And turn again to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. especially verse 16, redeeming the time because the days are evil. This afternoon, we come to our 10th and last sermon in our series on evangelical holiness. And once again, I give our working understanding of holiness. Holiness is heavenly mindedness. The purpose is to prepare us for life in the third heaven. And the end goal is to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in the beatific vision. Brethren, as we have rediscovered the doctrines and practices of evangelical holiness, we must ask ourselves, are we applying what we are hearing? It is one thing to listen and be convicted or encouraged, It's another thing entirely to put into practice what we are hearing. And so it is the foolish man who hears and does not apply, for he's building his house on sand. But it is the wise man who hears and obeys, for he's a man who builds his house on a rock. So let none of us be hearers only, but doers of the word. And I pray the Holy Spirit has energized our souls, stirred us up to seek after true holiness, seeking our home in heaven and desiring to live as pilgrims on this earth. We conclude our series with the final exercise of redeeming the time. This phrase is used twice by Paul, one in Ephesians 5.16 and another in Colossians 4.5. But our focus will be in Ephesians. And this chapter is all about Christian holiness. In verse 1 to 3, Paul exhorts us to be followers of God as his children, to walk in love like Jesus Christ. And therefore, verses three to six, how we are not to live. We're not to live according to the flesh with fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, jesting, et cetera. And then he makes a comparison between those who are in darkness and those who are in the light. We are not to live according to darkness, but as we are children of light, walk in the light. But then he has a conclusion in verse 15. See then, therefore, walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. We're going to walk in holiness, walk in love, not live according to the darkness, but to the light. Therefore, we must redeem the time. I want to look at this phrase under two headings. One, the nature of redeeming the time. And two, the practice of redeeming the time. First of all then, the nature of redeeming the time. What does Paul mean here by the time? There are different words in Greek for time, and they all have nuances. This particular word can be used in three ways. The first way is just a general use of time. Our whole life, our whole existence on earth, the culmination of all the minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years on earth, the time we live on earth. But often it has a more nuanced idea of a season or appointment. Something like Ecclesiastes 3.1. To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heavens. Time for death, a time for life, a time for laughing, a time for weeping. And so this word's often used in that kind of sense. It's a season or an appointed time. But he also has the idea of opportunity. something that comes into our life, and we must grasp the opportunity. Galatians 6, verse 10, the word opportunity is the same word as time. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, but especially those of the household of faith. It's the same word. As we have time, That means the opportunity of a time to do good to men, but especially fellow Christians. For this word, though it's general, it contains within itself the idea of seasons, appointments, and opportunities. And this is true of us all, because all of our time has been appointed by God. We do not get to choose the time. God does. Job 14.5, seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. We have no idea of the time we have on earth. We do up until this immediate point, but no more afterwards. God exactly has written and decreed the exact day of your death. And within that time, there are seasons and appointments in Providence to give you opportunities to respond in faith and to glorify His name. And in every opportunity, it comes from God himself. Everything, every tragedy, every sickness, every death, everything good, every child, everything is under the sovereign appointment of our God. And every moment of time is the opportunity to do good. So the time here is within the time of our life, seasons, appointments, and opportunities to glorify God. But what does it mean, redeeming the time? This is Paul's usual word for redemption. For example, in Galatians chapter 3, 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. And the word means to purchase and buy something. Of course, in our salvation, we're in bondage to sin, the curse of the law, and the devil. And Christ's price as his precious blood on the cross and he purchases his bride on the cross and delivers us from our sin, the curse of the law and the devil so that we would be with him forever. But what does it mean here to redeem the time? It's interesting the Greek phrase is used in Daniel. The exact language is used in Daniel chapter 2 verse 8 where there's a dream and the Chaldeans cannot interpret the dream and they want to know the