Ephesians 4:17-35

Well it's good to be back with you this morning. It's always an honour to come and to preach

! God's word to you here at Ealing IPC. We're going to be looking at Ephesians chapter 4 verses

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

! So please have that open before you in your Bibles. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17 to

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

25. As we come to God's word let us pray. Lord God you are the maker of heaven and earth and our help

is in you. So please now by your Holy Spirit would you come and would you teach us to speak the truth

for the sake and for the glory of your Son Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.

I want to start this morning by telling you something that I know about you. Yes that's

right you. I'm not talking about the person beside you or in front of you or behind you.

I'm talking about you. I know something about you. And now I'm going to announce it to everyone.

you talk. You talk. You talk a lot. From the moment you rise in the morning saying it's not the time that I

have to get up to the moment you go to bed saying good night I love you to your loved ones. You talk

all day long. You talk talk talk talk talk talk. On average you speak about 25,000 words a day.

Yes. The quiet ones among you. Yes. The quiet ones among you. It's a bit less. The talkative

ones among you. It's a bit more. But we all talk. There is something else I know about you.

And I'm also going to announce it to everyone. And this time it's more personal. When you talk

you reveal your heart. When you talk you reveal your heart. Every time you speak. Every time you open

your mouth. It is a revelation. A revelation of your heart. As Jesus said out of the overflow

of the heart. The mouth speaks. Now this connection between heart and mouth. Self and speech. Character

and communication. It might be obvious to us as Christians. But it's not so obvious to our

secular society. Let me give you an illustration. Do you remember about two or three years ago

there were two cases of racism in the English Premier League. Luis Suarez who we've all just

seen fight a player in the World Cup. Luis Suarez was accused of making racist comments against

Patrice Evra. Black player for Manchester United. And John Terry was accused of making racist

comments against Anton Ferdinand at Queen's Park Rangers. And I watched all the commentary about

these two incidents. And they were both found guilty these men. And I heard it from the media.

I heard it from football pundits. I heard it from managers. I heard it from black footballers

who thought they were both guilty. And this was the comment that was made. These men made racist

racist comments. But they made racist comments. But they are not racist. What they said was just in the spur of the

moment, in the heat of the moment. It doesn't mean that they were racist. And the Bible comes along and says

out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Do you see how the world thinks about the connection

between heart and mouth, self and speech, character and communication? There is no connection.

It's like Ryan Babel, the professional footballer who said on his Twitter account, I may not always say the

right thing, but my heart is always in the right place. Do you see the disconnect? And the Bible comes along

and says there is a connection between your heart and your mouth, between who you are and what you say.

If these men made racist comments in a football game, then they are racist.

Their words were not an aberration, a mistake. Their words were a revelation. A revelation of their hearts

at that very moment. As Paul Tripp says, situations and people do not make us say what we say.

They are the occasions for our hearts to reveal themselves.

Now boys and girls, you can relate to this. You know when you've said something nasty to your

brother or sister and your parent, your mum or your dad tells you to go and apologise.

And you say, look, I'm sorry, Thomas, for saying that I hated you, but I didn't mean it.

Well, you did mean it. And that's why you said it. Do you see how direct the Bible is about the

connection between heart and mouth? And that connection is in the passage that Paul read to us.

There is a connection between heart and speech. And that's why words matter, because word matters

our heart matters. When you speak, you reveal your heart. I wish I had time to explain why that is,

but it's very simple. It's because we are made in the image of God. And when God speaks,

he reveals his heart. And because we are made in his image, when we speak, we reveal our hearts.

And this connection between heart and mouth is fundamental. It undergirds Paul's argument here

in Ephesians chapter 4. Miss it, miss the connection, and you miss the force of his argument.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Well, Paul makes two very simple points in this part of Ephesians chapter 4. And the two points

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

are connected like the heart and the mouth are connected. Number one, don't walk like who you

once were. Walk like who you now are. Don't walk like who you once were. Walk like who you now are.

