This sermon was preached at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log on Sunday, January 29, 2012 by Dr. Paul Mims, Pastor.

Ephesians 4:17-19

The way we die is indicative of the way we live. Some of her last words were, “I’ve just seen Jesus.”That is what Joyce Kerns said last Sunday afternoon as she entered the portals of heaven. She is a woman of deep and abiding faith and now is safe in the presence of our resurrected Lord. Her life was an example of what God’s grace does in the heart of a believer. She had her sorrows but lived in the adequacy of grace divine. She had her joys and spread her cheer in her family, in her church, and to others through her stalwart faith. That is how she could come to the end of this life and see the glorious future before her. The way she lived made the way she died possible.

A stark contrast is drawn by the Apostle Paul in the way believers in Christ are to live and the way that the unbelieving world lives. In verse 1 of Ephesians 4, Paul says, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” In 4:17 he says, “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do.” There are four areas he mentions in which we are to be different. We are not to imitate the evil environment around us.

WE ARE TO BE DIFFERENT IN THE WAY WE THINK (v.17) “…in the futility of their thinking.”

This verse has reference to the way the unbelieving world thinks about spiritual and godly things. The fact is they do not think much about godly things at all. The source of fulfillment is sought in other places rather than in the Creator. Happiness is pursued in riches, entertainment, position, possessions, and learning. But these really turn out to be expectations that are hollow and empty of the satisfying of that big hole in their hearts. Ecclesiates 1:7,8 says, “All streams flow to the sea, and yet the sea is never full. To the place where the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.”

The mind of the unsaved person cannot produce a godly understanding of moral living. Look at Romans 1:21 and following: “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie.”

The way a believer thinks is opposite of this. God has made all things good and beautiful for man and when he cooperates with God and uses these things rightly he is blessed and fulfilled. Our thoughts are the soul builders of life. They are the superstructure of character. They cause the inner and outer life to be the same. An unspiritual way of thinking will always come to the surface and express itself in life.

When our children were growing up we took them to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia. They were amazed at all of his inventions to make life good in colonial days. We stayed overnight in a hotel named Mimslyn and the next day went to Luray Caverns. This gigantic cave had the most beautiful formations both on the ceiling and on the floor. They were formed by drops of water coming down from the top over a long period of time and then dropping to the ground. As I thought about these formations I realized that our thoughts are like that. They drop ever so slowly from our minds into our character and form the structure of our lives.

The mind is like a crowded street
Where phantom thoughts, like people, meet:
Some hard at work, some idle are,
Some stay at home, some wander far.
Some thoughts wield power that ever lives-
A power that inspiration gives,
While others dwell with us awhile,
Then pass, as transient as a smile.
Thus come and go these thoughts of ours,
Some, perfume-laden as the flowers,
While others sear our lives with blight
And bring no pleasure or delight.
Our thinking lifts us to the stars,
Or seals our hearts with prison bars;
Confers on us both joy and strife,
For as we think we fashion life.—Daniel Maurice Robins

WE ARE TO LIVE OUR LIVES IN FAITH (v.18) “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God.”

The way we live is opposite of the way unbelievers approach life. We live with faith in our Lord and they are separated from the life of God. This darkening of the mind can be traced to their hardening of their hearts against the will of God. We all have as children an openness to God and then as life progresses and we resist the things of God our mind darkens to spiritual truth. If a child is brought in a Christian home with Bible teachings and prayer, the child learns to love the things of God and has an understanding that is enlightened.

Pollster George Gallup Jr. has long referred to America as a “nation of biblical illiterates.” Only four in 10 Americans know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. A majority of citizens cannot name the four Gospels of the New Testament. Only three in 10 teenagers know why Easter is celebrated. Two-thirds of Americans believe there are few, if any, absolute principles to direct human behavior. A new poll by the Barna Research Group suggests that religious illiteracy has increased. For example, three out of four Americans (and nearly half of “born-again” Christians) believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” George Barna argues that self-reliance is not only not scriptural, but that it contradicts revelation. Only God determines a person’s destiny, the pollster notes. To believe otherwise “exposes our false theological cornerstone — that we are the center of things, that it is up to us to determine our destiny, and that God is merely our assistant …”

A similar number of born-again Christians deny the existence of the Holy Spirit and Satan. One in five denies Jesus’ physical resurrection and believes he was a sinner.

