chapter 27. The title of the message this morning
is Jesus my light. Jesus is my light. and my salvation. That's what
the psalmist says here in verse 1. The Lord, Jehovah, is my light
and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength
of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Light, Light is something
we all, anyone who can see, you understand light. Now you may
not understand the fullness of light and how it loads through
the prism and how it blends all of the colors together and how
it forms in the eye, but I'll know this, when you cut a light
switch on and you look around the room, you know there's light.
Light, very simple. Light is essential to life. Without light of the sun, this
planet would be as lifeless as all the other planets. I laugh
at them sending the millions of dollars they spend on trying
to find life on other planets. But there is no life even because
of the light. The light. Scientists confirmed
this, that if this planet were closer to the sun, everything
would burn up, the ice caps would melt, the water would evaporate,
and it would be a barren wasteland. If the planet were farther from
the sun, everything would freeze, it would be too cold to inhabit
life, sustain life. But in the infinite wisdom of
God, God created and formed this planet in its exact place where
life flourishes. This planet is the only planet
that has life and life flourishes because it is the proper distance
from the sun. Consider that the axis of the
earth is tilted just right so that we have all of the seasons
that we have, summer, winter, spring, and fall. All of these
things continually happen. Every year you can set your watch
to the sun and the moon and the stars because God has put it
there for life. Without life and warmth to the
sun, there wouldn't be any life. Now this light, everyone understands
that. It's not something complicated.
Everyone understands that. But this matter of physical light
in the scriptures is purposed of God to be a picture of spiritual
matters. When David said, the Lord is
my light, he's not talking about the physical sun. He's talking
about the God of heaven, the creator of all things. He said,
God is my light. Because God is light. God is my light. Light in Scripture
is meant in a spiritual matter. Those who have spiritual light,
which David is talking about, have spiritual life. Listen, if you don't have spiritual
light, you don't have spiritual life. They go together. Light and life go together. It
is true in the physical sense, but it mainly is true in the
spiritual sense. If you don't have spiritual light,
then you don't have spiritual life. But if God is your light,
you have life, true life, spiritual life. Those who have spiritual light
in life are able to see and know God, whom Christ said, to know
is life eternal. And the only way a man can know
God, the only way you can see God and know God and experience
God who is through Jesus Christ, through faith in Jesus Christ,
who is the express image of the Father. I believe in 2 Corinthians,
the apostles said that God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give us, what,
the light. The light of the glory of God. Where is this light? Where is
this life? It is in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is only by seeing Christ.
It is only by believing on Christ that the light of God shines
in our hearts. It's the only way that you can
be accepted with God is in Christ and no place else. No place else. Man by his physical mind and
physical eyes Well, you can see the physical light. You can see the creation of God,
the sun, moon, and stars. You may know that there is a
God. Man, by nature, by creation,
may know the greatness of God's power. He may know the greatness
of His wisdom by looking at the sun, at the moon, and stars,
by creation. Man by nature knows there's a
God every one of you here. Listen, you know, there's a God
Now you don't know who he is by nature nobody knows who he
is that's why you have millions of religions Man by nature is
a religious creature, isn't he? You would sooner find a temple
in... A man would... An archaeologist
said this, he said, you'd sooner find a language without an alphabet
than you would without a temple. Because in all cultures, religion
flourishes. Man's a religious creature. He
knows there's a God. You know there's a God. And listen,
anybody says he's an atheist, he himself is a liar and a hypocrite. Because he knows. I don't go
around fighting against a tooth fairy. Do you see me fighting
against a tooth fairy? You see me mad at people who
believe in a tooth fairy? No. Because it doesn't exist.
But I'll tell you this, they're mad because they know God exists,
and they will face Him. They'll know this soon enough.
