Born New: Laying Aside the Old Life (Ephesians 4:20–24)

Good morning, and welcome to the broadcast service of Dillingham Moravian Church.

My name is Pastor Simon, and we're thankful that God has led you to study the

Bible with us this morning.

When our miracle children were born, everything was all new to them.

Breathing, seeing, using their muscles. Babies have to learn how to crawl, walk, and talk.

They have to learn their environment and who to love and who loves them.

Babies have to learn how to think and communicate and coordinate their limbs,

eyes, and brains together.

There are so many functions that children have to learn when they are first

born that the amount of learning would completely overwhelm us as adults.

Yet there's one thing that children can't do, and that is go back in their mother's

womb as if they have never been born.

Now, that may seem a strange statement, but that is exactly what we as human

beings are tempted to do on a daily basis.

By the grace of Christ, through faith in Christ, we have been born again into

the newness of life in Christ.

Yet the temptation is still there to go back and live in the old lives that

we had before we were saved.

We, as Christ's disciples, are to live in and according to the new way of life

that we now have in Christ.

Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we are grateful that we have been remade.

Reborn in you by your Son's grace through his death on the cross and his resurrection.

We're grateful for what you have done in him. And Lord, as we go to your word,

teach us, guide us, mold us, shape us into who you want us to be.

And may we always trust you and follow you. In your precious Son's name,

Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Here at Dillingham Ravion Church, we have been studying Paul's letter to the

Ephesians, which is focused on the unity or oneness of God displayed to the

Church of Jesus Christ as we live in godly unity together.

We learned in Ephesians 4, verses 17-19 that Paul testified to the Ephesians

Ephesians 4:17–19

and to all believers with the same authority as one testifying for the court of God,

that we are not to walk or conduct our lives any longer in a way that those

who belong to the world do.

Secondly, we were taught about three characteristics of what it means to live

like those who do not believe in Christ as Lord.

Those characteristics were futility of mind, where those who do not know Christ

do not have the true eternal purpose of God in their lives.

Secondly, those in the world are darkened in their minds, meaning they cannot

understand the truth of God.

And lastly, those who are not in Christ are alienated or foreigners to the life

of Christ and are not part of his kingdom.

And today we're going to continue on in our study of Paul's letter.

Ephesians 4, verse 20-24, where Paul instructed the Ephesian Christ believers.

Ephesians 4:20–24

But you did not learn Christ in this way.

If indeed you heard him and were taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus,

to lay aside in reference to your former conduct the old man,

which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,

and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man,

which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness, holiness, and truth.

The first truth that God, through Paul, wants us to see in this passage is that

as disciples of Christ, we did not learn Christ in the way of our life.

Paul wrote, But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you heard him

and were taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus. this.

There's something about the old way of life that we were saved from that is

attractive and alluring.

Over a week ago, our wonderful friend took our family out fishing on the Wood River.

We discovered something that I had not seen before or neither had our friend

whose boat we were fishing on.

We discovered that the red salmon were actively hunting our lures and biting our lures.

It took a while to get the right lure, but once we did, the reds,

as well as the other fish, were slamming our hooks.

My point with this story is that like a fish being lured in close to the hook by bay or a shiny lure,

A fish may think that there is something strange about that lure,

but it's shiny and the bait smells good, and it's hard for the fish to resist,

and then wham, the fish is caught.

So also believers in Christ can also be lured by the flashiness and attractiveness of sin.

And yet Paul warned the Ephesians that they did not learn Christ in this way.

Paul was telling the Ephesians that they did not learn Christ in the way of

life that they, as former Gentiles, were once enslaved to.

They were now part of God's people and God's family.

They, the Ephesian Christ believers, no longer lived a meaningless life,

that they no longer darkened from the truth of God.

They're no longer living a life alienated from God.

No, Christians learned Christ by hearing him and being taught in him,

just as truth is in Jesus.

It is important that we recognize that the Ephesians Paul was writing to probably

didn't meet Jesus or listen to him teaching.

Yet Paul wrote that if indeed you heard him and were taught in him.

What Paul meant was that although Paul and the other evangelists that taught

the Ephesians the truth of Christ, it was Christ himself that taught the Ephesians

through Paul and the others. and Christ is the truth.

As Jesus proclaimed in John 14, verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the

John 14:6

life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

Without the true, unadulterated truth of Christ, there is no life of God in

us and there's no way to the Father open to us.

It is only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that our old sinful

life has truly died with Christ and has been raised to new life.

Paul in Romans chapter 6 verse

Romans 6:4

4 wrote this Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death So

as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father So we too might

walk in newness of life. According to one commentator regarding believers growing

in Christ. “The point which the apostle emphasized,

however Is that whatever had been their degree of advance in learning they had

they definitely had not learned Christ

as an advocate of sin and selfishness, of lewdness and licentiousness.

