United In Community Pt. 1. Eph. 4:17-24

Our last two messages in CLF United will focus on what we're doing to continue building a strong, warm and loving fellowship. Paul continues Eph. 4 by spelling out the aspects of biblical change that contribute to a transformed life.

What are the aspects of a transformed life?The transformed life begins by refusing to live like we belong to the culture around us. The mindset of those who actively walk apart from God is futile, vain and ultimately useless. It carries no weight since it does its best to exist and carve out some kind of significance apart from a worshiping, covenantal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It’s useless since their whole approach to life is godless. The Person, worship, ways, will, agenda and salvation of God as expressed in the Person and work of Jesus Christ does not impact how they approach life, nor figure in the decisions they make.
Consequently the breadth and depth of their lives spent apart from God will ultimately amount to nothing.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Ps. 1:1, 4-6.

Whereas a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ (who is by the way one that actively follows our Lord in regular heart motivated worship, a diligent walk of obedience and humble yet bold witness of the gospel) makes major and minor life decisions based on how they reflect on Christ’s character, facilitate the spread of the gospel and further the expansion of the gospel, one who is living in the futility of their minds makes decisions solely on the basis of how it furthers their own comfort, convenience, self-significance, prosperity.

Our normal human nature is naturally developed callousness to the word and things of God. A natural callus is an especially toughened area of skin which has become relatively thick and hard as a response to repeated contact or pressure. What Paul is getting at is that all of us were born with a natural sinful human nature. Over time that nature is exposed to sinful thoughts, speech, actions from ourselves, the world around us and the spiritual darkness led by Satan within the world. The more we’re exposed the more we develop a hard harsh attitude toward the word and things of God.
The gentiles are darkened in their understanding. They approach moral decision making apart from the guidance and illumination of Scripture.
The true, vital, vibrant and soul satisfying life found only in Jesus Christ is completely foreign, strange and alien to them.
Paul repeats that they’ve become callous toward God and are therefore receptive to and eager to indulge in all kinds of sensuality. Things that we should just naturally reject and recoil at become acceptable, mainstream and even applauded.
Paul stresses that the church in walking worthy of the calling we’ve received must leave that way of thinking and living. That life and lifestyle is old it is ungodly, it is unfruitful and by the grace of God its power over us has been broken.

The transformed life is based and grounded in the regular, clear biblical teaching of Scripture. Paul believes and hopes that those he wrote to learned the truth concerning the gospel and its implications.
Christianity is a faith that involves our hearts and our minds. As believers we don’t adopt a pseudo super-spiritual attitude that says that God is only interested in our hearts but wants nothing to do with our minds. As the UNCF says ‘a mind is a terrible thing to waste’. Paul says that these believers learned and were taught two words that emphasize the activity of the mind in the life lived for the Lord.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Rom. 12:1-2.

Our minds are renewed as we immerse them in reading, thinking about, studying and obeying the word of God.

Christianity is a faith in which teaching plays a major part in the growth, maturity and spiritual development of God’s people. That’s why in Reformed churches the bulk of our time of worship is spent in declaring and teaching the Scriptures.
These Scriptures are declared or taught in a systematic, careful and orderly manner.
For us the Scriptures are not just a jumbled collection of stories, events and characters without any real theme, plot or goal. Thus we don’t approach the Scriptures nor the regular Sunday message with the thought that God will have a special, meaningful word for me that is somehow hidden within the plain text of Scripture but will somehow be mysteriously uncovered when the word is preached.
Rather we come to hear the clear orderly theme of the redemption of God’s people through Jesus Christ declared with a view as to how that moves us to worship God more fervently, walk before Him more diligently and witness of His gospel more clearly.
We come to listen to expository preaching. That simply means that the theme and points of the message are taken from the themes and points of a particular passage.

That’s why after we’re resuming our long term study of Genesis once this short detour is finished. Why so long in Genesis you ask? What practical use does it have for me you wonder? You must know our primary reason for studying Genesis is because it reveals the character, nature, will, ways, beauty, order, love, grace, justice, sovereignty, providence and salvation of the living God as fully and finally expressed in the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
We thus proclaim and then teach about the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
We proclaim and teach that Jesus Christ is the main character, point, plot, theme, subject, substance, goal and culmination of history, life, salvation and Scripture.
We proclaim and teach that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary and lived a perfectly sinless life before God the Father fully obeying the letter and spirit of the Mosaic law. Furthermore we teach that Jesus lived this life on our behalf.
We proclaim and teach that Jesus actively pursued holistic holiness by giving Himself fully to the work of the Father. Jesus showed us how to use our time, prioritize and orient our lives, use our gifts to serve others and glorify God by pursuing the expansion of His eternal kingdom and agenda.
We proclaim and teach that Jesus though tempted did not give in to a lifestyle of sin. He therefore fully identifies with our weaknesses when we’re tempted and also provides the perfect example of how to refrain from engaging in a lifestyle marked by foolish, futile thinking and a hard unresponsive heart.
We proclaim and teach that Jesus died for the sins of all of God’s people. That his death for sin actually took away our sins and moreover showed us how bad sin is and how seriously God takes it.
We proclaim and teach that Jesus physically, bodily rose from the grave on the third day proving that He is the eternal Son of God, that the Father accepted His sacrifice for sin and now those who believe in Him can and will live new lives also.

The transformed life grows and develops as we actively replace old, unfruitful, ungodly things with new godly ones.
Firstly, we must recognized and accept that our old ways of living were unfruitful, unprofitable and ungodly. These ways were fueled by deceitful desire that are apart of old human nature. For example our old human nature will deceive us into believing that the path toward true satisfaction, love and closeness with someone is through physical intimacy apart from marriage. But it’s a trap and a trap that you may spend a lifetime finding out about.
Thus we must put off, stop, get rid of old ungodly ways of thinking, ways of speaking, acting along with old habits and patterns. One of the implications of the gospel is that you no longer have to repeat the unfruitful and dysfunctional ways you learned growing up or adopted and lived before coming to know the Lord.
Putting off old ways continues as we consistently attend public worship where the praises of God are sung, the word of God is read, kingdom focused prayer is lifted to Him and the word of God is preached that declares His character and nature as expressed in Jesus Christ. Putting off also continues as we remain in consistent fellowship with our brothers and sisters. Whether in informal small groups etc. we want to be around believers who can help us to grow up in the faith by lovingly pointing out the areas that we need to grow in.

Secondly, we feed and cultivate our new minds through by reading, studying and thinking about Scripture so that your mind can be reprogrammed by the thoughts, ways and will of the living God.
We also read Scripture so that our hearts can be captured by the love, grace, beauty and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, we start the lifelong process of learning, embracing, cultivating and practicing new, godly, fruitful and Christ-like ways of thinking, speaking, patterns of behavior and living. In doing so we pursue the new life that Christ Himself demonstrated when He lived and served among us during His earthly lifetime.

To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance