Book of Ephesians - Ch. 4, Vs. 28-Ch. 5, Vs. 2 (08/19/2001)

Good evening. That was a wonderful lunch And ladies did a wonderful job as they always do and any of you men who contributed bless your hearts as well

We're in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 28. I understand I Missed a Sunday, but I believe that's where we left off Or we left off with verse 27.

So we'll start with verse 28 today Well Let's read the verses we'll cover and then we'll

We will go into them starting with Ephesians 4 and verse 28

Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor Working with his own 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 and to the hearers and Grief not the

Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption 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

Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and Hath given himself for us and offering in a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.

That's where we'll stop today Let's pray Father. Thank you so much for this day in time where we can come together as a family at local family that you have put together with your own hand and Study your word and worship you in our hearts and with our actions with our gifts and offerings and Our praises from our mouths as sacrifices unto you and father

We thank you so much as we study the scriptures. We we just you feed our hearts and our spirits so well and Father sometimes we feel like standing up and jumping or shouting and we just praise you for the word that you've given us the way you've revealed yourself to us and what darkness we would have been in without the revelation and the light of the

Word of God and what darkness we would have been in without the light of the

Living Word Jesus Christ as he came into this world and Lived his earthly life and as he is now seated on your right hand in session as our intercessor

Praise be to him and glory be to you in Jesus name. Amen Ephesians 428 let him that stole

Steal no more now that we're saved. We don't steal anymore But rather let him labor

Working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth notice that the motive for gaining financial

Wealth is so that you have to give to the person who needs and that's the motive that's given here

So let's let's break this down into an outline. First of all, let's talk about proper employment And then we'll talk about proper communication and remembering the communication in the

Bible Not only means what comes from our mouths by way of communication But it can be translated to mean the lifestyle the way that we live as well.

So first, let's look at this proper employment The first concept as I mentioned it says so that you may have to give to him that need it needed

What a beautiful motive for for gaining for working in order to gain income

So that you have to give when you see someone that has a need now if any of you and our congregation this afternoon

Have sensed in your life that you have the gift of giving there is such a spiritual gift Then you probably have also noticed that God has given to you

Because he would not expect you to give if you didn't have something to give so you often are the beneficiary of much at God's hand and Always remember and you know of all people if you have that gift

You know that the reason it comes to you is so that you might give it to others in in God's kingdom

And what a beautiful Opportunity that is now Notice that it says let him labor

Working with his own hands the thing which is good In other words that can mean several things first of all that you don't make your income off of something.

That's bad Something that hurts other people Secondly that you work with your hands that thing which

God has gifted you with giving you the ability to do So that you would have to give him that needs so the first idea under proper employment is so that you would have to give to others

In Acts chapter 18 verses 1 through 4 you don't have to turn to that. I'm not even going to read it I'm just mentioning that that is the place where Paul mentions that he

Built tents and he wrought he lived with Aquila and Priscilla The Bible says because their occupation was the same as Paul So Paul had an occupation

But it's then it says in the next verse and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the

Jews and the Greeks So so he worked building tents, but he also preached and persuaded and everywhere he went

It was like there it was all the same life the whole end of it all was to be persuading the

Jews and the Greeks about the beautiful gospel and That's the way it should be in any person's life

Any person we should not really divide our church into laity and clergy like the

Roman Catholics do We do recognize that God does give pastors and teachers and that that's a special gift

But he also gives many other special gifts and so we're all members of the same body and really

I think there's been a great mistake made in modern times, especially where we divide the clergy and we we

Sometimes give a man a full -time salary, which is not unbiblical But there are some men that that hurts because then you can also tell them what to preach.

You can also Give them some fear of losing that salary if the truth is told in a certain area and if a man has a problem in that area then he'd be better off to be

Like Paul and just build tents and not take that money. There are going to always be men who can't handle that I can list examples.

