Do Not Give the Devil a Foothold

the following message is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthfortheworld.org we're going to read this morning from Ephesians chapter 4 and from the concluding verses beginning at verse 25 to the end of the chapter legions 4 and verse 25 therefore having food away falsehood let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another be angry and do not sin do not let the Sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil let the thief steal no longer but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice be kind to one another tender-hearted forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you amen I want us today to study these concluding verses of the chapter under two headings first of all this morning coming from verse 27 do not give the devil a foothold as it is in the NIV do not give the devil a foothold and then in the evening in verse 30 do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God so we think along the lines of Paul's instruction with that as if you like our our guiding framework they found each other on Facebook if I had a dollar for every time that sentence has become the occasion of a bad story we could all almost go out to lunch together you say well you've never been a fan of but you don't have to be so mean well it's not to do with Facebook at all there are clearly benefits to social networking but those benefits do not come on their own and there are peculiar dangers that attach to them the one to which I allude is the opportunity that it creates for happily married couples to search the internet for and to find and to re-engage with friends and lovers from their past well says somebody it's clearly possible to do that without it being an occasion of disruption agreed but it is a potential emotional loophole it is and has proved to be at least from my experience in responding to people an occasion for giving the devil a foothold therefore wisdom says as in the book of Proverbs you don't go down that road you don't walk by that place you don't approach those areas and if that is true in terms of physical activity then surely it applies in the realm of scanning and scrolling social media why is it so important well because marriage you see has changed everything and I'm speaking expressly using this analogy marriage has changed everything when when a man and a woman become husband and wife they sever they sever once and for all the ties and associations and affections which were part of their single state even to the extent of parental ties for this reason a man will leave his father and his mother so as much as I love my mom she needs to cut the apron strings that attached me to her because I have new apron strings to pay attention to because I am now married keep yourself only unto her says the marriage service and do so as long as you both shall live therefore anything that would violate that or would impinge upon that is to be guarded against for this reason a man shall be shall leave his father and mother and he will be united to his wife and that Union is the closest Union that exists in humanity for this reason a man will leave his father and mother he United his wife they will become one flesh and in that one flesh Union no longer are they two but they are now one now once that has been established that covenant in marriage has to be ratified 60 seconds a minute 60 minutes an hour 24 hours a day for the rest of our lives and indeed it is our new identity within the framework of that covenant that constrains controls directs all of our activity as it relates to interpersonal relationships so to create an emotional loophole is as I say to give the devil a foothold now Paul is warning here about giving the devil a foothold and I think the analogy is fair it's not no analogy is perfect but insofar as we have been united to Christ bride and bridegroom and we are part of that in Jesus we have been united to Christ and in being united with Christ as we saw last time we have put off the old self and we have put on the new we were previously in Adam but now we are in Christ it is now because we are in Christ that certain aspects of that relationship are worked out in the same way as in marriage on a daily basis Paul has been saying to these Ephesian believers and to all who are believers through them no longer will they live as they once did because in Christ they are no longer what they once were in the previous that you could go out and around and do whatever you want and see your friends and different things but not that that is all changed now gloriously changed but changed and in the case of these individuals formerly they lived in a kingdom that was marked by darkness now he says they live in kingdom that is all light previously they had lived within the framework of deceit and deceitful desires but now they have been created according to the verse with which we concluded last time verse 24 they have been created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness quite a phrase isn't it leading one almost inevitably to ask the question so what does that look like what is it what does it mean to be created after the likeness of God after all Adam was created in the image of God that image was marred as a result of sin the implications of that run through the totality of humanity and only in Christ is a man or a woman made new and when we are made new we are made new recreated after the new Adam namely Jesus who in ray in being raised from the dead as his status is the first fruit of all who have fallen asleep and as he as aware leads us forward in the charge we have been made absolutely new well the answer of the question actually comes now in these imperatives that conclude the chapter in fact go on into the remaining chapters and what Paul is saying is simple and yet important the behavior of the Ephesian believers must be entirely consistent with the new person they have become it is incongruous he says to have been brought into Christ to have put off the old put on the new and that immediately gone back to where you were before staying with the analogy of marriage just for a moment Paul Overstreet who was here with us years ago has written a number of really good songs most people don't know the songs that he wrote and most of you don't listen to country music anyway because