[0:00] We're going to look now at Matthew chapter 4 verses 12 through 17. I'm going to read the text for us again, and then we will just dive right in today. It says, When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.
[0:12] He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
[0:30] The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. From then on, Jesus began to preach, repent because the kingdom of heaven has come near.
[0:41] Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, we thank you for this blessing of coming together this morning. God, I thank you for the children. I thank you for this church. I thank you for the people who are in this room. And Lord, now I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to understand your word.
[0:56] And God, I pray that you would transform us so that we can leave this place and walk as children of the light. We love you, Jesus, and we praise you. And it's in your name that we pray. Amen.
[1:08] All right. So I want to start off by giving you a little bit of context here. The transition that we see here in verse 12. When he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.
[1:20] That withdrawing into Galilee, that shift in the ministry of Jesus to a focused ministry in Galilee, did not occur directly after the events of him being tempted in the wilderness.
[1:34] Last week, we talked through the testing and the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, Matthew 4, 1 through 11. And here in verse 12, it says, when he heard that John had been arrested. There's actually a gap of time here between these two events.
[1:47] Okay? And it's a pretty sizable gap of time. Matter of fact, if you look at the gospel of John, chapters 1 through 4 of John's gospel kind of show us a handful of things that have happened since the baptism and the testing of Jesus in the wilderness and what has led up into this point where he is now going into Galilee to begin his public ministry.
[2:11] John 1 through 4 lists a handful of things that Jesus has done. He's already done the first sign. He's turned water into wine. He's already cleansed the temple the first time.
[2:23] You remember he made whips and cords and went in and ran the money changers out of the temple. He's already met with Nicodemus at night. That's where Jesus says that just as the serpent in the wilderness was lifted up, so the son of man must be lifted up.
[2:39] And he also, where we get John 3, 16, that conversation with Nicodemus. He's also passed through from Jerusalem, Judea, up through Samaria into the northern region of Galilee.
[2:51] So at this point, he's already met with the woman at the well. So Jesus has done a handful of things. His ministry is already going. But now we see this transition, and it says, when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee.
[3:05] I want you to understand that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, these guys are known as the synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, meaning same. They tell a very similar story of the life of Jesus.
[3:17] Their goals, each of the three of them, is not to present a chronological ordered event, events list of the life of Jesus.
[3:28] Their goals were to present the portrait of Christ for us to understand him and his person and his ministry as a whole. And they specifically focused on the ministry of Jesus in Galilee.
[3:40] The gospel of John is different. John's gospel focuses on the ministry of Jesus in Jerusalem. And you might say, why? Why is it so unique compared to the others? Well, John wrote his gospel at least 30 years after the last one of the synoptists, Luke, wrote his.
[3:56] So, John was kind of filling in the gaps of things that they might have missed. They didn't include. All right? So, what we have here in this picture of Jesus is Matthew shows us the emphasis on the Galilean ministry.
[4:15] Okay? That means, when I say Galilean, I mean the northern part of Israel. Okay? The southern part of Israel was Jerusalem and Judea, the greater area around Jerusalem. And then the northern portion of Israel is Galilee.
[4:28] Okay? So, that's a little bit nerdy information. But you have it anyways. Okay? So, now, the reason that Jesus began his ministry in Galilee, the catalyst for this movement into Galilee for full-time ministry, is John's arrest.
[4:44] That's John the Baptist was arrested. Now, here's the thing. John, Jesus going into Galilee was not to protect himself or to go into hiding and have some sort of a private ministry in the northern region of Israel so that he wouldn't have the same fate as John the baptizer.
[5:02] Jesus wasn't trying to avoid political pressure. I think that this is actually because John had a specific purpose to his ministry. Remember, John was the forerunner. The one who went before the Messiah.
[5:15] John's ministry as a forerunner and prophet was now complete. And so, Jesus steps into the spotlight. And where would he step into the spotlight?
[5:27] Well, right here in Galilee. Now, that leads us to another question. Why Galilee? Why would Jesus minister in Galilee, the northern part of Israel, away from the religious center of Jerusalem, Judea?
[5:44] Why would he minister the Messiah up north? Doesn't it seem like it would make more sense for the Messiah to spend his time around all of the religious leaders? It kind of does.
