I'm sure you have as well, but I talk frequently to to men and
women that young and old, rich and poor, that struggle with
what Paul describes in Romans 6 and seven.
They profess and you profess just like Paul did, that I am no
longer under the law, but under grace, and sin has no dominion
over me. I've died to that which held me
captive, and I'm called to serve in the new way of the Spirit.
And then Paul immediately goes in the next breath and says, But
I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to
carry it out, for I do not do the good I want.
I delight in the law of God and my inner being, but I see in my
members another law waging war against the law of my flesh and
making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in me.
And he confesses in verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will
deliver me from this body of death.
And our church members, in our context, they'll phrase it like
this. How am IA man of God, a woman of
God, still not able to put away my childish things?
How am I, after these months and years, not able to kick these
addictions? And how can I not move past
these foolish things? How can I continue to say these
things? How can I continue to act so
foolishly? And the answer is because you're
not Jesus Christ. And maybe this is your
opportunity. If you're asking that to figure
that out, you are not him, especially if you grew up in the
church, especially if you've gone to OBU and you've seen
mature Christians that are ahead of you and you've seen faithful
churches. And what a, a, a wonderful and
and terrifying thing refined Christian can be in the hands of
God. You could see by looking into
the future, looking at these individuals, what your life
could look like and what you could accomplish.
And then you wonder as an 18 year old, as a 30 year old, as a
40 year old, why am I not there yet?
And there are several things to see even from Paul.
He goes on immediately to say God has done what the law could
not do by sending His own Son. He condemned sin in the flesh in
order that the righteous requirement of the law might be
fulfilled in us. This is where we insert the
glorious gospel into this. There is grace.
If you are a Christian, when you fall short, the there's not a
righteous standard that you're trying to meet.
It's already been met by the Lord of glory.
He died in your place. There's only one sinless Son of
God, and it's not you. You needed Him.
And Paul's glorious gospel continues despite the addictions
and the weaknesses and the failures.
Not only does God give you grace when you fall short, chapter 8
moves on to say He actually helps you in your weakness.
He doesn't help you in your strength.
He helps you in your overwhelming weakness.
And the chapter teaches that the Holy Spirit comes in your life
and he's your live in contractor that begins to do his perfect
work and he begins to make You Beautiful from the inside out
and he renews you and he strengthens you in your war
against sin and temptation. And then he adds to this amazing
list, more than just extending grace, more than just
strengthening you, He says the Spirit prays for you and he
intercedes for you and your weakness.
Romans 826 with groanings that are too deep for words.
And that's why Paul asks at the end of that chapter, if God is
for us, who can be against us? No, and all these things, we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I'm sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord. How could it with this list?
And this is the background to what Paul is asking of you in
the conclusion of Ephesians 4, and you can turn there.
We just spent three full chapters understanding what God
has done for us and the new identity that He's given to us.
He says that God has prepared good works for you in eternity
past, that you might walk in them.
It says that the Father has predestined his church, and
predestined is always unto something.
And we saw that predestination was unto adoption, that he might
be our Father, and that we might be called sons of God.
It's by grace that we've been saved through faith.
It's the gift of God, not a result of works.
And we saw that it's God's nature to abound in mercy and
grace. And he's united his church under
Jesus Christ. He's given this local body and
all local bodies, pastors and teachers to, to guide them and
to walk them. And through the faith and he
ascended into heaven. A wonderful and beautiful
thought that Jesus ascended into heaven, not that he could take
tribute from the world, but that he could give, as is his nature,
gifts to His church. That we can continue the work
that he began while he was here. And you come all the way up to
our context. RJ taught last week from
Ephesians 424. And he brought us this reminder
that you were created in the image of God, in righteousness
and in holiness. And having brought you to this
point, a transition is going to happen.
And he sits you down like a father would sit down his own
son or his own daughter. And he says, and this is this is
specifically practically how you can do that.
This is what it looks like to live, considering all of these
glorious truths from Ephesians one to three and even 4.
And this is for all the people who are frequently surprised by
their own immaturity. And this is for all the people
who are still struggling with addiction and for all the people
who can't seem to put away their childish things, You have to
remember you are not Jesus Christ.
And knowing that Paul's just said there's no condemnation for
those in Christ, but only grace. And then hold that thought
because he says, but now by the strengthening of the Holy
Spirit, there is effort required.
