May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we turn to his word. Let us come to the
Gospel of Matthew, the fifth chapter, and we'll read verses
14, 15, and 16. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter
five, verses 14, 15, and 16. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth
light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. The Word of God is very clear
and very instructive to us and it directs us to the very important
consideration that our lives are for the glory of God. That's why the Lord Jesus speaks
here and he says, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. And we should therefore be conscious
and desiring that our lives might be in tune with the word of God
and that we may be hearing what God speaks to us through his
word and not turn away from it. Now, these three verses follow
on from the previous verse, 13, which speaks to us about salt. And of course, salt is important,
and it does give flavor and savor to many things that you and I
eat, and it has very many benefits apart from that. And he tells
us that if the salt had lost its savor, wherewith it shall
be salted, it is therefore good for nothing but to be cast out
and to be trodden underfoot. And then the Lord Jesus moves
on to this illustration of light. And he says, ye are the light
of the world. Now perhaps that might be difficult
for our young people to understand. Because we know that the Lord
Jesus said, I am the light of the world. And now we're told,
ye are the light of the world. So how can you and I be the light
of the world when the Lord Jesus is the light of the world? And
I'm sure we can realize that Jesus must be the light of the
world. So how can we be the light of
the world? Well, it's like this. We are
not light while we remain in a position, a condition of darkness. We are not light in the world
when we remain in a condition of being unconverted, when we
remain in a condition when we are not born again of the Spirit
of God. There is no light in us, we are
darkness. So when the Lord speaks to us
here, ye are the light of the world, it's a very important
consideration to look into our own hearts and to try and discern
whether This is true and it can only be true not because of anything
that we have done, anything that we have said, but because of
the work of the Holy Spirit within our hearts revealing the Lord
Jesus Christ to us as the only way of salvation, the only way
that you and I can be saved. There is no other name given
among men under heaven whereby we must be saved. It is only
through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. And as he is the light
of the world, if we are to be the light of the world, it is
really the reflection that is seen. The Word of God tells us,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. And all of God's people are blessed with that wonderful
favor of Christ being in us, formed in us, the hope of glory. It's not something that you and
I have done ourselves. It's that which has been done
by the Holy Spirit of God. And so this morning as we see
this statement, ye are the light of the world, to realize and
have the evidence that we do possess this great and glorious
light, which is only through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So I suppose we should ask the
question, what do we think of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning? What does the Lord Jesus Christ
mean to us? Is he the great and glorious
light of the everlasting gospel? Have we received spiritual sight? Or are we still blind? Have we
been blessed with spiritual eyes? to understand the truth of God. Has the Holy Spirit come and
given us to realize that without the Lord Jesus Christ and his
sinatonian sacrifice we are forever lost. There is no hope, no hope
of eternal life, only condemnation. And so when the Lord comes and
speaks here, and of course it's in the fairly early verses of
this sermon that he preached, which of course is contained
in the 5th, 6th and 7th chapters of this Gospel of Matthew. As
he speaks these words, ye are the light of the world. And it
is true that all of the children of God are light. because we possess that spiritual
light, because we possess that God-given light. And what a wonderful
blessing, therefore, for us today, if you and I can analyse our
innermost feelings, analyse our heart, and be able to discern
there the blessed work of the Holy Spirit, so that we realise
that we do possess the knowledge of Christ. And we understand
what it means to be under the blood. Safety in Christ. No safety outside of Christ.
And no light outside of Christ. It would all be darkness. Unless
we possess the light of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts, in
our souls, while in this life, we shall never really see the
true light. We should never be blessed with
a wonderful life of God in our souls. And so, this morning,
may we realize that Jesus Christ is the light of the world, but
may we have the evidence that he is that light within our souls. And if we can't discern it, and
if we have no knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must still
be in darkness. And how sad, how solemn that
is. You know, in the first chapter
in the Gospel of John, the first verses, which we read recently
together, but the fifth verse in that first chapter is so very
relevant. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. Well, has that light
shone into your soul and my soul? And have we understood it? Have
we realised that we are therefore spiritually alive? Without the light, we are spiritually
dead. With the light, we are spiritually
alive. And therefore it's not a question
of just reading the Bible, and understanding what it says in
a historical content. It's to realize that the Word
of God speaks to our very innermost being, our soul. And the truth
is that everyone who is born into this world possesses a soul. But that soul is in darkness
until the light shines. And when the light shines, it
is a wonderful revelation, because that light shows to us our own
wretchedness, our own sinfulness, our own inability to turn to
the Lord. And it directs us then to the
Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation. And then, instead
of just reading about The death of Jesus on the cross at Calvary
in perhaps I am just a casual way without any real importance
to then come to the understanding that in the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ Rests our hope of eternal life Because without
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ there would be no life And it's
through that death that light is conveyed into our souls. And what does it mean? It really
means this. We see the light in the face
of Jesus Christ. We see light in that great offering
for sin on the cross at Calvary. And we see there is our only
hope of salvation in that The Lord Jesus Christ died to remove
all our sins. Well, what a blessing it is then,
if we have an understanding here, that we are the light of the
world. Now, if that is so, then there
will be the evidence of it. And that really is what the Lord
Jesus speaks to us here. And he gives us a very clear
illustration. Very simple to understand. A
city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. And it's interesting
of course that Jerusalem in Israel is set upon a hill and the temple
was the highest place in Jerusalem and therefore it could be seen
from a long way away. It wasn't hid, it was very clear. And we can still see that today
as we travel around. We can see certain cities. I
remember especially when I traveled in Lincolnshire, the town of
Lincoln, the land around it is very flat. And Lincoln Cathedral
stands up, you can see it from miles away. It can't be hid. So we think of that as a natural
illustration. Here we have then a spiritual
position that you and I cannot be hid, cannot be hid, if we
are the light of the world. And that's a consideration worth
thinking about, isn't it? Because in your life and my life,
If we have the evidence of the light of God, that means spiritual
life within, that means the Lord Jesus Christ in us, the hope
of glory. The Word of God tells us here,
we're like a city on a hill and it cannot be hid. It cannot be
hid. that may be searching to us in
our spiritual life, to ponder whether we are hid, whether the
people we mix with, the people we work with, understand who
we are. I remember very clearly hearing
an American evangelist speak and he told us, and I have told
you before, but not all of you, but I won't go through the whole
story. It's a long story about his conversion. He was a very
worldly man, but he was wonderfully converted and he came to the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. It had a very wonderful effect
upon him. And he told us that when he was
converted and the Lord convinced him of his sin and what had happened,
a minister kept on asking him to come to church and he kept
on refusing, kept on making excuses and trying to evade it until
one day he agreed to go and he said, If I go, I'm going to put
down some conditions, I don't want anybody talking to me, I'm
going to sit on the back seat and we'll see what happens. Well
he came, he sat on the back seat and the preacher that day was
not the normal minister. It was somebody who had come
from away. And after the service, the man
came up and he spoke to the man who had invited him to come to
church and he said, You told that man all about me. He said,
I didn't say anything. He knew nothing about you. But
what the minister had preached from was the first chapter in
Isaiah, where the blessed spirit spoke through Isaiah these wonderful
words. And he said, come now. And let
us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. And though they be red
like crimson, they shall be as wool. And he said, hey, that
chap got hung up on these words, come now. He said, explain my
position. He said exactly, well that man
went home that night and with his wife he got down on his knees
and he pleaded to God for mercy and the Lord came and spoke to
him and convinced him that there was a way of salvation in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he had that wonderful comfort
of having the light of God within his soul. The next day he went
to work. And he was working in one of
the big motor factories in Michigan. And he went to work and he took
back with him dishes that he'd stolen from the cafeteria. in days past. And he came to
the gatekeeper and he put the dishes down and the gatekeeper
said, what are these? And he said, I'm a Christian.
He said, and God makes you honest when you're a Christian. And
therefore I brought these back. Then he went to his workbench and he spoke to the men on his
workbench about what God had done for him, how he'd converted
him. And there was another man on
the bench, and he said, oh, I'm a Christian. And this man said,
you're a what? He said, oh, I'm a Christian.
He said, well, I never heard anything from you. And he said,
the Lord converted me last night. And he said, I want to tell everybody
about what God has done for me. Well, the fact was that, you
see, that light could not be hid. Could not be hid. And so we have this statement
here. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is on a hill cannot
be hid. And that may be a very testing
word for us today. Because, you see, we, by nature,
are very cowardly. We don't want, perhaps, to confess
whose we are and whom we serve. We don't want to tell people
that we are born again in the Spirit of God and that Lord Jesus
Christ is the glorious light to our souls. Well, we have such
a word as this here. We're told The light cannot be
hid. If you think of that in a natural
way, in a dark room, if it's totally dark and there's just
a very spark of light, that can't be hid, can it? You observe it,
I observe it. And that really is how the Lord
is portraying the blessing of spiritual life. It cannot be
hid. It must be evidenced. And therefore,
may it be so in our lives. May the glorious light of the
Gospel, and if God has graciously come and shone into our hearts,
what a mercy, what a blessing. We should not want to hide it.
