back to indexEphesians Bible Study Lesson 18
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For tonight's Bible study, we're going to be studying Ephesians chapter 5, verses 7 00:00:14.600 |
through 14, and continuing on the command and challenge for us to walk worthy of the 00:00:20.800 |
gospel, to walk in the image of God, and tonight it's going to be to walk as children of light. 00:00:27.080 |
Before we take the time to dive into the study, let's take a moment to pray, ask for the Lord's 00:00:32.520 |
Our God, we thank you so much for your grace. 00:00:36.360 |
Lord, each week we're grateful for the precious word that we receive. 00:00:43.360 |
We recognize that throughout history, your saints have seen your word for what it is, 00:00:50.640 |
that God, your word is a light unto our feet, and God, that as it dwells within us, as it 00:00:56.680 |
produces in us the effect and the fruit that you desire, God, that you call us to shine 00:01:02.960 |
I pray, Father God, that we would be walking then, walking according to your truth, that 00:01:08.880 |
God, we would be able to apply in all the different facets of our lives, Lord. 00:01:13.280 |
Thank you for this time of study and pray that God, again, thoroughly and deeply, you 00:01:23.440 |
So, if you would follow with me as I read chapter five, starting from verse one. 00:01:31.040 |
It's good sometimes just to review the sections before us, because there's so much in there, 00:01:36.600 |
but particularly today, because you recognize that the two paragraphs really flow one to 00:01:44.720 |
It says, "Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love just as 00:01:51.680 |
Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God 00:02:01.200 |
But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you as is proper among 00:02:07.760 |
And there must be no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting, 00:02:15.040 |
For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who 00:02:19.680 |
is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 00:02:24.280 |
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God 00:02:36.840 |
Verse eight, "For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the world. 00:02:42.540 |
Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness 00:02:47.000 |
and truth, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 00:02:52.620 |
Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. 00:02:59.200 |
For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret, but 00:03:03.440 |
all things become visible when they are exposed by the light. 00:03:06.920 |
For everything that becomes visible is light. 00:03:10.840 |
For this reason it says, 'Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine 00:03:18.560 |
So as we recall, there were some really emphatic commands for us to abide by. 00:03:24.240 |
And the way that I talked about them in the previous Bible studies are that these are 00:03:32.280 |
And then underneath them were very specific applications. 00:03:36.760 |
Whether it be the idea for us to walk worthy of the calling, and that was emphasized to 00:03:41.960 |
us, then to walk in love, patience and humility, and pursuing unity. 00:03:50.080 |
Then again, to walk in love, and then also to make sure that we're putting off certain 00:03:57.040 |
Likewise, categorically tonight, he's going to challenge us, the scripture's going to 00:04:03.600 |
The way that I like to outline our passage today is in three sections. 00:04:08.600 |
And sometimes the sections don't go as clearly, but what I observed were the commands for 00:04:20.560 |
And then a repeated command, essentially saying the same thing, but giving a different rationale, 00:04:25.200 |
saying don't partake, but rather expose it in the light. 00:04:28.840 |
And then verse 14, giving us a gospel call to wake up as the light of Christ shines. 00:04:35.480 |
So as we take a look at our passage, I do want to highlight that there is such a flow 00:04:41.520 |
of thought that continued from the beginning of chapter five into this section. 00:04:46.280 |
And you'll notice as I highlight these key terms where it says, therefore do this, or 00:04:51.840 |
more specifically here, therefore don't do this, right? 00:04:59.440 |
And what's more in verse nine, for the fruit of light consists of these. 00:05:03.360 |
And then in verse 12, for it is disgraceful even to speak. 00:05:07.160 |
So what I observed and noticed within that portion was that within the context, there 00:05:18.800 |
So by way of observation, I want to highlight those things. 00:05:26.520 |
The command for us here is to not be partakers with them. 00:05:29.880 |
Previously he was talking about those who are immoral, impure, greedy, covetous, and 00:05:37.760 |
Previously he said, because for certain you know that the wrath of God is going to come. 00:05:42.840 |
And all those who are disobedient are going to be judged by God. 00:05:47.240 |