And so now in response to that grace, not in order to gain the
grace, but in response to that grace, we add hustle.
We have to hustle and there's a continual taking off and putting
on. And this happens over the days
and over the weeks and over the decades.
There's a a sanctification that happens, a lifetime of
sanctification of our being renewed in the new man after the
image of God. And this is really the first
section of Ephesians. We've said that there's an
overwhelming amount of commands and we haven't really seen any
yet. We saw back in chapter 2, verse
11, he commands us, you know, remember where you came from so
that you can appreciate where you are now.
And then he comes, he says walk according to the high calling
that God has given you in Christ.
And now if you look with me to Ephesians 425 to 32, you get 12
imperatives in eight verses. He leans in.
It's a barrage of commands. They're all grounded in identity
and calling and grace. And what he's doing with the
commands that he gives you, they're for a purpose.
What he's doing is he's showing you what is meant when he says
put off the old self and put on the new self.
He's teaching you what sorts of behaviours ought to flow out of
your new identity. Calvin says it poetically from
the righteousness of the new man.
All godly exhortations flow like streams from a spring.
Read with me the streams in Ephesians 425 and continuing,
Paul writes to the all the local churches around the area of
Ephesus. And he says to them, Therefore,
having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth
with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on
your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
But the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing
honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to
share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out
of your mouths, but only such is good for building up as fits the
occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
And 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 clamour and slander be
put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another
as God and Christ forgave you. Best accent in the church goes
to Ian Hamilton. He says Christians are not only
defined, but what we're against. We are defined by what we are
for. Ephesians teaching us what we
were for. And there's a long list of the
church. The world looks at the church
and they categorize, categorize us by what we're against.
We say we're not defined by what we don't do.
But we are against premarital sex and cohabitation and
homosexual lifestyles and adultery and pornography and
egalitarianism and autonomous self definition and divorce.
And we are against recreational drug use and alcoholism and
gambling and materialism and addictions of every kind.
And we are against racism and partiality and slavery.
But we have to manage what we've put off and what we're against
with what we were for. Because if you look at Jesus
Christ and you think if he just took away our sin without adding
the extra imputation of giving us his righteousness, then we're
still lost. It's not just that he took away
our sin, it's that he's added to us his own righteousness.
And the same is true. We're not defined by all of the
things that we put away, but we're defined by the
righteousness that we put on. We're being renewed.
And so God doesn't tell us just to take the weeds out of our
garden, but he says, you plant beautiful flowers in their
place. And this is the Christian life,
a continual pulling up the weeds even as you plant the flowers.
And so we're defined in this passage by what we're for.
We are for, as Christians, truth.
We are for purity of mind and body and speech.
We are for diligent labour and a strong work ethic and
generosity. We are for edifying talk that
builds one another up. We're for tender hearts.
We're for kindness and we're for forgiveness.
And every commandment or exhortation that Paul gives in
these 8 verses surround the same theme.
These are about social virtues, social virtues that exist in and
for healthy churches. And these are moral excellence
of characters as it's patience and humility and kindness and
honesty and faithfulness and courage and gentleness and
justice. Not just to have them, but that
they may be used for the good of other people.
And this is the lifestyle of a new person.
It's all aimed at establishing and preserving the unity and
witness of local churches the world over.
This is the worthy walk that Paul's describing, but the
worthy walk in the social sphere, the the worthy walk with
respect to other people. And as we go through each of
these cycles of taking off and putting on these replacements, I
want you to see that there's a pattern that Paul establishes.
And it's a three fold, three-part structure.
And he gives, he gives a negative command and then he
gives a positive command. And then he gives a reason for
the positive command. And it's, it's, he's doing this,
it's designed to motivate you to do these things.
You have every reason to pursue these things.
And we'll say it this way. First he's going to give you a
social vice that you are to put away.
And then he's going to give you a social virtue to replace it
with, and then he's going to give you a reason for that
replacement. And we're going to follow that
pattern. 5 * 5 substitutions that you have to make #1 Truth
must replace falsehood #2 righteous anger must replace
controlling anger #3 generosity must replace stealing #4 the
language of blessing must replace the language of cursing.
