The Light of the Kingdom

Well, thank you very much, Sophia, Adriana. Very beautiful special music. Those words in that particular hymn was very inspiring and very powerful. Thank you so much today.

Well, brethren, in the book of Genesis, God designated something that we call time for the benefit of his creation. God transcends time. He doesn't need time. He has always existed. He exists. He always will exist. So he established the concept of time for your benefit and for my benefit, and we should always remember that God doesn't do anything by accident. As Albert Einstein once said, God doesn't play dice.

The structure of a 24-hour solar day that we experience each and every day of our lives is for a purpose. As I mentioned, God doesn't do anything by accident and for us to fully appreciate the unique perspective of the fall holy days, including the Feast of Tabernacles that we're celebrating and the eighth day that will be coming up shortly.

I think it's good for us to go back to creation, to go back to the beginning of when God established time for our benefit to appreciate how and why God established the concept of time for humanity to use as a benchmark for the past, for the present, and for the future. Let's go back to Genesis.

Genesis chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, into the very beginning, and see how God did this for our benefit. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was, of course we understand that can be also translated, became, without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. So it was a world of darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, let there be light. So from darkness, suddenly there's light. And there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day. That's the Hebrew word yom. And the darkness, he called night. That's another Hebrew word, la'il, which means twisting or moving away from light.

So the evening and the morning were the first day. Again, that Hebrew word yom. I want you to notice that the light drove away the heavy, foreboding darkness that existed. Let's make a few comments about this word yom. It relates to the concept of time. It's not used just for daylight or for 24-hour solar days, but within the Old Testament, it is used for time in general. Depending on the context, it can be used to mean a long time. It can be used to mean years. But in this context, it means a literal 24-hour day. The word yom is used in the name of various feast days.

One feast day in Leviticus 23 is called yom trua, which means the day of shouting. We call it the feast of trumpets. Another day is called yom kippur. We call that the day of atonement.

Also, the Hebrew days of the week are called yom. Yom 1, yom 2, all the way to eventually the Sabbath day. Now let's drop down to verse 14 and take a look again at this word and what God does here on the fourth day of creation. Now on this day, the sun and the moon and the stars were previously created. And on this day, the atmosphere is going to be further cleared away so that if you were standing on the earth's surface from the observation of being on the earth's surface, you could now see the sun and the moon and the stars. Clearly, they would be distinguishable in the sky because the atmosphere would be cleared up. Verse 14, then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day, that's yom, from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years. Now, I think many of us are also aware of the fact that this word translated seasons here in this verse is the Hebrew word moed, which in Leviticus 23 is translated feast. When God says, these are my feast, we mentioned on the opening night, that's the Hebrew word moed. So one of the reasons that God created these lights was so that we could calculate when God desires to be worshipped. Verse 15, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and it was so. Then God made two great lights. The Hebrew word for great is gaudal, which means noble, proud lights, two of them, the greater light to rule the day, we call that the sun, and the lesser light to rule the night. We call that the moon. He made the stars also. Verse 17, God sent them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day, fourth yom. I want you to notice that the evening is placed before morning. As we'll see, the outline of a 24-hour day is a metaphor for God's plan of salvation. You can sum up the entire spiritual history of humanity and what God has always planned by understanding the outline of a 24-hour biblical day.

The two great divisions of this 24-hour yom are sunset, called evening, I think we're aware of that, and dawn, approximately 12 hours later, dawn or morning. Sunset begins a new biblical day with the introduction of darkness, and approximately 12 hours later, dawn establishes the second part of a biblical day. Now, in context of what happened here that we just read in the fourth day of creation, here's what occurred. God created our present earthly process of a 24-hour solar day.

He used two great lights beginning with sunset or evening, a lesser light, we call it the moon, and when the sun goes down, that's what we see. If it's not a cloudy night, we see the moon.

Following that, in the approximately 12 hours later, God creates another light, and that is the sun. He created another light to radiate on the earth known as the sun.

So, I want you to understand this fact, and that is both day and night have a degree of light.

Both types of light are called rate. That's what God said here. And some light exists during an entire 24-hour period. God is light, and no matter what would happen on the earth in this world, God would always have some presence, but His presence would be greater at different times.

And we will read about that. So, as we think about the fall holy days that we've been celebrating, what may God's original beginning and ending of a day, beginning at sunset, tell us about God's plan, tell us about the spiritual history of humanity, and by the way, also tell us about our conversion and our own spiritual lives.

