The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let
us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (Rom
13:12)
There is a war at hand between light and darkness. While
most can easily see the external manifestations of wars and rumors of wars, it
is harder to see the inner struggles that we face as children of the Light.
Mostly we conjure images of darkness out of movies or
memories of evil. We hear in the news about atrocities and maybe even we have
experienced some of them ourselves. Our region is no stranger to evil. We are a
leader in human sex trafficking. Nightly our citizens die from violent crime.
Every night on average, just in the City of Seattle there are 10 reported
violent crimes. King county numbers are double that.
This morning, I want to talk about a level of the deeds of
darkness that Abba is dealing with in all of our lives as an answer to a prayer
from the Son, Yeshua.
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. (John 17:11)
The prayer of Yeshua is for oneness. What does that mean?
Well whatever it means, it means from the perspective of the oneness that Abba
is and the Son is. I want to suggest to you that it is the place of
relationship. It is the place of trust and oneness. It is the place of transparency,
where we allow the light to reveal all that is the darkness.
We have a tendency to deal with manifestations. If I ask “what
are the deeds of darkness”, I get a list from the scriptures.
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are:
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell
you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice
such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal 5:19-21)
Truly these are works of the flesh, which are as Paul says,
very evident. Yet I want to go a little deeper to the inside where these
originate from. People do not just wake up one day and commit adultery; they
don’t just have outbursts of wrath.
There is a deeper place where the oneness is disturbed. I
believe from my own struggles that it is the place of the “me” that I am trying
to survive with that is in conflict with Messiah in me. You see there are 2
sources in our lives. One is “me”. “I” who lives in a basic state of existential
terror is at the core of my being. It is the “me” of evolution, the me of
survival of the fittest. This “me” is living in darkness manipulating me and
others in the light.
This “me” works in the dark and it is the source of deeds of
darkness. Its objective is to destroy intimacy and create an illusion of self-sufficiency.
It uses self-statements like “I don’t need you”. “I can take care of myself”.
The “I” of the dark place is terrified of discovery. It seeks to reinforce
itself. How do “I” reinforce myself? Well since “I” am actually an illusion, I do
it by trying to overcome my fear of disappearing. I protect myself. I compare
myself.
At the core of this identity is a twisting of life, which
the Scriptures call iniquity. The enemy of this false self is the Light of the
Word. In this place, I actually hate the scriptures because they resist the lie
that I am living.
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that
you may not do the things that you please. (Gal 5:17)
The Holy Spirit in me restrains this dweller of the deep
that is hidden in me. The hidden one tries to manipulate the scriptures to gain
some kind of control. If I feel threatened for example in a relationship or by
a truth, I feel the need to reinterpret the scriptures to accommodate my identity
and its desire to survive. Out of this come the true deeds of darkness.
You see deeds of darkness are really attempts at survival of
the me that the cross is all about. This is “the life” of an identity that is
rooted in self-preservation. It is pride itself.
Yeshua spoke of this as the life that needs to be lost.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires
to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world,
and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mat 16:24-26)
You see we are in a battle for our souls. This battle is
between light and dark. But instead of looking for agents of darkness outside
of ourselves, we need to realize that the true battle is inside of ourselves.
There is an attraction to the dark, which is the realm of our self-protection,
our self-justification that will cause us to lose our souls.
You see Yeshua came to die for our darkness to be
eliminated. Let’s look at the core salvation message.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through Him might be saved. "He who believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the
light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he
who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that
they have been done in God." After these things Jesus and His disciples came
into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. (John
3:16-22)
You see Yeshua came as light to the people of darkness.
Darkness is just the condition of being alone in our identity...This is both
the result of sin and condemnation and the condemnation itself as a condition
of the darkness. When we are in self-preservation, when we are defending
ourselves, when we are justifying our actions and our perspectives, we are in
darkness. Darkness is life apart from the light. The light is Yeshua, Jesus.
But it isn’t just about receiving the light. We also have to walk in the light.
To do that we have to release the addiction to isolation and control. We have
to become transparent to others and to the light.
I have been contending with the spirit of divorce lately. We
live in a culture of broken covenant. This is because of darkness. We get hurt
and rather than repent, which we don’t think we need to do because we are the
victim in the story. Then we think our pain justifies isolation. This is walking into darkness. Self-protection is always a
deed of darkness. It requires the idolatry of ourselves, thinking we can
protect ourselves. What it always leaves out of the equation is light.
What we need to understand is this is normal. This is what
normal people do. It is the condition of man. What we need is a true
repentance. We need to abandon ourselves to the light.
One last section of scripture and then I want us to consider
repentance. By repentance I don’t just mean an acknowledgement of sin but also
a commitment to the light. Look with me at
1 John 1
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen,
and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the
Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to
you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
The light is all about relationship, or fellowship.
And these things we
write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard
from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at
all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanses us from all sin.
You see the proof of our salvation is relationship,
fellowship with one another. This is NOT a gospel of individual salvation.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1Jn 1:1-2:6)
You see our salvation is about a conscious walk of opening
up our heart to Him. He must be the source and the resource for our lives. This
means we have to give up other resources.
This means that we cannot look to friends as the resource.
This means even though we have fellowship and we are created for relationship,
it has to be one of transparency and trust that can only come from Him. This
means we will keep His commandments, not as laws to be followed but as
surrendered will.
SO, let’s determine to walk in the light and NOT in the
dark!!
