Shining Lights in A Dark World-3

Blameless and Innocent — Above Reproach

Text: Philippians 2:14-16

Vs. 15 tells us:

Philippians 2:15 (NASB95)

… prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

Father God is calling forth His children to join with Jesus in battling the darkness.

From the beginning of creation Jesus has battled the darkness.

Of course we know:

Colossians 1:16 (NASB95) For by Him [by Jesus] all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, … —all things have been created through Him and for Him.

So, when we read in ...

Genesis 1:1–5 NASB95

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Jesus defeated the darkness by speaking light into creation.

And then, from the beginning of the incarnation, the light of Jesus battled the darkness of the devil.

John 1:1–5 NLT

1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

I believe from the moment of conception onward, the devil was doing everything he could to extinguish the light of Jesus — to keep Him from even being born.

Failing at preventing His birth, the devil then tried to extinguish the light by inciting Herod to kill all the babies 2 years old and younger who lived in Bethlehem and the the surrounding area.

Failing to extinguish the Light by the slaughter of innocents, the devil tried a different tactic::

He tried to dim the light — to pollute the light — to extinguish the light by causing the light to compromise with the darkness.

He did that in the wilderness by tempting the Light, by tempting Jesus,

to turn stones into bread to satisfy His flesh (how often does the devil do that to us?),

to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the Temple to prove that God was watching over Him (Jesus already knew that — do we?),

to bow down in worship to the devil to receive something His Father had already given Him (the devil still tries this tactic in our lives today)

— the devil did all that to no avail.

Finally, the devil pulled out all the stops, thinking he would forever extinguish the light by killing the light — by crucifying Him on a Cross.

Not only did the devil fail, but in the process the devil lost the keys of death and hell because after He died Jesus went down and took them from him.

AND the devil gave humanity the ultimate weapon that defeats him every time — the Blood of Jesus.

So the devil, the prince of darkness, has utterly failed to the extinguish the light despite his every effort.

But the devil hasn’t given up.

Even though he is a defeated foe, defeated by the Light, defeated by Jesus, he still goes about LIKE a roaring lion — but he is toothless and claw-less.

He still fights the children of God to try keep us from BEING the light and SHINING the Light of Jesus into the darkness of this present age.

In spite of the devil’s opposition, we willingly take up the cause of Jesus to defeat the darkness.

We do that because:

2 Corinthians 4:6 NASB95

6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

2 Peter 1:19 NASB95

19 So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Ephesians 5:8–13 NASB95

8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.

Like Saul of old, Jesus is calling US:

Acts 26:18 (NASB95)

18 to open the eyes [of Jew and Gentile alike] so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

So, in the anointing and empowerment of the Holy Spirit we shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation by:

As we saw in our text last week: not murmuring (complaining) and by not arguing with God when He has clearly revealed His will.

Now that clarity of understanding His will can be a tricky thing.

My experience is that it is not normally arrived at quickly.

One of the reasons is because it can be very difficult to hear through the “noise” of the environment that surrounds our understanding — our own desires, the opinions of others, etc.

Another way our text says we shine as lights is by being blameless, innocent and above reproach

We will look at these 3 qualities this morning.

We also see in this text that we shine the Light by holding fast and holding forth the Word of God.

We have got to have a firm grasp on the Bible — what Ephesians 6:17 calls “the sword of the Spirit.”

That sword and prayer are the offensive weapons given to the child of God.

We share the Word with those walking in darkness.

The final way that we shine like light in the darkness, according to our text is by rejoicing even through difficult things AND by sharing the joy of the Lord with others.

The light of Jesus shone forth victorious in His day.

Now Father God is calling US to be blameless, innocent and above reproach so that WE shine as lights in our dark world.

Blameless

First of all our text this morning tells us we shine our light the brightest and the best when we are blameless.

Now I can tell you right now that the world looks down on a blameless person.

They say like Job did in …

Job 12:4 NASB95

4 “I am a joke to my friends, The one who called on God and He answered him; The just and blameless man is a joke.

Even though a crooked, perverse and dark world may call us a joke, the weight of scripture is that God’s children are to be blameless.

I encourage you to look up all the scriptures that talk about being blameless.

It certainly challenged me!

We CAN be blameless because Jesus MAKES us blameless:

By dying in our place Jesus has made it possible for you and I to be blameless

- it means we can be without sin

- without blemish

- without guilt and shame

- without fault

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour He makes it possible for you and I to become spotless and clean

- to be innocent

Colossians 1:21–23 (NASB95) And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

What this means to us is that the devil no longer has claim on us

- he may approach God and accuse us of our past sins

- but those sins are no longer there

- he can no longer point out our faults because they are no longer there

This does not mean that we all become perfect and no longer have any problems

What it does mean is that whatever we place under the blood

- whatever we place on the altar

- whatever we place in the hands of God

- is cleansed

1 John 1:9 NASB95

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The devil can no longer point at our lives legally or legitimately and bring accusation against us and claim us as his own.

Which doesn’t mean he doesn’t try.

We must stand against his accusations and plead the Blood of Jesus against His accusations.

