May we please God to bless us
together this evening as we continue our thoughts and meditation in
the Sermon on the Mount. This evening we'll speak from
chapter 6 in the Gospel of Matthew and we'll read verses 22 and
23. That's the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 and verses 22 and 23. The light of the body is the
eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be
evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore
the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. We are all familiar at the vast
difference there is between light and darkness, and how pleasant
to our natural eyes is the light of day, and how difficult sometimes
it is when it is so dark, and especially when there is no moon
nor stars, there is that complete blackness. Well, Lord Jesus here
speaks to us in this way about the light and he says the light
of the body is the eye. Or also it can be referred to
as the eye can be as the heart, which of course means that the
light within. and how good it is when there
is that light within, that light which God has shone into our
hearts. And of course that light can
only emanate from one source, and that source is the Lord Jesus
Christ. So what a blessing for us this
evening if we have the wonderful favour and the wonderful evidence
that we have and possess that light and that light is through
the knowledge and shines through in the face of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And the word tells us here that
the light of the body is the eye, and if therefore thine eye
be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. What does that
mean? Surely that means that there
is that need to be set apart, separated for the things of God. and not left to wander along
into the broad way and to involve ourselves in all the things of
this vain world, which are really darkness. There's no light, is
there? There's no spiritual light in the worldly things which surround
us today. What do they do? Do they bring
a blessing to our hearts, to our souls? No, they don't. What
do they do? They bring us into darkness. They bring us into barrenness.
They take us away from the things of God. And so what a good thing
it is if we have this single eye for the honor and glory of
our God and desiring the blessing of God to truly rest upon us. We read that beautiful chapter
in the epistle to the Ephesians. and in that third chapter, and
how the Apostle there directs us very clearly to these great
and important things. And he tells us, recognizing
his own condition and own situation, he says, brethren, it's good,
isn't it, to be addressed like this, and it's good to address
one another like this, brethren. And he tells us about himself,
I count not myself, to have apprehended, or that means really to have
understood. You might think, well surely Paul, you're a man
of God and a man of great learning. But he comes and tells us these
things. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. That
means he didn't rely on his own knowledge, on his own learning
about the one thing I do. Forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus." Well that's a very clear instruction,
that's a very clear exhortation, and how good it is if we recognise
the truth of such a word as this here, that our eye should have
a desire that our eye is full of light and that it is indeed
a single eye. A single eye seeking the honour
and glory of God and seeking the blessing of God in our souls. And how good it should be and
must be if God gives us grace, and we need so much grace to
do this, to put first things first. That's really what The
Lord had been speaking of previously when he tells us, lay not up
for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
Because the blessings that God gives us, and those blessings
are light to our soul. When the light shines into our
hearts, and what we observe is that anything outside of Christ,
without Christ, without the evidence of Christ, is really darkness.
Because as the Lord tells us, He says, I am the light of the
world. surely that means so clearly
that without him the world is in darkness and it is we see
it today don't we the world of darkness and not only is the
world in darkness but we are in darkness unless the light
of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's a glorious light because
it shines into our hearts and directs us to himself in those
desires that the Apostle Paul was able to elucidate so very
clearly when he wrote to these Philippians, having told us of
his pedigree, how he was a Pharisee, and blessed in that position. And yet he tells us these things. But what things were gained to
me? What things were gained to him?
Well, he says, what things are going to meet? Those I counted
loss for Christ. The Apostle Paul was able to
set before us here the blessing of the light shining. Remember,
Damascus Road, Paul there going along it, going down to Damascus
with one aim to destroy the Christian church. But God shone that great
light into his heart And it's a wonderful description that
the Apostle Paul gives when he spoke before Agrippa, that light
was above the brightness of the midday sun. Well, here we have
a bright sun, don't we, at midday. But over there in the Middle
East, the sun is hotter and it's much brighter. And yet he was
able to say that this light, which was a light from heaven,
which surely was the light of the blessed Saviour himself,
shone into his heart. And what did it do? Produced
an amazing change. What does it do to us today?
