Okay, let's look in Luke chapter
11. Luke chapter 11. And I'll read just down to verse
36 here from verse 29 again because I want to give you, get this. Verse 29, Luke 11, 29. When the
people were gathered thick together, the Lord began to say, this is
an evil generation. Now, bear in mind there, he says
this is an evil generation. And here's why. They seek a sign. They wanted the Lord to do something
that would outwardly make him appear righteous to them, or
would measure up to what they considered to be righteous. Because
to them, he didn't appear as doing that which is what they
regarded as righteous. And he said, there shall no sign
be given it but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonah was
a sign unto the Ninevites, so also the Son of Man shall the
Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South shall
rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and
condemn them. For she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. These fellas
didn't have to go anywhere. Christ came to them. And behold,
he says, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall
rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn
it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah's." See, that
was the sign that Jonah was to Nineveh. He preached the gospel
to them. And they repented at his preaching.
And Christ preaching the truth to these fellows wasn't enough.
They said, you've got to do something. Make us think you're righteous.
But he said, they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold,
a greater than Jonas is here. No man, when he hath lighted
a candle, putteth it under a secret place, neither under a bushel,
but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.
The light of the body is the eye. Therefore, when thine eye
is single, thy whole body also is full of light. But when thine
eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed,
therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If
thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark,
the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of
a candle doth give thee light." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ came
forth. He is the Word. He came forth
declaring the Word. And the Word He declared was
concerning there is salvation in no other than the Word. And
the people said, but if you'd show us a sign. He did miracles. He healed the sick. He cast out
devils. He did things that no man ever
had done and spake like no man ever spake. But they wanted to
see something of a man who appeared to be righteous like what they
saw when they looked at the Pharisees and the scribes. They saw some
works being done, some religious works. And truthfully, what they
wanted was not really so much for Him to do a sign of those
kind of works to make them think this is righteous or that He's
righteous, but they wanted Him to say, if you will do this or
that or the other thing, you can be righteous. They wanted
Him to tell them you can be righteous by something you've done. And
he wouldn't tell them that. He wouldn't tell them that. And
so they were offended, greatly offended at what he preached.
And he declares to them that the blindness that they were
in was due to their sinful, corrupt state. That's the first thing
He declares to them in verse 33. He says, No man, when he
hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither
under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see
the light. Now here, Christ the light. Christ is the light. We've seen this passage of Scripture
in Matthew 5 where He said, Ye are the light. A light on a hill
can't be hidden. And a man don't put a light a
candle and hide it somewhere out of the way. He lights it
and puts it on a candlestick in the room so it gives light
to all in the room. And then we saw it over in Mark
chapter four, I believe it was, when we talked about the parable
of the sower. He's the sower. And he talked about going forth
and sowing. And what he sows is the word
of the gospel, the gospel of the light of our salvation, the
word of life. And he said, but some receive
it into good ground. And right after that, he says
this same thing. And he declared to them, unto
you it is given. And he says, to him that it's
given to, more shall be given. It'll shine more and more to
that man. But to him that doesn't have,
that which he does have will be taken away. He'll be hardened,
blinded, more and more and more in darkness. Same parable, same
metaphor of this light. Now here he is, the light of
the world, the word of life, the light that shined in the
darkness. Here he is standing face to face
with men. Do you ever think, if I could
just see Him, I might believe Him? No, you wouldn't. Here He
stands in front of sinners, face to face. He is the light. Here
He stands in front of them. Here He preaches the light of
the Gospel to them. And His Gospel is set forth so
that all can hear. He was in a public place and
He preached the Gospel to them. His disciples preached publicly
that which he told them in private. He said, go into public and preach
this. Here he stands, preaching the
light, just like a light that's been lit that's on a candlestick
that shines so all men can see it. And he's setting here the
light, setting forth the gospel of light, declaring that no man
can come to God but in the light of Christ. Here he is. And yet
these sinners believe not the truth of Christ the light. Why
is that? The problem is not that the light
of the gospel is not shining. The problem's not that the light
of the gospel is hidden somewhere under a bushel. The problem is
not that Christ didn't speak with great plainness of speech
so that all that heard him could understand him. The problem is
not that he sends forth his messengers and they mutter and peep and
speak in strange tongues so people can't understand them. That's
not the issue. The issue is with the sinner.
