Steps That Lead to Freedom, Part 2

Our sinful nature is a relentless enemy. Even though Christ has set us free from the enslavement of sin, we sometimes find clever ways of returning to the mistakes that once held us in bondage. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll invites us to face this common malady head on, deploying the weapons God provided to break us free of these patterns. And if you find yourself caught in an endless cycle of sin and defeat, the biblical solution is found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

Chuck titled today's message, Steps That Lead to Freedom. In Ephesians chapter four, we have just read of the importance of laying aside the old self, four, verse 22, and putting on the new man, four, verse 24. In between the laying aside of the filthy garments and the putting on of the new clothing, or the fresh clean clothing, there is the mention of the renewed mind, verse 23.

Look at that. Ephesians 4, 23, that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind. There is nothing, nothing more important for you and me than to operate with a renewed mind. Because the old nature is always there trying to make us think we're still tied to the stake of the old master. My job is to encourage you to fly free and quit yielding your members as instruments of unrighteousness, as though you are helpless victim of the string and the stake.

Why not? Now in Ephesians 4, verse 25, he says, therefore, here are some instructions regarding some areas of your life you once were unable to conquer. You know what they are?

Get ready with your pen. Verse 25, lying. Verse 26 and 27, uncontrolled anger. 28, stealing. 29 and 30, unwholesome words.

31 and 32, a lack of forgiveness. Let's look at them lying. Verse 25, therefore, laying aside falsehood.

Speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Lies wear different faces, don't they? Lies are all around us and they come in various forms. There are mild forms of deception. There is what I call diplomatic hedging, stretching the truth, not telling the whole story. Staying silent when we should speak, that can be a lie. Flattery is lying. Telling people what they want to hear rather than what they should hear can be a form of lying. Little white lies all the way to large and unrestrained fabrication of truth. All of that and so much more would fall in the category of a falsehood.

Why is it so wrong? Verse 25 tells us we are members of one another. It is a sin against the body. When I tell you a lie or leave you with an impression that I know is false, and I say nothing to clarify it, I have done a disservice to the body of Christ. John Calvin called lying a monstrosity. Another writes this, a lie is a stab into the very vitals of the body of Christ, a shaft from the kingdom of darkness. Now, let's face it folks, we're immersed in a culture that feeds on deception and oozes with falsehood.

The media make their living stretching a story, shaping a story, tweaking a story that may not be quite as interesting if they didn't leave those little jabs here and there to make you come back and read what they have to say tomorrow, or to listen to whatever may be broadcast tomorrow. Advertisements are known for lies. You buy the product, you believe what the advertisement said, you get home with it and you say, it isn't anything like they made me think it was. How do I get free from this bondage? Verse 25, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor. That's pretty clear, isn't it? Just start telling the truth. Well, you say where do I start? He mentions a neighbor, I would include in that the people you live with.

I would include the one that you have married, if you are married. Tell the truth, don't hedge, don't deny it. If truth is revealed against you, admit it, which reminds me so much of the practice of law in the carrying out of a case is how you deal with facts. I remember sitting on a possible, well a group of people being chosen for a jury in a particular case, and I was, I had actually never before been up for jury duty, and so I'm sort of new at this, and the attorney asks a number of possible questions. Would you have a problem with this? And my hand went up, yes. And then he asked another, would any of you have a problem if we did this?

Yes, I'd have a problem. Then he got to the third or fourth question, he said, besides the gray-headed man over here, would anyone else have a problem? And they had already marked me out, I wasn't going to be a good juror. You got to know how to live with compromise, verbal compromises, because if you live in the white light of truth, you may not make or probably won't make a good jury, or jury member.

Tell the truth, start at home, carry it to work, include those closest to you, those you do business with, even when it may be difficult. A little boy was asked, what is a lie? He said an answer, a lie is an abomination to the Lord, a very present help in time of need. Let's just stop with the first phrase, it doesn't please our God.

