Put on the New Man (Eph 4 — Nigel Lee

The New Man in Ephesians 4–5

We're going to read together from chapter 4 and through into chapter 5. Ephesians 4 verse 17, I'm going to read for you from my usual old-fashioned version, the 1881 revised version, which is fairly rare nowadays, but happens to be a version that I like and enjoy and find accurate.

Ephesians 4 verse 17, follow it in your own, in your own Bibles. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart, who being past feeling, gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you did not so learn Christ, if so be that you heard him and were taught in him even as truth is in Jesus. That you put away as concerning your former manner of life, the old man which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth, each one with his neighbour. For we are members one of another, be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your rock, neither give place to the devil.

Let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear.

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger, clamour and railing, be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.

Be ye therefore imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us an offering and a sacrifice to God, for an odour of a sweet smell, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints, nor filthiness, nor foolish talking or jesting, which are not befitting, giving of thanks.

For this you know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Let no man deceive you with empty words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.

Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, being what is well-pleasing unto the Lord.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. But all things, when they are reproved, are made manifest by the light, for everything that is made manifest is light.

Wherefore he said, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee. Look therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil.

Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunken with wine wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father. Subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ, our Father we pray that you would give that illumination into these paragraphs, our own learning, our understanding, and our growth.

We've read here that Christ shall shine upon us, grant it be so now, in the time that we have together, for Jesus' sake, Amen. Briefly yesterday at something of the structure of the epistle to the Ephesians.

God's Purpose in Creation and the New Humanity

First of all, God's purpose in creation. His purpose rested in his heart way back in eternity. We do not live in a purposeless universe. We're not just drifting round in space, coming back through the same kind of place again and again, drifting on.

There is a direction in history, but it's not simply and merely modernisation of things so that we gradually evolve into something more technical, with a little bit deeper understanding of the way we are.

We don't just move from wood fires to microwave ovens. The purpose in history, in God's might, which will prevail, is that one day God should have gathered up together in fellowship with himself, his sons and daughters who were there by choice, to then a little of the mission of Christ on earth.

God himself come as Messiah, to take that great eternal purpose one significant step forward. In chapter 2, verses 13 to 17, Christ came to make a new man, a being never seen before, out of Jew and Gentile.

He came to preach peace, verse 17. Verses 21 and 22, he came that a temple might be built, a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. And then we come now into this third section of the epistle, in which Paul is writing about the new man, filled with the Spirit of God.

And so we read at the end of those previous verses, in chapter 4, verses 14 -15, that we should no longer be children, thrown and carried about with every wind of doctrine. Verse 15, that we should grow up in all things, into him which is the head, even Christ.

And so our focus in this final section of Ephesians, is on our growth as children of God. How to grow up into spiritual maturity. How to live lives that are supernatural, filled with God's Holy Spirit.

How now to live as God intended us to live. And you'll notice in the verses that we read, reference again and again to how you walk. Verse 17 of chapter 4, no longer walk as the Gentiles walk. Chapter 5, verses 8, 9 and so on.

Now walk as children of the light. Chapter 5, verse 2, walk in love, even as Christ also loved you. One of the great steps forward as a child is growing up, is when it learns to walk. You've seen perhaps even around the conference center, little kids learning to walk.

One of my best memories of this whole conference, is of your son, Stuart, little David. And early in the conference, George was up here preaching, the place was packed out with people, comparatively recently learned to walk.

And he walked up to the front and he stood there, looking up at George, and then he looked around at the crowd, because the whole concentration had gone from George, and they were all gazing at this little fella.

And then he turned around and he found a few hymn books, and a few hymn sheets, and he started throwing papers around, looked as if he was about to tear up one or two things. Wobbling about on his legs, and then his mother came and whisked him away.

Learned to walk, enjoying it. I remember when my kids learned to walk, gone the days of clawing their way up, holding on to the furniture, now wobbling along. Life was entering a wholly new dimension.

They could now walk in the supermarket, they could walk off, disappear, go around behind the tins of baked beans when you were walking among the cheeses. They were losable. No longer did you just push them around where you wanted in a little four-wheel trolley.

Now they had independence. Now they could go into different rooms in the house and destroy things. Life was becoming much more exciting, because they had learned to walk. And so it's small wonder that the moment Paul begins to talk about our growth, we'd be no longer children tossed to and fro, that he begins to think about how we walk.

And the structure of this section of Ephesians, I suggest to you, is Trinitarian, again. We're going to be asked to think about first God, and then Christ, and then the Holy Spirit. Because, well you can tell a great deal about a person, by the way they walk.

