Old Man, New Man

Q: What does the Bible say about the old man and the new man?

The Bible teaches that believers must put off the old man, which is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and put on the new man, created in true righteousness and holiness. In Ephesians 4:22-24, the Apostle Paul contrasts the 'old man' with the 'new man'. The old man, representing our fallen nature inherited from Adam, is characterized by corruption and deceitful lusts. In contrast, the new man, created after God, is bestowed upon believers through regeneration and is rooted in true righteousness and holiness. This transformation signifies the believer's new identity in Christ, reflecting the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Believers are exhorted to actively put off the old self and embrace their new identity in Christ through faith and obedience.

Q: How do we know regeneration is true?

Regeneration is confirmed through the Scriptures, which state that believers have been born again of incorruptible seed and made new creations in Christ. Regeneration is a fundamental aspect of salvation in Christian theology, and Scripture clearly affirms its truth. In 1 Peter 1:23, it states, 'Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.' This teaches that the new birth is not a result of human effort but is an act of God's sovereignty. Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 5:17 explains that any person in Christ is a new creation; the old has passed away, and the new has come. This divine transformation manifests itself in the believer's life, producing a desire for holiness and righteousness that aligns with God's character.

Q: Why is the concept of putting off the old man important for Christians?

Putting off the old man is crucial for Christians as it allows them to live authentically as new creations in Christ, free from the corruption of their former sinful nature. The act of putting off the old man is vital for Christians because it represents a critical aspect of the believer's sanctification process. Ephesians 4:22 calls on believers to put off their former conduct, emphasizing that this is essential for living out their new life in Christ. By doing so, Christians reflect their fundamental change and new identity in Christ. Additionally, this action signifies a conscious decision to reject patterns of sin and deceitfulness that characterize the old nature. Engaging actively in this process fosters spiritual growth and aligns believers' actions and thoughts with their new identity, ultimately glorifying God through their lives.

Q: What does it mean to be created in righteousness and true holiness?

Being created in righteousness and true holiness means that believers are made new, reflecting God's character and fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law through Christ. According to Ephesians 4:24, believers are created in righteousness and true holiness when they are regenerated. This indicates a profound transformation where the new man embodies qualities that are pleasing to God. The righteousness mentioned reflects the moral perfection and justice of God, while true holiness suggests a separation from sin and dedication to God’s service. Such a creation is possible only through the redemptive work of Christ, who fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of His people. Therefore, Christians are not only called to reflect God's attributes in their lives but are also empowered by the Holy Spirit to live in obedience, manifesting Christ-like characteristics.

Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. The singing
sounds so pretty this morning. I was sitting there just listening
in the first song and it was so pretty. Imagine what it will
be like when we can be in God's presence without sin and without
these fleshly bodies and singing His praises. Alright, Ephesians
4, let's read verse 22 and verse 24. Verse 22 says that you put
off concerning the former conversation, the former conduct, the old man,
which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Now verse
24, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. Our text says, put off the old
man, put on the new man. I want to talk to you about the
old man, the new man. Now, in order to better understand
this exhortation, to put off the old man and put on the new
man, We're going to compare and contrast the old man with the
new man using these two verses. We're just going to use these
two verses. Now in every believer, in every believer, every true
believer, there is an old man and there is a new man. There
is an old man and there is a new man. Now the old man and the
new man are different. They're totally different. Number
one, in their Creator. They're different in their Creator.
Number two, in the way they were created, they're different. And
number three, they're different in their nature. They're different
in their nature. They're different in their Creator,
they're different in the way they're created, and they're
different in their nature. and their nature. We're going
to try to get to this third point and spend most of our time there.
Now, first of all, the old man and the new man are different
in who their creator is. They're different in who their
creator is. Who is each man after? Who is the father of each man? Verse 24 says, the new man, which
after God. After God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. The new man is after God. Now
God spoken of here is the triune God manifest in the God-man,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ the last Adam. Scripture
says, In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So this last Adam, Christ the
God-man is the God we're speaking of here. So then, who's the old
man after? Who's the old man after? Well,
the old man is after Adam. Now, to help see this contrast,
I want you to look back at verse 22 and read it this way. Listen.
Put off the old man which, after Adam, is created corrupt according
to the deceitful lusts. Verse 24. And put on the new
man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.
I speak to you often about federal headship and representation.
This is vital to understanding the gospel. It's vital to understanding
the gospel. There are only two federal heads,
just two. There's Adam and there's Christ
Jesus, the Son of God. There are only two. In Romans
5.14 we're told that Adam was the figure of Christ who was
to come. He was the figure of Christ in
that he was a head and representative of a people. Just as Christ is
the head and representative of a people. God made Adam the head
and representative of a people. He was the head and representative
of all those who have been and shall be born of Adam. That's who He represented. And they're all born of Adam,
and all those unregenerate sinners have an old man that they got
from Adam. Christ is the head and representative
of a people. He's the head and representative
of all those that shall be born of Christ. They all shall be
born of Christ. And He's the head of representative
of those people. They're the elect of God, given
to Him before the foundation of the world. Now these two heads,
brethren, Adam and Christ, are the fathers of these two men
that we're talking about in our text. They're the fathers of
the two men we're talking about in our text. Every person that's
born the first time is born of Adam. And every person that's
born the first time receives from Adam the old man. And that's
all you have, is the old man. That's it. The old man. And every
person born a second time, born again, is born of Christ. And they that are born of Christ
have a new man. Inwardly, a new man has been
created within them. Now, do you have this first point? The old man is of Adam. That's the creator of the old
man. The new man is of God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who the new man is of. Now secondly, the old man and
the new man are different in the way each is created. They're different in the way
that each is created. Now look at verse 24. It says,
"...and that you put on the new man, which after God is created."
He's created. Now, other scriptures describe
the new man as being conceived, as being born of God. So, we're
going to read verse 22 this way. Verse 22, put off the old man
which after Adam is created, or conceived, or born. Now, the
old man is born of Adam by natural generation. The old man's born
of Adam by natural generation. The new man is born of Christ
by supernatural regeneration. You see, they're different in
the way they're created. Our old man was created, was
conceived, was born of Adam when we were conceived in our mother's
womb by our father's seed. That's how that old man was made.
That's natural generation. But for the believer, the new
man is created, conceived, born of Christ, when we're born again,
when we're regenerated of Christ's seed. That's supernatural regeneration. In Isaiah 9-6, the Lord Jesus
Christ is called the Everlasting Father. And it declares to us
that the Lord Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. He is God. But it also declares to us that
Lord Jesus Christ is the last Adam. He is the last Adam. You see, all God's elect were
born naturally the first time by Adam. Adam is our first father. But
Adam will not be our father for everlasting. Because Adam's old
man died. And our old man is going to die.
And so Adam is not our everlasting father. But all those born of
Christ's seed, which shall be born of Christ, all his shall
be born of his seed. And all those who are born of
his seed have Christ as our everlasting Father. Christ lives forevermore. And our new man, born of Christ,
