Ephesians chapter 5. Now the word here is to true
disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to those that Paul has
been speaking to the whole way through the book. When he began
in chapter 1, he described us as those that God chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world, blessed us with all blessings
in Christ, and then predestinated us to the adoption of children. And Christ came forth and redeemed
us by His blood. That's who Christ laid down His
life for, those God chose. And then in chapter 2, He described
us as those who were walking in darkness, those who were children
of disobedience, just like every other sinner in this world. And
the only one that made the difference is God. who was rich in His mercy
to us, with His great love wherewith He loved us. He sent the Word
to us, and by grace, by His light, by His gift of faith, He regenerated
us. He made us children of God, and
by His gift of faith, He brought us to Christ and brought the
blessings of Christ into our heart. And so we are no longer
children of disobedience. We are of the household of God.
And he dwells in his people in spirit. Then in chapter 3, Paul
said he did this through preaching. And he spoke about how that God
called him to preach the gospel. And this gospel is so important
because he called him to make all God's people to see. And
to see, you have to have light. You've got to have light to see.
You can't see with darkness. You've got to have light to see.
And that's what the gospel is. The gospel is light. And so important,
Paul suffered imprisonment rather than cease to declare the truth
of Christ. And then, he told us in Ephesians
4, he said, now you've been given this great privilege of being
called into the body of Christ to hold forth the word of life,
to hold forth the word of light. He says, so therefore, don't
walk anymore as you once did as children of darkness. He said,
put off the darkness and walk as children of light. And then
in chapter 5, he began to get more specific in when he spoke
to us, and he said this. Back up there in verse 6, he
spoke of the children of disobedience. Now there he's talking about
the children of disobedience themselves. And he says, Be not
ye therefore partakers with them. And then you drop down to our
text in verse 11, and he says, And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness." He said, don't be a partaker
with them. And now he says, and have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. He says, but
rather reprove them. It means, but rather bring the
unfruitful works of darkness to light. Shine light on them. Shine light on them. Now here's
the point. We can never bring sinners to
the light of Christ by fellowshipping with the unfruitful works of
darkness. But rather, the way you reprove
the works of darkness is by walking as children of light." Now, that
seems simple enough. But now, we're going to understand
it a little better, I hope, by the time we get to the end of
this message. First of all, verse 11, he says,
"...have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
There are four things primarily that are involved in having fellowship
or that are involved with not having fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness. Number one, obviously, do not
do them. Don't do them. That's obvious
enough. Number two, don't be an accessory to them. And there's
a lot of ways we can be an accessory to unfruitful works of darkness.
For instance, by provoking somebody to unfruitful works of darkness.
That makes you an accessory. Or by consenting to them. By simply not speaking against
them. Sometimes you consent to them.
If you're with somebody, go along with somebody that's engaging
in unfruitful works of darkness, you're consenting to those. Consenting
to them. And so that makes you an accessory.
Another way is by not preventing them or repressing them. Eli
became guilty, became an accessory to the sins of his sons because
he didn't try to prevent them. He didn't repress them at all. And then you can become an accessory
by applauding the works of darkness. Sometimes young people, I'm talking
little people, young people, very young people, they'll hear
adults laughing about how somebody got the upper hand on somebody
else in a sinful way. Maybe they're an underdog or
something. You know how we love the underdog. And you kind of
applaud them for what they did and what have you. And the young
person thinks, well, that must be good. That must be how you
ought to walk. Or you keep talking about somebody
that maybe is a relative in your family and you sort of Speak
of them in a favorable light when the things that they do
are really sinful. And a young person grows up thinking, I want
to be like them. That's applauding sin. That makes
you an accessory to sin. And then by not speaking against
it, that makes us an accessory to sin. Those are ways you can
be an accessory to the unfruitful works of darkness. And then look,
thirdly, a way that we don't have fellowship is by avoiding
the appearance of sin. As Paul said, avoid the appearance
of evil. Even the appearance. If it just
makes somebody, gives them the impression that you're joining
