Illumination

I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. To see God, in order to be in a relationship with the living God, we can't possibly depend on other people's vision.

We have to see God ourselves. We have to know Jesus. Our problem has been that all too often, our conception of who God is and what he's like comes to us second-hand.

We depend on other people. We're not sure. And because of this, the very foundation of our relationship with God is on shaky ground.

In fact, many of us labor under the assumption, secretly, we may not admit this openly, but secretly, that only certain people are gifted with vision and that the rest of us have to settle for accepting what these seers tell us they have seen. And if that's the case, we're all in trouble because my brother's description of his vision of God is of little use to me unless it's able to bring me to the place where I see this for myself. From 2 Corinthians 3, and we all, all, with unveiled faith, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

And we all, with unveiled faith, beholding the glory of the Lord. Not certain elite believers, but every believer, beholds the glory of the Lord and is changed into his likeness. But are we all, with unveiled faith, beholding the glory of the Lord and being changed into his likeness? Or take our Lord's promise in the Beatitudes.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. When will they see God? Surely the gospel of Jesus is alive with a promise that every son and daughter of the kingdom will receive vision not after death, but even in this life of flesh and blood will be given to be able somehow in a clear way to look into the face of God, hear the voice of God, receive the life of God and be changed into the likeness of God. Or another familiar passage from 2 Peter.

And we have a prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Here again the promise that if we receive the prophetic word which comes to us in Scripture throwing light on the person of Jesus that we will be given inner illumination.

The day will dawn and the morning star will rise in our hearts. And we will see. That's the promise.

Now most of us have probably, perhaps all of us, tasted this to some extent. You know we've, that inner light has come. See what has to happen is that the light of revelation and the light of vision must come not to the outside circumstances of our lives, but to inside our hearts.

See the morning star has to rise, the day has to dawn, not in our outward life, but in here. And what is this? This morning star rising in our hearts. If you love me you will keep my commandments and I will pray to father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever.

Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. The spirit who is the light of revelation, the morning star, the day dawning, comes to dwell inside.

When the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth from within. He will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you from inside. So to some extent, each of us here who is a believer has experienced this.

At some point after we came to faith, we began to have the experience of a dawn growing inside us, light coming on. And we began somehow to be able to discern the face of God for ourselves. We look back on it now and we call it our honeymoon.

This time when the Holy Spirit came and made it possible for us to somehow see the face of God and to discern how good, how wonderful, how merciful, how kind he is, we gave ourselves over to the doing of his will with unspeakable joy. But then, this light inside our hearts began to fade. Now, the honeymoon experience of the believer is always followed by the fading of light on the outside.

After a period of time, God begins to take us through a walk where we see darkness. And things aren't quite as easy and as good in our circumstances as they were. But there is never meant to be a time in God's program for us, if we follow it, that we should have darkness on the inside.

The light should always continue. So why does it get dull inside our hearts? Because every redemptive act of God in our lives, if it is to continue, has to be answered by a response which is appropriate on our side. For instance, God forgives us.

If that forgiveness is to be sustained, then we have to enter into a life of forgiveness and we have to start forgiving. God shows us mercy. If that mercy is to be sustained, that's the same thing inside our lives, we have to enter into a life of mercy and we show mercy.

In exactly the same way, God causes light to burn and blaze inside our hearts. See, but if this light is to continue, then we have to begin walking in that realm of light. For us to be able to keep the light that God gives us through his Holy Spirit, there are two specific things we have to do.

First, we have to make sure that our eye, both the natural eye, the physical eye, if we have one, and the mind's eye, the spirit eye, remains single, sound. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light.

But when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful, lest the light in you be darkness. If then, your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.

For illumination inside our hearts to continue, we have to make sure that the eye is single. The Pharisees and the scribes are constantly worrying about what they put into their bodies through their mouth. We have to make sure we eat only foods that are called clean and that we wash our hands before we eat.

But what they really should have been watching for and what you and I need to be watching for is what comes into our bodies and our hearts and our spirits through the eye. For instance, covetousness begins with the eye. The eye falls on something that pleases it and it wants that thing.

And then it begins to brood because it doesn't have it. And then it draws the heart into orbit around that thing and pretty soon the heart is involved in an idolatrous worship of this thing that it wants. Covetousness is idolatry and it absolutely destroys our vision of God.

And it begins with the eye. Lust begins with the eye. The eye sees this thing that pleases it.

