Put on the New Self (Ephesians 4:17-24)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.919 Remain standing for the reading of God's word this this evening, from Ephesians, 2 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:09.470 chapter four, versus seventeen through twenty four. These instructions that Paul brings to 3 00:00:09.630 --> 00:00:14.750 the Ephesians as he writes them, this letter that he wrote to them Guin 4 00:00:14.789 --> 00:00:19.910 Ephesians, for verses Seventeen through twenty four. This is the life the Ephesians 5 00:00:19.949 --> 00:00:24.059 were called to walk in. This is God's word. Give your attention to 6 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:30.539 it now. This I say and testify in the Lord, that you must 7 00:00:30.660 --> 00:00:36.450 no longer walk, as the gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 8 00:00:37.689 --> 00:00:43.490 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because 9 00:00:43.490 --> 00:00:48.770 of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 10 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:57.679 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice 11 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:03.430 every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ, 12 00:01:04.549 --> 00:01:10.709 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the 13 00:01:10.829 --> 00:01:17.189 truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to 14 00:01:17.269 --> 00:01:23.859 your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be 15 00:01:25.340 --> 00:01:30.459 renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, 16 00:01:32.540 --> 00:01:41.010 created after the likeness of God, in True Righteousness and holiness. That's far 17 00:01:41.090 --> 00:01:42.930 the regne of God's word. May he add his blessing to it and it's 18 00:01:42.969 --> 00:01:48.079 preaching. You may be seated. Well, look at the life that the 19 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:53.879 Ephesians are called to, a life that's unlike the life that they once lived 20 00:01:55.400 --> 00:02:01.510 before, no longer like how they once used to live, a life that's 21 00:02:01.709 --> 00:02:07.550 truly new. There to put on a new self, Paul tells them, 22 00:02:08.789 --> 00:02:15.900 where their old life kept them in mental futility, darkened and alienated from God. 23 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:23.780 There to walk now before God in newness of life, finding purpose in 24 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:30.169 walking uprightly in the truth, where before they were given to practice impurity, 25 00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:38.250 greedy for pleasure and gross sensuality. Now there to walk in the opposite way, 26 00:02:38.129 --> 00:02:44.919 now with purity, not in that old impure way of life, where 27 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:50.919 before they had comfortably walked in these ways. Now they must see all of 28 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:59.349 this as their old self and regard this old self as corrupt and deceitful, 29 00:02:59.349 --> 00:03:05.990 as someone they no longer are. Since they're new people. They're now to 30 00:03:06.110 --> 00:03:13.099 see themselves as new in Christ, as new selves who are renewed in their 31 00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:20.860 minds and their spirits as those who've been newly created to live in God's likeness 32 00:03:21.580 --> 00:03:27.930 and in True Holiness and righteousness. All this is part of how they're called 33 00:03:27.969 --> 00:03:32.169 to live now as people redeemed by the work of the savior. This way 34 00:03:32.250 --> 00:03:38.689 of life is the way that they've learned Christ that's how Paul describes it, 35 00:03:38.210 --> 00:03:45.960 their inverse twenty of the text. Having come to God through faith in the 36 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:52.000 Gospel, these people, Paul writes to, are now called to live in 37 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.509 a new way of life, to depart from their old lives. They are 38 00:03:55.629 --> 00:04:02.469 to put on these new selves they've been given. But notice the challenges to 39 00:04:02.669 --> 00:04:08.710 living this new life. How easy is it to change your whole life, 40 00:04:09.750 --> 00:04:15.180 to change your whole life into a whole new direction? That's what Paul is 41 00:04:15.259 --> 00:04:18.259 telling them that they need to do here. To cut off what's their past 42 00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:25.050 and to leave it the past, to regard now, their present as having 43 00:04:25.209 --> 00:04:30.689 no room for the past, now to live like they're no longer no more 44 00:04:30.730 --> 00:04:34.769 what they want used to be, as if those old ways of life now 45 00:04:34.930 --> 00:04:41.000 have no place in their lives. Is that something that's easy? To cut 46 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:45.079 off your past, to regard it as having no place in the present, 47 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:49.439 to live like the waves that you once used to live living