Well, good evening. Thank you to Ron and Christy and Chad for inviting me and having me. It's always a pleasure when I can come and worship with you guys. If you have a Bible, I would encourage you to turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4 is where we're going to camp out at. And specifically, we're going to look at verses 25 through 29, 25 through 29. And if you're at all familiar with the book of Ephesians, if you're familiar with the way that the Apostle Paul writes letters, you would know that he spends a lot of time in this particular book, the first three chapters specifically, just savoring the gospel, really reminding the church of Ephesus, whom he addresses as saints, that they are saints only because of Christ Jesus. And so he spends time reminding them of their identity in Christ Jesus, and then when you move beyond chapter 3, we get this picture, really, this really earthy book, if you will, of how the saints in Christ Jesus are to live in light of the finished work of the gospel. And so we're going to look at just a few verses here this evening, and I'm going to read the passage in its entirety. I'm going to say a prayer, and then we will work through this text together. And so Ephesians 4, starting with verse 25. This is the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He wrote these words. He says, Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor. For we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word, God. We thank you that you spoke and that your word was written down. It was documented and that it's been kept here in all ages. And God, we can have confidence that when we read your word, we hear your voice. And so this evening, God, I ask that Your Holy Spirit would help us to understand Your Word. Your Holy Spirit would grant us humble hearts, God, so that we can, by Your grace, be more conformed into the image of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You for allowing us together, and we love You in Christ's name. Amen. The Word of God is it's immensely practical. And what we're looking at tonight is really street-level saint living. And if I gave this sermon an official title, it would be Clinging to Christ is Practical. Clinging to Christ is Practical. In other words, treasuring Christ, which is what the Apostle Paul is kind of really encouraging the Church of Ephesus to do in the first few chapters here, but treasuring Christ leads to a way of life that's distinct from the world and demonstrates to the world our allegiance to Jesus Christ. And so all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus, when considered rightly, leads to a certain way of life. And we're going to look at a part of that this evening. And if you're taking notes I'd encourage you to jot this down. Christians cling to Christ as truth and as a result live a certain way. Christians cling to Christ as truth and as a result live a certain way. Paul says that in Christ we've put away lying and now as saints we speak the truth with our neighbor. Truth. That word In this day and age, it is an interesting word. Christians, according to the scripture, are to be a people of truth. We're to be truth tellers. This is a defining characteristic of a believer, of one who's in Christ. And for something to be true, it needs to be enduring. It needs to be fixed. It has to be immovable. And the source of the truth has to be incorruptible. For instance, like when Jesus says, John 14, 6, he's the way, the truth, in the life. When Paul speaks of truth here, when he's commending the church of Ephesus, the Christians at Ephesus, to be truth-tellers, he has in view this idea that Christians are to be a people of truth, but it's not just truth-telling. It's not just saying truthful things. There's plenty of people in the church, outside of the church, that say truthful things, but do so in a way that demonstrates godlessness. They may be unkind. They may be impatient. ungracious and even hostile. And I don't even need to to give you modern day examples of that. Right. We've all experienced that and we've all been culprits of that type of truth telling, if you will. But in contrast, and the type of truth telling and being being a people of truth that the apostle Paul here is commending is telling the truth grounded in love, biblical love. And we know that from first Corinthians 13, right. And the example that we have of Christ, Jesus loves patient, loves kind. It's not boastful. It's not envious. It's not arrogant. It's not rude. It's not selfish. It's not irritable or resentful. It doesn't rejoice at wrongdoing. It bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. and endures all things, and truth and love, they go hand in hand. They're inseparable, and they're inseparable because ultimately they're grounded again in Christ Jesus, who calls himself the truth in John 14, 6. And if Christ is the truth, then the truth that we declare and the truth that we're to be committed to must have Christ at the center and the worship of God as its goal. So as Christians, we need to flesh out the posture of our hearts as we strive to be a people who speak truth because we're often prone to say truthful things in a sinful manner. We're prone to say truthful things in a manner that dishonor the Lord. And we, in a way, have developed bad habits. We say things or brush off our harshness by saying things like just saying or just being honest without any care as to how we said are truthful statements. But how we communicate truth, here in Ephesians, how we communicate truth, the type of truth the Apostle Paul has commended is important because God's concerned with methods and result. And so let me illustrate this for a moment. In my marriage, according to Ephesians 5, if we were to flip over, and you can thumb over there, but in my marriage, If I am, according to the scripture, the head of the home... and thus I'm representing Christ to my wife. And Paul, he supports this in Ephesians 5, verses 25 through 27. He says, Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church, gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. If I, as the head of my home, supposed to love my wife, it's important that the way that I treat her is loving. If I'm a husband, if I'm some stoic truth-teller, a communicator to her of truthful statements in ways that aren't God-fearing, in ways that aren't warm, in ways that aren't compassionate, apart from the fact that my marriage won't flourish, what else is going on? If I'm this cold, stoic, unloving, unwarm husband toward my bride, toward my wife, what else is going on? What's going on is that I'm projecting an image of Christ as the head of my home to my wife that isn't true. I'm telling my wife practically, through my methods, that Christ is some cold, distant, unapproachable communicator of true statements, or communicator of information. Yet there in Ephesians 5, I see that Christ loved, Christ sacrificed, Christ sanctified, Christ cleansed, and He presented the church to the Father as His own flesh. One flesh. This is the method of Christ. And it should be applied to us being a people of truth. And it distinguishes us from godless truth-telling, if you will. It's warm, devoted, consistent, stable, self-sacrificing, others-focused, and most importantly, it's God-centered. That's what being a Christian truth-teller, a people, God's people of truth is. And it's the only type of truth telling that brings about lasting change. So evaluate this evening with me, just a few questions. When you communicate truthful things to people in your sphere of influence, are you doing so with the humility of Christ? Are your interactions with people often tense? Does it seem like folks walk around on eggshells when they're near you? Does your mind in your heart meditation seem constantly engaged in arguments, in conflict? Do you feel a strong desire to be proven right or vindicated in your positions? Or is Christ and His character at the center of your discussions? Is your love for people increasing because they're a focused part of your prayers? Are you approachable? Are you submissive to the sovereign work of the Spirit and God's timetable for changing hearts and minds? Are you content with God's methods of changing people? Are you mindful of God's patience and kindness towards you as you communicate truth with others? These are good questions to ask yourself and to use to just prod your own heart as we seek to be a people of truth, as we seek to be God's people of truth. We're people clinging to Christ as truth, therefore, how we communicate truth matters. And ultimately, we're heralding Christ as truth to one another and to an onlooking world that is absolutely convinced that Christ is irrelevant for their lives. Okay, so Christians cling to Christ as truth, and as a result, they live a certain way. But let's move to some specific areas that Paul addresses in regards to how Christians live. Because he gets to the Christian in anger. Here in verse 26 and verse 27, Paul quotes from Psalm 4-4, and he says, Be angry and do not sin. And he goes on, Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Some of your translations may say anger, nor give place. to the devil. So at least two questions can come from this passage of scripture. Question one, can we be angry and not sin? And question two, what does it mean for the sun not to go down on our anger? So the answer to the first question, I would say yes, but not for long, which is the answer to the second question. Paul in this passage, he isn't telling the church of Ephesus to be angry, but he's saying that there's such thing as righteous anger. There's such a thing as righteous anger. Righteous anger can be directed toward things like injustice. We see lots of injustice in our country, in our world, and it's good and godly for Christians to be angry at injustice. We should be angry when someone created in the image of God is murdered or treated as lesser than what God's called her or him. We should be angry at the deceitfulness of sin. But with pastoral concern, the Apostle Paul, he's giving some helps to a church that perhaps is rightfully angry with some injustices when he says, don't let the sun go down on your wrath and give no opportunity to the devil. What Paul is saying is that it's good and godly to be angry toward sin, toward injustice. However, Only God has the ability to have sustained anger toward injustice and not be affected by it. Only God has the ability to keep white hot anger toward sin and not be consumed by it and enter into sin himself. And what does this incorruptible God do with His perfect anger? We see God's wrath ultimately displayed at the cross. It provided salvation for God's elect. That's what a God who can be perfectly angered, who can have sustained anger against injustice, against immorality, that's what He accomplishes. But we don't have that capacity as creatures. So practically, what's the warning here? What's the Apostle Paul saying? The warning, what the Apostle Paul was communicating with the Church of Ephesus and what we should take heed to, the warning is that the narrative of our lives, the message that we herald cannot be constant injustices that we see this side of eternity. We have to let the sun go down. Because if we don't, according to this passage, we give an opportunity to the devil. And what is that opportunity? Righteous anger for us, as sinful, broken people, becomes sinful for us quicker than the sun can go down. That's what the Apostle Paul is getting into here. If we don't settle into the fact that God is just and the executor, the ultimate executor of justice, we will begin to become embittered people. And embittered people are those people that communicate truth in unhelpful, unloving ways. Embittered people are those people that look at injustices and begin to blame God and turn their anger toward God in this blasphemous heart posture. Embittered people are those self-righteous people that are waiting for everyone to get with the program. Embittered people are those people that end up trying to take justice into their