Clean Transcript

Walking With The Lord - Part 6

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• Before we're going to read verses 17 through 19, Ephesians 4, verse 17: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." Now, let me just say this is part six in the series of walking with the Lord, and I must confess that the next several messages I believe are going to be vitally, vitally important. And by that I mean, I not only think that it will help you as individuals, but it will also help you to help other people as well. So we've been talking about walking with the Lord. In the first message, I pointed out how God told Abram, "Walk

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• before me and be thou perfect." And I made the statement over and over, you cannot walk with the Lord until you learn to walk before the Lord. That is, as you're walking in His presence or as you're walking in His face. And we found out that Enoch walked with God, Abram walked with God, Noah walked with God, and most of others in the scripture, the Bible says, walked with the Lord. We looked at Enoch particularly in Hebrews 11, verses 5 and 6, and the Bible tells us that Enoch was translated that he should not see death, for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. So if we're going to please Him, we must walk by faith, because the next verse says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him." So I pointed out how walking by faith references and refers to the person of God, the promises of God, and the providence of God.

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• And then, of course, we begin to look in Ephesians chapter 4, because the Apostle Paul now is teaching us that we are to walk worthy. And if you'll look back very quickly just to Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 3, without me reading them, Paul tells us that we're to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we're called. Our vocation is our salvation. We've been called unto salvation. I've pointed out how that word is used 10 times in the New Testament. But then he tells us how to walk worthily.

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• He says, "With all lowliness and meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Now I pointed out about lowliness and then about meekness, and I underscored the fact that meekness is not weakness, it's not cowardice, it's not letting someone trample all over you or your rights. No, but meekness is nothing less than disciplined strength under God. It's being yoked with the Lord Jesus Christ, and you move when He tells you to move. And then he tells you, "With longsuffering, forbearing one another in love," and then "endeavoring to keep"—not to make, but endeavoring to keep—"the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." And then he gives us the evidence there in verses 4 through 6, and then verse 7 he tells us each one of us has our gift and our place, and we've been given grace that we might function the way God has ordained that we should function. So when you get to verses 17 through 19, actually this passage goes through verse 32, which we will look at later.

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• Paul is telling us that we're not only to walk worthily, but now he also tells us that we are to walk differently. In other words, we are to be different from the ungodly, from the heathen, and from the pagans. Just stop and think. If we have been redeemed, reconciled, and justified, and sanctified, there should indeed be a vast difference in our lives. So Paul is emphasizing that we are to walk differently. Now, I want to call your attention to verse 17. He says this: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind." Now, let me deal first of all with the word "testify." So Paul says he is testifying to these Ephesians. The Greek word for testify is the word "martureo." It is actually from the root word "martus," from where we get our English word "martyr." When you hear the English word "martyr" today, you think of someone who has died for his faith. That's just a more recent connotation within the last, say, four or five hundred years.

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• Originally, the word just simply meant "witness." You remember Jesus Christ is called the faithful and true witness, or the faithful and true martyr. Jesus Christ did not die for His faith; He died for the sins of His people. The Apostle Paul in Romans 1, in verse 9, said this: "God is my witness," and the word "witness" is the word "martus." He is not saying that God is dead. He said God is my martyr. God is my witness. So here's this word "testify," which actually refers to a witness. So Paul is witnessing. Now, let me tell you in the context, when he says in verse 17, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord," the word "testify" means to take to record, to cite as a witness, to conjure, to beseech in God's name, and to testify solemnly. So what Paul is doing when he says in verse 17, "This I say therefore, and testify"—note this phrase—"in the Lord," he is witnessing or testifying in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by His authority. So he is testifying to them. Now I want you to stop and think about

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• this: if these Ephesians disobey, then he will be testifying against them. You have to remember that a witness may testify for a defendant or against a defendant. And so Paul is just saying, I want to testify to you and I want to be a witness to you. And if I'm a witness to you, it's going to be for your benefit and your blessing. But if I'm a witness against you, then that's not going to be for your benefit or blessing. Let me give you an illustration. You don't have to turn there, but in 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 2, the Apostle Paul wrote, "I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present,

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• the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all others, that if I come, I will not spare." So he said, I've already written to you. I've already testified to you. I've already witnessed to you. If I have to come back, I'm not going to spare. I'll be a witness against you is what it amounts to. And when you get to 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 10, he said, "I write these things being absent, lest being present

