Old Man, New Man (PART ONE) Ephesians 4:17-24 (NKJV)

Transcription

1 Message for THE LORD'S DAY MORNING, September 25, 2016 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister MESSAGE 8 in Ephesians Sermon Series ( Rags To Riches ) Old Man, New Man (PART ONE) Ephesians 4:17-24 (NKJV) As we continue with our series of messages from Paul's Letter to The Ephesians, please turn with me to today's scripture text in Ephesians chapter four. And let's read verses EPHESIANS 4:17-24 (NKJV) 17 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, 18 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; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. P R A Y E R

2 I N T R O D U C T I O N ILLUSTRATION When I was preaching at First Christian Church in Mt. Vernon, Indiana back in the early 1980's one of the men in our Church was an undercover Police Officer with the Evansville Police Department. His name was Bob Flack. Bob was a big, burly, but soft-spoken man. His wife Sandy was very active in the Church. And he had one young daughter, named Amy. We always knew when Bob was working undercover because we wouldn't see him at Church for weeks or even months at a time. His job was extremely dangerous and his wife, Sandy lived with a constant fear that something bad was going to happen to him. One day I got a call from Bob. He said, Reggie, can I come by the Church and talk to you? I said, Sure. About thirty minutes later he showed up and I invited him to come in and have a seat. At first Bob didn't say a word. He just sat and stared at the floor with tears in his eyes. And after what seemed like an eternity he finally spoke. He said, Reggie, I'm not sure I can do this any more. I'm not sure I can go on being an undercover officer. He said, In order for me to do my job I have to be with the most disgusting, most despicable people on earth. I have to look like them, and dress like them, and smell like them, and talk like them, and act like them, because if they sense for a moment I am undercover cop they will kill me. He said, Reggie, the things I have to do when I'm undercover goes against everything I believe as a Christian. He said, I'm constantly depressed...i can't sleep at night...and I can hardly stand to look Sandy and Amy in the face because of the horrible things I've done.

3 I don't remember what all I said to Bob that day, but I do remember one thing: I said, Bob, you and I both know you can't go on like this. You can't keep doing things that violate everything you believe as a Christian without there being some serious consequences. He said, I know. I know. We prayed together about the important decision he was going to have to make about his career, and then Bob left. Just a few months after Bob and I talked he had a complete nervous breakdown and wound up in the psychiatric unit at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. It took that break-down to get him to walk away from his career. ********************************************************************************** In a very severe way, Bob Flack was struggling with the battle that everyone of us must fight every day; and that is the battle between The Old Man and The New Man. This is the subject the apostle Paul deals with in today's scripture text. In fact, he deals with this subject through the end of Ephesians chapter four. Due to the length of this passage I have decided to preach this as a two-part message. In PART ONE we will look at verses And LORD WILLING, next week in PART TWO we will look at verses

4 First of all, let's consider... I. The OLD MAN We Used To Be (vs ) 17 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, 18 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; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 1. The portrait Paul is painting in these verses is certainly not very pretty. Paul says in verse 17, You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Gentiles is a general term Paul uses to describe all un-believers...all non-christians...all people who are lost and outside of Jesus Christ. 2. This is a portrait of the old man you and I once were before we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior. Paul is telling us not to walk like the old man we used to be.

5 3. If you were once a drunkard you shouldn't still be a drunkard. If you were once a liar you shouldn't still be a liar. If you were once an adulterer you shouldn't still be an adulterer. The things that once characterized your life as the old man you were before Christ should no longer characterize your life. YOU AREN'T THAT OLD MAN ANY MORE! 4. The day you were baptized into Jesus Christ you buried that old man. That old man is NOT who you are now! That old man is who you used to be, but you aren't that man any more! 5. You remember in last week's message Paul reminded us of our high calling in Christ. (4:1) You and I can't fulfill our high calling in Christ if we are still living like we lived before we came to know Christ. 6. But even though we have been delivered from the old man we used to be we will face on-going temptations to go back to our old ways. We will face a daily battle, a daily struggle between the old man we used to be and the new man we are now.

6 7. In vs Paul gives us three reasons why ungodly people live like they do to show us why we can't go back and live that way any longer. (A) Ungodly people have warped MINDS.. (v.17) 17 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, Why do ungodly people live such ungodly lives? It is because their minds are futile. The futile mind is warped. The futile mind sends faulty signals. The futile mind says that right is wrong and wrong is right. The futile mind says good is bad and bad is good. The futile mind says that righteousness is wrong and unrighteousness is right. The futile mind doesn't think about eternity because its to pre-occupied with the here and now. The futile mind doesn't think about salvation because it is too pre-occupied sin.

