June 18, 2004
Sermon 

“Repent Now” 
Walking in Righteousness Pt. 4
   Eph.4:26-27    

26 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 

Introduction:
Eph.4:26 is the favorite verse of people who want to justify having a temper. In the Greek, the first word is actually in the imperative mood. So literally it says, “Be angry, and don’t sin.” So we are actually commanded to be angry. The problem is, Jesus said Matt 5:22 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.  And He used the exact same word for anger as we have here. So Jesus compares anger with murder, and then Paul gives a command: “Be angry.” What are we to make of that?

3 Views
There are three major views:
1. Many commentators take it as a concessive imperative. That means it’s giving permission. So the idea is, “You have permission to be angry – just don’t sin while you’re mad.” For the life of me I can’t imagine how someone could think that interpretation would fit this context. He just described the sinfulness of the old life and the wonders of the new life. And he’s in the middle of giving a list of specific elements of the old life we are to lay aside. Get rid of lying, get rid of stealing, get rid of unwholesome talk, get rid of bitterness, etc. Would you really expect in the middle of a list like that for Paul to interrupt himself and say, “Oh by the way – you’re allowed to be angry.” First of all, what would be the point of saying that? And second, what would we do with v.31, where he says Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger? Anger is not a good thing we are permitted to have.  It’s a bad thing we are commanded to lay aside. Another problem with that view is the word and in v.26.  If he’s giving permission here, you would expect, the word “but.” “You’re allowed to be angry, but don’t sin.” It doesn’t really make sense to say, “You’re allowed to be angry and don’t sin.”

2. Another very common interpretation is to take this to be a conditional imperative.  So then we would translate it, “If you happen to be angry, don’t sin.” That’s the interpretation the NIV takes. There are two problems with that view. First, if you look up every other example of a conditional imperative, it’s talking about the future. “If you do this, then that will happen.” You never see a conditional imperative followed by another imperative. Secondly, again – the word “and” doesn’t fit. “If you are angry, and don’t sin”?

3. The third major view is that he’s talking about righteous anger. The problem with that is, first, how are we to know it’s righteous anger? Second, how would that fit the context?  This is supposed to be a list of things we are to strip off. Is he telling us to strip off the lack of righteous anger? Plus, the people who hold this view tend not to be very consistent. Because when they get to the end of the verse, where it says Do not let the sun go down on your anger and Do not give the devil a foothold, they revert back to talking about sinful anger. Every commentary I read argued for one of those three views. But I can’t accept any of them. So what are we to make of this text?
          This passage had me stumped all through Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Finally on Thursday evening I began to panic because the end of the week was coming, and so I decided I needed to pick the most likely of those three interpretations and go with it. So I wrote my whole sermon and went to bed. And as I laid in bed, my conscience started screaming at me. I just got done preaching last Sunday about what  a grave sin it is to misrepresent God, and here I was planning to preach an interpretation that I really wasn’t at all confident was even correct. So when I couldn’t stand it any longer, I got up and did some more study of Ps.4 (which is what Paul is quoting). And then it all started coming together.

Psalm 4: a call to repentance
Whenever there is a quote of the OT, the best way to gain insight into the passage is to study the OT source. I had studied all the details of Ps.4:4, but I had missed the main point. The more I studied the context of Ps.4, the more I realized that is not what Paul is getting at.

Read Ps.4:4

The NIV does the same thing here as in Ephesians. Literally it’s an imperative: “Be angry.” 
And it’s not the normal word for anger. It’s the normal word for trembling. It is often used to describe trembling in anger, or trembling in fear, or in awe, or just to be disturbed or bothered in some way. So a more literal translation would be “Tremble and stop sinning. When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent.” And to understand what he’s saying, we need to take a look at the context of the whole psalm. The Psalm starts out with the psalmist in great distress – crying out to God.

Read Ps.4:1

He is in distress because of the sins of his enemies. Starting in v.2 he begins confronting those men about their sin.

Read Ps.4:2

Then in vv.3-5 he calls them to repentance with 7 imperatives.

Read Ps.4:3

In other words, know that you are opposing God. Realize that your offense is not just against a man. Your punches are landing on God. The next two commands come in v.4.

Tremble and stop sinning
The second step in repentance is to take your sin seriously – to tremble. Next he says, stop sinning. In both Greek and Hebrew, when you have a prohibition of something that you know is already happening, it should be translated “stop doing it.” This is the progression of repentance. First you realize your sin is against God. Then you become convicted and tremble before God. And that drives you to give up that sin. But that’s not the end of it. At the end of v.4 he has two more commands:

when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. 

