Changed Into His Image
By Pastor Matt Black
Bible Text: Ephesians 4:22-24; 2 Corinthians 3:18
Preached on: Sunday, April 27, 2008, 11am
Tabernacle Baptist Church
7020 Barrington Road
Hanover Park, Illinois 60133
Website: www.GodCentered.info
Introduction: Open your Bible to Ephesians 4:20.
Have you ever been garbage picking? I’ve gotten some junk and with some time and effort and a little repair, I’ve made some things work! God is in the business of redeeming junk—we are brands that are plucked out of the burning—but God stepped in. At the end of the world, God is going to set this world on fire like a gigantic garbage heap. He’s going to cleanse the earth. God is in the business of saving us from that.
What is amazing is that He redeems that which is worthless. He doesn’t just save us from being thrown away into eternal punishment, but He cleans us up, and He creates us anew into His image!!
This morning we’re talking about how all Christians are “Changed into the Image of Christ”. We’ve talked about putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
Let’s stand together and read Ephesians 4:20-29, “But ye have not so learned Christ; 21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 Neither give place to the devil. 28 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. 29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”
What we are told in Ephesians 4:24 is to “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 25 Wherefore putting away lying” we are to tell the truth, and putting away stealing, we are to work hard and give to people. We are to put away sinful anger and start talking gently and honestly with one another. Paul could have listed ten thousand other sins to put on and right living to put on.
This morning I want to give you an understanding of how to be free from ongoing habitual sin, being made each day more and more into the image of Christ.
Before we do that, I want to first show you from the Bible that this should be the main goal of your life. You should want to be free from sin of any kind. It is no use to show you how to get rid of practicing sin unless you understand that this is your reason for living.
Many who claim to know Christ are more concerned about a scratch on their car than a sin that mars their character!
Now we want to be free from sin, not just so we can be self righteous, but so that we can be satisfied in Jesus.
When God decided that He would come down in human flesh He took on Himself a “Name above all Names”. It is a wonderful name. The Angel said to Joseph, “Thou shalt call his name JESUS…” Why? “...For he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). There is an important reason for that Name. People are in slavery to sin. And Jesus was sent not only to save us from hell, but to save us from our very sins—to create us new in His holy image
It is the chief end of your life now to be “conformed to the image of God’s Son” (Romans 8:29). Everyone God justifies He conforms to the image of His Son. No true believer is excluded. Everyone who has ever been justified has had some measure of holiness in his life.
2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Jesus was sent to save His people from their sins, and He indeed does do that!
Turn over to 1 Peter 2:9. Whoever God calls and justifies, he conforms to the image of his Son. Peter said that we: “are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;” What were we chosen for? What are you and I chosen for? “that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
Turn back a chapter to 1 Peter 1:15, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy”.
What Paul is teaching here is the universal teaching of Scripture, both Old and New Testament. Jesus came to save us from our sins. He creates us anew so that we are called to put on “the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). It is the new you that comes from the new heart that God gives you!
The law and the prophets confirm this. God made this promise in Jeremiah 31:33, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts”.
This is the way it has always been. Look at Deuteronomy 30:6, “the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.”
God calls us to Himself, not just to forgive us from sin and save us from the eternal refuse pile of burning in the Lake of Fire, but to put a new holy nature in us, and to create us progressively into the image of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to earth not only to take our punishment for sin, but to actually deliver us from sin. If you call yourself a Christian, the main purpose God has for your life—your reason for living, is to be like Christ.
What is the chief end of man? The old preachers would try to find that answer from their Bibles. The answer is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. 1 Corinthians 10:31 tells us “whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”. To give glory to God means to “give the right opinion of” God. You are to give an accurate reflection of God in your life.
We are to mirror God. We are to reflect Him.
2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
God made man in his image. The image of God is holy and righteous.
Romans 6:13-14 says it this way, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
1. Freedom from sin comes by being radical in your love for holiness and radical in your hatred for sin. Being radical is the only way. God is radically holy. You must take radical measures. An extreme risk taking love for Christ must fill our hearts and lead us to be radical in our cutting off sin in our lives, because sin hardens my heart and keeps me from knowing my Savior’s love.