That's the way that Apostle Paul framed last week's teaching or that section. 00:05:53.600 |
Here Apostle Paul reiterates and says, if you know these things, right? 00:05:57.880 |
If you know that the wrath of God is coming, then make sure you're not partakers with them. 00:06:02.840 |
Now by way of just looking up the idea of what does it mean to be a partaker? 00:06:11.080 |
Should we go as far as maybe, you know, the Jews of old who are like, I'm not even going 00:06:20.240 |
Well, in terms of just a pure definition, it's talking about a partnership. 00:06:24.960 |
It's talking about an associate who has essentially, if you think of an associate of a company, 00:06:30.800 |
associate even as a individual who's working for the same sale, for the same cause or the 00:06:38.920 |
But I want to highlight some other passages because you know that the scriptures actually 00:06:43.080 |
talk about this quite a bit in terms of walking with the world, friendship with the world. 00:06:50.520 |
Now I'd like to highlight just two passages here. 00:06:52.880 |
The first one comes from Psalm chapter one and it says this, "Blessed is the man who 00:06:58.480 |
walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in 00:07:05.640 |
the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates 00:07:11.440 |
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season and its 00:07:20.000 |
The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away." 00:07:25.000 |
I want to ask you, when you think about do not be partakers with them, if you're thinking 00:07:30.520 |
so long as I don't fulfill their actions, so long as I don't do exactly as they do, 00:07:38.720 |
Well here in wisdom, right, the book of Psalms challenges us not to sit there underneath 00:07:47.040 |
their counsel, not to stand there with them, and not to sit with them in scoffers. 00:07:52.880 |
And there's like a progression as you walk and be a part of their whole mentality and 00:08:00.960 |
First Corinthians chapter five, verse nine through 11. 00:08:03.360 |
"I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. 00:08:08.640 |
I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetous and swindlers 00:08:14.000 |
or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world." 00:08:17.200 |
So one might say, well, Jesus dined with sinners. 00:08:24.840 |
Jesus was found to be talking with an adulterous woman. 00:08:28.480 |
Jesus was found ministering together with former tax collectors. 00:08:32.040 |
I mean, you think about individuals who are sinners, can you be in their proximity? 00:08:35.960 |
The answer is yes, otherwise you would have to go out, right, into the wilderness or something. 00:08:41.080 |
But verse 11 says, "But actually I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother 00:08:45.560 |
if he is an immoral person or covetous, an idolater or reviler or a drunkard or a swindler, 00:08:55.560 |
We have to have a kind of growing understanding of what apostle Paul wants us to do. 00:09:03.840 |
And there is this idea, it's first and foremost, he says, you understand where they're headed, 00:09:09.960 |
That's exactly what he was previously saying. 00:09:12.120 |
You have these individuals who are living by their desires, living by what they believe 00:09:15.720 |
is right, living by their own greed, and what you know for certain is where they're headed 00:09:23.440 |
I don't want you condoning anything that is pertaining to what God disapproves of, what 00:09:33.200 |
Yes, it's true, you can be in close proximity, but when you think about Christ, his intentionality 00:09:39.640 |
for why he would be in proximity with individuals, it's very different from this generation. 00:09:46.040 |
What's more, when you think about this passage in 1 Corinthians 5, there is clearly this 00:09:50.840 |
adamant, I guess, admonition that if you just simply walk with individuals who are so-called 00:09:57.040 |
brothers who are supposed to be walking in the light, and yet you act and walk with them 00:10:02.560 |
as though everything is okay, that is in fact not okay. 00:10:07.800 |
You can't give any kind of credence to their lifestyle if they're called a so-called brother. 00:10:14.480 |
There has to be ramifications for the fact that they live in such a manner. 00:10:18.760 |
Okay, now, one of the things, again, that I was trying to highlight for you earlier 00:10:23.440 |
by showing you the therefores and the fores was that this passage was chock full of rationales. 00:10:31.640 |
Why am I supposed to have that kind of clarity between me and the individuals of the world? 00:10:40.080 |
Why am I supposed to have that kind of clear distinction? 00:10:43.680 |
Are we supposed to be drawing lines and creating boundaries within the world between Christians 00:10:50.760 |
May I say from the beginning, whether we see it or not, there is already a massive divide 00:10:57.720 |
