1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:05,240 Those of you that know me well know that I have AI have a thing 2 00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:11,720 for books. I think I have thousands of 3 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:19,320 them. 1952 John Steinbeck published East of Eden. 4 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:27,480 It's my favorite American novel and is in my estimation, the 5 00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:33,240 best one ever written. It's a story that that retells 6 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:36,000 the story of Cain and Abel over multiple generations within 7 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,440 American context. The the central question that is 8 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:45,240 asked in this novel is is whether an individual's are are 9 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,520 trapped in the darkness that they inherit or whether they can 10 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:54,520 somehow rise above it. The novel turns on a single 11 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:56,480 word. It's drawn from the story of 12 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:01,600 Cain and Abel in in Genesis 47. In Hebrew, the word is Tim 13 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:05,640 shell. It means it means you must or or 14 00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,520 you may or or thou mayest. And, and in context of, of 15 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:12,480 chapter 4, it speaks to resisting the sin that is 16 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,160 crouching at your door when, when the Lord is speaking to 17 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:17,520 Cain and saying, you know, if you do well, but if you don't, 18 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:20,160 if you don't, then sin is crouching at your door and, and 19 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:25,680 you must resist it. When Steinbeck presents, 20 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:28,480 presents this word, he presents it as a, as a word of 21 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:32,760 possibility, the idea that sin does not have to rule over you, 22 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:36,960 that it is possible for you to choose another path. 23 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:40,120 You know, it's, it's a powerful idea. 24 00:01:40,320 --> 00:01:43,960 It it offers hope for an individual without without 25 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:47,800 denying the reality of of darkness that is inherent within 26 00:01:47,800 --> 00:01:53,520 our world, but it also leaves the the weight of of change 27 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:56,160 resting squarely on the individual. 28 00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:00,080 Yes, it's possible for you to overcome sin, but whether you do 29 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,760 so or not depends finally and ultimately on yourself. 30 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:11,640 When Paul writes Ephesians 5, he begins with the same dark 31 00:02:11,640 --> 00:02:14,560 realism. In verses one through 70 names 32 00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:19,000 sin without euphemism. He speaks of sexual immorality, 33 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:22,280 of impurity, of greed, and of corrupt speech. 34 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,920 And he warns that that these patterns ought not mark the 35 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:28,360 lives of those who are part of Christ's Kingdom. 36 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,680 But Paul goes out of his way to acknowledge that darkness is 37 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:35,960 real, that it's inherited, and that it is destructive. 38 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,640 But as we follow Paul's logic, he goes much further than than 39 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:43,920 Steinbeck ever could. In verse eight of our of our 40 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:49,280 text for today, Paul does not say that you may become light if 41 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:54,640 you choose Well, he says rather at one time you were darkness, 42 00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:58,440 but now you are light in the Lord. 43 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,800 This is this is not the language of of possibility, but the 44 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:04,600 language of, of declaration. This is this is not an 45 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:08,800 invitation to do better, but an invitation to transformation. 46 00:03:10,160 --> 00:03:12,760 Where when we read Steinbeck and we see the word Tim shell it, 47 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:15,800 you know Steinbeck, he places his hope in human freedom. 48 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:20,480 Paul places hope in union with Christ. 49 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:25,320 The gospel does not say merely that you may rise from darkness, 50 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:29,960 but it says that in Christ you have already been raised. 51 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,200 And because that is true, Paul can Paul can command his readers 52 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,120 to walk as children of light. Paul is. 53 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,240 Paul is not urging some type of self improvement. 54 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:44,480 He's proclaiming a spiritual awakening. 55 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:48,280 He's reminding the Ephesian believers that the that the 56 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,440 light has already broken in and that the power to walk in 57 00:03:52,440 --> 00:03:57,120 holiness comes from Christ himself. 58 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:04,400 Steinbeck tells us you may. Paul tells us you are. 59 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:07,880 It's a vivid illustration between the difference between 60 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:12,000 human resolve and gospel power, between the between the hope of 61 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,560 choice and the certainty of grace. 62 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:20,640 Read with me, if you will, our text for today. 63 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:25,760 We'll be in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 8 through 14. 