born of the Word that lives and endures forever, shall never
die. Christ is our everlasting Father. Now there is a difference also
in the seed by which we are born. In the seed by which we are born.
The old man is born of corruptible seed. The new man is born of
incorruptible seed. Turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. And look at verse 23. 1 Peter 1, 23. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed. That's how we were born the first
time. Being born again. We're born again. The second
time we're not born of corruptible seed. Being born again of incorruptible
seed. by the Word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. This is why we have life forevermore.
We're born of incorruptible seed, seed that can't be corrupted
of the Word of God which abides and lives forever. Now look,
for all flesh is as grass. Now that's our old man. He's
flesh. The old man's flesh and he's
as grass. And all the glory of man, all
his most highest achievements and everything he can achieve,
is as the flower of grass. Did you see the picture I sent
to you? Two weeks ago the rhododendrons by the house were just so pretty
and in bloom and they were just beautiful. And just in a short
time, I just looked one day and there they were beautiful and
I looked back the next day and they were just drawn up and ugly
and falling off the branches. The grass withereth, the flower
thereof falleth away. That's the flesh. That's the
old man. But the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this
is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. Paul told
those that God had regenerated by His grace. He said, in Christ
Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Through the gospel.
James said, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth
that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, of his
creation. The Holy Spirit is using Paul
here in our text. He is using Paul to exhort you
and I who believe to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. We saw we've been made one in
Christ. One in Christ. There's one body,
there's one Lord, there's one faith, there's one Spirit, one
baptism. One in Christ. And then we saw He put us under
a faithful ministry. Christ Himself sends forth His
faithful preachers. He doesn't send forth false prophets.
God doesn't have to save through falsehood. He can send forth
true prophets. He sends forth His true prophets.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith. Till every one
of His elect is called out. And from whom? From Christ, this
whole body. He's fitly joined together. We
were the valley of dry bones and He's pulled us from here
and there and the corners of the earth and He's assembled
the bones into the body. And He's fitly joined us together.
And it's from Him that we're cemented together. And He does
it by supplying effectually. In each believer, in the measure
of every part, He supplies effectually His grace according to the measure
of the gift of Christ. He bestows His grace. In doing
so, He uses you and I to minister the Word to one another. And
so He makes us to depend upon the other members of the body,
absolutely depend upon the other members of the body, because
we depend upon Christ Jesus more than anything. cut off a member
of my body, and it's not going to receive nourishment through
the other members of my body. It's cut off. It's got to be
united in the body. It's got to be one in Christ.
And so he's telling us now, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit,
the bond of peace, considering the mercies of God and what He's
done for us. And it's so that Christ, through
His bride, through His church, through you and I who have been
called by His grace, it's so that Christ, through His bride,
through His gospel, will regenerate, conceive the new man in all His
elect. So that He will bring forth His
children through His bride. Now we have a beautiful picture
of that in Adam in the garden. God put Adam in the earth and
God put Adam in a deep sleep. And out of his side, He brought
forth Adam's bride. And He brought forth that bride
that through the bride, Adam might bring forth children. And the Lord said, God bless
them and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth. It typified Christ on the cross. Christ Jesus was put into a deep
sleep when He laid down His life for His people. And out of His
wounded side, that is, out of the accomplished redemption of
the Lord Jesus Christ for all the elect of God, God brought
forth His bride. And He did it for the purpose
of Christ using His bride and through His bride, just like
through the bride in natural generation a child is conceived
and born. Through His bride, through the
preaching of the Gospel, Christ is regenerating His children
and calling out His people out of this world. Whenever the Lord
saved Adam and Eve and converted them, He used Adam. He taught
Adam the Gospel. He clothed him in the garments
of another that was wounded and killed and slain in his room
instead. And he taught Adam the Gospel.
And through Adam, through Adam and Eve, his bride, his church,
Christ himself saved April. Brought forth a child. Oh, they
brought forth some natural children. They brought forth Cain and April.
But one of them, was brought forth by Christ through this
Gospel. You see the picture there? That's why Paul is exhorting
you and I to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. This
is a blessed privilege God's given us to be able to be a sounding
board for His Gospel. So we need it ourselves. And
others of his lost sheep do too. When he calls the last lost sheep
out, we're going to the house. We're going home. Alright, now
listen. Before we move on, let me point
out this. There is a way in which both these creations are the
same. There is a way in which both these creations are the
same. You and I have absolutely nothing to do with the birth
of either one. Nothing. Don't you love how God uses the
natural, the earthy, to picture the spiritual, to show us the