Without a radical love for Christ, I will not be bold to speak the Gospel of Christ’s awesome love—that He who knew know sin would become the curse of sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God—that we ourselves might BE the righteousness that streams forth from God Himself in Christ!!! I want everyone here to have a hot heart for God! The heart is the very center of your affections and your intellect.
2. Freedom to worship God instead of God is an issue of the heart. You see, worship is an issue of the heart. Matthew 15:18-20, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”.
You need to have a HEART that is freed from the slavery to sin. All sin is a form of addiction. As human beings, we will lie because we are intoxicated by the fact that someone would think we are something that we are not. We are addicted to thinking more highly of ourselves. We steal because we are intoxicated with the pleasure of riches. We lust because we are intoxicated with the unlawful pleasures of fornication and adultery.
Now a Christian is FREED from these things! He has PUT OFF the old man and his deeds. He has a changed heart. But those temptations will visit you daily, and you must daily put them off.
This leads us to our first step that will bring us into a closer union with Jesus Christ.
I. First we must constantly experience radical Amputation.
A. I want to first show you a humbling and gruesome picture of radical amputation that will help you cut off and put off the old life of sinful habits from your life.
Turn to Isaiah 53.
Look at verses 4-8, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken”.
2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way, “For he [GOD] hath made him [CHRIST JESUS] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Matthew 27:46 says that, at “about the ninth hour [3pm]”—this was after three hours of darkness over the earth—“Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus became a CURSE—an obscenity—for us. He who knew no sin was RADICALLY AMPUTATED from God. He was CUT OFF! He was “wounded for our transgressions” (verse 5). He was “bruised [CRUSHED] for our iniquities”. Verse 6, “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all”.
B. Now let me show you the Principle of radical amputation from Matthew 5:29-30. The manner in which God dealt with sin at the Cross is also the manner in which God commands us to deal with sin. Put off sin in your life! Christ was radically cut off from the Father so that you could radically cut off sin from your life.
Matthew 5:29-30 says, “if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell”.
We are not called to CUT BACK on our sin we are called to CUT OFF our sin and deal with it seriously and radically.
Now he’s not talking about literally plucking out your eye or cutting off your hand. It is not your eye or your hand that causes you to sin. It is your heart. But what He is talking about is radically cutting off ACCESS those things that cause you to be tempted to sin. Be radical about cutting off EVERYTHING that is causing you temptation. If something is causing you to sin, you need to completely remove access to it.
When I came to Christ, I was addicted to music. I had to radically amputate my guitar for a while.
I have radically amputated access to cable and local television. Before I knew Christ, I viewed pornography. I have those images permanently in my mind. Why would I put programs and commercials in front of my eyes that are going to at every moment use the tool of lust and sensuality to get me to laugh or to buy their product? Why would I allow access to my heart and mind to be brought back into slavery to sin?
Illustration: I know of a guy—a pilot for Continental Airlines—who was addicted to pornography when he came to Christ. He traveled a lot. The TV in hotels was a temptation to him. The first thing he would do when he arrived is unplug the TV and carry it to his co-worker’s room. He always got strange looks from people he was passing in the hotel! For a full year after he was saved, he continued to remove the TV from his room.
He also gave away his notebook computer. He had been accessing porn movies from the internet, so got rid of his computer. This required a change of lifestyle. The computer was necessary for some things he would do for work. He would have to go to public places like the library to access the internet.
He also gave away his cell phone. He had been accessing 900 numbers in the past.
You say this is over the top! And it does seem unreasonable to many people. But I believe it is very reasonable to be extreme and radical in destroying that which will destroy you! Aren’t we radical when it comes to removing cancer from our bodies? Is it not reasonable to fight disease with antibiotics that will kill and destroy disease in our bodies? So we believe in this principle medically but do we believe in it spiritually?
Now understand that there are many godly people that have TV, laptops, and cell phones. I have all three. But to this day, I do not have access to cable or local TV. I cannot. I know it harms my soul and hardens my heart. What I am saying is as long as something tempts you to sin, all access to that which will put you in bondage must be completely severed so that you cannot get to it at all. A man without an eye cannot see that which would tempt him. A man without a TV will not be tempted with it because he does not have it.
