Ephesians. We will be in Ephesians chapter 5 and this morning we will cover. Versus 7. All the way to verse 14. The Apostle Paul says in these verses, Do not be partakers with them. For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and 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 are made 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. Let's pray. Lord, we come before you today and once more briefly offer up a prayer for you to help us. I pray the prayer of Aaron that you would cause your face to shine upon us. And be gracious to us and give us peace. For in your light alone. We can see light. So through your word, may the light of the knowledge of your glory in the face of Christ. Shine on us in a new way. May the sunlight of your word hit us and warm us and heat us and transform us. In a new way today. In Jesus name, Amen. Post tenebrous looks. is what is etched across the statues in Geneva, where you find a wall of marble where there are the reformers who were placed there, etched into that marble. Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, John Knox, and others. And it's in Latin, and that's because Catholic Church of the West used that language. And so many works and things are in that language during that time of the 16th century. And English was just coming about through the Reformation to spread throughout the world. And it means after darkness, light. I was thinking on the way here this morning that the children have seen the word Lux, L-U-X, in the mascot for Pixar, Luxo the Lamp. And that's where he gets his name from, from the Latin lux, which means light or lamp. And so post and embers lux was written across there to mean after darkness, light, meaning after this period through the middle ages, basically from Augustine all the way to the modern period of the Reformation in the 1500s, 1400s. you really see a period of darkness in that the gospel has been eclipsed, both in its truth and in its morality in the church. And through the Reformation, the truth gets rediscovered on a grander scale again. and culture gets influenced once again by the gospel. And that leads to the whole modern explosion of the explorers and traveling the globe and Protestantism spreading. And then of course, that's where our ancestry is connected to the pilgrims and so forth. So other things, the scientific revolution and the industrial revolution, and all of the explosion of intelligence in the modern period was rooted in both a rediscovery that the world has rationality in it, because it's created by a creator, but also the value of each and every individual. That you don't need a, along with kind of a religious freedom, came a secular freedom that just as you don't need a priest, To go to God, there's the value of the individual. The man alone with his Bible can know the Lord. So there was the emphasis in you as a creation of God can learn things and know things. And so there was this explosion of morality and freedom and goodness and all these values that came from it. And of course, we're living in a day to day. where we're seeing the downgrade of all of that. But just think that idea after darkness, light, and all of the goodness that came into the world culturally through that, we're still in its way. Well, according to these verses that we just read, Ephesians 5, 7 to 14, Any good that is ever done in this fallen world, any real good, you look around the world and you think, well, this is a sad situation and this is a sad situation and I want to be part of change and I want to do good to people who are sad and in darkness. According to these verses, the only way to do any good in this fallen world is through the light. If you see a situation where there's darkness, it will change if and only if the light is allowed to shine in on that situation. This text is a call then to turn on the light. Or if it's already turned on in your life, to reach that little dial and turn it to the nth degree all the way on. So what Paul is doing here is continuing with his theme that you may remember he began back in 4 verse 7, which is really the theme of saving the world. The theme of Christ filling all things, spreading his reunification, his putting everything back together again through the gifted church. and how it is to be done is something he picked up in verse 17 and following of chapter four, which you may remember point blank is to live different from the world. So this, I say, and affirm with the Lord that you walk no longer, but notice it's a conclusion. It's the result remember of what he's just said. So the way The world is reached and changed is not by living like it, but by living unlike it. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said one time that the temptation in the church to constantly think to reach the world in order to change it is to be like it. is entirely wrong. The church is not relevant, he said, because it's like it, but because it presents a fundamental, stark line, different alternative to it. And he gets this from Paul here. And so Paul in verses 17 and following began to basically remind us the way that we live different is kind of unfolding like a transformer, like being who you are. The secular form has a secular form of coming out, you know, if you're homosexual or something like that. Well, Christianity, Christian sanctification is really a coming out. The idea is you are who God remade you to be already. And you just start acting that way on the outside that matches who you really are on the inside. But then ever since verse 25, he's been getting very specific with it and going through individual garments. to take off and replace with something else and put on. And for each one of these, you remember there's a three-step process or three parts to it. There's the negative that is to be slung off, and there's the positive that's to be put on and it's replacement. And then there's some rationale