Christians, Wise or Otherwise?

Our text for today is going to be only three verses, Ephesians 5, 15 through 17, but in preparation for the study of those verses, I think we had better read the first 14 verses as well. Ephesians chapter 5, Be ye therefore followers, imitators of God as dear children and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as become of saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

For this ye know, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit, or of the light, is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore, he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then, that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. I couldn't care less. Or, ask me if I care.

Well, I suppose it's all right in some things to talk like that, but not in the Christian life. Because in the Christian life, we have to be careful. And that's what Paul is talking about in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 through 17.

See then, that ye walk circumspectly, which means carefully, accurately, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, buying up the opportunity, because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, which is a nice way of saying, don't be a fool, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. The Apostle Paul is saying to his spiritual children, be careful.

The word walk is a key word in this second section of Ephesians, because in this second section, chapters 4, 5 and 6, Paul is describing the walk of the believer. He has told us to walk in unity, back in chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. And he's telling us to walk in purity, and then he's going to talk to us about walking in harmony, and finally, walking in victory.

Here he's saying to us, be careful how you walk. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones has made the statement that the Christian life is like walking on a knife's edge, and we must be careful. I wonder how many of us would dare to walk on a tightrope cable.

If we were to string a cable across this balcony here and take volunteers, I wonder how many of us would do it. Some of us have a rough time walking carefully on the sidewalk. Spiritually speaking, friends, we have to be very careful in our walk.

As Christians, we never should say, I couldn't care less. As Christians, we should never say, ask me if I care, because we have to care. Because not to care means to be careless, and to be careless means to sin.

Now, in order to encourage us to walk carefully, accurately, Paul presents in these three brief verses four very compelling arguments. Paul is the attorney, and he looks at me and says, I want to convince you that you had better walk carefully. You can't afford to be a careless Christian.

I'm going to present to you, says Paul, four very compelling arguments to convince you of this. Argument number one, it's found in the second word in verse 15, the word then, which means therefore. See therefore that you walk carefully.

Argument number one, we must walk carefully because of the kind of people that we are. We are not like other people. We are Christian people.

You see, in these first 14 verses, Paul has been telling us who we are. You see, who you are determines how you live. We had the privilege of watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

It's a little more pageantry than the changing of the guard in Arlington Cemetery. Not quite as interesting as the changing of the pickets at the White House, but it is an interesting ceremony. And they have all this fanfare and all of this beauty and tapestry.

Imagine how shocked that crowd would have been if during the changing of the guard, the queen had come out of Buckingham Palace and started rummaging around in the garbage containers there. You see, a queen doesn't do that because she's the queen. And to find the queen rummaging through the alleys in Soho or going among the gutters down on Cheapside, you just don't find this because she's the queen.

Paul is saying, look, you've got to be careful, my children, the way you live, because of the kind of people that you are. Well, what kind of people are we? Well, in verse 1, we are God's children, God's beloved children, God's purchased children, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, who presented himself as a sweet-smelling savor. I think the contrast between verse 2 and verse 3 is rather obvious.

He is saying Jesus Christ presented himself as a sweet-smelling offering to God, but if you get involved in sin, that is a stench in the nostrils of God. Look, he says, you're God's children. Isn't it a marvelous thing when a child grows up and learns why he should be obedient? You see, a little child says, oh, I'd better obey or my daddy will hurt me.

But when he starts growing up, he says, I had better obey or I'll hurt my dad. There's a difference. That's what he's saying.

He's saying, be careful the way you live because of the kind of people you are. You are God's children. Now, we don't want to move into verse 6 and become children of disobedience.

We want to be obedient children because of love. As dear children, if you love me, keep my commandments. Then he tells me in verse 3 that I am one of his saints.

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints. Now, this word saints is one of the first words he uses in this letter back in chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, to the believers in Christ Jesus, grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Saints.

Now, unsaved people can't call themselves saints. A saint is made by God. God takes a sinner, and when that sinner believes in Jesus Christ, God takes that sinner and moves him off to belong to himself.

A saint is one who is set apart, one who belongs to God. Well, says Paul, since you are saints and you've been set apart and you're different, that word saint means different, how can you live the way other people live? People live so carelessly. They are careless with their bodies and careless with their thinking and careless with their speaking and careless with their money and careless with the expenditure of their energy.

