to Paul's letter to the Ephesians in the fourth chapter. Ephesians chapter four, we'll begin reading with verse 17 through verse 24. And this morning we will be particularly giving our attention to the first three verses of that portion of scripture. And we will go on to the next two verses this evening. For this morning, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17. Let us hear the Word of God. Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ. assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Thus far, the reading of God's most holy word. May he indeed bless both the reading and the hearing of his word. The word walk. has several very interesting connotations to it. Generally, it conveys the idea of an individual who is moving from one place to another, to walk down the aisle here, if you will. There are other ways to move, but that's the general way we do it. We walk. The word is also used to convey something quite different than physically moving from one place to another. Fairly common use has it with the idea of how one goes about living their life. There is, of course, movement there as well, but not in a physical sort of way, simply how you conduct yourself. And the emphasis can be specifically be on ethical or spiritual nature what is your lifestyle, how you conduct yourself on an everyday basis. And that's how the word walk is used here in our passage this morning where Paul says that you must no longer walk as Gentiles. Paul is not making a reference to some sort of special way in a physical way that God's people walk, not at all. He's talking about the lifestyle that one follows. how you conduct yourself. Also need to note here, as he says, do not walk as the Gentiles do. In this context, and we'll have more reference to that in a moment, but in this context, Gentiles is more of a general reference to the ungodly, not just to the non-Jew, but to the ungodly in general. That is the thing that we are looking at this morning, that there is a different lifestyle, a different lifestyle for those who are God's people than from those who are not God's people. And the difference has to do with the ethical, moral, even spiritual conduct of one who is a believer in Christ and one who is not. There's a very clear division here. Two kinds of people, the godly and the ungodly. And the difference there is not just that the godly have a hope of going to heaven someday, and that they regularly gather for worship. It is an all-encompassing reference to life in general. And so what we will see that there is a very specific walk of the believer. and that the walk of the Gentile is based on what is in the mind. And that's an important thing for us to understand. Often we are, especially in our world today, we are amazed and we find it hard to understand why people do the things that they do. We need to understand where that comes from. And so the message this morning has to do with identifying. What is the life of the unbeliever? What is it based on? And the reality of a changed life for the believer. We need to be reminded of who Paul is speaking to here in his letter to the Ephesians. Back in chapter 2, Paul identifies the members that he's writing to as those of you who have been dead in trespasses and sins. In other words, the church at Ephesus, and this letter was then after read in Ephesus, read in other churches as well. But particularly as Paul addresses the members of the congregation at Ephesus, he is addressing people who are new converts to Christianity. They had been pagans previously. They had been part of this group named the Gentiles previously. And the exhortation by Paul also begins with the word, therefore, or in this translate, now this I say to you. So there's a special emphasis referring back to what has been covered in the first part of this chapter. And what we have there, very briefly, is that earlier Paul has made it clear how is it that these people who've come from a position of being dead and trespassing are now no longer there is because the Word of God has been proclaimed to them. God has provided the gift of pastor-teacher. to proclaim the Word of God. God has provided the gift of having a church. Goes on to talk about how the congregation builds itself up as in terms of fellowship of one another and the encouragement and even the concern raised with one another about lifestyle. And so because of all of that, Paul goes on to say, take note. This has something to do with your life. It means that you have salvation, you are the recipient of God's grace, you have received it, you have responded, you are now the people of God. No longer dead in trespasses and sins. So what Paul goes on to deal with in the rest of this chapter, and it's a great chapter, and the last number of verses go into some detail about lifestyles of one nature or another. All of that is not about how you can become the people of God. Paul is addressing a people who are. Yes, they came from unbelief. from being dead in trespasses and sins, but they are now the people of God. And here is the result of that. It means that your life has changed. Your walk is clearly different, and the change needs to be evident in your life. You know, it's really very simple. God is the creator, of course. And as the creator, he has given us the direction for life. We read of that this morning in the law of God. He is alone the source of all truth. To turn away from God and to say, I don't need God, I'm going to decide for myself, which is essentially what Adam and Eve did in the garden. is to turn one's back not only upon God, but to turn one's back on reality, on truth, because God alone is the creator. We are not God. That was the lie that Satan convinced Adam of. The description of the text is that of being alienated from God. That is the fall into sin. Theological terminology, we speak of the noetic effect of sin. That means the turn away from God, the fall into sin is dealing with the reality of life in all of its totality. Satan told the lie that Adam and Eve did not need to listen to God, that they could in fact be their own