with the unfruitful works of darkness, it will lead them to
do it. So he said just abstain from
even the appearance of evil. And then a fourth way that we
have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness is by detesting
them, by hating them in our hearts and in our affections. You remember
what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said to the Ephesians in Revelation
2. He said, This thou hast. Thou hatest the works of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He said, You hate their works,
and I also hate their works. Those are ways you don't have
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. And by him
saying that about the Nicolaitans, that's probably what Paul is
mostly speaking about here in Ephesians. That was a religious
group. And their unfruitful works of
darkness were religious acts. It was ways of trying to get
others to follow them and their God. And so these unfruitful
works of darkness can be immoral sin or they can be religious
sin. Either way. but they're unfruitful works
of darkness. And when you see how much is
involved in not having any fellowship with these works of darkness,
doesn't it make you, as a believer, want to pray like David did and
pray, Lord, cleanse thou me from secret sins? They're sins I don't
even know I'm guilty of. These things make us see how
easily we have fellowship with that which God hates. And we
don't hate sin nearly like God hates sin or as we ought to hate
sin. And then the second thing it
reminds us of is how holy our Savior was when He walked this
earth. He always pleased the Father. He never had any fellowship
with the works of darkness whatsoever. His walk and His speech reproved
the workers of darkness and their works constantly. That's why
they hated Him so. And then the third thing we see
here in this is how much of our sin that our Savior bore when
He bore all the sin of all His people. Not just the sin we know
and the sin we see, but sin we don't even have a clue about.
And that from all His people. Now, that's the first thing.
Then notice this. He calls these works unfruitful. Unfruitful. Sin produces nothing
good. It produces nothing beneficial
at all. It produces shame. And it produces
death. In Romans 6, Paul said this,
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is
death. You think of a thorn bush. Think
of a thorn bush. A spiritually dead sinner is
a thorn bush. That's what we were when we were
spiritually dead. We were like a thorn bush. Christ
said, do men gather grapes of thorns? Do you get fruit off
of thorns? There's no fruit from thorns.
And that's what spiritually dead sinners are. No matter how moral,
no matter how religious, they're the same as the most evil sinner.
Because all that we could produce were unfruitful darkness. That's all we could produce when
we were dead in sin. Why is that? Because all the
works of an unregenerate sinner, even when they're moral works,
they puff up, they exalt the sinner, and they completely dishonor
God. That's all these works do when
you're dead in your sins. And by teaching others, leading
others in unfruitful works of darkness and making others think
they can be saved by those works, they do harm to your neighbor
as well. As well as harm to you. And then
underneath all of it, while you're doing all these moral works,
which are totally unfruitful, underneath all of it, the heart
is still immoral. The heart is still wicked and
full of sin and evil against God and against men. When we
were dead in sins, Everything we did, everything we attempted
to do to find acceptance with God by the works of the law,
they were unfruitful works of darkness. Everything. They were the same as the sins
of breaking the law. Why is that? It's because we
were guilty in Adam. And it's because we had a sin
nature that was dead and was enmity against God. and could
in no way be in subjection to the law of God. So, the only
thing that could be done for us, for us to be saved, was to
be saved in light, to be saved in truth. That's the only thing
that could be done. What had to be done? First of all, our
old man had to be thoroughly convicted and punished according
to the justice of the law. In other words, we had to die.
Our old man had to completely die. The man, as we were born
into this world, that man had to be crucified and had to die.
And then we had to be created completely anew by Christ being
formed in us. And that was done through the
preaching of the gospel so that what was done for us on the cross
and what was done in us through the preaching of the gospel,
it was all done in light. It was all done in truth. And
so with this being done, Paul says this in Romans 7. He said,
Wherefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ. When Christ died, He completely
took out of the way the law and our body of sin because the law
satisfied. We died when Christ died, and
when He took our place, took our sin, took our judgment, we
died under the law. It's the same as if we went to
hell and suffered for eternity. And, well, no, it's better than
that, because Christ satisfied justice. We would have never
satisfied it. We'd have died forever. But He
satisfied it. So that's taken out of the way.
