I know the current format is weird without all of the normal things that we would go through on a Lord's Day morning, but I trust that nonetheless it will be pleasing in God's sight. So if you have your Bible, we will turn our attention now to God's Word as we open our Bibles to Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4. I'll begin reading in verse number 5. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. This is God's Word. As we read these words together, these conclude Paul's instruction to the Colossians regarding the normal Christian life. You remember, we spent so much time opening up Paul's introductory defense regarding the supremacy of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ as the only Savior, as the One who is truly God in the flesh, God the Son who took on flesh to save His people from their sins. And then you remember in chapter 3, He opens up this Gospel as it relates to the practical implications it has in the life. Or what we have been calling it, He begins to consider the normal Christian life. The reality that is pressed upon us here is that there's not different categories of Christian life. There's not super elite, there's not hero missionary, there's not famous evangelist, pastor, husband, father, regular Christian down here on the bottom. There are not categories of Christianity. There is simply normal Christianity and not Christianity. This is what some of the old writers used to call practical religion. And practical religion or normal Christianity flows out of all the implications the Gospel brings to bear on the life. And Paul has been setting these forward as it relates to the affections and the mind, the desires, the things we think, the things we long after, the place where our treasure and our affections are. He opens it up as it relates to the actions. He opens it up relationally, as it relates to the church. What implications does following Christ have as we gather together in groups like this one, doing exactly what we're doing, or gathering together at one another's houses, or working together, whatever it may be. He then presses the implications of the Gospel as it relates to the household and the family. Wives and husbands, husbands and wives, parents and children, children and parents. He even goes beyond that, a place where most people will not go. He impresses the implications of the gospel as it relates to the workplace, masters and servants, or employers and employees in the common language. But there's one more sphere in which the Christian must live. There's one more area in which belonging to Jesus exercises a practical influence. And that is in the unbelieving world. It is a reality that we live in this world. Every day we do business with the world, we work in the world, we go to school in the world, whatever it may be. We live in this world. Yet it is also a biblical reality that we are not to be of this world. And so we hear often in the vocabulary of Christian conversation that we are to be in the world, but not of the world. This is a common Christianism, if you will, or Christian truism, or Christian proverb. In the world, but not of the world. Now there are those who affirm this, and what they mean is, I can do everything the world does, but that's okay, I'm not of the world, because I asked Jesus into my heart. They love what the world loves, they pursue what the world pursues, they prioritize what the world prioritizes, all because, well, I might be in the world, but I've asked Jesus into my heart, I'm not of the world. But in actuality, they are conformed to the world because they are of the world. And then we could go to the opposite end of the spectrum. There are those who also claim to affirm this, in the world, but not of the world. And what they mean is, we have to live, work, and shop, etc. in the world, but we're not going to go beyond that. We're not going to have any genuine relationship to people who are not like us at all. You don't come to our church, we're not talking to you. Don't go by our same denominational name, we have nothing to do with you. Don't live in our community, we're not talking to you. They do everything they can to isolate themselves from the world completely, only interacting with the world when it is absolutely necessary. But if you think about the word world to mean anything besides this ball of dirt and water that we live on, in actuality, they aren't in the world at all. They're isolated from the world. So we have two extremes. Conformity to the world and isolation from the world. The reality is, neither of these positions are in line with the Scripture. The Scripture does tell us that we are not of the world. In fact, the very definition of the word church means called out and assembled together. The church is made up of those who used to be in the world, but now by God's grace have been called out to belong to Him and assembled together in the name of His Son. The Lord Jesus told His disciples in John 15, you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. And Scripture makes it clear this is not just about Christ's disciples, this is about all believers. One of His disciples, in fact, the Apostle Peter, describes all Christians as those who have been called out of darkness, called into marvelous light. So we ought to be out of the world, not of the world. But although the believer has been called out of the world, the believer is also sent back into the world as a representative of Christ. As Peter tells us, we've been called out of darkness into marvelous light. He actually says, you were called out of darkness into