Let us call upon the name of our God in congregational prayer. Our Father which art in heaven, we come unto thee in this morning, making a joyful noise unto thee as part of all the lands which thou hast sent thy gospel to. We make a joyful noise unto thee, serving thee with gladness, coming before thy presence with singing, Not because in ourselves there is any natural joy and not because we ourselves have redeemed ourselves from destruction, but because thou art God. It is thou that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture. And so we enter into thy gates with thanksgiving and into thy courts with praise. We are thankful unto thee and bless thy name, for thou art good, thy mercy is everlasting, and thy truth endureth to all generations. We thank thee, Father, that even in the midst of our earthly sojourn, with the veil of tears before us, valley of the shadow of death hanging over our heads, that even in this veil, with its tears and its shadow, we may make a joyful noise unto thee. For though we change and go through many things in our lives, having times of joy and times of sorrow, times of fullness and times of want, times of great Victory and times that apparently are defeat. That nevertheless, in all these times, our times are in thy hand. And that all through these things thou art faithful. never changing Thy promise, never changing Thy love, but in Thy mercy and Thy grace visiting us and strengthening us. We thank Thee then, Father, that in the midst of many things we may yet make a joyful noise unto Thee, our God. And we beseech Thee, Father, in this day as we assemble in thy house before thy face, that thou wilt show us thyself, show us thy goodness, show us thy everlasting mercy, show us thy truth, which endureth to all generations, and show us all of this through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, thine only begotten Son, in whom thou hast revealed exactly the thoughts of thy heart concerning thy people. We pray, Father, that thou will comfort us with his blood, comfort us with his finished work and his completed sacrifice. Will thou comfort us with the knowledge that there is simply nothing that we must add and there is nothing we can take away, for our salvation is sure in Jesus Christ. We pray that thou will look upon us as a congregation in our many needs. Thou remember us in our weaknesses and our frailties. Thou dost remind us again and again that we are dust and that our days pass swiftly. And so remember our aged. Remember those who suffer the infirmities of body and soul. in their sojourn, those who are sick, those who are recovering, those who are broken, those who are mending. We pray, Father, Thy blessing upon us in all of our frailty, that our trust and our strength may not be placed in any physician, though we thank Thee for the means that Thou dost give for the healing of the body too. that our trust may not be placed in our own strength or in the things of this earth, but that our trust may rest entirely in Thee. We pray that Thou will remember us in our persecutions and our oppressions. We pray that Thou wilt be with those who are bowed down with grief in the weariness and sorrow of their afflictions. Will Thou grant unto us the grace of the gospel and the courage of faith and the knowledge of our Savior. We pray that Thou wilt remember us in all of our earthly needs, for we are indeed weak, but Thou art strong. We are dry and thirsty, but Thou dost send to us the refreshing gospel of our Savior. We are empty and starving and hungry, but Thou dost fill us with the bread of life. We pray, Father, that Thou will indeed nourish us unto everlasting life in this day. To that end, wilt thou remember us as we hear the gospel? Wilt thou prepare our hearts, that our hearts may be prepared by thee to receive the seed of the word? For we know, Father, that apart from thee and thy work upon us by thy sovereign grace, there is no hope and no hearing even of the scriptures. But because thou dost work by thy Spirit, we hear and understand the things of heaven. Remember thy servant as he proclaims thy word, that he might say, thus saith the Lord, that he might speak truly the things of the scriptures, so that we as a congregation, as the sheep of thy pasture, may have green grass and nourishing food with which our souls are sustained. We pray that thou will open his lips and set a watch over his mouth, that he may speak truly the gospel of our Savior and this for our comfort. We pray thy blessing also upon our elders. Watch over them and their labors among the flock. As they see to it that the congregation is fed with the truth week by week and service by service, and as they also give their good Christian counsel and assistance from the scriptures to those who are in need, we pray, Father, that Thou will bless and keep our elders in their labors. and wilt thou give unto them in their labors also the joy of their salvation, that they might with gladness see thy mercy to them, and that they might then, overflowing with thy mercy which thou hast shown unto them, bring that word to others. Will Thou give them courage also for the admonitions and rebukes that belong to their office also, that they might bring those boldly by saying, thus saith the Lord, and might with courage stand not on their strength, but on the strength of their Savior. We thank Thee, Father, for giving unto us in this place elders. Will Thou strengthen them and encourage them. But thou remember our deacons also, give unto them hearts that are filled to the brim and to overflowing with thy goodness, with thy riches. We pray, Father, that they may taste the heavenly gift, that they might taste and see that thou art good, and that they might, in that knowledge of thy mercies to them and thy riches to them, and bring the scriptures to those who are in need, and open them and bestow upon them the riches of the kingdom of heaven, so that they come through the door with their arms laden with the many good things of salvation, with which to comfort and cheer those who are in need and those who are distressed. We pray, Father, that thou will give unto us Comfort and peace of thy riches, for truly we are empty, truly we are needy, truly we hunger and thirst after righteousness because we have it not of ourselves. Truly we are poor in spirit, for there are no riches that belong unto us naturally. Will thou come to us through the gospel of our Savior and fill us with all the good things of thy kingdom and thy home. We pray, Father, that Thou will continue to remember our homes