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• I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord has given me to edification, and not to destruction." So Paul is saying, I want to be a witness to you and not necessarily witness against you. Look what he said in verse 17: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk." Now the word "Gentiles" is the Greek word "ethnos," which literally means nations, or pagans, or what you and I would say the heathen. So he's telling us that we're to walk differently from the heathen, and we're to walk differently from the unsaved. We're not like them. We are unlike them in every way, and therefore our walk should be different, and totally and completely different. Now, here's my question: How do the heathen walk? How do unsaved men walk? Well, Paul tells us first of all in verse 17 in a very general way, and then what he does, he breaks that general term down into specifics. So he gives you a broad expression, and then he comes and delineates and explains that broad expression. So watch, if you will, in verse 17. He said, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other pagans walk, or as the heathen walk." Then

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• he adds, "in the vanity of their mind." Hmm. So he's telling us that the unsaved then walk in the vanity of their mind. Now when you and I hear the word "vanity" or "vain," we think of something that is useless or worthless. It's of no account to us. But the word "vanity" here means far more than that. It means that which is devoid of truth. It means that which is perverse, depraved, and inappropriate.

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• Now let me show you. There are a number of Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as "vanity" and "vain" in our Bibles. But the very first time the Hebrew word is translated as "vanity" occurs in 2 Kings chapter 17, in verse 15, and I want you to go there. 2 Kings 17, verse 15, because I want you to see that the word actually means far more than just that which is useless and worthless. In 2 Kings chapter 17 and verse 15, we're talking about Israel and how they treated God and what they did to Him. And so the Bible says in 2 Kings 17, verse 15: "And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them." Now, what does it mean when it says they followed vanity? It means they followed idols.

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• They followed the heathen in their worship of idolatrous gods. He said, "and they became vain," that is, they became idolaters. They not only became idolaters, they became perverse and depraved and devoid of truth, just like the heathen that were around them. So obviously in this passage the word "vanity" refers not only to idolatry, but it refers to perverseness and depravity as well. They were devoid of the truth, and consequently they were indeed useless and worthless.

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• Now if you would turn over in your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 2 and look at verse 18, and here you see the same word that is used, but this time the emphasis is upon perverseness and depravity. So it's 2 Peter chapter 2. Notice verse 18: "For when they"—and we're talking about ungodly men—"for when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error." But notice, if you would, he talks about "words of vanity." What does that include? Alluring through the lusts of the flesh and through much wantonness.

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• Now, I want you to go back to Ephesians, if you would, because Paul is telling us how that we should walk differently. I want you to look in Ephesians 2 at verses 1 through 3. You would think that the Apostle Paul would not have to explain how the heathen walks to us. Why? Because we were once heathen ourselves. Okay? Look what he says, Ephesians 2, verse 1: "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

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• wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Look what he says: "Among whom also we all had our conversation"—our conduct—"in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."

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• Now, Paul said you should know how the unsaved think and move and act because you were once one of them. You were there. What made the difference? Well, look in verse 4: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together by Christ." So what the apostle is telling us is this: Since our Lord has loved us and quickened us in His grace and mercy, there should be a lot of difference in our lives.

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• We are not like them. We should know what it is to walk in the vanity of their minds because we have walked in the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. We have been rebellious. We have been worldly. We have been ungodly. And the truth of the matter is this: if you're honest before God, even as a saint, even as a saved individual, you still have too many bad memories of those times when you did walk as an unsaved man and as a heathen. So, he's telling us that we're to be different.

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• Now, go back to Ephesians 4, look again at verse 17. He says, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind." So, when you talk about the vain mind, it's not just that which is useless and worthless. It refers to that which is idolatrous, that which is devoid of truth, that which is perverse and depraved.

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• Now, Paul now begins to explain what he means by the vanity of the mind in verses 18 and 19. Look at it together. He says, "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." So just in verse 18 alone, the Apostle Paul speaks of a darkened understanding, alienation from the life of God, ignorance of the mind, and blindness of heart. Now, I want to just try to explain these one at a time. He says, "having the understanding darkened." So you have to ask the question, what is a darkened understanding? You would also want to ask the question, from whence do we derive a darkened understanding?

