don't understand. They don't understand what you're going to a Bible conference. What do you do there? Well, we sit down and we have Bible studies. What else do you do? Oh, then we talk and fellowship and drink a lot of coffee. What else do you do? Well, we have more Bible studies. Oh, there's a little bit of softball in there, right?
None of you guys are going to tell. But they don't understand this. And we have a seminar that we're involved with. They call the Institute in Basic Use Conflicts. And we talk to people. you know, at the seminar building, and when we were first running the Keele Auditorium in St. Louis, and, you know, they asked, well, what is this like? Because they're all geared up for a rock concert, you know, and things like that, and all these people, and the very first time that we watched them cleaning out from a rock concert, and the first night they were out there, and the concession stands, you know, they couldn't get, you sure you don't want to sell any beer? Yeah, we're sure. Your people, you know, all four thousand people aren't going to want any of that. No, they're not going to want it. You're sure? No, we're sure.
Huh. So first night they watched it, and they couldn't believe people were walking around with the trash in the hand looking for trash cans. They're not used to that. And these guys would come up to us afterwards and say, what is this group now? You know, they don't understand what's going on. See, that's what the Gentiles are like outside of God, this religious system. Their mind is vanity. The secondly, that their understanding is darkened. Thirdly, they're alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. Now, isn't that kind of a, you know, God sits there and takes a look at man's might, man's intelligence, man's power, and what do you call him? He calls them ignorance. You know, that's, you know, I probably should have used this verse in my humanity professor, along with one of my, a few of my philosophy professors and all of my psychology professors, you know.
And, you know, they think they're so wise, and God takes a look at it and says, it's just ignorance. There's nothing of value there that is going to change people's lives. You know, I was, Jack Wertzen was down speaking at school one time, and he had debated with this beautiful woman from Texas, Madeline Murray O'Hare. And I said, beautiful. No. Well, anyway, he was debating with her up in Wisconsin. And it was a call-in program. And this young girl called in and said, Miss O'Hare. By the way, it's kind of exciting.
Her son's gotten saved. Isn't that exciting? But she said, Miss O'Hare, I didn't used to believe in God. I was in drugs, immoral, and suicidal. I had attempted suicide a number of times. My life was miserable. I was unhappy. My parents were broken up. I was kicked out of the house. I had nowhere to live. I had no money. And I was getting ready to attempt suicide again. And all of a sudden I turned on the Word of Life program with Jack Workson. And he told me how to become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. And it came in.
And I'm happy now. I'm back in school. And I'm finishing up high school. I'm back living with my parents. that my life has meaning and purpose and joy and all the rest. And said, Miss O'Hare, what do you have to offer me? You know what? What does she have to offer them? Absolutely nothing. She's alienated from the life of God. She is walking in darkness and in death. And she has nothing to offer other than darkness and death. And that's the Gentiles walk. The Gentiles walk is a life that is alienated. It is at odds with. It is enemies with God himself. And then fourthly, because of the blindness of their heart.
Now, you might take a look in your margin there. You see that's a word that they have, the word hardness. Well, they can't make there's a big long discussion if you get into the commentaries on this and what the meaning of this word is. I think it might be the idea is something like this. that as long as this little eyeball that we have right here is kind of soft and flexible, pliable, and like that, it works fine. But if that eye starts becoming rigid, just like if our veins become rigid or things like that, and it starts getting hard, that that would cause blindness. And I don't know if that can even happen, but this is the illustration behind it. The eye getting hard, and the hardness produces a blindness that so that people can't see.
And so we see that the heart of the man outside of God, outside of the family of God, without having God living inside of him, that he's described as being blind in his heart or hardened his heart. Of course, we can think of Pharaoh. Pharaoh hardened his heart and God hardened his heart. We see that the willful hardening of his own heart, but then the judicial hardening that came from God himself. So we see the blindness of their heart. And isn't this interesting, you know, that we see all these, they don't understand things. And then you come up, they say, don't you see? You come up and you talk to parents and you see what they're doing with their children. They're programming their children for destruction. And you come up, and don't you see that what you're doing is wrong?