interpretation first before they come to the king and state it because they're afraid of upsetting King Nebuchadnezzar. And the king says, the king answered and said, I know of certainty that you would gain the time, the Greek here is redeem the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me. And that phrase to gain the time, it means to take the time of opportunity and grasp it. Don't just wait and waste this opportunity to tell me the interpretation. Grasp it with both hands. Take this opportunity and improve it so you can tell me the interpretation and I will richly reward you. And so to redeem the time means to not waste the opportunity, but to use it and improve it for good. And so a full definition may be something like this. Redeeming the time as the daily practice of our circumspect use of time in the pursuit of true holiness, vital communion with God, fulfilling our duties in a fervent manner, and zealously maintaining good works. This practice consists in wasting no time in vain things, prioritising spiritual matters over earthly pleasures and ease, doing our best in all our callings and duties, and seeking to improve special opportunities towards God and neighbour. So this is what it means to redeem the time. Why do we need to redeem the time? Paul tells us why. Because the days are evil. The days are evil. He's speaking of the days of our lives are full of evil. This kind of language is used in the scriptures. Jacob, he's a believer, he's a Christian, he's a man of God. And he's before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And the king's asking him about his life and who he is and his occupation. And in Genesis 47 verse nine, Jacob's answer is, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. And that word evil is a varied word. It can mean moral evil, but often it can mean any sort of harm or hurt or calamity or affliction or suffering. He says, my days have been evil, toilsome, troublesome, afflicting. Matthew chapter 6 where the Lord Jesus Christ is exhorting disciples not to be like the Gentiles, worrying about everything. Worrying about food, worrying about clothing, worrying about the things of this world. And Jesus says in Matthew chapter six, verse 34, take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. All our days are evil. All our days, there's always something to worry about. But don't think, don't care, don't worry, don't be anxious. Let the days take care of themselves. Tomorrow's tomorrow, today's today. Focus on today and trusting in the Lord and seeking him first and his righteousness. Don't fill your mind and your heart. What's gonna happen tomorrow or next week and the month after that or the year after that? What about if this happens? What if that happens? Worry, worry, worry, worry, worry. It says no. sufficient are the days of evil for themselves. But seek me first." Is that someone here who needs that message? You're a worrywart, troubled, concerned, full of care. What about this? What about that? What's going to happen tomorrow? What about next week? What if this happens? What if that happens? That's unbelief and sinful. Yes, we need to be wise, prepare, store like the ant, but not worried about it. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. If you're someone full of worry, you're not seeking God first. You're seeking yourself first. And you're not believing your Father in heaven. You're not believing that he's all-powerful, he can provide anything he wills. or you're denying He's merciful and He cares for you and loves you and will provide everything you need. So we need to buy back the time. We need to not waste time and use it and improve it because the days are evil. Now how are the days evil? And why do we need to redeem it? You could preach sermons on this. But I want to limit to four spheres. The first reason why we need to redeem our days is because our days are short and full of trouble. Psalm 90, verse nine, For all our days are passed away in thy wrath, we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. We all think we're all going to live a long time. We all think we have time. We have no idea how much time we have left. And what is our time compared to eternity? What is living 60 or 70 or 80 or 100 years compared to eternity? Our time is very, very short. And it's full of trouble. Full of missed opportunities. full of wasting our time, full of afflictions. And so we need to redeem it, purposefully improve and use our time for the glory of God. It is short and it is troublesome. And if we don't redeem it, poof, everything's gone. How often do we see that? How often do you hear people speak of their children? It was just yesterday I had them on my lap. It's gone. It's gone. Secondly, we need to redeem our time because the days of evil mean we waste our time. Too often we are wasting our time. How do we waste our time? Idleness. Ecclesiastes 10.18 By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. Just idleness in our lives, not doing anything, being lazy, wasting the time that we have. Just sitting around doing nothing. Too much time in bed. Just hanging around. The minutes and the hours go, then the days