Those of you that know me well know that I have AI have a thing
for books. I think I have thousands of
them. 1952 John Steinbeck published East of Eden.
It's my favorite American novel and is in my estimation, the
best one ever written. It's a story that that retells
the story of Cain and Abel over multiple generations within
American context. The the central question that is
asked in this novel is is whether an individual's are are
trapped in the darkness that they inherit or whether they can
somehow rise above it. The novel turns on a single
word. It's drawn from the story of
Cain and Abel in in Genesis 47. In Hebrew, the word is Tim
shell. It means it means you must or or
you may or or thou mayest. And, and in context of, of
chapter 4, it speaks to resisting the sin that is
crouching at your door when, when the Lord is speaking to
Cain and saying, you know, if you do well, but if you don't,
if you don't, then sin is crouching at your door and, and
you must resist it. When Steinbeck presents,
presents this word, he presents it as a, as a word of
possibility, the idea that sin does not have to rule over you,
that it is possible for you to choose another path.
You know, it's, it's a powerful idea.
It it offers hope for an individual without without
denying the reality of of darkness that is inherent within
our world, but it also leaves the the weight of of change
resting squarely on the individual.
Yes, it's possible for you to overcome sin, but whether you do
so or not depends finally and ultimately on yourself.
When Paul writes Ephesians 5, he begins with the same dark
realism. In verses one through 70 names
sin without euphemism. He speaks of sexual immorality,
of impurity, of greed, and of corrupt speech.
And he warns that that these patterns ought not mark the
lives of those who are part of Christ's Kingdom.
But Paul goes out of his way to acknowledge that darkness is
real, that it's inherited, and that it is destructive.
But as we follow Paul's logic, he goes much further than than
Steinbeck ever could. In verse eight of our of our
text for today, Paul does not say that you may become light if
you choose Well, he says rather at one time you were darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord.
This is this is not the language of of possibility, but the
language of, of declaration. This is this is not an
invitation to do better, but an invitation to transformation.
Where when we read Steinbeck and we see the word Tim shell it,
you know Steinbeck, he places his hope in human freedom.
Paul places hope in union with Christ.
The gospel does not say merely that you may rise from darkness,
but it says that in Christ you have already been raised.
And because that is true, Paul can Paul can command his readers
to walk as children of light. Paul is.
Paul is not urging some type of self improvement.
He's proclaiming a spiritual awakening.
He's reminding the Ephesian believers that the that the
light has already broken in and that the power to walk in
holiness comes from Christ himself.
Steinbeck tells us you may. Paul tells us you are.
It's a vivid illustration between the difference between
human resolve and gospel power, between the between the hope of
choice and the certainty of grace.
Read with me, if you will, our text for today.
We'll be in Ephesians chapter 5, verses 8 through 14.
It reads, For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light
in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for
the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and
truth. Trying to learn what is pleasing
to the Lord. Do not participate in the
unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.
For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are
done by them in secret. But all things become visible
when they are exposed by the light.
For everything that becomes visible is light.
For this reason, it says Awake sleeper and arise from the dead
and Christ will shine on you. I think as we begin to unpack
this text for today, it's important to recognize it.
You know, verses 8 through 14 just don't just don't sit in a
vacuum somewhere that they that they don't stand on their own.
Paul is Paul is not beginning a new thought here, but is rather
drawing a conclusion that rests on everything that is already
said in the letter. In verse 8, Paul makes one of
the most definite statements in the New Testament about the
identity of Christians. You know, saying you were
formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
This sentence assumes that something decisive has already
happened. It assumes that that God has has
acted it. It assumes that the gospel has
done more than forgive, that it has transformed lives.
Turning back, if we go back to Ephesians 2 one through 5, it
reminds us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God
being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ.
Art and Lloyd Jones, when referencing those verses,
insisted that they destroy all moralism.
Christianity, he said, is not the polishing of the old man,
but the creation of a new man, Paul.
Paul is not saying live this way so that you might become a
light, but rather because God has made you light in the Lord.
Now live accordingly. The Christian.
The Christian's ethics, John Stott reminds us, always rests
on identity, not not the other way around.
Earlier in the chapter, Paul called the Ephesian believers to
imitate God and as beloved children to walk in love just as
Christ loved them and gave himself for us.
He then contrasted this this Christ shaped love with a life
marked by immorality, impurity, greed, and corrupt speech, all
sins belonging to the realm of darkness.
He goes on to warn in verses 6:00 and 7:00 that that such
behaviors will bring upon those who practice them the wrath of
God, and it concludes with a command not to share in them.
That was all free. By way of introduction, Paul
begins in verse 8 by marking A fundamental change in the nature
of believers, saying, you know, for you were formerly darkness,
but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light.
Notice that. Notice that Paul does not say
merely that at one time we walked in darkness.
