Lessons from Ephesians No.4 Careful Living

We're going to read this chapter. When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden, and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truth in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Wonderful words, may God bless them to us this morning. Let's just sing a little devotional song, which I've adapted and added words to a little.

If the sun shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. It's quite repetitive, and if you don't know the tune, you'll soon pick it up as Evelyn plays. Let's stand and sing it.

Last verse, let's take our seats. And I'd be glad if you'd open your Bibles to Ephesians, in chapter 5. Sorry, we got the wrong reference in the notes and news, chapter 5. Let's read from the 15th verse with our attention also stayed on the previous verses, inasmuch as many of us are fully aware of the content we've been in this chapter for so long. But verse 15 says, be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

I want to speak this morning in this series from Ephesians 4 and 5 on careful living, careful living. Now have you noticed that if you turn to the 17th verse of chapter 4 and marry it, so to speak, with the verse I've just read, in effect you get exactly the same substance in teaching. 4.17 says, so I tell you and insist on it in the Lord, you must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking.

And then Paul comes back to exactly the same concern in this 15th verse of the following chapter, be very careful how you should live. Indeed, you might say that between those two verses of Scripture, allowing for an overlap into the 16th and 17th of chapter 5, Paul is concerned to do what in the words of a book authored by or joint authored by Francis Schaeffer becomes quite clear. The book is entitled, How Then Should We Live? A very brilliant book authored by the Surgeon General of the United States of America and Francis Schaeffer, who recently went home to be with the Heavenly Father.

How then should we live? And Paul tells us from the 17th verse of chapter 4 right through to the passage that I've itemized a few moments ago. He's concerned about careful living, he's concerned about Christian conduct. And if I were to paraphrase both those verses and put them into one statement, it would be this, and I'll give it to you again at the end of my address.

Do not live in an unproductive, unthinking fashion. Do not live in an unproductive, unthinking fashion as non-Christians. Live as those who have been granted insight into the real meaning of life.

Live as those who've been granted insight into the real meaning of life. Those of you who work from the authorized version of the Bible will come across a very rich but old-fashioned word given in verse 15 of the 5th chapter. Be very careful how you live.

Walk circumspectly. Walk circumspectly. It's a lovely word.

The only thing wrong with it is that it's not used today and hardly anyone really knows what it means, unless you're a little bit, I speak kindly, longer in the tooth. I'm getting that way myself. That's why I'm speaking kindly.

Circumspectly means having undivided attention, giving due care, living, if you like, accurately. And at the risk of being tedious, I want to argue out once again, at least there's an overlap in the first thing that I bring to your attention, why it is that Paul is so concerned that we live circumspectly, that we live carefully. And if you look at verse 15, you see the word then.

Be very careful then. That's a connecting word, a link word. It will tell you about something that he's been arguing before, and so from that word then, we take this little summary, this little revision statement of what Paul has been teaching up to this point in his argument.

What has he been saying between these two verses that I've made reference to several times? Well, he's been saying there are certain reasons why you should live in a different fashion from the rest of the world, and these reasons really revolve around the three persons within the Godhead. What is a Christian? I ask you that as a question that should be capable of a reasonably accurate answer from everyone in the tabernacle. A Christian is someone who has been influenced by the Lord Jesus, not so? Well, go to the twentieth verse of chapter four, will you? And here is reference to the influence that Christ has had upon the life.

You, however, did not come to know Christ that way, the way that they've been living before. You heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. What is Paul there saying? Well, in a word, you've been influenced by the Lord Jesus.

Now, what's the concern of the Christian? Influenced by the Lord Jesus? To please the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse ten of the next chapter. Find out what pleases the Lord.

Well, that's one of the reasons why you should live differently. Why all these little injunctions that are strewn across the two chapters ought to be taken up and applied by the aid of the Holy Spirit. Not simply out of duty, but out of devotion.

Not out of law, but out of love. Because you've been influenced by the Lord Jesus. You love him as your savior.

Therefore, live in this fashion. Walk circumspectly. Live carefully because of the influence of the Lord Jesus.

And moreover, because you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Verse thirty in chapter four. Once again, I remind you, I preached three addresses on this.

And I could have preached several more and still not really have delivered my soul. We're sealed by the Holy Spirit if we're Christians. This is not just a theological concept.

If it is, then it's doubtful whether you are a Christian at all. Sealed by the Spirit. Indwelt by the Spirit.

Why do I live differently? Well, because my heavenly guest is resident within my life. I don't want to embarrass him. I love him.

And further, why should I live differently? Well, look at verse one of the following chapter. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children. Maybe you were fortunate as I was.

But not perhaps everyone is in this category. Of being brought up by loving parents. They showed their love in so many, many ways.

I remember so many of them today as a testimony. As a tribute to the priesthood of parents. That they directed towards me and my brother.

They showed us tangibly their love. In a very sacrificial fashion. Particularly in the days just after the Second World War.

When it was so hard in this country of ours. Now, God similarly has shown His love to you. And because the Father God has loved you so much.

What's your concern? Well, if you had a good father, you want to be like your dad. I reduce that to the human level. But not just to shock you.

But to try to illustrate that it's an honorable thing. To want to be like the Father. And so when the apostle says, walk circumspectly.

Give undivided attention to the way that you live. He does so because of the ministries of the Godhead in our lives. Careful living.

That's what he's arguing for. And he tells us why. As a summary statement that we should live so carefully.

Because of the pleasure that we can bring to the Trinity. But then let's move on in this statement. Be very careful then how you live.

Not as unwise. But as wise. Now what does he mean? Well, the authorized version is very blunt there.

It says not as fools. But as wise. You argue that you're a Christian.

Well, thank God if that is the case. And the statement therefore is accurate. But in saying you're a Christian, do you know what else you are declaring? Now listen.

And let this sink into your understanding. You are declaring that you are a very wise person. You cannot be a Christian.

Without being a wise man, a wise woman, a wise young person. I'll explain in a moment. There is a difference between intelligence and knowledge.

And wisdom. You can have a lot of intelligence. You can have knowledge so brimming over that the Encyclopedia Britannica publishers could time and time again come back to you for an update on one of their essays.

You can have intelligence. You can have knowledge. And yet you can be absolutely bankrupt of wisdom as the Bible defines wisdom.

And this is the differencia. This is what distinguishes you from your neighbor if they're not Christian people. From the manager of your firm if he's not a Christian.

Go carefully how you apply this and how you put it into words. It could even distinguish you as a young person from your headmaster if he's not a Christian. But do be careful if you endeavor to persuade him that he's not wise because he may not appreciate the distinction, the biblical distinction that I am drawing.

The Old Testament is a book full of what the Jews called wisdom literature. The Proverbs, the Psalms. They used to describe it as wisdom.

Why? Well, here is concentrated wisdom that comes from the Lord. The whole of the Old Testament, I argue, could bear that description as indeed the New Testament. Here is the wisdom of God.

Now, what is a Christian? Well, a Christian has been instructed. In what? Well, he's been instructed in the gospel. He's been instructed in the purposes of God.

Now, here is a test. How do I know that I'm a wise man? Here's the question. What do I think of the cross? What do I think of the cross? The answer I give to that question indicates whether I live in wisdom or unwisdom.

Whether I have spiritual insight or whether I am like a fool. Strong words, but not my reasoning. They come very clearly from the Apostle Paul.

Here he is writing to the Corinthians. You see how all these letters add up together in their teaching. That's why it's good to study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book.

Here he is in chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians. He's on with the same idea of wisdom that he's referring to in chapter 5 of Ephesians. And let me give you a little prelude, a little preamble into what he has to say in chapter 2. I do so by taking you into the first chapter, into the preceding chapter.

And what is he speaking about then? Well, he's talking about the cross. The cross of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And for Paul, there's something unique about the cross.

The fact of the carpenter from Nazareth dying on the cross, having disclosed that he's more than just an ordinary artisan. He's the Son of God. And the Romans and the Jews, they combine.

And they do Him to death in the most cruel way that a man has ever devised, to rob his fellow of life. Now, how do you understand all this? Well, says Paul, it's nothing else than the concentrated wisdom of God. Look at verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 1. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

What's he referring to? Well, he's referring to the Gospel. Listen, he says, Jews demand miraculous signs. Greeks look for wisdom.

But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And do you know what the essence of wisdom is today? The greatest point of understanding and applied knowledge that you can come to. I'll tell you.

And I'll tell you in a way that everyone can understand for this is not for the so-called intelligentsia, those with the trained minds, those with the big IQs. I've drawn a distinction between intelligence, knowledge and wisdom. The greatest point of wisdom, my young friend, my older friend, that you can ever come to is when you meaningfully and honestly sing just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come.

It's when you stand in front of that cross on that green hill without the city wall and recognize that there was killed the Lord who dies for all. Look at the seventh verse of chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians. It says, Paul, what is this wisdom? Well, it's not the wisdom of the mature.

It's not the wisdom of the sophisticated, the college professors. No, indeed. Very often the intelligentsia in his day, as in ours, they ridiculed the wisdom of God.

No, he says, verse 7, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for had they, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.

This is the great mystery, you see. The sophisticated secularist in his thinking, he comes to Christianity and he rejects it. Very often he rejects it, much to his shame as an academic person, having never considered the evidence.

Or sometimes he considers it in a sort of piecemeal fashion as Bertrand Russell does, and he rejects it. But the word of God declares that here in the heart of the gospel is found the wisdom of God. How is God going to redeem the world? What is going to happen in the future? Unless you're like the proverbial ostrich, you must have thought these things through, at least in part.

And the answer is that the world is in a mess. It's in a terrible mess, as I shall try to show you this evening. Some will say that I will preach like a Jeremiah.

Well, be that as it may, I think I can prove historically and from Scripture that my conclusions are accurate. What is going to happen? Well, left to man, we will probably wipe off the human race from the face of this earth. But thank God it's not left to man.

God has his plan. What is this plan? Well, it's the secret wisdom. It's the wisdom that is distilled in our Lord Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom.

It's the idea of him entering into time, being born in Bethlehem as a babe, ultimately dying on a cross, having preached his gospel. Then he's raised from the dead. He ascends to the Father.

He is back in the heavenlies for an unspecified period of time. And then what? Then he shall return and set up his government. This is clearly stated in Scripture.

Laugh at it. Scorn it. Mock it if you please.

But Scripture was proven to be dead right about the first coming of Christ, who then would cast aside its predictions with regard to the second. The man who is the wise man, says the apostle, is the one who recognizes these things. Let me bring you back to Ephesians chapter 2 for a moment.

You see, in the first chapter of Ephesians, a reference is made in the ninth verse to a mystery. He has made known to us the mystery of his good will. And in the second chapter, this word mystery is taken and explained.

What is Paul referring to in the first chapter? Well, even the Old Testament prophets, I say with trembling lip, but nonetheless, believing that my declaration is right, did not fully understand the mystery of God. Oh, they spoke about God's purposes for Israel. They spoke about the great design of God ultimately for His people, for the world.

But they didn't understand only in part about Jesus being born in Bethlehem, about the man on the cross, and the mighty resurrection. They didn't understand how God would pour into the very meaning of such words as priesthood, and Israel, and nation. Something that would be far beyond their wildest understanding, their wildest dreams.

How God, as Paul makes clear in the second chapter, from the twelfth verse, would bring to Himself those who were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. Well, how has He done it? How has He brought these people to Himself? Well, He's done it through Jesus Christ. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away, have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

He's done it all. He makes it very clear in the sixteenth verse. He's done it all through the reconciling work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

And as a result, He's brought together one people, God's people, the new Israel. And from these people, He is in process of building that spiritual temple, His own temple, made up of living stones as the apostle Peter, of all those who have responded to the glorious gospel. Now, this is wonderful.

This is a great mystery, you see. The prophets only saw it in part. But Jesus comes and He reveals it.

Now, who are the people who recognize this today? Well, they are none other than the Christian community. This is why Paul draws his distinction, you see, in this fifteenth verse, between the unwise and the wise, the foolish and those who have spiritual discernment. Ah, you might ask yourself, but how does this come about, this spiritual discernment? Well, it's not as a result of you striving after it.

It's as a result of God's gracious gift to you. He's opened your eyes. He's enlarged your intellect.

He has given you a glimpse into His purposes and enabled you to put your trust in the Lord Jesus. Come to the fourth chapter, will you, of that epistle. And there in the twenty-third verse, we find what has happened in our own experience.

We have been made new in the attitude of our minds. We have put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. What is that? It's regeneration.

How were you regenerated? How did you become a Christian? Because of God in breaking into your life, His truth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, comes about by mental illumination. This is what Paul has to say in the eighth verse of the fifth chapter, right through to the fourteenth verse. Well, all these should be very wonderful topics that make the adrenaline go into our bloodstream as we recognize something of the greatness of God's ministry towards us.

By contrast to the unbeliever, to the unwise person, we have received the gospel and we must praise our Lord Jesus Christ for this. You remember how when He gives the sermon on the mount, He concludes that memorable address by referring to the man who builds his house on the sand and the one who builds his house on the rock. Who is the wise man? Well, obviously the rock man, not the sand man.

He speaks elsewhere about virgins and about a marriage feast and about some who are prepared, who have fresh supplies of oil for their lamps for the future. Who are wise? Who are foolish? Well, those who haven't made preparation, they are foolish. Those who have, they are wise.

Our Lord Jesus speaks about the fool, the tycoon, who amasses a great amount of wealth and then the day of his death comes and he's got nothing to offer God in terms of service that is acceptable. And what does the Lord indicate of that man? Well, he's an unwise man. Now, where do you fit, my friend, this morning? Turn this into a gospel address.

Into what category do you find yourself? Unwise or wise? Committed to the Lord Jesus or uncommitted? Have your eyes been opened to the blessed truths of the gospel? Have you been to Calvary and have you seen there the wisdom of God as he stretches forth his loving arms through his Son to save you? But let me conclude. There is another reason why we should engage in careful living. Not because of our relationship alone to the Trinity, though that's highly important.

Not just because we should run a contrast between our own lives and the lives of those who are not believers and ensure that we reproduce some of these virtues that Paul refers to strewn around these verses. There's another stimulus. Be very careful, then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.

The days are evil. Redeem the time, says the authorized version. Redeem the time.

Why? Because time does not go on and on and on and on and on. Your life will come to an end. The human race as it now is will come to an end.

The apostle in Romans 13 and chapter 12 tells us the night is far spent. The day is at hand. What day? The day of the return of the Lord.

Now, here are these Christian people. They've been made wise. Made wise through the gospel.

And as a consequence of being made wise, there are certain things that they don't do. What don't they do? Well, they don't live as they used to live. How did they used to live? Well, Paul tells us in the 17th verse of the 4th chapter, they lived in futility.

They lived with darkened understandings. They were separated from the life of God. He makes it perhaps even more clear in the first verse of the second chapter.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Do you appreciate this, my friend? That in our world today there are diabolical forces perhaps below the surface, sometimes almost visible, and these forces are working to the harm of men and women, nations, as I shall try to show you this evening, as well as individuals. How do you understand the obscenity, the stockpiling of nuclear weapons when we are told that something like two-thirds of the world go to bed hungry every night? How do you understand some of the infamous things that have been going on in Iran and Iraq? How do you understand the Nazi regime and all that Hitler was unable to dupe the German people into only 30, 40 odd years ago? I come more up to date and become more sensitive.

How do you understand this country in certain areas tearing its heart out, man against man, comrade against comrade, the insanity of it all? Why don't we pull together? Is there a person here that doesn't want peace? Is there a person in our country that doesn't want peace? Academically, idealistically, we're all for peace, peace in industrial relationships, peace amongst families, peace amongst nations, but the peace, it doesn't seem to come. It ever eludes us. Now why? The apostle makes it clear.

It eludes us because not only is the power of God operative in this world, but also the power of the evil one. So when Paul concludes his letter, he almost takes his final verses and gives them over to this. Look at the 10th verse of chapter 6. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

Put on the full armour of God. Why, Paul? I'm a Christian. I don't need to be a soldier.

Oh yes you do, says Paul. You're a soldier of Jesus Christ. But where's the battle? Says Paul, the battle is all around you because this world, it doesn't belong to God at this moment, so to speak.

He has ultimate control, but there is someone who has come along and who is perpetrating great folly and great difficulty and is seeking even the minds of Christian people. So, verse 12, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Does this make sense to you? Are you beginning to laugh and to mock at this? You mock at your peril.

You mock and show the unwisdom in which your mentality is languishing. The apostle makes it very clear, as does our Lord Jesus in the whole canon of Scripture, that as the world proceeds, so evil shall wax more and more. Until when? Verse 13.

Until the day of evil comes. The day is coming when the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against all ungodly people who mock and scorn and despise the truth of God. Now, says Paul to these Christians at Ephesus, be careful how you live.

Why? Because the days are evil and they will get even more and more evil. But alongside the evil, there's the potential for good. So, by every opportunity, redeem the time.

Don't let it flitter away through your fingers. Don't waste it. It's a precious gift.

The time is now for the declaration of the great and glorious gospel. Who is going to proclaim this gospel? The Christian church. The Israel of God.

Those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. This is not a time for playing around. This is not a time for spectating on a game.

This is time for participation. This is time for involvement. This, you see, is what Paul is saying.

Therefore, be careful. Be careful how you live. Not only because of your love for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Not only because you want to give a contrast in your life between the believer and the unbeliever. But because you're a serious thinker and you realize that the day is not far hence when the trumpet blast shall be heard and when our Lord Jesus shall return and execute judgment upon this world as well as inaugurating His regime and the bringing in of the new heavens and the new earth. If you believe this, my friend, it will grip your heart.

If you believe this, it will mean that you will have done forever for the careless living, for letting opportunity slip by, for compromise on lifestyle. Know, says the apostle, everything that speaks of ungodliness, everything that would allow the devil to take a foothold in your life, put it on one side, any obscenity, any compromise in sexual morality, it doesn't matter whatever area of unholiness it is, have done with this. Why? Because the days are evil and the opportunities are immense and God is asking Christian people to be careful to walk circumspectly.

And this is the message for us, not to send us away from this place in the depths of a deep depression, but to recognize afresh that this great and glorious God has human destiny in His control. God is working His purposes out as year succeeds to year. Nearer and nearer comes the time, the time that shall surely be when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

And until that time, we're called to live carefully and to live valiantly in the sake and for the cause of our blessed Redeemer. May we get the strength so to do. Amen.

Let's turn to 124. To the name of our salvation, Lord and Honor, let us pay.