64 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:35,080 It reads, For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light 65 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:40,360 in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for 66 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:44,520 the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and 67 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:47,840 truth. Trying to learn what is pleasing 68 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:51,200 to the Lord. Do not participate in the 69 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:55,480 unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. 70 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,720 For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are 71 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:05,200 done by them in secret. But all things become visible 72 00:05:05,840 --> 00:05:07,480 when they are exposed by the light. 73 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:10,640 For everything that becomes visible is light. 74 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:16,520 For this reason, it says Awake sleeper and arise from the dead 75 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:22,960 and Christ will shine on you. I think as we begin to unpack 76 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:25,120 this text for today, it's important to recognize it. 77 00:05:25,280 --> 00:05:28,360 You know, verses 8 through 14 just don't just don't sit in a 78 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:31,280 vacuum somewhere that they that they don't stand on their own. 79 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:34,520 Paul is Paul is not beginning a new thought here, but is rather 80 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,600 drawing a conclusion that rests on everything that is already 81 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,760 said in the letter. In verse 8, Paul makes one of 82 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,880 the most definite statements in the New Testament about the 83 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:48,120 identity of Christians. You know, saying you were 84 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:52,120 formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. 85 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,880 This sentence assumes that something decisive has already 86 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,560 happened. It assumes that that God has has 87 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:00,960 acted it. It assumes that the gospel has 88 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,800 done more than forgive, that it has transformed lives. 89 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,720 Turning back, if we go back to Ephesians 2 one through 5, it 90 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:16,160 reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God 91 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:20,280 being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. 92 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:24,960 Art and Lloyd Jones, when referencing those verses, 93 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:29,280 insisted that they destroy all moralism. 94 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:32,520 Christianity, he said, is not the polishing of the old man, 95 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:36,360 but the creation of a new man, Paul. 96 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,200 Paul is not saying live this way so that you might become a 97 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:43,760 light, but rather because God has made you light in the Lord. 98 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,240 Now live accordingly. The Christian. 99 00:06:48,280 --> 00:06:53,400 The Christian's ethics, John Stott reminds us, always rests 100 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:56,800 on identity, not not the other way around. 101 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:01,840 Earlier in the chapter, Paul called the Ephesian believers to 102 00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:04,880 imitate God and as beloved children to walk in love just as 103 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:09,200 Christ loved them and gave himself for us. 104 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:14,320 He then contrasted this this Christ shaped love with a life 105 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:18,720 marked by immorality, impurity, greed, and corrupt speech, all 106 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:21,840 sins belonging to the realm of darkness. 107 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:24,840 He goes on to warn in verses 6:00 and 7:00 that that such 108 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:27,680 behaviors will bring upon those who practice them the wrath of 109 00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:32,960 God, and it concludes with a command not to share in them. 110 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:40,720 That was all free. By way of introduction, Paul 111 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:43,880 begins in verse 8 by marking A fundamental change in the nature 112 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,960 of believers, saying, you know, for you were formerly darkness, 113 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:52,520 but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light. 114 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,240 Notice that. Notice that Paul does not say 115 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:57,880 merely that at one time we walked in darkness. 116 00:07:58,120 --> 00:08:02,680 He says that we were darkness. The darkness was not merely our 117 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,560 environment, it was our identity. 118 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:10,080 That's reminiscent of the description of fallen humanity 119 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,520 that that's given by Paul in Romans 121, where he where he 120 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:17,080 describes him as being futile in their speculation with foolish 121 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:21,320 darkened hearts. The change that the Paul is 122 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:24,520 referencing here is not one that is just primarily ethical in in 123 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:27,640 nature. The competitor Hohner notes that 124 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:31,840 this change reflects a change of realm from the mid from the 125 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:35,919 dominion of darkness into the dominion of Christ's lordship. 