Ephesians 4:17-24, Dress For Spiritual Success

we're gonna continue our study in the book of Ephesians chapter 4 last week we looked at bodybuilding and this week we're gonna be looking at dressing for spiritual success it's really going to be about faith and fashion but not how you think but before we get into our study I want to read a passage of scripture to you from the book of psalms and invite you to do what it says it's found in Psalm chapter 55 verse 22 many of you are gonna be familiar with it it says cast your burden on the Lord and he shall sustain you he shall never permit the righteous to be moved not the self-righteous but the righteous those who have been made right by God in Christ so I'm going to invite you to cast your burden on the Lord if you come here tonight and there's something in your heart other than love and other than worship pain or sin or guilt the burden has found itself on the surface of your soul and you'd like release and relief I'm going to invite you to do that right now let's pray Heavenly Father the Scriptures have given us instruction that we could cast our burden on you and that you would sustain us that you will never let the righteous fall or be moved or permit them to be moved and so lord I pray for that man I pray for that woman who finds himself or herself deeply burdened with a profound pain or guilt or sin it's overwhelming Lord they've cried out to you and they want relief and release and so lord I pray that we could do exactly that that we could lay our burden at your feet that Lord you would fill our hearts with your presence and with your love that Lord we would be men and women who have the ability Lord to hear from you and to be taught by you and to experience peace forgiveness and hope Lord we commit these things to you when we pray these things in Jesus name Amen Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17 again Paul writes this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness but you have not so learned Christ if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him and the truth is as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true right justice and holiness Paul has taught the Ephesians and he's prayed for the Ephesians and he's exhorted the Ephesians he's talked about the church and gifted leadership for growth and for help and for integrity that we are to mature he's also reminded us that there's a danger that we may not mature unless we remain in the Word of God unless we remain in prayer unless we remain in fellowship with God in the Saints we realize that trials and sufferings are meant to mold us shape us grow us and remember the church at Ephesus was by and large made up of Gentiles and remember what a Gentile is it's anyone who's not Jewish Paul warns that we're not to think or walk or conduct ourselves like the ungodly we're to refrain from acting like ungodly believers and so in Paul's prayer in Chapter three we were to be strengthened and might by the Holy Spirit in chapter 3 verse 16 we're to make room for the Holy Spirit remember we make room for the Holy Spirit in our heart as we make room for the Holy Spirit in our heart we make room for Jesus in our heart as we make room for Jesus in our heart we make room for love in our heart as we make room for the spirit and for Jesus and for love in our heart we begin to act out that love that grace in our heart the overwhelming love in chapter 3 verse 19 having done all this we can expect God to do remember what we learned exceeding abundant above all that we ask or think I need you to understand something and I've repeated this repeatedly the first three chap deal with belief the last three with behavior the first three with doctrine the last three with duty there's a reason why Paul is using this method to instruct the Ephesian believers and us he's trying to tell us this is what you should believe and this is how you can live based on what you believe I don't know how to say this but as bluntly as I as I can Paul really believes that a Christian can be different in his or her heart and in their life that is rush training as it is as difficult as it is as we become more and more upset with ourselves and disappointed in ourselves and disgusted with ourselves and we think how could I have been a Christian for such a long time and continue with these thoughts or speak this way or act this way and Paulo saying we can be different it's we can really be different and so we're given according to Paul a new spiritual wardrobe to wear you know when I was in the third grade I had an interesting event happen in my life I remember going to school and this perfectly innocent well-meaning young lady in my class said to me why do you wear the same clothes every day to school and I thought that's perfectly legitimate question I guess I mean I would wear a t-shirt and and little boy Levi's and either kid sneakers or or they were called engineer boots these were the precursors to Doc Martin I was dressed like a little motorcycle outlaw because that's the way my mother dressed me and I went home and I said mom I got asked a really interesting question today why do I wear the same clothes every day and she explained to me in the best way that she knew how that we were poor and that I had four other brothers and sisters and she exclaimed that that that this is what we had and that we should be grateful for what we had and I was satisfied with her