The Days Are Evil

Introduction

In our Lord’s Supper remembrance this morning, Jim referenced what’s on our minds, or certainly was on our minds yesterday, it being the twentieth anniversary of nine-eleven. I’m probably the only one here older than the age of twenty for whom that date has always meant something. September the eleventh, my whole life was a special day. Prior to 2001, it was remembered and celebrated in my life as Bear Bryant’s birthday. But after 2001, that date certainly took on new and different significance.

Three things about that anniversary, that day stand out in my mind. Number one is that it was a reminder that there is evil in this world, that a person or a group of people would just decide because of our political and religious differences, to just kill thousands of innocent people, is a stark reminder of the evil that’s in this world. Thankfully, the events that followed, though, reminded us that they’re still good in this world. There were those true heroes that, rather than running away from the danger, ran into the danger. To serve, to save, and to help. They’re still good in this world. And today is the 20th anniversary of September the 12th. You remember that day as well? How we were all united. United in our anger, but more importantly, united in our love and our unity.

And so that day and the days following remind me that, yes, there’s evil in the world, but there’s also a lot of good. And love still abides.

And that is how time flies. Twenty years. That doesn’t seem possible. And probably the older you are, the least possible that seems. That has been that long ago. I was reminded of that watching football games yesterday, and so many times the comment was made that none of these players remembered that day. Some of them weren’t even born, and even the ones that were born would have been so young that they have no memory of September the 11, 2001.

And those ideas coincide perfectly with our lesson this morning. I want to take you to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, at Paul’s instructions, stronger than advice, his instructions to Christians who live in a godless world, and for whom time flies. Paul is going to tell us famously in Ephesians chapter 5. Let’s begin in our reading in verse 15, where he says, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time because the days are evil.

1. The Days Are Evil

Redeeming the time because the days are evil. We look at it in its context in the first century, and maybe more importantly to us, make application of it to you and I in the 21st century. What do those two phrases, redeeming the time and the days are evil, what do they mean for us today? First of all, we understand that the days are evil. I think they’re evil in a couple senses. One sense in which the days are evil are in the sense that the calendar and the clock are against us. How many of us have shaken our fist at the calendar at the clock because we realize that we’re running out of time. The deadline is approaching. Our life is lived with that reminder, isn’t it?

It started for me in my days in school. Particularly in college.

And I graduated summa cum laude. I could have actually taught a class in college in how to put something off to the last minute.

It was called Gordon’s Rule. And if my memory serves me right, Gordon was a senator or representative here in the state of Florida who helped pass a bill into law that said college students need to learn how to write.

On the last day of class. When you took your term, your final exam, you were to turn in that paper. Now, a better student would have said, let me write this 3,000-word paper now and just get it out of the way so I can focus on my studies later. You think that’s what I did? No. My approach was, let’s see if I can anger all of my roommates and suite mates, because I’ll be up all night the night before typing this paper. And back then it was on a typewriter. And the dorm room was cement blocked, covered with bathroom tile, and so that typewriter echoed. And I can hear still to this day my sweetmates yelling my name in anger as I sat there typing and counting 3,000 words on that paper.

Because time had just rapidly approached, and now the paper is due. And a smarter person would have learned from those negative life experiences and gotten better at it, but I’m not much better at it today.

Yeah. Not the day before or the day of before I go to the post office. And to some degree or another, we’re probably all that way. You know, even if you’re not as bad as I am at procrastinating, you recognize that time is rushing forward so fast. And you can look back in regret, can’t you? On things that, dreams that you had, goals and plans that just washed under the bridge. Because you didn’t make the time for them. The New American Standard translates that earlier phrase, making the most of your time. Because the days are evil. Making the most of that fleeting, rapidly erasing time because the calendar is evil. The clock is evil. Time is flying by, and your opportunities and your chances are fleeting.

You know, the wise man taught us the same thing. Look in the book of Proverbs, chapter 27. Proverbs chapter 27. And in verse 1, the wise man said this do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. The psalmist put it this way, didn’t he? Lord, teach us to number our days. Scripture teaches us to be cognizant of time and aware of the fleeting nature of time. And how we can miss so many great spiritual opportunities because of that old evil calendar that flips its pages far too quick. But the days are evil in another sense as well. Not just because time is against us and we’re running out of time and we waste time through procrastination, laziness and sloth, but also the days are evil because let’s just be honest, they’re evil.