In the quietness and stillness of your bed, as you lay down for the night, search your heart.  Literally it says “speak to your hearts and be silent.” Talk it over with yourself, and be silent. Being silent while speaking to your own heart means you have a submissive, accepting attitude toward the pangs of conscience. So David calls these people to repentance, and says: 
•	Realize you’re offence is against God
•	Tremble you’re your sin
•	Stop sinning
•	Lie down in bed and search your heart, and
•	Don’t argue with your conscience. 
 The final two commands come in v.5:

5 Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD. 

The final result of true repentance is a return to true worship, and faith in God. So it’s a Psalm of repentance. The only way to understand Eph.4:26 is to understand that Paul is quoting from a Psalm that calls for repentance. Just by alluding to that Psalm Paul is bringing up the subject of repentance.

“Be Angry” at sin
With all that in mind, let’s see if we can understand Eph.4:26. Instead of quoting from the Hebrew, Paul quotes from the Greek translation of his day. And that Greek translation interprets the word “tremble” as referring to trembling in anger. So Paul quotes from the translation that says “Be angry and stop sinning."  The vast majority of the time when Scripture talks about anger, it talks about sinful anger (being angry because someone has offended you). But the context of Ps.4 is clear enough that he isn’t telling them to be angry at other people. It’s calling them to be angry about their sin. So what Paul is saying is, “Be angry about your sin, and stop sinning.” True repentance involves a certain amount of anger against sin.
           2 Cor.7 is the most detailed passage in the Bible that addresses repentance that I know of.
Paul had rebuked them for the sin of tolerating immorality in the church and failing to do church discipline. But after that rebuke they repented, and began to take sin more seriously. And in 2 Cor 7:8-13 Paul describes their repentance:

Read 2 Cor.7:8-13

So even though we enjoy full forgiveness, there is a certain amount of trauma that goes along with repentance. The joy of our salvation is restored, but it’s not necessarily restored overnight. Now, we have to be careful with this.  There is a certain amount of anger that’s involved with repentance – an anger against sin. But the reason we need to be careful is because our tendency is to fall into a kind of self-focused self-loathing. We just beat up on ourselves and punish ourselves, as though Christ’s payment of our penalty were not adequate. When we sin, we need to accept God’s forgiveness. We need to understand that God is tender toward the contrite and broken. And we need to always remember that every situation can be redeemed. God never throws up His hands and says, “This is hopeless.” And we also need to avoid the temptation to universalize the problem. We have a big failure and very often start getting so down on ourselves that we say, “I’m a complete failure as a Christian.” “I don’t’ ever do anything right.” Being weak in one area doesn’t mean that I’m weak in every area. I need to admit I am not as perfect as I thought I was in that one area, but that doesn’t mean I’m a total failure in every area. It’s important to recognize and be grateful for the good things and virtues and strengths God has worked in your life. So it’s not helpful to just beat up on yourself and allow the enemy to destroy you with your own guilt. But on the other hand, there is a certain amount of anxiety and sorrow and anger that goes with repentance. If I sin against God in some grievous way, and then just say, “Sorry God,” and go on my merry way, that’s not repentance. If I offend my precious Lord and grieve my heavenly Father, and that has no effect on me beyond a few minutes of sorrow, something’s wrong. So the first half of v.26 is about repentance, not anger. He’s not telling us to be angry at each other, but to be upset over our own sin. Now let’s look at the rest of the verse.

Hastiness 

do not let the sun go down while you are still angry  

That’s a different word for anger. When he says In your anger do not sin he uses the word ovrgi,zomai (orgizomai) which comes from the noun orgh (orge). That’s just a common word for anger in general. But then when he says do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, he uses a different word for anger. This time he uses parorgismo,j (parorgismos). That is a word that points more to the thing that provoked you than to the resulting anger. So a literal translation would be “Do not let the sun set on the thing that caused your anger.” And if you are angry about your sin, then what it means is, “Do not let the sun go down on your sin.” In other words, “Repent immediately. Don’t put it off.” 
           Again, I realize that is not the interpretation you are used to thinking about with this passage. Normally people take this verse to mean that when you are mad at someone, you need to reconcile with that person before going to bed.  I would say that is great advice. You should never harbor anger. Hanging on to sinful anger in your heart is spiritual suicide. It will absolutely destroy you. But I really don’t think that’s the point he’s making here. That will come in v.31. If you want to counsel a couple to put away their anger before bedtime, you can still do that – just use v.31. In fact v.31 is better for that, because according to that verse we should put away our anger before bedtime, before lunchtime, before breakfast. Anger is to be laid aside the moment it arises. But the point here isn’t to get rid of the anger; it’s to get rid of the cause of the anger. And if you are angry about your sin, then what it’s saying is to get rid of the sin. So again, you can see the whole passage is all about repentance – just like Ps.4. So the point of v.26 is that the life of the new man is a life of immediate repentance over sin.

