Walking Through Ephesians

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The book that we'll be looking at this evening is the book of Ephesians. Before we go there,
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I guess, Pastor Steve, not everyone that was here this morning was heeding your admonition to be here this evening and that their television watching would not affect the outcome of the game.
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But praise the Lord that we're able to be here tonight, to be able to worship together.
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And where else would we rather be? The Lord is our vision. He is the true vine.
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Thank God he has grafted us in the wild olive plants, grafted in and partakers of God's divine nature, children of the heavenly king, and those who can say that they love the
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Lord because he first loved us. The topic that I'd like to look at this evening is one just to encourage the troops, to encourage those that are walking with the
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Lord. And that is exactly the word that is going to come out over and over again through the points that I go through.
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I'd like to just give you a little bit of a background. This is coming from a study in Ephesians, which is the next
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Sunday school book that we'll be looking at when I teach, Lord willing, this coming
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Sunday morning. And if I go back and look in the scriptures, consider these verses,
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Genesis chapter 5. You don't have to turn there. Just listen to these verses. If you're taking notes, I'll try to give you the addresses.
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Genesis 5, 22 and 24, Enoch walked with God and he was not. Genesis 6, 9 also says that Noah walked with God.
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Genesis 17, 1, Abraham was commanded to walk before God. Genesis 48, 15, both
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Abraham and Isaac walked with God. Leviticus 18, 3,
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Israel was warned not to walk in the ways of the heathen. Leviticus 26, 3 and 4, blessings were promised to those who walked with God.
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In Psalm 1, 1, it speaks of those that are walking towards a happiness.
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And in Romans 4, 12, walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham. Romans 6, 4, walk in newness of life,
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Paul teaches. Romans 8, 1, walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Romans 13, 13, let us walk honestly.
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2 Corinthians 5, 7, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Philippians 3, 16, walk by the same rule.
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Colossians 1, 10, walk worthy of the Lord. Colossians 4, 5, walk in wisdom.
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1 John 1, 7, walk in the light. You remember that one. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
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And 2 John 1, 4, that we are the people of God to be people who walk in the truth.
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And, of course, you can see a word that comes over and over again in those texts. It's walking. And what I'd like to do tonight is to go for a walk in Ephesians.
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I'd like for us to look at six instances in this book where Paul deals with the expected behavior of believers.
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In these instances, he uses the word walk, as I have said. And the word walk has to do with our behavior.
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It has to do with our conduct. It has to do with our way of life. It has to do with our actions.
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And, thus, the message, the title message, taking a walk through Ephesians.
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Because I'm coming here because, as again I said, I want us to stir our memory.
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I want us to be careful because we live in a treacherous day. There are a lot of voices out in this world that are crying for our calling for our time and for our attention.
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There are a lot of pitfalls and traps. We have an enemy. His name is Satan. And his desire is to destroy the testimony of the believer.
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We can't have our souls. They're secure in Christ for all eternity. But he does, as Peter wrote, walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
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And Peter's admonition is, be sober, be vigilant. And tonight, just to bolster us so that we might be more sober, that we might be more vigilant, let's take a look at some of these verses to keep us, as it were, on our spiritual toes.
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Because it's important for us, as I said. If you first turn with me to the book of Ephesians, you'll go with me to a passage that is known by all of us.
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It's in chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, where the word of God tells us,
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For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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And for many years, I, like you, may have just stopped there and not really gone on much.
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But the very next verse tells us something of the purpose for which God created us in Christ, whereby we were saved, because it tells us in verse 10,
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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
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God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So the first walk is that we are to walk in a walk of good works, or walk in good works.
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And be careful to do so, because the word of God tells us that this is God's ordained purpose for the life of the child of God.
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This is true from the beginning. This is not anything new. If you were to go back in Genesis and look in Genesis 1 .28
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and Genesis 2 .15, you would see there that before the fall, God had ordained that Adam and Eve would subdue the earth.
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They would dress the earth. They would labor. They would work. It kind of reminds me, when
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I was thinking of this, what kind of an illustration could I use for this, being created to do something.
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Some of you know of the type of dog that we have. Our Sophie is a
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Welsh Corgi. And all you have to do is walk in the door, and if she thinks that she's got a friend in you, she's going to go get one of her toys, and she's going to engage you in a game called, you throw,
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I retrieve. And she will do that until her tongue hits the floor, and until she's just all out of gas, and then she'll go and lay down for a few minutes, and then she'll come back, and she'll do the same thing over and over and over again.
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Because she's created to be a herding dog. She's one that herds sheep or cattle. And that's what she does.
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And she's like the energizer bunny when she does this. It's over and over and over and over again. You would not think that a little dog of that size had that much energy, but she does.
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She's created for that purpose. We have never, and a sinner has never been saved by the grace of God to do nothing.
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All Christians are to be a people who labor and serve God, labor and serve others.
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We see this over and over and over again in Scripture. But here, it's very clear to us that God has before ordained that we should walk in good works.
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It reminds me of Paul's writing in the book of Titus 3 .8. This is a faithful saying, In these things
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I will that thou affirm constantly. Paul said, This is something that ought to be done in the church, that they which have believed in God.
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Anybody who has believed in God might do something. Sit back, have your ease, put your feet up, and coast.
