Believers are called to walk worthy of their calling by living a life characterized by humility, gentleness, and love, as exemplified by Christ. This walk involves maintaining unity within the body of Christ through shared doctrine and actively distinguishing oneself from the ungodly world by living as children of light. The sermon emphasizes the importance of wise living, seizing opportunities, and being filled with the Holy Spirit to effectively represent God in a dark world.
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Good morning. Now, you did better for those two men than you did for me. It's good to see you and we thank God for the privilege of being together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and spending time singing hymns of the faith and studying the Word of God. I appreciate your your friendship to me I came in as a stranger yesterday you never knew me before some of you heard of me and some of you may have seen me before but I felt very at home here with you brethren and I mean that in the right sense of the word we are brethren in the Lord Jesus Christ and and felt that when I'd open the word people loved the word that I was opening and wanted to know what God had to say so I I am thankful for the opportunity to be here.
I certainly am not glad that Dr. Wagner had to leave because of the death of a granddaughter, and he has a service this very day. I know he would appreciate your prayers as they work through the time of separation and deal with the issues now and that will come. But thank God for the opportunity to be with you. I think of the one who's coming after me, Dr. Showers. Rennie is a dear brother and a Lord dear friend. You will enjoy him and his wife, Ellie. They are members of our church in Pennsylvania. And we've been friends a long, long time, probably over thirty-five years. We just kept bumping into each other in seminaries and in places of ministry and about three years ago or four, the Lord led him to unite with our church.
And it's been a great fellowship. I don't see him much because he's on the road so much, but he gets back from time to time and we kind of catch up on what's going on in our lives. But he's a dear brother and I thank God for the fact that he's going to be here with you and trust it'll be a very meaningful time as he opens the Word of God and he indeed is a scholar. Sometimes I'm intimidated to sit down with him and say, now, what do you think about this? And then when I disagree with him, I'm really intimidated, which is rare, if ever. But I want to share something from a list that I received a while back. It's entitled, Things Never Heard in Church.
Perhaps you've heard this. The tenth thing never heard in church, hey, mister, get up. It's my turn to sit on the front seat. You ever hear that in church? No. Pastor, I was so blessed I didn't even notice the service went over time by thirty-five minutes. I've never heard that ever in all of my time of ministry. You know, I enjoy coming to Sunday school so much more fun than going fishing on Sunday. Oh, good. We have another missionary with us today.
Sometimes the missionaries feel like they're strangers in foreign land and churches, which shouldn't be. Pastor, I'd like to volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the junior high Sunday school class. Not many volunteers for that. Yes, I would so appreciate having the opportunity to serve on the cleanup committee of the church. No. I just love singing choruses I've never heard before. Down at Word of Life they have an ongoing joke. That's what they call it. But they'll sing a song and then they'll say, have any of you ever heard this before or never heard this before?
And they'll raise their hands. What were you doing? We just sang it. You should have been listening. But one more. Well, it seems the sanctuary is already filled. So let's just start the service early. In the church where I pastor, we start our evening service at six o'clock. And at about two minutes or six, you wonder if anybody's going to be there. At six o'clock, they just come in in droves. Well, not exactly droves. They come in at the same time. And they are there on time, but hardly ever early, many of them. But nice to know that you're early.
Many of you were here before I was this morning. Would you pray with me? Father, we come today again to thank you for the privilege of calling you Father, to think that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our Father is staggering. and to think that you wanted to be that and then that made it possible for us to call you father is more staggering we thank you for the privilege of having your word in our language for the opportunity to can only read it but to study it and to communicate it freely in a country where this is still possible. We know it's not the case in many parts where dear brothers know the Lord and serve the Lord.
We thank you too for the morning and pray that you would give you direction upon our thinking and our speaking and may you be honored in all that is done. Father, help us to remind us that you still have things for us to do as we await the return of our Lord. May we be those who worship and serve God while we wait. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Several years ago, I took a group of people to Greece to do a tour of the second missionary journey of Paul. And in this past fall, I did it again. And one of the places we visited was Ephesus and ancient Ephesus.
They've unearthed about one-third of the rubble that had covered that city for centuries. And it was my privilege to be there in Ephesus and to walk down the streets that I believe the Apostle Paul walked because they've gotten down to the marble and the sandstone highways or streets. And to walk down this long avenue to what is called the center of the city or what was the center of the city where the library was and still is in ruins. It was one of the most renowned libraries in the ancient world in Paul's time. But as you walk down that long corridor with the columns in ruins and walk toward the library and then made a right turn and went down to the arena or the amphitheater, where we have notes in the book of Acts that a mob gathered to protest the teaching and preaching of Paul and his colleagues.
