Ephesians 4:22-32
Put Off and Put On
November 23, 2014
Lynchburg, Virginia
EXHORDIUM
Last week we talked
about your walk. How are you walking? The apostle continues this extended
metaphor in chapter 5. He talks about walking in love, v. 2, walking in the
light, v. 8, walking in wisdom, v. 15. It is clear from this, that he is
contrasting how you used to walk to how you are to walk now, being in Christ.
In
order to walk differently, you have to be a different person. You have to
acquire a new way of walking and the new way must be practiced until it becomes
so much a part of you that you don’t even notice that you have changed. In
fact, the new walk is not habitual into you can walk this way without even
thinking about it.
An
athlete realizes this. He is not an expert until he can do his sport more by
nature than be thinking about the moves. He wants to act and react not think
about how to act or react. When one finally acts out of his new habit, he is
now consistent with his new nature. He may slide back to his old ways but he
can resist that way and stick with his new way which is more successful.
Anyone
who has learned something totally naturally and then schooled in the proper way
to do something, knows how difficult it is to perform the new task. Archery,
golf, shooting.
You
really have to put off the old way and put on the new way. And you have to keep
putting off the old way and keep putting on the new way until the new way
sticks.
Now,
there is a sense in which putting on Christ is supernatural. We really are
filled with His Spirit and enabled to walk in a new way. But the new way is
automatic. The new way must be practiced and repeated until it becomes the
default. Every time the old way creeps in, it must be put off and replaced by
the new way.
Essentially,
this new way is Christ. If so you have heard Him. You put off Adam the first
and take on Adam the second. Since the Apostle warns the Ephesians to walk in
this newness of life, we realize that this is something that we have to
practice to become proficient at it.
EXEGESIS
22 That ye put off
concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts;
Former
conversation- old
way of life in the old Adam. That way is corrupt and cannot be rehabilitated.
That old man has to die. This is what happened on the cross. Adam died and was
born again. He was resurrected and will never die again.
The old humanity passed away that day and the
new humanity began in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Thus, we must repudiate the old man and embrace
the new. If we insist on wearing the old man, we are clothed in zombie clothes.
We insist of living among the tombs.
Corrupt- depraved. It is sown
in corruption it is raised in incorruption.
Deceitful
Lusts-
lusts that deceive. We have desire. That is fine. God put desire in us. But
because of corruption, moral depravity, we long for that which is unlawful. The
unbeliever is given over to this. He longs for that which is unlawful and when
he partakes of it, he is self-deceived believing that which is evil is good.
23 And be renewed in the
spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Renewing of mind is what happens when you put on
the new humanity.
New man is Jesus Christ.
This new man is created in righteousness and
true holiness. This is contrary to the corruption according to deceitful lusts.
The new humanity seeks that which God has given. This is doing right with
holiness. It is not characterized by uncleanness.
Qualification- This does not mean that we become
sinless. Saved saints are still sinners. They commit sins. The difference is
that they are not given over to depravity. They do not continue to spiral down
the path of uncleanness from bad to worse.
Instead, God sets them on a new path with a new
end goal. There trajectory is now sanctification in Jesus Christ. Instead of
going from bad to worse, new men in Jesus Christ recognize their own fallen
nature and continually put on Jesus Christ for repentance and forgiveness. They
agree with Jesus and disagree with worldliness.
So, what is happening with your progression. How
are you walking? Is your walk in Jesus improving? Are you gladly taking His
hand? Or, are you biting at the lead?
Will you heal to the Lord Jesus? Or, will you
resist Him, pulling off the path?
A new man in Jesus Christ is content to figure
out where Christ is going and tread along side cheerfully.
EXHORDIUM
He gives us a list of sins that enable us to
check out whether we really have been birthed into the new humanity. This new
humanity is in Christ, marked by baptism and lived out in the life of the
church.
But we know that we do not partake of the life
of the new humanity automatically by being born into a Christian family or by
being baptized into a Christian Church.
It must be the case that the Holy Spirit makes
each one alive through regeneration unto life. But this ought not cause us to
doubt as to whether or not we really have the Holy Spirit and are secure in our
salvation. We can know.
It has been said that life in Christ is not
about where you are but where you are compared to where you were when you
entered the new humanity.
What is happening to you? Are you growing more
Christlike or not? If you are in Jesus, you will become more like Him. If you
are not in Jesus, but still in the Old Humanity, the first fallen and
unregenerated Adam, that, too, will become apparent over time.
Some of this has to do with fit. Do you fit in
with Jesus? Can you walk the way, the speed, the places that Jesus walks? If so,
you are with Him and learning to conform to Him.
Are you satisfied with God’s people? Do you fit
with them? If not, are they the problem? Or, are you?
What is the answer? Is it to change them? Or, to
comply with Jesus?
What are
some other tests of whether we are really in Jesus, really walking with the
Lord?
See verses 25-32. Don’t lie. Don’t get sin angry. Don’t steal.
Don’t speak in a trashy way. These things grieve the Spirit.
What does it
mean to grieve the Spirit? This means that God is not pleased with those who do such
things. In spite of all His efforts to discipline you to His ways, there is
still resistance and He wonders what it will take to get compliance.
How do we know? Well, are you given over? Are
you past hearing God in the preacher? Are you unwilling to turn from certain
sins? Are you doing your best to tune me out right now because you really don’t
want to start hearing God?
Let me ask more plainly.
Are you a liar? Do you stretch the truth? Is it
sometimes so stretched that it is hardly recognizable? We have a word for that.
A lie.
Are you given to anger? Not just do you get
angry. But do you get angry regularly and justify your anger? Do you get angry
when someone confronts you about your anger? Do you get angry and are still angry
the next day and the next? Do you nurse it and rehearse it?
You see, God’s people do not do that. They get
angry but they get over it quickly. They get angry but when confronted, they
come clean and repent.
Do you steal things?
Do you speak in a filthy way? What about when
you are in a rough group? What about when you are in a private chat room?
25 Wherefore putting
away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of
another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin
not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
Anger gives place to the devil. We should
remember that one. The devil is an angry accuser. Those who practice anger are
acting like the devil. But Jesus’s way is through forgiveness. Even on the
cross, Jesus did not let the sun go down on His anger. Father forgive them, for
they know not what they do.
28 Let him that stole
steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing
which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
The antidote to want is work and generosity.
29 Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of
edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby
ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Do not be an old man in your speech. An old man
in this sense is Adam the first. We might even take Cain as the paradigm of the
first Adam. He was corrupt and fallen and full of blame. He learned this from
his parents and took it to its logical conclusion, the murder of his brother.
How goes your speech? Do
you accuse God of unfairness that your brothers and sisters are more blessed
than you? That God’s favor is better with them than with you? How about your
brothers and sisters in the church? This way of thinking, this kind of bitterness
and wrath is devlish and leads to murder.
The seal of redemption is baptism. Those who are
baptized into Christ ought not to speak like Cain.
31 Let all bitterness,
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you,
with all malice:
EXHORTATION
32 And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake
hath forgiven you.
Kindness, tenderness, forgiveness because God,
for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.
Are you forgiven? Then it should be pretty easy
to forgive others.
Is it super hard for you to forgive others? Then
you should wonder if you are walking in forgiveness. This is an easy test.
