Expose Their Darkness so that Christ Will Shine

Isaiah 60 and the Light That Comes to God’s People

Our Old Testament scripture reading is found in the book of Isaiah chapter 60. I'll read verses one through three. If you would please stand if you're able to. 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. A nation shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

All right, the New Testament reading will be from John eight, verse 12. And we'll go into Romans 13, eight to 14 after that.

All right.

Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. And in Romans 13, eight to 14. Oh, no one anything except to love each other, for there is one who loves another has fulfilled the law for the commandments.

You shall not commit adultery, you should not murder, you should not steal, you should not covet, and any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to awake from sleep, for salvation is near to us now than when we first believed. 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.

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealously, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh to gratify its desires.

All right, you may be seated.

Thanks.

Love God by Separating from Sin and Loving Neighbor by Exposing Darkness

Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five, please. Ephesians chapter five. For those who were engaged in VBS this past week, I hope you had a nice, restful day yesterday. No, I hope everyone had a nice, restful day yesterday, but especially for those who were engaged in VBS, it was quite the week, but it was very, very good week.

It really turned out well. Emma did a very good job coordinating. But it feels good to be able to rest now. Yeah, if you open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter five. I want to start with highlighting what our Lord Jesus Christ, though, when he was asked, when he was asked what the great commandment of the law was, he responded with you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

And he said, a second is like this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And as we have been in Ephesians chapter five, we have underlined the need for us to respond to the mercies and grace of Jesus Christ in love for our God and separating from sin and enjoying the inheritance that he has for us.

And this really focuses in on the love for God. That is the great command of the law. But one thing that if you remembered we had said is that part of the imperative land, part of the commandments found in Ephesians chapter five, Ephesians six and four, part of the commands of God is that not only that we would express our love to God and obeying him, but also we'd express our love for our neighbor.

And this is where we find ourselves today in Ephesians chapter five. We're going forth from love to God and separating from sin. And now Paul is going to make a very important remark of how after doing that, we have then the opportunity, the ability through Christ to love our neighbor and see if you can catch it as I read the scriptures, see if you can anticipate where I'm going with that opening remark.

So Ephesians chapter five, let's look at verse 11. The word of the Lord reads, 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. So look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.

Let us pray. Oh, Father in heaven, with your word opened up to us on this beautiful Lord's day, Father in heaven, I pray that your word would be revealed, would be exposed, Lord, that you would make it clear coming forth from my lips and I would get it right, that I would speak truth coming forth.

But God in heaven, just as much work as it takes to be studying your word, to be in prayer over your word, to know how I should deliver your word for this present context that we're in here, God, it takes just as much effort for the people before me to hear your word rightly.

God in heaven, so with that said, I pray that the spirit would work in me and both the listeners. And I pray, God, that you would reveal to us just how important it is to love you in separating from sin and also, as we have separated, to love our neighbor in exposing the darkness that we've separated from.

Lord, this exposure, this thing that you've called us to can be so diluted, it can be so misunderstood in our society today. So I pray that I'd be clear with what it means to expose so that we would, as your people, be lights that shine forth in a very dark world.

Thank you for your mercies and grace, for it's only by this that we're able to do any good. It's by the power of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in his name I pray, amen. Well, one of the interesting things about coming to Christ at the age of 18 is kind of looking at all the holidays that I celebrated as a quote-unquote pagan and seeing that in Christ, these religious holidays have actually pregnant with all sorts of meaning.

Of course, we can think of the different ways society has messed up Christmas and we can look at the religious, beautiful meaning of Christmas. We can do the same thing with Easter. But the one thing I wanna look at today is St. Patrick, St. Patrick's Day, right?

The world looks at it as a day of partying and wearing green, drinking green beer, and that's how we look at St. Patrick's Day. But as I, again, came to Christ, and especially when I became Reformed and I started to care about these different Christians of the past and these holidays that we have to celebrate them, it's an amazing story of St. Patrick.

Most of us probably know it to some degree and some of us perhaps don't, but let me remind us who he was just for a moment because I think it pertains to our text. If you remember, St. Patrick, or Patrick, was an Englishman who was taken from his home by the Irish, the Druids, and taken to Ireland as a slave.

Now, at the time, this is about the 400s, at the time, Ireland was not Christian at all. They were pagan, they were Druids, they were nature worshipers. And so he was taken from the Christianized England and taken as a slave to Ireland where he spent several years there.

Now, he was raised up in a Christian home, but he didn't really take Christ seriously until he was in a pagan land. And in this pagan land as a slave, again, he came to Christ in a fruitful way and he finally got his freedom after several years and got back to his house.

Now, if I was Patrick, I think, I would find a home that was deeper inland so I wouldn't get taken as a slave again. But Patrick did something very interesting. After leaving the darkness of the Isle of Ireland, he had such a love for his captor, such a love for the pagan, that he had this growing desire to go back to that island and proclaim the light of Christ.

In fact, he studied to become a priest and he became proficient with the scriptures. He returns to Ireland and really, we can safely say that Ireland became Christianized by the efforts of Patrick. Because as he separated from darkness, he looked back and he said, I want the light to shine on that island.

Now, the reason why I bring that up is we've been talking about the need for us to separate as Christians from sin. We must separate from sin if we are going to enjoy the inheritance God has for us in Christ.

We cannot be with sin and enjoy Christ too, but we must separate from sin and so we can enjoy the good things God has for us in the imperative land. We've been hitting that hard. But now we come across something else in which we should then look back at the darkness that we've left, look back at the sin that we left with a certain love for what we've left.

Such a love that we want our light to then shine that we received by separating to shine back on the island of paganism, so to speak. And this is, I think, what we see in Ephesians 5 verse 11, the same principle.

Paul says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. You see separation there? Think in your head, separation. Separate yourself from the unfruitful works of darkness, right? That's what he's been saying these past several verses.

You remember in verse three, he says, but sexual immorality, chapter five, verse three, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you as is proper among saints.

Let there be no filthiness, no foolish talk, no crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

And so we can see there that there's a need for us to separate from the unfruitful works of darkness, from the works that do not glorify our God, as Paul then reminds us again in verse 11, take no part in those unfruitful works of darkness.

And so that then tells us that then separating, we must then partake of the fruitful works of light. If we are not to partake of the unfruitful works of darkness, that means the opposite would be that we would partake of the fruitful works of light.

Fruitful meaning what glorifies God, what produces fruit for him, this is of light. And we saw that again in chapter five, verse one, when he says, therefore be imitators of God. You wanna know what's fruitful?

You wanna know what's light? To imitate God, that's what is fruitful and light. But notice he says, as beloved or loved children, and he says, and walk in this same love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

And so there's this need here for us to understand that as we separate from the works of darkness and sinfulness, unfruitfulness, we then gravitate or attach ourselves to the works of light and fruitfulness in which it's because of the love that was shown to us, and then it produces a love for others.

In fact, first John, chapter four, just listen to my words if you want to, he kind of says the same thing. He says, in this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also should love one another. And so there's this, God has loved us in Christ, right?

He's loved us in Christ, he's provided the forgiveness of sins to be fruitful and light, and now with that being had in us, with the separation of sin and having Christ, we then ought to have something that draws in us to love our neighbor.

The second great commandment of the law should be just going up in our heart as we've had that work of Christ in us, we then look at our neighbor with longing to then express that light to them. And this is exactly what Paul says, again, going back to 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead, what are we to do?

Love our neighbor by exposing them. Now, expose, what does that mean? The Greek word is to rebuke sharply with words. If you were to look at that word expose, right, instead of taking part of it, separating, and expose it, if you look at that Greek word, and it's found six places throughout the New Testament, it always has to do with rebuking, right?