And I thought often as I walked that about the book of Ephesians and the letter that Paul wrote to them. And as we've been talking yesterday and this morning about the idea of walking, to realize that what Paul is writing to them bore fruit in their lives as they walk the very streets of that city. But Paul was talking more about walking in a physical sense. He was talking about the walk of a lifestyle. How are they living in the midst of great paganism? A great plenty because Ephesus was a very, very rich city. great corruption as well, because as we walked the street, they would point out, that is, that God would point out, well, that was a brothel over there.
That's where men from the sea would come in and spend their evenings and on and on and on to point out some of the so-called highlights of ancient Ephesus. It was a very corrupted city. And the book of Acts bears testimony to this. But I really wonder if ancient Ephesus was any more corrupt than present-day America. And I really wonder if the call to walk that Paul issued the Ephesians is any less necessary today to us who walk in perhaps what we'll call a figurative Ephesus, a land of plenty, a land of pollution, a land of corruption, a land of many gods in our country today, and the dinah of the true and living God by many, many the most, I would say.
And so it behooves us to think about what Paul told those believers in the city of Ephesus with reference to how we should live. And I've chosen to use the title, how you're walking, because Paul uses the word in some other interesting ways in the book of Ephesus. We looked at one of these last night, and we talked about that you might walk in the works that God has before prepared for us. to walk. I believe that's the all-encompassing will of God for every child of God. God says, I made you my workmanship so you could live a life honoring to me and in reality beneficial to you. I want you to live a different way.
I want you to walk into the works that I prepared for you to do. And I believe that's every one of our responsibilities from the youngest to the oldest. And I have grandchildren, as I told you last night, And I believe it's God's will that those young boys walk in the good works that God prepared for them to walk in. And as they grow older, to continue that walk and to increase it in the different directions that God will lead them. And so Ephesians two ten is the verse that says, God says to us, I want you to be walking in a way worthy of me and doing the things I prepared for you to do. What a great privilege.
to have God say to you and me, I've planned out a life for you that will please me and be good for you. Just follow me. Just walk where I want you to walk. Just live the way I want you to live. Now, chapter two, verse ten introduces us to the concept of walking, but I want to look at some other verses this morning where Paul expands on that and uses the word again and gives a command or an imperative saying, keep on walking. in the way that God wants. The next time Paul uses the expression after chapter two, verse ten, is found in chapter four, verse one. Would you turn to Ephesians chapter four, verse one, please?
Because when Paul begins the second half of his letter, and some would say he divides it into the doctrinal section for three chapters, and the duty section for the last three chapters. And they outline it that way, and it's a good outline, I think. But as he begins this new section of the letter, He gives another command, another imperative with reference to walking. Let me read it for you. Ephesians chapter four, verse one. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all or in all. Paul begins to talk about the importance of walking not so much in the good works that's the the big picture but he says there's some specific ways to do this and in chapter four verse one he begins to talk about walking with the assembly within the body of christ i think and if you followed as i read or you read along with me you know that what some of what is said here it was said in colossians chapter three uh Four very expressions used here in these verses are stated in Colossians chapter three, verses twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, where we were yesterday morning.
And so I don't need to spend a lot of time going over those because you remember those, right? As good students, you've tucked those away. I've got that nailed down. So I won't spend a lot of time, but I will point out the similarities or the relationships. But let me just take a minute or two in these verses because there's some other areas where I want to go. Would you note the command? And it is a command here in verse one. It is not an option. Paul is saying, as a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was, I think, imprisoned at Rome at this time under house arrest. for his testimony for Christ. He was not a criminal in God's sight, but he was accused in the sight of men.
And while in this place he is reminding this church where he had been for about three years as founding pastor and apostle and minister, he's saying, you need to keep on using the opportunities you have in walking for God. But I beseech you to walk worthy of your calling. And I would title this section, Walking Worthy. of the calling with which you're called. In the King James Bible, it has walk worthy of your vocation. And that's an early term to talk about way of life. We talk now, at least in my years of being on earth, about vocation is the thing you do for a living. What's your vocation?
