Well it's good to be back with you this morning. It's always an honour to come and to preach
! God's word to you here at Ealing IPC. We're going to be looking at Ephesians chapter 4 verses
! So please have that open before you in your Bibles. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 17 to
25. As we come to God's word let us pray. Lord God you are the maker of heaven and earth and our help
is in you. So please now by your Holy Spirit would you come and would you teach us to speak the truth
for the sake and for the glory of your Son Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
I want to start this morning by telling you something that I know about you. Yes that's
right you. I'm not talking about the person beside you or in front of you or behind you.
I'm talking about you. I know something about you. And now I'm going to announce it to everyone.
you talk. You talk. You talk a lot. From the moment you rise in the morning saying it's not the time that I
have to get up to the moment you go to bed saying good night I love you to your loved ones. You talk
all day long. You talk talk talk talk talk talk. On average you speak about 25,000 words a day.
Yes. The quiet ones among you. Yes. The quiet ones among you. It's a bit less. The talkative
ones among you. It's a bit more. But we all talk. There is something else I know about you.
And I'm also going to announce it to everyone. And this time it's more personal. When you talk
you reveal your heart. When you talk you reveal your heart. Every time you speak. Every time you open
your mouth. It is a revelation. A revelation of your heart. As Jesus said out of the overflow
of the heart. The mouth speaks. Now this connection between heart and mouth. Self and speech. Character
and communication. It might be obvious to us as Christians. But it's not so obvious to our
secular society. Let me give you an illustration. Do you remember about two or three years ago
there were two cases of racism in the English Premier League. Luis Suarez who we've all just
seen fight a player in the World Cup. Luis Suarez was accused of making racist comments against
Patrice Evra. Black player for Manchester United. And John Terry was accused of making racist
comments against Anton Ferdinand at Queen's Park Rangers. And I watched all the commentary about
these two incidents. And they were both found guilty these men. And I heard it from the media.
I heard it from football pundits. I heard it from managers. I heard it from black footballers
who thought they were both guilty. And this was the comment that was made. These men made racist
racist comments. But they made racist comments. But they are not racist. What they said was just in the spur of the
moment, in the heat of the moment. It doesn't mean that they were racist. And the Bible comes along and says
out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Do you see how the world thinks about the connection
between heart and mouth, self and speech, character and communication? There is no connection.
It's like Ryan Babel, the professional footballer who said on his Twitter account, I may not always say the
right thing, but my heart is always in the right place. Do you see the disconnect? And the Bible comes along
and says there is a connection between your heart and your mouth, between who you are and what you say.
If these men made racist comments in a football game, then they are racist.
Their words were not an aberration, a mistake. Their words were a revelation. A revelation of their hearts
at that very moment. As Paul Tripp says, situations and people do not make us say what we say.
They are the occasions for our hearts to reveal themselves.
Now boys and girls, you can relate to this. You know when you've said something nasty to your
brother or sister and your parent, your mum or your dad tells you to go and apologise.
And you say, look, I'm sorry, Thomas, for saying that I hated you, but I didn't mean it.
Well, you did mean it. And that's why you said it. Do you see how direct the Bible is about the
connection between heart and mouth? And that connection is in the passage that Paul read to us.
There is a connection between heart and speech. And that's why words matter, because word matters
our heart matters. When you speak, you reveal your heart. I wish I had time to explain why that is,
but it's very simple. It's because we are made in the image of God. And when God speaks,
he reveals his heart. And because we are made in his image, when we speak, we reveal our hearts.
And this connection between heart and mouth is fundamental. It undergirds Paul's argument here
in Ephesians chapter 4. Miss it, miss the connection, and you miss the force of his argument.
Well, Paul makes two very simple points in this part of Ephesians chapter 4. And the two points
are connected like the heart and the mouth are connected. Number one, don't walk like who you
once were. Walk like who you now are. Don't walk like who you once were. Walk like who you now are.
