The Issue of a Relationship with God

Transcript

GR 2326
October 10, 2021
The Issue of a Relationship with God
Ephesians 4:17-24
Gil Rugh


We're going to Ephesians 4 in your Bibles. We really came to a new section. Last time we overviewed again just as a reminder primarily the first three chapters. The first three chapters focus on the doctrine of teaching that is foundational to our practice. You can't disassociate them; you can't just have practice because that's what we do. It has to be practice that is based on our doctrine, on the teaching of the Word of God. And that's what the first three chapters of Ephesians do, doesn't mean there is no practical emphasis there, but it is primarily a doctrinal presentation of who and what we are in Christ as a result of God's work of grace in our lives. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 apply that doctrine and naturally there will be references to the doctrine. For example when chapter 4 opens up we are told to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. Well the walk has to do with our conduct and we noted that expression to walk is used twice in chapter 2. But he doesn't elaborate on what that walk ought to look like. Again he focuses in the first three chapters on the foundation for that walk, now he can tell us to walk in a manner worthy through the first 16 verses of chapter 4, after the first three verses where he talked about the general characteristics of that walk. Verse 2, “be with humility, gentleness, patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.” In other words we are to be patient with one another, we are to understand we are at different stages in our growth, in our walk with the Lord. So we want to be “patient with one another, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And then he went on to summarize and elaborate a little bit that there is one body, one spirit, one, one, one, one . . . So we are joined together spiritually to our common faith in Jesus Christ, faith that recognizes that He had died for us, we trusted Him, what He accomplished in His death and then subsequent resurrection. And God gave gifts to the body, beginning in Ephesians 4:11, so that the body could function together in accomplishing the purposes and work of God in these days in the world in which we live.

And as a result, verse 14, “we are no longer to be children.” Now when we are newborn babes in Christ that's one thing, but we are to be growing. It has been five or six years since Paul has been at Corinth, recorded in Acts 19, the years have gone by. There has been maturity that has taken place. Well, we are no longer to act as children and that means we have a stability and we are growing up to Him. Again, in love, verse 15, “we are speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” We are to be becoming more like Him, He is being produced in and through us. And he is going to elaborate, verse 17, “So this I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind.” So he picks up on that emphasis on walk that he started out with in Ephesians 4:1. “Therefore I,” verse 1, “the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” And he summarized and pulled together the unity we have in Christ, even with the diversity that is there because we are at different levels of maturity. But now he is back to that walk, the walk is now the negative. There are things that are not to be part of our conduct. The walk is another expression to describe the conduct we have as believers—our daily conduct, it's like a walk, one step after another. So our conduct together as believers is what he is talking about. We walk in verse 1, “in a manner worthy of the calling,” and that really encompassed the first three chapters as we have it in our Bibles. Now he is going to, in verse 17, go into the details that will take us really through the rest of the letter and some concluding remarks about what is to characterize us as believers. And he's going to talk about those things that should not be part of our lives any longer, that were a real part of our lives at one time. And we want to have these fixed in our minds because we have a unity, a oneness that he again he elaborated in Ephesians 4:4, “there is one body, one spirit, you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all, in all, through all.” But there is diversity within the body and then he went on to talk about the gifts. But there are things that are to not have any place any longer, they characterized us in our old life. And there is a dramatic contrast in what we were until God intervened in His grace. Now some of you have been privileged to be raised in a Christian home, some of you have trusted Christ at a younger age, some even though they are raised in a Christian home don't get saved until they are adults, maybe later, maybe never. But there is the change that is to take place if you are truly a believer.

