From Darkness to Light

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

I would invite you to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. That’s where we’re going to be hanging out tonight. This is my fifth message in Ephesians. Taking one chapter at a time has been our aim. And as Sean said earlier, I have two more messages. I will confess at the start that I’m cheating tonight. And for reasons that will become obvious later on, the way that this chapter breaks down the last two paragraphs fit very, very nicely with chapter six. So my aim tonight is to talk through verse 21, and then we will begin next Lord’s Day, next Sunday morning, our time in Ephesians, we’ll begin with verse 22 of chapter five through the end of chapter six, which itself will be some work.

But Paul’s letter to the Ephesians has long been a favorite of mine. As I’ve worked to understand how Christians ought to behave in the world, how we ought to engage the culture around us, it feels as though the Christians at Ephesus faced a lot of the same adversity that we do as contemporary Americans. For one thing, of course, the human condition has not changed, we’re still fallen, but for another, the decadent culture in which the Ephesian Christians were situated was a lot like ours. So it offers, needless to say, plenty of help direction to us. Paul, as you’ll recall, was personally invested in the church at Ephesus.

He had invested in them personally some years prior to this letter being penned. He was very concerned that they would apply their teaching, that they would practice what they know, that they would live in light of their new identity in Christ, that they would love their status as sons of God, that they would glory in their comprising, they’re being part of the bride of Christ. They’re getting to be part of God’s expression of his manifold wisdom before the angels, before all the cosmos in the Church. And in chapter 4 he told them that unbelievers, and such you were, as the Ephesian Christians once were, have a darkened understanding. They cannot discern spiritual things. And we can relate when we try to cling to that as well. We fail to cast that off. Paul pleads with his readers not to do that, but instead to live in community with one another in wisdom.

So this evening as we look at chapter 5, I’ve entitled this message, From Darkness to Light, Walking with Wisdom, the Transformed Life. If nothing else, it’s a lofty title. The chapter is one about the Christian’s walk and the final two paragraphs usher in the theme that we’ll carry on through chapter 6 and we’ll examine that as I mentioned next week. Without further ado, I’m going to begin tonight by reading Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1 through 21. I would encourage you to follow along with me, even if it’s just listening. I’ll be reading from the ESV. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, Awake O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody into the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Christians are to walk the walk, right? So

let’s take a look at exactly what sort of walk Paul was commending to his Christian readers. What kind of walk he wanted them to walk. I’m going to suggest that it is a loving walk and an enlightened walk and a wise walk. And those are the three hooks we’re going to hang our thoughts on tonight. A loving walk, an enlightened walk, and a wise walk with different degrees of time devoted to each one of them. First, let’s look at the first two verses. Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t notice when I was reading that, that there’s an interesting side-by-side old man, new man, darkness, light, juxtaposition. As we go through it, he says, don’t do this, do this, don’t do this, do this, this, and this.

Don’t do this, do this, don’t do this, this, and this, do this. So some are weightier than others, Some are more numerous than others, but it’s a very clear contrast. And he says, therefore in verse one, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Though therefore there is pointing immediately back to verse 32 of the chapter before, or even the last paragraph, 25 to 32. And you may remember that he was giving some pretty beefy instruction about how these Christians were to interact with one another, interact in the church, and in the midst of their culture.

So, as he transitions to verse chapter five, he’s not really introducing any profound new information. He’s reiterating and restating much of the same stuff, much of the same information. The imitators of God as beloved children. That is the third exhortation as to how we are to live in the second half of the book. There’s one in chapter four verse one, 4.17, 5.1. And God had already modeled for us how we are to be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving, as we must imitate Christ in this way if we were to honor Him with our lives and relationships. He says in verse two, “‘Walk in love as Christ loved us “‘and gave Himself up for us.‘” Sean mentioned this morning that we have, we have the completed paintbrush before us, right?

We know what the factor is aiming to crank out. When we behold Christ, we want to behold Him rightly because we’re being conformed to that. We know what awaits us. Christians are to live in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called. We are to sacrificially edify and serve one another. This is again, more information revisited from chapter four. This is walking in love as Paul is stating it here. It’s also imitating God as all these are modeled perfectly in him. Just as Christ also loved you, He loved us and gave Himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Not only was Christ effectively redeeming his beloved, but he was also demonstrating for them the sort of behavior that we were to emulate, that we were to model, that we were to follow.

