I want to begin reading, though,
and get the context of this verse back in Ephesians 4. You have not so learned Christ,
you have learned Him. If so be that you have heard
Him, and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. That you put off concerning the
former conversation of the old man which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. And that you put on the new man
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore, putting away lying, Speak every man truth with his
neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be you angry,
and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. 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 him that
needeth. 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. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. Here in these verses, in verses
25 through verse 32, Paul gives several instructions to you and
me, to us, as to what we should do and what we should not do. Putting away lying and being
angry and sinning not. Not letting any corrupt communications
proceed out of our mouth, but instead that which is good for
the use of edifying. Now these epistles, all Paul's
epistles, Peter's epistles, James' epistles, is full of instructions
on how you and I should live. What we should think, what our
motives should be for doing what we do, what we should speak,
What we should do and what we should not do. And what this
reminds us of as we read these instructions is that you and
I aren't our own anymore. That we've been bought with a
great price. We are now in a kingdom. A heavenly
kingdom. We have a king. We have a new
king and a new kingdom. The Lord Jesus Christ. And we
do what we do because we love the King. And we're grateful,
we're filled with gratitude that He's taken us out of this kingdom
that we were in. The kingdom of darkness. Delivered
us from the power of darkness. And He's translated us into the
kingdom of His dear Son. We're told here in these verses,
23 and 24 and 25, that the Lord
has given us a new birth. He's created us anew. He's put
us in this new family. We're among the children. And
we're anxious to know how the children are expected to live. And here in Beginning in verse
25 through the remainder of this chapter and on in chapter 5,
we're told how we're to act, how we're to live, what we're
to think, what's our attitude to be. But I want to look at
this verse today, this morning and this afternoon, and I want
to dwell this morning just on this one verse in 25, wherefore?
That's all I want to look at. Wherefore. Tonight we'll look
at lying. This afternoon we'll look at
lying. Putting away lying. But this word here, wherefore,
sets before us a principle that you and I need to consider this
morning. This word wherefore means as
a consequence. As a consequence. Paul is going
to give us instructions, but he begins with wherefore. He only gives us instructions
in the light of or as a consequence of something that has happened
to us. What has happened to us? You have learned Christ. What
has happened to you? Christ has taught you the truth. What has happened to you? He
has rebirthed you. God has created you anew. You are a new creature in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, He says, This is the way
you're to live. This is what you're to do. This
is what you're not to do. Here in verse 17 and verse 18,
he said this already in a general way. Look at it here in verse
17. I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk,
in the vanity, in the emptiness of your mind. Don't be like other
people. You're not like the world. You're
different. God has made you to differ. Wherefore? Wherefore? Paul wants
to make sure that you and I know that he knows that he's writing
these instructions to Christians. He's writing these instructions
to men who have experienced the work of God in their hearts,
making them new creatures. Here in chapter 1, look in chapter
1, he's always doing this. He uses this word, wherefore,
in every chapter of this epistle. And it always means as a consequence. Wherefore, as a consequence of
something that's taken place. In chapter 1 and verse 15, look
at this, "...wherefore I also..." Wherefore? "...after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and love to all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, and make mention of you
in my prayers." And then he goes on to tell how he prays for them.
But when does he begin to pray for them? After he's heard that
they heard the gospel. They had believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ. The love of God was shed abroad
in their heart for all the saints. He said, wherefore, now, I'm
praying for you. I'm praying for you as God's
children. And you know why he wrote this epistle to these Ephesians? He never wrote it to them in
their unconverted state. He only wrote this epistle as
a consequence of the Lord saving them. Look what he said up in
verse 1 of chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Epheus, and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. See who he's writing to. He's
writing to the saints. He's writing to the faithful
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore? Wherefore? What does
this tell us? It refers us back to verses 23-24
of who He's writing to. It's so important to remember
who He's writing to. He's writing to believers. He's
writing to Christians. Now why is that important? And
that's what I want to spend a few minutes on this morning. Why
is this so important? Why would He write to unbelievers?