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No, it says that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works, for these are good and profitable.
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This is good and profitable unto men. It's profitable for us to do this, not only for the glory of God, but for us to fulfill the purpose for which we've created.
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Yes, to worship God, to love God, but also to serve God. God has always desired and has always purposed to have a people who would serve
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Him, who would labor for the Master from the dawn until the setting sun, as the hymn says.
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And when we labor, I believe that we ought to labor in humility, and I believe that we ought to labor with great thankfulness.
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And I say that because of the first part of this chapter, which speaks of how we used to walk, what our lives used to be like, what the attributes and characteristics of our lives were before God rescued us in Christ Jesus, His Son.
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Because back in verse 1, it says we used to be dead in trespasses and sins. It says in verse 2 that in the time past, we used to notice the word walk.
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We walked in what way? Seeking God, loving God, giving all of our lives for the
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Lord. No, it says that we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom also, verse 3, we all had our conversation or our behavior or our manner of living in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others.
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That's how we used to live, as disobedient creatures before God, as those who were going according to the course of this world, doing what everybody else was doing, running from God and satisfying ourselves.
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But it tells us, doesn't it, in verse 4, but God, who is rich in mercy, His great love were with,
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He loved us even when we were dead in sins. He quickened us together with Christ. He raised us up together, verse 6, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, verse 7, so that He could show us off as trophies of grace when we are eventually brought to complete and ultimate glorification in heaven, to be with the
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Lord, and then, for by grace you are saved through faith, He reiterates it. Not of works lest any man should boast, verse 9, and then it kind of all fits together.
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Do you see how He goes back and He says, because you used to walk this way, now God, because we are saved in Jesus Christ, He has ordained that we should walk, and we should walk in such a way that we walk in good works.
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But as I said, walk in a life and have a behavior that portrays labor for Jesus Christ, for His glory.
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But it should be humbly, and it should be thankful. And aren't you and I thankful that God did something to change the way that we walk, that our life of walking is so far different than it was before, because before it was a waste, before it was for self, before it was worthless, before it was a steps without hope, before it was to be consumed upon the lust of our own flesh, it was without direction, it was aimless wandering, and it was a fruitless life as we heard this morning.
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Fruitless when it comes to spiritual fruit that God would look for. And if we had continued to walk in that way, and I can only think of this morning's message, if our lives had not, if there had not come a time in our life when we were arrested by God, stopped, and God visited us, we would be like that branch that was cut off, wither, die, and eternal torment was our endless future.
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But praise God that He in His mercy saved us and called us to be a people who would walk in good works.
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And what would that be? It would be as our brother reminded us this morning, Steve said, sharing the gospel with those who are in great need, helping people who are in need, seeing their need and looking for every opportunity to meet that need, relieving the burdens of others, showing a care and a compassion in our heart.
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It would be encouraging the weary, showing hospitality, building up the weak, and as I said, looking for every opportunity to serve others for the glory of the
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Lord. So first and foremost, it's very easy for us to see that if we want to know what our business is to be all about as believers, it has to be and it must be that we were not only created to love
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God, not only were we created to worship God and to enjoy Him forever and for Him to enjoy us as His creatures redeemed by the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, but in that great work of salvation,
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God has purposed that when He saves a sinner and brings them to Himself, that they will get busy in the kingdom.
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They will not sit idle. They will not waste and fritter time away, but they will do that they can for the glory of God with the giftedness that God has given them, the spiritual gifts and the abilities and the talents they have, and they will harness all of that and focus all of that for the glory of Christ.
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Let me move on to the second walk here. The first one is to walk in good works. Secondly, notice in chapter four,
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Ephesians four and verse I'll read verses one through four. I, therefore, the prisoner of the
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Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation or walk worthy of the calling wherewith you have been called with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering for bearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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There is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of our calling.
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And I'll just stop there. I may read some more as we go on. But the second walk is to walk worthy or to walk in a manner that is worthy of our calling.
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That word worthy means appropriately. It means that when we walk, when we be, when we act, when we speak, when we go about doing what we do for the
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Lord, it ought to be an appropriate way. It ought to be in a godly way. Walk and basically it's to walk in a way that corresponds with our high calling as children of our heavenly king.
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Martin Lloyd Jones wrote this. He said the fact that the
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Christian life is described as a walk is significant. Walk suggests activity.
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Can't walk in and just stay seated and stay put or be lying down. Walk suggests activity, movement, progress.
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We ought to walk worthy of our vocation. We do not stay where we were or as we were.
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We do not say, ah, now I am saved. My sins are forgiven all as well and spend the rest of our lives talking about our conversion.
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Always looking back and remaining in that position. No, the Christian life is one of progress of ever going forward.
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There are always fresh things to be discovered and fresh experiences to be enjoyed.
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And when I read that, I was thinking of John Bunyan's book that he wrote, remember, about a guy named Pilgrim. And you remember the title he gave that book?
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It was Pilgrim's Couch, Pilgrim's Plateau, right?
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Pilgrim's Backsliding, Pilgrim's Go Nowhere. No, it's Pilgrim's Progress.
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And every time you read a page after page, you see that yes, though he does make mistakes and yes, though he does fail,
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Pilgrim is pushing forward. He's striving to enter in at the gate. He's desiring to get to the
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Celestial City and he's not content to stay put. He's moving on, constantly going forward.
