Sunday 07/15/18
Series: For edification
Message – The Light of TRUE Grace
Podcast: Download (187.3MB)
As I’ve gone over our progress through this chapter I…skipped something.
Eph 5:2, “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”
Paul does not explain what sacrifice – but in some ways ALL are included – though esp. those of the day of atonement which were a foreshadow of Christ on the cross including:
- Burnt sacrifice
- Sin offering
So here Paul is saying:
- Walk in the kind of love that offers itself freely, willingly, to the freedom of your neighbor and the glory of God and hold NOTHING back!
That is when we are told and warned:
- Not to partner with those who are darkness and walk in darkness.
- Not to allow our hearts to be lulled into the false security of deception that we can partner with the world in their darkness in this life and yet remain in the light.
- We ARE light in the Lord – walk that way – and bear the fruit of it which is ALL expressions of GOODNESS, RIGHTEOUSNESS & TRUTH which results in proving that what is well-pleasing to the Lord IS your character!
In fact the Wuest Translation says it this way: Stop therefore becoming joint-participants with them; for you were at one time darkness, but now light in the Lord. As children of light be habitually conducting yourselves; for the fruit of this light is in the sphere of every beneficence and righteousness and truth, putting to the test and then approving what is well-pleasing to the Lord.
Now we pick up in…Verse 11
“(11) Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead, expose them.”
This is the kind of actions which comes from the former command to “BE ANGRY AND SIN NOT” – Expose evil but do not participate in it, hang around it or be entertained by it!
Why,
“(12) because it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. (13) Everything exposed by the light is made clear, (14) for what makes everything clear is light.“
A few years ago I was in several “conversations” to put it politely – in reality it was a beat-up session with two “brothers” in the Lord – a “pastor” and one of his dedicated sheep – who acted more like his German shepherd protector.
One of these, was particularly heated since I mentioned the need for Christians to separate themselves from the world in terms of who we fellowship with. You would think I called God a very, very wicked and wretched name! While I no longer remember the particulars of that specific conversation, I DO remember that they believed Christ encouraged such worldly associations and that Christians cannot separate themselves from the world and still love them. In fact they were of the opinion that one should openly welcome them into their assemblies.
These verses make a clear case for my words of exhortation to them. While these men were not advocating sinning WITH them as Paul is here addressing – they most CERTAINLY were NOT for exposing their darkness AS darkness.
However, if you are walking in the Light and walking as a child of light – you WILL expose them. There can be NO other way of it and that is what the TRUE grace of God does.
Titus 2:11-15, “(11) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, (12) teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, (13) looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (14) who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. (15) Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.”
If we understood what grace is, we’d naturally understand that there are different expressions of grace. Grace, as we have taught here for years, is His influence over our hearts. In this case, it is His influence which brings salvation. So this grace is for two people groups:
- The unsaved – to influence them towards acknowledging their sin, their lost condition, their helplessness to deliver themselves and their total abandonment in faith to Jesus and His finished work of salvation.
- The saved – to influence them towards holy living, turning their attention away from worldly lusts and towards God, to acknowledge their weakness and inability to walk holy on their own and their total abandonment in faith to Jesus and His finished work of salvation to finish in them the saving work He has begun.
NOTICE that grace TEACHES US!
NOTICE that grace brings up our sin.
NOTICE grace commands us to depart from sin!
NOTICE that grace leads us towards holiness.
We as Christians are to be vessels of His grace, bringing the light of His glorious influence into every environment we enter – infusing it with the life and light of God.
Like Paul said to the Corinthians, “We are a fragrance of Christ to everyone. To the one who is perishing in sin it is perceived as a stench of death (of their own) and to the one who is being saved it is a pleasing aroma of life. The world will hate you BECAUSE it hated (and hates) Him.”
Let’s be real clear here – the world HATES the light and therefore it does and SHOULD hate you too! We are vessels of God’s light by grace. People, like the men I was talking to, live under the delusion that you can love Christ, live in the light, share the grace of God and STILL not offend the world, but in fact, befriend them and strike up long lasting relationships with them WITHIN the local assembly!