Continuing with this language, it’s reminiscent, the sacrifice to God, the fragrant aroma. This Old Testament sacrificial system, of course, Paul was very well versed in it. He was trained under Gamaliel. And he’s reminding his readers that Christ’s sacrifice was a sacrifice to God himself, and a pleasing one at that. It was complete, it was sufficient, and it was intended to accomplish exactly what it did accomplish. That is the full propitiation of the Father’s wrath. So as we imitate Christ, and then as we look back to the previous chapter, we can know for certain that our walk is to be one of love. It is to be one of love toward one another.

It is to be one of love as we follow the example of Jesus. Next we look at verses three through 14 and how our walk is to be an enlightened walk, an enlightened walk. Let me start by revisiting verses three to five. Three to five, sexual immorality and it’s very interesting, he starts right there. He jumps right in with sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place but instead that there be thanksgiving for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

It sure seems like any list of things to cast off or things to avoid would not be complete if it were not for a command to avoid sexual immorality. But regardless, he goes right there and aims for the jugular for, and that was also a characteristic of the Ephesian culture and what was morally acceptable to them. And part of why I have long thought that it’s so applicable for us today. We, that’s sexual sins are particularly potent, they’re particularly wicked, they’re particularly enslaving and destructive and describe well what we’ve been freed from. Whoever is habitually impure and leads a mark, a life marked by impurity, sexual or otherwise, is bound for hell, plain and simply.

So these verses do capture very well what it is from which we were rescued. So now as Satan counterfeits whatever God establishes, so the world often believes that love centers on sex and temporal gratification. That is of course not the case. From a biblical standpoint, this is actually hatred as love seeks the purity of others and is itself unselfish. Sexual sin, says Paul, should not even be named among us, as is proper among saints. And how sad that the church would be indistinguishable from the world, God forbid, that we would be indistinguishable from the world in the area of sexual purity or immorality. There should be no hint of immorality, impurity, or greed present in Christ’s church.

If Paul’s concern in this passage pertains to right Christian relationships, and as we have light. We ought to walk in light. If this pertains to relationships, then it is safe to say that it’s essential that our relationships be distinguishable from the rest of the world. And in verses 3-5 he moves that direction, giving a more pointed instruction later on in verses 6-14. His point here is that anybody who takes notice of the church to see Christ reflected especially in the relationships among the Christians, he said this, by this they will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Those relationships that Christians enjoy with one another and the individuals involved in them should be free from immorality, filthiness, and greed.

He says in verse four, there must be no filthiness or silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. This has echoes of chapter four verse 29, just moments earlier, at least in the letter, they would have read that. Paul is encouraging his readers to be serious, putting away the coarse jesting and inappropriate speech that so commonly characterizes the world for the sake of a good laugh, perhaps, right? The same apostle who expects those born of God to be joyful expects them not to be crude, crass, or needlessly silly. Now is this to say that there’s no place for humor, or there’s no place for even, if there were no place for even crass language for sake of an effect or calling sin what it is, then Paul himself would be a hypocrite because elsewhere in his letters he does imply some pretty salty language.

That’s not my point. My point is, well I think it actually goes without saying that we understand pretty well as a culture what sort of vile profane humor characterizes the world. Filthiness and silly talk seem to be good translations and they seem to capture the essence of Paul’s point pretty well. He moves in verse four to specific sins of the speech. You know, of course Paul is not James, but James said, well, that the tongue is like a rudder. Our James taught us that, some months ago now, that with it, we can control the whole body.

Paul does this because this is perhaps the quickest indicator of somebody’s spirituality. So he first identifies sexual sins and then talks about sins of speech. If you wanna be able to identify quickly if somebody loves Christ or not, just listen to him talk. What sorts of things does he say? What sorts of things does he want to hear? There are clearly distinguishable characteristics that ought to characterize a Christian’s speech. And they set them apart from the world. And Paul keys in on one of them here, giving thanks. Giving of thanks. Again, what an interesting juxtaposition. Look at this. So, let no one deceive you with empty words for because, let’s see if I get there.

