The title of the message is Children
of Light. Children of Light. And as I read
through these verses, you know, the Apostle Paul is continuing
here, giving exhortations to the people of God, motivated
by God's grace, which is found in the personal work of Christ.
Now, an exhortation is an encouragement to obedience. it's an encouragement
to continue on, to persevere in the faith. And one of the
main issues of our walking in the light, and that's what he
says here, walk as children of light in verse eight, is to make
sure that we maintain, by the grace of God, our separation
from the world. Now when you hear that, And this,
you know, most people don't understand this idea of separation. Because
I'll never forget, I heard a preacher preaching one time, and he'd
gone somewhere in Colorado. And he was preaching at a gospel
church there, and on his way to the church, he came upon another
religious building, and on the outside they had a sign that
said, the most separated church in the world. And I wonder, what
in the world would that mean? I would never put that out on
our sign or anything like that. Most people, when they think
about separation, they're thinking about, well, what you wear, what
you eat, what you drink. It's kind of like a taste not,
touch not, handle not situation there. That's not our separation. You know what our separation
is? Understand, it's the gospel. The gospel we believe. And in
that gospel, we must maintain that separation. You know, I
think it's Hebrews 12, 14 says, follow peace with all men and
holiness without which no man will see the Lord. What is that
holiness? Holiness means to be separate.
In other words, our message is distinct because we preach salvation
totally by the free sovereign grace of God. based upon the
blood, the righteousness, the glorious person, the finished
work of Christ alone, salvation conditioned on him alone, not
conditioned on man. And if we preached anything else,
we'd blend in with the world. And I'll show you that in just
a minute. But he says, don't have fellowship, in verse seven,
with the children of disobedience, those who don't believe this
gospel. Now that doesn't mean that we're to be mean or self-righteous. When we talk about our separateness,
we're not talking about, as Isaiah said, the self-righteous people
who say, don't come near me, I'm holier than thou, I'm better
than you. No, that's not it at all. We're
just nothing but sinners saved by grace. And we want to see
others saved. And so we preach the gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed, which is the obedience unto death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which forms the ground of our whole
salvation and nothing else. Salvation, as I said, conditioned
on Christ alone. But he says, be not ye therefore
partakers with them in any form or fashion. If their lifestyle
is one of law-breaking, if their lifestyle is one of disobedience,
if their lifestyle is one of immorality, don't participate
in that with them. But also, don't participate with
them in their religious life if their religion is not the
religion of God, if it's not the religion of the gospel, if
it's not the religion of grace. And he says, don't be a partaker
with them. And look at verse eight. Remember what we were? We were sometime darkness. Now
what is that darkness? Well, darkness is the ignorance
and deception of false religion. That's what it is. We were children
of darkness, just like, and that's another thing. When we think
about unbelievers, children of disobedience, realize that what
we are now as children of light, it's by the grace of God, folks.
It's not because we were better than them, because we weren't
and are not. It's not because we did something
and they didn't do it. It's totally by the sovereign
grace of God. Paul said that. He said, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. It's nothing that I've done to
make myself acceptable to God. My acceptance before God is Jesus
Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead. It's not
any righteousness which I have achieved by my works. It's His
righteousness, which He accomplished by His work in His obedience
unto death to save me from my sins. I'm one who doesn't deserve
what I have. I'm one who hasn't earned what
I have in Christ. It was totally a free gift. Freely
given. And so he says, you were in that
darkness. The same darkness that the children
of disobedience is in now. But God has made you light. Look at it. Now you are you light
in the Lord. What is that light? Well, that
light can be expressed in many different ways, but Christ himself
is the light. He said, I'm the light of the
world. And then the gospel is the light,
the good news. That's what we see it because
God has revealed it to us. And in our new birth, the Holy
Spirit has shown us in that light, he's shown us our sinfulness,
our depravity, but he's also shown us the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. We see things now that we did
not see before. And that's because God has revealed
them to us in the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, the Greek also,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. That's knowledge revealed to
knowledge received and believed. And that's the work of God as
it is written, the justified shall live by faith. We've seen
that the forgiveness of sins, the forgiveness of all my sins,
is totally, completely, eternally by the blood of Jesus Christ.
God has not forgiven me of even one sin based upon anything that
I do or anything that I quit doing. He's shown me the light. That light has shown me that
I am in need of a righteousness that I cannot produce. I cannot
work it. Even with my best efforts, I
fall short. But he's also shown me that I
have a righteousness in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's
his righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to me. Freely, unconditionally,
I'm a recipient of God's grace. That's the light. And then he
calls his children, he calls us his light. We'll look at this
in just a moment, but he says over in Matthew five, he says,
you're the light of the, well, let's look at it now. Turn to
Matthew chapter five. And I wanna show you some of
the misconceptions that people have because of the darkness
that they're in. Look at Matthew five and look
at verse 14. He says, you are the light of
the world. Now he's talking about the people
of God there. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid, you can't hide it. Verse 15, neither do men
light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick.
And it giveth life unto all that are in the house. Now look at
verse 16. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works. and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. Now how many times in false religion
did you go to that verse 16 and surmise or conclude that that's
talking about, the light there is talking about my godly living
or my works. That's not what it's talking
about at all. My life, my living, My walking, now he says over
in Ephesians 5, our text, he says, walk as children of light,
and we're to do that. But my walk, my conduct is not
the light. The light is the gospel light
of Christ, crucified, risen from the dead, his blood, his righteousness
that shines on my life. and reveals it to be what it
is. And that's the good works that
God works in his people that is accepted by God, again, through
the blood of Christ. Now here's the point. By nature, we don't even know
what good works are. We just conclude, well, it's
the religious works, the religious efforts, the religious morality
that people do, but we don't know that. All we know is that
we need to get busy doing good in order to be accepted with
God, and that's a lie. Now, should people be moral and
try to be good and try to be, yes, but that's not gonna save
us. You understand what I'm saying? Salvation's by grace. Look over
at Philippians chapter two. Show you another verse here. In Philippians two, verse 12. He says in verse 12, he says,
wherefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in
my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well now, does
that sound to you like he's telling us to work to be saved? That's
not what he's saying at all. Look at the next verse, verse
13. For it is God which worketh in you. both to will and to do
of his good pleasure, so do all things without murmurings and
disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God,
without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,
among whom you shine as lights in the world." And how do you
shine as lights in the world? Well, look at verse 16. Holding
forth the word of life. That's how we shine as lights
in the world, holding forth the word of life, preaching, witnessing
the gospel light of how God saves sinners by his sovereign grace
through the blood and righteousness of Christ. And he says that I
may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain,
neither labored in vain. That's what it's all about. Go
back to Ephesians 5 now. Look at verses nine, he says,
walk as children of life. Live by the gospel. Witness and
preach the gospel. I want people to know, as they
look at my life, and people do, we look at each other's lives,
that no matter what state I'm in in any given moment, I'm still
only a sinner saved by grace. That's at my best and at my worst. I'm here preaching the gospel.
And I thank God for it. I thank God that I know it. I
thank God that I have some ability to communicate it. But I want
you to know, the best sermon that I've ever preached, the
most sincere sermon that I've ever preached, is not enough
to make me righteous before God. That's the light. You see what
I'm saying? That's what shines forth in the
life of a true child of God. That's how we walk as children
of light. That's what I want you to know.
If you see me give money to charity, if you see me do a good work
for somebody else to help, here's what I want you to know. That's
okay. And we ought to do those things. That's part of walking
as children of light. But that doesn't save me. That
doesn't make me righteous. That doesn't bring about a forgiveness
of my sins. That does not make me accepted
before God. It's all in and by Christ. That's the light. Look at verse
nine. He says, for the fruit of the
Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Well,
my friend, where are you gonna find goodness and righteousness
and truth? Goodness. Think about the, you
remember over in Matthew 19, the rich young man who came to
Christ, and he did not believe that Christ was the Messiah.
He did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Savior, the
one sent, prophesied in the Old Testament. the one who would
be God manifest in the flesh. He didn't believe that. But he
did believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a good teacher, a prophet
sent of God. He did believe that. And so when
he approached the master, here's what he said. He said, good master,
what good thing must I do to have eternal life? And Christ, Jesus Christ, recognizing
that the man did not believe him to be God, manifest in the
flesh, you know how he responded? He said, well, why do you call
me good? There's none good but God. In
other words, if you really believe that I'm a good person according
to their scriptures, you must believe that I am God manifest
in the flesh. But he didn't believe that. So
Christ was teaching him the standard of goodness. How good, you ever
had somebody ask you this? How good must I be to go to heaven? You ever heard that? Well, how
good must you be? You must be as good as God. As righteous as God. I was having
lunch with an individual, a man, who asked me that question. How good must I be? And I told
him that. I said, you must be as good as God. And he looked
at me and he said, well, nobody can do that. I said, that's right. That's why salvation is by grace
through the righteousness and goodness of Christ and not by
works. There's the light. Now walk in
it, is what he's saying. He says in verse 10, proving
what is acceptable unto the Lord. Whatever I say about goodness,
righteousness, and truth, whatever I do in my life, I must be a
walking, living testimony that that which is accepted of
God can only be found in the perfection of righteousness that
can only be found in Christ. I want you to know, you want
other people to know, that as good as you try to be, Christ
is your righteousness. Understand? That's what it means
to let your light shine before men. Let the gospel shine. Let the glory of God in Christ
shine. And when it shines on you, what
will it reveal? It'll reveal that you're a sinner
saved by grace, that you're his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto, not because of, but unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that you should walk in them. It'll reveal, as
old Philippians chapter two and verse 13 said, that it is God
that worketh in you to do his will. Persevering. That's what the light reveals.
And it's a proof of what God will accept in order to save
sinners like me and sinners like you. What will he accept? Well,
I almost sang it in the first hour. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
We speak of baptism. What is baptism in the pool back
here? It's a confession of the light. Which says, this water
back here does not wash away my sins. It's the blood of Christ. That's my confession. That when
He died, I died with Him. When He arose again, I arose
again too. He is my salvation. He is my
cleanliness. In verse 11, he says, have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them. Now turn over to John chapter
three. It's the nature of the light,
not only to reveal some things, which it does, but also to expose
some things. It's a revelation. It's an exposure. that if men and women stay in
this light, they can't get away from this being exposed. Look
at John chapter three. Look at verse 19. He says, well, let's read verse
18, John 3, 18. He that believeth on him, that's
Christ, is not condemned. Now I want you to notice, it
doesn't say here, he that does his best is not condemned. He
that what? Believeth on Christ is not condemned. If I believe on Christ, that's
an evidence that I'm not condemned. Because there is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. But he that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already. It doesn't matter how he appears.
He may be trying to keep the law. He may be a philanthropist
trying to give all of his money away. He may be a moral person
in the eyes of men and women. But if he doesn't believe on
Christ, he's condemned already. Outside of Christ, there's no
salvation. Outside of Christ, there's no
justification, no sanctification, no acceptance with God. He says,
because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. You see, Christ is our only hope,
that's the light. But look at verse 19. And this
is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. I want you to notice something.
The deeds there, it's not talking about robbing a bank. It's not
talking about selling drugs. Those things are evil now. Don't
get me wrong. But even the natural unbelieving
person can see that's evil. What deeds is he talking about?
It's deeds that we don't see as evil by nature because they're
hidden under the cloak of self-righteousness and false religion. That's man's
efforts to save himself by his works, his deeds. Those are evil. Well, preacher, why is that so
evil? I'll tell you why. Number one, it doesn't give all
glory to God. You see, God is to be glorified
and honored in this thing of salvation. Not me, not you. God's glory is revealed in the
fact that he saves sinners by his grace based upon the righteousness
of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when sinners come to God
thinking that he saves them based on their works, they're trying
to rob God of his glory. That's evil. Secondly, because
it denies Jesus Christ in the glory of His person and the power
of His finished work. What did Christ come here to
do? He came here to put away our sins by the sacrifice of
Himself. Now, if we think we can put them
away by our efforts, our good works, we're denying His sacrifice. He came here to establish the
only righteousness upon which God could justify a sinner like
me. Now for me to think that I can
work that righteousness is to deny his. Paul said it this way,
he said, if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead
in vain. If I can be righteous by my works
of the law, then what I'm saying is he died for nothing. That's
evil. Another reason it's evil, because
it exalts the sinner, it gives him room to boast. Salvation is based on something
that I did or I decided, not totally by the grace of God.
That's why Paul said in Galatians 6, 14, God forbid that I should
glory, boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What
do you boast in? What do you think makes the difference
in your life between being saved and being lost? If it's something
you did or something you decided, then you have room to boast.