One of their favorite verses is “God so loved the World that He gave His Only begotten Son.” SEE! (they say) God so loved the world that He sent Jesus into it to BE WITH them – to love on them and bring them to the love of God not by condemning them, but by loving on them.
Well this is both true and a deception.
Jesus DID come into the world to reveal the love of God and redeem man TO HIM – and not to condemn them.
He did NOT however, come into the world to befriend sinners, make friendships with those who continue unrepentant in their darkness and hate the light. ALL OF WHICH would be made clear if they’d read the WHOLE passage they seem to like to partially quote.
Turn to John 3:16-21,
“(16) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (17) For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (18) “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) 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.”
These words from JESUS’ OWN MOUTH make it clear that if you live as you should, your very life will repel those in darkness. The grace of God always does, because grace teaches abandonment of sin, acknowledgement of weakness and trust in some power other than our own.
Presumably, Jesus walked in the light – so what do you believe the result was?
Jesus later told His disciples in John 15:18-27, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (20) Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. (21) But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. (22) If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. (23) He who hates Me hates My Father also. (24) If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. (25) But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’ (26) “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. (27) And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
But notice what this warning about the world’s hatred followed? Just before telling them the world would hate them, He had just told them to go and bear fruit! THIS FRUIT is the same we are talking about in this passage in Eph. 5 – and it results in the hatred of the world!
The argument of modern Christians is that you cannot win the world if it hates you and it hates you if you come against sin. It makes them feel condemned. You can only win people to Jesus with love.
Such statements come from being nearly illiterate in the commands of Christ and the true teachings of the New Testament. They confuse love with acceptance and tolerance, they confuse judging the world as being in sin and warning them of the dangers of continuing in that lifestyle with being in themselves judgmental and condemning. As a result, churches for a few decades have been growing in numbers and away from Christ! Grace – TRUE grace does not avoid the topic of sin, but instead capitalizes on it – points it out – EXPOSES it and encourages reform through trust.
The world no longer fears the church and it’s holiness, because it is largely NOT a place of light, because it does not understand TRUE grace and what it teaches. In fact, the world largely disregards the church and secretly mocks it to their face and they do not even perceive it.
I then offered two examples, the first involved a graphic which I will not show here but is described in the audio of the service. The other was as follows:
Hillsong’s New York Campus church since 2015 is attempting to become ‘gay welcoming’ without compromising their convictions“
An article by the “Religious News Service” stated, “Carl Lentz is the charismatic leader at the helm of Hillsong Church’s New York City campus. While his church holds to a traditional view of sexuality that does not affirm “gay lifestyles” and believes marriage can only be between a man and woman, the church is managing to draw an “increasing number” of LGBT people to their services. Hillsong’s Senior Pastor, Brian Houston, has said that his church is “gay welcoming” even though they are not gay affirming.”
Let me suggest to you that you cannot be “friends” with the world!
In Luke 6:26, Jesus speaks these strong words JUST before He tells them to love those in the world who hate them, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
Let’s be frank:
The world talks real friendly about Jesus, but if you pay attention it is not the REAL Jesus they’re referring to. It is a Neo-Christ they are re-creating in their own image. One that is accepting of sin, tolerant of moral differences and Who actually celebrates ungodliness… all under the deception of “human defined loved”.
People have said things like, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” or “If it weren’t for Christians, I’d be a Christian” (by the way there is NO clear proof that Gandhi ever said those words) but if he did do you know what Jesus would say to him? He’d call him a liar… ! In fact, He already did!
He said, “You cannot love Me without loving My Own…PERIOD!!!!”
Paul continues and says,
“Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and the Messiah will shine on you. (15) Pay careful attention, then, to walk the right way with diligence–not as unwise people but as wise– (16) making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”
Now there is an almost identical passage in Romans 13, that I’d like us to look at, but we will have to go there next week.
This service had content that is NOT written out here, so I would encourage you to listen to it WHILE you read…Blessings!
I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
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Blessings!
