Tonight we'll be in the book
of Isaiah. If you'd like to turn to Isaiah chapter 60. We'll be looking in Isaiah chapter
60 tonight. Sunday we'll be in Isaiah, both
sermons, both messages as well, but the Lord gave me this message
for tonight. And I've never. I guess every time a man preaches
the gospel that's called, he would say that he saw something
he's never seen before, so to speak, and that's exactly what's
happened tonight. He's using the term everlasting light, which
is what I've titled the message, everlasting light, in Isaiah
chapter 60. We see throughout the scripture,
the Bible contrasts many things, good and evil. Um, sin and holiness,
light and darkness. And I'm going to go ahead and
get out of the way. The fact that I say light like I'm from East Tennessee,
because I am, and I apologize in advance for that. Um, my former
pastor gave me a hard time for saying the light is bright. And
so you'll hear me say that tonight, no doubt. But anyways, I asked
for your forgiveness for that and just bear with me, but. Light
and darkness is what the scripture contrasts, and it is a contrast
of the world and the Lord. It is a contrast of Satan and
the Lord. It's a contrast of us and the
Lord. Everything that we produce, everything
that we are, and everything around us is darkness. Everything we
produce, everything around us, the world that we live in, and
everything that we are is complete darkness. Everything that the
Lord produces and everything around him is light. It's light. Now men hide from
the light because the light exposes sin. That's what the light of
the Lord does. It exposes what we are. And as
we'll see, men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds are evil. They don't want to be exposed for what they are.
So only the Lord's elect love the Lord's light. Only the Lord's
elect love the Lord and his light. The light reveals that Christ
is our everlasting light. I like the verse found in 2 Timothy
1, verse 9, and I was trying to remember what it's called,
but it's called a biography. And so on Facebook, our biography
is 1 Timothy 1, verse 9. And on our bulletin, our verse
on the church is 2 Timothy 1, verse 9, and it says, who hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. Hath brought life and immortality
to light. And he tells us he did that through
his gospel. It's the only good news that
we have in this world. It's the only thing that illuminates
our dark, depraved hearts. It's the only thing that illuminates
the believer. And the only rest that we have
is in this light of the Lord Jesus Christ through his gospel.
So let's read Isaiah chapter 60, and I want to read the first
two verses, and then I want to skip down to verse 19. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall
be seen upon thee. Now look in verse 19. The sun shall be no more thy
light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto
thee, but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and
thy God thy glory. The sun shall no more go down,
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be
thine everlasting light. And the days of thy mourning
shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand,
and a small one a strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in
his time. The everlasting light. Now last
Wednesday night, we looked at John 3, 16, and I mentioned to
you everlasting love that the Lord has towards his people in
Jeremiah. Everlasting means it never had
a beginning, nor is it ever going to have an end. And that's what
this everlasting light is to the Lord's people. It is for
the Lord's glory. And he says in verse 19, at the
end of it, that thy God, thy glory will be revealed. Now,
men believe that they can please God and in turn have some form
of glory to themselves for what they produce. But when it comes
to the Lord's light, there's only one source of this light.
You and I don't produce light. We are of all men most miserable
without the Lord himself. We are of all men most miserable
and we're in darkness. We're born in darkness. So men
get this false notion that they can produce something that would
please God. We know that that's not true.
Nothing that we produce can please God because the Lord demands
perfect light, doesn't he? He demands perfect holiness.
The Lord Jesus Christ is what he demands. He demands perfection. Men don't understand that we
are nothing more than moons. The moon has no glory of itself. Did you know that? If it were
not for the sun, the moon would have no light emitted from it. It's just reflecting that which
is being given to it by the sun. That's what the moon, that's
all that you and I do as the Lord's people, is we reflect
the Son of God. We reflect the Lord and His light.
He said, you are the light of the world. A city that's set
on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put
it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light to all that
are in the house. He goes on to say, so let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your father, which is in heaven. What is the good works he's talking
about? It's the confession that we have that Christ is all in
salvation. It is the reflection of the Lord
and his grace and his mercy. It's it's the declaration over
and over that Christ is all Christ is all it's not that what we're
doing is good. and will cause men to come and
hear the gospel because of our goodness? No, it's the Lord that's
good. It's the Lord that leadeth men to repentance. And it's the
light of this gospel that does so. Now, personally, I love the moon.
As we lived in Florida, there's many times we would go to the
ocean, watch the moon rise over the ocean. It's a beautiful sight.
But when you stop for a moment and you think about how we enjoy
the moon, we probably forget, or at least I've forgotten until
I was studying that it really doesn't, it's nothing good in
and of itself. If you think about it, it's a
desolate wasteland. And unless the, so in the daytime
on the moon surface, it'll heat up to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
But at nighttime on the moon surface, it'll heat up to negative
208, it says. So it literally has no ability to radiate heat. It has no ability to sustain
life. It's dead. It's a desolate wasteland. Is
that not us without our Heavenly Father, without Christ, without
the light of His gospel shining forth into our heart and causing
us to be new creatures in Him? We would be empty, desolate wastelands
full of craters. The scripture calls it putrefying
sores, doesn't it? But thanks be to God, he shines
forth his light in his people. In his people, we reflect him
as his people because his seed is in us, as we heard on Sunday. Scripture calls the moon a her.
I love that because that's a representation of the Lord's people, the bride
of Christ. Only the Lord's people reflect
the Lord. And her glory is a reflection of the light that the sun gives
forth. How often does this world cast
a shadow on our hearts and cause them to turn cold? How often
does the world cast a shadow, just as it casts a shadow on
the moon? The world casts a shadow upon the Lord's people sometimes,
doesn't it? It causes us to be so indifferent. We grow so weary
with troubles and circumstances and trials, the things that we
face in our flesh on top of everything else. And we grow cold, don't
we? We need the Lord's light, his everlasting light to shine
one more time upon us. That's why we come here, isn't
it? That the light of the gospel may shine once more and warm
these cold hearts, quicken these dead hearts. Give us a heart
that looks unto Him. That's why we come here. Good news is, is he said, I will
be your everlasting light. Never a beginning and never an
end. I will be that for the Lord's people is what he's saying. He
will keep us. Why? Because in Isaiah chapter
40, he said, I have bought you. You are mine. You are mine. Well, how did this come to be?
God's the doer of it. There is no other explanation.
The only way that we were purchased is the Lord did all the work,
didn't he, in salvation. Turn with me to 1 John 1. I never have thought about this,
but truly everything pertaining to God is everlasting because
he's never had a beginning and you'll never have an end. So
everything that he is is everlasting, whether it's love, whether it's
sovereign grace, whether it's light, whatever it may be that
he produces, it's everlasting. And to the believer, that's good
news. He changes not. And this is the message that
we declare. First John chapter one and verse
five says, then this is the message which we have heard of him. and
declaring to you that God is light and in him is no darkness
at all. If we say 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, cleanseth
us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin,
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 we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. God is light. and in Him is no darkness." This
is the message that we declare. We are so other than Him and
bothered by so many things. God's not bothered. God's not
troubled. God's not weary. God's not tired. He never grows tired. The Lord
just is, and He is light. Everything that He radiates is
perfect holiness. And do you know that that's all
that the Lord's people can radiate as well? Because they're reflecting
Him. They're reflecting the Lord Jesus
Christ. He tells us to walk in the light
here, doesn't He? Walk in the light as He is in the light.
You'll have fellowship one with another. What does it mean to walk in
the light? Because if that's what I must do, I need to know how
to do that. Is this not confessing Christ? Are we not walking in
the light right now by sitting here? Men hear terms like walk
and do and different things like that. They say, okay, I literally
need to do that. Well, we're literally doing it,
but it's not physical, is it? It's spiritual. It's a spiritual
matter that we're concerned with. That's why we're here. Walking
in the light is confessing that we are nothing but darkness and
he is all light. Walking in the light. is not
something that we do on our own. It's something that he causes
us to do by his spirit, by the glorious gospel, as we heard
from 1 John already. No one that is in the darkness
can see that they're in the darkness. Think about what I mean by that.
