The Lamp and the Listening Heart
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115.12126
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Summary
Light is one of God's most wonderful creations. It was the first thing God made after he made the heavens and the earth. And ever since then, light has stood as a symbol of God s presence, his truth, and his life-giving power.
Transcript
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I tell you what, coming up to the front and hearing you all sing is a lot different than
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sitting in the back and hearing everybody sing.
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So what a blessing it is to be together this morning and to be able to open up the Word
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of God together, to hear it preached, to sing these songs. It fills me with joy each and
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every Sunday. If you haven't got there yet, you will need your Bible. Open it up to Luke
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chapter 8. This morning, by way of introduction, I want to begin by talking about light. Light
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is one of God's most wonderful creations. In fact, it was the very first thing God made
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
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And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
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From the very beginning we see in the Scriptures
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that light is something that pushes back darkness.
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It makes life flourish when there was only emptiness and void.
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light can be shared without ever being diminished it's not like money if i had ten dollars and i
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gave you five dollars i would have diminished my wealth i don't have ten dollars anymore i have
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five light isn't like that it's like fire if you have one candle that's lit and another that's not
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and you take the lit candle and light the other you didn't diminish the fire the fire is equal
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on both candles. This is what light is like. Or think of light focused into a laser.
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A single beam can reveal what's hidden from the naked eye. Scientists today are using lasers
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underneath ancient texts to see and reveal what's hidden under these old manuscripts.
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Words that have been blotted out, things that are not able to be seen with the naked eye,
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and it reveals to the lens what's hidden in darkness.
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It's important for us to understand how Jesus is using the analogy of light
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if we want to understand more faithfully what he says.
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If I were preaching a sermon about his use of sheep,
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I would have told you all about the function of sheep,
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what they eat, their behavioral patterns, the shepherds that watch over them.
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I would have told you all about its construction, its function, the priests that are within it.
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I would have told you these things because it's important for us to understand Christ's analogies
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So when we come to Luke 8, we see that Jesus picks up on this great theme of light.
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he tells us that light is something that god gives to us it's shared he doesn't hoard it
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for himself it's something that he gives to his people if you think about john where light came
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into the world it's talking about christ who is the light light is used to reveal what's hidden
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in darkness. And this morning, we're going to do something that we were all told not
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to do as kids, and look into the light. So join me, if you would, in looking at the light.
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Let's look at Luke chapter 8, verse 16. It says, No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers
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it with a vessel, or puts it under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who
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Jesus begins with something that every household in his day would have understood.
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They would have understood that a lamp's purpose is to illuminate a room.
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Just as I began my sermon talking about lasers and cameras, because we all understand what
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those things are, Jesus begins his teaching with lamps. Lamps in Jesus's day don't look like lamps
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in our day. You don't pull the string and the light comes on. In Jesus's day, a lamp was a clay
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dish filled with olive oil and had a small, simple cloth wick in it. People would place it on a stand
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To cover it up with a bowl or to shove it under a bed would be absurd.
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We don't buy lamps in our day just to put them in closets.
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In Scripture, the light can mean several different things.
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It can mean physical brightness, the calling forth of the sun,
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the natural light that we're feeling right now coming from behind me.
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But far more often, it's used to mean truth, revelation, and God making himself known to his people.
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Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.
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In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
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The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
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How can we fit together that Jesus is the light and that God's word is the light?
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It's because Jesus, who is the true light, reveals himself through the medium of his word.
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the scriptures are how god's light shines in our hearts it's how we understand who he is
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what he's like and what we are like in relationship to him the words that christ spoke
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and the message that he proclaimed are rays of truth that are coming into a very dark world
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think of it this way to put it in a small quip christ is the light his word is how he shines
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christ is the light but his word is how he shines
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so in luke 8 the lamp and the light is christ himself and the word he speaks is how we are
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able to understand him. That's vital. That's vital for us to understand. His gospel is the
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light that pierces the darkness. It reveals what's true. It exposes what's hidden, and it leads
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sinners out of shadows and into salvation. Jesus tells us plainly, this light is not meant to be
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hidden. Jesus did not hide his light. Even though shining it would cost him his own very life on
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the cross, he did not hide his light. He proclaimed truth boldly so that all who saw him might come
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into the kingdom of God and have their darkness illuminated by his presence.
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we see what will hide the light of a Christian.
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They're real daily threats for the believer's soul.
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and crowd out the word until there's no room left for faithfulness.
