Christians Are Different

We turn in the Word of God to Ephesians chapter 4, and I'm going to read, beginning at verse 25, through verse 32. Paul is talking about putting on the new man, and now he tells us how to do it. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 25.

Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.

Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. May the Lord help us to live up to our privileges as we conquer our sins.

Most of us do not enjoy going to the doctor. It's not because we dislike the doctor, nor is it because we despise being healthy, but deep inside we are always afraid he might find something wrong. I have visited people in the hospitals who were dying because they waited too long to go see the doctor, and they had to hear those difficult words, if only you had come sooner.

What is true of the outer man is true of the inner man, just as we have to go to the physician with our bodies, so we need to come to the Great Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, with the inner man. And what sickness does to your body and my body, sin does to the soul. Jesus said, I am the Great Physician.

I have come to call sinners to repentance, and having called them and saved them, I want to keep them healthy. This is why the Bible talks about sin. This is why the Bible doesn't cover over sin, doesn't make sin something attractive, because God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

And God is in his holy temple, and his throne is a throne of righteousness, and he is a holy God. And Jesus Christ is the Holy Son of God, and so much does he hate sin that he died for our sins. And the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit, and the word of God is the holy scripture.

And God wants for us to be holy, and this is the greatest struggle in our lives. Be ye holy, for I am holy. I'm sure that when Paul dictated these words in Ephesians 4, 25 through 32, he was weeping.

There are some Christians who, when they discover sin, enjoy it. One of the tests of spirituality, my friend, is how do you react? How do you respond when you sin and when somebody else sins? And I can't conceive of the Apostle Paul acting like a tyrant, a judge. I'm sure it broke his heart to discover that there was, in the church at Ephesus, lying and stealing and blasphemy.

I can't prove it, but I have a feeling in my heart that when the Apostle Paul dictated these words, he did so with a broken heart. Now he's dealing here with five very familiar sins, but he deals with these sins in such a remarkable way. He's not hanging dirty wash out in public.

He's not trying to embarrass the church. He's trying to help them. And it would be good for me, and I think good for you, if we would listen to what Paul has to say about these five sins, because he tells us how we can overcome them.

The first sin he deals with is the sin of lying in verse 25. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor. And he gives the reason why.

For we are members one of another. You see, the Apostle Paul never gives an admonition without giving an explanation. Whenever Paul says, now don't do this, it's because, or do this, it's because.

This is not always true in my life or your life. My father didn't always explain to me why I was doing what I was doing. Many times he did.

My boss didn't always explain. But the Lord does. The Lord says, now I want to deal with the deceit in your life.

And here's the reason why. Because we're members one of another. Now no one has to stand here and give a discourse on what it is to lie.

All of us know what lying is. Lying is a statement or an action that is contrary to fact with the purpose of misleading. We lie by deliberately lying, just telling an untruth.

We lie with a half-truth. We lie with exaggeration. This is something we preachers have to be very careful of.

Exaggeration. Everybody. Nobody.

Those are strong words. Some disgruntled church member comes to you and says, everybody's unhappy with this. You say, now wait a minute, there are 1,600 people here.

How many have you talked to? Well, four. You see, we lie by exaggerating. Sometimes we lie in our singing.

How easy it is for us to take the hymn book and in the atmosphere of a worship service, being led in singing, we will sing things we don't really mean. And that's lying. Sometimes we lie by making promises we have no intention of keeping.

That's a lie. Students have a tendency to lie by stealing somebody else's studying, copying somebody else's work. The first sin that was judged in the New Testament church was the sin of lying.

Ananias and Sapphira came at the offering, and they gave their offering. It was only half of what they had sold the property for, but that was all right. God hadn't told them to bring everything, but they pretended like they brought everything.

Campbell Morgan used to say, the sin of Ananias and Sapphira was the sin of trying to make people think they were more spiritual than they really were. And Jesus had a word for that. It was called hypocrisy.

