Amen. Thank you. May be seated
as you're finding your seat, if you would take your copy of
the Scriptures and turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. And in the last six, seven weeks,
believe it or not, it's been seven weeks, we've been going
through a specific miniseries out of Ephesians on dealing with
the central doctrines of the church and central doctrines
of Grace Truth Church specifically. Things that we hold to be non,
I mean, to be essentials, non-negotiables, things that are something that
you really need to understand. You need to know intimately and
spiritually, supernaturally know in order to have eternal life.
We've looked at the text of Ephesians thus far. We've seen in chapter
one as a way of review where Paul is writing to the church
of Ephesus in order that they may live and exist to the praise
of His glorious grace. So the purpose of the church
primarily and foundationally across all of history is to praise
God. His glory coming from the lips
and the hearts and the minds and the lives of the church.
The church is a certain entity. It's a certain person. It's a
certain people. The church is an absolute being,
an organism that Christ has created absolutely. It is not an option. I say this over and over again.
Christ did not die to make salvation possible. He died to make salvation
certain. There's a very big difference
in a God or a Savior that is hoping you find Him and a Savior
that seeks and saves the lost certainly. Certainly. He does
do what He has come to do. He seeks and saves those who
are His. As we look at this text today,
we know that chapter 1, we saw, to the praise of His glorious
grace, we looked for many, many weeks at the beautiful blessings
that we have in Christ Jesus, at all of the things that God
has established for the people of God. We saw that we have been
adopted and predestined. We have been declared righteous
through the blood of Christ. We have been carried out of darkness
into the marvelous light of His Son. We now are one body, no
longer carried away by every wind of doctrine. We know that
we are not alienated from God as we once were. We see the picture
of Israel as a people whom God chose for His own possession.
He picked Abram out of Ur, a pagan moon worshipper, during the height
of his entire ministry as a pagan. And God selected Abram to come
out. And Abram, by faith, believed
in God. And so it was credited him as
righteousness, faith. For God's path and for His people
is that God creates a people apart from their passion to be
created. And so we know then that the
argument is that there aren't two people, but now through Christ,
God has made one out of two people. We see Israel is the body of
Christ for all who are in Christ are Abraham's offspring. Not
all who are Jews. We know that we ought to grow
and stand for truth. We ought to always be testing
what we hear with our ears and what we see with our eyes and
what we contemplate with our minds to see that it is actually
legitimately truth and not error. We ought to test the doctrines
that we've been learned and are learning for so many years. We
ought to test our traditions to make sure that they are in
line with scripture. We ought to look at how we see
justification, that it is by faith alone, in Christ alone,
by grace alone. Period. Nothing else. We do not
please God any more fully while doing things. We cannot say that
what we do here or the fruit of our faith then pleases God.
Paul argues against that. He says it's not possible, for
by grace you have been saved through faith, not of works,
lest anyone boast. So there is no way to eternal
life apart from the finished and full and absolute divine
work of Jesus, who as a human being fully fulfilled the righteous
requirements of the law that God then in His wrath poured
out His judgment against all of humanity. Be careful. On Christ. See how easy that is to hear
those things and to agree with them. If I hadn't said, be careful,
you might not have been on guard. Jesus did not die for all of
humanity. He died for those who believe,
period. Certainly. And that's one of
the things that Paul has taught us, that we have learned Christ.
And because we have truly learned Christ supernaturally through
his word and by the power of his spirit, we catch those things.
And that's what we've been doing the last three months is making
sure that when we hear things that are somewhat partly true
and in the right context are absolutely true, but in the wrong
context are an absolute lie. Or if Christ died for every person
ever, then every person ever is redeemed before the beginning
of the world. For God is not a liar, or He would not be God,
and God promised that all whom Christ died for have eternal
life. Christ is not a desperate God standing in the corner of
eternity, hoping and begging that some poor, lame sinner would
pick up or step upon by accident the grace that He throws, like
some bird in a park. And so we've come to this place,
and in verse 20 of Ephesians chapter 4, Let's just back up
a few minutes. Look at verse 17. Paul is continuing in his thoughts
from chapters three and four, looking so that We who are in
Christ, that prayer at the end of chapter three is an amazing
prayer that we would be full with the knowledge and the joy
and the power of God and that He who is able to do far more
than anything we could ever think or ask or comprehend or believe
or conceive or receive. God is able to do far more. To
Him be the praise and the glory through the church, in the church,
in Christ, through all generations forever and ever. Amen. Amen.
Meaning it is so. It is done. It is there. And
so now we then see that Paul says, therefore, as a prisoner
of the Lord, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy. We saw that
those who are in Christ can walk worthily before God because Christ's
righteousness has been given to them, because the old man,
as we're going to see this morning, is dead and the new man is alive. We are new creations in Christ.
