Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church.

Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4.

We’ve been studying this chapter for the last several weeks and are going to close out our time here this morning.

We’ve learned over the last few weeks that there are expectations of us as Christian believers.

We are to be marked by certain characteristics as we are built into this new entity that Christ has instituted called the church.

We are to treat each other with grace, with patience and love.

The source of this treatment of one another is our humility as we walk worthy of the calling that we have received in the Gospel.

Only a humble man can walk that path.

Recognizing our sin and our unworthiness is the only way that we can walk that way.

The Getty’s have captured this paradox well in their song lyrics for the song “My Worth Is Not In What I Own” Two wonders here that I confess my worth and my unworthiness.

It is only through the blood of Christ and the calling of the Holy Spirit to respond to His Gospel that we are worthy and it is only through the recognition of our own unworthiness that we can walk in that truth.

We are to seek unity in the Spirit through our adherence to the one true faith, the true doctrines that are a part of that faith, that have been handed down to us as we seek to worship and glorify the one true God.

But in seeking to worship Him we are called to recognize that our’s is not to be a passive worship.

We have been gifted according to the measure of Christ’s grace to accomplish tasks that lead to the maturity of the church as a whole.

There are no individualistic plans of maturity in Christianity.

This life that we’ve been called to is not meant to be an exercise in independence but rather in dependence on one another as we seek to be built together into the temple of God.

He has given some men who were specially equipped to assist with that - first the apostles and prophets and then, when they had passed from the scene - or were passing from the scene of church history - the evangelists, pastors and teachers.

They are those tasked with equipping those who will do the work of building the Kingdom of God in whatever ministry area they have been uniquely gifted to fulfill.

The purpose of this is that we will mature from babes in Christ to mature Christians - Paul uses the example of a fully mature man - aspiring to the very stature of Christ Himself.

In so doing we must put away the practices of our former lives, we can’t live with one foot in the world and the other in the church, we can’t live as the Gentiles do but rather we are called to be renewed in our minds - Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” - and to put on the new self created in the image of God righteous and pure.

Now Paul is going to give us some very practical and direct instructions this morning.

He’s going to do so with six successive examples that are all going to follow a negative/positive pattern.

He’s first going to tell us what not to do and then going to follow it up with what we in fact should do.

And along the way he is going to challenge each of us to a deeper standard of living that gets beyond the mere surface but instead is completely penetrated by His Spirit and permeates the Spirit.

I have heard it said that you can tell what a bear has been feeding on after killing it by the scent of its body fat.

We used to say of people particularly dedicated to the Navy that if you cut them open they would bleed blue and gold.

If this could be said of the Christian and you were tested today - what would the result be?

Look with me at Ephesians 4:25-32 and test yourself today as we examine these Scriptures together.

We’re going to progress through this passage just as Paul gives it to us this morning taking each element as it comes to us.

What we may find as we go through this this morning is that some of these may not be as simple as we might think and that if we truly tease out some of the implications that these imperatives bring to bear on our lives that we just might have much work to do.

Do Not Lie

Paul starts off with the familiar phrase therefore - this is now the third time in this short section that he has used this conjunction.

In 4:1 he used it to say in light of all that I’ve been writing to you in the previous section of the letter live this way and has been explaining just exactly how we should live.

In verse 17 he challenges us saying therefore I say this and testify in the Lord.

Now here is verse 25 he again begins “Therefore” pointing us backwards to something that he has said.

In this case he is pointing to the context of what he has just told the Ephesian church regarding taking off the old man and putting on the new through a renewal of their minds.

Notice the next thing that Paul says - putting away.

The word here is apotithemi and it is essentially the same word, it has the same root word, as the phrasing he used saying take off your former way of life.

Paul is now going to explain exactly what he meant when he admonished them to take off the old man.

Look with me at what he says - putting away lying, speak the truth, each on to his neighbor, because we are members of one another.

We of course can agree to this.

Of course we shouldn’t be lying to one another.

There are lots of warnings in Scripture regarding the penalties and dangers of lying.

Moses warned the Israelites as a part of the ten commandments not to lie or give false testimony against one another.