also. We thank Thee for the station and calling that Thou has given us as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers and children, brothers and sisters, single members. We pray that Thou will continue to look upon us in all of our various needs. Thank Thee also, Father, that Thou dost give mothers to Israel for rearing the children, for the keeping of the home. We thank Thee, Father, for this gift that Thou hast given. We receive it from Thy hand, and we beseech Thee, Father, that Thou wilt bless our mothers. Wilt Thou bless our fathers also? Wilt Thou grant unto them grace as they rear their children in the fear of Thy name? We pray, Father, that Thou wilt continue to bless us in all of our sojourn. We thank Thee, Father, for bringing us into Thy house where we might be refreshed. For truly, it is a wilderness in which we wander. Truly, there are many afflictions. We pray, Father, that Thou will remember Thy people among those who oppress us and who have persecuted us, who have despitefully used us. Will Thou remember Thy people who know not what they do? And will Thou awaken them, cause them to rise from the dead and give them light? We pray, Father, that Thou will also Maintain thy cause and maintain thy truth and that also through the destruction of Those who are thy foes and who from eternity have been rejected by thee We tremble at this father. We confess with the Apostle who is sufficient for these things and yet we know that our Thy glory is spread abroad in the salvation of Thy church and in Thy vindication of Thy church by the overthrow of her enemy. And so we beseech Thee, Father, that Thy will be done and that Thou wilt work all this Thy good counsel for Thy glory and for Thy church's comfort. We thank Thee for Jesus Christ in whom we are found. We thank Thee for Him in whom our life is hid. We thank Thee for Him who is our head and our mediator, who is responsible for us, who answers for us, and who has accomplished all things for our salvation. We thank Thee for Him who sits at Thy right hand in the heavens. We thank Thee for Him who liveth ever to make intercession for us. We thank Thee for Him who shall come again on the clouds of glory in the great day of judgment, the great day of our Lord. We look for Him and long for Him. Will Thou send Him in Thy time, and we beseech Thee, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Will Thou forgive the sins we have committed, wash them away in our Savior's blood. We thank Thee for the gospel of salvation. Will Thou comfort our weary souls by it. We pray that thou will also strengthen us to walk in all good works, to walk as children of light and not as the children of darkness, that thou will cause us to not only have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but also to reprove them. And we beseech Thee, Father, that Thou will continue to give us the comfort and joy of our salvation, which is entirely in Christ, and continue to give us the fruit of that salvation in a godly and holy walk. We pray that these good works that Thou hast before ordained, that we should walk in, might redound to Thy glory, and might be used by Thee for the profit of our neighbor also. Hear our prayer, Father, for we are weak, but Thou art strong. We are children, Thou art our Father. And so wilt Thou answer us in Thy everlasting mercy, for Jesus' sake. Amen. We worship the Lord now in the giving of our offerings. The first offering is for the general fund, and the second is for benevolence. Yeah. So, Psalter number eight, number eight. Stanza three, anxious and despairing, many walk in night. But to those that fear him, God will send his light. Our text in Ephesians five today informs us with the glad tidings of the gospel that we are now light in the Lord. We'll sing the four stanzas, all four of number eight. He sends their blessings from above. Today I am sitting by, in your heart he's sitting, whose mind and heart is being ♪ When he walked in light ♪ ♪ The jewels that he enriched ♪ ♪ The lights and his light ♪ ♪ In his ribbon flying ♪ We turn in God's word this morning again to Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5. Our text is verses 7 through 14. 7 through 14, but we'll read the first 21 verses of the chapter. Ephesians 5, beginning at verse 1. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love. as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh saints, neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. And now begin the words of our text. Be not ye therefore partakers with them, For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore, he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. That's the end of our text, we'll continue reading. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Thus far we read God's inspired and infallible word. May he bless it to our hearts this morning. Beloved congregation and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul in the immediately preceding context has informed the church what becometh saints. That is, what is appropriate for saints. The life that is fitting for the saints of God who have been devoted to Him and consecrated to Him in the love of God. And the life, the walk, that is appropriate for saints, that becomes saints, is not a life of fornication and lasciviousness, but a life, rather, of thanksgiving. Overflowing, not with the filth of the world, but overflowing with the thanksgiving of saints. And now the Apostle, having stood in the church as it were in Ephesus and looking out the windows of the church and seeing the parade of filth that passed by on the streets of Ephesus, and the Apostle having told the Ephesian Christians, now live among yourselves as becometh saints, the Apostle turns in our text to explain their relationship to those who are outside. to that whole parade of those who are going past, to those who they do business with, to those who are at the same market that they are, to those who may even be relatives of them. That whole parade of those who are passing by on the outside. The apostle now says to the church, be ye not partakers with them. The apostle is teaching here the antithesis that God has made between the church and the world, the antithesis between darkness and light. The apostle says, you should have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, and you should not partake with them, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. The Apostle's message in this passage is the spiritual separation of the people of God from the enemies of God. And as we have