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YOUR INNER MAN

Victor M. Eskew

 

INTRODUCTION

 

A.    All of us are well aware of our outer man.

1.      We see it in the mirror almost every day.

2.      We feed it, exercise it, medicate it, and rest it on a continual basis.

3.      Parents eagerly anticipate the birth of child so they can see the outer man of their baby.

4.      NOTE:  Our outer man grows, matures, ages, dies and decays.

 

B.      That last statement ought to cause us to be deeply concerned about another man in our possession, the inner man (II Cor. 4:16).

 

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

 

1.      The outward man perishes.

2.      The inner man is renewed day by day.

 

C.     In this lesson, we want to examine what the Bible has to say about “Your Inner Man.”

 

I.                   THE BIBLE AFFIRMS WE HAVE AN INNER MAN

 

A.    Romans 7:22

 

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.

 

B.      II Corinthians 4:16

 

C.     Ephesians 3:16

 

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.

 

II.                THE INNER MAN IS KNOWN BY SEVERAL NAMES

 

A.    Jesus referred to it as the soul (Matt. 10:28).

 

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:  but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

 

1.      Man has a body and soul.

2.      Man can only harm the body, the outer man.

3.      God has power over both.

 

B.      Peter uses two names to describe the inward man in I Peter 3:4.

 

But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.

 

1.      The hidden man of the heart

2.      A meek and quiet spirit

 

C.     In this lesson, we will also refer to it as a new creature, the new man, and the mind.

 

III.             THE INNER MAN IS TEMPORARILY HOUSED IN OUR BODY

 

A.    II Corinthians 5:1

 

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

 

B.      II Peter 1:13-14

 

Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

 

IV.             THE INWARD MAN BEGINS WITH NO SIN

 

A.    The Bible teaches that man’s spirit is given to him by God.

1.      Zechariah 12:1 declares that God “formeth the spirit of man which is in him.”

2.      Ecclesiastes 12:7

 

Then shall the dust return unto the earth as it was:  and the spirit unto God who gave it.

 

B.      God gives only good and perfect gifts (James 1:17).  When man’s spirit is given to him, it is not tainted with any type of sin at all.

 

V.                THE INNER MAN CAN BE CORRUPTED BY SIN

 

A.    As a man lives his life, he commits sin.  That sin originates in the heart (Matt. 15:19).

 

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

 

B.      In order to be converted to Christ, the old man of sin must die.

1.      Romans 6:6

 

Knowing that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

 

a.      The old man is crucified.

b.      Crucifixion involves a death.  In this case, it is a death, a cessation from sin.

2.      Paul had done this in his conversion (Gal. 2:20).

 

I am crucified with Christ:  nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.

 

3.      The Colossians understood that they had died at some point as well (Col. 3:3).

 

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

 

C.     As we live the Christian life, our old man of sin constantly seeks to be resurrected and must be put off.

1.      Ephesians 4:22

 

That ye put of concerning the former conversation the old man, which is according to deceitful lusts.

 

2.      Colossians 3:9

 

Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds.

 

VI.             THE OLD MAN IS REPLACED WITH A NEW MAN

 

A.    In Christ, we become a new creature (II Cor. 5:17).

 

Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 

B.      In the conversion process that culminates with our burying the old man of sin in the waters of baptism:

1.      We are born again (John 3:3, 5).

2.      We put on the new man (Col. 3:9-10).

3.      We put on Christ (Gal. 3:26-27).

4.      This is why Paul said:  “…yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).

 

VII.          THE NEW MAN MUST BE NURTURED

 

A.    The physical man must be cared for.  In like manner, the spiritual man must be nurtured.

 

B.      Two verses:

1.      Ephesians 4:23

 

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

 

2.      Colossians 3:10

 

And have put on the new man, which is nenewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

 

C.     Every portion of truth that is digested and applied to one’s life molds the inner man more and more into the image of Jesus Christ.

 

VIII.       AT DEATH, THE INNER MAN SEPARATES FROM THE OUTER MAN

 

A.    Two verses:

1.      Ecclesiastes 12:7

 

Then shall the dust return unto the earth as it was:  and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

 

2.      James 2:26a

 

For the body without the spirit is dead…

 

 

B.      Jesus, when speaking to the Sadducees who did not believe in spirits, affirmed that the inner man lives on after death (Matt. 22:31-32).

 

But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoke by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?  God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

 

1.      Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for hundreds of years.

2.      God, however, was still their God.  “I AM the God of…” (present tense).  How?  The inner man of these great patriarchs continued to live.

3.      One day, their inner man would be united with a spiritual body in the resurrection.

 

IX.              THE REUNION OF THE INNER MAN WITH A SPIRITUAL BODY

 

A.    When Jesus was resurrected, He had a body.

1.      At some point, it became a spiritual body so it could enter into heaven (See I Cor. 15:5).

2.      John promises that when Jesus returns we shall become like him (I John 3:2).

 

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:  but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

 

B.      When Paul was teaching the Thessalonians about the “dead in Christ, he told them that Jesus would bring them back with Him as His coming (I Thess. 4:14).

 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

 

C.     The resurrection

1.      All that are in the graves shall come forth (John 5:28-29).

2.      The spirits will unite with a spiritual body (I Cor. 15:42-44).

 

So also in the resurrection of the dead.  It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption:  it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory:  it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power:  it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.  There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

 

X.                 THE DESTINY OF THE INNER MAN

 

A.    John 5:28-29

 

Marvel not at this:  for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

 

B.      Romans 2:6-11

 

Who will render to every man according to his deeds:  to those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immorality, eternal life:  but to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil; of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory and honour and peace, to every man that worketh good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:  for there is no respect of persons with God.

C.     NOTE:  The inner man can experience “the second death” (Rev. 20:14-15).

 

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

 

CONCLUSION

 

A.    We pay a lot of time and attention to the outer man, but it is not our most prized possession.

 

B.      Jesus said our inner man, the soul, is our most valuable asset (Matt. 16:26).

 

For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?