Let's begin our second service by standing and singing out of
your soft binders, number 139, as on the cross of Christ I thought. 139. As on the cross of Christ I thought
it seemed I heard one cry Is all this nothing in your eyes
you do this day pass by? Is not such suffering greater
than that which you've seen before? And was there ever any man who
grieved or suffered more? I looked again, and what I saw
I cannot fully tell. It seemed within his very bones
there raged a fire of hell. Of course, you grief, I asked
the man, what crimes could you have done? That God Jehovah struck
you down and left you all alone. His answer cut my heart like
steel and left me void of breath. This for your sins, this pain
I feel for you, I go to death. Your soul before my father's
throne could find no place to hide. This is the way God can
be just and you be justified. Jehovah's mercies never fail,
each morning they are new. Thank you. You may be seated. I'm going to read Proverbs chapter
9. Proverbs chapter 9. Wisdom hath builded her house,
she hath hewn out her seven pillars. She hath killed her beasts, she
hath mingled her wine, she hath also furnished her table. She
hath sent forth her maidens, she crieth upon the highest places
of the city. Whoso is simple, let him turn
and hither. As for him that wanteth understanding,
she saith to him, come, eat of my bread and drink of my wine,
which I have mingled. forsake the foolish and live
and go in the way of understanding. He that reprove at the scorner
geteth to himself shame, and he that rebuketh the wicked man
geteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner, lest he
hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will
love thee. Give instruction to a wise man,
and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will
increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall
be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be
wise for thyself, but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear
it. A foolish woman is clamorous, she is simple and knoweth nothing,
for she sitteth at the door of her house on a seat in the high
places of the city, to call passengers who go right on their ways. Whoso
is simple, let him turn and hither, and as for him that wanteth understanding,
she saith unto him, stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in
secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead
are there and that their guests are in the depths of hell. Let's
pray. Father, we come to you this morning
thankful for the message that you gave us this morning and
the passage of scripture that you've given us this morning
to have read. And Father, we are just so thankful again to
have a place to come to hear the message. And Father, and
for a pastor that is faithful every week to bring the message.
And Father, we're again just thankful for our time together.
Father, we ask that you open our eyes and ears and hearts
to the message that you're gonna bring us now. And Father, we
ask that you just watch over and care for us in Christ's name. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 126. To Him be the glory forever.
126. With harps and with viols there
stands a great throne in the presence of Jesus and sings this
new song. To him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin, to him be the glory forever, amen. Oh, these once were sinners defiled
in His sight, but now in pure garments in praise they ignite. To Him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin, to Him be the glory forever. Amen. He maketh a rebel, a priest,
and a king. He hath bought us and taught
us this new song to sing. To Him who hath loved us and
washed us from sin, to Him be the glory forever. Amen. the loudest praises our
voices shall bring with the ransomed in glory to Jesus our king to
him who hath loved us and washed us from sin to him be the glory
forever Good morning. Turn with me to
Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians 5, and we're going
to pick up in verse 8 and work our way down to verse 14. In our passage here, Paul is
speaking to believers. This letter is written to you
that believe the Lord Jesus Christ. He calls us children of light
at the end of verse eight. We're called children of light,
and we're made children of light by the work that our savior performs
in us. It's his work. And he does this
work through regeneration, by giving us life, by his Holy Spirit. And he works in us a belief of
the truth. The truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is a gift of God and
it's fixed looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone, to the exclusion
of all other hopes. And so, speaking of the children
of light, it should be well known and understood by us who our
light is. Our light is the Lord Jesus Christ,
meaning that he's the one that reveals God to us. We that know God and have fellowship
with him and trust him and believe him do so by the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. And he's speaking of spiritual
sight, that sight by the faith which he reveals in the hearts
of his people. And so Christ is the light of
God to his people. He's our light in the first hour. He's our light in every hour. Paul said to the Corinthians
in his second epistle, he said, 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. And he'll be our light not only
continually here, but for all eternity. All eternity, Christ
is the light of his people. It says in Revelation 21, 23,
the city, which is the new Jerusalem, which is the church, the church
of Christ, had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine
in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb is the
light thereof. Our Savior, the Lamb of God,
is our light, now and forever. I've titled this message, Christ
Our Light. And we'll see how that He bears
witness to Himself. of his salvation in his people. He reveals himself to his people
and the light of Christ instructs us, reproves us, teaches us all
our days. So let's begin here. First thing
I want you to know is that our Lord bears witness of his light,
and he bears this witness in his people. And then he uses
his people to further bear testimony, to bear witness of the light
of Christ. Turn over to John chapter 8.
