“For Goodness Sakes – Put Your Clothes On!”
Eph. 4: 17-32
OPEN: The title of the sermon today is “For goodness sake-put your clothes on” This is not talking about the clothes you wore to church this morning, I’m assuming that everyone came to church after dressing their physical body. We want to talk about taking off the clothes of the old man and putting on the clothes of the new man. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 13:14)
Clothes are important to all of us aren’t they? Every one of us spent some time thinking about what we wanted to wear this morning. Shall I wear the white shirt or the blue one? Light pants or dark? Should I wear blue jeans or khakis? What criteria did you use as you were picking out your clothes this morning? What when through your mind as you made your decision? Was it the weather? “It’s going to be a hot day. It’s going to be rainy.” Was it your weight? “This is too tight – this is too loose.” Maybe you were going for a fashion statement. “People will think of me in a certain way if I wear this.”
God has always been concerned about the clothes you wear. Did you know that? But not in the way that most of us imagine. The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Gen. 3:21) They feel exposed, vulnerable, ashamed. They feel that they cannot allow God to look upon them in their failure and disobedience, and that feeling expresses itself in a need to cover their physical nakedness ... to wear clothes. so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.’ (Genesis 3:7.) There is an important lesson for us right at the beginning of the Bible. Immediately, the text makes it clear that, in God’s eyes, the coverings they have made for themselves are just not acceptable. They’re not adequate and they’re not acceptable. So, just a few verses later, we are told: ‘And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.’(Genesis 3:21). From the start, the Bible teaches that the coverings with which we try to cover ourselves so that we can stand before God fall far short of what is required and simply will not do. When man sins and hides, God comes looking for him, not in anger but in love. But in his love, in his mercy and grace he says: ‘Get rid of the fig-leaves, whatever your particular fig-leaves are. They will not do. You are right to think that in your sinfulness and disobedience you need a covering. But you are wrong to think that you can provide your own. I will provide a covering for you.’ Let me tell you: all the good news of the Bible is wrapped up in those three words: ‘God ... clothed them.’ In a way – the story of the Gospel is a story of God clothing us.
Ill. - Every once in while Missy will go through the closet and she will bring out some old clothes and ask if I want to keep it or throw it away. Now I don’t particularly like throwing old clothes away – it takes me a while to break them in and get all the stains in just the right places and the holes just where I want them to be. And just about the time I get an old shirt just right – she comes along and wants to throw it away. She’ll say, “I don’t want to be around you if you’re going to wear something like that.” Generally, I like wearing old clothes. I’ll take something out of the closet and she’ll say, “You’re not wearing that are you?” (Women can say that to men, but men can’t say that to women.) When we go somewhere, she doesn’t want to be seen with some guy dressed in old junkie clothes. She feels it’s a reflection on her – she can look beautiful, but when she’s hanging with a guy that looks like a bum, it brings her down. So when I go out with her, she wants me to put on something presentable, so that when the world looks at me when I’m with her, they don’t see her hanging around some old bum. So she’s always wanting me to throw away the old worn out junk clothes. And that’s kind of what Paul says in this passage:
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; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. When God recreates a person in Jesus Christ there's something new, there's something different. If you are the new creature described in chapters 1 to 3, you will live like it as described in chapters 4 to 6. He’s saying get rid of those old worn out clothes you wore in your former life. They were corrupt and filthy and dirty. Now it wasn’t wrong for you to wear those clothes before you came to Christ. Those clothes reflected the man that wore them. But that was the former person – the old person. You’re changed now – you’re the Church – the prince of The King – the princess of the King – You’re the Bride of Christ. For goodness sake – put on Christ. Gal. 3:27 says “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” You represent the King, now so wear something presentable - things that reflect true righteousness and holiness.
Everything about our lives as Christians should reflect a radical transformation. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. (Eph. 4:17) I don’t know if Paul was a shouting preacher – I kind of imagine that from time to time he got a little impassioned. But I kind of think that if he were to preach this verse it would carry a bit of intensity with it. He says I tell you this and “I insist on it.” We are not to live like people in the world. Since we are members of the church of Jesus Christ, we are unique. The world is proud--we're humble. The world is fragmented--we're united. The world is impotent--we're gifted. The world is hateful-- we're full of love. The world doesn't know the truth--we do. If we don't walk any differently from the people in the world, we won't accomplish Christ's goals. If we live like people in the world, that's the same as imitating the dead and that doesn't make sense.