between those who are called by Christ and those who are not. 00:11:01.480 |
Not in any kind of arrogant or self-righteous way. 00:11:09.080 |
Here, rationale one, it says, "For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in 00:11:17.880 |
Here is a motivation as to why we're not supposed to be particulars with them. 00:11:21.680 |
As a matter of fact, again, the passage is chock full of them and I numbered them here. 00:11:26.000 |
When you guys see a pattern or a list, I recommend that you take a moment to list all the things 00:11:32.160 |
"For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light. 00:11:35.520 |
For the fruit of light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth. 00:11:39.680 |
For it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 00:11:45.120 |
For everything that becomes visible is light." 00:11:49.880 |
What I'm going to do now is take those motivations and highlight them for you. 00:11:56.640 |
Motivation number one, the dark to light transformation is your identity. 00:12:03.640 |
The dark to light transformation is your identity. 00:12:09.000 |
He tells you what you were formerly and what you are now. 00:12:17.000 |
When you look at your past and you're super discouraged, that is not the whole of your 00:12:22.840 |
Your identity includes everything about who you were and who you are now. 00:12:27.000 |
It's not as though because we're emphasizing who we are now that everything about the past 00:12:39.360 |
We recall the pits from which Christ has saved us. 00:12:43.800 |
All of that to us then is a powerful identity where we can say, "We are the transformed. 00:12:53.400 |
If you recall that contrast, we're supposed to actually, I guess, appreciate. 00:12:58.560 |
The longer we live, we're supposed to be able to see in more grand picture, "Oh my goodness, 00:13:08.580 |
Look how utterly incapable, utterly impossible it was for me to attain to anything, to fix 00:13:17.920 |
That kind of divide, we're supposed to appreciate more and more as we live. 00:13:22.760 |
Because that contrast shows to us a great, great powerful motivation as to why we need 00:13:30.200 |
That contrast, he shows us by describing the fruit of righteousness, or sorry, fruit of 00:13:40.320 |
The way that he says it is, "The fruit of light consists of these, all goodness, righteousness, 00:13:49.920 |
What he's talking about is the various things that we want, greater good, greater righteousness 00:13:58.680 |
All of these things come from being in the light. 00:14:02.240 |
It doesn't come from just simply having positions of power. 00:14:13.520 |
One of the challenges I want to give to you is this, when we think about the things that 00:14:17.840 |
we engage in, whether it be the context of our home, whether it be, let's say, difficult 00:14:22.920 |
scenarios, let's say in marriage, whether it be situations and circumstances at work 00:14:27.480 |
where it's all tricky and dicey, I want you to ask this question, "What am I trying to 00:14:36.960 |
Because we have this tendency to get so distracted with wanting a specific, I guess, outcome, 00:14:44.520 |
Like we're anticipating a certain kind of circumstance that we would like to see. 00:14:50.240 |
And sometimes it just gets us so, so distracted. 00:14:55.280 |
One of the ways by which we can continue to test, "Are we walking in the light?" is by 00:15:01.200 |
It's both a motivation and essentially a test for us. 00:15:04.920 |
It's motivation because the only way to righteousness, as we were talking about this past Sunday, 00:15:10.440 |
But what's more, to check to see if we are in the light, we should be asking, "What is 00:15:16.880 |
Now, I've said to myself before, I don't want to necessarily use my children too much as 00:15:21.760 |
an example, but yesterday night I was just at home and little Emmett came up and he was 00:15:32.720 |
Yoshi and I, Heng and I, we were messing around and then his foot smacked my face and left 00:15:39.240 |
Now, Yoshi came running over and he was all scared. 00:15:55.160 |
And I remember thinking, "Whoa, whoa, hold on. 00:15:56.880 |
All Emmett said was that you guys were horsing around. 00:16:04.080 |
And he's like, "No, but that's not what happened." 00:16:09.080 |
Like, Emmett didn't say that you were a bad, bad man. 00:16:12.880 |
He was just saying that your foot smacked you in the face, right? 00:16:19.240 |
And he just kept coming at me like he's trying to defend himself. 00:16:26.760 |
If your point is I shouldn't be in trouble, you're not in trouble. 00:16:36.360 |
And then all of a sudden he realized like, "Okay, why are you laughing?" 00:16:43.240 |
The reality is your foot smacked him in the face. 00:16:51.160 |
And then we just started laughing together because he was like, "Okay." 00:16:55.840 |
But the fear, like the goal was I don't want to be in trouble. 00:17:00.560 |
