SPIRITUAL GROWTH INVOLVES CHANGE
Ephesians 4:17-24
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SERMON SUMMARY
The Lord expects us to grow, which means we need to change certain behaviors and patterns of thinking. In this message we'll explore the concept of spiritual change, looking at how it is possible and what process God has given for making these changes. |
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Good morning! I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians 4. This morning we are going to be looking at verses 17-24.
This is a new section in our study. We concluded our little study on unity in the church. Remember that chapters 1-3 tell us who we are and how we got to be the church. Those chapters focus on our redemption and how God makes us part of his people.
And the first thing that we learn on the practical side of things is that we need to be a united people.
This morning we are going to kick off a new section. We are going to be getting even more practical in the next couple of weeks. As a matter of fact, Paul is really going to start pouring it on; heaping on lots of imperative commands.
But the focus is on change. What types of things do we need to change? We’ve said that we need to grow. Well, over the next couple of months Paul’s going to spell out specific areas of where we need to grow. There’s a lot of change that needs to take place in our lives and in the lives of these Ephesians. And, in verses 25-32, Paul is going to make a nice long list of changes that need to be made.
Today, though, we are looking at verses 17-24. And in this passage Paul introduces all this by talking about some preliminary factors having to do with personal, Christian change.
So let’s read together Ephesians 4:17-24.
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. 18 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. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Introduction
I know that a number of you attended the seminar that we held a month or two ago. We had Armand Tiffe come in and he gave a presentation on the idea of sanctification, the idea of growing in holiness. Specifically he talked about the process of growth, and he did so from the passage that we are looking at today.
Well, when he asked everyone to turn in their Bibles to Ephesians 4 I got a little downcast. I just knew that I was going to be preaching this passage soon and I didn’t want anyone stealing my thunder. It turned out to be really an enjoyable time. Pastor Tiffe had some wonderful things to say.
I will say that if you were here for that presentation, you can be assured that I’m going to be stealing most of what he said.
Not actually. I'm just teasing. There will certainly be some overlap though.
But this is one of those topics that is good to reflect upon again. We are talking about the idea of change. Paul’s addressing the the topic of spiritual growth. And that means making some changes in our lives.
And I know that in mentioning that word will cause some to prickle. Some of you out there will be like, “Oh no! I don’t know if I want to be here today.” I recognize that a lot of people don’t like change. Some of you have sat in the same pew for how long now? You’ve had the exact same breakfast every day for almost all of your life.
And we all know that change is something that a lot of people do not like. A lot of people try, as often as possible, not to change. Change can be hard. Change can be difficult. We like the status quo. We like keeping things the same.
Some of you will know the late great pastor & theologian, J Greshem Machen. It is said that someone had visited his house and, for some reason, they happened to go into his closet. And they said that his closet had 7 suits lined up. There was one for each day of the week. And it was the exact same suit.
Talk about liking to keep things as they are. I mean, why even change your clothes? Why not keep the same suit?
If you change your clothes or not, that’s up to you. But when it comes to the Christian life, change is to be something that is to be the norm. The status quo for the Christian is that we should be always changing, always growing. Change is not something we should fear or avoid; its something we should embrace and do.
Which brings us to our passage this morning. This passage is great because it introduces us to the idea of change in the Christian life. Specifically, he talks about the possibility and the process change.
You can change. You can do it. You can change. You know why? Because you are not the person you used to be.
I. The possibility of change
That’s the point that Paul is making in verses 17-19. In these verses Paul gives us a portrait of the unbeliever. He says you must “no longer walk as the Gentiles do.”
That’s interesting language. That’s interesting because there were Gentiles in this Ephesian congregation. And when he says you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, he’s essentially saying “You are no longer gentiles.” You may not be Jewish, but you are not a Gentile any longer because you have been converted.
Then Paul goes on to tell us a little about the spiritual condition of unbelievers. And from what he says, you know that there’s no hope of change for an unbeliever. Genuine spiritual change is not possible for an unbeliever. You can talk to them til you are blue in your face. You might see them making some small outward changes, but when it comes down to it, you shouldn’t expect holiness and God fearing change out of them.
This is because there are two basic things that are wrong with the unbeliever. He is intellectually impaired and ethically debauched. He is depraved in his mind and in his appetites.
First, the unbeliever is intellectually impaired.
Look at what he says in verse 17-18. Paul says of the unbeliever that their “minds are futile” and that “they are darkened in their understanding.”
