Choose This Day…
Ephesians 5:6-14
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth…” God built on the earth a garden, named Eden. In the garden He placed the first man and woman.
Also in the garden, He place a tree… The tree was the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God gave a command, “Do not eat the fruit of the tree, for if you do, you will surely die.”
Man realized the power to make choice. Eve was deceived into disobeying God’s command. The sum of scripture indicates that Adam was faced with a choice… “Go with God or stay with his woman who fell into sin.” So Adam choose. He took and ate.
Over the next 1600 years, man chose, and the majority of choices were against God. Imagine, what if God wiped away the evil men and women from the earth, and just kept one righteous family. He could start over with mankind having a mindset of victory, unlike the mindset of Adam and Eve. Every day that Adam and Eve woke up, they realized what they had lost in their failure. They had children and raised them under the shadow of that failure.
What if God started over with the best of the best, with their defining moment being the victory of escape from Judgment? He would give mankind the same freedom: the freedom of choice. Things should go better, right?
This freedom and caution has rang through history. Abraham was given a choice to leave his homeland and family. The Israelites, even in oppressive slavery, were given the choice to follow Moses and the God of Israel. Joshua told the Children of Israel, “Choose you this day whom you will serve, either the God of your forefathers or the God of Israel. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Elijah ask the Israelites on mount Carmel, (1Ki 18:21) “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.’ And the people did not answer him a word.’"
Jesus presented the dilemma to us in His teachings. He said, (Mat 7:13-14) "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
The Apostle Paul has well explained and illustrated in early Ephesians that those living in darkness really don’t have a choice. However, once Christ moves into the heart of one, the believer now has a choice. He is saying, “Choose rightly. God has given you the power and the will to choose righteousness.” He could have as well use the words of Joshua to all believers….”Choose this day whom you will serve.”
Wednesday night, we presented the same choice, different words, to our youth. I asked them, “Who is Jesus to you? If you take what He said, you must come to the conclusion that C. S. Lewis did many years ago. Jesus was either a liar (knowing He was not God but saying He was), or a lunatic (believing He was God, but living in delusion), or He is the Lord of all.”
I did not allow the youth to answer me. I told them I would listen to their lives, but not their lips.
I realize I live under that same standard. You live under the same standard. The profession of our mouths can only go so far. What we truly believe is what is spoken out of our lives.
Eph 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
Eph 5:7 Therefore do not become partners with them;
Eph 5:8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Eph 5:9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),
Eph 5:10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
Eph 5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Eph 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
Eph 5:13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
Eph 5:14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
I. THE CAUTION.
A. Don’t Be Played;
“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
The reality: Believers can be deceived with words. The deceiver will use arguments which make no sense when compared to the whole of scriptures. The disobedient don’t care. The carnal do not care.
There is much false teachings out today. When you hold up popular Christian books up to the whole counsel of God, if you eliminated those peddling wrong attitudes and wrong theology, our Christian book stores would have a lot fewer books.
Some of this is due to poor preaching: Imbalanced preaching, topical preaching and feel good preaching. But notice, Ephesians in not a pastoral Epistle. That means, it was not written to pastors. He is cautioning the members. Every believer holds the responsibility of knowing the truth and choosing the truth.
Don’t be played. Don’t be deceived. Know that there is false teachings out there. Investigate, know the scriptures, and take responsibility for your choice.
Ok, God warned us, “Don’t be played.” We wonder, “Or what?”
“…because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”
Here is the teeth of God’s warning. Since He is talking to believers, He is not talking about final Judgment. We are covered on the Judgment of God. He is talking about His displeasure and wrath in this life. It states, “The wrath of God comes”, not “The wrath of God will come.” The Greek word is in the middle voice, not the future voice.
A good father loves his son enough to not let him get away with harmful activities. Our God is a loving Father. It is never fun to be disciplined, but the Hebrews writer tells us not to resent discipline as the expression of love.
