Our Everlasting Light

Q: What does the Bible say about violence in human nature?

The Bible teaches that the sin nature in every unregenerate person is the root cause of violence. Violence stems from the heart of unregenerate man, as indicated in Isaiah 60:18, which promises that in the kingdom of God, violence will cease. This reflects the Reformed understanding that sin originates from our nature, highlighting the importance of continual exposure to the gospel for believers, who still struggle with their sin nature. Believers are reminded to recognize that the violence they observe in others is also present within their own hearts, emphasizing the need for God's grace and the work of Christ to transform their nature.

Q: How do we know that salvation is eternal?

The Bible assures us that once saved, believers possess an everlasting salvation that will never diminish. Scripture provides multiple assurances of the eternal nature of salvation, most notably in Isaiah 60:20, which states that the Lord will be our everlasting light. This aligns with the Reformed perspective that salvation is not dependent on human works but on Christ's completed work. The Lord's promises, which include an everlasting covenant and mercy, underscore that salvation, once granted, is irrevocable. A believer's standing in Christ is secure, as their righteousness is not based on their own merits but solely on Jesus' sacrifice, ensuring that their salvation is eternal.

Q: Why is understanding our sin nature important for Christians?

Recognizing our sin nature is crucial for acknowledging our need for Christ and for understanding the gospel's power. Understanding our sin nature enables Christians to comprehend the depth of their need for Christ's redeeming work. As articulated in Romans 7:18, the Apostle Paul discusses the persistent struggle with sin within believers, illustrating the importance of constant dependence on the gospel. The recognition of one's fallen state fosters humility and a greater appreciation for God's grace. By acknowledging our propensity for sin, believers can resist the temptation to self-righteousness and instead rely entirely on Christ for their righteousness and sanctification, as seen in 1 Peter 2:9-10, where believers are called a holy nation, emphasizing their identity rooted in grace.

Pick up at verse 18. This is the Lord's promise to the church. Isaiah 60, verse 18. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day, Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy morning shall be ended.

The sin nature in every unregenerate man is the reason for the violence. That's where the violence comes from. Men like to blame all these different second causes, but when you get to where the real cause is, it's the heart. The nature in sinners causes the violence. Sin comes from us. And that sin nature is still with a believer. So we need to continually hear the gospel to keep us from looking to us because of this sin nature.

Now yesterday I had been studying this message. I'm going to tell you kind of how this message came about. I'd been studying these verses and yesterday I was talking with someone and they posed a group of people and spoke some very strong words against a group of people. And then they began to speak some really condemning words against an entire class of people. And then they narrowed it down to one individual man and just spoke some really, really strong condemning words This was a wealthy banker. They spoke just some condemning words against this man, called him by name.

And I reminded them that basically not everything is here, but basically what I'm going to preach here is what I reminded this person. But what the reply was to me was, I'm not like them. I don't do what they do. And so my answer was what I'm going to preach to you right here. Violence means to do wrong, to do injustice, unrighteousness, cruelty, oppression. Lord said that's not going to be in your land. in the land, in his church, in his kingdom. He said, that's not going to be. The way of the sinner is to hate others who differ.

And we're living in a day now to where politics plays on this. And if you don't, people don't just agree to disagree. Folks hate the other. And it doesn't matter which side you're on. They hate the other. It's outward, surface, superficial differences. And I like how the word of God simplifies the differences. We call it racism. The Lord says Jew or Gentile. We name it classism. The Lord says rich or poor, bond or free. Sexism, the Lord says male or female.

Elitism, intellectualism, barbarian, Scythian, or Greek. The Greeks loved wisdom. And anybody that didn't speak their language, they would mock them and say, they say bar, bar, bar. That's where bar, bar, barbarian came from. That's where the word came from. Scythian was the worst, they were the most uncultured in the Greeks' opinion. But the most violent of all is religion, ceremonialism.

The Lord says circumcision or uncircumcision. And he says none of these matter in salvation, not any of them. So you take everything folks are arguing about and what God is saying is none of you are different from the other one. You're all fighting and hating over something that will not save and has no bearing on salvation at all.

