From Darkness to Light

[John Elliott] It's very bright in the room today with lights everywhere, but in Bible times they didn't have light bulbs. And when the sun set, daylight left and darkness set in. They didn't even have lamps on their smartphones back then. Without daylight, humans spent the nights in relative darkness. In those two words, darkness and light appear 414 times in the Bible. Over 50 times they appear in the same verse together. The title of the sermon today is From Darkness to Light. I'd like to examine that in relationship to our calling and to the return of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God coming to this earth. When we look in Scripture right from the beginning, we see God's Word building a metaphor and a distinction and a separation between light and darkness. If you turn to Genesis 1 and verse 1, it begins with, “In the beginning.” And in the beginning, God now is creating. It says in Genesis 1 and verse 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” (Genesis 1:1-2) So if you examine this, we see that the earth had darkness on its face. It was covered in water and it was on the face or on the surface of the earth. Everything from that face downward is darkness. Darkness comes from the Hebrew word koshek. It literally means darkness. But if you look at the figurative meanings, this word translated “light” includes wisdom, joy, happiness, and prosperity. So now we begin to see sort of a word play here between these two words. As we go forward, we see darkness, meaning darkness, figuratively means misery, destruction, death, ignorance, and sorrow. That's what the word figuratively means—darkness, misery, destruction, death, and sorrow. Now it says here in the next phrase, “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) So God is not part of that darkness. He is hovering above it. So you have God here separated from the darkness and He's above or over the darkness. Darkness below, Spirit of God above, and there's a separation between the two. Then in verse 3, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) Now the word light is interesting. In the Hebrew it means literally light or a source of illumination. But figuratively, this is where it means wisdom, joy, happiness, or prosperity. Now we see quite a difference between darkness—which figuratively is misery, destruction, death, ignorance, and sorrow—below, and God separated from that as light—figuratively wisdom, joy, happiness, and prosperity. The Bible begins using this word play then, referring to darkness and light, and it moves it to being about Jesus Christ and Satan—light and darkness—and the ways of Jesus Christ, our Creator and our God, about being that light, that wisdom, that bringer of life and joy, and Satan being about the darkness, about that which was tohu and bohu in the previous verse. Let's look also at another account of day one in John chapter 1 and verse 1, and it will reveal that this good light in—well actually let's stay in Genesis 1 verse 4. I didn't say that. You know, later in Genesis 1 down in verse 14 on day four, we find that God creates the sun, moon, and stars. But here, going on in verse 4, “And God saw the light, that it was good.” And next, “and God divided the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:4) So now we see this real separation. We see the Spirit of God. God creates light. He brings light. And God says the light is good, and He separated the light from the darkness. And this is going to be an ongoing theme from Genesis through the book of Revelation. The parallel account now, let's look in John chapter 1 and verse 1. We have another “in the beginning.” Let's go to John chapter 1 and verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) Notice carefully in verse 4: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) So we see in this creation account that this light now is referring to Jesus Christ. In verse 5: “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:5) The darkness didn't comprehend the light. But remember in Genesis 1 and verse 4, God comprehended the light. He saw the light, and He said that is good. He commanded it good. Jesus says to us, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:16). We can see the light. But He said to the rest of the world, for now, their eyes are blinded, and they don't see the light at this point in time. God and Christ's brightness are also literal. They're literal, as well as figuratively, in some instances. Literal brightness is what God and Jesus Christ are. They are so bright. I had to dim it down for Ezekiel a bit so he could see some of it. But it's so bright. You know, He says that the false prophet, the man of sin, will be killed “by the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). God is very, very bright, and He exists and exudes brightness. But at the same time, figuratively, God is truth. He's light. He is the right way. He is holy. He's righteous. In 1 John 1:5, it says, “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” You're going to see this separation. There's no blending. There's no sort of, you know, between sunrise and sunset with God, between good and evil, between Satan and Christ, between right and wrong—there's kind of a compromise. Twilight, you know, you might say. No. 1 John 1:5, “God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.” And so, throughout the Scripture, we're going to be seeing God and those of God being told to be like God and have total separation between the two. Not some sort of balance, you know, sort of a mixture and a balance that's sort of okay. This symbolic interplay never