Good morning to everyone. Uh welcome to Free Grace Baptist Church. Uh any visitors with us this morning? It's good to have you with us. Uh just a a few announcements before we begin worship this morning. Um this evening will be the Lord's supper at uh at 5:00 p.m. uh for uh during our evening worship. Uh Wednesday night Bible study this week at 7:30 in the fellowship hall. Uh we have the uh the annual church work day coming up this month. So on Saturday, May 24th, that will be the uh the annual church workday. More more information to follow and I imagine an email will be uh coming out as well. just to to mark that on your calendar. Saturday, May 24th, church work day. Um there's a there's a poster at the back on the on the bulletin board there. This Friday, uh we have some people from uh our church singing in the choir uh at the Heritage Reform Church Friday at 7:30 p.m. Uh the theme, as you'll see there, is from earthly trials to heavenly glory. So, uh just to to be aware of that if you're able to attend that, um it's always nice to take in those uh those choir uh performances. So, uh, last last, uh, announcement. We have Dan Moley preaching for us this morning. Uh, he's been with us, uh, just since, uh, before the conference started last week. Uh, with us, I mean, Free Grace Baptist Church. Um, he's, uh, he'll be preaching this morning. Uh, Pastor Butler will be preaching in the evening. For those who don't know, Dan, uh, he's one of the the pillars at the church in Dryen, Ontario. Uh, student at IRBs as well. And, uh, he'll be preaching for us this morning. Well, let's uh let's move to our Bibles for a call to worship. If you'll turn with me to Psalm 85, Psalm 85, we're going to read beginning at verse 8. Psalm 85, beginning at verse 8. This is the word of God. I will hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people and to his saints. But let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and shall make his footsteps our pathway. Amen. Well, let's stand and sing together as a church. If you'll turn with me to Psalm 99A. Let's stand and sing 99A together. [Music] The Lord God reigns on high. Let all the people pray. He sits and thrown on him. and all worship in Zion. God is great for all the world and throne. All praise is great and awome the holy one. The mighty king is just for equity in Jacob of justice judging rightously. Praise all the Lord our God and worship him alone. Oh come and that is good to the holy one. For Moses was his priest and there was a savior among them also Samuel his name. They called upon the Lord. from the cloud was heard. His testimony they oyed and kept his word. Oh Lord our sovereign God, you answered their Oh God, you were forgiving at their sult [Music] and worship God for he is Lord the holy one. [Music] Please be seated. Let's go to our great God in prayer. Let's pray. Our great God, we rejoice in the fact that we can gather together on this Lord's day that you've given us in your kindness that you've caused us to arise on a new day. Uh that we can behold with our eyes the the wonder of your creation uh that we can avail of the the many benefits that you pour out upon us daily. And we thank you specially for this day that you've given us one out of seven uh to rest to worship you uh to engage in uh the praises and the honorings of our great God, father, son, and holy spirit. And we pray unto that end that you would give us uh that measure of your holy spirit that we might honor you a right that we might hallow your name in this place and that we might worship you with great attent with great attentiveness that we might be reverent before you that we might bear a proper Christian humility and that we would approach you with great joy as the one who has created all things who does uphold all things by the word of his power and the one who has brought us forth by amazing and victory. torious grace to behold the riches and the excellencies of Jesus Christ our savior. We thank you for his perfect work. We know that salvation is not by the deeds of righteousness which we have done but much rather according to your mercy you saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And in all of this by virtue of the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ, his perfect life, his perfect death, and that victorious resurrection. And we rejoice that our savior having been raised the third day that he ascended to the right hand of the the majesty on high that he now ever lives to to judge his enemies to live and intercede for his people. We thank you that we have such a blessed advocate and we pray knowing that that you would forgive us of our sins. that we have that blessed advocate with the father who uh by his saving work provides the forgiveness of sins and that righteousness which avails with you. We rejoice in our savior. We pray that you would be with us in worship. Help us to worship you in spirit and in truth. We would also ask that you be with those who are struggling physically with disease, with illness, with injury. Do bless them Lord to heal them. uh knit together those wins uh wounds and and just cause them to know gains and streng strength and vigor and vitality. We pray in the midst of suffering in the midst of affliction that you would cause your saints to rejoice in you. The the judge of all the of all the earth who does right for his own glory and uh for the good and and for the right of his people. Do be with them and be with all who are struggling spiritually. Do lift them up, Lord God. uh uh do um do impress upon them the the glories of their God, the riches of their Christ, and the the glories of the gospel of saving grace. We do pray that you'd be with the persecuted church. Lord God, as we often hear of a the many oppositions and and persecutions that they endure at the hands of tyrants, at the hands of their countrymen, at their hands sometimes even at the hands of their own family. We do just pray, Lord God, that