And 5th and finally #5 kindness must replace animosity.
We'll go through these one by one.
The first replacement that has to happen in your life.
You have to replace truth, or truth must replace falsehood.
And speaking personally, this is one of my favorite verses in
Scripture because 30 years ago, Conchita Hansford taught me
Ephesians 425. This is the first verse I ever
memorized. And now all these years later,
decades later, I get to teach her this verse as her pastor.
And so it's a glorious thought. I had to look up this week.
You can read it with me. Look with me.
You gave it to me in the NIVI. Had to look it up to see even
how I had it memorized. But it says, therefore, let each
of us put off falsehood and speak truthfully to our
neighbor. For we are all members of 1
body. Yours may say we are all members
one of another. And if you memorize Ephesians
425, the best people do, then you will see you're also
memorizing Zechariah 816. It's it's quoting from the
prophet Zechariah. And it's significant when you
look back to that context, because this isn't in this
ancient context. We've already read it together
this morning as a church. It's a promise that God is going
to restore his people. He says, I've brought judgement
on you. I've removed your play.
I've removed your old age. I've brought punishment and
chastisement and refinement. But he says after this difficult
season where he was going to punish them, he prophesized of a
future day where he will bring blessing.
It came in verse 11. He said, But now I will not deal
with the remnant of this people as in the former days declares
the Lord of hosts. For there shall be a sowing of
peace. The vine shall give its fruit,
and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall
give their due. And I will cause the remnant of
this people to possess all things, And as you've been a
byword of cursing among the nations, O House of Judah and
House of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a
blessing. And then he gives some
exhortations, and he says, And on that day this is how you are
to live. This is how you are to deal
socially with one another. He says, this is what Paul
quotes from in Ephesians 425. Speak the truth in love.
Zechariah says render true judgments, do not devise evil in
your hearts, and do not love false oaths.
And so apparently the the beauty of this passage is that Paul
sees the Ephesian church that he's preaching to, that he's
writing to as this new community that Zechariah was prophesying.
And even by extension, it would be us.
We are the redeemed new creation the God is forming, and we along
with them are fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah.
And he continues the promise that many peoples and many
strong nations are going to seek the Lord of hosts and entreat
the favour of the Lord. And they will say, let us go
with you, we pray they will say of our church, let us go with
you, because we see that God is with you.
And how do they see? And how do they know that the
Lord is with us? They see our virtue, they see
our love for one another, they see our speaking the truth and
love, they see our building one another up.
And that's what Paul is getting at.
Even in in Zechariah back in verse 3 of chapter 8, he said
that the new Jerusalem is going to be called by a different name
in the future. He says Jerusalem is going to be
called the city of truth. And so we see that this taking
off of falsehood and putting on, of truth is an eternal taking
off, an eternal putting on eternally putting off falsehood,
eternally putting on truthfulness.
And, and it's because honesty is essential for the flourishing of
any community. You have to have a church that
speaks the truth to one another. There has to be a freedom to
come to church. And if you're coming to church
with a smile on your face while your life is in shambles,
there's a disconnect. You're not being truthful.
You can't try and engage a church community with a, a fake
hope and a fake smile. And there has to be an honesty
between the congregation and their pastors.
You have to speak truthfully to us and the information has to
flow from us truthfully and honestly to you and has to free
flow from the whole congregation, from the deacons
to the elders to the church. And there has to be perfect
communication, perfect honesty. Because without this there is no
trust and there is no health. You cannot have a healthy church
without honesty. And as is typical in this in
this section he gives the reason why do we make this replacement?
He says because we are all members of 1 body, we are all
members one of another. And you see that deception
doesn't just harm the individual, we think it does.
A simple lie or a simple piece of gossip that comes into the
congregation will soon leaven the whole lump.
Deception flows through the congregation.
There's a famous expository preacher from the early church,
John Chrysostom. He wisely asked, rhetorically
asks if the eye sees a serpent, does it lie to the foot?
If the nose smells a deadly drug, does it lie to the mouth?
If the tongue tastes something bitter, does it lie to the
stomach? Neither does 1 member of a local
church seek to deceive another because we are all members of 1
body. And as we move through all of
these replacements, I want you to see it feels almost
proverbial as you go through it. It feels like this skill in
living. There's this wisdom.
