Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2719
“But you have not so learned Christ, if, indeed, you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.” Ephesians 4:20,21.
THE first two words of our text call attention to the distinction which must always be drawn between true Christians and other people, “But you.” The Apostle had been writing concerning other Gentiles and the evil lives they lived, so, to the Believers at Ephesus, he said that they were not to walk as unbelievers ordinarily did. Thus we learn at the very opening of our subject that if we are, indeed, Christians, there is a manifest distinction between us and the men of the world. I may be told that, of course, there was a great contrast between Christ’s followers and the heathen who lived in the Apostle’s day. And some persons will, perhaps, say that we cannot expect that there should now be the same difference between Christian men and unbelievers. I reply that there may be a variation as to the outward form of that contrast, but, essentially, it must be quite as true and real.
Someone was asking, the other day, how it was that the church, nowadays, was not so separate from the world as it used to be, and one who heard the question suggested that, possibly, the world had grown better. But someone more truly said that, probably, the church had grown worse. There are two ways of our coming together—the world may rise to our proper height, or we may descend to the world’s level. Well, now, I am quite certain that candor requires us to say that, in some respects, the condition of society is much better than it was. There are some of the grosser vices which were common enough 50 years ago, which are now held in general reprobation. To a very considerable extent, Christianity has leavened society. Men are not, as a rule, so coarsely vicious as they were in the days of our grandfathers, yet after making all the abatement I possibly can on that score, I cannot help feeling that the difference between the church and the world has been mainly changed by the church coming down from what it used to be! I wish we were as liable to be called fanatics as the first Methodists were simply because men judged us to be as earnest as they were. I would be glad if we were as worthy to be called Puritans as were the men of the days of Dr. John Owen and Oliver Cromwell. For my part, I think that, nowadays, we are not Puritan enough, or precise enough and, without any hesitation, we may make the assertion, which we are sure God’s Word will support, that whatever improvements there may be in the world, there must always be a marked distinction between the children of God and the seed of the serpent! There can never be a time in which death and life will be exactly alike, nor a season in which darkness will be the same thing as light. We must still, to the end of the chapter, be either born of God, born from above, or else continue to lie under the power of Satan. We must either be dead in trespasses and sins or else be quickened by Divine Grace. We must either have passed from nature’s darkness into God’s marvelous light, or else we are still abiding in that darkness!
You must also remember, my Brothers and Sisters, whoever you may be, that if there is no distinction between you and the world around you, you may be certain that you are of the world, for, in the children of God there must always be some marks to distinguish them from the rest of mankind so that we can contrast them with the ungodly, and address to them the words of our text, “But you have not so learned Christ.” There is a something in them which is not to be found in the best worldling. Something which is not to be discovered in the most admirable carnal man. A something in their character which can be readily perceived and which marks them as belonging to another and higher race—the twice-
born, the elect of God, eternally chosen by Him and, therefore, made to be choice ones through the effectual working of His Grace. Note this fact at the very commencement of our meditation, that there is a clear distinction between Christians and all other people.
Further, it appears from the text that the great means of this distinction is our being made into disciples to be taught of God, for the Apostle says, “But you have not so learned Christ.” So that it is something which we have learned’that makes us different from the rest of mankind. In our spiritual life, the first essential is conversion. This great change is like the turning of the helm which makes the boat head up in a new direction. But conversion is not everything. After the boat is turned, it has to be rowed, or else it will drift down the stream. If a man becomes Christ’s disciple by conversion, he must remain Christ’s disciple throughout the rest of his life by sitting at his Master’s feet and receiving instruction from Him, for it is only as we are taught of God that we shall be able to keep up the high spiritual distinction between ourselves and the rest of mankind. We are under the tutorship of the Holy Spirit—He has taken us into His school—He has already taught us something—He is now teaching us more and He will keep on teaching us more and more till we shall know even as we are known.