It tells me you think you're still tied to the stake as a Christian, you're not. You don't have to lie. You don't have to. If you have to lie to keep your job, you need another job. Quit. I dare you, and tell them why. The next is anger, now that I've got you a little bit like that, it might be appropriate, verse 26, to go into it.

Have you ever read the scripture for what it really says? Get mad. Here it is. Be angry. You say, wait, no, no, I ask you to wait. Don't run on to the rest of it, because there are many who teach that any kind of anger is wrong. That's not true. If that's true, then why was Christ angry on occasion and he was sinless? If wrong is going on and that doesn't anger you, there's something wrong with your scale of values. There is abuse and mistreatment and violence committed against another individual and you calmly walk by saying we need to tolerate life as it really is.

I do not think that is the right response. I think it ought to make you angry. Martin Luther himself said, I never preach better than when I'm angry.

It took Philip Melanchthon to kind of soften those edges and round the corners for Luther. But he was incensed that the established church had twisted the thinking in the minds of their followers so that they would believe a lie rather than truth. And the anger motivated him and it eclipsed all of his fears. Anger is a great motivator to stand alone and to stand for what is right. So there's nothing wrong with the right kind of anger.

This is an uncontrolled anger. In fact, look at the do nots. Always notice in your Bible the repeated statements or the repeated words.

Do not, do not, do not. Verses 26 and 27. Do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Do not give the devil an opportunity. There they are.

One, two, three. Do not sin. Now you and I know that one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. If anger reaches the level that you lose control, you've moved into the realm of sin.

I've heard people testify, I just sort of blanked out and I don't remember. They've gone too far. If the enraged condition is to that point that you blank out, you've moved into sin. Temper usually does that. Causes us to act or react in a violent manner and that's sinful. He says do not let the sun go down on your anger.

That's the second expression. You want to be free from this kind of anger? Don't go to bed back to back, I tell couples. You and your married partner need to work it out. You need to stay at it and I know there are things that will come that will be unpleasant and I know life well enough to know there will be disagreements. After all, she married you, didn't she?

I mean, he married you, didn't he? We bring our sinful nature into the marriage. So the secret to maintaining a marriage is you don't set your arguments in concrete. You do that by sleeping on them. So you stay awake until you work them through.

You don't let the sun go down on your anger. Believe me, if you're still awake at two or three in the morning, you agree to anything. It's amazing what it will do.

It softens your stubborn spirit. Stay awake. Don't let him go to sleep. Don't let him ignore it. Don't let her dodge it and go into one of her three-day moods. Stay at it.

Stay at it. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. You've got a problem with someone?

Connect with him or her and deal with it. Don't act like it's going to go away. It won't, it'll fester. It's like a wound with pus.

It's got to be lanced. You've got to get rid of that corruption. Or it'll be a sinful anger. That's how you get free of it. Don't let it get out of control.

Don't let it fester. In fact, he says in the second part of that thought, verse 27, don't give the devil an opportunity. The word opportunity is the Greek word topos. T-O-P-O-S, it means a place. A place of entry, I would suggest.

A door of entry. Sustained anger opens the door to demonic influence. Call it what it is. I don't know who you are, so I can speak freely. If you are the type that lets anger control much of what you do, people have learned that.

And they've learned to sort of stay out of your way, which is the worst possible reaction they could give. You need to be confronted. You're angry with me right now. Could we talk about that? Could we deal with that? You say, wife, I did that.

I'd be sleeping on the patio for weeks. Well, welcome to the club. I mean, I know that experience.

My wife knows what it's like to have to confront it. Look at Romans chapter 12. Romans 12, turn over there. Verse 16 through verse 19.

Let me show you where it appears in another part of the Scriptures. Don't let the adversary get a foothold. That's the idea here.

Look at 16. Be of the same mind toward one another. I like the way this context steps into it. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Remember my comment about repeated words? Do not do not. Go back to them.

