Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians 4. Let's read beginning with verse
17 through verse 24. Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. This I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who,
being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness."
That's just loose living. to work all uncleanness with
greediness. For ye have not so learned Christ,
if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him,
as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former
conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful
lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, that you put on
the new man, which after God is created, or by God is created
in righteousness and true holiness. The title, the subject here that
he's dealing with, verse 18, speaks of the life of God. The
life of God. When scripture speaks of eternal
life, it's not just speaking of the duration of it, but the
quality. of the kind of life that God
gives us, the life of God. God is life. So this eternal
life is not just how long it is, but what it is. God is holy. God is just. God is righteous. God is love. God is mercy. God is grace. And God is good. The goodness
of God. So the life of God in man is
holiness. It's justice. It's righteousness. It's love. It's mercy. It's of
God. From God. Born of God. Given by God. Created by God. Man doesn't have anything to
do with this new life. It's of God. just like natural
life. You and I have nothing to do
with our first birth. We have nothing to do with our
new birth. Okay? This is the life of God.
And it is indeed a new creature. This is what he's writing about
here and all through the epistle. A new creature. If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature in the likeness of God. in the
likeness of Christ, predestined to be conformed to the very image
of Christ. Just as Christ is the express
image of God, the only bodily appearance or image of God we
bear, this new man is in the image of Christ, the Son of God,
first born of many creatures. So this new creature is in the
likeness of God, the likeness of Christ. He's led by, he, she,
is led by and filled with the Spirit of God. Spiritual being,
not flesh. Spirit. And as said, this is
God's work and it's all for His glory and honor. This new creature
is created. unto good works which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in, which glorifies God. Herein is your Father glorified
that you bear much fruit, like our Lord. Okay. So we know this
is so from the scripture, right? We know it's so. And experience. Look at verse 22. And this epistle
and others. It talks about a new man and
old man. Verse 22, put off this old man. And verse 24, put on
the new man. There's an old man within us.
He's of the world. He's a sinner. He is never going
to get any better. He's the same fellow that you've always had all your life.
He loves sin, hates God, hates holiness, never gives a thought
to God. He loves the world. And we will have this old man
with us as long as we are in this body. But someday, all of
God's people, when He lays this body in the grave, no more sin. No more old man. No more battle. No more struggle.
A brand new creature. This new man. See, we're like
worms. We are worms. Creatures of the
earth. They that are of the earth. 1 Corinthians 15. They that are
of the earth are of the earth, earthy. But the Lord from glory. Two men, Adam, were born sons
of Adam. Earth. Earthy. Bound to. Bound by. in love with dirt. But there's a new man, second
Adam, Christ came, that loves, wants out of this dirt. He's
confined to a body. When you lay this body down like
a worm enters a cocoon, I love that. Why did God do that? Why
did God create these, we call them bag worms. Well, whatever. But a worm, when we enter into
a cocoon, it's got to die to live. It's a crawling, creepy,
crawly creature. Ugly. Nobody likes worms. But it gets into this cocoon
and wraps it up. It's dead. You know what I'm
saying? One of these days, that cocoon opens up. This beautiful
butterfly flies into the face of God Himself. That's it. It
does not yet appear what we shall be. We look in the mirror, all
we see is an old man. We look within, all we feel and
see is an old man. But there is a new creature there. A new man, holy, righteous, godly. He loves God. He walks with God.
