Yeah, that's an awesome song. I'm usually not an emotional guy, but wow, sometimes the Spirit just hammers you. You've got Christ. Can you sing that? You have Christ. I pray to God that you leave this place with Christ alone. Please open your Bibles to Ephesians. Some of you are very happy that we're getting back into this exposition as we work verse by verse through it. We're in the fifth chapter, and in John Calvin style, I'm picking up in the very verse we left off. I don't know if you knew about that, but when he was exiled from Geneva, he was preaching through the book of Job, and years later when he came back, lo and behold, the very text he started with was the very one he had ended with. So, he had a high view of Scripture, and not one verse should be left out. We're going to teach the whole counsel of God as we saw this morning in Sunday School. Let me just read you the text. We're just working through verses 15 through 17. God willing, we'll get through it. There's a lot to say. And this is a very important passage. I know every passage is. But this week, I was just really burdened. And this was my... I had all kinds of fancy introductions, but I thought I would just be honest for my intro to the sermon. I had a sickness in my stomach. And just a real helplessness before the Lord. that unless He comes down and changes us, these verses just won't apply to our lives. And I just look over the landscape of evangelical Christianity in North America and it's just so antithetical to this. That we have churches filled with people just wasting their lives. Just living like the world, smelling like the world, not winning the world, not exposing the world's darkness, spending our money like the world, using our time like the world, everything like the world. And I just thought, God, Help! I can't preach a good enough sermon. I can't yell enough. I can't give enough sermon illustrations. I can't entertain them enough. You've got to change their hearts. Because we love the world. We love wasting our time. We're so immersed in the idol of idleness. Many of us go home on Sundays. And we watch TV all day. We forsake all of these means of grace as God. How can I change them? I can't. And so God humbled me. I pray to God that He will send His Spirit in full measure. Because if I just preach in the arm of the flesh, I might entertain you, maybe even offend you, but I can't change you. Only God can. Father, help. I think of David and his psalm. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry. My King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, early in the morning you hear me. Early in the morning I offer my sacrifice to you and wait expectantly. For you are not a God who delights in evil. O Father, will you come? And would you feed your sheep this morning? And Father, if there are any here who are not saved, may you open their eyes and their ears to hear Christ. Oh Father, how many churches in Lethbridge are filled with goats. And Father, I tremble to think that there are goats here this morning who stink their sheep when they have absolutely no love for Christ. No desire to please Him. No desire to walk in a manner worthy of His calling. Oh Father, would You expose our wickedness? And would You grant us repentance unto life? In turning, we will be saved, Isaiah said. Oh God, turn towards us and turn us towards You. This is something that no man can do. Not Spurgeon, not Piper, not Washer, not any man. This is something you must do. And that's why we pray, Lord. Not as some kind of prelude to our religious sermon. But because, Lord, we actually believe that apart from You, Jesus, we can do nothing. Oh, Father, would You hear our prayers? Would You build up Your elect? Would you save your elect this morning to the praise of the glory of your grace? We pray in Jesus' name, Father. Amen. This morning's sermon title actually came to me this morning. It was different than the one I had in my notes. And it's basically, Redeeming the Time Redemptively. It's not just redeeming the time, but it's redeeming the time redemptively. I basically have one overarching command or imperative that Paul has in the text, and then from that I'm going to explain how we are to do it. The command is not to redeem the time, but rather to walk wisely. And we walk wisely by redeeming the time. Redeeming the time is obviously a more memorable sermon title, but Paul's main command in verse 15 is, to walk wisely. Walking, for those of you who have endured my exposition of Ephesians, is one of Paul's favorite metaphors in the second half of this epistle of how we are to live our lives. It's used six times in chapters four through six. And basically what Paul is saying is that walking is essential to the Christian life. It's not just enough to think. It's not just enough to have right doctrine as we're studying through the book of James. Yes, in chapters 1 through 3, Paul has expounded for us great doctrinal truths. He has reminded us of God's predestinating purposes in our salvation. And he has reminded us that in Christ we have such heavenly blessings such as adoption as sons. That we have an inheritance in Him. That according to God's great counsel and His sovereign will, He has revealed to us great wisdom in showing us who Christ is and who we are in light of Him. We've seen in chapter 2 what it looked like on ground level that when we were dead in our sins and trespasses, God in sovereign grace made us alive together with Christ and opened up our eyes to see and behold His beauty. We saw in chapter 3 that God's purpose to extend His kingdom to the ends of the earth is carried out through the church, through local churches. And it's important to know these things, but Paul doesn't end the letter in chapter 3. Rather, he begins chapter 4 with a therefore. Therefore, I urge you, I beseech you, I beg you, as a prisoner of the