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For the believer, this means refusing to let endless demands of everyday life,
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our work, our finances, our schedules, social pressures,
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the word tells us how to live life rightly in all of these areas and to allow the cares of
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those things to choke out what god has clearly told us in his word about how we are to live
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it also means that we cannot let the deceitfulness of riches or pleasures in this world to smother
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just represent worry. It's also about misplaced
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comfort, and entertainment can lull us into spiritual
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have to ask ourselves regularly, do I value the light of
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more than my own success more than the approval of others and i just want to say this for american
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christians is something we all have to wrestle with the bible tells us that we are to leave
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an inheritance for our children's children that means financial blessing just as much as it does
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spiritual blessing. But in that pursuit of financial blessing, do not get lulled into the
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idea that the comforts that you feel along that path are home. They're not.
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By accidentally going off the path, we can choke out the light in our life.
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We can be more focused on the world than we are on Christ.
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I'm not dividing the physical from the spiritual here.
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But do not forget what the goal is of your salvation.
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The goal of our lives is to represent Christ, who is the light of the world.
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Not watch TV, live in our nice houses, drive fancy cars.
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We have to be vigilant because, as it says in the soils,
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that the devil can snatch the word away before it can take root.
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The seed on the path represents hearts that are hardened by distraction or pride.
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For the believer, this means resisting the enemy's lies.
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that you should pray with a humble, teachable spirit,
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These two temptations, comfort and distraction,
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are the temptations that are before the American church.
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satan has used them time and time again to distract his people or god's people
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from living faithful lives we cannot fall for his tricks
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we cannot lose sight of what matters most we have to be clear in our convictions about what
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the word tells us to do and to be we must be people who are of the book
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There's no opportunity for us to be distracted with anything else.
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From the least of us in the room to the greatest.
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From children, wives, husbands, all of us are easily distracted.
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Set your light on the lampstand, as Christ says,
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so that all who enter may see your light and be blessed
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by what the Lord is doing in you and through you.
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For nothing is secret that will not be revealed,
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nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light.
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The light is not merely for guidance, it's for exposure.
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But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light.
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It is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
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God's word is not merely for illumination or for information.
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It reveals our outward actions for what they truly are.
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It magnifies in a clear way what we really know about God.
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A doctor might know more about my wife than I do.
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He might know more about her nervous system, her digestive system,
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He might know more about her anatomy than I do.
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He doesn't know what side of the bed she likes to sleep on,
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how she takes her coffee, caramel macchiato, decaf, whole milk.
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He doesn't know what burdens she carries in prayer.
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The word of God reveals to them that they know a lot about him.
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Yet the light of God's word has not penetrated to the deepest parts of their heart.
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It has not revealed to them truly what they know about him.
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for the lord their knowledge is all head but no heart
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it's all brains without the feels this is common in reformed circles
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in our culture we've praised the feelings that we get from
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the lord to a point where it's almost unbiblical
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to the point where we feel nothing when we come to the Lord
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whether our obedience is real obedience rooted in love whether our hearts truly belong to Christ or
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not the word of God reveals these things to us it exposes what's hidden
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the scriptures teach that while the Lord alone knows who's his and who's not you and I can't
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know this information infallibly. The word also teaches that we are to test ourselves,
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to seek assurance. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 13, 5,
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Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize
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this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test.
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When Paul says that we are to examine ourselves, he's not calling us to endless doubt and morbid introspection.
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He's urging us to look for real evidence of Christ working in our lives.
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To see whether we have a faith that actually trusts in the Lord.
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Obedience to his word and a life that keeps turning back to him and repentance.
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Yet time and time again, he failed the Lord.
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And what separated him from a non-believer is that when he failed, he came back to the Lord.
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But genuine faith, no matter how small, leans towards Christ.
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Those who are children of darkness recede from the light.
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children of darkness cannot stand when light exposes them for who they truly are
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but children of the light run towards the light though it hurts at times
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the goal of this examination is not to drive us into despair
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so if you see the evidence of god's grace in your life
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rejoice for god is at work in you praise the lord for what he's done in you
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but if you see areas of hypocrisy or unbelief in the lord
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Although faith is a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence towards us,
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founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ,
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it is not idle, but produces a life of obedience.
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Obedience is not the cause of salvation, but the fruit of salvation.
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A faith that never produces obedience is no true faith at all.
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So here are some questions to help you with your own examination of your heart.
