This text, before I read it again, this text is declaring the work that our Lord Jesus began when he came. It's declaring what he began doing in Israel when he came. He's declaring that he began saving his elect from among the children of Israel, calling out his elect that were in that nation Israel. And then it says he's gonna use those that he called out to preach the gospel and he will call out his elect from among the Gentiles. That's what the text is declaring. Even here, the Lord's saying he has an elect people among the Gentiles. But he's began with his elect in Israel. when he came, and he called them, and then he used them, established them in faith upon him, and then used them to preach him, and he called out his elect Gentiles.

Let's just read the first three verses. I read the first seven in the reading, but I'll just read the first three, because that's mainly what I'm gonna look at. Verse one, arise, shine, for thy light has come. and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. He's speaking to his elect that he called out in the nation of Israel from them, his elect.

And he says, for behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles, Now, he's talking of God's elect that he's gonna call from among the Gentiles. They're chosen by God, redeemed by Christ, they must be called from among the Gentiles. And he says, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light. His people in Israel are gonna preach the gospel and the Gentiles are gonna come to the light.

And kings to the brightness of thy rising. Let's read on. Lift up thine eyes round about and see. All they gather themselves together, they come to thee. Thy son shall come from far and thy daughter shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see and flow together. It's a spiritual work. You're gonna see and you're gonna flow like spiritual. You're gonna flow together. You're gonna be in agreement.

And thine heart shall fear. Gonna fear the Lord and be enlarged. You'll be enlarged in faith toward God, seeing he makes good on all his promises, and be enlarged toward your brethren who are Gentiles, and be enlarged toward the lost even. Because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. Let's stop there. I'm gonna preach mainly from the first three verses.

Now this is the Lord's promise to God's true Israel. to his true Israel, God's Israel. God's Israel are those chosen of God by grace, redeemed by the blood of Christ, by the Son of God, who shall be regenerated by the Spirit of God. They make up God's Israel, the Israel of God, spiritual Israel. I feel like I need to say something about this right now It's in the news and it's on social platforms and it's a good thing to talk about when we're dealing with this chapter. Folks that are labeled Zionists, that's what they're called, Zionists, they believe that God will restore the political nation Israel in the last days or in the latter days. They think that when the prophets say that in the last days, or in the latter days, the Lord will turn his hand again to Israel, they think that means the nation Israel. Here's their mistake. Here's their mistake.

The last days, the latter days spoken of in the scripture, was when Christ came. That's when the last days began. It says, God hath in these last days spoken to us by his son. That's Hebrews 1. God hath in these last days spoken to us by his son. The last days began when Christ came.

And according to the prophets, according to the scripture, the Lord began calling out his lost sheep among Israel. That's who he began with, so that Prophecy's right. In the latter days, he began to deal with his people in Israel, his elect in Israel. He said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That's who he began with.

In Paul's day, Paul said, God, at this time, he had cast away his people whom he foreknew, that's the issue, whom he foreknew, who he foreordained, who he chose by grace. He said, even so then at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Romans 9 is so clear on this.

Romans 9, 6 says they are not all Israel which are of Israel. When God talks about Israel, he's not talking about everybody in Israel. He's talking about the children of the, he said the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Those God chose in Israel were his elect Israel, his true Israel. And there's also some among the Gentiles that are his Israel. They're chosen by God's grace, redeemed by Christ, regenerated by the Spirit. That's who God's Israel is.

And now be sure to get this, when the prophets speak of the Lord calling his people in the last days or in the latter days, it speaks of when Christ began doing the work, when he came and he began calling his elect in Israel. And then he sent Peter and Paul to Gentiles and he started calling his elect from among the Gentiles. And he keeps doing that to this day.

And this is what we believe, the newest label that they give us is they say that we believe replacement theory. That's what they call it. They've called it that for a while, but it's in the news a lot now, replacement theory. Well, one, it's not a theory.