A hypocrite is a person who deliberately deceives me or deceives you into thinking he's more spiritual than he really is. A hypocrite is not somebody who is brokenhearted because he's not reaching his goals. None of us reaches his goals.

All of us are falling far short of the glory of God. But a hypocrite is somebody who deliberately deceives. In fact, he uses religion to promote this deception.

That's why Jesus said of the priests, they had turned the temple into a den of thieves. They were using the temple as a place to escape and hide their wickedness. So all of us know what lying is.

God judged Ananias and Sapphira for their deceit. He doesn't do that quite the same way today. If he did, I think some of us might not be here.

Now, the argument he gives us is this. Lie not because we are members of one another. You know what he's saying? My mother would say, now, don't tell lies.

It'll get you into trouble. But suppose it didn't right away get me into trouble. You know what I would do? Keep on lying.

Or someone says honesty is the best policy. My friend, honesty is not a policy. If you are honest because it's the best policy, you're dishonest.

Your motive is wrong. You know what Paul is saying? We belong to each other. And when I tell a lie to you, I'm hurting you and I'm hurting myself.

The church is one body. You see, back here in the earlier part of the chapter, verse 15, Paul tells us how the two go together. Love is the circulatory system of the body.

When the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is moving in the body, then things are the way they ought to be. Now he says, speaking the truth in love. You see, my body functions, my physical body functions in truth and love.

You say, Pastor, you don't believe that. Yes, I do. You know, when God made my body, he made each part to love every other part.

And when I cut my finger and some little germs get in, a part of my body says, we can't have that. That finger up there is getting infected. And it shoots over what is necessary to clean up that infection.

The different parts of the body love each other. If my gall bladder is not functioning correctly, another part takes over to keep the balance in my body. The parts of your body love each other physically.

And the parts of your body function in truth. A finger acts like a finger. An ear acts like an ear.

A red corpuscle like a red corpuscle. Note, when a part of the body stops functioning in truth, you've got sickness. Now, Paul is just taking the physical body and applying it to the spiritual body.

He's saying, here is the moody church, a spiritual body. How does it function? In truth and love. Now, truth without love is brutality.

And love without truth is hypocrisy. And when you put the two together, speaking the truth in love, you have a healthy atmosphere in the body. Many people in the church cannot face the truth in love.

It's hard. It's hard for us. And Paul is telling us, look, don't lie.

Don't lie to each other, either in action or in word. When you do, you're just poisoning the body. When you do, you're just creating an imbalance in the body.

And then some other part has to take over to keep things going. And you can't keep up like that. Let every man speak the truth to his neighbor.

You know why we don't want to tell the truth? One of two reasons, either pride or fear. We're too proud to be caught. It's a marvelous day in your life when you discover you don't always have to be right.

You can say, you know, I'm sorry. We had a beautiful wedding yesterday. One of our young couples from medical school was married.

I had the joy of sharing in it out in Geneva, Illinois. And the last thing I always say to a couple before I bid them farewell is, remember now, don't both of you get mad at the same time. And always be honest.

This is true in the church. Speaking the truth to one another. If there's pride, I've always got to be right.

Then there's trouble. The second reason that we tell lies is fear. We're afraid of either getting caught or maybe hurting the other person.

Proverbs says something like this, as iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. You know what that means? That means I should help you be a better person. You should help me be a better person.

But please do it in love. And so there shouldn't be pride in the church. There shouldn't be fear in the church.

Perfect love casts out fear. I shouldn't be afraid to have to come to you. You shouldn't be afraid to have to come to me.

If we're both bowing before the Lord and members of the same body, then truth and love can function. And we don't have to have any deceit. The second sin he deals with is anger.

Verses 26 and 27. Paul does not tell us never to get angry. He says, be angry, but don't sin in your anger.