So verse 17 picks up, “So this I say and affirm together with the Lord.” So Paul says it and he has the authority as an apostle as he began in Ephesians 1:1, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” So I am one who acts as God's spokesman and I am affirming together with the Lord. What I am saying is not my ideas, my thoughts. We have to be careful in this. We allow the church to become the authority. The church has authority but it is based in the Word, it comes out of the Word. A major difference between evangelical Protestantism and Roman Catholicism where the church and the magisterium of the church, the doctrinal head of the church determines the doctrine. And some of it is biblical, some of it is not biblical but it is all binding. But for us as evangelical Protestants we understand that the authority comes from the Word of God and so that's why we study the Word of God, to find out what God says. “This I say and affirm together with the Lord.” It is God speaking through Paul to us. I don't have authority apart from the Word of God. Paul is going to bring the Word of God and add to the Old Testament Scriptures, for example, because he is an apostle. But with the completion of the New Testament we are constantly driven back to the Word of God, to the Word of God. We do things, we meet at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning, the Bible doesn't address the time. It does tell us we are to meet together and not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, as the book of Hebrews tells us. But the basic doctrinal framework and foundation is what is in the Scripture. And the others, there is give and take and we want to recognize that and appreciate that.

“This I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer.” Now verse 1 said that you walk in a manner worthy; in Ephesians 2:1, the beginning of verse 2, “in which you formerly walked.” But now in Ephesians 2:10, “we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” So the way you used to walk and the way that you now walk is totally different, the way you conduct yourself, the way you live, the focal point of your life. There are things the same—we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner; we go to our jobs; we do certain things that may be the same. But the driving force behind it all is now the work of the Spirit of God in our lives that brings us into conformity with the Word of God. So when Paul says in Ephesians 4:17, “You walk no longer,” you conduct your life now not the way you used to. There is a total readjusting as the Gentiles also walk. The church at Ephesus is primarily comprised of Gentiles. There may be some Jews in it but it is primarily a Gentile church. But there are three groups now—there are Gentiles, there are Jews, and then there are saved people who are part of the body of Christ called the church. That was in Ephesians 2:11. Remember Ephesians 2:11? “Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, were called the uncircumcision by the circumcision. The uncircumcised Gentile males were called the uncircumcised people by the Jews because they were circumcised. But they had made that physical act of circumcision for Jews, and any Gentiles that converted to Judaism, the key thing. Like Protestants, they want to get their babies baptized and they want to get adults baptized because that is what makes them part. No, first there has to be a change of heart. Now for circumcision, it happened in eight days but the goal was that the heart would be changed and circumcised as well as the physical body. So in Ephesians 2:11, you formerly were the Gentiles in the flesh. Now we are talking about Gentiles in the Spirit and Jews in the Spirit. And they have been united, and that was in Ephesians 2:11, that we have become one body together. So now there are three entities—unsaved Jews, unsaved Gentiles, and saved Jews and Gentiles who comprise the church of Jesus Christ. God, after the rapture of the church, will resume His program in bringing Israel as a nation to Himself. But right now it's Jew and Gentile. It doesn't really matter what your national background is. When you place your faith in Christ as your Savior, your only Savior, your only hope for eternity, then you become part of the church.

So back in Ephesians 4:17, “I say this and affirm it with the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk,” the Gentiles in the flesh, the unsaved Gentiles, because he is writing primarily to Gentiles. At the end of chapter 2 he talked about how the Jews and Gentiles, their distinction has been nullified so to speak in that they are both now part of the body of Christ. But the Gentiles in the flesh that primarily make up the church at Ephesus, you don't want to walk, you don't want to live your life the way they live it. Now you note, what happens to the church of Jesus Christ over time is that the pressure builds for the church to conform to the world, so more and more we think we want to be more like the world. Now I'm from Pennsylvania and we have Amish country there, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and they dress differently, and they ride their buggies and so on. We're not talking about those kinds of just purely external things; we're talking about the spiritual transformation that God has made in a heart. So the Gentiles walk, unsaved Gentiles walk and live their lives differently than we are to live. You walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk. So we are different, God intends us to be different. Now not in the way you dress, although there will be restrictions there perhaps, but generally we eat the same food and wear the same clothes and so on. But the motivation of our heart and the conduct of our lives and the things we do and don't do are to be different, and the things that the Word of God describes as sinful are now out of bounds.

