Good evening, everyone. If you
would open your Bibles with me to 1 John 1. I'd like to thank
Sean for his idea of propping our tabernacle up. Maybe you
can see a little better what we're talking about. 1 John 1. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life.
For the life was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the father
and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us.
And 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. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin
and that he's talking there about a sin nature. If we say that
we have no sin nature, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
We make him a liar, and his word is not in us. All right, Sean,
come lead us in our singing, if you would. Okay, if you would,
turn in your hymnals to song number 30. Song number 30, Bless
the Lord. Bless the Lord and sing his praises. Bless the Lord now, O my soul. Join the song all heaven raises. Let the anthem loudly roll. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. and all that is within me bless
his holy name. Bless the Lord for love victorious,
love that conquered on the tree. for his grace so great and glorious
flowing out from Calvary. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. and all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Bless the Lord, He walks beside
me, and He lights the path before. Every need is now supplied me
from his bounteous heavenly store. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. soul and all that is within me,
bless his holy name. Bless the Lord for truth he's
given, for the word of prophecy. that has drawn the veil from
heaven and revealed my destiny. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Okay, if you wouldn't now turn
to song number 118, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. 118. When
I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of Glory
died. My richest gain I count but loss. and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from his head, his hands,
his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? Were the whole realm
of nature mine That were a present far too small Love so amazing,
so divine Demands my soul, my life, my all For our scripture reading, let's
open our Bibles to Exodus chapter 25. Exodus chapter 25. We'll begin reading in verse
31. And thou shalt make a candlestick
of pure gold. Of beaten work shall the candlestick
be made. His shaft and his branches, his
bowls, his knops, and his flowers shall be of the same. And six
branches shall come out of the sides of it, three branches of
the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the
candlestick out of the other side. Three bowls made like unto
almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch, and three bowls
made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower
So the six branches that shall come out of the candlestick and
in the candlestick should be four bowls made like unto almonds
with their knobs and their flowers. And there should be a knob under
two branches of the same and a knob under two branches of
the same and a knob under two branches of the same. According
to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick, their
knobs and their branches shall be of the same. All, it shall
be one beaten work of pure gold. And thou shalt make the seven
lamps thereof, and they shall light the lamps thereof, that
they may give light over against it. And the tongs thereof, and
the snuff dishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. Of a talent
of pure gold shall he make it with all these vessels. And look
that thou make them after the pattern which was showed thee
in the mount. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we're so thankful
to be able to gather here this evening with your people, to
gather out of this hot and dusty world. And Father, to come with
your people, to open your word, to hear your gospel, and to worship
your matchless name. Father, I pray that this evening
you would give us a refreshing from your word, that you would
strengthen our hearts and our souls, that we might be able
to go back out into the world and attend all the responsibilities
and tasks that you've given to us. But Father, for this particular
hour, how we pray that you'd be pleased to reveal yourself
to each heart here tonight. that you would shine the glorious
light of your son into our hearts. And father, let us see him. Let
us see his glory. Let us see our need of him. Let
us see his sufficiency, that he is everything that we have
and cause us to run to him, to flee to him and cling to him. And father, by your mercy and
grace to, to never leave him, to trust him and him alone always. Father, we pray your blessing
in this hour. What human is sufficient for
these things? Father, I pray you'd bless me
in preaching, that I might be enabled by thy spirit to preach
in the power of thy spirit, to preach Christ and to get out
of the way. And Father, be with your people,
enable us to hear, enable us to worship and have our hearts
thrilled. one more time at the preaching
of Christ and Him crucified. Father, we're so thankful for
this place, a place you've preserved and protected throughout the
years. And we pray, Father, that you would protect it and preserve
it for many more years, that your gospel would keep sounding
forth from this place, and sinners may continue to come and hear
of the remedy for our sins. Father, all these things we ask.
