You have your Bibles, please turn with me to
Ephesians chapter 4 and verse number 25.
We're back after learning from the Apostle
Paul who we are in Christ in the first three
chapters of this epistle as I've been telling
you. Starting in chapter 4 and on to the very
end of this epistle he teaches us now how we
are to live and we've made it to verse 25
here today and never should tire of reminding
you and you should never retire, get tired
of hearing it that when we're in these verses
about sanctification, how we're to live as
Christians. This is Paul giving us, this is
what a Christian looks like, this is how a
Christian lives. You must separate
justification from sanctification. You must
understand that
nothing that I'm going to give you today in
these verses, if you do them, that's what
makes you right with God. No, it's completely
the opposite. It's because you have been made
right with God through the person and work of
Jesus Christ alone that you do these things.
These things are the natural outworking of a
person who has totally trusted in the perfect
righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to them
by the means of faith alone. That's
justification.
Now we're going to get into, so how does a
person who has experienced justification,
how do they live? This is the outworking. What
is a life that is pleasing to God after
you have gone through the miracle of
regeneration and faith alone? It's this. So I
just want
to do that as a heading. I don't have my
glasses. Oh, there they are. Sorry about that.
So look in Ephesians starting in verse 25 of
chapter 4 and let me tell you, you don't
even really need me today because we could
just read this text and then I could go home
and you could go home because you're going to
be convicted by what it says. But so let's
go on and read it and get convicted and you'll
see what I mean. Therefore, laying aside all
falsehood, speak truth, each one of you with
his neighbor, for we are members of one
another.
Be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the
sun go down on your anger and do not give
the devil an opportunity. He who steals must
steal no longer, but rather he must labor
performing with his own hands what is good so
that you will have something to share with
one who has need. Let no unwholesome word
proceed from your mouth but only such a word
as is
good for edification according to the need of
the moment so that it will give grace to
those who hear. 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 along with all malice. Be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving each
other just as God in Christ also has forgiven
you. See what I mean there. Alright, now we've
been learning. When you go through the process
of regeneration and you exercise repentance,
faith in Christ, everything about you changes.
Your whole nature changes as we've been
learning
through a totally new nature. You can back
some of these others and talk about that
extensively
how we have one nature and not two different
natures of totally new nature. But when you
have a new nature that is supplied to you from
God himself, from the moment that that
happens and progressively and more and more
through the rest of your life, you think
differently.
You talk differently. You act differently. You
have different motives. And as a result,
there should be, especially the older that you
are when you come to faith in Christ,
there should be a great distinction between
the way that you lived your life before you
came to Christ and the way that you live now
that you are in Christ through saving faith.
And that's because the things that you now
desire, the things that are most important
to you have totally changed to being the
things of God. As I said before, I never could
say
this clearly enough. I don't think that I have
enough years left on earth to get over
how absolutely fascinated I am at how God
works all of this out and all of us,
especially
me. One of the advantages of being a bivoc
ational pastor is that I get to see this being
played
out in real time on a regular basis. And let
me tell you what I mean by that. In the 40
hours per week that I work in the secular
world, I am around constantly a lot of very
hardworking blue collar men. Okay, there's no
low T where I'm at. I'm around farmers
and welders and machine shop workers and and
heart warehouse workers and on down that line.
And what's amazing to observe is that the
things that are most important to them which
comes out in their conversation on a regular
basis are very extremely different from the
things that are most important to the men that
I hang out with here at our men's meeting
especially with my pastor friends that I hang
out with. It's really remarkable to me because
the men that we have that come here, my pastor
friends and the men that I work with, both
groups are all working class men. You could
classify all of them and myself that way.