And they don't see it because of the blindness that's in their heart. Because of the hardness in their heart. You know, one of the greatest things that's been propagated in our society has been Benjamin Spock, baby and child care. Even Benjamin Spock, you know, later on, of course, you can't take all those books back. Benjamin Spock later on recanted of what he had said and permissive education. Because he began realizing, even though he didn't understand the Bible, that the parent who doesn't thank their child, who doesn't discipline their child, is a parent who really does not love their child, that there is hate in their heart for that child. And so this permissive type thing that was going on, and so I never forget this one cartoon that really epitomized permissive child training. These parents were hovering over their little girl in the middle of their house, which was burned down.
It was just in rubble all around them, and you see the smoke coming up, and they say to their little girl, now we realize that you are expressing some of your frustrations with life. Right. Don't you see that that kind of thinking, that that kind of attitude of heart is producing all kinds of wickedness and immorality in our world? And that's what he goes on to say. He says, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness. They give themselves over.
They're so callous. towards natural things without natural affection, that they don't have love for their parents, they don't have love for their children, they don't have love for other people, their past feeling. And not only that, their past feeling, that the Spirit of God, Bertrand Russell used to say that, you know, back, and Bertrand Russell was, of course, one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto back in nineteen thirty three. And we'll talk a little bit about that on Friday moment in our seminar on humanism. But Bertrand Russell being one of the signers of that, he said, back when I was a young man, When I began first espousing my principles of atheism, there was something inside of me telling me, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. Well, I've grown past that now. Well, he really hadn't grown past it, had he?
He had become past feeling. He couldn't respond any longer. He was beyond feeling. And notice that this person goes beyond feeling, gives themselves over to lasciviousness. Now, this word for lasciviousness is a very, very strong word. It's a word that has to do with sensuality, but not just in the gallery of our minds, not just in the corridors of our hearts, but as a person who is involved in lasciviousness, sensuality, wantoness, in an open and public way, whose lifestyle is just violate the public standards and mores.
that he parades as a public show his sensuality. And don't we have that today? I mean, today where the American Psychiatric Association calls homosexuality normal, where the city of San Francisco, and I've talked to a number of people from San Francisco, literally, he has run by the quote-unquote, and this is Isn't this terrible that this word has been so misused? It's a gay community. I mean, that used to be a nice word, the gay nineties. Now use that word, and it's a ruined word. You can't use it anymore, can you? And the whole city is run by that. But you go on and you can talk about the movies, the billboards, the magazines, and all the things that we're subjected to in our society, and things are paraded openly.
That's what it is. To work. And you know what, that word there? It's to do business. Yeah. make merchandise of, that the Gentiles are making merchandise of uncleanness. I was just reading some reports that the estimate of the people who are involved in the business of pornography, that last year some people have estimated that just pornography did a business of a hundred billion dollars in our country last year. Now that's a lot of money. Think we could rent the campground for a hundred billion? Think you could retire on a hundred billion?
Live off the interest? You can live off the interest and give about four hundred million a year in interest. You know, I mean, that's a lot. And they're making merchandise of it with greediness. And have you ever seen that book? Looking out for number one. You know, and that's what people are out. The greediness, no matter what it takes, I'll take what you got if necessary. And that's the Gentiles walk. But then he says, but ye have not so learned Christ. That's the way the Gentiles walk. He's not saying this is the way they are. They say that's the way the Gentiles walk, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as a truth is in Jesus.
Now, can I give you a little bit of a lesson in the language of the New Testament? That if there, there's four kinds of if in the Greek New Testament. One is if, and it's true, if, and it's not true, if, and it's probably true, and if, and it's probably not true. Those are called conditional sentences. First class, second class, third class, fourth class condition. Now that if right there is a first class condition. If, and it's true. If, so be, and you have, that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, this is true of you. So that Paul realized that when he was writing to these people in Ephesus, This little church in the middle of this moral cesspool in Ephesus.
