• 4 months ago
Transcript
00:00There are more than 45,000 self-help books published each year, over 200,000
00:07podcasts in the personal development category. But what if I told you all pale
00:12in comparison to the spiritual development one small book can have on
00:16your life and faith? Just six chapters, 2,000 words and 20 minutes of your time.
00:22Yet its impact lasts a lifetime. It succinctly and powerfully explains what
00:29it means to believe and how to discover God's calling for you. How to find
00:34purpose, overcome obstacles, connect with others, claim a life you love, endure
00:40difficulty, experience the fullness of life, love without limits, and ultimately
00:46be the follower of Christ you've always wanted to be. Join me in God's Word as we
00:52find the proven way to build a belief that thrives, impacts, and endures. A
00:58belief that behaves. It all starts with the book of Ephesians.
01:06Coming up on Turning Point. The word teacher associated with Jesus Christ is
01:12in the New Testament 45 times. He's not just your Lord, he's not just your Savior,
01:17he's not just your friend, he's your teacher. And if you sit at the feet of
01:23Jesus, you will grow and the new man will be increased and the old man will
01:27be pushed out. Discover a belief that restores, relates, rejoices, and behaves in
01:35Dr. David Jeremiah's new book, Belief That Behaves, the book of Ephesians. In this
01:40rich study of Paul's beloved epistle, Dr. Jeremiah explores what it means to be a
01:44follower of Christ in practical terms and how we should act or behave as
01:49believers. Through 19 chapters, you'll discover God's how-to guide to the
01:53Christian life, including resolving conflict with others, successful marriage
01:57and parenting, finding purpose, overcoming spiritual attacks, and praying
02:01effectively. Ephesians has the power to change your life at home, at church, and
02:06at work. Request Belief That Behaves by Dr. Jeremiah when you give a gift of any
02:11amount in support of Turning Point. Or if you give a gift of $75 or more, Dr.
02:16Jeremiah will send you in appreciation the Belief That Behaves set, which
02:20contains his new book, his complete two-volume teaching series on your choice
02:24of CD or DVD, and two correlating study guides. From the first verse to the last,
02:29the truths contained in Ephesians will fill your heart with joy and strengthen
02:33your relationships with others. Request the Belief That Behaves book or study set,
02:37new from Dr. Jeremiah, when you contact Turning Point today.
02:41Thank you for watching Turning Point. And now, here is Dr. Jeremiah with his
02:49message, The New and the Old. To the Ephesian Christians and to us, Paul is
02:57going to give us three imperatives in this section of his letter. He's going to
03:02tell us three things. Number one, expel the old man. Now, let me just stop for a
03:06moment and remind everybody that when you become a Christian, you don't lose
03:10your old nature. And if you don't believe that's true, ask your husband or
03:14wife and they'll confirm it. The old nature doesn't go away, but we get Jesus
03:20Christ and the new nature comes. Some people say, I don't understand that. How
03:24could that be true? You're a Christian and you have all these issues. Well, I'm
03:27not going to go there, but this afternoon when you get a chance, read the seventh
03:31chapter of Romans. Probably the greatest Christian who ever lived was Paul, and he
03:35struggled with this battle because when you become a Christian, the old nature
03:41doesn't go away. You just get a new nature. Before you were saved, you didn't
03:45have any option except to be a slave to the old nature. Now you have the new
03:49nature and you have an option. The Holy Spirit comes to live within you. And
03:52there's a little poem I quote whenever I get to this point. It goes like this,
03:56two natures beat within my breast. The one is foul, the one is blessed. The one I love,
04:02the one I hate, the one I feed will dominate. And that's what happens when
04:07you become a Christian. We're going to fall. We're going to make mistakes. We're
04:10going to sin. But thank God we have forgiveness and thank God we have the
04:14Holy Spirit living within us and he renews us. So it's important that you
04:19understand that. And if you skip down to verse 22, notice Paul's instructions to
04:24the Ephesians about how to deal with their old man. He says in verse 22, put
04:30off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to
04:35the deceitful lusts. Dr. C.I. Schofield, who is famous for his annotated Bible,
04:41said that when we speak of the old man in the New Testament, the best way to
04:45understand it is to speak of him as the man of old. In other words, the man the
04:50Christian used to be. When you speak about the old man in the New Testament,
04:54you're talking about the flesh. And you know what the flesh is? Take the H off of
04:58it and spell it backwards and it's self. The flesh is who you are apart from
05:03Christ. The flesh is who you are before you become a Christian. And the Bible