that's given as you're to have in your mind as to why you should do it. So remember at the beginning, this reminder, Christian sanctification is not just avoiding the negative, but it's replacing the negative behavior with a positive. And then it's not just moral self-will pulling yourself by your own bootstrap saying, I'm gonna be a different person because I have just decided to be better. No, there's a doctrinal reason given for each of these. So truth motivated change is the idea. So you could say that what Paul has done here, there's eight of them, now there's nine of these, has simply said, if you wanna know how to change the world, here's how. in nine simple steps. And you just tell me what the world would be like. This is basically Paul's alternative to John Lennon's imagine. Number one, he said to us, instead of lying, change into truth telling because we are members of one another. How different would the world be? Number two, instead of out of control anger, he told us to change into controlled anger because Satan will use that aggravated spirit in you as an opportunity to get you to sin. Number three, instead of working hard to take from others, change into working hard to give because you will then be able to meet needs. Number four, he told us instead of using words that tear down, use words that build up because this will give grace to those who hear you. Number five, he told us instead of resisting the spirit, change into following the spirit because we've been sealed by him. Number six, in place of bitterness, put forgiveness, because God in Christ has forgiven you. Number seven, he's told us, instead of being excessively original and different, be an imitator, because you are God's children. And then number eight, in place of greediness, put thankfulness, because this is fitting for you being a saint. Just stop right there. How different would the world be if greediness was replaced with thankfulness? And everywhere you see people trying to be excessively artistic and original, they became followers and imitators. And instead of bitterness, there was forgiveness. And instead of resisting the spirit, There was the following of it. Instead of words that tear down, they were replaced. Everywhere you see a word that's tearing down, it were replaced with a word that builds up. And instead of working hard to be selfish with your money, there was the working hard to accumulate wealth. and wherewithal in order to be a blessing. And instead of out of control anger, everywhere you've seen it, there was controlled anger. And instead of lying, everywhere you've seen it, there were truth telling. Just if that happened in the church, how different would the world be? But he goes on in these verses now to tell us essentially instead of darkness, let there be brightness. because of the reasonableness to do so. So we come to the ninth one. And you say, why did you say reasonableness? Well, there he gives too many reasons for this one to sum them up in one. So I just have to sum up this text as this way. Instead of darkness, replace it with brightness because of its reasonableness. So those are the three points. Number one, in these verses, Paul instructs us to put away darkness. There's two times that he gives us a negative imperative command about darkness. Once is in verse seven, and the other is in verse 11. Now you see in verse seven, he says, do not be partakers with them. Verse 11, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness." Now, both of these words, these commands, rather, use the similar conceptual word. Participate or partakers. Partakers means literally to have with. There was an old man, I thought of him when I looked up this word, who used to come visit me at Tampagri. He's passed away, Mr. Carney. And I remember when I studied this word meant to have with, they opened a restaurant right next door and he was talking about it one day and he said, I believe I'm going to go over there and have a burger with them. And I just came to my mind, but it gives you a good illustration to have with, you know, the ideas. If you go over there and you have a burger with them, you order one of their burgers. You have sort of shared in something, you know, they've made this thing, you've bought this thing. Y'all probably both tasted this thing and you have this thing in common and you have some kind of relationship based on it. So Paul has in mind, there are certain things that we are not to have with them, that we are not to share with them. And the next, word, which is actually in a verb form, participate, kind of makes explicit what he means. Because it means to have in common with, but it uses an extra prepositional phrase there to help us out. Because the first one just says, do not be partakers with them. And that doesn't make it clear what exactly we're to shun, what exactly we're not having coming. Does it mean we're not to deer hunt with lost people? What do you mean you don't partake of duck calling with them? So the second one makes it explicit where he says, do not be partakers with them in deeds, in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. So Paul is not saying we're to separate from the lost totally. He even says that to the Corinthians, remember? Well, then you'd have to go out of the world, and I'm not telling you to go out of the world. The thing we're to separate from is the unfruitful deeds of darkness. What does that look like? Well, I couldn't help but remember a past Christmas party I was at with my kids and wife. and we were there and everything is going along fine and you're doing the typical Christmas thing and a good time is being had by all until someone who had had too much liquid encouragement decided to tell a sexual innuendo joke. And there was no escaping the radius of this joke, like you were caught in it. You were right there. We were talking about something else. Here this shifted and the joke is