Making the Most of Evil Days
Ephesians 5:15-17
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on Sunday, January 10, 2010
On June 6, 1944, 50,000 American troops landed on the shores of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France. They faced well defended Germans who had fortified bunkers located in the cliffs above the beach. As the soldiers stormed off their landing craft they made no mistake of where they were. This was enemy territory. All around their brothers fell to enemy fire. The ground around them was pitted and laced with wire. They held their weapons and charged through bombs and bullets to scale steep cliffs and overthrow the German forces.
Soldiers on the battlefield who forget where they are will soon lose their lives. A soldier cannot turn his attention from the task before him. He cannot treat the battlefield as though it were his living room. I am afraid that today many Christians have forgotten the battlefield. We have forgotten that we live in enemy occupied territory. The machine gun nests are firing hot and heavy and around us souls are being lost. We ourselves might be captured as prisoners of war and our only notice is to change the TV station. We are soldiers on the battlefield but we too often act as though this world were nothing more than an amusement park.
As we live life, we must recognize the battle and we must decide which side we will serve. In our text today, Ephesians 5:15-17, Paul will describe our days as evil days. How will we live out those days? Will we make the most of our time, redeeming the time for the cause of Christ, or will we be slothful, negligent of the battle around us, essentially traitors to the kingdom of God, supporting the work of Satan and his domain of darkness.
Ephesians 5:15-17
Paul wants us to be aware of where we are and the situation we find ourselves in. As believers, we have been saved and brought into the kingdom of God. We already enjoy privileges of being adopted as the children of God. We are no longer sons of darkness but are children of light. Nonetheless, we are not yet in our heavenly home. We live in enemy territory, in a realm where the days are evil. We must never let ourselves be fooled about our present state. We cannot close our spiritual eyes in slumber while the war rages around us.
One of the greatest tricks an enemy can use is to fool solders into a sense of peace. Let an army fall into a sense that all is well and they are most vulnerable to attack. All is not well in the world around us but we often refuse to see the danger.
One of our weaknesses is our desire for acceptance. We have all heard the story of Chicken Little who cried, “The sky is falling!” only to suffer shame and rebuke when the sky remained intact. We fear that if we raise the standard of Christ and speak against the ways of the world we would be labelled Puritanical or Pharisaical. We fear being called intolerant. We fear what we might have to give up if we acknowledge the dangers in the world around us. We fear a million things and as a result we ignore the danger and plunge into the ambush of the enemy.
Christian, it is time to awaken! Paul’s words in Romans 13:11-14 are words for us today: Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
In Ephesians 5:16 Paul says that the days are evil. This is his warning to us to remember the battlefield we are in. The prevailing position of the world is against God. We are not surrounded by neutral people trying to decide what side they want to serve. All who are not part of the kingdom of God are part of the kingdom of darkness. The days we live in are evil days and have been so since the fall of mankind.
In Galatians 1:4 Paul says: …the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father… The age we live in is an evil age and we were once a part of it. It is because of the work of Jesus that we have been brought into the kingdom of God. But though we have been brought into the light, the rest of the world walks in darkness. Jesus delivers a strong indictment against the world in John 3:19: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. They are servants of the enemy and they delight in his darkness.
This does not change our position toward people in the world. In Ephesians 6:12 Paul will tell us, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Humans beings are not our enemy. They serve our enemy. Satan and his forces remain our enemies. Our work in the world is to spread the light of God and show sinners the way to salvation in Christ. These days are ruled by Satan who sets himself in opposition to God and blinds the eyes of unbelievers, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4: In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Satan has blinded people. Only God can make them see. We must shine his light into the world, but too often we will not even acknowledge the battle being waged. Nonetheless, those who serve Satan do so willingly as they willfully reject Christ. They delight in their sin as they walk in darkness.
We have seen in Ephesians descriptions of those who walk in darkness. Throughout chapter 5 those sons of disobedience have been contrasted with we who are in Christ, the children of light. There is – or should be – a massive difference in the lives of the sons of disobedience and the lives of the children of light. But we live in a day when there is little difference between many Christians and unbelievers. We have ignored the world’s dangers and have not just fallen into Satan’s traps, we have thrown ourselves into them.
Consider some of the dangers in the world. I believe entertainment to be perhaps the greatest danger to Christians. Some would accuse me of overstatement but look at so many of our lives. Christians are absolutely consumed with worldly entertainment. When we are in church we should focus on corporate worship but our minds drift to sports. When at home we should study our Bibles or spend time in prayer but our favorite TV show is on. When we have free moments we should reflect on God but our desire is for easy entertainment. Even in many of our churches we have exchanged the rich preaching and teaching of God’s word for feel-good fluff that keeps us from having to think too hard. We should give money for missions work or church growth or to feed the needy or to save lives in Haiti but instead we spend our money on bigger, fancier toys.
What is the use of Christians who are nothing like Christ? What is the use of children of God who look more like sons of disobedience? What in your life sets you apart from the world?
