New Year, New You, New Clothes

0 · The preacher introduces himself as Ricky's father filling in unexpectedly, sets the New Year context, and establishes the sermon's controlling metaphor through personal stories of wardrobe failure and cattle-yard defilement

Hi, I'm your guest preacher today. I am not Ricky. I'm Ricky's dad. Ricky's at home. Uh, by the grace of God and the providence of God, I was actually scheduled to preach today and not Ricky. Ricky started having some stomach issues, stomach bug yesterday, so pray for him as you think about him this morning. So happy New Year! Welcome to 2023. We are one day, one year closer to our Lord's return. Amen. Yeah. So let me ask you a question. Have you ever gone to a wedding or a party or some kind of event, a reception, and you didn't read the fine print of how you were supposed to dress? Perhaps you were like me. I went to a 30-year class reunion, and I just thought, well, you know, it's just going to be casual. And it was at this nice club called the Lancer's Club on the west side at this Coronado Tower building. So I went upstairs with my lovely wife Kim, who's sitting right over there. Say hi, Kim. Walked in there expecting everyone is going to be dressed like me, shockingly seeing everyone dressed up in coats and ties. Not a good moment, right? You feel a little embarrassed, like, Joe, what's wrong with you? Don't you have a coat? Don't you have a tie? No, I'm sorry, I just didn't get the memo. So I was a little bit embarrassed, but I enjoyed it anyway. Now this is what Ephesians 4:25-32 is talking about. If you are in Christ, his word says this in Isaiah 61:10: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, for he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. Wonderful, beautiful picture. In the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, it describes Jesus like this: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. I mean, that is one of my favorite scripture promises of this, this great exchange that we have. If you are in Christ, if you are in Christ, Jesus says, I'm taking your sin, I'm paying the debt, and I'm giving you my righteousness, and it's all by grace. Our righteous acts are filthy rags. Isaiah 64 says this: All our righteous acts are like filthy garments. So here's the question: you want to walk in your righteousness, or do you want to receive Jesus' righteousness? I remember in my former career, I was a customs broker, so I would process sometimes cattle that was coming from Juárez, Mexico. So these cattle would be loaded up in trucks, about 100 head of cattle to a truck. And one night we had about 2,500 head of cattle, which means these trucks— there was only 10 trucks, so they had to come, take off, you know, the cattle. We'd have to weigh them. I was there with a customs inspector and the guy that worked in the cattle yard. And then they would go back, pick up another round of cattle, go back a third time. And so by the time they did this the third time, I mean, it's like 3:30 in the morning. I've been there since 5:30. I'm dead tired. The guy from the cattle yard who's supposed to help us, he is asleep. And guess what? There's one head of cattle in that last truck and he doesn't want to get out. What do I do? I thought, man, I got to go home. I'm just— so what did I do? I did something not very smart. I walked into the cattle truck and just— you can imagine what that cattle truck was like after 3 rounds of cattle in it, right? And I'm in there and I'm trying to push that 400-pound head of cattle. I'm trying to kick it. I'm just trying to prod it. And of course, what happens? I slip and fall in the cattle truck, and now I am covered with the cattle stuff. I mean, it was horrible. It was horrible. Finally, I think the head of cattle looked at me and felt sorry for me and got up and walked out. So finally I finished. I got home, and I thought, I mean, I can't go in the house with my clothes like this. I mean, I'm going to smell bad and look bad. It's all over me. And I thought, OK, I know what I'll do. I'll take off my clothes and I'll just leave them here on the porch. And then, of course, I thought, well, that's probably not a good idea either. So I thought, I know what I need to do. I need to get these dirty clothes, which are now polluted, which are now filthy, which cannot be used again. And I'm gonna just go put them and take them and put them in the trash. So in a sense, that's what we want to do today. We want to take off our filthy garments of our own righteousness and put them in the trash. This message today, it's a continue of a continuation of a message Ricky preached, and will be a means of grace to help us put on these new clothes that the Lord has given us. In a sense, as I said, we're going to take— talk about taking off our old worn-out dirty clothes and putting on new and wonderful clothes that will reflect what Jesus has done for us.

1 · The preacher reads the primary text aloud, offers a pastoral prayer, then establishes the sermon's theological foundation