We should want to honour that which God has done for us, so
that it's not hidden. Remember the words in the book
of the Old Testament in Samuel, those that honour me I will honour, and those that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed. Let us not trifle with the Word
of God. Let us not think, well, I'll
pick up those bits in the Bible which suit me and I'll shut my
eyes to bits which don't suit me. That's why, you see, the
Church of God is often in a lukewarm condition, because we turn our
back from the great truths of the Gospel. And I suppose it
comes down to this, doesn't it? How important and how precious
is the Lord Jesus Christ to you and me. What does Christ mean
to us? Are we, in effect, denying what
God has done by pretending that he hasn't done anything? It's
very easy to do that, isn't it? especially when we're in the
midst of a worldly people and perhaps we have reason to regret
situations in our life when we ignored perhaps the opportunity
when perhaps we were at school or university or college perhaps
in a workplace and well when the things were spoken about
instead of showing forth what God had done, we turned our back
and we walked away. What did it mean? Well, were we ashamed of Jesus? Were we ashamed of His work? Was there light? Or was it a
false light? If it was a real light, have
we dishonoured the name of our God? ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hid. Let us never forget such a simple,
simple illustration. The Lord Jesus did use very simple
illustrations, didn't he? So that we can't avoid understanding
what they mean. Cities that cannot be hid, and
that's what the light of the knowledge The Lord Jesus Christ
does to us, it cannot be hid. Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. And it's a great
blessing when the light so shines that we don't want to hide it. We want to tell to sinners round
what a dear saviour we have found. and point to his redeeming blood
and say, behold the way to God. See, if Christ has revealed the
wonderful way of salvation to our souls, surely we have something to display,
surely we have something to tell. And may we therefore realise
that the Lord goes on to describe the position when he says, neither
do men light a candle and put it under a bushel. A bushel was
really a kind of a container in those days which was a measure
and obviously if a candle was put under such an object there
wouldn't be any light observed and also the light would go out
Because there wouldn't be any oxygen. There wouldn't be any
life. And so he tells us, obviously,
people don't put a candle and hide it. They put it on a candlestick
so it can be seen. And so it gives light to the
room or to those around. And it is amazing, isn't it?
What a little light does. I'm sure most of us have lit
candles, lit candles on birthday cakes and things like that, and
well, just a few candles make a great light, don't they? And
often, of course, we turn the lights out so that there's a
clearer position, and just a little candlelight makes a great impression
on the darkness. And so that is, in a spiritual
way, the light of the gospel in our souls by the grace of
God displayed makes a great difference. There's light in darkness. And
so here we have this position here where we're told that men
don't come and take a candle and put it on a canvas and light
it and then cover it up. It gives light unto all that
are in the house. Well, what a simple picture that
is, isn't it? And how direct it is when we
see an illustration like that speaking to our hearts. And let
us not forget, we have a devil that has a lot of containers
to try and put out the light of the gospel. And when I say
that, what I mean is this. The devil produces many excuses
why we should not display the light of the glorious gospel. The devil wants silence. The
devil loves darkness. The devil hates the true light
of the gospel. He will do all he can to hide
or to make us hide that light. He'll do everything he can. And
sadly, sadly, we often listen to the devil rather than listening
to the glorious words of the Saviour. Isn't it a blessing,
my friends, that we have the words of Jesus recorded in the
Word of God? for our encouragement, for our
direction, for our instruction. Many people today do not have
the Bible. Many people today do not want
the Bible. Many people today do not read
the Bible. What a blessing if you and I
do read the Bible. But if we read the Bible, we
are to not read it and then think, well, it doesn't have any relevance
to me. Or if we realize it does, we
still want to ignore it because of the likely consequences that
such an admission will bring. Don't forget, you and I only
have one master. And if we are born again in the
Spirit of God, that Master is our Saviour. And that Saviour
is our King. And that Blessed One is the One
who has, in His amazing love, died upon the cross at Calvary
to take away our sins. We who were so utterly undeserving of any favour. Indeed we were
under the condemnation of the Holy Spirit. And that condemnation
tells us, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That means be found