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• And the answer basically is threefold. So let me give it to you like this. There is a judicial darkening of the mind. There is a judicial darkening of the mind. The word "judicial" is a term of the law court. The word "judicial" refers to the judge. And when I say there is a judicial darkening of the mind, it means that God has sovereignly, as a judge, imposed blindness upon a people for rejecting Him or His Son or His truth. In other words, God has said, "Look, here it is. You don't want it. I'm going to judge you. I'm going to condemn you." I want to show it to you. I want you to look in your Bibles to Psalm 69. Psalm 69. Psalm 69 is a Messianic Psalm. And I suppose we could truthfully say that all the Psalms are Messianic Psalms. But Psalm 69 particularly speaks of Jesus Christ. Everyone understands the passage in Psalm 69, where the Bible tells us that, for instance, in verse 21, "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," which of course refers to Christ.

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• Verse 9, "For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." In other words, all of these passages are applied to Christ in the New Testament.

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• Now, I want you to watch this. So, here is a psalm about the rejection of the Messiah. So, in verse 22, here is the judicial curse that comes upon those who reject Jesus Christ. He says, "Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold upon them." So, "Let their eyes be darkened. Pour out your indignation upon them. Let my wrathful anger take hold of them." This is a judicial sentence. Now if you will turn in your Bibles very quickly to Romans 1, and then we're going to Romans 11, and still this is the judicial darkening of the mind. Romans chapter 1, and look if you would please at what the scripture says there in verse 21. Romans 1, verse 21, the Word of God says it like this: "Because that"—note "because that"—"when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." God judicially blinded them. Now if

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• you will turn over to Romans chapter 11, you're going to see in Romans 11 how Paul quotes from Psalm 69, and he's still talking about judicial blindness to Israel. Look what he says, Romans 11, beginning there verse 7. He says, "What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. (According as it is written"—now he's quoting Psalm 69—"God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway." So here is a judicial darkening where God as a sovereign judge of all the earth says, "Look, you don't want Me. You don't want My Son. You don't want My truth. That's it. You're blinded." Okay. Secondly, there is a retributive darkening of the mind.

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• And by the word "retributive," I'm talking about retribution. That is where God makes the punishment fit the crime. For instance, you don't have to turn there, but let me just give you some verses. Isaiah 9, in verse 19, the Bible says, "Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother." So, through the wrath of the Lord, the land is darkened. In other words, the people have sinned against God. God's judging them. And the people, they're ever going to be fuel for the fire. So He's making the punishment fit the crime. The same thing in Isaiah 24, in verse 11: "There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone." God said, "You don't obey Me. You don't rejoice in Me. Fine. Those things that you rejoice in will be taken away from you." The same thing in Ezekiel 30, in verse 18. So there is not only a judicial darkening, there is a retributive darkening. And then thirdly, there is a natural darkening that comes in response to sin. By

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• that, I mean this: we reap that which we sow. Listen to this carefully. The more one indulges in sin, the darker his understanding becomes. Sin blinds the understanding. Here's an interesting quote from Albert Barnes. He says this: "A man who is intemperate has no just views of the government of the appetites. A man who is unchaste has no perceptions of the loveliness of purity. A man who is avaricious or covetous has no just views of the beauty of benevolence. A man who indulges in vices will weaken his mental powers and render himself incapable of intellectual effort. Indulgence in vice or sin destroys the intellect as well as the body, and unfits a man to appreciate the truth of a proposition in morals or in mathematics, or the beauty of a poem, as well as the truth and beauty of religion or Christianity. Nothing is more obvious than that indulgence in sin weakens the mental powers and renders them unfit for high intellectual effort.

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• This is seen all over the heathen world now in the stolid, stupid mind, the perverted moral sense, the incapacity of profound or protracted mental effort, as really as it was among the heathens to whom Paul preached." So just stop and think. You can take a lovely young man or a lovely young girl who has made all A's in school and apparently brilliant. Let them get on dope. Let them get on alcohol. And the next thing you know, within a year, they're just as dumb and stupid as they can be. They can't think. They can't function. They can't do anything. And that's exactly what he's talking about. He's talking about how we basically reap that which we sow: darkened understandings or evidence of spiritual blindness. Okay, so he's telling us in Ephesians chapter 4 what the vanity of the mind really is. Now look, if you would, at verse 18 again. Ephesians 4, verse 18. He says, "Having the understanding darkened,

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• alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them." So, secondly, he explains this walking in vanity: not only is it having a darkened understanding, but being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. Now, it is bad enough to be alienated from the life of God. It is even worse when you are alienated from the life of God through ignorance.

