Ephesians 4:17-19 – Berris Patience – 2025 12 07

17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.  (NASB 1995)

Transcript:

(Disclaimer: AI generated transcript. Accuracy may vary)

We will continue in our study of book of Ephesians chapter four, and we’ll be looking at verses 17 to 19 this morning. Hebrews or Ephesians, sorry, four 17 to 19. So I say this and affirm in the Lord that you are not to long, no longer walk, just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their minds being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart and they having become callous of given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. God, I ask that your spiritual direct, my thoughts, my words, and may your word be embedded and indelible in our hearts and our minds. And may we may be transforming as we hear it, as we apply it to your to our lives. And may you be glorified through it and through the proclamation of your word for Christ’s sake. Amen. So Paul started this idea in chapter four, the first verse of chapter four, the concept of how our walk or the believers walk. And that will be the entire next uh, the next three chapters, sorry, will focus on our walk and of course there’ll be different aspects to what that walk looks like here in the passage that we have before that I just read, it’s a walk that should not be among or named among the believers because this is how we once run the passages that were read by Maurice and Gordon tells us that this is who we once were and that shouldn’t be how we operate, how we conduct ourselves today. So we’re gonna be focusing on walk, but the walk that we shouldn’t have. So how should we, we shouldn’t be walking as believers. And this of course in this section Paul is highlighting walking in the newness of life. So we’re walking in accordance with the life that we now have in Christ Jesus, not the life that we used to have. That’s the idea, the main idea and the main thrust of these verses that we’re gonna look at on this section in general. So Paul begins the second half of this letter, this is the second half of this chapter to appeal or the second half of this letter to walk worthy in verse one, the manner in which we were called. And in the present section here, he reiterates this call by admonishing the gen, the Gentile Christians, the church in Ephesus to make a clean break with the ungodly thinking, with the ungodly behavior that prevails their surrounding culture. So this is the culture that was around them. Paul wasn’t just drawing these analogies out of a vacuum and saying, don’t live like this. This is the culture that this this church lived in. And as we make our way through these verses, you’re gonna realize if you haven’t already, and I’m sure you have that this describes our culture as well. Like to the letter, it describes the culture in which we are living. So the same applies to us today. The introductory use of the word therefore ties this passage not only with the proceeding verses that we just completed last week, but the entire chapters that we’ve looked at, chapters one to chapters four, verse 16 where Paul of course explains to us how the grace of God is operative in the body of believers. And links that of course again with the entire chapters that we just looked at, who we were, who we are in Christ, the new identity that we share in Christ Jesus. So he develops this into two long sentences in this section of 54 and 59 words respectively in the first He makes an appeal that we as believers, that as by application, but to the church contextually to live differently than the Gentiles, that’s the nations that are around them, that they should engage in different activities that we, our lifestyle, our manner of living, our mannerism ought to be so different from the ungodly culture that is around us. It should be a stark different. And in the second sentence that Paul will not look at this week, but next week Paul calls for the Ephesians, the church in Ephesus to remember the apostolic traditions that had been passed down to them. And this isn’t tradition in the sense that we are accustomed to it. These are the traditions that is the word of God. Remember the word of God that he has been passed down to you and he uses Jesus Christ or will use Christ himself as the primary example of the life that we ought to live. This teaching not only establishes their and our new identity in Christ, but it demands that they bring their lives into conformity. That we bring our lives into conformity to this new identity that we’ve been called to. So let’s look then at the ad admonition in verse 17. I say this and affirm in the Lord that you are to no longer walk as the Gentiles walk. And he tells us what this walk look like. And in verse 18 he’s gonna elaborate more your walk. This walk is the futility of their minds. So he admonishes them first and foremost in verse 17. Don’t walk like the Gentiles walk, don’t walk like the nations are around. You are walking, don’t live, don’t characterize your life in the same manner that you see the world out there is living. So there are some negatives in the Christian life and here’s one of them that is don’t walk, do not walk as the other nations walk. The Christian is not to imitate the life of the unsaved people around them. And