I almost wish I was preaching
on that passage that Brother Brian just read. Something in
that thrilled me, and I'm still thinking about it. In verse 15,
it says, Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then
the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak,
saying, Because the Lord was not able to bring this people
into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he has slain
them in the wilderness. And you know what? If I'm not
saved, it would be said the Lord wasn't
able to save him. He's too bad. And beloved, that
will never be said. We're completely 100% dependent
upon the Lord's ability, aren't we? Paul said, I know whom I
have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
to him against that day. Now, would you turn back to Luke
chapter 11? I've entitled this message a
single eye or an evil eye. If there was absolutely no light
in this room at all, complete darkness, not a glimmer of light,
what would you see? Nothing. If there were this much light
in this room, and you were stone blind without any ability to
see, what would you see? Nothing. You see, there are two
things that are necessary for sight. First, light. I cannot see without light. But if I don't have a seeing
eye, might be all the light in the
world, and I can't see it. There are two things necessary
for sight in the physical world, light and a seeing eye. And there are two things that
are necessary for sight in the spiritual world, light, light
from God and a seeing eye. an eye that God gives. Now the Lord says in verse 33
of Luke chapter 11, no man, when he hath lighted a candle, put
it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick
that they which come in may see the light. Now the purpose of
the candle is to give light. You don't light a candle and
then put it in a place that will prevent its light from shining,
like under a bed or put a bushel basket over it. The purpose of
light is sight, isn't it? No light, no sight. I love that scripture in 1 John
1 verse 5 concerning God. God is light. and in him is no darkness at
all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, the darkness of religious superstition
and salvation by works, we lie. We don't really have any fellowship
with him at all and do not the truth. It's only when he gives
us the light of who he is that we see him. I can't see him unless
he gives me light. And when he gives us light, we
see him as he is in all of his glorious, excellent attributes
as he's revealed himself in the word. We see him as he is and
we love him as he is. Now, I've had people say to me,
my God's not like your God. I know. That's true. If someone's blind, they can't
see the God that I see, nor can they see themselves as I see
myself. It takes light. It's by seeing
light that we, seeing the light of Him, that we see ourselves. That which maketh manifest is
light. And I've been going over this
quite a bit, going through Romans 7. If I ever see who I am, in
the light of who he is. And that's the only way you can
see who you are is in the light of who he is. Otherwise it's
negative, morose. Come on, get a better attitude
about yourself. Don't be so hard on yourself.
But if you see who he is, you will truly see yourself as nothing
but sin in and of yourselves. Now, someone that does not see
that about themselves has quite frankly never seen the Lord. They've never seen what Isaiah
saw when he said in Isaiah chapter six, in the year the king Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. Now, if I ever see the Lord,
this is how I'll see him. Sitting. His work finished. Not worrying,
not pacing back and forth, sitting on a throne, ruling and reigning
in regal splendor. In the year the king Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up,
and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim.
Each one had six wings, which Twain, he covered his face. With
Twain, he covered his feet. And with Twain, he did fly. He
covered his face because he couldn't see. Because of the brightness
of his holiness. He covered his feet because he
was ashamed of his walk in the presence of God. That's a seraphim
we're talking about. We're not talking about somebody
like me and you. Obviously, we're ashamed. But we're talking about
a seraphim. He was ashamed in the splendor
of God's holiness. With two he flied, ready to do
his will. And one cried to another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me. Now that's what somebody's going
to say when they see the Lord. And if I don't see the Lord,
I won't see that. In the year the King Uzziah died,
I saw also the Lord. I love the way Christ calls himself
in John chapter 8 verse 12. He said, I am the light of the
world. And the context in which he said
that is right after he said to that woman, who was caught in
the very act of adultery. She was guilty. There was no
question about it. And he said to her, woman, where
are those nine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? They
were all gone. She said, no man, Lord. And he
said, neither do I condemn thee. He is the light as to how someone
guilty is not condemned in a way that honors the very justice
and holiness of God. Now, what was the first thing
in the first creation? Light. Let there be light. And Paul, the apostle, is said
to be a pattern to us in salvation in 1 Timothy 1.16. He says, I'm
a pattern. If you're saved, you'll follow
this pattern. What was Paul's first experience
of salvation, insofar as his experience goes? Light. Light brighter than the sun came
down upon him. And you know when he was blinded?
