A Call to Arise and Shine

So what do we need? Max says we need power. That's a good place to start. Power. A demonstration of the Spirit and power. You know, we don't want to ask God for power and wait around until we think we feel it before we do what the Lord has called us to do. You remember the priests of old when they approached the River Jordan? They had to put their foot in the river and then the waters were held back and resided. We want to go forth in faith and trust that that power will be there when we need it. That's what we need. We need the power of God. Let's pray. Lord, Your powerful anointings on Your people of days past. The outpouring of the Spirit there at Pentecost. The grace, the great grace that fell upon them in that early church. Lord, we can't live on that. And You never meant. You showed us. Those things that You gave us in the Old Testament were meant for our instruction. And You taught us. You showed us. We can't live on the old manna. The manna has to be new every day. We need it fresh in our day. We pray for the power of God. Lord, we know that we don't always feel it the way that we think we should feel it. It's not always a wonderful feeling. The power of God is often manifested in ways that we feel weak. Oftentimes feel convicted. The Spirit of God comes and convicts us of sin, righteousness, judgment. The power of God. We need it. Lord, we need You to show up. We need You to be active with Your people. We need the God who acts. That's what we find that the early church was all about. It was about the God who acts. The God who did things. We need the God who acts in our day. Please, Father, we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Okay, I'd like to have you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 5. We sang the song earlier, O Church, Arise. As is the case with so many hymns, so many songs, the words come to us from Scripture. I'm going to take us to a text where I believe this reality comes. I recognize that there are some places in Isaiah where we might draw from to find that idea of the church arising. But here in Ephesians 5, I'll get right to it. I'll get right to my point. Verse 14, you'll see these words, Therefore, it says... If you have the New King James or the King James Bible, it says, He says. But whether the original is God says or it, Scripture says, listen to what it says. Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Now notice those words. I recognize right off, we're going to be challenged at first sight. Is this the church that's being addressed? Or is this lost people? Which one is being addressed here? My first agenda here is to try to sort out the context. Look, I'll tell you right where I'm going with this. I absolutely believe that this is speaking to us. It's speaking to the church. It's speaking to people that are already alive. You say, wait, it says something about being dead there. Don't you know that we're not spiritually dead? Yes, I think I learned that somewhere along the lines. But what I want us to recognize is the context. The context here. And let's just build the context. If we jump in at 7, therefore do not become partakers with them. We might ask the question right off, who is the them? Well, if you go back to verse 6, it is those who Paul is saying don't be deceived. He is saying that the sexually immoral and the covetous, they don't inherit the kingdom. And he says the wrath of God is coming upon these people. These are the people that are being spoken about right here in the word them. Therefore, do not become partakers with them. Christians, this is to you. Don't be partakers with these covetous, sexually immoral people. In fact, at one time you were that. You were like them. See, we come from that stock of these people that are under the wrath of God. Formerly, that's exactly where we were. We were these sons of disobedience just like them. At one time, you were darkness. Now, you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the fruit of light. That does seem to be consistent with the context. If you've got the New King James, it says the fruit of the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of light, I don't think we're going to argue. I don't think anybody's going to stand up and say, hey, there's a radical difference between those two concepts. No, there's not. But walk as children of light. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Now, let's just stop right there. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. We might go to that passage right there and look at all of life and all of Scripture and think about a life that is full of all aspects of pleasing the Lord. And that would not be wrong to do. But that's kind of missing the context if we do that with this passage. This passage is found in this context. What is the immediate issue? The immediate pleasing to the Lord issue that's on the table? It's not partaking with them. It's rather being light. And notice, try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. And He's going to tell us right away what's pleasing to the Lord. What He has in mind. This isn't just an off-handed statement meant to sweep us away in something else. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. Christian, instead, expose them. Expose the darkness. Now, this is key. This is what the church is called to do. To arise to do. To shine. You remember what Jesus said? Jesus said in John 7, He said, the world doesn't hate you. He's talking to His brothers. He said, but it hates Me. Because He exposed their deeds. And you remember what it says there in John 3. He says, people don't come to the light. They hate the light. Because their deeds are evil. They won't come to the light. But do you recognize this? What Jesus did that got Him so hated was He exposed people's sin. But do you recognize what He is? He's a Savior from sin. Do you recognize that Jesus Himself spoke to us in this fashion? Those who are well, they don't need a physician. In other words, if we're going to turn this world upside down, we have to go forth and you have to shine light on people so that they see I'm ugly. I'm diseased. I need a physician. That's when people go. That's when they cry out. That's when they call. This is a call to the church really to be evangelistic. And I think we'll see that as we develop this. This is a call to the church to shine light on the wickedness of the world. To expose that. Because it's only as that is exposed that people come to recognize, I need that blood of Christ to wash me. Brethren, is that the way it was with us? I mean, I remember those days prior to my being converted. I was telling some of the brethren last night, about two months before the Lord saved me, I came under such conviction. You know, it's