Live from Buffalo Creek. If you would, turn in your Bibles, please, to Matthew Chapter 5. We've been going through the names and titles of God's people the last few weeks. We looked at God's people as the elect, beloved, chosen of God. We looked at God's people as redeemed, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. We looked at God's people as sons and daughters of God and children of God. Tonight, we're going to look at what Jesus calls His people to be. He says, and He calls us light. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 14, Ye are the light of the world. A city that is 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 unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You know, this is an amazing title that He gives us, The Light of the World. Word be light, the light of the world. And the contrast of light and darkness is so apparent. To me, this is one of the greatest miracles. When you consider what we were in our natural, sinful, carnal state, What He's calling us to do is absolutely impossible, just in our own selves. When you consider what we were by nature, none of us were born with spiritual eyes that could see the glory of Christ. We were born in darkness, in depravity. in degradation. Not only were we in darkness, but we love darkness. The Bible says, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light. because their deeds were evil. And everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." So our natural condition was not one of shining for the glory of God. Rather, we were hiding in depravity and darkness and in the underbelly of ungodliness. We loved the darkness we were in. That was our environment. That's what we thrived on. And it says in Ephesians chapter 5, and I'm going to tell you, this kind of teaching is foreign in most churches. They're not telling, preachers are no longer telling people what they are by nature. Why they need to be brought to light. Why they need God to bring them out of the darkness. It says in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 8 that, for ye were sometimes darkness. Interesting. Jesus said, you are to be the light of the world. But we were sometimes darkness. That was our name. But now are you light in the Lord. We walked in darkness. We loved darkness. We hated light. We hated righteousness. We loved sin more than we had a desire to know Jesus Christ. Our heart was darkness. Our affections were darkened by sin, Romans 1 and verse 21, because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became foolish, or vain in their imaginations. And their foolish heart was darkened. Our heart was darkened. Our mind was in darkness. And it was contrary to God, hostile to God. Our understanding was darkened. Everything about us showed that we were blinded by sin, trapped in darkness of depravity with no hope of getting out apart from the light of the world, Jesus Christ. We lived in darkness and we loved to have it so. Do you know the reason why Christ came? He came to dispel darkness. How did He do it? The Word. He is the Word of God. He is the Light of God. He is the Light of the world. Look what Luke says in Luke chapter 1 and verse 79. through verse 78. Here you have the prophecy of Zacharias. He's talking about Christ and he says, verse 78, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. That's the work of Jesus. John chapter 1 and verse 5, we have the declaration that the Word was with God. The Word was God. He is eternal. He is eternally the only begotten Son of God. And it says in verse 4, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." Man by nature, he can't see it because he loves his darkness. He loves his sin. It's the only environment that he knows until God radically changes him. You see, Jesus came to dispel darkness and save us from it. How did He do it? The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us. And we beheld His glory. What glory was that? The light of the glory of God Almighty! He is the Word! He came declaring! I am the way, the truth and the light. No man comes to the Father but by Me. He dispelled the darkness of every false religion and brought to light the truth and the righteousness through the cross, through His death, burial, His resurrection. He brought light. He's the one that gave us sight. He came to dispel that darkness and to save us from it. That light was manifested. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We didn't know what grace and truth was until the light was manifested. And He made us to see things clearly. You see, God does not leave His children, His people in darkness. He brings them out of it. We were so blinded by sin and Satan that we couldn't even recognize the glory, the power, the wonder of the Gospel of the grace of God. I preached to an entire room full of people yesterday John 3.16, the glory, the power of Christ and the love of God, the greatest gift ever known to man. And I know there were lost people there. And I pleaded with them. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. But a great majority of people are living in darkness and they love to have it so. Listen, at funerals today most people don't expect a message of light and grace and the cross of Christ. But I'm going to keep preaching it because it's the only way. That's the greatest source of comfort to anyone, is to be saved and to see others saved. The Bible says, 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 should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." Now here's the winner right here. For God, who commanded what? Commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. If a preacher preaches salvation in any other way, or adds anything to the work of Jesus Christ alone, that's a message of darkness. Christ crucified, buried, risen again. He is the light of the glory of the power of God. And oh, what a glorious day. When He dispelled that, He called us out of that darkness into what? His marvelous light. For the first time, we saw things as they really are. That we were sinners, broken, corrupt, lawbreakers, deserving of hell! And He also showed us, Jesus Christ, He died for your sins. He bore them in His body on the tree. Everything that He suffered, He suffered for you as He gave Himself body, blood, obedience, righteousness, everything so that our sins could be put away by the sacrifice of Himself. He died for me. The One who is the light of the world died on that tree of cursing in darkness because of my sin. But He was putting it away. And He rose again to give me light and life. You see, when God saves people, He does not leave them in darkness. And what a wondrous thing it is. to be changed. This is what's missing in modern day Christianity. Quote, unquote, there's no change. People pray a little prayer, they get baptized, but there's no change. Listen, God radically changes people. You know what a big difference it is to be in darkness. It's a radical change. And if you've not been changed by the power of Christ, you've not been saved. You say, well, I was raised in church. I thank God for it. Still, you have to be brought to the place where you trust Jesus as your Lord and your Savior. Because Christ has no followers that walk in darkness. You can't be His follower. You can't walk in darkness and be His follower. The Bible says this, if you start flirting with the darkness, He's going to chase you. That's what He does to His children. But Jesus said this in John 8, 12, 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." Boy, that was so contrary to what the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, the religious leaders among the Jews, when Jesus said that, that was so foreign to their thinking. He was exposing them. You see, here's the amazing thing. He not only won't leave you in darkness, He brings you into His light. Why? To what end? So that we can be children of the light. So that we can walk in that light and become more like Him, being changed from image to image by the Spirit of the Lord in seeing the glory of God in communion and desiring to be more like Jesus. Because when you're saved, God puts it in you. 1 John chapter 1, "...and these things write we unto you, that your joy might be full." You know when your joy is full? When you're in Christ, when you're abiding in Him, walking in the light as He is in the light, and having fellowship one with another. You see, God is light. And in Him there is no darkness at all. And when He brings you out of darkness into light, you begin to see what the darkness is and you start hating it. You hate it because it's sin. It's depravity. It's degradation. It's what people are wallowing in. You don't want that anymore. So you walk in the light. He says in verse 5 of 1 John 1, this then is a message we have heard of Him and declare unto you that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Shouldn't we love what God loves and hate what He hates? We ought to love walking in the light, abiding in Christ, 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 is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. I guarantee you something. If you're walking in the light, you become more sensitive to darkness. You get convicted. It's one of the ways I know that I'm saved. I get convicted when I sin. We derive, think about this, Jesus is the light of the world and He came as the Word of God to communicate salvation. We are to reflect His light and share His Word. Look at this over in Philippians chapter 2. This all goes right together. Philippians chapter 2, verse 14. Alright now, how are you going to be light in a world of darkness? You recognize it's God working in you. Verse 13, ìFor it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.î Verse 14, ìDo all things without murmurings and disputings.î You know what? Thatís how lost people act. Murmuring, disputing, arguing, fussing, but rather that you may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, notice what it says, among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth, what? The Word of Life. That's what light is commissioned to do. It's what Jesus did. He said that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. See, we are to walk in the light, communion. We are to be the light and share the Word. The way we live, how we talk, and how we interact in this world, people ought to know. that you're reflecting the light of Jesus. To what end? That God might be glorified. That's how the quote started the night Jesus gave us an impossible task in and of ourselves. But if He's brought you out of darkness, put you in and translated you into His marvelous light, to walk with Him, and commune with Him, and draw spiritual strength from Him, and to grow in Him, and abide in Him, and commune with Him. You're going to be children of light! And you're going to reflect all that glory that He's working in you. And one day, every bit of darkness is going to be completely dispelled from our lives. There's not going to be any more flesh. No more carnality. No more sin. And we are going to bask in the light of the glory of God. And we're going to see Jesus, the light of the world as He is. It's a glorious truth. What a wonder that we are the light of the world. We're to be the light reflecting Jesus.