Dear congregation, this morning our God calls us to worship once again, and this morning he does so from the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 6. And Jesus said unto him, to all of us, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. We will now turn God's word this time to the New Testament, to the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. and he gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, for whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, and according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, having given themselves unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so, be that you have heard of him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be 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 things which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs. 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, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. So far the reading of God's holy, infallible, and precious word. Dear church family, this morning our text comes from Ephesians chapter four, and we'll be considering verses 20 through 32 in light of Lord's Day 43. At this time, I'd like to read verses 20 through 24. But ye have not so learned Christ. If so, be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. We also turn in the back of our Psalters to page 80, Lord's Day 43, question and answer 112. What is required in the ninth commandment? That I bear false witness against no man, nor falsify any man's words. That I be no backbiter, nor slanderer, that I do not judge, nor join in condemning any man rashly or unheard, but that I avoid all sorts of lies and deceit as the proper works of the devil, unless I would bring down upon me the heavy wrath of God. Likewise, that in judgment and all other dealings, I love the truth, speak it uprightly, confess it, also that I defend and promote, as much as I am able, the honor and good character of my neighbor. Friends, just over a year ago, I think just a year to the day, Pastor Kuyvenoven began our consideration of the Heidelberg Catechism once again, beginning in Lord's Day One. And he began by asking the question if we were in the secure and the two-handed grip of God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's only when we are in His grip that we're going to experience true security. It's only when we are in His grip that we are going to experience true and real unity. And so for the last year, we've been working our way through the catechism. We've learned, as the catechism says, that if we're gonna know this only comfort in life and death, we're gonna need to know our misery. We're going to need to know the only way of deliverance, and we've been instructed and have received instruction in these areas. And now we find ourselves in the middle of the third section on gratitude. And the reformers saw fit to include in this section the law and give us instruction relative to the law. Here they're emphasizing the third use of the law, which reflects the context in which the law was originally given. The context of deliverance and the context of redemption. The opening verses of the law, as we read it from Exodus 20, reflect that very context. And God spake these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. The law was given to the people of God in the context of their deliverance from bondage, from sin, from evil. It was given so that the redeemed people of God would know how to live rightly before Him in a way that was pleasing to Him in every way. And the Apostle Paul comes with a similar approach in the letter that he wrote to the Ephesians. In the first three chapters, the Apostle Paul details for us the marvelous grace of God, how from eternity past, he has called out a people for himself to be adopted into the family of God. He reveals to us how the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who has redeemed, has forgiven, has brought into that family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And he has revealed to us how the Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to the people of God, sealing them with Christ's redemption. And after dealing with these glorious realities in chapter four, there's a shift in the Apostle Paul's message to the church at Ephesus. focusing on now the practical realities of what it's like to live out the Christian faith in a world that is in opposition to Jesus Christ. He begins in chapter four with a call for the people of God to keep the unity of the Spirit, to be one body, and he demonstrates how that body is one in verses one through 16. And as he comes to our passage now, Paul's aware of the struggle, the challenges, the fight that's going to be required to maintain that body and to remain that unity, to live out the Christian faith. As if Paul now is saying, if we want to, if you are going to do this, if you're going to live like this, And you're going to need to apply everything that Christ has done for you into your lives by putting off the old man and putting on the new man. And it's not something you're going to do on your own. But Paul says, Christ, you've learned in Christ what it is to live like him. And so this morning, as we gather for worship and as we hear the word of God, we desire to focus in on this call for unity by putting off the old man and putting on the new. And in particular, we're going to focus in on Paul's emphasis on the ninth commandment, how lies, deceit, bring chaos and disorder within the body of Christ. But on the other hand, when we put on truth, when we put on Christ, it's a promotion of all that Christ stands for. As a church family, we've been blessed with incredible unity in the past year, as I've heard that from the mouth of Pastor