like all of us. We're all there. We were all in that camp. We thought we were pretty good people. Until what? Until something happened. We were exposed to some truth of God. We were exposed to some Christians. Some light that God shined into our consciences and suddenly we recognized, Lord, help me. Save me. You see, that's what we're being called to here. We're being called to shine. Verse 11, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. Now, verse 13, when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. And see, we're light. You are light. That's what he's saying. And anything that is exposed by the light, it becomes visible or it becomes manifest. Right? That's what happens. You turn on a light. If this place was entirely dark and we came here at night and somebody flips on these lights, suddenly we see because these lights up here will shed light on all these things, all of us. And suddenly it makes visible. It makes manifest. That's what we are. We're light because we know the truth. See, darkness and ignorance, they go together in Scripture. Light and truth. And what happens is just like the lights come on in a dark room, we are the lights of the world. In other words, see, we look out there and we say, is it so dark? It looks beautiful out there. I grew up in the north breathing that air. We don't get that in Texas, rarely. That clean air. And you look out there and the sun's shining. I mean, look at it. It's coming through the doors back there. You can see it outside these windows. Is it dark? You see, the darkness in this world is ignorance. They don't know what you know. They don't know that they're lepers. They don't recognize that. When anything's exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything... Now, I really believe that the ESV misses it here. ESV says this, anything that becomes visible is light. I just think that's bad. And it's not true. The King James and the New King James say this, they say that whatsoever doth make manifest is light. There's a difference between that. You see what the ESV is saying? It says anything that becomes visible is light. If I turn that light on, it makes that pew visible. That pew is not light. Light makes manifest. That's not a textual issue. That's a translation issue. And I think the translators of the ESV and I think the NAS as well, I think they're just wrong there. The New King James has it right. Light makes manifest. Whatsoever makes manifest is light. Not the thing made manifest is light. I get made manifest by that light when it's on, but that doesn't mean I'm the light. That's the light. Anyway, we keep going here. Therefore it says... Okay, if you just stop right there. When you get a therefore shot right in at that point, who's He talking to? Is He talking to the lost here? He's not talking to the lost at all. He's talking to Christians. And He's telling us to be light. And He's telling us to shine in the darkness. And He's telling us to expose their deeds. And He's telling us that we are light, they are dark, and we are to shine on them and we are to make manifest. Therefore it says, or He says. You see, what He's doing is He's backing this up by a quote from somewhere and nobody really knows exactly where because it's not a direct quote. I think, I think, as I've just scoured Scripture, I've looked at the commentaries, I've looked at what all the authorities have to say, my personal thought here is that this is probably a paraphrase of Isaiah 60. I think that's what this is. And put your finger right there. Don't lose that place in Ephesians. But look at Isaiah 60. Let's go over there and look at that. Therefore, as you're looking there, I'm just going to read what Ephesians says. Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. That's what it says in Ephesians. That's how Paul says it. Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Now, when you get to Isaiah 60, look at the first three verses. Arise. I think nobody's going to argue that that is parallel here. We find that in both places. The idea of arise. The other thing that you'll find here is if you look at the end of verse 2, you find this. Thick darkness, these peoples, but the Lord will arise upon you. Paul says Christ will shine on you. See, I think it's the same thought. The Lord will arise upon you. He says Christ will shine on you. Arise. Even this. This is being spoken to the church. Now you say, yeah, but that concept of death isn't here. Well, maybe it is. Maybe it is. Isaiah 60, Behold, darkness shall cover the earth. Thick darkness, the peoples. I think that's the darkness. That's the place of death. And we are to arise. And we're to come away from that. I think that's the reality here. But let's go back to Ephesians. Let's continue to just move through there. Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Again, he starts this with a therefore. He's talking to Christians. Therefore, basically reiterating from a quote from somewhere, perhaps Isaiah 60, to affirm the point that he's making. And when you get to verse 15, he really transitions just exactly the same way. He's still building his case. Look carefully, then or therefore. In other words, he's talking to the same people. He's building the same argument. And what is it? Then or therefore? Therefore, look therefore to how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise. Making the best use of the time because the days are evil. And then there's another therefore. He's just building the same argument. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Did you realize he said already, try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. You caught that back just a few verses earlier. Try to discern what's pleasing to the Lord. And then he comes along here, and he says don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Sometimes we can go here, and we can talk about pleasing to the Lord and the will of the Lord, and we can talk about all these things. But you have to recognize in context right here, one of the primary things that Paul is concerned about as pleasing the Lord and being according to the will of the Lord is that we're taking every opportunity to shine. You want to shine on this world. Brethren, I want to encourage you. The way you're going to turn this world upside down is by the truth. The truth of God's Word. By propagating the Gospel. We talk about power. You want power? The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. So take that Gospel out. Brethren, I recognize we come away. What do we need? What are we going to do? What can you do? I'll tell you one thing you can do. If you simply determined, you pastors, you churches, if you simply encouraged your people, look brethren, I want to encourage you. We're going to make these tracts