So Paul begins this passage with the words, look carefully then how you walk. Back a few verses, in 5:8, Paul reminds us that while at one time you were darkness, now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. With dangers all around us, we cannot afford to ignore the way we live. We must regularly, carefully examine our lives to see if we walk as children of light. No aimless wandering, no haphazard living, we are to see if what we think and do measures up to Christ’s expectations.
Two passages come to mind to help us as we look carefully how we walk. The first is Psalm 119:105 where the Psalmist writes, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We cannot know how we ought to walk if we do not have the lamp of God in the Word of God. Scripture tells us how to live. The less we have of Scripture, the less we will live as God wants us to live. Somehow Christians today seem to feel that we can get by on a handful of verses we learned as children. None of us are in Scripture or memorizing Scripture as we ought. We need to be like the man in Psalm 1:1-2: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Did you catch that last part? Such a man finds his delight in the law of the Lord – that is, the word of God – and he spends day and night meditating on God’s word. Such a man will not easily be led astray.
We give the Bible lip service. “Yes, I believe this book to be the fully inspired word of God and that it is the final rule of faith and practice and I should guide my life by what it teaches.” “So how often do you read it?” “Oh, you know, I read a few verses a few days ago.” “Well what did those verses say and mean?” “I don’t remember right offhand but it was good!”
If we really believed that God wrote this book, how could we justify our neglect? The word of God is light and life! And by this word our steps are guided. It is to be our delight and the source of our meditation and when we look carefully how we walk, we measure our lives against Scripture. Do you avoid the things the Bible tells you to avoid? Do you do what the Bible says do? Do you delight in this God described by the Bible? Then you must know what the Bible says.
The second passage to help as we examine our walk is Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Do you want to know if there is sin in your life? Ask God to show you. Then be ready – for you have more sin than you know. God is the one who declares right from wrong. He is the standard of righteousness. He will measure your life and by the Holy Spirit will convict you of sin. A person lost in a forest cannot see above the trees to find his way to safety. But God stands above the trees, he stands above our sin and fallenness. He will reveal to us what we cannot see.
So much is at stake. As we wander the battlefield we see all around us those who have fallen. Brothers and sisters who have truly come to Christ by faith but have neglected the battle, have desired the enemy’s goods, and have been cut down. Their holiness broken, their witness shattered, they are tools in the enemy’s hands. Others around us have claimed Christ but have never shown the first sign of true repentance. They feel content in the fact that they once prayed a prayer or walked an aisle but their heart was never truly given to God. Saints and sinners alike are found walking with the enemy, ignoring the raging of battle.
In our verses Paul makes two contrasts. In verse 15 he says we are to walk not as unwise but as wise. Then in verse 17 he says, do not be foolish, but understand… What does Paul say of those who ignore the battle, who do not see the evil day, who follow the path of the sons of disobedience? First, they are unwise. Then, they are foolish. There is no excuse for a Christian to follow the world’s ways. It is dangerous, irresponsible, foolish.
Psalm 14:1 tells us, The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Many people today are voicing the claim of the fool, declaring there is no God who judges the affairs of men. But many, many more people are living as though the fool were right. Having no fear of God before their eyes, they live in whatever way suits them.
Wisdom means walking according to God’s will, living in ways pleasing to God. This is why Paul concludes our passage with the instruction in verse 17, understand what the will of the Lord is. This world is in enemy hands. We would be foolish to follow the ways of the world or to seek instruction from the world. We must follow Christ. We should make it our goal to live according to 1 Peter 4:2, live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.
Already in this sermon we have presented the means God has given us for knowing his will: the word of God. To give another illustration from Psalms, listen to what the Psalmist relies on in Psalm 119:25-32: My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!
It is Scripture that will guide us in the will of God. But learning from the Psalmist we see there is one thing necessary with Scripture. He is studying God’s Word, but is he expecting to understand Scripture on his own? No. Over and over his cry is, make me understand the way of your precepts. The natural mind will never come to a right understanding of God’s Word. So as you seek out his will in Scripture, seek it with prayer, asking God to illuminate these pages and to enable you to understand by the Holy Spirit how God would have you live.
In closing, I want to remind you once more of where you are. The battle around us rages fierce and deadly. We do not have time to play around. We must make the most of time, redeeming it to serve Christ with every moment we are given. As I read the book of Genesis I have been astonished by the words of Jacob in Genesis 47:8-9. Pharaoh asks him his age and Jacob responds, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.” The man was 130 and yet he said his days were few. Those of you who have many years behind you know the truth of the statement that life is short. Far shorter than we usually realize. In Psalm 90:12 the Psalmists asks God, teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Realize that life is short and in a very little while your body will fall into dust. At the end of your days will you look back and say you did the bidding of Satan or will you be able to say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. May we wake up to the battle around us and give ourselves wholeheartedly to Christ. May the Lord find us faithful all the days of our lives.