The repeating is for emphasis. Do not be haughty. Do not be proud. Wise in your own estimation.

What leads to an argumentative spirit is usually a haughty spirit and pride. I've made my point. I'm not going to go back to it. I don't care if I can be proven wrong. I'm not going to lose face in this. I'm going to stay with my position. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Do not do not do not. And the next verse says, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. You say, are you kidding? I mean, our whole society is built on that principle. Do unto others as they have done to you. Cynthia and I just got back from a trip internationally, and we were in a country where one of the natives of that country said to us, you need to understand that our country is built on retaliation.

Virtually every action we take toward, in the name of the other nationality, is done out of revenge. Can you imagine living like that? Some of you would say, I live like that. I was raised like that. That's why I hold grudges. That's why I look for a way to get back, get even. He says, don't do that. Look at the scriptures. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.

Respect what is right in the sight of all men. You say, you know what? That is impossible for me to do 100% of the time. I know that. Look at the next verse.

That's why Paul says it. If possible, don't you breathe a little easier knowing that's in there? If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. You know, with some people, you can't be at peace. You know that, don't you? Some people just like to fight.

They just wake up hoping for an argument, preferably before breakfast, or they'll find one on the way to work. He says, if possible. So what's he doing?

He's looking at you. You're the one you've got to give an account for. I do everything that's possible to make peace, and I tell you, I have not made peace with some people because they don't want peace. They want to fight. I often say, they've got too much time on their hands to think up all these arguments. You find that in letter writing. People send you hate mail, you answer it. It only engenders more hate mail.

So you file it in the round file, under the desk, you shred it. I'm not going to keep up an argument in the mail. I'm not going to keep fighting with an individual because if at all possible, I will be at peace with him, but I'm not going to take revenge. Never take your own revenge, beloved. Leave room for the wrath of God. That's a great idea.

Sick them. Lord, I've done all I can do. Lord, I've tried to make this right. Lord, my heart is right. I'm willing to confess whatever area of wrong. I've done that as best I can.

He doesn't want to have peace. Lord, you take over. You deal with this. And you know who then bears the burden? The Lord. And you don't have to keep looking over your shoulder, living suspiciously or angrily. I love counsel like this.

This is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Now back to Ephesians 4. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.

Do not give the devil a place. You know, he takes an opportunity to do that when you fester. That's why festered anger always gets worse.

That's why you're not less angry. You just have sublimated it. You've just shoved it aside.

You've got it on hold, waiting to pounce when it comes up again. And you remember. I got a friend who says, when my wife and I have our argument, she doesn't get hysterical, she gets historical. And she goes back and remembers when, when, and it's not just the women. Men can do that too. I remember when we were first married.

Well, good night. Let's all forget when we were first married. We made terrible mistakes. We said stupid things.

We did wrong things. Many to get past it. Don't give the devil an opportunity. You're not tied to the stake. You're to fly free of this stuff. Live free. Live beyond what was once the bondage.

Now, here's the third area. You think old sins are hard to break? I mean, you think I've gotten personal? Verse 28, he really starts to meddle. He who steals. Some of you are saying, Chuck, you're going to talk to us like a pack of thieves? Well, I'm just reading from the Bible here.

I'm just doing my best to be true to the scripture. Some people handle it by changing the punctuation marks. Let him who steals steal. No longer let him labor working with his own hands what is good. Not a good way to handle the passage.

Let's let it say what it says. In the first century, thievery was common in two places. At the docks and at the public bath houses. At the place where the ships would bring in large amounts of goods and the guys who unloaded the ships would take home with them some things they wanted. And they stole and the government looked the other way or they couldn't stop it. In the public bath houses which would answer to the fitness centers of today, the gymnasium, the places where people would change their clothing and set aside their possessions in order to work out or whatever, those would be pilfered and those would be stolen. It was a common practice in the first century. And when people became Christians they had been doing this all their lives and now a Christian they still would steal. The word is klepto. Isn't that interesting? K-L-E-P-T-O.

