Peter Barnes | Ephesians 4:17-20
SERMON NOTES
Put Off the Old Life
(Ephesians 4:17-20)
– general in 4:17-24, and more specific from verse 25 onwards.
1. It is necessary to put off the old life.
– 4:17; not ‘insist’ (NIV) but ‘testify’
– Hodge: ‘Truth .. has moral beauty.’
2. The depravity of the old life.
– 4:17-19; the emptiness of a Christless life
(a) hardness of heart. See Mark 3:5; Rom.11:25.
(b) ignorant thinking. Matt.4:16. H. G. Wells in 1945: Mind at the End of its Tether
(c) given over to unbridled impurity and sensuality. Jer.6:13-15. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is supposed to be art or entertainment.
Blaise Pascal: ‘Self will can never be satisfied, even if it were to secure everything it wanted; but we are satisfied the moment we give it up.’
3. Depravity is not from Christ.
– 4:20