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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 4:30
I. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
A. This is one of the proof texts to point out that the Holy
Spirit is not an it or essence, but a person. How can you
grieve the wind, or air?
B. What are the things that grieve the Holy Spirit?
1. In the days of Noah, God said, "My Spirit will not
always strive with man. In verse 6 we read that it
repented God that He had made man upon the earth and
it grieved Him in His heart."
a. In the days of Noah we read that the
wickedness on the earth was great.
b. That every thought and imagination of man's
heart was evil continually.
c. How that must have grieved the heart of a pure
holy God.
d. As God reads your thoughts and knows the
imagination of your heart, do you suppose that
He is grieved?
e. We read that the earth was corrupt.
f. Also that the earth was filled with violence.
2. The psalmist asked, "How oft did they provoke Him in
the in the desert, and grieve Him in the wilderness.?"
a. They kept lusting after their flesh.
b. They did not believe the promises of God.
c. Psalm 95:10 says, "Forty years long was I
grieved with [this] generation, and said, It
[is] a people that do err in their heart, and
they have not known my ways:"
3. Mark tells us that Jesus was grieved at the hardness of
the hearts of the people.
4. Stephen accused the religious council in Jerusalem of
always resisting the Holy Spirit.
5. In the context Paul speaks of being past feeling giving
themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all
uncleanness with greed.
6. He speaks of lying, stealing, and corrupt
communication.
7. In the following verse he speaks of bitterness, and
wrath and anger and clamour, and evil speaking and
malice.
C. The result of grieving the Holy Spirit of God.
1. Hebrews 10:3 Wherefore I was grieved with that
generation, and said, They do always err in [their]
heart; and they have not known my ways. So I swore in
my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
2. They did not attain all that God had prepared and
desired for them.
D. Paul again speaks of being sealed by the Holy Spirit until the
day of redemption.
1. In Chapter one he spoke of being sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which was the earnest of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession.
2. Here he declares that we have been sealed until the
day of our redemption.
a. God has redeemed from the powers of darkness.
b. Jesus paid in full the price of my redemption.
c. He has claimed ownership of me, and put His
seal of ownership upon me which is His Holy
Spirit.
d. One day He is coming to claim me as His
possession, I am waiting for that day.
e. Paul wrote to the Romans that we and all
creation groaned together as we waited for
the manifestation of the sons of God, to wit
the redemption of our bodies.
II. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil
speaking be put away from you with all malice.
A. He had told them to put off the former life, the old man which
was corrupted with his deceitful lusts. These were the marks
and characteristics of that old man which we are to put away.
1. Bitterness. (pikria) Long standing resentment. Letting
something just continue to simmer inside, until it
begins to eat away at us.
2. Wrath. (thumus) Like the flame that comes from dried
weeds when a match has been lit to them.
3. Anger (orge) Anger which has become habitual and
inveterate.
4. Clamor (kroge) To scream, or cry out.
5. Evil speaking, (blasphemia) Swearing or cursing.
B. In contrast to this,
III. Be ye kind one to another.
A. Kindness is a characteristic that I in my mind always associate
with Jesus.
1. I see Him as the kindness and most gentle person who
ever graced this earth.
2. I see the kindness with which He dealt with sinners.
a. The woman at the well.
b. The woman taken in adultery.
c. The man suffering from palsy which was a
disease that was usually associated with
promiscuity.
d. The prostitute that anointed His feet with oil
in the house of Simon the Pharisee.
3. I see the kindness as He dealt with the demanding
crowds. He never seemed to be irritate with the pushing
and shoving that was going on about Him.
4. The kindness toward those who were physically
afflicted. Up into the late hours of the night
ministering healing to those who had come to Him for
His touch.
5. We are to kind one to another.
B. Tenderhearted. It is so easy to harden our hearts when we have
been wronged and taken advantage of.
1. We must constantly guard ourselves against becoming
hard hearted.
2. Sometimes when we have been deeply hurt by someone we
determine "I will never let them hurt me again." and we
harden our hearts against them or against situations.
3. This tender heart is in contrast to the bitterness of
which Paul spoke in the previous verse.
4. Have you ever seen the tragedy of an older person who
has become bitter and hard hearted?
C. Forgiving one another.
1. How often am I to forgive a person the same offense? Be
honest now, can you rise to the suggestion of Peter and
forgive seven times? But we know that it is not seven
times but seventy times seven.
2. Who do you think suffers the most, the guilty party, or
the one who refuses the forgive the guilty party.
a. The truth of the matter is that they both
suffer.
b. It is important to know that I have been
forgiven, many neurotic behavior patterns can
develop from a guilty conscience. But it is
equally important to forgive, for a bitter
heart can be dangerous to you physically
creating chemicals in your body that begin to
eat at your stomach lining.
D. What is the measure or extant of our forgiveness? "Even as God
for Christ's sake has forgiven you."
1. Remember the story of the Master who had a servant that
owed him 16 million dollars? You are that servant, you
have been been forgiven a mammoth debt.
2. God has forgiven you completely. You are to forgive
completely.
3. God will never bring it up again, you should never
bring it up again.
4. God has forgiven you graciously, you should forgive
graciously.
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