When he saw the light. That's when he became blind. And it's a blessed thing to be
blind. The Lord said, for judgment I'm coming to this world that
they would see not, might see. and they would see might be made
blind. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Here's someone who says, well, I can see why God would
save me. Because I, and fill in the blank, that person is blinded. That person who says, I can't
find one reason in myself as to why God would ever look in
mercy or favor on me. I can't see it. That person has
been given sight. For judgment, the Lord said,
I've come into this world that they which see not might see
and that they would see might be made blind. Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hidden in the lost in whom the God of this world have 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 Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For 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. Now, light is for one reason.
It's to see. We have light. We see who he
is. We see who we are. And we see our need of his grace. Now let's go on reading in verse
34. The Lord says, the light of the
body is the eye. Now, no matter how much light
you have, if you don't have an eye, you can't see. You have
to have a seeing eye. The light of the body is the
eye. Therefore, when thine eye is single, simple, thy whole
body also is full of light. But when thine eye is evil, thy
body also is full of darkness. Now, the instrument that lets
light into the body is the seeing eye. We see physically by that
light coming into that eye that works, and we see spiritually
by faith, don't we? Didn't Paul say we walk by faith
and not by sight? We see spiritually by faith. I can give so many examples of
this. I can't see physically that I stand just before God
without sin, without guilt, perfect, just like Christ. I cannot see
that physically. As a matter of fact, when I look
at myself physically, I see sin, I see weakness, I see A lot of
different things, but I just don't see that. But by faith,
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, I see how when God sees me, he
sees one who is without sin. That can only be seen by faith.
It can't be seen by sight. If you can look at your own personal
experience and say, yeah, I think I measure up. I think I am without
sin. Look at my conduct. Look at the
way I act. Well, you're blind. That's all
I can say. You're blind. The only way we can see this
glorious truth regarding God seeing the believers holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight is by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I can't see my name written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. I can't get to it. I'd love to have access
to it, see who all's there, but I can't. Well, how do I know
that my name's there? Paul said, as many as believed.
were ordained to eternal life. Now, I am someone who is, I sure
hope I am, I believe I am. I'm somebody who's relying on
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're relying. I'm looking at
some people who are actually relying on Jesus Christ, his
power, to bring them into glory. Just like Moses, when he said,
they'll say, you weren't able to bring them up, and you won't
have that. That's true, he won't have that.
We're relying on his power to save us. Now, single, our Lord
says, is full of light. Evil is full of darkness. Now,
what does single mean? If that eye is single, thy whole
body is full of light. Single means simple. Only one object. I can't have two objects to my
faith, only one object. I look to Christ only. When Moses held up that serpent
in the wilderness, up on that pole, there's one place you were
to look, only one. If you didn't look to the serpent
hanging on the pole, the Lord Jesus Christ, you weren't healed. If you looked down below at the
pole, if you looked at the man holding the pole, if you looked
at the snakes coming at you, if you looked at the bites that
you experienced from the snakes and the pain you were feeling,
you wouldn't be healed. There was only one place to look.
The serpent only. Christ only. Or I'm lost. You believe that? Christ only, or I'm lost. We look to the Bible only. We don't look to man's opinions
and man's views. We look to the Bible only. It's
simple, a simple view. We look to grace only, not grace
and. Grace and is a denial of grace, period. If it's grace
and, it's not grace. Grace. We have a. Simple object of faith,
you know. Paul spoke of the simplicity
that's in Christ in 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 11, verse three. Don't
you love that statement? The simplicity that's in Christ.
And here's why I love that statement so much. Religion is anything
but simple. There are so many choices to
make in religion. Which religion's the best? There's
seven great world religions. Which one's the best? All of
them. And this is a natural man speaking. All of them seem to
have similarities. A lot of them, they seem to be saying the same.
Which one's the best? What do I choose? Which one is
the best? What about within Christianity?
Talking about confusing. How many different denominations
are there? I mean, there are hundreds, each one of them claiming
to have a little bit better grip of the truth than the other.
I think of the Baptists. How many different kind of Baptists
there are? I was raised Baptist. I think how many different kinds
of Baptist are there? I mean, hundreds, literally. What kind of Bible you use? Which
translation? Pick one out. What style of worship
do you have? Do you all have traditional worship or contemporary
worship? Take your choice. What kind of
theology do you guys have? Are you Wesleyan? Are you Arminian? Are you Calvinistic? Take your
choice. What theology do you have? What do you believe about the
ordinances? Do you believe baptism is by immersion or sprinkling?