When we correct our brothers in Christ when they're in sin and we go and talk with them, the ESV says, that's the same Greek word, it's a rebuke. We see that in the pastoral epistles, the same word, it denotes, exposes the same Greek word as rebuke sharply with words, right?

So this is what exposure to the darkness that we see that we came forth from, it looks like exposing or rebuking with sharp words against it. But also, we cannot help but see that the context of chapter five, it denotes our deeds too, does it not, right?

We are to be light, we are to be works of righteousness displayed in a dark world, so that our light itself exposes the darkness of sinful, unfruitful actions. And so verse 11, what it means to expose here is it means in word and deed, expose the darkness that you have separated from.

In word and deed, expose the darkness that you have separated from. So Paul's saying it's not enough for you simply just to separate from sin, although we must in order to enjoy the things Christ has for us, but we must then turn and look and want to expose the darkness as well with our words and with our deeds.

They must come together in the exposure of the darkness. They must come together as we expose the darkness as light. And what's vital and important is that if we kind of keep on carrying that theme of love for God and love for our neighbor with us, we will know how to expose appropriately when we are driven by love for God and love for neighbor.

If we're not driven by love for God and love for neighbor, we will not expose appropriately, right? Our whole purpose is to expose, right? We see the darkness and we don't say, well, that's okay, that's cool for you.

No, we want to expose that. And if we do not have, if we're not driven by love for God, as we separated from sin and love for neighbor, then we will not expose appropriately. There needs to be a, I don't know, proper balance, I suppose, for optimal exposure.

So I, for example, you know, deeds, let them see your light, let them see your actions and say there's something about that. And our words are, this is what it is, right? And different context calls for different mixtures.

For instance, evangelism on the street, right? If you find yourself evangelizing someone on the street, let's just say it's someone you probably are never gonna see again. You do not have the time to reveal your light in a consistent manner, right?

You must use a lot of words in order for them to know about Christ and know about their need for repentance, know about their sin and know about Jesus, right? You must use much words. But even in that, you still need to use your deeds because if you use your words roughly and harshly, they're gonna be turned off right away.

And so your love for neighbor should be to patiently use your words in a very dramatic sense or a very heightened sense because you're never gonna see them again probably, right? And so your words are gonna become dominant there.

But then with words and deeds, let's think about like a coworker setting or a work setting, right? You can play kind of a long game there, can't you? Like right away, if you meet your coworker and you just start acting like you're street evangelizing, right away, it's gonna be really weird.

And so you can play the long game. You can show them Christ with your actions and then back it up with your words, right? It's gonna look a little differently while you're still doing the exposure of the darkness with light.

Both word and deed is needed. We don't put one out for the other because if you look throughout recent church history, we see the desire to either throw out deeds and just simply just proclaim God's word without any desire at all for our life to reflect it, or we'll have this desire of just let your life reflect it but don't even worry about words as if that will actually expose the light, expose the darkness.

It doesn't happen. We need both for proper exposure. Both is needed, word and deed, and a lack in one will create a distortion in the exposure. So in other words, let's look at one lack. Let's see deeds without word or deeds without words.

So if we're just relying my exposing of the light or the dark that I came forth from as light, I wanna expose it as I'm told from Paul here. And so I'm gonna focus on my deeds. I'm not gonna worry about words.

And I think honestly, that's probably where the church is at today. I think the church struggles today with this idea that we can just be, we can look like Christ in our actions and we don't need to use words because that tends to just offend.

So let's just stop with the words. I think that's what the church, I think most of us, if we struggle with anything of this, it's going to be, well, I wanna reveal Christ in my deeds, but I don't wanna have to use my words because then I might offend, they might not like me, and then there it is, right?

But we gotta understand that it's not proper exposure if we think that we can have deeds without word. That's kind of like having creation without the Bible. Okay, let me try to attach that. So if you're just trying to have deeds in your exposure without word, it's kind of like having creation without the Bible.

