Battle Ready: "Newness Through Truth" Ephesians 4.20-24 Pastor Daniel Reese

Good morning. Do you have your Bible's Ephesians 4 as where we'll be this morning?

I took a philosophy course in seminary and I loved it because everyone just argued because

you never knew what answer was correct, right? Now if you don't know this about me, I can

be somewhat contrarian if the mood hits me just right. And I can, so I might actually

not believe in something, but I can argue as if I do. And it drives people crazy, especially

my wife. It's what also made me really, really good at speech and debate throughout my school

journey. But in my class, the topic of absolute truth came up. And it was amazing to me to

hear so many people not believe that there is an absolute truth. The definition of absolute

truth says that it is whatever is always valid regardless of parameters or context. So a square

always has four equal sides. Not all relationships will lead to marriage. We are all going to

die. The Chicago Bears will not win the Super Bowl this year. Those are all absolute truths.

One can't deny the existence of absolute truth because they are there and when you argue

that they aren't, you come across as foolish. So with that in mind, let's look at our passage

this morning. We're going to read verses 20 through 24. Paul says, but that is not the

way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about Him and we're taught in the Bible,

as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner

of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of

your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness

and holiness. So if you were to scan the rest of this letter, you will notice that Paul

does something different here in verse 21 when he is referring to Jesus. And all the

other references that Paul has made about Jesus in this letter, he refers to Him as

Christ, as Lord, as some combination of those words. But here he just simply refers to

Him by the name given to him at His birth. He doesn't refer to Christ Jesus as Christ

Jesus. He doesn't refer to Him as Lord, it's simply Jesus. I think the point that Paul

is trying to make here is that Jesus is truth. By using the name Jesus, without referring

to Him by the titles of Lord or Christ, Paul is referring to the historical Jesus as God

in the flesh. So when Paul refers to the truth that is in Jesus, he is proclaiming that the

sinless, spotless life that Jesus lived while he was here on this earth is the demonstration

of the truth that resided in him. We tend to think of truth as a concept or truth as

a principle, but the Bible is clear that truth is a person. The truth is Jesus. John says

in his book in chapter one, in the word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we

have seen His glory. Glory is the only son from the Father full of grace and truth.

He goes on a few verses later in 17, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth

came through Jesus Christ. Abraham Lincoln was having a discussion with somebody, and

he asked, how many legs does a cow have? Four, of course, was the answer. That's right, Lincoln

agreed. Now, suppose you call the cows tail a leg. How many legs would the cow have then?

The man answered five confidently. Lincoln said, now that's where you're wrong. Calling

a cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. Now, there's a belief system out there called

omnisum. It's a belief that all, that no religion is truth, but the truth is found in all of

them. So you kind of sprinkle a little bit of Christianity, a little bit of Islam, and

maybe a little dash of whatever makes sense to you, and you call that truth, and you base

your entire eternal destiny on that. You hear things like, Jesus was a good teacher, Jesus

was a prophet, Jesus wasn't born of a virgin, Jesus didn't actually die, and he was born

of a virgin. Jesus didn't actually die, he just fell into a deep sleep. We receive forgiveness

by doing good works and being a good person. Those are things we hear all the time in our

culture because they don't want to believe that Jesus is truth. So what happens a lot of

times is we take Jesus, and we believe some of the things he says about himself, and then

we're on some religious behavior because we have to do something to earn it. Or we have

Jesus, but then our culture says that this particular sin, whatever it is, is now okay

and needs to be accepted, or you don't really love Jesus, and so many people fall for it.

