Word of Salvation - July 2010

 

A NEW WAY OF LIVING, Peter Smit

Text: Ephesians 4:17-32

(Sermon 8 of a series on Ephesians, Series title – Ephesians: Portraits of a living church)

 

(Show a bunch of old clothes that you need to throw out.)

Do you enjoy cleaning out of your cupboard from time to time all those old clothes?

Problem is you don’t normally like to throw old clothes out until you’ve got new ones.

Today our portrait in Ephesians is about new clothes and a new way of living. As we go through this passage, take note of which old clothes and old ways you need to throw out. And which ones you need to put on.

 

1. LEAVE BEHIND YOUR LIFE WITHOUT CHRIST.

We live in a morally careless culture. It was the same when Paul was writing to the Ephesians. Gentiles were renowned for being morally careless, especially in sexual matters. Pompeii was unearthed 2000 years after it was buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted violently 79 A.D. Archeologists uncovered houses with sexually explicit frescos. The motto, written on one of the walls, seems to have been "enjoy life while you have it - for tomorrow is uncertain". So they plunged themselves into seeking pleasure, and sexual promiscuity was the norm.

Paul said to believers in that culture and ours…

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,

 

Paul says, “Don’t live like the world, leave behind your life without Christ.

 

That life was characterized by five things.

a) Depraved thinking:

in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding

Paul says that before you come to know Christ you’re walking in the dark. Your eyes are blind and your thinking is futile. Without Christ, life is empty and purposeless. It’s like people are in a spiritual blackout. The spiritual blackout can lead to a huge moral blackout. That darkened understanding leads to…

 

b) Alienation from God:

separated from the life of God

Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life”. Only by knowing Jesus can we know life.

In chapter 2:12 Paul told his Ephesians readers they used to be cut off from God. Separated from his blessings. Without Jesus people are alienated from God.

Cut off from all the blessings God has…

 

This alienation is because of an…

 

c) Ignorance of God:

because of the ignorance that is in them

 

Not only did they not know about God, but they refused to know. They ignored God and chose not to listen to him or seek to learn what he says. That led them to have…

 

d) An obstinate heart:

due to the hardening of their hearts.

 

Atherosclerosis is a medical term that describes hardening of your arteries. The hardening of the artery allows less and less blood to get through. It can lead to a sudden rupture of the artery and blood clots and death of tissue. If it gets bad enough this condition can even lead to ossification = formation of complete bone tissue.

 

This is exactly what Paul describes takes place spiritually in people’s hearts – the core of their will, mind and soul. Softness to God slowly turns to bone or stone. They become hardened to God. The result is…

 

e) A continual longing for impure living:

¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

 

Without Christ, people are vulnerable to unbridled lust, living to excess. Rather than living self-controlled lives they can be out of control. Drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, a complete disregard for God’s rules and laws.

 

Not that everyone without Christ lives this way, but you don’t need to look far to see it around you. Pornography on the internet, sex before and outside of marriage. Drunkenness or drug use. And no matter how much they do it it’s never enough.

It was happening in Pompeii 2000 years ago and it’s still happening today.

Paul says leave that life behind. Take off the old clothes.

 

2. PUT ON YOUR NEW LIFE WITH CHRIST.

Take off the past way of living and put on the new. Be what God has made you to be.

Paul describes this new life and what happened when you became a Christian.

 

When you wer e converted to Christ:

a) Your n ew life began with knowing Jesus Christ.

²⁰ You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. ²¹ Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

 

How did you become a Christian? You heard. Someone shared the message of God’s love and the good news that Jesus Christ died to pay for all you’ve done wrong.

 

You heard of him and were taught in him .

You came to know about Jesus, but Jesus himself came to you. He opened your heart to him. God revealed himself to you. Your new life began when you got to know Jesus. You were taught about him but also in him, in relationship with him. You discovered Christianity is not religion, it’s a relationship.

 

b) You put off old sinful ways and put on Christ’s new way of living.

 

²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

 

Paul says as part of your conversion, God’s word taught you to stop living your former life. You put off your old life, and put on a new life. You were transformed.

 

In 386 AD a 32 year old unbelieving wild-living man called Augustine cried reached a desperate state of distress, he said,

"I flung myself down, how I know not, under a certain fig tree, giving free course to my tears. . . I sent up these sorrowful cries, 'How long, how long? To-morrow and to-morrow? why not now? Why is there not this hour an end to my uncleanness?' I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when I heard the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighbouring house and oft repeating, 'Take up and read, take up and read.'

 

Immediately my countenance was changed, and I began most earnestly to consider whether it was usual for children in any kind of game to sing such words, nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So, restraining the torrent of my tears' I rose up, interpreting it no other way than as a command to me from Heaven to open the book, and to read the first chapter I should light upon. . . . I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes first fell…

 

Words of Romans 13:13-14

¹³ Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. ¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

 

No further would I read, nor did I need, for instantly, as the sentence ended, by a light of security infused into my heart, all gloom of doubt vanished away."