have no place 48 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:55.750 now in your life, now, in the present. And what about when 49 00:04:55.949 --> 00:05:00.269 people who knew you from before still regard you as if you're that same person, 50 00:05:01.829 --> 00:05:08.339 expect you to be that same person you once were? Remember when that 51 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:13.779 way of life was your natural state? Will it be easy, when you're 52 00:05:13.819 --> 00:05:17.459 with such people, to view your old life as just that, your old 53 00:05:17.779 --> 00:05:23.209 life, or else won't it be easy to slip right back into the way 54 00:05:23.290 --> 00:05:28.610 of life others expect to be true of you? Changing your way of life 55 00:05:28.769 --> 00:05:33.209 never is easy. The years get built up of strong patterns of doing things. 56 00:05:34.529 --> 00:05:42.079 People expect you to stay who you are. Who you've been is who 57 00:05:42.199 --> 00:05:47.160 people expect you to be. People expect your past to determine your present. 58 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:56.110 Such expectations can be hard to break. Sometimes we ourselves expect we are who 59 00:05:56.189 --> 00:06:01.509 we've been, and our own expectations can be hard to break. But this 60 00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:06.540 is what Paul does call his readers to do, to no longer walk in 61 00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:12.339 the ways they used to walk, to no longer be who they were before. 62 00:06:12.339 --> 00:06:17.649 They had faith to put off their old self and put on a new 63 00:06:17.730 --> 00:06:24.689 self. It's granted, it's difficult. If it were easy, Paul wouldn't 64 00:06:24.689 --> 00:06:28.649 have had to instruct them to do it. If it had come naturally, 65 00:06:28.689 --> 00:06:32.360 there'd be no need for Paul to exhort them. They'd already just do it. 66 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:39.759 The question is, how can they manage to do this, and will 67 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:44.040 they be able to do it when it's hard, when there are times when 68 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:46.670 they are tempted to just go ahead and revert to who they used to be? 69 00:06:47.870 --> 00:06:51.430 How are they to hold fast and maintain this as true of them, 70 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:58.269 that they are new people because of Christ, that the old self is no 71 00:06:58.430 --> 00:07:02.620 longer who they will be and the new self they're given is now their true 72 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:08.259 self? Well, Paul here points them to something that's key to their new 73 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:12.899 life, that's key to them putting on this new self here, and it's 74 00:07:12.980 --> 00:07:18.730 something suggested in Verse Twenty Three and in Verse Twenty Four of this text in 75 00:07:18.850 --> 00:07:28.329 Ephesians. The key is in twenty three that there to be renewed and in 76 00:07:28.410 --> 00:07:35.920 verse twenty four that they're created. Now what this means is that they are 77 00:07:36.040 --> 00:07:44.040 to regard themselves as though renewed and as though they're created. But what this 78 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:51.069 means is that it's God who's renewed them. And it's God who's created them 79 00:07:51.670 --> 00:07:56.589 to live in this new way. How will they be able to live this 80 00:07:56.790 --> 00:08:01.540 new life? It's only by God's work that they can be new people. 81 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:07.420 Without God working, they can't be new people, and to think that they 82 00:08:07.459 --> 00:08:13.569 are if they're not is delusion. But since God has worked in them, 83 00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:20.970 they are new people and they have to trust that they are. What God 84 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:24.970 says, that he's made them. And that's what it means, then, 85 00:08:24.050 --> 00:08:28.720 to put on the new self. It means trusting in God's work that he's 86 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:33.519 done, by which he to claires he has made them New People in Christ 87 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:37.759 who can live a new way. To put on the new self is to 88 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:43.389 take God at his word, to believe his promise when he says that he 89 00:08:43.470 --> 00:08:48.350 has renewed them, that he has made them a new creation. Putting on 90 00:08:48.549 --> 00:08:54.870 the new self is to rely not on their strength to become new people for 91 00:08:54.990 --> 00:09:00.419 God, but on God's strength and God's power, which he has promised them. 92 00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:03.779 It means to bank on God's promise. God says you are new in 93 00:09:03.860 --> 00:09:09.090 Christ, so live like that's true of you and believe it. So what 94 00:09:09.250 --> 00:09:15.090 this means is that to fulfill the command of verses Twenty three and twenty four 95 