“They walk in the futility of their mind.” They are living a different life; the unbeliever is living a different life. So while we may work the same job or live in the same neighborhood, we are on two different tracks, we have two different motivations driving us. And the goal of Scripture is not to get the unbeliever to live like the believer. We want to be careful here because we get into conservative and liberal politics and we find well, in our country conservative may be more biblical and pretty soon we are merging the two. The line of distinction in Scripture is between one who is a believer in Jesus Christ and one who is not a believer in Jesus Christ. You can attend this church, but unless you are truly a believer in Jesus Christ you won't have the same inner motivation. So we don't want to walk any longer as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind.

Come over to 1 Peter 4:3, “In all this they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of dissipation and they malign you.” In other words I am not going to do the same thing, I don't live the same lifestyle, I don't indulge in the same things the unbeliever indulges in. And pretty soon then that becomes a negative for them. “They malign you, but they will give,” verse 5, “an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” And then on to explain the transformation that God has brought about. 1 Peter 4:1, while you are here, “Therefore since Christ has suffered in the flesh arm yourself with the same purpose that he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lust of men but for the will of God. The time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles.” And the church is primarily Gentile, that initial phase where it began in Acts 2, but it progressively becomes Gentile. And that is true with the passing of time. So there is to be a difference and we recognize that. We may wear the same clothes, we may go to the same job, but there is a different driving motivation that draws the line for us between what is acceptable and unacceptable.

Back in Ephesians 2:11, “Remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, were called the uncircumcision by the circumcision.” The Jews looked down on the Gentiles, unless you are going to convert to Judaism, you have no relationship with God. But in the church God is joining Jew and Gentile together, that's the only two groups because no matter what your background is you are a Gentile or a Jew. But now God is doing something new in the church, He has joined Jew and Gentile together into one body. So Ephesians 2:15, “By abolishing in His flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.” So we become one. So with our differences we have a oneness. We may like different food, we may dress a little differently, those things are no relevant. And the Mosaic Law is not relevant; we learn from it but it is not in force any longer. And later in Romans and also in Galatians Paul talks about that.

Come back to Ephesians 4. “So we walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind.” This is why it is different. The Jew and the Gentile, the Gentile in the flesh is walking in the futility of his mind—the emptiness, that which does not produce any lasting eternal results that are conformed to the will of God. The futility of their mind. We're going to go back to Romans 1 and we're going to not come back here for every time it would be a reference, but we're going to look at Romans 1, just overview, because that really is the basis of what he is saying to the Ephesians in Ephesians 4. He talks in verse 18 about “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” So that's the Gentile life. They suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And God has made Himself known through the creation, the creation reveals something of the order of God. Verse 20, “Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood by what has been made.” So they are without excuse, they are without excuse. There is no excuse for the Gentile anywhere. It just reveals the sinfulness of the human heart and the rebellion and rejection of God that I will not have it that way. “Even though,” verse 21, “they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. They became futile in their speculations.” And that same basic word, the futility of their mind, is what we have in Ephesians 4:17, the futility of their mind, the emptiness of their mind. They are without excuse. “Their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise they became fools.” Now note here the order, it is important. “They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of corruptible man.” They still are going to worship, but they are going to worship a God of their own creation. So verse 24, “God gave them over.” They exchanged the glory of God and revelation He had made known so God gave them over. Verse 25, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” That means they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, so verse 26, “For this reason God gave them over.” Then they exchanged the proper use of a male and a female, the women went with women, the men with men, so verse 28, “They did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. God gave them over to a depraved mind.” So three times—verse 23, they exchanged; verse 25, they exchanged; verse 26, the middle of the verse, the women exchanged; and the men in verse 27. And as a result—verse 24, God gave them over; verse 26, God gave them over; verse 28, they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over. So there the order is established that man is sinful from birth and with the passing of time he becomes progressively more overt in his rejection of God. And we see it in our society. Now we want to be careful, those that are more conservative, they say we want to . . . But really we are not changing anything that really matters. The matter is the condition of the heart. So the conservative, the Jew would agree that many of these things are wrong but they are no closer to God in their behavior and in their worship than the Gentile who is unsaved. But he is primarily dealing with the Gentiles here and we see it. We turn on television, male and female, and now you have male and male and female and female and everybody and they are nice people and good people and we don't want to be out of step and out of . . . So we don't want to imply that we don't accept that. It is sin, it is wrong, it is contrary to the will and revealed plan of God. In the beginning He made them male and female. Jesus, when He was asked about marriage, what don't you understand? God made them in the beginning male and female. That is God's plan. Now through the Old Testament, doesn't change the original plan of God is His plan. So the dissolution of God's plan hasn't changed His plan, it just changed the way men react to His plan.