So because of that, we walk in one faith. That's why we've taken
this time out the last few weeks, two months to walk. Look at that
one faith. How is it that we have learned Christ? We saw that
the ministry of the church primarily foundationally is what? The teaching
of the word of God, that those who are truly engaging and giving
ministry, minister through the word and from the word. That
no act of service apart from the Word of God or absent from
the Word of God is service at all to the church. It is not
edifying to the church to serve without the gospel. It is not
edifying to the world to serve without the gospel. It is not
good. It is wicked. For the devil has
his minions and the enemy has many soldiers who do a lot of
moral and ethical and loving things to move people away from
the absolute truth of divine grace. And many of them call
themselves brothers and sisters in Christ and friends. They are
not. When their hope is in the things that they have accomplished
in this life as proof of their salvation. Verse 17 of chapter four, let's
read down through verse 24. Now, this I say and testify in
the Lord that you must no longer walk in the gym as the Gentiles
do in the futility or uselessness, worthlessness of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness
of heart. They have become callous and
have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind
of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard
about Him and were taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus.
To put off your old self which belongs to your former man, manner
of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires. And to be
renewed in the spirit of your minds. And to put on the new
self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness
and holiness. Now there are many sermons here.
And so by God's grace, there are many that you have already
heard. There are some that I've already preached, some of this
text. I'm really contextually in verse 20 through 24. And so
as we look today, we must remember, I pray as I've instructed and
requested and asked that you have continued to read Ephesians.
I read it through the other day at a very slow pace. It took
me 20 minutes to read the whole letter at a very slow pace. I
listened to it online. I can't remember the man who
does it, but he's very famous for doing the Bible. And it took 26 minutes
in one sitting. So it can be done. I would encourage
you to read it at least once a week, if not every day, if
you can't do that, because the more you read the word, the more
it will take root in your heart. And you will see as the preaching
comes to life for you, it will be more abundant than it has
ever been. If the word of God is hidden
in your heart prior to coming to the fellowship with the saints.
And so we've taken some time to learn. That is not the way
you've learned Christ. See, there's a comparison here. There's a contrast. There are
those who are not in Christ. They're alienated from God. They're
darkened. They're worthless. Their mind
is worthless. Their actions are worthless.
Their hearts are worthless. They're worthless. They are to
be condemned. Now, that is a very unpopular
thing to say in America. It's a very unpopular thing to
say in the world. When you hear people, and I used to get this
and probably will get this in the future, but not so much here.
But back on the West Coast, I got it all the time. When I would
say things like that, I would get an email or a phone call
or a letter or an ugly look or a gum wrapper with some nasty
words handed to me and people put it in their offering box
and little things like that. And I know they're handwriting. Especially when the specific
person like one time wrote an anonymous letter on the back
of an envelope that was addressed to her on the front, very nasty
letter. About how simple it was to say
that people are worthless who aren't in Christ, well, if it's
sinful, then Paul sinful, if it's sinful, then God sinful.
Because the scripture teaches very clearly that those who are
not gods, he will judge because they are worthless. Now, from
a social point of view, it's very frustrating to say people
are worthless. I don't believe any human being
is worthless, because every human being will give glory to God,
either through their worship, through their rebirth in worship,
or they will give glory to God through His judgment on their
unbelief. And according to what we see in the book of Revelation
and the Apocalypse, John, who wrote that, we see that the church,
the true people of God, will be at peace with the judgment
of the wicked. We will understand and we will
not cringe, but we will rejoice and worship Christ for his judgment
destruction of the wicked. As a human being still in the
flesh, it is very difficult for me to cognitively deal with that. Spiritually, I'm at peace with
that. Although it makes the hair stand up on my head when I think
of it, because the horror of judgment. Should scare us to
death. We should grieve for the lost.
We should we should be in anguish over those who are not in Christ,
and we should pray that God, by his mercy, save them. So we
must know Christ. We learn Christ. That is not
the way you've learned Christ. But the contrast is we now know
Him. We are intimate with Him. We
are His children. We have been given eternal life.
Therefore, we know who He is. When the Word of God gives us
something in our minds to see, in our eyes, we have spiritual
minds and we have spiritual eyes and we have spiritual hearts
that receive the Word in such a way that we then what? We rejoice. Praise His glorious grace. We
see who He is in the fullness of the Word of God, who is Jesus
Christ, who became flesh and dwelt among us. And learning Christ is not learning
about Christ, because there are many who learn about Christ.
Learning Christ is, yes, learning about the gospel, of course,
but it's more than that. It's certainly learning the heart
and the power of Christ, who is the one to whom all praises
do. It's knowing in the depths of
one's soul and mind and strength that Christ is indeed the Creator
that gives life, that He is worthy to be worshipped. In Romans 8,
we see Paul writing these words where he says that the Spirit
of God testifies to our spirit that we are His children. See,
when we who are the children of God see and learn with our
minds, we grow in worship in our hearts. But what does knowledge
do to the unbeliever? It puffs him up. It puffs him
up that pride may be the outcome. So then Paul says, we are in
Christ, therefore we must walk in Christ. We must walk in truth. Assuming verse 21, look there. But it says, assuming that you
have heard about Him and were taught in Him as the truth is
in Jesus. Now, I almost developed an entire
sermon series on that little phrase. But I figure we need
to move on a little bit. My personal study is not necessarily
my pulpit. And so we'll move on a little
bit from that, but I want you to understand it in some way. The truth is in Christ, so we
must walk in the truth. John says it best in his first
epistle that this is the message that we receive from Him and
that pronoun Him, that which was in the beginning, that which
we have heard and seen. He says that because he doesn't
want to call out Christ. He's very humble. But we know that he says this
is the message that we have heard from Christ, God is light, and in Him there
is no darkness. You see that condition? If we
say that we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness,
we lie, and we do not practice the truth. What does light and
darkness have together? Nothing. Nothing. And that's
what Paul wants us to see, that the truth is in Jesus. Cognitively, academically, when
I say that, it means in the mind we can look at the text and say,
OK, the truth is in Jesus. But until the Spirit quickens us
to make us alive in Him, we don't see Him as the truth. We see
Him as true or see some truths about Him. But is He our truth?