And so I want to couple the wisdom of Solomon and the
Proverbs with the wisdom of Ephesians as we go through to
inform us as well. Solomon says in Proverbs 12/19
Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is only for a
moment. Proverbs 12/22 Lying lips are an
abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his
delight. Proverbs 1612 to 13 It is an
abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by
righteousness. Righteous lips are the delight
of a king, and he loves him who speaks what is right.
You can search your own heart and your own relationships and
say, what relationship do I need to to confess the truth in?
What's a relationship that I've not been honest and I need to
replace lying and deceitfulness with honesty.
Paul says each of you must put off falsehood and speak
truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of 1 body.
Second command, second cycle. Righteous anger must replace
controlling anger. Read with me in verses 26 to 27.
Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on
your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.
Psalm 26 quotes again. If we look at Psalm 25, it was a
quotation of Zechariah 816. You go to Psalm 26.
It's not quoting the prophets, but the Psalms.
This is a quotation of Psalm 4 which says be angry and do not
sin. Ponder in your own hearts and on
your beds and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put
your trust in the Lord. Peter Craigie is a famous Psalm
commentator and he says this. The psalmist advises his
adversaries to keep their rage within themselves and to
maintain control of their actions and of their evil words.
Because you have to be able to control your body.
You have to be able to control your emotions and the point is
not to not be angry. The the point is to replace the
anger that controls you with a righteous anger that you are in
control of. That's the that's the ask.
He's saying avoid sin in situations where your anger is
present because as Christians, we can't not be angry.
If we love God, then by nature we hate evil.
And if we love justice, then we hate injustice.
And so we we're angry at these things be saying in your anger,
do not sin. Paul says steward your anger and
shepherd it as one who is in control of it.
Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ who
fashioned a whip in the temple and cleaned it out probably
twice. And the same Christ got angry
with the Pharisees and their hypocrisy and he, he records,
Matthew records 7 woes that he pronounces on them.
The point is not to be angry. The point is to to be in
control. And that makes anger different
from the other vices on the list, because it's the only one.
That is not inherently wicked, and as you move into verse 27
from 26 you you move into an extremely short verse. 6 words
in my ESV 5 in the original give no opportunity for the devil.
What Paul's saying is that if you have prolonged anger in your
heart, Satan will use it. This is opportunity for the
devil. He will gain a foothold in your
life. You know this, you've seen it,
you've lived this. Satan will ruin the life of a
perpetually angry person. Paraphrases Do well with these
two verses. 1 commentator offers this translation.
Be angry if you must, but stop sinning by continuing your empty
false speech or the message here says, go ahead and be angry.
You do well to be angry, but don't use your anger as fuel for
revenge. Don't go to bed angry.
Don't give the devil that kind of foothold in your life.
And he brings in strategically, you'll see why he brings in the
principal power of darkness. It's it's the devil, the
slanderer. He brings up Satan in this
context. And the, the word devil here
means literally one who engages in slander.
And you can think back just to the to the last command.
We were to speak truthfully to our neighbor for we're all
members of 1 body. We were to image Christ who is
the truth, not the slanderer who speaks lies.
I think that's why he calls him the devil here literally.
And he adds the, the article, the in from it in front of it.
It is the devil. It's the slanderer, the one who
speaks lies. It's the evil one himself.
And Jesus taught us that the devil in John 844 has nothing to
do with the truth because there is no truth in him.
He lies because he is the father of lies.
And so there is no room in the truth for error.
But there's a lot of room for error that got that backwards.
There's no room for error in the truth.
But as Satan likes to to convince us that there is much
room for truth and error, and he comes as a, as a looking like a
disciple or an Angel of light. And so remember that he's just
called us to truthfulness and to walk into the light and to image
Jesus. And you have to choose today
whom you are going to serve. Are you going to allow the
bitterness and the anger to dwell in you and be a son of
your father the devil? Or are you going to choose to
image the Lord of glory to control your anger and be used
as a force for good and a unifying presence in your
community? Again, the Proverbs instruct us
with skill and living. Proverbs 1429 Whoever is slow to
anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper
exalts folly. Proverbs 1518 A hot tempered man
stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.
In Proverbs 1911 good sense makes 1.
Slow to anger and it is His glory to overlook an offence.