So while you are still in Romans 1, “God gave them over,” verse 28, “to a depraved mind to do the things which are not proper. They are filled with unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And they know the ordinance of God,” God holds them accountable. They have rejected the revelation that is clear in creation, but they reject it. And those who practice such things are worthy of death, God has made that clear. And they are going to die. I was reading in the news, the wealthiest people in our country, but they are all going to die. Doesn't matter if you have billions, or you have thousands, or you have hundreds, or you just don't have anything worth counting. But the wages of sin is death and you are going to die and you are going to give an account to God. And there are a variety of religions and religious systems and all those that permeate the world, but God says there is no excuse. Even creation reveals that there is a God of order, a God who is to be worshiped, a God to be honored, but He has been rejected. So they replace the worship of Him. Because the devil is behind all the false worship that goes on in the world and he seeks the worship of the creation. Well, they worship, they don't do what we do, but at least they worship. That doesn't bring them any closer to God.

Come back to Ephesians 4:17, “Just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind.” It's an empty mind, it is a mind that is not only devoid of God, it is against God, it is opposed to God. They walk in the futility of their mind. Now we are to walk differently, we are to no longer walk in that way. And then he goes on to explain something of that walk. It is a darkened walk, a walk that has no light, light of the truth of God, the Word of God does not inform them. And that includes Protestants, that includes Catholics. I lump them together because unbelieving, they include the Word of God but they corrupt it. It's like the Jews, they had the Old Testament but they corrupted it and they made the form, that's what makes me acceptable. And that's where the average Protestant is, the average Roman Catholic is. They have corrupted the Word of God. So they still refer to the Word of God, it's like the Jews. They would agree; certain things, oh yes those are wrong, those are wrong and we don't do them. But they didn't have the changed heart. Circumcision, that gets me in; baptism, that gets me in. No, it doesn't, it just becomes an empty religious ritual unless it is a reflection of what is ultimately changing of the heart. So they are darkened in their understanding. What can you say? They live in moral darkness, they don't understand the truth of God, they don't understand the basic revelation that God has given in His creation. So we want to be careful that we don't become aligned with the “conservative political positions” because they are not coming from the root foundational matter. They are like the Jews who had the Word of God, they could quote from it, but by and large, now I'm not saying that there are no Christians in political office, there obviously are and we are glad for that and they can play a role. And it doesn't matter if I will or I won't vote, depending on certain convictions that those I vote for or don't vote for hold. But they are living in a fallen world and I am living in a fallen world, so I understand that. I don't want to draw that into the church and this is what the church is about because we are here, we're there. They are not coming from where we are coming from. So they are darkened in their understanding.

