Walk in Light (Part 1 of 4)

Music playing We've seen advertising that uses before and after pictures to show how a product can make a difference in your life.

But these products don't address the kind of spiritual change that all of us need. And today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg talks about a different kind of before and after, looking at who we were and who we are today because of Christ. Music playing We're going to read this morning from Ephesians chapter 5.

I invite you to turn there and follow along as I read. And we'll read from verse 1. Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 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 nor foolish talk nor 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, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are 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. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Thanks be to God for his Word. Make the book live to me, O Lord. Show me myself within your Word. Show me myself, and show me my Savior. And make the book live to me. For Christ's sake.

Amen. In 1968, Johnny Nash had a hit that only got to number 58 in the American Top Hundred but reached number 6 in Great Britain, proving just what a wonderful place Britain is for an understanding of contemporary American music. Johnny Nash is not a household name to many. If you know of him, it's possible, because you remember the song I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone, or When I Want You in My Arms, When I Need You with All Your Charms, All I Have to Do is Dream.

That's him as well. But the one that I have in mind is the song of 1968, entitled You Got Soul. You Got Soul.

And those of you—the six of you who remember it—will recall that it has the line, Hey, I can tell by the way you walk. You got soul, soul. You something deep inside, Nothing in the world can hide. You got soul, baby. You got soul.

Okay? Now you say, Well, fine, fair enough, but why are you mentioning it? Well, because I think that although Paul may not have liked the music, I think if he had had access to this lyric, he may well have decided to do what I'm doing now, and that is make mention of it in order to drive home the central point that Paul has been making since the beginning of chapter 4—namely, that the reality of the profession of the believing community in Ephesus is to be seen in their walk.

In their walk. Now, Paul—I say this with some justification that leads to my own mind, because Paul, we know, was quite happy to quote the poets of his day. If we had nowhere else, we know that when he had dealt with the folks in Athens in Acts chapter 17, he was able to say to them, as he argued along the way—and even some of your own poets have said this.

So I don't think it is unlikely that if he had been around now, he might have been doing something similar. But you remember how chapter 4 began. Therefore, a prisoner for the Lord—and if you don't remember, then turn to it in your Bible, I suggest—therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. He's referring to the fact that they had heard the call of God in the gospel, that the Spirit of God had been at work in their hearts, and now, walking out in obedience to Jesus, their lifestyle, their conduct, their walk is to bear testimony to that.

And so, down in verse 17 of chapter 4, he again urges them in the same direction, "...this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk, as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds." In other words, if you live in this way, then you will make a dent in the culture of Ephesus. Because the people in Ephesus will end up saying, Why is it that you walk as you walk? Why don't you walk where you used to walk? Why are you not present in these places? Why is your language different? You used to love those filthy jokes.

What happened to you now? So Paul is urging them, and clearly so. By the time we get to chapter 5, he begins, "...walk in love," verse 2, and he defines that love as the love of Christ, the sacrificial, atoning love of Jesus. And then, in verse 15, if you allow yourself to advance a little, he's going to urge them to walk as wise rather than as unwise. And then back up to verse 8, which is where we are now this morning, he is calling them to walk in light.

So it's very straightforward. Chapter 5, walk in love. We're going to come to the call to walk in wisdom, and this morning we think about the importance of walking in light.

Now, let me say what we've said, I think, on each occasion, and purposefully so. When Paul writes in this way to these people, he is not issuing a call to them to become something that they are not. He's not asking them to, as it were, put on an external framework that is representative, perhaps, of their desire to be good and kind and proper people. That would be a bit like, as we use the analogy at Christmastime, it would be a bit like hanging on Christmas ornaments.

You can hang them on the tree, they're not real, they're not produced, there's no fruit in them, they are stuck on, and they are removed. So Paul, in writing this second half of Ephesians, is not calling for people to find sort of religious ornaments to attach to the tree of their lives, but he is saying, where the Spirit of God has implanted the reality of his power within you, then the fruit that will be produced in your life will be revealed in your walk. And so he's calling them not to become what they are not by means of self-effort but to reveal what they are as a result of God's grace.

And the recurring theme—the melody line, if you like—is very straightforward. In fact, let me just show it to you. You have it here in verse 8, at least in two parts. Look at verse 8. For at one time you were, verse 8b, but now you are. And as we go down towards the end of the chapter in verse 23, he is explaining to them all that they—in verse 27, I should say—all that they are going to become. Together, as the precious, redeemed church of Jesus Christ, they are going to be ultimately, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, the completed work of not only sanctification but glorification about which we spoke last time. So, if you have that, it's kind of a sonata form for those of you who don't like my reference to Johnny Nash, because you're very classical. So, let me come to you.