seen, the Apostle can hardly say ten words without grounding everything he's saying in the Gospel. And so the Apostle grounds this antithetical instruction in the Gospel as well, in those wonderful, glorious, heart-lifting words, Ye were sometimes darkness, you were like them. You were on the same path to destruction as they were, but now are ye light in the Lord. God has done something to you, you who could never bring yourself out of darkness, you who could never make yourself light, you who could not illuminate your mind, who could not give yourself life. God has done something to you who were darkness. He's made you light in Christ. That good news of the Gospel overflows in the life of the children of light. Which is why Paul immediately says, walk as children of light. He is describing here the overflow of this great work of the Gospel of God making us who were darkness, light. And as Paul develops this calling to the church to walk as children of light, he takes up various threads and follows them right through the text. He has the thread of light that he begins with and continues. That thread is in verse 8. Now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of light. He goes into v. 11 and speaks of the works of darkness. He speaks in v. 12 of those things done in secret, which is another kind of darkness. V. 13, they're made manifest by the light. V. 14, awake and Christ shall give you light. There's that thread that follows through the whole text of light. And there's the thread of life that follows through the whole text because light in Scripture often refers to life. In Him was light. We read of Jesus Christ, and in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Life is often connected with light in Scripture. And here, Paul weaves that thread of life throughout, ending finally with that call, Arise from the dead. And then he works the thread of fruit through the whole text as well, where he speaks in verse 9 of the fruit of the Spirit. tells us in verse 11 to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. There are all these threads that the Apostle is weaving together and all of this to teach us the wonder work of what God has done to us as members of the church. He has taken us out of that passing parade of those who are on their way to destruction. He has separated us unto Himself. He has illuminated us and given us light so that we know Him. We know His truth and have the life of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And now calls to us on the basis of that great work of God. You, Church of Jesus Christ, who were darkness but are now light, walk in this world as children of the light. And so we consider this text this morning under the theme, Walking as Children of Light. In the first place, consider children of light. In the second place, consider an antithetical walk. And in the third place, a spiritual walk. Walking as children of light. First of all, children of light, then an antithetical walk, then a spiritual walk. The Apostle in this passage is showing the contrast between darkness and light. That's where the text finds its center. That's the anchor of the text or the fountain of the text. There is this distinction and this contrast and this antithesis between darkness on the one hand and light on the other hand. That's what the Apostle brings up in v. 8. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. He brings that up again in v. 11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. He brings that up again in v. 13. All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. And again in v. 14. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Through the whole text, There is this contrast between darkness and light. And Paul is describing in that contrast the spiritual distinction that exists between God's people and God's enemies. There is a spiritual distinction that can be described as darkness versus light. The darkness of which Paul speaks is the darkness of unbelief, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of disobedience, the darkness of death. All of those things can be found throughout the text and the context. For example, in verse 14, arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light, indicating that the opposite of this light is death. And therefore, this darkness represents death. Or in verse 6, the immediate context, the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience, so that this darkness is disobedience. And there's another way to translate that word disobedience, which is unbelief. It's the disobedience of unbelief. So that this darkness is unbelief. And this darkness is the ignorance, the spiritual ignorance, the culpable ignorance, the ignorance for which one is guilty of not knowing what the will of the Lord is, and so not doing the will of the Lord. All of that is represented by this darkness. It is a spiritual death and a spiritual ignorance. And this is the darkness that belongs to all men by nature. This is the darkness of our totally depraved nature. This is the darkness into which Adam and Eve plunged the human race by their fall into sin, which fall was according to the eternal counsel of Jehovah, so that the totally depraved state of man is one of darkness. Contrasted with that is light. And light refers to the spiritual gift of illumination. It refers to the gift of faith. It refers to the truth. And it refers to life. And all of those things can be found in the passage or its immediate context as well. as well as in the contrast of light to darkness. The spiritual condition and quality of light is that one is alive. One is not in the darkness of the grave and the darkness of death, but he's alive, spiritually alive. That spiritual quality of light is that he knows the truth. He's illuminated so that he sees the truth, believes that truth, loves that truth, has that truth. The truth of God. The truth of God's work. All of this is light as contrasted to darkness. Two spiritual conditions. Darkness and light. And the Apostle Paul now says about the church, you are light. You were darkness. but you are now light." When the Apostle brings up this contrast between darkness and light, he is not talking of superficial things. He is not speaking in a shallow way. When the Apostle brings up darkness and light, he is speaking of a very deep thing. Because if you want to take hold of that light and trace that light to its source, then you will find that this light is not merely a spiritual condition of people, and in fact, first of all, not a spiritual condition of