glory of the spiritual? These things didn't happen by
accident. Christ didn't just walk along and say, well, there's
a seed. Let's see, it goes into the ground and then it's broken
and then from it's being broken in the earth, fruit comes forth. I think that pictures me. No,
He made the seed to picture Him. And He made you and I, brethren,
to picture Him. And the way that we are made
the first time pictures this work of being born again. We had nothing whatsoever to
do with our first conception and our first birth. Right now
some of you young people are here and there is no doubt one
day you are going to conceive a child in your womb and bring
forth a child. Right now let me do this. I am
going to start teaching that child how to be born. Let me
teach you. Let me tell you how to be born,
child. You say, that's stupid. They don't even know anything.
They're not even conceived yet. How can they know anything? That's
my point. You and I didn't have a thing
in the world to do with this. This is of God. So when our text
says, put off the old man and put on the new man, it's not
saying that a sinner has the ability to make himself be born
again. He's speaking to believers that's
already been born again. He's speaking to believers that's
already been created with a new man, in the new man, and He's
telling them now, put off the old man and walk in the Spirit,
walk in the new man. You see, it's not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but by according to His mercy
He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost. In John 1 verse 12 it says that all those that
are born again are born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man. That marks out 99.9% of what
men are trusting in today. What all lost, dead, unregenerate
men are trusting in. Not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man. We're born of God. Born
of God. Now that's the offense of the
cross. It's offensive because the whole of salvation is in
God's hand, not in the sinner's hand. That's true, brethren. You know, the gospel stands together. Every doctrine of the gospel
stands together. You know, the reason we preach
total depravity is to shut sinners up to the fact that God has to
do the saving. You know, we don't preach a conditional
election based upon God seeing something in you and therefore
He chose that. We don't preach that. We preach
an unconditional election. God chose His people, not based
on any good or evil in us. Why? Romans 9 says that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. Not of works, but
of him that calleth. That's why we preach it. Because
God said, I love Jacob and I hate Esau. And God has the right to
do that. There's no unrighteousness with
God to do that. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy.
We preach the particular redemption of God's elect. We preach that
Christ actually died for a particular people. The Lord laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. We preach it because we want
to preach a Savior who succeeded in what He did. Nobody for whom
Christ died will go to hell. Nobody for whom Christ died will
have justice poured out on them a second time, because Christ
shall not fail. He is a success in the accomplishment
of the redemption of his people. That's why we preach it, for
the glory of God. We preach the irresistible grace
of God because it's not the sinner who chooses God. It's God who
chooses the sinner and quickens the sinner and makes him to be
born again and draws him to Christ and saves him. Just as Brother
Robert said, He doesn't do part and then depend upon you to do
the rest. If a drowning man can take one stroke towards the beach,
he don't need the lifeguard. He can take the rest of them. So, our first old man and our
new man differ in their Creator. Our old man's of Adam, the new
man's of Christ. And then, secondly, our old man
and our new man differ in how they're born. Our old man's born
of Adam by natural generation, by corrupt seed. Our new man's
born of Christ by supernatural regeneration, by incorruptible
seed. And we had nothing to do with either birth. All right?
Thirdly, and this is where I wanted to get to. The old man and the
new man differ in the nature of each. Ephesians 4.22 says,
Put off concerning the former conduct the old man, and we're
going to add our words, which after Adam is created, corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts. Now verse 24 says, And that you
put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. The old man, the nature we're
born with the first time, being born of corrupt seed, is corrupt
according to the deceitful lust. And the new man, the nature created
within when we're born again of incorruptible seed, is created
in true righteousness and true holiness. Now, it appears to
me that the word corrupt here can be contrasted with righteousness. And that the deceitful lust can
be contrasted with true holiness. The old man, the old man, the
old unrighteous standing as well as the old deceitful nature is
the creation of Adam. Now, since Adam was our federal
head and our representative, when Adam transgressed in the
garden, he became guilty before God. He became corrupt. He became
unrighteous, unlawful before God. Legally, he broke the law. He transgressed against the law.
The deed he did was corrupt and he became corrupt, unlawful. and likewise all those he represented. We became unrighteous. When he
sinned in the garden, we died. In Adam, we became corrupt, unrighteous,
unlawful before God. But also Adam died spiritually.
He died in his nature, meaning that his nature became nothing
but deceitful lusts. And those deceitful lusts now,
Contrary to what men say, they do lust after immoral vain sin. But that was not the first of
Adam's deceitful lust. The first of Adam's deceitful
lust was religious deceitful lust. It was to cover his own
nakedness by the work of his own hand. And that is by far
the worst deceitful lust there is. Self-righteousness is the
worst sin there is, brethren. Therefore, after the fall of
Adam's deeds, all flowed from his nature, from his deceitful