There is a sinful anger that is very selfish, and there is a sinless anger that is very selfless. Jesus got angry. Some of our hymns have given the impression that the Lord Jesus Christ never got angry.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Well, meekness is not weakness. He said to that congregation, I am meek and lowly in heart.

But he wasn't a sissy. And he made that whip, and he went into that temple, and he showed anger. When you read about children being beaten to death with baseball bats, don't you get angry? When you see the streets of Chicago being decorated with pornography, don't you get angry? A person who doesn't have the ability to get angry is not going to accomplish very much.

Now, it's not the kind of anger that whips out at people. The Lord Jesus always went to the principle of the thing, the sin underneath that was causing all the trouble. One day he was teaching, and the Pharisees and scribes were there, and their hearts were hard.

It's always unfortunate that in every congregation there are people who come not to get edification but to gather ammunition. They were there when Jesus was preaching, and Jesus looked upon them, and in Mark chapter 3, the Holy Spirit says, and being angry at the hardening of their hearts. Jesus became angry in a preaching service.

Maybe it's time that some of us as Christians, instead of losing our tempers, directed that anger in building the righteousness of God. So Paul doesn't say a Christian should never get angry. Ye that love the Lord hate iniquity.

Nehemiah got angry when he heard that one of the Jews had moved into the temple and was compromising the testimony. He went and threw him out. Paul got angry when he heard what was going on in Corinth.

In fact, in one of the Corinthian letters he says, I'm burning. Who is offended and I burn not? But he says, when you get angry, don't sin. Now, the argument he gives is this.

When Christians get angry in sin, in a sinful way, it gives place to the devil. Did you notice that? Be angry, but don't sin. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.

What begins as anger can become wrath. And he says, when this happens, you're giving place to the devil. Now, the devil wants to get a beachhead in our lives.

He can get a beachhead in my life through lying, because he's the liar. If I let a lie take hold of my life, this gives the devil a chance to move in. He loves it when we lose our tempers.

Someone has said that temper is such a marvelous thing, you can't afford to lose it. This is true. Temper in steel gives that steel strength, and temper in a Christian can be used of the Holy Spirit.

But when that temper is lost and we get out of control, and we say things we shouldn't say, and we say them in ways we shouldn't say them, and we burn with anger, the devil just moves right in, because he's the murderer. John 8.44, Jesus said to the Pharisees, ye are of your father the devil. He's a liar and he's a murderer, and they go together.

And anger, said Jesus, is the first step toward murder. Ye have heard it said of those of old time, thou shalt not kill. But I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother is in danger of the judgment.

And so here we are, members of one another. My, what a mess I would be in if my left hand got angry with my right hand, and I went to put my hands on the wheel to drive my car, and the left hand said, I'm not going to work with that right hand, and I have an accident. You see the beautiful picture Paul is painting here? He's saying we're all part of a body, and truth and love must motivate the body.

Therefore, don't lie to one another, and don't get angry, because that lets the devil in. Now the devil loves to get into churches. He got into the church in Jerusalem through Ananias and Sapphira, and he could get into Moody Church through me or through you.

So don't give place to the devil. He tells us how to settle this problem of anger. He said, do it the same day.

Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. Hasten to make peace with your brother. Agree with thine adversary quickly.

Don't go to bed at night seething with anger, because it'll give you ulcers, and you'll wake up the next morning, and you'll have a headache, and you'll start the day instead of saying, when morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries, may Jesus Christ be praised. You'll wake up in the morning and say, oh him, her, and that anger will control your life, and you'll go through the day destroying instead of building up. The third sin he deals with is in verse 28, stealing.

Lying, he touches upon the ninth commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness. Anger, he touches upon the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill, because anger is murder in the heart. Stealing, he's dealing with the eighth commandment, thou shalt not steal.

It's rather interesting to find out how many millions of dollars are being wasted in industry and offices today because of stealing. We think nothing of taking a fistful of pencils. I mean, the boss after all doesn't miss them.