The fear of, "Oh my goodness, my brother's going to tattle-tale and he's going to get 00:17:04.400 |
me in trouble because he's going to lie," or something like that. 00:17:06.360 |
The fear to try to preemptively protect himself caused him to argue with me pointlessly. 00:17:13.720 |
And I wanted him to see that like, "Listen, think about what you're trying to accomplish. 00:17:19.920 |
You're just trying to accomplish like, 'I better know what happened.'" 00:17:23.080 |
Like you weren't even listening to what I was saying. 00:17:26.360 |
And so I realized sometimes even in like marriage conflict, even in like workplace scenario, 00:17:32.260 |
if your goal is like, "You know, I just need to speak my piece." 00:17:35.160 |
Like, if your goal is like, "I just want to make sure I get due credit for this." 00:17:45.560 |
Is the fruit like better mutual understanding? 00:17:50.280 |
Is the fruit more righteousness between the two of us? 00:17:56.400 |
Is the fruit like greater working together in harmony for the good of the company? 00:18:01.160 |
So that, you know, yes, we're going to try to, you know, sell more products and do good 00:18:06.320 |
Like whatever it may be, we want to provide good services, whatever it may be. 00:18:15.560 |
And that's why later on in verse 11, this passage says the deeds of darkness is not 00:18:25.240 |
Like there's such vanity wrapped up in thinking like the world and pursuing the world's objectives. 00:18:32.480 |
And so we have to ask, what kind of fruits are we producing with what we are engaging 00:18:37.440 |
What's more, motivation number three, why should we not partake in the darkness, but 00:18:44.360 |
continue to walk in greater light is because the fruits of darkness is actually disgraceful. 00:18:54.040 |
Definitions wise, that the term for disgraceful is dishonorable, act indecent, completely 00:18:59.640 |
inappropriate or used in another context in one of the first Timothy passage about elders 00:19:12.000 |
And what I'd like to highlight here is the scriptures essentially tell you that the deeds 00:19:21.800 |
And the fact of the matter is I do believe scripture has challenged every single one 00:19:26.800 |
Now, when you are a Christian, you are exposed to the light and you have greater insight 00:19:34.240 |
When we are not in the light, we're like kids. 00:19:37.440 |
You know, when little kids, they just come out there and they're like, Oh, look at my 00:19:41.640 |
They just take off their shirt and expose themselves. 00:19:43.120 |
And the parents are like, Oh no, you know, shame. 00:19:46.720 |
You got to have some sense when we are outside of Christ, essentially when we're outside 00:19:51.440 |
of even, especially even the Christian community. 00:19:55.000 |
Sometimes I like to call it the, I'm buff in my own room syndrome. 00:20:00.520 |
When you are kind of confined to your own space in your own room, certain things seem 00:20:08.840 |
When you're in your own room, you flex in front of that mirror. 00:20:12.960 |
When you're in front of your closet door and then your room is only like a 10 by 10 room 00:20:16.480 |
and you just like flexing, you're like, Oh, I'm huge. 00:20:20.560 |
You go out into the world and you realize, you know what? 00:20:24.480 |
You're just a lot smaller than a lot of people. 00:20:27.880 |
But if we're not exposed to the Christian community and what's more actually exposed 00:20:31.640 |
to the light of Christ, our frame of reference is always off. 00:20:37.840 |
And so what ends up happening is we don't know what's appropriate. 00:20:40.760 |
What's more scripture actually rebukes people through all generations because sometimes 00:20:46.560 |
their reaction to shame is one of two things. 00:20:49.600 |
One is to take their kind of guilt and shame radar and just be like pounded to the ground. 00:20:54.440 |
But like, I'm not going to feel guilty about this. 00:20:59.440 |
The other reaction is to just keep hiding deeper and deeper into your hole because your 00:21:07.240 |
And here's an interesting passage from scripture from Jeremiah chapter six, verse 15, where 00:21:11.280 |
it says, "Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? 00:21:20.160 |
Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall. 00:21:23.080 |
At the time that I punish them, they shall be cast down, says the Lord." 00:21:28.020 |
It is actually a good thing to know appropriate shame. 00:21:32.040 |
It is a good thing to know what is appropriate honor. 00:21:35.640 |
It's a good thing to know when to blush before God. 00:21:38.520 |
And so I have to just kind of take a moment to say, whenever you feel shame, don't just 00:21:45.200 |
always spurn that off as like, "Oh, it's because people are judgmental." 00:21:49.480 |
You have to take a moment to ask like, "Why is there shame?" 00:21:52.840 |
And if shame is used for things that are tangibly real, truthful, honest, things were actually 00:22:00.520 |