Self-exaltation is what it's about. It's lifting oneself up by killing the other one with words, if not worse, if not literally. And the violence in religion is the worst. Catholicism killed everybody that didn't agree with them for long periods of time. And I can tell you this, would do it today in a heartbeat if God took his hand off of them. And that's so with any sinner. This was my statement yesterday.

Your nature is everything you hate. Everything you see and you're hating and condemning. The worst of the worst is what your nature is. The Lord gave that long list of sins in Romans 1. Sodomy and fornication and adultery and all idolatry and all these lists of sin. Romans 2, 1 opens with, and when you condemn somebody for that, you're condemning yourself because you do the same thing. And the reply I got was, I don't. I said, you don't have to do it outwardly. It's what your nature is before the all-knowing God. You might have never done it outwardly, but it's in your heart. And that's so of me, and that's so of you.

So man's never going to solve man's problems. Never going to solve man's problem. Man can't save man. And all, and I'm tired and weary of just hate. That's all I hear is hate, hate, hate. Man is not going to solve man's problem. It can't be done with a picket sign and it can't be done with a new election. Man can't save man, and it can't be done with man's religion and man's works.

And what has to happen, first of all, is God has to make the individual sinner know that about himself. God has to take a man and make him know in his own heart that he is the sinner. That's what has to happen. One reason we condemn is because it makes us feel justified and it makes us feel superior. Someone commits a heinous crime and a person says, I'm not like them, I wouldn't do that. Now you know by God's grace, you that know the Lord, God has taught you, he's taught you that the very worst sins you see committed is what is in your heart And if you haven't done them outwardly, they're still there in your heart and have done them inwardly.

Our sin nature is sin, brethren. Our sin nature is sin. Only one man became a sinner by sinning. That was Adam. The rest of us sin because we are conceived in sin. We come out of our mother's womb sinners and therefore we sin. It's what we are. It's exactly what we are.

Look with me at Luke 18. When I gave this scripture yesterday, when the person said, I'm not like them, I don't do what they do. I said, that is the scriptural definition of self-righteousness. I said, in fact, the Lord gave a parable to illustrate it. Here it is. And look who he was speaking this to.

The person says, I'm not like them, I hate them. I wish they were cut off from this earth. I don't do what they do. Listen to who he was writing to or speaking to. That's exactly what that is. And here's what he said. I'm not like them. I'm not as other men. I'm not an extortioner, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.

So what? That don't make you anything with God. The publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other, for everyone that exalted himself shall be abased, and he that humbled himself shall be exalted. Our Lord is saying what the Pharisees said, was a man exalting himself.

So when I stand and say, I'm not like them, I wouldn't do what they do, I'm exalting myself. I'm saying myself is righteous and I'm despising others. And brethren, and this is what I told the person, I said, I do that. I have done that. And then God brings me to look in the mirror and realize you're the man. Everything you're condemning, you are.

And I loathe it. I hate it. I'll be so glad when the Lord delivers me from what I am in my flesh, because all I am in my flesh is a self-righteous Pharisee. And I'll tell you, God hates pride. That's at the top of the list. And he said, It will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom than it will be for the self-righteous. That tells you that self-righteousness is the worst sin there is. God hates it. Pride of faith, pride of faith, pride of race, place, faith, and grace. And God hates it. There's only one holy nation. There's just one. And God illustrated his one holy nation with the children of Israel.

And do you realize the only cure for this whole thing, everything people are arguing and fighting over, the only cure is for the Lord to make a sinner hear the gospel of Christ and know, I'm the sinner. and make you know the only way you can come to God is Christ. This is the only cure for all of this.

You know that when the Lord called the children of Israel out of Egypt, he didn't use a president to lead them. He didn't use a king to lead them. He sent his messenger preaching the gospel of Christ to them. That's how he was leading them. And the people said, We don't want this. We want a king like the other nations have. Like these heathen nations, we want a king like they have. That's how we'll solve our problems. And so the Lord gave them a wicked king, Saul.

