Ephesians 4:17-24 (NIV) says, "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. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 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 were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
The Learning Channel (TLC) has a whole host of lifestyle programs. Some of their programs include, "Trading Spaces", "Clean Sweep", "In a Fix", "While You Were Out", and "What Not to Wear". It seems that whenever I kick my shoes off and sit down for the evening, Lara will always turn one of these shows on. With her, it is like clockwork. I sit down, she grabs the remote and tunes into TLC, and then she sets the remote down halfway across the room. Why, if I were to watch anything different I would have to get up out of my chair and walk half way across the room and change the channel. It's just not happening!
So for hours I’m forced to sit there, watching these programs, getting indoctrinated by TLC. "What Not to Wear"." In a Fix". "While You Were Out". "Clean Sweep". "Trading Spaces". What is really interesting is that after turning these programs on, Lara will head off to another room and get on the internet, or turn on another television to a different program. It took me a while to figure this out, but she’s not turning those shows on for herself. She's turning them on for me. She’s got an agenda! She’s trying to change me. She wants to inspire me to work on her honey-do list. She wants to be sent off for a manicure while I stay home and fix stuff. She wants me to wear matching clothes and certain colors that have no business being on a man’s body!
Years ago it was my mom turning on "This Old House" for my dad. Now it's TLC being turned on for me. I do find these programs interesting. In these shows, in just a short time people can see some part of their life dramatically transformed. But these shows are majoring in the minors. It's one thing to update an old living space, or remodel a home, or replace a wardrobe, or change one’s appearance. It is quite another thing to create lasting change in a person’s life. And what about changing someone's personality? Or character? Or attitude? Or heart? Or behavior? No television program, not even with hosts like Oprah or Dr. Phil, have been able to produce these types of lasting change in the life of an individual.
The Call to Transformation
In Ephesians 4:17 (NIV) the apostle Paul is insisting on complete and lasting change. "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles (nations, cultures, ethic groups) do in the futility of their thinking."
It seems a bit pedestrian to have to restate the obvious, but here goes. Jesus Christ wants to dramatically transform our lives. He wants us to be righteous in our relationships with one another and he wants us to live holy lives that glorify God the Father. Jesus Christ wants us to be a distinctive community, a radical counter-culture that is called out from, and that no longer conforms to the pattern of the world. The world scorns the thought of righteousness and holiness. But not us. Not the Church. We are to no longer live like the nations do. Jesus Christ is our Lord and savior. Jesus Christ died for our sins so that we might live a new life and not go on sinning.
In Ephesians 4:17-19 (NIV) Paul is describing why the world is in a fix, why it needs a clean sweep, and why Jesus Christ had to trade spaces with us by dying on a cross for our sins. "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. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."
I’d like you to underline or jot down some choice phrases that appear in these verses. These phrases describe what a godless life looks like, and why we need Christ.
Ungodliness is marked by "futile thinking."
Ephesians 4:17 (NIV), "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."
There are those who go to great lengths to make sense of life that is lived apart from God. One such person in the Old Testament was King Solomon. Solomon did many of the things we do today. He educated himself, undertook great projects, amassed wealth, rose to power, pursued pleasure, satisfied his every desire, got involved in social causes, built a name for himself, and suffered.
But when Solomon removed God from the equation of life, he found that everything became meaningless, utterly empty and futile. In Ecclesiastes he describes life in a series of satires. The sun rises and sets. The strength of men fades. Their work wastes away. Their wealth goes to another. Calamity and suffering afflicts all. Our lives become forgotten. All men go down to the grave. Nothing lasts and nothing endures. Life is pointless.
In Ecclesiastes Solomon plummets into despair, at least until he directs his thoughts toward God. He discovered that everything God does will endure forever. Hope swept over his soul as he began fearing God and obeying his commandments. In the end he concludes that fearing God and obeying him is the whole duty of man.
But the ungodly never reach this conclusion. As Philippians 3:19 (NIV) says, "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things."
Ungodliness is marked by "Darkened Understanding."
Ephesians 4:19 (NIV), "Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."
This phrase expresses the utter confusion and frustration that the ungodly experience. Their minds are literally darkened, as if covered by a tent or some other object. They cannot understand the source of their fear, anxiety, frustration, and discontentment. They are literally stumbling in the dark, feeling their way along, looking for answers. So they watch television, they surf the internet, and they scan grocery store aisles, reading tracts. They visit the bookstores. Ultimately, they turn inward.
The ungodly are obsessed with psychology. They believe that answers lie deep within the mind. They spend their lives waiting for that one insight, that one point of light, that will forever liberate them from their bondage to self. But that insight never comes. The heart proves too deceitful and utterly complex to understand. The darkness increases. The ungodly have no recourse but to continue stumbling through life, as if blind.