Nobody's going to wake up and say, OK, I'm in darkness and
I need the light. It's not going to happen. I mean,
we're talking about men and women that are dead and trespasses
and sin. It'd be the same thing as an individual that's literally
a corpse realizing that they're dead. I mean, they don't have
any knowledge of that as far as I believe you understand what
I'm trying to say. They're not, yes, there's a soul
that somewhere is at that point and they know that they're dead.
But if you're talking to that particular corpse, you're not
going to get anything out of them because they can't respond. They're dead.
And that's what it means to be in darkness. That's what it means
to be without Christ. That's what it means to be empty
and desolate, as I mentioned the moon before, without his
light. And so what is our hope? Well,
that he would shine his light through the glorious gospel and
make us alive. That's our hope. And God gets
all the glory in this, doesn't he? He said in Isaiah 45, I form
the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
The Lord creates evil. That's what he just said. You
don't hear that in religious realms, I'll tell you that, at
least not the one I came from. See, the Lord's sovereign in
all things. So what is he talking about here? Well, darkness is
not, you don't, there's not a darkness scale where you actually can
measure darkness. I think when I looked it up,
there's something that they use, but really what they're doing
is they're measuring darkness by the absence of light, aren't
they? So the darker it is, the less light there is. And so men,
we measure darkness by the absence of light and evil exists in this
darkness. So when the Lord does not shine
his light and the Lord leaves men to themselves, what is created
there? Evil. Our hearts are deceitful
above all things and prone to wickedness. And so the Lord leaves
men and women to themselves and that is evil being created. And
the Lord gets all the glory in that just as everything else.
It is the absence of the Lord's light And look, I'll show you
that in John chapter three. We're in first John, let's go
to the gospel of John. We looked at John three last
week, so this should be fresh on our memory. But as soon as
the words escaped me, I realized that you're like me, you slept
and so you forgot half of what you heard and need fresh men
each day, right? That's just how the Lord's designed it. But
as a way of remembrance, let's look at John chapter three in
verse 19. I'll remind you, he's speaking to Nicodemus. And he
says, and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
So here we are. Loving evil, doing evil because
we hate light and we will never come to the light unless God
does something. That's what he just said. His
deeds should be reproved. Well, who's going to do the reproving?
Am I going to reprove your evil deeds and you reprove my evil
deeds? Is that the standard that causes us to come to the light?
Certainly not. That's what men try to do in religion. But what
do we do? The Lord says, no, I am the light.
And he reproves our deeds, doesn't he? What does that mean to be
reproved? He illuminates our deeds and shows us that we're
utterly desolate without him. He goes on to say, but he that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest,
that they are wrought in God. See, all men. And all women,
without exception, all mankind love evil and darkness. Men do not want to change. Men
love themselves rather than God. And this is the condemnation,
he says, I've sent forth my son. I've sent forth the light into
the world. That's the condemnation. Men
love to hide in darkness. Men don't want to face the truth.
People do not like to hear the truth, but it's the only thing
that'll set you free. It's the only hope that we have
is the truth of the Lord's light by the gospel. We can't hide in the light, can
we? Men cannot hide in the light. Even if you think about physically
hiding something, it's much easier. If you're searching for something
at nighttime, what is the first thing you grab in order to help
you find it? It's a light, isn't it? And that,
whether it's a flashlight, cell phone, whatever it may be, we
get a light in order to help us find something. This is the
light that I'm speaking of by the gospel. The Lord shines it
into our heart, and only the Lord's people rejoice when it's
revealed unto them what they are. Do you know why? Because
we see that we're hiding under the shadow of his wing. As the
light comes forth, we don't just see ourself as sinners without
a savior. We see the savior as well. He
gives us faith and repentance at the same time. This is what
he's done for his people. He shines forth his glorious
light, and we find our righteousness in him, not in ourself. We say,
truth, Lord, I am what this exposes me to be. I need a covering.
And that light causes us to run to Christ that we might be found
under the shadow of his wing. It's our hiding place. We heard
about that on Sunday. This is the everlasting light
that I'm talking about. We're constantly being driven,
constantly being made to continually look to Christ, the everlasting
light. He tells us that their deeds
are manifest here. Your deeds are manifest that
they are wrought in God. The ones that come into the light,
your deeds are manifest. That means they're brought to
fruition. They're brought forth in order
for us to know, to know that they're wrought of God. The Lord
gets all the glory. That's what he's saying. Your
works are not your own, they're his. It's his works that we're
clinging to, isn't it? It's his life that we're clinging
to. We see that we can't produce the light that the father demands.
