to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 through 24.
And shame he hath called you as holy, so be you holy,
is the word of God.
The great catastrophe in the western church
is the loss of the distinction
that God's people are to have from the surrounding culture.
Surveys that have been done by Gallup or by Barna or others
for investigating the attitudes and lifestyles
of those who are, quote, born again, quote, quote.
Those surveys reveal very little difference
in attitudes and lifestyles from the population in general.
There is not the disparity there that one would expect to see
between those who are born again
and those who make no claim to know God at all.
And I would say to you today that it isn't the world that has changed for the better.
Let's wait for Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 17.
This I say therefore, and I say together with the Lord,
that you walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk.
In the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding,
excluded from the light of God because of the ignorance that is in them,
because of the hardness of their hearts.
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, if indeed you have heard him
and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus,
that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self,
which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of the chief.
And if you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self,
which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Holiness.
That's a word that is hard for most of us to get into focus.
Holiness seems obscure, severe, and often slovenly.
We know that God is holy, this word tells us that,
and we know that we in return are to be a holy people.
We have been called to holiness.
What does that mean?
Does it mean that we have been called to be sinless people?
Does it mean that we have been called to be entirely perfect in our lifestyle?
This morning I want to talk to us about this matter of holiness in the community of the saints.
This lesson of holiness is a condition or a state of being
built to separation from that which is ordinary and common.
The concept is familiar in the Old Testament where the people of Israel are called by God to be a holy nation in Exodus 19.
Surprising that they were to observe the Sabbath day and honor it.
They were to keep it holy.
Furthermore, the utensils, the vestments, the sacrifices, and the priesthood were all said to be holy.
What that means is that these things, this day, this people, with their life,
were separated from all of the rest for a sacred purpose.
The word holy comes from an ancient word that means to cut or to separate.
It came to mean to cut above something and if we were to put it into our contemporary language,
we would say that this is holy, is a cut above all of the rest in its excellence.
In an infinite sense, God is holy.
That is one of the attributes of misdeeds.
In the state of God's holiness, there are two emphases that we need to keep in mind.
One is the impetus that God is transcendent.
That means that he is separate from all of the rest that exists.
God is holy. He is entirely different in a special way.
God is an infinite distance in separation from everything else that's created.
Aren't we supposed to see as an infinite cut above everything else?
Nothing approaches God in its likeness.
God is different in the way we are. He is holy. He is transcendent.
But there's an ethical impetus in the word also.
In this sense, holiness is that which is separate from moral evil or sin.
That is, God is morally pure and cannot condone evil, nor can he have any relationship to it.
Dr. Paul Ends is used to think at Northwestern College, writes in the New Handbook of Theology,
in his holiness, God is the moral and ethical standard. He is the law. He is the standard.
So holiness has a transcendent impetus as well as an ethical impetus.
But the idea is that there is separation from the ordinary and the common.
Applying this word to the community of saints, we're really stating the obvious,
because the word saint comes from the word holy.
It is important to understand that nothing is made holy by itself.
It is made holy by something greater than it is.
In our case, it is God who declares and who makes us holy.
He himself is the essence of holiness as the eternal God.
Therefore, he declares something to be separate, and it is true.
The community of saints, the church, the local church is holy,
therefore distinct from the rest of society.
We are called to be a holy people, to live out who we are by God's declaration.
We are called to be a holy people right now in this world, not someday in heaven.
We are to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, says Paul to Titus.
You see, the Christian is not ruined by living in the world, but by the world living in him.
Our text tells us something about the distinction of the saints in three important respects.
You may want to pull out your outline to take a look at it, because we're going to move through it rather quickly.
The distinction of the saints is what holiness is all about, and we're going to see a distinction in three respects as we look at our text.
Number one, saints are distinct from sinners in their position.
Now, position has to do with relationship, relationship to God.
It is a standing that we have before God.
It is a connection with God or the lack of that connection with God.
