Walking in Wisdom (Part 1 of 2)

How we make decisions says a lot about us. Today on Truth for Life, we're gonna learn how to avoid making bad choices. Here's Alistair Begg with part one of a message titled Walking in Wisdom. And I invite you to turn with me to the New Testament and to Ephesians chapter 5, and we'll read just three verses—15, 16, and 17—as we continue our study in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15.

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. Father, as we turn to the Bible, we pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to illumine to us the printed page, to quicken my understanding as I speak, to enable us as we all listen and bow underneath the truth of your Word, that the voice of Jesus Christ may be heard today. And in his name we ask it.

Amen. There's a part in Pilgrim's Progress which readers of Pilgrim's Progress will immediately recognize, and perhaps if you've never read it, this will be an occasion for you to decide you would like to. But there is a point along the journey where Christian and hopeful are talking with one another, and Christian becomes aware of the fact that the path is just too rough for his liking, and his feet are beginning to become sore. And as a result of this, he has become somewhat discouraged, and he begins to think that perhaps there may be a smoother path on which they might be able to walk.

And soon enough, they find a pleasant little field, and it's called Bipath Meadow. And so says Christian to hopeful, Let us step aside into it and walk there. Perhaps we will find that this smooth path, which follows to the right of the more difficult one, will actually be to our benefit. To which hopeful replies, But what if this path should lead us out of the way? hopeful asked.

Well, that is not likely, said Christian. Well, little did he know. Because as they begin to make their way along this smoother path, they see somebody up ahead of them, and they call up to this individual, who is vain confidence. Mr.

Vain Confidence. Where are you going? they ask him. Oh, he says, I'm going to the Celestial City. And thereupon he loses his way, falls into a deep pit, and is never heard from again. Meanwhile, the weather deteriorates, they are overwhelmed in their journey, and they lie down to sleep, only to awaken and discover that they have fallen asleep on the property owned by Giant Despair.

And Giant Despair then takes them into custody in his castle, which is called Doubting Castle. And as a result of that, Christian and hopeful found themselves in a dark, nasty, stinking dungeon, quote, far from friends and in a hopeless and pitiable condition. And Christian observes, who would have thought that this path, so pleasant, would lead us astray? Now, I begin there, because it is an apt illustration of the necessary warning and guidance that is sounded out, particularly in the fifteenth verse of Ephesians chapter 5.

Look carefully, then, how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. Well, Christian and hopeful made an unwise move. And as a result of that, they found themselves in difficulty.

Now, Paul has been writing to these Ephesian believers and encouraging them, in light of who they are in Christ, in light of that, to make sure that as he began at the beginning of chapter 4, to walk in a manner that is in keeping with, is worthy of, their calling as the followers of the Lord Jesus. He's been telling them that it is important they understand that they are markedly different from the surrounding culture. In fact, they're a lot different from what they once were.

Previously, they were dark, he says. Now they are light in the Lord. And he's been encouraging them, first of all, to walk in love and then to walk in light, and now he's telling them that if they're going to do that, it is imperative that they walk wisely. And you'll see that 15 follows directly from verse 14. In this respect, the third word in, if you're using the ESV, is the word then.

Look carefully, then, how you walk. In other words, in light of all that I've been saying, if you're going to conduct yourselves in the way that I have encouraged you, he says, then it is very, very important that you conduct yourselves like sensible people and not like simpletons. That's to quote the New English Bible. So, sensible but not like simpletons. Paul, as we've seen throughout, is not suggesting that they try and become something they are not, but rather, he is increasingly encouraging them to become the people they are.

You are no longer what you once were, and therefore you must no longer live as you once lived, because you are now new, and your new lifestyle will testify to your new life. It will bear evidence of it. So, the verses fall out straightforwardly.

I don't think there's any reason to create an elaborate outline. Let's just look at what the text says. First of all, look carefully, then, how you walk. Look carefully how you walk. The way in which a person walks reveals a tremendous amount about us. As somebody slouches along or walks very erect, it's possible that they were in the forces. My father, although he was small, always stood very straight up.

He used to say to me, Why don't you stand up straight? and so on. And so, you can often tell that the person in the distance is a friend simply because of the way in which he or she walks. And those of you who are walkers—and some of you will be—know that there are some wonderful walks all around Ohio. There are wonderful walks all across the nation. And if you've made it to Great Britain, and you are a hill-walker, then you will at least have heard of, if you have not actually been in the Lake District, to walk up Helvellyn and to walk on what is known as Striding Edge.

Striding Edge is a narrow edge, as you might expect. There are quarries or gullies on either side of it, and it is imperative that the walkers will look carefully when they walk, because the danger abounds. The fact is that there are a number of people who do not look carefully when they walk.