Chapter 4, verses 17 to 24. I'm sure you've heard the phrase, walk the talk, which basically means
practice what you practice what you preach. Well, this idea of walking in a certain manner was a common
way of speaking in the first century. A person's life was referred to as their walk. And what Paul means
here is you must no longer walk, you must no longer live, verse 17, as the Gentiles do. And then in verse 17,
the second part to verse 19, he unpacks who we once were, how we once walked, before addressing who we now
are. In verses 20 to 24. So in verses 17 to 19, he explains who we once were. Now this I say and
testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that
is in them due to the hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to
sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
Now when we read that, who do you think of in our modern society?
Do you think it's a portion of our society gets on like this? Or is this Paul's description of our
general society? Well, it is the latter. This is not referring to the people who stand on your street
corner, drink beer on a Friday night, cause a bit of ruckus, the police pick them up, put them in the
cell for the night. This is the Oxbridge graduates that it's describing. It's the people in the city
of London doing their business. Now if that is shocking to you, it was just as shocking to Paul's
original hearers. He was writing to a group of Gentiles who have been converted to Christ out of
Gentile paganism, the non-Jewish, non-Christian way of life. Now when we hear Gentile or pagan,
we mustn't think first century barbarians, you know, savages of the first century. No,
pagans and Gentiles came from a sophisticated culture. They were well-mannered, they had a
culture, they were sophisticated in their way of life. Paganism in the ancient world was the pursuit
of the development of the mind. And now look at what Paul says, they are darkened in their
understanding. It was about the development of their mind, their body, their emotions, their
character, their speech. It was the modern day equivalent of the self-improvement movement.
You know, you go to Amazon.com, you stick the word self in, and you see all these books about
self-improvement. This is just Gentile paganism refashioned in a new way. There is nothing new
under the sun, as Solomon said. Now look with me again at how Paul describes this modern pursuit
of self-development. It is futile, it is darkened in its understanding, it is alienated from God,
it is willful ignorance of God, it arises out of the hardness of heart, it has lost all moral
sensitivity, it is sensuous, it is impure, it is greedy. What a damning indictment of our secular
humanistic culture with all its apparent wisdom. And this is why when Paul comes to address how we are
to walk, how we are to live in this world, he doesn't turn to the principles and beliefs and
convictions of a sophisticated Gentile culture that says, we have done PhDs in how to speak.
We should, Paul doesn't say we should go and learn from these people and imbibe some of their
philosophy and some of their insights. No, rather, he turns to who we have become in Christ. Verses 20
to 24. He's explained who we once were, now he explains who we now are. Verses 20 to 24. But that is not
the way you learned Christ. Assuming you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in
Jesus. To put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through
deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created
after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Now this metaphor of putting off and
putting on, it's like taking off a jacket and putting on a jacket. That's the sort of picture
that Paul has here. At our conversion, he says, we were taught to take off our old self like an old
jacket. To take it off and throw it away and then to go and get a new jacket, the new self, and to put
it on. It was a decisive act. It's just another way of speaking about biblical repentance. You know,
the Bible speaks about repentance and it speaks about it as an about turn. You're going in one
direction, so you turn and go in the other direction. Well, this is just another picture
of repentance. Taking off an old jacket, putting on a new jacket. And Paul is saying we should
live out the implications of our repentance. Now the way he describes it could suggest that
we were the ones who converted ourselves. Do you see that? We were taught, verse 22, to put off the old
self. We were taught, verse 24, to put on the new self. Well, that sounds a bit like we were the ones
who changed ourselves, converted ourselves, doesn't it? Well, there are a few things in these verses that
show us that we were not the main agents in our change, in our conversion. Yes, we had a responsibility
to repent, to put off and to put on. But look at verse 22. The reason the human self cannot change or
improve itself is because it is being corrupted through deceitful desires. The human self does not have the
ability in itself to change itself. Why? Because it's deceiving itself. Verse 23. Did you notice the past tense?
