with me again. Look there in verse 45 with me. Luke 24, 45. Then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the Scriptures. Understand the Scriptures. Look
down here in verse 26, 25. He's talking to the two disciples
on the Emmaus road. Then he said unto them, O fools,
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
his glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
is God's prophet. He has a twofold office. A twofold
office. The first office is that he has,
when he came into this world, was to reveal the will of God,
to make God known. He said, No man has seen God
at any time save the only begotten of the Father, who is in the
bosom of the Father. He came and told him out. He
came and revealed God, and He revealed the will of God. And
the will of God was that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that He was the Messiah, that He was the Christ, that He was
the Savior, He was the Promised One. And this all the way through
the prophets, from Genesis, all the way through Malachi, it spoke
of Him. It spoke of Him. And so He came
to reveal the Word of God. He came of the will of God, and
He telling men about the true and the full revelation of the
will of God. He said, I delight to do thy
will, O Lord, thy will I delight to do. And he prepared him a
body to come and make that will known. And that's why men are
without excuse. That's why they're without excuse.
And the second thing that our Lord Jesus Christ as a prophet
has is right here in this 45th verse when he opened their understanding.
He is the prophet that makes the understanding, the heart.
He's the only one that can open it, open the understanding, take
away the darkness of the mind, and open the heart to receive
and embrace the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
He's the only one that can do that. He says, then he opened
either understanding. He'd been with them for three
years. He told them all of these things. He says, you know, He
said, these are the words that I've spoken to you while I was
yet with you. I told you these things. But
now He came and opened their understanding. Did you keep Luke?
Look with me in Ephesians chapter 4, just a moment. Let me show
you what I'm talking about. Ephesians chapter 4 in verse
18. He's the only one that can bring
light to the mind, light to the understanding, open the heart. And he said here in Ephesians
4.18, he says, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them through the cause of the blindness of the heart.
First of all, the understanding's dark. It not has the life of
God. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. God is holy light, glorious light,
and who, they have a blindness in their heart, a heartness of
the heart, who being past feeling, feeling the Spirit of God, feeling
their sin, feeling their ignorance, feeling their alienation, feeling
the darkness of their understanding, have given themselves over to
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. Now listen to
it, but ye have not so learned Christ. This is not what Christ
done for you. This is not what condition you
stay in when Christ comes to you. If so be ye have heard him,
did hear about him, heard him, and have been taught by him.
You see the difference there? Heard of him and taught by him.
As the truth is in Christ Jesus. Two different people there. One's
dark in understanding, one's been taught by Christ, one's
heard Christ himself. Now, back over in our text. No
light. No light. And when we talk about
light, we're talking about understanding. We're talking about you there
being dark, and the light comes on. And you see things like you
never saw. Now, light comes into the heart
through the mind. God gets to the heart through
the affections, the will, the emotions, through the mind. God does not pass by your intellect,
your mind. But all the light of the gospel
that confronts the mind can never, never savingly change the heart
without our Lord opening the understanding that you might
understand the scriptures. I can preach the gospel till
I'm blue in the face. You can hear every preacher that's
preaching the gospel of the free grace of God. And you can get
a lot of, but I'll tell you, until Christ comes and opens
the understanding, to understand the scriptures, you'll set in
darkness. Now, there's two doors that are
barred against the Lord Jesus Christ. Two doors that are barred
against the Lord Jesus. The understanding by Amos. Ain't
that what we just read? Understanding through the ignorance
that's in them. Paul said, I was in ignorance
and unbelief. I've done these things ignorantly
through unbelief. Ignorance of God. Ignorance of
the Scriptures. Ignorance of Christ. Ignorance
of our sin. Ignorance of the fall that took
place in Adam. Ignorance of God and man being
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So much ignorance in this world.
And then not only the understanding, Barred against the Lord Jesus
Christ by ignorance, but the heart by hardness. The heart
is hard, deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Understanding is not just to the mind, but just the heart,
the will, and affection. You remember when the scripture
says that Lydia was down by the riverside and Paul was down there
preaching, and she gave attendance to the things that were spoken,
and the Lord opened Lydia's heart. That means he opened her understanding.
