Ephesians chapter four, our message for the second hour is a mystery. Like everything we believe, we don't understand what we believe, but we believe it by faith. If somebody says they understand everything that they believe, They must not believe the God of this Bible. How can you understand how the timeless one, the one that is the same yesterday, today, and forever, the one that cannot change, become a man, and age? Explain that. Go ahead and try to explain that. Do you understand that? That happened, it did. But you can't understand that. No, it's impossible. I believe it by faith. It's a mystery. It's just a mystery.

How can the immortal, everlasting creator of this world die? He's called immortal. That means he cannot die. But he died. How is that possible? That's a mystery. Now we could spend the whole hour going through mysteries and trying to figure out, unravel them, but we would miss Christ. because Christ has given us the information that he gave us for us to see him alone. Knowledge puffeth up, brethren. Christ Jesus died, the immoral God, the creator of this universe died. It's a mystery, it's a mystery.

How can Christ be made sin for us who knew no sin, owned our sin as his own, was made guilty of that sin, and yet was the perfect sacrifice, sinless and spotless at the same time. Explain that to me. I don't know. I just believe it. It's what God said. These things, we're not making this up. This is what the Lord has said. This isn't something we've arrived at and we think we have knowledge that somebody else don't have. We're just taking the word for what it says. In scripture, Confirm Scripture. We're not trying to make up things that other men haven't seen in order for us to look like we have knowledge that some others don't have. No, we wanna know the truth. We wanna know the truth about the Lord and his gospel, his word.

How can God make a wretched, vile, sinful creature of dust the very righteousness of God in Christ? Explain that, how can that be? Brethren, these things are mysteries we do not understand. How could he be dead for three days and be resurrected and ascend in the flesh back to glory? Explain that, I can't understand that. They watched him as he ascended. He got out of their sight, they're still looking up. The angel appeared to him and said, you men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing in the heavens? The same Jesus that went away is gonna come back for you and receive you unto himself. In like manner, that's what he said, like manner. He ascended the flesh back to glory and is seated now as our intercessor, the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

These can only be believed by faith and they cannot be understood by this flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Actually we're going to turn there in just a second. is we have to understand is these are spiritual matters. Our tiny brains, and I hope that doesn't hurt anybody's feelings, but compared to God, they're tiny. I mean, they're tiny brains. They can't comprehend the things of God because the flesh can't mind the things of God. It's enmity to them, to him. It's not possible. It's not possible. The Lord said, my ways, the scripture says his ways, are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts as high as the heaven is from the earth. So it's just his thoughts compared to our thoughts and his ways compared to our ways. And that's. So these mysteries that we find, we don't have to sit there and delve in them and figure it out and be like, Oh, we finally arrived. Now we know something. No. We preach Christ simply, plainly, because that's what gets the job done. That's how sinners are saved, by the preaching of the gospel, not by my intellect, what little bit I have, but not by it. It's not by a man's, what did Paul say? I came not with you with enticing word to man wisdom, but by demonstration of the spirit and with power. Demonstration of the spirit and with power.

These things can only be believed by faith, brethren, not intellectual conclusion, not seeking to find something no one else has and said, guess what we know that you don't know? There's people that do that. We know something you don't. I just want to know what Christ says. I don't care about man's opinion. I don't have time to debate. I love peace. I love rest. I love that we have that in our church. We don't debate and carry on like, I know something you don't know, or you shouldn't say this, or you shouldn't say that. We love one another because of what the Lord's did for us, what he's done in our hearts. I love that.

Faith looks to Christ and believes his word and says, truth, Lord. Like the Syro-Phoenician woman, truth, Lord. Whatever he says, it doesn't matter what he says. We say truth, Lord. You're right. I'm not. Truth, Lord. I can't understand it, but I believe it. I can understand it, but I do believe it. We're like David. We're like, Dave, I wrote an article going hand in hand with all this this morning. But David said, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain to it. I just have to leave it there. That's too wonderful for me. I can't.

