You'll take your Bibles now and
turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. The theme of the message today
is walking as children of light. And Paul carries this theme throughout
the closing chapters of all his epistles to the churches. He
first states the doctrine of Christ and the fundamental principles
of Christ And then he goes on to talk about our walk, walking
worthy of that calling of Christ. Now, I don't feel this morning
as though I need an outline on the lesson. I just want to take
the verses. I think they'll serve that purpose
in themselves. So we'll just begin with verse
6 of Ephesians chapter 5, and then we'll go just as far as
time will allow us. In verse 6 of Ephesians chapter
5, it says, let no man deceive you with vain words. Vain words. For because of these
things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Now, vain words are words contrary
to sound doctrine. That's what vain words are, words
that encourage men to sin or words that encourage men to worship
God in some other fashion than we're directed to do in the scriptures. They're vain words. You know
when you get into a conversation with somebody and they begin
to, they ask you, I've had time and again, visitors at our home,
relatives and other people, and they talk to you about, well,
how do you all conduct your services over there? And one fellow's
comments when he left was all they have down there is two songs
and a sermon. Well, those are vain words. When men try to talk to you contrary
to the way this book sets forth and directs us to worship God
is vain words. It's vain words. When they start
talking about a hope, here's our hope, I remember the time
and remember the place, and they start talking about feelings
and experiences and all this type of thing, those are vain
words, vain words. Let no man deceive you. I can't stop a person from saying
vain words. I don't even attempt to. But
I don't pay any attention to them. I just tune them out when
they start talking all that nonsense. And that's what he's saying here.
Don't be deceived by these things. Don't get lured in by these things.
But because of these things cometh the wrath of God. The gospel
of God's sovereign grace does not leave the sinner as it found
him. It teaches him. It enlightens
him. He's not as he was. He's not
walking. Listen to what Paul said over
in II Corinthians 4. He said, If our gospel be hid,
who's it hid to? To the lost. It's not hid to
believers. Believers see it and rejoice
in it, live by it, instructed by it, rebuked by it. Why? Because they're enlightened.
If our gospel be hid, it's hid to the lost in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. It doesn't
leave the sinner as it found him. It enlightens him. He's
born of God. The disciples, they asked Christ,
why do you speak to these learned men, these doctors of divinity,
in parables? Why do you do that? Why don't
you just tell them plainly? He said, it's not given unto
them to know. It's given to you. Blessed are your ears, for they
hear. Blessed are your eyes, for they see. Not given unto
them. Not given unto them. The gospel came to us when we
was under the power and curse of sin, and that sin controlled
our thoughts, established our motives, and ruled over our affections. It found us in unwillingness
and rebellion and self-servitude. I'll tell you who we're concerned
about, or we were in that time. I hope we're not now. I'm not worried about whether
you got money to pay your bills. I'm worried about whether I got
money to pay mine. I'm worried about my children. I'm worried
about my life, my job. Self-servitude, it found him
unwilling, rebellious, and walking in self-servitude. And it found
him walking in the vanity of his mind. That's what Paul said.
And grace arrested that man, convinced him of his sins, pressed
his guilt upon his conscience, and revealed his utter helplessness
and hopelessness to do anything for himself. Left him altogether,
altogether at the hands of his Lord. But it doesn't stop there. It showed to him the love of
God in a bleeding substitute. It showed him the mercy of God
through an appointed mediator. It showed him what his sins are
before a holy God. You know, it's one thing. You
won't find anybody that won't own up to being a sinner as far
as defining sinner as one who transgresses the law. I've never
met one. Maybe there are some out there.
Paul said he's touching the law. He was blameless. Maybe he felt
like he'd never sinned. But I think most people will
own up to evil thoughts and things of that nature. But they don't
see those sins in the light of the holiness of God. Paul said
he was alive without the law once, that is, without an understanding
of it, without a spiritual application of it. He was alive. He lived,
had a hope under that law. But when the commandment came,
when it came in power and truth and came in spirit and convinced
him of his sins, he said, I died. I died. What the law, he said, the do's
and don'ts could not do because of the weakness of our flesh.
