Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell Point Baptist Church
May 5th 2013
Ephesians 4:25-32
It's about time to transform!
Intro: This passage builds on what Paul has been saying about the new life we have been given in Jesus.
The word “Therefore” calls our attention back to verses 17-24, which are a basic overview of the new life we have in Jesus.
• Since the old man of sin has been “put off,” v. 22
• since the mind has been “renewed,” v. 23
• since the “new man,” has been put on, v. 24,
• The child of God is expected to live a transformed life.
• Putting off of the old man/renewing of the mind
• The putting on of the new man
• These events took place/lives when we were born again.
When the Lord saved us, He changed us.
• Made “new creatures,” 2 Cor. 5:17, at the moment of conversion.
• Everything changed!
• A life that had never existed began at that very moment.
• That is the essence of the new birth.
• You were born again as a new creation of God at the moment of conversion.
Since we have been transformed by His power, we are challenged to live like the new creatures we are.
In these passages before us today, Paul tells us something about what the new life looks like.
In these verses, he speaks about The Results Of A Transformed Life.
Let’s take some time to walk through these verses together and consider The Results Of A Transformed Life.
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I. V. 25, 29 IN THE ARENA OF OUR WORDS
In verse 25 and 29, Paul deals with the area of our speech.
The things we say, and how we say them, are an indication of the condition of our heart.
• When our hearts are right, our words will be right.
• When our hearts are out of step with the Lord
• Our words will reveal that too.
• Here is how Jesus said it: Matt. 12:34–37.
With that in mind, let’s see what Paul has to say about this matter of our words.
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• Put Away Lying - Verse 25
It is amazing that Paul would have to caution Christians against the sin of lying.
Yet, the heart is wicked and when we are put into a position where the truth appears painful, we sometimes resort to lies.
• When we do this, it grieves the Spirit of God within us.
• He is called “the Spirit of truth,” John 15:26.
• When we lie, we break fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
• When we lie, we give evidence that we have fallen into one of Satan’s snares.
• Consider John 8:44.
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We live in a nation of liars. We lie at the drop of a hat.
73 percent to parents, and 69 percent to spouses.
Here are some common lies that are a part of everyday life in our nation.
• The check is in the mail.
• I'll start my diet tomorrow.
• We service what we sell.
• Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back.
• One size fits all.
• This offer limited to the first 100 people who call in.
• Your luggage isn't lost, it's only misplaced.
• This hurts me more than it hurts you.
• I just need five minutes of your time.
• Your table will be ready in a few minutes.
• Let's have lunch sometime.
We are believers, and we are to be characterized by the truth.
• The One Who is “the truth,” is our Lord and Savior.
• We are indwell by the “Spirit of truth.”
• By the way, a life that is characterized by a steady stream of lies gives clear evidence that it has not been redeemed, Rev. 21:8.
• Christians may fail and fall into a lie occasionally
• but they are never characterized by lies
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Back to Eden
It all goes back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3.
• Serpent tricked Eve into eating the fruit.
• She offered some to Adam and he ate
• Knowing full well the consequences of his action.
Suddenly the world became a very unfriendly place.
• Fear entered the human heart for the very first time.
• Adam/Eve heard God walking/garden/cool/day, they hid.
• Sin had changed everything.
• Where once they talked with God freely
• Now they hid in the forest lest their sin be discovered.
At length God called out to Adam, “Where are you?” Adam answered and said, “I hid because I was naked.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked?”
Then the dreaded question: “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
• Adam is cornered, caught red-handed
• Stripped of all his excuses.
• God knows!
• Adam does what men usually do.
• He passes the buck.
• His answer is a classic form of evasion
“The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the true, and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12).
Did you get that? “The woman you put here with me."
• Adam passes the buck twice.
• First it was the woman.
• Then it was the woman you put here.
• “Lord, it was her fault.
• She gave me the fruit and so I ate it.
• What was I supposed to do?
• Say no and watch her pout all night?
• And anyway, who put her in the garden?
• You did! She wasn’t my idea.
• I’m not complaining, Lord, because she’s beautiful and cute and all that
• But I didn’t have this problem when it was just me and the animals.”