No longer were the minds futile, no longer was their understanding dark.”

And this leads us to the ways in which Paul instructed the Ephesians and us

on how to live in the new life that we have been given for Christ.

The first step to living in our new life in Christ is that we are to lay aside the old man.

Lately, I've been slowly going through mine and the boys' clothes,

washing the dirty clothes, and then finding those clothes that are too small

or that we didn't like and do not wear anymore.

When I find those clothes that we don't need or want, I put them aside or I

give them to Ullas’ thrift store.

Or for those clothes who are in bad shape, I've been throwing them in the garbage.

My point with this illustration is that the idea of taking off clothes and getting

rid of them, never to use them again, is what Paul was teaching the Ephesians

in verse 20 of Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

But you did not learn Christ in this way. If indeed you heard and were taught

in him, just as truth is in Jesus, and here it is, to lay aside in reference to your former conduct,

the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.

Not only did Paul teach the Ephesians that they were to remember that which

they were taught and what they heard of in the truth of Jesus through the witnesses that God sent.

Ephesians were also to lay aside their former conduct that belonged to the old man or the old person.

The word that Paul used for lay aside meant to stop a state To take off To stop

oneself being in a state or condition conceived of Divesting oneself of a garment.

And this is why I use the illustration of clothes being taken off and put aside not to be worn again.

What Paul was getting at was that although we have been saved as Christ followers

by Christ, and we've been made spiritually new positionally before God in Christ,

we are also saints or holy ones who sin.

And thus Paul was strongly urging the Ephesians and all Christ believers that

they were to take off like a set of old clothes.

The old sin-controlled man or the old self that they once were before they were

saved by Christ and get rid of that old man, that old person, never to wear again.

I want you to also notice what the old person was characterized by,

by that which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit.

It is important that we recognize what actually is going on inside the old man that we once were.

The reason I say this is because the ways of sin, like I said before,

are extremely alluring and desirable to the unguarded and unaware mind.

The word that Paul used for being corrupted meant to be perverse or depraved,

to be or become actively deviating from what is considered moral, right, proper, or good.

I want you to notice that the old person that Paul refers to here is not just

being corrupted in the past and is no longer corrupt.

Rather, it is continually being corrupted Becoming more and more perverse and

depraved Away from all that is right,

proper, and good It's also essential that we understand That our old man is

being made more and more perverse According to the lusts of deceit These lusts

are evil cravings Or an inordinate self-indulgent craving That displaces proper affections for God.

But I also want you to see that these lusts belong to deceit,

meaning that no matter how beautiful and how desirable these evil cravings appear to be,

they are born out of or they belong to lies or deceit.

Paul was emphasizing that there is nothing good that comes out of going back

and trying to live the old life that we once had before Christ.

As Paul also commanded the Colossians in Colossians 3, verse 8-10.

Colossians 3:8–10

But now you also lay them all aside, wrath, anger, malice, slander,

abusive speech from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another since you, and here it is, put off the old man with

his evil practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full

knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.

How can we apply laying aside the old man to us as Christians?

You see, sin is tricky and deceitful, like its original source, Satan.

Sin can seem so alluring and that it is so good for us to have.

And in our fallen depraved flesh, it is so easy to justify.

The truth is that we haven't fallen short in just one area, although it's enough to condemn us to hell.

But no, the Bible teaches us in Romans 3, verse 23, that all have fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

This is important to point out because, as I said before, we haven't fallen short in just one area.

We have fallen short in every single area and desire.

Isaiah 64, verse 6 stated, For all of us have become like one who is unclean,

Isaiah 64:6

and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment, and all of us wither

like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind carry us away.

It's not just that we cannot save ourselves.

Even as Christ believers, saved by the blood of the Lamb, even our desire to

worship God is tainted and corrupted.

That without constant prayer and surrender to Christ and the Holy Spirit working

in every desire we have, in every decision we make, we are self-focused.

That without God, we cannot even desire God without God's strength and power.

This was Paul's point. This was also Calvin's point when he saw the doctrine

of human depravity in Scripture.

To lay aside the old person, we must continually realize that spiritually our

old life has been crucified on the cross.

Even though in this life our self and sin-tainted flesh desires are not fully

dead yet, we, you and I, must constantly trust and live in the truth that Christ

has spiritually crucified our old self.

In the realm of the Spirit from the perspective of God and trust that Christ

is the one living in us and operating us.

Trust that we no longer belong to ourselves but to Christ.

Trust that Christ is our God and that he loves us so much and that he gave himself for us.

It's only by living moment by moment by faith in the Son of God who loves us

and gave himself up for us that Christ can truly operate us.

