I hope if this, by the grace of God, this subject
has caught your ear that you'll take some notes and look at these
things in the word of God as I give you reference to them
and give them some study and prayer. Ephesians 5 and verses 8 through
33 have to do with the believer's
walk. He's already plainly stated,
there's not an epistle in the New Testament clearer on the
salvation of God's elect than Ephesians chapter 1. I remember years ago, Brother
Mahan, I wasn't there at the time, but I remember his testimony
of it. He was at a Southern Baptist
church, They were grooming him out of seminary to be another
Billy Graham. And this church in Ashland, Kentucky
called him up there to be their assistant pastor and song leader. And his wife was singing gospel
music on the radio, and so he and Doris was kind of a team,
which was pretty common for the day back then. And they went
up there, but make a long story short, God saved him. God saved
this preacher who just graduated our seminary. Showed him that
he didn't know anything. And so he began to try to teach
those doctrines of grace in that Southern Baptist church. And
boy, they didn't like it a little bit. And so one morning, he was
reading through the book of Ephesians, and he got down to about verse
five, where he's talking about predestination, and the old deacon
just couldn't take it anymore. He said, I know what you're trying
to do, and we're not gonna have it. And Henry said, well, what
am I trying to do? He said, you're trying to teach
election and predestination. He said, no sir, that's not what
I'm trying to do. Oh, yes it is. Yes it is, that's exactly
what you're trying to do. You're trying to teach election
and predestination. Henry said, no sir, all I'm doing
is reading Ephesians chapter one. He said, is election and
predestination what you got out of it? He said, that's what I
got out of it too, because that's what it says. That's what it
says. And this is what the scripture
says about our salvation in Ephesians chapter one. He clearly states
it. He goes on in Ephesians chapter
two to tell us about the mystery of the Gentiles. This was a mystery,
a hidden mystery. Israel didn't know anything about
it in the days of the Old Testament. It wasn't manifested until after
Christ ascended and went back to heaven. And then here in Ephesians chapter
five, He begins to talk to the people, God's people, about their
walk and their attitude, their affection, their mind, and their
heart. When God delivered Israel out
of Egyptian bondage and oppression, every last soul that came out
of Egypt could say, God saved me. and did, did save. Every last one of them. God saved me. They didn't have
a weapon, they didn't have a warrior, and they had no will to stand
against their adversary, but God sent his messenger down,
and through his word, delivered Israel with such a deliverance that they couldn't help but take
note. When God put Pharaoh on his knees and left his armies
trembling in the house of their dead sons, everybody packed up
a wagon and joined that multitude and lined up behind Moses and
said, God has saved us. God has delivered us. And they
walked out of Egypt and not so much as a dog barked in resistance
to them. God saved us and so he had from
the bondage and oppression of Egypt. But there was a greater
salvation begun of which only a handful knew. There was a handful who knew
what that blood represented that went on that door post and on
that lintel. There was a handful that knew
what the flesh of that lamb was that they had. And only a chosen few had an
interest in it. And God would, over the next
40 years, prove to the world who they were. It would be a long road from
Egypt to the Promised Land, a road upon which men would be tried, A road of hardships and suffering,
a road of temptations and deceit. And along this road came the
temporally saved and the spiritually saved. And they walked hand in
hand. They walked down the same road.
They ate the same meat, drank the same water. Side by side walked those who
truly believed and those who just came along for the benefits. Hand in hand along this road
came those whom God called out of darkness and those who loved
darkness and brought it with them. This mixed company of people
had a long walk ahead of them and they were walking through
a wilderness called sin. And from the beginning of that
walk to the end of it, God was in their presence giving to all
his sweet water. Believers and unbelievers, they
all drank of that water. Cashed that tree in that water.
And we know what that was, that's Christ. Christ crucified. They all ate the heavenly bread. They all worshipped at the tabernacle. They all received the law. All of these things. And in the
end, the pretenders of faith and the imposters of grace died
under the judgment of God. And they could not enter in the
scripture said of them. They heard the gospel preached
the same as it's preached unto us, same as we did. But they
could not enter in because of unbelief. There is a general deliverance
established in the minds of men who come to see the facts of
the gospel. As they are in harmony, they
begin to see the gospel in harmony with the word of God. They see
it in their mind. If you can get one to shut up
long enough and open his eyes and read it in the scripture,
he can't help but agree with it because that's what the scriptures
teach. Salvation by grace. Salvation in Christ. Salvation is of God, the sovereign
God. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy and whom I will I'll harden. That's the sovereign
God. There's a general deliverance.
