In the Bible, Matthew 5, when he not studied the parables,
but another what is called a millesieu, or
a very short parable. Now, it's found here in Matthew
chapter 5, immediately after the one we studied last Wednesday
on the Psalms. It's found in verse 14. Now,
I must confess that I was very reluctant. I've had
this on my mind all week. But I was very reluctant to deal
with this subject because I feel my own helplessness. I feel my
own hypocrisy. I feel my own inexperience in
this area. I feel personally that I am void
of this quality of light and a life in this world. I feel really that I have need
to be taught this rather than doing a teaching. But I have found in the past,
like so many things, I've found this to be so with preaching,
that rather than avoid a subject for lack of knowledge, lack of
understanding, or a feeling of insufficiency or ignorance, rather
than avoid it, You need to just tackle it. Just dive in. And
you may learn in the process, oh, you're making mistakes. But
you're not ever going to do anything until you just try it. Until
you get in and get your feet wet. I remember preaching one
time on praying, believing, and receiving. And I felt, goodness
gracious, I felt so void of that. Believing the Lord for the things
I pray for. But I dove right in. I got a
blessing studying it. And some of you expressed the
same thing. So we're learning this thing
together. And our subject tonight here is found in verse 14. As I said, our Lord says here
in verse 14, You, ye are the light of the world. The light of the world. Do you, is it any wonder that
I hesitate to deal with this? Does anybody here feel capable
of entering into this? Of taking this to yourself as
meaning you? Anybody? Anybody feel like that
there's lights, that there's true witnesses of Christ in this
world? Anybody? But, we've got to deal with it
at some point. Why not now? Because the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit has recorded this four times. Four times it's
recorded in the Scriptures. If it's recorded once, you need
to deal with it. But it's recorded four times, indicating, revealing
to us the importance of it. And like I said before, the things
that convict us, the things we feel like we've come so short
of, The things that convict us are the things we need to deal
with. These are the things we need to be taught. These are the things we need
to learn, not run from them, do we? We need to run from them.
We need to dive right in. And I think all of us need to hang our heads when it
comes to this thing of witnessing for Christ. Don't we, Rick? hang
our heads in shame. We all need to be ashamed of
ourselves for our cowardice. We are, aren't we? Cowardice. Our cowardice, our lack of zeal
for the glory and honor of Christ, our lack of compassion and concern
for dying men and women all around us. I don't think our problem, we
say this, we say this, I just don't know how to witness. I
don't think that's our problem. I'm talking to myself here. See, I've been, I've searched
my heart when I come up with these questions and so forth
and come up with these excuses. I give up. I don't think our
problem is knowing how to witness. I think it is, our problem is
having the courage to do so. I think that's the whole problem.
is not having the courage to witness, not believing God, therefore
ready to speak out. We're full of unbelief. I believe God will give us the...
Well, we read it there in Matthew 10. Take no thought. I believe
God will give us the words to say if there be first a willingness
of mind. Let me read this to you in 2
Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. He's talking
about giving here primarily, but it applies here. He says
here, I give my advice. This is expedient,
verse 10, for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also
to be forward a year ago. Now, therefore, you were willing
to do it. You said you were going to do
it, so do it. Therefore, perform the doing of it. that as there
was a readiness to will, you said you're willing, so there
may be a performance also of that which you have. There'd
be first a willingness of mind. That's accepted at first. Up in verse 8, he said, we need
to prove this material to our Lord. Well, someone may say,
oh, don't tell me what to do again tonight. To be sure, I'm going to preach
the gospel. I'm determined to preach Christ to you every time
I stand up here, and I'm going to. And that's going to be the
primary emphasis of this message. But let me say this. What if
Christ had appeared to the apostles and revealed himself to them
in salvation, but didn't tell them to do anything? Didn't tell
him to go anywhere. Didn't give him instructions.
What else he'd done that? Just revealed himself to those
twelve men in salvation, and that's it. Walked off. Hypothetically
speaking, they'd have been on one side. But no, he said he
gave them the instructions. We read it there in Matthew.
You can go in all the world, and this is what we're reading
here. You're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the
world, and so forth. He did tell them. what to do, what they were,
and so forth. But, like I said, that's hypothetical
because it can't be. That couldn't have been because
salvation, primarily, and I say this over and over and over again
until I get it, and until you get it, salvation is primarily
discipleship. Salvation, God has predetermined,
predestined, determined before the foundation of the world to
save a people. Why? What was his determination
for these people, for you? What is God's purpose for you?
What is he doing to you, with you? He's making you like Christ. He's making you like Christ.