I recall when I was working with Rockwell Manufacturing Company, we were losing chain, link chain, the heavy link chain you used on motors in manufacturing, and they couldn't figure out how anybody was stealing all this chain. Then one day a fellow was coming off the night shift, and he went to punch out, and he tripped and fell and couldn't get up again. And they took off his coat and wrapped around his body was all this link chain.

And of course, he was fired. One night somebody stole a welding outfit. How you can steal a welding outfit, I don't know.

But they did it. But you know, they were only hurting themselves. The price of valves went up because it cost much more to produce them.

That meant they couldn't pay as much wages. Stealing, a lot of stealing goes on. Stealing somebody's homework, stealing books.

I think at the judgment seat of Christ, more people are going to be dealt with on stealing books or anything. I'm just going to borrow it from you, but then you never see it again. Stealing.

Now he's writing particularly here, I think, to some of the slaves. When you read Titus, when Paul wrote to Titus, he said, now you be sure to tell those slaves not to pilfer, not to steal, because stealing was the accepted thing back in this day. In fact, they used to brag about their stealing.

Oh, I stole this. I got that. We have this today.

Billy Sunday said many years ago, when I was a kid, we used to sneak into the railroad yards and steal stuff out of the railroad cars. Now, he said, we send people to college and they come back and steal the whole railroad. He's got a good point there.

Some of our manufacturers are guilty of stealing. Now, Paul is writing to you and me and he's saying, look, don't steal. Don't steal somebody's money.

Don't steal somebody's possessions. You may think it's a little thing, but a person who will steal a 10 cent stamp has got the capability of stealing $10 million out of the safe. We say, well, it's just a little thing.

There are no little things when it comes to sin. Paul doesn't say, I'm going to talk about the white sins and the black sins, the little sins, the petty sins and the big sins. He's saying sin is sin.

Don't steal. Some people are stealing from God. Malachi says, well, a man robbed God.

Now he tells us why we shouldn't steal. My mother would say, if you steal, boy, I'll give you a spanking. Or if you steal, you might get caught.

Those are good reasons. But what if you don't get caught? What if you don't get a spanking? He's saying here, we don't steal because when we steal, we're robbing ourselves of the privilege of helping others. Let him that stole steal no more.

Rather, let him labor, working with his hands, not stealing with his hands, working with his hands, the thing that is good. Why? So that he can pay his bills. No, it doesn't say that.

Let him work with his hands that he might bring an offering to church. It doesn't say that. It says let him work with his hands that he might have something to give.

That's the whole basis of the Christian life. Why do we work to pay our bills? That's a good reason. But Paul gives a much higher reason.

Why do we work to help somebody who's in need? In other words, stealing is selfishness. I want that and I'm going to take it. But Christian living is selflessness.

It is more blessed to give than to receive. I wonder how many of us in our daily labor, working the typewriter or running the machine or driving the car or studying, whatever we're doing. I wonder how many of us lift our hearts and say, thank you, Lord, that I have a job so that I'm able to give something to somebody else.

Most of us say, thank you, Lord, that I have a job that I can pay my bills. And that's good, but he lifts it to a much higher level. So he says, don't lie.

We're members of one another. Don't get angry. You're letting the devil in.

Don't steal. Instead, work that you might be able to give to other people. Which leads us to the fourth sin that he deals with, the sin of blasphemy.

Verses 29 and 30, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, building up, that it may minister grace unto the hearers and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Corrupt communication. The story is just a little bit shady.

Take this with a grain of salt. We should never have to say, take this with a grain of salt. Paul says, let your speech be seasoned with salt.

You put the salt in it. Make sure that the speech is salty. It's purified.

It has the essence of incorruption in it. Sometimes we Christians get a little bit loose about this. Sometimes we find ourselves using what the dictionary calls minced oaths.

Now, we wouldn't be caught using the name of Jesus or the Holy Spirit or Jehovah God in a blasphemous way, but we will say, gee, or gosh, or darn. These are minced oaths, and we really don't need them. In fact, Jesus says the more character you have, the less you have to talk.