We were not the ones who made ourselves new. God made ourselves new. To be renewed. We could not do that
ourselves. In verse 24, he uses the word create. A word that is used only of God in the Bible. We can't create
anything in ourselves. Only God can create something new. C.S. Lewis captures this point wonderfully in the
Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Some of the young boys and girls, I hope you read the Narnia series.
Let me remind you what happened, or happened at this point in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Eustace is this annoying little brat of a cousin to the kids. And Eustace has come to an island,
and he's gone exploring, and he comes into a cave with all of this treasure in the cave. And he finds
a gold bracelet, and he puts it on his arm, and he turns into a dragon. And then one evening,
he is met by a lion who leads him up a mountain and into a garden. And Eustace recalls to Edmund
what happened. In the garden there was a well. I knew it was a well, because you could see the
water bubbling up from the bottom of it. The water was as clear as anything, and I thought,
if I could get in there and bathe, I would ease the pain in my leg from the bracelet.
But the lion told me, I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud
or not. I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on, when
I suddenly realized that because I was now a dragon, dragons are sort of sneaky sort of
things. And snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course I thought, that's what the lion means.
So I started scratching myself, and my scales began coming off all over the place. And
then I scratched a little deeper, and instead of just scales coming off here and there, my
whole skin started to peel off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was
a banana. In a minute or two, I just stepped out of my skin. I could see it lying there beside
me, looking rather nasty. It was a moment, sorry, it was a most lovely feeling. So I started
to go down into the well for my bath. But just as I was going to put my feet into the water,
I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly, just as they
had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit
on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore
again, and this underskin peeled off beautifully, and out I stepped and left it lying beside the
other one, and went down to the well for my bath. Well, exactly the same thing happened
again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, however many skins have I got to take off?
For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time, and took off a third
skin just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself
in the water, I knew it had been no good. Then the lion said, but I don't know if it spoke,
you will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty
nearly desperate now, so I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear
he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling
the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear
it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know, as if you've ever picked the scab off
a sore place. It hurts like billy-o, but it is so fun to see it coming away. I know exactly what you
mean, said Edmund. Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off, just as I thought I'd done it myself the
other three times, only they hadn't hurt. And there it was, lying on the grass, ever so much thicker and
darker and more knobbly looking than all the others had been. And there was I, as smooth and soft as a
peeled switch, and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me. I didn't like that very much,
for I was very tender underneath now, that I had no skin on. And he threw me into the water.
It smarted like anything, but only for a moment. After a bit, the lion took me out and dressed me.
Edmund said, dressed you? With his paws? Well, I don't exactly remember that bit, but he did somehow
in new clothes. The same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here,
which makes me think that it must have been a dream.
No, it wasn't a dream, said Edmund. Why not? Well, said Edmund, there are the clothes,
for one thing, and you have been, well, undragoned, for another.
Well, what do you think it was then, asked Eustace? I think you've seen Aslan, said Edmund.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, then you have seen Christ.
And in seeing him, he undressed you, and redressed you with a new you.
At the very heart of the Christian life, and this is why I took time to read that story,
at the very heart of the Christian life is a conversion, is a change, is a regeneration,
is an undressing and a redressing, that only God can bring about.
This is not how our secular culture thinks. You won't find this in the University of London's
class on the philosophy of the human person. You need to go to God if you want to change
your behaviour. I wish I had time to unpack this, but at the risk of oversimplification,
there are two general approaches in our secular culture to changing the self. The first approach
is this. You don't need to undress and redress yourself. You just need to address yourself.
You don't need to undress or redress yourself. You just need to address yourself. All you need
is a better understanding of yourself, of your family, of your environment, of your experiences,
and having understood yourself better. You need to resolve to take more responsibility,
to exert your mind, to control your tongue, your emotions, your body. And if you do that,
then you can improve yourself. You can change yourself. You see this in some of the more
research-based psychologies and sociologies. For example, Sam Harris. Have you heard of him?