Now, in our text, sinners are said to be excluded from the life of God.
That is the position of the sinner.
He is cut off from God because God is holy and he cannot condone sin.
Therefore, the sinner is excluded from the life of God, according to verse 18.
What's the cause of this?
Well, it's the fact that there is ignorance in the sinner.
And ignorance has nothing to do with one's degree or one's education.
It has to do with one's comprehension of spiritual truth.
The sinner is ignorant.
He does not understand the truth about God himself or the world in which he lives.
This ignorance is a spiritual condition in the soul of the sinner,
and it's there because of the hardness of the heart.
It's not that the sinner cannot know.
It is that the sinner chooses not to know these things.
The real problem is in the innermost part of the person, in the heart, in the will.
The sinner refuses to know what he can know.
His heart is hardened. It is petrified by sin.
That's the cause of this exclusion from the life of God.
And the consequences are that the sinner is darkened in his understanding.
He has mental confusion.
He's unable to make enlightened value judgments.
The sinner has no moral perception by which to guide his life.
His condition is one of moral depravity.
And not only does he inherit that by his birth,
but that darkness is also cast upon him supernaturally by Satan.
It's a double darkness.
It is a darkness that arises from within his own ignorance, his willful ignorance of God,
but it is a darkness that is cast across his eyes, according to 2 Corinthians 4, by the devil,
so that he cannot see the truth that is in Jesus Christ.
The consequence of this exclusion from the life of God is futility in the mind.
The reasoning of the sinner disburs in circles.
It's aimless. It comes to no advance and to no progress.
Man fills himself with the concept of evolution,
that his society is getting better and better, or that society is evolving into something that's better.
It is not.
Indeed, we see the result of this darkness and this exclusion from the life of God
taking a toll upon this society that turns its back on God.
The mind, the reasoning process of the sinner,
says the New English Bible, is good for nothing.
It's futile.
Now in contrast to the sinner and his position, being excluded from God is the saint.
Let's remind ourselves that the saint is not someone who lives an exemplary life.
The saint is a sinner who has acknowledged his sin,
and by his faith in Jesus Christ has been forgiven of his sin.
Now the saint, in contrast to the sinner, is said to be created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
He is no longer excluded from God. He is created newly.
He is a new person.
The cause of this is that he has learned Christ.
He has come to acknowledge the truth that is in Christ.
The spirit of his mind, which was futile before and which came to nothing,
has been removed by God. It's been given new life.
The consequence of this is that the saint is a new self.
He is a new person in Christ. He has a new identity.
Whereas before his heart was darkened and his will was hardened against God,
now the one who has trusted Christ, the saint,
because in his new creation, his righteousness and his holiness, he is related to God.
So the saint and the sinner are distinct in their position.
They are as different as night and day.
The sinner and the saint are as different as light and darkness, as life and death.
They are both humans.
But one is dead in past tussles and sins. The other has been made alive in Jesus Christ.
The second distinction I want to talk about is the distinction in practice.
Saints and sinners are distinct in their practice.
The lifestyle of a person flows from his life source.
Lifestyle flows from life source.
What is your life source? The life source of the saint is Jesus Christ.
The life source of the sinner is sin within himself.
The lifestyle or the practice of the sinner is said to be given to sensuality in verse 19.
Given to sensuality because he is callous.
He has lost all sensitivity to right and wrong.
The sinner has delivered himself over to unrestrained, lowed living.
Living without any personal or social standards.
In order to practice impurity,
answers Paul to perform every conceivable, every imaginable perversion.
And to do that with greediness. In other words, he can't get enough of it.
He wants more and more of that kind of life. It does not satisfy.
That kind of living creates an insatiable craving for more.
The sinner is determined to gratify himself at any cost, regardless of the rights of others.
He is given to sensuality. Given to fulfill what pleases him.
Given to fulfill his sensual lust and desires.
That's the sinner in his lifestyle.