The problem is with the sinner. He says, verse 34, the light
of the body is the eye. The window to the soul is what
he's describing here, through which light shines is described
here as the eye. He's using the eye to describe
it. Therefore, when thine eye is
single, that means when you can see, when your eye is whole,
Your eye is set on the light. You can see light. Every one
of you in here right now, you see, don't you? You see light
because you have light. You can see and the light is
shining and you can see. And the whole body also is full
of light. When the light shines, and when
you can see, the light fills the room. Same with the gospel. When the gospel of the light
shines, and you have eyes to see the gospel, the light enters
into the soul and fills the whole inner man. It fills the whole
inner room, so that the whole body is full of light. The heart
is full of light. But, he says, when thine eye
is evil, When your eye is blind, when it's dark, unable to comprehend
light, then the body also is full of darkness. If you can't
not see right now, if anybody in this room was blind, completely
blind, it wouldn't matter that the light is shining. It wouldn't
change the fact that the light is shining. But what would be
the problem is you can't see it. It's shining. You can't see it because you're
blind. And that's exactly what he's
telling them. And he says, the body also is full of darkness.
And you who can see and you who have light in here right now,
if I was to ask any one of you to get up and walk to the back
of that room right there in back, You could go in and out of these
chairs. You could work your way through
here. You could go right down this
aisle, back there to the back. You'd come right back through
all these chairs, right back to your chair and sit down because
you can see and you have light. Now, if you're blind, The light's
still shining, but if you're blind, and I said, okay, get
up and walk back there. If I had one of you right now
to close your eyes and get up and walk down these rows of chairs
and get back there, you'd stumble and you'd bounce off of things
and you'd move all the chairs around because your whole body's
full of darkness. You can't see anything. Well,
that's what Christ is telling them. The light's shining. You
can't see it. And the problem's not that I'm
not the light, or that I'm not shining, or that I'm not speaking
in a manner that is audible, that you can hear. The problem
is you don't have sight to see. That's what he's telling them.
Go over in 2 Corinthians. Look over there with me real
quick. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul said, verse 2, We have renounced
the hidden things of shame, of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
not handling the Word of God deceitfully. He said in another
place, we use great plainness of speech. And he says here,
but by manifestation of the truth, we set forth the truth in a clear
light, he said, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it's
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 Jesus Christ, and ourselves your servants for His sake."
He's saying, the Gospel's going forth, the light is shining,
but if our Gospel is hidden, if someone doesn't see the light,
someone doesn't hear the light, it's because the God of this
world has blinded their minds. They're blind, they can't see
it. And that's what our Lord's declaring. Now look at verse
35 in our text. Luke 11, 35. Now, this is Listen to this now. They thought
they had light. He says, take heed therefore
that the light which is in thee be not darkness. Now, what was
it that they were calling light? This is what they called light.
They called light to come to Him and to say, we would see
a sign. from you." They came to Him and
asked the light, who's preaching the gospel of the light, whose
disciples, who have been given eyes to see, hearts to understand,
ears to hear, are following Him and hearing everything He's saying
plainly and understand Him completely. In the most religious, most pious,
most righteous appearing folks there was, the last to know, come to Him
and say, we would like to see a sign. And He said to them, back there
in verse 29, this is an evil generation that seek a sign. And He tells them there, when
He said in verse 34, when He said, if your eye is evil, your
whole body is going to be full of darkness. And he tells them
here, this is an evil generation. He's speaking as plainly, he's
saying, you're blind. If I was to give you some kind
of sign, you can't believe. What did he tell Nicodemus? When
Nicodemus came to him speaking, talking to him, he said, Nicodemus,
no man can see the kingdom of God until he's born of God. You're
a master in Israel, you don't know these things? You see, He's
telling them, this gospel's not going to come to you, this light's
not going to come to you through something you do, or by works
that I tell you to perform, or by righteousnesses that you can
do. It's not going to come to you
that way. It's not going to be maintained in you that way. It's
not going to grow in you that way. In fact, if you have the
light and start out in the light and go back to the rudiments
of the world, you've turned from the light and gone back to darkness.