hand answer the reason why I wore the same clothes was because that's all that I had and before you and I came to Christ we had clothes they were stained clothes they were soiled clothes they were the only clothes that we had we wore the soiled garments that were handed down to us from Adam we were born in sin and in iniquity we were spiritually alienated from God you'll remember in chapter 2 we were dead in trespasses and sins we were deceived by Satan and disobedient in chapter 2 verses 2 & 3 but remember Paul says all of that changed in chapter 2 verses 4 through 10 we were given a new set of clothes we were given a new life we were given a new description of how we could live our life in Jesus and now Paul pleads with all the apostolic authority that he can muster that we can live differently that even though the world continues to be a source of temptation and defilement and we wonder why can't we just go to heaven now why do we have to remain here why do we have to stay here why do I have to go through this reoccurring process of failure and success and failure and success or for some of us failure failure failure failure and success I'm not mentioning any names we're in the world but we're not of it and Paul has reminded us that we remain in the world so that we can be a witness to the world and you see this isn't just simply about us growing and Grayson and the knowledge of the truth and maturation although all of that is important it's an important part of it but Paul is going to make the point that part of the maturation is so that you would be a testimony to a watching world as they ask the question in their own mind as Jesus really saved people does he really change people does he really forgive people does he really cleanse their heart does he really give them joy does he really give them life we have to ditch our old clothes and were given a new set of spiritual clothes so in order to ditch the old wardrobe and our fallen fashion Paul is going to instruct us that we're gonna have to take what what we used to wear and we're gonna have to throw it in the trash and we're gonna have to put on a new set of clothes and he does this by describing our old spiritual closet look what he says in verse 17 this I say therefore and if you've been studying the book of Ephesians and you watched the their fours and the wherefores remember what he's doing he's reminding you of everything that he has said when he says therefore remember you have to look and see what it's there for it's chapter 1 it's chapter 2 it's chapter 3 and I don't have time to repeat everything that I've taught you over the last several months go back and read it or get the tapes he says I say therefore and testify in the Lord that means I'm being consistent with what God wants that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness pause Paul basically says and reminds us don't walk like the Gentiles walk well how do they walk how do the rest of the Gentiles walk Paul explains how they walk and the reason for their thinking and the reason for their behavior and in doing and revealing their thinking and their behavior he once again reminds us of who we used to be and what some of our friends and family are the unbelievers mind is dark and you know why because they believe lies because they haven't received the truth in verses 17 and 18 the unbeliever is spiritually dead why because they're alienated from the life of God in verse 18 the unbeliever surrenders herself or himself to all kinds of sin now think about the logic and the progression the unbelievers mind is dark because they believe lies the unbeliever spiritually dead because they're alienated from God the unbeliever surrenders himself or herself to all kinds of sin because they live in the lie and they live in the darkness and they aren't there the presence of the holy spirit isn't in them and so the big question that you say is okay I get that I get that I get that as an unbeliever but why is this a problem still for me a person who believes in Jesus and loves Jesus and wants to walk in Jesus because in a very real sense sometimes we surrender to lies sometimes we allow the old man to dictate our passions and pleasures and sometimes we surrender ourselves to those passions and pleasures so we can contrast and compare their condition with our own by rereading Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 & 2 remember it says in verse chapter 2 you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience remember over and over again he's contrasting what you used to be with what you are and you can say it you can go this isn't me I'm born again I want to honor Jesus and so the Gentiles walk in the vanity or the futility of their mind and verse 17 that word mind in the Greek language is is the word noose not like a noose that you put around your neck but that's the way it's it's pronounced it's the seat of thought and will when it's used in this context it means the seat of thought and will and then the ability to comprehend the truth your mind is the place where you think the mind is the place where you make your decisions the mind is the place where you can comprehend something that is real or not real or true or not true the mind is where reason and understanding and moral choices are made the word futility means empty it means senseless it means vain aimless unsuccessful worthless and so you put these two things together and