Many of them fall to be injured, and an increasing number, if you just check online, actually fall to their deaths. So the instruction that is given in the physical realm, which then translates to the spiritual realm, needs to be paid attention to. That's why Paul writes as he does. The verb is look, the adverb is carefully. So look where you're going and be careful about it. In other words, be careful rather than care less, be thoughtful rather than thoughtless, pay attention rather than becoming proud and presumptuous. Don't think for a moment you can simply say, Oh, I've got this covered. I know I can do this.

Paul has labored to make it clear that all of the divine impetus has been granted to them in Christ, the Holy Spirit has come to live within them, they have been sealed by the Holy Spirit. We might be tempted to think, Well, that's it then. Just go ahead and do whatever. No, he says. Look carefully how you walk. There's nothing new in this by Paul. It runs through the whole Bible. Psalm 1, blessed is the man who doesn't walk in a counsel of the ungodly, and instead he walks in the light of the law of the Lord. Proverbs is replete with this, the juxtaposition of wisdom and the way in which a person walks. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. Her ways—that is, wisdom personified—her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

Pleasantness and peace. We go back to Pilgrim's Progress. They had decided this path is a little stony, it's a little rocky, it's a little difficult. This path actually is not marked by pleasantness and peace.

Let's go over the style into Bipath Meadow, where it is apparently pleasant and peaceful, and they end up in a dark, stinking dungeon. Point well made by Bunyan. The warning, well sounded out. That's why sometimes when we write perhaps in a birthday book of a child, we would put in there Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

I know I often do. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. That's a categorical promise. Now, that careful walk will distinguish the walker as being someone who is unwise or wise, and you'll notice the negative comes first.

Look carefully then how you walk not as unwise. Why does he have to say that? Well, because he's already pointed out that all of the material that is in the previous twelve or fourteen verses is there not as some extraneous piece of information, but it is there as a necessity for the church to make sure they understand who and what they are in Jesus. They mustn't begin to think wrongly about these things. That's why he said earlier on—remember, we noticed it—"Therefore, do not let anyone deceive you with empty words."

Words that may sound particularly wise but are actually unwise. Now, this distinction is a distinction, again, that runs through Scripture. From childhood, many of us have known Jesus' words at the end of Matthew 5, 6, 7 in there—7, probably, I can't remember.

I don't want to look it up. But there it is. The foolish man built his house upon his sand, and the rain came tumbling down. And the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the house on the rock stood firm. Wisdom, foolishness. Wisdom, foolishness. Psalm 14 begins, The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Well, somebody says, Well, I know a lot of people who are very, very intelligent, and they're the ones who've said, There is no God.

What does that mean? Well, it's not talking about intellectual capacity. It's talking about moral perversity. It's talking about the fact that the fool is the person who says, and it's a complete effrontery to God, I know better than you. The fool is the person who says, essentially, We made God, he didn't make us. We're in charge of these things.

We can make sense of all of this. It is the fool who then says, I have jurisdiction over this. So says the psalmist. Psalm 32 makes the same point, which I can't quote from memory, but I can turn to it. Psalm 32, and around verse 8 and 9, where I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you with my eye upon you, says God, but don't be like a horse or a mule without understanding. Don't be like a horse or a mule.

I say, That's not a very nice thing to say. Well, some of you are horse people. Some of you may actually be horse whisperers, for all I know.

And you can whisper and make them do certain things. But let me tell you that on average—and frankly, even if you can whisper to them—if you're gonna ride them in the Kentucky Derby or in the Grand National in Liverpool, in Aintree in England, you'd better make sure that you have a bit and a bridle on, and you'd better make sure you've got full control of that. Because the way in which you're gonna stay on that horse and guide it around the track is not in accordance with how much you're feeling predisposed to this creature or whether you had a little chat with him or her before you left, but whether you've got control.

The horse is moving as a result of that. And God says, When I instruct you and teach you, I will do so in such a way that I will come down to you and make myself known to you. I have revealed myself to you.

I have crossed the boundary into your world in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But don't be foolish. Don't be like a horse or a mule.

Because then you're actually revealing the absence of wisdom. When the prophet Jeremiah speaks of it, he speaks not simply of the way in which we are like sheep who have gone astray, Isaiah, but he actually describes us in terms of turning to our own course and plunging headlong. That's in Jeremiah chapter 8. We turn to our own course, and we plunge headlong, so that it is in fact a more forceful waywardness than that simply of the proverbial sheep.

So, essentially, it is this. Instead of being guided and governed by the principles of God's Word, the fool operates on an entirely different platform. The fool does not go to the Bible. The fool does not pay any attention to the Bible. The fool will tell you that the Bible isn't just a collection of mythologies.

It was made at a certain time, or it's got some interesting pieces in it, or I love it for literature, or whatever it might be. But in terms of them actually going to it as a lamp to their feet, a delight to their path, the fool does not do so. So how, then, does a foolish person navigate their way through life? Well, on all kinds of bases. One, on the basis of feelings. Feelings. This is how I feel.