He says that we were darkness. The darkness was not merely our
environment, it was our identity.
That's reminiscent of the description of fallen humanity
that that's given by Paul in Romans 121, where he where he
describes him as being futile in their speculation with foolish
darkened hearts. The change that the Paul is
referencing here is not one that is just primarily ethical in in
nature. The competitor Hohner notes that
this change reflects a change of realm from the mid from the
dominion of darkness into the dominion of Christ's lordship.
Conversion, then is is not to be understood it just as as
incremental moral reform, but a but a change of spiritual
location and identity. Paul says much this thing in
Colossians 113, where it reads for he has rescued us from the
domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of
his beloved son. Paul echoes the same thought in
in first Peter 29 and 10 when reminding those to whom he wrote
of their new identity. When he says that you are a
chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for
God's own possession, so that you might proclaim forth the
excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light. For you once were not a people,
but now you are the people of God.
You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Paul is reminding his readers not not only of what it is that
they must do, but also of what God has already done.
Too often in Hamilton comments, Christians struggle with
assurance because they focus on present weakness rather than on
past deliverance. This verse reminds us that our
fundamental identity has changed, even when our
experience feels conflicted, even when we're experiencing a a
lack of success to where that our identity rests in Christ.
John Bunyan's great allegory, The Pilgrims Progress, gives us
one of the clearest narrative pictures of what Paul meant when
he said you were formerly darkness, but now your light in
the Lord. At the beginning of the story,
Christian lives in a city of destruction and bunion is is
careful to show us that the that the city is not merely wicked,
but that it is that it's ordinary.
It's it's familiar, it feels safe.
It seems, it seems reasonable. Christian works there, sleeps
there, his family is there. Its values are unquestioned.
The dangers are unseen. And, and quite frankly, that's
the way darkness works. We, we don't find Christian in
the beginning of the story seeking for a way of escape.
He's not trying to leave the city.
He's content to remain there until that time that God opened
his eyes to the reading of the book, you know, and suddenly
when that happens, everything changes.
Christian doesn't suddenly become more moral.
He doesn't, he doesn't at that point decide, ah, I've got to
do, I've got to do better. Now what happens?
He sees his sin for what it is. He sees judgement.
He sees judgement written over the city in which in which he
lives and he feels a burden that that he's unable to remove.
You know, that moment is, is not a moment of of self improvement.
It's a moment of illumination. The light has shone on him and
and once he's seen that he can't Unsee that Bunyan shows us in
his work that conversion is not it's not just a decision that
it's a revelation that light has entered the soul.
You know, and here's the crucial part for Paul's argument in
Ephesians. Once once Christian becomes
light, the city of destruction becomes intolerable.
Bunyan tells us that he that he flees the city with his fingers
and his ears, crying out life, life, eternal life.
He leaves the city not not just because he like doesn't like it
or that he dislikes it. He he leaves the city because he
belongs to another. He doesn't leave the city in
order to become a Pilgrim, but because he already is a Pilgrim.
Just as it says in First Corinthians 517, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creature. This brings us to our second
point. Today.
Having established our our new identity as light in the Lord,
he exhorts us to walk as children of light.
Once again, this this can't be emphasized enough.
Paul doesn't say walk as children of light so that you
might become light. He says because you are light in
the Lord, walk as children of the light.
As we said before, Christian ethics always rest on Christian
identity. The imperative flows from the
indicative. Because, because God has changed
who we are, we are then to His. Romans 64 exhorts us walk in
newness of life. Paul does not leave his readers
uninformed as to what walking as children of light looks like.
Verses 9 and 10 tell us that the fruit of light consists in all
goodness and righteousness and truth, trying to learn what is
pleasing to the Lord. What Paul is calling them to
hear is to walk in a manner worthy of their calling.
Harold Honer notes that goodness, righteousness, and
truth correspond to God's own character, suggesting that that
sanctification is ultimately about conforming to God.
It's not merely rule keeping. This goodness, this
righteousness, this this truth, coupled with with trying to
learn what is pleasing to the Lord is described as the fruit
of light, emphasizing growth rather than instant perfection.
In a parallel passage, Paul contrasts the deeds of the flesh
with the fruit of the Spirit, saying that the fruit of the
Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, illustrating that
sanctification is is something that is spirit produced, not
self generated. I think when we as as believers
are are charged to exhibit goodness, it doesn't it doesn't
simply refer to moral correctness, but to but to act
of benevolence, Francis Folkes comments.
It is goodness expressed toward others, kindness, generosity and
a willingness to seek the good of neighbor shaped by the gospel
and reflecting the self giving love of Christ.
That's what that's what goodness looks like when we talk about
righteousness. It's not, it's not just this
idea when someone says, oh, that person is righteous, that
they're, that they, that they keep the rules, that they do
right things, that they're socially respectable.
