Please take your copy of God's Word and turn with me to Ephesians 5, starting in 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 cleanness 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 you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath an 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. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is 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 approved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepeth and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. Let's go again to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you. Father, we thank you for the word that you've given us, that you've given us a word that is rich in wisdom and mercy and grace. And you have brought us here today to hear your word, Father, and what you have to teach us. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts Help us, Father, to see what You have to teach us. Help us, transform us, conform us to the image of Your Son, Father. We pray in Your Son, Christ Jesus' name, Amen. Scripture tells us that God is light. 1 John 1 5 it says, this then is the message which we have heard from him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. We also see in scripture many times when Christ or God comes into the presence, when God comes into the presence of Old Testament Israel, they often say the glory of the Lord shown around them, recognizing that there's a light that comes forth from God, from his glory. We read a description of the temple in heaven. And we're told that the glory of the Lord filled the temple, the brightness of His glory. In fact, in Revelation, where it talks about what that new city will be like, that new Zion. And it said, And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God did not lighten it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." The concept of God being light and Christ being the light is a concept that we find throughout the Old and New Testament. For there is no darkness at all in God. See, we oftentimes approach creation, and sometimes we lose sight of the glory of God even in creation. But we must recognize that even in the created order, God is oftentimes teaching us about Himself, showing us what He has to help us to understand what he has for us, to understand who he is and how he works in us and through us and through his creation to reveal himself. We talk about the special revelation of God, which is what we have in his word. But we also talk about that general revelation that he's given us. And so I want to look at this concept of light and darkness before we look at the text today. And to think about even from what we see in the created order. What God is teaching us. One of the things we learn very quickly, if we are those who have tried to grow a garden or anything, I mean, you read these descriptions. Most plants nowadays come with instructions because most of us aren't real familiar with gardening, so they have instructions that tell us how to plant things. And most things that produce fruit, say, requires full sun. There are a few things partial sun, but most things full sun. And so you plant them where they can gain light. Now we understand through science the idea of photosynthesis. This idea that God has designed plants in such a way that they take energy from the light of the sun and convert it to food to feed the plant. And so we see this concept a life coming from light. This concept of the light feeding even in God's creation. We also see the idea of darkness and darkness being pushed back by the light. Think of, I'm sure many as I have, have been on a tour of a cave. And oftentimes in these tours, they like to turn the lights off. So you can experience what total darkness is. Because most of us, unless you've been in a cave, have never experienced total darkness. And they'll have you try something. They'll have you put your hand in front of your face and see if you can see your hand at all. And even with a bit of time for your eyes to adjust, you can see nothing. But what does it take? to light that cave. What does it take to push back the darkness so that you can see? The smallest of a spark will light that cave. And that's how God is when He comes into the darkness and shines forth His light. It pushes back the darkness. You recognize that darkness can only exist where there is no light. It takes but a small amount of light to push back the darkness, but there is no amount of darkness that can put out the light. Darkness can only exist where there is an absence of light. See, God did not create life where there is an absence of no light. He created the world and He was the light. And then He created lights that He affixed in the heavens to be lights for the earth. But we recognize that even when you find creatures that live in these caves, oftentimes they have changed because of the circumstances of being in a cave. But you can always find their relative outside the cave. And you recognize that even that creature that's living inside the cave is still dependent upon light because the nutrients that come in through the water that passes into that cave is what it feeds upon. And apart from light, there would be no nutrients in the water. We think of even mushrooms. Mushrooms grow in the dark. But even that mushroom, that fungi that grows, must feed upon something that was produced by the light. So the absence of light is the absence of life. And so as we think about these concepts, even in creation, we recognize that light is necessary for growth and that darkness is pushed back by the light. See, a total absence of light means no life, no creation, no God. But God is light, and