You watch people walk up and down corridors? Walk up and down the stairs? People walking in the streets? You can tell much about them, just by watching the way they walk, you can tell how they think about themselves.

I've seen people walking around this conference, completely shrunken in upon themselves, striding along, you can hardly get them to stop, you know? You want them to do something and, and, excuse me! Other people, when they're walking towards you and you're carrying a full tray of whatever it is that's spillable, you better get out of the way, because they're coming right through.

Express train down the main line. Other people, as they walk, are completely aware of folks going on around them, they're chatting, nodding. Watch how people walk, very careful not to walk off the platform.

Imitating God Through the New Creation

God's purpose is that we grow up to be like him. The key verse for us today, be ye therefore, imitators of God, as his beloved children. Imitate God. Now from verse 17 to 32, at the end of chapter 4, he's going to be talking about imitating God, but at the back of his mind, is God as we see him in Genesis.

And particularly, Genesis chapter 3, begins by saying that we should put off the old man and put on the new man, which after God, verse 24, has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. You are a new creation.

You are not to be as you used to be. Do not walk as the Gentiles. And then he picks out certain characteristics of fallen man, fallen man in Genesis, and says now do not walk this way. Verse 18, they were darkened in their understanding.

Why was that? Because of the ignorance that was in them, because their heart had become hardened. Adam and Eve allowed their hearts to become hardened towards God. Cain's heart was hardened towards his brother.

Lamech began to boast and sing pop songs about how he killed a man in Genesis chapter 4. Their hearts became hard towards God. And so they walked in ignorance and darkness. Verse 19 we read of people who are now past feeling, and they give themselves up to lasciviousness, to sensuality.

They're cut off from the life of God. You remember how Adam was ejected from the garden, and an angel was placed at the entrance with a sword that turned every which way so that he would not be able to eat of the tree of life.

I imagine that Adam had been placed in that garden, told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but every other tree of the garden he was encouraged to eat of, including presumably the tree of life.

I believe that Adam left, if he'd lived in obedience, would have lived forever because he would have eaten regularly of that tree of life. And God says at the end of chapter 3 that he no longer wants man to be able to live in the garden because he would continue to eat of that tree.

They shall be like us. They will live forever, ever. And so he was driven out of the garden so that there's no longer access to that tree of life. Now we read that they're alienated from the life of God because of the darkness of their own hearts.

And they give themselves up to uncleanness. You remember how things began to degenerate in Genesis, you reach chapter 6 and finally God looks down on mankind and sees that the imagination of their hearts is only evil continually.

Only one man finds grace in the eyes of the Lord in Genesis chapter 6. They are going corrupt. That word is used again and again in Genesis chapter 6. And here in Ephesians 4 Paul says that they were waxing corrupt after the lusts of deceit.

But you are to live as a new creation, created after the likeness of God. You are to live as Adam failed to live. And in the next few verses from 25 to the end of the chapter, Paul will pick out five characteristics of God himself that are to be our characteristics as we grow up showing this hereditary likeness.

Speaking Truth Because God's Word Is Unbreakable

The first one is in 25 itself. Verse 25, you are to speak the truth. Simply that. The first characteristic of God as we look at it in, as we look at God in Genesis chapter 3, is that his word is absolutely true.

What a contrast to Satan's word. Satan had come to Eve and said you will not surely die, you will become like God, live. God's word is unalterably, unbreakably true. That ought to be one of the greatest single facts, principles of your entire life.

If God's word were not true, where would your salvation be? Where would you have security? How could you ever hope to live another day if God's word were not to be relied on to be true in your experience?

Would you have any hope of salvation if God could turn against you? If God could deny his own word? Human words slap and break. We promise people one thing and we do another. I wonder how many of you have come from the background of broken marriages.

Your own parents have split up. There was a time where they stood perhaps in a church or even in a civil ceremony and promised to love one another, promised to care and cherish for one another. And how long did those promises last?

A year, three years, five years, fifteen, twenty years, but eventually they broke. Eventually that promise solemnly given was torn up and their word was no longer binding. God will keep his word for all eternity.

The things that God said to Adam and to Eve in the garden have proved to be true down through the generations. Our whole salvation, our security this day, our dependence upon the grace of God, upon the strength of God.

You're launching out in this coming year. You're going to the places that God has led you to. It all absolutely depends upon God's unbreakable word. The entire leadership of OM that you may be beginning to trust a little bit could all prove to be worthless.