John chapter 8, verse 12. John 8, 12, 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. So we see here Christ is declaring
and confirming to us that he is the light of his people, and
he is the one that reveals God to us. Christ is the one that
gives us understanding and knowledge of the things of God, to discern,
to rightly discern and judge, have a sense of who God is and
who we are in our great need of his mercy, grace and salvation
provided freely in His Son Jesus Christ. And the Lord promises
to all them that believe that we shall not walk in darkness
but shall have the light of life. That light of life is is Christ
shining in you. It's Christ bearing witness of
His glory, of Himself, of His salvation in you, believer. you have the light of life, and
it's Jesus Christ dwelling in your hearts by faith. He's revealing
to you that he is life, that he is the very salvation of God
for his people. Turn over to John chapter 1.
John chapter 1, and we're going to read verses 4 and 5 first. In him, this is speaking of the
Christ, in him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. Before Christ comes to
a sinner, that sinner is dead in trespasses and sins. All men
are sinners. We're all sinners. We all come
forth dead in trespasses and sins. We have no light. We have
no understanding of who the true and living God is or how we are
to approach him. We have no understanding of his
true righteousness. And left to ourselves, we'll
never comprehend the light of God. will never understand who
salvation is, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christ must come
to the sinner and reveal himself, otherwise we're left in utter
ignorance and darkness to our God and to his salvation of his
people. Look at verse 9, John 1, 9. This true light that is spoken
of here is Christ, that He was the true light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. Christ is the true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And what
the Lord is teaching us. is you that have this life, you
that believe the Lord Jesus Christ, you have that light and have
that life by Jesus Christ. There is no other light available
to man. Any man that comes into the world
that has this light and knows who the salvation of God is,
has it only in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are no other ways
or means of salvation. Nothing. It's by Jesus Christ,
and that's what he's saying there. This light that we have, Christ
alone is the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. That's it. If you have light, it's by Jesus
Christ. Hold your place in John, and
let's go over to Ephesians 5 now, and look at verse 8. Ephesians
5, verse 8. Paul says, you were sometimes
darkness. You were dead in trespasses and
sins and having no light or fellowship with God. You were sometimes
darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. walk as children
of light. As children of light we bear
witness to, we bear the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, of
his light which is shining in us and revealing the truth of
God to us. We're bearing that light, we're
bearing that witness and testimony. And so Christ's children bear
this testimony, and we have examples of it in scripture. First, we
see the plain declaration of John the Baptist. Turn back to
John 1. John 1, verses 6 through 8, where John is explicitly declaring
Christ to the people, bearing witness to him. Verse 6, there
was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came
for a witness to bear witness of the light. That was the purpose
of John's coming, that all men through him might believe. He
was not that light. John the Baptist was not the
light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. And so this confirms
to us that the Lord is pleased to use people, to raise up servants,
to teach His people and use His people to bear witness of His
light, to bear witness of Christ unto others. Now look at John
chapter 5. John 5 verse 33 and 34. Christ is speaking to the Jews
there and he said, you sent unto John, you went out after him
looking for him and to ask him questions and to hear what he
had to say and he bear witness unto the truth. but I receive
not testimony from man, but these things I say that ye might be
saved." In other words, I'm showing my works in my servants. I'm
revealing myself I'm revealing my testimony to them that you
might look there and hear what they're saying and see the testimony
and the fruits of my works in those whom I send. We see this
of Paul as well. In Acts 13, verse 47, Paul is moved to say, for so
hath the Lord commanded us, Barnabas and Paul, saying, I have set
thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth. And so what he's doing is saying,
I've given my light, the light of Christ, the testimony and
the witness of Christ, to bear that candle on the candlestick
and to shine it forth. that the ends of the earth would
see and behold Christ, that they would see and hear this testimony
of Christ. Moreover, the Spirit who regenerates
the child of God bears witness in his children by his fruit. Go back to Ephesians 5 now. Ephesians 5 and verse 9. He says there, for the fruit
