A New Walk for A New Man
Romans 8:1-6
Introduction: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” When you accept the grace of God by faith, trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross for your sin, you become a child of God and are saved from the penalty of a Christless eternity in the fires of Hell. You are freed from the law of sin and death enabling you to serve Christ. This new life is made possible only by power of the Holy Spirit. God expects and insists that if you have experienced this new birth that you act like a new person. He expects a new walk for a new man.
I. The Reality of being a New Man
A. When a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly it becomes a totally new creature. A metamorphose takes place. Likewise when one becomes a child of God, he or she is transformed into a new person.
B. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
C. When some missionaries took the gospel to Vanino, a town in the far eastern part of Russia, they didn’t know what effect their work would have. A few years later, Gary Anderson, president of Baptist Mid-Missions, visited Vanino. He was met by the vice-mayor, who told him, "We have noticed that when people are associated with your church for a while, it makes a difference. It’s as though they are reborn." Anderson was then asked by the vice-mayor if his church would work with troubled families and directionless young adults in Vanino. Without knowing it, that city official had correctly described what had happened. People in Vanino had been "reborn"--born again by faith in Jesus, who died for their sins and rose from the grave. Each of them was "a new creation". – J D Branon
D. Romans 8:9-10 “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
E. Romans 6:4-11 “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
F. Death to sin is not an absolute cessation of sin at any moment but rather it is an absolute breaking of the will with it and a redirection of your will toward Christ.
II. Being a New Man means having a New Heart
A. Jeremiah 17:9 “"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; who can know it?”
B. Sin originates in the heart. Jesus said “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” (Matthew 7:21-22)
C. An old Delaware Indian chief sat with a Christian friend by a campfire, talking of the events of the day and the coming tomorrow. After a long silence the friend said: "Chief, did you ever hear of the rule called the golden rule, given to men by Christ who gave us our religion?" "Stop," said the chief. "Don’t praise it. Tell me what it is and let me think for myself." When told that it was for each one to do to others as he would have others do to him, he hastily replied, "That is impossible; it cannot be done." Silence followed. After about fifteen minutes the old chieftain spoke: "Brother, I have been thoughtful of what you told me. If the Great Spirit who made man would give him a new heart, he could do as you say, but not else." – Choice Illustrations, W.W. Clay pg. 9-10)
D. Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
E. A changed life begins with a changed heart.
F. Ezekiel 36:25-26 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
III. Being a New Man calls for having a New Mind
A. Proverbs 23:7 “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
B. Romans 8:5-6 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
C. Believers have a new mind – "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16) which is only renewed as we chose not to be conformed to this world’s way of thinking but to be radically transformed by His Spirit.
D. Transformed lives do not come from being showing more emotional fervor or having greater willpower. Transformed Lives come from transformed minds.
E. Luke 8:27, 35 “When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs... Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man, from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.”
F. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
G. Let the mind of the Master be the master of your mind.
H. Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
IV. Being a New Man necessitates walking a New Walk
A. Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
B. Psalm 56:13 “For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living?”
C. Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.”
D. She dressed in rags, lived in a tenement house amid mounds of garbage, and spent much of her time rummaging through trash cans. The local newspaper picked up her story after the woman who was known in her neighborhood as “Garbage Mary” had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Astonishingly, in her filthy apartment police found stock certificates and bankbooks indicating she was worth at least a million dollars. This woman’s condition was heartbreaking. But from God’s point of view there are even more tragic examples of “wealthy” people who subsist on “garbage.” If Christians are controlled by lust, hate, envy, pride, impatience, or bitterness, they’re actually choosing to live off the refuse of the world. This might be understandable if they had no resources to draw from. You’d expect that kind of behavior from people without faith in Christ. But that’s not the case for believers. We have the Word of truth and the help of the Holy Spirit. We have no excuse for groveling in the dirt of sin when the power of God is at our disposal. Father, forgive us for eating “garbage” when You’ve prepared a banquet for us. Help us to “lay aside all filthiness” (James 1:21-note) and to feast on Your goodness. —Mark De Haan
E. Psalm 89:15 “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance.”
F. If we are children of the light, having received Christ as Savior and Lord, then we should walk in the light. If we walk in the light we should act like children of the light. If you are walking in the light with your Lord questions and doubts are heard no more but you live with the confidence that you are always in the Lord.