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• Now, the Greek word for "alienation" here means more than simple alienation and estrangement. It also includes being shut out of intimacy and fellowship.

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• Now, I want you to think about this. Alienation means more than being shut out or estranged. So, here's a man and woman. They've been married, say, for 20 years. They get into an argument, and it turns out to be a good one. And so they get so angry, they separate. What do we say? Well, he is estranged from his wife. He's alienated from his wife, or she's alienated from her husband. Well, that's true.

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• But is there any intimacy between them? No. They don't even speak to each other. So, the Bible is saying that we are alienated from the life of God through ignorance.

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• Now, I want you to understand this. When the Bible talks about being alienated from the life of God through ignorance, there's a special type of ignorance that the Word of God is talking about. One may acknowledge God and confess God, believe in Him intellectually, yet be shut out from the intimacy and the fellowship with God. How can I say that? Let me show you. Look in your Bibles—not Ephesians chapter 4, but look in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 17. Paul the Apostle is preaching on Mars Hill in Acts 17. If you were to ask these Athenians, "Did they believe in God?" they would say yes, and I'm going to show you why they would say yes. In Acts chapter 17, in verse 29, although Paul is attacking their philosophical ignorance, he says this in verse 29: "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God"—that is, we are the creation of God—

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• "we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent." Now watch, why would anyone like these supposedly brilliant philosophers who think they have so much intellect, why would they think that God is like a silver idol or a golden idol or something carved in stone? He said, if we're the offspring of God, we're not like that. Well, obviously God would not be like that at all. So did the Athenians believe in God? Oh, yes. They believed not only in a God, they believed in a multitude of gods.

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• So if you will look in Acts chapter 17 and verse 22, "Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." So these Athenians believed not only in a god, they believed in gods. And just in case they left one out or there was one they were totally ignorant of, they made an altar to the unknown god. Now, so the Athenians, you could say, believed in God in a very general and vague sort of way, and yet they were absolutely, totally cut off from the life of God through their ignorance.

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• I have no idea how many times in 50 years of preaching that I've had people tell me that they believe in God. Now let me make a statement. Do not throw your shoes at me. I want you to listen. Believing in God does not make you a Christian. It does not make you a Christian. You can believe intellectually all you want to. You can confess intellectually all you want to. That does not make you a Christian. You know what James said in James 2, in verse 19? Listen: "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Even the devil believes in God. In fact, most of them are better believers than most professing people, because at least they tremble at God, and I don't see too many unsaved people trembling at God. So you can believe in God and not be a Christian. But I want to demonstrate this. I want you to look in your Bibles, again, to Ephesians 4, watch verse 18, because I want to emphasize this.

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• He says, "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them." Now, if the knowledge of God is life to the soul, then obviously ignorance is death to the soul. Moreover, again, it's not just any knowledge that is life. It is not intellectual knowledge that is life. I have known many people that have memorized scriptures. Some have gone to Bible schools. Some have received theological degrees and can sit down and argue rationally and intellectually concerning the existence and the attributes of God. Such intellectual knowledge is fine and wonderful, but it is not the same as saving knowledge. The devil can quote scripture too. He did so in Matthew chapter 4. So just because you can quote scripture, or just because you've been to a Bible school, or just because you have a theological degree, does not

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• mean that you're a Christian. Just because you think you have knowledge does not mean that it is a saving knowledge. Let me show you. Look in your Bibles to John 17 and verse 3. John 17, in fact, let's read beginning there with verse 1. John 17. This is the high priestly prayer of our Lord. He is praying, and He says in John 17, in verse 1,

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• "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh"—now watch—"that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." Let me just say something. Eternal life is not living forever. If you think eternal life is just living forever, then you'd have to confess that the unsaved have it too, because they'll live forever in judgment, unto death and destruction. No. Eternal life is more than living forever.

