There must be light to see anything
at all. If this room was utterly dark, your eyes would never get
used to that. If a room is mostly dark, your
eyes eventually will kind of adjust and you'll start to pick
things out. You'll start to discern things.
But if there's no light, you're not ever going to see. You're
not ever going to see anything. And there must be something else
though, in order to see. There's got to be light, but
there's got to be something else. We saw it in our text. Now our
Lord talks about the necessity of light and mentions something that happened so commonly
and routinely in that day that everybody took it for granted.
People lit candles. It was just like we flip on a
light switch. You do it without even realizing
you did it. You walk in a room, it's dark, you flip on the switch
and you don't even realize you did it. They would light candles
like that. They would go into a room, they
needed to see How to do something, how to cook, how to read, whatever.
Light a candle. Common everyday thing. And it was done and they knew
why it was done. It was in order to see inside of a house or a
building. He speaks about everyone in the
room. We're talking about inside a
room. And our Lord made this simple
observation in this beautiful illustration that when you light
a candle, you don't put it in a secret Place you don't put
it in a closet and close the door. That's not what candles
are for Nobody's gonna benefit from that
and you don't cover it up You don't put anything on top of
it and cover it up and smother the light Christ is The light
Now they're just in many two ways and that's just simple in
it There's nothing complicated about that. He's the light. If
you're going to see, Christ is going to have to show
it to you. Shed abroad his light. And he said we are the light.
And the reason he said that is because he is the source. God
is light and in him is no darkness at all and Christ is God in human
flesh and he declared in John 8 12 it says then speak Jesus
again unto them saying I am the light of the world he that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness you'll be able to see the way
you'll be able to see his word you'll be able to see who he
is what you are how he can save a sinner like you and still be
God you'll be able to see Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, I believe
it is, we have the mind of Christ. We understand all things that
God reveals. That's the light. We have light.
And he said in Matthew 5, 14, to his disciples, to his preachers,
his apostles, you are the light of the world. A city that is
set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light To all that are in the house. All that are in the house. Now Christ is the light. He's
the sun. He shines on this whole world.
If there's any light at all, it's Christ. And I'm talking
about natural light and supernatural light. I'm talking about understanding
of earthly, temporal things and understanding of eternal things. I tell you, you know that's right,
don't you? The God who made you and who runs this whole thing,
he gives light. If you know how to fix a car,
he gave you that ability. And if you know who God is, scripture
says, no man knoweth the father save the son and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. Let your light, we're the candlestick
in the book of Revelation. God sets up a candlestick. In
the house now, there's light from a candle. And he said, let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your father. If people brag on you for doing
something good, that's not a good work. Just quit doing it. If they brag on God though, Keep
doing it. If they glorify God, keep doing
it. Do it with all your heart. Glorify
your Father which is in heaven. We don't keep the light secret.
He said go ye into all the world. All the world. Preach the gospel
to every creature. That doesn't mean I have to travel
all over the world. He's talking to all of his disciples.
And he sent us out into this world. and said preach the gospel
to every creature. Every creature. And we don't
cover the light with a vessel. That is, we don't want people
to see us. We want people to see the light.
We want people to see Him. We're shining forth Christ. Paul
said we preach Christ and Him crucified. He's the light. And
in that we preach Him, we're the light. If we reflect Him,
if we preach Him, if we shine forth Him and his gospel. We don't cover that with a vessel
to preach ourselves to preach our wisdom our opinions our ideas
That's covering up the light with the vessel The vessel is
to hold the light to raise up the light Not cover it Paul said in 2nd
Corinthians 4 5 we preach not ourselves but But Christ Jesus
the Lord and ourselves your servants for his sake. It's not even for
your sake. Of course it is. Because what
he did, he did for us. But it's for his sake ultimately. Our business is to shine him
forth as he is and not to keep back any part of his truth. Don't
keep it secret. Don't put it in a secret place.
Don't hold any of it back. And don't obscure any of it with
man's wisdom or man's natural darkness. And notice the way
that we shine him is just to lift him up. What do you do with
it if you don't put it in a closet or cover it with the vessel?
You put it on a candlestick. You raise it up so that it lights
the whole room and everybody that comes in can see. That's what we want. We want
everybody that comes in here To see Him and by Him to understand
the truth of God, the gospel. That which to know is life eternal.
