Very soon the pastor here my name is Sam and we're going to do something a little bit different here before the scripture reading I wanted to tell you a story It begins with a man of mild disposition He was a minister and this was a quiet and gentle man very generous man Praise for many virtues, but he was he was quite a mild of a mild disposition quiet man very humble man and and This makes what actually happened in his life and the things he did very surprising because in his own study he came to a place of conviction about the relationship between the Christian Church and the state or the government the kingdom at the time and this was at a time when it wasn't at all clear what that relationship should be This man came to this conviction and in the community of his seminary the president died and the fellows got together and nominated him and elected him as the new president their new dean of that school But this was at a time when They were in a kingdom and the king decided that he didn't like this he came and appointed somebody else who was known for immorality and drunkenness It didn't seem to be a great choice for that for the job, but that's what the king wanted this man With amazing courage defied the king and stayed in his position the fellows rallied around him and Decided that they would not obey the king's order as well king sent some judges some lawyers to conduct investigation and And and then ordered this man to surrender the keys to his residence He refused the king now very angry sent an armed guard to break down his door actually so he could be thrown out at this point the whole town rallied around this man and You know the locksmith refused to replace the lock on the door that was broken by the king's guard and a cook Refused to cook for the new guy And still it went on the king very angry finally showed up at the place cursed this man to his face and ordered him to resign and The man this quiet this humble man Refused at the risk of his life because the king at that time could very well have beheaded him and might have done that In this case didn't turn out that way in fact the king ended up having to withdraw from what he was doing and So began what was called the bloodless revolution in England Ashered in the time of William and Mary the year was 1687 The place was Magdalene College of Oxford at that time a sacred university Essentially a paratured organization of the of the Church of England The king was James the second and the man's name She probably haven't heard of it was John Huff John Huff was Went on a few years later to become the bishop of Oxford and He was you know continued to be elite an exemplary life Alexander Pope Called him, you know a man of great virtue. He lived in 93 because it was said of his quiet conscience So the whole Huff clan the Huff family moved to America with William Penn and Settled quietly in Baltimore and for the next few centuries nothing was heard of the Huff until 300 years later a Grandchild was born to a descendant of the Huff's Francis Huff this grandchild grew up to display the same characteristics that John Huff had displayed a Mildness masking an amazing indomitable courage and I have it we have a real treat today because that descendant a John Huff is among us and has come To live with us So would you welcome with me now? It's descendant of John Huff and now I can say a true New Yorker and by that I mean one Who lives in New York This is Marica andriatus Welcome Do you want to say you want to say hello to the village church? Hello, I love you. I'm glad to be here Thank you Come back up here. I'll be sitting down this puff girl I understand your you're living where are you living now in Chelsea? I see it. Is it is a permanent place? Months month for a few months, okay, and I understand it's quite an apartment. Yes So that it eat in closet that you have? Terrific terrific. What would you say with me because I also I just wanted to say it was because of the Courageous decisions that this woman has made that I'm able to stand before you she's reenacting a Huff life and it's because of that not only in the past seven months because she has been basically taking care of our family Those view follow this story and no But all through her Christian life she's been making these kinds of courageous decisions that have allowed us to come here and be ministering here, so I really did want to honor her this morning and while she's here, let's also mention that during this time I Have been taken care of you know, you have you have guys who like to say you know, I can take care of myself, you know well, I can't take care of myself and I need I need help and This help was provided by two members of this church and I spent some time first at Tom my cousins apartment, but then That had to end and there was a couple in this church that just decided to take me in and to give me a room and I have served us all by doing that in such a hospitable way I once they just made their their place available a number of times they kept saying to me as long as you need it You can have this room. They set it up for me. They gave me space. They allowed me really comfort to To tend to the matters of the church that really needed tending to and so we're all beneficiaries of what they've done I just want you to think about what this meant You know, you think about what it's like to have your pastor living with you You know after a little while the novelty wears off, you know, you You get to ask your questions, you know, where did Cain's wife come from and things like that After all those questions have been asked There there is, you know, he's still there and
They had just been marvels. I got to enjoy some of Angie's first home cook meals and they were good And I just want to thank God for this man He's a deeply hospitable man and has made a potentially very disorienting time A very soft. She made a soft place for me Here in this city, so we want to thank and will you thank with me? Would you come up David Angie's side?
