Ephesians 5:8-14

Thank you, Music Ministry at Providence. If

you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn

with me

to Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 8, and we

will begin today by reading our text, which is

going

to be verses 8 through 14. The apostle Paul

writes, "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 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." Now, as you know

since

the start of chapter 4, we've been working our

way through this second part of Ephesians,

which presents to us the pattern, if you will,

of Christian living,

how Christians are to live in this world. And

we can sum up what we have learned so far,

really,

with two statements out of the verses that we

've been looking at. Look first, and you'll

remember

this, from chapter 4 and verse 1, that phrase,

"Walk worthy." Remember, walk, meaning,

pattern of

living, manner of living. And then the second

phrase from Ephesians 5-1, "Be imitators of

God." Now,

that sounds like, wow, how can I be that? We

'll go back and listen to those sermons that I

preached

on that. You'll understand that better. I don

't have time to go back over all that now. But

those

two statements are really at the heart of what

Paul has been teaching us since chapter 4,

right up to

this very verse today. And the example of how

we are to do this is given in chapter 5, verse

2. You

remember this. He says, here's how you do it.

How are you an imitator of God? How is it that

you

walk worthy of the calling with which you have

been called? Chapter 5, verse 2, "Walk in love

,

just as Christ also loved you." So there's the

pattern, right, that we are to follow.

And there's a lot of detail in those verses

that we've looked at so far under those three

summary statements. So again, I won't go back

over all that material. And so far, as you

know,

Paul has used the word walk, right? A lot of

times, multiple times, to describe our

manner of living, our daily life, how you walk

. And we've learned so far that if we are to

walk

worthy, if we are to be imitators of God, if

we are to walk in love, just as Christ loved

us,

Paul's given us some markers, if you think

back, and you're thinking it's a humble walk,

it's a unified walk. We don't walk as unbel

ievers, don't walk as the Gentiles. He used

Gentiles

in that way earlier. It's a love walk. That

was our study last time. But now for the day,

we find that it is a light walk. Verse 8, look

at it. "For you were formally darkness,

but now you are light in the world." Big comma

right there. Walk as children of light.

Now, let's talk about that word light. We find

it in the Bible in Scripture.

Light is a symbol, actually, of two things

when we narrow it down. First, light is used

from the intellectual side. You ever heard

somebody, oh, the light went on, right? Maybe,

oh,

now they understand it. Secondly, it's used

from the moral side. Intellectually, light

refers

biblically to the truth, and morally, light

refers to holiness, righteousness. It's the

truth and the life. And so living in light

means living in truth and righteousness. And

then,

the contrast, as we're fixing to see here in

our text, is darkness. It's so interesting the

way

Paul writes and the way he lays things out so

perfectly. Darkness intellectually refers to

ignorance from the intellectual side, and

morally, it refers to evil. So you see just

the opposite

of light with both of those things. And you

find this all throughout Scripture. For

example,

Macon Ephesians 4, Paul, remember, talks about

their minds being darkened using that word.

Other times he talks about the deeds of

darkness, meaning moral evil. So light and

darkness is a

contrast, if you will, of both truth and

behavior. For example, look at Proverbs 6,

verse 23, and there are so many examples of

that. I went through so many. I mean, I could

have made

this a four-hour sermon just with the examples

in Scripture with these words. Well, the

commandment

is a lamp and the teaching is light. So here

he's not talking about deeds, he's talking

about truth,

right? The commandment, the teaching, light.

God's word is light, intellectual truth,

knowledge. Psalm 119-105, you know this one,

carries the same idea. Your word is a lamp to

my feet

and a light to my path. In 2 Corinthians 4-4,

Paul talks both about light and darkness. He

talks

about the lost in verse 3, and that is setting

up verse 4. Look at this one. In whose case,

the God, notice little g, God of this world,

has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so

that they

might not see the light of the gospel, of the

glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So

their

light is knowledge, right? And darkness is

being blinded to knowledge, being blinded to

the gospel.

He uses both of them there. Darkness here

means ignorance. It means lack of knowledge. I

was

talking about somebody last week, we're doubly

blinded. You have the natural blindness of the

unconverted person, and then Satan blinds your

minds into the double blindness that lest you

see

the light of the glorious gospel. Remember

back in Ephesians 4-18, how did Paul describe

the

unregenerate mind as being darkened? There's

that word again in their understanding. At the

end of

Romans 1-21, same thing, and their foolish

heart was what? Darkened. So we see it over

and over.