I know brother Rocky lived off the gospel predominantly Although he had other things he could do to to build a few tents

Dr. Criswell lives off the gospel, but he also lives off of huge huge royalties from books that he's written which is his way of building tents and so We see that the whole goal of this is that first of all

It is a means to an end any for any of us in this room that make a living

It is merely a means to an end and the end is the gospel work the kingdom work

What God has you here on this earth to do and to feed and clothe your family, of course and provide the needs for your wife

Your children that you're supposed to provide that is just as spiritual as any other thing God gives us to do we we know that from the scriptures

So it all works together But this teaching is to to always be able to labor

Working with your hands in a way that God's gifted you so that you not only have for your family

But you also have extra in order to give to those who have needs where maybe they're having hard times.

Maybe their Business or industry that they were in went under and they just they don't have anything right now

So if we have extra then then they can go right through smooth times Or at least smoother times.

All right the second Thing that it says here In first Thessalonians 4 11 it puts it this way and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business and To work with your own hands as we commanded you

That you may walk honestly toward them that are without and that you may have lack of nothing

So whereas the passage in Ephesians 4 verse 28 speaks of having extra so that you might in other words working with your hands being industrious in our lives

Always looking to see what doors the Lord is opening so that we might be industrious twice so that we might give to him that Has a need the passage in first Thessalonians 4 gives two other additional reasons for working

With our hands one is that you might be honest towards the community It's it calls it those on the outside so that you would not appear to be a busybody or a freeloader

You're you are you are Honest towards the average working people in the community who may or may not be

Christians and the second reason is Listed in first Thessalonians 4 12 and that you may have lack of nothing

So God now brings it down to the family level and he says I don't I not only want you to have extra so that you

Can meet other people's needs but I don't want you your family to lack I don't want them to lack anything. And so that's the reason that we are supposed to labor

Working with our hands that thing which is good Now let's move on to verse 29 now as we go into verse 29 in Ephesians We change the subject now to proper communication and This not only involves what we say with our mouths

But how we live what we say with our lives what we say with our actions But it says 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

Now if we stop there and reflect on that verse for a moment and we understand that verse 30 says to do otherwise is to grieve the

Holy Spirit Then this becomes a very important passage all passages are but not every passage that you read in the

Bible where you're instructed to do something Follows up and says if you don't you're gonna grieve God Not every passage says that now, maybe it's implied in a lot of places, but this place it says it

Says and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed into the day of redemption so apparently what we do and say to about other people and to other people with our mouths has the specific

Possibility of grieving the Holy Spirit if it's not done properly. So how what does it say the proper thing to do is?

Well, first of all, it tells us what not to do and then it tells us what to do It says don't let any corrupt communication come out of your mouths

Corrupt communication would is Implied here that it means anything that doesn't bring grace to the person that hears it and doesn't build up the person that hears it

But it can take it further than that. It can also mean any kind of things that you would say That are ungodly things that are not from God.

They're not from the heavenlies, but they come from below Earthy or as in James it says demoniacal

Earthy So forth those types of words should not be said So when you think of how the world talks the cursing that they do using the

Lord's name in vain Saying just words that are meaningless

Words that are cut down words where you saying to the other person and you're cutting them down All of that would be corrupt communication and it says don't let any of that come out of your mouth now

It tells the positive it says well, what should we say when we talk? Well, we should say words to people and about people that are good to be used to build the people that's what edify means that will build the people and So that way it will minister grace to the hearers now think about this a minute great

What does it mean to minister grace to somebody? I thought grace came only from God Well, its origin is

God, but remember that in most things in this realm God chooses to work in us When you take this

Bible right here God did not write but maybe ten commandments out of this whole book with his own finger the rest

He chose human instruments to pin his word Humans think about your own life

How did you come to the place to know Jesus Christ? you either came to know him by something these humans wrote in this human book that God gave or You heard a human being tell you about Jesus or you saw them live for Jesus or your mother told you about Jesus There is human instrumentality and almost everything that God does in this realm

And when we don't see that we call it a miracle, don't we? But the norm is for God to work through his people

And so when God wants to minister grace think about what that is that's talking about growing That's talking about the difference between the way you are today and the knowledge that you have of the

Word of God today From the day you very first got saved the difference now how many of you can remember?