Illustration: To illustrate this, let me share with you a letter from John Piper, the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December 2005. He wrote the following at the end of December 2005.
All things considered, Noel and I believe that I should pursue the treatment called radical prostatectomy, which means the surgical removal of the prostate. We would ask you to pray that the surgery be completely successful in the removal of all cancer and freedom from possible side effects.
Imagine John talking to their doctor and saying, “Yes doctor, we’ve examined our options, and we want to go with the surgery, but we don’t want to go with the radical prostatectomy—we just want to remove some of the prostate.” What would the doctor say? He would tell you that if you leave ONE cancer cell in your body, it will eventually KILL you.
We must radically destroy that which will destroy us.
II. Secondly, we must constantly experience Radical Appropriation.
A. John 6:50-56 illustrates this principle, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”
It is not enough simply to radically amputate the old life of sinful habits. This passage teaches that in order to live forever, we must also FEED on Christ! He is not speaking literally feed on his literal flesh and blood, but he is saying we must learn to enjoy the benefits of His death on the Cross by appropriating His death in our lives.
In other words we are to feast on the reality that we are ACCEPTED in the Beloved and through Christ’s being cut off from the Father, we are made the “righteousness of God in Him”. We are in UNION with Christ.
Feed on the fact that you are free from bondage to sin! There is now therefore NO condemnation! You have escaped the wrath of God because of Jesus’ death. Feast on this! Let it fill your soul.
It is so important that once you cut off and put off the old man that you put on the new. If you do not replace the addictions and pleasures of sin with godly habits, you will be worse off. Nature abhors a vacuum, and you are now susceptible to other addictions unless you fill your life with Christ and feed on Christ.
Luke 11:24-26 teaches this principle, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. 25 And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. 26 Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
In other words, you must replace life dominating sins—with life dominating ways to soak in and feed on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ satisfies the soul. You used to go to sin to satisfy your soul. Your soul always seeks satisfaction. Sin never fully satisfies so it is necessary to go back again and again and again. Jesus satisfies.
After radical amputation, here are some ways you can have satisfaction in Jesus:
1. Listen to the audio NT daily. If you need a memory stick, it’s $20. You can get the whole Bible for $59.
2. Listen to soul-satisfying sermons. Get “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” in audio form from our bookstore. Get “Absolute Surrender” from our freestore and listen to it several times.
3. Keep yourself sharing the Gospel. Go out on Nursing Home ministry next Saturday and then make some visits and share the Gospel on evangelism.
4. Share your faith with one person each day. If that is too intimidating, share your testimony with one person in a week. You don’t need to know a Bible verse to do that. It’s your story.
5. Get your focus off of pleasing yourself and on to pleasing God.
6. Listen to soul satisfying Christian music. Ask a godly Christian what they listen to worship God in private. Many times a powerful Christian song will motivate me to pray and to meditate on God.
III. The third and final principle is radical Examination. Have you put off the old man and put on the new? You need to have someone you trust to help you in the area of accountability.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. 10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. 11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? 12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken”.
This passage presents to us the value of walking together with a fellow travelor and enjoying ongoing accountability.
Verse 9 speaks of spiritual fruit. Two are better than one because “they have a good reward for their labour”. Iron sharpens iron.
Verse 10 speaks of spiritual restoration. If two are walking together and one falls, his friend can help him up.
Verse 11 speaks of spiritual zeal. Two together can help keep each other “on fire” for his Lord. When you are cold, your friend may be on fire for God, and encourage your zeal.
Verse 12 speaks of spiritual protection. Two can defend themselves against the attacks of the enemy.
The military is famous for the principle of “no man left behind”. You never leave behind a soldier on the battlefield. He is your brother. We are to protect one another, encourage one another. Teach one another. Pray with one another. We are to bind each other’s wounds.
Conclusion: It is hard to cut off sinful habits and feed on Christ. But let me take you to Hebrews 11:24, “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; 25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. 27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”
Now go to Hebrews 13:12-13, “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 13 Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” Jesus was cut off for you. You need to go outside the camp. It is cold outside the camp. Golgotha is outside the camp. There are wild animals out there. It is dark. What will you do without your sin to comfort you? You must cling to Jesus.
Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”