May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. And there are two
texts, very similar, which I will read to you tonight. The first
one is in the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, in chapter
4, and reading verse 5. The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians,
chapter 4, and reading verse 5. Walk in wisdom toward them
that are without, redeeming the time. And then turning to the
epistle of Paul to the Ephesians and chapter 5 and reading verses
15 and 16. See then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because The days are
evil. We should recognise that the
Apostle Paul is writing these letters to the churches, the
Christians, who were living in the Colossae and also living
in Ephesus, and they were very similar words and therefore both
of those places needed such direction and such instruction as the Apostle
Paul was to give them. And of course things haven't
changed since then down to the ages and we still need the same
direction and the same blessing as they did in those days. And it's important to realize
that In both of these letters, these words stand out, redeeming
the time. What that really means is that
they therefore must not have used perhaps the time very wisely. And in essence it needed to be
recovered, it needed to be brought back. And the Apostle speaks
firstly in this letter to the Ephesians, that ye walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise. This of course is in the world,
in whatever position we find ourselves in. These are gracious
instructions, that we are to walk circumspectly, and not as
fools, but as wise. And if we do not walk circumspectly,
that means we don't walk in accordance with the words of God. The Bible illustrates to us very
clearly how we should walk in this world. And if we do not
walk like that, then we are fools. And what a blessing it is if
we are characterised as wise, who walk in accordance with the
truth of God. and the Word of God. And the
17th verse tells us in this fifth chapter of the Ephesians, wherefore
be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Now then, if we are to understand
what the will of the Lord is, first of all, we need to pray
that he will give us a right understanding. And then we are
to read and study the Word of God, which does instruct us with
gracious words so that we will know how to walk and what the
will of the Lord is. It's revealed to us in the Word
of God with regards to our daily walk and our daily conversation. And of course we live today in
a very materialistic world. We live in a world where everything
goes, where men and women, boys and girls, please themselves
and they have no concern about doing the will of God. It doesn't
cross their mind and therefore they carry on as it were aimlessly
in this world and unless the Holy Spirit comes and touches
their heart they will end up falling into hell at last for
that eternal state. It is really a terrible thought
and consideration and a great blessing if the Holy Spirit blesses
us with that life in our souls so that we recognise the Word
of God is true and that we cannot afford to turn against it. We cannot afford to ignore it. We cannot afford to think that
it has no relevance to us in our lives today. God has very
graciously and very wonderfully blessed us with the holy scriptures
to instruct us in all these things so that we may be amongst those
who are wise and are not left to those who are unwise. Now the devil's aim is to make
us unwise. The devil's aim is to close our
ears so that we don't hear the truth of God. That's why when
the Apostle John wrote to those seven churches, those short letters,
and in the end of each letter it stated, he that hath ears
to hear, let him hear. Now if you and I don't have spiritual
ears, we will not hear the truth of God. We won't want to hear
therefore our ears will be stopped up as it were. But what a blessing
when God gives us ears to hear the truth of God's Word, so that
we are not able to ignore it. It rings in our ears. It comes
there. We can't stop it. It's a wonderful
thing, isn't it? God's grace, God's work goes
on. And however we might try to to
stop it, you and I will not be able to. And we have a good illustration
of what we should do in the Pilgrim's Progress. And I know you young
ones who go to the Sunday school, you're going through the Pilgrim's
Progress at the moment. And very early in that account
of Pilgrim, when he left the city of destruction, you know
the people called him back. It didn't want him to go. They
thought he was foolish in running away. But what did he do? He put his hands over his ears
so that he wouldn't hear their calls and he ran away. He didn't tarry, he didn't stay.
