• You were made different to be different
• Putting off the old self for the new
• Paul comes to expressing the specifics of how to live life out of the new creation.
• It is written to the Church, but we immediately go to the thought of our spouse with these encouragements.

LIVING THE NEW LIFE
EPHESIANS 4:25-32
25 Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.

• Zechariah 8:16
• "I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
• When Truth is spoken among those who are "members of one another" amazing things happen.
• The individual members of Christ's body experience rapid spiritual growth, which results in the corporate body living in a way that epitomizes truth.
• Lying stymies growth and destroys the common life in the body.

26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,

• Psalm 4:4
• Wuest – “There is a ‘wrath of God’ (Matt. 3:7, Rom. 12:19); who would not love good unless He hated evil, the two being so inseparable, that either He must do both or neither.”
• ‎The words, “be ye angry,” - this abiding, settled attitude of righteous indignation against sin and sinful things, is commanded, together with the appropriate actions when conditions make them necessary.
• ‎In the words, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,” the word “wrath” -  anger that is mingled with irritation, exasperation, and embitterment.
• Such anger is forbidden.
• "Don't let the sun go down on your anger." - For me, this is a season, depending the origination of your anger.
• One of my first chaplain visits, 11 years ago, was to a young Fishers couple that just lost their 4 month old baby.
•    - Who wouldn't be angry?
•    - But eventually you have to walk away from the anger.
• I have lost good friends for sharing this truth with them.

27 and don’t give the devil an opportunity.

• Forbids the continuance of an action already going on.
• Failing to control anger grants the devil an opportunity to get a foothold in your life.
• Then he can use it as a base of operation to launch more spiritual attacks against you.
• Many Christians are suffering today because of anger that was not resolved yesterday—and anger is just one of a complex range of human emotions.
• If Satan can seize our emotions, he can destroy our ability to function by crippling us emotionally or leading us into all manner of destructive and addictive behavior.
• ‎Here’s a specific example of family relationships and spiritual warfare:
• 1) Communication
• 2) Money
• 3) Sex
• Paul wrote to husbands and wives in 1 Corinthians 7:5, “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”
• Paul is saying that when a husband and wife don’t have a fulfilling sexual relationship, the devil sees that lack as an opportunity to come in and bring about moral destruction in the family.
• So this thing of spiritual warfare gets right down to the nitty-gritty aspects of everyday life.

28 Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.

• George Muller - "It is no right and Scriptural motive, to be engaged in a trade, or business, or profession, merely in order to earn the means for the obtaining of the necessaries of life for ourselves and family, but we should work because it is the Lord’s will concerning us."
• Paul believed that those who refused to work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10) for such behavior resulted from a lack of discipline... or even pride.
• We not only work to provide for our family but we also work to provide for those who have needs.
• How many of you have a budget line “for others”?

29 No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear.

• Rotten talk = unwholesome, corrupt, depraved, vicious, foul, rotten or impure.
• Build up = encourage... Why do we find this difficult?
• A simple press on the "like" button makes a world of difference.
• What if you actually left a comment? (Trish Zastrow)
• What if you called them?
• What if you wrote a handwritten letter?
• What if you said it to their face while looking in their eyes?‎
• Tozer – “To preach the truth, the prophet must be under the constant sway of the Holy Spirit. He must be driven to God for wisdom. Otherwise, he will not pierce the conscience of each listener as if the message had been directed to him or her alone. Further, it is necessary that the man of God know the people’s hearts better than they themselves do!”

30 And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.

• The Spirit is here seen as capable of feeling, and so as personal.‎
• ‎Because He is loving and kind and friendly, the Holy Spirit may be grieved.… He can be grieved because He is loving, and there must be love present before there can be grief.
• Epiphany at breakfast one day when a friend who knew their identity couldn't walk with the Spirit. Knew it but couldn't live it... and was suffering.
• ‎Tozer - "I remind you that there are churches so completely out of the hands of God that if the Holy Spirit withdrew from them, they wouldn’t find it out for many months."
• One of the greatest assurances of the eternal security of the believer is the fact that the Father has sealed every believer with the Holy Spirit

31 Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice.