He's predetermined, predestined the people to be conformed to
the image of Christ, he says. Christ is life. Christ is life. So I say this, if salvation comes
to a man's heart, if Christ who is life dwells in a man, in a
woman, like the little girl said, you've heard the illustration
over and over again, I know. But she said to her daddy, Daddy,
Christ was a pretty big man, wasn't he? He said, yes, he's
an average sized man, I guess. And she said, well, if he was
in me, he'd stick out, wouldn't he? Well, that's what we're speaking
of here. If He is in me. That's a big
question. That's a big little word. It's
if. If. And I want us to continually
examine ourselves to see if we know the Savior. See if we know
Christ. And then if we ever do get to know Him, these things
will manifest themselves. The sun must shine. The sun must
shine. Water must quench thirst, or
else it's good for nothing. Salt must savor things, or else
it's lost its savor, and it can't taste good for nothing. A believer,
a disciple, a follower of Christ, his ambassador in this world,
must tell people about this nation. Must. Do you need this? Do you? Do y'all need this? I do. So, I'm diving in. I'm
hanging in here. I want to know Christ. I want
to win Christ. I want to be found in Him. I
want to know Him. I want to love Him with all my
heart. We sung that song. That's what I want. How about
you? In the heart. Reality. I want a real faith.
I want an abiding relationship with Christ. I want to know a
person, not doctrine. I want to be taken up with the
sovereignty of God. I want to be taken up with a God who is
sovereign. There's a big difference. I don't want to be taken up with
particular redemption. I want to be taken up with a
particular Redeemer. There's a big difference. I want
to love Christ and be so zealous for His glory and His honor that
I can't help but speak to things I've seen and heard. I want to
be so grateful for what He's done for me that everybody I
run across, I want to tell them about it. How about you? And we've come so short now.
We ought to weep and just... Well, look here at verse 14.
He says, you, you. Who's he talking to? Well, this
is another reason, another word, I believe, that qualifies who
he's speaking to. It says, you know, many people
picture this as Christ being up on a mountain preaching to
thousands. I don't think this is the case. It says he went
up into a mountain. When he sat down, his disciples
came unto him. And he's talking to believers
here, he's talking to disciples, he's talking to his apostles,
he's talking to his disciples, his people. And this applies
to us, we're his disciples, if you're his disciples. But he
says, you, believers, you're the light of the world. Now stay with me here, let's
get into this thing. I have three basic questions.
What is light? What is light? We're going to
break this thing down. What is light? Where does light come
from? And how are we considered light? What is light? Well, I don't
know if this needs to be said, but there are three basic types
of light. There's first natural, that is the sun, the moon, the
stars. There's artificial light, candles, lamps, and so forth,
that which reflects light. There's eternal or spiritual
life. That is, and this is what Christ, I believe, is speaking
of. Because Christ said in another place, my words are spirit. When I speak, there's got to
be a spiritual connotation to what I say. There's a spiritual
application to what I'm saying. So what he's speaking of here
is spiritual life. So spiritual life is first this,
it's illumination. It's illumination. When you have
this spiritual life, this illumination, you perceive things. You perceive
things. You perceive things to be spiritual. You have your mind illuminated
by the Holy Spirit. It is to have the spiritual illumination
is It reveals things that are hidden, things that were once
dark and mysterious, such as the gospel. The gospel has been
a hidden mystery from the foundation of the world, but spiritual illumination
has come to God's people and revealed this glorious mystery
of the gospel, illuminated their hearts and their minds. Spiritual
light is understanding. It's understanding. It's not
being left in the dark about things. It's not being left without
knowledge about some things. This light, this spiritual light
is life itself. This is what we're talking about.
We're talking about illumination, we're talking about understanding,
we're talking about life itself. Life itself. You know, just as
the source of all life is the sun and the source of true life. It's spiritual life and comes
from, well, this is my next point here. Where does the light come
from? Where does this light come from? Look at 1 John chapter
1 with me. 1 John chapter 1. What is this
light he's speaking of? Well, it's spiritual understanding.
It's spiritual illumination. It's life itself. It's eternal
life. It's to have Christ revealed
to you. to your mind, to your heart,
to your person, being suffused with this being of light, Christ
in you. This is spiritual light. This
is what he's talking about. Well, look here at, where does
this light come from? The light is spiritual understanding
and illumination and life itself. Where does it come from? Where
does all this come from? 1 John 1, verse 1. He says, that which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon in our hands of handle,
of the word of life. For the life was manifested,
revealed, and we have seen it, and we bear witness. We show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and which
was manifested unto us." He talked about Christ. That which we have
seen and heard declare we unto you, bear witness of. But you
also may have this fellowship with us, fellowship in light. Truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things
write we unto you, that your joy may be full. For this the day, they say, this
then is the message which we have heard of Him, of Christ. And this is what we declare unto
you, that God is light. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness. What is light? Light is illumination,
spiritual understanding. It is life itself. Where does
it come from? God. God is the source. God is light. God is the source of all spiritual
life. He's the source of all spiritual
illumination. No man knows anything of the
Spirit unless the spirit of God reveals itself to him. 1 Corinthians 2, no man understands
the things of God unless God opens his mind, opens his eyes,
opens his heart, reveals himself to him. God is the source of
all spiritual illumination. To see God as he is. Nobody sees
God as he is. Nobody understands the Father.
