Totally Transformed

we come now to ephesians chapter four we are going through the book of ephesians and we are in chapter four again it's the same text that we looked at last week but we were unable to finish it so we'll do that this morning ephesians 4 verses 17 to 24. and i'm going to read it and then we're going to look again at these wonderful words of divine revelation 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 now we here have a comparison between the people before salvation and the same people afterward before salvation and this is true of all unconverted people they walk in the futility of their mind darkened in their understanding excluded from the life of god ignorant hard-hearted callous given over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness verse 22 says this former manner of life is one that is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit that is the diagnosis of everyone prior to salvation when salvation comes as noted in verses 20 and 21 everything changes verse 23 says that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind put on the new self which in the likeness of god has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth the difference is the salvation that is the theme of verses 20 and 21. and we saw last time that when paul says learned christ he's talking about salvation you learned because the gospel is truth that you have to hear and learn faith comes by hearing the word concerning christ romans 10 17. jesus said in matthew 11 29 as we pointed out last week that you have to learn of me john 6 45 talks about the father has taught us so coming to eternal salvation is a matter of learning the truth and when that truth is learned there is a transformation that is monumental and that is the transformation that is described here it's important for us to understand this because there are so many people apparently confused about who is a christian and who is not and some people would assume that if you go to a christian church or something that purports to be a christian church that is enough if you have good feelings about christ if you've prayed a prayer to him if you've quote unquote made a decision you are automatically a christian but the definition here of salvation is far more careful than just those musings about jesus that may have engaged a person for a moment or at some point in their life to cause them to pray a prayer because what you have here is spiritual transformation salvation is a transformation it is the divine miracle that transforms the sinner into the saint it is what jesus was talking about when he said you can't enter the kingdom of god unless you have been born again paul says in second corinthians 5 17 if anyone is in christ he is a new creation all things have passed away and new things have come it's essential for us because this is such a constant question that people ask to understand how we know when someone is a christian it's essential for us for the sake of others and for our own sake as well so paul is showing us a dramatic transformation here this isn't the first time he did that in ephesians go back to chapter two very much uh in a parallel fashion paul begins chapter two by saying and you were and again this is prior to salvation dead in your trespasses and sins and when paul talks about the condition of the unregenerate he talks about them as dead in the sense that they cannot respond to god or divine truth they're dead in trespasses and sins and then he goes further to describe them as saying they walked according to the course of this world and that refers to the evil system that dominates human life according to the prince of the power of the air who operates that system namely satan who is also the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience so here is the description of the unconverted person dead in trespasses and sins walking according to the course of this satanic system that occupies the world under the sovereign power of satan who works not only over them but in them as sons of disobedience and then in verse 3 he says we too all formerly lived in that same condition in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and we're by nature children of wrath even as the rest so there you have that very detailed description of every human being who is unconverted and then you have the salvation note in verse four but god being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in christ jesus this is the transformation of salvation as a result of it go down to verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them dramatic change from all those connotations and directly identified categories of sinfulness in verses 1 to 3. we pass into this section on salvation and out of it we arrive at verse 10 and we have a new creation this is god's masterpiece that's what the word workmanship indicates created in christ jesus the result is good works this is a dramatic change this is a miraculous change and i told you last week and i'll point it at least to one text from the old testament that this is the way salvation has always been described go back to ezekiel 36 and you can turn to it or you can just listen ezekiel 36 verses 25 to 27 is a statement about what happens to someone when god saves them because salvation was the same throughout all of human history and is described in terminology very much like paul uses in ephesians ezekiel 36 25 talking about the time that god saves his people i will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean i will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols this is not just a forensic declaration of justification this is a transformation this is such a change that it is described as using clean water to clean all your filthiness and additionally to free you from your idols so that you have singular devotion and worship to the lord moreover verse 26 i will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and i will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh it isn't that something is added something is removed and something replaces it and what replaces the heart of stone is a new heart and a new spirit and then in verse 27 i will put my spirit my holy spirit within you and the result cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances that is salvation salvation is a