In his sermon 'Walk as Children of Light,' Jason Dohm examines Ephesians 5:8-14, emphasizing the transformative journey from darkness to light for believers. Dohm discusses the metaphorical language used by Paul to illustrate the change in identity from being part of darkness to living as light in the Lord. The sermon highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in cultivating patterns of life that align with goodness, righteousness, and truth. Dohm warns against being deceived by empty words and stresses the importance of exposing works of darkness while maintaining a heart captured by the love of Jesus. The message encourages believers to live out their new identity by embracing the fruit of the Spirit and being mindful of what pleases the Lord, ultimately aiming to reflect the light of Christ in their lives.

For context, because we're picking up right in the middle of a phrase, for context, I just want to start in the beginning of chapter 5. Our sermon text is 8 through 14, but by starting at the beginning of 5, we have it in its context. Starting in chapter 5 verse 1, therefore be imitators of God as dear children 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. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as is fitting for saints. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor coarse jesting which are not fitting but rather giving of thanks.

For this you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience therefore do not be partakers with them and now our text for you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness righteousness and truth finding out what is acceptable to the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.

Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light. Amen. Please be seated. The title of the sermon this morning is Walk as Children of Light. It's a phrase right out of the text.

It's the main thrust of the text. Paul's central exhortation of the text is that believers would walk. They would cultivate certain patterns of life. These are patterns consistent with light. We'll be talking about what that means.

Okay, where are we in the flow of Ephesians? Well the word fitting has just been used twice. Once in verse 3 as is fitting for saints. In other words, it's fitting for saints to have a life together that is so far from any kind of sexual immorality or uncleanness that it's not even named among them. That's what's fitting.

To have this be so foreign to our life together that no one would even whisper that it's among us. And then again in verse 4, Paul says, which are not fitting. He's been talking about foolishness, foolish talking, and coarse jesting. He says these things are not fitting for saints. So he's been talking about what isn't appropriate among the people of God, and what is completely appropriate among the people of God.

And then He warns us against deceivers and their particular deceptions. Look at verse 6, chapter 5 verse 6 is going to lead us right into our text. Paul says, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." So he's issuing a stern warning against those people who would take up the name of Christ on their lips and make a profession of trusting in him, but there's never any transformation in their lives. Their lives are still marked by patterns of disobedience. They are sons of disobedience.

So Paul says that won't save anyone. These false professions won't save anyone. The wrath of God comes upon sons of disobedience. The pattern of life tells the story of whether there has really been a transformation in the heart or whether it's all just talk. And then last week's text ended with verse 7.

Therefore do not be partakers with them. Don't live like the sons of disobedience live. Now Paul returns to a theme that he has already begun, which is all that belongs to your old life. What are the things that belong to your old life? What are the things that are consistent with the old man, when a believer can look back in time and say, these are the things that are part of my old life, and then the exhortation is going to be from the Apostle Paul, clean break, there must be a clean break from these patterns of the old life.

Patterns of the old life. So as we come to our text, let's ask the Lord to help us. God, we thank You for light. Thank You that You've not left the world in darkness with no hope, but that You have sent the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come and shed light. Give us light.

Shed light. Give us light. Pray that you would help every believer in the room to walk as a child of light. Marked by the things that light is in the world. I pray that you would use your word to move us.

I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. As usual we'll be subdividing the text. Let's begin just with looking at verse 8. Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Ephesians chapter 5.

Follow along as I reread verse 8. The Apostle Paul writes, for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light." In this verse, Paul speaks of living out of the new identity. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in blanks, identity fills in the blank.

Living out of the new identity, I've been saying repeatedly that a theme in Ephesians is this, become what you are. It's not a bad summary of a lot of repeated statements in Ephesians. Become what you are. And it's a useful phrase, but it could easily be misunderstood as saying that we aren't quite yet this new identity. Become what you are because you're almost there.

Push a little harder to get there. It doesn't mean that at all. And so maybe a better and a more precise way of saying it is live out of your new identity believer. You are that. You are that.

You don't have to push yourself across the finish line because these are things secured for the believer by Jesus and there's nothing lacking or defective in his person or in his work. He is complete. His work is complete and if he has secured it for you and brought you to faith in himself then you are that. You are that. He begins the good work and he brings it to completion in you.

Listen to 2 Corinthians 5.17. Paul writes to the Corinthians, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Now either that is true or it isn't true. Either you have a new identity or you are almost there and you need to strive to get there.

Paul says you are there if you believe in Jesus Christ. Then you are in Christ. You have become a new creation and all things have become new. But that does not mean That heaven on earth awaits and that it will be easy for the believer to cultivate a life which is consistent with this new identity. There are remaining corruptions and there are many enemies in this world at war against you creating the new patterns of life that are consistent.