Lord, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. And so Paul in the second half, chapters 4 through 6, keeps reminding the believers that it's not enough just to have right doctrine, you must have right living. You must accompany your orthodoxy with orthopraxy. And so, when we come to verse 15, it's not surprising then that Paul begins his exhortation in this new section by walking. This is Paul's main theme. We need to walk in a manner worthy of Christ who called us. If you were to scour these chapters, you would see chapter 4.1, walk worthily. Chapter 4.17, walk newly. Don't walk as the Gentiles walk. Don't walk the way you used to walk. Chapter 5.2, walk in love, imitating God in Christ. Chapter 5.8, walk in light, walk in holiness. And today, we see that Paul commands us as Christians to walk in wisdom. Really, all of these are unpacking what it looks like to walk as the new creation. We walk in a manner worthy of Christ. We don't walk like the world walks. We walk in love. We walk in light. We walk in wisdom. And next week, we walk where we live in the Spirit. Christianity is not just about knowing things, but putting them into practice, which is the base definition of what wisdom is. If you study the Bible, wisdom is not just accumulating all kinds of facts. It's not just intellectually ascribing to creeds. But wisdom really is understanding what God's will is, and what pleases Him, and then living in light of it. And that's what Paul is saying. I've shown you God's sovereign will in chapters 1 to 3. Now I want you to live in light of what God is doing and what His purposes are in your life. Definition then. This is a simple one. Biblical wisdom is having skill in finding out what pleases the Lord and carrying it out. And this is what Paul is basically going to unpack for us this morning. Wisdom is knowing and doing. I thought of James 3.13. Who is wise in understanding among you? He doesn't say, now who has your degree in seminary? Who can recite to me this London Baptist 1689? Who can quote to me Charles Spurgeon? He doesn't say that. James says, by his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. So wisdom is having this impartation of knowledge given from the Spirit, but then living by your conduct, show that you're wise. Or as Paul would say, by your walk, show that you've been made wise. Reminder, the starting point or the foundation of wisdom is what? The fear of the Lord. That's found twice in the book of Proverbs and also in Psalm 111. The foundation, the starting point, of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And so this is where you hear the gospel. Some of you want wisdom. But what we offer you is not a worldly wisdom that James talks about that is earthly, unspiritual and demonic. We offer you a wisdom that is from above, that is grounded in who God is. That's what the fear of the Lord is, is when God opens your eyes to see who Christ is. You fear him. You cannot but look on God and tremble. With reverence and adoration and respect and love and faith and worship and adoration. You cannot have biblical wisdom unless you fear the Lord. And you fear the Lord when you see the Lord aright. And you see the Lord aright when you gaze into the face of Jesus Christ. Who is the perfect culmination of God's justice and His love. If you want to see who God is, look. to Jesus Christ. You cannot walk in a manner worthy of God if you do not fear Him. This is why many people can know things about the Bible. This is why many people, when you witness to them on the street, can give you little harsh Christian-y sayings, and yet their lives are reprehensible in the eyes of God. I've talked with people, and they cite to me all kinds of scriptures. I know John 3.16. Then why don't you fear God and walk in obedience? Do you believe that God is holy? Then why are you wasting your life in frivolity and living in all of this blatant and blasphemous sin? The problem is not head knowledge. The problem is their heart lacks true reverence for God. Am I yelling too much? It's just starting, Jake. You might want to turn me way down. You this morning might know many things about God. You might have memorized Bible verses and yet you do not do them. Remember, wisdom is doing the word. Children, teenagers, you might know. You might be able to assuage your parents' tests. You might be able to answer the catechism questions, but the true test for wisdom is not reciting to them the right answer. The true test for wisdom is, do you fear God? Because if you fear God, You will live differently. If you fear God, you will redeem the time. If you fear God, you will use your money as if God really exists. In seminary they told us that there was something that is called atheism and something that is called functional atheism. Atheism and atheists, they have no problem telling you that they don't believe that there is a God. But there's something or some people called functional atheists that fill our churches. And they say they believe in God, but unfortunately they live as though God does not exist. They don't live in the fear of God. If we had a right fear of God, we would watch the internet differently. If we had a right fear of God, we would manage our households differently. If we had a right fear of God, we would watch our tongues, we would guard our lives. The fear of the Lord is the foundation, the beginning of wisdom. Do you fear the Lord this morning? The reason why you're not using your time aright is because you have no wisdom. And the reason why you have no wisdom is because you have no fear of the Lord. And the reason you have no fear of the Lord is because God has never opened up your eyes to behold who He truly is. Oh, that we would see Him as Isaiah saw Him in Isaiah 6. If we saw God the way He really was in all His holy majesty, we'd fall on our faces and we would say, Oh God, would you please