again, this is should be preaching to the choir, but it need, we need to be reminded that we are not to imitate the the unbelievers that are around us. Paul tells us the passage of Gordon Reed, the very first verse that we should imitate God. That’s who we are to emulate, nor should we, nor should the believer continue living in a life that they were saved from. You shouldn’t continue in the life that we were saved from because you’re dead in trespasses. They were dead in trespasses. And sin as Paul reminds us in Ephesians two, one, and while you have been raised from the dead, you have been given new life in Christ. So you’re not dead anymore. You’re not that dead person anymore. And Paul explains the difference between the saved and the unsafe. That’s what he’s going to do here in these verses for us. The stark difference between what a saved person uh, not to look like because this is what the unsafe person, the unbeliever, the world around us, this is how they look, this is how they operate. These new believers have a new identity, a new community that they as the previous verse tells us, grow and mature from. They have a new master, we have a new master and they and us by default, by application are urged to separate ourselves from the formal life that we once lived. And later in the text, Paul will use the analogy of the put off put on. We saw that also in Colossians chapter three. And Paul likes to use that terminology. It doesn’t just say put off this, you have to replace what you put off with something else and something that is morally upright. The appeal that Paul makes here in this text is based again, not just on the immediate verses that proceed this one, but on everything that Paul has said up to this point in time, going right back to chapter one verse one, the seriousness of this appeal is seen in the use of the word affirm or he better translate. Insist, I insist that you don’t walk like this anymore. I insist that you don’t act in this manner anymore. And of course the basis of the appeal, if you notice, is not in pause on authority, it’s in the authority of Jesus Christ. So I insist based on the authority of Jesus Christ, that you stop living the life that you are saved from. You don’t live to continue to wallow in the life that you are saved from, that God has brought you out of it’s in the authority of Jesus Christ. It’s not his own authority’s, not his own opinion, it’s not his his own philosophy. This is based on the authority of Jesus Christ. And that’s why in the next verse verse 20 that we’ll look at next week, he he’ll use Jesus Christ again like he did previously as the template for the life that the believer ought to live. The emphasis again is on living, looking and acting different from the Greeks and the Romans in our context that the church lived among they ought to be. It ought to be crystal clear night versus day, the life that the believer lives versus the life of the unsaved. It is an absolute atrocity and it is a huge problem if the world, if people, if society looks at the church and they don’t see a difference within the church than what they’re seeing out there that’s, that should not be the church of Jesus Christ. That should not be how the world portrays us. In a series of hard comments, hard hitting comments, Paul makes some strident incidences or indictments rather against the gentile world. And he begins by saying that they live their lives based on their meaningless view and meaningless perspective. And that’s what that word futility of the mind mean. It’s meaningless, it’s pointless, it’s hopeless. The term that is translated meaningless is used extensively in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament in Ecclesiastes. And it describes a life that is characterized by living outside of the fear of God. And that’s the idea here. There’s no fear of God in their eyes. These people, they don’t live with the fear of God as the at the forefront of their minds. For them life is vain even though they don’t see it like that. For them, life is futile based on the Bible. It is futile for them. Life is without purpose unless that life is ordered around God and the purposes of God. And Paul makes the same point in verse 11, verse 15, verse 17 verse 19, life is vain. Life is futile without God in it, their thinking. Paul says in Romans chapter one, verse 21, it became futile. And this same idea, he’s being brought back, brought here or being said here. And what Paul is saying here and in Romans chapter one verse 21 is that the gentiles, the unsaved mind are minds are devoid of real meaning. And that’s not us as believers. The word of course for mind refers to more than just the ability to reason. It refers to the capacity to think, to plan to make moral judgments and moral life, child life choices. This could also be described as a set of worldview or assumptions that guide a non-Christian Gentiles in their thoughts about life and how they live out these convictions that they have. What we find in Romans chapter one verses 18 to 32, Paul repeats and develops many of the same idea here in Ephesians chapter four, 17 to 19, such as their meaningless ways of thinking, their hearts being hardened, their hearts being darkened, they’re ignorant of the mercy and the grace of God. They’re impure, they’re