[5:55] There's a few reasons that Jesus' ministry in Galilee makes even more sense than that. All right? So, first of all, there's socioeconomic, population, and religious reasons for Jesus focusing his ministry in the north.
[6:09] All right? Galilee was a hub for fishing and agriculture. It was also a massive trade route. So, merchants and fishermen and tradesmen, they all lived in Galilee.
[6:21] Josephus, the historian, actually records that there were 204 villages in Galilee, each of which hosting a population of 15,000 people.
[6:32] I'm not very good at math, but that's about 3 million people. So, it was a densely populated agricultural community that also focused on fishing and trade.
[6:45] And so, there were a lot of people up there. So, why would Jesus go up to Galilee? Well, there's a ton of people there. Huge gospel reach, right? His message would be heard by many. Now, there's also this religious side of things where Jesus, ministering in Galilee, was ministering to a people who would be more receptive to his message.
[7:05] All right? Even though, as we see in this text today, these were individuals who were living in darkness, they were more open and receptive to his teaching, to his gospel message.
[7:17] So, Galilee was an interesting place in the time of Christ. Okay? Because going back to the Old Testament, when the Assyrians came and wiped out the northern kingdom of Israel, they never repopulated Galilee, the northern region, with more Jewish people.
[7:36] Never happened. Until about 100 or 200 years before the life of Jesus, after the Maccabean Revolt, they were able to populate, repopulate that area, the northern portion of Israel, with Jews.
[7:49] All right? But as you can see, it was an ethnically mixed group of people in that region. People who were there for fishing, people who were there for trade, people who were there for agriculture. Could have been from anywhere.
[8:01] All right? In Galilee, there's a massive route that goes through, a Roman road, the Maris something. And then that road goes through. It's a huge trade route. It goes from Damascus to Phoenicia, all the way through Galilee, right through Capernaum, which is where Jesus went.
[8:16] Now, the other aspect of this is that not only were there more people, not only were they more religiously open to hearing his message and hearing his preaching, but they were also blue-collar folks, right?
[8:27] This is not Jesus ministering to the uppity first-class echelon of people. He came to minister to the unexpected. Jesus is the Messiah for the unexpected. So that's at least some of the reason why Jesus ministered in the north.
[8:43] But I want you to see that the primary reason by far that Jesus focused his ministry in Galilee is because God the Father said so.
[8:53] All right? At the end of the day, Jesus ministered in the north because God had prophetically spoken through the prophet Isaiah that he would minister in the north. So that's what Matthew's focus is.
[9:06] Matthew wants us to see that Jesus' Galilean ministry is well within the providence of God, the sovereignty of God, the plan of God, if you will. That's why Jesus ministered in Galilee.
[9:19] All right? So Matthew says he left Nazareth. By the way, Nazareth, that's where Jesus was from. He was from Galilee. Nazareth is in the north. Okay? At this point, he had been rejected by his people.
[9:30] He taught in the temple and said, this passage that I'm reading is being fulfilled before your eyes. And then the people of Nazareth were like, hey, wait a second. Aren't you Joseph's son, the carpenter?
[9:41] And we know your mom and brothers and sisters. And they wanted to arrest or kill Jesus. So he had to get out of Nazareth. And now he's taking up residence in Capernaum by the sea.
[9:52] And this is in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. Now we went through the book of Joshua. I know it's been a while. You've slept since then and I've preached since then. But if you, those things might have happened at the same time, right?
[10:05] And anyways, but if you remember in the book of Joshua, the land distribution, that really long message, that wasn't really a sermon. It was teaching.
[10:16] It was like 45 minutes that day. It was a lot of fun for me. But, you know, anyways, I had the slides up with all of the maps. And Zebulun and Naphtali, these are up in the north, right around the Sea of Galilee, the Lake of Galilee.
[10:28] Okay? And so Nazareth is where Naphtali, I'm sorry. Yeah, Naphtali, Nazareth is in Naphtali and Capernaum is in Zebulun. So Jesus is ministering in these areas.
[10:40] At this point in time, the tribal allotments meant very little except for the tribal allotment for Judah. Okay? But this is what it says. Matthew in verse 14, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah.
[10:52] Now listen, this is one of Matthew's fulfillment passages. There's 10 of these in the Gospel of Matthew. We've already looked at a few of them. If you remember back when it said, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet, out of Egypt I have called my son.