Kyven Oven as we went through our internship together. And I pray that that unity persists and goes on. But Satan, friends, does not like unity in the Church of Christ. He hates it. And he will do everything to spread discord and disunity where he can. And so may we as a body, as individuals, as a corporate body of Christ, heed the words of the Apostle Paul of our Lord Jesus Christ this morning. And so we'll consider under the theme, put off and put on. living out the ninth commandment, the principle and the practice. The principle and the practice. In verses 17 through 19, the Apostle Paul reminds the Ephesians who they once were. And it wasn't a pretty picture. They were people who were walking in the vanity of their mind. They had their understanding darkened. They were separated from life in God because of their own ignorance, because of the blindness of their heart. They were living lives that were given over to sexual immorality and to open greed, living out the deceitful lust of their heart. In verse 20, Paul comes to the Ephesians, the church at Ephesus, and he says to them, but you have not so learned Christ. This Paul is saying to the church at Ephesus, this is not who you are, because you have learned Christ. And the implication is, having learned Christ, they had learned how to live a better way. They had learned to live according to how Christ was calling them to live. Paul is reminding them they had been redeemed. They had been redeemed from their sin and bondage, from their former way of life. They were no longer who they once were. And so the question comes immediately to us this morning, right at the get-go. Have you learned Christ? Have I learned Christ? Have you been called from your former life of emptiness, ignorance, a life given over to your own desires? Or is that still your life today? Have you learned Christ? Maybe someone's asking, what does it mean to learn Christ? Well, it's more than just learning about him. We can learn a lot about someone. We can have a lot of information in our mind about someone. We can have this rigorous academic understanding of who Jesus is and yet have never learned him or known him. Children, you can know about a former president. You can learn about him in your history classes. You can be taught a lot about him, even if he's still living. And you can be an encyclopedia, as it were, about his character, his policies, but never really know him, have a personal relationship with him. And Paul is saying, if you have learned Christ, it's going to be more than just mere head knowledge. there's going to be an intimate understanding of who he is and what he's done for a sinner like yourself. Learning Christ underscores the reality that the child of God believes that everything that Christ did, he did it for a sinner like yourself, on behalf of you, because you could never do it yourself. Understanding and knowing what it is to know and learn Christ involves a personal relationship with Him as your Savior. It means that for you, child of God, that you have not only heard about Him, but you've been taught by Him. You've been taught about the truth that is in Jesus. We've come to know him as the Christ, the anointed Messiah, our prophet, priest, and our king. You've come to know him as Jesus, the savior of sinners. You've come to know him as Emmanuel, God with us, the one who dwells among his people, who never leaves or forsakes them, even in the midst of their trouble. You have become personally acquainted with him, instructed by him. in the truth that he is. Dear child of God, you've been instructed by Jesus, the one whom is truth. The Apostle John, as we read in our opening words this morning, said, he is the truth, the way, and the life. It was truth that encompassed his entire life and what he did for sinners. and it is truth that sets people free to live wholly for Him. It forms the basis for how we should live. Knowing Him drives how we should live in His presence. And so the question now is, what does this look like in your and my life as we seek to live for the Lord And the Apostle Paul says, if you love the Lord and you have learned of Him, then you are going to have this principle patterned in your life, a pattern of putting off and putting on, putting off and putting on. And we see this wording all over the Bible. The New Testament, the Apostle Paul uses it in many of his letters, particularly in the book of Ephesians and Colossians. The imagery behind these words, putting off and putting on, is familiar to all of us, even to our children. These words that are translated are often associated with the putting off of clothing and putting on of clothing. The Apostle Paul, for instance, in Romans 13, verse 12, uses both of these words in the same sentence when he says, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off, or it could be translated, put off the works of darkness that clothe us, and let us put on the armor of light. The picture is clear even for you children. We have to put off and put on. Maybe just this past yesterday, you were outside working with your mom and dad, and you got dirty. Your clothes were dirty. And as you came inside, your mom said, you need to go and take off those dirty clothes and put on clean clothes before you can do anything else. And as Christians, We are being called to put off, as it were, those dirty clothes of our sin, of our old man, and put on clean clothes of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his righteousness. Put off concerning the former conversation or way of life of the old man, which is corrupted in deceitful lusts. We are to put off the former manner of living, all that is known as the old man, everything that has been corrupted with sin, that has been saturated with