intended to grow, then you must actually respond appropriately to that with humility, with 00:22:06.960 |
a learner spirit, with a desire to grow and mature. 00:22:11.520 |
Shame will cause us to actually move towards proper restraint, greater self-control. 00:22:16.880 |
It typically leads us down thinking through the eyes, right? 00:22:23.520 |
And it's actually helpful if we're thinking about the right way. 00:22:26.800 |
Essentially, we're thinking about the eyes of God and we're thinking about the eyes of 00:22:30.280 |
the people we love within the church community, within the family of God. 00:22:35.600 |
So the other thing is, I think sometimes, because I'm a pastor, I do recognize that 00:22:47.360 |
There are moments when some people, just because I'm a pastor, this just happened to the other 00:22:51.840 |
day, because I'm a pastor, one of my neighbors just kind of started confessing like the stuff 00:22:57.140 |
When I see that, I mean, I don't want to be a source of shame for people, but in some 00:23:04.440 |
sense, if they think that I am like a standard, like I'm thinking of an individual who holds 00:23:13.060 |
holy standards and therefore they need to correct themselves in front of me, is that 00:23:21.080 |
But on the flip side, if you look at me and you're just like, "Oh, I don't want to be 00:23:23.480 |
around you because you just always make me feel super self-conscious." 00:23:26.880 |
Well, there are deeper issues that I think we need to deal with. 00:23:30.080 |
So with that just being said, in terms of shame, it's not always something to be spurned. 00:23:37.060 |
At the same time, we have to make sure we're responding to it appropriately. 00:23:40.080 |
Number four motivation, which is the light of God is powerful. 00:23:46.380 |
Look at what the scripture says, "But all things become visible when they are exposed 00:23:52.960 |
There is nothing hidden from the power of the word of God." 00:23:57.000 |
Scripture talks about in Psalm 19, that essentially the revelation of God goes forth and it's 00:24:05.720 |
And though yes, you may be trying to hide in the tunnel, even the tunnels, even the 00:24:10.360 |
tunnels are affected by the warmth of the sun. 00:24:13.680 |
The light of God, it shines and it affects and it's powerful. 00:24:18.640 |
And so I want you to think, when we talk about conflict resolution in your home, in your 00:24:22.320 |
family, some of the toughest things, sometimes we're arguing from hurt and darkness. 00:24:29.400 |
And what needs to happen in order to work this out is that there has to be the revelation 00:24:37.760 |
So I want us to think through these things and think about those motivations. 00:24:48.200 |
It's not like, "Oh, you know, once in a while I'm tempted with evil, darkness. 00:24:59.160 |
I am very frequently inundated with, 'Want this, buy this. 00:25:04.380 |
You should get, you know, you should, if you have money to buy this and this, you'd be 00:25:08.320 |
Like that kind of temptation is all around us. 00:25:11.880 |
Whether it be selfishness, self-preservation, self-promotion, pride, all of these things 00:25:17.720 |
I shouldn't be a prideful man if I know who I am before God, who I was, now transformed 00:25:24.840 |
to the newness, into the new life of Christ, right? 00:25:31.040 |
For a man to constantly lust after more and more women, that's all perverse. 00:25:39.800 |
Do you feel like you have power, motivation, strength from the inside to fight those things? 00:25:46.320 |
And then my question would be, were you able in certain moments of your temptation to express 00:25:54.800 |
What rationale would you have to choose to walk in light? 00:26:01.560 |
That's not me anymore because I'm a redeemed person. 00:26:10.440 |
Even though in my tiny little room, I think I can get away with this. 00:26:18.480 |
Like, has that powerful truth affected the way you face temptation? 00:26:25.360 |
And again, these things are not just passing truths. 00:26:29.000 |
These are things that are, I guess you could just say, they're real. 00:26:38.360 |
It's good for us to rehearse these great truths that stand for us as strength. 00:26:44.320 |
It's good for us to continue walking in the light. 00:26:51.040 |
The command is a combination in verse 8 and verse 10. 00:26:57.640 |
And then he adds, "Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord." 00:27:01.780 |
So the growth pattern, the maturity should be, you are walking as a child of God, imitating 00:27:08.640 |
And because God is your source, because God is your strength, because God is your everything, 00:27:14.000 |
you as His child, you're resembling that light, that glory. 00:27:19.040 |
And in that, you're constantly trying to understand the heart of God and His will, what is pleasing 00:27:25.120 |
If you recall, one of the things that we learned previously was a beautiful picture of when 00:27:30.240 |
God is pleased by the aroma of self-sacrifice, because it resembles Him so much, because 00:27:40.640 |