• No one enjoys being around bitter people.
• Directly proportional to the number of friends you have?

32 And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ.

• “The idea is that they had to abandon one mental condition and make their way, beginning there and then, into its opposite.”
• Forgiven - Past, present & future.
• If unity is to exist within the church, we must learn to forgive each other as God has forgiven us.

 
EPHESIANS 5:1-5
1 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children,

• Our word “mimic” comes from this Greek word, "mimetes". (followers)
• ‎“Walk in love” is “be constantly ordering your behavior within the sphere of love.”
• Deeds, that result from trying to imitate God in our own strength are of no benefit.
• Jesus did not imitate the Father, but lived by the Father's life... thus being a reflection of God.

2 and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

• No saint can "walk in love", nor can he live by the life of Another, unless the Person of the Holy Spirit empowers him to do so.

3 But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints.

• porneia (πορνεια) (fornication)
• The word porneia (πορνεια) was used of illicit sexual intercourse in general.
• ‎The moral life of the Graeco-Roman world had sunk so low that, while protests against the prevailing corruption were never entirely wanting, fornication had long come to be regarded as a matter of moral indifference, and was indulged in without shame or scruple, not only by the mass, but by philosophers and men of distinction who in other respects led exemplary lives.”

4 Obscene and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks.

• Foolish talking - course jesting - for the sake of attention and wit, a person quickly turns an innocent statement into that which is suggetive, obscene or indecent.
• We need to exchange our indecent talk with giving thanks.

5 For know and recognize this: Every sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[1]‎

• Their lifestyle of habitual sin confirms they are unredeemed.
• It is how we can tell the difference between believers and non-believers.
• Light vs darkness
• Walking by the Spirit vs walking by the flesh

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Eph 4:25–5:5). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.

I got my message from Mary Towe at 5:30 AM this morning and I said, “This almost feels normal!”
 
I just want to dump several thoughts on you this morning that comes from months of sitting and listening.
Let me start off with “Freedom” since it is the 4th of July.
 
Do we really understand “Freedom”?

• How many times did Jesus die?
• He forgave sins past, present and future.
• We live in a forgiven state of mind.
• This gives us the freedom to do whatever we want.
• This isn’t my Truth, this is from the Bible.
• Paul expressed it so much that he had to answer the question that came up then… and even today.
• Romans 6:1 - 1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
• The idea that we would sin so God could disperse even more grace is still “me-centered”.
• “Well how can I create more opportunity for God to make Himself even greater?”
• I only wish that is what we were thinking when we choose to sin. “I’m going to sin so I can make God look good!”
• The real issue is that we still have a me-centered flesh (not a sinful nature) that says I have an unlimited amount of grace in my account.
• Yes… you sure do! You can do that.
• You can make it all about you…
• You can make the Bible say whatever you want it to say for your own agenda.
• You are free indeed.
• Your idea of freedom is your own.
• No… I get that you are free… free to do whatever you want…
• But your thinking about freedom is incorrect.
• Look what Paul says…
• 2 Absolutely not![1]
• Not freedom to feed my fleshly (selfish) desires, but freedom to let God’s desires to be my desires.
• Man… if you can get there… where all you can think about is what God desires for me and of me…
• It is a whole new place of living.

 

• Not freedom to be passive, but freedom to see His power working through me.
• The responsibility is His, not mine.

 

• If you're defining it as “perfect performance with perfect results,” the answer is no.
• If you're defining it as “perfect method, trusting Christ as my life,” the answer is yes.

 

• Oh, dear friend, God's grace is sufficient for your situation.
• He wants to carry the burden of living for you.
• We work at resting while we rest at working.
• I am resting in Him in His victory. The Bible states these truths in:

 
Romans 6:2-14 - How can we who died to sin still live in it?

