He remains, however, paralyzed from his chest down. He has been moved to a quieter room. Hopefully he'll be able to get better rest there, and we might see some improvement. The doctor's not hopeful, but with God there is hope, isn't there? I wonder if you would just take about 30 seconds, those of you who know him, to write him a note on the back of your visitor's registration form and tear that off, and then if you would pass that in to the end of the aisles, and if we could
have an usher. if there's one listening, who would pick those up from you in just about 30 seconds, 45 seconds. I know that many of you do not know Kurt. In fact, even if you don't know him, you may just want to drop him a note and just tell him that you're praying for him. That would be an encouragement to him, I know. We'll give you a few seconds to do that. This last week we appreciated KTIS having a cup of
cold water feature. for mark which resulted in probably two dozen or three dozen cards being sent from folks all over the upper midwest and that was a real encouragement to both mark and debbie this would be an opportunity for us as a church family to do something too we'll just wait a few seconds while you finish those All right, now perhaps the ushers could begin picking them up, and if you didn't get a chance to say everything you wanted to, feel free to leave
it out there at the information desk after the service. I know that both of them will appreciate so much your thoughts shared this morning. Now let's open our Bibles together to Ephesians chapter 4. We're going to begin with our text in verse 17 in just a moment. It's popular to be positive, and it's a no -no to be negative. We live in a day when that which is positive is promoted, and that which is negative is condemned or ignored. This is true in the religious world, as in many
other parts of our society. Never has so much media attention been focused on evangelicals as in the past three months. since the PTL scandal broke. I suppose that nearly every televangelist who's anybody has been interviewed on some talk program in the media. I heard one interview in which a television preacher who is famous for always speaking in the positive mode was asked
whether or not he believed in the devil. Now he was in a real spot at this point, and you could tell by the smile he got on his face, because he didn't want to answer that negatively. Did he believe in the devil? And so he tripped all over himself trying to get an answer out that was positive. Frankly, I'm not sure yet whether he believes in the devil from his answer, but it was interesting to see him try to feel the question. Why is it that the positive is promoted
and the negative is ignored? Well, that's the way of thinking in our day. There is positive living, positive preaching, positive psychology, positive counseling, positive theology, positive thinking. You know there really needs to be a balance between the positive and the negative if there's going to be health. That is certainly true when it comes to the teaching of the Bible, what God has revealed to us. For God has built into his word both the positive and the negative.
If we take out only the positive and talk about those things, then we are in danger of an unhealthy theology at best and heresy at worst. For example, in Genesis chapter 2, the Lord says to Adam and Eve, you may eat freely of all the trees of the garden. That's positive. But it was followed up by a negative. He said, don't eat of that tree. When God made his covenant with Israel, he told them what the blessings would be by keeping
this covenant. But then he also warned them what the curses would be if they did not keep the covenant. We see the same thing in the New Testament. For example, in John 3 .36, it says, he who believes in the Son has eternal life. That's positive. But the verse goes on to say, He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. That's negative, but it's part of the truth. God tells us about righteousness,
but he tells us about sin as well. God declares the truth of heaven, but he also warns of the fact of hell. Our text today in Ephesians chapter 4 continues the theme of a worthy walk. which was begun in the first three verses of the chapter. Those verses are positive. He says, Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called, with all humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Those are very positive words. But now, in verse 17, he continues the theme. He goes to the other side. He goes to the negative. He says, This I say, therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, 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. have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way. Our instruction here, in verse 17 in particular, is given to us from a negative viewpoint. It is the negative side of the positive which he said earlier. And what he says to us is this. no longer live like the pagan society out from which you have been
called. Now, if we were to say that in the positive, we would say something like this, do live in a new way which represents the new you. And we get to that in a few more verses. But for today, we want to focus on those verses we have read, verses 17 through 20. We find the Apostle here focusing on two thoughts as he explains to us the command from the Lord, live no longer like the pagan society around you. His first focus of thought is the pagan society itself. His second
focus of thought is the plea for purity. First, let's look at the pagan society which is exposed to us in these verses. It is a graphic and ugly picture of any society that is without God. It is not dressed up in its cultured fineries, but here that society is stripped of its masquerade in order to expose the shameful wickedness of mankind minus his creator. Notice that he talks first about the character. of pagan society. That is the nature of it. He goes to the inward
problem first. And there are a series of related phrases in verses 17 and 18 and overlapping into verse 19. First he speaks about the futility of their mind. The mind here is that reasoning capacity that all of us have to some extent. It is our faculty to be rational, to consider things. And he speaks here of the pagan mind as being futile. The word means aimless or dead end. The idea is that the pagan mindset goes around in circles. That pagan thinking can make