05:07says that even though you become a Christian, some of those things that were
05:10true of you before you became a Christian still can have a sway in your
05:15life if you allow them. So Paul says, put him off. It's not a process word. It's an
05:21action word. It means to take a definitive action and put off the old
05:25man. Stop living according to the manner of life which was your manner of life
05:30before Christ came into your life. I hope I'm speaking to somebody today. You came
05:35to church and you're a Christian, but you know you're not living the life that you
05:39should live, and you wonder what's going on. Well, you're giving attention to the
05:42wrong influence in your life. The phrase here that Paul uses is your former
05:47conduct. And though our sinful nature no longer has authority to enslave us, he
05:52doesn't have the authority to enslave us, the old man, we can still choose to
05:57submit to his domination. Isn't that true? If we become Christians, if we're not
06:00careful, we get careless. We stop reading our Bible. We start thinking about the
06:05things of old. We're still Christians, but we're feeding the old man. Remember,
06:09it's the nature you feed that dominates. And there are so many ways that you live
06:15as a Christian, even in this day and age, where the things that would feed the old
06:20nature are so available. Have you noticed that? Now, with the presence of the
06:24internet, this whole issue is far more important than it's ever been. You have
06:30to take definitive action and say, I'm not going to allow that in my life. If
06:35you don't feed the old nature, he will starve. But if you allow the old nature
06:40to be fed, it will continue to plague you, because now you have this conflict
06:45between the old nature and the new nature. Before you were a Christian, there
06:49was no conflict. You just were a slave to the old nature. You did whatever you
06:52felt, whatever the old nature said. But now the Holy Spirit's in your life. And
06:55it's so important to listen to these words from Paul. We're to put off the old
07:00manner of life. Now, in case you've forgotten what that was like, that old
07:04manner of life, Paul is going to give us some characteristics of what it's like
07:08to live without Christ. First of all, the old man is in philosophical despair.
07:16Verse 17 of the fourth chapter says this, you should no longer walk as the
07:21rest of the Gentiles walk, now here's the phrase, in the futility of their mind. The
07:27Greek word translated futility in this verse appears only two other times in
07:31the New Testament, and the King James translates the word vanity. The Bible
07:37says before Christ comes, you live in the vanity of your mind. I remind myself when
07:42I see that of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. You remember that
07:46book? Solomon wrote that book. The wisest man who ever lived did an expose of life
07:51as if there were no God. The book of Ecclesiastes has to be understood
07:55properly. This is Solomon's investigation into life if God is not in the picture.
08:00And you know what he says? The famous phrase of the book is vanity, vanity, all
08:05is vanity. The word means emptiness. Emptiness, emptiness, all is emptiness,
08:11says Solomon. And Paul says that characterizes the old man. That's the way
08:17you are before you come to Christ. Everything you try, it just, it leaves you
08:20empty. It leaves you unsatisfied. I remember reading these chilling words
08:25from a college student in the midst of his philosophical despair. Here's what he
08:30wrote. To anyone in the world who cares, who am I? Why am I living? Life has become
08:38stupid and purposeless. Nothing makes sense anymore. The questions I had when I
08:42came to college are still unanswered, and now I am convinced there are no answers.
08:47There can only be pain and guilt and despair here in this world. My fear of
08:52death and the unknown is far less terrifying than the prospect of the
08:56unbearable frustration, futility, and hopelessness of my continued existence.
09:02That's the way it is for so many people until Christ comes. You see, God creates
09:07us, every one of us, with a space in our heart that only God can fill. We are built
09:15for Christ, and when Christ is not there, life doesn't work right. When you put
09:20Christ in the space that was created in you for him, life begins to make sense.
09:25There's kind of an integration that takes place with all that you are. But
09:29until Christ is there, and you know what happens today, men and women, we try to
09:33stuff that empty place with everything, don't we? We stuff it with pleasure, we
09:37stuff it with prominence, we stuff it with money, we stuff it with sex. We think,
09:41if I can just do this, then I'll be satisfied. I say it with the authority of
09:45the Word of God, until Jesus Christ is in your life, until the new man inhabits the
09:50place for which he was created, you can never be satisfied. The Bible says it
09:56this way, Psalm 94 11, the Lord knows the thoughts of man that they are futile.