Okay Okay, I guess Here we are
I wanted to do an introduction actually just now, but now we're going to have the reading of the scripture Emma The reading this morning's from Ephesians chapter 5 verses 6 to 16 Let no one deceive you with empty words For because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient Therefore do not be partners with them For you will want darkness But now you are light in the Lord Live as children of light For the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth and find out what pleases the Lord Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret But everything exposed by the light becomes visible for it is light that makes everything visible This is why it is said Wake up a sleeper rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you Be very careful then how you live not as unwise, but as wise Making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil The word of the Lord Well, I don't like this passage I have to say that to you. I don't like this passage and And it's important for you to hear me say that No matter where you are if you're a non-Christian here and It's important for you to hear me say that as a Christian if you are Someone in this church. It's important for me to hear you say that as your pastor that I just like this passage and I don't think I'm all that unusual You know in my in my opinion and my feelings about that you know I don't know anyone who comes to me and tells me you know Ephesians 5 6 my favorite passage I I love to go back there and read it You know and in the short list of all-time Bible favorites or maybe a long list You know it's Psalm 23 and 1 John 4 Ephesians 5 6 doesn't come up too often and And it's important to hear to hear me say this because if you read the Bible a lot and you like Everything that you read Then it tells me that you've stopped reading the Bible Somewhere along the line you left off reading the Bible and are starting to do something else Because you're no longer allowing the Bible to do what it's meant to do You no longer letting the Bible be a mirror that it needs to be to you So what you should do what I want to do now this morning is ask why why don't I like this passage? Because that's really the next step that you should take If you're asking the question is it that I don't understand what's being said or is it that it's something in me That doesn't like what's being said or maybe you know a little told Because the Bible does turn out to be a mirror into our souls There are two reasons. I don't like this passage and the first is Maybe you as well. I don't know how to read verse 6 without shuddering It's saying that the wrath of God is coming first. I was saying that God has wrath and Then that it's coming It's going to happen It's going to be this Talking about judgment coming and I don't know anyone who can read that and really get it and understand it without shuddering You know and we saw last week in the passage before this that what he's referring to here are sexual sins We talked about that by the way after after last week. I had a father Come up to me and just pounce on the after the service Because he was indignant because for mother's day he recall I actually asked some mothers to stand so we could honor them We clap for all the moms, but last week was father's day not a whisper about the dad I didn't I hadn't said anything about the dad's for father's day and this man was indignant. He had wrath and And I Thought he had a point But you know, I thought that you know if I preached a sermon on Christian sex on father's day I was a pretty good presence for the father
So I think it might have come out even But you know what's what's entirely frightening about verse six is that all of us partake of those Transgressions he was just enumerating to one degree or another. I mean if you were here last week I don't think anyone passed through that sermon on scathe I can't believe anybody was sitting there saying humbly done. They don't what a nice sermon You know, so if these things make God's angry of in which we all partake to one degree or another And Paul is talking about this judgment day of course that's coming God's wrath is coming Then where's the out? I mean because what we're talking about is God's perfect Holiness, so I said he has this wrath and it's perfect. You know, he can't tolerate evil. He can't tolerate any evil any evil at all And it's not like something you can kind of work out a deal about something you can get around You know if you happen to be selling your house and somebody gets angry at you, you know You might be able to sit down and say, you know, can we work something out here? Can we can we work around this can we make a deal? But if God's angry at you because of a violation of his holiness then You know, where do you where do you go? You think that you can sit down and say Let's let's work something out here now. I think that there could be many people here who Who are thinking well? You know, I prefer not to think of God as having a wrathful anger. I mean that solves the problem, doesn't it? I mean it's it's sort of a primitive concept anyway, isn't it? I mean, maybe I maybe I do believe you Sam when you say You know that that the Old Testament God is that way Maybe I might even believe you if you say that the New Testament God is that way as well