Let's look at that passage that
Brother Bill read in Philippians chapter 2. The title of the message
this morning is Shining in the Light of His Glory. Shining in
the Light of His Glory. And I'm really going to focus
mainly on this passage from beginning at verse 12. Normally when you
go to Philippians 2, when most preachers go to it, They'll focus
on verses 5 through 11 because that is such a tremendous and
instructive revelation from God of the humility
and submission and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ in His
death on the cross. And that is the ground of our
salvation. The death of Christ, the submission of Christ. Christ
submitted himself to the will of his father in order to save us from our
sins. And that's a tremendous thought.
I mean, that's something, you know, you say that and it doesn't
really, you know, it may just, you know, it may just hit you
or something, but I'm telling you what, do we understand the
impact of that? That's special. That's the heart
of the gospel. And when he tells us to let that
mind be in us, that mind of humility and submission and obedience,
that's, well, you come out thinking, well, boy, I'm sure glad my salvation
is not based on my works, but based on the work of Christ.
But think about this. Look at verse six, who being
in the form of God, Jesus Christ, Which literally means, when you
read that in the English, it doesn't say, it doesn't really
relate to the message. What he's talking about is who
Christ is, God. Jesus Christ is God. Being in
the form of God, that word form there doesn't mean some kind
of an apparition or ghost or some kind of an image. It literally means that He is
God, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He is equal with God. He is the
second person of the Trinity. His name is Emmanuel, which being
interpreted as God with us. And it wasn't robbery. He wasn't
stealing from God to claim to be God. When He said, I am, before
Abraham was, I am in John 8. Now if you claim to be God or
divine, that'd be robbery. Because you're not. I'm not.
That's why I fear for these people who talk about a divine nature
created in them. Folks, you can't create divinity.
If something is by nature divine, it's an uncreated thing. Now
understand that. Where do people get off of this
stuff, you know? Divinity is God. The divine nature
is God. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit is not you or not me. We have life from the divine. God created life. We have spiritual
life, but they're... Listen, the Holy Spirit resides
within the hearts of all of God's people, and He's divine. but
your nature is not divine, that's God. That's robbery for somebody
to say that. But it wasn't robbery for him,
he's God. And you know, that's just religion, all right. Anyway,
he says in verse seven, he made himself of no reputation. The
only one who really deserved a high reputation made himself
of no reputation. took upon himself the form of
a servant. And that's the, in essence, saying,
Lord, I want to serve in whatever way you want me to serve, whatever
way that is. Christ is the mediator of the
covenant. He's called the servant of the
covenant. He was set up from everlasting
to be the surety. I love that, the surety of the
covenant. And having all of the responsibility
of the salvation of his people laid upon him, Our sins imputed
to Him, the debt was given to Him, that's what assurity is.
And He was made in the likeness of man, that's His incarnation. The Word made flesh and dwelt
among us. He's not only God, He's also
man without sin. And His name shall be called
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Verse
8, being found in fashion as a man. And what that means is
that you might have the word habit in your concordance there
in your Bible. The fashion means he inhabited
a human body. And in doing so, the scripture
says that his glory was concealed for a while. And the way it's
put here is this, he humbled himself, humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, but not just any death, even the
death of the cross. Why did He go to the cross? To
bear our sins. He was bearing our sins in His
own body on the tree. To die. He came to die. He who
is life came to die. And He did so as a substitute
and surety of His people. And for this reason, Paul writes
in verse 9, God also hath highly exalted Him. This is His mediatorial
glory as the one who finished the work that was given him to
do. And that work is prophesied,
typified, pictured all through the Old Testament. And he spoke
of it often with his disciples, how he must die, how he must
go to Jerusalem and be arrested, suffer, bleed, and die. Because
sin demands death. No, he was not a sinner, but
he had the sins of his people charged to him. That's our surety. And when he finished that work,
he said, it's finished. He established righteousness
for his people. Then God highly exalted him as
mediator. One mediator between God and
men. There's a man in glory. He's the God man. And given him
a name which is above every name. There's no name that is above
Him. My name, your name, means nothing. His name means everything. Isaiah
9, remember His name is Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, Prince
of Peace. Jehovah Sidkanu, the Lord our
Righteousness, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Ram, all of those. All of those Jehovah names. That's
His name. And what they do, His name is
His honor. It's His glory. It's what identifies
Him and distinguishes Him. It's not just a word that you
say. It's not just P-T-L. It's not just Jesus. It means
something. You see, it means something.
