You're New [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Jesus was stripped. He wasn't just stripped of a tunic.

He was stripped of His glory and majesty and counting equality with God, a thing not to be grasped. He emptied Himself, and He took the cross. But this time it was no accident, and it was no act of deception.

The Father knew what He was doing. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Ephesians as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org.

That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. He immediately tends to think that what has happened here is that the other man had had an affair with Desdemona, and then he got the handkerchief from her, and then he gave it to another woman. So his thinking, it becomes very clouded because of his jealousy. In other words, because you could say the spirit of his mind was a jealous spirit, that he was predisposed to have thoughts that would match the spirit of his mind. And it ends in one of the saddest moments of Shakespearean tragedy where Othello actually ends up smothering to death the woman that he loved with all of his heart because the spirit of his mind had been distorted and so his thoughts were completely wrong.

Let me give you another example on the positive side of this. In a few weeks, I'll have the privilege of officiating my nephew's wedding. And so I'll be standing there again in the best seat in the house right next to the groom because I get to watch the bride come down and I get to stand right next almost to hear the heartbeat of the groom. And I always like to stand there and think, what is that groom thinking right now? As they fling open those doors and there stands every bride is so radiant and so beautiful and there she stands and the music fills the sanctuary and they begin making their way down a long aisle and I begin to think, what is this groom thinking right now? And you know what he's thinking. He's thinking something like, oh, she's so beautiful. Oh, I'm such a blessed man.

Oh, what a day this is. Maybe he's thinking, I can't wait till this is over and we go on the honeymoon. But whatever he's thinking, I can be sure of this, what he's not thinking. He's not standing up there going, well, she doesn't look that good. He's not standing there going, oh, I can't believe she's on time. She's late for everything. I thought she'd be late for our own wedding. He's probably not thinking that. He's probably not sitting there going, you know, our honeymoon's probably going to stink.

You know, I can't wait to get back to work. I don't even want to go on. So he's not thinking like that.

Why? Because love so fills his heart that it shapes every one of his thoughts. You see, I'm saying the spirit of his mind is a spirit of love and the spirit of love is something that's deeper than his individual thoughts. It is something that is shaping the way he thinks.

So I think this is what Paul's talking about. He said, you're being renewed in the spirit of your mind. Everything that he has said in chapters one, two, and three is about the renewing of the spirit of your mind, of the way in which you look at your life, the way in which you understand your life, and the way you understand yourself. So if you wake up in the morning and you say to yourself, Ephesians chapters one, two, and three, if you begin to just see yourself in this way, that I have been redeemed by a cosmic plan that was set upon me because of the majestic and eternal love of God, that I have been redeemed, I have been forgiven, I have been sealed, I have been justified, I have become the very dwelling place of God himself, and I'm no longer an orphan, but I am an heir of unsearchable riches. You see, if you think like that, isn't that going to change every other thought that you have? It's like saying the spirit of the mind is what is the deep motivational force behind all of your thoughts.

That, Paul says, is being renewed day by day by the power of the gospel through the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. That's what he's talking about. Now, in order to in order to make sense of this, he is saying, therefore, you put off the old and you put on the new, the Christian life.

Let's be clear about this. He's not saying is about your behaviors, ethical behaviors and morality. He's not saying that's what it's about. And he's not even saying that it's about your particular thoughts, whether they be sinful or not. He's saying that the Christian life is fueled by energized by by something that is deeper than that. But when the spirit of your mind is renewed, it changes everything. See, the problem with law based Christianity and and legalism itself is is that it actually causes us to change too little. You see, a lot of people that totally misunderstand Christianity and people that are outside of Christianity, they if you ask them, they tend to think, well, I don't know if I could be a Christian or if I can be such a good person.

You know, Christianity is not about making people nice. It's about making people new. And and and the process that takes place, therefore, is really like this. The spirit of your mind changes. Therefore, your thinking patterns change and and because your thoughts change, all your behaviors change.

Put off the old and put on the new. Early church father, Saint Augustine, the fourth century divine, and he was before he knew Christ. He was quite promiscuous and and probably had a sex addiction. And after he'd come to know Christ some years later, a former mistress came and approached him. And when Augustine declined her, she looked at him and she said, But Augustine, it is I. And he turned back around famously and said, I know, but it is not I. That's not who I am. You want to know how you're going to overcome besetting sin and temptation in your life is when you got a stronger voice that comes from the spirit of your mind saying, That's not who I am. That's just not who I am.

You're made for more than that. Put off, put on. Two really important points about about the words that Paul is using here. The first is to say those verbs that he used describing putting off old clothes, putting on new clothes, that it is it uses a Greek tense that signifies an accomplished action. The Aries tense in Greek means it is referencing a finished action, even if there is an exhortation in it.

It's like saying this has happened. You've put off the old and you've put on the new. And the second thing that's really important to know about this is that the actual word that for self that the English standard version translates self is actually the Greek word anthropos, which means man. And though I really think the English standard version is absolutely one of the best English translations we have, I really in this instance would prefer the old language of the King James that says put off the old man and put on the new man. Literally it says literally what Paul says is put off your old man, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man.

