our study of Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians chapter 5. I'll start back at verse 1. We'll be considering those specifically verses 3 through 14. I'm sorry I didn't change the bulletin title, the title in the bulletin of the sermon. Sometimes I have trouble naming things and I put it off and I put it off and forget about it when I print out the bulletin. But the name of the sermon is This Little Light of Mine. This Little Light of Mine from Ephesians 5 verses 3 through 14. But let's read together from chapter 5 starting in verse 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But, the passage for today, fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be even named among you as is fitting for saints. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Amen. Let us pray together. Our Father, we pray again that you would give light from heaven, even as it is written in this passage. O Christ, give us light that we who have become brightness in you might learn to shine and to be that which you have made us to be. We pray that you would give us the grace to pursue that high and holy calling that we should no longer be in the darkness or live as the darkness which we once were, but be the light of the world as you have made us. In Christ we pray. Amen. Please check. Okay, do you guys know the story of The Emperor's New Clothes? You know that story by Hans Christian Andersen? Kids, I don't mean The Emperor's New Groove, a cartoon movie about a king who becomes a llama. No, no, no, the classic tale by Hans Christian Andersen goes like this. There was once a king who cared more for his clothes than for his royal duties. He was more often found at court than in his closet. He had a different outfit for every hour of the day. But there were some weavers in a distant place who heard of the king's love for fashion and came up with a plan to swindle him. So these swindlers come and convince the emperor that they can weave him a new suit of clothes of such beautiful and extraordinarily fine fabric that only fine people can even see it. It is indeed invisible, they say, to those who are unfit for their positions, for those who are fools, incompetent, or hopelessly stupid. And the vain emperor was quite taken by this idea. Why, he said to himself, if I wore these clothes, I would be able to discover which men in my empire are unfit for their posts, and I could tell wise men from fools. So he gave the men a large sum of money for them to begin to weave him a new outfit. So the men took their looms, set them up, and went right to work. And the emperor could hardly wait. In fact, after a few days, he sent his most trusted counselor to go to their room and to see how it was going. And when the counselor knocked and entered the room, he saw two men apparently very hard at work on the looms, but he couldn't see anything on them, not so much as a stitch. The looms were completely empty. But the men immediately said to the counselor, isn't the cloth exceptional, intricate, beautiful, colorful of such quality? Please don't hesitate to tell us what you think of it. And the counselor stared as long as he dared. Can it be that I am a fool, he thought. Oh no, no one must know. Oh, it's, Beautiful, said the counselor. Enchanting. And he peered closely with his spectacles. Such a pattern! What colors! I'll be sure to tell the emperor how delighted I am with it. Which he did. The swindlers then asked the emperor for even more money as well as for some gold thread and silk which they just stashed away in their bags. The emperor himself could hardly contain himself. He sent another trustworthy official then in a few more days to inspect the work and The men, as he entered, said, Isn't it beautiful, and of such fine quality, that only the best and wisest of men can see? For no one unfit for office, incompetent or stupid, can even see such fine fabric as this. And knowing that the other counselor had been there before him, and had raved about it, and not wanting to appear foolish and unfit for office himself, that man too went and told the emperor that the cloth held him spellbound. The whole town was excitedly talking about the special new clothes that were being made for the emperor. And the emperor was growing more and more anxious because he was soon scheduled to lead a procession through the city, and he wanted to wear his new clothes. And so at last, attended by his officials, including the two who had already been to visit the weavers, the emperor and his courtiers came and found the two men in their room weaving with might and main without so much as a thread on the looms. "'Magnificent,' said the other two officials who had already been duped. "'Just look, Your Majesty, what colors, what intricate design!' And they pointed to the empty looms. And the emperor thought, "'Am I a fool? Am I unfit to be emperor?' "'Oh, it's very lovely.' The emperor finally said, it has my highest approval. And the whole retinue of the emperor likewise stared at the empty looms and praised, excellent, unsurpassed. The night before the procession was to be held, the swindlers stayed up all night and burned six candles to show how busy they were finishing the emperor's new clothes. And the next morning when they came to the emperor, they raised their arms and they said triumphantly, look sir, here your majesty are, your trousers, your coat, and your mantle, all of them as light as a spider's web. They are exceptionally fine. And the swindlers then pretended to dress the emperor in his new clothes, one garment and then another. Aren't they becoming, said the nobles. Well, said the