Earlier surveys of mainline Protestants revealed that barely half of Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians believe in the devil, but 56 percent of Lutherans and 49 percent of Methodists believe in UFOs. One-third of Methodists and Presbyterians have faith in astrology. While nearly three-fourths of all Americans believe in hell, hardly any believe it to be their likely destination in eternity.

The Barna poll is intended to help Christian pastors and groups focus their ministries. The sheer number of “errant theological positions” among believers underscores “the magnitude of the challenge facing churches today,” Barna notes.

University of Wisconsin historian Thomas Reeves indicts popular religious belief and service. “Christianity in modern America is, in large part, innocuous,” he writes. “It tends to be easy, upbeat, convenient, and compatible. It does not require self-sacrifice, discipline, humility, an otherworldly outlook, a zeal for souls, a fear as well as love of God. There is little guilt and no punishment, and the payoff in heaven is virtually certain.”

Former Secretary of Education William Bennett concludes that “We have become the kind of society that civilized countries used to send missionaries to.”

One of the greatest challenges of the contemporary church is the education of the redeemed to the life of faith as presented in the Holy Scriptures.

WE ARE TO BE SPIRITUALLY SENSITIVE TO GOD (v.19a) “Having lost all sensitivity…”

The Bible presents the unbeliever as becoming callous and insensitive to God. These are people who though they may emphasize feeling, their view of faith never goes any deeper than emotions. It never turns into conviction and is never firmly rooted. They say “No” to God’s voice in their hearts and when they do that long enough, they become insensitive to the Holy Spirit. Their condition is described in Matthew 13:5,6,20,21 – “Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.”

If a person neglects the daily quiet time of being alone with God in prayer and reading the scripture he or she becomes insensitive to the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit who pours blessings and nurture into the soul.

Last Sunday after worship, we had lunch with Art and Emily Lessor at the Sisters restaurant in Blue Ridge. They told Janice and me about their daily practice of devotions. In the mornings, they each have their private time with God. Then they come together and pray for their mutual concerns. The final part of their spiritual preparation for the day is to consciously “put on the whole armor of God.” The armor is Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Faith, Salvation, and the Word of God. Then they are ready to live in the Spirit and serve in the Kingdom. This keeps them sensitive to the Lord.

WE ARE TO LIVE IN MORAL PURITY (v.19) “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.”

No one can deny that we live in a morally impure society. The final contrast of believers and the unsaved is that God’s people are to live in moral purity. Some of the candidates for President are calling us back to the moral values upon which our nation was built. They see the decay that is eating away at the moral fiber of our nation.

Some years ago, when the news broke that Joseph Stalin’s daughter had defected from Communism and Russia, many people were startled. Her statement, given to reporters who met her plane in New York, told why she defected:

“I found it impossible to exist without God in one’s heart. I came to that conclusion myself, without anybody’s help or preaching. That was a great change because since that moment the main dogmas of Communism lost their significance for me. I have come here to seek the self-expression that has been denied me for so long in Russia.”

That woman’s struggle was a terrible one. To leave Russia, she had to leave two children in Moscow and realize that it would be, as she said, “impossible to go back.”

Pascal said there is within every person a “God-shaped vacuum.” He’s right. Historians Will and Ariel Durant observed in their summary volume, The Lessons of History, that “there never has been a significant example of morality apart from belief in God.”

George Anne Geyer said “I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to have a moral community or nation without faith in God, because without it everything rapidly comes down to “me,” and “me” alone is meaningless. Today Americans have stopped acting in terms of their own moral, ethical and religious beliefs and principles. They’ve stopped acting on what they knew was right — and the “me” has become the measure of everything.

However, moral societies are the only ones that work. If anyone thinks there is not a direct and invaluable relationship between personal integrity in a society and that society’s prosperity, that person has simply not studied history. And this should not surprise us. Great moral societies, built upon faith in God, honor, trust, and the law blossoms because they are harmonious; because people love or at least respect their fellowman; because, finally, they have a common belief in something beyond themselves. It simplifies life immensely; you do not waste and spend your days fighting for turf, for privilege, for money and power over your fellowman.

Alexis de Tocqueville said it best when he realized even at the very beginning of our national life, “America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

Let’s make sure that Cornerstone has these four contrasts to the society surrounding us: Different in the way we think; Different in that we live by faith; Different in that we are sensitive to God; Different in that we live in moral purity. With these contrasts, we will be set apart to live for Christ in a world that is dying because they do not know him. With integrity in the church we will be salt and light to draw them to him. Praise Be To His Name!