We'll be in Ephesians chapter
4 this morning. Lord willing, we'll finish up
Ephesians 4. Here at the end of Ephesians
4, Paul is going to give us instruction. God the Holy Spirit, through
Paul the Apostle, writing to those brethren at Ephesus and
to us today, is going to give some instruction. Some instruction
to us. Practical and spiritual instruction.
And at the end of it, end of this instruction, he reminds
us once again of the motivation. Why would I do this? Why would
I want to do this? It says there in verse 32, here's
the motivation. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Hath, already, completely done. He's already forgiven us. That's
the reason we're to be kind one to another. That's the reason
we're tenderhearted. That's the reason we forgive
one another. Because Christ has forgiven us. Through His work,
His blood, we're forgiven. God's given Him to us. And here's
that instruction that Paul was giving us before this motivation. There in verse 25. Wherefore,
put away lying. Speak every man truth with his
neighbor. For, because, we are members one of another. Be ye
angry. and sin not. Let not the sun
go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let
him that stole still 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. 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. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby, through the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. that 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, for His sake, hath forgiven you." These first three chapters
of Ephesians, Paul tells us what Christ did for His people. what
God the Father, for Christ's sake, for His elect, Christ was
His elect. God purposed the elect to be
put in Him. Entered that covenant of grace
before time. And in doing so, Christ entered that covenant
with the Father, and He came to this earth being made just
as we are, being born of a woman. as our representative, our substitute,
and He lived for us. He was conceived for us, He lived
for us, and He died for us in perfection. His blood was shed
for His people, those that the Father put in Him in that covenant
of grace before time. And you know why He did that?
It's for our sakes, it is, for Christ's sake, for His great
name's sake, for which He called us, for His glory. And boy, that's for our good
if we're put in Him. What goodness can come from that?
How are we going to find out about that? Paul goes on to tell
us in chapter 1, God the Holy Spirit bounds towards us. A work's
done in our heart through the preaching of the gospel. And
He shows us what God defied the purpose, what His will was, and
that it was accomplished in Christ who bought us. Christ who did
all the work. He was the victorious Savior.
And then we're comforted. We're convicted of sin by the
Holy Spirit. And we're comforted in knowing
that Christ is righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness.
And it's completely fulfilled. All judgment's done. There's
no condemnation between us and the holy God we offended in our
sin. He tells us that plainly. And
then he says in chapter 4 verse 4, we're one body. Those that's
put in Christ, us together here that believe, you have interest
in the gospel, you that the Holy Spirit's done a work in, we're
one. Just like that finger is one
with that finger. They touch. They're connected.
They're fed by the same place. We're made one with Christ. Joint
heirs with Christ. Made one with Him. Well, what's
His relationship to this body? He's the head. He's the head
of the body. It says there in chapter 5, Verse
23, for the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is head
of the church, and He is the Savior of the body. This head
instructs us. If my hand does this, my head's
telling it to do that. It's sustaining it. It's keeping
it. All those members are working together, and the head gives
the instruction. He says in verse 32, this is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. concerning him
and his body. How does this work? I don't know. It's a great mystery, isn't it?
But I know he commands us, he gives us life, and he instructs
us, he teaches us. We are one body, we are brethren.
That's who Christ died for. For his body, for his church,
and he's the head of that body. And as the head of that entire
body that he died for, he gives us instruction. He teaches us. We learn of Him and from Him. How to walk in this world. Brother
Henry was once asked, somebody said, does a believer know what
to do or are we taught what to do? Henry looked at him and said,
yes. That's true, isn't it? We know
these things. We know what's right. In every
man's conscience, the Lord gives right and wrong. We don't have
to have a piece of paper tell us that. We don't have to have
somebody tell us that. We know what's right, but we
need to be reminded too, don't we? We need to be taught. We
need to be instructed. We know what we need to be taught.
We need to be taught spiritually and practically. The Lord, spiritually,
the only way we're going to be taught is by Him teaching us.