And I was around here, we're not in the
billionaire class. We're not in the elite
class of what
the world classes as elite. But men who are
living their lives with the with the primary
undergirded motive to bring glory to God with
their lives are so very different from the
men who are not. And you come to one of our
men's meetings, you'll find that the men here
don't know about other places or other
churches. The men here are men. Okay. We're
not talking
about weak, soft, effeminate men. That's why
we're having this men's meeting to make sure
that in the church, one of the reasons to make
sure that in the church that the men who lead
the church are strong men. And so between the
men who are living their lives with the
primary
motive of the glory of God, it's so
fascinating. Their desires and motives and the
things that
they talk about, like when we break into our
little groups after our thing is over and
there's different little groups of men in here
. You could go in any of those little groups
of men and mostly what you're going to hear
them talking about is what we just heard or
something to do with the things of God or
theology. And so in that way, all of the men
who are living for the glory of God are all so
similar. We've just been doing this since
last year. But those guys who have been
regularly coming to our men's meeting, I feel
like I'm
known them all my life. It's remarkable
because not only are our motives the same for
living
life, we have the same Holy Spirit in dwelling
. And so in going back and forth every week
between the two groups, it's just so clear to
me that there is no way that what this
Bible says about the change that occurs in a
person as a result of saving faith is not
true. It has to be true because the
distinction between the two groups is too
consistently
stark and the similarities between the
Christian men are consistently way too much
the same.
There's no way that this could be made up all
at the same time by these men. And after
that, and the point that I made last time we
were here in Ephesians, the motives and
the desires and the things that the men in the
Christian group now have, including me
are not natural. I made this point a little
bit last week. Men get in here. Man, we eat
like kings. You should see the food that we
put down in this men's meeting. You would
be amazed. But after we eat, we want more than
anything as we gather as men to stand
right here and loudly sing hymns. That is not
natural. We want more than anything to
sit under verse by verse expositional
preaching that convicts us, meaning it makes
us feel
bad. That is not natural because we know it's
good for us to feel bad to get ourselves
straight. And on down the list, I could go and
what this demonstrates folks in a very
real way and technicolor right in front of
your face is that the change that happens
when you come to faith in Christ is real.
Doesn't produce perfection in anybody's life,
not by any stretch of the imagination. Y'all
say this all the time. This is from MacArthur,
but it does produce a massive change of
direction in a person's life. And what Paul is
getting
at in this particular section of Ephesians, as
he does in the other epistles, is since
you are a new creation now, since new
creations are different, here's how you are to
be different.
This is what I'm giving you, Paul is saying.
Here's how you are to be distinct. This is
what it looks like. Here's how your life is to
be set apart from the other lives that
you encounter that aren't. And think about it,
the church better be different. Or do
we really have anything to say to the world if
we're not? Now, up to this point in chapter
four, Paul has been speaking in a very general
way on how Christians are to be different.
Think back from the beginning, don't walk as
the pagan Gentiles walk. Remember, put
off the old man, put on the new man, very
general, put on this new lifestyle, put on
this new pattern of living. But now, starting
in verse 25, he's going to give some examples
that are very specific from here to the end of
the book. This is where he wants us to
start to activate our will as new Christians
in Christ Jesus. And in this section that
we're fixing to dig into, he's going to give
us five categories in which the change takes
place. And that's how we're going to do our
outline for the day. The first one is this,
Christian, you exchange lying for speaking the
truth. Look at verse 25. It starts with
the therefore. So, in other words, the
therefore is therefore from the previous
verses, since
it's generally true that the old is gone and
the new has come, therefore, laying aside
all falsehood, other translations, lying just
straight up, speak truth, each one of you
with his neighbor, for we are members of one
another. Now, do you remember this verse,
Revelation 21 verse 8? But for the, notice
what's first on the list, please, cowardly,
see that? And unbelieving and abominable and
murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers
and idolaters and look at this and all liars,
their part will be in the lake that burns
with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death. Now, I'm, you know, I report you decide
that that gives you problems. I can't help you
. That's what the word says. I'm just the
messenger. Okay. Now, for sure, that is not an
exhaustive list, right? But for those
particular
traits to be here, it should tell us that
those traits are high up on this list. And
so you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to
deduce the fact that liars go to hell. That's
what it says. Lying is not a characteristic of
a believer. Now, did I say believers never
lie? Did I say that? Nope. Didn't say that.
Did I? There are times when we sin and we
fail, but in general, there is no way that you
can look at your life and see a constant
flow, a constant pattern of lies and have any
biblical basis for believing that you are
a Christian. No way. Why? Because the word
says hell is for liars. Jesus told the Jewish
leaders, you are of your father, the devil,
and the devil is the father of what? Lies.