It's the word of God. And there's nothing being replaced. It was God's purpose from eternity. the Father and God, the Son, God, the Spirit, entered covenant to do everything involved in the saving of his people. That's the everlasting covenant. That's the old one we looked at on Sunday.

And God made the nation Israel to picture his true Israel. He gave the covenant of works to show us our need for God to save us by grace. But in 70 AD, he destroyed that nation. He may call some people that live in that nation that was established in 1948 that calls themselves Israel. He may save some people from there. But if he does, it's gonna be the same reason he saved some people from Ewing, New Jersey if he does. It's because God chose them by grace, Christ redeemed them, and they must be called to faith in Christ because Christ justified them.

It's not because of anything in us. It's not because of where we were born, who our mama and daddy was, or anything else about us. It's all of God's grace. All of God's grace. So Romans 9 is crystal clear on that. This everlasting covenant, it's always been the purpose of God to save this way. It's ordered and sure in Christ, all the promise of God are yes and amen, because Christ did it all. He did it all. Now, in this text, he's showing us, he's speaking to those he called in Israel, and he's saying, your light has come. And he's promising, I'm gonna call my elect, they're gonna come to your light, and you're gonna be in agreement. and you're gonna all be looking to Christ and you're gonna be giving God all the glory. That's what he's declaring.

Now, we're gonna see three things. We're gonna look at the light. We need to know who the light is. Secondly, we're gonna see that God's grace is distinguishing grace. And then thirdly, we're gonna hear God's promise, what shall be, all right? First of all, the light is Christ. The light is Christ. He says here in verse one, arise, shine, for the light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Christ is the light. He's the light.

He's the light of every sinner that he saves, no matter where they are in this world. He's their light. Look at John 8, and listen to what the Lord says in John chapter 8. John 8 and verse 12, then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light of the world. That means he's the light of his people wherever they are in this world. He's the light. I'm the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. That's what Christ the light is. He's the life, the light of life. When he shines light, you have life, eternal life, because he's the life.

God the Father said to Christ his son, and look back at Isaiah 49, we saw this. He said to his son in verse six, he's calling him Israel because his name is Israel. He as a prince had power with God and has prevailed. That's who he is, that's his name, Israel. That's why he named Jacob Israel. Jacob said, tell me your name. He said, why are you asking my name? He gave him his name. He changed it from Jacob to Israel. And his people are Israel because of his name.

But God said to his son, right here, look, verse six, Isaiah 49, six. He said, it is a like thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. Who's that sound like? That sounds like the elect, doesn't it? The preserved of Israel. The only reason they're preserved is because God chose them by his grace. That's his elect in Israel.

But he's speaking to Christ and he said, it's a light thing that you're gonna raise up my people in Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation until the end of the earth. Christ said, I'm the light of the world. Wherever his people are scattered in this world, Christ is their light. He's our life. And he's the one that's gonna give us light and gonna raise us up. It's all of him. He's the light.

Now, in verse one, Isaiah 60 and verse one, this is God's word to his elect that he's called from among the children of Israel. He says, arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. That word arise, shine, for the world makes, false religion makes a lot of rising and shining. And incidentally, there's a lot of words we say in everyday, rise and shine, that come straight out of the word of God. That's where this came from, arise and shine. But false religion makes a big deal about letting their light shine, but if you read the margin, this is passive.

It means arise, be enlightened, the light shining on you. If you're in a dark field, and it's gross darkness, that whole field is totally dark, and you're in darkness. Nobody can see you when they look at you. But if I take a high-powered Q-beam spotlight and I shine it on you, now they can see you. Is it because your light's shining or is it because light's been shined on you?

The only reason a sinner has light is because Christ the light shines on him. That's the whole point. He says, your light has come to you. Sinners do nothing to have the light. We don't arise to have light and we don't shine to have light. It's Christ shining the light and being the life in us that makes us arise and makes us have life and light.

