Ephesians 5: 15-20 "Walking in Wisdom"

Introduction:

Since the light of Christ has shone on us it is critical for us to reflect that in how we live. The Bible doesn’t present a Christianity that is void of the obligation of obedience to Christ.

It presents a Christianity where progressive sanctification is taking place through trial and error in full reliance of God’s grace to us in Christ. The believer lives out the pursuit of repentance on a daily basis.

This is a hard thing to do. Paul understands this difficulty, as the first two words in our text this morning demonstrate.

When He says “Look carefully” the term “Look” is a command. And the term “carefully” is an adverb describing the intensity of the looking that is taking place.

The interesting thing is that “carefully” is from the word family in the original language where we get our English word “acrobat” from. The root goes back to denote the idea of walking a tight rope.

Do you ever feel like living the Christian life is like walking a tightrope?

In such times discernment is critical and we must be biblically informed in that discernment to know what is willed by the Lord. Look back at your text at verses 15-17:

I. Willed by the Lord (15-17).

Walking by wisdom is living the Christian life from the perspective of being transformed by the power of the gospel. It is where there is a consistency between being a Christian and living as one.

God has redeemed us for a purpose in the world and there is an urgency attached to our identity in Christ and our obedience to Him while we are here in this world.

Remember Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Good works do not save us but they are the natural outcome of a life that has been transformed by the work of Christ for the glory of God.

This is good use of our time due to the context of this evil world. God is using His Church in multiple ways to combat evil in the world at the current time.

Evil does manifest in a variety of ways in the world. From the elite power structures of politics and finance to the back alley deals in drug stricken neighborhoods. Sexual perversions along with sex trafficking even of children are taking place in our nation. Injustice and exploitation from racism and social class structures are at every turn.

It was the same in the Apostle Paul’s day but today there are just many more people on the earth. But in every generation the Christian Church is called to be a light for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Heart transformation must be at the forefront of cultural transformation.

This is because the state of the heart is what determines the motive which in turn drives the actions of the individual.

The world system does this backwards. The stress is on educating people to act differently by changing their thinking and environment. And in doing so the outcome will be a psychological conditioning that will help them chart a new course of action due to his new-found education.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

The problem with education as a conditioning tool is that classical conditioning is powerless to confront man’s sinful nature. You can train dogs that way, as Ivan Pavlov proved, but you can’t regenerate hearts that way.

Man made religions attempt to do the same thing. The difference is that they just spiritualize the conditioning. This is what liberal Christianity attempts to do. It marries some basic biblical morality with classical conditioning and creates a new religion.

When it come to heart transformation and the necessity of light to walk as wise there is no substitute to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is the core of the will of the Lord, that Christ be magnified in His death burial and resurrection to the glorification of God. God is the one who has established His gospel as the manifestation of His power to transform the hearts of sinful man and to save them from His coming wrath.

And the will of the Lord is that our actions reflect this transformation in how we live our lives since the Holy Spirit now lives in us. Look back at your text to verses 18-20:

II. Filled by the Spirit (18-20).

In verse 18 there is a negative command. A “do not” set in contrast with a “do” in regards to behavior.

Do not get drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit. The two are set in opposition to each other.

The problem with getting drunk is that it is an excessive indulgence. Drinking alcohol is not sinful. Jesus himself drunk wine but excessive drinking leads to drunkenness and drunkenness is sinful. Look at I Corinthians 6:9-10.

I Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”

Christians are to be sober and filled with the Holy Spirit and not filled with Wine. The idea is that it should not be wine that is influencing our actions but the Holy Spirit should be influencing our actions.

So as Christians we should act in such a way that reflects that we have been transformed by the Spirit. This means we live as not to grieve the Holy Spirit.

This means that the Holy Spirit informs even our worship when we are together with one another. Verse 19 says “addressing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your heart” (19).

We are sounding out psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs collectively to the Lord as a by-product of being filled by the Spirit. This is the will of the Lord.

We sing in the presence of one another to collectively declare the greatness of the Lord. We get to participate in the congregation under the influence of the Holy Spirit in the hearing of one another praise arising to the glory of His name.

You see the debate is actually settled right here. Is it hymns or praise songs? The answer is yes but that is really not the issue when it comes to collective worship.

The issue is, is it reflective of the Lord’s will in accordance with truth and the Holy Spirit’s leading. Remember, true worship, the kind that God seeks is in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).

Worship is not primarily about our preferences but about the will of God guided by the Holy Spirit. And a key element of that is thanksgiving.

We are to give thanks in worship for all things to God in the name of Jesus Christ (20). See Christian, it is not primarily about us but about the heart felt glorification of Christ.

Paul is addressing corporate worship here but as we will see it only begins here it then affects our corporate relationships with one another and then extends even into family relationship but Christ is the pinnacle. He is the the one that is being ultimately glorified.

Christian when self asserts personal preferences at the expense of Christ being glorified it is a recipe for disaster. And it is a reflection of our pride that can be create conflict internally in ourselves and in our relationships in the congregation and in the home.

But when the individual and collective focus is the glorification of Christ then we all contribute towards the spiritual edification of everyone in the congregation. This is the will of God and the objective of the Holy Spirit.

And it can be at times like walking a tightrope but if we are focused collectively on the glorification of Christ as a congregation that is the way of wisdom for it is the will of the Lord. And that is what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do in His application of the word of God to our hearts.

Conclusion:

Unbeliever this is what we were created for. Meaning, purpose and identity can only be fully realized in Christ. These thing are not self determined like the world attempt to argue they are. You were made by God and for God and He again extends the gospel of Jesus Christ for your redemption and reconciliation to Him. Believe the gospel.

Christian it is our dutiful delight to make much of Christ in worship and in our pursuit of discipleship. This table reminds us of who we are and why we were created. We belong to God for His pleasure and it is our pleasure to be His.

As we examine ourselves, we are reminded that we have been bought with a price and we are His. And His grace is extended to us and our need is obvious, our sin is telling, tightropes are hard to walk aren’t they.

But our acceptance is not dependent on our performance but on Christ. Pursuit of Christ and His glory is the way of wisdom. Confess and receive from Him all that you need by grace. Let’s Pray!

No closed/Everyone together!