Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell Point Baptist Church
June 2nd 2013
Eph. 5:8-14
“It’s about time! WALK AS CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT”
Intro: Eph. chap 5 is all about change.
• Designed/teach us we are different/world around us.
• Now that we are different/should live lives that/different.
The simple truth:
• Believers should be different from those/don’t know Lord.
A brief review/1st seven verses/chapter clearly demonstrate/truth.
• v. 1, commanded to live like God
• v. 2, commanded to love like God.
• V.3-7, commanded to leave this world and its ways behind.
• v. 8 Apostle tells us why we are to be different.
• This is something we need to hear and heed.
• After all, we are living in this world.
We are “strangers and pilgrims” here, 1 Pet. 2:11.
• While we are “strangers and pilgrims,” in this world
• There was a time when we were citizens of this world.
• We lived like they live. We thought like they think.
• We did what they do. We were part of them.
But, when we were saved/grace/God, we were delivered from our old life of sin, given a new life of righteousness.
Even though delivered/world, we still possess deep familiarity with the world and its ways.
There is still a part of us, the fleshly part, that still desires the things of the world we left behind when we were saved.
• Always pressure/saints/God/more like/world around them.
• The overt pressure/entertainment/other forms of media for us to do what the world does
• Subtle pressure even from people we love who would like to see us behave a little more like them.
• To see us do the things they do.
• I think these folk do what they do because our lifestyle makes them feel guilty about the way they are living.
There is pressure within us as the flesh reaches out for the things that are now forbidden to it.
• We might be saved, but there is still a part of us that loves sin and that hates the rigors of holiness.
• While there is pressure to go back
• There is also pressure to go forward.
Just as surely as the flesh and the world longs for us to conform to its ways, the Spirit of God and the resurrected spirit within us want us to be transformed so that we might be what God saved us to be, Gal. 5:16-17.
That’s why in Rom.12:1–2, God tells us this….
The last verse we studied, v.7, said, “Do not be partners with them.”
• Verses today teach us how to make that/reality in our lives.
I want take these verses/point out some insights that speak to us about Walking As Children Of Light.
This text teaches us how to become the righteous person God saved us to be.
• We live in a hard, dark world/dominated/driven by sin.
• In the midst of that darkness and depravity
• God has redeemed a people.
He has redeemed a people:
• That He expects to be different.
• He has empowered to be different.
• He has called into service for Him.
The rest of this book tells us how to make that a reality in our lives.
I. V. 8 HOW WE ARE CHANGED
What We Were - We “were sometimes darkness.”
• Meaning we were lost in the darkness of sin and depravity. We were blinded by the god of this world, 2 Cor. 4:4.
• We lived like every other lost person, and we enjoyed it
• Sins of v. 4-5 were who we were and what we did.
• Enslaved to sin.
• We knew nothing else/wanted nothing else.
• We were lost in the dark and headed to Hell.
• We lived like the lost people we were.
What We Are - We “are light in the Lord.”
When the Lord saved us, He delivered us from darkness.
Col. 1:13 says, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves
• When/Lord delivered us from darkness
• He set us free from the power of sin.
• He has changed and made us children of the light.
Since we have been changed, we are to walk in light and no longer in the darkness that once characterized us.
Consider Rom. 13:12-14…. _____________________________________
Our lives once manifested the works/world/flesh/devil.
• Sin was a way of life for us.
• Darkness was where we lived, and what we loved.
• By/power of grace, the Lord/touched us/saved us/delivered us and changed us.
He has brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
• Since that is true, we are to “walk as children of light.”
• How do we do that?
• By avoiding sinful thinking and sinful living.
• By surrendering our all to the Spirit of God
• He will produce within us “peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
• We have been changed, and we should live different lives
By the way this is not something we should have to be constantly encouraged to do.
• If we are truly saved
• if we have been truly changed
• holiness should be a way of life for us! 2 Cor. 5:17
II. V. 9-10 HOW WE ARE CHARACTERIZED
These two verses deal/reality/our spiritual walk.
• If we are truly saved/walking in the light, it will be clear from the life we live.
• Paul says the “fruit of the Spirit” is seen in three ways.
It is seen in Goodness
• Word refers to “uprightness of heart and life.”
• Speaks/godliness in/motives, thoughts/actions.
• The quality of godlikeness.
• This has also to do with our treatment of others.
• When we practice “goodness,” we/walking/love to those around us.
• We are being God-like toward them, as we treat them like God treats us.
It is seen in Righteousness
• Word refers to our standing before the Lord.
• When He saved us, God declared us righteous.
• He took away all our guilt
• imputed the righteousness of Christ to us
• Made us holy in His sight.
Righteousness is seen in our lives when we live out the reality of who we are, and what we have been made in Christ Jesus.
It speaks of a godliness that makes a life as being different and as belonging to the Lord.
It is seen in Truth
• Word has to do with honesty/reliability/trustworthiness.
• When this quality is seen in the life of a believer
• it stands in stark contrast to the hypocritical, deceptive and false ways of the world.