[11:06] Right? Matthew explaining why Joseph took his family into Egypt to flee from Herod. It's because God said that would happen. So now you see here, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah.
[11:17] Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, along the road by the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
[11:32] So Isaiah calls this Galilee of the Gentiles, or of the nations, and Matthew translates that to the cultural term of his day, Galilee of the Gentiles. So again, this is because it was an ethnically mixed population in the north because of the industry that was up there.
[11:49] All right? So Jesus now focuses his ministry in Galilee. All right? And Charles Spurgeon, preaching on this passage, he said that Charles Spurgeon was a fantastic preacher from the 1600s.
[12:01] He's known as the Prince of Preachers. All right? And he said on this passage, Jesus, He will go to the outcasts, to that part of his country which was most neglected, to that region where the population was mixed and degenerate, so as to be called not Galilee of the Jews, but Galilee of the Gentiles, where from distance from Jerusalem, little was known of the worship of the temple, where error was rampant, and where men's minds were enveloped in darkness, and their hearts in the gloom of death shade.
[12:33] You see the picture here of Jesus ministering in Galilee. It didn't make sense, and yet God spoke, and so Jesus obeyed. Okay? Now Jesus is ministering in Galilee.
[12:47] I want you to notice a few things about this passage because you're probably sitting here thinking, how in the world does where Jesus ministered matter to me? I want to show you because I think this passage absolutely applies to us.
[12:59] Absolutely and clearly applies to us. So the people in Galilee, where Jesus was ministering, the text says they live in darkness. In Isaiah, if you look at Isaiah 9-1, it says, or 9-2, it doesn't say that they live in darkness, it says that they walk in darkness.
[13:16] Matthew intensifies this. These people who were walking in darkness stopped trying to find their way out and instead took up residence. They were comfortable in the darkness.
[13:27] There was a real darkness there. But they have seen a great light. It says a light has dawned. Those who living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
[13:40] Matthew is telling us something. He's making a spiritual point that we have to recognize, and it's that these people, again, are so comfortable in darkness. And when I say darkness, I mean apart from God.
[13:53] They're comfortable being separated from God, spiritually destitute. They were so comfortable in that that they took up residence. But there's an amazing glimmer of hope in this passage.
[14:05] It's that those who dwell in darkness have seen a great light. The light has dawned. There's the spiritual element of this passage that we have to understand.
[14:18] We know where Galilee was, where Jesus ministered, why he ministered up there, but I want you to see the spiritual element of this because it matters for us because the presence of darkness is still clear and present in our world today.
[14:31] And people still live in darkness today. Some in this very room might be living in spiritual darkness apart from Christ. So I want to take a moment, and I want to talk through the nature of darkness, the nature of darkness, because there's a reality here that people still live in darkness.
[14:55] All right, let's talk through a few features of darkness. Okay? First of all, if it is pitch black, no light present, you cannot see anything. Right?
[15:06] You can't see anything. When I was a kid, I went to a tour of Mammoth Cave up in Kentucky. Anybody ever done that, Mammoth Cave? Did you stay the night? Yeah? Fun times, right?
[15:17] Did your tour guide have everybody turn off their flashlights and make you stand there in pitch black? You remember that? Let me tell you something. As like an eight-year-old, that was terrifying. Okay? They make you stand there, but you really appreciate how dark dark can be.
[15:32] I mean, you can't see your hand in front of your face. So dark. And being in darkness like that is incredibly disorienting. Right? If you were trying to go to your right or your left, if you were, well, let's navigational tools, if you were trying to go east, west, north, south, you would have no idea where you were headed.
[15:51] So in darkness, there's a picture of lostness. And so these who were living in darkness, there's a picture here of someone who is lost, separated from God, and is living in sin.
[16:05] There's a disorienting reality there for someone who's lost. They can't find their way out. Someone who's in darkness can't find their way to the light. Someone in the absence of light would even be scared of the light if it showed up.
[16:20] And Jesus talked about that himself. But that's what the darkness is like. People in the darkness of sin trying to reach God through their good works, trying to reach God through kindness, trying to reach God through any number of things, religion, any number of things, people trying to reach God, but they're just grasping at straws, completely lost in the darkness.