Applied to Lying
Now, when we look at the context of the verse, what sin is it that we are to be repentant over? Obviously the principle applies to all sin, but if you were here last week you know the context is about the sin of lying. Verses 26,27 go with v.25.   Lay aside lying, seek the virtue of truthfulness and integrity, and have a response of immediate repentance when you do lie. Not only does that fit the context here, but it fits the context of Ps.4. Remember in v.2 of Ps.4 when David was listing their sins he said 2 How long will you turn my glory into shame love delusions seek lies?  The NIV interprets that to refer to false gods, but the Hebrew word is just lies. So everything fits. Ps.4 is a Psalm all about repentance – specifically repentance for the sin of loving delusions and seeking lies. And so when Paul is writing about laying aside the lying, deceitful old man, he quotes this psalm and tells us be angry about the sin of lying, and stop sinning that way. 
When you are dishonest, repent immediately.

Why immediate repentance?
Immediate repentance is important for any sin, but Paul brings it up especially in the area of lying, because lying is probably the sin we are the slowest to repent of. We are so quick to lie, and so slow to admit to it. Lies pop out of our mouths before we even think about what we are saying (because we have lying hearts). And when a lie does pop out, what is our first thought? When I lie is my first thought, “Oh, I have just offended my Father. I have just been careless with the truth – even though it was through the precious truth that I was saved from the horrible pit of deceit and lies”? Is my first thought, “I have just failed to trust God’s goodness and His promises that righteousness will always be better than sin”? No. What is my first thought when I lie? How can I keep this person from ever finding out? That’s why lies pile upon lies. Some sins are such that it’s not that hard for us to just repent immediately, but lying has a built in aspect that makes quick repentance much harder than with most other sins. 
           As hard as it is to fess up to a lie, it’s just as important as with any other sin. In fact, it’s probably more important. If you confess a lie immediately right after telling it, people usually will cut you much more slack than if it goes on and on.  In fact, their impression will probably be, “Wow, this is an honest person.” The longer a lie lasts, the more betrayed the person feels, and the longer it takes to restore your credibility.  So we need to cultivate a reflex of confessing a lie the moment the lie comes out. You do that for a while, and the temptation to lie will disappear pretty quickly. If you know you’re just going to have to have the pain of confessing right away, pretty soon you will find yourself just telling the truth.
And that’s important, because of v.27.

Satanic Unrepentance

27 do not give the devil a foothold (lit place)