no progress. It cannot come. to any firm conclusions. The New English Bible puts it this way. It speaks about their good -for -nothing notions. Futility is that which is good for nothing. Their empty illusion is that sin brings satisfaction. And because that is in their mind, what they think is futile. Sin does not bring satisfaction. One cannot convince a person who is a pagan of that
truth. William Hendrickson, a fine Bible commentator now with the Lord, says, The Apostle emphasizes a very important point, namely that all those endeavors which the Gentiles put forth in order to attain happiness end in disappointment. Their life is one long series of mocked expectations. It is a pursuing and not achieving, a blossoming and not bearing fruit. All the rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never filled. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with
hearing. All this chasing after riches, honor, mirth, etc., is nothing but a striving after wind. Their mind or intellect is fruitless. It produces not that can satisfy. And that, my friend, is the nature of the mind of the pagan. Now why is the pagan mind one of futility? He answers it in the very next phrase. He says, being darkened in their understanding. The understanding has to do with their moral perception. their ability
to make value judgments. And what he says here is that the pagan is futile in his thinking because he is darkened in his moral perceptions. The cause of his mental confusion and aimlessness is his moral, I should say, his immoral judgments. He describes here a continuing condition of moral depravity in which the pagan lives. His futility of thinking arises from the moral darkness and blindness that is within him. But then we ask the question, why is the pagan such as this?
And again, the answer is found in the next phrase. He is morally darkened. Because he is excluded from the life of God, the God who gives life. That is, he is cut off, he is alienated, he is estranged from God. This, like the previous phrase, is an abiding condition of life. He is continuously cut off from God. He abides that way. He abides in death. and that is true of all mankind without Christ. It is due to the sin and death inherited
from our father, Adam. Romans 5 .12 makes it clear that as that one man sinned, so sin and death passed upon all men, because all have sinned. Adam was our representative. And when he sinned, he died, and he passed on to us his descendants, his sin and death. There are some who do not
like to think of that. They do not like to go back to Adam and say that we sinned in Adam, but the fact is that we did, and it was God's plan that we should, because, you see, that made it possible for God to send one man, the last Adam, who would also represent us. and go to the cross and die for our sins and be raised from the dead. Of course, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. Just as Adam represented us in the beginning, and through him we sinned and we became sinners so that we deserve our death, so in the Lord Jesus Christ we have forgiveness and eternal life. The pagans are excluded from that life of God, cut off without it. That's one reason I was so fascinated by the Taliabu people in Indonesia last fall. Because here is a tribe that has been cut off in isolation in darkness
for who knows how many generations. And yet passed down from their ancient ancestors comes this story, now twisted and perverted, of the fact that one time... Their fathers disobeyed their God, whom they called Yo, which is very similar to the Hebrew name Yah or Yahweh for God. And because their ancestors disobeyed Yo, their traditions say, he cut off the way of life to them. And their traditions say that from that time until
this very day in the 1980s. Their main purpose in living is to discover again the way of life. They have tried everything they know to do to get through the barrier that Yo put in the way, and they have been unable. Until now, we have some missionaries who are there, the Linettis and our friends the Palmers, and they are preparing within the next month. to present the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ to them. Since February, they've been laying a foundation, going all the way back to the early chapters of Genesis, showing who the true God is. You need to be in much prayer for them as they prepare to present the gospel, because this is the time when Satan is going to attack in fury against them. You see, the devil wants to keep these people in darkness. He wants to keep them excluded from the life
of God. But the truth of the gospel is about to be shared, and they're going to learn how God has provided the way across death through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so that we can have eternal life here and now. You pray for that missionary group on the island of Taliabu. Pagans are excluded from the life of God, whether they be on Taliabu or they be in St. Paul, Minnesota. That is the natural condition of all men. Now he doesn't leave us at that point, but he tells
us further why they are cut off. And it is because they are ignorant. He talks about the ignorance that is in them. Ignorance that leaves them unable to comprehend or to see the light. ignorance that is described in other places in the New Testament. For example, 1 Peter 1 .14, Peter speaks about our former ignorance. That is, when we did not have knowledge of God. This is the root word for our word agnostic here, this word
ignorance. He says that the reason that the pagans are excluded from the life of God is because of the ignorance that is in them. The fact is that the pagans, and I am including here the pagans in Taliabu, the pagan ancestors at one time had knowledge of the truth, but they left that truth. They forsook it and went into darkness and idolatry and polytheism, from which by God's grace they may now be delivered through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But they are ignorant
at this point. of the truth. And why are they ignorant? Because of what is said next. Because of their hardness of their heart. The heart is the innermost center of a person, the essential being of an individual, from which the moral and the spiritual and the intellectual issues of life come. Now what the Apostle says here is that that part of man is hard. It is hard.