Not just our actions or choices, but also our very desires.

Not only will Christ operate us, but he will teach us who he is and how to live

this life surrendered to him.

And this leads to the second step to living in the life of Christ that I want

to bring to your attention.

This next step is that we as Christians are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds.

Over the years here living in Dillingham, I've not had the money to replace

my vehicles or purchase brand new vehicles.

So most of my cars that we have are what is termed here as Dillingham Specials.

Dillingham Specials are vehicles that are fixer-uppers but still drive.

Because I bought Dillingham specials and all except one car and not new vehicles.

My vehicles continue to break down and need parts. However, when I bring my

vehicle to the mechanic and he asked me if I would like a refurbished part or

a brand new part put in, I often go with the brand new part because it usually lasts longer.

Unlike my fixer-upper vehicles, Christ did not remake us into fixer-uppers.

No, Christ made us into entirely new creations, and spiritually in Christ, we are brand new.

The challenge is that while our spiritual position is one of complete newness

in Christ, here on earth, we're still dealing with specials with one major exception.

Our mechanic is God Almighty.

Paul continued on in Ephesians 4, verse 20.

Ephesians 4:20

Or 23 rather, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

I want you to see that Paul was instructing the Ephesians that for believers

in Christ to live in the new life that they've been called to,

they must be renewed in the spirit of their minds.

The question we need to ask is, what does it mean to be renewed in the spirit of your mind?

To answer this question, I would like to show you three words that will cause

us to understand what Paul was teaching.

The word that Paul used for renewed meant to cause something to become new and

different with the implication of becoming superior, to make new, renewal.

Secondly, Paul used the word spirit, which referred to spiritual state,

the state of mind, disposition.

The last word I want you to see is the word for mind, which meant as the sum

total of the whole mental moral state of being as possessed by every person.

Meaning that the spiritual disposition of a

believer's mental and moral being Is to be made new and

different from the way we were before Christ saved us

Paul wrote in Romans chapter 12 verse

Romans 12:1–2

1 through 2 Therefore I exhort you brothers by the mercies of God To present

your bodies as a sacrifice Living and holy and pleasing to God Which is your

spiritual service of worship And here's what I want you to see verse 2 And do

not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.

How? By the renewing of your minds, so that you may prove what the will of God

is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.

It's important to note that the reason for Christians being transformed by the

renewing of their minds is so that we approve of or offer witness to what the

good and perfect and pleasing will of God is as God's will is being worked out in our lives.

As others see us being changed and conformed to Christ's likeness,

they see God's will in action.

What can we learn from this truth of being renewed in the spirit of our minds?

The concept of being changed and made new is not one that is culturally accepted today.

Let us face it, change is hard. It means that we must face parts of ourselves

that we'd rather not face.

You see, God invites us to come as we are to him when we come before him in

repentance, asking for forgiveness.

But once we have been saved by Christ through faith in Christ and we've been

made of the new creation,

God expects us to surrender to his rule over us and let his son and the Holy

Spirit work in our lives so that we become conformed to Christ's likeness.

Change is part of the very fabric of what it means to walk with Christ.

How then can we be renewed in the spirit of our minds?

There are two truths I want to show you about how Scripture teaches the believer

to renew the spirit of their minds.

The first way is to realize that we cannot be renewed in our inner life without

God working in us by His Spirit.

This means that we must be surrendering to Christ and letting him work through

us and drawing on God's grace to think and act rightly.

Paul, who was writing in Romans 8, verse 10-13 about living in the new life

Romans 8:10–13

of Christ, said this, but if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin,

yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.

He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies

through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are under obligation not to the flesh,

but live according to the flesh.

For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.

But if by the Spirit, you are putting to death the practice of the body,

and here it is, you will live.

I want you to see in the Romans 8 passage that Paul wasn't just describing eternal

life that God will give us, and he will,

but the life that we are living now by the Spirit is by the Holy Spirit that

we are able to put to death the practices of the body here and now as we wait for Christ to return.

The second way we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit to renew our minds is by

intentionally and continually setting our minds on Christ.

Paul in Colossians 3, verse 1-2 instructed, Therefore, if you have been raised

Colossians 3:1–2

with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,

seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

This is also an essential step to continually renewing our minds. Thank you.

The word in Colossians chapter 3 set your mind on, meant to concentrate or to

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

direct one's attention and thought to something.

This is important because so often we let our emotions direct how we think,

or we let the circumstances and daily challenges that we deal with to distract

our thinking away from God.

And yet Paul taught that as we surrender to Christ, we are to intentionally

focus our thinking on Christ and on the things of God.

This is not a one-time exercise, but a continual effort to grow more and more

like Christ We may fail at times, but by the grace of God, we repent.