You see that this is important. If you think with me about the image that is one of the threads that ties together the redemptive story of God in His word. This is where I'm talking about reading your Bible, and when you get an image like put off and put on, see it in the context. Where does this fit in to the whole big story of redemption?

Here's where it fits in. It starts in Genesis in chapter 3, right in the opening pages of the Bible, because what happens is that Adam and Eve, when they sin, the first thing that they experience, the first toxic emotion that they experience is shame. They feel afraid of each other, and they feel afraid of God. What are they afraid of? They're afraid of rejection. They're afraid that now I'm aware there's something wrong with me. There's something that's flawed about me.

I've done something that's wrong, and therefore I don't feel guaranteed that I can be accepted. That's what shame does, and that's what they experience. And so the first thing they do is they begin to hide, and the text says that they sowed some leaves of some kind together for some kind of inadequate clothing to cover themselves. And what God says to them is very interesting. God says to Adam, He says, Where are you? And Adam says, I hid myself in the garden because I was naked and I was afraid. And God says, Who told you you were naked? Now if you were just reading this story for the first time, and you had seen that God had given this command to eat of any of the fruit that they wanted to except for this one tree, and they had directly disobeyed God, and God had said that there would be a terrible price that would be paid, that it would certainly bring death into the world. And you saw this happen, and then you saw Adam hiding from God. What you would expect God to do next would be to strike him down. If you were just reading the story from the beginning, you'd expect him just to strike him down. So they disobeyed.

It didn't work. I'm starting over. And you would expect him also to say, Who told you you were naked? I'll be the one to tell you how to live, and you don't need any clothing.

But that's not what he says at all. When you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire Transformational Ephesians series, but we'll also send you a printable copy of Pastor Alan's booklet highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ. Make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life.

Isn't it time to finally find out who you really are? The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. God Himself, the text says, made them clothing. In fact, what the text actually says is the Lord God, this is Genesis 3 21, made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them. And so what happens here is an act of mercy in the midst of the initial sin that brought the fall of the world. What you see is the heart of God. You know what God was doing here? He was slaying an innocent animal and using the skin of that animal to cover the shame of those who had sinned. In other words, one died who was innocent and through that death, the shame and nakedness of those who had sinned was covered. You know what God was saying? He's essentially saying to Adam and Eve, beloved, you do need to be covered. You do need to be covered, but you need to be covered more fully and more adequately and more deeply and more wonderfully than you are with those leaves.

I have a better covering for you. And so it began to prefigure from that time on what would become a thematic thread of the gospel that began to weave together the whole redemptive story. This phrase garment of skin does not appear again though until a beloved story of mine, the story of Jacob and Esau. And in the story of Jacob and Esau, you hear me talk about it often and maybe you're familiar with this story, Jacob and Esau are twin brothers. And Esau was born first, so he's the firstborn and the firstborn was especially beloved in that culture. And as the firstborn, he would receive a special blessing from his father at an appointed time and nearing his father's death, the father would issue a double portion of the inheritance to Esau, the firstborn. And Jacob lived his whole life feeling unblessed, feeling second class, feeling ashamed, and always trying to maneuver, connive, and deceive in order to put himself into the position of being blessed, not knowing that it had been prophesied that Jacob would be the one most blessed.

In other words, he was blessed and didn't know it and so he lived like an orphan even though he was an heir. And so the time came for this very special impartation of the blessing in which Isaac would speak over his firstborn son Esau, the special favorite words and release this inheritance into his life. And Isaac was old and he was blinded and so Rebecca who favored Jacob conspired with Jacob for a plan. Why don't you go in and you can try to trick your father into believing that you're actually Esau. And realizing that Esau had hairy skin and wore different kind of clothes and smelled differently because he's always out in the earth and working and hunting. And they conspired that here's how they were going to trick the father. They would put onto Jacob Esau's clothes and they would put on him garments of skin.

There's that exact word phrase that was used in Genesis chapter 3. Put on him garments of skin. And so we go in and he had these animal skin garments on that made him feel hairy like Esau. And he had Esau's clothing on that smelled like Esau. And so at first Isaac says the voice doesn't sound like my son Esau.

Draw near and kiss me. And the Bible says that when he drew near to kiss him that Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and said ah the smell of my son. The smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. And he said this must be my son. He was tricked because the clothing and the garments of skin made him think it was the favored son. And he spoke the blessing over Jacob even though Jacob didn't deserve it. Do you understand what the significance of this story is? The one who did not deserve to be blessed was blessed because he had on the clothing of his big brother. The one who was a conniver and a deceiver and a cheat and a sinner. He received his father's blessing and became a rich heir because he was adorned as if he was the firstborn son of the father.