So there are no atheists. All men know there's a God, and
if they'll be honest in their hearts, and be honest with the
evidence of the universe, they know that this world did not
create itself, that God made it, and God rules it. But as God plainly declares in
His Word, in this book God plainly declares that all men know there's
a God, but no man can know God by nature. No man can know God
by nature or reason or education. They cannot know God except God
reveal Himself to them. I tell you, if you're without
knowledge of God, you're without light this morning, I encourage
you to come and sit and listen to the gospel and beg God to
reveal Himself. That's what you should do. You
should beg God to reveal Himself. Go over to John chapter 1. Go
over to John chapter 1. Verse 8, John says this. I think I've lost my place, but
hold on just a second. Talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and all things were made by Him. And without Him
was not anything made that was made. Listen, in Him was life,
and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth out
of darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Why? Because no man could know
Christ. No man could know God. Jesus
was always daily with them, but they didn't know Him. They didn't
know Him, that He was the light and life of God, that He was
God manifest in the flesh. John says this, he says, No man
has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed Him. In 1 John
1 and verse 5, John says, God is light. God is light. And in Him is no darkness at
all. God is light. And the only way
a man by nature can see the light is if light reveal himself. If
the light shine out of darkness. God is light. Who is God? God
is light. He is holy. He is pure. He is sinless. And will not allow
sinners to abide in His presence. Scripture says in Psalm, I believe
it's 1, it says, Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the
day of judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Therefore Paul says in 1 Timothy 6 verse 16, God dwells in light
that no man can approach. And no man hath seen nor can
see God. Therefore only God who is light
and life in himself, only he can reveal himself to you. You
remember Moses asked God, I want to see you. I want to see you. Show me your glory. And what
did God say? You cannot see me and live. This was his prophet. This was his man, this was his
chosen one who gave the law. And yet he said to him, you cannot
see my face. You cannot see me unless you
be consumed with holy vengeance. How then could he see God? Only
as God put him in the cleft of the rock. How is it that man
may know God and see the light? Only by the cleft of the rock
which is Christ. Jesus Christ is the cleft of
the rock. He is the rock of salvation.
And God puts His hand over us. And He removes His hand. And
we are able to see the hinder parts of God. The glories of
God by His work of salvation. by what He's done for us. Only
God, if God should be pleased by His grace to reveal Himself,
will God be your light. Man by nature, therefore, needs
light. Needs it. Man by nature may know
there is a God, but he cannot know God except God reveal Himself. And God is very clear as to the
fallen condition of all of Adam's race. Listen, I'll quote it for
you. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world. You don't know how sin got in
here? One man. Your father and my father. People
like to do this ancestry stuff, and they like to see who was
their... You know what? You go all the way back, and
you're going to find we have one common father, Adam. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin. The consequence of Adam's
sin was death, and death passed upon all men. Listen, for all
have sinned. This is very important. You sinned
before you took your first breath. You sinned even before you were
conceived. You sinned in your father, Adam. He was your representative. Well,
that's not fair, Pastor. I'm not here to tell you what's
fair. I'm here to tell you what God
says. God says that was your representative. And when he died,
you died. When he sinned, you sinned. That's
why you were born dead. Born dead. And you can't get
much darker than dead, can you? Death, the grave, the tomb. All of that speaks of what? Darkness. Blindness. Man by nature is blind. He's dead. His state and condition
as we are born into this world, the soul that sinneth it shall
surely die. And as Adam sinned, we all died.
You read that same chapter in Romans 5 that I just quoted in
verse 19, for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. How were
you made sinners? By one man's disobedience. The
natural man is dead in sins, he's blind to the truth of God's
salvation, he's ignorant of God's righteousness, and he goes about
to establish his own righteousness. How do I know a man is lost?
Because he's trying to establish his own righteousness. This morning,
if you are trying to establish your righteousness before God,
if you're looking at all of the things you've done, all of the
things you're doing, and you're trying to establish something,
some ground by which God can accept you, then you are lost. You are blind to see that you're
dead. If I were to lay a corpse on
this table in front of you this morning and put a glass of water
over here that was able to give him life, and I say to the dead, all you
have to do is drink that. Go ahead. It's right there. Matter
of fact, I could take the water and put it into his corpse, into
his hands. I can close his fingers around
it. But I'll tell you this, I can't make him drink and he himself
can't drink. Why? He's dead. He's dead. If I say, hey, you, look, look,
look, blind man, look, look, dead man here. He can't look,
he's dead. What's the only hope for a dead
man? If God give him life. That's
the only hope. If God give him life. Well, how
dare you say that I can't? See, how dare you say that about
me? You don't know me. I know you
because I know me. That's how I know you. I know
you because what God says about you and me is the same. How dare
you say I'm dead in sins? People get offended at that.