His marvelous light so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you. You were not called out of darkness into the light to just sit there. You were called to go back into the darkness with the message of the glory of the One who called you. The Apostle Paul likewise says, we are ambassadors for Christ. That is, we are representatives. God makes His appeal through us and we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Only those who are un-reconciled can be reconciled. So here we have those called out and reconciled sent back to those who are un-reconciled to call them to be reconciled. Out of the world, sent back into the world. In fact, as the Lord Jesus is praying in John 17, the night He is arrested and will ultimately be led to crucifixion, He prays this, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. in the world, but not of the world. That is exactly what Paul is getting at in these verses written, first of all, to the Colossians. He means for us to understand the normal Christian life is to be a life of separation and distinction from the world. But it is also to be a life of representation and proclamation to the world. separate and distinct from the world, going back to represent Christ and proclaim Christ to the world. This is the normal Christian life in this ungodly world. So I want to consider these truths under two main ideas this morning. The first one being the clear distinction, and the second one being the Christian obligation. Notice first of all the clear distinction. We see this In one word in verse 5, and that is the word, outsiders. If you're reading the Authorized Version or the New King James, it will say, them that are without, those who are on the outside. According to this passage, there are certain people who stand in relationship to the church, as outsiders. That means the believer or the Christian is considered an insider. Now this language, if you think about being inside or being outside, that is the most counter-cultural, radical, despised idea in the day in which we live. The chief virtues of our day are inclusivity. Tolerance. Celebration of diversity. Equality. Give everyone a spot at the table. Give everyone a voice. Celebrate every foolish imagination. If this person wants to be a unicorn, who are you to say they're not a unicorn? Celebrate the diversity. Give them a spot at the table. No one is on the outskirts. Bring everybody inside. We're all just one big happy family. And in fact, they maintain that ideology until you say, I don't agree with that. And then you very quickly get put on the outside, the outside that in their view supposedly doesn't exist. Now that thinking might get you a column in the New York Times, but you won't find that in the Scripture at all. The Scriptures make a clear distinction between two kinds of people. Those who are on the inside and those who are on the outside. We want to ask inside and outside of what? Well, first of all, of the Church. The Scripture speaks of the church as the household of faith, or of the family of God. In this family, God has now become our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is our older brother. Other believers in Christ are now our brothers and sisters. And the one thing we all have in common is God Himself has done a work by His Spirit. We have been made new creatures, what the Scripture calls being born again, and now we've been brought into this family, born again into the family of God. But those who have not been born again, those who do not know God as anything except the Judge, those who have never come to be united to Christ, they are outside the family. The Scripture describes them in Ephesians 2 as strangers. aliens or foreigners. They do not carry the same family name. They don't bear the same family resemblance because they belong to another family. They belong to another household. Christ told the unbelieving Jews of His day in John 8, you are of your father the devil. And your will is to do your father's desires. So the outsiders are those who carry the name of their father and do their father's will and bear their father's resemblance, just like those who are on the inside. The difference is they belong to two different families. Those on the outside, following the evil one, they love the darkness rather than the light. They're foolish, the Scripture says, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They spend their days in malice, hating one another and being hated, carrying out the desires of their body and their mind, following the prince of the power of the air. They are by their very nature children of God's wrath and they exist outside His family, outside the church. Now when we say church, don't think of church like we think of it as we look around the room here. We're talking about the church the way that God sees the church. The true church, what some people call the invisible church. That church that God sees in the hearts of His people. Because some of these outsiders make their way into what we see as the church. That's why this whole letter of Colossians has been written, is it not? There were false teachers who had come from outside, made their way inside the church group, and were beginning to teach things that were untrue. They were beginning to contradict the things that God had made clear. They were beginning to call into question the only way of salvation. And they were outsiders. Yet they made their way inside. So when we say outside the church, we're not talking about people who don't come to a chapel every Sunday. We're talking about the church as God sees it. And