Nobody understands God in his true character unless God reveals
himself to him. That's plain. We know that. Nobody
sees sin as it is unless God shows it to them. Unless God
opens their eyes to show them what sin really is. That is against
God. Sin is against him, not against
man, but against God. Rebellion against him. That sin
is inward. It's inward. Nobody knows. They
all think it's outward doings indeed, don't they? Until God
opens your eyes, opens your mind. Nobody sees themselves as they
are. That is, without God, without
hope, without strength, condemned to die, helpless, dead in trespass. Nobody will see themselves unless
God turns the light on with them, unless God shows them themselves.
And nobody will certainly see Christ as being their only hope,
as being their righteousness, as being salvation itself, unless
God, who is the source of all spiritual understanding, opens
their eyes, opens their minds. You see, we can't figure this
out of ourselves, can we? God is the source. God is the source
of all spiritual understanding. We've got to know. There's some
things we have to know in order to be saved. We've got to know that God is
just. We've got to know that we are
worthy to be damned and we're worthy to be sent to hell. Now,
the question should naturally follow if somebody knows that.
Somebody ask that question. If God is just, well, how does
he want to save me? How God is just God going to
justify me. We've got to know that. There's
only one way we're going to understand that. When God reveals it to
us. When God shows us how he can be just and justify the ungodly. And how's that? In Christ. In
Christ. By Christ being made sin for
us. Christ living a righteous life
for us. Giving us that righteousness. Therefore God justifies us. And
he punishes Christ being made sin for us. punishes him in our
stead, and God is just by punishing our sin. Only God can reveal
that to a man. No man could possibly figure
that out. Men don't want that, to begin
with, until God gives them the mind and the heart to receive
it. God is the source of all understanding,
how Christ can be made sin. It works. Most everybody in this
generation is in the dark about the Holy Spirit, aren't they?
They like to talk about the Holy Spirit. They like to attribute
many things to the Holy Spirit, don't they? This is a spirit
field. That's a spirit field. The Spirit told me this. They're
dark. They're in darkness. They have
no understanding when it comes to this thing of the Holy Spirit
if they speak on these terms. The Holy Spirit's primary job
is to do what? Preach the gospel. That's where
he works. That's where he moves, preaching
of the gospel. That's where the Holy Spirit
works. He teaches things of Christ. The Holy Spirit convinces of
sin, righteousness, judgment. That's the job of the Holy Spirit.
And nobody's going to know that until God opens their mind, opens
their heart, opens their understanding. God is a source of light and
of life. All blessings that come The scripture
said in him was life, and the light was the light of the world. The light of the life was the
light of the world. Sons of God are made sons of
God. How? They're born of God. They're born of God. God has
to give birth. This is a fundamental truth.
We know this. We understand this. But God has
to give it to us. God has to show us that God himself
is the source of all spiritual life. That the sons of God are
born of God. That He gives life itself. He
gives eternal life. In Him we live and move and have
our beings. In Him. God must give spiritual birth
to us or else we remain dead in trespasses and sin. We know
that. That God must give us illumination
and understanding. God must give us life or we're
dead. We're dead. But God in mercy and grace, He
reveals Himself to some people. He reveals Himself out. How does
God, this light? God is, what is this light? Is
it spiritual understanding, spiritual illumination? Is it life? Where
does it come from? God Himself. What is the manifestation,
the revelation of this light, this spiritual understanding?
Where does God give this? Where does God reveal this? I
hope I'm making this clear. Where does God show us? Where do we see? Where do we
get all of our spiritual understanding? Where do we see God? In Christ. In Christ. God reveals Himself
in Christ. Now, think about this. God is
the sun. In a sense, God is the sun, and
Christ is the moon. Because no man can see God. No
man has seen God at any time. He can't look any more. You can't
look upon God any more than you can look on the sun without being
blinded by his... God dwells in light inaccessible,
the scripture says. We can't look upon the Father.
We can't. We can't look at the sun. The sun must declare him. We see the reflection of the
sun in the moon, don't we? We see the rays of light and
so forth that spread around the earth. The Son must declare the
Father. The Son must reflect the glory
of the Father. And the Scripture says this,
"...in Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and
the light shined in darkness." But darkness comprehended it
not. But He was in the world. Who? God. In Christ. God was manifest in the flesh. But natural man is in darkness.
He didn't see Him. I'm talking about God. Walked
this earth. Men didn't see Him. Didn't see
Him. Didn't recognize Him. Didn't recognize Him. Now, look
over at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 with me. Look at this. But God emerged... See, man is...
