Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you
were sealed for the day of redemption.

 Reading this section of God's Word and what it says can be humiliating.
I say that for one simple reason: In reading this, my sins and faults are
exposed.  I'm getting better at being a Christian, that is, at putting on
the New Man.  I'm wiser and maturer as a Christian because of my study of
God's Word but that doesn't mean I am perfect.  The best I can say is
that what I was as a youth I am no longer as bad as.
 That doesn't seem like a lot to say, "I'm not as bad as I used to be."
That's because I compare myself to Christ and not other men.  As a
Christian, a maturing one, I still sin and I still wrestle with lots of
different temptations and issues but I'm getting better.  I work at
getting better.  Sometimes it takes a while for me to see a particular
fault but once I do I go about seeing how I can stop that particular
fault.  And despite my age I have not yet run out of things to fix.
 The portion of this epistle reading that bugs me the most is chapter
5:1-2 which says, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved
children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."  I
confess that I am a lousy imitator of Jesus.  I confess that love has not
always been the basis for everything I do.  I confess that there have
been times when I have not remembered to give of myself as Jesus gave of
himself.  Measuring myself against Jesus and his perfection is
humiliating.  But not in a bad way!  It is something that just makes me
realize how much I need what he has done.  It is something that helps me
to grasp all the more how gracious and forgiving Jesus really is.  It is
something that helps me keep the proper perspective in this world.
 Now as important as imitating Jesus is for us I determined that I was
not going to preach on that particular section of this reading.  Every
time I have preached on this text I have preached on chapter 5:1-2.
Those verses are the positive side of Paul's encouragement that is found
in this text.  I thought it would be good for us to hear the other side
of what he says.  You could call it the negative side, but only negative
in the sense that he is telling you specifically what not to do.  It is
an important section for us to contemplate, but a tough one.  Our theme
will be: GRIEVING THE SPIRIT.  1st What it is (generally).  2nd. What is
it (specifically).  3rd. How to avoid it.
 Notice again that we are dealing with that section of the book of
Ephesians that is telling us how we are to conduct our Christian lives.
Paul has already gone to great lengths to speak about the wonder and
marvel of Jesus as our Savior from sin.  He has told us about the
blessings that are ours in Jesus.  Blessings not because of merit or
worth on our part but because of the grace and mercy of Jesus.  But
again, like last week, we have a section that reminds us that this
message of Jesus is to have an impact on our life.  In telling us that we
are to imitate Jesus he also spends some time telling us exactly what it
is that we are not to be doing.  We'll use the words of verse 30 to come
to grips with what is said.  Verse 30 says, "And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
 What does he mean, "do not grieve the Holy Spirit?"  The word that we
translate as grieves can also mean, "sadden, to cause sorrow."  It is
written in such a way so as to let you know that God does not want you to
continually and habitually cause sorrow.  Of course this is sorrow caused
to the Holy Spirit of God.  This is serious sorrow that we are to watch
out for.
 To help us understand what this means let me share with you some other
verses of Scripture that will indeed cast some light on this phrase.
Matthew 12:31, "And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be
forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven."
 Luke 12:10 says, "And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man
will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Sprit will
not be forgiven."  Blasphemy is to speak or work against someone.
 Acts 7:51.  Stephen in addressing the Jewish leadership with God's Word,
a sermon that got him killed, said of them, "You stiff-necked people,
with uncircumcised hearts and ears!  You are just like your fathers: You
always resist the Holy Spirit!"  2 Corinthians 12:21 applies.  The words
here use the same word as our verse and we can see what it was that
caused the Apostle Paul grief.  "I am afraid that when I come again my
God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have
sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and
debauchery in which they have indulged."  The passage shows us that
unrepented of sin causes grief.  Finally we can turn to Hebrews 10:29.
The context here is again speaking of sins.  One of the great lines to
think of here is verse 26, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we
have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sin is left."
Then comes verse 29, "How much more severely do you think a man deserves
to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has
treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him,
and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?"
