Ephesians four. Ephesians four. Once again, I will begin reading in verse seventeen but we're focusing on verses twenty-two and twenty-four this evening. So, Ezekiel uh Ephesians chapter four beginning in verse seventeen. Give heed to the reading of god's word. This I say therefore and testify in the lord that you should no their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man, and to renew to the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Father, we ask that as we come to this exhortation, to this word from you, that we would hear you and see your mercy and grace in for Christ to lean on in this and that is all and through that, we have great mercy. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. So, as we come down, you know, so 2 weeks ago, we talked about what it is to walk as a gentile, what it is to walk. Well, to use the language of our And you can think about what the argument Paul's making here is that the old man, if you will, is like putting on your old stinking dead carcass as your clothing, whereas you have this new man that Christ has created as your natural clothing from here. And so that's kind of the argument and the flow of the directions he's going, and he's given us how does this happen. It happens because Christ speaks and it happens So we see that, you know, when we talk about justification, we're all down with this idea that, yes, I'm forgiven my sins and Christ's righteousness is mine and my sin is Christ, and that is obviously an act of God's free grace. But too often when we come to sanctification, we forget that sanctification is also a work of God's free grace and we turn it into a new law. Go do, go do, go do, go do, and we come away defeated and exhausted because we see it as law as opposed to the result of Christ dwelling in us by faith. That Christ is working this in us, and so that it is arresting and relying upon him, not something that we can do in our own strength. So Christ has said before you, this privilege This privilege of having the new man, this privilege of not being dead in your trespasses and sins. And here's the thing about privileges. What did you do to get this privilege? Absolutely nothing. What can you do to lose a privilege you did nothing to get? Absolutely nothing. If you're in Christ, this is yours. and it will always be yours. It's one of those benefits that accompanies and flows from effectual calling. So the Catechism talks about what are the benefits which accompany and flow from effectual calling? Yes, we have assurance of pardon and all this, but we have justification, adoption, and sanctification. These are benefits and privileges, not something you have to do. Too many are sanctification because they're rightly concerned about legalism. But remember what legalism tends to boil down to. So an antinomian is anybody who is to the left of me and legalism is anybody who's to the right of me. And me here is each person. We don't that you can contribute anything to your salvation. That you by doing this, I mean, will add to your salvation. That's the grand joy of the gospel. That the only thing you bring and add to your salvation is your sin, which Christ freely forgives. Now this isn't licensed You said, here's the thing and there's the thing. Now, go do the thing and you're like, I don't know what same thing or things. And that's the way salvation by works to come down to. And Paul is telling us in this passage that sanctification is becoming the new man. And where do we get this new man? It's the new man that God has created in you. You're the oldest past. The new has come. And so this is more than just, you know, to use the tried and hackneyed phrase, let go and let God. It's not that. It is to hear Christ as he teaches himself. Put another way, the only thing that is going on here is Paul saying, stop play acting and stop wearing your old costume, because it stinks. rotting and it's decaying. And remember, you have the new clothes, the new man, which Christ has created in you. And so at the end of the day, when you get to heaven, and you look back to the why did this I did that, you're not going to say that, who says, Well, look what I did in your name, it's those who says I never knew. Those who get there says, Look what you did in me, Christ. And so, our outline this evening is put off, put off. Be renewed, put on. So, put off, be renewed, put on. So, just reminding us where we've been. When you learn Christ, when you heard Christ, when you were taught by Christ, The Spirit of God had given you ears and made you into a new creature, a new creation. Paul starts with the command to put off the old man. Like I said, the imagery in here is clothes, but it's not clothes that you want. It's not a good set of clothes. It's an old, rotten, rotting, festering, infested set of clothes. that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust." So the old man, even when you're a new creature, that remaining corruption still is there, waging war against the spirit, and so we are to put it off. Because it grows worse and worse. The corruption was your undoing. Why did you do it? You know, oh, the devil made me do it. No, you were led along by your own lust to do it. And, you know, think of it this way. Nobody wakes up from being an innocent person to a murderer. How do you get there? Well, if we think of the train of the way it works. Starts with anger, then anger grows in festers. That festering anger becomes hatred. Hatred then gives birth to assault, and assault gives birth to murder. It is a train. And we can do that with nama sin, and we can see it, whether it's a so-called little sin or the grievous sins. They are all a festering corruption of the old man. We live in a larger society and culture where it's somebody else's fault. According to this passage, why did you sin and why do you continue