features a connection between the two. Light is light, and dark is dark. In Ezekiel chapter 1 and verse 27, Ezekiel is given this vision, and he describes what I call the portable throne of Jesus Christ. We know God the Father is on His throne. Jesus Christ is the emissary of God. He is the Word of God. He has been given dominion and given the creation of the physical realm. And here we see in Ezekiel chapter 1 a throne that’s going places. It is going places and going fast with a lot of royalty. And one thing that he notices here in verse 27 of Ezekiel 1 is, looking at the appearance of this God being, he says, “From the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it.” They didn’t have light bulbs back then, so you can think of it as a bright fire—fire. “And from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around.” (Ezekiel 1:27) So God’s Word reinforces this metaphor of light with Jesus Christ and also with right, and with darkness and Satan, and also with evil and death throughout Scripture. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 15, you and I are given a dramatic directive here not to be combining the two but to keep them totally separate. 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 15—well, we’ll look at verse 14, breaking into verse 14: “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?” What fellowship or communion, the word might be? What interplay? What relationship has righteousness—doing right according to God’s Word—with lawlessness—breaking God’s Word? Now we as humans might want to mix this up and say, well, I don’t want to be too holy, you know, I don’t want to be legalistic. What are we saying? Are we saying, oh, I just want to sort of be balanced, you know, enjoy what my selfish desires and my self-centered nature wants, but also I’ll keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and I won’t eat pork? We can kind of play that. And you know, Jesus Christ’s parables speak to that a lot. And so what we’re being told here is, “What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14) Now notice how he brings these together in verse 15: “And what accord has Christ with Belial?” or the devil. Can we see Jesus Christ and Satan getting together and saying, yeah, let’s work this out, you know, we’ll have a kingdom together, we’ll kind of mix it up a bit? No—that’s a very worldly thing, isn’t it? That’s like the world bringing in God’s Bible into some kind of a religion and mixing it in with Babylon mystery religion and saying, oh, this will work, in all of its various forms. So it’s very, very clear that light is associated with God and Jesus Christ and the firstfruits and the bride of Christ and the Kingdom of God that is going to be rolled out on all the earth at Christ’s return. We want to be part of that. We want to be like Christ—Christ-like. At the same time, darkness is always associated with Satan and blindness to the right way of living. And associated misery—remember the figurative description of darkness is misery and suffering. It also is a way of death that has no future in it. An example that we see in Scripture is Egypt. Remember, Egypt was a sinful society, and God called some people out of that society to come out and repent and be baptized, as it were, come out and be His people. And before He did that, one of the ten plagues was to sink Egypt into darkness—absolute darkness. Let’s go to Exodus chapter 10 and verse 22. And I believe this was just a symbolic indication to all as to what Egypt was really about and to us today because it was given to us as an example. And so Exodus chapter 10 and verse 22 says, “So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.” (Exodus 10:22) Now that’s interesting, isn’t it? Thick darkness for three days. If you look up “three days,” AI says the association of three days and death is found in ancient myths, folklore, and religious beliefs worldwide. You know, when a person died, people were afraid that they weren’t really dead and they would wake up, and sometimes they did, and they found scratchings, I guess, in coffins. So they wanted to abolish that. So you waited three days. Like Jesus Christ was in the tomb three days and three nights—no one’s going to, you know, fake it or claim that, oh, He didn’t really die. So here we have three days and three nights. This thick darkness representing real death in Egypt. In verse 23, “They did not see one another.” (Exodus 10:23) That’s how thick it was. I don’t know if they stayed in bed or what. What do you do with that kind of darkness? But it represented—it represented what the world without God and His way of life is truly like. Darkness closes around you, people say. Remember that phrase? Darkness closed around them. It is something that takes away our sight. I don’t know if you’ve ever been out in a place in the daytime—you say, okay, we’re going to do this at night. And you go back at night—it’s like, wow, this doesn’t even look familiar. You’ve driven around at night sometimes, and you’ve been that way before, but nothing really looks familiar. And you think, where exactly am I? But in the daylight—oh, well, we’re right here. And so it is with this darkness—no sight, no sense of space. However, at the very same time Egypt was in this darkness, notice verse 24: “But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.” (Exodus 10:24) Didn’t say how that light was given them, but may have been a divine light, just like it was a divine darkness, you know, a miracle of God in contrast. What was this light? Well, in “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4), as we read, and He was bringing life