But it's not. It's Christ alone. That's why
it's evil. Look at verse 20 of John 3. He
says, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Unbelievers
hate the preaching of this gospel because it exposes their deeds
of which they're so proud as being evil. Neither cometh to the light,
lest his deed should be reproved, exposed. You see that? But look at verse 21. But that
he that doeth truth, what is it to do truth? It's to believe
in Christ. Cometh to the light. Oh, let
that light shine. Don't you love that light? If
you don't, ask yourself why. that his deeds may be made manifest,
be made known, that they are wrought in God." Now what does
that mean? That means they're the work of God. If I do anything
good, it's the work of God, friend. I'm not the source of it. I'm
not the power of it. God is. Again, we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus. unto good works, not because
of, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now go back to our text, Ephesians 5. He says, verse 12, it's a shame
even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
What does it mean in secret? Things that you don't openly
know. Things that are hidden. And what
hides these things? False religion. self-righteousness,
that's what hides them, the deception and ignorance of false gospels,
Satan disguising himself as an angel of light, claims to be
preaching good things and sounds good to the natural man. Think about that. Verse 14, wherefore
he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall give thee life. Don't go to sleep on the job,
that's what he's saying. Don't take these things for granted. Don't be lax, or as those in
Hebrews chapter five who were dull of hearing, be astute, be
awake, be ready. Be critical. Now listen, I always
tell people, listen critically. Now when I say that, I'm not
saying listen to try to find something wrong. I don't want
that kind of a critic. But listen to make sure what
you're hearing is consistent with the word of God. That's
what it is. Isaiah made this statement in
Isaiah 820. He said, to the law and to the testimony, if they
speak not according to this word, there is no light in them. If I hear a preacher preach,
and he's preaching the word of God as it is, I rejoice, don't
you? But if he's preaching things
that are not in the word of God, his opinion, stories, emotionalism,
I don't rejoice. Don't go to sleep on this. Don't
be dull of hearing verse 15. See that you walk circumspectly. That means carefully. Diligently,
not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time because the
days are evil. Redeeming the time, what does
that mean? That means use your time wisely. That means take
every opportunity that God gives us to spread this light. And why is it so important? Because
the days are evil. Do we really see the evil of
our days? Now I know we can watch the newscast,
And we can see terrible things. And it's evil. These days are
evil. But do you really see the reality
of what is really evil? Really, really, really? Well, my friend, there's nothing
more evil than false religion. False Christianity. And it's
out there. And we need to wake up and we
need to be astute and we need to recognize it through the word
of God. I'm not just talking about being
mean to people or anything like that. I'm just talking about
recognizing that these days are evil. And he says in verse 17,
wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of
the Lord is. How am I going to be wise in
the will of the Lord? Read his word. This is it. the will of the Lord. Now there are things about God
in His providence that we don't understand and we don't see.
God is sovereign. He's governor over this world. He does things in my life that
just knock me for a loop. We don't know what tomorrow's
gonna bring, what's coming. And that's His secret will. Deuteronomy
29, 29 says, the secret things belong to God. But now, what
has God revealed? That's in his word. Somebody said, well, you preach
election, why don't you just go preach to the elect? Well,
I don't know who they are. God's kept that secret. But here's
what God has revealed. All of his elect are going to
come and believe this gospel light. And if you're one of God's elect,
you'll believe it sometime in your life before you die. You
may die young, you may die old, but at some point in time, God's
gonna reveal himself in his light to you if you're one of his chosen
people. That's what the Bible says. In
verse 18, he says, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess,
but be filled with the Spirit. Drunkenness is a sin. No doubt
about it. No argument there. A person can
be drunk physically on wine. It inhibits your movements, your
thoughts, and everything. But I want to tell you something
else. There's nothing more evil than the drunkenness of false
doctrine. A person can be drunk on that.
But be filled with the Spirit. That means be filled with the
Spirit. Be controlled by the Spirit. be guided by the Spirit,
be motivated by the Spirit. And how does the Spirit do that?
Through the Word of God, establishing our hearts with grace, motivated
to walk as children of light, not by legal threats of punishment
or mercenary promises of earned reward, but by grace, love, and
gratitude. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation, so
rich and so free. That's what he's talking about.
And here's the issues. He says, verse 19, speaking to
yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord. That's rejoicing
in the Lord and worshiping him. Worship God. Don't worship men. Don't worship self. Worship God. Verse 20, giving thanks for all
things unto God, the Father, and the Father in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. A life of thanksgiving. Thank
you, Lord. And then verse 21. All of these
are hard because of the flesh. But he says here in verse 20,
21, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
What is that? That's mutual submission to one
another in the fear of the Lord, not the fear of men. This is
not in the way of compromising the truth or compromising our
principles, but it's not insisting upon and asserting our own personal
opinions and desires over others, but seeking to honor God. And
the goal here is the glory of God, the exaltation of Christ,
and the edification of brethren in the faith. Walk as children
of light. Let your light so shine. Amen. All right.