because he is But you know, I feel like in this day and age we can really move beyond that now. Can't we? Now if you're if you're thinking that you have that kind of propensity to Not prefer a God of wrath Not to prefer and believe to believe in a God of wrath. Let me ask you really how real are you being? I mean you say that you don't like a God who gets angry that you don't think there could be justification and then you turn around and justify your anger your own anger all day long You know a few weeks ago we saw that there was such a thing as righteous anger Right be angry and sit not Ephesians for remember Now maybe you've experienced situations that involved righteous anger that Called up righteous anger in dig nation on your part. I mean maybe even this week something happened. I Mean not that this might have happened to anyone here, but just to conjure up a hypothetical example Maybe you're trying to sell your house and that was built in say 1880 and Some wingtipped home inspector waltz is through and Says to make your home quote safe and sound would take two hundred thousand dollars two hundred grand For your lovely home that has been standing tall and strong and charming for over a hundred years and Will probably continue to stand there in the same way long after said inspectors bones that's turned to dust Maybe you had a small reason for feeling righteous indignation Right to anger. You know, maybe there are some other situations that happened this week that Started out as righteous anger before they quickly Unrighteous anger Actually, let's take something more substantial. Maybe something perhaps a little more relevant to this set of passages here Maybe maybe you learn about the industry of childhood prostitution which is industry that is global and actually Effects, you know movements of population so that there's a flow of Children from the Latin America into northern Europe You know and from Eastern Asia into the Middle East and you learn about these things because You know in Latin America the prostitutes most in demand are from age 10 to 14 and In Brazil a girl of 12 can take in more money than a grown man working in a factory So there are a lot of things that are powering this industry and It's rampant so in Paris you have 5,000 estimated 5,000 boys and 3,000 girls Working under the age of 18 In this way in the red light district of Manila Of course famous for having a red light district is over a hundred thousand call girls registered there But you might be a little bit angry to learn that there are also 20,000 Children in that district and that's an estimate probably higher So how's that for the good use of the gift of sex? Powered in part, you know by pornography industry here Now learning about these things Do you do you feel anger? Do you maybe get a little bit angry? Well now you get angry. You're saying and God cannot? The angry let me tell you something he has infinitely more justification for it When we each in our individual ways screw up his gorgeous creation And with our sin and ignore his loving overtures to us It just be real About you know preferring what kind of God you prefer are you trying to find the truth or avoid it? So that's another reason that's one reason This this scaryness of a wrath that's coming that I don't like this past the other The other reason I don't like it is because the way that draws this picture Between us and them I mean light and darkness is the metaphor that Paul takes up And now it's hard it's hard to imagine a metaphor that sets up a greater dichotomy than that I mean what what can light have to do with darkness? Right the two are un mixable. They can't coexist the lights there darkness has got to go So when it says in verse seven don't be partners with them You know, I don't like it. I don't like it because I'm I'm here to build connections I mean, we're here we who are here in New York City have an obligation to Bridge build between the ancient historic faith and the contemporary secular culture And I want to make these connections to bring the good news to folks to permit truth to flow. I want to show people how Because it certainly certainly is true that Jesus Christ answers the very questions that they ask the very deep needs and desires That pagans have Jesus Christ can meet That's true, and I believe that and in fact in many cases folks already believe a lot of it and What they believe should lead them to embrace Christ? They might not realize it but it's it's not a far step at all That's that's where my head's at and I also really want the Christian Church to benefit from the work and products of a non-believing culture We have much to learn and to receive From the them They have a lot to learn and receive from them. These things are true. So Consequently, I want to minimize the differences To make this two-way connection to build this intellectual spiritual bridge for people One work is it's part of that is minimizing the differences Between people of faith and people of unbelief But this passage maximizes those differences It digs a canyon between the us and the Tham Notice that the days are evil So there's a danger for me in what I'm trying to do here to forget that there is a difference To ignore the canyon to stop making a connection and to go make something else But I also want to say you know what it looks like we