It produces an amazing change. And what a wonderful blessing,
therefore, if we know, if we have experienced this light,
and therefore, by His grace, we have a single eye seeking
for the blessing of God. Because the apostle goes on in
this chapter, and he tells us, Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord." That's a grand statement, isn't it? You ponder that. Everything
but loss. All that he wanted was the knowledge
of Christ. That really weighs up religion,
doesn't it? that really puts it into the melting pot as to
that which is really desiring for the living life of God in
the soul. And here it is stated like this. Doubtless I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but done that I may win Christ All the things in
this life were of little value. And he compares it to dung. Little
value. But he desired the great knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to know more and more
of Christ because he knew that in that knowledge was the blessed
light, the everlasting light, which would never go out. The
light naturally goes out. But if that light is within our
hearts, it will never go out. And so here we have this great
statement, Thine eye be single, and if it is so, thy whole body
shall be full of light. Now the clear expression really
is that if we only have a desire for Christ, that means There's
no room for anything else. And that means if that light
is shining in our heart, it will fill our soul with divine light,
the light of the Saviour. Remember, these are His words,
spoken on that grand occasion. And here we have them recorded
for our wonderful blessing and for our wonderful benefit, that
our eye might be single, and if so, our whole body shall be
full of light." Well, it's important, isn't it? And there's a great
effect of this. The effect of this light shining
into our hearts will, in measure indeed, result in what James
was able to tell us in his first Epistle. He tells us how this
is worked out, and it's good to realize how these things are
worked out. Last verse in the first chapter,
he tells us, well let's go back to the previous verse. If any
man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue,
but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. to
visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and
to keep himself unspotted from the world. Well, we know, of
course, that no man can keep alive his own soul, but we do
know that the Holy Spirit of God can do just that, and can
keep us walking in the light, as He is in the light. There's
no darkness at all, is there, in the Lord Jesus Christ? There's
darkness in the world because of the influence of Satan, who's
produced so much darkness and so much evil. And so the Lord
goes on to say, but if thine eye be evil, and that means if
it turns away from the things of God, if it turns away from
Christ, if thine eye be evil, thy whole body should be full
of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness. How great is that darkness? Well,
we don't want, I'm sure, to be left in darkness. We don't want
to be found in darkness. Surely we want to be found doing
the will of God. And doing the will of God really
means setting our hearts and our affections upon things above. Surely it means serving the Lord
with all our heart, half-hot, not just putting our hand to
that which appears to be easy. Yes, there are those things sometimes
which appear to be easy. You know, there was the day,
the occasion in Elisha's life when they gathered together and
they put the great pot to boil and to make some soup or some
broth and well, they had to go and collect some good things
to put in there. Well some you see have found
an easy path and they found a few gourds and they thought this
is easy. We'll pop those in the pot. Ah, what did it do? It brought poison. Death in the
pot. We have to be very careful, don't
we? We don't find out the easy way and we think well we do that
and we just put that in because that will be alright. No, sometimes
we have to go searching for these great blessings and be found
truly serving the Lord with all our heart. Divided heart. It's very easy to have a divided
heart and to think, well, if I do that, that satisfies my
conscience and now I can carry on and do what I want to do and
enjoy myself. We have to be very careful that we have a right
motive and we're doing the will of God and not doing our own
will just because we fancy doing something. The Church of God
is a separate people. The Church of God are an isolated
people. The Church of God are a people that desire to serve
God. Why? For two reasons. To bring
honour and glory to God and the salvation to many souls. That's
why the Church of God I command you to go into all the world
and to preach the Gospel the grand and glorious way that the
Lord has ordained that souls should be saved. And so as we
have this statement before us this evening. Well, may we really
be found walking in it. And just turning to the Old Testament
for a moment, there's many words of encouragement and many words
of instruction, especially in the Old Testament prophecies.
Words that you and I can look upon and words that we can rely
upon. But just turning to Isaiah's
prophecy just for a moment, so many words of truth in Isaiah's
prophecy. And he tells us in in the 32nd
chapter, verse 5, the vile person shall be no more called liberal
nor the churl said to be bountiful for the vile person will speak
villainy and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisy
and to utter error against the Lord to make empty the soul of
the hungry and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments of the choll
are evil. He deviseth wicked devices to
destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh
right. But the liberal deviseth liberal
things And by liberal things shall he stand. And again that
really follows on from the words which lead up to these verses
where the Lord Jesus was spoken, speaking about fasting and the
right way to achieve that when he said, But 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. So we are therefore
encouraged to walk in a right way and to be concerned that
we are found walking in the light as he is in the light and to
have this single eye and not have an evil eye. We need to be very aware of the
dangers of that and that really simply means turning away from
the narrow way, turning the way which is the way of light, turning
that way which is pleasing to ourselves instead of being found,
serving the Lord. It's a wonderful privilege that
we have today to be found serving the Lord. There's no better occupation. And as you and I are able to
serve the Lord, I believe it brings peace to our heart because
we know we are doing that which is in accordance with his will,
and that which is right. And may we be true followers
of our blessed Lord and Saviour. And take to heart this evening
such simple words as this, when he comes and tells us, the light
of the body is the eyes or the heart. If therefore thine eye
or our heart be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee, not a true light, a false light, is in thee, light is in
thee, how great then, light in thee be darkness, how great is
that darkness. May we be found walking in the
light, as he is in the light, and may we always be found looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Amen.