That term here is a medical term from the New Testament day which speaks of a callus that is built up where a bone has been fractured and then has nipped together. That bit of callus right there at the point of the fracture was a hardness that was harder than the bone itself. It is that word for callus that is used here of the hardness. of the heart of the pagan. It might be paraphrased this way, because of the petrification of their hearts. Their hearts are
petrified. You see, here we get to the very root of the problem. Why is it that the mind of the pagan is futile? Why is his moral understanding darkened? Why is he excluded from the life of God? Why is he ignorant? The answer is because of the callousness. of his heart toward the things of God. Turn back to Romans chapter 1 where we see a similar idea. And here we go all the way back to the beginning of paganism in our world.
God says in verse 20 that he has revealed in nature certain attributes of himself, and it says in verse 21, for even though they knew God, These are the ancient pagans, the forefathers of the Taliabu people, of the pagans in St. Paul and in other places in the world. They knew God, but they did not honor him as God or give thanks. These are our ancestors. But they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Notice some of the same terms?
professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man of birds and four -footed animals and crawling creatures. Have you ever seen any of those images? They're not common in our society. A few weeks ago when I was in Chicago, I went down to the Oriental Museum at the University of Chicago, a fascinating
place. If you ever get the opportunity to go there and you're interested, in some artifacts from ancient Assyria and Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, and all the way back to the time of Moses, you might want to try the Oriental Museum in Chicago. One of the things that they have plenty of is the idol. Idols pictured like people with the heads of birds, as in Egypt. Idols pictured after various other kinds of animals and reptiles. That's exactly what... Romans chapter
1 is talking about. Our forefathers left the knowledge of the true God and went after that sort of thing. Their heart was darkened. Their speculations were futile, dead end. Now what caused that? The hardness of heart toward the things that God revealed to them. They would not accept what they saw in nature as revealing the true God. They turned from that, exchanged it for the worship of images. leading to their
darkness, their paganism, their lostness. Now in verse 19 of our text we have another little phrase that kind of ties this all together. He says, "...and they having become callous." In other words, the conscience of the pagan has become insensitive to sin. It has gotten to the point of being past feeling. It ceases to care
regarding its own iniquity. If you ask me, I think that these phrases that we read describe almost perfectly the character of the society in which you and I live today, which is a pagan, for the most part, a pagan society. Now, after discussing the character, he goes to the conduct. of the pagan society, the outward results. And if you think we've had society pinned up to this point, listen to it now. They have given themselves over to sensuality. This word sensuality is licentiousness.
It is unrestrained living or lewdness. It says the pagan society inevitably will give itself over to this sort of thing because it leaves any moral root. It has no truth of God to give it morality. And so inevitably pagan society slides and slips until it comes to the point of giving itself over or handing itself over,
delivering itself over to sensuality. Now once more I'd like you to go back to Romans chapter 1, where we have this amazing chapter regarding the degeneration of pagan society or human society without God. Now having already talked about its character in these earlier verses, now he says in verse 24, God gave them over. Notice in Ephesians it says they delivered themselves
over. In response to that, God judges the pagan society, and he himself gives them over, as it says here, in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. Notice that the inevitable result of paganism is sexual immorality. He says they exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator,
who is blessed forever. Amen. The creature here referring to these ones mentioned in verse 23, but just as well to the philosophical ideas of our day which put man at the center. worshiping and serving man in secularism and humanism. He says in verse 26, For this reason God gave them over, notice again that phrase, to degrading passions. For their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way also the man abandoned the natural
function of the woman. and burned in their desire toward one another. Men with men committing indecent acts. Does this read like the newspaper? Is this what you've been reading about this last week and hearing about on television, the radio, and the news? Our airwaves are full of this very thing. And notice it says in verse 27, and receiving in their own persons. the due penalty of their error. Do you know what that phrase suggests? It is that God has built into this kind of perversion
and sin its own penalty in the body. It bears its own fruit causing the destruction of that person. Today we are faced in the world with an epidemic of AIDS. People say, well, is AIDS the judgment of God? I believe that AIDS, like other sexually generated diseases, is the fulfillment of what God simply set into motion when he created us. You say, but yes, there are innocent people who are suffering from AIDS. That is correct.