You can't be that. You are a set apart one. In verse 5 he tells me that I'm a king.

No fornicator or unclean person or covetous man hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. By the way, that little phrase there is a good evidence for the deity of Christ, Christ and of God. We belong to his kingdom.

Unto him who loves us, says John, and hath purchased us with his own blood and hath made us to be kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him be glory forever and ever. Once I was a slave and then I trusted Jesus Christ and he lifted me up and made me a king.

He talks about this back in chapter 2 when he tells us about our salvation. Verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath made us alive together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, get this now, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus out of the pit unto the throne from being a slave to being a sovereign from the shame of sin to the glory of salvation.

Now says Paul, you've got to be careful the way you live because of the kind of people you are. You are God's children and you are God's saints and you are God's kings. He tells me down in verse 8 that I am God's light.

Ye were once darkness, not in the darkness but darkness. Ye were once darkness but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

If I am light and God is light then I must walk in the path that God has ordained for me. Oh it's so obvious. Paul's first argument is so clear.

He says, look, you've got to be careful the way you walk because of the kind of people you are. The children of God, the saints of God, the kings, light. And by the way, for us to become what we are, think of what Jesus had to do.

For me to become a child of God, Jesus had to come and become a son of man and die on the cross. If I live carelessly, I'm making light of his sacrifice. For me to become one of his saints, set apart, Jesus had to set himself apart and become sin for me.

And so if I live carelessly, I'm speaking and living lightly of what he did. For me to become a king, Jesus had to become a servant. They mocked him and put a crown of thorns on his head.

And for me not to live like a king means I am mocking him again. For me to become light in the Lord meant that Jesus had to go through the darkness of Calvary. As it were, he had to walk through the very pit of hell.

And for me to live carelessly means to treat lightly what he endured. Paul says walk carefully because of the kind of people you are. Secondly, Paul says walk carefully because of the kind of world you live in.

Verse 16, the days are evil. You and I are children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. You and I are the saints of God in the midst of people who live for sin.

You and I are kings in the midst of slaves. We are light in the midst of darkness. Now, he says, because of the kind of world you live in, walk carefully.

If you had gone to Ephesus and said, Hey, how are things going? What kind of days are these? Oh, these are good days. The temple of Diana is full, and the silversmiths are having a great time since that fool Paul got out of town. We're selling more idols, we're having more religion, the crowds have never been bigger.

These are good days. You talk to people in Chicago and say, What kind of days are you having? Good days, good days. But God looks down upon Ephesus in Chicago and says the days are evil.

Oh, you say you evangelical Christians are such pessimists. No, we're not pessimists, we're realists. We have improved means, said Thoreau, to unimproved ends.

People may be living faster and higher, but they aren't living any better. Materially, we have improved tremendously. Spiritually, we have decayed horribly.

And the days are evil. He tells this to us twice. Verse 16, the days are evil.

Chapter 6, verse 13, that she may be able to withstand in the evil day. He tells us how evil the days are. Verse 3 of chapter 5, they are sensual days, fornication and all uncleanness.

I don't have to expound upon that. It's impossible to sell anything from a band aid to an airplane ride without having the picture of a beautiful woman on the ad. Sensuality has gotten onto radio and television, our newspapers, our streets.

It's a sensual day. It is a selfish day, covetousness. People are out to get what they can get, materialistically minded.

They know the price of everything, the value of nothing. These are scoffing days. Verse 4, filthiness, foolish talking, jesting.

It's difficult to find a humorous program on television that's not polluted. People joke about holy things and spiritual things, and their humor has to be just a little bit dirty. But Paul tells us quite frankly, these are stupid days, not as fools but as wise.

Paul says the man who lives for sensuality is stupid. The man who lives for material gain only is stupid. The man who laughs at things that are godly is stupid.

Fools make a mock at sin. What kind of days do we live in now? He says you better be careful. You better be careful how you walk, because if you aren't careful you'll get involved in some of this.

This is why he warns us in verse 7, be not ye therefore partakers with them. That word partakers is a little word that means partners in business. Peter and Andrew and James and John were partners in the fishing business.

And this word partakers means don't get into business with that crowd. Then he tells us down in verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Now Paul's not telling us to get out of the world.