[16:45] And friend, if you are in that place of spiritual darkness, then you know what I'm talking about. You know what this means. And if you are in Christ, then you remember what that darkness was like.
[16:58] You remember what it was like before you knew Jesus, before you grabbed a hold of his light, before you walked in his marvelous light. So darkness is disorienting.
[17:09] There's a picture of lostness here. Darkness is also dangerous. All right? Now, very practically, I will show you how dangerous darkness can be. Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you.
[17:21] Have you ever walked through your house in the middle of the night in the dark and stepped on a Lego? Okay. So you understand. Darkness is dangerous.
[17:32] There are real dangers present in the dark. And you can't see it. Right? You can't see them. But it's not just that you might step on a Lego. You also can't see what's in front of you. When I was a kid, I was running through a movie theater one time.
[17:44] It was pretty dark. I shouldn't have been doing it. But anyway, I was actually, I was chasing my brother who wasn't supposed to be running. So I was like, I'll help, Dad. You know what I mean? And I took off running around the movie theater. And I couldn't see a chair clip my leg.
[17:57] And I fell face first into a cup holder of another chair. My whole face was, oh, it was horrible. I had this huge cut and bruise on my face for picture days in fourth grade. It was awful.
[18:08] It was awful. But it's dangerous to run in the dark. You can't see where you're going. You'll stumble over yourself. You'll stumble over anything. You can't see anything. It's dangerous. But there's another danger of darkness that I want you to see.
[18:20] Like those who lived in the darkness, they were walking in it. They became so comfortable in darkness that they decided to dwell there. There's a real danger of becoming comfortable in the dark.
[18:31] So comfortable that you flee from the light. That's a real danger. Instead of trying to escape it, they rest in it. The loss of this world who have rejected the gospel would be in that camp.
[18:44] And friend, that's a dangerous place to be. That darkness is a dangerous place to be. Now there's also an analogous picture of gloom and sorrow.
[18:54] Right? When someone is particularly, you know, melancholy or sad or whatever, we might describe that as, there's just this darkness that I can't seem to shake.
[19:06] Even someone who's suffering with depression or some other, you know, mental ailment of some sort, there's a gloom, a sadness that we kind of use to describe these things, right? A darkness of the soul.
[19:18] There's a sorrow and despair in the dominion of darkness. And the gloom of darkness brings about fear and turmoil in the soul. But when someone has their hope anchored in Christ, and they know the light of the world, the person, Jesus, there is rest.
[19:41] In that darkness and gloom that you might be living in right now, there is no lasting rest. There's no satisfaction for your soul, but in Christ, it's available.
[19:51] Spurgeon, again, he said, in consequence of being in the darkness of ignorance and error, these people were wrapped in the gloom of discomfort and sorrow. Darkness is an expressive type of sorrow.
[20:03] The mind that knows not God knows not the heart's best rest. And the very real gloom of darkness leads us to the next picture or reality here when we think about darkness.
[20:16] And that is that darkness is listed here in the text as the shadow of death. It says, for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.
[20:28] Matthew and Isaiah both call this darkness, the shadow of death. And if you live your life separated from Christ in the darkness of the world of sin, then you know what I'm talking about here.
[20:41] There is a fear of death because of what the Bible says comes after. People in this place of darkness, spiritual depravity, separated from God, cannot lay their head down at night with comfortable thoughts because of the fear of death.
[20:59] Darkness in this way is the shadow of death. The shadow casts darkness over us. In Ephesians, God's word describes this place of spiritual darkness as spiritual death.
[21:12] It says, and we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were dead, right? Those who are in Christ were dead and they're now alive. If you've heard the truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ but rejected it, you are probably living in fear and despair at the prospect of death.
[21:31] Spurgeon continued that quote. He said, there is no solace for our griefs like the gospel of Jesus Christ. And those who are ignorant of it are tossed about upon a stormy sea without an anchorage.
[21:43] Glory be to God when sorrow has brought on a midnight. Grace can transform it to a noon. There's this beautiful picture of hope. There is hope.
[21:55] If you are in darkness, if you are separated from God, there is hope. There is hope. This isn't just a doom and gloom message, okay? There is hope.
[22:07] Look at the text. The people who live in darkness have seen a great light. And for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. Jesus steps into the darkness of our world and offers His salvation.