It's the thing that consumes most of your time making your food and clothing. But the word meant really in Paul's time, as we've said before, it relates to your lifestyle, and in this case of the calling, the calling that God has placed upon you. In Romans chapter eight, this is expanded. It says, in whom God called, he justified, in whom he justified, he glorified, and so on. But have you thought about, Paul says to the Ephesians and to us, who called you when I was a young boy and I'd be out in the evenings playing and when it was time to go to bed my mother would call across the backyard for all the neighbors to hear my name Ronnie it's time to come home and I would listen and and I didn't leave right away from what I was doing but I would hear the call again sometimes and again And she called me by name and I knew that that call was addressed specifically to me because I was her son.
The same with you and me with reference to the call that God has given us. The call to the gospel, the call to receive his son, the call to sonship. And Paul says, you Ephesians need to live a life worthy of the call with which God has called you. He's called you to the highest position in heaven except for himself and his son to be sons of God. I personally believe that one day because of God's grace and God's plan, I will be above the angels. Every saint will be because of my relationship to Jesus Christ, one of God's sons. And so Paul, writing to these Ephesians who were surrounded by all kind of paganism and all kind of philosophy, he would say, remember who you are.
walk worthy of the calling with which God has called you and then he discusses in the verse two and three some things we talked about in the book of Colossians and if you will look at verse two the word loyliness we talked about humility the gentleness we talked about meekness long suffering we talked about being long tempered and then we considered the idea of bearing with one another putting up with each other. Some of the most difficult people that I've had to put up with in ministry are Christians. And they would say the same about me, I suppose. Having taught at the Bible College for a number of years, one of the things I least like were the faculty meetings.
They usually happen on a Thursday afternoon at two o'clock after classes were over. And by that time, you're kind of worn out from the work of the week. And you're in it to handle these monumental problems. And I'm quite sure that there were times I went out of the faculty meeting saying, Lord, I need to confess my carnality because I wasn't really in line with what was going on or vice versa. They didn't agree with me. And Christians sometimes can bruise other Christians purposely and sometimes not. But Paul says, as you think about your relationship within the body of Christ with other believers, hold yourself back. maintain a position where you're not doing damage to them, forbearing one another, he says, in love.
It's one thing to put up with somebody sort of saying, well, that's the way it is. It's another thing to put up with somebody and say, my attitude is one of love. I respect them for who they are. I respect them for the fact that they have a right of an opinion that may differ from mine. And I love them because, indeed, if they are my brother in Christ, I'm commanded to love them. I must say that didn't always happen in the faculty meetings at Lancaster Bible College. Now, don't you tell anybody that because those are closed meetings. But I think, you know, not me. Paul says, you Ephesians need to realize the importance of putting up with each other or bearing up with each other in love.
And then he adds in verse three, another activity of those who walk worthy endeavoring working hard at expending the energy to keep the unity of the spirit, not to make the unity, but to maintain the unity. And Paul is not talking about so much the unity that overlooks things that are wrong. or the unity that says, well, that's okay even though it may not be exactly what God wants. He's saying, no, there's a God intended and a God built unity into the body of Christ and the relationships we have with each other.
I would call it the doctrine that binds us together. And I think the unity of the believers, the unity of the church, should be based on doctrine, not on people. not on programs, not on possessions, not in positions. I live in Lancaster County, and when I first went there, and perhaps I've told you this already, I asked a man who was a realtor who was going to negotiate the buying of a house for us. He was a Mennonite, and I didn't know much about Mennonites when I came to Lancaster County, so I said to this man, sometime I'd like to have you tell me about the Mennonites, you know, who they are and what they believe.
And he said, Ron, he said, Mennonites are like Heinz, fifty-seven. They're no two alike. And I thought, hmm, that's an interesting way for him to say that. But as I lived there for over twenty-five years, I began to realize they're very different. And many of their differences are based on personality difference. This bishop and this bishop have this set of beliefs so we followed this bishop. An amusing story some years ago at our church here in New Holland, I came to church one Sunday evening and we have a little portico out in front of the church with carpet on it. And there were horse prints on a portico. Horses had been on there and then their hooves had cut up the carpet a little bit.
And so I met with the elders later that evening and I said, somebody was riding a horse or horses on the portico out in front of our church and damaged the carpet. And I wonder who it is. And one man says, well, they're probably Joe Wenger's. And I thought, well, if you know who their father is, we ought to contact them. Well, they said, no, Pastor, it's not Mr. Joe Wenger. It's a group of Mennonites called Joe Wenger's. The Mennonites were rather plain and so on. We never did call Joe Winger and get that straightened out.
They divide over many, many things. The Ephesian believers were quite different from each other, from very wealthy people to very poor people, even bond servants. And Paul says, the thing that must bind you together is a unity that the Spirit brings based upon the doctrine of beliefs. There are times when you divide over doctrine. When people deny the doctrines of the truth of the Word of God, I think it's time to say, I'm no longer going to affiliate with you. It's time for me to separate you because you're not holding true to the scriptures that I believe are given of God. You need to stand firm on the doctrines.
The doctrines should bind us together. And I know this is true because look what Paul does in verses four, five, and six. He gives seven points of unity based on doctrine. There's one body, the body of Christ, one church, one spirit, the Holy Spirit who regenerates and indwells. Just as you're called with one hope or your calling, we're all called the salvation by God through Jesus Christ on the basis of faith, which is part of the call. But then it goes on, one Lord, and I think that refers to Jesus Christ, one faith, one body of belief, one doctrine. One baptism, and I personally think that's spirit baptism, but they are united in baptism.
One God and Father of all. In Ephesus, there were numerous gods that were being worshipped, who were not gods. They could go down the street to the temple of Diana or Artemis and worship all kinds of gods, and Paul says, but there's only one real God. The others are so-called gods. He says, these seven unifying factors ought to bind us together so that we present to the community of Ephesus a testimony of oneness in the things of God. Walk worthy of your calling, Paul says. Why? Because there are people who are watching you.
They want to know if you or I are legitimately followers of the true and living God. live your life on the basis of how God has called you. Live your life on the basis of that God has already brought a group of believers together called the body of Christ in the New Testament, his church, and we have all these things in common and many more. He moves on from that instruction regarding the unity that should exist in the body of Christ among the believers. and moves on to another passage that deals with another matter.
Would you look at verse seventeen of chapter four, skipping over a number of things for time's sake, very important passages there in verses eight through fifteen. Indeed, really the passage is say this is how God is building the body together in love, as each member does that which God enables it to do to build up the body of Christ. But in verse seventeen he gives a warning. In verse one he's saying you should walk positive instruction. Verse seventeen he gives a warning. Notice what it says. And this I say therefore in testifying the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles in the futility of their mind.
And he goes down through the next three verses and talks about what that is. I'm afraid that in our church in America today There are people who are not hearing the charge Paul gives here, where he says, you should no longer walk like the rest of the unsaved world. The word Gentile applies to the non-Jew or in this context of the people outside of Christ. And I'm afraid that in some churches and in some parts of Christendom today, you can hardly tell a saved person from an unsaved person in the lifestyle that they live.
There should be a distinction, a discernible distinction between the way a child of God lives in a corrupted, ungodly world and the way a person is not of a child of God lives. And I think as Dr. Wagner mentioned the three chairs, I think we're well down into the third chair. in the sense that not just compromise but moral compromise compromise of doctrine but compromise of personal behavior and paul told the ephesians who were overwhelmed with all the ungodliness around them you need to be different from what you were before you knew christ i must confess that i came to christ at about twenty one years of age and i must also tell you that it wasn't in nineteen ninety five it was in nineteen fifty five and then I corrupted myself by saying nineteen ninety five but I have a problem with numbers my wife tells me that I had a tough time when we did the YK two thing I couldn't keep the letters in order let's see YK two is that right YK two I
would get a KY, two, and two, Y, K and everything else. And he said, honey, honey, honey, don't even do numbers. Anyway, it was nineteen ninety five that I came to know Jesus Christ as my personal. Right. I'm glad she's not here. I would be embarrassed. Nineteen five, five. that I came to know Jesus Christ, a personal Savior. But in those early years, there was some growing that had to take place in my life. My vocabulary had to change, and thank God it did over time. The things I did rather naturally before I knew Christ had had a heavy bearing on my life, even after I saved in the early years, had to be put away.
And by God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, they were. But there's one thing I remember that I'll never forget. I'd been saved about four months. I was back in college and the lady who's not my wife was a girl in whom I was interested. And we had, while I was in the process of hearing the gospel from her and others, and we had dated occasionally, but she told me right up front that there would be nothing serious about us dating because you're unsaved and I'm not. And God wouldn't have me marry an unsafe person. So she's very clear about that. But anyway, I got saved and came back to college.