You know that? I don't get offended at that. That does not offend
me because that's my experience. I know what I am by nature because I have life. I understand. And yet men get offended at this
because all men are born in sin, dead in trespasses, And they
are without light and can't see their awful and helpless and
hopeless condition to please God. They're blind to see that
they cannot by their works, religion or creeds or actions or exercises
please God. We are by nature born dead and
therefore we are surely without light. We are surely blind to
the righteousness of God. Jesus said this, if the eye be
evil, the whole body is full of what? Darkness. In other words, if somebody comes
and takes a nail and just puts it right in your eyeball, your
eye is evil, your eye is ill. It's full of darkness. No matter
how you would struggle to see, you couldn't see. It'd be blind. Therefore, If you say that you see, how
great is that darkness? In John 9, the Lord Jesus was
healing a man born blind. And surely that's a picture of
us by nature. Man is born blind. This man was not looking for
Jesus. He couldn't look for Jesus, could
he? Couldn't see Him. He wasn't looking for Christ,
but Christ was looking for him. And Jesus gave this man sight. Hear the words of Jesus regarding
the healing of this man, this man born blind. He said this, that this man was
born blind that the works of God should be revealed in him. Behold, then the gospel is preached
to us through this physical healing of this blind man who is without
light, without hope of seeing God or being accepted by Him. Because all our righteousnesses are his menstrual cloths. Go ahead, recall your best. Think of what you would say is
your best. You know what God says of that?
It's filthy. It's filthy. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none good. There is
none, listen, that understandeth. Remember, what does light do?
It reveals. It causes us to understand. By
nature, none of us understand. None of us seek after God. Yes,
we seek after a God of our own making, a God that we can comprehend,
a God that we can understand, a God of free will, works, religion.
Anyone can see a God like that. But no man by nature can know
and seek God because he's blind, and the only hope is if Jesus
come to you and give you light. Open your eyes. When Jesus told
those Pharisees, he said, they were blind, he said this, people
do not know Christ in this generation, I'm telling you. Jesus said this,
for judgment I am come into the world. You know what that means?
Division. I came to make division among
you. I came for judgment, division,
that those which see not might see. But these Pharisees, they said,
are we blind too? Is that what you're telling me,
that I'm blind? No, he said, if you were blind, then you should
see. But because you say, I see, Therefore,
your sin remaineth. If you were blind, you should
have no sin. Sinner, are you blind? See, I'm
talking, I wanna talk to blind people, those without light. Are you without light? Are you blind and without understanding
who God is? And I tell you, believe on Christ. Come to Him. Cry out to Him in
your condition. Cry out for mercy! I like this. One preacher said, however you
want to be met, God will meet you. If you want to be met on
the basis of your works, God will meet you there. Oh, but if you want to be met
on the grounds of mercy, God will meet you there. God will
meet you there. Jesus said, Come unto me, all
you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
He said, I came to open the eyes of the blind, to give light to
them that see not, to see the glory of God and the salvation
of God as it is only in Himself. This is why Jesus came into the
world, to give sight to the blind. But if you continually say, well,
I see, I see, Your sin remains. But praise God for his grace,
because I was blind. But now Christ is my light. You know how I read the scriptures? I look for Christ in every part.
You know how I can understand the Scriptures? Because Christ
is in every part. He opens this book. And if you read this book without
Him, you don't understand it. Christ is the light. He is my
light and my salvation. Second of all, the light is revealed,
reveals our need of salvation. I was blind to my need of salvation,
but now I see. You know what I need? I need
salvation. I need salvation. Jesus said in Matthew 9, they
that are whole need not a physician. You know why people are disinterested
in the gospel? Because they don't have any need of it. I've heard
that. I don't need that. I heard that
when I was a kid. I don't need it anymore. I've
outgrown it. See, you don't need because you
don't have any light. You don't know your need of salvation.
Only those that are sick need the great physician. Are you
sick with sin? Are you sick from the sole of
your foot to the crown of your head with uncleanness? You know
what I found when the light shined out of darkness into my heart?
I found there was not one part of me that had any goodness in
it. That's what the light reveals.
And you know, the more I grow in grace, you know what the more
I learn is? I still have nothing, no goodness in me. Matter of
fact, I see more, only more of my sin as I grow in grace. And so, therefore, what do I
need more of? I need more of Him. I need Him. constantly need Him. If the light of Christ should
ever open your eyes, this is the first thing you'll see is
your need of salvation. We, by nature, are like the woman
with the issue of blood, who spent all she had on doctors,
but grew none better but worse. Isn't that your experience, believer?
