49-35 Redeeming the Time
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Ephesians 5:16
Ephesians 5:16
Riddle:
Some people save it, others make it, most waste it, several kill it, and a few actually are on it. Many try to manage it and end up losing it. Once past, it never returns. How it's spent determines the satisfaction of life.
What is it? TIME
We live in a very time-conscious, time-oriented society. So much of our lives are governed by time. We even have a 1 min. countdown timer to tell us when the service is going to begin. Time, it seems is always on our mind—yet (I’m just as guilty) we have the tendency to let time slip away without so much a passing thought.
This has been a problem not only for 21st C believers—it was also for 1st C believers—to whom Paul is addressing in Eph. He is admonishing the church to be careful how we walk. Remember the walk is about the journey of your Xn life. We walk on a narrow path that has obstacles that are placed to cause us to stumble—”be careful...” watch where you put your foot so you avoid that traps and snares that would result in walking unworthy of your calling.
Our walk should be characterized by love (sacrificial, self-less love modeled by LJC), as light (opposed to the darkness that characterizes the world) and by wisdom “walk not as unwise but as wise.”
Having written that…he expands what it means to walk in wisdom (skilfully applying words of Scripture to your daily life): making the most of your time. It is unwise to live your life not making the most of your time (other trs: making the best use of the time, making the most of every opportunity, redeeming the time). It is wise for you and me to make the most of our time.
I’ve been reading a short little book “The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards” by Steven Lawson. Jonathan Edwards pastored a church in Northampton MA in the 18th C (for 23 years). He served as a missionary to a group of Native Americans for 7 years and as president of what would later become Princeton College (for 1 month—died of smallpox vaccine: death 1758).
At the age of 19, Edwards penned a list of Resolutions (70 in all): These expressed his firm determination to keep spiritual priorities before him. As one author notes, the 70 resolutions were “all composed with one goal—heaven.” It was his desire as a 19 year old young man to bring his life under the total lordship of JC thru rigorous self-mastery. He would later express how he was unable in himself to keep them. But his desire for personal holiness drove his effectiveness in ministry.
The Great Awakening in the 18th C is said to have been largely influenced by Edwards. As he began to preach to his congregation about God’s absolute, unconditional sovereignty in the salvation of man (preaching justification by grace alone thru faith alone); between the years 1734-36 some 300 persons came to Christ. The awakening of mens’ souls continued into 1740-42 when it is believed in New England 25-50K people were saved b/c the HS stirred the hearts of people to respond to the faithful preaching of God’s Word. His most famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
One of Edwards sermons (1 of 3) that was most influential to this Awakening was his message on Eph 5:16 called “The Preciousness of Time and the importance of redeeming it.” (There are several copies on foyer table). It is a stirring reminder to put an exceedingly high value on time that it might be spent profitably—doing the work God has put before you…so that when your time is up—you will hear those most blessed words of the Master “Well done good and faithful servant—enter the joy of your Master.”
Before we study Paul’s instruction: Some of you may be familiar with the Greek words for “time” that we find in NT. There are 2 of them.
Chronos: (chronology) Dr. Trench defines as the succession of moments. Sometimes it is described as time measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, years…I have lived 48 years…occupying that amount of time on this chronological chart of time (which goes back to the beginning of time). Your watch tells you the chronos.
Kairos: term Paul uses here in Eph…referring to specific moments within the chronos. Sometimes rendered “opportunity” by some translations. This is what kairos is referring to—opportunities, times when a door is open for a specific, strategic duration of time.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ”
Example: parents who have children at home. Mothers and Fathers with young children—you have an opportunity that you will never have again. These children are in your home. Once they leave the home, you will never return to the time when they were still under your charge and when you had the greatest influence in their lives. You may have more years (chronos) with them beyond these childhood days but you will never again have this kairos—this season, this moment. Ask any parent who has been where you are and nurtured and watched their children grow up and leave the home and every one will tell you how quickly this kairos passes.
This is the term Paul is using in Eph 5—make the most of the moments God has given you…don’t squander them, don’t waste them…use them in the best way by taking every advantage these moments presented to you.
This is how the wise walk. It is foolish to live your life without making the most of your time. For this reason, Paul expresses 3 critical aspects that reveal the importance of making the most of your time.
1. The Precious Commodity
1. The Precious Commodity
I want you to leave here this morning with some understanding of just how precious a commodity that time is. Edwards gives 4 reasons why time is precious that I want to give you this morning: This is where Jonathan Edwards, though dead—still speaks today. And what he spoke 287 years ago is so very relevant to each of us here.
The happy or miserable eternity depends on the good or ill improvement of it. Your eternal destiny depends on what you do with the time that has been given to you. Do you use it in the best way to put your trust in the LJC and so escape the eternal death that awaits all who reject the offer of God’s gracious salvation? Edwards contends that the opportunity to escape such a great evil as death must be very precious.
Time is short. He explains that any commodity that becomes scarce, people will put a higher value on it. You understand the economics of supply and demand. When supply of any commodity, gas, food, building materials, decreases—its value skyrockets.
How important it is to realize that your time is a precious gift—sovereignly determined by God who has portioned to each of us a limited amount of time (thus limited seasons by which we must do the work God has prepared for us to do).
Psalm 139:16 (NASB95)
And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
Psalm 39:4–5 (NASB95)
“Lord, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths (smallest unit of measurement), And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.
Your time is limited b/c it has been doled out by the Sovereign God who alone determines the length of time your life will occupy on earth.
“And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
You will not/ cannot add to or take away from the time God has distributed to you. It is precious and such a high value is placed on it when you consider that the work of preparing for eternity must be accomplished in time—it cannot happen afterward.
