Walking Worthy In Evil Days pt. 2

Introduction

We are talking about “Walking Worthy in Evil Days.”

Ephesians 5:15–16 “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

That is, we are living in the end of times, and the world is going to call what is good, evil, and what is evil, good.

And if we are not walking carefully, then we will fall to the devices of the devil because he is set against us.

What were his devices we mentioned?

Deception (teachers and various lusts)

Discouragement

with persecutions, betrayals, with shame, and hopelessness.

Dismemberment.

This means that he wants you to fall out of the fold. He wants you to try and take on the Christian life by yourself. He knows that if he can get you alone, he can take you down.

To combat this attack on your life, the Bible instructs us to “walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.” This just means to carefully live by God’s commands.

1. The Fool

Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

This simply means that the foolish person lives ignorant of God’s truth. It means that they live without the power of the gospel applied to their life. And when they live powerless, they are easy prey for the devil.

The Christian who does not know and does not obey God’s Truth is living as a fool and not as a wise man.

2. The Wise

Unlike the fool, the person who is wise is diligent to know and to do God’s Word.

Psalm 128:1 “Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.”

Reading God’s word is how we know about God, but obeying God’s word is how we know God.

The person that is wise makes it their aim to be pleasing to God.

3. Walking Circumspectly

To walk circumspectly means to walk with your spiritual eyes wide open.

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

We are very fast to make decisions without ever looking to see what’s around the corner first. We live in such a fast paced world, we have to have everything and we have to have it right now, and our life is dominated by impulse.

But the Bible says that we aren’t to walk as fools, but that we are to walk as wise. And the wise person not only knows God’s Word, but they make every decision and think every thought in light of God’s Word.

They are totally immersed in God’s truth and they live their life by it.

Walking worthy in evil days requires immersion in God’s truth.

Immersion means: giving your full attention and energy to a task. It means to be totally and completely in.

God’s Truth is found in His Word - John 17:17

So then, to be totally immersed in God’s Truth is not just to know His instruction, but it is to walk in it, giving God your full attention and energy.

Deuteronomy 10:12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”

How does being immersed in God’s Truth allow us to Walk Worthy in Evil Days?

I. It Produces a Sound Mind

Ephesians 5:15 “See then”

The word “see” means to mentally discern truth from error. It means to be in contemplation about what is right and what is wrong.

To have a “sound mind” is to have a disciplined mind. It means to have a mind that is not going to get distracted, that is not going to give way under pressure. It to be a mind that operates in the power and the love of God.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Paul is reminding Timothy of the truth. The truth is that God has replaced whatever spirit that Timothy had before (fear) and has given him a new spirit, the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t give way to fear…but that the Holy Spirit causes us to have power, love, and a sound mind. Paul has told the Ephesians the same thing.

Ephesians 4:20–24 “But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

What this means is that the Holy Spirit, through the truth of God’s word, works in us to give us a “spiritually rational mind.” = The Soundness of Mind

A. With a Sound Mind, God’s Truth is Illuminated

The Bible says that we once walked according to darkness, but now we walk according to the light, as children of light.

Ephesians 4:17–18 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God (end).”

Ephesians 5:8–10 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”

We cannot ever understand God’s Word unless we first have the Spirit of God in us. The lost person wants to take all of their intellect and try and study the Bible, but it can’t be done. They aren’t able to see because their understanding is darkened.

Then you have the carnal Christian, the legalist or the backslider, and they want to study the Word of God, but they aren’t walking with the Holy Spirit, they don’t have the Holy Spirit’s fruit showing, and they cannot find out what is acceptable to the Lord because their hearts are hardened to God’s Truth.

But when a man who is guided by the Holy Spirit of God, begins to read the word of God, the Holy Spirit illuminates God’s truth for Him.

1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

And not only does the Holy Spirit illuminate the truth of God’s Word to the one with a sound mind, the Holy Spirit illuminates the walk of the person with a sound mind.

Psalm 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”

Without the Holy Spirit, you cannot have soundness of mind. Without the Holy Spirit and soundness of mind, you cannot understand the Word of God. Without the Holy Spirit, soundness of mind, and an understanding of God’s Word, you cannot walk as a child of light.

B. With a Sound Mind, God’s Truth is Initiated

You have to remember that the Devil is a deceiver, and he is a discourager, and he is going to come against you with everything that he has to try and intimidate you. But…when you live according to truth and have a sound mind, God’s truth will be initiated at the time of testing.

James 4:7–8 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

We draw near to God, and we resist the devil when we rely on His truth.

Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

What is the first step in getting dressed for war?

Ephesians 6:14 “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth.”

The imagery here is that without truth, everything else falls apart. That’s why it’s mentioned first. You cannot stand against the devil, you cannot even get dressed to stand against the devil, unless you have the belt of truth to hold everything else in place.

What the devil wants to do is get you all worked up and in a panic so you can’t see things clearly. Well, truth doesn’t work in the dark. Truth works in the light. If he cannot get you to snuff out the light the truth brings, then you can win the victory over him and his devices.

Having a sound mind, illuminated by the Spirit of God, initiates victory over the deception and temptations of satan.

Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

This verse means more than just simple memorization of God’s truth, but it is the adaptation of God’s truth that makes this verse so true.

Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” So to place God’s word in your heart is to live by it.

C. With a Sound Mind, God’s Truth is Imitated

Ephesians 5:1–2 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

This is talking about the church, the relationship between God’s people. And when those in the church live with a sound mind, then they are able to imitate God and love one another.