10:03Before you become a Christian, you have this philosophical despair. And then in
10:07verse 18, the understanding is darkened. Paul told the Corinthians that those who
10:12do not know Christ are those whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do
10:19not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
10:23of God, should shine on them. And he described the condition of men in the
10:28last days in this way. Listen to this. They're always learning, but never able
10:34to come to the knowledge of the truth. Does that not describe so much of what's
10:38going on in our world today? Always learning. We are so intellectual. We are
10:42the elite. We're the geniuses of the world. We're always learning, and we just
10:48never get to the truth. Without the truth, who is the truth? I am the way, the truth,
10:53and the life, said the Lord Jesus. He is the truth. Without Jesus Christ, it's just
10:58mental darkness. In his letter to the Romans, Paul adds this descriptive note.
11:02Although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but
11:08became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
11:12Professing to be wise, they became fools. What a description. At this point, it is
11:19important to note that Paul's primary emphasis is not with a list of sins that
11:24we have done in the past, but he's trying to help us understand how we
11:28functioned without Christ. It's a distortion and a disorientation of the
11:33mind. And then notice verse 18, spiritual disconnectedness. This is a very
11:39powerful phrase. Being alienated from the life of God. Being alienated from the
11:46life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness
11:50of their heart. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Until you are connected
11:55with him, you are living in darkness. Jesus said, and this is the condemnation,
11:59that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light
12:05because their deeds were evil. Now, let me tell you a short story about a
12:11brilliant woman who had her hard heart transformed by the living God. Her name
12:17is Dr. Rosalyn Picard, and she is credited with starting an entire branch
12:23of engineering science known as effective computing. Back in high school,
12:28Rosalyn was a committed atheist, leading debates in favor of the case for
12:33evolution, dismissing those who didn't agree with her, kind of canceling them
12:38out. One night, Rosalyn babysat for a doctor and his wife, and as they paid her
12:44at the end of the evening, they invited her to church. Rosalyn begged off, but
12:48eventually she accepted their suggestion to read the Bible, especially the book of
12:53Proverbs. So, this brilliant woman, to her surprise, said Proverbs was full of
13:00wisdom. I actually had to stop sometimes when I was reading it and think. Rosalyn
13:06read the entire Bible, and it intrigued her more than she could have imagined.
13:11She said, reading the Bible a second time, I was conflicted. I didn't want to
13:16believe in God, but I still felt a peculiar sense of love and presence when
13:21I read that book. I couldn't ignore it. In college, a friend invited her to church,
13:26and she made Christ the Lord of her life. She said, my world changed dramatically, as
13:32if a flat black-and-white existence suddenly turned into full color. I once
13:38thought I was too smart to believe in God. Now I know I was an arrogant fool who
13:43snubbed the greatest mind in the cosmos, the author of all science, mathematics,
13:48and everything else there is to know. A total change. Now the new man has come to
13:54live in her life. So, before you know Christ, you are in philosophical despair,
14:00mental darkness, spiritual disconnectedness, alienated from the
14:05presence of God, says Paul. And you're in moral deterioration. Verse 19 says,
14:10who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all
14:15uncleanness with greediness. Notice that last phrase, with greediness. The
14:22inevitable result of leaving God out of one's life is that life for that person
14:27begins to deteriorate. Listen to the way the psalmist puts all this together. He
14:32says, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they
14:36have done abominable works, and there is none who does good. The phrase in this
14:41verse that's very interesting to me is the phrase, past feeling. And it sort of
14:45describes what you and I are watching now in our culture here in America. Every
14:49day in the news there's an illustration of people who are living their lives in
14:54evil that is past the feeling of evil in their life. They become hardened, callous
14:59to what really is true. Then he says the reason that happens to us is we switch
15:03from being concerned about God and we become greedy. Paul says those who are
15:10past feeling work hard at their evil pursuits. They do it out of greediness.
15:14The motive is money. The Bible says when you don't have God in your life, that's
15:18where you head. That's where you end up. And we're living in a culture today that
15:22is gradually becoming past feeling.
15:27Well, enough of the old man. Can I get a witness? Let's talk about the new man. The
15:33Bible says when you become a Christian, you move from the negative to the
15:37positive. Ephesians 4 24 says, put on the new man, which was created in holiness
15:43according to God in righteousness and holiness. I like what one commentator
15:48wrote about this verse. He said, here we must keep in mind that we do not put on
15:52the new man merely by putting off the old. We need to put on love. We need to
15:57put on peace. We need to put on joy and put on patience. For example, he said, I
16:01may have lost my temper with my children and I have repented and put it off, but I
16:07have not completed my responsibility until I have put on love and patience.