What about the saint?
The saint, Paul, should behave no longer as a sinner.
He speaks of the saint's former manner of life.
In verse 22.
In verse 17 he says that you walk no longer like the Gentiles, that is those who are outside of God.
He says don't walk like, don't conduct yourself like that anymore. Don't be given to sensuality.
Behave no longer as a sinner. Why? Because you have learned Christ.
You have come to know him. And when you came to know Christ, he did not teach you that kind of a lifestyle.
The saint is to live distinctively in the world. The practice of life is to be different than the society around him which is given to sensuality.
The saint is to be noted, as he goes on to say in chapter four and into chapter five, the saint is to be noted for being honest in relationships.
That includes being honest in his speech in verse 25.
He says laying aside falsehoods, speak truth, be honest with your tongue.
You are a member of others, so speak the truth to one another, don't lie to others.
So to be honest in our anger.
There is a place for anger, where he says be angry but do not sin in your anger.
Don't allow that anger to remain in you and to dominate you and to infect you.
Be angry but be honest about it, deal with it in a righteous way.
We are to be honest in our work. He says let him who fails stop it.
Rather let him labor, performing with his hands.
There is honor in hard work.
So we are to be honest in our relationships, we are to be disciplined with our tongues, verse 29.
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth.
The word unwholesome means rotten.
It means something that is unfit for human consumption.
It's like food that is left out in the hot sun and begins to corrupt and to spoil.
He says don't allow that kind of language to come out of your mouth.
Be disciplined with your tongue.
Let your language rather minister grace to those who fear you.
He says that the saint is to be responsive to the Spirit of God, verse 30.
Don't grave the Holy Spirit, he says.
Don't cause the Holy Spirit to be saddened by the way that you live as a saint.
He says the saints are to be emancipated in attitudes, verse 31.
We are to be rid of with the flesh out of our lives bitterness and wrath,
anger, clamor, and slander.
He says that all of these things are put away along with malice.
What are these words?
Well bitterness refers to a sharp singing disposition.
The word in the original is pitria.
You get the idea of somebody who's picky, who's stingy, and who is sharp in tongue.
Let all bitterness be put away and wrath.
Talking there about the hot, passionate response to circumstances and anger,
which is a subtle indignation that looks for revenge.
Slander doesn't need any definition, does it? It's gossip.
And malice? Malice refers to picking on people.
It refers to being vicious, to doing injury to them, and delighting in the injury.
One of these things, he says, ought to be a part of a saint.
A saint is emancipated from these things.
He says the saints ought to be kind in relationships,
be kind ones to know that tender heart is forgiving and so on.
Imitate God, he says, and forgive just as God has forgiven you and Christ.
Saints ought to be pure in speech and action, chapter five, verses three and four.
Not a girl.
The point is this, that saints are distinct from sinners in their practice.
Now that being accepted, that being true, if the Word of God says that,
how then do we explain the contemporary aberrations in the saints,
or those who profess to be saints?
Well, you have extremes.
Today we have someone one side to say, well, all these people truly are saved,
but they are carnal Christians.
On the other hand, you have the extreme that says,
well, these people are never saved in the first place.
And their lifestyle shows that though they may profess Christ, they're not saved at all.
The truth is somewhere in between those two.
I do share the fear that I've heard some other Bible teachers express
that there are many people today who are in the community of the saints who are not saved.
They go to churches and churches like ours, evangelical churches,
but they don't know Jesus Christ.
They know the language, they can sing the choruses, they're able to know and pray,
they can go through all of the outward things, but their heart isn't right with God.
They have never learned Christ.
And what gives them away is their practice.
There is no distinction between them and sinners because they are sinners.
They're not saints at all.
On the other hand, I do believe that a saint can live less than an exemplary life.
We who are saints can practice a lifestyle that does not honor God.
In fact, Paul implies that there were those in Ephesus this very way.
That's why he says to them, stop lying one to another.