available over here. All we're asking each of you to do is take one of those tracts a day. I mean, just for a month maybe. You say to everybody in the church, here's these tracts. Brethren, encourage one another. Stir up one another to love and good works. And just all we want you to do is hand out one of these tracts each day for a month. It's not like at the end of the month, then you're done. Then you start to strategize. You think about maybe other ways you could do it. Maybe there's times when the church can say, you know what? It's summer. It's spring. Oh, it's beautiful out. Our church meets together, and now we're all together. And we're just going to do this. Part of the service is going to be that when we're done, we're simply going to go out the door and all the kids can get in strollers, and we can go down the streets, and we can just spread out from the church, and we can knock on doors, and we can tell the people, yeah, we meet over here, and we just got done. We want to tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to die someday, and we're here to tell you about it. And you're not as good as you think you are, and you're just shining the light on them. And they're thinking, what? We hate this. Yes, well, they hated Christ too. And I mean, there's obviously skillful ways to do it. We need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, but we need to shine. And if you do that kind of thing, you become more relaxed, more acquainted, more comfortable with approaching people, having conversations with people. And even if you're one of the people that are tongue-tied, and you have a real difficulty, you can hand them a good track. I mean, you search them out. Find the best tracks. Oh, we've taken that shocking youth message from Paul Washer on DVD, and we have blanketed the world with that thing. Do you know how many people have been saved from that sermon? It's phenomenal. You give them a business card that maybe has an I'll Be Honest website on it. Take them to the truth. We can do these kinds of things. Brethren, let's just think about this text. What I really want us to think about is these words being what pleases the Lord, that we awake. These are strong words. Awake, O sleeper. You see, I believe that this is being addressed to people that are in the church and they're asleep. And sleeping in the church is a problem. You can sing songs and you can be asleep. And you can have your Bible in your hand and you can be asleep. And you see, the sleep here is the kind of sleep that takes you away from shining in the dark. That's precisely what this is. The Young's literal translation reads this way, Arouse thyself, thou who art sleeping, and arise out of the dead. You see, it's a preposition there that means out of, away from the dead. And Christ will shine upon thee. I mean, there's a preposition. Literally means separation from the dead. That's the emphasis. Arise, stand up, get up. Come away from the dead. Come out from among them. That's the issue. If you notice here, Paul does not call these Ephesian Christians dead. He doesn't call them dead. He calls them sleepers. They have fallen asleep among the dead. And they need to arise and come out of there. Because they're not dead and they're not dark. And he goes right on to say, look carefully then how you walk. We need to be careful about our walk. Listen, wisdom. Don't be unwise. Be wise. Be wise. What does wisdom have to do? Wisdom has to do with you doing the things to accomplish your greatest good for the greatest amount of time. Obviously. Yes, wisdom begins in the fear of the Lord. But that's to your greatest interest. The Proverbs say, he who is wise is wise for himself. The reality is wisdom profits you. And you know what he goes on to say? Be wise. You need to redeem the time. You need to redeem the opportunities. That means you buy it up. That means time can be very valuable for you. And he's saying, don't be wise. Don't waste it. You know, Christians can fall asleep and they can be unwise. And they don't recognize what the will of the Lord is. The will of the Lord is that you shine in the darkness. That's what we have here. Perfectly fits the context. I mean, go back to 7. Therefore, do not become partners. Don't stay asleep among the dead. Don't be partners with them. Don't do the things they do and be among them in the way that you're fellowshipping with them and you're trying to be unequally yoked with them. Don't. Don't be partners. Don't be partakers with them. Don't go in with them. For at one time you were darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light. In verse 11, he says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. And he says, therefore, awake. We need to wake up. And it seems very consistent with Isaiah 60. Arise. From where? Well, Paul tells us where. Shine, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord Christ has risen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples. I mean, this is where we must arise from. All this thick darkness. This is the darkness of death. But the Lord Christ will arise upon you and His glory will be seen upon you. And you know, Paul talks this way to other Christians in other places. He uses this kind of language. You remember to the Romans, you know the time, the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. The night is far gone. The day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. To the Corinthians, he says, these are strong words. Wake up from your drunken stupor. Would you like the Apostle Paul to come in here and tell us this? But Christians need that. Now, listen, we're not always in the same place where the Corinthians are at. We don't always need to be talked to with that kind of language. But that is how he speaks to God's people. Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right. Do not go on sinning. 