We get back up and follow Christ And one

way to refocus ourselves is to memorize scripture And

then preach to ourselves the truths of scriptures when we're

getting distracted and overwhelmed Sometimes we

must speak quite strongly to ourselves For God's

truth to be heard over the emotional noise and thoughts Baraging our hearts

For it's not only truths on how to behave That we continually remind ourselves

of But also about where our affections and our treasure truly lies In Colossians chapter 3,

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Paul taught that Christ is our life This is reality We belong to him,

body, mind, and soul And yet we also need to remind ourselves of his love for us And that in his love,

we do love Christ Even if our love for Christ is not where it ought to be We

do love Christ And our love can grow as we trust and surrender to Christ's love and obey his word.

Not only are believers in Christ called to put off the old sinful person that

we once were and renew the spirit of our minds,

but we're also commanded by God through Paul that we are to live in the new

life with Christ by putting on the new man.

Paul went on in Ephesians 4, verse 24 to write, And to put on the new man,

Ephesians 4:24

which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

I want you to see something crucial that Paul points out in this verse to the Ephesians.

Christians are called to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has

been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

I say this because with the exception of the biblical counseling,

most counselors, most Christian counselors, teach that all people,

regardless of whether they're being saved or not, are in the image of God.

While it's true that we've originally been made in the likeness of God,

Due to the fall of Adam and Eve, all of humanity has fallen from that original

spiritual likeness of God.

Humanity has become depraved and unable to be right with God without the intervention

of Christ Jesus with his blood atonement on the cross and Christ's glorious resurrection.

Yet, now in Christ, we who have responded to the grace of Almighty God and put

our faith in Christ have now been made into new spiritual creations that had

been remade in full rightness to God and in the holiness of the truth of Christ.

Paul promised in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17

The old things have passed away.

Behold, new things have come.

How can we as Christians live as the new creations God has made us to be?

Along with putting off the old person that is enslaved to sin and renewing our

minds by setting our minds on Christ,

we as Christ believers must also intentionally believe the truth that by Christ

and in Christ we would be made holy and righteous before God.

So much of our emotional mental energy can be spent on attempting to be right

with God and trying to live without sin.

Although we're called to strive for holiness, we can only do so by surrendering

to Christ's love and power within us and trusting in the magnificent that God

has already made us without sin from his perspective.

Oh, what a magnificent truth that is.

In Christ, God the Father now sees us as if we have never sinned before, ever.

And if you're here and you're listening and you are a born again believer in

Christ, I wanna encourage you to believe with your mind and heart and who you

really are in Christ, that you are a new creation made again in the image of

our righteous and holy God.

Yet we also must remember that Paul taught that we have been created in righteousness

and holiness of the truth.

This is not subjective truths where our belief in something makes it true.

May God forbid, never. This is the objective truth from God's word written by

the author and creator of the entire universe himself.

God himself is the big and only truth that truly matters.

And in his word of truth, we have learned that as children of God,

we are holy and righteous. We are new creations.

Believe and trust in God's word and you will trust all the truth contained in God's Word.

The key takeaways from this sermon is that God was teaching us through Paul

is that we did not learn Christ in the way of life that we were once enslaved

to as people of the Satan-controlled world.

God has also taught us three steps or ways in which we can live in the new life of Christ.

The first step is that we as believers in Christ are to lay aside like old clothes

that we'll never use again, our former conduct that belonged to the old person

that we were before we were saved in Christ.

Secondly, the spiritual character of our whole mental, moral beings are to be

continually made new and different,

renewed to be like Christ, as we surrender to Christ's power and keep our minds set on Christ.

Lastly, we're to live in our new life by intentionally believing the sovereign

truth of God's word, that by Christ and in Christ, we have been made into new

creations that are holy and righteous before the living God.

And if you're here today and you have never placed your faith and trust in Jesus

Christ as your only Lord and Savior, or as a result of our living or not living

according to Christ's way,

then I strongly urge you to repent of your sins before God and put your faith

allegiance in Christ Jesus as Yahweh Lord and commit to live life by faith in him always.

You do not have to continue living in the lies of Satan's controlled world.

You do not have to continue to live enslaved to the darkness and not to be able

to understand by the Holy Spirit what God's word is truly teaching.

I'm here to tell you today that you can have this new life that Paul has been teaching us about.

I encourage you strongly.

Trust Christ.

Repent of your sins. Follow him and live in the new life that he has died to buy for you. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this word, your word of truth that teaches us about

you and what you've done for us on the cross.

Help us to live according to your ways by your power and in your truth,

Lord. We praise you. We bless you.

May you work in us. In your precious son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

I'll leave you with this blessing from 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23 to 24.

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.