Our old man and the law is taken out of the way. That, you should
be married to another. even to Him that's raised from
the dead. And here's why, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. That's the only way we're going
to bring forth fruit, is by Christ dwelling in us, leading us by
the Spirit, creating fruit in us, being filled with fruits
of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and
praise of God. That's why he said this. Paul
said, for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, Everything
we did was sin in motion. That's what it was. And it was
all by the law. Whether we were breaking the
law, out and out breaking the law, or whether we were trying
to keep the law and come to God by the law, it was all just a
motion of sin. And what it brought forth, he
says, is it did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. A thorn can't bring forth fruit.
Period. But now the thorn's taken out
of the way. The bramble bush is taken out of the way. And
we've been made a new creature in Christ, married to Christ,
our husband, and his bride is going to bring forth fruit through
him. So he gets the glory. So we see
this was the unfruitful works of darkness. They don't do anything
but hurt the sinner. That's all they do. They produce
shame. They produce sickness. They produce
poverty. They produce death. They produce
misery and the life to come. Unfruitfulness. That's it. Next
off, he tells us this, we're exhorted, instead of fellowshipping
with the works of darkness, we're to reprove the works of darkness
by walking as children of light. He says, verse 11, at the end,
he says, but rather reprove them. Now here's the first reason,
for it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done
of them in secret. And here's the next reason, in
all things that are reproved or made manifest by the light,
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light." Now, here's the simple
meaning of this word. Instead of having fellowship
with somebody, by joining in with the unfruitful works of
darkness, whether it be in religion or whether it be in immoral sins,
either way, instead of having fellowship with these works of
darkness, in hopes that we can sort of gain their friendship
and maybe then we can start talking to them about the light, about
Christ the light, or bearing witness to them about the light. God says we're rather to reprove
them by walking as children of light. The first reason is it's
a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them
in secret. You know, there's a sense in which If you start
trying to speak about sin and sinners, you know, people get
up and they'll give a testimony. They'll just go on and on about
their sin and their immorality and all this stuff. And it sort
of teaches sinners to sin. It's a shame to even speak of
it. He says, and so joining men in the works of darkness in an
attempt to befriend them, he said, that's not going to work.
That's not going to work. That won't bear witness of Christ
to them at all. Now, I was talking to a lady
recently, and she was talking about the Lord has called her,
the Lord has saved her, but she don't have a church around her.
And so she was talking about going to a Bible study with a
whole bunch of religious folks. And I know her thought and intent
was, I can go there, And I could sit there, and this is a place
where everybody's going to be voicing their opinion. Nobody's
going to be listening to the other one. They all be thinking
about what they're going to say next. And everybody putting on
a vain show and talking about what they know and all this.
That's not how God said He'd save people. He said He'd do
it through preaching. Through preaching, you've got
to be quiet, and you've got to listen. It's humbling the way
God saves. And this is the means God blesses. I got to thinking about it. I
wrote her and I talked to her about it. What I got to thinking
about, though, is to go into this group situation like this,
where everybody is just voicing their opinion and engaging in
the unfruitful works of darkness with them. That's the same as
thinking you're going to bear witness of Christ by going in
and sitting on a bar stool in a bar with a bunch of folks and
preach Christ to them. What's the difference? What's
the difference? So-called churches today are
using the exact same tactics. Dress like the world. Play world
of music. Build a neon lit club. I went home and across the street
from the First Baptist Church, there was this neon club. And I thought, how in the world
did they get away with building that club right across the street
from the First Baptist Church? And my sister said, the First
Baptist Church built it. They built it. And what he's telling us here
is that's not going to bring a person to Christ. That's not
going to show them the light by trying to engage in works
of darkness with them. Listen to what Christ said. This
is the condemnation. Light is coming to the world.
And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that doeth evil,
religious or moral or immoral, Everyone that does evil hates
the light. And neither comes to the light
lest his deeds should be reproved. That light is going to manifest
his deeds are evil. And he won't come to that light
because he doesn't want to manifest. Ungenerous sinners are trying
to hide. They are trying to hide in the dark. They are trying
to hide in secret. They are trying to hide from God. They are trying
to hide from their own conscience. They are trying to hide from
the presence of men. Sin is done in dark. And especially from those that
are filled with the light of Christ and trying to hide from
them because their deeds are evil. That includes the very
best self-righteous man and the most horrid immoral man, their
unfruitful works of darkness. Now, unless the conscience is
seared, you know this is so, unless the conscience is seared,
all sin has shame and fear as a companion. Even the sin that we hide with
the appearance of good. You take a man who's in religion,
and he may like to boast of that sin. He may want to make sure
all people see that, see what he's doing, and that's sinful.