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
for sin condemned sin in the flesh. That is, he exposed his
sin in the light of sovereign love and goodness and mercy and
grace, exposed our sins in his own unwillingness to receive
the free gift of God in Christ. Men are not willing. I don't understand the man in
his mind is so deceived that he thinks receiving the free
grace of God is somehow an ungodly thing. What does it do for you
except cause you to praise God? Does it encourage you to sin?
Certainly not. What's the problem? You see what
I'm saying? This is where the Holy Spirit
takes a man. It shows him his sin and his
unwillingness to receive the free gift of God. He won't do
it. He wants to mix something with it. He wants to add something. Why do you want to add something
to something so perfect, so beautiful? Exposes his sin in the light
of sovereign love and goodness and mercy and grace. Exposed
his sin in his own unwillingness to receive this gift of God.
And exposed his sin in the light of uncompromising justice. If there was any other way for
God to forgive a sinner, he would not have killed his son on a
cross. Any kind of logic ought to tell
you that. If there was any other way, God would not have taken
his darling son and put him through such agony and grief on the cross,
such humility. For one equal with God, the brightness
of the Father's glory, to come down here in the person of a
representative man and be treated with such indignity and shame
and made to suffer as he did. It exposes our sin in the light
of God's uncompromising justice. And where sin is found, the justice
and wrath of God would judge it, even in His Son. Now, you
better learn this. No sin of any sinner is going
to go unjudged. Now, you write that down. All
sin must be paid for. God who cannot lie said, the
soul that sinneth shall surely die. And what the believers brought
to see concerning his sins is the agony, suffering, and death,
the humiliation, and shame, and degradation of the Son of God
upon which their iniquities were laid. It says, the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's where you learn about
sin. His sins were of no profit to
him at all. All they ever did was bring shame
on him and upon God. Vain words are words that encourage
men to sin or to think their sins are tolerable by God or
to expose their sins or excuse their sins in any way. It's to
encourage men to continue in their sins or to treat them with
indifference because they don't have the desire to resist them.
Those are vain words. And it's a vain word indeed that
deceives men into believing that they can practice sin without
any consequence from God. I just want you to visualize
somebody right now in your mind that you love, that you care
for. more than anybody else on the
planet. You just try to visualize that
in your mind. I don't know. It might be a little
grandbaby. It might be your wife. It might be your husband, whatever
it is. Now suppose God were to lay every foul thought that you
ever had, every secret motive, every vain imagination, every
act of rebellion, every sin you ever thought or felt or did. and demanded a full satisfaction
from them for your sin. And then sat you over on the
hill as they nailed him to a cross and let you look. Let you look
on that one you loved and counted your sins as his and counted
your attitude as his and counted your rebellion as his and poured
out his infinite wrath on him until every last bitter dreg
must be drank. And then hanging there on that
cursed tree is everything you ever loved.
And all that's left is a swollen, beaten, unrecognized body hanging
there dead on the cross. Now let me ask you something.
If God enabled you to see that, could you ever look on sin the
way you used to? You couldn't do it. You couldn't
do it. I doubt you could even watch
it being done. But if you did, you'd never come
away from there looking at sin the way you used to. You never
would. That's what God reveals in His
gospel. Our sins were laid on Him. All He ever did is love us. Do good. He said he went about
everywhere doing good. He didn't do any evil. They couldn't
find any evil in it. And there he hangs on the cross. That's how the saviors revealed
to guilty sinners. God sent him forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood. Blood sprinkled on the mercy
seat of God. Why? To declare God's righteousness
for the remission of sin. Now then, let no man deceive
you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience. Verse seven, be not ye therefore
partakers with them. I don't care how good the environment,
there's always somebody in the crowd whispering, come with me. Isn't that how Satan worked?
Come over here. Come over here. You can't go
anywhere and not hear that, can you? You can't go out to the
restaurant and eat without somebody saying it. Verse 8, for you were sometimes
darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. walk as children
of light. Now that's the theme of this,
this whole thing. Walk as children of light. We
don't, we're not darkness anymore. Now he doesn't say here that
we walked in darkness, although we did. He doesn't say here that
darkness ruled over us, although it did. He said here ye were
at sometimes darkness. That's what he said. Ye were
darkness. Darkness was not just your condition,
but it was your very nature and character. But now you're light
in the Lord. You're light. Giving thanks unto
the Father, Paul said, which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Isn't that what he's
saying? Children of light. Colossians 1.13, who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness. and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. And He says this here in our
text. He said, You are light in the
Lord. There's no light in ourselves,
but we're light in Him. We're light in the Lord. He's
the source of all light, and Him was light. And the light
was the light of men. Every word He said, every thought
He expressed, every step He walked, and every breath He took. He
said, I am the light of the world. Light. Every breath of air he
breathed out, William, light. Light. You can't read about him
and not have light. Light. He is the true light,
it says, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal it. All God's eternal counsels and
decrees are brought to light in Christ. blessed in Him, chosen
in Him, predestinated unto the adoption of children by Him,
accepted in the beloved, gathered unto the Father by Him, called
by Him, preserved in Him, and resurrected in Him. All in Christ. There's not a glimmer of light
outside of Christ. He's the brightness of the Father's
glory. He's the firstborn of every creature
and the reason behind every created thing. Christ is all, and He's
all light. All light. And those who are
in Him by faith, in Him by a living, vital union of faith are light
in the Lord. And so He said, walk that way.
Walk that way. What kind of light is this light
of the Lord? He's the light of all God's eternal
purpose. God is a God of purpose. Our
God does things on purpose. I wish we'd get a hold of that.
We wouldn't whine so much about the weather and the economy and
everything else. God is a God of purpose. He's
not doing anything here by accident. Everything's arranged and He's
doing everything exactly according to His own will. Isn't that what
it says over there in Ephesians chapter 1? He worketh all things. That doesn't leave anything out,
does it? all things after the counsel of His own will. And Christ is the light of sovereign
mercy and grace. He's the light of that resurrected
glory. He's the light of the seated
authority of God. And He's the light of the victorious
redemption. You can't find, it's all in Him. Now walk that way, he's saying.
Walk that way. And I believe this is the major
distinguishing factor in the believer that sets him apart
from the world. Listen to this over in 1 John
chapter 1. You can turn over there with
me if you want to. 1 John chapter 1 and verse 5. This then is the message which
ye have heard of him, that is heard of Christ, and declare
unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say, now listen, if we say, if this is what we're saying,
that we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we
lie. We lie. Brethren, you can't know
the living God and walk the way you used to walk. You can't do
it, because He's all light. And you can't know God outside
of Christ. You see what Paul's saying here?
We lie and do not the truth. But if we walk, now listen, if
we walk, verse 7, in the light as He is the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin. Walk. We can't walk together
unless we be agreed to. You can't walk together if they're
disagreed to. That won't last long. You get
tired of that real quick. Verse 9, for the fruit of the
Spirit, now this is back in Ephesians, for the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth. There's nothing in
the work of the Spirit of God to encourage men to sin. There's nothing in the work or
words of the Spirit of grace to make you think that God's
tolerant of sin. The Holy Spirit didn't teach
you this. Somebody might have taught you that with vain words,
but the Holy Spirit didn't teach you that. Hadn't you met people
since you've come to know the truth, since you've come to know
a little bit about the sovereign grace of God in Christ? Hadn't
you come to meet people who profess to believe in sovereign grace,
but just as unconcerned about sin as anything? Totally indifferent
to it? Go right on living the way they
used to live? Keeping the same company they
always kept. Keeping the same habits they
always had. Huh? John said, that man's a
liar. He's still in darkness. Somebody
with vain words deceived him. They deceived him. Because this
is not consistent with the work of the Holy Spirit of God, who
is the revealer of this life. That fruit of the Spirit which
is Christ formed in us is altogether goodness and righteousness and
truth. Proving. Now listen to this.
Verse 10. Proving. That's this work of
the Holy Spirit. He proves to you. Proving what
is acceptable unto the Lord. It proves what is acceptable
unto the Lord by the Word of God and the plain instruction
of Scripture. How often have I read scriptures
to men and they say, yeah, but. There ain't no yeah, but. If
God says it, that's the end of it, isn't it? That's the end of it, or else
he's not God. Everything he speaks is true.
Everything he speaks is for your good. There's coming a judgment
in which God will judge this world in righteousness according
to that man. But those words that he speaks
to us here and now are filled with goodness and filled with
truth. And it's a truth for your good.
For your good. And there's no reason to go,
yeah, but. Proves what is acceptable. All
scripture. Here's what Paul told Timothy.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God. And it's profitable for
doctrine for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God might be complete and truly furnished
unto all good works. The scripture. And it proves
what is acceptable to the Lord by his experience of grace. Grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Your experience
of grace teaches you those things. And then thirdly, we prove what
is acceptable to the Lord by the Lord's own example. You doubt
a thing. I know sometimes I'll hit on
something alien to you, and I can see, boy, question marks just
like a halo going around you. I'll get this kind of sideways
look. I'll tell you where you can find
out if what I'm preaching is the truth. Go examine the Lord
Jesus Christ. He examples these things every
step he took, every deed he did, every lesson he taught. If you
can't find it over there, then don't listen to what I had to
say. Just throw it away. Verse 11. And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Now
unfaithful works are works void of love. joy, peace, long suffering,
kindness, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, and faith.
Those are the fruit of the spirit. These works are unfruitful. They
don't have any of this fruit in them. I don't have no fellowship with
that. Don't make that a part of your life. Verse 12. For it is a shame even
to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. Those
who are in darkness walk in darkness and love darkness rather than
light. He calls them children of the night. Now I was young
once and I know what that means. Don't you? I'm sure you do. You
practice things in the darkness you wouldn't do in the broad
daylight. You practice things in the darkness that you've been
ashamed of in the daylight. The works are best practiced
at night when they can't be seen because they're shameful works.
Works practiced in secret called the hidden things. That's what
Paul said. We have denounced the hidden
things of dishonesty. We don't walk in craftiness.
We don't use the word of God deceitfully. And also here, I
believe he's talking about secret thoughts and hidden imaginations. Not a person in here, if I had
a big screen up here, would want to come up and get hooked up
to it and let everybody read your thoughts. No, not me. And you wouldn't either. Verse
13, but all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.
For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Now, I'll tell you,
the greatest light that you can shine on your neighbors is the
life you lived before. That's number one. That light
reproves them. It reproves them. I don't know
how many times that the last, well, about a year and a half
before I come down here, I had to work out of town. I was out
of town the whole time. And on occasion, this was about
the time Don started getting sick. He didn't have anybody
else. Everybody else was working. Of
course, I was working, too. But he called on me to come and
fill in for him, and I talked to my boss, and my boss had let
me come up there. But that thing, I'd hear from
him when he'd come down over the weekend or that following
week, I'd hear from him about that thing. He said, you know,
he said, I let a lot of things get in my way of serving God. Now, I know he didn't have a
clue what he was talking about, but I'm telling you this, it
had a reproof to him. It reproved him. It exposed things. And that life you live does that.
And then, just your testimony. Now, I'm not talking about going
over there and teaching a man Calvinism or arguing with him.
I'm talking about just telling him what the Lord did for you.
That's a light to him. That's a light to him. Something
he's never heard before. He'll listen to it and it reproves
him. He may not adhere to it, but
he'll listen to it. Verse 14, Ephesians 5. Wherefore,
that is based on all these things. He's building here. Whenever
you see these words in here, wherefore, for, so on in here,
he's building. That's what he's doing here.
