LEAVE THE LIGHT ON (1): THE DEVASTATION OF DARKNESS

(Ephesians 5:7-14)

Introduction
A group of people were winding through the eerily beautiful passageways
of Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico when suddenly the guide turned off all
the lights and said, "I'm the only one who knows how to get back to the
entrance. If I left you here, you'd probably never find your way out. Anyone
lost in this cave would no doubt become insane within a week from the
oppressive loneliness. Be quiet for a moment and feel the darkness!" After
about 30 seconds, someone in the party cried out, "Turn on the lights! I'm
going crazy now!" The guide laughed but one person observed it was a stark
reminder of the outer darkness awaiting unbelievers.

It’s for sure, no one likes darkness. It is scarey. And yet, did it ever occur
to you that it is really the natural state of things. The Bible says in Genesis
1:2 regarding Creation, “2) The earth was without form and void, and
darkness was over the face of the deep.” 3) And God said, “Let there be
light,” and there was light.” God made light, but first there was darkness.
Darkness. In the depths of space, absent sun or stars, what would there be?
Darkness. Darkness is the natural state of things. And since the Fall, the
same has been true in the moral realm. Darkness is the natural state of
things. In Scripture, darkness routinely stands for immorality and sin. It is
the absence of God, and it is the state into which we are born.

Jesus said in John 12:46, “46) I have come into the world as light, so that
whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” Do you see, man’s
natural state is to be in darkness? We have to do nothing to remain there.
To escape it, we must believe in Jesus. Paul says to the Colossians: “13) He
has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the
kingdom of his beloved Son” Moral darkness is our natural born state. To
become part of Christ’s kingdom of light, we must be born again.

So far in our travels through the practical section of Ephesians, we have

been exhorted to walk in unity, to walk in holiness, to walk in love, and
now – Ephesians 5:8, “8) for at one time you were darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” So, get the picture. You
were born in darkness. You have become a believer and now, you are light.
That being true – live like it. Same message we have seen throughout this
great book. Live like who you are.
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But, Paul makes a startling statement in the two verses before this. Look
carefully at Ephesians5:6-7: 6) Let no one deceive you with empty words, for
because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of
disobedience. 7) Therefore do not become partners with them” “Sons of
disobedience” is a phrase we have seen before in Eph 2:1-2, “1) And you
were dead in the trespasses and sins 2) in which you once walked, following
the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Sons of
disobedience is what we all were at one time prior to being saved. But
notice 5:6 again, “Therefore do not become partners with them.” Partners
with them? Paul, How can I who am now a believer become partners with
the sons of disobedience? He answers in 5:11, “11) Take no part in the
unfruitful works of darkness.” How can I partner with the sons of
disobedience? By taking part in works of darkness. By living the selfish,
worldly lifestyle that I used to live. By not living up to the light that I now
am. Actually – Jesus describes the problem with great precision in Matt
5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be
hidden. 15) Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a
stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16) In the same way, let your
light shine before others, (why?) so that they may see your good works and
give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Paul is saying the same exact
thing in different words in Eph 5:7-8. Don’t put your light under a basket.
Let it shine. Don’t let darkness prevail in your life. I want to look at this
passage from two perspectives to help motivate us to let our lights shine.
Today, what is darkness like? Characteristics? Next week – light.

I. Darkness is Satanic

Darkness in Scripture it is symbolic of evil. It represents immortality,

rebellion and sin. It is Satanically inspired and it leaves God out. We see
this in Ephesians 5:8, 8)” for at one time you were darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord.” Light is of the Lord; darkness is the absence of God.
This is re-enforced in unambiguous terms by John in I John 1:5-8, “5) This is
the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all. 6) If we say we have fellowship with him
while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
Understand Jesus message! When we are practicing the deeds of darkness
we cannot be having fellowship with God. It is not possible. We are living
as though God did not exist or matter. If you are hanging on to some pet sin
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or lifestyle that excludes God and think you can go to Him in prayer, think
again! God has nothing to do with darkness wherever found, even in His
own children. That does not mean He abandons us, but there is no
fellowship – not until be make genuine confession. Until then, He is
concentrated on one thing – getting the darkness out.