And one day we must have had something of a verbal battle. And as we were standing in the little foyer outside the student union at Juniata College, I said something that I couldn't believe I said. And I remember vividly trying to reach out and grab the words and put them back in my mouth. They weren't words that were vulgar, but inappropriate. And I wounded her. And she turned on her heels and marched out of there as if to say, you will never see me again.
And for days I didn't see her again either. But her roommate, a dear lady, her name is Lois. During that time of me being away from Donna and Donna being away from me and me wondering whether it's all over, Lois befriended me and showed me love that I really didn't understand. I couldn't understand why she'd even want to talk to me and spend time with me. But she was a more mature Christian. And the love of Christ showed none of her life. And I thought, you know, I don't know why you're doing this for me, but I appreciate it, that you would love me in spite of what I've done to your very good friend. And in the course of time, God worked us through that.
But I'm concerned today the differences are not clear between a child of God and one who isn't a child of God. And Paul was too. And that's why he reminded Ephesians when he says here in verse seventeen, you should no longer live like the unsaved people. And then he describes how they live, and that requires more time to consider than we have. But I know you and I believe this, that there needs to be a distinction. Not a distinction to be different, but a distinction because of who we are and the difference God has made in our lives. And so it's a good warning.
Let's move on. Further in the chapter or in the book, he comes again to talk about walking in chapter five, verse one. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. Walk in love. As Christ also has loved us and given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma, walk in love. Have your life characterized by biblical, God-given, God-directed love. These were young Christians, really, when you think about it, saved no more than three years in a sense if this is written early, and perhaps the church is ten years old now.
But Paul is saying, you need to develop or have the Spirit of God develop in your life an attitude of love like God loves you. And it's imperative. It's not an option again. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children, as beloved children. And what he's saying, you are the beloved ones, ought to love the other beloved ones the way the beloved one loves us. you the beloved ones ought to love the other beloved ones the way the beloved one loves us that is hard but necessary and so Paul is saying you need to learn to walk in love and the love wherever he speaks is a love of John three sixteen Calvary's love love of Romans five eight sacrificial love the love of first corinthians thirteen and to see this really applied you need to look at first corinthians thirteen verses four through eight and saying okay god this
is a love you expect me to manifest this is a love you will help me manifest living in me god the holy spirit this is a love that you won't able to give toward those who are not very lovely sometimes. The imitators of God, mimics of God, models of God walk in love. And then he tells us how this love is, even as Christ also loved us. We sing the little song, Jesus loves me, this I know. It's a great song. For the Bible tells me so.
I think sometimes we lose the wonder of what it is to be loved by God, who is holy and righteous and just, to be loved by God unconditionally in Christ Jesus. And now there are times in my life when I think God doesn't love me because He allows things to come into my life that I don't like. And I say, well, if you love me, why would you let that happen? I would imagine Dr. Wagner's daughter might have thought about that. I don't know that for sure. But all of a sudden, she's within hours of burying the child, and the child arrives dead. And they ask the question, as many have over the years, why, Lord?
Don't you love me? And his answer is always a resounding, yes, I love you, because I'm love. I can be nothing else. And so Paul is telling these converted pagans and some Jews saying, you need to be mimicking God and your attitude and display of love toward the brethren, but toward others as well. In my early Christian life, I wrestled over the love verses. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another, even as I've loved you, John thirteen, and the one in first John chapter four. I struggled over that with a young man who was a Christian before I was.
And I thought he wasn't a very good Christian. And here I am a baby Christian passing judgment on an older Christian. And I didn't like him. I really didn't. As a matter of fact, I didn't like to be around him because when I was around him, my mind would just begin to think about how I could hurt him. And that was hard. And then I would bump into the verses that had bumped into me, but you must love him. And I said, Lord, I know you command me to do that, but I can't do that. And more than once I had to get on my knees and say, God, I'm going to see this fellow today. I know you command me to love him, and I must love him, but I can't do that.
I want to do that, but in myself, I can't do that. You know how I feel. And it was great to watch God work in my life. to make this a reality in my life. And probably what stands out vividly is he and his wife came to our home, and we had visited back and forth numerous times, and I always went away sort of saying, well, I wish I hadn't said that. I wasn't very loving, was I? They came to our house one evening, and I prayed, God, you know how I've been with him and her? I just, I can't handle that. I don't want to be like that. And they came, we had a good evening, and they left. And I had to say, God, you answered my prayer.