You know what you won't hear those intellectual people that they gather knowledge. They think they've arrived at something that nobody else has. You'll never hear them say, I don't know. I don't know what that means. But you know what the Lord gives his people? The ability, the humility to say, Lord, I don't know, you know. Ezekiel, can these bones live? Oh yeah, for sure. Lord God, thou knowest, I don't know. No, we don't know the things of God. It's a mystery. Great is the mystery of God in us. God manifests in the flesh. That's a mystery, isn't it?

Which brings us to our mystery topic this morning, in our title, The New Man. That's what I've titled this, The New Man. It's found in our text. So let's read that together. Ephesians 4 verse 17. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, having their 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 to lasciviousness. to work all uncleanness with greediness. But 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. Now here's the old man right here, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, opposed to the old man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, the new man.

" Three questions I have for us. And I think I've determined that's how I preach most of the time now is by asking three questions or making three points. I don't know why I ended up doing that, I just did. But the three questions I have this morning are, what is the new man? Who becomes a new man? And how can I be given a new man? And by the time we answer those three questions, I hope that we understand everything about the new man and how glorious our God is and his great salvation, his great salvation.

First question is, what is the new man? Well, the new man is the man in the inward parts, born of the spirit of God, born from above. Turn with me to John chapter three. I'm gonna read the first nine verses.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.

Now, I find this amazing, and our Lord does this so many times in scripture. He doesn't even acknowledge what Nicodemus said. He doesn't even pay no attention. He literally avoids anything that Nicodemus just said and says in verse three, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

I love our Lord's authority. Didn't answer him, just got straight to the point. Nicodemus, you gotta be born again.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? It's a mystery, isn't it? Our flesh can't comprehend it, it's a mystery. Being born from above, born of the Spirit of God.

The new man is born by the Spirit of God, by the will of God, at the appointed time of God. And he says, and we read this in our call to worship this morning, but he says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

Every creature, that has been born upon the face of this earth, you can't tell me one that doesn't have a nature. Every single creature has a nature that is due. We're humans, we have Adam's nature. Being born of the spirit, being born again means that we have a new nature that lives by faith, not by sight, not by what we, we don't think the way we used to think, do we? The Lord's changed our mind. Old things are passed away and all things became new.

So my righteousness that I had before, that's gone now. I have to have the righteousness of Christ. Why? Because that nature has to have Christ. That nature longs for Christ. That nature is actually the nature of Christ. He gives it to his people. Being born of his spirit, being born from above, he gives us his spirit, his nature, and we look to him. It's the only way we can look to him. And that's the only way we can believe him. It's the only way we can believe him.

Every creature has a nature. Well, we're born with Adam's inherited nature. We're born sinful, depraved. As he says in our text, how we had a corrupt nature, he calls it corrupt, doesn't he? Cannot look to Christ, cannot believe on him, will not come to him, literally completely depraved. Everyone is born spiritually dead in trespasses and in sin. And as I've already said, the flesh is enmity against God. So we cannot come to Christ. That's what the Lord told the Pharisees. You will not come to me that you might have life. You won't come to me. Why? Because they were spiritually dead.

At his appointed time, he creates a new man. You know what he does with that new man? He gave a new heart. What did he say in the Old Testament? I'm going to take out your heart of stone, and I'm going to put in a heart of flesh. We're new creatures, brethren, all by the grace of God. New creatures. with a new heart, new nature in the inward man. This is the gift of grace. It's accomplished by the preaching of the gospel. Paul said this, Romans chapter 16, verse one, I'm sorry, one verse 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. It's the power of God unto salvation. This all comes to him by the gospel.

It's actually interesting, the first hour we heard What did we hear? Can't even remember now. Growing in grace. That's embarrassing, isn't it? We just got done with that 30 minutes ago. Growing in grace. And as we talked about growing in grace, we talked, if we're going to grow in grace, it's going to come through and by the Lord's gospel. That's how he's going to grow us. He's going to grow us by his gospel. That's the same thing here. It's the exact same thing here. If we're going to be new creatures, it's going to come through and by the gospel. That's the means that the Lord uses in this life to call his sheep, to feed his sheep, to keep his sheep. That's just, it's glorious.

