Gospel—R. Klassen
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Tonight by singing hymn #14.
In #14.
God loves the world.
I say your results and happy birthday and I.
Love.
You.
Like the same 2 verses?
Of him 109.
Just the 1St 2 verses of him 109.
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Lord is boundless, perfect.
Now it's at the time considers our ground us.
Love the source of all my blessings.
On me.
A lot of grandkids.
Love. Go love.
Let's go.
Oh, the cross sun rises one dress.
Where I learn God's heart to me.
It's the sun.
That is life.
I also see Holy Grail.
Just as Friday fall expression.
In that same.
Light as long as I traveling for what you are drawing.
It's all framing.
Let's open our precious Bibles Word of God to a verse in the Second Corinthians chapter 4.
Before I read the verse that's.
On my mind.
Like to share a little experience that my wife and I had when we were in Port Orange.
We went out with some of our brethren there to a restaurant.
And, you know, there's a lot of things going on in the restaurant and talk and so on and.
And as we were sitting there, six of us, we heard a conversation off to the right, and it was a woman that was speaking to a couple of older ones. And it was very obvious that there was an exchange of the truth of the word of God between them. It was just a sight that I just couldn't put together, just.
You know.
Sometimes things make sense, but this didn't.
But anyway, my curiosity was up enough to kind of glance out of the corner of my eye and and watch this woman with such enthusiasm and clarity speak, quote a verse and so on. And I noticed the the older folks were kind of nodding and entered into the conversation and so.
The they finished eating and went out and she went on serving tables and.
She come in our area and and I looked at her and I said, you know, I heard some conversation going over there that interested me very much.
And I said, are you a Christian? Oh, she said, indeed, I am a Christian. And I said, well, can you just tell us how you got saved? And. And she kind of shook her head and.
Down in Port Orange.
We were there one time when the motorcyclists come into that town.
Half the million of them right in these Harley-Davidson Hondas and showpieces. And, and of course it's going 24 hours. And, and what happens is there are a lot of prodigal sons and prodigal daughters who just want to kind of get away from their profession and, and come into this town and spend a week. And, and of course the merchants of the town is kind of their harvest time and it's in the month of March.
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While we were there to witness that one time and we make sure that we're not in the town in the month of March, but being down there, things were kind of just beginning to catch on, so we fled.
But anyway, this is what she said.
She said, you know, I was a biker and I was a real biker.
And that was my life.
And she said, I look forward to this annual meeting down here.
And she said, I don't know, it was last year, the year before.
That she heard the gospel preached.
And she was saved.
The darkness of her soul was dispelled, and so she got a job at this restaurant and she said, you know.
Just this last weekend, she said. I was with a group of druggies.
And she says, I know that life. I know what they're thinking.
And they know that they're sinners and they need somebody to bring it right home to them and no uncertain terms. And she said when I got finished with that bunch of tough fellas that said they were all down on their faces weeping.
In the misery of their sins.
Well, you know God is free to use whom so every well.
These sovereigns. And I just thought, cool, if I got involved with something like that, I'd be fortunate to get out of there with my life. So here's a vessel that is fitted for this. And with the happiest face, she says. You know, the bikers are coming to Port Orange and I'm just waiting for them to come and I'm going to speak to them. So when they come into the restaurant, the kind of a captive audience there for a little bit.
Well, this verse that we're going to read.
With Border, or I should say it connects a little bit with the story. We're in Second Corinthians chapter 4 and read verse 6.
For God, who commanded the light.
To shine out of darkness have shined in our hearts.
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
Now I believe that this is what took place in her life.
She wasn't interested in religion. That had totally disappointed her, but somehow the speaker, as he was speaking, he brought forth the face of Jesus Christ and what you see in that living face.
Well.
The first thing we have here?
God we've been saying about God as light, and God is love.
There was a book room that had a lot of text printed up. One text said God is light and the other said God is love. And they sold a whole lot of text of God is love but not very many about God is light. But you know, that's where it starts, isn't it light?
That shows us what we are before a holy God. We try to hide from that light.
Does that light penetrate?
And it's good that it does. And as that light penetrates.
And exposes us what we are.
Then God now comes in with his love.