He's the new sort of Christopher Hitchens, the new atheist guy. He wrote a little essay called
Lying. It was a fascinating essay. I read it a few years ago, and he said the only thing he could
say. He disagrees with lying. He thinks it's wrong. And he says, you need to outgrow your lying.
You need to, quote, resolve within yourself to stop lying. Do you see what this approach does?
It says you are the solution to the way you speak. There is no mention of regeneration. There is no
mention of conversion. The resources to change yourself lie within yourself. That's the one
approach. The other approach comes from the more superficial self-help psychologies and therapies.
You know, the sort of pop psychology you see in Oprah or Dr. Phil or Ellen DeGeneres on TV.
You know, 10 easy steps to make a brand new person. These are the sort of quick fix techniques where
you're locked in here of people creating themselves anew, having a makeover, facially, financially,
personally. I saw one book on Amazon.com said, breaking the habit of being yourself, how to lose your mind and
create a new one. You see similar things in the celebrity magazines. You know, when you go to the
dentist and you pick up a hello magazine or an okay magazine, and what is it? So and so has
recreated themselves. So and so has branded themselves anew. On the 1st of January, I got an email from
iTunes entitled, New Year, New You. If the problem with the first approach is that it lacks a doctrine of
regeneration. It's just secular moralism. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do in order to change. If that's the problem with the
first approach, the problem with the second approach is that it wants regeneration. Have you noticed? They always talk about
recreating yourself and having a makeover. It is the language of regeneration. It is the language of recreation. But it looks for it
in all the wrong places. Both approaches are like Eustace trying to undragon himself by himself. And in stark contrast
to both is the wonderful, liberating good news of Jesus Christ. In the gospel, God doesn't come to you with good advice.
He comes to you with good news. In the gospel, God doesn't come to you with a quick fix makeover. He comes and offers you a heart
transplant. The life that we should have lived, we haven't, but Christ did. And the death that we should have died, we couldn't,
but Christ did. And what Christ has done for us, we could not do ourselves. And when we accept that, through faith in
Jesus Christ, God remakes us anew. Not just forensically on the outside justifying us, but he makes us anew
a part of the way. And we believe in our very essence. And we believe in our very essence and being. What as Christians
we call regeneration. In the words of Jesus, you need to be born again. And Paul's point is this.
I'm taking a long time to get to the point about speaking the truth. Paul's point is this. You can't
change the way you talk until you change the way you walk. And you can't change the way you walk until
God undresses you and redresses you with a new you. You can't change the way you talk, 25,000 words a day.
You can't change that until you change the way you walk. And you can't change the way you walk
until God undresses you and redresses you with a new you. And when God has done that, Paul says,
talk like it. Talk like it. Has God converted you? Talk like it. That's the second point that Paul
comes to. Don't talk like who you once were. Talk like who you now are. Don't talk like who you
once were. Talk like who you now are. Verse 25. Therefore, therefore, having been undressed and
redressed, having been renewed in your inner person, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of
you speak the truth. And you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
It is the therefore that connects the heart to the mouth, the self to the speech, the character to the
communication. I mentioned earlier the little phrase, walk the talk. Well, Paul turns that idiom
around in a surprising way. He says, don't just walk the talk. He says, talk the walk. This is who you now are.
This is how you now walk. Now talk like it. Talk the walk. And the first application Paul gives us of how we
are to talk is in relation to speaking the truth. You see it there in verse 25. Having put away falsehood, let each one of you
speak the truth with his neighbor. Now this word falsehood is the word from which we get the word pseudo,
false, something that's fake, a lie. Paul says, precisely because that was part of your former way
of life. See verse 22. Deceitful desires. Deceit was part of your former way of life. It was like that old
jacket. You took it off. You put on a new jacket. So talk like you're wearing the new jacket.