God will never break his word and we are to learn to speak the truth with one another. Verse 29, let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth. One of the great marks of growing up to be like God is this very simple matter that my word is trustworthy.

Resolving Anger Before the Sun Goes Down

I speak what is true. Do you grow up to be like God? Can people rely on your word? And the second thing in verse 26 is that we should not let the sun go down on our rock. Another very simple practical area.

In Genesis chapter 3 Adam and Eve had sinned against God. What did God do? Did he leave them feeling guilty, feeling upset, feeling troubled? Did he leave them for a few days to stew in their own juice as we say?

No, God came immediately. God, a God of judgment, a God of wrath, a God who is going to point out their sin and to discipline them. But he comes immediately. You know it's very easy to be made angry in OM.

Angry by what other people say, by the way they let you down, by how the expectations that you have of them are not fulfilled. What are you going to do about the anger problem? Be angry. Anger is a part of normal Christian experience.

But don't sin. And do not let the sun go down on your rock. This is not easy. This is not easy for married men and women particularly. How many times do we sometimes go to sleep, pull the bedclothes over us?

I'm not speaking to you. Dangerous. You won't sleep properly. Anger destroys peace of heart, destroys sleep, destroys appetite, destroys work. If you're going to grow up to be like God, one of the things you have to learn to do is not let the sun go down on rock.

Deal with it immediately. God did. Immediately they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They hid themselves and God came, found them, called them out. God took the initiative in making peace.

God went to them and healed the breach. This is why the Lord can say, you know, if you've got something against someone, deal with it. If necessary, go to them. Begin to take the initiative to make peace as God did.

Giving No Place to the Devil

God came and found them, hiding, cowering, shivering behind their fig leaves. Don't let the sun go down on your rock. It's a mark of God's own character. And then thirdly, verse 27. Give no place to the devil, says Paul.

Again he's thinking of Genesis chapter 3. Don't allow Satan in. Don't allow him to start whispering those slimy words in your ear that twist your attitudes, that make you jealous, that make you envious, that make you want what someone else has.

Don't even give place to the devil. If only Eve had resisted Satan, he would have fleed from her. If only she had been absolutely bolted and barred in her own mind, she would not give even a toehold to the evil one.

Hard Work as a Mark of Godliness

She would not listen, she would not discuss, she would not get into conversation with him. How different might the history of the world have been? Give no place whatever to Satan. And then fourthly, another mark of the character of God, as Paul thinks back to Genesis 3, is that we should simply work hard.

It sounds tremendously mundane doesn't it? Very down to earth. Let him that stole steal no more, rather let him learn to work. If you're going to grow up to be an imitator of God, be a worker. It's one of the very first things that's said of God in the Bible, that God is a worker.

He's pictured as creating, as making, as working six days, as then resting one day. The whole pattern of life's work is established by God, by himself, by his own example in chapter 1. Desperately easy in Christian work to become lazy.

God is a worker. When Jesus Christ came incarnate to this planet, he lived as a worker for 30 years. He worked as a carpenter. He says, my father worked and therefore I still work. The Holy Spirit is pictured for us as the one who comes alongside the paraclete and literally helps us do the work.

We are to be fellow workers with God. Work is a great thing. It's part of the dignity of being human that we can work. In the Old Testament days, the Pharisees, as well as becoming teachers of the law, were taught a trade.

They became leather workers or copper workers. You know of one particular one who was trained up to be a tent maker. The man actually who wrote this epistle. They were given work to do. There is something extremely godly about doing practical work and doing it well for many hours of the day.

Actually, far more dangerous to your Christian life than working is sitting in meetings like this. You can become completely up to here with spiritual teaching. You become bilious with it. You get frustrated with so many ideals.

What you need to do is get out and do a bit of washing up, mend a vehicle, clean something. Work. Because that is godly. God allows himself to be pictured in scripture as a worker. So, as you grow up to be an imitator of God, work with your hands that thing which is good that you may have whereof to give to him that hath need.

Forgiveness Instead of Blame and Bitterness

And then the fifth mark, characteristic mark of godly character developing is that you should put away malice, bitterness, anger, clamor and instead give yourself to forgiveness. What is it that broke out between Adam and Eve the moment they got detected in sin?

If it wasn't for that woman that you have given me, none of this would have happened. The servant beguiled me, yakety yak. They are immediately blaming each other. And so it has been down through the history of human relationships.

