Children of Light, Awake! — Tim Conway

Children of Light, Awake! — Tim Conway

This morning, we are in Ephesians 5. If you'd open up your Bibles there. I want you to see these passages, not just hear them, so please do open your Bibles. I want Paul, and more than that, the Lord who speaks through Paul primarily to speak to you.

I'm not so interested in communicating my opinions to you. I want you to see it's very interesting as we come upon a new decade. I mean, I thought this, that this should be the message as we're coming into a week of prayer and fasting.

We're coming to 2020. What is the message that God would have for His church? Pay very careful attention here. In fact, my introduction is going to deal with some of the technical issues. And I'm not wanting to bore you with these, but I want you to see what's here.

I want you to hear what's here. I want you to be gripped by what's here. I'm going to take a bigger section of Scripture than usual in this study through Ephesians. Now I'm reading from the English Standard Version.

And I'm going to make some comments in this introduction about other versions. I'll try to bring some clarity to some things. But just try to get a feel for what's here. Ephesians 5. And I want to read verses 7 -17.

Eleven verses. Therefore, do not become partakers with them. Who's them? I mean, very specifically from the context, who's them? Sons of disobedience from v. 6. This is being spoken to Christians, to the Ephesian Christians, the Ephesian church.

Christians, therefore, do not become partners with the sons of disobedience. For at one time, you were a darkness, but now you're a light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.

And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.

For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Now I want to sort some things out here. There's a number of things I want to point out to you before we really dive into the text.

First, verse 9. If you're holding a King James Version or a New King James Version, as I read, fruit of light in verse 9, your Bible says fruit of the Spirit. Now there is a textual variant here. Now, if you just look at the flow, fruit of light very much fits the context because it says now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light. The fruit of light is found that is all in good, right, true. We ought not to get too bent out of shape because obviously the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of light. Second comment, verse 10.

The ESV, I do not like when this happens. The ESV totally passes over the fact that verse 10 starts with a participle. What do you mean? Participles basically, typically in English, they end in "-ing.".

The reason that's so important is because there's a big difference between Paul saying walk as children and try to discern what's pleasing to him. There's a big difference between that and say walk trying to please Him.

Because then the trying to please Him modifies the walk. You see, if you're wondering what it is about walking as children of light, if you look at that and you say what does that mean? The trying, or your translation may say proving, but there should be an "-ing there because it modifies.

It's we're walking as children of light and the way you want to walk is trying to prove what's pleasing to Him. That's the issue. It's a participle. You can cross out try and put trying. It ought to be trying to discern.

That's the second thing. Third thing, you will notice, and I haven't looked into this in depth. It just doesn't need to be looked at that closely in my estimation, but the ESV shortens v. 13 and it puts the last half of v. 13 into v. 14.

If you have a New King James Version, a New American Standard, or a King James Version, you have a short v. 14. The ESV has a short v. 13. There's actually nothing missing in any of the translations. It's just that it gets rearranged.

So, if you've got an ESV, v. 14 starts, for anything that becomes visible is light. All the other translations you guys are carrying, that is found at the end of v. 13. Now, that's going to become an issue in just a second.

In fact, the next thing that I have to say to you. V. 13 and 14, there is not a textual issue. A textual issue is when in the original manuscripts, the Greek manuscripts, there's one manuscript that says it one way and they've got other manuscripts that say it another.

That's a textual variant. When I talk about a translation issue, it means they're all working with the same Greek. They just decide to translate it somewhat differently. If you have the ESV, and you look at that portion I was just talking about, at the beginning of v. 14, if you've got any other translations, it's what's said at the end of v. 13.

It's that part that says, for anything that becomes visible is light. Or everything that becomes visible is light. That's what the NAS says. Or whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Whatever makes manifest is light.

You all see it. It's in your Scripture. But there's a translational issue here in the fact that the NAS and the ESV basically say this, becomes visible. Whereas the New King James, the Old King James, they say make manifest.

Now, you see, there's a difference between that. Becoming manifest or becoming visible, that's what happens to itself. Whereas making is what it does to something else. I really believe that the KJV, the New KJV have it right here.