00:09:16.129 --> 00:09:20.929 is to put trust in God's work of making them new and to trust God 96 00:09:20.090 --> 00:09:24.720 at his word when he tells them that this is his purpose for them. 97 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.039 To be renewed in the way Paul Instructs is to trust that God has in 98 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:33.279 fact we worked his renewal. To put on the new self is to believe 99 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:41.389 that through Christ, God has indeed made them into New People. And so 100 00:09:41.789 --> 00:09:46.830 here is how the Ephesians must live, with great trust in God's work that's 101 00:09:46.870 --> 00:09:50.629 renewed and created them, trusting that he has renewed them and made them new. 102 00:09:52.629 --> 00:09:58.100 They, out of trust in him, must live like they are renewed, 103 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:03.259 and their act of trusting that God is at work in them will lead 104 00:10:03.299 --> 00:10:09.009 them to live the ways that he's called them to. If they believe that 105 00:10:09.169 --> 00:10:16.570 he has made them new, then they will strive to live like being renewed 106 00:10:16.610 --> 00:10:20.929 and being created. Is What is true of them, and this is what 107 00:10:20.090 --> 00:10:26.360 Paul calls them to do and cause them to be. Now, the Ephesians 108 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:30.919 here are a part of God's larger plan to redeem a New People in Christ, 109 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:35.440 by His grace, a new people saved from their old lifestyle of sin 110 00:10:35.509 --> 00:10:41.750 and transformed to live after God's image in righteousness. God has a plan to 111 00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:50.299 bring to himself people who once lived in sin and who once loved unrighteousness, 112 00:10:50.220 --> 00:10:56.179 yet who have been made new by God's grace in Christ, made into people 113 00:10:56.220 --> 00:11:01.740 who now follow God and his ways. The EPHESIANS of our text are one 114 00:11:01.899 --> 00:11:07.929 group of those whom God has changed out of a multitude of many to be 115 00:11:09.049 --> 00:11:15.210 changed by God's grace, people transformed from bearing the image of Adam to those 116 00:11:15.289 --> 00:11:20.840 who are made holy by God's grace through Christ. And what does it take 117 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:24.879 to be included in that group? It takes the same thing that it took 118 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:31.360 the Ephesians. It takes faith in Christ, true belief in the Gospel. 119 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:39.629 Whoever trusts Christ is made new by God's working. Whoever trust Christ has been 120 00:11:39.750 --> 00:11:46.110 renewed by God, and whoever trust Christ is created by God to live no 121 00:11:46.299 --> 00:11:50.820 longer in the old self, but to live in the new self that has 122 00:11:50.860 --> 00:11:56.860 been given to them through Christ. Whoever Trust Christ has been made known, 123 00:11:56.179 --> 00:12:03.610 has been made new to serve God with a new righteousness. And if this 124 00:12:03.730 --> 00:12:07.049 is true of you, Beloved, if you've been made new through Christ's work 125 00:12:07.169 --> 00:12:13.409 for you, well, then you ought to press forward into that new life 126 00:12:13.169 --> 00:12:18.840 that God is at work working in you. You should have confidence that his 127 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:26.600 work in you will indeed prevail in the end. You shouldn't doubt that there 128 00:12:26.679 --> 00:12:31.629 will come a day when God will complete what he has begun in you and 129 00:12:31.830 --> 00:12:37.710 that God's work will determine your future holiness, no matter what your old life 130 00:12:37.710 --> 00:12:43.230 might have been. See the call here for Christians to put on a new 131 00:12:43.309 --> 00:12:48.220 self. It is a call to walk by faith in God's promise. God 132 00:12:48.379 --> 00:12:54.139 has promised that he is making us righteous. We ought to walk like we 133 00:12:54.220 --> 00:13:00.889 are trusting him at his word on this. But what this means is that 134 00:13:01.090 --> 00:13:05.370 we strive now to live in that way of life God says he's fitting us 135 00:13:05.409 --> 00:13:11.529 for. It means living now like what we expect. We will be with 136 00:13:11.769 --> 00:13:18.960 our expectations set by what God promises, but also because of God's promises to 137 00:13:20.120 --> 00:13:24.919 us. There's comfort and what he'll do for us at last, because this 138 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:31.230 new life, in the end, is his creation. That means he will 139 00:13:31.269 --> 00:13:37.309 finish it on the last day. It means God will complete that which God 140 00:13:37.429 --> 00:13:43.580 has begun in us. It means, though it is hard now for us 141 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:48.379 to live in this new way, there's a day coming when it won't be 142 00:13:48.539 --> 00:13:54.700 hard anymore. There's a day coming when God's work will be perfected. Yes, 143 