But what I'm saying to you is, it's the preaching of the gospel. The world looks down on God's messengers, true preachers, and the gospel's foolishness to them, that you can't You can't solve anything by preaching that. This was the reply I got back. Well, I'm not worried about my nature or anybody else's nature. I'm trying to save the world. Oh, okay. You can't save yourself, much less save the world.

So when he called him out, he used a preacher. They said, we don't want a preacher. We don't want the gospel. We want a king like these other nations have. And all of this is, this constant arguing over politicians and this constantly being divided and hating the other, all of this is, is works religion. That's all it is. It's men saying, look to a man to fix it. I can fix it. You can't fix it. I can't fix it. No other man's gonna fix it. The only one that can save us from us is God, the God-man, the Lord Jesus.

And there's only one holy nation, just one, just one. And it's a spiritual nation, it's a spiritual land, it has spiritual borders, and God is still leading that nation with his preacher, and he's still leading that nation with the gospel. He hadn't changed. Just because Israel wanted a king, he gave them what they wanted. He didn't stop leading his true people the same way he started, because this is how he saves.

And he says to his people in verse 18, violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise. Turn with me to 1 Peter 2. When God gave the law at Sinai, go with me to 1 Peter 2. When God gave the law at Sinai, this is what he told the children of Israel.

It was an if-then statement. That's what a covenant of works is, if-then. He said, if you keep my law and do all my commandments, He said, you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people of this earth, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. If you keep all my commandments, that's what you will be, then that's what you will be.

But the children of Israel, when he was giving that law, the children of Israel already at the bottom of the mountain dancing around a golden calf saying, Oh, how we have trusted and loved and obeyed Jesus. That's what they were doing. They'd already broken the whole law.

And God didn't give it. When he made that statement, when God makes a statement like that, he's not making that statement to suggest that you can do that, that you can keep his commandment. That's not what he, he's doing it to teach you and me, you can't do it. I can't do it either.

Christ came and he said, I'm sent to fulfill the law and the prophets. He didn't say, I came to almost fill it and I'm going to leave it up to my people to fulfill the rest. He said, I came to full fill. That means to fill it full to where you can't add a thing to it. And that's what he did.

And he justified his people and he made his people the righteousness of God in him. and put away all our sin. When God opens the book that has our sins in it and looks at the name of any one sinner he wrote in the Lamb's Book of Life, when he looks at your name, there is no sin there ever. No sin ever committed. Because the only name written there is the Lord Jesus Christ, God's son, and his people are in his son. And what his son did, that's what his people did.

And so we were in total darkness. And even though Christ had already redeemed us, we were in total darkness, dead in sin, worshiping ourselves, full of violence against men and violence against God. And he came in grace and made us hear the gospel. He gave us a new heart and faith to believe what he was teaching us. And now here's what he says to you, he's regenerated. He told them, you keep my law, and you'll be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people.

You'll be a holy priesthood, you'll be a kingdom of priests. Now, when he calls you and he gives you faith to trust Christ, he doesn't say if you will then, he says 1 Peter 2, 9, you are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood, made kings and priests unto God by the blood of Christ. You are an holy nation. You are a peculiar people, a treasure to God above all the people on this earth.

Why did he save us? Why did he do all this? Now he says, now here's what you're gonna do because of what he did, that you should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So we, that's, When I'm preaching, my charge in preaching is to give all the glory to God's son. My charge is to preach Christ as high as I can preach him, to preach him as being the righteousness, the holiness, the redemption, the wisdom, the captain, the all to preach him as being salvation. He's the walls, he's the praise, he's the covenant, he's everything. It's all in him and nowhere else. So he called us out of this darkness into his light. Now let's talk about the light.

Our text says, verse 19, the sun shall be no more thy light by day. Neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, But the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God will be thy light. He'll be thy glory. The sun and the moon are natural light. That's what they are, natural light.