So heaven is heaven, and we'll be free from all the snares and the weights when we get to heaven but not before then. And the exhortation implied in that is that there is work to be done by the believer, not to achieve the identity but to live consistent with the identity. Those are very different things. So Paul exhorts believers to be mindful of this and to proactively give attention to the putting off the old man and to putting on the new man. To walk as children of light.

To create, cultivate new patterns of life that are consistent with what Christ has made you by the shedding of his blood. Now what is the nature of this new identity? A believer was darkness, but is now light. This is figurative language, Not literally darkness and light, but figuratively darkness and light. So what do the figures represent?

Well, this is very familiar New Testament language, used especially by the Lord Jesus and John. We just went through John. How many times do we hit light and darkness? Jesus uses this figurative language a lot. So it's well defined.

All that to say it's used a lot in the New Testament, so it's well defined. Light is representative, figurative, for truth and all that is good, or righteousness. Truth and all that is good. So darkness is the opposite of that. It is falsehood, not truth, but falsehood.

And all that is evil. Not all that is good, but all that is the opposite of good. All that is evil or wickedness. Now, don't change this in your mind. It's very easy to change this in your mind to this.

You were in darkness, But now you are in light. That's true, I'm not arguing against that as a proposition. I'm arguing against that's what Paul said, because that's not what he said. Paul goes way beyond that to say, you were darkness. Not you were in darkness, but you were darkness.

That's different. And now you are light. I don't need to go outside of Ephesians, I certainly could go outside of Ephesians because the testimony of the New Testament is uniform, it's consistent in this respect. But I'll stay in Ephesians to describe the nature of the position of the unbeliever. So turn back to Ephesians 2.

Paul starts Ephesians 2 with the description of the unbeliever. And he's writing to these Ephesians who were unbelievers but have now become believers. He's saying, remember this is what you were. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, you had patterns of life, according to the course of this world.

According to the Prince of the power of the air. The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others." It's going to be hard to find a better description of the condition of being darkness. Not just in darkness, yes in darkness, but more than that. Being darkness.

It is to be dead in sins and trespasses. It is to walk according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the Power of the Air, that this is the devil. It is to be a son of disobedience. It is to conduct yourself in the lusts of your flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Slavery to the flesh.

Look at chapter 4. He dives back in in chapter 4, Paul does and gives us another description of this condition of darkness, this condition of the unbeliever. Chapter 4 verses 17 through 19, this I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, we're even using the same terms here, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. This is being darkness, not just being in darkness, yes they were, but being darkness, being by nature children of wrath, Not just doing what was wrong, but being in the core what is wrong. In other words, not simply a victim of darkness, but you would create the darkness around you.

If you weren't in a culture of darkness, you would create the culture of darkness because of the things that you love and don't love. This is the condition of unbelief. What's the key phrase here in Ephesians 5 verse 8? 100% the key phrase is, in the Lord. For you once were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

You are darkness, you are darkness until you are in the Lord. But once you are in the Lord, Jesus is the light of the world, then you become light in the Lord. There is no light without Him. There is no salvation without Him. There is no living in truth and living in all goodness and righteousness without Him.

It all depends on him and the work of the cross. No Jesus and the work of the cross, no light. You are darkness. In the Lord is the key phrase. Finally in this verse, Paul exhorts these Ephesian believers on the basis of this earth-shaking fact.

In other words, you were darkness, but he's transformed you into the polar opposite of that, and now you are light. Therefore, Paul exhorts you based on that. Walk as children of light. Walk out of the new identity. Create patterns of life, cultivate patterns of life that are consistent with the new identity.

Out of the new identity. You have the power to do it now. You didn't have the power to cultivate patterns of life consistent with light when you were darkness. No one would argue that. Jesus Christ has bought for you a completely new identity.

You are now in Christ, a believer, therefore cultivate patterns out of that identity. Draw out patterns of life out of that new identity of light. Let's move to verses 9 and 10. Ephesians 5, follow along as I reread 9 and 10. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

In these two verses, Paul speaks of having the fruit of the Spirit, which pleases the Lord, or is acceptable to the Lord. Paul is simply developing his theme. What does it mean to walk as a child of light? These two verses answer that question. This is what it looks like to walk as a child of light, which is what He is exhorting us to.