To break us down, to perform a work in us that's going to be for eternity.
Now God in Genesis chapter one verse three, it says that God commanded the light.
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To shine out of darkness. That seems backward, doesn't it?
It seems backward because we enjoy the light and we wait for the break of day and then we see the darkness take over and the even tide and go through the night.
But God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, and he separated a light.
From the night and to give us light for our way in Genesis chapter 3.
And Ecclesiastes tells us that the light is sweet.
Then indeed it is to see the sun come up this morning. I was coming up this morning and if you saw it, it was just a Crimson glow that spread out across the skies with a gold.
Border on it, I just thought.
You know.
The glowing splendor as we sing.
Of the coming of the Lord, what that's going to be like.
And I believe whether it's a sunrise or the sunset.
That God is reminding man.
That there's a glory beyond that he doesn't want to miss.
And so for those who have died in Christ, saved by his grace, they've gone beyond the sunset, have entered into a day where there's no night, no night there. And what a wonderful day that will be.
But this is not the darkness here that we're talking about. We're going to read a little bit about this darkness. You turn to Amos, the book of Amos.
I.
Obadiah.
Oh, Amos. Amos, chapter 8.
And verse 9.
And it shall come to pass.
In that day saith the Lord God.
That I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.
Oh, you know, this is a prophetic scripture.
And this did happen.
And it happened.
On the day of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, and here he is.
And it's a clear day.
You know, if man has purposes that are not good, the weather has a bearing, the sky has a bearing upon whether he's going to carry it out or not. And think of man's intent on this day to crucify the Lord of glory.
It was a clear day.
It looked like it was a special day to carry out their purposes because sometimes we look at the sky and the elements and we say they're upset.
They're upset.
And it just kind of sobers us how upset the elements can get.
But here we have a prophetic scripture that says, and I will cause the sun to go down at noon.
You know, we had an experience.
Mount Saint Helen went off.
What it was like to have his son stop shining at noon, and it was eerie.
And we weren't expecting anything to happen, and we had the privilege of remembering the Lord on this Lord's day. I can look out the window and it seemed kind of strange out there that here comes the cloud and it doesn't look very good. It came overhead and the ash was dropping and it was totally dark outside a little bit after noon.
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Fast in an hour.
Oh, I tell you.
I just connected that with what it was like.
For those in Jerusalem and the whole land.
Have the son refused to shine at noon?
It's been said that.
Don't know exactly know what he was that he was renowned in something.
And as that day was progressing.
He said there's one of two things that's happening, he said either the universe.
Is falling apart or the creator is suffering.
He didn't say which one it was, but we know which one it was. Was the creator suffering?
God manifests in flesh.
Spend it on a Roman cross.
Condemned to die.
Because he was unworthy to live.
And there we have the greatest miscarriage of justice that has ever taken place in this world against that blessed man.
And yet he went to that cross.
In perfect justice to take away our sins.
That they could never rise against us again.
Well, you know that doesn't mean anything.
Someone in their sins, let's just talk and to be pushed away. But for my heart tonight, how wonderful to realize that in coming to Christ as a lost Sinner, my case was taken up there at the cross.
And justice was meant.
And the Lord Jesus met it.
And in those three hours of darkness, oh, to think of going into that horror of great darkness where there wasn't a glimmer of light.
And to be made sin for us who knew no sin.
Now we might be made to righteousness of God in him.
You know we all have a never dying soul. When you were born, you were born for eternity and every other man, woman and child in this world.
Have a never dying soul and they'll live forever.
And so it comes down to where.
Are we going to spend eternity?
Thankful for the memory.
Of the faithful preaching of the gospel of God's grace sat under many a gospel meeting. Now. Just like the hammer hit, and it hit, and it hit and it hit and it hit, and finally the stone was broken.
An old stone breaker who did a lot of breaking of stones. He was asked what blow breaks the stone.
He looked.
At the one that was asking him and he says they all do.
They all do. And so I might tell you whom God used to save my soul, and I thank God I can tell you who did it, that he was just a part of the hammer work.
And wonderful when the stone is broken and we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, just as we are have nothing to offer.
We come as lost in our sins. We know what we deserve. We deserve the judgement of God that God is love and God is light and God is love. And we can step into that circle tonight and be blessed for all eternity.
