The will of the Lord, Eph, 5:15-17

Good morning. As we look at this passage here, one of the things that we've been bringing forth for the last few weeks, we'll do the same here, is just to underscore the point. There is no spiritual cross between a believer and an unbeliever. There is no mixture of lightness and dark in who you are in Christ. Now, I'd introduce this with a little story. And it goes like this.

My grandpa was born and raised for almost the first 30 years of his life in Great Bend, Kansas. And he worked alongside a fellow who had been a slave boy during the Civil War, but was emancipated. And so he worked alongside this fellow just every day, all the time. He and this other fellow milked 11 cows each morning and night. And my grandpa would go and take the milk around Great Bend Assume that's how everybody got their milk.

One day they were out in the field and working away, and they heard this noise off from the horizon, you know, as well as I, Kansas didn't have too many, you know, tall mountains. So to see off on the horizon, you know, any distance is about the same. Anyway, over the horizon, they saw something that I guess they'd never seen before. An airplane came over the trees. And apparently this fellow who worked along with my grandpa, he was just, his eyes were glued on this thing and he watched it. My grandpa said he didn't blink, but anyway, watched it as this plane went across the sky and disappeared over the trees on the other side of the horizon.

And he turned to my grandpa and he said, there ain't no such thing. Okay. And that's kind of the way it is here. There is no half believer, half unbeliever. Okay. Just like there's none of this. Okay. Don't tell me your kid has braces. Alright. There is none of this either. There ain't no such thing. There's no such thing as that. Nor this. Thank heaven. Drive carefully. This is July 4th weekend. Okay? There's no such thing as this either. Okay? Nor that. Thank heaven. There is no mixture of darkness and light in the believer. There is a believer or an unbeliever. and no halfway between.

As we look at the passage here this morning, Paul is continuing to try to get a message across to the believers. And he does so in a very practical way here. And let's see how he lays it out. See then that you walk circumspectly, he's telling them, not as fools, but as wise. He lays out a contrast here. There are imperatives in this passage. We want to take a look at them. See is actually an imperative.

And it actually comes out a little more strongly in the Greek than the English typically brings it across. Do not be unwise. There's a negative connected with this. You must not be. And finally, understand. You must understand. It is an imperative, not a suggestion or an encouragement. You must understand.

Those are the imperatives, but in fact, the descriptions that follow are very important to look at, because it explains what the imperative is talking about. It lays it out before us. Now, one of the things to remember, while we've got imperatives, it's like this.

Imperatives, if we're not careful, can look like law, and you'll get this overwhelming urge to do something that otherwise you might not do. If I told you, for example, absolutely, positively, do not think of a pink hippopotamus, it's amazing what happens, okay? The law just stirs it up in you, okay?

Same thing here with machete juggling. Now, there are also some patterns we want to point out here. And as Paul wrote this, he didn't just randomly let the words flow off the end of the pen. These patterns come out. One is he put two places here, this word in English, but, and in Greek they're a strong contrast, a sharp contrast. He places them here and here in this patterned passage. In addition to that, in the middle, I'll call it the pivot point of the passage there, two references to time show up. He also has here some negative statements. Oh, don't do this. These are the negative statements. Not this, but this. Therefore, do not be this, but this.

In addition to that, he has the positive statement. Be as wise. Understand what the will of the Lord is. One more thing. Now, he also lays out here, these are kind of, I'll call them the green light statements, if you will. See then that you walk circumspectly, this is the positive statement, as wise, redeeming the time, understand what the will of the Lord is. Then, he comes up with the red light statements. Not as fools. Negative statement. Because the days are evil, therefore do not be unwise. Enough with the trench coat, enough with the patterns. You had enough patterns? All right. All right, let's go in and we'll step into the details now of the passage and take a look at it here. His first word, see, in the Greek is blepo. Now, it would be funny if I came up to you and I said blepo. That wouldn't mean a lot.

But what he's trying to get across here is a present active imperative. You must right now be seeing to it, is what he's trying to point across there. You must be continuing right now to walk circumspectly. That's what he's laying out in front of him.

This doesn't mean see like you just happened to glance. Hey, I just happened to notice. Look at that, I was walking circumspectly. It isn't that kind of a thing. It's that you must see. It is imperative that you do. You must be walking circumspectly.

That's what he's trying to lay out. Now, in Ephesians chapter 1, remember this was many moons ago, Ephesians chapter 1, one of the things that he was doing there He prayed for them. And when he did so, what did he do? He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened. Now, he's carrying that out into practice, isn't he?