He ran away. What a good thing it
is therefore. You see, we live today really
in naturally the city of destruction and the things of this world
are bent upon destroying our souls so what a good thing it
is if the holy spirit gives us grace to not listen to the words
of satan because satan would encourage us to carry on with
the things of this world he would tell us well There's no harm
in this, you can just do that, and you can just do this, and
you and I do this, and we do that, and then we go a little
bit further, and we think we can't do that, and the devil
says, yes, it's alright, you can do that, it's okay, and we
think, well, it's alright, so we carry on doing that. Before
we know where we are, you see, we've got ourselves deep down
in the mire. And, well, the apostle, the psalmist
tells us, doesn't he, he tells us about the Maori clay. You
know what clay is, you know? It's very sticky when it gets
very wet and it's very difficult to move. And that's what the
psalmist realised and he couldn't get out of that horrible pit. It's not easy. In that case it
was impossible. But he tells us God brought him
up out of the horrible pit and out of the Maori clay. It's very
easy to fall into a pit, it's very easy to get there, not so
easy to get out. What a mercy though it is if
in that situation we cry unto God. We may therefore recognise,
as the Apostle tells us here, there is a need to redeem the
time. No doubt the Apostle looked back
in his life to the many years that he had spent First of all,
of course, he'd spent it at the Feet of Gamaliel, being instructed
by that man in the things of God in the Old Testament. And
then, of course, he ignored the Gospel and determined to destroy
all the Christians. And instead of using his time
well, he'd wasted his time. He'd gone in the opposite way.
And there he was then on that Damascus road. when God gloriously came and
stopped him in that way and caused him to fall down before Almighty
God. And you see the blessing is today
that you and I won't be able to stand against the power of
God, against the Word of God. We may try and shut it out of
our minds and out of our ears but you see when the Word of
God speaks That keeps on ringing in our ears. So even if we've
got our ears covered up, you won't stop the noise, you won't
stop the sound, because it is the work of Almighty God. And therefore, let us be amongst
those who are not unwise, but are blessed with spiritual understanding,
to desire to know what the will of the Lord is. And so may we
be found redeeming the time, recovering the years, the days,
perhaps the hours, that we wasted. And all of us have wasted time
in our lives. We've spent it on, often in and
on, irrelevant things, which the Word of God tells us, do
not profit. When I say that, We are obviously
allowed to work, we are allowed to do things of necessity to
earn our living. But perhaps when we have what
we might term leisure time, freedom to do what we want to do, and
not burdened with particular work, then how do we occupy ourselves? Do we turn ourselves to the Word
of God, to reading the Word of God, to praying, to meditation? Or do we occupy ourselves in
all the vanities of this life? And therefore, we find we are
wasting our time. There's always been this situation
in the world where people have wasted their life, wasted their
time, spent it on wrong things. And today, of course, we have
many things where we can spend our time and waste it with all
the internet and the mobile phones and the iPads and everything
else, it's so easy to use them, often legitimately, and yet we
find that we're spending too much time and wasting our time
on these things. And so here we have the Word
of God directing us like this, redeeming the time, because the
days are evil. The days were evil when Paul
lived upon the earth. They haven't gotten any better,
have they? It got worse. And if we're honest, we look
around and we see evil all around us. Men are lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God. What a very stark difference
there is, isn't there? Lovers of pleasure or lovers
of God. And all of us, you see, really
fall into one of those categories. We're either lovers of pleasure,
and we spend our life in pleasure, pleasing ourselves, doing what
we want to, And of course, everybody is encouraged today to take up
leisure activities, but do they profit our souls? And sometimes
I think, you know, if you're involved in some leisure activity
and the Lord was to come and to strike you down so that you
died, well, what would that be? Where would you go? Would you
have been doing that which was you wanted to be doing when the
Lord came to take you from this earth? And we're reminded again
and again of the suddenness of death and no man can extend his
life by even a second. So we are warned to be also ready
for we know not what a day nor an hour may bring forth. And so we find ourselves in these
evil days And it's good that the Lord warns us about the situation
and instructs us about it. So that you won't be able to
come and say, well, of course I wasn't really aware of what
I was getting involved in. I wasn't really aware of the
situation. Because the Word of God tells
us very clearly how we are to act and we are to walk circumspectly. And that means in accordance
with the Word of God. We can always test whether we
are doing that which is right. And to read the Word of God and
to see whether our lives are matching up to the truth of God's
Word. Or whether we're allowing ourselves
to listen to our great tempter, the devil. As I've told you so
often, and just to tell you again, devil uses the same tactic that
he used in the Garden of Eden by just very simply saying, hath
God said. What does that mean? He sows
a seed of doubt in our mind and sometimes we're very happy to
latch on to that and think, well, I don't think God has really
spoken against this, so therefore I can carry on. Just like Eve,
what a tragic day that was. What a terrible day. You might
say the worst day in the history of the world when Eve succumbed
to the temptation of Satan. Never think that you and I are
strong against the wiles of the Satan. Satan knows what is each
of our individual weaknesses. And what might be a temptation
to you, might not be a temptation to me, and vice versa. The devil
knows very well what our weaknesses are. And that's what he homes
in on. And that's what he attacks. And
very soon we are caught in his snare. It's a snare, you see. And it's a trap. And it's a net.
