8th chapter. We have here, between the 7th chapter and the
latter part of 8th chapter, the insertion of the candlestick or lampstand. And once again, it is described
how it is made. Now this is described back in
Exodus chapter 25, the particulars of this. And yet we have it introduced
here in between a chapter that deals with God recognizing and
remembering the works of His people and the consecration of the priesthood. And it seems like it doesn't
belong. It's there, but it seems somewhat out of place. But when
we study the Word of God, There are a number of important rules
that we have to follow. The first rule is that this book
is about Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. From
Genesis chapter 1 to Revelation 22, all the book is about the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is about His person, who He
is. It is about His work, why He
came. what He did, where He is now. It's about Jesus Christ. It is
about the work and for whom the work was performed. His people,
His church, His bride, His elect, His chosen. Now since He is the
singular note In the musical scale of Scripture, there is
no other basis, no other basis, upon which Scripture is to be
viewed, interpreted, or understood. If you view the Scripture based
on your idea about Israel being the people of God, and don't
realize that Israel, true Israel, is the church of the living God,
you've misinterpreted Scripture. If you take a particular view
of eschatology and interpret Scripture based on that view,
you've missed Christ. Christ is this book. He is the
Word of God. The Word that was in the beginning
with God. The Word that was the same as
God, who was God. The Word that was made flesh
and dwelt among us. The Word through which we saw
grace and mercy flowed unto the children of God. This book is
about Jesus Christ. I thank God that somebody told
me that before I ever started preaching the gospel. I thank
God somebody actually told me that. So I've not been able over
the years to veer from that very far. Just hang right there. How
come? Because that's what it's about.
That's what it's about. Spurgeon said no matter what
the text, grab hold of it, and run as fast as you can to get
to Christ. Because that's what that text is about. That's what
that text is about. Now, to veer off this path of
interpretation is to miss the reason for study. Our Lord said,
study me. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. No, I want to learn about last
things. Learn of me. No, I want to learn
about history. Learn of me. This book is about
Jesus Christ. The result of your study, if
you're not looking for Christ, is going to be to no avail. You
may come up with some mottos to live by. You may come up with
some cute sayings and memory verses to quote to people. But
you don't know what the Bible is until you see Christ. You
don't have any idea. Any idea. Our Lord said to the
most studious, Bible students of the day, the men who actually
cared for and kept the Scriptures alive and safe for those 400
years of silence between Malachi and Matthew. He said to the Pharisees
and the scribes who wrote down the Scriptures by hand, he says,
you search the Scriptures. John 5, verse 40. You search
the Scriptures. He didn't say they didn't. He
said they did. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think
you have eternal life. You think by searching the Scriptures
you have eternal life. But you see, they, the Scriptures,
are they the Scriptures that speak of Me. And you won't come
to Me that you might have life. You can believe the Bible is
true. I believed that most of my life. I was raised to believe
that. I was raised a Southern Baptist.
I was on the church roll before I was born. I was. I was on the Sunday school roll
as the expectant James baby with the little booties up there before
I was even born. I was raised to believe that
the Bible is the truth. And I've always believed the
Bible is the truth, but I didn't believe the truth. I was like
that proverbial sparrow on a telephone wire. I had a grip on the wire,
but had no idea of the message running through the wire. That's
you if you believe the Bible is true, but you don't know Christ. You don't see the Bible speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord here was speaking to
scribes and Pharisees, men who gave their lives to studying
Scripture for the purpose of proving that they were righteous,
and others were not. They approached the Scriptures
with a preconceived idea, and then looked to find proof texts
to support their view, or to set up some debate. Listen to
me, if the Scriptures can be debated, they are debatable. Isn't that right? The Scriptures
aren't debatable. They're to be declared, proclaimed,
and stepped back from. This is the Word of God. It doesn't need to be protected.
Spurgeon said, it's a lion. Turn it loose. It'll do what
God said it would do. And he said, it will never return
unto me void. Never return unto me void. Is it hot in here? You ought
to go up there and set that thing on cool and turn it back to about
12. These Pharisees approached the
Scriptures to find a way to trap people. to trick people, they
did it to catch Christ over and over again. If you see them quoting
Scripture, that's what they did. Now the modern day Pharisee uses
the very same approach. If he finds something in Scripture
that does not fit his interpretation, he looks to find something else
in Scripture that he feels will oppose that passage of Scripture,
and he seeks to offset one truth with another. For example, if
that person despised the doctrine of sovereign election, he will
try to employ the times that our Lord said, whosoever will,
to discount election. That's stupid. That's stupid. The Bible says, whosoever will.