Let's go to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 6, since we're already in the book of Genesis.

And let's look at the example of the original spiritual evening that came upon the earth.

Genesis chapter 3 and verse 6, so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband and with her, and he ate.

And the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked.

And they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings, made for themselves coverings.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and Eve, or Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord, among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called Adam and said to him, Where are you? He said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. This is the reply of Adam, and he said, Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you should not eat?

And Adam and Eve had a beautiful, perfect relationship with God. But sadly, not for long.

They chose to sin, and they hid themselves from God's presence. They wanted to avoid God.

And he allowed them that choice. And humankind, for 6,000 years, has been avoiding God's presence.

Like selfish children, we've wanted to do it our way.

We created our own cultures. We've created our own religions. We've created our own nations and our own societies. Some people think that God was surprised at their sin, and he had to change from plan A to plan B. But, brethren, this is false reasoning. God allowed the serpent in the garden, knowing it would deceive the innocent and naive couple. He wanted them to develop character by giving them choice and free moral agency. God knew exactly what would happen. And that is why Jesus is referred to in Revelation 13, verse 8, as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The foundation of the world was long before Adam and Eve were created.

God has desired that his children would learn to consciously choose righteousness and to reject evil. We call that character, and that is so important to God. Verse 20, and Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin, representing the shedding of blood or the need for blood to be shed, and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, the no good and evil. And now lest he put out his hand and also take the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground in which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed care of him at the east of the garden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life. So in essence, God said here, unless these become like Lucifer, unless these choose the tree that gives them the tree of eternal life, we can't allow that to happen. We have to allow them to learn to choose right from wrong. We need to allow them to learn to be tested, be tempted. And when confronted with the choice of right or wrong, they will consistently say, I choose righteousness. So we're going to have to guard the way so they cannot get to that tree, become like Lucifer and his fallen demons.

God's presence as well as this beautiful garden was now gone. Like the fading rays of light after sunset, the earth quickly became spiritually dark and this first human sin began a spiritual evening for humanity. Earlier, their relationship had been characterized by innocence, by love, by close fellowship. Now the relationship was characterized by guilt, by the need to offer sacrifices for their sins. Very rapidly, Cain killed Abel. Polygamy began. Depravity grew. Less than 1700 years after Adam sinned, the world became so corrupt that God was sorry he had even created humankind and he started all over again with Noah's family. So after Adam and Eve's sin, a long period of spiritual darkness covered the entire earth. This was a time of lesser lights. Remember how God outlined?

The day? First, there would be a period of lesser lights beginning with sunset and then gradually you would get to a point of dawn and then greater light. For thousands of years, a few lesser lights would arise and their presence would be recorded in Scripture. Some of these lesser lights from the period of Adam until Jesus Christ included individuals like Enoch and Noah, Abraham, Moses, some of the kings of Judah, and the prophets. What they all had in common is they were single individuals who influenced only a few people. During this time of lesser lights that God would call, God gave his Holy Spirit only to few people in a very small area of the world.

They were lesser lights in a world of darkness.

Then something profound happened.

About 2,000 years ago, Luke chapter 1 and verse 67, if you'll turn there with me, Luke chapter 1 and verse 67, we'll read what John the Baptist's father Zacharias says as he's filled with the Holy Spirit. First, he's going to refer to his son, then he's going to comment on Jesus Christ.

Luke chapter 1 and verse 67, now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David as he spoke by the mouth of the holy prophets who have been since the world began. Now let's drop down to verse 76. Makes a comment about his son and then a prophecy about Jesus Christ. And you, child, speaking to little John, will be called the prophet of the highest, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God. Here's the prophecy about Christ, with which the day spring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. The Believer's Study Bible says this about defining the word day spring that you may have noticed in your Bible if you have the King James Version.

It says, quote, the day spring from on high indicates that the Messiah's coming would be like the coming of dawn, driving away darkness. So the time of the lesser lights had ended. Those who were reflecting the lesser light from the time of the sin of Adam through a long dark night of humanity's history. To this period of time, that was like the dawn of a new day. Matthew chapter 4 and verse 12. Let's see what Jesus said about himself. Matthew chapter 4 and verse 12.