Him doing a work in us. The Holy Spirit teaching us these
things, opening our eyes to see that these Scriptures are of
Christ. That He is the Way, the Truth, and the Law. That has
to be taught and He has to be the One who teaches. God has
to do that work in us. And practically, we need to learn
these things to walk in this world. I'm going to try to touch
on both this morning, the practical and the spiritual. But for someone
that just come for the practical, you can get this anywhere. Don't
lie. Don't steal nothing. If you ain't
got something nice to say, don't say it. That's not groundbreaking,
is it? We all know those things. We'll
put in us. But if we see that spiritual
side of it, that'll come. That's the order it must take
place. We don't do these things practically in our walk in this
world to get the spiritual. The Lord teaches us the spiritual
application. He teaches us Him. What He did
for His people. And when we see that, that practical
is going to come. that doesn't make us his child.
Because we're his child, he teaches us, just like my children. If
I said, you all ain't allowed to lie, and you all have to be
good, got something mean to say, don't say it, don't steal nothing,
and then you can become my child, then half of my DNA is gonna
flow through your veins. No, you are my children. That's
why I tell you, don't lie. Don't steal nothing. I correct and instruct my children,
but I don't do that to yours. Don't go up and knock it off
and get harsh. It's not mine. I do that to mine.
But me doing so, it doesn't make them my children. That means
they are my children. I do it because they are my children.
And the Lord instructs us because we are His children. And He does
it in love. Now let's pay attention to this
instruction here in verse 25-31. And we'll be reminded again of
why. What's the motivation? What's
the motivation in this? What Christ has done for us?
Verse 25. He says, "...Wherefore put away lying. Speak every man
truth with his neighbor, for we are all members one to another." Practically. Don't lie. We know
that, don't we? Tell the truth. Why would we
do that? That helps the whole society,
doesn't it? That's good for your neighbor, those who live down
the street from you, those at the grocery store. Don't lie,
we're all in this together. That's practical. That's normal. Now when's that really going
to take effect in us? When we see the spiritual side of it.
That's putting off the old man, the lies of that old man. All
that baggage and those grave clothes we have from what we
thought was religion, from what we thought we knew of God, The
lies we told others, the lies we told to God, and the lies
we told ourselves. I'm doing alright. I ain't that
bad. That's said inside the mind, isn't it? We say it's outside
sometimes. Put off that old man. Put off that lying. Speak the
truth with neighbors. Tell the truth of God. Tell the truth of man to your
neighbors. We looked at that the other day,
what neighbors are. Is that just people that live
next door to me? Is that just you? That starts here, doesn't
it? We tell the truth to one another in this local assembly.
And when we're getting our hair cut, or somewhere else dealing
with folks in town, or our family, they ask us a question. Isn't
that right? Isn't that the way God does things?
No, it's not. Here's what His Word says. Well,
I think, it don't matter what we think. What does God's Word
say? That's to tell the truth. Tell
the truth of Christ. And we do that because we're
all one body in Christ. We tell the truth to one another
here, because that's one finger touching another. That's an appendix
touching a liver. We're connected. Don't lie to
one another. And then outside of these walls,
as we walk through this world through the week, we don't know
who our body members are. What the Lord may use to call
His sheep in. So in kindness and in truth,
we tell the truth to them. In love, we tell the truth to
them. What's the truth? I'm a dead sinner. Mankind is, but I can tell you
from experience, I am. I'm dead in trespasses and sins. Christ is all. He's all in salvation. He's all in creation. He's all
in providence. He's all in preserving His people throughout time for
eternity. That's the truth, isn't it? Ain't
complicated. I'm nothing. He's all. When we see Him, when we understand
that the Lord does a work in our heart, when we truly know
we're nothing and Christ saved us with His blood and He's preserved
us forever for His namesake, for Christ's sake, now all of
a sudden that practical comes in application, doesn't it? There's
some traditions that happen throughout the year, certain times of the
year. And it's fun to tell fables to young folks. And as they grow
up and grow out of that, you don't tell them that fable no
more. It's kind of a joke, you know. But I thought, I was convicted
of that one time. And I thought, what if I'm lying
to them about this? They grow up and they're going
to learn. And I said, what else is you lying to me about, Dad? But that wasn't a practical application.