When the teacher gets up and says turn to Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1 it took you 15 minutes to find

Ephesians You remember that? Somebody say I'm living that I'm living that right now.

Well, that's okay. There's a thing in the front I used to use call the table of contents and boy I had that page marked and I could look that up and find it before the teacher even got there

So use that But listen, some of you have gotten a place where you can find Ephesians some of you have gotten to the place where you know some of the deep things and the

Word of God is from certain passages and Think about the difference between where you are now and where you were when you first got saved the very first day of your salvation

All of that is because you grew in grace And did you know that a huge huge percentage of that had to do with human instrumentality either the person like Paul?

Who penned the particular books? the person like Wycliffe who who died

To print it in English in a printed form or how about your

Bible teacher here at church? Or how about just that Christian brother that said something to you now, that's where we come down to home this afternoon

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth But that which is good to use of edifying so that the words that we say to each other

Cause us to grow in the grace of God. That's amazing So it's really

God working in us to cause us to grow To cause each other to grow so we need to remember that as we speak to one another

We are instruments in God's hand and that is his perfect will So that as we speak to one another we should always think before we speak

We should always ask ourselves. Am I Connected am I connected am

I seated in the heavenlies right now? Or am I walking around earthy in the flesh because if I'm earthy and in the flesh

I'm going to say something that's not going to build I'm going to say something from From the flesh that's not going to do anything but harm

So am I connected am I one with the Holy Spirit and therefore am I in Christ? Seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of God and I am am

I in control of this body that has this tongue here and if I am now and now I'll speak and I'll say something to build my brother or sister because that's

God doing it in me God had it planned and ordained a long time before I ever said it

But now I'm working together with him in real time on the planet earth in time and space in history

And you look back at it someday from eternity Perhaps I don't know if we will or not.

But if we do you will see that was God speaking Through you or in you to help that other brother grow to a certain place

We can all take each other to where we are Maybe no further than that But we're all in different places in different areas of our understanding of the scriptures and we can all learn from each other

As long as the motive is to help build one another. So if that's not the motive then the mouth should remain closed

That's a good rule Let no corrupt communication come out of the mouth The only thing that comes out of the mouth is something that will build the brother and help him grow in grace

Now if we live by that rule, we wouldn't have much division would we? Wouldn't have any we just have growth

Dividing is the opposite of growth. Dividing is diminishing Growth is where we're growing in grace together as a local body and much of it has to do

If not, the predominance has to do with what comes out our mouths Isn't amazing the power that comes from our mouth and that little thing called the tongue

God tells us how to use it right here and you don't need a whole lot of other scriptures in dealing with ruling

That tongue it can be ruled by this beautiful verse in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29

Verse 30 says if you don't go by this rule If you don't go by the rule in verse 29

Every time the words that you say cuts the heart of that brother or sister you have just grieved

God How many of your parents would tell me you would agree with this experience if you if you have more than one child?

Where one of your children picks on the other one, do you like it? No You never like it and a lot of times you may come down kind of like the old referees in the football realm

Usually the guy that gets kicked out is not the guy that threw the first punch It's the one the referee saw

Sometimes we as parents will come and get involved in the middle of something. Maybe we didn't see how it started So we're not perfect in those areas

But I'll tell you this you don't like seeing one sibling pick on the other one

You don't want to see him calling each other stupid Not that my kids would ever do that and yours wouldn't either but you don't want to ever see that or hear it

You don't allow that you don't want to see him even given a little facial expression It's a cutting or hurtful.