126 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:39,840 Conversion, then is is not to be understood it just as as 127 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:44,159 incremental moral reform, but a but a change of spiritual 128 00:08:44,159 --> 00:08:49,960 location and identity. Paul says much this thing in 129 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,920 Colossians 113, where it reads for he has rescued us from the 130 00:08:53,920 --> 00:08:58,880 domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of 131 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,960 his beloved son. Paul echoes the same thought in 132 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:07,040 in first Peter 29 and 10 when reminding those to whom he wrote 133 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:09,320 of their new identity. When he says that you are a 134 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:13,200 chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for 135 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:17,200 God's own possession, so that you might proclaim forth the 136 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:21,920 excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into 137 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:26,040 his marvelous light. For you once were not a people, 138 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:28,360 but now you are the people of God. 139 00:09:29,240 --> 00:09:34,680 You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 140 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:40,960 Paul is reminding his readers not not only of what it is that 141 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:45,160 they must do, but also of what God has already done. 142 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:51,040 Too often in Hamilton comments, Christians struggle with 143 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:56,320 assurance because they focus on present weakness rather than on 144 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,440 past deliverance. This verse reminds us that our 145 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:02,280 fundamental identity has changed, even when our 146 00:10:02,280 --> 00:10:06,520 experience feels conflicted, even when we're experiencing a a 147 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:10,360 lack of success to where that our identity rests in Christ. 148 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:17,400 John Bunyan's great allegory, The Pilgrims Progress, gives us 149 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,760 one of the clearest narrative pictures of what Paul meant when 150 00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:26,320 he said you were formerly darkness, but now your light in 151 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:30,480 the Lord. At the beginning of the story, 152 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:35,640 Christian lives in a city of destruction and bunion is is 153 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:39,000 careful to show us that the that the city is not merely wicked, 154 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,800 but that it is that it's ordinary. 155 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:44,560 It's it's familiar, it feels safe. 156 00:10:44,560 --> 00:10:48,920 It seems, it seems reasonable. Christian works there, sleeps 157 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:53,320 there, his family is there. Its values are unquestioned. 158 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,800 The dangers are unseen. And, and quite frankly, that's 159 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:01,400 the way darkness works. We, we don't find Christian in 160 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:04,280 the beginning of the story seeking for a way of escape. 161 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:06,640 He's not trying to leave the city. 162 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:13,000 He's content to remain there until that time that God opened 163 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:17,800 his eyes to the reading of the book, you know, and suddenly 164 00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:20,480 when that happens, everything changes. 165 00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:23,280 Christian doesn't suddenly become more moral. 166 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:25,720 He doesn't, he doesn't at that point decide, ah, I've got to 167 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,600 do, I've got to do better. Now what happens? 168 00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:32,680 He sees his sin for what it is. He sees judgement. 169 00:11:33,280 --> 00:11:36,080 He sees judgement written over the city in which in which he 170 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:42,000 lives and he feels a burden that that he's unable to remove. 171 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:46,360 You know, that moment is, is not a moment of of self improvement. 172 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:49,520 It's a moment of illumination. The light has shone on him and 173 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:56,480 and once he's seen that he can't Unsee that Bunyan shows us in 174 00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:00,360 his work that conversion is not it's not just a decision that 175 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:03,320 it's a revelation that light has entered the soul. 176 00:12:04,560 --> 00:12:06,640 You know, and here's the crucial part for Paul's argument in 177 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:10,120 Ephesians. Once once Christian becomes 178 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:14,560 light, the city of destruction becomes intolerable. 179 00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:19,320 Bunyan tells us that he that he flees the city with his fingers 180 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:24,480 and his ears, crying out life, life, eternal life. 181 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:28,720 He leaves the city not not just because he like doesn't like it 182 00:12:28,720 --> 00:12:31,240 or that he dislikes it. He he leaves the city because he 183 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:34,600 belongs to another. He doesn't leave the city in 184 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:38,960 order to become a Pilgrim, but because he already is a Pilgrim. 185 00:12:41,680 --> 00:12:44,840 Just as it says in First Corinthians 517, if anyone is in 186 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:54,120 Christ, he is a new creature. This brings us to our second 187 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,080 point. Today. 188 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:01,360 Having established our our new identity as light in the Lord, 189 00:13:01,360 --> 00:13:05,080 he exhorts us to walk as children of light. 190 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:09,280 Once again, this this can't be emphasized enough. 191 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:12,080 Paul doesn't say walk as children of light so that you 192 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:14,400 might become light. He says because you are light in 193 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:16,320 the Lord, walk as children of the light. 