I wasn't trying to do better in this world. I wasn't in a
work space trying to earn something. I was convicted spiritually.
Not to lie. To tell the truth of Christ.
And I want people to hear the truth of Christ. Through that.
Through my walk. Through my actions. We'll get
there to verse 26. And we'll see this is one sentence.
26 and 27. It's all tied together. But we'll
begin the beginning of it. Be ye angry and sin not. Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath. Practically, what's that
saying in this world? If you're angry, don't sin and
act on it. Don't let the sun go down on
your wrath. Sort out your anger before you go to bed at night.
That's good advice. That's good practical advice.
Practically, you think that'd be the easier. I wish I could
heed it. I wish I could, if I was angry, I wish I could resolve
that before I went to bed. That makes waking up the next
day a whole lot easier. Makes sleeping a whole lot sweeter,
doesn't it? Just walking in this world. But spiritually, it says
be angry. Be angry. What are we to be angry
at? It's not good to be angry. That's
sinful, isn't it? Well, there's a sinful anger and there's a
righteous anger. Our master showed us that there
in John 2. Whenever he went into that temple,
he made a whip. He sat down and took the time
to make a thin, small whip. And he whipped them money changers
out of his temple. Why was he doing that? It was
for the glory of God. And he was fulfilling the scripture.
Psalm 69 9 tells us that. He said, the zeal of your house
eateth me up. It consumes me. And that was
his motivation. We're to do that. Do I do it? No, but Christ did it for me,
didn't he? Wrote it down and recorded it so we could read
it. That's when I did it. But there's a, be angry. What
can I be angry at? I'm angry at my old man that
I need to put off. And sin not. I'm to be angry
at sin. Sin against God. Sin against
one man to another man. That's not good. Sin against
the gospel, against brethren. But I'm to especially be angry.
Especially be angry. All those things are easy, ain't
it? Just turn on the news. You'll get mad. Those things
are wrong. We read the scriptures and know
that that's wrong. Those are easy. But we are to especially
be angry at that sin that's closest to us. Does that mean our own
house? No, that means in this own body. This old man that's
in me, angrily put that old man away. Look to that new man. Look
to Christ that gave you life. It says there, don't let the
sun go down on your wrath. He's speaking here spiritually
between one body member to another. Brethren to brethren. Members
of his body. If you have possibly offended
someone, don't let the sun go down before you apologize. If
you think you have, brethren to brethren, if you offended
someone, don't let the sun go down on it before you apologize
to it. If you've been offended and your brother hadn't repented
that time yet, one of those seven times here today, if you've been
offended and they haven't repented, they haven't said they're sorry
and the sun's about to go down, let it go. Put it away from you. Oh, it's easier said than done,
isn't it? My dad always tells me, just pay no attention to
it. Don't think about it. Put it away. That's hard to do. But this is the spiritual he's
speaking of. So Christ is the motivation. He's our motivation
for anything we do. How could I not let the sun go
down on my wrath? What could motivate me to do
that? Did the Father let our sun go down? Did He let the end
of our life come? Or the end of this world come?
that going down to the Son, before He put away His wrath to me, He made me see Christ while I
still breathed, while I was still breathing on this earth, while
I was still alive. He come to us in the day of our salvation,
before this life was over, and showed us He put all His wrath
and His Son for me. Boy, if I could keep my eyes
on that. I probably could let it go, couldn't I? If I was offended.
I probably could swallow my pride and apologize to somebody before
the sun went down, couldn't I? Look what the Lord's did for
us. I've been forgiven much offenses, innumerable offenses. I should
forgive many offenses. Seven times seven in a day. That's
perfection. As perfectly as I sinned against
God, He perfectly forgave me. And as perfectly as my brothers
and sisters in Christ offend me, I should be able to forgive
them. I should be able to put away
my neighbor, their sin, my brethren's sin, and remember it no more.
Oh, if I could, just blot it out of my mind. Not to be seen
anymore. Wouldn't that be precious to
do that before the sun went down? We need to do that for inside
of ourselves too. Turn over to Psalm 4. Many believers, they're angry
at their sin, what they are, but when you lay down at night,
You see and acknowledge your sin when you lay down at night.
Don't stay consumed with your own evil. It's good the Lord
shows us that. He makes us acknowledge our sin,
what we are. There are so many believers I
know, they dwell on that and they can't see no peace because
they're still looking to that sin. We should stand in awe of
the Lord of our salvation. He'll make us know, He'll convict
us of sin, but He'll convict us of His righteousness and His
work too. Look here in Psalm 4. But know that the Lord hath
set apart him that is godly for himself. He's done the setting
apart. He's sanctified. The Lord will hear when I call
unto Him. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed and be still. Selah. Whenever you lay down
at night and the Lord showed your sin all day long, go to
sleep thinking of Christ that died for us, Christ that victoriously
saved us and preserved us for eternity. Wouldn't that make
you still? Wouldn't that make you sleep
good when that sun went down? If I could think of him every
night before I went to bed. That's not just saying a prayer. That's
not going through a motion, but to look to my Redeemer. Look
to my husband, my kinsman Redeemer that willingly gave Himself for
me and He accomplished it all. What stillness, what peace that
would give us. Alright, back in our text here. Verse 27. Look at verse 26. Be ye angry
and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, colon. What would make us stay up all
night in our wrath and make us angry in a sinful way? Verse
27, neither give place to the devil. Giving place is being
subject to. You see those colons, that's
what goes with it. That's where wrath, wrath is an enduring anger
and anger is normally real brief. That's spurts of it. Ungodly
anger and wrath is given place to the devil. Anger and wrath
is what divides it. That's a dividing spirit. Satan
roams about seeing who he may devour as the Lord allows him
to go. And he enters the believer. He enters the believer and sows
discord among the brethren, among the other members of that body.
People read this text and they say, well, I'm going to engage
in spiritual warfare with the devil. I do not want to do that. And I'll be honest with you.
You don't want to do that. You don't. That ain't somebody
you want to fight. I wrote down Mike Tyson. I don't know if y'all
remember the heavyweight boxer. I don't want to get in a ring
with him. I'm going to lose. So many, they think that that's
their crusade is to fight the devil. Turn over to Mark chapter
8. Some say, well, Satan couldn't deceive me. He did the apostle
Peter, didn't he? An apostle. If he does that to
an apostle, I'm no match. That's something I would eagerly
seek. Mark chapter 8. He began in verse 31. He began to teach them that the
Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders
and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after
three days, rise again. And He spake that saying openly. Normally, our Master taught in
parables, didn't He? He plainly told them as clear
as He could be. Here's what's going to happen.
Here's what the Son of Man must suffer. Verse 32, "...they spake
that saying openly, and Peter took him and began to rebuke
him." Peter said, not so. Lord, don't let this happen.
No. No. That seems logical, doesn't
it? Our Redeemer is with us in person.
We met Him in person. He said, here's what's going
to have to happen. I'm going to fulfill the scriptures. I'm
going to be tortured. The wrath of God is going to
be put on me. I'm going to be beaten beyond any recognition.
My own mother wouldn't know him more than any man's ever been
disfigured. I'm going to bleed. I'm going
to die. I'm going to be put in the ground. But three days later,
I'm going to rise again. Lord, don't let that happen.
No. No. That sounds loving, doesn't
it? That sounds right to say no to
those things. But the fool says in his heart, no, God. No, God. Always being a fool. What we
think is loving, what we think is right, ain't right. What we
think is loving, ain't loving. What the Lord says is right.