And how I feel in myself is really the framework for me. You get it in emotional terms, that old song, you know, Feelings. Oh, no, no, no, Feelings. You know that thing? It was really horrible. And Feelings. Oh, it's horrible.

And it's right up there with Barry Manilow, I'm just trying to get a feeling again, you know. So what are you doing? How are you navigating through life? Well, this is how I feel. Or are my instincts? Or are my desires? My desires are very strong, therefore they determine where I'm going. What if your desires are bad desires? What if your instincts are wrong instincts? Well, they can't possibly be wrong.

Why? Well, I'm judging them only on the strength of how I feel about things. That is foolishness. By contrast, the person who is wise is paying attention to God's Word. He is heeding God's Word.

She is focused on God's Word. And she is making decisions in the now in relationship to the then. One of the unwise ways to go through life—or one of the indications of the fact that I am not wise—is where I am constantly focused on the now. It's all about now. And this is a great mantra of our age. You watch golf tournaments, they always say the same thing, Well, I'm just concentrating on the now. It's just this moment, and that's it.

Well, that makes perfect sense, only insofar as it is within the framework of those four or five hours. But the now of existentialism, if you like, has to be set within the framework of eternity—that God has set eternity in the hearts of a man, so that a man inside knows there is more than this. So then it is foolishness to say, All that matters is now, and consequences, forget them. There is no consequences.

It doesn't matter. No, you see, the Bible introduces the then to us so that we can make sense of the now. And without the then, there is actually no particular sense in the now. Jesus did the same thing. The man says, he tells the story of the man who had a very good business going.

Highly successful. And as a result of that, he had resources. He said to himself, With my resources, I think I can do a little bit more work—build a couple more barns, build up the property. Nothing wrong with that at all. There's no condemnation in the parable.

Where does the issue lie? Jesus said, And God said to him—check the text—God said to him, Full! God said to him, Full! Tonight your soul will be required of you, and who will then get all that you have acquired for yourself? In other words, he's saying, when you take the now and you set it in the context of then, it changes your mentality. And the wise person recognizes that. Some time ago, somebody sent me a book written by a lady—I've forgotten who it was—but it was essentially helping one to navigate through life.

And the suggestion was, it was called… I think it was called 10-10-10. And she said in the book, When you're about to make a decision, ask yourself, What will the implications be in ten minutes, ten months, and ten years? The fool says, Who cares? I don't care what's gonna happen in ten seconds. All I care about is right now.

Look carefully how you walk. Not as unwise but as wise. The people who have made the greatest impact in the world are the people who have lived there now in relationship to the then. Take, for example, Murray McShane. Dies at twenty-nine as a Presbyterian minister in Edinburgh.

What was it that marked McShane out? It was the fact that eternity impinged upon him to such a degree that it radically affected the way in which he spent his time and preached his sermons and everything else. And so it's no surprise that he's the one who wrote the poem, which became the hymn, When this passing world is done, When has sunk yon glaring sun, When we stand with Christ in glory, Looking o'er life's finished story, Then, Lord, shall I fully know, Not till then how much I owe. So this wisdom, you see, is not merely knowledge, it's not a possession of facts, it's not SATs, it's not postgraduate qualifications. It is possible to have all of that and not be wise. It's a wonderful thing if you have that and you are wise. But if you had to choose, you go for simplified wisdom rather than complicated absence of wisdom.

No, the wisdom is the ability to process knowledge in light of the truth of God's Word, and then to be able to apply that knowledge to the practicalities of life. So it is a God-given wisdom. Because by nature we look at things upside down, inside out. It's only when the light shines in that we see we're dark. It's only when the light shines on the Word that we say, well that does make sense.

Until then we walk in darkness. That's Alistair Begg reminding us that we should make decisions with eternity in mind and with the Bible as our guide. You're listening to Truth for Life.

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We'll learn how to focus our lives on eternity like Alistair taught about today, how to stay faithful in our pursuit of godliness by understanding the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives, the role of fellowship, and the role of struggle. Request the book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life when you make a donation online at truthforlife.org slash donate, or if you'd prefer, you can call us at 888-588-7884. At Truth for Life, our desire is to make clear, relevant Bible teaching available without cost being a barrier, so if you're looking for additional books or sermon series on a particular topic, scroll through the resources available in our online store at truthforlife.org slash store, and because of faithful giving from listeners like you, these high quality resources are yours at cost with no markup. The books and audio studies are not only helpful to you as you study God's word on your own, but they're great to share with others or even to build up the library at your local church. Once again, visit our online at-cost store at truthforlife.org slash store. I'm Bob Lapine. When we're facing choices, it's always tempting to go with what looks easy or attractive or practical, but that may not be the wisest choice. Find out why when you join us tomorrow for part two of today's message. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.