God's Plan for Believers to Deal with Evil. Ephesians 5:1-17
|
|
This week in Boulder, CO a group of students walked out of class and refused to cite the Pledge of Allegence to the American Flag. They are protesting the phrase "One nation under God" calling it religious oppression!
There was a nationwide search for the little girl and the man who sexually assaulted and video taped it. They found the girl and her mother said she did not know it happened!
In Pakistan, 30 Muslins tortured and gang-raped a Christian man because he refused to convert to Islam. (June 20, 2007 "Christian Today")
Evil is all around us. It has grown so commonplace that even Christians are little effected by the news of terrible atrocities committed by evil men and women.
But it should be clear to the Christian that tolerating or engaging in evil things should not be a part of their life. Yet the lives of many who profess to be born again Christians are marked by the same sins of the lost and dying world.
God is well aware of our deeds and He has given us Ephesians 5 to address the Christian's relationship to evil. Our Savior beckons us to "Be ye not partakers with them." The truly saved born again Christian should not commit the sins of the world....but reprove them. Sadly, many have lost their testimony and the right to stand for purity and godliness because of remaining sins in their lives.
I. As God's children we to follow Him. V1-9
2. Avoid sinful practices V3-17
4. Let the Holy Spirit fill us and direct our lives. V18
5. Concentrate on pure things.V19
6. Have an continual attitude of thankfulness to the Lord. V20
7. Husbands and wives are to live godly lives in their relationships one with the other. V21-24
8. Children must be taught to obey their parents 6:1-4
9. Servants (and today hired workers) to serve honorably their employers. 6:5-8
10. Masters (employers) serve your employees. 6:9
11. Be strong in the Lord by putting on the whole armour of God. 6:10-19
In this message and the ones that follow we will look at these instruction one by one.
B. Walk in love. Eph. 5:2 "And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." (Ephesians 5:2)
There is certainly a lot of talk about the truth that we ought to love one another. Many even in the unsaved world realize that people should love one another. If man would love one another it would end crime, lying, wars, terrorism and solve a great deal of man's problems. Yet, the fact is people do not love one another and this is a great source of sin in the world.
Let's define the word "love." The word is "agape" and is the word God used to express His attitude towards His Son, Jesus Christ. "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26)
This is not an expression of affection that comes from any excellency in the object that is loved.
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
True "agape" love, which is the love God has toward us seeks our best welfare and seeks not to do any ill to anyone (Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament words)
Agape love is one that is continuous and places no restrictions or requirements on the one who is the recepicant of true love.
The second question is this: "What harm does these sins, mentioned in verses 3-4, bring in the lives of those who do such things." Does fornication and impurities in our lives bring us any lasting benefit? It is a sad commentary that some men and women are taken with everything from impure thoughts to pornography. These sins will most times end in the destruction any wholesome relationship between man and women. Not that is means "covetousness" again. This was mentioned in Ephesians 4:19. Covetousness is greed in which a person seeks to please themselves. It really takes no thought I the other person, but only self gratification.
Verse 4, talks about filthiness. The word used means obscenity and things that are filthy.
"Foolish talking" means saying stupid things. The Greek word refers to someone who is intelligently deficient. Telling senseless and silly jokes. Christians, bishops, deacons wives, young men, young women, each are instructed to be sober, which means decreed, and of sound mind. Peter says "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8) These things can be used to destroy a believer's testimony and thus be used of by the devil.
Jesting refers to some one trying to be witty and doing so in a silly or off colored way. It is like the late night "comedian" who twists everything into something dirty.
These things are "not convenient." It means they are not fit for the Christian to do. They are not proper conduct for a child of God.
E. The sins of the unsaved mark them as not being the Children of God. V5-6
C. Separate from the unsaved who live in sin. V7-9
B. V13. Jamison-Faust-Brown Commentary has this to say in explaining this verse.
"Whatsoever doth make manifest--rather, "everything that is (that is, suffers itself to be) made manifest (or 'shone upon,' namely, by your 'reproving,' Eph. 5:11) is (thenceforth no longer 'darkness,' Eph. 5:8, but) light." The devil and the wicked will not suffer themselves to be made manifest by the light, but love darkness, though outwardly the light shines round them. Therefore, "light" has no transforming effect on them, so that they do not become light (John 3:19-20). But, says the apostle, you being now light yourselves (Eph. 5:8), by bringing to light through reproof those who are in darkness, will convert them to light. Your consistent lives and faithful reproofs will be your "armor of light" (Ro 13:12) in making an inroad on the kingdom of darkness.