atone for my iniquity? And then would you please send me? Here I am. I want to do your will and not mine. How do you get wisdom? The Bible says there's really one way that you get it. You seek it with all of your heart. You seek it in prayer. You seek it in the Word of God. James 1.5, we saw it last month. Any of you lack wisdom? Let a mask of God. And how will God give? Will He give that wisdom as a miser, as a scrooge? Will He give it to you in small incremental chances? No, He'll give it to you abundantly. He does not upbraid or withhold it. No. God delights to give wisdom because it honors Him as the true source and fount of wisdom. You ask for it. which is why Paul prays in Ephesians 1. I know that God has saved you. I see your faith in the Lord Christ and your love towards the brethren for this reason. I pray to our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He may give you the spirit of wisdom. Oh, that God would give us wisdom. But you've got to ask, seek, knock. Proverbs 2. I'm going to read it. You can follow along with me if you want. This is a good one. You want wisdom? Then seek it. More than gold, more than silver, more than your entertainment, seek wisdom. My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom, how do you prepare on Sunday mornings to hear the Word? You come. Ready to receive it with meekness, as James says. Do you want to receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your soul? Inclining your heart to understanding. Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding. When is the last time you wept in your closet asking God to show you who He is in Christ? We live wrongly because we see wrongly. If you seek it like silver, if you sought Christ the way you sought your RRSP's, or retirement plans, or the latest facts, if we sought Christ that way, how differently we would be and live. If I sought Christ the way I sought the NFL scores on Sunday night, how differently your pastor would be. So notice the yes. If you this, if you that, if you this, if you that, verse 5, then you will understand what? The fear of the Lord. Many of us don't want to fear the Lord because we're so in love with the world, but oh, that the Spirit would say, God, I want that more than anything else in the world. I can't do that. I can't yell enough. You have no idea how helpless I feel, even right now. And if Christ doesn't come, you might as well just leave. If the Spirit doesn't come, I'm wasting your time. You'll forget the sermon by Sunday night. You'll live unchanged. This is why I'm crying out this week. God, thank you for showing me how utterly incapable I am of doing anything. Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find knowledge of God. Or you could translate, acknowledge God. Verse 6, 4. For the Lord gives wisdom. Wait, wait! Do I seek or does He give? You seek and then He gives. God does not give His wisdom to those who don't want it. He does not give His gifts to those who won't use it. For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, etc. Paul says we need to walk in wisdom. So seek it. Clear your calendars. That's why we're having our week of prayer at the end of September, and I put in the Facebook, clear your calendars. I mean it. I'm not trying to guilt you. And if you can't come, I know some of you are busy, then stay home and pray. And pray for this church, and pray for the preaching, and pray for yourself, and pray for your kids, and pray for this nation. Seek it. Make wisdom the priority of your life. The principle thing that Proverbs 4 is going to say, is getting wisdom. The principle thing is this. Get wisdom and in all thy getting, get insight. More important than all these things, more important than getting your degree at university, which is good, more important than getting that promotion at work, more important than anything else in the world is getting wisdom. And wisdom is understanding who God is and what he wants for you in this world. Because if you don't know who God is or what his sovereign plan is, you're going to waste your life. You're going to replace who God is and what He wants for you with who you are and what you want. And, ashamedly, what we do is we often Christianize them. Without wisdom, it is impossible to walk in a manner worthy of Christ's calling upon your life. As you diligently seek God's wisdom in prayer and in the Word, He will reveal Himself. He will. He delights to reveal Himself. Read Proverbs 1, read Proverbs 8, read Proverbs 9. Lady Wisdom is calling. Oh, turn, simple person. Find wisdom. I'm offering you a feast. Come and sup. If the Lord gives wisdom to those who diligently seek it, only fools don't seek it. God said, I will give it to you if you seek it. A fool then is someone who refuses to seek the fear of the Lord. Why should we walk wisely? So let's get back into Ephesians. The first word in verse 15, well literally the second word, but the first word in Paul's idea, because it's a post-Paul, it's therefore. Means we look carefully then, but really it's therefore. And with almost every other time Paul uses the word walk, it has this Greek word un, therefore. Here's some glorious truths, therefore walk. So we have to say, what is the therefore therefore? Why do we need to walk wisely? Why must we walk? Why must we live? Why must we order ourselves carefully? Because Christ's shining His light upon us and others depends on it. Therefore, verse 14, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, so that Christ can shine on you. Is he talking to believers or unbelievers who are sleeping? I think he's talking to anybody who is sleeping. If you're an unbeliever this morning, the trumpet blast of the gospel is, Awake, fool! Awake! Lest you die and perish in your sins, awake! That Christ's light might shine on you and save you, awake from your stupor and your slumber, O spiritual sluggard, awake! But Christ is also extending that call, I believe, to believers who in their spiritual apathy and indolence have become groggy. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little spiritual folding of the hands, and spiritual poverty and want will come upon you like an aggressive and ruthless armed robber. So, if your desire in your life is for Christ to shine on you, walk wisely. If you want to walk like a fool, Christ will not shine on you. It's just as simple as that. That's what Paul seems to be saying. More than anything else, I want Christ to shine on me so I completely transform my calendar this week. You alone! All I want is your countenance upon me and reflecting off of me. Why do you need to walk wisely? Because Christ shining upon your life depends on it. The Christian wants that more than anything else in the world. What about the unbelievers? How does God reach the world? Matthew 5.16, let your light so shine towards unbelievers, so that they might see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The verse before, salt that has lost its savor, its flavor, its taste, is worthless. It is good for nothing except to be thrown and trampled under the feet of men. And so not only Christ shining upon us for our own sake is at stake, but also the evangelism of the world is at stake. There's nothing more diametrically opposed to evangelism than wicked Christians. Before you go and start sharing the gospel with others, you need to walk in wisdom. I've seen Christians living in sin try to share the gospel. It doesn't work. Why walk worthily? If you have any concern for the lost people around you, you'll begin to walk differently. So let me give an illustration that just comes to mind. It's my brother who doesn't live here, and I have no problem. He works with a bunch of construction workers. who are the filthiest people on earth next to maybe sailors. And basically, one of the guys that he's been witnessing to is a homosexual. And so here it is, it's Wednesday night, and they're out of town, and they're offering my brother weed and booze. And this is where my brother is fighting. How will they ever accept me unless I get into their world? And the spirit gripped him. No. Christ says, me or them. My brother says, I want to be different. They might think I'm a legalist. They might think I'm that really sour, austere, fun-hating Christian. But you know what happened the next day? My brother was able to share the gospel with them. And this is what the homosexual said. He says, I will take this tract and I will read it because I respect you. Wow. Walk wisely. Christ, shine on me. And shine on me so that I reflect your glory to the world. That's what Christians are to do, is to be reflectors. But unfortunately, we're not reflecting because we're not walking the way we should walk. When believers arise and awake, Christ's light shines on them. And when Christ's light shines on His people, His light shines on the world. Therefore, walk wisely. Keith Greensong says that believers are asleep in the light. And because they're asleep in the light, they can't counter the unbelievers who are asleep in the darkness. And so I'm not just trumpeting for unbelievers to wake up this morning, I'm ultimately saying believers, awake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Therefore, walk wisely. Application. Dear listener, do you need a wake-up call this morning? And I thought of it when I was in India, I didn't want to miss my flight, I stayed in a hotel in Hyderabad. And so what you do is, if you have something very important, you call the front desk and what do you request? A wake-up call. I can't afford to miss my plane! The ticket is unbelievably expensive, I can't afford to! So wake me up! Christian, you can't afford to walk foolishly. So wake up! Cry out, God, give me a wake up call. If not through the loud mouth preacher, wake me up when I read the Bible sometime. Wake me up, I need it. This is more important than missing a flight back home. I don't want to waste my life. Why we should walk wisely? Christ's light shining on us is at stake. How we should walk wisely? Three ways, and they all begin with W. You need to watch, you need to war, and you need to weigh. Okay, I've told you why you need to walk wisely. This is how Paul says in this passage how you are to walk wisely. First, watch carefully. Therefore, look carefully how you walk. The world is fraught with all kinds of landmines. Paul's going to say in the next verse, this world is evil. In World War II, this was one of the strategies that the Germans would often use. This is what Satan does. You might not understand or realize it, but this world is littered with landmines that want to blow you up. And so what you need to do is you need to walk carefully. You need to actually think about your steps, because your next step might lead you into death, ruin, plight. Watch your steps, believers. I wish that walking wisely was just a piece of cake. And you just left your Sunday whistling, walking wisely. Watch carefully how you walk. Watch your steps. discern, have eyes. You need a landmine detector, which is what the Word of God, Thy Word, is a lamp unto my feet. Or to change the analogy, it's my mind detector. So many Christians, ignorant of the world, of the Word, I should say. They're not ignorant of the world, unfortunately. They're blowing themselves up. And it grieves me. Very few things grieve me more than seeing those who profess the name of Christ live in sin. Nothing grieves a pastor more than watching people in the congregation walk foolishly. You want to break your pastor's heart? Walk like a fool. Make stupid decisions. Quit reading your Bible. Quit praying. Forsake the gathering of the assembly. You want to break your pastor's heart? Do that. Am I guilting you? Absolutely, because I had an unbearable burden this week. Oh