7 Just like a virus gets into a computer and corrupts the hard drive so it can't operate properly, the mind of an ungodly person is corrupted so they can't live properly. That's why you and I can't go back and live like an ungodly person any longer. Our minds have been renewed and transformed by the Holy Spirit. God has removed the virus that once infected our minds so our minds are now set on the things above, not the things below. (B) Ungodly people have warped HEARTS (v.18) 18 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; Paul is giving us a look inside the heart of unbelievers here. He is showing us spiritual blockages that will never show up during a heart catherization or EKG. What you see here is a heart that is in critical condition spiritually. The heart of of an unbeliever is hardened, and hostile, and unresponsive towards spiritual things.

8 This is the way our heart was before we accepted Christ. This was the warped heart of the old man we used to be. Brothers and sisters listen! If you are truly saved, God has placed eternity in your heart and you will never want to go back to living like you lived before you came to know Christ as your Lord and Savior. Ungodly people have WARPED MINDS. Ungodly people have WARPED HEARTS. (C) Ungodly people have warped CONDUCT (v.19) 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. It only makes sense that if an ungodly person has a warped mind and a warped heart he or she will also have warped CONDUCT doesn't it? What Paul is saying here is the ungodly person's condition will worsen with time. The longer he or she rejects Christ, the longer they continue in sin, their conscience will lose its sensitivity.

9 They will reach a point where they are no longer ashamed of their sinful behavior. In fact, they even become boastful and proud of it and flaunt it for the whole world to see. This is just another reason why you and I can never go back to being the old man we used to be. Through the precious cleansing blood of Christ we have been forgiven of our sins and we should never want to crucify Christ all over again by going back to the very sins He died to save us from. Well now that we have looked at THE OLD MAN WE USED TO BE, let's look at... II. The NEW MAN We Ought To Be (vs ) 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

10 1. There ought to be a very noticeable, very distinguishable difference between THE OLD MAN WE USED TO BE and THE NEW MAN WE OUGHT TO BE! 2. Martin Lloyd Jones once said, If my Christian living is not quite inevitable to me, if I am always fighting against living for Christ, and wondering why it is so hard and narrow, and find myself rather envying the pagan world, there is something radically wrong with my Christian life. Holy living ought to be as natural to a holy people, as unholiness is natural to an unholy people. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Darkness and Light Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1984 p. 20) 3. Let's consider two ways in which THE NEW MAN ought to be noticeably different than the old man we used to be. For one thing... (A) First, the NEW MAN ought to have a whole new way of THINKING (v. 20,21) 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:

11 To learn Christ simply means to be saved. We were never going to be saved by listening to the lies of the world. We came to salvation by learning the truths of Christ. We came to salvation by hearing the soul-saving message of the gospel of Christ. And once we heard the gospel and received Christ as our Lord and Savior, Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 that we were no longer to be conformed to this world, but that we were to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so we would be able to prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You see, the mind of our old man dwelt on doing our own will, whereas our renewed mind dwells on doing the will of God. Why do we think about spiritual things? Why do we think about holy things? Why do we think about eternal things? It is because we have a renewed mind that thinks about things our old man never thought about.

12 As NEW CREATIONS, NEW MEN AND WOMEN IN CHRIST we ought to think differently than we used to. We ought to think differently about GOD. We ought to think differently about our family. We ought to think differently about our neighbor. We ought to think differently about our enemies. We ought to think differently about sin. And we ought think differently about our priorities. DOES YOUR THINKING REVEAL TO OTHERS YOU ARE A NEW MAN IN CHRIST? (B) Secondly, THE NEW MAN ought to have a whole new way of LIVING.. (vs ) 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Our old man lived to please one person and one person only and that was ourselves. We indulged in sinful habits. We may have used a lot of sinful language. We fed our sinful appetites, lusts, and desires.

13 But one of the evidences that we are truly A NEW MAN IN CHRIST is that we no longer live to please ourselves, but rather we live to please God. This means we ought to CONDUCT OURSELVES differently than we did before we accepted Christ. The world ought to be able to look at you and me and tell who our daddy is! They ought to be able to look at us and tell beyond any shadow of a doubt that we are children of our heavenly Father. **************************************************** C O N C L U S I O N Guam is literally crawling with snakes. Slithering brown tree snakes are killing the birds of the beautiful island nation and threatening the citizens' way of life. The people, of course, want to keep the snakes out. These snakes are not native to Guam. They came as stowaways on airplanes from Micronesia, and they have multiplied by the thousands. Known for their voracious appetites, the snakes have wiped out 9 of the island's 11 native bird species. They also threaten other islands with which Guam trades. Just as these deadly snakes are a danger to Guam, so our sins are a danger to us if we don't deal decisively with them. Sins such as lust, sexual impurity, covetousness, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, and lying can show up in the lives of Christians. Like snakes, such sins can grow, multiply, and eventually dominate us. They can also destroy our effectiveness in serving Christ and damage our testimony for Him. This is why we must surrender our lives and renew our commitment to the LORD each and every day if our NEW MAN is to be victorious over OUR OLD MAN!