Stop stealing.
Implying that there were some who were doing this who were in the community of the saints in Ephesus.
Dear people, God calls us to holiness.
That means that there's a distinction between us and the rest of the world in our position.
And it means that there must be a distinction also in our practice.
Finally, it means that there is a distinction in our prospects.
Saints are distinct from sinners in their prospects.
What do sinners anticipate?
Well, whether they realize it or not, it is the wrath of God.
In chapter 5, verse 6, that no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things,
the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
So back in reference to Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 3, you find out that the sons of disobedience are those who are still in sin.
They're sinners who are dead and trespassers and sinners.
They have no relationship with God in their life service.
And he says that all that they have to anticipate is the wrath of God.
And John tells us that that wrath is already coming upon them
and that someday it will fully engulf them and carry them away
to be separated from God for all of eternity in the lake of fire.
The sinner has only one prospect and that is the wrath of God.
But the saint in distinction has a different prospect.
The saint anticipates the day of redemption.
Chapter 4, verse 30.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Repentance with chapter 1, verse 14.
Where it says that those who are God's people, those who are his chosen ones,
are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption.
Until the redemption of our bodies, talking about that time when we will be changed
and caught up to be with Christ.
The saint of God has only one prospect and that is the day of redemption
that will come when we are with Jesus.
Saints and sinners are distinct.
They are not the same way. They are not the same creatures.
They are different in their position. They are different in their practice.
They are different in their prospect.
And the obvious question to ask is, which are you?
Saint or sinner?
The community of the saints is a holy community
and therefore distinct from the rest of society.
It is true that the church has always had its greatest impact on the world
when it lived least like the world.
God has not saved us by grace so that we may live in disgrace.
He has saved us by grace so that we may live distinctively different in this world.
Which are you? Saint or sinner?
What distinctions would prove your claim?
Jesus Christ does not take us out of the world
He could do that. He does not take us out of the world. He leaves us here.
He is in the process of taking the world out of us.
Saints are growing in Christlikeness
but that growing in Christlikeness requires our cooperation.
It requires our surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Turning our backs on what we have been in the past.
And giving ourselves independence to him for the Holy Spirit's enabling.
So that we can live pleasing to him.
I'm glad that there is mercy and forgiveness with God.
For sinners who need to be saved and for saints who are living in sin.
There is mercy with God.
Both can claim that mercy today.
In coming to Jesus Christ and bowing to me.
Saint or sinner?
The saint of God determined by his grace to live distinctively.
Knowing that you are different and therefore you should be different.
There will be a price to pay.
That will not come easily.
There is a certain struggle for holiness.
We are the perfect holiness in the fear of God.
This was the caterpillar,
their food, the process of metamorphosis
and then the struggle to be released to enjoy his experience as a butterfly.
There is a certain struggle for holiness that my friends,
that is a struggle that God gives us grace for.
And that God has assured us he is with us in.
Maybe in the middle of the struggle that you have fallen down and you're discouraged
and taken as fish from your ears.
See, you're good for nothing.
You can never please God. You are worthless.
He loves to condemn.
But don't listen to him.
Reject his lie.
Understand today that if God has called you and you're one of his children,
if you're a saint of God,
if he is willing to receive you back even if you've fallen,
he is willing to pick you up in his arms and to love you,
to wash you, and to help you to walk on with him.
Determined by his grace if you're a saint to live like it.
Father, you have called us to be a community of holiness as the saints of God.
I pray that you will cause that holiness to be evidenced in our lives.
Understanding who we are as new people in Jesus Christ through faith in him,
may we live out that new life and put away the old self
and put on the new self, the new creation.
And wherein some of us have fallen,
wherein some of us have gotten discouraged in the pilgrimage of the saints,
renew us today, renew us in our vision of who we are,
renew us in our hope of what our destiny is,
renew within us the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to become
who you've called us to be.
In Jesus' name, Amen.