He says, it's coming through the same sign that came to Nineveh. And the sign that came to Nineveh
was Jonah, a man preaching the gospel of Christ. He said, Queen
of Sheba, she came all the way to hear Solomon. She didn't come there to see
Solomon do something. She didn't come there to see
a mighty work Solomon would perform. She didn't come there to hear
Solomon tell her to do something. She came to hear Solomon. And he said, a mightier than
Solomon is here. A mightier than Jonah is here.
One more wise and one more powerful in the Gospel that he's setting
forth is here in your midst, right in front of you. He's saying
to them, I am the light of the world. I am the wisdom. I am the power of God unto salvation. And he says, take heed therefore,
lest the light that's in you darkness. Now, the religious
men that were there were as blind as those that followed them,
the Pharisees and the scribes. Now, look in verse 37. As he spake, a certain Pharisee
besought him to dine with him, and he went in and sat down to
meet. When the Pharisees saw He marveled that he not first
washed before dinner. Have you ever paid attention
in the scriptures that the Pharisees based on most everything on seeing
somebody do something. When they listened to Christ
preach, they were listening for him to say something that was
contrary to what Moses had said must be done. And that way they
could entangle him and say, well, you're telling us that there's
nothing that we're supposed to do. We can't do this long. Then
Moses said, this is how we come to it. But they wouldn't hear
him say. with the ear. I am the light. They wouldn't hear him say, I
am the truth. I am the way. I am the fulfillment
of the law and the prophets. That's what he says here with
the prophets. Now he's going to sit here and set forth something
using the law. Look, they marveled that he didn't
wash his hand before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, now
do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter,
But your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. There's
a double meaning here in that Inside the cup With all their
best wine and all their platters full of the best things that
you could dine on they got those things by oppressing sinners
They filled their cup and they put bread on their table by,
it's called filthy lucre, by using the word of God for gain,
for personal gain. But the other thing that he's
speaking to, and the reason they did that is, is because you have
no light within you. Your heart is dark. Your heart is full of wickedness,
full of evil. And he says, ye fools, did not
he that made that which is out make that which is within also?
I think he's saying here exactly what he said over in Mark chapter
7. He says there, He said, Whatsoever thing from
without entereth into the man, it can't defile him, because
it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth
out into the drought, purging all meats. He said, That which
cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. He said, Don't you realize
that what's coming out of you, out of your heart, is defiling
you. It's completely making everything
you do vanity. This is a heart matter. It's
not a matter of just cleaning up the outside. I could get you,
I could shame you into cleaning up the outside. I could whip
you into cleaning up the outside. I could bribe you into cleaning
up the outside. But the inside is left just as
dark and black as ever. Only God, only Christ the light
can shine into the heart of a man and fill the inner man with light
so that he separates the light from the darkness. You know the
difference between light and darkness when you hear it. You
know the difference between light and darkness when you see it.
You know the difference between light and darkness when you read
God's Word and hear someone expound God's Word. Why? Because you
have the light within you. Now listen, he says, But rather,
verse 41, give alms of such things as you have, and behold, all
things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees,
for ye tithe mint, and rue, and all manner of herbs, and ye pass
over judgment and the love of God. These ought ye to have done,
and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees, for
you love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings
in the markets. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you have graves which appear not, and the men
that walk over them are not aware of them." Now, let me back up
here a minute. Why did he say, give alms of
such things as you have, and behold, all things are clean
unto you? Why did he say you overlook judgment
and the love of God? Why did he say those things?
You remember the rich young ruler who came to the Lord and he said,
Lord, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life? And the
Lord said, what does the law say? And he says, well, I've
kept the law from my youth up. I've kept it. And the Pharisees,
it wasn't that they weren't trying their dead-level best to keep
the law. It wasn't that outwardly they weren't straight as a gun
barrel. The problem was that they were
twice as empty as a gun barrel in their heart. But he says to
them here, he says, you overlook the weightier matters. When the
Lord told that rich man, go sell everything you have and give
it to the poor. The rich man walked away very
sorrowful. The Lord wasn't telling him,
if you go sell everything you have and give it to the poor,
that's going to earn you salvation and that's going to earn you
a right to heaven. He was saying, The proof that you have the Spirit
of God abiding in you and you have the light in you is that
you're going to be merciful, you're going to believe Me by
faith, you're going to be merciful, and you're going to be full of
love and judgment, discernment. And that's what He's saying to
them here. Show that you have something inward in you Make manifest that these works,
that your faith is justified by the works that you do. What
James said. See, they were doing a bunch
of works. They were doing a bunch of and commanding other people
to do a bunch of works. But Paul said, the Lord said,
but you're without any kind of works that are justifying you.