So you're growing in your ability to carry the burdens of the people around you, to sacrifice 00:27:45.040 |
yourself, your energy, your time, your money, your resources, whatever it may be, the attention 00:27:52.760 |
Like all of that, sacrificing for the good of the people you love, that in God's eyes 00:28:00.720 |
Do you understand and are you growing in your understanding and conviction that this pleases 00:28:09.600 |
I have conviction to say like that right there, dishonoring to the Lord. 00:28:14.800 |
What's more, that right there, God loves that. 00:28:17.560 |
Like, do you have a growing base of biblical understanding? 00:28:24.360 |
Scripture says, "This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you that God 00:28:27.840 |
is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. 00:28:30.760 |
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not 00:28:36.760 |
But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one 00:28:40.960 |
another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. 00:28:45.920 |
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us." 00:28:53.040 |
I find that interesting that that passage goes together. 00:28:55.520 |
It pretty much reiterates the challenge, walk in the light, right? 00:29:04.600 |
Because God is, you have to walk appropriately. 00:29:08.360 |
But within all that, we recognize that there is this element of, there should be a growing 00:29:13.440 |
then recognition because the light's been turned on. 00:29:25.840 |
Not only that, but like that right there, like if it's on you, right? 00:29:36.080 |
I want to challenge you and ask this question to please take a moment to think about what 00:29:43.720 |
So the question is to think about what is great faith. 00:29:48.120 |
Now one of the things in terms of great faith that we think sometimes is where you have 00:29:52.800 |
such courage, like, "Because I have faith, I'm going to stand tall. 00:29:57.920 |
Because I have faith, I'm going to do this crazy, you know, like monetary sacrifice and 00:30:04.200 |
Your faith is going to empower you to do that. 00:30:07.400 |
But in terms of the greatness of the faith, we don't have to overcomplicate it. 00:30:11.640 |
The greatness of the faith means that you understand God. 00:30:19.320 |
You understand His mind because you've been wanting to know His heart. 00:30:27.200 |
There is this Latin term, "caram deo," which means "in the presence of God." 00:30:31.880 |
When your awareness of God grows and you recognize what honors Him, what pleases Him, you know 00:30:38.800 |
His tastes, you know His likes and dislikes basically. 00:30:43.160 |
And you're growing to know of conviction, these are the things that please God. 00:30:54.600 |
And so let me ask you, like, you know, in the later passages when we study the next 00:30:58.600 |
section, he's going to talk about the submissive spirit. 00:31:02.160 |
You understand that what pleases God is not this, like, "I'm a powerful man. 00:31:08.960 |
That is not actually, like, impressive to God. 00:31:11.520 |
What's very impressive to God is you know how to submit yourself. 00:31:16.160 |
When for not necessarily, like, because it's the right thing to do, but because of the 00:31:23.440 |
wisdom, because of the intentionality and sincerity and the wealth of love in your heart, 00:31:29.200 |
when you're able to submit yourself, your preferences, your self-interest, He says, 00:31:36.560 |
When He talks to the ladies and He's, and He doesn't talk to, what I mean is, in 1 Peter 00:31:40.120 |
chapter 3, He speaks to the ladies and says, "You know, this humble, meek spirit is precious 00:31:50.000 |
Do you recognize that these things, there are so many parts of Scripture that tells 00:31:53.680 |
us these are the things that God delights in? 00:32:00.800 |
So now, what I'd like to do is take a moment to pause and say, so far what we've seen is 00:32:10.640 |
But we also saw that it means a little bit more in the sense that when we look at systematic 00:32:14.840 |
theology and realize there is a way in which we can behave where we operate, we follow 00:32:20.760 |
their counsel, we take their worldview, and then we condone them and sit with them. 00:32:30.360 |
And what's more, He says, "Walk as children in light," and so we're being challenged and 00:32:34.320 |
motivated to continue to resemble God in all things related to His truth and reality. 00:32:40.720 |
Light typically means that there is now then an exposure, like that now that your eyes 00:32:45.720 |
are open and things are illuminated so that you can distinguish. 00:32:53.560 |
Essentially, what He does is in verse 11 through 13, He repeats the same idea. 00:32:58.880 |
And so we're going to take less time going over it. 00:33:01.160 |
What He says is, "Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even 00:33:08.800 |