It just makes a parent just furious on the inside and God is that way He does not like it one bit when we hurt the other brother or sister if we're not in the building process we're on the wrong track and So that's what these passages speak of now he goes into more detail on this issue of communication

And now we go more into a broader area of not just what we say with our mouths

Although it does continue to include speech but it also includes the entire life the lifestyle the way of our walk among each other and So in verse 31 he gives several things to avoid and then later he's gonna give you some positive things to do

So let's look at these things to avoid first avoid negative hurtful communication Whether it be with the mouth or with the lifestyle, whatever the body language

There's so many ways we can communicate. So look at verse 31 let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor

Don't you like that word clamor? Clamor just almost sounds like what it is, you know It's just what do you call that in grammar when the word sounds like what it is?

There's a word and I've forgotten what it is hmm onomatopoeia No, that was a song by Iron Butterfly.

I think no Okay, is that is that what it is? I bet you're right Okay, I can't say that but that's the word he just said it

I Think but it sounds like what the word is So you look at this clamor evil clamor and evil speaking put away from you

With all malice. Let's look at these one at a time. What's bitterness? Well bitterness comes from a

Greek word peak Riya Which means poison? And that's something

Poisoned bitterness is poison The Bible tells us that bitterness will lead to further

Bitterness, which will spread out and affect the larger congregation Isn't it sad to think that any one of us can allow bitterness to stew inside and it will then begin to affect the larger congregation and Yet the

Bible says it will and that's why God here says let bitterness be put away from you Now bitterness is poison bitterness,

I believe always has some help from the enemy But he doesn't need a lot of help because the flesh will continue that and what happens is it's the classic

Concept of building a mountain out of molehill. It really is a brother sister may look at us funny

We go home and Satan will come and put a thought in our minds and say well, you know Here's what they meant by that and the thought is absolutely a false

Accusation that's why the devil is named the devil the word devil means slanderer He's also called the accuser of the brethren

So when you get that accusative thought always stop and ask yourselves. What's the source of this thought?

And if there is a person who believes Satan cannot put such a thought in your mind Then you have to deduce that you thought it up yourself from your own flesh

But I think you would find that Satan has and does put thoughts in people's minds He certainly did that to Peter when

Jesus told him get thee behind me Satan and he's done it to many others in the scripture So it's not really all that debatable

Satan will and and can and will put thoughts in your mind. And what is why does he do it?

He wants to see what your flesh will do with the thought the natural tendency the earthy

Carnal tendency for a human being and Satan has known this for some what six thousand years at least

He has known that the carnal natural human thing to do is to turn that into bitterness and to roll it over and blow it up and make it bigger than it really is and So he loves in his demons.

He's not always around us, but his demons can do this as well And they'll put that thought in your mind just sit back and just watch they are let's see what they'll do with it

And then when there's a blow -up in a church or in a family can be between a child and a parent it can be

It happens in families happens in churches And they just sit back and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh because they've done the same thing for each generation

They don't really need new tricks so it turns into bitterness when a child of God allows it to now, what is the

What is the antidote to this that the enemy tries to do with bitterness Well, the

Bible says put it away from you That that's an active phrase.

That means there's something you have to do to stop it or it won't stop Doing nothing doesn't stop it

We must resist it the best way that I know is the scripture that says bring every thought into the captivity of the

Lord Jesus Christ and Anything that raises itself up high above God imaginations and thoughts

That raise themselves against what we know is of God We should we should bring those into captivity and pray and say

Lord, please give me the mind of Jesus Christ Don't let me think like this. I don't believe he would think like this.

This is not an edifying thought I don't believe it came from you Therefore remove it from my mind and let me think like Jesus would think right now in this circumstance and I'll promise you it will flee and If it flees it cannot grow into bitterness because it's gone now, that's just practical

Application of how to live and I practice that in my life and I expect you to as well now

So we can take this Bitterness and put it away. Now. What about wrath?