194 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:21,600 As we said before, Christian ethics always rest on Christian 195 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:24,640 identity. The imperative flows from the 196 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:27,120 indicative. Because, because God has changed 197 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:33,120 who we are, we are then to His. Romans 64 exhorts us walk in 198 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:40,320 newness of life. Paul does not leave his readers 199 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,880 uninformed as to what walking as children of light looks like. 200 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:50,800 Verses 9 and 10 tell us that the fruit of light consists in all 201 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:57,280 goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is 202 00:13:57,280 --> 00:14:01,760 pleasing to the Lord. What Paul is calling them to 203 00:14:01,760 --> 00:14:05,000 hear is to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. 204 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:08,960 Harold Honer notes that goodness, righteousness, and 205 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:13,080 truth correspond to God's own character, suggesting that that 206 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,560 sanctification is ultimately about conforming to God. 207 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:23,320 It's not merely rule keeping. This goodness, this 208 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,600 righteousness, this this truth, coupled with with trying to 209 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:30,080 learn what is pleasing to the Lord is described as the fruit 210 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,360 of light, emphasizing growth rather than instant perfection. 211 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,200 In a parallel passage, Paul contrasts the deeds of the flesh 212 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,440 with the fruit of the Spirit, saying that the fruit of the 213 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:47,840 Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and 214 00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:52,440 faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, illustrating that 215 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,160 sanctification is is something that is spirit produced, not 216 00:14:55,160 --> 00:15:01,800 self generated. I think when we as as believers 217 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:05,960 are are charged to exhibit goodness, it doesn't it doesn't 218 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:10,480 simply refer to moral correctness, but to but to act 219 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:14,080 of benevolence, Francis Folkes comments. 220 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:19,920 It is goodness expressed toward others, kindness, generosity and 221 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:24,440 a willingness to seek the good of neighbor shaped by the gospel 222 00:15:24,440 --> 00:15:28,120 and reflecting the self giving love of Christ. 223 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:31,200 That's what that's what goodness looks like when we talk about 224 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:33,440 righteousness. It's not, it's not just this 225 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:35,280 idea when someone says, oh, that person is righteous, that 226 00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:37,720 they're, that they, that they keep the rules, that they do 227 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:39,560 right things, that they're socially respectable. 228 00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:42,520 It's it's more than that. What Paul is referring to here 229 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:45,640 is, is living a life ordered according to God's revealed 230 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,200 will. Michael Allen speaks of 231 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:52,360 righteousness this way, says it's the fruit of belonging to 232 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,560 the covenant. Lord says it reflects loyalty, 233 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:01,160 faithfulness and obedience shaped by relationship rather 234 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:04,800 than by fear. Like the last word of that, 235 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:07,320 since it's shaped by relationship rather than by 236 00:16:08,200 --> 00:16:11,680 fear. Truth. 237 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:16,080 It includes honesty and integrity, yes, but it goes. 238 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:20,440 It goes deeper than that. A life marked by truthfulness is 239 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:24,400 1 where confession and conduct correspond. 240 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:27,960 It's the it's the opposite of hypocrisy and double mindedness. 241 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:33,320 You know, it's, it's important to under score this point that 242 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:40,560 truth is I'm sorry, find my place again, it's the opposite 243 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:42,200 of hypocrisy and double mindedness. 244 00:16:42,480 --> 00:16:45,280 Ian Hamilton underscored the point that truth is especially 245 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:50,400 important in a passage concerned with light and darkness because 246 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:56,040 darkness thrives on secrecy, on pretense and distortion, while 247 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:59,880 light produces lives that are transparent before God and 248 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:06,359 others. As we come to verse 10, it 249 00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:09,400 describes the posture of the Christian life. 250 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:16,079 Light not only bears fruit, but it also seeks discernment. 251 00:17:17,520 --> 00:17:24,040 Paul uses a present participle says you're trying to learn in 252 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,200 order to describe the ongoing process of moral understanding. 253 00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,600 Believers are not are not merely given a list of rules and left 254 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:32,920 to follow them mechanically. They're they're called into 255 00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:36,080 relationship with God, a relationship that requires 256 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:39,760 thought and prayer and attentiveness to God's will with 257 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:43,080 with the ultimate aim of that relationship not being is this 258 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:48,000 allowed, but rather does this delight my father? 