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And if you read the writings of the Apostle Paul, you get these words of like running a race and you get wrestling and striving and pushing forward and stretching yourself with all the energy that you have and all the capacity that you have to go forward.
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And that's the idea here. The Christian life and church life is supposed to exhibit progress, movement, activity.
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And as churches, we cannot move forward. And I think that's why Paul puts it this way as he writes this chapter.
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We can't move forward unless we walk together. And we see that as he as he stresses in these verses, how it is that we should make sure that we protect and we work out and we guard
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Christian unity that we have, because it is it is never supposed to be that one of us moves forward at the expense of others.
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It is that we ought to move forward together as a church. So important for us to be able to, as Pastor Mike says about what we talk about as elders, when we get together is locking shields and moving forward together and doing that.
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Even as a church, it ought to be our desire to to do this. Striving for unity, then, is key when it comes to being walking, worthy of our calling, walking, worthy of the calling, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
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I mean, how important is it for all of us to figure for all of us to go about tooting our own horn just so that we can see whose horn is loudest?
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Wouldn't it be better, as I preached on a little while back, that we consider ourselves in an orchestra and where to blow the horn or where to play our tuba or violin or whatever it is, our together in a harmonious way, harmonious church living, laboring together.
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That's what's important. What's the focus of our lives? What ought to be really important? Is it our stance?
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Is it our position? Is it the fact that I am like in the church of Corinth, the problem they had?
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You know, I go and it was it was a Paulist that I used to listen to and he led me to the
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Lord. And I'm so and I am about Paulus. But someone else says, oh, no, no, no, no.
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I am of Peter. No, I am of Paul. I got you all beat.
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I am of Christ. If you think about Peter, Apollos, Paul.
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Would they have all been together when it comes to doctrine? Would they have all thought the same thing?
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Yes. There is no way that they would have ever thought that it would be great for the church to split and or to have different cliques and factions underneath their name.
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And it ought not to be in the in the church of God, people taking sides. And how do we combat this?
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How do we how do we protect unity? Well, the apostle Paul here says in verse two, he says, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another.
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I'm just going to look at these words just briefly. With all with all lowliness, with humility.
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This means to judge or to think with humility of mind, having a low estimate of ourselves, knowing that we are guilty and unworthy.
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And yet God saved us and called us. And we should have a deep sense of how small we are, have a deep sense.
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Isn't that so contrary to the Christian thinking of our day? Because the
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Christian thinking of our day in the bookstores and in the publications is, you know, you have needs and you know, you are something and you need to be catered to and you need self -esteem and you need the light, you need the light to be shining, the spotlight to be shining upon you.
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But whenever whenever I read words and think of just the principle of our
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Lord, when he said, if you want to be great in God's kingdom, you need to be the servant of all and you need to be the least of all.
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The problem is today is in order to become the greatest of all, you've got to have the name for yourself.
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You've got to you've got to be the one that has the light shining on you. You've got to be the one in the forefront.
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You've got to be the one that everybody is looking at. But when it comes when it comes to the kingdom of God, we will be able to be in a position to be able to guard unity and to protect it and to give and to give a help towards furthering unity when we see ourselves as being small.
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If we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of the Lord. So first, it's lowliness.
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But secondly, he says meekness, this idea which is the opposite of vindictiveness.
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It is power under control. It is gentleness. It is having a self -control in our lives, meekness and unwillingness to provoke other people.
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And true love is not easily provoked and doesn't readily provoke others. And meekness is not is not being resentful of other people.
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It's not looking. Here's a here's a good phrase that I always remember. It's not looking to assert your own rights.
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Not looking to say, well, I have the right for this. I mean, isn't that the the motto of the day?
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I have my rights. I mean, it is amazing to me when I hear of the news of the things, the rights and the things that people are suing for because they feel like they have the right to that.
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I mean, they have the right to be able to drive through a fast food restaurant and get a cup of coffee, although it says extremely hot on it to they have the right to spill it on themselves and not be burnt.
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And if they do, they're going to they're going to start some litigation and sue because of that. It's foolishness.
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Much of it, if you think about it and you look at it today, everything unraveling is because it's not even common sense when you think of the rights that people tout that they believe that they have.
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And when it comes to the Church of God. The only right that we if we keep this in our mind, the only right that we have is to be banished from the presence of God for all eternity.
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We have the right to be condemned. We have the the right to be separated from God.
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But because of the love of God, of course, we understand that God, who is rich in mercy, he saved us and he's placed us in the body of Christ and he's put us together as a church.
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And when we're together, laboring together, desiring to be united together, we need to be careful that we don't try to assert our rights and feel that just because I believe something, just because I have a preference, just because I have something that's personal to me and it really is important to me.
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I'm not talking about something that's biblical. I'm not talking about something that's key doctrine. But if we try to push ourselves in front of other people and trample on and play king of the hill in the church, it's a disaster waiting to happen.
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We must humble ourselves and we must not assert our rights. And what we ought to do is let each esteem the things of others better than our own selves, as Paul wrote in Philippians to esteem the things of others better than our own selves.
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Others first in a second. Then he goes on, he says, we need to demonstrate some long suffering.
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Whenever I see long suffering, I remember once reading and it might have been in one of MacArthur's commentaries.
