Let's Put Away Clamour Series

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: Ephes. 4:31

First, what is clamour???

“Clamor” (kraugeô): arguing, fussing, quarrelling, brawling. It means insulting, boistrous behavior, and loud talking.

A couple of navy stories may help illustrate the sad result of internal strife and the positive result of unity. Two battleships met in the night and began to attack each other. In the conflict, a number of crewmen were severely wounded, and both vessels were damaged. As daylight broke, the sailors on the ships discovered to their amazement that both vessels flew the English flag. Many years earlier, just before the battle of Trafalgar in 1805, the British naval hero Lord Nelson learned that an admiral and a captain in his fleet were not on good terms. Sending for the two men, he placed the hands of the admiral and the captain together. Then, looking them both in the face, he said, "Look--yonder is the enemy!" Unknown.

For us Satan and his ploys are our enemy…let us remember this.

We are called as saints to put away the following:

Boastfulness:

For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. Psalm 10:3

They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: Psalm 49:6-7

How might we be boastful?

In our talk, arrogance, knowledge, looks, wealth, salvation to the exclusion of others.

People will be boasters: braggarts, pretenders, vaunters, swaggerts.

It is a person who...

·boasts in what he has.

·pretends to have what he does not have or to do what he has not done.

Bragging is anything meant to impress others.

The world is full of boasters and braggarts:

teachers who pretend to be wise.

politicians who pretend to have the utopian state.

business people who pretend to have the product that brings health, beauty, and happiness.

religionists who pretend to have the revelation and gifts and to be more spiritual than others.

“But there was a certain man, called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one” (Acts 8:9).

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness....backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents” (Romans 1:28-29, 30).

“But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil” (James 4:16).

People will be proud: self-exaltation, conceit, arrogance; being haughty; putting oneself above others and looking down upon others; scorn, and contempt.

We should be prayerful and careful for “Pride” can be hidden in the heart as well as openly displayed.

The proud person feels that he is better than others, it is a feeling within the heart.

God resists the proud.

“And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).

“Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits” (Romans 12:16).

“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3).

“The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined” (Psalm 10:2).

“When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom” (Proverbs 11:2).

“Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).

People will be blasphemers : the word means to slander, insult, rail, revile, reproach, curse. Blasphemy is usually thought to be against God, but is also against men.

Think of the cursing and insults thrown against God and men today. They curse and revile: mothers, fathers, children, teachers, professionals, actors, comedians, politicians, even some professing religionists feel the need to occasionally curse in order to be acceptable.

“But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne” (Matthew 5:34).

“[Men] whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (Romans 3:14).

“But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God” (James 3:8-9).

“But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation” (James 5:12).

“Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).