1 Thessalonians, you're all children of light, children of the day. We're not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake. Be sober. In 2 Corinthians, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship has light with darkness? We know these texts. Therefore, go out from their midst. Be separate from them, says the Lord. That's it. It's wrong to call Christians dead. Yes. That's precisely the point. You're not dead. So come out from among them. Don't be partakers with them. Don't stay where they are. That doesn't mean we don't associate with them. This isn't a command to vacate. You remember what was said in 1 Corinthians 5 when it had to do with church discipline? We're not to avoid all the fornicators and adulterers and the covetous and the thieves and all this in the world, because then we'd have to come out of the world. We avoid the people that profess to be brothers and sisters who do those things. But no, we do want to eat with those people. We want to bring them in, not to have fellowship with them. Jesus ate. There was such an approachableness to Christ. Jesus ate with sinners. You remember the Pharisees, they'd go to His disciples. He's eating with tax collectors. What's this guy doing? He's a friend of sinners. They thought a derogatory statement. That's who we should be, as He's bidding us to follow Him. We need to be friends to these sinners. You're being no friends to these people out here if you have the truth and you're in the light and you know and you don't take that remedy to heal their disease. You're no friend of them. Indifference. You know, sometimes we think about love. What's the opposite? I mean, you immediately say hate. You know, we've got this idea of fighting against somebody and a real hatred. A lot of times the opposite of love is just indifference. I just don't care. I don't notice them. Brethren, listen to this. You were darkness. Therefore, do not become partners with them. Remember these sons of disobedience from verse 6. For at one time, you were darkness. You know, it's one thing if you can't identify with these people out here. The thing is we can. We used to be just like them. We were there. We were in the dark. And these are absolute terms because we're not dark anymore. Now we're light. This is the difference between Christians and all others. It's a radical difference. It's absolute. There's no in-betweens. There's no half Christians here. You're either light or you're dark. At one time, but now. That's how He talks. You were, you are. A great change has come upon us. And notice, Paul doesn't say we were in the dark. It's worse than that. Once we were darkness itself, we were darkness. Whatever light was in Adam, when God created him, it went out. When you see Adam and Eve put out of that garden, we just, all the light is gone. Sin put man's light out. Man has darkness within and man is full of darkness and man himself is dark. All is dark. And they love dark. And that's what Jesus said. Do you remember how Paul put it? We heard about 2 Corinthians 3, and I would add four to that. Just glorious, glorious. What does God do? Now, now we are light. What did God do? God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give us light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You see, the thing is, we haven't just been enlightened or brought into the light. Now you are light. You're radically different. You are light. The light's entered you, the light's filled you. The rays of light are just not simply shed upon you. I mean, Christian, you are the lights of the world. You're possessed by the light. That's the picture here. The light's entered you, it's filled you. It's lighted you up. The light shines within. Christian is just filled with light. And so what? Don't fall asleep among the dead. Don't fall asleep among the dark. That's the thing, you're children of light. Arise. Arise, and Christ's glory will be seen upon you. Get out of the cemetery. That's what's being, I mean, you think about cemeteries. Demoniacs live in cemeteries. Get out of there, not children of light. You're the light of the world. I mean, a city set on a hill, it can't be hidden, and it shouldn't be hidden. We shouldn't try to hide it, but that's what happens when we fall asleep. Pleasing the Lord, the will of the Lord. You see, this is what he's talking about. We have to live our Christian life in this world. Christian, what is God's will for you? Here it is. This is what it's saying. Don't fall into the same dark deeds and ways as the children of darkness. Arise from there. Show yourself to be the people of the living God. He's your Father. You've been saved by Christ. Wake up. This is a message. Wake up, church of God. Wake up. We get lulled to sleep. This enemy, this enemy that we have. I talked last night about the fact that a flood comes out of his mouth. He seeks to attack the woman with this flood. What comes out of his mouth are lies. And you know what he says? He just, Christians, things are okay. You're a Christian now, everything is good. What really matters is you have a good church. Your trials aren't too great. You have enough money in your pocket. The job's going okay. The children are healthy right now. Just, it's good. Go have a picnic. Go enjoy yourself. Concern yourself with the curriculum for the children. Concern yourself for the drapes in the bedroom. You gotta go shopping. You need blueberries today. Just, everything is okay. Just go to sleep. There's no war. There's no, your neighbors are okay. Look at them. Their grass is green. The birds are singing in their yard. Look, they smile. You smiled at each other. Everything is good. See them go out to get the mail. They're over there healthy. See them jogging up and down the street. They're riding their bike. Everything is good. Country's good. Got somebody conservative in the White House. It's all good. Just go to sleep. And he's just, yeah. We think, you know how it was. Pilgrim's progress. They came to the enchanted ground. I think it was hopeful. He said, let's just lay down and go to sleep. Christian said, no, no, no. You don't want to go to sleep here. Remember the shepherds warned us. You go to sleep here, you may never wake up. He just, he's a liar. And we need to wake up. It's like we were talking about being alert. We need to wake up. Because the truth is, it's not okay. It is the blackness of darkness. In their minds and in their souls, they are the darkness. And you are the light. Well, there may be some in here that are still in their darkness. There's a number of you. You're in the light. Wake up. Wake up. The world is in the dark. The world hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. And you know what, that's hard. Because if you're gonna shine the light, you've gotta go to them and you've gotta say to them, it is not well with your soul. Death is coming and you're not ready. And God provided a means and it's on that cross. He paid for sin. They know Christ died on the cross. They know that happened. But they don't appreciate what He did. They have no love for that. They don't know what that's about. They feel like, well, you know, we know He did something. We're not exactly certain. I know there's a lot of Jews in the area. They despise Him altogether. Don't bring His name up. The reality is, people basically think, you know it, you know they are in the dark and they don't recognize God's demands and they don't know about God's holiness. And the fear of God has not touched these people. They are heading through life and they're just thinking it's okay. You know what would happen if everybody out there right now suddenly saw themselves in a hundred years where they are