We give thanks to that name which is above every name. The name
of Christ our Savior. Amen. I've titled the message
this evening, Christ Our Light. We're going to look at that light
in the picture of Christ that's found in the candlestick. The
candlestick was here against this wall in the holy place. And this candlestick was the
only light in this holy place here. You know, normally it would
be covered, and the veil would keep the Shekinah glory of God
from here, and the holy is coming in. The only light in this place,
in this power map of the holy place, was the light of this
people's skin. The only way that you could see
the table of showbread, and see the showbread on it, is in the
light of this people. The only way that you could see
And all of that is such a clear picture of Christ. The light
that came from this candlestick or this lamp stand, it's a picture
of spiritual light. If you have spiritual light,
you have light, you have understanding to see, to understand spiritual
truths. Your spiritual light enables
us to see spiritual things. If you have spiritual light,
you don't just see the showbread on the table. You see that that
showbread is a picture of Christ, the bread of life, how we need
him. If you have spiritual light, you see that golden altar. You
don't just see the golden altar and its coals and its incense
and its smoke. You see, that's a picture of
Christ, our intercessor. I need him to make intercession
for me. If you have spiritual light,
you see that. If you have spiritual light, you'd see the veil, the
veil that hung between the holy place and the holy of holies.
Not only would you see that veil and all of its tapestry and its
embroidery, the things that were on it, but you'd see that as
a picture of Christ in the flesh. It's his flesh. That's the only
way we can see these things spiritually. But if you just think about just
the candlestick for a minute. This thing was a thing of beauty. I mean the intricate, the way
that this, the man that made this, the way he He must have
taken different sized hammers and chisels and you know how
he did the fine work to make the bowls like almonds and the
knops and the leaves and all these things. This thing was
a work of art. I mean, that God enabled somebody
to do this. It was a miraculous thing. It
was glorious. And just, I mean, just the craftsmanship
of it, to look at it, it was beautiful. But even that's a
picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
most glorious person. His glory is indescribable. There's none like him. There's
none to be desired like him. But do you know the only way
we can see Christ, to see his glory, to see that he is everything
that I need, the only way I can see that is in the light of Christ. Just like everything else in
that holy place, you know the only way I can see the candlestick
is by the light of the candlestick. The only way we can see Christ
is in his light. And this candlestick, verse 31
tells us, is made out of pure gold. As we've studied through
the tabernacle, you've seen this many times, that this gold is
a picture of deity, it represents deity. And that tells us that
spiritual light, can only come from God. It can only be given
to us by God. There's no other way to see it.
There's no other way to have this light, light that I mean
to see and really understand and believe these spiritual truths.
Human logic and human intelligence can never understand God, can
never see God, can never trust God, can never love God. The
only way we can have this light is it comes from God and He gives
it to us. And if you look at 1 Peter 2,
there's such an amazing thing of God's grace that He gives
this light to all of His people. 1 Peter 2. Verse nine. But you, your chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, a
purchased people, is what that means, that you should show forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness. Out of the
darkness of ignorance, out of the darkness of unbelief, out
of the darkness of sin, out of the darkness of Satan, he's called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. If when we go
through our study in the tabernacle or preaching the gospel anytime,
If you say, I see that. I see, I see Christ there. I
see, I see my sin. I see my need of him. I see that
the only way that I can have life, the only way I can have
salvation, the only way I can have righteousness is in Christ.
Do you see that? If you see that, you already
know this. You know how you got that light. Why you see it's
because God gave it to you. What a miracle of his grace that
we're born blind. But now we see. And we see it's
because God gave us that light. As much as you want to pour it
into your children or to other loved ones and make people see
and believe, you can't do it. But God speaks, and the light
comes on, and we see. And that's our constant prayer,
that he do that for us and for others that don't know him. And
this candlestick, The thing that makes it so amazing to me is
it's one piece. It's all one piece of gold. It's
not many different pieces melted together. It's one piece of gold. One man, one day, took a hunk
of gold and he started hammering on this thing. And he beat it
into the shape of a candlestick. And he beat it with the bowls
and the almonds and the leaves. I mean, you just think about
those fine leaves coming up. A man beat that into place. It
was all one piece. It's just amazing. It wasn't
melted and poured into shape, it was beaten. Now you know what
a picture of Christ that is. Brother Earl Wooten pointed this
out a couple weeks ago when we were looking at the Ark of the
Covenant in the mercy seat. You know, A former slave built
everything in this tabernacle. A former slave. And more than
likely, in Egypt, as a slave, he was probably just a brute
laborer, you know, carrying something from here to here, pushing something
from here to there. Maybe he had some skill, a stonemason
or something. But he never had any training.