Paul's not saying we can never say good morning or give a word of witness to somebody who's a sinner. Oh no. Paul is saying don't become partners in crime.

Don't become fellow sharers in sin. And if you aren't careful how you walk, says Paul to me and to you, we'll gradually get into it. Do you ever trace through your Bible those verses that tell us how Christians get involved in the world? I mean this wicked world around us.

First he says the friendship of the world is enmity with God. James chapter 4. First you get friendly with the world. Then James chapter 1 verse 27.

He says keep yourself unspotted from the world. First you get friendly with the world, then you start getting spotted by the world. Just a spot here or there.

Then the next step is first John 2 15. Love not the world. And the next step is be not conformed to the world.

First friendly with the world, then spotted by the world, then loving the world, then conforming to the world. Paul says over in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, be careful you aren't condemned with the world. That's what happened a lot.

Everything he lived for got burned up. Be careful the way you walk because of the kind of people you are and because of the kind of world you live in. A careless walk can send people to hell.

Remember those posters we used to see during World War II? Loose lips sink ships. Remember that? That's what Paul is talking about. My doctor hates germs.

He's a mean man. He hates germs. And when he's going to examine me or give me an injection, boy out comes the disinfectant and he washes.

He's careful. He's careful. We have a commission here in Chicago that regularly inspects the kitchens of restaurants.

Because germs can get in, infection can get in, old dirty grease. Why? You can't be too careful when you're feeding people. If this is true physically, how much more true ought it to be spiritually? A careless Christian sends souls to hell.

I would rather so live that I might be the reason that somebody went to heaven than the excuse that sent somebody to hell. Well, Paul gives us a third argument. Verse 16, we should be careful how we walk because of the kind of people that we are and because of the kind of world we live in and because of the kind of responsibility we carry.

Redeeming the time, buying up the opportunity. It's a mercantile term. It's the picture of the marketplace.

Paul had been through many a marketplace. And these merchants watch when they can move in and get the best deal. You do the same thing.

Some of you dear ladies can hardly wait until the food section comes out on Thursday or whatever paper it comes out, whatever day, and you page through and you're buying up the opportunity. Here are some coupons over here. We can get Alpo much cheaper over here.

And you look for the bargains. You do this when you go to buy an automobile. You sort of watch around.

That's what Paul's talking about. He's saying we Christians are spiritual merchants and we are here to seize every opportunity we can. Watch for the opportunities.

He says the same thing over in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 5. Be wise as a merchant. Be wise in your relationship with outsiders, with people who aren't saved. And watch for that opportunity to move in and win them to Christ.

But you can't do this if you're careless. I suppose all of us will have to confess at one time or another we missed an opportunity. And you know opportunities don't always knock twice or three times.

They come and they're gone. One of my earliest recollections as a Christian was a great opportunity I missed. I don't say this with any sense of honor.

I say it to my shame. One of my high school buddies, I was the last person to have a chance to talk to him. Didn't know it.

I did not seize the opportunity. I rode together in an automobile with him for about 20 minutes and had a chance to talk to him about the Lord and I didn't do it. And I picked up the paper the next day and on the front page he'd been killed in that automobile in an accident.

I missed my opportunity. Paul says because of the kind of responsibility we carry we must walk carefully which means says verse 14, wake up. You know some Christians are a bunch of sleepwalkers.

Get up in the morning and their eyes are closed and they sleep their way through the day. Paul says you can't be a bunch of sanctified sleepwalkers. Wake up! All around you are opportunities.

This is the way the communists function. Whenever they see a crisis developing they seize the opportunity and move right in. Christians don't do this.

Christians wait for 20 or 30 years and say hey we should have done something. Paul says walk carefully because of the kind of people you are. Because of the kind of world you live in and because of the kind of responsibility that we carry we should go through the day as spiritual merchants.

Paul is saying to me put as much attention into your Christian walk as you would if you were working for Marshall Field. Do you want to know why D.L. Moody was such a great soul winner? It's because he went into the soul winning business with the same kind of zeal and experience and keenness as he did the shoe business. D.L. Moody did not live two lives.

I'm a shoe salesman. I'm a soul winner. Oh no! He was a soul winner who saved souls with the same zeal and expertise that he sold them.