Go back to our context there in Ephesians chapter 5. Ralph read in our Bible reading of the wickedness, where he says in Ephesians 5, verse 8, that’s prior to our text, he says, For you were once darkness, but now are children of light, walk as children of light. Verse 11 skip down, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are being done by them in secret. The days are evil because far too often they’re just full of evil. Evilness and wickedness abounds around us. And so the inspired writer’s encouragement to us is redeem the time.

2. Honestly Evaluate Our Use of Time

And your life for good and for goodness. And so the days are evil in at least two senses. And so he says, since they are, since time is against us, and the sand is flowing through that hourglass rapidly and rapidly, and because we’re surrounded by the unfruitful works of darkness, he says, here’s what the child of God is to do. Redeem the time. One translation says, buying up the opportunities. Another translation says, make the most of your time. And so let’s talk about redeeming the time because the days are evil. Here I think are some ways in which we can do that. First of all, the Christian needs to honestly evaluate our use of time. And I mean that, my advice is in the most literal sense.

Think about what you did last week. Get pen and paper. And say, what did I do with my time last week? And I think you could probably do three categories. Keep it simple good, bad, and neutral.

Sinful? Things that would shame you before God on the day of judgment. Did you do some good things last week? Did you assemble with the saints and worship and praise God? Did you read and study God’s Word? Did you spend time last week praying? Did you let your light shine and just do good deeds before men? Love your fellow man and help them. And then there’s that third category, which will probably dominate most of the ink on that paper as you evaluate your use of time last week, and that’s just the neutral things. They weren’t bad. They weren’t necessarily things I would call them I was letting my light shine as being a good Christian. Just stuff I did. That if we’re really honest and almost kind of cynical about, we’d say, that’s the time I wasted.

3. Feel a Sense of Urgency in Life

I’ve been and watched 15 hours on Netflix. Or if it’s me, 15 hours of college football yesterday. We’d have to put sleep in that category. I hope you didn’t sin while you were asleep. But you probably didn’t let your light shine either, so that’s in that neutral category. And so just evaluate. How did I use my time? I think that’s a part of redeeming the time because the days are evil. In fact, again, what did the psalmist say? Lord, teach us to number our days. I don’t know if he meant that literally, but let’s do it literally. Evaluate your use of time. How you’re using the time that God has given you. Second way in which I believe we can redeem the time is that we need to feel a sense of urgency in life.

It’s probably a good thing that we don’t know what day we’re going to die. But wouldn’t it be interesting if at birth all of us were issued? A timer. The top part was just full of sand. And that we knew when that last grain of sand passed through that hourglass that we would pass. It’d be interesting. Probably not good, but it would be interesting, wouldn’t it? When you were young, you’d do what young people do. You think, look, I got a bunch of sand. Don’t worry about that. But as you got older. I’m going to tell you what you’d spend some time doing is staring at that hourglass. And trying to figure out, okay. In 30 minutes, this much sand passed by. We’d all become mathematicians, wouldn’t we?

I’ve got this much sand left, that much sand passed in 30 minutes. We’d be calculating how much time. We’d feel the urgency, wouldn’t we? That sand seems to be passing faster and faster and faster. Einstein taught us that time is relative. It goes faster. The less of it that we have to live. Look with me in the book of James. You remember this passage, don’t you? In James chapter 4. By inspiration, James was trying to get his audience to understand and feel the urgency of time. James chapter 4, come now, verse 13, I’m reading. James 4, verse 13, come now, you who say today or tomorrow will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy, sell, and make profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life?

It’s even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. And all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. We need to understand.

What James is condemning is the making of plans without God. And the making of plans without some sense of understanding the brevity of life. Life is but a vapor. What a powerful illustration. That little wisp of vapor that never lasts very long. I think maybe James has two points in mind. Number one is that vapor doesn’t last long. Life lived of its longest is over just like that. But also that vapor is so not just brief, but it’s so fragile. Try to grab it. Try to hold it. So not only is life brief, even at its longest, but life might not be lived to its longest. And we need to feel that sense of urgency. And I know what everyone or almost everyone in this audience is thinking about is they’re thinking about all of the old people.

Life is but a vapor. When you get old, you’ll recognize that, and you can feel that sense of urgency, that sand flowing, and you’ll know that your time is coming. We have missed the point of not just James chapter 4, but of the entire Bible, if we make that application. Life is brief, and we need to understand the urgency of it at every phase of our life. I think I’ve told you about the little congregation I grew up in, Beula Church in North Alabama. At its biggest, we were probably 120, 130 when I was a child.