you begin to understand that the unbelieving thought processes aren't rooted and grounded in the biblical revelation in the mind in the heart of God and the character of God the person apart from God and Christ I'm not saying that they're incapable of thinking or they're incapable of understanding or incapable of making moral decisions but what I am saying and what the scripture says is that their understanding is dark do you know why it's dark because the things of God are spiritual they're spiritually discerned the unbeliever finds a way to push God out of his or her thinking and the moment that you find a way to push God out of your thinking then you also give yourself permission to push godly living out of your thinking and guess what our Christians immune from this is it possible that we as Christians for whatever reason we begin to not include God in our thinking and when we don't include the Lord in our thinking we have this tendency to push him out of our thinking and when we do then we make unfortunate decisions for the unbeliever when they push God out of their thinking and out of their living they don't just simply not believe anything there's no such thing as a person who doesn't believe anything everyone believes something and everyone when they push God out of their thinking substitute it for a new God one of their own fabrication one of their own invention and the first choice is usually the self it's I'm in charge of my life I'm in charge of my thinking I'm in charge of my decision-making I'm going to do what I want to do sometimes they give themselves permission to indulge themselves or or to indulge themselves with power possession or position they're free to embrace man-made religions or godless ideas or seek worldly honor the psalmist wrote in Psalm chapter 10 verse 4 the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all of his thoughts in Psalm 94 11 we read the Lord knows the thoughts of man that they are vanity or they are empty and when the psalmist says the Lord knows the thoughts of man even when people don't think that God know what they're thinking he knows exactly what they're thinking and because he knows exactly what the ungodly are thinking do you think he knows exactly what you're thinking in proverbs 15 26 we read the thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord but the words of the pure are pleasant a simple Christian a simple man or woman of God who in the simplicity of their heart and the simplicity of their life and in the simplicity of their love who just simply say Lord I don't know everything about everything but I know that you're real and I know that you love me and I know that you're in charge these are pleasant words to the Lord Paul peeks in our closet he gives a graphic description of the clothes that we use to wear that life apart from Jesus is like falling down a moral staircase John Stott outlines these verses this way he says number 1 hardness of heart that moves to darkness of heart that moves to deadness of heart that moves to recklessness that is unrestrained unhindered abandonment to sin and so it begins when the heart is hard it continues when the heart is dark and then it culminates when the heart is dead and that's why your family and friends that's why the people who you love and you care about do what they do and guess what the ancient pagan lifestyle that Paul describes in many ways mirrors our own doesn't it would you say that we live in a culture that soft of heart and full of light and full of life or would you say that if you look at the popular media if you look at what preoccupies us if you look at what you see on the internet if you read and watch the popular media do you think that the popular media reflects hardness and darkness and deadness and then the celebration of sin we live in a culture as you already know that celebrates the hard heart the dark heart the dead heart even I was shocked this last week on Sunday when a man walked into a church and killed some 26 people and wounded 20 more and a leader in our culture just simply bowed his head and invited the nation to pray and he was met with ridicule and criticism he said what why pray to a person who's not even there and if prayer works then why would these people get shot I mean where else do you why else would you go to church but to pray this proves that prayer doesn't provide anything we live in a culture in a society that doesn't believe what you believe they don't believe that there's a real God who loves you and cares for you and that when you pray to this God he listens to what you say and he cares about what you say look closely at the expression in verse 18 where it says having their understanding darkened and at the end of the verse ignorant look at the word blindness of their hearts all of these phrases point back to the functions of the mind Paul is tying these two acts together here Paul uses the word understanding to mean thinking or thought processes but thinking in such a way that causes active reflection ignorant is knowledge deprivation which leads to mistaken conduct so the ignorance and fallen human being is a kind of willful blindness the mind is the instrument that we used to think and where the mind leads the body will typically follow and so again it's very very important for Satan to succeed that people believe lies and when people believe lies in their head they give themselves permission to act on