But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. - Ephesians 4: 20-24 (ESV)

There is a price to be paid for engaging in superficial Christianity. Across this country we see more and more pastors, well intended or not, lead their churches under the purpose driven, seeker friendly model. At the core, this philosophy believes that the full Gospel of Jesus Christ is somehow not enough to reach the next generation in this increasingly wicked culture. No one will admit that up front but denial is a powerful tool the enemy engrains in us. The actions speak to the truth where the pastors refuse to see. When you think that your church needs to be "relevant" to a culture that is consigning everyone to hell, the truth is that you do not have faith in the Gospel. When you feel you must strip mine the Bible for the portions that are warm and fuzzy in order to lure unsuspecting people into your church, the truth is you do not have faith in the Gospel. When you water down what it means to be born again, the truth is you do not have faith in the Gospel.

What is the end result however? You take an unchurched and unsaved individual and have them come to your service. They sit through a half hour of contemporary songs disguised as worship. They do not know anything about God but they take away from this half hour that they are a friend of God. That they are going to get their blessings right now. That they are God's portion and oh how He loves them. Next, they sit through a five minute plea for money during the offering. From that they learn their first Scripture, usually from Malachi, that God is just waiting to throw open the windows of heaven for them if they would just honor God first with their money. Next they hear a half hour message about something that can benefit their temporal life. How to improve their marriage. How to fix their fractured family. How to find their "purpose." The message is not a sermon in that it is devoid of the full Gospel. It is devoid of the cross. It is devoid of sin and the need to repent. It is devoid of any meaningful examination of Scripture. Sure there will be a few verses for the sake of optics but those are usually horrifically ripped out of context to highlight the most positive human message one can find. They learn that God wants them to be the head and not the tail. They learn that God has this wonderful plan for their life, to give them hope and a future. They learn that the grace of God will cover all of their sins, even the ones they have not committed yet. As the message starts to end, sappy manipulative music begins as the altar call segment begins. With all eyes closed and no one looking around...who likes what they heard about this Jesus guy? Raise your hand! I see that hand, thank you. OK, those that raised their hands - I want to pray with you. As the worship team comes to "minister" once again, please step out of your seat and meet me at the altar. You leave your seat confused. Maybe because your wife pushes you out. Maybe because you feel silly having raised your hand. Maybe because you were sold on this Santa Claus God who is just dying to bless you. For whatever reason, you find yourself there. After all, the preacher guy said it would only take five minutes. There you are asked to repeat a three sentence prayer, which is made easier because everyone else in the whole place has been asked to repeat it too. Maybe there is an obligatory mention of sin and repentance, maybe not. Basically it is asking this Jesus guy to come into your heart. Everyone stands and applauds as they hand you a Bible.

So what is the end result? The preacher says that if you were sincere that you just became born again and are promised a spot in heaven. Later that month you are baptized by merely nodding your head in assent to pre-packaged "testimony" spoken by the pastor. You fill out a SHAPE application to discover what your "gifts" are. You are assigned into a ministry you like and begin to fulfill your "purpose." You start to fancy yourself a Christian. Your defense would be that you attend church regularly and serve in a ministry faithfully. Your hand is on the plow. Nothing however has significantly changed in your life beyond Sundays. You still don't read your Bible. You still flirt with your secretary. You still engage in destructive behaviors. So what is the end result? You grow old in your Christianity. You pick up all the lingo. Your outside is nice and polished. Then one day your life is required of you as it will be for all of us. You stand before Christ. This is the end result:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Matthew 7: 21-23 (ESV)

But Lord, I never heard my pastor preach this verse! Didn't I go to church religiously for decades? Didn't I faithfully serve in the security ministry? Didn't I...