And it's tragic that that is the case. But that is the penalty to a society that allows this kind of sin to go on, my friend. Our society is about to pay the price for the last several decades of sexual promiscuity. There is a high price for giving oneself over to sensuality. as is described in our text. I want to go on here and read verse 28. And it says, And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. Is that not the attitude of people today
in our world, in our pagan society? He says, God gave them over to a depraved mind. to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil. And he goes on to name those sins that flow from a pagan society in addition to the sexual sins. What we see in Romans chapter 1 is the judicial action of God in which he gives over. a society, a pagan society, to be consumed of its own lusts. And that, my friend, is where
we are today. You and I have been called out of a society that is self -destructing. That's why he says to us, no longer live that way. It is a society that is very similar to the one that was in the Roman Empire in the day when the Apostle Paul penned these words to the Ephesians. Now I've got to get back to my text. He says, And having become callous, they have given themselves over to sensuality. And now he explains the reason. He says, For the practice of every kind of impurity
with greediness. The result of a society giving itself over to sensuality is that its whole mindset begins to go in that direction. The practice of every kind, every conceivable imagination of filthy and perverted acts become the goal of that kind of society. And notice that it's with greediness. The NIV puts it this way, with a continual lust for more. There is no satisfaction for sensuality. There is a temporal, a temporary
satisfaction. But once one has burned himself out at that level, there is no satisfaction without going to a more perverted level. And on it goes, downward and downward and downward. I was in a conversation not too long ago with some gentlemen in a Christian organization, and one of them shared some of the things happening in the world of sodomy today. In order for some of those who have been involved in that sin for a length of time to gain satisfaction, I would not begin
to repeat that publicly. The conduct is every imagination being fulfilled. The practice of every sort of filthy, perverted act. an immoderate desire and lust. It is a determination to gratify oneself at all costs, regardless of the rights or the life of others. When I think of child pornography, I get so angry I can hardly stand
it. These greedy, immoral people who abuse young children, and leave them scarred, if not dead, there is no punishment on this earth that is good enough for them, as far as I'm concerned. It is absolute sin in its most debased and wicked form. No consideration of the victim. And we hear that pornography is a victimless crime. What a laugh. What a joke. And we hear that it's guaranteed under the First Amendment to the Constitution.
There has been no decision given by the Supreme Court at any time that gave pornographers the right to do what they do. Not one decision. That is a lie which they tell to go on practicing their trade. Our society has given itself over to this sort of thing. And I tell you there is no hope for a society that is without God. A society that leaves God will inevitably degenerate to its base lusts and will collapse under the weight of its own sin and judgment. And my friend,
that is exactly where we are today. Unless there is an awakening in this nation, which I do not believe at this point is on the horizon. But God knows, unless there is an awakening, I see no future for your children and mine in a free America. We are becoming a nation which cannot govern itself in democracy. And the horrible result of that is going to be some kind of a change of government which God will allow to come upon this society in order that its wickedness
may be corrected and restrained. I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I do not see light and sunshine. and bright days ahead for the United States of America, just as there weren't those kinds of visions for the future of the Roman Empire in Paul's day. It is a terrible exposure to pagan society that we're given here. But in the midst of it, Paul delivers a plea for purity, and he explains it. Notice that That plea is
intended to change their present action. He says in verse 17, Walk no longer like the Gentiles. The implication seems to be that some of them at least were living like pagans. And he says, No longer, no longer. Just as he commanded his Jewish converts, to forsake the legalism of their Judaism. So here he commands Gentile converts to forsake the licentiousness of their paganism. I believe that there is a need for this kind
of a plea among Christian people today. That we no longer live like the sensual society around us. Our contemporary society is beginning to choke on its own lusts and drown in its own corruption, its own cesspool of filth and sexual promiscuity. It may well be too late for our society. We hear a lot today about preventative measures for AIDS. We hear about education that's needed in the school. for this. I say to you, it's too late
for that. There was a Christian leader who had breakfast a few months ago with one of our national health leaders. And this Christian leader was told very bluntly by this man, whom if I named you would all know him. He said, we have a public line when we talk about AIDS, and then there's the private line. What is he saying? He is saying just what Gene Antonio has been saying more publicly, and that is there are facts about AIDS that have not been told the general public in our nation.
