Here's How to Get Dressed, Part 3

Most of us can easily recall the mistakes of our past and the habits of our former lives. And yet, as Christians who are redeemed by God, those regrettable foibles have been cast away and no longer define us. Unless, of course, we continue to rehearse their memory and carry the shame. Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll teaches from Ephesians chapter 4, where Paul wrote, In reference to your former manner of life, lay aside the old self and put on the new self.

Chuck titled today's message, Here's How to Get Dressed. A darkened mind is a mind that exists apart from the light and the knowledge of God. This is not about the loss of intelligence in the sense of sheer technical, academic intelligence. It is the loss of spiritual perception, which explains how a person can be greatly intelligent and even sophisticated in technical knowledge and be absolutely at a loss, totally ignorant of spiritual things.

Ray Stedman writes, Why are we human beings ignorant? Because there is a part of our being that does not function. Our spiritual life. The human spirit is blank, darkened and obscured in our natural state apart from God. There is a part of our being, the part that God intended at creation to be the key to life, where nothing takes place. The spirit of humanity lost in sin is dead. As a result, all human knowledge is broken, unrelated, incomplete.

That is the picture Paul draws. And then he adds, We tend to take pride in our great civilization with its accomplishments, knowledge and technological wonders. But we have to ask ourselves, What has this vaunted civilization really done for us?

Do we feel safe on our streets at night? Have we solved the problems of crime, political corruption, racism, immorality and war? Are we any happier as a society than the ancient Egyptians or the ancient Greeks? If so, why are so many of us going to psychiatrists, taking drugs, getting drunk, getting divorced, battering spouses and children and committing suicide?

Why are all these problems rising instead of declining? Great questions. It's because there is a hardness of heart and a darkness of mind, which leads to a deadness of life. Verse 19 is vivid, and they, having become callous, there's the word, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Greediness. More, more.

It's never enough. That which drives the pornographer is the insatiable habit of those with the hunger for pornography never being quite satisfied. The greed goes deeper.

The boredom hits sooner, and there has to be something more until finally there is such a recklessness of life. There is an absence of shame. Few people put it better than Kent Hughes in one statement in his book. Our culture is hell-bent in its cavalier, reckless pursuit of sin.

It makes psychopaths its martyrs and drag queens its models. Paul portrays these horrible sights and rights of such. He saw hearts that were so hardened they weren't even aware they were sinning. He saw minds so blinded by sin that shame was lost and decency forgotten.

He saw morals so debauched and at the reckless mercy of their own desires they did not care whose life they injured or whose innocence they destroyed. And remember, you have the same nature within you they have within them. But you, verse 20, begins. I don't know if you've gone to a basketball game lately, but one of the things that's more popular to do nowadays, especially with umpires, when they make a wrong call is half the crowd goes, you, you, you, you, you.

I mean it's just like coming in all over you inside these closed arenas. This is sort of the way it is in verse 20. But you, you there, you, you believer, you child of God, in Ephesus, you, you did not learn Christ in this way.

You know what that means? You've come to the cross. You've walked from that unregenerate life into the resplendent light and presence of Christ and you've, you've seen what it means to be cleansed from within so that converted you now are able to put on or having put on the new garments you're able to walk a new kind of life. I love this word picture that he gives us.

It's a strong contrast. You have not so learned Christ. In fact the way he goes after this almost sounds like the catechism of a school. Verse 21, if indeed you have heard him, Christ speaking, and have been taught in him just as truth is in Jesus.

I love that way, the way that reads. I don't know if you have been exposed to this kind of Christ of focused teaching. Maybe in Bible study fellowship or through Campus Crusade for Christ or perhaps a home Bible class or a group of you friends got together.

Maybe if some of you at work and you came together and without concern for denomination or religious background, all of you together converted, focusing on Christ, began to be taught of him. He not only was the subject of the teaching, he was, if you will, the teacher. And it so overwhelmed you that you were lost in the wonder of his person and it began to seep deep into your once hardened heart and darkened mind. It began to change you. I came across a 5th century monk named Saint Patrick who wrote words I would love to teach my grandchildren this summer.

Listen to this. Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth a friend and stranger. Wouldn't that be a great way to go to bed every night? Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ. As that begins to take over your life, you can't wait to shed the garments and to get dressed right. That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Look at verse 23.

