Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter
22. You know, this is actually David's
last Psalm. This is Psalm 18 as well. And
I want to take my time looking at what the man after God's own
heart has to say. I just want to look at verse
29 this morning. Second Samuel chapter 22. Verse 29. For thou art my lamp. Oh, Lord. And the Lord. Will lighten. My darkness. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would be a lamp to us, and that you would lighten our
darkness, and that we might be enabled to behold thy glory in
the face of thy Son. Lord, we thank you for the forgiveness
of sins. Lord, how grateful we are for
that. We thank you for the freeness of your grace and the greatness
of your mercy and the glory of your person. Lord, we ask in
Christ's name that you would be pleased to make yourself known
to us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now I want to look at these words
that we just read in verse 29, first of all, as the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And these are, in fact, the words
of Christ. Now, do you remember what happened
when He was on the cross? Complete darkness covered the
earth. And what that lets us know is
that at that time, the Lord Jesus Christ was in complete darkness. He had no sense of God's favor. He had no sense of God's acceptance. He was completely in the dark,
crying, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was in the
dark, but he never quit trusting his Father. No, not for a second. He said, my God, now at this
time he couldn't say my father, but he could say my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And he knew the answer to that
because he was made sin, but he never quit trusting his father
at this time. He said, though he slay me, yet
will I trust him. And these are the words of the
Lord Jesus when He says, for thou art my lamp, O Lord, and
the Lord will light my darkness. Now, in this sense, now listen
real carefully. In this sense, we are saved by
the faith of Christ. Somebody had to believe God completely. Where are you in that picture?
Well, you know you've utterly failed, and I've utterly failed. Somebody had to believe God perfectly
and completely, completely in the dark, and that's precisely
what He did. Hence, we are saved by the faith
of Christ. Now, let me show you that in
the Scripture. Would you turn with me to Romans chapter 3? Now, if you don't have a King
James Bible, it's not gonna read this way. And that's why I would
recommend everyone get a King James version. Not that it is,
it's a translation. It's not, you know, there are
people that take the position of King James only like it's
inspired. Well, it's a translation. And
it's no more, it's not inspired, it's a translation, but it's
the best translation. And let me show you why. Look in verse
21 of Romans chapter three. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus
Christ? No. By the faith of Jesus Christ. I'm saved by the faith of the
faithfulness of, the perfect obedience of, the perfect faith
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Galatians 2.
Verse 16, Paul says, that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, by the things he does, but by faith
in Jesus Christ? No. The faith of Jesus Christ. Now let me remind you once again,
that's why the King James Version is the best translation. It goes
with exactly what the original says. This is the way it says
this in the original. And the King James says it that way. None of the other versions do
it. They all say, by faith, in Christ. Look in Philippians chapter
3. Verse 8, "...Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but dumb, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but that which is through..." What? The faith of
Christ. His faithfulness. He believed
God. perfectly. Somebody had to believe
God. What mere you? He did. Hence, I'm saved by His faith
and His faithfulness. Now let's go back to our text.
These are also the words of David. Verse 29, let's read these now
as the words of David. For thou art my lamp, O Lord,
And the Lord will lighten my darkness. Now the word lamp here
is the same word that's used for the lamps of the tabernacle. Christ our light. Thou art my
light, O God. Now light, there's no sight without light. There are two things that are
necessary for me to be able to see something. First, I have
to have a seeing eye. I can have all the light in the
world, but if I can't see, it won't do me any good. I have
to have a seeing eye, and if I have a seeing eye and have
no light, can I see? No. I have to have light, light
from God, and a seeing eye. Now, turn with me to Genesis
chapter 1. Thou art my lamp, O Lord. You will lighten my darkness. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God. I love saying that. In the beginning,
God. What else needs to be said? In
the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the
earth was without form and void, and darkness, pitch black, was
upon the face of the deep." Evidently, at this time, the earth was covered
with water. That's what that means. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said,
Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light,
that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day,
and the darkness He called night, and the evening and the morning
were the first day. Now, with regard to this creation
account, It appears to me, and if it's not this way, that's
okay, but it appears to me that something happened in between
Genesis 1.1 and 1.2. Now, if the earth was created
literally in six days, if that's the way God did it, that's the
way I believe. If these days represent something,
that's fine too. It could be that the earth is
billions of years old. And these days represent different
phases of what God did. I don't know. I believe it however
God did it, don't you? I mean, I'm fine with it if it's
six literal days. I'm fine with it if it's six
billion trillion years. You know, I don't know. But it
doesn't really... Whatever God does, I believe. But He created the heaven and
the earth And then all of a sudden we read in verse 2 that the earth
was without form and void and darkness covered the face of
the deep. It seems like perhaps something
catastrophic took place. I have no idea. This is just
a theory. And the earth was filled with nothing but water. That's
all there was, without form and void, which I believe pictures
the fall of man. Without form. Void. utter darkness. And the Lord said, Let there
be light." Now here's what's very interesting. The sun and
the moon were not created to the fourth day. This is uncreated
light. This is not light that began
to be. Light be, and light was. And when he says, let there be
light, that's the same verb that's used in the name of God. I am
that I am. Light be the uncreated light,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, would you turn with me to
John chapter 3? You know, in these first three
verses, we have the truth of the blessed Trinity. God, the Holy Spirit brooded
upon the waters, like the Lord Jesus Christ. The three Persons
of the blessed Trinity are represented in this passage of Scripture.
