[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Today, we continue along in Ephesians chapter 5. We're going to be going through verses 11 to 21. So, quite a bit of verses , and we've got some good things to talk about. Let's go ahead and get into the text. Ephesians chapter 5, starting in verse 11: “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (ESV).

       There are two things we can note about these dark works. And the first thing is that they're unfruitful, right? That's what Paul calls them. That is an important note there that he calls it unfruitful works, because a lot of times I think people think that, “Oh, what the Bible calls works of darkness or whatever is really not that bad. It's just kind of outdated, archaic.” But no. It's because the reason God prohibits things is not just because he's holy. I mean, sure, he's holy. He wants us to be holy as he is holy. But it's also that those works of darkness are unfruitful. They're not beneficial to our lives. So that's why God is telling us today, through Paul, to take no part in those things. Also, ways of doing things outside of God's will is called darkness . Again, that's not just because God's trying to be a killjoy or to prohibit us from doing things that might actually be beneficial for us. They actually stem from the chief fallen angel whose name is Satan. They are works that stem from the dark side, if you will. They're not things that will help us. They are things that go against God ultimately, that are an active rebellion to him, and in the same breath, an active rebellion really to ourselves, because those works are unfruitful for us.

       Paul tells us that Christians are to expose those works. Well, how do we expose those works? There are a couple of ways we do that. We expose them by practicing righteousness instead. When we practice righteousness and we show that really it's the righteous ways that work the best, that have the light behind them, that show the good outcomes and all of that, that's when Satan is seen and his works are seen for what they really are. And we can think of probably a common model we can pull up is that of the family when two people get married they don't have any prior relations and they stay in that marriage and they bear children and all that that righteousness and that family is in contrast to perhaps a person who has relations before they're getting married and then gets married perhaps, and then gets divorced and gets married again and gets divorced, whatever it is. It just shows you the contrast of the godly, righteous way of doing it versus the unrighteous, ungodly, without God way of doing it. And there are all kinds of examples we could pull up there.

       But Paul, specifically in Ephesians chapter 5, we remember from the last message, already talked about three of those works in verse 3. If we go back up to verse 3, he says, “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints” (ESV). So sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness. We talked about what those were last time. Hopefully we have a good idea of what those are, but those are three key areas Paul mentioned in his context of Ephesians 5 that Christians are to avoid. And those things contrast. When we don't do those things, it contrasts with the way the world does things.

       Let's go ahead and move on. Verse 12: “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” (ESV).

       That's the beginning of verse 14 as well. It’s like how we talked about last time with the impurity concept and those three things Paul brought up, that there are things we can think of that we probably don't want to talk about. Well, Paul was just saying that here today. It's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. And that shame, shame is a really low emotion, as we're all aware of. And that shame points out to our conscience that if we feel shame in doing something, that's not what we want to be doing. And even Jesus brought this up in the Sermon on the Mount that, and Paul would bring it up to the Corinthians, that there are things that not even those who are out of relationship with God will do. And if we're doing something that or we know of things that unbelievers do that are shameful, so shameful that we can't even speak them, we don't want to be part of those unfruitful works of darkness. I mean, it's commonsensical. I mean, it just doesn't get a lot easier to explain. Obviously, we can also expose things by pointing them out and saying, that's wrong. We shouldn't be doing that. That's what Paul is doing in this letter to Ephesus. He's saying this, this, and this is bad. You shouldn't do that, right? And we need to be careful when we're doing that, right? We don't want to have a high, haughty attitude of “I never do that. I'm better than you." Or "how in the world could you do that?” Because we all have struggled with sin to some degree. We all have that inner sin nature. So we have to be careful that we don't get on a high horse and act like we're better than everybody.

       And I think, unfortunately, we all have examples coming to our minds of people in the church and the Evangelical Church who have probably gotten high-horse probably in our personal lives, that we can pull up those examples and just kind of hang our head a little bit. And perhaps we've been guilty of it ourselves. I can think of a few instances where I, a long time ago in my early days as a Christian, was quite condemning towards certain people when really it was just rooted in a lot of pride. So that's something to be mindful of. I think as we get more mature in the faith, if we're on a journey of growth, I think that we start to become better and better at being gentle, at being mindful of not being too high-horse in certain matters. But especially if we're a beginner Christian, it might be something we struggle with right off the bat. And there's also the idea, the thought that with these sins, these unfruitful works of darkness, if we think or speak casually about those things like the unbelievers do, like those who scoff at God or those who just don't believe oftentimes do, they don't get exposed.