deceitfulness and the lies of the evil one. The old man, says one commentator, is the sum total of their former practices, the propensities and their attitudes. And then he says, and we need to bid him, the old man, a long and final farewell. But maybe one says, when we're saved, am I not a new creation in Christ? Is not the old man, am I not a dead to the old man and his ways when I'm in Christ? How then can I continue to put him off? Yes, in one sense, the believer is perfect in God's sight. From God's eternal perspective in Christ, he is absolutely perfect. No stain, no blot. But yet the reality is, as we walk this life, in the here and now, the old man still clings to us. He doesn't want to let go of us. And we have this vivid struggle that the Apostle Paul presents to us in Romans 7. the struggle of the sins that I don't—or the things that I don't want to do, I find myself doing, and the things that I desire to do, why are they not happening in my life? If you've been a believer for any time, you know that struggle. You know As you've walked the Christian life, how you've been exposed for who you really are time and time again, you see the corruption of the old man still rooted deep within your heart and life. And Christ is calling you to put him off. But it's never enough to just put something off. You need to put something on in its place. And Paul says, need to put on the new man. Verse 23, and being renewed in the spirit of your mind, that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Putting off the old man has, something has to change in our lives. There needs to be a renewal of our entire being. It's not enough to just have mere conformity to an external set of rules and standards. No, there needs to be heart change, a renewal of our heart and our mind, of our entire being, a renewal that only God can create in us by the work of His Holy Spirit. And this happens in the moment that the sinner is justified But as a justified sinner walks through life, he's actively being sanctified, progressively being transformed into the image of Christ. How is this transformation? What does this transformation look like in the life of the believer? It looks like as Paul says, putting on the new man, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This is what Paul says in Romans 13, 14. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the loss thereof. We must put on Christ himself, clothe ourself in him, being transformed by him, evidenced in holy and righteous living. This is not something you're going to do on your own, but it is the two-sided work that involves the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, exposing to us, teaching us of who we are, but also of our need of Christ. But it also involves you, dear believer, As you, dependent on the power of the risen Christ, the ascended Christ, you put off sin in your life and you put on that which is wholesome and good. So how does one do this? By daily saturating yourselves in the Word of God, letting the Word permeate your mind, the way you think, transforming the way you live by regularly availing yourself of the preaching of the Word of God. For it's here that the Lord delights to instruct and to lead his people. by putting on, as the Apostle Paul is going to say later in Ephesians 6, putting on the whole armor of God, being ready for defense against the attacks of the evil one, but also ready for offense in combating sin in our own lives and around us. It involves praying to Christ for help in putting off and putting on. pleading upon his promises that he has given to help his people in their time of need. We learn Christ, we put on Christ by depending on him as the ascended Christ. As we heard on Thursday evening, he now sits at his father's right hand and he's there making intercession for his people. We also put on Christ by recognizing that we are not lone rangers in the Christian life. We are created to live in community. We are created to live among other believers as part of the body of Christ. And so Christ calls us to seek the fellowship of the saints, the communion of the people of God, and be encouraged even in their lives, how they are putting off and putting on, how the Lord is helping and sustaining them in their walk, in their struggles, in their challenges. calls us to share our burdens and joys with one another so that we can help each other and pray for each other and learn from each other. And by promoting the unity of the body of Christ, especially through the lives of the people of God, we reflect the truth of putting off and putting on. But the Apostle Paul doesn't just rest with this overarching principle of putting off and putting on. He goes into specific, detailed instruction of what this looks like in the believer's life. And he goes particularly in verses 25 through 32, he goes particularly to the second table of the law, and outlining in various ways how what the old man looks like in example. And he calls us to put off that and to put on something completely different, something that is wholesome and good. And we're not going to consider every aspect of verses 25 through 32, but we're going to zoom in and we're going to focus in on the ninth commandment and issues particularly related to the ninth commandment in these verses. put off and put on. Our catechism asks the question, what is required in the ninth commandment? And its answer is really divided into two parts. The first part is what we are to put off. And the second half of the answer is what we are to put on. The catechism says that I bear false witness against no man, nor falsify any man's words, that I be no backbiter nor slanderer, that I do not judge nor join in condemning any man rashly or unheard, and I avoid all sorts of lies and