2. To the unsaved they are to arise from the dead and believe and accept the light that they are lost and dying in their sins and come to Christ who will save and give the lost light.
3. Both the saved and the lost are compelled to accept the light and that means God's truth which is the light of Jesus Christ.
The word circumspectly means to live one's life perfectly. Can you life perfectly? Of course the answer is no, but perfection is to be our goal and our standard. It has been said that a person will accomplish only that which he tries to achieve. You cannot hit a target you are not aiming at. Like a marksman who practices hitting the bull's-eye, Christians who strive to live a godly and perfect lives will grow more and more godly as the days and years go by.
The fool wastes his life doing vain and foolish things. The child of God loves the Lord and seeks to honor Him in their lives. A Christian that lives a godly life will be eternally rewarded for his/her life.
This means to literally "buy up" or rescue one's time from lost. Do not waste your life in temporal things that do not last and have no eternal value. We all have a tendency to waste time. Some times in idleness and other times in pursuits that are worthless.
Is something so important to you that it keeps you from serving the Lord, being faithful to Him, keeps you out of church...you should seriously examine the thing in life of this passage. What object or activity in your life do you put before being faithful to the Lord?
Redeeming the times because the days are evil. It is sin to be so taken with the world that we allow it to hinder our service for the Lord. Our testimony among those around us is important to us and to them.
The world needs to see Christians living godly lives as a testimony of the life transforming salvation.
F. Accept the will of God for your life. V17
If a believer fights sin and abhors it, it will be a lot easier to know and live God's will for their lives. Many claim they do not know God's will for their lives.....I believe them. I believe God will only reveal His will to those who want to know and live it.
The word "wherefore" refers back to the previous statement which was to "redeem" the time and live godly lives.
Remember in Ephesians 4:1 God tells us to walk worthy of our vocation to which God has called us. And in verse 7 God says He gives grace to each of us to carry out that will.
Psalm 95:1-8
1. How many times have you and I said "no" to the Lord? How many times have we provoked Him by ignoring him and acting as if He was not even there. How many times have we harden our hearts when He was seeking to help us. What have we gained by our rejection of God's help and love? What have we lost?
2. What has your family, husband, wife children, relatives missed because you gave place to selfish unfaithfulness and sins. What have others suffered because you would not say yes to the Lord?
3. What has bitterness, malice, being unforgiving, and pride cost you? What good has the sins we hold so dear to our hearts done for us? What misery has marked our lives instead of God's blessings.
4. Unfaithfulness in our money and refusing to give the Lord or tithes and offerings. What blessings have we missed? God promises His blessings, but so many will not believe Him. "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good word" (2 Corinthians 9:8)
Introduction: The Pogo cartoon character once said, "We have met the enemy and it is us!"
A. Be followers of God. V1. How do you follow God what this Chapter explains.
II. Prove what is acceptable unto the Lord. V10
1. Walk in love. V2
C. Reject the sins of the world. V3-4a. We should ask ourselves this question: "What does the world have to offer a child of God?" The answer is nothing.
D. The remedy for these sins is to express one's thankfulness to the Lord. V4b
A. Practice biblical separation. V11-12
C. Awake and arise from the dead you who sleep. V14
1. Believers are called to wake up out of their sleep which means complacency and apathy and accept God's instruction.
D. Walk circumspectly. V15
E. Redeem the time, because the days are evil. V16
ILLUS: I once visited a person in their home. I tried to witness to them, but got no where. All they wanted to talk about the hypocritics they saw in the church. Yes, they were using this as an excuse, but the sad things was that it was professing Christians who had given this person the fuel to criticize a church and being a Christian. I have actual heard people who were drinking tell others that they were Christians and went to such and such church. What impression did that leave?
Conclusion:
Date: 9-30-07
It is always encouraging to receive email from those who find the messages helpful, or who have comments.