those lies so Paul's point is they're darkened in their understanding and they're excluded from the life of God because of ignorance and then a hard-hearted rejection of God the word that Paul uses for hardening is a very interesting word it's the Greek word / OSIS and you know that word you've used that word if you've ever used the term osteoporosis it's the hardening of bones its root is in the word Poros which in the ancient language or in the Greek language it meant a stone but it meant a stone that was harder than marble in other words it was the kind of stone that would require an iron chisel in order to break the hardness so he's talking about a particular kind of hardness that is very difficult to undo the same word is used of the religious leaders who conspire together to murder Jesus you'll remember in the Gospel of Mark where there's a man with a withered hand and jesus heals him on the Sabbath and in Mark 3 forces and when he looked around at them with anger being grieved by the hardness same word poros by the hardness of their hearts he said to the man stretch out your hand and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other in other words in the midst of a hard-hearted unbelieving group of people Jesus decides to do a miracle anyway and in the midst of a hard-hearted bitter anger and culture that doesn't believe God or doesn't believe miracles or doesn't believe anything that the Bible says God wants to stretch out its hand Jesus reaches hop and says you know what I'm gonna love you and I'm gonna touch you where you are and I'm gonna heal you and I'm going to work with you and I'm gonna transform your life so that everyone around you are going to be surprised and amazed by God's ability to change a person's life in the book of Romans Paul describes human beings as being willfully ignorant of the revelation of both creation and conscience but he also says that they're culpable or accountable for their willful rejection of Jesus humans go out of their way to plug their ears and close their eyes and shut their hearts to the plan of God and the work of God and the will of God Paul in the book of Romans describes this as a suppression of the truth by wickedness in Romans chapter 1 verse 18 he talks about how they hold down the truth almost like you would try to hide something by throwing a blanket over it I'm reminded of a story of a little boy who smuggled his dog into his into his room and when he heard his parents coming he threw the little dog in this toy box and he closed the lid and he sat on it when the parents came in and talked and you could hear this and you hear the scratching scratching and scratching and whimpering and whimpering and the parents say to the little boy what is that it's nothing it's nothing that's what the presence of the Holy Spirit is is like in the heart of human beings where you hear this whimpering and scratching as people desperately tell you that they don't believe that there's a God or if he is a God he's a cruel that they're mad at him or they're upset with him and all the while you should be able to know that in that hard heart and in that dark heart and perhaps the dead heart is the desire struggling just like you just like you do you remember before you got saved do you remember your hardness of heart your darkness of heart and someone said I know what you just said but I just want to remind you that there's a God who loves you and who cares about you and who's willing to change you the root condition of the Fallen heart is hardness and because the root condition is that porosity it leads to the dark heart hard heart dark heart dead heart in verse 18 it says being alienated from the life of God to be alienated from the life of God is to be dead while you live you're alive but it isn't the life of God this is the exact description again that Paul gave in chapter 2 verse 1 and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin from arkad Hughes writes quote from hardness and darkness comes deadness and so if you pause for just a moment and you listen to the news and the culture as they talk about what's going on all around you did you ever hear a single leader say you know what the solution to the gun violence in our country is it's a revival people need to get right with God you know what people need to do they need to repent of their sin and turn to Jesus people need everywhere to turn from their sin and embrace Jesus and embrace his love turn from their sin accept Christ that's not what they're gonna say one moment in the Word of God is going to provide you with more insight into how to pray for this world and live in this world I read the story of a Thuggee that he was an Indian murderer who lived between 1790 and 1840 what was fascinating about this story is that this particular person strangled he hoped he has the Guinness Book of World Records of killing the most amount of people 930 victims with his yellow and white strip of cloth the reason why I even bring this up is because if you ask and you answer the question how wicked is wicked we begin to see just how wicked human beings are capable of I'm hoping and praying that none of you are serial killers but if you are now you have a little bit of an understanding of why you are what you are I'm certainly not justifying what you're doing I'm trying to bring a solution to the problem that you face most of us aren't going to experience their depravity that