God, open our eyes to see how this world is fraught with landmines. Watch your step. Isn't this what you tell your kids? Do you love your kids? Yes? Watch your step. Careful! There's stairs that are going to fall down and bash your teeth in. Watch out! There's poop there. Watch out, there's this, there's that. If you love your kids, you keep telling them, watch closely how you walk. Paul's doing the same thing. He's telling us, I love you, now watch how and where you walk. This is what athletes do. I love football. This is what football people do is they watch tape all week and they study how they should have cut this way or that way. Or a track athlete understands this is where I have to plant my foot before I launch over the hurdle. They scrutinize. They're very precise with their steps. And that's what the Greek word means. Carefully. It also means precise. Accurate. Order your steps accurately. Walking wisely never happens by chance. Which is why Paul Solomon says, above all guarding, above all watching, above all keeping. Same Hebrew word. Keep. Watch your heart. For out of it flows your steps. That's my paraphrase. Your heart guides your steps. So watch carefully how you walk. Watch carefully how you live. Watch carefully what you watch. Watch carefully what you hear. Watch carefully where you are. Watch carefully everything you do. Paul highlights then the importance of a believer engaging in intentional and focused moral introspection. This is something the Puritans were great at. Sometimes they sort of slipped into morbidity. I believe with McShane, for every look itself, take ten looks to Christ. But it seemed that as I read the Puritans, they're constantly looking within. Oh God, would you show me if there's any iniquitous way in me. Please show me what needs to be changed. Please show me if my steps are off kilter. Please. And they would take time. to, as it were, do a survey of their heart. They would introspect their lives and their motives. There's something that's lost on us. Ah, Puritans, they're a bunch of killjoys. All they do is read and preach and pray. They never have fun and they never do missional work. Chronological snobbery. The word translated carefully means accurately. And the definition of accurate is to be consistent with a standard rule or model. What is that model? It's the Word of God. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it, by watching it, shamar, by watching it according to Thy Word. So we need to accurately, as it were, walk as Christ walked. We do so how? Getting into God's Word. Wisdom laughs at those who reject her and when you make a stupid mistake wisdom has no pity on you according to Proverbs line So redeem the time It's I think it's a tragedy That of all times all epochs in world history. We have more free time than ever and we read the Bible and take spiritual disciplines so unseriously like think of how hard they used to work in Jonathan Edwards times and They didn't have tractors. They couldn't rip off a quick email. We have so much free time, and the sad thing is that we waste almost all of it. How carefully, how accurately are you watching your life? Is this convicting you? Good, it should. Where's the grace? Oh, it comes. But Spurgeon said sometimes you needed to be whipped, as it were, by the ten-pronged whip of God. before true healing would come. What is your standard for walking wisely in this present evil age? Are you comparing it with other Christians and other churches who are walking worldly? Don't compare your walk with other Christians from other churches. Don't even compare your walk with other Christians in this church. Compare it with the Word of God. That's your standard, that's your rule. That's the objective to which we are to walk in accordance with. So the first way we walk wisely is we do so by watching carefully. Okay? You want to walk wisely? You watch carefully. Second, war ruthlessly. Watch carefully, war ruthlessly. Next verse. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. If believers are to walk wisely in this world, they must realize the world in which they live is a war. That's what Jesus says in John 15. The moment you become a Christian, you become an enemy of Satan, of this world, and of your flesh. Too many Christians are naive, O simple one. They honestly think that the Christian life is a is a walk in the park. It's a cupcake. It's a war. Satan, I was thinking with his dad, Satan's not a purring kitty that Abby plays with when we go to Nathan's. She picks that thing up and she manhandles it. And the thing never, well sometimes, does not, what the Bible says, he's a roaring lion. We send our kids off into the world, We have no idea that the world they're immersed in is ruled by a roaring lion. Those who walk wisely must have a right attitude towards their time. They must redeem it. They must buy it back out of slavery. That's what the verb really means. It comes from the imagery of the slave marketplace. What you would do is you would go into the market the Agora, and you would go on slave day, and you would look for a good deal. And if you saw a really good slave at a really good price, kind of like me when I go to the superstore and I see the 50% off, I buy it quick, because someone else is going to get it. It's so important, I need to get this. It's a steal of a deal. And so you redeem that slave for yourself. Paul is saying the same thing. You redeem time for yourself. And of course the next verse is going to unpack what that really means. It pictures a shrewd buyer snapping up every bargain that avails itself. It makes the best use of every opportunity that avails itself. It's like some of you girls when you go shopping, just like that, oh that we would be that way with our time. The way some of you buy shoes, I wish I would buy time like that. Ruthless. It's like Walmart in the States at Christmas