upon us, if you will, and it is released and it is there and it's the appropriate time to laugh. But if you were there, you would understand this is not even a type of humor. It wasn't even a type of humor where you could Try to find some slither of something there that was worth rejoicing in. It was totally soiled and wicked. And there were people around who then laughed. And then there was Charlie and I didn't laugh. And it was awkward. And it's wonderful to come to a verse like this because you see, that it is the Lord's will for you to make it awkward sometimes. If that's what you have to do to not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, Paul says, make it awkward. A matter of fact, let me just give you an incredibly important pastoral piece of wisdom here about life in general. It seems to me, I have learned that If not the chief way, a good person falls into sin. It is by not wanting is by wanting to rescue someone from awkwardness. So say someone say you're a married man. and some woman somehow propositions you, and now it's awkward, you can't even believe she just propositioned you, and there's people in front, and this is humiliating for her. The temptation is for you, because you're a nice person, you may gut-wrenchingly react to somehow alleviate the awkwardness by saying something positive about her. Well, then now there's a backfire because you've told her you're attracted to her. You see how that works? So the awkwardness Satan will literally use to trap you. You must be willing for it to be awkward. If it has to be, then there's no way out. So and you think of these verses here when you need them, Paul says, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. It is a darkness and it only leads to more darkness. So don't touch it. And if it has to be awkward, it's worth it. So this is the first thing he tells us. You want to change the world for good. You have to be willing to make it awkward. You have to be willing for there to be a no in your life. I'm not going there. I'm going to resist that and come out of that darkness. And in the place of that behavior, though, he not only tells you, make it awkward, he says, turn on the light amazingly. So not only don't participate in that, change into brightness two times in this text. Paul gives us a positive imperative command to replace the darkness with the light. Once in verse eight, where he says, walk as children of light. And once in verse 11, where after saying, do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, he says, but in contrast, instead, even expose them. So you kind of have a replay here with the exhortation to light as you did with the exhortation away from the darkness in that just as with the darkness both the commands communicated the same thing conceptually but one a little more clearly. So here, walk as children of light is the more vague one. Like, what does that look like? It's pretty abstract. I mean, you can imagine some children with some candles in their hand walking around. You can imagine what that light would do, but it still keeps it pretty vague. I mean, it's a biblical term. Jesus said, while you have the light, in the Gospel of John, believe in the light, that you may become children of the light. But what exactly does it mean to walk in the light? We know walk is your lifestyle. Well, the second one really fills it out, doesn't it? Even though it's so scandalous and shocking, it says, but rather even expose them. Now we know that's what light does. It reveals. And this is a very amazing set of words. Notice, first of all, the rather. It may be translated in your Bible instead or in place of, but it will say something like, but rather, but instead. And this is that word that I keep pointing out. Paul has a replacement view of ethics here. He used it in 4.28, for example, where he says, he who steals must steal no longer. but rather he must labor. And then he used it last week with verse 4 of chapter 5, that there must be no filthiness and silly talk or, of course, joking, which are not fitting, but rather giving of things. And so here is the same idea. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather, or instead, or in place of that, even expose them. So, it's not enough, is it, to just avoid the dark. You have to shine the light. We have this old distinction, too, in theology of sins of omission and sins of commission. It's not only a sin to commit certain deeds, but it's a sin to omit certain deeds. James says, to the one that knows the good thing that he ought to do, and he doesn't do it, to him it is sin. So God's law not only commands us to avoid things negatively, but positively to do things, to love people, to be humble, to serve, to tell the truth, et cetera. That's why a light pole outside is not sinless. It's not committing immorality, but it's still not righteous, right? Because it's not positively doing good deeds. And so here, what we want to see is it's a sin to not replace the darkness in your life with light. The command is not only push out the darkness, but bring in the light. It's a sin to not positively be the light where you are. Remember, Jesus said you are the light of the world. What man takes light and just hides it under a bushel? No, he puts it there for everyone to see. And it's amazing providentially, even when you're being a coward like Peter, He'll have little children come up to you and ask you, are you one of them? Like he providentially pushes your candle out there and forces you to be the light and repent your way through this and get through this. So notice that word rather and see that the Lord is telling you to not only push away the darkness, but be the light. And then notice the word even. It speaks of degree, Paul says, but rather even expose them. You may think of the, I guess, the most well-known example would be Philippians 2, where Paul says that he humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross. The