deep but its depravity nonetheless in verse 19 it says who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness verse 19 the amplified bible reads this way in their spiritual apathy or indifference they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves a prey to unbridled sensuality eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity that their depraved desires may suggest or command and that's part of the point that is being made as this outline is being given these are the people where the boundaries are gone and they're willing to do whatever the word translated greediness Pleo nexia in the Greek language is very very interesting but before I get to that again I this is the soiled garment this is the bitter fruit of living a life apart from Jesus past feeling lewdness to work on uncleanness in greeting that greediness these vivid strong terms lewdness and past people don't use that word anymore they used to at the beginnings of my young life people would talk about lewd conduct the word translates an old English word lasciviousness or wantonness or excess or de Patri or sensuality it's the Greek word ASSA Legia that greek word ASSA Legia is a word that describes behavior absent shame this is the person who's going to do that which is wicked they're gonna do it out in the open and they don't care what you think the word greediness translates the greek word play o nexia William Barclay helps us understand these words he says quote the man who has ASSA Legia in his soul doesn't care how much he shocks public opinion as long as he can gratify his desires sin can get such a grip on a man that he has lost to decency and shame he's like a drug taker who first takes the drug and secret he comes to a stage when he openly pleads for the drug on which he has become dependent a man can let his sexual desires so master him that he doesn't care who sees him in order to satisfy himself this is the person who says I don't care what you say and I don't care what you think and they just simply get drunk or drugged or they act out right in front of you and there's few things that are more disgusting than if you've ever had to live in a world where you come home and there's your mother drunk or there's your father drunk or there's this person who's important to you drunk and they are oblivious to their circumstances or condition playo nexia translated greediness is another terrible word it's been defined as the spirit in which a man is always ready to sacrifice his neighbor for his own desires Pleo nexia is the irresistible desire to have what we have no right to possess it might issue in the in the theft of material things it might issue in the spirit which tramples on other people to get its own way that's how Berkeley defines it these are ugly words that describe people who look left all restraint when this kind of darkness and hardness sweeps the soul the human is capable of unspeakable acts this is the person who will go into a school and shoot it up go into a church and shoot it up this is the person who has no boundaries whatsoever Wayne Gacy was convicted and executed for the rape and murder of 33 people men and boys it was said he had no remorse Jeffrey Dahmer molested and killed and then cannibalized his victims Ted Bundy assaulted and killed with calculated precision we don't always again act out our most wicked thoughts or wicked desires but you're making a terrible mistake if you underestimate your own capability of acting out when hardness and darkness lead to deadness according to the FBI there are some 35 to 50 serial killers on the loose at any given moment when I was at Quantico I heard this statistic this makes it almost impossible for me to watch Criminal Minds on TV because to me it isn't just drama or a story that entertains it reminds me of the deep deep reality that there are people out there who are capable of great harm according to the Department of Justice website there are 50,000 sexual predators at any time given any moment on the internet for people who decide that they're going to act out it becomes a very big danger Jesus has pulled us out of this cesspool he has pulled us out of the old life and thank God that for most of you the old life wasn't as deep and dark and depraved as that but some of you come from a pretty dark place and you've experienced some pretty dark things and so Jesus is Paul is reminding us Jesus has saved you your life was meant to be different then he talks about this new spiritual closet look what it says in verse 20 but you have not so learned Christ that's not what you learned you didn't learn darkness and deadness you if you have not so learned Christ if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which corrupt according to deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God and true righteousness and holiness thank God thank God thank God for verse 20 but you have not so learned Christ that's not what you learned from Jesus here Paul introduces three what I call pedagogical terms that means teaching terms it's a big fancy name for a way in which to teach he's going to use teaching terms so the metaphor is going to be a bit mixed remember you go well Gina you talked about starting off and I've closed and now it's gone to the classroom true Paul is willing to do whatever it takes to get his point across and I'm gonna try to do the same he will use teaching terms words like a teacher Jesus is our