He never had any experience in working with fine art, gold,
and these intricate things. Well, how in the world did a
man do that? I mean, I have no skill in anything whatsoever. But the last thing I would think
of if I saw a hunk of gold is I can hammer that into a candlestick. Who thought he could do that?
A man God gave the skill to. Look over at Exodus chapter 36. Next is 36 verse one. Then wrought Bazalel and Aholab
and every wise hearted man in whom the Lord put wisdom and
understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the
service of the sanctuary according to all that the Lord had commanded. And Moses called Bazalel and
Aholab and every wise hearted man in whose heart the Lord had
put wisdom even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come
under the work to do it. These men had the God-given ability. It was a miraculous special ability
and God gave it to him because it was so important to make these
pictures of Christ. Everything in this tabernacle
is a picture of Christ. And it was very important to
be made just like God said. He told Moses, he said, now you
look that you make them after the pattern, which was showed
thee in the mount. These men had, it was so important. They
make these things exactly like God said, because they're pictures
of his son. So that when the Lord Jesus Christ
came, only the father could make him. He said, a body has thou
prepared me. The father had to repair him
a body because we can't even imagine such a thing. The angel called the Lord in
the womb of the virgin, that holy thing. That holy thing,
that man born of Mary is God. He is the eternal father. That's what Isaiah said, his
name is the father. So he has the power to do what
he came to do, didn't he? Because he's God. But he's God
in the flesh. He's God in the flesh. He is
truly God, but he's also truly man. As God, he had the power
to do everything that he came to do. You'll notice as you read
through the four gospels, when the Lord comes into a place and
he's gonna heal someone or he's gonna do something, never one
time does he ask permission. He just does it because he's
God. But when it came time, especially to make the sacrifice for the
sin of his people as a man, he prayed that the father strengthened
him to do it, to do the work that the father sent him to do.
And that's where this, this beaten gold comes in. This gold was
beaten into the shape of a candlestick. And that beating was a picture
of the suffering of Christ and his suffering. All the details
of his suffering are too much for us to talk about
all at one time, but his suffering. He suffered in three hours of
darkness to give light to his people. He gave up the ghost
and died so that he could give life to his people from all over
the world. The beating, the suffering of
Christ, Don't even think about his mock trial and the way he
was beaten by the Jews and by the Romans, just the cross. Roughly
three hours, he suffered on the cross. In those three hours,
he justified all of God's elect, a number that no man can number.
He satisfied justice for all of them, completely and utterly
saved them and made it right for him to give light so that
they see him. Now that's a mystery, but that
could only be accomplished by the suffering of Christ. That's
so many things in this tabernacle are pictures of the suffering
of Christ because there is no salvation without it. And really
and truly there's no worship without it either, without his
suffering, without not him suffering for the sins of everybody in
the whole wide world and hoping somebody will believe him. I
mean, you know, I suppose that would be nice enough if somebody
did that, but that's not real cause for all in worship. But
that he suffered, he suffered untold agony to redeem a specific
people, a people that he chose to save. And they're, let me
tell you, the worst of the worst. I mean, they're not better than
somebody else. They're the worst of the worst sinners anybody
could find. He suffered for them on purpose
and by his sacrifice, made of white as snow. That's cause for
worship. That's cause for worship. Now
I give you the opposite of that, an idol. I don't know how many
weeks it'll take us to get there, but eventually we'll arrive at
the golden calf. Remember Moses went up to the
mountain, he was gone so long, and they told Aaron, make us
a God. And that golden calf, it's an
idol. It wasn't beaten into shape.