259 00:17:50,040 --> 00:18:00,560 This is how we are to live. As we come to verses 11 through 260 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,720 13 of chapter 5, Paul encourages his readers to have no 261 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:07,760 fellowship with darkness, but rather to subject it to exposure 262 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:12,880 by light. Verse 11 begins by saying do not 263 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,320 participate in the unfruitful works of darkness. 264 00:18:18,360 --> 00:18:22,360 This love of darkness is has always been associated with with 265 00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:25,480 evil. Jesus spoke of this and in John 266 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:30,200 31921 saying this is the judgement that the light has 267 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:33,880 come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the 268 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,680 light, for their deeds were evil. 269 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:40,560 For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to 270 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:45,400 the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed, but he 271 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,200 who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may 272 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:52,080 be manifested as having been wrought in God. 273 00:18:54,680 --> 00:19:00,720 Paul's command goes goes beyond forbidding just overt sinful 274 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:03,400 behavior. This this verb participate 275 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:07,280 implies a sharing or a partnership or complicity with. 276 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,560 Ian Hamilton warns that the that the greatest danger facing the 277 00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:16,920 church is not it's not one of a blatant rebellion, but gradual 278 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:20,640 accommodation. Partition participation often 279 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:26,080 begins subtly, not not with a denial of of the truth, but with 280 00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:29,080 silence when confession is required. 281 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:35,240 Paul refers to these deeds of darkness as as unfruitful. 282 00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:38,520 He's drawing a he's drawing a deliberate contrast between the, 283 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:42,440 the fruit of the light that we're, that we are told to, to 284 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,640 emulate and then the unfruitful deeds of, of darkness. 285 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:50,960 And that while darkness may may promise fulfilment, may promise 286 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,880 freedom, may promise satisfaction, It it, it produces 287 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:58,440 nothing that endures it. It promises life, but it 288 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:10,300 delivers emptiness. Paul is not content that his 289 00:20:10,300 --> 00:20:13,700 readers just be satisfied with not participating in the 290 00:20:13,700 --> 00:20:16,700 unfruitful deeds of darkness. He goes on to inform them that 291 00:20:16,700 --> 00:20:19,260 is their responsibility to expose them. 292 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:24,120 Jesus illustrated you know how this was to be done in in 293 00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:27,280 Matthew 514 through 16 where he tells his disciples. 294 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:29,240 He says you know you are the light of the world. 295 00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:33,200 You know a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does 296 00:20:33,200 --> 00:20:36,160 anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the 297 00:20:36,160 --> 00:20:39,720 lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. 298 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:43,040 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see 299 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,560 your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 300 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:51,320 This this exposure that Paul is advocating is, is not just an, 301 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,840 an aggressive denunciation or a public shaming. 302 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:57,920 He's not. He's not authorizing some sort 303 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:02,480 of of moral exhibitionism or or public or self-righteous 304 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:04,840 confrontation. What what he's getting at is 305 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:09,360 that is that exposure happens primarily through contrast. 306 00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:14,920 The light exposes darkness simply by being present. 307 00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:21,760 Michael Allen interprets this language of of exposure within 308 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,720 within a broader biblical theology of holiness, and he 309 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:26,640 says this. He says God's holiness always 310 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:31,240 exposes sin, but this is not done to humiliate his people, 311 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:35,760 but to bring them to repentance and restoration. 312 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:42,600 Thus, exposure is redemptive even when it is uncomfortable. 313 00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,120 Adam warns that when the church loses its distinctiveness, it 314 00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:50,960 loses its ability to expose darkness at all. 315 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,240 That accommodation neutralizes witness. 316 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:01,600 When it come to verse 12, Paul inserts a bit of nuance and 317 00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:06,000 perhaps a bit of warning as he begins to tell us how it is that 318 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:08,400 we go about exposing the deeds of darkness. 319 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:12,200 He says it is disgraceful even to speak of the things they do 320 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,280 in secret. Paul is. 321 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:19,680 Paul is not advocating ignorance here, but rather restraint. 322 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,600 There are those sins whose whose detailed discussion from the 323 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,560 pulpit can corrupt rather than edify. 324 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:29,880 It doesn't serve a useful purpose. 