Brethren, let's be turning to
Isaiah chapter 60. We're going to continue the theme
that we began with this morning. Our subject is the house of God's
glory. The house of God's glory. Sometimes
I think the Lord gives messages especially for the preacher. And I think that's what the Lord
did with these two messages strengthen my own heart, encourage my own
heart, and I hope it does to you too. We saw this morning
in Psalm 22 that Christ, having accomplished the work of redemption,
has arisen to the right hand of the Father, and that He is
the preacher in His church. His message is the message of
God's glory, and He is making the Word effectual. With that
being the case, Isaiah chapter 60 now is the command. It's the charge that Christ gives
to His church. And it's the comfort that He
gives of our certain success. Let's just take the first nine
verses. Verse 1 says, Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people. But the Lord shall arise upon
thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising. Lift up thine eyes round about
and see. All they gather themselves together,
they come to thee. Thy Son shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt
see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged,
because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee,
the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee, the multitude
of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah,
all the All they from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and incense, and they shall show forth the
praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Keter shall
be gathered together unto thee. The realms of Nebaoth shall minister
unto thee. They shall come up with acceptance
on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. That's
where we get our title, the house of God's glory. Verse 8, Who
are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?
Surely the owls shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish
first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold
with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy
One of Israel, because He hath glorified thee. Now, first of
all, this is Christ's charge to His church. He says in verse
1, Arise, shine. If you have a marginal reference,
you'll see it says, Arise, be enlightened. Arise and be enlightened. It's a very passive thing to
shine. You know, if you were out in
a dark field somewhere, and there was total darkness everywhere,
and everybody's looking for you, and they're wanting to come to
where you are, and a light was shined on you, and that light
is reflecting on you. Now they can see you, and now
they can come to you, because you're shining. But are you doing
anything? Are you just sitting there being
lit up by this light? Well, that's what this word means.
Arise. Be enlightened. Be enlightened. That's how we shine because we
reflect the glory of Christ. Now, the reason he gives here
to his church for shining is this. It supports what I just
told you. It's because Christ is our light.
It's because Christ is the glory of God and His glory is risen
upon His church. Verse 1, he says, For, because,
thy light is come. Thy light is come. And you can take a pencil and
scratch through that little L if you want to and put a capital
L right there because it's a capital L. Thy light is come and the
glory of the Lord. You can do the same thing there.
The glory, capital G, of the Lord is risen upon thee. How do you know that, speaking
of Christ? Look at the next verse. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall
arise upon thee. He's the light that's risen upon
thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. We were in a
cave one time with the kids down in in Kentucky, coming back,
I believe we were coming back from Danville. And we went through
this cave, and we got in there, way back in this cave, and the
tour guide turned the lights out. And when he turned those
lights out, I mean, you can't see your hand in front of your
face. I mean, that's called gross darkness. That's what the Lord
calls it, right here. And that's what was the case
with us and ourselves. And ourselves, just like everybody
else on this earth, we were gross darkness. He said, darkness shall
cover the earth and gross darkness the people. And that was the
case with us. What is gross darkness? It means you're guilty by Adam's
disobedience, but you don't have eyes to see it. It means you're
unholy because you're born of Adam, but you don't have eyes
to see it. It means that you have no spiritual discernment
whatsoever, but you don't have eyes to see it. It means that
gross darkness covers you, but you don't have eyes to see it.
Totally, totally dark. It's just dark. The light of
every child, the light of every child of God that makes up the
church of God, the light of His church is Christ. Christ. He's the light. Christ is our
light. Of God are you in Christ, to
of God is made unto us wisdom. To have wisdom, you have to have
light. And that's what light is. Christ
is our light. He's our wisdom. And He's our
life. Our life. Our spiritual discernment
is the Lord Jesus. We don't have spiritual discernment
until Christ enters into our hearts. Well, our righteousness
is Christ. We're not trying to be righteous.
We're not trying to keep the law. We've kept the law. We've
kept the law. Every believer has kept the law
perfectly in our Lord Jesus Christ. And He's put away all our sins
for not keeping it. past, present, and future so
that we're righteous in Christ. He's our righteousness. And Christ
is our holiness. In Him, we're perfectly separated
and holy and consecrated to God. And with Him in our heart, when
it's new man, it's perfectly separated and holy and consecrated
to God. Christ is our constraint. He's our liberty from the law.