In John chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning, was
the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. He's the Eternal I Am. 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. And the light shineth In darkness. And the darkness comprehended
it, perceived it, embraced it not. 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.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that
light that was the true light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. Look in John chapter 3, verse 19, And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, light be, and light was, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. That's not just talking about
the bad stuff. That's not talking about the outwardly sinful actions. That's talking about the good
stuff. Everything. The reason men hate the light
is because the light exposes that all their deeds are evil. Verse 20, For everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light, Neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth comes
to the light, that his deeds might be made manifest, that
they are wrought in God. Now I'm not ashamed to come to
the light, because I know everything that I bring God did. He wrought it. He worked it.
If I have faith, it's His work, His gift to me. If I have a new
heart, it's His gift to me. It's what He did. I'm not bringing
anything that comes from me. No way. I only bring what He
did. Now, I'm not ashamed to come
to the light bringing what He did. I love that passage of Scripture
in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6. who commanded the light to shine
out of the darkness." Just picture that in your mind. There was
nothing but darkness. Light be, light was. The darkness fled.
God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Do you see God's
glory? God's salvation, God's goodness,
God's justice, God's holiness, God's grace, God's love, everything
regarding God we see in the face of Jesus Christ. To this extent,
all me and you are ever going to see of God is Jesus Christ
the Lord. Amen? He said, He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father, what glory there is in His person. And He said, the Lord will lighten
my darkness. Now what is darkness? It's the
absence of light. That's what darkness is, the
absence of light, the darkness of sin and ignorance, the darkness
of not being able to see. You know, Paul spoke of the power
of darkness being delivered from the power of darkness. Satan
is called the prince of darkness. I love that hymn. Enwrapped in
thick Egyptian night and fond of darkness more than light.
Madly I ran the sinful race, secure without a hiding place. But David says, the Lord will
lighten my darkness. Now, how does he do that? First,
he gives me eyes to see. I'm blind. By nature, I cannot
see. And he gives me light. the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
the light of how God can accept me through the Gospel. Now turn
with me to Psalm 34. Psalm 34, verse 5. They looked unto him and were,
what? Lightened. The only light you
and I are going to have is as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. They looked to him and were lightened,
and their faces were not ashamed. is such a glorious thought to
not be ashamed. If you could look into my heart,
and not only into my heart, if you could look into my actions
and see what goes into my heart and what goes on in my hands,
I'd be so ashamed I couldn't look you in the face. The thought of not being ashamed?
Now, there are only two things, there's only two ways whereby
a man could not be ashamed. First, first, a man can become
so hardened, so blinded by his own self-righteousness, so full
of self-vindication, self-justification, he'll say, I'm not ashamed. He
ought to be. But he says, I'm not. Because
he's hardened. It's the power of a hard heart.
That's the way some people are not ashamed. I'm not ashamed.
You've known people like that. I'm not ashamed. There's one
other way to not be ashamed. To not have anything to be ashamed
of. To be without sin. To be sinless. To stand before
God sinless. It's what the Bible calls justification. If I'm justified, you know what
that means is I am? I am sinless. I don't have anything
to be ashamed of. God can look me over and He'll
call me holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Now Christ is the light as to
how that can be. They looked unto Him and were
lightened, and their faces were not ashamed, looking to Him.
Now what do you do when you look? You look. You don't do anything.
If I say, look at me, you don't think, what's he talking about?
You look. What were the children of Israel
called upon to do? Look at the brazen serpent. Everybody that was bitten What
did they do? They looked. Look unto me, and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and
beside me is none else. Looking is faith. They looked
unto Him, and were lightened. Now the Him is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now looking to Him, number one,
I have light, as to who God really is. There is no knowledge, no
understanding of God apart from the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who's God? Jesus Christ. I love
saying that. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. And the only way I can see anything
regarding the true God is by looking to Christ. I look to
Him, and I really believe that He is the Son of God, and He's
able to save me because of who He is, without any help, without
any contribution from me. Indeed, I have nothing I can
bring, but thank God, I don't need to bring anything. I look
to Him only. I look to Him as my surety, standing
as my representative before time began and guaranteeing my salvation
to His Father. The Father gave me to Him and
He said, I'll take all the responsibility of His salvation. Now, I have
some light as to how God saves me through that. Do you know
before I ever committed a sin, it was already put away? Christ,
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But every sin I've
committed was put away before time began. And it's not. You see, this thing of being
justified is being sinless before God. I look to Him in His incarnation
when He became flesh, and in the flesh He kept God's holy
law for me. And I look to Him as my personal
righteousness before God. There's my history. You know,
you can't change your history, can you? The things you've done,
the things you've thought, the things you wore, you can't change
it. But He can. He gives every believer a new
history that is absolutely perfect. No skeletons in my closet. You
can dig all you want, you won't find anything but perfect righteousness
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that can only be realized
by looking to Him. I look to Him in His death as
my sin payment. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world came in time and He actually died. Why did He
die? There's one reason for death. Sin. That's the only reason. He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. I look to Him in His resurrection.
as my actual, literal sinlessness before God. My sin was put away.
I'm justified. And the only way I can see that
is looking to Him. I look to Him in His intercession
right now as the reason I'm persevering in faith. Can a believer fall
away? Well, let me tell you this, if
you can, you will. You know that? If you can, you will. But I'm kept by my great High
Priest, sitting at the right hand of the Father, representing
me. And I look to Him in His second
return as when I'm going to experience my sinlessness. We know that
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is. And one view of Him as He is
will perfectly conform everybody who sees Him to His image. Now, can you see the glory of
David's statement? They looked unto Him and were
lightened. He is my light. He will lighten
my darkness. And their faces were not ashamed. Why? This can only be realized
by faith. But every believer has absolutely
nothing to be ashamed of. Perfect sinlessness before God. And that can only be understood
in the light of Him who said, I am the light of the world. Amen.