Christ said, don't do anything to be seen of, man. We're out
of the way. We want people to see Christ.
But even when he's in there, he knows there's a certain amount
of fear that he ain't done enough. He's always got to keep doing
some more. But the immoral sinner, he's always doing things, trying
to make it so nobody sees him. Here's a test for sins. This won't work for religious
works, because folks want to be seen doing religious works.
But for just sin, period, just ask yourself this, would I want
anybody knowing about this? Do I want God knowing about it?
Do I want my parent knowing about it? brothers and sisters or my
brethren? And if the answer is no, it's
sin. It's sin. Now, by God's grace, some sinners
are going to be reproved, and they're going to be brought to
the light by His grace. But God's going to have His...
He's going to use His people to do it, but He's going to have
His people do it with light. With light. With light only.
Now, listen carefully to verse 13. I looked at this for a long
time. It's so simple, it's real difficult to understand. That's
the hard thing about the Lord's Word. It's so simple that we
can't hardly understand it. Now look at this, verse 13. This
is saying that we must reprove by light. All things that are
approved, that are made manifest, that are discovered, are made
manifest by the light. Now, sinners must be reproved.
That's a given. There's no way around that. That's
not fun. That's not comfortable. But sins
got to be reproved. We had to be reproved for our
sins. The first step to repentance
is having our sins discovered to ourselves. That had to happen
to us. But darkness is only made known
by the light. That's right. The only way darkness
is made known is by light. And without reproof in the light
of Christ, a sinner won't ever see their darkness. Now, the
second part declares that light is the only thing that reveals
sin. For whatsoever doth make manifest
is light. Whatever discovers sin is light. That's the only thing that discovers
sin is light. That's a simple thing, but what
he's saying is darkness will never be seen by darkness. Only the light of Christ makes
us see our sin. Now here's the point. We must be walking as children
of light. And walking here, that's what
he's talking about most. But walking includes the methods
we use. It includes the means of grace.
It includes the preaching of the gospel, speaking the truth
in light. It includes the way we walk and
the way we talk. So the light of Christ is going
to be the only way sinners are going to see their sin and flee
to Christ. Now next, Paul gives an example. And he gives us an
example by showing us this is exactly what God does when He
reproves through the Gospel. Look at this. First of all, God
wakes us with reproof. Verse 14, He saith, Awake thou
that sleepeth, and arise from the dead. That's the reproof.
He's not quoting any particular scripture. The wherefore refers
back to the verse just before it. He said there, all things
that are reproved are manifest by the light. You have to reprove
in light. And light has to include reproof. And he says, For whatsoever doth
make manifest is light. That's the reason God says to
us in the Gospel, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead. There's the reproof. And as he
gives the reproof, Christ shall give thee light. You see that? Those two things always come
together. The reproof and the light. Because otherwise, how
are you going to wake up? How is a dead sinner going to
wake up unless Christ gives him light? He's not. And how is he
going to see unless Christ gives him light? He won't. And so with
the reproof in the Gospel, Christ gives the light. It's the same
thing He said in the Valley of Dry Bones. Do you remember that?
He told the preacher, He said, You say unto them, O ye dry bones,
hear the Word of the Lord. There's the reproof. You are
dry bones, He said. Now hear what the Lord is saying.
And He says, Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold,
I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live."