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He somebody used the word long fused. He said to be to suffer along with people, to be long fused, to bear patiently when we're injured and not seeking and we don't seek revenge.
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I'll give you an example of this. And you may have had this happen to you as a believer. You will have been speaking to somebody about Christ.
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You're desiring for them to be saved. You're sharing the gospel. They know you're a Christian. Might be something someone over a long period of time at work or in your family.
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And have you ever had the person who's going to try to push the button to make you explode? I mean, they're going to say everything and anything.
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They're going to twist everything that you've said. They're going to try to to take the good that you've done and make something evil from it.
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Push the button. Because what they want to see is basically the the covering fall off and the old man come back out again.
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And the anger and the and the spitting fire come out, come out of your mouth. Or how how was that?
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They remember that you used to act. And I've had that personally happen to me.
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And in those instances, it's it's it's by the grace of God that God keeps us and gives us the grace to be able to have a long fuse with that person.
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Because, you know, as sure as sure as I do, that it doesn't take much. I mean, all you have to do is take one trip to the grocery store and you see these firecrackers going off all over the place because people are short fuse.
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And I mean, there's no patience. I mean, I'm behind people even in traffic. And a person can't even wait a half of a millisecond for somebody to be able to pass around before the horn is being blared out.
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And people are just so, so irate quickly. I mean, where are you going? I mean, and then, you know, have you ever done this?
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Somebody who is is upset like that and banging, banging on the horn and yelling at the person because they, you know, we can't make a mistake sometimes when we drive.
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And they get to the destination at the same time. You know, I mean, have you ever seen that when somebody gets mad, you kind of follow the cars and or they do it to you.
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Somebody is just reaching behind you, flicking the lights and you have nowhere to go. You're boxed in your lane. You can't get out of there.
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And you're just, you know, you're doing the speed limit and somebody is blaring the lights at you, beeping the horn and they go by with the windows open and they're yelling at you.
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And then you get up to the light, the next light. And, you know, they're still right in front, still right in front of you.
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I mean, we live in a world that's it's wild, isn't it? And yet we as the people of God are to have a testimony that we walk in a manner that reflects the gospel.
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That we walk in a way that shows the world that we are Christians who have a as we as our heavenly father, our
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God, who is the great king of all the earth. And that because he is holy, we ought to live holy.
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Because as as as he would so desire, if if we were living in the time of the
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New Testament, when the pages are recorded here and we could see how Jesus composed himself. If we could see how when the the daggers of the
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Pharisees and the Sadducees came out. And the and the slander and the the underlying current of what it was that they were trying to to bring towards his name to shame him.
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And you will see over and over again that he would compose, be composed, and he would be at rest knowing that he's going about doing his father's business.
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And that he walked in such a way that we ought to, as John said,
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I was just thinking of this verse in 1 John 2. I think it's in verse 6, 1
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John chapter 2. It's right around in that area.
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I will get it. Yes, 1
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John 2, 6, he that says he abides in him or abides in Christ ought himself also so walk even as he walked.
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That ought to be our focus. That ought to be our desire. I'm not speaking about when it comes to key doctrine.
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We don't give up there. We don't compromise there. But when it comes to issues in life where the scripture does not explicitly speak to it.
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Then there are times when we can suffer long that we can forbear.
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We can be merciful and we can be sympathetic. We can, as he says, he uses the word back in Ephesians chapter 4 to forbear one another in love.
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Out of the principle of love, we don't stop loving each other just because of maybe the personal differences that we have in convictions.
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Maybe because of the weaknesses or the shortcomings or the differences. But true love bears all things.
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True love esteems others better than self and true love does not seek her own.
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And I'm speaking about matters. When I talk about this, there are some things that ought not to come between us that we should divide over.
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And our pride could make us think that we're better than someone else. And as I said earlier, anyways, who are we really?
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Who are we? One of the prophets said that we are like the drop in a bucket.
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When God looks down upon all of the human race, we are like the drop in the bottom of a bucket.
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We are really nothing without Jesus Christ. We even heard that this morning in the text.
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Without Christ, we can do nothing. Without him, we will become nothing. Without him, there will be no fruit.
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Because he is the vine supplying the life to us so that we can bear fruit.
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He is the one and the father is the gardener who is pruning us so that fruit would come out of our lives for the glory of God.
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Think about it. Who are we? Reading the first part of chapter two, we would see that we were nothing but convicted and condemned spiritual criminals who have been declared righteous by God to the praise of the glory of his grace.
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That's what God has done for us. We've been saved by the grace of God, not by our own works. We have nothing to boast in.
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And if we think that we've contributed contributed any portion of our salvation, we do not understand grace.
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And we're together. We ought to strive to avoid to guard the oneness that God has given the body of the church when we gather together.
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Think about it. Unity is something not that we that we generate. Unity is not something that we create.
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God has united our hearts together. We are one in Christ. We are one in the family of God.
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And when it comes to the unity that is to be in the body, we either harm it or we guard it.
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We either maintain it or we do something to try to put wedges between each other.
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We don't generate it. We just protect it. And here he says that we, in verse three, ought to endeavor this.
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I'm back in Ephesians four, verse three, endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
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Peace. We ought to be a people who guard that word is a military term. It has to do with being a sentinel.