Light intellectually means knowledge. Darkness

means ignorance, lack of knowledge, but then

let's

go to the other side, which is morally. You

have behavior. Sometimes light and darkness

speak of

righteousness and unrighteousness. Look in

Isaiah 5-20. He says, "Woe to those who call

evil good

and good evil." Boy, isn't that a sermon for

our day? I could rail on about that one right

there,

but he keeps going. But substitute and look at

the words that he uses. Darkness for light

and light for darkness. So here we're not

talking about the intellectual sense. Here he

is comparing

good and evil with light and darkness, and

what is he talking about? Not intellectual

thought,

but behavior is what he's talking about here.

Now only we can go to the New Testament.

Romans 13-12.

Paul says, "The night is almost gone and the

day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the

deeds of darkness and put on the armor of

light." There's intellectual darkness. There

will always

be the deeds of darkness, and on the other

hand, light is knowing the truth, and what

does that

result in? Living out the truth in light. Are

you with me so far? We're laying a foundation

here.

As Christians, we walk our manner of living in

the light. Look, consider 1 John 1

5 through 7, and look how he uses these words.

This is the message that we have heard from

him

and announced to you that God is light, and in

him there is no darkness at all. If we say

that we

have fellowship with him and yet walk in the

darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth

,

but if we walk in the light, as he himself is

in the light, we have fellowship, one with

another,

and the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us

from all sin. Do you see how often

these words are used? Both that passage, many

others very clear, and out of that passage,

you must understand that what John is trying

to get across to us is that when we were rede

emed,

when we were born again, we were fully rede

emed. We were fully born again. We walk fully

in the light

for believers walking in the light. There isn

't even any residual darkness. Now, let me tell

you

what I mean by that. It's another way of

describing how there are only two types of

people in this

whole world. There are those who walk in the

darkness, and there are those who walk in the

light. And what I want to get you to see is

there's no middle position. There's no, like

the evolutionists

believe that the lizard is somehow, even

though not one single solitary fossil has ever

been found,

he turned into a chicken or some such animal.

There's no in between darkness and light as

you're walking. All people are either in one

or two situations. In Matthew 514, Jesus said

of all

believers, "You are the light of the world."

What's that word again? We are called sons of

light

repeatedly in the New Testament. Look at 1 Th

essalonians 5, 4, "But you, brethren, are not

in darkness

that the day would overtake you like a thief."

Verse 5, "For you are all sons of light." That

's all

believers. This is the definition of a

Christian. Somebody who walks in the light,

not in the

darkness. Look at Colossians 113. I love this

verse, "For he rescued us." What did he rescue

us from?

The domain of darkness. And there's that word,

"And transferred us to the kingdom of his

beloved

son." And guess what his beloved son said in

John 8 and verse 12? "I am the light of the

world.

He who follows me will not walk in the

darkness, but will have the light of light."

What I'm trying

to get you to see is this theme is all over

Scripture. And here we see it today in our

text.

Ephesians 5, 8, "For you," remember he's

writing to those that church at Ephesus,

those believers in the Ephesian church, "For

you were formerly darkness, but now you are

light

in the Lord." So what do you do? What do we do

, Paul? Walk then as children of light.

And again, it's either or. I don't believe

that a Christian can walk in the darkness.

Now, listen very carefully. I do believe a

Christian can do the deeds of the darkness,

yes. But when we do them, guess what? Think

about this. When you do the deeds of the

darkness,

while you're walking in the light, you do them

totally in the light. You do them totally

exposed

before God every single time, which is a very

convicting place to be. And you will be chast

ised

by the Father of lights. Now, Paul is fixing

to give us five things that we need to know

as children of light. Number one, the contrast

of children of light. Go back to verse 8 again

.

"You were formerly darkness, but now you are

light in the Lord." Walk as children of light.

Now, I want you to notice something. Notice

how he says in this verse, "But now you are

light."