There's nothing about us everlasting until the Lord causes us to have
a new man, and then we found out the only thing everlasting
is what he's created in us, isn't it? Nothing we produce is everlasting.
And the Lord demands an everlasting light, and we flee to Christ
our everlasting light. If our life be hid, it is hid
with Christ in God. It is his works we confess. It
is his life we confess. His death, burial, and resurrection
is our only hope of justification. before the Lord. Now we're in
John, so let's turn back to John chapter one. I had us go into Genesis to begin
with Genesis chapter one. We're going to probably end up,
we'll go there next, but since we're two pages away, I felt
that it was easier just to turn back. So Christ is our everlasting
light because he is our everlasting life. Christ is our everlasting
life. Look at John chapter one, verse
one. 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. 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 not. In the beginning, was
the Lord Jesus Christ, is what he's telling us. And in him is
life. In him is light, and his light
is the life. And this is how it's everlasting,
is because he cannot change. That is our hope, isn't it? His
light is our hope. Because if he would have left
us to ourself in utter darkness, if he would have left us totally
depraved, we deserved that, didn't we? We deserved to be left in
darkness, but he shined forth his glorious light and illuminated
and caused us to be birthed into his family by his gospel, according
to his spirit. We have this gospel from the
very beginning. It's the interjection from the
very beginning. And that's where I want to go to is the Genesis
chapter one, the very beginning. In him was life and the life,
his life was the light of men. Genesis chapter one. and read the first five verses.
In the beginning was the word, and now we see in the beginning
God. God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was
without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
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. The earth was without form and
void. In the beginning, God and the
earth was without form and void that he created. And we see that
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters is the
next thing that happened. And then God said, let there
be light. And there was light. And he saw the light that it
was good. Now, Oni divided the light in dark, didn't he? He
called it the light day and the darkness he called night. So is this just
the story of creation? Is this just an account of creation?
That's what men believe. See, the gospel is a mystery.
The gospel is past finding out, it must be revealed. This is
a gospel account from Genesis chapter one, verse one. This
is the gospel in five verses. in the beginning, before time,
before the earth, God. That's where it all started,
wasn't it? God elected a people. Before the world was ever created,
it was God himself. In his sovereignty, he determined,
by his determinant counsel, he made the decision to make a covenant
of grace with the everlasting light, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we see ourself here when it says that the earth was without
form and void and in darkness. That's us. That's how we're born
in this world and shaping into iniquity. We are void. We are
without form. We are dead in trespasses and
in sin. And when the Lord purposed, when
the Lord purposed to elect his people, He spoke this light into
existence by the successful salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ wrought.
He then speaks this light into existence for those who are without
form and void. When the Spirit, does not the
Spirit come and blow upon us by the gospel and cause the light
to illuminate, The Spirit moved upon the face of the water. The
Lord said, the Father said, I'm gonna elect a people. The Son
said, I will redeem the people. And the Spirit said, I will regenerate
them. That's the covenant of grace. And we see that we're
without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
We had no hope of getting to God in any way, shape or form.
God sends his Spirit and blows upon us. And God says, let there
be light by his gospel. And there was light. Who is that
light? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who it is. And God saw that it was good.
The Lord Jesus Christ says, let there be life in you and I. And we live, why? Because he
took our sin and he nailed them to his cross and he put them
away. I'm reminded that the Lord endured darkness upon the cross,
didn't he? The light of glory, the light
of the world endured the Lord's darkness. The scripture says
from the sixth to the ninth hour, there was darkness that covered
the face of the earth. their darkness could be felt, is what
the scripture says whenever it refers in Exodus about the plague
of darkness. And it was the same darkness
that was on the cross the Lord was enduring. It was a darkness
that could be felt, the complete absence of light. Why? Because
the Son of God had to die. The light had to die for his
people so that you and I would not have to endure the darkness.
So that you and I would never have to be left in the dark alone.
