In Christ - Living Wisely in a Foolish World

In this message from the In Christ series, Neil Silverberg opens Ephesians 5:15–21 and asks a timely question: how do you live wisely in a foolish age? He begins where Ephesians itself begins—our identity in Christ. Before any practical exhortation lands, Neil roots wise living in the gospel logic of justification by faith alone. Drawing on Ephesians 2:8–10 and the story of Martin Luther’s awakening to the “righteousness of God” as a gift, he shows how freedom from condemnation breaks the shame/strive cycle and turns obedience from fear-driven effort into Spirit-enabled response.

From that gospel foundation, Neil unpacks Paul’s call to “make the best use of the time.” Redeeming time is more than productivity talk; it’s buying our hours back from sin, distraction, and empty habits. He explains the difference between chronos (clock time) and kairos (opportune time), urging us to treat every day as a precious, non-renewable gift and to recognize the Spirit-charged moments that call for prayer, repentance, service, and faithful work—especially “because the days are evil.”

Neil then turns to discerning “the will of the Lord.” Rather than chasing a secret blueprint, he emphasizes the moral will of God revealed in Scripture. As our minds are shaped by what God calls good, true, and pure, countless decisions clarify. He offers concrete examples—stewardship over impulse in finances, marrying in the Lord, and ordering daily habits “worthy of the Lord”—and prays with Paul (Colossians 1:9–10) that we would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom.

Finally, Neil addresses Paul’s sharp contrast: “Do not get drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit.” He explains the issue of influence and control, noting the ancient pull of Bacchus and the modern wreckage of intoxication. “Be filled” is a continual command, not a one-time milestone. What does a Spirit-filled life look like? Paul gives three visible marks: worship that sings truth into our own hearts and into the church, gratitude that gives thanks always and for everything in Jesus’ name, and mutual submission that reshapes every relationship out of reverence for Christ.

If this message helps you walk wisely, consider sharing it with someone who needs encouragement. Which part is most challenging for you right now—redeeming time, discerning God’s will, or staying continually filled with the Spirit?