We know this. This is foundational truth. Man
is spiritually blind and cannot see God. Can't see God. Can't see himself. He can't see
Christ. He can't see where he's headed.
Man can't see that he's doomed to die without the righteousness
of Christ and without a substitute. He can't see that. And he goes
about, well, natural man gropes in darkness just like those Sodomites.
You remember the story when an angel rescued Lot out of Sodom?
Well, it says he struck those people with blindness. It said
they still groped, these homosexuals and all, were still groping for
the door. Try to get at those people. They're still groping
around. They were blind. You'd think they'd thought, something
happened here, something's wrong with us. No, they were blind.
They were void of understanding. They're groping in the dark.
And men are blind, and they're still groping in the dark in
sin and paganism and self-righteous religion. But here in 2 Corinthians
4, he says here in verse 3, "...if our gospel be hid, for it is
dark," dark and The understanding of it is dark. It's hid to them
that are lost, them that are blind. In whom, in these people,
the God of this world, that's speaking of Satan, hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not, lest, look at it, verse
four, he's blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious good news or story of Christ, who
is the image of God, blinded their minds, lest the light should
shine unto them." Why are men in darkness? Why are they in
darkness? Because they don't believe the
gospel. They don't believe the gospel. That's why they're in
darkness. We read there that the gospel
is the light of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And men
don't Men are in darkness because they don't believe the gospel,
because the gospel gives life and understanding, or light and
understanding. It sheds light on everything,
doesn't it, Terry? You understand the gospel, you understand these
things, you understand the mysteries of the universe. You understand
why things take place like they do. You might not know all the
reasons for every little thing that takes place, but there are
some revealed things that belong under them that God has revealed
the gospel to. But Satan's wise design, we know
this, is to keep men from hearing the gospel. He's willing, and
he's at work in religion. He'll let men, in fact, he's
behind these angels of light that are preaching all sorts
of things but the gospel. He's perfectly content. In fact,
he's behind it. and men preaching against abortion,
against pornography, and all these things, all these issues,
all these sidelines. Just don't preach the light.
Just don't turn the light on, which is the gospel. Preach anything
but the gospel. Don't turn the light on. You
see, all these people I've got in darkness, darken their understanding,
silence their conscience. See, the gospel convicts the
heart. You've got to preach the conscience. Just don't preach
the gospel. So that's how he works, isn't
it? But, by God's mercy and grace, some people have seen the light. I use that expression these days,
but it's biblical times. Look at this, verse 5. Well,
verse 4, verse 5. We preach not ourselves. We here
are preaching the gospel. You people are hearing the gospel.
We preach not ourselves. We preach not issues. We preach
not sidelines. We don't get off on tangents.
What are we preaching here? Jesus Christ. We're preaching
Christ Jesus, the Lord, in all His character, the person of
Christ, the work of Christ, in ourselves, your servants, for
Christ's sake, for His glory, for His honor, that you may know
Him, that you may win Him, be found in Him. That's our service. That's our ministry here. That's
what it's all about. We preach not, it's on our bulletin,
isn't it? We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, or God. That reminds me of the verse,
but God, or God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
God in the same way that when he created this whole universe,
when he said, let there be light, there was light. He shined in
our hearts. Henry, one day he just up and
said, Oh, Henry's in darkness. See, man. And you saw it, didn't
you? For the first time ever. Who
did it? You didn't do it. You weren't
looking, you weren't seeking, were you? God did it. Salvations
of the Lord. Light, life, illumination, understanding
of God. God commanded the light. God
just happened of His own good pleasure. One day said, I'm going
to give Mary Parks, I'm going to give her understanding. I'm
going to open her dark eyes. If she was in religion, thinking
she was a real nice little girl, you know, a good little religious
self-righteous girl, I'm going to open her eyes. You don't have
to do that. But God, poor God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness in the same way as shine in the
hearts of some people, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see the very
reason for the existence of all things, that it's for the revelation
of God, of the glory of God. And we see the greatest revelation
of God's glorious person in the face, in the person, in the work,
in the gospel, the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see God's glory in Christ, in the God-man. And this is the
greatest display of God's glory. If the greatest display of God's
glory is not seen in the heavens to declare His glory, yes, the
firmament shows His handiwork. But the glory, the essential
glory of God is His redemptive glory in the earth. That's what
He told Moses, wasn't it? Show me your glory, okay? I'm
going to show you my goodness. I'm going to show you my mercy.