Jesus says in John 14 that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the

Father except through him. But our friend is a universalist, and they're a really good

person, and they have a really good family, and so we begin to believe that we will see

them in heaven one day. We have to come to terms with what absolute truth is, because

John 8 says that if we abide in his word, we will know the truth, and the truth will

set us free. He isn't talking about consuming knowledge. He isn't about doing more Bible

studies. Knowledge isn't going to set you free, because a few verses later in chapter 8, Jesus

said it is the Son that sets you free. The Son is truth. The truth is the only thing that

can set you free. Do you want peace? The truth is the only thing that can set you free. Do

you want to overcome anxiety? You need Jesus. Do you want a better marriage? You need the

truth. Do you want to find healing? You need Jesus. Do you want to overcome that particular

sin that you've been carrying around for years? You need the truth. Do you want to have purpose

in your life? You need Jesus. Now, those two things are not different. They are the same.

Jesus is the truth, and the truth is Jesus. It's an absolute truth. If you've not learned

that today about Christ, hear that today, because as Paul goes through this thing, he even says,

I'm assuming that you have heard it and were taught in him. I didn't want to assume this

morning, because it's very highly probable that you have heard some sort of Christianity

that's not actually accurate. Jesus cannot be as supplemental to what you have going on.

It's not Jesus and a self-help book. It's not Jesus and life recovery. It's not Jesus

and some counseling. It's not Jesus and worship music. It is Jesus and then everything else

is supplemental. If we were to take Jesus out of the equation, in anything we do here, we might

continue to function. We might look somewhat like a church, but there isn't going to be

any purpose behind it. We might be doing what others consider good things, but that's all

it's going to be, good things. Without Jesus, Bible studies are just consuming knowledge.

Without Jesus, our worship service is just singing songs. Without Jesus, praying is just

you talking to yourself, making people think you've lost your mind. Jesus has to be the

focus of everything, because he is the truth. Now, we don't have time to go into great detail,

but in Numbers chapter 21, God tells Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole. Weird, right?

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

It says that if they were ever to be bitten by a serpent, they were to look upon the serpent

on the pole in order to live. Later on in John chapter 3, Jesus says as Moses lifted up the

John 3 · chapter mention

serpent and the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up. And whoever looks up and

believes in Jesus, they will have eternal life. Now, when you get bitten by sin, bitten by

circumstances, bitten by temptation, look up to Jesus. That is the truth. If we look down

and think that the answer is in a book, if we look down and think the answer is in a

relationship, think that the answer is in church attendance, you will not live. Life is in the

truth, which is Jesus. So now that we've stated that, we can now move on, because once you

understand that Jesus is truth, we have to take off our old self. This is not the only place in

his writings that Paul uses the picture of taking something off that we no longer want to

characterize our lives by and to put something new on that is consistent with our new life in

Jesus. In Romans 13, Paul writes, the night is nearly over, the day is almost here, so let us

put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. In Colossians chapter 3, he tells us

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

to put off our old self and put on our new self. Hebrews says it as well, let us let aside

everything that entangles us. Peter says it as well. The word Paul uses here for putting off is

a word that was used to describe runners in the Olympic games who had literally cast off all their

clothes and run nearly naked in the stadium. And what are we to do? We are to cast off, we are to lay

aside everything that corresponds with our former way of life. All the things that Paul has previously

written about in this letter, the feudal thinking, the spiritual ignorance, the hardness of hearts,

the lack of shame, and continual lust for more sin. Now whenever I'm around old friends, especially

from high school, there's always a conversation that goes something like, I can't believe you're a dad.

And then they go into this long list of things that I used to do that I would not want my children

to follow my example in. When I got married and when I began having children, there were some behaviors

that had to stop or Sina would have left me and taken my children with her. I mean it's part of the

growing up process, right? The same is true when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. When we

understand the truth of who he is, when we understand that he is the truth, we have to stop living

the way we used to live. Paul has already spoken about the feudal way of living. Our former self

does not focus on the desires of God. Our former self focuses on our own desires. Jesus points us

out in Matthew 12. He says in verse 43, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes

through waterless places seeking rest but finds none. Then it says, I will return to my house from

which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept and put in order. Then it goes and

brings with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last

state of that person is worse than the first. So also it will be with this evil generation. Jesus

