Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
View this sermon at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/episodes/130882
We have come to the end of the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Over the last several weeks we’ve taken a deep look into the distinctiveness of the believer’s walk in Jesus. The Apostle Paul is writing to the Ephesian Church that the life of citizens of Christ’s Kingdom is unlike anything present in our world’s system.
It is important to remind you that this world is not our home (Hebrews 13:14). It is important that we be reminded that this world is governed unrighteously with Satan as its current ruler (2 Corinthians 4:4). And no matter how noble or good we perceive current human efforts, the believer must stand firm under the banner of the Lord Jesus and do his work (1 Corinthians 15:58).
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
There is distinctiveness in the life of the believer that should be evident inwardly, outwardly, and spiritually. These are the instructions to the Ephesian Church from the Apostle Paul.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let 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. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:17–32 ESV)
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the world today, and certainly in our culture. A [Dallas] Texas gay bar hosted a "Drag the Kids to Pride" event where drag queen dancers provocatively gyrated in front of children as young as toddlers. A poster for the "Drag the Kids to Pride" event claims it is the "ultimate family-friendly pride experience." (The Blaze News, June 4, 2022) What is even more concerning than this event being held, is that parents took their children where the kids handed the queens money and were invited to dance on stage with dancers. This is satanic. In Idaho, a “Pride in the Park” event is sponsored by the Satanic Temple and is being billed as a “family-friendly event.” (Idaho Tribune, June 7, 2022). This world is confused because they are worshipping the god of confusion.
Remember when I shared with you the article that outlined an alarming statistic that two-thirds of Evangelical Senior Pastors have a biblical worldview? A person’s worldview is formed in many ways, mainly through: culture, education, religious upbringing, & emotional development. The Bible, however, is not subject to these developments in our life. So in order to have a biblical worldview, we must allow God’s Word to shape or reshape our understanding of the world around us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
SIX IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW
1. God is the Creator of the world and rules this universe. (Genesis 1:1). This includes the definition of family and marriage, the sanctity of life, and God’s sovereignty over all of creation.
2. The Bible is God’s Word for mankind and is completely accurate including matters of life and its origin. (2 Timothy 3:16).
3. Because of God and His Word, absolute moral truth exists! (Psalms 102:25–27; Malachi 3:6)
4. Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God and He lived a sinless life, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again from the grave three days later! (1 Corinthians 15:3–4; 1 John 4:9–10)
5. Satan is a real being (not symbolic) and seeks to defeat God’s plan for man (1 Peter 5:8)
6. Salvation is obtained solely by individual faith in Christ’s work on the Cross and cannot be earned. (Ephesians 2:8–9) and apart from Christ man is destined for eternal hell. (Mike Norris)
So many so-called Christians and so-called pastors misrepresent Christ and Christianity. So how do you tell a true believer? Not by a profession, but by the production of spiritual fruit. (Galatians 5:22-23; Luke 6:42-45). That’s how you know a Christian: not by what they claim but by how they live. And I don’t think there is a more powerful example of righteous living than the power of forgiveness and this is the heart of Paul’s message for us today.
If you remember, Paul led us through a series of transformations that happens in the believer's life as he walks more and more closely with Christ: from lying to truth, from anger to righteousness, from stealing to sharing, from corrupt talk to gracious speech. Now we come to the fifth transformation: from retaliation to forgiveness. No greater truth and no greater example of Christ can be found than in Christian forgiveness.
We hear in our society a constant clamor for the word “rights.” And when we feel that our rights have been violated, we have a notion that we have an opportunity to retaliate against those lost rights. That’s because the human heart says, “ you did something to me, I’m going to get you back” Children are notorious for this.
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.? (Ecclesiastes 7:9)
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The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (Psalm 103:8)
I want to be perfectly clear: retaliation is from Satan. It is an attitude of Satan, it is a temptation of Satan, and it is a construct of Satan. He was thrown out of heaven by God and ever since that time, he has sought vengeance against God and God’s people. In today’s world, nearly every social uprising is built in an attempt under Satan to avenge God’s authority; be it gay rights, abortion, mass shootings, climate control, divorce, violence, you name it. Never are you more like Satan than when you want retaliation.
Conversely, you are never more like God’s character than when you practice forgiveness and that’s the entire point of Ephesians chapter four. Believers are called to imitate God (Eph 5:1), especially when it comes to practicing forgiveness. Paul describes followers of Satan as people who are driven by or full of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice.
Paul uses the word “all” to indicate the presence of emotions and behaviors that are to be absent from the believer’s life: all bitterness, all wrath, all anger, all clamor, all slander, all malice. Let’s break these down a little more:
First, bitterness, in the Greek, Pikria. It literally means “inedible. It describes a continuous and persistent state of a person who is locked into perpetual animosity. They are harsh in their conduct to others with little grace and forgiveness.