- “Goodness” deals with our relationship with others.
- “Righteousness” deals with our relationship with God.
- “Truth” deals with the personal integrity of our own lives.
These three characteristics are called “fruit.”
• Fruit is the unfolding of life.
None of these things, taken to their perfect fulfillment, are things you will find in the lives of unbelievers.
• They are the “fruit”, the proof
• Proof of the presence of the life of the Lord in us.
• When we know Him, we will be like Him!
Notice Paul doesn’t speak about praying a prayer
• Joining the church, being baptized, being good to people, doing good works, or giving to or serving the church.
• All those things are good
• But they are works that are easily accomplished in the flesh.
• Anyone can do them
• Even someone who has never been saved.
But! Characteristics Paul mentions:
• goodness/righteousness/truth
• Only possible through the work/Spirit
• Work/Spirit through life of a redeemed believer.
III. V. 11a HOW WE ARE COMMANDED
v. 11, “have nothing to do with” means “do not get involved!”
If you know the Lord—should not partake of evil/even/association
• 1 Thess. 5:22
• We are to Abstain from all appearance of evil.
• to avoid even the appearance of evil
• I know what you’re saying.
• We have to be in the world. Yes we must.
• World to witness to the lost.
• Someone reached you when you were lost!
However, we must be careful that we do not allow ourselves to get trapped by the ways of the world.
• We are to be a separate
• Holy people to the glory of the Lord.
• Kind of sins to avoid have been mentioned Eph. 4:25-31
• Not an exhaustive list of sins we are to avoid.
• We are to avoid all sin!
• The depth/our separation/pointed out clearly/1 Cor. 5:9-11.
We are to guard our hearts, our minds and our bodies.
• Sin is all around us
• But so is the help of the Spirit of God, 1 John 4:4.
• If we trust Him
• He will help us/live lives that are holy/pleasing to Him.
IV. V. 11b-13 HOW WE ARE COMMISSIONED
Our responsibility to abstain from sin goes farther than simply not doing sinful things.
• Here, we are commanded to “reprove them.”
• Means that we are to “expose” evil for what it is.
When we are silent about sin, we are guilty of encouraging it.
• When we ignore sin, we are guilty of promoting it.
______________________________________________
“Reprove” carries/idea of “correction, discipline, and punishment”
• Means we confront sin by refusing to tolerate it.
• Means there are times when we must speak out.
We must tell others what/Bible says/right what it says/wrong.
• Sometimes our intolerance/sin/direct.
• We deal face to face those involved.
• Sometimes our intolerance/sin/indirect
• We do the opposite of the world around us.
• God uses that to rebuke them for their error.
• They are selfish, but we are giving.
• They curse, we bless.
• They live for self, we live for God and for others.
• They lie, we speak the truth.
• Simply living for the Lord is a powerful testimony in the face of evil.
______________________________________________
One of our problems is the fact:
• We don’t take sin seriously enough. We wink at it.
• We laugh about it.
• We see those around us who are engaged in sin, and we fail to confront.
• We just don’t take sin as seriously as we should.
___________________________________________
V. 12 tells us/shame to talk about the things the world does.
• We love to hear a juicy bit of gossip, don’t we?
• We talk about the sins of others
• Passing it around from ear to ear.
• God says that it is a shame for us to do that!
V. 13 tells us how to handle sin.
• Exposing it to the light of the Word of God.
• hold it up to the Bible
• If the Bible is against it, we are to be against it too.
• If the Bible is for it, we are to be for it.
• The Word of God alone is to be the standard for our lives.
Light makes things “manifest,” or “easy to see.”
When we walk in the light, it makes the evil of the world around us easy to see.
• The children of God should walk so holy, so clean
• so close to God that we stand out as beacons of light in a dark world.
As we lift up truth and expose sin, not everyone will be happy.
Matt. 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matt. 5:14–16.
• Are you that town? Are you that lamp?
• Or are you hiding?
• We are commissioned to be different.
• When we are sin is exposed
• The Gospel is magnified, and God is glorified.
• Those are reasons enough to walk in the will of God!
V. 14 HOW WE ARE CALLED
Paul closes/an invitation/lost to come to Jesus for salvation.
• If they will simply wake up, and come to Jesus
• He will save them and give them light.
He is calling the lost people who might have been in that congregation to come to Jesus for salvation.
• That is a call that still goes out today.
• If you are lost, you can be saved.
• The Lord will change your life
• Deliver you from darkness and fill you/His light.
There is also a call here for believers to walk up.
We have wandered through this world in a spiritual slumber for far too long.
• It is time we woke up/got about the Savior’s business.
• When we do, we will be light to a world trapped in darkness
• Lord will use that light to save sinners.
Here is how Paul said it elsewhere:
Rom. 13:11–14. “And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”
The church needs to heed that today!
Conc:
• The world needs the light we have to show them.
• It is the Lord’s will that His children be light in a dark world.
It is the power of His light within us that will highlight the differences between us and the lost world around us.
Let’s seek the Lord today and ask Him to help us “Walk As Children Of Light.”