Take your choice. When you take the Lord's table,
do you use wine or grape juice? Take your choice, bread or unleavened
bread, take your choice. There's so many choices involved.
And the smartest board of doctrines. Now, when a choice is involved,
it's not simple, is it? You know, I don't want to have
to make a choice. Do you? I want it laid out there before
me to where there's no choice to make. The simplicity that's in Christ. If I have to make a choice, I
guarantee you, I'll make the wrong choice. I know that. You
know, faith, in the first place, is not a choice. You don't choose
to believe. The only time you believe is
when you have no choice. You just believe. Now, you choose
to believe error, but you don't choose to believe the gospel.
You believe the gospel when you have no choice. When a choice
is involved, it's not simple, it's complex, but God is simple. Now, I realize I feel funny saying
that because God is so glorious we can't even comprehend it.
But God is not made of parts. He's not part this and part that
and part that, that all the parts together make the whole. God
is simple. He's single. He is what He is. And you know, we have a single
message. Now, remember the Lord said,
if your eye be single, your whole body is full of light. We have
a single message. Now, you remember what Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 2, when he said, I determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Do you remember when he said
that? Do you understand why he said that? You know, I do. There
isn't any other message. Saint Jesus Christ, who He is,
and what He did. He was crucified and what He
accomplished by that crucifixion. It's a simple message. There
is no other message to preach. We have a single reason for not
being condemned. Who is He that condemns? It's
Christ that dies. That's the only reason. If I
didn't have that, I'd be condemned. We have a single reason for the
forgiveness of sins. Be ye kind, tender-hearted, forgiving
one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven
you. Why did He forgive you? Because
you were sorry? Because you promised to never do it again? Because
you promised to straighten him? No, no. He did it for Christ's
sake. We have a single cause of salvation. By grace are you saved. We have a single reason for being
elect. according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world." The reason we're
elect is Christ. That's the only reason. It's
not because God foresaw you believe. It's not because God foresaw
anything that you would do. Christ be my first elect, He
said. Then chose us in Him, our living Head. We have a single
righteousness. He is. The Lord said, Isaiah
45, 22, Their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord. We have
a single reason for being accepted. Now, I want to be accepted by
God, don't you? I want Him to hold out His arms to me and bring
me in and accept me. I want to be accepted by Him.
I want to be embraced by Him. And there's one reason for acceptance.
Ephesians 1, 6 says, He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. We have a single ground of assurance. I have assurance that I belong to the Lord, that
he saved me. And there's only one reason I
have that assurance. It's not because I look at myself and
think, well, I'm doing good. I'm a preacher. I believe. No.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
the chief. I'm one of those. He came to
save me. And beloved, if he came to save
me, that's exactly what he did, whatever he intended to do. He
did. That's my assurance that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We have a single
object of faith. Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. We have a single view of the
old man. We talked about that this morning. Romans 17, 8, 7,
18. I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing.
Not a mixture, no good thing. We have a simple or a single
view of the new man. He which is born of God doth
not commit sin. That's simple, isn't it? Now,
if you take away those two natures, everything gets very complex,
doesn't it? Like I said this morning, the belief in progressive
sanctification comes from not believing in the two separate
natures of the believer. We have a single reason to serve
him. We love him. He's altogether
lovely. We have a single motive. For doing what we do. His glory. We have a single satisfaction.
David said, as for me, I'll behold thy face in righteousness. I'll
be satisfied. This is the only time I'll be
satisfied. When I awake in thy likeness. We have a single hope with regard
to Judgment Day. John put it this way in 1 John
4, 17. Herein is our love made perfect, so that we may have
boldness on the day of judgment. That's a strong statement, isn't
it? Boldness on the day of judgment. And here's why we have boldness
on the day of judgment. As He is, so are we in this world. Now that's simplicity. That's
singleness. If your eye is single, your whole
body is full of light. There's no darkness at all. You
see, there's no darkness about our salvation. I love thinking
about this. I'm aware, and I believe you
are too, of much darkness in me. Sinfulness. You aware of that in yourself?
