Come back to Matthew chapter
4. I titled this message, Light
is Sprung Up. Light is sprung up in darkness. For darkness dwelt, thick darkness,
religious darkness, and death. Light is sprung up. You know, the four Gospels are
not written in chronological order. They were written as the Holy
Spirit moved these evangelists to write. And it's evident to me by the
writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that they did not get
together and compare notes. If they had, it would have been
written in chronological order. But each one was moved to write
as God would have him to write. And so Matthew picks up here
with the Lord's ministry in Galilee. But there were several things
that went on actually before this event, before the Lord going
to Galilee and preaching. Actually, this was about a year
after, from the people I've been reading, This happened about
a year after the temptation in the wilderness. This happened after the calling
of his first disciples over there in John, after the marriage feast
at Cana, after his meeting with Nicodemus, and after the Samaritan
woman. All that happened before this
happened, but Matthew picks up here. And the time when our Lord
begins his earthly ministry, It's here in verse 12, where
Matthew picks it up at, is when John was cast into prison. When John was cast into prison,
the morning star is now hidden. The morning star is hidden as
the sun of righteousness rises with healing in his wings. That
star, you know, you get up in the morning and the sun gets
bright and the stars are eclipsed by the brightness of the sun.
And this is what's happening here. You know, John himself
said, He must increase and I must decrease. Christ is the end of our preaching.
He's the end of our preaching. Pointing sinners to Christ. Telling
them to look to Christ. And by the grace of God, the
power of God, they look to Him. Look to John. John's disciples
must become his disciples. The Lord's disciples must become
his. One writer said, John is a witness,
but never a rival. We are never rivals. We want
sinners to follow Christ. We are not after a following.
I'm not after one here. The pastor we had formerly, he
was not after a following. We're after sinners. We want
them to look to Christ. We want to go to Him. If sinners
are to be saved, there comes a time when the messenger must
be eclipsed by the message. And Christ is the message. He is the message. He is the
sum and substance of the gospel. He's all that the gospel is.
He's all the good news. The Lord Jesus Christ is all
the good news that we have to tell the sinners. He's all the
good news there is. Job said this, By the hearing
of the ear I heard of thee, but now mine eyes see of thee. That
must happen. Now I see him. I see him. John served his purpose in preaching
the gospel and now it's time for him to go. It's time for
him to go. The messenger of the covenant
has come. John's work is complete. His
work is complete. We all have a time and a place
to serve in the kingdom of God. Every one of us. It may seem
insignificant to some of you in what you're doing, but that's
not insignificant. There's nothing insignificant
in the life of a believer in what's going on or where God
has put you and what you're doing. Nothing insignificant. Nothing. But there is a time for us to
serve in the kingdom of God. And when it's over, when it's
complete, God will take us home. He'll take us home. Just as He's
going to do John here. John was a powerful preacher.
We saw that, how he came preaching in the wilderness and all types
of people from all over the place came out to hear him. But now
he's cast into prison. And you know, the end of that
story, he's beheaded. This is God's servant. Yes, this
is This is God's servant. My lot's not so bad, is it? I
thought when I was reading this last night, my lot, my situation's
not so bad. John is sitting in prison. And he had the bouts of despair. He even sent disciples to ask
Jesus, are you the Christ? Are you the Christ? He's like
us. He's just like me. I can identify
with him. Lord, where are you? Oh, I can
identify with him. Where's your help? And he sends
his disciples. That's why I said John's disciples
sooner. They have to become his disciples. And the Lord said, you go back
and tell him. And you know the story. That's
getting on to another subject. You go back and you tell him
about all this that's going on. I am the Messiah. And it's going
to be alright, John. And I'm sure when they went back,
I'm sure he was encouraged. But he was in despair there for
a little bit, sitting there in prison. And he's beheaded. He's beheaded. And that's God's
servant. That's one of God's servants.