He gave her light. He made her understand what Paul
was saying and believe what Paul was saying. And that's what we're
talking about, fam. It's one thing to open and expound
the Scriptures to me, what we do. But it's another thing to
open the heart and the mind as the Master did. I can reach the
ear, but only Christ can reach the heart. I can reach your minds,
but only Christ can open that mind and take away that darkness. And when Christ opened the understanding,
we see the effects of it. Look down here in verse 52 and
53. This is what happens when Christ
opened the understanding. And they worshiped him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy and were contended in a temple, praising
and blessing God. That's what happens when the
Lord opens your understanding. You worship Him, and you have
great joy, and you're continually praising and blessing the Lord
Jesus Christ. And, beloved, and He opened their
unhearsened minds that they might understand the Scriptures. Now,
let me tell you something. For the understanding, for your
understanding, my understanding, to be affectionately opened,
to affectionately, affectionately, receive the truths of God's blessed
word is absolutely prerogative of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the only one that can do it. He's the only one that's got
the power. And do you know how many people
in this world that he never has opened their understanding? It's
all up to him to do it. You're sitting here today And
if your understanding's open, it's His prerogative to do it. He said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast given these things
from the wise and prudent, but who do you reveal them to? To
babes. To babes. And we know, John said this,
we know that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding.
We know that He's come and given us an understanding that we might
know Him that is true. Even Jesus Christ who is the
true God. That's why we know that. You
see, beloved, He's the only one who has the right. He says, can
I not do what I want with my own? If you belong to me, can
I not do what I will with my own? Look over here in John 12
with me just a moment. Look what our Lord Jesus Christ
did over here. This is the thing. This is where
we know that the Lord hasn't opened a lot of people's understanding. They make the Lord Jesus Christ
to depend upon men accepting or rejecting Him, whether they
know anything about Him or not. They come into a service, and
they come into a service and be in one service, and they will
not let them leave until they make some kind of profession,
until they get them on an altar. until somebody talks him into
something. But I tell you, you cannot come
to Christ, you cannot savingly know Christ until He Himself
opens your understanding to understand the Scriptures. Not just a little
bit here, a little bit... I mean understand the Scriptures
concerning Himself. Look what He said here in Matthew
12, in verse 32. He said, and I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all unto me. Gotta be lifted
up, lifted up on the cross, lifted up before the world. This, he
said, signifying what death he should die by the cross. The
people answered him, we have heard out of the law that Christ
abideth forever. We've understood from the scriptures
that Christ abideth forever. And how sayest thou the Son of
Man be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? They
said that Christ, when he comes, he's forever, he's the eternal
God. He's a high priest forever, as Lord of Mecca is today. His kingdom shall be forever
and ever. And then our Lord Jesus said unto them, yet a little
while is the light with you. Walk while you have the light.
I'm the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh
in darkness, he don't know where he's going. How many people are
walking in darkness and don't have a clue where they're at?
Don't have a clue where they're going. Don't have a clue where
they're understanding. And watch what he goes on to
say, while you have the light, believe in the light, that you
may be the children of the light. These things faked Jesus and
departed and did, now listen to this, did hide himself from
them. Oh my, you think about Christ
hiding himself from you? Wouldn't that be a horrible judgment
for Christ to hide himself? And you know he hides himself
from lots of people in this world. There's whole nations that he
hides himself from. There's individuals that he hides
himself from. Now watch this. But though he
had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on
him. Now watch it, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be
fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who has believed our report,
who has believed our preaching, to whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Now listen, therefore they could
not believe, could not believe because of Isaiah said again,
he hath blinded their eyes, hardened their hearts, that they should
not see with their eyes, to understand with the heart and be converted
and healed him. These things said Isaiah when
he saw his glory and spoke of him." So this business of opening
the eyes and opening the understanding, it's up to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Where right now in the hands of Him to do with us has seemed
good in His eyes. And you know, He only has the
power, not only has the right, but He's the only one who's got
the power. He says, this is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, that
their sins and iniquities I will remember no more, but I will
write my law in their minds and in their hearts. How does he
do that? He does that by the Spirit of
God, by the power of God. He comes and puts away the sin
and makes you understand that he does. And believe me, beloved,
spiritual truths must be open to men by Christ or they'll never
be able to comprehend them. Men by nature can understand
great, great mysteries. There's been a whole lot said
here lately, you know, about these scientists and how they
discovered the last God particle. God particle. God comes in particles. That means that the world comes
through a bunch of matter came together and they all crashed
and all sucked. The universe come into existence. Call it a God particle. One little
particle missing. Give them some understanding
how this all come into existence. I'll tell you how it came into
existence. God said it. And it was done. God spake and
it stood fast. You know the atom is God made
that atom. But men can understand the atoms.
