your congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ to appreciate and profit from the passage in God's Word that is before us this evening. You may have noticed that it comes like a series of staccato-like exhortations, the one tumbling out after the other. And so it's a text, it's a passage that has everything to do with the kind of life that we are called to live as members of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, as believers, in the Lord Jesus Christ. But to rightly understand this text, there are some things I'd like to observe by way of introduction to set a kind of context for our consideration of the text together this evening. And the first thing is, this is, of course, in that portion of Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus that has to do with what some have called the gospel imperative. If you read the book of Ephesians, and I'd encourage you to do that in the week that is to come if you have time, you'll notice that it nicely divides into two parts. There are chapters one to three where the Apostle gives what might be called a rather expansive and a rather lustrous description of God's great and saving purpose with respect to His own people whom He loved before the foundation of the world, whom he elected, he says in chapter 1 of Ephesians, in Christ, that they might be holy and blameless before him. And if you read through chapters 1, 2, and 3, they're rich in what might be called gospel indicatives. You know, of course, that the indicative mood, if you remember your studies of language in school, Good review for the young people as they come to the end of another year of study. The indicative mood has to do with statement of fact. What is the case? Don't you know, says the Apostle, who you are? Loved of Christ from before the foundation of the world. Once dead in sin by nature, an object of God's wrath, but now made alive in Christ. You are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. that God prepared in advance for you to walk in them. Now, in the section that's before us then this evening, we have the second part of Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus. And the way we're to understand this text, you might think it's just a bit moralistic because it's all about exhortations to a certain pattern of life and conduct. You're to understand it as Paul's way of saying, and he hints at that in a variety of ways in the context, you are to live, Christians, in accordance with who you are. Don't live self-forgetful lives. Be by way of imperative, and the imperative mood, as you know, is the mood that comes in the way of command. The relation between indicative and imperative is like this. If this is who you are, then live accordingly. If I was to use a very simple analogy, if you're a school teacher, if you were to say using the indicative mood, I'm a school teacher, then I would have every right to say to you, then teach. Do what you are. If you're a laborer, then I could say to you, then work with your hands. If you're a preacher, then preach. If you're a parent, then parent your children. That's the idea of the passage that is before us. Live up to who you are as a Christian. Don't belie who you are in terms of your identity in Christ by a life that is not worthy of the Gospel. Incidentally, there's a transitional word at chapter 4, verse 1, that I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, in his great series of sermons to the book of Ephesians, actually spends more than one sermon on just that transition, that word, therefore. So important is it, this transition from who I am in Christ to what I am called to do. The second thing I would observe about the passage that's before us, and it might at times seem to you rather simple and rather ordinary, having to do with the stuff of what comprises my life from Monday through Saturday. The way I talk, the way I spend my energy, my money, how I deal with anger, how I relate to others, what I say with my mouth. And I would just observe, congregation, that this is a reminder to us that God, when He takes hold of us in Christ and indwells us by His Spirit, His call to us spans the whole of our life, in every part. There is no part of our life, no piece of our conduct concerning which the Lord Jesus does not say, it belongs to me. and not to you. And you are to do with it as is pleasing to me." The third observation about the passage as we look at it together is this. It's governed by an interesting metaphor that Paul uses in the context. You should think of your former way of life outside of Christ as a patterned piece of clothing, as a form of dress or adornment that you are putting off, putting away. Not sending the goodwill or salvation army, but dispensing with it, destroying it, putting it to death. And you are at the same time by the Spirit of Christ to be adorned with that dress, that apparel, the kind of clothing that bespeaks your new identity, your new self. You know, of course, that a soldier doesn't, when he's in service, dress in civilian garments. He wears his military uniform. The same is true of doctors, of nurses, and many other professions. And that's the sort of metaphor that pulls all of these exhortations together. Put away that former clothing that is bespeaking an identity that is no longer yours. Put on that clothing that befits your status as a Christian. And then one last thing, and it explains the theme that is in the bulletin this evening, living under the smile of the spirit. I stole it from some other preachers. I'm not original in this, let's just note that for a moment, but we may borrow, I guess, I shouldn't say stole it, I'm borrowing it from him, because as he points out, it's interesting that in the midst of all of these exhortations about what it means to live according to who you are as a Christian, putting off the old, putting on the new, and the whole of life, there is this comment, this observation in verse 30, this exhortation, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And