Out With the Old, In With the New (text)

We apologize, but we had technical difficulties on the Sunday of this mesage and were unable to get a recording.  We really think that this message is an important part of the series, so we pray God uses the manuscript to communicate his truth to us.

 

 

Out With the Old, In With the New

 

 

 

We are returning to our study in Ephesians after taking a couple weeks off for the holidays. Just a quick review of where we've been:

 

Chapters 1-3 are all about God's sovereign work in saving lost sinners. Salvation is all of God - it is not a cooperative effort between man and God. If we try to add any human work to the finished work of Christ on Calvary, we negate the power of the cross completely. We must accept God's gift of salvation as a free gift by faith in Jesus Christ. In a word: justification. Justification is God's work to make sinners holy and righteous in His sight. Nothing we can do to justify ourselves and never be more or less justified in God's sight.

 

In chapter four, with the word "therefore" Paul transitions us from justification to our sanctification (a big word meaning our growing in holiness or Christ likeness in our actual experience). For the next three chapters, his focus will be on the practicalities of Christian life and our sanctification, and for that we must apply effort. We need God's grace to grow in sanctification, but we also need to work at it. We can't do it without God, and He won't do it without us.

 

Ephesians 4:17-24

 

Paul gives four imperatives (commands) in these 8 verses that are for our growth in godliness and in our fight against sin. The first one is found in verses 17-19:

 

I.                  You must not live like those who do not follow Christ (vv. 17-19)

 

You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. Notice "no longer" - Paul is writing to Gentile believers - they must not live like they did before they knew Christ. Live differently. Doesn't mean live differently like wear outdated clothes and don't listen to music with a drumbeat in it. He's talking about an entire belief system leading to direction and changing the force of their lives.

 

In chapter two Paul reminds the Ephesian believers that they were once dead in their transgressions and following the course of this world, which is directed by the power of the devil and under the wrath of God. In His mercy and love God interrupted their rush to destruction by saving them through His Son, Jesus Christ. Don't live like those who are still rushing headlong to destruction.

 

1. Their minds are darkened by sin

 

The term "the futility of their minds" is a vivid word that means vanity or emptiness. It comes from the word "breath" or vapor. They are chasing the wind. Every road they choose is a hopeless dead end.

 

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. Do you see how Paul connects their thinking with their hopeless state?

 

The human mind is a gift from God. We think and reason like no other creature on earth- that is one way in which man was created in the image of God. But the Bible tells us that when sin entered the world it warped our thinking - because sin rejects God and exalts self, it is fatally misguided and it has fatally flawed our thinking so that we could never think or reason our way to a right understanding or a personal

knowledge of God or a right understanding of life. Only way is by believing God's revelation of Himself.

 

1. Their hearts are hardened by sin (vs. 18-19)

 

Ignorance in them due to their hardness of heart. Source of ignorance isn't lack of information - hardness of heart. Not just that they don't know the truth - refuse the truth. Can't see that (darkened), but true. Sin has hardened their hearts and verse 19 says that hardness causes them to become callous. Calluses are hardened, dead skin that has lost its sensitivity to feeling. That's what sin does to our consciences - over time the conscience becomes calloused and loses sensitivity to the evil of sin. The conscience that was a gift from God to alert us when we were doing wrong - now sits silent.

 

Last night our carbon monoxide alarm went off. There is a button to silence it - but I knew that to just to silence it without finding out if there was a carbon monoxide problem could be a fatal solution. An alarm going off might be annoying, but to ignore that alarm could be fatal!

 

It turned out to be the battery, but I needed to make sure I was addressing the real problem and not just silencing the alarm. As the heart becomes callus, the alarm is silenced just when it is needed the most.

 

1. Their lives are given up to sin (vs. 19)

 

Because their hearts are callous, they have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity - that means whatever their sensuous cravings dictate, that's what they live for. Downward spiral: the more they get, the more they want. The thrills of yesterday don't thrill anymore so they need to push the envelope further and further to satify cravings. There's a reckless abandon to sin regardless of the consequences. Eventually there's no more alarm. Their conscience sits silent.

 

At this point we see the dangerous state in phrase "they have given themselves up to sensuality". It is a phrase closely connected with judgment.

 

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves...(Romans 1:24)

 

It is the step before judgment and the wrath of God.

 

This description isn't limited to the vilest of sinners. Describes the human condition. Not every person is in the same place on this spiral - but it is the nature of the fallen heart. I can see these things in my heart - I suspect you can see them in your heart as well if honest. If you are not a Christian, it describes your heart - you are somewhere on that downward spiral. The Bible tells you there is only one hope: to call on the name of the Lord. To ask Jesus to save you - and He promises He will save all who call upon Him in truth.

 

Vs. 20 - But that is not the way you learned Christ!