This was appointed of God for John. Just as all our trials
are appointed of God. Every one of them. Every tear
I will ever Christ is appointed of God. Appointed by the wisdom
of God and the counsel of God. And our final end, our final
end is appointed of God. Now I know that all of us would
like to go quick. I've heard a lot of people say
that. I'd like to just die in my sleep, you know, go quick.
But that's, we'll go in a way that is most fitting for His
glory. And we'll go when it's time. When it's time. When our time in the Kingdom
of God on this earth is complete, He'll take us home. John goes
to prison and John's beheaded. But God will not leave His church
without a witness. John's gone. John, the powerful
preacher of the gospel, is gone. Who comes along in his place?
The Lord of glory. The Lord Himself. The Lord Himself
comes along. God will not leave His church
without a witness. Elijah had Elisha. Samuel had David. Paul had Timothy. And as long as this world is
here and the church is in this world, God will have a witness
preaching the gospel of His grace, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, the place of his ministry here is in Capernaum.
Listen to verse 13 through 15. And leaving Nazareth, his hometown,
no doubt he had been preaching there, he came and dwelt in Capernaum. which is upon the sea coast in
the borders of Zebulun and Nephthilim, that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun and
the land of Nephthilim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan,
Galilee, of the Gentiles." That's where he went to start his ministry,
in Capernaum, among the Galileans. And it says, The Galileans are
the Gentiles, not of the Jews. It was so mixed by that time.
And that part of that country was so rotten. You know, they were not
to mix like that. You know, the Jews were not to
intermingle with the Gentiles. But here they were just, they
just melded into one another. It was a very poor place where
he started his ministry. He didn't go to the affluent,
the capital. He went to these poor people,
just like John in the wilderness started out there preaching the
gospel. He went to a bunch of nobodies going nowhere. That's
where he went. The Lord of glories, the God
of heaven and earth, went to a bunch of nobodies, a bunch
of scoundrels, and preached the gospel to them. uneducated by the standards of that day. Jerusalem
and all those Pharisees and Sadducees, they would consider them very
uneducated, very poor. They were a people who sat in
darkness. That describes them. They sat
in darkness and in the region of death, death all around. Sad place to live, he asked me. Region of death. Darkness? Why did he go to such a place?
Why did he go to such a place? He went there to fetch his elect. I thought of Mephigoshev, fetching
grace. Go fetch him. Go fetch him. And that's what he did. There
were some sinners there that belonged to him who were sitting
in darkness But they are about to see a great light. They are
about to see a great light. And then it was determined before
the world began that Christ should go to that place. I read to you
there in verse 14 that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken
by Isaiah the prophet. It was predestinated that he
should go to that place. and gather together the elect
of God. Just like He said, I must need
to go through Samaria. There's a sinner, a sinner woman
at the well at a certain time, and I've got to be there to meet
her. It's predetermined. It's appointed. It's decreed. Can you imagine
that? This woman didn't know anything
about that well. She's just going to get some water to cook with
and quench their thirst with. She had no idea that before the
world began that God decreed that His Son incarnate would
be at that well at that time. That He would think, that God
would think upon her and actually decree that it would happen.
David said, Thy thoughts of us cannot be reckoned up in order.
Can't do it. We just kind of meal along through
the day, don't we? God decreed everything. Our God
has taken care of every minute detail. He went where He was needed.
The great physician heals and saves great sinners. He walked
on a divinely predestinated path. The steps, it says in Psalm 37,
the steps of a good man Or what? Ordered by the Lord. Every step
He took. Ordered. Ordered. I get up in the mornings just
like you do. I think, well, I might do this
today. I'd like to do this today. Or
I might do this today. I ought to do this today. But
you know, if you're in Christ, every step you take is ordered. It's truly ordered by the Lord. And his work is to give life
and light to dead sinners there in Galilee of the Gentiles. Save some Gentiles and some Jews. That's his work. To heal the
spiritually sick. We'll look at this later next
week. But to bind up the brokenhearted.