teacher in verse 20 but he's also what will actually verse 21 here's why I put it Jesus is our lesson in verse 20 he's our teacher in verse 21 and then we discover that Jesus isn't just the lesson and he isn't just the teacher he's the classroom he's the environment in which we learn this is total Jesus immersion classroom Jesus lesson Jesus instruction Jesus so Paul is in effect saying surely you heard him remember verse 20 but you have not so learned Christ in what way this isn't what you learned what did you learn what did you hear you must have heard Jesus speak loud and clear now I'm gonna go back in time and space Paul is speaking to the Ephesians they're mostly Gentiles is it possible that Paul is actually speaking to some people who may have literally heard Jesus with their own ears and saw Jesus with their own eyes that's possible most of them almost certainly hadn't heard Jesus with their own ears or seen him with with their own eyes but they heard about him through the instructions of people like Paul and people like Timothy and so when Paul is speaking and he's speaking the words of Jesus and when Timothy is speaking and he's speaking the words of Jesus it's as if they're hearing Jesus himself dr. FF Bruce States quote Christ Himself is the Christian teacher even if the teaching is given through the lips of the followers to receive the teaching is in the truest sense to hear him unquote that's what F F Bruce says so when you hear me say the words of Jesus it isn't just me saying the words of Jesus you are hearing the words of Jesus when you go that's what Jesus said and it's got to mean something to me I think about John 10:16 where it says and they will hear my voice jesus said John 10:14 you know these words I'm the Good Shepherd and I know my sheep and am known by my own jesus says I know who belongs to me and I know who doesn't I know who speaks to me and I know who doesn't it's possible that you could fool yourself and you could fool the people around you fool me but you can't fool Jesus the teachings of Jesus stand in stark tres to the teachings of this world what does this world tell you to do watch out for yourself to take care of yourself if you don't watch out for yourself and take care of yourself no one else is going to to watch out and take care of it be first don't be last and Jesus says no the first will be last and the last will be first in the upside-down way of thinking Jesus invites us not to embrace the failed philosophies of human perception and human wisdom he basically says the opposite take your life and live it with all the gusto you can and Jesus says now the person who loses his life will save it and the person who saves his life for my sake will never lose it he says I'm the resurrection in the life he even if he were dead yet shall he live whoever lives and believes in Me will never die do you want to stay alive forever then you need to know me and love me in the world the first and our first and the last our last Paul puts it bluntly and succinctly he basically says what this world is telling you isn't true and look what it says in the text in verse 21 the truth is in say it out loud everyone the truth is in and Jesus the truth is in Jesus the truth isn't in Roman Catholicism or Protestantism or this ISM or that ISM it's true that conservatism versus liberalism versus this is Amanda is an are they going to contain elements of truth that might be true but is it going to contain the most important truth where is the source of salvation it's Jesus how do you receive forgiveness of sin it's Jesus how do you have eternal life it's in Jesus the truth is in Jesus and if the truth is in Jesus it can't be in the unproven theories of minute can't be an idle speculation it can't be in false religions it can't be in false science Christians aren't opposed to reason we're not opposed to logic we're not opposed to scientific inquiry we respect human learning we respect human understanding in human limitations but we know that the truth the truth is in Jesus the truth isn't in self-help it isn't in pop psychology it isn't in Darwinian evolution it isn't in liberal politics or conservative politics when something is true it conforms to the facts it conforms to knowledge when something is honest it is it it is it conforms to reality and it is devoid of all lies in order for something to be true it has to be true all the time every time I've only discovered four things that are forever unmistakably true would you like to hear what they are number one God the Father he is true immutable not subject to change he is incorrigible that means not subject to perfection God the Father will never change he changes not jesus said I am the same yesterday today and forever I'm the way the truth and the life Jesus never changes the Holy Spirit never changes the revelation of the Holy Spirit and the character of the Holy Spirit never changes if the father never changes and the son never changes and the Spirit never changes what do you suppose the fourth thing is that never changes everything they say and do everything else you can meet with skeptic and suspicion what exactly is the truth that is said to be in Jesus Paul has noted that for the pagan hardness and darkness and deadness it's going to result in uncleanness remember the beginning of the chapter he talks about unity now he's talking about purity you can't have unity in the pagan way of thinking and with