{"id":48015,"date":"2018-06-02T10:45:06","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T17:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?page_id=48015"},"modified":"2018-06-02T10:45:06","modified_gmt":"2018-06-02T17:45:06","slug":"ephesians_4_20-24","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/sermons\/ephesians\/ephesians_4_20-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Clothes (Ephesians 4:20-24)"},"content":{"rendered":"
I. You don’t learn Christ by sinning (Ephesians 4:20-21) A few years ago, I watched on television an edited version of a movie called “Trading Places.” It starred Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy. Ackroyd was a rich business executive stockbroker, and Murphy was a recently arrested con-artist. Dan Ackroid worked for two old men who decided to do a little experiment on the age-old question of genetics versus environment. Is a person they way they are because of their genetic make-up, or because of the environment they live in? <\/p>\n (#AmazonAdLink) <\/a>So they decided to trade Ackroyd’s life for Murphy’s without the two of them knowing it. If I remember correctly, Murphy got all of Ackroyd’s money and cars and houses and job\u2026and Ackroyd was stripped of everything and put out on the street. <\/p>\n In the movie, it was amazing to watch the change. Ackroyd, not able to access any of his bank accounts or get into his house or go to his job \u2013 thought he was going insane and even become somewhat of a criminal. Murphy, on the other hand, became a distinguished gentleman and changed his lifestyle and language and everything about himself. <\/p>\n Now, near the end of the movie, Murphy and Ackroyd discover the bet these two old men had made, and together, conspire to financially ruin the two men \u2013 which they are able to do through buying and selling futures in oranges or lima beans or something silly like that. <\/p>\n These two men changed their lifestyles because their environment had changed. And among the things that had been changed were their clothes \u2013 what they wear. And we’ve all heard the saying that “The clothes make the man.” This was true in the movie, and surprisingly, it is spiritually true for the Christian. <\/p>\n As we work our way though the book of Ephesians, we find ourselves in a section where we are commanded to walk in purity. To be holy. To live a clean life. In Ephesians 4:20-24, Paul tells us to do this simply by changing our clothes. He says in this section that we didn’t learn about Christ by sinning, and so we won’t continue to learn Christ by sinning either. We only learn about Christ as we put off the old way of living, the old clothes of sin and works righteousness, and put on the new clothes of Christ’s righteousness. <\/p>\n Ephesians 4:20. But you have not so learned Christ,<\/strong><\/p>\n The word But points us back to what we saw previously in Ephesians 4:17-19. There, we saw that the mind is the core problem with all people. Paul told us in Ephesians 4:17-19, that the person who is not a believer in Jesus Christ has a futile way of thinking; they are ignorant and have had their understanding darkened. And as believers, while we too were once that way, we should no longer live like that. <\/p>\n But as we can all testify, this is much easier said than done. Even Paul, in Romans 7, said that he does thing he does not want to do, and doesn’t do the things he should do. That sounds like the daily struggle we all face, doesn’t it? So how do you become victorious? How do you defeat sin? Well, if the root problem is a futile mind, we need to get at the root and renew our mind, get a new mind, change our way of thinking. <\/p>\n Many of us are trying to get our lawns and our gardens looking nice and green. And a large part of this is getting rid of the weeds. But we all learned real early that it doesn’t do much good to just chop off the leaves and the stalk of the weed. You’ve got to get the root out. You’ve got to either kill the root or dig it up, or it will come back with a vengeance. <\/p>\n The root of our sin is a depraved and futile mind, and if we want to gain victory over sin, we need to get the root out. We need to get rid of that futile mind and get a renewed mind. And Paul tells us how in Ephesians 4:20-24. <\/p>\n He says first, of all, in Ephesians 4:20, that you have not so learned Christ.<\/strong> In other words, you do not learn about Christ from the sin which sprouts from a futile mind. <\/p>\n It may seem rather obvious, but we do not learn about Christ through sin. Rather, through sin, you get further away from Christ, and further away from being able to witness about Christ. <\/p>\n And although this seems obvious, it is not. Some Christians I have talked to say that they perform certain sins so that they can relate to non-Christians who are enslaved by those sins. For example, I have a friend who believes that in order to better relate with his non-Christian friends who get drunk every weekend, he needed to get drunk with them so he could understand what they were going through, and therefore, have some common ground to relate with them so that he could better witness better to them. <\/p>\n Jesus came to save sinners. But do you ever see Him getting drunk, murdering, stealing or sleeping around? NO \u2013 never. The Bible tells us He was without sin. And yet, do we think Jesus didn’t understand sin? NO \u2013 of course He understood sin. And He understood it better than any of us ever have. He knew so much about it, He knew to stay away from it. The way to understand sin is not by doing it, but by abstaining from it \u2013 and, most importantly \u2013 knowing what the Bible teaches about it. <\/p>\n Paul frequently wrote about divorce, and how to handle disobedient children \u2013 but he was never married and never had any children. You don’t need to have gone through the sin to understand it and to be able to speak authoritatively about it. All you need is a good understanding of God’s word (truth) and compassion for people (love). <\/p>\n In fact, one could argue that those who have not committed the sin have more ability and authority to speak on it than those who have. Why? Because committing sin just causes you to become more ignorant about it because sin infects the mind. <\/p>\n But in Ephesians 4:20, Paul is talking about how we learn about Christ. If you can’t learn about