I've used this analogy before, but having a child, having three
daughters, I can speak something, and most of you have had children,
you have grandchildren, so some of this will be more fresh for
you than it is for me, but you have a wee babe, and you put the babe
in a cradle, you turn the lights off, and you leave the room.
And that child's in darkness. Maybe there's a nightlight there,
certainly, but it's not as bright as it was. Child becomes scared,
maybe a bad dream, maybe a noise aggravates the child. What does
the child begin to do? The child cries out, doesn't
it? And the child only wants to see one thing, the person
that will save them. Now it may be its grandparents,
it may be its mom and dad, but it definitely does not want to
see a stranger, right? It wants to see someone that
will comfort them, someone that they recognize, someone that
loves them. This is you and I being in darkness and begging for the
Lord to just shine his light. Let us see his face because every
time his light shines, that's what we see is his face. His
everlasting light reveals his face. That's what we must see
as we cry out. We cry out, Abba Father, have
mercy upon me. Cause me to see the light of
Christ one more time. This is what we beg. And what
does the Lord do? Sometimes we cry for a while,
don't we? Time passes by and it seems like forever has gone
by in our minds. We're weary. We're tired. We're
scared. But oh, the sweet and precious Holy Spirit passes our
way and gives us illumination of the face of Christ once more.
And he says, peace be still and all is well. He does this by
his gospel over and over and over for his people. You and
I will never be left in darkness because the Lord endured the
wrath of God for his people. The Lord endured the darkness
so that you and I will never be left in darkness. John 8,
verse 12 tells us, 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. What does
that cause you to cry out? He that does not walk in darkness.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
light of life. It makes me cry out, Lord, give
us your light. Lord, show us your light. Show
us your face. And the light of the Lord only
shines in mercy upon the elect. Think about that. Every knee
is gonna bow and every tongue is gonna confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, that he is the everlasting light. And on judgment day, when
the Lord shines forth his light unto those who are not found
in Christ, it will expose every sin that they are and what they've
done. But the light of the Lord Jesus
Christ that shines upon the heart of the elect bride of Christ,
It shines in mercy. It shines in grace. Nothing is
said against the elect of God because as the light shines,
there is a wing that overshadows us and we are hid with Christ
in God. That's the gospel. That's what
he's done for his people. Our everlasting light, the Lord
Jesus Christ. His light reveals that our sin
has been put away. Now in closing, I want to turn
to two places. First is gonna be 2 Corinthians
chapter four that we read in our call to worship. And shortly
after we're gonna go to Isaiah chapter 60. 2 Corinthians chapter four in verse
three. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine into them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus
the Lord, and ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake. For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, men in
religion believe that there is something that must be done,
as I had mentioned at the beginning of all of this. But you and I
are not looking for something to be done. We're looking at
what was done. We're not looking to try to accomplish
something, we're looking at what was accomplished. And our plea
unto the Father is, Lord, cause your light to shine out of darkness
once more. I am darkness, and I need your
light to shine forth through the darkness and save me. That's
what we confess, isn't it? We're constantly begging the
Lord. constantly begging the Lord that he would shine his
light forth one more time. Otherwise, our gospel is hid.
It's hid to them that are lost. It's hid to them because the
God of this world had blinded their mind. Lord, don't let me
be blinded. Cause me to see your light. Cause
me to come to you. Don't leave me to myself. This
is the plea of the believer. Salvation's been designed thusly.
It's been designed this way. so that you and I are mercy beggars.
It's been designed, this everlasting light must be revealed. It must be shined forth from
his own choosing, from his own determinant counsel, from his
own will. Aren't you glad that he does for his people in mercy?
He shines his light forth. He doesn't leave us in utter
darkness. He doesn't leave us to ourself. This is the Lord's
design that we would be mercy beggars, begging for his gospel.
It's the Lord's gospel. It's God's gospel, and it's for
God's glory. All we do is we beg, and how sweet the revelation
of our everlasting light is every time he reveals himself. No wonder
Peter said, unto you who believe, he is precious. Is he precious
to you? If you do, it's because his light shone forth in you,
unto you, revealing what you are, revealing who he is and
what he's done. He's become precious beyond measure,
beyond price. He shined his glorious gospel
into our heart of darkness and all of the glory goes to him.
