PUT AWAY LYING
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 11, 2023 under 2023 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message; June 11, 2023 from Ephesians 4:25
Theme: As members together of Christ’s body, we are to put off lying and speak truth to one another.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul had been writing about a very important aspect of our Christian faith. And that is that it can’t just merely be a matter of assenting to ‘a belief’. Our faith in Jesus must also result in a completely transformed life. And in Ephesians 4, he tells us how that transformed life is to come about.
Paul spent some time describing the sinful habits and practices that characterize someone who does not believe. And then, he wrote in Ephesians 4:20-24;
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 (Ephesians 4:20-24).
And that’s what we’ve been concentrating on in our most recent times together. Paul here lays out to us a pattern for real-life change as followers of Jesus. It involves three steps. First, through faith in Jesus, we “put off the old man”—that is, the old self that formerly lived in disobedience to God, but that has now been crucified with Him. Just like taking off old garments that are no longer appropriate to who we are, we lay aside “the old man”—along with all of his old practices and sinful habits—and leave him and his sinful practices behind. Second, by the enabling work of the Holy Spirit in us through His word, we become “renewed” in the spirit of our minds. We let God’s word change our attitudes and beliefs and processes of thinking; so that we now see ourselves as God Himself sees us—along with all of the eternal resources that are now ours in Christ. And finally, we “put on the new man”; that is, the new practices, habits, and attitudes that characterize the Lord Jesus Himself. By the power of the enabling Holy Spirit, we then rise up and live like Jesus.
So; that’s the new pattern we’re to follow. It’s wonderful that God’s word shows us how to live increasingly transformed lives in Christ. And it’s also wonderful to discover—as we read on in this chapter—that Paul even gives us examples of what this life changing pattern looks like in practice. In verses 25-32, the apostle Paul speaks of five categories of sinful behavior; and shows us how—in each case—life transformation in Christ occurs by (1) putting off the old man, (2) being renewed in the spirit of our mind, and (3) putting on the new man. He writes:
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 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 (vv. 25-32).
It would be hard to find anything more encouraging and practical than what we find in this passage. And we shouldn’t try to rush through this section too quickly. If we did so, we would miss the full value of the things that Paul is telling us.
So, let’s take our time. Over the next while, let’s look deeper into how this pattern plays itself out in each one of these areas of practice. And let’s begin this morning with the first area of life change that Paul addresses—that is, that we become people who are characterized by truthfulness. As he writes in verse 25;
Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
* * * * * * * * * *
What a crucial area of Christian conduct this is!—that we behave and speak as people who are truthful in our dealings with others … and especially when dealing with one another in the household of faith! This is crucial because, as Christians, we are called by God to live right now in the midst of a world that is almost completely given over to telling and believing lies. The apostle Paul once wrote,
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron … (1 Timothy 4:1-2);
and the times in which we’re living are certainly characterized by such diabolical lies. Many people today are building their entire lives—and even their entire sense of self-identity—upon ideas and affirmations that are nothing less than lies from the evil one. And much of the activity of the world around us is being built upon deceiving and misleading one another in defiance against God. A friend of mine said the other day, “Just think of what life would be like in this world if everyone suddenly started telling the truth!” He suggested that it would start an awful lot of conflicts and fights. The unbelieving culture around us might not be able to bear the strain.
And yet, as followers of Jesus, we must stand out as distinct and different from all this. We have “not so learned Christ”. As His followers, we must be identified as people of truth. After all; if we don’t speak the truth in our everyday dealings, then why would any of the unsaved people of this world believe us when we tell them the truth of the gospel?
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; what is this thing called “truth”? How do we define it?
I asked that question of a group of friends recently—strong fellow believers. And even they had a hard time defining it. It’s hard to say what ‘truth’ is without using the word ‘truth’ in the definition. After all, to say that “truth is that which is true” just wouldn’t be sufficient. And neither would it do any good to say that “truth is the opposite of falsehood.” As you know, many people today have even gone so far as to say that there is no such thing as truth at all. But that won’t work either; because when they say, “There is no such thing as truth”, they fully expect their statement to be accepted as absolutely true. Some even say, “You can have your ‘truth’, and I can have my ‘truth’.” But that won’t work either; because that would be the same as saying that—ultimately—there is no truth. When it comes to defining what ‘truth’ is, we definitely need something more substantial and objective to hang our definition upon.
Let me offer what I believe is a reliable, objective definition of ‘truth’. ‘The truth’ is that which conforms to God as He has expressed Himself in His revealed will, His revealed works, and His revealed word. In other words, a thing is “true” to the degree that it ‘matches up’ with who God is, the world as He has made it to be, and the word as He has declared it. This is a definition of truth that is objective and that will never change—because God Himself never changes. In other words, that is ‘true’ which conforms to the God of truth.
Now; is this a reliable definition? Is that a ‘true’ definition of ‘truth’? Yes, it is. If you were to look for one of the first clear, authoritative, objective affirmations of “truth” in the Bible, you’d find it in Exodus 34. That’s the story of how Moses made an amazing request of God. He asked to see His glory. God told Moses that no one could gaze upon His glory and live; but instead, that God would cover Moses with His hand, and pass by Him. And when God did this for Moses, He made this declaration of Himself:
“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth …” (Exodus 34:6).
