Sunday
Morning Bible Study
July 9,
2006
Introduction
Paul has been talking about how we are to live, how we are to walk.
Last week we looked at some of the stuff we’re NOT supposed to be doing,
and Paul ended with …
(Eph 5:7 NLT) Don't participate in the things these people do.
And now Paul goes on to talk about why we shouldn’t be doing some of these
things.
:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as
children of light
The Bible has a lot to say about this idea of “light” and “darkness”
(John 3:19-21 NKJV) "And this is the condemnation, that the
light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. {20} "For everyone practicing evil hates
the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
{21} "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be
clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
Light is a picture of all that is good. Dark is a picture of all that is
evil.
:9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and
truth),
Spirit – We are familiar with what Paul calls the “Fruit of the
Spirit” in Galatians 5, but here the emphasis is more on “light”, some of the
modern translations even have the word “light” here. These qualities are what
“light” is all about.
Light is all about what is “good” and “right”
truth – aletheia –
what is
true in any matter under consideration; that kind of mind which is free
falsehood, deceit
Literally, “not hidden”. I think this is one of the key ideas behind the
concept of “light”. “Light” uncovers things hidden in darkness.
Illustration
A first step at getting healthy is learning
to tell the truth.
:10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
finding out – dokimazo –
a word that was used in the testing of metals to see if they were genuine. Putting
something to the test, seeing if it’s the real thing, and then putting your
approval on the thing being tested.
Part
of learning to walk in the light is putting the things in my life to the test
to see if they are acceptable, well pleasing to the Lord.
Sometimes before a couple gets engaged, a gal takes her boyfriend home to
meet the parents and see if he “passes the test”.
Do the things in my life “pass the test” with God?
:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather expose them.
have … fellowship with – sugkoinoneo (“with” + “fellowship”) – to this word
comes from the word koinoneo, which
means to come into communion or fellowship with, to become a sharer, be made a
partner. The word “communion” is translated from a form of this word, communion
is where we “share” together in the bread and the juice. Paul wrote,
(2 Cor 6:14 NKJV) Do not be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And
what communion has light with darkness?
The point is that you can’t be light and dark at the same time.
expose – elegcho –
to convict,
refute, to expose; to find fault with, admonish, reprove; to call to account,
show one his fault, demand an explanation; to rebuke in such a way so as not
just to inform the other person they did a bad thing, but for them to actually
be convinced themselves of just how wrong they were, for them to experience the
conviction of sin.
Lesson
Exposing the darkness
How do
we “expose” the darkness?
1. There may be a time to speak up.
It may
not be politically correct to speak up about sin.
“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, one of the most famous
phrases in the Declaration of Independence.
People take that phrase “pursuit of happiness” to mean that they ought to
have the right to do whatever they want as long as it makes them happy.
But that assumes that there is no absolutes, no absolute right or wrong.
If I feel good by killing people, should I have the right to do this? Of
course not. Thankfully we still recognize that murder is wrong. About forty
years ago it was pretty well recognized that it was wrong to commit adultery. Not
any more.
I don’t think we ought to apologize for speaking up about what’s right and
what’s wrong.
George Whitfield (1739) said, “The
Christian world is in a deep sleep. Nothing but a loud voice can waken them out
of it.”
2. Sometimes words aren’t needed.
There
may be times when simply our presence, the work of the Holy Spirit in the
obedient Christian that brings conviction.
Do you
remember where the Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who had been caught in
the act of adultery (John 8)? They
wanted Jesus to command that the woman be stoned to death. But Jesus just stooped down and wrote on the
ground.
(John 8:7-11 NKJV) So when they
continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is
without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." {8} And again
He stooped down and wrote on the ground. {9} Then those who heard it, being
convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest
even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the
midst. {10} When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He
said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one
condemned you?" {11} She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to
her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more."
It’s possible that Jesus may have been making a list of sins as He wrote on
the ground. But it may have merely been His presence that brought conviction on
these Pharisees. I find it interesting that the next thing Jesus says is …
(John 8:12
NKJV) Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the
light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the
light of life."
He is light. He exposes what is in the darkness.
Illustration
A well-known professional golfer was playing in a tournament with President
Gerald Ford, fellow pro Jack Nicklaus, and Billy Graham. After the round was
over, one of the other pros on the tour asked, “Hey, what was it like playing
with the President and Billy Graham?” The pro said with disgust, “I don’t need
Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat!” With that he headed for the
practice tee. His friend followed, and after the golfer had pounded out his
fury on a bucket of golf balls, he asked, “Was Billy a little rough on you out
there?” The pro sighed and said with embarrassment, “No, he didn’t even mention
religion.”