people, but that this light is first of all God Himself. God dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto. God dwelleth in that glory that is the radiating of His truth and His life and all His perfections. God is light. In God is no darkness at all. And if you look to the revelation of that light, then you find that that light is Jesus Christ who said in John 8, I am the light of the world. Jesus Christ is that revelation of the truth of God, the life of God, the illumination of God. Jesus Christ is the light. And then Jesus says regarding His people, ye are the light of the world, Matthew 5, indicating that the only reason we are light is because we belong to Him and partake of His light and reflect His light. And truly, that's what the Apostle is talking about here when he brings up the light of the church. The Apostle is telling the members of the Ephesian church, you have that same dark nature that all of those men passing by your church have. Ye were darkness. That's the condition of every man by nature. That ignorance, that blindness, that disobedience, that unbelief, that death. There's nothing good in that man. Nothing that's salvageable in that man. And that's what we all are by nature. But the Apostle says, God has done a wonder work of His grace upon you, for ye are now light. And when the church asks, how did He do this wonder work? Tell us the content of this wonder work. What does it mean that we are now light? The Apostle goes on to answer that by saying, now are ye light in the Lord. And there's that little proposition in again that carries the weight of the whole Gospel through the Epistle of Ephesians. That little proposition in to describe what God has done to us in Christ, giving us to Christ so that we are in Him, members of His body, one organism with Him, one flesh with Him, one plant with Him. Ye are now light in Christ. You who couldn't see, you can now see. You who had no illumination, You now have illumination. You who had no life but only death, you now have life. And it's not your own life. It's the life of Christ Himself. It's His light. And you who had no truth and who subjected everything to the lie, now you have the truth and stand on that truth and believe that truth. You are light in the Lord. And that great wonder of Jehovah God is indeed the wonder of Jehovah alone. The Ephesian church did not do anything to become light. They didn't climb out of their own darkness. They did not illuminate themselves. They were children of darkness. How could they illuminate themselves? What can a child of darkness do to bring to himself the light? But God came to them in his mercy by the gospel of Jesus Christ and rescued them according to his eternal counsel from their darkness and made them light in the Lord. Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. The result of that wonder work of God upon His elect people, making them light in the Lord, is that there is now a division, a sharp division, between them and the darkness. They carry around with them in their flesh, that totally depraved nature, that darkness. But they now have the light of Christ being in Christ. And because of that light of Christ, according to the counsel of God, there is a sharp division between the children of light and the children of darkness. The children of light do not walk as the children of darkness. Walk, the Apostle says, as children of light with the implication, don't walk anymore as the children of darkness. The Apostle says in v. 7, Be not ye therefore partakers with them. There's that division between the light and the darkness. And verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. As the Apostle stands in the church with the Ephesians, who have been made saints by the grace of God, who have been made light by the wonder work of God in Christ, the Apostle says to them, you are different than the darkness. Now don't walk with the darkness. Be separate from the darkness. Which means that the Apostle applies this truth of the Gospel of our light in the Lord to the matter of our antithetical walk in this world. When the Apostle says walk as children of light, he is talking about an antithetical walk in this world. And there are several things to see about that glorious, beautiful, though difficult, that glorious, antithetical walk. In the first place, this separation that God has put between the light and the darkness is a divine separation. God Himself makes that separation. God, according to His eternal counsel, decreed the fall of Adam and the darkness of the human race that would come upon them in that fall. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. God Himself, according to His decree, brought that darkness upon the human race, though Adam was guilty for it in his fall. And God is the one who comes to that darkness and rescues some of the people from that darkness by making them light, by giving to them who is the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that every one of his elect people is made light in the Lord. God is the one who makes that distinction. God is the one who makes that division in the human race. That's not a division that is caused by man. And that is the answer to the accusation of those who say about an antithetical walk or an antithetical doctrine that you have divided You have made a division. You have separated yourself by something that you have done. The answer of the child of God regarding that division is this is the division the Lord has made. He is the one who made light, who made His people light and rescued them from the darkness. And therefore, when we do not run with you to the same excess of riot, when we cannot go along with you in your false doctrine, when we cannot live with you in your wickedness and sin, that's not due to us. That's due to Jehovah God. This is a divine division. This also serves then as warning and admonition to the church that the church must not fight against that division. The church must not try to smooth over that division. The church of Jesus Christ, not knowing who God's reprobate finally are, But during all of our life on this earth, living with them and even among them, the Church of Jesus Christ desires the salvation of the men she comes in contact with. The Church of Jesus Christ seeks their conversion to the truth, and their being brought out of darkness into light, if it be the will of God. But the church of Jesus Christ in seeking that salvation does not try to smooth over the fact that there is a spiritual division between the light and the