This new man, this new creature has a nature that pleases the Lord, as opposed to the old sinful nature that we have. It looks to Christ by bestowed faith. That's the nature of it. The nature of the new man is faith. It looks to Christ. We never had faith before. We were dead, but then we're made alive, and he gives us faith to believe. Everything without exception is born, that is born, has a nature. And if we've ever been born again, we've been made alive unto God and have a new nature that looks like Him, that looks like Him, that reciprocates everything that He says that we say, truth, Lord, you're right, I'm not right. Your ways are above my ways. Your thoughts are above my thoughts. We say, woe is me, I'm undone. Now why would you say something like that? Because the Lord gave you faith to see him. We see ourself as undone. I'm vile, behold I'm vile. Isn't that what Job said?

The glorious part about having a new, being made new creatures and being born again is that everything, that we actually have fellowship with God now. We have fellowship with God. See the flesh is enmity against God, but we now have fellowship one with another. But we have fellowship with God. We have fellowship with God because of this new man. Think about that. Oneness, complete oneness with Him. We're all part of the same body. That's what Paul's getting across to the Ephesians is we're all part of the same body. We're knit together as one body. And He is our head. He's our covenant head. I've never met a body without a nature, have you? Everybody's got a nature. What is the nature of God that he bestows? It's holiness, it's truth, it's righteousness. We don't speak about God like we used to. We don't talk about God's gospel like we used to. We don't think like we used to think. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. What we held as our righteousness is gone.

Brethren, this is the mysterious truth of the new man with the nature of Christ. This is what we must be. The only way we can receive this is by faith. The only way you can believe this is by faith. Somebody said, I don't see a new nature. No, it's a spiritual nature. We won't see it. We won't see it. But your brethren will see it. You'll come out in a form of love most of the time. That's how they'll see it, in different ways.

Why did a bunch of individuals that didn't know each other, some of you knew each other, but you got together, and the church was full, I'd be talking to everybody this morning, but we ended up coming together. Why did we do that? And why do we love each other? Because the Lord's changed the heart. We have the same King. We have the same Savior. We have the same Lord. We have the same God. We have the same Father. We worship him together in spirit and in truth. So we love one another. We're brother and sister, we're knit together, and we're in the same body together. That's why whenever one of you hurt, the rest of us hurt. Hey, where's so-and-so? They're sick. Well, we need to call them, check on them, see how they're doing, need to pray for them. Why? Well, I love them, that's why. When part of the body hurts, the rest of the body hurts. It's just how it is. You ever stubbed your toe? It really bothers the body, doesn't it? The entire body. It's a little member, but boy, it hurts. We're one together in Christ Jesus and it's all because he said live, which brings us to our second point.

Who becomes this new man? The short answer would be the elect of God. The elect of God will be given the new man. They'll be made new creatures. They'll be given a new nature. Now this old, and I want to say this so clearly, this old nature has not changed. If anything, it's getting worse. The Lord did not come to save our flesh. He didn't come to change this nature in any way, shape or form. So now you have a spiritual warfare. You remember Rebecca, when she was going to have two children, she asked the Lord, if it be so, why am I thus? And he said, because two nations are inside you. Two, two people, two different men. One, the Lord loved, one, the Lord hated. Well, that's the flesh. The Lord hates the flesh, but that new man, he loves. He loves that new man. Why? Because it's created in righteousness. It's created in his image. It's created after him, not after the flesh at all. So we can't see that nature, but he can. And when he sees us, he sees the blood. He sees his son. He sees us as worthy and not as we are.

Who becomes? Who receives this new man? The elect of God. Christ said, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. And he that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. All that the father gave to the son. What does that mean? Those who God elected before time ever began, given to Christ to redeem. The spirit will regenerate them in time at his appointed time, according to his will, by his power, he'll come by and he'll say, live. all by his gospel, preaching of his gospel. And they become new creatures.