• Just as it is important for every Christian to know who he is in Christ; it is also important for him to know who he was prior to salvation if he is to understand ‘walking according to the flesh.’

3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

• Something in you (us) died.
• Your sinful nature.
• You only have one nature.
• You still have a flesh… but you have a new heart and the mind of Christ.
• That means your old selfish behavior patterns will battle against your new mind of Christ which is others focused.
• It moves your thinking from being about yourself to Christ (who came to serve and love others).
• Think about our world right now… what mind set do they have? It is all about ME! My agenda. What can I get?

 
4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self, was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin.

• Things have changed!
• He changed you… your whole nature!

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

• We spend our whole lives in the flesh learning how to overcome the flesh and live out of new heart and new nature.
• That is the beauty of this community. We are learning how to do this together.
• Even though we were made perfect in our identity… doesn’t mean live our life perfectly… we still make bad choices (selfish).
• So Paul reminds us of our true identity…

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. 14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.[2]

• Paul is literally saying walk in who you have been made to be… alive in Christ.
• People ask, “What does it mean to be alive in Christ?”
• 1) You have to know Him
• 2) Then you will hear Him… he might even call your name.
• 3) Then you begin to trust Him
• The flesh demands a sign, hard evidence, instead of believing God.
• It wants to use the sign as the object of its faith rather than the Word that God has spoken.
• The difference between walking by sight rather than faith.
• 4) Then you need to hang on!
• You will find “abundant life” through allowing Him to express Himself through your talents, your abilities, your gifts, and your personality to do His will.

 
Freedom… oh you are free indeed.
You just have to choose your freedom in yourself or your freedom in Christ.
 
Let me talk to you a little more about feelings/emotions.

• God is never going to bring your feeler totally into subjection so long as you remain in your earthsuit.
• God's plan is for us to believe Him and choose to submit ourselves to His loving care and authority regardless of how we “feel”.
• He has deliberately designed it to vacillate so as to crowd you toward walking by faith, not by feel, if you would experience the “peace that passes [human] understanding.”

 
Philippians 4:7 - And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.[3]
 
John 14:27 - “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.[4]
 
1 Thessalonians 5:23 - Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.[5]
 
Peace is not a feeling, but a knowing—knowing that the Father has everything under control.

• That you are in Christ, seated in heaven, resting; and that He is in you now, living.

 
Hebrews 13:20-21 - Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever., Amen.[6]

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 6:1–2). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Ro 6:2–14). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Php 4:7). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Jn 14:27). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Th 5:23). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Heb 13:20–21). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Galatians 2
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. 12 For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party. 13 Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.[1]
------
14 But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”

• 1) Circumcision 2) Food laws & 3) Calendar observances
• Paul is separating Peter’s personal convictions vs Truth of the Word.
• Suppose Peter and Barnabas had won the day and led the church into legalism? What might the results have been?
• Would Antioch have continued to be the great missionary church that sent out Paul and Barnabas? (Acts 13)
• Would they, instead, have sent out the “missionaries” of the circumcision party and either captured or divided the churches Paul had already founded?
• You can see that this problem was not a matter of personality or party; it was a question of “the truth of the Gospel.”
• And Paul was prepared to fight for it.[2]

 

• What was the purpose of Paul confronting Peter in front of everyone?
• Was there emotion involved?
• What is the difference in communicating truth with anger vs no emotion?
• The same message is communicated.
• It never says what Paul’s emotions are… we just assume.
• You realize your reaction to news/information or the correction given will impact future exchanges of a relationship.
• Between a husband and a wife
• Between a parent and a child
• Between a boss and an employer
• Between friends or even siblings.
  ​
  

15 We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,”

• They were “Gentile sinners” from birth because they were not given the Law like the Jews were.

