Be Wise
Notes
Transcript
I told a joke on a Teams meeting the other day and nobody laughed.
Apparently I’m not even remotely funny.
We had a great time at the Convention and on our vacation. Beth and I appreciate you sending us to the SBC. There were over 21,000 in attendance at the Convention. The biggest vote was over the amendment to the constitution about only men can hold the office of pastor, elder. The amendment overwhelmingly passed and if it passes again next year, it will be adopted into the constitution. We spent over an hour each day at the convention with a Messianic Jew who is a Rabbi/pastor. He was showing us the differences there are in the original Hebrew text and our Bibles. This is not to say that our Bibles are wrong, there are just some better words to use when translating from the original text. He assured us that there is nothing different that pertains to salvation. He has offered to continue this study with us by allowing us to join in on his Zoom calls so that we can continue to learn more about the original text. I am going to see about if he has the time to teach me Hebrew or if he can recommend a text book of Biblical Hebrew for me to use. If there is enough enterest in this, we could do it maybe one Wednesday night a month. It really is amazing some of the things that he showed us.
I want to thank everyone who filled in while I was gone. It is not easy to leave the responsibilities I have here at Liberty, but knowing that there are capable people who are willing to step in helps a lot.
After service, we will be remembering our Messiah and King with the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus gave us this as a lasting ordinance until we get to partake of it with Him in heaven. Please begin now preparing your hearts.
Today we are going to be in Ephesians 5:15-21.
We are going to see what Paul has to say about how we should act as new creations, as ones who were once darkness and are now light.
Please stand as we prepare to hear God’s Word.
15 So then, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father; 21 and subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.
Pray
Paul is telling us that we have to be careful about how we choose to live life. We have to be intentional about everything we do. That is the only way that we are going to walk a walk that is worthy of our Risen Messiah. Earlier in Ephesians, Paul told us to put on the new. He is telling us that we have to choose the new life, it is not going to just magically happen. We have to choose to be obedient and faithful to God. When we don’t take the time to think about what we are doing and we just go with the flow or we are on cruise control, that is when we start to wander from the path. There is no area of our lives that we can just let happen. We have to pick up our cross daily and chose to follow Jesus. These are the most important decisions we make after salvation. If we don’t choose to follow Jesus, we won’t. It goes against or nature. We have to fight it. That is working out our salvation. When we choose to follow, when we choose to be obedient to what Jesus taught and commanded us to do. Paul tells us that we have to pay attention to how we choose to live our lives.
The reason we are to be careful about how we live our lives is because that is the only visible proof that we are actually saved. If we claim to be saved but we act the same way we did before, what has changed? What is the proof that you are a new creation? What is the proof that you are obedient to the commands that Jesus gave and the commands that God gave? It does God no good to save a person and then they just live their live for themselves and their own will and desires. What does that show those who are not saved? What does that tell the world? That you can be saved and live like the world, that goes against everything the Bible tells us. There should be a great difference between the before and after salvation. There is a huge difference between darkness and light. That is why God uses this in reference to us before and after our salvation. If you are not different that you were, then you have not chosen to be obedient and you have not made the decision to pick up you cross and follow Jesus every single day. That is the command, to be like Christ. This is the command from Jesus. Matthew 5:48
48 Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
We are command to be perfect! It is possible if you have been made new in the likeness of Jesus! We have to make the decision to be intentional about everything we do.
Paul tells us to live a life as a wise person, not as the unwise. We have the light in us. We have the truth in us. We know better than to act like the world. We must choose to walk with the wisdom that has been given to us. Ephesians 1:8
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him,
God had given us the wisdom to walk in the light. He has given us the wisdom to choose that which is right. It is up to us to choose to make that choice. God has told why this is so important for us to walk in His wisdom, Ephesians 3:10
10 so that the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
It is through our righteous living that the wisdom of God is revealed to the world. He has chosen us for a noble task, to reveal the God of creation to this dark world. Are we choosing to walk in this wisdom? Are we choosing obedience? Are we being children of the light?
Paul gives us urgency about how we live. He tells us to make the most of our time because our days are limited.
NO, that is not why. Paul tells us that we need to be the light because of how dark these days are! These days are filled with evil. NO, these days are evil! Galatians 1:4
4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
It is through our righteous walk and obedience to Messiah that some maybe saved and come to the light. Every day that we choose to not be intentional about how we walk is a day we have lost the opportunity to be the light, to show Christ’s light to this dark world. This should break our hearts to realize that we have wasted an opportunity to show the light! This is the only reason that we are still here on earth. We must make the most of the opportunity that we have.
Next Paul tells us to not be foolish and to know what the will of God is. Usually when we talk about God’s will we are discussing big decisions we are about to make in our lives. This is not what Paul is talking about here. He is talking about God’s will for our everyday life. He is talking about God’s already revealed will, for us today that is to understand and obey God’s Word.
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians “Understand What the Lord’s Will Is” (5:17)
Believers need to understand what God has called every believer to pursue and what He has called every believer to avoid. In short, understanding the Lord’s will means to pattern our lives after Jesus
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters;
God’s will for His adopted sons and daughters is for them to be like His Son, Messiah! That is what the Bible teaches, that is what happens when a believer reads, understands and applies the Word of God to their life.