gods. What that implies is that they turned away from the Creator. That is nothing new. It is the basis from which Cain rose up and killed his brother. It is the century of foolish lifestyle ever since. And so for the one who has gone from rebellion against God, the one who has turned to God for salvation in Jesus Christ, will live a lifestyle, but yet to, but let me put it this way, for the one who was turned away from his sin, who said yes to God and trusts Christ's salvation, but yet to say, while I'm here on this earth, I'm still going to live like everybody else does, is an absolute contradiction. It cannot be, that's what Paul is addressing. The first thing we need to understand, and it must be abundantly clear, is that the unbeliever and all of his life is alienated from God. But you who were dead, now being alive in Christ, are no longer alienated from God. Therefore, what's in your mind, which translates into your walk, cannot be that what's in the mind of the Gentiles. There's, of course, all kinds of implications of what life might become when alienated from God and having one's understanding darkened. You know, when we look at our world today, and we do see virtually every day a new, yet something even more unbelievable that people have gotten themselves into, It is an increasingly shocking thing. But you know what? You should not be surprised. Even though we often are, it is shocking, it is unbelievable, it is even scary, but we need to understand how can it, in fact, be any different. Let me read for you at some length, as Paul describes that in Romans 1, beginning with verse 20, where he says, for his invisible attributes, namely the eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, and the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give themselves to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, and birds, and animals, and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up, and the lusts of their hearts to impurity, due to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature, rather than creation, who is blessed forever. Amen. He goes on to talk even more lengthy in detail about the life who has therefore, the one who has turned away from God. The reality of the ungodly is just that. The lifestyle we see around us has not come about all of a sudden in the last few years as if something all of a sudden got mixed up in our world or the world is coming. It is the reality of people who are apart from God. Now the emphasis in the text is the fact that you, the believer, are not like that. You cannot be like that. In fact, Paul takes extra care to emphasize the importance and the certainty of what he says. It's an admonition from Paul, and therefore from God to us this morning, that Paul does underscore in an extra sort of way the authority of this admonition, and we had better listen. That is who they are. It is common for people and for believers to think that it is the unbeliever who has all of the knowledge. Don't we sometimes become impressed by the great big institutions of learning and in other areas and so on and how powerful they are and how important they are and it's hard to really argue against that. It's really important to understand where their differences come from and how we identify the difference. Listen to the words of Paul here. He speaks of the walk or life of the Gentile, of that which is from the futility of the mind. That means their minds are empty. Literally, certainly the unbeliever can be very intelligent about life, You can learn a great deal of things in this world and do a lot of things and discover a lot of things, etc. But to the extent that he understands the creation and lives in it successfully, he is borrowing from God. It is God's truth that he is working with. But to turn away from God, all that is left is futility, vanity. It is a mind, in fact, which is empty. Listen to the words by the Apostle Paul, futility of mind, understanding, darken, ignorance, blindness of heart. You know, we ask a question. Why can't people figure out the difference between male and female? Why do we find total disregard in our world for human life? Why do people think that they can walk into a store and walk out with their hands full of goods and that that should be just fine and nobody should say anything about that and not pay for it? Their mind and their heart is empty. They only think of themselves greedy because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. The point I want to make here is understanding, as we read of it in Romans 1 again as well, that the reality of sin, the reality, the walk of the life of this world, is in fact not another one, not some highly intelligent one, not some equally youthful one. It is from ignorance. And again, I don't want to get into details of this point. That's there. Paul gets into that at the end of this chapter. But remember, the point of this exhortation is to you and I. And he gives us this example of how we are not to be. It's important in that regard when we are so tempted by how the world does live. When we make our decisions about life, about families, about business, about all kinds of things. Where do you go to? How often do we look to the world? We put it into Google and we see what it will tell us. Let us remember that the walk of the Gentile, the ungodly, comes from a mind which is blind spiritually. It is based on a thought process which is futile. It is based on plain ignorance. When you wonder how they can be so ignorant, how they can not be, they are alienated from God. That's the reality. So now the question comes up, how can I be any different? Do I not also have inherited from Adam a depraved heart and mind? And as well, don't we understand, as we have already confessed this morning, that didn't Christ pay for all of my sins? Isn't the blood of Christ sufficient to cover for whatever lifestyle I get myself into? He has paid for it. It is right before God. So what difference does it really make? In reality, the answer to that question is really quite simple. notice how Paul shapes the exhortation. He says