It means to walk in the Spirit, to cultivate a life of being led by the Spirit, to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in his mission to produce fruit in your life, to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer, and one of his missions in indwelling, living inside the believer, is to produce fruit in your life that makes you look more and more and more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul very recently introduced this thought. Look back at Ephesians 4 verse 30. Here's what Paul said.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." He tells the believer not to grieve the Holy Spirit. In the logic, in the flow of chapter 4, the logic was this. If you resist putting off the old man, and you resist the putting on of the new man, then the Holy Spirit indwelling you is offended and grieved. Why is the Holy Spirit offended and grieved if you won't put off the old man or put on the new man? Because it is His indwelling work to help the believer do those very things.

He's working in you to give you power to put off the old man and power to put on the new. And if the believer stubbornly digs in, I won't, then he is offended and he is grieved. The Holy Spirit indwells believers and one of the things he does is to produce fruit in my life. What kind of fruit? Things consistent with all goodness and righteousness and truth.

That's exactly what Paul says in verse 9. The Holy Spirit produces things in my life consistent with all goodness and righteousness and truth. Light! That's just how we define light. He's explaining what it means to be a child of light, to cultivate patterns in your life which are consistent with light.

All goodness, righteousness and truth. When the believer embraces the work of the Holy Spirit in his or her life, he or she experiences an expansion of light in the patterns of his or her life. It is walking as a child of light. There's more goodness over time. There's more righteousness over time.

This is progressive. It doesn't happen all in one day, it happens over time. The spirit working and working and working, producing little by little change, fruit, more goodness, more righteousness, more truth. If we had to define this in one word, what would it be? It might be growth.

Growing. Then Paul says this, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. The lexicon, when we look at that Greek word translated acceptable here, the lexicon says well pleasing or acceptable. Translating it either of those ways would be perfectly fine. What is acceptable to the Lord or what is well pleasing to the Lord.

The point is that the believer has a sense of being the object of Jesus' love, of being blood-bought because of love. And so he or she now wants to live to please that great loving Savior. That has become his or her great filter. Will this please the Lord Jesus? We won't save all the application for the end.

We should just ask right now. Does that describe you? Would you say that's your great filter when you're considering the options before you? What you'll do with your thoughts, what you'll do with your words, what you'll do with the hours of the day. Will this please the Lord?

Is that your great filter? But Paul is setting before us a believer whose heart has been captured by the great love of Jesus for him or her. And knowing that the blood flowed from his veins because of love for him or her. And so now Life becomes a mission to please this Savior. That's what's being set before us.

That's the vision set before us. Is it our duty to obey? Yes, it's our duty to obey. Is that what Paul is setting before us? Not really.

But Paul is setting before us a heart that has been Captured by the love of Jesus Christ. Proven by his death on the cross. And now that desires to have a life that is formed and fashioned around pleasing him. Whatever will please Him is good. Whatever will please Him is what I desire to pursue because of His great love for me.

Is that your great filter? Will this please the Lord? It makes me ashamed for when I think, do I have to? Those are such different questions. Do I have to?

Yes. Okay. Will this please my Savior? Verses 11 and 12. Follow along as I reread them.

"...and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret." In these two verses, Paul speaks of having no fellowship with works of darkness, rather exposing them. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, exposing fills in the blank. Having no fellowship with the works of darkness, rather exposing them. This, I believe, is the other side of the coin. On one side of the coin, we have finding out what is well pleasing to the Lord, and when we turn the coin over, we have having no fellowship with the works of darkness.

You could go without saying that this includes not doing works of darkness, But surely having no fellowship with works of darkness goes beyond simply not doing them myself. Here's what Matthew Henry says. A number of the commentators say similar things. Matthew Henry ends up being the most quotable. He usually wins that battle.

Matthew Henry says, There are many ways of our being accessory to the sins of others by commendation, counsel, consent, or concealment. He says you can have fellowship with the sins of others. You didn't actually do the sin, but you speak well of the sin, or you consent to the sin, or you conceal the sin. And so you have fellowship in that way, even though you didn't do the sin. I didn't rob the bank.

I just drove the getaway car. I didn't rob the bank, but I knew about all the plans to rob the bank. I said nothing. I didn't rob the bank, but I knew exactly who robbed the bank and how, and I never reported it. These are ways that you can be accessory and accessory.

You can actually be charged for that in a court of law. If you didn't rob the bank, but you drove the car, accessory to the crime is a crime. These are ways in which you can have fellowship with works of darkness even though you didn't do the deed yourself. Paul calls the works of darkness unfruitful. Listen to what he says in Romans chapter 6 verse 21.

Romans 6 verse 21. He says, What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed." So he's writing to the Romans, Roman believers, and he's pointing back to their personal histories about things that they reflect on that they did and that they're now ashamed of, and he's saying, what fruit did you get from that? What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death, he says. These are unfruitful works of darkness.