Do not partake, but the second part of it is expose in the light. 00:33:14.080 |
To expose is a really commonly used term in the Bible. 00:33:18.000 |
It's used in lots of different scenarios, and it means to prove wrong, to refute, reprove, 00:33:25.400 |
So there is this very instructive, like, "That's wrong. 00:33:34.560 |
The unfruitful deeds of darkness, do we now become the police that essentially goes around 00:33:47.520 |
What I mean by yes and no is the law of God is of such weight, it has to be upheld. 00:33:56.440 |
You know, sometimes I realize, like, again, I'm no crazy veteran in ministry, but having 00:34:01.320 |
been in ministry for a while, you know, there are just some people I don't want to tell 00:34:05.640 |
them anything is wrong because they're just dear to you. 00:34:09.880 |
You know, they themselves are soft and, like, you know, tender, and I just would feel bad 00:34:18.140 |
It's like, "Ooh, the relational aspect of it, how is it sometimes going to challenge 00:34:23.160 |
my desire to uphold the objective, universal, and everlasting standard of God?" 00:34:32.760 |
Scripture says in Galatians chapter 6, "Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass or 00:34:38.520 |
sin, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking 00:34:44.800 |
to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. 00:34:48.760 |
Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." 00:34:55.260 |
You know, I realize sometimes as I'm learning through this kind of stuff, that passage challenges 00:35:03.160 |
But I hope we're not thinking, like, "We need to shame people." 00:35:06.200 |
I'm not necessarily sure that that's exactly what it's getting at. 00:35:10.800 |
Because as we think about even, let's say, like, correction and teaching, Apostle Paul 00:35:16.680 |
talks about instructing people like his children, right? 00:35:19.660 |
When we think about even the magnitude of scripture in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, 00:35:25.120 |
how it's all God-breathed, he says, "This is good for instruction, reproof, and so forth," 00:35:30.560 |
And essentially then, teaching and instruction has various forms, depending on context, depending 00:35:38.680 |
But clearly here in terms of the intent, the scriptures teaches us we need to make sure 00:35:47.320 |
What's more, the way that we're going about it, it's not so much like, "Ha! 00:35:54.480 |
It's more like you're carrying the person's burden and thereby fulfilling the law. 00:36:05.360 |
I think for most people, this challenge is going to be kind of tough. 00:36:10.620 |
Because number one, for most people, they're already feeling kind of like, "You know this 00:36:14.160 |
passage says, 'Look out for yourself because you could be tempted, right? 00:36:19.800 |
I think for most people, they feel guilty of their own sins and they don't feel the 00:36:32.600 |
The weight of the Word of God is not predicated by your own track record as whether you're 00:36:41.400 |
The scripture is not true because you've done well. 00:36:44.640 |
The scripture is true because the scripture is true. 00:36:47.000 |
And so what we have to do is do what this passage in Galatians is saying, is to be cautious. 00:36:53.440 |
That we're not pointing a massive accusatory finger like, "Look at what you've been doing 00:37:00.000 |
That's not the way that we should be doing things. 00:37:04.440 |
But I do want to ask, man, if we are going to be correcting and improving, it does require 00:37:13.680 |
That we should have an understanding of wisdom and discernment from the scriptures. 00:37:17.400 |
That even if we're going to correct, that correction comes with wisdom and understanding. 00:37:22.120 |
I think the worst thing we can be doing is making people feel like, I don't know, not 00:37:27.360 |
the worst thing, but another error that we could fall into is making people feel absolutely 00:37:30.960 |
guilty and messing with the consciences of people because we weren't very well informed 00:37:35.440 |
about the truth, about what the scripture has to say. 00:37:39.840 |
Lastly, in verse 14, it says, "For this reason," it says, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the 00:37:53.640 |
Now recognize that here when it says, "For this reason," this is a then conclusion statement. 00:37:59.440 |
It's like, it should kind of be read as, "Therefore it says," right? 00:38:03.040 |
As opposed to, "For this reason," meaning that this is another one of the motivations, 00:38:19.240 |
But what I like to say is in this passage, I mean, what a highlight of the gospel truth. 00:38:35.240 |
You know the difference between darkness and light. 00:38:44.760 |
The darkness is characterized by vanity and fruitlessness. 00:38:59.440 |
The light of God illuminates and makes you wise. 00:39:06.800 |
This passage actually is a quotation, a rendering of the Old Testament passage in Isaiah chapter 00:39:11.920 |