darkness. That's always a temptation for the church. It's a temptation because of the accusations that will come upon us of being arrogant perhaps, It's a temptation because there are people that we know very well and love very well who are divided by this division. When the apostle spoke to the Ephesians, he wasn't saying to them, well, there's people living on the other side of the city of Ephesus that you've never met, you never will meet, and those are the people I'm talking about. So their darkness over there, you're never going to have to worry about them over here. The Apostle speaks of reproving them, reproving those works of darkness and having no fellowship with those unfruitful works of darkness. So that the people that Paul is talking about were people that were known to these Ephesians. There's always a temptation for the church to smooth over this division. and to deny even this division. The Apostle says, don't live that way, but rather walk as children of light. This is a divine division that the Lord has made. A second thing to see regarding this antithetical walk is that the division that the Lord has made is a spiritual division. It is a division between the truth and the lie. That's what the light is in Scripture. The light is often the truth. The light is emphasized as the truth here in this passage. So that when the Apostle says. In verse 13. All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. He is referring to the Scriptures there as the light. The Scriptures are that light. They are what reprove. They are what make manifest. And so when the Apostle speaks of the light versus the darkness here, he's speaking of the truth versus the lie. He's speaking of the life also that flows from that truth and the life that flows from the lie. The Apostle is saying there is a spiritual division, a spiritual separation between that lie and that truth. Between that obedience and that disobedience. Between that unbelief and that faith. The division of which the Apostle speaks is not a division of a physical commune coming out from the physical life of the world and living without any contact whatsoever with the world. The Apostle in other places informs the church and instructs the church that if you had to leave behind everyone who sinned and who walked in sin, you'd have to go out of the world. And that when the Apostle forbid fellowship with some, he was not saying you have to go out of the world. There's a spiritual separation and a spiritual division. A division of the lie versus the truth. Obedience versus disobedience. Faith versus unbelief that God has put into the human race. That means that the church of Jesus Christ in Ephesus, lived in Ephesus. She didn't have to leave Ephesus, but lived in Ephesus. She lived next to the temple of Diana. She lived next to all those magicians who had all their magic books. She lived next to all those traitors from all over the world. Those pagan, crass traitors from all over the world. She lived in the midst of society. Went to market with them. Were next door neighbors with them. The spiritual division, walking as children of light, didn't mean go out of the world. And so for the church of Jesus Christ today, this spiritual, antithetical walk does not mean go out of the world, or withdraw into a commune somewhere, but right in the midst of this world, where you have your station and your calling, rubbing shoulders day by day with many who are darkness, walk there as children of light, spiritually different. The next thing to see regarding this antithetical walk from the text is that the apostle describes how this separation is revealed. There needs to be some way to test and determine what is light and what is darkness. The apostle says in verse 10, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. That's a beautiful verse, beautiful addition of the Apostle under inspiration to this whole matter of the antithesis. The Apostle there is saying there's a way to prove what is acceptable unto the Lord. That is, there is a way to prove what God requires or what He doesn't require. There is a way to prove what is true and what is false. You're not left to your own devices for this. So that by this proving, you can see where the lines of that antithesis run. And what is it that the church uses to prove what is acceptable unto the Lord, but the Holy Scriptures? It's almost as if the Apostle Paul has those Old Testament scrolls in his hand or on his desk as he's writing this portion to the Ephesians. He speaks of reproving evil works. Verse 13, "...by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light, And it's as if his eyes are falling upon those Scriptures, and he's saying, you want to know where light is known and found? It's here in this Word of God. That's the proving, that's the testing of what is true and what is false. That's the proving and testing of what is obedient or disobedient. That whole concept of proving by the Scriptures is so foreign. in the thinking of much of the church today, and it can easily become a foreign concept to us. The thinking of much of the world today is that I test what's right and wrong by what I feel. Because I am a child of God after all. I am light. I'm one of those that Paul describes here. And therefore, what I feel in my heart or in my mind to be right and good must be right and good. Or the test of what is right, if it's not the feelings of one man, is the feelings of the majority then. And majority opinion rules. So that as long as I can find enough people who say with me, yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. And that's wrong. Then I can test what is right. That's not what the Apostle says about this proving. The Apostle says proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Especially when there needs to be an excuse to be able to say to someone, you know, that lie, I'm not so concerned about that. Or that disobedience, I'm not so concerned about that. When there needs to be an excuse to excuse someone, Then the church is very tempted to fall back on our own devices. How we judge things. How we feel about things. The ties that we have. The Apostle says to the church of Ephesus, you prove what is acceptable to God. This whole matter of walking as children of light antithetically from the darkness is revealed in the Scriptures. The next thing that the Apostle says regarding this antithetical life is that he describes what that separation looks like in our life. That's especially verses 7 and 11. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. That's talking about people. And then verse 11, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. And that's talking about deeds. The spiritual separation is a separation of people and it is a separation of deeds. Not a separation of people in the sense that one might never come into contact with that person. Not a separation of deeds in the sense that one removes himself from any place where those deeds are being done so that he never sees those deeds and knows about those deeds. This is still life in the world. Still in the world, but not of the world. Still in Ephesus, though not of Ephesus and Diana. still in West Michigan, though not of the darkness that is in West Michigan. The separation is this, verse 7, be not ye therefore partakers with them. And that word partaker is a word that we get our English word symmetry from. There's no spiritual symmetry between us and them. Which means we do not support them in their lie, or in their disobedience, or in their unbelief. We do not approve their lie, their disobedience, their unbelief. We give no indication to them that we are behind them that we are upholding them, that we are conniving at their lie, their disobedience, or their unbelief. With respect to their lie, their disobedience, or their unbelief. We do not promote their lie, disobedience, or unbelief. Be not therefore partakers with them in their lying, their disobedience, and their unbelief. And, verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. That fellowship describing a close mixing together that fellowship describing a unity in thought and purpose. There is no unity of thought or purpose with regard to those lies, that disobedience, and that unbelief. And so have no fellowship with those unfruitful works of darkness. When Paul describes the unfruitful works of darkness that way, with which we are not to fellowship, he emphasizes how impossible it would be for us to have fellowship with them, for us to have a symmetry with them, or be partakers with them. Those are works of darkness. Those are works that cover over the truth and deny the truth. Those are works that are vile. and abhorrent to God. Those are works that he rejects in his Scriptures. How can the child of God have fellowship with those kinds of works of darkness? How can the child of God connive at the covering over the truth of Jehovah God? And they're unfruitful works. Those works don't manifest the fruit of the Spirit, which is goodness and righteousness and truth. Those works manifest the corruption and rottenness of the father of the lie. They manifest the corruption and the rottenness of the darkness. They're unfruitful works of darkness. The Apostle, speaking to a church in Ephesus that would be sorely tempted, having been darkness themselves, knowing all about that, that would have been sorely tempted to be partakers with them and to have fellowship with those on fruitful works, he says to them, don't. That's how you walk as children of light in this world. Don't be partakers with them. Don't have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. What the Apostle says here is a principle. This does not now give a long checklist of ten steps or a hundred steps for how that has to look in every single circumstance. There were people of God who had questions for the Apostle about this from other cities. Corinth, for example. Well, what about? Me who am a converted wife and my husband's not converted. Then how do I deal with that? Do I have to leave the house? And Paul gives instructions specifically for that case. If your husband's pleased to dwell with you, then dwell with him. For who knoweth whether he will be converted Godly conversation of the wife. There's instruction that Paul gives to specifics throughout the congregation. But the principle that he's laying down is this. Do not partake with them in their lying, in their disobedience, in their unbelief. And have no fellowship with their unfruitful works of lying. disobedience and unbelief. That's the principle. And that principle there may be no covering over. There may be no weakening of. The Apostle goes on to teach regarding this antithetical life that it involves reproof. Verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. The apostle says to the Ephesian church, it's not enough simply that you say, OK, well, when you do that thing, I'm not going to do it with you. I'm just going to be quiet about it. I'm not going to do it with you. Or when you teach that lie, I'm not going to say anything, but I'm not going to teach that lie with you. The Apostle says, have no fellowship with those unfruitful works, but rather reprove those unfruitful works. Which means that the members of the church have something to say about those unfruitful works of darkness. And reprove here means condemn them. And condemn them with proof. Expose those sins and those lies for what they are, sins and lies. When the apostle goes on in verse 12 to say, it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, he hasn't left behind this idea of reproving. You can see that in verse 13 because he uses that word reprove again. In verse 12, the Apostle is not saying this, their works are so wicked, you won't even believe what they do in secret. You couldn't even imagine what they're doing behind closed doors. They're that bad. And so it's a shame for us even to think or say anything about that. That's not what the Apostle is saying. The Apostle himself in Romans 1, wrote about the most depraved, disgusting wickedness that belongs to the world when they make an idol and serve that idol instead of Jehovah God. He writes about men working with men, that which is unseemly. Women using the natural use of the man. There is a description there in the apostles language of Gross depravity and gross sin. The Apostle is not saying it may never even be mentioned or come up among you that of the things that they do in secret, but rather the Apostle is saying this. These things that they do are shameful. So that speaking of them. Shames those who do them. The lie is shameful. The lie drags God off His throne and tramples His truth in the mud. That's a shameful thing. And God's elect people who get caught up in that will be ashamed when the disgustingness of that lie is pointed out. Or those who walk in disobedience. That disobedience is shameful. so that speaking it, mentioning it, reproving it to them, those who are elect, will bear the fruit of their being ashamed of what they do. Paul here is telling the church that when you live this antithetical life, you reprove