And it means exactly that. Any man who desires Jesus Christ
has Him. Any man. But who will? All that
the Father gives to Christ will. None will except those whom Christ
draws, whom the Father draws. Those who are those who will
come. Not only does the Bible say whosoever will come, it says
who they are. It says who they are. And they
are those God chose from the foundation of the world, according
to Ephesians, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, according to the 144
times in Scripture that the word eclektos is used. Men use the
Scripture for many reasons. I hear politicians quoting Scripture.
And I have a pretty good idea they don't know what they're
talking about. But I hear them quoting Scripture. Quoting Scripture. It's stupid and utterly groundless
arguments that men put forth using Scripture. They do it to
debate rather than to believe. They go to the Bible to support
their view rather than to go to the Bible to find the view.
to find what to believe. They go to the Bible to support
what they believe rather than go to the Bible to find what
they believe. And if you don't see Christ,
if you do not see Christ, His person, His work, His glory in
the text that you're reading, you haven't got the text yet.
Keep looking. Keep asking God to open up the
Scriptures to you because He's there. This book is about Him. He said, Moses spake of Me. Abraham saw my day and was glad. There's another rule, and that
is the rule of any book that's ever been written. It's called
the rule of context. Now the rule is employed by finding
out who is speaking, who is being spoken to, what is the subject
being addressed, and the circumstances that brought about the statement
or dialogue, and the conclusion reached. That's a simple outline. Also involved in context, often
times in scripture there can be elements such as culture,
time, area, Governmental influence, religious influence, and even
flora and fauna sometimes are used to determine the context
in which the thing is written. Another element is the element
we have before us here. The element of perceived anomaly. A perceived anomaly appears as
a departure or deviation from what seems to be a normal or
common or chronological order of things. You find that a lot
in Scripture. The Lord will be talking about
something, and he'll throw something in there, and you go, what's
that for? Why is that there? It's there to tell us about Christ.
And that's what we have in this chapter, or in these four verses
of Numbers, chapter 8. I use the term, what seems to
be a normal or common order, because some anomalies only seem
so. If God's Word, in God's Word
everything is where it's supposed to be. It's in its proper place. And what I found is that when
a passage seems out of place, the best thing to do is sort
of take that word that David often used, Selah, and just stop,
and pause, and ponder, and meditate. We don't do a lot of that in
this day. We fill our lives with noise. with activity. You know why? Barnard says because we couldn't
stand to actually live with ourselves in silence for 15 minutes. And
that's probably true. That's probably true. We feel
ourselves. The Lord speaks a great deal
about meditation. That word is an agricultural
word. It's mastication. It means chewing
the cud. That's what it means. Chewing
the cud. You know what a cow does? Got
eight stomachs, I think. I don't know how many he's got.
He's got a lot. Four stomachs? Thank you, dear. She's in school. She knows. Got four stomachs. You know, if that cow takes something
down in their stomach, chew on it a while and put it in their
stomach and then cough it back up and chew on it some more. You say,
well, that doesn't sound very pleasant. That's what meditation
is. That's what pondering the scriptures
is. Chewing on it for a while, swallow it, then cough back up
and chew on it some more. We don't do much of that. We don't
do much of that. God's people ought to do a lot
of that. More meditation, I believe, than about anything else. Thinking
on the things of God. To take that see-law, to pause,
to ponder and meditate, then consider. And that's what we
need to do here in this passage of Scripture. Here in Numbers
8 verses 1 through 4, the candlestick appears. Now it was spoken of
in its manufacture and its place in the holy place. along with
the table of showbread and the golden altar of incense. It was
talked about back in Exodus chapter 25. And not really talked about
again until here. Right in the middle between two
chapters that really have nothing to do with the candlestick. Now
this piece of furniture isn't really a candlestick. That's
an English translation that's not really that good. By the
time the Scriptures were translated into English, the use of candles
was predominant in religious ceremony and practice. And so
instead of what this actually was, a lamp stand with lamps
that burned olive oil, they called it a candlestick. I can remember
as a kid the candlelight services in churches. We used to have
people walking down around Christmas time with candles in their hand,
they cut off the lights. It was an impressive display
of pyrotechnics, I suppose. Though today, I'm sure you'd
have to buy carbon offset points to justify your criminal participation
in global warming if you did it today. When the translators
came to the place where this fixture was mentioned, they changed
the name to accommodate the common practice of the use of candles.