They can split them. Great mysteries of medicine men's
overcome. Astrology, they go out there
and take pictures millions of miles from here. But the gospel,
the gospel of Christ is foolishness to them. What hope is there to
be saved by someone who could not save himself? How can a man
who could not save himself save me? Why trust in one who is condemned
and crucified as a malfactor? Why trust in a man who was lowly
born and laid in a stable because they were so poor? And why trust
a man who was poor all the days of his life and then cut off
by a cross? And how, may I ask this question
so foolish as to how can I be justified before God by what
somebody else did? Huh? How can I be justified before
God by what somebody else did? And it's foolishness to them.
They can understand them, add them, and split them, but they
can't understand the gospel unless Christ opens the understanding.
Huh? A man may understand and have
great ability and zeal in religion, great understanding and great
ability and zeal in religion and expound the scriptures orthodoxly. Our Lord Jesus Christ, they said
to him, said, have we not prophesied? Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name? We're preached in the name of
Jesus. Have we not cast out lots of devils? Oh, we had them lined
up from here to Kalamazoo, and we laid hands on them, and we
preached to them, and we took their money by the bushel baskets,
and they throwed away their crutches, and got out of wheelchairs, and
we've done great works in your name. Depart from me, you workers
of iniquity. I never knew you. Never knew
you. Oh, the scribes and the Pharisees
were well-versed in the Old Testament. Oh, they knew the Old Testament.
Paul called them princes of the world. But our Lord called them
blind guides, whited sepulchers, whited graves, dirty cubs. And they said, Don't you know
that you offended them? He said, which my Heavenly Father
hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Oh, the difference between
those whose Christ's heart opens and those another's is immeasurable,
immeasurable. And let me tell you, beloved,
all means are insufficient, insufficient, no matter how excellent they
are to operate savingly upon men. All means, I mean prayer,
scripture, preaching, they're all insufficient, no matter how
excellent they are to operate savingly for men, until Christ
opens the soul by His power and makes them effectual. You go
through Isaiah. Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed
on his foot? Who's believed our preaching?
Who's believed it? To whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Let me read something to you
from Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 20. Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse
20. I don't want to see nobody lost.
I don't want to be offensive to anybody. I don't want to sound
to know it all. But I do know this, that I don't
care how good the preacher, how much well-versed he is in
the scriptures, what church you attend, how much you pray, or
how many scriptures you read. All of these are ineffectual
until Christ opens the understanding through those means. Look what
he said here in Jeremiah 8 and verse 20. The harvest is past,
the summer has ended, and we are not saved. For the herd of
the daughter of my people am I hurt. I am black with astonishment. I am black. Astonishment hath
taken hold upon me. James is so desperate with my
people, he says, that there's a darkness around. And he asks
this question. Is there no Bob in Gilead? You've
got this wound. You've got this sore. Is there
no Bob in Gilead? Is there no physician there?
Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Why don't they go where the bomb is? Why don't they go where the
physician is? And oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes
as a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for
the slain of the daughter of my people." Jeremiah said all
these things, but yet they didn't have their understanding open.
