I've titled our lesson this morning,
Everyday Theology. Everyday Theology. The gospel,
the gospel of Christ our Savior, ought to affect us more than
Sunday and Wednesday, don't you reckon? This is good everyday
theology for the believer. Now the believer knows the gospel. The people here, you know the
gospel. At least mentally, you know the
gospel. You've been taught the gospel.
We know the doctrines of grace. The believer knows and trusts
Christ. In his mercy and in his grace, God has made us part of
the body of Christ. That's what Paul had been talking
about in the previous verses. And since that's true, since
that's true, there should be some changes in the believer's
conduct and attitude. Now this cannot be stressed strongly
enough. I'm not saying that in any way
will a believer's conduct and behavior be perfect, not in any
way. In no way am I saying that the
believer's conduct and attitude will somehow become so good that
we'll become worthy of God's mercy and grace, that it'll somehow
contribute to our righteousness, contribute to the security of
our salvation, it'll contribute to God wanting to bless us because
our conduct is so good. I'm not saying that at all. I'm
certainly not saying that the believer will ever be satisfied
with our conduct and our attitude. If we are, something's seriously
wrong, isn't it? But there will be a changed attitude.
There will be a changed conduct in the believer if God has saved
them. If there's not this changed attitude,
changed conduct, there's not been a work of grace done in
the heart. Because what is in the heart is what directs our
actions, our motives, our attitudes. And in the opening verse of our
text this morning, Paul talks about the way that the Gentiles
walk. And what he's talking about there
is the unbeliever, the heathen. He's talking about the dead nature
of the unbeliever, not just their actions now. Their nature, their
nature is dead. And it's important for us to
remember, every believer still carries around that same dead
nature. It's the dead nature that we're
fighting with all along. The difference between a believer
and an unbeliever is, the believer's got a new nature to fight against
that old man. That's where the struggle against
sin comes from. So Paul begins, our text begins in verse 17.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that you henceforth
not walk as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds.
He's already starting out here with the attitude with in the
vanity of the mind. That's where the problem comes
from. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the
blindness of their heart. who being past feeling, have
given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greediness. Now the unbeliever walks in the
vanity of their mind, the emptiness of their mind. What directs their
actions is an empty mind. It's a mind that's empty of spiritual
life, it's empty of spiritual truth, it's empty of spiritual
understanding. It's a mind that is perverse.
Now that's all men. Believer and unbeliever alike
have that attitude. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. That's our mind. We're empty,
perverse, dead mind spiritually. The unbeliever doesn't know God.
And since they don't know God, they don't trust him. They don't
know God, they don't know his son and they don't trust him
because their heart is blind. They can't see them. They can't
see them. They can't see Christ. They can't
see their sin. So they don't see their need
of a savior. That's why they don't run to
Christ begging for mercy. They don't see their need and
they don't see the glory of the savior. And they don't feel bad about
it because their heart is dead. Their heart is dead. It's past
having any spiritual feeling. They don't feel their need of
Christ. So they don't cry out and begging
for mercy. And what they end up doing because their mind is
darkened and blind, their heart is dead. They just seek after
the perverse things of this world. I mean, with a greed and a lust
and a need to get it all. I mean, no matter how much you
get, it's not enough. Now, I'm not just talking about
money and possessions and things, but it's also popularity. It's
also having people adore you and put you up on a pedestal.
You know, they seek after that with such fervor because that's
all they know. That's all they know. but the
believers not so. Verse 20, Paul says, but you
have not so learned Christ, if so be that you've heard him and
been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. If you've learned
of Christ, from Christ, not just from a preacher now, if you've
learned of Christ, from Christ, if he's been your teacher, you
have spiritual life. God's given you a mind that knows
him. You know him, so you trust him. That's God's mercy and grace
to you. He gave you that mind that knows him. You do know Christ. He's enabled you to see Christ.
He's taken those scales off your mind, so you see Christ. That's
why you trust your soul to him. You see Christ and you see your
own sinfulness. You see your own helplessness. That's why you gladly trust Christ
to do it all. That's why you gladly submit
yourself to him and his righteousness, because you see you don't have
any. You feel your need of Christ. That's why you constantly cry
out to him for mercy. That's why you constantly cry
out to him, Lord, forgive me of my sin. You need him. You feel your need of Christ.