and what they're enduring, what they're going through? Do you recognize if all these people out here suddenly had their eyes opened to hell and eternal destruction and could taste it for a few seconds? What do you think this place would look like? What do you think Long Island would look like if the people saw for five seconds the hell, the lake of fire that they are to be immersed in shortly and they saw that and suddenly it was taken away and they were back here? Do you know what would happen? We would not go out there the way things are. It would be totally different. You see, they go on. People can live their lives and you know what Scripture says, peace and safety, peace and safety. That's how people talk. That's how it says it there in 2 Thessalonians. Peace and safety. And then, I guess that's 1 Thessalonians, then sudden destruction, sudden destruction. That's how they're living, peace and safety. They think it's okay, peace. I mean, yeah, I'm good with the man upstairs. You know, he and I are on right terms. You know how they talk. Well, you know, I'm not perfect, but I never killed anybody and I never raped anybody. And even if they have, they still think they're pretty good people. I remember Ray Comfort went into prison one time, talking to felons. These are murderers and rapists. And he went through and he interviewed them. And one after another, after another, I'm basically a pretty good person at heart. That's what they said. That's darkness. That's people that are in this dark. They're deceived. And Jesus, He shined the light on people and they didn't like it. And they won't like it when you do it either. But brethren, it's the most loving thing that you can do. One of the things about loving sinners, loving those in the dark, is it's hard because we have to overcome that reality that they're not gonna like it. It's uncomfortable. They will hate us. They will despise us. People do not like to be told that they're sinners. Why? Because man's basic problem is pride. And he is self-righteous and he thinks that he is good. Man is trusting in his own accomplishment, in his own righteousness, in his own goodness. You know it full well. We see it everywhere. And when you shine that light on them and you say, no, no, liars. Liars, they find their place in the lake of fire. We're all born liars. And you don't have to go very far in convincing people that they're liars. And Scripture says, lake of fire. The wages of sin is death. And we can't get away from it. And you see, people don't know that. I didn't know that. I just thought, I thought what you thought. I mean, I remember when I was a kid, mom, one time I got concerned about my soul. I don't remember why. My mom was in my bedroom ironing. I went in there, mom, what do I have to do to get to heaven? She said, oh, keep the 10 commandments. I mean, she was dead serious. My mom, born and raised Catholic. So I went, big family Bible. I got in the front and it told where the 10 commandments were. I went, I read through them. Like, oh, I've never done that. Never done that. Well, I got to do better at that one. How to do. Yeah, I was just, I was probably 12 years old. But you know what the thought was? Nothing jumped out at me that, I knew that I had not kept all those perfect, but nothing jumped out at me like, okay, everybody's cursed. Who does not keep everything in the book of the law. I mean, that didn't jump out at me. It jumped out at me as, oh, I have to try harder. And we all have that mindset. I mean, I just have to try harder. And because if I do some good, that good is going to cover up. We all have that scale mindset. We're hoping the good's going to outweigh the bad in the end. Brethren, this is the world that we live in. And Christ said this, the light has come into the world and everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. You see, that's what happens when you come to the light. That's what happens when the light goes to them. Their deeds get exposed. That's what you have to do. Brethren, that's what we have to do. We have to expose the disease. And you know, people don't like it. You know, if you're sitting on a bus with somebody, you're sitting on an airplane with somebody. Now there's ways to do this. And you can definitely, you know, this doesn't say we have to blast people. This doesn't say we have to be ugly to people. This doesn't say we have to condemn people. We can be sympathetic to people. Look, we come from the same stock. It's not this holier-than-thou attitude. We go to people as people who ourselves have been rescued. And we know about this disease because we had it. And we've been cured. And we know what the cure is. So it's not as though we're aliens from somewhere else and we're dealing with people that we don't understand. We need to wake up. We're not gonna be partakers with them, but we also don't wanna be removed from them. We don't wanna vacate from them. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a friend of tax collectors and sinners. And we want to be as well. That's what's gonna turn the world upside down. If you think about the times when revival has come, there's been, that's been happening. The light has been shining. Now I know, I know we need the Spirit of God to convince and convict men of this righteousness that they don't have. We need the Spirit of God. But brethren, it is going to be through us speaking that it happens, or through materials that we give them. We can distribute Bibles. If people are out there and gonna read them, we can distribute the gospel. We don't wanna be like the Pharisees. We don't wanna be like the proverbial priest and Levite who walk by on the other side of the road. Exposing sins does not mean that we condemn them. It doesn't mean that we're disgusted with them. I mean, you ever have that? People at work, they know you're a Christian and they use the Lord's name in vain and they look at you, oh, I'm sorry. And you know, you could be really disgusted. Nah, that's good, you're sorry, I'm a Christian. It's like you're blaspheming the God who created you. I mean, your sin isn't against me, it's against Him. You should fear. We don't have to be disgusted. But look, if you're gonna expose, if you're gonna expose, you have to throw light on them. You have to do that. You have to shine. You have to prove with evidence. You convince. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to reason with people. We wanna convince them. We wanna convict them. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. What are we convincing them of? What are we convicting them of? The unfruitful works of darkness. They're unfruitful. Bring light to that. Every person in the dark is ignorant. They don't know how unfruitful it all is. They don't realize that. See, they think, hey, I'm religious. I go to church. Some of them do. But that's unfruitful. If you don't know Christ, that's unfruitful. Our righteousness are filthy rags. They don't take us anywhere. Well, I've been a pretty good person. It's unfruitful. You see, all the things that they're trusting and all the things that they have, the crucifix up on the wall, are the Jews that live here. They probably still have some attachment to their Jewish heritage somehow. They've got their relics. They've got their ornaments. People have their stuff. The Catholics have their beads. It's all unfruitful. It goes nowhere. And they don't know it. They don't realize no value. What fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you're now ashamed? That's what Paul says to the Romans. Nothing. What fruit were we getting from all those things? The way we used to live, we got nothing from it, except additional condemnation. We go on falling short of the glory of God. We go on not trusting in His Son. And it's all empty. It's filthy rags and they don't know it. Why don't they know it? Because they don't know God and they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't know what He's done. They don't know what He said. They don't know about eternity. They don't really know what's going to happen when they face death. And we're supposed to be there and shine light on them. We want to tell them about eternity. Tell them about hell. Tell them about eternal life. Tell them about real joy. Tell them about the Christ of Scripture. They've got demented views of Christ. I did. They have little views. You tell them the kind of Christ. He's no killjoy. He came into this world. He took a thief who walked his entire life right up until the end, and he said this day, you will be with me in paradise. It doesn't matter if they lived 60, 70, 80 years in their sins. You can go to them and tell them if you will fall down before this Christ and ask Him to save you. He says, come unto Me, you who are labor and are under these burdens. And He says, I'll give you rest. I will save you. He came to save the broken. He came to heal. He came to help. He came as a Savior. And He didn't come to help us in the sense that we do part, He does part. He came for the destitute, the naked, the distraught, the broken. He came for those. Tell the people that. He came to save us to the uttermost and take us to God. They don't know that. And you know what? We don't want to do that in a merely negative, denunciatory fashion or tone. Christian, radiate the people with the light of the Gospel. I've said it already several times, but I love to tell people, I love to think on this. The first miracle He did was, this is so telling. John's gonna give you some signs so that you might believe that this is the one and only one who can save your soul. And that you might believe on Him and have eternal life. And he just gives us a couple handfuls of these signs. The world couldn't contain the books. He gives us just a handful. The first one, God is gonna send His Son into this world to save sinners. What's the first thing He's gonna do? What is going to be that which is just gonna set the tone for the ministry of Christ? Turn water into wine at a wedding. I mean, tell the people. They don't, you know what they think? You know what the devil's right there telling them all the time? Oh, you don't want to be a Christian. Christ, He is a hard master. He, oh, you'll have to give up everything you love. You'll have to, it's, you know that's true because that's what rung in my ear. Be a Christian? Hardly. My life is fun. Why would I want that? But you know, joy, peace, righteousness. We heard about this. They don't know, brethren. Can you still remember? I remember, I remember those first days after the sin had been lifted. I was experiencing such joy. I didn't know. I didn't know that I had been saved. I didn't know what had happened to me. I know I called upon the Lord and suddenly there was light and I found such an overwhelming joy. I would find myself falling on my face and just worshiping. I didn't know what had happened, but I knew this. I knew a burden had been lifted off. Brethren, we've tasted both sides. You don't find genuine Christians saying they want to throw in the towel. We don't want to. We've tasted both sides. We've been on the side where they're at and now we're on this side. I can speak for myself. There's no going back. I don't want to go back. Lord God, carry me to the end. I don't want to go back. This is life. This is life more abundantly. Brethren, do you realize we have found the treasure of all treasures? Donald Trump and all his towers and all his billions, he's got nothing on us. We are the wealthy. He has made us rich. He became poor to make us abundantly wealthy and rich. We have eternal life. We have paradise. We have redemption. We have Him. He's our husband. We have Him forevermore. Mary got down there. He said, don't touch me yet. Not yet. I haven't gone to my Father. In other words, he's implying, once I go there, you can touch me. You can have me. I'm yours. Father, I want them to be with me. I want them to see my glory. And when we see it, we don't even know what we're going to be, but we know this, we're going to be like Him. It doesn't get any better than what we have. Our sins are forgiven. We don't have to bear the penalty for one single sin. And we know the Redeemer. And we've been rescued. And they don't know it. And they're afraid. They're afraid. Because the problem with the conscience that's trusting in its own works, it just never knows. Have I done enough? Have I not done enough? And the dark scares them. And noises scare them. Because they know deep inside, man is not an atheist. Romans 1 tells us that. No matter what they say, they're not atheists. And eternity is written on the hearts of men. And we feel it. We may deny it. We try to drown it. We drown it with the drugs. We drown it with the alcohol. We drown it with the amusement. We drown it with the TV being on. Men drown it all sorts of ways. They drown it with money. They drown it with social activity. They just keep the noise level high. A lost man doesn't like silence. He doesn't like to think. Because his conscience is there no matter how much he's dulled it. And we know, we know, sleep. That's what he's saying. Awake. Awake. What is sleep? Think about that. What happens? Just this, sleep brings us into an unconscious state. That's what happens. The sleeping man, he's not aware. He doesn't know. He becomes indifferent. So, what's happening around him? That's what happens. When we go to sleep, we become unconscious. And you see what happens in spiritual sleep? We become unconscious of those in the dark. We're asleep. We're not awake to those realities. When we