Paul is saying that the unbeliever does not think right. Sure, he may use reason and try to make certain deductions. But that thinking is darkened and it leads to futility. So there is something fundamentally flawed when it comes to their thought processes.
This is what theologians call the “noetic effects of the fall.” Prior to the fall (ie. before Adam sinned), he had a pure spirit. That means his intellect that was perfect. The reasoning capabilities of Adam would have been incredible. His ability to learn, to understand, to deduce, to focus, to articulate would have been amazing.
This is actually what we see in that story about Jesus in the temple as a young boy. Luke tells how Jesus got separated from his parents and he was in talking with the teachers and religious leaders. And his answers and his discussion were blowing them away. They couldn’t believe that this boy knew so much and had such amazing comprehension.
That’s because Jesus didn’t have the noetic affects of the fall. Being perfect, his mind operated on a whole different level.
But when Adam fell, something radical happened to his intellect. And all mankind experienced a great change in the way our minds operate.
I’m not saying that unbelievers cannot know truth or follow the process of deduction. They still can have some conception of logic. They didn’t lose their ability to reason, it’s just damaged. It’s just that their their thinking will lead to futility. There is a darkness that shrouds their understanding.
This is why we have people in our day who cannot define what a woman is. It’s not that they do not know simple biology. It’s not that they cannot grasp that there is a different physical make up between males and females. Its just that they are darkened in their understanding. Their thinking patterns are so skewed that they cannot bring them to the right conclusions on the matter.
So you understand some of what constitutes the unbeliever’s depravity. Sin affects the mind of an unbeliever so that it is darkened. But you not only see how the unbeliever is intellectually impaired, Paul also tells us how he is ethically debauched.
To put it another way, the fall of Adam has not only subverted the unbeliever’s mind, it has perverted his appetites. This is spelled out in verse 19. Paul says that the unbeliever has become “calloused” and they have “given themselves up to sensuality.
You understand that if they cannot think right, they will not act right either. And that’s what this is saying. There’s a callousness, an insensitivity to what is wrong so they do not feel sorrow or regret. To that end they live for sensual pleasure and chase after every kind of iniquity.
Paul goes on to say that they are “greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” You recognize that the only thing that holds the unbeliever in check is the grace of God. If God would not be restraining them, who knows what would happen? They are greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
All this is to say we should not be surprised when we see the latest perversion hitting the nightly news. We shouldn’t be surprised that they dedicate a whole month to pride and celebrate such horrendous things as they do. They are calloused and have given themselves up to sensuality.
Now, you recognize that, as Paul paints this portrait, he does not go lightly when he describes the inherent depravity of man apart from Christ. And, as I said before, this is why we should not expect any real change from an unbeliever. It isn’t possible. His condition is such that he is dead set against the kind of things that God demands of us. His reason and his passions have become so depraved that they will not allow him to move in the kind of direction that they should.
But that’s the unbeliever. And the point I really want to make is that this is not descriptive of us. Why is it possible for us to change? It is because this is not who we are.
That’s the point of verse 20-21. Paul says, “That is not the way you have learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.”
In other words, you are different. What Paul says may have described the way we once were. But we have learned Christ. We have been converted. What is said here about the unbeliever is not true of us. Our minds may not be perfect, but it is no where near what it was. That’s because we’ve we’ve learned something. We’ve learned Christ; we’ve learned the truth. As a result, our thinking has experienced a degree of restoration. The Spirit of God has come into our lives and he has changed our hearts. As a result, there’s been a great change in our minds and in our appetites.
So therefore, we can talk about the things that need to change. We know that we can make the changes that God wants. That’s because we are in a different place. We are different people.
And that brings us to our second point. Now that we know that change is possible, we can talk about the process of change. Paul, in verses 21-24 introduces us to the process of change.
II. The process of change
And this is really important. This is why a lot of people (a lot of Christian people) are not growing to the degree that they should be. Some people may even be frustrated that they feel that they can’t grow or that their growth is stunted. And the reason is because they don’t know how to go about it.
Change is not something that just happens. Some people believe that’s the way God operates. As if it is just some magical thing that suddenly occurs without having to do anything. But that’s not the way God works.
Godly, spiritual change requires three things. It requires you to replace, renew, and repeat.
Look at what Paul says. Starting in verse 22 Paul says is that you need to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desire and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
The first thing you should notice is that Paul talks about a putting off and a putting on. These two things should happen simultaneously. That’s why I say that the process begins with replacement.
The way you change is not simply by stopping a behavior. God wants you to do more than simply stop doing certain things. He wants you to start doing good and godly things. And that’s how you change. Change comes by means of replacing evil deeds with godly deeds. You putt off one thing and you put on another thing.