time. Ruthless. We have to war ruthlessly in this world that is opposed to us. In other words, to walk wisely you must take advantage of every opportunity you get. Or as the ESV says, you need to make the best use of your time. Why do we need to make the best use of our time? Because the days are not good But they're evil. I don't know, maybe I'm living in a different world. But the Bible says that we are living in an evil world. When Paul says the days are evil, he is saying that God's people, though light, live in a world characterized by spiritual darkness and opposition. This world is antagonistic and diametrically opposed to God and His rule. Do you understand that question? This world is not your friend. Neither is Satan. Redeem the time for the days are evil. I could get into a hundred illustrations, but every time I read the news or if I see what's going on in Hollywood, and I think that there are children who are immersed in this garbage, are reading this garbage, it's because the parents don't realize we're living in an evil world. Why would you ever be letting your kids listen to Miley Cyrus when she acts like a prostitute? in front of millions of people and then brags about it. This person who is a professing Christian. Redeem the time. What this world offers your children is not good. Yeah, maybe I'm the prudish kind of... I'm just trying to be biblical here. The days are evil. Paul calls it in Galatians 1-4, we're living in an evil generation that hates God and His rule. Why would we ever give heed to it? Why would we ever make time for it? It's not our friend. In Paul's imagery, time has been taken captive, enslaved by an evil master. Believers, if they are to walk wisely in this world, are thus to buy up or redeem the present time out of slavery to evil and use this time now for good. If you're not using time for good, your time is being wasted. If you don't buy that slave as a good person, someone evil is going to buy it and he's going to abuse that slave. If you love that slave, you'll buy him and you'll put him to good work. That's what Christians are to do. Sometimes we think we have unlimited time. We don't. You have the same amount of time as me. How are you using it? I'm not just talking about free time. I'm talking about how do you use your time at work? Are you using it wisely? Are you using your me-time as God's time? Parents, do you understand that your kids are born God-hating, Christ-rejectors? Do you believe that? Then why in the world are you not doing family devotions with them and praying with them? Why are you not weeping over their souls every night? Why are you not taking every opportunity in your ride home with them? Why are you not telling them about Christ and the Gospel? What might make them feel uncomfortable? Well, you know what? The world will make them feel comfortable. Make them feel uncomfortable. This present evil era will continue until Christ comes back and not until then. So, until Christ comes back, redeem your time. Single people, redeem your Friday nights. Moms who stay at home, redeem your Facebooking time. Dads, redeem your time with your children if you work a lot. I love to sit on the couch too, but you know what? This life is not favorable for my kids. By using the plural days instead of the singular day, Paul is saying that the business of buying time out of the slavery to evil takes place in day-to-day, moment-by-moment, everyday decisions. Because some of you are thinking, oh, Ryan just wants us to go street preaching on Friday evenings. That's not ultimately what I'm saying. I'm talking about in the mundane things. How do you redeem your time? How do you walk wisely? You do so in church. That's the next section. You do so in family, as a husband and as a father. You do so at work and you do so in the world. That's what Paul talks about in the next section. How do you live in church? How do you live in family? How do you live in the work? How do you live in the world? You don't need to move tomorrow and become a missionary to redeem the time. You can redeem it this afternoon with your drive home with the kids. You can redeem it tomorrow morning when you go to work. Basically what Paul is saying then, is you should redeem every moment you have with your neighbors, your co-workers, with your free time. Application. Do you believe that these days are evil? If so, how are you using your time? If you don't think that the days are evil, you will waste your time. I guarantee it. Until God opens your eyes to realize the world you are living in that is so contra-Christ, So how do you walk wisely? We're almost done, I promise. You watch, you war, and you weigh. You watch closely, you war ruthlessly, and finally, you weigh the Lord's will thoughtfully. I just needed to dub you. In other words, you think about the Lord's will. Verse 17. For this reason, or he has to be there for, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Foolish people don't understand these days are evil. Foolish people don't redeem their time. Foolish people don't know what the will of the Lord is. Wise people know what the will of the Lord is and put it into practice. What is the Lord's will? Before we can do God's will, before we can have wisdom, we must know His will. Understanding is the precursor. You need to know what God wants before you can do it. According to chapter 1 verse 8 and 9, Paul says that God's intention is that believers should understand the mystery of His saving plan to sum up all things under Christ. Remember? I've said that a hundred times. Ephesians 1.10. This is God's sovereign, eternal will to sum up, bring under the Lordship all things in heaven and earth under the reign of Christ. God, what is your will for my life? Should I be a missionary? Should I move here? What school should I go to? Should I date him? Should I date her? God, what do you want me to do