And men hear it and it's established in their minds who come and hear
the facts of the gospel and see them in harmony with the Word
of God. The old taskmaster and his whip have been removed. You can't oppress him anymore
with that bondage because he sees deliverance in the Word
of God. He sees in the word an accomplished
redemption, a divine victory, a fulfillment of the word of
promise. And he's dotted all his I's and crossed all of his
T's. And he can argue doctrine with
the best theologians of his day. But he has not embraced the Lord
Jesus Christ in his heart. That's the difference. He has not seen the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ has not
enabled him to cry, Abba, Father, as a true heir. He walks with
Moses, but he cannot rejoice with Moses. He brings his basket to gather
up the bread, but his soul loatheth that light bread. And though his feet, his very
feet, are planted on the ground of promise, yet his heart is
still in the flesh pots back in Egypt. Believers walk with the Lord,
and this walk is through a wilderness of sin, and they walk not just
a physical walk, but they walk in a walk established in their
hearts. And just as those old Israelites
had their scorpions and snakes and spiders and lions, we've
got venomous men all around us. with a poison of asp under their
lips. Predatorial dogs, Paul said beware
of dogs. He's not talking about puppy
dogs, he's talking about dogs, predatorial dogs, religious wolves
in sheep's clothing. And we have the devil himself
as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour. Oh,
what are you saying, preacher? I'm saying this walk is impossible
with men. That's what I'm saying. Now,
you better hear what I'm telling you. This walk with men is impossible. Our Lord had a man come to him
that was perfect in every way. And he said, what must I do to
be saved? Well, you keep the law. Oh, all
those things have I done from my youth up. Really? Well, you don't have no trouble
with this then. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor
and take up your cross. Now listen and follow me. Follow me. Get rid of all of
it. Follow me. Follow me. Bear that cross. And he went away sorrowful. And
the disciples were just standing there with their mouth open and
they said, who then can be saved? And the Lord said, with man it's
impossible. That's what I'm telling you this
morning. This thing, this walk through this wilderness of sin
is impossible with man. They couldn't sweeten the waters.
They couldn't cause water to come out of the rock. They couldn't
cause manna to fall from heaven. They couldn't have the quail
that God gave them freely. They didn't know a thing about
worship. With man, it's impossible. But with God, it's a different story, ain't
it? We can't drink that bitter water.
There's a tree right over there. You cut that down, throw it in
the water. That water just sweet as sugar. Huh? We ain't got no water. There's
over a million of us. And we got cattle and sheep.
And all of this, there's no water. Moses, take your staff and smoke
that rock. Huh? Water, so much water came
out of that. I can't even fathom a million
people in tents, can you? And cattle and all their possessions
and wagons and all this stuff. And that rock followed them.
They're where they went. You see what I'm saying? This
walk from Egypt to Canaan was made possible by the Lord. He
destroyed the enemies that sought to kill them, grounded them in
the sea, He provided for them everything
they need. He taught them how to worship.
He brought them right up to the river and even let some go over
into the promised land to look. And yet this walk is absolutely
necessary for God will prove both to you and to the world
that he's truly saved your soul and made you an heir of glory. Peter said, the trial of your
faith being much more precious than that of gold that perishes,
though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. You see, faith ain't of man. Faith is of God. By grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Now when
God gives a gift to a man, he's gonna prove to the world that
this is his gift. Because there's 100,000 more
over here saying, I have faith. We'll see. We'll see. Ephesians five begins with these
words. Be ye therefore followers of
God. Now listen, as dear children, And walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us and has given himself for us in offering a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling sake. I'm to walk as a child of God. We are to follow God as dear
children, children by his own purpose and design. having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. And dear children, beloved of
God, who gave us His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We are dear children, children
for whom He was willing to suffer and die. Dear children, children that
he chose. My soul, you can do what you
want to with election, but I tell you, if you look at it as it's
set forth in the scripture, you're talking about the all-wise God
choosing a people. He didn't make no mistakes. He
knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing. We're dear children. He said we are aforeprepared
unto glory. He made preparation for his children
before there was a child. Huh? Isn't that what it says? Timothy Paul said God has saved
us. Out there, they're talking about
saving themselves, and out here, they're talking about working
out a salvation. They're talking about a plan
of salvation that a man has to follow. Paul said, Timothy, God
saved us. And then he called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus.
Now listen, before the world began, Before ever there was
a child, God loved him and chose him and predestinated him as
an heir. Dear children, for prepared unto
glory. Children he made a covenant for
and appointed for them a surety. I was just a young man, just
a boy growing up. Some of you older fathers ought
to be able to identify with this. My dad was just my dad. He's just my dad. Now, I knew he was the source
of my being. I was told that. He's my dad.