What would he have to say to unbelievers if he wrote to them? You know what the Christian life
is made up of. In our doing and our not doing,
in our walking, as Larry said this morning, our praying and
our struggle, it is motive. It all goes to the whole attitude. Why we do what we do. Laying aside lying. putting away lying. Why would
we do that? To be saved? Well, if I can just
quit my lying, I'll be saved. Paul said, I'm not even writing
to you if you're in that attitude. If you still have this attitude
that you're doing things and not doing things to be saved,
I'm not even writing to you, he says. Look at this wherefore. I'm writing to those who have
already laid hold upon Christ by faith. They've heard the gospel
of grace. They believe it. They're new
creatures. I'm writing to them. And Paul would say, if you could
quit all your sinning, if you could quit this morning every
sin that you're doing and never sin again, that wouldn't save
you. That could not save you. So it
goes to motive, doesn't it? These epistles are written to
save people because it's instructions to them. Because they're not doing it
to be saved. They don't do what they do to
stay saved. They're saved by grace. They
are being saved by grace. And they shall be saved by grace.
And they don't do one thing to stay saved. The world can't understand
that, can they? But it's the truth. The Pharisees
did so many things, and the Lord Jesus said a lot of things they
do is right in and of themselves. Nothing was wrong with fasting.
Nothing was wrong with paying their tithes. Nothing was wrong
with abstaining from defrauding people in adultery. Those things
in and of themselves were good, but it was their whole motive
behind it. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people. If
anybody can be saved by the works, look at me. Look at me. It goes to motive. We can't live the Christian life
if our attitude, if our motives are wrong. You just can't do
it. If we think that we can do something
to save ourselves, the whole motive is wrong. The whole attitude
is wrong. Our attitude and our motives
can never be right until God makes us Christians. You can't
do a single thing with a right motive until God first makes
you a Christian. Now, ain't that the truth? Whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. If I taught a lost person, And
I know there's a place for this. We don't teach our children that
it's alright to lie. We teach them not to lie. But
you know something? You cannot teach a lost person
to do anything with a proper motive. With a Christian motive. You just can't do it. Go tell
people, don't you lie. And he may quit his lying. But
he can't do it with a Christian motive. Whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. The Scripture says the plowing
of the wicked is sin. They'd hook up their old oxen
and go out to plow a field to plant seed so they could harvest
it that fall to feed the family. And the Lord said, you're plowing
is sin. You're giving is sin. You're
fasting is sin. You're reading, you're praying.
Your whole life, your motives are sinful. So Paul comes here
and says, first of all, I'm going to give you some instructions,
but I want you to remember who I'm writing to. I'm not writing
to unregenerate people. I'm writing to those whom God
has regenerated. That's the first thing. The second
point is this. Trying to teach that unbeliever
to live like a Christian, like a believer, will only lead him
to pride, to vain confidence, to a vain show. We first have
to be taught of Christ. And what happens when He begins
to teach us? Oh, He humbles us. He humbles
us. Until you're taught of Him, of
your lostness and of your wretchedness, Until you're taught of Him and
He reveals Himself to you, if I tried to teach you Christian
principles, you'd just get proud. You'd just get self-righteous.
You'd depend on these things. We first have to be humbled.
And only He can humble. Isn't that what He said there
in verse 20? You've learned Christ. You've heard Him. You've been
taught by Him. And Paul says, since He's taught
you, now I can tell you. I was talking with a young lady
the other night, and I think maybe my wife may have mentioned
when we left this person that she looked awful humble. She
looked so humble. And she did. She's the epitome
of humility, outwardly. But I've known this young woman
for years. You just cross her. Disreprove her. Just tell her,
you shouldn't have done that. That was wrong. She'll lose her
humility. She'll show the rebellion that's
in her heart. What's the matter with her? You
can't teach her anything. You can't teach her carnal things,
let alone spiritual things. The Lord has to first begin to
teach us Himself. And when He teaches us, what
does He do? Oh, He strips us, doesn't He?
He humbles us. People will take certain things.