Ephesians 4:25-32 says this: Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin, and do not let the sun go down on your anger. And give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, 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, with all malice. Be kind to one another. Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. Let's pray. Father, this is such a rich, uh, passage of scripture, and we desire, Lord, to hear your word from you and explained by you, Lord. So I pray, help me to do that. Help me to honor you. Help me to honor your, your name, Jesus, to lift you up. I pray that you would, um, fill me with your Spirit, empower me to do that. Pray for everyone here that your purpose would be fulfilled in each and every person that's here that knows you, or perhaps does not know you yet. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. So this passage has one of the scriptures that my family memorized as our kids were growing up. Like all kids, or at least my kids, sometimes our children would get crossways with one another. Yes, Ricky and his siblings would get crossways with each other. I don't remember exactly what they would say, so I'm just going to make up some things that they might say to each other. 'You're ugly!' or 'You're fat!' or 'You're mean!' You probably never heard any of your kids say that to each other, but mine did. So what will we do? Try to help them by reminding them of truths in God's Word. One of the scriptures that we all memorized was Ephesians 4:29. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion, that may give grace to those who hear. So we would write it down and we gave it to them and we would repeat it at dinner over and over again until they finally got it. They knew Ephesians 4:29. So if Kim or I heard them say something unkind or mean to each other or to anyone else, we would just tell them, remember Ephesians 4:29. Oh, okay. Yeah, okay, Dad. All right. Okay, Mom. So it got to the point that we just shortened it. We would just say, '429.' Yes, got it. Matter of fact, the other day I was— we were having a family time with all our kids and grandkids. One of my daughters was there, and I just thought, I wonder if she still remembers it. And so, you know, she didn't say anything bad, but I just kind of looked at her and said, '429.' She looks back at me, she goes, 'Did I say something bad?' I said, 'No, no, I was just seeing if you remembered.' She goes, 'Oh yeah, no, I remember that. I remember.' So today, as we start this new year, we have an opportunity by the grace of God to be reminded of what Christ-honoring behavior looks and acts like. Why is this important? Because if you are in Christ, you want to respond to his grace and saving you and bear fruit that comes from his presence in your life and makes you a witness of his grace to you. You want to wear the new clothes he has purchased for you, right? Look at me, I've got this nice new sweater that my wife bought for me. Doesn't it look good? Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have picked it, but she's— I'm so sad. Aren't you guys— aren't you thankful for wives and, and daughters that know how know how to pick nice looking clothes for you. I mean, otherwise I would— who knows what I would look like. It would not be a pretty picture. But they help me, they, they buy me nice clothes. So we want to wear the new clothes that he's purchased for us. Ephesians 4:20-24 says this: But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you've heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. But first, we need to remember that this behavior does not save us. Okay, we as Christians, we can always be tempted. Just tell me what to do, tell me what to do, I want to know what to do. So I hope you're not tempted by that, but we're all tempted. Well, just tell me what to do and I'll do it, and then I'll be a better Christian, or that, or God will be happy with me, or God will save me. No, as Ricky communicated so well in his message on Ephesians 2:1-9, we are saved by grace alone, through Christ alone, through faith alone, not by our righteousness. Why? Because our righteousness is— it's filthy rags. We could never, ever, ever in a million years do enough righteous acts to merit salvation. So Paul, in this portion of his letter to the Ephesians, has already laid the foundation of grace to them, and now he is reminding them of how they should live out their salvation by grace. Remember, if you are a Christian here today, you are recipients of God's grace through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and that alone. What Jesus did for us, we could not do. He lived the perfect life, and with his death on the cross, paid our sin debt in full. You remember when he was on the cross and he said these words, 'It is finished.' Paid in full. His resurrection confirms this, and now we're able to follow Jesus as his disciples because of his grace poured out on us. As Dr. Brian Chapel said so brilliantly when he was here earlier in the year— if you are in Christ, this applies— God can't love you any more, and he can't love you any less. This truth sets us free of the requirements of the Old Testament law to try and earn our salvation. And allows us to respond to what Jesus has done for us because we love him and we desire to glorify him through our faith now lived out, as Paul now instructs us. So Ephesians 4:25-32 covers 5 areas of life where Paul contrasts our life before Christ— that's the putting off— and after being in Christ. That is the putting on. So again, we get those dirty clothes, we're putting them in the trash can or burning them, and now we want to put on these new beautiful clothes of righteousness that Jesus has purchased for us.

2 · The preacher introduces the first contrast—truth versus lies—by sharing a self-implicating story from his high school years