The believers in Paul's day found it difficult to live differently from the unbelievers surrounding them. They were constantly subject to the vile habits and deeds of the pagans. We have the same problem in our own age. Today the church in America has difficulty affecting people because our country is so affluent and constantly inundated by the media's propagation of evil. Our problem isn't getting people in the world to live like Christians, but getting Christians to stop living like the world.
What the church in Ephesus had to contend with: Ephesus was one of the most wicked places you could find on the face of this earth. These young Christians had to live in the midst of all of that wickedness. It served as a religious center, with multiple temples and idols. The worship in Ephesus focused particularly on the goddess Diana (Gk., Artemis), often represented by an ugly multi-breasted beast. The temple to Diana – was originally one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. This is a picture of the ruins of the temple as it is now. It originally had over a hundred of those columns that you see. It was 300 feet long and 150 wide. Ephesus was a thriving seaport on a crossroads of trade. It was unfortunately on the mouth of a river and eventually the river so silted up the harbor that it became impassible for ships and the city eventually died. But during Paul’s time it drew pilgrims by the thousands partly to worship there because the temple became a something of a tourist attraction. Diana was worshiped as a sex goddess. Scores of eunuchs, priestesses, temple prostitutes, singers, and dancers led the people in their worship, which was nothing more than a great orgy. Silversmiths made a fortune selling thousands of little idols there. The people would put those idols in their homes, hang them around their necks, wear them on their wrists or ankles, and some even fastened them to the front of their chariots. The church in Ephesus was like an island in a cesspool. What a vile, sinful world those early Christians had to live in! That's why Paul urged them to be different. The believers in the ancient world found that difficult, the pagan life all around them and the deeds of the pagans were constantly in front of them and it was very difficult to, to live a different life just as it is today. Paul says to them and he sys to us – you’ve got to be different, - you’ve got to be different. You can't walk like they walk, you can't do what they do. Living the new life is tough but living the new life is necessary, you've got to put off that old man, that old lifestyle. Don't get sucked into that immorality, don't get sucked into that old pagan lifestyle.
Throughout the epistles of Paul you find that he talks about a new will, a new mind, a new heart, a new power, a new knowledge, a new wisdom, a new perception, a new understanding, a new life, a new inheritance, a new relationship, a new righteousness, a new love, a new desire, a new citizenship etc. You are a new you. We need to know how to get rid of our old man. Some you ladies are thinking, “I’ve been waiting for years for
someone to tell me how to get rid of the old man.” The old man has been put off.
Let’s take a look at the old clothes Paul says we are to take off and the new ones we are to wear.
Exchange Futile Thinking for a Renewed Mind. So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. This passage follows on the heels of Paul talking about growing into maturity. There is no maturity without thinking differently. We think different about our sin that we used to think, we think different about God than we used to think, we think different about Christ than we used to think, we think different about what we ought to do with our life than we used to think. The world thinks one way – we think another way. However you think governs your behavior. If you think like the world – you are going act like the world.
Paul uses the word “futility” to describe worldly thinking. It means that which is empty, futile, useless, vain. Useless is the best word for it, the old way of thinking is useless, do you know why? It goes no where, it accomplishes nothing, it performs nothing, it gains nothing, it is useless. Solomon is probably the best example of this that I can come up with. In Book of Ecclesiastes, the wisest man, the richest man, the man with the most women, the man with the most prestige sums it all up and opens up his book this way, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” He closes the second chapter of his book, “everything is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Nothing means anything to me.
He describes a process that worldly thinking goes through: being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Notice the qualities that characterize useless thinking:
* Ignorance. It's difficult to face people who don't know Christ and tell them that they're ignorant. In an educated society such as ours, people will take that as an insult. The word means darkened –or to make blind. Prior to Christ there was a blindness to his truth.
* Hardness of Heart - This is a lack of sensitivity. That’s the way the NIV translates it. (having lost all sensitivity) An insensitive mind is one that is becoming unresponsive – it’s like an artery that’s getting all clogged up slowing down the pumping of life-giving blood. He’s describing a person’s mind that is all clogged up with worldly preoccupations and thoughts.
* Insensitivity interesting word - it was used in medical terms for the kind of callus that - forms around a broken bone, which is harder than the bone itself. It has reference to something that is hard, paralyzing. It is even also used in some extra-Biblical medical source to refer to the kind of thing that forms in joints, like calcium forms so that the joint ceases to function. It is an interruptive kind of hardening, it is a negative kind of hardening.
* Indulgence. – giving themselves over for the practice of every kind of impurity.