B. Don’t Become Partners.
“Therefore, do not be partners with them.”
In V7 He is saying don’t join up with them "because they are walking in the darkness” and are doing all that doesn’t please Jehovah God. They will attempt to make you a co-conspirator and instigator with them.
C. Don’t Be Participators;
“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”
We see a pattern we are to avoid. First we listen to false teachers, then we support them, then we join them. Paul expertly lays out that all three things are wrong. Don’t listen to them. Don’t partner with them. Don’t join them.
The 2 Epistle of John is quite emphatic.
2Jn 1:10-11, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”
When he states “this teaching”, he tells us to be faithful to is the truth of scripture, undiluted, not polluted by false teachings. Do not even receive a false teacher. Even if you greet him with a welcome, you become a partaker in his ministry.
If you have a writer you want checked out, I will gladly find what is true about him or her. If you want to learn about a preacher, ask me, and I will research it as a good under-shepherd. Don’t just pick up and ingest any Christian book out there, please. There are resources from which you can find what one believes and teaches without drinking the Kool-Aid.
II. THE CHANGE.
“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk 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.”
At one time, you did not have the ability to choose right. Notice, V8 does not say, “at one time you walked in darkness”. The King James version loses the impact of this verse. It translated “at one time” as “sometimes”.
Earlier, that is what “sometimes” meant, but the Greek “POTEH” means “at one time, before, once, a while back” and never indicates “some of the time.” When you were lost, you WERE the darkness all the time. You were not even capable of light.
But if you are saved, God made the change of what you ARE. And the understood theme; “The choice is now available.” Walk as Children of light and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.
III. THE CLARITY.
Eph 5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
Eph 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
Eph 5:13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible,
Eph 5:14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
A. display goodness.
But notice that Paul says, “Don’t just stay out of trouble. Also expose trouble.” That is uncomfortable for two major reasons.
First, we don’t want to mind other people’s business, so we don’t want to expose anything. We have lost a sense of accountability, partially because those who abuse it the other direction. Instead of going first to the scripture and prayer closet to see what this situation may be trying to reveal in our lives, many tend to put on the judgment hat and condemn others without any self-examination.
The second reason is, the things we are called to expose are shameful to even speak about (verse 12). We have a difficulty exposing things that we blush to talk about.
There is a third reason. For some, what should cause us shame to speak of, we are comfortable practicing. It is not shameful now to gossip, but rather expected. It is not shameful to tithe with strings attached through designation instead of giving freely. It is not shameful to some to hate and pretend as if we are righteous. It is not shameful for some to harbor bitterness and unforgiveness. We’ve done it all our lives.
Look at verse 14. “Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
B. demonstrate righteousness
It is important to know that we’ll be made right before God. As Paul well demonstrated, God changes the believer’s heart. He gives us the desire and power to do His bidding. It must be our commitment to please Him and forsake the deeds of darkness.
And when we do, we will demonstrate….
C. Desired results.
1. one who is committed to TRUTH and
• Committed to learning the truth.
• Committed to teaching the truth.
• Committed to living the truth.
2. one who walks in the light and clearly sees the world.
When we focus on the truth and allow the Christ life to be express in our lives, the fog clears and we see things differently. We see thing in their true light. We can see the fork in the road and understand what each decision represents.
A lost person cannot see this. A carnal Christian cannot see this. But those who are committed to the truth and walk in the light, can. And we must.
Two men were out hunting. Neither was a good shot. After they had tramped through the fields for hours, they had seen plenty of rabbits but had yet to hit one. With evening coming on, both were getting tired. One turned to the other and said, "Tom, what about it? Let's just miss two more and call it a day."
Despite the lack of anything to show for their time, these two hunters probably expended as much energy and effort as if they had bagged twenty rabbits. The same thing, unfortunately, can and does happen to people. "It is not enough to be busy," someone once said, "one must also get results." Results come by obedience to the truth.