       That's why there is that while we don't, while we want to be gentle, at the same time, we don't want to take away the seriousness of sin. Because if we don't think, if we have the attitude that, “Ah, you know, Jesus died on the cross, he rose again, everything's forgiven. Sin really doesn't matter at the end of the day. It doesn't really matter what you do.” I mean, if we have a casual attitude about sin, then we're not going to make correction. We're not going to bring those things out into the light so that people can think those who don't know God can sit there and say, “You know, I do this, this, and this. It doesn't work for me. This is not working. I need to find a new life. And I think this relationship with God is the path to go.” Somebody's not going to say that if we're speaking casually about sin. So there is that aspect to it, but we just need to be careful at the same time.

       And verse 14 says, “for anything that becomes visible is light” (ESV).

       It's kind of an odd wording for that verse. I went through some of the different translations, probably 15 different ones in one of the Bible apps I have. And a few of them, I think, reversed it by saying that anything that is light and the light becomes visible or something along those words. But it’s interesting how the ESV translators translated it this way. But I think, unless I'm missing something, I think the idea is that when things are brought into the light, they are shown for what they truly are. That they have that focus, that God's thoughts, his opinion, his truth, really on what that is. So I think that's the point of things being in the light. It's just interesting how it's worded there.

       But let's continue in verse 14. Paul says, "Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”” (ESV).

       This appears to be a quotation from Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 1. As a matter of fact, let's tap back there to the Old Testament, take a quick look at that. And this is interesting because Paul, if we read it , Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 1, it says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” So Paul's basically paraphrased it and Christianized it at the same time, bringing it into view of the Christ, the Messiah, having already come. And that also, just as a quick aside, shows us that paraphrasing the Bible is not wrong. For anyone that struggles with things like that, it also shows us that Paul and others did not consider it like a legal document where you had to have word for word what it said. It's the idea, the heart, that matters. There might be a few people out there that struggle with that, that want things to be absolutely perfect. Well, even Paul, inspired by the Spirit, did not bring forth that verse word for word. He paraphrased it, summarized it, and made it about Christ, even though obviously there was a prophetic element to it, I'm sure.

       But if we go back to Ephesians, really what's going on is it's a call for people to come to God, right? That's why we're exposing things into the light, because we want people to see things for the works of darkness, for how they really are. We want them to see God's truth for how it is. And hopefully they will make the right choice, the choice that benefits them, which is really coming to know God and following the way that God says to live life, because that's the righteous way. That's the way that will benefit us the most. And that's really what's going on. And it could even be a call in this context to the church at Ephesus for wayward Christians to come back onto the right path. Either way you interpret that, it's beneficial to both groups of people.

       But now let's read verses 15 through 17. Paul continues, “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” (ESV).

       Again, we notice the phrase, “look carefully.” So again, it's taking those offenses against God with a level of seriousness, and not just blowing off sin like it really doesn't matter at the end of the day. Paul states it a little bit differently in that sinful ways are unwise, right? That he's trying to show us what I've been feeding into our discussion, that it's just not beneficial, it's just not wise to live the ways that ultimately Satan is telling us to live. This is the battle that started all the way back at the Garden of Eden with Eve and then Adam. With Satan presenting this alternative way of challenging God's truth and saying, “Well I wouldn't listen to God. He really doesn't have your best interest in mind. Listen to me, and if you follow me, it'll be better.” That's what Satan's saying. He's providing a different way, but it doesn't work. It's not a better way. And that's what bringing those things into the light shows.