* Continual Lust for More NASB says “greediness” Even though it doesn’t really bring any satisfation to the human hart – there is a lust for more and more and more.
The old self – was characterized by “stinking-thinking” You’ve got to rid yourselves of that. Throw it away like you’d throw away an old pair of worn out shoes. We don’t think the same thoughts the world does. When the world tries to solve a problem, it has a systematized approach - we have a different approach – they use worldly wisdom and thoughts. We throw that away – we use the truth of the Bible and the Word of God. Christians are to make a conscious separation from using the world’s method of thinking. Does it make any sense for the Church to think like the world? Over and over the Bible encourages us to think differently. “Have this same attitude which was in Christ Jesus.” “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds” How can you be created new in Christ and not think differently? To the degree that you keep the old worldly way of thinking is the degree of how ineffective you will be in walk with Jesus. What else do we need to take off?
Exchange Lying For Truthfulness : Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. (Eph. 4:25) Exchange lying for speaking truth. One of the defining characteristics of our lifestyle today is lying. Do you realize that we have an entire world system based on lying? Can you imagine what would ever happen if for one day, everybody in the world told the truth? Our entire world would collapse. Do you know any profession in which the person doesn’t lie? Lawyers lie. Salesmen lie. Bosses lie. Politicians lie. The media lies. The government lies – we only hear what they want us to hear. Unions lie. Companies lie. Everybody lies. It's all built on lies. And if everybody had to tell the truth the whole system would come down in a big collapse. You do what's expedient and lying is expedient. It's incredible. The world is built upon lies. Every religious system apart from the truth of Christianity is a pile of lies. Satan lies about life, he lies about death, he lies about God, he lies about Christ, he lies about the Spirit, he lies about the Bible, he lies about Heaven, he lies about hell, he lies about good, he lies about bad, everything, the whole thing is based on lies. And when he develops a religious system, he throws a little tiny truth in it so you think it might be okay.
And all of a sudden when you become a believer, you step out of a domain of lies into an element of truth. You know the true God, redeemed by the true Messiah, indwelt by the true Spirit, possessing the true Word and living it out in a true kind of life. And when a believer opens his mouth, according to Ephesians he should be speaking the truth. We believe in truth. And that means lying has to go.
So the someone will come along and say “Well, what do you mean by lying?” all kinds of lying: exaggeration, cheating on exams cheating in your business, cheating in your work, cheating on your taxes, making promises with no intention of keeping them, leaving little details out because it paints a picture in someone’s mind that you want them to have even though it’s not entirely accurate. (some kind of pseudo-honesty) The words “put-off” means to throw off like an old coat” Put on truthfulness. God’s people ought to be known for truthfulness.
Exchange Uncontrolled Anger For the Peace of Christ “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. anger is a God given emotion. God wired you up in a way so that you could get angry. Sometimes anger is the most appropriate emotion. If you never get angry, you’re not a human being you’re a vegetable. Because God wired you up to get angry and in its proper place it is very appropriate. Sometimes the most appropriate expression is anger. When you see people being hurt, when you see people taken advantage of, when you see people being cheated, anger is an appropriate response. In fact, if you never get angry it means one thing – you don’t love. Because sometimes the loving thing to do is to get angry. But you must learn to control it. You must learn to use it wisely. Because managed anger is an asset.
All of us tend to get angry in one of two ways. We blow up or we clam up. We externalize or we internalize. Both of these are inappropriate expressions of your anger. Both of them hurt your body. Both of them hurt other people. Don’t just think if you’re not a Mount Vesuvius that you don’t have an anger problem. Most all of us express anger in inappropriate ways. Everybody tends to be either a skunk or a turtle. You either spray it all out or you pull yourself back into a shell. It is in God’s humor that skunks always marry turtles.
Proverbs 29:11“A fool gives vent to his anger but a wise man keeps himself under control.” Anger, like every other emotion, is a choice. When you get angry, you’re choosing to get angry. When you say, “You make me so mad!” you don’t have to get mad. There are probably a dozen different appropriate responses you could give to that irritation. Whenever you get angry it’s because you are choosing to get angry.
The good news is, because anger is a choice, a decision, it is controllable. You say, “You don’t understand. When I get angry, I can’t help myself. I just naturally do that.” You can control your anger far more than you think you can if you are properly motivated. You must decide in advance that you want to control it. You need to reflect before reacting. Jame 1:19 “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Anger that is not dealt with properly turns into resentment. Colossians 3:15 says “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” This is the real secret. God’s power to change is when you get the peace of Christ in your heart to replace the anger in your heart. Your relationship to Christ will determine how patient you are in life. WHAT’S YOUR BOILING POINT? An old proverb says, “The emptier the pot, the quicker it boils.” The less water in the pot, the quicker you reach a boiling point. The more of Christ in your life – the longer it will take to reach boiling point.