I do not know you. Away from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Lawlessness? I was told the law didn't matter anymore! I was told that was Old Testament! This cannot be happening! Oh beloved, there most definitely is a price to be paid for engaging in superficial Christianity. You may end up being churched right into hell. The Bible says that only the Gospel has the power unto the salvation of men. Not a cool sounding band. Not a slick speaking preacher. Not a mega church that may even do great temporal works in this world. Only the Gospel. So when you start with a compromised gospel, you end up with a compromised salvation. Paul understood this when he said goodbye to the Ephesian elders:

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. - Acts 20: 26-27 (ESV)

Paul knew he was innocent of their blood because he did not hesitate to declare the whole counsel of God! The whole Gospel! Not just the portions that appeal to our flesh. Not just the portions we all like to hear. But the whole counsel. The whole counsel of God includes the part about how we are sinners before a holy God in desperate need of a Savior. Without that you are not saved. Without understanding who you are and who God is, you merely end up as a double clothed Christian.

For a better understanding of what a double clothed Christian is, let us turn to the key verses for today. From the fourth chapter of the Book of Ephesians, we see Paul addressing the believers in Ephesus of what their new life in Christ is supposed to be like and how they were supposed to arrive there. He draws a distinct line between how someone who is unsaved walks and someone who has been born again. He describes the unsaved as being darkened in their understanding; alienated from a life with God due to the hardness of their heart. Callous; having given themselves up to all kinds of impurity. Before Paul gets to the contrast however, the life found in Christ, he wants to make sure the Ephesians have truly received Christ. He outlines a three step process in the key verses.

First we must put off our old self, which belongs to our former manner of life, which is corrupt through deceitful desires. There is a bit to unpack here. First of all, Paul couches his terms with something familiar to us all, changing clothes. We must "put off" our old self. Who is our old self? Who we were before we came to Christ. Notice here that this is a willful act. It is not a magic trick. It is not accomplished merely by saying a three sentence prayer. True repentance is more than a confession of sin - it is a willful turning from that sin. Anyone can feel bad. Anyone can feel sorry. Anyone can admit guilt. Repentance however is always coupled with a deliberate turning from our old sinful self. Perfection? Hardly; but a willful turning nonetheless. Just like when we come home from work and take off our work attire, we must take off who we were in this world before we came to Christ. Do you ever hear that in a seeker friendly church? No. How about when the people come up for the altar call? No. They approach the altar call wearing the same clothes they've always worn. They leave the altar call with them still securely on their body.

Secondly, this old set of clothes belongs to our former manner of life. If you were a bus driver and one day you changed careers to become a businessman, you would not attend your first board meeting in your old bus driver uniform. It does not belong there! It is not who you are anymore! It belongs to your former manner of life! The same applies for us as Christians:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - 2Corinthians 5: 17 (ESV)

We are supposed to be a new creation! The old has passed away - that means it is supposed to be dead to us! Behold the new has come! What was this former manner of life? Well, we were living in rebellion to God. We were living with a blind eye to sin. Sure we may have believed in God but what He had to say really didn't matter. Maybe we treated the things of God like a salad bar; taking what we liked and ignoring what we disliked. Give me a side of "be kind to your neighbors" but I'll pass on the no fornication rule. Boiled down to the simplest terms our old manner of life was lived in accordance with what the world believes. We are supposed to take that off. Why? Because it is corrupted through deceitful desires. The dictionary defines corrupt as being debased to the point of evil and wickedness! That is our former self in a nutshell. It existed in that state because our desires are contrary to God and look what else Paul says - they are deceitful! They lie to us! That is how come we are described as walking in darkness before the light of Christ comes into our lives. Our desires lie directly to us. They tell us we aren't that bad! Look at the one over there! You're better than them! You're a shoo in for heaven! Everyone else does it! Through these lying desires we become more and more corrupt. More and more wicked. More and more evil. That is the former self beloved and it must come off. Step two in the process here is to be renewed then in the spirit of our minds. I am reminded of an interesting parable:

"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation." - Matthew 12: 43-45 (ESV)