He is our law. And He's our constraint to obey
Him. Do you get that? He's our liberty from the old
covenant law, from all the legal system. He's our liberty from
that. And He is our law. He's leading us and we're following
Him. And He's teaching us every move
to make. And He is our constraint to obey. He's our reward for obeying. And Christ Himself is our glory.
That word light and glory are the same word. It's the glory,
the light that's upon us. He's Christ. He's the glory of
God. What I'm saying to you is Christ
is our all. Our all. Revelation 21-23. I was going to read that to you. I'll just read it to you from
this chapter though because I'm most certain that's where they
got it. Verse 19, Isaiah 60, 19. The sun shall be no more
thy light by day. What's the sun? It's a natural
light. He said, you're not going to
walk by natural light anymore. That's all we used to walk by,
but not a child of God anymore. The sun won't be your light anymore,
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee.
But the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy
God, thy glory." Do you see that? That's who our light is. That's
how we're walking. The sun shall no more go down,
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself. You see, when you have
natural light, it goes down, the sun goes down, and the moon
stops shining. And eventually, whatever natural
light you have in yourself, it's going to vanish too, because
we're all going to die. But not this light. Look there
at verse 20. For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and
the days of thy mourning shall be ended. You've got no reason
to sorrow anymore. We're going to have light, and
Christ is that light. He's that light. Christ spake
and He said, I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the
world. He that followeth Me, He said,
shall not walk in darkness, but he shall have the light of life. It's impossible to follow Christ.
It's impossible to believe on Christ. It's impossible to have
Christ dwelling in you. It's impossible to be saved by
the grace of God and not have light. It's impossible. Because
life is light. And Christ is that life and He's
that light. He that follows me will have
the light. And this is the sad thing. Light came into the world.
And by nature, men love darkness more than light. Wouldn't come
to the light. Because we're just like a bunch
of cockroaches. And if you come out in the light,
it's going to expose you. Men won't come to the light by
nature. Till Christ shines. and He shines, and He gives.
And then every true believer has the Spirit of glory and of
God resting upon you. That's what Peter said in 1 Peter
4, verse 14. We have the Spirit of glory and
of God resting upon us. Not coming and going, not here
and then going to lose it. Resting upon you. Resting upon
you. Brethren, This is what happened. By God's grace, the Son of Righteousness
has arisen upon thee. And now we have life. Now we
have God's light. And so God says to you and I
who make up the church of God, He says, now you arise and shine. You be enlightened. Be enlightened. Alright? Secondly, now that's
our charge. Arise and shine. Now, how do
we shine? How do we shine? How does the
church of God shine? Turn to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. I hope everybody will pay close
attention this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. There is a harlot church in this
world called Spiritual Babylon. The mother of harlots and all
wickedness. And she shines in this world.
And the way that she shines in this world is by drawing all
men's attention to her and to her works. That's how she shines. She markets her works, she markets
all her deeds, and she draws all eyes and focuses all attention
to her. She lets her God save her. But how in the world she does
that, we don't know because she says she does everything for
her God. She makes her preachers for her
God. That's right. She makes her preachers
for her God. This harlot church. And she plants
her churches for her God. And she chooses herself for her
God. And she regenerates herself for
her God. And she makes herself righteous
for her God. And she makes herself holy for
her God. And she says of her God, He has
no hands but your hands and no feet but your feet. And do you
know that's exactly how the true and living God describes her
God? She says, He has no hands but
your hands and no feet but your feet. Have you ever heard a preacher
say that? When I was growing up, preachers
said it all the time. You heard preachers standing
up and you got to do everything for Jesus because He's got no
hands but your hands and no feet but your feet. God said this
about them in Isaiah 46, 7. He said, They bear Him upon the
shoulder, They carry him, they set him in his place, and he
standeth, and from his place shall he not remove. Yea, one
shall cry unto him, yet he cannot answer, nor save him out of his
trouble." God says that is their God. He really does have no hands
but their hands, and no feet but their feet. He is an idol.