So number 1, we must choose between truth or lies. Verse 25 says this: Therefore, having put away falsehood, Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Have you ever told a good lie? A really bad, bad lie? I mean, a lie like, man, that's— gosh, I shouldn't have ever— I did that. When I was a freshman going to Jesuit high school, it was an all-boys school. It was my first day of school. And I had to catch the bus. I caught the bus at 7 o'clock, and this one bus driven by a priest. I still remember his name, Father Deves. He's 6 foot 6 inches tall. Pretty big guy. Don't want to mess with Father Deves. And he's driving the bus, so I get on the bus, and then a little bit later, my pal Sam Attell gets on the bus. So Sam's about twice as big as me. So I always like to have big friends around me, because if you're in trouble, it's always nice to have a big friend to help you, right? So Sam is sitting in front of me, and as is my custom, I kind of punch Sam in the back. And I don't know, I like to punch people. Bobby Wilkins, I don't see Bobby here. Bobby Wilkins has this very unique ministry for me. Bobby allows me to punch him on his arm as hard as I can. And it's just a way for me to kind of get some stress out, some aggression out. But the agreement is Bobby cannot punch me back because if he did, I would be in big trouble. So I'm punching Sam. He tells me, 'Stop it, stop it, or I'm going to punch you.' And of course I don't stop. What happens? He turns around, he punches me. At that moment, Father Deves sees Sam, this huge guy, punching me, the little guy, and he immediately pulls the bus over, screeching the tires, marches back, grabs Sam by his collar and his shirt, and just lifts him up and just boom, smacks him on his shoulder. And Sam's like, Father, that's my hurt shoulder from football. He goes, oh, I'm sorry, son. Boom! He hits him on the other shoulder. Is that better? And so of course Sam's like, now he's really, you know, upset. And he says, well, Father, Father, why are you hitting me? I didn't start it. He started it. You're saying he started it? This little guy started it? He goes, 'Yes.' So here's Father Devese. Okay, imagine. He's 6'6'. I'm sitting in the bus in the chair. He looks down at me. 'Is that right, son? Did you start this?' 'No, Father, I didn't.' Sam's like, he drops his mouth as Father Devese is dragging him away to the front. He's like, 'I can't believe you lied to the priest.' You are in such trouble. So he dragged him, put him in the front, and that's where he sat for the rest of the time. Of course, finally we got to school, we get off the bus, and Sam goes like, what is wrong with you, man? Why did you lie like that to the priest? I said, of course I'm gonna lie to the priest. Do you see what I saw, what he did to you? I'm not gonna let him smack me like that. I'd be dead. I'll take my chances with You know, confession. So maybe you can relate. Telling a lie is something that you can do easily, and it's definitely something we could do, like I did, naturally before we are in Christ.

3 · The preacher transitions from illustration to exposition, explaining why Paul commands truthfulness: Christians are members of one body, and lying destroys the trust necessary for fellowship

We can tell lies for all kinds of reasons. So, but Paul is now reminding us, as followers of Jesus, we are to speak the truth with one another. For a Christian to keep telling lies would be like someone dressed in Hawaiian shorts at a very nice dress-up wedding, it wouldn't look right. In the same way, we're to act differently now that we are in Christ. He says that this is important because as Christians, we are members of one another. We're family, okay? We've got our family, our church family. We are part of each other. And so when we are speaking lies to each other, we're not doing what John Stott says. He says this: Fellowship, fellowship is built on trust, and trust is built on truth. Falsehood undermines fellowship while truth strengthens it. So again, if you're, if you're in any kind of relationship, if you're husband and wife, you're members of a family, if you lie to each other, what are you doing? You're undermining your relationship. You're actually— you're tearing it down. You're destroying the trust that you have built up. And so God is reminding us through this passage of Scripture, speak the truth even when it hurts. Falsehood undermines fellowship while truth strengthens Jesus even said. So you want to have a strong marriage? Speak the truth. You want to have a strong family with each other? Speak the truth to one another. If you're a teenager, speak the truth with mom and dad when mom and dad say, hey, what were you doing out till 1 o'clock in the morning? Oh, we were just at Denny's having a Bible study. When you were out at some party. Just be honest. We are part of the same body, so telling a lie in a sense affects all of his body.

4 · The preacher introduces the second contrast—sinful anger versus righteous anger

Number 2, sinful anger or righteous anger. Verse 26 says, be angry and do not sin, and do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. So there are different kinds of anger. There is a righteous anger. Anger over injustice or over oppression of people like we see all over the world of evil. We should be angry at our own sin. We should be angry at abortion, which is murder of innocent babies. That's a righteous anger. And there is also anger that comes from not getting what we want. James 4:1-3 says this: What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. So if you are getting angry all the time, ask yourself this question: What is it that I want right now that I'm not getting? What is it that I want right now that I'm not getting? What's causing me to be angry? What am I not getting? Is what I want a good and godly desire, or is it a selfish desire?

5 · The preacher illustrates sinful anger with a recent personal failure: he became angry with family members during sermon preparation because he wasn't getting what he wanted

So, you know, one of the blessings of doing a message like this is you get tested on the truth you're going to communicate. Did you know that? That's what happens to preachers. So it's kind of let you in on the world of preachers. This is what happens. So welcome to my world today. I recently was tested on this as I had been— as I was preparing this message. I was with those I love the most, which is my family. My children, grandchildren. And there was a moment where I responded in my heart in anger because I was not getting what I wanted. There was something that was happening. I didn't like it. I got upset about it. I had to take a few minutes and go to the other room because I just thought, 'I'm going to start saying things.' I'm going to regret. And I remember I went to our bedroom and I went into the bathroom, and then my wife, because she's a godly woman, wants to help me. She came over and she talked to me and said, 'What is wrong with you?' You ever have that happen to you, husbands or wives? You know, you do something stupid and your spouse says, 'What is wrong with you?' Because you don't want to hear what's wrong with you at that moment, do you? I know what's wrong with me. I'm an idiot. But of course, I was convicted because I'm already— I'm reading this passage and I'm thinking, oh great, I'm supposed to preach on this and I'm doing this. It's like the Lord said, here, here's an opportunity for you to ask for forgiveness. Go humble yourself. Ask everybody to forgive you. So let That's what I did because I understood again from this passage, I did not want to let the sun go down on my anger.