Him whom to know is life eternal. So we shine Him forth by just
lifting Him up. Not by interpreting what He said. I don't need anybody to tell
me what God meant by what He said. Just tell me what God said. Scriptures are of no private
interpretation. We just declare Him. The way
to let light shine is to present it in an open and beneficial
way. If there's anything blocking
it, that's detrimental. Open, lifted up and open and
honest and uninhibited. by anything or anybody. If there's light in the room
full of people, you know how to let it shine? Stay out of
the way of it. Stay out of the way. I don't
want to get in the way. If you get in the way, then a
shadow is cast. Darkness. That obscures the light, just
let it shine. Let it shine, that's what he said now. We don't need
to argue with people. My reasoning is just the light. My human reasoning, I don't need
to argue with people about the electing grace of God. People
love to argue about election. Let's just declare it. And whoever
wants to rejoice in it, rejoice in it. And if you can't rejoice
in it, go somewhere else. I wish you would. I hope that
someday you will because there's no salvation without the electing
love of God in Christ Jesus. Just shine it forth. Those who
can see will rejoice in Him who from the beginning have chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. And those whose light is darkness If your light, if
your truth, if your ability to see is darkness, you're calling
it light. God says it's darkness though.
If that's true, when you hear about the electing love and grace
of God, before they were born or had done any good or evil,
God said, I love Jacob and I hate Esau. If your light is darkness, you're
going to gnash your teeth at that. You're not going to like
it. But to argue about it is just
to obscure the light. Let's just declare it. Let the
light shine. The truth of God as it is, as
He is. Let's just shine forth the truth
of Christ's successful, finished work of salvation by the blood
of His cross. He didn't come down here and
shed His precious blood on Calvary to make salvation available.
His name is Jesus for crying out loud for he shall save his
people from their sins. And when he did that, he said
it's finished. He didn't say it's available. He said it's
done. To argue about that and to insert
man's wisdom in it is to cast a shadow on it. Just tell it
forth as it's revealed in the word of God. Some are gonna be
happy some are gonna be mad. That's okay That's the way it
was when he preached many would let when he said he said you
can't come to me except my father Draw you to me unless my father
takes you from where you are and brings you to me You can't
come to me and you're not gonna and you know what happened many
walked no more with him But not all Psalm said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? That's life coming out of your
mouth. That's life. The light was, the life was the
light of men. So we're talking about life.
We're talking about life now. It's life and death. Just shine
forth the truth of Christ's finished, successful work of redemption
on Calvary. He saved somebody. Are you one
of them? Do you believe on him? Do you
love him? Do you know him? Has God revealed
him to you? Then you're one of them. And maybe if he hadn't, you still
might be, because maybe one day he will. I pray he will. And that brings us now to another
thing necessary, as we've mentioned already, for sinners to see.
You've got to have light. And light has come. Light has
come into the world. I am the light of the world,
of this wretched, dark, sin-cursed world. I'm the light of this
horrible place. I'm the light of the world. There
is a light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
And that light is Christ. But you also need an eye. You
need an eye that can see Him. And our Lord addresses that in
the text also, doesn't he? The light of the body is the
eye. Can you see him? Do you see him? Turn to John 1 with me. Let's
read some of that because the context of this is very, it goes
along with our text so well. John 1, 4. John 1, 4. In him was life and The life
was the light of men You're not gonna you know unless he gives
you life Unless you have spiritual life. What did he say to Nicodemus?
You must be born again to be born is to be born a lot to be
to become alive to be given life And until you do, you can't see.
Isn't that what he said? Unless you'd be born again, life,
you can't see. The life was the light. He regenerates
our spiritually dead hearts and gives us life. And that life
is our light. We see by that light. By that
life that he gives. Because of that life. And the
light shineth in darkness. That's what we are by nature.
Darkness. They say, well there's a little
spark in everybody. Find me that in the word of God.
What this book says is there's nothing good in you. There's
nothing but depravity and vile rebellion against God. Darkness. And the darkness comprehended
it not. The light shone now, but there
was no eye. There was no seeing eye. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John, verse six, verse seven. The same came for
a witness to bear witness of the light. And in that sense,
he was the light. That all men through him, through
Christ, might believe. He was not that light, capital
L, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true
light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now
think about this. I've always wondered what that
meant. Well, does God reveal himself to everybody? Clearly
not. To know him is life eternal. Everybody is not saved. So what
is that talking about? Well, he is the light. But not
everybody can see him. He lighteth every man in a sense.