Is He our hope? Is He our resurrection and our
life? Is He our God? Is He the Creator? Or is He just the source of most
truth? Is He the source of some truth? Or is He the truth? Jesus
Himself claimed to be the truth and the way and the life and
that no one comes to the Father except through Him. The exclusivity
of the Christian faith is an absolute phenomenon that is not
found anywhere else in other religion or cult. Jesus is the
only one who claims to be the only way to God, period, in any
religion. Every other religion has multiple
roads, has multiple philosophies, has multiple prophets, has multiple
ways of you earning it. If you can't, as a Muslim in
Islam, if you can't properly obey the law and worship, then
you can do other things to go to heaven. You can appease this
impersonal God that is like a mighty, maniacal judge waiting to burn
us with a magnifying glass. We can appease Him in all these
other cults and world religions. They try to appease God. Well,
propitiation means that God is appeased. He's satisfied. There is no rage and anger and
wrath and judgment that is looked upon when He looks at the church.
He doesn't look at the church and say, I can't wait to get
them. No, He looks at the church and says, I have punished them
already through Christ. imputed righteousness, substitutionary
atonement. We believe in the penal atonement
that Christ was punished on our behalf. Otherwise, why did he die? Is
it just an example? Was he a martyr? No. Was it a
martyr? The whole reason God created
the world and everything in it is so that Christ could die,
so that his righteousness could be displayed. Romans 3, verse
21 to the end. so that God could be righteous by forgiving the
saints of old and forgiving the saints of new, that Christ could
satisfy His judgment against the wickedness of man, especially
and only and specifically those whom He calls to faith. And He forgives us. And Christ
satisfies the Father. So as we are made alive in Christ,
We must walk in that truth. We must live that truth. We must
desire truth. We must confess that truth. We
confess. And the confession of one's soul
is evident by the expression of one's affections, one's life,
one's actions. Therefore, as one is made alive
in Christ, the living Christ, here's how it looks, will be
visible. And the old man, get this, the
old man or the old way will no longer reign in that life. So
those who are in the truth, the truth will reign from them, around
them, through them. I don't say sinless perfection. That's not possible. Internally. What I did say is that the truth
would reign. We are either slaves to the flesh and to sin and to
death, or we are slaves to Christ and the righteousness and the
truth. So which is it? Well, the old man will pop up,
pop his head up from time to time. He will be heard. Hey,
what's up? You know, we'll hear that. And
what's happening? But the child of the living God
in Christ and the truth, the old man is dead. Because Christ
has crucified the flesh. And that's the truth. The truth
is in Christ. The truth is in Christ and we
are in Christ and are in the truth and the truth is in us.
You see that? It's a tongue twister. Then the truth of Christ is in
us, which is in us. It will be evident as that same
truth displays the manifold wisdom of God. Uniquely, as we've seen,
we are all each gifted in a unique way for the what? The edification
of the corporate body that we corporately then display that
same wisdom, that truth, the truth of God, the truth of the
fact that Christ created a people for his own glory. Where are
those people? Where is that truth evident in
the world today, especially in America? I would suggest to you
that it's not very evident. And that people who talk and
claim and proclaim to be the truth and reflections of the
truth are not. are not living the truth, but
rather living a deceitful life. And they've been deceived. Look at this, verse 22, as the
truth is in Jesus. To put off. Your old self. See, there's a command there.
It's not an option. Paul doesn't say, you know, at
times when you think about it, if you think, you know, why don't
you try, you know, work toward it, it'd be something, it'd be
cool. If you want to, uh-uh. Put off. We have learned, Christ,
in order that we can put off the old self, which belongs to
your former manner of life and, there we go, is corrupt through
deceitful desires. Deceitful desires. You know,
the difference in the one who is a child of God and the one
who is not is that the one who is not a child of God thinks
of the desires of this world, even spiritual desires as good.
Good. Pleasant, pleasurable, and then good for them. And this
is the problem. The people who are the children
of God see those deceitful desires and they recognize them as lies. And they go, though the world
says this is best, I know that all things work together for
good because I love God and I've been called according to His
purpose. Why? Because He first loved me and He gave me a heart
to love Him. So now what I think I want, which
is contrary to what the Scripture tells me I should want, I walk
away from. That's what Paul's about to teach
us. And next week, we're going to
start off with some examples of that. Paul says, look, don't
lie, but tell the truth. Don't joke around, but encourage.
Don't be lustful. Don't do this, don't do that.
You know what happens? We get into this place and that's
why there are 36 sermons before that. That's what we're on, number
36, of just Ephesians, not counting the seven we just did. Why are
we on 40-some-odd sermons? Because if we started there about
not lying and not doing this and not doing that and not doing
that, and we go, oh yeah, I got my ticket. And we'll type them
up and we'll put some flowers on them and we'll put them in
a scrapbook and we'll paint them and put them on the wall and say, look kids,
if we want to love the Lord, then we've got to follow these.
