Put on the New Man (Eph 4:17-24)

Put on the New Man (Eph 4:17-24)

 

17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,

18. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;

19. Having become senseless, they have given themselves over to sensuality, to work all uncleanness with greediness;

20. But ye have not so learned Christ.

21. If indeed ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

22. That ye put off, concerning your former manner of life, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,

23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

24. And put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

 

Introduction)

A father sent his son on an errand, saying, "Go to the bathhouse and see how many people are there." The son went to the bathhouse. But there was a sharp rock stuck in the ground in front of the bathhouse. So when people went in and out, they all tripped on the rock and almost fell, and some people even hurt their knees. Everyone cursed at the rock, but no one removed it.

 

After that, more than twenty people passed by, and people continued to fall and get hurt, curse, and leave. After a while, someone passed by again and he also fell. But he got up and said, “Why is there a rock stuck in a place like this? People are going to get hurt.” and he pulled the rock out.

 

The son returned home. And he said to his father, “Father, there’s only one person in the bathhouse right now.” Then the father said, “Good. Let’s go take a bath now.” and went to the bathhouse with his son.

 

But the bathhouse was so crowded with people that there was no room to step. Then the father said, “Hey, you punk! He got angry and said, "Is this the only one?" Then the son answered, pointing only at the person who had removed the stone and gone in. "No, Father, I was the only one who was human."

 

People have a strange psychology that they know everyone hates, but they do not try to fix or change it easily. There is a term in modern psychology called <fixed state>.

 

It refers to the phenomenon of trying to achieve psychological stability by continuing to maintain old, childish habits or negative habits without discarding them. People who are in this 'fixed state' hate change. And they try to enjoy stability by being tied to old things that have not changed. Everything in the world is changing. Life is a state where there is no such thing as stillness. I am the only one who does not change in the midst of constant change.

 

However, the more serious problem is that we mistake 'I never change' for a noble personality.

 

Everyone, am I really not changing? However, the problem is not only that I am not changing... I am causing the opposite change called 'regression'. We must fear that it is not. We must not forget that. Therefore, if we are going to change, we must change to ‘life’ rather than regression.

 

Therefore, today’s word can be seen as demanding such a change for us who are spending the year 2024 and welcoming the new year 2025. It is to <throw away the old person and change into a new person>.

 

Main text)

A) Six characteristics and results of the old person

In the text, Apostle Paul points out that the old person, that is, the old person who makes the flesh and lust the subject of life, has six characteristics and habits, and also points out what the results are. So what are those six characteristics and results?

 

1) First, he said it is vain. This means that he has lost his purpose. It is a life that has lost meaning. It is a very vain and meaningless world, where he just flounders around without knowing why he is doing it. He does business, but there is no purpose. He gets married, but there is no meaning. That is why his life is completely filled with vainness.

 

2) Next, it was darkness. This means, as the text says, that intelligence becomes clouded. In other words, living with the ability to judge and reason darkened.

 

3) Next, it was ignorance. Ignorance means losing the ability to judge morally and making the distinction between good and evil ambiguous. Living in a state where you cannot tell what is good and what is evil is the old person’s habit that you must abandon.

 

4) The fourth is that your heart hardens. This means becoming stubborn. It means living with stubbornness and not being able to break away from your obsession, even while suffering losses.

 

5) The fifth is that you become insensitive. A hardened heart eventually leads to insensibility. In a word, it is the loss of the ability to sense. You cannot sense any stimulus. Living with even the minimum conscience that can respond dulled is the old person’s appearance.

 

6) The sixth is ‘neglect.’ In English, this means giving up. This is what is called these days, “let it be (cancel sera?).” It is the worst state of having given up on humanity to the point where you can no longer have any expectations.

 

Example) These cases are well depicted in a Chinese movie. The title is “Bus 44” from China. Bus 44 is a movie released in China in 2011, and is based on an incident that was reported in a local Chinese newspaper called Lianhe Zaobao in 1999. The content is as follows.

 

Introduction = A female bus driver in China was driving a bus over a mountain road when two gangsters ran up to her and sexually harassed her. All the passengers pretended not to know, but a middle-aged man tried to stop the gangsters and got beaten up badly.

 

Eventually, the gangsters stopped the bus and dragged the female driver into the forest, and the female driver returned after being sexually assaulted for a long time. Then, the female driver suddenly yells at the middle-aged man who had stopped the thugs earlier to get off the bus. When the middle-aged man, flustered, asks, “Didn’t I try to help you earlier? Why are you telling me to get off?”, the female driver yells and insists, “We won’t leave until you get off.” When the middle-aged man refuses to get off, the passengers force him off and throw their luggage at him. The bus starts, but the female driver drives the bus for a while before accelerating on a curve and causing it to fall off a cliff. Everyone died. The middle-aged man, with his aching body, walks along the mountain road for a while and witnesses the accident. When the middle-aged man asks the police officer controlling traffic what happened, the police officer says, “The bus fell off a cliff and all the passengers died.” The middle-aged man looked far away at the cliff and saw that it was the very bus number 44 that he had gotten on and then kicked out of.

 

The female driver deliberately made the middle-aged man, who was the only one worth living who had stopped the evil deeds of the gangsters, get off the bus and took all the passengers who had pretended not to see him to hell.

The middle-aged man looks at the scene and laughs in vain, and the movie ends.