When we sin, from the moment we first make the decision to do something wrong until the moment we genuinely repent, we have a room in our hearts with a sign on the door that says, “Welcome, Devil.” And that’s especially true when it comes to lying. Deception makes a room for the devil like few other sins. When there is deception in a church, Satan’s work just flourishes. When there are lies in a family, the Devil enjoys his greatest successes in his efforts to destroy that family. When you are dishonest in any context in any part of your life, the devil is right there in the middle of your life invited in as the honored guest – the father of lies. Think about that. 
            One of the most chilling verses in the entire Bible is Luke 22:3 Then Satan entered Judas. What a horrifying sentence. Whenever I read that it practically gives me chills. I’ve wondered what it was like for Judas. What would it be like to be inhabited by the devil himself? When I do wonder that, I never think about it too long, because it’s too horrible to think about. This isn’t as extreme a situation as what happened with Judas, but it’s the same in kind, if not in degree. Persist in some lie, even for a day or two, and you have invited Satan into your life. He has more than a foothold.  He has a place. 
           What is it like to live your life while Satan has a room in your heart? Think of what his character is like. He’s the one who inflicted all the suffering on Job. And he did it for the sole purpose of trying to dishonor God. (Job 1) He accuses God’s people before God. (Zech.3) He is God’s chief adversary and ours. He tempted Jesus in the wilderness. (Mt.4) He is the one who tempts us to sin (1 Co.7:5) He steals the gospel right out of people’s hearts, like a bird picking up seeds that fall on hard ground. (Lk.8:12) He did everything he could to prevent Jesus from going to the cross. (Mk.8:33) He controls the demons. (Lk.11:18) He kept the woman in Lk.13 crippled and bound for 18 years. (Lk.13:16) He drove Judas to do what he did. (Lk.22:3) He wanted to sift Peter like wheat. (Lk.22:31) He energized the Jewish leaders to try to murder Jesus. (Jn.8:44) He moved Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit, which cost him his life – exactly what Satan wanted. (Acts 5) He is the enemy of everything that is good. (Acts 13:10) He uses schemes to outwit us. (2 Co.2:11) He sends messengers to torment us. (2 Co.12:7) He prevented Paul from carrying out ministry. (1 Thes.2:18) He entices faithful servants of God to turn away from Christ to follow him. (1 Tim5:15) He holds the power of death and uses it to keep people enslaved to the fear of death. (Heb.2:14,15) He is the source of bitter envy and selfish ambition in the Church (Jas.3:14,15) He is like a roaring lion trying to devour you. (1 Pe.5:8) He has been sinning from the beginning and is the father of hatred, lying and murder. (1 Jn.3:8-10) He puts Christians in prison. (Rev.2:10) He is a snake who has led the whole world astray. (Rev.12:9) And his destiny is the ultimate fury of the final wrath of almighty God. (Rev.20:10)
Do you want to have someone like that have a place in your life – a room in your life?
           Be honest – are you continuing in some lie? You have justified it or rationalized it, or somehow convinced yourself that it is OK? Or maybe you just convinced yourself not to think about it. You don’t want to give it too much thought, because you know you will end up realizing it’s wrong, and you don’t want to give it up. If so, there is a room in your heart, where you have invited someone who is perhaps the most powerful created being in the universe, God’s arch enemy, the enemy of everything that is good, and who is absolutely 100% committed to your absolute eternal destruction, and as much pain, sorrow and suffering as he can possibly inflict on the way. Is it really worth it?

He’s the one we have to put on armor in ch.6 just to survive his onslaught. And we are going to invite him into our hearts and give him a place in our lives?

Repentance 101
Maybe you’re thinking, “How do I repent? I know it’s more than just feeling sorrow over my sin. So what else is there?” Maybe you’re ready to repent, and you just need to know what to do. The steps are clearly stated in Ps.4, in those 7 imperatives David gave. 
Step 1 is in v.3.

3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself

The first step in repentance is always to realize your sin was, first and foremost, an offense against God. When David committed adultery and murder, and then repented, he said:

Ps 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,

Repentance starts when you understand that your sin, more than anything, was an offence against God. We get so focused on the human side, because we can see the pain and suffering our sins cause other people. In fact very often we won’t take a sin seriously unless some other human being is really hurt by it. But the damage we do to others by our sin, as bad as that is, is secondary. What makes a sin serious is the affront and offense it is against God. If you have sin in your life you need to repent of, begin by really thinking through the fact that that sin is cosmic treason. More than anything else, think of it in relation to God.

Step 2 in repentance is to take your sin seriously - to tremble. 
Sin should make us tremble. You don’t just make a 10 second confession and then laugh it off.

Job 42:6
I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.

James 4:8-10
Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 

When Ezra heard about the people intermarrying with Gentiles, he took it pretty seriously.

Ezra 9:3-7
When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. 4 Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me because of this unfaithfulness of the exiles. And I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice. 5 Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God 6 and prayed: "O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 

Jer 31:19
After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand, I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.' 

Sin should grieve us deeply, and should upset us and anger us and cause us to tremble in sorrow and distress over our sin.

Command #3 is the obvious heart of repentance – stop sinning.
You can’t guarantee that you will never fall to a certain temptation ever again. But you can make the decision to remove from your life the occasions for those temptations. If a man falls to sexual sin when he watches TV, but he won’t cancel his cable, his repentance is bogus. 
           So first you realize your sin is against God. Then you become convicted and tremble before God. And that drives you to give up that sin. But that’s not the end of it. At the end of v.4 he has two more commands:

when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. 

Bringing the sinful behavior to an end is not the final goal. If we suppress our sinful behavior, but fail to address the problem it the heart, we’ve done nothing. So the next step is to address the heart.
	In the quietness and stillness of your bed, as you lay down to go to sleep, search your heart. 
There is something about lying in bed at night that seems to strengthen the conscience. I’ve noticed that in my life. If I have something that’s not right in my heart, I can ignore it during the day. I can distract myself with a thousand other things, and deceive myself into thinking everything is just fine. But when I lay down in bed to go to sleep, if my conscience isn’t completely clear, I’ll never go to sleep. It will weigh heavier and heavier on my heart until I finally come to grips with the true seriousness of the issue. Of course it is possible to bypass that. You could just read something or stay up and watch TV or whatever else might distract your mind and harden your conscience. And so David calls upon these people not to do that, but to just lie there on their beds, and search their hearts in silence. Literally it says “speak to your hearts and be silent.” Talk it over with yourself, and be silent. Don’t argue with your conscience. 
The final two commands come in v.5:

5 Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD. 