You see that? So we shouldn't be shocked that

he says that, that next he asks us,

since you are light, to walk as children of

light. That shouldn't be a shocking request

on Paul's behalf because he just said we are

light. As I've said many times, the Christian

life is all

about us becoming what we are. The Christian

life is all about becoming who we are in union

with Christ, living up to our identity, as I

've said many times. So the contrast here is

you were

that. You were darkness. You are this. You are

light. Live now. Live like what you are,

not like what you were. Which, look how he

says that here in verse 8. Oh my goodness,

what a phrase. You were formerly darkness. You

were. This is in the past for believers.

Remember back in Ephesians 2.1, "And you were

dead in your trespasses and sins." Verse 2,

"in which you formally walked according to the

course of this world, according to the prince

of the power of the air, of the spirit that is

now working in the sons of disobedience." What

a phrase. You were working according to the

prince of the power of the air. That is the

devil

himself. Verse 3, "Among them we too, all, all

formally lived in the lust of our flesh, indul

ging

the desires of the flesh and of the mind." Now

watch this. "And were past tense by nature."

It was your very nature to be what? Children

of wrath, even as the rest. What a designation

for all people who are outside of Christ as we

all once were. You are born into this world

as a child of the wrath of God. All of that is

past tense language. Remember Ephesians 2,

verse 12.

Remember that you were at that time separate

from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of

Israel

and strangers to the covenant of promise,

having no hope and without God in the world.

Verse 13,

"But now in Christ Jesus, you who were

formally were far off." Oh, look at that

phrase. "Have been

brought near." Pi, how? The blood of Christ.

That encapsulates all of the person and work

of Christ

and his substitutionary atonement on the cross

when we see the blood of Christ as a phrase.

Again,

the contrast is made over and over in

Scripture. Now let's go back to Ephesians 5-8

and let's dig

a little deeper with our shovel. Notice how it

says, "For you were formally dark."

He doesn't say you were in darkness, though

you were. No, he says here you were darkness.

You're not just a victim of Satan's world

system of darkness. You are a contributor to

it. In other

words, whatever dominion we are in, we are of.

All unbelievers are not just in darkness,

darkness is

in them. Darkness was in me. Great darkness

was in me before I came to Christ. In total

depravity, darkness permeates the child of

wrath through and through. There's no system

of evil

in the world apart from the darkness of the

individuals who are that system, whether you

're

talking about demons or whether you're talking

about men, you don't have it if they're not

in it, just like there's no system of light in

the world apart from those who are the light

of the world, be it Christ himself or Christ's

people. And so as believers, if we were

formally

darkness, but now we are light in the Lord,

look what Paul says next in verse 8 again.

As a result, what do you do? Walk as children

of light. Live your life, Christian, as who

you are,

children of light. So again, let me remind you

that the darkness here is both moral and

intellectual, and so is the light. They both

are just in opposite ways. It's not just

what we know. It is that, but it's also what

we are. Now let me show you something

continuing

in the way of comparison here. Let's ask the

question, what are some of the characteristics

of when we were formally darkness? Well, first

, we did the deeds of darkness. Look, skip down

to

verse 11 where it participates or where it

warns us not to participate. Look there,

excuse me,

in verse 11, in the unfruitful deeds of

darkness. I showed you earlier how in 2

Corinthians 4,

4 it calls Satan the God, little G of this

world. Now remember, God is sovereign and God,

or Satan,

is on God's leash. He can only go as far as

God allows him to go, and God gives him plenty

of leash

in his redemptive plan for mankind that ends

with the Second Coming of Christ. And for now,

we haven't gotten to the Second Coming, so

there's a lot of leash. And so when you were

formally

darkness, and darkness was in you, and you

were in darkness, guess what? You were doing

the deeds of the Prince of Darkness. I know I

was. Boy, I did a lot of them in your face.

And listen, no matter how much it might freak

people out to hear this, all unbelievers

fall right alongside what Jesus said to the

Jewish leaders in John 8:44.

Remember what he said? You are of your Father

the Devil,

and you want, you want, you will to do the

desires of your Father.

I can't imagine anything stronger that Jesus

could say. So if you are in the darkness, and

the

darkness is in you, you have real desire to do

the deeds of the one that Luke calls. Look at

the

end of Luke 22.53 there at the very end. Luke

calls him the power of darkness. That's our

adversary.