And this passage reads like this, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory 00:39:19.880 |
For behold, darkness will cover the earth and the deep darkness the people, but the 00:39:24.560 |
Lord will rise upon you and his glory will appear upon you. 00:39:28.560 |
Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. 00:39:38.600 |
Your sons will come from afar and your daughters will be carried in the arms. 00:39:43.320 |
Then you will see and be radiant and your heart will thrill and rejoice because the 00:39:55.080 |
To me, that's a great, great picture of the gospel call. 00:40:00.800 |
When we're calling people to the light, yes, by nature of the circumstance, the light is 00:40:10.840 |
But we also recognize by being in the light, of course there's shame that like, "Oh my 00:40:25.040 |
That by being in the light, when we walk in the light of God, there is this, like all 00:40:31.400 |
the stuff here is thoughts of radiance, glory, abundance, because that's what the Lord provides. 00:40:42.240 |
In John chapter three, it says, "This is a judgment that the light has come into the 00:40:48.000 |
The men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. 00:40:52.720 |
For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that 00:40:59.360 |
But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested 00:41:07.640 |
If you noticed, in the previous passage, the section of our verse, excuse me, why did I 00:41:23.800 |
When you look at this passage here, in verse 13, it reads a little funny, right? 00:41:28.000 |
But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light. 00:41:31.320 |
For everything that becomes visible is light. 00:41:36.120 |
I get the idea that everything becomes visible when they're exposed to the light because 00:41:42.840 |
We're essentially shining the light, the light of Christ, with his truth, with his reality, 00:41:49.440 |
with what he's given to us as this is actually the way things are. 00:41:53.320 |
The lies that we've been told where your sins are inconsequential doesn't hurt anybody, 00:42:03.480 |
If you're going to work hard and you fight for things and all this kind of stuff, you're 00:42:10.840 |
If you had both all the money in the world, all the liberties, and the power to protect 00:42:15.760 |
your liberties, and what's more, you had a generation where essentially there was like, 00:42:20.960 |
I guess you could say, a social utopia, right? 00:42:24.520 |
To think you would be happy and at peace is an absolute lie. 00:42:28.600 |
We learn that without Christ, knowledge without Christ, miracles without Christ, I don't know, 00:42:35.440 |
like an amazing government without Christ, whatever it may be, anything without Christ, 00:42:39.120 |
money without Christ, possession without Christ, the scripture has already told us, saints 00:42:43.040 |
before us already told us, King Solomon said, "You know what? 00:42:45.080 |
Your life doesn't even consist of your possessions." 00:42:47.240 |
You could have all the pleasures in the world, all the reputation, the people's respect, 00:42:57.240 |
Okay, talk about this because when we live by those truths, we're shining light. 00:43:08.840 |
And what's really interesting, it says for everything that becomes visible then, it is 00:43:15.000 |
So now going back to that John chapter three passage, notice what he says, that as we practice 00:43:21.220 |
the truth and come to the light, our deeds becomes manifest, becomes really, really clear 00:43:31.360 |
And brothers and sisters, that is a powerful thing. 00:43:34.300 |
When we seek to abide by the truth of God, both the light is shining upon us and what's 00:43:40.620 |
more we are shining, that the faith that God has given us is bearing its fruit. 00:43:46.480 |
And then us, we're indicating and revealing that the mighty power of God is working within 00:43:52.860 |
And so I just want to give this challenge again. 00:43:56.220 |
Today, in this passage, there were many motivations, but essentially when I say motivations, those 00:44:14.920 |
I pray that you hold onto those things dearly, that they become powerful motivators for you 00:44:20.620 |
to not only resist temptation, but walk in righteousness. 00:44:25.740 |
Lord, we thank you so much for your word, God. 00:44:30.940 |
God, it would be devastating for us if we're not able to study your word. 00:44:36.580 |
Because we would be lost, because we wouldn't be able to see, because we'd be in darkness. 00:44:42.380 |
I pray, Lord, that right now, again, as we are in somewhat of an incredibly strange time 00:44:48.580 |
of unrest, division, anger, injustices, all these things, Lord, I pray, Father God, that 00:45:00.860 |
Grant to us wisdom, understanding, discretion. 00:45:04.620 |
Grant to us, Father God, greater faith, that God, we would not operate and react simply 00:45:09.540 |
by what we see, but Lord, we would walk by what you have already told us.