we are called to learn to walk as children of light. And in the passage today that I've titled, Learning to Walk as Children of Light, we start with verse 8. And he's already talked about this concept of putting off sin and putting on righteousness. And he talks about walking in love as Christ is love. And now we get to the section where he talks about walking in the light as children. In verse 1 of chapter 5, it says, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. And remember that concept that we are to follow God. We imitate God as dear children. And we talked about how children imitate their parents. Well, that concept of being imitators comes up again in verse 8. It says, For you were sometimes darkness, but now you are the light of the Lord. Walk as children of light. So we must walk. as those who are light bearers. Well, first I want to look at the previous state and our current state. And he points this out to the Ephesians. He wants them to understand the difference between darkness and light so they can understand how they are to properly walk. Let's look at our previous state. This is, for ye were sometimes darkness. Now the word sometimes in the King James for modern day readers might be a little unfortunate. It's not saying that sometimes you're light and sometimes you're not, sometimes you're darkness and sometimes you're not. It's saying formerly once in the past you were darkness. It didn't say you had darkness in you, you were darkness. And it's saying that there was no light in us. Total darkness. This lends itself to our understanding of the doctrine of what we teach as the total depravity of man. Recognizing that there is nothing in us that is good. There is nothing in us where we can save ourselves. That we are totally depraved. Total darkness. And that we need a Savior. We need the light. We are told that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. We are told that men love the darkness rather than the light. That is the condition that we were all in. It says, of such were some of us. Most of us here can remember a time when we were in darkness. We can remember a time when we were consumed with darkness and sin. And we can remember a time when God brought the light to our heart. See, he's speaking to the Ephesians here. See, they were pagans. Most of us grew up in homes where even if they weren't Christian homes, in some form or another we were exposed to the Gospel. But these Ephesians were complete pagans. They lived apart from the people of God. They were those who worshiped false gods, those who performed all kinds of sinful acts as worship of their false gods. And the light was brought to them, to a people in complete darkness, utterly doomed to hell. And the light was shown to them, the light of the gospel. When Paul went and he established a church there and he preached the gospel to them so that they could see the light and that their hearts could be transformed. And many of us can relate to that, we can remember when we were of the darkness, when our hearts were transformed. But what about covenant children? What about those who have been raised in the church? Now we recognize as Presbyterians that God's promises are for us and our children. And when we make profession in Christ Jesus of our faith and we are saved and we have children, we bring them to be baptized into the church by the profession of our faith that we will be those parents that will raise them in the light. We will be those that will expose them to the light. But we don't assume that they are regenerate at that point. For only God knows when man's heart is made regenerate, for it's a work of God. But we do recognize that by exposing them to the light, we will bring forth the darkness to light, and God will do a work in them, and He will transform them. And at some point, because we believe in the promises that God has given us, He will regenerate them. But we raise them up as covenant children. And so even children, many of them, that are raised in covenant homes can remember a point in which they were in darkness, when there was no real conviction of sin. But there are some that are made regenerate at a much younger age, and maybe they don't remember that point in time at which God transformed their hearts. But they still recognize that in the whole process of sanctification, in this process of being exposed to the light of the Gospel, the light of God's Word, that there is times when darkness is revealed and it's brought out and it's pushed back. See, we are also light because Christ is the light of the world and He's in us. We had no light in us, but when we were transformed, when our hearts were quickened and we were given new hearts, we were made children of light. And it's a process of learning, and I believe it's important to understand this concept that we see throughout the New Testament, that we come to faith as children, recognizing that it is a process. It's a process of sanctification. It's a process of allowing the light to separate darkness. And that many times, just as young children are not born able to walk, And I'm sure many of us parents are thankful that they don't walk the day they're born. But we must care for them. And you see that process of them learning to walk. You see that process of them learning to stand first. And they begin to mimic us. They want to be like us, their parents. And they start to walk and they fall over and they bump into things. And they bump their head. But it's a process of learning. And learning to walk in the light. It's a process of constantly living in such a way that we are coming under the light of God's Word and allowing darkness to come to light. Allow