What do I mean by that? Is you have the beauty of creation all around you, but you don't have the word to tell you what it all means, right? To have the beautiful creation all around you, but yet no word of God to tell you, what does this all mean?

What do I have to do in this beautiful creation? Well, that's kind of what it's like whenever you're trying to expose with deeds and no word. They may see your holy living, they may see your light, but you aren't giving them the word to tell them what your holy life means.

So that exposure is gonna be distorted. But on the other side, word without deeds, so you'll speak a lot, but then your life isn't reflecting it, right? That's kind of like the Bible without creation, right?

The truth is there, right? The truth is there, but there is no creation that causes the truth to have its context, right? Imagine if we just had the Bible and no creation. We'd have the truth, it'd be there, but there'd be no creation around to give context to that truth that's in the word.

And so it is, that if you are preaching the truth well enough, but your deeds do not back it up, there is no context for those truths being delivered. So we, as we want to expose, we want to have, again, it denotes a word, the Greek denotes a admonishment or use in words, but it also, the context of five is proper exposure is our life is reflecting it as well.

We have deeds as well. It is vital we separate and it's vital that we expose sin appropriately. And look at verse 12, when he goes on, he says four. So in other words, this is needed so much. Proper exposure is needed so much in verse 12 because it is shameful even to speak of the things that they, the people in darkness do in secret.

We are to be proper exposures of light to the dark world because it is shameful what they even do, what they do in secret. The need is great for exposure because the darkness is great around us. This is what he's saying there, right?

To even talk of the things that the darkness does in secret is shameful, right? Not to mention the things that they actually do. So as we're separating ourselves from the shameful activity of darkness, we must understand that the darkness is great indeed and it must, for love of neighbor, say I need to go back to the island and I need to proclaim light to this dark world.

The love in you as you see the growing darkness compels you to be that light to them. Now the apostles here, Paul, they were living in a world of great dark paganism. Paganism was all that there was. In the Roman Empire, all that there was.

Dark paganism, lawlessness. We are living in a world of returning to paganism. It's kind of fascinating to see that, isn't it? You got the life only of paganism in the New Testament era and we're living in a world returning to that same condition.

And you must see that the apostles do not allow for depressed Christians to retreat in their bomb shelters. Does not allow. The Bible does not allow in a world that's so negative against Christianity for us to mope and complain and go back to our bomb shelters with Fox News on complaining about how it used to be.

The Bible doesn't allow for that. Instead, the Bible says what we see here is a growing love for these caught in the devil's schemes drives us to expose the light even more as we see the darkness even more.

So as you see the world go further into darkness, in fact, the things that used to be done in secret now are done in public. That's how far we're getting. As you see that more and more, what should drive you in your heart is I want to be the light more and more.

There is a God who is full of light who loves to save dark sinners and I am called to go to them and be the light. And I get it, I know. Whenever you see darkness come up even more in great measure, it's so easy to just say, forget the whole thing.

This is awful.

As you consider the America of just even 10 years ago. But there should be an opposite effect in which there is great darkness indeed, but I have great light because of Christ and I'm called to expose the same darkness.

You're in a work setting where there's great darkness with very wicked people. May you have a joy, although it's gonna be painful, it's gonna be hard, to be the light to this dark work setting or whatever the condition is.

May you see the darkness and may it excite you to be the light in that darkness. You better believe that Patrick saw great darkness on that island. Irish people are kind of crazy already, but let alone pagan Irish people, that's a whole nother level.

But notice he was driven by the same captors that had him captive. He was driven to go back and be the light. Indeed, as we see that there's great darkness around, it's even shameful to say the things that they do in private.

We should have a desire within us to be that light. And look at that word shame again. Again, verse 12, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that the sinners do in darkness or in secret. Remember what we said about shame last week?

We talked about why is it better to have God's inheritance versus God's wrath, right? Why is it better to have light rather than dark? We talked about that in a topical sermon. And if you notice, remember what we said about shame?