It doesn't, just think with me for a second. Follow the flow. I mean, v. 11 says children of light expose the works of darkness. You all see that, right? V. 11, children of light are supposed to be exposing the works of darkness.

When you get to v. 13, light exposes. It makes other things visible. To say that anything that becomes visible is light is not right. Think about that. Think about what's being said. Anything that becomes visible is light.

No, light makes visible. If I shine light on that chair and all of a sudden that chair brightens up, I don't say that chair is light. The light made it manifest. The KJV, New KJV, I crossed that out a long time ago in my ESV and put makes manifest or makes visible.

That's key because that's what you are supposed to be doing. Now, let's look at something else. V. 14, therefore it says. KJV, New KJV, they say therefore he says. But if it's it, it's Scripture or something.

He, it's God speaking. Those often get used interchangeably. What's that? I mean, therefore it says or he says. No one knows for certain exactly where this is being quoted from. Some people actually have surmised that it's an old Christian song or hymn from the early church.

Others have thought one place or another. Brethren, I'll tell you, I honestly believe that if you look at Paul's use of Old Testament passages, he doesn't have a problem loosely paraphrasing sometimes.

I think, this is my personal opinion here, you can argue with me, but I think he is quoting from Isaiah 60 v. 1 -2. Now, don't turn there, but just listen to this. Isaiah 60 v. 1 -2 say this, Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you and His glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

I believe he's loosely paraphrasing that. And I'm going to show you as we move along more as to why I really believe that that's it. I think it's ringing the same note that we find right here in the passages before us.

And then what is it that gets said here? Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead. You say, but Isaiah 60 doesn't talk about arising. It talks about arising. It's Paul who shows us arising from where.

I think Paul's just adding to this. O sleeper, arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. I believe this is being said to the church. This is another introductory point that I want to make. I believe it so much I've entitled my sermon, Children of Light, Awake.

Now you might say, why? How could he ever come to that conclusion? You might be thinking, hasn't he ever heard that it's not theologically correct to speak to Christians as though they're dead? Well, yes, I learned that somewhere along the way.

But, brethren, I don't believe Paul is calling the Ephesian Christians dead. Look at it. In fact, listen to how Young's literal translation does this verse. Wherefore, he saith, Arouse thyself, thou who art sleeping, and arise out of the dead.

Out of. Now listen, this is a preposition. You go look at your Greek lexicon and you bring this up. You know what you find? That this preposition right here literally means separation from. That's the emphasis.

Arise! Stand up! Get up and come away from the dead. That's the idea here. He calls them sleepers. You'll notice this. He doesn't call them dead. He calls them sleepers. Sleepers who need to come away from the dead.

Come out from among them. That's the issue. And this perfectly fits with the context here. What's the context? Therefore, do not become partakers with those sons of disobedience. Come away from them. Come out from them.

They're in darkness. They're dead. Stand up. Arise up. He calls them sleepers who need to arise. Come away from. Be separated from. That's the reality here. This fits in the context. Paul's not going along talking to these Christians about not partaking and showing forth and walking as these children of light and not partaking with them.

Not being involved in these shameless acts. Don't have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. He doesn't all of a sudden just say, okay, now, by the way, I'm going to throw in an evangelistic twist here to all unbelievers.

That's not what's happening. What he's doing is he's telling you don't partake with them. Don't fellowship with them. Come away. Don't be involved in their darkness. You are to shine your light on and expose what's happening to you.

Just look at how this reads. Look at v. 14. Anything that becomes, or let's just say this, anything that makes manifest, this is the ESV, that's at the end of v. 13 for those of you that don't have the ESV.

Anything that makes manifest is light, therefore, not, oh, by the way, let me interrupt and have a few words to the lost. No. Because of that, therefore, sleeper, come out of them. Arise. Stand up. Move away from them.

Come out from among them. Arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Notice what's next. Look carefully then. NAS says, therefore. You see what he's saying? He just said arise. Therefore, then.