00:13:54.809 --> 00:14:01.129 a day's coming soon when will be truly holy, with holiness that's been 144 00:14:01.250 --> 00:14:07.370 perfected by God, such that holiness no longer will be a struggle, for 145 00:14:07.610 --> 00:14:13.080 then it will come naturally. It will be our nature. And when that 146 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:20.559 day comes, the old lifestyle of sin will be nothing but memory, distant, 147 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:26.710 forgotten, a piece of our paths that will no longer know, and 148 00:14:26.909 --> 00:14:33.830 that old self will feel like someone else we can't even recognize. On that 149 00:14:33.909 --> 00:14:39.179 day that's succumb we will know the new self as our true self in ways 150 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:46.460 that we haven't even experienced yet. We will know what it is to love 151 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:52.610 righteousness perfectly, and we'll know this by what will become by God's grace. 152 00:14:54.929 --> 00:15:00.889 And then, when we arrive at that day with such holiness, we will 153 00:15:00.889 --> 00:15:05.250 then turn to direct all praise to God as the one who has made us 154 00:15:05.289 --> 00:15:11.039 holy. We will recognize that it's not we ourselves who made ourselves holy. 155 00:15:11.919 --> 00:15:15.840 We will recognize that it is God and His grace that has made us holy 156 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:20.480 for that day, and then we'll take the new life that he's completed in 157 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:26.590 us and will use it to serve him. See, the key to understanding 158 00:15:26.149 --> 00:15:33.950 Paul's instructions to Christians, these particular instructions the newness of the new self, 159 00:15:35.070 --> 00:15:39.820 is to understand that the new life that Paul here is writing about is a 160 00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:48.379 taste of the life that will have an eternity, given in advance for all 161 00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:52.929 those who have true faith in Jesus Christ. We have gained a taste now 162 00:15:54.090 --> 00:15:58.009 of the life that will be ours, and this by God's grace, through 163 00:15:58.529 --> 00:16:03.610 the Lord Jesus Christ. See, this is what Paul calls the Ephesians to 164 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:11.080 to begin to live now the way we'll live forever, to live in that 165 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:15.279 new self that's been granted ahead of its time as a gift in advance. 166 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:21.629 That's a taste of the future for all who are trusting in Jesus Christ, 167 00:16:22.230 --> 00:16:27.909 living now in what we will be by God's grace, and so beloved with 168 00:16:29.110 --> 00:16:33.620 the promise of God's work in us, knowing that we've been renewed through Christ, 169 00:16:34.259 --> 00:16:38.179 knowing that he's begun a work of new creation in us. What this 170 00:16:38.379 --> 00:16:45.340 gives us is confidence to live now in such a way that we can make 171 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:51.850 every effort to put off our old selves now and to put on the new 172 00:16:51.929 --> 00:16:56.929 self in Christ. Yes, we have every reason to trust that God will 173 00:16:56.009 --> 00:17:02.360 indeed finish the work that he started in us. And yet, rather than 174 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:08.519 letting that make us complacent, we have every reason instead to strive to be 175 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:15.599 holy. For if we believe that one day will be perfect and that this 176 00:17:15.789 --> 00:17:21.349 is sure, since God has promised this, then it makes sense to strive 177 00:17:21.470 --> 00:17:26.470 towards this as an act of faith, to seek to be now what we 178 00:17:26.549 --> 00:17:33.539 are trusting we will be in the future by God's grace. Well, beloved 179 00:17:33.460 --> 00:17:37.339 here those instructions that Paul gives to the Ephesians, and understand that they are 180 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:41.460 directed to you. And as you look forward to the coming day when God 181 00:17:41.619 --> 00:17:47.170 will perfect his work in you, may you look in faith to what he 182 00:17:47.210 --> 00:17:51.329 has to what he has begun in you, and also to what he will 183 00:17:51.329 --> 00:17:56.730 complete in you. and May it indeed please him to increase his work in 184 00:17:56.930 --> 00:18:02.559 you. May it please him to increase this work of true righteousness and True 185 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:07.920 Holiness advanced in us as the fruit of his work of creation, so that 186 00:18:08.119 --> 00:18:12.069 when the day comes that we are waiting for, we will arrive filled with 187 00:18:12.269 --> 00:18:18.390 fruits of his righteousness that have been worked in US through Christ. and May 188 00:18:18.509 --> 00:18:22.789 this be true, all for the glory of his name and May he bring 189 00:18:22.829 --> 00:18:26.829 us to that day safely. Amen. Well, let's pray