You know what, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m so excited here. We’ll get there. We’ll talk about thanks, I promise. But it is interesting How that is one hallmark of the wise walking new man, he’s characterized by thankfulness. So again, we’ll talk about that in just a moment. But how different would our lives be if we actually focused our attention and our speech on giving thanks to God rather than on ourselves or trying to get a laugh out of our neighbors. As we give thanks, we praise the source of our blessings and our attention is diverted from ourselves to God. Also, if we rightly understand who we are and what we deserve, thanksgiving will pour forth from us endlessly.

Paul uses the same list as in verse three, immorality, lust, covetousness, greed, to say that specifically those who are in these categories are guaranteed nothing but punishment. In apposition to this, he says that the covetous man is an idolater. So in a sense, the one who is spending his days lusting after what doesn’t belong to him is not spending his days ascribing to God glory to the Father ascribing to God glory, and that is then, that which is coveted becomes itself an idol. And nobody whose life is then marked by the attributes of verses three and four here has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Which, that’s tragic, but it’s also glorious, the contrast of that. Because if we do take that and flip it on its head, we can say that who receives an inheritance except the one who is a son of the one offering the inheritance. So conversely, if we aren’t characterized by these things but rather are characterized by thanksgiving and spiritual walking and enlightened walk, then we have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. In Christ, we share in his inheritance by his merit alone. It is given to us as adopted sons. In his kingdom there awaits a good inheritance for those who follow him and for those who love him.

For the immoral, for the impure, for the covetous, there awaits nothing but destruction. That’s strong language. It’s a clear distinction between those to whom an inheritance is guaranteed and those to whom it is denied. Verse six, he says, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. It’s not with words that the sons of disobedience are openly defiant or contrary to words that men are led astray. It’s with empty words, empty words. These are words without substance. The men who hear are left to fill the emptiness with a substance of their own.

These empty words are by themselves deceptive enough, but from the pulpit, for instance, somebody who says a lot of words can actually lead many astray by simply speaking words that are hollow, that are empty, that are void of the truth, if in fact there’s no true gospel or Christ’s lordship taught the hearers incur God’s wrath, for their failure to recognize him as Lord and embrace him as Savior. Those empty words can be destructive. As this comes into discussion though of Christian relationships and talking about the enlightened walk and they’re being distinguished from the rest of the world, then it’s at least a safe application that we need to be careful who we walk with, our associations.

Paul is exhorting his readers to spend time with the right people. We’re never to be led astray by someone who openly rejects Christ, as we are not to associate with those who have no desire to let a no unwholesome word proceed from their mouths. Like verse 29 says of chapter four. In short, if somebody has no desire to ever speak about spiritual things, that person needs to be evangelized, not associated with.

So we need to be careful about who we associate with or spend a lot of time with, lest we be led astray and become like them. And verse seven, he says, do not be partakers with them. That’s a call to discernment. We’re partaking of a certain kind of language. It is also a command to seek out sound teaching, to pursue then the right kind of language input for us, for ourselves. Paul exhorts his hearers not to be partakers with those who are passively deceived with empty words. How can we avoid such misleading will, have no appetite for teaching without biblical substance. Don’t be too easily satisfied when it comes to your study of the word or from the biblical influence and teaching you get, whether on the church level or on the personal individual level.

In verse eight he says, for a one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light. Four points us back to the preceding verse and general filthiness, but it’s interesting here, he doesn’t say they were in the dark, he says they were darkness. They were formerly darkness. The unbelieving world is itself darkness having no light within it. The world rejects Christ and the people in the world make up the darkness. What is there in the world to be cautious of apart from the non-believing people that comprise it? the inanimate creation is not called darkness, rather those people, and their pre-converted states are called darkness.

It’s interesting that, and that would include then in this context the pre-conversion Christians, where darkness says Paul. It’s interesting that this is the positive reason for believers not to be involved with the disobedient in their immoral conduct. So that is the positive reason for them not to be involved with the disobedient in their immoral conduct. And that makes sense because bearing the fruit of righteousness should itself be an easy motivator for someone who delights in truth to be still more righteous. So if they love Christ and if they’ve been enlightened, then they can see that fruit being born out in their lives and they can be excited about that as being spiritual and have no interest in association with the darkness.