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• If you want to know what—and by the way, let me put it to you like this: If you don't have eternal life now, you're not gonna get it when you die. I can assure you. Why? Here's what eternal life is. Look, our Lord tells you, verse 3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." So, "that they might know thee"—here's a special kind of knowledge. What kind of knowledge is it? It is a personal, intimate fellowship with the one true and living God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the unsaved are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. They do not have this saving knowledge. They may have an intellectual knowledge, but they do not have a saving knowledge. An unsaved man may confess and acknowledge that, but that doesn't mean that he has eternal life. Eternal life is defined by our Lord as a personal, intimate relationship with the Father through Him. Now the question has to be asked: How does one get this knowledge?

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• Well, if you will look back in your Bibles to Matthew 11 and verse 27, our Lord will give you the answer. Matthew 11 and verse 27. Look what He says. Matthew 11, verse 27, our Lord says, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father." Now watch carefully. "And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." Wow!

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• I want you to put that together. No man knows the Father, but the Son. No man knows the Son, but the Father. How do you get to know the Father? The Son reveals Him. How do you get to know the Son? The Father reveals Him. Do you remember that passage in Matthew 16, where our Lord asked His disciples, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" Well, they said, "Some say you're Elijah, or Elias, or one of the prophets." He said, "But whom say ye that I am?" And Peter responded, he said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Do you remember what our Lord's answer was? He said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for thou art surely smarter than everyone else, for thou hast figured it out when no one else could."

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• Is that what He said? No. He said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." He said, "Peter, the only reason you know who I am is because my Father revealed it unto you." The saving knowledge that our Lord speaks of in John 17, verse 3, is a divine revelation that God has made in Jesus Christ. So man by nature is ignorant of God. He's ignorant of this saving knowledge. Our alienation, our ignorance, our blindness all harks back to original sin. We sinned in Adam. We fell in Adam. We were cursed in Adam. And it was through the first Adam that we were deprived of this light and this knowledge. And with the absence of this light and knowledge, there is nothing left but fearful darkness. And by the way, it is very easy to prove original sin. You see, the Bible says in Romans 5, in verse 12, "Wherefore, as by one man"—that's Adam—"wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Now when you get to that part "for that all have sinned," it's an aorist passive. An aorist passive means

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• that it happened once and forever, for all times, never to be repeated. When did all men sin at one time together? And the answer is in Adam. You say, "Well, Pastor, I just don't believe in original sin." Hang on. You will sooner or later. If you live long enough till you die, you'll believe in it, because the wages of sin is death. The very fact that you're going to die, and the very fact that everybody else dies, proves original sin. So as the old saying goes, if you live long enough, you'll die. You will, and you'll believe in original sin when you die. That is for sure. Now, here's the thing: our ignorance is inexcusable. You've heard the old adage, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Well, ignorance of the law is an excuse if you're talking about man's law, because man has so many laws, every one of us, including all the politicians, violate laws every day. There are so many federal and state laws and county and city laws, everybody breaks them all the time. You don't even know them. Never even heard of them. But that expression "ignorance is no excuse of the law" harks back to the time when the Bible was the law of the land and everyone had

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• a Bible and everybody could read that Bible, and there was no excuse for ignorance. But let me tell you something: there's not going to be any excuses on Judgment Day. The very fact—the very fact—that we have a duty and an obligation to know God's law tells us we have a duty and an obligation to know God. We're His creatures. He created us, and by virtue of the fact that we are His creation, we owe Him honor and glory. But we've also sinned against Him and rebelled, and by virtue of our sin and rebellion, we owe Him repentance. And when God in His mercy and grace saves us, we now doubly owe Him, because we're not only His creatures, we are now His children. So how in the world can our ignorance be excusable? And the answer is very simple: our ignorance is inexcusable because God has spoken. How has God spoken? Well, first of all, let me just point out that God has spoken in creation. All you have to do is read Psalm 19, Romans 1.