Well, that's not, that's a half-truth. If we do love the Lord, we'll
strive to follow these. And that's what Paul is teaching
us. But it took, I mean, for Paul it just took a few paragraphs,
but for me, I mean, you've got to give me a break. Let's walk
together in this. Because if we started there,
we'd be just like the world religions of the day. We would walk around
knowing that we were okay because we don't lie. All the while lying
to ourselves that we don't lie. All the way, we'd walk around
thinking we were okay with God because we are actually humble
in spirit. I'm pretty humble. That's prideful. We'd walk around thinking that
we were very much encouraging by being snide toward our brothers
because, you know, I was a little sarcastic with them and I'm going
to help straighten them out. By the whole time, we're breaking
them down and tearing them down. And we'll see those in the next
few weeks. We'll think that we're doing what is best by flattering
people. Well, flattery is lying. Speak the truth in humility. And so, how is it that we're
to put off one's old self? Now see, if I walked out and
preached this, why is the church... Now see, this is something that
you need to understand. I believe the church gathers. This is not
a church. This was a gas station at one
time, then a clothing store. This is a building. We are the
church. Where do you go to church? Wherever
you are. You don't go to church. The church goes to places. And
so as we look at the preaching of the Word of God and the assembly
of the body, the purpose of the body worshiping together is to
worship as a body. is to grow as a body, is to hear
the Word of God as the body. The Bible is written to the saints. It's not written. Yes, lots of
people hear it. And those who have been called
respond by repentance and faith forever. And they grow and they
assemble and they accumulate together, whatever you want to
call it. And we grow unto the praise of His glorious grace.
But if I took this message and if I thought and had the philosophy
that church services were for seekers, which they are, But
the way America's churches define seekers is the people who aren't
Christians and who aren't looking to be Christians. Let's go get
those. Those aren't seekers. No one seeks after God. No one.
Not one. Not one is holy. Not one is just.
Not one is righteous. The Old Testament says the apostles
affirm it. No one seeks after God. No one
understands Him. The mind of the flesh is hostile.
As a matter of fact, it hates God. While we were enemies of
God, Christ died for us. to make us friends with God.
While we were dead in our sins, Christ died to make us alive
with Him because of God's great mercy. See that? Paul's already
argued that here in Ephesians 1-3. We're not here. We are here as the church to
grow as the church. And if by chance, and statistically
it's very possible, very likely that many people among the body
are unregenerate, But through the hearing of the Word, God
may give them ears to hear the Word and come to faith. And that's
okay. But as far as a pastoral perspective,
we are here to grow the flock. That's why we do what we do.
Because if I sat here and had a room full of unregenerate people
trying to do what I could to get them to see, I could slam
my hand down and talk about how God's going to judge them. It'd
be good preaching there. And you are all condemned and
you're going to hell? Nothing wrong with preaching that, it's
true. Except you repent and by faith believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then I come in and I preach this and I just start
here and I say, put off your old self. And then I talk to
a bunch of undergenerate people about putting off the old self.
And I say, you need to stop lying. You need to stop lusting. You
need to stop living for yourself. And they're going to leave me
and I know what I've got to do to get right with God. I've got to stop lying. And I've
got to stop busting. I've got to start living for
other people. I've got to start coming to church. I've got to
start doing this. And you're going to do all that stuff, and
you're going to go, yay, now I'm a Sunday school teacher. Or maybe you
go into ministry, you get ordained, you get a seminary degree, and you
become a pastor, and you have a mega church, you have nine
campuses. And your affections are for what you think is for
Scripture, and for God, and for God's people, and you baptize
people at one end or the other, and they go in the revolving
door, and the world tells no difference. And you stand before
Christ that says, I'm here, look at all that I've done, and He
says, I never knew you, depart from Me, you sons of iniquity,
you workers of sin. That's what Jesus teaches. See, this is the words of Christ.
This is the Jesus who will say, I never knew you. The Jesus that
most people know is not the Jesus of Scripture. And that Jesus
doesn't exist except in the figments of our imagination and in the
mouths of prophets of Satan. And if we think that we're going
to bring people who are seeking, who hate the Gospel, who if you
stood out and said, let's worship the one true God, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh,
Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh We don't have
time to eat. We don't eat the true bread,
not labor for a bread that's perishing. We're going to flush
it in a few hours. So how do we put off one's old
self? Wow, this introduction, by the way. This is possible for the saints
only. The world can't put off the old
self. The feudal mind of the unbeliever cannot put off because
there's nothing else to replace it with. You can't take off.
You, if there's not a new you. It's not even streaking, it's
something else. It's like, I take my head off. You know what I'm
saying? I try to picture things and there's no real good picture
to paint here without making everybody cry. This is possible to put off one's
self. See, the flesh is dead, but the new man is alive in Christ.