greedy, and they give themselves over to impure lifestyle. And this pause says in Romans that they exchange the truth of God for lives. The unsaved man’s thinking is futile because it is darkened. That’s why it is futile. That’s why it’s meaningless. That’s why it’s hopeless. That’s why it’s pointless, because their minds, their hearts are darkened. It’s darkened. He thinks he’s enlightened. Paul tells us that in Roman chapter one, professing themselves, they think they’re wise, but in reality they’re fools. They think they’re enlightened because they reject the Bible because they reject the latest philosophy of Christianity because they reject God’s truth. They think that is enlightenment when indeed that is them being plunged deeper and deeper into darkness, but they think they are wise. Satan, the God of this world has blinded the minds, blinded the eyes of the unsafe. Paul tells us this in second Corinthians four because he does not want them to see, he does not want them to know the truth about God. And of course in so doing, he tries to suppress the church in every way he possibly can so that we don’t share the truth. And that’s why so many churches go into a compromising state where it doesn’t look or act or feel like a church anymore. And Paul doesn’t want this to be named or this to be the description of the church in Ephesus and myself. And I’m sure the leaders here a hundred percent certain that this should not be the description of Bowmanville Baptist Church where we’re only a church by name but not by practice. The God of this world does not want the world out there to realize and come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. Their minds are darkened so that they cannot think straight when it comes to spiritual matters. So it shouldn’t surprise us that they’re drifting further and further away from the truth and further and further away from God. That’s just their state. But this Paul is saying shouldn’t be the state of the church, the state of the Christian, the state of the believer, the unsaved man is dead because of his spiritual ignorance truth and life is oblivious to them. And if you believe God’s truth and you receive God’s life, but you would think that the unbeliever would do, its us most best to get out of that terrible plight that they’re in. But we know that they can’t because they’re dead and they’re dark, they’re hardhearted, they’re blinded. And until the Holy Spirit of God moves and activates in their lives, they’re going to remain in that dead state. They’re gonna be enslaved. He has given himself over, given themselves over to sin and the control of sin. That’s what Paul tells us in Romans chapter one. Paul says, because you have not acknowledged God, not glorified him as God, you turned and worship his creation instead of the creator. He’s gonna give you up to the things that your heart is craving after and that is impurity on all different levels. The Christian cannot pattern himself after the unsafe person because the Christian has experienced a miracle of being raised from the dead. Our lives your life is not futile, your life is not hopeless. It’s purposeful and it’s with hope. Your mind, our minds are filled with the light of God’s word, our hearts with the fullness of God and the life of God when within us, he gives his body the body of of Christ, the church locally and universally instruments and we should blend ourselves. Paul tells us again, Romans six 13, that we should constantly present ourselves as instruments of what? Righteousness, not unrighteousness, not for the satisfaction of sin and self. And selfish lost the believer in every single aspect of our being ought to be different from the unbeliever. And this is why we’re commanded daily to renew our minds. The mind is a powerful thing. That’s where it starts. If you notice this, it’s the mind. It starts with the mind. And we’re commanded to renew our minds on a daily basis. We’re called for transformation. Paul urges the believers not to live as the Gentiles do. They should not remain. We should not remain in our old patterns, the futility of mind, the emptiness that used to describe us, A life that is without purpose, without hope. Because we have been renewed, we have a new life where a new creation in Christ Jesus. The mind has to be renewed. The futility of the gentile mind, the points to the worldview that is disconnected from God. The application is to seek, then seek a mind shaped by Jesus Christ filled with the truth of God. And that’s why Paul said we constantly need to be growing in the knowledge of our Lord and our savior, Jesus Christ. Because this is how we’re gonna live the way God that wants us to live when we shape our minds for the things pertaining to God walk differently, is about living out the new identity that we have in Christ Jesus. That is how we’re gonna walk differently. It’s not about avoiding sin, which we should and which we need to do. It’s embracing holiness. That’s how we’re gonna avoid sin. It’s embracing holiness, living holy, embracing compassion, living compassionately, embracing who we are in Christ Jesus. That’s how we look different from the world out there. So that’s the admonition. Don’t walk in the same way that the Gentiles walk. Don’t walk in the same way that the world is