Walking in Wisdom, Part 1
Ephesians 5:15
We come to Ephesians 5:15-17, three very short verses, however in the first service we only got through verse 15. You know it's always hard for me to preach my whole sermon when I get all filled up at some conference and lots of things come out and you know, believe it or not, people, I think I'm a better preacher than you know. And the reason I say that is because I've never yet preached to you the sermon I plan. The ones I plan are good. The ones you get are mediocre, but that's because I never finish, see. I have great midpoints and tremendous conclusions that I never get to. All I have is long introductions because the conclusion I don't get to becomes the introduction for next week's message.
Let's look at verses 15 to 17, Ephesians 5:15-17. "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." Now beloved, there's no question in my mind but that we live in a world full of fools. It is a fool's world. In fact, every one born into this world comes in with a terminal state of congenital foolishness, otherwise known as the sin nature. That's how it is. Man is born a fool. Proverbs 22:15 says, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child." Man is born in a state of foolishness. Now, you say, "What do you mean by that?" When we think of a fool we think of someone who does irresponsible acts, or who speaks irresponsible words, but the Bible defines a fool as one who exists apart from God. A fool is one who exists apart from God. A wise man is one who lives in accord with God's divine principles. That's biblical definition for those two concepts.
Man, then, is born separated from God. He is born a fool. He is born in a situation where God's wisdom is absent. Now let me tell you how that kind of works out. There are characteristics of foolishness and if you'll look with me at Psalms and Proverbs for a moment I'll try to show you some that may sum up. Much of the book of Proverbs deals with the fool. In fact, you need to do a very detailed study of all 31 chapters to have a comprehensive view, but let me see if I can just extract a few thoughts and also at least one from Psalms and try to paint for you a portrait of a fool.
First of all Psalm 14:1, gives us a basic definition for a fool. Psalm 14:1 says, "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." All right? Now that's the beginning of it all and it isn't necessarily that this is only intellectual. This is what I would all practical atheism. Even though the fool may know in his mind intellectually there is a God, he lives as if there is not and that's why the next verse or the next line of the same verse says, "They are corrupt. They have done abominable works." In other words, this kind of atheism results in corruption. It is a practical atheism.
So the first thing that is characteristic of a fool is he lives a life, which by its function denies God. It is an anti-God way of living and that is the way it is with people. They come into the world and they live anti-God life. They cannot know the things of God, in fact, to a fool, I Corinthians 2:14 says, "The things of God are" what, "foolishness." "The natural man understandeth not the things of God, they are foolishness to him." You see to a fool foolishness is wisdom and wisdom is foolishness.
And so the first characteristic of a fool is that he practically denies God. In other words, God has no binding force on him. The law of God does not bind the conscience of a fool. He is pragmatic atheistic. He lives apart from God.
The second thing: no man can live without a god. It isn't a question of do you worship; it is only a question of whom do you worship? Everybody bows somewhere. And so if there is no true God, man will inevitably substitute a false god, which in all cases will tend to be a god of his own creation, that is Proverbs 12:15. The second characteristic of a fool because he denies the true God he inevitably becomes his own god. Proverbs 12:15, says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes." So he then becomes the one who determines truth and error. He then becomes the one who articulates for his own way of living right and wrong.
Now as a result of this, as a result of denying God, as a result of setting himself up as God, he will inevitably mock sin. He will mock sin. In 14:9 of Proverbs, "Fool make a mock of sin." "Fools make a mock of sin." He makes his own rules and he wants to justify his own behavior and he wants to make sure he's going to be all right in the end so he eliminates sin with its consequences. A fool then begins then by practically living as if there was no God substituting himself as God and suggesting his own style of life and then denying there is such a thing as sin because he cannot tolerate guilt.
Now, inevitably a fool goes one step further. Not only does he deny God in himself, become his own God in himself, mocks him in himself, but he has a dramatic effect on other people because when he talks he always talks about his own opinions. Chapter 15:2, "The tongue of the wise uses knowledge aright, but the mouth of fools pour out foolishness." I mean let's face it, you got a bitter fountain you're going to get bitter water, right? You got a rotten tree you're going to get rotten fruit. And when a fool opens his mouth you're not going to get wisdom, you're going to get foolishness. And so this is talking not so much about his own attitude internally, but his effect, and so there is a propagation of foolishness. He denies God, he becomes his own god, he mocks sin and he speaks on his own authority. He generates his own opinions and that we see all around us. The world is full of the opinion of fools. Fools who have denied God in their living, who have become their own gods and who mock sin at to its reality and its consequences.
And then in Chapter 16 verse 22 of Proverbs it says, "That he is busy instructing others in the same foolishness." At the end of verse 22, "The instruction of fools is folly." "The instruction of fools is folly." Here you have the picture of the unregenerate man as he is described as a fool. He is a fool because he denies God practically, he is a fool because he becomes his own god, the ultimate sin, he has broken the commandment of God, he is a fool because he mocks sin, he is a fool because he lives life based on his opinion, and he is a fool, in the greater sense, because he contaminates the rest of society with the same foolishness, which damn his own soul. He leaves it as a legacy to his own children, he leaves it as a legacy to his friends, he leaves it as a legacy to the classes of people that he teaches, he leaves it as a legacy to all those who fall under of the influence of his folly.