And we find we're entangled in it. And it's not easy to get
out. It's easy to get in and not easy
to get out. And so we should be thankful
that God has given us such instruction as this, to walk circumspectly
and not be as a fool. Fools ignore the word of God. Those who are wise, search the
scriptures. Remember those Bereans, They
searched the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were
so. It wasn't just a casual flipping over a few pages, or less than
that, perhaps a few verses, and thinking, well, I've done my
duty to the dark and now got on with what I want to do. No, they searched
the Scriptures daily. And true Christians should desire
to search the Scriptures daily. Not just on a Sunday, when perhaps
you've got a bit more time, as you might think. And in a busy
week, you're not to neglect such an important position as to search
the Scriptures. Because you and I are passing
through this little old world, aren't we? With all that it entails,
and we'll soon be burnt up, but our souls won't be burnt up.
We shall be living forever, either in heaven or in hell. and how
tragic it would be if when we find ourselves in hell we remember
the word of God which told us redeeming the time and we'd ignored
it. We'd carried on with our life. We'd carried on being enveloped
in the things of time and we'd given little time or perhaps
no time to the things of God and they'd been eroded out of
our lives. What a blessing it is when the
Holy Spirit comes and directs us to the truth of God's Word
and the importance of God's Word. So then, may we be found then
walking circumspectly. And that really means that we
are walking in a right way. And the Apostle here in the Colossians,
he tells us, walk in wisdom. toward them that are without. There's those who are within
the Church of God and there are those who are without the Church
of God. And we are instructed therefore
to walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the
time. That really means that we need
to find every opportunity to walk in wisdom before those who
are without, and to set a gracious and a godly example, not for
our self-gratification, not for our self-glory, but for the glory
of God and for the salvation of souls. We seem to live in
a time really where people don't seem to value souls, they don't
seem to worry about those who are without. They seem very content
to just jog along in their little circle and have no concern really
about all those who are without the Church of God. And yet here
we have these words that the Apostle Paul, he operated very
differently, didn't he? You only have to read the Acts
of the Apostles and to see how he spent his time and how he
worked. and how he preached in every
opportunity. And he had lots of opposition,
didn't he? I suppose we don't like opposition, so therefore
we like to just avoid any difficulty. And therefore we are cowards,
really, with regard to our position and regards to that right walk. I'm willing to stand firm and
to not agree with invitations to wrong things. It's very easy
to be invited to wrong things and it's very difficult to stand
firm and to not go along with such invitations. The blessing
is that God can give us strength. The Apostle Paul tells us, he
said, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. You
and I won't be able to ourselves. But when you face, perhaps, opposition,
face difficulties, and face, perhaps, invitations to things
that you know are not good or are wrong, then pray to God. He will give you strength to
stand firm against them. And perhaps you fear what the
reaction would be from people. You may be surprised that there
may not be a reaction and there may be a good reaction. God is
very gracious. God is very compassionate. He
remembers what we are. He knows how weak we are. And
there's nothing more blessed than to have the answer of a
good conscience before God and indeed before man. And so we
are to be found walking wisdom toward them that are without.