 

In this movie, not only the gangsters but also the bystanders are fleshly people who are indifferent to evil and pretend not to see injustice in order to live for themselves, people who are insensitive to evil and have lost their intelligence, and they are all typical of the old man. All of these similar acts are the old man that God demands that we abandon. (If we have these old ways of life as we go through 2024, we must discard them. And we must become new in 2025.)

 

B) Put on the new man

However, if you look closely at today’s text, verse 23, it says, “Only be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

 

<Spirit> refers to the relationship with God. In the relationship with God, it says, “Put on the new man.” It says to take off old clothes and put on new ones.

 

Everyone, in the parable of the prodigal son, when the prodigal son returns home, he thinks of himself. He says, “I am not worthy of being a son. I have hurt my father’s heart too much and have lived a corrupt life too much. I am not worthy of being a proper son before my father.” So he returns with a humble and shabby heart, saying, “Father, treat me like one of your servants. So that I can live without starving.”

 

However, the father who meets him is different. He declares, “You are my son.” Then the father put new clothes on his son and put a ring on his finger. Then he invited him to a glorious feast.

He revealed that he was the true son of the father through the beautiful new clothes he had put on.

Sometimes clothes reveal the identity of the one who wears them. Today’s Bible says, “Take off your old clothes and put on new clothes.”

 

Just like the prodigal son who changed into new clothes and became a new person in his relationship with his father, he is telling us to take off our past like taking off old clothes and put on new clothes.

 

Everyone, people do not change with material things alone. That is why the term ‘nouveau riche’ came into being. People cannot be changed by their environment. We have heard the term ‘restructuring’ so many times that it has become a habit. We have struggled to think that it is the only way to survive. However, there are many cases where the person who is undergoing restructuring does not undergo restructuring. Before a person’s fundamentals change, changing the structure 100 times is useless. North Korea has been calling for reform countless times, but it is the same old thing.

 

The person who tried to solve the problem by changing the structure and social system was [Karl Marx]. But he failed. Therefore, the internal problem cannot be changed by external problems.

 

The internal is possible only internally, and the spiritual is possible only by the spirit.

 

What we call ‘rebirth’ is only possible through the Word of God. It is possible only when the relationship with God, that is, the mind, is renewed. Only when one meets God and eats the Word of God can one become human. The root of all things is a spiritual issue, and it is a matter of the Word of God and an issue of meeting with God.

 

D) What kind of person is the new person?

Then, let’s find out what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, ‘Put on the new person. ’ Let’s look at verses 22-25 of the text.

 

22. Put off, concerning your former manner of life, the old man which is being corrupted by the deceitful lusts,

23. And be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

24. And put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

25. Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. In order to do that?

 

1) A person who puts off the old man. In other words, he must get rid of his old stubbornness, sinfulness, and evil habits. Determination is necessary. You must break away from the crowd of the old man.

How can a gangster who is a gangster stop being a gangster? You must leave the organization. A famous female celebrity in Korea, a gangster man kept asking her to marry him, so she made a condition for the marriage. She said, “If you leave that gang, stop being a gangster, and become a pastor, I will marry you.” Then, the gangster left the organization and they were able to get married. Later, they became evangelists (Lee Young-hwa & Jang Byeong-ha). It is truly a thankful thing. You must say goodbye to those who lead you away from the faith, the cause. And you must have the determination to associate with those who have put on new clothes. That is the first step to taking off the old man.

2) You must do righteousness. Righteousness is the fundamental conduct of a saint that you must do. It means to do what God says is right. Righteousness is not something you just look on. If you stand by and watch injustice, you become an accomplice and a public lawbreaker. When you see injustice, you must say, “That is not right! It is wrong! “You must say so. You must not stand by and watch, but you must block it. You may be persecuted, but there will be a reward from God in the future.

 

3) You must follow the truth and strive to live a holy life. The truth is the word of God, the word of Christ, and the gospel. You must follow the truth to resemble God. Holiness is achieved when you follow the truth. The truth protects us from sin.

 

You must not touch sin, come near it, or envy it. The root of sin is pride. It is believing, teaching, and practicing that you can live well without God. The second source of sin is greed. It is committing illegal acts for material gain or fame. Pickpocketing, fraud, false testimony, theft, murder, robbery, rape, etc. come from this greed.

 

4) You must abandon lies. Lies are the easiest crime to commit, and the most common and easy crime to commit. Lies come from the devil and Satan. That is why Satan is called the ‘father of lies.’

 

5) Therefore, we must speak the truth. We must discard lies and fill that space with truth. Humans were created as creatures who find it difficult to live without speaking. If we cannot speak, our mouths will itch and go crazy. Therefore, we must speak the truth.

 

Speaking the truth is also a means of not committing sin. If we do not say what is right as right, others will be confused. Is it right or not? If we speak the truth, people will follow it and live. That is why we must testify the gospel. Why? Because the gospel is the truth, the right words. It is the truth. It is given by God and comes from God. Jesus, the truth, is preached diligently in the new year as well. Let us also cooperate more diligently with those who preach the gospel. That is one way to put on the new life. Hallelujah!

 

Conclusion)

Today, all the saints who want to put on new clothes and cast off the old self! Dear saints who have worked hard to hold a New Year's Eve worship service and have joined us here to be renewed!

 

First, I hope that you will be filled with the blessing of your <spirit> becoming more renewed. I pray in the name of Jesus that in the new year, you will strive to cast off the old self that follows the desires of temptation and the corrupting old habits, and that 2025 will be a year in which you will become a ‘new person’ who has been created in righteousness and truth and holiness according to God.

 

(123124 Pastor; Ik-sun Ahn)