He is an idol. And so she shines. And how does
she shine? She attracts everybody to her
works. and all that she offers. She's
like a business. How do you choose a good restaurant?
That restaurant's going to market to you. And they're going to
market what they can offer you. And that's what this harlot does.
This harlot church does. She markets. You go on her websites
and you're going to see she's going to market how many prayer
meetings she has. Because everybody wants to show
up and put on a good show of prayer. People like that. So that's what she markets. She
markets her almsgiving. Everybody wants to know there's
some kind of humanitarian effort going on in the world. So she's
going to market how many humanitarian efforts she's got going on in
the world. She markets all her many wonderful works. She markets
the fact that she has this great ministry of separation and division.
If you think about it, that's what the ministry of this harlot
church is. Think about it. She's not bringing folks together.
She's got a ministry for the married, and over here she's
got a ministry for the unmarried. She's got one over here for the
adults, and one over here for the teens, and one over here
for the children. She's got a ministry for those that are traditional.
She's got a ministry for those who are contemporary. Tell me
what's contemporary about God who never changes, who's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. There's nothing that's new about
our God. He's the same. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And so she arises. God says,
Arise to His church. Well, she arises by exalting
herself. And God says, Shine. And so she
shines by showing all her works and everything that she's done.
Now, that's the harlot church in this world. Alright, how does
God's church shine? How does God's church shine?
First and foremost, first and foremost, God's church shines
by doing what we're doing right here, right now. Preaching Christ
and Him crucified. That's how His church shines.
Look at 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 5. We preach not ourselves. All that marketing I just said
to Harlot Church does, we don't do that. We don't do that. We
preach not ourselves. We don't have any light to market
of ourselves. But we preach Christ Jesus the
Lord. That's our message. What else
do you have? Nothing. Nothing. We preach Christ
Jesus, our Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. How did you come to stop preaching
yourself and just preach the Lord Jesus Christ? How does the
church of God come to do that? Look at verse 6. For God, because
God. The one reason that we cease
preaching ourselves and preach Christ alone is because of God. The one reason that we are servants
for Jesus' sake is because of God. Now look at this, verse
6. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, the same God who created this first
natural creation, commanding light to shine, has created a
new creation. He did it this way. He commanded
light. He shined in our hearts and gave
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Christ declares in our text,
thy light is come, thy light is come, and the glory of the
Lord is risen upon thee. And he says right here, it's
because God hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Have you seen God's glory in
the face of Jesus Christ? When you see God's glory in the
face of Jesus Christ, that's when you'll find out you've been
in gross darkness. When you see the light of God's
glory in the face of Christ, that's when we'll stop preaching
ourselves. That's when we'll want Him to
have all the glory. That's why he says back up there in 2 Corinthians
4, he says, we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty.
And we're not walking in craftiness anymore. And we're not handling
the Word of God deceitfully. But by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Let me commend myself to your
conscience right now. Let me commend my gospel to your
conscience right now. Everybody's sitting here. Since
the first day you ever came and heard me preach, have I preached
my words or have I preached God's Word? Am I preaching something
that I'm just making up or am I showing you in the Word of
God every time we meet, here's what God says? And I'll try to
comment on it a little to help you understand it. And I'll show
you some Scripture to help you understand it. But I'm just showing
you what God says. That's what his preachers did.
That's what it is to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty.
I'm not going to read a scripture to you and then stand up here
and just tell you whatever's on my mind and whatever I feel
some injustice and to tickle your ears. That's not my mission.
That's not shining the light of Christ. Shining the light
of Christ is preaching Christ the light. That's shining the
light of Christ. Preaching the light of Christ.
We saw this morning in Psalm 22, Christ, our prophet, said,
I will declare thy name, Father, to my people. So what do you
think his preacher is going to preach? The preacher Christ is
sending. The preacher Christ is in. The
preacher Christ is preaching through. What do you think the
message is going to be? It's going to be God's name.