So when you, you function in the darkness,

you are actually empowered by the Prince of

Darkness to do his deeds. And I'm telling you,

even as Christians, it is extremely hard for

us to see this in people outside of Christ

on a regular, ordinary basis. It's very hard

for us. I mean, it's easy to see

the worst criminals of our society. For some

reason, I have a fascination with watching how

homicide detectives piece together a murderer

and how they go about finding, they have a

television

show, an ID investigation discovery. And I'm

fascinated by the process of finding these

heinous

criminals. And so it's not hard for us at all

to see the darkness in them that they are

definitely,

I mean, you know, Jeffrey Dahmer or Derek Todd

Lee, it's very easy for us to see that they

are

empowered by the Prince of Darkness to do

their deeds. And in fact, some of the crimes

are so

heinous. It's my personal belief that there's

actual demonic involvement with a serial

killer

that can do such heinous things to people. But

scratch them for a second. We all get that.

What about the guy in your neighborhood?

Whether you're in the suburbs or, you know,

live on a piece of property, you got a next

door neighbor and he's clearly not a Christian

.

You've established that as you got to know him

, but he's such a nice guy. What about that guy

?

I mean, he's always helping people. He's there

at the jambalaya cook-off of the little handic

apped

girl when she needs the money to get a new leg

brace. He doesn't smoke, drink or chew a girl

's

who do even. I mean, you really like this guy.

I mean, you go out in the yard and you're glad

to see this dude, right? Hey, there he is, old

Bill or whoever. And you talk with him. I mean

,

he's even a conservative. He might even have a

mega hat that he wears from time to time. I

mean,

I mean, is he empowered by Satan? Sounds like

the church lady on Saturday night, like, "What

,

Satan?" Right? He's not foaming at the mouth

when you see him. You've never caught him

sacrificing a goat in his backyard with some

candles around it. In fact,

he may generally be a very moral person. Well,

all that may be true. And there's lots of

people

like that, especially here in the South. You

go up North, you don't find as many. It's just

personal

experience. And I'm generalizing. I'm not

saying there's no nice people in the North,

but we generally

have nicer people down here, but we have to

realize this. Whether it comes to a heinous

serial killer

or your neighbor that you really like, who

clearly made it clear he's not a Christian,

but he's so nice. In our evaluation, it all

comes down to a matter of degree.

As Brother Moke used to call him, the same sle

w foot who controls the same world system,

evil world system, as just has different ways

in which he controls things and different ways

and different degrees in which he controls

people in his evil world system. It's the same

problem, folks. It's only a matter of degree.

And again, it would be easy. It could be

demonic serial killer, easy to label walking

in darkness, filled with darkness, empowered

by

darkness, but the generally morally very nice

person. But then ask him about his religion.

And he says something along the lines of, well

, look, man, religion is good. I even believe

in

God, but all roads lead to Rome. You can

believe whatever religion you want to believe

in. Everybody's

going to go to heaven when they die. It's just

whatever one you pick. Do you realize how

deadly?

Eternally deadly that is, especially if he

convinces the nice guy, somebody else,

of that position. When I was being drawn by

the father to the son, I had a man who was

influencing

me with New Age religion. And he actually told

me, and I'll probably tell you this,

but I'll tell you again, he actually told me,

well, you know, hell's not really in the Bible

.

It's not in there. And, you know, being raised

Catholic, I was like, yeah, I think it's in

there.

I'm pretty sure it's in there. I mean, we just

have to go get a Bible and look around. But I

think it's there. Let me tell you, the same

hell will be occupied by some very nice people

as well as the blood drinking witches of the

occult. They'll all be there.

All unbelievers, whether they know it or not,

are literally being ruled and dominated by the

Prince of Darkness in varying degrees and in

different ways to accomplish his purpose of

blinding the minds of those who believe not

the

glorious gospel, lest they be saved and go to

heaven when they die. And he's a tricky dece

iver.

He deceives at all different levels. And it's

hard for people to realize that. It's hard for

Christians to realize that. It's impossible

for the lost man to realize that, but it's

hard for

even Christians to realize, folks, there is so

far much more going on down here in

responsibility

land in the unseen world that's happening

right now at this moment that we can even

comprehend.