deceit, which are the proper works of the devil. This is what we are to put off. And the Catechism says, in its place, what you and I are to put on is that in all my judgment and all other dealings, that I love the truth, that I speak it uprightly and confess it. that I defend and promote it as such as I am able, the honor and the good character of my neighbors. For the instruction that the catechism gives here is all-encompassing. And as we've just read this answer, how have you fared? How have I fared in putting off and putting on. We fall short on many occasions and in many ways, both in failing to put off and failing to put on. The Apostle Paul is going to further expand on some of these areas. So as the Apostle Paul addresses this put off, put on principle, he then zooms in on some practical applications As we read verses 25 through 32 again, I want you to listen for the words put off and put on children. But there are times where he doesn't use the words, but we see the principle being applied of something that needs to be done away with and something that needs to be added or included and brought to oneself. So listen for that reality as we read. Wherefore, Putting away, lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be 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 things which is good that he may have to give to him that needs. 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, whereby 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 kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." Four times the Apostle Paul in these verses addresses sins or issues related to the Ninth Commandment. Verse 25, put away lying. Speak every man truth. Verse 27, neither give place to the devil or it could be translated the slanderer, the deceiver. Verse 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. but let that which is good for the use of edifying, that ministers grace to the hearers. And then verse 31 and 32, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. And put on you, as it were, kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiving one another. Four times, the apostle Paul, in these last verses, addresses the ninth commandment in particular. In reality, because of the interconnectedness of all the commandments with one another, when we sin against one, we sin against them all. Paul is dealing with what does it look to live truthfully in this world, in our thoughts, in our words, and in our actions. Paul is addressing the whole person, our entire being, beginning with our minds, what comes out of our mouths, and how we then live in day to day with our hands and our feet. We're gonna consider in this last point these thoughts on the ninth commandment relative to our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Maybe one is wondering, How is the ninth commandment connected to our thoughts? There must be a connection, you say. And true, there is. In fact, there's many, and we're limited to time, but I want to focus on two particular this morning. And as you go home and think through and meditate on what we've heard, I ask you to apply it into other areas of your thinking, how you need to put off certain thoughts and put on others. We bear false witness to ourself. We lie to ourself. We convince ourselves that things are not true, particularly when we fall into sin. Ultimately, sin itself is a deception. It's a lie. For it comes from the father of lies. But every time that we sin, And particularly grievous for believers is the fact that we are convincing ourselves and we are believing a lie that God does not see us. That he doesn't know about our particular sin today. And somehow we think we can get away with it. Friend, we're lying to ourselves. The Lord sees us every moment of every day. He knows all about us. He knows our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, the inmost recesses of our hearts even better than we do ourselves. And so we're foolish to think that we can convince ourself that God doesn't see us. But that's the reality of sin. Sin is insanity. It ignores what is true. This is true for every one of us. Children, when you're tempted to do something, when you look around the room to see if anyone's watching you, remember that the Lord is watching you. He sees you. And if you persist in doing whatever you're going to do, even though you know it's wrong in your heart and mind, you are saying to yourselves that the Lord doesn't see me at this moment. You're lying to yourself. And Paul is saying we need to put that lie off and put on the reality that I know that my God sees me every moment of the day. or as we dig a little further into this, we also recognize the truth from Matthew 12, verse 34. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Friend, what is in the heart will make its way out, and we'll get to that particular thought a little bit later on, but issues of the heart, need to be addressed, the heart and mind integrally connected in the scriptures. And Paul deals with this particular, a part of this heart issue in verse 31, as he addresses this idea of bitterness and wrath. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking. Bitterness is a heart issue. It often stems from a perceived wrong that has been done to you by someone else. Maybe it is a real wrong, and still bitterness is sin. Bitterness places more value and stock in how I assess a particular situation, and does not allow all of the facts to be heard. from the other side or position. We convince ourselves when we're bitter that we are in the right and somehow everyone else is in the wrong. Bitterness, as our catechism says, often condemns one rashly and unheard. And the longer an ungrounded assessment of another percolates in our mind, the more we think about it, the longer that it's allowed to sit there and fester, the more likely that we're going to think that we were right and others were wrong. And part of that assessment involves lying to ourselves because we haven't heard the other side most often. We deceive ourselves. And it's going to impact how we act or talk and act. And the scripture says this too must be put off. It must be done away with. It must be put off from us. And in its place, truth-filled thinking must take its place. I think this is what Paul is addressing in verse 27 when he says, neither give place to the devil, the slanderer, the one who delights to twist our thinking so that we believe a lie rather than the truth. We need to give no place to him. He needs to be thrown away from us. And the apostle Paul, although he doesn't say what we ought to do in its place, The implication is clear in the context. We get to give no place to the devil, but we need to give place to the new man, to Jesus Christ, and to his way of thinking. And as the Apostle Paul says to the Philippians, let this mind be in you. The mind that was in our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who humbled himself, Let this mind be in you. And later in Philippians, Paul says to the Philippian church and to us today, finally, brothers, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report, If there's any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Give no place to the devil, but think on those things that are lovely, true, just, honest, good. And when that percolates our mind, when that fills our mind and saturates our mind, it's going to impact the way we think about God. It's gonna impact the way we think about ourselves. It's going to impact the way we think about our Savior. It's gonna impact the way we think about other people. And friends, seldom do our thoughts just remain thoughts. They will express themselves. They will come forth. And every word that proceeds out of our mouth are words of truth or they're words of lie. There is no middle ground. And Jesus tells us in Matthew 12 that we are going to give an account for every single idle word in the judgment. Idle words, deceptive words, sins with our words are going to be held in, to account. And the sins that come from our mouths abound. And Paul addresses three particular groups of sins related to the sins of our mouth. The first is in verse 25, blatant lies. He calls the believer, the one who has trusted in Christ to put away lying, and speak truth with his neighbors. In referencing neighbors, he gives a reason for why we are to do this, for we are members of one another. Paul is addressing the communication in particular here that happens among fellow Christians. There ought to be no place within the body of Christ for the presence of lies, between fellow believers. Lies are like cancer. They spread quickly and it wreaks havoc where it goes, creating division and discord and chaos within the body. Division and disunity do not give a good reflection of who our God is. Lies promote division because they come from the father of lies. They reflect Satan and his work. But it does not reflect God. And they have no place. In the church of Jesus Christ. Instead, Paul says we need to put on truth and we need to speak truth to. Our fellow believers. In the church and beyond. We need to be able to speak with openness and honestness with one another. And when there is this reputation of truthfulness among Christians, there will be a united witness within the body of Christ, but also beyond. And so a question for each of us this morning, are we truth tellers? Is it our practice to speak truth with one another, to speak about truth, about Christ. And do we do so for the profit of the body, for the extension of his kingdom. The next category that Paul addresses is Corrupt communication, he says in verse 29. Do not let corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good and to the edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers. Literally, don't let poor words or words of little or no value or rotten words proceed out of your mouth. We can often say things that may be true, but they may not be helpful. They may not help the one who is listening who hears us to think well of other people or something. True words that are said without thought that do not help or cause another to think better of others within the body of Christ sow seeds of discord and disunity. In other words, Paul is speaking of sins like gossip and slander. They have no place within the Christian. They tear down rather than build up. And friends, as we examine our own hearts and lives, we see that we have failed over and over and over again. And the Lord calls us to repent of them and to cast them off and to put on Him and seek help from Him to speak good words, wholesome words, words that rather, instead of tearing down others, build each other up. We are to put on words that are good, words that are edifying, words that minister grace to those that hear us. And so do our words and our conversations that we have with each other, do they build each other up? We need to ask questions to ourselves even before we start talking. How does what I'm about to say help others to think better of another person? Why am I going to say this? What's the purpose? Does what I say cause another person, does it cause myself to lift up the name of Christ and to glorify Him, or is it lifting up my own name, my own person? Do our conversations with other people provide spiritual benefit and encouragement to those who hear? This goes for not only words we say that come out of our mouth, but the words that we type as well. Young people, as you use your various social media platforms, the words that you type, the pictures you