lust, and therefore every deed he did was from a corrupt, deceitful
motive. And so all his deeds were corrupt
according to the deceitful lust. Everyone. And likewise, when
we were conceived of His seed, our nature was nothing but one
mass of deceitful lust. And so we came forth from our
mother's womb and every deed we did flowing from that mass
of deceitful lust was a corrupt, unlawful, unrighteous deed, breaking
God's law and everything we did because of the deceitful lust
of our hearts. So all men died in Adam. Legally,
spiritually, we died in Adam. That's why Romans 5.12 says,
As by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. By
one man's offense, death reigned by one. Therefore, as by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Does
that convince you, sinner, that you died in a substitute, in
a representative? Those scriptures I just read
to you, does that convince you that you died by the doing of
another? In fact, if you don't get that
and bow to that, you won't ever get the gospel. Sure won't. Sure won't. Here's the good news. Here's the good news. The new
man, our new righteous standing as well as our new holy nature
is the creation of God. It's the creation of Christ Jesus,
the God-man, the last Adam. Since Christ was the head and
representative of all God's elect, when He fulfilled all righteousness,
when He justified His people from our sins, God raised Him
from the dead declaring, He is the righteous man, He is the
holy man, He is the righteous one, He is the holy one. It's
not you, it's not me, by nature. In Christ, this is the good news,
all those Christ represented fulfilled all righteousness. We are completely justified from
all our sin. We are perfect in Christ, raised
in Christ, seated in Christ, accepted of God in Christ. That
is true of those that Christ died for. For He hath made Him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Knowing this, our old man is
crucified with Him. That old man. is crucified. He's been killed. He's passed
through the judgment and justice of God and been killed as the
law demands. The wages of sin is death. He
died. He died. But now God's raised
us up together with Christ and He's made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it's written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that, for this purpose,
that, The Spirit, the promise of the Spirit through faith might
be given to us. That's why Christ died. Christ
died and He accomplished the redemption of His people. He
justified His people. He purged His fire of sin. He
reconciled us to God. That we might receive, that we
might be given from God the promise of the Holy Spirit. That's the
promise. God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Colossians 2.11 says,
You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, the putting
off of the body of the sin of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ. The old man was put off. How? When? It says, you
were buried with him in baptism. When Christ was buried, when
he was submerged in the judgment of God, my old man was submerged
in the judgment of God. When Christ went into the tomb,
my old man went into the tomb. And when Christ came out, my
old man didn't come out. He's dead. He's buried. He's
gone. He's gone. He says, and he raised him from
the dead. Now that was done for us. But then it says, this next work
is done by Christ in us, and you being dead in your sins,
being totally dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you
all trespasses. Now this is the point I want
to make, and you be sure to hear this. The obedience of Christ
unto death fulfilled every requirement of God's holy law, fulfilled
all righteousness for His people, and satisfied justice for all
the chosen seed. That is absolutely so. But God's
elect not only died legally in Adam, we died spiritually in
Adam. And so, a new man must be created
within us in regeneration. In fact, the truth of the matter
is, The believer is the new man. And until that new man is born,
God's elect child really does not even exist yet. You're just
the old dead sinner product of Adam until you're born of him.
That's when the new man, God's child truly is born. That's when
He truly exists. In order for us to be robed in
Christ's righteousness, in order for us to be set apart in His
holiness, a new man must be created within us in whom God draws us
to cast all our care upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why
Christ said you must be born again. He said, I say unto you,
except a man be born of water and the Holy Spirit, he can't
see the Kingdom of God. Because, here's why, that which
is born of flesh is flesh. That's what I just said to you.
Till we're born of God, all we are is flesh. That which is born
of the Holy Spirit, there's Spirit. There's the new man. There's
the real me. The real me. Some seem to speak
less of the new man created within the sinner for the sake of making
Christ's cross work more glorious. But brethren, that's a mistake.
It's a mistake to diminish one aspect of Christ's work in order
to try to make another aspect of Christ's work appear more
glorious. This is all of Christ. God the Father put the whole
work in the hand of Christ before the foundation of the world.
And everything, when we get to the new heaven and the new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness, everything there will be the
product of Christ the last Adam. He will have created it all by
His righteousness and His own. So this all works of him, so
we must declare the whole work brethren. Alright, so now it
tells us here in verse 24. We're born again, a new man after
God is created in true righteousness and true holiness. Let's look
at each word in this verse for just a minute now. It says here,
we're created. That's translated from the same
word that's used in Scripture to declare the creation of the
world. In Mark 13, 19, the same words used to describe the creation
of the world. The same word describes how God created the woman for