I'm going to show you my grace. And what is that? Where is all
that found? in Christ. I'm going to show you all this
by coming down here and being one of you. Coming down. Don't
have to, but I'm going to. God, this is the mystery, and
it's without controversy the greatest of all mysteries. God
was manifest in the flesh and believed. He turned the light
on. Believe. You believe in what? Come on. You believe something
that was written thousands of years ago? Concerning a man you've
never seen, you've never heard his voice, you believe. Oh, yeah. I sure do. I stake my life upon
it. It's either the work of God or
utter foolishness. That's what the world calls utter
foolishness. But we have called it the power
of God and the wisdom of God. It's a great mystery. We believe
it. It's a gift of God. It's the
work of God. What is the light? What is light? It is spiritual illumination
and understanding. It is light itself. Where does
light come from? God. God is the source, and He
reveals Himself in Christ. Christ came forth and proceeded
from the Father, the Scripture says. Christ has shined in the
hearts of many to give spiritual light and life. Well, you say,
what's that got to do with us being light in the world? Well,
I'm getting to it. You see, I've been dwelling on
the gospel here. And this is the natural outpouring
of that gospel. This is the way it's to be preached,
I believe. You start with Christ. You start with God. You start
with the gospel and bring these things into how they naturally
come from the gospel. How are we the light in the world?
Well, God is the sun. as a type here. God is the sun,
Christ is the moon, and we are stars in essence. We are stars. The light, as I said a minute
ago, the light and glory of Christ is His reflection of the Father.
That's what He said, I came to reveal the Father. I came to
bear witness of the Father. I came that men might see the
Father, might see His glory, might see His person in me. That's
the whole purpose of the moon, isn't it? to reflect the light
of the sun to give us light in the darkness, right? Well, our
light is a reflection of the Lord Jesus Christ, you see. It's
on down the line, on down the line. We have no light in ourselves. We have no light in ourselves. And this is what men really mean.
when they talk about letting your little light shine, you
know. Everybody sings that, I'm going to let my little light
shine. This is what they're talking about. They think we've got light
in ourselves. Really, they're talking about
themselves. Let yourself shine, you know. That's what they're
talking about. That's exactly what they're talking about. Let
your little light shine. They say, I'm proud to be a Christian.
They're not proud of Christ. They're proud of what they are,
aren't they? They do these things, why? Not to glorify God in all
they do, but to be seen of men, right? For their own glory. They testify, they give their
testimony, why? So that people see what a wonderful
change has come about in you and how much you're serving Jesus
now, winning souls, witnessing for Jesus. That's the only reason
they testify, isn't it? They sing and do all these things
to display their talents, to get glory to themselves. See,
there's a big difference in doing your alms to be seen of men,
and doing your alms out of a desire to glorify Christ, and these
alms just happen to be seen by men. It's the difference is the motive.
It's the heart. That's where it all starts. That's
where the motive, or that's where the difference is. Let me give
it to you in another way. There's a big difference in witnessing
to win a convert. That is to notch, put another
notch in your belt. And witnessing to show a man
Christ, being concerned for the man's soul. you know, for his
eternal welfare. Man, you've got, you've got to
know Christ. There's a big difference in it. It's all, it's a difference
in true witnessing and, and a public display of yourself. Self vain
glory. That's, it's a big difference.
There's a big difference, and this is really, it's going to
hit home here. There's a big difference in, in witnessing
because you are supposed to. And in order to say that you
have, How many of us are guilty of that? Witnessing, when you
got in the back of your mind, well, if I witness this person,
I'm going to be able to go tell so and so that I witnessed this
person. You know what I'm talking about? We're all guilty of that.
I'm going to be able to tell the folks, you know, that I witnessed
so and so, and they're going to think highly of me. You know
what I'm saying? We're all guilty of that. Every
one of us. It's a big difference in witnessing
in that way and witnessing out a true concern for someone's
eternal welfare. Well, I want to try to answer
the question here. How are we the light of the world? Well, it's certainly not by saying
we are. Not by saying. Light doesn't say anything, really. Light doesn't make any noise.
Who are you, John the Baptist? Why, I'm the prophet Elias that
was to come. Why, I was, I'm the forerunner
of Christ. I was given the Spirit above
all men without measure when I was a boy. I was ordained for
my mother's womb. Just call me right Reverend Most
Holy Father John. Call me that. I'm the father
of the Baptist Church, by the way. I have a long lineage behind
me. No. That's not what the Scripture
says John said, was it? Uh-uh. He said he was not that
light. Don't look at me, he said. Don't
look at me, but he was sent to bear witness of the light. And
what did he say? When he finally did open his
mouth, what did he say? He said, Behold the Lamb. You
look to him, don't look to me. You know, he had a lot of disciples. A lesser man or a man that Didn't
have God's spirit in him that had gone to his head, wouldn't
it? He'd have been filled with ego and he'd have been just like
these other con men of this day who had people falling at their
feet and so forth. He would have lapped it up, all
this adulation. There were men following John
like there are men following other men today. But him being
filled with the Holy Spirit, that is, bearing witness of Christ,
When Christ finally came, he said, now y'all quit following
me, and you go follow him. You think about a man saying
that. You think about a man saying that. Don't follow me. Don't come to my church. That
man down there is preaching the gospel. Go hear him. I, you know,
I'm not preaching the gospel here. My, my. Don't look to me,
Christ's servant say. His lights. They say, don't look
to me. Look to Him. Look to the sun.