 

He was taught to put off the ol d self, and put on the new. He was converted and his lifestyle changed. He put on the new self. He became a great leader of the early church.

Paul said, put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

God created you to be like him. True righteousness means right living and holiness - pure living.

If Jesus is at work in you, you will desire to put on this new life.

 

Paul says… you put off the old, you put on the new, but between them...

²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

 

The te nse of this verb is important. It is a present infinitive.

It s imply means: to be made new in your mind is something you must do today and every day. Christian conversion is not just a once off event. No it means that every day I want to be made new in my thinking. Every day I listen to God’s word and conform my thinking to what he says. Every day I’m seeking to be made new in the attitude of my mind. I learn God’s word and apply it.

 

In summary Paul says, Put off your old life, put on your new life. The he outlines exactly what God wants you to do and not do.

 

3. DO’S AND DON’TS FOR A CHRISTIAN.

This is the evidence or fruit of the radical change of conversion. This is what we must put on every day.

 

a. Don’t lie but tell the truth.

²⁵ Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

 

Paul said in verse 21 that you were taught in the truth of Jesus .

If Jesus is the truth – and we are all members of his one body, we must speak the truth.

Don’t lie for any reason. Not to protect yourself or get out of an awkward situation.

Don’t lie because lies destroy trust. Trust is built on truth. When trust is broken relationships are damaged. So even if it costs you, put off falsehood and speak the truth. It’s the only way to lasting joy and peace.

 

b . Be angry but don’t let your anger lead to sin.

²⁶ “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷ and do not give the devil a foothold.

 

As Christians there’s a time to get angry. God gets angry about certain things and so should we - Injustice, sin, evil, dishonoring parents, and child abuse. Jesus got angry with people who turned the temple from a place of prayer to a market.

 

But your anger must not lead you to sin. You must not become abusive. You must not pay back injustice with injustice. Don’t be angry because your pride has been hurt.

Don’t let the sun go down while you’re still angry. An important principle for married people.

D on’t nurse your anger. Don’t let it smolder and lead you into resentment.

When God got angry he dealt with situations quickly. And then he ceased from his anger.

Like God w e must be quick to resolve our anger for Paul warns, if we don’t we can give the devil a foothold.

 

I remember speaking to a senior member of a church once who related to me some injustice that happened to him by another church member years ago. He still couldn’t forgive that person. The devil got a foothold in his life, he was a bitter man. Satan loves to lurk around angry people to tempt them to nurse the hurt because then he can destroy relationships and church unity. Be angry, but don’t nurse the hurt.

 

c . Don’t steal but work to give.

²⁸ He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

 

When we lived in Geelong, one of the student families who had very limited income had an expensive trampoline for their kids in the front yard. One morning they woke up and it was gone. Naturally they were really upset. Stealing is greedy covetousness and it breaks God’s eighth command. You shall not steal.

 

Stealing is taking something without permission that does not belong to you.

It also involves cheating your neighbour out of what rightfully belongs to them.

Stealing doesn’t just involve money; you can steal your boss’s time by not working when you should be.

 

Stealing sponges off others. A Christian must not sponge off others but work. Be gainfully employed. Earn money so that you can be generous like God and give to people in need. So you’ve got something to share with others.

 

d . Don’t use bad language but build others up with your words.

²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

 

Did you know that you can make the Holy Spirit sorrowful, you can offend him, cause him to grieve about you? You can do that with your words: when you use vulgar speech, obscene speech, dirty talk, rotten words. Don’t use words that are vile or tear others down, but only what will build others up. Speak words that will help, encourage, comfort, support, honour and love others.

 

e . Don’t be bitter and vengeful but be kind and forgiving.

³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

Church, remember that God has been kind to you. He forgave you by the precious blood of Jesus. You were alienated from God, but he was compassionate to you. Therefore, do the same to others. Don’t nurse anger and bitterness. Don’t allow yourself to fly into rage. Be self-controlled and extend kindness, compassion and true forgiveness to everyone.

 

These are practical every day do’s and don’ts for Christians.

God says leave the old life behind and live the new life God calls you to. Put off the old, put on the new. Be truthful, patient, giving, up-building with your words and forgiving.

 

A Christian songwriter Randy Stonehill wrote a song that captures what God is calling you to do here. He called it “old clothes”. Chorus goes like this…

So I’m packing up my old clothes
with my old and foolish ways
they don't seem to fit me anymore
I see the light of morning
with different eyes today
and I’m giving my tomorrows to the Lord

 

Will you ask God to help you pack up those old clothes, those old and foolish ways?

And will you live your tomorrows for the Lord?

 

Amen