Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. Whenever I first started preaching
and first started studying and trying to learn what it is to
preach the truth of God's Word, I remember the moment when it
dawned on me, read the Lord's messages. If you want to learn about preaching,
if you want to study preaching, study His preaching. His preaching
is perfect. His preaching is everything about
it. His words, His delivery, His use of illustrations, which we
call parables. It's all perfect. What a treasure
that we have in the written messages of the Lord God Almighty. Have
we ever really thought about that? We have messages from God
in here. What a treasure it is. And we're
looking at one of them right now. We have been looking at
one of them. We will continue. This is a long message and we're
going verse by verse through it. And this morning, I wanna
look at three of them. Three verses from this message. And as we look at these, let's
remember that these are indeed the words of God himself. So
may He really teach us and convince us of what He's saying right
here. I sincerely pray He will teach us and convince us of His
Word right here. Look with me, if you would, at
Matthew 6, verse 22. Our Lord said, The light of the
body is the eye. The eye is how we see. The eye is how we look at and
look to. The eye is how we know and understand
and perceive. The eye is how we are directed. If we don't have eyes, someone
else has to direct us. So verse 22, he said, the light
of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
if the eye sees and looks to and perceives and is directed
to one single. Then he said, thy whole body
shall be full of light. Your whole body will be full
of the sun. And we can go ahead and read
between the lines spiritually right now if we want to. If your
eye is focused on one, then your whole body is gonna
be full of the light of the sun. S-U-N, spiritually S-O-N. The understanding, the knowledge,
the direction that the Son gives. Verse 23, He said, But if thine
eye be evil, if it's dark, if it's looking at and looking
to darkness, if that's all that it knows and
understands and perceives and directed to, if that's just darkness. Verse 23, He said, Thy whole
body, all of your being shall be full of darkness. All of it. He said, If therefore the light
that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. Now, what's he saying in that?
Really, why did he say that? And what does he mean in saying
that? All right, this is what he means. Verse 24. He means, no man can
serve two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God in mammon. That's what he means. You cannot
serve God in mammon. I wish that I had the ability
to believe that and understand that for myself, but I don't.
God's gonna have to cause me to believe it and understand
it. And I wish I could make other people believe that and understand
it, but I don't have that ability. Either God's spirit will do that
or he won't. I pray he will. I pray he will
cause us to see and understand and believe that you cannot serve
God and mammon. You cannot. What is mammon? Mammon means riches. But the dictionary, when you
look it up in the Bible dictionary, the concordance, it says that
it means riches in the form of a person other than God. That's what mammon is. Riches in the form of a person
other than God. It means any other person, any
other man that you esteem and see to be worthy and valuable So what is he saying in this?
If we get cut to the chase, what's he saying here? He's saying you
cannot serve God and man. You cannot. It's one or the other,
but it can't be both. It cannot be both. It's light
or darkness. It can't be both. Now let me show you something
and let me build up to an absolute truth concerning salvation. All right, we're going to start
with this. God has made a distinct difference between light and
darkness. Very distinct difference. There
are so many scriptures. I was looking up scriptures and
there's so many of them that show this definite difference. I wrote down just a couple of
them, two or three of them. Look with me at Genesis chapter
one. Genesis 1, verse 1, it says,
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and
the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light, and
there was light. And God saw the light, that it
was good. And God divided the light from
the darkness. And God called the light day,
and the darkness He called night, and the evening and the morning
were the first day. He put a distinct difference
between light and darkness, a very distinct difference. Turn with
me to Exodus chapter 10. Exodus chapter 10 verse 21, it
says, And the LORD said unto Moses,
Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness
over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And
Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was
a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw
not one another, neither rose any from his place for three
days. But all the children of Israel
had light in their dwellings." They all had light. So much darkness
it could be felt, they couldn't see each other, couldn't move
for three days. God made a distinct difference between His people
and His enemies. And that difference was light
and darkness. Now, light and darkness spiritually
represent two different things. All right, turn with me. I'm
gonna try to not overturn you, okay? But I want you to read
a couple of these things with me. Go to 1 John 1. 1 John, just before Revelation,
1 John chapter 1. Alright, spiritually speaking,
this is what the Word has to say about light. It says in 1
John 1 verse 5, This then is the message which we have heard
of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in Him
is no darkness at all, none. It's not mixed at all, none. And to understand specifically
who we are referring to when we say God is like, we talk about
God and everybody has their own imagination of God. Well, to
know specifically who it is, look with me at 2 Corinthians
4. 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 6 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. God hath shined the light in
the face of who He is, Jesus Christ. God has shined the light
in His own face. So God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the light. He is the light. Now the contrast
to that spiritually, all right, the opposite of that is this.