This is the shower. This is the part that comes between the old and the new garments. You are renewed in the spirit of your mind. What does that mean? Well, I think it starts with realizing the old self is corrupt and powerfully deceitful. I tell myself that on a somewhat regular basis. This harks back to Romans 12 to that you're not conformed to this world but you are renewed in the spirit of your mind so that you discover that your spiritual service of worship is the least expression of a sacrifice you could make. A living sacrifice in the renewing of your mind. I begin my day by realizing that the old self is corrupt and will never be less than corrupt and it is deceitfully appealing. Second, it continues with frequent reminders that the new self is Christ-like and wholly satisfying. And this needs to be done daily. This is not a once-for-all experience.

This is daily. Now, having said all of that, I probably need to tell you I understand what it is to be attached to the old things. Getting a little intense here so let's lighten up and let me tell you I know what's hanging in your closet and what's in your bureau drawers because even though you've never been there, you know what are in mine. We have old clothes, okay? We prefer the old clothes. We've all got old t-shirts that our wives have begged us to get rid of.

In fact, one of the first thoughts of the possibility of a divorce was when she took it and tried to throw it away and you rescued it and then finding the hole to put your arm through, you got back into the outfit having several other holes to choose from. And you've got these great old sneakers and you've got these old pants usually with elastic weights you can keep pulling. You like to just hang out in them and when nobody's around that's what you wear and it's why they're so comfortable.

Plus they've got history. Some of them have a smell of history about them and they just love them and then and you get in them and you're so relaxed and you hope nobody from the church shows up to see you like this and and then finally you keep going back and hanging on to them. That's the old clothing and that teaches me that the old nature is a lot like that. The old nature is not some grim snarling beast that comes in to rip and tear and rape his way through the house. He's not like that. He's fun to be with. It's comfortable.

He's got history. You and he have lived together longer quite possibly than you've lived with Christ and in moments of weakness you'd love to fall back into those old clothes and wear them again and hang on to them but you have not so learned Christ. I'm not asking you to do something easy I'm asking you to do something that's transforming. You see otherwise you will continue to rely on lying rather than telling the truth. You're so much more comfortable doing that. You'll continue to lust after her or him because it's an old habit and it's a little exhilarating.

It's a lot satisfying. You continue to manipulate and take charge and be in control and and get your way and selfishly pull it off because it's the old garment. But you have not so learned Christ. By the renewing of the spirit of your mind he says put on the new self and what is it? It is in the likeness of God which has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. You can't beat that huh?

How do I go through this kind of thing and make it happen? Well the answer is in verse 23. It's in the renewing of the mind.

It's in the attitude we have toward it. That you be renewed in the spirit of your mind so that the the new garments have a greater appeal than the satisfaction of the old. Remember the old offer deceitful lusts. See the end of verse 22 corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.

That's why I tried to picture those things as not being like beasts but deceptively appealing. Deceitful lusts writes one man. These may include sex urges of course but they really refer to desires to acquire as well. The urge to use others for our own advantage. The urge to hurt people through backbiting and gossip. The lust for power and fame. The urge to attain mastery and status in the political or the business or the church world. The urge to criticize and blame others. The urge to indulge in self pity or explode in anger or impatience with others.

To react defensively and abrasively when things don't go our way. That's the deceitful urges of the old garments. Put them aside. By the renewing of your mind put on the new.

The renewal of the mind is like the clean fresh water of the shower. I mentioned when I first came to seminary I didn't know very much about preaching and when you're first at the school you you try to find places that will listen to you and one of I found a number of them they just didn't know better. One was I would do funerals for people I'd never met so they needed someone to preach and I'd preach to an empty funeral home and a dead person as I would learn how to do this and then they trusted me to preach to a fraternity at a campus and then to a free speech platform. I remember doing that with Sweet Anderson up in Oklahoma. They threw things at us that was in the 60s it was fun. Man I remember Churchill's words nothing in life is more exhilarating than being shot at without result and they things would be slung in our direction and boy you learn to preach just to survive. And one of the places I preached was the was the downtown Dallas they called it the rescue mission.

Interesting place. And in some rescue missions and I've preached in many of them there they have a special room where these derelicts are brought and they discard their their filthy garments and they literally are deloused and then they are put through a shower and a bath so as to be completely cleaned up and then given fresh garments not necessarily new but new to them if it's a cold night a nice coat. But the changing of the garments takes place only after they have gone through the the delousing room if you will. That's the cross.