So if we turn to Matthew.
Where we read.
Those song words.
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Matthew 27 and verse 46.
45 now about the 6th hour.
There was darkness over all the land unto the 9th hour, and about the 9th hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Saved Eli, Eli, Lamisabeth and I. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Well, I enjoyed someone saying.
That during those three hours of darkness.
Eternity invaded time. Eternity that has nothing to do with time invaded time and performed an eternal work that will stand forever.
But oh, how great was that darkness.
I still don't like the darkness. I'm members of the little fella. I just dreaded the darkness. I didn't like to go out.
Unless I knew I could get back into the house before something happened. And I still don't like the darkness.
But I'm thankful that the Lord is with me and that he takes care of us in the circumstances that are very unpleasant.
He has promised to his own that he will never leave them nor forsake them.
And to think of that cry.
In that darkness.
When the Lord was.
Without any hope, he was in the place of abandonment. He couldn't call for help. He couldn't say, let me out.
No. And he bore stroke after stroke of God's wrath, all the fire of God's wrath that was upon that sacrifice, the Lamb of God, that is, that fire came upon him.
It could not penetrate that sacrifice.
Because it was holy.
And to think after three hours.
That the wrath of God was exhausted against our sins.
That wrath can never awaken again because God is satisfied with the work of Christ, and it's there that our souls have rest. What a rest we have.
You could go now to.
Verse 37.
I.
And set up over his head, his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Now I understand.
That the full title that was there on the cross was This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
And it was written in three languages.
Written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
Hebrew, Greek and Latin and it was a known language as of that day.
And if you were to look on that.
Superscription, that board that was apparently nailed to the cross that as you looked at it in each language, it was all about the same width.
And as you trace it in the Gospels, you find that it's expressed a little bit different, but it's according to the language that was up there in our English language. Some would be, one would be a little bit longer than the other and the other kind of in between. So it wouldn't have been a even and start to finish.
So that helped me to understand why it says that a little different. But be assured of this, there is no contradiction.
Suffer would like to make an issue of this, but he can't.
And so when it comes to the Greek.
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Looking up there.
At that superscription.
He knew which one was his to read.
And the Jew.
Was the one that was given the oracles of God.
And I'd just like to reflect back to that verse that we had in Second Corinthians for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Have shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge.
Of the glory, I'll just stop there. Three things.
And to take these three things and connect them with the three languages.
So the Hebrew would look up there at the cross, and he didn't like what he saw.
But here the Jew was favored.
To be given the oracles of God.
What a favored nation Israel was loved of God.
And plant it in a fruitful hill, and given every advantage. And what did they do with that light?
They corrupted it.
That's what they did. They corrupted that light.
And it didn't bring salvation, it brought misery. And that they took that and raided themselves about everybody else in this world because we're a favored nation.
God has given us the light.
Corrupted it.
Well, what's corrupted light worth? It's worthless.
And then we look up there the Greeks that were there.
They could look up at that superscription.
And what were they known for?
Well, the Greeks, you know, they were great philosophers.
You can pick up philosophy in school and here they are these slow down went through all that as a boy forgot their names and glad to do it. But anyway these men were intellectuals and they could figure out kind of the workings of creation and the universe and some idea of God and and so on and so there are many that have just spent the strength of their soul that.
Get into this philosophy and try to get something for their soul, and the end result is an empty heart. I don't care how great the man is in this world. I don't care what opinion men have of him and what the education system propounding this kind of thing. I don't understand.
When it's worthless.
And so how wonderful a day is when.
The Greek side of things pale out.
And we're left with one man for our hearts.
Well, then we come to the Romans. Written in Latin. The Romans could look up there and they had a big part in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They will come when you realize.
That a lot of the convulsion of this world that is going on is the fact that the Jew and the Roman was knocking hands and what's the issue? The issue is who crucified the Lord Jesus?
The Romans say the Jews did. The Jews say the Romans did. And this has been an issue for almost 2000 years. It has never been settled.
And the Pope, he's given overtures toward the Jew to try to overcome this situation.
And they can't overcome it.
And I'm not exactly sure how they're going to overcome it so that you have the Roman beast and the Jewish Antichrist.