you're very intelligent but those of you who do may know I say with the greatest respect to the country Western contingency among us but III listen otherwise I wouldn't call this song you may know it the the title of the song is on the other hand on the other hand it's classic country where play on words the the the songwriter says I met this girl I'm a married man I met the girl I'm sitting talking with her and and and we realized that there's there's something going on here and so he says on the one hand I could stay but on the other hand there's a golden band that reminds me of someone who wouldn't understand on a one hand but on the other hand in other words the symbol of the identity is there to remind the individual it may not prevent approaches from the outside but it sure is there to say hey do you know who you are you better get out of here you don't want to give the devil a foothold do you and I'm not gonna ask you to put up your hands but I want to know how many men actually wear wedding bands and for those of you who don't start and next why would you why is your wife have to wear one if you don't get one for Father's Day you got a week okay now you're tracking with me right okay we're married to Christ let's just make the analogy that way we have been we have been united with Christ one that once that was not true of us and there were things that marked our lives that were inevitably part and parcel of that but now we have been placed in Christ we have been redeemed he says in chapter one he goes into chapter two and he says we have been raised with Christ he says we have been seated with him in the heavenly places it's all very wonderful and it's very very important that we understand that Paul does not begin his letter to the Ephesians with a series of imperatives he doesn't say dear Ephesians put off falsehood dear Ephesians have nothing to do with this have nothing to do with that no he says dear Ephesians isn't it amazing that God from all of eternity has a plan to include you in his family to adopt you to redeem you to make you new to seat you with him in the heavenly places and so on in other words he essentially spends three chapters saying what a wonder it is to have a new identity in Christ and then on the strength of that he says now let's think about what bee activity is of those who enjoy that identity so perhaps three things by way of clarification to note one he is clearly not providing how to become a Christian manual okay so if you if you read these verses or when I read these verses you said oh I get it these are the things you're supposed to try and do and if you try and do these things and you get it on the right side then presumably God will be happy with you and then you could call yourself a Christian no he's not providing a how-to manual he is actually explaining the nature of progress in Christian discipleship and he's making it clear to the Ephesian believers that there is a principle that is involved in this which we might refer to as displacement and replacement so that and these things happen simultaneously we have put off the old we have put on the new one does not exist without the other and so we will see that that principle continues throughout all of these imperatives it is not simply enough to have embraced the negative side of it without the positive or to try and be positive without taking care of the negative and he is making it clear that this kind of progress in Christian discipleship does not happen in a vacuum doesn't happen in a vacuum you see search history reveals those who have suggested the idea that to be created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness the only way to achieve that probably is just to go away go away and live in a box or somewhere or live in a monastery or in a convent or in a cave because after all there is so much around us that just will infect us in tempters and move us and changes and so there's no possibility of it well we might understand their motivation or their desire but it doesn't work and the reason it doesn't work is because the number one problem is not the environment my number one problem is me you see you can put me in you can put me in a monastery but it's still me in the monastery still me with my own perverse heart still me with my own inordinate desires still me wrestling with what it means to be a new person in Christ and ratifying that on a daily basis because on the other hand I could but on the other hand now when you think about this you realize what a wonder it is that God has provided for us his law namely the 10 commandments summarizing the law of God in order to show as our sin people say well I'm not a sinner well just take out the Ten Commandments and read them and ask yourself how many of them have you kept don't even go through the whole of your life just go since yesterday that'll be enough then you'll know immediately that you're a law breaker okay now you've discovered that you're a law breaker how are you gonna put yourself right with God since you've broken his law well says somebody I'll just try and do much better tomorrow and I'll try and get to at least six out of ten but no the law of God you see is not a ladder of which we climb to acceptance with God but the law of God says first of all as a mirror that shows us how dirty we are and how we are needing a Savior who has kept the law in its entirety and who has paid the penalty of the law in the shedding of his own blood also that's how it works then says somebody who that's perfect once we get to there then we'll then we're done with all of the all of the law stuff and the imperative stuff and so on we just can get on on our own now no no we can't no the Puritans help us in this reminding us that the place the third place of the law in our lives which is really what we're dealing with here when we come to these imperatives Rutherford put it like this the law of God honeyed with the love of Christ has a majesty and power to keep from sin so you take the law of God and pour in a little honey in the love of Christ and so now God's God's love she had a broad in my heart I he loved me and I'm and I would have loved for him I don't want to do I don't do one thing that would violate this covenant and how would I know whether I'm violating the covenant well by paying attention to the rules of the Covenant