[22:23] Jesus Christ, the God of the universe, the Son of God, took on human flesh and stepped into darkness. John the Apostle talks about Jesus as the light of the world.
[22:37] in John 1, 4 and 5 and verse 9. It says, In Him was life and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness and yet the darkness did not overcome it.
[22:50] Jesus, the light of the world, is undefeated against darkness. John 1, 9, the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. And Jesus Himself, after healing a man born blind, by the way, picture darkness, never seen light.
[23:06] born blind. This man was born blind. Jesus says in John 8, 12, Jesus spoke to them again, I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.
[23:21] Let me take just a moment and share with you the functions of light. We've looked at the functions of darkness. Now let's talk through light a little bit. Light, as I've already mentioned, offers us the ability to see.
[23:34] Light gives us the ability to see. Like that's pretty, like, you should know that, right? We know, like, apart from light, we cannot see. And Jesus, the light of the world, reveals the darkness in our world and in our hearts.
[23:48] Jesus, being the light of the world, gives us the ability to see our sin and respond to His gospel call. Jesus illuminates the darkness so that we can see the corruption and sin around us and in us, and He allows us to see Him in His glory.
[24:04] The light of the world exposes the darkness. All right? Another function of light, did you know that light is really important for your body's regulation? Did you know that? Like sleep cycles.
[24:15] But also, there's this really important thing, and you might know what I'm talking about here. There's a mental disorder. It's called SAD. Have you heard of this? Seasonal affective disorder. Okay, it happens, you know, through the winter months.
[24:29] Days are shorter, nights are longer, sometimes you're waking up and going into work before the sun rises, you're leaving work after the sun's gone down, you don't see the sun for a whole day, and what happens is your body completely dysregulates, and you have emotional and mental challenges, right?
[24:46] Like a real depression can overcome. There's a real issue here, it's called seasonal affective disorder. When we're cut off from the sun, souls can become gloomy. But did you know that one of the first treatments for seasonal affective disorder is light therapy?
[25:01] Do you know that? It literally put you under light because light regulates your body. Light regulates your body. And Jesus, as the light of the world, offers for you not only a refreshment of the soul, not only an encouragement of the soul, but new life separated from the gloom and the sadness of the darkness that you might be living in.
[25:24] Jesus offers for you true life and life in him. He is the light of the world and in him was life and that life was the light of men. Jesus offers that to you. So you don't have to live consumed by darkness and dread.
[25:38] You can be completely supplied and sustained by the person and work of Jesus Christ. You don't have to look for external sources for satisfaction. Jesus offers his light to you freely.
[25:52] There's one last thing that I want to point to and I'm out of time. I timed this out today. I was trying. Anyway, there's one last thing that I want to point to in terms of what light does. You know, that you cannot see colors without light.
[26:05] So take a look around the room. You see our stained glass? Okay. You see some of these colors, right? You see the green, the other green, the brown, the pink, the purple, the blue. You see all these colors.
[26:15] The orange. Like it's very pleasing to the eyes to see colors, right? To see beauty. Light makes that possible. We were in this room last night watching a movie with the kids ministry and the room was dark and you could not see that those window panes were colored at all.
[26:33] You couldn't see the stained glass. Light gives us the ability not only to see, period, but also to see and perceive things like color and beauty. And Jesus, the light of the world, opens our eyes to see the beauty of God's grace, the colors of his mercy, the depth of his love.
[26:53] Jesus makes that possible because Jesus is the light of the world who illuminates for us the things and the work and the majesty of God. Jesus is the light of the world who makes that possible.
[27:06] And I want you to think with me for just a moment about heaven. The Bible describes heaven in all sorts of beautiful, beautiful terms and phenomenological language, all this beauty that is displayed in heaven.
[27:18] Did you know that the sun that we have in our solar system is not going to be the source of light and energy for heaven? Did you know that? There won't even be another sun in the sky because Jesus is the light who will make the beauties of heaven perceivable for us.
[27:37] There is hope in the light of the world. You don't have to live in darkness. The people in Galilee didn't have to live in darkness because Jesus stepped into their place.
[27:50] And Jesus has stepped into your place as well on the cross. And so I know if you're here and you are in darkness then you're probably sitting there thinking well Joe that all sounds great but what am I supposed to do?