That's why you come to the public worship service. You come here
to hear of him, to hear from him. It's a need that you have. A person who has learned Christ
from Christ, they've been given a new nature, a new nature that
needs Christ. And if we've been given a new
nature, I go back to what I said at the beginning, There'll be
a changed conduct. There'll be a changed attitude.
It won't be perfect, but it's gonna be changed. And Paul, what
he's telling us in these next verses is, now, since God's done
a work of grace in your heart, act like it. Act like it. Verse 22, he says, that you put
off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lust. Now, like I said a minute ago,
every believer has two natures in one body. We have an old man
and a new man. And Paul tells us, put off the
old man. Now, how do I put him off? Well,
it's by not acting exclusively like that old man anymore. We
put off that old man by not letting that corrupt, deceitful nature
direct us all the time. Now, you're not gonna be able
to stop it from happening. We cannot stop that old man from
doing what he does. He can't do anything else, but
we can fight against it, right? We can fight against it. This
word put off that Paul uses means to lay aside. John Gill says
it's to put the old man off his seat of power. Yes, he's still
gonna be there, but he don't have to be on the seat of power.
You don't have to make provisions for him. You don't have to make
excuses for him. Say, well, I can't help, I can
act this way. This is all the old man wants to do. You don't
have to make excuses for him. And this is something that I
believe will be very helpful to you. This phrase, this verb
is in the passive tense. This is not something you and
I actively do. It's in the passive tense. It's
something somebody else does for us. And I want to stress
that. This is something God has to
do for us. I want to stress that because
it takes the burden off of people. You know, when we preach the
gospel, we shouldn't be putting a burden on people, should we?
You know, if we just really just pound this and saying, don't
act like this, don't do this, don't think this, we're going
to put a burden on people. And it's going to be bad because
I'm going to think, I can't do that. It's just going to be so
discouraging. The gospel will not be discouraging. The gospel
of Christ should be encouraging, doesn't it? I know we can't do
this. I know we can't put off the old
man and never act like him again. I know that. But this is something
God can do for us. This is something God does for
his people. I can't put off the old man.
I can't quit acting like him. I can't quit thinking like him.
I can't quit smelling like him. But I can ask God to do this
for me. I can ask God to give me this
mind, to give me this attitude. Lord, enable me to lay aside
that old man, so he's not constantly directing my conduct. And if
you look over at 1 Peter 2, here's something else that will be encouraging
to you. Laying aside this old man, It's
not a once for all thing. Y'all say, well, I've defeated
this sin. I don't do this anymore. I don't think this way anymore.
It's not a once for all thing. Because look what Peter says,
1 Peter 2, verse 1. Wherefore, laying aside, not
that you have laid, laying, constantly laying aside all malice and all
guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn
babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow
thereby." We're constantly laying aside this old man, laying aside
the malice and the guile and the hypocrisies and the envies
and the evil speakings, and constantly seeking to be fed the sincere
milk of the word of God. It's a constant thing. Don't
be discouraged when you don't put that old man down once and
for all, because we won't do it till God kills the body. That's
the only time it'll be done. But now then Paul, after this,
Paul gives us some specifics. There's some specific things
that we're to seek, to ask God to do for us. There's some things
we should not do and some things that we should do. If so be that
we've learned Christ. Number one is this, be renewed
in the spirit of your mind. Verse 23, back in our text, Ephesians
4. and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and that you put on the new man, put off the old
man, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. Now put on the new man and be
renewed in your spirit, in the spirit that God has put in you.
Now, this word renewed, you know, people try to use that word renewed
as an argument against the new nature, you know, that there's
not two natures in a believer, that if that was so, the new
man who's perfect would never have to be renewed. This word
renewed doesn't mean that you have to, the new man has to be
born again in you again, if that makes sense. He doesn't have
to be born again. He doesn't, that new man is not righteous
and becomes unrighteous and you got to make him righteous again.
That's not what this means at all. It means a refreshing, a
refreshing. We can't renew ourselves, but
we can seek a refreshing where it's found, can't we? By the
preaching of the word. If you would be refreshed, look
to Christ afresh. Look to him again, come to him,
keep coming to him, keep coming to him. Peter said to whom, coming,
keep coming to him. And come to him like you've never
come to him before. Look at His mercy and grace and
love for you and stand in awe of it like you've never seen
it before. Every message that I prepare,
I try to prepare the gospel like I've never seen it before and
like you've never heard it before. So we stand in awe of it again. Trust Christ. Trust him like
you've never trusted him before. Now you can't renew yourself.