because your works are works of legalism. Your works are works
to bind folks and to yoke sinners and to get personal gain from
sinners and to concentrate on these lesser things on the outside,
but there is no inward spirit of grace. There is no heart work
that's been performed. If it was, you wouldn't be dealing
with sinners the way you're dealing with them. You wouldn't be dealing
with them in this judgment and this harshness the way you're
dealing with them. When God writes His law on the inward parts and
creates the new man, there's a desire to honor God and obedience
to God, and He fills us with faith in Christ. We trust Christ. We believe Him that all righteousness
is fulfilled in Christ and we're complete in Him. And we believe
that He that spared not His own Son but delivered him up for
each one of his elect with his son, he's going to freely give
us everything. And when a person has that heart,
you're not going to find a frugal, penny-pinching, hard-hearted
man. You're going to find somebody
who knows the God of all glory gave this to me. And if there's
a brother in need, a sister in need, I can give it to them.
These fellows were just the opposite. These fellows were doing everything
they did to get everything given to them, to fill their cups and
their platters. And he said, that's manifest
token that there's a problem in the heart. There's a heart
problem. That's where this is coming from.
And then the person who's been born of the Spirit is merciful
to those who are needy because he's tasted the Lord's grace.
He knows God didn't deal with him in judgment apart from mercy. God dealt with us in truth. He
came to us and He declared the law to us, and He taught us the
law, and He did it in truth, so that we beheld we can't fulfill
the law. But then He dealt with us in
mercy, because at the cross He satisfied the truth, and He brought
in mercy for His people. And that's how He deals with
us. He deals with us truthfully, but He deals with us mercifully.
And that's how God's people deal with one another, in truth and
in mercy. What these men were calling truth
was, No mercy whatsoever. It was, if I catch you not tithing
mint and cumin and anise, I'm getting you. It was just that
way. He might not have said it that
way. I'm sure they said now, but now you got to do this humbly
and in love and in grace with a gracious spirit about you.
Bull. That's what men say. I listened
to a fellow the other day preach a message on discipline, and
he had three sub-points to each point, and about 25 or 30 sub-sub-points. And by the time he got through,
I thought, how in the world do they do anything but just go
out and hunt people down? The CIA don't have as many rules
as they have in how to track folks down and get them to do
what they think they ought to be doing. That's not mercy. That's not even judgment. That's
not even truth. That's using the law of God unlawfully. It wasn't given for that purpose.
It creates self-righteousness. It creates self-love. It creates hardness towards others. It exalts one man above another. There's nothing good about it.
Nothing good about it. And love toward God is what God
gives because they behold that He first loved us. How'd he love
us? Without any cause in us. How
do we love one another? Without any cause. We, I've said
this to you before, I give you enough reason not to love me. I'm hard to love, I know that.
I got all kind of crazy quirks and crazy things about me. I'm
hard to love. You can ask Melinda. It's just
how it is. And I've given you plenty of
reasons not to love me. But the believer loves in spite
of the brother or the sister. Because that's what the Spirit
of Grace has created in the heart of a believer. We love one another
in spite of what the other one does. And we deal mercifully
and truthfully with one another. These fellows weren't poor in
spirit. They didn't mourn their sin or the sin of others. They
weren't meek. They didn't hunger and thirst after righteousness.
They weren't merciful. They weren't pure in heart. The
Lord says they were hypocrites. Now, if you have mercy, faith,
and judgment, you'll deal with sinners in a manner like Christ
dealt with sinners rather than being a merciless disciplinarian
like the Pharisees and the scribes of Christ's day and of our own
day. Now, verse 45. And he said, well I'll tell you
here in a minute, then answered one of the lawyers. And they
said unto him, now these fellows were the ones looking into the
Word of God all the time. And they heard him, they heard
him rebuke these Pharisees. And here's your spirit of, here's
that spirit, that graceless spirit, the carnal spirit of a man. They
didn't come to the defense of their brethren. They didn't come
and stand in front of the Pharisees and say, well now, take it up
with us and we'll bear the blunt of whatever it is that problem
you got with them because we're the ones that have been teaching
them. We'll let them go. We'll let them walk away free.