need to look at what Paul's saying here because it looks like Paul could be saying don't share with them or don't associate with them. He says you know And I'd be translated partner. Don't be partners as I mean says don't be some metacross with them that that adjective means don't Be one who shares in the possession of something Of partaking with another in a thing So I'd like to look at I like us to look at what those things are Okay, that Paul is saying don't do it Because please note that Paul does not say That you were in darkness And now you come to the light Now or now that you see the light or now that you are walking in the light, you know, these are Expressions that make for great Baptist hymns, but that's not what Paul's saying here. That's not what he says Paul says that you are light See Jesus Christ is the light in verse 4 team, but the believers you are light in verse 8 If you're in the Lord you are very light of light says Paul This is an identity thing The us are light the them are darkness I don't see you know how how much of a break you could make more than that You are light Well a part of this getting through this I think it's to understand what he's saying by by being children of light What does it mean to live as children of light? And verse 10 tells us What he means it's living a life of constant examination Okay The word there doki masa means to try To try to examine to be to be testing What you're doing Constantly examining now this is the Christian life to try to find out what pleases God to be asking always these questions Is this goodness? Is this truthfulness? Is this righteousness? And it's it's funny it's ironic because this is precisely what turns pagan's off About Christians, you know because our life is is constantly examining ourselves Uh, it's what I'm doing pleasing God You know it becomes the natural inclination of the Christian to be asking this And to the nonbeliever this just seems like you are not living life Because you're constantly asking these questions of yourself It doesn't doesn't look like a lot of fun So the then looks at the us and says yuck And why are you always asking the questions like that you need therapy But for a Christian this this What we call thirst for righteousness because that's really what it is this thirst for righteousness It must be pursued because what you find out as a Christian is To do what pleases the Lord Feels like who you are When you can find out what pleases the Lord and do it it feels like who you are And I'm afraid I know that people here today who Might be coming to the conclusion that you don't like Christianity You've maybe checked it out for a while and are deciding you don't like it But you are finding yourself asking these questions of yourself You're finding that you're starting to ask these questions. Am I being truthful here? Am I being good and kind in in a way that would please the Lord your concerned about these questions? All I could say is sorry It's happening to you You're becoming a Christian Sorry You're gonna have to go out and fire self one of those fish stickers for your bumper Not too much you can do about it at that point
So that's what that's what Paul is getting at when he's saying children of light live at children like it's all that exposure of darkness It's not about having a self-righteous error or a sense that you are somehow better than the darkness It's about a life of examination and effort a push a motivation to expose
both in ourselves and outside of ourselves But verse 11 tells us something crucial And it's the reason that we find for the metaphor It's important to always when you're dealing with a metaphor is what's the point of the metaphor? Why is he bringing it up? Why is he casting it in this language? And what verse 11 tells us that what the us are supposed to do Is to live in a certain way that exposes the darkness as darkness to bring light into a situation Christ is the light and so in Christ we are the light to do what? I'll just shine on pagans I mean the point of the metaphor is to highlight a principal purpose of your life exposure okay? And so he goes on verses 13 and 14 and says this is what our job is To expose things as it just as it used to be to cover things up to live this life of truthfulness We are out there speaking honestly about ourselves as well as others admitting things Now in verse 14 We find Paul is making a quotation Here, right? And who can tell me? I'll just ask you from an eraser. Who can tell me what Bible verse he's quoting there? I'll use sharp Bible people I wouldn't tell me what Old Testament scripture he's quoting there
Come on, you call yourself a church
No one Not even Amy who usually gets these answers
Okay Bear with me actually You probably can't think of the Bible verse because it isn't a Bible verse actually Paul is making a quotation But it ain't from the Bible
So what is he doing? What is he quoting? Well, he's he's quoting apparently You know an early Christian song that was popular at that time He's quoting some hot worship music that was going on at that time You know now It was it was He gives us the words of course We can't tell what the tune is but I could say it probably went something like this Wake up wake up both sleeper Rise from the dead and Christ will shine shine on you. Oh, yeah, and Christ will shine shine on you because you know Given when this letter was written, we're talking 50s music here My wife says we're talking really 50s music