The old man is dead. The flesh is dead in its desires
of the old way, but the new man is alive in Christ. Let's remember
what Paul said about the old man. Let's look at verse 17 through
19 again. Look, in the futility of their
minds, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from
the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due
to the hardness of heart. See, it starts there. They have
become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality,
greedy to practice every kind of impurity. So look at the things
that are of the old man, of which we are no longer slaves to. Their
minds are useless, futile, and they are hard in heart. And this
hardness of heart brings about a whole bunch of things. It brings
about the darkening of their minds, their lack of understanding. So what that says to us is that
the old man is full of ignorance. When I preached through the first
third of Proverbs a few years back in 2009, I came up with
a phrase that was very close to me in my childhood. Because
it was something that I always got in trouble for saying when
someone in my family, an older person, a grandparent, an uncle,
an aunt, a teacher, when they said something and I said, I
know, I was always in trouble. And so as I studied the Proverbs,
we look specifically at the idea that God is wisdom, that Christ
is our wisdom. And so I boiled it down to this,
that God, the wise man says God knows. But the fool says I know. There's a way that seems right
to man, but in the end, what happens? It's death. It's destruction. In the end,
it is death. Those who are of the old way
are full of ignorance. They can't even see that they
need to understand what they cannot see to understand. They're
alienated from God. What does that mean? That means
they are cut off from Christ. They are dead in their sins and
they are awaiting judgment, blissfully unaware of the fact that one
day they will rest in the hand of God in judgment. And there'll be no rest for them. They become callous. That means
they care less about the consequences and they hate holiness. The holy
becomes a plural word. And oh, man, I sort of prove
we need to be a little more like the world. No, we don't. We don't
need to put our nose up to the world. The world's doing what
it was created to do in the sense of not created to do, but the
world's doing what it does after creation in that it is falling. It was created to be holy and
it rebelled. And so now it is doing what it
does. It's wicked. And so the world
and everyone in it, when I mean that, the wicked people of the
world, they just do what they're supposed to do. They're supposed
to sin. They're callous. They don't see sin. They're slaves of the flesh and
its desires. And what does he say? They're
free to practice, or they're slaves, or they're greedy to
practice every kind of impurity. That means all they do is get
up every day to feed their own passions. Now, get off the idea
of thinking about these wicked, sinful, Roman time God-forsaken
people who publicly do grievous sin and debauchery. Yeah, they're
included in that, but I want to remind us, church, that unbelief
and morality and fleshly righteousness and religion falls in those categories. We can't honor God with our lips
when our hearts are not His and expect it to be righteous. It's
wicked. The Scripture says that the righteous
acts of man are filthy rags before God. So we're to put off the
old man. And then what does he say there?
And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Verse 23. To be
renewed in the spirit of your minds. And so when you think
about that, renew the spirit of your minds because why? The
flesh is dead, but the spirit is alive. It reminds me of Paul's
teaching in 2 Corinthians 4 and 5. where Paul is very clear to show
and to help us see that though his outer self is
wasting away, though he's struck down, he's not destroyed, though
he's crushed, he's not hopeless, though he's given over to death
daily, And His flesh is dying daily, and the Spirit is being
renewed. This is what He's talking about.
He talks to the Romans in the same way. The Corinthian church
and the Roman church, chapter 12, verse 1, when He says to
be renewed, do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed
by the renewal of your minds. So in that, we ought to be renewed
in the Spirit of our minds, as Jesus tells Nicodemus, that which
is flesh is flesh. So if we are in the flesh, And
our minds are of the flesh, then it just rests in the flesh. It
stays in the flesh. It does what the flesh does,
which is rebel against God or find its own way to righteousness. But that which is spirit is spirit.
So we who have been born again now have a mind of the Spirit.
And what does Paul command us and Philippians? Have this mind
among you, which is yours in Christ. Wow, you know what that
means? That means that you must have
this mind among you. And it's yours in Christ. I mean,
you already have it. So exercise it. Meditate on it. And that mind, of course, we
know they're in the argument of the letter to the Philippians
is that Christ, though he was God with all of his glory, did
not grasp that and come and say, I'm God and smite everybody,
but rather made himself a slave, becoming like the creation and
gave himself unto death passively in obedience. On the cross. In other words, he was condemned
and convicted. Actually, he was acquitted. And they crucified
him anyway. See, Tuesday evening, we took
a glimpse of the light of the Gospel in Christ. And we saw in John
chapter 1 that this light is the freedom from darkness. This
is God who is rich in mercy and grace. And He pulls us out of
the domain of darkness. He transfers us out of death into the light
of His Son. Into the marvelous light of His
glorious Son. Into the Kingdom of His Son.
And so we are called as wicked enemies. We are called and carried
into the light of Christ by God through the rebirth. We are captured
in our sin and we are dragged out of that and we are made alive
in Christ. So we no longer are slaves to
the old man. We no longer love with our minds
the things of the world. We no longer look and desire
all that the flesh once desired. But we are in love with eternity. We are in love with holiness.