to sin? It's because the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust. Shakespeare defines lust as a waste of spirit and an expense of shame. that we spend all this effort, and what do we harvest out of it? Some shameful thing. And that, each one of us has that own corrupting nature. And so here Paul's saying, put it off, get rid of it, toss it to the curb. The old man, the conduct is the exhibition of what you're wearing, it's not the old man. It's the exhibition of what you're doing when you don't put off the old man when Christ was crucified. The old man was crucified with him. The problem, according to Paul, is that you are slapping that carcass of the old man on top of your clothes. And it's like I said, it's like putting on old, ratty, smelly clothes on top of banquet garments that Jesus Christ is giving you. And so he's saying, Get rid of it. How? Well, let's go back up. You have not so learned Christ. Indeed, you have heard him concerning that you were taught by him. So we have to be, learn him, be taught by him because we hear him. And this is an ongoing struggle. The grand purpose of learning Christ is that you might be like him. You must learn him, press on to learn him so that you know who you are and who are you. You are a new creature created in Christ Jesus for good works which were created beforehand. Paul has shown you He's not, he's not going somewhere else because it is our constant struggle. It is our constant struggle because and it will be until you die. You know, think of it this way. You have to be alive to struggle. What do dead bodies do in the grave? They rot. What do, and so struggling is part of what it is. And so, there's not a resolution or a working of the will, I'm just gonna do this. It's flying and using the means that Christ has given, which will often lead to a resolution and a working of the will, but it is not the cause, it's the effect. The cause is Christ, and so we come back to him repeatedly. And so, now we move to his next part of how this works, is we must be renewed. Well, what does that tell you? This is a passive act. Being renewed is not go out and renew yourself. Be renewed in your mind. And how are you renewed in your mind? How would you passively be renewed? By listening to Christ, being taught by Christ, and learning Christ. This is the working of Christ, not something you do through complex works. Now, American culture, and especially American evangelicalism, and there's the literature and the podcasts and the vlogs and all that, is just steeped and wedded to anti-intellectualism. It hates the mind. And obviously, you're like, well, no, I'm just saying they want broader culture, it strives for solutions that bypass the mind and just, I want five steps. Why do people love five steps to debt consolidation, 12 steps to a happier this? Because they don't want to get down to the issues, they just want the, to deal with the symptoms. But here's the thing. Christ doesn't redeem just your soul. He redeems your whole person, your mind, your intellect, which your intellect, your mind, your affections, and your will. And here's the thing is your affections and your will are essential, but God has ordered them that your mind is to control them, that we are to be, Your affections and your will make great servants of terrible masters. He has ordered it, that it is the mind. And that's why he wants us to be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And why is that? Because the will and the affections, to quote Ebenezer Scrooge, are easily affected and easily deceived. One of the most telling statements on this. Why do you doubt your senses? Because, said Scrooge, a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are. And so these faculties are God-given, but they're equally corrupted. and God has ordered the manner in which all of them are to be redeemed, and He does it through the mind, stretching to the affections and the will. And so, we are to be renewed in the mind. The mind is not free from deceit, yet it is the faculty that God has set to rule and govern the rest. The affections and the will make poor masters Christ has given you the Holy Spirit so that you can be renewed in your mind, and the Spirit is renewing your mind, and we come back. How? Because we learn Christ, we hear Christ, we're taught by Christ. And from that, the rest are brought into order. Do you struggle with a particular sin, say lust? Then you hear Christ as He speaks in the inner man, and you mortify that by having your mind set straight. Why are you tempted? The best analogy is you're like a dumb fish looking at a wonderful little lure that has a hook hidden in it. And each time you gobble, you gobble death. And that repeats itself over and over again until you can say, wait a second, that's just a hook being disguised. meant to destroy me. The serpent, how did she get to Eve? He deceived her in the mind. He lied to her about the nature of reality, and she was led along by her mind to her desires, to her actions. So he told her, the lying serpent told her a different reality than God had said. And so, as we see these things, we must have our minds disciplined by Christ and by his word, and that is the grace he is working in us to have our minds renewed. In short, where she would know what is good by reference not to God, but by what she thought, God has said, the only way you can know what is good is by knowing me, because I am what is good. And so, Paul here and elsewhere puts an emphasis on your mind because it, like your whole nature, was corrupted, but it is God's created order that it is to be renewed, and by Him renewing it, brings order and structure to the rest of your faculties. verse twenty-four and that you put on the new man which is creating according to god. Okay. So, renewed is in the passive but now, we are put