the man in 1 Corinthians 11 9. The same word describes the believer
as God's workmanship in Ephesians 2 10, where His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. Here is the point. The new man
is entirely a new creation. Just like that first creation,
the heavens and the earth was not made by anything that was
made. God didn't use some things already
made to make the first creation. He spoke them into existence.
And God didn't use anything that was already there in you or me
to create this new man. He spoke it into existence. That's
right. It's a new heart, it's a new
spirit, it's new eyes, new ears, new hands, new feet. It's new
in opposition and distinction from the old man. And then we
read here, it's after God. That means it's by God's power. It means it's according to the
will of God. And that means it's after the
image of God in His likeness. Christ puts the image of Himself,
the image of God in the new man which is created within us. He's
created in God's image, in Christ's image, the image of God. He's
the image of God. He's created in His image. We
all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the
Lord. That glass is this gospel. We all hear this perfect law
of liberty preached and we behold as in a glass the glory of the
Lord. It's a dim glass for now. We see through a glass darkly,
but we do behold the glory of the Lord. Where? In the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, who said, let there be light,
has shined into our hearts that we might behold the light of
the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And we behold
Him. And when we behold Him, Scripture
says, we're changed into the same image from glory to glory
by the Spirit of the Lord. The new man is the image of Christ. Image is everything. Image is
everything with this world. They think everything, this image
is... It's all fake though, it's all superficial. Show you, you
know, act, look like you got a lot of money and look like
you got a lot of power and influence and friends and all that stuff
and you'll have friends and power and influence. It's all fake.
Everybody, everybody want to jump on Enron that time because
they inflated their numbers, made everything look like something
it wasn't. That's us every day. Why do we want to point the finger
at somebody else? That's us every day in our flesh. But when God creates a new man
in His people, they are created in the same image of Christ.
One with Christ. Made one with Christ. And then
look at this. The new man is created in true
righteousness and true holiness. God is righteousness and He is
holiness. Let me ask you this. We have
been contrasting this. This will set forth my point
here plainly. When your new man was born, I
mean, when your old man was born, conceived, did you really have
a nature that was corrupt and deceitful? Did you? Yeah, I did. Well, when we're
created anew, this new man, this nature of this new man really
is righteousness and holiness. He really is. He really is. Everything that Christ creates
for this new heaven and new earth is created in righteousness and
holiness. It's how Christ created it. by
coming here, by fulfilling the law and righteousness, by Him
being the holy man in thought, word and deed, by Him going forth
and being made sin for His people and putting away the sin of His
people and fulfilling His own righteousness. By Him coming
forth and birthing you anew and making you a new nature and making
you righteous and holy in Him. This is all of God. All of Christ. So everything that's created
is created in righteousness and true illness. He did it all right
and in a holy manner. He did not justify any at the
expense of His mercy. We saw that this morning in Daniel
and the lion's den. How that Daniel was a picture
of Christ. And the end product of what Christ
creates is righteousness and holiness, the end product. Christ
is formed in you and Christ is righteousness and holiness. The
new man is born of the Holy Spirit, born of incorruptible seed. Peter called it being partaker
of the divine nature. Again, for various reasons, and
I hope it's good reasons, Some are hesitant to say that there's
a new man within the believer which is righteous and holy.
But God created the new man. God did. So you can be sure he's
righteous and holy. That's the only kind of thing
God creates. He's righteous and holy. That's why Paul made the
distinction when he said, I know that in me... Wait a minute now. Let me make a distinction here. That is in my flesh. That is
in my old man dwelleth no good thing. because I don't want to
be guilty of accusing God of creating something that's not
righteous and holy. It's in the new man. Now I want
you to consider this. It's in the new man, the new man that
the believer will go to be with Christ immediately when we die.
That's the new man. All men are going to stand before
God in the last day. You have a living soul that's
going to last forever. But that soul will be cast out
into eternal darkness But the way that the believer is going
to be received into God's presence is in the new man. Is in the
new man. Now everything that God receives
must be as righteous and holy as God for God to receive it
or God won't receive it. It must be perfect to be accepted
of God. It must be. Find me one place in Scripture
where you can find where the new man is altered in any way
when a believer dies and goes to be with God in glory. There
is no place you'll find that that new man has to be altered
or anything done to him. We can go into God's presence.
We've been made the righteousness and holiness of God in Christ
Jesus. That's true. Now brethren, after
we go into glory, God's going to eventually, these mortal bodies
are going to go back to the dust because they're corruptible.
But this corruption must put on incorruption. This mortality
must put on immortality. And if the Spirit of Christ be
in you, the body's dead because of sins. But He that raised up
Christ from the dead, if He dwells in you, He will also quicken
your mortal bodies. So that He's going to raise our