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Transcript

Scripture Reading And Prayer

Neil Silverberg 0:02

What's gonna happen now? We're gonna be addressed by God in Holy Scripture. Holy Scripture is God speaking. So as you turn with me to the book of Ephesians, chapter five. And when you get it, would you please stand as I read the Word of God. Verse fifteen through verse twenty-one. 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, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Father, please address us from this portion of Scripture and apply it to our hearts. Lord, we want to be changed by your word. We want your word to have the full effect that you intended it to have. So grant us, Lord God, by your spirit to hear the word of God this morning, not with words of human wisdom, but a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And we ask these things in the name of the Lord Jesus. And everyone said, Amen. You may be seated. Thank you. We are walking through a preaching series through Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Hasn't it been rich going through Ephesians? This is I can never go through Ephesians enough. And we've seen that this letter can be neatly divided into two parts. First of all, the first three chapters where the apostle describes who the Christian is in reality. You know, I mentioned this before, but Paul never uses the word Christian to describe believers. In fact, he coined a phrase which is the title of this series, in Christ. Paul used that phrase to describe the gospel and Christians, they're people who are in Christ. The second part of this letter, which we've been parked at for a few weeks, has often been called the ethical part. Now the apostle in this section describes how these in Christ people should live. To use theological terms, chapters 1 through 3 of Ephesians describe what it means to be justified. Justification is a legal term. It's used in judicial courts of law for a judge's legal declaration of innocence. How does the apostle use it in the first three chapters of this letter? I could quote from a lot of sections, but let me quote a familiar portion. It doesn't use the word justify, but the idea is there. It's chapter 2, verses 8 through 10. Don't turn there, I'll read it to you. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, which is literally, we are his poem, is one translation. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You know, over the years, I've often been asked to pray for people who are responding to an altar call. And in one such church, I was asked to pray with people who were responding to an altar call. I I would ask the I asked the people who were coming up, what do you want God to do? What are you here for? And almost without exception, everybody said, I want to be, uh I want to stop feeling condemned. I feel condemned all the time. And I responded and said, Well, do you know the doctrine of the justification by faith alone? And most responded negatively, which is so sad. More than that, it's tragic. Because here's the deal, folks: you can't live the Christian life unless you're grounded in the truth that your standing with God is not based on how well you perform at the Christian life, but on the fact that He declared you free from the penalty of sin by the work of Jesus Christ. We could learn a lot from Martin Luther. Luther had a breakthrough while he was teaching the professor of the Bible at the University of Edinburgh. Before that, Luther was uh in a uh monastery and he tried to find peace with God. He did everything the monastery said you need to do to have peace with God, but he never found it. And he would go to the priest, and he got it got so bad he was confessing sins he didn't even commit. In fact, one of the priests said, Come back when you have some real sins you need to deal with. They didn't know what to do with Luther. So they sent him uh to Wittenberg, where he became professor of the Bible. And while he was preparing to teach Romans, he was reading Romans 1:17. Let me read it, let me read the verse before, because it's so familiar, but it's all one unit. He read this I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it, this is the verse that got Luther, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. You know, Luther before this struggled with that phrase, the righteousness of God. You know why he struggled? Because he interpreted the righteousness of God as God's judgment against sinners. And he's right, it was, it is, God's judgment against sinners. Luther confessed at one point that he actually hated God because he knew that God was righteous and therefore he deserved to be punished. But suddenly his eyes were open, folks, and he saw in verse 17 that the righteousness of God, which is spoken of in this text, is not something Luther achieved on his own, but a gift that God gives to sinners. It's a gift, the righteousness of God. And Luther said when he saw this, an entirely new world opened up because the gospel changed his heart. So now we come to the second section of this epistle, the ethical portion. And it's described not by the theological term justification, but by the theological term sanctification. And that's where we've been parked for the last few weeks. We've been listening to the apostles' description of how we should now live. Now that we've been freed from the penalty of sin, we should now be progressively freed from the power of sin. And each elder that's spoken has brought forth a different aspect of the sanctified life. This morning, I want to go deeper in understanding the sanctified life in a message entitled Living Wisely in a Foolish Age. Living Wisely in a Foolish Age. Not only has God called us to walk righteously, He's called us to walk wisely. Do you know that? And this call to walk wisely reminds us of a certain book in the Old Testament. What book teaches us wisdom? The book of Proverbs. Solomon lays it out at the beginning of this book. Remember, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and understanding. This is the beginning of the book of Proverbs. It starts by reminding us that if we want to live godly lives, we must start by cultivating the fear of God. The book of Proverbs is a book of contrasts. The wise walk this way, while the fools walk a certain way. This is how the section of Ephesians 5 begins. Paul says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. And this is the first contrast the apostle makes in our walk. Not as unwise, but wise. Today's big question is