 All of this serves as a great reminder of one simple truth.  God has a
limit.  That limit is reached and surpassed when you no longer care to
hear and believe what God's Word says.  If God's Word says, "Don't do
that!" and you persist, you continue the horrid habit of sin, you may hit
the limit of God.  You may enter into the realm of unbelief and denial.
You may actually in your heart, without perhaps even realizing it, have
rejected the grace and mercy, the love and compassion, the Lordship and
omnipotence of Jesus.  It would be a serious problem.  It would be
bringing grief to the Spirit of God.
 That Dear people is what we are speaking of.  That's the general grasp
of this sin.  I do believe that we also have a more specific grasp that
we can engage in.  The specifics that Paul lays out in our text.  Those
specifics are found in the verses that surround our text.
 Verse 29.  "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but
only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs,
that I may benefit those who listen.  Prof. Habeck wrote in his
commentary on these words.  "Foul language is a product of the old man,
and Paul admonishes here that it be put off with him and not allowed to
proceed out of our mouths.  In our day and age under the guise of freedom
of speech all prohibitions against the use of gutter language are being
dropped.  When people in general have no inhibitions about using four
letter words, we have a special need to keep this admonition in mind.
God does not want us to remain mute.  There are words that God wants
spoken when one notices another has a need for edifying and then supplies
the need by telling him what is good for him...God wants us to tell him
the good news with the hope the hearer will be saved by grace."  I found
his insight interesting.  Not only that we should not speak in such a
way, but that we should also speak up about the offense and speak of our
Savior where we can.
 Verses 31-32.  "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and 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."
Again I will turn to Prof. Habeck.  "When there is something we do not
like in someone else, we are tempted to have bitter feeling against him,
to resent him, to be affected unpleasantly by what he is or says or does.
 This is a sin against the Fifth Commandment.  Hebrews 12:15 brings the
warning: "See to it...that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and
defile many."  Bitterness causes the temper to flare...Temper in turn
leads to anger, a more permanent feeling of resentment, a grudge.  This
in turn leads to loud shouting in quarreling.  The bitter root defiles
many.  This shouting includes...name calling.  The process is all too
familiar to us.  Finally the apostle uses the broad term with all malice.
 The old man is constantly looking for loopholes...but the broad
prohibition closes all loopholes.  Put away all malice and anything to
which it may lead."  I hear these words and I realize that I have let my
old Adam get the upper hand at times.  God help us to hear and follow
what is said here.
 But there is yet verse 32.  Prof. Habeck: "Instead of harboring the
emotions and condoning the conduct he had ruled out in the previous
verse, Paul first of all tells his readers to be kind to one another...to
be useful.  It is the friendly feeling that shows itself in a willingness
to do anything of benefit to another.  Paul urges that it replace the
hostile feeling we are tempted to have toward those who anger us...All
the more God desires this attitude of selfless concern for the welfare of
others to show itself toward those who are fellow members of the body of
Christ.
 The question we now have before us is how do we avoid grieving the Holy
Spirit?  Well, we practice what God's Word says.  First, we realize our
sinfulness and the grief it does cause our God and Lord.  Second, because
of the grace of Jesus, because he has died to forgive us our sins and
rose from the dead to secure our adoption as His children, because we
have been called to the new life of faith in Jesus let us simply repent
of our sins.  In that repentance is the knowledge, the faith, that Jesus
has forgiven us!  Instead of all the negative things that are mentioned
here we want to do the positive.  We want to practice kindness, sympathy
and most of all we want to practice forgiving each other as in Christ God
forgave you.
 Wow!  We hear these words and if you are like me, you realize how often
we toss aside what is said here.  God has been clear.  Unwholesome talk,
bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and all forms of malice are to
be gone in our lives.  Instead we are to be kind, compassionate,
forgiving to each other.  We are to be God's children who build up, who
reach out to help, who strive to serve the kingdom of God with whatever
talents God has given us.  In other words, we are to be imitators of God.
 Imitators because we are dearly loved children.  May our gracious and
loving God help us in this endeavor to the glory of his name!  Amen.