4. Decide What Needs to Go

Six of my contemporaries had died. Out of a congregation of a hundred, a hundred and twenty, six young people died before they reached age twenty one. Your life is but a vapor. We need to feel the urgency. In fact, we need to live every day as if that term paper is due tomorrow. Isn’t that what Jesus means when he says we don’t know the hour in the day? So watch. Be prepared. The next way in which we need to redeem the time is we need to decide what needs to go. This is where we get serious. And if we really want to be serious about being a Christian, and I hope, and I know you are, if you want to know it’s serious about going to heaven, then here’s the redeeming the time principle you need to apply.

Decide what needs to go. Remember that list we made? Good, bad, and neutral. I hope we can all agree about it first that the bad needs to go. The sin that you committed in the last week needs to go.

We can agree on that.

I didn’t really sin necessarily. Or did I?

To him it’s sin. Paul said, Redeeming the time. Because the days are evil. I need to honestly evaluate my use of time and then decide, because the days are evil, decide what needs to go in my life. To make some sometimes tough choices. And Jesus demands those tough choices. Remember the rich young ruler that came to Jesus warning to go to heaven? What was Jesus’ final conclusion to him? Go sell everything you have. And Jesus would tell us and all of his followers on the Sermon on the Mount if your eye or your hand will keep you out of heaven? Cut them off. So what would Jesus say about our use of time?

It matters.

5. Decide What Truly Matters and Make Time

In Romans chapter 14, in verse 12, you know this, don’t you? Romans 14, verse 12, so then each of us shall give account of himself to God. We know that’s talking about the day of judgment. That I don’t have to give in a reckoning, an account, an answering of myself to God. I’ll have to answer for what I did, for my deeds. I’ll have to answer for what I use my body for. I’ll have to give an account. Does that apply to my time? On the day of judgment, will I have to give an account of myself and my time before God. The next thing I need to do in order to redeem the time is to decide what truly matters and make time for that.

I shortened that for sake of the PowerPoint. In my notes, I have schedule time, find time, make time for what truly matters.

One of our favorite expressions is I don’t have time.

I don’t have time. Want to go with me tomorrow? I don’t have time. Now, you think about that phrase, it’s not really technically correct. You do have time. Your tomorrow is going to be as long as my tomorrow. I have time, therefore you have time. What we’re really saying, if we’re honest, and by the way, it’s okay sometimes to make that judgment, but what we’re saying is, I don’t want to make time. I want to use my time for something else. And maybe, again, you got a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. That’s probably the better use of your time. And so sometimes that’s an okay assessment to make, but let’s be honest. That’s what we’re really saying. I want to use my time for something else, is what we’re saying.

6. Focus on the Good Things of Life

And again, that’s fine most of the time. We have time. It’s just what we’re going to do with that time. And isn’t that really maybe Paul’s point when he says redeem the time? Buying up, using up the opportunities that we have. Make time for what truly matters. And all of these points are connected. That goes with making a list, doesn’t it? That goes with prioritizing. That goes with feeling a sense of urgency. Of decide what truly matters. And say, I’m going to shift some of this time from column B over into column C. That’s the column of stuff that really matters. And then lastly, focus on the good things of life.

Even doing those neutral, kind of wasting our time things.

But maybe redeeming the time, using the best, making the best use of our time is by using our time for goodness. And focusing our eyes upon the goodness. Let’s close in the book of Philippians, chapter four. And again, in a very familiar text, verse eight, Philippians four. Verse eight, the apostle tells us finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there’s any virtue, there’s anything praiseworthy, think on these things. What a good use of our time to do good things, and to spend much of our time thinking on these good things. Are these the things of God and of Christianity? Absolutely. But are there things in the neutral column, just the things of life that are true, that are noble, that are good, that I can meditate on and make better use of my time.

Conclusion

Because the days are evil.

We don’t know when that final exam is. We don’t know how many grains of sand remained in this hourglass for us. And so how won’t we have to conduct ourselves? We could do what most of this evil world does. Give no thought to it. We can do what the apostle says we ought to do because the days are evil. Use your time wisely. Redeem the time because the days are evil. Do you feel that sense of urgency in your life? If you do, you won’t leave this place outside of a relationship with God. You believe in him, confess your faith, repent, and be baptized this very day. What better way to redeem your time in these evil days? Maybe you’ve done that in the past, but you realize that in one way or another you’ve wasted your time.

Wasted it in sin or just wasted it in waste. Then redeem the time this morning. Make the decision to give your life, including your time, to God and His noble purposes. Can we help you in that pursuit? Would you give your life and your time to Christ this morning? If so, let it be known right now as together we stand and as we sing.