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We should be the people who guard. We are looking about to see if there's anything that is striving or trying to come between us and do all and everything that we possibly can, by the grace of God, to guard and make sure that we maintain
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Christian unity in the local church body. I like how Paul fires off in here.
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And when he when he says this word here in verse three, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit, that word endeavor has a comes from a root word, mean which means to use speed or to make an effort or diligence.
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It has to do with earnestness. Just this week at work and for the past few weeks, we have a huge project that is underway at I work at an insurance company.
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And because of the Massachusetts insurance reform that's coming, we have to get our systems in order and ready and changed to be able to handle the transactions that are being required of us as mandated by the state.
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In order to do that, we have 15 projects that kicked off in about January 1st for us to work out of this.
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We could not do it as a company. So we're hiring contractors. I was given the job to interview them by phone and even by phone.
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You can tell whether a person really wants the job or not. And what I'm looking for when I speak to people is, yes, that they're technically qualified to that, that maybe they could fit into the culture and work.
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And they, according to what their resume says, that they can do those things. But another thing that I'm looking for when it comes to a candidate or even with one of our own staff members who's looking for a promotion, and I use this phrase,
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I look for a sense of urgency. I look for somebody who really wants it. Somebody who is chomping at the bit.
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One person over the phone, I asked the contractor, I said, what is it? We're interviewing about 30 candidates here.
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What is it that sets you apart from all the other candidates? Now, wouldn't you think that you would kind of be ready at least to sell yourself as a contractor?
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This gentleman had been doing this for years. What sets you apart from all the other contractors?
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One long, silent nothing. He had nothing to say. And then,
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I think, duty, duty, yeah,
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I'll do a good job. I mean, to me, he wasn't ready. I interviewed a person for an internal position, a full -time position.
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And it was a young college graduate. And he sat at the table, back in his seat, at times folding his hands.
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And at one time, he was crossing his legs. He came in with no tie on. And to me, he wasn't ready.
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He wasn't hungry. He didn't have this sense of urgency. And that's the word here.
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When it comes to guarding, when it comes to protecting the unity in the church, it's not a lackadaisical thing that we ought to be, a way that we approach this.
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It is diligence. It is this urgency. It is to make every effort to make sure that we keep or guard the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, because a divided church is a powerless church.
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A divided church is a church that is going to have little fruit. And a divided church is a church that can be attacked because the shields are not locked and the enemy can come in like a flood.
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We must be careful to guard the unity of what
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God has given us in the church. And Paul, as he says it this way, when he talks about this, he says,
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I beseech you, or I beg you, that you walk worthy of the vocation, of the calling, on the manner in which you have called, be sure that you walk that way, and do that with humility, striving for the unity within the church.
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Thirdly, let's go over to chapter 4, and in verse 17, where we read,
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This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other
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Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, but you have not so learned
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Christ. And I've titled this one, that we are to walk separately. We are to walk separately, different, opposite from those who do not know
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God. Opposite, or in the other direction of the way that we used to walk. Notice in verse 17 that we are not to walk as other
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Gentiles walk, and he lists all of the things that they are involved in. Their sinful walk, their carnal mind, their spiritual darkness, the estrangement from God, their ignorance of the spiritual things of God, their blindness to the spiritual things of God, their insensitiveness, the sensuality, and the greediness.
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All of it is there, and that is the way that we are not to walk, because God has called us to come out from the world and be separate, a different people.
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And we are not to walk like the Gentiles, or like the pagan, like the heathen walk, with those characteristics that are mentioned there.
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No longer walking that way, in a walk of vanity, in a futility of mind.
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And it starts with a hardening of the heart, and it goes to ignorance, and alienation, and results with giving themselves over to all manner of uncleanness.
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Caving into unbridled passions, and licentiousness, and excess, and they become numb, and their conscience is defiled, and they are desensitized, and they drink sin, like it says in Job, like water.
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Why? Because we are a people who have been called of God. We are the children of God, and we ought to live differently, because God has saved us for a purpose, as we heard earlier, to serve
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Him. And God has saved us so that we would walk worthy. And in that, we must walk separately.
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Notice what he says. They walk this way, verse 20, but you have not so learned
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Christ. We've learned something better. God's grace has taught us, as it says in Titus 2, 10 and 11, to say no to sin, and to say,
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Lord, here I am, I am your servant. How can I please you today? I'm not going to go into it here, but if you would just go through the rest of this chapter, it speaks of how practically
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Paul lays it out, how it is that we have so learned Christ, because we are identified with Him, because we are in Him, because we have been bought with the precious blood of Christ.
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He wrote to the Corinthians, because you've been bought with the precious blood of Christ, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are
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His, at the end of chapter 6. And he says here, you need to put off and put on. Walk in righteousness and true holiness, and it does involve the labor, it does involve an engagement of our mind and of our will to walk in a way that's pleasing to the
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Lord. Those people that used to lie, we used to before could care less about lying, but the new man puts away and instead speaks the truth in love.
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When anger used to be that which was something that we would allow, white -hot anger, letting it fester and boil, now we can be angry, as the
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Scripture says, but we sin not. It's a righteous anger. That's a whole other message. When we used to steal and it was nothing for us to steal, now in Christ we step away from that, we stop sinning in that way, and we even go further and work hard to provide for the needs of others with the labor of our hands.