that you should no longer, no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. That is to say, something has taken place. Yes, you and I were conceived and born, as David confesses in Psalm 50, just as anyone else in a fallen depraved state of mind, alienated from God. But God has called you from that. God has taken that heart of stone, that mind of ignorance, and changed it into a heart of flesh, filled by the Holy Spirit with direction from the Word of God. You are no longer what you were. And even though you may have been for generations in the church of Jesus Christ, you still come from that background, from that sinful nature, and yet God has brought you to where you are. Those people in Ephesus who had been in a life of trespasses and sins are no longer there. That's the point of the gospel. They have been moved to a condition in which they are different than what they were. They are no longer the Gentiles, and that's just speaking of their generation, or their nationality, or their outward, or even, as I said, because they believe in Christ and go to heaven someday. It's because there is a fundamental change in who they are, by God, through His work, by the Holy Spirit, changing their hearts. Yes, that does mean that sins are covered. even ongoing remaining sin. It does mean you will be with Christ in eternity. But here's the issue, here on earth, the life that you and I live here on earth, this is where the change, what you are no longer, has taken place. when you know Christ as the Savior, when as the Ephesians were called to faith, and you have the gift of grace, the change begins there. And again, let me so carefully underscore the fact that all of this, and all of this exhortation is important for us but it is not given a sense that if you follow this exhortation, if you don't live the life of the Gentile, if you do something all different, live according to laws you read, then you will qualify yourself to no longer be the Gentiles but now the people of God. No, God has taken care of that. Christ has taken our sins to the cross. This is not about how we become Christians, this is the reality of being God's people. And the context of the passage that you are no longer a Gentile. So all that has been said, the futility of the mind, the ignorance of understanding, the alienation from God, that no longer applies to God's people because of what Christ has accomplished. And what Christ has accomplished has been applied by the Holy Spirit in your lives and in your heart. You see, what God has done for you has brought you back, restored you to knowing God as He intended and as He created Adam and Eve in the first place. To be in a relationship of knowing God, loving God, and serving God. We still struggle. But the individual who says, and how easy we fall into that trap, don't we? The individual who says, well, that's just the way I am. I was brought up that way, that's within me, I can't help myself, that's just the way I am. The ideas of the world are so tempting, I just don't know any better. Paul says that is not possible. They cannot be when you know Christ as your Savior. You are not alienated. You now have understanding concerning life. You are capable of turning away from lewdness, uncleanness, and being greedy because of the work of grace, the grace of God in your heart and in your life. Not only does that put you in a place where you do no longer walk as the Gentiles do, but it also puts you in a wonderful place in the midst of this world of sin. Yes, we get frustrated, we get upset, we get angry at the things that we see going on around us in the world, but we should not be discouraged. We should not throw up our hands and say, well, it's all falling apart. To restore to God and to all that the relationship implies is to once again being as God intended. It is to enjoy the life. It's not just, well, did I do good enough this week? No, it is, this is how God intended us to live, and this is how life is truly lived to its fullness. and not with the emptiness of the mind. In fact, when you go back to Ephesians chapter two, once the matter of grace is established, where he starts there in chapter 2, you who were dead in trespasses and sins, goes on to say that you have been saved by grace, which is the gift of God, by faith, having the, he goes on in verse 10 to say that in fact God who is using you in terms of your walk, your good works, which are the works of God, it is God who is working through you and in you. What a blessing! What a blessing to now enjoy the life as God has created it. It's a great privilege, even satisfying, to serve God in the midst even of a world that is alienated from God. You know, we can go back to the question, how do you walk? How do you walk? So we've emphasized the importance of understanding where sin comes from, and we really do need to understand that. But I also want you to understand, in fact, the core of what Paul's exhortation to us this morning really is. It is to live here and now, to walk now, not like the ungodly, but by those whose minds have been renewed, no longer futile, empty, but be renewed by the grace of God. In doing so, God has a great purpose and a great place for you, even in the midst of a world seemingly going crazy, if you will, and a great place for you to live. We do not need to despair. We do need to make sure that we walk right. Let us pray. Our God and Father, what a joy, what a privilege, and what a great reminder that as we look around us, let us not be tempted by the things of this world, but let us enjoy this world and the life that you have given unto us while we are here to serve you. Having our minds now filled with the Spirit and the truth of God, even as we seek to apply those things in our own lives in an everyday way. We ask, O God, for your grace and for your strength unto that end. In Jesus' name, we do pray. We turn again in our hymn notes to 525, Savior, like a shepherd, lead us." And if I read it correctly, I think the offering will be received during the singing of that hymn. Let us stand and sing, Savior, like a shepherd, lead us.