325 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:35,000 The late Pastor William L Watkinson's in in 19 O 7 326 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:40,200 preached A sermon entitled The Invincible Strategy, where he 327 00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:44,840 downplayed the value of verbal attacks on undesirable behavior 328 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,240 and championed the importance of good works. 329 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,800 Or as I like to say from our text today, or the fruit of 330 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:56,720 light. Saying this, he said 331 00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:01,120 denunciatory rhetoric is so much easier and cheaper than good 332 00:23:01,120 --> 00:23:06,720 works and proves popular. And it is far better to light 333 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:08,680 the candle than to curse the darkness. 334 00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:13,800 I mean, it's, it's, it's exactly what Paul says in our text that 335 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:18,440 you're to, to live a life marked by righteousness and truth. 336 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:22,720 That's what it means to light a candle, be, be light, walk as a 337 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:25,280 child of light in the darkness is exposed. 338 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,280 We don't have to curse the darkness in all its varied forms 339 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:30,640 in order to expose it for what it is. 340 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:39,960 The solution for exposing sin for what it is without 341 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:45,120 sensationalizing it is found in verses 13 where we as believers 342 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:47,520 walk as children of light bearing the fruit of light, 343 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:51,640 goodness, righteousness, and truth among those who are 344 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:56,080 walking in darkness. Light doesn't merely condemn 345 00:23:56,080 --> 00:23:59,680 darkness, it reveals reality. Whereas whereas darkness is 346 00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:03,760 deceptive and it and it distorts reality, light restores 347 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,120 perception and allows things to be seen for what they really 348 00:24:07,120 --> 00:24:10,280 are. And once and once sin is seen 349 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:13,120 for what it really is, it, it loses its deceptive power. 350 00:24:13,120 --> 00:24:16,960 It's no longer as appealing as it once was in it, and it gives 351 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,280 opportunity for repentance and transformation. 352 00:24:25,770 --> 00:24:30,050 Verse 13 ends with the word words, everything which becomes 353 00:24:30,050 --> 00:24:34,330 visible as light and taking superficially that could be 354 00:24:34,330 --> 00:24:36,890 misunderstood to mean that somehow exposure to the light 355 00:24:36,890 --> 00:24:40,720 automatically makes something good or that somehow sin 356 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:43,600 transforms itself into righteousness simply by being 357 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:47,760 revealed. But but Paul means neither to be 358 00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,160 to be exposed by the lies to be brought into contact with Christ 359 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,160 and we brought into contract with Christ places an individual 360 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:58,240 in a position where they can no longer plead ignorance. 361 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:01,680 Their darkness has been revealed and a decision must be made. 362 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,160 You know, repent and be transformed or resist and be 363 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:12,200 hardened. I'm a child of the 70s and 80s. 364 00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,440 When I was a kid, it seemed like everybody smoked, you know, 365 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:22,840 between the Philip Morris ads. They were pretty cheeky, you 366 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:24,800 know, what people put up with to enjoy them. 367 00:25:25,360 --> 00:25:28,280 Or the Marlboro Man. I mean, why wouldn't you? 368 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:34,360 It was the best thing ever. And while while the cigarette 369 00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:38,560 manufacturers knew in 1963 that nicotine was addictive, they 370 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,560 didn't see fit to disclose it to the general public until the 371 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:46,520 year 2000. You know, light was finally shed 372 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:51,400 on the industry and the risks associated with consuming their 373 00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:54,480 product. You know, an individual today 374 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,280 may still choose to consume those products, but it's no 375 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,280 longer something that's done in ignorance. 376 00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,440 You know, on every carton and every package of cigarettes that 377 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:08,080 you pick up in the United States today, there is a warning label 378 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:12,240 that accompanies that. And it's pretty stark. 379 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,200 And if you want to see one starker when they go to the 380 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:19,440 Paris airport on your way back in, every package of cigarettes 381 00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,240 in the duty free shop shows a picture of diseased lungs, 382 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:24,680 diseased hearts, a person on a ventilator. 383 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:30,040 I mean, it's, you know, here, buddy, you want to smoke. 384 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:33,000 I mean, it, it's something you're, it's not something that 385 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,680 is done in ignorance and horror. Yes, you may willfully decide 386 00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,440 to, to do that behavior, but it's, but it's not, it's not 387 00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:40,280 something where you said say I didn't, I didn't know. 388 00:26:40,520 --> 00:26:42,520 And that's, that's what that's what Paul is saying. 389 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:45,520 When you when you live as light amongst a World of Darkness, it 390 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,040 is something that reveals to them how it is that they are 391 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,320 living in it and shows a a different way. 392 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,440 The label on a pack of cigarettes does not exist to 393 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:05,960 condemn the person that's smoking. 