Renewal - Ephesians 4:21-32

The last time we were together in our studying, we were at Ephesians 4:21. In this section Paul is telling us to walk in purity. In Ephesians 4:1-16 he exhorted us to walk in unity and taught us that every believer, every true Christian is a member of the body of Christ. And that as members of the body of Christ, each of us is to make a spiritual contribution to the strength and the life of the body.

Now in Ephesians 4:17-5:17, Paul's theme is walk in purity. Ephesians 4:17, "This I say therefore, and testifying the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles or other heathen walk, in the vanity of their mind." Don't live the way the unsaved people live.

Now he describes in these verses the dark, a dismal, disobedient life of the unsaved people. Those who don't know Jesus Christ as their savior. And he says, "Now, we're not to live this way, because in Ephesians 4:20, we have learned Christ. We have learned to know Christ." Now, it's not that we have learned about Christ. Many people know about him who don't know him. Paul is saying, "We have learned Christ." We have come to know him personally. He's our savior, he's our friend. When we read the Bible, he speaks to us. When we pray, we speak to him. Christ is real to us.

Now, once a person has come to know Jesus Christ, and the doctrine connected with Jesus Christ, he must live a life of purity. If there's one thing that the word of God teaches us clearly, it is this: If a person knows Christ, he ought to live like Christ. Over in 1 John 2, the Apostle John makes this very clear. He says, "We should walk in the light as he is in the light." He tells us that if a man says he knows God, he ought so also to walk even as he walked.

The story is told about a missionary who came to a village and he thought no one had ever been there before with the gospel. And he began to tell about Jesus Christ. And right in the middle of his lesson, a man stood up and said, "Ah, we know him. He used to live here." And on further inquiring, the missionary discovered that many years before, a godly missionary had come to that village and preached about Jesus Christ. And this man's life was so godly and so Christlike, these natives thought he was Jesus Christ.

Now, Paul is telling us to walk in purity. And he tells us how to do it. Ephesians 4:22, "that ye put off concerning the former behavior, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man." Now, in the Bible, the old man is a phrase describing the old nature. Before you were saved, you only had one nature, and that nature is fallen. When you were born the first time, into your parents' family, you were born with a fallen nature. "Sin did my mother conceive me," David said in Psalm 51. In Romans 7, Paul says, "I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing."

Now until a person comes to the place where he admits that he himself is sinful and that he himself can do nothing good, he can never be saved. You see, the reason many people are not Christians today is because they don't really think that they're lost. You see, we are not sinners because we sin. We sin because we are sinners.

I have a relative who has in his home both a dog and a cat. They were raised together, and they get along fairly well together. But the cat doesn't bark, and the dog doesn't meow. The dog will not lap up milk, and the cat won't eat dog food. Now, why does a cat behave like a cat? A cat has a cat's nature. Why does a dog behave like a dog? A dog has a dog's nature. The only way you could make the cat like the dog is to give the cat the nature of a dog. Now long before scientists ever recognized the fact that there are different kinds and species and different kinds of natures, the Bible taught this. Back in Genesis, God said, "You shall reproduce after your kind." And cats are cats, they have a cat nature. Sinners are sinners, they have a sinner's nature. We are born into this world with a lost, depraved nature.

I recall when I was attending college up in Chicago, one of the students whose name I have forgotten, but a young man who somehow took an interest in me, said to me, "My wife is going to have a baby. And we intend that this child will never do anything wrong." I said, "That's very interesting." I had two children at that time. He said, "Yes, we're going to put it in a perfect environment, we're always going to raise it the right way, it's never going to do anything wrong." It was my sad duty to inform him that babies lie even before they can talk. They'll lie there in the crib or in the cradle and scream as though they are dying, and the minute someone shows up, they start to gurgle and to smile, they just want some attention. Children are born with the nature to sin. You don't have to teach a child how to steal, how to lie, how to be mean, how to be selfish. He does this naturally. It's his nature.