We'll take this. We'll bear this judgment and
teach us. No. They didn't do that at all. They answered one of the lawyers
and he said, Master, when you rebuke them, you're rebuking
us. And the Lord said, Yeah, I am. And he said, You load men
down with burdens grievous to be born, and you yourselves touch
not the burdens with one of your fingers. Now look down at verse
52. Here's the key. He says, Woe
unto you loggers, for you've taken away the key of knowledge. You enter not in yourselves,
and them that were entering in you hindered. The key of knowledge. By the law is the knowledge of
what? It's sin. By the law is not the knowledge
of righteousness. By the law is not the knowledge
of obedience. By the law is not the knowledge
of how well you've done. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. That's all. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. The law was not made for a righteous man. It was made
for lawbreakers. By the law is the knowledge of sin. And he
used the law up there when he was talking to the Pharisees,
and he said, you're like graves that men walk over. They don't
know they're there. They were trying to come to God
in the law, and he uses the law. He goes to the law, and he says,
that's the law of defilement. The law that says that a grave,
if a man just walks over a grave and doesn't know it, he's defiled.
And he tells them, that's what you are. You're defiling men.
You're not making men holy. Oh, I just feel like the Lord's
laid a burden on my heart that I need to, I'm trying to lead
saints to the Lord that'll be holy. Well, the Lord said you're
like a grave that's defiling a man. If you think you can lead
a man to God to be holy, that's like defiling a man. Only Christ
is the one who can do this. Only Christ, the light, is the
one who can do this. Well, and the key, brethren,
the prophets, they all spoke of Christ. We saw this in our
lesson this morning. Now, let me move on. I want to
show you something here. He said, when your eye is evil,
the whole body is full of darkness. Now, because the person and work of
Christ reveals that the deeds that men do are really evil, Men won't hang around and hear
the gospel of Christ preached because it makes their deeds
appear to be what they are. This is the condemnation. Light
has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. If Christ would have come and
He would have said, fellas, what y'all are doing is wonderful.
They would have wrapped their arms around Him and said, this
is the Messiah. But He came to them and said,
your deeds are evil. And they said, this man is against
the law. He's not Christ. We don't know
who He is. Crucify Him. Crucify Him. We don't want to
have anything to do with Him. Well, now let me look at the
second half of this. Back up to verse 34. It is Christ
the light that makes the eyes of blind sinners to see. Look
at verse 34. The light of the body is the
eye. Therefore, when thine eye is single, thy whole body also
is full of light. The seeing eye is the result
of the new creation born of the Spirit of God. Paul compared
it to the first creation. Genesis 1 says, In the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth. And something happened. Well, first, God created Adam,
just like He created the heaven and the earth. God created Adam,
and Adam was created upright. And the Word breathed into him
the breath of life, and the life was the light of men. It was
the light of Adam. But between Genesis 1-1 and Genesis
1-2, something happened. Or the second half of Genesis
1-1, something happened. The earth became without form
and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. This is
probably the time when Satan rose up against God and the angels
were cast out with him and darkness, the earth became without form
and void and darkness covered the face of the deep. And that's
what happened with Adam. When he transgressed against
God, he became without form and void and darkness covered his
heart. And in creation, God said, let
there be light and there was light. And God divided the light
from the darkness. And Paul said, God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And when He creates that new
nature, that nature that He creates in righteousness and true holiness
is divided from the darkness of our old nature. They're not
one and the same. That which is of the Spirit is
of the Spirit, and that which is born of the flesh is of the
flesh. They don't get along. They war against one another.
And He divides the light of the believer from the darkness of
the world. He keeps us separated from the evil. Christ does this. And when the light of Christ
shines in a sinner, the Spirit of God sanctifies that sinner. Now listen, verse 34. Therefore
when thine eye is single, Thy whole body also is full of light. The eye of faith takes in the
light. It looks straight ahead. It looks
at Christ. It has for its object Christ.