when we say that, outside the church, a better way to understand what we're talking about is either being inside or outside of Christ. Paul says unbelievers are those, in Ephesians 2.12, who are separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. So they're not just outside of what we think of as church, they're separated from Christ Himself. separated from life, separated from righteousness, separated from acceptance before God, separated from adoption into God's family, separated from forgiveness, from God's saving love. They have no part in God's promises. He says they are hopeless because they are God-less. He sums up their condition in three words. They are in the world, not in Christ. What I want us to understand about this clear distinction is this is a real distinction. We're talking about the children of God as opposed to the children of the evil one. We're talking about the lovers of the light as opposed to those who love darkness. We're talking about those who are alive in Christ as opposed to those who are dead in their sin. Those who are led by the Spirit as opposed to those who follow the evil one. We're talking about those who are in Christ and those who are out of Christ. And this distinction manifests itself. Jesus says in John 3, everyone who does wicked things hates the light, and he does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. The manifestation of this distinction causes us to consider this simple truth. It is not possible for someone who is truly inside to live as if they are outside. Do not imagine it is possible for a true believer to live among the ungodly in some kind of blurry middle ground where the only distinction is where they spend a few hours on Sunday morning. Is there a distinction in your life? Is there a difference, a clear, noticeable, manifested difference in your life as one who professes to know Christ as opposed to those who deny Christ? Because the reality of Scripture is, there is no middle ground. Jesus said you cannot serve two masters. There is no inside on Sunday and outside Monday through Saturday. There's just inside all the time or outside all the time. The Scripture calls those who truly belong to Christ to come out from the world, remember, be separate, touch no unclean thing, cleanse ourselves, bring holiness to completion. This means we cannot live a life without distinction and separation. It is not possible to live as an outsider if you are truly an insider. We're talking about a distinction in everything Paul has categorized as the normal Christian life. A distinction in the way you think. A distinction in your affections. A distinction in your actions. A distinction in your relationships. In the church. In the marriage. In the family. In the workplace. Your relationship with prayer. The way you speak. We're talking about a real, clear, visible difference. And this is uncomfortable. Because the world is always calling us to blur the lines. As the world creeps its way further into what we know as the church, the visible church, they have one goal. Let's blur the lines. Let's set aside the distinction. Let's gather the round table together and everyone from every faith community and every walk of life has a seat and a say. blur the lines. There's really no difference between those who are in and those who are out. But the true Christian lives in such a way that there is a clear difference, so that when the Scripture gives us a command regarding outsiders, we know who it's talking about. Not out of a sense of pride, not out of a sense of our being better, but we too used to be outside. We used to spend our days just like they spend their days. We used to love the things they love. And the only difference is not our goodness. It's what God has done to us. This is why we can go back to them and plead with them. I'm not better than you. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the worst. I know what I think. I know the things I used to long for. I know the things I did in the dark and in the secret. I'm not better than you. I too was an outsider. But if God in His grace can bring me in, He can bring you in. The goal is not to blur the distinction. It's to emphasize the distinction. Scripture tells us, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away, behold, all things are become new. Is there a clear distinction in your life? Because if there is not, or if there is, that will determine how you hear the rest of this message. This great portion of this text is for those who are on the inside. This is a command given to those in Christ about how they are to relate to those outside of Christ. But it begins by calling us to understand there is and there ought to be a clear distinction, a clear separation. However, this passage is also teaching us there is and there ought to be a genuine relation. Those inside the church, those in Christ, must relate to those outside the church, or those out of Christ. This relationship is set forth before us here by way of obligations. We read this in verse 5 as we notice the Christian's obligation. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. This idea of walking here, that refers to the whole manner of life. One's conduct, one's behavior, one's speech. And we see life pictured this way in Scripture all the time. In fact, if you can remember, in Colossians chapter 1, Paul's already used walking to represent life. He says in Colossians chapter 1, he's praying the Christians would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Now that doesn't mean that there is a particular way in which you roll heel to toe and putting one foot in front of the other that is pleasing to God and isn't. He's talking about the life, the manner of life, our speech, our behavior, our conduct. He says the same thing to the Ephesians. Look carefully how you walk. He's dealing with living life, living the Christian life in front of the outsiders or in front of the unbelieving world. It ought not be a surprise to anyone here, regardless of how long you've been following Christ, whether it's three weeks or thirty years, the unbelieving world is watching you. The unbelieving world, upon hearing or finding out that you are a Christian, immediately puts you under the microscope. Watching everything. Seeking an opportunity to bring an argument against your faith. Seeking an opportunity to discredit what you believe because of the way that you behave or because of the things that you say. Didn't we see this in the life of Jesus? Here was a man, when they tried to lie against Him, they couldn't even come up with lies that were consistent with each other. They secretly got together and plotted and schemed how they might go to Him and trap Him up in His words to have an accusation against Him. They sent people pretending to be sincere, trying to trap Him and trick Him, all because as soon as He came proclaiming truth, He got under the microscope. The unbelievers always watching Him, always listening to Him, constantly seeking an occasion against Him to despise Him and to discredit Him. And Christ has promised His people the same thing. He told His disciples in John 15, if the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world and I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And yet, it is this world that despises Christ and hates the believer that we are sent back into to represent and proclaim this Christ. So this demands a particular life be lived out in front of them. And the first thing we see about this normal Christian life in front of the ungodly, the first obligation we have to them is to walk in wisdom. Or to live, conduct ourselves in speech and behavior in wisdom. Now wisdom is an easy word, a simple word, and yet if you ask people, what is wisdom? Well, I don't know. I tried that this week, that's the only reason I'm saying that. Wisdom simply is the proper application of knowledge. Having knowledge suited to an occasion and properly applying that knowledge to that occasion. To live in wisdom is to be able to evaluate every situation in light of God's Word and then respond to that situation or make a decision in light of the knowledge of God's Word. That's what wisdom means. Or we understand wisdom by understanding what it is not. Wisdom is contrasted in the Scripture with foolishness. That means to walk in wisdom is to walk contrary to walking in foolishness. According to the book of Proverbs that sets before us wisdom and foolishness, fools walk inattentively, not paying attention, not having any cares, not having any concerns, just walking, living, careless, reckless, inattentive. Fools are disorderly, undisciplined. The proverb speaks of the fool as the one who will not go out and plant during time of sowing, and as the one who, because of that, will be begging during the harvest. Scripture tells us the fool is the man who despises wisdom and instruction, who thinks he's right in his own eyes. He's a know-it-all. He doesn't need any advice from you. He doesn't need help. He's got it all together. The fool walks as if there is no God, meaning they live as if God doesn't see them, or act in such a way as if God is not concerned with their sin. The fool is a man who is emotional, giving full vent to his mouth, the Scripture says. He has no self-control. He acts on convenience and emotion. Quick-tempered, you might say. tells us the fool is lazy, the fool is complacent, the fool is reckless, the fool is undiscerning, always expressing their own opinion, always looking for an argument, unreliable, unmotivated, and self-centered. and their life reflects those characteristics. So then to be wise or to walk or live in wisdom is the opposite of those things. A wise walk is characterized first of all by fearing the Lord. The beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom is this. fearing the Lord. That means having a proper understanding of who God is, having a proper understanding of who I am in relationship to this God, and living in such a way that makes proper use of this relationship. A wise walk is a walk, the Scripture says, that knows and does God's will. Ephesians 5 says, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of God is. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, Ecclesiastes says. Fear God and keep His commandments. To walk in wisdom is to turn away from evil. Proverbs says, one who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil. That means a wise walk is orderly, disciplined, prioritized, structured, A wise walk is informed, it's based upon godly wisdom, godly knowledge, instruction from the Scriptures. A wise walk or a wise life is a holy life characterized by separation from evil things and devotion and obedience to God. A wise walk is a sincere or a genuine walk. It looks the same in its church clothes as it does in its work clothes, or as it does in its lounge clothes at home. It's the same everywhere. A wise walk is a prudent walk. That is, it's careful. It's not flippant or reckless. It's careful. A wise walk is a consistent walk. It's rooted, it's grounded, it's steady, not constantly blown about by emotions, not constantly blown around with every whim and every trend. It is consistent and steady. So