So, what do you have in sonata form? You have exposition, you have development, you have recapitulation. And that's exactly what he does. All the way through, he is saying this again and again, in order that we may be left in no doubt.

Now, let's just say something that's vitally important too, in case we miss it. Because Jesus died on the cross for the sins of men and women. All are not automatically forgiven.

There is a word out on the street that suggests, Oh yeah, I know about that. There's a Jesus, he died on the cross, and there's forgiveness. You have people who are saying, Well, I believe the creeds, and I like the ethics, and I'm frankly trying my best. That is not what it means to be a Christian. Remember, Paul, we've noted, has not been using the word Christian throughout. He has been using phraseology that is characterized by two words, en Christos, in Christ, or, alternatively, in the Lord. And all the way through, he has started by saying, Here is the wonder of God's grace in this great symphony with which chapter 1 begins, that God, out of all of eternity, has purposed to have a people that are his very own, and by the extent of his amazing love towards us in Jesus, he has reached down into our lives, and he has drawn us to himself, and we have heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation. We have believed, and we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. In other words, he says, We are no longer what we once were, but we are now in Christ. As in Adam, he says elsewhere, we're all dead men. In Jesus, we are made alive. Or, as Calvin puts it, all that Christ has done for us is of no value to us, so long as we remain outside of Christ.

Now, I suggested to you that we were a little stuck here this morning, and I confessed to you that I found myself purposefully stuck. In my studies this week, I guess I must say that I just felt the burden of trying to make sure that I understand and then that we understand together the dramatic contrast, the significant antithesis that is represented in just one phrase of verse 8. Namely, you, you will notice, at one time were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. It does not say, At one time you were a nonchurch attender, and now you're a church attender. At one time you were irreligious, and now you've become religious. At one time you were flaky, and now you're not so flaky. No.

It is far more significant than this. In fact, he doesn't simply say, At one time you lived in darkness, which is true, and now you live in light, which is true. No. He says, You were dark. You were darkness. Scotos. And now you are phos.

Now you are light. Now, I want us to camp here and purposefully. I actually had two points, but you'll be relieved to know we're only having one. The two points are these. The change that he describes, and then the challenge that he delivers. The challenge that he delivers, we need to go back up into verse 7, because that's part of the challenge, and then on down through there, if God spares us, we'll come to that another time.

But what we want to focus on is this dramatic change. And essentially, to do so in such a way to try and help us understand where we are in relationship to this, what it means for us then to communicate with our friends and our neighbors, who will say to us that they are professedly unbelieving—they may be agnostic, they may profess to be atheistic—how, then, does this notion, this reality, help us both to understand our approach and then to be gracious in that approach? At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Paul is unequivocal.

He's already used these categorical terms. You will recall back in chapter 2, at the beginning of chapter 2, he says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. See the walking again? That was your way of life. You were with the dead men. You were with the sons of disobedience. That's the rock band that you played in. The sons of disobedience.

By nature. That's what he says. You were dead, but now you are alive. It's a antithesis. It's in keeping with what he is saying here. And I say to you, it is vitally important that we understand this. You were, you are.

There's no halfway house. You're not half dark or half light. Dark light. By nature, dark.

By grace, light. As long as we remain outside of Christ, we remain in darkness. It is not that we're in a neutral territory, and as we finally come to years of understanding, we decide, Oh, I think I'd like to live on the dark side.

Or, I think I'll choose the light side. No, by nature, the darkness is an inescapable darkness, because the darkness is at the very core and center of our human existence. Let me put it in even more straightforward terms. We're either Christians or we're not. We are either in Christ or outside of Christ. We are either spiritually dead or spiritually alive. Now, where else are you going to find this kind of statement in our world today? Think of all of the explanations that are given for the human condition on a routine basis as we get up to a new day in the morning and we're confronted by the drama of life, the unfolding story of individual life, men and women's attempt to make sense of their existence, and all the way and out at the limits of all that social media can bring to us. If I don't read my Bible in the morning, there's no saying where I will end up by nine o'clock. Because I've already read the London Times, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. And if I go the wrong way round on this, I'm like a rabid bear, you know.

I run around and be shouting and things. I need my Bible to adjudicate on the world in which I live. Lord Jesus Christ, is our culture completely gone? Jesus, you're a sovereign Lord and King! Jesus, how is our culture to be impacted? Well, in the same way he says to me that Ephesus was to be impacted.