walking. Don’t live like how the world lives. If we put it in our own terminology, the believer’s way or the way of the believers is to walk in a manner in which we’re testifying to the world that we are truly and indeed saved by the grace and the mercy of God. When the Church of Christ lives with this clarity and with this hope in contrast with the futility of the mind that we see out there in the world, it will, I guarantee it, it will draw others to Christ. They might not come in droves. We might not see over 5,000 or 3000 get saved like we see in Acts chapter two. But if even one soul Jesus says one soul, the angels in heaven rejoice that turn to Jesus Christ. And it has been said multiple times and we might think it’s futile. We might think it’s, it’s not a proper sense statement. Many unbelievers out there for many unbelievers out there, we are the only Bible that they’ll ever read until the Holy Spirit draws them to Jesus Christ. So we have to watch our lives, we have to watch how we live. One because God commands us to live in a certain manner that is contrary to the world. And two, because it shows that we are being exemplary. Um, Christ examples out there to the world. And like Matthew tells us that they will see our good works. They’ll glorify God in heaven. This verse challenges us. Verse 17 challenges us to examine our habits. It challenges us, our it should anyways challenge us to examine our thoughts. And so the, again, the passages that were read also points to these things. It teaches us that we should challenge our choices, asking ourselves whether they reflect the futility of the mind, the futility that of the life that we once lived or the fullness of Christ, of the fullness of the new life that we have in Christ Jesus. So we’re warned, we’re admonished. Don’t walk like the Gentile walk in the futility of the mind. Paul goes into the analogy of what this walk actually looks like. How this walk continually is manifested in the life of the unsaved world. And again, it shouldn’t be named among the believers verses 18 and 19 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. And they haven’t become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Paul goes on to describe the mannerism of the Gentile. This isn’t a one-off thing, this is a continual, this is just how they live and this is the life that they crave. This is the life that they desire. This is the life they want to live. Gentiles are the Gentile was originally a term that referred to nations. In God’s covenant with Abraham. His descendants are described, are distinguished rather from other nations. Genesis 12 is one passage. Genesis 18 is another. Genesis 22, Genesis 26, Israel became conscious of being a nation uniquely distinct from others by being separated to God. Not separated from God but separated to God after the exodus as we see in Deuteronomy 26, separated to God through the covenant that they got at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 separated. And from then on, this dedication or this distinction dominated all her relationships with other nation. Of course we know Israel failed miserably to look differently from the other nations and they’re still failing miserably at this. The Israelites were constantly tempted and here it is. They were constantly tempted to compromise. The churches too were constantly being tempted one way or another to compromise our faith for Israel was compromised with idolatry and immorality, immoral practices that they are seeing from the other nations. We want to live like that. We want to operate in that same manner. We should have that freedom, if you will, to live how the other nations are living. Completely contrary to how God says no, be separated, be separate, look different from the other nations. They wanted to live like the other nations. So bring in God’s judgment on themselves and on their return from exile. The danger was still there and still more insidious because of the corruption of the Jews that remained in Canaan according to Ezra six. What is fascinating about this address is that Paul is not addressing Jews or Gentiles here per se. Yes, in one sense he is technically is he’s addressing the body of Jesus Christ. In other words, Paul took ethnicity out of the equation in this address. He’s not focusing on ethnicity anymore. Apart from the negative context of the ethnicity with the Gentiles. He’s looking at the body of Jesus Christ. That one body that God has formed through Jews and Gentiles. He’s taking out every single aspect of ethnicity and saying You are the body of Christ and that is my focus and that’s who I’m addressing. That is fascinating about this, that one body that Christ Jesus created through his sacrifice and because of being one in Christ, the church as we’ve been seeing is distinct from all others. And that’s why Paul often addresses the churches that he writes was saints. And that is a term that means to be separated from one thing but separated to God. This is the difference. And this difference is seen in the lifestyle of both groups, believers and non-believers. That is, and this is the decision or this section that Paul is focusing on here. The first mannerism that we see from the lifestyle of the non-believer is the condition of their minds or heart. Those terms are