Barnhouse, Donald Grey: Walk In Wisdom ~ Col 4v5

In Colossians four five, it says this: Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Walk in wisdom. Now, the text divides itself naturally into two main parts. First, we must recognize that God makes a distinction between those that are within and those that are without. Since he says walk in wisdom towards those that are without, by inference he says there are also those who are within. And secondly, we note the relationship of the ins to the outs. Now, there are, of course, some who do not like the classification of human beings. They say, oh, you mustn't classify them, all men are men, and you must consider all men alike. Well, this is true in certain fields of comparison where the universal likeness must be taken for granted. The normal human being has two legs and two arms and one head, and the anatomy of all races is the same. If you should enter the operating theater in a great hospital after an operation had begun, and after the layers of skin had been tied back so that only the internal organs within the abdominal cavity were visible, not even the greatest surgeon or anatomist in the world could tell whether the patient was a Hun, a Hindu, or a Hottentot. It would be impossible. Well, there are also fields of, of mental and social life that are alike in all men, so that the trained anthropologist and psychiatrist could find similarities of action within varying social problems that would immediately distinguish Homo sapiens from any other creature. But there is one distinction, however, that is absolute, and our text makes this certain, and that is the distinction which the Bible makes between those who are said to be within and those who are said to be without. Now, who determines this distinction? Oh, thank God that the differentiation is not in our hands, but in the hands of God alone. No one shall decide except God whether I shall go to heaven. No man in this world is to decide whether you shall be in heaven. This is something of God and your own heart. Now it is revealed to us that the knowledge of this difference is not a human characteristic, but an attribute of the deity. For it says in two Timothy two nineteen, God's firm foundation standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knows them that are his. And in the light of the fact, the obverse is, let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But it's highly instructive for our text to light it up with this phrase, the Lord knows them that are. Now, furthermore, the Lord Jesus Christ announced that it was impossible for us, on the whole, to distinguish the ins from the outs. In one of his most penetrating parables, Jesus Christ described the enemy who sowed the tares, the imitation wheat, the weeds, in a field where he had planted true wheat. And when the servant said, Lord, somebody's planted it in, yes, he said, an enemy has done this. They said, shall we go out and pull them out? And the Lord expressly forbade them to do it, and his reason was that they were unable to distinguish between the real and the imitation at that stage of the growth. He said, let both grow together till the harvest. The harvest is the end of the age. Now, if this teaches anything, it teaches the sad fact that Jesus Christ is saying that some of his born-again Christians look so much like the devil's crowd that we can't tell them apart. For when he told the disciples, don't you put your hand out and say, well, he's saved and he isn't, God said, now wait a minute. I'm quite sure that lots of people living today, if they had passed by where Peter was afraid of the servant maid and the soldiers at the fire, and if they'd heard Peter saying, blankety blank, blank, blank, blank, what do I have to blankety blank say to say that I don't blankety blank know Jesus Christ? Why, they'd have read him right out of the church and said he didn't belong, and that he wasn't a Christian at all, and that he had departed, and that there was no difference between him and Judas. But there was. Judas was the natural man without, and Peter was a within. And the man who's within can make a fool of himself. It's possible for a Christian to fall down on the deck, though it's not possible for him to fall off the ship. But when he does fall down on the deck, sometimes it can be pretty bad, and what our text is telling us is how we are to remain upright as we are in Christ, in order that we may walk as wisdom for those that are without. Now, with a clear recognition of this fact, then, let us proceed to an examination of our text. Now, if someone objects, well, I know some people that aren't saved. What are you going to do about these men? I say, he is not in your hands or my hands, he's in the hands of God. We're to thank God when we see somebody confessing Christ, and I'm reasonably sure that hundreds of you whom I know, that I can say, thank God you are born again and you do have eternal life. But there was a time when many people would have seen Saul of Tarsus and said, he's an outsider. Look at him killing Christians. But Saul of Tarsus was an insider, and God brought him in, and while there's life, there's hope, and we dare not make a fixed statement, a pronouncement on the eternal destiny of any man. But with the clear understanding of this necessary modesty, we can and must proceed along the lines of common sense and accept the fact that there are multitudes who seemingly do not have the life of God and must be classified in the Bible terms, those who know not God, and as two Thessalonians one eight says, those who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus. Now, first of all, our text demands great heart searching, self searching. Are we truly his? Am I a within and not a without? Oh, thank God the Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I'm a child of God. I know objectively from the book that I have eternal life. I know subjectively from the Holy Spirit within that I belong to him. And thank God I know experientially, day by day, there is growth. But have you given diligence to make your calling and election sure? The Lord knows them that are his, for Christ is the head, and those who are his are members of his body. Now, to be a member of the body is to be in Christ, and to be in Christ makes it impossible that we shall be described as those who are without. Oh, how many times the Bible makes this distinction, the withins and the withouts. Sheep and goats, wheat and tares, the living and the dead, children of God and children of wrath. I remember one passage of scripture in which five times in five verses God describes the difference between those who are in and those who are without. For the Bible says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, you who have two natures. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion is there between light and darkness? What part has he that believeth with an infidel? What communion is there between the temple of God and idols? Therefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing. Now, we who are inside must realize that the outsider cannot know how it is to be inside. Men stand and they look at Jesus Christ and they say, oh yes, Christ, Christ in history, Christ, the great example. But oh, how true is the marvelous hymn, O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all the meek, to those who fall, how kind thou art, how good to those who seek, but what to those who find? Ah, this nor tongue nor pen can show. The love of Jesus, what it is, none but his loved ones know. Now, as we look from within upon those who are without, we must look through the eyes of Jesus Christ. There will never be any flippant thought of lightly given judgment. The true believer cannot think of those who are without unless he sees them through the tears of Christ, and the tears of Christ will act as prisms that will give you such a light that is diffused that you'll see these people as wanderers whom we must love and whom we must seek to draw to Christ. We must see them as those for whom Christ died. We must see them as creating a great responsibility for us by their very existence. As long as any man in this world does not know Jesus Christ, I have the same duty towards him that I would have for someone who sat in the semi-darkness of the first floor looking at television, not knowing that the third floor of their house was on fire. Now, this responsibility is encompassed in the command of our text, walk in wisdom toward those who are without. Now, the first thing that this wisdom must teach us is that those who are without do not know that they're without. They're described variously in the Bible as being in darkness, as being fallen away from God, without life in themselves, and dead. We're told that their destiny is eternal outer darkness, and they try to come to grips with life, but they're unable to cope with the circumstances in which they find themselves. They're, they're like the men who were left outside the ark when God had shut the door and the waters began to rise. Noah and his family were within, and outside those that were there were merely battling against the raging storm. And the only difference between us and those who are drowning is that salvation has not yet closed its doors, and the ark today is the storm has not yet come, and we can still say to those who are outside, there is time to come in. Secondly, not only must our wisdom teach us that those that are without do not know they're without, but secondly, the wisdom in which we're to walk towards the unsaved men teaches us to do everything we can to bring the outsiders inside. No matter what we say to them, no matter whether we're involved with them in business, in politics, in educational life, in social life, or any other phase of life, there must always be the deep, throbbing undertone of the theme song of grace. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now, it's to be noted that we are not to misread this text, because there are some Christians who've got blurry vision, and when it says walk in wisdom towards those that are without, they misread it, and they act as though it said talk in wisdom towards those who are without. Oh, how sad and sorry a spectacle it is to those who think it's their duty to put a sandwich board on and walk around City Hall so that the passer me- may read, where will you spend eternity or prepare to meet thy God? I've never heard of anyone coming to Christ, coming inside because of such an invitation. Our text does not say talk in wisdom toward those that are without, but walk in wisdom, and this is the duty of every one of us who has named the name of Jesus Christ. We're not left here in order to get ourselves ready for heaven. Our readiness for heaven is Jesus Christ, but we're left here in order that we may walk in wisdom toward those that are without. We're left here to be his witnesses, and this was the last word that he ever spoke before he ascended in heaven. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. And that witness is our life as well as our words. In fact, the life is the whole accompaniment, the entire orchestration of the words that we speak. For if the words that we speak are the melody of salvation, our life is all of the harmonization. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. And if men see that you have something, they won't need anything to go with it. And the unbelievers watch us. Now, they're not going to read even what you say, but they are going to read what you are. And let us ask ourselves these three things. So if somebody does not know us, what do they see in us? And secondly, what do they hear when they approach us? And thirdly, what do they feel when they come to know us? This is what it means when it says we're to walk in wisdom towards those who are without. And this means, the point is that the outsiders are always watching the insiders, those who profess to be inside. And those who really are inside are the ones who are to be on their guard, lest the outsider get a wrong opinion of the Lord whom we love and serve. Now, it's interesting to note that in Thessalonians, the same text is used with one word changed. For in first Thessalonians four twelve, instead of saying walk in wisdom towards those who are without, it says walk honestly towards those who are without. And here we see that God breaks down our text and shows that one of its most important components is strict honesty. The believer must always be meticulously honest. His word must be his bond, and in all his dealings, we must never forget that the world, the unsaved man, those that are without, the love of money is the root of all evil, and generally they're more interested in money than any other thing. And because they have