sin through being sinful, you definitely can’t learn about Christ though being sinful. <\/p>\n But even in this, some people try. In Romans 6:1, we see that Paul had apparently run into some people who thought they could learn about the grace of Christ by sinning. Paul emphatically denies the possibility in Romans 6:2, and here in Ephesians 4:20, he says it’s impossible as well. You cannot understand sin or Christ by sinning. It says here, you did not learn Christ by sinning. <\/p>\n Now some seem to think that this term learn Christ<\/strong> means “believe in Christ.” One commentator says, “To learn Christ is to be saved” (MacArthur, Ephesians<\/em>). But the Greek word here is the verb manthano<\/em>, which everywhere in Scripture refers to learning truth so that it can be applied and obeyed. Even the noun form of the word, mathetes<\/em>, means “disciple” which we all know is someone who learns and obeys. <\/p>\n So what does Scripture say about eternal life? Does it say, “Everyone who learns and obeys has eternal life”? No. Instead, Scripture plainly says “Everyone who believes has eternal life” (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47). Learning and obeying is something you do after<\/em> you become a Christian so that you can have greater fellowship and intimacy with Christ and with other Christians and so that you can store up for yourself treasures in heaven. To learn Christ<\/em> does not refer to becoming a Christian but to developing in your personal relationship with Christ as a Christian<\/em> (cf. Wiersbe, 40).<\/p>\n This same argument can be proved just by looking at the English. Paul says, “You did not learn Christ this way.” In other words, you don’t learn Christ by sinning, right? How do you learn Christ then? Well, logically, the opposite of sinning is obedience. Therefore, Ephesians 4:20 could also be understood to say that you learn Christ by obedience. <\/p>\n If, as some people teach, the phrase “learn Christ” means gaining eternal life, then Ephesians 4:20 is teaching that we gain eternal life by obedience. But obedience doesn’t give you eternal life. We receive eternal life as a free gift from God when we believe in Jesus for it. Obedience allows those who are already saved to learn more about Christ. To grow into a deeper relationship with Christ. <\/p>\n That’s what he says in Ephesians 4:20, and he says it again in Ephesians 4:21. <\/p>\n Ephesians 4:21. … if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:<\/strong> <\/p>\n The if<\/strong> here doesn’t mean Paul is questioning whether they had heard Christ and had been taught by Him. It is a first class conditional sentence, which means that Paul is assuming the truth of it. He is saying, Since<\/em> or Because<\/em> you have heard Him and have been taught by Him.<\/strong><\/p>\n We saw in Ephesians 4:17-19<\/a> that we had a mind of futility. How do we get a new mind? By giving it a spiritual education. Ephesians 4:20 used the term learned<\/strong>; here we see the terms heard \u2026 and \u2026 taught.<\/strong> These three words contain the image of school. You learn when you hear and are taught. There is no such thing as a growing Christian who is not learning. There is no such thing as a healthy Christian who is not learning. <\/p>\n So ask yourself, what did you learn this week? As you studied Scripture, listened to tapes, as you prayed, as you heard and were taught by Christ? In the Christian life, there is no such thing as coasting, there is no such thing as standing still, there is no such thing as taking a break. If you try to do any of these things, you are actually going backwards in the faith. <\/p>\n Now the phrases you have heard Him and have been taught by Him<\/strong> cannot refer to hearing the physical voice of Jesus while he was on this earth, because there is no way that all of those Christians to whom Paul was writing could have heard Jesus speak. They were separated by time and geographical distance. <\/p>\n Paul is using a figure of speech here to refer to the preaching and proclamation of the Word of God. Scripture tells us over and over that when we read, and study God’s Word, it is as if God Himself is speaking to us. “When sound Biblical\u2026instruction is being given, it may be said that Christ is teaching about Christ” (Stott, 179). When people or churches place personal revelations above the Word of God, they are undermining the Bible, and therefore, undermining Christ. <\/p>\n What Paul is saying here is that when they heard the Word of God proclaimed to them, they were hearing Christ. The Bible is the very Word of God. And according to the Gospel of John, Jesus is The Word, the physical manifestation of God and God’s teachings here on earth. So, when you read and study the truth of God’s Word, you are hearing Christ and being taught by Christ. <\/p>\n And that is what the last phrase in Ephesians 4:21 says as well. Paul writes, as the truth is in Jesus.<\/strong> Jesus is the truth. He himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). And in 1 John 5:20, we read, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”<\/p>\n So, since you have heard Christ, and have been taught by him, what are the two specific directions to learn Christ to get rid of that futile mind \u2013 to renew your mind? Paul gives us the first one in verses 22. <\/p>\n Ephesians 4:22. … that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,<\/strong><\/p>\n The first thing to do if you are going to learn Christ, if you are going to walk in purity, if you are going to become a holy disciple of Christ, is to put off<\/strong> the old man. The term Paul uses here for put off means to take off, or to strip off. It is frequently used of getting out of filthy clothes. <\/p>\n Imagine yourself working in a manure pit on a hot summer day. It’s slippery so your fall occasionally into the manure, and it’s hot so everything \u2013 including yourself \u2013 stinks. Now, when you get home, what\u2019s the first thing you do? Do you go sit on the couch and grab a snack? No! You are filthy! The first thing you do is strip off those filthy clothes. <\/p>\n
\nII. You learn Christ by: (Ephesians 4:22-24)
\n\tA. Put off the Old
\n\tB. Put on the New<\/strong><\/p>\nI. You don’t learn Christ by sinning (Ephesians 4:20-21)<\/h2>\n
II. You learn Christ by: (Ephesians 4:22-24)<\/h2>\n
A. Put off the Old (Ephesians 4:22)<\/h3>\n