It's going to be Christ and Him crucified. It's going to be the
righteousness of God declared in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to be the message
that declares Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
It's going to be the message that declares Israel could not
obtain the righteousness of the law because they sought it by
works. But the Gentiles, who did nothing
but be sinners in gross darkness, they obtained the righteousness
of God. How? Because they didn't seek
it by their works. God called them to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ and gave them a perfect righteousness. This
is the message we preach, brethren, the message we declare. Remember
Isaiah 58.8? Go back there with me. The Lord
said, it's not light when you yoke people and you oppress people
and you discipline people and you try to make people do what
you want them to do. He said, that's not light. Observing
days and men's traditions and all those, that's not light,
He said. No. He said, you preach this message,
Isaiah 58. He said, this is it. You preach
verse 6, that Christ has loosed the bands of wickedness, and
Christ has undid those heavy burdens, and He's let the oppressed
go free, and He's broke every yoke. That's what it is, verse
7, to deal your bread to the hungry. That's what it is to
bring the poor to your house, to Christ's house. And that's
what it is to cover his nakedness, is to preach Christ the only
covering for the nakedness of the sinner. That's what it is
to cover him. And look, he says, and when you do that, verse 8,
then shall thy light break forth as the morning. That's light,
brethren, that's light. The light of Christ shines by
declaring Christ. declaring Christ. And so that's
what we do. We preach Christ and Him crucified. We don't preach man. We don't
tell sinners what to do. We don't preach man's works.
We preach not ourselves. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
And then secondly, the first way the church shines is by preaching
Christ. Secondly, the way the church
shines, and be sure to get this, is by making certain in all our
works that Christ is seen and not us. Christ is seen and not
us. Turn to Matthew 5. Matthew chapter
5. And hold your place in Matthew
5. We're going to come back to Matthew 6 in a moment. Listen to what Christ said. Matthew
5 verse 14. He is speaking to his church,
his true, called out, blood-bought, chosen, redeemed people. And
look what he says, You are the light of the world. You are the
light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. They are going to see you. Just
like a city in a dark night that's on a hill, that's glowing on
a hill, this world is going to see you, He's saying. That's
what He's saying. And then He tells us, and He
means for them to see us. Look here. Neither do men light
a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it
giveth light unto all that are in the house. God says, they're
going to see you, because it can't be hidden. And He says,
And I've given you light for that reason, for them to see
you. Now watch what he says. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. Now, who's our light? Christ
is our light. Christ is our light. So, he says
here, make sure men see and hear Christ your light. Make certain
they see Christ your light and hear Christ your light. And when
it comes to our works, anything we do, who's our righteousness? Who's the righteousness of our
works? Christ is. Christ is. No more food or drink
in this auditorium ever again. Ever again. I don't know how
many times I've said that. It's just simple. Simple. No more. Alright. When it comes
to our good works, Christ is our righteousness. Christ is
our righteousness. And it's Christ who works in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. You know who's
gonna make us obey in our hearts? Christ working in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. So any work you and I do, we
have no room to boast in ourselves at all. It's Christ, it's God
that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Of His good pleasure. So you got Christ our light,
you got God working in us to do His good pleasure. So a believer
will not make himself to be the focus. A believer is not going
to do anything to draw the attention off of Christ being declared
to something else. And he's going to get upset when
it happens. He's not going to do that. He's not going to do
that. Christ said do everything. everything to glorify your Father. Do everything to bring all the
glory to Christ and Him crucified. And don't do anything to bring
glory to yourself. That's the devil. That's the
devil. The devil spilled that cup of
drink right there to get our attention off of Christ. That's
right. He wants to do anything he can
do to get your focus off Christ on you or anything else. It could
be a fly buzzing around here and he'll try to use that. He
just doesn't want you focusing on Christ at all. Bible builders
do just the opposite. Remember what Bible builders
do? Bible builders say, let us build us a city and let us make
us a name. Remember we saw that? That's
what a Bible builder does. This world cannot, this religious
world cannot get this, and they'll never discern this, they'll never
understand this, that the light is Christ, the glory is God,
and it's not ours, brethren. We're not trying to make ourselves
be seen. We're not trying to market ourselves to people. We're
not trying to talk about our works to get folks to join us.
I don't want folks to join us for that reason. And I certainly
don't want them to join us for that reason. No, sir. God says
in our text, His glory shall be seen upon thee. His glory,
not our glory. Look back at Isaiah 60 and look
at verse 21. God says, Thy people also shall
be all righteous. Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever."