Then what? Look carefully then how you... Who's he talking to? Christians. Christians. Look carefully how you walk. See, we're to walk as children of light. Not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Therefore, you Christians, don't be foolish. Don't sit down there in the dark and among the dead. Don't partake with them. Don't do that. And you know what? This seems entirely consistent with Isaiah 60.

Listen to it again. Arise. From where? What Paul tells us. Arise. By the way, if you go through and read the entire chapter of Isaiah 60, it's to the church. In fact, sometimes it's almost conflicting where you're like, is this talking about the Lord?

Or is this talking about the Lord's people? Yeah, there's such a union between us that sometimes it can be hard. But the reality is if you read through it, it's clearly talking about the New Jerusalem.

It's talking about Zion. And the Lord is interacting with the one being spoken to. It's the church. What's the church being told? You don't have to tell Christ to arise. You tell us, the church, arise!

Shine! For your light has come and the glory of the Lord, the glory of Christ, has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples. Now get this, what's Paul talking about?

A people that are in dark. The thick darkness of the peoples. Where do you arise? Arise out of that. Stand up from that. This is where we must arise from. From the darkness, from the death. But the Lord Christ will arise upon you and His glory will be seen upon you.

And I'll just tell you this, Paul talks this way in other places to Christians. Listen to how he talks. To the Romans, he says, you know the time. The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. And that's quoted.

But the night is far gone. The day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Wake! And then he throws in darkness and light. This is typical. 1 Thessalonians, he says, you are all children of light, children of the day.

We are not of the night or of the darkness, so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. And he talks really strongly to the Corinthians. He says this, wake up from your drunken stupor.

Can you imagine? Paul comes in here and says to you, Christians, that's what he's doing to these Corinthian Christians. Wake up from your drunken stupor, Christian. Say, whoa! But you know, we as Christians need that kind of admonition.

I just wonder if he came into this affluency of the United States today and saw the way we live and what we do, would he say that to us? We typically imagine, well, we imagine him saying this to the Corinthians, but we don't imagine him saying it to us.

And I suspect it surprised them just as much as it would surprise us. They were affluent, the Corinthians. They lived in a debauched society. Probably not a whole lot of difference here. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

What fellowship has light with darkness? Therefore, go out from their midst. This is the reality. Arise! Come up from that! Stand out from that! Come away! Okay, anyways, that concludes my introduction.

Christians Must Not Partake in Darkness

Let's just look at it. Ephesians 5. Let's read v. 7 -8 again. Therefore, do not become partakers or partners with them. The sons of disobedience from v. 6. Don't partake with them. Christian, don't look like them.

Don't do what they do. It doesn't just mean that you do it with them. That if they go to the bar, you go to the bar with them. It may mean that what you post on the Internet, if I looked at it, I would say those people aren't any different than the lost people I hung around with in high school and college.

That's the idea. You're doing the things that your lost family looks at you and says they're just like us. Whether you're doing it with them specifically, to partake with them just means to partner with them.

It doesn't mean you work together at the same business. It means you're doing the same deeds of unfruitful darkness that they do. That's the issue here. Do not become partakers with them. For at one time, you were darkness.

But now you are light in the Lord. And you hear the absoluteness of these terms? This is the difference between Christians and all others. This is the difference between Christians and those who are in darkness.

It's absolute. There's no in-between. There's no half-Christians here. At one time, but now, you were, you are. This is the issue. A massive change has happened. And notice, Paul doesn't say we were in the dark.

Uh-uh, it's worse than that. Once we were darkness itself. We don't like to imagine that if our children are lost, our neighbors lost. They are darkness itself. You want to talk about a horror movie?

We live in the midst of a world teeming with people who are themselves darkness. We think about Dracula. We think about the devil. Oh, he is darkness itself. And lost people, they are darkness. Whatever light was in Adam when God created him, it's gone out.

Sin put it out. The light is gone. Man is altogether darkness within. He's full of darkness. You know what Romans 1 says. It says their foolish hearts were darkened. Just here a little earlier in this Ephesian epistle, back in 4 .17 and following when we talk about we should no longer walk as Gentiles do, how do they walk?