I was able to love him tonight, and all the thoughts, the angry thoughts, the harsh thoughts weren't there. And God began to do a work in my life toward him. But one of the things he did to help me love this man is begin to walk in his shoes, to look at life that he was going through, what it's like for him. And over the years, we've become dear brothers in the Lord. He's a great pastor. He just retired this year. Has been an outstanding young man in the past. We're going through his retirement this year. He's my brother-in-law. He's my brother-in-law.
I love him dearly, but I didn't. And in the early years of my Christian life, when he and I was together, it was like this. And we didn't fight. It's just that I was vitriolic in my attitude toward him and hurtful. And we have a great admiration for each other, and the ministry God has given us. He's a great pastor, and we have a love that you can't explain except the love of God in our heart. Paul says to the Ephesians, it's God's desire and command that you love one another. You walk in love. In verse eight of chapter five, he covers another area and I must hurry to it.
For you were once darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of light or the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth, finding out what is acceptable to God. Walk as light for your children of light. You and I know from first John chapter one that the Bible says God is light and in him there is no darkness, none whatsoever. And I think it's saying God is absolute moral purity.
There's nothing in his character that is wrong. Absolutely holy. And he says, I've begotten you into my family, and I've made you luminaries in the world of darkness, even as my son was the light of the world when he was here. John eight, twelve. I'm the light of the world. If any man follow me, he will not walk in darkness, but he shall have the light of life. and God says to you and me, I want you to live as children of light in the midst of a dark and perverse world. In this verse, I think he is saying to the Ephesians, you must be those who are involved in dispensing the darkness and exposing the dark deeds of unrighteousness.
And if you read down to the verses that follow, concluding with verse thirteen, but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for what it makes manifest is light. I don't have any immoral light in me except what God has placed in me. in his own person, the Holy Spirit. But God says, I'm to be involved in representing him as one who is bringing light into a dark world, light into a morally dark world, light into a spiritually dark world. How do I do that? Well, I think by understanding and obeying the commands of God.
Think what it's saying in this verse is saying, God has made us people of integrity in a world where there isn't any anymore, people of absolutes when there aren't any anymore, so to speak. Now, that won't make you popular. It won't make you many friends from the other side. But what's interesting is I've been around a while though people will reject my testimony for Christ, and you've experienced this through your testimony for Christ, whenever they need help, they'll usually come to you or me, saying, I don't appreciate what you believe, and I don't stand for what you stand, but whenever I need help, I know that you're the kind of person I can lean on, a person of integrity, a person of character, a person of light, if you will.
And I think more than ever in our country, as well as in our world, we need to be men and women who are manifesting the light of the character of God and willing to stand for truth when others say, well, it's relative. And that's not easy when it happens in your own home. And you sit with a child and say, you know, here's what the Bible says about this, honey, and you read it, and the child says, that's your opinion. That's your opinion, Dad. I have my understanding of this. And I would say, but that's what it says.
I'm not giving you, I'm just reading it to you. But that's the way you think it means. It's not easy to stand in a stance of morality in the midst of immorality, but God says we must. No choice. No option. I don't know when Jesus is going to come for the church. I wish it were today. But God knows when he wants to close out the dispensation of grace and call the church up. God knows that. But I do believe that as we get closer and closer to the time of his return, things are going to get more and more difficult for those who are willing to stand as lights in the midst of a crooked and reverse world.
But you stand anyway, because God says we should. Now, there's one other that I really don't have time to get to because of the time. It's down in chapter five, beginning in verse fourteen. I will summarize it before I close. Verse fourteen, therefore he says, awake you are asleep, arise in the dead, and Christ will give you light. See, then you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.
The last time Paul talks about walk, or gives instruction about walking, he says, really, I want you to walk wisely. And the verse before us, and if I were going to give you my outline, and I will, because that's all I give you. But just look at the verses, and I'm going to give you four or five statements that help me hang some things on the statements. In verse fourteen, Paul says to the Ephesians, wake up. He said that to the Romans, for the time of your redemption is nearer than when you first believed. Wake up. Be aware of what's going on around you. In verse fifteen, he says, look out.