and light to His people at that point in time. So God in all things associated with Him are about light. Think in other areas—God appeared to Moses. What was He? He was bright—burning bush, a fire that was on fire. Think of the pillar of fire. You know, God brought Israel out of Egypt at night. Why at night? Why in the darkness? Out in the wilderness there’s no lights, no street lamps—but there’s God out there. And bright light was leading the Israelites through the wilderness, and others could not see that light. He was a cloud behind them blocking the light. So they had a free, free journey that whole night without the satanic army coming behind them. We find on Mount Sinai, when the Ten Commandments were given, that there’s the bright light and the thundering, and Moses goes up. He comes back with his face shining from being with God. The transfiguration of Jesus Christ—brightness. Brightness of His coming. God provides spiritual light to some during this age. You and I have a wonderful opportunity to be able to see and walk in that figurative form of light. In Job chapter 12 and verse 22, Job chapter 12 and verse 22, it says, “He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light.” (Job 12:22) Satan, however, prevents that light when he can. He tries to snatch it, take it away, so that people are wandering around in the dark. And that’s what Job says here in verse 24: “He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth.” Look at the great people of the earth—the politicians. Sometimes we kind of think, well, that might be light, they’re saying something that sounds logical, so maybe—maybe there’s some light there. But “He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the peoples of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness.” (Job 12:24) Don’t get involved in that. We have a different path, with light shining on that path. Verse 25: “They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them stagger like drunken men.” (Job 12:25) And we will see this more and more and more as we go down to the place where, ultimately, real darkness will come upon this earth in a literal sense. Now, this principle is so strong that even those who are called, even those who are the elect of God, if they turn and disobey God, they end up living in spiritual darkness. You know, Deuteronomy chapter 28 is what we call the blessings and cursings chapter. And you know, it starts out with, if you carefully and diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, you’ll be blessed in so many ways. But He also says in Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse 28, “The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness. You shall not prosper in your ways; you will only be oppressed and plundered continually, and no one will save you.” (Deuteronomy 28:28–29) So don’t think that even the people of God who see the light, walk in the light—if they turn from that—won’t end up stumbling around like the rest of humanity. We will. And so we must be very careful to retain God’s Holy Spirit in our life, to be obedient children of His, always putting darkness out of our lives. In Job chapter 24 and verse 13 through 16, he speaks of, “There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways nor abide in its paths.” And in verse 16, “They do not know the light.” (Job 24:13, 16) So we have to set those aside and say, all right, as much as we would love for them to be called now, as hard as we work to get the Gospel message out of repentance, of baptism, of coming to Jesus Christ and becoming like Him and embracing the light—as much as we would like that to happen—they don’t know the light. And unless God opens their eyes, then they won’t see it at this point in time. And so we cannot judge ourselves and the work that we perform on God’s behalf in preaching the Gospel by the metrics of numbers, because we see throughout Scripture that few are called. And at this point in time, many may receive the message, but few will internalize it, and few will actually be chosen, Jesus said. So we do realize that individuals don’t know light now, but there will be a dramatic event coming upon this whole earth. We call it “soon,” related and in comparison to the time that’s gone on. This will happen in a flash on a time scale. It’s found in Isaiah chapter 13 and verse 9. We who retain the light, we who retain our relationship and develop into lights—as we are told to be a light to this world by Jesus Christ—look forward to this day. But in verse 9 of Isaiah chapter 13 it says, “Behold, the day of the Lord comes.” There’s a day coming at the end of the tribulation when Jesus Christ will come. And that day of the Lord, that perhaps one year represented by this term “the day,” will begin the intervention of Jesus Christ with His bride, with the saints, in world events, and begin to turn things away from darkness and shine darkness into that light and ultimately remove Satan. But it says here in verse 9 of Isaiah 13, “Behold, the day of the Lord comes.” Verse 10: “For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.” (Isaiah 13:9–10) And again in prophecy, we go to Ezekiel 32. Ezekiel 32 and verse 7 through 9. Ezekiel 32—start in verse 7: “When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens, and I will make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you, and I will bring darkness upon your land,” says the Lord God. (Ezekiel 32:7–8) We find this referenced in Revelation 16:10: “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.” (Revelation 16:10–11) So this day of the Lord will have some resistance—quite a bit of resistance—but notice they’re