Chapter 4, verses 17 to 24. I'm sure you've heard the phrase, walk the talk, which basically means

practice what you practice what you preach. Well, this idea of walking in a certain manner was a common

way of speaking in the first century. A person's life was referred to as their walk. And what Paul means

here is you must no longer walk, you must no longer live, verse 17, as the Gentiles do. And then in verse 17,

the second part to verse 19, he unpacks who we once were, how we once walked, before addressing who we now

are. In verses 20 to 24. So in verses 17 to 19, he explains who we once were. Now this I say and

testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that

is in them due to the hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to

sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Now when we read that, who do you think of in our modern society?

Do you think it's a portion of our society gets on like this? Or is this Paul's description of our

general society? Well, it is the latter. This is not referring to the people who stand on your street

corner, drink beer on a Friday night, cause a bit of ruckus, the police pick them up, put them in the

cell for the night. This is the Oxbridge graduates that it's describing. It's the people in the city

of London doing their business. Now if that is shocking to you, it was just as shocking to Paul's

original hearers. He was writing to a group of Gentiles who have been converted to Christ out of

Gentile paganism, the non-Jewish, non-Christian way of life. Now when we hear Gentile or pagan,

we mustn't think first century barbarians, you know, savages of the first century. No,

pagans and Gentiles came from a sophisticated culture. They were well-mannered, they had a

culture, they were sophisticated in their way of life. Paganism in the ancient world was the pursuit

of the development of the mind. And now look at what Paul says, they are darkened in their

understanding. It was about the development of their mind, their body, their emotions, their

character, their speech. It was the modern day equivalent of the self-improvement movement.

You know, you go to Amazon.com, you stick the word self in, and you see all these books about

self-improvement. This is just Gentile paganism refashioned in a new way. There is nothing new

under the sun, as Solomon said. Now look with me again at how Paul describes this modern pursuit

of self-development. It is futile, it is darkened in its understanding, it is alienated from God,

it is willful ignorance of God, it arises out of the hardness of heart, it has lost all moral

sensitivity, it is sensuous, it is impure, it is greedy. What a damning indictment of our secular

humanistic culture with all its apparent wisdom. And this is why when Paul comes to address how we are

to walk, how we are to live in this world, he doesn't turn to the principles and beliefs and

convictions of a sophisticated Gentile culture that says, we have done PhDs in how to speak.

We should, Paul doesn't say we should go and learn from these people and imbibe some of their

philosophy and some of their insights. No, rather, he turns to who we have become in Christ. Verses 20

to 24. He's explained who we once were, now he explains who we now are. Verses 20 to 24. But that is not

the way you learned Christ. Assuming you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in

Jesus. To put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through

deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created

after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Now this metaphor of putting off and

putting on, it's like taking off a jacket and putting on a jacket. That's the sort of picture

that Paul has here. At our conversion, he says, we were taught to take off our old self like an old

jacket. To take it off and throw it away and then to go and get a new jacket, the new self, and to put

it on. It was a decisive act. It's just another way of speaking about biblical repentance. You know,

the Bible speaks about repentance and it speaks about it as an about turn. You're going in one

direction, so you turn and go in the other direction. Well, this is just another picture

of repentance. Taking off an old jacket, putting on a new jacket. And Paul is saying we should

live out the implications of our repentance. Now the way he describes it could suggest that

we were the ones who converted ourselves. Do you see that? We were taught, verse 22, to put off the old

self. We were taught, verse 24, to put on the new self. Well, that sounds a bit like we were the ones

who changed ourselves, converted ourselves, doesn't it? Well, there are a few things in these verses that

show us that we were not the main agents in our change, in our conversion. Yes, we had a responsibility

to repent, to put off and to put on. But look at verse 22. The reason the human self cannot change or

improve itself is because it is being corrupted through deceitful desires. The human self does not have the

ability in itself to change itself. Why? Because it's deceiving itself. Verse 23. Did you notice the past tense?

