Ephesians 5. Paul is speaking
here in verse 7 concerning our walk in society among the unsaved,
those who live especially in open and profane sins. And he
says Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For you were sometimes
darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children
of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Prove him, verifying
what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, expose
them. For it is a shame even to speak
of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things
that are exposed, reproved, are made manifest, are revealed.
How? By the light. For whatsoever
doeth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou
that sleepeth, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools,
but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit." One of the problems that you
and I have difficulty with as we read the Scriptures And it
gets very discouraging to us sometimes, is knowing how to
apply these things. I think if I had had some good
teacher to set me down when I was in school and tell me how I could apply math
and geometry to my life when I got out of school, I would
have probably been more apt to listen. But I thought, there's
no way. I remember thinking this so clearly.
There's no way that I'm going to use this in my life. And therefore,
I wasn't interested in it. That's the trouble we have sometimes
when we read scripture. How do I apply this to my life? Well, there are some things that
we apply simply by believing. We don't do anything. We simply
sit and believe what we hear. That familiar scripture in John
20, where the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples, and Thomas
wasn't there. The Lord appeared to him and
showed him His hands and His feet, and He said, Thomas, you've
seen Me, and you believe, and blessed you are, but blessed
are those who have not seen Me and believe. And then He makes
this statement. He said, all these things were
written, these things that Christ has done, all these are written
that you might believe. and that believing you might
have life through His name. There is a sense, a most definite
sense, in which Jesus Christ is not our example at all. You say, Bruce, don't the Scripture
say that He is? Yes, but not in everything. He was born to the virgin. That's
not our example, is it? He did all of these miracles.
He raised the dead. He healed the lepers, cleansed
them. And he died upon Calvary's tree, a vicarious sacrifice for
sin. And he raised from the dead and
they saw him. And he said, all of these things
concerning me are written. And this is the way you apply
them. You just believe it. And believe and you have life
through his name. When you and I read the gospel
and when the gospel is preached, we do nothing but sit and believe
it. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. Well, how do we apply that? We
just believe it. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things. I tell you, it's been one of
the greatest blessings to me, and I know it has been to you
too. I don't know how long some of you have been on the road,
but I know this. Isn't it a blessing for you to
just sit and believe that you're saved by grace through faith?
You still apply that, don't you? Paul was right into this church
here. And I don't know how old some of them were in the Lord.
Some of them may well have been saved at Pentecost. And then
there have been older Christians in the Lord. And yet he writes
to them in chapter 2 and says, by grace are you saved through
faith. And somebody said, how do I apply
that? Just by believing it. Just by believing it. By grace
are you saved through faith. But there are other things that
we apply by practice. And that's what you and I have
been studying on now for quite some time in Paul's epistles. And he tells us here in verse
8. You were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the
Lord. Walk you as children of light. There was a time when we could
not walk. Because we were dead. Dead men
don't walk today. There was a time when we couldn't
see how to walk because we were in darkness. But now, he said,
you can walk because now are you light in the Lord. The Spirit of Christ is in you.
And He is the light. Now you can see in His light,
we have light. And now what can we do? Well,
now we can walk. Now we can walk. We have this
light. If you ask me a good definition
between being saved as opposed to being lost, I guess the best
definition is this. Now you're light. Now you're
light. One of the best descriptions
of what it means to be saved is when the Lord Jesus was seated
and eating with those two disciples that didn't know Him after His
resurrection. They just knew that this man
wasn't different. This man was different than everybody
else around them. He had been walking with them
and preaching with them, and they said, our hearts are burning
within us. But he said it meet with them, and the Scripture
says their eyes were opened, and they knew Him. That's salvation,
ain't it? That's salvation. We were in
darkness. It's just like being in this
room, and everything's dark. You can't see. But flip the lights
on. Then everything becomes clear.
The eyes of our understanding are darkened. And then the Lord,
He gives light. And what is that? It is Himself. When He comes, light comes with
Him. Their eyes were opened and they
knew Him. How do I know I am saved? How
do you know you are saved? Because your eyes were opened
and now you know Him. Now, now you have light. Now you can walk. Walk you as
children of light. Be you therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love. Run with patience the
race that is set before you. Take up your cross daily and
follow me. Stand fast in the Lord. We can
walk, we can run, we can stand. How can we do what we never could
have done before? Now are you light in the Lord. And verse 8 here tells us how
we walk. How do we walk? As children. Walk ye as children. This is
something, brothers and sisters, we've got to remember. We walk
as children. We don't walk as slaves, dreading
the whip. We don't walk as a harlan, waiting
for a payday. We don't walk as the pharisee,
earning his way to heaven. But he says here, we walk as
children of light. Children of God, O glorious calling. It shall come to pass that in
the place where it was said of them, You are not my people,
there it shall be said, They are the children of the living
God." Walk as children of light. Now are you the sons of God. What a wonderful position to
be in. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it a wonderful relationship
to be children of God? That's just what he's saying.
