Chapter four, please, reading at verse 17. Sorry, verse 25. Get it right, Robin. Verse 25 of Ephesians chapter four. Wherefore, Paul says, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his 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 unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. So reads God's precious word. So we come to the end of the latter part of this chapter four of the Book of Ephesians, this chapter that's been concerned with our practical everyday living and our practical living within the fellowship to which we are joined. And we come now to these last verses from 25 down to verse 32. It's no exaggeration to say, I suppose, that many Christians, although they would affirm adherence to the fact of the Trinity of God, three persons in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, many perhaps have a firm knowledge, a firm belief in the duality, the Father and the Son, but they have perhaps scant appreciation of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Many a fellowship has handled the subject of the Holy Spirit, in my experience, with kid gloves of latter years, really for fear of allowing, little by little, the excesses and erroneous teachings of the charismatic movement to creep into the fellowship. They shy away from much to do with the Holy Spirit on the basis that they don't want the thin end of the wedge, as it were, to appear, and for the charismatic movement and their teachings to get a hold in that fellowship. This has left many believers with very little knowledge of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. It seems that they have a dark area, not only in their theology, but in their day-to-day lives, as I hope to prove to you from these verses here. How essential the Holy Spirit is, not only on a theological basis, but on a practical basis in our daily lives. Now, I trust that the that situation does not exist here amongst us at Gordon Road, because over many recent months we've had various speakers, myself included in the Book of John, speaking about the Holy Spirit, the work and the person of the Holy Spirit. So I trust that we have having sought to lay emphasis on the Trinity, on the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one, working in and through each one of us. I trust that that is our experience. So I'm not going to give a dissertation on the Holy Spirit at this point, only as it applies to these verses that we have read together here. Suffice it to say that in respect of the verses before us, let us recognize and agree that the Holy Spirit is a divine person dwelling in each and every born again believer. And that being a person, this Holy Spirit is capable, is capable of experiencing joy and capable of experiencing grief. More especially that these emotions of grief and joy can be influenced by the lives of those with whom the Spirit lives. So what I'm suggesting to you is that these verses put before us the fact that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, a very real person. that the Holy Spirit is capable, because of being a divine person, is capable of experiencing joy and of experiencing grief. We read there in verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. So Paul is saying here that it is possible to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Grieve, the word there means literally to cause pain. So the Holy Spirit can be caused pain. And Paul is saying here, I want you as believers, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, as those who call yourselves Christians, I want you not to grieve the Holy Spirit, not to cause the Holy Spirit pain. And as we read through these verses, it becomes obvious, well it did to me anyway, that the Holy Spirit can be caused pain, can experience pain through the lives of those in whom he lives. That's you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit then can experience pain through the way that we live our Christian lives, both as a fellowship and individually. And two amazing facts came to me emanating from this thought. One, that we believers are able the better to see how much we are loved of God through the Holy Spirit. And as we grieve over the failures of those we love, for we do, do we not, in normal circumstances, those whom we love, if they disappoint us, if they let us down, perhaps if they sin against us, we are saddened, we are grieved. So too, the Holy Spirit grieves, can be caused pain by the way in which we live our Christian lives. And then secondly, that that Holy Spirit, and the fact that he can be grieved, and the fact that he can experience joy, the Holy Spirit would motivate us as believers to holiness because of this fact. So first of all then, as believers we're better to see how much God loves us, and how much the Holy Spirit loves us, how much Jesus loves us. and that because of that love, and the fact that we would not want to grieve the Holy Spirit, it causes us, or should cause us, to live lives that are holy. as we would naturally draw back from sin, that would grieve those whom we love. We wouldn't wish by sinning to cause those whom we love grief, would we? So too the believer can be kept from sinning by a desire not to cause the Holy Spirit pain. None of us who are truly Christians should want to cause the Holy Spirit to grieve. Just consider some of the work of the Holy Spirit. First of all, he baptised us into the body of Christ, the moment of our salvation, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians. And then in Ephesians, as we read in verse 30 here of chapter 4, and again we could turn to chapter 1 and verse 13, we find that the Holy Spirit sealed us, declaring us to be a divine possession. Thirdly, God decreed that the Holy Spirit would indwell us and enable us to walk in his statutes and obey his rules. We read that in Ezekiel. Fourthly, Jesus confirmed this teaching of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in John 14 verse 17. He would send the new comforter, the new he in effect, the new Lord Jesus to be with us, indwell us. And then fifthly, Paul writing to the Corinthians, he says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. It's where the Holy Spirit takes up his residence, that divine person, that one person of the Trinity. And then Paul also teaches us that Jesus, us Jesus, would guide us, I beg your pardon, Jesus teaches us in his ministry that he will guide you into all truth, Jesus says. The Holy Spirit will teach you all things concerning myself. And then finally, number seven in Romans, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit prays for us. These