Turn with me, if you would, to
Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. It has been said in the past very rightly so, very correctly
so, that the Scriptures are bifocal, as though you were to put on
bifocal glasses. When you read the Scriptures,
there is a physical application to the Scripture, and there is
a spiritual application to the Scriptures. We can see both.
We see both. The thing that we must always
remember is every physical application is only the response to the spiritual
application. The spiritual application is
first. And the physical application
is just the response. Physical things don't bring spiritual
things. Spiritual things bring physical
things. Here's what I mean by that. If
you look at Ephesians 4 verse 25, it says, Wherefore, putting away lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members
one of another. It's not This is not it. It's not. Now if you want to be a child
of God, if you want to have the eternal
life of God given to you, then you've got to stop lying. You've
got to quit your lying first. If you quit your lying first,
then you can have the eternal life of God given to you. That's
not it. That's not it. Look at chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2. We've gone here just about every
time we've been in Ephesians. Chapter 2 verse 1 says, You were
dead. You were dead. You were dead. A dead man cannot
stop lying. A dead man cannot speak truth
with his neighbor. He's dead. He's dead. There's a saying that's very
helpful. Wrong on the fall, wrong on it
all. What happened when man sinned
in the garden? Most people believe, well, you
know, he just backslid a little bit. He did something he shouldn't
have done. He had to get a slap on the wrist. That's not what
happened. Man died. Man died. Spiritually died. So, he said, you're dead. And
a dead man cannot do anything. The life of God must be given
first. Life has to be given first, and
then after that spiritual life is given, the physical exhortation
comes. Don't lie to each other. Speak
the truth with each other. It could never be said to my
girls, this statement could never be said to my girls, if you want
to be my children, if you want to have my DNA and be my children,
then you got to quit lying to each other. They were my children before
they could ever talk. Before they ever said one lie
to each other, they were my children. Because they are my children,
quit lying to each other. Speak the truth with each other.
Now go back to chapter 4 and look at the end of verse 30. He said, whereby you are sealed
unto the day of redemption. He said, you are sealed. You
already are. The end of verse 32 says, God,
for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. In Christ, you are forgiven. You already are. Not forgiven
for any physical reason. It's for a spiritual reason.
For Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. He died so
you could live. So he's writing to those who
have been sealed by the Spirit. Forgiven by the Son, chosen by
the Father. That's who He's speaking to in
this. To all those who have received
that spiritual application from God, He says this ought to be
our physical response. And this should be. This should
be our physical response. This is not the response of our
nature. This is not the response of the
natural flesh. May the Lord help us, teach us,
grow us, conform us, into this physical response. Verse 25 says,
wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his
neighbor, for we are members one of another. Put away lying
and speak every man truth, starting with the truth of the gospel. Starting with the truth of the
word. When God calls a sinner out of
religious blindness. Religion in the scripture is
always used in a bad way except for one time. The Lord said this
is pure religion. You visit the fatherless and
the widows. But it's always used in a bad
way. It's blindness. Religion is blindness. People
love their religion. They love to say religion and
claim religion. It's blindness. And when God
calls a sinner out of his religious blindness to the light of the
truth, for quite a while, for quite some time, that sinner
will carry around religious baggage. And what that is, is things that
He has been told all of His life. Things that He's been taught
all of His life that He believes is the truth concerning the Gospel. He's been told it since He was
a child. The reality is though, it's not in agreement with the
Word. And when God turns on the light, that's what He sees. This
is not what the Word says. Therefore, it's a lie. God starts to reveal to him,
this is a lie. I was told a lie. I've been believing
a lie. All of us have things that we
have believed. All of us have things that we
have believed concerning God's Word that after he turns the
light on, we come to realize it was a lie. If that's the case,
get rid of it. Get rid of it. Don't hold on
to it because somebody who you love dearly and respect highly
told it to you. If it's not in this Word, if
it's not in agreement with this Word, let's get rid of it. Don't
preach it, don't believe it, and don't speak it to each other.
Well, so and so, I know that's what that says, but now so and
so told me Let's speak the truth with each other, the truth of
this Word. We're members one of another. We're members together with Him.
Bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, the spiritual body of
Christ Himself. Therefore, everything that is
not the truth concerning Him, it must be gotten rid of. He
said, if you look back at verse 11, He gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a mature man. unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine,
by the slight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie
and wait to deceive, but speaking the truth. in love may grow up
into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." That's
what he's saying, speak the truth. Let's get rid of all of these
winds of doctrine and all of these things that are not in
agreement with the Word and speak the truth. And he said in verse
21, if so be that you have heard Him, He's the truth, and have
been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off
concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness. Let the truth
of God's Word alone be the thing that binds us together. And along
with the truth of the Word, let's speak the truth concerning everything
else to each other. Let's speak the truth to each
other, no matter what it is. Lying is hiding something. That's what lying is. It's hiding
something. And to hide the truth from each
other is to separate ourselves from each other. And he said
God's people shouldn't do that. We're members one of another. So let's be truthful with each
other. Let's tell the truth. Let that come into our minds
the next time we feel ourselves telling half the truth, so help
me God. Speak the truth. Let's speak
the truth. Alright, verse 26, He said, Be ye angry and sin
not. Now He's not saying the only
way to not sin is to be angry. He's not telling everybody to
get angry. In verse 31, he said, let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you.
