Ephesians 4:17-32

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. In this year, 2022, Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts to Philemon. It's so good to be with you this morning. Why don't we go ahead and pick up God's Word.

We'll pray and well, Hopefully our lives will change. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the work of your Holy Spirit, for how you're changing our lives, by how you're conforming us to the image of Jesus. Lord, please work in our hearts. Teach us who you are and who we are to be in you in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, so we're at Ephesians chapter 4 beginning at verse 17 and we'll go through the end of the chapter. Let's go ahead and read God's word together now.

This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good, for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave. you well we need to ask ourselves a what's this about b what's the best versus some races and c what are we called to do in response to this right so first a what is this about I think what this is getting about is a new way of thinking and a new way of living.

God has called us to himself. God has predestined us to election. God has redeemed us. God has sealed us for the day of redemption. He's given us his Holy Spirit. He has bought us at the blood of Jesus Christ. He has saved us by grace through faith. He's brought us into a family in the church, he's made us into the body of Christ, and all of that is meant to produce change.

In the very first part of the book, chapter 1 through the first part of chapter 4, there's very few commands. Almost everything is indicatives, everything is truth statements, but now we get into a point where in the second half of Ephesians, it's something like four commands or something like that in the first four chapters, in the first three and a half, four chapters. In the second half of the book of Ephesians, there's like 51, there's over 50 different commands from God. And so this really does say, okay, now that the Holy Spirit is in you, now that you have a new heart, What are the good works that God has planned for you to do? How are we to live our lives?

See, because as verse 17 says, that we should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds. He has changed our thinking. We no longer reason the same way, and so we should no longer live the same way. We once were darkness, but now we are light. We were once dead in our trespasses and sins, and now he has made us alive. And so we ought to live differently, not in ignorance because of the blindness of our hearts. No, he's given us hearts to see. Not past feeling, right? We're not to be given over to lewdness.

But if we have learned Christ, verse 20, if indeed we have heard him, verse 21, if we have been taught by him, verse 21, and the truth is in Jesus, then, verse 22, we ought to put off concerning our former conduct, the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.

See, we're to put off the old man. We're to take off the old man. We're to put away. The other way of saying this is repent. We once walked in a path of death and now we turn and we walk in life. So we don't walk according to the deceitful lusts, but verse 23, we are renewed in the spirit of your mind. We need to have a change in our thinking. This is exactly what Romans chapter 12 verse one says, right? But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. We need to be deeply washed by God's word and living out God's word. We need to be those who are being transformed, not just in our lives, but it starts in our hearts, moves to our minds and works itself out in the way we speak, in the way we feel, in the things we do. and that you put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

See, it's not just that we put off, it's not just that we turn away from those sinful things, but we turn to God. We take off the sinful old man and we put on the new man. We turn away from sin and we turn towards God. We take off the corrupt nature and we put on incorruption. We put off immorality and we put on morality. But more than just good morals, we put on holiness.

Remember what this is written to, to the saints in Ephesus, to the holy ones in Ephesus, to the chosen children of God. Now we live as children of God in holiness. And then he's going to get real nitty-gritty here. Let's go through it together. If you are given over to lying, verse 25, start speaking truth. See, put off lying, put on truth. For we are members of one another.

If you're given over to anger, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Right? If you're going to be angry, you better not sin. Don't give place to the devil. Turn away from your anger and put on peace. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, labor, working with his hands, what is good that he may have something to give him who has need.

Right? So if you are one who is given over to stealing, now there's two things, right? The first is go get a job, make a legitimate income. Why though? Is it so you can fill your heart with all your covetous desires of the things you want? No. so you can be generous to those who have needs. See, you're putting off the old man, even with the desires of what you used to steal and work for, i.e. yourself. And now you're thinking about how to love your neighbor. What are his needs and how can I help?

Verse 29, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it might impart grace to the hearers, right? Slander, gossip, just filthy locker room talk, put all that away and instead put on words that are building others up. Do the things that come out of your mouth show you have acidic poison in your heart? or out of the overflow of your heart does love come. Words to build people up, words to encourage others, words to exhort others towards love and good deeds.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. See, when we continue to live like we were Gentiles, we grieve the Holy Spirit. Now, I don't want you to get bent up in a theological knot over this. Just know that God hates sin, and he doesn't want his children to behave like children of the devil. The devil is a liar from the beginning, so put off lying. The devil is a thief, so put off stealing. The devil is a murderer, so put off anger.

Instead, put on love. Instead, put on generosity. Instead, put on edification. Let all bitterness. Wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking being put away from you with all malice and be kind to one another. Tender, hardened, forgiving one another, even as God and Christ forgave you. You see, it's rooted. These imperatives, these commands are rooted. And the idea that God has forgiven us. That God has loved us. And so we ought to also love him and love our neighbors. So put off the old man.

What's the best verse? What's the best verse to underline in this? I, oh man, you know, I would, oh, I'd be tempted to underline verse 17, 320. You know, 17 through 20, and maybe I would underline verse 32 also. What would you underline in your Bible? Well, last see calling.

What are you called to do? I don't know what the sin is in your life. I know I have to battle with different sins. I have in my life, you know, slothfulness. I have to go and read the Proverbs and regularly remind myself, you know, the sluggard is the one who, you know, is too lazy to bring his hand out of the bowl into his mouth to eat. I have to struggle with anger and impatience, especially with my own family with Olivia and the children, and that's a tough thing for me to do. You know, I'm literally taking a class on how to be a patient parent right now. I'm trying to learn how do I care for and be gentle with the children.

I struggle with gluttony. I love to eat. So a big fight for me over the last four years has been learning how do I eat? How do I eat the right things in the right amounts for the right reasons? What is it in your life? Is it anger? Is it stealing? Is it lust? Is it lack of self-control? Is it gossip? I don't know what it is.

But I pray that you zero in on these sins and that you, as the Puritans would say, you mortify those sins. You put to death the deeds of the flesh and live unto God. Without holiness, no one will see God. Do you see, sanctification, the process of becoming more and more like Christ, flows from justification. He has saved us unto good works.

So I plead with you. Some of you might be very reformed folks. Your theology is loctite when it comes to monergistic salvation. You could quote the Solas like it's nobody's business. You know the doctrines of grace. You could rattle off the acronym TULIP without any problems. But I know that there might be some of you who are watching who are needing to take holiness seriously. Happiness is holiness. Take it seriously.

Christ has saved you The holy spirit is in you That you might abide in jesus christ and because you abide in jesus christ you bear much good fruit So i'm going to encourage you today To abide in jesus to look to jesus to see the wretchedness of your sin And to know that He desires and is working in you that you might produce much good fruit. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters. Turn from your sin actively now. Put it to death and walk in the light because He's made us children of the light.

Let's pray. Father, we desperately need your Holy Spirit. We cannot do this just out of a sheer sense of moralism, God, but we pray that you might let us be in awe of who you are, of what you have done. Father, we pray that you would let us walk before you in holiness. Lord, please, convict us of sin.

It's not comfortable. We don't like it, but we need it. Do what's contrary to our human nature and make us more and more like you. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk with joy before your Father who is in heaven, as the Holy Spirit is with you, always. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.