the pagan way of thinking and you can't have purity because darkness and deadness and hardness will always lead to uncleanness so what's the truth the truth is the truth that is in Jesus that Jesus sets us free listen carefully from hardness and darkness and deadness and reckless uncleanness that doesn't have to be a part of our life that's why Paul is saying what he's he's saying and the next few verses provide in part the answer in verses 22 through 24 Paul uses the language of putting off our former conduct and then putting on the new man which was created according to God in verses 22 through 24 and so you look and it says that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and in verse 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness so when he uses this language he says put off your old self and what is your old self it's everything that you were apart from Christ you mean even the good things even if you're like attractive and articulate and this or that yes put off your old self your former conduct again it's everything that you were apart from Christ now think about this which was corrupted by deceitful desires so he's basically your old man is your old life your old way of thinking your old way of acting and then he says be renewed in the spirit of your mind in verse 23 put on the new self what is the new self this is what it means to be created in the Lord Jesus and true righteousness and holiness I think that it is a reference to being born-again by the power of the Holy Spirit this is the regenerated person who's been made new by God by the power of the Holy Spirit I know we're mixing metaphors like the garment were to take off all of our former conduct but again when you take off the former conduct you don't just simply throw it in the trash and walk around naked you have to put on new clothes you have a new garment that you put on later on in the chapter Paul is going to say stop lying start telling the truth stop stealing start working it isn't good enough for you to stop something unless you're willing to start something different if you're going to walk and unity and if you're going to walk and purity then the things that made for division need to go and the things that made for perversion need to go and so he says renew your mind according to the spirit in verse 23 and be renewed in the in the spirit of your mind so how do you do that what exactly is he talking about how do you renew your mind you give your mind spiritual education remember what I already told you your mind is this is the place where you make choices this is the place where you think this is the place where you make you draw moral conclusions about what you're going to do or not do so we inform our thinking with spiritual education we train our minds to think biblically and to act biblically Paul reminds them about their learning and education in the Lord Jesus the Ephesians learn more than just the biography of Jesus or the genealogy of Jesus or even the ethics and the philosophy of Jesus or the history of his character they learn about his sacrifice for sin and they learn about their future because Jesus has come back to life and so they begin to adjust their thinking based on Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and everything that you read in the Gospels do you really want to know about Jesus then open up your Bible and read the Gospel of John read the Gospels and so the renewing of your mind means you fill your heart with Jesus and then you fill your mind with Jesus now remember what we've already learned remember if you fill your heart with the Holy Spirit you make an accommodation for Jesus which makes an accommodation for love think about what Paul is doing here as he's teaching you and then he's giving you practical instruction fill your heart with the spirit and then you'll live differently fill your mind with Jesus and then you'll think differently we have to abandon the old way of thinking with a new way of thinking we cannot we can no longer believe lies and we have to start believing the truth that is in Christ we no longer live to gratify ourselves but we look to satisfy Jesus and with that new way of thinking comes a new way of living remember with your heart you love and with your mind you think and live we embrace those things which cause us to walk in the spirit we cultivate the character of Christ we become familiar with the Word of God why because the Word of God reveals the plan of God why because that will reveal the will of God why because the plan of God and the will of God will also reveal the way of love in first Corinthians chapter 13 remember he's gonna talk about all kinds of spiritual gifts and he goes in first Corinthians chapter 13 but I'm gonna show you something even better I'm gonna show you a more excellent way and verse 24 we put on the new man so the Lord God remember creates Adam from the dirt in the ground do you remember where the dirt in the ground comes from now according to the Bible in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth according to modern astronomical thinking stars blew up billions of years ago the hydrogen and oxygen released heavier chemicals which blue is Stardust across the galaxy which coagulated into the dirt in the ground which makes up the various parts of you I don't know how true that is however the dirt got here you used to be dirt Adam and Eve our mom and dad were made from