you could say in a manner of speaking that that exhortation stands in a sense as a kind of heading over all the exhortations underneath it. Live this way so as not to grieve the Spirit. with whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption. That's a rather striking thought, isn't it? That our lives, if they are out of accord with our identity in Christ, if they belie the gospel concerning who we are, that that form of life is witnessed by the Spirit and brings the Spirit grief. By comparison, by contrast, implicitly, A life that is in accord with these gospel patterns before us this evening is the kind of life that brings a smile in a manner of speaking to the Holy Spirit. You know, you children probably have by now, long ago, learned that when I've done something and Mom and Dad are looking at me rather sternly, a bit cross-eyed and a bit furrowed in the brow, and rather peeved and unhappy with me, that's not a good thing. And on the other hand, when they greet me with a broad smile and open arms and with that look of delight, well, that's a good thing. I can remember one time my wife, when she was at the organ in the front of church, and I'm here preaching and our children are there in the pew. I guess I wasn't preaching. She was at the organ prior to a song. And the children are misbehaving. And she gave them a look, I'm told, by members of the congregation that even frightened them. Because they knew these children were in a heap of trouble after the worship service. Well, you get the idea. Living under the smile of the Spirit is not to live so as to grieve. To bring to the Spirit as He bears witness to our lives a note of despondency that such persons who belong to Jesus are walking in a way so contrary to their identity. Well, having said all that, bear that in mind as we look at these imperatives together. And we're just going to run through the text together as quickly, but we mustn't go too quickly, as quickly as we can to see what some of these life patterns of a man or woman who walks worthy of the gospel, who's dressed according to the apparel with which God in Christ adorns His people in all areas of life. And the first one is very simply put away the old garment of falsehood and put on the new garment of speaking the truth in respect to your dealings and relations with others. Do not, or as verse 25 puts it, therefore each of you must put off falsehood, and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body." Now, as I said before, you might think some of these are rather simple. rather even pedantic and so easily to be anticipated exhortations. Of course, as a Christian, I should put off falsehood and speak truthfully the one to the other in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we are members of one body. But you have to remember, congregation, that when Paul is writing this letter to the church in Ephesus, he's speaking the Gospel into a pagan culture. You may even remember that rather striking It almost makes us uncomfortable. Epitaph of the Apostle Paul at one point in his epistles where he says of Cretans, those who live in Crete, all Cretans are liars. And he says that because in the ancient pagan world, not penetrated by the light of the gospel and the truth of the word of God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the light, speaking falsely, and not being a truth-telling person, a man or a woman of integrity, a person who knows that as an image-bearer of God, the gift of language, which enables communication and fellowship with others, is to mimic and reflect the perfect truth that God is in His abiding faithfulness It was not thought to be in any way a particularly grievous offense to twist the truth, to distort one's words, to manipulate language in order to achieve one's purpose or one's end. As a matter of fact, congregation, if you've ever had experience in cultures and places in the world that have not really been touched deeply by the truth of the Word of God, you will be surprised at how rife such cultures are with a failure to recognize that we are image bearers of God who is the God of the Amen, the true and faithful witness whose Word is abidingly the same, the grass may wither, the flower may fade, but the word of the Lord stands fast, fixed forever. That it's very casual and easy to manipulate and abuse the truth. This is a theme that you'll find often in Paul's epistles and in the exhortations of his epistles. But I mention pagan cultures and the culture in Ephesus because ours in North America congregation is becoming increasingly a neo-pagan, a newly paganized culture, not a world that any longer respects the infallible truth of the Word of God, a world that recognizes that as those who bear the image of the God of the Amen, whose son is a son full of grace and of truth? Well, in our culture, falsehood in many respects is endemic. All I have to do is ask the question, do you believe the politicians as they scramble after and pursue higher office in the United States, Have we cultivated a culture of truth-telling on the campaign trail so that you're straight as an arrow? No bending, no flexing, no manipulating of words or of truth so as to gain a hearing? Well, it's not only in politics. Take economics, advertising, the way in which people sell their ware. even the promises that they make, you talk about political promises, what about these promises that if you just had this new Lexus, and I don't mean to be unkind to anyone who drives a Lexus, good for you. If you just drive this Lexus, why then you'll be able to settle back in your plush leather chair and feel a little bit like you're on the top of the world. You've got the world by the tail, you've succeeded, what about that? Well, you fill in the blank. Vows people make to each other in marriage. Promises that they express to people at work. Christians are, too, says the Apostle, dressed in the dress of the Spirit of Christ, children of the God of the