Imitate God and Walk In Love

Transcript

GR 155
11/02/1975
Imitate God and Walk In Love
Ephesians 5:1-14
Gil Rugh

Ephesians Chapter 5, new chapter but continuing the same theme that Paul has been discussing since the beginning of Chapter 4, the conduct or walk of the believer. How should we conduct ourselves now that we belong to God or members of his family? Chapter 5 begins with a therefore which ties it to what he has said preceding. Chapter 4 began with “therefore”. The therefore Chapter 4 tied it to the first three chapters really; the position that we have in Christ and our conduct as believers grows out of who we are and what we are in Christ. We will be talking about that this morning again.

Verse 17 of Chapter 4, Paul uses that word therefore again. Verse 25 of Chapter 4 “therefore laying aside falsehood,” we see this building that Paul is doing and the “therefore” ties not just to what immediately precede but the entire context. Each “therefore” is a building block on what has gone before and everything that he said up to this point is a basis for it. So when Chapter 5 begins with therefore, it would be therefore in light of what I just said and in light of all that I have said up to this point. There are certain responsibilities that have accrued to you as God’s children. And to talk about the act of conducting ourselves in walking, being imitators in Verse 1, walking in love in Verse 2 and walking in the children of light in Verse 8, the general contact and demeanor of our life as God’s children.

Before we look into the passage, let’s pray together. Father again we thank you for the privilege of looking into the Word. We ask that we might be receptive to the Spirit’s ministry this morning. Father we consider these areas of conduct and practice in our lives as your children. We ask that each of us will be sensitive to the Word as the Spirit would to apply to us individually that we might allow Him to reflect areas of our lives that need to be brought into submission to him in order that your character might be seen. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.

Verse 1 of Chapter 5 comes on as a strong statement and really a concise summary of the conduct of a believer. “Therefore the imitators of God,” the only place in the Bible that we are told to imitate God and it summarizes very concisely. What is to the conduct of a believer? It is to be the imitation of God, not imitation in the bad sense that we use but imitating in the sense of being patterned after. And my life is to be patterned after the character of God. I am the imitate God. So the question comes up, how should I conduct myself now as a Christian? I am to imitate God, His character, His perfection, His holiness and so on are to be seen in me. That is the pattern for my life.

But again we have that exalted standard in Verse 1 of Chapter 4 we are told to walk according to the calling with which we have been told. That exalted call that we have in Christ. Now we are told to imitate God in our conduct so that His character is seen. So you see how elevated the standard is. What we are going to be talking about is far beyond what I could do as a person on my own. No chance at all that I could imitate, pattern my conduct and character after the character and person of God. That is a supernatural work that He does in my life and yet there is a responsible side of it for me. That I as I conduct my life I am to be conducting it according to that position and standard which has been set in himself.

The imitators of God in the last part of that verse is important. As beloved children we are back to the issue that keeps coming up and you cannot talk about your conduct without talking about this issue that the children manifest the character of the parent. And as children of God we are to manifest the character of God. Now it is important that we see that is the order and that is the issue. You do not become a child by imitating but because you are a child, you are to imitate. Just like our children. We will practice or they see us practicing. We will follow the pattern that we set down. We sometimes use this on commercials at one where the little boy was following the footsteps of his father in the snow leading up to the point his father was doing something he didn’t want his son to do. Therefore his son was patterning himself after his father in the bad areas as well as the good. Well that idea of patterning ourselves.

Who is our father now? God is our father. After whom should I pattern myself, after God. Now if you are not a child of God, what we are saying doesn’t have anything to do with you because you won’t become his child by trying to pattern yourself after him. But because you are his child you should pattern yourself after him. You become his child by believing in Jesus Christ. We are all sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ. If you have not yet believed in Jesus Christ as your savior then what we are saying will not characterize you which you ought to listen because it could.

All right the imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loves you. You know how the standard is kept is consistently up. There is no variation. Walk according to the call, I got the call from God, imitate God, love as Christ loved. That pattern always stays on the level of God. Now I am to love just as Christ loved you. So in my conduct, in my character, in my practice I am to be manifesting his character. We saw this at the end of Chapter 4 leading into this section where we are to be kind to one another, tender hearted forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you. What is the standard of my forgiveness? How you forgive me? No, how God has forgiven me. Now what is the standard of my love? Well how you love, I will love in return. No, that’s not the standard. The standard of my love is to be his love, how he loved me is to be how I am to love Him and other believers.

“Walk in love” denotes that practice or pattern of my life. My life is to be conducted in the sphere of love. The basic element of agape, love the love that is talked about here, is that self-sacrifice in character. And you see that “walk in love” just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. There is a great manifestation of Christ’s love, of God’s love, is that self-sacrificing giving on my behalf. He loved so he gave himself up for me. You had nothing to do with that emotional feeling, that emotional surge within I am in love wow maybe so. And there are feelings attached to love but the feelings grow out of the action, not vice versa. And so in my love I am to have his pattern, Jesus Christ, and I love just as Christ loved. Now you note and a similar way, no. Well love a little bit like he did; don’t love just as Christ loved you.

So you know we are talking about a divine love here. We are talking about a perfect love, a love that knows no limits and knows no end. A love that goes to the point of the total sacrifice of self, which would be the offering of yourself on behalf of someone else. Jesus told his disciples greater love has no man than in this. That a man would lay down his life for his friends. I mean if I give you all my money and all my possessions, that is sacrifice but the ultimate is if I am willing to die in your place. That would be the ultimate expression of my love that I would die for you and this is the ultimate expression of God’s love that His son would die for us.

Now we bring this down to our personal relationships, within our family, within our church family, and you note where the emphasis is. Now I am to love you not on the basis of how you respond to me, not on the basis of how treat me, but love you with a self-sacrificing type of love that I am willing to do whatever best for you, to do what is ever necessary for your growth as a believer. Bring this into your home in your husband and wife relationship. No longer do I function n the basis of how my wife treats but I function on the basis of what is best for her. Now right away we want to bring in an exception yet yes but no, no that doesn’t come. In Christ’s love there are no yes but. It is a love totally and completely without reservation.

Now this would take care of the bitterness and the anger and the clamor and so on at the end of Chapter 4 because when this bitterness and anger and so on come, it comes up when you don’t treat me the way you should. Now if you have loved me like you should I won’t be bitter in the first place. But you see we are going the wrong direction. I am not be worried about your love to me. I am to be worried about my love to you. Now if you don’t love me as you should that’s a problem between you and God. But I don’t love you as I should that’s the problem between God and I. And I want to be sure that that doesn’t happen. So my love is without reservation.

But what is ever necessary is how long can I go on like this. So how far did Christ go on with his love? No one here obviously has gone to the ultimate. You obviously haven’t died for that other person or you wouldn’t be here. So we haven’t gone that far yet, and yet we think oh we have done so much. Well, remember the standard of our love is his love. So it’s limitless. And you say but I have loved them for years and there has been no response, so what. How long did God love you before you believed in his son? And the extent of that love and the willingness to sacrifice his son, you know, he gave himself up for us. That willing sacrifice; remember he said no one takes my life from me, I lay it down voluntarily. It was a sacrifice of love. He gave himself up on behalf of us. Proposition here we often called the proposition of the atonement. It is used often in this context of what he did on behalf of us. He didn’t have to die for himself. There was no problem there. He did not have to die for himself. He died on behalf of me. And there I realize and grasp just a little bit of his love.

When I see the agony of the cross and all that involved and I realized that was just for me. What does that point, I could have cared less. There was a period of my life where it didn’t matter to me whether he died or not. What’s that got to do with me? Right here in 1975 or whatever. And that I realized that’s an expression of love, someone died of my place. He is saying that he really loved me. It was an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma, analogy picked up from the Old Testament, the two words here offering and sacrifice encompass the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament where there was a bloody offering or a non-bloody sacrifice or would be included here. And the picture of this sacrifice being provided and the fragrance arising to God is pleasing. It is in accord with his will and Christ laid himself down on my behalf and that was a sacrifice that was well pleasing to God because of his plan and his purposes. Thus the great love. He was dying for me. Right there we see the issue of becoming a member of God’s family incidentally. God loved me. He wanted me for his own. So he is willing that his son would die in my place.

Jesus loved me with such love that he was willing to die in my place why? Because the penalty for my sin was death and by his dying he paid my penalty. He stood in my place and boy, the penalty I should have borne in order that if I would believe in him I might have life with his father. So that is the broad statement here, the first two verses. Imitate God and walk in love, just as Christ loved. So my life patterned after God functioning in the sphere of love, that overriding concern for the benefit and welfare of other believers.

Now some specifics, if I am walking in love and if I am imitating God, that’s not just some standard that is a fuzzy cloud out here. There are specifics to that. There are certain things I will not do. There are certain things I will do, and Paul lay this out beginning with the negative in Verse 3: “But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you as is proper among saints.” Paul finds it necessary to pick up in some areas that are unpleasant and begins specifically with sexual areas.

If I am imitating God and walking in love, there are certain things I will not do. I will not be involved in certain practices that will not be characteristic of my life. And the first one he mentions is immorality. Broad word encompasses sexual sin of all kind. We sometimes translate it fornication. But here I am drawing the distinction between married and unmarried people, but it is a broad word. When we carry over into English pornography, pornea is the word and it has to do with sexual sins of all type in this context. And sexual immorality is after characterizing it. Uncleanness talking in the moral realm again, and not to be part of my life as a believer, that would not be an imitation of God. That would not be walking in love. The sexual sin is always selfish working for the gratification of self, that’s not walking in love. It’s not walking for the benefit of the other person. It’s walking for myself. Thus I am not functioning in love and I am not imitating God.

Now Paul had a problem in his day that we have cycled around through again in our day. In biblical time for some reason, the reason hard to lay a finger on even though we have it today, immorality was not looked down upon. A person could be a fine upstanding citizen, respected and looked up to in every way and still live an immoral life, and that wasn’t viewed as a, you know, being a reflection on his character though. So a man in a position of esteem and so on even though it was immoral, that wasn’t viewed as necessarily wrong or bad. That was just a personal area of his life.

Now we pretty well cycled around that again today where morality is a relative issue and we can still look up respect, esteem people even though their sexual relations would be very diverse and unbiblical well you know that is a person. Now the problem with that is that kind of pressure pushes in on us because the world no longer says it’s wrong. And since I function in the world although, and not to be part of it, pretty soon I develop the world’s attitudes. Maybe it’s wrong anymore. You know times change, maybe immorality isn’t immorality anymore, and that’s where we are today. Morality and immorality, there is no distinction, and we will see the reason as we move through this passage they are without any standard. But the pressure on me as a believer we find it today.

Some of you, young people, face it and I find it when I talk with the young people. Well, is it really wrong? I mean you know it’s just a different day, it’s not wrong like it used to be wrong. That’s where we are wrong. It is just as wrong as it used to be because God’s standard hasn’t changed at all. And that’s why this is written for that we realize God has not bend a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right. His standard is exactly where it has always been so that immorality, impurity, greed and so on are sin. Just because man has changed the standard doesn’t mean that God has. So that is just as wrong for me as a believer as it would have been 2,000 years ago, as it would have been 4,000 years ago as it has always been. And it is not an accurate reflection of God’s character. It is just the opposite. So I am not to be involved in it.

The word greed is the word covetousness. Interesting that that would be brought in here. Covetousness is often brought in a sexual connotation. In the Old Testament, you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife has a sexual connotation. And the word would be broad, it would not only include sexual sins but sins of all kinds. So covetousness ought not to characterize me. It ought not to be even named among us. I was just mentioning the name but it ought not to be come up. Do you know that immorality is practiced among that group of believers or covetousness? Those kinds of questions ought not to even come up because they ought to be totally foreign to us as God’s children. But obviously it is not, and we need to be honest before God when God points it out in his word as his word has shed us light on the situation. If you are involved in it, immorality situation as God’s child, then God’s admonition from the word is it has to stop. That cannot be continued. If we develop the lax attitude, an unacceptable attitude, I am afraid at Indian Hills as well as among believers generally, that that is a personal issue, it is not a personal issue. It is an issue between God and a believer. And we are responsible to reflect his character and if I am not, then I need to get about doing what I should so that I do.

Look at Verse 4. It carries us over into what we say as well as what we do. No filthiness, silly talk or coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks. Not only in my conduct can I manifest this type of character but in what I say I can as well. The things I talk about can be a manifestation that are not true to the character of God: filthiness, silly talk, silly talk two words and in the first word we get the word moron from. Foolish talking, foolish speaking and it would be broad term. It would not include just the immoral areas but broadly the foolishness that people spend their time talking about and not to characterize us. Coarse jesting, and the idea of a jesting here would be broad term and it would cover things like off-color jokes and so on that we often think of and that would be a broad area again. No place for me as a believer.

Now you know our standard has totally changed. Sometimes we think it has changed because you know well sure we won’t tell those kind of things now with women present. So but when the guys are together it really is funny I got to tell you. No, no place for it. It is not an accurate reflection of the character of God. It doesn’t matter if it is funny, it’s funny to the world but it’s not really funny because no, he says it is not fitting. What I am characterizing is his giving thanks. I am not talking about sorrowful Christians. Christians are to be happy. They are to be joyous. They are to be giving thanks. But the foundation for my joyousness is more solid and stable. It comes out of a personal relationship with God and an attitude of thanks giving for what he has done for me.

Look Verse 5 and 6 how serious this whole area is. For this you know with certainty, note the stress he puts on it; this you know with certainty that no immoral, impure or covetous man. The things he has mentioned in Verse 3. The reason no idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. No immoral, impure or covetous man who is an idolater, that’s what a covetous person is. Whether he is covetous in the sexual area or he is covetous in other areas, he is an idolater. This becomes the God in his life which he is serving and striving for. And so that’s idolater, and so people just serve other god. They are idolaters in the world today whether they serve a little wooden image or not is irrelevant. They have something else that is God in their life replacing the one true God.

Now note none of these has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Now you see how unfunny it is. The jokes that are made about immorality activity and so on, made by people who do not realize that these immoral people are destined for an eternal separation from God in Hell. Now, what is funny about that? But these involved in this kind of activity will spend their eternity separated from God in the torments of Hell, and I should joke about that kind of activity. I mean is there anything funny in that at all, that people are going to Hell for eternity. I mean now that’s just hilarious. Well not if we know anything about Hell and its character.

Now it is funny for the unbeliever because he has no concept of the seriousness of it. This kind of activity is just so funny and we are all involved and have been in situations where this kind of joking and so on is going on, yet they don’t realize what God says. That people of this character are doomed to eternal separation from him. They have no part in his kingdom. Thus are doomed for separation from him for eternity. Realizing that it ceases to be amusing and becomes very serious, very pathetic and sad. The inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, the way this is grammatically constructed in Greek, it puts this two together and it would not be possible to use this construction, the kingdom of Christ and God if Jesus Christ was not himself deity. There is another evidence in the New Testament of the deity of Jesus Christ. This could be grammatically constructed in this way if they were not both God. It brings them into the level and relationship of inequality that will not be true if Jesus Christ is anything less than deity. In order that his kingdom and the kingdom of his father. That God is used in distinction of the father from son.

Note Verse 6, “let no one deceive you with empty words.” Note Paul’s concern that some teachers would trick the Corinthians and we saw something of the character of these teachers when we read Chapter 4. Don’t be deceived with empty words, meaningless words. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. There are teachers present. Men who claim to be religious leaders who deceive people by telling them that these immoral things aren’t really immoral anymore. Preachers who counsel their people saying well it’s not really wrong, that’s an old idea and antiquated morality. Don’t be deceived Paul said and the dangers we as Christians get sucked into that. We accept that or maybe it isn’t. Maybe that’s a little too rigid. God’s word is don’t be deceived by empty, meaningless words. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Now pick up the last expression first, the sons of disobedience. When I am talking about God’s children, his sons who are disobedient, that’s not what he is talking about. This expression is a reference to unbelievers whose whole character is that of disobedience. They are sons of disobedience because their character is that of disobedience towards God. And the child manifest the character of the father. So their father is disobedience because they manifest his character. This expression was used in Chapter 2 Verse 2 where he talked about we were dead in our trespasses and sins in which you formally walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. So the spirit of the world is the spirit at work in the sons of disobedience, not the spirit of God. So he was talking about unbelievers and because of these, the practice of these sins, God’s wrath comes upon them. So you know men today have resolved the issue that sad their conscience by saying well God is not going to judge that. It is not sin. He is a loving God. God says very clearly don’t be tricked because of these things I am going to pour out my wrath on men.

Now you know he pours out his wrath on the sinner as well as the sin. You cannot disassociate the sinner from his sin. That is why Jesus Christ, the God-Man, had to die in my place because there was no way to disassociate my sin from me. So he took a personal substitute to die in my place to pay the penalty for my sin. God’s wrath is poured out; it will be poured out on the sinner who practices the sin. We see this in Romans Chapter 1 where the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. God’s character hasn’t changed. Sin is still sin and it comes under his condemnation and ultimately his wrath which will be eternal separation from his presence in Hell.

Now realizing this conduct is the character of these individuals with this destiny. Verse 7 almost is too soft. Therefore do not be partaken with them. I mean with those who are sons of disobedience who are destined to endure the wrath of God for eternity. Don’t share together with them in these things. In Paul’s words we had mentioned before where he is fond of taking the preposition with and putting it on the front of words and he does that here. Don’t be a share together with them in these things and not to partake with them. That puts the pressure on because what they talk about, what they do and so on. You are affected by, many of you work with them, weekend and week out, day in and day out, hour after hour, and we find our resistance breaking down, and we find ourselves becoming conformed to what they are instead of conformed to what God is. Yet I am not to partake with them. I am not to share and I would be a new person. I am a different person. I am now a child of God manifesting his character, not the character of one who is the son of disobedience under the control of the spirit of this world under my father the devil.

Look at Verse 8 as he develops now this contrast between what I was and what I am. If you don’t understand this there is no basis for walk as a believer. You realize what were and what you are. Verse 8, for you were formerly darkness; you were darkness. You weren’t just living in the sphere of darkness, you were darkness. I was darkness. But now you are light in the Lord. Not now you are in the light, now you are light. My whole character has changed. From one who was darkness, then now one who is light in the Lord that allow me to become light by virtue of faith in Jesus Christ. He is the light as we will see it in a moment. When I believed in him then I was made a new person. I partook of the character of God. And since God is light, I became light as his child. God has children in line with his character. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. What kind of children does God produce? Children who are light, and thus function in the light.

The conclusion then or the responsibility laid out walk as children of light. Note you realize what you were, you realize what you are, now walk like what you are. Now you don’t change what you are by walking. You don’t try now to imitate God and walk as a child of light and therefore become light. You become a child of God by being born into his family. Galatians Chapter 3 you are sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again. So when you are born into God’s family, then you become God’s child. Thus his character begins to be produced in your live but you have to begin in that order. You don’t change from darkness to light by trying to do something different. You become something different and then that difference is manifest in your character. Walk as children of light is what you must expect but each now would manifest what he is in his character and in his conduct. I am now light, therefore walk as a child of light.

The danger is that I go back and do the deeds of darkness. Now I am light. I can never go back and be darkness. That change has occurred forever. I was born into God’s family but I as a child of light can’t do the unprofitable deeds of darkness as we mentioned before we always do them in the light.

Verse 9 just explaining walking as the children of light in Ephesians 5 “For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.” Note the fruit of light. Light produces fruit and here is the character. In order words, would it not be right to expect that a plum tree would produce plums, that a grapevine would produce grapes, that an apple tree would produce apples. Is it not right to expect that our light tree will produce fruit of life? In other words, light will characterize my life. In the King James Bible some of you will have the fruit of the spirit, but the word here is light although it is the same thing as the fruit of spirit. The fruit of light and the fruit of the spirit are the same thing manifesting the same character. It consists all goodness, righteousness and truth.

Now goodness, righteousness and truth are not the fruit but the fruit of light is produced in this sphere and environment. The fruit of light is only produced in the context of goodness, righteousness and truth. In order that I am functioning in the sphere of goodness I produce the fruit of light, but if I am functioning in the spirit of darkness doing the deed of darkness, immorality not goodness, then I don’t produce the fruit of light in the realm of righteousness and in the realm of truth. This is the realm in which light produces its fruit. You and I are light. We want to produce fruit. What realm do we have to function in? In the realm of goodness, in the realm of righteousness, in the realm of truth. Thus a Christian who is not functioning in this realm is not producing the fruit of light and thus the character of God is not clearly seen in his life.

All right let me just show you a couple of passage where we Verse 2 we talked about the day of the Lord will come just as a thief in the night talking about the tribulation for Israel. But Verse 4, but brother and you are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief for you are all sons of light and sons of the day. Look over in First John Chapter 1, “And in Him is no darkness at all.” There are character of God. God is light. There is no darkness in Him at all. Now note Verse 6. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and knew not the truth. This does not mean that a Christian could not sin. It does not mean that I could not sin or commit a sexual sin. But if my life is characterized by immorality, impurity, covetousness, then I don’t belong to God at all. That’s a lie because God has no darkness in Him at all.

If my life is characterized by darkness, I don’t belong to him at all because God’s children manifest God’s character. Verse 7, but if we walk in the light as He himself was in the light, we have fellowship with one another. The blood of Jesus His son keeps on cleansing us from all sin present tense. I am keep on being cleansed even though I sin I am being cleansed, why? Because I am in the light. Even though there is sin in my life, my life is not characterized by sin and immorality, and the cleansing process goes on.

All right, back to Ephesians, in the fifth chapter verse eight, we are to walk as children of light. Verse 10, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Verse is a parenthesis as you have it, but the connection is walk as children of light, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. What does it mean to walk as a child of the light? Well, trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Now that trying to learn maybe gives a little bit of the wrong slant you have it in the margin proving what. The word means to put to the test for the purpose of approving, to put something to the test for the purpose of approving it. And as a believer I am putting things to the test to approve what is pleasing to God. So I am trying things, testing things, so that I might prove or approve what is pleasing to God. So I might walk in the light by doing what is pleasing to him. You know I must be putting things to the test, to approve what is pleasing. Otherwise I will get drawn into what the world says is all right, to the world standard of morality which is really immorality. But I as a believer I am to walk as a child of the light which means I am constantly putting things to the test of the light to approve what is pleasing to God so that my walk might be pleasing to him, which is another way of saying I am imitating him, which is another way of saying I am producing the fruit of the light, which is another way of saying that the fruit of the spirit is being produced in my life. All the same thing. I am pleasing to the Lord it is his character that he is producing in my life and his character is pleasing to him, and thus he is pleased with me.

Note Verse 11 how strong it gets. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. Note he states again and it gives a little more insight. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness. Now you know the light produces fruit, the darkness has works and the works of darkness have no fruit. And again you see the need for a new life. Until you have life in Jesus Christ you can’t produce fruit. You don’t become a part of an apple tree by beginning to grow apples. A limb on an apple tree grows apples because it’s part of the tree or a branch on a grapevine produces grapes because it is part of the vine but you don’t take a brick out here and say I hope it grows a grape and then it will become a part of the grapevine. It will be ridiculous and that’s the same way as it is with God. You believe in Jesus Christ and are born into his family, and then you produce fruit. Now apart from him the flesh does works, it does deeds. And this the same balance we have in Galatians Chapter 5. We have the fruit to the spirit but the works of the flesh because there is no life there, no true life, and thus the unfruitful deeds of darkness.

Now, why do I want to be involved in the unfruitful works of darkness when I am supposed to be producing the fruit of life or the fruit of the light? Note I don’t just become impassive, try not to get involved, I have got a more active responsibility and this is where it hurts. Sometimes I think well I just won’t get involved and you know silence is golden. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t, and usually we get them mixed up when it is and when it isn’t. By the end of Verse 11, but instead even exposed them, ouch! Not only can I not get involved, I have got to show them up as sin. Expose the more them or reprove them. Demonstrate them to be what they are in light of the light. In other words, I just cannot go on as a passive vegetable. So I didn’t get involved, big deal; a lot of things didn’t get involved but I am active in demonstrating the works of the flesh as the works of the flesh, as sin as sin.

Now that does not mean I run around and telling unbelievers that they ought to change their character because they can’t. They are sinners by their very nature, but I do reflect the word on their character to show them as sinners and thus as those who need the salvation provided in Jesus Christ. I expose sin as sin. Now that makes you an unpopular person. But nonetheless I must reflect sin as sin. Again you must be careful running around telling all the unbelievers don’t tell dirty stories anymore, that’s not nice. Well, it doesn’t have anything to do with reality. Now you may have to tell them that I could not listen to those stories and tell them why. Now, that is different than telling than telling them they can’t tell them. If they want to tell them with their unsaved friends, they ought to. They ought to get all the joy out of this life they can while they have time. But that does not mean that I want to expose to them because I realize the seriousness of it. It is not funny to me and pretty soon you won’t want to tell me if I have to reflect on him about the conduct of those people in that story and of him as telling that story as one who is a sinner under the wrath of God destined to Hell, he probably will stop coming around to tell me the story anyway. Rather than get a sermon he won’t tell me his story and I won’t tell him my sermon and we will have a standoff. But we must be exposing these deeds.

Note for it is disgraceful, shameful even to speak of the thing which are done by them in secret. Now it doesn’t mean that you should never mention the word obviously because he just told us to reprove those things. Now it doesn’t mean I go around and say don’t do that, what do you mean by that. Well I can’t tell you about that. Obviously don’t mention the word. It’s shameful to speak the word but the idea of the shame connected with these things. And even talk about them causes certain amount of shame. You know what it is like. Some of you have been believers for a while and have studied Romans Chapter 1. It is an unpleasant task to have to consider the last part of Romans Chapter 1 and pour out the sin of man in all its ugliness. There is a certain shame that you feel and even having to talk about it, give counsel with people, where you have to share the word with them about a problem and even having to talk about the problem there is a sense of shame connected with it. That seems to be the idea here; shameful to even speak of the things. We are not to be even talking about them then in the wrong sense as jokes or as a subject of conversation and so on. They ought to be below that. We must speak of them at times just to reflect word upon but we ought to be careful the context in which we are in.

Verse 13, “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” The first part of Verse 13 tells us why the unbeliever has no standard for what is moral and what is immoral; why they cannot say whether sex outside of the marriage relationship is right or wrong. They have no standard of judgment because note all things become visible when they are exposed by the light but the unbeliever is without light. So how is he to know that it is right or wrong? This is the frustration of parents today who are unbelievers if they want their children to grow up with standards. So they tell them they shouldn’t do this or they shouldn’t do that. But they have no basis for that standard. What said that it is right? Who said that that’s wrong? Who says that I shouldn’t live with him or her if I want to? What is the standard if there is no light? If God has not revealed his character in his opinion then your opinion is no better than mine and my opinion is no better than yours and there is no standard, and that’s where we are today.

But because men do not recognize the standard does not mean there is no standard. God has given the standard. He has revealed his character which has always been the standard from the beginning of time whether reflected in the law or reflected in the person of the son, Jesus Christ. And when the light is shined or shown or whatever you do with it, then sin is seen to be sin. I mean that does it. How do I know that that’s immoral? Because God reveals His character in the word and that is in conflict with his character, so what is wrong? But you know all my friends have been doing it. Well, we lose sight of the fact, all my friends are not the standard; God is the standard. The character of my best friend is not the standard, the character of God is the standard. And thus wrong continues to be wrong even though men today say it is right. Immorality is immoral even though men today say maybe it is not immoral. Why? Because God has shed the light.

Now if you bring these issues to the light, to the word, and they are exposed to the word, what happens? They are revealed to be what they are. When I bring my sin under the light of the Scripture, it’s revealed to be sin; there is no question about it. Now I may not like that. I may not want to accept that. But it has been clearly reflected to be what it is. You know it is just like if we turn all the lights out here and then we are doing something. We won’t say what your sin is and I won’t say what mine is, but we are practicing sin. Then the light is turned on, everybody sees. What are my thoughts, you know, here they are all flaming up in a bubble like you see in a comic strip and here I am thinking about it and nobody can see it. But all of a sudden somebody has a device, they turn on and all of a sudden my thoughts become visible, oh yaks. But that what happens with the word. Here I have this in my life and I never saw a sin before but what happens, somebody comes along and turns on the light of what God had said. All of a sudden, that’s it. I never saw it like that before. You know why, it never was exposed to the light before.