So if part of the makeup of your character is
to lie, if your life is a constant pattern
of lying, I don't care what you claim. It
doesn't matter how religious you get. I don't
care where you go to church. You are not going
to be a part of the kingdom of God because
liars don't go to heaven. Now, Paul reminds us
here in verse 25, "Laying aside falsehood,
lying, speak truth, each one of you with his
neighbor." And that's a quote from Zechariah
chapter 8 and verse 16 as a side here. Paul
quotes the Old Testament because this is
consistently the way that he demonstrates for
the church for all time that the Bible,
Old and New Testament, is one divinely
inspired revelation from God that all flows
together.
Just to remind you of that. And I don't have
to tell you because you already know that
one of the chief characteristics of human
lifestyle today is lying. We have a whole
world system that is based on lying. Can you
imagine what would happen if one day, just
for one day, everybody in the world, every
single human being told the truth? I can tell
you, World War III is what would happen
because if the real truth ever came out about
a whole
lot of stuff, our world system would
completely collapse, implode, because there
has been
a whole lot of lying that has been keeping
this system together. Just for a moment, just
what doge has exposed in just the first six
weeks of the Trump presidency, and you know
as well as I do? That's just the very tippy, t
ippy top of the iceberg when it comes to
lying and corruption, okay, in our government.
Lying is ingrained in our world system. Law
yers
lie. Doctors lie. Teachers lie. We have preach
ers that lie. For sure, politicians lie. Sales
men
lie. Bosses lie. Secretaries lie. Governments
lie. Everybody lies. That's what keeps the
system going because nobody has to tell the
truth. Lying is expedient and people do what
is expedient. People buy about little things
and people lie about big things. It's a way
of life. It's the outworking of a depraved
nature. I started life out as a top shelf
liar. When I was five years old and in
kindergarten, I convinced my mom that I played
on the junior
high basketball team at St. Anthony. All the
way to the point that she asked my teacher,
when's the game start? I was five. Lying comes
natural to us. We have to teach our kids how
not to lie, right? That's why Paul is telling
us here in verse 25, lay it aside, Christian.
The father of lies has developed a whole world
system of lies. Think about this. I tell you
this all the time. Every single solitary
religion in the world and there are hundreds
and thousands,
every single one of them apart from biblical
Christianity is a lie. Think about that.
Working
through men, Satan lies about life. He lies
about death. He lies about God. He lies about
Jesus. He lies about the Bible. He lies about
the Holy Spirit. He lies about heaven. He
lies about hell. He lies about good and bad.
Everything in his system, this system that
we're living in is based on lie. It's really
clever when a little truth is sprinkled into
a false religion. As we talked about at the
very start of our service, it's like a clock
that doesn't work. It's right, twice a day and
that's it. Government lies to us regularly
and government uses the media to lie to us.
Get over it. This is just the way it is in
our world. I mean, thus far I haven't been
convinced of post-millennialism. I think it's
just going to be this way until Jesus comes
back. At this point, that's where I am, just
being honest. But all of a sudden you're going
through life and God invades your life, draws
you, regenerates you, grants you the gifts of
repentance and faith. The Bible says that
God is true and every man is a lie. You come
to understand who Jesus is and he says I am
the way, the truth and the lie. And you come
to understand the indwelling Holy Spirit and
he is called in Scripture the spirit of truth.
We learn for believers, we are to be about
Ephesians 4.15 speaking the truth, yes, in
love. That means for us, lying has got to
go. And there's all kind of lying. There's the
big one just telling what ain't so. That's
just plain old kind of lie. There's exagger
ation, adding to the story things that aren't
true.
Cheating in your business, cheating on your
taxes, cheating on your time card, betrayal
of a confidence. Now you turn around and tell
everybody. The list is long. When you think
about it, Paul says there's no place for this
in the Christian life. God's law, Exodus
20, don't bear false witness. Tell the truth.
God's whole economy is based on truth. It's
got to be, look again at verse 25. Therefore,
laying aside all falsehood, lying, we speak
the truth, each one of you with his neighbor.
Why? For we are members of one another.
Remember,
he's writing to the church at Ephesus and he's
talking here about the unity of the
church. And if we don't tell the truth to each
other in the church, we're really going
to cause some problems in our fellowship, aren
't we? What would happen if your brain
started to lie to you? What if your brain just
switched the signals on hot and cold
in your mind? Just a little lie. What would
happen the next time you took a shower? You
come out here looking like a lobster, right?