of the Spirit. is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth." And that's describing, more than anything, it's describing
the source of our fruit, that this fruit that we bear is not
done in works of the flesh, according to fleshly religion and hard
work and labor by us, but it's born in us. The source of that
fruit is the Spirit. It's the Spirit's fruit that's
born in us. And then if you look at Galatians
5, 22 and 23, and there's other places, but we see what some
of that fruit looks like. How that fruit of the Spirit,
which comes from the Spirit, is manifested in his people. He says the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such, against these fruits, there's
no law. The child of God is righteous
in the Lord. And the Spirit bears these fruits,
there's nothing to say against these fruits. And so these fruits
are born in us as He grows us. And as he's growing us, we see
these fruits more evidently shine forth as the Lord is teaching
us and bringing us to have to bear these fruits in the midst
of one another, in the midst of his people. But it is a patient
walk of faith. And we are always learning. The
Lord is always teaching us by his mercy and his grace. It's a true walk of faith where
these fruits are revealed in the Lord's people in the body,
in the body and the fellowship of Christ, where these fruits
are made useful to one another for us to love one another. We
love one another in that we glory it together in the same message,
that Christ is our salvation. We love one another and those
who believe as the Lord's revealed His light in us, in Christ. And we joy together when babies
are born. When brethren are baptized, when
brethren confess the Lord Jesus Christ and all the various successes
that we have, we joy with one another. And we go through trials
and adversity together. And as we go through these trials
and adversity, the Lord teaches us how to be at peace with one
another, how to be gentle. with one another, how to bear
long and to be long-suffering with one another as he's teaching
each of us, trusting that he loves our brethren and is gracious
and kind to them as well. And so we learn these things. And so I started the point saying
that I want you to know that our Lord bears witness of his
light in his people. He bears witness of himself in
his people, and he uses his people to bear witness of the Lord,
our light and our glory, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our
life. That's done in declaring the
gospel of Christ as well as His working, bearing these fruits
in us by His Spirit. It bears witness that we are
the Lord's, that we believe Him and trust Him and know Him. Next thing that we see is that
the witness of the light of Christ in us, it's not just for others
to hear and see. It certainly does have that effect
where others see the work of Christ in us, but this witness
is also for us. It's also a comfort and a help
to us that see what the Lord is doing. That is that we would
understand his will and purpose as he's revealing himself graciously
to us more and more. Paul says there in Ephesians
5, verse 9 again and then verse 10, for the fruit of the spirit
is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable
unto the Lord. And so as members of Christ's
body, who are receiving and hearing and having the witness of Christ
ministered to us. We grow and increase in that
knowledge and understanding of our God by the light of Christ. And he's laying this understanding
to our heart. He's growing us in our understanding
because we're seeing more and more that we need him. We desperately need him. We have
things revealed and shown to us weaknesses in ourselves and
sins in ourselves and faults in ourselves that the Lord makes
known to us in time as we walk through this faith and we see
how gracious and kind, how gentle, how tender He is with us that
we might also be tender and kind and forgiving with one another
even as God for Christ's sake. hath forgiven you and so our
Lord's ministering this word to our hearts and he's the giving
it to us by faith, as Habakkuk 2.4 says, that the just shall
live by his faith, the faith that God has given to us. And so we see this abundance
of grace that our God shows to us over and over and over again,
so that we begin to not only recognize it but be made willing
to minister that grace to others. The grace that has been shown
to us, the patience shown to us, the long-suffering shown
to us, the gentleness shown to us. Even as we saw a couple weeks
ago where That's how we minister grace to the hearers. We're simply
bearing the fruits of that graciousness of our God shown to us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And as we're speaking of and
declaring His mercy and kindness to us, that's edifying our brethren. As we're learning to speak gently
in order to turn away wrath and be willing to humble ourselves
before our brethren and one another in that manner that Christ may
be heard and that that grace that we've been given would be
ministered and sown to their hearts and they be edified as