It's not just something you're just sitting there in the pew
just hearing me say. this is a name that's written on your
heart if you're a believer and he says in verse 10 that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven things
in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father
now that's the ground of our salvation but now look on what
he says in verse 12 he says wherefore now for this reason or you could
say it this way based on this My beloved, talking to believers
there, fellowship, that's a fellowship word, beloved, the godly love
that exists between people who are Christians, true Christians. Wherefore, my beloved, as you
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, not just when
I'm with you, You know, it's kind of like he's saying, you
know, when mom and dad's away, the kids disobey. But when mom
and dad comes home, then they straighten up, you know. Well,
Paul's saying, as you have always obeyed, not just in my presence,
Paul as an apostle with that authority, but now much more
in my absence. And then he says, work out your
own salvation with fear and tremor. Now, you know what many people
do with that. They look at a verse like that and they claim, well,
that's teaching salvation by works. But he doesn't say here,
work for your own salvation. He doesn't say work for your
own salvation. Now, you know and I know that
anytime you see scriptures, you don't isolate them. You don't
just take them out of their context and try to make them stand on
their own with some preconceived notion or popular belief. You
go to the immediate context and then you go to the general context.
The immediate context is right here in Philippians 2. Now what
is the ground of our salvation? Not our works, Christ's work. He just spoke of it. That's the
whole issue. And later on in chapter 3, he
expresses that by an illustration of himself. He says, when I was
lost, I was doing my best to work for my salvation. But when
I saw the glory of Christ and the holiness of God, I saw my
sin, and I count it all but done, that I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faithfulness of Christ, even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith. Now there's your
immediate context. Remember, he says over, I count
all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. And then the general context, how many times is it
told us in the scripture that our salvation is not attained
or maintained by the works of men and women? Obviously, the one that we probably
quote more often is Ephesians 2, verse 8, for by grace are
you saved through faith that not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Then it goes
on to say what is, I believe, an equivalent verse to this,
work out your own salvation, verse 10, for we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. So work out your own
salvation does not mean salvation by works, by the works of men. Some translations say that this
could be work about your salvation or work out of your own salvation
doesn't really matter what is simply talking about when he
says work out your own salvation and the key to it is this this
term with this phrase with fear and trembling with fear and trembling
well what is he talking about he's talking about perseverance
in obedience in submission in humility when he says work out
your own salvation I like the term, work out of your salvation. Because you are saved, verse
12, wherefore, for this reason, because Christ has done all the
work to attain and maintain my salvation, to put away my sins
and make me righteous before God, for that reason and upon
that basis and from that ground, my beloved, work out your own
salvation. Persevere in the faith. Works do not gain or maintain
salvation, but they're the fruit of salvation. And when he says
with fear and trembling, that fear there is reverence, it's
worship. It's not legal fear. It's not
like you hear so many preachers today say, you better give or
God will take it out the back door in a coffin. That's the kind of fear that
gets you to give. That's not reverence to God. Paul said,
the love of Christ constrains me, motivates me, drives me,
hedges me about. It means worship. When the Bible
speaks of godly fear, it's talking about worship. We're here to
worship God. This fear is a reverence and
respect and a regard for God in Christ. And this trembling,
the trembling here is not living our lives in terror or in doubts. Some people use that word trembling
to promote doubts. And what they're promoting is
unbelief. But the trembling here, I believe, has to do with realizing
this fact. How horrible and terrible It
would be for me to be without Christ. Now that's something, that's
something terrible. That's something to tremble.