Second, wrath, in the Greek, Thumos. It means a wild, intense, uncontrolled passion of anger. It is the opposite of righteous anger. Instead, it is unbridled, explosive. It is closely associated with the word “orge” which means “smoldering hate.” These are repulsive behaviors, ungodly in nature and, according to Jesus, equal to murder
?21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. (Psalm 103:8)
When you come to the next two words Paul uses, you move to the outward emotion. “Clamor.” in the Greek krauge, and it means “to shout out loud.” This is where you voice your hatred and animosity. You spew out the venom of hostility toward those who have offended you (MacArthur)
The word “slander” in Greek is, blasphemia. To slander is to blaspheme. It means “to curse, use words that denigrate and defame.” It is the manifestation of inner anger and revenge, seeking to tear people down by ruining their reputation and causing harm to them.
The word “malice” is kakia in Greek, and it’s a generic term that Paul is using to cover the root behind this kind of behavior. ; it means “badness” or “bad-heartedness.”
This describes the world we live in today. The world pronounces curses and seeks retaliation on all who offend them. The world is angry, hostile, and vengeful. The world burns down neighborhoods when they’re upset. The world seeks retribution for something that happened long ago. True believers bless people; we don’t slander them. True believers don’t explode in fury; we exude grace. We don’t march through streets shouting and cursing vulgarities to be heard. We don’t seek revenge. We forgive. This is the heart of forgiveness. It’s saying that we voluntarily choose to give up that right for revenge.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:18)
The secret to knowing when we’ve forgiven someone is when we begin to pray for them. But not the kind of prayer that goes like, “Lord, break the teeth in their mouth” Instead, it’s praying for their good and that God would save and bless them.
?Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21)
I read a story by Gordon Kroeker who recalled a time growing up in the Congo as a missionary kid. He and his family were caught in the middle of the 1964 Communist rebellion. “I was 8 years old at the time, and remember it well. When we received word that the rebels, (who were anti-white and anti-missionary) had burned out the bridge on one side of our mission station, we (about 25 missionaries and their families) had a very short time to pack a few things, and get out.”
They only had one Chevy Suburban and they took the seats out of the vehicle to get the women and children to the closest city which was 35 miles away, 90 minutes to drive. The men waited for another vehicle to come from that city to get them.
“We all made it out alive, even though we lost all our belongings. Still, we were very fortunate. Other missionaries had been tortured and killed in other mission stations nearby. Even though I was young, I never had any feelings of hate for those who destroyed all our things, the place I was born, and the special place I called "home". If anything, I desired, and still do - that these rebels would come to faith in Jesus Christ, as I have.” (Gordon Kroeker, Sermon Central)
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (Matthew 5:43)
God forgives. You’re never more like God than when you forgive. And if God forgives you for your sins, then we must also forgive others for ours. There is no greater offense of sin than our offense to God. So if we are withholding genuine forgiveness against someone, we are holding ourselves in a higher court than God.
?For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14–15 ESV)
Another reason we forgive is found in James 1:2 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” Do you realize that God uses every situation and every trial in your life to perfect you and refine you and make you more like Him? Every trial in your life has a divine purpose. If we refuse to forgive we miss the blessing of being refined through that trial. Forgiveness is healing.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, (Psalm 51:4)Every wrong that has
offended you and every wrong that you have offended is against God alone.
Friends, I want to share with you something vitally important to all of this and that is forgiveness is the heart of the gospel. He forgave us before we even asked for it. He forgives us when we don’t deserve it. He forgave us when we had no means to pay for our sins. He forgave us when we had no means to understand our depravity.
You see all constructs of the world and the ruler of this world demand vengeance. Hinduism says to forgive but with Karma. Islam demands jihad and retribution. Your sins are paid when your good works outweigh your wrongs. Relgion says you must pay for your sin to appease and earn a blessing. Only at the Cross of Christ do we find our debt paid for by the One we are indebted to where Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)
How is it that God could forgive us? How did He do that? The answer is right here at the cross. God has to be just, and therefore there must be just atonement. And in substituting His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, the price of our were paid for all who believe. This is forgiveness beyond comprehension. He put a curse on His own Son in order to put a blessing on us. Jesus didn’t deserve a curse and we didn’t deserve a blessing. If He can do all of that for us, then we can certainly do that for each other. It is unique to the Christian alone.
He came to my desk with a quivering lip,
the lesson was done.
“Have you a new sheet for me, dear teacher?
I’ve spoiled this one.”
I took his sheet, all soiled and blotted
and gave him a new one all unspotted.
And into his tired heart, I cried,
“Do better now, my child.”
I went to the throne with a trembling heart,
the day was done.
“Have you a new day for me, dear Master?
I’ve spoiled this one.”
He took my day, all soiled and blotted
and gave me a new one all unspotted.
And into my tired heart, He cried,
“Do better now, my child.” (Zacharias).