idea here would be that you turned on the light even to the point of exposing others. It's quite a thought to think the Lord wants you to expose others. So then look at the word expose. Needs no introduction. David Letterman, right? It means to put it out there. It means to put it out there, to put it out there to be seen. But interestingly, this word is sometimes translated convict or reprove and sometimes make manifest. So sometimes the metaphor of light is there and sometimes it's not there and it's just translated reprove. So if you look it up, there's lots of verses where this is the word and it just means to reprove it kind of literally is to call out. So it almost matches what we say, I'm going to call you out for that, or He called you out. He called me out for that. But the idea in the Word apparently is to expose something in such a way to bring shame and conviction. So sometimes in our good wits we say, because God is sovereign, it's not our job to convict people? Well, actually it is. He says here, convict them. That's what the word means. Expose them. This is not an indicative saying God will do it. It's an imperative telling you to do it. Almost like where Philip said that time, Lord, bring them into the city so they can get something to eat. And what did he tell him? You give them something to eat. And so sometimes that's what we need to hear. We're putting it off on God when he's commanding us to do it. What does this look like? Well, I thought it came to my mind this biography. John Piper did a biography, a great one on it years ago, John Patton. if any of you've ever read it or listened to the sermon on it. He was a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands, the natives there who were cannibals. So this was like, you know, just like Netflix series missionary documentary. And he's there all alone by himself. And the natives are, they're just all out savages. And they several, he has so many near death experiences with them. But one of them I remember with this word exposing them or convicting them was he was in his little house one night. And all of a sudden he was awoken, he said, by the natives all around. They had machetes and hatchets and they were hollering and screaming. And he just knew they were going to kill him. You know what it was, but they had decided to kill him. So he said he got out of his bed and he knelt down and he prayed and then he petted his good dog and told him bye and made peace with the fact that he was promised going to die. But he walks out the door, not a firearm or anything in his hand and rebukes them. Because he says, after all of the good things I've done for you. Y'all want to kill me. And the natives all hung their heads and the chief among them said, we have not done good today. And they all turned around and went back home convicted. And so there's an example of, I mean, good thing he used the means of grace, right? Or the story would have ended there. So he didn't think, oh, well, let me wait on God to somehow do a miracle. He walked out there and reproved them and exposed their sin. He shined the light and it convicted them. Now, it's very interesting to me and I think worthy of note so that we have the right spirit about us that the object of the verb expose them that pronoun, is it may fool you to think person, but it actually, the antecedent is the noun deeds. So don't participate in unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead expose them. The them is the deeds. So this is not a situation where Paul is calling us to just come to someone and make it personal. And you know, you're just personally such a wretched person, you know, in contrast to everyone else. That's not it. What we're calling out is the deed that somebody's doing. It's the idea of saying this thing that you did right, this is not good what you did right here. You should not have done this. So you see there's this distinction of the person and the deed. We're not going around like Satan shaming persons based on their persons. And this happens a lot. Well, your personality. I mean, it's one of the most hurtful things you can ever tell somebody. Your personality is just loathing. I mean, if it's a deed, you can change the deed. But what can you do about your personality? Not much. That's another sermon that becomes like a catch-all word that we throw a lot in. So the exposure is not the person, but the deeds. Now you may say, well, how can this be done? And Paul doesn't really tell us, does he? He doesn't say expose, although the word kind of has the idea of words in there. He doesn't tell us expose by words. He doesn't tell us expose by deeds. Although, like I said, the word is used for word many times. So we know he at least means by speech, but he also means by the way you live. And I think you see both in the life of Jesus. You remember just his healings sometimes offended people and exposed sin in the Pharisees. And certainly his teaching did. He said, y'all go to the dinner, I can't go to the dinner because I speak about their evil. And you see the same thing in Noah. I thought of Noah. Noah, it says, was a preacher of righteousness, Peter says, so there's words. But the author of Hebrews says that Noah, being a man of God when he was warned by God in a dream, built an ark. preparation for all of his household by which he condemned the world. Do you see? You can't. You can't like what if I had go back to that scenario? What if I hadn't even said anything? To the lady that told the joke, which I didn't. So in that case, nor challenge. Neither one of us said anything. But you know, just by living differently, There was light. You exposed something. You shamed something just by living differently. So the thing to get in your mind is Satan will come to you always through the fear of harm. That's how he coerces you. And it's basically like, if you live this way, I'm going to