New Life New Living (Eph 4:17-24)

New Life, New Living: Ephesians 4:17-24 Pray & Intro: I want you to picture yourself going to your new job six months after having been released from prison, still wearing your orange jumpsuit.  You have become something new. Live accordingly. (Donning) A brand new set of clothes for a brand new man.  (Our passage is about) The way we lived apart from Christ versus the way we are to live in Christ. Having become sons, citizens, and soldiers of the Most High; now we must live accordingly. The difference in us should be as clear as night and day. Read Passage to Explain & Apply: I. What we have here is Paul’s depiction of a stark contrast, the before and after of being made new in Christ.  The difference should be night and day. A. Vv. 17-19 detail the mindset and spiraling immoral behavior accompanying rejection of God’s truth. Paul follows that in vv. 20-24 with imagery of school instruction (in Jesus) and clean new clothing appropriate for a new man to contrast the foolish thinking and utter impurity of life apart from Christ. B. To be perfectly clear, Paul isn’t here trying to make you feel good about yourself. It’s not, “Apart from Jesus, people are a mess. Thankfully, you no longer have that problem!” C. Live a life consistent with the character of the new man, after the likeness of God in which you have been created.  Don't go back to the patterns of thinking and behavior from your former way of life. [Ninja turtles shouldn’t behave like normal turtles.] D. (Notice this one more important thing before we tackle each part) The life of the mind, one's way of thinking, takes a paramount emphasis in this passage. Behavior follows patterns of thinking. (mind & heart – emotion, decisions of the will, etc.) II. Before A. Again, Paul doesn’t paint the dark picture of “Gentile living” to poke fun at it so we can point fingers… but to remind believers that that is not what they ARE any longer, so they must see the lifestyle for what it is and flee that darkness to walk in the light. (to let the light in… to expose the deeds of darkness)  “I testify” (solemn and strident assertion of grave and important matters) “that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.” B. What’s the problem with the “Gentile” walk? 1. Futility of mind – worshipping anything (idol) instead of the one true God; all human endeavor to find lasting satisfaction [see select verses in Ecc.] – oppr. Ps. 9:9 & 34:18  Compared to knowing and loving God, everything else is a sad trinket and a worthless rabbit trail. 2. Listen to the unadorned portrait of such futile thinking: darkened, alienated, ignorant, hard-hearted.  Rom. 1:21 – Groping about in the shadows by the light of the moon.  Not only blind in their understanding, but separated from the life of God (dead, 2:1&5) – THROUGH ignorance that is in them which is through hardness of heart. 3. Instead of an obedient and grateful response to God with our whole being, we obstinately reject His truth. The result is culpable ignorance. – In our text what follows is a subordinate clause, indicating that this ignorance is indeed due to hardness of heart. (as we read in Rom. 1:21) 4. The next consequence is like the rabid dog let out of its cage. (v. 19) – The unregenerate life of the mind is futile and leads to unrestrained immoral behavior (contrary to the character of God). – Obstinate rejection of God’s truth leads to a downward spiral of moral depravity.  Romans 1 describes God giving humanity over to our own unnatural desires and vices because we rejected his revelation of himself. 5. The futile, darkened, alienated, willfully ignorant, hard-hearted way of thinking leads to a loss of sensitivity to feel the shame that should accompany such deeds (callous).  No feeling = no restraint – such that licentiousness becomes the core engine of living, driving us to practice every sort of impurity with a greedy lust for more! – (Is Paul exaggerating?) That every single person doesn’t necessarily reach such extremes is due only to the common grace of God and him restraining by His Spirit. III. After (But that isn’t the way you learned Christ!) A. Having learned Christ – Receiving Jesus as Lord also means welcoming his teaching and his way of life—the values and practices that are so different from what you had known. Therefore "the truth" that is "in Jesus" is completely the opposite of the lifestyle described in vv. 17-19. – Col. 2:6-7 says it this way. B. Class is in session (in vv. 20-24). (learned, heard, taught – school instruction terminology) – We have been rescued and made sons of God, but we are yet children, having been re-created, we must also be re-educated in the life of Christ. 1. We need instruction on what to put off (put to death, Col.) and what to put on (how to live in his life, the truth that is in Jesus) b/c of the real danger of going back to the former manner of life with it’s alluring desires, even though they are corrupted and deluded. (22b) 2. We must keep being renewed (made new) in our pattern of thinking. (It’s a continual process, with God as the active agent. – The imperative action for us is yielding to God, as in Rom. 12:2 as well) – (Or 2:10 here) Let your mind be renewed in order that you may do the good works that you have been given to do. (As opposed to the way that worldly thinking has the opposite effect on our behavior... And leads to a stark dishonoring of God.) 3. The Christian’s conundrum is being made new but not made perfect (yet). What has been accomplished already for us positionally we must seek to pursue practically in obedient love. – And although righteousness and holiness are God’s work too, the implication is still to behave consistently with one’s new status in Christ. 4. So we fling off the old man and don the new. – created after the likeness of God, our new Father, in righteousness (lifestyle conforming to God’s justice, law, morality) and holiness (being personally dedicated to God—set apart, morally pure, and devoted to Him) of the truth (is Christ and in Christ)  What Paul means then is that we should conduct our lives in a manner consistent with the transformational change God has effected. – See 5:1  The Bible asks the hard question: Do those who behave godlessly really know God? – How does your life radically demonstrate the radical change that has taken place? [connect dots from earlier & later in Eph.] 5. Again, the sharp contrast is between moral degradation due to futile minds versus behavior that exhibits the righteousness and holiness of God due to continually renewed minds. IV. So What? A. How are you investing in letting God renew your mind? Letting God change your patterns of thinking? (Well, you’re here, so let me shake your hand for that good step.)  The converse is also true. Backtrack your actions to your pattern of thinking. B. God's expectation for his people has always been that they walk differently from the godless nations surrounding them. – But now there is only one division in humanity. It’s not race, ethnicity, nationality, or anything else so superficial. It is simply this: There are those who have been made new in Christ and are citizens of heaven, and there are those who remain separated from God in willful ignorance, living under the influence of sin and Satan.  Which are you? Walk accordingly. And work together. Ps. 9:9 The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed,     a stronghold in times of trouble. Ps. 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted     and saves the crushed in spirit. Rom. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Col. 2:6-7 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Rom. 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.