See, then you walk circumspectly. Walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise. Look out. Walk in the wisdom of God, not in the wisdom of the world. Be discerning. And many people are sort of staggering through life as Christians, making some fairly stupid mistakes. not thinking about the ramifications of things they do or say, the commitments they make. And Paul says, you need to walk very carefully in this morally depraved minefield. Marvin Robinson's a dear brother of mine.
He's a black brother. He has a church in Brooklyn, New York. He came to Lancaster Bible College back in the late sixties, early seventies, and had academic deficiencies and so he didn't finish and he was drafted, went into the military and was taken off to Vietnam. Marvin Robinson while on patrol one evening was walking through a mine field, being very careful, but of course the mines were hidden and he didn't know where they were except on one. blew his right foot off, damaged his right leg, took out his right eye, injured or injured the whole right side of his body.
It wasn't that Marv was being careless. It's just that the mind was so deceptively placed that he stepped one accidentally and suffered the damage of a damaged body. Came back to the United States and was rehabbed for almost ten months in Philadelphia. Eventually, it was well enough. He now has an eye that's good-looking but not a real eye. He has a foot that he uses and really is pretty well off in light of it all. And we laugh and joke together about some of the things. But he's now pastoring in Brooklyn. He's been there for over twenty-five years. Loves the Lord, but he suffered the consequences of a misplaced step in a minefield in Vietnam.
God says to you and me, you need to walk very carefully, that you don't walk in the places that are going to do you damage and hurt. And so look out. And then last, he says, at last as far as my concern this morning, look at verse sixteen. This would be buy-up. It says here, redeeming the time because the days are evil. And the word that is used here is a word that talks about buying something in the marketplace, out of the marketplace. In Lancaster County, we have farmers markets, and they have some around here, I know. One is called roots.
The other is called green dragon. I don't know why they call them those names. But you can go to those places on Tuesday or Friday and buy about anything you want to buy. a way of produce or clothing and other things. One thing you can't buy there that you could buy back in Ephesus were bodies. You couldn't buy humans. You can't buy slaves. But in Ephesus, there were slaves sold on the marketplace. And some of the ones who came to know Christ in Ephesus were slaves. The idea of buying up something when the opportunity is there. And so when it says redeeming the time, really it's buying up the opportunities you have to do the will of God in time.
Think about the opportunities God gives you and me to do his will in time. It may be an opportunity to give the gospel to somebody that you didn't plan on, but there it is and you almost have to close your eyes to it to get away from it. It may be the opportunity to do something for someone in need that you didn't plan on doing, but there it is, and you're the one to be there for them. Buy up the opportunities God allows us in time for the good of the individual, for the glory of God. Buy up. Wake up, look out. Buy up.
And then in verses seventeen and eighteen, wise up and fill up. and the fill up is the filling of the Holy Spirit. As I said when I began our study in Ephesians, the most certain way to be sure you walk in the good works that God has prepared for you is that you walk in the Spirit. That God, the Holy Spirit, the third person that God had who lives in every child of God, says, let me run your life for you. Let me move you in your thinking, in your opinions, in your attitudes, in your actions. Let me be in control. And Paul says in Ephesians five, It's almost the idea you need to be continually filled by letting the Spirit control your life.
Isn't it great that God wants to see you and me succeed for his glory and for the good of many. So he says, I need to talk about how are you walking? How are you walking this morning? I don't know what your relationship to God is. It's my belief that everybody here is a child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I don't know what your walk is like. I don't know how easy or difficult it is. I don't know the things that you struggle. And I can get up here and talk about the different ways of walking and say they apply to me and they apply to us. But I know how hard it is to apply them sometimes, as I indicated when it came to walking and love.
Difficult. or buying up opportunities. And I've missed some over the years because I wasn't where God wanted me to be spiritually or biblically. I trust you haven't. But God enjoins all of us to keep on walking. Walk in the Spirit and you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. Thank God that He wants to succeed and He enables us to do the things that are pleasing to Him And then one day he said, you know what, you did that so very well I want to reward you. I don't understand the grace of God that says that because he's the one that enables me to do it and says, but I'll reward you because you did it in my name, in my power.
Great God and Father, we thank you today for your word. We know that you know that we live in a very corrupted world. We know that you know how difficult it is for us. And yet we know that you're there to empower us day by day, to be the kind of people you saved us to be, to do the kind of things you saved us to do for your glory. We thank you for the privilege of this in Jesus' name. Amen.