you'd strengthen those throughout the world that suffer for the cause of God and truth. Do strengthen them as they go about uh their work testifying to the the riches of of Christ. We do just pray that you'd strengthen them in the midst uh of hot adversity. We do just pray that you'd uh just strengthen them. And Lord God, that you would oppose those who oppose you. Uh we pray God that many who are presently your enemies would by your grace by the preaching of the gospel and the power of the spirit be brought forth to to be found among those whom they formerly persecuted uh uh being about the truth about their God and about the glories of Christ. And we do pray for those who would remain obstinate, for those who would remain in reprobate opposition to the living and true God. That you would take them out of the way, that you might that they might, Lord God, no longer bring violence upon your people and that you might uh judge them uh and cause them no longer to be uh actively persecuting the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do be with those who govern over us. We pray that those who govern over us would not do so in wickedness and uh in the propagation of evils, but much rather, Lord God, that you would cause those who rule to do so in righteousness and in uh proper uh proper equity and justice. And God, that those uh who would seek to consistently uphold evil in the land, that you would cast them down, that you would cause those wicked governors to stumble like drunken men, that they might no longer uh call virtue uh vice and vice vers. We do pray that you would continue with us then now in worship. We pray that you would be with our brother uh Dan Moley as he brings the word. Do strengthen him in this pulpit. Help him to know your presence to know your comfort. Uh help him to be leaning solely upon the triune God for uh for strength in this pulpit. And we pray that by that act of preaching uh your saints would be lifted up and strengthened edified uh through that act of worship. And Lord God, by your spirit and by your word, you would bring forth dead sinners to life in Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, let's stand and sing again as a church. This time, 429 in your hymbooks. 429. [Music] of every blessing to my heart to sing my praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some me by flinging tongs above. Praise the mountain upon it. God's unchanging love. Here I raise my heaven by thy help I found and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus taught me when a strange wandering from the pole of God to rescue me from [Music] danger is precious blood. Oh to grace how great a daily [Music] Ir my wondering heart to thee to wonder Lord I feel it to leave the I Here's my heart. Oh, take it and seal it. Seal it for thy courts [Music] above. Please be seated. You can turn in your Bibles with me for our New Testament scripture reading to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 3. We're going to read the section beginning at verse 21 and continuing to the end of the chapter. Luke 3 beginning at verse 21. Once again, the word of God. When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven which said, "You are my beloved son. In you I am well pleased." Now Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Mthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melki, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, the son of Matathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Naam, the son of Esleie, the son of Ni, the son of Math, the son of Matih, the son of Se, the son of Joseph, Joseph, the son of Judah, the son of Joannis, the son of Raa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shieliel, the son of Ner, the son of Mali, the son of Adi, the son of Kosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Heir, the son of Joseph, the son of Eleazar, the son of Joram, the son of Mthhat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonahan, the son of Elakim, the son of Malea, the son of Menan, the son of Matatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Oed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nan, the son of Aminad, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terara, the son of Nahor, the son of Sar, the son of Rayu, the son of Pelleg, the son of Abber, the son of Shayla, the son of Canaan, the son of Arfaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalel, the son of Canaan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Amen. Well, just two things. One, with regards to the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, I hope we can we can see here a connection to the original creation. The original creation, we have God uh in the beginning created the heavens and the earth and he spoke by the word of God and the spirit hovered over the waters. Here at, if we could say, the inauguration of the new creation, we have God the Father speaking from heaven to the Son, the Word, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. That's not just a happy coincidence, but it is a declaration. It's a proclamation that Jesus Christ is the inaugurator of the new creation, bringing forth sinners from the deadness of sin to everlasting life by virtue of the perfection of his work. And then on the heels of that, we get this genealogy. And it's not just a genealogy for genealogies sake. It's not just giving a a list of the descendancy for the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is rich with prophecy and promise to to only bring out a few names. The the the genealogy here is declaring that this Jesus Christ is the promised son of David. He is the promised son of that Davidic covenant who would inaugurate not a temporal kingdom but would inaugurate a kingdom that would be everlasting. He is the promised son of David and yet David's Lord who would come in the fullness of the time to redeem his people. He is the son of Abraham. He is the the