That's your father. And I knew he was the source
of my daily care. He brought home a check. We went
out and bought groceries and paid the bills and was able to
have a house. He was the source of my daily
care, and I knew he was the source of the authority in our home.
I'd heard his voice raised before, and sometimes his hand. But when I got older, I saw what
a sacrifice it required of him to have me. Well, I just thought I was hanging
out. I didn't know I cost anybody anything. Well, I talked to him about buying
things for me. Well, daddy, it's only $40. I
had no sense of what $40 was. I began to see what a sacrifice
it required of him to have me and to provide for me and to
watch over me. And it was all give and no receive. I took his love for granted. And then in time, I saw the pain
and suffering I caused him and the shame I brought upon his
name. by my disobedience. And as I began to see these things,
my love and respect for him began to grow. My desire then was to honor him
with my attitude and conduct. Why? Because I loved him. He wasn't my authority anymore.
He was my dad, but I was married now. And I was the head of my
own house. And I wasn't under any law to
do it, but I wanted to honor him in my conduct and in my habits. I wanted to assist him in his
labor. If he needed something done,
I wanted to help. If he needed his yard mowed,
I wanted to help. If he had to put on a roof, I'm
going to help him. I wanted to assist him in his
labor. I wanted to remember him and
pay regard to him on the special days that were set apart to honor
him. I wanted to follow after him
as a dear son. and not just a debt that he got
stuck with. Our Heavenly Father loved us
and made provision of us in His Son before we even had a being. He came and redeemed us who were
under the law and paid everything we owed that we might receive
the adoption of sons. He justified us by His resurrection
and by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
And he set our heavenly provision down at his right hand, securing
us for all eternity. You hear what Paul's saying?
Walk as dear children, realizing the shame and reproach and the
things that you took for granted and the things that you did.
before you knew what you were doing. Paul said, I did those
things ignorantly and unbelief. And be ye followers of God. Now so often I'm told this, I
quit trying to keep count. This writer said, or that writer
said, or this man said, or that preacher said, I'm interested
in what God said, ain't you? What's God say about that? If
that man has anything in him at all, he's not just gonna say
it, he's gonna say, see, it says it right here. Boy, there's no
way out then, is there? Huh? You have to back up, you
have to backpedal then. Walk as dear children, be followers
of God. Ephesians 5 verse 8. For you
were sometimes darkness. Now I want you to look at that
real close. That didn't say you were sometimes in darkness, though
you were. That didn't say you followed
after darkness, though you did. What that says is you were. Darkness. Oh boy, that puts a whole different
light on it, don't it? Our Lord said, if the light that
be in thee, that is that understanding, what you think you know, if that
light that be in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? If even the things you know are
total pitch black, how great is that darkness? You were sometimes darkness,
but now you're light in the Lord. Oh, my soul. Walk as children
of light. Huh? We don't. I'm gonna tell you something.
Light is an amazing thing when you start looking at it in Scripture.
It's an amazing thing. Did you know light is the very
first thing that the Lord mentions when he opens the book of God
in the book of Genesis? Let there be light. Because everything else is of
no consequence without the light. You see, creation and the people
in it and the fall of man and the coming of Christ, this is
the purpose of God to manifest His sovereign grace and glory. This is why it's being made.
So the first thing He did is create light. Let's put light
on the whole thing. I'm going to put light on creation.
I'm going to put light on the people. I'm going to put light
on the fall. I'm going to put light on the destruction of the
world. I'm going to put light all from beginning to end. And
then when he redeems his people, the last thing he tells us in
the book of Revelation, don't need that sun anymore. Not gonna
need a candle anymore. For the light of the glory of
God is gonna lighten it. Oh, my soul. In John's gospel, he tells us
in his opening remarks that in him, that is in Christ, The eternal
word was life, and the life was the light of men. We don't know
anything at all about God except what we learn in Christ. He's
the manifestation of God. You wanna know something about
salvation, study Christ. You wanna know if God's truly
just, you study Christ. Anything you want to know about
God, right there, you follow that man. You look to him, you
study him, and you'll find out who God is. The light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. You know, we, in this
generation, I listen to men preach and try to understand what they're
saying. And these men get on here and
they start talking about the darkness in the bars and the
darkness in the brothels and the darkness here and the darkness
there. Our Lord said, here's the condemnation. Light came
into the world. Perfect light. Eternal light. Godly light. Light came into
the world and men loved darkness rather than light. That's the
condemnation. If man wasn't a fallen being,
every man here would fall down on his face and believe God. But instead, it takes an act
of God's sovereign grace to draw him to Christ, to make him willing
in the day of his power, and to make him confess who Christ
is. God's people are people in whom
God commanded his light to shine. That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians
4. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, way back yonder in the beginning, has
shined in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The light and
glory of his love and his grace and his sovereign will and his
purpose and his long-suffering and kindness and wisdom and his
power. Yea, light in the Lord. Walk
as children of light. And then thirdly, he tells us
in verse 11 here in Ephesians 5, Have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. So that
means we're fruit inspectors and we go around condemning everything.