Precious b/c we are uncertain of its continuance. Time is short, but no one here knows how much of it remains. Do you have an hour, day, month, year(s)?
Psalm 31:15 (NASB95)
My times are in Your hand
Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Edwards says “how much more would many men prize their time, if they knew that they had but a few months, or a few days more to live!”
Precious b/c when it has passed, it can never be recovered. Picture a pocket full of coins. Those coins represent time. The moment you spend one…it is gone. If you lose one, it is gone. Now, you might sell something and later regret selling it and try to buy it back again…this you cannot do with time. Once gone, it is eternally gone.
Some of you are 60,70,80 yrs old and you’re looking back on your use of time. Maybe you’re content with how you’ve handled this commodity, or maybe you’re convicted that you’ve wasted many opportunities of the past. You can’t change that, only focus on the little time that remains and from this time forward (with what God has given you), commit to making the most of it.
Paul speaks of the precious commodity of time.
2. The Pressing Charge
2. The Pressing Charge
“Making the most...” KJV has the most lit trans “redeeming the time”
It is a compound word exagorazo . 5-6 yrs ago Pam and I had the opportunity to visit Ephesus. In that city (like most major cities) there was “agora” the marketplace where goods were bought and sold. Paul uses that term to buy “out”—it was commonly used of the slave market where a person was purchased and given their freedom. It means to deliver, to liberate by buying.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Paul is saying (the sense of urgency is in his tone) buy back all the time that remains and make the most of the opportunities, these specific moments that are left. Now, we can’t undo past moments of wastefulness but we can redeem the remaining time and use it, devoting it to the work of the Lord.
This is how the Xn walks wisely. Now, let me go back to Edwards—he is addresses those who most desperately need to hear Paul’s exhortation.
Those who spend their time in idleness. They do nothing—not that they are doing evil they simply do nothing to redeem their time, to spend it usefully for their own benefit of the benefit of their neighbors.
Have you heard the adage: “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”.
Laziness casts into a deep sleep, And an idle man will suffer hunger.
Do not love sleep, or you will become poor; Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.
Proverbs 23:21 (NASB95)
drowsiness will clothe one with rags.
Idleness will bring you to ruin, but it will also amount to a massive waste of the time that remains in your life.
Those who spend their time in wickedness.
Edwards said “Some spend much time in reveling, and in unclean talk and practices, in vicious company keeping, in corrupting and ensnaring the minds of others, setting bad examples, and leading others into sin, undoing not only their own souls, but the souls of others. Some spend much of their precious time in detraction and backbiting; in talking against others; in contention, not only quarreling themselves, but fomenting and stirring up strife and contention.”
Hell awaits those who spend their days plotting and doing wickedness.
Those who spend their time in worldly pursuits. Its not that they are doing wickedness, just being about their own business. Those who are successful from the world’s point of view, now that you have enriched yourself and have gained the treasures of the world…what about your soul?
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
When the eternal destiny of your soul is at stake, how urgent, how pressing is the charge that you make the most of the opportunities God has afforded you. First, by setting your life on the most secure foundation—that of LJC (repenting of your sin and trusting in the all sufficient sacrifice of JC). Second, begin to use your time in a manner that will count in eternity (I speak to that in a moment).
Parable of the man who lived his final “tomorrow”
Luke 12:13-21
3. The Perilous Complication
3. The Perilous Complication
“because the days are evil”
The days are evil because:
We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Timothy was pastoring in this Ephesian church so it may well be that Paul was referring to the corrupt and morally debauched living in that city. Xns were surrounded by paganism and the church became a prime target of greediness and immorality that were the way of life for these believers before their conversion and they had been tempted to revert to the old patterns.
We are living in the midst of evil days. These are perilous times because the world is opposed to the message of the cross, wickedness and moral rebellion is rapidly increasing. The term for evil refers to the active opposition to the good.
In view of God’s characterization of the days we live in, how serious must be our conviction about the use of time and be about the work that God has prepared for us to do. “What is that work?”
That work must of necessity include the preaching of the gospel. The world is not going to be less evil prior to the return of Christ. this present world and those who occupy it will not suddenly begin to practice righteousness (not apart from the gospel).
This is why the most valuable use of your time will include gospel ministry—in various ways: some will go, some will support, others will encourage, some will plant churches and others serve in those local churches. There hardly can be a more valuable way to use your time than to use it for things that matter eternally—and the souls of people are at stake.
Edwards gives some helpful, practical application:
Remember you are accountable to God for your time. The time that is given by God, we must each one given an account as to it use.
Consider the time that is already lost—especially those who are advanced in years…whatever you’ve done with the time that has passed, know that the work ahead requires all the more diligence (since your opportunity is shorter; you have the same work to do just less time to do it; best of your time is already spent—strength that comes with the season of youth).
There are indeed challenges with older age. I’ve visited with many people who think that b/c they are elderly, they have little to contribute to the kingdom of Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth. You are not waiting to die. You are eagerly awaiting a Savior from heaven—until then or the Lord takes you to be with Himself—make the most of the time God has sovereignly dispensed to you.
And you who are more youthful…don’t waste the opportunities in pursuits that will leave you full of regret when you come to the end of your lives. Redeem the time for God’s glory.
I want to leave you with one more thought from Edwards: He wrote 70 resolutions b/t 18-19 yrs of age. Several of them have to do with the use of his time:
5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
17. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
19. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.
41. Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better. Jan. 11, 1723.
52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age. July 8, 1723.
55. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments. July 8, 1723.
61. Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it-that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc. May 21, and July 13, 1723.
The Lord wants us (His people) to walk wisely…for His sake let us do so by redeeming our time---making the most of the opportunities God has given.