New Year’s Eve sermon on Ephesians 5:16 - FRCNA
REDEEMING THE TIME, BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL.
Ephesians 5: 16
New Years Eve sermon by:
Rev. G.R. Procee
Published by the
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
OF THE
FREE REFORMED CHURCHES OF NORTH AMERICA
( December 2003)
LITURGY:
Votum
Psalter 395
Scripture Reading Ephesians 5: 1 – 17
Text: Ephesians 5: 16
Psalter 422: 8
Prayer
Offerings
Psalter 246
Sermon
Psalter 425: 3
Prayer
Psalter 322: 1, 2
Benediction
Doxology Psalter 275: 1, 3
Congregation,
The end of this year 2003 has come. In a few hours this year will be brought to a close and we hope to start a new year 2004. At an occasion like this we look back at this past year. We look back upon this past year that started just recently. Time goes so fast, we would want to stop it or slow it down, but time flies.
Our daily life is often in a hurry. We have no time. So many things to do, so many things occupy us. In the midst of all the temptations of modern life one of the greatest temptations is to be so occupied with many matters of this life, that we have no time for more important things, the things of God's Kingdom and the needs of our soul.
God's Word speaks about time. We wish to consider one of these texts as we find in Ephesians 5:16, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Let us meditate on: Time.
1. Time is precious.
2. Time is an opportunity for good.
3. Time must be redeemed.
1. Time is precious. There are various reasons why time is precious.
A blessed and happy eternity or a most miserable eternity depends on how we have made use of our time. What we have done while we are in the time of grace. Our welfare in this life and in this world depends on how we have used our time. If we waste our time in this life we do not have to expect a good salary and great prosperity.
Likewise if we waste our time in regards to spiritual matters you don't have to expect a blessed eternity. Our state in eternity depends on how we use our time for the needs of our soul. By time we have the opportunity of escaping everlasting misery and gaining everlasting blessedness. That is one reason why time is precious.
Time is also precious because it is short. If something scarce the value increases. Time is in short supply. It runs away like water in your hand. Job exclaims that his days are faster than an eagle. They pass away as swift ships. Our life is but a vapour, like rising smoke that vanishes away. Our time here on earth is nothing but a moment in comparison to eternity.
Time is so short and the work which must be done is so great that we have none of it to spare. In this short time we have to prepare for eternity.
We do not even know how short it is. We do not know how much time we still have left. The one may have more time left, the other maybe some months or even days. How much more would we cherish time if we would know that we only had a few years or months to live. But we do not know when we will leave this world and so we fancy that we have all the time in the world. But time is short and therefore it is precious.
Time is also precious because when it is past, it cannot be recovered. There are many things which men possess and if they part with them, they can regain. But this is not so with time. You can regain some possession that you sold, with some effort you can buy it back or you buy another one, just like it, a car or a house or a chair. But once you have spent time you can never recover that. You cannot repeat time. Time that is spent is gone for good. No pains, no money, no effort can regain that time.
Even though you may have great regret that you wasted time, that time will not return. Time and opportunity are offered to us and if we make no use of that time, it is removed.
You may have lived 50 or 60 years and have wasted time for the well being of your soul. All that time is gone for good. It is out of our reach and out of our possession.
How much time have we wasted? How much time has been spent in idleness? We are not at the beginning of a long period of life. Many of us may be over the half of their years. The clock is ticking. What did we do with our time? Have we wasted our precious time, our precious years? If we could add up all our days, what a great number of days. But what have we done with these days?
How much opportunity to do well? How much opportunity to seek the well being of your souls, to edify the Church?
Young people how many years has the Lord given you to seek Him and to find life in the Lord? What can you show of any improvement to your soul? What have we done with our time in this past year 2003? Did we learn several computer games? But we did not learn the fear of God? God called us to bow our knees. Have we done so? Have we taken the eternal needs of our soul into consideration?
Our time is precious. Have you wasted time and have you spent days and months only chasing after the things of this life, chasing after money or excitement, but have you not sought after life eternal? Then you have wasted time. Just a little more time left and it will be said of you: He or she lived in vain. He wasted his time. What have we done since the days of our youth?
If only we would realize how precious time is. Some people live under the delusion that they have an abundance of time. They think they can just live it up. It is just as with silver in the days of Solomon, that silver was then considered to be as the stones of the street and worth nothing. There was so much silver in Jerusalem that people didn't value it anymore.
Today many people act as if time is of no value because they think they have an abundance of it. They live as if they have a great deal more time than they need so they waste it and throw it away.
Imagine someone having money and thinking that he had enough of it and that he started to throw money away in the trash can, wasting it. We would think such a person to be out of his mind.
Still we can easily throw away time. We so easily can waste it. Yet time is more precious than money. You can't buy time with all the money in the world.