washing from filthiness and from all other gods it is the giving of a new heart the removal of the old heart it is planting the holy spirit it is causing us to walk in god's statutes and to observe his ordinances this is transformation we looked at many other scriptures last time to demonstrate that from the old testament so as we come back to ephesians chapter four let's go look at it again we are seeing something that is consistent with the way salvation is described in scripture both in the old testament and the new testament now paul begins in verse 17 by saying that we no longer walk as the gentiles walk we can't live the way we used to live we can't it's not right and it's not even possible did you get that it's not right and it's not even possible we don't walk as the ethnic as all human ethnicities walk we don't live the way they live we aren't characterized by the things that characterize them now let me just say as a footnote the the descriptions of people before they're converted in ephesians two and four sound extreme and they are extreme and it doesn't mean that everybody lives those out to the maximum extreme possibility of evil not everyone is a mass murderer not everyone is a serial rapist not everyone is like that but everyone falls into those categories to one degree or another it's only a question of degree not nature and why is that why is it that everybody isn't as extremely evil as is possible the answer is because god has put restraints in life the restraints in life one the law of god written in the heart which informs man even though he doesn't know the bible about what is right and wrong and a conscience that wounds him if he violates that law in the heart that's a restraint family is a restraint government is a restraint the threat of punishment is a restraint the threat of death is a restraint so not everybody is as bad as they could be but everybody falls under the same definition and the main issue is indicated in verse 18 all of this is true because they are excluded from the life of god they do not possess divine life they do not possess the life of god mark that because that is very very very important that's part of them being dead in trespasses and sin the absence of the life of god but again back to verses 20 and 21 you see the picture of salvation learning christ being taught about him the truth in jesus which is the gospel direct reference to salvation and in that saving work i want you to see what happens in that saving work paul uses three infinitives to reveal the nature of the transformation three infinitives one is in verse 22 lay aside the next is in verse 23 be renewed and the next in verse 24 put on three infinitives to reveal the essential nature of this transformation it is a laying aside it is a putting on and of being renewed this is not exhortation by the way these three infinitives describe the transformation by god the holy spirit through the saving gospel of jesus christ in the life of a sinner this is the work of god now look at verse 22 in reference to your former manner of life you laid aside the old self this is a reality you laid aside the old self what is the old self what you were the composite of your invisible nature why did you lay it aside under the power of god because you heard the gospel and you were taught the gospel and you saw it as the truth and you believed it god opened your mind opened your heart gave you life gave you understanding a divine miracle took place you heard the gospel you learned the gospel and you laid aside the old self that's a powerful statement very powerful statement you laid aside the old self then in verse 24 you put on the new self this is transformation and this is what salvation is it isn't that um when you were saved you were repaired it isn't that when you were saved you were realigned it isn't that when you were saved you you have an old self and added to the old self is now a new self and so you have the old self and the new self competing no you put off the old self you put on the new self the old self is not repaired it's not realigned it's uh removed it's removed and it's replaced this is very very important for you to understand if you are a true believer this is what has happened to you now let me take you to colossians 3 which i read earlier to give you some further insight into this colossians chapter 3 paul is essentially saying the same thing but let's just capture a few of his phrases he describes this transformation in this way verse two one one two and three let's just go to verse three you have died you have died you have died now you can't get a more extreme reality than death and that's the metaphor he uses to describe what happened to your old life your old self died and then verse 1 you have been raised you have died and you have been raised the old died and there was a new creation resurrected another way to say it is down in verses 9 and 10. you laid aside the old self with its evil practices you laid aside the old self and when it went all its evil practices went as well and verse 10 you put on the new self which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him in other words the new self is godlike so you have died parallel to that paul says that would be you laid aside the old self you have been raised parallel to that you have put on the new self have died corresponds to laid aside been raised corresponds to put on those four verbs basically tell us what salvation does it is a death and a resurrection it is the removal of an old self which is replaced by a new self this is powerful language this gets to the core of the identity of a christian let me show you paul's language with regard to this in the sixth chapter of romans romans chapter 6 and the language is consistent and particularly definitive here in romans 6. the transformation look at the beginning of the chapter verse 2 we died to sin we died to sin look at verse 4 we have been buried with christ and then verse 5 if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection again the language is the language of death and resurrection it's the language of going out of existence and a new reality coming in to existence if you look at verse 6 in our death what happened the old self died was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with it's gone the old self is gone completely