At the close of the Bible the Lord establishes the fate of those characterized by habitual lying

Charles Spurgeon used this example for the power of a lie

300 Quotations for Preachers (Lies Go around the World While Truth Gets Its Boots On)

It is a great deal easier to set a story afloat than to stop it.

If you want truth to go around the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go around the world, it will fly.

It is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it.

It is well said in the old proverb, “A lie will go around the world while truth is pulling its boots on.”

Nevertheless, it does not injure us; for if light as a feather it travels as fast, its effect is just about as tremendous as the effect of down when it is blown against the walls of a castle.

It produces no damage whatever, on account of its lightness and littleness.Fear not, Christian.

Let slander fly, let envy send forth its forked tongue, let it hiss at you; your bow shall abide in strength.CHARLES SPURGEON

Now, his example has to do with our ability to withstand the lying lips of the world as they cast dispersions upon us for being Christians.

But how much worse is it when the lies are told or come from those within our own body.

Paul will finish this admonition with the statement that “we are members of one another.”

Oh how awful would it be if our bodies were in the habit of lying to itself.

There is a condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome where that is essentially what happens.

Charles Bonnet syndrome causes a person whose vision has started to deteriorate to see things that aren't real (hallucinations).

The hallucinations may be simple patterns, or detailed images of events, people or places.

How awful it would be if you couldn’t trust your own eyes.

This is also essentially what happens to one afflicted with leprosy.

They begin to lose sensation in their extremities and often experience horrific burns or mutilations to their appendages simply because they can’t feel the damage happening.

So of course we can agree that we shouldn’t lie to one another.

At least not explicitly.

But how often are we guilty of implicitly lying to one another?

We would all readily agree that lying has no part in a Christian’s life but I guarantee you that in a room of this many people there are people who have implicitly lied to someone this morning.

What do I mean by that?

How many of you (and don’t raise your hand if this is you) answered the question this morning “how are you doing” with fine when you know very well that you are anything but fine?

I’ll tell you this - I’m not fine this morning.

I’m exhausted.

It has been a long week.

Sick kids.

A recovering wife.

And all the normal activities that still have to happen have been very taxing on me this week.

On top of that I did something to my throat when sneezing, this sounds crazy, and it hurts to swallow and sometimes to speak.

So it is a challenge to be here this morning but I serve a faithful God who enables me to be where He wants me to be.

What a change would be wrought in our body if we were actually honest with one another about how we are really doing.

How about this question - how many of you know that you are stagnant in your Christian growth but you aren’t willing to do anything about it?

How about church attendance.

If we’re committed to one another and to seeing the church grow to maturity the surprise should be that you are missing on a Sunday morning not that you are present.

Now I’m not trying to be legalistic with this saying that you can’t be saved unless you are at Dishman Baptist Church at 9:30 for life groups and 11:00 for service.

But a question that should be asked is if you don’t desire to grow or progress in your Christian walk and you don’t deeply desire to be in fellowship and corporate worship with other believers - are you actually saved?

The point is this - we need to stop lying to one another.

And of course we are to challenge one another gently - probably less gently than this is coming across - and in love but we are to challenge one another none the less.

When we know that there is something to be said and we fail to say it we implicitly lie to one another.

We cannot build one another up, we cannot pray for one another and we cannot see mature growth happen unless we are able to be honest with one another.

Maybe anticipating the reaction of his readers Paul offers the next admonition - Be angry and do not sin.

Be Angry?

He writes “Be angry and do not sin.

Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.”

Paul is quoting from Psalm 4 here.

Psalm 4 was written by David and this particular phrase that Paul is quoting from is a reminder to himself that the Lord is faithful and will hear him when he calls.

So instead of being sinfully angry he should reflect on the goodness and faithfulness of God.

There are some commentators who surmise that what David is actually saying in Psalm 4:4 is that you should tremble before God - the Hebrew word that the Septuagint translates as anger is most often translated as tremble - and forget the sinful anger you were harboring and reflect on Him instead.

While that has merit, Paul as a former Pharisee surely would have known the Hebrew translation of the word and yet he chooses to use the Greek translation here so it would do us well to sit up, take notice and understand his meaning here.

Is Paul legitimizing anger here - saying that it is possible to be angry without being in sin.

Would that not contradict what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount if that were the case?