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Evil speaking. Before we did not care about what we said, it did not matter and it didn't matter what we would hear either when it came to filthy communication or any type of speaking, but now in Christ we're concerned about what we say and we purpose to use every word to be of help and to not tear down but to edify others and to build them up in the most holy faith.
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And one of the last things he deals with in this chapter 4 is that before we used to strike out at others.
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Notice, we'd be bitter, verse 31. There would be wrath and anger and clamor or talking about other people, evil speaking and malice, but now in Christ we ought to be kind one to another, verse 32.
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Tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us.
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So we're to walk separately. Fourthly, this is down in verse 5. As we're moving through, there's three down and three to go.
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In chapter 5, notice what it says in verses 1 and 2. Be therefore followers of God. Paul's speaking to them.
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He says, be imitators of God as dear children. And how do you do that? And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet -smelling savor.
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Being imitators of God as dear children, following in Christ's footsteps.
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And how is it? What does it say here that Jesus did for us? How is it that he demonstrated his love toward us?
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He gave himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet -smelling aroma or savor, a fragrant aroma to the
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Lord. And our lives are to be characterized by this sacrificial love.
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Our Lord Jesus loves us and he gave himself for us and he offered himself to God as an offering and a sacrifice.
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And he is the example for us in our learning to walk in love. And it ought to be, as it says in verse 3, not with fornication and uncleanness and covetousness, filthiness, verse 4, foolish jesting, and all of these sins that are here.
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It is to be a pure love. It is to be a love free from sin. And in verse 4, it speaks of, no, in verse 3, at the end of it, it says that we ought to live this way as becometh saints.
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That kind of goes back to the point that I was speaking of earlier, that we're to walk worthy of the calling. We can't live this way.
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We can't walk this way. Purity is something that ought to be part of this love as we walk in love.
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And we ought to walk as becomes holy ones or walk as saints living in such a way that we show that we are those who have been called to be holy ones of God.
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And here, what is it? It is a walking in a self -sacrificing way, willing to give ourselves so that others can be benefited, not looking for our personal gain.
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And don't we prove our love for someone by the degree that we're willing to give ourselves for that person?
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We prove that we really love someone by the degree that we're willing to give ourselves or sacrifice ourselves for that person.
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It's just an earthly illustration of this. When we moved back to Massachusetts from Texas in 1983, in the beginning of 84, for a short period of time, we lived in my mother's basement in Westboro.
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And my folks built that house back in 1956, the downstairs and then the upstairs in 1960.
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And it was during the days when they had inspections and there weren't all the codes and regulations. And the steps going downstairs had no railing on the open side.
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And one time, Deb was walking down the stairs carrying Caleb and lost her balance and she was falling off the steps.
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And when she fell, she purposely fell in such a way that she cushioned
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Caleb's fall. But in so doing, she felt the pain. And she felt the pain then and probably still feels some of the pain or has some of the consequences of that.
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And what that was to me was just a... And probably when she did it, of course, it's a mother's love.
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There's nothing like a mother's love. I mean, I can remember when I was like four and five years old, why is it that when little children get sick and they're about to, you know, lose everything, that you have to go into mom and dad's bedroom and stand at the foot of the bed or right beside the bed and tell them and show them the evidence of the fact that you're being sick.
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I mean, yeah, I see the smiles. But a mother's love could only be a mother's love who could take that child and get them cleaned up.
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Not saying that dads don't do it and they ought to do it and they should do it. They ought to love their children too.
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But the sacrificial love of a mother to stay up all night when a child is sick and to give herself for them.
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Why is it that that ought not to be evidenced in the Church of God? It ought to be. And that's what's being spoken of here.
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That we ought to love each other in that capacity. That we, as Christ loved us, we ought to love one another.
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And isn't it a proof, the Apostle John said this in 1 John 3, that it is an evidence, it is a fact, it is a demonstration that we have passed from death unto life because we what?
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Love ourselves, right? No. It's an evidence, it's a fact that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.
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We truly have a desire to love each other and we show that by sacrificing our all for each other.
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So we ought to walk in love. Fifth point. Same chapter, few verses down. Notice what it says in verse 8.
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Paul says, For you were sometimes darkness, but now you are light in the
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Lord. Here comes the word again. Walk as children of light.
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Now this is very similar to the other one where we would have walked separately. But I just wanted to bring out a couple of different points here.
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See, because Paul is saying that our lives should have an impact on others. Just like when you go into a dark room and you flick the switch and the light comes on, that light dispels the darkness and it has an impact upon that room.
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And we have the responsibility of having an influence, a positive influence upon the world in which we live.
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Like light in darkness. I remember one time early on when we had first moved to Texas in 1976, we moved there.
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A year after we had been married, I was going into the military and we rented a house. We fixed it up.
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You know how that is, first house that you get to rent, you fix it up. It's nice. And, of course, we were in a different location, not really knowing what's there.
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And one morning, I remember when it was dark, I went into the bathroom because, and I didn't know this, but there was a party going on in the bathtub.
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And when I flicked the light switch on, these huge Texas roaches, they were like this big.
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They weren't roaches. They're called water bugs. They're about this big. About five of them were in the tub and they just scattered all over the place.
