(Much of the content of this message and that of part two is influenced by and attributed to the great work on Ephesians by Dr. Ray Stedman. The final document however, is the result of contemplation, cogitation and prayerful reflection upon these Scriptures through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. I thank the late brother Stedman for the thoughts his messages have stirred, and I thank Father who through the Holy Spirit has given birth to these things in my own heart.)

Several years ago in South Africa there was quite a lot of publicity surrounding the heavyweight title fight between South African Kalie Knoetze and American Big John Tate. Kalie Knoetze's nick name was "Grootbek" which in English means "Big Mouth" He earned this because he would always sound off about how he was going to pulverize his opponents. This time it was no different. The press was full of all the verbal assault that Kalie was mobilizing against John Tate. The weigh in was quite a fiasco. It was quite unbelievable to hear all of the devastating injury that Kalie was supposedly going to inflict upon Big John. Well, the night of the fight came around, and guess what happened? Big John Tate did to Kalie in the ring exactly what Kalie boasted about doing outside the ring. It turned out that Kalie was all talk and no walk.

This is how it is with so many who profess to be Christians today. They talk a good fight. They speak a lot about their Christianity, but their lives show very little about what they are saying when it comes down to the real thing. Earlier in this chapter, Paul used the phrase, "speaking the truth in love". This actually means a lot more than setting everybody else straight about the error of their ways in the most loving way that we can. What it actually means if you do a study on the word used here, is to live out the truth in a gracious way. You could actually say, "truthing in love, we will in all things grow up in Christ." This is to say, "acting out the life of Christ in our lives we will grow up to be like Him." Modeling our lives around the truth we have learned of Him and the only way we can learn this truth is to have a relationship with Him.

When we grasp this we will have overcome one of the major obstacles of a living faith. The problem today is that there are two extremes prevalent in Christianity. The one pushes the idea of striving to do what is right. "Just do your very best" is the cry. "You cant be perfect, but just try to do the best you can. Try harder." I remember the slogan that my teachers would constantly repeat to us at school. "If at first you don't succeed, try and try again." The problem is that this self that keeps on trying again is the same self that got us into trouble in the first place. So when we try this approach we find ourselves going around and around in circles and getting nowhere. The other idea which is prevalent is that one has to do absolutely nothing. It's all up to God. He will in some mystical way just keep us from all temptation and all wrong doing, and we will simply not have to worry about a thing.

No, precious family. The answer is neither in trying our very best, nor is it simply letting go and letting God. It is in trusting wholly upon the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in us as we die daily to self and put on Christ allowing Him to live His life through us. This is what Paul was trying to bring home in Romans 7 & 8. Romans 7:23-8:5 "…but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. [24] What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? [25] Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. [8:1] Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [2] because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, [4] in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. [5] Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

This setting of our minds on Him is something that must go on repeatedly.

That is why the Christian life is called a walk. That is the best way to describe this process of putting off and putting on. As you walk you take the first step with one leg. That is the putting off. Then you put the next leg in front of the other. That is the putting on. Then when you have done that, what do you do? You start again. It is a process. At first you may have to think about it a while, but before long, walking comes naturally. So it is with the Christian life. The putting off and putting on is continuous, and it eventually becomes natural. The lost person cannot do this. They only have half the ingredient. They may be able to take that first step, the putting off part, but if they do not have Christ in their lives they have nothing new to put on. So they hop around like a cripple on one leg.

Now Paul gets specific in regard to some of the ways we can put off the old man and put on the new so that two things can be accomplished. 1. Grow up in Christ. 2. Avoid grieving the Holy Spirit. How do we grow up in Christ? By obeying the admonitions given in this passage. How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? By disobeying these admonitions.

Something we are always telling our children as they grow up and claim more and more privileges, that privilege comes with responsibility. The two go hand in hand. We have already been informed of all the wonderful privileges we have as believers, now it is time to examine and carry out our practical responsibilities. Notice I said examine and carry out. There is absolutely no good that can come of this if upon hearing these wonderful possibilities, we leave this place and everything we have seen and learned stays up there in our heads. It must drop those 18 inches into our hearts and become a reality in practice.

A mental understanding of this process of putting off and putting on, this doctrine of "walking in the Spirit" is not enough---it requires practice. So many Christians miss this. They grasp in their minds the wonderful deliverance available through Christ. They see this in the lives of others around them, and because they know the doctrine, they believe they have the experience. They know the talk, but they are not walking the walk. Truth without practice puffs you up with pride, as Paul points out to the Corinthians. Leaving here today saying, "I understand now. I know now how this is done. I know how this works," does not mean that you are experiencing it. These things must be put into practice.

Paul sets these principles out for us in contrasting couplets. They are consistent with this idea of putting on and putting off. The first he says is to:

I. Put off falsehood, put on truth.

It is interesting that Paul should start with lying. I believe that it is because this is the most base of all sins. I believe it is probably the first sin that anyone ever commits. You try it. The next time a toddler dumps all his food on the floor, you ask him, "Did you just do that?" "uh - uh" They lie through their teeth. Now did they learn that? No, it's part of the natural man. Lying is the basic characteristic of the old life since it traces back to the devil. Jesus said, "He is a liar and a murderer from the beginning." All of us have discovered this without difficulty. We have learned even as little children that though a lie is an abomination to the Lord, it is a very present help in time of trouble! At least that was our philosophy, that was what we thought.