walking in wisdom toward outsiders then is taking these biblical characteristics and then applying them to particular situations where we interact with unbelievers. This might be as an employer with an employee, or an employee with your employer. It might be as a husband with a wife, or a wife with a husband. It almost certainly will be at some point a parent with a child, or perhaps it will even be a child with a parent. It's how we interact and relate with our co-workers, our neighbors, our relatives, our friends, our community, and strangers who do not know Christ. It's how we live at home, at school, at work, in the store, in the park, driving, at the gym, on our Facebook, whatever it is. Wisdom asks, how does God's Word inform what I'm supposed to do here? How does God's Word instruct me to conduct myself in this relationship? How do I present Christ and His Gospel before these unbelievers in such a way that I can gain a hearing with them? Walk in wisdom toward outsiders. One question I hope you're asking is, why? Why should we walk in wisdom toward outsiders? The first reason the Scripture gives us is to keep from bringing reproach on the name of Christ and His Gospel. When you go out bearing the name of Christ, you live as a representative. The biggest place I think about this is in relationship to the sports world. When an athlete does something that's completely idiotic and stupid, shames themself in the media, when they pull their picture up on the news report, their team's image is always behind them. The background is a softened version of their team's logo or whatever it is. Why? Because they're representing an organization. When you go out bearing the name of Christ, you go out as a representative. When people think of what it means to follow Christ, they look at you. So do they see the glory of Christ? Do they see the greatness of Christ? Do they see the power of Christ in the Gospel to change a sinner? Or do they see a pitiful Christ and a powerless Gospel that changes nothing except somebody's Sunday schedule? Remember when King David fell into sin with Bathsheba. We think about the consequences of that. Bathsheba lost her husband. David and Bathsheba lost a child. King David's life was pretty much in ruin for the rest of his life from that point. But there was more to it than that. Nathan the prophet told him this in 2 Samuel. By this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. All the enemies of God could say, there's David, there's God's King. That's the one who had a heart after God's own heart. And look what he's done. Look what God means to him. God's law means nothing. Oh, he's written pages and pages of his delight in God's law and his love for God's law. And how God's law has transformed him. And look, he's an adulterer just like me. He's a liar just like me. He's a fornicator just like me. His God is nothing, nothing more than mine. He brought blasphemy against the name of God. Paul said likewise to the believers at the church in Rome. He said, you make your boast in the law, but you dishonor God by breaking the law. The name of God is blasphemed among the unbelievers because of you. So you ask yourself, is my life before the unbelieving world a constant smearing of Christ and His Gospel? If I am an employee, am I smearing the name of Christ in the mud with how I'm living in front of my employee? If I have a spouse who I think is an unbelieving spouse, am I dragging the Gospel and its power in the mud before them with how I speak and live in front of them? As a parent, as I gather my children around regularly to hear the Word of God and to consider the Gospel, am I throwing reproach on the name of Christ with how I treat their mother, or how I treat their father, or how I treat them? My co-workers, my neighbors, my relatives, my friends, what I say on social media, is this bringing reproach against Christ or making much of Christ? Walk in wisdom to keep from bringing reproach against Christ and His gospel. But also walk in wisdom toward outsiders. Secondly, to keep from laying a stumbling block before the blind. What could be more cruel than knowing a man is blind, and as he's walking down the street, throwing a chair out in front of him? More harm has been done to the Gospel and the cause of Christ by hypocritical and inconsistent professing Christians than almost by anything else. Have you ever heard it said, the Bible that the world reads is the life of the church? Or, you are the only Bible some people will ever read. You ever heard that? That might be a southern Christian cliché, but there's a lot of truth in that. How many stumbling blocks have you laid? How many times have you been a wall of hindrance in between someone's coming to Christ? Isn't the most used excuse that unbelievers give is, I'm not going to church, that place is full of hypocrites. I've heard pastors laugh that off and say things like, oh, oh, just come on down, one more won't hurt. And the congregation bellows and laughs. It ought not make the people of God laugh that the world thinks the church is full of hypocrites. It ought to make the people of God weep. It ought to make us think, is it I, Lord? Has someone I work with been invited to church? And their response is, I know so-and-so. That guy is a phony. He's a hypocrite. If that's the people that go to your church, I don't need to go there. What a shame that the Christian life, a life called to holy representation, is thrown out in the trash heap of hypocrisy. Shrouded by so many clever excuses, I'm sure. But friend, listen. Trash is still trash, no matter what color garbage bag