Darkness - Ephesians 4:17-19

We come now in Ephesians 4 to verse 17 where once again Paul uses the little word "walk." Because Ephesians 4-6 deal with the believer's walk. Ephesians 1-3 are wealth in Christ. Ephesians 4-6 are walk in Christ. The first half of the book we're told what God has done for us and the last half of the book what we must do in return. Now in Ephesians 4:1-16, Paul has told us to walk worthy of our calling Ephesians 4:1 and to walk in unity Ephesians 4:3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Now here in verse 17, Paul says, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord." Now this is not just a suggestion he's making, this is God's commandment. That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. And he goes on to describe the way other people are living. Walk in purity. Now this section begins in Ephesians 4:17 and ends in Ephesians 5:17. Paul is telling us here that Christians are not to live the way they live before they were saved.

Now the Apostle Peter had the same thing to say. If you have your Bible in front of you, you may want to turn to 1 Peter 4. "For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind, the same attitude toward sin. For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our lives may suffice us to have wrought the will of a Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries." Peter is saying, "Now you're saved. Don't live the rest of your time the way you used to live." Now 1 Peter 4:4, "wherein they, the unsaved people, think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." He says the people that you used to run with, invite you to these carousing, and and you don't want to go anymore. You've been saved. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away. Behold all things are become new. A Christian is a person who has experienced a change. And the old appetites are gone. We have become partakers of the divine nature.

Now the word of God pictures this rather dramatically when it compares unsaved people in 2 Peter 2 to pigs and dogs. Now there are some beautiful dogs. But a dog is a dog. And you'll never get a dog to act like a sheep. You'll never get a pig to act like a sheep. To a Jew, a pig was an unclean animal, likewise a dog. But the Lord Jesus compares us to sheep. Now a sheep is a clean animal. You don't find sheep wallowing around in the mud and the muck and the field, that's where you find pigs. And Peter is saying to us now, you used to be pigs. You used to be unclean. You used to live in these awful dirty ways. But now you're sheep. You've been changed. And Paul says, "Don't walk the way other people walk."

Now I wonder if this isn't a problem with folks today. Paul says in Romans 12:2, "Be not conformed to this world." Now young people enjoy conformity. They want to be just like the crowd. This is why it's difficult for young people to live dedicated Christian lives because the crowd laughs at them. The crowd leaves them out. Joseph had this problem down in Egypt. He whipped it. Daniel had this problem in Babylon. He overcame it. We as Christians are not to be conformed to this world. We are not to live the way other people live.

Now I know I've heard all the argument that if the church doesn't do the things other people do, they won't come to church. You know if you'll study church history, you'll discover that when the church made the greatest impact on the world, the church was the most different from the world. A church is not a country club, it's not a fraternity, it's not a sorority, it's not a resort. The church is to be a dedicated army for the Lord. We are to give total allegiance to Jesus Christ. And we're not to live the way other people live. If my life is just like the life of some unsaved person, if my language isn't different, if my desires aren't different, if my life isn't different, I can't call myself a Christian. "Walk not as other Gentiles walk." And he describes their walk. First of all, in the vanity of their mind. That word vanity means emptiness. Paul is simply saying here that most of the people in the world have empty minds.

Now he goes on to say, in Ephesians 4:18, that their minds are not only empty, but they are dark, having the understanding darkened. Now we often hear that we're living in an enlightened age. Well, when it comes to science, this is an enlightened age. When it comes to wonderful things like medicine, this is an enlightened age. I thank God for every gift that God has given to men to unlock the wonderful secrets of nature, according to the will of God. But you know, when it comes to spiritual things and moral things, people's minds are dark.

Do you recall that familiar story in John 3? There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, "Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him." Jesus said, "Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Now Nicodemus was the teacher of the Jews. He was the leader of their religion. Nicodemus was the man who had all of the answers to the religious questions of his day. But he did not see spiritually. He was blind.

Now the unsaved person is spiritually blind. We're told over in 2 Corinthians 4, "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 that believe not, lest the light of the gospel should shine unto them." You see, every unsaved person is in the same condition the world was in back in Genesis 1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void, empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. If you're unsaved, if you've never opened your heart to Jesus Christ, you are in darkness. You are empty. And your life has not been formed the way God wants it to be formed. That's the tragedy of being lost. Oh, how many good people there are, how many upright people, law-abiding people, kind people there are. Who are in darkness, and their lives are empty, in spite of all their good works, in spite of all their kindness. And their lives have never been shaped, formed, to be what God wants them to be. I'd hate to come to the end of my life and discover I haven't lived.