It says they're darkened in their understanding. Their understanding is darkened. Their hearts are darkened. Jesus, our Lord, says if your eye is bad, you know this, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If the light in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? It's great. Jesus also says people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. It's all dark. People may be out here and they may seemingly do some things that seem good.

Ah, it's Christmas time. People give. People, you know, you can walk out of the store and the Salvation Army's there and somebody shoves money in there and you say, well, you know, that's a... They are darkness.

And Jesus says they love the darkness. They're darkness lovers. That's the issue. At one time, you were, you, Christian, but now, now you're light. And you know what happens? You know what Scripture says?

Paul says in another place to another church, he said the God who called this light to come forth out of darkness, He has now shown light in our hearts. And what happens? This light and there is this knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

This is what the light came on. This light of Christ. And here's the thing. Notice what Paul says in Ephesians 5. He doesn't just say that we've been enlightened or brought into the light. He says now you are light.

You're light in the Lord. The light has entered you. The light has filled you. That's every day of the week. Monday, you are light in the Lord. I mean, what's happened? The light of God has filled you.

The rays of light are not just simply shed upon you from the outside. God goes inside the heart. The heart is the center. It's like the light comes forth from us. It's almost like a water where rivers of living waters come out of our bellies.

That's how Christ described it, speaking of the Spirit that would be given to us. You know, Scripture looks at us at times like we're the source. Now we know that God Himself is the source, but what it means is this.

From heaven to the earth, God has these lines, mystical lines, to each one of us, and it's as though the light, the water of life that is shed abroad in this world comes down through these mystical channels into God's people and bursts forth from us.

You are the light. I mean, even if I put the light on the counter, and yes, there's a cord that's plugged into the wall, you can say, well, there's a source over there. Yes, but when you're in the dark room and all of a sudden the light comes on, where's the light coming from?

Well, it comes from the light. Christ said, you are the light of the world. We know the source. We know there's a power cord that goes back there, and we don't diminish that at all. But you have to hear what Paul's saying here.

Paul is saying you are children of light. You are light. You once were darkness, not just in the dark, not just prone to dark. You were dark. Now you are light. You're light. Light shines within. Christians filled with light.

So, you know what? Don't fall asleep among the dead. A child of light can go among the dead. Partake with them. Fall asleep among them. That's the thing. You know what he's saying? You're a child of light.

Get out of the cemetery. You know who lives in cemeteries? Demoniacs. Get out of there. Not children of light. You are the light of the world. Okay, next. Look at verses eight through 10. Jump in right here.

Discerning the Will of the Lord

Ephesians 5 .8. Walk, right at the end. Walk as children of light. And jump to 10. Walk as children of light, trying to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Now, here's the thing. We might comb through the entire Bible to discern what's pleasing to the Lord.

And that, no doubt, ought to be our life's work. But I don't believe that that's specifically what Paul has in mind right here. I don't believe that Paul is simply looking at these Ephesians and saying, well, you guys need to discern what's pleasing to the Lord, so just go do a study from Genesis to Revelation.

No, that's good, and you should do that. I think sometimes this verse is preached that way, but if you notice the context, there's something much more specific on Paul's mind here. Notice this. He comes back to a very similar thought in verse 17.

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. You see, the will of the Lord and what's pleasing to the Lord are basically the same things. And if you've got eyes to see here, what's happening is he says, walk as children of light, trying to prove and discern what's pleasing to the Lord.

And then you know what he does for seven verses? He tells you what's pleasing and what's according to the will of the Lord. And when he gets done saying it, then he says, therefore, don't be foolish. Don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Understand what it does mean to please the Lord. That's the issue. Foolish is what we are when we don't understand what the will of the Lord is when we were just told what it is. So what is it? Well, it's this.

Basically, what he's been saying is this. We have to live our Christian lives in this world. Christian, God's will for you. What is it? Here it is. Don't fall into the same deeds, unfruitful ways, unfruitful works, as this world out here.

Don't do that. But don't withdraw either because you have to shine on them. You are the light. Don't partake, but he doesn't say vacate. He doesn't say set up the monastery. None of that. No, you have a world to live in and you need to live out your Christianity and you need to shine.