• And so it goes.
The first man, the father of the human race, is also the first one to pass the buck.
• Make no mistake.
• The Bible is telling us something significant.
It is in our nature to deny our own guilt and to try to shift the blame to others.
• That’s what Genesis 3:7-12 is all about.
• It’s no coincidence that the first sin led to the first cover-up.
• The first disobedience led to the first denial.
• The first trespassing led to the first buck-passing.
• In the thousands of years since then, nothing has really changed.
• Human nature is the same.
• Passing the buck is in our spiritual bloodstream.
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Blessed is the man who can say those words because that man is on his way to spiritual health.
Proverbs 28:13, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
You see, Adam found it hard to say, “I was wrong.”
• It is not easy to say “I was wrong.”
• Most of us won’t admit we were wrong.
• Do you remember how much trouble Fonzie had with this issue on the TV series Happy Days?
• Fonzie was too cool to ever admit he was wrong.
• Richie Cunningham would say to him
• “Go ahead, admit it, you were wrong.”
• So Fonzie would go, “I was wr-r-r-r-r-r-r-.” He couldn’t get the word out. So he would end up saying
• “I was wr-r-r-r-r-Not right!”
“Not right” same thing as “wrong.” If you’re wrong, you’re wrong.
Put Away Corrupt Communication - Verse 29
Just as we are to guard our words against the intrusion of lies, we are to guard it against the intrusion of “rotten speech.”
The word “corrupt” refers to that which is “rotten.”
• We wouldn’t eat rotten/apple/meat
• And the believer should never engage in rotten speech.
• We must guard our tongues against profanity
• off-color jokes, dirty stories, gossip
It’s any talk that tears down or lowers the moral level of the community.
New nature will express itself in speech that has three characteristics:
• edifies or builds up
• it is appropriate, the right word at the right time
• it imparts grace.
Let me remind you our words are a window into our hearts.
• When our words are good and wholesome
• It gives evidence that we belong to the Lord.
• When our speech is foul and rotten
• It gives evidence that we do not know the Lord.
As we all know, the tongue is hard to control. Here is what the Lord says about it in James 3:6-8.
And Prov. 21:23 says, “He who guards his mouth and his tongue, keeps himself from calamity.”
Build Others Up
• “edification,” means “to build up.”
• When the heart is right, the tongue will reveal it by speaking words that help others grow.
• We will edify others by being helpful, encouraging, constructive, uplifting, by being a blessing to other.
We must never use the tongue to tear down.
• When we gossip
• say hurtful things to people
• use the truth as a club to wound and hurt others
• say things that discourage
• disappoint and harm other
• We are using our tongues in a way that displeases the Lord.
Minister Grace to the Hearers
This phrase has the idea of being gracious in our speech.
It was the way our Lord spoke, Luke 4:22 says “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious works that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
This manner of speech should characterize every child of God,
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Col. 4:6.
The whole idea here is that our words are to be influenced by the grace of God.
• We should be gracious to everyone we meet along the way.
• Our words/constructed in a manner that benefits them.
• We should use our speech to build up and never to tear down.
• When we use our words in the wrong manner
• It grieves the Holy Spirit, v. 30.
• That is, is causes Him “pain,”
• It hinders our fellowship with Him.
In other words, if you want your relationship with the Lord to be what it needs to be, learn to control your tongue.
• If you don’t make the effort to control the tongue, something is wrong at the very heart
• The very heart of your supposed relationship with God.
James 1:26 says this: “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.”
Conc: On a windswept hill in an English country churchyard stands a drab, gray slate tombstone. The quaint stone bears an epitaph not easily seen unless you stoop over and look closely.
The faint etchings read:
Beneath this stone, a lump of clay,
Lies Arabella Young,
Who on the twenty-fourth of May,
Began to hold her tongue.
Don’t let that be the way people remember you.
If you, like me, need help in the area of your words, please come and talk to God about the matter today.
• If we have been saved by the grace of God
• transformed by the Spirit if God
• if we are indeed new creatures in Jesus Christ
• It will show up in the way we use our speech.
• Let’s bring out tongues and lay them on the altar
• and trust the Lord to alter our words for His glory.