And so, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God who revealed Himself to Moses—the God of the Bible—is the source of truth. He Himself abounds in goodness and truth. He is the ground of all truth; and Himself is truth. And what’s more, God later made the ‘truth’ abundantly visible to the world by sending His Son Jesus Christ. God the Son—the second Person of the Trinity—is the image of the invisible God. He took full humanity to Himself, was born into the human family, and walked among us as God the Father’s revealed declaration of ‘truth’ to the world. As it says in John 1:17;
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:16-17).
Jesus Himself once made this declaration to His apostles:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
So; God the Father is truth; and God the Son is truth. And what’s more, God the Holy Spirit is also truth. As Jesus once told His disciples;
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).
And we aren’t left to wonder about these things or wander around subjectively in the dark to search for the ‘truth’. We have been given an objective, substantial, reliable, written witness of that unchanging truth. Jesus prayed to the Father about us as His followers and said;
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
Now, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; we have been redeemed by Jesus Christ from the sins of the past. We have been brought into a saving relationship with the God who is truth—through the Son of God who is the embodiment of truth—by the power of the Spirit of truth—according to the word of God, which is truth. It is utterly inappropriate, then, for us to live any longer by lies. Being joined together as His community of redeemed people, we now must walk in this world as people of truth—doing as Paul has exhorted us to do in Ephesians 4:25;
Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
* * * * * * * * * *
So then; how do we do this? Do you notice how Paul begins this verse? He begins with the word “Therefore”; which points our attention back to what it was that he had just written about ‘putting off the old man’—along with all of his sinful conduct, being transformed by the ‘renewing’ of our minds, and ‘putting on the new man’ who is characterized by the righteousness and holy conduct of Christ Himself.
Notice first what verse 25 tells us about …
1. WHAT WE’RE TO ‘PUT AWAY’ FROM OURSELVES.
Paul writes, “Therefore, putting away lying …” The word in the original language for lying is the word from which we get the English adjective “pseudo”. This speaks of anything sham or artificial in a general sense; and especially, in this specific context, sham or artificial or lying words. We’re not to be people who speak, or live out, or in any way present a lie. We’re to put all such lying ways away from ourselves.
Do you remember when you first learned to lie? Probably not. I don’t remember either. No one ever taught us how to lie, did they? It came quite naturally, because it was a part of our fallen nature as sinners. We might have been influenced by some bad examples along the way; but those bad examples didn’t introduce the concept of ‘lying’ to us. The concept was already active in us. It had its beginning point in the story of the garden of Eden. Genesis 3 tells us;
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5).
And what was it that the devil did? He put forth an affirmation that was in defiance of God’s will, His works, and His promises. In other words, he lied against the truth and in defiance of it. Thus, he deceived the woman with this lie. She too acted in defiance of God; and she ate that which God forbade her to eat. She also gave it to her husband, and he ate. And thus, sin entered into the human race—including the sin of lying. And with it came death. This is why you and I never had to be taught how to lie. No one has ever really had to ‘learn’ to do that. It comes naturally; because we are fallen in sin.
And the devil is the source of it. The Lord Jesus Himself said of the devil;
“He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).
And dear brothers and sisters; we need to understand what this means. When we engage in lying, we engage in a work that—more than any other—characterizes the devil. We all stumble and fall at times. We all stretch the truth on occasion, or mislead with our words. We all have moments when we try to ‘conform’ to a lie. And when we do so, we must confess it immediately and repent. But if we make an ongoing lifestyle out of lying—if we continually build our lives upon falsehood—we are doing the devil’s own work. And everyone who does his work will—in the end—suffer his punishment. He himself is doomed to the lake of fire. And near the end of the Bible—in Revelation 21:8—God Himself says this:
“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:7-8).
Look at what horrible company ‘lying’ keeps! And look at what a dreadful judgment all liars receive! This, dear brothers and sisters, is why this leftover aspect of our former life of unbelief must absolutely be put off from us! It must go completely!
If you have had a habit of lying—or if you are putting forth any falsehood in your life right now—go to God and immediately and say, “Father in heaven; I thank You that You have sent Your Son Jesus to pay the death penalty on my behalf for this sin. I renounce it as the work of the devil—who is the father of lies; and I repent of it. Help me to confess to those to whom I have lied; and help me—from this day forth—to cease from all lying and falsehood. I pray this for Jesus’ sake.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; that’s the first step. But it’s not enough to simply stop doing the work of the devil. It’s not enough to simply cease lying. We must, of course, do that; but that alone will not bring about the life transformation that God desires for us to experience in Christ. Jesus, our Lord and Master, not only did not lie, but He also boldly spoke the truth. And we, as His followers, must also live as we have “so learned Christ”.