And it's set on Christ. in the gospel, in the light,
in the effectual working of the light of Christ is that Christ
sanctifies, enlightens, gives light in the whole body. Verse 36 says, And if thy whole
body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole
shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle
doth give thee light. Here's the doctrine. All the powers and faculties
of the new man are in subjection to the government and influence
of Christ the light and no part is left unsanctified but it's
full of holiness and great peace in Christ in the new man. All
of it. We grow in that knowledge and
that light shines more and more But from that day forward, we're
under the influence of the power of Christ working through the
Spirit, through the Gospel. It's because from that moment
that light enters in, that we're given faith to behold Christ
through the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel. It is Christ who
is teaching us. Turn to Isaiah 54 with me. Isaiah
54. We're going to finish up here. Isaiah 54. Verse 11. Oh thou afflicted tossed
with tempest Not comforted Behold I will I will lay thy stones
with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires, and
I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles,
and all thy borders of pleasant stones, and all thy children
shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace
of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be
established. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. Look there at verse 12. I will
make thy windows of agates. That agate is a perfect agate. It's a crystal that's clear so
you can see through it. Over in Revelation 21.11, it
says that he saw the new Jerusalem coming down having the glory
of God, and her light was likened to a stone most precious, like
a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Now the Lord's talking about
the windows. He's talking about the eyes. And He says here, I'm
going to make your windows crystal clear. And when the Son of Righteousness
shines in, He makes it clear, because He teaches us the law.
Before we had people telling us there were things we needed
to do to keep up the law, and we were in constant terror, we
were in constant fear, we were constantly oppressed, we were
constantly bound, and we would go home, so you have told me.
You go home and you go through all the, jump through the hoops
and do all the, walk the tightropes and do all the things you have
to do and you go home and you think, this hasn't made me righteous. This hasn't made me holy. Well,
he comes, you were like Paul who said, I was alive without
the law once. I was a Pharisee of Pharisee.
I was doing everything the Pharisees did. My righteousness was as
strict as the Pharisees. But when the commandment came,
you know how the commandment came? Christ entered in. He gave windows of agate so that
the light could shine in and enlighten. And when the commandment
came, you heard what the law actually said. And for the first
time, sin became alive. And you beheld, none of what
I'm doing is righteousness. Nothing I've ever done in religion
has been righteousness. It's all works of deceit. I've
been deceived. And when that light shines, when
the light comes on, you cast it forth as a mistress cloth
and say, get thee hence. I don't want to have anything
else to do with this. Because all your righteousness are dead. And you see the knowledge of
sin. You understand what you are in
the heart. And then Christ teaches you the
Gospel. Christ teaches you when it gets
you to where you are at the end of the road and you've got nothing.
And you can't do anything. And you can't lift up your head
for sin. Then He says, now, now your heart's
right. Now I've got you where I'm going
to teach you now. Now look up. And He raises you
up to show you what He's done. He shows you how that He's fulfilled
it, and how He's put away sin, and how He's conquered death
and hell for you. And He says here, "...and great
shall be the peace of thy children." Why? Why does it say that? Because
He says, "...all thy children shall be taught of the Lord." You know, sometimes we may think
that the disciples, the apostles, that they have something that
we didn't have and that they did actually walk with our Lord.
They've seen Him, handled Him, touched Him, felt Him. They know
what He looks like. And in that regard, they do have
something we don't have. But, you who know Him, you've
been taught of the Lord just as much as they were taught of
the Lord. You've been taught the light of the Gospel just
as real as they've been taught. They were taught the light of
the Gospel. He's a Spirit. He's all-present,
all-knowing, all-powerful that when the Gospel goes forth, they
said, what sign will you show us? He said, I'm going to set
forth my Gospel and I'm going to teach my people through that
in their heart. And He does that. And then it
says here, The verse 14, Isaiah 54, 14, and in righteousness
shalt thou be established. You know what that means? You
don't be tossed this way and that way anymore. You're grounded. You're set. You're settled in
righteousness. He reveals that He's redeemed
us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. He
reveals that we're holy and without blame before God in Him. He reveals
that He's established the law for us in perfect righteousness
and by simply trusting Him, we've established the law in perfect
righteousness. He guides us and He protects us. And it says,
if you be led of the Spirit, taught of the Lord, born of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, made to walk after Him, you are
no more under the law. From the moment Christ shines
the light in the sin-dark heart and begins to teach the sinner,
from that moment the believer is not led of the law, he's not
driven of the law, he's not motivated of the law, he's not restrained
of the law, he's not yoked of the law, he's not threatened
of the law, he's not even fearful of the law because he's not condemned
of the law. He's led of the Spirit of God. He walks after the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus. Because Christ is teaching it. And then we delight in the law
of God now. Now we see how holy and just
and good that law is. So holy and just and good that
God sent His only Son into the world to establish it. Now that's
a good law. And we delight in it, and we
use it lawfully. We use it sincerely to teach
sinners, you can't fulfill this law. You cannot do this law. And by teaching others that the
only way that you can do righteousness is by trusting Christ alone.
