Life Can Get Better

Psalm 115:1-18; Ephesians 4:1-31 / Psalm 94:1-23

Dr. Edwin P. Elliott, Jr.

I. God Demands New Life

A. Saved people must distinguish themselves from lost people. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,” (Ephesians 4:17)

B. The unredeemed are unable to understand reality; the minds of such people do not process truth. “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” (Ephesians 4:18)

C. When people lose the categories necessary for perception, they simultaneously abandon their fear of consequences and carelessly grow increasingly evil. “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:19)

D. The saved and the unsaved function with conflicting mental operating systems so that unbelievers place the wrong meaning on what they experience. “They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Isaiah 44:18-20)

II. God Causes New Life

A. God changes the way the Christian functions; grace reverses the effects of the fall incrementally. “But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:20-24)

B. God takes away old thought processes and replaces them with new ones. “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

C. Jesus explicitly called on His disciples to give up what had failed, face the cost of faithfulness, and pattern after Him. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)

D. Interaction with God’s word inevitably transforms people. “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” (Psalm 19:7)

III. New Life Displays Changed Thinking and Behavior

A. Moving from falsehood to truth is an essential first step. “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” (Ephesians 4:25)

1. Lying traces its family heritage to Satan. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)

2. Truth is evidence of the presence of Jesus Who is Truth. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

B. Each bad behavior must be replaced with a righteous one; believers return good for evil. “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:9)

C. Part of what the new heart does is to identify what has been wrong in a believer’s life and then move in the opposite direction from vice to virtue. “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” (Ephesians 4:28)

D. One of the identifying marks of a genuine Christian congregation is the way in which the community fosters this process through its associations. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)