seed of Abraham. That one who was promised to the patriarchs. That one who was promised to the faithful throughout the ages who would bring in everlasting salvation. Who would save all from uh from the from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Abraham looked upon the nations of the earth, if you will, and saw the the nations that the seed would the the promised seed would be declared to that many from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation would come forth to believe in the glorious Christ. And we have the son of Adam and the son of God. He is the promised second Adam who doesn't bear the curse of Adam, but comes to save those who are bound by that curse. He is the second or last Adam who comes as the obedient son. And I think if we look back at the at verse 22 where we see you are my beloved son in you I am well pleased. We are yes to see the everlasting son eternally begotten of the father. But we are also to see Christ as juxtaposed with the disobedient son Adam. He is the second Adam the beloved son. the one who is well pleasing to the father because he always does the will of the father. In the old covenant, Israel is called a disobedient son. Those corrupt sons and daughters who violate the covenant, yet Christ comes as the true Israel of God and he is the one who is obedient. And then the son of God, it's interesting language at verse 23. Now Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age being as was supposed the son of Joseph. They thought him to be the son of Joseph as it pertains to the flesh but rather he was the son of God. He while he might have been supposed to be just a man. He is nevertheless the eternally begotten son of the father who takes upon himself our humanity for our redemption and recovery. So it's much much more than a rehearsal of biological or legal descendancy. It is the declaration that this Christ baptized in the River Jordan is the one who was promised to come to save his people from their sins. What a glorious promise and what a glorious Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We rejoice in your goodness to us in disclosing our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the perfection of his work for guilty sinners. We pray that you would cause those who are yours in this place to rejoice in the Savior for sinners. And that Lord God for your glory and by your grace you would bring forth sinners in unbelief in this place this morning to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That you would do that act of amazing and victorious grace that those who entered in your enemies would leave your friends singing the praises of Christ our savior. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Our final hymn before the preaching of the word is 138, excuse me, B as in bravo. 138B as in Bravo. Let's stand and sing as a [Music] church. [Music] Heart your praise. I sing I worship in your holy place and praise you for your truth and grace. For truth and grace together shine in your most holy word. In your most holy word divine, I cry to you and you say your word of praise to courage. The kings of earth shall thank you Lord for they have heard your wondous word. May they shall come with songs of praise. For great and glorious are your great and glorious are your ways. Oh Lord in glory. You bring them all in heavenly might. the proud in pain your favor but you have mercy for the [Music] me. You will revive and strengthen me. You will revive and strengthen me. You will stretch forth your mighty arm to save me when my arm. The work you have for me be shall by your grace be fully done. Your mercy shall forever be. Oh Lord my maker think on me. Oh Lord my maker think on me. [Music] Please take up your copies of the written word of God and turn with me to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5. And as you're turning there, if I say 500 years ago, then many of you will draw to mind details about the pro uh Protestant Reformation, namely that those who were seeking to reform the church were protesting against the errors of Rome. And as such the consequences which they faced included being exiled, being imprisoned and being uh put to death. Perhaps you've read about the Tower of London where Protestants were being locked up to await their being put to death. And what was going on, what they were doing which incurred such hostility was their unwillingness to waver or to compromise on the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ which was an act of God's free grace. It was a time of much darkness, darkness of heresy and darkness of um immorality. And the motto of the reformation or the rally cry of the reformation was post tenibbrris lux which means after darkness light in the book of Ephesians uh it could be uh summarized in two sections. The first section being the first half chapters 1 to3 which would be on orthodoxy or right knowledge what you ought to believe. In the second half, namely chapters 4 to six, orthopraxi, right? Practice what you ought to do. And as the apostle Paul transitions from what you ought to believe to what you ought to do, he begins in chapter 4 by saying, "Walk worthy." And this theme of walking, this walk worthy is later picked up in chapter five. And in chapter 5 from verses 1 to 7 um it's on walk in love and then verses 8 to 14 are walk in light and then verses 15 to 21 are walk in wisdom. Now that middle section on verses 8 to 14 walk in light the last two verses of that section speak about how light prevails over darkness. And that will be our text this morning, specifically verses 13 and 14. But we'll read starting in verse one. So Ephesians chapter 5 verse one. Therefore, be imitators of God as de 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 gesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idoltor 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 the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. 