So, if darkness is not of God, then where does it come from? And the
answer, of course, is Satan -- in opposition to His creator in every way
possible. There is a most interesting verse in Acts 26. Paul is defending
himself before King Agrippa and telling of his conversion and commission
by Christ. He explains that Jesus personally sent him to the Gentiles for this
expressed purpose in verse 18, “18) to open their eyes, so that they may turn
from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by
faith in me.’” Here you have the contrast again; people are either in
darkness and under the power of Satan, or they are light and under the
power of God.

Most people live under the illusion that there is a middle ground; that they
can maintain some kind of neutrality much like Switzerland does; that they
are their own person existing between God and Satan. It is an illusion.
There is no middle ground. And even as a believer, we are either
partnering with darkness which is Satanic – or we are following God.

God is urging – keep the light on! Satan fears the light. Many years ago, an
English governor of the Bahamas, was returning to England. He promised
to lobby the Home Government for any favor the Colonists might desire.
What do you think was their unanimous request: "Tell them to tear down
the lighthouses. They are ruining the colony!" The men of the colony lived
on materials gleaned in shipwrecks, and they hated the light. The devil so
hates the light, that he would tear down every spiritual lighthouse in the
land, if he only could. He desires shipwrecked lives, and when we partner
with works of darkness, we are partnering with Satan himself.

II. Darkness is Stupifying (makes one stupid)

Second, darkness is stupefying. Please notice verse 8 again: 8)” for at one
time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Paul’s
phrasing is very telling. He does not say you were “in” darkness. Rather he
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says you were darkness. It didn’t just surround us; it was us. Darkness
characterizes the very existence of the unbeliever, and when the believer is
acting like an unbeliever, he is participating in the same ignorance, walking
in the same darkness. He is not just like a man in a dark room who can’t get
a light turned on; he is like a blind man who could have a million lights
turned on and it would not help. He is stupified by his blindness, living
ignorantly, selfishly and ultimately stupidly if there is a God to whom were
are all answerable. He or she may be the most brilliant individual in the
world, but if they are rejecting the truth of God, they are darkness
personified.

Unbelievers just don’t get it. They can’t get it! They can hear the same
effective presentation from the Word of God as you and yet walk away
saying, “How can anyone believe that?” Remember what we saw earlier in
Eph 4:18, “18) They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the
life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of
heart.” In essence, the mind that refuses the truth of God is blind. That is
because unbelievers willfully ignore half of the universe. They accept and
may be able to brilliantly describe all of the physical realities – things they
can touch, feel, see, taste and smell. But in refusing to accept the reality of
the spiritual world, they have eliminated half of reality. That eliminates
any possibility of understanding ultimate truth. Refusal to acknowledge a
God to whom they are accountable leads to half vision – darkness about
spirituality. If God is, then it goes without saying that to leave Him out is
worse than stupid. It borders on insanity.

Douglas Erwin, a paleobiolgoist at the Smithsonian Institution, gives a clear

and unambiguous illustration of the hold this blindness has on people when
he tells the New York Times, “One of the rules of science is, no miracles
allowed. That’s a fundamental presumption of what we do.” Biologist
Barry Palevitz makes the same point. “The supernatural,” he writes, “is
automatically off-limits as an explanation of the natural world.” If you
start with those presuppositions, and yet there actually is a spiritual realm,
can you see that you will be like a blind man groping to find something he
can never find for he is refusing to look in the right place. As a means of
doing science, such rules are necessary; but as applied to the larger
questions of life, which is what these men mean, they are devastating. They
leave God out by definition. And when you do that you miss can’t possibly
get the right answers. You’ve been stupefied.