persecute you. I'm going to hurt you. It's going to hurt to live this way. I don't want to hurt. So I'll go over here and get in line with that Satan wants me to live. It's satanic blackmail. And it'll literally ruin your Christian life because you may say, oh, I'm such a nice guy. I'm like Rex off a toy store. I don't like confrontation. And so I'm gonna do the like not verbally reprove people. I'll just quietly live, you know, my Christian life. But know that you find just by living, you convict people. If someone, for whatever reason, they may be a true Christian, of course, and there's a sin or a discouragement, let's not cast it in the most negative term. Let's have in our mind a Christian that's not really going to church, okay? And you could be married to them, or you could be in the same house, you could be friends with them, or whatever. And let's say it's a discouragement, whatever, but they're in a bad place. Just by going to church, you might aggravate them. You know? And what are you going to do about that? You say, well, I don't want to aggravate so I won't go to church. And you see how it happens. Like now you're both in the sludge and somebody has to come get both of you out. So. This is how this works. So you have to really see these verses and remind yourself that no, like the Lord means for people to feel bad. And there's this other thing that someone will cuss in front of a Christian or look at something nasty in front of a Christian. And then they'll say, you know, to the Christian, well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean. And then the Christian, our knee jerk reaction, is it not to say, oh, it's OK, it's OK. No, that's our moment. Like, what if you said you should feel bad? It's a sin. That'd be a different conversation, wouldn't it? And that's that's this word where Paul says not only don't participate, you see, but positively make sure you expose it and bring conviction and shame on this thing. So you can do it by the way you live or what you say now for the motivation, right? Because this is a heavy thing to do. And this is a hard thing to do. If you think for a second, because I'm a preacher, that it's an easy thing to do, it's not. If you think I always do it perfect, I do not. I struggle with it just like you. I need these reasons to get in my chest and motivate me and figure out how to actually do this So Paul is the one we're meant to learn from. He's the apostle. Let's see what he says. And by the way, also, it's important to get the motive here right because Satan is an accuser. And you can go around just rebuking and accusing and condemning people and be of your father the devil, right? So the question is, how do you expose in a godly way Versus a satanic way. What's the difference? We need some motivation. So here it is. Paul includes in this text not only a call to shun the darkness and turn on the light. the brightness, but he gives us the reasonableness of this. He gives us reasons to have in our mind. And I guess there's different ways to break them down, but for time's sake, I broke them down into four. There are four reasons to motivate us to make this shift, he gives. One in verse eight, where he says four, so you see he's giving you a reason there, you were formerly darkness. There's one in verses nine to 10, You see again there four and he gives you some reasons. And then there's one in verse 12. Again, note the four. It is disgraceful. And then there is one I'm going to put verses 13 to 14 together where he says, for this reason, it says, so here's the reason to do it. So let's look at these reasons, see if they can't motivate us and help us in this practice that we're called to. So look at the first one in verse eight, first motive. Four, he says, you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. therefore walk as children of light. So this is a basic example of Paul, where Paul gives the gospel indicative before the imperative. Essentially, what he's saying is what could be more natural to be told to be a light if you are a light? It's like going to a light bug and saying, shine, OK? It's easy to do. It's what I am. Notice it's not external to you. External to you here. It's not saying, you know, have the light around you. Or it's not saying because the light will be around you or something like that. He literally says you formerly were a dark person. You formerly were darkness. But now you are light. This is really who you are. You love the light and you hate the dark. And you used to love the dark and hate the light. It's your natural habitat to be in the light. It's like when Peter was withdrawn over there with those people in the corner hiding. in the crowd, getting away from Jesus. Like, okay, he did that, but there's a real strong sense in which he was not being himself. That's not where he belonged. He doesn't belong in the darkness. He wasn't comfortable there. He was under immense conviction while he was there, and that's why he literally ran out and wept. He was not comfortable in that darkness, because it didn't match who he really was. So Paul is essentially saying, remember, you are now light in the Lord. That reminds you it was by the Lord, who is the light of the world, that you became lit, like torches or two matches. One lights another. It was the light of the Lord on your soul, Paul is saying, that got transferred and lit you, and you became light. So you are light in the Lord means that. So just remember what happened to you again. Remember who you are, be who you are. That's the idea here just applied to light and darkness. So that's one motive. Shine the lights because it's who you are. You go along laughing at the joke. You'll feel horrible about yourself. Because it's not who you are. So be who you are. That's number one. The second motive is in verses 9-10 where he motivates us by this image of this really interesting poetry here. The fruit of the light. So