Now, Paul is saying the old man is corrupt, and the old man is filled with deceitful lusts. Lusts that deceive. Now sin is about the most deceptive thing in the world. We're warned in Hebrews, "lest ye be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Sin is deceitful. Sin promises liberty, and it always brings bondage. Sin promises enjoyment, and it always brings sorrow. Sin promises life, and it always brings death. Back in Genesis 3, when Satan came to Eve with his tempting offers, he said, "Oh, if you disobey God, if you take of this fruit, you're going to be like God. You're going to live. You're going to enjoy." And she fell for it. And sin deceived her. And instead of reaping joy, they reaped death and pain and sorrow and judgment.

Now Paul says, "Don't be fooled by the old nature. Don't ever get the idea that you can change your old nature, you can discipline your old nature, you can clean up your old nature. This is the biggest mistake that Christians make." You try to discipline your old nature with fasting and prayers and New Year's resolutions, and "I'm not going to do this anymore." And I want to guarantee you something, the minute you say, "I am not going to," you'll do it. Or the minute you say, "I am going to do something good," you won't do it. Read Romans 7 where the greatest Christian whoever lived, Paul, says, "The good that I want to do, I can't do. And the evil I don't want to do, I go ahead and do it." "I find a law at work in the members of my body, a principle at work down inside of me, that when I want to do good, evil is present with me."

You see, when you were saved, God did not change your old nature. Rather, he gave to you a brand new nature. 2 Peter 1:4, "being partakers of the divine nature." This is called in Ephesians 4:24, "the new man." And so, every Christian has the old man to put off and the new man to put on. Just like changing clothes.

To me, the most perfect illustration of this in the Bible is in John 11, the resurrection of Lazarus. You'll recall that at Bethany, our Lord found a wonderful place of rest and fellowship in the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And Lazarus died. Before he died, he was sick, and his sisters sent a message to Jesus saying, "Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." But the Lord Jesus waited, he didn't answer their prayer immediately because he had something better in mind. And by the time he got to that home in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the grave for four days. Sorrow had come into the home. And you'll recall how the Lord Jesus stood there at the door of that tomb. They rolled away the stone, and Jesus cried out, "Lazarus, come forth!" And Lazarus, bound in the grave clothes, came to the door of that tomb alive.

Now, no one really believed he was alive because he was all bound up. The Jews did not put people in shrouds as some people do today. When a man died, they wrapped these linen bandages all around his body, they put spices in between the layers of the bandages, and when these spices melted and got together, it was a very gooey, gummy substance. And Lazarus was encased in a cocoon. And when he came to the door of the tomb, he must have floated to the door of the tomb because he couldn't walk, he was bound hand and foot. And there he stood, and no one really believed he was alive. Jesus said, "Loose him, and let him go. Take off the grave clothes." And they did. Now, a living person should not wear dead clothes. You don't put grave clothes on a living person. A living person does not sleep in a coffin. Now, Paul is saying, when you were saved, you were raised from the dead, Ephesians 2, and you hath he quickened, that he raised from the dead, who were dead, in trespasses and sins. Now he says, "take off the grave clothes. By the grace of God, set aside, put off the old man, don't live the way you used to live."

Now, in Romans 6, we won't take time in this lesson to go into that, but I recommend that you read Romans 6 where Paul tells us that this old nature of ours has been crucified. And we have died with Jesus Christ, and we have been raised with Jesus Christ. Now in our own strength we cannot overcome the old nature. But in the power of God, we can. If we reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, if by faith we put off the old man, and if we put on the new man by permitting the new nature to control our lives.

Dr. Harry Ironside, who for many years was pastor of the great Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, once ministered among the Indians. He had a great ministry among the Indians out in the western part of our country. And he used to tell the story about the Christian Indian who described the conflict between the old nature and the new nature this way. He said, "There are two dogs down inside of this Indian, a black dog which is my old life, and a white dog, which is my new life. And they fight each other." And do you know which one wins? The one that I feed the most. That's a very simple illustration, but it does get the point across.