gone strong verb there it's done away with so much so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin but what happened at salvation is a real death in which the body of sin was removed and a real resurrection in which we were raised from the dead to a new self that possesses listen carefully to this eternal life eternal life verse 8 sums it up if we have died with christ we believe that we also shall live with him so verse 11 consider yourselves to be dead to sin alive to god in christ jesus this is the language of transformation and this is what you have to understand because there seems to be so much confusion about who's a christian and who's not this is not only confusion in the minds of people who are trying to evaluate others but confusion in the minds of people who aren't sure what their condition is where you have salvation you have at the end of verse 4 newness of life romans 6 4. you literally have to see it this way all right when jesus said he's come into the world to die god sends his son to die and whoever believes in him shall have what everlasting life so that's not something in the future you have that now you possess everlasting life that is not a duration that is not a quantity of life that is a quality of life that is a kind of life that is the life of god in the soul of man can i say this to you and have you understand it your conversion was a far greater transformation than your death will be because you've already received a new nature you've already received a new self that will live forever a new self that has been created in righteousness holiness and truth i think we have to understand that it's not that when you were saved the lord helped you live a better life you went through a death and resurrection it's not just a better life it's a transformed life go down to verse 16 do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience you're slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness but thanks be to god that though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart and that obedience is expressed by paul as putting off and putting on you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness slaves of righteousness look down in verse 22 being freed from sin and a slave to god you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification in the outcome eternal life if you have been saved you possess now eternal life you possess now eternal life this is an amazing thing for us to understand in the language of ephesians 4 you have put off the old self put on the new self and are renewed in the spirit of your mind you don't think the way you used to think you could parallel that with having a new heart and a new spirit it's not just that god treats you differently you are different you're a new creature colossians 3 10 says you have been literally created in a true fashion to be like the image of the one who created you this is not a psychological change this is not just the fact that you think a little bit differently about theology in life this is a change ephesians 4 that literally alters your mind you're renewed in the spirit of your mind not just your mind you might think that's just kind of how you think on the surface so the holy spirit goes deeper than that the spirit of your mind all the way down to the fountains of your comprehension and your reason i read an article this week that said after a survey of 600 pairs of christian parents that four percent of christian parents have a christian worldview four percent of parents who are say their christians have a christian worldview you know how i feel about surveys to start with but you're trying to tell me that 96 of people who have been created anew who have been given new life who are the possessions of eternal life who in the words of second peter 1 4 are partakers of the divine nature those who possess everlasting life those who have been renewed in their minds you're telling me that 96 of them see the world the way they saw it before not possible now they may not know all the elements of scripture that helped them understand and discern everything in the world but to say four percent of christian parents have a biblical worldview you better check your definition of christian because when you were saved you put off the old self you put on the new self by the power of god and deep down in your mind you were transformed and you don't think the way you used to think about anything the new self ephesians 4 says in the likeness of god in the likeness of god paul says in first corinthians 2 16 you have the mind of christ i think christ has a biblical worldview just saying so there in that fourth chapter of ephesians we are told that we have been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth and in the very likeness of god this is the [Music] total transformation again it's not addition you aren't what you used to be and something was added to it now you've got a war between what you were what you are no your inner person your inner man your new self replaces the old self look at first john chapter 3 because i think john helps us to see the distinctiveness that transformation brings first john 3 7 little children make sure no one deceives you the one who practices righteousness is righteous not hard is it the one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous his righteousness is like god's righteousness because he's been created in christ jesus has been created in the likeness of god he's been created in the image of the one who created everything on the other hand verse 8 says the one who practices sin is of the devil for the devil has sinned from the beginning the son of god appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil no one who is born of god practices sin because his seed abides in him god's seed and he cannot sin because he is born of god the old is dead the new has come by this the children of god and the children of the devil are obvious anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of god nor the one who does not love his brother it's not that hard to distinguish people what do you mean you mean they never sin no they don't practice unrighteousness if you practice unrighteousness you give evidence of being of the devil if that's the pattern of your life then you're not converted whatever you think you may