No, that's not what that means. There's an example of that in
the scripture in the book of Isaiah. You read in one chapter, Isaiah's
woe and everything coming and going. Woe is the drunkard, woe
is the harlot, woe is the adulterer. He's just woe and everything,
coming and going. Sound like one of these TV evangelists. And then he gets over in the
next chapter and he said, in the day when King Uzziah died,
that was his hero, King Uzziah. He practically worshipped him.
He wrote everything King Uzziah did down in a book. Kept his
autobiography from start to finish. He loved Uzziah. But Uzziah dishonored
God and was gonna go into that tabernacle and do what God ordained
for the priest to do. He gonna do it himself. And God
smote him with leprosy. And he had to stay outside the
camp of Israel and he died a leper. And Isaiah said, in the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Then what happened? He said, woe is me. Huh? He quit woe and everything around
him. He said, woe is me. I'm a man of, you mean all these
things I've been, well, that's what I am. I'm a man of unclean
lips. Oh, my soul, what a difference. The believer will not, cannot
find and enjoy social fellowship with ungodly and profane people. In 2 Corinthians 6.14, Paul said,
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. That's not
just talking about marriage. He's talking about business arrangements. He's talking about all kinds
of relationships. Don't be unequally yoked together.
There's an unequal yoke. One going one way and one the
other. What if you hitched up two oxen and one's facing you
and the other one's facing away from you and you crack that whip
and they're doing this? Be not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. There's no common ground. The
only thing common is you both like to fish or you both like
to hunt or you both like this or that. That's the only thing
you got in common. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? And what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? In 1 John 1, 5 it said, this
then is the message which we've heard of him and declare unto
you. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we
say we have fellowship with him, are you listening? And walk in
darkness, we lie. All I know is what he said, he's
a liar. Isn't that what God said? We say we have fellowship with
him, we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But
if we walk in the light, Because he is the light. Now we got fellowship
one with another. We're walking in the same light. Old preacher, I loved him so
dearly, he's dead now. He told me one time, he said,
you know what fellowship is? He said, fellowship is fellers
in the same ship. That's what fellowship is. Fellows
in the same ship. If we walk in the light, as he
is the light, we're in the same ship. We got the same light. And we'll have fellowship one
with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanseth us from all sin. We were sometimes darkness, but
now ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. I
had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them. How does a believer reprove the
works of darkness? How does he do that? By walking
in the light. I remember this real religious
man, he went to seminary with Brother Henry and they went out
to eat In the afternoon, he come to hear Henry preach, and then
they went out in the afternoon to eat, and the waitress brought
the meal, and Henry began to cut his meat and get ready to
eat, and the guy said, well, wait a minute. He said, we got
to pray. And Henry said, well, I just,
I don't believe in this praying out loud in the public, out in
restaurants and stuff. He said, there's too much hypocrisy
in it. Well, he said, how people gonna know if you're a believer
if they don't hear you pray? And Henry said, they'll get a
good idea when they see the tip. God's people are generous. They're
caring, loving people. That's how we reprove the works
of darkness. Of course, we walk in the light. We walk in the light and we have
fellowship. one with another. Fourthly, to walk we must arise. Look here in Ephesians 5 verse
14. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou
that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give
thee light. The man who's content to lie
in his sins, to just turn loose and go on
as he was, he's content to see no change. He's content to do
nothing, just go on with his life as it is. He's here likened
to either one who is asleep or one that is dead. You know, he could be talking
about both. Lazarus, he said, sleepest. And
I said, well, if he sleeps, he's doing fine. He's doing okay. The Lord told him plainly, no,
he's dead. But you said he was sleeping. He is. But he's dead. He's dead. God's elect must be
quickened who were dead, Yet because of their provision in
Christ, they're said to be asleep. But I believe most likely that
what this is talking about here is concerning the carelessness
and indifference that believers are so prone to fall into. Paul said, knowing the time,
that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for our salvation
is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent,
the day is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness
and let us put on the armor of light, Romans 13, 11 and 12. And again, he says, put ye on
the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to
fulfill the lust thereof. All right, 50. Ephesians 5 verse
15. See then that you walk circumspectly. What on earth does that mean? That means being aware of the
circumstance, aware of what's going on around you and what's
going on in you. That's what that meant. See that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools. The fool just walks. I told my
children, I said, you know, I'm giving you some advice and you're