Put all that away, put anger away. As a matter of fact, our
Lord said in Matthew 5, if you get angry with your brother,
you've murdered him in your heart and you're in danger of the judgment.
And what that means is it's sin against me. It's sin against
me. But there is an anger that is
not unto sin. There is an anger that is not
unto sin. How often does the scripture
say, and the anger of the Lord was kindled. How often does it
say that? That Lord was angry. He's angry. That's not sin. That's not sin. The anger that is not unto sin
is the anger against sin. Well, I'm just a sinner, so I
might as well love my sin. I'm not going to lie to myself.
I'm going to accept me for what I am. I'm a sinner. Here I go. Should we sin that grace may
abound? God forbid. God forbid. Anger against the lies that are
being told to men and women in religion. Anger against the sin of the
world. Anger against the sin that I
see right here. Anger against it. Be angry. Be angry. Look inside and be
angry. This is the response that a child
of God ought to have. Let's be angry at the sin that
we see in us and all around us and let's look to Christ. Let's
beg mercy. Let's beg forgiveness. Let's
believe on Him. Let's not sin the sin of unbelief.
And then he said in verse 26, let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. Many years ago, I hope the Lord
will let us have a moment and enter into this for all of our
sakes. Many years ago, some advice was
given to me. And humanly speaking, I believe
this is some of the best advice that I could have heard. I think
this is some of the best advice we all could hear, all of everybody. This is some of the best advice
everybody could hear. Brother to brother and sister to sister,
spiritually speaking, within a congregation. Brother to brother,
sister to sister within a family, physically speaking. Parent to
child. Husband to wife. Whatever the relationship is.
Whatever it is. It came to me when I first got
married, as soon as I got married. So I'm gonna tell you young couples,
we have a lot of young couples in here. Newly married couples. The next time you get in an argument,
and you will, the very next time you get in
an argument, Do not go to sleep until the argument is resolved.
Don't do it. That rolls through my mind often.
Sad to say, but often. Do not go to bed not having an argument resolved.
Do not wake up tomorrow morning still harboring yesterday's argument. Don't do it. Don't do it. End it. End it. End it. Be done with it. Get
rid of it. Both parties know it's sin. Both
parties know it's pride. Both parties know it's selfishness.
Both parties, whether they're willing to admit it or not, both
parties know they need to get rid of it. We need to be done
with this. I don't know why this old wicked
flesh won't let it go, but it needs to. Love each other. Try to see where
the other one's coming from. Both parties. Even if you think
it's irrational, still. Respect their feelings. Respect their opinion. Put pride
away. Take your turn to be wrong. Forgive each other. End it. Do not let the sun go down on
your wrath. All it will do is ruin tomorrow
for both of us. That's all it'll do. No good
comes from arguments. I know we believe it does. It
does not. Nothing good comes from the wrath
of an argument. It only brings harm. It only
results in more harm. The wrath of man worketh not
the righteousness of God. It does not do it. Somebody will
say, yeah, but I got my point across. Maybe so. Maybe so. But only to more harm. in more detriment to your relationship. Let not the sun go down on your
wrath. Aren't we so thankful our Lord
did not let His sun come down before His wrath was done, put
away, finished? Put wrath away. Be angry with
it at all costs. Put it away. Put it away. That
rolls through my mind. All the time. Let's be done with
this. Wait a minute. We love each other. It's time to put
it away. Verse 26 says, Let not the sun
go down upon your wrath. Verse 27 says, Neither give place
to the devil. The adversary is called the accuser
of the brethren. He enters God's people. Let me
repeat that. He enters God's people. Let me
repeat that. He enters God's people and he
tries to use them to divide God's sheep. That's his work. That's his goal. He entered into
Peter. If he entered into an apostle,
buddy, he can enter into me. He entered into Peter and he
tried to use him against the cause of Christ. And the Lord
looked Peter right in the face and he said, get behind me, Satan. That's why Peter said, the adversary
as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour by
creating a heart of division. Going in and creating a heart
of separation between God's people. If we see that and feel that
well enough, that's the adversary at work. God's Spirit unites
His people. And if we see that well enough,
the exhortation to God's children is, don't give place to it. Don't give in to it. Verse 28
says, Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor,
working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have
to give to him that needeth. Number one, men and women try
to steal God's glory. That's the number one thing that
men and women try to steal is his glory. They try to try to
steal his credit for everything that they have and everything
that they are. They especially try to steal
his glory and his credit for the work of salvation. But after
God opens the eyes to the truth. After they see what they are
by nature and after they see Christ and who he is. They don't
steal anymore. They give all the glory and all
the credit to the one that's due. God's people don't steal
spiritual things, and they don't steal physical things. They're
not thieves. To steal something is to say, I'm not happy with
what God has given me. And if God's not going to give
it to me, I'll go get it myself. It's an insult to everything
that He's given us. Our Lord said, work hard. Work
hard. And he said, do it for this reason.