seven points. give us surely some impression, some lead to the way in which the Holy Spirit, we should not wish to grieve because of these wonderful things that the Holy Spirit has done and does through us in our Christian lives. So then, seeing that the Holy Spirit baptised us, sealed us, teaches us and prays for us, it's surely inconceivable, is it not, that we would willfully want to grieve the Holy Spirit, to cause the Holy Spirit pain. But sadly, throughout Christendom and in the lives of individual believers, often giving the Holy Spirit pain is prevalent. It happens. We look around us and we see things that are being done in the name of God, and it would grieve the Holy Spirit in individual believers and in fellowships. So, to get to more encouraging thoughts. How can we bring a smile then to the person of the Holy Spirit, instead of a frown of grief? Paul lays out here for us some points, four points in fact, in which we can engage, things that we can engage in, things that we can put off, that will bring a smile, and I say it reverently, a smile to the person of the Holy Spirit. The first one he speaks about in verse 25 and he says, wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor for we are all members one of another. So the first thing that Paul says we need to put away is lying if we want to bring joy to the Holy Spirit. There's no place for lying in the church, in the body of Christ, in the individual believers. We live in a world which is immersed in a culture of deception and falsehood, do we not? It is endemic in our very nature and something we all naturally practice from our very earliest days. We never have to be taught to lie. We do it naturally. It comes naturally to us. And as I say, we live in a world which is immersed in a culture of deception and falsehood. Lying comes naturally to people. We even these days call it alternative truth. Fake news. They pass it off in that way. It gives them the license to lie about everything and anything. Paul says, if you and I as a believer lie to one another, lie to God, or endeavour to lie to God, for of course he sees everything. But if we lie to one another, then Paul says, the Holy Spirit is grieved. It brings the Holy Spirit pain. It takes the smile from his person. It's so natural for us to lie, isn't it? It's not difficult. We use it as a defense when we're accused of doing something wrong immediately. In a defense against somebody who's raised an accusation about us, if it's true, and we want to deflect that accusation, we will so easily tell a lie to move ourselves out of being pulled up short for our failings. It's perfectly natural. It's an unconscious survival technique that we have within us. And Paul says that all human beings are tarred with the same brush. We go back to Chapter 2, don't we, and we find there that we're all the same. We're all exactly similar in that respect. I saw a little illustration of this point and it said simply this, that there was a baker. And he complained to a grocer because he said the grocer was selling a pound of butter and he didn't weigh a pound. He said, you're lying on your label on your pack of butter. And the grocer looked at him and he said, well, actually you're lying as well. Because he said, I haven't got any weights, he said, and I used your one pound loaf of bread to weigh my butter. So he said, your bread, your one pound loaf of bread, doesn't weigh a pound any more than my butter does. So who's lying? It's just a little illustration to point out to ourselves that we're all at it. These two men were. They were lying to each other. disregard for the truth, and lying are everywhere. And sadly, the Church proves on occasion to be no exception. We can lie to each other in the way we live our lives. So why is lying forbidden by Paul? Why does he bring this up as the first reason for us grieving the Holy Spirit if we indulge in lying? To the Romans and the Corinthians, in his letters to them, he says that it is a sin. A sin against the body of Christ, a sin against the church of Christ, a sin against the whole human, the whole born-again believers that make up the body of Christ. And of course that, by extension, means that lying is a sin against God himself, as is all sin. Paul says, that's why I want to forbid it. And so, just in passing, let's just ask ourselves, are we guilty of lying to one another in the church, in word, or even maybe in silence? Are we projecting an image to one another which is not borne out by our daily lives when we are away from one another, when we are out there in the world? Paul says, put away this lying. Speak every man truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another. And that will bring a smile to the person of the Holy Spirit. It won't grieve the Holy Spirit. And then secondly, he says, to endeavor not to grieve the Holy Spirit, we need to be having a life free from anger. Verses 26 and 27. Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Now, we understand from scripture, of course, that there is good anger and there is bad anger. God is sometimes angry, as was Jesus when he cleansed the temple of the money changers. We as believers should be angry. We should be angry with personal or social sins as we see them being enacted around us. Righteous anger has a very right place in our everyday experience as we witness the ravages of sin, particularly in this world in which we live. We should be angry about these things, righteous anger. Proper anger is a sign of spiritual life and health. It shows that we are concerned about the name of God as we hear it blasphemed. That we are concerned about the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as we hear it blasphemed. that we are concerned about the way in which we live our lives to honour the fact that the Holy Spirit lives within us. We're going to bring a smile to the Holy Spirit's person if we live lives that are those that are righteously angered about the things that are wrong in the world in which we live. But, he says, our anger must not lead to sin. Because he says that will give the devil opportunity to cause us to fall and to stumble others. He says you can be angry, righteous anger is fine, but don't allow it, don't allow it to lead you into sin. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus warns of the possibility of becoming guilty of some degree of murder even, if we are those who lose control of our anger. It's a serious thing. If our anger goes over the top and turns into something which is just too dreadful to even think about, the way in which we are being angry with some body perhaps, then he says, in effect, you are causing a murder. What began so properly in the anger that rises in us can so easily become a matter of pride for us and then it becomes an evil of itself, of course, pride being an evil. It's so easy for us to become worse than the offender and an unwitting victim as we rail on in our anger against somebody. One commentator I read, he said this, and I thought it was quite apposite. He said, of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. It's true. We can take great delight in getting angry, righteously angry with people, and it can lead us into sin. Paul says, let not the sun go down on your wrath. So a life full of anger, a church full of angry people, brings pain to the Holy Spirit. at how grateful we are here in Gordon Road, I know, for the wonderful spirit that exists amongst the believers who gather here. We pray and we thank God for it regularly every Thursday evening, and I'm sure we do in our own private prayers, because we don't see that anger. I've seen it in fellowships. I've seen anger between brethren, which has turned into sin. Here we are, here we are, here at Gordon Road. Let's not feel satisfied though that everything will go on in the way it does. It's so easy for these things to creep in. So a church full of angry people, what a sad thing that is. mainly again because it brings sadness and grieves the Holy Spirit. So we must keep our anger under control for the sake of our own spiritual well-being. Being continually angry doesn't do us any good in our spirit. It debilitates us, it drags us down. but also for the well-being of the life of the fellowship to which we belong. So Paul says, let's not be angry, let's have a life free from anger if we're going to bring this smile to the person of the Holy Spirit. And then thirdly, he speaks of a life free from theft. in verse 28. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. A life free from theft. Theft is a major problem in the world in which we live today. It's a major problem even in those decent, hard-working, ordinary, honest, we would say, people amongst whom we live. And it even can touch ourselves. There are those who would think nothing of padding out expense accounts, dodging their tax bills, the petty pilfering that goes on in all walks of life, the taking of stationery from offices, of taking toilet rolls, of all this sort of thing, this petty pilfering that goes on. The world sees it as being absolutely normal and not to be frowned upon at all. And we, I know, would say to ourselves, we would never do that. But it is easy for us to slip into it. Have you ever borrowed a book and not returned it? You know? Is that stealing? Are we stealing from somebody if we do that? I don't want you all to rush home and check through your bookcases and see if you've got a book there that belongs to me. You haven't. But you never know. You know, it's such an easy thing to do, isn't it? To steal. Without thinking about it. And we would say, surely not in the church, but yes, sadly, it's possible. In the early first century church, there were those who stole from God. In the Old Testament, we read in Haggai in chapter one of those who were stealing from God. He says, you're all too willing to run to your private houses, and the house of the Lord lays waste. You're stealing from me. Go over into Malachi chapter 1 and he says, you're bringing polluted bread and you're putting it on the altar to me. You're stealing from me. You know, we need to examine ourselves, don't we, to make sure that we're not stealing from God. in the amount of worship and praise that we give him, in our coming together on occasions such as this and on the Lord's Day. God says, you're stealing from me if you don't come with hearts that are overflowing with praise and worship to me. If you don't come looking to learn from the Word of God, you're stealing from me. Paul says, you need a life free from theft if you're going to bring joy to the Holy Spirit. And then finally he speaks about a life free from corrupting talk. In verse 29 he 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. Constructive speech, he says, that's what should mark you. That is what will bring joy to the Holy Spirit. That's what will put a smile on the person of the Holy Spirit. Constructive speech. That word corrupt there is a strong word again in the original Greek. It means rotten, it means putrid, it means filthy. Bound up in it is obscene language and conversation that runs others down and delights in their weaknesses. And it's so easy to become unwittingly like that. It's human nature, we love to gossip. We love to talk about other people, and particularly, perhaps, we like to major on their weaknesses as we talk one with another. Paul says that brings no joy to the Holy Spirit whatsoever. Saint Augustine says this. Well, he didn't say it, he had it written down. And it says that he had it in his dining room, if he had a dining room, over his dining table. And it said this, he who speaks evil of an absent man or woman is not welcome at this table. Challenging, wasn't it? So if you went there to have dinner with Saint Augustine and you sat down at his table and you read that note, you'd have to be very careful what you said, wouldn't you? You wouldn't be able to talk ill of an absent person, man or woman. I say I try to live by the maxim, but perhaps that's a bit strong. But a brother once preached on a similar subject as this, and he says that three questions you ask yourself before you open your mouth. Is it true? Is it kind? And is it necessary? Is it true what you're going to say about that person? Is it kind what you're going to say about that person or to that person? And then is it necessary to say that about that person or to that person? It's a challenge, isn't it? You know, to think about the things that we say in the course of normal conversation. If we were to apply those three maxims, how different perhaps our speech would be. Go home and listen to a politician on the radio, on the television. And so often what they're saying is not true. It's not kind and it's not really necessary. Kent Hughes says this about the Holy Spirit. He says, the Holy Spirit is not a phantom. He is a person. In infinite love he is condescended to dwell in us and to suffer pain and joy through us. Is he grieved with us? or is he singing over us? That was his appreciation of the Holy Spirit. So Paul says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. So let's try. and think about it sometimes. Are we grieving the Holy Spirit or are we putting a smile on the person of the Holy Spirit? Amen.