Read Romans chapter 1. When they knew God, they glorified
him not as God. There was light. But they couldn't
see him. They couldn't see him in his
glory. And look at that. That continues to be expressed
here in the text. That lighteth every man. He was
in the world and the world was made by him. But they didn't
perceive him. There was no eye to see him.
There was no alive eye of faith to perceive him. That doesn't
mean he's not the light. You just can't see him. The world
knew him not. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not, at first. Even his own elect. Not by nature. He didn't just come there, but,
oh, it's Jesus, you know. No. We hate him, don't we, by
nature? That's, of course, talking about
the Jews, but spiritual Israel is always pictured by the Jews. He came unto his own, but as
many as received him. Some did. Somebody. Received
the light and saw To them gave he power to become
the sons of God even to them that believe on his name Well,
how did that happen? Well, some are just smart enough
to believe no Which were born not of blood Your children are
not going to be saved because you are They're not lost because you
are either The Lord is going to deal with
everybody individually in that matter. Okay? It's not of blood. Talk about covenant theology
and all that. Just forget about that. It's
not of blood. It doesn't run in bloodlines. It's by the direct
mercy of God upon your soul. And mine. If he's going to have
mercy on us. Nor of the will of the flesh. You can talk about
free will all you want to. Exercise your will, you know.
It's not salvation doesn't happen that way. You're not going to
perceive God. You're not going to know God because you willed
it. Nor of the will of man. My children
aren't going to know him because I want them to so bad. And I
do. I want them to real bad. But of God. Of God. No man can except I thank God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you. It is not of him that willeth,
Romans chapter 9, nor of him that runneth or straveth, but
it is of God that showeth mercy. So the light shines, but it also
must be received. It must be perceived. And to
do that, you need a seeing eye. You know where that comes from?
Proverbs 20, 12. The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord
hath made even both of them. God's going to have to give you
one. He's going to have to give you an eye that sees him. No man knoweth his son but the
father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and
I'm glad he didn't stop there, aren't you? You're not going
to know God, period. no he didn't stop there he said
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him so the light shines and by his
grace some see the light of the body is also given by God the
seed must be sown it's the same in this other parable too the
parable of the sower remember somebody got to sow the seed
now there's got to be seed the good seed is the word of God
that's Christ the living word But there's also got to be good
ground, doesn't there? The seed's not going to benefit everybody.
It's going to bounce off of some, and Satan's going to come and
snatch it up, or the sun's going to beat down and kill it. There's
got to be seed. Somebody's got to sow it. How
are they going to hear without a preacher? And how are they
going to preach unless God sends them? There's got to be good ground,
too. Got to be an eye to see that light. The seed must be sown, but if
there's no good ground, there'll be no root, no life, no fruit. We are commanded to raise up
the light on a candlestick, and he calls us and sends us to that.
And we are commanded to sow the seed, the word of God, and we
do, but only God can give a seeing eye, and only God can give a
heart, prepare a heart, to receive his precious word the eyes in our text notice the
eyes let's let's just see a few things we won't be able to see
it all today but what a beautiful simple illustration this is there's
a single one that the eye that sees is called a single eye you
know what that means simple simple it just does what an eye does
there's no complication there's no disease It's just simple. It's focused. And the eye that can't see. Oh, you know, sad, sad, pitiful them,
you know, they just aren't one of the fortunate ones to see.
No, he said if you can't see it's because you're evil. Does
that put a perspective on it that you may not see right off
the bat? It's evil. If you can't see it's because
you're evil. That's why. Oh, it's just so clear, isn't
it? We don't complicate. It's a simple, simple, a single
eye. We don't complicate the gospel.
We don't confuse it with the reasoning of men. Notice how
he describes the person whose eye is single. Their whole body
is full of light. Their whole body is full of light.
Now we know that in this body, in this flesh dwelleth no good
thing, and therefore, as a person, I can't do anything perfect.
Sin is mixed. Sin taints everything that I
do, everything that I think, everything that I say that ain't
the direct, perfect word of God. But also, there's nothing in
us that's not affected by the light when he comes. Our whole
body full of light. You just need to be able to see
him now. It's simple. It's just an eye
that sees the Son of God, the light. How does that happen? Some are
just born with a good eye, some are born with a bad eye. No.