And they're taking you somewhere. Where are they taking you? Death. Death. And the contrast of having fellowship with works of darkness, either doing the deed or being accessory to the deed is the opposite, is rather exposing them.

Friends this has to be said, Christians must not be afraid to call sin sin. Paul actually says it's stronger than that. Christians must be committed to calling sin sin. Committed to exposing sin, sin, committed to exposing sin. Let's hear from Jesus.

Turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Famous, famous words, but worth putting our eyes on. Matthew chapter 5 verses 13 through 16, Jesus says this, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Salt is meant to permeate throughout, it's meant to work its way through and flavor everything. Light is meant to shine and drive out darkness so that people can see as it really is.

But when salt loses its flavor, it's not worth anything. When light is under a basket, it doesn't perform its function. Christians have to call sin sin, otherwise the salt has lost its flavor. Christians have to be committed to exposing These deeds of darkness or else the light is under a basket. It's not serving its function.

I think Martin Lloyd-Jones makes a point well worth considering here. Listen to what Martin Lloyd-Jones says. Using Jesus as the perfect example of how to do this. What does it look like to be salt? And what is the result?

What does it look like to be light? And what is the result? Where do you go to find the perfect picture of that? You go to Jesus. So he's picking up on that.

Louis Jones says this, why did publicans and sinners draw near to the Lord Jesus Christ? He was absolute purity and holiness, Yet he acted like a magnet on them and they drew near unto him. The Pharisees hated them, denounced them, and kept apart from them. But when publicans and harlots saw the incarnate God walking before them, they drew near unto Him." Oh, there is something attractive about holiness. It makes us feel very unworthy and unclean when we look at it.

It makes us see the things we are doing as negative denunciation never does or ever can. It shows us our need and at the same time it gives us a glimpse of something that is so different from our past, so much better, so much more wonderful than anything we know. Holiness ought to be attractive. It ought to be loving. It ought to be enticing.

It ought to be charming. It ought to draw people. That's what Lloyd-Jones says. So don't read, expose the works of darkness, and think, screaming condemnation. That's not one for one.

Exposing work for darkness equals, means, screaming condemnation. No. No. I want to encourage you to think in terms of punctuation. It's a comma, not a period.

We call sin, sin, but we don't put the period there. We put a comma there. We say, these things are not right. These things dishonor our Creator. These things lead to destruction.

Amen to all that. Christians ought to say that. If you can't say that, you're not salt. You've lost your flavor. If you can't say that, you are not light, you will not drive out darkness.

But you don't end there, it's comma. But Jesus came to die for sinners. Jesus came to make you right before God even though all that's true of you Jesus came to set these things right. Run to Him! That's the difference between the Pharisees who denounced and hated and came apart from the harlots and the tax collectors and Jesus who drew them like magnets, even though he was perfectly holy.

And you know Jesus didn't ever pull punches. He never shrank back from saying the truth. And he always lived perfectly righteously, but why did they want to be near him? Now think of how this relates to what is happening today. June was Pride Month.

Here's something I didn't know. I looked up this morning on Google, when is Pride Month? Because I wasn't sure whether we were in it or had just been out of it. And it said LGBTQ plus history month is October. And then it told me when Pride Month was.

So I guess we're giving two months this year to it. One to be proud of it and the other to talk about the contributions of it. A month to celebrate things which to this point in our history have been done in secret because it's shameful even to speak of them. Now it is demanded that we not just accept them but that we celebrate them. Not one word, Christians, Not one word out of you.

We'll cancel you. Christians can't take that deal. Why not? Because we're salt. We're to work throughout and give the flavor of Christ.

Because we're light. We're to stand against these things that are shameful. They ought to be done in secret because they're shameful. It's shameful even to speak of the things that are done in secret. And the world is saying, not one word out of you Christians, no deal.

And at the same time, we don't end the sentence there. We put a comma. So Pride Month is infuriating. We ought to be infuriated by it. But it should also break our hearts.

These are people with eternal souls, and they're being destroyed by this. It shouldn't be celebrated, it should be wept over. People's lives are being destroyed by this. We have the remedy. Verses 13 and 14.

Back to our text. Ephesians 5, 13 and 14. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

In these two verses, Paul gives us the great hope of exposing darkness. Life out of death. You're filling in blanks on the handout. Life fills in the blank. This is the great hope of exposing the darkness.

That God will be pleased to bring life out of death. When believers speak words of goodness and righteousness and truth and cultivate patterns of life of goodness and righteousness and truth, darkness is exposed for what it is. A pride month says all that is light, all that is good and righteousness. But when the people of God arise to speak truth and live truth and live goodness and righteousness then darkness is exposed for what it really is. Darkness is falsehood.