He's saying, okay, now, I've been praying that the eyes of your heart may be opened, that you may understand the position that you have in Christ, that you might be seeing spiritually. We take great concern that we see physically, don't we? He says, I take great concern desire that you see spiritually, that you have spiritual understanding, that you see with those spiritual eyes. And what he's laying out here in this passage is, I pray that you see spiritually, but you have a place in your position in Christ. The only logical conclusion from that position that you have in Christ is that you must see spiritually what's going on. You've got to see it.

He's got this word, then, that he connects in there. He's building on these prior exhortations, right? He doesn't say, then, just to throw an extra word in. It's based on everything that's gone before. He says, I've been telling you, in everything that I've been writing, the marvelous, incredible position that you have in Christ, and all the consequences that follow as a result of that. You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

You're seated in the heavenlies. Now, based on where you're seated, Here's the logical conclusion. You must be seeing to it that as you walk here on planet Earth, you walk as those who are seated with the Lord in the heavenlies. As those people who will spend eternity having revealed to you the glory of the Lord. His marvelous grace. Now, think about it this way. When the law says, see then that you walk circumspectly, remember the law is there to give you the standard, but to condemn you if you fail.

So it's like this, okay? See that you walk circumspectly. Walk careful. Boy, if you don't, you know what's going to happen. It's a long way down. Okay? That's the law. See to it that you walk circumspectly or it's going to be a, well, you know, bad time. Look where you might fall. That's what the law is saying. Instead, grace says, see then that you walk circumspectly, and here's how grace sees it. Look where you're seated. That's real different. It's not a question of, oh, where might I fall? I know people worry about me stepping off this thing, but where might I fall? That's not the issue. This isn't a, you better see to it that you walk circumspectly.

Boy, God's going to really nail you. That's not what He's saying. He's saying, considering where you've been seated, considering where you're going to spend eternity, the Lord, day by day, a trillion years from now, just having begun revealing His glory, look where you're walking. That's what He's saying. This isn't a threat. This is a, wow, how incredibly I've been blessed. How amazing, how amazing the unfathomable riches that I have in Christ. Does it make any sense at all for me to walk ignorant of that? Look where you're seated. Then he uses this word peripateo, and I want to tell you that's not some special patio, okay?

This is an expression Paul has been using all along, and it stands for, represents the orderly walking of your lives. He's saying, look, your head's in the clouds, okay? Watch where your feet are, okay? Your head is seated in heaven, okay? Look at what your feet are doing. Walk carefully. Is it present, active, and imperative? Right now be walking, okay? As I'm standing around here, and I have actually had people say, I'm not sitting up front anymore. I've watched you walk around on the edge there. That just scares me too much. It's too distracting.

He's saying, as you're going about your walk, walk carefully. It matters how you walk. It does make a difference. That's what he's putting the focus. We have the imperative about see to it. But it's the character of the walk that he's really looking at. And that's this next thing we look at here. Circumspectly is the way some of our translations go. And the Greek word there is akrabos.

That's not the description of your boss. It is a word that has the idea of walking with diligence and walking with accuracy. A diligent accuracy, if you will. See to it that you walk with a diligent accuracy. Each step matters. Each step makes a difference. What you do with each step does matter. See to it that you walk circumspectly.

It says in 1 Corinthians 2.16 that we as believers have the mind of Christ. It is with this mind of diligence and accuracy that were to walk.

Not the carelessness that this world would cast upon us. Then we have this next thing, and I bring up both words, not as fools, but as wise. Not as fools, but as wise. Not as aesophos, but sophos. Not the unwise, but the wise. Both these words lack a definite article. So what's the point? With a character, make sure that you walk with a character of wisdom, not the unwisdom, not the lack of wisdom. Make sure that your walk is characterized by wisdom, not the lack of it. That's what he's spelling out here. He puts in this word, and we pointed out that it comes in twice in this passage. It's the sharp contrast word, Allah. It means the idea of a sharp contrast.

You see, there aren't just little shades of difference between being spiritually foolish and being spiritually wise. It isn't just slight shades of difference because the difference is not little differences of how things look on the outside. The difference is worlds apart. It's an old creation and a new creation apart. Where are you living from? Are you living from the old creation or are you living from the new creation? that you are in Christ.

That's not a slight difference. To put the illustration, it's not like this. Foolish is often sort of the darker gray part, and wise is often the lighter gray part. No, it's a sharp difference. Allah means not this, but this. Sharp contrast, okay? That's his point. Then he says, in verse 16, he starts off redeeming the time. And that's a compound word, ek-agarazo. Now, that's not this here.

That's not some little kid saying, ek, I'm not eating agarazo again. Ek-agarazo is a compound word, and it means to buy out of the marketplace. It was used for the idea of buying a slave out of the marketplace. Not just going, hey, I'm going to buy myself a slave today, but completely buying a slave to take that slave out of the market entirely. No longer to be on the market at all. Completely free of that marketplace. I'm not getting sold again.