in the darkness. In Mark chapter 13, we pick this very event up again with a little more information. Mark chapter 13 verses 24 and 25: “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light; the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.” (Mark 13:24–25) Now imagine this. This is really interesting. During this blackness that will certainly reflect the lack of godliness, the lack of God’s light, the lack of God’s way, and the blackness of the darkness that is related to Satan, we find the seventh trumpet blows. Now, if that trumpet blows and people can hear it, it’s going to be a loud, ear-splitting sound. Imagine being in the darkness for maybe three days and three nights—it doesn’t say how long—but imagine groping around in the darkness as humanity who’s used to light bulbs. You can’t see, you can’t do—and all of a sudden a trumpet blows. A loud trumpet blows. And then what happens? Well, verse 26: “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” (Mark 13:26) That word “glory” there is talking about brightness. Remember how bright Jesus Christ is? And in pitch-black darkness, all of a sudden He said all eyes shall see Him coming. And boom—brightness. Absolute bright. In Luke chapter 17 and verse 24, we learn a little bit more about this. Luke chapter 17 and verse 24—Jesus says, here’s what His appearing is going to look like: “For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.” (Luke 17:24) Now at night, if you ever see lightning, that is bright white. Lightning can be five times hotter than the surface of the sun. I know often it’s just a line in the sky or some lines in the sky, but it is definitely brilliant. So He’s talking here about a bright light that is really, really bright. And so, “For as the lightning that flashes out of one part of heaven and shines to the other part of heaven, so also the Son of Man will be.” (Luke 17:24) Now we don’t really understand how bright bright can be. They’ve recently discovered neutron stars with ULX rays. They’re an X-ray that’s an ultra frequency, and it is 10 million times brighter than our sun. Ten million times brighter. So how about the Creator of neutron stars? Is He that bright? I mean, you begin to see that God can really be bright. So with Jesus Christ’s arrival and this bright light piercing the darkness, it is so bright that men will go underground, of all things. Let’s go to Revelation 6 and verse 15. Revelation 6 and verse 15. This appearing of Jesus Christ has such an impact of brightness that notice what they do. Revelation 6:15: “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.” (Revelation 6:15) I always wondered why they would do that. But now—they hide themselves. They try to find darkness. “And said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne.’” (Revelation 6:16) Wow! His face—His brightness—is bright. And as I mentioned before, in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, “the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8) Now, you and I should—He said—look up when you see these things happening. Look up. This is going to be good. You’re going to like this. If you’re living on the earth, if you’re in the place of safety, this is going to be good stuff. Everybody else is going to be terrified by it. But this is a great time for you. When Jesus comes with power and glory and brightness, Isaiah 9:2, things begin to transition here on earth. It’s a start. It won’t happen all at once. But notice the goal. Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2) In 2 Thessalonians 1:7, we’re only reading a few scriptures today that speak to this darkness and light metaphor. But in 2 Thessalonians 1:7: “And to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7–8) So there is going to be that day of the Lord, and there will be vengeance involved in that. But notice here—you who are troubled, He gives rest. We’re not part of that. We don’t have to fear the coming of Jesus Christ. We revere Jesus Christ, and we will have rest when the Lord Jesus is revealed in flaming fire and takes vengeance on those who do not know God, those who are in darkness and who fight against Him. So you see, there’s this continuing importance to be distinguished from any darkness—to be really part of the light, to be part of that city on a hill that shines in the dark. And so we go to Isaiah 60:1. Isaiah chapter 60 will begin in verse 1: “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1–2) Now we begin to get into the millennial theme. We get past the putting away of Satan the devil, the binding, and begin to see the knowledge of God roll across the earth like the waters cover the sea. And now we see, beginning with the twelve tribes of Israel, it says: “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” (Isaiah 60:3) Now this is Jesus Christ, and they will come to His light and kings to the brightness of His rising. But they’re also going to come to people who are related to Him, and they’ll take their arm and say, “Hey, show us how this works.” Kind of like today—Jesus Christ is the light, but He wants us to be the light of the world. And then they say, “Hey, how does this work? Show me how your life is here. How you know how to walk. How do you know how to live?” “Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy.” (Isaiah 60:4–5) You know, this family of God will begin to grow, led by Jesus Christ from God the Father and into the bride and then into those leaders that we will work with and teach. In Isaiah 2:3, this metaphoric transition continues: “Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’” (Isaiah 2:3) Wow—they can see. There’s no more darkness now. “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:3) You know, we often say, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). That’s how we see. And they’re going to say, “The word of God—that’s how we’re going to see, and we’re going to walk in His paths.” Verse 5: “O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah 2:5). That’s going to be a time of all light, and the darkness is going to be passing away—passing away. A thousand years of light in the age of God’s Kingdom we portray in the Feast of Tabernacles. We love the Feast of Tabernacles. It is the Feast. Ask any church member, “Where are you going to keep the Feast?” We just love it so much. It’s such a bright, joyous end result of all of God’s plan of salvation. So if we go to Isaiah 42:5–7, Isaiah 42 beginning in verse 5… Verse 6: “I, the Lord, have called You”—Jesus Christ—“I have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house” (Isaiah 42:6–7). And working under Jesus Christ, we again will be teachers of this way—of people who are coming out of prisons, bad things of darkness. Darkness in the prison house is the metaphor there. The Bible also describes Jesus as the real light—not just metaphorically, but the real light-bringer. The Greek word in the New Testament is phōsphoros. And if we go to 2 Peter 1:17, 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 17: “For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:17–19). Well, the word “morning star” here, I believe, is a mistranslation because the Greek word is phōsphoros—phōsphoros. And phōsphoros means brightness; it means light. This light rises in your hearts, and it’s rising in our hearts. God and Christ are in our hearts, and they are rising in our hearts. And we do well to heed this light that shines in a dark place until the day of the Lord dawns. That’s what we need to really stay fixed on. But this light-bringer will become the morning stars, because right now we live in an age of spiritual darkness. But we await Jesus Christ arising as light in the darkness. This is kind of likened, as it were, in our dark world to the planet Venus. Let’s go to Revelation 22:16. Revelation 22 and verse 16. We’re almost like the Israelites who had light in their houses, but everything else was in darkness. You and I have light, but it’s only with us right now. It’s rising in our hearts right now. Notice Revelation chapter 22 and verse 16: “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16). The word “morning” there is orthrenos, and “star” is aster. So now He is actually being described as the morning star. What is the morning star? If you’re ever out in the dark and you see the morning star, it’s a bright star right before sunrise. It’s associated with the planet Venus—a very bright star right before sunrise. And so here we are being taught in the churches, and He is like the bright star for us in the darkness. We have that. We have it in our houses. We have it in our minds. We have that available. But in Acts chapter 26 and verse 18, this gospel that we preach—and it has been preached to us—has a purpose. Let’s go to Acts chapter 26 and verse 18, because this is important. And when we do the work of preaching the gospel, we are trying to spread the light. We have an actual work to do here. It’s not just saying, “Jesus is coming. Oh, by the way, someday Jesus is coming.” That’s the gospel. No. Let’s look here. Acts chapter 26 and verse 18: Jesus Christ sent Paul to do this: “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18). That’s the work that we do. That’s the work that Peter did in Acts 2. He said, repent—change, you know—change. Have your eyes opened and receive forgiveness of sin and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ. You and I are in that group. Some of us aren’t baptized yet, but you’re heading that direction. This is a very special privilege and honor, and that’s the word that we promote. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ: Go out to all nations and teach them to observe all things I command you. Disciple them to be like Me, and teach them to observe all things I command you. How many will do that? Not many. So again, we can’t count our success, as it were, by numbers, but that’s what Paul was sent out to do, and that’s our commission going forward as well. In 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Think about that. God called you and me. He commanded that this light shine out of darkness, and it’s shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That is a wonderful privilege that we have now, and they’re going to see it literally and ultimately convert to it in the future, but we have that now. After Satan is bound, then this darkness gets replaced with light, and ultimately there is a time coming when we won’t need sun, moon, stars. Let’s go to Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 19. Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 19—this is what God really is looking forward to. This is what God has purposed from the beginning to happen. Isaiah chapter 60 and verse 19: “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light…” This is literally, not figuratively. “…and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. Also your people shall all be righteous” (Isaiah 60:19–21). Wow! That is going to be great. This is fulfilled in Revelation chapter 22, beginning in verse 1. After humanity’s time on earth and the various resurrections have taken place, we now come to Revelation 21 that says, a new heaven and a new earth. And now, Revelation 22: “He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Verse 4: “They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.” Verse 5: “There shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:1, 4–5). So what’s the takeaway from the sermon? Well, I think these things come to us, and we ask the question: Am I walking in Christ’s light? Or am I walking in some darkness and generating some little bit of light myself? Maybe a torch, maybe a little fire, maybe kicking some sparks and trying to see in the dark. Let’s go over to Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 10. This is important for us to consider. Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 10—because remember Jesus Christ gave so many parables that are to alert us to the fact that our participation in the divine Kingdom of God is a given on Their part, but it also has to be a given on our part as well. We have to do our part. So in Isaiah chapter 50 and verse 10, it says: “Who among you fears the Lord?” The word “fear” can mean fear, like huh, or revere, like hm. You can have it either way. If you’re going to be in darkness and go Satan’s way, you better fear what the Lord’s going to do to you. But if you revere the Lord, He is your best friend. He loves you. He’ll be there with Jesus Christ for you. So: “Who among you reveres the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness…” Okay—which is it going to be? “…Who walks in darkness, the way of men and misery, and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God” (Isaiah 50:10). Otherwise, verse 11: “Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled. This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment” (Isaiah 50:11). You will be miserable. And that’s one of the metaphors of the word “darkness”—it’s misery. You and I are called to walk and live in this true way of life. So let’s ask ourselves if we truly are, and what metric would we use to know? Right now, it’s kind of in darkness and light, so we could go away and say, “Oh yeah, I kind of feel light.” What is the metric that I would use to ask if I’m walking in the light? “I’m a Sabbath keeper. Well, I’m good. I’m a Sabbath keeper. I don’t eat pork. I’m going to the Feast.” What is the metric? Well, God gives it to us, actually. Maybe it’s correct timing of a certain Holy Day—that’s the metric for walking in the light. Or “my church has the right form of governance”—well, that’s the metric. Is that it? Well, tell you what. What does God say? Let’s go to 1 John chapter 2 and verse 8 through 11, because God actually says what metric He uses. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 8. John here begins with 1 John chapter 2 and verse 8: “Again, a new commandment I write to you.” Notice these words. This is the Apostle John. He’s talking about a new commandment, but he’s not giving it to us. He is writing it to us. John had written down Jesus’s new commandment. He was the one who wrote it in his gospel about this time. In John 13:34, remember what that new commandment is. I’ll read it to you: “A new commandment I give to you, that you agape one another; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35). Now John here in 1 John 2:8 begins again. He says again. He’s already said this once. Now he’s writing again: “A new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” Verse 9: “He who says he is in the light”—here comes the metric—“and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him” (1 John 2:8–10). That’s pretty powerful, isn’t it? Now when I look at my life and I look at some of the things that go on in our—said either in social media or in private conversations—I think we have a lot of work to do, honestly, because we need to be people that the Bible says really love one another. And love, as it says in 1 Corinthians 13, it suffers long. It doesn’t vaunt itself, doesn’t parade itself. Love is kind, right? Love is kind. In other places we find that we should give honor to others, and we should show respect, and always thinking the good about others. So I think I have a way to go. I think we all have a way to go. But we should take this very, very seriously, because this light that’s coming—and the light that is shining on us—is all about agape love. Jesus described this entire Bible as: love God with your heart, soul, and might; love your neighbor as yourself. It really comes down to this. God’s festivals are harvest themes. What is God harvesting? He’s harvesting His own holy righteous character—people with that agape mindset. We’re to grow and develop that which God is and God has: that light, that light of love and concern away from the self. Those lives lived in careful obedience and love for God and love for each other—those are the ones that are going to be harvested as firstfruits. In conclusion, we were called by the light. We are to walk in the light. Jesus told us to be the light in the darkness, a city set on a hill that cannot be hid in the dark. Let’s go to Matthew 13 and verse 43 to conclude. Matthew 13 and verse 43: Those who fulfill Jesus’s command to love one another as He loved us—and He loves us with His whole heart and His whole body; He gave everything and still continues to love us, as does God the Father. Matthew 13 and verse 43: “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:43). We’re called by the light, to walk in the light, to be reflections of the light, to someday actually be the light with Jesus Christ and God the Father. So as we observe the coming autumn festivals, let’s come fully out of the darkness of Satan’s society and everything to do with that lack of love. Let’s strive to become bright, loving individuals of light that reflect the mindset of the God family.