John Owen put it like this a universal respect for the commandments of God is the only preservation from shame a universal respect from for the commandments of God is that is the only preservation from shame you think about the shameful things that you and I have done in our lives I guarantee you every one of them has violated the commands of God if we kept the commands of God then there wouldn't be the shame that's why our culture is so concerned to say there are no commands of God there is no God or if there is a God he exists within you but there's not a God who stands outside of time there's not a lawgiver and therefore there is a law that demands no we have to remove that and we live with the implications of it the Westminster Confession of faith just to belabor this purposefully the Westminster Confession of faith puts it like this the Spirit of Christ subdues and enables the will of man to do that freely and cheerfully which the will of God revealed in the law requires to be done so what is the work of the Spirit of God within our hearts to subdue and enable us to do freely and joyfully what the law says we are to do the psalmist in psalm 119 says I will walk about and freedom for I have sought your precepts it's not uncommon to move around church circles where people say I will walk about in freedom because I am I am completely free to make my own choices I just decide inside of myself what I think should be done I imagine that this could be the case and so on if you read pilgrims progress it will disavow you of that kind of thing you find out in formalist and hypocrisy in pilgrims progress where that's exactly there's little speech to pilgrim and pilgrim says to them I walk by the rule of my master and you walk by the Rood working of your fancies in other words he says the reason I'm doing what I'm doing is because my master has said this he said do this and don't do this that's how I'm walking you're walking on the basis of the imagination of your own hearts well I think it would be okay well I don't suppose it's a problem well I said did it did it did it so how did you meet this woman that you tell me now should have been the person that you married despite the fact you've been married for 15 years to somebody else how did you meet her and let her on the Internet tell me how you feel about that well I feel I don't give a rat's tail how you feel right now this is what you're going to have to deal with unless of course you want to proceed on the basis of your vain imagination loved ones this is of crucial significance and an understanding of this will be the difference between in many cases success and failure restoration and obliteration progress digress regress in simple straightforward terms simply saying I will walk about in freedom because I have obeyed your precepts in obedience how will I be obeyed because the work of the Spirit of God is to subdue and to enable how does he do that he brings the Bible to me and then as the Bible comes to me he says to me come on now back let's get this sorted out William Cowper I'll stop with calper calper who gave us God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform as a wonderful hymn part of which goes like this to see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice changes our slave into a child and Duty into choice that's the mystery of it that's the wonder of it that's the nature of it and you see if we get this wrong if you get it wrong if I get it wrong it changes everything it changes the flavor of everything it turns a congregation into her into a congregation full of legal asur liars or loonies it's imperative that we understand it the indicative z' of all that is ours in Christ provide the foundation for the imperatives and in the instruction that follows as I say to you again he's not giving a guide to becoming a Christian but an outline of the lifestyle of those who by grace through faith have been placed in Christ he said that's a long introduction I admit that freely but it's important let's just look at the three things he says and that briefly two would come to the rest in in the evening our verse 25 let's just summarize it speak the truth speak the truth having put away falsehood let each one of you speak the truth notice again context is not a vacuum with his neighbor why because we're members one of another we belong together we belong together and it is absolutely crucial that we tell the truth to each other in verses 17 to 19 which we studied a couple of weeks ago we said that in many ways what you have there is a summary of what paul provides in the second half of the first chapter of his letter to the Roman Christians and you remember that they are from 18 and on one of the things he says about the ungodly is that they suppress the truth they suppress the truth it's not that there is a sort of vagueness about it there's actually a suppression of it and he goes on to say that despite the fact that what God has made known in creation they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie so they're now living in the realm of lies that's the significance of therefore having put away falsehood you once lived you lived in that realm by Nature you were an addict but you have put off you have put on therefore having put away falsehood make sure that you continue to and the way that that will become apparently says is when people come among your congregations in Ephesus they will say goodness gracious these people actually tell the truth to one another well of course you see you got a new outfit Colossians 3 makes this clearest of all the whole putting off and putting on he says you know telling lies that was part of your old uniform but you got a new uniform now and your unit uniform is truthfulness not telling lies you remember the way in which he describes their conversion he says and you heard the word of truth you heard the word of truth in verse 21 here of chapter 4 and he reminded them of the truth that is in Jesus when we get to chapter 6 if we ever get to chapter 6 and he provides he describes the armor for the Christian soldiers the very first piece of the puzzle is the belt of truth the belt of truth I know well as you know I have a problem with songs all the time but I just and in in my head right now on level 4 is it's going tell me lies tell me lies tell me sweet little lies right