JULY 7 1996: 10.00a.m.

Ephesians 4:17-32

Paul wrote most of his epistles during the third quarter of the first century.

Yet how up-to-date and relevant they are at the end of the twentieth. Take the reading that Hilda read for us a little while ago. It began, let me remind you, "So I tell you and insist on it in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles, in the futility of their thinking. They are separated from the life of God ..having lost all sensitivity, so as to indulge in every kind of impurity".

For Gentiles read 'unbelievers'- or even the world, for that was the distinction Paul was making. And it would it would seem many believers were living like the unbelievers around them.

(The moral climate of Ephesus was in a downward spiral: Ephesus was a city full of pagan temples, pagan idolatry, and of moral decadence. Their thinking was futile, empty, worthless, of no value.) If you look today at the political scene; at the educational scene, or whatever- what a mess! I am not making a political point in saying that we are governed by men who have lost their way.

Politcal leaders of all hues seem to be rocked by one crisis after another! Economists, industrial leaders, educationalists all seem to be equally up a gum tree.

Society, too, has become separated from the life of God. For generations our royal family has been one of firmly-believing Christians. But the Heir to the Throne would, at his own admission, sooner be known as, not 'defender of the faith', but 'defender of faiths'- all faiths, any. Syncretism is the order of the day in schools. For generations Christian values were taught in schools and all children grew up with a respect for law and orders. . Christian values are today set aside and we have an up-and-coming generation which is becoming increasingly ungovernable.

But it's where Paul says, 'they have given themselves over to sensuality, so as to indulge every impurity that we recognise moral filth in our society. Rejection of God and the spiritual outworking in a giving-over (and being given over by God) to all kinds of depravity.

It may have been exciting to be growing up or to have been young in the 'Swinging Sixties', but was it only coincidence that was also the decade of John Robinson's 'Honest to God'? When a society goes rotten, it goes most rotten, its depravity is seen at its starkest in sexual matters. That is true today! In 1959 the nation was shaken to its roots by the court case over the publication of D H Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'. 30 years down the road it was being screened, with very little left out on National Network television and attracting top of the audience ratings. Sex before marriage, outside marriage, between man and man or woman and women- matters, many of them at one time spoken of with a sense of shame and in a whisper are now openly espoused, and not to indulge is not to be 'with it' not to be 'cool' Kids of 10 and 11 are being given contraceptives and being taught how to have good sex without a word about love, let alone the sanctity of marriage.

Where is all this is the Christian church? There in all this the indivdual Christian? All too often right in the midst of it.

The following concerns a police cadet at North Hendon College in his final exam, who had to answer this question:

You are on patrol in outer London when an explosion takes place in a gas main in a nearby street. On investigation you find out that a large hole has been blown in the footpath, and there is an overturned van nearby. Inside the van is a strong smell of alcohol. Both occupants - a man and a woman - are injured. You recognise the woman as the wife of your Divisional Inspector, who is at present away in the USA. A passing motorist stops to offer you assistance and you notice he is a man who is wanted for armed robbery. Suddenly a man runs out of a nearby pub, stating that his wife is expecting a baby, and the shock of the explosion has made the birth imminent. Another man is shouting for help, having been blown by the explosion into a nearby canal, and he cannot swim.

Bearing an mind the provisions of the Mental Health Act, describe in a few words what action you would take.

The cadet thought for a few moments, took up his pen, and wrote, 'I would take off my uniform and mingle with the crowd ') We like, as Christians, to be accepted, to be popular, and so often we take off our Christian uniform and mingle with the crowd. The trouble is, if you mix with the crowd, you'll behave like the crowd. One need look no further than the Cathedral close in Lincoln, the NOS in Sheffield to see the outworking.

Why sexual sin? Why does it feature so prominently in moral decline? Why so important, anyway? What about pride, greed, anger?. True these are bad, and in their way worse, but does not Paul say in 1 Corinthians 6: Flee from sexual immorality, All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually, sins against his own body. Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? For the Christian there is a special danger and seriousness in sexual sin.

'Flee' Paul says and I urge you in the Lord that you no longer live as the Gentiles

There is a call to be radically differently We are not to be like the police cadet and take off our Christian uniforms and mingle with the crowd. So (v22) 'we must 'put off falsehood'. We must, rather, (v21) 'remember the truth that is in Jesus', That is a signal phrase. Usually Paul speaks about 'Christ', 'Christ Jesus', 'the Lord' So why here the truth that is in Jesus That isn't just being pedantic. Every turn of phrase is significant. 'Jesus' refers to the historic person 'Jesus of Nazareth', and it's the historical truths about him, especially the truths of his death and resurrection. He died for our sin, he was buried and he rose again. These are precious life-giving and life-changing truths for the Christian. Now in view of the price Jesus paid on the Cross for our sin how can we live in indifferent to sin in our lives? It was because of sin- your sin and mine that Jesus suffered the agony of crucifixion. The physical torment: whipped till his back was red raw. Led to Calvary bearing the weight of the Cross till he collapsed under it. Six-inch nails driven into his body. Suffocating to draw breath. And the agony of spirit as the weight and condemnation of God's wrath fell on his Son. 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' And he rose and lives. He sees our sin- does he not grieve? He lives in victory, pleading with the Father. The 'truth' that is in Jesus.