You see, with reproof comes the life and the light. That's what
he's saying there. Paul says, so reprove the works
of darkness and light. And he said, and for only the
light's going to manifest darkness. And he said, here's proof. This
is just how God brings us out of darkness. This is how He brought
us from the dead. regenerated us, and this is how
He continues to reprove us when we fall into sin. He speaks the
reproof, and He gives the light to understand it and hear it
and see it at the same time. Alright, now look. I want you
to turn to 1 Corinthians 14, 24. And I'm going to show you
this is the power of that reproof accompanied with the light of
Christ. This is the power of reproof
that is given in light, that is accompanied by Christ's light,
made effectual in the heart. Here is the power of it. This
is the effect it produces. Verse 24, If all prophesy, that
is, preach, preach the gospel in light, that is our means. That is the fruitful work of
light, is to preach the truth of Christ. He says, And there
come in one that believes not, or one unlearned, he is convinced
of all. He is judged of all. When Christ
goes into his heart, he's going to be convinced of his sin, because
he doesn't believe on Christ. He's going to be convinced of
righteousness, because Christ has gone to the Father. And he's
going to be convinced of judgment, because the Prince of this world
is judged. He's going to be convinced by the preaching of light, by
the light of Christ entering into him. And he says, and thus
are the secrets of his heart made manifest. That's how he
sees the darkness of his heart by this light. And so falling
down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in
you of a truth. You see, you could go with somebody
into fellowship with the works of darkness. They're never going
to fall down on their face and worship God. Anything you tell
them and say, God's in you of truth. There's light in you.
They're never going to say that. They're never going to say that.
You might think that fellowshipping with works of darkness will gain
the friendship of the sinner and then you can bear witness
to them or whatever. That's exactly what false religion does. That's
how they got started having sports in church and programs in church
and All these camps and everything else, they try to make it look
appealing, and they say, well, get them in here like that, and
then we'll sneak up on them with the gospel. And they end up having
to pay for all those things, and if they preach the gospel,
nobody will be there anyway, so they have to just water it
down. That stuff don't work. It just don't work. It's not
love to a sinner. It's not glorifying to a Savior.
That's why they water down the sermons and just preach on current
events. That won't save. That won't save. If we make sinners
feel like we're in fellowship with them while they walk in
darkness, it only makes them feel comfortable to go on in
sin, and they'll never see their need of Christ. You just think,
if a child was about to step off a cliff and plunge to their
death, and you had light, but you didn't show them the light,
and you just want to be friends with them instead, you'd just
watch them walk right off the cliff. They'd never see light
in darkness. You've got to give them light.
I know that sounds simple, but we need to hear this, because
this is so. We don't get this. There's a part of us that thinks
I can befriend somebody by walking in darkness with them, and somehow
I can make them see light by that. That won't happen. God
our Father chose us. Here's another thing. He chose
us, and He sent Christ who laid down His life for us, and He
regenerated us, and He gave us the privilege to hold forth the
gospel. So He says to us now, You want
to repay me? He says, walk as children of
light and speak the truth. Speak of Christ the light. Because
that's how you're going to bear witness. Now think about this. This is my last point. The way
that unregenerate sinners naturally vex us with unfruitful works
of darkness in their walk and in their talk. Aren't you vexed
when you're around people in unfruitful works of darkness,
whether it's immorality or whether it's religion, false religion.
Either way, it just vexes me to be around them. Well, that's
how we ought to naturally prove them by walking as children of
light. They ought to naturally just be vexed to be around us
because we're children of light. That means not putting on an
act, just how we naturally are and how we naturally speak. It
ought to vex them. And what our text is telling
us is if sinners do feel comfortable around us as much as they do
around their evil companions, then we're in fellowship with
the works of darkness. That's reproving to us, isn't
it? If they're just as comfortable being around us as they are any
of their other evil companions, we're fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness. We're making them feel comfortable.
Now let's read the rest out. Verse 15, See then that you walk
circumspectly, that means with diligence, not as fools, but
as wise, redeeming the time, buying every opportunity because
the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. This is what
the will of the Lord is that we're hearing preached here.
And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. That is, with wine
itself and with that intoxicating, unfruitful work of false religion,
like the Nicolaitans, or the doctrine of Balaam, or any of
those things. Free will works religion. But instead, be filled
with the Spirit. Speaking to yourselves in psalms,
in hymns, in 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.
If we did that right there, Folks, they'll see light and they'll
hear light. It's up to God to bless it to their heart and make
it effectual, but that's how they'll see light and hear light.
Amen. Let's stand together. Father,
thank You for Your Word. We pray now that You'd shine
light in our hearts. Make us see the glory of God. Make us see have the knowledge
of you in the face of Christ Jesus. Make us to walk as children
of light. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.