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• Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." Look in Romans chapter 1, even the creation declares His eternal power and Godhead. Very obviously God has spoken in creation. Secondly, God has spoken in conscience. Let me just read this to you in Romans chapter 2, verses 13 through 16. God is talking about conscience, and listen what He says: "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles"—that is the heathen—"which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Now what in the world am I talking about? The conscience. Now I understand your conscience can be improperly taught, understand that, but there is still even an innate knowledge of

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• right and wrong. And even the most wicked heathen, you can go to the darkest part of Africa, and you let a man just walk up to another man and run his spear in him, they'll take the one who murdered, tie him out to an anthill, pour honey on him, let the ants eat him. They know that's wrong. But you let that same man defend his life and kill his neighbor, they do nothing to him. They excuse him. That's conscience. Now watch this. God has spoken in creation. God has spoken in conscience. God has spoken, thirdly, in commandments. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Everything in this book is God's command. He is a King. He commands. And then fourthly, God has spoken through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1 tells us in verse 1 that God spoke in sundry times and in divers manners in times past through the prophets. Verse 2, "But in these last days he hath spoken unto us by his Son, whom he

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• hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." Now, listen to this. How are we without excuse? Think about this. There will not be one excuse accepted on Judgment Day. Why? Because you have lived in God's creation and you ignored it. You had your conscience and you refused to listen to it and you seared it. You had a Bible and you refused to read it.

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• You heard the preaching of Christ and you rejected it. So you are basically without excuse. In fact, Paul says that very clearly in Romans 1, in verse 20, "so that they are without excuse." Wow. Now I want you to look in your Bibles—not Hebrews, but Ephesians 4—go back if you would please, and look what he says in verse 18, "Having the understanding darkened, and being

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• alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." Our ignorance, our alienation, our darkened understanding all flows from one corrupt fountain: a blinded heart. Here's another truth that is not easily or readily perceived or even liked, I should say. And that is this truth: Unless God opens the understanding, unless God opens the heart, we're not ever going to see truth. No one's gonna see truth.

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• We do not realize how blind we really are. Look in your Bibles very quickly to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. In this passage, the Apostle Paul is contrasting the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, notice if you would please, verse 13. Look what he says: "And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: but their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament." And how is that vail destroyed? "Which vail is done away in Christ." Now watch. "But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart." They're still blind. "Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." Watch. "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." So where the Spirit of God is not, there is no liberty.

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• And the only thing that is there is blindness. The heart cannot turn to Christ without the Spirit of God. Man cannot see without the Spirit of God. Moreover, look in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 3 and 4. The Apostle said, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." Now here's a question as you look back in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. And here's the question: How do blindness, alienation, ignorance, and a darkened understanding manifest itself and evidence itself in the unsaved?

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• Well, the answer is given to us in verse 19. Verse 19, the Bible says, talking about these same individuals, "who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." Now, the Bible says that these individuals are "past feeling." The Greek word literally means to cease to feel pain or grief, or to become insensible, or to be calloused. Have you ever noticed that when you do a lot of hard work, calluses build up on your hand? And once those calluses build up, what was very sensitive to you to begin with is now no longer sensitive, because the hide is toughened. Okay, well this is exactly what God is saying. These people are past feeling. It does not grieve them that they have no fellowship with the one true and living God. How many unsaved men by nature do you see going around weeping and crying, saying, "Oh, I need fellowship with God. I need intimacy with Him"? You don't see that. They don't think about it.

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• They could care less. And when you try to reach them, when you try to reason with them, it's like water over a duck's back. They're insensitive to truth. They're callous to truth. It does not hurt them. It does not convict them. It does not trouble them. Why? Because they're callous to it. They have thrown off all sense of shame and remorse. Now, what happens when you become past feeling? Look in verse 19: "They've given themselves over unto lasciviousness."

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• Now if you don't know what lasciviousness is, I will tell you. The word refers to unbridled lusts, to excess, to licentiousness, to lasciviousness, to wantonness, to outrageousness, to shamelessness, to insolence. That's exactly where we are today. People are not ashamed because they're sodomites; they're proud of it. They're not ashamed because they're perverts; they're proud of it. And they're insolent in the face of God. Here's what Calvin said. Listen carefully: "Having destroyed the sensibilities of the heart and laid aside the stings of remorse, they abandoned themselves to all manner of iniquity. And we are by nature corrupt and prone to evil. Nay, we are wholly inclined to evil.