And Paul is saying here, "their understanding is dark, and being alienated, separated from the life of God." Darkness, death, separated from life. That's death. You see, the unsaved person is not only spiritually dark, he is spiritually dead. Not sick. Not sick. An unsaved man's not sick, he's dead. We remember we saw back in Ephesians 2, where Paul says, "and you hath he quickened or made alive, who were dead." Now a spiritually dead person is in the dark. He has not the life of God down within him.

In 1 John 5, the Apostle John says, "And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son." He that hath the Son hath life. But he that hath not the Son hath not life. Do you have the Son of God? Have you opened your heart to Jesus Christ? Now if you have, you have life. But the unsaved person has darkness, death, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness or the hardness of their heart.

You see, here's the mind and here's the heart. Now these two go together. The mind and the heart. If you're going to be saved, you're going to be saved in your mind and in your heart. Your heart is going to receive Christ, your mind is going to have to understand Him. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in," promises the Lord Jesus. His heart and his mind opened to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, here's the condition of every unsaved person. His mind is dark, he is spiritually dead, ignorant, and because of this ignorance and hardness of heart, Ephesians 4:19 says, "who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."

Now Ephesians 4:19 describes civilization today. It's on the news stands, it's on television, it's on the radio. It's in the movies. The dirtier a thing gets, the more attention it gets. Lasciviousness, dirtiness. Oh, if the roof could be lifted off of what we call modern society, modern civilization, and people could see human beings living like animals, we'd not wonder at the judgment of God. As it was in the days of Noah, said Jesus, so shall it be in the end of the son of man. What was it like back in the days of Noah? Marrying and giving in marriage, living for self, lusts, fornication, adultery. Sodom and Gomorrah with their wickedness. Today, things that used to be called sin, are not called sin anymore. They're permitted. They're even applauded.

Now, what is the cause of moral uncleanness? Well, Ephesians 4:18 tells us, a dark mind and a dead heart. You can't expect a man with a dark mind to have a light life. You can't expect a person whose heart and mind are spiritually dark and dead to live like a saint. And Paul is saying to us Christians, "Now this is the way you used to live. You used to have a dark mind. But God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4. The light has come in. And with the light has come life. Now you can't separate these two. "In him was life. And the life was the light of men." John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Darkness and death go together. Light and life go together.

Now Paul is telling us that because people have dark minds, empty minds, hard hearts, they've given themselves over, they've passed feeling. Every once in a while I meet someone who says, "Oh, brother Wiersbe, I'd like to be saved, but I'm waiting for a feeling." And I always answer, "Well, what kind of a feeling are you waiting for?" You know, when you go through your Bible and study about people who were saved, they had different feelings. The prodigal son had the feeling of homesickness and hunger before he was saved. Zacchaeus had a feeling of curiosity, climbed up the tree to look for the Lord Jesus before he was saved. I wonder how the thief on the cross felt before he was saved. I know of no verse in the Bible that tells me you have to have a certain kind of feeling before you're saved. But I'll tell you what it does say. In Ephesians 4:19, "if you wait too long, your heart will get so hard, you will be past feeling." A man told me once, as we sat in his living room, he said, "Brother Wiersbe, if this living room floor opened up and I dropped into hell right now, it wouldn't bother me one bit. Past feeling." Can God save a man like that? I think so. I think through prayer and preaching, God can get through to that heart. But I wouldn't want to take a chance. A man told me once, "Preacher, I have not had one single desire for the things of the Lord ever since." Past feeling. Could God save a man like that? I think so. I think through prayer and preaching, God can get through to that heart. But I wouldn't want to take a chance.

And verse 19 says, "But ye have not so learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Paul is saying, "change clothes." You're saved now, take off the dirty old clothes from the old man, get rid of them, put on the garments of the new man. Just like when the prodigal son came home, put a robe on him, put shoes on his feet, for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and now is found. Has the Lord done that for you? If you're truly born again, you can't afford to be wearing the grave clothes. You must be wearing the grace clothes. Or people won't really believe that you're saved.

Shall we pray together? Father, help us not to live the way we used to live before we were saved. Help us heavenly Father to be faithful to put off the old grave clothes, the old deceitful lusts, and to be renewed. And to put on the new man, and live in holiness and righteousness and godliness in this present age. Help us to be faithful, for thou art faithful to us. We pray for Jesus sake. Amen.