with all these things? I don't know what those are, but I know what God's ultimate will for you is, is to be summed up in Christ and to seek others to be summed up in it. Every decision comes under that umbrella. It doesn't matter if you're a mechanic. It doesn't matter if you're a student. It doesn't matter if you're a stay-at-home mom. If you're doing that will of God, He will work through you. And all those little, tiny, what you think are life-changing tidbits, they will come into play in His sovereign decree. But get the main thing and make it the main thing. So many of you are wondering, what job? You're not even worrying about the most important thing, Christ's desire to solve all things in Himself. Who cares what job you're working if you're not living for Christ? Who cares who you marry if you're not going to be a godly husband? Who cares if you're going to have children if you don't know how to bring them up under the reign of Christ? This is what Paul prays for in Ephesians 117. Oh, for the Spirit to open your eyes to see God's mysterious plan. Oh, that He would give you true wisdom. To understand that God is working to save a people for Himself and for His glory from every tongue and tribe and nation. And how they're going to glorify Christ and how you, if you're a Christian, are caught up into that purpose. That is what Paul wants you to get. And that's why I said only the Spirit can do it. This is something God must open your eyes to. If you don't realize that God wants you, as it were, to be a missionary wherever you are, stay-at-home mom, student, worker, if you don't understand that, you're not going to redeem your time. Paul prays that believers might understand more fully God's mysterious will and live in light of it. The mystery, Christ crucified. But the readers need to grasp its full significance for it to impact their life. How do you walk wisely then? What will make you redeem the time? To see Christ and His purpose accurately. You see Christ wrongly, you see His sovereign will for all the universe wrongly, you're going to walk wrongly. You're going to waste your time. But if Christ gives us a glimpse into who He is and what He's doing in this world, your life will be forever changed. 310. This wisdom comes through the church. You know what plagues me? Christians who aren't involved in the local church. Even though Paul explicitly says this is how God is unveiling His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This is how God is, as it were, putting up on PowerPoint or on the screen for the world to see the wisdom of God. And they completely neglect the church. Not just going, but even functioning, fellowshipping, forsaking. I just don't get it. As cool as it is, it's disobedient. So if Christ shows you that he's actually summing up all things in himself through the church of holy people, you will not only become a member of the church, but you actually say, how can I be used? Being wise thus means knowing and doing the mystery of God's eternal will. A wise Christian, then, is one whose lifestyle is increasingly being brought into conformity with God's wonderful plan of saving men and women in Christ. When you think what a wise Christian is, you think it's someone who has a lot of head knowledge, you think of pastors. Not always so. A wise Christian is one who knows who Christ is, who knows what Christ's will is, and completely throws their life into that purpose. That's what a wise person is. They're not foolish. Why? Because they know the Lord's will. And what is the Lord's will? To glorify Himself by saving for Himself a people in Christ. Every other thing that you chase after, worthless in comparison to that. It is not until our hearts begin to grasp God's will that we will watch carefully how we walk. If God is summing up the world in Christ through the gospel as people like me preach it, I want to watch how I walk. If I become a stumbling block, then that's against Christ's eternal will to sum up people and see them saved. I want to walk holy because I know what Christ's person and His purposes are for my life. Correspondingly, the unwise live as those who either don't understand or who do understand and don't do or live in light of God's will for them. So you say, I'm wasting my life. You know why you're wasting your life? It's because you forgot who Christ is. You forgot what his purpose is. You've been duped, you've been put to sleep, you've been lulled to slumber by Satan and all of his delicacies of this world. He's tricked you into thinking that your happiness is found in all kinds of materialistic things that moth and rust and thieves will take from you one day. But he's actually fooled you. Application. So often I hear Christians saying they don't know what God's will is for their lives. Now you do. No, no, I'm talking about where I should live. So am I. If you make it your aim to glorify God in all you do, by walking in a manner worthy of His gospel, by walking in light, in love, in holiness, in the Spirit, in wisdom, I guarantee God will have you where you need to be. I guarantee you God will show you where you need to be. Don't worry about where you should live. Worry about pleasing the Lord and you will be where you should be. Who should I marry? Worry about living a holy life and serving the Lord and He will bring that person into your life. What should I do? Don't worry about what you should do. Serve the Lord where he has you. And I guarantee you will do what you need to do. Take care of the main thing and all the little things will be taken care of as well. So let me conclude then by reading in Martin Lloyd-Jones style the text, reviewing the sermon and then giving an illustration. Almost 12. Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time for the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Why you should walk wisely? Because Christ's light shining upon you is dependent on that. And His light shining upon you, shining upon others, is dependent upon that. How should you walk wisely? You walk wisely by watching carefully, by warring ruthlessly, and by weighing the Lord's will thoughtfully. Conclusion. I want to close with a contrast between two men who died and quotations from them. The first is a man named C.T. Studd, a famous cricketer in the UK. And his famous quote is the one that I often have on the shirt. Don't waste your life. Only one life, it will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. And if you were to read the account of C.T. Studd's life, as he grew up under the tutelage of a father who became a believer under Moody and Sankey, and at a young age, Stud was a phenomenal cricket player, which is probably the equivalent of hockey for us, or football in the States. He had it all. By 19, he was the captain of his team, and he had a great future awaiting him. Moreover, after his father passed away, he left him a healthy subsistence on which he could live on. Very, very wealthy. Very, very talented. And one day C.T. Studd, the Spirit spoke to him and said, you've been wasting your life. The last five years you've been backsliding. And you've been wasting your life. And he gave up everything to go and become a missionary. Gave up everything. Everything the world offered him, he gave it away. He gave up an illustrious career as a cricket star. He gave up an immense amount of money from his father who endowed it upon him. And he gave it up all for Christ. And he would say probably in the words of Jim Elliot, he is no fool. or he is wise, who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. That's the picture of wisdom. C.T. Studd, realizing what God's purpose for him was. Should I be a cricket player? God wants to save the nations in Christ and how will they hear unless someone preaches? I will give all of my money up to go to missions organizations so the gospel can be spread. And the funny thing is, is when he got married, his wife said, what are you doing? He kept back a little bit for her just in case, and she rebuked him. She says, do you trust God fully? He gave up everything for Christ. That is no fool. The other story is in the introduction to John Piper's book called Don't Waste Your Life and John Piper's dad was an evangelist and it's full of all kinds of stories of people who would come to him after weeping saying I've wasted my life. And Piper says it's not so much the tragedies of Christians, of kids dying as non-Christians who wasted their life, but Piper says there's one story that forever is burned and indelibly stamped on his conscience. And it was the story of an old man dying on his bed, looking at John Piper's ad saying, I've wasted it. I've wasted it. I've wasted my life. It's a Christian. And John Piper says, I endeavor to not follow that man's example. I pray to God that when you and when I are laying on our beds, Christians, we will not say what that man said. I've wasted it. All of my time, and all of my money, and all of my gifts, and all of my affections, I gave it to Satan, rather than to the Lord Jesus Christ. Please don't be foolish. Please go home. Please say, how am I using God's time? Am I redeeming it? Am I buying it back? Am I walking as a fool? Or am I walking wise? Watch carefully. War ruthlessly. Weigh the Lord's will thoughtfully. One text for unbelievers. It's 1 Corinthians 1.30, which was in our call to worship. But of Him, of God, the NASB, because of God's doing, you are in Christ, who has become for our benefit the wisdom of God. If you're an unbeliever, there is no wisdom. If you're an unbeliever, I guarantee with 100% certainty you will waste your life and you'll stand before God saying you wasted your life. If you're an unbeliever outside of Christ, it is an impossibility for you to carry out what Paul writes here. The only way you truly can get wisdom is by being in Christ. And the only way you become in Christ is by repenting of your sins and trusting in the Gospel that Christ, the God-Man, came into this world and out of boundless love lived a perfect life for your sake, died on a cross for your sake, and as Paul says, for your justification was raised from the dead. As John Calvin once said, he says, all the benefits that Christ has and offers you are useless unless you are in Him. All of Christ's righteousness, all of His sanctification, all of His redemption, and yes, all of the wisdom, they're worthless to you unless you are in Him. Oh kids, do you know Christ as Savior? Yeah, do you know Christ as your Savior, kids? Adults, do you know Christ as your Savior? Only when life will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last. Father, before we partake of the Lord's table, I pray that our hearts would be ready to receive it. Thank You, Jesus, that though we have wasted our time so frequently, You never wasted Your time. And I thank You that Your perfect righteousness is imputed to us who believe in You. And as guilty as I have felt, and as guilty as some of us may feel, if we are in Christ, In Him, our time has been kept perfectly, never been wasted, ruined, trampled underfoot. And so, for this, we praise You, Jesus. But in light of what You've done and what You've called us to, Lord, I pray that this reminder of Your broken body and Your shed blood for us, Lord, would remind us of how sweet redemption is. And if we truly have been saved, we who love you and love our neighbor will want them to taste of this wisdom, redemption, sanctification, and righteousness as well. So Father, remind us of the Gospel as we partake of the table. Remind us that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But also empower us with that same Gospel. Lord, to walk wisely, to redeem our time redemptively. Holy Spirit, help. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.