It's easy to walk with wisdom to those who are within. It's
not so easy to walk with wisdom to those who are without. And
the Apostle just gives us a more clear direction in the following
verse when he tells us, let your speech Be always with grace,
seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every
man." Well, we should know how to answer every man. Sometimes
our flesh is a bit weak, isn't it? And therefore we don't answer
every man as we should. And we perhaps, well, we ignore
it. We're guilty really. in turning
the conversation when we should stand firm for the truth of God. Realising that if we are honest
before God, because we only have one true Master, and that is
the Lord God, and that's the Master that you and I should
be concerned to be obeying. Not obeying our own inclinations,
our own Master, but to be concerned to do that which is right in
the sight of Almighty God. Well here then in this case we
are told let our speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. That means it has that in it
which is purifying. Salt is a purifier. Salt doesn't bring wrong things
or evil. It purifies. And what a good
thing if our speech is like that. It's seasoned. It's seasoned
with it. So that there is that pureness
in our speech. And that pureness in our speech
really surely is following the Word of God. Following the pattern
that we have set before us in the Word of God. And the Apostle
Paul sets before us in his epistles a wonderful pattern. of how to
react and how to follow the gracious instructions and the gracious
words of God. And of course we're told in the
sixth chapter of the Ephesians that we are wrestling not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. The Apostle directs us to take
unto us the whole armour of God. He doesn't say, well, just take
up a little bit. Just take up that and see how
you get on with that. Gracious instruction, put on, and put
it on, the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. This is why God gives us this
armour. And he tells us, wherefore take
unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. If we have this
armour of God, we shall be able to stand by the grace of God.
He tells us, stand therefore having your loins girt about
with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.
That's a good start, isn't it? You see, our loins girt about
with truth, The truth of God's Word. Often we fail to be able
to give a good answer because we do not know the truth of God. It's one of the greatest problems.
When I was a teenager, one of the big problems was, sadly,
I didn't really know very much about the Word of God and therefore
I knew that if I was challenged about it, I wouldn't be able
to answer it. So I just ducked down and kept low. That wasn't
very honourable, was it? But here we have this gracious
advice. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate
of righteousness, doing those things which are right. Now I
know in and of ourselves we are not righteousness and we need
the righteousness of Christ, but nevertheless here we have
this gracious word to us. And then our feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace. You see, we are to walk
peaceably in this world. We're told, blessed are the peacemakers,
not the troublemakers, the peacemakers. That should be our concern, therefore,
that we are able and shod with this preparation of the gospel
of peace. And then he says, above all,
taking the shield of faith, God gives faith, living faith. And what is it? It's a shield.
And what does it do? Wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. You see, if we're
walking in faith, walking by faith, than those darts which
are thrown at us by the evil one. And he has many people in
his army to accomplish what he desires to do. Yet the word of
God tells us here, we shall be able to quench them. They won't
actually be able to penetrate because by faith we walk, depending
upon God. What a blessing that is. And
he does give faith and he gives us strength. to stand firm, so
that we are found then in this way as the Apostle tells us here
in this fourth chapter to the Colossians, to walk in wisdom
toward them that are without redeeming the time. Not giving
any time to the devil, not allowing him to cause us to waste our
time. Time is precious. Our life is
short. We know not what a day or an
hour may bring forth. We don't want to come to the
end of our life realising that we wasted many hours, many days,
many weeks, many years. They passed away. No possibility of recovering
those wasted times. But now to be blessed with this
desire to be found then seeking after the mercy and blessing
of God and desiring to redeem the time. Well, the Apostle just
goes on in this whole armour of God and he tells us, and take
the helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation really
directs us to the knowledge of God. And what a blessing if you
and I have the knowledge of God in our mind, in our heart. And
that comes about by being instructed by the Word of God, the helmet
of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God. You see, people cannot stand,
they'll try to, but they cannot stand against the Word of God.