own hands. Embittered people are those people who are no longer content with God's primary means of saving and sanctifying His people, namely, word prayer and sacrament. The Apostle Paul commends us not to let the sun go down on our anger. Ian Hamilton, a pastor and a theologian, he says, one of the ways that the devil insinuates himself into the life of the church is when Christians allow righteous anger to breed a resentful spirit or when they nurse unrighteous anger so that it breeds an arrogant spirit. And both of these give the devil an opportunity to sow discord and division among the members of the body. It can leaven the body. It can cause the body of Christ to begin to under-emphasize the sufficiency of Christ and do away with that or begin to ignore that and hop into what they deem to think are more practical means of changing a culture or changing a society. And the devil also has an opportunity as it relates to idolatry. It was John Calvin that said that the human heart is an idol factory. We quickly take good things and make them ultimate things. If we become consumed with anger toward injustice, again, Christ becomes the supporting actor in our narrative. So the Apostle Paul was commending a singular focus on Christ Jesus. And this side of eternity, even good things are prone to compete for our heart's allegiance. So that's why our hearts have to be captivated ultimately and only by Christ. So we have to be on guard. We have to be watchful. We have to let the sun go down. And Paul continues. He moves on and begins to talk about the Christian in thievery, if you will. He says in verse 28, Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather letting labor working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Laziness here is a squandering of what God has entrusted to you. It's a squandering of what God's entrusted to you. It's like the prodigal son whose consumeristic mindset catapulted him into pursuing whatever pleasures that he desired until he was absolutely bankrupt and cut off from those that he loved. And the thief is lazy in that he or she will do whatever they have to do to avoid honest work. They're going to work really, really hard at not working. And maybe here, you know, you're listening to this and you see this passage and you're like, well, I'm not, I'm not breaking into anybody's house. I'm not taking things that don't necessarily belong to me. But maybe you're in a place where you just refuse to work. You can't keep a job down because maybe you wrestle with entitlement or again, laziness or discontentment. The grass is always greener on the other side. Paul's addressing you this evening. You're underlining heart postures that of the thief. And what's the big deal about that? What's the big deal? First, what you're doing is blasphemous. You're treating evil, that which God has called good. The God who created you and saved you is the God who created work, and work was ordained before the fall. If we look at Genesis 2, verse 15, The Scripture says, And the Lord God took the man, and He put him in the garden, the garden of Eden, to tend to it, to keep it. If you were to back up into chapter 1 verse 28, it says, God blessed them, He blessed Adam and Eve, and He said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. God ordained it so that men and women should work in a way that announces His Lordship to the ends of the earth. And he did this before sin even entered the picture. Work is not a result of the fall. Work is good. Work is worship. And to not work indicates that you have a worship disorder. So if work is worship, that means to not work is blasphemous. Not only did God give us a job before the fall, but really Christ reiterated that job in the Great Commission. Go to every creature in all corners of the earth, and announce the Lordship of Christ, give them a Trinitarian baptism, teach them to obey the Scripture. And Christ promises to be present as we do that, to be present, spiritually present with us as we fulfill that commission. And whether you realize it or not, your work ethic is directly tied to your ability to herald the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul calls it guarding the good deposit in 2 Timothy. We guard the good deposit of the gospel in many ways, but one of those ways can be through a good work ethic. Look at Acts chapter 18, the first four verses with me for just a moment. This is the Apostle Paul ministering at Corinth. It says, after these things, Paul departed from Athens and he went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. And he came to them. And then look at verse 3. So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and he worked. For by occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. Paul worked and he had a reputation as a good worker. And his work ethic and that good reputation as a tent maker enabled him, by God's grace, to proclaim the gospel, to persuade Jews and Gentiles of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. His commitment to work had a direct impact on his calling. And in that, that showcases really this overarching spiritual purpose behind our work, no matter what our vocations are. Our passage in Ephesians says you work so that you have something to share with human need. That's the end of verse 28 of our text there. We work not so that we can hoard or build up some false sense of security. We work so that we can give. We work so that we can give. Primarily, we work so that we have credibility, so that we can give freely the message of the gospel with this good, hard-working reputation. We also give of our resources and our finances that we're able to acquire through our labor, knowing that we can help to fund financially the kingdom of God at Vinson. So our work is Christ-focused. Our work is a means, not the only means, but a means of outreach. And then finally, In our text this evening, the Apostle Paul addresses the Christian in speech. It says in verse 29 here, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. Paul uses put-off-put-on