Jeremiah wept and cried for them, told them where the bomb was,
told them where the physician was. that they didn't see. Who enjoyed more help and more
means than those who lived under the ministry of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the apostles. Our Lord Jesus Christ preached
for three years, a little over three years. Preached all over
Israel. Healed multitudes and multitudes
and multitudes of people. And yet, beloved, He says this,
he says, when I mourned, you said mourn and you wouldn't lament. And then I preached unto you glad tidings,
and then in the marketplace you wouldn't dance. No matter what
I said, it had no effect on you. You were like children in the
marketplace playing. No matter what I said, it had
no effect. And I tell you, neither the blessings
of mercy, Or the walls of judgment could move their hearts. It can't
do it. It can't do it. You know what
it takes to open the understanding that you might understand? It
takes the miracle-working power of Christ. And it makes the miracle-working
power of Christ to make the preachers, to make the Word, essential no
matter who they are. It's like when the Hebrew children
were thrown in the fiery furnace. There was no way in the world
they could be saved. No way. They're going to perish.
They're going to perish. But there was a miracle took
place. Christ went in the furnace with them. And when they looked
there and they saw Him, they said, there's another one in
there with them. And because of that other one in there with
them, they were saved. It's a miracle. It takes a miracle.
It takes a miracle. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, as
the wind blows where it lifts, it blows where it will. And how can they sit, and we
ask this question so many times, how can they sit and hear and
not believe or understand? I wonder this so many times. How
can a person sit and hear over and over and over again and not
believe and not understand? How can they remain dead to these
things? Martha said, Lord, Lord, if you
would have been here, our brother had not died. And he'll remain dead until Christ
calls him forth from the grave. You've got to have this miracle
work in power. Christ must come, and only He
can open the understanding. Man is utterly, utterly impotent
to open his own heart. If any preacher, any time, any
preacher, any time, and they cannot find this in the Bible,
nowhere in God's Word can it be found. Open your heart. and let Jesus in. Will you accept
Jesus into your heart? That is as foreign to the Scriptures
as anything that's ever been preached. Man is utterly impotent
to open his own heart. How do you go about opening your
heart? How do you open your heart? How do you open your heart for
Christ to come? How do you open your understanding? Well, you
can understand How can you open your heart to
where life comes in and light comes in when the scripture says
the heart is hard and desperately deceitful and desperately wicked? Man is utterly impotent not only
to not open his own heart, but he can't make the word effectual
in his own salvation. Can he? I'd take my own children
if I could. I'd take my grandchildren. I'd
take and open their brains if I could. If I could open their
heart, don't you think I would? They'd be sitting right here
hearing the gospel right now. Instead of being such a burden,
they'd become a blessing. If I could open their understanding,
I would open their understanding and say, look here, don't you
see where you are right now? Isn't that you are? Don't you
see the privileges you've had? Don't you understand that you've
been around some of the most blessed men that ever was, and
you've been prayed for, you've been witnessed to, you've been
preached to, and yet you still sit there like nothing's going
on and ignore God like God don't exist? You'd rather be out sinning
as it comes to the gospel? God said, Let there be light. And that's God. In 2 Corinthians
4, 6, it says this. As God commanded the light to
shine out of darkness. Genesis 1. God said, Let there
be light. And there was light. And God
separated the light from the darkness. And He said, Let there
be light. And as God commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, He hath shined the light, the light,
God did it, into our hearts, to give the light the understanding
of God's blessed glory, where at? In the face, in the person
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? Oh my. Man is impotent and
proud. This is what? Conditions. Man
is impotent and then he's proud. They've lost the liberty and
freedom of their wills. They've lost the liberty and
freedom of their wills, and they've lost their understanding, and
it's so affected them as to they deny it. They deny that they
don't have any liberty. They deny that they don't have
any wills. They brag about the power of their wills. They brag
about their freedom. And yet their free will cannot
cure a headache or a toothache. or cannot bring them any closer
to God. I can will to do a lot of things.
I will to live without sin. But how do I do it? I will to
be perfectly committed to Christ and His gospel. But how do I
do it? I will to never ever let my temper
get the best of me. I will to always be gracious,
kind, generous, and understanding, and patient, and loving, and
forgiving all the time. But how do I do that? I make promises to myself all
the time, but how to keep them? That's what I'm talking about.