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A frustrated mother called to her son, "Peter! There were two cookies in the
pantry this morning but now there’s only one! Do you have an
explanation?" Peter replied, "It must have been too dark and I didn’t see
the other one." Beloved, do you see that to walk in darkness is stupefying?
You don’t even know what you are missing. You miss the most important
parts. To live in our old lifestyle is to buy the illusion that the world offers
the best, that holiness is for wimps and sissies, that the temporal glamour of
the world brings more joy than living for Christ. But we’ve entered
darkness so we don’t even see what we are missing. We miss the vibrancy
and joy and contentment of Christ. We cheat ourselves and everyone
around us. Darkness is stupefying.

III. Darkness is Sterile

A third characteristic of darkness is that it is sterile – unproductive,

unfruitful, unfulfilling. So when we choose to once again partner with
those in darkness, sterility will characterize our lives. The pleasure of sin
is only for a season. In the end it cannot deliver. Look at verse 11, “Take
no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” The
word “unfruitful” literally means to bear no edible fruit. Any fruit that is
there is bad. We’ve all had fruit trees that we had high hopes for, but they
either did not produce at all or the fruit was sour, spoiled, rotten, unedible
for some reason. That is exactly what continuing to fool around with works
of darkness does to the life of a believer. We become useless.

The works of darkness offer momentary excitement followed by an eternity

of futility. They are emptiness dressed up in all the glitz and glamour that
the world is so good at producing, but inside -- nothing. Little lies intended
to spare someone’s feelings ultimately destroy trust and intimacy. So it is
with every single work of darkness. It promises what it can never produce.
The only one deceived in the end is us. The works of darkness of sterile.

The grudge, tenaciously held, rehearsed over and over like a favored
companion in fact only renders us a victim. It eats away unseen at our
vitality, sweetness and sensitivity, leaving us in the end a harsh, dried up
pitiful excuse of a human being. The works of darkness are unfruitful.

The pursuit of pleasure by whatever means or the pursuit of money to the

exclusion of the pursuit of God seems okay. Surely I can have God once in
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awhile on Sunday, and in times of crisis, but the rest of my life is mine. It is
a dead end street, Beloved. It will lead to an, unfruitful, unfulfilled useless
life that you will soon present to God with great shame. Even the good
you think you do will ultimately burn in judgment. Listen to this sobering
warning from I Cor 3:11-15, “11) For no one can lay a foundation other than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (this is salvation. We’ve committed
to Christ. Now – how will we live? He goes on). 12) Now if anyone builds
on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones (holy living, actions
conforming to God’s will), wood, hay, straw (living for self) — 13) each
one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it
will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has
done. 14) If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will
receive a reward. 15) If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss,
though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” Surely that is
not the way that any of us want to stand before our Lord one day.

A New York City businessman decided to avoid a $40 service change under
the terms of his office lease by replacing a seven-foot fluorescent lighting
tube himself. He avoided office staff by bringing the new tube in and
installing it early one morning. But – what to do with the old tube! He
couldn’t give it to the building maintenance people for disposal. So he
decided to deposit it in a large receptacle for debris at a construction site
near his subway stop in Brooklyn. That night he got on the subway, holding
the white tube vertically with one end resting on the floor of the car. As the
train became more crowded, other passengers took hold of the tube,
assuming it was a stanchion. By the time the business man reached his
stop, he had formed another plan. He simply removed his hand, leaving the
other passengers to continue holding the tube, and got off the subway.

So, are we a 7-foot burned out fluorescent light tube that others are futilely
hanging onto when we are really worthless, surreptitiously and privately
practicing the works of darkness while putting on a front for neighbors,
friends, family and even children – people who think they can count on us
not knowing that our life is unfruitful, unfulfilled, sterile worthless? Is that
who we are? We need not be unfruitful. Titus 3:14, “14) And let our people
learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent
need, and not be unfruitful.” Are we willing to devote ourselves to the
good works of Christ rather than pleasure? Are we? Peter beautifully
details how to avoid coming to the end of life as an empty suit. He reminds
us in II Peter 1 that we are partakers of the divine nature, then he goes on:
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“5) For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with
virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6) and knowledge with self-control, and
self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7) and
godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8) For
if these qualities are yours and are increasing (you are growing), they keep
you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 9) For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is
blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” See
how it all connects? Unfruitfulness links to blindness which links to former
sins. Beloved – let’s not go there. Get concentrated on all those positives
that Peter mentions.

