Live No Longer As Gentiles

I. EXORDIUM:

Are you a new creation Gentile?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To show that we are new creation Gentile.

IV. TEXT:

Ephesians 4:17-18 (Amplified Bible)

So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds.

Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature].

V. THESIS:

We are new creation Gentile.

VI. TITLE:

Live no longer as Gentiles

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Apostle Paul

B. Date written: 60 A.D. to 64 A.D.

C. Purpose: To show believers their position in CHRIST and encourage them to walk accordingly

D. To whom written: church at Ephesus

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Futile thoughts

"in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds"

Romans 1:28 (Amplified Bible)

And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome,

Romans 8:7 (Amplified Bible)

[That is] because the mind of the flesh [with its carnal thoughts and purposes] is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God’s Law; indeed it cannot.

Colossians 2:18 (Amplified Bible)

Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,

B. Darkened understanding

"Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded."

2 Corinthians 3:14 (Amplified Bible)

In fact, their minds were grown hard and calloused [they had become dull and had lost the power of understanding]; for until this present day, when the Old Testament (the old covenant) is being read, that same veil still lies [on their hearts], not being lifted [to reveal] that in Christ it is made void and done away.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (Amplified Bible)

For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God.

1 John 2:11 (Amplified Bible)

But he who hates (detests, despises) his brother [in Christ] is in darkness and walking (living) in the dark; he is straying and does not perceive or know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

C. Separated from GOD's life

"[They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature]"

Psalms 58:3 (Amplified Bible)

The ungodly are perverse and estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

Matthew 15:8 (Amplified Bible)

These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me.

Ephesians 2:12 (Amplified Bible)

[Remember] that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ [excluded from all part in Him], utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise [with no knowledge of or right in God’s agreements, His covenants]. And you had no hope (no promise); you were in the world without God.

Ezekiel 14:5 (Amplified Bible)

That I may lay hold of the house of Israel in the thoughts of their own mind and heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols.

Ezekiel 44:10 (Amplified Bible)

But the Levites who went far away from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, they shall bear [the punishment for] their iniquity and guilt.

1. Because of their ignorance

Jeremiah 5:4 (Amplified Bible)

Then I said, Surely these are only the poor; they are [sinfully] foolish and have no understanding, for they know not the way of the Lord, the judgment (the just and righteous law) of their God.