in eternal darkness, no life. And therefore you and I are born
in sin. and shapen in iniquity. But when
the Holy Spirit shines the light of the Gospel into our hearts,
what does it do? It reveals to us the need of
a Saviour. And bless God if that direction
of the Holy Spirit leads us then to the Lord Jesus Christ in his
sin-atoning death. We use that theological phrase,
don't we? Atonement, atoning. And you young
people may wonder what it means, well I have told you, but let
me tell you again. Atonement means to be at one
with God. We were aliens, we were enemies. The Lord Jesus, through his death,
brings us to oneness with himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit. It's a great and glorious work
the Lord Jesus Christ performed when he died on the cross at
Calvary to take away our sins. Isn't that a wonderful, glorious statement? and how amazing
to think that the great God should have died to atone to take away
your sin and my sin. And it's when this wonderful
light has shone into our hearts and has revealed to us the Lord
Jesus Christ as our blessed Saviour. And we have the wonderful evidence
of it Dare we deny it? We don't want the Lord to deny
us, do we? We don't want Jesus to say, I
never knew you. Are we denying the Lord Jesus Christ? Is the light shining? But are
we hiding it? Don't forget the devil wants
you to hide that light. He doesn't want any glory coming
to God. And yet, that is the whole purpose of your life and
my life. We are not born into this world
to please ourselves. Be quite clear about that. We
are born in this world to please our God. And my friends, if you
think, well, I don't think I can take up the cross and follow
him. I just think that's gonna be too difficult. The devil is
encouraging you in such a path, in such a way. Never forget the
great and glorious light which has shone. Never forget what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done to redeem your soul, to redeem
my soul. Oh, my friends, we have to say,
surely, As we ponder these things, on such love, my soul still ponder,
love so great, so rich, so free. Say whilst lost in holy wonder,
why, oh God, such love to me? I want to see him write and then
say, hallelujah, praise the Lord. Is that your voice and my voice? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord for
what He's done for such an unworthy sinner. Well, blessed with such
a great and glorious light, it shows to us the amazing love
of God, shows to us His wonderful mercy, in revealing this light
and showing to us that we are the light of the world only through
what the Lord Jesus has done and it's only the reflection
of the Lord Jesus in our life to show forth his light and therefore
may it be that we have the understanding that it does give light unto
all that are in the house. That's a natural light. It's
so with a spiritual light. It's good to declare the light,
isn't it? And so then the Lord comes and
speaks very clearly. He doesn't stop there. He goes on to just, as it were,
hammer home what the Lord Jesus is saying. You know, when a nail
is hammered into the wall or into a piece of timber, usually
it doesn't just need one blow. It needs more than one blow and
you have to hammer and hammer the nail to go right home. The
Lord Jesus does that in his word. He hammers home to our hearts
his great and glorious truth and having explained what the
light is and and how it should be displayed. He then comes home
very powerfully and he says this and it's a word directed to all
of us. No one should escape. No one
should think, well, this doesn't apply to me. What does he say? He says this, let your light
so shine before men. Well, that's a very clear statement,
isn't it? And he gives the reason. The word of God always gives
us reasons. And this is the reason. that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven. The bottom line
is very clearly that this light will glorify our Father which
is in heaven. Now we will not have a Father
in heaven unless we are those who received the light. But if
you and I have received the light, then we have a Father in heaven. Isn't that wonderful? And if
we have a Father in heaven, then we are to let the light shine,
that those that we mix with may see our good works. And these are works not to glorify
ourselves. They are works which will glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will be the effect of
this light shining into our hearts. And there will be this work of
zeal for the things of God. The Church of God today, for
the most part, is pretty lukewarm, isn't it? But you see, when the
Holy Spirit comes and blesses us with this light and the effect
of this wonderful light, what does it really produce? I believe
it produces this, a godly zeal that his name might be honoured
and glorified. A godly zeal that his word may
be spread far and wide. A godly zeal that sinners may
be converted unto him a godly zeal that above all things his
name may be honored and glorified. And you see this is really the
working out of this light shining into our hearts. There is the
evidence of it. There is the evidence of it.