That's what he came to do. To bind up the brokenhearted.
to set the captive free, to redeem sinners. That's what he came
to do. And the condition of the people
that he came to save, listen, they sat, sounds hopeless, they
sat in darkness. You go and turn those lights
out and see how dark it be in here. This is how spiritually Dead
and dark it is for those who are outside of Christ. Those
who do not know Christ. It's just absolute darkness.
It says they sat. They lived in darkness. They
sat in darkness. They did not know God. I think, and this is one of the most saddest
things to me, is when I talk to someone and they start getting
religious like this woman at the well. And you know they don't
know God. Dark as dark can be. I think,
oh, how sad. How sad it is to talk about God
and use His name and use the name of Christ and not know Him
at all. In fact, these people, they sat
in darkness. They didn't know God. They did
not know the way of salvation. They did not know Christ. If
you do not know Christ, you do not know the way of salvation.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the
Father but by me. They were very religious though.
I'm sure they were very religious. He preached in their synagogues.
They had their religion, but lost. I think I heard Henry preach
a message one time from Romans 10. Religious, but lost. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. And I wrote out from there, not
according to the Scriptures. I heard Henry say that in a message
one time. They have a zeal of God, but
it's in darkness. Their knowledge is darkness.
And that's the condition of the people he came to save. Religious
does not mean saved. It does not mean saved. I told
a man that one time several years ago when we were living, taking
care of John Howson's house and I was working part time in a
machine shop. And the man there was religious. And I said, a
lot of religious people are going to perish. And he was visibly,
he got visibly angry with me. He left. He had to leave. I mean,
he just got upset. He thought because a man is religious
and sincere that he was saved. I said, no. No. Religious does not mean saved.
Not at all. And they were religious, but
they were in darkness. Absolute darkness. And their darkness came from
their spiritual deadness. Dead. Dead. Had no eyes to see God. God has
to give you eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to believe.
If He ever saves you, He'll have to give you those things. Has
to. They were in darkness because
of their spiritual deadness. No light was in them. The light
that was in them was darkness. Look over in Matthew 6. Matthew 6. In verse 22, the light of the
body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light. The whole man is healthy. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness. Oh, he says how great, how great
is that darkness. Now what did they see? When you
see their condition, they sat in darkness and in the region of death. But it says here, they saw a
great light. They didn't just see a glimmering
light. They didn't see a flickering light. They saw a great light. I thought of the Apostle Paul
on the road to Damascus. He saw a light that shone, he
said, above the brightness of the sun at noonday. They saw
a great light. I want you to turn over to John
chapter 8. Let's see if we can look at this
a minute. John chapter 8. In John chapter 8, our Lord says in verse 12, Then
spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light, I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. I want to look at this incident
here that brought about this statement. This is that woman that was caught
in adultery. She was caught in adultery. The
scribes and the Pharisees, they were trying to trip him up, trying
to catch him, trying to corner him, trying to, it says in verse
6, tempt. Well, we read of the tempter
last week, didn't we? Well, here's his children. They're just like
their father, They tried to tempt our Lord by bringing this woman
caught in adultery. They're trying to trap omnipotence.
Trying to checkmate infinite wisdom. Can you imagine that?
There's darkness. There's a display of darkness.
Trying to checkmate infinite wisdom. They thought, well, he speaks
of mercy. If he lets her go, then he will be guilty of breaking
the law. Because the law says to stone
her. I wonder where the man was at here. I had to think about
that last night. The law says if a woman is caught
in adultery, the man and the woman are to be stoned to death.
Well, where's he at? Well, they just brought her.
They picked on the one they wanted to pick on. So they brought her
and put her before the Lord and tried to trap Him. If he lets
her go, then he's going to break the law. If he condemns her,
then he'll have to deny her mercy that he talks about. We got him. We got him. Here's darkness.