Think about you and me standing before a holy God without Christ. You say, well, I've done the
best I can do. Good for you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity, I never knew you. That's a terrible thought, isn't
it? To live my life in this world, knowing what we know now, if
the Spirit of God has convicted us of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment and driven us to Christ, knowing what we know
now, what a terrible thought to live our lives without Christ. Now that's true. I've often thought
about here in the past few months, we want to be together. We want
the fellowship of faith. And I know we'll complain and
we'll talk about how we're getting older, everything's hurting now
and all that stuff. But we just want things to stay
the same. Man, we don't want things to
stay the same. I mean, think about it. That'd be a terrible
thing. So in essence, we can do without
each other, but we cannot do without Christ. We cannot do
without Christ. That's the terror. That's the
trembling. I tremble. I have, listen, I have an assurance
of salvation and glory in Christ because of what he accomplished
as described here in these prior verses. I have that. But I tremble to think. of my
life without Him. Knowing what I know now. Oh,
the unbeliever, he can take Him or leave Him. He'll come to church,
sit down, feel good, get up, go home. But to be without Christ? To stand before God in myself
means to stand before God in my sins. That's right. And that deserves damnation. I tremble to think about standing
before God without being washed in the blood of Christ. To stand before God in my own
works is to stand before God in iniquity. So I tremble to
think about standing before God without Christ's righteousness
imputed, charged to me. And so he says, work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling. That's consistent, this fear
and this trembling is consistent with the highest acts of faith,
trust, confidence, even joy, but it's opposed to pride and
vainglory. I guess the essence of that phrase
with fear and trembling would be simply what he's been talking
about in the context, humility. Humility. We all have things that we want
God to give us. But we have to really be reminded
all the time that what he's already given us we don't deserve and
we don't earn. Oh, I want more, Lord. I want
this. I want that. My soul. We have
Christ. We have it all. All right. Now what the scripture says in
Romans 8. Well, knowing that we do not deserve the least of
God's blessings, knowing that if God were to mark
iniquities, We wouldn't stand. Knowing that without Christ we
would be damned forever. We can be rich in this earth,
we can have whatever we want, whatever position we want, but
without Christ we'd be damned forever. But look at verse 13. We speak
of immediate context. when he says, work out your own
salvation with fear and tremor, how are we going to do that?
You know, we're not even capable of doing that. Did you know that? Oh, we think we are, but we're
not. So how's that going to come about? Well, look at verse 13.
For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do his
good pleasure. That's the motivation. Not only
is there the motivation given in the death of Christ, the grace
of God in Christ, but the power is given in verse 13. It's God
that does it. Well, I thought it was me. No,
you don't know yourself yet. The power of it, the will of
it. You say, well, I don't do anything perfectly.
Well, you don't think we've noticed that? All you had to do is call me
and ask me. I could have told you that. I've never seen you do anything
perfectly. And you've never seen me do anything perfectly. Yeah,
but I just seem to be so disappointed all the time. Well, boo-hoo for
you. The world revolves around you,
doesn't it? Isn't that what our children think? And when they grow, we have to
teach them otherwise. You know, when they grow up and
they're little babies, everybody swoons in to see them. And you
know, it's all about them. And as they grow up, it's all
about them. And then they get older, and they start asserting
that depravity that's in us all by nature. And you say, somebody
needs to swat that kid. And then they go off to school
and they find out, hey, there's other people in the world. And
I got to learn to get along. You see, the power and the will
and the motivation and even the energy, and I'm not talking about
physical energy, but I'm talking about spiritual energy, to persevere
in obedience is of God. It's not of me. Look over at
Galatians, back a few pages to Galatians chapter two. I tell you, you know, I'm beginning
to see in myself now, I'm not just, I'm not jumping on you
for, I'm talking about me. I'm beginning to see that we
all spend a lot of time feeling sorry for ourselves in this life.
Don't we? When we're the most blessed people
on earth, Look at Galatians 2.19, he says,
for I through the law, Galatians 2.19, I through the law am dead
to the law. Now there's the ground of salvation.
That's another way of stating. Aren't you, you know, I'm constantly
amazed. I love the scriptures. And I
love it because of not only the truth that it sets forth, but
the variety of ways that the Holy Spirit enabled the human
instruments to state things. And so Paul, he's talking about
the ground of salvation. He says, I through the law am
dead to the law. Now what he means that, to be
dead to the law means that I'm dead to the penalty, to the condemnation. And that didn't happen because
God set aside his law, or forgot his law, or denied his law, or
broke his law. It's through the law that I'm
dead to the law. Now how am I dead to the law?