Time is a blessing the Lord gives us. The Lord gives us all a certain set limited time. At the end of our God given time we will be called to give an account. We are God's servants. Every servant has to give an account before his master. We will have to give an account of how we used that great talent of time.
How would you behave if you knew that at the end of tomorrow you would have to tell God how you used your time? How much time did you spend in Bible reading, in prayer, in personal prayer before God? How much time did you spend in reading something from a good book? How much time did you spend in your work and daily business?
How much time did you waste? Then imagine having to tell God this.
The Lord Jesus said that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Matt 12:36.
But it is also true that we will have to give an account of our misspent time.
How much time have you already wasted? Another year has gone by. Should we have sought to improve our situation? But must you and I accuse ourselves of having wasted precious time, time that shall never return?
We have much to confess on New Year's Eve. There were in the past year many sins. But also much wasted time.
The Lord was good to us. He supplied us all we stood in need of. Every morning His goodness was new again. His graciousness was great. His loving kindness was again as high as the heavens. He has done no injustice. He has been good to us. We have much reason to humble ourselves before the Lord, and thank Him for this precious gift of time.
2. Time is an opportunity for good.
The text speaks of time. The word used here for time really means opportunity. In the setting of Ephesians 5 the apostle speaks about the life of holiness. That God's children must walk in love, no foolish talking, no filthiness, no covetousness, showing goodness and righteousness and truth. In that setting the apostle writes: Redeeming the time. This means here: It is the time to do good. That means to say, you have the opportunity to do good.
Now you have the time to do good. The circumstances and the opportunity is present to do good. This is the time for it. The decisive time, the determinative time, the appropriate time. What you now do is decisive for the future. This is a unique opportunity you have to seek that which is good.
For instance the same word is used in Luke 19:44, thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. That is the opportunity you had to turn to God, to realize that now God was visiting you with grace. The time when the Lord Jesus was among you to preach God's Word, but Jerusalem has not recognized this time, this circumstance, this opportunity they had to repent and to find life.
In Mark 1:15 we find the same word: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. This is the time in which the Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled and in which the Messiah is coming to you and you must realize that this is your opportunity to seek the Lord, to turn to Him and to believe His Word. Now is the time for the exact work that is needed now: Turn to the Lord and find life.
In Luke 12:54-56, And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?
The people did not recognize the right time. They lived on in their unbelief. Blinded by their sins. They did not realize that God was visiting them in His Son. They did not make use of this opportunity. They did not seek the Lord.
Matthew 26:18, My time is at hand. That is the time of the suffering of Christ. Now the Lord Jesus shall have to do that which is necessary and important. Now is the time to lay down his life as a ransom price for sinners.
The time is a special gift of God to be used for what ought to be done. It is a God given opportunity to do good. To turn to the Lord, to walk in holiness before the Lord. To do what is pleasing in God's sight. Our future depends on how we spend that time and what we do with that opportunity, which God gives us.
God gives us opportunity and time with a purpose. Do you recognize this? Do you realize that the Lord gives you time and opportunity with an aim, with a purpose? What the people of Jerusalem did with the God given opportunity was decisive for their future. What you now do with the God given opportunity is decisive for your future.
What must you do with your time? You must make preparations. If you are leaving the day after tomorrow on a great trip, what should you do? You make preparations. It would be a fool, who would do nothing, who would not prepare his passport, his papers, his flight tickets, his luggage and all the other matters. He cannot just stand up and leave. Preparations are needed.
Yet there are so many people, who have to go on the great journey to eternity and make no preparations. The time will come when you will be turned out of your present dwelling place, your body.
If in daily life they turn you out of your house, you will have to stay on the streets unless you have some other place arranged where you can live. That is how it with us as well. We need to have another home or else we will be forever in outer darkness.
You shall be turned out of your present body and where shall you be? Do you make preparations? Now is the time for it.
Paul made preparations, so that when he would be unclothed, he would not be found naked. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made preparations. They waited for God's salvation, for God had prepared them a city. While the wicked have wasted their time. In a few moments they will see how foolish and stupid they were.
People are very presumptuous. You are told that you have time enough. You fool yourself that you have enough time. The devil tells you young person that you have enough time. When you are older he tells you that it is all too late and he drives you to despair.
On the other hand people are presumptuous telling themselves that all will be well. They make a bridge of their own shadows and fall into the depths.
But the bottom line is that they do not make use of the God given opportunities. How are things in your life? How much time have you received of the Lord? What have you done with all the opportunities the Lord has given you? Have you wasted your life? Wasted your time? Have you neglected your soul?
Use the opportunity the Lord gives you. It is only for a little while. Do not postpone. Do not waste precious time. Seek the Lord now and in the present day. There is only one day left for you to repent and that is today: You can die this very night. Your life can be removed from you and then there will be no more time for you. Do not postpone, but as Hebrews 3:15 says: To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. Today is the time of grace.