We were not the ones who made ourselves new. God made ourselves new. To be renewed. We could not do that

ourselves. In verse 24, he uses the word create. A word that is used only of God in the Bible. We can't create

anything in ourselves. Only God can create something new. C.S. Lewis captures this point wonderfully in the

Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Some of the young boys and girls, I hope you read the Narnia series.

Let me remind you what happened, or happened at this point in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Eustace is this annoying little brat of a cousin to the kids. And Eustace has come to an island,

and he's gone exploring, and he comes into a cave with all of this treasure in the cave. And he finds

a gold bracelet, and he puts it on his arm, and he turns into a dragon. And then one evening,

he is met by a lion who leads him up a mountain and into a garden. And Eustace recalls to Edmund

what happened. In the garden there was a well. I knew it was a well, because you could see the

water bubbling up from the bottom of it. The water was as clear as anything, and I thought,

if I could get in there and bathe, I would ease the pain in my leg from the bracelet.

But the lion told me, I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud

or not. I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on, when

I suddenly realized that because I was now a dragon, dragons are sort of sneaky sort of

things. And snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course I thought, that's what the lion means.

So I started scratching myself, and my scales began coming off all over the place. And

then I scratched a little deeper, and instead of just scales coming off here and there, my

whole skin started to peel off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was

a banana. In a minute or two, I just stepped out of my skin. I could see it lying there beside

me, looking rather nasty. It was a moment, sorry, it was a most lovely feeling. So I started

to go down into the well for my bath. But just as I was going to put my feet into the water,

I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly, just as they

had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit

on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore

again, and this underskin peeled off beautifully, and out I stepped and left it lying beside the

other one, and went down to the well for my bath. Well, exactly the same thing happened

again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, however many skins have I got to take off?

For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time, and took off a third

skin just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself

in the water, I knew it had been no good. Then the lion said, but I don't know if it spoke,

you will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty

nearly desperate now, so I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear

he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling

the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear

it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know, as if you've ever picked the scab off

a sore place. It hurts like billy-o, but it is so fun to see it coming away. I know exactly what you

mean, said Edmund. Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off, just as I thought I'd done it myself the

other three times, only they hadn't hurt. And there it was, lying on the grass, ever so much thicker and

darker and more knobbly looking than all the others had been. And there was I, as smooth and soft as a

peeled switch, and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me. I didn't like that very much,

for I was very tender underneath now, that I had no skin on. And he threw me into the water.

It smarted like anything, but only for a moment. After a bit, the lion took me out and dressed me.

Edmund said, dressed you? With his paws? Well, I don't exactly remember that bit, but he did somehow

in new clothes. The same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here,

which makes me think that it must have been a dream.

No, it wasn't a dream, said Edmund. Why not? Well, said Edmund, there are the clothes,

for one thing, and you have been, well, undragoned, for another.

Well, what do you think it was then, asked Eustace? I think you've seen Aslan, said Edmund.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you have seen Christ.

And in seeing him, he undressed you, and redressed you with a new you.

At the very heart of the Christian life, and this is why I took time to read that story,

at the very heart of the Christian life is a conversion, is a change, is a regeneration,

is an undressing and a redressing, that only God can bring about.

This is not how our secular culture thinks. You won't find this in the University of London's

class on the philosophy of the human person. You need to go to God if you want to change

your behaviour. I wish I had time to unpack this, but at the risk of oversimplification,

there are two general approaches in our secular culture to changing the self. The first approach

is this. You don't need to undress and redress yourself. You just need to address yourself.

You don't need to undress or redress yourself. You just need to address yourself. All you need

is a better understanding of yourself, of your family, of your environment, of your experiences,

and having understood yourself better. You need to resolve to take more responsibility,

to exert your mind, to control your tongue, your emotions, your body. And if you do that,

then you can improve yourself. You can change yourself. You see this in some of the more

research-based psychologies and sociologies. For example, Sam Harris. Have you heard of him?