I don't know if any of you all had this experience. I think I've talked to some of you and you said yes. The Bible literally rewrote itself for me. I don't know if that makes sense to anybody else. I was reading it before in false religion. And once the Lord brought me the truth, Everything looked totally different. He's like, I never saw that. I never saw that. I never saw that. Well, there's Christ right there. Well, there's Christ right there. Never even seen him. Never even seen him. He rewrote the whole Bible in front of me. I mean, it stayed the same, but what he did was he gave me the ability to see it and believe it. I could hear his voice. Do we see that? That's what he gives us.

I want you to think just for a moment how sad a state we would be in if the Lord had just left us to ourself. how sad a state that would be. And yet everything he required, he provided. If he requires us to be perfectly righteous, he's going to have to provide perfect righteousness. And guess what? He did on the cross. If he's going to require us to have a new heart, a heart of flesh, not a heart of stone, he's going to provide that heart of flesh. And guess what? He did. He did. When he says live, when he causes us to be birthed into the family of God, revealing life, calling us out of darkness into his light, showing us that your sin has been put away. You will not die. The Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die.

Now I want to say this very clearly, this flesh will not come to Christ because it has a nature as well. Its nature is anti-Christ, anti-God, anti-God. I was talking to Rob about it yesterday, a little bit about pride. And it always comes down to pride. That's the reason we really worship ourself before the Lord calls us out of darkness into light, whether we realize it or not. It doesn't matter whether we're going to a church or not. In going to a church, we found a church where we're able to do something in order to make certain that we have accomplished salvation, that we have received salvation, that we have obligated God. We're looking to be God. Just like Eve, it goes all the way back to the garden and it all comes down to pride. She wanted to become God, so she took the fruit.

Brethren, if the Lord don't give us this new man, that's the state we'll remain in. But you know what the scripture says? Back to Rebecca, I didn't say this earlier. The elder shall serve the younger. See, the new man has bound the old man. The old man can't do anything because we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. We are constrained, we read in 2 Corinthians 5, we are constrained by the love of Christ. That's how we're constrained.

Those who come to Christ must have a new nature then. They must receive this new man. But some have it backwards. Some say they come to Christ to receive the new nature. No, you come to Christ because you have the new nature. You have the new man inside. You are a new creature with new need. Your need's different. You wouldn't need Christ unless he made us needy. That's the most interesting part about the gospel is he creates a need. We don't have a need, and then he creates a need that only he can fill, and he fills that need the only way he can, and that's with himself. That's with himself. It's the only thing that can fill it.

A lot of people say, well, I came to the Lord to get saved. No, if you came to the Lord, it's because you're already saved. That's the truth of it. Salvation's of the Lord through and through. God's people are made to believe Christ is all their righteousness, all their wisdom, all their sanctification, and all their redemption. He's everything. He's absolutely everything to us. That's through the eyes of faith. He becomes everything. to his people.

Our hope is that he bore our sin in his own body on the tree, that he, the ark, and us inside of him as the wrath of God poured down upon him, wave after wave, that he was bearing our sin on the tree, yet we were untouched. We were kept safe in him. So that when he died and satisfied the law's demands, satisfied justice, satisfied the wrath of God. And that's why it said Christ is the end of the law for righteousness sake. Whenever he satisfied all these things that God required, we have satisfied God in him. He did it on our behalf. He did it on our behalf, his people's behalf.

When he died and he was resurrected, we have evidence of our justification before God, been justified freely by his grace. He shed his blood to wash away all our sin. He put away the sin of his people with the sacrifice of himself. And when he died, we died in him. Therefore, we've died to death. Would you like to explain that? You died to death. You'll never have to spiritually die. That's what that means. You'll never have to spiritually die. He did it on your behalf.

Now this flesh, as I mentioned, has a nature, and it's cursed. The Lord didn't come to save the flesh. The flesh will go back to the dust from whence it came, but the spirit will live forever. The soul of spirit go back to God which sent it, the soul will live forever. It's glorious because the Lord has perfected his people so that when we die, we awaken his likeness. Somebody asked me one time, how much time passes before you close your eyes and you open them and you see the Lord? If you're dead, you wouldn't have any sense of time anyways, so it's gonna be immediate. To be absent with the body is to be present with the Lord.