pointed out that it was not enough simply to get rid of the evil spirit. If that evil spirit was not

replaced with something else, it would return with its buddies. It would fill that vacated space and the

final condition would actually be worse than it was before the evil spirit departed. When we lay

aside the old man, when we lay aside the old self, we need to make sure that at the very same time,

we also put on the new self. Otherwise the old man has a way of creeping back into our lives in a

manner that will make our lives even more miserable than they once were. I have a friend many of us

can probably relate to. He stopped smoking but he was struggling with what to do with the time that he

was using, used to using while he was smoking. If he smoked a pack of day, that is about an hour and

a half of time a day that he spent smoking. Over 10 hours a week, over 42 hours a month. That is an

entire day, every single month dedicated to smoking. He stopped smoking but he filled that time that he

used to be smoking with snacking and gained over 50 pounds in a couple of months. That caused a whole

set of other problems for him. So many times we want to take off our old self but we don't replace it with

things that are of God. We don't pursue righteousness. We don't spend it serving others. We spend it on

other desires that we might have. I mean my life is a perfect example of that. My kids like many of you

keep us pretty busy. We get through the gauntlet that is baseball season. So we catch our breath and

we're like, oh this is so nice. And it gets filled with other things pretty quickly. Like plays and

basketball and wrestling. If we do not intentionally fill that void, it will automatically be filled with

something else. When Paul writes that we are to put on a new man, the word he uses for new is a word

that means something that is completely new in quality. Something that is far superior to what

existed before. Now in order to put off our old self, Paul says that we have to renew our minds.

And we will see here in a moment the work of being made new is all God's work. But we need to give him

something to work with. And since the work of renewal occurs in our mind, then it seems pretty clear that

the material that we give God to work with is our thoughts. Let's focus on three specific areas where

we need to focus our thoughts. We have to renew our mind with truth. Now we've already established that

Jesus is truth. But this isn't the only place that Paul has this emphasis on focusing our thoughts on the

truth. Here's what he wrote in another one of his letters. Philippians 4, he writes, finally brothers,

whatever is true. Whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever

is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these

things. Based on what Paul has already written, we could very accurately replace the word truth with

Jesus. And paraphrase the verse something like this, whatever is consistent with Jesus, think about

such things. Whatever is consistent with Jesus, think about such things. We spend so much time worrying

about things that don't really matter in the long run. Our minds are filled with anxious thoughts. We

have temptation running through our heads all the time. And if we don't renew our minds, those things can be

overwhelming. We don't just stop worrying. We have to think about things that are true. It is a never-ending

cycle of replacing thoughts in our head with the truth of who Jesus is. The truth that is found in his

word. So one step in renewing our mind is to fill it with truth. The next step is to think about things

that are eternal. Think about things that are eternal. If I want my mind to be made new, I have to focus

my thoughts on those things that are eternal. I mean that's how Paul could face all the problems and

persecution he was facing. To die is gain is what he said. He understood that there is more to life

than just a little bit of time that we spend here on this earth. He certainly focused on the eternal in

his letter here in the Ephesians. He spent quite a time writing about the spiritual inheritance and

about how one day God through his son Jesus is going to bring everything together and restore it to

its original glory. Jesus certainly taught his followers to focus on the eternal, didn't he? He told

them not to worry about food and clothing. How many of us have been worried about food? The cost of food?