how can I live wisely in a foolish age? This is a foolish age. You look at the way people live, it's foolish. Nobody wants to live unwisely, but the problem is not many people know how to walk wisely. Paul tells us in these verses three things we must be concerned with if we're going to walk wisely. I want us to look at these three things. Number one, first we must be concerned with how we manage our time. Secondly, we must understand what the will of the Lord is. And finally, we must live lives that are continually filled with the Spirit. These three things are necessary to live wisely. Let's take the first one. Paul starts by reminding us to observe how we walk, not as unwise, but wise. And this is uh learning to steward properly our time. The ESV translates making the best use of your time. This is one of those cases where I find the King James to be the better translation. It says, uh redeem the time because the days are evil. And Paul, the word redeem there is a good translation because it was used of buying back slaves and setting them free. And Paul says, buy back the time, literally. Buy back the time. Redeem is the Greek word exa garazo. It was used, as I said, of the purchasing of slaves in order to set them free. We must learn, folks, how to buy back our time from unproductive and sinful pursuits. This is critical when it comes to wise living. You know, in the book entitled Margin, my Mark actually teaches TMAP and uses the book of Mar of uh by the book entitled Margin. And in it, there's a chapter dealing with time and how to manage time. And the author, Dr. Richard Svensson, writes this. Get this. 30 years ago, futurists peering into their crystal balls predicted that one of the biggest problems for coming generations would be what to do with their abundant spare time. Isn't that your biggest dilemma? You have so much spare time you don't know what to do with it. Right? I remember hearing this prediction often. In 1967, testimony before a Senate subcommittee claimed that by 1985, people could be working just 22 hours a week, or 27 weeks a year, or could retire at age 38. That really proved to be true, didn't it? Now it's helpful in properly knowing how to properly manage our time that we understand there are two Greek words for the single word in English of time. There's the word chronos, which is quantitative time, and karos, which is qualitative time. Chronological time is standard clock time. How many know you get a lot of that through the span of a lifetime? We all have the same amount of chronological time. But we don't all have the same amount of karos time, which is not chronological time, it's opportune time. And we have to learn how to redeem the time. It means to make the most of every opportunity, treating time as a precious resource by living wisely rather than wasting it. It involves buying back time from unproductive, sinful pursuits, prioritizing actions aligned with God's will, treating that time as a limited gift. A number of years ago, I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine. He's an apostolic leader who lives in upstate New York. And he was relating to me a conversation he had with a friend of his who was a student at Asbury Seminary, the Methodist Seminary, that had a powerful revival in the 1970s. There was classes were stopped, students were on their faces weeping and praying and repenting of sin. For two weeks, the campus was invaded by God. And this man was relating something strange about that revival when he was there to participate in it. And it was the way that the revival was affecting the students. Some students seemed totally unaware of anything happening. On the other hand, other students were being deeply impacted by the presence of God. And the student who was relaying this to my friend said he asked the Lord why. God responded and said to him, Those who were faithful in the Kranos are now being visited in the Karos. But those who are not faithful in the Kranos were not being visited in the Karos. Wow. Now we must be careful when we hear talk about faithfulness and revival. Because if you know anything about revival, you know that the Spirit of God is often poured out on people indiscriminate of their spiritual condition. Because he's sovereign and he does what he pleases. On the other hand, though, it's not unscriptural to say God withholds his blessings at times because his people are not faithful in stewing their time. One person we can learn much about when it comes to time management is the New England pastor Jonathan Edwards, who many people believe had the most well-taught mind in all of America. He was a New England pastor in the 18th century, best known for his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I actually have a book in my library that is a take on a modern take on that called God in the Hands of Angry Sinners. It's true, I have that book. Edwards managed time as a precious, non-renewable gift for God's glory. Let me read that again. He said this. He managed time as a precious, non-renewable gift for God's glory rather than personal leisure, focusing on intense productivity and eternity. His approach, detailed in his 1734 sermon, The Preciousness of Time, demanded redeeming time from idleness for spiritual, intellectual, and practical pursuits driven by the urgency of a short life. As a young man, Edwards wrote 70 resolutions, committing to never lose one moment of time and to improve every moment for the highest good. He argued that because eternal destiny depends on earthly actions, time must be spent preparing for the future state, not on frivolous activities. Hear that. Edwards believed the scarcity of time limited enhance its value, viewing it as limited commodity that cannot be recovered once lost. David, who wrote most of the Psalms, had a great awareness of time. This came out in the 89th Psalm when he said, How long, O Lord, will you hide yourself forever? How long will you burn, your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is. For what vanity you have created the children of men. On another occasion, David prayed, O Lord, make me know my end, and what is the measure of my days? Let me know how fleeting I am. Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. So it's only by having an accurate discernment of the times that we can manage our time. Paul says, Redeem the time. Why? Because the days are evil. Could anything be more relevant? Would you say our days are evil? Absolutely. And it's doubtful it'll get better. The second thing we must do if we want to walk in wisdom in this life is what Paul says in verse 17. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the phrase, will of the Lord, is what? It's usually the individual will of God for each believer. Who should I marry? What college should I go to? What car should I buy? And it's important that we seek God regarding those decisions. But I don't believe that's the primary purpose Paul has in telling believers they should understand the will of God, what the will of God is. It's what is commonly known as the moral will of God. Learning to discern the things that please the Lord. Because most of the time, by apprehending the moral will of God, we can discern the individual will of God for our lives. For example, which car to buy? If I have $3,000 to buy a car, but I really want this $25,000 car, which one's the will of God? Well, if you believe dead, debt is demonic, which I do, but uh, you know, you'd understand that the moral will of God informs me there to buy the car within my means. You know, when it comes to deciding who I'm gonna marry, it has to be a believer to be the moral will of God, because scripture is clear that do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So the moral will of God informs us in a lot of the practical things we do to please God. Paul prayed that believers would grow in the knowledge of the will of God. Listen to what he said in the Colossian letter. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. Wow. This knowledge of his will is a spiritual reality, comes when the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, which we'll talk about in a moment. This spiritual knowledge is not mere head knowledge, folks, but knowledge of what behavior pleased God. We grow as believers as we become progressively more aware of the will of God from our lives. Many of us are not aware of what God's will is and therefore live like fools. The only way we can grow in this knowledge is by praying for growth in the knowledge of his will. And that's an ongoing reality. We need to pray consistently. Finally, Paul tells us in these verses of this section that if we are going to walk wisely, we must continually be filled with the Spirit. Here's what he wrote: Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with our hearts to the Lord. With giving thanks always. I heard something about that this morning. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father. Other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Paul begins this section with a clear command not to be drunk with wine. You know why Paul is so direct to the Ephesians not to be drunk with wine? Because one of the gods of the Ephesians in that day, 2,000 years ago, that the Ephesians worship was named Bacchus, the god of wine and drunken orgies. Literally, they worshiped a God who was the god of wine and drunken orgies. And they believed that to commune with this God and to be led by him, they had to be drunk. And in the drunken state, they could determine the will of God and determine their how best to serve and obey him. This is why Paul told them not to be drunk, because it is debauchery. In the Bible, debauchery refers to extreme indulgence in bodily pleasures, sensuality and wild, uncontrolled living, often linked to sexual immorality, drunkenness, and recklessness. It is associated with a total lack of restraint and a lifestyle that rejects moral standards. I'm so glad that doesn't describe our culture. Now, what does scripture have to say about drinking? Many people believe it condemns drinking completely. And we shall point we should point out that Paul is not in these verses condemning drinking of any kind, but drunkenness. You know, years ago we were pastoring a church in Alabama, and a friend of mine in the church was having a conversation with a woman. The woman didn't believe that Christians could, under any circumstance, can ever drink. And my friend was trying to make arguments. And finally, out of exasperation, my friend said, Well, you know, Jesus drank. She said, I know, and I think the less of him for it. That really happened. Now, having said that, Paul isn't condemning drunkenness outright or drinking outright, having said that the Bible repeatedly warns about drinking and its effect on people. And we should know that. Every picture of drunkenness in the Bible is a picture of sin and disaster. Shortly after the flood, remember, Noah became drunk and acted shamelessly. And how about Lot's daughters? They caused him to become drunk and to commit incest with them as a foolish and perverted means of having children. And then in the book of Daniel, we have the story of King Belshazzar, who held a drunken feast in which he he and his guests praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. And during the very midst of the drunken brawl, the kingdom was taken from him. But it wasn't just a New Testament, Old Testament problem, it was the New Testament problem. Some of the Corinthians were getting drunk at the Lord's table. And some were made sick and even died. By the way, they were getting drunk at the Lord's table. They were not drinking, getting drunk on grape juice. Just a little fact of knowledge. Someone said Jesus turned the water into wine. It was grape juice. I said, You ever serve grape juice at a Jewish wedding? You will not live to tell about it. The book of Proverbs has many warnings about drinking. Hear my son and be wise. Direct your heart in the way. Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat. That that may be yesterday what we did in the men's meeting, I'm not sure. Be not drunk among among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. Having sounded out the warnings, let me read 1 Timothy 5 23, where Paul instructs his young son Timothy, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. Now don't use that as an excuse and go drink. So we need to put drinking in context. We can make the case that drinking isn't strictly forbidden in Scripture, but having said that, let me consider this. Approximately 28.9 million people in the United States, age 20 or older, roughly 10% of the population, has an alcohol use disorder. So you can argue that I I I'm allowed scripture to drink, but keep in mind the price you might pay. But Paul says, don't be drunk with wine, be filled with the spirit. And here Paul makes a deliberate contrast to illustrate the transformative nature of the Holy Spirit's influence in the life of a believer. Just as X alcohol exerts control of a person's behavior, speech, and