Darkness. Darkness. But here's what's glorious. When
Christ saves me, I'm made to be where there's no darkness
at all. All that darkness has been put
away, it's been washed away, it's been cleansed, so that God
looks for darkness and finds none. He who is light finds none. In that day the sins of Judah
shall be looked for, God says, and they shall not be found,
because there's nothing there to find. Don't you love how clean
God's salvation is? It's clean. It's not like so
many religions salvation, it really is a dark thing. It's
a dark thing. It doesn't talk about God's justice being satisfied,
or it makes sin okay in some way, or leaves sin there. That's
a dark thing. Our salvation is altogether holy. It's altogether light. Oh, the
light of our salvation. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound than a sinneth reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, which is by
Jesus Christ our Lord. Don't you love the light of the
gospel? If your eyes single, You only have one object of faith,
Christ only. You don't look anywhere else.
Your whole body is full of light. But verse 34 in our text, when thine
eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. When not I is evil, and is evil
is anything other than single. That's evil. Anything other than
single. It's the introduction of the
little conjunction and. Christ and. The scriptures and. Grace and. Faith and. Scriptures and is always the
addition of something that's not taught in the scriptures.
And how many things can we talk about? Just one thing, free will. Can that be taught from scriptures?
Absolutely not. It's the addition of something.
that's not taught in the scriptures. Christ and is something in addition
to Christ. If I believe Christ can die for
somebody and they end up in hell, then I must believe there's something
in addition to what he did that'll land me into heaven. Grace and is grace if. God will give you grace if. If. If. Beloved, grace if is not
grace at all. A conditional grace conditioned
upon you meeting some kind of requirement is not grace at all. Faith and is, yes, you're saved
by faith only, but it's our works that make us more holy and more
sanctified and more perfect. And it's by our works we'll earn
this higher reward in heaven or by our works we'll be given
this lower place in heaven. We'll either be in a mansion
or a shack. That's a complete denial of faith only. An evil eye seeks to take some
of the credit in salvation. Now, when God created the heavens
and the earth. I don't know if there were angels
around then. He might have created the angels before he created
the heaven and earth. Scripture isn't plain as to when
the angels were created. But let's say the angels were
created before the heavens and the earth were created. When
God created the heavens and the earth, what if some created angel
said, let me help you out. Why, that would be audacity,
wouldn't it? That would be daring presumption. That would be evil for him to
say, let me help you out with this. Because no created angel
has the ability in any respect to help him out in this thing
of creation. And it's worse for a sinner to
think that he had something to do with his salvation. That's
worse. Hebrews 1.3 says he by himself. No help for me or you. Aren't
you glad it's that way? He by himself purged our sins. Now, if you believe or if I believe
that we have anything to do with salvation, we're under the law
and we're under its curse. It's either all of grace or all
of works. It's either all of Christ or
it's all of man. Christ either gets all the glory
or man gets all the glory. There's no sharing in this thing. Verse 35. He says, take heed. And I hope I'll take heed. Take
heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. Now, we can take good things
and turn them into darkness, can't we? We're taking the Lord's
table tonight. That's a good thing. But if we
think that that's a means of grace, that grace is conferred
through eating the bread and drinking the wine, if we think
the forgiveness of sins comes to us through the eating of the
bread and the drinking of the wine, it becomes a dark, dark
thing. Baptism is good, but if I think
I'm saved by it, it becomes darkness, doesn't it? We're thankful for
true doctrine. We're thankful for the truth,
the doctrine of scripture. But if I make my knowledge a
savior, that becomes darkness. Take heed that the light that's
in you be not darkness. We believe in good works, don't
we? I want to be rich in good works. I want to honor the Lord
with good works. But if I think those good works
have anything to do with me earning God's acceptance or getting a
higher place in heaven by that, that light that's in me becomes
darkness. The Lord said, take heed that
the light that's in you Be not darkness. The means of grace
are a good thing. What a blessed thing it is to meet here and
hear the gospel preached. The means of grace are a blessed
thing. Aren't you thankful to be able
to hear the gospel? But if I make a savior out of
the means of grace, I've missed Christ. The light that's in me
becomes darkness. Freedom from the law is a good
thing. Oh, thank God for the believers,
complete freedom from the law, complete. But if I use that as
an excuse and a justification for sin, it becomes a bad thing,
doesn't it? Take heed that the light that's
in thee be not darkness. Verse 36, if thy whole body therefore
be full of light, having no part dark, and the only that way it
will be is if my eye is single. The whole shall be full of light
as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light. May God the Holy Spirit give
us this single eye so that we will be full of light. Let's pray together.