And we know we have that lovely illustration of the Saviour himself,
after he was baptised, he was, he went up into the, sent into
the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, And how did he
respond? By quoting scripture. The devil
couldn't answer. What a blessing, therefore, if
you and I can quote the scripture, which means the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always, with all
prayer and supplication in the Spirit, we are to pray. When the Apostle wrote to the
Thessalonians, he said to pray without ceasing. Our life shouldn't
consist of just a few words in the morning when we get up, or
perhaps no words in the morning when we get up. It's good when
we pray our way along during the day. And, you see, as you
and I pray ourselves along during the day, then there will be that
redeeming the time. Because there won't then be the
occasions where we find we're wasting our time. Because we're
praying. You don't waste your time when
you're praying. You do waste your time perhaps
when you're not praying. And so what an encouragement
it is praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints. The Christian life is one of
perseverance. Don't think it gets easier. We're
not promised an easy life. The Christian is not promised
an easy life, but I'll tell you what he is promised. He's promised
a good end. And that's what you and I want,
to have a good end to our life. So that when we come to that
day, it will be then to go and to be with Christ, which is far
better. Perhaps when we're younger, perhaps
when we're not Christians, we think that's not a true statement.
How can it be better? where the Apostle knew by personal
experience and the Church of God know by personal experience
that it is better. And what a wonderful favour then
to be found in that situation. And the Apostle tells us, and
for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open
my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel. What
a wonderful thing to be blessed with boldness in the things of
God. It's good, isn't it, when we
meet people who are blessed with this holy boldness. They're not
ashamed of the Gospel. They're not ashamed because it's
their life. Sometimes we may have to ask
ourselves the question, are we ashamed? And perhaps we might
say, well I'm not really, and I hope we never are. But it's
a good thing if we are Concerned therefore to to pray that we
may not be ashamed and be able to speak of the things of God
I remember John Broome who is now of course in glory Remember
he used to he told me more than one occasion that he was a teacher
at a grammar school down in Southampton or somewhere around there and
he said he used to pray sometimes that the Lord would give him
an opening to speak to the pupils or the students. And he said,
God gave him many openings to do just that. And his life was
wonderfully used, there were a number of people at that grammar
school who were indeed converted. And he said, when I never prayed,
I never got any opportunity. There was never any occasion.
It's good perhaps if we should pray that there might be occasions
and opportunities the Lord provides to be able to speak. He didn't
say it was any easier, but he did say an opportunity was presented
to him and he was able then to declare the truth of God and
the Gospel of God. The Word of God tells us, you
see, we are his witnesses. We're not to be silent. We're
not to be quiet. We are to speak forth those things
that are precious to us. We're not to just go on aimlessly
in this world and we can't kind of crouch down and say, well
of course I'm not able to speak, I'm not a person that's able
to really talk, able to speak. Well that is just not true. That means you're just looking
to yourself. Everybody, by the grace of God, as the Apostle
says, by the grace of God, can speak. And as the Lord gives
them ability to speak, it will be for his honour and for his
glory. Never think, never think that
you're not able to. That's really ducking out. That's
really thinking, well, I of course am not very eloquent. You remember
what Moses said? He said he wasn't very eloquent. And God said,
who's made man's mouth? Same as Jeremiah. Perhaps it's
the initial thing that we think, well, I can't speak and I'm not
eloquent. We must not hide under that misapprehension. We must
pray to God that we may be amongst those who are found, therefore,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil. They were then,
they are today. We are to walk honorably in this
world, circumspectly, doing those things which are for the honor
and glory of Almighty God. When the apostle Paul wrote to
the Romans a wonderful epistle, I'm sure as most of us know it
is a glorious statement of truth. And in the 13th chapter we're
told this, 11th verse, and that knowing the time, that now it
is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent. The day
is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
the things of the flesh, the things that please our flesh,
the things of the world. Cast off, cast off, that's clear
isn't it, the works of darkness and let us put on the armour
of light. Let us walk honestly as in the
day, not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness,
not in strife and envying, but put ye on the law of Jesus Christ,
and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof."