       So God's ways, in contrast to the ways of darkness, are wise. And they are experientially more beneficial to us, more expedient to us, really beneficial in their totality, whereas Satan's ways, though they might have an appearance of benefiting us, ultimately what? They ultimately lead to destruction. They might have a pleasure, a seeming benefit, for a short period of time, but that will fade. That will go away eventually. And this whole discussion really is contrasted by Paul in his letter to the church in Galatia, Galatians chapter 5. If I tap over to Galatians chapter 5, we can see, and I'll go ahead and read, I'll read verse 16 through 26, so this will be a lengthy text , but it really encapsulates what we're talking about . He says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (ESV). And he's saying it this way to pause here. He's saying it this way because we have that sin nature as Christians, right? We have that war of sin inside of us. It's not just for those who don't know God. Verse 17: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (ESV). So pausing, there is that element that God imaged in us, whether we're Christian or not, where we want to do what is right. But if we're Christian, if we believe God's given us that ability to actually do what is right, to overcome that sin nature.

       Continuing on, verse 18: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Verse 22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (ESV). Again, unfortunately, until the day we die, it's going to be a battle, even for the Christian. But we have our free wills. We can choose to do what is right. Just like the unbeliever with their free will, anyone out there who doesn't believe can choose. You can choose to believe in God through Jesus Christ and to come into a personal relationship with him. But that's your free will choice. God's not going to force you into that. He's not going to give you some type of grace. You can't resist anything like that.

       And if we go back to Ephesians chapter 5, Paul tells us that we are to make the best use of the time because the days are evil. Well, that ties into a call to believe in the gospel, really. And there are a couple of different passages I could pull up, but I'm going to pull up James. We're going to go to chapter 4, and let's go to verse 14. James is talking about, in his epistle, those who are making plans for the future. And in verse 14, he says, “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (ESV). And that's the thing: our lives are short. Really, they are. I mean, I think the older we get, we realize that it's just going by super fast. And it seems like before we know it, this year's over and then the next year's over. And it's just, we see those we love as we get older start to decline or perhaps pass away to go into the next life. And we're like, yeah, I'm going to be up to bat eventually. I could be up to bat sooner than I think, or it might be that I live to be 80 or 90 years old. Maybe if I'm really lucky, 100 years old, right? But it could also be that we go before we think we're going to. And the point is, Paul's point in making the best use of the time is to realize this fact, to realize what James is saying in his epistle. And Peter also talks about it in, I think, his first epistle. We need to take, to realize, to grasp a hold of the fact that our time is limited. That doesn't mean we don't relax. It doesn't mean we don't take breaks. It's really partly the opposite.

       We should take care of ourselves, because that is part of making the best use of the time. The best use of the time is not just working, because no one can just work, work, work, and strive, you know, and thrive and succeed. You can't do that because resting makes you more efficient. The more you work without resting, as God demonstrated in Genesis chapter 1, you're going to wear out. You're going to burn out. So it's not that. That's not what Paul's not promoting some type of asceticism or legalism. That's not what we want. But we do want to have a general attitude that we're taking the things of God, the things he tells us in the New Testament, that we're taking those things seriously. And whatever our call on our individual lives are, or as a group in the church, whatever that call is, that we're taking that call seriously, that we're doing things that benefit God's kingdom. And that might be on a small scale. Most of us are probably one-talent folks. Some of us might be two-talent, some five, but some ten. A few are going to be ten-talent people. Whatever our talents are, and obviously I'm talking about the parable from Jesus, you can look that one up on your own time. But we need to be remembering that we can't just loiter our time away. We can't do that, but we also have to be wise in how we spend that time. We don't want to do the reverse of that and work 95% of the time. That's not going to work either, so it's neither.

       But again, if I go back to Ephesians, of course, Paul notes that the days are evil, and I don't think we really need to defend that. I think we obviously can see that Satan has a lot of success in doing things that God does not want. I think that's blatantly obvious and just turning the news on. But again, verse 17, understanding God's will, like we talked about already, there's a will for individual churches that they do this, that, and the other. There's a will specifically for us that we're doing this or that or the other. It just depends on our individual calls with God. But we need to understand that. We need to have knowledge of that. And there's a general will, right, for everyone, like being pure, things like that, that we just talked about in Galatians chapter 5. and it's talked about throughout the New Testament, right? And then there's a specific will and only each of us individually can garner what our specific will from God is.

       But let's go ahead and keep it moving. Verse 18, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” (ESV).