And so; that leads us, next, to …
2. WHAT WE’RE TO ‘PUT ON’ INSTEAD.
In Ephesians 4:25, Paul wrote; “Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor …” And did you know that, in saying this, he was quoting from the Old Testament? His words were taken directly from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah.
In Zechariah 8, God was speaking to the Jewish people who had spent the last 70 years in exile in Babylon for their sins. God had returned them to their land and to the city of Jerusalem. They were to rebuild the temple, and were to restore the ministry of the priesthood. God had determined to punish them; and now, He was determined to do them good. They needed to live the lives of those who had received God’s pardoning grace. And so, through the prophet Zechariah, God promised to do them good and told them;
“These are the things you shall do:
‘Speak each man the truth to his neighbor;
Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace;
Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor;
And do not love a false oath.
For all these are things that I hate,’Says the Lord” (Zechariah 8:16-17).
What God wanted from them was that they—from then on—live as people of honesty and integrity with one another. They were to “speak each man the truth to his neighbor”. And Paul took those same words and applied them to his brothers and sisters in Christ. As those who have been redeemed from their sins by the blood of Jesus, they were to now—each one—speak truth with his neighbor.
Notice that this ‘truth-telling’ is to be directed to our ‘neighbor’. In the original language, the word for ‘neighbor’ means ‘nearby one’. And that, of course, could be taken to mean that we owe it to all those that we live ‘nearby’, as neighbors, to tell them the truth and deal honestly with them. That would certainly be true—whether they were believers or not. But the context of this verse especially suggests that our ‘neighbor’—in this case—is our fellow believers; those with whom we are a member together of the body of Christ. And that really brings it down to a personal level; doesn’t it? I can have high ideals about being truthful to the church at large; but it’s a different matter when I need to be truthful to my brother or sister with whom I have a close, personal association in the household of God. Paul even takes it down to a deeper level than that when he says, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor …” We must not exempt ourselves personally from this obligation—nor make choices over which brother or sister in Christ with whom we will be truthful.
Now; does this mean that I must blurt out the truth in a harmful way to everyone? Of course not. In the classic example, someone might think that their baby is beautiful; but that doesn’t mean I’m obligated to tell them that—in all truth—their baby is really rather ugly. The Bible tells us, in Ephesians 4:15 that we’re to be “speaking the truth in love”. When genuine love requires that—before God—I refrain from speaking all of the cold, hard, brutal truth that isn’t necessary to speak, I should refrain. But apart from those exceptional cases—when the obligation is truly upon me to speak the truth—then I must speak the truth.
How do we get to the place in which we can do this? I suggest to you that it’s through making sure that we are sincerely walking in truth before God our Father. That’s the place to begin. The apostle John wrote this at the beginning of his first letter:
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us (1 John 1:5-10).
If we want to truly “put on” truth with one another, then we must begin by making sure we are walking in truth before God—that we have no secrets that we try to keep before Him—that we do not try to ‘pretend’ anything in His sight—that we confess all our sins to Him and make sure that we are walking in the ‘light’ of His favor and fellowship.
Let’s strive always to be honest before God. Then; we’ll be prepared to “put on” truth with one another.
* * * * * * * * *
And that leads us to one more thing. You’ll remember that, in all life transformation in Christ, we must be completely renewed in our thinking. We’re to allow our attitude to be reshaped and renewed by God’s own word—so that we see ourselves as God sees us in Christ, and see ourselves equipped with all the spiritual resources that are ours through Him. And when it comes to being truth-tellers toward one another, we need to have our thinking renewed in this area as well.
So that leads us, finally, to consider …
3. WHAT SPIRITUAL REALITY MOTIVATES US TO DO THIS.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:25, “Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.” And that’s our motivation; that we are now ‘members of one another’.
You see; in Christ, we are no longer independent from one another. We have been joined together as members of the same body—the church—with Jesus as our divine Head. Paul wrote in verses 15-16 that we
speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).
If the various parts of my physical body will no longer tell the truth to each other, then I’m in serious trouble. My eyes won’t tell my feet the truth. My ears won’t tell me when danger is approaching. My left hand will no longer cooperate truthfully with my right hand. My internal organs will not be honest and do for one another what they need to do. I need all of my body parts to always be, in this sense, ‘telling the truth’ to one another. And the same is true for you and me—together—in the body of Christ. We need to see ourselves as one body—the body of Christ—a body in which all the parts depend upon one another. That’s why we must be telling the truth to each other.
So; let’s let the word of God change our thinking about our relationship. We are no longer independent of one another. We have been bound together, by the Holy Spirit, in an inseparable bond to one another in Jesus—with Jesus Himself serving as our divine Head. Let’s cooperate with Him in our ministry to one another by living with honesty and integrity toward one another—telling the truth to one another in sincere love. Where we fail, let’s immediately confess our lies to one another and make things right. And as one body, in love, let’s always give one another lots of forgiving grace.
* * * * * * * * * *
Our faith in Jesus Christ demands real-life transformation. So; let’s live transformed lives—particularly in respect to the truth. As Paul puts it in Colossians 3:9-11;
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:9-11).
May the world around us thus see that we truly belong to Jesus!
AE