[28:02] Well Jesus tells you thank the Lord, right? Verse 17 From then on Jesus began to preach repent because the kingdom of heaven has come near. Friend if you are living in darkness there is a call to repent of your sin to turn from that darkness and turn to the light of Jesus Christ.
[28:25] There is power in his name and he is able to forgive you of your sins cleanse you of all unrighteousness and save your very soul from condemnation and separation from God.
[28:38] In Acts chapter 2 when the first sermon was preached in the early church the hearers were convicted the Bible says that they were pierced to their heart and they asked Peter and the disciples they said brothers what must we do?
[28:57] There is an urgency there what must we do? If you hear the gospel message then you have to ask in your heart what am I supposed to do? Peter's response same as Jesus repent repent Peter said repent and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
[29:15] Listen you have to repent of your sin and believe in Jesus. He is the light of the world. He illuminates the darkness. Now Jesus said in John chapter 3 when he was talking to Nicodemus you know verse 316 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
[29:39] You know that verse? Sometimes we stop there but we really shouldn't. Verse 17 says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. Jesus didn't come to condemn you in your sin.
[29:51] Do you know why? Because your sin has already condemned you before God. You've already sinned and separated yourself from God. Jesus didn't have to come and do that for you. You took care of that one.
[30:02] I took care of that one. Jesus didn't come to condemn he came to save. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned but anyone who does not believe is already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only son of God.
[30:17] Jesus said this is the judgment. The light has come into the world but the people hated the light. They wanted to hide in their darkness like a cockroach when the lights turn on how they scurry off. That's the picture here of people who choose to live in darkness instead of stepping into the light of the world.
[30:33] Jesus Christ. And my invitation to you today is the same as Jesus is here in Matthew 3 17. Repent. Repent because the kingdom of heaven is near.
[30:44] Jesus has inaugurated his kingdom. You can have a taste of heaven if only you would step into his light. So if you have this burning desire to figure out what that all means please come talk to me.
[30:58] Okay? And then for the believer in the room and if you choose today to follow Jesus to believe in him and receive him as your savior and Lord then I want you to know that the next step and for us who are believers the proper step of obedience after hearing a passage like this is to be the light of the world.
[31:16] Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 we'll get here in a few months. Okay, anyway. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.
[31:27] Verse 16 Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven. Jesus makes it so clear for us who are in Christ what the gospel call is.
[31:41] It's to be the light of the world. To do good works in his name so that the world who lives in darkness would see those good works and glorify God. Ephesians chapter 5 Paul talks about this idea of being the light in the Lord.
[31:55] Ephesians chapter 5 he says that you are no longer children of the darkness for you were once in darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness and righteousness and truth testing what is pleasing to the Lord.
[32:11] Don't participate in the fruitless works of darkness but instead expose them. So look if you are the light in the Lord if you are a child of the light if you have believed in Jesus Christ then put away the sins and the darkness that you once walked in.
[32:27] Those two darkness and light don't go together. Light overcomes. Walk as a child of the light put away the sin put away the darkness don't walk as those who are in darkness continue to walk walk instead as a free man or woman in the Lord Jesus Christ as a child of the light.
[32:48] That's the gospel call for those who believe already in the name of Jesus. Alright we're gonna close Eric's gonna play a song for us and we're gonna pray but listen I want you to respond as God leads you to respond.
[33:01] If you have never stepped into the light of Jesus Christ if you've never understood his grace if you've never perceived his beauty then let the light of Jesus illuminate it for you so that you can today believe in him and repent of your sins and if you wanna talk about that please come talk with me and if you're a believer in the room then just take a moment and celebrate the fact that God has shown a great light in your life in your darkness and has won the victory for you and then commit your life to walking in the light and that might look different application wise for each of us one of you might be called to be a preacher if God's calling you then respond alright one of you might be called to start a ministry if God's calling you respond whatever God is leading you to do as a child of the light to let your light shine before men respond obediently let's pray together Lord Jesus we thank you for who you are thank you oh Lord that you have called us and saved us thank you that you are the light of the world and God that in you we have the refreshment and nourishment for our very souls we love you
[34:07] Jesus and we praise you and it's in your name that we pray amen and we'll see you Thank you.