I can tell you the demons of hell hate what's

happening in this room right now. They hate

it. If they could get permission to burn this

building to the ground with all of us in it,

they would, but the grace of God restrains

that from happening. You can't escape the fact

that

as believers, we were just think about

literally all says it, transferred out of that

kingdom of

darkness over into the kingdom of his beloved

son, as I quoted earlier. And if you are a

person who

is a part of that kingdom of darkness now, and

you, you, you do the deeds of Satan, you have

to

understand whether it's apparent to you or not

, doesn't really matter. You are literally

under

the dominion of the prince of darkness right

now. And as a result of being under his domin

ion and

doing his deeds to all different types of

levels, you actually live and breathe under

the wrath of

God right now, even a child of wrath. In fact,

as I quoted earlier, you are by nature, a

child of

wrath. And if you don't repent and believe the

gospel of Jesus Christ, when God stops your

air

and he stops everybody's air at one point or

another, you don't repent and believe before

that air stops, you will end up in an eternal,

never ending place of darkness, like you can't

conceive of. Jesus himself said this,

referring to all, to the unbelieving Jews in

context,

but applied to all, all unbelievers in Matthew

812, one of the most frightening verses in all

of

scripture, but the sons of the kingdom, there

he's referring to the people of Israel, will

be cast out

into outer, what? Darkness. In that place. It

will be weeping. Tea. You ever hurt yourself

so bad?

That's what you'll be doing in eternal

darkness. We can't even begin folks to imagine

the abject

horror of the outer darkness that Jesus

himself is speaking of here. I didn't make

this up. These

are the words of Jesus Christ. Any more than

we can really wrap our minds fully around what

heaven is going to be like. All I can do is

know that the general reality that one is

going to be

incomprehensibly good better than I can

imagine, the other is going to be incomprehens

ibly

terrible. We get a few clues, but trust me,

nothing can compare anyone or either of those

situations. And so Jesus made clear, if you

want darkness, you can have it, and you can

have it

forever. And once you're eternally in it,

there's no exit. There's no exit ramp. There's

no exit door.

There's no remedy. Now go back to Ephesians 5

and Christian, though you were formerly

darkness and headed for eternal darkness, aren

't you glad on the Lord's day, on Palm Sunday,

what Paul says next? But now you, Christian,

are light in the Lord. Paul continues to make

this

tremendous contrast. That's why he picks

darkness and light. They are absolute oppos

ites. No longer

do we do the works of Satan. Now we do the

works of God. Remember Ephesians 2-10, for we

are his

workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good

works. We are no longer under the rule of

Satan.

We now exist under the Lordship of King Jesus,

the King of the universe. We are no longer

under the wrath of God. We now exist in union

with King Jesus, adopted by grace into God's

family,

and into the kingdom of his glorious light. In

wonder of wonders we become inheritors

of God's eternal kingdom of light. He's

showing us, folks, in this whole text how

opposite these things are. And he's telling us

, now listen, now that you know this,

if you're in the kingdom of light right now,

if you're living and breathing in the kingdom

of light,

then next, verse 8, walk as children of light.

And shouldn't you want to

live the rest of your life like children of

light, not like children of wrath? Be what you

are. Be

who you are. And how, folks, can you not, once

you understand all of this from God's Word?

Now next, Paul is going to give us some of the

characteristics of children of light. Look at

verse 9, "For the fruit of the light consists

in all goodness and righteousness and truth."

And you don't need to be a heavyweight theolog

ian to unpack that, right? I mean, even I can

understand

that. Goodness, righteousness, truth are the

marks of those who walk in the light. You

might be a

churchgoer. You may have walked the aisle and

professed saving faith in Christ and been

baptized,

but those things are not the real test of

whether or not you are a child of light. Now,

listen to

me carefully. Children of light do go to

church. Children of light do profess faith.

Children of

light do follow the command of Jesus to be

baptized, but the real test is, do you

manifest the

fruit of light in your life? Goodness,

righteousness, and truth. Now real quick,

goodness has to do

with how we relate to other people in our

lives. It's what Paul meant in 1 Thessalonians

5, 15.

Look what he says. "We see that no one repays

another with evil for evil, but always see

after

that which is good for one another and all

people." Very simple. If you're walking in the

light,

you should exercise goodness in terms of how

you deal with other people. Next word,

righteousness.

That more has to do with our relationship with

God and our living in obedience, not in

perfection,

but in obedience to Him during this process of

sanctification that we're in. And then truth

has to deal with our own selves, goodness and

relating to others, righteousness and relating

to God, but truth as we view our own selves,

what we are, what we say that we are in things

like

honesty and integrity and responsibility and

reliability, that's in contrast with the fals

eness

and the hypocrisy that we used to live in when

we were formally darkness. It's such a change.