We both do the law and teach the law. The Pharisees didn't
do it, and they broke it and taught others to break it. But the believer does the law
by faith in Christ, and he teaches others that the way to do the
law is to believe on Christ Jesus, the righteousness of the law.
Because we're married to Him. We walk in newness of spirit,
not in the oldness of the letter. We're no longer using men and
using the law to build up a congregation, to restrain men to stay here. If some of you leave, And I have
to go out and get you. And I have to come to your house
and send you letters and bring you before a council to make
you stay here. I guarantee you the reason I'm
doing that is because I want you to put gas in my truck, keep
me in a vehicle, keep me in a house, and keep me where I can live
high on the hog and feast and be merry. That's why I'm doing
it. And that's why these hucksters, these hell-deserving hucksters
are doing the same thing to sinners. Exactly why they're doing it.
And the Lord said, you're full of extortion, you're full of
oppression, you're terrorizing people because you're the seed
of Satan. He said, you're doing what your
father did. He said, your father was a liar
from the beginning and there was no light in him, there's
no light in you, there's no life in you, there's no truth in you,
only lies and everything you promote is lies. But he says here, when he teaches
you Isaiah 54, verse 14, "...thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee." Those men that would oppress you, Satan that
would accuse you, when you lay down on your bed at night, you
used to lay down there and all you thought about was, man, that
preacher told me I needed to do this and that. I got an evaluation
coming up here in another six months and if I'm not walking
a straight line and jumping through the hoop and jumping rope like
he says I ought to, then boy, I'm going to be in trouble."
And you just laid there and thought about your sin and the terror
and Satan accused you and the torments of death and hell and
judgment was weighing heavy on you to where you were just fearful
and in terror and just dreaded getting up and going to the congregation
the next time. But you had to go because if
you didn't, they're coming after you with that whip and they're
going to knock on that door. Come on out now, we've got to get
you back. If we don't get you, if we teach you that you're not
under the law anymore, that Christ reigns, that Christ is the power
of God unto salvation, and that He yokes a sinner in the heart
and binds him through the Spirit of grace and love and causes
him to be a willful bondservant, you might just run off and leave.
And if you did that, we might have to get a job and go to work,
which they ought to do. You remember that woman caught
in adultery? She stood there silent. Those religious men stood
there trying, they had caught her and yoked her and they were
trying to bind and yoke the Prince of Life using his law. And she stood
there silent, absolutely silent. Can you imagine the fear that
was in her and the terror that was in her? What they were calling
for was death. They said Moses said stoner.
Moses said killer. Oh, that's a loving, gracious,
merciful spirit. Oh, but I'm sure they were doing
it in grace and love. They've been humble about it,
I'm sure. Moses said stoner, what do you
say we should do? And he knelt down and wrote in
the dirt. I don't know what he wrote, but in Jeremiah it said,
those who forsake me, their names are going to be written in the
earth. And they knew that Scripture.
And he sat down and wrote something in the earth. And they went out
one by one. And he stood up and turned around
and looked at her. And he said, Woman, where are your accusers?
Nobody condemned you. And he said, I don't condemn
you either. Go and sin no more. And you know what he said after
that? He said, Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He's not going to be oppressed
by folks like you fellas. You fellas can't terrorize my
people. I got dominion of them in the heart, and I'm teaching
them that by my blood, It can't anybody lay a charge against
them. I've justified them. I'm God. I've justified them.
Nothing can separate them from my love. They're perfectly righteous
in me and I'm going to have them. And none of you hucksters can
take them from me. So the Lord says, When thine
eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light, as when
the bright shining of a candle does give thee light. And we're
not deceived by the vain words of men. We don't turn around
then and run after darkness and walk in fornication or uncleanness
or covetousness or any of those things otherwise. On the contrary,
because we're light of the Lord. And we walk as children of light.