The more character you have, the fewer your words. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Now, if I have to use more words to back up my yes and my no, it means I've lost character.

Nobody believes me, so I've got to bolster it. The Jewish people did this. I affirm by the temple at Jerusalem.

Jesus said, you don't have to say that. Just simply say no or yes. It's when you and I lose our character that we have to bolster our speech with oaths.

He admonishes us not to have worthless, rotten speech come out of our mouths. This means that our speech ought to be edifying. Our speech ought to be such that it's so filled with the Lord.

I don't mean we're always talking about the Lord, but it's just so filled with the Lord. The Holy Spirit of God is at work that we build people up. Let's be honest with one another.

Are there not times when you meet certain people and you've talked to them for a few minutes and you go away and say, you know, that refreshed me? Are there not other times when you talk with some people and you go away and say, I'm sorry I talked to her or him? You see, I should be the kind of a person, and so should you, that when we talk to one another, we're building each other up. Small-minded people talk about people, but people who have great life within them talk about God. Now, I don't mean by this we're always discussing the seven seals in the book of Revelation or the cherubim around the throne.

No. No, we discuss other things. We would talk about the weather.

We talk about this and that. But the way we say it and why we say it, it's God. Now, you know what I'm talking about because you've experienced this.

It's the Holy Spirit of God at work in my heart, bringing through my lips words that encourage, that build up, that strengthen. I think if there's one thing that I regret more than anything else, it's that I have wasted opportunities for conversation. I'm sure that in my ministry there have been times when people would have wished that I had said something a little more edifying.

And, of course, I have to apologize for this, and I have to ask the Lord to forgive me. Now, why are we to use godly speech, clean speech, salted speech? Well, for two reasons. Number one, we want to build each other up.

Number two, we don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit of God who lives within me gave me the power to say, Jesus Christ is Lord. That's how I got saved.

The Holy Spirit convicted me, and he led me to Jesus Christ, and I said, Lord. Now, the first word of salvation that came from my lips, Jesus Christ is Lord, came from the Holy Spirit. From then on, my conversation ought to be guided by the Holy Spirit.

And when it isn't, I grieve him. Now, he'll never leave me. He remains there, sealing me to the day of redemption.

He stays there. He keeps me. What a terrible thing it is to have a roommate you can't talk to.

What a terrible thing it is to be married to somebody you can't converse with. Here's the Holy Spirit, the most intimate person in my life, the Holy Spirit. And if I grieve him, I have nothing to say.

Now, you know when you're grieving the Spirit, and I know when I'm grieving the Spirit. There's no peace down inside. He's talking to us.

He's convicting us. And only when we confess that sin do we get that peace down inside. Blasphemy.

He said, don't do it. Let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth. Then 31 through 32, here's the last sin that he deals with, the sin of bitterness.

Let all bitterness and wrath. You see, bitterness leads to wrath and anger. Wrath means outbursts of passion.

Anger means simmering, clamor, evil speaking. You know, when there's anger against somebody simmering down inside, you can't say anything good about him. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, be put away from you with all malice.

Malice is that deep-seated feeling of antagonism that poisons your whole system. And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. You see, Paul is warning us in verse 31 that if we don't deal with bitterness, it grows.

Bitterness becomes wrath, and wrath gets to become deep-seated anger. And anger leads to clamor, which means we make a fuss over something. And it leads to evil speaking.

It leads to malice so that our whole system, the tongue, the eyes, the ears, the whole system is just poisoned with this thing. It's amazing how many Christians are miserable because they have poisoned themselves with bitterness. When I was a youngster, for some reason or other, I had a tendency to get boils.

I don't know why, but I did. And I remember one time having a huge boil on my arm. It didn't just hurt in the area of the boil, my whole body hurt.