What about when you're trying to get your
coffee hot enough for you and it would be
reversed in your mind? I mean, you'd be in
the hospital after you drank that coffee,
right? Think of what God has done in creating
our bodies. We have a built-in pain system
that's honest enough to tell us we have a
problem. God has given us a whole area of
symptoms so that we know when we have a
problem
physically that needs to be dealt with. That's
the honesty of the body that allows it to
function.
And guess what? That's how the body of Christ
should function in the church. We can't be
shading the truth with one another or we won't
ever function properly as the body of Christ.
Be honest. Speak the truth. It should be a way
of life for us. Now secondly, you exchange
unrighteous anger for righteous anger. What do
I mean by that? We'll look next at verse
26. Be angry and yet do not sin. Now there are
three different Greek words for anger.
I was really overjoyed when I heard Wesley H
uff say really and truly and honestly, none
of us exactly knows exactly how they pronounce
some of these Greek words and when they
originally
spoke them so I don't feel as bad when I mispr
onounce I know because I don't know Greek. It's
like
Dave Hunt said. It's all Greek to me, right?
But there's three words. Thumos, Paragismos,
and the third one is spelled O-R-G which I can
only pronounce. Org. Like we, you know,
dot org. Thumos. What is that in the Greek? It
has to do with a boiling fury. It's where
you totally blow a gasket. It literally comes
from like to go up in smoke. It's just when
you totally and completely lose it in anger.
That's what that word means. And then Paragism
os,
what is that? It's that inside seething, f
uming, resentment that comes from anger,
jealousy,
envy, and it makes you into a generally ugly,
moody person that walks around with a root
of bitterness all the time. You ever met
somebody like that? And then Org. And listen,
of course
there's overlap in these terms but there are
different shades of meaning here. Org has
to do with this settled conviction kind of
anger. Like we have certain principles and
priorities in our lives that we are committed
to, for example with our children. Somebody
comes along, hurts one of your children. You
're going to have a hatred for anybody that
would
do that and Org. It's that settled kind of
commitment. Now listen carefully. These words
can be good or they can be bad. Listen
carefully. You can be angry and sin. Or you
can be angry
and not sin. And let me tell you what I mean
by that. The issue is all about your motive
with your anger. Now, Thummas is really
something that never should happen with a
Christian because
it's used to speak of an unregenerate man
acting in anger in a sinful way. It's used
to speak of Satan in Revelation 12 and watch
this. It's even used to speak of God in Romans
2-8 as God goes off to the extreme in final
judgment. It's used to speak of God's ultimate
wrath in judgment. Now understand this. Only
God can go to the ultimate end of anger Thum
mas
and still be righteous. Only he can because
God is always perfectly under control even
in his righteous wrath. You and I can't do
that. We can't handle Thummas. Why? We get
out of control with this kind of anger. But
sometimes, Paragismas, that inner resentment
and sometimes that settled conviction kind of
anger is tolerable when it is anger for
other than selfish reasons. Now let me develop
that for you. We can be angry with these types
of anger with the things that grieve God. We
can be angry over that which hinders him
and hurts his cause and hurts him. Like I saw
the lady that just was at the Academy
Awards is fixing to be in the movie or the
play Jesus Christ Superstar remade where
Christ
will be blasphemed. You can be righteously
angry about that happen. Okay? Jesus got right
eously
angry when he cleaned that temple out.
Remember we covered that. He cleaned the whole
temple
out. Everybody, thousands of people, okay? And
he didn't ask nicely for the people to
leave, did he? He flipped the tables over,
right? He had a strong conviction that the
holiness of God the Father was at stake and
that it was being seriously offended in that
temple and he moved seriously against it with
righteous anger. Let me give you an example.
When Jesus wept at the grave of his friend
Lazarus, he was weeping for his friend, he
lost his friend, but let me tell you in a much
deeper way, that was Paragismos. He was
weeping most of all for his inner hatred
against the consequences of sin for mankind.
He saw a dead Lazarus as a direct illustration
and symbol of the power of sin over man. And
I'm sure they probably brought to mind the
horror of what he knew he was soon to endure
on the cross for the sinfulness of man who
believed. But for the Christian, Mark 26,
there is this injunction. Don't be angry in a
way that it comes to be sin. Don't be
angry. Watch this for your own cause. Don't
get angry when people offend you personally
directly. Oh, that's one of the biggest
problems in our day. How easily do people in
our day
get personally offended by every little thing.
Don't take my word for it. You go back there
and ask Christy. I do not care at all when
people say all manner of things about me.
And in 24 years in ministry, I've had lots
said about me, breaking news. Not everybody
loves me like y'all did. Okay? Just ask her.
But I don't care. Say it. It doesn't offend
me. Now, if somebody says something about me
that is true, then I better have the humility
to acknowledge that, right? But it's not true.
Say it. People say things about the Christian
faith. I want to get righteously angry, but at
the same time, hey, man, okay, that's your
problem. You don't believe the Christian faith
. And by the same token, if you want to breathe
some wackiness, that's on you. I'm telling you
this is the truth. And I don't get offended
with your wackiness. But when you take
personal offense, your anger, let me tell you
what
it'll do. It will degenerate into a personal
resentment and bitterness that'll build in
you. And let me tell you something. That will
eat you alive if you walk around with that.
That's no way for a Christian to live. The
only justifiable righteous anger that we can
have is one designed to defend the holy,
glorious nature of God and things that God
righteously
hates. And there are a lot of things in the
world that he does. But the wrong kind of
anger, according to Matthew five, is actually
the first step towards murder, actual murder.
That's wrong. The right kind of anger is
demonstrated by David in Psalm 69, nine, where
he says this,
zeal for your house has consumed me and the
reproaches of those who reproach you have
fallen
on me. That's the idea. The anger that is
selfish and undisciplined and uncontrolled
is sinful and causes all manner of chaos and
dysfunction in families, in the workplace,
in the church. So go back to verse 26. Be
angry and yet do not sin. So that tells you
that you can have a righteous anger. And then
he says this, do not let the sun go down on
your wrath. In other words, deal with it. Don
't sleep on it. And I think the last part
here is obviously dealing with the wrong kind
of anger for a Christian. If you've got anger
that is sin today, deal with it now. Don't go
to sleep with it. Still on you. Do what
you have to do, repent, confess, forgive,
whatever it is, handle it before you lay your
head down at night and get rid of it. When you
have sinful anger, you deal with it. Look
at 2 Corinthians 2, 11. You deal with sinful
anger. You get rid of it. Look at it so that
no advantage would be taken of us by Satan for
we are not ignorant of his schemes because
he will take advantage of you if you don't get
rid of that anger. You know why you get
angry? You know why I get angry? Because
people say and do things that we don't like.
That's
very general, right? And the reality is, this
is a heavy load. The world doesn't understand
this. You and I don't deserve anything except
the wrath of God. That's all we deserve. What
do you deserve? Don't listen to psychobabble.
You deserve to be happy and all of that. You
deserve nothing except wrath from God for your
sin. That's like, whoa, you're a nuts preacher
.
Read the Bible. According to God's standard,
you're not even able to see much less enter
the kingdom of God unless you are totally
broken in your spirit, unless you become
totally
spiritually bankrupt, understanding that you
deserve the wrath of God and that's all that
you deserve out of life. And if you get that,
if you get that, if you get that down in your
bloodstream, when somebody acts a fool with
you, you can deal with it in the right way.
I promise you. But if you let yourself get
angry in the wrong way, look what verse 27
says next will happen. Verse 27, "And do not
give the devil an opportunity." Because
if you do, let me tell you, he will have one.
And he will, as Jesus told Peter, sift you
like wheat. You will be a very unhappy person
in your life. You will act in unrighteous
anger way outside of the way God wants you to
act. Now Paul moves next to number three
in verse 28, "When you become a Christian, you
are to exchange stealing for sharing."
That's pretty good exchange, right? Look at
verse 28. "He who steals," excuse me, must
steal no longer. The old man steals. The new
man doesn't steal. BC, before Christ in my
life, I broke into many cars and I even broke
into houses and I stole many things that did
not belong to me, but no longer. Because
Christ changed my nature and I steal no longer
. What's
the exchange? Look next in verse 28, "But
rather than stealing, he must labor, work,
performing
with his own hands what is good, so that he
will have something to share with one who
has need." Pretty simple. "Instead of stealing
, work so that you can give to other people."
Now just like lying, there's all kind of
stealing. Non-payment of debt, falsifying
expense accounts,
putting time on your time card that you didn't
work, cheating on your taxes. Look, I think
we are all way overtaxed. No question about
that, but that's the law. Here's another list.
Are you ready for this? Another list of the
characteristics of folks that will be going
to hell when they die. 1 Corinthians 6, 9
through 10. "Or do you not know that the un
righteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexual
s, nor thieves." There it is. "Nor the covetous
,
nor drunkers, nor revilers, nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God." Does anybody
confuse about that list? Pretty clear. Back to
verse 28. "Rather, he must labor. Don't
steal, work." It's a great thing, let me tell
you, to go to work every morning and work
with all your strength, with the best of your
ability for one overarching purpose. I'm at
work today to bring glory to God because He
gave me the energy and the strength to do
this work and to make this money and provide
for my family." Let me tell you something.
That motive for work makes any negative
actions of your boss or your co-workers get
real small,
real fast, because you're not working for that
boss, you're working for that boss in
the big picture. "Don't work to pile up the
money either." I mean, you got to be wise
about your savings, retirement, no question,
but we work not just to pay the bills, we
work in order to give to others who have need.
We have people in our family that have needs.
We have people in our church that have needs.
We give to the church to advance the kingdom
of God in the world. And it's all His anyway,
right? We're just stewards. He uses our labor
to give us and He sets the standard of living
for every human being sovereignly. Now, fourth
,
probably most convicting, the new man will
also make another exchange. Verse 29, "Let
no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth
but only such a word as is good for ed
ification
according to the need of the moment so that it
will give grace to those who hear." No
unwholesome word. The word for unwholesome in
the Greek literally means rotten, something
that is worthless, something that is useless,
something that is diseased, and this is more
than just curse words. We're talking about
crude, obscene language, jokes, stories, say
ings.
You all need examples. You know what unwh
olesome words are every single solitary time
that
you hear them. No place, Paul says, in the
life of a Christian. And here's a verse to
help us with this, that we need help with this
. I need help with this. Psalm 141, 3, "Set
a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch
over the door of my lips." We all need help
with this in varying degrees and various ways,
right? And just like with the others, there
are many different kinds of examples of this.
Very convicting. Remember what Jesus said?
"For the abundance of the heart what the mouth
speaks." What's in there comes out. So instead
of speaking that way, Paul gives us an
exchange here for how the new man speaks with
three
examples in verse 29. Look at this, number one
, "But only," excuse me, "such a word
as is good for edification." What does that
mean? Building up. When you talk to people,
your words encourage, your words build people
up. They should be spiritually edifying. They
should be spiritually positive, strengthening
the total complete opposite from unwholesome
words. And just like with everything else in
the Christian life, you have to be diligent
about this. Discipline, intentional in keeping
this exchange over here on the new man's
side. And then second exchange of speech for
the new man. Look, verse 29, "According to
the need of the moment." That's a big one,
meaning only when necessary, as it fits the
need. My wife and children can tell you a
maxim that they have heard from me many times
down through the years to say, "Less is best."
Write that down. You don't always have to
say everything that could be said even when
you are 100% right and the others are 100%
wrong. You don't have to say everything that
comes into your mind the moment that you think
it and just dribble it out. Be wise. Be discer
ning. It's best to follow, to speak according
to
the need of the moment, only when necessary
and as it fits the need. And then thirdly,
so that you will give grace to those who hear
grace. What does that mean? Unmerited favor.
You grant favor to somebody and they don't
even merit it. Everybody needs a lot of that
starting with me. Best of all, as your
preacher, your pastor, I need you to show me a
lot of
grace. So instead of unwholesome words when we
open our mouths, our words, Paul says,
should be edifying, fitting and gracious. That
's how Jesus spoke, read the Gospels out
of the abundance of a new heart, should come a
new speech. And what are the results of
all this? We're getting toward the end. Look
next, verse 30, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
of God by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption." And the intent of that statement
is to say if the Spirit of God has been so
gracious to you, saving you, sealing you,
keeping you saved until the last day you live
on this earth, how in the world could you
willfully grieve the Holy Spirit? How could
you do that? And when is the Holy Spirit gr
ieved,
you put it simply, when we behave like the old
man, instead of like the new creations
that we are? And Paul says, don't do that. He
says, consider what the Holy Spirit has
done in changing your life, in sealing you and
thereby absolutely 100% guaranteeing you
eternal life forever in the Kingdom of Heaven.
And then Paul gives us a final contrast. We
are to exchange natural vices for supernatural
graces. And verse 31, he kind of sums it up.
Verse 31, "Let all bitterness and wrath and
anger and clamor and slander be put away from
you along with all malice." Bitterness was
that smoldering resentment that you have in
your heart. An unforgiving spirit and then
wrath and anger there in verse 31. Wild,
unchecked,
no restraint, blowing your top. Clamor. What
does that word mean? Literally it means a
violent outburst like yelling in public at
somebody, screaming at somebody. And let me
tell you, guaranteed if you got bitterness,
wrath, and anger on the inside, you're going
to have clamor. You're going to have outbursts
. You're going to be yelling at folks. Then
a big one, slander. Now, that can be public sl
ander. We see that all the time on the internet
,
right? But this is also running down somebody
behind their back. Oh boy. I had a friend
long ago whose house was a gathering place for
my group of friends. And let me tell you
something, slander was an art form in that
house. That's all that happened in that house.
And as soon as you left that house, you couldn
't help but immediately start thinking, what
are they saying about me now? I might need to
stay in here longer because that's all
that happened. All of these are about the
difference and having either a right
relationship
with other people or a wrong one. When you are
dealing with other people, you can't be
bitter or wrathful or angry or clamorous or sl
anderous along with what he ends at the
end. Look at that last phrase, all malice. He
just generalizes it. All evil, general
evil. Get rid of all this kind of behavior in
your life. What do we put in its place?
Verse 32. Be kind to one another. Is that so
hard? Tender hearted. Forgiving each other.
Brother Philip, you don't know what that
person did to me. I have a right to be angry.
No,
you don't. You don't have any rights. Not from
God's perspective. But they have never
changed and they still do it and I can't help
but be bitter about that. You ain't seeing
clamor until you see what I'm going to say to
them next time I see them. That right there
is why verse 32 ends the way that it does just
as God in Christ has also forgiven you.
Let that sit on you for just a minute. If you
're a Christian, the kindness of God, tender-
hearted
and forgiving, was extended to us and we have
never for one minute deserved it. And we
still don't. It is the nature and the
character of our God that says, I don't care
what you've
done to me. I forgive you and I'll be kind to
you and I'll love you. Just believe in
my son. Just believe in what he did for you.
And when you consider the gap between the
holiness of God and our sinfulness, I'm
telling you there's not a person on this earth
that
could ever offend us personally, anywhere
close to how much we have offended God. Not
anywhere close. Romans 5-8, "But God, big
comma, demonstrates his own love toward us and
that
while we were yet sinners, rebellious,
breaking his law, Christ died for us." So Paul
says,
"Just as God in Christ has treated you for
giving you," that's how you to treat other
people. Tall order, right? Woo! Got some squir
rely folk out there, right? Hard to deal with.
Only possible, only possible through the power
of the Holy Spirit who has sealed you for
the day of redemption, but we have to do our
part as well in conjunction with the power
of the Spirit. Paul says, "Lay all that aside
and walk like the new man." By the way, thank
you for this very conflicting section of Ephes
ians from Paul. I don't know what Bible preach
ers
read, Lord, that say the Christian life is
easy. They're not reading the one I'm looking
at. They're not reading the one I'm studying.
We don't know difficult until we become
Christians
and get convicted of sin, but oh how glorious
it is to live in the way that you want us
to and to desire to live that way, the way in
which we naturally would never want to
live and you've done that. So you get all the
glory for it. So Lord, I pray today that
you would take these verses and all the
meaning that we've unpacked behind them and
you would
plug them into our minds and our hearts and
our souls and that we would make application
of these things in our life. So we go out of
here renewed and refreshed to live in such
a way as to bring you glory more and more and
more. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
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