Works of darkness depend on deceit, seeming like they are one thing when they are actually, really, truly something completely different. Enter believers With words and lives of goodness and righteousness and truth, the fruit of the Spirit, shining light. Giving people the hope of being able to see these works of darkness for what they are. They put the works of darkness on display for what they really are, a broad road that leads to destruction. And they offer the antidote to the poison.

A few comments on verse 14. Let me read it again. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. You cannot find that as a direct quote from the Old Testament. You can cobble it together from some verses in definitely in Isaiah, maybe Malachi, by bringing a phrase from here with a phrase from there.

It's definitely Old Testament truth. You can find each one of these phrases in the Old Testament just not together. So it's not a direct Old Testament quotation. So let me give you two texts which teach and explain this. I think the first is Matthew chapter 4 verses 15 and 16.

In Matthew chapter 4, 15 and 16, Matthew, our Gospel writer, is actually quoting Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 42. So you're getting Isaiah here in the Gospel of Matthew 4, verses 15 and 16. The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles." This is about Galilee where Jesus grew up. Verse 16, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And upon those who sat in the region in shadow of death, light has dawned.

Jesus came to give light to all who are perishing in darkness and who are darkness. Jesus came to give light to all who are perishing in darkness and who are darkness. Jesus came to give light to them. John chapter 5 verses 21 and then 25 and 26. Calvin actually says he thinks this is the closest to what is being quoted in 5 is what Jesus says himself in John chapter 5.

I'm not sure about that, but it's at least a helpful text that helps us unfold it. Helps us unfold it. John chapter 5 verse 21 Jesus says, For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. Skipping down to verse 25 and verse 26. Jesus says, most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. In what way Do the dead hear the voice of the Son of God, and the dead hear and live? Well, now Jesus does direct things. He can sway the heart, but he sends preachers, he sends gospel sharers to speak these good news and they hear the voice of the Son of God and then they live. It's like thinking of Lazarus.

Jesus called forth this corpse. Lazarus come forth and he came forth. Only a fool would call a corpse to come forth. Or, unless you had resurrection power, and Jesus has resurrection power. And the dead hear His voice, and they live.

Praise God for that. Jesus is light, and Jesus is life. He has resurrection power. The dead hear His voice and live. Let me give you three applications.

Number one, are you a believer? Have you trusted with all your heart in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you forsaken every other hope? Telling an unbeliever to walk as a child of light skips the most important essential step. There's no point in telling an unbeliever to walk as a child of light.

They have no resources out of which to do that. They have no power to do that. They are darkness. These are freaks of the Spirit. Number two, do you have the sense of being the great object of Jesus' love, of being the apple of His eye.

So that He would leave the glories that were fully His in heaven to live and die for you. So that the blood which saved you is so precious that all you want to do is to live well pleasing in His sight. This is your great filter to all the questions of life. Will this please the Lord? This is what chapters 1 through 3 were all about.

Hopefully you haven't forgotten chapters 1 through 3 and the piling up of the riches already. We're in chapter 5. Well In chapter 5, Paul hasn't just dumped isolated obligation on us, go do better, that's so far from what we have here. This is to see the riches that we have in Christ, purchased for us by Christ. And so to live well pleasing to Him.

Number three, Are you afraid to let your light shine? It's getting a little scarier to be salt. It's getting a little scarier to be light. In one sense that's an indication that you understand what the stakes are. Listen to John 3.

John 3 16 through 20 but I'm going to break off after 16 and 17 and make some comments. John 3 16 and 17 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." So far so good. Everyone loves these verses. They're the most quotable and quoted verses in the Bible.

Now verses 18-20. He who believes in Jesus 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. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. Being salt comes with risk.

Being light comes with risk. You will not be universally received, accepted, loved by being salt and light. You'll only be faithful to your Savior. That's quite an only. You'll only Be faithful to your Savior.

Well pleasing to your Savior. Oh friends, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to expose the darkness. Okay? The cost is rising.

I understand that. He will never leave us or forsake us. He never will. We'll never be sorry for obeying the Lord. Let's pray.

God, help us to walk as children of light. Help us to love light. To love truth. To want every corner of falsehood driven out of our hearts. To love goodness and righteousness.

To want to be filled to overflowing with the goodness and righteousness that we see so abundantly in the life of our Lord Jesus. Thank you for putting your spirit within us to produce that fruit. And I pray that we would not grieve him, but that we would cooperate with his every effort to bring these good things into our lives. May it be so in Jesus' name, Amen. In this name, amen.