Carnal light. When God saves, our light ceases to be natural. Our light ceases to be natural. Now that's all our flesh wants is something carnal, something we can see. But our new man in spirit is how we worship. He said, the sun shall be no more your light by day. That's personal. That's personal. It's not only a fact that he makes to be a fact, it's personal with his people. When he makes you know Christ, natural light quits being your light. You know better. But if you just look at the natural light and think about the natural light, you didn't produce that either. That's given by God. Well, so is this spiritual light. Thy God shall be your glory. Your sun will no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light.

Now, when he saves us, this is what he makes us to know. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. When Paul said bodily exercise profiteth little, he didn't mean going to the gym. He was saying your outward form in religion profits little. True worship is in spirit. True worship is in the new heart God gives. It's spiritual, it's not outward. When we're dead in sin, we want everybody to see us outwardly because religion puts all the emphasis on the outward because they don't have the spirit. It's got to be outward or there's nothing to it. So they're doing things outwardly so people can see it.

That's why Christ said, don't you do one thing to be seen of men. Don't pray to be seen of men, don't do your alms to be seen of men, Don't do anything to be seen in men. I pray in a public restaurant every time I eat my food. You won't ever know it. People sitting around me won't know it. I pray driving down the highway. If I bowed my head and closed my eyes, I'd have a wreck. I'm not going to let men see what I'm doing, because I'm not doing it for men.

It's between me and God. We are the circumcision. True circumcision, Paul said, is not one outwardly. It's to be circumcised in the heart. It's of God. It's how we worship God. And then he gives us what the traits of the true Jew is. Here's a true spiritual Jew, a true spiritual Israel that's been circumcised in the heart.

We are the circumcision, Philippians 3.3, which worship God in the spirit Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

What I do outwardly doesn't add to it and what I do outwardly does not take from it. Good works don't add to what Christ did and sin don't diminish what Christ did. It's all Christ. Everything is Christ. We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. We know if this earthly house be dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. The first thing God has to do when he calls us is make us stop walking by carnal sight.

Stop reasoning with carnal reasoning. Because God purposely puts things in your way and purposely puts you in situations to where when you look at it with these natural eyes, you think, I don't know, there's no way I can get out of this. There's no way I can make it. He said, I will make my mountains away. He put the mountain there to show you, you can't do it, but he will make the mountain away.

Listen, how are we gonna know this? Go with me to 2 Corinthians 4. How are we brought to this point? Here's how. Verse three. Second Corinthians 4.3, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake, because 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. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. God said they'll be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of my house. He said I'll make them drink of the river of my pleasures And David said, with thee is the fountain of life, in thy light shall we see light.

Christ the light shines, and that's how we have light. And when he does that, our light stops being what we see with these eyes. Our light stops being our carnal reason. Oh, we got plenty of it, but he's faithful to even save us from our own darkness of looking to what we think is light. He keeps saving us from us. Now, here's the last thing, and there's even more good news.

The Lord promises we shall never be in darkness again. Once he's given you Christ the light, he says you'll never be in darkness again. You shall have the light of Christ. Verse 20, thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light. Now your light will not go down. Your sun shall not go down anymore.

A sunset's a pretty thing. I like to see a pretty sunset, but a sunset means the end. It means it's the end of the day. There is no end. When the Lord has called you by his grace and given you Christ the light and the S-U-N of righteousness has risen in your heart and shined his light and given you light, There'll never be a sunset. That sun won't ever go down. Christ will not. That's, you know, when he's called you, he's called you into the eternal day. You are already called into an eternal day.

This scripture is quoted, but it's quoted wrong. The Lord said, the stone which the builders refused has become the head of the corner, the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it. He's not just talking about today, although he made today and we're glad. But the day that he has called his child into is the eternal day that he made by laying down his life for his people. and we rejoice in this eternal day, knowing Christ has saved us. He's justified us. He's made us righteous. And this sun will never go down. He says, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself. Our Savior said, I'm the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Now, we have dark days and we have dark seasons. Sometimes you don't see the light. Our sin causes us darkness. Money trouble can cause us darkness. Our flesh starts failing and sickness and that causes us darkness. Tribulations of life cause us darkness. Really, just anything can cause us to be in darkness. But be sure to get this. Every time you face one of those seasons of darkness, our Savior has brought you into that situation sovereignly on purpose.