When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, in the eyes of God we become perfect, blameless, without spot or wrinkle

- we are above suspicion

- the devil can no longer legitimately cast doubt on our character before God

The only way the devil can lay claim to us once again is to get us to soil ourselves

- he can’t do it

- he can’t soil us

- he can’t make us sin

- he can’t even bring suspicion upon us

- there is nothing he can do to remove us from the grace of God

- we are the only ones who can do that

That is what temptation is all about

- he is trying to draw us out of Gods grace

- he is trying to ensnare us

- tempt us away from God

Are you getting the picture here

- he can’t make us do anything

- he can not even approach us

- he has to stand afar off and try to lure us away

- lure us to him

Do you see how protected we are?

Do you see what a blessing this is?

There is nothing that the devil can do to remove us from the hand of God

- if anything is going to be done to remove us from the hand of God we must do it ourselves

Because as

Isaiah 54:17 NASB95

17 “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

This is our heritage

- this is our birth right

- this is our inheritance

- this is our blessing

Jesus made it possible for us to become Holy and Blameless

- as a result there is nothing that can be done to us or against us unless we open the door to it

- the only power the devil has against us is the power we give him

God has chosen us to be perfect

- He made it possible

This doesn’t mean that we are going to live a perfect life

- that we will never make a mistake

- in fact the we know the bible says that there are none righteous no not one

But as long as we remain in Christ

as long as we continue in the faith

- as long as we keep our hearts right with God

- we are above reproach

Jesus was they only one who was ever perfect

- He never sinned

- He never made a mistake

- He lived a perfect life

Because of that He made it possible for you and I to make heaven our home

Our only hope of escaping hell and making heaven is in Jesus

This is the Gospel

This is what it is all about

The Father takes our faith in Jesus His son and counts it as righteousness

- we become acceptable to God because of Jesus

- our faith and trust in Him

This is what justification is all about

it means to count someone as righteous

- it doesn’t mean that we actually are righteous

- it means that our faith in Jesus is credited to our account as righteousness

What a tremendous Blessing God has made available to us!

By acceptance of Jesus we can become Holy and Blameless in the eyes of God.

So the church ought to be blameless, incurring no justifiable criticism.

This does not mean sinless perfection; instead, the church is to be beyond the criticism of the unbelieving world.

The corporate testimony of the church is in view.

All believers are called on to live out the salvation God has worked in them—to progress in their spiritual maturity.

The people were to live so that those outside of Christ could not rightfully point an accusing finger at them.

A Christian walking in fellowship with God is in a good spiritual state to assure any who will hear that the Word of God which he is offering will satisfy the hungry heart.

Innocent

Not only are believers to be blameless but we are also to work at being innocent or harmless (akeraioi PWS: 1870):

unmixed and unadulterated. It is the idea of flour or grain passing through a sieve to separate the pure from the impure.

It means that our thoughts and lives...

• are not to be polluted by watching, reading, and listening to worldly and sexual attractions.

• are not to be given over to worldly and sexual attractions.

Our thoughts and lives are to be pure, clean, uncontaminated, and unpolluted.

This Greek word is only used 3 times in the NT.

In our text in Philippians 2:15

and then we see Jesus use the word when He told the 12 to be “innocent” as doves (Matthew 10:16).

Romans 16:19 (NASB) For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

The Christian life should be of such purity that none can find anything in it with which to find fault;

and it must be such that it can be offered like an unblemished sacrifice to God.

It is often said in courts of law that the proceedings must not only be just but must be SEEN to be just.

The Christian must not only BE pure, but the purity of his or her life must be SEEN by all and her or his motives must be unmixed.

Christian purity must emanate from a complete sincerity of thought and character,

blameless in the sight of the world,

sincere within itself,

and fit to stand the scrutiny of God.

The Christian offers and demonstrates straightness in a twisted world and light in a dark world.

Their purity of life and character make them stand out as lights in the darkness in a world which is crooked, that is, dishonest and perverse [crooked; perverted; misled], even to the point of becoming “depraved” or “morally perverted”.

Above Reproach

Finally, we are called to live above reproach.

Mark Twain once wrote, "Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example."

What about the light of an impossible example?

I'm not a God-man. Neither are you.

Only Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, could embody this kind of supernatural humility and miraculous obedience!

But Jesus is calling us to live a life that is above reproach, without rebuke.

Believers are to work at being "without rebuke" (amōma PWS: 4389): without blemish, spot, or defect.

This is a word that is taken from the Old Testament sacrifices made to God.

The idea is that the believer is to live and walk upon earth under the eyes and scrutiny of God. He is to walk without any blemish, spot, or defect.

But We Live in a Crooked and Perverse World

However, note a fact: the believer lives in a crooked and perverse generation.

The world is wicked and evil, twisted and perverted; therefore, the believer has a difficult path to walk.

But walk he must, for he is to be the light of the world.

He is to shine as a light in the world.

He is to reflect the purity and holiness of God Himself.

Because of what the Lord is calling to be and to do, we need His help!

Would you come forward and let’s pray together here at the front?

To recommit ourselves to shining the Light of God by being blameless, innocent of sin and above reproach?

If you have prayed to accept Jesus and shine your light, please contact me.