Through the law. Christ kept the law. He fulfilled the law. He's the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believes, he
did that all. There's the ground. Now here's
the fruit, that I might live unto God. Now are we living unto
God? Or are we living for self? That's what he's talking about.
But he says in verse 20, I'm crucified with Christ. That's
how I'm dead to the law, through the law. I'm crucified with Christ.
Christ is my substitute, Christ is my surety. Nevertheless, I
live. Now, I died when Christ died,
but I'm living. And he's talking about spiritual
life there. You know, we're born dead in trespasses and sins,
but through the law being fulfilled by Christ, we have spiritual
life. And then he says, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Now, Paul's not talking out of
both sides of his mouth there. What he's saying is this, I live
spiritually because Christ died, but I'm not the source of that
life. The spiritual life, I'm not the source of it. It didn't
come by my free will. It didn't come because I accepted
Jesus as my personal Savior. That's not how it came to me.
It came to me by the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit
in the new birth. You must be born again. So I'm not the source
of it. I'm not even the power of it.
Because you and I know that if God were to let us go for a minute,
what would we do? We'd stray. I'm not the power of it. I'm
not the source of it. I'm not the goodness of it. I'm
not even the will of it. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, that's in this physical body, how do I live
it? Look at, by the faith of the
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, a lot
of people will interpret that saying, well, I live by my faith
in him. Well, there is a sense we can
say we live by faith in him. You can look at passages like
Hebrews 12 too, which says we run the race looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. But that's not what this
is talking about for two reasons. The context of this verse, he
says, it's not I, but Christ liveth in me. He's talking about
Christ living in me. Christ living in me. Now, how
does Christ live within us? By his spirit and by his word.
That's how he does it. It's what the scripture teaches.
So he's talking about the power of Christ, the work of Christ
within us. And then when he says, I live
by the faith of the Son of God, what I believe he's talking about
there, if you look at the context, he said, by the faithfulness
of Christ. By his faithfulness, not only
to save me, but to keep me and to motivate me. How do you know
that? Look at the next line. By the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for
me. That's the work of Christ. I live by his faith. His faithfulness
to do what he said he'd do. He said, the good shepherd gives
his life for the sheep. Didn't he say that? And he did.
And didn't he say that those sheep, he must bring them in?
Well, didn't he do it? When he brought you to faith
in him, he brought you in. And didn't he say he'll never
leave us nor forsake us? Didn't he say he'd keep us, preserve
us, protect us, bless us? He said, none shall pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. He'll
bring us to glory. Didn't He say He's coming back
for us? That's how we live. Because He's doing what He said.
If I'm living by what I say I'll do, it's a mess, isn't it? Now we've all made statements,
good statements, with good intentions, that we've just messed up. Haven't
we? But He never has. That's how
I live. That's how you live, isn't it?
Christ has never, listen, He's never spoke a word out of turn.
He's never spoken a word of doubt or unbelief. Even when He was
on that cross, He was in perfect faith to His Father. Did you
know that? Even as one who was made guilty because of our sin
imputed to Him, He hanged on that cross. I said that one time,
some lady said, it's hung on that cross. Oh no, look at your
grammar, it's hanged. A picture is hung on the wall.
A human being's hanged on the cross. I'm right, so don't get
me on my grammar on that. But even when he hanged on that
cross, I'm telling you, he hanged there in perfect faith. Even when at his lowest point
in his very being of suffering, which you know and I know was
when he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Did
you notice what he said there? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Perfect faith. He didn't become
a sinner. Anybody says that is just blasphemous. My God, he said. And when he
gave up the ghost, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Well, and so he says in Galatians
221, I don't frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead. So Christ, he's done
everything he said he would do. He's never gone back on a promise.