Paul is mashing images here. But the idea seems to be what he has in mind is the outcome or the result of light. What is the result when you shine light on something? So the beneficial results is what he has in mind. In this contrast, of course, with the unfruitful deeds of darkness. And he says the fruit of the light, first of all, is discerning what is pleasing to the Lord, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. That phrase there, trying to learn what is pleasing the Lord, is sort of like a predicate nominative almost noun clause of what it means to be the fruit of the light. The fruit of the light is you are, when you come into the light, you are knowing what is pleasing to the Lord. This word approve, you've seen before, because we've gone through the two books of Romans and Philippians. This is the one in Philippians 1.10, that you may approve the things that are essential. Or as he puts it in Romans 12 too, be renewed in your mind that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. It's that same term here. And essentially what Paul is saying in Psalm 36 9, in thy light, we see light. In thy light, we see light. Essentially what he's saying is you can't figure anything out in the dark. So one of the motives, one of the fruits of being in the light is you can see. Jesus said, he who walks in the darkness does not know where he's going. So you can't figure a situation out, and you run into this all the time. Someone is in the darkness, and they're hiding back, and they're hiding back, and they're saying, I'll let you know when I'm ready to talk. No, you have to remind your brother, hey, you are the one in the dark. I'm in the light. We need to talk. You can't see. I don't wait on someone in the dark to tell us how to do this. You see? So, in other words, the promise here is you can't discern the will of God in the dark. God has set it up in such a way that You can't really know him in a purely intellectual way without an obedient spirit and will submitted to him. You won't come to the knowledge of God. That's why the Gentiles are described as those that do not know God. Some knowledge, some knowing of the Lord is limited by disobedience. And then he mentions the fruits as goodness, righteousness, and truth. And those really help clear the air about what we mean by light and darkness or what Paul means. Goodness and righteousness, you can kind of put together as moral terms and truth as a mental or doctrinal term. So Paul has in mind with light and darkness this, a contrast of truth and goodness with evil and error. Truth and goodness versus evil and error. Evil is done in the dark and the error follows with it. Goodness, there's no reason to hide it, is done in the light. and there's the truth that comes with it. So think of it this way, as later he's gonna urge the children to obey their parents, and he gives them a reason, he says, "'Cause this will go well for you." So here, he's urging us to live in the light, "'Cause it'll go well for you." The fruit of light is goodness, righteousness, truth, knowing what the will of God is, which means the fruit of darkness is not knowing what to do with your life, and lies and error and evil and misery and grief. So come into the light, it goes better for you. They say, I was told by Charles one time, when he used to counsel with Bob Jennings when he was still alive about some scenario or what to do, he said, Bob would always say, bring it all out into the light. There would be some scenario and there's always a good reason for keeping something in the dark. But Charles knew if he went to Bob, Bob would always say, bring it all out into the light. And I heard that. And when I was studying this this morning, I remembered it. And I see that Bob was right, because the fruit of bringing it out into the light is goodness, righteousness, truth. Think of David. Think of David. He was in the dark. Did he handle the darkness right? No, it led to this sin and more sin. And then Nathan went in there with the Q beam and said, you are the man. I mean, think of that. But what was the fruit of it? Goodness, righteousness, truth, repentance, health, healing. That was the result of it. So it's Satan that tells us goodness comes in the dark. It doesn't. So resist that, and always be people of the light, and remind others, no, like Bob said, bring it out into the light. And when someone says, no, no, no, you say, no, no, no, Paul said, the fruit of light is what you're saying you're getting in the dark. No, it doesn't come from the dark. It comes in the light. It's like putting a certain plant always in the dark, not in the light, expecting the fruit. It comes from the light. So live in the light. So there's that one. So do we have number two motto so far? Do this because it's who you are and do this because of the result, the good things come from the light. And then there's just one sort of in passing in verse 12. The light is a repellent. He says it is disgraceful. even to speak of the things which were done by them in secret. So say you find your children doing something and you expose it. Or say a friend finds you doing something and he exposes it. And even if your heart doesn't change, you quit the behavior, that's still better than nothing. It's still better that disgraceful things not happen. And people don't do disgraceful things in the light. They just don't. They literally find a dark spot to do them. And so if you shine the light there, you literally scatter the roaches of sin. You eliminate sin that has taken place. And that's fine, but there's a higher reason. And this is where I think, pun intended, I guess, this text shines and has appeared to me so glorious, I really haven't gotten over it, Chali and Abram. weren't able to come, so I was like, y'all want the sermon? So I gave it to them before I left. Mainly this last part, verses 13 and 14. It's kind of hard to understand, and I don't feel