How easy it is to make provision for the flesh and do those things
which are pleasing for us. And of course, the lust of the
flesh is a very wide statement. It encompasses so many things
and if we're not careful, We make provision for it, and therefore
what we fail to do is to use our time wisely, and as the Apostle
tells us, to redeem the time, and we ought to turn away from
such things as this. And we ought to seek after that
gracious union, and that communion, and that fellowship with the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in this fifth chapter
of the Ephesians, we didn't read it all, I thought it might take
too long, But he goes on to say, And be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. What a difference! Filled with the Spirit, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart the Lord, giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. How much we have to give thanks
for. I hope we do. And surely the
greatest reason for giving thanks is the salvation of our souls. For the Lord has redeemed our
souls if he saved our souls, what great reason we have to
give thanks. And perhaps we've wasted much
time in not giving thanks, but here we are told then to redeem
the time, to recover it by giving thanks to God. We all have reason
to give thanks for many things naturally, but we all, those
who are called by his grace, have greater reason to give thanks
for the great salvation which was purchased for them through
the death and the shed blood of the blessed Saviour Jesus
Christ. Therefore giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. What gracious instruction we
have surely in the Word of God before us. How needful it is
that you and I are blessed with a wonderful desire to follow
the Word of God. to do his will. It's a blessed
path to walk in the ways of the Lord, because it brings peace
into our heart. The ways of the world is as a
tempestuous sea. There's no peace, saith my God
to the wicked. People think there is, but you
can witness striving after, trying to find peace. in the things
of time. And you see how many wealthy
people, film stars, etc., who have naturally everything that
they might want, they commit suicide. Yes, no peace. No peace. There's no true peace
outside of Christ. Let us remember that. And may
we therefore be found walking in this path, remembering the
gracious words that we have. Walk in wisdom. Godly wisdom. The fear of the Lord, which is
the beginning of wisdom. That's the wisdom that you and
I are to walk in. The fear of the Lord, toward them that are
without, redeeming the time. How necessary it is that God
gives us grace to understand these two words in our lives,
redeeming the time, and not to forget them, and not to put them
aside, and not to make excuses, but to realize this is the Word
of God, the Word of the true God. What a blessing it is then
to know this and to seek after a life of holiness. That's not following the ways
of this world. It's a way of holiness. The Apostle
Peter, when he wrote his epistle the first epistle and he tells
us an account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation sorry
that's the second first epistle in the third chapter the 15th
verses but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asketh you A reason
of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. It's a great blessing, isn't
it? And we always need to be ready. And if people ask you,
well, what is your hope? If you've got nothing, you can't
say anything. But if you have, then the word tells us to be
ready, always, to give an answer to every man that asks you. A
reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. That's not being proud, that's
being very humble because of what the Lord has done. And there
may be many times perhaps when you have not done that. Well,
we're told to redeem the time. So if there are occasions in
the future, then my friends, grasp it with both hands. not
for your own edification, not so people might think well of
you, but that it might be for the honour and glory of God. Because God is glorified by his
work in the lives, in the hearts of his people. And it is no greater
privilege to be able to tell forth what he's done for our
souls. Because we never merited it,
but we were given it. the wonderful favour and blessing
of God. So here we have this statement
tonight, really, redeeming the time. Let that abide with us
in our hearts as we go forth into another week of time, realising
how important it is to be able to be found, as we're told, to
walk in wisdom toward them that are without. Let our speech be
always with grace. seasoned with salt, and also,
as the apostle says to the Ephesians, see then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are
evil. Amen.