raw nerves when it comes to material interest, they feel any lack of honesty more quickly than any other lack, and that's why we're commanded to go the second mile with the unbeliever. The man who has his heaven in a bank is always going to understand immediately if he meets a man who has his bank in heaven. And we must follow the Lord who said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What do the outsiders feel when they get to know us? Do they find in us hardness, rigidity, sternness? Oh, we must not forget that the fruit of the Spirit is patience, gentleness, goodness. Are these things to be felt in us? Oh, how we need to seek the cultivation of this fruit in our lives. One of the holiest men who lived in Scotland a century ago, one of the Bonar brothers, we have hymns in our hymn book by Horatio Bonar and Andrew Bonar, and Andrew wrote a diary, and in the diary he wrote one day, I went out to the woods to pray, and I was there having set apart three hours for devotion. I felt drawn out much to pray for that peculiar fragrance which those believers have about them who are very much in fellowship with God. It is like an aroma unseen but felt. Other Christians have the beauty of the rose of Sharon, and these have the fragrance too. Ah, certainly it is our duty to seek the life of Christ in such a way that men shall be aware of his presence and of his fragrance within us. Now, if we walk in wisdom towards those who are without, we shall be walking as true gentle folk. It was this quality that brought about the absorption of the adjective gentle into the word gentleman, for the true quality of a true gentleman is that he have this Christian virtue. James the First of England, who could take a man and name him duke, or could name him count or baron, said, I, the king, can make a lord, but only God can make a gentleman. And Charles Kingsley, in Water Babies, wrote, a man may learn from his Bible to be a more thorough gentleman than if he had been brought up in all the drawing rooms of London. Now, you see, there are some Christians who say, well, I pride myself on my outspoken frankness. You to the line, let the chips fall where they may. And this frankness is sometimes like a coarse sandpaper on anyone else they meet. The Christian, you see, we're like a building. The Bible says we're a building. Well, the Christian must not display the reinforcement of his concrete steadfastness. The ornaments of architecture are designed in order to cover the bones of a building, and so it must be with our character. The graces must cover all of the sternness that we have in living as righteous and holy men. Sure, you could prop up the side of a cathedral with an iron bar, but a flying buttress lends dignity and grace to the building, and so it must be with the life of the Christian. You know, there are so many Christians that are like a tuning fork. You've all seen a tuning fork. Ting, A flat. They say, I'm faithful, and they pride themselves on the absolute fundamental accuracy of their pitch. Ting. They even demand that the whole orchestra be tuned to their tuning fork, to their pitch. Now, I will admit immediately that a tuning fork does sound a true note after a metallic fashion, but who is going to call that sound music? Oh yes, we do not decry the accurate pitch, but what we want to know is that in all parts of the orchestra, that the symphony may be such that no one shall ever think of the fact that treble A has a vibration number varying between four hundred and 450, depending upon whether you have classical pitch, concert pitch, or philharmonic pitch. But if you let Robert Elmore start playing a Bach chorale, I, I want to stop thinking about the tuning fork. And if you let Ormandy start on a great symphony, I don't want to think about the tuning fork anymore. I want to leave the tuning fork and it's A treble flat pitch. For those who are within, each one must tune his instruments as they hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and heaven will know whether you're in harmony. And in a strange sense, so will those who are outside know when we're in harmony with the Lord, in heavenly harmony. That's what Jesus Christ prayed in the garden when he asked the Father that we, his own, the insiders, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. Now listen carefully to this. So, and this is Christ praying to the Father, that he wants us to be one, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Oh, it's impossible for the outsider not to know when we are truly committed to Christ. There is something in the union of the believer with Jesus Christ that gives a life that can never be counterfeited. Oh, it's possible, of course, for the believer to allow some pressure of sin to shut off the blood flow that can paralyze a hand or a foot. But when we're seeking to be yielded to the Lord and wanting to know Him, then the Holy Spirit of divine wisdom will take control of our lives, so that we truly walk in wisdom towards those who are without. And lastly, this wisdom, walk in wisdom, this wisdom that we so much need, which we're commanded to have towards those that are without, this wisdom that we need to walk properly before the world as the representatives of our Lord, this is the wisdom that comes from God. We read in the book of James, the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and of good fruits, without uncertainty and insincerity, and the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And quite simply, God tells us this, also through James, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives liberally, generously, and without reproaching, and it will be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. So when God Almighty comes to you with a command, walk in wisdom toward those who are without, we must come and say, Lord, I, I lack wisdom, and you've said if anyone lack wisdom, let him ask. So I do ask. So henceforth, you may never, none of you, you may never say that you do not know how to walk in this world. You are told to walk in wisdom. That wisdom is heavenly wisdom, and if you confess that you lack it, God says that you're in the place of getting it. And if you ask for it, you're asking it from a God who describes himself as generous and who pledges himself that he will give it to you. Lord, give us thy wisdom that we may walk in wisdom toward those who are without.