well. And that's the service that's
acceptable unto the Lord. Turn over to Hebrews. Go to Hebrews
13, and I'll show you a couple scriptures there that show us
what God is well pleased with. Hebrews 13, we'll start first
in verse 15 and 16. Hebrews 13, 15, by him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate,
forget not. For with such sacrifices, God
is well pleased. He's pleased with that gentle
growth in ministering, giving thanks and service to the people
of God. Hebrews 13, 20. Now the God of
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect, and every good work to do his will,
working in you, that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And so Christ is making his witness
known in our hearts. He's making, in that, in bearing
witness and testimony to us, he's making known to us the will
of God. He's making known to us what
is pleasing, well-pleasing. unto the Father that we would
work that which is well pleasing in his sight. That's not by the
strength of this flesh, it's through the ministration of the
Spirit working grace in our hearts. and teaching us what pleases
him well and how to serve and love one another in a manner
that doesn't grieve the spirit but rather is well pleasing to
the Lord. And so he makes his child to
see what does please him and he also makes his children to
see and know what does not please him. He makes us to see that
the evil and sinful works that this flesh lusts to do, how that
they are not edifying, how that they are not well-pleasing to
the Lord, and he turns his people from those things. That's what
Paul's saying back in Ephesians 5, verses 11 and 12. He says,
have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them, for it is a shame even to speak of those things
which are done of them in secret. And that brings us to our final
point here. It's the light that reproves. The light that reproves. Paul
says in verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them. And I was asking the question,
well, how do we reprove the unfruitful works of darkness? We know how
it was done in the past or how we would handle things and how
religion handles things by looking for people doing things that
they don't think they should do and straightly charging them
and pointing them out and pointing out their faults in that manner
to reprove them in that way. But how do we, the children of
light, reprove the unfruitful works of darkness? Well, we see
Paul and the apostles, how they reproved it. They reproved the
unfruitful works of darkness by preaching Christ and him crucified. They went about declaring the
Lord Jesus Christ. They declared the Lord Jesus
Christ. The very hope of Jesus Christ condemns all other hopes. Do you know that? The very declaration,
the very hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, just making
that known condemns all other hopes. It renders them all foolishness. It says, He's salvation alone. He's all that the Father requires.
He's all that the Father accepts. we are received in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That means all my works, all
my beliefs, all my mannerisms and religion are vain and worthless. All other hopes are condemned
in the hope of Jesus Christ. We reprove the works of darkness
simply by trusting, believing, declaring Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And so the hearer, if he's Christ's
and he's one of our Lord's lost sheep, he'll receive that testimony. He'll receive it and believe
it and the Lord will bring him out of his darkness, out of that
condemnation, out of that bondage and shackle to sin or religion,
whatever he's the servant of, he'll come out of that darkness
into the light of Christ and believe Him, confessing Him.
As it says in John 3, 21, when we do come into the light, we
confess, God has wrought this in me. This is the work of the
Lord. Praise, glory to His name. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ for
what He's done for me. And so we preach that Jesus Christ
is the believer's justification. We're declaring He's our sanctification. because God has made Christ unto
us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is everything to the believer. It's the Spirit that's done that
work in us, and so that's our witness. That's our testimony,
which destroys all other hopes that man or this flesh has. Just
annihilates them. just by preaching the Lord Jesus
Christ, just by reminding ourselves. who he is and what he's accomplished,
it destroys all the vain imaginations that rise up in our thoughts
and minds that come against the knowledge of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's how they're brought down,
by that same gospel hope, that they are reproved by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul says here in our text, in
Ephesians 5.13, But all things that are reproved are made manifest
by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest
is light. And so even we ourselves are
reproved by the Lord Jesus Christ in his grace. He is the light
and he's making manifest to us the secrets of our hearts. He's
showing us the things that no man can trust in or hope in.