And that's how we live. It's not by our works, our power,
our goodness, our promises, because we're going to fail at every
turn. And even when we don't fail, we have a tendency to become
puffed up, don't we? We want to pat ourselves on the
back. Remember I told you years ago, the human beings, the only
animal, you pat him on the back, his head blows up. And that's
the way it is. Look back at Philippians 2. Now, in light of that, now he
says in verse 13, it's God which worketh in you both to will and
to do his good pleasure. That's what pleases him. If it
pleases God, it's his work, and if it comes through us, it's
covered by the blood of Christ. Mark it down. And that gives
him glory. Now he says in verse 14, now
do all things without murmurings and disputings. And of course
he's talking there about our own selfish things and selfish
motives and selfish ideas and attitudes. All things in service
to God and to one another where personalities, preferences come
into conflict. He's not talking about doctrine
there because our doctrine is Christ. And it's the same. When we speak of his person and
his finished work, when we speak of the work of the Holy Spirit,
That's all the same. But these murmurings and disputings,
and you know what murmurings are, that's complaining, disputings,
that's division over personalities, preferences. And when we come
into conflict, he says, don't do that. And here he says in
verse 15, he says, that you may be blameless and harmless. Now
blameless, the purpose of this is that we may be seen by the
world as a unified witness Above accusation and reproach,
presenting a united front for the cause of Christ and the gospel. Blameless. You know what that
means? That means you can't be blamed. That means above accusation. Harmless. What does that mean?
The word means sincere. In other words, you're not a
hypocrite. It's kind of like we've talked about before. It's
one thing to say, well, we believe in a sovereign God. How do we
act? How do we react? Well, be harmless. Be sincere. Don't be a hypocrite.
He's speaking of our character and our conduct in the sight
of men here. Now the only way, when he says
be blameless, the only way we can be blameless before God that
is above accusation before God is in Christ, we know that. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justified, Christ that died. And sincerity, true sincerity
that keeps us from being the hypocrites that by nature we
are is the operation of the Holy Spirit within us, isn't it? He
keeps us from being hypocritical because, you know, just the very
moment we get proud and puffed up, if we're one of God's children,
what does he do? He does something to bring us
down off our high horse, doesn't he? That's the way it works. That's the way he works. You know, the Lord knows our
true heart. He does. We cannot see into the
hearts of men. We know something of the hearts
of men by the expressions of their faith and their practice. I mean, if I stood up here today
and told you I believe salvation is by works and not by grace,
you'd certainly say, well, his heart is certainly not of the
Lord. But when it comes to professing
believers, the Lord knows our true heart. Am I really concerned
about the glory of God in Christ. Now that's what I want to know
about myself. Am I really intent for His glory
in all things? Or am I into self-promotion,
getting my way, doing my thing? You see what I'm saying? Those
are things we have to wrestle with. Those are things we have
to deal with. But here he's speaking of our
witness before men, and we're not to give the wicked world
a reason to accuse and criticize us beyond that which is right,
truthful, and honoring to God. Now, understand now something. That's not going to stop the
evil world from criticizing and accusing God's people. Now why? Well, look at it again, verse
15, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God.
In other words, you want to act like a child of God. That's what
he's saying. You don't want to act like the
world. You want to act like a child of God. You're not trying to
become a son of God. You already are by Christ, by
God's grace. You just want your life to be
in tune with what you are. You're a citizen of heaven. You're
not a citizen of this world. Without rebuke, without having
your hand called, saying, look, you're wrong, you're doing this.
All right. And look here, he says, in the midst or in the
middle of a crooked and perverse nation. Now that shows you you're
not going to accomplish what he's talking when he says, work
out your own salvation. You're not going to accomplish
that by going off and living in a cave. You're not going to
accomplish that by going to a monastery. You're right smack dab in the
middle of a crooked and perverse nation. You don't belong to that nation.
You're in the world, but you're not of the world. The very place
that we live as children of God is in opposition to everything
we believe, everything we think, everything we're motivated by.
I'm talking about in our relationship with God and with each other.
Now look at this, he says, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Shine as lights in the world.
You see, our fellowship is with the Father and the Son. Our family
is a spiritual family. Christ said, who is my mother?