sleep, we might walk. I don't know if I should believe this, but one of the guys I worked with years ago, he told me, a foreman that I worked for, he told me he woke up and he was driving his van and he had an empty bag of Burger King. But I know this, we had a guy living with us one day, he sleptwalked. He was Jeremy Volo. What was he doing one night? He was in there and he was beating on the wall. He was tearing something apart. He was going after the fan. He was sound asleep. Did he know what he was doing? He didn't know what he was doing. He was unconscious to it. People may move, they may roll over. My wife likes to talk in her sleep. She's very expressive at night. It's not audible. Well, it's audible, it's just not discernible. It's another language. People do that when they sleep. And you know what? Sleeping people can sing. And sleeping people can read their Bibles. And sleeping people can come to church. Do you see the kind of sleep that we're talking about here? Because sleeping people, they get preoccupied with dreams. They're disconnected from reality. That's what sleeping people do. We can pray in our sleep. We can listen to sermons in our sleep. And you know what needs to happen? We need somebody like Paul to come along and shake us and wake us up. Say, look, you're light. Shine in the dark. Expose. Redeem the time. Take the opportunities that you're given. And you know what? This is our time of opportunity. Because it runs out. You have to work while it's day. Because the night is coming. You know what? We all imagine we're going to live longer than we're actually going to live. It's going to be cut short. And our health can be taken away. Paul says awake. Wake from sleep. I'll tell you what's especially bad is church leaders who are asleep. That's a terrible thing. It's a curse to the church. Because you know what happens? You know what happens? If there's a fire and we're all sleeping, nobody's there to wake up the other person. If I'm up here and I'm leading, and I'm asleep too, I'm not calling anybody to wake up. And if we're all sleeping, we just get sleepy, we get groggy, and we all fall asleep. I've always wondered. I've always wondered if Jesus actually walked into our churches or the Apostle Paul. If Jesus came like He came to those seven churches in Asia Minor, what would He say about us? What would He discern? Remember the context here. The sleep Paul's calling us out of is the sleep in which we become indifferent to the state of men in the dark. That's the issue. Brethren, let us remember this. The enemy doesn't sleep. We fall asleep. He doesn't. Remember this, they're darkness. And eternity is coming. Think about eternity. We're heading out of this world and so are they. This isn't forever. We get indifferent to that. Judgment. Think of judgment day. You don't want judgment day. There they stand. Yes, they're wretched. Yes, they're naked standing there on judgment day. And you're there clothed. And you're there. You say, you never told me. Your church met right down the street from me. You never told me. You know, there are people in Scripture they didn't know their Master's will. And they didn't do it. But they didn't know it. They'll be beaten with few stripes. There are people in dark places. You know what the missionaries have said in various places. Why did it take you so long to come? It's one of the things Hudson Taylor thought about those Chinese. He did the calculations how many people were perishing. Do you know how many people perish? Do you know how many people perish in a minute? It's something like one person is passing into eternity every half second. And just like that, they are gone. They're going over the edge into eternity. Life is short. And we know eternity, the wrath of God that comes upon the sons of disobedience. Think about the terrors. Think about standing before God. Think just about this. Think about a thunderstorm. You ever been close to where a bolt of lightning has struck? It is fearful. It will put the fear of God in you. You have a bolt of lightning. Jonathan Edwards would ride around purposely out in the lightning and thunder just absolutely convinced of the sovereignty of his Father. I don't know about presumption there or not, but that's faith undoubtedly. But you get close to a bolt of lightning and that clap of thunder, and that is just... What is that? That is such a small demonstration of God's power. To stand in His presence and to find out you weren't ready. We can be so asleep to this reality. Is it real? Is that real? We haven't seen it with our own eyes. We know this by faith. It's going to happen. And yet, it seems somehow so unreal to us. We're going to stand before... We can't imagine it. We can't picture it. And there are those people, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. And they're going to be cast in the lake of fire. That's what it says. Cast into the lake of fire. They are going to fall into that fire. And then it is forever. Can you imagine? Just recently when Kobe Bryant died, you think, wow, he's been there for a week. He's been there for a month. He perished. There's no indication. He was nominal Catholic or something. There's no indication that he knew the Lord. And he's been there that long. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine? You've been in hell for a month. And the immediate reality is this is forever. I threw it all away. I played the fool. I am a fool. I believe lies. You see, Satan's out there deceiving the whole world. And we're the people that God has put here intentionally to be the people to undeceive the deceived. And we know an eternity. Eternity. Eternity. And it goes on and it goes on. I think about my grandparents. To the best of my knowledge, there's no way any of them knew the Lord. And they've only been there, even my grandfather died when he was four years old. Okay, he's been there for 50 years. On the edge of eternity. It's like, can you imagine? Death. It takes you. This is real, but it seems so foggy. It seems so hazy. And the enemy is there and he is wide awake and he is lulling these people to sleep. And he's lulling us to sleep. And we don't want to be asleep. And I'll tell you, every time in Scripture where you see that there have been these movements, what's been happening is the Gospel has been going forth to sinners. Now listen, there are some cases in history where you'll see where a Charles Spurgeon was preaching and the Spirit of God was bringing people in. Martin Lloyd-Jones. And the people came in. These guys were great evangelists. And God brought people in. We heard about the Hebrides revival. The people, the lights were turning on in the dark. People were coming out. The Spirit of God was drawing them. But I'll tell you this, by and large, the