It was melted. poured into shape. See, idolatry
doesn't require suffering. Idolatry doesn't require a beating
in order to put away sin. Idolatry doesn't require true
justice, but God does. And that's why his son must be
beaten. That's why this candlestick,
the light of, you know how the Lord called himself the light
of the world? The light of the world was beaten into shape to
put away the sin of his people. And the only way you can see
that is in the light of Christ. He's got to give you light to
see that. Otherwise, that sounds like mumbo jumbo to you, doesn't
it? Now this candlestick really was a lamp stand is what it really
was. It didn't have candles in it
that burned. It had these bowls on here were filled with oil
and they lit the oil on fire. The oil is what burned and gave
the light. Remember when Samuel first came
to live with Eli? It was Samuel's job to get up
in the night and fill these bowls with oil to keep the fire burning.
This lamp stand had burned continually. It never went out. The fire never
went out unless they were ready to move the camp. Then they put
the fires out. But as long as the tabernacle
was erected in one place, they kept these fires burning perpetually. And you know where they got that
oil? To put in these bowls, it was olive oil. It was olives
that were beaten, were beaten into a fine, pure oil. And the people would take those
oil, then they'd beat it in this fine, pure oil, and they'd come
give it to the priest. And that's what the priest would
use to keep these bowls full. It tells us again, the only way
you and I have light and life is through the beating. through
the suffering of Christ. You just can't, you can't overstate
that. You can't, without the suffering
of Christ for a specific people, there's no salvation. But thank
God he did it. Aren't you glad he did it? Do
you ever one time get tired of hearing that Christ died? And if he died for you, your
sin is no more. That you're accepted of the Father.
That you're washed white as snow. that if Christ died for you,
I get ahead of myself next week, you have an intercessor. You
have someone who's making intercession for you before the father at
this very second, if Christ died for you. You ever get tired of
hearing that? What a glorious story that Christ suffered and
died to put the sin of his people away. And Christ loves his people. This thing of him suffering and
dying for his people is not just a forensic, legal thing that
happened. Christ loves his people. This candlestick is one. And that shows us, first of all,
it shows us Christ, the light of the world, how he was beaten,
and that's how he can give life and light to his people. But
it also shows us the believer's union with Christ. Christ and
his people are one. These branches are coming up
out of here. There's six of them, three on
a side. I don't want to get too much
into numerology, but six is the number of man. And the trunk
is Christ. He's the vine. We're the branches. The trunk held up all these other
three on each side, the six other branches going out, they're all
held up by the trunk. That's Christ. He's the one that
holds up all of his people. He's the one that makes his people
perfect. And believers have union with
him so that we are what he is. You know, if you have a vine
and branches, the branches are what the vine is, aren't they?
Because they get their life. They get their nature from the
vine. The branches are what the vine is. The believer is what
Christ is. We're made partakers of the divine
nature through union with him. Look at Philippians chapter two.
I'll show you about this union. It's so real and vital to the
life of a believer. We all know, I mean, we're talking
about Christ, the candlestick and the light, something that's
gone through everybody's mind is Christ saying, I am the light
of the world. Everybody knows that, right?
But you know, he also told his disciples, you're the light of
the world. Look at Philippians chapter two,
verse 15. 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. Now, if Christ is the light of
the world, how can we be called lights in the world? Well, it's
not because we have any light in ourselves. We know that. If
you have light, this is what you know, there's no goodness
in you. If you have light, there's one thing you see, there's no
light in me. But here's what a believer can do. We can reflect
the light of Christ. We can tell about the light of
Christ. And that's what he says in verse 16, holding forth the
word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I've
not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Here's how the believer
is lights in the world. We hold forth the word of life. We preach God's word. We tell
people about Christ. And here's the amazing thing.
God, the Holy spirit takes a blind dead center and he makes them
see. And you know how he makes them
see? By hearing the gospel preached from the lips of another sinful
man. Now that's amazing. And if you
have light, you know that's how you got it. God gave it to you
miraculously through the preaching of the gospel. I'll tell you
another thing about this union with Christ. In Revelation 1
verse 21, the church is called a candlestick. Remember when
Christ walked among the seven candlesticks, and the seven candlesticks,
he said, are the seven churches. Now wait a minute, I thought
Christ was the candlestick. Believers are also called candlesticks.