We are in love with Christ. We are in love with the people
of God. And we're in love with the Word of God. And what we
want to do, and this is without preaching a whole bunch on this,
we set our minds on eternal things. See where the minds are. I could
I could do something. Jesus said it. So I'll just sort
of piggyback up on him and make an argument. Jesus says out of
the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And I'll say out
of the affections of the mind, the heart follows. Whatever we put in and meditate
on is where our heart is. So, out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaks. Out of the affections of the heart,
the mind follows. Yeah, I said it wrong just a minute ago. The mind follows. We seek out
things. People can't even see our sin, can they? They couldn't
see Paul's covetousness, that idolatry, loving things, putting
affection on things that aren't Christ. That's what Paul's sin
was. Covet, wanting things, stuff. And he says, I covet. I'm covetous. And Paul's sin wasn't seen, except
that he confessed it. And so, where are we in our minds? See, the old man, what does Paul
say? I mean, what does Paul say here? He's been a slave of deceit. To put off your old self, verse
22, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt
through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of
your mind. and to put on the new self, verse
24. So these old affections are deceitful. They are deceiving
you. They are deceiving me. They are
deceiving us. They are making us think that
these are good, and then we go after them, and without the new
mind, we continue to go after them. In Romans chapter 1, the
Scripture says that God turns those over to a reprobate mind
to do the things that are unnatural according to His order, but then
are very natural according to the flesh. He lists five or six
of those. Not completely, because there's
probably thousands, but he lists just a few that were evident
and active in the life of the Romans. So what is this old man? What
is this desire to be deceitful? Let me give you some examples
of some deceitful desires in those who desired to follow Christ
on the outside, but on the inside, they were being deceived. The
rich young ruler. The rich young ruler is a devout
Jew. He followed the law. He worshipped. He taught. He had great wealth. He heard about Jesus. He recognized
Jesus as divine. He hunted Him down, ran after
Him, knelt down in front of Him and worshipped Him. And he desired
eternal life. He wanted to have eternal life.
And Jesus says, you must be holy. I'm paraphrasing here, but that's
what He's teaching. And the man said, I am. And Jesus said, well, great.
Now go take all that you've earned and worked hard for and give
it to the people who deserve it least. See, that's what the rich young
woman was told to do. Well, since the gospel is so active in your
life, young man, then go express it through taking everything
you worked hard for and giving it to the people that deserve
it least. The moochers and the bums. and the pothead, and the
crackhead, and all those people that we would think about. I
ain't giving them anything. Jesus said, go give it all to
them, and you'll have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.
And this man went, mm-mm. Don't do it. How do we know he
walked away? Because Jesus says he walked
away, and then Jesus says it's impossible for a man to come
to heaven who's rich. He says it's easier for a camel
to go through a knitting needle than it is for a rich man to
get to heaven. And then the disciples ask the question, then who can
be saved? And then Jesus says it's impossible
with man. But with God, all things are
possible. To you, it's been given ears
to understand and a heart to see. That's what Jesus tells
them. But to them, to others, it has not been revealed. Every
time He starts to talk about the Gospel, why so many people
walk away, that's what He'd tell. The rich young ruler was an example
of one who, if he walked into most churches, he'd be chairman
of the deacons and would be a loving man. How about Pharaoh? Pharaoh repented and repented. and repented. And God put judgment
on him. And God took away the judgment.
And in grace, Pharaoh was hardened. In judgment, Pharaoh
would repent. And in grace, he would be hardened. Pharaoh was never hardened under
judgment. Here comes the plagues. Okay,
just have your God. I quit. I repent. I repent. I repent. Just have your God,
Moses, take away the plague. Okay? Well, do it. It's gone. Have your kingdom back. And then
when things got back to normal, he's like, I'm going to stick
it through him. Only children of God repent in the face of
grace. How about Demas? Who was Demas? An associate of Paul. And we
see as he's writing to young Timothy in the second letter,
it says, Demas, in love with this present world, has abandoned
me. Paul says, I'm cold, I'm sick.
Dr. Luke is with me and I need you, Timothy, and I need John
Mark. He's important to my ministry
and I need you to bring those writings and I need you to bring
the paper and bring my jacket. Paul was being poured out and
Demas and the rest of those men left. Judas Iscariot loved, loved
working for Jesus, but hated Jesus. Those who receive the
word with joy, but then the cares of the world choke it out. Those
who receive the word and they have roots, but then the devil
comes and takes it away. Why? Because God lets it. And
if our gospel is veiled, it is only veiled to those who are
perishing, for the God of this world is blind to the eyes of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel in the face
of Jesus Christ. But God, who said, let light shine out of
darkness, has shown in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the
light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So we do
not lose heart. We don't lose heart. Those who
desire to drink living water, they come, but they don't want
what they're given. They just want to come back for
water that they don't have to be seen in public because they
don't want to come to the likeness, their sins be exposed. But then
Jesus saves that woman in John chapter four. And those who want bread, but
they don't want the body of Christ. And those who want freedom from
judgment, but they don't want holiness and righteousness and
holy affections. Those who think they have what
they do not have, and Jesus says in Mark's Gospel, I will take
away what they think they have, and they'll have nothing. See, the new self will be renewed.