16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

• “How should [a] man be just with God?” (Job 9:2) was a vital question, because the answer determined eternal consequences.
• “The just shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4) is God’s answer.
• Justification is not simply “forgiveness,” because a person could be forgiven and then go out and sin and become guilty.
• Once you have been “justified by faith” you can never be held guilty before God.
• Justification is also different from “pardon,” because a pardoned criminal still has a record.
• When the sinner is justified by faith, his past sins are remembered against him no more, and God no longer puts his sins on record.

 

• So important is this concept that three New Testament books explain it to us: Romans (see 1:17), Galatians (see 3:11), and Hebrews (see 10:38).
• Romans explains the meaning of “the just”;
• Galatians explains “shall live”;
• Hebrews explains “by faith.”[3]
• Christ died one time and based upon our belief in the Son of God, we were justified one time.
• Proven “not guilty”
• Double Jeopardy – Cannot be tried twice for the same crime.

17 But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.

• If a man is justified by the works of the Law, then why did Jesus Christ die?
• What died?
• The Law demanded death for those who broke it, but Christ paid that death penalty for all sinners. [4]
• To go back to Moses is to return to the graveyard!
• We have been “raised to walk in newness of life”[5]

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,

• Paul does not refer here to physical death, but to the death of his former self (see Eph 4:22).
• The self-righteous, self-centered Saul died.
• Paul’s understanding of union with Christ begins with the cross of Christ.
• This enables Paul to endure shame, contempt, and false accusations like Jesus, God’s Suffering Servant (Col 1:24; Phil 1:29).
• Christ lives in me Refers to new life in Christ as well as the presence of God’s Spirit, which empowers obedience to the gospel (Gal 3:2; 4:6; 5:16–18, 22–25).
• the Son of God Faith in the Son of God transforms a person from a slave to a child of God.

who loved me and gave himself for me.

• Paul describes the sacrificial love of Christ in personal terms.
• Christ’s willingness to die on behalf of sinners brings deliverance from the power of sin for those believe in Him (1:4).
• Grace says, “There is no difference! All are sinners, and all can be saved through faith in Christ!”
• But Peter’s actions had said, “There is a difference! The grace of God is not sufficient; we also need the Law.”
• Returning to the Law nullifies the Cross: “If righteousness came by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Gal. 2:21).
• Law says DO! Grace says DONE! “It is finished!” was Christ’s victory cry (John 19:30). “For by grace are ye saved through faith”[6]
• In essence Paul affirmed, “If He loved me enough to give Himself for me, then He loves me enough to live out His life in me.”[7]

21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.[8]

• Faith in the Son of God transforms a person from a slave of the Law to a child of God.
• Paul’s opponents had accused him of using God’s grace to justify unrighteous living.[9]
• We have no record of Peter’s reply to Paul’s rebuke, but Scripture would indicate that he admitted his sin and was restored to the fellowship once again.
• Certainly when you read his two letters (1 and 2 Peter) you detect no deviation from the Gospel of the grace of God.
• In fact, the theme of 1 Peter is “the true grace of God” (1 Peter 5:12); and the word grace is used in every chapter of the letter.
• Peter is careful to point out that he and Paul were in complete agreement, lest anyone try to “rob Peter to pay Paul”
  
  
• Ask yourself:
  1) Have I been saved by the grace of God?
  2) Am I trying to mix Law and grace?
  3) Am I rejoicing in the fact that I have been justified by faith in Christ Jesus?
  4) Am I walking in the freedom of grace?
  5) Am I walking by the Spirit (that aligns with the Truth of the Gospel)?
  6) Am I willing to walk by the Spirit in defense of the Gospel?

[1] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ga 2:11–13). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 694). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 695). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Campbell, D. K. (1985). Galatians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 596). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[5] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 695). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 696). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[7] Campbell, D. K. (1985). Galatians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 596). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Ga 2:1–21). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Barry, J. D., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible (Ga 2:21). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.