What does Paul say here? Be renewed. Be renewed. Be renewed by the gospel of Christ. Be renewed by the word of God. Be renewed. And I tell you the
best way I could think of to be renewed, to be refreshed,
is to listen to the gospel. Listen to it preached. like you've
never heard it before. It's not like, well, you know,
I've heard this before. No, listen to the gospel priest. Like I need a message from God
to me. This is a message from God to
me. Listen to the gospel with a needy attitude. Boy, I tell
you, this thing is so common in our day to listen to the gospel
preach with a critical attitude. Find out where the preacher's
wrong about this and where he's wrong about this and what I know
better. Listen to the gospel with a needy attitude. I need
Christ. I mean, we do, don't we? We do
need Christ, desperately. We should listen to the gospel
with a needy attitude. If we do, we'll be renewed. And
if we're renewed like that, we'll be able to set aside the power
of that old man, at least for a little while, at least for
a little while. Brother Adam Simpson tells me
all the time on a Sunday, he said, I believe I can make it
to Wednesday now. That's the way he's talking about it. He's
talking about being renewed and set aside the power of that old
man for a while, but it's not gonna last long. I'm gonna need
to come back in here and be refreshed again. Then verse 25, Paul says,
quit your lying. Wherefore put away lying, speak
every man truth with his neighbor, for we're members one of another."
Now, certainly this means we ought to live honestly in the
world. You know, the unbeliever thinks nothing of dealing dishonestly
with people, dealing dishonestly, you know, with people to get
ahead. Many of you know I used to work
at a distribution center. We distributed goods all over
the place. We had a lot of customers who
were Arabs. And these fellas, I mean, the
amount of money that they owed us was staggering. Staggering. And they kept promising
that they'd pay it, and they weren't. We finally just quit
delivering to them. And they came in shocked that
we would quit delivering to them. And I told him, you boys have
kept telling us you're going to pay, and you don't. And he
said, oh, we just thought you understood. We were lying. He
said, that's just common practice in our country. Everybody knows.
Whenever you're dealing with people in business, everybody
knows you're lying. Well, let that not be said of
you. I mean, I understand, but let
that not be said of the believer. Oh, live honestly in this world. Dishonesty in our business dealings
brings such reproach on the gospel? Don't do that. But I tell you
what is much more important that Paul's talking about here. You
already know, God's already put it in you when you were born,
don't tell a lie. So he's talking about something
more important here. Be honest with yourself spiritually. Spiritually,
be honest before men and honest before God. Paul says here we're
members one of another. Now he's tying that to this business
of honesty. Don't lie on God by giving your
brethren the impression God's blessed you because you did something
right. Don't lie on God by giving the
impression, oh, you know, God saved me and he's blessed me
and he's keep blessing me for any reason other than God's undeserved
grace. Live like you need the Lord.
Live trusting Him. Trusting His grace, not your
works. Trust His mercy, trust His grace. Don't lie and be a
religious hypocrite trying to get people to think you're better
than you are. We don't want to expose all of
our sin and our sinful thoughts, but don't be a religious hypocrite
either and think. You make people think. God's
blessed you because you're so good. And when they're not blessed
that way, they're gonna think something's wrong with me. Now,
we're members of one of another. If you live with this lying attitude,
a religious hypocrite, making people think you're holier, better
than you are, you put a burden on your brother. You put a burden
on another part of the body. Now don't do that, we're members
one of another. That's lying and that's of the
devil. That's of the devil. We'll talk
about that more in just a minute. But if somebody thinks that God
has blessed you for any reason other than his undeserved mercy
and grace, you know what they're gonna do? They're gonna start
looking at you, trying to copy you. I better live like that,
live like this person if I want God to bless me the same way.