go, then the weeks go, then the years go. How much opportunity is missed? How we should be here, but we're here simply because we were idle. or we waste our time with busyness which is the opposite extreme. Webster's original dictionary defines busyness as employed with constant attention and engaged about something which renders interruption inconvenient and no time for things. We all have lawful duties, but if we don't do those lawful duties diligently, we would be sinning. So we rightfully give ourselves to do our lawful duties for the glory of God. But if we have too much of them and we're too busy, we will miss opportunities and neglect our duties to our family, or spiritual duties before God. There's an interesting phrase in 1 Kings 20. The context is, Ben-Hadad, the king of Assyria, sinned against the Lord by saying, Jehovah is the God of the hills, but not of the valleys. And God says even to Ahab, because he's a wicked king, Ahab, I'm delivering them into your hands, kill that king. Ahab fights, he's got the victory, he has Ben-Hadad in his hands, and what does he do? He doesn't kill him. And so a son of a prophet is raised up, and he goes to men to strike him in the face, and he goes to Ahab, and he tells a story to Ahab that he was in the battle, and someone said, here's a man, take him, if you let him go, you must die. And then it says, as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And then King Ahab said, you deserve to die for what you've done. And the purpose of that is to say, Ahab, you're that man. you didn't do your duty, God's going to judge you because you didn't kill Ben-Hadad. But look at that phrase, my servant was busy here and there and he was gone. That's an illustration of many of our lives. We're always busy. We're here, we're there, we're doing this and we're doing that, and it can be all lawful, but you miss opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. You don't have time to saturate yourself in the Bible because you're too busy. You have no idea what it means to have a real prayer life because you're too busy. You don't know what it is to grow in knowledge and doctrine and theology and Christian holiness and practice because you're too busy. You don't know what it means to show fellowship and be with people and talk about the things of God because you're too busy. You're busy one day, you're busy the next, you're busy this week and that week and that month and next day. Next thing you know it, you're nearer to death. And you're responsible for not being as holy or godly or knowledgeable because you were simply too busy. So you need to redeem the time. How many of us are like Martha, busy and cumbered about many things, but Mary was at the feet with the one thing needful. Missed opportunities for fellowship with Christ because I was just too busy. Pleasure. The apostle Paul warns us in 2 Timothy 3, 4, lovers of pleasure rather than God. We find more pleasure and enjoyment with the things of this world than God. And that's why we choose to spend more time with entertainments and amusements and TV and music and the internet over God. All the things I mentioned are lawful, and they could be used moderately. Nothing wrong with them. But you take more pleasure in them, you'll happily neglect spiritual things, happily neglect Bible reading, happily neglect reading good books, so you can spend more time and more minutes and more hours and more days in the pleasures of the world. So you need to redeem the time. Procrastination. Putting things off. Proverbs 27.1. Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Don't put things off, the proverb's saying. I'll get round to it. But you never really do, do you? because there'll be another problem the next day and then you'll put it off then. Many people love to make resolutions tomorrow or next week. There's a proverb out there, not a proverb from the word of God, but just a proverb from the world that says there's two times to plant a tree, 20 years ago and today. There's much wisdom in that. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, so you can get the fruit of it now. But if you haven't done it, don't put it off and don't bewail. Oh, you know, only if I did that, only if I did that. Do it today, and in the next whatever years, you'll have fruit. But we often don't. We put it off, and put it off, and put it off. We do it in the workplace, we do it in home, and we do it in spiritual things. And therefore, we must redeem the time. Our days are short, we waste days. But thirdly, the days are evil and we must redeem the time because of the world we live in. In Colossians 4.5, Paul says, walk in wisdom towards them that are without redeeming the time. So, without our those around us in the world, those outside the church, the world is full of evil. If we do not redeem the time, we will walk just like them. John Calvin comments on this verse. Everything around us tends to corrupt and mislead, so that it is difficult for godly persons who walk among so many thorns to escape unhurt. Such corruption having infected the age. That's us. If you're not redeeming the time, you're using the time just like the world around you. It might be more moral, you might do it with a certain tie, you might do it under the garb of a Christian or religion, but the reality is you use your time just like everyone else. That's a bad witness. Fourthly and finally, we must redeem the time because the days of evil because of the devil. Chapter six, verse 13. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may able to withstand in the evil day. That is, in the day of Satan's attacking you and tempting you. The devil wants to waste your time. The devil does not want you to redeem your time. The devil wants you to be idle and lazy or excessively use lawful things. He wants you not to do your duties as a husband or as a wife or as a parent. He does not want you in the words. He does not want you on your knees in prayer. He does not want you to meditate on the word of God. He does not want you to grow in doctrine and theology and Christian experience. He wants you to be a comfortable, worldly Christian. And by Christian there I mean in name only. He wants you to waste time in the world. And therefore, We must redeem the time. Remember, redeeming the time is the daily practice of a circumspect use of our time in the pursuit of true holiness, vital communion with God, fulfilling our duties in a fervent manner, and zealously maintaining good works. Are you wasting your time or are you redeeming your time? It's either or. Secondly, the practice of redeeming the time. How then can we learn to redeem the time? We must be motivated before we practice. When I just give you practical details, it means nothing, except you have the right motive. So how can you redeem the time? Two reasons, one, because of the gospel, and two, because of the preciousness of time. First of all, because of the gospel. Jesus Christ delivered you from the days of evil. Galatians 1, verse 4, Christ, who gave himself for our sins so that he might deliver us from this present evil world. When we're in sin, we love these evil days. This world is our home, our joy, our peace, our comfort, our meaning, It's all about this world. We live for it. We want it. But when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, he came to deliver us, body and soul, from this present evil world, from these days of evil. That our home is in heaven. That which we long for in the heart is now Christ. Treasures in heaven where moth and rust and thieves cannot take away. Our desire is not earth, but is the third heaven. That kingdom of heaven prepared before the foundation of the world. The place of Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. The place where the angels are now. The place where we will behold glory of Christ face to face. That's what we live for. And therefore, as we live in this world, we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Romans 13. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. We will have desires to waste time or abuse lawful things in time and to procrastinate or be idle. We will desire those things. And because we have Christ and the Spirit in dwelling and a new heart with a new mindset and a new home, we are not to fulfill them. And the more we understand we're closer to heaven, the more we'll be motivated. Because Paul says in Romans 13, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is fast spent, the day is at hand, let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. If you're daily meditating on the four last things, if you're meditating on death and the second coming and heaven and hell, you understand every single day you're a day closer to heaven. I'm a day closer to heaven. I'm a day closer to heaven. And that's what I want to be. And this motivates us in the name of Christ, not to waste our time, but to redeem it every single day. So have your faith in Christ and your heart in heaven, and you will be motivated to redeem the time. But secondly, the preciousness of time. If we are going to redeem the time, we must see it as precious. Jonathan Edwards has a sermon, The Preciousness of Time. I recommend that to you. And he gives four reasons why we should view time as precious and therefore redeem it. First of all, he says, because what we do in time has an effect in eternity. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, the very last verse. Dear God, keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil. On the day of judgment, we will have to give an account to God for the use of our time. Whether it's, as Jesus says, every idle work, or Matthew 25, how we have received God's grace and used it, or how we have helped the brothers and sisters, everything that we do, including time, we'll have to give an account. Think about that every day when you're making decisions of what to do and how to spend your time. Can I consciously say I can stand up on God's judgment day and say this was a good use of my time? The second reason Edward says why time is precious is because it's so short. Job 16, 22. When a few years are come, then I will go the way whence I shall not return. It's short. then it's gone. And since it is so short, is it not precious? The third reason is time is uncertain. James 4, ye