It mixes in some fantasy and some imagination and next thing we know the whole body is full of darkness. Take heed. Let the light in you be darkness, Jesus says, meaning that it is within our power to see to it that the light in us is light.

It's within our power to so rule over our eye that it doesn't deflect us and detract us from beholding the beauty of the Lord, His goodness, His mercy, His glory. Even in the midst of ordinary daily living, walking through a million temptations, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, meaning in the presence of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord, to see His glory and His goodness and His kindness and to inquire in His temple. Secondly, if we're going to maintain the vision given to us by the Holy Spirit inside the heart, it's also up to us to maintain a clean heart.

Now a clean heart comes as a gift from God, creating me a clean heart, O God. The heart is washed by the blood of the Lamb and continuously washed by the blood of the Lamb, but it's up to us to sustain that clean heart. In the passage immediately following the one about the eye in Luke 11, it reads like this.

While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him. So he went in and sat at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner.

And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, everything is clean to you. A clean heart has nothing to do, obviously, with what kind of food we eat or whether we wash our hands.

A clean heart, according to Jesus, comes as a result of giving for alms such things as are within. In other words, from the heart, from within, showing mercy. Jesus makes very clear that the only thing in this world which will keep any human heart clean is the showing, the doing, of mercy.

You want to see God? Have a pure heart. You want to have a pure heart? Give for alms such things as are within. This is exactly how our Lord lived.

He continuously saw the face of His Father because He never stopped showing mercy. And He continuously showed mercy because He never stopped seeking the face of His Father. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into His likeness, being changed into His likeness, from one degree of glory to another.

How do we behold the glory of the Lord? Do we look up and see Jesus standing at the right hand of the throne? That may happen as we get near the end of our road in this world, as it was for Stephen. Just about the time when he was about to be killed for his faith, he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. But for us, we see the glory of God by watching Jesus lay down His life.

We see the glory of God by following Jesus out from our protected little enclave in among the rejects, the forgotten, the sinners, and observing how He shows continuous mercy to them. We see the glory of God by noticing how He preaches good news to the poor and brings recovery of sight to the blind and deliverance to the captives and food to the hungry and forgiveness to the sinners. We see God's glory by noticing how day after day after day our Lord shows mercy regardless of whether people are grateful to Him or appreciate Him and by observing that we are changed into His likeness meaning we begin to do the same thing.

To be changed into the likeness of Jesus surely does not mean we all get a halo and then our eyes get that pious look and then we get that holy drone in our voices and now we've been changed into His likeness. And really, this happens. I mean, ridiculous.

And we're so then out of touch with the rest of the world that we believe it so we become like Jesus. You want to become like Jesus? To become like Jesus means that you show mercy, kindness, forgiveness, pour out your light and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another by the Spirit of the Lord. What better place to behold the glory of the Lord than at His table where He gives us His body to eat and His blood to drink where we see Him offered up and poured out for us.

And as this goes on the Spirit transforms us into His likeness today again. As we come to the table of the Lord to eat His body and drink His blood the Spirit of God visits us with light. And it's not too much to promise that anybody who seriously draws near to the table of the Lord with the eye fixed on Him will go out of this building today with more light burning inside the heart than they had when they came in.

But for this light to remain we are responsible to maintain a single eye and a heart that gives for alms such things as are within. It shows mercy. May God help us to do this that the light He gives us may abide in our hearts.

Why don't we just stand up and wait on God. We're asking Heavenly Father that you would confirm the truth of your word. And Lord that you get us to the place where we begin to see clearly how you are what you're like how good you've been to us and what you intend and desire to do in our daily living.

And Lord where we have allowed ourselves to develop habits that absolutely ruin our vision of you every day that you help us beginning at this moment to make that change. Oh God to make a covenant with our eyes as Job did and to really break our hearts before you that they may become hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone. We ask your blessing Lord God upon the church universal our brothers and sisters in the Lord throughout this city and beyond into the uttermost parts of the earth.

We pray blessing upon the body of Christ and we ask Lord that you give us such a concern for the church as you see the church that we'll never forget to pray for it. We're praying for laborers for it and for the work you've given us to do. We also pray your blessing upon the nations of the world the multitudes that don't know anything about their Savior.

For those parts of the earth right now that are undergoing tremendous danger tragedy calamity hunger we pray for those among us who are sick we lift them up before your throne and for the bereaved and for the prisoners for those who are locked into habits they can't break out of for broken homes and especially Lord God for the children we ask these things in Jesus name Amen.