like I've ever understood them before, until reading all the commentators and seeing everybody's kind of saying this, and it does make sense. It's verses 13 and 14, look at it. He says, 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. Just to put it simply, it seems what Paul's language is compressed here, so it's hard, but it looks like what he's saying is a motive of shining the light on someone, even yourself, is it's not only an exposant, but it's a transformative. Light has a transforming power to it. And that is a reason. That is the logic of the statement in the quotation. The sense of the statement seems to be something like light makes visible. That's obvious. Light makes things visible. And if the light remains on the thing that it just made visible, the thing that it makes visible becomes light. Now, this is similar to where Jesus said, while you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become sons of light. They think that is what Paul is saying when he says. All things become visible when they're exposed by the light and everything that becomes visible is light. They think he means something like it becomes light or it ends up being light or the light has the power to make the thing you just exposed turn into light. And that becomes the logic of this quotation from the Old Testament. For this reason, it says, which basically is a call to come into the light in a positive way, it's like Christ will shine on you. If it were negative, you would say come into the light so Christ could shine on you. No thanks. That's what you're trying to avoid. But here is a positive call to come into the light. And it only makes sense that he is thinking this way, that light turns other things into light, or light has a healing property to it. So you may think of a heat lamp as an idea. You have a new litter of puppies, it's cold outside, you may put them under a heat lamp. You have the idea of light being for good, or even humans when they're born, sometimes they put them under a lamp, source of heat. There are these wonderful videos you can watch of time-lapse of plants turning toward the light, yearning for the light. The light is not only enlightening the plant, but enlivening the plant. It is causing the growth and the transformation of this plant. So it not only exposes, but it gives life. Jesus said in John, I am the light of the world. He who walks with me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. The light gives life. Gospel of John says the light shines into the darkness. And the darkness did not overcome it. It's an amazing idea. So you see it's presenting the light as a positive thing, and that's what I hope you get different out of this sermon. We all know light. Nobody likes the light. Nobody likes to be exposed. That's not the flavor. Oh, Bob was holy, so he exposed people and other people are not serious and they no, no, no, no, no. Bob probably had this in mind. And the idea is to love the light for this very reason. That the idea is awake sleeper arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you like come into the light and look full in his glorious face because in his light, there is grace. It's like the Aaronic blessing. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and make His face shine upon you. And what is the result? Just condemnation? No, peace and joy. And this is why the second way this text ends, just mind boggling to me. I feel like Paul is the adage of the civil war, like a blue coat, great gray pants, like being shot at by both sides. Like Paul gets in between so many Calvinist and Armenians here. And he just is like what breaks all theology, because when he says awake sleeper and arise from the dead, he means the spiritually dead. And sometimes the Calvinists will use this example to try to illustrate. And what's so crazy to me is this is the same book. of the locus classicus place to go and teach that man is dead and God must do something to him is Ephesians 2. And here in Ephesians 5, so people typically will illustrate Ephesians 2, they'll say man is dead. So do you go to a grave? and call dead people to come out? No, they can't do anything. Now look, you're not denying, Paul's not either. He taught that they're dead. And there's nothing I can do, or Corrie or Jay Poe or Trevor can do, or the person do, so that part of the teaching is true. But it doesn't negate, the teaching does it, that you actually do talk to the dead. Paul says, awake sleeper. And amazingly, make yourself alive from the dead, arise from the dead. That is amazing. Lazarus, come out. That's how you talk to the spiritually dead. You say to them, you're dead and you can't do anything and I can't do anything. But the Lord has this light of his word, which not only makes you feel guilty for your sin, but if I just hold it on you and continue to share it with you, it has transformative power. And so like Ezekiel and Ezekiel 37, like go out and prophesy to the dead bones and say to the bones, bones, Hear the word of the Lord. So you can go to someone, they can't repent and they can't believe, but you can say, hey, repent and believe. And you can just keep going because you believe the light is powerful. This is similar to Romans 116. The gospel is power. Therefore, you trust it. In the light, you just hold the Q-Beam. This is a wonderful verse for mothers, by the way. You have your little snotty brats and you think, man, there's no hope for them. And so just give it up. And I'm waiting on the Lord to zap them. No, you there play the music in the house, read the books with them. That's what you're doing. You're saying come into the light, come into the light. And I'm going to put the light on you and put the light on you and put the light on you. I got my little puppy under the heat lamp. is what it is. And Christ will shine on you because there's power in being under the light. And so Christians should be like, I