It's Christ, he does it. Now, he says, verse one, for the light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. The Lord Jesus is the glory of the Lord. The fullness of the Godhead is in the man, Christ Jesus. In that human body is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The whole fullness of the Godhead, he's the glory of God. And everything God has to reveal to us and to any sinner he saves, it's all concerning his Son, Christ Jesus. Christ is the glory of the Lord.

When he says, Your light has come. Christ has come. And when he says the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee, Christ has risen upon thee. There's been an operation of grace take place here. Christ is the glory of God. He came to glorify God. That was his whole purpose.

And he's the way God is righteous. He's the way God is a just God and a savior is in Christ by what he accomplished. And He is the righteousness. He's not only the way God is righteous, He is the righteousness God gave. All the glory of God is in Christ. He's the holiness of His people. When He's formed in you, you're holy, and that's when you know and you look to Him for all righteousness and all holiness. And who gets the glory? God gets the glory. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every bit of it is in Christ. It's by his works, none of our works, his works. And he came to give God all the glory. And when he does this work in his people, his people give him all the glory. He's the glory of the Lord. He's the light of his people. He's the life of his people, wherever they are in this world.

Now, here's the second thing. We see here that God's grace is distinguishing grace. Now look, verse two. He says, for behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Do you see God's distinguishing grace right here? Everybody in the world is in darkness, in gross darkness, and his people are no different. We were totally dark. The scripture says, In him is light and there's no darkness at all. But in us is totally darkness and no light at all. That's what we are by nature.

Man's not getting better. Man thinks he's getting better. Men today think they're smarter than the last generation and way smarter than past generations. But it's not so. We're not getting less sinful. We're not getting better. That's another example of when Christ said, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. When a man thinks it, he's just naturally getting better. And man as a whole is getting better with every generation, getting wiser and just getting better and better. That's darkness. To think that is total darkness. But you look around you, we see gross darkness. That's what we see.

The Lord said, He said, when Paul, at the beginning of the last days, he said it was bad, and he said it's gonna get worse. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter three. This sounds like our day right here. And this is, this is just how it is in our day. 2 Timothy. Listen to this. This know also that in the last days, 2 Timothy 3 verse 1. This know also in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves. I think of this every time I think about a selfie. A selfie. Think about what that says about us. Going around taking selfies and posting selfies.

Men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, uncontrollable, Fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, and yet religious as can be, having a form of godliness, but denying Christ the power of true godliness. That's our day. That describes our day.

Men are in gross darkness, but here's the distinguishing grace of God. God singles his people out and gives them grace and gives them light. Look, verse two at the end says, but the Lord shall rise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee. Does that not speak of God's grace being particular to his people? Here's the people, gross darkness, and his people are no different. And yet God says, but my light will shine on you.

You're gonna have light. The Apostle Peter, he was in gross darkness. And Christ came to him and spoke and gave him light. The Apostle Paul, he was in gross darkness. He was trying to kill God's people. And Christ spoke and he saw light and had life. And you and me, no different. We were dark. We were in darkness. We didn't know God and couldn't know him. And he spoke and gave us light.

No sinner studies himself into having light. No sinner, I encourage you to get in the scripture and read the scripture, study the scripture. But if you have light, it's gonna be because the Lord gives you light. And nobody studies themselves into having life.

If you have spiritual life, it's gonna be because the Lord gives you spiritual life. God the Father elected who he would in Christ, and he predestinated each one. Christ laid down his life for them, redeemed them, and he predestinated each one of them to be brought to the adoption of children, to be born of the Spirit and made to know that they're children of God, and that would be by Christ.

Go to Ephesians 1. I think it's good for us to read, even though I know you know these scriptures, there's people here that don't know these scriptures. And I want everybody to look at this, Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

How did he do that? according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. By him choosing us in Christ, he blessed us with every blessing that could be given, because Christ would do all the work.

But look, he didn't stop there. It says, he predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. What made him do this? according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace. That means to make his children praise him for his grace and glorify him for his grace. Wherein, by him doing this for us in Christ, Christ doing all the work, he hath made us accepted in Christ in the beloved.