It's called a trial of faith. And it's to teach us we don't have any light in ourselves. It's to teach us don't look at natural light and judge by carnal sense. It's teaching us He is our Savior. He is our salvation. He is our light, and he will continue to be your light. He's in control of the whole trouble you go through, and he's providing, and he did it on purpose to teach you he is your savior.

Listen to what he said through Isaiah. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, the Lord Jesus, that walketh in darkness, and have no light. He's talking to a believer. Are you going through a trial and you're in darkness? What am I supposed to do?

He says, let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Trust him and stay upon him. See, that's what it means when it says, Feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. Don't look to your feelings. You feel like you're total darkness? So what? Don't trust your feeling. You have the word of God. Nothing else is worth believing. That's what he's teaching us. He's promised. Trust him.

But he says, But all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourself with sparks, you walk in the light of your fire, in the sparks that you've kindled. This shall you have of my hand, you shall lie down in sorrow. We're gonna always have Christ the light. He said in verse 20, the Lord shall be thine everlasting light. Everything our Lord gives us is everlasting, because he's everlasting.

He said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you. His love never changes toward his people. Who he loves, he saves. That's what everlasting love is. He said, all his promises are everlasting. When he called Abraham, he said, I will establish my covenant for you for an everlasting covenant. Our text says here that when he gives us this land, In another text he calls that land our everlasting possession. God's mercy upon us. The Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting. Christ our righteousness, his righteousness is everlasting righteousness.

What if I mess it up? You can't mess it up. You can't mess it up. In Isaiah 45, 17, Israel shall be saved and the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. That means you're never gonna be put to shame for trusting him and you're never gonna be ashamed for trusting him, because your salvation's everlasting.

But I'm so weak. I'm nothing but darkness in myself. I don't have strength to stay on him and trust him. Listen, he will keep you stayed on him. the Lord will keep you stayed upon him. Everything he tells us to do, he's the power that makes us do it. We don't have power to do it, but this is his promise. There's another passage just like this passage, almost exactly like, and it's in Isaiah 26. Our city, we have a strong city.

Salvation has appointed bulwarks and walls, and it says, Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. He's gonna keep you trusting him. He's gonna keep you stayed upon him, even in the darkness.

Now, you see there, this last thing that I'm doing. He says, the days plural of your mourning shall be ended, the days. When he brings you to the end of this life, right now he wipes away our tears, but when he brings you to the end of this life and you have no more days, plural, you'll still have this eternal day. And look at Revelation 21.

This is the city right here. This is when it's, when all his people are called in, in verse one, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. and God himself shall be with them and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he goes on and says, I did it all. I did every bit of it, God said. And look down at verse 11. This city had the glory of God, and her light was likened to a stone most precious. And then look down in verse 22.

You go home and read the whole thing, but verse 22, and I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it, and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Brethren, when the Lord has called you, he's called you to an eternal day. Christ is the son of righteousness who heals us, and you'll never be without his light. The sun will never set. It's a spiritual light that will be with us forever, and when we get to glory, we're gonna behold that light, the Lord Jesus Christ. and he's gonna get all the glory from his people.

You know what this made David say? He said, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? That's what he brings you to know. So you let the, he said, you let the pot shards, the broken pots, you let them fight amongst themselves. Next time you hear people arguing over stuff, let them argue. You look to Christ. Stay upon Him. He's your light. He's your salvation. Amen. All right, Brother Adam.

Our Everlasting Light

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What does the Bible say about violence in human nature?

How do we know that salvation is eternal?

Why is understanding our sin nature important for Christians?

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About Clay Curtis

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Our Everlasting Light

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about violence in human nature?

How do we know that salvation is eternal?

Why is understanding our sin nature important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

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