What the Holy Days themselves tell us what they portray is a world slowly going from darkness and into the growing light of God. Matthew chapter 4 and verse 12. Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he departed the Galilee and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naptali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, here's the prophecy and Jesus says he's fulfilling it, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naptali by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, not a lesser light, a great light, and upon those who sat in the region, the shadow of light, the shadow of for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned.

So once again confirming what John the Baptist's father Zacharias had said, the coming of Jesus Christ, his ministry, his life was the beginning of the great light. From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When Jesus came to earth and lived and preached and died and was resurrected, the spiritual darkness, the lesser light, ended and the new era dawned like the rising of the sun in the morning as God's spiritual day progressed.

Jesus said in John 9.5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Turn with me to John 12.44. We'll look at this scripture. John 12.44.

It says that Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. Jesus himself acknowledged that he was a light the light coming into the world of darkness his life and his ministry was like the dramatic rising of the sun in the horizon after a long period of darkness and since that time because of those whom he has called because of you that light has become brighter as the spiritual day progresses. Let's go over to chapter 14 while we're in the book of John in verse 12.

Let's see what Jesus said about you, about me and our calling. Most assuredly I say to you he who believes in me in the works that I do will do also and greater works than these he will do because I go to my father and whoever you ask in my name that I will do that the father may be glorified in the sun if you ask anything in my name I will do it. Brother and his chosen brothers and sisters are many points of light reflecting the fact that Jesus Christ is living his life in them. They are radiating God's light for the past 2,000 years the church composed of whom God has given the gift of his Holy Spirit have been ever increasing lights to the world. Jesus Christ was a brilliant single point of light but his chosen first fruits are many points of light reflecting the fact that Jesus Christ lives in them radiating God's light. The church is preaching the gospel wherever doors are opened for us. Jesus Christ had the opportunity to touch thousands of people in a very small area of Judea. We have a commission to go to the world and touch millions.

Each one of us is reflecting a light to the world because Christ lives in us.

Christ was the beginning of a greater light with a spiritual dawn and after him there would be many who would follow him and would also reflect the greater light. If the first coming of Jesus Christ was like the dawning of a new morning, what would his second coming represent? Let's go to Malachi chapter 3 and verse 1. Malachi chapter 3 and verse 1.