That's the cross. You come with your old garments filthy that they are and you stand before him and you shed them and nothing in your hands you bring simply to the cross you cling and you place yourself before the living holy all pure all clean God and you claim his forgiveness and the sacrifice of Christ death on your behalf. Having shed the old garments you are fitted with new ones. Wear that.

Wear that. To go back to the old is as foolish as the old drunk coming back in the next day and asking for his dirty clothes that he shed the night before. Because when you wear the new ones you are wearing garments that have been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. I like it that the places are called rescue missions. Isn't that good? The cross is all about rescuing us.

Unfortunately in our day when we can dress to fit whatever occasion the dress of our Sunday attire can easily cover up the true condition of our filthy garments within. It's wonderful to meet at the same level at the foot of the cross and to find cleansing and forgiveness isn't it? Will you bow your heads please?

Just close your eyes. You sure you've made that journey? Don't tell me about your being christened as a baby. Don't tell me about when you were baptized. Don't talk about churches you've attended and preachers you've listened to.

I'm asking about the cross. You sure about that? You absolutely positive that you have been given the capacity to wear new clothing?

Not if there's never been a conversion. Listen to the inner voice of your heart right now. Just listen. Do you have the assurance of the voice of Christ that he has come to reside, to live, to help you change clothes, to clean you up? There's not the assurance. This is a wonderful time to get the assurance.

We deliberately do not hurry this moment. This is perhaps the most important moment of the day, certainly of this hour. Christ be with me. Christ within me.

Christ behind me. Christ before me. Christ beside me. Christ to win me.

Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ in quiet. Christ in danger. Christ in hearts of all that love me. Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. What a wonderful hope there is. Instead of hardness and darkness and deadness and recklessness, there can be cleansing and holiness.

It starts at the cross. Thank you, Father, for your grace, meeting us where we are and giving us what we didn't earn or could never deserve, making it impossible for us to pay you back, but coming by faith alone to Christ alone, we have found the cleansing we so needed back in the days of unbreakable habits, irredeemable desires, ugly actions, and shameless deeds. Thank you for your grace. I pray for all who hear these words today, wherever they may be, whatever may be going on in their lives. I pray that you will stop them and bring them to the room where the old garments can be cast aside.

There could be cleansing and renewal and a reason to go on, where Christ can take the place of self and joy replace the emptiness and loneliness of a life committed to reckless debauchery. Thank you today, Father, for those who have now come to Christ. Strengthen them in the beginning of their walk with you and cause this passage to remind us of how to get dressed every morning and how to pay attention to the things that matter most, that which is within rather than that which is without. And now unto him who was able to guard us from stumbling and present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power now and forevermore through Christ our Redeemer, we pray.

And everyone said, Amen. And with Chuck Swindoll's closing prayer, we conclude this study in Ephesians 4 titled, Here's How to Get Dressed, and this is Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at InsightWorld.org.

Now to give you some context, this program features just one slice of a much larger series. It's a verse-by-verse study through Paul's letter to the Ephesians. The series is titled, Becoming a People of Grace. Just before we sign off, all of us at Insight for Living are praying this study in Ephesians inspires you to become an agent of God's grace in a world craving to feel a touch of his kindness.

2020 will go down in history as a year filled with uncertainty, fear, and even hostility. Because Jesus has broken all barriers through his sacrificial death on the cross, it's all the more reason to become a people of grace. In that spirit, we're inviting you to join us in taking God's message of grace all across the country and even around the world through Vision 195. The majority of your gift is applied right here in North America where you hear Chuck's teaching, and then a small amount is all that's needed to carry Insight for Living beyond our borders. To give a one-time donation, call us.

If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or go online to Insight.org. And today, we're calling your attention to a wonderful resource designed to keep you in God's Word throughout the New Year. Chuck Swindoll wrote a devotional called, Good Morning Lord, Can We Talk? This is the perfect tool for staying on track through 2021, so you can lay aside the old self and put on the new self every single day.

And it's a suitable gift for Christmas as well. To purchase Good Morning Lord and other helpful resources, go to Insight.org slash store. It's almost impossible to escape the pervasive news these days.

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Join us again Monday when Chuck Swindoll's study called Becoming a People of Grace continues, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Here's How to Get Dressed, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.