So even as we prayed moments ago, that God would give us a delight to sing his praises is a grace gift. It is itself a testament to God’s gracious work work among us because the unbelievers do not love Him. In verse 10, Paul says, “‘Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, “‘try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.‘” And that whole clause, if we were to chop it together, or chop it and put it together from verse, the second half of verse eight in verse 10, would read something like, walk as children of the light, trying to learn what’s pleasing to the Lord. Walk as children of the light, trying to learn what’s pleasing to the Lord.

Children of the light walk in a way, so as to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. That’s what marks the life of a believer, sorry. Yeah, he strives and he searches to know what is pleasing to his Redeemer, to the one who is worthy of all of our sacrifice and honor and so on. That’s the person who’s discerning. Interesting how connected discernment and desires are. According to Paul, the discerning man has the right kinds of wants. When faced with two alternatives, the discerning man will make his decision based on what would be more honoring to Christ, what is more pleasing to the Lord. With the Spirit’s help, He’ll be able to discern these things.

And those who have not learned Christ in this way, Allah chapter four verse 21, those who know God have, in fact, learned Christ that way, and it’s this knowledge of Him within them that should govern their decision making and their conduct. Continuing in verse 11 now, verses 11 and 12, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead exposed them for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. Now, in Ephesus, there was no shortage of unfruitful works and in Marysville in 21st century, our 21st century context, we’re even Western Washington, this decadent culture, there’s no shortage of fruitless works or unfruitful works.

And of course, a textbook example would be when men are given in passion to one another. There’s no fruit of that unholy union. We often become concerned with pleasing men rather than God. That is also fruitless. That becomes evident when we opt for the easy road of human comfort rather than relational discord or discomfort. As one continues to learn what’s pleasing to the Lord, he’ll no doubt be more sensitive to the spirits working within him and he’ll develop more of a loathing for sin. The natural response to this growth is to long for sin and all righteousness and be brought to light that it may be exposed.

When we love righteousness as God does, we’ll want to expose wickedness. We must hate evil and the old man while loving righteousness. So we have unfruitful works. We’re to not be characterized by those, but if we love the light, then we’ll actually want to shed light on even the unfruitful deeds of the darkness. As we grow in righteousness, the fruit that we bear is more good, more righteous, more God-honoring. And we’ll want all fruit, good or bad, to be exposed. So when that light is shining, if the fruit is good, I mean, that’s good. That’s evident. If the fruit is bad, that’s also made manifest. That’s why it’s always a good thing when a hypocrite is exposed.

although he may not be immediately one to Christ, the truth comes out, and to those who love the truth, that’s good. Here in verse 13, the object of the exposure though, it’s worth noting is the sin, not the sinner. Not necessarily trying to expose individuals for sake of exposing individuals, that’s not the point. We’re trying to expose sin that it may be dealt with. Exposing one will necessarily, of course, yield the other, but in this discussion of Christians conduct, because that is the context here. Paul’s talking about how Christians are supposed to act. Paul’s point is that there’s a unique contrast between the works of the pagan and the works of the believer.

While fruitless deeds of darkness need to be exposed, it’s the righteous, spirit-driven conduct of the godly that will serve as that light. It will reveal men’s hearts in exposing their deeds. He says it’s shameful even to speak of those things which they do in secret. It’s a rather powerful language to suggest the conduct that they’re exposed to is utterly shameful. and it’s so utterly shameful to speak of it. I mean, we don’t need to spend a whole lot of time speaking of it. Plus, I think it’s pretty evident anyway. They’re exhorted to expose them because these deeds anyway, because it’s shameful to speak of them.

How much more shameful is it to participate in them? And the sins that Paul speaks of are secret sexual sins that he decries in verse 13 in particular. Look at verse 13. Verse three, I mean, verse three. We mentioned verse three earlier. Verse 13 now, but all things become visible when they’re exposed to the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. Well, why would it be a good thing for sin to be exposed to the light? Of course, when sin is exposed in the life of the individual, the state of the person’s heart is revealed. That is good. For a hypocritical person professing Christ, and then he commits a grievous sin in secret and in an ongoing fashion, it’s a good thing that that person’s sin be exposed to the light so that it may become visible, visible that he probably isn’t a believer at all, or if it becomes visible, then it may be apparent that he needs to be confronted and brought to repentance, or at least brought to account, and hopefully the spirit would bring him to repentance.

And so that gives us direction then how we can help him and pray for him. Paul is teaching here that the righteous conduct of true believers at Ephesus will expose all sorts of sin in a congregation, and in a society that’s mixed with false and true. When this operates as God designed, the purity of the church is preserved and the false are weeded out. That’s again, by God’s design. So we’ve looked at a loving walk, we’ve looked at an enlightened walk. Let’s look at a wise walk in verses 15 through 21, a wise walk. And this paragraph, as we come here, we see that Paul has just exhorted his readers to be careful of their conduct, So keep that in mind, we just talked about that.

Now this passage is talking about the wisdom that every believer must pursue, even when it comes to being filled with the Holy Spirit, because as Paul makes clear, only the foolish don’t understand God’s will for us to be Spirit-filled. So let’s examine them one by one. We’re going to examine this aspect of the fruit that Paul wants to characterize, this wisdom that Paul wants to characterize, readers. First, I would suggest that it is a practical wisdom. Look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise men, but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Years ago when I first studied this, I studied the New American Standard, so I got the ESV right here in front of me and I’m totally inserting NAS words. It’s pretty fun. I think I’ve been doing it all evening. As we walk, as children of the light our righteous conduct will serve to bring other’s sin to the light that it may be exposed.”

So again, it’s not complicated and it is, it’s not new or novel, but as we walk as children of the light, our righteous conduct will serve to bring other’s sin to the light that it may be exposed. It’s by God’s design and it’s what Paul was saying will happen in this culture. It naturally follows then that Paul would say, well be careful how you walk, because there is an end to that walk. The contrast of node, however, is in the distinction between wise and unwise.

Paul doesn’t really leave any room for middle ground here. It’s not like, I mean it is, but this is pretty black and white language. Wisdom is a spectrum, I suspect. Some people are wiser than others. But pretty plainly, Paul is categorizing our walking as either wise or foolish. Wise or unwise. When we walk as wise men, we will carry out the commands of verses eight through fourteen. If a walk is unwise, then our conduct will not be righteous and we will bring no men to the light by virtue of our own walking in the light. Proverbs actually teach us a lot that a wise man, well it teaches us a lot about a wise man and it’ll teach us that a wise man will not only have the necessary intellectual understanding into God’s will, but this will necessarily be worked out in his life. Maybe in a moment And we’ll actually quickly look at a couple proverbs.

He says, making the most of your time because the days are evil. The days in which we live and in which Paul’s readers lived have in common their evilness. They have in common a number of things. They’re the last days, but they have in common their evilness. In this age, Satan is having his way in the world and we are progressing toward worldwide evil and destruction. Don’t miss that. The presence of Christians and Christian influence on the gospel notwithstanding, The prince of the power of the air that Paul refers to in chapter 2 is still powerful. Undoubtedly it looked the same way to the Ephesian Christians among their self-gratifying neighbors.

Everything within our natural flesh and everything outside of us is screaming for us to reject God and to defame Him. And by default, if we’re not actively countering this urge and this temptation, we will ourselves walk as unwise men. Not in the light, not honoring to God and our conduct. Our culture is a river and you’ve been given supernatural muscles and webbed footing to swim upriver, but if you just tread water, the current is going to take you. So we are to be proactive then in our walk. It is to be practical. It is to be practical. Verse 17, it’s also supposed to be doctrinal. We’re supposed to have doctrinal wisdom as well.

And that’s understanding what the will of the Lord is. Look at verse 17, therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Once again, that contrast. You have darkness, light, foolishness, wisdom. Don’t be foolish. Understand what the will of the Lord is. We could just say that one verse and then pray and go home. Here’s your sermon for tonight. Don’t be foolish. Understand what the will of the Lord is. Be warmed and filled. fall into one of two categories here according to Paul. Fools, who are the foolish? See what I did there. And the wise, who understand what the will of the Lord is. By the Bible’s definition, a fool is someone who lives apart from God. There are many passages in the Psalms and Proverbs that outline what a fool is and what he’s like. I’ll rattle off a few of them briefly. You don’t need to turn there. You can just listen if you want. I mean, don’t take my word for it. Turn there if if you want to, but in the interest of time, I’m not gonna wait for you.