       This is interesting how Paul brings this up. And it's really a good example, I think, and it's very applicable, I think, to us here in the United States. Because basically what he's saying, I gather, is that the unbeliever numbs out by using alcohol. That's a common way for the unbeliever to get away from everything. Well, what does the believer do in contrast? The believer trusts that God is working good for them. If you're trusting that God is working good for you, even when the days are evil, then you can rest and relax. But if you don't have that assurance, well, then you might find yourself turning to the bottle. You might find yourself at the bar after work because you need to numb out with that alcohol, with those drinks, because that's all you’ve got. You don't have trust in anything. And I think that that is a very good way for Paul to pinpoint, to simplify exactly what is going on here. And just, the word debauchery, so that's a word that denotes excessive focus on the physical, on the body, right? And it's not a serious way of taking life. It's a way of excess of just focusing on the body's pleasures and not focusing on things outside of that.

       But we as Christians are to be filled with the Spirit. So how are we filled with the Spirit? Well, simply stated, it's right thinking. Right thinking fills us with the Spirit. If we're thinking rightly, if we're thinking in accordance with God's will, in accordance with truth, in accordance with the light, then we're naturally, automatically going to be filled with the Spirit. And of course, we have the New Testament to read, to become familiar with, which tells us God's will. And as we become familiar with our Bibles, as we become familiar with teachings, Christian teachings, and even just good thinking in general. I mean, thinking about nature, thinking about things in a positive or optimistic way, just considering things on the bright side, on the light side of things (no pun intended) where the light is. That's what gets us filled with the Spirit.

       Let's read verse 19. Paul says, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (ESV).

       Here, he seems to have a collective focus, with the church collectively in mind, obviously, because he's talking about how we address each other as Christians. And we're going to bring up certain Bible verses to one another in Bible study or in texting people or whatever. I have a friend, for instance, that seems like every other time he texts me, or if even not more than that, he's got a Bible verse, right? And that shows that he's thinking a lot about God's Word. I don't, in all fairness, think as Evangelical Christians, we do the Bible stuff a lot, but I don't know that we do the Psalms, the hymns, and the spiritual song part of this. Like, I don't know. Of course, we sang those at church, but I don't know that we quote them to each other in natural conversation, really. Of course, I've heard pastors quote them in their messages or in their sermons, sure. But I don't think it's like part of our daily conversation. But it would not be wrong for it to be.

       Apparently, Paul told the church in Ephesus that they should try to incorporate those things into their daily speech. And obviously, if we're thinking collectively, so we're supposed to be singing, but it seems to be more of something that's in addition to the Sunday morning, we would call it worship service or Saturday evening, whatever it is. It seems to be more than that that he's talking about. So singing to ourselves when we're alone instead of complaining or humming a Christian hymn or a song, I mean, that's not something that I think is something a lot of us do. Maybe we sing, but with having that music on our minds. I mean, maybe if you're a more musical person, you might find that easier. I think for us in the United States, a lot of us would be listening to that music more than actually singing it or humming it or whatever.

       But that seems to be what Paul's talking about. Obviously, we sing at church sometimes, we sing in our small group or Bible studies, whatever you call that your home group, and but do we sing outside of those areas and make melody? I mean, probably only to ourselves, right? Maybe on occasion, but Paul's trying to get us into the habit. I think that what he could be focusing on is just not complaining. When we're by ourselves or with another person, instead of complaining, we should have praise on our lips, right? Instead of that complaining attitude. That’s how I read it. What would that be in contrast to, well, probably complaining, ungratefulness, negativity, things like that.

       And Paul kind of confirms that in verse 20, he says, “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (ESV). Let's stop there for a sec.

       Again, that's the contrast. So “giving thanks always.” And does that mean every situation we're supposed to give thanks for, even the negative situations? I would say absolutely not. That would not be my position. I know that there are a lot of Christians who would say yes indeed because they believe that everything that happens is God's will, that God causes both the good and bad things to happen. In everybody's life, I would say, I don't think that's the case at all. And so in my view, the everything likely doesn't mean bad things since everything that happens in the world is not God's will. We want God's will to happen, but as we've been talking about today, we as humans are sinful. Satan exists with his fallen angels. Demons exist if those are separate from fallen angels. There's a lot of evil negativity in the world. And those forces, that collective force of negativity of evil, seek to bring about those things which are not God's will.