on the one hand but on the other hand tell me lies tell me the truth I don't want the truth tell me the truth the unity that we have been called at the beginning of the chapter to maintain is based on trust Trust is based on truth the false teachers were crafty they were deceitful the culture in which the Ephesian believers lived was quite used to lies as is ours so says Paul amongst the community of God there should be a radical commitment to put off lies pretense and hypocrisy how could one be a member of the body of Christ who is himself the truth if we fail to put away falsehood secondly in verse 26 he says you're gonna have to learn how to be angry at the right things and for the right reasons learning to be angry about the right things and for the right reasons because you see not all anger is wrong it says it right there in the Bible doesn't it he says be angry so now don't be using this after after lunch today where you get a bad temper and you tell your wife watch says and the Bible be angry so I was just doing what the Bible says no do what it says read the whole thing be angry and do not sin so not all anger is wrong that the psalmist again says hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law in fact the absence of anger in response to the blatant defiance of the law of God is not a sign of Christian maturity it's a it's a sign of moral laxity the to the extent that we were able to look at the blatant defiance of the law of God it is we're all frogs in a gigantic kettle that is warming up in this regard aren't we have we really found humor in things that's so clearly violate God's law have we grown so accustomed to the millions of abortions that it doesn't stir a righteous anger in our hearts when we drive past those places is it now possible for me to come back into Hopkins Airport and walk past the usual photographs of people now that I regard almost as my friends I've never met them but I see them all the time I talk to other myself walking past yeah and I have one in particular and I always say to myself would I buy a car from that guy and that's but that's a personal matter altogether and I'm not telling you what picture it is but then I then then then I'm able just to simply walk past where it announces the fact that the abduction of women has taken place routinely in the state of Ohio and that this at the same time is not only one of the location places but one of the dumping places actually are we supposed to just have no reaction to that no you're angry very angry blatant evil should make the believer intolerant and it is one of the indications of how easily we are absorbed into a culture into his milieu into its thought forms into its mentalities that after time were inured to the actual circumstances but with that said with that said most of us if we're honest have a greater problem with unrighteous anger not the absence of proper response to sin but the presence of a wrongful reaction trap in an earlier era in a wonderful little sentence said he that will be angry and not sin let him be angry at nothing but sin he that will be angry and not sin let him be angry about nothing but sin now you see I I this is not confession time but I what what begins perhaps for us as justifiable anger can very quickly become the occasion of sin how well let's just take one of the areas that I've mentioned so this is a justifiable reaction to injustice and impurity which then creates in my mind a sense of self-righteousness which is sin which then may become the occasion of personal resentment which is sin which then may become the occasion of an animosity that strikes out at other people and expresses itself in a desire for revenge which is sin so you see how crucial the director is be angry and do not sin be angry and don't sin for most of us if were honest the problem is that we're on the wrong side of the equation and thereby give the devil a foothold now surely the opportunity to the devil is not simply solely related to this issue of anger it is more clearly but it is definitely this and it's fascinating that Paul should put it here of all the places he puts and do not give the devil a foothold he puts it right after the anger one be angry and do not sin don't let the Sun go down don't like the you're the Sun go down on your and your anger don't give the devil a foothold don't let him get his foot in the door see when somebody is angry you know if if anger if anger is the kind of underlying characteristic the devil loves that he played that violin all the way to the end of the symphony people and angry about this and I'm annoyed about that and I'm resentful of this and she said that and 12 years ago he did that and I've been thinking about that for seven hours and that thing and that thing and that thing unity so now let's all sing together it's virtually impossible now let's pray together it's virtually impossible now let's receive the Word of God it's virtually impossible because the devil plays on that he knows he's not a mission but he's alert and whether this is as we will see tonight the settled sort of smoldering stuff or whether it is the angry outburst the warning is clear don't go on the wrong side of this because unrighteous anger is a fertile ground for the activity of the Evil One and even righteous anger I don't think it's good to take your bed so I think I think we can safely apply that to better to better to make up and fall asleep rather than wake up at 3 o'clock regretting the fact that you didn't better to shake hands and say goodnight even after a really good argument than to go away and slam your car door and drive off this is intensely practical because it'll eat your soul you show me somebody that has an unforgiving spirit over a period of time with somebody it current it comes out all the time that's where we're going you see you forgive one another with a tender heart because God in Christ forgave you you got no place to go nowhere to go well you don't know what she did this is the seeming sermon now so you want me to come but she don't know what she did listen I don't know but I do know my offense against God and no offense against me even comes close to my offense against God and if he forgave me all of that offense and you telling me that I'm going to tell you I refuse to forgive you you see the radical change in a culture the impact in