That meant Christ had to redeem his elect. God predestinated them that one day he's gonna call them to faith. They're gonna have to have something to believe. They're gonna have to have a gospel to believe. Christ said, I sanctify myself and I'm gonna go to the cross and lay down my life for these sheep that they might be sanctified by the gospel. He came and did all the works so that he himself is the gospel we preach through which God calls us to the adoption and makes us believe on the Lord Jesus. He redeemed all his people and because he did that, God brought us under the gospel and he sent forth the spirit and gave us life. He gave us light.

Go with me to Galatians chapter five. Galatians five, look here, verse four. Let me see, Galatians four. I'm sorry, Galatians 4, in verse 4. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because you are sons, God had sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. You didn't become a son, a daughter of God when you believed. The reason the Lord sent the spirit and gave you life and light to know him is because you were children of God. He had chosen you. predestinated you to the adoption.

Christ had laid down his life for his people and justified his people, and for that reason, the Lord came and gave us faith, made us hear the gospel, revealed Christ in our hearts, gave us faith to believe him, because it was all of God. Now, God's grace is distinguishing. There we were in darkness, but Christ the light arose on you and he shined on you.

Now that's what he did with his elect that he called out from among Israel, just like all the prophets said he would do. He said in the last days, the house of the Lord's gonna be established in the mountain. Christ did it. And he established the prophets, I mean the apostles, to preach his gospel, and he began sending them to the Gentiles.

Now look at the next part. Here's God's promise, verse three. Isaiah 60 verse 3, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. That was God's promise to the early church, to Peter and James and John and Paul and all those he used to preach the gospel. He said, you go forth and preach, and my elect from among the Gentiles are going to come. They're going to come, and they're going to be in one heart with you. They're gonna unite. They're gonna come to your light, to the brightness of your rising. That was Christ. They're gonna come to Christ. He was their light, just like he's our light.

And Gentiles came because they heard the gospel and they believed because Christ shined a light. And the reason we believe, I guess we're all Gentiles, the reason we believe is because God made that promise right there through Isaiah. And God brought it to pass.

Peter's light was Christ, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, kings to the brightness of thy rising. Peter, Paul, James, John, all of their light was Christ, and they preached Christ. And by Christ the light, the Gentiles he called out, came to their light. They came to Christ. They came to Christ.

Paul said, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He said, and the power to do this in other peoples, not of us, it's all of him. He said, that's why we preach Christ. That's why we preach only Christ, because he shined this light in our heart and made Christ to be our light. And so we preach Christ. And then just according to God's promise, Ephesians 2 says this, Ephesians 2, in verse 20, says of us who he's called, Ephesians 2, 20, you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. We came to their light.

Who is that? Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ himself, the chief cornerstone, in whom all the buildings fitly frame together and grows into a holy temple of the Lord, in whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God through the spirit. When scripture says God will have all men to be saved, It means all kinds of sinners. And here, you know this because whatever God's willing to do, God does it. He's not trying, he does it. And so God will have all kinds of sinners to be saved.

I want you to look there, verse six. He speaks of Midian and Aphah and Sheba, elect, that he's gonna call out from among those Gentile nations. You know who that is? That's Arabs. That's children of Abraham that he had through Keturah, another than Sarah. And it says, God said, he's gonna call them out, Muslims. They might be Muslims in the Muslim religion.

But when he shines a light, he said, they're gonna believe on Christ and they're coming out. He says there in verse seven, Kedar and Nabioth, that's sons of Ishmael. But he says, verse six, he said, at the end, they shall show forth the praises of the Lord. They're gonna give him the praise for calling them. Verse seven, at the end, he says, they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar.

Who's the altar? Christ. We've made righteous and holy on Christ our altar, and that's how all his people come to God. He said there, and I will glorify the house of my glory. Christ glorifies us with his light, with his righteousness, with his holiness. We're the house of God's glory. That means we're the house that's gonna give God all the glory, because it's all of him, salvation entirely of him.