This is actually a lamp stand. It was a source of light that
illuminated the holy place, that illuminated that golden altar
of incense, that pictured the intercessory rooker of the Lord
Jesus Christ, or that table of showbread, those pierced loaves,
Christ being the bread of life who was pierced for His people.
And this lampstand, lampstand. The lamps on top of the lamp
stand or the seven parts of the lamp stand look like what we
would call Aladdin's lamps. Have you ever read a fairy tale
in your life or seen a cartoon? You know it's one of those little
lamps that has a little handle on one end and it goes kind of
a bowl and then comes up like this. And you rub it and Aladdin
comes out and gives you three witches. I never found one in
my life but that's the kind of lamp that's still used in the
East today. They were filled with oil, olive
oil. And that olive oil came from
pressing down and crushing the olives, which represented the
sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ that brought eternal light
to the world. In Exodus 27 it says, And thou
shalt command the children of Israel that they bring thee pure
oil olive, beaten for the light. Beaten for the light to cause
the lamp to burn always. to cause it to burn our way.
The other elements of the holy place, however, in this passage
are not mentioned. The altar of incense, the table
of Sheol of red, they're not mentioned here. Even if these
elements were mentioned along with the lampstand, its placement
would still seem odd. This passage is placed between
the record of what's called the offering of the princes, or the
prince's offering. And these offerings were recognized
by God. They were God remembering His
people and what they had done in their worship of Him. So right
in the middle, right after the offering of the prince, which
represented God remembering the works of His people, and He did
it if you read chapter 7 down to the minutest detail, every
little thing God remembered, every little thing. Then after
this you have the preparation of the priest, or the consecration
of the priest. So God remembers the works of
His people, He prepares His priest, and right here in the middle
of it is the lampstand. Right in the middle is the lampstand.
The preparation of the priest involving shaving the head. What
does that mean? Well it pictured, it was a picture
of despising our nature. despising our nature and the
insidious fact that it keeps coming back, just like if you
shaved your head and it would grow back. That's our nature. It's only subdued by the work
of God, not by our work, not by our applying to nature, not
by our looking at our sin. You look at your sin, that's
all it's going to do is make you despair. I'm telling you, don't be a naval
watcher. Don't look at yourself. You're
miserable, and so am I. Ain't nothing in us but blackness
and darkness. Why would we want to look at ourselves? Because
somewhere in our deluded mind, we actually think if we look
at ourselves, we can do something about it. We can't! We look to Christ! And the Spirit of God subdues
our old nature, but it keeps growing back, as is represented
by the preparation of the priests for the children of God, are
the priesthood of God, royal priesthood, they are called in
Scripture. The nature is held in check by the razor of the
Word of God. The subduing of nature, the flesh,
also is pictured by the water of cleansing, which likewise
is symbolic of the preaching and the hearing of the gospel,
by the washing of the water of the Word, it says in Ephesians
5. Now here in between the remembered works of the believer and the
subduing of the nature by the gospel, the lampstand is placed
for us. And you know what? It's right
where it's supposed to be. Right where it's supposed to
be. And before we consider why the account of the lampstand
is placed here, let's pause for a moment and consider the lampstand
itself. Because it's a really important
piece of furniture. It is the predecessor of what
is called the Jewish menorah. It's the predecessor of that.
The lampstand was made of beaten gold. Not gold plated. It was
beaten gold. It weighed a talent. It weighed
a talent. And it was hammered into shape.