How do we walk? Walk as children. And he tells us here to walk in a way. Walk as children of
God. In other words, he said this.
Realize who you are. Remember who you are and walk
accordingly. Who are you? You're children.
How should children walk? Isn't it a sad thing when you
see a child or children, they're walking in such a way that brings
reproach upon their parents? They have such good parents,
but when they go out into the world, they don't act like they
have good parents. They more or less forget what
their parents have taught them. That's such a sad thing. Well,
that's what the Apostle Paul is saying here. Look what he
says down here in verse 15 again. See then. See what he says? See
then. He says up here for us to walk
as children of light, and then he goes on and says, See then
that you walk circumspectly. Since you're children, make sure
you walk as a child. Don't forget who you are and
who your Father is. God is your Father. Walk that
way as a child of God. This word circumspectly, walk
circumspectly, it means carefully or diligently, and I like the
one definition, exactly. Exactly. Have you ever heard
a parent tell the child, you do exactly? Like I tell you to
do. That's what that word is, exactly.
And there's sometimes when we're teaching our children, it's essential
that they listen to us and practice exactly what we tell them. If
you tell your child that ten times ten is one hundred, it's a great error on their part
if they don't do that exactly. Because 10 times 10 is not 99
or 101. That's close, but it's not close
enough, is it? Math isn't an exact science,
they tell us. 2 plus 2 equals 4, and that's
got to be exact figure. If we look at math, and it's
that technical series, how technical is our walk as children of God? Paul said, let this be your aim. Let this be your prayer. Study
to do this. Walk exactly as children of God. See them that you walk exactly,
he said, and look at this, as opposed to fools. See them that
you walk circumspectly as wise and not as fools. Well, how does
a fool walk? I'll tell you how a fool walks.
He walks as if there's no God at all. The fool has said in
his heart, there is no God, and he thinks that way. That's the
whole problem with lost people, is the way they think. As a man
thinks in his heart, so is he. And since they think in their
heart, there's no God. They live that way, don't they?
They practice that. You remember that rich man that
had all the barns and all the fruits, and he was sitting one
night at his desk, and he was just whistling away, doing his
figures. And he said, I've got so much
that I don't know what I'm going to do with it. So he said, I'm going to turn
in my barns, I'm going to take all this fruit, and I'm going
to store it in these barns, and I'm going to say to my soul,
you've got many goods laid up for many years. Just eat. and
drink and be merry. And what did God say to that
man? He said, you're thinking like the fool. You foolish person. This very night shall your life
be required of you, and then whose will these things be? Don't
live like that. As a child of God, you should
never live and do anything in your life that would indicate
you do not believe that God is your Father. Walk circumspectly. As children of light, we should
always endeavor to walk exactly, never drifting off into the darkness
by foolish thinking. Ask wise. Ask wise. Paul calls himself a wise master
builder, didn't he? He says, I've laid the foundation.
And I'm telling you, he laid it exactly. He dug down deep
and laid this foundation, and that was Christ. And he says,
now you build upon this foundation. You're builders. How do we build
upon this foundation? We build as wise people. We build
exactly. That's so important, isn't it?
The Lord Jesus told us about a wise man. He said, I'll show
you a wise man. A wise man is the man that hears
these sayings of mine, and he does them. He keeps them. He digs down, he gets on this
foundation, he begins to build this house, and he takes these
measurements and he measures twice. He does his plumbing and
he makes sure everything is tight. When he does his electrical work,
he makes sure the negative is on the negative pole and the
positive is on the positive pole. He's a wise builder. You know
how we build wisely? By building according to the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll show you a wise man, he
said. He that heareth these sayings of mine, And he does so. He'll
be like a man that digs down deep and begins to build his
house on the rock, and when the rains come and when the floods
descend and the wind blows, his house will stand. Why? Because he's a wise man. He's
built upon this rock. Boy, there's something reassuring
about building according to code. You know it. I bet Terrence knows
something about this, because he just finished his building. If you're going to call for an
inspector, you want to make sure it's right, don't you? We don't
have that problem over where I live, see. We don't have to
have anything inspected. You don't want to buy my house
either, I tell you. I've often thought if I ever
go to sell my house, there's so many things I either got to
write down and tell people about, or I got to go back and fix them.
I wasn't concerned about things being exact, because I don't
have an inspector to come and inspect them. Isn't it reassuring though, in
a spiritual sense, to seek to build exactly? To go by this
book, this code book? And then when you think you've
got to stand before the heavenly inspector, you can have a confidence
that we've walked We've regulated our walk according to His blessed
word. I tell you, that's a source of
confidence. The Lord told Jeremiah like this.
He said, ask for the old paths. We're in this the good way. And
walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls. Walk in
these old paths. That's the place where we can
have confidence. That's the place where we have
rest for our souls. We're told in Matthew 25 of some
worth wise and foolish people. See that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise. Remember the ten virgins? Five
of them were wise and five were foolish. Five of them took oil
in their vessels, and five of them took oil. And in the daylight
hours, everybody was fine. Everybody could see. But the
Lord carried His coming. The bridegroom carried His coming.
And it got late into the night, about midnight. Then the sound
went out, the bridegroom comes, go you out to meet Him. And those
five foolish virgins said, we can't see. We can't see. What's the problem? We have no
oil in our vessels. And those who have oil went to
meet the bridegroom. Now, it may be alright as long
as things are going pretty good. But I'm telling you, when the
Lord seems to delay His coming, and trial comes, and darkness
comes, we better have light then. That's not produced from some
human source. We better have the light of the
Holy Spirit within our hearts. And that's what the Apostle Paul
tells us here in verse 18. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit. There's two things
that we need to walk in the light. We need the sayings of Christ.
We need His Word. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my pathway. And the second thing that we
must have is the blessed Holy Spirit. The Word tells us how
to walk. The Holy Spirit gives us grace
to walk. We cannot live, we cannot walk, without these two. Walk circumspectly. Walk as children
of light. See that you walk exactly. Don't deviate from it. And then
what will happen? Well, the context says that you'll
find yourself then walking in the light. You'll find yourself
not having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Then you'll find that by the gospel you believe and the life
that you lead, we'll be exposing sin for what it really is. It's
almost a natural occurrence. If we'll apply these things to
our life, walk as Christ tells us to walk, walk in the Spirit,
It's almost something that's natural. I don't say it's a formula. I hate that, don't you? Let me
give you a formula for how to raise your kids. Well, I'll tell
you what you can do with your formula. Keep it to yourself,
because they don't work. They don't work. There ain't
no such thing as formulas. But when we walk in the light
as children of God, when we take His Word and let that be our
rule, and we walk in the Spirit, it seems like these things just
naturally happen. You'll find yourself avoiding
unpleasant, unsavory, unwholesome company. And you'll find out
the life you're leading, though you may not know it, but it will
reprove sin. It will expose sin for what it
is. And he made that statement there
in verse 13. But all things that are reproved,
all things that are exposed, How are they exposed? Well, they
are made manifest by the light. But whatsoever doeth make manifest
is light. What exposes darkness? Light. God has many lights that he uses
to expose sin. Sometimes he does it by his word
alone. He just sends his word, and boy,
there it is, exposing darkness. Sometimes he does it by his providence.
He's laid people upon their backs on the hospital bed, and while
they were laying there, they think, oh my soul, what have
I done? I didn't even know it. Sometimes
He does it just by His Spirit coming to us. But you know how
He often does it? Through the church. You are the
light of the world. That's why the church is not
supposed to be in the world. Church is supposed to walk in
the world. She is different. She is walking
in the light. And as she walks in the light,
what happens? She shines into the darkness
of this dark world. And there, sin is exposed for
what it really is. Now, verse 14 is easily understood in the light of this context.
He says here in verse 14, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepeth,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Boy, don't you feel your need for this exhortation. The Apostle
Paul cries out to this church, Awake thou that sleepeth, He
cries this to us, and the Spirit cries this to us, and we feel
our need of it. Do you ever feel like you're
just sleeping? That you're slumbering? Do you ever feel like you're
the deadness of your spirit? You're just dead? David often
complained about this. So the Scriptures and the apostles
and the Spirit, and we cry one to another. Awake turns! Awake! Arise from the dead! And this literally means, and
Christ shall shine upon you." That's what we want, isn't it?