Psalm 14.1 says, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds, there is no one who does good. A fool, according to David, lives as if God did not exist. Proverbs 12.15 says, the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. young people. I mean it applies to old people as well, but this is pretty cut and dry. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man is he who listens to counsel. The fool does not listen to those who are wiser than he is, but rather he resists instruction. You’re living like a fool and you’re acting like it if you suppose that you know more than your parents do about how you ought to have been raised, more than likely.

there’s a very small chance that you’re right. So, well I guess we’ll make allowance for that. Proverbs 15 too says, “‘The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, “‘but the mouth of fools spouts folly.‘” Of course you all know that a rotten tree produces rotten fruit, a bitter fountain produces bitter water, fools produce foolishness. When the fruit of your life is idiocy, don’t claim to be a genius. When the fruit of your life is foolishness, don’t claim to be wise. If you’re acting like a fool and you just can’t keep your mouth shut, you’re gonna sound like a fool as well. Proverbs 16, 22 says, understanding is a fountain of life to him who has it.

Ha ha ha. But the discipline of fools is folly. Foolishness is contagious. It spreads. The discipline of fools is folly. The advice of fools is foolish because it doesn’t align with scriptures. If you hang out with fools, Don’t be surprised if you start acting like one. We could go on, of course. You all have read Proverbs. You’ve seen that walking in wisdom and walking in foolishness are common motifs in Solomon’s writing. Biblical wisdom, though, we know this, requires submission to God’s word. The fear of the Lord, says Solomon, is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instruction. That’s Proverbs 1.7.

So that is our starting point, is not just acknowledging the Lord’s existence or knowing his word, but fear of the Lord. Nobody can fully understand the will of God without being saved, because God gives us understanding at the point of salvation, he gives us a spiritual understanding. And that is not to say that in common grace, unbelievers have not done great things or known a lot of impressive things, or unbelievers can’t have ever had any knowledge or any accurate knowledge or can’t have actually done pretty impressive academic works. Of course not. But, biblically speaking, those men who trust in something other than the true God and Christ sacrifice for what happens after this life are what the Bible considers to be fools.

The cure for foolishness then is salvation. God makes men wise to appoint a type of wisdom at conversion. Consider with me 1 Corinthians 1.30, but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. If Christ is all of these things and we receive Him, we receive wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption. While we positionally have these things, we must still pursue them as we continue to grow in wisdom, sanctification, righteousness, and so on. Titus 2 verses 11 and 12 say, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age.

God’s grace itself instructs us, and if you’re saved, His grace has appeared to you. itself instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly. All acts of wisdom according to this Ephesians 5 and Psalms and Proverbs further. We must seek the Spirit’s help as we search the Scriptures for God’s will. So we seek the Spirit’s, we seek the Scriptures and we call on the Spirit’s help to understand it rightly. Second Timothy 3, 14 and 15 are helpful here. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you’ve learned them, that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ.

God’s will is revealed in His word and that is able to give us the wisdom that leads to salvation through Christ. And normally I don’t, I’ve taken a cue from Sean here, I think that it is most helpful when looking at the epistles to try to understand, to try to read them and try to help, to consider them imaginatively as the first readers would have. And they wouldn’t have had at their availability a whole host of New Testament cross references, though they might have had the Old Testament. So I like to stay here, but in the broad context of discussing wisdom and foolishness, it turns out that the Bible talks a lot about this.

We’re not going to do a word study on it. We’re not going to systematize it, but I did want to spend just a little bit of time helping to orient us and to round out our understanding. So the wisdom that leads to salvation is God’s wisdom, not the wisdom of the world, and He only gives that to His redeemed. All right, we continue. So spiritual wisdom is the third aspect, the third descriptor of the wisdom that Paul wants for his readers to have, is spiritual as well. We see this in verses 18 through 21. And this is as far as we’re going to get tonight. But do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, and giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting out of reverence, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

You’re submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. I often pray for my children at bedtime that they would treat one another as though they love God, that they would love God passionately and they live like it in their conduct toward one another. And that’s a good prayer for all of us. Our relationships with one another and with even people outside of the church ought to be reflective of our reverence for Christ. So according to this passage, being spirit-filled, loving Christ, has a variety of attributes that come along with it. Paul details for us what will mark the life of the man who is wisely spirit-filled.