I'll just let you listen to these. This is Matthew 4, verse 16.
It says, The people which sat in darkness saw great light,
and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light
is sprung up." The people sat in darkness, the darkness of
death. All right, this is John 3 verse
19. It says, "...this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, And men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Man naturally does
not want the light. He wants and he prefers his darkness. And that's because everything
that he is and everything that he does is evil. In John 8 verse 12, the Lord
said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. All right. That's what our Lord said, but
here's the problem for men and women by nature. They're not
satisfied and they do not want to. And the reason is because
their deeds are evil because of that, they don't want to,
and they can't follow Christ the light. They can't follow
Him alone. They can't follow Him at all. They have to try to work their
darkness in somehow. They're not satisfied with the
light. They just have to try to work their darkness in somehow. And our Lord said in our text,
it is never going to happen. It's not going to happen. You
cannot add man's darkness to Christ's light. There is only one master. He
said, you can't have two masters. You're going to hold to the one
and hate the other one, or you're going to hold to this one and
hate the first one, but you can't have two masters. There's only
one master in the work of salvation, and it is not man. It is not
man. Turn with me to John 13. John
13. Verse 13, our Lord said, you
call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. When it comes to the light of
spiritual life, if we're going to bow down and worship and serve
the work of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, then we are gonna
have to despise and reject the work of man. If we're gonna bow
down to and worship and serve the work of Christ, then we're
gonna have to reject, despise and reject the work of man. We're
gonna have to. And if we're gonna bow down to,
and if we're gonna worship and serve the work of man, then we
have to despise and reject the work of Christ. We have to. It is one or the other, but it
can't be both. Where mankind is going wrong
in religion, And I understand that people hear this and they
think, why do you have to be so dogmatic? Why do you have to
get up there and just, why can't you just go with the flow like
everybody else? Here's the reason why. God said the flow is not
gonna work. That's what God said. And men
and women need to know this. Everybody, here's where religion
is going wrong. Everybody is trying to mix light
and darkness. They're trying to mix God's work
with man's work. and it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. It cannot
be done. And if we love men and women,
we will tell them, God says it's not gonna work. It can't be done. Salvation is either man's work
alone. If it's man's work, it's man's
work alone. And according to the Holy Scripture
that cannot lie, it's not man's work alone. It's God's grace alone. In Galatians 2, the Apostle Paul
said, if man could help God do this, if man had a part in this,
Christ died in vain. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. And it's of the Lord alone, meaning
by Himself. All by Himself, alone. Turn with
me, if you would, to Romans 11. Romans 11 verse 1 says, I say
then, hath God cast away his people? God has a people. Has
he cast them away? Paul said, God forbid. For I
also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people
which he foreknew. Know ye not what the Scripture
saith of Elijah? How he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets,
and digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they
seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? He said, I have reserved to myself
seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal. Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then
it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. If it's a free gift, then somebody
can't work for it to earn it and make a payment. It's not
a free gift at that point. In verse 6 he said, If it's by
grace, then it's no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work
is no more work. He said it's one or the other,
but it can't be both. No mixing of the two. Now, let
me see if I can illustrate to you what mixing the two sounds
like and looks like, because you wonder what exactly, what
do you mean by that? You can't mix the two. All right,
this is what mixing the two sounds like. We just read right here
that God elected a people to save and He saved them. All right,
God elected a people to save and He saved them. Do you know
what light having light. Do you know what light places
after that statement? Whenever that statement is made,
God elected a people to save and He saved them. Do you know
what having a single eye on the work of the Master places after
that statement right there? A period. A period. God elected a people
to save, and He saved them, period. That's light. But do you know
what darkness, being full of darkness, places after that statement? Something like this. It will
say, God elected a people to save. I see it, I just read the
word, election. All right, yes, God elected a
people to save and He saved them. Did Jesus Christ save His people
on the cross? Oh, yes, Jesus Christ saved His people on the
cross, but now they have to accept Him. Yeah, God chose and Christ saved,
but you have to accept Him. Now, you know, if a person doesn't
believe on Him, now here's the thing, you have to believe on
Him. There's a condition there. If you don't believe on Him and
if you're not baptized, you're going to have to be baptized.