It's it's more than that. What Paul is referring to here
is, is living a life ordered according to God's revealed
will. Michael Allen speaks of
righteousness this way, says it's the fruit of belonging to
the covenant. Lord says it reflects loyalty,
faithfulness and obedience shaped by relationship rather
than by fear. Like the last word of that,
since it's shaped by relationship rather than by
fear. Truth.
It includes honesty and integrity, yes, but it goes.
It goes deeper than that. A life marked by truthfulness is
1 where confession and conduct correspond.
It's the it's the opposite of hypocrisy and double mindedness.
You know, it's, it's important to under score this point that
truth is I'm sorry, find my place again, it's the opposite
of hypocrisy and double mindedness.
Ian Hamilton underscored the point that truth is especially
important in a passage concerned with light and darkness because
darkness thrives on secrecy, on pretense and distortion, while
light produces lives that are transparent before God and
others. As we come to verse 10, it
describes the posture of the Christian life.
Light not only bears fruit, but it also seeks discernment.
Paul uses a present participle says you're trying to learn in
order to describe the ongoing process of moral understanding.
Believers are not are not merely given a list of rules and left
to follow them mechanically. They're they're called into
relationship with God, a relationship that requires
thought and prayer and attentiveness to God's will with
with the ultimate aim of that relationship not being is this
allowed, but rather does this delight my father?
This is how we are to live. As we come to verses 11 through
13 of chapter 5, Paul encourages his readers to have no
fellowship with darkness, but rather to subject it to exposure
by light. Verse 11 begins by saying do not
participate in the unfruitful works of darkness.
This love of darkness is has always been associated with with
evil. Jesus spoke of this and in John
31921 saying this is the judgement that the light has
come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the
light, for their deeds were evil.
For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to
the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed, but he
who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may
be manifested as having been wrought in God.
Paul's command goes goes beyond forbidding just overt sinful
behavior. This this verb participate
implies a sharing or a partnership or complicity with.
Ian Hamilton warns that the that the greatest danger facing the
church is not it's not one of a blatant rebellion, but gradual
accommodation. Partition participation often
begins subtly, not not with a denial of of the truth, but with
silence when confession is required.
Paul refers to these deeds of darkness as as unfruitful.
He's drawing a he's drawing a deliberate contrast between the,
the fruit of the light that we're, that we are told to, to
emulate and then the unfruitful deeds of, of darkness.
And that while darkness may may promise fulfilment, may promise
freedom, may promise satisfaction, It it, it produces
nothing that endures it. It promises life, but it
delivers emptiness. Paul is not content that his
readers just be satisfied with not participating in the
unfruitful deeds of darkness. He goes on to inform them that
is their responsibility to expose them.
Jesus illustrated you know how this was to be done in in
Matthew 514 through 16 where he tells his disciples.
He says you know you are the light of the world.
You know a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does
anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the
lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
This this exposure that Paul is advocating is, is not just an,
an aggressive denunciation or a public shaming.
He's not. He's not authorizing some sort
of of moral exhibitionism or or public or self-righteous
confrontation. What what he's getting at is
that is that exposure happens primarily through contrast.
The light exposes darkness simply by being present.
Michael Allen interprets this language of of exposure within
within a broader biblical theology of holiness, and he
says this. He says God's holiness always
exposes sin, but this is not done to humiliate his people,
but to bring them to repentance and restoration.
Thus, exposure is redemptive even when it is uncomfortable.
Adam warns that when the church loses its distinctiveness, it
loses its ability to expose darkness at all.
That accommodation neutralizes witness.
When it come to verse 12, Paul inserts a bit of nuance and
perhaps a bit of warning as he begins to tell us how it is that
we go about exposing the deeds of darkness.
He says it is disgraceful even to speak of the things they do
in secret. Paul is.
Paul is not advocating ignorance here, but rather restraint.
There are those sins whose whose detailed discussion from the
pulpit can corrupt rather than edify.
It doesn't serve a useful purpose.
The late Pastor William L Watkinson's in in 19 O 7
preached A sermon entitled The Invincible Strategy, where he
downplayed the value of verbal attacks on undesirable behavior
and championed the importance of good works.
Or as I like to say from our text today, or the fruit of
light. Saying this, he said
denunciatory rhetoric is so much easier and cheaper than good
works and proves popular. And it is far better to light
the candle than to curse the darkness.
I mean, it's, it's, it's exactly what Paul says in our text that
you're to, to live a life marked by righteousness and truth.
That's what it means to light a candle, be, be light, walk as a
child of light in the darkness is exposed.
We don't have to curse the darkness in all its varied forms
in order to expose it for what it is.