sanctification to take place so that we can walk as Christ walked. In the Gospel of John, we are told in verse 12-36, it says, While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be children of light. Speaking of himself, while Christ was with them, they were to believe in Christ that they may be children of light. This is this concept of being imitators of Christ here. John 12-46, I am come, a light into the world. that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness." Believing in Christ Jesus is to abide in the light, not in darkness. So what does this mean for us? To walk as children of the light, but yet we recognize that we were once of darkness. You know, you think about a thought of this children's song. My memory serves me correct. I was probably taught this at a very young age myself. And it's not a very theologically deep song, but it came to my mind. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No, I'm going to let it shine. The Gospel of Luke talks about that, that no one takes a light and puts it under cover. And that we are light bearers. We are those who present Christ to others by Him working through us. Christ is no longer with us. And just as He spoke in the Gospel of John, because I am the light and I am with you, believe in Me so that you can be children of light. We are now the light bearers that show Christ to others and show Christ to the world. And so therefore, we must expose ourselves to the light in order to reflect Christ to others. R.C. Sproul Sr. wrote a children's book called The Lightlings, in which he talks about this same concept in order to help children understand. And this group that had turned and did not obey the king, went into darkness to the point that they were groping and couldn't see. And they had gotten used to the darkness. And one day they saw a far off light. And they went to see what the light was. And there was this baby. And by looking upon this baby, it said they themselves began to glow. And the concept that he's trying to help children understand is when Christ is in you, we should shine forth the light of Christ in the way that we live. So we recognize that it is a learning process, walking in the light. But yet there's one more phrase here I want to bring your attention to. In verse nine, it says, For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Now, I don't know what version you're reading there. Most of your translations now say, the fruit of the light. Now, I don't often speak to textual variance, but I'll speak to this one real quickly. I actually think I would follow the thinking of others that this should be the fruit of the light, just to be consistent with what Paul is doing here, with this idea of helping us to understand what being exposed to the light is. Now, it doesn't change the meaning in any way. In fact, Paul clearly uses fruit of the Spirit elsewhere. But this is not a new versus old. This is not the majority text versus the later manuscripts. In fact, this was a textual variant that was even discussed in Calvin's commentaries. And he also believed it would be consistent with what Paul is teaching here to use the light. But what we recognize here is in no way does it change the meaning. For to have the fruit of the Spirit is to have the fruit of light. But I'm recognizing in order to be children of light, we must bear forth fruit consistent with the light. We think again about that idea of how things grow. If you've planted, and I'm going to use a fruit tree because it's a little bit longer process, but early, in fact, it won't be too long from now if you have fruit trees, you'll see, you'll wake up one morning, you'll look out and they'll be covered in blooms. And not too long after that, you'll see little fruit develop, but it's green and it needs to mature. And then eventually you have this ripe fruit that's good to eat. It's good fruit. And the idea here is that in this process of learning to walk into light, we should be bearing fruit. And as we expose ourselves to the light, as we take in the light, it continues to bear fruit in our life to the point that it is good fruit. It's fruit that encourages others. In fact, he describes that fruit. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Goodness. Now these are speaking about outward acts. It's saying that if you are a children of the light and you are walking according to children of the light, there should be some outward things that we can see in your life, outward fruit. that proves that you are children of light. The word goodness here is one who engages in doing good. Generosity. This is one that's generous towards others. Not only in physical time, money, but generous in their spirit towards others as well. Righteousness. Now, this is not a forensic righteousness here is talking about. This is not that fact that we are righteous, that we can stand before a holy throne of God because we're covered in the righteousness of Christ. This is speaking of an outward righteousness, the way one acts or conducts himself in truth. This is being in accord with what is true, truthfulness, uprightness and thought and deed. This is not the hypocrite. This is one who lives his life according to what the light teaches. Not just in word, but in deed. See, these are the outward acts of what it means to walk as children of light. So why do we walk as children of light? The second point here is to prove what is right. Verse 10. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. This word here, prove, means to test. It's the process of testing oneself. Now this is not a concept that we find alone here in Scripture. It's actually found throughout God's Word. It's the same word used for one who examines himself before coming to the Lord's table. We are instructed to examine ourselves before we come to this table here. And what this word is saying is we should be able to see that fruit in our life. See, this is a table for believers. This is a table for light bearers. And when we examine ourselves, we know that Christ dwells in us and that we can be partakers of His table. By walking consistently as children of light and producing the fruit of the light, you are proving what is pleasing to the Lord. Romans 8.16 says, The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. When we have the light in us, our own spirit bears witness that we are His children. In Romans 12, we are told, Beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The understanding there is the fruit that we bear and how we live is actually a sacrifice to God. proving what is acceptable to Him. Not only is it a sacrifice to Him, not only is it a sweet aroma to Him, but it is also an example to others. It's also the way in which we show Christ to others. In Colossians 1.10 it says, that ye might walk worthy of the Lord and to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. There again, this concept of proving ourself pleasing before God. And even in 2 Peter, Peter teaches in 2 Peter 1, verses 5-11, he gives a whole list of fruits of the Spirit, things that we should be increasing on, and things that build upon one another. And he presents this as a process that should be increasing. It's not a one-time event. It's a process of increasing in godliness. And he follows it up that we must be increasing these fruits of light in order to make your calling and election sure. So we are called to prove what is right, not only to be lightbearers to the world, but also to prove to ourself that we are truly in Christ Jesus. We are told that the Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. It gives us direction on how we must live. That is how we expose ourselves to the light. That is how we remove the darkness that is in us. is by being exposed to the Word of God. For how is he to know sin if you do not know what God's Word teaches? One of the sanctifying aspects of reading God's Word is it points out sin in our life and it helps us to remove it. But we're also called to reprove darkness with light. reprove darkness with light. That's verses 11 through 14 here. It says, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. I think this is an aspect in which we as a church and the church in America today has become much too lax on. This idea of reproving darkness with light Just proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And having no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. See, the word fellowship here means to participate with now earlier, it says to not partake with with those. Things of darkness, but here fellowship. It means to participate with or to be approving of. Unwilling. to shine the light upon these matters. See, we are being instructed that the deeds of darkness only produce bad fruit. It's not enough that we only not have fellowship with them. For many of us might feel that we have removed ourselves from fellowshipping or participating with those deeds of darkness, but this Word here tells us that not only are we to have no fellowship with them, but we are to reprove them. See, with the things of God, we are to prove them. We are to live in faithfulness to God's Word so that we can see fruit come forth. But when it comes to the deeds of darkness, we are to go nowhere near them, have no fellowship with them, do not participate in them, because we are to reprove them. The word reprove here means to bring light or to expose with the sense of admonish. In fact, some translations actually say expose. here instead of reprove. And so we recognize that there is an important concept in walking as children of the light that we must be those who reprove darkness. Secondly, if you look at the dictionary with the use of this word, it's also used in a sense that it can mean to bring a person to the point of recognizing wrongdoing, to convict or convince. So there's one sense in which we bring ourselves under the light in order to reprove sin, to correct sin, to expose sin in our life. So we subject ourselves to the preaching of the word. We subject ourselves to brothers and sisters in Christ who hold us accountable. But there's also the concept of bringing another person to the recognizing of wrongdoing. Convincing them that they are in sin. It's loving one another enough to bring forth the light to bear in the life of others around us. And a loving way to speak truth and love in their life and to see the light push the darkness out. There's a third way that reprove is used. It can mean to express a strong disapproval of someone's actions. This meaning is predominantly used in the pastoral epistles and could be in the sense of a public rebuke. And this is someone who is openly living in sin before everyone else. And it's saying those, especially those in authority, need to reprove or rebuke that person. This is necessary in order for the purity of the church is necessary to bring in the process of sanctification in order to expose ourselves to the light so that darkness can be revealed and brought into the light. 