often used inter interchangeably in the scriptures. The heart, the heart. We often look at Genesis four and we overlook the fact that it wasn’t the sacrifice that Cain brought that was displeasing to God. It was his heart. You know that because the text tells you says your heart is not right. Paraphrasing here, your heart is not right. If you do good it will be accepted. But because of your heart, sin is crouching at your door. And I can’t accept it. The heart has always been the problem of man since the fall, which in fact it led to the fall because our heart are always craving and yearning after the things that are not god’s. And this is what Paul is addressing here. And Paul uses this a lot in his writings. The mind, the heart. Guard your heart, guard your mind. Renew the mind because he knows that’s where it starts. And he wasn’t the only one. Jesus says, from out of the heart comes what? Every single form of sin that you have on display in the world, that’s where it starts within. And then it manifests itself outwardly. It starts with their minds said their minds are understanding is darkened. And this is a horrific word to use to describe the unsaved world. It refers to a change of state from light to darkness. And that’s the simplest definition. But this word is used twice in the book of Revelation. Revelation nine, two, revelation 16, 10. And it describes the darkening of the sun, this very same word, the darkening of the sun in in revelation in the apocalyptic scripture, it also describes a darkening of the beast’s kingdom in Revelation 16 verse 10. It’s not a, it is not a good word. It’s not a very, it’s not a a, a complimentary word in any form of the imagination. It’s a horrific state for anyone to be in. And this is the world that we’re seeing out there folks. This is them. It’s as if there’s absolutely because that’s the idea. There’s no light whatsoever in the minds and in the thought process of the unsaved world. And if that doesn’t grip our hearts that we have a lot of work to do in sharing the gospel and let the word of God through the Holy Spirit of God shed light because he’s the only one that can do that. We only can do what we’re commanded to do. And that is proclaim Christ to these people. It’s only occurrence other, it’s only other occurrence. The term refers to the darkening of the mind here that we see in verse 18. And this is the effects of sin on the thinking of unbelievers such that they lack any spiritual perception whatsoever. They lack any form of spiritual understanding. Paul paints, uh, what he’s doing for us here is painting a distressing picture of the lives of the Gentiles who are not a part of the Christian community. They have chosen, and we will get to that in verse 90. They have chosen this lifestyle. They have chosen a lifestyle that is contrary to what God wants and what God desires. And that is why this can’t be named among us. Such was the experience of the Gentile readers that were read, that were reading this letter, this used to describe them. This used to be you, you are. And that’s why you can’t continue living like this and know that this is an ongoing condition of the heart of the unregenerate man. This isn’t a once occurrence thing. This is who they are. And Paul makes that clear in how he phrases this term. It’s an ongoing condition. This is the same plight of those who have turned the truth of God into lies in Romans chapter one. The part of the person that is responsible for life choices is completely corrupted. There’s no form of incorruption whatsoever in that person’s mind. And this should put things into perspective with the society in which we live. And you wonder how much darker can the heart get? How much darker can the mind get? How much more corrupt can the mind get? And this speaks to the fact that the unregenerate lacks any ability. I know it’s been said here many a times, any ability to make godly choices. They might do good things that will describe as do are are good things. But this kind of description says they are incapable and so such were we we’re incapable. Why are we not to live like this? Because this doesn’t characterize us anymore. This doesn’t describe who we are anymore. Furthermore, the mind of the believer is and has been illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God. See Ephesians one verse 18. Not only that, not only are the unbelieving Gentiles excluded from the citizenship of Israel, Ephesians two 12, but they are also separated from the life of God. They don’t have the life of God within them. This is in part of the expansion of the declaration that Paul makes mention of in chapter two verse 12, that the Gentiles have no hope and they’re godless in this world. So Paul is setting a parallel here between the enemies of God and those who are friends of God. This alienation from the life of God is further explained or further explains why Paul boldly says that they are indeed dead or we were once dead in trespasses, in transgressions and sin. And this makes sense because they’re separated from the life source or the life-giving source. They’re separated from the life giver himself, the one true living God. So why then are they in this state of darkness? Well, Paul tells us this ignorance and hardness of heart. They’re in a state of darkness