Brand New Man Series

EPHESIANS 4:19

A brand-new man feels right. Those of you who have been to the doctor lately know that they have a pill they say will fix just about anything. Well, this man had some pretty serious sin problems in his life and had the Lord was dealing with him about it. He didn’t want to acknowledge the Lord, so he went to the doctor about it. When the doctor asked him what the trouble was, he told him, “I haven’t been living right, Doc. My conscience is really bothering me.” So the doctor said, “So, I guess you want something that will strengthen your willpower?” The man looked at him funny and said, “No, I was looking for something that would weaken my conscience.” God gives us feelings. He gives us a conscience. We are all born with a sense of right and wrong. He made us that way. But that innate sense of right and wrong can quickly become distorted. People do wrong things. And they do things they know are wrong. When a person willingly and knowingly commits a sin they only have two options. First, they can seek the Lord’s face in confession by agreeing with Him that it is sin. Then repent of that sin by turning from it and turning toward righteousness. That’s one option. The other option is what Paul is illustrating here as a non-example. That is to justify that sin. “Well, it’s OK. It didn’t really hurt anybody.” “But I really needed to get a good grade.” “Nobody will miss it if I only take one—besides look what I’ve given them over the years.” Justifying our sin is like getting a pill from the doctor that takes away guilt. After a while it works pretty well to quiet our conscience. It’s a pretty good way to quiet the Holy Spirit’s voice. But guess what happens? Pretty soon, we can get like Paul described. We can get beyond feeling. I used to splice telephone cable. When you talk on the telephone, your conversation is turned into very low-voltage electrical current that travels over the wires in telephone cables. The voltage is so low that you can’t even feel it. It’s a different story when the phone rings. That brings 28 volts of electricity with it. That might not sound like much, but when you’re standing in water in the bottom of a manhole, it will make your teeth chatter. That is, unless you’ve been doing it for years. Some of the old-timers that I worked with couldn’t even feel it. They had been bit so many times that their fingers had no feeling in them. They could splice into that voltage without even batting an eye. That’s the way sin is. Most children have very tender consciences. Then as we grow, we begin to learn how to justify our sin. And our conscience begins to become seared. It’s not quite as sensitive as it was. It becomes a lot easier to quiet the voice of the Holy Spirit. And the more we sin, the easier it becomes. Until we get to the point where we can’t even hear His voice at all. Like Paul said, we are beyond feeling. But a brand-new man isn’t that way. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t ever sin. John said in 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Make no mistake about it, the new man still sins. It’s just that he hates his sin instead of trying to justify it. When the Holy Spirit pricks his conscience, he listens. He feels. And he acts on those feelings. He confesses his sin just like John goes on to tell us in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” A brand-new man feels the prompting of the Holy Spirit. A brand-new man confesses his sin instead of covering it up. And a brand-new man repents of his sin. He tears down the bridges and bulldozes the roads that led him to that sin in the first place. He protects himself from going there anymore by setting up safeguards and accountability for himself. He actively turns away from it and turns toward Christ’s righteousness. That’s what makes him feel right. And that’s what keeps him feeling right. But he not only thinks right and feels right, a brand-new man acts right.