Now watch this. How are they going to do that?
The branch of my planting. The work of my hands that I may
be glorified. That's what God said. He said,
I'm going to plant them. He said, they're going to be
the work of my hands that I get the glory. And then look at Isaiah
66 and look at verse 19. Isaiah 66 and verse 19. He says, I will set a sign among
them, and I will send those that escape of them. those that He's
called out and saved out of the nations. He said, those that
escape of them, He said, I'm going to send them unto the nations,
to Tarshish, and Poole, and Ludd, that draw the bow, to Tubal,
and Javan, to the Isles afar off, to those that are using
a bow, and those that are using fleshly strength, and fleshly
means to war. I'm going to send My people to
them, He said. And look at this, that have not
heard My thing, Neither have seen my glory. And these people
I send to them, they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles."
They're not going to come in there strutting around like a
little rooster and try to get folks to look at them. They're
going to come in there, making sure you're not looking at them
at all, declaring my glory, he said. And in 1 Chronicles 16,
24, he said, here's the message. Declare His glory among the heathen,
His marvelous works among all the nations. Do you see that?
So, the glory in making this word effectual, as we declare
the glory and as we don't do anything to be seen of ourselves,
the glory of making the word effectual in the heart. Every
time a people is disobedient to what a preacher preaches or
a preacher asks of them, they prove a preacher can't make you
obedient. Can't do it. But when God makes
you obedient, and God makes you glory in Him, and reverence Him,
and fear Him, and want to honor Him, then you'll be obedient.
And this is what He does in the hearts of His people, and only
God can do that in the hearts of His people. Now, I'm going
to make my children obey, whether they like it or not, because
I'm not going to let them interfere with the gospel of God. because of reverence for God.
And I'm going to pray while I do it that one day they understand
what God's Word. But he's going to have to teach
them that in their heart. He'll have to make them understand
that in their heart. Now, listen to this. Paul said, we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, just clay pots, that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. And so, look at 1
Corinthians 2. When the apostle Paul preached,
He used all the gimmicks and all the stuff that this world's
using in our day. You know what they call contemporary
worship? Contemporary worship is all these new tricks and all
this gimmickry they use to try to get people to make a profession
of faith. That's what's contemporary about
it. Not preaching Christ. That's what's contemporary about
it. But look at what Paul did. He knew he had no power. And
he was so fearful. He didn't want people making
a false profession because of something he got them to do.
Now look at this. 1 Corinthians 2. He says, Our
brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of
speech. or of wisdom. And he could have. Paul was an educated man, and
he could have dazzled them with his speech. And what he means
here particularly is, he could have spoken to them in a way
to make them think they were believing the true and living
God, and done it just simply so he could get them to make
a profession of faith. That's what he's talking about
here is wisdom. Is wisdom in the excellency of
speech. He says, I didn't do that, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. Verse 2, For I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, the thing that men use
that is excellency of speech and wisdom is all this other
junk that they do so that you don't ever hear Christ and Him
crucified. It's trying to take the edge
off the gospel. It's trying to take the offense
out of the cross so they can get men... You can't get somebody
to believe Christ without preaching Christ. And that's what men are
trying to do. Get them to believe on somebody
that they never tell them about. Not in truth. But Paul said,
all I did was tell you the truth of Christ and Him crucified.
That's it. That's it. Now look at this.
And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, reverence to God,
and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of men's wisdom. Why was he so fearful
and trembling? Later he tells the Philippians,
do everything you do with fear and trembling. Why? God's in
your presence. It's God working in you, both
the will and the do of His good pleasure. And that's what He
means here. That's why I was so fearful and so trembling.
God was in my presence. God was working in me. And out
of reverence for God, I guarantee you if we saw God standing here
right now, we wouldn't be so insistent, I'm going to have
my way. We'd be on our face trembling. You find me in one place in Scripture
where God revealed Himself in His excellency and in his glory
and the man didn't hit his face before God. Find me one place.