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They were just trying to get out of that tub. And it's because, you know, the idea when the light comes on, the roaches like to run.
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And that's the type of impact. When a believer goes out into the world, there ought to be such a stark difference between us and those who are lost that we demonstrate something to them that they're not aware of, that they're not thinking about.
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And God causes by our action, by our behavior, by our personal holiness, by the words, by our self -control, by our soberness, that we will have an impact upon them.
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Jude put it this way, that on some, we should make a difference in the lives of other people.
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And how is it that we can do this? Well, if we think about it, didn't we used to walk like they did?
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And hasn't God saved us from that darkness that we were in? Notice how he puts it.
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It's just unbelievable. In chapter 5 and verse 8, Paul says, for you were sometimes darkness.
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Not that you walked in darkness, although we did. But he said, you were darkness.
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We were by nature children of wrath. And that's what we were by nature.
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But God changed all that. And notice what he says. But now you are light in the
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Lord. And because you are light in the Lord, because God has shined the light of the glorious gospel in our lives, and we have been able to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and we have been saved by God's marvelous grace, we are to what because of that?
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We were in darkness. And when God saves us, we continue in darkness? Of course not.
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We were saved out of darkness and taken out of the kingdom of Satan and placed and translated into the kingdom of God's dear son, death to life, darkness to light.
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And because of that, Paul admonishes them. And it comes to us today that we also should walk as children of light.
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Walk differently. This is the fruit that is expected in our lives. And it's listed, and he even speaks to it further as he goes down.
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He says in verse 9, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
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We aren't supposed to live in a way that we used to, but it's a different life. And notice, he says, what do we then do with those that are still in darkness?
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Are we to befriend or have fellowship? Or can we have fellowship or share closely things that are in common?
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Of course not, because we speak two different languages. We're in two different families. We have two different fathers.
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And in verse 11, it says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them or expose them.
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Instead, we are to reprove or expose and oppose the evil anywhere it is found, anywhere at all.
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And if someone even inside the church is walking disorderly or walking in sin, we exercise church discipline.
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Because why? Because we're great and they're not? No, for the protection of the church and for the everlasting destiny of that soul, we're concerned out of love to tell them the truth about themselves.
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By maintaining purity and integrity, we walk in the light, and the light exposes darkness.
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And this is an awesome responsibility, brethren. And what is it that can help us to walk in light?
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And my last point is in the same chapter. It's in verse 15. Paul says, see then.
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Well, let me read a little bit before that. I know it's choppy and I'm just kind of going from point to point, but I wanted to be able to get through at least all of these points.
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I'll read from verse 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
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For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, and whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
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Wherefore, he said, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
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See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days of evil are evil.
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The last point is that we ought to walk circumspectly, or that we ought to walk carefully.
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This word circumspectly means it has an idea of carefulness, exactness.
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It has an idea of accurateness, diligence. But more than anything,
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I'm thinking of the idea of this carefulness when we walk. We get the idea of circumspect, when we think of circle or circumference in the
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English word, that we ought to look about us. And that's kind of like the idea that we ought to look all around us, being careful and attentive to all the circumstances relating to our actions.
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That's why it's so important that we judge and we're careful of where we go and how we speak and what kind of appearance that we give to other people.
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We might be thinking in our minds we're going to a certain place and we're doing what we're doing and it's all above board.
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But we need to be careful that we don't even give an appearance of evil. Paul wrote to the
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Corinthian church and he says that we ought to give no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed.
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We don't want to ever bring any shame upon the name of Christ and to ever have a poor testimony or ever put ourselves in a position where Christ's name could be brought down.
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We need to be careful. And in doing this, walking circumspectly, walking accurately, we're to live not as fools but as wise people.
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Because foolish people could care less where they go. They don't think about what's happening around them.
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There's an aimlessness. There's what they think it's carefree, but really it's careless.
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And it can not only be detrimental to their mind, not only detrimental to their body, but what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?
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They can have all the fun that they want, as we heard this morning, try to be happy but cannot be happy and cannot be content until we're resting in Jesus Christ.
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And when we're found in Christ and we walk in a way that we ought to walk and we're thinking about walking as children of light, brethren, we need to be careful.
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As I said earlier, our enemy walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
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There are traps and pitfalls everywhere. We go out into the world and we just think of all the things that are calling for our attention, calling for our time, calling for us to, and if we're not careful, our defense can go down.
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I think of the proverb where it says that he that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.
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And if we don't exercise self -control, if we don't exercise a carefulness, it's like a city whose walls are down.
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Of course, in the Old Testament, that was protection. That was a defense from the enemy coming in and taking over that people.
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And we need to be careful not to be unwise. If we're not wise, of course, then we would be like it says in verse 17, wherefore he says, do not be unwise, don't be stupid, the word is, don't be mindless, don't be ignorant, don't be foolish, lacking wisdom.
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That's what this is. But it's not lacking of complete wisdom. They know what they're doing, but it's just moral stupidity.
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It's just doing the wrong thing, knowing what is right. And it is an absurd way to live because it just is a waste.
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Kind of like if you think about the prodigal son, the life just shattered and going down the drain, a person who lives without reference to God.
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What do we need to look around for? Self. Be careful, do not deceive yourself thinking.
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As the proverb warns, it says there that the fool, when it comes to sin, is confident, but the wise person flees from it.