bodies one day, incorruptible, immortal, righteous and holy. And in that day, We're going
to be in God's presence completely, thoroughly, inside and out, righteous
and holy. The righteousness and holiness
of God. Now, what are we going to do
in that day? We're going to fall down at God's feet, at the feet
of Christ, and praise Him for doing the whole work. For saying,
not us, Lord, not unto us, unto Thy name be the glory. You're
the one that did this whole work. Well, He's already begun this
work by creating us anew in the new man. Why don't we bow down
and glorify Him for making us righteous and holy in the new
man? For what He's already done for us. Just like we will in
that day when He's completed the work. You see what I'm saying?
I don't know why men want to deny that there's a new man created
in righteousness and true holiness. It's Christ's work. He did it.
Notice verse 24 says, righteousness and true holiness. The word true
here applies to both. true righteousness and true holiness,
as opposed to the vain righteousness and fake holiness of hypocrites.
Now, there's a man created in you who believe that is a holy
man. And that holy man, being holy,
desires righteousness. He hungers and he thirsts after
righteousness. Number one, he hungers and thirsts
after Christ our righteousness and Christ our sanctification.
And number two, because he's holy and righteous, and he's
carried around this old man of flesh that's corrupt and sinful
and deceitful, and this old man, the flesh lusts against the Spirit
and the Spirit against the flesh so that you cannot do the things
you would. And that's got two meanings, brethren. Number one,
Our new man wants to serve God in perfect righteousness. We
want to be done with sin because of the glory of God. We want
to honor and glorify Him. But because of this old man,
this flesh lusting against our spirit, we can't do the things
that we would. We cannot serve God like we would.
But the good news is, brethren, because the Holy Spirit of God
dwells in us, neither can we do the things that old man would
either. Not fully. Not fully. That old man would
throw Christ off and that old man would say, you make yourself
holy and righteous. That old man says to us a thousand
times a day, look at yourself. How can you call yourself a child
of God? You better get to cleaning up
the dirty floor. You better get to cleaning up
and amending your ways. That's the old man's lust. The
old man wants the glory that belongs to God alone. And that
old man has got to be put off. And thankfully, the Spirit of
God dwelling in us, He won't let us put that old man off.
Or do what that old man wants to do. He keeps us trusting Christ
alone. He keeps us looking to Christ
alone. Mortifying that lustful God-hating deed of self-righteousness
within us. That unlawful God-hating deed
of lawlessness within us. And He makes us want to serve
God in truth and in spirit. Sin's gonna be mixed with everything
we do from now to the day we die. Because that old man's with
us. But we gotta remember this, brethren. Remember this. I am
crucified with Christ. That means my old man before
God is dead. God says, you reckon it to be
so. It's so. He's dead. Did Christ
die? Did He die? Yeah, he died. So did our old man when he died. But it doesn't end there. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I. It's not my old man
that lived, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now
live, I live by the the faithfulness, the fidelity of the Son of God
Himself. I trust Him. I trust what He
did for me and I trust Him to keep me trusting Him by His faithfulness. All by His faithfulness. I am
trusting the faith of the Son of God. What are you trusting?
Is your faith trusting in your faith? Then it is vain faith.
It's vain faith. But if your faith is trusted
in the faithfulness of Christ, that's the faith God gives. And
we need Him to keep us trusting Him. He loved me. He gave Himself
for me. So I trust He'll keep me. He'll
keep me. He'll keep me. Now, let's consider
the exhortation then. Verse 22. Put off concerning
the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lust. Put him off and be renewed in
the spirit of your mind. The old man perishes day by day,
the inner man is renewed day by day by the spirit of God.
And put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. What does this mean? Well, like
I said, it doesn't mean try to make yourself born again. This
is to you that's been born again. You that have a new man. You
can't put off the old man until you have a new man. If you could
put off the old man without having a new man, once you put off the
old man, there wouldn't be a man. Right? You got to have a new
man to put off the old man. So put off the old man by putting
off the former conduct. Seeing you put off the old man
with his deeds. That's what Colossians 3.9 says.
and put on Christ by walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh.
As many of you who have been baptized into Christ have put
on Christ. You've put on Christ. Now listen
to this. It's the Spirit that quickened us. It's the Spirit
that gave us faith. It's the Spirit that granted
us repentance. It's the Spirit that brought us to cast all our
care on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Spirit that keeps us.
The flesh profiteth nothing. Nothing. Romans 8, 12 says, Therefore
brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh. We don't owe the
flesh a thing. Flesh has never done anything
for us but separate us from God and that's all it will ever do.
If you start looking at your flesh to make yourself holy and
righteous before God, you are trying to clean a dirty floor
with a dirty mop. It won't work. It will be twice
dirty. But if you live after the flesh,
you will die. But if you, through the Spirit,
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. Sinners, preachers,
are you talking about immoral, sinful deeds? Yes, he is. That's
what he's talking about. He's talking about something
else. He's talking about not turning from Christ for all your
righteousness and all your holiness. Don't turn from Him. You see,