Did God elect a people? Yep. Did Christ save His people?
Yep. But if you're not baptized, and
if you don't accept Him, and if you don't believe, then, you
know, what He did doesn't matter. You're not going to be in heaven. If you don't add your darkness
to His light, then that will nullify all of His light. You see the difference in The Master's work alone and trying
to add our darkness to the Master's work. That other Master being ourselves.
You can't serve two Masters. The other one's ourselves. Here's
another example. I was talking with a brother
who lives in another state, and he was telling me about a preacher
that he was listening to who was preaching from John 10. And
I want to tell you, if I could pick a few chapters in the Bible
that I would say would be my favorites, John 10 is one of
them. That just touches my heart. I love that chapter. You ought
to read it sometime, John 10. All right, but this man, this
brother was telling me about a preacher he was listening to
who was preaching from John 10 where the Lord said, my sheep
hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice. And this brother told me that
this was the preacher's message. All right, this is what this
particular preacher had to say about it. He said, yes, he is
going to speak to you. But now it's your responsibility
to listen. That was his message. If you
don't listen, he's going to speak to you. But now if you don't
listen, that's on you. If you want to be saved, then
you better be listening. That's your responsibility in
it. Listen, that is not so. God forbid. God forbid. That is absolute
darkness. Sharing the glory and the responsibility
and the work with Christ? God forbid. Let me show you an
important verse of Scripture on that. Turn with me to John
chapter 5. John chapter 5, verse 25, it
says, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Who's going to hear His voice?
The dead. The dead, what can a dead man
do? What can a dead man do? Can a
dead man take the responsibility of listening? It's light, not darkness. It's God, not man, period. Now, if Christ, our Master, our
Light, if He did accomplish this work of delivering us from our
darkness alone, how did He do that? What did Christ, our Light,
have to do to deliver us from all of our darkness? Go with
me to Lamentations 3. And this is so amazing, Lamentations,
it's after Isaiah, after Jeremiah, Lamentations chapter 3. Alright, now these are the words
of Christ. Spiritually speaking, this is
Pointing us to Christ. Lamentations 3, verse 1, he said,
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He is
saying, I have suffered for my people in their place. God dealt
with me because he laid their sins on me. And he said, I am
the man that had seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. What
did he do? Verse two, he hath led me and
brought me into darkness, but not into light. He said, I was
brought down into the darkness of my people. Psalm 18 verse
28 says, thou will light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten
my darkness. How did He do that? The light
Himself came down into our darkness. The darkness of our sin. Be in
a spiritual picture again of the words of Christ. This is
what Psalm 88 verse 6 says. He said, Thou hast laid me in
the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. In order to give
us his light, he took our darkness upon himself. On the cross of
Calvary, it's so amazing to me that while our Lord, he was under
that suffering agony, all of that weight of our sin, and while
he was crying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It
says that for a span of three hours, darkness was over the
whole earth. Our Savior came down here and
He hung in and He suffered for our darkness. That's how He delivered
us. It was by condemning Himself
in our darkness. And if a sinner ever sees this,
he will cry It is the light of the marvelous work of Christ. Alone. I add nothing to what He's done
for me. I add nothing to that amazing
work that He did. Nothing. When it comes to my
salvation, I have a single eye on the finished accomplishment
of my Master and my God. I have a single eye on Christ
Jesus, my Lord. And to all who have been given
that light, I pray the Lord has given us that light. If he has,
to every believer here who has seen that light and is clinging
to that light, I'm going to close with this verse of scripture,
all right? Turn with me to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 verse 9. It says, "...but you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light." which in time
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." May God
give us a single eye on that right there. A single eye. In Christ we have been called
out of our darkness into His marvelous light. To Him be glory. Amen. All right, Brother Eddie,
you come.