that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a city and continue there for a year, buying and selling and gain. For what is your life? It is a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this. Some certain? You have no idea if you have got more time or not. None. God knows, it's very certain as far as he's appointed it. But to us, you have no idea if I'm going to see you next Lord's Day. No guarantees. Therefore, time is precious. Use it. And fourth and final reason, time cannot be recovered. Once time is gone, it's gone. You can't get it back. Think of all the time in your past. and maybe how much you've wasted it. It's gone, you're never getting it back. Don't despair. Whatever time you have left, redeem it and glorify Christ. And so having faith in the gospel and having a value to the preciousness of time, let us be motivated to redeem the time. Now how can we do that? Paul tells us, verse 15, walk circumspectly. That word circumspect means strict, narrow, close to a rule. Someone who's very precise and exact and diligent. Not as fools, but wise. Not simply knowing what to do, but skillfully knowing how to apply in the right situation. And in verse 17, be not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Know what God's will is for your time and your days and your life. and be very narrow, very precise, very strict, and very accurate with your use of time. In other words, be a Methodist. Now when we use that word today we think of a particular denomination or a branch of denominations, but that word Methodist was used of the English Puritans in the 16th century, the William Perkins. Because they thought that these men took their religion too seriously. Their understanding of the Christian life was too precise and too exact, so they slandered them as Methodists. But they were also called derogatively Puritans. And when what we call the Methodists began in the 1730s and onwards, the people in the Church of England, who were religious but they were not evangelical, started to hear of people who would be very particular in their Christianity. And so they used that old derogatory term again, Methodists. And when the Methodist church actually split from the Church of England to still be a distinct denomination, If all who were called evangelical, whether they were Presbyterian or Anglican or Congregationalist, they would call them Methodists. Why? Because evangelicals tended to take religion very seriously. Holiness seriously, the Christian life seriously. And so those who were all about the externals and not that really persistent with the Word of God, they would slander them as Methodists. Paul was a Methodist. Walk circumspectly, walk accurately, strictly, precisely. And so if we are going to redeem the time, our walk must be precise. How can we do this? First of all, manage your time. Psalm 90 verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Every single day is a gift of God to be lived for his glory. Therefore, I'm going to walk circumspectly, accurately, and precisely. Many people waste time simply because they have no schedule, no management, and no organization. They just go through the day and hours, then days just fly by. But it is biblical to be circumspect and therefore manage your time well. What time are you getting up at? What are you doing in the morning before work, teaching your children? What are you doing during the day? When you have spare time or leisure time, what are you going to do with that? What are you going to do in the evening? What are you going to do before bed? We just do whatever feels good. And that's how you waste time. Now, no one here is talking about a legalist, but we're speaking of being circumspect. Manage your time well. Buy it back. The word redeem means when you buy something you're the master. The word originally comes from the slave market. When you buy a slave and you're the master. Is time your master or are you the master of time? Are you a slave or are you in control? We need to be in control of our time to redeem it, to improve it, and to use it wisely. My schedule is different to your schedule. A mother's schedule is different to a single man's schedule. And that's why we can only speak of generalities here. But in your time management every day, walk circumspect, precisely and accurately, redeeming the time. And whatever that looks like for you, That's redeeming the time. Prioritize spiritual matters. If we are busy or we do all of our lawful duties rightly and neglect spiritual matters, we're not redeeming the time correctly. We must prioritize spiritual matters. Because what's our chief aim here? Holiness, communion with the Lord, killing sin, growing in the fruit of the Spirit, preparing for heaven. Psalm 55 verse 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. Psalm 119, 164, seven times a day do I praise thee. The idea is the priority of the day is God, is God. Give your best to God, not the dregs. If you give the best of your energy and the best of the time to good lawful things on earth and give your dregs to God, we'll sin against the Lord. Little time in the word, little time in prayer, little time in