So Lord, may you graciously help
me. I would turn your prayerful attention to a text you will
find in the second book of Corinthians, chapter 4 and verse 6. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6. For 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. To Corinthians 4 and verse 6. As the Lord helps me I'd like
to speak firstly of this text in regard to the experience of
the shepherds. We've read of that in Luke chapter
2 of how they came out of their darkness in looking after their
sheep on the hillside. They came to know something of
this experience themselves. For 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. The shepherds could say this
as a testimony in their experience. This is what God had done for
them. I want to speak also then of
what this meant to the Apostle Paul in his pathway and then
to think of this, how this applies to us today in our Christian
experience. Well, let us look then at Luke
chapter 2 and look at how this worked out, this testimony really,
that the shepherds knew that the light shining out of darkness. And we read in verse 8 of Luke
2, and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in
the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. It was a dark scene that they
were in. They were around the city or
the town of Bethlehem out on the dark hillside. And out of that darkness there
came a light that was nothing to do with them. It was a light
outside of them. It was that which God did for
them. And how Paul in this is speaking
in this text for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
is linking this with Genesis 1 when God said let there be
light. Well here there was a light shining
and low we read the angel of the Lord came upon them and the
glory of the Lord shone round about them. There was this bright
light and they were had been in darkness and that light then
gave them some tremendous news and they were told and the angel
said unto them fear not behold I bring you good tidings glad
tidings of great joy so here there was a message of blessing
for these shepherds these shepherds that were in darkness a picture
of us by nature in darkness but this message of hope a message
that the long expected Messiah had come and he had revealed
himself, you see, to these shepherds. These shepherds that were at
their normal duty on looking after their sheep. Well it's
told, we bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to
all people. This was not just for the Jews,
this was for the Jews and for the Gentiles, for all the nations
of the earth. This was going to be the saviour
of both Jew and Gentile for unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. This is the one, the
long expected Messiah, the one that all the Old Testament prophecies
were pointing towards. The time had now come and this
light had shined in the hearts of these shepherds. And this
is what we want today in our lives, that this light to shine
in our hearts, showing us what God has done and what we are. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And
then you see they're given a sign. This shall be a sign unto you,
a strange sign, a humble sign. you shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes lying in a manger something that would
not be expected you would not expect the Christ child the birth
that had been anticipated for more than or something like four
thousand years when it actually happens that we read there was
no room for them in the inn, but this was not a mistake. This
was God's plan to show his love, his humility. You see, the shepherds
were going to have to come to appreciate and to come to worship
something that wasn't naturally impressive. It wasn't naturally in the eyes of men to be glorious
it was not it did not have the pomp and ceremony of this world
and yet it had the tremendous blessing and shining of God's
glory upon it and that is what ultimately matters. So they were to find this babe
and the sign would be because this was so unusual it would
be a clear sign You see, if you were told that the baby will
be lying in a cot and give them the address, you'd say, well,
what's so special about that? But this baby was lying in a
manger, something that you would not expect. And that was the
sign. And then after the angel gave
that message and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in
the highest and earth peace, goodwill toward men. And it came
to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the
shepherds said unto one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem. There was that they were going
to see it. They wanted to go. They wanted
to visit this newborn king, this one who would be the saviour,
the one that would be their saviour. We know that later on, as we
read on, they worship These shepherds worshipped. They didn't come
to it and say, well, this is just a baby without any outward
adornment and pomp. We will not look anything special
on this. No, they went and they worshipped. When it came to pass, when the
angels had gone away from into heaven, the shepherd said, let
us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come
to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. This is what
we need God to do for us, to make known these things spiritually
to us. And when they had seen it, they
made known abroad the same which was told them concerning the
child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Then we
read in verse 20, and the shepherds returned glorifying and praising
God. You see, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness in the dawn of creation, when
there was darkness upon the face of the deep, That light shined
and it showed the chaos and all that there was. But here we have
the light shining. And we associate, don't we, Christmas
time with often lights, picturing the light of the world. I am
the light of the world, the Lord Jesus said. You see, and so he
came to be a light. and it didn't mean that the darkness
stopped being there there was still darkness but you see where
he was there was light he made a separation between the light
and the darkness to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and these shepherds saw
something of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ literally