language here, which you see kind of is an Apostle Paul tactic. corrupting talk, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, and put on timely, God-glorifying speech that drives others to Jesus. And Jesus says, Matthew chapter 12, verses 36 and 37, he says, I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you'll be condemned. In other words, our mouths reveal the condition of our hearts. Mouths reveal the condition of our hearts. James highlights this for us in James chapter 3. I'm just going to read. It's a larger chunk of Scripture, but I'll read it to you. If you've been in church life for any length of time, you're familiar with it. But he says, starting in verse 1 of chapter 3, My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. And if anyone does not stumble in word, he's a perfect man. able also to bridle the whole body." So if you think, right, this doesn't apply to you, James here is saying, you're a perfect man. Indeed, we put bits in a horse's mouths that they may obey us and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made In the likeness of God, out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both saltwater James says the tongue is a world of unrighteousness. We bless the Lord and curse people made in the image of God. And in the 21st century, he would say the same thing about our fingers as it relates to computers. With it, we type blessings about God while cursing people. made in his image. The Apostle John says in 1 John 4 20, if anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar, but he does not love his brother. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. What we say and how we treat others reveals the allegiance of our hearts. That's the sweeping narrative of Scripture in regards to our mouths. And the testimony of Scripture is that those whose hearts have been captivated by Christ will speak, write, type text in such a way that reflects that their hearts have been captivated by Christ Jesus. Three quick handles for you as we seek to be a people who build others up in Christ. First, we approach people and we speak about people prayerfully. We should have heart postures of prayer when we're talking about other people, when we're talking or confronting other people. If we're confronting and talking to people about sin, about unrighteousness, right, Matthew chapter 7, it's kind of the speck log concept. We need to make sure that we approach it as we have a log in our eyes and our brother, our sister, has a speck in their eyes, so our speaking and talking, if it should be moving people toward Christ, we don't want to do something that thwarts them coming to Christ. We want to make sure that we're a people that push others toward Christ Jesus, and if that means we're confronting a brother or a sister in sin, we delicately remove a speck. If one of my boys has a speck in their eye, I don't go in there aggressively. I gently hold the eye open. I blow gently to get whatever the debris is out of their eye so that they can see again. And I think Jesus gives us that picture to help us have handles on how we're to build others up in the way that we speak, from everything to our actual speech to our body language, the speck log. And so repentance, humility, sensitivity. And then when we speak to people and we're trying to push them toward Christ, it should be, thus saith the Lord. should be, thus saith the Lord, right? That helps us to avoid pitfalls of legalism and it helps us to avoid antinomianism, saying that there's no standard by which we live. We should, when we're confronting or talking to someone and we're trying to edify them in a timely way toward Christ Jesus, we need to do so with, thus saith the Lord. We need to be able to use the scripture's words in order to do that so that we can make sure that what we're telling them in the way toward repentance and the way toward reconciliation is, in fact, biblical, grounded in the Word. And so, the bottom line for us this morning, or this evening, excuse me, the Word is earthy. The Word is earthy. It's practical. And when we study passages like this, our mind and our heart, because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, it should say, yes, this sounds exactly how Christians behave. This sounds exactly how a Christian should embrace truth and herald truth because they're clinging to Christ as truth. This sounds exactly how a Christian should be angry yet should let the sun go down on their anger. This sounds exactly how a Christian should work as they labor to have a good reputation for the proclamation, the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This sounds exactly how a Christian should speak. Their speech should be measured and their speech should edify people toward Christ Jesus. If rebukes are required, it should be gracious, it should be spet log. This is exactly how Christians who cling to Christ should behave for the advancement of the gospel and the glory of God. We are saints and we're the salt of the earth. We're leavening the earth with the gospel of Christ. We're planting mustard seeds by the power of the Holy Spirit, confident that the Lord will grow them as he sees fit. And our commitment to how we herald the truth, how we handle anger, how we labor, how we speak, contributes both to walking comfortably with God and being ambassadors for Christ. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that as we cling to Christ, Lord, that really does affect the way that we live, God. It affects the way that we behave. And so, God, help us to live as who we already are, which is saints because of Christ. And so thank you for your word. Thank you that we could gather here this evening and open it. Thank you that we can sing to you together corporately as your body. Thank you, Lord, in advance for the time and prayer that we're gonna spend praying for one another, praying for the fence post to expand, Lord, for your kingdom to continue to expand and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we love you in Jesus' name, amen.