And how was that? Not as a result of Paul taking to the streets of Ephesus to condemn the darkness. Not as a result of him taking on the culture and pointing out everything that was wrong, but as a result of him preaching the gospel, telling this wonderful story that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, that he was making a whole new one out of the two of before, that people from a Jewish background and a Gentile background had been brought to the very same place in an understanding of who and all that Christ is. Then he says, Now we'll make an impact on Ephesus when we live out, when we walk out, and people say, You got something deep inside, something that this world can't hide. Baby, you got soul. You got Jesus in your soul. That's the impact. That's the impact. Even after I preached in the first service, there were people come to me, and I know the way they listened to what I said.

Because their reaction was simply, Well, that's something the world needs to hear. That wasn't what I was saying. That cost me a lot of energy for you to misunderstand that. That's easy. You're here this morning. You don't believe. You don't understand. You wonder. You're trying to make sense of your life.

You're going down the road that has just marked out before you. I don't want to bring you here to say unkind things to you or anything. No, this is written to the church.

This is written to the professed believers. You mustn't be involved in this sexual nonsense. It's shameful to think about it. It's worse to do it.

And your mind will be impregnated with it unless you are fueled by the truth of Scripture. Because, he says, think about it. You were, but you are.

Not perfect, but making progress. Now, think about it. When the human condition is expressed as it is in our culture today, then it is understandable that men and women have got to try and come up with a solution. So, no, I don't want to belabor the point, but as much as we love and appreciate education and are involved in it here and want to educate our children on a day-by-day basis here at Heritage Christian Academy and in other places too, as much as we're concerned about that, we realize that education cannot in itself change the human condition.

Nor can a process of renovation. You think about it. All of the commitments that are made in our world to deal with specific issues—whether it is of immorality or abortion or whatever it might be, justifiable, unnecessary, and necessary engagements. But what are they doing?

Precious little. You see, because you cannot change the human condition by simply educating or legislating or manipulating the issues from the outside. That's why we have the gospel. That's why the story of the Bible is focused entirely upon Jesus. At the end of the nineteenth century, William Booth was at the heart of engaging with the poor in London, and on one occasion they asked him, you know, what is it you're actually doing? And what does it really mean for somebody to be converted? Or in the terminology of the time, what does it mean for them to be saved?

Incidentally, that's still the terminology of the time. His reply was, to get a man or a woman roundly saved, it's not enough to put on him a new pair of trousers or to give him regular work or even to give him a university education. These things are all outside a man. And if the inside remains unchanged, you have wasted your labor. Who can change the inside? Who can change the inside? Well, I've changed it myself.

No, you won't. You've tried. It's not working, is it? How many years have you lived? How many New Year's resolutions have you had?

How many new leaves have you turned over? At your attempt at self-renovation, it doesn't work. We say, well, I'm a little dim. If I could just learn a little more. I mean, if somebody could really explain to me what happens in the nature of lung cancer, then I'd never smoke another cigarette.

Goodness gracious, they put on the packet, you're a dead man if you do this, and you still do it. So how's the education program working? No, you're going to have to be changed from the inside. And that's exactly what Paul is describing here. Real spiritual change in our lives addresses our heart, not just our behavior. You're listening to Truth for Life and Alistair Begg with part one of a message titled, Walk in Light.

We'll return to this topic next week. It's the gospel message that has the power to transform our lives from the inside out. And that's the very message that fuels our mission here at Truth for Life. We know that God's Spirit works in the hearts and minds of those who listen to God's Word being taught.

And that's why we teach straight from the Bible so that men and women can hear it and believe it and be changed by it. If that mission resonates with you, we want to invite you to join with us as a Truth Partner. Truth Partners are generous monthly donors who pray for this ministry and its listeners. They support us each month, and it's their prayers and giving that helps bring Alistair's clear, relevant Bible teaching to a worldwide audience, wherever they are and however they choose to receive it.

Learn more about how you can become a Truth Partner online at truthforlife.org slash truth partner. And when you join today, you're invited to request our featured book. It's titled Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. This book is foundational to the Christian life and faith.

It's been a classic for years. Request your copy of Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life when you join our important team of Truth Partners. Visit truthforlife.org slash truth partner, or you can receive the book when you make a one-time donation at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Hope you have a great weekend that you're able to worship together with your local church. And I hope you can join us on Monday as Alistair explains why so many people here but don't believe the message of the gospel. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.