Page 131 - Ephesians

Why does the Holy Spirit use this strong language? I believe He
has a reason and a purpose. He’s trying to show a wonderful
principle. He’s going to make sure you don’t miss it. He identifies
the “Old self”, and the “New self”, hoping to lay down a very
radical and liberating truth. A truth, that thousands of Christians
have yet to discover. A truth that can set you free, and deliver
you from bondage.

I believe “The old man” can be summarized in these words. The
old man is the life of man, excluded from, the life of God. That’s
the old man. What’s the new man? It’s the life of God, excluded
from, the life of man. The old man is the life of man, without the
life of God. The new man is the life of God, without the life of
man.

What does man’s life look like, when you take God out. It looks
like verses 17-19. How will that life flow? Don’t be shocked by
the description in these verses. This is not a description of a
nation full of Hitlers. This is the description of every human heart.
Your heart, my heart, and the heathen heart. Life, without God.
The question is not, “Do you do these things.” The question is,
“Are you capable of doing those things?” You see, He uses
the extreme case, to demonstrate the natural course of human
behavior, without God. When the heart is absent from the life of
God, that’s what you get.

It’s shocking to realize how corrupt, and how depraved, we really
are. We’re supposed to be “nice” Christians. Now and then, the
Lord takes the cover off, and lets the repulsive smell reach our
nostrils. We get a glimpse of the wicked possibilities of our
heart. We want to die. It’s unbelievable. Last Sunday I was
reading 2 Kings 8, about a man named Hazael. He was the
servant of the king of Syria. Hazael stood before Elisha, and the
man of God wept. That puzzled Hazael, so he asked him, “Why
are you weeping?” Elisha answered,

“The Lord has shown me the evil you will do.”

He will set cities on fire, kill young men with swords, dash little
babies on the ground, and rip out the wombs of pregnant women.