it's in. It's still dirty, it's still refuse, it still stinks, and it's still thrown out. Are you a hypocrite and inconsistent in front of your employer, your spouse, your children, your co-workers, your neighbors, your relatives, your friends, in the community, in front of strangers, at home, at school, at work, in the store, at the park, at the gym, on social media? The world doesn't need a church that looks like the world. It needs to see a church that looks like Christ. Old Leonard Ravenhill said he thinks the biggest problem in the world today is a sick church in a dying world. We will not win the world by becoming like the world. We will not win the world by bringing the world into the church. We will win the world by going out from the church into the world as sheep in the midst of wolves, wise as serpents, innocent as doves, walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, living consistent with the gospel we profess. We've had enough hypocrisy, enough inconsistency. Let Christ be all in all because the world is watching. Don't lay stumbling blocks. Open paths. Tear down hindrances. And thirdly, why you should walk in wisdom toward outsiders to keep yourself from falling into a snare. You know why our country is in engaging in the nonsense it is right now? Because healthy people can't get sick people healthy. But sick people can and do get healthy people sick. There is a spiritual reality to that. Do you know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, evil communications corrupt good morals? It is a sad delusion to think you can go out and wallow in the mud pit of the world and not get dirty. It is crazy to think that you can live with this flirtatious relationship with the sin that so easily destroys the Christian life and think that you are strong enough to handle it without getting your hands dirty. Are you stronger than Samson? Are you wiser than David or than Solomon? Are you following God after He is on the heart more than David? Those men fell. The strongest, the wisest, the godliest, they fell when they flirted with sin. And yet, you will sit and flood your mind with wickedness and impurity and immorality. You give your mind to those things that are worthless. You join scoffers in their vain conversations. You put your hands to the same things that wicked men put their hands to. And you walk this way toward those who are outside and with those who are outside. And if you are doing that, do not be surprised when you find yourself in the pigpen in the far country. because evil communications corrupt good morals. The only thing that can change a sinner is the grace of God, not your participation in their sin. As you think about this wise walk and these difficult things, I want to encourage you, if there has been inconsistency and hypocrisy in your life, it isn't too late to repent and turn from those things. You say, but people I've seen, the guys I work with know that I profess to be a Christian and that I talk the way they do and watch the things they watch and joke the way they do. Those guys know that if you repent and turn from those things, they will notice the change also. They will notice the change. Give yourself to studying the Scriptures to know what the will of God is, so that you can fear Him and obey Him, and then you can walk wisely in front of the outsiders. Give yourself to prayer, asking for wisdom. The Scripture says this, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, and God will give it to him. He gives generously to all without reproach. Then, you take this wisdom, you take your knowledge of God's will, and you fight to put it into practice. It does not happen automatically. It does not happen automatically. There is a fight to be had. If you have a habit of showing up late or calling out of work, and you seek to change that to be a testimony of dependability toward your unbelieving boss, it's going to take work. If you have a problem with setting before your children an inconsistent, hypocritical life that only spends its time watching YouTube, being on Facebook, bad-mouthing their mother or bad-mouthing their father, always talking down to them, if you want to change that, it's going to take work. It's going to take work for them to see. If you want to begin responding with humility and service toward your unbelieving spouse, it's going to be hard. It's going to take work. If you want to walk in purity toward your unbelieving co-workers, it's going to take work. Yet you have this obligation as a Christian. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders. You don't get a choice whether you want to do that or not. This is your obligation. And when your heart is in tune with God's heart, it's not just your obligation, it is your delight. We're not talking about throwing out all of the things that you love and forcing yourself to do all the things that you hate. We're talking about putting sin to death, pursuing Christ so your affections are transformed to love what He loves, to walk the way He walked. Paul goes on to press another obligation on the people. Namely, the obligation to redeem the time. He says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders making the best use of the time, or redeeming the time. What does that mean, to redeem the time? It means you should be making every effort to make the most out of every opportunity. It means every situation you find yourself in, make every effort to glorify God, to proclaim the Gospel, to demonstrate walking by the Spirit in the hope of seeing sinners saved. Time is not your own. Time is a creature. Have you ever