just half listening to me. I said, I've been all the way
down this road. And I've fallen in every hole
in it. And I can tell you where the
holes are if you listen. But if you'd rather go down the
road and fall in holes like I did, there it is. There it is. Don't walk as fools. There's no reason for a believer
to be a fool. He has the wisdom of God. He
has Christ. He's our wisdom. God has He's abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence. There's no excuse for us to be
fools. Don't walk like a fool. Just
because somebody you know and love walks as a fool, that don't
mean you have to. Walk as wise, redeeming the time
because the days are evil. To walk circumspectly means to
walk looking around, being aware. Brother Brian told me when he
was just a toddler out in Indigo, California, he was toddling around
there and his mom and dad were outside and he was about to walk
and step on the sidewinder rattlesnake. He didn't know no better, he
was a toddler. He was going around, his daddy come over and gooped
him up, carried him out of harm's way. Don't walk as fools, don't walk
blindly, but as wise. Look to your calling
and election and examine your faith. Take careful note of your
worship and your prayer and your devotional life. Wise men walk
with God, redeeming the time, understanding the evil or evils
of the day. And then he tells us this, wherefore
be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Is anybody here this morning
even interested in what the will of God is? I listen to people talk, and
God's not even in it. It's just about what I want,
or what my family needs, or what this one needs, or somebody else
needs. God ain't in it. And here, he tells us to be not
unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. We ought to be interested in
the will of the Lord, for he worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. That alone ought to get me interested
in the will of God. How am I going to know what's
going on if I don't know the will of God? Since Christ came
to do His will, and in the volume of the book it testified of Christ
coming to do His will, and since it was this will that Christ
accomplished, His redemptive will, by which we're sanctified
through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all, That of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth. Anybody interested in that? No,
we want to go back and justify our professions. We want to go
back and justify our experiences. We want to go back. Why are you
going back for? Faith ain't back. Faith is right
here, right now. If you don't have faith right
now, you didn't have faith back then. And if you've got to go
back then to justify your faith, you still don't have faith. Faith
is current, it's active, it's moving, it's working. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of truth. Are we even aware that we're
predestinated under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself? according to the good pleasure
of his will. Do we know this? Having made
known unto us the mystery of his will. We don't have to guess about
what God's will is. I know what God's will is. Here's another comforting passage.
God is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. He's not willing for those he
chose in Christ and those for whom Christ died to perish. They're
not ever gonna perish. Everyone that the Father gave
the Son is gonna come to the Son, and he that cometh to the
Son will, he said, I'll no wise cast out. He's never gonna perish,
I give unto them eternal life, and they'll never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand or my father's hand,
and my father and I are one. Is that comforting? God's will
is that I never perish if I've come to Christ. Boy, I tell you,
that comforts me. That it's the will of God that
everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have
everlasting life. No wonder he told us to pray
and then to say, not my will, but thy will be done. You know that it's the result
of God's will that you were born of God? Not of blood. Not of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. It's God's will. God's will. And people go on for hours talking
about the will of man, worried about the will of man. The will
of man is not the issue. It's the will of God. The question is not, what am
I going to do for my Lord? To this end, He both died was
buried and resurrected, that He might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. The issue is not what you're
going to do for Him, it's what He's going to do with you. That's
the issue. That ought to give us some interest
in the will of God, shouldn't it? What's my Lord going to do
with me? The wise man hunts for the understanding
of the will of God. Are you with me so far? I'm just
about out of time, but I want you to go home and study these
things, and I'll bring part two of this message next week. But he tells us here, he goes
on to tell us, and this is just a little bit about what we'll
talk about next week, that we are to be filled with the Spirit.
And we're gonna talk about that. How does a man get filled with
the Spirit of God? He tells us to speak to ourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in our heart. Tells us to be thankful for all
things. Submit yourselves one to another
in the fear of God. Anybody interested in the will
of God? Boy, I tell you, I am. I am. because he's not gonna do anything
that's not his will. Our God, David said, is in the
heavens. He done whatsoever he pleased. That's what he did. That's what
he did. He's not gonna do what I want.
He's gonna do what he wills, what he wills. And oh, thank
God that he makes his people willing in the day of his power. May God give us some understanding
of this walk and teach us to walk with him. Thank you.