And so this thing continues. The priests, you see this language, they put on this tunic. This tunic that was described as a garment of skin and literally meant something that came from the shoulders to the ankles. This tunic that was described as this garment that Jacob put on. And now the priest in Leviticus chapter 7 you'll see the image they're required to wear a special tunic in order to enter the presence of the Lord. And in fact in Leviticus 7 verse 8 a fascinating text that says that after the burnt offering is made the priest would have the right to wear the skin of the animal who was sacrificed. Oh Isaiah the prophet prophesied this in chapter 61 that God will provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes the oil of joy instead of mourning a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

Sometimes look at Zechariah chapter 3 or Psalm 30 you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. Then Jesus comes and in one of his pivotal parables he tells about a great wedding banquet. He always is describing heaven like a great wedding party because it's the biggest, most joyous festivity known to the mid-easterners. And so in the midst of throwing a big wedding party this king issues invitations to all of the noblemen and nobody comes because they're too busy with their businesses and their other pursuits in life. So he sends his servants out and says go to the highways and the byways and just bring anybody in.

Bring the ones that are bring the ones that don't deserve to be here, bring them here. And it's this beautiful story of this party all these people that don't deserve to be in the royal banquet hall and yet they're there. But then it takes a strange twist because there's this one person who doesn't have on any wedding garments and the master comes and says why does this one not have on a wedding garment and there's no response Jesus says. And so then the king says take him and throw him out of this.

And you wonder why is that the case? It's because the ancient custom for kings was if they invited you to a party and you didn't have suitable wedding attire they provided the wedding garment for you. This is a picture of nobody had the right wedding garments to wear. He was bringing them from the highways and the byways but he brought them in and he not only provided the party but he provided the clothes to wear. Another important story Jesus says there's a father he had two sons and one of them went off and he squandered all of his inheritance and wild and reckless living amongst prostitutes and was amongst the pigs and came to his senses he came home and his father saw his son in rags and the first thing he did was he said bring the robe and put it on him. I want him dressed not as one who is ashamed but I want him dressed as one who belongs here.

Do you see what God is showing? He never wanted you nor did he want Adam and Eve to ever bear their own shame. He wanted you to be covered and not just any covering for what happened was that Jesus as he hung upon the cross he was stripped. It's so strange that they divided up his garments and yet this one item the tunic this garment that goes from the shoulders all the way to the ankles that we've been seeing run all the way through the bible but it's so strange through the bible all the way from Adam and Eve through Jacob and Esau to Joseph's multicolored coat to the tunic that the priest would wear and it said in fulfillment of Psalm 22 it said but when they came to this tunic of his this inner garment of his they they didn't tear it up it was it was either seamless or one big seam or they couldn't divide it so they cast lots. What I'm saying is that Jesus was stripped it wasn't just stripped of a tunic he was stripped of his glory and majesty and counting equality with God a thing not to be grasped he emptied himself and he took the cross but this time it was no accident and it was no act of deception the father knew what he was doing for the clothing of Jesus the clothing of his righteousness the clothing of his right standing perfect right standing with the father the clothing of one who deserved to be blessed was exchanged for blood and torn flesh and nakedness where upon every demon of hell had opportunity to shame him and mock him so that his covering could be given to you so that after his resurrection he could come to the disciples and say stay in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power kind of makes you feel a little different about put off the old man the first Adam and put on the new man because the new man is Jesus himself you beloved have not only been forgiven and justified by the blood of Jesus but you're all the priests and you're entitled to wear the covering of the one who was slain in your behalf you are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ so when the tempter comes and says but it is I you just turn and say I know but it is not I for you beloved have been invited to a royal banquet and you've been given the right clothes to wear so don't be ashamed just have your fill and that's the gospel Alan Wright and today's teaching you're new it's from the series Ephesians and Alan is in the studio and back here in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word unlock the power of blessing your life discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Alan Wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor alan.org just who do you think you are and really think about it how do you see yourself if you see yourself as worthless then you might as well do nothing worthwhile but if you see yourself as treasured then you'll invest yourself with joy if you see yourself as a sinner cursed by your failures then you'll be anxious and exhausted but if you see yourself as a saint blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ then you'll be confident and free how you see yourself determines how you live in an 11 message series pastor Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling journey through the letter to the Ephesians it'll flood your soul with good news and empower you to discover who you are in Christ when you make your donation to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll not only send you the digital downloads of the entire transformational Ephesian series but we'll also send you a printable copy of pastor Alan's booklet highlighting the most important scriptures about your identity in Christ make your gift today and discover a whole new way of seeing your life isn't it time to finally find out who you really are the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today we will send you today's special offer we are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org a fresh start so many of us are looking for that and some of us looking in the wrong places but when you run to Jesus and find that fresh start there not only is there a clean slate but he equips you and he wraps you in his love and that's the image he wraps you up um the really the image that we're I want every listener to focus in on this and just see it it's like the old clothes the old sin nature it's taken off and the the right clothing the clothing you need the clothing that fits who you really are now in Christ and that is the righteousness of Christ you're clothed in his righteousness and this is what makes you um acceptable because you didn't make yourself acceptable God did and in this sense the old is gone and the new has come today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries