Sermon: The Christian Walk: In Light
You Are the Light of the World
#1758-AM
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 23-Apr-24; 81 minutes
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transcript:
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis the first chapter, the first verse. We are going to read the first five verses of Genesis, first five verses of the Bible.
Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
The first command in God's Word is "Let there be light." After introducing God as Creator of heaven and earth, the Book begins by describing earth, that is, our world, and the Bible describes it as tohu and bohu, as we have said in the past, in the Hebrew. That it was formless and empty. It existed in a chaotic state. There was futility there, it was covered in darkness. It describes a place, a state without God.
The church has taught that the language that Moses uses here in verses 1 and 2, as describing what happened to the earth, what happened to the whole galaxy, if you will, the solar system at least after, Satan's rebellion. This is the way it was once rebellious angels tried to take over God's throne and were spat back to earth by His might. That is called the "gap theory." That is what creationists call it. That there was a gap of some time between the first verse and the second.
And if we are correct in believing that, it is a description then of the result of sin and rebellion. And so the earth that was without form and void, and darkened, where there was no light, that is the way that is opposed to God, that is the result of sin.
But the end of verse 2 informs us that God was poised to act. He was not willing to leave His creation in such a displeasing ruined state. His Spirit, that is, the power by which He works, was hovering in the darkness over the waters. It is almost like it was a bird just kind of hovering in the breeze, kind of like you see the gulls do on the beach, where they just seem to stay hovering as the wind holds them up. And of course, many people have drawn a parallel to the Spirit coming like a dove upon Jesus at His baptism, as kind of a throwback to this. That the One who was going to cleanse the world was here.
But that Spirit, His Spirit, was above the waters. And the image of hovering, the idea of hovering, gives you the idea of kind of a tenseness that is there. Like there is a readiness to go. It is almost like when you are on the starting line in a race. Everybody is just waiting for the gunshot to go off or the whistle to blow or the flag to wave. The Spirit was waiting for a command. Then God said, "Let there be light." That was the command—and there was light. It happened. Light bloomed around the earth. So God banished the darkness for a time so He could work.
Notice it tells us there that once He saw the light and said it was good, that He divided the light from the darkness, and there was a day portion and a night portion, a light portion and a dark portion. And they became part of our day. Have you ever tried, let us say it is pitch black outside, but you have to do something and you do not have any light source. And so you try to fumble around and try to figure out how to do this thing and you never do it quite right. Even if you can do what it is that you need to do, you do not feel real secure about it because it is dark. You cannot see what you have just done, but you assume maybe that you got it okay.
But as soon as you flood some light on your area of work, you can do it. I really feel for people who are blind, that they have to kind of exist in this state all the time. And of course, they figure out ways to use their other senses to allow them to do quite a bit, but they still cannot do things that need precision like a sighted person can, depending on what it is, of course.
But if you need to be able to see and light is not available or your abilities are not there, then you are going to have trouble. It is a struggle. But as soon as the ability to see is there and as soon as light is there, it becomes almost easy. You do not have to put quite so much work into it. So it is almost impossible to do anything well in darkness.
Jesus Himself says in John 9:3, that "the night is coming when no one can work." It is a generality, but it is a truism. Work is far more difficult in darkness. We work best in the daylight, in the daytime when we can see because there is plenty of light to illuminate what we are doing.
God, then, brought light into the world to do His work of creation. That was the first thing He called for. "I need a lamp. I can't see what's in here in the engine." You ever worked on a car at night? How much light do you need to do some of that work? And of course, there are shadows everywhere and you have to get the light in just the right direction, pointing at the thing you need to work on so you can see what it is that you have to do to fix the thing.
So God gets His light, He gets His lamp. Light floods the earth, and God looks at it and He says, "This is good! Now We can work." And so He calls it good, which is a positive and qualitative evaluation about this thing, this light that He had just made. And then of course, you think about it. If He called the light good and then He divided the light from the darkness, He is making an evaluative, qualitative evaluation of darkness as well. It is just kind of implied. The darkness is not good like light. He does not say it directly, but the text here lumps darkness in with things like formlessness and emptiness and futility, things God does not like.
All of these things balance the ledger, if you will. You have good on one side and darkness and formlessness and emptiness and futility on the other side. Thus, the text implies that darkness is not good but bad, even evil, or the result of evil.
But there is an irony in the fact, is there not, that He included the darkness of night along with the light of day in His creation. So, in this world where we have day and night in a 24-hour cycle, each human being is exposed to both light and darkness every day and he or she must live and produce in darkness or light. Sometimes we have to live where we produce in darkness in light. But even every day, there is a decision about where, or when is better, we are going to work (or maybe "where" is good). Are we going to work in the light or are we going to work in the darkness?
So right out of the gate, Genesis 1, first five verses, God introduces us to a primary biblical metaphor, the opposition or the division or separation of light and darkness. One of the first things He greets us with in the pages of His Book, and in doing so in these five verses, He introduces us also to some of the major tenets of this biblical metaphor. Things like, light comes from God. He is the one that created it and commanded it. Light overcomes darkness. Because when He turned on the light, the darkness fled away.
Light is necessary for creation. He certainly felt so because that was the first day. He made sure He had light. God works in the light, light is approved by God and considers it good, while darkness is the opposite of light and therefore bad. Paul, in II Corinthians 6:14 writes (we went over this the other day in the Passover service), "What communion [or what fellowship or partnership, what mutual participation in something] has light with darkness?"
They do not mix. I mean, it says right here, verse 4, Genesis 1, "God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided [or separated] the light from the darkness." They do not mix. Not well. We do have twilight periods in the physical creation. But to Him, looking at this from His glory, there is no mixing of light and dark. They are to stay separate.
These are vital distinctions to know from the beginning. He wants these things impacting our brain first thing when we open up the Bible, because it tells us three things. 1) God is on the side of light, 2) darkness does exist but it opposes God, and 3) we have been called to choose between them.
Let us go to the other beginning of the Bible in John the first chapter. John 1:1, we will read also the first five verses. John imitates the beginning of Genesis purposely. We are supposed to get some of the same ideas flowing from John 1:1-5 as we got from Genesis 1:1-5, some of the same things appear there. But John, having a greater understanding in terms of the spiritual work of God, heightens it a bit. So let us read this.
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Or if you notice, your margin probably has a reference there or a difference of translation. My New King James says, "apprehend." It is probably not the greatest word to use, but it did not "overcome" it.
Like I said, John imitates the first verses of Genesis here in John. He begins in the beginning, taking it back even further by introducing a specific God Being and calls Him Logos, which is translated in our Bibles mostly as "the Word." And that Greek word logos suggests many things. It is a very hard word to pin down because it is very broad in its application. So we have to kind of think through what God wants us to understand here by using the word.
The word logos could mean an idea, a thought, a message (that is a good one), an expression of something, or a way of expression, or what is expressed. It can mean in Greek wisdom, it could mean logic, it could mean reason, it could mean a principle, and it can also mean revelation. And parts of all of these, and probably all of them all together. It is very difficult to understand this word from our point of view. The Greeks had an idea of this better than we do, but it has all of these factors wrapped up within it.
Now, Mr. Armstrong many years ago preferred to define it in a certain way because he often referred to Christ as the spokesman and that is fine. I mean that is what He did. He was the one that spoke for the God Family. Whenever somebody spoke between the Father and the Son, it was always the Son. He was the one that always was the front man to act and to speak and to reveal and to give logic and reason and wisdom and express the divine will.
In some way, you could also say that logos means messenger. It does not mean it in the same way as angelos because that is also "a messenger." But the messenger has the job of communicating and logos in terms of a person has that idea of a communicator. I like also "the revelator."
I think there is a lot to learn from going over those various ideas of what the meaning of the word logos means and how it applies to Christ.
But John informs us that the logos is the same divine Being as the Creator in Genesis 1:1. Remember the Son, the one who became the Son, the logos, was always the one that was out front doing the things the Father would tell Him what to do. And then the Son, the one who became the Son, the logos, would actually do the things. He would speak and things would be done.
And He also tells us here, John does, that this logos possesses life inherent and that His life is the light of men. By His life, He gives light to the world. He lights the way to eternal life. And that is how you could think of what John was saying there in the flow of the words: that He has life in Himself and His light is the light of men. That is, by His life, by all that He does in His life, by the work of His life, He gives light to the world.
He shines out the light of God's will on to the world, His teaching, His wisdom, His logic, His reason, His revelation; and upon receiving it and accepting it, that light leads to eternal life for men.
And then John touches base once again with Genesis 1, reminding us that the light shined bright in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it. In other words, John is reaching way back to the creation of the earth and way forward to the culmination of God's plan, and he said, what happened back then, where the light shined in the darkness and overcame it, that is a prophecy, if you will, of the end, when light will totally overcome darkness. The end has been predicted. Light wins.
Mr. Armstrong, at the end of Mystery of the Ages, he said, "We win!" Well, yes, it says it right there. The light cannot be overcome by darkness. Darkness always flees in the presence of light.
So in this sermon, we are going to continue our investigation of our walk with God through what the apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5 about walking in love, walking in light, and walking in wisdom. If you remember, the last time we considered walking in love, that is, imitating the life of Christ and sacrificing ourselves for the good of others, and putting off sin and putting on righteousness ourselves, and therefore pleasing God. So today we are moving on from that and we will tackle walking in light to which we have been called.
This is the first Day of Unleavened Bread. I do not want to lose sight of that. Let us go to Exodus the 12th chapter. We are not going to read the command about the Days of Unleavened Bread, but we are going to talk about the Exodus a bit.
Exodus 12:37-42 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves. Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is the night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
We observed that last night in the Night to be Much Observed.
Let us move forward to chapter 13.
Exodus 13:17-22 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, "Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt." So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you." So they took their journey from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
In these passages, we can touch on the events of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and get our bearings as we need to have them right now. So by His own hand, God did all the work here. God freed the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery. All they had to do was walk. He supplied pretty much everything else. The Death Angel went over, they had the blood of the Passover on their lintels and door posts, they were saved. Yay! They all got up. "Let's go! We gotta go today. Let's go! Let's go!"
They all got ready, they packed their things, they made sure they collected all their animals. They got out of there and they left on that evening after a day of running around like chickens with their head cut off trying to get everything that they had together and form up. As it says here, they went out in an orderly manner and they all walked out of Egypt in the sight of the Egyptians. In another place, it says that not even a dog barked. God had everything worked out. He had all His angels out there muzzling all the dogs saying, "Don't you bark."
And He said, "Moses go here, get the people ready. We're going to go out at the sunset." And that night, they went out exactly to the day from when He had made the promise to Abraham that they would be 400 years in Egyptian bondage. Or actually not 400 years, but it would be 400 years before they would get out of Egyptian bondage and return to the land of Canaan. So He had everything to organize and work out, and they got up and started walking from, as it says here, they journeyed from Succoth—tent place, place of tents, or tabernacles if you want to use that term—and they went out into the wilderness.
How interesting. They began their walk in darkness. And God watched out for them through the night. That is basically what it says there, that this is the night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel. God watched over them that night, nobody else was going to look after them. They were His people. So God Himself solemnly observed His people. He watched over them. He was alert and vigilant as a guard and went out with them to get them out of slavery.
And He also steered them away from the land of the Philistines toward the wilderness so that they would not be drawn into war or drawn into fear, even, of war and turn around and go back and leave the rest of the Israelites and go back to their slavery.
Then of course, the point I have been getting at all this time, is that He gave them a pillar of fire to follow. He gave them a light, a beacon of light to lead the way. And it says very clearly there in verse 22, the end of chapter 13, "He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people." So He became, if you will, or was covered by the cloud during the day and the pillar of fire during the night. During the day, they could see so they did not need the pillar of fire in the day. It had the light of the sun that He had created. But during the night, they needed light to walk through the wilderness.
So He, the Lord, was in the cloud and in the fire. He was always there to lead and guide them. He never went away for 40 years. He was always visible—daytime or nighttime—in the form of cloud or fire. You always knew, if you turned one way, you knew that if you did not see Him there, you could turn around and find Him wherever He was. All you needed was that cloud, like a column, "Ah, there He is. There's God, there is our God. He's watching over us. He is going to lead us through the wilderness." Or if it was in the dead of night, it was very obvious where He was then because this column or pillar of a fire was lighting up the night over the Tabernacle. Spectacular!
But they were a physical people. They needed a physical object to focus upon and He gave it to them. He wanted to lead them to the Promised Land. So He did not spare. He is a God of great providence. He gives everything that is necessary. And so He gave them light, light to follow, if they only would.
Let us go back to the book of John. We have been flipping between John and Exodus here. Well, John and the Pentateuch, let us just say. John 8, verse 12. You know, the same thing has happened for us. But we are a spiritual people, not a physical people. This is after the woman was caught in adultery, and He said, "Go and say no more." He tells her, your accusers are gone. I am not going to condemn you either. "Go and sin no more."
John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again [He is talking to the crowd now], saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
There are those two words again, light and life, back to back. There is obviously a connection between the two of them.
So if we combine this in John 8:12 with what we learned in John 1, then for us, as the Israel of God, He Himself is our light just like He was in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. He is there for us as our light, as our guide, as our beacon. He is always perpetually, like with Israel, shining His goodness and bids us to follow. Follow the light. He leads us out of darkness and into the light, like He led Israel out of darkness, gave them light, and led them toward the Kingdom of God, the Promised Land, the physical kingdom.
He sets us on a path and He lights the path for us so that we know the way. He makes sure that we are safe and pointed in the right direction. And the light always goes ahead so that we have the light before us to draw us toward Him and toward God and toward the Kingdom.
Now let us go forward a page to John 9. We will start in verses 4 and 5. And then we will skip down into chapter 12. The disciples asked Him about the man who was born blind, if it was his sin or his parents sin.
John 9:4-5 And Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. [Jesus says] I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work."
John 12:34 The people answered Him [because He just said that He would be dying by crucifixion], "We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever [that He is going to live eternally], and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? [that He could die] Who is the Son of Man?"
You are confusing us. We think the Bible says that the Messiah is going to live forever. Now we are confused. Is the Son of Man the same as the Messiah we see in the Old Testament? What is going on here? So He answers.
John 12:35-36 Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
Boy, He must have really frustrated them because they had ask Him what they thought was a straightforward question. Are you talking about the same guy that is in the old Testament? The Messiah? Why are you talking about this Son of Man that He has to die? Is not Messiah going to live forever? And He starts talking to them about walking in the light and following the light and becoming sons of light. "Just answer our questions!"
But He decided to speak about this metaphor of Himself as the light. To answer their question that way because He wanted a greater truth to dawn upon them rather than, is the Son of Man and the Messiah the same and why must one be eternal and the other die? He is basically telling them, you need to learn something a lot more basic and I am going to put it in these terms of light and darkness. Your job is to follow the light and to become sons of light. You do not need to worry about all this identification of who is this type and that. You just need to follow the light.
The light is going to go away in a bit. Do not worry about these technicalities. Let us go to the central point, which is, you need to follow the light, to do the light, to become sons of the light—because the time is short. The time was not only short that there were just a few days that He was going to be there, yes. But their lives are short. Their time is short. Do not get hung up on all these technicalities that you cannot really figure out the answer to. Just remember the basic things. You have got the light; use the light, do the light, be the light. That is what He is telling them.
So here He speaks about doing work in the light and walking in the light. Neither one of them can be done in darkness. Good, profitable, especially spiritual work, is impossible in darkness. And a person who tries to work in darkness ends up off the path. That is what He tells them. "Don't work in the darkness. Work in the light."
Do you know what happens when you go off the path in the darkness? What do we say? How do we describe such a person? He becomes lost. That is not good. So you have to walk in the light of Christ. We need illumination to do either, that is, to work or to walk in the light. And in spiritual matters, the only true light is Christ. He is the light, He is the light of men, He is the light of life.
John frequently pounds this into our head. He is the light. He is the one we follow. Do not follow darkness, follow Christ. He is the light. His light will lead to life.
Now in the Old Testament, Psalm 119:105 tells us specifically that the "law is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path." That is, our walk. While here in the New Testament, Jesus tells us that the law, while good and holy and necessary, needs the extra component of light, that is, Christ and His revelation, His light for us to believe and follow to the Kingdom of God. If the law itself and only the law were necessary, the Jews would have been fine because they knew the law the best of anybody. They had people dedicated—the lawyers—to studying the law. All the rabbis thought themselves experts in the law, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians, they all thought they knew the law. And they did! They could recite it backwards and forwards and upside down and from the middle out.
They understood the letter, but they lacked the other component. They lacked God's Spirit that was hovering over the face of the waters in that first day of creation. They lacked the essence of the mind and power of Christ. They lacked the light. They were walking in darkness even with the law, because they had constricted it and contained it to mean only what they taught that it meant.
But Christ in us, through His Spirit, enables us to believe and keep the spirit of the law and walk the straight and narrow to God's Kingdom.
The law is great! The law is wonderful! Where would we be without it? But God's Spirit in us is greater. It opens up the law. It shines the light on the law. And so we have the Sermon on the Mount, which is Christ's expansion on the law. If we have applied the spirit to the law, this is what we get. That is what we have to follow.
Let us go to one of those, Matthew 5, going back into the Sermon on the Mount. And we are going to not go into one of those points of the law, but we are going to go to something that might be astounding to you if you had not thought of it this way. But this is something that the Spirit of God in us allows us to understand and why what Christ has brought us is so much greater. Because what did we see with the Jews? With their keeping of the law, they tried to confine the law to a certain set of rules. So they had 600-something for the Sabbath, they had 2,000 or whatever for everything. (I do not know what those numbers are.) But they had used their scribal proficiency to try to nail down everything in the law to be only this, this is what it means. And so they did that.
But Jesus came in the light, with the light shining on the darkness that had enclosed the law with their trapping the law into a very condensed idea of what God wanted of them. And He sprung it open, He sprung it so wide that they killed Him for it, essentially. Because they kept saying He is breaking the law. And you know, we could sit back and say, there is no way He could break the law. He is the lawgiver! He is actually taking the binders that you placed about the law and helping you to see what is real, what He means. That is what light is, by the way. We will see in a few minutes, light is truth and truth is reality.
He comes here to Judea and He says, "Let's take these binders off the law and see what I meant for the application of this law." He is opening it up by the light. The light is the key through the Spirit.
Matthew 5:14 "You [He is talking to His disciples] are the light of the world."
That should blow us away. What did Jesus say about Himself? "I am the light of the world." He is the light that is the life of men. And here He is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount saying "you are the light of the world" to His disciples.
Matthew 5:14-16 "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
So just as Christ is the light of the world, we, called to be His brethren, are also the light of the world. Yes, we are supposed to at least reflect Christ's light so that others can see the goodness of God. But He says verse 16, "but let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." It is very obviously implied in what He says here that we have light of our own. We are to produce light through good works that others can see and use as an example and glorify our Father in heaven.
Do you remember in the Passover service (you should, it was just a day and a half ago), where it says there in John 14, Philip said, "Show us the Father, we need You to see the Father. That will be enough for us." And Jesus says, "Have I been so long with you, Philip, that you haven't seen the Father, that you do not know Me?" Because if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father. Well, the same thing should be said of us. When people see us, they should see Christ, they should see the light shining in the world. I do not think any of us, maybe I am just pessimistic this way, but none of us shine too brightly. Something we need to work on.
Let us go to Philippians 2. We are like that light bulb that sputters. You know, it is on for a minute and then it goes blink, blink, blink, and it goes off, and then maybe a little bit later it will come on and shine a little bit. But we are very inconsistent. We are not shining like Christ who is just in effulgent glory. He never stops shining. He is always good and wonderful and we are just learning how to become a little light.
Philippians 2:12-16 Therefore, 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; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. [Now, I have come here because Paul delineates how we shine as lights in the world.] Do all things without murmuring and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.
Here is a primer on how we should act, we should be, we should live, as children of light, as lights in the world. We begin, as he says in verse 12, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We start with the fear of God and humility, and that allows God to work with us. We fear Him. We fear disappointing Him. We respect, we are in awe of Him. We want to do what He tells us to do and we humble ourselves before Him trembling, asking for His guidance and help.
Then he says, we work on little things. Sometimes they are little, sometimes they are big. But he says, do not complain, quit grumbling, quit murmuring like the Israelites did all across the wilderness. You have really got nothing to complain about because God has your back in everything. He is going to provide for you what you need. So quit complaining. That is just wasting your time because you have it good, especially when you look at it from the standpoint that He has only called a small percentage of this world and He is watching you and making sure you have all you need. I mean, who else but a small number of people have God watching them constantly and helping them?
Then he says, do not argue and quarrel. That is also a waste of time. God has called that person, God has called you. There is no reason to have any arguments. Because if you are doing that, you are looking at people. You are not looking at Christ, you are not looking at the Way. So stop arguing and quarreling. What you should be doing, on the other hand, is striving to become blameless and innocent and faultless. Working on yourself, trying to live to the high standard of Jesus Christ.
As God's children, as God's dear children, he says, we must be putting off everything that is not Christ, which means everything because you are not Christ yet. You are not a full effulgent light yet. You still have darkness that needs to be overcome. So get to work! And not just putting off but putting on all of those of Christ's attributes that we lack.
Here we are in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We have got to be getting the leaven out and putting on unleavened things. We need to be eating unleavened sustenance and using that to forge ahead and be lights in the world. So this is where we have our greatest witness, when we start putting these things together and we have gone through stopping all these things that we are doing and then putting on the good things that Christ does, and then we go out in the world and they see, as it were, the image of Christ in us because we are acting the same way, we are shining the same light that He does in the world. Terribly difficult to do.
But that is the goal. God always keeps the goal high, supremely high, total excellence. And He says, "Reach for it. That's what My children do. They succeed because they are full of My power and they have decided, they have willed that they are going to follow God."
So this truth that we also are lights of the world, elevates our witnessing to the world to a supreme level and should put us all on our P's and Q's at all times. If nothing else, if you do not have much exposure to this world, that is fine; at least our light should shine within the house. That is, the house of God. It should give light to all the house, as it says there in Matthew 5:15. We need to be guiding and encouraging and persuading our brethren towards spiritual growth. And if we only do that by example, that is fine, but we need to be trying to help one another produce spiritual fruit and ultimately reach that awesome goal of God's Kingdom.
So after all this, what does light symbolize? Well overall, light represents Christ. He is the light. In John 1:9, John calls him the "true light which gives light to every man." He is the source of light who gives of Himself to us. And like all of the various colors found in the frequencies of light, as you would see in a rainbow or through a prism, you see them separate out into the various colors, the light He bestows is multifaceted. He does not just do one thing. He gives us a broad spectrum of light. None of them are of a different quality but they all touch different parts of the truth and His goodness.
Now, the most important ideas that light represents in Scripture are three:
1) Light represents revelation or you could say, it represents knowledge or truth or inspiration. Those ideas are all in the idea of revelation. So when He gives us light, He reveals some sort of knowledge or truth to us that we need.
2) It also represents goodness. Now, goodness has to do with godly action or godly character, let us put it that way, because this is encapsulated in things like His love, His kindness, of course His grace. These are all part of God's goodness toward us.
3) The light is representing example. Christ is the light because He gave us the perfect witness of how a human being should live in the world, yet remain without sin. So He gave us an example. He shined His light throughout His life. This has to do with the subjects of witnessing, of divine guidance, and giving direction and help. So His commandments are part of this as well because His commandments, whether Old Testament or New Testament, are guidance and direction of the way we should live.
In fact, these are the three fruit of the light or fruit of the Spirit, as some versions have it, in Ephesians 5:9. Paul mentions it there: goodness, righteousness, truth. Those are the same three, they are just in a different order. So Paul's exhortation in Ephesians 5:8-14 encompasses all three of these.
Let us go there, Ephesians 5, verses 8 through 14. And because of time, we are going to have to go through this fast. But I think you can understand (actually, this has been one long introduction, if you had not noticed), you will be able to see how these principles that we have gone over fold into what Paul says here in Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5:8-14 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit [or the fruit of the light, if you will notice your margin] is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), proving what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness [we saw that], but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things that are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light [meaning they are revealed, they suddenly come into focus], for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says, "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
Like I said, we are going to move through these pretty quickly because I think we have already laid the groundwork for understanding what Paul is exhorting us here. Paul's entrée, if you will, his entrance into walking in light, the subject of walking in light is the contrast between what we were before conversion and what we are now due to conversion. We were darkness. Notice that. We were darkness because we were full of sin. But now you are light in the Lord. Because you have signed on to the Lord's program, made the covenant with Him, that has made you light. You have joined His side, you are on the side of light, not on the side of darkness.
We know, and I am sure you know, we know through experience what darkness is and how darkness works and what darkness does in the end. All its ways are destructive and if we do not stop them, they end in misery and death. That is darkness. And out of sheer gratitude to God and Christ that our Lord called and raised us out of darkness to become light and live in the light, we should walk as children of light—if for only that reason.
That is what Paul is saying here. You have been given such a great opportunity, such a great advantage through God's calling, through Christ's leadership, and giving of His Spirit, and all the helps and providences that He gives that we should be eager to live as light, as children of light. It is as if Paul is saying that we were born of light or maybe I should put it, reborn of light. And in fact, light played a critical role in our birth as a new man. There was God's revelation of His truth. There was God's goodness in His grace and forgiveness. And there was God's example in the righteousness that we follow—His righteousness.
Let us look at I Thessalonians 5, just a few pages over.
I Thessalonians 5:4-11 [he says] But you, brethren, are not in darkness [not any longer], so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. [He is talking about Christ's return.] You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him [meaning if we are going to stay alive or if we die, we are going to one day live together with Him]. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
Let us go to verse 9 here back in Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5:9 For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.
Now I mentioned earlier here that fruit of the Spirit should probably be fruit of the Light. Spirit is only found in those versions that rely on textus receptus, the King James version and the New King James version and a few others. But in the modern Bibles, it is almost universally translated as Light. Most ancient manuscripts have light here and it is easy to see why somebody would have put Spirit there because of what is in Galatians 5:22 where it talks about the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, etcetera. So that was just kind of transposed here.
But here he is talking about light. The Spirit obviously has a lot to do with it because we receive our light through the Spirit, so obviously it is there. The Spirit is necessary for us to receive and use and emit light. We have to do all that in the Spirit. But Paul is speaking specifically about light. Genuine spiritual light produces, as he says here, what is good, what is right, and what is true. So light is godly. It does what is right. That is, what is just lawful, excellent, helpful, and it conveys or reveals truth or reality, as I mentioned.
So true light is pure and always on the side of good. That is what it is going to produce. If we are living in the light and we are practicing shining our light, which we are supposed to do, then that should all be to the good for others. And that is what we have been called to produce in lives led by the light.
All of what we produce are supposed to be these three things: good, right, and true. Those should be our watchwords for what comes out of our mouth, what we do in our work, how we play, everything that we do should reflect goodness, righteousness, and truth.
Ephesians 5:10 proving what is acceptable to the Lord.
This verse parallels in a way Romans 12, verse 2.
Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
He says something very similar here "proving what is acceptable to the Lord." The New King James uses prove here in both verses. But the Greek verb is dokimazo. It is easier to understand as "discern" or "put it to the test" or "examine" or "scrutinize." So we are supposed to be looking at the nitty-gritty of all this, examining it, examining what God teaches us, examining the examples that have been given, and coming to understand what is light in the Lord, what is good, what is acceptable to God, what actions, what words, what things that we do please God. That is what is acceptable to Him. He will be pleased by the acceptable things.
So Paul encourages us here to figure out what pleases Him. And we do this by studying His Word, carefully examining and imitating Christ's life and His conduct, His words, and attempting to put it into practice by trial and error, by failing a lot, and by overcoming a lot, and finally getting it right. And in most cases, we have a lifetime to work on this. It is a long project, a long research and study project this figuring out how to please God, but we should not put it off. Do not wait till the end of the semester, start on your term paper now!
As we understand from Romans 12:2, it involves both abstaining or putting off sinful behaviors and active care and concern for others of the Body while we are putting on righteous things, good things, true things.
So Paul, here, essentially commands us to live godly and serve each other in love. Those are the two big things. Live like Christ, the true Light. Those things are what please God, what are acceptable to Him. So here in the Days of Unleavened Bread, we get rid of leavening and we put on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Back to Ephesians 5. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them." So to walk in the light, we cannot dabble in darkness. Its works are unfruitful. They are dead and sterile, like a tree that does not bear any fruit. Darkness produces no good thing. Works of darkness sully and darken our character and our walk in the light.
If we claim to live in the light, but it is obvious that we are practicing darkness, as it says there in I John 1:5-7, what it does is it just proves that we are lying to ourselves and to others. And if that is the case, if we are walking in darkness while claiming to walk in the light, then we need to identify the darkness in us, turn to God in repentance, and as it says there in I John 1:7, Christ's blood will cover our transgressions. We need to make use of that and clean ourselves up.
Now this says to expose them. A lot of people have taken that to mean expose them in other people. But what Paul is talking about is exposing them in ourselves. Shine the light on our own character and find where the darkness is. Let us go back to verse 12.
Ephesians 5:12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
This is an important thing in the church because we need to be as true and right and pure as possible. His comment generally right here in verse 12 warns us not to drag any abominable sin into the common conversation. We do not need to talk about it among ourselves. The best thing to do is, if you find sin in somebody, let them know, let them deal with it. Do not tell anybody else. Love covers a multitude of sins. So one must act in grace and in kindness and in forbearance for that person and stop talking about it to anybody. That is the best thing that could occur in the church. Especially Paul was speaking about terrible sexual sins and idolatry that were happening there in Ephesus.
But what he tells us here to do is that we need to keep ourselves pure. We should not even let certain things into our consciousness because it is defiling. So keep quiet. Keep yourselves pure. Keep your children pure. They do not need to hear those things. In a godly context, there is no reason to talk about them and when we do not talk about them, we do not gossip.
Ephesians 5:13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.
I want to quickly go back to John the third chapter, verses 20 and 21. Jesus is speaking here.
John 3:20-21 "For every one practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
And back in Luke 8, verse 17.
Luke 8:17 "For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light."
What Paul is saying here back in Ephesians 5 is essentially, true light not only exposes but ultimately and eventually transforms. Light is powerful. Jesus says that most people in the world want neither the exposure or the transformation. They want to continue to do their darkness or their deeds of evil in darkness. But those who choose to let the light illuminate them will be transformed. They will be changed, and it will be very obvious that God has done this because there will be such a difference in that person's life. And in time, they prove through their lives, through their witness, that God has worked in them and made them like Christ, like the light. They become light as He is.
We have just come back around in the circle.
Ephesians 5:14 Therefore He says, "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
Paul has returned to where he started in verse 8 with the stark difference that God's calling and their baptism and the receipt of God's Spirit has made in their lives. They were darkness and now they are light in the Lord. In Romans 6, Paul says,
Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that as many of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:11-14 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
So the old man is dead in the watery grave and we were resurrected spiritually as a new person. But that is not the end. That is just the beginning.
Paul's admonition in Ephesians 5:14 is to remember—remember that, remember the distinction between what you were and what Christ has made you—and that should spur us to continue to repent and grow with the help of the light. That is what he says there "and Christ will give you light." Just remember, wake up, get back on track.
Let us end now in Psalm 56. We are going to read the last two verses here. Think of this personally.
Psalm 56:12-13 Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God [and we have made that vow]; I will render praises to You, for You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not delivered my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
God has delivered our lives from the destruction of the ordinary, uncalled man. He picked us out of the crowd. He cleaned us up and He set us on our feet so we can walk. Walk before Him, that is, walk in His presence, in His company. It is now our task, our purpose, and our destiny to walk in the light to eternal life in God's Kingdom.
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