have prayed or whatever emotional connection you thought you had with jesus the children of the devil and the children of the lord are easy to distinguish one practice of sin the other practices righteousness in other words the dominating pattern of the life is sin or the dominating pattern of the life is righteousness and it's not just that christians are for some external reason better able to stay away from sin because they work harder at it it is that they stay away from sin because they have been re-created in righteousness holiness and truth now i know what you're thinking you're thinking but wait a minute i'm doing a little inventory and um i have to confess that i sin and i'm glad you did but how do i understand that how am i to understand that this seems really black and white so let's go back to romans 6 and i want to help you with that romans 6 paul will not listen carefully will not locate sin in the new self he will not locate sin in the new self and his language is explicit about that he knows the new self is created in righteousness and holiness and truth the new self is the creation of the holy spirit it's regeneration it's a new birth it's created to be in the image of god the new self partakes of the divine nature the new self possesses eternal life you're not going to get eternal life in the future you have it you live it it is your life it is the invisible part of you that is the recreated miracle of divine sovereign grace that has made you in righteousness holiness and truth we say well i'm glad to hear that but what about sin paul will not locate sin in that new self in chapter 6 of romans paul says this verse 11 consider yourselves to be dead to sin alive to god that's that's the creation do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you may obey its lusts paul locates sin not in the new self but in the mortal body the part of you that is not eternal the part of you that is material and mortal and he always is careful to do that so that the reality is this you are a new creation partaker of the divine nature possessing eternal life you just happen to also be connected to mortality and that's where sin lies in your mortality the part of you that can die the inner part of you can never die that's why it's called eternal life now i want you to notice the careful language of paul go to chapter seven of romans we're not surprised at all if we come down to verse 14. and we read this from paul personal testimony we know that the law is spiritual in fact he says the back in verse 12 the law is holy the commandment is holy righteous and good he knows that we know the law is spiritual but i am of flesh sold into bondage to sin he locates the sin issue in the flesh which is like the mortal body of chapter 6. and this is how it reveals itself what i'm doing i do not understand i am not practicing what i would like to do but i'm doing the very thing i hate if i do the very thing i do not want to do i agree with the law confessing the law is good something's wrong i don't like it i am a new person i am a new creation my physical death will be less of a change than my conversion was because i've already been fit for eternal heaven because i've been given eternal life which is the life of god so why is there all this struggle so in verse 17 notice how paul distances his new self from it so now no longer am i the one doing it no the new eye says the law is spiritual the new eye says the law is holy the commandment holy righteous and good and maybe says with david oh how i love your law so it's not i doing it but verse 17 sin which dwells in me sin still around verse 18 i know nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh there we go it's in the mortal body it's in the flesh your mortal body and your flesh is dying amen correct this is the part of you that still bears the curse and it shows up because the willing is present in me that's the new self but the doing of it is not for the good that i want i do not do but i practice the very evil that i do not want i'm doing the very thing i do not want i'm no longer the one doing it isn't that interesting he says it's not the real me now he's not being irresponsible he's just parsing out spiritual reality and saying sin is so alien to me i hate it it's not what i love it's not what i want it's not what i desire but it's still there in my mortal body in my flesh that's where it resides so i find in verse 21 the principle that evil is present in me the one who wants to do good for i joyfully concur with the law of god in the inner man there it is there's that new self but i see a different law where is it it's in the members of my body it's in my flesh it's in my mortal body and it wages war against the law of my mind and makes me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members again he keeps saying it's it's not me it's not the new self it's not my heart it's not my new heart it's not my new spirit it is in my flesh it is in the members of my body it is in my mortality it is in my members my my fleshly mortal faculties verse 24 he shows his frustration by saying wretched man that i am who will set me free from the body of this death and again he says it's the body you know in ancient times very often when somebody killed someone as a punishment they would take the murdered corpse and strap it to the murderer and it wouldn't take long before the body decayed and brought about a horrendous death to the killer paul feels that way he is full of divine life but there's a corpse strapped to him now he knows he'll triumph so he says it in verse 25. thanks be to god through jesus christ our lord he will free me from this corpse he'll free me from this corpse but notice how verse 25 continues not yet so on the one hand i myself with my mind and my renewed mind i'm serving the law of god but on the other with my flesh the law of sin it hasn't happened yet right i know it'll happen i know christ will deliver me i know someday it's going to happen someday i'm going to get rid of this wretched sin that attaches itself to me and oh by the way in chapter 8 verse 1 i know it's not going to condemn me for there is no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus why will we never be condemned if we're in christ because christ was condemned in our place and so we struggle and we will struggle all our