And he's showing us himself who is the hope and the confidence
of his people that will never be ashamed or confounded who
believe on him. And when he makes a thing known
to us, even if it is sin, even if it is something that we ought
not to do, it's a blessing. It's a blessing. because he's
making us to know our need. He's bringing us low in self
to be needy of his grace, that we would find all our hope in
him and find it nowhere else. And he brings us to seek for
his grace, to feel and to know and to see the ministration of
his grace that when we go out, in faith, walking and doing the
things that he providentially brings in our life, we then become
ministers of that same grace that he's shown to us. And when
we forget, he'll reprove us and bring us back to a knowledge
of him again and to say, didn't I show you grace and mercy? Ought
you not therefore to show grace and mercy to that other? And
so he does that all in his power and glory. And so we then begin
to bear witness of the grace of our God and to show that same
testimony to others that he's shown unto us. And so all of
the children of light, all of us are sinners saved, sinners
saved, and we're learning that continually. First we, you know,
not necessarily first, but we know it doctrinally, we know
the truth of it, but he makes us to know it in reality. We are sinners, sinners who are
saved by the grace and mercy of our God. And so he's reproving
in us all those things that war against the light of Christ,
the lust of this flesh, which war against the soul. He reproves
those things in his people. And so all are saved by the blood
of Christ and being saved He brings his people into local
assemblies, local bodies, where they hear that gospel word, where
they hear Christ being ministered to their hearts. And it's Christ
that is teaching his sheep the gospel. It's Christ that's ministering
his grace to our hearts. It's Christ that's growing us
in the fellowship, where we're bearing those fruits among one
another. And it's Christ that's reproving
and correcting us in the things that we have need of being reproved
of. He makes us to know it and to
believe him and to trust him, to believe him in it. And so
unbelievers are also reproved by the gospel. They hear their
works being destroyed and put down. And without the light of
Christ, they get angry. But Paul said at the end of Verse
13, it's Christ that shall give thee light. And if he doesn't
give light, they'll hang on to that lie and keep believing the
lie. So believers, though, are always
blessed. When Christ reproves, we're always
blessed by his reproving because his grace is edifying. It's teaching
us. It's growing us in the things
that we have need of learning and hearing, whether that's a
comforting word in the gospel, or it's a reproving word in the
gospel. And so the children of light
are blessed of Christ. Just as Paul says in verse 14,
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Remember, these are
children of light that he's writing to. He's not writing to unbelievers
when he's saying this. He's writing to us who believe,
who have heard and believe Christ. And we see that Christ does this
for us. He wakes us from death in the
first hour and he wakes us out of our sleep every hour. When
we forget and our way grows dim and dark and we go off into our
own ways, it's Christ that awakes us, that brings us back to Him
in grace and in mercy and in shining His light that wakes
us from our sleep. I remember when I was I would
just say that if I was asleep, I would prefer my mom to wake
me than my dad, because when he came, it was just a hard shaking,
and I would be woken right up. But sometimes it is a gentle
shaking, and sometimes it's a hard shaking that wakes us up. But it's all by the Lord. It's
by the Lord ministering His Word unto our hearts. And so, we notice
there at the end, it's Christ. Just notice that it's Christ
who sayeth, Awake thou that sleepest and arise in the dead. It's not
Moses. It's not religion. It's not the
flesh. It's not us that do it. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ that awakes us. He's the one that awakes
us. We could charge one another with
things, but we don't hear it. But when Christ reproves us,
we hear it, and we receive it, and are blessed by it. So, brethren,
trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. He's the one
that bears this fruit, this witness, His light in His people. He's teaching us, reproving us,
and growing us faithfully in Him. And as He's doing it in
you that believe, know that He's doing it in your brethren also. Trust Him. and therefore be gracious
and kind and gentle. It will do more than harshness. It'll do a lot more than our
harshness that we could give. Christ is able. So I pray you
bless that word to your heart, brethren. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your great wisdom. We thank you for the witness
of your light and how you reveal, you reveal the witness of God.
You reveal this in us, not only for others, but even for ourselves,
that we might hear the voice of the Son of God, that we might
know and believe that you are our God and that you're all our
salvation. How desperate we need you, Lord,
in all things. And Lord, you're so faithful
to let us never forget that. You're faithful even to reprove
us with your light, to wake us up out of sleep, out of ignorance,
out of darkness that we go into in this flesh. Lord, we thank
you for the patience, the grace, the tenderness, the gentleness
with which You reveal yourself and your truth to your people.
Thank you, Lord. Help us, Lord, to be gentle and
kind to one another and loving. Lord, help us to trust you. Let
us see your grace and mercy being worked in the hearers that you
give a hearing ear to. Lord, we thank you for your grace
and mercy in all things. We thank you for one another.
We pray for one another for the sicknesses that we have, for
the challenges, the struggles, Lord. If any is struggling with
anything, Lord, we pray that you give them light and comfort
in the Lord Jesus Christ. and help us to be helpers of
their joy in any way that we can. It's in the name of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray this. Amen.