Have
you ever had people apologize to you for something they said or did even though
you didn’t even say anything?
Either
way, there ought to be a proper attitude when it comes to exposing things.
My dad
is a photographer. He often took me into the bathroom where he had set up a
darkroom, and I’d watch him print out his pictures. When you print a picture,
you have to “expose” the paper to the image which is made by turning on the
light. There’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it.
We too
“expose” things through the process of turning on the light.
(2 Cor
4:3-12 NKJV) But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who
are perishing, {4} whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not
believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine on them. {5} For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ
Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. {6} For it is
the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ. {7} But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. {8} We are hard pressed on
every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; {9}
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; {10} always
carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus
also may be manifested in our body. {11} For we who live are always delivered
to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our
mortal flesh. {12} So then death is working in us, but life in you.
God puts the treasure of His light into clay pots.
It reminds me of the story of Gideon and his amazing
victory over the Midianites. Gideon and his men carried clay pots, torches, and
trumpets. They hid the torches in the clay pots and then surrounded the enemy. When
the signal rang out, each man broke his clay pot, causing the light to shine. Then
they blew their trumpets, and the enemy was freaked out and defeated.
In the same way, God uses our own brokenness so that
others can see the treasure inside the broken clay pot.
I think the proper attitude when it comes to “exposing”
things to the light is brokenness.
I remember hearing the story of a pastor (it was Chuck) who
found out that a fellow in his church was having an affair. He went over to the
fellow’s house. He had things he wanted to say, but all he could do was just
weep. And that’s really all the other fellow needed, was to see his friend’s
brokenness.
:12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them
in secret.
I wonder if sometimes we as a society haven’t gotten a little bit close to
losing our sense of “shame”.
Even if we speak up to “expose” people’s sins, we need to be careful just
what we talk about.
There are some things that we shouldn’t even dignify with words. Sometimes
I think we Christians can get a little too much enjoyment of talking about the
details of other people’s sins.
:13 But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for
whatever makes manifest is light.
Lesson
Being exposed
When light exposes evil things, they become “manifest”, they become
obvious. When this happens in the life of a believer, something happens …
(1 John 1:5-7 NKJV) This
is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is
light and in Him is no darkness at all. {6} If we say that we have fellowship
with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. {7} But
if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
When things are exposed to the light in the believer’s life, he deals with
it. He lets Jesus take it away and cleanses it.
Light exposes things so they can be dealt with.
A surgeon has to have light if he is to operate.
We were painting some of the classrooms yesterday and it
was very important to open up the blinds and let in the sunlight. Without the
light, it was hard to see some of the spots that you might have missed.
As a believer, we open ourselves to God’s light so we can
see the areas that He wants to work on.
Walking in the “light” means you have nothing to hide because everything is
exposed.
Illustration
When you take a trip on a plane, you will have to go
through all sorts of xrays, scans, sometimes even searches. We learn to put up
with it because we are hoping that if a person with a bomb or a gun wants to
get on the plane, that they will get caught.
We don’t mind going through the scanner because we have
nothing to hide.
Do you have parts of your life that are “hidden”?
I think that one way to measure growth in our personal lives is to ask
ourselves, “How close is my life at home or work to how I act at church or in
front of church people?” I’ve learned
over the years that people don’t always act at church the way they act at home.
Over the last ten years, one of the scariest parts of people’s secret lives
are the things that happen on their computer. The Internet can open the
floodgates of perversion into our souls if we let it. And one of the greatest
weapons that Satan has with the Internet is the potential for us to do things
“secretly”. We feel that no one is watching. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to
look at pictures of naked people, you had to risk someone seeing you as you
went into a liquor store or adult bookstore. Now you only need to turn on your
computer in that back bedroom where no one is watching.
There are filters you can use to keep you away from bad things on your
computer, but the problem with filters is that for some of us, it simply
presents a challenge for us to overcome – can I find that site that won’t be
blocked? I think a better way is to bring things out into the open where
everyone can see. Some people have their family computer out in the living room
where everyone can see. Another way is to use a reporting type of software that
will tell your spouse or friend just where you’ve been on the internet. I use a
program called Covenant Eyes, and my
wife and my three sons all get reports every week telling them where I’ve been
on the Internet. When I’m on the Internet it’s as if my wife is looking over my
shoulder – and frankly it’s a great relief to have things out in the open. It
seems to remove most of the power of the temptation just knowing that
somebody’s watching me – somebody who cares and somebody who will confront me
if I go to bad places.
:14 Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And
Christ will give you light."
The point is this, if you’ve been “asleep” in the “dark”, it’s time to wake
up and let Jesus shine His light on you.
Jesus said,
(John 12:36 NKJV) "While you have the light,
believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." …