life long sometimes young people say to me do we do you ever get victory over besetting sins sure as you grow in grace in the knowledge of christ you'll sin less but i warn you though you sin less you feel worse paul has this horror of sin because his inner man is righteous and he sees sin against that backdrop i think paul and any believer is far more sensitive to sin than an unbeliever because an unbeliever has nothing to compare it to unbelievers don't fight the battle with the flesh they're all flesh and the old self and the flesh are very compatible partners so the good news is you will sin less as you grow but you'll feel worse because the less you sin the more you become like god the more you hate sin and in your maturity you will hate your own sin a lot more than somebody else's so paul recognizes the reality of sin and he knows there's going to be a triumph when is that triumph going to come go to chapter 8 verse 23. verse 22 he says all of creation is groaning under the curse verse 23 we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit because the spirit is in us and the spirit has dispensed into that new inner self love joy peace gentleness goodness faith meekness self-control fruit of the spirit we have those we have the divine nature we have eternal life the life of god in our souls we are the temple of the trinity because of all of this in the new self we groan within ourselves there's an agony in living waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons what do you mean paul i mean the redemption of what our body again that's that's all that we need we've already been transformed when you die it's not a transformation of your inner person it's the subtraction of your sinful flesh when you see a coffin i know they all always dress people up but what you're really seeing is nothing but flesh nothing but mortality nothing but the occupying part of humanity that holds sin and fights against the new self so we rejoice when someone goes to glory not only because they're in heaven but because they've left the body behind and there will be in the future a new body a resurrection body right first corinthians 15 it'll be like his glorious body there'll be no battle in heaven between the glorified body and the glorified soul so we are waiting he says in verse 23. eagerly for the redemption of our body when you think about heaven and we've sung about heaven this morning when you think about heaven it's not so much about seeing aunt alice although you might be able to find her up there if she's there and it's not so much about the beauty and the splendor of it as it is that the struggle with sin is over it's over it's over the redemption of the body in the meantime this is how we need to think about ourselves we need to think about ourselves as new creations created in the likeness of god in the image of the one who created us we have in our salvation been enabled by the holy spirit to put off the old and put on the new we have a renewed mind we now love righteousness holiness and truth but how do we gain victory how do we how do we get the the upside of the struggle between the new self and the flesh well i think first of all you have the power to do it in the resident holy spirit right and in the power of that new life which is created in righteousness holiness and truth the power is in the very essence of that life and in the spirit who dwells within you you also have the additional power that comes from the scripture your word of a hate in my heart that i might not what sin against you you have that new nature you have the holy spirit you have the word of god but i'll tell you what it comes down to it comes down to obedience just as a fact over 400 commands are found in the epistles of paul for over 400 commands there are 50 commands to the believer in the book of james alone it's not difficult to figure out that the lord has given you the steps to spiritual victory in the commands obey the commands you have the nature to do it you have a renewed mind you have the spirit to enable you and you have the word to strengthen you keep the commandments keep the commandments that's what it is to live on the victorious side and just to seal that as we close when jesus stood on the mount and was departing and gave the what is the great commission his last words most people's last words are usually significant his the most significant of all and what did he say what did he say go into all the world make disciples baptizing them and then he said this and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have what commanded you that is the path of sanctification it's about obedience it's about obedience so you shouldn't be looking for some mystical sort of personal spiritual elevation that might come to you in some moment it's just about obedience jesus said here's my orders teach them to obey everything i've commanded you everything and i promise you this lo i am with you always even to the end of the age i'll be there sanctification is in the power of the spirit by the power of the new creation by the power of the word of god a believer obeying the commands of scripture that's why jesus said what he said in his final words that is the path of sanctification father we thank you that you have given us such a clear word thank you for the beauty of salvation its extent its character its nature thank you for transforming us and we know that the life we have is eternal it can never end the holy spirit in us is the seal the guarantee the down payment on eternal glory we know that there is a reward waiting for us in your presence which will never fade away and never be removed and never be given to someone else because you have already made us for heaven we are new creatures i pray lord for [Music] the application of those commandments that face us all through scripture that we would be diligent to obey them knowing this is the way of sanctification this is the way to please you and this is the way to bring joy satisfaction and usefulness into our own lives accomplish your will in us we pray the savior's name amen

Channel: Grace to You

Views: 159,986

Keywords: John MacArthur, Bible, Preaching, Christianity, Expository, Exposition, Sermon, Jesus, Christ, Grace to You

Id: KNlYHtFJm_k

Length: 51min 32sec (3092 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2022