So man can brag about his will, but until Christ liberates him,
he'll never know how bound he was. Oh, the fall rendered us so tireless
towards spiritual things. Spiritual things. When Adam fell
in the Garden of Eden and rebelled against God and partook of that
fruit, and became naked and hid in that bush and covered his
nakedness with a fig leaf. What he did that day affected
all of us from that day forward until we, or most of us, are
satisfied with a fig leaf until God comes and says, Where are
you? I'm naked. Who told you you was
naked? How did you find out you was naked Adam? Oh, a man can't open his own
heart. He can't know the things of the Spirit of God, because
they're spiritual. The Scripture says that the carnal
mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither end can be. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, no
man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me to
draw him. A man, the Scripture says, out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A man loves darkness
rather than light. He thinks he can do everything
without Christ. And our Lord said, without me,
you can do nothing. A man must be regenerated. He
must be created anew. He must be raised from the dead
and given new life, given a new heart, given a new understanding. Man is so opposed to God. You
see, he's not passive. Man's not passive in his relationship
to God. Man is so opposed to God that
he actually resists Him, and opposes Him, and says things
about Him, and resists Him, and gets upset over things about
Him, when things are said about themselves. But here, man is
not passive, and he is so opposed to God unless Christ opens the
heart. by a supernatural power, he'll
remain dead and he'll remain opposed to God. Yeah. And I tell you, beloved, Christ
alone has the power. He alone is able to subdue all
things unto himself. Isaiah said it like this. He
said he has the keys of David. He opens and no man can shut. And he shuts and no man can open. He's got the keys. He's got the
keys. And he's the only one who can
open a heart. He can open it sweetly and he
can open it gently. He can come and just sweetly
and gently open the heart. Or he can come with such power
like he did on the Damascus Road to Paul and bust the door all
the way down. It don't make no difference how
he comes. That door is going to open. And
when he comes, it's going to open. And He can open, He alone
knows the heart and can open it at His pleasure, at His pleasure. And there's two things, let me
hurry on here, there's two things, two ways that our Lord uses to
open the understandings of the heart. He opens their understanding
that they might understand the Scripture. First thing He does,
He uses is His Word. He uses this blessed Word right
here. That's why a lot of people come and gather around and sit
still while a preacher gets up here and preaches at them. Why
do you do that? Because the Word has done something
for you. You understand it's the Word.
Christ by His Word. He opened Lydia's understanding. And He uses the Word. Paul went
and preached to Lydia and the Lord opened her heart. was a man who'd done a lot of
things. But the Lord told him, He said, you send over to Joppa
and you tell Simon Peter to come over here. And they had to hear
the gospel. And Simon Peter went over there
and went into Cornelius' house and he preached the gospel unto
them, preached the word unto them, and then they became believers. Grace went before grace. Grace
propelled that heart, but then Peter came along and preached
the gospel to them. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word of God. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call upon
him of whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sinned?
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Now, God can
make corn grow like He did in the creation, but He ain't gonna
do that. You know why? Because you got seed, you got
ground, you can plant it yourself. And that's why God can, you know,
God can do that. But here's what He does. If He
don't use the means and the Word, man will perish. And not only
does He use His Word to open man's heart, but He uses the
Spirit. He sends forth the Spirit to
open the man's heart. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
said this. He said, When He, the Spirit
of truth, has come, He'll take the things of mine and show them
unto you. Take the things of mine. He'll
take the truth. He'll lead and guide you into
all truth. Paul said, Our gospel came unto
you, not just in word. But it did come in word. He said,
Our gospel did not come unto you just in words that we said,
but in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit came and blessed
you, and in much power and in much assurance. It comes, the Holy Ghost comes,
and it comes in power, and it opens your heart and it gives
you assurance of what you hear in the soul. It's true. And I
tell you, the Holy Spirit comes and turns on the light, and He
brings saving light. And you know when this light
comes, it's a new light. Some of y'all know what I'm talking
about. Things appear when Christ comes and opens the understanding,
brings that saving light into the heart, brings it into the
mind, brings it into the will. Things appear different than
what they ever did before. Christ is different than you
ever saw Him before. He's the Lord now. He has a beauty
about Him. He has a power about Him. He
has a majesty about Him. He has a wonder about Him. He
has something about Him that makes you desire Him above all
things. And sin, sin appears to be what
it really is then. Sin appears exceedingly sinful.