Did you not spend all you had on doctors of religion? I did. I went everywhere looking. I
felt guilt, I felt shame, and I looked over here, and I looked
for this excitement, this nice, this big thing going on over
here. Dr. Freewill, Dr. Feelgood, there's
a whole list of doctors that you can go to. And we grow none
better but worse. And the only hope for us is to
touch the hem of His garment that He would dry the issue of
our sin. Therefore we like that woman
fly to him run to him because we know our need And what is this salvation we
need it's not the change of habit It's not something that we can
do for ourselves, but it's something only Jesus can do for us When
I found out I had a need of salvation I knew this I couldn't do it And I knew this, nobody else
could do it either. None but Christ. And third, we
need to see our need of cleansing. We not only see our need of salvation,
but we see our need of cleansing from sin. If we're ever to be
accepted of God, surely we must be cleansed and washed from all
guilt of sin. Listen to what God says when
He calls to the sinner. He says, though your sins be
as scarlet, though they be red like crimson. You know, God doesn't
overlook sin. God doesn't just overlook sin.
But rather, He deals with it. He deals with it. He says, I
know your sins are like crimson. He deals with sin in holy, strict
justice. God acknowledges that you are
truly stained and cannot remove your sins. You cannot cleanse
yourself. But here He promises this, you
who are stained, He said, I will wash your sins away. I will make you
white as wool." How can this be done? How can
God, who is pure light, accept me, who is pure darkness? How is that possible? Only by
washing my sins away in the blood of His Son. This is the only
hope I have. By only by the blood payment
of Jesus Christ can God wash away your sins. This alone is
how God can be just and justify the ungodly. Only by the imputation
of sin upon a holy substitute, Jesus Christ. Go to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Look what God does. Verse 19 in 2 Corinthians 5,
to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Listen, not imputing their trespasses
to them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you,
in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. How can you be reconciled
to God, you sinner? How can you be reconciled to
unapproachable light? Here it is, for He hath made
Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin. that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. You see? Can you see that? The great transaction
is done. I am my Lord's and He is mine. This transaction that God, only
God can make. Consider the transaction. He
took guilt from us and gave it to His Son. Now, can you transfer
guilt? You can transfer punishment,
right? I mean, we could take punishment for somebody else,
but one thing we can't do is remove guilt. If you killed a
man, I could die for you, but I can't ever remove the guilt.
You did it. You know what Christ did? He
actually removed our guilt. I am justified. Somebody once
said justification is just as if I never sinned no justification
means I never sinned That's what it means when God justified me. What he did is he is declaring
me absolutely innocent of all charges You didn't do it It's
done the guilt has been transferred the payment has been rendered
and God said I'm satisfied I'm satisfied. His death was satisfactory. Oh, happy word that God was not
willing to impute my sins to him. He wasn't ever willing to
impute my sins to me. Ever. He was willing to impute
them to his son. And if God hath given us, spared
not His only Son, how shall He not freely give us all things? For He hath made Him to be sin
for us. And listen, Hebrews 1, 3, By
His one offering He hath purged our sins. That means wash them
away. Wash them away. I'll tell you
what, as a believer in Christ, my conscience is completely,
constantly being covered in filth. My conscience, it daily vexes
me because I still have this sin nature with me. I still have
this old man, he's still just as vile as he ever was. I hate
him, I despise him, I loathe him. Someone said a believer
is like a bird in a cage. He seeks to fly into the heavens
but keeps hitting the cage and is knocked down. That's us in
our flesh. We have this cage of flesh and
we want to go to God. We want to be in His presence
and we're constantly chained to this earth by this flesh. And my conscience daily needs
to be cleansed. Jesus, in washing the feet of
the disciples, pictured that for us. He said, a man not need
be saved to wash his feet, but he's clean every wit. What is
he saying? He said, I've already cleansed you from your sins,
but now I'll cleanse your conscience daily. Confess your sins. And he is what? Faithful and
just to forgive us our sins. Faithful and just why how is
he just to forgive me my sin because my sin is gone It's gone
It's already been paid and God listen cannot demand twice payment
That is a that should be so thrilling to our souls if the light of
the gospel has ever pierced the darkness of your soul This should
be all your joy and all your desire. That's what David said
in our text He said One thing have I desired. Since His light
has pierced my soul and Christ is my light, one thing have I
desired and that will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. To dwell in Christ. That's where I want to dwell.
That's where I want to be in Christ. I don't want to be found
anywhere else. Do you? And lastly, we need righteousness.
When this light comes in, we see we need salvation, but we
also need righteousness. Jesus said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall
in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And we, again, like
we do Adam, we view the Pharisees and we just say, oh, these wicked
men. But I'll tell you, you lived
with the Pharisees. They were very moral people. They would be picketing the targets
today. They would. Boy, they would be
all over that. They would be all in that business
about morality and social justice and all kinds of things like
that. They were moral people. And you couldn't name one thing
they did wrong. These people were moral. They
were upright in the eyes of men. But Jesus said, except your righteousness
is better than that. You ain't getting in. When I was a kid, we used to
go to the astral world where we went. It's like Kentucky Kingdom.