said, made this statement, I just don't have the time? You never have time. Time isn't yours. God made time. It belongs to Him. In fact, Jesus said, which of you by worrying can add an hour to his span of life? You can't. Why? Your time is appointed. In His book are written all of our days before we ever lived a single one of them. Time is not your own. True Christianity, as it relates to time, is not confined to a day or a place. True Christianity is not limited to church on Sunday, nor is true Christianity limited to Bible reading and prayer in the morning. True Christianity is all the time, in every situation, with every person. So this obligation to redeem the time is the obligation to live a diligent, careful, intentional Christianity. This is a Christianity that understands time is precious. One preacher put it this way, this day will never come again. There is no marketplace where you can go buy old days, where you can go and get back partly worn out days. They come and they go for better, or for worse. This is the time you've been given, brothers and sisters. Think of how much time you've already wasted. How many conversations have been wasted? How many opportunities have been missed? How many times Christ could have been proclaimed to that family member or that co-worker, and now that time is gone. Not only is time precious, but it is short. What is your life? Scripture says it's like a vapor coming up off the stovetop as soon as you notice that it's gone. Job reminds us that man is few of days and full of trouble. Life is short. You think of your average day. Most of you spend eight hours working. If you're a mom, you spend probably twice that much. Eight hours working. If you're lucky, you spend eight hours sleeping. That leaves eight hours. Transition that, put it on a larger scale, the scale of years. Say you live 60 years, 20 years working, 20 years sleeping, you've got 20 years left. Most of us in here who name the name of Christ, we're almost out of our 20's or well out of our 20's. How much time do you have left? Add to that this reality, you are not promised tomorrow. You're not promised 60 years. You're not promised 70 years. Young people, you're not promised 20 years. Time is short and how much of it is already gone. Redeem it. Make the most of the time you have. And finally, the days are evil. Night is coming, Jesus said, when no one can work. Hostility to the Gospel is on the rise. As we're seeing in our nation right now, this is no longer the babbling conversation of conspiracy theorists. Persecution is in the pipeline. You can go to Home Depot with 1200 people and you can't come to church with 9. If you will not redeem the time now when you are free, what will you do when obedience to Christ makes you a felon? The night is upon us, it only grows darker. Our redemption is nearer now than when we first believed. Redeem the time, make the most of it to glorify God and proclaim the excellencies of Christ. The first step in doing this is to think about everything that robs your time, personally and practically. Your hobbies, the things you do in your leisure time. Entertainment, television, movies, social media, laziness. Why do you give so much of your precious time to those things? Even the world knows how much time we waste on those things. Your iPhone comes built in with an app that tells you how much time you've wasted on social media in a week. Even the world recognizes people are wasting their time on these things. I'm not saying don't work, I'm not saying don't play, I'm not saying don't enjoy the things God has given, nor is Paul, nor is the Scriptures. Christ worked for 30 years in silent obscurity. Paul traveling the entire known world, planting churches, preaching the gospel, working every day, making tents so that he could pay for a hall to preach in. The commandments we've already heard about your obligation in the home and at work. All of these things come together. They're not separate. They come together. But it tells us, if I have an obligation to my spouse, to my children, to my employer, to my church, and to my God, I don't have any free time. Because added on top of that is now my obligation to those who are without. Those out there who don't know Christ. It is 2020 and with one graduating class of all the seminaries in the United States, we could put a handful of missionaries in every unreached people group in the world. And what are people doing? Wasting time. Wasting time. There is a time to work. There is a time for rest. But there is no time to waste. The world is watching and the world is perishing. Eternity is coming. Recognize those things that are robbing your time and stop. Redeem the time. After you've recognized those things and you seek to replace them, what do you replace them with? Well, the first thing you begin doing is watch for providential opportunities. That co-worker you have who you've wanted to share the gospel with for so long and you're terrified to even approach them, they've just lost a loved one. Now, you and your family need to make them some food and take it to their house after work. That neighbor who you've wanted to invite to church for the past 10 years, a storm has just come through and wreaked havoc on their house. And yours is just fine, but they've got trees down, gutters hanging off, windows busted. What are you going to do on Saturday? You just sit inside and watch the hunting channel? Go across the street. Redeem the time. Your child invites a friend from school over. When their parents come to pick them up or when you drop them off, redeem the time. See a stranger at