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." Our great God, we thank you for your word and we thank you um for this day that you have given us life and breath. You have given us this Lord's day set apart um to commune with you, to worship you, and for the means of grace. And we pray that indeed Lord by your spirit you would illuminate your word. Make it effectual to the hearers for the edification of the saints, the advancement of your kingdom and the glory of your name. I pray Lord that the hearers of your word um would would see you high and lifted up and it would indeed um see your majesty, your glory and your worthiness. And I pray that you would bring us under your word in a posture of worship and a response of worship to you. Pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Now, as I said, our text is verses 13 to 14. And what's going on in this passage, what's going in our on in our text is that the light of Christ exposes darkness and calls sinners to life in Christ. So, as such, we'll examine the contrast, namely the the contextual contrast of spiritual darkness. We'll examine the components the components of light prevailing over darkness. And we'll examine the call. So first of all the contrast the light of Christ exposing darkness is set in the contextual contrast of spiritual darkness. Now we like to look at before and after pictures of a of a renovation project or a restoration that takes place if you renovate your house or restore an antique piece of furniture. When the finished product looks good, it's nice to look at the finished product and see how good it looks. But when you compare it next with a picture next to the conditioner, the state that was in before it was restored, then it makes the finished product look that much more stunning in comparison to the contrast of its condition prior. And that's what's going on in the context of our text here. The condition of Christians is described by way of contrast. Uh now you see back in in chapter 2 and verse one it says and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin walking according to the course of the world according to the prince of the power of the air. And it goes on in description in 5:8 saying for you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. And then in 5:11 it says, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness." So a contrast is being made here, a contextual contrast between light and darkness. So what is this darkness? What is the darkness which is speaking about? Darkness is being spiritually blind, dead, and undiscerning. Now we all know what it's like to be in darkness. Let's say you're in your house. the power goes out in the middle of the night for whatever reason. You have to get a get up and and across your house, but there's no power. There's no night lights. There's not even that illumination of the little digital clocks that give you a bit of a light. It's it's overcast outside, so there is absolutely no light in the house. How are you going to navigate your house? Are you going to sprint across your house? Well, not if you don't want to stub your toe. At least not again. So, you're going to walk very, very carefully. Why do you walk carefully? Well, because you can't see. Why can't you see? Because you don't have sight. Spiritual darkness is being blinded by ignorance and error. In Ephesians 4:8, it says, "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." Blindness, ignorance, and darkness. So spiritual darkness is heresy and immorality. Darkness is a state of sin, ignorance and unbelief. A spiritual blindness is being deprived of the light of Christ. And it is a state of misery, blinded by sin and unperceptive of divine judgment like one who is asleep. The state of darkness is spiritual death and misery. The course of this world is darkness. Fallen mankind lives in dark thoughts, dark deeds, and dark speech. And subsequently, the works of darkness, which uh our context or a previous context lists fornication, impurity, and covetousness, the works of darkness are indulging in the passions of the flesh. Now, this is something we don't typically use as language in our regular conversations. The passions of the flesh. What does that mean? Well, passions are the motion of the soul. It is a movement to or from what is perceived to be good or evil. Uh so an an illustration for the kids. Let's say you're about to go on a a large hike with your family. It's going to be all day. Um it's going to be a difficult hike. It's a hot day. The sun is out and you know that you're going to become dehydrated at some point. So you need to bring a nice refreshing beverage. So you open the fridge and you see there nice cold milk. So you grab the milk. You throw it in your backpack. You go on the hike. It's a hot day. It's a grueling hike. The sun's beating down. You're you're sweating. You've been sweating so much that your skin is now sticky. You've got uh you've got dry mouth. You uh your legs are getting sore. Your your lungs are heaving. And you're parched. And you think, I need to drink. You feel like if I don't have anything to drink, I'm going to die. And then you realize that you came prepared for this very moment. So you reach into your backpack, which the sun has been beaming down all day long, and you pull out the milk. Now, without going into too much detail, there is a movement which occurs in what you once perceived to be good to what you no longer perceive to be good. namely the current state of the milk after it's been out in the sun all day and you're parched and dehydrated and in need of uh of hydration. So a movement has occurred and the passions of the flesh the passions are a movement of the soul movement to or from what is perceived to be good or evil. And the works that are done according to the passions of the flesh are the responses of a darkened corrupt will choosing evil because it is perceived to be good. It is deemed to be good. The the will is deceived. Now in Dryen we have a lot of lakes and in those lakes are a lot of fish and it's quite common that we go fishing. And when you go fishing, well, you simply just take a hook, you tie it to a string, you throw that in the lake, you pull it out, and there's a fish on it. It doesn't quite work that way, does it? You have to put a bait on the hook. You have to you have to convince the fish that the hook is good for it. You have to convince the fish that it wants to take it. It wants to eat it. And when it comes to sin or the unfruitful works of darkness, Satan presents the bait and hides the hook. The bait looks good while the evil is hidden. And man's fallen will chooses evil because it is perceived to be good. The forces of darkness deceives and attracts the soul to sin. Man doesn't see the hook. We don't see the evil because well because of darkness, because of blindness. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, "Whose minds the God of this age has blinded." Furthermore, the world which loves darkness makes what is righteous to appear odd and what is wicked to appear right. That old treble hook is just a modern accessory and you're criticized if you don't wear it, let alone swallow it, just like everybody else. Now, Matthew Henry wrote that sinful works are works of darkness. They come from the darkness of ignorance. They seek the darkness of concealment and they lead to the darkness of hell. And hell is the place of merciless darkness, outer darkness, blackness of darkness forever. Separation from God and a deprivation of light. Now the contrast that's occurring here is between darkness and light. So before we change our focus to light, a quick distinction to be made between the light of nature and the light of faith. Now keep your finger here in Ephesians 5. It's the text we're working out of and we're going to return to it. But if you'll quickly turn to Romans chapter 1, specifically verse 18, Romans 1:18, we see here the light of nature or the light of reason. And we'll notice that by nature, truth about God is revealed. some truth about God is revealed, is understood, and is known, and as a result is suppressed. Pay attention. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth. Suppress the truth and unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest to them. For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, having understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead, so that they are without excuse. So there is truth about God that is revealed by way of nature. And this is um the light of nature. But God has given us these created things to point to God. Truth is revealed by God through nature. It is to point us to God in order to to love God. God has given us created things as signs. Signs which signify which point to God the creator to love God for the purpose of using them to enjoy God. But instead we use God to enjoy the created thing. Our idol manufacturing hearts make a created thing as the highest good or as the chief end. So the light of nature is insufficient to overcome darkness. So the light of faith. Now in that text, if you'll just look back a little bit before that in verses 16-1 17, we see here the distinction of the light of faith. Notice in 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For it is the righteousness of God, sorry. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. The will of God for our salvation is made known not by natural light but by supernatural light. So back to our text Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 13. It says that the effect of this light is that it exposes and makes manifest. Showing the error, evil and danger of sin shows the deception of the bait and the reality of the hook to awake by the light of Christ, repent of sin and darkness and embrace the gospel. So in other words, showing that the bait is deceptive, exposing the hook and unveiling the rescue. Our text in 13, it says, "All things are exposed when revealed by light." Or it might say, "All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light." Now, you can get curtains for your windows. Some of them are light filtering and some of them are light blocking. For those who work shift work and need to sleep uh during the day, you can get light blocking curtains for your windows. So that obviously it blocks the light and no light comes in. So I want you to do experiment with you. If you have these light blocking curtains, go home, shut the curtains, shut the door, turn off the lights in the middle of the day so that there's no light in the room. You could say that the space of that room has been overwhelmed by darkness. Now here's the test that I want you to do. Go up to those curtains and throw the curtains wide open. And here's the test. Check to see if darkness holds its ground and prevents the light from coming in. Or does light prevail and overcome darkness and darkness flees. We can do this test 10 times and find out of 10 times how many times darkness prevails, how many times light prevails. Well, you don't have to go home and do the test. I'm sure you could tell me right now that 10 out of 10 times light prevails and darkness flees. When light is absent, there is darkness. And when light is present, there is no competition. Darkness flees. Darkness is merely the absence of light. John Owen wrote, "Let the sun arise in the firmament, and there is no need of witness to prove and confirm unto a seeing man that it is day." Now scripture, the word of God or supernatural uh supernatural revelation is light and it shines with the majesty of its author. God addresses the church through scripture as the instrumental means of slaying and making alive. So that brings us to our next point then which is the light of Christ shines in darkness by his word and spirit. So secondly we have the components the components of light that prevails over darkness. I'll draw your attention to verse 14. In verse 14 starts by saying