Here's darkness. This is darkness. And the Lord's reaction here
is this. He stooped down. He stooped down
as though he didn't hear. Oh, he heard. He heard. But you know what he's going
to do? He's going to deal with this sinner. He's going to deal with this sinner.
The law brought her. He's going to deal with her now
and release her. He's going to deal with her. His reaction is
this. He stooped down and he wrote on the ground with his
finger. Two times in the Word of God, God writes with his finger. Two times. The first time is
over in Exodus chapter thirty-one. Exodus thirty-one in verse eighteen. And he, God, gave unto Moses
when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two
tables of testimony, tables of stone written with the finger
of God. He wrote the law. He wrote the
law. And that law was broken. That
law was broken. Moses took them, the children,
you know the story about the children of Israel, and Moses
took those stones, threw them down and broke them. They were
broken. So he stooped down He wrote on the ground. Some said
he may have written down some names and some incidents. And
when they saw him, you know, they convicted him. But I'm not
so sure he didn't write before this woman, thou shalt not commit
adultery. Guilty. Guilty. Yes, you're guilty. He didn't
write on the ground, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. No, I think he wrote guilty.
Thou shalt not commit adultery. He didn't come to destroy the
law. He came to fulfill it. He didn't come to set aside the
law. He came to fulfill it. Here's what's going on. Light. Light is being given to this
woman through Christ who is light. I think he wrote that. He did not
deny her guilt. He would not let her deny her
guilt. Guilty. You're guilty. I'm guilty. We are guilty as, as the old
saying is, guilty of sin. We're guilty. Guilty. But he honored the law.
He didn't set it aside. And then it says here, so when
they continued asking him, they wanted to hurry up and pin him
down. He lifted up himself and said unto them, He that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. I think this is the light that
lightens every man that comes into the world. The law is written
on the heart. You see over in John, the gospel
of John, he's the light that lightens every man that comes
into the world. You have a conscience and the law is written on your
conscience, on your heart. And you know right and wrong.
And they started being convicted about this. You know, just the
power of Him doing this convicted Him. Again, He stooped down and
wrote on the ground. You know, the second time God
did that, over in Daniel. Look over in Daniel, chapter
5. Here's the second time God wrote
with His fingers on the wall. I wrote this on the wall the
first time I was on stones. And this is the writing of verse
25. And this is the writing that
was written. Mene, mene, tekeel, ufarsin. This is the interpretation of
the thing. Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.
Tekeel, thou art weighed in the balance. And Art found wanting. Weighed
in the balance and found wanting. Guilty. Weighed in the balance
and found wanting. But you know the second time
the law was given? That law that condemns and convicts
every one of us. What happened to that? It was
put in the ark under the mercy seat where the blood of Franklin
was And it was kept there. It was kept there. He did not dishonor the law or
set aside the law at all. He fulfilled the law. And what
He's revealing to this woman is this, I'm the Savior of sinners. I'm the one who saved. I'm the
one who keeps the law. I'm the one who sets the captive
free. Look at verse 10. And when Jesus
had what? Lifted up Himself. How's He going
to save us? How's He going to set the captive
free and be a just God in doing so?
How's He going to set this woman free and not break the law? He's going
to keep it in her place. He's going to die under the penalty
of her sins. And then he's going to do what? When Jesus had lifted up himself,
he's going to rise again. It didn't say he stood up. It could have said that, but
it said he stooped down. It said he lifted himself up.
And I think that is a very good picture of the resurrection of
Christ. And here's what I'm saying. Here's what was revealed to this
woman. Here's what she understood. Now,
I don't know how much she understood. We don't understand everything
in a day. We learn. He was delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. Oh, she saw a great light. There she stood before the law
condemned, guilty, weighed in the balance and found wanting.
But her law, the lawgiver, was also her Savior, her Redeemer,
just as He is ours. No doubt He gave her an understanding
in this brief period of time, just like that thief on the cross.
How long does it take God to reveal the Gospel to you? How
long does it take that light? When you turn that light on and
it flips it on, how long does it take you to see the light?