Exchange Stealing for Sharing: 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. (Eph. 4: 28) We are to exchange stealing for sharing. Again stealing is something that defines the world’s system.
guy who wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service. He said: Gentlemen: Enclosed you will find a check for $150.00. I cheated on my income tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping, I will send you the rest.
Do you ever go into a store and the guy rings up your change or a restaurant or something and he underdoes it? And he gives you the bill and you know he's like $3.00 off, or something, and you say to him “Hey, you know, it's more than this? I'd like to pay what it is, I think you're...you're under.” He'll go, “Huh? And look with a stunned look. An honest man! See. What's up your sleeve? What kind of a con game is this?” People don't know how to handle honesty. Stealing is taking anything that doesn't belong to you. Finding something before it's lost. Psalm 37:21 talks about the non payment of debt. If you don't pay your debt you're stealing from your debtors, or your creditor, rather. Stealing, cheating on your taxes. Jesus said “You’d better render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Not making note of a clerk's error is another way. Another way you can steal is by not paying fair wages to somebody who has worked for you. James 5 says that the cry of the workers reaches the very ears of God when they haven't been paid what they were due. So you can steal a lot of ways. The New Testament principle is to work harder and harder and more diligently so you can have more to give to people who have need. That's the whole biblical ethic, that's the whole base of our working.
Exchange Corrupt Speech for Encouragement 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. The KJV says: Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, (Eph. 4:29) Nothing is more distasteful than a person with filthy talk. Corrupt is sapros. it means "rotten." And it has to do with something that is worthless and useless that is diseased. A rotten vegetable, or a rotten fruit is something that is...that is useless and worthless, it smells, it is offensive, it doesn't do anything for anybody, in fact you don't want to get near it let alone eat it. That kind of talk has no place. Whether it's off color jokes, profanity, dirty stories, crude things, there's no place in the life of a Christian for that stuff.
“Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” (Psalm 141:3) If Jesus Christ is the doorkeeper of your lips, then He'll be the one to determine what comes out. What we say should be edifying towards others. It should be encouraging for others. It should be strengthening – positive building them up. The verse says it should benefit them. “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” (Col. 4:6) In the ancient world they would put salt on things to retard corruption. What about when you talk? Are you a part of the corruption or do you retard the corruption? Are you salt or are you just more of the corruption?
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. What happens if I don’t wear my new clothes? I grieve the Holy Spirit. Every time we choose to go out wearing those old worn out corrupt garments instead of dressing ourselves in Christ. We grieve the heart of God. What child of God would want to do that? In light of everything that God has done, everything that he has provided – every sacrifice he has made – every promise he has kept – why would we want to wear the rags of the old life?
So the last two verses he says just clean out the whole closet. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Exchange natural vices for supernatural graces.
Bitterness = a smoldering resentment, a brooding, grudging unforgiving spirit. Rage and anger – wild reactions. Slander – something negative that you’re whispering behind another person’s back – every kind of malice gid rid of it all. Clean out your closet. Put on compassion and kindness and forgiveness – just as Christ has clothed you.
Close: What’s stopping you? Nothing but the desire to wear those old clothes. They’re comfortable to you. And you think for the most part that for some reason you’re justified in wearing them. “You’d understand why I still lie, steal, think the old way if you were in my shoes.” If that’s you’re attitude – you need a new pair of shoes. In fact you feet have already been fitted with the gospel of peace. There’s nothing stopping you – get rid of the old clothes and put on Christ.
Ill. of Roman army. When Roman soldiers were killed on the battlefield – they would take the pows that were captured and tie the body of the Roman soldier to their back. For Two Reasons: One- It was a way of getting their dead carried off of the field so they could be buried. Two - You couldn’t run away. You can’t get very far carrying a dead person on your back. What’s going to be on your back as you walk out of here today?
What do you need to exchange this week?
Futile thinking for a renewed mind.
Falsehood for truth
Anger for the peace of Christ
Stealing for Sharing
Corrupt speech for Encouragement
Memorize: Galatians 3:26-27 “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
* PowerPoint slides may be available for this message. Some slides I use have copy write restrictions on them - others are slides, which I’ve created. If this sermon has slides I’ve created, I’d be glad to pass them on to you for your use. Please feel free to email me at: timvamosi@charter.net