in that little babe lying in the manger They got a glimpse
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and the shepherds
returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they
had heard and seen as it was told unto them. So they went
away as satisfied and I often thought well Thinking on this,
we don't read any more of the shepherds. You might think, well,
we would have perhaps heard that they had been following Jesus
and following his teaching. Of course, there's a 30-year
break, isn't there, between this event happening and Jesus beginning
his public ministry. We don't know whether those shepherds
were even still alive 30 years later. But they worshipped. They saw something of it and
of course later on in this same chapter we read of Simeon who
said now let us lie down I serve and depart in peace because my
eyes have seen thy salvation. Simeon was satisfied and the
prophetess also spoke unto them that looked for redemption in
Jerusalem redemption and all that that means. Well so this
verse in Corinthians for God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts." The shepherds
could say it. To give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. They worshipped. They did worship. They didn't just go along and
say, well, there it is. They worshipped the glory of
God in the face. of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ,
the image of God, the one who reveals, we read also in the
Bible that nobody knows the Father but the Son and nobody knows, and nobody can know the Father
but through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the express image
of his glory. I want to now look at, think
about this in the Apostle Paul's pathway. The Apostle Paul, when
he was that Pharisee of the Pharisees, he had kept the law so strictly
and so carefully all his life. He lived, as it were, on the
clean side of life. He was not immoral, like the
Corinthians were, who he was writing to. They had been involved
with much immorality. And yet Paul, you see, was that
one who had been kept very upright. Paul says, for 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. Paul, who also was on that road
to Damascus and intending to kill Christians and put them
in prison, he saw the brightness above the midday sun that great
brightness surely he saw something of the glory of this brightness
shining out of darkness and it showed him you see that he was
on the wrong track it showed him that brightness he had been
fighting against the Lord Jesus he had been fighting against
this preaching of Christians that Jesus was the Messiah. But God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness as it did in creation, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is Paul's testimony. This
is what had happened to him. He had seen the light. And you
might think, well, if he's seen the light, then everything after
that would just be brightness and easy and straightforward. It's strange really, isn't it?
But really after that brightness of the midday sun, above the
brightness that Saul of Tarsus saw on the Damascus road, he
actually knew greater darkness than he'd really ever known before.
He was blind for three days. So the shining of the light revealed
in Saul of Tarsus' heart the darkness that was in his heart,
that the fact that he was far off from God, that all his righteousness
were as filthy rags. The light shining showed the
darkness. that was in his own heart. And
it's the same as we think of that at the beginning, at the
dawn of creation, the shine in the light showed the chaos. But
you see, God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
was going to shine and was going to bring order out of chaos,
was going to bring a blessing in the soul of Saul of Tarsus. He was going to be mightily used
of God. So Saul of Tarsus, who was a
very upright, strict, religious person who thought that they
pleased God, that God would be impressed with their keeping
of the law as touching the law blameless as far as Paul could
understand. He needed to be turned right
round to see that he couldn't keep the law and that he needed
a saviour. The Corinthians, they were on
the the darker side of life in the sense. They were in immorality
living. A lot of that, a lot of the idol
worship was linked with immorality. But they needed also to realize
that they needed a savior. They needed the light to shine
in their hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God. So this was the testimony of
the shepherds that they saw the light and they worshipped and
no doubt they knew something of the blessing of God. We don't
read any more of them but when we come to the Apostle Paul we
read a lot more of the Apostle Paul and how that light shining
showed him so much and taught him so much and led him such
a long way and then you see in creation The shining of the light
was but the first work of God. It was the day one of creation. God said, let there be light,
but that wasn't the end. And God didn't stop his work
until man was formed in the image of God. And you see, Paul speaks
so much of that progression that is to take place in the life
of a child of God. To shine in their hearts, to
make them conformed to the image of his Son. For 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. But then thinking in our own
experiences, you see, the shepherds came to see it. Saul of Tarsus
by God's grace came to see the light. But you see this needs
to happen in each one of our hearts today. Each one of our
lives needs to be touched with this same knowledge. We need
to know this for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath shined in our hearts. I ask you to think Honestly,
is this true of you? Has the light of God's Spirit
shined in your heart? And I qualify that in the same
way as I did with Saul of Tarsus. Did it mean that as soon as the
light shined, everything was bright and everything was easy
to understand? I think he had one of the most
difficult times in his life after that light shined. His whole
ethos and his whole way of carrying on got turned upside down. What
he thought was gain was now loss. What he thought was loss was
now gain. He had a complete turnaround of what was God's way and what
was his way, what was serving God and what was serving himself.