No, you've got to be born again. And you know what that word means? You've got to be born Again,
I'm not sure why it was translated that way, but if you look it
up it means born from above. You didn't have a whole lot to
do with your first birth, did you? Yeah, you didn't have much to
do with the second one either if you're born twice. It was
from above. Of God are you in Christ Jesus
who has made into us everything we need. Born of God. The wind blows where it pleases,
he said to Nicodemus. That's how it is with the spirit.
You can see the effects of it, but you can't tell where he comes
from and you can't tell where he'll go. He goes where he wants
to go and gives life, births sinners again by his grace and power. Jesus
answered and said unto Nicodemus verily verily I say unto thee
except a man be born from above He cannot see what are we talking
about so that everybody come in the room can see If you're gonna see God's gonna
have to give you life John 9 35 And Jesus heard that
they had cast him out, that old man that was blind from his birth.
And when he had found him, he said unto him, dost thou believe
on the Son of God? And he answered and said, who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, thou
hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with
thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. I believe. And he worshipped
him. I believe he did believe because
he worshipped him. He didn't question him. He didn't
argue with him. He didn't brag like those who
would say in that day, Lord, look what we've done. He worshipped
him. And Jesus said, for judgment,
I'm coming to this world. You know what that word judgment
means? Again, we always associate judgment with wrath. That's not
right though. That's not right. It means the
judicial deciding of a matter. I think about the context in
which our Lord is saying this. I came down here to judicially
decide something. that they which see not might
see and that they which see might
be made blind. Where did he come down here to
decide who sees and who don't? If you can see this morning,
worship him. Worship him. Don't brag, you know, I can see
and so many can't, you know, that's tough. Worship him. He came down here that you might
see if you do. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? We're the religious big shot. We're the ones that have
degrees in theology and divinity. Are we blind also? And he said
unto them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. If you could stand here today
and confess by nature, I'm blind as a bat. I'm blind. My only hope is for the Lord
to touch my eyes and make me see. If you could say that, you'd
have no sin. You know why? Because you believe
on him and he's your righteousness. But you say now we see, therefore
your sin remaineth. Are you blind or can you see?
Well, by nature, if the Lord hadn't saved me, blind as a bat,
light shining on this whole world, and yet I never get a glimpse
of it, never will, until he touches my eyes. and makes me see. 2nd Corinthians 4.1 Therefore
seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we
faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by manifestation of the truth. All is saying here, we just put
the light on a candlestick. We're not trying to deceive anybody.
We're not trying to trick anybody. We're not trying to get anybody
to do anything. We're just shining a light. I'm not trying to get anybody
to do something. I'm praying that God will do something for
you and me. By manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God, that if our
gospel be hid, It is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, he's the light, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. It's all for His glory, for His
gospel, for His people, for God who commanded. I bet you there's
not hardly anybody, I bet you there ain't. You can quote this,
can't you? Because we quote this a lot.
Did you realize the context of that? Paul is saying, we just
manifest the light. We don't deceive. We don't use
man's wisdom. We're just lifting up the light.
But if our gospel be hid, it's those that are lost, those who
don't have. Our Lord said to the disciples,
it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of God, but to them it's not given. And so, there's no good
ground. What did he say? That Satan will
snatch up the seed. The God of this world, Satan,
has blinded the minds of them that believe not. Lest the light of the glorious
gospel, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we
preach not ourselves, but we preach Christ. And listen to
this. This is the context of this monumental... Listen to
this verse. What is it? 2 Corinthians 4,
6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
What are you talking about, Paul? You preach the gospel and the
light is shining forth, but some, it's hidden to some, they're
blind. They can't, the light is going forth this morning,
but some are not gonna see it. What are you talking, what's
happening here? God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
God who in the beginning said, let there be light, and there
was light. Paul said, that's what happened
in my heart. How much did you have to do with
that? God said, let there be light. Did he consult with you
when he did that? Paul said that same God has shined
in our hearts to give the light. You know what, Paul? He said
salvation is of the Lord, Jonah did. And Paul said, by the grace
of God, I am what I am. That's what he meant. Free, sovereign,
effectual, distinguishing grace. That shine in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God How are we gonna
know God's glory? It's in the face of Jesus Christ.
That's why we preach Christ You're gonna have to see Christ To see
the glory of God And again, let's talk about this
just first just for a couple of minutes now the eye that does
not see is It's not just because they're not just one of the fortunate
ones that we're able to see. It's because they're evil. Because of our sinful nature.