He's like Christ. But he must grow like life. A living creature, every living
creature grows, doesn't it? Whether it be animals, plants,
man, they all grow. That's a sign of life. I loved and admired my oldest
brother so very much. I wanted to grow up, he was eight
years older than me. Ron's age. He'd be old like Ron
right now. Seventy-four. Going on 75, 75,
76, 77. What's the difference? It's old. But I loved him so much. I admired
him so much. I wanted to grow up and be just
like him in every way, every way. I admired him so much. I watched him. I observed him. And I would try to do what he
did. I would try to act like he acted. I'd try to, you know, he was
an athlete and so I'd get down there and just, you know, I heard
my dad one time talking to him. He was a football player and
very good at it. And my dad was talking to him
one time. It's funny. And he was talking about him,
you know, a diet for, he said, iron. You need a lot of iron
in your diet. It builds good muscle and all
that. What gives you iron? He said
things like raisins. When I heard that, I ate a half
a box of raisins the next day. Well, you know what happened
to me. I hung on His every word. I watched
Him. I wanted to sit like Him, walk
like Him, talk like Him, be just like Him. I wanted to grow up
and be just like Him. So it is with every true born-again
child of God. They love, they admire the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God predestined them to be
conformed to His image. And they want to be just like
Him. David said this, a man after God's own heart. God gives you
a new heart. The more you want to be like
Him. David said, I will awake, I will
behold thy face in righteousness. David knew that. I'm not going
to be with you unless you create in me by the righteousness
of Christ imputed to me and a righteousness, a new man made fit for the kingdom
of God. I'll behold thy face in righteousness. Flesh and blood, sinners, there's
not going to be any sinners in glory. You know that? There's
not going to be any sinners in glory. This sinful man is going
to be in the dirt. But this new man is holy, unblameable,
unreprovable, God's son. That's the only ones that can
dwell with God. Like Christ. Okay? But so David said, I will
behold thy face in righteousness, the righteousness of Christ,
and this new creature created like him. And he said, I won't
be satisfied until I awake with his likeness. I'm so tired of
this old man. Are you? That's good. That's a sign of life. You want
to be like Christ? There must be a new man in there.
There was a time I wouldn't be here no more. It's the last place
I wanted to be. Now it's the first. It's the
only place I really want to be. So it's a new man. He wasn't
there before. And he looks like Christ. When our disciples, they were
all just like us, a bunch of sinners saved by grace, Simon
Peter especially. The Lord took his hand off of
Simon just for a minute to teach him a lesson. Show him what he
was capable of. Show him that there's an old
man still there, Simon Peter. He's no better. He's still old
Simon. The Lord kept calling him Simon. He's still there. And he took
his hand off of him for one minute, and he was a cussing, rip-roaring,
angry sailor. Like that. And we're all capable
of it. We've seen him come out, and
we hate it. And we ask the Lord, would you
kill this old fellow? But now, when the Lord did a
work in those fellows, It says the people everywhere took note
that they'd been with Jesus. Simon Peter's friends and former
friends, former friends, he's got new friends now. He can't
walk. Two can't walk together, said
they'd be agreed. Light can't have fellowship with dark. No.
He went out amongst them to tell them the gospel, but no, they
weren't his companions. They were. And now they're not. And Peter's the one that wrote
and said, they think it's strange that you don't run to the same
excess of right with them. So he said, they all took note
that these fellows had been with Jesus. This Simon Peter, he's
not the same man. He's different. He said, this
is not the fellow I used to run with. Who gets the glory for this? Only God can do that. You've
got to give a new heart. That's the next message. You've
got to give a new heart, a new love. That's the next message. It's all the same message. All
right, you remember in our text, verse 1, it says, walk worthy
of the vocation with which you are called. Called to be saints.
Called to be children of God. Born of God. Called to be Christians. Yes, Christians. He tells us
to walk with God, walk with Christ, walk like Him. Chapter 2, go
back there. Before the new birth, we were
dead in trespasses and sin. Look at it. And here's how we
walk, verse 2. In time past, you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, captive to him, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our
conversation or life in time past. This was all it was about,
lust of the flesh, desires of the flesh and the mind, by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, born of God. God said, before the world began,
I choose that one. I choose that one. I choose that
one, that one, that one, that one, that one, that one. They're
going to be my children. And I'm going to give them new
birth. I'm going to send this, the Word, incorruptible seed
and plant it in their heart, which is Christ. Christ in them. Not only faith in Christ, love
for Christ, belief in Christ, but a new creature that's just
like Jesus Christ. This is of God. This is God's
Word. And so he says down here in verse