Are you feeding the old nature or are you feeding the new nature? Are you making provision for the flesh, the the the the the the music you listen to, the magazines you read, the books you read, the television programs you watch, the fellowship that you keep? Does it feed the old nature and make it easy for you to sin, or do you feed the new nature by praying and reading the Bible, memorizing scripture, going to church, obeying the Lord? The one you feed is the one that is going to control your life.

Now put off the old man, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now there's a false holiness. The Pharisees had a false holiness. They wore their long robes and prayed their long prayers and blew the trumpet when they brought their offerings to the temple and paraded their religion. And people said, "Oh, aren't they holy?" And Jesus said, "They're like whitewashed sepulchers, they're clean on the outside and filthy dirty on the inside." True holiness comes from the heart. True holiness starts on the inside and works to the outside. True holiness is not a garment we put on Sunday morning and take off the rest of the week. True holiness is the spirit of God creating God's fullness in our lives.

We're a part of a new creation. Back in Ephesians 2, Paul had said, "for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, his manufactured product, his creation." And then he said, "created in Christ Jesus." Now, when you were born the first time, you were born in the old creation, and Adam was the head of the old creation. And the old creation failed. The old creation is under a curse. When you were born again, you were born into the new creation, and Jesus Christ, the last Adam, is the head. And God is working in your life as you allow him to, to make you what he wants you to be.

Now in between Ephesians 4:22 and Ephesians 4:24 is Ephesians 4:23, where he tells us how to put off the old man and how to put on the new man. "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind." You see, Ephesians 4:23 says, "be renewed." Ephesians 4:24 says, "put on the new man." Everything new. "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Your mind controls your life. As he thinketh, so is he.

The communist today have a technique which is called brainwashing, and they can take someone and so work on his mind so as to make him a traitor to his own country and a slave to the communist system. Now, Satan gets into people's minds. Satan wants to get a hold of the minds. Back here in Ephesians 2:3, Paul says, "among whom also we all had our behavior in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." You see, when the flesh controls your mind, when the old nature controls your mind, you think the wrong thoughts, and thinking the wrong thoughts leads to doing the wrong deeds.

You recall, I'm sure, the old proverb, "You sow a thought, and you reap an action. You sow an action, and you reap a habit. You sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny." Where does it begin? By sowing a thought. Thinking. What goes on in your mind? Now Paul says, "If you want to have a new life, if you want to have true holiness, if you want to be a part of a wonderful miracle of being transformed day by day, to become more like Jesus Christ, then be renewed in the spirit of your mind." This is parallel to Romans 12:2. "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." That's wonderful. That Almighty God can transform our lives by the renewing of the mind.

How do you renew the mind? Through the word of God. As the word of God gets into your mind, the spirit of God goes to work and changes and transforms. God changes your living by changing your thinking. And the word of God works in the mind. Now many times in the Bible, the word "mind" and the word "heart" are used interchangeably. The inner man. "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." The renewing of the mind.

Now, do you spend time with your Bible? Do you allow Almighty God to renew your mind by the power of the Holy Spirit? Oh, I trust that you do, because the greatest blessing in all the world is to spend time day by day with the Bible, in prayer. And let the Holy Spirit of God just work on your inner man. And you put off the old man, the grave clothes.

Now what are these grave clothes? Ephesians 4:25, "putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another." "Be ye angry and sin not." There is there isn't only the anger. Don't lose your temper. Don't give place to the devil. Ephesians 4:29, "let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit." Ephesians 4:31, "get rid of bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking." That's the grave clothes. Then he says, "put on the grace clothes." Love and joy and holiness and blessing by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Are you living under the control of the old man? You still wearing the dirty old grave clothes? Put them off. Let Christ take off those dirty old grave clothes and clothe you by renewing your mind through the word of God.

Shall we pray together? Heavenly Father, we thank thee for the power of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit of God can take the word of God and change our minds and our hearts. Lord, we need to be changed. Help us to grow in true holiness and to get rid of the old grave clothes and to put on the new man and to walk in newness of life to the glory of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.