I at least suggest to you that the situation is far worse than we have been led to believe to this point. There will inevitably be many people innocent. of sodomy or of drug addiction that will die with aids there are those who are predicting it will be the black plague of the 1990s the fact is that this is the seeds for societal destruction have already been sown it's too late to prevent it's too late to educate What we need to do is to change behavior now.
And a pagan society is not going to want to do that. Already hundreds of thousands have been contaminated by the AIDS virus, and many of them will end up dying, even if there was a vaccine discovered today and we're years off from some kind of a vaccine. You say, what in the world am I to do? Just what the Apostle Paul says to do right here. What has been true in every pagan society since these words were written, you no longer walk like the pagan society around you.
Let there be a clear -cut difference between God's society and pagan society. Separate yourself from the sensualism. No longer allow that in your life. I am not talking about a self -righteous separation. I'm talking about a loving, compassionate, gentle, but definite separation from the sinful lifestyle of the society in which you and I have been chosen by God to live. Now the plea that the apostle makes in verse 17 is based upon what he says in verse 20. He says, you did not learn
Christ in this way. He says, you did not learn to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to live like the pagan society. Therefore, no longer live that way. Indeed, he says, you are no longer Gentiles. You are a new classification. You are a new society of people. He says live like that. Now why does God insist on this? Is it because God is being mean to us? Is God telling us to stay away from these things because he's trying to keep us from enjoying the pleasures that are
available? Well, let me say first of all that God created you and me to enjoy sensual pleasure. He gave us that capacity. Indeed, He gave us that need. But He gave that ability to enjoy sensual pleasure to us that we might enjoy it righteously and not in a perverted and sinful way as in our world. God wants us to experience pleasure, but pure pleasure, not perverted pleasure. Why has God told us to stay away from that which is characteristic of the pagan society around
us? For several reasons. First of all, he wants to protect us from the dissipation, yes, and even the diseases that go with that sort of thing. And then he wants to protect us likewise from the emotional and mental anguish and guilt that come with that sort of lifestyle. Further, he wants us to testify of his holiness in this calloused and sin -hardened society. And finally, he's told us to live this way because he wants to preserve his rights as our Redeemer. For we are
no longer our own. We have been bought with a price. Therefore, he says, glorify God in your body. There is no doubt that all of us have to some extent been affected by the pagan society around us. We have been. We have been conditioned by its constant presentation to us. We have learned. in sad and subtle ways, to accommodate the spirit of our age. Beloved, what we need today is to
say in our hearts, no longer. Wherever this kind of sin, this sensual sin, this impurity, wherever it has crept into our thought lives, our actions, our entertainment, our lifestyle, wherever there has been a beachhead made by Satan, we need to
say, no longer will I give myself to that. J. Edwin Orr was a man who studied revival across the world and just a few weeks ago dr orr went home to be with the lord he left behind a number of writings which bless us but one of them is found in our hymnal and we're going to sing that in closing i'd like for you to open your hymnal and turn with me to 317. It says, Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, and know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be
some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. Please remain seated as we sing through this without accompaniment. Search me, O God, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me. Cleanse me from every sin and set me free. Would you bow your head
with me? I wonder as the Spirit of God does indeed answer that prayer and search us and try us, what is that area of life that needs to be brought freshly under the control of the Holy Spirit? Is it your reading material? Is it the movies you watch? The kind of entertainment you allow in your home? Is it thought patterns or habits of life? My friend, all of us must respond to what God has said to us today. We have orders from him, live no longer like the Gentiles around
you. If you are a child of God, I plead with you today to take that step that the Spirit of God is speaking to you about right now. Make that new commitment. It may be that a number of us will need someone to help us. Would you seek out someone to be your partner in the spiritual battle you will enter into? Because I will guarantee you that if you take back that ground you've given to Satan, he will not give it up easily.
But will you now take it back and renounce the enemy and yield yourself afresh to God's Spirit? Father in heaven, these are difficult days in which to live as your people in the world. But now are we the children of God. And you have told us to walk or to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the calling we have. I pray that you will... enlighten and enable each of us to know what areas of life we need to reclaim
to the Lordship of Jesus Christ today. And may the result of our having heard this message and been together for these minutes in worship, that we will walk a more holy walk, a walk worthy. Would you all stand with me, please, as we close in prayer? Father, as we go out from here, as we must do, as we return to our homes and then this week to our routine of life, I pray that this verse will be burned upon our hearts. Walk no longer as the Gentiles walk. You did not learn
Christ in this way. remind us wherewithal shall a young man, a young woman cleanse his or her way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. And so may your word purify us and your spirit enable us to live as you've called us to be, the children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.