The solution for exposing sin for what it is without
sensationalizing it is found in verses 13 where we as believers
walk as children of light bearing the fruit of light,
goodness, righteousness, and truth among those who are
walking in darkness. Light doesn't merely condemn
darkness, it reveals reality. Whereas whereas darkness is
deceptive and it and it distorts reality, light restores
perception and allows things to be seen for what they really
are. And once and once sin is seen
for what it really is, it, it loses its deceptive power.
It's no longer as appealing as it once was in it, and it gives
opportunity for repentance and transformation.
Verse 13 ends with the word words, everything which becomes
visible as light and taking superficially that could be
misunderstood to mean that somehow exposure to the light
automatically makes something good or that somehow sin
transforms itself into righteousness simply by being
revealed. But but Paul means neither to be
to be exposed by the lies to be brought into contact with Christ
and we brought into contract with Christ places an individual
in a position where they can no longer plead ignorance.
Their darkness has been revealed and a decision must be made.
You know, repent and be transformed or resist and be
hardened. I'm a child of the 70s and 80s.
When I was a kid, it seemed like everybody smoked, you know,
between the Philip Morris ads. They were pretty cheeky, you
know, what people put up with to enjoy them.
Or the Marlboro Man. I mean, why wouldn't you?
It was the best thing ever. And while while the cigarette
manufacturers knew in 1963 that nicotine was addictive, they
didn't see fit to disclose it to the general public until the
year 2000. You know, light was finally shed
on the industry and the risks associated with consuming their
product. You know, an individual today
may still choose to consume those products, but it's no
longer something that's done in ignorance.
You know, on every carton and every package of cigarettes that
you pick up in the United States today, there is a warning label
that accompanies that. And it's pretty stark.
And if you want to see one starker when they go to the
Paris airport on your way back in, every package of cigarettes
in the duty free shop shows a picture of diseased lungs,
diseased hearts, a person on a ventilator.
I mean, it's, you know, here, buddy, you want to smoke.
I mean, it, it's something you're, it's not something that
is done in ignorance and horror. Yes, you may willfully decide
to, to do that behavior, but it's, but it's not, it's not
something where you said say I didn't, I didn't know.
And that's, that's what that's what Paul is saying.
When you when you live as light amongst a World of Darkness, it
is something that reveals to them how it is that they are
living in it and shows a a different way.
The label on a pack of cigarettes does not exist to
condemn the person that's smoking.
It's there to encourage them to stop, to make a better choice,
to warn them of the consequences of continuing.
And in the same way as as we walk as children of light in a
darkened world, we operate in much the same fashion.
We are, as Paul says in Second Corinthians five 20s ambassadors
for Christ. You know, as though God were
making an appeal through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God. Our passage today concludes with
Paul exhorting his readers once again, saying, awake, sleeper
and rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.
Paul is expressing the implication of light exposing
darkness if exposure is is primarily redemptive and the
proper response to being exposed is awakening.
Paul's comment here can be directed not only at
unbelievers, but also at believers, believers who have
become spiritually inattentive, believers who have become
complacent towards sin, who have compromised their vigilance.
Paul exhorts his readers to arise from the dead, echoing in
the earlier language of spiritual resurrection that we
see in chapter 2. One through 6 of this same book.
Paul is reminding his his readers that they were once
dead, but they have been raised with Christ and and they ought
to live in that reality that that sanctification is, is a
resurrection life worked out over time.
This is the promise that is made at the end of verse 14, not that
Christ may shine on us, but that He will shine on us.
Just as just as God is shown in our hearts to give us the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ,
leading to our salvation, so Christ shines on us now,
sustaining us in our Christian walk.
This verse reminds us that sanctification is is a
continuing awakening, that that spiritual sleep is a real danger
for believers, and that Christ Himself provides the light we
need, and that His grace not only saves but awakens.
In conclusion, let's revisit Paul's main points of emphasis
in our passage today. He began by reminding them of
their change in identity, that they who had been in darkness
were now light in the Lord. He followed that up with an
exhortation to live as a child of light, exhibiting the fruit
of light participation. Unfruitful deeds of darkness
were then forbidden. Believers were instructed
instead to expose them. Exposure was shown in verse 13
to to force a choice to repent or to continue in sin.
And finally, and finally, we are invited to step into the light.
I'd say to you this morning, if you're feeling exposed, if we
feel like somehow the light is shining on you and that's less
than comfortable, well, congratulations, that's a good
thing. Too often, too often, we pray
that the light would just be dimmed.
If you just turn it down a little bit, I'd be a little more
comfortable. Instead of asking as David did,
you know, search me, O God, and know my heart, try my try me and
know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me
and lead me in the way. Everlasting exposure, as as Paul
has shown us this morning, is the doorway to transformation.
You know, and, and it's my prayer, if that's, if that's
where you find yourself today, that you walk through that door,
that you don't try to close that door and you don't try to turn
out the light, but that you walk through that door.
Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage
Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit
our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.