So we're going to continue this. Paul's going to pick up on the
theme of anger again. But first he moves to 1/3
substitution. He moves and continues in verse
28 and he says generosity must replace stealing.
Read verse 28 with me. Let the thief no longer steal,
but rather let him labour doing honest work with his own hands
so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
The devil lies and deceives Christians.
Our heads hit the pillow at night knowing that we are
morally pure. I used to watch my grandpa
Ellen. He would every time he'd lay
down on the couch or lay down in bed, he would immediately fall
asleep. It was insane how fast this man
could fall asleep. And so one day I asked him,
Ellen, how do you go to sleep so fast?
And his words were Sun. I have a clear conscience.
So it's amazing the blessings that God brings when you're not
lying, when you're not bitter, when you're not angry, when
you're not deceiving, you can fall asleep.
It's a blessing. Your conscience is clear.
And stealing here is, you've probably heard it before.
Stealing is the word klepto. And it's not a robbery.
It's not just overt, you know, stealing from people.
It's, it's more private than that.
It's sneakier than that. This is this is secret stealing.
And we see it in our own. Context in a a number of ways.
We see labourers stealing from their employers.
We see employers stealing from their employees.
We see people stealing time. Probably most commonly we see
employers cheating their customers for profit.
The new year is coming, which means it's time for W twos and
1090 nines and K ones. It's going to be your annual
test of am I going to be honest with my government or am I going
to skirt the truth? And so I used to be involved
when I think of not stealing. I, I, I remember of, I used to
do non-emergency medical transportation and drive this
wheelchair van and had a route on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
that started at 4:45 in the morning.
Praise God, those days are behind.
And there was a lady that I always, I would always pick up
first in the morning and I would always be picking her up as her
son would be coming in from a night's work.
He was a professional thief. And I remember getting to
overhear the conversations of this dad to his own son of, of
him just saying, how, how much longer, how much longer are you
going to live like this? How, how much longer you could
see that the shame that the, that the mom and the dad felt
for their own son. It's it's a shameful way to
live. He would burglarize his.
Homes and come in in the wee hours of the morning Paul and is
the opposite. He didn't even want to take a
salary from the church because he was so afraid that he they
would think that Christianity is trying to take something from
the world. Paul wanted you to understand
Christianity is a religion that gives and gives and gives and
even Jesus Christ again seats at the right hand of God the Father
so that he might give gifts to men.
We don't even want to give the appearance of lying and of
stealing. A thief steals.
Satan is a thief and he's a murderer and he comes to steal,
kill and destroy. But Christians, the Bible says
we are to lend without interest, lest there even be a hint of
immorality in US. And we are to give in generosity
and we are to give with cheerful hearts.
And that's why stealing is a huge issue, because you're
approaching the very religion and the very God that you're
professing. It's a, it's a violation of the
8th commandment. Do not steal. 2 words in the
original posted. No stealing.
Don't do it. And so Paul?
Adds a positive aspect to this. Our goal is not simply to take,
to not take other people's things, but following after our
Lord. We are to give, to go and give.
He says put on generosity and then he gives the reason.
He says go and work with your hands that you might share and
participate in new Kingdom life. Satan is going to to steal and
kill and to take, but you are going to give.
We share the fruit of our. Diligent labour.
We go and we have the what? What?
We preach all the time as a Protestant work ethic, we work
harder than everyone else in the world.
I love this church. You work harder than any church
I've ever seen, and you work hard so that you can fill
yourself with resources, so that you can give them to somebody
that did not labour for them. That's the call of the
Christian. We share the fruit of our labour
for those who did not labour. Proverbs 10 For a slack hand
causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. 1125
Whoever brings blessings will be enriched, and one who waters
himself will be watered. I wonder if that was in Isaiah's
mind. As he says, as you pour yourself
out for the vulnerable, Isaiah 58 he says You will be yourself
become a watered garden, a refreshment to other people, and
yourself refreshed by God. Proverbs 2125 The desire of the
sluggard kills him, for his hands refused to labour all day
long. He craves and craves, but the
righteous gives and does not hold back.
John Stott says powerfully. Only Christ can turn burglars
into benefactors for substitution.
Language of blessing must replace the language of cursing,
read verse 29. Let no corrupting talk.