the gas station with their hood up and you have jumper cables in the back of your car, redeem the time. All of these opportunities are given to us by God to represent Christ and to proclaim His gospel. Watch for them. Be on the lookout for them. Secondly, turn casual conversations to gospel conversations. Don't settle for the niceties and the cultural norms. You know what I'm talking about. You're standing in line at Walmart. Hey, how you doing? All right, how about you? Good, good. Well, I tell you what, this coronavirus stuff is crazy, isn't it? Yeah, it's crazy. I'm about to go crazy sitting at home. Yeah, me too. I'll tell you what, I've been looking at the Constitution. They can't do this to us. What a waste. What a waste. Redeem that time. This person has just opened up a conversation about life and death. Redeem that time. Seek every opportunity to lead others to Christ. That's what he goes on to say in verse 6. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Even when the conversation is not on the topic of grace, you ought to be throwing grace in there, into it. Seeking every opportunity to turn it and make it gracious. He uses this picture of salt. Let your speech be like salt, seasoning conversations. Let grace be the salt in your conversations. In ancient times, salt was used to preserve meat, to keep it from spoiling. Salt was also used to flavor and enhance the taste of meat. This is how the Gospel ought to adorn our conversations. It ought to season them and protect them from corruption. And it ought to enhance the flavor or the quality of our conversations with the Gospel of Christ. For that kind of speech will only flow out of a heart that is fixed on Christ. Remember Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And thirdly, always be ready. Do you know how hard it is to share the gospel with somebody at 7-11 when you've been fussing at your wife all the way up the road there? Do you know how hard it is to share the gospel with your co-worker when you stayed up too late watching the game? The first thing they come in and ask you a question and you've got three and a half hours of sleep and you don't want to be at work anyway? Always be ready. Disciplined, structured, consistent, always ready. In your hearts, Peter says, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is within you. Walk in wisdom. Redeem the time. Outsiders are watching and it is our job as ambassadors, representatives, to present Christ to them and to proclaim Christ to them. And they will not listen to a hypocrite. So, be on guard against your behavior and your speech that would throw a stumbling block in the way of a sinner or that would smear the name of Christ and constantly seek opportunities to proclaim His gospel to those who do not yet know Him. The world doesn't need your light to be put under a basket. It needs it up on a stand for everyone to see. The normal Christian life is a life of separation and distinction from the world, but also of representation and proclamation of Christ to the world. And now I know the hour is long. I want to end with one more final appeal, and that is to anyone who is here who is an outsider. Perhaps you have, almost as long as you can remember, refused to come to Christ because of the hypocrisy and the inconsistency that you have seen in the life of those who claim to be Christians. You say, I know them, I've worked with them, or I grew up with them, and they claim to be a Christian. Trust me, I'm doing alright. Let me answer your question. Isn't that a sorry excuse for going to hell? That person was bad at what they claimed to be, so I'm going to go to hell because of that. Stop looking at sour Christians. Stop looking at hypocritical Christians. Stop looking at inconsistent Christians and look to Christ. There was no hypocrisy in Him. There was no guile found in His mouth. The people who hated Him the most said, no one ever spoke like this man. Pilate, who stood in judgment over him, handed him over to death, said, I find no fault in this man. The Samaritans, the people who hated him just because of his ethnicity, said this, this is indeed the Savior of the world. He was holy, sinless, separate from sinners, compassionate, consistent, uncompromising. He left the glory of heaven and took on flesh to live this unhypocritical, perfect life in your place so that you could be accepted in God's sight. And then He died on the cross in your place, taking your wrath so that God could welcome you and forgive you and give you eternal life and bring you into His family. Look to this One, this perfect One. Can you refuse Him? This One who loved you to death. Can you reject Him who says, come to me? Not come to them, not come to the church, not come and embrace hypocritical, inconsistent Christianity. Come to me. Are you weary? Are you laden down heavy? The burden of eternity is crushing down on your shoulders and the last thing, the last straw that's going to break your back and cause you to slide into hell is the hypocrisy of some phony Christian? Come to Me, He says. I'll take that burden. My burden is easy. My yoke is light. Come to Me and have life. Run to Christ. Embrace Christ and He will never let you down. You don't have to leave here today as an outsider. And believers, you do not have to leave here today as a hypocrite. Come. Come to Christ. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for Your Word. Help us please to consider these things by Your Spirit. Bring them into our mind. May we meditate on them. May we think on them. May You save sinners. May You sanctify Your people. In Jesus' name, Amen.