Who is my brother? Those that do the will of the
father. That's believe in him. The world hates us. Christ said,
marvel not if the world hates you. It hated me before it hated
you. They'll hate you so bad, they'll throw you out of their
church services if you tell them the truth. Now you can sit there
quietly and get along fine. Here's the problem. Look at verse
16. holding forth the word of life. That's how you shine as
lights in a world that's a crooked and perverse nation. Holding
forth the word of life. Like I said, you can go into
any church service and sit there quietly and not say anything
and you'll get along fine. But the moment you speak in a
way that holds forth the word of life, what happens? Turn to
John chapter three. John 3, verse 19. Christ, speaking to Nicodemus,
let's read verse 18, John 3, verse 18. He that believeth on
him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. This is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil." Now what deeds do
you suppose that he's talking about there? You know how most
people interpret that. Well, certainly that's talking
about the drug pushers. Are their deeds evil? Yes, they
are. Oh, he's talking about the whoremongers, the prostitutes,
the bank robbers, the homosexuals. Yes, their deeds are evil. That's
right. But who's he talking to here?
Remember context? Who's he speaking to here? Nicodemus. A religious man. One who could
stand like the Pharisee. I thank God that I'm not like
other men. I thank God that I'm not this.
Don't do that. I thank God that I give twice
in the week. I thank God that I fast twice
in the week. Talking to Nicodemus. Who's he
talking to here? People like those who stood before
him in Matthew 7. Lord, haven't we preached in
your name? Haven't we cast out demons? What kind of deeds... What kind of deeds is it that
men and women by nature do not see as evil until God the Holy
Spirit shines the light. It's their religious deeds. They're
trying to make themselves righteous before God, like Saul. I was
a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, circumcised the
eighth day, the tribe of Benjamin is touching the law blameless. But what happened? He saw a light,
didn't he? the light of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. And he said, when I saw that,
I counted all but loss. I counted all but done. That's
the deeds that brings out the, the exposure of those deeds is
what brings out the hatred of the world. This crooked and perverse
generation. Yes, should we, should we speak
out against the immorality of our day? We live in a crooked
and perverse generation, don't we? Some say it's getting worse. I think it's always been the
same. Just broadcast on the news. What I mean by that, listen,
what time in history has the world been better? You say, well, my little old
patch, it looked like it was better. Well, you were isolated.
You lived on a mountain somewhere. But I guarantee you the same
kind of perverseness and crookedness and immorality that goes on today
was going on somewhere in the world somewhere. You just didn't
hear about it. Read the Bible. Did you know
that there was a time when the people of God under the old covenant
took their children and laid them on a statue that was burning
hot and burned their children? Huh? That's pretty bad, isn't it? That's terrible. So yes, we're
to speak out against the immorality, but I'll tell you what, when
we shine forth in the light of His glory, we're to speak out
against false religion and those who are trying to work their
way into God's blessings and favor and salvation. And that's
what Christ was talking about. Well, let me just close with
this. You know, the verse over in Matthew
5, I'll close with this. What he's saying is, is because
we are so blessed, we're the recipients of such a great salvation. And again, we didn't earn it.
We don't deserve it. Then let's not complain and dispute
and go around all disappointed and all the time. Look at Matthew
5.16. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. Now the light there is not the
good works. The light there is the same light that the scriptures
always talk about. Christ said, I am the light of
the world, John, in the book of John. I am the light of the
world, he said. Christ is that light. That light
is the gospel. It's the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. Let that light shine before men.
Now when that light shines on the deeds of the natural man,
what does it say about their deeds? Evil. When that light
shines on the deeds of God's people, what does it say? Good
works. Why? Because it's the work of
God. Covered in the blood of Christ.
And so when we let our light shine before men that they may
see our good works, it's not to draw attention to ourselves.
It's not, it's not I'd rather see a sermon than hear one. No.
It's not that you're the only Bible some people read. If listen,
if, if, if the only Bible that some people read is watching
you or me in any given capacity, even at our best, that's not
going to bring salvation. Faith cometh by hearing. hearing by the word of God. The
gospel is the power of God unto salvation. But it's not to draw attention
to yourself, it's to draw attention to Christ, that they may glorify
your Father which is in heaven. That's what it's all about, isn't
it? So whatever we think, whatever we say, whatever my attitude
is, what's my attitude this morning? I want to know. My attitude.
Am I shining forth in the light of His glory? That's the key,
isn't it? All right.