“They are excluded from the life of God.” This is getting serious. They are alienated, they are cut off from the life of God. That's the dividing line, that's the major issue in the Word of God. Do you have a relationship with the living God or do you not? Not, do you have a relationship with your church, do you believe what your church believes. It is do you have a living, vital relationship with God. Then being part of a church that believes the Word of God, that teaches the Word of God, that the gifts are functioning, that's all part of God's plan. But you can attend that church, act in different ways in that church, but unless God has changed the heart there is nothing going on that really matters for eternity. “Excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.” That's a strong statement. The ignorance that is in them, they are devoid of the knowledge of God. That's the foundational issue. Do you know God or don't you? Not, do you attend Indian Hills or do you attend another church. Do you know the living God? They are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their heart. And they go together. We saw in Romans, that's why we took the time to look in Romans where the order is established. But here it is established, they are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because they don't know Him. So they don't know Him, they don't know of His life. So they have their own religious convictions, their own religious beliefs. But it's because of the hardness of their heart. That's back to Romans 1—they exchanged what God said was truth for what they chose to believe, therefore God gave them over. Here it is the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart.

Come over to John 12:37, “Though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah,” verse 38, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason they could not believe for Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes, He has hardened their heart so they would not see with their eyes, perceive with their heart and be converted and I heal them. These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory and spoke of Him. Nevertheless many of the rulers did believe in Him.” So here again are the two factors—the hardness of the heart and the action of God. In Romans 1 it is pointed out because of man's persistence in rejecting God, God has rejected man. Now He chooses to sovereignly, and we get this in Ephesians 1 where God sovereignly acted and in Ephesians 2 he explained that even further. So the work of God in bringing about salvation is the work of God. Man left to his own continues in his rebellion and in his rejection of God.

Come to Romans 11:7, we did Romans 1. “What then? What Israel is seeking it has not obtained, but those who are chosen obtained it. The rest were hardened. Just as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not, ears to hear not down to this very day.” Verse 10, David, “Let their eyes be darkened to see not and bend their backs forever.” But Israel as a nation has a future and God will intervene. Verse 25, “I do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, of this mystery, that you will not be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” We live in a day of Gentile salvation, primarily here at this church and the churches of this city and around the world, primarily it is Gentiles with a few Jews being saved. But there is coming a time, after the rapture of the church, where God will resume the focus on the nation Israel and there will be some Gentiles saved but it is primarily God bringing to completion what He has promised in the nation Israel.

So back to Ephesians 4, “Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.” Of course they are ignorant, they don't know the truth. And that's because their heart is hardened. The little bit of truth, comparatively, coming through creation compared to the magnificent truth through the Word of God, but they are ignorant of it all. So they just put their faith in the church that they go to, and I have my beliefs and you have your beliefs. Yes, that's true, but it is only the belief that is founded in the Word of God, based upon God's Word, placed in the finished work of Christ on the cross that brings salvation to a heart. You can be raised in this church, you could have parents and grandparents that came to this church, and you could die and go to an eternal hell. But I conform and I do this, and I do that. Yes, and the Jews did a lot of things that the Gentiles didn't do and vice versa. And the Gentiles in that sense didn't do a lot of what God required, but that didn't bring them any closer to God in the ultimate sense with the word of salvation.

So “because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart they have become callous.” There is like in your hand in certain places, if you do a certain amount of work (I don't get too many callouses, but picking up books I get a few). But you don't get the callouses. But if you do work and you use certain shovels and picks, then you develop callouses. And that's the picture here. Because of the hardness of their heart they have become callous, it has become a condition of no feeling, no sensitivity. So you can stick a pin in that callous and you don't feel it, you don't notice it. And that is what happens spiritually to people because they reject the revelation of God, they become hardened in their heart, they have become callous.