Now look with me in Isaiah chapter 60. Verse one says, arise, shine. Now that word shined in my margin
says, be enlightened for thy light cometh. What does that
mean? The Lord's revealing himself
is what that means. Arise, shine for thy light is
come and for the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For
behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness
the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee. and his glory
shall be seen upon thee." Is that your hope? Is that the Lord's
glory would be seen upon you? That is our only hope, isn't
it? Because this world is full of darkness, because that's what
he just said, that the earth shall be covered in gross darkness.
Darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people,
but the Lord shall arise upon thee. upon thee." Why? Because he's our everlasting
light. This is our hope that the Lord
would arise upon us. He says, thy light is come and
his glory shall be seen in thee. I know so often I think to myself,
well, I don't see it. I don't see it in myself. That's
a good thing. If we go around thinking that
we are walking in the light, there's a great possibility we're
not walking in the light. The Lord's people are the ones
that are concerned that they're not in the light. The Lord's
people are the ones that's concerned that the Lord's left them to
themselves. You won't hear men in religion wonder about their
salvation. They've dotted every I and crossed every T. They got
it down pat. They're going to heaven. They've done whatever
necessary. They're 100% sure. A man told
me recently, I am 100% sure if I die right now, I'd go to heaven.
He told me that. And what he meant by that was,
is everything that he has done pleased God. But what he doesn't
realize is he doesn't have any light. He's in darkness still. There's no light that's radiating
from him. We must be radiating the Lord's
light. We must be reflecting, that's
the word I should use, reflecting the Lord's light. And the only
way we do that is if he causes us to do that. It's not that
we're going around letting our light shine by doing this and
doing that. Okay, I'm letting my light shine.
Now I'm soul winning. I'm knocking on doors. I've got
everything going. I believe the Lord's pleased
with me now. That's not what he's talking about. Now this
reflection is something that's done spiritually in the heart.
This is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is us crying
out unto the Lord saying have mercy upon me. I see myself as
the center and you are the Savior. That's walking in the light.
That's what walking in the light means. No longer looking. To the physical things. He tells
him. Let's read on in verse 19. The sun shall be no more thy
light by day, neither the brightness shall the moon give unto thee,
but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy
God thy glory." Now, understand what he's saying here is, is
you're no longer looking at your circumstances or what you have
done. You're no longer looking at the physical light. Now you're
looking through spiritual because the Lord is your everlasting
light. So whenever we were dead, dead in trespasses and in sin,
trying to get to God, we would be looking to the physical. That's
what men do. That's all that they can do is
what they see. But this is not what brings salvation. The light
of the Lord's gospel brings salvation. He's the one that illuminates.
He's the one that pierces into the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit. He's the one that quickens and makes alive by his
gospel through his light. And so we no longer look at the
physical anymore, do we? Why? Because the Lord is our
everlasting light. Spiritually, the Lord is our
light, and the Lord is our life. In verse 20, the sun shall no
more go down, neither shall the moon withdraw itself, for the
Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning
shall be ended. Thy people shall be all righteous. Boy, I hope that said about us,
don't you? that we're righteous, and the only way that we can
be righteous is that the Lord made us righteous. If Christ
has been made unto us by the hand of God, our righteousness. Our people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands. It's God's hand that wrought
it, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand
and a small one, a strong nation. The Lord will hasten it in his
time. Men despise little things, don't
they? They despised Christ because they didn't believe he was really
the Messiah, the one that would come. They looked for an earthly
kingdom. They were looking for the physical sun and the physical
moon. They weren't looking for the spiritual, but the Lord's
people, we don't look at the physical, do we? No, I'm certain
that we do in some aspects, but not in salvation. Not when it
comes to our soul. We're not trying to figure out
the physical. We need Christ. We're begging for Christ, the
light of the father to shine into us. All the glory goes to God in
everything in this salvation, because he is our everlasting
light, because he's the one that wrought it by his own hand. The
Lord Jesus Christ has been made into his people, wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Among everything else, he's been
made into us the everlasting light. Father, thank you for
being our light in this dark and dreary place. Thank you for
being our light when we were in darkness. Lord, shine your
light forth into us once again. Leave us not to ourselves. In
Christ's name we pray, amen.