Ephesians 5:7-10 "Walking In the Light"pt.1

Introduction

The undisputed truth of the coming wrath of God is a sobering reality.

This is what makes Christianity and the gospel of Jesus Christ hyper-relevant to any people group at any time throughout all of history.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is transformational. The new birth regenerates and makes us alive by divine grace and causes us to see with eyes of faith in order to believe the gospel.

When this happens we are transformed out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the light of Christ.

You see the true gospel doesn’t just punch your ticket for the gospel train to heaven. The true gospel transforms you in the here and the now.

And it saves us from the coming wrath of God. The coming wrath that will come upon the son’s of disobedience. And you can be sure of this according to verse 6 as we saw last Sunday.

It is from this definite truth that the Apostle Paul derives a particular warning that he gives to the Christians at Ephesus. It is a warning of a forbidden partnership in verses 7-10:

I. The Forbidden Partnership (7-10).

Explain: “Therefore” denotes that because of the coming wrath of God of verse 6 we are not become partners with the sons of disobedience.

The term “partners” denotes the idea of, having a share with another in some possession or relationship (BAGD).

It reminds us that we are not to be involved in their lifestyle and live as they do. And we are not to make any contribution to their destruction.

Christians are to live differently. And notice, Paul doesn’t say this because he believes that we need to do this in order to be a good example to the sons of disobedience. That may happen as a result but it is not the primary reason.

No, the primary reason is because you once were in darkness but now you are light in the Lord. There has been a transformation and that light produces the fruit of light.

The fruit of light is all that is good, right and true. These categories are established by God. We have to be in His word if we are to know what it is that constitutes that which is, good, right and true. This is what the believer is being commanded to walk in because we are children of light.

You see the transformation that has come because of Christ is life changing.

Illustrate: In Utah I had some of these solar lights that lined my sidewalk. The sun would shine and the little built in solar panels would absorb the sunlight and give power to the light, so that in the darkness the light would shine and light up the sidewalk.

And regardless of how dark it was the light would shine so that you could see where you were going when you were walking down the sidewalk.

Christian there is a different kind of Son that has empowered us to shine. And we shine a different kind of light. We don’t shine the kind of light the creates rainbows but that radiates the glory of God in all that is good, right and true.

And that is the light that we as believers are to walk by. And we are to be presently and actively involved and preoccupied with discerning what pleases God according to verse 10.

The term “discern” means to make a critical examination of something, to determine its genuineness (BAGD). This is what we are to be be preoccupied with, our quest for discernment is the pleasure of the Lord.

If we are always preoccupied with what pleases us we will miss it and undermine our walk in the light. Due to our fallen nature this will put us on a course towards idolatry or covetousness (See verses 3-5 above).

This usually will bring about an internal tension between what pleases God and what pleases us.

What will happen is that our pleasure of gratifying the desires of our sinful nature will attempt to manipulate our understanding of what God’s will is.

This will set us up to blame God for not meeting our perception of what His will should be.

It can be a frustrating experience because God seems to fail and then we see Him as not performing up to our expectations.

This is the spiritual equivalent to the tail wagging the dog. Most all of us have been guilty of it at times. It is pride manifesting a manipulation tactic against God.

This is how it sets you up to blame Him. It is His fault it didn’t turn out how you wanted it to be.

You may use guilt to motivate your spouse, your child and even your pastor. All of us are prone to failure. But it doesn’t work when it comes to God. Let God be found true but every man a liar.

So it will manipulate our understanding of the will of God OR.....

Or it will cultivate cold, hard hearted, joyless obedience out of a sense of legal obligation before God.

Most of us know what this is. It is reluctant obedience out of obligation that gets no joy in doing what God commands.

There is no joy in it because we strive to obey but what pleases us is gratification of the flesh and not the glorification of God. But most of the time we would never say that out loud.

Neither of these are what it means to walk in the light. Walking in the light is pleased by what God is pleased by. What is God pleased by? God is pleased by what radiates the glory of Himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ. God in and through Christ is the pinnacle of all that is good, right and true.

Christian when that which is the pinnacle of the pleasure of God becomes the pinnacle of our pleasure that is the only way to resolve that tension and free us from the manipulation of our understanding of God’s will or from the joyless legalistic obedience.

It may surprise you that God wants us to be happy. He even goes so far as commanding us to be happy. The Psalms are full of such commands for the people of God to be joyful in the Lord. I love how John Piper says it: “God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him. If that is true, then there is no conflict between your greatest exhilaration and God’s greatest glorification.”

God wants us happy but not from the short lived deceptive joys of the world that are temporary and enslave us and eventually delivers us to destruction. God wants us happy in experiencing pleasure in Him and in His provisions of grace to us in Christ.

This is why there is a forbidden partnership. God has redeemed us for something much better than anything the world has to offer us. According to Hebrews 11 Moses knew this in his day: Heb. 11:24-28 “24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.”

Conclusion:

It was that sprinkling of blood that kept the angel of death away from the firstborn of Israel on that night when the wrath of God broke out against Egypt. Egypt was a world super-power but it was powerless before the Covenant God of Israel who came to redeem His people from bondage.

This was the origins of the Passover lamb in Israel’s history. The blood of a lamb was sprinkled on the doorpost of the Israelite households and the angel of death passed over them. This is what brought their deliverance.

Unbeliever what is it that will bring about your deliverance from the certainty of the coming wrath of God? Believe the gospel.

Christian we know the parallel. Christ is our pass-over lamb. He died in our place to redeem us for God. This grace has come to us through Christ. His light has shone into our lives and He guides us in all that is good, right and true. Rest in His grace and walk in the light. Confess and receive from Him.

Let’s Pray!