Verse 28, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let
him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that
he may have to give to him that needeth. Earn everything you
can. Earn everything you can so you
can give it to somebody who needs it. Earn everything you can. Not so we can see how big the
account can get before we die. That's the goal of man. How big can it get before we
die? Let me show you something in
Ecclesiastes 6. Turn with me over there. Before Isaiah. Ecclesiastes 6. In my Bible, the heading at the
top of the page says, of riches without use. He's speaking of
riches without use. Chapter 6, verse 1. There is
an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among
men. This is so common. This is so common. A man to whom
God hath given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing
for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power
to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. This is vanity, and
it is an evil disease." God has given him the power to work and
earn the money. God has given him the power to
be disciplined to save the money, but God hasn't given him the
power to eat of the money, to use the money. All of his life,
he sets aside for later, and he sets aside for later, and
he sets aside for later, and then when later comes, the number
is so big he can't touch it. He cannot touch it. When it's
small, you can touch it. But after he gets to a certain
point, he cannot touch it. And it does him no good. And
it does nobody else any good. And if he leaves it to somebody,
well, I'm going to do this for my children. I'm going to leave
it all to them. It'll do them no good. They did not earn it. They do not respect it. They
do not know what to do with it. And they'll lose it that fast.
Chapter 5 verse 13 says, there is a sore evil which I have seen
under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to
their hurt. Our Lord said, earn it and then
use it for good. Give it to somebody who needs
it. He said, I'll give you more. You'll never be forsaken. You'll
never be begging bread. Generous giving ought to characterize
a child of God. That ought to be the character
of a child of God. We ought to be big tippers at
restaurants. I understand some servers don't deserve it. I get
that. But if they do, and if we have
the means, be a big tipper. Be generous. Be generous. Everything is in response to
this indescribable generosity that God has given us. The grace
of God toward us. All right, go back to our text.
Almost finished. Verse 29, let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers." Spiritually
speaking, it's grace alone. Grace, grace, grace. It's the only good communication
that edifies the child of God and builds up the child of God.
Concerning everything else, let's ask ourselves, is it true? Is
it kind? And is it necessary? Is it true? I would venture to say 90% of
the stuff we say, we have no idea. Somebody said it. Well, did they
know if it was true? I don't know. Is it kind? That's probably true. Is it kind? Is this necessary? Is it necessary? If it's not,
it's gonna be something that just tears down a brother or
a sister. And let's just not say it. Verse 30, grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption. All of the things he just mentioned,
grieve the Holy Spirit of God. This reveling in sin and stealing
of whatever type, whatever level it is. Not letting the sun go down on
our wrath. This corrupt communication. If we know it's corrupt, don't
say it. Just don't say it. Don't say it. All of these things
grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Ultimately, our Lord said, on
these two things hang all the commandments. Love the Lord your
God. Love each other. Love God and
love each other. The same Spirit is in each one
of God's people. The same Spirit. When there is
a schism in the body, it grieves the Holy Spirit of God who is
in the body. Now, I do not understand that. I just want to make that clear.
I don't understand that. I don't understand that. The
Spirit of God is God. And I don't understand it. Grieve
means to be sad. It means to cause grief. It means
to be in heaviness. It means to be sorrowful. And
I don't understand it. But that's what it says. So verse
31 says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking be put away from you with all malice." Bitterness
means harshness, just harshness, just a hardness of heart. Wrath
means hatred, that's something that lingers. You know how How
we get a hold of something and we won't let it go. We just won't,
we can't let it go. It's just hanging in there. That's
hatred. It's something that lingers.
Anger means agitation of temper. Quick temperedness. That's a
quick thing. That's a short fuse. Clamor means
crying out. Outcry. Creating tumult. People say, I just can't hold
it in any longer. Hold it in. Hold it in. Evil speaking means slander.
Trying to injure another with speech. And malice means ill
will at all cost. It means badness. It means depravity
and I don't care. Yeah, I'll call it like it is
and I just don't care. Verse 31, let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. That is always the cause. That
is always the motive. Always. It's because God, for
Christ's sake, was not bitter toward us. If anybody had a right
to harbor bitterness, it was God toward us. He has a right to be angry with
the wicked. He has a right to be angry with
sin. He did not spew out His wrath
on us. He was kind and tenderhearted
toward us, forgiving us by punishing His Son. For that reason, the
child of God says, I want to do the same thing. I want to
do the same thing. I want to be kind. I want to
be tender-hearted. I want to be forgiving for Christ's
sake. I want to do it for Christ's
sake. Lord, teach us this character of the new man. Teach us this
character. Teach us to be more like Christ
for Christ's sake. All right. Dismissed.