Walk in Light Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Without Christ, we were in a dark prison cell of self-preeminence. But the work of Christ has the power to penetrate that darkness, drawing us into his marvelous light.

Everything is transformed. In this message titled, Walk in Light, we will look at what Ephesians 5, 8 through 14 says about living in the light. Have you ever been in a room that is absolutely dark? It's so dark you can't even see your hand in front of your face. It can be kind of scary, can't it? And when it's that dark, you don't have any point of reference. Only maybe if it's in a room that you're familiar with and so you kind of know where things are and you're kind of feeling your way around. But if it's an unfamiliar place, you're like, okay, now what do I do and where do I go?

It can be unnerving a little bit. We desperately need light. But, you know, Paul says something very interesting in the text this morning, as once again he continues the flow of thought about making a contrast between who we were before we were in Christ and who we are now. Remember, he is writing this letter, this letter to believers, and so we need to read this as believers. If you are here this morning and you are not in Christ, you have not received his forgiveness, then you are, as he describes this morning, still in darkness. And we're going to unpack what that darkness is and what that light is as we read from the text of the Word of God. He continues a thought all the way back, beginning at chapter 4 and verse 18, where he says, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. Darkened in their understanding, they're alienated from the life of God.

It's an ignorance. So the light of which he speaks is metaphorical for information, information that we cannot gain from ourselves. It has to come to us from outside of ourselves. But he makes a contrast because only those who are in Christ have that light within. And that's why he says to walk as children of light, walk as children of light. These are the imperatives now, walk as children of light. In the first three chapters, he gave us this profound theology that, in fact, fits on a coffee mug, right? These 16 truths upon which you and I ought to meditate, let these be the things that occupy our mind so that when we come to commands like this, walk as children of light, we don't throw our hands up and say, so how do you do that? No, we have the truth of the word of God residing in us. Now, he says something very interesting here in verse 8.

Look at it with me. At one time, at one time, you were darkness. He's making the contrast again. You were darkness. This is going back to that dark prison cell of self preeminence. And that dark prison cell exists within the individual because that which is within the inner person is the control room for the whole life of the individual. And that dark prison cell of self preeminence is within.

And here's what it looks like. Self focus. Because you have no reference outside of yourself, so it is self reference and self focus. Meaning, you believe that you are the greatest and most important reality. And therefore, you view and perceive and engage everything else in terms of how it relates to you. That's darkness. That's what you do when you are alienated from the life of God.

See? And so, it is a particular ignorance of the individual. What ignorance are we talking about? Well, it's the ignorance of a big picture. Like when a room is completely dark and all you can do is just feel your way, you don't have a big picture.

You don't have anything else to reference but yourself. And so, in this ignorance of which he calls darkness, you don't have a big picture. You are ignorant of the big picture. Therefore, you are ignorant of the essential meaning of life. And you have no genuine sense of purpose for life.

Therefore, you don't have an accurate sense of direction in life and you don't know what the end of your life will bring. That's darkness. That is an ignorance. And so, because these things are true, then you perceive everything in terms of how it impacts you. Life is all the stuff that happens to me.

That's darkness. That's ignorance. Not only is it about what happens to me but what I can achieve in spite of or because of what has happened to me. This is the natural human condition. And with these things being true, then the disposition of my life is all about what I desire and what I deserve. Because I am, in my own estimation, the greatest and most important reality. So, it's about what I desire and what I deserve. Again, darkness, ignorance. And I judge the goodness or the badness of circumstances and a day in terms of how much pleasure I receive or how much dissatisfaction I experience.

That's the measure of a day. There's no meaning outside of your own experience in this darkness that is mentioned in Ephesians 5-8. There's no meaning outside of your own experience.

Here's what that looks like in very specific ways. If there's no meaning outside of your own experience, then there is no such thing as the sanctity of life except your own. So, what does that translate into? If there's no meaning of, if there is no sanctity of life but mine, then that frees me to ignore others, to dehumanize others, to even kill them, to hate them or wish that they were killed.

And for those that are even unborn, we can abort them because there is no sanctity of life. That's darkness. That's ignorance. When it comes to issues, for example, of marriage and sexuality, those things are only about my pleasure.

And however I achieve them, whenever, with whomever, it does not matter because sexuality is all about my pleasure. That's self-reference. That's darkness.

That's ignorance. When it comes to issues of authority, what is the authority of my life? Well, it is my desires are my authority.

And therefore, I will demand that my desires be met. And when it comes to rules, why do rules exist? Well, are rules necessary?

Yes. Rules are necessary so that others treat me the way I deserve to be treated. Do you see the ignorance, the darkness that is there in self-reference? In this kind of existence, there is no sense of an objective in life. We cannot, this person cannot live with the end in view because they have no idea what the end is apart from extinction. They might have all kinds of ideas and suppositions, but they don't know.

At best, they can conjecture. So with that kind of a myopic existence, many, many end up in despair and their lives are served suppressing that despair or feeding themselves and meeting their appetites so that they don't have to think of that despair. You were once darkness. This is why when Paul was speaking to the Athenians on Mars Hill in Acts 17, he spoke of the unregenerate man as those feeling in the dark, trying to find their way to God.

But he makes a contrast now. You were once darkness. Look at verse eight. But now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Now you are light in the Lord. Notice something. It doesn't say you are in the light, does it?

What does it say? You are light. Here's the point of that. It is not the environment that has changed, but the person has changed. God has not changed your environment to make everything better and therefore now you can live the life you ought to.

No, he has changed where? Inside the individual. You are light. You are light. So therefore, walk as children of light. The word child means one born of. So it's speaking of a nature, a new nature that exists within the child of God, the committed follower of Jesus Christ. I've mentioned this verse several times before, but it describes it very well.

2 Corinthians 4.6. For God who said, let the light shine out of darkness. This is speaking of him as creator. He said, let there be light and there was light. The creator, the same creator with the same power has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

He has shown that in our hearts. So what is the point of what Paul is saying here? It is this, the light is in you and me.

Now it doesn't originate there, but for those of us who are in Christ, it is there. So we don't go looking outward for the light is in here because I am in Christ and God dwells in me. Now we have to understand what that light is. So let's do that right now.

Let's unpack that. What is this light? When he says you are light with the understanding that the light is in you, it is first and foremost, it is God's revelation. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.