So it is their own fault, their own condition, their own action because they “have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” Sensuality, impurity, greediness, there is a sexual tinge, if I could say it that way, to these words. But then they go beyond that. One of the commentaries noted that word sensuality, it is primarily used of the desire to perform unrestrained desires. So sensuality is in the sexual area, but it comes to other areas as well. It is conducting yourself without regard to God, what He thinks, what He says. And you can see that in the world. I have my beliefs but those beliefs now include men with men, women with women sexually, but they include all other kinds of corruption as well. The practice of impurity, their whole personality is colored by this, tainted by this. Every kind of impurity. They practice impurity with greediness, whatever they want. So we see in our society, and we see more and more of it, which started out, you had certain conformity to the Word of God, even if it was external. The Word of God had a certain authority, but with the passing of time, now people don't even . . . I can remember, being at an advanced age, when even some of our senators would quote the Word of God, speak of the Apostle Paul. But nowadays it is just not something appropriate, even though most of them would be religious in one way or another. Some of them aren't but most of them would still be Roman Catholic or some form of Protestantism, but they are basically selfish people. My desires. One commentator I referred to said these three words describe unsaved people who are totally consumed with themselves. And that's what these three words do—sensuality, impurity, greediness. Basically it revolves around me, and that's how I sort of select what I want to believe and what church I want to go to, what religion I want to have. It's what fits with my beliefs. Wait a minute, are my beliefs focused in the Word of God, based in the truth of God? The practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Look at verse 20, just pull these together. “But you did not learn Christ in this way.” That's not the way you learned Christ, it's not just you learned about Christ, you didn't learn Christ. It is a vital personal relationship. It's just not having information about Him, it is having a relationship with Him, that you know because of the relationship you have. And the ministry of the truth becomes a real truth. The Word of God is alive and powerful in your heart. It is not just a book that I read and I try to conform to certain things, it is a reality of my heart and my life. “You did not learn Christ in this way.” Not just learn about Christ, you didn't learn Christ because when I placed my faith in Him I became a new creature. Old things passed away, new things came. I became a child of God. There is birth that takes place, Jesus said you must be born again or you'll never see the kingdom. He told this to Nicodemus, the teacher in Israel. You know a lot about the Word of God but you don't know the God who gave the Word, you don't have that personal relationship, that reality.

“That in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self,” literally the old man, what you were. You have heard, verse 21, “you have heard Him, you have been taught in Him just as truth is in Jesus,” and you'll note he moves from Christ to Jesus in most because of the uniqueness of the expression here, not the Lord Jesus, just the word Jesus. It stands out. And when God became man and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, that's where now truth is. It is in Him, the person of that One who walked this earth, who went to the cross, who was raised after three days from the dead. Truth is in Jesus. You have been taught in Him, you know Him. “That in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self.” So now I have learned something new, I have something new. The old man, the old me is gone. That's it, it is gone. “Your former manner of life you lay aside the old man,” the old self, “which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit.” I mean, that's strong, that's where the old man is. That's where now I can't live just like a Gentile lives, just like a Jew lives dealing with the Gentile church at Ephesus. I'm living this new life. Ephesus is in Asia Minor. You get the point. We are living as Gentiles but not as Gentiles, we are living as new creatures in Christ.

Back up to Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old self,” there is our expression, our old man, same expression as we have in Ephesians 4:22, the old self, the old man. “That our old man was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” So the old me died with Christ, so now its power, its authority over me has been broken. “For he who has died is freed from sin,” from its control. That doesn't mean it doesn't appeal to me, it doesn't mean that it doesn't try to assert itself. But I never have to give in to it again. “If we have died with Christ we believe we also live with Him,” verse 8. And he goes on. So Romans 6:11, “So consider yourselves to be dead to sin. Therefore,” verse 12, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts.” Verse 13, “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin. Present yourselves to God as alive from the dead.”