Romans 12:1–5 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (to be like Jesus). For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly (with a sound mind), as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.”

The Sound Side and the Rough Side

You probably know by now that Elizabeth and I both grew up by the beach.

But even though we both grew up by the beach, we grew up in different worlds really. Among the first family functions that Elizabeth came to was when we were digging up my uncle’s field lines and putting in the chambers.

PawPaw was the surveyor, uncle was the backhoe operator, uncle #2 was the foreman, I was the grunt, and the ladies were the audience. Nothing else worth watching was going on that Saturday morning.

Elizabeth drives over in her 2004 Camry and probably thought she ended up with the Clampetts because all those ladies in my family were sitting in lawn chairs, eating Satsumas from the farm, and throwing those peels in the trenches.

Well, where I grew up, things we pretty simple.

We loved going to a little beach down there across from Gulf Shores, and we liked to go down to what’s called the “West End” because it was on the West End of the Island.

And on the South side of the Island, you have what we called the “Gulf Side” Because the Gulf was on that side.

And on the North side of the Island, we called that the “Bay Side” because the Bay was on that side.

We get out of the truck and I say, “Which side do you want to go to? The Bay Side or the Gulf side?”

And I thought that was simple enough…until she said, “Don’t you mean the rough side or the sound side?”

I said, “The what?”

She said, “You know, that side is rough so it’s called the rough side, and this side is gentle and sound so it’s called the sound side.”

I’d never heard it so simple.

A person living with a sound mind is not going to live on the rough side, they are going to be gentle. They are going to be gentle with others just like Christ was gentle with them.

I know this because I know that God loves His Church. He loves His church so much that He died for His church. When we walk with a sound mind, we become imitators of God, and we love the church. And we express our love of the church through service and sacrifice.

Ephesians 5:25-32

I wonder about the bullies in churches, how they talk to their spouse behind closed doors. People may fool the local church but they won’t fool God. God loves His church and serves His church. He is patient with His church. He treats His church with delicate hands and a soft voice, and He wants His church to be pure and spotless. He gives His riches to the church in abundance just like a loving husband would do for his wife. God loves His church, and we are to imitate that love.

The only way for us to imitate that kind of love is to apply God’s truth to a sound mind, not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, but by walking in love, through truth that has been illuminated and a victory that has been initiated.

II. It Produces a Steadfast Spirit

I am not talking about the Holy Spirit. I am talking about the spirit of the inner man.

Ephesians 5:15–16 “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

The Bible tells us to “see then”, which means that if we are going to Walk Worthy in Evil Days, we are going to have to have a sound mind.

The Bible then tells us to “walk circumspectly”. This means to “walk carefully.”

The reason we must walk carefully is because there is an enemy on our heels, and he wants to trip us up and weigh us down so that we cannot walk anymore. He wants us to give up, and he wants to be intimidated by him…but when we walk “carefully”, we are able to go the distance and not get weighed down by his devices.

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”

Steadfastness means to be firm. And the Bible says that we are to have a firm foundation in the Truth of God…otherwise known as faith. But our steadfastness cannot be anchored in our ability to live for God, but it has to be anchored in His finished work on the Cross and His ressurection from the dead.

Hebrews 6:19 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,”

This chapter in Hebrews is speaking of the heavenly ministry of Jesus. That He died, He arose, and He ascended, and now He is in Heaven making intercession for us (pleading with God for us), so that we can be sure that we are going to make it.

I want to explain that to you so you understand how to have a steadfast spirit.

A. Graduate from the Milk, Get on the Meat

The writer of Hebrews used this illustration to show the difference between a baby Christian and a mature Christian.

Hebrews 5:13–14 “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

The milk is the earthly ministry of Jesus.

It involves all the healings, all the teachings, and His death, burial, and ressurection. If all you know in your Christian faith is that you ought to live like Jesus, love like Jesus, and that He saved you from sin, the Bible says that you’re still on the milk of the Word, that you are a babe in Christ.

The meat is the heavenly ministry of Jesus.

It involves all that He is doing right now in heaven on your behalf. Right now, Jesus is making sure that you make it. He is making sure that you don’t get defeated. He is making sure that you don’t get worn down. He is making sure that you become like Him.

The Bible calls that interceding. He is praying to God on your behalf, to make sure that you finish.

That truth, that Jesus cares for you and is actively praying for you ought to give you a firm conviction that nothing in this life is going to take you down.

In Hebrews 11, the Bible gives us a list of men and women who endured all kinds of sin and tribulation, but the Bible says that God still brought them home.

Hebrews 12:1–2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

If you’re going to walk in victory, if you’re going to walk with a steadfast spirit, you must walk according to truth and not according to feelings, and the truth is that the devil, sin, and death are your enemies, but Jesus Christ is your ally…and the Bible says that Jesus won’t stop working until His church has the victory.

Conclusion

God’s truth is the way that we mature.

John 17:17 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”

But just hearing the truth isn’t enough, we must obey the truth and “walk in the truth.”

2 John 6 “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.”

Because walking in truth is the only way for us to walk worthy in evil days.

We love to take what the Bible says and apply it to another person’s life, but God is telling us to apply His word to our life. God is commanding us to “walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise.” And to be wise, we have to do what God’s word commands.

By the truth we will have a sound mind…by the truth, we will have a steadfast spirit…by the truth, we will Walk Worthy in Evil Days.