Ephesus telling the truth getting the angular question right and finally not stealing stuff they say oh we don't have a problem with that why why would we need to steal stuff look at us well let the thief no longer steal you see interestingly when Paul gives a list of the unrighteous characteristics and particularly in in Corinthians he includes thieves in the group he includes those who are disobedient to their parents as well incidentally but nevertheless thieves so if you imagine Ephesus with no welfare system with no opportunity to get a handout from anywhere you could either bag or you could steal or you could borrow right and so presumably a number of them said well the only way we can make ends meet here it will steal stuff so so that's that's how they function they said so if you were if you were a thief don't be a thief anymore because you see and especially if you were a lazy thief so laziness plus greediness almost leads inevitably to to theft to stealing I'm lazy I'm greedy I want it I'm gonna go get it by whatever means I says you're a radically new person that's what you used to do well you're not gonna do that anymore when he writes to the Thessalonians he puts it very straightforwardly if anyone is not willing to work let him not eat Wow that's pretty straightforward Margaret Thatcher quoted that at the Free Church of Scotland assembly some years ago and raised an amazing political brouhaha right she didn't make that up that's the inspired Word of God if you don't work why do you think you're gonna eat it's a general principle now you say well what about the people that can't well that's covered in the verse look at it don't steal any more work honest work own hands saw that so that what so that you'll be flush so you'll be great so you'll have everything you want so everything don't be super no so that he may have something to share with anyone in need there's a doctrine incidentally of work which we can't go into now and there's also there's also an economic piece here that we're not going into now either but it it supersedes capitalism and socialism and definitely communism because it is what it says it says that the Christians the Christians am all in relationship to work and employment is that he gets she gets in order to give she gets to give previously you got in order that you might keep and you stole it you don't do that anymore why because Jesus has made you a new person you're a new person now all but I still fancy the idea of course you do but what is the Holy Spirit do Westminster Confession he subdues and enables how does he do that as you listen to the Bible as you have Christian friends around you say hey hey hey wait a minute you're gonna back down that road again don't do that that's why we are members one of another that's why we exist together that's why you listen to the Bible taught together instead of on your iPhone sitting in a bedroom somewhere so that as we are taught together you walk out of here and if you if you've got at least 5% of it and probably somebody in if you've got another 5% you put it together at least you got 10% as opposed to sitting in your bedroom you see the church is supposed to be instructed together we are members one of another that we might not abuse our neighbor that we might then be able to give to those who are in need so we look out on our community and said where are the people who are in need and then the congregation responds freely you have received freely give it's interesting to me again talking about religious orders those who have taken a vow of poverty yes I understand the motivation but I don't know how they deal with it in relationship to a verse like this if 2 Thessalonians 3:10 so you don't work you can't eat what are you doing sitting up there looking contemplating your navel you just waiting for people to shove food in the door to you what's that about he's supposed to do honest work with your hands this is how the fret is now the program works it's not a program of entitlement it's not a program of sitting around waiting for somebody to bail you out the government or the man next door no you work so you gotta sign it says I work for food I'll pull up beside you and say prove it prove it if you had this I've had the same experience of going round one of those things going to Burger King getting food bringing it back rolling down the window giving it to the guy and as you pull away watching them throw it in the street there's something wrong there the Christian has in the Bible all that is necessary for life and for godliness because you see we are new creations or not all that we're going to be we've been sealed unto the day of redemption we come to that tonight we're not all that we're going to be well now what we once were we're a work in progress and in that work in progress we're saying no to lies yes the truth no to selfish self-righteous bad-tempered outbursts to which we are so prone but to the experience of righteous anger and we're not going to be playing the system but we're going to be working honestly with our hands in order that what we receive will create a mechanism for us to give to those who are poor and needy and whose circumstances are such that they're less fortunate than we that's why the church usually has had in my experience in Scotland two offerings we had an offering in the main service and then we had communion and we had communion every Sunday and in the communion service we had another offering and the offering in the communion service was exclusively and expressively for those who were in physical and immaterial need it's not a bad pattern tonight we'll come back some of us and we'll try and close out the chapter father thank you for the clarity of your word any cloudiness is clearly on my part on our part help us Lord to say what the Bible actually says nothing more nothing less and then help us to live in the light of its truth save save us Lord from our sins and from ourselves for Christ's sake message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

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Keywords: Truth For Life, Christian Living, Christian Thinking, Lying, Money, Obeying God, Speech, Truth, Union with Christ, Work

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Length: 41min 7sec (2467 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020