Christ to shine upon us. Well, he said, if that's what
you want, then shake yourself from this deadness. Awake out
of your sleep and your slumber, and Christ shall shine upon thee. Boy, this is language that's
used all through the Bible. Let me show you three or four
places. Look over here in Isaiah 52. Look in Isaiah 52, verses
1 through 2. This is scriptural language and
it is speaking to the church. It is just the way the Holy Spirit
is pleased to preach to us. And look what he says in Isaiah
52, verses 1 and 2. Isaiah 52, verse 1. Awake! If you're going by somebody's
house and you've got to get them up, what do you do? Awake! Awake! Look at this. Put on thy
strength, O Zion. What is Zion's strength? Christ. Is He not? Be strong in the Lord. But can we put Him on if we're
sleeping? Arise! Awake! Put on Christ,
he said. Put on his strength. Put on thy
beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. Put on Christ's
robe of righteousness. Put him on in your memory. Put
him on in your conscience. Put on Christ. But to do that,
what do we have to do? We have to be awakened because
we're sleeping, we're slumbering in our spirits. From henceforth
there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the
unclean." Shake thyself from the dust. Arise and sit down,
O Jerusalem. Shake yourself from this world
and its cares and its pleasures that we so often get entangled
in. Arise from these things. Rise
out of the dust. Just John Bunyan told about the
old muckraker. And I see myself in him so often. He said this old man had a rake
and he's bent over raking down and around in the muck. And over
his head was a crown of gold. But he couldn't see it because
he's muckraking. I often think of myself. And
that's what the apostle is crying out. Awake! Wake out of your
sleep, you children of God! Look here what he says in Isaiah
chapter 60. Just over to your right is Isaiah
chapter 60. This is where some of the commentators
tell us that they got Ephesians chapter 5 and the verse that we were talking
about, verse 14. And it probably is because it
goes right along with it. Awake and arise from the dead. Arise, shine. Awake out of your sleep and shine. That's a good message for the
church, especially in our day in. Arise, you are the light
of the world. Wake up and shine, for thy light
is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Christ has shined into your heart. Now rise, and he will shine through
you to this dark world. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall
arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen Isn't that amazing? He's telling the church this.
And who's going to see that glory? Some lost people. The lost people. And look what he says in verse
3, And the Gentiles shall come to thy light. I told you the last time we looked
at this passage that light is attractive, ain't it? Light is
attractive. If you're lost, And you see light. Aren't you drawn to that light?
Well, that's what he's saying to the church. Church, listen.
You're children of God. You're the light of the world.
You're sleeping. You're slumbering. Arise and
shake yourself from this earth. And Christ shall shine. The glory
of Christ shall be seen upon you. And that attracts people.
That attracts lost people. When Peter was going over to
preach to Cornelius' house, he got over there to preach, and
there was a whole house full of people there waiting on him.
And they said, we're all here to hear. We're all here to hear. What was going on with those
people? Something had attracted them. That's what the church
does. It's salt. And it should make
the world thirsty for the water. It's light, and it should attract
a lost world that's in darkness. It's not enough just to tell
people, don't do this and don't do that. Self-righteousness just
drives people away. Did you know it? Look how the
Pharisees drove the publicans and the harlots away. They didn't
want anything to do with those publicans and sinners, and the
publicans and sinners didn't want anything to do with them.
The Pharisees, in what they believed, weren't attracted. They never
attracted anybody. Life is attractive. Brothers
and sisters, as a church, we should be attracted to the Lord. The gospel we preach, they should
say, My, I've never heard of anything like that. That sounds
wonderful. It sounds like what I need. Oh, I can't live a Christian
life, but I watch that man and I watch that woman live a Christian
life, and they tell me how they do it. I think that's what I
want. I think that's what I want. A
Christian life should be attractive, don't you think? That's what
he says here. The Gentiles shall come. They
shall come to your light. I find this to be a very good
exhortation for us. Awake, thou that sleepeth. Arise from the dead, and Christ
shall shine on you. And when Christ shines, people
will be attracted to this congregation, to the gospel we believe. Look
over here in one more place. Look in Romans chapter 13. If you look through the scriptures,
especially Paul's epistles, you'll find that he often uses this
very language that's in our text. Arise, now that sleepeth. Awake from the dead. And look
how he says it here in verse 11 of Romans 13. And that's knowing the times.
that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our
salvation 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. Let us walk honestly as in the
day, not in writing drunkenness and chamorin and wantonness,
not in strife or envy, but put you on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof."