His people are called because we are one with Christ. This
union with Christ is so real, we are what he is. Otherwise,
the Father could never accept us. And the best way I can think
to illustrate that is the prophet Jeremiah. Talk about the believer's
union with Christ. We are what he is. Believers
in Jeremiah 23, Jeremiah talked about this one who's coming.
His name is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. He
shall be called Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. Then
about 10 chapters later, he talks about the bride and she said,
this is her name, Jehovah Sidkenu. the Lord our righteousness. Now,
how can a sinful son of Adam dare take the name of the son
of God, Jehovah Sidkenu? One way, we're married to him. We have union with him so that
we are what he is. Marriage is such a good picture
of that. When Janet and I got married,
some of you are old enough to remember a girl named Janet Conley.
But when she got married, she married me, her name became Janet
Tate. Now, we have the same last name.
There's a sense, very real sense, in which we are one flesh, but,
you know, we have two minds and two ways of thinking sometimes,
you know. The believer doesn't just bear the name of Christ,
even though you're separate from him. The believer's one with
Christ. We're in Christ. So his name
is our name. That is how real and sweet and
precious this union with Christ is. Then look back at our text,
the next thing about this candlestick I want us to see is the preciousness
of Christ. Verse 39 says, of a talent of
pure gold shall he make it with all these vessels. Now I looked
up a talent, a talent of the tabernacle or a talent of the
temple was 120 pounds. 120 pounds of gold would be worth
$4.2 million today. $4.2 million. Unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. Everything about him is precious.
His obedience is precious because his obedience is my only righteousness. His blood is precious because
it's the only way that my sin can be paid for. Blood is precious
because it's the only thing that can wash me white as snow. His
love for sinners is precious. His presence is precious. Everything
about him is precious. But here we're talking about
light. And do you therefore which believe he's precious because
in his light you see, you understand. And you want me to tell you how
you know how precious light is? You know when we find out how
precious light is? It's when the lights go out.
and we're in darkness, we can't see our hand in front of our
face, and the lights go out, we find out how precious light
is. Well, the Lord makes his people
realize how precious he is by showing us our darkness. The
darkness of our sin, the darkness of our rebellion, the darkness
of our refusal to bow to him, the darkness of our ignorance,
the darkness of unbelief. He shows us our need. Then he
shows us Christ. It's exactly what we need. The
light is precious when we see our darkness. And Christ is precious
because he's the only source of light. I go back to where
I started about the light from the candlestick being the only
light in the holy place. Christ is the only source of
spiritual light. The only way to see God is in
Christ. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. The only way we could see how is it God could save
a sinner like me and still be God. How's that possible? The
only way we can see that is in the light of Christ, is in the
light of his sacrifice for his people. Look at John chapter
eight. I'll show you some I really enjoyed
this week. The only way I can see how God
could save a sinner like me is seeing Christ and his obedience.
His obedience is my righteousness. That's what makes me righteous.
His death is the only way my sin can be atoned for and put
away. I see how God can be both just and justify a sinner like
me in Christ, in His perfect life and in His perfect death.
Look what the Lord says here, John 8 verse 12. Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. Now, when did the Lord say this?
I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness. When did he say that? It was immediately
after he told that woman who was taken in the very act of
adultery. Woman, where are your accusers? Does anybody condemn
you? She said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn
you. Go and sin no more. Now this woman was guilty, caught
in the act. How can the Holy Lord, who hates
sin, who can't overlook sin, who must punish every sin, how
could he tell that guilty woman, neither do I condemn you? Because
in a very short time, he's gonna stand condemned for her. That's
how. He's the light of the world.