17 in our text, chapter 4, this I say therefore. He began this
chapter talking about our walk and he continues, as in every
epistle. He said, I testify in the Lord
now, the Lord told me to tell you this, that he henceforth
walked not as other Gentiles walk. Paul wrote it, he said, be not
conformed to the world. Don't do it. Transform. Your
mind, your heart, everything's opposites. We were talking about
that on the way here, weren't we? Completely opposite of what
the world thinks about everything. God, world, sin, self, everything. Truth. So, don't walk, he said. with them. Don't walk as them. The vanity of their minds. Isaiah
1 says the whole head is sick. It's always been that way. When
Adam fell, it says there right before the flood that the imagination,
the thoughts of man's heart, his imagination was only evil
continually. And then the Lord flooded the
world and destroyed it. Because all mankind could think
about was filth. Now, our Lord said, as in the
days of Noah, so shall it be when I come back in the last
days. Have you ever read or heard of
a generation of people that are more vile and filthy than the
one we live in now? Some of you older people would
never dream of hearing and seeing what you see in public with no
shame at all. Anything goes. It comes out of
this man. If it feels good, whatever you
feel like, do it. And God looked down to see if
there was any that didn't understand. Any. He said, there's none. Well,
there's a few. There's a remnant. How did they,
their understanding, become enlightened? How did they come to know God
and what sin is and begin to hate sin and love holiness and
righteousness? They're born of God, a new creature. This is not natural. This is
spiritual. So the vanity of the mind, man's
thoughts are only of self. Sin, flesh, world, pleasure. No thoughts of God. Man doesn't
even believe there is a God. How ignorant can you be? All
these notions of evolution is the most preposterous, most absurd,
most ridiculous notion you could ever imagine. That's what Romans
1. Read it. You've read it. Romans
1. It became vain in their imagination
and drummed up all sorts of ridiculous notions and all this complex,
glorious, beautiful, infinitely mysterious and wonderful. It's all so glorious that it
just happened. It's just a big bang. There was
nothing. You know, the dumbest idiot on
earth can tell you this, if there's nothing, there's nothing. How
could there be a big bang if there's nothing? What's banging? I mean, where did this bang start? Where did this amoeba start? Everything's got to have a beginning.
Everything but God. You can't explain anything except
God. God created everything. I told
myself I wasn't going to raise my voice today. Help me do this. I hope this is a zeal for God's
glory. I hope that's it. I believe it
is. God made everything out of nothing.
That's the only way you can explain it. God, who had no beginning
or no end, God said, let there be light. Let us create man. That's the only possible way
to define or understand anything. You can't have something from
nothing unless there's a God. So the whole understanding is
darkened, verse 18. alienated from the life of God.
Man was created in the image of God. People still bring that
up. He was created in the image of
God. He was holy. He was upright.
He was in the image of God. He understood God. He walked
with God. He was like God. He had no sin. No thoughts of
sin. Pure heart. Clean hands. Upright. What happened? He fell. He sinned. He died. And now man
does not resemble God in any way. Any way. Man is no better than
a beast with apology to the beast. Because all the beasts do what
God designed them to do. Every animal gives God the glory.
But man, man was created for the glory of God. And Romans
1, it's all explained right there in Romans 1. Would not give God
the glory. So it says God gave him over
to a reprobate mind. It means man has no sense whatsoever. Zero. He's dead. That's it. His understanding is dark. He
can't understand anything. How do we get light? The entrance of thy word giveth
light. Light walked in darkness. A person. His name is the word. We could
go on and on. You see, don't you? What do you
see? Him. That was God. That is God. That
man named Jesus, he's God. He created this world. Can you
believe that? All right. Look at this. And
where am I? Look down at verse, in our text,
verse 19. It says, we talked about the blindness of their
heart, hardness. Verse 19, past feeling. They've given themselves over
under lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.
You know it so, don't you? Given to us. You know how you
can get rich? Give yourself to it. If you give
yourself to whatever it is you want, you can get it. Just get
your fill of it. And that's man. He can't get
enough of sin, so he just gives it over to the lust of the flesh. How can people get so animalistic? Animals live to eat, drink, and
sex. That's it. Isn't it? Isn't it? That's what animals do. Isn't
man created for something higher than that? Doesn't the scripture
say, kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink? Righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, isn't it? What happened? He died. He became
like a beast. I believe in reverse evolution.
We didn't come from monkeys. We became one. We didn't start
on all fours. We're there now, though. Crawling. Man created upright. He's on
all fours now, like an animal. All he lives for is flesh. God's got to do something, doesn't
He? He's got to create a new man.