He's the new sort of Christopher Hitchens, the new atheist guy. He wrote a little essay called

Lying. It was a fascinating essay. I read it a few years ago, and he said the only thing he could

say. He disagrees with lying. He thinks it's wrong. And he says, you need to outgrow your lying.

You need to, quote, resolve within yourself to stop lying. Do you see what this approach does?

It says you are the solution to the way you speak. There is no mention of regeneration. There is no

mention of conversion. The resources to change yourself lie within yourself. That's the one

approach. The other approach comes from the more superficial self-help psychologies and therapies.

You know, the sort of pop psychology you see in Oprah or Dr. Phil or Ellen DeGeneres on TV.

You know, 10 easy steps to make a brand new person. These are the sort of quick fix techniques where

you're locked in here of people creating themselves anew, having a makeover, facially, financially,

personally. I saw one book on Amazon.com said, breaking the habit of being yourself, how to lose your mind and

create a new one. You see similar things in the celebrity magazines. You know, when you go to the

dentist and you pick up a hello magazine or an okay magazine, and what is it? So and so has

recreated themselves. So and so has branded themselves anew. On the 1st of January, I got an email from

iTunes entitled, New Year, New You. If the problem with the first approach is that it lacks a doctrine of

regeneration. It's just secular moralism. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do in order to change. If that's the problem with the

first approach, the problem with the second approach is that it wants regeneration. Have you noticed? They always talk about

recreating yourself and having a makeover. It is the language of regeneration. It is the language of recreation. But it looks for it

in all the wrong places. Both approaches are like Eustace trying to undragon himself by himself. And in stark contrast

to both is the wonderful, liberating good news of Jesus Christ. In the gospel, God doesn't come to you with good advice.

He comes to you with good news. In the gospel, God doesn't come to you with a quick fix makeover. He comes and offers you a heart

transplant. The life that we should have lived, we haven't, but Christ did. And the death that we should have died, we couldn't,

but Christ did. And what Christ has done for us, we could not do ourselves. And when we accept that, through faith in

Jesus Christ, God remakes us anew. Not just forensically on the outside justifying us, but he makes us anew

a part of the way. And we believe in our very essence. And we believe in our very essence and being. What as Christians

we call regeneration. In the words of Jesus, you need to be born again. And Paul's point is this.

I'm taking a long time to get to the point about speaking the truth. Paul's point is this. You can't

change the way you talk until you change the way you walk. And you can't change the way you walk until

God undresses you and redresses you with a new you. You can't change the way you talk, 25,000 words a day.

You can't change that until you change the way you walk. And you can't change the way you walk

until God undresses you and redresses you with a new you. And when God has done that, Paul says,

talk like it. Talk like it. Has God converted you? Talk like it. That's the second point that Paul

comes to. Don't talk like who you once were. Talk like who you now are. Don't talk like who you

once were. Talk like who you now are. Verse 25. Therefore, therefore, having been undressed and

redressed, having been renewed in your inner person, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of

you speak the truth. And you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

It is the therefore that connects the heart to the mouth, the self to the speech, the character to the

communication. I mentioned earlier the little phrase, walk the talk. Well, Paul turns that idiom

around in a surprising way. He says, don't just walk the talk. He says, talk the walk. This is who you now are.

This is how you now walk. Now talk like it. Talk the walk. And the first application Paul gives us of how we

are to talk is in relation to speaking the truth. You see it there in verse 25. Having put away falsehood, let each one of you

speak the truth with his neighbor. Now this word falsehood is the word from which we get the word pseudo,

false, something that's fake, a lie. Paul says, precisely because that was part of your former way

of life. See verse 22. Deceitful desires. Deceit was part of your former way of life. It was like that old

jacket. You took it off. You put on a new jacket. So talk like you're wearing the new jacket.