Remember what we said about shame? Shame is the thing that stopped Adam and Eve from enjoying this good creation from a good God. You remember how we said that? The greatest, the thing about shame is it is a, when you are guilty before the good God, you feel that shame that comes forth from it and it separates you from this good God so that you cannot and will not enjoy this good creation as he's given us to enjoy.

So shame is that thing that really stops us from enjoying the good things our good God has given to us. And so as you see in their secret places, as we see in verse 12, it is shameful to speak even the things that they do in secret in their secret places because they're so corrupted in darkness, you know, if you think about it, without sin in our secret alone time with God, it should be a time of great enjoyment of our good God.

It should be a time of growing in our relationship with the Lord. But for those who are in darkness, their alone times, what they do in secret is compounding of shame upon shame upon shame even to speak it.

And so this is a very sad and twisted life indeed that they would use their lives in shame, separating themselves from the goodness of God instead of using their life glorifying and enjoying God. And so the reason I point that out is because oftentimes when we talk about shame and the world's shame, what the world thinks about with shame is they'll say, well, that's just simply what you're trying to make us feel for trying to enjoy life.

And for love for them who are in darkness, we say, no, that shame is keeping you from all goodness that God has for you. And it's compounded in your alone time because of your darkness. And so with love, again, we want to be the light that exposes that shame, exposes that sin so it can be dealt with so they no longer are in shame.

Again, the world is steep in shame and darkness to degrees that just makes us marvel. And for those who are of the light, for those who have separated and we see it for what it is, no longer deceived by the wickedness of Satan, we have a great desire to say, no, look at what you're doing.

Look at the truth of God. You must separate as I have done too. There's a great longing that should be in our breasts to expose the darkness that we came forth from, for it is a darkness indeed that separates them from the good God above.

And I want you to notice in verses 13 and 14, really how it operates and how it operates is law and gospel. If you see in verses 13 and 14, with your mind or whatever you have, highlight that this is like really the law being exposed, but then 14 with therefore it says there's the great gospel that's being exposed.

So look at 13, the way it's done is, but when anything, again, what they do is shameful, what they do in secret, it's dark. But he says when anything, the darkness is exposed by the light, it becomes visible for heaven, for anything that becomes visible is light.

And so that's what we're doing when we're trying to shine light. We're trying to say, you are breaking God's law. You're breaking his commandments. You are a sinner before God. What you're doing is not okay.

This is wickedness. This is not good. And what you're doing is you're trying to impose light, the righteousness, what is right, light upon their darkness by saying you are in corrupted sin. You are trying to impose God's standard on people who enjoy breaking God's standard.

You are trying to bring light to a people who love their darkness so much. So you're trying to shed that by saying, this is what God says about your sin. And it's not cute. It's not okay.

It is ugly.

So notice how this 12 and 13, the 13 and 14, I mean, the light that exposes, right? It's all about showing that what you're doing is wrong. But if that's where it ends, you're not being proper exposure of light, are you?

Christian, we're not called to simply just give people the law of God. We weren't saved by the law of God, were we? We're called to do something much more than that. Not that the law of God has its good purposes, right?

And what purpose is that? We'll look at 14. It says, therefore, it says, awake, O sleeper. What does the law of God do for us? It causes us to jolt us and say, wow, I am wicked. I am a sinner. I once was really satisfied in my sin thinking that I was okay with God.

God's okay with me.

That's what we thought.

I did whatever I enjoyed, whatever felt good to me, and I was good. But the law of God tells us, no, you're not. And what it does as God is working the gospel with the law is it awakens sinners to see their corrupted states.

That the one who is exposing with the law of God, the light of God, says, you are not who, you're not in a good position. You're not in a good state. Look at that, see that. And then the one who's being awakened by God's grace, all of a sudden, the sleeper awakes.