mandate of Scripture is not to wait for them to come to us. It is go. And there is a Jerusalem and a Judea and a Samaria and an uttermost parts of the world. And we need to go to them. We need to go find them. We need to go seek them. We need to go shine on them. We need to go expose where they are. Brethren, eternity. Eternity. Wake up. Watch against the adversary. How much like the apostles who slept in the garden. We don't want to be like that. We don't want to be like that. Peter's so bold. Lord, I won't deny you. And then there he is sleeping. We don't want to be like that, brethren. Awake! Awake! That's what he tells us. Awake! Arise! Arise! You know what? If we're all sleeping and somebody comes in here and finds us sleeping and there's an urgency and somebody says, Wake up! They don't mean tomorrow. Nobody ever means that. If you shout to your kids, Wake up, kids! Typically, if they don't respond to that and they stay in bed for another 45 minutes, you don't take that as a good thing. This charge is meant to wake us up now. We are to arise now. Because what happens is, we can have good intentions for tomorrow. A lot of people can have good intentions. And the intentions don't come to fruition. Brethren, I want to tell you this. Do what you can. Do what you can. I don't even know where I heard this story. Remember a little old lady and her house was close, I think it was close to a college campus. And she went around the college campus and she nailed up little signs that said she was going to have tea every day at a certain hour. Maybe this was in England. And she invited students to come. It was kind of like the prayer meeting in Manhattan. At first, nobody came. But then one person came. And then somebody else. And she was taking this as an opportunity to reach students. You know why? Students are away from home. Students tend to be lonely. I'll tell you what, when I was living in the dorms and I was broke, and I was hungry, if somebody would have came to my door and told me there was a Christian deal over here and they were serving food, I'd have been there. And that would have been a perfect opportunity for somebody to share the Gospel with me. This little lady, she puts up these signs and they start coming in. And this little old lady's sharing the Gospel with these people. Can you do that? Can you simply determine that for the next month, you'll hand a track out to one person a day? Can you do that? I mean, what can you do? What can we do? If you just determine, you know what, just for an entire year, one time a week, I'm going to actually go to a neighbor's house and I'm going to talk to them about the Lord. They slam the door in my face, okay, I tried. Go home. Or you can go to the next five houses. I mean, I'm not trying to limit anybody, but you can make it a point. Take the guy out that you work with. Take him out for lunch. And talk to him. Look for the opportunities. That's what it's saying, redeem the time. That means take advantage of the opportunities. That's what that concept is all about. You are given opportunities. We all have contacts. We all live in life. We all have people we're rubbing shoulders with. We all know lost people somewhere. And Jesus made it a point to get out in the midst of the lost. Don't try to isolate yourselves. We don't want to try to have this communal living. We need to get out there and we need to get our hands dirty. That's what will happen. You get involved with sinners. You get involved with... It's dirty work. Oftentimes it's dirty. And the worse the sinners are, the dirtier the work can be. Will they steal from you? Yes. Will they take advantage of you? Yes. If you try to help people, are they going to try to get money from you? Yes. Are people trying to... That's okay. Jesus all along knew that Judas was stealing from the bag and He didn't get too worked up over it. We don't have to get worked up. But our God has limitless abundance. He can supply all our need. If we're out there and we're trying to give of ourselves and people are taking advantage of us, okay. Be a good Samaritan. Help the people. Help. Show compassion. You know what you want to show to your communities? We are the people that will help you when you're in need. And you take opportunities when, hey, a storm hits, send people over there to help. Some kind of catastrophe happens, that ought to be immediate opportunity. Keep your eyes open. Where people gather. If you know places where people gather, I'll tell you one place people gather, you guys are next to one of the biggest cities in the world. You can go out there and stand on the streets and probably have a million people pass you in a given amount of time. I mean, imagine if you were just handing out tracts. And listen, even if half of them ended up on the sidewalk, go pick them up and hand them out again. Wipe the footprint off of them and just hand them out again. Because the reality is, if that one person grabs one who is one of Christ, he's got an appointment with the Gospel. I mean, look, all of God's elect in this world, they have an appointment with the Gospel somewhere along the line. And we are the ones, it's the power of God, but it's not going to be powerful unless it comes in their ear, it comes in their eye, it comes into their minds. Shine. Arise. It says, Christ will shine on you. This is very similar to the promises we looked at in Isaiah 58. It says that if you'll pour yourself out like this, that there will be light. You'll have the shining on you. This is very much like the promise of the Great Commission where, Lo, I am with you always. Well, isn't Christ with us always anyways? Why is that attached to going and making disciples? Because what He means is, He's going to shine in a special way, in a unique way. He's going to attend to us. As we seek to shine, His light is going to go through us. He shines on us. He makes us all the brighter. He makes our gloom like midday, like noontime. I mean, that's the reality. And He says, therefore, so then, what you want to do? Redeem the time. Take advantage. Figure out what the will of God is for you. This is what the will of God is for you. Brethren, this is my last moments with all of you. Turn the world upside down. Brethren, God helping you? Yes, we need the power of God. But put your foot forward and see if the water doesn't hold you. And take the next step and see if it doesn't hold you again. See, God's power is unleashed when we trust Him and we trust His power and we go. He doesn't tell us to wait until we feel empowered. He tells us trust Him and do what He's told us to do. Shine in the darkness. Amen? Amen. Father, I pray, make us bright. Make these people bright. Shining. Awake. Alert. Oh God, help us. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.