"Getting Used To It"

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 19 Issue 33 November 1, 2009


Yesterday was Halloween - proving once again that darkness is all about us… It seems the deep depravity of man, social evils, worldliness and immodesty are all accepted in today’s light views of sin.

The whole world lies in darkness and sadly we Christians are getting used to the dark. I John 5:19

Vance Havner one of my favorite preachers points out that we as Christians are to expose the darkness not so much by denouncing it as by the sharp contrast of our godly living.

The early Christians did not dim their lights to match the times”

Today I want to encourages every Christian to beware of getting used to the dark and to consciously work at turning on the light.

Luke 11:33-34 No man when he lights a candle puts it in a secret place. neither under a bushel; but on a candle stick, that they which come in may see the light.

In His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus gives this responsibility to us to be the Light of the World. Paul challenges us with this same responsibility in Ephesians 5:8-14 and in Philippians 2:14-16. Peter also teaches this in I Peter 2:9-12.

Jesus says that when others see our good lives and our good works, they will be forced to glorify our Father in heaven.

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them Ephesians 5:11

Man has never had more artificial illumination and less true light.

We are seeing not ordinary moral corruption, but evil multiplied, a darkness never heard of a generation ago.

There is a slow, subtle, sinister brainwashing process going on and by it we are gradually being desensitized to evil. The night is far spent and we are getting used to the darkness.

Little by little, sin is made to appear less sinful until the light within us becomes darkness, and how great is that darkness!

We are engulfed in a tidal wave of pornographic filth. Television has brought the darkness right in our living room.

We get used to it. We accept, as a matter of course, its art, its literature, its music, its language. We learn to live with it without an inner protest. As the prophet said, we don’t even blush anymore.

Lot was a righteous man, pitched his tent toward Sodom, then he moved into Sodom, lived in it, probably became its mayor. His soul was vexed from day to day with the Sodomites’ unlawful deeds, but he lost his influence with his family, had to flee for his life, and died in disgrace.

As it was in the days of Lot. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed Luke 17:28-30

Sit long enough in a dark room and you will imagine that more light is breaking in. The same danger exists with regard to worldliness. If you are not living separated unto the Lord you will soon find this world less repulsive.

Rather than being a light and expose the darkness we turn our lights down and get used to the darkness around us. Of course we do not get used to it all of a sudden.

Folks there are some things we have no right ever to get used to. One, is brutality. The other is sexual immorality. Both, have now come together and are moving towards a dominant pattern.

There was a time when sin shocked us. But as the brainwashing progresses, what once set us back now doesn’t even make us blush.

We are not supposed to learn how to live in the dark, we are to walk in the light.

Church workers fall into grievous sin and move on to new positions without repentance or change of conduct. Parents let down in discipline, saying, “What’s the use?” Pastors give up preaching against sin, arguing that the world’s evils are here to stay.

The world lives in the dark... it rejects Jesus the Light of the world: And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil John 3:19

This light shines in Christ: I am the light of the world. John 8:12 It shines in the Scriptures: Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path Psalm 119:105

It shines in the saints: You are the light of the world Matthew 5:14

Every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved John 3:20 This might explain why some people don’t come to church.

Have you ever overturned a rock in a field? All the hidden creeping and crawling things hit by the sunlight scurry for cover. In the same way our sinful hearts grow restless in the light of God’s truth.

Christians are to let their light shine. As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so we are to reflect the light of Christ. The way Christ makes us His lights in the world is by living in us by His Holy Spirit. The light we reflect is actually Christ living out His life in us. This is taught in Galatians 2:20. Think about an eclipse.

We expose darkness not so much by denouncing it, although that has its place, but by the contrast of our godly living. Sadly we are so afraid of being offensive that we are no longer effective!

Our Lord said that two things would smother the light of our testimony, a bushel and a bed. Today we dim our light in the third way: we turn it low for fear of creating a disturbance. It would seem we would rather grieve the Holy Spirit than offend the wicked.

The early Christians did not dim their lights to match the times.

Paul exceedingly troubled the places he visited, and even in prison at midnight he turned night into day. Early Christians met in the catacombs, but they illuminated the world.

We are to shine as lights in the world. This is no time to get used to the dark; it is time to turn up the Light!

Early Christianity set the world aglow because absolute Light was pitched against absolute darkness. The early Christians believed that the Gospel was the only hope of the world, that without it all men were lost and all religions false.

Then the day came when the church and the world mixed light and darkness. Today many Christians think there is some darkness in our light and some light in the world’s darkness. We half doubt our own Gospel and half believe the religion of this age.

Question: What is half cold and half hot?

We are creeping around in the dark when we should be flooding the world with light.

We need to take the shades of compromise off of our lamps and let them shine in our hearts, our homes, our businesses, our churches, and our communities.

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