emperor, it is a remarkable fit, isn't it? I'm ready. And the noblemen who were to carry his train each grabbed down to the ground as if to pick up his mantle and to hold it high above him in train behind him. And off went the king in grand procession. And the eager townspeople stared astonishingly, and after a moment they realized the situation and they began to remark, oh, how fine are these clothes of the emperor. Don't they fit him to perfection? Indeed, no outfit that the emperor had ever worn before this had ever been such a complete success. But just then, as he rounded the corner, at one point in the procession, a little child by the road saw the emperor and said, but he hasn't got anything on. Did you ever hear such prattle, said the father, nervously. But that was then picked up and whispered quietly from one person to another. Do you see what the child sees? He hasn't got anything on. The emperor has no clothes on. And the whispers turned to chatter, and the chatter turned to laughter, and the king turned red. He hasn't got anything on, the whole town cried out at last. And the emperor shivered because he knew that they were right. Nevertheless, the procession went on. It's a story that Hans Christian Andersen wrote to prepare people for life in the modern age. and it speaks superbly well to the modern age, a story that was written to prepare people like you for a time like ours, when we must be as those children of light who are able to say what is perfectly obvious and to shine this little light of mine in the darkness, as children of light who are unashamed to speak the plain truth. Now, in the previous section of the letter, which we had discussed until last week, Paul was teaching us how we might live as Christians in the church. In this section, starting today, Paul teaches us how to be Christians in the world. You are the light of the world, Jesus had said. And in these verses, we have Paul's concentrated teaching on how we might take this little light of mine and let it shine. And you see again, even in this passage, the same principles at work as before. We had previously studied the put off, put on principle. R and B, follow your father, so it is here. Verse seven, do not be partakers with him. You were darkness, now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Don't be the people whom you no longer are. This is what I called Paul's principle of R and B. You are light, so be light and shine. Another application here of follow your Father. You are children of light, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. Follow your Father. And we, of course, have the principle of put off and put on at several places. For example, verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. No longer this, but that. And remember that the Christian life is not about don't, so much as it is instead do. It's not just putting to death, but it's making alive. Remember those theological terms I gave you before, right? That putting to death is called, starts with an M, mortification. And making a life, bringing to life is called, starts with a V. vivification. It is so easy for us to get focused on what we are not supposed to be doing to forget about what we are supposed to be doing and giving ourselves to instead. And so, with these tools, we now come to this passage about life in the world. And I will take this in two parts, the putting off part and the putting on part, and summarize it under these headings. First, the putting off part, we'll call this consecration, point one, consecration. And here in verses three and four, Paul takes six terms to name various sins, certainly very common in that great debauched city of Ephesus. Sins that the saints as holy ones are not to practice, to put off. And you'll see here that the six that he has chosen, the six that he has in mind here, are all of a sexual nature. This is not, of course, the end-all be-all. He's going to mention other things, but these are the six that he takes up first. In a culture such as theirs, or ours, it is appropriate. First, the Greek word here is porneia, you might know. I have it translated fornication. Perhaps you have it as sexual immorality. It's the most general word. It refers to any and all sexual immorality that we must therefore put off. In modern lingo, in modern terms, this would include premarital sex, adultery, rape, incest, bestiality, pornography, homosexuality, and more. It's a very general word. And I have to say at this point, by the way, there's an influential but badly mistaken book that's out that says that there are only six passages in the whole Bible that deal with homosexuality and we've misunderstood them all. the book is wrong on several levels, not least of which is saying that there are only six passages, doesn't include this passage, and doesn't include, for instance, Jude verse 7, which says, quote, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality, ex porneu, the verb form of this, giving themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh or set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So you see when Jesus and Paul and the others are condemning pornea, They are condemning all sexual immorality, obviously homosexuality is included, and such passages are conveniently ignored by people writing Christian books today. My purpose, however, in saying this is not to single out any sin, But to point out to you that this is a general word that includes them all, and we should not allow ourselves to make excuses or to live in darkness or deceive ourselves and say, oh, this word doesn't apply to me in my practice. That is being done, but