Right? Put away the falsehood. But the question is, what is falsehood? What is a lie? If you, for example, ask me the

time after church, and I said, oh, it's three o'clock, and I sort of get it wrong. Have I lied to you? Well, no. I made a

mistake. You ask me the time. I looked at my watch. I misread it, and I made a mistake. That's not a lie. A lie is a word or act

that intentionally deceives a neighbor in order to hurt or gain some advantage over them. A lie is an act or word that

intentionally deceives a neighbor in order to hurt them or gain some advantage over them. I think there is some wisdom

needed here as we look at this. Remember a couple of years ago, there was a rugby game. I think it was

Leicester were playing another team in England in the Heineken Cup. It was the semi-finals, and then the clock

had run down. It was the 80th minute, and the Irish team, Munster it was, the Irish team had the ball.

And you know in rugby, the ball's got to be kicked out for the end of the game. And these phases of play

were being played. One minute, two minutes, three minutes. And on RTE radio, this commentator was

getting more and more exaggerated. Oh, and it's the 33rd phase. It's the 34th phase. And it was going on and

in the end, the ball comes to Ronan O'Gara in the 38th phase. And he drop hits it between the posts,

and they win. There was one point in it, and Munster had to score to win the game. And the commentator

went absolutely crazy. And he says, after a hundred thousand phases, Ronan O'Gara has just kicked the goal

one with you. Now, I don't think anyone in Ireland listening to that went, he's just lying.

There was only 38 phases. What's he talking about? Hyperbole. There is a place for it. And I'm not

just saying that because I'm Irish, and we use it all the time. Didn't God say to Abraham,

I will make your seed like the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore.

There is a place for hyperbole. There is a place for jokes. What do you do with a joke? Is a joke a lie?

If I was to tell a joke, Patty and Seamus sitting together on a Friday afternoon, and Patty says to Seamus,

you're looking a bit down. What's wrong with you? And Seamus says, well, I'm trying to sell my car.

And he says, well, why can't you sell it? He says, well, I've washed it, I've waxed it, I've got it all cleaned up,

no one's interested. And he says, well, how many miles are on it? He says, 230,000 miles.

He says, well, no wonder no one wants to buy it. All you need to do is turn the clock back on it,

the 10,000 miles on the mileage, and then you'll sell it. The next week they're together.

Seamus is looking all happy, and Patty says, so you're looking really happy, you must have sold the car then.

And he says, no, why would I do that? It's only got 10,000 miles on it.

Now, Paul Levy tells jokes just for the sake of them in a sermon.

Why would you laugh?

There's deceit in that.

Patty has told Seamus to deceive a potential buyer.

And the joke is that Seamus has been deceived by his own deceit.

That's the joke. And it's Irish, so it's okay to laugh.

But why is it okay to laugh at that? Because we know it's a joke.

That's the context. No one's trying to hurt or get one over on their neighbor.

We understand it's a joke.

What about board games? Are we allowed as Christians to play board games

where you have to actually try and deceive the person or withhold information?

Well, of course that's okay. It's a board game.

World War II, we used Morse code to deceive the enemy.

Well, of course, in order to save lives.

Now, all those things are exceptions.

They're all exceptions.

What Paul is saying to us here is

in our everyday speech with each other,

in our normal communication at church,

home groups, deacon meetings, elders meetings,

whatever the connection is in church,

in our normal communication,

outside the context of a bit of banter,

Paul says

that your yes

be a yes

and your no

be a no.

We are to communicate with each other

without spin,

without evasion,

without denials,

without deceit.

Simple,

clear,

honest,

truthful

communication.

Now, as I've had to reflect on this

in my own life,

and have you ever thought about this?

Why is Paul telling Christians

to stop lying?

Because we're all prone to it.

We are all prone to it.

And as I've had to reflect on this

in my own life,

here are some of the questions

I've had to ask myself.

Do I spin

and tell white lies

to get out of a tricky situation?

Do I exaggerate

in order to be seen to be someone

I'm not in public

or on Facebook

or on Twitter?

Do I lie

to avoid embarrassment

of being found out?

Do I lie

to disguise wrongdoing?

Do I lie

to avoid

hurting the feelings

of that person

if I was to actually

be honest with them?

Do I compliment

and flatter people

when I don't actually mean it?