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians “Understand What the Lord’s Will Is” (5:17)
We should remember today that Christians are new creations because Jesus submitted to God’s will. He cried out, “It is finished,” after doing God’s will obediently. He rescued those who did not love others perfectly, those who committed these dark, shameful deeds, and those who were living a life of folly. Now the Spirit indwells His people, enabling them to imitate God by walking in love, by walking in light, by walking in the Spirit. Let there be thanksgiving to God for His Son, Jesus.
In verse 18 Paul give the command that we are not to be drunk, but rather we are to fill ourselves with the Holy Spirit. Paul’s focus is on being filled with the Holy Spirit. We all know what happens when we have to much to drink, we lose control of our selves and we have to wonder what did we do? Self control is part of the fruit of the Spirit. When we lose control, we are not walking in the light. We are not choosing obedience. Paul is going to give us 5 participles that are evidences of being filled with the Spirit - addressing, singing, making, giving, and submitting. When we are filled with the Spirit, these graces are present in our lives. An overflow of joy is expressed in deep thanksgiving to God and glad-hearted submission to others.
Piper explains it this way.
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians Be Filled by the Spirit (5:18)
The fundamental meaning of being filled with the Spirit is being filled with joy that comes from God and overflows in song. And Luke would agree with that, too, because he says in
Paul’s command does not refer to a deeper life or a higher life, but the normal Christian life. Paul desires that the entire congregation to be filled with the Spirit so that worship and mutual edification and service take place. Every believer has the Holy Spirit in them, they are sealed by Him, we need constant filling. Why? Because no one lives a life of constant joy and thanksgiving and love. We need the Spirit!
Paul does not give a formula for being filled with the Spirit, but we can take a few ideas from Scripture.
Believe in God. Romans 15:13
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Be careful to not grieve the Spirit of God. Ephesians 4:30
30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly daily. Colossians 3:16
16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
The Spirit and the Word go together, to be filled you have to have both of them at the same time. Always ask for the Father for a fresh sense of His Spirit, for He loves to give good gifts to His children.
The five participles are not imperatives, they are a result of the filling of the Spirit. These are an overflow of our hearts when we are filled with the Spirit. A result of the work of the Spirit in our lives is renewed worship and renewed relationships.
It is interesting that the idea of being filled with the Spirit appeared in Exodus 31, when the craftsmen constructed the tabernacle for worship. God still fills His people to serve and worship Him.
Paul gives us three different types of song that we are to worship with, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We don’t know exactly what the difference is between them. I think the reason for these may be that God is infinitely varied in His beauty and he meets us in various ways. There are different seasons of life and different songs for the seasons.
We are told to not only sing horizontally to each other, but vertically to our Messiah also. This is two different types of singing, it is the same activity from two different perspectives. When we gather for corporate worship and we sing to God, we are also ministering to each other.
We are each called to sing. When we sing in corporate worship, we encourage each other, we also instruct one another in our singing. Musical worship is take-home theology. We can see from this passage why corporate worship is so important. We can not do what these verses teach if we are sitting at home watching service on a screen. Those who are filled with the Spirit will sing to Jesus because there is no one more worthy of adoration.
We are told to give thanks in all things all the time. A life that is filled with the Spirit will be a life that is thankful. When we are filled, we are able to notice all that He is doing for us and all that He has done for us, this will cause an abundance of thankfulness. We will demonstrate our thankfulness to Christ when we observe the Lord’s Supper shortly. Thanksgiving is a vital part of our corporate worship. It is a time for us to come together and show our thanks to our God. We praise Him out of our thankfulness. When we consider all that God has done for us in the previous chapters of Ephesians, how can we not live a life full of gratitude and burst out in singing of His amazing grace!
Finally we are told we are to submit to each other. Submission goes with humility, a humble person does not demand their own way every time.
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians The Effects of the Spirit (5:19–21)
This is so important because some people have sensational ideas about the Spirit’s work. But here we see that the Spirit leads us into community, where practical acts of love are demonstrated (cf.
Exalting Jesus in Ephesians The Effects of the Spirit (5:19–21)
Spirit-filled leadership involves humility, as demonstrated by Jesus, the greatest of all leaders.
See the motive: Christians submit to one another “in the fear of Christ” or out of reverence for Christ. This is an indirect statement of the deity of Jesus, the Lord. We submit to others because Christ is the ultimate authority over our lives. This does not mean believers live in terror of Christ. It means they stand in awe of Christ, who is the King and Judge. Believers stand in awe not only of His holiness but also of His forgiveness (
We have to be intentional about our daily lives. We have to choose to be obedient to what God’s Word tells us to do. We have to choose to be like Jesus.
No of this will happen on its own, we have an active part in working out our salvation. Jesus submitted to and did the will of His Father, we are to do the same. We read God’s Will, and we apply it to our lives. That is the only way we will be Christlike!
We have to be filled with the Spirit, that happens by reading God’s Word and applying it to our lives.
We have to worship out of our thankfulness. We are thankful when we read God’s Word and see what He has and is doing.
We are to submit to one another. We can do that when we read God’s Word and become more like Jesus.
Do you see a common theme in all of these?
We must be reading God’s Word!
We must be reading it to understand it, not to just do it. There is a big difference in the two.
We must be applying what we read in the Bible to our lives. It does not good to read the Bible and do nothing with the information we get from it. We must use it as the scalpel that it is. It will cut out all the darkness and let the light shine through!
God’s Word is His gift to us, let us use it to glorify it creator!
Let’s pray