So, it’s key to make a couple of grammatical notes. I’m not going to camp on it too long because I don’t think I need to. Paul’s command for the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit, it’s not like a faucet that they can turn on. The command is in the passive voice and it has a connotation of continuation as it is in the present tense. It does not say you’ve been filled, perhaps a less readable but more accurate translation would be, be being filled with the Holy Spirit. When a Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit, He walks according to the spirit. He does not act foolishly. Things change in his life and he’s marked by a new set of attributes.

Here they are listed in verses 19 through 21. He’s marked by spirit-filled communication, spirit-filled communication addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Psalms are from the Old Testament Psalter. We sing Psalms in church. You get Psalms stuck in your head by God’s grace. We sang Psalm 92 this morning, and I don’t know if you’ve ever used Psalm 92 to Colossians 3, 16 somebody, or to Ephesians 5, 19 somebody. But if you don’t sing Psalms, you’re not going to sing things typically like, Though sinners grow like weeds, ill-doers blossom may. They’re doomed to be destroyed. You, Lord, exalted, stay.

Lord, your foes fall. See how your foes, vain, evil men, are scattered all. That is, this is actually put to a singable meter, so it’s not a direct translation of Psalm 92, but it’s pretty close. Though you’ve raised like ox my horn, poured fresh oil on my head, You made me see the spies and hear what plotters said, like thriving palm, the righteous grows like cedars tall on Lebanon. One more verse. Those planted by the Lord shall in God’s courts be seen, when old they’ll still bear fruit and flourish, fresh and green, and loud proclaim how upright is the Lord, my rock, no wrong in him. Those are sweet words to speak to one another and to get stuck in your head.

And that has been a delight to me to get some of those words stuck in my head. I’ll do a hymn here in a second, for fun. Why not? Okay, it’s six verses, I’m not gonna do them all. But we sang it this morning, and the church is one foundation. The more you love Christ, the more you love the church. The church is the body of Christ. It comprises people who love Him, and in whom the Spirit dwells, and we enjoy the Spirit commonly. and there are lots of promises in scripture for the church. This of course is a hymn, so it is theological and it’s substantive, but it’s not scripture itself. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord.

She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven, he came and sought her to be his holy bride. That’s this passage, maybe for next week. With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died. Verse 3, the church shall never perish, her dear Lord to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end. Though there be those who hate her, and fall sons in her pale, against her foward traitor, she ever shall prevail. Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by yet saints there watch our keeping, their cry goes up howl long, and soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song.

Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war, she awaits the consummation of peace forevermore, till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blessed, and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest, and I could go on, and nothing’s stopping you from doing that too. spiritual songs may have been so designated because just to differentiate themselves from secular songs like first century Roman pop songs or they may have represented some spontaneous singing in the spirit which doesn’t not happen in the same way today. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that these were modes of worship. So even the way you communicate with one another should be itself a manner of worship in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

These things you use to sing praise to God. Worship is an outflow of your joy and your adoration of the Father. And they had lyrics that could edify the hearers to illustrate like verse 14, maybe song lyrics. Awake, O sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. And sometimes I send out a weekly email to the music ministry people and friends. And occasionally I’ll include song lyrics like, hey, take a moment and reconsider the words that you’ve memorized because you’ve sung them so many times and look at them again for the first time. And I will often pray while I’m doing it that those people will get those lyrics stuck in their heads.

And that’s pretty fantastic when it does. Our speech, it’s safe to say, is to be edifying. It is to be building one another up. We are to speak love to one another. This requires our involvement. If we’re going to speak to other believers and it requires our involvement with them and in fellowship with them, we would not likely speak to the spiritual dead in spiritual songs. You could recite these lyrics to somebody who’s spiritually dead. not going to have the same significance to him unless God uses that to bring him to life which may be the case but in which case he’s not spiritually dead so there you go. Our conversation should be spiritual in nature as we long to see the Spirit’s presence and others too and we are in a constant state of worship whether we like it or not as we speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in our hearts of the Lord. If we are in a constant state of worship the edification of the body will be a natural byproduct of our own righteous pursuits.

One commentator said, the fact that believers address one another in these Psalms and songs shows that Paul has intelligible communication in view, not meditation, unknown speech, or anything else. So, we are to rehearse God’s attributes and characteristics in our daily conversation, so these song lyrics are great for that. We are to speak about him to one another, recalling his goodness, faithfulness, righteousness, and splendor. We are also to be characterized by spirit-filled adoration, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, to the Lord with your heart, verse 19, second half of it. So if a person were marked by spirit-filled communication, as we just learned, singing God’s praises even to those who are around him in normal conversation, well, do you think he’d be able to contain himself when it came to actual worship and song?