therefore he says. Now when Paul says therefore he says he's not directly quoting but he's summarizing Old Testament texts that point to the light of Christ. Take for example in Isaiah 9:2. says, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined." This promised light is fulfilled in Christ who is the light of the world. The light of the world came into the world and the almighty power of God in the beginning by the word of God shone forth light out of darkness so that his subsequent works may be seen may be clearly seen. And a greater light was promised, a light calling to life out of death and darkness into marvelous light. I reference second Corinthians 4:6. That whole verse says, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." So in our in our text in verse 14 it continues to say arise you who sleep arise from the dead and Christ shall give you light. Now in this text there is something implicit implicit that is very important that we don't want to miss and that is the presence of Christ. The presence of Christ executing the office of prophet. You might be thinking, well, didn't Christ after his death, burial, and resurrection, did he not ascend on high where he is seated at the right hand of the father and till he returns uh to judge the living and the dead? And without going on a rabbit trail into too much detail about hypothatic union and the word beyond the flesh, let it suffice to say that God is present in the presence of the spiritual presence of Christ exercising dominion through his word. Christ is not dead but living. And in his church, he is both living and spiritually present as the stream of life in the historic Christian community which is the church. Just as much as the spiritual presence of Christ is in the church today, so it was a year ago, so it was a hundred years ago, so it was 300 years ago, 500 years ago, or a thousand years ago. And the presence, the spiritual presence of Christ has been in the church up to today and will and to the end. Christ is not absent from the church. Consider the great commission where Christ promises to his apostles, I am with you always to the end of the age. But yet the apostles don't live to the end of the age. So how is Christ with you? How is Christ present to the end of the age? Well, it's through the teaching ministry of the church, the doctrine, the teaching of the apostles. And then in Revelation 1, we see imagery, the image of Christ walking uh sorry, Christ in the midst of the church of the churches. Christ is spiritually present with the church through his word and spirit communicating speaking and historic orthodoxy is the product of Christ's presence in the church through the ages. So what causes this light to shine? What causes sight by the light of faith? Christ as our redeemer executes the office of a prophet in revealing to us by his word and spirit the will of God for our salvation. So two components that we're going to examine. Two components are involved in order to see something. There's the visible uh the visible object, the visible material object which is the thing itself and then there's the corresponding power of sight. So take this pulpit for example. Here before me is a visible material object that's made of wood but yet you can see it. So in your mind there is this pulpit. The pulpit is up here in front of me but the pulpit is also in your mind. There's obviously not a material wood in a pulpit in your mind. But should the lights go out and there be darkness you would know that there's a pulpit up here because in your mind you can see that there is a pulpit. There's the material object itself and there's the corresponding power of sight. The power of sight is the manner in which the thing itself is apprehended in the mind. In the case of the pulpit, of course, is light imprinting the object on your mind. But the components from our text that we're looking at, the first component, the material component is the thing itself that is to believed like the the physical material wooden pulpit. The material component is what God reveals to mankind needing to believe God himself and all that pertains to God as he comes to us in Christ who is the image of the invisible God. This material component is scripture or supernatural revelation or the word of truth namely the gospel promise of Christ the mediator. The word of truth unlike this pulpit the word of truth is not something that is seen by the eye. Its object is invisible. An apprehension of it requires a supra sensible sight. It requires a spiritual power of sight. So the second component, the second component of this light which prevails over darkness is the power of sight or we could call it the formal component. Now as light is the formal component of seeing this pulpit. It's what brings it about to the mind. The spirit of truth confronts and informs our minds or illuminates what needs to be believed of God and all that pertains to God. The light of faith is supernatural sight by the gift of faith. By faith, we come to know and possess God through Christ with knowledge, ascent, and trust, or confidence in God's trustworthiness, embracing what is revealed in God uh in God's word, receiving it with confidence, and making it one's own by the light of faith, taking hold of and embracing Christ, his merits and mediation as revealed in the word. Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Which brings us to our next point that the light of Christ overcomes darkness and effectually calls sinners to life in Christ. So thirdly, the call the call or the duty within our text is awake, arise. Now the gospel calls men to arise from darkness and death by sin. Sorry, death of sin by faith and repentance. This is a call to repentance and faith. What does that mean? What is repentance and faith? What is it in faith of? Well, man being fallen and lost in sin is under the condemnation of God and unable to be reconciled to God on our own works, on our own merit. The word of God, second person of the of the Trinity, the son of God, took to himself a body, assumed our nature, was born under the law, perfected obedience, accomplished a positive righteousness, suffered and died in our place, poured out his blood, shed out uh sorry, shed out his shed his blood and poured out his life in our place to pay the ransom price of the elect that we might have forgiveness of sins. He was buried on the third day. He rose from the dead. He ascended on high. Exalted, seated at the right hand of the father, where he is seated with all power, all authority, and will return to judge the living and the dead. But now is the time to repent and to turn to Christ, to look to Christ, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Faith comes from hearing. And this call by the external means of the word and the internal means of the spirit is an effectual call. And included in our text, included in that call is a promise. Christ shall give you light. Now in Hebrews 1:3, it says, "Christ is the brightness of God's glory." Christ giving you light means being savingly enlightened by the word and spirit. Christ the Spirit convinces us of our sin and misery and enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ, renews our will and persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. So if you're an unbeliever, if you have not yet turned to Christ, you might be thinking, okay, so the light of Christ shines in darkness. We see that objectively, but what about subjectively? How do I lay hold of this personally? If you remember the illustration to begin with about the reformation and their unwavering commitment to the doctrine of the justification by faith alone. This doctrine is crucial to our understanding. What is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardons us all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. And the second London confession of faith in chapter 11 paragraph 2 it say it says faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness is the alone instrument of justification. So it's very important to get this right. What place does faith have in our justification? What place does our faith have in our forgiveness of sins and Christ's righteousness accredited or imputed to our account? What is a place of faith? So, as the confession says, it is the alone instrument of justification. Now, when um my family and I drove to the um the airport to fly out here, we still had our winter tires on because while there's still snow, hopefully by the time we fly back, that snow will be melted at which point I will have to switch over to the summer tires. Not sure if you have that um task out here. So, let's just say you have a flat tire. You have to change your flat tire. Then you take your tire iron or your your torque wrench and it is the instrument in which you use to apply the torque or the the force um to the wheel to the to the lug nut. Now, I guess I should point out that my purpose or my intent in using this illustration is not to call us a bunch of lug nuts. The purpose of the illustration is the instrument the instrument itself, the instrument by which the power is applied to the recipient. And our faith as an instrument, the faith is the means or instrument by which we receive and rest on Christ, his promises, his forgiveness, his righteousness, and eternal life. is by which believers lay hold of Christ and apply individually or personally or to make them one's own. And the source of power is God. As we see in Ephesians verse uh Ephesians chapter 1, redemption purposed by the father, redemption accomplished by the son, and redemption applied by the spirit. The light and synopsis of pure theology articulates very well says we are justified by the father as judge seated on a throne of grace and in Christ who has made satisfaction and acts as our advocate and we are justified through the holy spirit who grants faith and seals grace in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel being the first component of supernatural light, the external or material component, and the work of the Holy Spirit internally being the second component of supernatural light, the internal or formal component. The light of Christ is his revealing to us by his word and spirit the will of God for our salvation. So we saw here use for the unbeliever. Further is the use for the backsliden or the sleepy believer. Those whom the um indicative is true. Those whom as the text says and you he made alive. Those who have been renewed, restored and reoriented but remaining corruption has drawn you away. walking in works of darkness. Awake you who sleep. Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. Remember you were once darkness. But now, children of light, so walk in light. Do not be partakers with the works of darkness. Remember, it is Christ who gives you light. It is not look deep within yourself. It is not self-help protocols. It is Christ. look to Christ. Furthermore, use for the believer. I'm going to draw on three particular uses for the believer. The first one is walk as children in light. As the greater context of our passage says, walk as children of light in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. That is in thought, word, and speech. Sorry, thought, word, and deed. Now what about the current context in our day? Is there a current coh context of darkness in our day? Well, yes, there is. Indeed, there's even next month is a month which is set apart for the parading and for the the celebrating and the approving of darkness. A whole month. We are in a current context of darkness and the light of the gospel for the salvation of lost souls is needed in our current context of darkness in this in our our communities and our surrounding uh communities. Second use for the believer is to marvel in doxology. Have you ever found yourself perhaps tired or distracted and you sat down to pray and you just nothing seems to immediately