Jesus who gave himself for you
upon the Cross to die,
Opens to you his sacred heart:
O to that heart draw nigh.

Don't mix with the crowd! Don't fall to its standard. 'I tell you no longer live like the Gentiles'.

Be different! That's the message. Be different! Never was there a greater need for Christians who were not only ready but also able to be different, to be indeed 'salt' to preserve a sick society. Be different! Y.B.H! 'Yes, but how!' The kernel of the answer lies in verses 22-24.

-put off you old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires -put on you new self, created to be like God.

The rest of the chapter, which we heard, consists of specific attitudes and ways of life belonging to the 'old self' and the 'new self'. So we must all live honest lives of complete integrity, or we will ruin the witness of the church. Similarly we must not harbour anger or grudges. Smouldering anger opens a door in our lives wide to the devil. We must not be those who sponge, rather those who share what we have. We must be careful to speak only words which build other people up- and how easy to say the word which drags someone else down, so that we then appear in the better light? And we must get rid of all form of moral evil; 'every form of malice- those ugly 'works of the flesh'; they must not be allowed house room.

But we shall fail in all this if we go wrong at the foundation. And Paul is really echoing in thought if not in word what Jesus said about denying ourselves to follow him; of losing our lives to find them.

'Put off' 'Put on'. It's like changing clothing; those are the words Paul uses, except that the matter isn't superficial as is clothing. But it devolves on deliberate acts It's a saying 'no' to our natural self, our natural desires and inclinations, and doing it as a decisive act. It begins by recognising that if we compromise with our natural desires and inclinations we shall not be following the injunction to 'put off the old self' Paul tells us in clear language what the result will be. Self-deception is so easy, and because its deception it happens without our recognising it. It's a listening to the voice of our own desires, listening to the voice which says 'Please yourself', and the result is 'corruption'. The Greek words denotes decay into a worse state than formerly. The Christian who fails to make (and when, as will be needed, to re-make) a deliberate conscious choice to say 'No' doesn't just stand still.

Just like the unbeliever the heart can be hardened to the things of God. It's possible so to lose contact with God and become inflexible to his Spirit that our heart sets like a broken bone; where it mends the bone is harder.

Then having said 'No' we need to be nurturing, 'putting on', the life of Christ. We need to re-orient our mind-set, to focus on Jesus Christ; his nature; his love; his glory; his holiness. As we reach out to him he is already reaching out to us, giving us the desire and the ability to quit sin, because we love him, because his very life is in us In verse 17 Paul says 'I tell you and insist on it in the Lord'.

This is no matter for argument! It's not a matter of option for those who would name the Name of Christ: it wasn't in lst century Ephesus, it isn't in 2oth century Newark.

Two things follow on here:

1. We shall and do fail. We do compromise; we do give way to our selfish desire. We all do the things listed in verse 25 on, in the process both grieving the Spirit of God and giving place to the Devil. There IS forgiveness.

Verse 32: 'In Christ God forgave you' Forgiveness is not conditional nor calculated. Our sin and failure don't take God by surprise! He never says, 'If only I knew Ian was going to do this or that...'! The Prodigal Son was A SON! He came home saying, 'Father I have sinned. Make as one of your hired men'.

Free to come and go as I please. But the Father wept. This my son was lost and is found, he was dead and is alive and took him in. put the ring on his finger and said, 'Now life like a REAL son'.

2. The 'new self is created to be like God'. God is holy; thrice holy for thet's his very nature, his otherness and we are created to be holy too; to live lives that are separated to him.

The 'new self' is created. This is the point I want to end with and to stress. The NEW self: Greek 'Kainos' means not new in the sense of recent, but of a different sort', 'new in quality'. Being a Christian is not a matter of self-improvement, of adding a little bit on here and there.

We shall not escape the way of society, a pagan society, by moral effort, nor yet just by keeping company with other Christians. We are called to 'put off' and 'put on'- but we SHALL NEVER STAND FREE OF OUR OLD NATURE UNTIL THERE IS A NEW ONE: one which we cannot make ourselves. 2 Cor 5:17 'If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature'.

The question is: are we 'in Christ': it is God who places us there- not we ourselves, but it does require that we come to Christ, before his Cross and admit out sin and lostness and claim salvation from sin in his Name. The two things go hand-in-hand. V17 |'I insist on it IN THE LORD' The words have relevance only to those 'in the Lord': 'in Christ' And the appeal is to 'truth in Jesus'.

I would ask that we be quiet, and in prayer. I would ask the Holy Spirit speak intimately to each heart: -are YOU in Christ? If not I would appeal to the 'truth that is in Jesus' -admit your sin and lostness. Ask Jesus to forgive you, and to fill you with his Spirit that you might say 'No' to self. that his new life would fill you -Christian brother/sister. Have you compromised. Is there sin in your heart.
is there anger, wrong speaking, sponging; is the world there. Ask for forgiveness and come home and live as a true Son or Daughter; sealing your heart with a 'No' to self And I come, O Jesus,
dare I turn away?
No! Thy love hath conquered,
and I come today.