Our blindness is a willful blindness. Now we're blind by nature, but
we're in on that too. We're born blind because of Adam's
sin, but listen to this, Matthew 13, 15. This people's heart is
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes,
they have closed. Why can't people come to the
Lord Jesus Christ, except the Father draw? The Lord said, you
will not come to me, that you might have life. You've deliberately
closed your eyes. You've deliberately refused to
come. You've deliberately rejected the Son of God. Sounds kind of
like me that free will is not the solution. Sounds like it's
the problem to me. You will not come to me, but
you might have life. They have closed their eyes.
They have closed lest at any time they should see with their
eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their
heart and should be converted and I should heal them. We deliberately shut our eyes
to the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the condemnation
that light is coming to the world and men love darkness and hated
the light because we're evil. So we shine forth the light of
the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. We preach Christ and him crucified
and notice that the desire, here's what we want, that everybody
that comes in may see the light. Did you see that? That they which come in may see
what? The candlestick. You just need to see Him. When you say, Chris, well what
sinners need is to believe. You see Him, you'll believe on
Him. You ever see Him. Sinners need to fall in love
with Christ. To see Him is to love Him. If He ever shows Himself
to you, you're not ever gonna be the same again. You're gonna
fall head over heels. and you're just gonna love him
more as time goes on. And one of these days, we're
gonna love him like he's worthy to be loved. When a sinner comes in this room,
I want them to see one thing, one thing. I don't want them
to think I'm smart or well-prepared or how not, everybody was so
nice. They had such a great program. They had, you know, their choir
was, that was a beautiful, you know, and it was a beautiful
song. But why did she sing that beautiful song? That we might
see him. And it worked. By his grace it
worked. I just wanted to see one thing.
Because one thing is needful. Don't look at the vessel. And listen to this now. Think
of it this way. I don't want them to look around for light and
see was there any light in here. It's hard to tell. No. I want
it to shine so obviously and so clearly and so boldly and
so purely. You don't have to look around
and search for it. Just come in. There's the light. There's
the light. Oh may God make it so. Don't
let me hide the light. Don't let me get in the way of
it. I want the light to be so bright and all-encompassing that
you can't miss it unless you're just blind. I want it to be so that that's
the only way you could miss the light is if you're just stone
blind. And if that's the truth, if you are, then may God open
your eyes. This is my prayer. What Elijah
prayed for his servant in 2nd Kings 617. Elijah prayed and
said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. Open his eyes. That's all. How
are we going to see? Well, we got to, we got to better
study. The Lord's going to use things like that. Don't despise
the means, but you know how you see? The Lord is going to do
that right there. He's going to open your eyes.
And you're not going to do it. He's going to do it. The Lord opened his eyes that
he may see. He's not going to see unless
you do. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man and he saw. He didn't try. He didn't offer
him sight. He opened his eyes and he saw.
That's my God. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Do you
remember what those horses and chariots of fire meant in the
context of that verse? They meant that because of the
Lord, victory is assured. They meant that our enemies are
nothing. They meant, those horses and
chariots of fire meant that if God be for us, who can be against
us? Can you see that? Do you see
that in Christ crucified? Do you see the successful Savior,
the champion of sinners, accomplishing redemption for his people? Do
you see the horses and chariots of fire? Lord, open our eyes. Take heed that the light that
is in you be not darkness. If what you see and call light
is darkness, if what you call truth is false and error, you
know how you can tell? Christ, as he is revealed in
this book, is light, and everything else is darkness. That's how
you can tell. Here's my prayer. Lord, open
our eyes that we might see. Trust the Savior. Trust my Savior
today. May God give you grace to do
that. His blood washes the foulest clean. May God give you light
and an eye of faith to see him who is altogether lovely. He's
lovely in his electing love. He is lovely in his invincible
power to save. He is altogether lovely in his
successful sacrifice for the sins of his sheep. He is lovely
no matter which way you look at him. He's lovely. Do you see him? To know him,
to see him, is life eternal. Lord, open our eyes. Let's pray. Thank you, our gracious God,
for the gospel, for our Savior, who is himself the good news
for sinners. May we rejoice in him alone this
morning and worship him alone because he alone is worthy Bless
those who are here. Lord, open our eyes that we may
behold him in righteousness and find in him our all and in all.
In his precious name we ask. Amen. Amen. You're dismissed.