Amen, their straight arrows. They distinguish themselves in their employment. In their public service, they're a breath of fresh air. They bring a kind of truth-telling culture that stands in striking relief in a world that deals in so many forms of falsehood and perversions of the truth. Not to pick on our culture or anyone in particular, but I was struck not too long ago by a football coach of a college team, I think it was, who was rumored to be exploring the possibility of a better job with a professional NFL team. And he was being interviewed on the news. And I think he said something to the effect, I can't tell you, I don't know how many ways I can tell you. I'm not interested. I'm not talking to them. I'm not going to take the position. Period. Is that enough? Well, then you see him a week later packing his bags and off to the airport for the new job. And we become so jaded that that doesn't surprise us. That's just the way it is. Well, that's the first life pattern. Speak the truth. Put away all falsehood. For we are all members of one body. The second pattern is put away all unrighteous anger. In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down. while you are still angry. And do not give the devil a foothold. That is a very striking exhortation and life pattern. I say put away all unrighteous anger because Paul quotes actually from the psalmist and the language is, in your anger, do not sin. In other words, there may well be a righteous and a holy anger in the face of sin and disobedience. Whether in your own life, you're upset with yourself, you're angry with yourself, or in the lives of others. Think of our Lord when He saw what they had done to the Lord's temple, turning it into a den of robbers, when it should have been a house of prayer. He took a whip and went through the foyer, you might say, among the tables and overturned them and drove them out of the temple court. But notice, unrighteous anger, in your anger to be sure it could be righteous, do not sin, do not let the sun go down while you are still anger. The anger of which the Apostle Paul here is speaking is the sort of anger that we keep alive, that we nurse, that we hold dear and won't let go to our own hurt and to the hurt, injury, of others. I think it's Thomas Boston who used a very rather graphic expression to refer to this kind of anger, the kind of anger that is destructive and ruinous in relationship to others. He calls it the vomit of a proud heart. It's the sort of anger that you harbor against someone who's offended you, who's done you wrong, who perhaps at some point in your life, took advantage of you, didn't treat you rightly in business. Now maybe I'm talking to somebody tonight, in this very room, who harbors that kind of anger against someone else in this very room. Don't let the sun go down on that anger. Don't let the sun go down on that anger. Because it's destructive. I can remember once as an elder in a church visiting a family in the congregation and there was some discussion about joining ranks with a neighboring church and the father of the house said, if that happens, he says, I'm going to have to leave the church. And I said, well, why would you do that? Well, because there's a man in that church who happened to be a relative of his. I could not worship with him. Because he did not pay me what was my due some years ago in business. Now, unhappily, congregation, you find that sort of thing in strange places. And the strangest place where you find that sort of thing is in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put off that old garment and throw it away. And put on the new garment. that is in keeping with your status as a member of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now there comes a third exhortation. Not only put away falsehoods, speak the truth, put away unrighteous anger. It goes on, verse 28, and says, he who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with his own hands that he may have something to share with those in need. And now you may say, that's really humdrum. Do wholesome and proper work. Work doing something useful with your own hands and steal no longer. We're all already taken with what sometimes is called the Protestant and Puritan work ethic, and so this is not a word for us. But it's a rather interesting thing that we who are created in God's image and placed in His creation so as under His authority to exercise dominion over the creation. And though our work and labor as God's image bearers in that task has been corrupted and is under the curse that follows upon our sin, so that in the sweat of our brow and in the context of a creation that groans under the curse of the Creator, we engage in our labor as Christians, we know that also in Christ, labor, work, honest, industriousness is pleasing to the Lord. And it's also true that in the day in which Paul is writing this epistle to the church in Ephesus, that not only was falsehood endemic in that culture, the idea of hard labor of an honest day's work, of working responsibly, using the gifts God has put into our hands to unfold things and serve thereby the well-being of others, all of those themes were foreign in that culture. That was a culture that commended leisure. Slaves would be assigned menial tasks and labor, but those who had means They would spend their times in leisure and in the enjoyment of the labor of others. That too sounds a little too familiar for comfort. I remember when I was a student in college, this was a long time ago now, I'm getting older, but we all are, this was driven home to me when I read a book by a sociologist in the United States that says Americans have for the most part lost the sense of the of the goodness of honest work. The book was entitled The Uncommitted, and the idea was people labor and work for as few hours as they possibly can in order to really enjoy life off hours. It's called the weekend, or the extended weekend, or whatever it might be. There, too, we have a summons