Blindness is devastating. When we go there, two disastrous things occur.

First, we live in sin and excuse it, and second there are no good works to
point others to our Father. Our life is useless, implying that being a
Christian doesn’t matter. It’s just a social thing. No change required. It’s
not big deal! Paul is urging, don’t be castrated, living an unfruitful,
darkened life. How could you? You are light. Act like it!

IV. Darkness if Shameful

Finally, Paul reminds us that darkness is shameful. No secret there, is there.

We can get pretty calloused, but as a believer, we cannot sin without
shame. If there is no shame, we don’t know Christ. Notice verse 12, “For
it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” The sins
of the flesh and the world – the selfishness, lasciviousness, harsh attitudes,
immorality, greediness, drunkenness an unforgiving spirit -- that is our past
and shouldn’t even be talked about among us, let along participated in.
They are shameful and not deserving of mention by those who have done a
true about-face and are striving with all their being for the qualities Peter
mentioned earlier – pointed toward Christlikeness as a goal.

You say, “Man, that’s too goody-goody for me.” Then you have not
understood the glory of being like Christ. You have not understood the
wonder of holiness. And like our society, you have lost the sense of shame
that should always attach to sin. You have only to walk onto any local
beach or swimming pool to know that we have lost our sense of shame for
remember that in the Garden of Eden, the first move of Adam and Eve was
to cover themselves. A true sense of sin brings a true sense of shame and
we have lost it. To our shame, we have bought the world’s standards.
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I wish we could recapture the sensitivity reflected in this little story.
William Allen White was a famous American editor from Emporia, Kansas.
In 1928, he attended the convention for the Democratic Party where his arm
was being severely twisted to attend a dinner for Senator Jim Reed, of
Missouri, who was running for the nomination. However, as the lone
Republican at the convention, White said, “I’d better not attend. I don’t
want God to know I’m here.” He was kidding, of course, but how I wish
we could recapture the sense that God is truly always there, and the works
of darkness shame both us and Him.

We must begin again to care about what God thinks, rather than what
society has ruled. Pretty much anything goes these days. Little is
condemned anymore. What used to be done in secret is too often out in the
open and acceptable, but Beloved, God has not changed. He desires our
holiness. Doing good does not save us, but being saved, we are now light.
To us in particular, the works of darkness are shameful and we must care
enough about God not to be found in any of those places or acts or thoughts.

Conclusion

Now, if something is Satanic, stupefying, sterile and shameful, would we

really want to be part of it for the sake of some fleeting pleasure? Is that
what we want our one and only life to be about – seeing how much we can
get away with? We only fool ourselves. That’s why Paul has issued this
warning. Wake up. Don’t live in your past! Live in your future!

A fellow named Andy was sentenced to 5 years in prison. From the start, he
got along well with the guards and all his fellow inmates. The warden saw
that deep down, Andy was a good person and made arrangements for Andy
to learn a trade while doing his time. After three years, Andy was
recognized as one of the best carpenters in the local area. Often he would be
given a weekend pass to do odd jobs for the citizens of the community, and
he always reported back to prison before Sunday night was over.
Eventually, the warden was remodeling his own kitchen. But he lacked the
skills to build a set of kitchen cupboards and a large countertop which he
had promised his wife. So he called Andy into his office and asked him to
complete the job for him. To his surprise, Andy refused. He told the
warden, “Warden, I’d really like to help you but counter fitting is what got
me into prison in the first place.”
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You get the point, I trust. We are out of prison, folks. We are no longer
darkness. But – it is still possible for us to partner with unbelievers, to hide
our light under a basket and resume the old ways that put us in prison
before. But what is the upside? There is none, other than perhaps some
momentary pleasure that is ultimately unfulfilling, unfruitful and even
shameful. Let’s do it God’s way. Don’t live in your past; live in your
future. Leave the light on! Let’s pray.