Peter saw his glory there on the Mount of Transfiguration
and Peter hit his face. Moses saw him in the burning
bush, he hit his face. Men see the glory of God and
they reverence God, they hit their face. I'm telling you,
Paul knew it. He said, and I'm with you. When
I'm here preaching, the reason we have a nursery back there
is not to be mean to babies. It's because this thing of preaching
the gospel is so serious, brethren. God is in our midst. And we want
Him to have all the glory and the focus and the attention and
nothing else. Nothing else. And He said here,
I didn't preach with enticing words of man's wisdom. I didn't
give you 25 stanzas of just as I am and dim the lights and beg
you to walk an aisle. I didn't do that. He said, I
preach the gospel in demonstration of the spirit of power. That,
here's why, your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. If I could get you to make a
profession of faith and join a church, it wouldn't help you. It wouldn't help you at all.
It would hurt you. Actually, it'd be worse. You'd
be worse off. Because then you'd think you
had a hope when it was a false hope and that would be to be
doubly damned. Then in order to hear the gospel,
now you've got to have your lie undone and all that spider web
of garments you've got woven, you've got to have that all wiped
out before you even start hearing the truth. You've got to be backed
up to zero before you can start going into the plus side. You
see what I'm saying? That's a terrible thing for a
man to be. To think he knows God and he don't know a thing.
To be twice dead and twice dark. And Paul instructed the church
of Philippi to do the same thing. Look at Philippians 2. I got
to hurry. Philippians 2. He told them, verse 12, He says, my beloved, you've always
obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And he's
saying there, what he's saying is, work out everything you have
to do in all of the affairs of the church, in worship, and in
buying a building, and in paying the bills, and in cutting the
grass, and in sweeping the floors, and in putting the tables out,
and taking the tables down, and whatever you're having to do
with each other. Do everything you're doing in
fear and trembling. For it's God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do all things
without murmuring and disputing. Why? That you may be blameless
and harmless. That you don't draw any attention
to you from this world. That's not the light you want
to shine for. He says, be the sons of God without rebuke in
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you shine as
lights in the world. Doing what? Holding forth the
word of life. Now that's how you shine. Hold
forth the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's our shining. To hold forth
the gospel. And when it comes to prayer,
go back now to Matthew 6. When it comes to prayer and it
comes to giving and it comes to any kind of sacrificial works
of any kind, He says, you just stay out of the way. Stay out
of the way. Don't let a man see you. Look
here now, Matthew 6, 1. He says, Matthew 6, 1. Take heed,
this is Christ speaking, that you do not your alms before men. Don't do any giving before men
to be seen of them. Otherwise, you have no reward
of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, Do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites
do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory
of men. Verily I say unto you, that glory
of men they get, that applause of men, that's their reward.
That's what they wanted, that's what they got. That's their reward.
And then he says, But when thou doest alms, let not thy left
hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be
in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall
reward thee openly. Verse 5, And when thou prayest,
thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. They love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that
they may be seen of men. They love to gather up down at
the down at the local restaurant and everybody join hands and
everybody bow their heads and pray together. Why? So men will
see them do it. That's why. So men will see them
do it. And He says, Verily I say unto
you, they have their reward. Men saw them. Men saw them. Oh, look over there. Those folks
are so religious. That's what they wanted. That's
what they got. Verse 6, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into
thy closet, And when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father
which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly." Verse 16, Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites
of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they
may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have
their reward. But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto
men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father
which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." A few years
ago, there was this article in the paper. Brother Scott sent
it to me. Article in the paper, there was these teachers. And
they were praying every day in school. And the principal asked
these teachers, he said, when y'all pray, will you go into
your closet, to the janitor's closet and pray there so nobody
can see you praying? And they said, under no certain
terms will we go into the closet and pray. We're going to pray
out here in public so everybody can see us pray. They didn't
even know what Christ taught. They were thinking, this is how
we'll let our light shine. We want everybody to see us pray. Christ said, that's how the hypocrite
shines his light. How does the believer shine light?