So as a natural part of the old man, it is now something which no longer has a part of our life. We must make the effort to put off falsehood. Not just because it eventually gets us into trouble, but because it is something that is left over from that old life, and it is no longer consistent with the new man. We must speak the truth regardless of the consequences, and regardless of the hurt. Just because truth hurts is no reason to revert back to the old ways, disobey God, and grieve the Spirit.

Paul gives another reason here to not lie. He says "because we are all members of one body." Two things about this. The one is, why would we want to do anything to our own body that would hurt? Why would we want to deceive a fellow believer? Why would we want to be false to another child of God? They are our own family. Now this does not mean that it's okay to lie to non-Christians. This says that it especially wrong to deceive someone in your own family. The second observation here is that by lying to anyone we hurt the body because it is a poor witness. The world expects Christians to tell the truth. The worldling can lie, but just let a Christian lie, and you will hear all about it. I have heard people say that they are reluctant to do business with Christians because they can't be trusted. They say they have been burned too many times by Christians businessmen. Why? Because Christians lied.

You say, what about a white lie? Surely it is okay to lie in order not to hurt someone's feelings? We may believe that, and we may spare someone the immediate pain of the truth, but in the long run we may have caused that person more pain that we realize because they never came to know the truth about something which has caused them untold misery throughout their lives. So we must put off falsehood and put on the truth.

Secondly, Paul addresses anger. Another sin that so easily besets the believer. Anger.

II. Put off Anger, Put on Forgiveness

The King James says, "Be angry, and sin not."

This is a difficult verse for many Christians. Some Christians believe that all anger is sin. That a person ought never to get mad about anything. Well, here we can look to the life of Jesus. There were some things that made Him angry. This was true, or righteous anger. True anger is that which is concerned with those who wrong others, and particularly those who wrong God. Jesus was angry at the Pharisees when they opposed his healing of men on the Sabbath day. "He looked upon them with anger," we read, "and was grieved in his heart" over their stubborn indifference to the needs of suffering humanity. He was angry when the Pharisees turned the widows out into the streets because they could not pay their mortgage. Matthew 23:14.Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Therefore you will be punished more severely. And what about Matthew 23:33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Do you think Jesus was just a little bit angry here? He was angry because of their injustice towards the less fortunate and their wrong doings against His Father. He was angry when the disciples kept the children away from him. He spoke with anger. "Let them come unto me," he said, and his brow was dark with anger because they were keeping away the ones for whom he came. He was angry at the cruelty of the devil when he was at the tomb of Lazarus. His heart was moved, and he spoke with bitter anger. He was angry at the devil for the destruction and the heartache and the heartbreak that sin brings into human life. He was longing to lay hold of it and do something about it. He was angry at the shameless greed of the money changers in the temple and he knotted a cord and drove them out of the temple. Believe me, he was angry. He was very angry because they were ignoring the purpose of the Father's house. They were teaching men wrong things in the name of God. They were carrying on destructive activities in the name of religion.

But look at Jesus when the wrong was committed against Him personally. Fully justified to respond in anger. Falsely accused. Unjustly sentenced. Beat up and humiliated. What was His response? "Father forgive them!"

Yes, there is a righteous anger. But there is also an unrighteous anger, and it is this which we must put off. The kind of anger that arises out of selfishness. When we can't get our own way. When things don't go exactly according to the way we had planned. When someone else gets the promotion that we had hoped for. When our wives are having a bad day and the house is not quite the way we expect it. When our husbands spend to much time at work and don't give us enough attention. When our children make a mistake that causes us discomfort and unnecessary expense. When the guy on the freeway cuts in front of us. So many things that make us angry.

Now, concerning all anger, justifiable or not, Paul sets a limit. We may not continue in that anger. Forgiveness must follow. He says that we must not let the sun go down on our anger. Never let the sun set without forgiving and reconciling. That is such good advice. It has brought peace to Jan and I on many occasions when neither of us felt that we were the ones to blame. This principal that levels the ground to where it does not matter whether you were wrong or right, whether you were justified or not, the longest that you can be mad at each other is one day. That's the limit. At sunset, everything must be forgiven and forgotten. You will be surprised how much that will help. Now that doesn't give you license to start each day with the notion that you have twelve hours to be angry with your spouse so you had better make the best of it.

Paul then says that we must let the devil get a foothold. It is by the previous step that you take away the devils foothold. It is in continued anger that the devil gets a stronghold of bitterness in our lives. When you do not resolve that anger before you go to sleep, it festers all night long in your heart. You wake up the next morning and you have more anger than the night before. Then the silence sets in and you won't talk to each other. Bitterness grows like a cancer. It is satan's stronghold and he will use it to wreak havoc in your life. Unforgiveness and bitterness cause more sickness both physically and mentally than anything else. When you harbor bitterness, unforgiveness and anger you are extremely vulnerable to the devils attacks. Don't give the devil a stronghold. Avoid anger that is not righteous and when you fall into it, be sure you do not let the sun set on it. This is the way to victorious Christian living. This is what it means to be truthing in love.

Oh, family. These are truths that will set you free. When we come to this kind of lifestyle through consistently walking in this way. Taking those steps one by one. Systematically setting aside every lice infected garment of sinfulness we will grow up in Christ and become His glory. We will accomplish holiness before God and righteousness before our fellow man.

What of you today? You have known these things, yet you have not practiced them. Will you determine to walk the walk of the new man?