They'll take certain truths of the Scriptures. Most people,
if they're religious, they have certain things. You know, they'll
take this and they glory in that. You know, I've got a poor neighbor,
bless her heart, but all she talks about is dress. And the
more conservative you can talk about dress, boy, she just glories
in it. But you talk about something
else, like humility of heart. Ah, she's not too fond of that.
Let's go back to what she wants to talk about. But you know what
you can do with a Christian? You know what you can do with
someone whom Christ has begun to teach and humble? You can
teach that person. Because they've been humbled.
The Lord has taught them of Himself. You remember those two people,
and we refer to this a lot, but there's such a good lesson in
those two people that went up to the temple to pray, the Pharisee
and the Publican. Remember those two fellows? And
the Pharisee said, I think they both prayed. They both prayed. But boy, how different their
prayer was. God, I'm not like other people.
I fast twice a week. I pay tithes and all this. Do
you think you could have taught that fellow anything? If you'd
have said, now listen, don't lie. Put away lying. You know what he said. Man, I
ain't lied in 20 years. Go over yonder to those bad people
and tell them to do that. Do you know who you are talking
to? But if you would have went to that publican
that was smiting upon his presence and said, God, be merciful. I'm
a sinner. I'm the worst person in the world.
Everything I've done is sin all my life. God be merciful to me,
the sinner. And he went down to his house
justified. You could have sat that fellow
down, and you could open up your Bible, and you would have said,
Thus saith the Lord. And boy, his ears would have
perked up. You would have sat him down and said,
Now listen, you publican, your life has been a lie, but don't
you lie anymore. You put away that way of living. And you know what he said? Oh,
yes, yes, yes. Look how you've cursed God. Look
at the filtered communication. Now when you speak, you speak
words that will encourage and build up the Lord's people. Oh,
yes, yes, he just said yes. Why? The Lord had taught him. The Lord had humbled him. You'll
frustrate yourself to death if you start trying to teach lost
people how to live a Christian life. Because they've got their
little picky things. They'll accept some, forget the
rest of them. They don't care what the Lord
says. I know the Bible says that, but this is what I believe. I tell you, when the Lord Jesus
begins to teach us, we come out of that, don't we? Wherefore? And thirdly is this, Paul begins with this word, wherefore,
to make us know that he's speaking to believers. He's speaking to
those that God has did a work in, a work of grace in. To let
us know that he, as an apostle of the Lord, right in an inspiration
of God, puts no confidence in the natural ability of man to
do anything. He says, I'm not writing to lost
people now. I want you to know that. And
I want you to know this because I want you to know this, that
a lost man has no ability to do anything. Why would I write
unto him? Christian principles telling
him to do anything. He can't do anything, much less
apply these Christian principles to his heart. I said at the beginning of this
message that we can't live the Christian life without proper
motives, without the proper attitude. But now I'm saying we can't live
the Christian life in our own strength. Ain't no sense telling a lost
person to do anything. Quit your lying. Quit this and
quit that. Start doing that. Start doing
that. He can't do anything. He don't have the ability to
do anything to please God. We used to go down to jail. I told you about the Gideon that
I used to go to jail with. And he'd get up to preach. We all took turns preaching to
those offenders. Every time. Every time he got
up to preach. He just almost repeated himself. Every Sunday we went down there
and he said, now just exercise the power of your will. That's
what he told those fellas. I finally got to preaching to
him and not them. They ran me off. I couldn't go
back anymore. I got up and I told them one
time, I said, you know why you guys are in jail? You've been
exercising the power of your will. But I said, this is what
I told them, this is what I honestly told them. I said, do this experiment. Do something that you probably
can do, then we'll talk about exercising your will to get into
the Kingdom of God. I said, exercise your will to
get out of that jail. And when you've done that, then
listen to this dummy talk about just exercising the power of
your will. That was my trouble all through
my teenage years. I thought, I really thought,
and the devil deceived me to believe that I could not live
the Christian life. I can't follow God. I can't live
for Him because I have to live it in my own strength. And I
knew I couldn't. He had taught me that much. And
I was discouraged to death, even seeking the Lord. Because I have to exercise the
power of my will. How much power of your will do
you think it's going to take to wrestle against the rulers
of the darkness of this world? When we face Satan and his fallen
angel, how much power is it going to take to take those fellows