How quick we are to blame someone else. How slow we are often to choose the path of being kind, tender hearted and forgiving. But God is forgiving. How kind is God in Genesis chapter 3? He comes to them.

They need to hear cleansing words. They need to have the sense that they are still valuable to God. They need to have a little bit of God's time that he forgive and he redirect. And God is kind, tender hearted, forgiving, making them clothes, telling them where they have gone wrong.

Giving them some new disciplines to live under. But also giving them promises for the future. Tremendous, glorious promises that one day Satan will be trodden underfoot. Do you see how as Paul writes the end of his chapter, chapter 4.

Christ's Sacrificial Love and Christian Holiness

He's got Genesis 3 in mind when he's talking about the new creation. You and I in very practical ways are to grow up to be like God as God appears at the time of the first creation. And then he goes on to speak in chapter 5 of the second person of the Godhead.

You are to be imitators of God as his beloved children. You are to walk now in love as Christ also loved you. And some new aspects of Godliness will begin to come out. As he thinks now of Christ. Christ first of all gave himself.

Gave himself as a loving sacrifice. We the unlovable. I wonder do you ever read as God's easy. God's love is completely different from normal human love. We love people that we like because of what we can see in them.

Because we are attracted to their face, shape, character, conversation, jokes, stories, past background, denomination, anything about them. God loves people who are by definition unlovable. His heart goes out equally to people whether they deserve his love or not.

To really begin to understand that can start a revolution of security in your own thinking. You know we often think that God will love us more if we do certain things for him. He'll love us more if we go out on a weekend team.

He'll love us more if we lead somebody to Christ in our first month on evangelism on a team. He'll love us more if we have a consistently good quiet time every morning. You may be sitting next to somebody who had absolutely no devotional time with God this morning.

They meant to but somehow it didn't work out. They lingered over breakfast talking to somebody. They got up a little bit late. They didn't really like it. They had two or three things to get done before they came here.

And right now if you preach a heavy message on having a consistent life privately with God. They're going to be under the seat by the end of the message with guilt and conviction. And that person can easily think that God doesn't love them so much today.

As the person who's been up since six without an alarm clock. And has been on their knees before God in a glory hallelujah time. They've got a little bit of heaven now lodged in their heart. You know God loves you both equally.

Exactly the same. God loves you whether you think you're lovable or not. And more than that God will give himself up for you. As a sacrifice. Christ has come and given himself up for people who can go years without understanding his word.

Who don't care to listen to him too much in the mornings. People who are stubborn. People who are lazy. People who are hard-hearted and not very good at forgiving each other. People who may take the rest of their life even to begin to understand the second half of chapter four.

Christ will still give himself up for you. A sacrifice. A sweet smell that has come up to God. Do you think that Paul is still thinking about Genesis? Maybe perhaps Genesis chapter eight, chapter nine.

You remember that sacrifice that Noah made when he came out from the judgment. And the aroma of a sacrifice ascended to God. And God gave a promise to all mankind that never again would he judge the world with a flood.

Because of the sacrifice that he had smelled. Men and women were to be eternally secure from that judgment. Because of the sacrifice which Noah offered. And now because of the sacrifice that Christ has offered.

All who trust and believe in him are to be secure in their relationship with God. So we are to imitate Christ in giving ourselves up. Walking in love and sacrificing our time, our plans, our desires for other people.

Particularly the people that we don't always find ourselves naturally drawn to. And then Paul will go on to mention three particular areas where we are to watch how we walk. The area of sex, the area of materialism and the area of the way we speak.

Look between verses three and verse five. Fornication, covetousness, foolish talking. In each of these three areas we are to learn to judge ourselves and to walk as Christ walked. Friendship with anybody is a two way thing isn't it?

Friendship with God is a two way thing. Have you made any friends at this conference? Have you got any friends at home? Are there people that you really care about? That friendship is a two way business.

You have to take care for what they want. What they need. If you invite someone to come to your own home. We've used this illustration before, you forgive me. But supposing Jonathan McCrosty. Come and stay with me for a few days.

And I say now Jonathan, so pleased to have you. Great, you know, we can just spend some time talking. But is there anything that you really don't like to eat? Any particular food that you can't stand?

And he says, no, no, no. Well maybe. Can't stand porridge. Lumpy, fish stuff. Can't stand it. Say no more. Breakfast the next morning. I give him a big bowl of steaming porridge. And then for lunch. After we've had a few peanut butter sandwiches.

To keep him happy. One of the old faithfuls. I give him cold porridge left over from breakfast. And for tea. Some slices of congealed porridge on fried bread. And as a nightcap. Before he goes to bed.