2 Timothy 2.21 says, If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meat for the master's use, prepared unto every good work. If a man is willing to bring himself under the light, to shine light upon the darkness in his heart, that he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, So we all need sanctification. We all need sanctification. There's a few more phrases here I want to deal with in this whole concept of approving darkness with light. First, well, for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. Here, in order to be consistent with the text, we are called to bring sins into the light so that shame can restrain sin. This is not speaking, as some commentators say, that we somehow should confront sin without naming the sin. For that would be impossible to do. What this is saying is we shouldn't allow even sins that are secret to stay secret. We have to bring forth the light even upon secret sins in order to bring shame. For see, shame in itself is a work of the Holy Spirit, the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to restrain sin. But it's not only in the church, it's also for our culture. We must describe sin the way God describes sin. We must allow shame to expose sin to restrain sin in the world. The rampant sin that we see in our country today, one of the reasons we see it is because there is no more shame attached with it. And one of the reasons there is no more shame attached to it is because the church no longer finds shame in it. God's people who are to bring light to bear upon the shameful things in this world are no longer bringing light to bear upon this world. They are no longer preaching God's law as a part of the gospel. They only preach love. But yet, we must be confronted first with the shame that comes from living in the darkness. See, this is where the church not only brings purity to the church, but we help transform our culture. We also see verse 13, it says, But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth a man make manifest is light. See, all things that are reproved by the light or made manifest by the light. What I believe this verse is teaching here that's consistent with the context of this idea of reproving darkness with light. See, all reproof must be with the light of God's Word. If we are going to bring darkness to light, it must be through the application of God's Word. For the Word is a light The Word reveals darkness. I believe we can also draw from this that if we are not willing to bring the darkness into the light, we are not manifesting the light ourself. One of the requirements of being children of the light is being willing to bring the darkness to the light. To help the light to manifest upon the darkness and to push the darkness out. See, we should be thankful when a brother or sister brings their own sin before us and confesses it. When they bring their own sin before the light and they confess their sin, we should be thankful when someone brings our sin to light. We should be thankful for our brother or sister that loves us enough that they are willing to bring the darkness that is in each of us to light and to allow God's Word to bear upon each of us and to sanctify us and transform us because we all need the light. We all need the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Let's look at the last verse here in verse 14. To reprove darkness with light it says, Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. See lastly we see that the authority of Christ to raise the dead is presented in the gospel of light. This is the authority that Paul is speaking from here. He says, "...wherefore he saith..." And I believe what Paul is saying here is I speak by the authority of Christ that this light will raise the dead. And I believe what he's teaching here is that when we fully understand that even when we look out to any body of Christ, we can't see the hearts. And there are hearts that need to be quickened. And if we are going to see God transform hearts, bring life where there is no light, then we have to bring the darkness into light. We have to see God transform hearts through the application of the law to sin in the body of Christ. And we recognize in this that when the church acts like the church, and when the church is bringing light to bear upon darkness, that we are an example to the world. We present the Gospel to the world by bringing reproof in the body of Christ. By bringing reproof upon the darkness and allowing shame to come upon the sins of this world. I want us to remember that we are called here to walk as children of light. And in order to be children of light, we must be willing to walk in the light. We must be willing for every aspect of our lives to be held accountable to God's Word. We must allow ourselves to be held accountable to each other, to encourage each other, to love one another, to speak the truth in love. We must be willing to prove what is right by the way that we live. We must bear fruit, good fruit, And we must be willing to reprove darkness with light. We must be willing to lovingly confront our brothers and sisters in sin and to allow the light of God's Word to shine in their life and to restore them in a right relationship with Christ Jesus. That's what it means to be a covenant community, to be lightbearers, to be children of the light, And I pray that we would be those who shine forth the light of Christ. Let's go again to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you and we thank you that you've given us this word, Father, that you teach us, Father, how we must live. And that Paul in the words that he has for the Ephesians has given us many arguments for how we must walk, how we must live, and that we would be those who put off the sins of the flesh and put on righteousness. That we would be those who clearly display the light of the gospel to the world around us, the light of the gospel to each other, and that we would see lives transformed by the loving application of God's Word to each and every life. And we pray in your Son, Christ Jesus' name, Amen.