It had six shafts coming out of the center post. Three on each side. Lamps were
placed on top of each of the arms, three on the opposing sides
and one on top of the center shaft. So there were seven lamps
in all, representing the light of the gospel, the perfection
of the work of the Holy Spirit of God. The light that proceeded
from the lamps symbolized the testimony of the gospel. That's
why our Lord said, let your light so shine. What's He talking about?
wearing a little button that has this little light of mine,
I'm going to let it shine? What does it mean to let your
light shine? What's your light? Christ is the light of the world. Christ is our light. Letting
your light shine is to declare the gospel of God's grace, to
tell people what Christ has done for you, not what you're doing
for Him. The testimony of the gospel is
the light. The seven lamps thereof pictured
the work of the Holy Spirit in the testimony of Christ. The
testimony of the gospel has been entrusted to the believer. Think
of that. Think of what you are and who
you are. What you are inside. And if you
are a child of God, God has trusted you with His gospel. Paul said, we preach not ourselves,
but Christ. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
has shined in our hearts to reveal the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And we have this ministry in earthen vessels,
that the glory might be of God and not of us. Earthen vessels. What's an earthen vessel? It's
a dirt pot. That's what you are. I know preaching
in this day and age just wants to make people feel so good about
themselves. You feel good enough about yourself
already. I wish to God I could make you
feel bad about yourself. You might look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. I spent my life and I'll spend my life preaching the gospel
looking for one thing. I'm looking for a sinner who is convinced by the Holy
Ghost that he deserves to suffer hell forever. for simply who
He is. I got something to tell somebody
like that. I got good news. I got good news. The lampstand
sits here between the works of God's people and the consecration
of God's people. Now the maintenance of the lamps
was the job of the high priest. He alone trimmed the wicks and
lit the lamps. And He is responsible for the
light. Who's the High Priest? Christ is our High Priest. Christ
is our High Priest. He maintains and keeps us. We
are kept by the power of God unto salvation, saith the Scripture. He alone trims the wicks and
lights the fire. He shaves our heads and subdues
our nature. Without Him we can do nothing.
You believe that? I mean really. Without Him you can do nothing.
What does that mean? Just what it said. Except He
abided me and I in you. You're not going to bring forth
fruit. Because without me, you can do
nothing. You can do nothing. All glory
belongs to Christ. All of it. The shaft upon which
the lamps were placed was beaten into shape and it's made of a
talent of gold. I was trying to figure out the approximation
of the worth of that thing today, a talent of gold. Approximately
between $600,000 and a million dollars. Kind of expensive. Kind of precious. Kind of speaks of the glory and
the preciousness and the value of our Lord Jesus Christ. This
shaft pictures the sufferings of the Lord. who learned His
obedience through the things He suffered. How does it picture
that? Because it was beaten. It was
beaten. And we know our Lord suffered
a great deal at the hands of men. Men hated Jesus Christ. They hated Him. And when I say
men, I'm not talking about just those Jews or those Gentiles
that lived back then. I'm telling you right now, apart
from a work of grace, Jesus Christ walked down the streets of Cherokee
this hour. We would say crucify Him, put
Him out of business. We're not going to have this
man right over. Who does He think He is being a man making Himself
to be God? That's what we'd say. Because
that's what we said. Those weren't thugs back there.
We're the thugs. We're the thugs. And he suffered
a great deal at our hands. A great amount of physical sufferings
and we would not diminish those physical sufferings whatsoever.
But let me tell you something about all his physical sufferings.
Didn't save anybody. I know Mel Gibson made a real
good movie that said he did, but he didn't. Didn't save anybody. Didn't put
away one sin. In those three hours of darkness,
When God Almighty dealt with His Son, when His Son was made
to be sin for us, that's when our redemption was wrought. That's
when our redemption was accomplished. Not until then. Many people have
suffered great things. What does the sufferings of our
Lord teach? They teach what we deserve. They teach what we deserve. They also teach us how we really
feel about God. By nature, we hate Him. We despise. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of God, neither it can be.
We hate God. By nature, we hate God. You say,
well, I never hated Him. That's because you ain't never
met Him. You'll be confronted with Him, you'll hate His goods.
When He confronts you about who you are, you'll say, I want to
stick my finger in your eye and jerk you off the throne and put
myself in your place. I'm going to do what I want to do and nobody's
going to tell me otherwise. I'm an American. I've got to
say so in this thing. I've got to vote. No, you don't.