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true believers may stumble but they cannot remain content to live in sin
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no true believer can do this you will be so convicted in your spirit that you cannot remain
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in sin so you may fail in your obedience to christ but that does not prevent you
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is at work in you, making sin something you cannot tolerate. You can't tolerate it. None of us can.
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If your conscience is growing harder and harder, and you see more and more sin in your life,
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there's a problem. You must seek out whatever is holding you back from the Lord and repent of it.
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His children will feel that conviction and still come to him.
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His children will have a repentance like Peter,
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Do I love Christ above all and long for others to know him too?
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A true evidence that the light is at work in you is that you have a burning desire to share that light
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in your homes, in your workplaces, in your community.
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This will reveal the true nature of your heart.
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that true believers may have their faith shaken at times
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Yet that does not mean that they have lost salvation itself.
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Even a mustard seed faith unites us to Christ and saves us.
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But we ought to never be content with mustard seed faith.
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We must desire the faith that Christ has given to us to grow and bear fruit as he says it will.
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Church, let the word of God shine in your heart.
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Not to condemn you, but to reveal to you where you need his grace
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and to confirm the good work that God has begun in you.
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As Martin Luther said, faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone.
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says therefore take heed how you hear for whoever has to him more will be given
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and whoever does not have even what he seems to have will be taken from him
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Some of your translation says, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.
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Jesus ends this teaching with a very serious warning.
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After speaking of light, he tells us to take heed how we hear.
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It's interesting because light is not something we normally hear, right?
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If we understand that the Word of God is the light,
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You hear the light that is preached through the Word.
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So then why does Jesus tell us to take heed how we hear it?
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because how we hear the word determines everything
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whether the light transforms us or leaves us in darkness
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jesus knows that simply hearing the word is not enough
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in our cross-reference for this passage that we all heard read to us
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james teaches that we cannot just be hearers of the word
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this is what it means to be careful how we hear
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Some received the word with joy, but fell away after testing.
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Only the good soil hears and holds fast to the word of God,
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he's warning that eternal life and eternal loss hangs in the response to his word
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that sounds arminian right it doesn't mean that a true believer can lose their salvation
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jesus is not speaking of those who truly belong to him
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he's speaking of those who appear for a time to receive the word who may look like believers on
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the outside but whose hearts were never transformed by him we know that from scripture
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god alone is sovereign over salvation it's his spirit that opens blind eyes
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softens hearts of stone and grants saving faith yet from our human perspective
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it sometimes looks as though a person is simply making a decision to follow Jesus.
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We don't see the background work of the Spirit.
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Theologically, we know that apart from God's grace, salvation is impossible.
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But in these earthly vessels, we cannot always see the hidden work of the Spirit.
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this is why jesus tells us to take heed how we hear
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because while salvation is all of grace the evidence of god's grace in our lives
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revealed in how we respond to his word is by definition when you respond to the word of god
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that the people who received the word for a time
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The word fell into thorns, but then was choked out.
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Only the good soil, the true believer, abides in the end and bears fruit that lasts.
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As John writes, they went out from us, but they were not of us.
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For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
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So, when Jesus warns that what a person seems to have will be taken away, he's speaking
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of those who never possessed true saving faith.
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They may have shown signs of spiritual interest, emotion, or knowledge, but their hearts remained
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We may spur the gifts of God, grieving the Spirit,
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God keeps his people to the end, but he keeps us through means.
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Do not walk away from this sermon doubting whether you belong to Christ
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He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.
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And Jesus himself promised a bruised reed he will not break.
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that is in itself the grace of God working in you.
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The same God who commands you to listen carefully
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is the God who gives us ears to hear carefully.
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And though our faith may sometimes flicker like a tiny flame,
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He will finish the good work he began in you, Christian.
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obey quickly and walk in the light not out of fear of losing christ but out of love for the one
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who never is going to lose us and church remember this the light has come and has revealed who we
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are and who Christ is. So don't hide the light. Let it shine in your heart, in your words, and in
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your life. For the glory of the one who said, let there be light. And who is himself the light of
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the world. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we rejoice this morning that
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you are the light of the world, that you have given us ears to hear this light, that you
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have blessed us this morning with the revelation of your love for us. God, thank you for not
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leaving us in darkness like we all once were, but have brought us into the kingdom of your
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marvelous light. Lord, your grace to us is abundant. It abounds in our hearts in ways