What His purpose is, is right. How often do I question His purpose
and His providence? In anything? In the great things
or the small things? Oh, this ain't right. This ain't
loving. This ain't good. The Lord sent
it to us. It's right. It's loving, isn't
it? It's right. He says there in verse 33, But
when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked
Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest
not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Giving subject, giving place
to the devil, which is Paul just letting that old man, being unable
to allow that old man to fire up. He was looking on things
of men, wasn't he? Not on things of God. All right,
back to our text. Verse 28. Let no man 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. Practically, as we walk in this
world. Don't steal. We know that, don't we? Don't
steal. Work hard. Work hard. And don't do it for
yourself. Do it to help others. That's
helping your neighbor. That's a good thing, practically.
Breaking a good sweat is good for us. My grandpa always told
me, he said, if you're getting sick, go sweat. It'll be good
for you. Go work hard. If you're feeling
good, go work hard. It'll make you stronger, make
you feel better. If you're broke, go to work. It's good for you. An occupation is good for us.
Working hard is good for us. What's this mean spiritually?
Spiritually, don't steal God's glory anymore. That's what we
did before. That's what that old man we need
to put off was doing. We were glory thieves. Put off
that old man. And we were laboring to try to
get spiritual riches. We were working with our hands.
Sacrificing with our hands to try to appease God. Try to indebt
Him to us. Try to earn a wage from Him.
That's what we were working at. Trying to work out our own salvation.
Work out our own holiness. Well God save me, I gotta get
holy though. That's on me. That's working with your hands.
That's stealing the glory of God, stealing His work. But now
that He's given us those spiritual eyes to see, all glory is His,
all honor is His. All work is His. If these hands
do any work, it's Him doing it. It's Him giving the power and
the motivation to do it. Now we use our hands for good.
Now we use our hands for good. For the furtherance of the gospel.
to those that are needy. Who's needy? Needy sinners. What
can I do? And that's not just going out
and earning a lot of money so you can pay for the building
and the broadcast and serving audio and all that stuff. That's
anything we can to do to further the gospel. You know what that
could be down to? Smiling at the grocery store. Somebody drops
something in a parking lot and you just grin. That's a furtherance
of the gospel, isn't it? I wonder why that person's so
happy. Say it's a bad day. The store was closed. Why are
they grinning? That's in your hands to do. If
that's what it's put in your hand to do, do it. Do it. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter
6. After Proverbs and before Song
of Solomon, Ecclesiastes chapter 6. Practically in this world, if
we, just walking around, that's common, isn't it? We wanna save
all we can and can all we save. Preserve it. Wanna see how big
we can get that bank account before we die. And then where
does it go? Well, we're dead, it don't go
to us. Well, I wanna do that for my children. Well, if they
ain't the one that worked for it, and they haven't had to go
out and hustle for it themselves, it may be to their detriment,
couldn't it? It could ruin them. That's to
help others, to be spread for others. It says here in Ecclesiastes
6 verse 1, There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and
it is common among men. This is a very common thing.
A man whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honor, so that he
wanteth nothing for his soul. The Lord has given us everything
we could imagine, everything we could want. We have no want
in our soul, all that we desire. Yet God giveth him not power
to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. This is vanity and
is an evil disease. You receive all these things
and may hoard it. Well, you can't eat it. You might be able to
buy something to eat, but you ain't going to be able to buy
that much to eat. A stranger is going to eat it. Chapter 5,
verse 13, there's a sore evil which I have seen under the sun,
namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. This is
the wisest man that ever born of Adam telling us to hoard up
this stuff and not have a... We stay for a rainy day, but
we expect it to rain, don't we? We expect if it ain't rain on
me, it's rain on you. What can I do to help? Have that
for others. We can hoard it up, but it will
be to our hurt if we do so. Alright, back in our text here,
verse 29. Let no corrupt communication...
That word corrupt means rotting, stinking. corrupt. 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." Practically,
if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything. That's not groundbreaking, is
it? That's common sense almost, isn't it? That's put in us. If
you ain't got something nice to say, don't say it. That's the practical
of it. Spiritually, let no decaying, rotting, stinking communication
come out of our mouths, but rather that which is good. What's good?