If you want to stop being bitter towards your brother, you have to put off that behavior. You need to put off those bitter thoughts. And what you need to do is start putting on good thoughts towards your brother. You need to think of ways you can be thankful for him. You need to think more about his admirable attributes. You need to pray that God would bless him and pray for specific blessings to be given to him.
What are you doing? You are replacing the bad with the good. The behavior is changing because you are ceasing a practice that is evil and starting one that is godly.
Really, in the act of putting off and putting on you crowd out the bad things in your life by filling your life with the good kind of things that God wants.
So that’s the first step in the process of change. You have to think about what you put off and what you need to put on in its place. The second step of the process is that of renewal. As you replace the behavior, you must also renew your mind.
Look what Paul says in verse 23. He says that you must “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”
Make sure you understand this: Godly change is not just a change of behavior, it is ultimately a change of heart. As a matter of fact, you really cannot have God pleasing change if you are not changing the way you think. That’s why Paul says you have to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
Let’s take that bitter attitude that we just talked about. Maybe we can think about why it is you are bitter. It might be because your brother did something to you. Maybe you are bitter because you just can’t get over the fact that he hasn’t treated you the best. He’s been mean, he’s made fun of you. He’s cheated you. He got you in trouble.
You have to understand that the only way to put off that bitterness and put on a more congenial spirit is by dealing with you heart. You have to renew your mind. You have to say, “God has forgiven me a whole lot of things. I cannot count how many times I have provoked God. But God has never ceased to forgive me and treat me with kindness.”
You see, that’s what it means to renew the mind. You need to change your thought patterns and make yourself think more biblically about the situation. There’s repentance and renewal that needs to occur, not over just the actions and the attitudes, but in the very thoughts and motives we have.
The last step of the process is to repeat. You have to replace the actions and attitudes, you have to renew the mind, and you need to keep on repeating that until you gain mastery of this new lifestyle.
This is where a lot of people get hung up. They think that this all happens in an instant. And they get mad when they give it a shot and it doesn’t work.
Did you learn to ride a bike by hopping on it once and taking off? No, it probably took you a couple days. The first time you got on that bike, you were all wobbly and you probably fell over a number of times. And you had to get up and do it all over again. After a while, you got used to it and you became proficient at riding that bike.
Listen, spiritual change is exactly the same. It does not typically occur instantaneously. It takes time. That’s why you have to keep working at it. It is something that you have to repeat over and over. You gain mastery (you come to have righteousness and holiness) only after you have attacked this thing again and again.
Some people have behavior patterns that have been entrenched for years. Sometimes these have been life long problems. And it is only obvious that it isn’t going to be a quick fix. But if you keep at it--and you keep disciplining yourself to put it off and put on that new obedience, you can begin to see some radical changes occur. The more you do that--the more you repeat it, the more growth you are going to see.
So that’s what you have to do. That’s the process that leads to change. You have to replace, renew, and repeat. Replace the bad behavior through the act of putting off & putting on. Renew your mind so that you are thinking biblically and dealing with the real issue of your heart. And then keep on repeating that until you’ve gained command over the new lifestyle that God wants of you.
Conclusion
Now, let me say that I just gave away the secret to my job as a counselor. This is why all of you can be biblical counselors too. It’s not that hard. You don’t have to get a degree and be able to to look into someone’s past and figure out if they’ve been potty trained to early in life. People’s problems can be solved by these simple principles.
It begins with conversion. If someone hasn’t learned Christ and come to the knowledge of the truth, then there’s really no helping them. You just need to share the truth of the gospel with them. Because there’s no real change that can be expected until the Spirit of God comes into their life and changes their hearts and minds.
Secondly, to be a biblical counselor, you have to explain the process of change. You have to teach them to replace, renew, and repeat.
When you grasp this, you can deal with things like depression and anxiety. You can help marriages that are floundering and you can help these couples experience some of the best years of their lives together.
It really is that simple.
Best of all, you can apply this to your own lives. You can see growth in your own life. It doesn’t matter if you are socially awkward or if you are too talkative. You might have explosive anger or you might some other problem that has been characteristic of you since you were little.
Whatever the problem, there is hope. As we learned today, since you are not the person you once were due to the reality of Christ being in your life, change is possible. And you have a simple process that God will use to deliver you from this problem: replace, renew, and keep on repeating that.
If you commit to doing that, I guarantee you, you will change. It will only be a matter of time until you see righteousness and holiness come to dominate this area of your life.