this is the... What's the word I'm looking for?
The word where it says, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst,
for they shall be filled. What's that called in English?
I forgot it. I just skipped my mind. I can't remember now. Anyway. Man, I wish I could think
of this word. Anyway, here's the thing about
sanctification. When a man has truly been made
holy in the inner man, he doesn't look to himself for holiness. He looks to Christ who is His
sanctification. When Christ has been made sanctification
unto us, the evidence of it is we cease looking to us for holiness. We stop looking to our obedience
and our deeds and talking about, oh look how far I've come. I'm
going to tell you something, you better look how far you've
gone away if that's what you're trusting in. Christ is our sanctification.
And when you've been sanctified, truly made holy, now everything
you do, everything you do, everything you think, everything you say,
that new man wants only to please Him. Let me read you something
from 1 John chapter 3. Listen to this now. 1 John chapter
3. Look at verse 9. Whosoever is
born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him,
Christ's seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he
is born of God. Brethren, does that mean that
he can't go after sin, he can't lust after sin? That's right,
he can't do that. He don't want to walk in sin
anymore. The truth of the matter is that new man can't sin, period.
Because he is born of God. Christ's seed remains in him.
Now it's our old man in which we sin. It's our old man in which
we sin, brethren. Not in the new man. Because Christ's
seed remains in us. And we cannot sin against God.
Neither do we want to sin against God. We don't have a desire.
We can no longer do it in unbridled passions and revel in it and
enjoy it and think it's something great. We're always constantly
knowing this is against the God who loved me and gave Himself
for me. I can't do this. I'm constrained by His love. So, we put on the Lord Jesus
Christ and make not provision to feel the lust of the flesh.
Don't provide for the flesh. Don't even make provision for
it. Now, let me give you an example. So see, this new man is not only
putting off the immoral deeds, he is putting off that self-righteous
thought of trying to sanctify and make myself holy and righteous
before God. Now listen to me. Whenever that
old man of lust begins to make you look at yourself rather than
Christ, that old man of flesh, when he starts trying to convince
you to look at your flesh rather than Christ, and you do it, you
will, you know you do, I do it, we both do it. And you start
looking at your past and you try to think. And you begin to
see and remember the things that you do, that you've done. The
believer remembers the evil things we've done. The self-righteous
man looks back and remembers nothing but good things. The
believer looks back and remembers all the evil we've done against
God. And you begin to think to yourself, how could I be a child
of God? Did I even know God when I thought
I knew God? All these thoughts creep into
your mind. Let me tell you how to put off that man. This is
how to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Remember this.
Whenever Eve was in that garden and she sinned, she broke that
law that God gave. Nothing happened to her. Nothing
happened to her. She was not the head and representative.
There's nothing she could do that would have made her a sinner
or made anybody else a sinner. She was not the head and representative.
Nothing happened to her. Period. It was not until Adam
took of that fruit that she died and fell into sin because of
what her head did. You understand that? Because
of what her head did. Now brethren, listen to me. Though
we sin, Though our old man sins, though we are full of sin, sin
is mixed with all we do. Listen to me. In Christ our head,
in Christ our representative, we are as righteous and as holy
as He is right now. We cannot change that by anything
we do, no more than Eve could change her state by anything
she did. is the one who we stand in everlastingly
as He is. Isn't that what John said? This
is how you're going to chase away that fear. This is how you're
going to be edified and constrained. As He is, so are we in this world. I know the self-righteous man
is going to say, well, that means that just as Christ walked, that's
how I walk. You liar. You liar. If you could have, God wouldn't
have sent Christ. but as Christ is, seated at God's
right hand, holy and righteous, accepted of God, beloved of God,
so are we in this world right now by His grace. Remember that,
brethren. That will put off that old man.
That will weaken that old man and that will strengthen that
inner man. That will make you lay hold of Christ and hold on
to Him. Turn over Colossians 3. Let me
show you this one time and I'm going to end with this. Here
is what you want to do, brethren, right here. Colossians 3, verse
1. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth, for you are dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Therefore,
treat your members which are born in the earth like they're
dead, because they are mortified. Treat them like a dead man. Don't
look at them for hope and righteousness, sanctification, and don't look
at them and let them discourage you. Look to Christ and be ye
saved. Amen. All right, brother.

Old Man, New Man

What does the Bible say about the old man and the new man?

How do we know regeneration is true?

Why is the concept of putting off the old man important for Christians?

What does it mean to be created in righteousness and true holiness?

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Old Man, New Man

What does the Bible say about the old man and the new man?

How do we know regeneration is true?

Why is the concept of putting off the old man important for Christians?

What does it mean to be created in righteousness and true holiness?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

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