dirt so God creates Adam from dirt he creates the new Adam and for you ladies the new Eve not with dirt but with spiritual materials you are born again by the power of the Spirit with grace and righteousness and holiness and truth you've been fabricated from all you're not just a better version of the old Adam or the old Eve you are a brand-new version this is why Paul will say in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 if therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creation and the Greek word that he uses for creation is the same root word which we get our word species from which means the identification of a brand new life form you are unlike anything that's ever been he says behold old things have passed away behold all things have become new the new man and is as Christ formed in the Christian galatians 2:20 i've been crucified with christ it's no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me so Paul is describing a person by the change of heart and the change of thinking who adopts the character of Christ and again it isn't just you decide that you're going to think differently or live differently or feel differently because guess what no amount of resolve and no amount of strength and no amount of willpower is going to get you to the place where Paul is talking about although your will and your resolve and your strengths that are going to be involved but in order to live the life that God has called you to it's going to need take a supernatural provision of the Holy Spirit living inside of you the Holy Spirit is going to have to come along and strengthen your strength and reinforce your resolve and make your will his will in Colossians 1:27 it says to them God willed to make known what were the riches of his glory of the mystery among the gentiles which is christ in you the hope of glory what's gonna bring about this change Christ in you so again we do more than just embrace a new way of thinking and living it goes way deeper it's much deeper than conscience or conscious Reformation we do more than just reject lies we have to embrace the truth we do more than just give up old habits we form new ones Jesus changes us from the inside out I'm gonna read a quote from our Kent Hughes he says quote we have our part to do in dressing ourselves with the divine wardrobe for here clothes do make the man or the woman we must daily set aside the rotting garments of the old man we must formally reject sensuality and selfish pride and materialism and bitterness we must read the word and ask God to renew our minds by the power of the Spirit we must work out our salvation by doing those things that will develop a biblical mind we must put on our new shining garments of like a blight we must put on he says this and I love it we must put on what we are the reason why I love it is because the devil is going to whisper in your ear before this message is over with that's not who you are but the Bible says that is who you are if you're in Christ you're in Christ not outside of Christ you're in Christ you are in Christ and because you are in Christ you can be different every once in a while my wife will take me to the Men's Wearhouse because of the commercial where the guy says you'll like the way you look when you put on Christ you'll like the way you look Paul expects the Ephesians he expects the Ephesians to experience change you can expect it to but you can also expect opposition Paul's gonna talk about that later he's gonna talk about the putting off he's gonna talk about the walk of the believer as their indwelt by the spirit at the end of the chapter he's gonna talk about the walk of the believer as God's dear child in chapter 5 he's going to talk about how this affects every relationship husbands and wives and parents and children but he's also going to talk about how we live and then how spirit filled believers are children of God and then he's going to end not just with the walk but the warfare of the Spirit filled liebherr who experiences opposition because the moment that you say out loud I want to be like Jesus Satan will bring the combined forces of Hell to make sure that it doesn't happen and that's why we're gonna continue to study the book of Ephesians let's pray Heavenly Father Lord we want to understand and recognize what it meant to live the life that we used to live and that we no longer want to live and then to embrace the new life that's only in Jesus and so Lord rather than hardness and darkness and death Lord we pray that you would give us a soft heart open to instruction that Lord we would be willing to see our sin in all of its awful wicked rudeness and disgustingness and that Lord we would want to turn from it but this isn't who we are and this isn't what we want we want to be men and women who love you and serve you we aren't content to just simply know how to walk in Christ we want to actually walk in him and so Lord again we pray that we would put off the old we would put on the new then instead of darkness there would be light and instead of deadness there would be life in Jesus name amen let's stand

Channel: Calvary South Denver

Views: 2,954

Rating: 4.7142859 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary Chapel, Gino Geraci, Christianity, Bible Study, Calvary South Denver, Calvary CSD, Church, Ephesians

Id: bIraGgvxdjc

Length: 65min 31sec (3931 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 09 2017