Do I lie

because I'm scared

of the emotional cut off

if I was honest

with that person?

Do I falsely

encourage something

when I know

it would be unhelpful

and I'm just saying it

to the person

because I'm people pleasing?

Do I

shade the truth

for my own advantage?

God says to us

this morning

brothers and sisters

don't speak lies

speak the truth.

why?

because you've been

changed

because you've been

changed

from the inside out

you've put off

that old self

with its deceitful desires

you've put on

the new self

therefore

talk like it

talk like

who you are

not

who you once

were

Paul gives us

another reason

why we are

to speak the truth

did you see it there

at the very end

of verse 25

for

because

we are

members

of one another

what he's referring

to there is

we are members

of the church

of Jesus Christ

in the book

of Ephesians

the church is referred

to

eight times

as the body

of Christ

and here

in verse 25

Paul does it again

and what he's saying

is

to lie

is to seriously

injure

Christ's

body

injuring

or sorry

lying and truth

speaking

is of church

significance

imagine this afternoon

you go for a walk

out in a park

somewhere

and there's a

there's a rough

bit of ground

along the path

and as you're walking

your eye sees a ditch

in the grass

but it doesn't

communicate to your foot

that it needs to make

an adjustment

and so you just

keep walking normally

and next thing

you put your foot

in a ditch

you've strained

your ankle

what has happened

injury has come

to a member

of your body

because your eye

lied

to your foot

it said

there's no ditch

there just keep

walking normally

but it's not just

the foot

that gets injured

you've strained

your ankle

so bad

you now have to

go to accident

and emergency

and so

your pants

that wanted to go

for a walk

in the park

and enjoy the fresh air

they're now sitting

twiddling their thumbs

in A&E

and your eyes

that wanted to

look at this

beautiful park

and trees

is now staring

at heart disease

posters

in A&E

the whole body

has been affected

why?

because one member

lied to another member

but do you see

how it was

of church

body

significance

and it's not

just the short

term injury

that comes

it's the long

term injury

you get your

bandage on

you get your

crutches

and you go home

and three weeks

later you get

the bandage off

and you throw

away the crutches

but how do you

walk at home?

well you walk

a bit

and we live

gingerly

the injury

is over

there's no

pain

there's no

ditch on your

floorboards

at home

but why are you

walking gingerly?

because your

foot no longer

trusts your eye

you think

I will double

check everything

next time

and that's what

lies do

lies destroy

trust

and therefore

lies destroy

relationships

I have two

brothers

older brother

younger brother

and we all

lived at home

until we were

in our 20s

or went off

to university

and each of

us for as long

as we were at

home can always

remember our

mother coming

to us

finding us

wherever we

were in the

house every

night

and before she

would go to

bed she would

come and she

would say to

us I love

you

you know what

mattered most

for each of

us three

boys

not necessarily

those words

but that she

is telling us

the truth

it's built

trust

it's built

a deep

bond

anyone can

tell anyone

they love

them

but some

people could

be lying

it is truth

that builds

relationships

that creates

that strong

bond

so brothers

and sisters

in this church

in your home

groups

in your families

in your youth

groups

in your deacons

elders

meetings

whatever the

connection is

let us

having put

away

falsehood

let us

speak the

truth

to one

another

for we

are the

body of

Christ

in

Cambridge

Jackie and I

often go out

for a meal

now and again

on a special

occasion

and in nearly

every case

the reader

or the waitress

has had a

foreign accent

and so we

often start

off a conversation

where's your

accent from

they tell us

where they're

from

different parts

of Europe

or South

America

and so they

say and where's

your accent

from

it's not

English

and there

we enter a

conversation

of where we're

from

wouldn't it be

wonderful

that as a

church

as we speak

to one another

with grace

humility

and truthfulness

wouldn't it be

wonderful

if the world

listened in

on our

conversation

and said

you folk

speak with

a different

accent

an accent

of truthfulness

where are you

from

let's pray

thanks

thanks

thanks

thanks

thanks