out? How much power of your will is
it going to take to endure the heaviness of temptation Did you
ever get in temptations that were so heavy you couldn't hardly
breathe? Did you ever have your faith
to put in a fiery fire that you thought it was going to melt? How much power does it take to
turn the other cheek? How much power does it take to
pray for those that despise you and abuse you? How much power
does it take to pray in faith and continue to believe when
you can't feel anything, or you can't see anything, and you open
up the Bible and the pages are blank? The power of your will. The man
knew nothing about what it was to be a Christian, or how we
become Christians. The Lord Jesus Christ came from
heaven to this earth. And you know what kind of people
He sought out. When He came to this earth, what
kind of people did He establish His kingdom with? Do you want
to see it? Do you want to see it? Look over
here in Luke chapter 7. Look in Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. This is where John had been put
in prison and he sent his disciples to the Lord Jesus and said, Are
you the one we're looking for? Here's another one coming. Are you the Christ? Are you the
Messiah? And look in Luke chapter 7 and verse 20. Here's the kind
of people the Lord Jesus Christ established His kingdom with.
And the men were coming to Him. When they were coming to Him,
they said, John the Baptist has sent us unto you, saying, Are
you he that should come, or look we for another? And in that same
hour He cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits,
and unto many that were blind He gave sight. And He answered
and said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things you
have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
the poor have the gospel preached unto them." If you were going
to set up a kingdom, if you and I were going to establish a kingdom,
would we establish it with people like this? I'll tell you what kind of people
we'd have to search out. We'd have to search out the mighty,
wouldn't we? You better get some wise men, because we're going
to need them if we're going to set one up. Better seek out some
nobles so people will have them to look up to. And then our kingdom
would fall. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
came to this earth, here's the kind of people He put in His
kingdom. Why did he do that? He don't
put any confidence in flesh. He don't look upon somebody's
ability or the power of their will. He don't look upon a man's
merit, or his nobility, or his mightiness, or his riches. He
just don't do it, folks. He chooses the base. The nobodies,
the nothings, the broken, the weak, the poor, have the gospel
priesthood. He said, without me you can do
nothing. Paul said, Lord, with you I can
do all that. It's God that worketh in you. to will and to do of His good
pleasure. This epistle here in Ephesians
was written, I don't know, some say it's for the most part, to
children and to slaves. That's who it was written to.
Chapter 6, verse 1, children, obey your parents in the Lord. The Lord had converted a lot
of little children. I don't know how old they were,
but they were children. Slaves, be obedient to them.
Ignorant slaves. But the Lord saved them. Why
does He do that? He don't need strength. He don't
need nobility. He don't need the power of anybody's
will. What He needs, He supplies. And all we need is what He supplies.
I want you to look at a couple of places in Ephesians. Look
at this. In Ephesians 3, verse 16. This is so important. There may
be somebody here this morning, and you've heard some fellow
talk about the power of your will, how you're going to have to live
the Christian life in your own strength. If that's what somebody
said to you and got you all discouraged, well, listen to this. When the
Lord saves you, He changes you. Well, maybe you shouldn't say
even change. He creates you anew. Yeah, He
gives you a new heart. He changes your desires. He gives
you new desires. He gives you new love. He gives
you grace. He puts history in your heart. Strength beyond measure. Strength
that you can't even imagine until you've experienced it. It's Him living in you. That's
what it is. That's what the Christian life
is. Paul said, putting away lying. You can do it now. This corrupt
communication, you can do it now. Why? We'll look here in
chapter 3 and verse 16. Here's why. Paul said, I pray,
I pray for you that God would grant you according to the riches
of His glory to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man. You don't live the Christian
life in yourself. And when the Lord says it, you
can do it. If you're a Christian, if He's
made you new, when He says don't do this anymore, you can do it. When He says do this, you can
do it. Why? Because it's Him working in you. Let Him give grace, one old fellow
said, and then command what He will. Give grace and command
what you will. We can do it. Do grace. Look over here in the 6th chapter
right quickly. Look in verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. Ain't that wonderful? Don't you glory in that? I'm
telling you what, when you're in these trials and struggles,
You have to turn the other cheek and you're so heavy through temptation.