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• Those who are destitute of the Spirit of Christ give loose reins to self-indulgence, till fresh offenses, producing others in constant succession, bring down upon them the wrath of God. The voice of God proclaimed by an accusing conscience still continues to be heard, but instead of producing its proper effects, appears rather to harden them against all admonition. On account of such obstinacy they deserve altogether to be forsaken by God." Wow. So he says, "who being past feeling have given themselves over to all kinds of excess, all kinds of wickedness." Now look in verse 19. Wow, here is something that is very plain: "Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."

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• The latter part of this verse shows us the voluntary nature of their sinning. It shows us the power of sin over them. It shows us their willingness to be the slaves of sin and their continuance in it. It shows you how much they desire it. Note, if you would please, the Bible says "to work all uncleanness with greediness." They actually work at this. They are like a covetous man.

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• They can never, ever be satisfied. It's kind of like that old rich farmer who said that he did not want to own the whole world; he just wanted to own all the land that was next to his. So what does that mean? He wanted the whole world. See, this is what I try to tell people about even pornography. You say, "Well, there's soft pornography. There's hard pornography." No, no, no, no.

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• By the way, "porneia" is the Greek word for fornication. "Graphe" is the Greek word for writing. Pornography means fornication writing. That's what it literally means. So here's what happens when he says they work all uncleanness with greediness. So you start off right here with soft porn, but pretty soon that doesn't satisfy you. Then you go over here to a little more moderate porn, maybe. And that hangs on for a little while. Then that doesn't satisfy. Then you go to hard porn, and then that doesn't satisfy.

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• And then you go here and here and here, and you never get enough. That's what he's saying. They work all uncleanness with greediness. That's what happens. And the Apostle Paul says, we're not to walk like that. We're not to be that way. The Bible says in Romans 1, in verse 24, that God gave them up to uncleanness. Here the Bible says they work all uncleanness with greediness. So did God give them up, or did they give themselves up? Well, the answer is both. God gave them up by withholding His grace, and now they give themselves over unto it. And their sin was made their punishment. They gave themselves up to it of their own accord. They gave themselves into slavery. God gave them up, not necessarily against their will. God gave them what they wanted, and they continue to want it.

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• Now here's the fundamental fault in the latter part of verse 19. When he says, "who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness," the fundamental fault is the unsaved acknowledge no restraints. They insolently act out all of their capricious lusts and desires at their own will, and they gladly do so, willingly do so. There's no limits placed upon them. They place none upon themselves. Now, here's what Paul is doing in Ephesians chapter 4. He is saying, we must walk differently. We cannot walk, we cannot act, we cannot talk, we cannot even think the way the ungodly do. If we're to please our Heavenly Father, we must walk differently. We cannot be lawless, and we cannot please our flesh. Now listen to me.

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• You say, "But, Pastor, I'm not perfect." Really? Tell me about it. Neither am I. There is no one on this earth that is perfect. Each of us are sinners, and each of us sin. Each of us fall short and do many things that not only grieve the Lord, they grieve us. But there is a difference between someone who is saved and someone who is not saved. We don't enjoy our sins. They grieve us. They hurt us. We hate them. We mourn over them. We confess them. We acknowledge them. We turn from them. We repent of them, and we ask God to help us not to do those things any longer. Do you see there's a difference there? There's a difference between just charging headlong into sin and rebellion and saying, "Who gives a flip?

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• I'll do my own thing," and you acknowledging God and His love and in fellowship with Him, and you're endeavoring to bring your life in conformity to the Word of God. And when you do stumble and when you do sin, it upsets you, it grieves you, it hurts you. In other words, you are more sensitive to sin. So as Christians, we never ever want to return to our old ways, our old sins, and our old lives. We always want to live differently. Now, here's my question: How do we live differently? How do we change our lives? Well, that's coming up in the next several messages. So you have to

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• come to the same channel and the same station to hear the answers. But I want to point something out to you to make you think. If you look at verse 20, he says, "But ye have not so learned Christ." Has it ever dawned upon you that you have to learn Christ? Wow. How do you learn Christ? Well, there are answers. And then he tells us exactly how to do so. So let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy. We thank you, Lord, that you've saved us, that you've translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of thy dear Son. You've redeemed us and reconciled us and justified us and sanctified us, and we're different. And we should be, and we want to be. And we ask that you make us more different by making us more holy, more godly, more obedient, and more submissive, and more conformed to your word. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T20:15:36Z