The final steps of true repentance are a return to true worship, and faith in God. This is critical. So often we recognize our sin, and we are broken over it, we take it seriously, we are willing to turn from it, we listen to our conscience. But then we look to the wrong source for a solution to our sin. We go the willpower route, or all kinds of other techniques. But there is only one solution to sin, because only God can do something about the problem of sin. The OT sacrificial system taught us that. The people couldn’t cover their own sins through their own creative efforts. It could only happen through the provision God made for sin – carried out to the letter. And that whole sacrificial system was an illustration of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The solution to our sin is Christ. We seek to worship Him on His terms. True repentance always involves a return to Christ. If you are sad and broken over your sin, and it causes you to drop out of church, and to pray less and stop reading your Bible. That’s not godly sorrow. That’s the sorrow that leads to death. That’s the sorrow of Judas. At the very core of true repentance is always a return to worshipping God on His terms.
           And the 7th imperative tells us exactly how that’s done - through faith. He says trust in the Lord.  New Testament or Old, faith is always the only avenue for success against sin. It is the only way to truly approach God. It is the only way to salvation. And it is the only way to live the Christian life. Repentance requires faith, because you won’t be able to give up a sin unless you are fully convinced, and believe with all your heart that what God offers is truly better than that sin. And that brings us to v.6.

Find Joy in God
At first v.6 seems a little out of place.

6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" 

What does that have to do with what he has been saying? Not only does it fit with the Psalm, but it’s really the crux of the issue when it comes to the issue of sin and repentance. The question of where good comes from is at the heart of the issue.  We all have desires and longings that we want to fulfill with good, pleasing things. That’s why we sin – we become deceived into thinking the sin will fulfill those desires. But David answers the question in the rest of v.6. What is the source of the good that I seek?  Where should I go to fulfill my desires? What is it that will bring me joy?

Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD. 

What is the source of goodness and joy and blessing? God. Remember when the Psalm started David was crying out to God in distress and anguish? Now look at him in v.7 - 

You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. 8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. 

While they need to lie awake in bed wrestling with their conscience, David is sawing logs. A clear conscience is such a wonderful thing. He was in danger, now he’s safe. He was in turmoil, now he’s in peace. He was in distress, now he is full of the greatest joy. He was all upset about his enemies shaming him, now he can just lay down on his bed and relax and go to sleep. And the amazing thing is, none of his circumstances have changed at all! He is still in a horrible predicament. The only thing that changed is he taught himself to trust God, and find rest and joy in Him. The way to bring yourself to be willing to give up a sin is to realize that all that you are seeking from that sin is found not in the sin, but in God. The joy you want, the pleasure you want – all the good things you desire, are really desires for what God offers? It’s like being hungry for food, but your mouth thinks you’re hungry for gravel. You can eat gravel until it kills you, and you will never feel satisfied. But if you can just convince your mouth to crave what you are really hungry for, then you can enjoy it and fulfill your true desires. And don’t think finding joy is God is just some secondary religious substitute for the real pleasure of sin. Look at v.7. 

7 You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. 

The joy you will find in the Lord is greater than the greatest joy the world ever experiences. I believe the single greatest defense against temptation is to immediately force yourself to think of the joy of a clear conscience and unhindered intimacy with God. The second I’m tempted to lie or to sin in some other way, before the temptation has a chance to build in strength, I need to begin convincing myself, “What God offers is better than what I’m wanting to get out of this sin.” I need to focus on how nice it will be tonight to be able to go to bed with a clear conscience. I need to remember how wonderful those times of my life have been when I’ve walked with integrity and closeness to the Lord. And how miserable have been those times of my life where I’ve persisted in sin. I’m not going to find real joy in life through lying. Maybe it will seem to get me out of this jam, or gain me some advantage in some temporal way, but it’s not going to bring me joy in life.

What a wonderful God we serve!  All He requires of us is that we seek joy and fulfillment in Him (Who is the only source of true joy).

Jer 2:13
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. 

The sin my flesh so longs for and desires – that sin that seems like it will get me what I want, it’s a broken cistern. Why break my back digging for fulfillment and satisfaction and joy there when the Lord is a spring of living water?

Benediction: Mic.6:7-8  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.