For God who commanded the light to shine, hath shined in our
hearts. So the shining of God's light
in our lives will make us realise we need a saviour. Whether we're
on the clean side of life or we're on the dirty side of life,
whichever we are, we need a saviour. We need forgiveness, we need
mercy. We need to know this Lord Jesus
Christ that we think about on this Christmas morning. We think
about the one who came, was born in Bethlehem in such humble circumstances
but yet the shepherds worshipped. The shepherds didn't despise
him, they came and worshipped. And you see we need to come and
worship that which the world would despise. The world would
set at naught this true saviour who walks humbly, who truly does
not seek his own, does not seek the pomp of this life, but seeks
to walk humbly and points the way to the Lord Jesus. For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath. That's a testimony, isn't it?
If we can honestly say that. It's a testimony. He hath shined in our hearts
to reveal the emptiness of a life outside of Christ, to reveal
the emptiness of living unto ourselves, to reveal that all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. This is what it reveals.
That's the negative side. But you see it reveals that there
is a saviour that is able to wash us clean, able to make us
right, to make us accepted in the beloved. This one that is
able to present us faultless before his throne with exceeding
joy. You see there's two sides. The
light shows the darkness and it reveals where there was darkness
but it reveals where there was light. And you see we are here. then in this darkness, for God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. And you see,
as the darkness still existed, and really when you think about
it in the Jewish church at that time, Christ coming to Bethlehem and And then all the
reaction that we have of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem,
it really manifests the wickedness of them, really, didn't it? The
way they treated Jesus, it brought out, it revealed really the corruption
you wouldn't have been able to necessarily really put your finger
on it until Christ came. Because they were doing all the
sacrifices, they were doing all those things and they could have
been doing them with a view to Christ as Simeon would have done,
as Abraham would have done, as Moses would have done. They could
have been looking to Christ through those sacrifices and you wouldn't
quite know. But when Christ came as the fulfilment
of all that, the light came. And it revealed the darkness
that was in the church at that time or in the temple worship
and all those things. It revealed the darkness. But
there were some, you see. So the general response to the
light coming was, we're told, In John's gospel, all things
were made by him, says John chapter 1 verse 3, all things were made
by him and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life and the life was the light of men and the
light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it
not. There was no, it didn't dispel
all the darkness. It revealed the darkness, it
revealed the corruption in the high priests which were meant
to be the representatives of God. It showed that they were
totally off track, that they were not looking to the Lord
Jesus at all. They were not looking to Christ
through the Old Testament sacrifices. They were thinking that they
did God's service because they did the sacrifices. You see in the ultimate word
it says, he came unto his own. and his own received him not,
but as many as received him to then gave he power to become
the sons of God. There were those that did receive
him. There was the shepherds that worshipped. There was Simeon.
There was Anna. There were others who did worship,
but the vast majority didn't. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. This is
God's work. It's God's work to open our eyes. It's God's work
to shine in our hearts. And that's what we want as we
think of the coming of the saviour and the brightness of his glory. That we know something of it
ourselves. Something of showing us the darkness. See if you're just in darkness
and there's no light at all. You can't differentiate anything.
But when there's some light you can see something of the darkness
elsewhere. But God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But of course there is a time
coming for the people of God where darkness will be no longer.
Here we do have still darkness. We do know the brightness of
God, but we also know the darkness here in our own hearts of sin. We have still things to mourn
over, but you see the people of God are looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing where there will be no more night,
no more darkness, no more hidings of God's face, but they will
be with Christ forever. And then that bright shining
you see will be forever theirs. Here below they know the shining
of God, but it reveals so much of the darkness around them and
within them. But you see, by faith they go
forth to that light, and they love the light, and they seek
to serve God. And it's God's purpose, you see,
to work in us. to make us conformed to the image
of his son, that we may worship him, or may we know something
of that in our hearts, that we may be worshippers of God, and
that as we worship him, that we may see the darkness around
us and within us, and it may bring us out of ourselves to
appreciate God more and more. May the Lord have his blessing,
amen.