Now summing this up I think there is a good word in Proverbs Chapter 1 and this just sums it up very simply. Verse 7, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but, "here it is, "fools despise wisdom." Let me stop right there. That is the heart of the matter. You see, wisdom in Proverbs means living by divine standards. That's what it means, and it implies accepting divine truth. Wisdom implies that you accept divine truth and you live by it. It is living by divine standards, but a fool hates that. He rejects that. He despises that.
You say, "What happens to a fool?" What happens to one who denies God, substitutes himself, mocks sin, spins out his own opinions and contaminates others, who ultimately and in summary fashion rejects divine wisdom, does not live by divine standards? What happens to him? Look down at verse 20, Proverbs 1. "Wisdom cries outside, she utters her voice in the streets, she cries in the chief place of concourse in the openings of the gates in the city, she uttereth her words saying, 'How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity and scoffer delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?' Turn you at my reproof: behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you." In other words here is a great invitation, here is God, as it were, here is Christ in the New Testament in the streets of the city of Jerusalem crying out of wisdom, crying out of an invitation to the fools and the simpletons and the scoffers, but verse 24 says, "But because I have called and you refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel."
In other words, you have made it zero, you have rendered it useless and you would have not of my reproof, then I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear comes, "When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish come upon you, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof. Therefore, shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices, for the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." That is the end of it all. That is to die a fool.
Solomon said it in Proverbs 10:21, "Fools die for lack of wisdom." We hear and could hear more at grave after grave after grave, funeral after funeral after funeral. The words over dead Abner, "Died he as a fool dies," because men die as fools. They live; they die as fools, congenital, terminal foolishness. You say, "What can be done about it?"
Well as we saw in Proverbs 1, wisdom cries out for people to turn. There is available wisdom. Solomon or the preacher of Ecclesiastes in Chapter 9:1, says, "The wise are in the hand of God," and to all generations and to every generation God reaches out His hand and offers to take men out of a kingdom of fools into a kingdom of the wise. Salvation is the only thing that can change this.
Now listen to me, in II Timothy 3:15, the apostle Paul was reminded Timothy of his heritage. This is what he said, "And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures," watch this, "which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." Now there's the key. Wisdom is found in the knowledge of scriptural truth, which brings salvation, you see. It is the saving act that brings wisdom. The only thing that can cause an individual to cease being a fool and become wise is salvation, salvation. When you became a Christian you became wise. When you became a Christian you stopped being a fool and became one of God's wise children. Now remember this: wisdom is not just head knowledge. Wisdom is not in the Greek sense.
The Greeks thought of wisdom as sophistries, sofas, just spinning off theories that had no relation to life, had no practical implication. Wise were people who could spin off theories; they were intellectuals, philosophers. But that's Greek. The Hebrew mind never conceived of wisdom in theory. It only conceived of wisdom in behavior. And when you become a Christian it's not just a change in theory, though it is that, it is a change in what you know, but more it is a change in how you live, you see? You did not know God. You denied God. You put yourself up as God. You mocked sin. You spewed out your own opinion and you corrupted society. You become a Christian immediately you do know God. You take yourself off the throne and worship only Him. You confess sin; you don't mock it. "When you speak you speak the oracles of God," as Peter says. "And when you instruct others it is the divine truth that you speak." Big difference. You live a wise life at all. The apostle Paul is saying in our text is this: look if you used to be a fool, but you've been made wise in Christ, then for Christ's sake walk as wise. You see? It's the same message, people, we've been getting all through Ephesians. If this is who you are, then this is how you live, you see. He's been saying it all along. When you became a Christian you came out of foolishness into wisdom. It's another element of the worthy walk.
Look at Ephesians again at verse 1 of Chapter 4 and I'll remind you of what we've been saying every week to get our context straight. In the first three chapters of Ephesians Paul gives our position. He describes us. This is who you are. And then in verse 14 to 21 of Chapter 3, it's kind of a turn on; you put in the ignition and get going. In other words, this is who you are, now start your motor.
And then starting in Chapter 4 you begin to move, and when you move you walk, verse 1, worthy. This is the walk. Your ignition is in 14 to 21, and you're started and now you're moving in Chapter 4. And he says, here's how to walk. It's a worthy walk. And then he gives the ingredients of the worthy walk. Verses 1 to 3 it's a walk in all lowliness, it's a humble walk. Verses 4 through 16, it's a unity walk. We are to build unity. Verse 13 nails that down. From Chapter 4:17-32, it's a different walk. We're not to walk as the Gentiles. From Chapter 5:1-7, it is a love walk. Chapter 5:8-14, it is a light walk, not darkness but light. And now 15 to 17 of Chapter 5, a wise walk. And what he's saying in all these is you're different. The world cannot walk humbly. It's a mad fight for everybody's rights. They don't know the meaning of humility. The world cannot in unity. It celebrates its differences, it exalts its disparities. It makes an entire structure based on difference, divergence, differing opinions. And the world can't love because it doesn't have the life of God and God is love, and apart from Him there's no real love. And the world can't know light because it is in itself a system of self-damning darkness. And, beloved, I would add that the world can't know wisdom because the wisdom of God is hidden from the mind of man.
Paul said it, "They're ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." It's incredible. I was sharing with a convention two weeks ago and I told them that if all of man's knowledge equaled one inch, if all that we know of man's knowledge from the beginning of recorded history to 1845, that entire sweep of history from the beginning of man's recorded history to 1845 equaled one inch, what we've learned from 1845 to 1945 would be three inches and what we've learned from 1945 to 1975 would be the height of the Washington Monument. We know a lot, but we don't know God's wisdom. Not our societ