That's what he's saying there. Now, what does that mean? Paul wants believers to be redeeming the time. Now, you can't go out and buy time on the market, can you? It'd be really nice. You know, a hundred bucks for that hour again, okay? You can't go back and buy time, can you? So what's he talking about? Is he throwing the impossible at us?

No, in New Testament times, what would happen is if there was a slave that came up and maybe you had a personal reason for wanting to get by that slave out of the market, you would have a certain opportunity, wouldn't you? That slave isn't going to sit there on the on the auction platform forever. You have an opportunity to buy them up, and that's it. And if you want to pull that slave off the market and say, hey, I want to buy that slave, but we're just going to completely take him out of the market. We're not doing the buy and selling thing again. You have an opportunity. You've got the chance. There's something else about this word time. It's kairos. Kairos. It means the opportune time or the specific eventful occasion. It's a special time.

This is a critical moment. This is the key opportunity. It's like when the light turns green. The people behind you don't want you to think that the key opportunity to hit the accelerator is in about 15 seconds. There's a certain time when they say he ought to be getting on it. It's that key opportunity that he's focusing on here. It's a moment of great significance.

You, as a believer, have moments of great significance. He's already told them in chapter 2, verse 10. He has prepared good works that we might walk in them. How do we walk in them? One step at a time. One step at a time. Now, if you think about that, God has prepared good works that we might walk in them. You know, today, today, there are good works that He's prepared. And, you know, I don't want to walk in any others. I don't want to just come up with my own list. It's His list. Those are the opportune moments. He's prepared them for all of us.

Those special, momentous times. And we will be amazed what ends up being momentous. Ever had something get reported back to you sometime later that that was a significant time? I know recently, when Nancy and I got to go visit our kids, and it was amazing to hear things that my kids told me I said I have no recollection of. Something they remember. You might have had that happen to you as well.

So, does that mean that we as believers need to live life at a frantic pace and work faster and faster and harder and harder and get more and more things done and get things packed in good time and do more and more stuff, faster, faster, quicker, quicker, one more time? You know what I mean.

Where we're just going, and going, and going, and hurrying, and hurrying, and hurrying, and jetting around. And should we furiously hand out gospel tracts, and witness, and study, and teach, and pray, and go to Bible studies all the time, and faster, and more, and get more and more packed into the day? Is that what it means? Should we be rushing about, and hurrying, and being a Christian blur? Is that what he has in mind? Should we pick something on the list of good things to do and, boy, figure out how we're just going to pack it in? We're going to do it with incomparable, unparalleled vigor. People will be astounded at. We'll no longer be human beings. We'll be human doings.

Should we be just scattered about as Christians? Maybe not. It's looking at, there are things that the Lord has prepared for us, for us to walk in. We certainly want to walk in every one of those things, but there's no benefit in walking in one more of them that we've come up with, that's our doing. One of the things that Nancy and I have talked off and on about over the years, and we seem to keep relearning the lessons, There may be things in front of us that are a call, but not necessarily a need. We are indeed human beings, not human doings. It isn't the doing of more stuff that suddenly makes it more holy or more Christian.

What does God have in mind here? Now, we've got this word evil, the Greek word there is poneros, and it's not a pony named Ross. This has no definite article, and so the focus, like we saw before, the focus is on the character of evil. These days are characteristically evil. Some days are worse than others.

I joke around, I tell people everything is fun. Everything in life is fun. Some things are just a lot, lot more fun than others, okay? But his point here, there is evil in every day. Now, what's his point? When used of time and circumstances, he's talking about there's sorrow and affliction, certainly there are difficulties. We had a whole elective covering that issue of trials and suffering.

There are days full of calamity, certainly lots of things happening, But there are momentous times to be taken out of those. Redeem them. Momentous moments to be caught. Pivotal moments. And we may not even know it at the time how pivotal they are. Amazing times.

In Ephesians 1, again we looked at this and there was a phrase there, in this age but also in the time to come. One of the things we pointed out at that point in time, there is this present evil, that's Poneros, same word, present evil age. The way we showed it is this, since Adam fell in sin and we fell with him, we were there, you remember that? We were there with him. Since Adam fell, we are now in this present evil age. There will be a time, the age to come, when the Lord will reign on earth and we will be with him. But right now we're still in that poneros, that evil age, that time. He's saying, in the midst of that, redeem the time. Buy the moments out of the slave market. Pick those pivotal moments. Capture them. We've got this word here, ephron, unwise. He doesn't use the same word he used above. This is no-minder, mindless. So, he doesn't mean quite like this, although that might not be a bad illustration to keep in mind.

