The 8^th Sunday after Trinity

SERMON

INI

Text: Ephesians 4:29-32

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.

In Christ Jesus, our forgiving Savior, dear fellow-redeemed:

Put yourself in the position of meeting a traveling salesman. Traveling salesmen aren’t so common anymore because they reach us by internet or phone, but in this example we are meeting with the salesman face-to-face. He is demonstrating a wonderful new product. It is a wonderful new product that will help us in so many ways around our home with each new use better than the one before. It’s almost so perfect that it can never fail, and the salesman speaks with such effective words that you are almost convinced to buy a year’s supply—maybe even more!

But before you commit to the purchase, you ask the salesman “How do you like using it in your home? What uses have you found with your family?” The salesman’s face drains of color and turns to pale white. He stutters, he stammers, and eventually has to admit, “I don’t use it. I simply sell it.” All of a sudden every word of praise the salesman had for the product seems a little less convincing and you may very well rethink buying the large supply from a man who doesn’t even use or like what he sells.

As children of God we are not in the business of sales. We are in the work of giving. When we seek to bring the Gospel to others and share the Gospel with one another we are not trying to sell anything. We are looking out for one another’s souls. But the lesson learned from the salesman who doesn’t even believe in the product he is trying to sell is one that we can apply to our lives. If we go out into the world and seek to share the Gospel with others, but don’t use it in our own lives, what kind of witness are we giving? If we don’t use the product that we’re suggesting everyone else should use, how convincing or truthful are our words?

People learn about their Savior from the children of God. They may learn about their Savior through the words that children of God speak. They could go to the Bible and read, but I can assure that the majority of those who are not already believers don’t typically read their Bible. Until such time that they are brought to faith, their knowledge and their understanding of what Jesus has done will come from seeing you. In so many ways you are the windows to God for people who do not know Him.

A writer once described the child of God as an epistle—a letter—for Christ. We read through the epistles of Paul, Peter, John, and others in the New Testament. These were letters written to encourage Christians in faith and to instruct them in the truth of God’s Word. The writer went on to say these were epistles written by pens, but what is the epistle being written by you in your life? You’re not a physical letter, but there is a letter of instruction written by how you conduct yourselves, the words you say, and the attitudes you keep and put forth in your lives. What are people learning about God from you?

This morning we consider that Your Life Speaks Volumes for Christ and with that the question: “What does it say?” We find that I. Christ is glorified by a mouth that imparts grace, II. Christ is glorified by conduct that honors the Holy Spirit, III. Christ is glorified by forgiveness that is unlimited and the Evangelism Truth we take with us this morning is that The Gospel is a message of forgiveness.

I.

The apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians saying, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers” [v. 29] The power of the tongue is something we’ve already heard from the pen of the apostle James in our epistle reading. But let’s consider the power and strength of our words a little further.

In our world there is at times—quite frequently actually—when a certain value is placed on the ability to be witty and sharp in response. It’s supposedly great when someone can, on the spur of a moment, give a clever, witty, biting response that many people find humorous, but is really hurtful. We might be able to come back with a quick reply in reaction to someone hurting us, maybe it’s a quick reply of ridiculing humor at the expense of someone else, but then afterward we realize just how hurtful it was, and if only we could take it back. The thing about the power of the tongue is that once it is unleashed, you can use the same tongue to apologize, you can use the same tongue to retract what you’ve said, but the power was sent out and you cannot ever truly bring it all back. The power of the tongue is a raging fire. It defiles the whole body (cf. James 3:6).

Our tongues do not only hurt through words that cause emotional stress, and words of cruelty, belittlement, and ridicule. Our tongues also hurt with words that might lead someone else into sin. By my words I can lead someone else to think that sin is OK. By my tongue I might make someone else feel that this is the path to travel when it is actually it is a path of sin and destruction.

We are also able to use our tongues with the power of God’s Word to bring the message of forgiveness to sinners. When we convey the Gospel of Christ to individual souls, the words of our tongue have the power to bring sinners from death to life. That is the amazing power of the Word of God coming off our tongues! Your life spoken through your mouth can speak volumes for Christ because when your mouth witnesses for Christ and speaks things that are pure, that are noble, and of good report they glorify Christ. When your words are uttered in defense of your neighbor, when they are spoken for the benefit of others they glorify Christ.

Our mouths do not need to be continually speaking the actual words of Scripture to testify and witness to our Savior. Whenever they reflect what is good and God pleasing and are spoken with a love for others then they do honor our Lord.

So Paul writes against corrupt words proceeding out of our mouths. This includes cursing. It includes all of those idiomatic phrases that come flying out of the mouth so fast, but if we stop to think what they really say, they are calling for harm upon the individual to whom they are directed. We might argue, “It’s just a phrase. I don’t really mean that. I don’t want someone to go to hell or be damned.” But that is what the mouth says. If you don’t mean it, don’t say it. Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, for such words do not speak volumes for Christ.

Corrupt words from our mouths actually compromise our ability to speak for Christ. Remember what people see and hear from you is in many cases what they know about God. If they know you to be a child of God and hear all of these things coming out of your mouth, what do they learn about Jesus? What incentive, what desire would they possibly have to follow their Savior if someone who follows their Savior speaks in that way? Rather than those corrupt words which harm and do not speak well of Christ, let us use our mouths for what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearer. Let us speak words that are reflective of God’s love for us, that are in accordance with His will for our lives, that give testimony to our Savior rather than detract from Him. When we speak words such as these and keep all corrupt words from our mouths, they will speak volumes for Christ because it will be so different from what people hear from the majority of the world around us.

II.