And what's happened? We got our eyes off Christ onto
a man. That's of the devil. That's the
devil's goal. Anything to get our eyes off of Christ. Next, Paul says this, verse 26,
get ahold of your anger. Verse 26, be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. Now there are reasons to be angry,
justifiably angry. When I hear things that these
false prophets just spit out today, it makes me angry. It
makes me angry that they're lying on God and they're deceiving
the souls of men and women, sending them to hell, believing what
they're preaching. That's not okay. I think it's perfectly
fine to be angry about that. The Lord was angry with those
that made merchandise of men's souls, wasn't he? He found some
cords and wound them together, braided them together into a
whip and drove them out. Those men saw the anger of the Lord.
His anger. But I tell you, we need to be
very careful in this matter of anger. Looking what other people
are doing, being angry at them for what they're doing. That
will lead right quick to a judgmental attitude. Like I'm better than
them. I'm angry at somebody because
I'm better than them. You know, we're dealing with others. We
do very well to remember this. God is slow to anger and plenteous
in mercy. We ought to try copying that
sometime. We really should. And we need to, this is not something
that we can lay aside ourselves. Remember, we need to ask the
Lord, Lord, do this for me. Put this attitude in me and enable
me to walk after the Savior in this way. There are things to
be angry about, but there's some wrong when somebody's angry all
the time. Something wrong with that. Because
Paul says, don't let the sun go down on your anger. And I'll tell you the main thing.
I thought about this a lot. How can you be angry and sin
not? Well, the main thing we ought
to be angry about is our own sin. That's what we ought, the
main thing we ought to be angry. The main thing I ought to be
angry about is my own failure and my own self-righteousness.
If I'm angry at myself for my sin, my failure, you know what
that'll cause me to do? It'll cause me to seek Christ.
See, if I'm angry at somebody else, that'll lead me to sin.
It'll lead me to be judgmental. But if I'm angry at myself, it'll
cause me to seek Christ. It'll cause me to seek mercy
and forgiveness. You anger without a cause. is
a sin. That's what the Lord said. The
Lord called it murder. Murder, being angry with your
brother without a cause. He says murder. And anger that
leads us to seek vengeance, now that's sin. Just let it go. What did the Lord say? Vengeance
is mine. I'll repay, saith the Lord. Leave
it to the Lord. Just leave it to the Lord. And
whenever anger comes up, let it go. Let it go as quickly. Y'all seek God's mercy. Seek
his grace. Seek his, that he give you the
ability to let it go. I mean, seek this hard. I'm talking specifically about
the body of Christ now. Don't let it do a slow burn.
Don't let it just sit there and burn and burn and burn and burn. I can't think of anything that'll
end up causing more damage to God's church than that. Because
that slow burn, eventually it's going to burst into big old wildfire. And we can seek God and seek
his blessing to enable us to let that go. Let that go. Then Paul says, don't give place
to the devil. Verse 27, he said, neither give
place to the devil. Now Satan is the accuser of the
brethren. You know, we're not gonna not
give place to the devil by standing going toe to toe with him. We're
gonna lose that battle every single time. Satan is the accuser
of the brethren and the best way I can think of to make way
for Satan, to give place, give him a foothold, the best way
I can think of to do that is by either making or listening
to an accusation against one of the brethren. Best way I can
think of to give Satan a foothold. Remember, Satan's goal is to
get us to look at anything, to focus on anything except Christ
alone. Well, if we're angry with our
brother for the wrong that we think that he's doing, that's
all we'll think about. Now we're focusing on that wrong
instead of on Christ. When we start wanting our own
way, when we start wanting to promote our own agenda, get things
going the way that I want to go, this is best for me, even
though it's worse for everybody else, that's giving place to
the devil. That's giving place to the devil.
Because when we start all focusing on our own agenda and on our
own way, we're not helping anybody. Because we're getting them to
focus on what we want to do instead of focus on Christ. I promise
you this, I promise you, it will hurt the souls of men and women
to follow our own agenda, but it will save and edify and comfort
their souls if we're focused on Christ together, focus on
him alone together. Now we need to remember that.
You know what I want, maybe it is a good thing, I don't know,
but if it's a bad thing, if it gets us off of focusing on Christ
alone, you see what I'm saying? Then Paul says, quit your stealing.
Verse 28, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let
him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that
he may have to give to them, him that needeth. Now this goes
right along with lying and being honest. Don't take what doesn't
belong to you. Go out and work an honest day's
work to get what you need, and then live within your means.