394 00:27:07,640 --> 00:27:12,720 It's there to encourage them to stop, to make a better choice, 395 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,280 to warn them of the consequences of continuing. 396 00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:22,160 And in the same way as as we walk as children of light in a 397 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:26,560 darkened world, we operate in much the same fashion. 398 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,640 We are, as Paul says in Second Corinthians five 20s ambassadors 399 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,200 for Christ. You know, as though God were 400 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,800 making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, 401 00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:49,100 be reconciled to God. Our passage today concludes with 402 00:27:49,100 --> 00:27:52,460 Paul exhorting his readers once again, saying, awake, sleeper 403 00:27:52,460 --> 00:27:56,140 and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. 404 00:27:58,540 --> 00:28:01,500 Paul is expressing the implication of light exposing 405 00:28:01,500 --> 00:28:06,880 darkness if exposure is is primarily redemptive and the 406 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,000 proper response to being exposed is awakening. 407 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,680 Paul's comment here can be directed not only at 408 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,720 unbelievers, but also at believers, believers who have 409 00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:20,240 become spiritually inattentive, believers who have become 410 00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:26,120 complacent towards sin, who have compromised their vigilance. 411 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:31,320 Paul exhorts his readers to arise from the dead, echoing in 412 00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:33,520 the earlier language of spiritual resurrection that we 413 00:28:33,520 --> 00:28:37,040 see in chapter 2. One through 6 of this same book. 414 00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:40,720 Paul is reminding his his readers that they were once 415 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,440 dead, but they have been raised with Christ and and they ought 416 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:48,520 to live in that reality that that sanctification is, is a 417 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:52,080 resurrection life worked out over time. 418 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:59,160 This is the promise that is made at the end of verse 14, not that 419 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:04,520 Christ may shine on us, but that He will shine on us. 420 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,560 Just as just as God is shown in our hearts to give us the light 421 00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,000 of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, 422 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:13,120 leading to our salvation, so Christ shines on us now, 423 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,120 sustaining us in our Christian walk. 424 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,440 This verse reminds us that sanctification is is a 425 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:25,520 continuing awakening, that that spiritual sleep is a real danger 426 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,440 for believers, and that Christ Himself provides the light we 427 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:35,760 need, and that His grace not only saves but awakens. 428 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:44,240 In conclusion, let's revisit Paul's main points of emphasis 429 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,360 in our passage today. He began by reminding them of 430 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:51,360 their change in identity, that they who had been in darkness 431 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:55,120 were now light in the Lord. He followed that up with an 432 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:59,280 exhortation to live as a child of light, exhibiting the fruit 433 00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:04,280 of light participation. Unfruitful deeds of darkness 434 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,320 were then forbidden. Believers were instructed 435 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:12,520 instead to expose them. Exposure was shown in verse 13 436 00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,160 to to force a choice to repent or to continue in sin. 437 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:21,280 And finally, and finally, we are invited to step into the light. 438 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,080 I'd say to you this morning, if you're feeling exposed, if we 439 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:29,960 feel like somehow the light is shining on you and that's less 440 00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,760 than comfortable, well, congratulations, that's a good 441 00:30:33,760 --> 00:30:36,560 thing. Too often, too often, we pray 442 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,080 that the light would just be dimmed. 443 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:43,800 If you just turn it down a little bit, I'd be a little more 444 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:46,520 comfortable. Instead of asking as David did, 445 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:51,080 you know, search me, O God, and know my heart, try my try me and 446 00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:53,600 know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me 447 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:58,920 and lead me in the way. Everlasting exposure, as as Paul 448 00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,000 has shown us this morning, is the doorway to transformation. 449 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:04,440 You know, and, and it's my prayer, if that's, if that's 450 00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:08,000 where you find yourself today, that you walk through that door, 451 00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:10,320 that you don't try to close that door and you don't try to turn 452 00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:14,720 out the light, but that you walk through that door. 453 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:18,800 Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage 454 00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,800 Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit 455 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:26,280 our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.