You know, you ask one of these shooting stars. That's what they
are. And they'll soon flicker out,
won't they? They'll soon fade. You ask them, are you a Christian?
They'll get righteously indignant if you question. You better believe
it, buddy. You better believe it. I'm a born again. They all
say that, born again, I'm a born again, blood washed, tongue talking,
spirit filled Christian. Don't you forget it. For Christ's
sakes. A true disciple of Christ, a
true witness, a true light, one that bears a reflection of Christ,
a true believer, a true witness who has the light of Christ in
himself, never, never, never, never speaks of himself, never
tries to vindicate himself, does he? Not David. That man's cursing
you, David. Well, I deserve it. I deserve
it. Paul. They said, what's this
vain babbler going to say? He's going to speak of Christ,
isn't he? He's not going to say, I'm not a vain babbler here, I'll
have you know I served in the school of chameleon. No, he's
going to speak of Christ, isn't he? He's not going to try to
vindicate himself. There have been all kinds of terrible rumors
and so forth, lies that have been spread over the years upon
every, every true prophet, haven't there been? Down through the
years, lies, rumors, concerning God's true prophets and saints
and so forth. But they just don't need to vindicate
themselves. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. You just talk about me. You know, after all, when it
comes down to it, we are guilty of just about everything we've
been accused of, inside anyway. A true disciple of Christ just
bears witness of the light. He only speaks of Christ. You
know the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, He's the ultimate witness of
Christ, isn't He? He doesn't even speak of Himself,
the Scripture says. He doesn't even speak of Himself.
He could, couldn't He? The Holy Spirit could, could
glorify Him and He's His equal glory with the Father and the
Son, takes an equal part. Spirit doesn't. Spirit gives
witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself. is taken up with
his son. Isn't it? He bears witness of
the son. This is my son. Hear him. And the spirit doesn't bear witness
of itself, and neither do those who are filled with the spirit.
They bear witness of Christ, not themselves. You know, shooting
stars and fireworks make a lot of noise, don't they? They make
a lot of noise. But they soon burn out. But a
steady star is usually seen more than he's heard. Now let me borrow
these terms. I hate to do it. No, I don't
either. This is biblical language. Our
Lord himself here, go back to the text there in Matthew 5.
Our Lord himself is saying this, irregardless, no matter if men
abuse these things, no matter if they say, let others see Jesus
in you and abuse that. It's biblical language, people.
I don't care if that, you know, I'm not going to throw away all
knives because people, you know, murder somebody with it, or all
ropes because people hang themselves with it. I'm not going to throw
away the Word of God because people misuse it and abuse it. Our Lord Himself is speaking
here, and He says, You are the light of this world. You are. And let me read this in a second
here. We're being observed. How are we lights? We're being
observed. We are. And our attitude speaks of Christ
as much as anything, doesn't it? I mean it. It's the truth. Our attitude speaks of Christ
as much as anything, maybe more, because talk's cheap. It's easy
to say some things. It's the cheap way out. It's
easy to throw somebody a tape. or, you know, just up and take
something on the side, you know, and then run off. That's easy. But our submission, our attitude,
when I speak of our attitude, I'm talking about submission
to God's providence, bowing to His sovereign will daily, our
spirit of thanksgiving daily. When it rains, thank God for
the rain. When it snows, oh, we need this,
don't we? When it's sunshine, oh boy, aren't you glad for the
sun? All these things, just anything that comes about, truck break
down, well, you know, the Lord's will. You see what I'm saying? See what he's saying? The way
we react to things around us, it says a whole lot to people.
It sure does. It sure does. The old saying,
I will borrow this, actions speak louder than words, louder than
our words, not louder than God's words. But I ask you this. Do we grumble? Do we complain? Do we find fault? Do we act proud? Are we lazy on the job? Do we carry on in all the foolishness
of people this world? Do we carry on? Is there any
difference? You've heard that illustration that if it was a
crime to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict
you? You've heard that. is a crime to be a Christian.
Somebody said, would there be enough evidence to convict you? That convicts me. Well, grumbling, complaining,
finding fault, proud spirit and so forth, rebellion, being too much a part of this
world and so forth, that doesn't reflect Christ, does it? That's
not the spirit of Christ. That doesn't reflect him. Oh,
no. Look at Matthew 5 again. Look
at verse 14. It said, You 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. Your testimony. your understanding,
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven." I've heard preachers say this,
we have no good works. Well, folks, not in ourselves, no. But the
Lord Jesus Christ just said that, didn't he? He just said that. And let no man deceive you by
fair words, good words, and fair speeches, and clever talk, and
so forth, from the pulpit, no matter how highly you esteem
him. The Lord Jesus Christ here said, let your light so shine
before men, your testimony, that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven. There's the key.