All Christians bear fruit. Did you know that?

Now some bear more fruit, some bear less, but

all bear some fruit. True fruit bearing is

what most demonstrates that we're walking

in the light. And you could say, as Jesus

explained, "Lord, Lord, didn't I do this and

do that and do

that?" You could do that all the way to the

end, all you want to. But unless there was

true biblical

fruit in your life, He's going to say the

scariest words that a human could ever hear.

"Depart from me. You worked iniquity. I never

knew you. I never even knew you in the first

place.

You were pretending to be a Christian and you

never were. I can't think of anything

more terrible. No fruit, no eternal life, that

simple. And all who truly walk in the light

will bear fruit." It's guaranteed. Why is it

guaranteed? Not so much on us. It's because

that's

God's plan. God's plan is to be glorified as

He takes undeserving guilty sinners and

conforms

them to the image of Christ throughout a

lifespan and then brings them to heaven,

which they don't deserve, and I don't deserve.

Now, look at verse 10. "Trying to learn what

is

pleasing to the Lord." Now, look at that

phrase, "trying to learn." In the Greek, that

carries the

idea of testing or proving to learn by clear

and convincing evidence what is truly honoring

to

God. That's what it means. The point is, as we

walk as believers in the light of the truth,

the knowledge of the Lord's will for your life

will become more and more clear.

And the result is you will become actually a

living verification of what is pleasing to God

with your life. And if you're truly walking in

the light, that is something. If you're a

Christian

in here and you hear me say this, you're

hearing these words, you say, "Yes, that is

what I want."

That is what the goal is for me. And you know

what that does? It's really great.

All of these things I'm telling you serve to

give us the assurance of our faith,

that we really truly have been saved, that

when we're tested in that area, how do we hold

up to

self-examination? And only you can answer that

question about yourself. And when you answer,

"Yes," not perfectly, of course, but, "Yes,"

it serves to give you great assurance

that you are one who is walking in the light.

Because guess what? Those who walk in darkness

as we formerly did have absolutely no interest

in anything that I have said here today

whatsoever

at all. No interest. It doesn't affect them.

It doesn't convict them. They could care less.

They

think I'm stupid. They think it's foolish. For

the natural man, receive it not the things of

the

Spirit of God, but they are what? Foolishness

to him. They're foolish, but not to us. We

hear them,

we say, "Yes, that gives you evidence." All

right, then verse 11, we get a command. Verse

11,

"Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of

darkness, but instead even expose them."

The Greek intensifies that phrase, "Do not

participate as this," and this is a much

stronger

word. "Do not fellowship with those things."

That's even stronger. "Don't get involved at

all with the

unfruitful deeds of darkness. Don't get

involved with the immorality in the world." It

's not because,

no, don't go ever near anybody else. Just stay

in your house because we have to witness the

Gospel

to human beings, right? So we have to be out

amongst them, but it's the deeds that we're

not to get

involved with. If you do, you will wipe out

your testimony. I mean, just think about it.

Old Philip over there, old Brother Philip, he

says he's a Christian, but boy, look where I

saw him

walking out of the other night. "Destroy your

witness." And then lastly, verse 11, "Oh, boy,

but instead even expose them." These deeds,

wow, don't do what they do, but go further,

expose them.

And I can think of no better example of that

than what we see pastors like Brian Gunter

and Jeff Durbin doing right now, this year in

these state houses across the country,

being a prophetic witness on the floors of

these houses of legislature, exposing the

deeds of the darkness of the murder of the un

born as a prophetic witness for the church.

They are exposing that. Or the work that we

did in exposing the deeds of darkness,

of transgenderism at the state capitol, as we

did, we exposed them. America is in the

condition that it is in more than anything in

general, because the church long ago stopped

doing this, stopped following this. We stopped

being that prophetic voice in politics and the

culture, and we bought into the myth of what's

called neutrality, meaning we stayed inside

the four walls of the church where it was safe

, and the results are clear to see.