In the days of the Lord Jesus on earth God came near to many people of Israel. The Lord preached to their consciences and affections. But they did not realize the day of their visitation. Therefore the things of their peace were hidden from their eyes.
Had those convictions been listened to, had they adhered to the preaching of Christ, the Lord would have given them more grace, but they refused to listen. The door was closed to them.
There have been people here in these same pews, who had God's truth preached to them in a convicting way. God was visiting them, but they did not make use of the time of their visitation. Their eyes were dazzled and blinded and they did not turn to the Lord. They are no longer here. They departed from the truth. The door is closed to them. Who knows whether that door will be opened to them again? But you are still under His Word? You have the opportunity to turn to the Lord. Don't be blinded. Do not allow the devil or the world or your sinful pleasures to deceive you. Turn to the Lord, and make use of the opportunities the Lord gives you.
Remember your soul. The saving or the losing of your soul is not for a time, but forever. Now is the only opportunity that you receive to have your soul saved or that you would perish. All depends upon a little inch of time. Time that slips away and never is recovered. Are you going to allow your schedule to be so overburdened that you neglect your soul? Are you going to allow you young life to be filled up with sports, games, fun and money so that your soul is drowned?
Is the Lord softening you, impressing you, make use of these affections. Turn to the Lord and beg the Holy Spirit for more grace and light. Beg for Christ in your heart and soul. If the wax of the candle is soft you can mould it, but if the wax is hard you can do nothing with it. If God is softening your heart, flee to Him.
Even if you think the Lord is not softening your heart, still flee to Him, for He is able and willing to soften your heart and to impress your heart with Himself. But make use of the opportunities the Lord gives you.
3. The Time must be redeemed.
The redeeming of the time means that man at the expense of earthly pleasures, and ease would rescue their opportunities the Lord gives them to gain salvation and to do good out of the hands of temptations.
The devil is at work robbing us of our time. He gives us little worthless glass beads in exchange. Just as with the Indians, they gave their gold and silver and diamonds for worthless toys. That is what the devil is doing with us. The days are evil. There are many temptations. Many things that man can fill his life with.
Calvin writes that there are so many allurements, which can easily lead us astray. Our society offers us an endless variety of allurements. We need to be rid from these temptations and thorns. We must abandon every hindrance and even hard work and toil may not be an excuse for neglecting the day of grace, or neglecting to do good. We are so easy and quick with apologies.
The days are evil. There is much temptation as never before to allure people away from God and to infect their thinking patterns and to trick people that as long as they do not commit the gross sins of the world they are safe, while in the meantime thinking they are doing good, they are deceived by other temptations. Anything will do so as to keep you away from seeking the Lord:
A busy work schedule, entertainment, visiting, meetings, travelling. Our time is so easily gone. Are you allowing your precious time to be wasted?
There are so many allurements to keep you away from salvation. Redeem the time.
If you look how businessmen are in their business. They work day and night and leave not an opportunity unused to increase their business. No entertainments, no recreations, no interfering of friends. Nothing will stop them from pursuing their business.
Yet what comparison is the soul to a business? What childish toys are the things of daily life in comparison to the weight of our soul? How easily are we deterred and brought off from seeking the salvation of our soul.
We are so concerned about coming too late at work, but God has an appointment with you. He is going to keep that appointment, if you are prepared or not. Are you ready?
God's children if you look back to the past year, the Lord has given you many opportunities to do good. How many opportunities have been wasted? How often have we neglected to improve the knowledge of Christ Jesus? How often have we not dug deeper into the mineshaft of God's Word? So much more to know, to love, and to honour in the Lord Jesus Christ. Must we accuse ourselves and with sorrow and shame look back at the past year. Besides all the daily sins, also the sin of not having used the opportunity the Lord gave us.
God has given you the rich privilege to be under the Gospel of grace. You may hear the joyful sound of deliverance. Others never hear the Gospel and yet God is so good to give you the light of His Word.
The Lord has spared you up to this moment. Others were taken away but He has spared you. What a patience of God.
Imagine how awful it would be to have to sink away in hell while you had heard so many Gospel invitations. The Lord Jesus warns:
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
Redeem the time under so many privileges. God now calls you. Hear Him. Flee to Him in what ever condition you are. With Him there is forgiveness. With Him there is a new life and a new holy walk. His Spirit can lead to repentance, to renewed repentance. His Spirit can lead you into a holy walk with God.
But hear Him for He calls you lest the time shall come that Proverbs 1 says: Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; ... I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; ... Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.
Seek then salvation and redeem the time. Do you have any better work than to improve salvation? Why should you not embrace the call of God? Is there anything in this world that more concerns you? Are the matters of your work, your hobbies, your wife and children such great things that Christ, the soul and eternity can be postponed and put off? If they are far more important then put off your salvation. But if these matters are not more important, are not to be compared to the eternal weight of your soul and salvation, redeem then the time, because the days are evil. AMEN.
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