And you realize that all he would have to do, and you're gone forever,
it just ceased to work in you. You can't believe any longer.
You can't walk humbly before him any longer. You're finished. But it's such a comfort to know
that the same One who called you and began this work in you,
you'll just keep on working. Keep on working. We're for it. We're for it. And in closing,
fourthly and lastly, we're for it. And there's a blessing in this.
There's such a blessing in this. Paul wants us to know that he's
writing to Christians, believers. And let me explain it like this.
Here's such a blessing in this. They tell us that these cities
were Paul and the other apostles went preaching to. These cities
were given over for the most part to open and propane sins.
This open, idolatry, Corinth was an awful place. Philippi
was an awful place. Prominent sin was lying. Just lying. And boy, I tell you
what, you can get in the habit of lying, can't you? And this
corrupt communication. They were so prone to that, it
was so second nature to them. Do you think they still had some
struggle with it after the Lord saved them? I sort of have a sneaking hunch
that they did, or Paul wouldn't be right until we wouldn't have
these Christian instructions. If the Christian had no growth
in grace and knowledge, then why is all these instructions
written to him? If he's just born again and he's perfect and
he don't have to add anything to his faith, he don't have to
grow, Then why is all these instructions written to him? I think they're
written to him because he needs them. Do you ever lie? One of the most prominent sins
that's ingrained in us, in our nature, and we'll look at that
tonight, is lying. And so many ways to lie. I lied last week. And I got caught
up in it. I found it out myself. I lied.
I just lied. And when I finally come to the
understanding, buddy, you've lied. I went to the Lord. And Lord forgive me, I've lied. And I'll see the person I lied
to in a few days and I'll have to straighten it out with them.
But here's the blessing in all of this. While we're struggling
with this, And while we're struggling against these things, corrupt
communication, being kind and tender hearted, putting away
lying, always speaking the truth, we struggle with these things.
But all the time we're struggling with these things, it doesn't
change our relationship with God. It does not make void the
work that He's begun within us. Ain't that a blessing? You read Romans chapter 7, and
Paul was talking about this awful warfare. He said, every time
I would do good, evil is present with me. And he said, I'm an
awful burden, he said, to myself. I can't do anything with pure
motives. I see sin mixed with everything
I do. Oh, I'd love to believe God perfectly,
but this unbelief keeps hindering me. When I would do good, evil
is present. Oh, wretched man that I am! I
delight in the law of God after this inner man, but I see another
law in my members. It's bringing me into the law
of captivity to this sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched
man that I am! And the very next verse, what
does he say? There is therefore now no condemnation. Aren't you glad the way the Holy
Ghost writes this? Wherefore? Oh, he says, dear
saint, my dear child, I'm writing to you to put away these things. Don't do that anymore, but I
know you're going to struggle with it. I know you're going
to fail and you'll fall. And you do this over here, and
I know you're going to struggle doing that. And you're going
to struggle with it all your life, and sometimes your heart's
going to be broken about it. And you'll be always at the throne
of grace, repenting, Lord forgive me, give me strength, give me
grace. But in all your struggles, and
all your wrestling with yourself and sin, it doesn't change how
God feels about you. You're His dear child. It doesn't
make void what He's doing in you. Yes, it hinders you, but
it doesn't hinder God. Yes, you struggle with it, but
the Lord doesn't struggle working in you. Yes, you grow weary with
it, but the Lord doesn't grow weary with you while you struggle
with it. Ain't that a blessing? Wherefore? We must understand
these principles, or we'll go on We'll get self-righteous in
what we're doing and what we're not doing. And we'll be bragging
about how I don't lie anymore. That's it. That's the brag about. Let's pray.