Not to be seen, not in what we were talking about a while ago,
not to exhibit yourself your testimony, but testify of Him,
that they might glorify Him. And this is really more of a
reflexive thing, more of a spontaneous thing than a forced thing. Let
me get into that here a minute. Let me describe this
thing of good works first. What must we do, they asked the
Lord, what must we do to do the works of God? What must we do? What did it say, Terry? Believe. That's where you start. That's
the first truly work of God. All good. There's none good but
God, Christ said. Why do you call me good? There's none good
but God. So it naturally follows that only God is the source of
all goodness, all good works. If anything good has been done,
God has done it. Right? Through someone. But the
greatest of these works is believe in Christ. So first of all, to
work the work of God, Good works is to believe Christ. Believe
Christ. Now, buddy, you're talking about
a witness. You're talking about a witness to this world that's
going about to establish its own righteousness, its self-righteous
religious world. You're talking about a witness
now. You dare to stand up and say Christ is all. He's all in
salvation. You've got a fight on your hands,
don't you, if you qualify it, if you define it. But to just
trust Christ. There's nobody trusting Christ
alone. Very few people. God's people are, though. God's
people are. Well, let me say this. To really
trust Christ, to believe Christ, we'll never talk about Christ. We'll never talk about a Christ
you really don't believe in. You'll never talk about a Christ
you really don't trust and depend on. You won't do it. No, you
won't do it. We talked about this illustration
today with Barbara, this thing of a child. When a child really
loves and esteems its parent very highly and is just in love
with its parent, just thinks that his parent is the greatest
person on earth, his daddy. You know, daddy can do everything.
He tells everybody, doesn't he? He's quick to tell everybody
about his daddy, his mama. Why? He trusts them. He believes
in them. He thinks they're everything.
So, you see what I'm saying? You're not going to talk about
Christ unless you really, truly have had Him revealed to you.
Really. You can throw a tape out there,
you can do this and that and the other, but you're not going to talk about somebody you don't
love, somebody you don't trust, somebody you really don't know.
Well, you know, I remember, by way of comfort to you though,
I remember when the Lord first started dealing with me, I remember
being more zealous then than I am now. Any of you feel the
same way? I remember when the Lord first
revealed Himself to me, I remember just speaking out right away,
you know. Just didn't hesitate, like a little child, you know,
doesn't hesitate. There's no way that she would
ever be ashamed of her daddy, ever. There's no way she'd flush
and get cold, sweaty hands and dry mouth to talk about her daddy. Oh no, she delights to. But the
more, the older she gets, the more independent she becomes.
The more she thinks she knows, the more independent she becomes,
the less dependent upon me she becomes, the less she's going
to want to have to do with me. She's going to someday, I'm going
to drive her up to the high school and she's going to say, Daddy,
let me out on the corner so people don't have to see my bald-headed
daddy. But this is sad, because that's
us. We grow independent of something.
We think we know something. And we get old. We get mature
believers and all. We lose that sweetheart love,
like Barnard used to talk about it, call it sweetheart love for
Christ. It's what he told the church
at Epstein. Anyway, he said, you've lost
your first love. You look worn. That's me. Is that you? We've got to come
back to this basic. And that's the reason I spent
more time on the gospel, on God, on Christ's source. You know, you're not going to
force anybody into doing anything. Christ is going to have to be
revealed to their hearts, and then they'll naturally speak
of it. You need to fall back in love with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So faith, real heartfelt trust and belief in a real person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the first work, good work. And
it will naturally manifest itself outwardly. That's what James
said, you show me your faith without your work, I'll show
you my faith by my work. And it manifests itself in the
attitude that we spoke of a while ago, in the life and in the speech. Like the apostle said, we can't
help but seek the things we see and know. We can't help it. Well, you notice that I haven't yet
told you how to witness. How to? Well, if you'll write
to me, I'll send you a book. Now, I don't even tell you how
to witness. Because this thing is the work
of God. It's got to be a spontaneous
result of salvation itself. Christ didn't tell Nicodemus
how to be born again, did he? He didn't tell him that. He just
said, you must be born again. You must be born again. And you
don't have to demand of a true child of God to pray and to read
and to witness and so forth. He will. You don't have to demand
it. You have to demand it. That's
law, isn't it? That's works, isn't it? Let me say this again,
my way of comfort to you. We do need to be reminded. We
do need to be reminded every now and then. Paul said in one
place, I'll have you in constant remembrance of these things.