So back to Ephesians 4. “In reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old self,” the old man. You take him off like old clothes, you don't need him anymore, you are not living there anymore. It “is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit.” Come over to Colossians, it was written about the same time. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, those three letters along with Philemon were written from Paul's first imprisonment at the end of the book of Acts. In Colossians 3:9, “Do not lie to one another. Since you laid aside the old self,” the old man, there is our expression again, “with its evil practices, you've put on the new man,” the new self, the new one, “which is being renewed according to a true knowledge, according to the image of the one who created him.” So verse 12, “So those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another just as the Lord forgave you.” That's similar to what we had in Ephesians 4:2-3. Come back to Ephesians 4, you have put aside the old man when you identified with Christ in His death and in His resurrection. You are renewed in the spirit of your mind. And this is ongoing. Verses 22 and 24 are in the aorist tense, they are aorist infinitives. Some of you are taking Greek. And that's basically the past tense, something that we did. We laid aside the old self and in verse 24 we put on the new self. And then in verse 23 there is a present infinitive, this is ongoing—we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind. So this is something going on mentally, this is where it is being made new in Christ. So I have a new mind, I can think newly, in new ways. It's not I have to . . . Now there is an awareness because the old hasn't disappeared, so there are attractions. But I no longer have to go there. Now this is where we want to be careful when we identify politically with conservatives, that's different than spiritually identifying with conservative Bible believing because the gamut of the Gentile, what we're talking about, they all come from the same place. Now some of them are more close to being biblical than others, but we want to be careful we don't . . . Because the Bible is concerned with the root foundational issue—the old man and the new man, verse 24. “And you have put on the new man which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. And until we have the old replaced with the new, we're just adjusting in the realm of what is the old. I want to be careful that I don't become so infatuated and taken up with those, well, they are not believers but they are closer to where we are. Well in superficial ways. But when you get to the biblical perspective, they are not any closer to us than . . . We're back to the Jews, the Jews would agree that a man with a man and a woman with a woman is unbiblical. But that doesn't make them any closer to God than the unbelieving Gentile. So we want to be careful that we don't get so politically entwined, and again we're going to be choosing between unbelievers basically when we vote, I want to vote consistently if I do vote, and that's a personal matter. But then I'll vote for the one I think is closer to where we are. But you'll find Paul, he is supportive of whoever is in power; Peter is the same, he supports whoever is in power. You don't agree with them on everything, but we don't expect to agree with the unbeliever on anything because we come from different foundations. We have the old man and the new man, that's the basic distinction. Why are you where you are? Because I'm a new man in Christ and as a new man . . . Well, set that aside, we don't want to get into religious things here, just politically would you rather have this or this? Well, I can't get into that. There are certain things that we would say we are more in agreement, but basically the foundational issue of a relationship with God and where you are going to spend eternity is settled on one issue. “He that has the Son has life, he that does not have the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” John 3:36. It's the reality of it. So we want to be careful we don't become more comfortable in this world. I'm glad for those when we have political agreement, but basically the New Testament is apolitical because it is just dealing with do you have a relationship with Christ or do you not. Since we who have placed our faith in Christ and Him alone for our salvation, are now growing, the Word of God is our food, we see ourselves being brought into conformity with the Word, and we'll have differences. But the unity we have supersedes everything. And that is foundational.

So we are back to our walk, how are we going to walk? Are we going to walk conformed to the character of our Savior and the Word He has given? Or are we going to walk according to this world? Paul says if you have truly been made new, you walk no longer as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. So we are in a great position, but we're in an awkward position. We are here representing the living God. We see the diversity of views around us and in that sense Paul would have more agreement with his Jewish relatives, but he speaks to them as well as to the Gentiles because the basic issue, and we don't want this to become blurred, is your relationship with Christ. When you have been made a new man, then you put off the old man. That's going to mean we live out of step with the world in general, but we're fine with that because that's what God has called us to do and to be. So verse 25 we'll pick up, “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor.” And we want to do that.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word, thank You for the presence of Your Spirit in the life of every believer who takes this Word, makes it real, makes it alive, makes it powerful. Our desire is that our lives would be more and more conformed to this Word, more and more conformed to the life of the Savior that we love and serve. May our service be strong, clear and pure in these days. We pray in Christ's name, amen.