Some kind of accord?
Having gotten a lot of power.
How they have been able to operate, so to speak, side by side. And this issue obviously is not settled and it will not be settled. God's going to settle the issue. He knows.
This world stands guilty of the death of his beloved son.
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And so the Romans are known for their glory.
Their exploits and conquering.
He said that the.
That the sun never went down on the Roman Empire as it made the whole circuit.
The Roman Empire.
The sun was shining on some part of it.
And they got to a military might so that their armies would come back and they would go up the Appian Rd. to Rome with their their spoiled their riches and brought it to the city and in their zenith of their pride they said.
All roads lead to Rome.
And that's still a saying today. But it's not true.
You can go to Rome. I was in Rome once.
I was glad to get out of there.
Darkness.
So we have these three things, the light and the knowledge and the glory And dear ones, tonight I write Ichabod over that which means of no value.
But if we turn back to that verse, 2 Corinthians.
Chapter 4.
Now we're going to find.
That when we read the rest of the verse.
Now it makes sense.
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Oh, now the light.
The knowledge and the glory of God shining in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, sometimes we.
Here of efforts that have been made to portray the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and I have to say.
That upsets me because it cannot be duplicated.
And I look into this face of.
Beyond glorified man.
After his resurrection, after his blood was shed to wash away our sins.
That he appears to his disciples who had the doors shut in the upper room for fear of the Jews, and when he stepped in there, he didn't have to open the door.
He was there and they were terrified. They were visibly shaking as they looked at this man.
And what were they seeing that caused this?
The last sight they had of the Lord Jesus as he hung on the cross.
It was a lifeless victim.
And his head rested upon his breast.
And that's the last they saw. But here is a man whose face is radiant.
And his eyes are full of love and it took a while to get them calmed down and he he kept talking to them and working with them.
It is I be not afraid. He showed them his hands and his feet, and they still had mixed emotions. And then he says, have you anything to eat?
They gave him a piece of broiled fish in a honeycomb.
And as they saw him eat that.
They calmed down.
They realized it was the same man that they had walked with.
On the Sea of by the Sea of Galilee.
What a man.
What light, what knowledge, what glory we see in that face tonight by faith, that faith that we're going to see.
And we're going to feel at home immediately.
And at rest.
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And so how wonderful for the apostle Paul, by the inspiration of Scripture, to give us just this one verse and as we read it.
We perceive that there is a mighty volume in this verse that will take us our life time to feed upon.
Draw out of it.
And give us light and love for our pathway and to be a light to others.
What a privilege children have of taking a little light.
The stool.
Because you go to school.
And from the time you start in till the day is over, you find that what you're getting there would cancel out what you're getting here tonight. And there's just that constant Wayne, one against the other. But how wonderful to be established at what you have tonight, what you have of this verse will give you to realize what a privilege you have to be not only the light of the world.
To be the salt of the earth. Neither salt nor light make any noise.
But light dispels the darkness, the salt resists the corruption that would come in to spoil.
And so to think of being a light in this hour just before we go home.
Let me encourage you in that.
And then when we step.
Into glory and we're with that blessed man. We're going to be thankful for every little thing that we were able to do. Perhaps there will be reproach.
But you know what reproach isn't?
Something that we should be afraid of.
Because there are times when.
I experience a reproach to be my protection.
If things were being carried on that were pretty sad, the talk was not good.
They would move away from me.
Thank God for that wall of protection.
So in closing, we'll just read this verse slowly for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
Now shine in our hearts.
We spoke of the light in Genesis 1/3 to give us light for a pathway. But this light, it doesn't say it shined into our hearts, it says it shined in our hearts.
Why? To dispel the darkness that is in the fallen heart.
To dispel the darkness of a fallen mind.
Oh, what a deliverance.
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
In the lovely beautiful face of Jesus Christ, what an object God has set before us. May it make worshippers out of these hearts of ours.
Go back to him 109.
And sing the last two stanzas of this Stanley.
To the side in heaven is glorious.
Laying right, just not since there.
What's the big time now before it? Jesus.
Will take morning care.
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One story.
God helps us, and until Friday.
Forever.
Boy from God's eyes.
Near the long time.