You don't have a vote, and America is not mentioned in the Bible. God alone saves His people. God alone puts men in eternal
damnation and hell. God alone. You're going to deal
with, I'm going to deal with, the God of Scripture, not the
God of our puny imaginations, our little God factors in our
head. Our Lord's suffering at the hands of God the Father,
when Jesus Christ was made to be sin for His people, in those
three hours of darkness, the language of Scripture, if you'll
read Psalm 22 and other Psalms, is that there was great suffering
of His soul. His soul was made an offering
for sin. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him when he shall make his soul an offering for sin. And in those
three hours of darkness, God Almighty, God the Father, God
the Judge of all the universe rolled up His sleeves and pummeled
His Son because His Son was made to be sin for His people. God
cannot abide sin. His eyes are too pure to behold
evil. The sun, moon, and stars are not perfect in His sight.
How much less man that is born of a woman, a worm, a maggot,
a dust of the earth. A worm of the dust of the earth. You know God. If you do, you
know one time you couldn't stand Him. You don't want to hear about
Him. Men hate God. The only time God
let us touch Him was in the person of Jesus Christ. That revealed
what we felt of Him. We killed Him. Tried to. Tried
to put Him out of business. This shaft pictured the sufferings
of our Lord. It is His substitutionary work.
the glory of the accomplishment of it that underpins the gospel
that we preach. Christ said all authority is
given to me in heaven and earth, therefore go preach the gospel.
There's nothing else to preach. I could probably draw a crowd
if I got on the abortion thing. I could probably draw a crowd.
Or if I got on homosexuality or some political thing. I could
probably draw a crowd. Most anybody could. You ain't
going to draw no crowd preaching the gospel, I'll tell you that.
But let me tell you, you ain't never going to honor Christ if
you don't. You ain't never going to honor
Christ. Now look at our text. Numbers chapter 8, verse 2. Speak
unto Aaron, and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps,
the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick.
Notice the second phrase. When thou lightest the lamps,
the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick. Here we see the divine purpose
of the lamps. The divine purpose of the light
that's in you. The divine purpose of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. They are designated to illuminate
the lampstand. The thing that supports everything
is to be illuminated by the light it supports. And that's what
the gospel does. The gospel is for the glory of
Jesus Christ. It's for the glory of Jesus Christ. It's the glory of His work, of
His substitution. He's the foundation of it. He's
what upholds it. He's what it rests upon. And
the design of it and the intent of it is singular. To cast light
back on the stand. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why we preach the gospel. Say, you don't you want to see
people saved? I'd love to see some people saved. Not by me. Not by an invitation. Not by
some church trickery or religious chicanery. I'd like to see God
save somebody. But I found out when God saves
people, they really are saved. When I save them, they don't
last long. They fade like a leaf real quick. Everything hangs on this shaft,
is what it is saying. All of it is right here. All
of it hangs right there on this beaten stand. Everything that
the Spirit does through the elect by the Word is for the purpose
of shining on the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the purpose of
the Holy Spirit in this world? Does it make you walk around
with glassy eyes and a stupid smile on your face? Is it to make you
say praise Jesus at the end of every sentence as if some religious
punctuation mark? What is the reason the Holy Spirit,
God the Holy Spirit, the Sovereign God the Holy Spirit is here on
this earth? One reason. To glorify Jesus
Christ. Not to make you speak in tongues.
I can make you do that. I can teach you how to do it
in two seconds. You want to learn how to speak in tongues? Tie my tie. Tie my bow tie. Now say that real fast. With
a rhythm. Tie my tie! Tie my bow tie! Anybody can do that. Why is the
Holy Spirit here? To run you back and forth across
the pews to make you raise your hands? Don't raise your hands
in here, if you do, I'm going to call on you. I'm going to
say, yes, you can be excused, you can go to the bathroom. Just
to make you laugh. The Spirit of Christ is here
to honor and exalt and glorify Christ. He'll take the things
of Christ and show them unto us. He will not glorify Himself. That Spirit that makes men act
stupid and call it religion and call it life and call it the
movement of the Spirit is another Spirit. It is not the Spirit
of Christ. Christ said why the Spirit came.
When He comes, He said, He will convince men of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father. Of
judgment, because the Prince of this world is cast out. That's
why He's here. To illuminate the Lord Jesus
Christ. Pictured in these seven lights. These seven lights that give
light against the stand, that give light against
the candlestick, the center post. Here we see the divine purpose
of the lamps. They are designed to illuminate
Christ. Every beam of light in the church, every beam of light
in the believer flows from Christ, shines directly and precisely
upon Christ. Look over at Acts chapter 3 just
for a moment. In Acts chapter 3, Now Peter and John went up together
to the temple at the ninth hour to pray, being the ninth hour.