He's building. He states one thing and then He kind of gives
some examples of it and he states another thing and then after
a while he'll say wherefore, that is based on all of these
things that I just got to say. Wherefore he saith, that is God
saith through his prophet, Awake thou that sleepest and arise
from the dead and Christ shall give thee light. He'll give thee
light. Wake up! He uses over in Titus chapter
2, he just keeps using that word sober. And he's not talking about
a man who doesn't drink or who quit drinking. He's talking there
about sobering up and seeing things for what they are. Talking
about sobriety in a way that he recognizes the days in which
he lives. And he recognizes the power of
Satan. And he recognizes the purpose
of God in Christ. Awake thou that sleepest. Take
heed to yourself and your doctrine and your walk and make your calling
and election sure. Do not walk as those who sleep
the sleep of sin. They're indifferent. Indifferent. Undisturbed. Unconscious. Actually, old man Jude, he calls
them twice dead plucked up by the roots. That's what he said.
like a sprout growing out there, John, somewhere where you don't
want it. You pull it up and throw it over there. You don't expect
it to live, do you? That's what he said. They're
twice dead. They're plucked up by the roots. You can still see
them. They're still there. But it ain't
living. It ain't living, and it's got
no potential to live. Verse 15. See then that you walk
circumspectly. Boy, that's a big word there.
Not as fools, but as wise. Now that circumspect, whenever
I come to a word like this, I want to know what it means. Don't
you? I just stop. I've got a great big dictionary
there, and I get it out, and I look it up. This is an interesting term,
and it basically means this, to walk seeing. seeing. I told you that was the theme
of this thing, was walking as children of light. It means to
walk seeing, that is to walk prudently, to walk with understanding. Isn't that what Paul prayed for? That the eyes of their understanding
be enlightened. So why? So they can walk seeing. You can walk with a cane and
you can walk blind, blind men do. We walk seeing, circumspectly. We have eyes to see. First Corinthians
14, Paul's talking about the misuse of spiritual gifts and
tongues in particular. And a perfect example of this
is the priest in Catholicism speaking and praying in Latin.
You know, I went into my father-in-law's funeral. He was Catholic, and
I went into the funeral, and they got up and went on for 20
minutes in a language I didn't understand. I don't know Latin. And he spoke in Latin. Well,
Paul said, you can do that, and you can have a good motive in
doing that, and you can express what's on your heart to God.
But ain't nobody else in the room that has a clue what you're
talking about. Nobody's edified from it. And
the same thing with this speaking in tongues, which I believe are
foreign languages, gifts of the Spirit of God so that a man could
speak in foreign languages and another could hear it. And he says in verse 9, so likewise
ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood,
how shall it be known what's spoken? For you just speak in
the air. Just like going out in the night
to start. Where was we at the other day? In a grocery store
somewhere. Kathy said, listen, this old
woman was just going around the store, just talking out loud.
I don't have a clue. Wasn't anybody around her. She's
just talking the whole time she was in there. That's what Paul
called it, talking in there. You're just talking to nobody.
He said, if I pray in an unknown tongue, verse 14, my spirit prayeth,
but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I'll pray with
the spirit and I'll pray with the understanding also. I'll
sing with the spirit and I'll sing with the understanding also.
And what Paul is saying here in Ephesians 5 is walk with the
understanding. Sing with the understanding.
Worship with the understanding. Make your steps on purpose and
walk cautious and careful. Verse 16. Redeeming the time because the
days are evil. We redeem the time when we understand
that the time is redeemed. That's when you'll redeem the
time. We're here to serve God in the gathering of His elect,
fellow laborers with God. Let's not be distracted, sidetracked,
or led astray. Let's redeem the time for the
purpose for which it's given. And let's apply ourselves and
focus on the work of God that He's left us here to do. Wherefore, verse 17, be ye not
unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And those who are saved by His
grace understand His will. They understand it.