thoughts, also believers are totally totally submitted to the control and influence of the Holy Spirit. Both intoxication and spiritual fullness involve being under the influence of an outside agent that alters one's regular functioning. The place where we see the similarities between drunkenness and being filled with the Holy Spirit, of course, is where? The day of Pentecost. Remember in the day of Pentecost when some of them heard them extolling God in their own tongues, others mocked, saying they're filled with new wine? So there must be a similarity between drunkenness and being controlled by the Spirit. There's something very important we must know about the type of verb that is used here, translated by the phrase, be filled with the Spirit. It's a command that implies a continuous habitual state, not a one-time event. That's so important. It implies a continuous habitual state, not a one-time event. It means to be constantly under the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to control our thoughts and emotions. You know, in the book of Acts, believers were filled with the Spirit after coming to Jesus. And show we should be too. But that was not their final experience with the Spirit. This command that believers be filled with the Spirit was a habitual state, not a one-time event. And many in the church today emphasize receiving the Spirit at Spirit baptism, and that's good. But they fail to emphasize the continuous work of the Spirit in the believer's life. How do we know we're continually being filled with the Spirit? Paul lists three things that characterize the spirit-filled life: singing, giving thanks, and submitting. Singing, giving thanks, and submitting. Let's start with singing. Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. You know, wherever the Spirit is poured out, new songs appear. And this is one of the most powerful things of the charismatic movement back in the 70s. The Spirit gave new songs, and a lot of them were scripture songs. Remember the scripture songs? I missed them because we were learning the word of God while we were worshiping. And scripture songs were powerful. He says also Psalms, Scripture songs and Psalms, which of course is a reference to the Psalter in our life, Life on Life group. Scott's leading us right now in the study of the Psalms of the Old Testament. And God gave us a book of 150 Psalms so we could pray and know how to pray. Psalms, hymns. Spiritual songs are songs given by the Spirit. God gives to believers a singing heart. By the way, who do believers sing to? To one another, addressing one another in Psalms, hymns, and so certainly you're addressing the Lord, but you're addressing one another. And then the second evidence that we're walking in wisdom and we're filled with the Spirit is what Tyler mentioned this morning, giving thanks. Paul says, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's a similar exhortation in Paul's letter to the Colossians. He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, do in the word, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Always in Paul's letters, he ends with a strong exhortation. Be thankful, people, be thankful. Christians are to be the most thankful people on earth. Tyler reminded us of that this morning. He says, giving thanks always. We can always find something to be thankful for. A few weeks ago, I woke up with this worship song in my heart. We're gonna end my message by singing it this morning. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks unto the Holy One. Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son. So I was gonna lead you in at the end, but you started already. Thank you. That's the main reason Paul gives we can be thankful, is God has given us his Son for our salvation. He says, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We should be thankful for everything because of this promise. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Can you really be thankful for everything, Neil? Yes, we can. For example, when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's, you might say, What can you be thankful for when it comes to that? I said, That's easy. I don't have to hide the fact anymore that I'm Pentecostal. Look on the bright side, folks. And then Paul says, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is a pivotal verse. It serves as a transition to the practical part of the letter, which will start next week. Paul takes the three principle of verse 21 and applies it to three relationships: husbands and wives, children and parents, slaves and masters. You know, we often hear how wives are to submit to their husbands, but Paul tells us that all believers should be submitting to one another. Certainly, that includes wives to their husbands, but it's not limited to that. Men love that verse, don't they? But Paul says believers should be submitting to one. The Greek word is hypotoso, and it means to arrange in order under. It's actually a military term. And in the military, there's a strong sense of submitting to everyone, to someone of higher rank. A soldier must arrange himself in order under his sergeant. A sergeant arranges himself under the master sergeants. So who does Paul tell us we should arrange ourselves under? Leaders? Well, certainly, of course, leaders, which is taught in Scripture. But not only leaders, the Christian is to subject himself to every other believer out of reverence for Christ, because Christ indwells every Christian. Believers are to whoop tasso to one another. And again, Paul's about to apply these in very practical ways to husbands and wives, to uh slaves and masters, and to uh forget the other, children and parents. So this attitude of submission is to permeate every relationship we have. So let's end by being thankful that Master Jack's gonna come and lead us with me and sing this song. Give thanks with a grateful give thanks to the holy give thanks because he's given Jesus. Because of us. For you've given us everything we need for life and godliness. Thank you, Lord, as we sing this song to you. We're very grateful for all that you've given to us, but most of all, grateful for you giving us your son, so we can, those who are weak can say, I'm strong. Those who are poor can say they're rich. Thank you for your salvation. Father, help us this day to be filled with the Spirit. Give us a fullness of the Spirit that we've not known. So we can give thanks, we can sing, and we can submit one to another. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen and amen.