“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 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 lusts of deceit, and that 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.” (Ephesians 4:17-24 NASB1995)

In biblical times, the term “Gentiles” was associated with the ungodly, especially before Jesus’ death and resurrection, and prior to the apostles taking the message of the gospel to the Gentiles and many of them giving their lives to Jesus Christ to be Lord of their lives. And, in this context, it was being used in reference to the ungodly, and in reference to the kinds of lives which are lived by the ungodly of this world who are all those who have not died to sin and who are not obeying God, in practice, by faith in Jesus Christ.

And the message for us today is the same as it was for those to whom it was given then, and that is that if we believe in Jesus Christ with genuine biblical faith in the Lord, we should no longer be living like we did before we trusted in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives. We should no longer be living as slaves to sin, in addiction to sinful practices, living to please our flesh, and not to please God. And we should not give ourselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, which many are doing.

We should not have learned Christ and his gospel that way. Yet that is the kind of “gospel” which many people are teaching today to the masses. They are telling them that all they have to do is to give a verbal profession of faith in Jesus, and in his death and resurrection, and now they have forgiveness of all sins and heaven is secured for them when they leave this world, but regardless of how they live. Few, it seems, are teaching that a life of deliberate habitual sin, in disobedience to God, leads to hell, not to heaven.

What all of us should have been taught as the gospel of our salvation is that, by faith in Jesus Christ, we die with Christ to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as servants of righteousness in walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands. By faith in Jesus we lay aside the old self, corrupted by the lusts of the flesh, and we are renewed in the spirit of our minds, by the grace of God, and we put on the new self, created in the likeness of God according to his holiness.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Acts 26:18]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

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