It didn't appear sin before. Sin was something that you done
instead of what you are. Heaven becomes a different concept
and hell becomes a different concept when you have a light.
And all these things have a different sound and meaning now since your
heart's open and the light is on. You read the scriptures and
you'll say, how could I have been so blind to so much that
I've never seen before? How could I have been so blind?
That's what he said here in verse 45. It opens the understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Oh, it's a new light. Things
appear different now. I've heard folks say after God
saved them by His grace, he says, like, I've got a new Bible. Got
a new Bible. And not only is it a new light,
but it's an affecting light. It's an affection. It has heat. It has power. And it makes deep
impressions upon the heart. Ain't that what they said on
the last road getting out of our hearts? Burn within us? Huh? Oh, it affects the heart. And it's a growing light. What
do I mean by that? It's like when the morning starts
before the sun ever comes up. First daylight before the sun
ever comes up. And just a little light, a little more light, a
little more light, and then when the sun comes up, it's really
bright then. And that's the way the light
comes. It comes and it starts to grow more and more and more. And I'll tell you, as the day
goes on, the light gets brighter. And as our life goes on, this
light, and that's the understanding that we have of Christ, it grows.
The more of our understanding Him, the more we know about Him.
We start out in the morning. Well, I don't see very much.
I don't understand very much. The sun comes up. You see a little
more. Ten o'clock in the morning, a little bit brighter. Hallelujah! And I'll tell you, we don't receive
full sight of the truths at once. We just don't do it. We grow
more and more as He brings the light to us. And let me encourage
you to do this. Let me encourage you to do this. Since the Lord's the only one
that can open your understanding. And He began at Moses. And in the law, and in the prophets,
and in the Psalms concerning me. And he opened their understanding
to understand Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. Since the Lord
is the only one that can open your understanding, you know
what I'd do if I was you? I'd say, Lord Jesus, open my
understanding. Don't leave me sitting in my
darkness. Please, please don't leave me to myself. Please. Oh, pray he doesn't inflict on
you the awful judgment of spiritual blindness. One of those people
who's ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of
the truth. Paul said blindness is in part happened unto Israel.
They were privileged, they were learned, and they didn't know
the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus opened opened
the eyes of souls who were as dark and ignorant as they come.
It's like He said, why not me? He sung that song, why not me?
Christ died, put away sin, why not for me? And if He opened
the eyes of people like Saul of Tarsus, Mary Magdalene, Manasseh, Enoch, Abraham, why not me? Why not me? And how in the world can we know
if our hearts have been opened? How can we know? If we're sitting
here this morning, how can we know if our hearts have been
opened? How can we know if our understanding has been opened?
Our hearts have been opened to receive the true life, the saving
life, the Lord Jesus, and He's opened our hearts in understanding.
Well, I know this. that when Christ opens the understanding,
and He brings that saving light, brings that knowledge of Himself,
and opens the understanding in a special way, the first thing
it does is humbles a man. I mean, it brings him to nothing.
You know what Ezekiel said? He said, You'll remember your
evil ways, and you'll loathe yourself. It humbles you. You thought you
knew something. You thought you'd attained something.
You thought you'd been somebody. But you're like Paul. He said,
I count all that I ever knew, all that I ever did, all that
I ever believed but none, that I may win Christ and know Christ.
And it's amazing. And it's so empty. You know what
natural light and religion does to a man? It puffs him up. Knowledge
puffs him up. makes himself conceited. But
I tell you, when Christ comes, it makes a man bow and be obedient. Lord, what would you have me
to do? And when Christ comes and opens that heart and brings
that light, it makes the Lord Jesus Christ more precious to
the soul than anything in this world. Unto you, therefore, which
believe, he is precious. And I tell you what, This light
is going to get brighter and brighter and brighter until one
of these days we'll go where Christ himself is the light of
that city. I pray that the Lord will bless
this to your heart, to your understanding.