We don't do this though. We don't do this. Men if you lived as a Christian with the same kind of expertise and excitement and awareness that you ran your machine at work or whatever it is you do would you be a better Christian? Ladies if you ran your Christian life with the same kind of skill and attention and planning you do the household or the office would you be a better Christian? The kind of responsibility we carry it's a big responsibility and someday we're going to give an answer to the great merchant man who purchased us.

He's going to say I gave you those opportunities what did you do with them? If nothing else should encourage us to walk carefully it ought to be this the kind of opportunity and the kind of responsibility that we carry. But Paul moves in and gives us a fourth argument. We should walk carefully because of the kind of people we are and because of the kind of world we live in because of the kind of responsibility that we carry and because of the kind of God that we serve.

What kind of a God is he? He's a God who tells us his will. Verse 17. Therefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

Our God talks to us. Our God gets close to us. Our God loves us.

He says I want you to know my will. How can we live carelessly when he has shown us his will? You see the will of God is the expression of the love of God for his children. Some of you have the idea that the will of God is something to fear, something to run from.

Quite the contrary the will of God is something to delight in. Jesus said I delight to do thy will O God, thy law is within my heart. God has revealed his will to us.

Now you and I since we know the will of God should walk carefully. You see over in chapter one in verse nine Paul tells me that God has made known his will to us. Notice verse eight and nine.

In which he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known unto us the mystery of his will. So in chapter one verse nine God has revealed his will to us. We know what God wants to do.

What does he want to do? He wants to gather everything together in Christ. That's God's great plan. Now in chapter five in verse 17 he says understand his will.

You know his will now seek to understand it. You students know what I'm talking about when I say it is as important to study the professor as it is to study the subject. Some students had exams this past week and they said I'd never had this professor before so the exam was kind of rough but now I know what he does.

That's what Paul's talking about. God reveals his will now understand it. Don't just know it understand it.

That's deeper. And you get to chapter six in verse six he tells us to do it. Doing the will of God from the heart.

Now here are four levels of living. Knowing the will of God. Understanding the will of God.

That's higher. Doing the will of God. That's high.

Doing the will of God from the heart. That's the highest. In other words it's not enough just to know the will of God with my mind.

I must do the will of God from my heart. This means walking carefully. Now if God in his grace and his love has revealed his will to me why should I be careless? I can't afford to be careless because he has revealed to what it is he wants me to do.

And a loving gracious God has opened up his will to me. This is how Christians get careless. They stop reading the word of God.

That's where wisdom comes from. Wisdom comes from the word. They stop praying.

If any of you lack wisdom and a mask of God stop yielding to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches us wisdom. Christians should be wise not otherwise.

None of us should ever say well I'm just a dumb Christian. Christians aren't supposed to be dumb. The kind of a God that we serve is a God of truth and he's given us the word of truth and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and Jesus Christ is the truth.

We shouldn't be walking around in the darkness because God's given us the light. And so here are four very compelling arguments that say to me Christian walk carefully because of the kind of people we are and because of the kind of world we live in and because of the kind of responsibility we carry and because of the kind of God that we worship and serve. Walk carefully because as we walk carefully three things happen.

Number one we keep ourselves unspotted from the world. Number two we bring glory to Jesus Christ. Number three we move in and seize those opportunities and win people to the Savior and promote the work of the church of Jesus Christ.

That's a great way to live. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.

No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. So promises Psalm 84 11 and the promise is true. God wants to bless us.

He wants to bless us so bountifully but he can't. We're on a detour. He says walk carefully and I'll bless you and I'll keep you clean and I'll use you and we'll make the most of this life that you're living and you'll do it for my glory.

Some of you here have not even begun to walk because you're dead. You're lying in the graveyard of sin dead. Today you ought to receive Jesus Christ and be raised from the dead and be set upon your feet to stand in God's grace and begin to walk carefully that life that God has planned for you.

Heavenly Father how grateful we are that we don't have to waste our lives in sleepwalking and foolishness. That we can invest our lives in that which is the wisest and the best. Gracious Father we don't want to be foolish and careless in the use of our time or money or energy.

Life is too short. I pray Father that all of us here beginning, oh God, with this preacher might walk carefully. That we might buy up the opportunity so that when Jesus comes we'll be able to give a good account.

I pray for those who need the Savior that they might trust him this day. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen.