Brethren, do turn with me to Ephesians and chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5. As you turn there, recognizing the fact that this is my last session with you, let me take this opportunity to thank you for the fellowship that I have enjoyed since Thursday, and also just the immediate feedback that I have received from a number of you with respect to the messages that I have been sharing with you. I greatly appreciate that. And as we are back to the Book of Ephesians, quickly give you again the lay of the land so that you might appreciate what we're doing here. We initially commenced with our secure salvation, and what we did was to see how the Apostle Paul opens up the great salvation that we have in Christ, to borrow his own words, the unsearchable riches. of our Lord Jesus Christ. He went from eternity to eternity, and he also went from the time we were dead in sin to what he has done with us, turning us into what appropriately he calls God's workmanship, that which we can admire as we think of what God has done for us. So that's what we looked at, and I trust that it's a challenge to all of us. If we are going to be immovable, that we should begin from there, appreciating what God has done what he continues to do, and what he promises he will finally do with us and through us. And therefore, whatever the situation might be around us, we will not be tempted to conform. And then we skipped over and explained how that happened to Chapter 4, beginning with verse 17 yesterday, when we looked at resisting the world, resisting the world. And where as normally we would be thinking in terms of passages, such as First John, chapter two, that has that very clear injunction, love, not the world. However, what we have done instead is to go into this passage of Ephesians and notice that although curvaceousness is addressed, it is simply one of the major issues we need to wrestle with as we are resisting the world. Instead, there was that aspect of contrast, constant contrast. that this is the way the world goes, we ought to be heading in the opposite direction. And it's not simply because it's fun to do so, but it is because we are different. God has done something in our lives. And so that constant contrast was there at the end of chapter four, going into the beginning, the first half of chapter five. In this last session that I am dealing with, I've been asked to deal with the subject of faithfulness amidst decay. Faithfulness amidst decay. And basically, we will be looking at chapter five, verse 15, right into chapter six. And I do want you to notice that in this section, on two occasions, the Apostle Paul refers to the evil day. In the first, which I'll show you in a moment, he's referring to something that is fairly close to what we have in mind as we are speaking about the decay that is around us. And he's speaking in terms of the downward spiral that seems to be evident, both within the church and outside. The apostle Paul puts it this way in verse 15, of Ephesians and chapter five. He says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time. And then he uses the phrase, because the days are evil. And that's referring to basically a season rather than simply something that is happening on a single day in your specific life. It is an entire season where the evil one seems to have an upper hand. And he is saying there that you need to be careful how you walk, or perhaps to use the title of our topic here, you need to be faithful in the midst of that kind of spiritual decay. And then in chapter 6, we notice in verse 13, a similar phrase there, verse 13 of chapter 6. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. You can't miss the fact that as we've come from looking at evil days, we are now looking at the evil day. And that's really referring to that occasion in your life where the evil one seems to, as it were, remove his gloves from his hands as he enters into this fist fight with you. In other words, it's a day when the attack upon you, whether it is through trial or through temptation, is so hard that it's one of those occasions when you are praying to the Lord, saying, I am weak, but thou art strong. recognizing your own weakness in such situations. And I love the fact that it's talking about the fact that when this is over, you must be found to be standing firm, which is really the theme of our conference, isn't it? That's what being immovable is all about, that when the moment of real temptation and trial is over, when that season in your individual life is over, you may be found to be tested and found to be true, that you may be found to be faithful in the midst of all this. Okay, so that's really the context in which the Apostle Paul, therefore, is sharing with us from chapter five, verse 15 onwards. And He stops the contrasts that we were looking at yesterday and then just goes on to give direct injunction. How are we to find ourselves faithful? in those wider seasons of spiritual decay, and in those moments when the arsenal of the evil one is targeted upon our lives, targeted upon our immediate family, targeted upon our immediate church. How are we to ensure we are immovable? How are we to ensure we are faithful? Well, two or three answers and they will take us through this section of scripture. The first is really that we are to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We are to ensure that the Spirit of God is working in our lives. Look at the way he puts it in verse 15 down to verse 21. The Bible says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Now, how do we ensure that we are making the best use of the time? Well, here's the answer. Therefore, He says, Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and making melody to the Lord with your heart. giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. What does he mean by being filled with the Spirit? Thankfully, it's the opposite of being filled with wine. And it's basically to do with not so much quantity in terms of liters or what do you use here in America? We speak in liters. Gallons. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Gallons. But rather, it's in terms of control. Being filled with wine, basically, or as it is put here, getting drunk with wine is, in terms of wine, controlling you so that you do things which the following day you are ashamed of when the wine has left your bloodstream. That's basically what he's talking about. Now the opposite is to do with the spirit, and it is for the Holy Spirit to control your life, to be having a sanctifying effect upon you in every way. Earlier in chapter four, the apostle Paul speaks about the opposite. And the opposite there is when you quench the spirit. When you quench the spirit. Let's quickly go back there. And let me begin from verse 29, just so that we have some idea of the context. Chapter four, verse 29. It says there, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." And there he has in mind where a person is stubbornly continuing in the path of sin, and lukewarmness when the spirit of God is prodding him in the opposite direction. In other words, there is sin in your life and the spirit of God through his word, whether it is read or heard, is drawing your attention to this area that you need to repent of. because it does not describe or honor the living God who is in your life. But you are stubbornly continuing against all the conviction you are having, all that the Word is saying, until the Spirit of God, grieving, of course using human language there, withdraws His sensible presence from you. And so you go through a spiritually dry period. Your prayers are like just words that are bouncing off the ceiling of your home. You read your Bible, it's like you are throwing pebbles into your mouth. There is no sense of fellowship with God whatsoever. You've grieved the Spirit. by the way in which you have been stubborn when he is working the work of sanctification in your life. Well, what we have in chapter five then, if we are going to be faithful, is the exact opposite. That we must be individuals who are walking with God. so that the fruit of the spirit in the midst of our walking with him is evident. It's more or less what the Apostle Paul said to the Galatians towards the end of chapter five. Galatians chapter five and verse 16. The Apostle Paul says there, but I say, Galatians 5 verse 16. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So you see there that the Spirit of God is enabling you to defeat sin in your life, the desires of your fallen nature, and enabling you to live a life that is honoring to God. Verse 17, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. Then he says, but if you are led by the spirit, if you are filled with the spirit, if the spirit of God is controlling your life, He says that you are not under law. And basically the main issue there is that it's not a mere outward legalistic approach that you are having towards righteousness. He is the one who is working in you to enable you to live a life of righteousness. And that life is what he then comes to when he brings out the fruit of the spirit in verse 22, which is the opposite of what we have in verse 19 downwards. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. So ultimately, the point is this, that as we're thinking in terms of faithfulness amidst decay, We are not giving you 10 steps towards successful Christian living in hard times or spiritually degenerate times. 10 steps. What we are saying is simply this. Allow God to control your life. That's it. Walk with God day by day. Let the Spirit of God have God's Word to handle and apply to your life day by day. Be sensitive to the Spirit's Word, and you will know a life of joy, a life of thanksgiving, and a life of fellowship. that you did not know before. It says addressing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and on and on and on. What's all that? That's the spirit filled life. It's not something that you are engineering or cranking up. It is the outflow of the Spirit of God as you are walking in obedience to him day by day. That's the foundation. It's that there is an almighty being, the third person of the Trinity, who dwells within you. Live day by day with and you will know something of faithfulness. But let's hurry on, because the poster poll doesn't end there. He goes into an important, specific area. And he calls it submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And the best way to understand this is to answer the question, what does this faithfulness look like? What does it look like? And for most of us, the immediate thought is, it means that I am Very clearly, a five-point Calvinist, and I remain a five-point Calvinist. And wherever I go, I am hammering everybody with the five points. In these days of decay, nocturnal decay. Now, yes, I do hope you remain a five-pointer. I'm not suggesting you throw away one or two points. But that's not what our text is saying. Our text is speaking about spirituality, where it matters the most, in our interpersonal relationships, in our interpersonal relationships, but where we are relating with Christ in mind. And notice how He says, not just submitting to one another, but as out of reverence for Christ. And it is this out of reverence for Christ that is actually the stream that you find throughout these relationships. I won't have time to open them up in any amount of detail, but I just want at least for you to notice this in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. throughout, and then I will make a few comments about them. Remember, it is in those interpersonal relationships that are true about you in the majority of your days and times, and it's in the context of the family or the Christian household. It begins with wives there, and maybe let me also just give you the pattern. You can't miss that in the pairs, he's always starting with the one who submits, who obeys, But it doesn't stop there. It also goes on to the one that is being submitted to, or being obeyed, and basically says, you also have a responsibility out of reverence for Christ. So, it is spirituality from both sides. So, with respect to Wives' Day, it says, submit your own husbands, and it says, as to the Lord. You can't miss that. Husbands, it says, love your wives as Christ loved the church. We come down to chapter six and verse one, Children, obey your parents, and it says, in the Lord. Fathers, verse four. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Born servants, or really it's the word slaves, but whichever version you use, Obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, there it is, as you would Christ. And mentions a few times under that, but it's come to verse nine. Masters, do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours, and No prize for guessing who that is. Christ is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him. I think there's a major lesson for us to underscore there, and it is this, that when you are full of the Spirit, it's not simply that you are bubbly, wherever you are, it's praise the Lord, hallelujah, amen, and so on. It's the fact that your life is guided by Christ, Christ, Christ. You want Christ to be honored in your life, in every relationship. And you're constantly processing everything through the spectacles of Christ. Everything is being seen through the spectacles of Christ. Is Christ being honored by the way I am relating to my wife or to my husband? Or to my parents or to my children? Or to my employer or my employee? Is Christ being honored? Is this how Christ would have dealt with this situation? I'm constantly thinking that way. And that's what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. He brings the things of Christ and makes them very real into our being. so that everything is around the person and work of Christ. And it's also Christ, therefore, who, as it were, inspires us to levels of service and levels of self-sacrifice and levels of spending and being spent. It is Christ. Because we are therefore constantly saying, he did this, he did so much for me. How do I then hold back? This morning, I was reading the second part of Luke 22. And it was Judas betraying the Lord Jesus, and then Peter After all the promises, denying Christ three times, when Christ was undergoing trial, and after the failed denial, Jesus turns and looks at him. And the Bible says that Peter went off and cried or wept bitterly. And I remember thinking to myself, that's me. That's me, Peter. That's those times when I fail him and in my heart, I cry. Lord, after who you are to me, you've revealed yourself in such clear terms as one who has loved me infinitely. Help me to love you back. Isn't And so it's not legalism that makes you to want to be faithful in the midst of spiritual decay. It's not because you hope that by this faithfulness you will get those abundant rewards. Maybe that's 10%. But it's 90%. It's a response of love to love. You've loved me so much. Help me to love you back. There's a lot of instruction there, obviously, and as I said to you, I don't want to get into the details, but I'm still maintaining the theme of faithfulness amidst decay. And what I want to emphasize there, brethren, is this. We can all be spiritual, in quotation marks, at church. After all, we just stay for about two hours, maybe even less, an hour. It's something else to be truly spiritual with your spouse, with your children, and if you have a child in the home, with your parents, with that place where you work in the better hours of your day. It's something else. Because that's where they rub you the wrong way not just on Monday, but on Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday, and you come before your church leaders, and you say to them, I can't take this anymore! Because it's not just one hour. You know, in church, it's very easy. If the guy you don't like is sitting there, just sit in the corner there. Isn't it? That's it. Just make sure as it's coming out, you're already out, you're in the car, you're gone. One week ticked. You can't do that in the context of the home or your workplace, you can't. And that's where true faithfulness, spiritual faithfulness can be seen. Those that have already given up, You can't miss it. They can be godly at church, very holy, just as they are in their Sunday best. At least we still put on our Sunday best in Africa. But when they're at home, they are the devil himself. And of course, they'll blame it on everybody else. You guys drive me up the wall, that's why. But that's where true spirituality must be seen. When the chips are down, when the battle is fiercest, when the individuals around you are really putting you to trial week after week after week. That's where the diamond shines out the brightest. It's in the midst of the darkness that the stars can be seen in the sky. That's where your faithfulness must show. Let's hurry on, because Apostle Paul ends with what has popularly been referred to as the whole armor of God. What is it doing there? Basically, it's bringing out the fact that this is not just a code of ethics to live by. We're actually in a fight, in a battle with an intelligent being Satan, the devil, and his hosts. And we who are believers, especially, are marked out by him so that he can bring us down. those situations that are tempting you, that are really pushing and pushing and pushing you to the point of temptation and trial to abandon those standards that you know you ought to live by. They don't just happen. They are engineered by an intelligent being, the devil. And all if we could use the title of our message, to finally make you unfaithful. That's what it's about, to finally make you unfaithful. To join those who have betrayed the master, like Judas did, for a few pieces of silver. so that you can join those who are part of the decay, trying to redefine Christianity so that it fits and suits those who love their sin. He's doing that. And the apostle Paul is concerned that in the midst of that fight, we should remain faith. Let me quickly read that section that deals with standing firm. We'll read verse 10 to verse 13 quickly. The Bible says there, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. I'll come back to that statement because that's what the whole armor of God is about. We'll come back to it. But notice, It's not simply be strong, but be strong in the Lord. And it is in the strength of His might, His power, we'll come back to it. But then he goes into the imagery here of armour. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, the wiles of the evil one, the deceitfulness that he tends to bring in. who would not wrestle against flesh and blood, in other words, fellow human beings, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, again, put up, rather take up, the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm, stand firm. It's crucial that we don't lose sight of this. Because I don't know about you, but I feel grieved by the spiritual decay around that's being embraced by people who ought to know better. Because the Christian faith is not rocket science. Basically, God has revealed himself and therefore we are called to holiness. Be holy as I am holy. And then he's given us a savior to enable us. to go in that direction. As He saves us by His Spirit, He handles our relationship with Him through justification. He fills us with His Spirit. He gives us His Word. He gives us the church. He gives us those who watch over us. He gives us brothers and sisters. It's all in order for us to grow to be like Him. Life exhibits itself through love, loving God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Simple. That's not rocket science. And yet, individuals claim to be Christians and literally throw dynamite into all this that I've just said. And they still want to say this is Christianity. It's not. How can they do a thing like that? It's simple. The devil schemes. The devil schemes. He's so reorganized things that he's made individuals who have themselves actually fallen, and they know it. to want to make that the standard of Christianity. And what Paul is saying is this. I've taught you all these things. I've taught you the doctrines of grace. I've taught you concerning life in the church. I've taught you concerning how you should be different. I've taught you concerning the spirit-filled life at the most basic level. But I also want to teach you that there's an enemy who's all out after you. And if you do not remain faithful, if you don't dig in your heels, you will soon be among those individuals who have betrayed everything that I have taught you, everything. I still want to claim to be Christian. beware and be strong. Very quickly, how should we be strong? In the Lord. He uses the picture of a soldier in his armory. And sometimes I think we we get so taken up with the different pieces of the actual armory and forget that the main thing that is wanting us to look at is what the reality is. And notice from verse 14 downwards, there is truth, which he calls the belt of truth, there is righteousness, which he calls the breastplate of righteousness, verse 15. There is readiness given by the gospel of peace that he calls shoes for your feet. There is faith that he calls a shield. And then there is the sword of the spirit, which is basically the word of God. And those last two, I really want to hold together, which is God's word and prayer. God's word and prayer. God speaking to you, making sure you jealously safeguard that, and then you speaking back to God, making sure you also jealously safeguard that. But prior to that, if you look at what is referring today, it's basically qualities. of one's Christian life. That's basically what you're dealing with. In other words, when it speaks about, for instance, let's begin with the first one, truth. Again, it could be referred to as truthfulness. It could be one or the other. But again, it's a jealousy for truth. Whether it's truthfulness, but the same point. in terms of us being jealous about that. When it speaks about righteousness, again, it's in terms of righteous living. Again, that's something that is a quality of life that we are being jealous about. Now, we can go on the list, but the point I want to mention is this. Compromise on any of those, and you've got a hole in your armor. through which He will bring you down. So ensure a wholeness of your spirituality, your spiritual qualities, ensure. And that's how you rely on His strength, on His mind, in His power rather than your own cleverness in overcoming the evil one's attack. And then, as we noted, ending with God's Word feeding us and us speaking back to God. Let me hurry on to wrap up. The basic point that we are seeing here is that it does matter to the Lord, as is evident from the Lord's servant Paul, that we remain faithful. Yes, we genuinely believe when the Lord saves us, he does an eternal work. That's one side of the shield of truth. The other side of the shield of truth is human responsibility. You must be responsible. You must act responsibly. To borrow the phrase he uses at the beginning of the text we read, look carefully then how you walk. Don't be unwise. Don't be foolish, to borrow again the phrase he uses in verse 17. Don't! Act responsibly for you to ensure that you are faithful despite the spiritual decay that surrounds you. I want to plead with you that on the basis of Christ, on the basis of what he has done for us, is the only right response that we need to give. For you to go chasing after 30 pieces of silver at the expense of Christ is not only sad, it truly is devilish. That's what It is. That having been so loved, as the Bible reveals, that you should want for the sake of the earthly property or worldly friends to betray him who is your creator, your governor, your redeemer, your coming judge of the living and the dead, is the worst thing you But let me turn it around and imagine that the 50s and 60s and above who are in this room have all been gathered to their fathers. And those of you who are below that are keeping the banner of Christ unfurled in the skies for his honor and for his glory. for the good of souls by your lives, putting up a gallant fight against the hordes of the evil one. That says a lot for the future of the church. May you be counted among such in these days of evil and in your own evil day. May you be counted as faithful for Christ. Let's pray. Eternal and gracious God, we thank you. That though in ourselves we are weak, you are strong. And in calling us to live lives that glorify you, you've given us all that we need, through your Spirit, to empower us to do just that. We pray, Almighty God, that through a conference such as this, you will continue building tomorrow's church. Oh, God, we beseech you for Christ's sake. Amen.