16:12You see, we're replacing a bad thing with a good thing. When the Bible says put it
16:16off, that's not the end of the journey. Put it off, but put something in its
16:19place. If you don't, the old will come back into the vacuum and continue to
16:24dominate your life. So, here are the things about the new man. The new man has
16:29a new connection. Verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ. Instead of
16:34philosophical despair, the new man has a new connection with Jesus. When a person
16:39becomes a Christian, they take off despair and discouragement and they put
16:42on Jesus Christ. In contrast to the alienation from God in the old life, Paul
16:48writes of the connection with God in the new life. He does not write, you have not
16:53so learned Christianity. He writes, you have not so learned Christ, because you
16:58see the walk of the new man is not an adherence to some religious system.
17:02Christianity, men and women, is not a religion. A religion is an attempt to
17:07reach up to God with your good life. Christianity is God having reached down
17:11to us to forgive our sins so that we can have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I
17:15am not a religionist. I have a relationship with Jesus. Amen? So, to be
17:20connected to Jesus means to be connected to hope. When you become a Christian,
17:25you're no longer separated from God. You have a relationship with God through his
17:30Son. You confess your sin and you are forgiven. Then he says, you not only have
17:35a new connection, you have a new conviction. Ephesians 421, if indeed you
17:40have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, if that is
17:46true, if all these things have happened, you have a new conviction. Notice when
17:51you read these words, there are three things that stand out about Christ. Paul
17:55said, you Ephesians have learned Christ, you have heard Christ, and you've been
18:00taught by Christ. As a new Christian, you have a new curriculum. Your curriculum is
18:06God. Your curriculum is the Word of God. The new man recognizes Jesus as their
18:10master teacher. They come to the Word of God and realize they're being taught by
18:14the Son of God himself. The Bible said, you call me teacher and Lord, and you say
18:19well, for so I am, said Jesus. I am teacher and Lord. The word teacher
18:25associated with Jesus Christ is in the New Testament 45 times. He's not just
18:30your Lord. He's not just your Savior. He's not just your friend. He's your
18:34teacher, and if you sit at the feet of Jesus, you will grow, and the new man
18:40will be increased, and the old man will be pushed out. You see, when it comes to
18:45this replacement situation, you don't just say, I'm gonna move the old man out.
18:50You push him out. The new man becomes so big there's no room for the old man to
18:55live in your life anymore. That's what you, if you concentrate on, I'm gonna
18:58defeat the old man. No, just build a new man, and the old man will get so
19:02uncomfortable he'll move out, and he'll leave you alone. Just as the King of
19:07kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ is the teacher of teachers, the supreme
19:12educator for all of us from whom we may learn. If we're living defeated lives,
19:17it's not because God's power is not enough. We're not taking advantage of it.
19:21Have you ever said, last year I didn't, but by the grace of God this year I will?
19:28That's the decision that has to happen in your life. You have to look at the
19:32things that you know belong to the old life, put them off, and replace them with
19:37something better. You don't just get rid of the old things, you replace them with
19:41new things. You have a new connection, a new conviction, and then you have a new
19:47creation. Verse 24 says, put on the new man which was created according to God
19:51in true righteousness and holiness. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and he said it
19:56this way, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. All things have passed away,
20:01behold, all things become new. The old man produces corruption, and the new man
20:07creates righteousness. That's just what it says in the Bible, and it's true. If
20:12you cater to the old man, I can tell you where you're going, and I can pretty much
20:16promise you where you'll end up. But if you feed the new man, you're on a journey
20:20of blessedness. How many of you know it's one thing to go to heaven, and we're all
20:24excited about that. But did you know that God wants you to enjoy the journey? He
20:28didn't want you to just say, okay, I'm gonna live in this moral corruption that I live in, and one day I'll go to heaven and I'll be right. That's not God's plan for your life. The Bible says, I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it, what, more abundantly. And that life is the life where the new nature is reigning in your life. Now, I've talked about these two things, expelling the old man and embracing the new man. One last thing in this
20:54lesson, and this is the key to it all. Empower the inner man. Sandwiched between putting off the old and putting on the new is verse 23. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. In Corinthians, the apostle said something similar. Therefore, we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. It is through the reviewing and renewing of our mind that the old man is finally and
21:24completely put away, and the new man is finally and completely put on. All the things we have learned before Christ are replaced with a new way of thinking. You know, Satan knows that if we are men and women of the book, if we are renewing our minds with the Scripture, Satan knows that he cannot overcome that. So, what does he do? He does everything in his power to keep us from doing that. Why is it that when you make a decision you're gonna read the Bible more in the new year,
21:53you get into about the second week, and all kinds of things start getting in your way, and maybe your hours change at work, and the enemy knows that if you become a lover of the Word of God and a student of the Word of God, that there's nothing Satan can do to destroy you. So, what does he do? He keeps you from that. Isn't it interesting how often that happens? And I've experienced it, as all of you have. The best commentary on this truth is found in Romans 12. Watch carefully, and watch what I put in the verse.