So a person who can’t keep the song lyrics in when he’s just chatting, what’s What’s he going to do when 10 a.m. on Sunday morning arrives? Or 6 p.m. on Sunday evening? And it’s not all external though. As Paul urges his readers to be singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. So this is not just an inward disposition, but heart here signifies the entirety of who we are. So the prerequisite to worship is not that one have a pleasant singing voice. is he simply to worship merely in silent meditation. Rather, he is to employ all of his faculties and his whole person as he worships. So then, walking wisely, especially with respect to Christian fellowship in an unbelieving world, involves being in a constant state of worship in our hearts and allowing that to be worked out on the outside.

This is walking with an eternal mindset, and the results are that we’ll be walking wisely and building up Christ’s body as we go, while the days are evil. Of course it does stem from what’s going on in the heart. The believer will also be characterized by spirit-filled thanksgiving, spirit-filled thanksgiving. I promised I would get here. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just a spirit-filled communication and adoration mark, the spirit-filled Christian, so he will do so with spirit-filled appreciation. Gratefulness is a humble hallmark of the Spirit-filled believer, as he is conscious of what he deserves.

I’ve heard it said before, and you could probably make a case, that all sin has at root a lack of gratefulness. Others have said pride. You can again make a case for both of them. When we sin, we look to ourselves for our own gratification rather than to God. So when we sin, we do it on purpose, and it is believing lies that there is greater pleasure to be had in what we’re doing than the pleasure to be gained by obedience or gratification deferred. We’re brazen to view ourselves as higher than we are, rather than seeing our appropriate smallness compared with an eternal and a sovereign God. When we are genuinely thankful for what God has done, what he’s given us.

When our perspectives align with his, so do our wills and our motives. This naturally is reflected then in righteous and edifying speech as well as humble and deferent subjection to one another in the fear of Christ. And last, and this sort of lays the groundwork for next week, Spirit-filled deference. Spirit, or you could say Spirit-filled submission. It is the right kind of submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. So we’re not just talking about a matter of politeness, but of actual deference. Deep down, do you really consider yourself to be as important or less important than others? The example of Christ is pretty clear.

Paul even called his Philippians readers to it explicitly in chapter two. But even just considering ourselves equal with others is still not good enough. We actually need to prefer others ahead of ourselves. Spirit filled Christian will not only act like others were more important than he is, but he will for the sake of his love for Christ, consider others to be more important. He will concern himself more with the needs of others than he will with his own. And so from chapter 5 verse 22 through chapter 6 verse 9, Paul gives specific examples of what that looks like. The flow here is you’re in the world, in the church, engaged in the church.

some specific instructions about relationships, what new relationships, walking, the transformed life in light ought to look like. And he gives specific examples of what this mutual subjection looks like. In three pretty typical relationships, wife and husband, child and parent, slave and master, which has very clear application for employees and employers. There are six rules represented here and as such six specific means of honoring Christ. and you all fall into at least one of them. So we will examine those, God willing, next week, but don’t miss that it is pervasive, and none of us escape this. So the groundwork is laid for him to finish the book and strongly with the armor of God.

Before we get to that, we’ll consider those relationships and we’ll do that next week. So let’s pray together. Father, you have wed our appetites you have laid us bare. Paul has thrown us all under the bus to some degree or other with this juxtaposition of the old man and the new man. And we are guilty. We’re guilty of wanting sin and carrying it out. We’re guilty of clinging to who we once were and our behaviors and our loves, rather than being expressed by gratefulness. Our talk is inappropriate from time to time, and we love it and forgive us, we pray. And by your grace, may you continue to conform us to the image of your son.

I know it’s next week, we’ll study this, but it is very exciting and it is incredibly encouraging to know that Christ is personally invested in presenting to Himself a pure and spotless bride, and we are numbered among those that He came from heaven to seek. And for that we thank you. We thank you for your word. We pray that you would increase our appetites for it and give us not just understanding of it, but a desire to obey as well. For now, keep us safe. Give us a good week. Help us to represent you well in the world. We pray this in Christ’s name, Amen.