He's the one who gives light, and light and life are so closely
tied together. The only way you can have life
is if you have light. This woman had life and light
was not condemned because the Savior is going to stand condemned
for her. Now I want to ask you, do you see how God cannot condemn
you? Do you see that? If you think
you see that God can't condemn you or won't condemn you because
you're a pretty good guy, you're a pretty good woman, salt of
the earth kind of people, your neighbors like you, your family
likes you, you know. I had to think about this for
a minute because it's not in my notes. People say, oh, I know my mother's
in heaven because she always loved me and took such good care
of me. So that's what a mother ought
to do. That's not why God is not going
to condemn us. If you see that God is not going
to condemn you, because he condemned his son in your place. His son
satisfied justice for you, so there's no reason for God to
condemn you. You've been given light. You've been given life
from God. See, Christ is our light, and
he's so precious. I started in on this a minute
ago, got ahead of myself. The light of Christ is so precious
because it's the only way to have life. Most things living
on earth require light to live, don't they? Well, the only way
you and I can have light in life is if God gives it to us, even
though we don't deserve it, because we're never going to find our
way to the light by ourselves. Never. I can show you that if
you look back a few pages, John 1. John chapter 1. Verse one, in the beginning was
the word. The word was with God and the
word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and without him was not
anything made that was made. In him was life and the life
was the light of men. The only way for a sinful man
to have life and light is if Christ is my light. The only
way I can have a life that God will accept is if my life is
the life of Jesus of Nazareth. His life lived as my representative. That's the only way I can have
a life that the father will accept. And Christ came into this world
and when he came, he revealed our depravity and our need like
nothing else ever would. Verse five says, the light shineth
in darkness. and the darkness comprehended
it not. Now here's how you can tell that
you're blind. When the light of Christ, brighter
than the sun, shines in your face and you can't tell the light's
on. Here the Jews were, the Pharisees
were in their religion that had so decayed and fallen into such
just form and empty ceremony. From the time Moses built this
tabernacle to the time Christ came, it was a religion that
was so dark and light himself came and the darkness couldn't
see it. Now that, and the same thing's true of you and me now.
Come on, it is, isn't it? How many times have you sat in
the worship service and Christ has preached? I mean, he preached. And you don't see. You're unaffected. It's because we're in darkness.
That's why. Now hold your finger there, because
we're going to come back to John 1. Look over at 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. I'm going to show you how desperately we need God
to perform a miracle for us so that we see. 2 Corinthians 4
verse 6. 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. See, the miracle we need is not
with our eyes, is it? The miracle, the only way we
can see is if God shines in our, he's got to command the light
to shine in our hearts. And if God shines a light in
your heart, you'll see. You'll see, you'll see Christ.
And I'll tell you how he's gonna shine the light in your heart.
Now look back at John 1 verse six. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light that all men through him might
believe. Now the light, here again it
shows you how blind we are, how desperately we need God to do
something for us. The light shined in darkness. And God had to send a man to
tell us the light's on, because we couldn't tell the light was
on. We couldn't tell where the light was. God had to send us
a preacher to tell us the light's on. Verse eight says, now he
was not that light. John the Baptist, he was not
that light, but he was sent to bear witness of the light. That
was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. Now that verse nine, that light
that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, that obviously
does not mean God gives everybody that comes into the world spiritual
light. If he did, nobody'd be blind. If he did, everybody would
be saved. Here's what that means, that
Christ is the light, or maybe I shouldn't say Christ is the
light, but the light of creation, the light of nature tells us
God is. Doesn't it? You look at creation, only an ignoramus would think
that just evolved from nothing. They just evolved from amoeba
or something. Somebody made all this. I mean
somebody with wisdom, somebody with beauty, somebody with majesty,
somebody with power made all this and somebody's running all
this. Romans 1 tells us that. The light of nature tells us
that God is so that we are without excuse. We're without excuse
not to seek God and not know who God is. But if you do have
spiritual light, if you do see, Be thankful. Be thankful. Because out of all the blind
people in this world, God gave you light. Of all the people
who live in darkness, God called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Now be thankful, because flesh
and blood didn't reveal that to you. But my father, which
is in heaven, he revealed it to you. Let me give you just
a couple more things here before I quit. Christ is the light for
all of his people. Every believer has the same light. He's the light of his people
and only the light of his people. You know, I talked to you about
the person beating those olives, beating them in that pure, fine
olive oil and bringing the olive oil so the priest could put it
in there and keep the lamp burning, keep the light on. But whoever
was bringing that oil to the priest, had to stop at the veil. He couldn't go in to the holy
place. Only the priest could. The only people who ever saw
this thing, the light from this candlestick, were the priests.