Further cup of porridge with a spoon. Now what would he think of our friendship? He would think I was perhaps trying to hint something about his continuing stay. I mean he told us the one thing he couldn't stand.

Was porridge. And I've done nothing but give him what he has already said he doesn't like. John 15 verse 14. If you love me. You will keep my commandments. The Lord says that if we want friendship with him.

We must bear in mind. What he wants. What he needs. Just as he has given himself up for us. In love. Friendship with God involves you sitting down and thinking. What does God really want? Does he want dry days from me.

Where I rush through without a thought for him. Does he want me to live for weeks on end without hardly bothering about his word. Does he want me to rush around the conference. Completely blinkered thinking only of my own interests.

And no time for those of anyone else. What does he want? What would satisfy him? Am I serving God up cold porridge every day? I'm not going to preach at you about these three areas. We talk about them a certain amount in OM.

The area of sexual self-control. The area of materialism. The area of the way you speak. We are to live as children of light. Just those three areas alone. If we begin to walk in love. To walk imitating God.

Those three alone will have an impact in this dark world. Because I think if you were to try and pick out. Three areas where there is perhaps coming. An increasingly great contrast between the believer and the non-believer.

Between the son and daughter of the kingdom of God. And the person who has not yet been born into that kingdom. You couldn't have three greater areas of contrast. And then he goes on. Let me finish. To talk from verse 15 down to 21.

Living Under the Control of the Holy Spirit

About a life lived under the control of the Holy Spirit. This is what I meant by speaking of this section as Trinitarian instruction. He asked you to think of how God is in scripture. And now how Christ is.

Walk as a child of light. And now look carefully how you walk. Redeeming the time. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. A life filled with the Holy Spirit will be marked. By certain characteristics. One is the productive use of time.

This world is temporary. Paul is actually saying here. Is grab time like a bargain. When he says redeem it. I don't know what some of your more modern versions say. But the idea back in the Greek. Is that you grab time like a bargain.

I don't know whether you've ever been to one of these big stores. Big department stores where they're going to have their special sales. They have seemingly more and more of them as the years go on. But often after Christmas.

They will be selling goods off at a cheap rate. Or after the summer holiday they will be selling bathing. Cheap. Have you ever watched. Early in the morning at one of these sales. Where the women. Get down there about five o 'clock in the morning.

They're ready for battle. And you're the first. The doors of this big store are going to open. And these women are ready. They got bricks in their handbags. They're ready. And the poor man who is sent down to open the big doors.

He gets completely trampled on by a tidal wave. A wave of militant women rushing in. To grab the bargains. And they'll get all the shoes. I mean you don't know whether they're the same shoes. Same color.

They get socks. Plates. Cold smoked salmon. Fishing rods. Underwear. The whole lot. Grab it up because it's cheap. You've seen them seizing. The bargains. Paul says. Time. You get one chance only. It's a non-returnable commodity isn't it.

Today you have only once. You'll never again have the 19th of September 1984. Grab it. Use it. Treat time carefully. Wisely. There was a man called Baxter. Great minister. Preacher. In Britain in centuries gone by.

He was supposed to have been a walking museum of diseases. He had almost everything wrong that you could imagine. He was renowned for his house to house visiting. Constantly going around. Praying with people.

Exhorting them. Listening to them. Encouraging them. Busy man. He wrote 128 books. He wrote something like 35 ,000 closely printed pages. He said I have these 40 years been sensible. That means been aware of the sin of losing time.

I could not spare one hour. Scripture speaks strongly about the sluggard. The lazy man. In the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs chapter 13 verse 4. The sluggard never gets down to a job. In chapter 20 verse 4.

He doesn't plan ahead. In chapter 15 verse 19. And chapter 26 verse 13. You can see he's problem orientated not solution orientated. He doesn't get up in the morning. Because he's afraid there may be a lion out in the street.

No there may be a lion he might devour me. I'm going to stay safe here in bed. He thinks far more about the possible things that can go wrong. Than about what he wants to achieve. And so he achieves nothing.

In chapter 18 verse 9. Speaks of him as a destructive influence. This year give yourself to using time. Not lazily. But as the Holy Spirit would lead you. And then a second mark of a life. Filled with the Spirit.

Is self-control. Verse 18. Be not drunk with wine. Wherein is riot, loss of self-control. Uncontrolled behavior. But be filled with the Holy Spirit. You can see in those closing verses. Four marks of the filling of the Holy Spirit.