Wrath comes from the word thumos Well, that kind of sounds like thermos in English doesn't it have you ever heard that thing about the scientists that were meeting

My dad told me this joke a long time ago I'll blame it on him the scientists from from the world probably the three greatest scientists met together and they were just having coffee discussing things and One of them was from Russia and he and they asked the question asked was this

What is the most amazing thing in this world? What amazes you more than anything and the Russian guy said?

Well, I think space travel is amazing how the Americans were able to go to the moon and and get there and get back safely

It's just unbelievable and they asked the German. Well, what do you think? And he said well, I think

You know new the nuclear world is amazing physics amazes me quantum theory amazes me more than anything in the world and and The American scientist was a black guy and he was silent he wasn't saying anything

So they finally looked at him and they said what do you think the most amazing thing? He said well, I think gentlemen that the thumos bottle is the most amazing thing in the world

And they said why is that he said well in a in a hot summer day You can put cold lemonade in there and go to work come home that night and it's still cold

And he said gentlemen's on a cold winter day You can put hot soup in there and go to work that morning and come back that night and it's still hot

He says gentlemen, how do it know? so anyway, that's

That's from the Greek word thumos Now don't you tell Myron I told that joke because he would did he would tell it the other way it would be the

German Caucasian that would say that but Thumos thumos means passion and Passion heated passion fierceness

Indignation and so it says let wrath are this heated passion Be put away now aren't there times when your brothers and sisters even though, you know

Well, they're brothers and sisters. They will say something in such a way that you feel that adrenaline pumping and your emotions begin to go and you don't even want them to and And the thumos the passion rises up why because we're gonna correct

Untrue All right We've all done this now It's not wrong for the thumos to rise up and come right up your neck and hit your face.

That's not wrong Because what you then do is you put it away You can't control the thumos your body will just do that it's almost part of the fight -or -flight mechanism that God put in us and That will happen in the way that you put it away though as you say

Lord I don't want to be ruled by my flesh It may be natural and may be part of what goes on with the adrenaline flowing and all this

But I don't want to dwell in that area I just want to talk about truth with my brother and sister and be calm about this and you put it away you put that You don't let it build into Wrath or heated passion now look at the next word.

The next word is anger Anger is from the Greek word or gay which means

Live the primary meeting meaning is a strong desire, but secondarily it means a violent passion

So anger actually takes wrath and puts it in the physical Wrath can be in the heart anger can come out in the physical realm and certainly it says to put that away

The next one is clamor. It literally means an outcry so it means like a group is crying out against something and so in the church

Clamor is supposed to be put away Because usually it leads to division a lot of times clamor will lead to Team making where you go around you find who agrees with you so that you can be against those who don't and you create little teams or sects within the church and and The Lord forbids that because he says that's part of the flesh

So because in the spirit we have unity so anger is to be put away clamor is to be put away

What about evil speaking? This is an interesting Greek word. It's literally the word of blasphemy.

Ah, what does that sound like? Blasphemy let blasphemy be put away it can be the normal understanding obviously is is

Blasphemy against God but it can also have to do with Maligning the brother or sister, but normally it has to do against God, but let that be put away and then malice khakia

It means badness, but it comes from a little Greek word Kakos, which means worthless so malice is

Is a badness or a depravity or malignity that comes into the life? And it should not be found in the life of a

Christian. So let malice be put away Now this word put away is interesting when we come down to the end of this verse

All of these things that are listed there are six of them It says to put them away the word put away was interesting to me.

It's I ero and it literally carries the connotation of Sailing away or to weigh anchor and sail away

So these particular negative attributes bitterness wrath anger clamor evil speaking malice

These things we should just pull the anchor in and send them put them in a boat and let them just Sail away

We don't want them in our lives So, how are we supposed to be look at verse 32 be kind one to another tender -hearted forgiving one another

Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you kind Is Is a word that?

