Old Man/New Man, Part 1

Pastor Martin recalls the J-E-S-U-S acrostic 'Jesus just exactly suits us sinners' as a simple summary that Christ provides a salvation perfectly proportioned to every dimension of human need.

E-S-U-S. And from that sets forth this simple statement, Jesus just exactly suits us sinners. And in a very real sense, that's the whole teaching of the Word of God. That in the Lord Jesus Christ is a Savior, Jesus just exactly suited to us sinners.

1:29 - 1:56 Read in full sermon

The vivid imagery of Colossians 3 is the daily activity of taking off one set of clothes and putting on another - an image even the youngest child understands, applied to the believer's identity change.

Put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man that is being renewed. Now the imagery, I say, is very vivid, and it's something to which the youngest child here, who can understand even half of my words this morning, can relate. It is the imagery of what you did when you got up this morning. You still had your pajamas on. So if you were going to get dressed, for Sunday school and church, you had first of all to get undressed with reference to your night clothes. And the language of this text is exactly the language any person would use when he said, I went home and I undresse...

18:13 - 19:07 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Augustine turned and said, 'Yes, but it is no longer I.'

Augustine, after his conversion, met a former lover on the street. He walked past without recognition. She called, 'Augustine, it is I!' He turned and replied, 'Yes, but it is no longer I.' The classic illustration of new-man identity.

Augustine had a very godly mother who prayed for him. Her name was Monica. But in spite of her instruction in prayers, Augustine became a very wicked, profligate, immoral man. And in the course of his years of sinful immorality, he had more than one lover.

36:04 - 36:22 Read in full sermon

The point: When tempted, say with Augustine, 'It is no longer I' - and act on the new identity rather than the old habit.

He distinguishes biblical reckoning from psychological self-pumping - this is not the athlete telling himself 'you're the greatest' but a believer resting on redemptive realities far beyond feelings.

I mean, it is sort of like the athlete who goes out there and psychs himself up and pumps himself up and tells himself, you're the greatest, you're going to put the shot the farthest, you're going to throw the javelin the greatest distance. Isn't it sort of self-psyching? No, no, my friend. It has no more relationship to that than bananas to blocks of gold. What this is, is the God-ordained framework of realizing in your experience that the sanctifying power of Jesus Christ. It is the God-ordained method of bringing you and me to enjoy in our experience the liberating power of the death of Chr...

39:36 - 40:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Take comfort in evidences of grace - even your grief over insufficient grief is a fruit of the new life.

Pastor Martin uses the biblical phrase to describe the believer's old life - free in regard of righteousness, drinking sin like a thirsty man drinks water. The new man finds that pattern broken.

When we lived and walked in the passions and lust of our flesh, we did in the language of Scripture drink iniquity like water. In the language of Romans 6.20, we were free in regard of righteousness. Apart from a few smitings of conscience here and there and some fleeting thoughts about the hell that may have awaited us at the end of it, it was no cause of grief and pain to us. And you see, it is in that very situation that we are feeling within us

43:02 - 43:30 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are about to be baptized, understand the rite as your public proclamation that the old man is buried and the new man is raised.

He applies the doctrine to those preparing for baptism - the rite itself proclaims old man buried with Christ and new man raised in Him.

Come to Christ in repentance and in faith. Put off the old. Put on the new. And of course this should have great significance for those of you who are to be baptized two weeks from today. Because in the previous context you remember he says it's in the very ordinance of baptism that you bear sacramental witness to this reality. Buried with him in baptism.

49:23 - 49:49 Read in full sermon