And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried,
whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called
Beautiful. Now that gate was, they said, polished brass. It
looked like a mirror, which is a picture of the law.
They laid this poor old crippled fellow in front of the mirror.
And what did he see? His poor old crippled self. And
that's what the law will show you, your poor old crippled self.
And he laid there to ask alms of the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
and the others that came into the temple as they entered in.
He probably made a pretty good living at it because they believed
they ought to give alms because that was their righteousness
before God. And he saw Peter, James, and John about to go into
the temple and he said, Give me some money. Help me out. I'm
a poor, crippled, wretched man. And Peter fastened his eyes on
him, when John said, Look, look on us. Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting
to receive something from them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold
have I none. But such as I have, I give to
thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. Now would you reckon he wanted
more of the money or his legs? Well, I know some people who
actually like to be sick. I know some people in churches
who like for the preacher to get up and smack them around
a whole lot and skin them and beat them up and never point
them to Jesus Christ so they'll just feel bad all the time. It makes
them feel good to feel bad. I hope you're not one of those. And
he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately
his feet and his ankle bones received strength and he leaped. He stood up and walked and entered
into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God, and
all the people saw Him walking and praising God. And they knew
that it was He that had set for arms by the beautiful gate of
the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at
that which happened unto Him. And as the lame man which was
healed held Peter and John, and all the people ran together unto
them in the portion that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.
And look at this next thing. And when Peter saw it, he answered
to the people, You men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Why do
you look earnestly on us? Why are you looking at us as
though by our own power or holiness we made this man to walk? Now
there's the light. There's one of them candles. There's one of them flames glowing. What's it glowing on? The God
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers whom He
glorified, His Son Jesus. whom you delivered up and denied
him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let
him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just and desired
to murder against yourself and killed the Prince of life, whom
God hath raised from the dead, and in His name, through faith
in His name, hath made this man strong, whom you now see." Boy,
you know, Peter, James, and John could have got off really easy
that day. You know what? All they would have had to say
was, God healed this man. Just like people are saying all
the time in this world today. God healed this man. And then
everybody in that temple said, Amen, brother. Preach on, brother.
But he didn't. He said, you fellows believe
in God. You killed God's Son. God's Son, Jesus Christ, was
the one that raised up this man. There's the light shining on
the lamp stand right there. That's what it is. Don't look
at me, he said. Look at Jesus Christ. Look at
Jesus Christ. This is divine wisdom and glorious
purpose in placing this passage where it is in Scripture. The
application is plain. God remembers your works. What
are your works? You don't know what they are,
He does. But they're all to glorify Jesus Christ. And they do. They
do. The seven lamps shall give light
over against the candlestick. After this candlestick, your
nature is subdued by the Word, the Gospel, so you may serve
the Lord for the singular reason that Christ alone may be glorified.
Our Lord says, you know, condemnation is coming to this world because
men love darkness more than light. And they love darkness more than
light because their deeds are evil. That's why they love darkness,
because their deeds are evil. But he said, my children are
not like that. He said, my children come to me with their works.
He said, they do, they come to me with their works. They come
to the light with their works. They want their works disclosed
and exposed. He said, what are they? We don't
know, we just come. And what we say about them is,
these works were accomplished by the power of God and not by
us. that that which they bring forth will be seen as from God
and not from them. That's why they do that. That's
shedding light on the candlestick. That's shedding light on the
candlestick. Boasting then is excluded, isn't
it? What are you? Well, I'm a little pot with some
olive oil in it called the gospel. of the sufferings of my Savior,
and it's light in a dark place. What are you here for? Light up Christ. To exalt Him. To honor Him. I'll tell you this, when your
wick is trimmed and your light is lit, there will be no recognition
of you. It will all be for the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Men talk about works. To me, they are a mystery. But
I know this, their design is simple. Whatever you do, glorify
Christ. Yet not I, but Christ. I am what I am by the grace of
God. by the grace of God. And as God
prepares you for His priesthood, as through the days of your life,
He shaves your hair and washes you with the water of the Word.
There's only one reason for that, that you might glorify Christ.
That you might glorify Christ. Father, bless us to our understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.