 

Thank God for His mercy in arresting us in our downward spiral toward destruction and for saving us. Here is the wonderful news of the gospel: yes, there is still sin present in our lives, but it is not our master anymore. Its entanglement will not pull us downward to destruction for the Lord Himself has grasped us and is pulling us irresistibly upward (upward calling we have received) and toward life. Christ has torn down the wall and brought us near to God. Light of truth has shone on our minds and hearts. Spirit has taken our heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh to know and love God. Work of God - not ourselves.

 

Notice the emphasis on thinking: learned Christ/heard of him/taught in him/truth is in Jesus. Christian discipleship must always emphasize teaching and thinking differently based on truth of God's word. How do we battle sin? How do we become more Christ-like? Second imperative:

 

II.               You must put off the old man of your sinful flesh (vv. 20-22)

 

This image is very helpful. We need to put off (or take off) the old man of our sinful desires the way we would take off filthy stinking clothes. The Christian faith doesn't try to reform our flesh - its answer is to crucify the flesh and its corrupt desires!

 

When I was a teenager I took guitar lessons for a while from a woman and she would come to home to teach me. One day I was outside playing football with some neighborhood friends when my dad called me in for a guitar lesson.

 

But - and my apologies for the faint of heart - I was all sweaty and stunk up the place! I couldn't take the smell of me! I was having a really hard time concentrating on lesson cause I wondered what she was thinking. So after a while I excused myself and went to the room. I could have washed and changed real quick, but I (being a blockhead of a teenager) thought of an easier way: I splashed a lot of cologne on me.

 

Went back to finish the guitar lesson, and man, I stunk worse now than before! It was really putrid - and a painful lesson for a self-conscious teenager. In same way, it is not enough to splash cologne on our sin. Need a change of clothes. Put off the old man with its corrupt desires.

 

The Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin progressively. Usually just one sinful heart issue (maybe two) at a time. So let's say you're convicted of the sin of pride and begin to see how you have lived life enslaved to your pride. Begin to see the desires that that pride had: people admire you, think well of you, not criticize you, worship you, whatever. Then perhaps see specific actions you took that fed that sin.

 

¨       Preoccupation with appearance

¨       Saying only what think people want to hear

¨       Trying to impress people by dropping information about self

 

See it as sin - killing real life - phony image consumed with self. Not loving and caring about people. The answer isn't to put cologne on that sin. You need to put off those desires - desire to impress, craving for approval, fear of criticism. You need to kill the actions or situations that feed that sinful desire.

 

I am convicted that I can be impatient with people at times (especially those closest to me). Sometimes it comes out in self-righteousness about where someone might be weak or struggling. The "I can't believe that you did that..." kind of attitude. Harsh when someone's not doing what I want - like being ready to go when its time.

 

Asking the Lord to help me put off that sinful response. It's a slow process and I fail often. But what I don't want to do is justify my impatience or rationalize it. Don't want to slap cologne on it. Confess and repent of it. Put it off. The Lord promises us grace to do that.

 

III.           You must be renewed in your mind (vs. 23)

 

This is pivotal between putting off and putting on. Renewing our minds. We are what we think! "What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us."  - A W Tozer.

 

The unregenerate mind is filled with futility, as Christians we need to renew our mind and our thinking daily with thoughts that that lead to life. Do you meditate on scripture? Do you consider eternity? Do you think about the day of your death and the passing from this life to the next? If that is morbid to you then your thoughts are being influenced by the futile thinking of this world. Death for the believer is the gateway into the glory of the kingdom of Christ.

 

Do you meditate on thoughts about Christ and His glory? Do we think about how we can live our lives for the purposes of God rather than live for the temporary pleasures of this world?

 

"Here's a test to see if your mission in life is finished, if you're still alive it's not" - A.W. Tozer

 

As we fill our minds with the good things of God's Word and truth - He renews our minds with life and light. What are you filling your mind with?

 

IV.           You must put on the new man that God already created you to be (vs. 24)

 

It's not enough to put off sin - need to put on righteousness. Jesus didn't die to make us neutral, He died to make us righteous. We are to overcome evil with good. It's easy for Christians to become known for what they're against. We should be more known for what we're for.

 

Pride - put on humility. Anger - put on kindness. Selfishness - put on others mindedness. Lust - put on purity. Stinginess - put on generosity.

 

We are putting on what God has already created us to be. We are new creatures in Christ:

                        

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

 

But we must put on the new man of who God created us to be daily. Put on the attitude of love. Put on the attitude of gratefulness. Put on the attitude of patience.

 

Conclusion:

 

This drives us to our knees in prayer. I don't want anyone to think this is easy or even possible apart from the grace of God at work in our lives. What I want us to know is that that grace is available to you right now, right here.

 

It is easy to be filled with condemnation for the remaining sin - that isn't biblical and it doesn't help. Condemnation simply saps you of grace - it never imparts grace. As we close, thank God He has rescued you and saved you from the hopelessness of our lost state. He has saved us. Hold to that - and claim His promises that He has made you a new creation and will give you grace to put off sin and put on Christ. Let's claim that promise together now in prayer.