       Is it true then that in every circumstance there are things to be positives to focus on? Yeah, probably to some degree, but we don’t; we want to be empathetic. We don't want to try to encourage someone in a sad, down, or negative situation, at least initially, right? We want to gain that empathy with that person. And then maybe later on, we can talk about positives that come out of that. Now, we might think of positive things in our minds. But we got to be careful to be empathetic. We don't want to say things that are out of order and not at the right time. So we need to be sensitive to trouble that comes.

       But another thing we can note is that Paul says that all of this giving of thanks is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “our Lord Jesus Christ.” Why is that? Well, Jesus holds everything together, right? As Paul told the Colossians, it's in him that everything holds together. Again, it's not in him that everything happens. God's not up there causing evil to happen, causing bad things to happen so that we learn lessons. I would say that is not what's going on. But God holds things together. Christ holds things together. The angels are utilized. The good angels are utilized in that process. And he's working good out in the bad things that happen as we are familiar with that verse Romans 8:28 God is working good out of the evil that happens and that again we can think in our minds, at least initially, that God is, that because God is doing that, we can give thanks always and for everything to God the Father. But again, I don't think that Paul is trying to say that we give thanks for God when the dog dies. But we give thanks for the great times that we had with the dog. Things like that. God is not the author of evil. He's not causing evil. He's not signing off on every action that Satan and the fallen angels want to set forth and try to accomplish in the world, that's not the way it works.

       Let's go ahead and finish up with our final verse for today. Verse 21, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (ESV).

       I really like this verse. And because it shows at the end of the day, we all as humans have that image of God. And if we're Christians, we've been born again. There is that element where we need to respect and reverence that other person as a Christian. And it's funny because when I was thinking about this, what immediately came to my mind out of all things is pride and prejudice. And specifically, what came to my mind was the old miniseries from, I think it was 1995, the 1995 miniseries with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. And in that miniseries, the characters would bow to each other out of respect, even when done with a heated discussion, a heated conversation. And obviously that must have been practice back there in Regency, here in England in the early 1800s for Jane Austen. And I don't know, I'm trying to remember if she even mentions that in the book or if that's something they've just denoted for the miniseries from history. But anyway, the point is they respect each other and reverence each other even when they disagreed. And that, I wish that was still around today, but that would probably be way too formal, right? But maybe some of that in heaven. Maybe when I get up there, if I go hang out with some Regency English folks, some brothers and sisters from that time, it'll be like that. That'll be a lot of fun. But the point is, we didn't earn our position in Christ, right? We didn't earn that. That's been given to us freely and graciously by God.

       We are all equal in God's eyes. He doesn’t show favoritism, thinking, well, this Christian I like more than this Christian. We've all been given the same thing on the Christian level and the church level as far as our position in Christ, maybe not talent, stuff like that, but our general positionality. We're all the same. God doesn't show favor to us. We respect each other and reference each other on that level. Now, of course, we can respect other Christians, but they may not respect this fact, right? I mean, that's experientially obvious. We've all had experiences where that's not going to happen, but we want to do our best. Now, does that mean we're not supposed to distance ourselves from certain Christians? No. I mean, Paul even talked about that. If someone is doing something bad or unrepentant of a certain behavior or whatever, something they did in the past, they don't want to acknowledge that they did wrong. We might still have respect in the general sense, reverence in the general sense that that person is a Christian, but we're not probably going to be able to be close to that person because they're not willing to see things from a different perspective to back off some pride, right?

       And of course things get complex, but the general idea, verse 21, we're supposed to, as best we can, Paul would say, to live peaceably with everyone as far as it depends on us. That's a paraphrase, of course. But we want to try to be respectful and reverent to others. As Paul says, you're submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ because ultimately it's Christ who's made everything possible for us. And that is by what he accomplished on the cross, through his death and then resurrection. And I just want to point out again to anyone today who's listening who does not have that personal relationship with God who doesn't even really know many Christians, if any. Anyone can come into that personal relationship with God and become born again and gain the new life that Paul is talking about in the New Testament that others talk about, that Jesus talked about. Anyone can have that today by believing in what Christ accomplished for each and every one of us. Total forgiveness of sins, new born again life, and guarantee of heaven in the future. Anybody can have that today. If that's something that you want, just go to God today in prayer and tell him you believe in what Christ accomplished, you believe that Christ really is up there, that he rose from the dead, and you can have that today. It's awesome stuff.

- Daniel Litton