That's what the will of the Lord is. That's what's on the table here. That's what's before us. Don't fall into the same dark deeds and ways as the children of darkness. Arise from there. And if you are doing that, you need to wake up.

Don't sleep there. Don't sleep in the cemetery. Don't sleep among them. Don't do that. Don't be foolish. You need to discern what the will of the Lord is. Wake up, church of God. That's the thing. The whole context here makes it crystal clear what falling asleep means.

What does it mean? It means that you fail to shine on unbelievers and their wicked deeds and expose them for what they are. That's the context. You can't fight that. You all see it. No matter what translation you have, you see that that's exactly what's on the table here.

Crystal clear what falling asleep means. We fail to shine and expose them and their works for what they are. And Jesus said that. Did He not? Basically, what this is is we're called to imitate Christ.

And Christ Himself said this. Remember, what was it? John 7? He's talking to His brothers. There's the feast. He didn't go up at first, but later on He went up and He said, look guys, the world can't hate you.

He's talking to His unconverted brothers at that time, but it hates Me. Why did it hate Him? Anybody remember? He testified about the world that its works were evil. And I already mentioned John 3. But you know what?

Jesus said that men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. But you know what? They won't come to the light. Why won't they come to the light? Because if they come to the light, what happens?

They're exposed. Same terminology that we have here. You know what happens when you walk like Christ? You expose people's wickedness. Christian, let me tell you this. Out there, you go out there, because I know you go out these doors and you go places.

You go to restaurants. You go to shopping places. You buy food somewhere. You go to workplaces. You go to colleges. I'll tell you this, if you're not being this, you're asleep. And He says wake up. Awake!

And come out from among the dead. Don't do that. The world is in the dark. And God has put a light here. For what reason? What do lights do? They make manifest. That's exactly... What do you mean makes manifest?

It's because things are not manifest. Do you recognize when you go out into the world knowing what you know from this book, the vast majority of the world does not know that. They don't know about God.

They don't know about sin. They don't know that their works are unfruitful. They thought putting that money in the Salvation Army can, that's going to get them there. They don't know that their righteousness is their filthy rags.

They don't know that. They don't know what Christ really accomplished on the cross. They don't know the value of the soul. They don't know about eternity. They don't know and you know! And you know what happens when you go out there and you're just silent or even worse, you do the things they do?

You just kill your testimony. You're no light. You don't expose. And I'll tell you this, Paul knows full well that people who are legitimately people of God sitting in Christ's churches need this message.

Or he wouldn't have given it to these Ephesian Christians. Wake up. Wake up. We are to shine on them. That's the issue. And you know what, Paul, those classic words, we often bring them up and talk about them when we're dealing with a disciplinary situation.

You know what Paul said. Paul said, I did talk to you. I did write to you about not associating with the sexually immoral. But he said, I did not mean the sexually immoral and on and on. Out there! Otherwise, you'd have to come out of the world.

And that's not what he wants us to do. He wants us to associate with them because we're supposed to be like Christ. What did they blame Christ for? He was a friend of tax collectors and sinners. In fact, I still remember from years ago, Spurgeon did a message on the first verse of Luke 16.

It says that the sinners and the tax collectors were coming to Christ. And Spurgeon did a message called the Approachableness of Christ. Let me tell you something, exposing people's sins does not mean that you condemn them.

It doesn't mean you're disgusted with them. That's what the Pharisees were. It doesn't mean that at all. We don't want to be like the Pharisees or the proverbial priest and Levite. You remember the Good Samaritan?

They walked by on the other side of the street? That's not it. Exposing sins doesn't mean that. Expose means you shine light upon. It's the idea of proving something by bringing forth the evidence. It's got to do with convicting or convincing people of something.

Of what? Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. One of the things is right there. I already mentioned it. Unfruitful. This world, they don't believe that, but you know that. You know that no amount of good works.

You know that. And you know if you go to the doors out here, people are typically going to say, well, I'm a pretty good person. I'm basically good at heart. I'm not perfect, but I've never done anything.