He says, I know you really have been born again. You really have met the Lord Jesus Christ. This historical person, by the way, it's very rare for Paul to use that word Jesus just by itself. It's either Lord Jesus or Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus Christ. Rarely does he use the word Jesus all by itself. And when he does, it's usually referring to the historical person, the man, Jesus Christ. And so that the truth in this man, Jesus, we know that that's true. And if you've met this man who literally lived, who literally died and shed his blood, who literally was buried and rose from the dead on the third day, that this man who lived in history, he is the embodiment of truth.
And he says, I know you've learned him, and you did not learn Jesus the way the Gentiles are walking. Now, that kind of lifestyle we can see prayed on the front page of the newspapers in Nashville, St. Louis, Des Moines, or wherever you're from. We know that that kind of lifestyle is being lived. But the sad thing that Paul is warning them about, he says, now some of you Christians who are in Christ and Christ is in you are living, though, just like the Gentiles walk. You're walking like they walk. And he says, hey, no, that's not the way it ought to be. Verse twenty-two, that you put off. concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. Now, that word put off with a companion word in verse twenty-four put on.
I'm sure you've heard this before. It's just the terminology of putting off clothes and putting on clothes. How many of you have ever read to your children the little seventh series book by C.S. Lewis called The Chronicle of Narnia? Three of you? Four of you? Come on, you've got to do that. Oh, the children are too old to grow on. My child is thirty-five years old. He wouldn't tamper me, reading to him right now. Well, they've got a beautiful little description on the Voids of the Dawn Treader. This one guy is selfish. He's greedy. He goes out and he puts some dragon gold on his arms, and he turns into a dragon. And he got all of his problems.
And finally, Aslan, the lion, which is a picture of Jesus Christ, takes him up onto Aslan's mountains. And he says to use this dragon to take off your dragon skin. So he sits there and he takes off his dragon skin. She looks. You know what he's got? He's still got a dragon skin. So he grabs his dragon skin and he puts it off. Another dragon skin. He grabs the dragon skin and puts it off. Oh, I can't get it off. That's right. We can't get off that old dragon skin. That is something that can only be accomplished by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Jesus when we have met him, that we learn Christ and heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. When we have this experience of being in Christ and Christ in us, then we find out that this putting off is not on something that we can do by some moral rearmament.
Benjamin Franklin's thirteen-point program of improving himself. And he does this, he does this, he does this. And after he finishes thirteen points and what he still got, he still got dragon skin. But then Aslan takes his claw. And he comes up and he cuts right to the heart of the dragon. He thought it was going to hurt. He didn't. And as in the lion, peels off that old dragon skin. And there's the new uses, the new man. Now, can I tell you another thing about the Greek language that that word put off and that word put on is in the eras tense. Eras tense, not present tense. If it's present tense, keep on putting off, keep on putting off, keep on putting off, keep on putting off.
Uh-uh, that's not what it says. You put it off. That's the interpretive. It is once for all and forever put off at the cross of Christ. Romans chapter six, he tells about that, you know, that in Galatians chapter two, verse twenty, that this old man is crucified with Christ. The old man... This Gentile walk, hey, get excited about this. Go ahead and smile. The old man is crucified. He has no more claim on believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. So our position is it is put off. So in our practice, no problems.
Our practice can be a result of putting it off. But the problem is that our practice of putting it off is not following. a position in Christ that we're living as the Gentiles walk. And then he says that he put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now this new man, this new man that we put on and that we're clothed and produces righteousness and holiness, that's what we're going to talk about as we go on through the rest of Ephesians chapter four and five and on up into chapter six. This new man. What is this new man like when it comes to using your tongue? How does that like?
When it's out in the business world, when it's in your family, in your husband-wife relationships. What is that new man like? Now, he's not just saying, put on the new man, and then running and saying, figure it out for yourself. That's not it at all. But he's saying here that this old man, which is described here in verses seventeen through nineteen, because of being in Christ, has been put off. Has been put off. forever. We are crucified with Christ. The old man is dead in Christ. It has no more claims to us. And we can put on, in practice, the man that we are in Christ. We can live consistently with it.