on. So, we're put off the old man. We're to be renewed in the mind and put on the new and again, how is this not just a different law? You know, the Israelites have the ten commandments. did not come with the spirit dwelling in them, because there was the mixed multitude there. Yes, there were those saved at Sinai, but they were not saved because of Sinai. They were saved because they had faith and had called upon the Lord for salvation. It's not just one more new law. Remember back to verse 10 of chapter two, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we are now, having been renewed, having the new man, we are now walking in those works which God has prepared before time. Another way to think of this is when God created man, he created man, male and female, after his own image and knowledge, we are again made new so that we have righteousness and holiness in a real sense because Christ dwells within us and we are now able to obey God. So, from creation until the fall, Adam was able to obey God and also able to disobey God. From the fall until salvation, everyone of obeying God. But now that we are in Christ, we are able once more to obey Him. And we do it not because we have to, in the sense of it is a taskmaster with a whip forcing us, but because He's giving us a new appetite, a new affection that desires by that renewed mind to dwell with God as the Spirit dwells within us. So, as we think about this, Jesus Christ is a full Savior. He doesn't just make salvation possible. He saves you, and now we have to break down what does saving mean. And salvation is the broad category that covers justification, the forgiveness of your sins, the imputation of your sins to Jesus, and the imputation of Christ's in Jesus Christ. And you have adoption. You are adopted. Because you have believed, you have the power and the authority to be called a child of God. And because you are in Christ, you are caused to die more and more of sin and live under righteousness. And these are works of God's free grace up until the point of death or the return of Christ. Christ is working that in you. He does so according to the counsel of His will. Yet it is true that not all Christians experience this the same. Not all Christians have the same degree of liberty in this life. Now at death, we all have the same. Your justification is the same as everybody else. There's nobody who's more justified or less justified. There's only justification. and the holiness that was imputed to you and is yours in Christ is the same at that moment as it will be in eternity. Sanctification in this life is of differing degrees. Once arises the imperfection of sanctification in believers. imperfection of sanctification of believers arises from the remnants of sin abiding in every part of them, and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the spirit, whereby they are often foiled with temptations, and fall into many sins, are hindered in all their spiritual services, and their best works are imperfect and defiled in the sight of God." And that's what Paul is dealing with. What are we to do with these imperfections? We are to put them off. And how do we do that? By going back to the God who saved us, and seeking Him to put them to death, and for us to grow in this, to put to death those remaining corruptions. Yes, I know last week I was talking about we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and now we're dead unto sin, but if you look in the flow of Roman I say me, Paul, because we're using systematic theological language, not Paul's language when we talk about this. But he doesn't really start talking about what it is to put to death remaining Why should you care? Because it means you know you have the final victory. It means that when you sin, you have assurance that Christ forgives you of your sin. until the day of Christ Jesus. And so as we see this warfare of putting off and putting on, as we get to chapter, if you get to chapter six, what do you find there? Put on the whole armor of God. And so what is the whole armor of God? It's the new man, it's Christ dwelling in you, it's not you going out there as some, you know, lone assassin trying to wage war against your sin. Besides, the armor described there only works in the context of the church dwelling together, because the way the shields and everything worked at the time, your shield isn't to protect you, it's to protect the guy next to you. You fight, protect, and the guy to your right is protecting you as he fights. This is all done not in the context and all of the the use in here. Once again, these are all all yours. It works and with the church working together as the spirit of god is renewing you and working here. And so, we we yes, we wrestle and yes, we wrestle not against flesh and blood but events and powers does the fighting and it's Christ and he will mortify each one of your losses and so there's hope and there's peace knowing that he will have that victory whether at your death when you're made perfect in holiness and immediately passing the glory your body still being united to Christ buried in the grave when there will be no old man for you to even see, and it will all be that new man that has been created by Christ. Let us pray. Father, we do thank you and praise you that you have given us the victory in Christ, that in Christ we have the once for all victory, but even now in this life as we wage war, we wage war according to the means that you have given us, the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, whereby you speak and we learn Christ and we are taught by Christ that we might dive into sin. And so we ask, O God, that you, by your spirit, would renew our minds that we might put off the old man and put on the new, that we might know the peace and joy of walking with Christ. We pray this in his name.