Now, when your eyes close in death, it's gonna open, gotta be the Lord we see. Is there a space of time that happens in between that? I don't know, the scripture's not really clear on that, but it does say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's pretty clear to me. I know this, being new creatures in Christ, you see your sin. You see how bad you are. But you see how good he is. Didn't appreciate God before he came to the knowledge of the truth. Couldn't. Didn't know who he was. He had to introduce himself to you and I. And he does that. He says, live. He says, Lazarus, come forth. And we come forth bound hand and foot. Most of us have grave clothes on from our religious past. He says, loose him and let him go. He's got to cut those off of us. Then we're made to worship him.

Truth, Lord, I am the sinner. Have mercy on me, the sinner. That's a new nature, brethren. You won't do that with this old nature. It will not say any of that or believe any of that. All who Christ died for will have a new man created in righteousness and true holiness. With the fullness of time comes by his gospel according to his spirit. He'll say, live, be born again and will be birthed. Now explain that. Nicodemus had a hard time understanding that. And you and I have a hard time understanding that, but we believe it by faith alone.

Brings us to our final question. How can I be given? a new man. Most religious organizations lie about that subject, about this question, how can I get or how can I receive a new man? They lie about it and they say, well, that's your choice. It's up to you. You just got to choose. You have to just choose to be born again. But I would remind us, look what he says here. First of all, you won't find that language in the scripture. Look what he said. I'll tell you what we will find. Look at verse six through eight. You're still in John chapter three.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit Now, granted, we're spiritually dead when we're born, so the Lord has to make us spiritually alive, and He does that by His Spirit, so we're born by the Spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth, oh, sorry, verse seven, marvel not that I say unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

It is God's sovereign right and choice to make a new creature or not. It is God's sovereign right and choice to give me a heart of flesh, not stone, if he so chooses. It's all according to his will, all by his power, all according to his divine purpose. He's God. I say that, but so many people say that he's God, but we're the only true believers, the only ones that can believe that. He's God. We know what that means. He's the I am. That means he's self-sufficient, self-existing. No man has ever helped him in any way. You ever thought of that? Nobody's contributed anything to him. He's self-sustaining. He's the eternal I am. doesn't need my help.

And if I'm going to be saved, if I'm going to be called out of darkness into his light, he's going to have to use his light to call me. If I'm going to be born again, he's going to have to use his spirit to birth me into the family of God. If I'm going to be given a new heart, he's going to have to be the one that supplies the new heart. Everything required that God, everything that God requires, he must provide. He's God, not you or I. Psalm 100 says, it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. Is he talking about physically? Yes. Is he talking about spiritually? Yes. Both. Both. It's he that made us and not ourselves.

This is how you can receive the new man when God calls it to be so. When God calls it to be so, that's how you can have the new man. When God says live, and that's the only way we can. That's his choice, not mine. Now, this is not an excuse to not cry out for mercy. As a matter of fact, only those that cry out for mercy have the new man inside. Did you know that? Only the ones that have been born again, cry out for mercy. Everybody else has a way with this man. Let his blood be upon us and on our children. Well, nothing to do with this man. Only those that cry out for mercy have the new man, have the nature that looks to him and all things by faith.

He said, whosoever cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So if the Lord has made you believe this gospel is your only hope, that by his death, his burial, his resurrection, in pleasing God and everything that he did on the cross of Calvary to put away the sin of his people once and for all, if that is your only hope, if you believe he was raised because of our justification, if that's your only hope, if he is your only hope, come to Christ. That's the call. Come to Christ. Don't move a muscle, but come to Christ. Come to Christ by faith. Come with the new man, the new heart, and the new nature the Lord has bestowed to his people freely by his grace.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the new man that looks unto you in all things. Lord, we stand in awe of your wonderful, amazing grace. Thank you. Bless this through understanding. In Christ's name, amen.