it should not be done. Verse six, let no one deceive you with empty words. Because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Don't put an asterisk next to such words and say, oh, this doesn't include my sexual sin. It does, whatever it is. And my point is, we should not single ourselves out. We are all born that way. whatever that way is for you, with a desire for fornication, for sexual immorality, every last one of us. We have been born that way, and now we have been born again. We once were darkness, but now we are light in the world, and we must no longer continue in sexual immorality, fornication. Second, the word is uncleanness, referring to anything impure, filthy, or obscene. Paul used it back in chapter four, verse 19, of the Gentiles who had given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness, same word. Here is the incompatibility again with uncleanness and the Christian faith, no missing of words. The third is covetousness in my translation. Covetousness, I need to explain here, this can refer to greediness, and I think we often think of it that way, but depending on context, is also translated lust. Because covetousness is not specific, right? The 10th commandment says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. It can go either way. The word simply means a burning desire for that which the Lord has not given to you. It could be greed, it could be lust, and in context here, considering the other five words, I think we should take it as lust, the coveting of people, desire, inordinate sexual desire. Paul says in verse three that these sins are not even to be named among us as is fitting for saints. Obviously not meaning we shouldn't discuss them, he's discussing them, but that we should not be feeding our minds on these things. We shouldn't be talking about them, reading about them, watching the drama in that great theater in Ephesus that reveled as the theater still revels in such things. Let it not be named among you as is fitting for saints. The foolish, filthiness rather, anything indecent or unobscene, it's the same word group as shameful in verse 12 here. Foolish talking. You know that in the Bible, a fool is not mentally deficient, but morally deficient, someone who is ungodly and unrighteous. Don't talk like such ungodly people. Avoid foolish, morally deficient talking. And finally, coarse or rude joking. As we read last Sunday night, the marriage bed is to be held in honor and reverence among God's people, not degraded. And it's hard that you're out and people are making jokes at work, right? I mean, even in Christian community, right? Crew joking, you know, oh, that's what she said. Oh, that's funny. And your friend comes back later and says, I'm sorry, I've got to repent. Yeah, man, that wasn't funny at all. All right. We are no longer to have fellowship, participation, or sharing in these unfruitful works of darkness. In darkness, evil is able to hide and to grow. And all of us, this reminds us, me included, have sins, have habitual sins, that we are tempted to keep in the darkness. In the darkness, they grow. They gather strength. Maybe it's dependence on a prescription drug. Maybe it's a relationship and it's gone way beyond where you ever thought it would go. Maybe it's apathy in your faith. Whatever it is, the temptation is to say, I'm fine. I can deal with it on my own. It's my private struggle. I don't want to bring it into the light. And meanwhile, sin in the darkness grows stronger and stronger. And anything that lives in the dark grows in the dark. Secret sins grow in the darkness. And secret sins are like splinters. The longer they're there, the worse they get. We need to shine the light. We need to be the light. We need to have an openness and an honesty to let the light shine in and no longer continue to be the darkness as we once were. It's not as important to look godly as to be godly. And if you are tempted to hide and to say, everything's fine, and you say to yourself, I can handle it, you don't understand. This is the common struggle of every single Christian who once was darkness, but now is light in the Lord and must learn to walk as children of light, children together. We have to have enough honesty and intimacy with fellow Christians in this church, that we are able to bring light to bear. And I want to encourage you that confession is contagious. The more honest you are, the more your friends will be able to say, yeah, me too. And there's light, and secret sins die in the light. We have fellowship with one another. and we have no longer fellowship then in the unfruitful works of darkness. Here is the putting off. Verse 11 sums it up. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Consecration, point one. The negative side of the equation, putting off. And as usual, dear friends, that's the easy part. That's the part that doesn't take as much effort. That's what we are not to do. But now what are we to put on instead? Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. Or some of you have in your translations and many of you have in the margin, but rather reprove them or rebuke them. The first part of the passage is about consecration, point one. The second part is about confrontation, point two. As I say, it's harder. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, check, but rather reprove them. When the unfruitful works of darkness parade themselves in front of us, perhaps we are able to comfort ourselves by saying, well, I'm certainly not taking part in any of those things. That's good. But I ask you, what are you doing? many translations have exposed, rather than reproved, as the older translation did, and the context is the shining of the light. And so, fair enough to adjust the word's meaning that way, but understand that that word is otherwise translated in the Bible, reprove, or rebuke, or convict, or to tell one's fault. as we recently read about John the Baptist, who had been thrown into prison because he kept saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have her. And we read that Herod the Tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, put him in jail. So rebuked, same word. My Greek-English lexicon says eclego. A verbal root there means to disgrace or put to shame or reprove or convict or expose. Trench, one Greek scholar, a notable scholar, defines it as, quote, to rebuke another with such effectual wielding of the victorious arm of the truth as to bring him, if not always to confession, yet at least to a conviction of his sin. That's the meaning of the word that we are to put on. And Paul may have in mind Leviticus 19.17, which uses the same word in Greek translation, you shall not hate your brother in your heart, you shall surely rebuke your neighbor. and not bear sin because of him." Same word. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor and not bear sin because of him. And so as children of light, it's true that on the one hand, negatively, we should have no fellowship with the works of darkness, but rather we must reprove them, expose them, rebuke them to bring their true evil character to light. if not actually to bring people to a confession, but at least to a conviction of sin. And that's hard. And why must we do that? I suppose I'd lost everything that I had in a hurricane and a very generous man welcomed me in, brought me into his own home, cared for my needs along with several other needy people. But imagine one evening I'm sitting there in the warmth of his living room enjoying his comforts, his hospitality, his food, and one of the other guests comes over to me and starts saying all kinds of vicious and cruel things about our host, right at his own house. And suppose they were all planning to murder him and steal his goods and defile his wife, but I did nothing. And I just sat there cramming myself full of his food and drinking his wine, living at his expense. What would you think of me? John Calvin, whose illustration this is, says, we shall be taken for companions of the wicked if we act like the blind and deaf, when we should restrain wickedness by setting ourselves against it. and as much as lies in us, allows God's honor to be so obscured that all decency is overthrown and that we say nothing about it. Therefore, we ought to be the more attentive to this warning to rebuke evil." We very naturally shrink back from confronting the works of darkness in our live and let live culture, right? Because we know what it's going to mean if we do the positive in this passage. Jesus said men love darkness because their deeds are evil. John 7, the world hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. Amos 5, they hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks uprightly, and so it's no wonder that we are afraid to speak. Calvin again goes on, we are too loath to provoke any man's displeasure against us, and we have more shame of men than we have fear of God. It's understandable when children are afraid of the dark, But it's very sad when God's children are afraid of the light. There's a popular saying, all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. But Paul is saying here that when good men do nothing, they are not good men. For the calling on our lives positively as children of light is to shine. It is to expose and reprove the unfruitful works of darkness, to oppose evil and bear witness to the truth. Jesus says, I tell you, whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father and his holy angels. It is good that we not share in the sins of others. That's the easy part. But what are we doing? and was involved for a time in Nazi propaganda. And after the war, she reflected on her own behavior and what was happening in their country and how many people could be silent in light of the atrocities. And she came up with a social theory, because she was a scholar. That's what scholars do. They go with social theories, right? She called it the spiral of silence. And this is what she says. People are afraid of isolation. And all you have to do is convince people that a perceived majority have a strong opinion, and you can control the whole lot. almost everyone will prefer to say, yes, the emperor, I'm sorry, but yes, the emperor's clothes are beautiful, when the truth is obvious that it is not. And not just remain silent. In one survey in the book, the day that America told the truth, 98% of people now say that they tell lies just so as not to offend people. Well, good not to offend people. But there are more and more illustrations of this every week. And it's a passage on sexuality. It's certainly not hard to come up with illustrations in this domain. Maybe last week you read how that spokesman for a woman's birthing coach organization was forced out because she said, I am a woman and so are my clients. Another organization had dropped the word women and said that their treatment was relevant for everyone aged 25 through 64 with a cervix, end quote. And she said, this is women's health and women give birth. And because of that, she's a fool. She's out. She's unfit for office. Did you hear her say the emperor has no clothes that women give birth? that men don't give birth by implication? As George Orwell put it, people are increasingly holding up four fingers and