There's nothing better. than working your job in quietness
and coming home and eating your own bread, eating the fruit of
your labor, even from an honest day's work. And I'll give you
a real good example of something Paul's talking about here, because
he's saying it's not just don't steal and don't just go to work
because that's what you're supposed to do. Go to work so you'll have
to give to him that's in need. See, this is an attitude. It's
an attitude of generosity. It's an attitude of giving. Zacchaeus,
when he first climbed up that tree, he stole from everybody
everywhere, didn't he? He stole from everybody. But
not after the Lord saved him, he didn't. When the Lord told
him, come down from that tree, I must go to your house today,
everything changed, didn't it? Everything changed. Zacchaeus
gave us a very good example of working an honest day's work
and giving to him in need. He said, Lord, I give half my
goods to feed the poor. But just like lying and stealing,
don't try, you already know not to take what doesn't belong to
you. God's already put that in you. He put that in you when
you were born. So Paul's talking about more
than that here. He's talking about not trying to steal God's
glory. Don't try to steal God's glory by pretending God saved
you because you're so good. Don't pretend now that God is
blessing you. He just, I mean, oh, there's
folks that God's blesses. I mean, just how he blesses.
I mean, there's people, you know, God's blessed them so much in
every way. I mean, spiritually. I mean, the Lord saved all their
children. The Lord's just given them all
great jobs and they're just, they're wealthy. I mean, everybody
likes them. It's just, oh my word. But if
that's you, Don't try to steal God's glory by pretending God's
blessed me this way because I do everything just right. That's
stealing God's glory. God's glory is he blessed you
even though you don't deserve it. See that? See, the walk of
a believer, it's a whole lot more than actions. It's an attitude. It's an attitude of humility.
It's an attitude of thankfulness. It's an attitude of worthlessness.
That's what it is. Then Paul says, verse 29, watch
your mouth. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Now,
corrupt communications, that's unacceptable language, and you
already know not to use those words. You already know that.
I mean, whatever the Lord didn't put it in you to know not to
say those things your mama taught you when she washed your mouth
out with soap for saying them. You know not to say those things.
And you know the evidence that Peter gave when he tried to make
those folks sitting around that fire think he didn't know the
Lord, was his language. He began to curse and swear.
Now watch that, watch that. But I tell you what's more important
about this matter of corrupt communication, it's not ministering
grace. not preaching the grace of God. It's preaching salvation by works
and giving the impression God saves people who are better than
somebody else, who are better than the average Joe. It's not
God's grace alone. Use your mouth to edify. You
know what will encourage your brethren and edify your brethren?
To remind them, look to Christ. Look, it's all of God's grace.
It's all of God's, look how merciful God's been to you. Look how gracious
God's been to you. That'll encourage and edify the
body of Christ. The end, Paul says, don't grieve
the Holy Spirit. Verse 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. Now,
again, Paul's talking about a whole lot more than sinning, although
I know our sin grieves the Holy Spirit. But what Paul is primarily
talking about, him grieving the Holy Spirit, he's talking about
trusting Christ. What is the job of God the Holy
Spirit? is to reveal Christ to us so we trust him. That's the
job of God the Holy Spirit, so that we're saved by faith in
Christ. And he has sealed us until the
day of redemption. The day of redemption is when
a sinner sees Christ by faith. When we see Christ crucified
for my sin, that's the day of redemption. The day of redemption
is the day when a sinner sees my only hope of salvation, is
that Christ was crucified for me. Now, when we do something
to make it so that people can't hear the gospel, because they're
focusing on the disruption that we're causing, not only have
we given place to the devil, we've also aggrieved the Holy
Spirit of God. I tell you that it's so subtle,
but it's so easy to happen. We need to pray that, Lord, keep
me from that. Keep me from that. See, the issue
in our walk and our conduct is Christ. He's the issue, the preaching
of Christ, the worship of Christ, that folks have the opportunity
to hear of Christ and believing. The number one way we can walk
in good everyday theology is to make sure I am never the issue
and Christ is always the issue. That's the best way we can walk
in good everyday theology. Good everyday theology. is living
in dependence upon Christ. It's living in dependence on
God's grace, not my words. Good everyday theology is living
in such a way that I don't bring reproach on the gospel by my
bad attitude and my conduct. That's good everyday theology. I hope Lord bless that to you.