Note when they exposed by the light all things become visible. For everything that becomes visible is light. Now there has been a slight change here. Everything that visible is light. Now if I showed to be sin, sin doesn’t become not sin, does it? Obviously not. And the darkness doesn’t become light. In the last part of the last statement here Verse 14 explains this. “For this reason,” it says, “awake sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.” In other words, the purpose of reflecting of God on men is not just to show them as sinners. But it said they might come to the light, believe in Jesus Christ and become light themselves so that everything that becomes visible is light. In other words, those that come to the light are to be made light in Jesus Christ by believing in Him. That’s awake sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Several Old Testament passages probably lie behind this. It seems it may be collected from these passages and put into a hymn since this is in a poetic type of form here. Isaiah Chapter 60 Verse 1 is one clear passage that is very similar to this. Awake sleeper, you rise and Christ will shine on you. You know the light of Christ, Christ himself the light shining to give life to the person who is exposed. So that we don’t show here the word just so that men see themselves as dirty sinner but so that they see themselves as sinners in need of the salvation that God has graciously provided. And that salvation is in the person of his son, Jesus Christ.

Look at John Chapter 1, if you would, Gospel of John in the first chapter back toward the front of your Bible a little bit, the Gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, fourth book in the New Testament page 139 where Jesus is shown that to be the light of the world. Verse 4, “In Him was life, talking about Christ, and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcometh.” Verse 9, “There was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man.” Jesus Christ is the true light and he is the one who coming into the world provides life for mankind, reveals the person and character of God.

Note over in Chapter 3 of John, if you would, a problem that existed. Verse 16, that familiar verse where God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Verse 19, and this is judgment, that the light is come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, does not come to the light, less his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be manifest as having been brought in God. Issue very simply, men who love their sin, who want to hold on to their sin do not want to be exposed to the light of the word of God, to the light of Jesus Christ. So they shun the light. They don’t want to be exposed to the truth of God’s word because then they will have to see themselves as God sees it, as sinners, totally alienated from the life of God. The exciting thing is that God in love had his son die in our place so that we who are darkness by our very nature in character by believing in him might become light and thus the whole character in my life is changed because now I am a new person. I am not the old person trying to do better. I am new person functioning as a new person. I am a child of God, with God residing in my life producing his character in me in all areas.

Just two questions. One, have you ever believed in Jesus Christ? Have you ever seen that you were a sinner that Jesus Christ died for you and on the basis of those facts you believed in him as your personal savior? If not, you have not yet been born into his family. You got to do that right now. Just where you are sitting. You can just place your trust in him, not in yourself anymore, not in your family, not in your church, not in your works, not in baptism, not in communion, none of that is relevant, just believing in Jesus Christ. God loved the world so much that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him, not who is baptized, not who takes communion, not who joins the church but who believes in him has life.

Secondly if you have believed in him, is your life a true manifestation of his character? People who see you, do they see Jesus Christ? Do they see the character of God in every area? Are your thoughts a true reflection of the character of God? Are your works a true manifestation of his character? Is your conduct and all that you do a reflection of his character? If not then you need to stop doing the unprofitable works of darkness, allow the Spirit to begin to produce the fruit of life in you.

Let’s pray together. Father, we thank you for the glorious salvation that we have in Christ. Lord that we so undeserving, Lord, even uninterested were the recipients of such love that you had your son die for us. Lord, we are thankful that simply by believing in Him we can have life, that we become light, we can have a personal relationship with you. Lord, to have the joy of being conformed to your character. We pray for those who are here this morning who have not yet trusted Christ the Savior but perhaps this is the first time that they have heard the word as even now that they might see clearly the need of simply placing their faith in Him, resting upon Him for the forgiveness that only he can provide. Lord, for those of us who are your children, we pray that we would be honest before you even right now. The Spirit again reflects the word upon our lives, Lord, areas of our lives which are not true manifestations of your character, whether in our thoughts, in our words or in our deeds. We ask that we might be willing to have the Spirit control us in order that your life might be produced through us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.