You know what the world says. You know what your family says, your co-workers, your fellow students in the places you are. You know what they say. Why do they say it? Because they're in the dark. Darkness equals ignorance.

They're ignorant. They're dark in their understanding. They're dark in the heart. They're darkness. That means they don't know. They don't know what they do. They don't realize the danger they're in. And we're supposed to shine on them.

It's unfruitful. Bring that to light. Every person in the dark is just ignorant. They don't know how unfruitful it all is. You remember what it says in Romans 6. What fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you're now ashamed?

What? What fruit did we get? What came of it? We had nothing at all. Nothing. I mean, that's the startling reality about the life of sin and people out there that are in the darkness. Their whole life amounts to what?

One steady constant sum it all up. It's sin. It's disgusting. And God rejects it. And you know that. They don't know that. And you know they don't know that. And you know what happens? We can come in here and we sing our songs.

And people are asleep. You know one of those songs talked about God causing His churches to be full? You say, no, I didn't. You know why you didn't notice that? Because you were asleep. Maybe you say, I did notice that.

But then you go out and you don't do anything. You just cruise through the world as though that line in that song didn't mean anything. How can people do that? Because they're asleep. We're the light.

We're the light. You don't put it under a bushel. He said on a hill can't be hid. We don't want to be hid. And we become hidden by our sleep. Just fall asleep. The startling reality about all this, they don't know how unfruitful it all is.

And you know why they don't know? Because they don't know God. And they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. And they don't know what He came to do. They don't know the value of their soul. They don't know how reality, the eternity is right there.

It's coming. And what are we to do? We're to bring it all to light. Pharisees can condemn. That's not what you're called to do. Exposing doesn't mean you go beat them over the head. You remember this.

It says you were. Just like them, you were darkness. Can't you have compassion just for that one simple reality? We came from the same stock. We know what it's like. If you come in there beating them over the head like the Pharisees did, you know what the Pharisees, you know how they portrayed themselves?

As superior. We're not superior. The only reason that we're in the light and they're not is because God had mercy upon us. The Pharisees, they cursed. Cursed is these people. Jesus blessed them. They hated them.

They hated tax collectors. They hated sinners. They could not understand how the Lord Jesus could eat with them. Doesn't He know? This woman comes in off the street, obviously a prostitute. Doesn't He know?

How could He let her touch Him? Isn't it amazing? The most holy man ever. And sinners somehow were attracted to Him. They didn't feel that He stiff-armed them. They came. See, there may be a negative aspect to our message.

And the world will think so. Remember, they hated Him. I'll tell you this, if you're this kind of light, you say, well, that's not easy. That's not easy to talk to people about what they do and how God does it.

You know it's not easy because we don't like to be hated. But Jesus promised us that if we walk like He walks, they're going to do to us the same things they did to Him. There's really no escaping that.

If you want to be a soul winner and you want to shine on people this way, it's a hard road, but it's a glorious road because it says Christ will shine on you. We'll get more to that in a second. But we don't want to come across in merely a negative and denunciatory fashion.

Yes, we expose the sin, but then you shine the light of the Gospel. That's what Jesus did. Could Jesus come along and say, beware of covetousness? We looked at that last week. But then He could also say, come unto Me, you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.

You see why that was so attractive? He didn't enter into them with their sin. He didn't run off and steal from people just because He was with these tax collectors. Extort people. He didn't have prostitutes washing His feet and then He ran out and get involved with the filth.

He didn't do that. He said you need to beware of these things. He definitely warned. He said I'll tell you who you should fear. He talked about the things that mattered. But in the end, He gave sinners hope.

And that's what we're called to do. Light. You throw light on that man and upon his whole situation. We need to show them that by all their unfruitful works and ways and religion and all of it, their whole relationship to God is wrong and hell is before them.

Jesus did not simply denounce sinners and their sin. He bid them to come to Him for rest. If you're trying to live as much like the lost world as possible, I just heard recently that some people from this church posted something on social media where a bunch of them were together in a party and they're flaunting all their alcoholic beverages.