Our grocery bills through the roof. Jesus tells not to worry about it. He exhorted them to lay up

treasure in heaven. He told them not to worry about those who could hurt them physically but rather

to fear those who would destroy their soul. When Paul writes about things above in this passage, he

uses that phrase in a very similar way. He uses the phrase heavenly realms here in Ephesians. As we've

discovered that phrase is used not to describe a physical location but rather to describe those things

that operate in the sphere of influence of God. Paul uses that phrase to distinguish the things above

and from the things of the world. Now, Sina and I have been robbed more times than I can count. We've

had a couple cars stolen. We've had our house robbed a couple times. We've had our cars broken into

and gone through. We've had identity theft and had our bank account drained. Every time that has happened

to us, we're about due for one actually. Every time that's happened to us, there's this strange

piece that I had. I was mad for a moment but then I realized those things don't really matter. We

actually laugh about how often we have been robbed. It's like, oh yeah, I remember that time we were

robbed. I mean, you could even go as far as one time my true story. My truck was broken into and I had

a hard drive on there and I remember at the time maybe eight years worth of sermons. That's all that

was on that hard drive. So maybe, maybe they plugged that thing in and they've experienced the goodness

of the Lord. I don't know. I don't know. But that mindset didn't happen overnight. It was a continual

reminder that the things on this earth don't matter for us. I would have gone crazy if I allowed

myself to dwell on those things. I mean, I would never use my debit card again. I would have had one

of those Tim Allen security systems installed in my house that never functioned correctly. I would be

constantly living in fear of what is going to be taken next. Instead, every time it happened, I'm

reminded, we say it all the time, our treasures in heaven. More importantly, we have to remember that for

our minds to be renewed, God has to do the work. God has to do the work. Although I can provide some

material for God to work with, the work of renewal is not my work. It's God's. When Paul writes,

he's using the word renewal in the spirit of your mind. He's using a passive verb that makes it clear

that I'm not the one doing the renewing. It's not my work. Someone else is doing that work in me. But

even though only God can do the work of renewal, I can either facilitate that process or I can make it

harder. God's not going to force his way into my life for the purpose of renewing my mind. I have to

do the work of renewal as it is to my mind so that he can do the renewing. Now, as we've seen, one day,

one way we do that is to make sure that we put the right stuff in our minds, that we start with

putting the right stuff in our minds. I think the major way we allow God to work is to spend time

with him in prayer. But it has to be the right kind of prayer. Not the kind that views God as some genie

in the sky that we go to in order to ask for a bunch of stuff, but rather the kind of prayer where we

get away from all of our distractions and we allow God to speak to us. Spirit to spirit. Frankly,

the purpose of prayer as we see modeled in the Bible, especially by Jesus, is to allow God to enable

us to see things from his perspective. And when we approach prayer with that attitude, God is able to

renew our minds. All these verses that we've looked at regarding renewing our minds, including our

passage here in Ephesians, are written using present tense verbs. By now, we know that that means that

they indicate continuing action. We don't just renew our minds once and then we're done with it. It's a

continuous action. The process of allowing God to renew my mind is one that will never be completed

in my lifetime here on this earth. So I have to stick with it day after day. That's why everybody gets

saved at youth camp on Thursday night. Because they haven't spent the rest of the year renewing their

mind day after day. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you've submitted to him as Lord and

Savior, then God's work in you has already rescued you from your former way. But day by day, you're

being formed into the image of God. The question for us this morning is, are you willing and ready to put

off your old self and allow God to renew our minds? Are you willing to lay aside your former self and

allow God to renew our minds? Now, when I say former self, you have an idea of what that looks like.

And for each and every one of us, it's probably different. When you hear this passage, when you read this

passage and you see that phrase, former self, that we need to lay that aside, you know what that is for

you. Are you willing to lay that aside? And not just lay it aside and stop doing it, but are you willing to allow

God to renew your mind by filling it with something more valuable? I can't answer that question for you.

So I'll let you wrestle with that. Let's pray. Father God, I pray that as we prepare our hearts for

communion, that you will reveal to us what we need to put aside. And then, Father, I ask that you will help us

walk in obedience. Help us not be a time where we just stop doing certain things because we know it's not right,

but help us also fill that void in our hearts. I pray, Father, that you will renew our minds, that you will speak to us

right here in this place, spirit to spirit, so that we will be made new. I pray God that as we take communion,

your spirit will just move freely in this place. I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.