That's not how we've learned Christ's church. The new self
is being renewed every day. His mercies are new, His grace
is new. This is more than just knowledge of the mind. Do you
see that? This is the core essence of one's
being, the soul and the mind and the strength, the first commandment. That the new heart and the new
life gives us the ability to love in that way and to recognize
when the flesh rises up with that red flag going, yeah, I
want to take some of this from me. And we're able to put it
off because we've been given something else to put on. And
we don't ever have to put it on because it's on. We don't have to receive that
new life. It's us. It's in us. It's ours. This mind
should be yours, and it's yours in Christ. We must understand
that, and through the Spirit of God, from His Word, we will
meditate on that. We will renew our minds and the
inner spirit. Not just our heads and our knowledge,
but the spirit of our minds. We will worship in spirit, not
in academics. We will worship in truth, who
is Christ. The reality of the gospel is
that we have been transformed from something which is now dead
and recreated into something which is alive. One person, a person, when they
exert energy based on what must or desires to be done, and dismantle
the outward movement. So as we want to do stuff, I
want to walk over there and open the window. I must move and energy
must take place and an exchange of energy works with the neurons,
electrons in my body, my brain sends impulses to my legs and
I just walk over there and I open the window and a whole bunch
of stuff is going on and that's exertion, that's energy, that's
work. And when work takes place, I'm not having to take, or you're
not having to take. We're not doing that. It just
works that way. And it is such the same way as
the new body, as the new man, it works in the Holy Spirit.
We're able to see the old man rising up and we put it to death
by saying in the inner core of our being, my affection for Christ
is much greater than the affection of my flesh. And I walk away
from that. I flee this temptation. I'm walking
to Christ, for He is my treasure. We cover Him up and we go and
sell everything we have with joy that we might have the treasure
in the field. And what is everything else? That's everything. That's
everything. Christ is sufficiently. are full satisfaction, not greatest
satisfaction, though he should be among many, but he is the
fullest satisfaction among nothing. And this outward movement toward
Christ and the inner being is renewed by Christ. So as we thrive
and strive and we desire to walk in the way of righteousness and
holiness, as it says there, then what that means is that the Spirit
of God in us is walking in us and living in us. What does Paul
say? It is not I who live, but Christ
who lives within me. I have been crucified with Christ.
And let me tell you about Paul's outward morality and religion
and righteousness before Christ. It was impeccable. It was all for nothing. It's
all for nothing. Because it counted for nothing.
We don't get credit for doing what we're commanded to do. What is it that Jesus talks about
in one of the Gospels? He talks about the servant out
in the field, the slave in the field who's plowing the field.
He says, after the slave has plowed the field all day and
he's done a full day's work and he comes in, does the master
say, oh, slave, you've done so well, would you recline here
at the table with me and put your feet up? No, he says, slave,
where's my food? We're not rewarded for doing
what we're supposed to do. Is that the Jesus you know? The outward and the inward movement
toward Christ, toward righteousness, is that inner spirit being renewed
by Christ, by the Spirit of God and the Spirit of His children.
This is not a change of mind, but a recreative new birth of
supernatural proportions that cannot be thwarted. God moves
the dead man. into life by His power, through
His divine decree and for His pleasure. Christ is the certainty
of salvation of the children of God. And His words make alive
that which is dead without hope. Listen to these words and I'll
be done. The good news is that once God
renews the spirit of the mind, He continues to renew the spirit
of the mind. God completes that which He begins,
always and surely, and there will be fruit in the life of
those who are His. There will be holy affections.
There will be growth. There will be worship. There
will be love for the brethren. There will be desire to teach
and share and to reach others with the message of Christ. God
will affect the outcome of the new birth in those who are alive
in Christ. So the taking off of the old
self involves first and primarily, here we are, regeneration. To take off the old self involves
regeneration, the new birth. There must be a new self to put
on before one can take the old away. This is also a picture
or illustration because the old self is dead and the new self
is certainly alive. And so if you think about when
the old self, when the flesh rises up in the life of the church
or the believer, then we've got some decaying carcass that has
already been buried, that we've drug up and dug up out of the
droves of the grave. And we are carrying it around
as though it's some precious, smelly, good, beautiful cloak.
Dead. God, give us desires for things
that are alive and remove our desires, our living desires for
dying things. The old self has been rendered
powerless against the new self by Christ through the Spirit
of God. Taking off the old self, friends, though, is not salvation. It's not a works thing. We don't
please God and we don't get saved. Salvation is God's work. God's
work alone. And we've seen that and we know
that. We who are in Christ. He has created the new, therefore
we as new creatures must then fight the good fight of faith
in the grace of God to put off the old man that sneaks around
and fights against us. That fights against the spirit
of righteousness that is within us that belongs to Christ that
we now share. The fleshly remnant one day will
be done, friends. And until that time, it's always
going to be a battle. Taking off the old self starts in our
discipline of meditating on the truth of Christ. Yes, mentally,
meditating on the truth of Christ. You cannot grow, nor can you
overcome sin in your life apart from the Word of God every single
moment of your life. The moment you're not in the
Word is the moment the flesh will begin to speak. It will
happen 100 percent of the time. Meditate on this, meditate on
Christ, meditate on all he is and all he's done and the essence
of his being with the power of God's spirit, the believer will
understand and they will see the glory of God in the face
of Christ through the lens of the scripture. And then taking
off the old requires putting on the new. And what that means
before we get into next week's text is that we have to recognize,
and I'm going to use Paul's words here, futile ways, worthless
ways. What are worthless ways? Worthless
thinking. Our attitudes, the things that
we think about that are worthless, the things of the world that
we put our mind on, that we focus on. Worthless hearing. Worthless ways of hearing. Receiving
things in such a way. Making mountains out of molehills
that are actually nothing. Pushing the sovereignty of God
off the cliff of nationalism or patriotism. Worrying about
the outcome of things that we hear. Or worse, recognizing futile
ways of seeing. Do we see things in the old man? Do we see people through the
flesh? Do we look at people and all we're concerned about is
what we see on the outside or what we see in their actions
and then we fail to see them through the eyes of grace? How
about of loving? Worthless ways of loving. Loving
that is self-centered and self-sufficient and self, just self. I love that person because of
how much they make me happy, or how much they give to me,
or how much they support me. How about loving that person
when they take everything you have? Recognizing futile ways of talking.