post, Are they speaking truth? Are they building others up? Or are they being a means to tear others down? But Paul also addresses a third group of words, a belligerent group of speaking, claimer and evil speaking. And Paul recognizes that there will be times and places in the church where there are issues that need to be dealt with. But how they are dealt with, how these sins are dealt with in the life of the church, is at stake here. Are they done in a spirit of animosity and bitterness? Or is there a spirit of Christ-likeness? Paul says, let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, or could be translated as shouting, and evil speakings be put away, instead of put on kindness, tenderness. We've already dressed bitterness as being that hard issue where we lie to ourselves that our case is most particularly right and it just dwells in us and builds up. But as it builds up, it seldom stays there. And often it's expressed. And when it's verbally expressed, it often comes out in an uncontrolled manner of, Paul says, clamor or shouting, an explosion of words that demonstrate anger rather than kindness. And it's seldom profitable for other people. to hear. It slanders, it disrespects, it reviles others, and it's often accompanied by other evil vices of violence or taking God's name in vain. And Paul says, put this away from you and put on Christ in his place. Put on this mindset of kindness and tenderheartedness and compassion, being ready to forgive just as Christ has forgiven you. The fact that Paul is to command the Christians at Ephesus and us today to be kind and compassionate is the sad reflection of how deeply sin is rooted in our hearts and lives. We need to be kind. It needs to be an attitude that permeates our entire way of life, to be kind and loving in every area, to anyone within the body of Christ. But it's not just enough to think kind thoughts, but we need to demonstrate it in our words, in our actions, compassionate words, words that build up, words that are helpful, and actions that are noticeable, and a reflection of the very words that we speak. And here Paul is really getting to how our words, how truth can be expressed. Our entire lives are to be filled with truth, not just our minds, not just our words that come out of our mouth, but our entire life. Do we live truthful lives that reflect having the new man put on us? When the old man is still present, there will be deception and deceit. There'll be use of means that are not legitimate to achieve certain ends. You can only think of times where you present work as your own work, children in the classroom. You've copied someone else's work and you submit it as your own. No words were said, but actions took place. or they may be in the job site, or we cover up things so that they're not noticeable, rather than addressing issues that need to be addressed. Paul says, let none of this be present among you, but rather live truth-filled lives. that demonstrate what you think and say in the way you live. Live wholly for Him. Live like you know the truth. Live like you know Jesus Christ. Live in His and be like Him. Desire to live wholly for Him, to be ministering grace to those in need, both in your words and your actions. There's a lot of, we need to do this, put off, and we need to put on. But friend, if it's not done, if this is just done in our own strength, in our own wisdom, in our own power, we're gonna fail miserably. And it says Paul, as he comes to the end of chapter four, says, before you become discouraged, I want to lead you once more to the one who's going to help you to live in this way, and for the very reason why you should live this way, because this is how God lived, how Christ lived as he walked this earth. And this is how he interacts with his people today in truth and righteousness. For Christ has extended forgiveness towards a sinner like you, dear believer. Did we deserve to be a recipient of his grace and mercy? Did we deserve his kindness, his compassion, his tenderness? No. We deserve his wrath. We deserve eternal punishment. But God, because of His grace, because He has called you out of darkness, has redeemed you with His precious blood, now desires you to live like Him and for Him in your thoughts, words, and actions, in every area of life, and particularly, as we've heard this morning in our words, in truthfulness. We need to put on Him time and time again, leaning on Him to live like Him, to be His people among one another, loving each other, but also before a watching world around us. The ninth commandment, sins against the ninth commandment, apart from God's grace, disrupt the unity of God's people, of His church. It will cause division and separation. It will tear down. It will be a poor witness. And such disunity grieves the Holy Spirit. He's a God of order, a God of unity. And He desires faith-filled obedience. so that he gets all the honor and the glory. He desires that there be an atmosphere among this local body of Christ where the weak and battered sinner can come and be welcomed, be edified, be built up, and have grace ministered to them. He calls us to be Christ-like. Such unity is from the Spirit. And it's a unity that he rejoices in. And it is for this reason that the psalmist cries in Psalm 133, behold, how good it is and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. May we be such a people. Amen. Father, we pray that the evil one would be hindered today, that Satan would be put away out of our midst, and that truth would be exalted, that Christ would be lifted up in our thoughts and our words and our deeds. We pray that we would live truth-filled lives so that Christ, our God, gets all the glory and all the praise. Bless us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.