those evil works for the sake of God's people among them. And how do you reprove those works? Not by, well, I think this is wrong or I think you should do this instead. But verse 13, all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. There's Scripture again. The Scriptures illuminate why this is wrong and disgusting and shameful. For whatsoever doth make manifest these scriptures is light. This is the thing that makes manifest, and this is the light. This is where you see Jesus Christ, the light of the world. This is where you see God dwelling in light which no man approacheth unto. Reprove them by the scriptures. And as the apostle speaks of This antithetical separation, the spiritual separation. Walking as children of light. The Apostle shows that the church in this antithetical walk. Walks in love. And humility. The antithesis as difficult as the antithesis might be when it comes to. relationships, the antithesis is a beautiful, beautiful truth. Because the antithesis is the gospel. That's where it comes out of. The antithesis doesn't come out of the law. The antithesis comes out of the gospel. You were darkness and you're made light. How did that happen? By God's grace, by God's mercy. That's the source and the fountain of the antithesis, that glorious work of God. How do you know the truth? And how do you recognize the lie when it comes? Not because you're so brilliant. Not because you studied harder than anyone else. But because God made you light, that's how. God has made you different. God has bestowed His grace upon you. God rescued you from your darkness and made you light. So that now, when you live in this spiritual separation, it is not a matter of hatred of the darkness in the sense of malice against that darkness, against those people. It is not a case of malice. But rather you live in this separation in love for God, love for His truth, love for His Word, and love for your neighbor, and love even for your enemy. When Jesus speaks of the hatred that we have, hatred of father, mother, brother, sister, or when the psalmist, Jesus again in Psalm 139, speaks of hating those that hate thee, O God, That hatred does not refer to a maliciousness, a root of vengeance, or a root of bitterness that is stuck in our hearts. But rather, that hatred refers to alignment. You don't align yourself with the cause that is contrary to Jehovah God and His truth. That's the hatred. You do not connive at it. You do not build it up. You do not support it in that lie. But Jesus said also, with regard to this antithetical life, you have heard that it hath been said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemy too. Pray for those who despitefully use you. The antithesis can be turned into a wretched thing. A very, very corrupt thing. By making the antithesis arise out of malice. The Apostle doesn't speak of the antithesis that way. He speaks of it in terms of love, and he does that in that. What sometimes is considered a strange verse, verse 14? Wherefore, he saith. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. The assumption, the almost universal assumption, is that Paul is quoting someone here. That's what it sounds like. Wherefore he saith. And he's quoting someone as a proof for what he had just said, that the word of God is what makes manifest and therefore reproves sin. And so the question is, where in the world does that quotation come from? And you search high and low through the Old Testament, and it's not there. There's no sentence like this. There's things that are maybe related. Isaiah has passages like, Arise, shine, thy light is come. But that is quite far from what the apostle is saying here. And so some propose, well, maybe there's something in the Apocrypha, those books that were written in the Old Testament, but that are not part of the canon. Maybe there's something there that we don't have in our Old Testament. That's not it either. Paul isn't quoting there. Others say, well, maybe there's something in the Septuagint. In the Old Testament, there was that translation of the Bible into Greek. And maybe he's quoting something from there, which Bible he would have had in his hand. That's not it either. And so others say, well, probably there's some other document we don't know about. There's an early Christian hymn is the most popular explanation that the Church of Ephesus would sing on Sundays. And so Paul is quoting the popular words of that hymn that they would have had. And that can't be it either. Because the Apostle, in just a few verses, is about to tell the church what to sing in church. And it's not going to be these hymns that men made up, but it's going to be the Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs that are the 150 songs of David. So what is this then? Well, what the Apostle is doing here is not quoting any previous source. There's simply nothing to be found of any previous source. What the Apostle is doing is stepping into the shoes of the child of light who's reproving the unfruitful works of darkness. And the He in v. 14, wherefore He, Seth, is that child of light. who is living and walking as that Child of Light, not having any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reproving them and reproving them by the Word of God, which is what makes manifest. And then Paul says, wherefore He, that Child of Light, saith, and now tells what that Child of Light says. And what is it that the Child of Light says but the call of the Gospel to that unfruitful work of darkness, that one who is walking in sin or the lie or unbelief. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, my neighbor, My brother, my fellow citizen, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Don't you see you're in darkness? Don't you see you're dead? Don't you see you're insensible? You're sleeping spiritually. Awake! Wake up! Rise up from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. And that call of the Gospel there works the way the call of the Gospel always does. Not by giving a condition for salvation. You first do this. Wake up. Rise up. And then God will do this. He'll give you light. But rather that call of the Gospel works the way it always does by declaring the promise of the Gospel. There's light in Christ. There's light in Christ for the sinner. There's light in Christ for the one who's in darkness. And it calls Him Not to show the order that God operates in, calls him first to awake and arise, and then afterwards God will do something for him. But in order to confront that sinner with the seriousness of his