Well, look at verse 12, "For it is disgraceful

even to speak of the things which are done by

them

in secret." It certainly is disgraceful to

actually even talk about what physically

takes place in detail in the murder of an un

born child. That is a disgraceful thing

to talk about. They don't talk about it. In

fact, they've done a great job of not talking

about it to keep your eye off to what's really

happening in an abortion. And it's so disgrace

ful

to talk about what really goes on when drag

queen story hour at the library ends and what

goes on

in the transgender community behind closed

doors. I really even hate to bring that

thought up in a

sermon, but I'm here to tell you it is wicked

ness and disgraceful, but how else do you

expose it

unless you say it? It's disgraceful. In line

with that, look at verse 13, "Oh, but all

things

become visible when they are exposed by the

light. For everything that becomes visible is

light." Now,

that might be a little bit confusing to you.

Let me tell you why. That last phrase is

better

translated this way. Listen to it. "For it is

light that makes everything visible." Is that

better

understood there? Other translations say, "Are

made manifest by the light." That's better

understood.

In other words, the pure truth in the light of

God's word exposes all the secrets of the

deeds

of darkness. Well, we've seen some exposing

going on this year of some evil, haven't we?

And it hasn't

even been the Word of God that's done it. It's

just been right things that have exposed. But

back

this out. Back all this out. We're going to

close. What's the reason? Why, Paul, do we

expose the deeds

of darkness? Well, nobody gets saved unless

they repent, sin. A word they don't like to

say anymore

in the church. It's not evangelism just to

tolerate people in their sin, to just love

them and never,

ever, ever talk about their sin like the "he

gets us" commercials that you see on

television

during the Super Bowl. Those are evil. True

evangelism by necessity has to make people

face the fact of their sin just like we had to

face the fact of it before we believe.

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for

your life by itself. Never saved anybody ever.

I never

will. The only hope for anybody is that the

true light of the gospel would shine and make

manifest the sinner's great need of grace. And

you cannot do that apart from exposing the

deeds

of darkness. That's why, listen, sitting in

this little small church, we right here, and I

tell you

this all the time, I'll continue to tell you,

in your circles of influence, we are the only

true lights in the world that exist in so many

different people's lives. There's nobody else

in

their life that will expose sin and bring the

gospel message except you. It's so many people

's

lives. So the contrast is clear. Darkness and

light. You're going to walk as a child of

light.

You walk in goodness, righteousness, and truth

. You don't have anything to do with the deeds

of

darkness, but rather you expose them because

you are the only light available to expose and

point

the way to the only alternative, which is the

light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then,

lastly, and I promise, we're closing right

here. I don't know why sometimes I say we're

closing

and we're really not closing. I'm kind of a

preacher problem, but this is really fixed to

be it. Lastly, Paul closes this text with an

invitation. Verse 14, "For this reason it says

."

What says Paul? Well, that's a reference it to

Isaiah 60, verse one, but let's keep looking

in verse 14. "Awake, sleeper, and arise from

the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Now,

that comes from Isaiah 60, verse one. Look

what it says. "Arise, shine, for your light

has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen

upon you." Now, that's not a direct quote,

but here's what's even more fascinating. That

verse there in Isaiah looked forward to the

Messiah,

and now in the New Testament, you have Paul

making this interpretation of that verse

here in Ephesians 5, 14, as he looks backward

to what Christ has done. It's an incredible

verse.

He puts Christ in Isaiah's words because it's

Christ that is the fulfillment.

And let me give you a little aside. Many

commentators believe that this is a line put

into an

Easter hymn sung by the early church. It's an

imitation, and you may be sitting here today,

or you may be watching online, and your

response upon hearing this message is just, "I

don't think

I'm walking." I think I may be walking in the

darkness. Goodness, righteousness, truth is

this

explanation. I don't have those things in my

life, and so here the invitation comes to you,

as it does throughout the history of the

church. Verse 14, "Awake, sleeper, and arise

from the dead,

and Christ will shine upon you." Today is the

day of salvation. Don't wait. Don't put it off

any

longer. Repent and believe the gospel before

it is everlastingly too late. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this tremendous word

from the Apostle Paul written all those

centuries ago.

Incredible how it still has our number, every

one of us. It so perfectly describes the state

of man, both in darkness and in light, and

that is because it is the truth. How we thank

you for

your truth. I pray, Lord, that you have given

your people ears to hear this word today that

we might go forth from this place, make

application of it in our lives, and live in

such a way that

we bring you glory. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

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