So it's something that they used to say and the point is Paul is quoting This this contemporary song saying you know, this is why we sing this is why I said Because this in this popular lyric Christ Is the light shining and that's why he's you know bringing it in right but let me ask you to whom is the song addressed Who are the words who are the words actually addressed to in the song who are the sleepers? Is it the us or the them
Well based on what happens right before in those verses right before and what happens after the the The people being addressed are the them It's the them he's he's talking about nonbelievers rising Because light shines on them. We're here to wake them up Now just let me ask you a simple question Simple question to shine on them Or maybe we could put it better as for Christ to shine through us on them Where do we need to be? well It must be that we need to be in their lives We need to be associating with them to shine on and we need to be around them the light needs to be there Alongside the darkness So this means that in verse seven when he says you know talking about this non-partnership that we should have Non-partnership doesn't mean not associating with nonbelievers He can't mean that Paul cannot be saying that the us should not spend time with the them He can't mean that for it he clarifies us in another place when he's writing to first to the Corinthians In first Corinthians 510 he says you know, I'm not saying that you shouldn't associate with people who do wrong things Because if I were saying that Then you would you would have to go completely out of this world Into outer space So I'm not saying that he said don't gonna get the wrong impression So he's not saying that then what is he saying he's prohibiting he tells us in verse 11 The deeds that are done that are just pleasing to God That's all and that's only all that he that he means That must be all because if we're going to do the job that this passage is calling us to If we are light then we must be associating with the them There's only one line to draw on the sand and that's not committing wrong yourself. That's all Now in certain situations I realize that you know some of us especially younger believers need to ask the question You know, am I being drawn into deeds of darkness by my associations? You know, do I need to create some distance from my own spiritual life my own spiritual health And that's you know the I recognize there's a need to do that But if you do that, you should realize that's a remedial step. Okay, that's not the goal And if you've been developing this idea that the point of the Christian life is to spend as much time around Christians as possible Uh, you err And if your ideal is to form a safe Christian enclave where all you have to do is see Christians all day and you start arranging your life to make that happen You're disobeying the Bible. You're just particularly disobeying this passage Because the whole reason that Paul brings up this metaphor Is to tell you that the purpose of your life If you are the us is them In fact, someone else spoke like this talked about believers being light You know, can anyone tell me I'll give another chance
I took you the last time. Can anyone tell me who called who else called believers light?
Did you say Jesus? Jesus, right? Of course, that's always the answer
Yeah The Paul's not being original here You know, Jesus brought up this metaphor and he brought it up to say the same thing You are Light of the world he says and if you go back and you read Why Jesus brings that up you'll see that Jesus makes the he brings up this metaphor for the same reason And it's quite telling he says that the us are there to to shine to live there for the sake of them Not to disassociate with them, but to be in their lives Okay, that's the point of the metaphor not to say how much better the light is than a darkness But to say this is the point of what you're living for now And you know, we have plans in this church to try to act out this passage by something we're going to do in September And we're doing to try to do this to bring light into a new corner And maybe it won't work, but we're going to try it But this is this is the way it works, okay? The us Must live a life of self-examination and conviction about what pleases the Lord They just do that Serenclination and as your life is lived in proximity to the them The light shines through however imperfectly you feel it is doing in your life Just this fish of huff simply walked according to conviction And thereby change the world you know your life can do the same thing It will call attention to the fact of the darkness If you simply do that See the only way you can get through this passage and have everything Paul says makes sense Is to realize You know that if you're one of the us you're here to live for that. That's why he says take every opportunity You know make every opportunity says be sure that you walk wisely. Why is he saying that? Why would you be taking every opportunity for what opportunity to shine on them For the days are evil Living on behalf of them for them. So yes, there's an us in them. No question But it's not an us against them. It's an us living in behalf of them and