Come out of your mouths, but only such is as good for
building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those
who hear. Let no corrupting talk.
The word corrupting is a colorful word.
It's a rare word in the ancient world or even in scripture.
The basic meaning is putrid or rotten.
If you look at its usage, it means or describes rotted wood,
diseased lungs, rancid fish, withered flowers, and rotten
fruit. So Clinton Arnold says what Paul
is doing with this image is he's creating a gag reflex in you for
the things that you should not say, to say these words that you
ought not to speak. He's he's saying they're,
they're meant to be repulsive. It's it's meant to gag you.
And the opposite of that is the word good.
It's the antonym to filthy. He says we are to speak
encouraging and helpful words. It's beautiful metaphors in
Colossians 46, beautiful language where he says let your
conversation always be full of grace and seasoned with salt.
He says let it be a ministry one to another.
So every word that comes out of your mouth, God says you have to
give an account for every careless word that you speak.
But he says that every word that comes out of your mouth is to be
wholesome, is to be marshalled for the purpose of of building
up believers. We lack enough in the church.
And Paul says it's your very words that can build up what is
lacking in other people and some of that need and the reason that
he gives that we replace foul language with the blessing
blessed language is is given. We're not just trying to not
harm other people. Again, the the point is not just
to not be angry and not lie and not steal and not harm, but he
says your speech is for grace. Your speech is.
Going to be used to manifest God's grace to other people in
the world. Your words are instruments.
And you can see the the. Power of a negative word is one
word of gossip comes into the church, it spreads and it
leavens the whole lump. And what you need to understand
as a Christian is it's the same with with powerful edifying
words. One word spoken in season can
equally and likewise build up a church and build up a community.
That's why Toby Mac says speak life.
We can turn to heart with the words we say.
Mountains crumble with every syllable and hope can live or
die. The application is so speak
life. Proverbs 12/18.
There's one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the
tongue of the wise brings healing.
Proverbs 154A. Gentle tongue is a tree of life,
but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
Proverbs 1624. Gracious words are like the
honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
Finally, the 5th commandment brings up anger again. 5th
replacement taking off and putting on.
He says kindness must replace animosity.
Read these final words with me starting in verse 30.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God that was we
studied that at length in Isaiah 6363.
You can go back and and listen to those words again.
He says, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be
put away from you along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another
as God in Christ forgave you. And you're going to see in this
even this small section within a section of a progression that
starts in the the disposition of your heart where he says your
anger and your bitter and it moves to turns up the heat and
he says now there's anger and wrath that is within you and it
moves to clamour. What, what's internal comes
external, and then it moves to to words that are harmful
against your brothers and your sisters.
And the vice begins here with bitterness.
There's bitterness in your heart.
The word is picria, a state of being bitter.
It has to do with the feelings and the mood.
You're in a bad mood. You're in a bitter mood, and as
you dwell here and you allow the sun to go down on your anger,
here then comes the power of this Greek construction that
we've already seen. There's the word pass or all,
and he adds A substantive after it, which means all sorts of or
every form of, every kind of anger, every kind of clamour,
every kind of wrath, every kind of bitterness.
Put it away. There's no room for this in the
Christian life and there's no room for it in your heart
because from it come. Here's 2 words that get used all
the time together in the ancient world, in an ancient literature,
they mean the same thing. Anger and wrath.
Wrath being a state of intense displeasure and anger, strong
displeasure. And as you allow this to, to
dwell in your heart, next comes clamor.
Because out of the abundance of the heart, what happens?
The mouth speaks. When you open your mouth, the
only thing that comes out is what's already inside of you,
and if you have anger and bitterness in your heart, your
mouth will open and out will come clamour.
It means angry and abusive speech.
It means crying aloud and screaming and shouting.
And Paul says there's no place. For this among God's people,
there's no place for this in your marriages.
There's certainly no place for that in the local church.
And you can see Jesus is the king of Salem.
That's his title. It means the king of peace.
We just came out of the Christmas season reading Isaiah.
He's the Prince of Peace and the vice list ends with the word
literally. The word blasphemia means
slanderer. Remember what Devil means.
He is the slanderer. We do not follow after Satan.
He is not our father. No defamation and abuse of
speech. That's what blasphemia means.
And so harsh words can. Inflict incredible damage and.