They see their condition. They are no longer lulled to sleep by Satan's deception, but all of a sudden, they wake and they see, I am not in the position that I thought I was, the comfortable position.

A great example of that is Christian with the Pilgrim's Progress, right? All of a sudden, Christian being in the city of destruction realizes, wait a minute, something is wrong. This is him being awakened, oh sleeper.

But then again, notice how the gospel ending to this is not simply so they can be awakened and see their sin and be, whoa, it's me, right? As Christian does for a while in the Pilgrim's Progress.

But it is what?

So that Christ, again, look at verse 14, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. We want people to be awakened of their condition and to see that Christ Jesus meets us in that sinful condition.

That he doesn't just wag his finger at us from the clouds, but he meets us where we're at in our sinful condition. We awake, we say, whoa, it's me. And then we see Christ as the one who meets us in that condition.

He shines his graceful, gracious light on us. This is what we're doing when we're exposing people who are in darkness. We're saying you are in sin, you're in darkness, look at your condition. If you die now, you would face God's wrath.

In fact, you're facing God's wrath now. That's why your life is terrible. But we don't just keep them there. The love within our breasts for them says, and Christ will shine on you when you awaken from your condition.

He is there waiting.

He has died for sinners like you. That if you would see your condition, repent of it and see the Lord Jesus Christ as your only way, he will give you the light of grace. Kind of reminds me or reminded me of when I'm waking up my children, because sometimes they sleep in those lazy bones.

And what I'll do, and we all know this, is I'll open the curtains. And I open the curtains and light beams forth, right? And it hurts. It doesn't feel good, does it? We've all been in that state where all of a sudden the light is shining and we wake up and we're blind, right?

And it's terrible, it's awful. But that light is needed sometimes because we're in such a stupor to wake up, right? And as that light wakes us up, we awake and we are awakened to God's creation and we're ready to go.

The law of God causes us to wake up or to see our sin as grace is working with it. So that as we awaken, we see, yes, I need the Lord Jesus Christ. So notice the law and gospel there. Notice that with our, again, our exposure of the darkness that we see, it is a revealing the law of God, but it's so that we can reveal the grace that's found in Jesus Christ.

No one will wake up from their stupor if they're not told that they're in a very sinful and wicked condition. And that's, again, kind of like the words. I don't wanna use words, I just wanna use deeds.

And I get it, I get why that's inviting. Because you don't wanna cut off that relationship with them. You don't wanna offend them because you understand the law of God offends. That's what it's going to do.

But we need to be faithful to do it if we're going to love them enough to give them the gospel that even though they are offended, they're offensive sinner before God, he has provided a payment in Christ to be forgiven.

So we must use law and gospel. We must use this, make the darkness visible with the light of God's righteousness so that they see their need for Christ to shine on them. And they always will when those who place their faith and trust in them, when they do that, Christ always will.

So the light of our good works and words of God's righteousness, his standard, must complete itself in giving of the gospel. If you're not completing it and proclaiming Christ and his forgiveness and sharing Christ with tears in your eyes to this loss, dark, dark and sinner, then you have not faithfully exposed the light of God to them.

Walk Wisely in Evil Days and Use the Time Well

And I wanna finish just with a few minutes by looking at the urgency of this. Look at the urgency of being a proper exposure. Look at verse 15 and 16. Paul says, look carefully then. So look carefully then.

Then it's connecting with what he just said. Look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise. Making, in verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. So there Paul is saying you need to be careful with how you walk, how you talk, how you expose what you do with your life.

And I've said this before, we need to be thinking Christians. We need to be strategically thinking how do I expose light best here? How can I expose the light of Christ best to my coworker there? What should I be doing with my life, oh Lord, so I can be a proper exposure of your light to this dark world that you saved me from?

We ought to be thinking Christians. We ought to be careful Christians. We ought to be considering what would you have me do in my own context, oh Lord? Be careful how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise.

Why?