And Paul is going to jump on that in about three verses. Recognizing
useless and worthless and futile ways of anything. You see the
example in the next verse, speaking the truth instead of speaking
lies. So it's not just about not lying,
it's about speaking the truth in place of lies. It's not about
just not lusting, it's about desiring heavenly things over
earthly things. It's not about just being prideful,
it's about humbling yourself in the face of opportunities
for pride. How are we going to put on that
new self? We will learn that. We will learn some specifics,
but we are created after the likeness of God. It says that
we're created at the likeness of God, the Imago Dei as we see
in Genesis chapter two. But that man is a man of dust.
And Paul says in First Corinthians 15 that we are also created in
the image of the man of heaven. We who are the church. That which
is flesh is flesh, and is corruptible, and is condemned, and it's done,
and it will die, forever die. But those who are in Christ are
incorruptible. You know, that's part of your
glorious promise. That you'll get a flesh that's incorruptible,
undefiled. That you'll be like Christ. You will be regenerated, not
just from the soul, but from the tips of your fingers. And in Colossians chapter 2,
Paul gives some instruction. I'll just give you a few of them.
He says, set your minds on things above. You have died and your
life is hidden with Christ in God. So the new self is hidden
with Christ. It can't be lost. Therefore,
it is in the likeness of God for Christ, as we see in John's
writing, is the perfect display of God. And Paul in Colossians
1, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God, the exact
imprint of His nature. And Christ resides in us. That
new righteousness that we have is Jesus' righteousness. It's
not ours. It's not our righteousness. It
can never be ours. We can never take credit for
doing what we do and walking in light. It's Christ's. And
the minute our flesh begins to brag on that, God will let us
fall so far on our face that our nose will come out the back
of our heads. We'll be smelling our food, looking
at the heavens. Imputed righteousness. The righteousness
of Christ's holiness given to our credit, so that when the
new man is revealed, Christ is seen and His glory and His power
is evident. These things are carried out.
What does Jesus say in John 3? The very last verse, that it
be clearly seen that these things have been carried out in God. True righteousness. This is Jesus
Christ, His light in us and through us. So as we leave here today, we
must understand that our confidence comes not from our light, not
from our walking, not from our righteousness, but knowing that
all of our hope is in Christ. We have certain assurance that
Christ indeed pleases and satisfies the Father, and thus we who are
in Christ are made alive by grace through faith as a gift from
God, and we walk worthy because Christ is worthy. We must then
strive to put off that which is dead and buried in Christ
and fight the good fight of faith to put on the light of the Gospel
and reflect the glory of His nature. Let your light so shine
before men that the world sees your good deeds and gives glory
to your Father in heaven. We are in Christ. And if we're
not in Christ, we're in the flesh. And if we're in the flesh, we
are dead in our sins and we have no hope. We are alienated from
God. So my prayer for you, church,
is that you be edified and encouraged in this absolute amazing truth. and that your heart and your
spirit would be at peace, almost that your heart's pumping a little
bit harder than it was when you got in here, and that you're
ready to take on and tackle the fight of faith for the praise
and to the praise of His glory. And if you sit here numb or fearful
or frustrated, my prayer is that God would help you see. Help
you see and bring you to faith, and if you are in faith, help
you have peace about your faith. And most importantly, have peace
about God's faithfulness, who in Christ Jesus has certainly
saved you by His grace. Let's pray. Father, I need an oxygen tank. And we thank You that You are
the one who gives the true breath of life. and that even when our
old lungs give out and we die, we are alive. Father, plant this Word deep
into our hearts. Plant it deep into our souls,
deep into our minds, that we might not sin against You, that
we might walk worthy before You, that we would recognize Your
power at work in us. That your name would be made
famous, that your name would be glorified, that your eyes
would be pleased and that your heart would be rejoicing over
your church, Lord, and not be grieved. But Lord, even though we strive,
we cannot do it without you. So we thank you that even in
our failure, you're faithful, you're faithful. When we are
faithless, you remain faithful. Lord, help us to hang our hope
completely on that. Who is Jesus Christ? God, sink
this word into the heart of our children. That they may become
lovers of God and sacrifice their lives for the sake of the gospel.
That all the affections of this world would not be alluring to
them, but God, please. Guard their hearts and eyes.
and grow them to be lovers of Jesus. Help us as a people, God,
not to be haughty and prideful, but God, to be humble and walk
before men in such a way that if they hate us, it's because
of our righteousness and our humility and our love and genuine
affection for them. Lord, help us not to be like
the Pharisees who have hope in our own morality. But God, thank you for saving
our souls. Help us to love You and be satisfied
in Christ above all things. And it's in His name that we
pray, Amen.