He goes into a closet and nobody knows he even prayed. He gives
his alms and nobody knows he ever did it. You say, well, how's
men going to see that light? They won't until God visits them
in divine grace and makes them understand the truth. They won't. You see, light shining is altogether
different in truth and in spirit than it is in what this world
thinks it is. Altogether different. And then,
let me show you this last thing, back at our text. I'm just going
to read it. We'll have to look at it another time. But as Christ
does this work in His church, He's going to add to it, and
He's going to enlarge the church himself. Now this
is his promise. He says, you arise and you shine. You preach my gospel, giving
me all the glory, and you stay out of the way. Don't bring any
attention to you, any focus to you at all. And he says, he'll
enlarge it by calling out his elect into his house. Verse 3. The Gentiles, that's his elect,
everybody in the church. Now look, let me tell you something
right now. He started with Israel, with
the Jews, but let me tell you, everybody that's in His church
already, we're all true Jews. We're the true spiritual Israel
of God. He's a Jew which is born of God. We're the true Jews.
Everybody He's calling out, it don't matter what nation they
come from, whether they're a Gentile or a Jew, physically, they're
all Gentiles. They're all outside of the church.
They're all heathens outside of the church. He's calling us
in the church. And that's what he's talking
about here. Now watch. The Gentiles is elect, scattered in all nations,
shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising. Now that's a promise. Christ our light They're going
to come to Christ our light as we preach this gospel. That's
what Christ says He'll do. Remember Acts, over in Acts chapter
2, it says they continue daily with one accord in the temple,
preaching this gospel. They continue from house to house,
eating their bread with simplicity and singleness of heart. And
it says in Christ added to the church daily such as should be
saved. He says that's one way I'm going
to enlarge my church. I'm going to add to it daily
such as should be saved. And then number two, not only
does He enlarge it that way, but He enlarges those He's already
called out by showing us this work that He works through this
gospel. Do you get what I'm saying? He
enlarges us by showing us that He really does work this work
through this gospel. As we see it, He enlarges us.
Look at verse 4. Lift up thine eyes round about
and see. We have to lift up our eyes because we're not, we don't
have our chest poked out and our nose in the air making everybody
see us. We're bowed down asking him, Lord, work your will. So
he says, now you lift up your eyes and look. All they gather
themselves together, they come to thee. Thy son shall come from
far, thy daughter shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt
see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged. Because the abundance of the
seed of all these nations, my people shall be converted unto
thee, and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." There's
nothing that enlarges faith in the heart and reverence for God
like seeing God work His work in the hearts of His people.
Make good on His promise. And then look, and then He says
He'll enlarge His church by providing all our needs. Verse 6, the multitude
of camels, They'll cover the Dromedaries, that's a smaller
Campbell, of Median and Ephah, and from Sheba, they'll come,
and all those people are Arabians. He says, and they'll bring gold
and incense. That's Christ providing for His
church. Verse 7, all the flocks of Keter. You know who that is?
That's Ishmael's descendants. You mean God's got some elect
among the Muslims? You mean He might have some elect
among ISIS? Yep. That's what He's saying.
If you get a chance to preach the gospel to them, preach the
gospel to them. We got a much stronger weapon than they've
got. Much stronger. Look here. They'll be gathered
together unto thee, and the rams of Nebo shall minister unto thee.
All of these He's going to provide for His church. And in all this
work, who gets the glory? Look back at verse 6. He says
there at the end, they shall show forth the praises of the
Lord. They're going to praise Him. Look at verse 7. Christ
gets the glory. They shall be accepted with acceptance
on mine altar. Christ the altar of God. And
look at verse 7 again. And I will glorify the house
of my glory. Who are these? Who are they?
Look at verse 9. They're all those that are waiting
for Me, He says. And He says, and they're coming
from far, and they're bringing their silver and their gold with
them. They're all coming unto the name of the Lord thy God. They're coming to the Holy One
of Israel, because He hath glorified thee. What does that mean? He's given you a heart. He's
given you light, and He's given you a heart. to support the preaching
of His gospel and to stay out of the way. In your lives, in
what you do and everything, to make sure you're not doing anything
to draw undue attention to you. You want it all on Christ. Everything. And everything you say, do, Wear,
go, everything. You want it on Christ, not on
you. So, he says to us, Brethren, arise and shine, because your
light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
And he promises, I will glorify my house. I'll glorify my house. Amen. All right, brother.