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We need to be careful that we aren't deceived to think that we're stronger than the sin that is coming our way, but we need to be on our toes and we need to, when we see evil, run from it.
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And not to think highly of ourselves and not to let pride get a foothold. We need to look around and beware of sin and the exceeding sinfulness of sin.
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It's allurement and it's apparent momentary pleasure. It isn't worth it.
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We need to be careful, as I've already mentioned, about our enemy, Satan, crafty, sneaky, looking for the chinks in our armor ready to pounce upon us.
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We need to be careful about others without, those who would attack the church, pointing fingers at us, wanting to blame
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God because of maybe our poor testimony. And we need to live uprightly so they will not be able to speak evil of anything that we do.
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And we also need to look within. Wolves, those who come in in a sheep's clothing, they do not desire to lock shields.
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They are out of step. They are divisive. They won't keep rank, always looking to sow discord among the brethren and force wedges between us, guarding ourselves, being careful.
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As I wrap up the points here tonight, when we live in a world where lives are being wasted, and because of that, brethren,
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I encourage you all, walk in good works. We have churches that are filled with members who have a poor testimony to the gospel which they say has saved them.
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Because of their unwillingness to live lives, becoming of the gracious act of salvation for their souls.
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So we ought to walk worthy of our high and holy calling. We see Christians trying to keep close to the world and play with sin.
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We need to live separately. We hear of too much bickering and fighting and feuding and an inability to unite under the banner of Christ's love.
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Therefore, we ought to walk in love. We know of too many Christians who've been hindered or rendered ineffective because of a sinful, poor testimony.
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And we ought to walk in light as children of light. And lastly, we've seen
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Christians in churches that have been blindsided and taken over, and the enemy has come in like a flood, blindsided.
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I remember in my junior year playing, if you know where Leicester is, playing football in Leicester.
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And we threw everything that we could at the offensive line. We were on defense, everything we could. And they were like grease lightning.
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And they said, we'll throw Jeffreys in there, he's big. Maybe something will happen. And they put me in there, first play.
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I'm up at the line, the ball is snapped. I don't know where these people came from, but I was on my back within a second because the way that they blocked, they came from the side.
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They pulled people and pushed the line right out of, I mean, just wiped you right off your feet.
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And I remember that never happened to me until that point. And it really sobered me up quite a bit.
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And I had to go back in there and try to make something of it. We lost. It didn't help. But churches are blindsided because we're not careful.
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And we can open the door and let anyone and everyone come in, but I'm thankful here at BBC that we have the word of God as being central and doctrine and truth is very important and that we're good stewards of that and we're careful in that way.
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But, you know, it takes the effort of all of us so that we are not blindsided, that we walk circumspectly, looking about and walking in wisdom.
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I trust that in just these points that we looked at this evening would help to encourage us.
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And maybe it would be a study that you could go on and look at when it comes to the idea of walking. Because I was thinking, as I close,
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I was thinking about the Old Testament. Do you remember the times when it spoke of the kings? And it would go through and there would be a godly king.
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And then it would say that his son came. And his son, what, did not walk in the way of his father.
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And it would happen over and over again with the sinful, disobedient kings and the nation is being ravaged.
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And then, every once in a while, you would see one that would come and the son walked in the way of his father,
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David, or would even say that. And it was just a refreshing spring when it came to reading the
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Scriptures there. And wouldn't it be a great testimony for all of us today that when we leave this world, that we could say, because of the grace of God, others could look at our lives and say that we were people who walked in the way of God.
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That we had a great testimony because of God's goodness to us. And we did not compromise.
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We did not give in. We did not cave in. We did not walk like the world walks. But we walked in a way that was pleasing unto our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And may it be so. Let's pray. Our Father, how we thank you for your great kindness to us.
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Lord, just to consider that we're in this place this evening, this building, with a hunger and a desire to be taught of our
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God. And I pray that you would help my weakness,
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Lord, in this delivering of this message. And that you would give us all ears to hear and be able to go away with some type of a nugget from these words.
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Something that would encourage us to live differently than before we came this evening.
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Something that would give us hope in you. That would go together with the message this morning about how safe and secure we are in Jesus Christ, the true vine.
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How blessed we are, our Father, to have you as the one who tends to us.
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That you ever think upon us. That you care and love us so much that you'll discipline us and that you'll prune us so that we will bring forth more fruit.
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And, Lord, may that fruit exhibit itself in the way in which we conduct ourselves. Help us to live above this world.
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Help us to have the grace and strength like Pilgrim to be able to progress on and to not quit and to not be taken aside and not be deceived and to uphold a good, crisp, and clean, clear testimony for Christ.
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We so desire to live to please you, and we ask that you give us the strength to do so.
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Lord, we love you, and we praise you, and we are just so amazed that you would, as we sang this evening, long my imprisoned spirit laid fast bound in sin and nature's night.
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But, Lord, your eye diffused that quickening ray. We awoke. The dungeon flamed with light, and our chains fell off, and our heart was free.
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And we rose and went forth, and we followed thee. What a description of what you've done for us.
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And all praise and glory and honor goes unto our God and Savior. And may
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Jesus Christ be magnified, what comes out of our lives, out of our mouths, out of our thoughts this week, for his glory and for his glory alone.