We do need to be reminded every now and then because we are so
unbelieving, so full of unbelief. We're but dust, we're frail children. Aren't you glad he remembers
you, Frank? Oh, ye of little faith, little faith. And after all, isn't that what
Christ is doing here? If he didn't need to remind,
why is he saying it? You know, if they didn't need to know it,
why is he saying it? But he's wearing 11, it was reported four
times. You're the light now, remember
that. You've forgotten, you've lost your savor, but you're salt,
remember that. You're light, remember that. Well, let me give you a few tips, anyway,
on this thing of witnessing. I don't know anything about it,
but these are things I'm pretty sure of, based upon the Word
of God. This thing of witnessing, if you're interested. Pray. First of all, pray. If God doesn't open a door, we
sure ain't going to open it, are we? If God doesn't give you
the spirit of witnessing, you ain't going to witness it, are
you? If God doesn't lay it upon your heart to speak to people,
you're not going to speak. And but you know, if God, I found
this to be true, I have found this type of experience. If God
leads you to pray for somebody, you generally end up having liberty
speaking to them. Has anybody ever experienced
that? You generally have some liberty
speaking to them if you felt led to pray for them. Pray. Secondly, do it. Do it. Quit talking about it
and do it. Quit yourself like men. Don't
be a coward. You know, these heretics. You
talk about something, I'll feel a little ashamed. Here we know
the truth of living God, the true Christ. We have the gospel.
We claim that, don't we? We claim to know the truth. And
all men are... We are of the truth, John said. The whole world lies in wickedness.
Can you say that? You believe this gospel so much
that you can say that, that this is the gospel, everything else
is a lie. Can you say that? Okay. We have
the gospel. We have the power of God unto
salvation. We have the truth. We have that
which God uses to save men's eternal souls. Yet hear this
dude down here with a false gospel preaching another Jesus, eating
bold and zealous and going around the world, compassing sea and
land to establish one false light to his error. How can this be? And we lay back and be quiet.
How can this be? It's sad, isn't it? Does that
make sense? How can these things be? Well,
here's a word of instruction. Do it! Things are, humanly speaking,
are easier when you just dive in and do it. You just have to
use that to know the meaning of it. Thirdly, use the Word. Use the Word. I don't know who
I was talking to. Margaret and I were talking about
this thing. Use the Word. Don't sit there and try to, you
know, reason and argue. Don't argue. That's another point.
Don't argue. Use the Word of God, a word in
season. The Word of God is what He has
promised to bless. That is what God has promised
to use, that it won't return void. Our little two-bit thoughts
and illustrations and our little whatever, testimony and all,
God hasn't promised to use that. He's promised to use His Word,
though. All the more reason to get in this to study, to show
ourselves approved, a workman that needeth not be ashamed,
rightly dividing the Word of truth, being able to give an
answer for the reason or the hope that's within. All the more
reason to get in this Word, to have it on our heart and on our
mouth, ready to speak a Word in season. God's Word. God's
Word. We need to use the Word. Just
the Word, here and there. And you know, men won't receive
that. You know, give them the Word. If they won't receive that,
well, dust, take the dust off your clothes and go on. Man,
that's God's Word. You know, you take it or leave
it. I wish you'd take it. I wish you'd believe, this is
God, this is not my fault. This dust, say it to the Lord.
That's what we, that's how we're with it. This is what God, well,
I don't know much about the Bible, but I think, well, man, your
thoughts are wrong. God said, My thoughts are not
your thoughts. If thou thoughtest, thou art altogether such as one
as thyself. This is God. This is what God says. Use the
word. Don't force. Don't force yourself on anybody. I like that illustration. kind
of like the barber who was shaving that fella, you know. He was
a believer and he's shaving that fella and he says, you prepared
to meet God? That's not the way you do this thing of witnessing.
You don't just run in and say, you saved? How many times have
you seen people do that in a restaurant or something? Somebody come up
to wait on them. Are you Christian? That's just doing it to be seen,
to be heard. That's what that is. My, my. Don't force yourself
on anybody don't do it. God opened God opened the door
he opened the door when he opened no man can shut but what he said
no man can open don't force yourself on anybody. And this is lastly
this is probably the most important it is this is the firm. Of it all. Speak mostly of Christ. speak mostly of Christ. You're
not trying to want to win and make a Calvinist out of somebody.
We're not trying to get people over our way of thinking. We're
not trying to get people to believe in the sovereignty of God. You
understand? You know what I'm saying. We
need to point men to Christ. We need to talk about Christ.
In other words, we don't want to argue doctrine. There's a
big difference in arguing doctrine and pointing men to Christ. We
bring these doctrines out when we're talking of Christ. You
must. You can't separate Christ from these doctrines. But let
it always point to Christ. Always keep mentioning Christ.
Man, you need Christ. Christ is your only hope. Christ
is your righteousness. Christ is God. Christ is our
hope. He's the truth. He's the way.
He's the life. He's divine. Keep going with him, righteousness,
sanctification. Keep going. He's everything. He's all. He's
in all. You can't ever run out of anything
to say about Christ, can you? Mostly dwell on Christ when you're
talking to people. you