And my friends, one thing I think is very clear, No one goes to heaven who does
not display this light, because there would have been
no glory to God. Let us not think, well I think
of course he was a good person, she was a good person, you know,
that they read the Bible and they came to chapel and they
did this and they did that. The reality is, was the light
shining? And what is that? That means,
was the life of Christ shining forth? And the life of Christ
demonstrates to us how you and I should live our life today.
And one of the great positions the Lord Jesus demonstrated was
this, he pleased not himself. What did he do? He pleased his
father in heaven. What are we doing today? Are we pleasing ourselves? Or
are we pleasing our God? Now, to please God, to be found
in this way, these good works, they won't be easy. They won't
be easy. You may say, why won't it be
easy? Because it's walking contrary to the flesh. It's walking contrary
to our old nature. Our old nature wants a life of
ease. Our old nature wants a life without
any ripples, without any problems, without any difficulties. And
yet you see, the Word of God clearly tells us, the Lord Jesus
tells us, On the 18th chapter of John, it is through much tribulation. Ye shall enter the kingdom, but
be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Now
my friends, the blessing is to go to glory with a good conscience. To go to glory that we have heard
the word of God and he's given us grace to fulfill his word. Remember what the Word of God
tells us through the words spoken to the Apostle Paul. When the
Apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh and we're not told what
it was, may have been the fear of man?
We don't know. But it was something he wasn't
very happy with and it's something that he wanted to get rid of.
And he prayed earnestly to God that it might disappear, take
it away. God didn't see fit to take it
away, but he saw fit to give him much greater blessing. And
that, what was that? The Lord said this to the apostle
Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee. And that is as true today as
it was when the Lord spoke it to the Apostle Paul. May all of us therefore, if we
are fearful perhaps of a certain situation, if we wish we didn't
have to walk a certain path, remember the grace of God is
sufficient for us. And don't expect to have that
grace until you walk in the path. We're not given a supply of grace,
we're given needful grace. And God never fails. God never lets us down. You and
I may have let God down on many occasions to our shame. We have a blessed God who never
fails. And so with such a glorious truth,
may we be found willing servants, willing to do the Lord's will,
willing that our light might shine forth to the glory of God,
willing to be found obeying His gracious word, His gracious commands,
when He says, let your light so shine before men. He's not
saying, well, just think about it and just You know, if you
feel it's okay, press on. It's not that at all. He tells
us very clearly, there's no opportunity, there's no position where we
might say, well, I just want to think about it a bit longer.
Not at all. Let your light so shine before
men. They may see your good works and glorify your Father, which
is in heaven. And I can tell you, it's a wonderful
blessing to be found obeying the Word of God. And on the contrary,
the Word of God tells us this, the rebellious dwell in a dry
land. And the reality is, if you and
I disobey the Word of God, you will find that spiritually it's
a dry place. You may wonder why I'm not receiving
The benefit that I should be, or I want to be. Just look in
your heart. Just see if you're following
the word of God. Or if you just carry on in your
own way. Perhaps putting conditions down
to God. Are you putting condition down
to God? Is it a right condition? Or is it your condition? See,
we've got to be very careful, haven't we? Very careful. We sometimes try to avoid the
Word of God. And I think sometimes when you
and I put conditions down, it's because of our pride. Because
of our pride. Because we want to be able to
deliver a wonderful statement about God hearing prayer and
answering prayer. Well, what does the Bible tell us? We walk
by faith and not by sight. And faith is called into exercise. We may not have things as clear
and as plain as perhaps we want. But you see, as we walk by faith,
And the Lord comes and encourages and blesses us. You see when
we have that account of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, when they
were told to obey the king and they wouldn't do so. And so they
weren't careful how they answered the king. What they were was more concerned
to do the honour and glory of God. And they said, if the Lord
doesn't deliver us, so be it. Esther said, as she was to go
into the presence of the king, which wasn't lawful, what did
she say? If I perish, I perish. But what
occurred? Both of those situations, there
was that walk by faith. In both of those situations,
there was a wonderful deliverance. My friends, today, you and I
worship the same Almighty God, or at
least I hope we do. Only you can tell whether you
are amongst those who are blessed with this heavenly light. And
if you are, May we all be found walking in that light and in
accordance with the words before us this morning. Bless God for
them. We're thankful for them. May
they have a very real direction to each of us. Ye are the light
of the world. A city that is hid, that is set
on the hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives
light unto all that are in the house. That's a blessing, isn't
it? You see, it has an effect on
other people. Let your light so shine before
men, they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which
is in heaven. Amen.