The first time I heard Henry preaching the Gospel on television,
I said, I see it. I mean, I'm serious. It was like
somebody flipped that light on. I understood. I understood the
Gospel. I understood. I didn't understand
Everything. But I understood how God saved
sinners. I understood how God could be
a just God and save me. I understood it. I wasn't in
darkness no more. I was not in religious darkness
no more. I saw a great light. And you
have to. And this woman did. He said,
I'm the light. He's not just the giver of light.
He is light. He's light. And when she met Him, she met
light. Oh, I tell you, she saw a great
light. And you notice what He says here
to her in verse 11? Verse 10, And when Jesus had
lifted up Himself and saw none but the woman, just Him and her.
That's the way it is. That's the way God saves sinners.
Just you and Him. It's not Him and a group of you. He said unto her, Woman, where
are those thine accusers at? Where are they? Hath no man condemned
thee? She said, No man, Lord, no man. No man has condemned me. And
Jesus, the Son of God, the incarnate God, said unto her, Neither do
I condemn thee. Here's the lawgiver. Here's the
one who wrote the law. Here's the one who wrote guilty.
He said, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Religion has this flip. Religion
says, go sin no more and God won't condemn you. No, he says, I don't condemn
you either. That's what I've been taken care
of. I've taken your condemnation. I've taken it. Now go. Sin no more. Don't live in adultery
no more. Walk after godliness. We know
that we can't live in this life without sin because we're in
this body of flesh. He's talking about the walk and
tenor of her life. That's what he's talking about. Oh, she saw a great light, didn't
she? You know, God has said to me three things in the Scriptures. The scripture says God is spirit.
You can't see spirit, can you? He has no form. God is spirit.
You can't see a spirit. No man has seen God at any time.
He's spirit. And then it says God is light. And then it says God is love.
And these express the nature of God. Therefore, when Christ
said that he is the light, he's declaring himself to be God,
Almighty God. I am the light. It is in and by and through Jesus
Christ that we know and see how God can save sinners like us. It's him. He's the light. He came to those people who sat
in darkness and in the region of death. Everything about them
was dead. You know everything outside of
Christ is dead. You look upon this world and
what you're looking at is a dead world. Death. Death all around. Spiritual death. And eventually
physical death. There's probably not a place
on this earth where something hasn't died and been buried,
whether it be an animal or a person or what. Something's died on
every inch of this earth. The region of death, that's where
he came. He came to darkness, a place
of darkness. He came to the region of death.
That's where we live. That is a perfect description
of us. and gave us light. That's why
Paul said, he said, I count everything lost but for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Knowing Him, everything
else is lost. Everything else is lost. I want
to know Him. That's light. Man has that kind
of understanding. Man has that kind of confidence
in Christ, faith in Christ. That's light. He has Christ. A person who has not Christ will
always hold to some form of works in order to be saved. They will. They will. But the person who
sees the light, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, that person
will willingly submit and follow Him all the days of his life.
He knows that salvation is grace alone, Christ alone. How does
he know that? He has seen a great light. Seen
a great light. I believe the light has sprung
up here in Ashland for many years. Some of us have seen a great
light. We've seen a great light. We understand how God can be
just and justify us. through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The light we have is Christ Himself. It's Christ Himself. Those people sitting there in their religious
darkness, dying, not looking for the light. They didn't look
for the light. They thought this was all right. I'm sure every
one of them thought they were just fine. Everything was just
fine. They were not asking for the light. Here's the sovereignty of God
in salvation. It says the light sprung up.
They didn't ask for it. They were not seeking it. They
didn't even care for it. They already had this thing fixed
up. And then God caused light to spring up. The Son of God
came into the world, became incarnate, walked among us, preached the
gospel, and the people that sat in darkness saw a great light. And some of us have seen it.
Some of us have been blessed of God to see a great light. The Lord Jesus Christ.