We get our word obviously kleptomania, kleptomaniac from it. Let him who stole stop it. You say why? My goodness I wouldn't steal.

Well let's see. Shoplifting is stealing. A padding expense account is stealing. Using a credit card for other reasons than its purpose is stealing. Intentionally overestimating the cost of service or a product is stealing from your customer. Failure to report accurately to the IRS is stealing. Falsifying cost overruns is an act of stealing. Accepting more change after one's purchase, that is more than you should be receiving, is stealing. Outright embezzlement obviously. Reneging on a debt is stealing. Not paying fair wages is stealing. Common occurrence is all.

Some of them even among Christians. You work in a place that has a full supply of paper. You want to use the paper for your own purposes. You steal paper when you use it in that way. You should buy your own paper and do it in your own, under your own expense. They have paper clips and rubber bands and pens and pencils and other petty items you say, how petty can you get?

More than that. I can get right down to the nubbies of life because it's stealing. And if you justify that, you won't have problems justifying faking it on your income tax. One of my favorite letters ever written to the IRS came from the man who said, I need to confess to you, to whom it may concern, that I have not paid all that was due. Enclosed, you will find a check for $150. I cannot sleep.

Added on a PS, if I still can't sleep, I'll send you the rest. Pay it all or find a way that is legal to get around paying so much. But if it's illegal, you're stealing and it's sinful and God won't honor your life. That's how it works. Sometime we have to confront this in other people and that's a very, very tender thing to do. Sir Winston Churchill, while prime minister in Great Britain, was attending one of those posh evening dinners and the head waiter called him aside and said to him, Lady so-and-so has been seen stealing the silver salt shaker from the table. What shall we do?

Leave it to me, said Sir Winston. On his way across the room following the dinner, he paused and picked up the matching pepper shaker and he put it in his pocket. He walked over to the lady and he said to her, could you step aside with me for a few moments? He took her out of earshot from the guest and he said to her in a voice that was somewhat guilty as he pulled his pepper shaker from the pocket, my dear lady, he said, I think we have been seen.

Perhaps we should both put them back. I need to say here that when you're called upon to confront another individual, do it humbly and gently and vulnerably knowing you've been guilty of the same or worse in your own life. Be careful about being a proud judge. Stealing has many different expressions and each one, whether egregious or innocent, robs us from knowing the relief of freedom in Christ. Chuck Swindoll is teaching from Ephesians chapter 4. He's titled today's message, Steps that Lead to Freedom, and this is Insight for Living.

To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Leading up to this study, Chuck and Cynthia Swindoll selected a book that they believe will help you walk in freedom throughout the new year of 2021. It's a daily devotional called Good Morning, Lord, Can We Talk? Mornings in the Swindoll home begin with time together. Throughout their marriage, Chuck and Cynthia have set aside an hour every morning, seven days a week, to sip coffee, talk, listen, and pray. Their morning routine has cultivated a deep love in their relationship and it's also the inspiration behind Chuck's 365-day devotional, Good Morning, Lord, with brief reflections for every day of the new year. This book will shine the light of God's word on your path day by day throughout 2021.

You can purchase a copy at Insight for Living's website by going to insight.org slash store or by calling us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. And then as you measure the impact of Chuck's teaching on your life and as God prompts you, we invite you to join us in bringing the good news of freedom in Christ to people around the world.

Your gift, no matter the size, allows us to provide Chuck's teaching on radio, the internet, through our mobile app, and the many other outlets where Insight for Living is freely heard. To give a donation today, just call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Many in our listening family have chosen to reinforce their commitment to this cause by becoming a monthly companion. To join the team, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Or give online when you go to insight.org slash monthly companion. I'm Dave Spiker. Tomorrow Chuck Swindoll continues his encouraging message about the steps that lead to freedom right here on Insight for Living. .