And the doctor had to lance that and clean it out. My mother warned me, don't you touch it, don't you push on it because you'll just force that poison in. You know, my whole body hurt because of that boil.

Sometimes on the body of Christ, a boil appears. People who can't get along with each other or some situation. And some people have a tendency to cover it over.

God says, no, let's lance it, let's let the poison out. And he gives us the reason. How can I keep from being bitter? Verse 32, just remember what God has done for me.

This is not covering over sin. This is dealing with sin gently and tenderly. Paul doesn't say, now just forget about bitterness, just forget about malice, pretend it isn't there.

No, no. He says, deal with it the way God dealt with you. How did he deal with you? Lovingly, tenderly.

He forgave you. My doctor said when I was a little kid, be thankful that the boil comes out because otherwise that poison is all through your system. And so when the body of Jesus Christ has some kind of an affliction, your first tendency is to say, oh, that's terrible.

But your next tendency is to say, you know, it's a good thing it came out. We can take care of it. And if I'm a part of the problem, I want to be taken care of.

If I'm a part of the answer, I want to take care of it. How do you do it? Be kind. I wonder if I speak to somebody here who last week or last month or three years ago or 20 years ago, somebody in Moody Church hurt you and you've been nursing that.

Would you like God to hold against you all the things you've done against him? Wouldn't you hate to have as your father or your mother parents who never forgot anything? Even after they forgave you, they reminded you of it? In our home, when we forgive, we try to forget. You do the same thing. Wouldn't it be awful if when you came to pray, God said, wait a minute, 30 years ago you did this.

But we do that. So how do we deal with this thing? How is it that I can take care of bitterness? Well, I've got to remember what God's done to me. Christian love means I treat you the way God treats me.

It doesn't mean we ignore the sin. It means that we try to deal with it in tenderness and love, and we're kind one to another, tenderhearted, and we forgive one another. Once upon a time, there was a cell in a human body that decided it wanted to be the whole body.

Something happened to the chemical makeup of that cell, and it began to eat up the cells around it until before long there was a tumor formed, and before long there was a cancerous growth. Cancer in the body is a selfish cell that's gone wild. This sometimes happens in the body of Christ.

Lying gets in, or blasphemy, or anger, or bitterness, and trouble starts, and it starts to grow, and it poisons the body. Paul says, such things ought not so to be. He speaks to my heart.

He speaks to your heart. We are one body in Jesus Christ. Love and truth must control the body, speaking the truth in love.

We've got to put away all bitterness, and all wrath, and all anger, and all clamor, and all evil speaking, and all malice, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. We've been talking about sin in the life of the believer. It's not a very encouraging subject, but it's necessary.

May I just close by talking about sin in the life of the unbeliever and say to some of you here today who have never been born again, you've never been forgiven, that you need to come. You need to give your heart to Christ. He died for all of us.

He lives to save. I don't know what your need is today, but Jesus Christ can come into your life and change you. Then with us, you can begin this wonderful trip to glory on the way.

We're fighting against sin, but we aren't fighting against each other. We're seeking to build each other up in the Lord. Sin in the church means grieving the Holy Spirit, hurting the members of the body.

It means grieving the heart of the Lord who saved us, the Savior who died for us. Therefore, it behooves you and me to pray with David. Search me, O God.

Know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Heavenly Father, looking into the mirror does not give us a good feeling, for we realize that our own hearts are desperately wicked, and every man knows the plague of his own heart.

Lord, our desire is that this body, known as the Moody Church, might function in a healthy way, in truth and in love. May each of us as members of the body function that way, in truth and in love. Send to us the Holy Spirit of forgiveness.

Help us to have the fruit of the Spirit, which is kindness. May we be tenderhearted. Put away from us, O God, malice that poisons the system.

Help us to agree with our adversary quickly. Teach us, Lord, somehow how we can be walking together and working together and building one another up in the faith, even though we may have some disagreements. May the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace be the hallmark of the ministry here at this church.

This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.