And He does. So, verse 20, You have not so
learned Christ, if so be that you've heard Him. And how you're going to learn
from God is through Christ, through the Word. Okay? So he's telling
us, don't walk like this world. You once did. And not now. You once walked according to
the course of this world. Now you walk with God. Enoch
walked with God. Noah walked with God. You can't
walk with God and walk with the world. You can't. They're opposites.
All right? Noah walked with God. Abraham
was a friend of God. On and on it goes. On and on
it goes. don't walk anymore like that.
And why is he telling us this? Because there's an old man that
he's got to be, he's got to be suppressed. He's got to be put
off. You've got to starve him. He's got to be put down. He's
always with us. That old man's got to be denied.
And you can't do it of yourself. Without him, You can do nothing. And this is why it tells us to
continue to pray without ceasing. Why? This old man's there. He's
going to raise up just to... You've got to ask the Lord to
kill him. Let me realize he's crucified
with Christ. This man's dead. He's as good
as dead. Don't let him have the upper
hand here. He said, you've learned Christ,
haven't you? Verse 21 explains it. It's told thee, you have
heard Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus. Now, I remind you every time
in the New Testament that the name Jesus is used. It's for
one of two reasons. See, before he became a man,
he was Lord, wasn't he? That's his name. Lord God. He never relinquished that. He's
always been Lord God. Before he became Jesus, he's
the Lord God. Right? That's what we call him.
Born King. Lord. Right? He took a body. A body has self-prepared
man. His name was Jesus. Joshua. God our Savior. God manifests
in the flesh. Okay. All right. The truth of
who God is, that man named Jesus, that's God. It's not possible,
they said. No, you're just a man. No. That's
God. The truth of salvation, how you
get to God, that man named Jesus, you've got to be as good as him.
You've got to be as holy as that man. There's only been two holy
men walked this planet. One was Adam. He fell. And we
fell in it. Everybody born from Adam, born
just like him in sin. Along comes the second Adam.
The Lord from glory. A man. His name was Jesus. In
order to get back to God, Adam We fell in Adam away from God.
How are we going to get back to God? Second Adam. Reinstate
us. Hark the herald angels. Second
Adam from above. Reinstate us in thy love. Rise the woman's conquering seed.
Bruise in us the serpent's head. So this second Adam came. His
name was Jesus. He's the way to God. well if
you just be like him you can get there if you just act like
him walk like him strive to be oh no no no he's a representative
he's a head he's a covenant head he's a substitute I also told myself try to be
simple this is mysterious but he came
to live this life as a man for his people he said so the truth
of Who God is, that's how God is. God's a person. People say,
I believe in God. Do you? What's he like? Well,
he's Jesus. That's what he's like. That there
is God, the fullness of the Godhead in a body. You know how God is,
who God is, what God's like? Jesus. Was he sovereign? No, Jesus can't. He wants into your heart. Seriously,
ask the disciples about what a door means to the Lord. They
were inside the room and the door was shut. Well, how's he
going to get in? Let him into your heart. Let's
ask Simon Peter. Simon, did you let Jesus into
your heart? He'd say, you're an idiot. I was a dead man out on a seashore
fishing my life. I didn't know God. I didn't care
for God. I wasn't looking for God. But God came to me. And God said to me, follow me. And I did. I did. That man is God. And one time they wanted to make
him king, remember? Oh, we love Jesus so much. Yeah,
right. You're going to crucify him real
soon. Let's make him king. And he hid himself. He would
not let them make him king. Why? He already is. Why does he need a man's crown
when God crowned him? crowned with glory and honor.
Very soon, 33 short years, he's going to rise and sit on the
right hand of the majesty on high, crowned with glory and
honor. He doesn't need man's approbation
or man's glory or man's acceptance. Oh no, you've got it all wrong.
That man named Jesus is God. The truth as it is in Jesus,
the truth of salvation, the way to God. He's the way to God and
he's the ways of God. or in Jesus, that man named Jesus.
Ways as lived by Jesus. Sinless. Our Lord stood up one
time and said, which of you convinces me of sin? What human being could ever say
that he did? One time a woman was caught in
the act of adultery and he said, your sins be forgiven you. They
said, nobody but God can forgive sins. That's exactly right. Did you hear your own words?
The Pope can't forgive them. Your friend can't forgive them.