come to mind what you can pray about? Well, here we have something to marvel in doxology and prayer about is that you were once darkness and you he made alive. Not only that, but we have communion with the most high God. We have access to the throne of grace. We live as it were coro in the presence of God. Furthermore, have you ever heard the argument where somebody says, "It's not about theology or it's not about doctrine. It's about your relationship with God." Well, how can you have a relationship with somebody that you don't know? How can you have a relationship with God who is trinity and unity and unity and trinity if you do not know God? Or how can you be in a reconciled relationship without knowing how to be reconciled to the triune God? Fellowship with God is not blind fellowship in ignorance and darkness. In fact, to behold God is the foundation of blessedness. To see more clearly is to apprehend more fully. And furthermore, the church, the church is a glimpse of glory where God in the spiritual presence of Christ is in the midst of his people feeding and nourishing his people who respond in worship to him. And third use for the believer, the light of faith will give way to the light of glory. our living hope of resurrection, morning, and beholding the face of God by the light of glory. Revelation 21:23 says, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light." Light of glory. Faith will give way to sight. The beatotific vision by the light of glory to see God's glory spiritually and intellectually without being blinded by it. glorified saints in the fullness of joy with perfected souls, perfected body, with the sight of the soul, seeing God who is our portion and enjoying him from faith to fruition in a state of glory and indectable blessedness. So some concluding remarks. The Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator, our final and perfect prophet, by the external means of the written word of God and the internal means of his spirit illuminating the word opens the understanding of the hearer of the word. Now, one last illustration for the kids. Have you ever had it where your mom asks you to go to the freezer and to pull out the well, let's say the prime rib roast for dinner? And so you go to the freezer, you open it up, you survey its contents, and you don't see a prime rib roast. You come back to your mom and you give a report and you say, "There's no prime rib roast." So she says, "No, it's it's there. Go back and look again." So you go back, you open the freezer, you survey its contents. Nope, there's no no roast in there. So you come back and you report back to your mom, there's no roast in the freezer. So she takes you by the hand, she leads you over to the freezer, opens it up. What does she pull out? Primer roast. And you think, "Where were my eyes? Where was my sight that I didn't see it before?" And when the saving light of Christ shines by the Holy Spirit, it is a new sight as though to say, "Where were my eyes that I never saw before the beauty of the glory of Christ and the wretchedness of sin?" Now, here's the marrow of marrow of the matter where the rubber meets the road. God created man with an innate sense of the divine in a capacity and a longing to know God as the highest good in the chief end of beholding the fullness of his glory. However, God dwells in inapproachable light and fallen mankind cannot behold the fullness of the glory of God and live. Now God effectually shines light in darkness so that the rational creature may know God and in knowing God glorify him and in glorifying him enjoy him as the highest good. The goal of God shining light is communion with God by knowing and loving him with experiential knowledge and rightly ordered affections living blessedly in this life and forever. Divine illumination is an internal intellectual understanding by the light of faith and knowing of divine truth and a believing of divine truth. Such a knowledge affects and moves the soul to know and love that which he is made for and longs for now in part by the light of faith. But in glory it will culminate in unmediated blessed intellectual vision of the soul beholding the glory of God. And in so knowing God a consummated act of loving him and in loving him a consummated a consummation of blessed happiness and the fullness of joy. Fullness of joy without end. Unh unfading. Undefiled. Incorruptible. indeable eternal blessedness in the presence and glory of God. If you are still in darkness, know that there is no darkness where the light of Christ cannot prevail. Turn to Christ. Awake you who sleep. Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. Let's pray. our great God. Lord, we praise you that you who are eternal and infinite and almighty that salvation belongs to you and that there is no darkness, there is no sin, there is no creation that can overcome you or overpower you. We thank you for the ways in which you draw our understanding to behold your majesty and your glory through your word and through your spirit. I pray Lord that as we consider the things of your word through you would attend it by your spirit and cause us to reflect on your word and that you would illuminate your word to our understanding. And Lord that the hearers of your word might behold your beauty, your majesty, your glory, worship you for you are worthy. We pray Lord that through the preaching of your word, the the saints would be edified that sinners would turn to Christ. Your kingdom would be advanced and your name would be lifted high and glorified. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. For bringing the word. Let's all stand together and sing the Gloria Patri 572 in your hymbooks. Let's stand and sing together. [Music] Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen. Amen. [Music] The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Well, please be seated for a brief time of prayer. When the piano's finished, you're dismissed.