According to God's word. Without without ever being
touched physically by another person, all of this, all of this
feelings can can come. You can produce in another
person with your words, a broken spirit.
Job 17 one Psalm 51. You can create in another person
a crushed spirit, a sad heart for Samuel 1/8 Pain of heart
Isaiah 65 a broken heart or anguish of heart 2nd Corinthians
2 four. You can do this with abusive
speech without ever laying hands on somebody else.
And there are those who will tell you who have been
emotionally and verbally abused. I would rather have experienced
physical punches than this. So we put this out of your.
Homes, you keep this out of your church, your pet, in your life
after Jesus Christ, who was gentle and lowly in heart.
Who was long? Suffering the words macrothumia,
it literally means long tempered, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love. And you can think back, go back
to Ephesians 211 and remember where you were and remember what
Christ has done for you, the grace, the the adoption, the
inheritance, that you're an heir.
And consider how he's dealt with you.
And then ask this question, why are you angry?
Why are you so angry? Why do you steal when God has
given you everything and abundantly more than all you can
ask or imagine, He says, consider the Sparrow and
consider all of these things. You, you have need of nothing.
He will provide every need for you.
Why do you steal? Why do you lie?
When you serve the God of. Truth.
Who deals honestly with you? Put off these things.
And then Paul adds here we don't just take it off, he says and
put off. Put on kindness.
Verse 32, Be kind to one another, be tender hearted.
Forgive one another as Christ forgave you or as God and Christ
forgave you. Deal with other people the way
that Christ has dealt with you. He dealt with you graciously,
forgiving when others fail because Christ has forgiven you
when you failed. And I want to read this parable
to you and let this parable wash over you.
This was Jesus in Matthew 1821 to 35, the parable that he
wrote, the unforgiving servant. Jesus said therefore the
Kingdom. Of heaven may be compared to a
king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him
10,000 talents, and since he could not pay, his master
ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that
he had, and for payment to be made.
So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, Have patience
with me, and I will pay you everything.
And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released
him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went
out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100
denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, Pay
what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down
and pleaded with him, Have patience with me and I will pay
you. He refused and went and put him
into prison until he should pay the debt.
When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were
greatly distressed, and they went and reported their master
all that had taken place. And his master summoned him and
said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt
because you pleaded with me. And should not, should you not
have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?
And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers
until he should pay all his debt.
So also, my Heavenly Father will do to everyone of you, if you do
not forgive your brother from your heart.
So ask of. Your own soul.
What atmosphere enters with you when you enter into a room?
Are those around you? Are they cursed because of your
presence, or are they in dread, blessed because of your
presence? Do they dread your presence, or
are they glad that you're there? Are they guarded?
When you walk in or are they hopeful?
Are they defensive or do they come alive?
Because here are the social. Virtues that are meant to, we
are meant to embody. These are the social virtues
that build and guard the integrity of this fellowship, He
says truth must replace falsehood, righteous anger must
replace controlling anger, generosity must replace
stealing, the language of blessing must replace the
language of cursing, and kindness must replace animosity.
And then here, all of the results that Paul has brought up
to this point, he says, And if you do that, you will be
unified. We'll be 1 member of 1 body, one
with another. And through our work ethic and
through our productivity, we will all have something to share
with those in need. And we build one another up and
we give grace to all who hear us.
We are full of the Holy Spirit and the church is blessed.
And this is not a sermon that says go and do better.
This is a sermon that says that where I want to say to you, you
are living these things. The Holy Spirit is here and he
is, he's working these things in our congregation.
I, I see you and I see you building one another up.
And I see the Spirit moving because our work ethic is like
nothing I've ever seen. I've never seen people who work
as hard as Heritage Church. And I'm, I'm grateful to be a
part of it. And we have fought to preserve
the unity that the Holy Spirit has brought here.
And with that. I want to invite the deacons to
come forward because this blood bought, Holy Spirit given and
preserved unity is why we take the Lord's Supper every month.
And so I want to pray for us deacons.
If you want to prepare the elements and begin to pass those
out, I want to pray for you. And you remember this unity that
we have and remember these replacements.
If there's any point that you need to to put something else
off or put something on. Replace a vice with a virtue.
Ask the Lord for His help to do that this morning.
Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage
Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit
our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.