We've been made light in the Lord. We walk as children of
light. I don't have any clue how long I've been up here. And
I know it's probably longer than normal. I've got to make this
application, because I've got to come back to this. I preached
on Matthew 5.14 at the conference, and I just had too much on my
mind and on my plate to give the kind of attention I'd like
to, but let me just say this. When our Lord said, you are the
light of the world, and a city that is set on a hill cannot
be hid. And He said, and I didn't give
you this light for that reason. I gave you this light to set
forth the light. And He said, so let your light
so shine, shine in this manner that men may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Religion is meeting
this morning to talk about man's works. They're meeting this morning
to talk about man's works, man's opinions, man's law keeping,
man's Sabbath keeping, and things like that. God's people are meeting
today to speak about Christ's works. The religion's meeting to talk
about man's works. And if you don't measure up to
man's works, you'll be disciplined to get in line with doing those
works that meet the requirements so that men can see you and see
light in you and see Christ in you. Christ the light, preaching
the gospel of light, stood right in front of men, preaching the
light, and they couldn't see Him. You think they're going
to see you? You think they're going to see
Christ in you? They can't. Here's the works that the believer
performs that are good works. They're excellent works. They're
well-pleasing in God's sight. They are the works that you do
so that you go absolutely unnoticed. So that you are absolutely no
distraction in sin or self-righteousness. So that as you hold forth the
Word of Life, the Gospel of Light, The sign that God gives is the
gospel of Christ. So conduct ourselves in a manner
that when we hold forth this light, we're not doing anything
that would attract men because of us, or our wisdom, or our
righteousnesses, or anything that would cause men to come
to us. We don't want them coming to
us. If they come to me, it won't do them any good. I want you
to come into Christ. I want you to behold the light,
not me. And on the same token, if we do something, if we're
walking in lewdness and uncleanness out in the world and hanging
out with sinners and folks that don't know God and being rebellious
and carrying on like that, they're not going to hear you preach
Christ to them. They're going to hear you justifying everything
that they're doing. Be no distraction. in what men
would call righteous works or sinful works, be no distraction,
that men might see the gospel of Christ and Christ's delight
in this gospel we preach. And I'll give you an example.
John the Baptist was called great. The Lord said, if any man break
one of these least commandments and teach others so, he'll be
least in the kingdom of heaven. And he told the Pharisees that.
He told them that they're going to be regarded as the worst of
the rebels because of what they taught. They broke and they taught
others to break. But he said, if any man do and
teach, he'll be called great. John the Baptist was called great.
And here's what John the Baptist said. They came to him and they
said, who are you? These same fellows came to him
and said, who are you? He said, I'm not Christ. He said, I'm
not the light. Don't look at me. He said, behold
the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. I'm not
the light. They said, who are you? He said,
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. You know what
he's saying? I'm the voice of one. I am just
a voice, an ambassador for Christ, for that one Christ. As though
God did beseech you by me, I pray you be reconciled to God. I'm
the voice of one. That's all I am, is a voice.
That's it. Don't look at me. He said he must increase, I must
decrease. That's the spirit of what our
Lord's teaching when He says, let your light so shine that
men may behold your good works and glorify your Father which
is in heaven. If He leads somebody through you to the gospel, that
person is going to make this comment, I guarantee you. You're
the only person that ever dealt with me the way you dealt with
me. That's what he's talking about, about a good work. You
didn't come in that self-righteous, haughty spirit and that, I'm
better than you, I'm holier than you are, get away from me and
all that kind of garbage. You told them the truth of what
the law states, you told them the truth of the gospel, and
you dealt with them in mercy and truth. Now that's how Christ
dealt with us. That's how we're going to deal
with others. And this is what Daniel said, and I'm done. He
said, and they that be wise, those that have this light and
do this, They shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,
and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. That light won't ever go out.
It just won't ever. I think it's what Peter meant
when he said, when the chief shepherd shall appear. You're
an under shepherd. I'm an under shepherd. We're
just bearing witness of him. But when he shall appear, he
said, he shall give you a crown of glory. You know what that
is? It's light. It's glorious light. Because
you're going to be with Him. And He said, and it won't ever
fade. It won't ever fade. It won't
ever fade away.