There's none good but God. What's stinking and vile? This
flesh, this world, all around us, isn't it? Speak of Him. Speak the truth about our Lord
and speak of Him. What's that edifying? That's
to build up. Say something that builds up.
Say something that edifies, not tears down, that's not destructive.
That's a service of grace. That's a ministry of grace to
the one that hears it. That's doing a service to your
brethren. Say something good to them. Remind
them of what the Lord's did for them. Build them up. Tell them
the truth. I was told that from a young
age with my pastor. If you're going to say anything,
is it true? Most of what we say in our walk
in this world, 50% of it might be true. We read one thing and
say, oh, that's it, and run with it. Where'd you get that from? So-and-so said it. Where'd they
get it from? I don't know. They probably don't know where
they got it either. But whatever I have to say, if I have to open
my mouth, is it true? Is it kind? Is it edifying? Does it build up? Is it kind?
Is it true? Is it kind? And is it necessary? Is it necessary? Do I really
need to say it? I can say things true. I can
be kind about saying them. And boy, sometimes it just ain't
necessary. I'm learning a little bit about truth and the kindness.
Necessity is what I pray the Lord work with me. But is it
necessary? Do I have to? My brother told
me that all the time. He said, don't tell everything
you know. You don't have to. good, bad, or ugly. You don't
have to tell everything you know. Be willing to listen, to lie, to
be angry all the time, to steal glory, not working to support. In some way, however that is,
the furtherance of the gospel, that gospel of free salvation
in Christ, to promote Him, to say things that are mean, that
are corrupt, say things that are unnecessary. What does that
do? Look here in verse 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby ye are sealed into that day of redemption."
That Holy Spirit, he told us in chapter 1, that seals us,
that preserves us, stamps us to that day of redemption. We're
sealed for eternity in our Lord. It grieves the Holy Spirit to
do those things. That's the same in the Greek
as the Hebrew where I told you before there's five words for
repentance. The word repentance is used, repent. There's five
meanings to that, and this one's sigh, to groan. It's almost a
disappointment, isn't it? Now how could God the Holy Spirit
grieve? I don't know. I can't explain
that. But if that's what the Word tells
me, I don't want to do those other things that makes Him grieve.
When we see that one that sealed us, And Christ that bought us
and God the Father that purposed this salvation, I don't want
to do anything against Him. I don't want to bring dishonor.
I don't want to bring reproach on the Gospel. And I don't want
the Holy Spirit to grieve because of me. I don't know what that
means, but I don't want it to happen. You who are bought with a price,
what's our desire? Do we want to grieve the Holy
Spirit or do we want to have a ministry of grace? of kindness
that benefits the hearers out of our mouth. How do we keep
from grieving the Holy Spirit? Verse 31, let all bitterness
and wrath, bitterness is just being sour, bound up. Wrath, that continued anger,
and anger, that temporary anger, being mad, and clamor. You know
what clamor is? I just can't keep it in any longer. I got to tell it. I'm going to
bust it. If you feel like it's going to
rip out of you, I have to say this. Don't say it. Swallow it
down. Don't let it go down on your
anger. Put off that old man. Clamor and evil speaking. That's the
corrupt communication. Be put away from you with all
malice, all evil things. Put that away from you. Put off
that old man. Put on the new man. Why could we do that? How could we do it and why would
we do it? What's our motivation? Verse 32, and be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. That's all the opposite
of verse 31, isn't it? Even as God, for Christ's sake,
for His great name's sake, hath, hath forgiven you. That's not contingent, is it? No matter what I do in this world,
People say, if I believe what you believe, I'd live like I
want to. That's exactly right. I don't want to. The Lord's truly
showed a sinner. He hath, for Christ's sake, forgiven
you, saved you, preserved you for the end of eternity. That's
our attitude. That's our motivation. Changed
it. Now I want to do loving things. I want to be tenderhearted. I
praise our motivation.