thought, man, this would be good for the children. You remember on 101 Dalmatians, the original, and they had all the puppies and they're like, oh, and they have all these puppies and they're like, never mind, we lost one. And they're all sad and they bring it in and you just move this thing and it's just dead. But then he says, I wonder, Pongo, I wonder. And he starts rubbing the little puppy and then finally it comes alive. Like, that's the way we should think. Yeah, they're dead. They seem to be just dead. Just go bury it. But you're supposed to think, but I wonder. and just put the word on there, put the word on there, put the word on there. And amazingly, you may see that somehow in the mystery of God, he used you like it's still true that they were dead. And it's also still true that they arose from the dead. And if you ask me, how do you put that together? My answer is always somehow. That's the answer. A fish doesn't have to fit in my little net in order to be a fish. And a truth doesn't have to fit into my brain in order to be true. It just has to fit in God's mind. And it's sufficient for me that it makes sense to Him somehow. And so if Paul says, you're dead, then you're dead. And if Paul says, I'm to say to you, arise from the dead, then I'm going to say to you, arise from the dead. and not just say it, but believe it. So what a wonderful text this becomes. The light that they can't even see, as it says, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, is shining on them and it can transform them. I mean, this makes Christianity no longer a religion of defeat and monkish you know, retreat into the hills and we don't watch the news and say all hell is breaking loose. The gospel, the heavens open and the spirit descends and the Messiah goes into the world as the light. The message of the gospels is all heaven is breaking loose. And the light shines into the darkness and it cannot comprehend it. And it cannot put it out. So you find a situation with your marriage or your spouse or your child or whatever. And after someone gets through telling you, it's just so dark. Look how dark. No, it's darker than that. It's dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark. And then when you get done, say, fine, after darkness, light. Now it's time for the light. Now I start speaking the verses. Now I start shining the truth. Now I start pouring on the good deeds with the truth. Do you see that? No situation is ever so offensive and so awkward or whatever that we have to stay in the light because the light, the fruit of the light is goodness and righteousness and truth and transforming. Therefore, you know, it's like live like the sunflower that you see the sunflower. The sunflower follows the sun like you can look at a time lapse video. This thing just moves and it looks like in midday when it's kind of, it looks like it's just like this, just enjoy the sun. Like all the leaves are back and it's just like bathing in the light. Like this is just so good and I can't help it. Charlie said, don't say that. But I thought of, oh brother, where art thou? where Pete goes in to get baptized and all that. And he's like, come on in, boys. The water's fine. And he just does like that. It looked just like the sunflower seed plant. So it's amazing to see that if you've been scared of the light, that God presents himself, yes, he's a light and his light condemns you, but God did not send his son into the world simply to condemn the world and judge the world, but that it might be saved. And so you're encouraged, you're encouraged to come into the light. So because of this, because the light saves, Because the light saves, and the light sanctifies, and the light is Jesus. That's how it happened for you, right? How does Paul say it? God, who said, light shall shine into the darkness, is the one who's shown in our heart to give the light of the knowledge and the glory of God in the face of Christ. Somehow, someone was sharing gospel. Somehow it was getting in, in His light, in His light we lived and became light. So don't think the other person, oh, I wonder, can't wake up from the dead. You woke up from the dead. You were formerly darkness, but now you're light. So look, the light has great track record. Look around like so shine that light. So never think it's so hopeless. Now, if you are here today and you're in the darkness and you're a believer or an unbeliever, it means there is no reason to fear the light. Instead of evil, you can have goodness. Instead of lies, you can have truth. And instead of death, you can have life. I don't remember who said it, but this sums up the heart of this text and the good news of it. That they said Christ, the message of the gospel, is that Christ does not bring our dirty laundry out into the light in order to simply expose it, but to wash it. Therein lies the difference of Satan and God exposing you. God exposes always for the purpose of healing and restoring and curing like a doctor, like pull off your shirt so I can see this and heal you. Not like Satan, let me see this so I can mock you and make fun of you. But it's just like Satan, even from the beginning, what did Adam do? with his sin because he had believed the satanic lie that God was not really good and that he had to run from the light. And what an amazing thing to see that there's no reason to run from the light and that there's nothing that we have going on in our life that the light cannot transform. So the call is to everyone to be like the sunflower. Come into the light. So in one way, it really is. Paul's message is like Pete. Come on in, voice. The light is fine. Come on to the light. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word today. Thank you for all the saints here today. Pray that it does us a good to know it. Goodness, righteousness and truth. May that come from the light of this word today. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.