in the Word of God as God's people to set a different pattern. that is in keeping with the Gospel, that bespeaks who we are as those created in Christ Jesus, putting off the old, putting on the new for those good works that God has prepared for us to walk in them. It's a good thing, fathers, mothers, to teach your children that God gives them opportunities, God supplies and furnishes them with ability and talent, in order that they might use everything they have to serve the King and to bring glory to His name. And if I might just throw in here something just by way of a close connection with my father. One thing, my father has some faults. Don't tell him that I said that, but he has some faults. My wife reminds me of that sometimes when she says to me, you know, you're acting there a little bit like your father. It's one of those things that might be a fault. But one fault he never had, and it was this, no dust under his feet. No time for not making the most of the opportunity. No lazy, lethargic, slothful, that's one of the seven deadly sins, pattern of life. Let's burn the candle at both ends. Let's make the most of the short time the Lord has given to us. Let's put our hands to the plow. Let's do whatever we can do for the king, and that's the idea of this exhortation. But now there are two more, the first of which is put away unwholesome talk and speak that which is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. You know, that language, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, is very, in the original, very striking and graphic language. Let no putrid Let no corrupting, unwholesome, has the strong idea of decay and the stench that accompanies something that is thrown in the garbage and is left there too long. You hold your nose. It's offensive. It's unpleasant. It's in no way uplifting nor positively contributing to the well-being of others. Well, some speech is like that. And then there is the kind of speech that is wholesome, that is uplifting, that is beautiful, that brings a pleasant aroma into the conversation and the room. The same preacher I mentioned It gave me my theme, living under the smile of the spirit, refers to someone of whom it was said that all of his geese are become swan. You know, that's a very interesting thing, because if you're familiar with geese, particularly Canada geese, we have them around the seminary. I don't know if you have them here in this part of the country. I imagine that you do in too great a number. Now, those are not a pleasant creature. I'm sorry to say, they bring a lot of, well, we won't go into the description. They make a mess, a very unhappy mess. And I'd love to be able to deal with them, but I'm not allowed to shoot them or anything like that. But I'd like to be able to do that. They are a filthy creature. They look good, but they're filthy. But swan, what about swan? Happens to be one of those in the neighborhood, apparently swan, are actually sometimes rented. There's actually a fellow, you talk about ingenious, who rents swan. You put them on your pond and they scare off the Canada geese. Well, a swan is a graceful, gloriously beautiful, splendid creature. Dazzling. Well, that language, all his geese become swan, you get the idea. Could it be said of your speech? that all of your geese become swan. I'm not saying be a flatterer. I'm not saying bend the truth and speak what is not the case. But why is so much of our conversation destructive? Sometimes we excuse it because it belongs to our particular culture. That's the kind of people we are. We're just sort of blunt and straight speaking. Well, I've met one too many persons whose constructive criticism wasn't anything constructive about it at all. It was just a little excuse to use their words, not in a wholesome fashion, but in a fashion that was not building up, but destructive. And so that too is a life pattern. that bespeaks those who are members of Christ and dwelt of the Spirit, who bring a smile to the Spirit and not grief by the manner in which they speak to and about others. One last life pattern, and it's this. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, and slander. Along with every form of malice, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. Now, there's a sermon all in itself. And we don't have the time. But you see what the Apostle is saying. If you feel in connection with these other life patterns, I fall so far short. I'm ashamed of myself. If you don't feel that, I certainly do. Perhaps we haven't been listening to what the Lord is saying through this text tonight. The pinch of it has to be felt by us. But there's good news. How does God deal with us? He's kind. He's considerate. He's long-suffering. He doesn't repay us according to our iniquities. He is not angry forever. He remembers that we are dust. And He deals with us in a way that, as Paul says earlier in Ephesians, He, in a kindly and in the richness of His mercy, provides for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. How then should we not also exhibit with the kind of dress, adornment that bespeaks the gospel, not only putting away falsehoods, speaking the truth, not only working hard with our hands, not only speaking well of one another, building each other up, but exhibiting in our dealings with one another. That's why, how could you let the sun go down on your anger? When God poured out His own anger on the brow of His own Son. The Word of the Lord tonight for us congregation is just very simple. Is your life a life in these respects that brings something of a delight to the Holy Spirit with whom you were sealed to the day of redemption? Or is yours the kind of life that furrows the brow, brings a sense of dismay, a sort of, how is it possible? These people who know this Christ, they should act like that. Let our lives so adorn the gospel we preach that there is a correspondence, at least some resemblance, between the gospel of the Lord Jesus and the life that we live in every part. Amen.