22:24I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
22:36That's embracing the new man right there. And do not be conformed to this world. That's expelling the old man.
22:44But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God, empowering the inner man.
22:54When the Bible says to renew your mind, it is talking about the complete renovation and replacement of what was formerly present with something better.
23:04When you renovate an apartment or a building, you tear out all the old materials that don't fit into the new design.
23:10And if it does not fall within the plan, you throw it out and replace it with something that does fit into the plan.
23:16This is what happens when we have our minds renewed.
23:19We take out all the stuff that previously occupied our mind and we replace it with what is in line with God's plan for our lives.
23:28When we fill our minds with the Word of God, which contains the mind of God, it helps us discover what he wants us to do.
23:35What I'm telling you is this is God's will for your life.
23:39And when you make God's will for your life a part of your daily schedule and you have a place and a purpose, what you're doing and you say,
23:46well, I read the Bible and sometimes I don't understand it.
23:50Me too.
23:52But I read it anyway, because I know that if I read it, as I read it, something I might not understand here,
23:58I begin to understand here.
24:00And the constant refreshing of my mind with the Word of God, washing over my soul,
24:05begins to push out the things that trouble me.
24:07You know, one of the greatest things you can do if you have anxiety is read the Word of God.
24:13One of the greatest things you can do if you're struggling with temptation is read the Word of God. You say, well,
24:18Pastor Jeremiah, I was doing really good till I got to Leviticus and then I got discouraged.
24:23Well, I understand that. Read Leviticus the best you can out loud
24:28and get on to the next book.
24:30But without the reading of the Word of God, without the input of God's truth,
24:34it's really hard. I don't know any other way to renew your mind. There's no place you can go and get a mind renewal.
24:41You have to do it by replacing the old with the new.
24:46When you become people of the Word, what happens is it's an imperceptible thing.
24:52You read the Bible and all of a sudden you recognize that some of the temptations from the old man no longer
24:58have any bite in your life.
25:00What happens when you allow the Holy Spirit to come and live in your life and you feed the new man?
25:05You start to lose your taste
25:07for the old things.
25:09You just, you don't really think about it so much as you just want to do that anymore because
25:14the Holy Spirit has taken this Word and filled you with new desires
25:18and the old no longer has anything you want.
25:23And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the key
25:26to the Christian life.
25:27Put off the old man,
25:29decisively, and put on the new man.
25:40Thank you for watching Turning Point. When you give a gift of any amount in support of this program,
25:45Dr. Jeremiah will send you, in appreciation, his new book, Belief That Behaves, The Book of Ephesians.
25:52And if you give a gift of $75 or more, Dr.
25:55Jeremiah will send you The Belief That Behaves Set, which contains his new book, his complete two-volume teaching series on CD or DVD,
26:04and two correlating study guides.
26:06Thank you for your support. Request these resources when you contact Turning Point today.
26:14Thank you for joining us on Turning Point as Dr.
26:17Jeremiah taught from the Book of Ephesians and shared the many blessings that believers have through Christ.
26:23But if you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ before,
26:26Dr. Jeremiah would like to help you take your first steps by sending you two resources.
26:31The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will help you begin your relationship with Christ.
26:37And the second is our monthly devotional magazine, Turning Points, to give you encouragement and inspiration throughout the year.
26:44These resources are yours completely free when you contact Turning Point today.
26:53In addition, you can order Dr.
26:55Jeremiah's legacy work, The Jeremiah Study Bible, a beloved study Bible and the culmination of Dr.
27:01Jeremiah's decades of teaching, helping you to answer, What does the Bible say? What does it mean? And what does it mean for me?
27:09Available in multiple translations and formats, there is a Jeremiah Study Bible for everyone.
27:15Also available for children, Dr. Jeremiah's Airship Genesis Kid Study Bible. Order yours today.
27:23Next time on Turning Point.
27:27We should be the greatest encouragers on the planet. We know the ultimate answer.
27:33We don't live in the fear of death. We know that God has created for us a way
27:38to heaven and a way of life as we go to heaven. And of all of the things we should be, we should be encouraging other people.
27:47Thank you for being with us today. Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his message,
27:52a new lifestyle.
27:56Here on Turning Point.
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28:01David Jeremiah is delivering the unchanging word of God every month to more than half a million homes through Turning Point's magazine and devotional.
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