darkness. Don't you see you're asleep? I don't tell a person who's already awake, wake up. I tell someone who's asleep, wake up. And you're asleep. And you don't tell someone who's already risen to arise. You tell someone who's dead to arise. You're dead. Arise up. It emphasizes the urgency of the death and the sleep of the sinner. But it's the call of the gospel, which call of the gospel God uses to save his people from their sins. To bring them to himself. To give to them the whole inheritance of heaven. That's the way this antithetical life works. That's not An antithetical life of malice for everyone and a snarl and a scowl and pride and arrogance regarding everyone. But it's an antithetical life that rises out of the gospel and with deep humility for what God has done to me and done for me, saving me from my sin. Now I call you who are darkness, you who are walking in sin, wake up, rise up, you dead one, you sleeping one. There's light in Christ. Christ shall give you light. There's light only in Christ. Nowhere else. Not in your wisdom. Nowhere else. Wake up and Christ shall give you light. This walk of the child of light, of the children of light, is a spiritual walk. What we are describing here is nothing that the child of God can do in his own strength whatsoever. It is a life that is simply given to him so that the whole of that life must be attributed to Jehovah God. That's verse nine, for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. As far as my righteousness before God and truth and goodness, all of those things with which I stand before God, that comes from Christ, whom I am in. I am in Christ and all His righteousness is mine, standing before God. And now we speak of the fruit of it, the result of it, that God works by this Gospel. And the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. It is the fruit, the effect of this being made light. And it is the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of me, my will, my energy, my desire, but it's the fruit of the Spirit. He gives it entirely. The Reformed faith does not minimize the good works that God gives to His people as if those gifts of good works are something we are suspicious about or something that we don't think very much of. The Reformed faith does not minimize the good works that God gives as fruit. What the Reformed faith does is not rest on those good works, not attribute anything to them, but all of salvation to Christ. And when one would come and say, but you did it, you did it, the answer of the Reformed faith is always, yet not I. Whose fruit is it? It's the fruit of the Spirit. He did it. And that can be illustrated, as has been done before, but it's worth doing it again. That can be illustrated with three objects on that side of the room. A block of wood, a stalk and a block. Next to it, a marionette puppet with all strings attached from the controller board to the arms and the legs and the feet and the hands and the head, a marionette puppet and a human being. Those three things. A stock and a block, a puppet, a human being. And God is going to move all of those to the other side of the room. How does God move a stock and a block? He picks it up. carries it across the room and sets it down. That stock and block has no movement, no motion of itself. There's no limbs coming out to move around. That stock and block has no knowledge of it, no will to it. There's simply nothing going on in the stock and block. But it gets to the other side of the room. How about that puppet? Well, God might move that puppet to the other side of the room by taking the control board and moving the limbs of that puppet so that it looks like it's walking across the room and gets to the other side. That puppet had no knowledge of what was going on, didn't will it, but its limbs moved and it looked like it was walking. How does God move the human? God moves the human by entering into that human's mind and soul. By touching that human's will and reason. By causing that human to stand up and with his arms and legs to make his way across the room knowing what he's doing, thinking about what he's doing, desiring what he's doing. And he gets to the other side of the room. And now at the end of that, no one may say, well, The stock and block didn't do anything. And the marionette kind of did something, but the human really did something. No one may say God moved two of them, but he didn't move the third one. There was cooperation in the third one. Rather, one must say at the end of all of that, God moved all of them. Not one of them did it of his own will, of his own volition, of his own knowledge, of his own motion, of his own strength. God moved them all. He moved them all according to their nature. Picking up a stock and block, moving the limbs of a marionette, working in the mind and will of a human being. But God very much moved them all. so that the child of God says about all of this walk, it's simply a spiritual walk, it's simply the fruit of the Spirit, yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me. And that's glory to God, which is always the fruit of the gospel. For God has come to those whom he has made saints, rescuing them from their darkness and making them light in the Lord. and making a spiritual distinction between them and the lie and the liars and the disobedient and the unbelievers. And God has given to us that walk of the children of light. And so, beloved, ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Amen. Our Father, which art in heaven, we thank thee for thy word to us this morning. Bless it to our hearts for our encouragement. We pray, Father, that thou will apply this word, for we are darkness of ourselves. We thank thee that thou hast made us light in Christ. That thou forgive all of our sins against thee, blotting them out in Jesus' blood. Keep us from sin and comfort our weary hearts. For Jesus' sake, amen. Psalter number 71, number 71. Jehovah is my light and my salvation near. We'll sing the first and the last, one and five of 71. O what is my life, and my salvation here? Whose shall my soul find, or cause my heart to fear? ♪ My soul remains ♪ ♪ I will do it ever now ♪ ♪ Above my foes around ♪ ♪ Up in the hedgerows now ♪ ♪ My song trails to the breeze now ♪ ♪ The Lord God, the God of Israel ♪ ♪ Who only knew with wondrous mercy, glory, and excel ♪ ♪ Who only knew with wondrous mercy, glory, and excel ♪ Ascend ye his glorious name to all eternity. The whole earth let his glory hear. God and soul, let it be. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.