Right? Put away the falsehood. But the question is, what is falsehood? What is a lie? If you, for example, ask me the
time after church, and I said, oh, it's three o'clock, and I sort of get it wrong. Have I lied to you? Well, no. I made a
mistake. You ask me the time. I looked at my watch. I misread it, and I made a mistake. That's not a lie. A lie is a word or act
that intentionally deceives a neighbor in order to hurt or gain some advantage over them. A lie is an act or word that
intentionally deceives a neighbor in order to hurt them or gain some advantage over them. I think there is some wisdom
needed here as we look at this. Remember a couple of years ago, there was a rugby game. I think it was
Leicester were playing another team in England in the Heineken Cup. It was the semi-finals, and then the clock
had run down. It was the 80th minute, and the Irish team, Munster it was, the Irish team had the ball.
And you know in rugby, the ball's got to be kicked out for the end of the game. And these phases of play
were being played. One minute, two minutes, three minutes. And on RTE radio, this commentator was
getting more and more exaggerated. Oh, and it's the 33rd phase. It's the 34th phase. And it was going on and
in the end, the ball comes to Ronan O'Gara in the 38th phase. And he drop hits it between the posts,
and they win. There was one point in it, and Munster had to score to win the game. And the commentator
went absolutely crazy. And he says, after a hundred thousand phases, Ronan O'Gara has just kicked the goal
one with you. Now, I don't think anyone in Ireland listening to that went, he's just lying.
There was only 38 phases. What's he talking about? Hyperbole. There is a place for it. And I'm not
just saying that because I'm Irish, and we use it all the time. Didn't God say to Abraham,
I will make your seed like the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore.
There is a place for hyperbole. There is a place for jokes. What do you do with a joke? Is a joke a lie?
If I was to tell a joke, Patty and Seamus sitting together on a Friday afternoon, and Patty says to Seamus,
you're looking a bit down. What's wrong with you? And Seamus says, well, I'm trying to sell my car.
And he says, well, why can't you sell it? He says, well, I've washed it, I've waxed it, I've got it all cleaned up,
no one's interested. And he says, well, how many miles are on it? He says, 230,000 miles.
He says, well, no wonder no one wants to buy it. All you need to do is turn the clock back on it,
the 10,000 miles on the mileage, and then you'll sell it. The next week they're together.
Seamus is looking all happy, and Patty says, so you're looking really happy, you must have sold the car then.
And he says, no, why would I do that? It's only got 10,000 miles on it.
Now, Paul Levy tells jokes just for the sake of them in a sermon.
Why would you laugh?
There's deceit in that.
Patty has told Seamus to deceive a potential buyer.
And the joke is that Seamus has been deceived by his own deceit.
That's the joke. And it's Irish, so it's okay to laugh.
But why is it okay to laugh at that? Because we know it's a joke.
That's the context. No one's trying to hurt or get one over on their neighbor.
We understand it's a joke.
What about board games? Are we allowed as Christians to play board games
where you have to actually try and deceive the person or withhold information?
Well, of course that's okay. It's a board game.
World War II, we used Morse code to deceive the enemy.
Well, of course, in order to save lives.
Now, all those things are exceptions.
They're all exceptions.
What Paul is saying to us here is
in our everyday speech with each other,
in our normal communication at church,
home groups, deacon meetings, elders meetings,
whatever the connection is in church,
in our normal communication,
outside the context of a bit of banter,
Paul says
that your yes
be a yes
and your no
be a no.
We are to communicate with each other
without spin,
without evasion,
without denials,
without deceit.
Simple,
clear,
honest,
truthful
communication.
Now, as I've had to reflect on this
in my own life,
and have you ever thought about this?
Why is Paul telling Christians
to stop lying?
Because we're all prone to it.
We are all prone to it.
And as I've had to reflect on this
in my own life,
here are some of the questions
I've had to ask myself.
Do I spin
and tell white lies
to get out of a tricky situation?
Do I exaggerate
in order to be seen to be someone
I'm not in public
or on Facebook
or on Twitter?
Do I lie
to avoid embarrassment
of being found out?
Do I lie
to disguise wrongdoing?
Do I lie
to avoid
hurting the feelings
of that person
if I was to actually
be honest with them?
Do I compliment
and flatter people
when I don't actually mean it?