You see how he singles out his people? While the world remains in darkness, he gives his people light. and all who he saved come to God in Christ our altar, and we all give God all the glory. We're gonna see that as we go through the chapter. I wanna end with this.

How do we shine? You know, the Lord said that we're gonna shine. How do we shine? Well, one way we're gonna shine, and I'm just gonna give you three things. We'll look at more on this later. But one way we shine is, of course, we don't want to sin, because we don't want to bring reproach on Christ. We don't want to let the world see us in some horrible sin. Now, the world's going to reproach you. The world is going to slander you and do whatever they can, because they did it to our Savior. But the scripture says, you are sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Now that's one thing.

We don't wanna just do some gross sin to make people speak evil. But as the Lord's church, we know people are gonna see us, and Christ said he intended it to be that way. He described us as a light in a light. You don't light a candle and put it under a bushel. You put it up so people can see it. A city on a hill's gonna shine and people are gonna see the light. And he said he did that on purpose. But now listen to what he said. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Now we're not trying to shine like this false religion shines. False religion does just what we heard the Lord say not to do. We saw this Sunday. They market their prayer meetings, they market their almsgiving, they market their many good works, and all their programs, and they're trying to make, they're trying to make their light shine to people, and let people see how good they are, and you, you just surely wanna unite with us, and be the attraction, we're the attraction, because of all this wonderful things we're doing. That, the Lord said, don't do that, don't make, don't do anything to be seen of men, We don't want the attraction to be us.

We want the work to be of the Lord. We want Him to bring people in. We want it to be of Him. So the number one thing we do is just what we just heard Paul say, we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord. We preach Him. Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We preach Christ. and we wait on Christ to work it.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power be of God, not of us. We wait on him to work. And as we're doing this together as a church, go to Philippians 2. Philippians 2. We quote this verse. I know I've showed this to you, but we quote this, but I don't think we get what reason, the whole purpose of what it's saying.

When we're preaching this gospel and anything we have to do as a church together, this is our, when Paul says, work out your salvation, it means if we gotta cut a tree down back here and we gotta get tree trimmers in, we're gonna work that out and we're gonna do it in fear and trembling. If we gotta prepare for the meeting in July, we're gonna work that out together in fear and trembling. If there's trouble, we're gonna, we're gonna remember Christ is present with us and not bring charges and not murmur and dispute with one another and get in a hellish uproar. If you read James chapter three, I believe, he said, that's not the spirit of the Lord. He said, that's devilish, essential. It's not the Lord when you're biting and devouring.

Here's what we're gonna do right here, Philippians 2.12.

Wherefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your daily affairs with fear and trembling. Everything you gotta do together, work it out with fear and trembling, knowing Christ is present. That's what he's saying, knowing Christ is right there beside you, right there in your brother and in your sister, just like he's in you. For it's God which worketh in you. both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

What's the point of telling us that? Do all things without murmuring and disputing. Why? That you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the gospel, the word of life. You see that? Why don't you murmur and dispute? Christ is present. I don't have to try to have my way. I don't have to try to make something happen. Christ is gonna work it out. He's gonna turn his people and turn the hearts of his people.

And we do it without murmuring and disputing with each other because our main objective is preaching the gospel. And when you do all that and the word spreads that all that took place, one of the most blessed things I've ever seen happen since I've been a preacher is y'all sitting silent. And you know what I'm talking about. You sit there silent. Because you know the Lord's present. Lord's going to work his, he's going to work his will. And you don't have to fight. You don't have to argue. Trust the Lord.

That's what we're, that's what we're to do. We preach the gospel. We wait on him to work. And when we're doing whatever we have to do on a daily basis, we do it knowing Christ is present. He's working his will, he's working his good pleasure in each of my brethren. I don't have to try to have my way. I trust he's gonna bring it to pass. That's how you let your light shine. That way, all the focus is on Christ. It's not on us. You get that? That's what he's talking about. We'll look at more of that as we go. All right, Brother Adam.