because they’re ignorant to the light. But but not only that, their hearts are hardened. He first attributes their condition to ignorance. Initially it may appear to reduce their responsibility. ’cause initially that’s why we think, well they’re not, they’re irresponsible ’cause it’s just lack of knowledge regarding the matter. But as we, again using cross reference to Romans ’cause that’s a very, very connected passage to this passage that we’re looking at. Paul explains in verses 18 and onward that God has given the unsaved world ample more than enough evidence of his existence in this world. So they’re completely without any excuse. In fact, Paul went as far as saying in Romans chapter one, when they knew God, not if, when they knew God, they chose not to honor him as God. They chose not to acknowledge him of as God. They chose not to worship him. But in the futility of their minds they worship the creation. And as a result, God gave them up and said, that’s what you want. Have at it. Have at it. They knew God. They’re ignorant of God in the sense that they themselves, this is where the ignorance come from. They have rejected the knowledge of God, they have rejected the truth of God and they continually reject the truth of God. That’s where the ignorance come from. Not of lack of knowledge but their inability or in doesn’t want anything to do with anything pertaining to God. And again, this is a sharp contrast between the believer who has and is continually growing in the knowledge or should be continually growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This ignorance is due to their rejection of God. And this is confirmed in the next statement that Paul makes. This is because of the hardness of their heart, the harden of heart. Of course we see this often in the Old Testament while infamous passage is the exodus where Pharaoh is described as both choosing to harden his own heart. Exodus eight, Exodus 13 and hardening and God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, Exodus 4, 7, 9, and 10. Those are chapters. So Paul clarifies how this sequence should be understood in Romans and also here in our passage before us, Douglas Mu, a prominent scholar, new Testament scholar says this, the people that swap the truth of God for idols, for lies and for unnatural sexual practices, as a result, God hands them over. This process depicts a hardening of people’s heart before God, which happens before God allows them to follow their own choices. So this hard enough heart that we see in Romans that we saw in um, Exodus with Pharaoh that we’re seeing here is this was the choice of these individuals. And again, Paul makes this clear. This was their choice. This was their doing and ultimately means that the Gentiles bear responsibility before God. Paul was making and is making a similar argument as I said in Romans, the darkening of their minds, the darkening of their understanding, ignorance of God. And Paul tells us in verse 19 that now because of all of these phases, they’ve become callous. And this is again, another powerful word in describing the state of the unsaved man. This means that they have lost all feelings. They’ve lost all feelings. They’ve lost our all feeling of shame as well as sensitivity. There’s no sensitivity, there’s no, there’s no shame there in the unsaved world. Is that descriptive of the society in which we live? You would think Paul was living in today when he, when we read this ’cause this to the letter describes our society. There is no feeling, there’s no sensitivity to morality in our culture anymore. And this description makes sense since again, there dead in trespasses and sin dead person cannot feel you can’t go to a cemetery or a morgue and hit a dead person and get out. It won’t happen. They have no feeling. The cow, they the feeling the sensitivity is gone. And until God brings life to that deadness, until God raises that dead, until God transforms that heart of stone into a heart of flesh, that hard heart, there cannot be any transformation and living the way God wants them to live. The rejection of the true and living God has resulted in them having a hard impenetrable shell that renders them insensitive to the things pertaining to God is the constant rejection of the truth that God has revealed to himself in his creation. God made it known. And you’ve heard the the statement that every artist likes to put their, their signature or their logo on something that tells them that this person wrote this, this person drew this. This person is the architect of this. It’s happened even in buildings. I heard God has done the same thing with every single human being. He has left an imprint of himself in us. We have his image, we are his image bearers, our conscience. Pause is another thing that God has placed within man to give you an idea that God exists, his creation tells us that there is a God. There is a powerful God. David says, when I look at the heavens and see your handiwork, I am marveled that a God so powerful a God so amazing a God so unfathomable has the the mind to think of me insignificant me. That is what the power of God, the creation of God, God imprinting himself in our conscience, should do, should drive us, should give us that sense of there is this God and I want to know him. How do