Carries a little bit stronger meaning in the Greek than it does in the English because I think in the English We would think of the word kind as being always a soft voice and always gentle and Sometimes though that's not what helps a person.

Let me give you what the Greek word for kind means It means useful

Especially in manner of morals Something that is useful be kind one to another be useful one to another is the literal rendition of this word it comes from a

Base Greek word that means to furnish what is needed now in that beautiful think about it read it this way

Be you kind one another read it this way furnish. What is needed one to another? spiritually physically

Furnish what is needed? What do you see that's needed in the life of this brother? I do think that the

English carries the right Color of the word in the sense that it is best done in a gentle way

This is not a rebuke. This is not an admonishment This is a supplying of need do you get the connotation supplying of need be kind one to another tender -hearted

This word means well Compassion comes from two Greek words one of them means well the other one means compassion well

Compassion tender -hearted to the person have compassion when they stumble when they

Are in trouble when they need help Be not don't just have compassion on them, but be well compassion have

More compassion be sympathetic and then the next thing it says forgiving one another

This is beautiful because it comes from the root Greek word caris, which is the word grace the word grace

So when the Bible tells us to be forgiving of one another It is telling us

To exhibit unmerited favor to the other person. What does that mean?

That means they may well be hurting us But we don't respond

We just act with God in us acting in a way of agape love

Which is not dependent on what they're doing to us or for us. So when you have grace to a brother or sister

Which this word forgiving comes from you don't forgive them because they've gotten right with you or they're treating you, right?

you just forgive them because the heart that God's put in your life of compassion for them and You have exhibited grace which by definition means unmerited favor they haven't deserved it yet they have not yet done that which deserves your favor, but you've already forgiven them anyway, and So that's what this word means forgiving one another now look at this

Underline this little phrase even as God just underline the phrase as God Because if we're supposed to be this way verse 32 says be like this.

First of all be kind In other words meet the need furnish the needs of the brothers and sisters secondly be well compassion

Thirdly be a grace bestower Fourthly it says be as God.

That's what it says And that interesting the verse just says be as God be like God Even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you so forgive like God forgives and how did he forgive?

He gave his own son So it's as God exhibiting grace

Chapter 5 verse 1 says be therefore followers of God as dear children So not only we're gonna be as God, but we're gonna be as dear children

Not just children God has a lot of children, but he wants us to be like the dear ones

Now, what are the dear children? Well, they are the one who are doing these things and They are not grieving the

Holy Spirit of God Because they are communicating grace to their brothers and sisters building edifying meeting the needs that are

The kindnesses that are necessary in their lives. These are now dear children. So be as God, but also be as dear children and lastly

Look at verse 2 in chapter 5 and walk in love as Christ.

So we're not only supposed to be as God We're supposed to be as Christ What was he like? He also has loved us and Given himself so it's a selfless love

Given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.

Well, there is some amazing Truth that if applied in our individual lives, we wouldn't have to worry about Corporate things in the church because they would just work

Because our communication with each other would be building Building always building never dividing always building never dividing and When you see that process happen in nature you have growth you have growth and when you see that in the church

You'll have growth too when the edifying begins and the speech of grace and the life that brings grace to the here is there and enough of the individuals in the church the church begins to grow like a healthy organism and Those new ones that come in are brought in and taught these same things and you don't have near as many going out because of problems

Because we are maturing and growing and God is working in each of us to grow each of the others in grace

We're an instrument in his hands To cause each of us to grow even more than we would if we hadn't known each other and that a beautiful thing

That's the way it should be. Let's stand and have prayer together Father Thank you so much for your words these beautiful words in the last portion of chapter 4 and the first portion of chapter 5 and we thank you that for the life of the

Apostle Paul that was so given over to you and That you taught him these things and you inspired him to write them for us and that we still have them today

Preserved and and there for us Lord may your Holy Spirit work in our lives to preserve these truths within our own hearts and cause them to come forth and to be

Practiced that we may each grow more in grace day by day until the