Separation from God.
This is one of the more telling characteristics of the ungodly. They intuitively sense a void in their lives. There is some piece deep inside that is missing. Something is broken in their marriages, in their families, in their characters, and in their souls. Instead of turning to God, they begin filling their lives with lesser things. They believe that life consists in the abundance of things. Life is working, achieving success, having that bigger home, bigger boat, faster car, new relationship, latest fashion or fad, new product, prescription drug, drink, vacation, risk, or whatever. But strangely, no matter what they try, the ungodly always feel as if they are standing on the outside looking in. They feel cut off from the life God created them to enjoy.
Ignorance of God
The ungodly have no knowledge of God. They reject any notion of God revealing himself throughout history, through his prophets, through the written word of scripture, through his only Son Jesus Christ, or through the Church. They mock and discredit the Bible. Their knowledge isn’t knowledge at all, but only speculation. They fashion their own god according to their hopes, desires, and ambitions.
Romans 1:21-23 (NIV) says, "For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles."
Hardness toward God
The ungodly are desensitized and calloused toward the things of God. Their consciences have been seared and have lost all sensitivity to the nudging of the Holy Spirit. The nerve endings of their souls have been destroyed. They experience no shame in lying, cheating, stealing, swearing, living together outside of marriage, having premarital sex, committing adultery, divorcing their spouses, viewing pornography, committing homosexual acts, abusing their bodies with addictive behaviors, abandoning children, aborting new life, teaching children to do evil, committing indecent acts with children, being greedy, gossiping, slandering, and disobeying parents. Do we really have time to list everything?
Ungodliness is marked by "sensuality"
Ephesians 4:19 (NIV), "...they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."
What begins as a playful experimental attitude toward sin, culminates in continual lust. The word lust actually doesn’t appear in the original Greek. Paul used the word greed, whereas our English translations use the phrase continual lust. The point is that the ungodly develop an insatiable appetite for sin. They become enslaved to the very sins they hate, and they cannot stop sinning. They will wreck their own lives and the lives of everyone around them on their path to destruction. You have to understand that ungodliness is the pervading philosophy of our culture.
For most of the people we encounter there is no thought of Christ, but only of self. And for this reason, the ungodly are in despair. There is darkness. There is separation from God. There is ignorance of God. There is a hardening of the heart. There is desperation. The truth is that man cannot do anything to remedy his own despair, darkness, separation, ignorance, hardness, and desperation. We're in a fix. We need a clean sweep. We need a life centered on Jesus Christ.
Against this backdrop is Paul's insistence that we no longer live this way. In Ephesians 4:20-24 (NIV) we are shown a better way. "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 were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
There are some things the Bible says we can do, and some things we cannot do.
Things we can do to make lasting changes in our lives.
Paul tells us that we can put off old self which is, "being corrupted by its deceitful desires." This is not a mild statement by any means. Paul is telling us to throw off our old behavior with force and aggressiveness. As Christians, we must crucify our sinful nature. We must discard all ungodliness and uncleanliness immediately, with determination and with force.
In Colossians 3:5-10 (NIV) he says, "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of god is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
In Galatians 2:20 (NIV) Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. This life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Every moment of every day we decide whether to put on the old man or the new man. I decide whether the old Jon Morrissette will become greater or if Christ will become greater.The Bible wouldn’t command obedience if obedience weren’t possible. We can obey. We can and should put off the old and put on the new. God wants us to take responsibility for our behaviors and keep in step with his Holy Spirit.
But there are some things we cannot do for ourselves.
Paul speaks of being made new in the, "attitude of your minds" and putting on the new self, "created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." We cannot bring renewal to ourselves and we cannot transform ourselves to be like God.
In Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV) Paul says, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed— not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence— continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
In Philippians 3:20 (NIV) Paul writes, "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."
Jesus Christ alone reorders our inner lives. He alone brings about the transformation. In most all the TLC programs, there are certain things that the people being helped are expected to do for themselves. But then there are certain things that they simply cannot do for themselves. It is this same way in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to aggressively cast the old ungodly self aside. This is obedience. This requires action. But never forget that it is Jesus Christ who is working in us to will and to act according to his good purpose. Never forget that it is Jesus Christ who gets the glory for the radical transformation that takes place in your life.
Just now, we come to our time of communion. I would ask simply that you let the word of God direct your heart into what this moment is all about.In Romans 6:1 (NIV) Paul asks, "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" But he quickly answers in Romans 6:2 (NIV), "By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"