meditation, little time in spiritual matters, and much and most to everything else is sin. Because we're saying these are super important. God can just have my tired 10 minutes in the evening. And so, because we love Christ, and we love the Word, and we love fellowship, and we love His ways, we will prioritise spiritual matters. We will be like Jesus Christ. In Mark chapter 1, Jesus is super busy. All day and at night, people are at the door seeking to hear Him, to be healed by Him, And then it says in Mark 1.35, and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out to a solitary place and prayed. Christ did that often. Why did Jesus go to Gethsemane? Luke tells us. It was the place where he was want to be. Yosemite was the place he regularly went to when he visited Jerusalem to be alone and be with the Lord. And when Jesus teaches us to pray, what does he say? Go into your closet and pray. Why? priority of spiritual matters. I cannot be a good husband. I cannot be a good father. I cannot be a good minister unless my soul is vital and holy and with the Lord. You cannot be a good whatever you are except your heart is right with the Lord and full of his presence and goodness. It's not about time, it's about quality. Every day you can see this, I prayed. Not I just said a few words to God or I gave a few petitions, I prayed. I prayed with my soul. My heart went to God and a sense of his presence by faith. As my petitions went up to the Lord, I had a real sense he's hearing my prayer in his time. I prayed today. I communed with the Lord. I had fellowship. I prayed. If you say that, you've prayed. In the Word, it's not about time. It's about quality. I really was in the Word today. I really was studying my Bible. I really am growing in knowledge and understanding. There were truths in the Bible that convicted me of my sin. There were truths in my Bible reading that lifted my faith and strengthened me. I was reading my Bible, and I had a glimpse of Christ, and it was wonderful for my soul. I truly read my Bible today. That's what we should all be saying at the end of every day, redeeming the time. Then there's doing our duties zealously. Redeeming the time is taking the opportunity to do all our duties as God commands. So a husband should not be neglecting his wife, and a wife should not be neglecting her husband, and the parents should not be neglecting their children. We have the will of the Lord when it comes to the Bible, this is what a wife should be, this is what a husband should be, this is what parents should be, this is what children should be. And there's no excuse for wasting time or being too busy and neglecting our God-given duties in our capacities. It's sinful and it's wasting or misusing time. The part of redeeming the time is, as a husband, I know what God requires me towards my wife and towards our children. And if I say I'm too busy, I'm sinning against God and I'm hurting my family. So do your God-given duties faithfully and don't let other things take away so your family's in disarray, but you're too busy. But moderate, temperate, readjust, realign, Take things out so that you do all your duties in all your offices before God. That which is lawful, make choices. We've said this a few times in the series and I repeat it again on purpose. Moderate it or get rid of it. When it comes to lawful things, entertainments and leisure and all these things, moderate it or get rid of it. If you love it too much, too much time, too much money, too much enjoyment, too much peace in it, too much comfort in it, either moderate it or get rid of it. Or, if all things are lawful but not all things are expedient, as Paul says in the Word of God, is that thing which is lawful helping you to be closer to God or hindering you with your walk with God? Is it helping you or is it hindering you? What's more important, holiness, fellowship, good works? or insert lawful thing. And finally, reflect. Reflect every week, am I using my time well or am I misusing my time? And where you see issues, improve on that time. Pray to God to give you more power and desires and a better view of heaven. Remind yourself of the preciousness of time and improve it, and you will glorify your God. So brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, holiness is your calling. Paul says this is the will of God, your sanctification. And we are growing in holiness to prepare us not for life on earth, but for life in heaven with Christ. So let us all engage with zeal and enthusiasm and labor and striving after true holiness. And the reward is in heaven. The reward is in heaven. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we confess our sin of wasting or misusing time and opportunity, but we are thankful for the free forgiveness of Jesus Christ. We pray Jesus, who used time well, would enable us to redeem the time because the days are evil. Grant that we would all walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, understanding what is the will of the Lord and doing it every day. And help us to have more and more experience of the love, grace, mercy, presence, and power of our triune God in Jesus Christ. In his name we pray.