And I remember as a kid, they had this roller coaster and there
was this bar. You had to reach this certain
level or you couldn't ride the roller coaster. It was the minimum
requirement. Listen, God's minimum requirement
is absolutely holy perfection. That's God's minimum requirement. Otherwise you ain't getting in.
So what do you need? I need righteousness. I don't
just need to be cleansed of my sin, I need perfect righteousness. I don't get in by being neutral.
Well, Jesus took away all my sins and, you know, now I'm on
an even keel. No, I need to be as holy as God
is. I need to be passively and actively holy. I need righteousness. How does this come? Not by works. Christ doesn't cleanse you from
your sin and you finish it by your works. That is a tragic
error. Judas made that error. You know
that? When Judas... Where did he go
when he repented? Now, he repented, didn't he?
Scripture says he repented. He took that silver and he cast
it at the feet of the chief priest and he said, I've sinned against
innocent blood. You can imagine the tears that
this man was weeping over his sin. You know why he was rejected? He went to the wrong place. He
went to the law instead of going to Christ. You see, you cannot
finish this work. This is a complete work. Christ
pays for sin and Christ fulfills all righteousness. It's an all-or-nothing principle.
Salvation. It's either all of Christ or
it's all on you. There's no middle ground. No
middle ground. The apostle said that the Jews
who sought righteousness didn't obtain it. Why? Because they sought it by works.
The Gentiles, who were wicked pagans, they didn't seek righteousness,
yet they obtained it. How? By faith. That's how. They obtained it by trusting
in Christ's righteousness alone. And today I am an ambassador
for Christ And I am set as a light to the Gentiles to preach the
gospel to you, to preach Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
Do you need forgiveness? Not from your mom or your dad,
not from your friends. Do you need forgiveness from
God? Then come to Christ. Believe on Christ. I've come
to declare that you may be justified and righteous before the law
of God, not by works, but by faith in Christ alone, and I
pray that God the Holy Spirit would shine the light of glory
into your heart right now to believe on Christ alone. And if Christ is my light, listen,
He is my salvation. Therefore, whom shall I fear? If Christ has done it all, if the light has shined out of
darkness, And He's given me the light of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and I am in
Christ. Who, then, can take me from Him? As I've said before, who can
undo what He's already done for me? Not even me. I can't undo it,
and you can't undo it. He did it and he did it forever. This is my light. This is my
salvation. Even Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus Christ and him risen from
the dead. Ascended to the glorious throne
of God where he now rules over all things. And nothing can touch
me. without his permission. And even though they touch me,
they can't remove me from his hand. I'm safe. Scripture says I'm sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise. And though men wage war against
me, they can never defeat him. I tell you, I'm cast down all
the time. I'm an easy target. But see, I don't sustain me. I don't keep me. The Lord is
my strength. The strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Satan? He may try to accuse me, but
he has no grounds. The flesh, surely the flesh daily
condemns me, but it has no ground to stand on. The world may condemn
me, but they have no ground to stand on. Christ has removed
my sin from me and cast it as far as the east is from the west. You know, you can measure north
and south, but you can't east and west. Take a compass and
go east. You go all the way around the
world, and guess what? It's still going to be pointing east. Far as the east is from the west.
So far hath he removed our sins from us. I'll give you this and I'll close.
Alexander the Great, his father was a great conqueror like he
was, and someone wanted to give Philip, his dad, a horse. And the horse was a beautiful
horse, but it was wild, it was strong, and no man could tame
it. And Alexander realized that the
horse was not strong, he was afraid. And he took the horse and he
turned the horse to the sun. The horse was afraid of his own
shadow, but as long as he faced the sun, he couldn't see his
shadow. And Alexander climbed on the horse and rode the horse
into the sun, tamed the horse. You're afraid of your own shadow? Oh, what if this happens? Oh, what if this happens? Oh,
I don't know. Oh, I'm so scared. I don't know.
You're afraid of your own shadow. Turn to the sun. The Lord is
my light and my salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid? The
Lord is the strength of my life. No one and nothing. If Christ, if you be in Christ,
you are safe. Safe. What a good word that is
safe. Protected, sheltered in the pavilion
of his love, never to be let go. I think that's great. He's never going to let sometimes
I let him go. But it's a good thing that my
salvation doesn't depend on me holding him, but him holding
me. Safe. You're safe if you're in Christ. Oh, may God put you in his son
to keep you ever safe. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.