Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Paul is speaking to the Old Man and expressing the necessity of the believer walking in Christ.

The believer is not to walk as men walk.

The Ephesian believers did not learn such a sinful life from Christ.

Christ did not live a sinful a life, and He has not taught us to live a sinful life as other men live.

If we have heard Christ and been taught by Christ, then we have heard and been taught the truth.

Note: The Teacher is Christ, not the preacher.

The Holy Spirit/Christ uses the body of believers/Church and voice of the preacher to teach us how we are to live.

If a believer/we really hear Christ speaking to our hearts, then what we hear is not the kind of life lived by unbelievers.

The true walk is a walk in Christ, and a walk in Christ involves three things.

We as believers are to put off the old man

We as believer are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds

We as believers are to put on the new man

Let’s talk about who our Old Man is...

The “old man” refers to what we were before we accepted Christ.

It is the very nature of man, the natural, corruptible seed which is passed on from generation to generation and leads to death.

It is what is called the nature of Adam.

(See note, Natural Man—1 Co. 2:14 for a much more detailed discussion.)

Three things are taught about our old man in the Scriptures.

As believers our old man has already been put to death.

It was crucified with Christ.

When we received Christ, God immediately began to count us buried with Christ and united with Christ in the very likeness of His death.

This is what our Baptism symbolized.

Don’t discount symbols they are very important.

An example of this think about the swastika when you see it you immediately think of hate, fear, and death.

But the symbol was hijacked... it was first seen in carvings dating back 12,000 years, and was a symbol of well-being, good fortune and prosperity to Buddhists and Hindus.

But the Nazis stole it and made it their own.

The deeds of the old man have been put off from the believer.

The power of evil deeds of the old man has been broken and as believer we are no longer in bondage to them.

We as believers are exhorted (admonish/beg) to put off the old man.

We are told to exercise our own will in putting off the old man.We do that by acknowledging and acting upon three truths.

First, our old man, as far as God is concerned, is dead.

Therefore, we as believers must count our old man as already dead.

Second, our old man is still, as far as we are concerned, understood to be very much alive.

Our old man is still tempted to look, taste, feel, think and to experience sin.

But as believer we are to reject these temptations.

We should refuse to participate in sin.

We are to put off the old man as we walk day by day.

Thirdly, our old man (along with all of creation) is seen to be aging and dying day by day.

As believers we realize that this world and all that is contained within it, which includes our old man, is constantly and continuously dying.

We know that everything is dying because the evil desires of our nature/natural man are deceitful, and deceit disrupts and destroys every relationship—the very nature of things is disturbed and destroyed by our deceitful lusts.

This type of destruction deteriorates and corrupts; it eats away at life and at the balance of things until everything decays into nothing.

Therefore we as believer put off the old man and put on the new man—by faith in the love of God.

When we trust in the love of God, we realize that God loves us so much that He gives us eternal life/being.

He makes us a new man who will live eternally and become a citizen of the new heavens and earth.

Let’s talk about having a Renewed Mind.

The believers mind is to be renewed or made new by uncovering or removing the veil, , readjusted, changed, turned around, and regenerated.

The mind of man (our mind before we believed) has been affected by sin.

It desperately needs to be renewed.

The mind is far from perfect.

It is basically worldly, that is …

• selfish

• self-centered

• self-seeking

• centered on this world

• centered on the flesh

• centered on this life

Scripture is clear about the corruption of man’s mind.

The human mind has just been tragically corrupted by man’s selfishness and sin.

Man’s mind …

• has become vain, empty, and futile in its imaginations

• has become reprobate

Having no discernment, not acceptable.

• has become carnal and full of enmity against God.

Over thinking and carefully planning every step to preserve or please your flesh.

• has become blinded by Satan lest it believe the glorious gospel of Christ.

• has become full of vanity, futility, emptiness.

• has become focused upon earthly things.

• has become alienated from God and an enemy to God.

• has become fleshy.

• has become defiled.

Morally corrupt

The mind is renewed by the presence of Christ in the life of the believer.

When a person receives the Lord Jesus Christ as His Lord, the man is spiritually …

• born again

• made into a new man

• made into a new creature

• given the mind of Christ

What this means is a most wonderful truth, and it is easily seen.

When a person receives Jesus Christ into his life, he receives the mind of Christ as well.

Christ places His mind into the believer’s mind; that is,

Christ changes the believer’s mind to focus upon God.

Whereas the believer’s mind used to be centered upon the world, it is now centered upon spiritual matters.

The believer’s mind is renewed, changed, turned around, and regenerated to focus upon God.

However, it is critical to remember that only Christ can renew the human mind.

Only Christ can implant the mind of Christ within a person.

Only Christ can give a person His thoughts and the spirit to live out His thoughts.

We as believer are to live a transformed life; that is, we are to walk day by day renewing our mind more and more.

We are to allow the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) to focus our mind more and more upon God and spiritual things.

We as believer are to love the Lord with all our mind.

We as believer are to keep our mind upon spiritual things, not carnal things.

We as believer are to cast down imaginations and every thought that interrupts our knowledge of God and to captivate every thought for Christ.

We as believer are not to let our mind be corrupted.

We as believer are not to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

We as believer are not to walk as the world walks, in the vanity of their mind.

We as believer are to be renewed in the spirit of our mind.

We as believer are to let the mind of Christ be in us by walking humbly before God and men.

We as believer are to think only upon the things of praise and virtue.

We as believer are to live by the laws of God which God has put into our mind.

We as believer are to arm ourselves with the same mind as Christ in bearing suffering.