You had to be a priest of the tribe of Levi. If you're from
the tribe of Benjamin or the tribe of Reuben or one of those
other tribes, you never saw that light. You used to have to take
the priest's word for it that it was burning because you couldn't
see it. Every believer, has been made
a king and a priest unto God. So you have this light. Every
believer has it in equal amounts. God's made all of his people
to be priests so that you can come into God's presence anytime
you want. And I'll jump ahead of myself
a little bit, but on the day of atonement, only the high priest
could come into the Holy of Holies. And that's just one day a year
and not without blood. He had to be bringing the blood
of the sacrifice Only the high priest, one man in all of Israel
was only one ever allowed to come in to the Holy of Holies.
You have it so much better than Aaron did. If you're a believer,
you can come to the throne of God anytime you want. Aaron was bearing a picture. You cannot plead the real thing,
pleading the blood of Christ that makes you accepted in God's
presence. And then here's the last thing.
Christ is all from eternity to eternity. And I know that seems
silly. Eternity is just one, but if
you break it up from man's time on earth, from what we call eternity
past, eternity future, Christ is all. What happened on the
very first day of creation? God said, let there be light. And that light was not the sun
or the moon. The sun, the moon, the stars
didn't come to the fourth day. That light's Christ. The first
person, the first thing, however you want to call that light,
to appear in creation was the Lord Jesus Christ. Let there
be light. And through our journey here
below, if God gives you light to see, he gives you life and
light to see Christ. You know how it's going to happen?
Some man's gonna be preaching the gospel to you, and God's
gonna speak in a voice that's not audible, but your heart hears
plain as day, and he says, let there be light. And you see,
and you think, where have I been all this time? It's been right
here. I couldn't see it, because God
didn't give me light. And you have light. Now, if God
saved you, you have light, don't you? But you know what heaven
will be? Heaven will be the enjoyment
of the light we have now perfectly. Let me show you, Revelation chapter
21. We saw how the Bible began, God
saying, let there be light, and that was Christ. And right near
the end of the whole book, Revelation 21, we read this. Verse 22. John had this vision of heaven. God gave him some vision of what
heaven is, and he said, 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. He's gonna be the light of glory
all throughout of eternity. And that's what we have to look
forward to. Like I said a minute ago, believers have light right
now. You see, if God's revealed it,
you see. But you know what's so frustrating? I don't see as clearly as I want
to. I don't see as much as I want to. I know there's more here
for me to feast on, And I don't see it. Because at best we see
through a glass darkly, don't we? And that's gonna be all through
this journey here below. That's the best as we hope to
see, through a glass darkly. At least we see, but it's through
a glass darkly. But in heaven, we're going to
enjoy perfectly what we have enjoyed imperfectly here. To
have his light face to face. Then we'll see. then we'll understand. The only thing I can think of
to honestly say about that is hasten, Lord, the day. Oh, I
hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our
Father, I pray that you would take your word as it's been preached, and Father, that you would bless
it, that you would take your word and apply it to each heart
here, Father, you would speak in your gracious, life-giving
power and say, let there be light. Father, let us see Christ and
let us walk in that light. Let us believe him and never
look anywhere else. Never look anywhere else for
assurance or for comfort or for redemption or for acceptance
with thee. Let us walk in that light, clinging to Christ and
Christ alone. Father, it's in his name. For
his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean. If you would, turn in your hymnals
to song number 298 and stand as we sing, God Leads Us Along. 298. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet God leads his dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes
the weary one's feet, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through His
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives a song. In the night season and all the
day long. Sometimes on the mount where
the sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in the valley, in darkest
of night, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through Some through the flood, some through the fire, but all
through his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives a song in the night season and all the day long. Though sorrows befall us and
Satan oppose, God leads his dear children along. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes. God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us some. In the night season and all the
day long. Away from the mire and away from
the clay, God leaves his dear children alone. A way up in glory, eternity's
day. God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through his blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long.