Do I lie
because I'm scared
of the emotional cut off
if I was honest
with that person?
Do I falsely
encourage something
when I know
it would be unhelpful
and I'm just saying it
to the person
because I'm people pleasing?
Do I
shade the truth
for my own advantage?
God says to us
this morning
brothers and sisters
don't speak lies
speak the truth.
why?
because you've been
changed
because you've been
changed
from the inside out
you've put off
that old self
with its deceitful desires
you've put on
the new self
therefore
talk like it
talk like
who you are
not
who you once
were
Paul gives us
another reason
why we are
to speak the truth
did you see it there
at the very end
of verse 25
for
because
we are
members
of one another
what he's referring
to there is
we are members
of the church
of Jesus Christ
in the book
of Ephesians
the church is referred
to
eight times
as the body
of Christ
and here
in verse 25
Paul does it again
and what he's saying
is
to lie
is to seriously
injure
Christ's
body
injuring
or sorry
lying and truth
speaking
is of church
significance
imagine this afternoon
you go for a walk
out in a park
somewhere
and there's a
there's a rough
bit of ground
along the path
and as you're walking
your eye sees a ditch
in the grass
but it doesn't
communicate to your foot
that it needs to make
an adjustment
and so you just
keep walking normally
and next thing
you put your foot
in a ditch
you've strained
your ankle
what has happened
injury has come
to a member
of your body
because your eye
lied
to your foot
it said
there's no ditch
there just keep
walking normally
but it's not just
the foot
that gets injured
you've strained
your ankle
so bad
you now have to
go to accident
and emergency
and so
your pants
that wanted to go
for a walk
in the park
and enjoy the fresh air
they're now sitting
twiddling their thumbs
in A&E
and your eyes
that wanted to
look at this
beautiful park
and trees
is now staring
at heart disease
posters
in A&E
the whole body
has been affected
why?
because one member
lied to another member
but do you see
how it was
of church
body
significance
and it's not
just the short
term injury
that comes
it's the long
term injury
you get your
bandage on
you get your
crutches
and you go home
and three weeks
later you get
the bandage off
and you throw
away the crutches
but how do you
walk at home?
well you walk
a bit
and we live
gingerly
the injury
is over
there's no
pain
there's no
ditch on your
floorboards
at home
but why are you
walking gingerly?
because your
foot no longer
trusts your eye
you think
I will double
check everything
next time
and that's what
lies do
lies destroy
trust
and therefore
lies destroy
relationships
I have two
brothers
older brother
younger brother
and we all
lived at home
until we were
in our 20s
or went off
to university
and each of
us for as long
as we were at
home can always
remember our
mother coming
to us
finding us
wherever we
were in the
house every
night
and before she
would go to
bed she would
come and she
would say to
us I love
you
you know what
mattered most
for each of
us three
boys
not necessarily
those words
but that she
is telling us
the truth
it's built
trust
it's built
a deep
bond
anyone can
tell anyone
they love
them
but some
people could
be lying
it is truth
that builds
relationships
that creates
that strong
bond
so brothers
and sisters
in this church
in your home
groups
in your families
in your youth
groups
in your deacons
elders
meetings
whatever the
connection is
let us
having put
away
falsehood
let us
speak the
truth
to one
another
for we
are the
body of
Christ
in
Cambridge
Jackie and I
often go out
for a meal
now and again
on a special
occasion
and in nearly
every case
the reader
or the waitress
has had a
foreign accent
and so we
often start
off a conversation
where's your
accent from
they tell us
where they're
from
different parts
of Europe
or South
America
and so they
say and where's
your accent
from
it's not
English
and there
we enter a
conversation
of where we're
from
wouldn't it be
wonderful
that as a
church
as we speak
to one another
with grace
humility
and truthfulness
wouldn't it be
wonderful
if the world
listened in
on our
conversation
and said
you folk
speak with
a different
accent
an accent
of truthfulness
where are you
from
let's pray
thanks