We have taken off the old self. We now stand naked before our Creator. We must be remade beloved. We cannot merely sweep the old ways away. We cannot merely take a dustpan to our mind and put things in some semblance of order. I like to joke that men clean by putting things back where they belong and women use chemicals and cleaning agents. Under that analogy, we cannot clean our mind like a man. We need to really wash ourselves in the blood of Christ. Matthew Henry describes this as follows:

The house is swept, but it is not washed; the heart is not made holy. Sweeping takes off only the loose dirt, while the sin that besets the sinner, the beloved sin, is untouched. The house is garnished with common gifts and graces. It is not furnished with any true grace; it is all paint and varnish, not real nor lasting. It was never given up to Christ, nor dwelt in by the Spirit.

Never given up to Christ. Never dwelt in by the Spirit. Back to our example of the visitor in the seeker friendly church. Still clothed in their former manner of life, they may take a broom to themselves. They may make the effort to play the part. They will learn the lingo. When to shout hallelujah and when to mournfully cry amen. The loose dirt may be removed to give the appearance of piety but the beloved sins that beset them were never removed. They remain tucked away in the pockets of the former self they still cling to. Never given up to Christ, it is all paint and varnish. The proverbial whitewashed tombs Christ spoke of. Nice and clean on the outside but on the inside full of dead man's bones.

The third step from the key verses is we are to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. We now see the whole process. We must take off the old self; our former manner of life that was corrupting us through lying desires. We then must renew our minds by a thorough cleaning of who we once were. We do not want the world rushing back in with seven more spirits. We must do more than sweep and pretend it is clean. Only then can we put on the new self. Notice that this new self is created after the image of God Himself. It isn't corrupted by the world. What is the likeness we seek after? True righteousness and holiness. Not the swept clean veneer. Not the tidied up mind but the renewed mind. Not paint and varnish but the true righteousness and holiness found only in God through His Word.

So what is the end result? Let us walk with that visitor one more time. When they approach the altar there has been no discussion about their sinful state. No discussion about how their old manner of self is inherently evil down to his blackened heart. That he is living in utter futility and darkness. That those secret desires he has, which we all have, are actually lying him right into hell. So he buttons up the jacket of his old self and approaches the altar. He is led, spoon fed actually, a three sentence prayer he cannot possibly mean because even if it is vaguely Biblical, none of it was addressed in the message! No discussion of sin, repentance, and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Just puppies and rainbows and let's invite Jesus into your heart. That is not only bad theology - it is false theology. No one in the Bible ever invited Jesus into their hearts beloved. People realized the tremendous weight of their sin and repented; believing unto the only one who could save them - Jesus Christ.

Stage two is never accomplished. Sure they will sweep the place clean. They will put things back where they are supposed to be. They will organize their old manner of life from their new church life. They are not stupid. They know they cannot mix the two. They may feel a bit hypocritical but hey - who isn't in the church! All they have to do is look around them to see that! Besides, it makes the wife happy and I get home on time to watch football so, no big deal. They enter stage three and try to put on their new self over their old clothes. They are now a double clothed Christian. On the outside, all the appearances of piety. Attending church, being baptized, becoming a member, tithing correctly, and serving in a ministry. They polish up their new clothes whenever they set out to church. Suit crisp. Hair neat. Blessed and highly favored they are! But underneath they have never renewed their mind. They are still wearing the clothes from their former manner of life. The truth is they never really left that life. They just added their new set of clothes to their wardrobe. Why would they change? They were never challenged to. They are now assured of eternal life by a man no better equipped to divide the Word of Truth than Mickey Mouse. But they serve. They are told they have discovered their purpose - hallelujah pass the offering plate. Five years, ten years, forty years later their life is required of them and they stand before Christ. They have two sets of clothes and a depraved mind. Jesus says He never knew him. He goes off into eternal punishment, something else his pastor never preached about. Beloved; there is a price to be paid for engaging in superficial Christianity. Don't you think for a moment that there is not. All I have is one questions for you today. How many sets of clothes do you have?

Reverend Anthony Wade - June 5, 2014