demanding that you say that there are five. And Orwell says the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. In a time of universal deceit, Telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. The emperor has no clothes. You can read later in your back of your bulletin, a little passage from a man who was at a church in Germany with railroad tracks behind the church. And when the cries of the people from the railroad cars started coming in, they found themselves in a dilemma. And in their church, they scheduled it so that they would be singing hymns rather than hear the cries of the people. And about how the cries of those railroad cars still echo in his mind at night. God forgive us, he concludes, who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For one day the brightness of God is going to shine and bring every evil deed to light, and there will be shame like there has never been shame. The procession which has been going on for such a long time The naked emperor at the front will fully be brought to light. And how much better for people that the light shines now in Jesus. And we are called to expose unfruitful works to shine as children of light. Now this is difficult teaching. This is one that heavily convicts your preacher. I would like to give two very important words of counsel on how to carry out this matter of confrontation, our second point. It says here in this same passage, a few verses earlier, that we are called to speak the truth in love. My first word of caution to you is don't forget love. I want to read again from verse one. We were just taught, walk in love as Christ has loved us. Okay, don't forget love. Because sometimes we can speak the truth, but we aren't speaking it properly, or we're speaking it with such a hard heart, not speaking it in love, that we are not fulfilling this passage. We are more like the prophet Jonah, A prophet who goes and gives the Lord's message, as he was told, 40 more days and Nineveh is overthrown, which was true. But he plainly had no love for the people whatsoever. It was a rebuke. It is possible for us to speak the truth, but not in love, and that is not being faithful to this command. So don't misunderstand me to say that we need to go out there with the, whatever, the Westboro Baptist people and just hit people in the head with signs, right? This is not what we are being called to do. This passage is primarily about sexuality, and so I will continue with the Apostles' Train and illustrate it this way. The family of a more distant relative of mine is deeply struggling because their son has invited his family members to his wedding, his wedding to another man, and asked for some opinion on this, so I called my trusted friend Kent Butterfield for wisdom. And he gave this excellent advice. He said, on the one hand, the family must go out of its way to very strongly affirm their love for their son and their desire to continue a filial relationship with him. And on the other hand, they have to be clear that the emperor has no clothes, that they obviously cannot be celebrants of what you are doing to yourself and to this man, especially to the Lord, whom you still claim and you are rejecting. And this is a difficult, difficult needle to thread. to hold these things together. It must come with a clear demonstration of love and it must come with a clear shining of light. We are to be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love and we are light and we are to walk as children of light and we must not separate these duties. Charles Spurgeon writes, I do not say, brothers and sisters, that we are to go through the world wearing surly faces, looking as grim as death, perpetually promulgating the law and saying, you shall not do this, and you shall not do that. cheerful as we must be with the love of God in our hearts, that we shall prove to men that the freest and happiest life is a life of holiness, a life of consecration to God, and that together with the faithful testimony of our lips, it shall be a reproving of the sin that is in the world. So do not take this passage as a license just to blast people. Oh, I tell it like it is. I call a spade a spade. Oh, no, no, no. 429, remember what he just said. Let no corrupt word proceed from your mouth, but that which is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. Impart grace when you impart light. Before you go out just punching the workers of darkness in the nose, don't forget the context of these verses. All that he has said leading up to this, you are to speak the truth in love, you are to impart grace, you are to build up. Don't forget love. And one very other very important matter here, Don't forget the good news of the gospel. This is not just about reproving the deeds of darkness, because you see how the passage ends in verse 14. Therefore, he says, quote, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. These are fruitless needs. These things don't bring life. These things bring misery and death. Wake up. Come to life. Christ will give you light. The positive side of the message, you see. Christians, again, much rather give condemnation, I think, sometimes, than this word of grace. Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. And remember the whole message of the book up to this point. Remember the three chapters that preceded any obligation from us. Condemning the deeds of darkness is necessary. We must be willing to say the truth. We must be willing to say the truth in love, but that alone can bring no change. Because ultimately, what are people going to replace it with, right? Paul says elsewhere, look, if the dead are not raised, let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die. This is the best there could be. But it was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. And so as we reprove the deeds of darkness, we have to have hearts of love and words of gospel grace. Preaching, yes, as Paul preaches, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. We are not in a cultural war. You hear me? It's not a culture war, friends. It's a spiritual war. This will be very clear in chapter six. The culture is just one of the many weapons in the hands of combatants to either put out the light or to set it up to shine. But we're not trying to win a culture. We are trying to win men for Christ and the truth of the light. And we are trying to bring the full light of Christ into a dark world that does not want to have it. And we need to have the whole message that Jesus preached. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Don't forget the gospel. There has to be good news that is far better than any bad news that they might hear. Don't forget the gospel. We say to people, in our confrontation with the world, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Get the ballots? A lot today in this one sermon, I realize. During his years as the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the atrocities of Joseph Stalin. a man whom you know killed tens of millions of people. And once while Khrushchev was publicly censuring Stalin in a meeting, he was interrupted by a heckler from the audience. You were one of Stalin's colleagues. Why didn't you stop him? Who said that, roared Khrushchev. Agonizing silence followed as not a single person in the room dared to move a muscle. And Khrushchev replied quietly, now you know why. So often I have to ask myself, how much of the world am I am leaving to itself, feeling no sense of responsibility, blaming problems on other people and other things. And Rome is burning. And we're hiding in the church and playing the hymns. I follow the path of least resistance. I'm quietly keeping to myself. And the path of least resistance is what makes both rivers and men crooked, as the saying goes. And if the house is dark, don't blame the house. Don't blame darkness for being dark. The question is, where's the light? Better to light one candle than curse the darkness, goes the phrase. You know, the English reformer Hugh Latimer, he was a burning and shining light in his day. Amazing how much light he was able to bear in his brief day. It was the custom each New Year's Day for bishops to give the king a present. and because of King Henry VIII's liberties with James Seymour. Bishop Latimer gave the king a New Testament with a note stuck in Hebrews 13, indicating to him, verse four, fornicators and adulterers God will judge. And he preached that Sunday before Henry. And the king was very greatly displeased at the boldness of Latimer's sermon and the close public application that he had just made to the king in front of everyone. The king, in his rage, ordered Latimer to preach the following Sunday and publicly to apologize for the offense that he had given to His Majesty the king. The next Sunday, Latimer got up and began his sermon. Hugh Latimer, do you know before whom you are this day to speak? To the high and mighty monarch, the king's most excellent majesty, who can take away your life if you offend. Therefore, take heed that you do not speak a word that may displease. But then consider well, Hugh. Do you not know from whence you have come? Upon whose message you are sent? even by the great and mighty God, who is all present, who beholds all your ways, and who is able to cast your soul into hell. Therefore, take care that you deliver your message faithfully." And then he read the same text as the previous week, and quoted Jeremiah 22. Oh earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. And he preached exactly the same sermon as he preached the preceding Sunday, except with considerably more energy. And everyone who was present was just certain that Henry was going to have Latimer's head before he even made it down from the pulpit. But the king was subdued by Latimer's great earnestness, the character of his delivery. It was not just a condemnation. or a confrontation. He was speaking the truth in love. And the king, after all this, simply said, blessed be God that I have so honest a servant. Does God have so honest a servant in you? Courage is not simply one of the virtues. It is the form of every virtue at the testing point. When darkness comes into contact with light, are you willing to be the light you are? Are you willing to follow your Father? Are you willing to expose evil for what it really is, in order that you may shine the light of Christ? That is true courage. And God says to your soul, every one of you, let there be light. Let's pray. God of light who shines in the darkness, we thank you for shining upon us and in us and through us. We thank you for the brightness of that light that has indeed woken us up, given us life. We thank you for calling us into your marvelous light. Help us, O Lord, to live in such a way that we too may shine that we might be as candles in the darkness, and to live in such a way that many are drawn to you. We are so aware of the darkness that remains yet in our lives. We say, who are we to expose anything in the lives of others? But you have made us light. You have caused us and called us to shine. So it is, Father, we pray that you would give us grace today, truly. to be that which Jesus called us to be, the city set on a hill, the light of the world. To your glory we pray, amen.