The real point here is related to that word we saw when we were studying through Philippians, phroneo, a mindedness. He's saying this is a mindlessness, a spiritual mindlessness. Don't be spiritually mindless, he says. That's the point he's putting out here. We said before that believers have the mind of Christ. He's saying, use it!

You have the mind of Christ, walk in Him. That's how you have it. There isn't any special button I've found. No switch. It's walking in fellowship with the Lord and dependence upon Him. That is how the mind of Christ is put into action. He's saying, as you live your daily life, put that thing in gear, and it happens by dependence upon Him, not our flesh trying harder, not our flesh trying to be Christian.

But understand, this is tsunami, it is a together put in place, you put in place together. Now let's put this in context. At the opposite end of being spiritually mindless, You must right now be actively getting it together. We have that phrase, okay? Hey, get it together! He's saying spiritually, don't be spiritually mindless, those who are walking about as if you don't have the mind of Christ. He says, get it together! And that getting it together is indeed walking in dependence upon our position. Our position in which we have the mind of Christ. That's what he's laid out. It is spiritual understanding that we have because we're in Him.

But understand what the will of the Lord is. Now, this is one of the relatively rare places. It's not entirely non-existent elsewhere, but it's not that common that Scripture actually talks explicitly about what's the will of the Lord. And so this is an important one for us to pay attention to because it doesn't show up that often. And Christians are often asking, I want to know the will of the Lord. What's God's will?

Boy, I sure wish I knew. It isn't just picking the correct circumstantial fork in the road. That's one of the things he lays out here. He's not asking that Christians just pick the right fork in the road. Oftentimes, as Christians, God's will will be seen as picking the fork in the road.

We come along. Here's a path. Should I go this way? Or this way? God's standing in heaven, kind of looking in there and twiddling his thumbs and saying, huh, wonder which way he's going to pick. Right? That's the way we often see it. And so here we are, stuck at this fork in the road. Or should I stay there? Some believers even get fork-a-phobia.

Okay? And I don't mean this thing here. Most Christians have no problem with that fork. Okay? It's the fork in the road that Christians will get great anxiety about. Oh man, I want to go to this school or that one. I want to buy this house instead of that one. I want to get the right brand of cereal, whatever it is. Some days, the fork in the road just looks like this.

It's tough for Christians to try to figure out sometimes, what really does God have in mind? Can it really be that God's big question in front of us is that we find that golden path through the maze, that God is pacing the floors of heaven, saying, boy, I hope he turns right here and not left, and I hope he takes this one instead of that one because that's a blind end. Can it really be that that's what God's focus is all about? Can God be horrifically concerned that we pick the black one over the yellow one, or the yellow one over the black one? Is that what God's greatest concern is? He says, understand what the will of the Lord is. What is God really concerned about?

One of the things we pointed out in our Acts elective that meets in this room beforehand here is that the times when the Lord explicitly told the apostles do this and not this is actually quite rare because the Lord's focus is not which fork in the road as a primary concern.

Is it the blue Chevy or the red one? We have this drawing, and we've looked at it before. I'll let you take a look at it. I want to skip ahead at this moment here to this slide, probably the last slide in your handout, and read verse 17 as it's expanded. For those of you who may be visiting here, we have this expanded and explained, and the idea is that we kind of spell out, fill out the meaning of the passage so that it makes sense, is clear. Let's read through it, verse 17.

Therefore, you must right now continue not to be characteristically of no spiritual mind, but from your position in Christ, you must logically conclude by a godly understanding what the will of the Lord is, being His life in and through you for His glory.

That's what God is concerned about. In your daily walk, He is not primarily concerned, do I do this thing or this thing? He is saying, I want you to walk with me. I want you to depend upon me. I want my life to be lived through you. If it really does matter whether you take the right fork or the left fork, I'll let you know. Don't worry about that. That's not anything to sweat over. I'll make it abundantly clear. But that's rarely of issue.

What is very important to me, the Lord is saying, is I want you to walk with me. I want you to depend upon me. I want my life to be lived out through you. In that, I'll be glorified. That is exactly what I want you to understand. Let's pray. Lord, as we look here, certainly there are lots of things that are very evidently on the surface unwise. Things that we look at afterwards at times and say, boy, I sure wish I hadn't have done that. And yet, underneath the surface, Lord, it is on whom are we depending? Whose life am I living out?

Those are the questions that matter so much to You. That's the understanding that You want us to have. That's the will that You have for us. You desire that we walk with You. You desire that it be Your life working through us. that as we're driving down the road, changing diapers, going to work, taking tests, whatever the activity may be that we be doing in independence upon You, that it be Your life lived out through us. Thank You, Lord, how marvelous it is to understand what Your will is. We thank You in Jesus' name, Amen.