If you would, please turn in your copy of God's Word to the book of Ephesians, Paul's letter to the churches, excuse me, the church gathered there in Ephesus. This morning we will be in chapter 4 again, and we'll be hearing from verses 17 down through verse 24. Ephesians chapter 4 beginning in verse 17. Let us hear this as it is truly the word of God to us. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. having 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 which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man who was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Amen. It is good to hear God's word. Let us pray and ask again that he would bless the preaching of it to us this day. Let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we are so bold to come before you now and to again ask that you would have mercy on us poor sinners. We who have lived our lives dishonoring you, and even now those of us who have rested in Christ alone, trusting in Him alone for our works and for our righteousness before you. Father, so often We find ourselves looking to the things of this earth as if they would make us happy and keep us safe. So Father, we ask that you would work in our hearts. Work now in us. Work now through the preaching of your word and by the powerful working of your Holy Spirit that we would see again the glory and the wonder and that we would have our hearts filled with awe at the salvation which you have accomplished for us. in Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. This morning we have another before and after. This brief passage here in chapter 4 is much like chapter 2, which gave us this great and majestic and terrible in many ways view of what life is like without Christ, what we are apart from Him, but what God has done in mercy and in grace, to gather together a people, not just individuals off on their own, but people saved by the work of Jesus Christ, saved by the Holy Spirit at work in them, and then gather together in churches all over the world. Well, we have something similar here today in this passage. This is a before and after, a snapshot, if you will, of what life is like without Christ and what life is like with Christ. In the first part of chapter 4, we heard that God's local churches must be united, must be one. And why is that? Because God is one. They must be one because God is one. Especially because it is the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who saves his people, forms them into local gathered churches by his word. Paul then took a little bit of a side note or a rabbit trail to look at how it is exactly that Christ accomplishes this unity in his church. to remind the Ephesians that their unity was not built by them, but it was built by the Word, meaning Jesus, and the proclamation of that Word by the officers that Christ gives to his local churches. This proclamation of the Word by the officers of Christ in his local churches works in such a way that every single member of the local church grows and matures until they become more and more and more like Christ himself. Now here in verses 17 through 24, he picks back up where he left off from verses 1 through 4, or excuse me, 1 through 6. He picks back up with this first part of chapter 4, and now he wants to remind them of who they were outside of Christ, and who they are now. They need this. They need this reminder. They need this refocus because He's about to give them command after command after command after command in the rest of this letter. Where are they going to get the motivation? Where are they going to get the encouragement that they need to live in a way that's pleasing to God? It can only come by being reminded and remembering over and over again, this is who I was before, but this is who I am now. This is what God has done for me. They must have this reminder constantly before them or they will grow weary and tired and weak. Our strength To live the way that Paul outlines in the rest of this letter does not come from our will. It doesn't come from somehow exciting ourselves to the point where we're engaged in the work. It doesn't come from feeling like obeying. It comes from the reality of what Christ has done. And then, then pursuing a life lived in the light of that reality. We in our world today are surrounded by corruption. We're surrounded by people giving themselves over to indulgence of every kind of sin, every kind of violation of God's law, every kind of disobedience. This is what we once were, those of us who have rested in Christ. And because we still fight against sin, Paul knows we need to have our attention brought back to what we are, who we are in Christ. The glory of the life to come, the glory of the world to come is not yet complete in us, but the reality has been begun already. The reality has been begun already in our hearts and minds. Paul has one theme here in this passage, and that will be the focus of our sermon. God has made us new. God has made us new. Now the passage divides it very easily into two points, and so that's how we'll hear it this morning. What we were, and what we are now. What we were, and what we are now. So as we think about the local church, as we think about the unity of the local church, as Paul has been driving to in this in chapter four, based upon the doctrine that we've already heard in chapters one through three, what do we need to know? What do we need to know? If