I know him? It’s by approaching the word. It is by immersing ourself in the word. It’s by not rejecting the word of God but man constantly rejects him and this is their plight. This is the result. This is the end result of man, constant rejection of God. But unlike what we see in Romans where God says, you know what? This is the life you want have at it. We see something totally different here in our text. Paul says their callousness, their hardness of heart, their their in their immoral minds, they chose, look at the text, they are the ones who chose to live this kind of lifestyle is not that God said go at it. He’s like, no, this is what I want so I’m going for it. Ignorance is in them because of the hardness of their heart. And they having become call, they became call. They brought this upon themselves. They were the ones who led themselves to become um, come to this point. They have given them that they would be implied in that next part of the sense. And they have given themselves, uh, up, sorry, excuse me, to indecent behavior. This is what they chose. This is the life. This is the life I want to live. This is the, and the judges right in full display. Those days there were no kings. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. This is what Paul is saying here, I’m gonna do what I think is best for me. I’m gonna do what I think is more pleasurable for me. I’m gonna do what I think or what I feel is the best for my life. They gave themselves up to all kind of indecent behavior for the practice of every kind, every kind of impurity. So if there’s one that you can think of, they’ve given themselves over to that pauses with greediness. This refers to lack of self-control often in the form of excess. And it’s not necessarily just sexual immorality that is talked about here. The indecent behaviors, not just sexual immorality. The impurity would be attest more to that. The indecent behavior is either sex, food, whatever it is that people crave and become gluts over. It is often linked to other vices that are associated with indiscipline and wasteful living. The word that is used here, it occurs 10 times in the New Testament and mostly in the vice of course of sexual sins. But again, not just excluded to that, it is closely related to another word which means reckless and abandonment living. And that is what we see in the story of the prodigal son. In fact, that’s where that word come. That phrase comes from prodigal living. The promo that Paul uses here suggests that this way of life was not thrust onto them. It wasn’t thrust onto them, but it came about of their own volition. And as noted in the definition, again, this is not just limited to sexual immorality, but all manner of immoral living. So it can get worse. It can get worse because that’s just the state of the unsaved individual. This self-indulgence manifests itself in the accomplishments of all kind of impure actions. And this term has a long history of usage in the Old Testament where it is used to describe anything that is ritualistically unclean. It’s extensively used again in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Leviticus to refer to all kinds of unclean things, whether it’s dead bodies or animals. Reptiles, it’s a parallel word or the parallel word for it is common. So the ritual laws are no longer applicable under the new covenant. Jesus Christ disclosed that the fundamental issue resides, I’ve referenced this earlier with the heart of individuals and out of the heart what comes out of the heart. That is what defiles people. Consequently Paul refers to the desires of the heart as leading to moral impurity. Again, Romans chapter one and impurity is also considered one of the outcomes of evil inclination, which is of course the flesh. Paul talks about that Galatians five, and we saw some of that in Colossians chapter three. Impurity stands again in sharp contrast to the desires that God has for the life of the believers. ’cause we’re not called to impurity. We’re called to holiness, be holy because he is holy. And the final prepositional phrase in this sentence culminates in the litany of features that characterize Selfe mindset of the unbel believing Gentile. The term often translated greed or coness indicates that such a people. Here it is. And that’s why we should be concerned about the lifestyle of those who are loved ones and the world in general. But the term that Paul uses here suggests that these people, whether it’s food, whether it’s sexual immorality, whatever the impurity that Paul could imagine in his time and we can Im imagine in our time, is they’re never satisfied with it. They will never be satisfied because that’s where their heart is. They need more, they need more. Again, sharp contrast to those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Instead of glossing and going after the immoral and the impure, we should be craving more the things pertaining to God. We should be craving pure purity. We should be craving holiness. We should be craving more knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in which we’re going to grow and mature into full manhood as Paul tells us earlier in this chapter. But this kind of lifestyle, they’re constantly craving for more immorality and more impurity. If you can imagine that, how much worse as I’ve been asking, how much worse can it get? But based on their greed, it could get far worse and I’m sure we’re gonna see it get far worse. Jesus warned against this unrestrained appetite to acquire things. He said, watch out. Be on guard or guard yourselves against all kinds of greed. Same word that Jesus is used. Jesus used here. Same word that Paul uses. And Jesus continues by saying, A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possession. Luke 1215, he taught that greed is one of the evils that comes out of the heart. And Paul told the believers at colossal that it is one of the characteristics of the earthly nature and something Christian needs to fight against. In the previous verses, we were challenged to strive for the standards set by Jesus Christ himself. Knowing these verses that we just looked at, Paul is encouraging us to live differently, to act differently, not put on a front, not the stained glass masquerade. This is our life. This is just our nature. This is just how we manifest through the world. It’s not a facade, it’s not a show. This is just who we are. Paul is encouraging us. He’s admonishing us to live and act differently than the world in which we’re living in. For those who do not share our faith, we should be, our lives should be in sharp contrast to them. It is important for us to develop new mindset. Without this change in our thinking, we won’t be able to guard our hearts the way God intends for us to guard our hearts and things can go astray very quickly. So we need to guard our hearts, guard our minds. We also need to let the spirit guide continually. Let him guide. That’s why I pause. It continually be filled. It’s an ongoing action. It’s something that we need daily. We need to practice self-control, which is one of the fruit of the spirit, contrary to the fruit of the flesh, to protect ourselves from temptation and greed. Remember that this used to describe you, this used to describe you and that should bring comfort to us. This no longer defines who you and I are in Christ Jesus. God has transformed us. God has brought us out of the darkness, into the marvelous light. God has taken our hard hearts and turned it into a heart of flesh. God has tr illuminated our mind so we don’t have that futility and that darkness with no sign of light whatsoever. God has transformed your life and you need to remember that. We need to remember that it’s might be preaching to the choir here, but it’s something that we need to be reminded of. That the the calling is high, that the expectation is high. Not the expectation of the world, not my expectation. Even though yes, that’s my desire and the desires of the leaders here to see you look differently than the world. But this is the demand of the holy scripture. This is God’s demand. This is God’s world commanding us, that we have to set a high standard for the world. Yes, they’re gonna mock, guaranteed. They’re going to mock constantly. We see that in the scripture reminded to this morning that there are two thieves on the cross. One was remorseful of the life that he lived and asked to be forgiven, and the other one was mocking and jeering. We see it in Acts. The Holy Spirit came powerfully the whole, the disciples were ministering the word of God, the truth of God to these people that were hearing it. Others, some said, what? What does this mean? It gripped their heart. It convicted their heart. So they said, no, this, this is requiring some kind of action. This is requiring transformation. And others said, these guys are drunk nine o’clock in the morning and they’re already drunk. People are going to mock, but let them mock you. If you’re living the life that God has called you to live, they might use it as mockery, but that’s a compliment. That’s a compliment. When people say you’re acting too much like Christian, you believe the Bible too much. You’re living the Bible too much. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that Daniel one prime example. Yeah, we need to get this guy trapped. Well, the only way we’re gonna do that is something pertaining to the God that he loves and obeys may that be Bowmanville Baptist Church, that anything the world is gonna say bad about us is that we look too much like Jesus Christ and too un, too much unlike them out there in the world. No compromise in our faith. There’s no room for compromise in our faith, walking in the newness of life. God, we are so grateful and so thankful for these reminders, these convicting truth, Lord, again, of the high standard that you set for us as believers and as you have reminded us in the previous verses that you have enabled us to live this life that you’ve called us to live. You have separated us from the life of sin and immorality and impurity, futility in the mind, darkened hearts, callous in every aspect. Lord, you have changed us and you have enabled us and given us the enablement to live a life that is completely and totally different than the world in which we live. May your grace continues to enable us to do so as we seek to grow and mature in your world, in fellowship and in every aspect of our lives, whether it’s corporate, publicly or privately, and that we’ll seek to honor and glorify you in everything that we say. Everything that we do for Christ’s sake. Amen.