Paul continues “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”[v.30] Earlier in Ephesians Paul had written, “…you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The Holy Spirit has been given to us as the seal and guarantee of our salvation. God has shown us grace by sending Jesus and then bringing us to faith—calling us out of darkness into light, raising us out of death into life. Our faith is a gift given to us through the working of the Holy Spirit. Knowing that the Holy Spirit is working in our hearts and having the confidence He creates is the seal of guarantee that all of this is true and that we are indeed children of God. The Holy Spirit alive and active in our lives is the guarantee that Jesus will come again, that we will be counted among God’s children, and that we will inherit eternal life.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians he spoke of our bodies as being the dwelling place and temple of the Holy Spirit. “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

If someone comes to your home armed with cans of paint and sprays graffiti all over your home, kicks over everything you have in your yard, and toilet papers your trees—in other words makes your home a complete shambles—how would you feel about that? You might be enraged. You would certainly be hurt by your home being so utterly defaced.

Our bodies are the temples—the home of the Holy Spirit. So how does the Holy Spirit feel if we harm our bodies or involve our bodies and lives in sinful conduct? He is grieved. The Holy Spirit lives within us. That involves our bodies, our conduct, our whole being. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. There is no place for us to bring sin, wickedness, and ill conduct into this temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul says because the Holy Spirit is living in you, watch out for your conduct, watch how you act, watch your attitudes, watch your approach to life, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

The apostle goes on to explain how we avoid grieving the Holy Spirit when he says, “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”[v.31] This list just gives a sampling. We could turn to Galatians and find there a longer list of “works of the flesh” (Cf. Galatians 5:19-21) and these could be added to this list. All of the things that go contrary to God’s Word, all of the things that come out of our flesh grieve the Holy Spirit. Those sinful behaviors, attitudes, and actions find their root in our hearts. Jesus said, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…” (Matthew 15:19f).The sinfulness that we carry around inside of us produces all of activities, attitudes, words, and emotions that grieve the Holy Spirit.

All that grieves the Holy Spirit also does not speak well of Christ. Do people know us as a bitter individuals? Are their individuals who associate with us, or who no longer associate with us, who view us as angry individuals? Do people hesitate to even come to us and talk to us because of the anger and wrath they assume they’ll experience? Do we find all sorts of clamoring and trouble and evil-speaking centered around us? Are we producing attitudes that are contrary to God’s Word? Do we have these things active and thriving in our lives? If so, God’s Word directs us to repent and to cease grieving the Holy Spirit.

As we seek to flee temptation, to cut off those things that lead us astray, and to put away the bitterness and wrath, the Spirit working through the Gospel will enable us to accomplish this. The work of the Holy Spirit increases in us the ability to follow God’s will for our lives and to speak and act well, to have our whole conduct reflect the love of Christ so that people will see us and recognize us as the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is then that our conduct glorifies Christ and honors the Holy Spirit. It honors the Holy Spirit because He is the one who creates faith in our hearts. He is the one who sustains our faith and works in us the ability to do the good that pleases God.

III.

Paul concludes in our text saying, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.”[v.32] There is no greater way to speak volumes for Christ than to forgive.

You heard the parable of the unforgiving servant in the Gospel reading. The man had the equivalent of multi-millions of dollars forgiven with the single stroke of his master’s pen, but was unwilling to forgive a fellow servant who owed him the equivalent of twenty dollars. If we had a debt of ten million dollars one day and in the space of a minute became debt free, we probably wouldn’t go looking for the twenty dollars someone else owed us. The excited thanksgiving of receiving a ten million dollar gift would overshadow thoughts about mere twenty dollars. Yet, seeking the twenty dollars is exactly what the servant in Jesus’ parable did. Jesus told the parable in this way because even though it is hard to imagine quibbling over twenty dollars, it is similar to what happens when we do not show forgiveness to one another.

We can be tempted into forgetting the vastness of God’s forgiveness toward us and become consumed by the little sins against us. When we put this into the bigger perspective and understand that every single sin we commit is against God and that these sins accumulate throughout our whole life, it is then we realize the great debt we have been forgiven. Imagine the volume of sinfulness and wickedness and bad decisions God forgives! Why would we become so consumed and preoccupied with that little word someone spoke against us, or the way he looked at me, or the attitude we didn’t like? Are they sins? Yes. Are they sins to deal with? Yes. But they are so tiny, tiny, tiny, compared to what God forgives us. So then, let us forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us.

Forgiveness is the heart of the Gospel message. The heart of the Gospel is the love of a God—holy and pure, all wise, and all powerful—who forgives sinful creatures such as we. The message and the core of the Gospel is the magnitude of love that sent Jesus to be our Savior when we were still sinners and enemies of God. It is the love that daily forgives us every single sin not because of who we are, but because of who God is and for His name’s sake. That is a rich and abundant forgiveness. It is so abundant that it overshadows even all of our sins. “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Romans 5:20), and with that grace forgiveness.

The message in our evangelism is first of all a message of forgiveness. It is not a message that overlooks evil. One of the world’s philosophies equates forgiveness with ignoring sin. The true forgiveness of the Gospel does not ignore sin. If we turn a blind eye to sin and say, “That’s not so bad” and dismiss it, then we don’t need grace. We don’t need forgiveness. By dismissing sin we actually cheapen God’s grace and draw glory away from Christ. Christ is glorified and God is honored when we recognize the depth of our sin and the greatness of His forgiveness and salvation. So as we preach the Gospel we speak of that wonderful love and the free and full forgiveness that God gives to us through His Son.

Our lives speaks volumes for Christ with this core message of the Gospel when we are forgiving to one another. If we preach the forgiveness of God which we ourselves have heard and believe, it will overflow in our attitudes and forgiveness toward one another.

You have the power of words that edify and impart grace to your hearers. You have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you; and having been forgiven forgive one another and thereby speak volumes for your Savior and glorify the honor of His name. Amen.

—Pastor Wayne C. Eichstadt