the Word of Christ is the means and method of the unity of the local church, what must we know and remember as we pursue that unity in this life together in a local church? Well, my first point, this is verses 17 through 19, we must remember who we are. Excuse me, were. We must remember who we were. We cannot let go of who it is that we were before Christ, before the Holy Spirit worked in us. We must remember who we were. Now I've broken this down into three sub points. We were going nowhere, we were doing it on purpose, and we didn't care about the consequences. We were going nowhere, we were doing it on purpose, and we didn't care about the consequences. That's who we were before Christ, and that's who everyone is outside of Christ. He talks about these Gentiles here. Why does he reference Gentiles? These are those who have not trusted in Jesus as their only rescue from the grip of sin, and their only escape from death, which is inescapable without Christ. What these Christians gathered together in Ephesus were, as he said in chapter 2, they were Gentiles. They were without Christ. They were outside of the people of God. But no longer. No longer. This futile thinking that they were given over to. It's not only filled with useless things. But even the outcome of their, we might call good thoughts, never produce any true and lasting good. Never produce any true and lasting good. What is it that we look forward to without Christ? What is it that we have to hope for without resting in this one? There's no resurrection. Without Christ, there's no progress in holiness left only with a grave or annihilation or an exhausting reincarnation. What good is that to come back over and over and over? Or some kind of vague notion of an afterlife. That's who we are without Christ. We're going nowhere. Our thinking is futile. We're also going nowhere because our understanding is darkened. It's darkened. Now, this doesn't mean that people without Christ can't know true things. People without Christ know that 2 plus 2 equals 4. That's something that's true, that they know. That's not what Paul's getting at here. It's the idea that their plans and their desires were dark, shadowed, obscured. Again, going nowhere. Without Christ, who we were before, we were not just caught up in this, we were doing it on purpose. There's a progression here that Paul moves through, from being alienated or strangers, here in this passage, to purposefully ignorant, to willfully blind, is the idea here. As the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, not being who you were before, not walking that way, as in your ignorance. They conformed themselves to this before. They were ignorant in it, but they were doing it on purpose. and without Christ before Christ, before salvation, before placing all one's hope on Christ alone for the favor of God. We didn't care about the consequences. We didn't care about the consequences. We were calloused, given over, handed over on purpose is the idea here. And then Paul closes out this section with three characteristics of those who are living without trusting in Christ. All kinds of sexual immorality, treasuring other things and other people before and above and in place of God, and then never satisfied. Greediness, not just in money, but always looking for something more. There's got to be more that I want, more that I can have, more that I pursue, more that will make me happy. Something else will keep me safe. That's who we were before Christ. Well, if you have trusted in Christ, then our only response to hearing this kind of thing is, thank you, God, for rescuing me from this. And reading a passage like this should provoke thanks. We should remember who we were and we should give thanks to God that we are like that no longer. But it should also make us compassionate. There are so many others, neighbors, friends, co-workers, perhaps a spouse, children, grandchildren, people that we love dearly. And this is their state. This is their condition. We must have mercy upon them. We must be compassionate toward them. We must pray for them. We must ask God to save them. This also is a passage that teaches us to be honest about our sin. We didn't just make mistakes before we were converted. We didn't just mess a few things up before God saved us. We were wholly given over to sin. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. We could have been a whole lot worse, but everything we did was clouded by this darkness, this blindness, this ignorance. So the first step of this work and this labor of unity is remembering who we were. Remembering who we were. Secondly then, this is verses 20 through 24, we must remember who we are now. We must remember who we are now. All right, now we need to stop for a minute because there's a debate here. And commentators disagree about how to take these verses. So I just want to walk you through my approach and my opinion. All right, did you hear that? This is my opinion. If you want to hold to something different, please feel free to do so. I won't thank any less of you. and we will still have fellowship in Christ Jesus. But I want to present this to you because my opinion, I hold it because I think it's true, and I think it's right. And I hope that you will see that as I argue through it, and I hope you'll see the fruit of it. So, take that as it is. The problem with these verses is that the grammar can go either way. You can take this either as a command, or you can take it as a description. You can take it as Paul saying, do this, put on the new man, or you can take it as Paul describing what God has already done. He has caused us to put on the new man. He's already made us new in Christ. So those are the two options here, and the commentators go... they don't go either way, but one commentator will go this way, and one commentator will go that way. So this is why I think we ought to understand this not as a command to put on the new man, but rather as a declaration from Paul that we already have put on the new man. This has already taken place, this is already true of us. The first reason is I think comes from the context. Paul started with unbelievers and then he moved to believers. Verse 25 picks up with the behavior of believers. So if he started with unbelievers in the first part of our passage, and then after our passage he picks up with how believers ought to act, what ought to come in between that? Well how do you get believers who are obeying? God has to do a work. Verse 20 through 24 then provide the change from unbelief to belief. Paul does this elsewhere. So I think Paul here in this passage is following this pattern of giving what's true and then following it with commands. So this is what I'm arguing, that here in 20 through 24 he's giving something that's true and then he follows it with commands in verses 24 and following. Look down at chapter 5 in verse 8. He does this really briefly here. But it's almost like a brief outline for our whole passage this morning. Chapter 5 and verse 8. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. I think verse 8 gives us in miniature what Paul is doing here in our passage and in what follows. You were once darkness, which is what we just, the first point that we went through. But now you are light in the Lord, which is what I'm arguing is verses 20 through 24. So walk as children of light, which is what I'm arguing verse 25 is picking up. Okay, he also does this in Romans. He does this all over the place, but I want to show you this in Romans as well. Romans chapter 6 and turn over to verse 11. Romans chapter 6 and verse 11. Likewise you also reckon or consider or think of yourselves this way to be dead indeed to sin. but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Think of yourself this way, that you, believer, are alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. So again, I think he's doing in miniature the same thing we're seeing in our passage and following on from that in verse 25. Back to our passage then. Think about the logic here, if you will. Commands are based on what is true. Think about the Ten Commandments. What are the Ten Commandments based on? They're based on, I the Lord your God have rescued you, have brought you out of the land of Egypt, therefore you are to have no other gods before me. He doesn't give them the command until he's first given them what's true about what he has done. Also, a lot of this argument hinges on your definition of old man and new man. If the old man is the man without Christ, then the new man is the believer in Christ. We cannot make ourselves believers. Only God can do that. Only God can do that work. Once we have been made new then, then we can put off activity that looks like the old man and put on activity that looks like the new man, which is where Paul goes next. That's why I think that's what Paul's doing here. Why does that matter? First, we want to understand the Bible. God has loved us. We've heard that from chapters 1 through 3. What an amazing and wonderful love. And God has spoken to us here in his word. We want to understand him. We want to understand what he's teaching us and telling us. Second, the second reason why I think it matters that this is a declaration that Paul is making and not a command that he's giving is that trying to do something that we cannot do will only end in frustration or pride. Trying to put on the new man, in my opinion, is something that God has already done for us. It's not something that we need to do. We need to live that way. And if we're trying to make ourselves believers, we're either going to pretend that we're believers when we're not, which will make us proud people, or we're going to get so frustrated with not being able to live up to God's law that we just give up in frustration or despair. The third reason why I think this is really important is because commands never motivate us. I don't know if you've tried this before, but quoting a command to yourself is not going to motivate you to obey it. It's good to know it. It's good to know what to do, but that's not where the motivation comes from. Motivation comes from what God has done for us in Christ. That's where we get encouragement to true obedience. Okay, so those are my reasons. That's why I take that position. Feel free to take it either way. Again, you will find good men who differ on this. Let me read this for you from the NIV. I know, no one ever reads from the NIV, but let me read it to you from the NIV, because I think they get the translation a little bit better, and it picks up on this idea. Oh, I wanted to say one thing. The insert in your bulletin is from a pastor from the 1800s, excuse me, 1700s, 18th century, named John Gill, and he shares a similar position to mine, and I think you'll really benefit from what he has written there. I wanted to quote him, but I didn't want to bore you with a quote, so it's kind of long, so I just put it in the bulletin. So take it home, read through it, and I think it will be profitable to you. Okay. Ephesians chapter 4. This is how I think we ought to hear this passage. So I tell you this, verse 17, and insist on it in the Lord that you no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they are full of greed. Again, what we were before, the old man. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You have been taught, with regard to your former way of life, that you have put off your old self, which was corrupted by its deceitful desires, that you are made new in the attitude of your minds, and that you have put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and piety. Okay, back to our passage then. I've made my case. Take it for what it's worth. Let's come back to what Paul is teaching us here. First off, we hear a contrast. Now we are freed from blindness. We're freed from darkness. We're freed from this purposeful ignorance. We have learned Christ. We have heard Christ, and we have been taught by Christ. This is one of those, the if that you see there in your translation is not Paul wondering if this has happened or not. This is Paul assuming it's happened. It's almost like our word since. Since you have learned Christ, since you have heard Christ, and since you have been taught by Christ. So what was taught? What was taught by Christ? The old man is put off. We're no longer chained, as it were, to those pursuits. The inner person then is renewed. Now we are able to think. Now we are able to desire. Now we are able to feel what is truly good, what is true in this life, more and more and more and more. What also is taught is that a new man has been created. A new man has been created. We now have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. New wine and new wineskins. Paul says in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul is given over. He's conquered by this idea. It's inescapable to him that Christ died for him. Christ loved him. The Pharisee, the one who is spending his whole life trying to earn God's favor. Christ has loved him. It's inescapable. This is how he lives now, and the reality of what Christ has done for him. So not only do we hear a contrast here, not only do we hear a catechism, what has been taught, but we also hear a calling. A calling to the believer. God's likeness, first of all. This new man is created in God's likeness. It's better than what we had in Adam, made in the likeness of God. First Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 49, Paul says this, just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, all right, we are all made in God's image, we are all created just as Adam was created, we are all descendants of Adam. Just as surely as that is true, Paul says, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. And that has already started. It has already started in the inner man. And it will continue to grow throughout life. And we'll have the fullness and completeness of it when Christ returns again. This true righteousness and true holiness or true piety, this is a right relation to all those around us. and a right devotion to God above others and above everything else. True righteousness and true piety. Well, what does this mean for us if we have been created new in the image of Christ? We have, by the Spirit of God, put on the new man. Again, it means that we should give thanks. We couldn't do this. This is not something that we've accomplished. This is something that God has done for us. What an amazing and wondrous gift to have life in Christ forevermore. We must live now what we are. We must live now what we will be in the world to come. There's some difficult things coming up in the book of Ephesians. There's some really hard things that we're going to be faced with. Things like love your wife. And even harder, submit to your husband. How are we going to do that? How are we going to think properly about loving one another? How are we going to think properly about being in submission to one another? The only way that we're going to be able to do this is if we're constantly reminding ourselves, I'm dead to sin. I'm dead to sin and I'm alive in Christ. I am a new creation. We need to have this running through our minds over and over and over. Every Sunday as we walk through those doors, I am a new creation. Every time we're faced with something difficult, a command that we don't want to obey, I am a new creature. We must be thinking this way. Well, because God has made us new, we must be new. Because God has made us new, we must be new. We must live as we are. We are no longer chained to these old ways of thinking and acting. We are freed to live according to the scriptures, according to the law. We are freed to live according to the perfection of our Savior, who is the perfect man. This is who we were outside of Christ, but no longer. No longer. This is who we are now in Christ Jesus. Let us live that way. Let us live that way. Hear the promise of God. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Hear the promise of God. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hear the promise of God. He is faithful to complete the work that he has begun in you all. These are rich and true promises given to us. We who were purchased by Christ by his blood, without his perfect obedience, without his life lived for us, given to us by the Holy Spirit, we are without hope and we have nothing to offer God in place of our own wretched corruption and sin. Jesus Christ himself then is the guarantee that the work of salvation will be completed and finished in us. Because he lives, we live. Because he lives, we live. If you have trusted in Christ, if you're here this morning, and you're resting in Him alone, trusting in Him, you are a new creation. You are. You're a new creation in Jesus Christ. Think about this. Think about it often. Think about it carefully. You are not who you used to be. God loved you. God loved you. He's made you new. He's made you a new man, a new creation. And all the commands that you hear that follow in the book of the letter to the Ephesians as you strive for the unity of the church where God puts you live now. Live now in the reality of who you are and the reality of who you will be in heaven. The truth that you are going to spend the rest of your existence being perfect is not a reason to slack off now. It's a reason to get busy. the reason to pursue holiness. It's a reason to live for Christ. Why would you waste your time pursuing things that are all going to be destroyed and are all going to burn up when Christ comes back? Why waste your time? Why not live now as you will be in heaven forever and ever? When you are tired, when you are weary, When you see little fruit from your striving against sin, fall back on this. Rest on this. God has made you new. He's made you new in Christ Jesus. Rejoice that God has already started this work of making you better than Adam ever was in the garden. Making you like Jesus Christ, your Savior. This is the one who loves you and the one whom you love. If you are not trusting in Christ this morning, if you have not rested in Him and Him alone, if you've trusted in some other thing, if you've trusted in the church or your parents or the things that you know from the Bible, if you've trusted in the things that you have done yourself, if you've trusted in the way you have felt, None of those things are sufficient. None of those things will carry you through the judgment that is coming. You are trapped. You are trapped in this old way of thinking, this old way of living. You cannot. You do not have the power to stop living your life in a frantic pursuit of things that are destroying you and harming those you love. You're unable to escape that. Only Jesus Christ has the power to make you a new creation. A new creation. Because he walked through darkness. Because he himself died. And it could not hold him. Then if you will trust in him, and trust in him alone, he will rescue you. He will save you. He will deliver you and He will make you a new creation. That is the promise of God's Word to you this morning. Turn from your sin, turn from these vain and fruitless and hopeless pursuits and rest in Him and Him alone today. The God who brought forth light out of nothing and created all this world that we see around us brought forth Christ from a dark tomb early on a Sunday morning. And he is bringing light and life to dead and darkened hearts. He creates from nothing. He makes new. Our God is the creator of life and the creator of life in Jesus Christ. And in him we have life, abundant life, and life forevermore. Let's pray. Our gracious and heavenly Father, we find that our greatest need has been met in the greatest possible way. We have been rescued by the Savior Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is both God and man. What a wondrous and amazing salvation he has accomplished for us, that he would take away the old man and make us new in himself. Father give us grace. Work in us by your Holy Spirit that we would think carefully and frequently about this reality that is ours now in Christ Jesus that we are new creatures. We are new creations. Thank you, Father, for your great power displayed in this way, working in this way, accomplishing all that you have designed to accomplish, bringing glory and honor to yourself, exalting the work of Christ. Working all things through the power of your Holy Spirit, we thank you, Lord God, for who you are and what you have done. Work in us, we pray, in this coming week for your glory and your honor. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Open your hymnals to hymn number 195. 195. Alas and did my savior bleed. Will you please stand as we sing together. Alas and did my savior And did my sovereign die? that sacred head for such a worm as I. Was it for crimes that I had done he groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, great unknown, and love beyond degree. Well might the sun darkness hide, and shut his glories in. When Christ the mighty Maker died, for man the creature Thus might I hide my blushing face, while His dear cross appears. My heart in thankfulness and melt my eyes in tears. But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away. It is all that I can do. Amen. Blessing of God as you go from here comes from Revelation chapter 3. But as you hear this blessing, I want you to know something ahead of time about conquering. Conquering is not getting your own victory. Conquering is being yourself in Christ's victory. So hear now God's blessing upon you. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. He shall never go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. Amen. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave