Now once again, let us turn to
the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians and the fourth chapter, and this
evening we'll meditate on verses 26, 27, and 28. Paul's epistle
to the Ephesians, chapter four, verses 26 to 28. 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 labour, working with his
hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him
that needeth." The Word of God, I'm sure as
we know, is very comprehensive in its content and its direction
to us in our daily life and how we should live our life as God-fearing
people and listen to what the Lord instructs us in. And so
this 26th verse tells us be angry and sin not. We may wonder what
that really means. It's not a very clear statement
in one sense because we know that sometimes we do get angry
and of course That's not a good thing. And if we are angry, then
the tendency is that we do sin. You need to be very aware of
that. And Matthew Henry tells us this,
I'll just read out what he says. If you have a just occasion to
be angry at any time, see that it be without sin. And therefore
take heed of excess in your anger. If we would be angry and not
sin, we must be angry at nothing but sin, and we should be more
generous for the glory of God than for any interest or reputation
of our own. So it must really be a very wonderful
thing if God gives us grace to be angry at ourselves, angry
at our sins, angry at the actions or words or thoughts that we
have to be angry with ourselves. Surely in that situation you
see there is not sin because we are doing that which is for
our good and for the honour and glory of God. And then the apostle
goes on to tell us and let not the sun go down upon your wrath. So even if we are left ourselves,
and even if sometimes we are angry, we must not harbour that
anger, we must not hold it close to ourselves, but we must seek
for forgiveness for it before the sun goes down, before we
retire to rest, we mustn't go to bed with an angry spirit. We must desire before God to
have a right spirit, a God-honouring spirit. And so, it's very clear,
isn't it? Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. And I'm sure if God gives us
grace to confess to him our wrongdoings, our wrong thoughts, our wrong
ways, it brings relief and it brings peace into our hearts,
realising that God has given us of that grace to be able to
come to that position and therefore not let the sun go down upon
our wrath. And then, neither give place
to the devil. Well that of course is a great
statement, isn't it? And the word of God encourages
us to resist the devil that he may flee from us. How easy it
is to give place to the devil, how cunning he is, how powerful
he is. And of course the devil knows
very well what our weaknesses are and he concentrates on those
weaknesses and endeavours to turn us away from the things
of God, to distract our attention so that we forget who we are
and what a great and glorious redeemer we have and what a great
salvation we have received. The devil doesn't want us to
acknowledge that, to meditate on it, and therefore we should
be very aware that he's endeavouring to distract us from everything
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his great aim, to deceive
the Church of God. And maybe therefore be on our
watch and concerned that this doesn't occur. Neither give place
to the devil, We need much grace, but the word of God tells us,
he giveth more grace. It's a wonderful truth. And so then he says, let him
that stole steal no more. Well, I hope we don't actually
steal, but sometimes, you know, we can do things which may not
appear to be stealing. You know, we can sometimes steal
time. You know, if we're employed by people, we can sometimes not
work perhaps as we should do, and not totally and not fully. And the effect surely is, therefore,
that we're stealing. We're stealing from those whom
we work for. And so we should hear such a
word as this, that we should not steal. And of course it covers
everything. Perhaps when we were young, we
were tempted to take things, perhaps, which we should not
have done. But it's good if God enables us to confess our sins
and pray for forgiveness in those things. And so, let him that
stole, if we have, we need to be forgiven, but the admonition
is then, don't do it again. Turn away from it. Let not sin
have dominion over us. And him that stole, steal no
more. And then so often the Lord never
leaves us in a vacuum. And there's no vacuum here. Because
he says then, but rather, there's an alternative. And it's a much
better alternative. But rather let him labour. We
are born to labour, we are born to work. Right from the time
when Adam and Eve were spoken to by God, they said they would
earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. They were to work,
they weren't to expect it to suddenly come and appear for
them, they had to work. And so, but rather let him work,
working with his hands, and this of course is quite clearly a
physical thing, sometimes we have to work more with our brains
than our hands, but nonetheless here, it's speaking about working
with our hands, And working with our hands are things which are
good. That means not to do wrong things, not to do bad things
with our hands, not to make bad things with our hands, but to
do good things. And then he tells us that he
may have to give to him that needeth. That's a very wonderful
privilege to be able to do that, to work with our hands perhaps,
and then be able to give that work to people that need it.
perhaps people that can never repay us. It's a wonderful favour
and blessing to be given the ability to do this, and surely
this is that which is for the honour and for the glory of God. So, and of course we always have
to have set before us the wonderful example of the Lord Jesus Christ
with those beautiful words, he pleased not himself. It's a good
example, may it be a good example to us. in our life as we journey
on to take heed of the Word of God. And of course in that chapter
that we read together, I read it really because of a couple
of verses and verse 9 in that fourth chapter in the first epistle
of Thessalonians we read, but, as touching brotherly love, ye
need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught
of God to love one another. How relevant that is. And you
see that puts so many things right and it puts everything
that are wrong out of place. And indeed, you do it toward
all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech
you, brethren, that you increase more and more in the study to
be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands
as we commanded you. It's the word of God for our
encouragement and instruction, and it is part of the whole counsel
of God, and therefore we should desire for grace to hear God's
word and to desire to walk in it, because one thing is certain,
God's word never leads us astray. It's always a word of direction
and a word of blessing. We'll leave the word there tonight.
Amen.