That's the very same language that he's been using all through
the last part of chapter 4 of Ephesians and chapter 5. And
now he sums this walking up by saying this, I'll give you good
instruction. on how not to walk as other Gentiles
walk in the vanity of their minds. That you should put off this
old man with his needs and put on this new man. Walk in truth
as opposed to a lie. Be kind and tender hearted as
opposed to being angry and full of wrath. Walk this way. But then he sums it up and says
this to us, you're going to have to wake up. You're going to have
to stay awake. You're going to have to rise
and shake yourself. And then you'll find Christ is shining
upon you. Now it is high time to awake. You know what's said of all those
virgins in Matthew chapter 25? They all slumbered and slept. So we have a need of this exhortation. Awake, velvet sleeper. Let every
man examine his own conscience. If we're going to apply this
to the lost, awake thou that sleepeth, and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall give thee light, then we'll apply it this
way. If some lost person, and they
often use this excuse, my son used this excuse, and he says
something like this, I can't awake. You can't wake
yourself up. You sure can't give yourself
life. But here is the secret if we apply this to a lost man.
He saith. That makes a difference doesn't
it? For he saith. When he speaks to a person, you
hear what he says. Then you can awake. Then you
will rise from the dead. That's the difference. Hear him. Hear the voice of the Son of
God. Then you'll awake. You remember when the Lord Jesus
was preaching in the temple, in the synagogue, and there was
a man there with a withered hand, a little drawn-up hand, and he
could hardly use it? And the Lord Jesus said, Stretch
forth your hand. That's an utter impossibility.
But he did it. He did it. There was a woman
that had been bent over for 18 long years, and the Scripture
says she could in no wise straighten herself up until the Lord Jesus
said, Woman, you're loosed. Then immediately, Lazarus lay
in the grave for days, and he began to stink. Would you have
thought that man could have rose from the dead? You and I had
gone there, and we could have hollered all day, Wait! Come out! Arise from the dead!"
Nothing would have happened. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, Lazarus, come forth, that's it. That's what lost people must
do. Share His voice. Today, if you will, share His
voice. And as soon as a lost man hears,
he'll awake. He'll live. Let me read a passage
that I'm thinking about. Over in Isaiah 55. Listen to
this. The Lord Jesus is speaking here. Ho, everyone that thirsts, come
ye to the waters. Why do you spend your money for
that which is not bread? Why do you labor for that which
never satisfy? Hearken diligently unto me. and eat you that which is good,
and let your soul delight itself in fatness." And then he says,
"...incline your ear and come unto me, hear, and your soul
shall live." Hear! That's the problem with lost
people, ain't it? They don't want to hear. They
don't want to hear. But as soon as they hear, they
will live. Hear, and your soul shall live. That's where you and I were.
We weren't able to walk either. We were asleep too. We were dead.
And did we not hear? And when we heard Him, did we
not awake? And did we not live? The hour
is coming in which the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live." When they hear His voice,
does He speak out of heaven right into your heart? Is that how
you hear the Son of God? No. Right here is Him speaking. From Genesis through Revelation,
these are they who testify of me. The words that I speak unto
you, they are spirit and they are life. And Peter said, Lord,
I've heard. They're life to me. They're life
to me. See them that you walk circumspectly. Not as fools, but as wise. But to walk that way. we are
going to always have to be awakened and arising from the dust of
our deadness. The more I look at this epistle
in Ephesians, the more I see that you cannot be a Christian
and you cannot live the Christian life apart from the Spirit of
God. I thought, as I was over there
in chapter 3 where Paul prayed for them, that God was strengthening
them by his mighty power and spirit in their inner man. I
thought, yeah, I understand that. But as you get over here into
this walk, I understand it much better now. Because there's no
walking circumspectly. There's no walking wisely. apart
from the Spirit of God strengthening our inward man. This is not about
some outward walk. I know it is somewhat. But you
know, it's an inward walk. It's the heart walk, isn't it?
That's what we're talking about, a heart walk. If it's just a
matter of not doing this and doing that, but it's not. It's
this walking in the light, as He is in the light. God bless
His Word. Let's pray.