The prophet Malachi was inspired to write, regarding something that occurs around the time of the festival of trumpets is portrayed, for behold the day is coming burning like an oven and all the proud yes and all who do wickedly will be stubble and the day which is coming shall burn them up says the Lord of hosts that will leave them neither root nor branch but to you who fear my name the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves you shall trample the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that i do this says the Lord of hosts you see brethren there's coming a time when the fullness of God's spiritual light to all humanity will come and that is reflected by the fall holy day festivals it begins with the return of Christ on trumpets and the full brightness of Jesus Christ ruling on the earth represented by the very feast that we are celebrated there will come a time when the full intense brightness of Jesus Christ will shine all over this earth as David wrote in Psalm chapter 84 and verse 11 for the Lord God is a son that's you when is a sun and a shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly brethren right now we're still in a world of darkness but the feast of tabernacles reminds us it points to a time that we long for the new jerusalem when we shall be with God forever and there shall be a yom with no evening but one sacred high eternal noon forever and ever revelation chapter 22 if you'll turn there with me see what God has intended at the end of his spiritual yom for humanity after the darkness after the dawn from the first coming of Jesus Christ and after the establishment of the kingdom of God and he showed me a pure river of water of life clears crystal proceeding from the throne of God and the lamb in the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life you see mankind will have access to the tree of life the same tree that Adam was blocked the going to do after he had sinned will be available for everyone which bore 12 fruits each tree yielding its fruit every month the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations and there should be no more curse but the throne of God and the lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him that's you and I and they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads 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 and he said to me these words are faithful and true and the lord god of the holy prophet sent his angel to show his servants the things which must shortly take place verse seven behold I am coming quickly blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book god's spiritual yom revealing the history of humanity in one outline of a 24-hour day but that's not all brethren 24-hour day also pictures our personal salvation not only is it the beginning and end of an original biblical day a metaphor for the spiritual history of humanity it also pictures our conversion and our growth let's go to effusions chapter five and verse eight and see where Paul talked about this vision chapter five and verse eight he says for you were once darkness but now you are light in the lord walk as children of light for the fruit of the spirit is an all goodness righteousness and truth finding out what is acceptable to the lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them for it is shameful even to speak of these things which are done by them in secret but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light in other words even the darkest deepest things are made obvious when you shine light on them for whoever makes manifest is light therefore he says awake you who sleep from the dead rise from the dead and christ will give you light i'm going to read verses 13 and 14 again from the translation god's word i think it makes it clearer it says light exposes the true character of everything verse 14 because light makes everything easy to see that's why it says wake up sleeper rise from the dead and christ will shine on you before you and i were converted didn't we live in a world of spiritual darkness we were groping for the meaning and the purpose of life in a world of evil and confusion we were spiritually dead and we were in need of a savior then a time came god's good time that because of his grace he began to call us out of darkness and into his light eventually the greater light came upon us when we repented and we were baptized and we received the gift of god's holy spirit the greater light began to shine on us and our commission since that time is now to reflect that light in a very dark world and as we grow as individuals as we develop the fruit of god's holy spirit and grow in the grace and the knowledge of our lord the light we project should become brighter and stronger because that's what god intends for us to do first john chapter one and verse five if you'll turn there with me first john chapter one and verse five the apostle john wrote this is the message which we have heard from him and we declare to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus christ cleanses us from all sin very powerful words from the apostle john we should be leaving the darkness and heading towards the light first peter chapter two and verse nine first peter chapter two and verse nine this is to what we have been called to but you are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation his own special people those people who obeyed his instruction accepted his invitation and came to attend the feast of tabernacles this year his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light who once were not a people but now are now the people of god who had not obtained birth nor mercy but now have obtained mercy brethren i implore you to continue to walk towards that greater light and away from the darkness in this world we now live in a post christian culture where the meaning of every decent and moral institution is being redefined as a society we have evolved from celebrating diversity to being told we need to celebrate perversity unfortunately that's the culture that we live in please don't conform to the standards and values of this world god is not interested in a contribution from us he's interested in total commitment i'm told the story of a chicken and a pig sitting on a moving conveyor belt in a factory the chicken looks up and sees a big poster and it says egg McMuffin sandwiches eggs cheese canadian bacon and the chicken says look I'm in every egg McMuffin sandwich in the world and the pig looks at the chicken and says that's easy for you for you it's a contribution for me it's total commitment and you see brethren what god wants from his children is not simply a contribution but total commitment when you contribute something you get a big thank you with total commitment your reward is eternity brethren in my four decades in the church of god i have known of many people who made a commitment some i'm sorry many people who made a donation who made a commitment but they weren't committed with their lives their contributions may have been money some contributed service some even preached perhaps from this very stage but somewhere along the line they gave up they just gave a contribution but what god wants from you and he wants from me is total commitment to his way of life we're scheduled to have a baptism this afternoon a young man who was also a husband and a father started attending services two to three years ago and his life has grown from a point in time when he was a committed atheist to this afternoon when he is on the cusp of eternity because he's willing to make not just a contribution but a total commitment to god's way of life and brethren that's exactly what god wants from us so i encourage you to continue to walk away from the darkness and into the bright intense light of god this spiritual light has been gradually increasing for two thousand years because each generation of those whom god calls receive god's spirit and reflect the greater light in their communities in their part of the world but the full light the full intense brightness of the kingdom of god is not yet here you and i have been called to reflect that greater light now and for all eternity during this feast of tabernacles of 2015 i want to remind you that you have been called to be part of that greater light jesus christ is living his life in you his righteousness makes you righteous in the eyes of god and that light is intended to get brighter and brighter and we are intended and destined to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our god so that we can continue to serve not just today but throughout all eternity and until a time when we will be changed into the full brightness and glory of the eternal at the second coming of jesus christ let's commit ourselves to focusing our lives first and foremost on the kingdom of god i could take a 100 watt light bulb and turn all of these lights off in a 100 watt light bulb turn it on and one corner of this room it might throw a little bit of light might even be difficult to see in the other end of the hall but if you take that same amount of 100 watts of energy and you focus it a 100 watt laser beam can cut steel so let's focus our lives on the kingdom of god let's focus our lives on the things that are important that are eternal let's not be pulled down by the values of this world this ever-changing culture that we live in let's continue to be the lights to be the examples that jesus christ wants us to be in our homes in our communities in our workplaces and in god's church let's be encouraged by our calling let's be encouraged by our calling let's be inspired by our destiny let's live worthy of our calling brethren the kingdom of god is near and we are part of that greater light what a precious privilege what a precious calling we have thy kingdom come