Your priest, your preacher, nobody can forgive sin. But that man
named Jesus, he forgives sins. Why? Because he's God. And there's
one name, one mediator between God and men. The man. Do you
hear yourself? Nobody can forgive sins but God. And that man is God. He's the
mediator between God and man, the man. So you come to God through
the name of a man, Jesus Christ. You call him Lord Jesus. The
truth as it is in Jesus. So he's saying here in Arctic,
and where am I? Down in verse 22. So put off
concerning this former conversation, this old man. Be renewed in the
spirit of your mind. Put on the new man. We're going
to look at that more fully next Sunday. But as I started out,
as he started out, telling us to walk worthy of this. Did our
Lord Jesus Christ walk worthy of the name of the Son of God? Oh, my. I told you that story in that
Bunyan's holy war, Emanuel came and delivered all the people
that were captive. He walked down through the middle
of town and everybody loved him so much that they all got behind
him. They put their feet in his footstep. They wanted to just
walk with him, walk like him. You know that the more you're
with him, the more you'll be like him. Moses came down from the mountain.
He'd been with God 40 days, 49. He didn't eat a morsel of bread. Man can't do that. He did. He
didn't have one bite to eat. He didn't have to drink water.
How could he live? God. He's just a man. That's right. He's with God. And when he came
down from the mountain, what does it say? His face was shining. He didn't know it, but everybody
else saw it. He'd been with God. And when the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God shines in our hearts, it'll come out our
face. There was a time, you know, when I'd hear the gospel and,
well, I can't wait to get out of here. I'm out of here. And I look into
the faces of some still, and there's no light, no light, no
light. But when God, when that day spring
arises in your heart, I see. I see. So as I said, I wanted to walk
like my brother. And I look back at pictures,
and I would see myself sitting at the table with him. And I
looked like him. I was sitting there just like
him. dressed like him. And the older I get, sometimes
I see him in me. I do. Not very often, but sometimes. And so I hope it's true of being
with the Lord. And so this is talking about
the believer's walk or life in this world, the life of God,
the soul of a man, a woman, Life like Christ. And I know what
the world says, but never mind them. Just forget them. But let
me close with this illustration. Talking about the walk. If there's
no walk, there's no life. No walk of faith. If you're not
walking with God, you don't know God. And if there's no likeness
of Christ, he's not there. Our sister Sarah Manning right
now is with her grandson and he's, I don't know how old he
is, six months or so. He can't really walk yet, he's
trying, he's crawling. But now he's alive. He's a man child. He has all
the faculties of a human being, of a man. He has all his fingers
and toes and a heart and a liver brain and all of that. He's healthy,
I believe, and he's a baby. He's an infant. He's alive. He's
a man-child. He's a man. He's a child. He's
complete, right? He'll never grow another finger.
He'll never grow another heart, right? But every one of his faculties
was right. And that young boy, He's got
to learn to what? Walk. If a healthy child has
got to learn to walk. How? Come on, follow me. Get up! Is that the way it works? Margaret, is that the way? The
girls, you say, I'll take the first step. You actually lay
hold of them. and teach them to walk this way. Don't you? You remember that?
Do you remember? Liz, you remember when your boys
were starting to walk and then you started, they started walking
and hang on to everything and they do this and then you step
back and what would you say? Come to me. Come to me. You remember? Come on. You won't come. You
can't come. He's got to make a new creature
in you. You can't walk. You can't learn it of yourself.
He's got to teach you. That's what I'm doing right now. He teaches us how to walk. If
you're alive, you're going to walk. And he's going to teach
you to walk. And that's what they say. But
we'll follow. How many times do you fall while
you're learning to walk? Huh? Oh, my. Proverbs 24 says a righteous
man falls seven times. What happened? What did you do?
When Corbin fell, what did you do, Karen? Huh? Oh, get up, son. What's wrong with you? Why'd
you fall like that? I'm leaving you. Hey, ain't no
son of mine fall like that. He cried, he bust his knee, he
bust his head and said, oh honey. All of God's people fall. They
stumble, they fall, they cause pain, they cause shame on our
Lord. He always picks them up. He's
not going to leave you down. He'll pick you up. I say, Paul said, that you henceforth
don't walk as other Gentiles walk. You've got a new man in
you. And walk with God. Walk with Him. The more you look
to Him, the more you'll look like Him. The more you walk with
Him, the more you'll be like Him.