The sermon by Scott Brown, titled 'When Light Shines in the Darkness,' explores Isaiah 60, emphasizing the centrality of the light of Jesus Christ and its transformative power. The speaker discusses how the light of Christ draws Gentiles and kings, symbolizing the expansion of the church and the inclusion of diverse peoples. The sermon highlights the everlasting nature of Christ's light, which changes lives, brings joy, and fosters unity. It underscores that the church's true glory arises from this light, which also leads to physical, financial, and relational transformations. The speaker stresses the importance of bringing treasures to the church for God's glory and warns against valuing worldly lights over Christ's light. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to let Christ's light shine through them, ensuring the church's vibrancy and impact.

Isaiah 60 will be reading the whole chapter. 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. The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.

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 because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land.

The dromedaries of Midian and Ether, all those from Shiva shall come. They shall bring gold and incense. They shall proclaim the praises of the Lord. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you. The rams of Nebaoth shall minister to you.

They shall ascend with acceptance on my altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. Who are these who fly like a cloud and like doves to their roosts? Surely the coastlands shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish will come first, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, The name of the Lord your God and to the Holy One of Israel because he has glorified you The sons of the foreigners shall build up your walls and their kings shall minister to you For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favour I have had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be open continually, they shall not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles and their kings in procession. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined.

The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the pine and the box tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary. And I will make the place of my feet glorious. Also the sons of those who afflicted you shall come, bowing to you, and all those who despise you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet. And they shall call you the city of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.

You shall drink the milk of the Gentiles, And milk the breast of kings. You shall know that I, the Lord, Am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Instead of bronze I will bring gold, Instead of iron I will bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stones, iron.

I will also make your offices peace and your magistrates righteousness. Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, Neither wasting nor destruction within your borders, But you shall call your walls salvation, And your gates praise. 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, 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. They shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation. I the Lord will hasten it in its time.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for these mighty and precious and everlasting promises. Oh Lord, help us now to be humble as has been prayed before. Help us Lord to be humble before your word, not stand over it in judgment, but help our word, help your word Lord to judge us, help your word to correct us, help your word to wash us now.

Lord I pray that you will give Scott unction, that you will give him power through your Holy Spirit, that the words that come from him are from you. Lord, that we hear from you directly. Father, that we may receive of you. Help us Lord to receive with humble hearts now in Jesus name. Amen.

Having just read the entire chapter of Isaiah 60 we're going to just focus on the first 15 verses of this great chapter. It's one thought that follows a number of different contours. You have an outline in front of you that gives you a sense of what we'll be focusing on this morning. But the centerpiece of Isaiah 60 is light rising and shining. And that light is the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we know that God fulfilled this passage of scripture that was spoken in Isaiah chapter 60 when he said of his son in John 1 verses 4 and 5, In him was life, and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not Comprehend it And so it is the light that is the center of everything in Isaiah chapter 60. And I think there are many ways that we should consider all of these things that are here. And one is that it is Jesus Christ and his light that is the center of any true church and the health of a church is really dependent upon what the light of that church is and if that light of that church is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone then you'll find you know declarations and expressions of the glory of God in that church when anything displaces Jesus Christ. And It's easy for churches to find different things to divide that church and to cause harm to it as people go off in different directions. The light of Jesus Christ is the light of the Church of Jesus Christ.

And also, whatever you might be struggling with today, you ought to think about the only solution to that, and that is the light of Jesus Christ. Go to His words. Cry out for the work of his Spirit in your life. It's the light of Jesus Christ that is the answer to everything. No matter what anyone is struggling with today, there really is one source of strength and wisdom and truth, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

There's a phrase here that appears in verse 20 that I think centralizes the whole message, and it's this, the Lord will be your everlasting light. The Lord will be your everlasting light. You know, when I first became a Christian, I was so aware of the fact that I had just stepped into the kingdom of light for all eternity. And that if I died, I would continue to be in the light of his countenance. And this matter that the Lord will be your everlasting light, I think is central to everything that is here.

And it's central to every need that we have here in this room today. Now Isaiah is is so helpful, he's so brilliant, he's so graphic to take us over land and sea to kings and camels, he takes us to ships, He takes us to gold in order to try to explain the beauty and the goodness of his light. It's compelling power and just what a marvelous effect there is in it. In verse 1 you find the beginning of the scene, there's light, it's rising out of the darkness. If you just picture what he's trying to describe, it begins with light shining out of the darkness And then the light is actually rising over its people.

And his glory is seen. And then the Gentiles see the light, and they start streaming to the light. And then Kings, he turns over here, and now kings are coming to the light as well and and and and and they see the rising brightness of this light and then there then he switches from Kings and now Your sons and daughters are coming in and when that happens you're radiant. You know there's such a joy on your face and he's speaking about the joy of the church. And then you have these hearts that are swelling with joy.

Then he turns over and then there's wealth. It's the wealth of the Gentiles in verse 5. And it's coming in from over the sea. And then in verse 6, he shifts you from the sea and all this wealth and he takes you to camels, dromedaries and and multitudes of them and they're coming. He's shifting you from here and there.

He's just trying to give you one image, one picture after another to try to help you understand the glory of the light and how how marvelous it is. And the people start coming from really surprising places, places where the enemies of God dwell, like Kedar and Nebaioth. And there are camels now. And then he describes it in a whole different way. A flock of doves.

Okay, so set aside the kings. Set aside the dromedaries. Set aside the ships for a minute. Now picture doves. It's like a whole flock of doves flying in.

Can you imagine that? Isaiah just continues to spin this story of the manifold glory of God as he expresses itself in so many different ways. Then he turns to foreigners and what are the foreigners doing? They're building up the walls of the kingdom of God. What's that all about?

And then you have gates. You have all these gates. Their gates are open all the time. Almost everybody shuts their gates at night, but here the gates are open all the time. Then He flashes you over to a nation, and this is a nation that hated the people of God.

And what happens to them? They're ruined. And then he takes you to Lebanon and all of its trees, and then he takes you from there to the beauty of his house and then you find the people who have hated him, you know, for one thing, they're humble, they're bowing down, they're worshipping God. And you even have the Muslim nations worshipping God here in this passage of Scripture. And it just continues on, you know, as we get into next week we'll see illustrations of milk and gold and silver and iron and everlasting light so Isaiah in chapter 60 and in continuing on in The prophecy he's offering this this sweeping overview of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It speaks of so many critical issues that Christians need to understand. One of them is that Christianity is not simply some internal emotional matter of your heart. The whole idea of a private religion is totally contradicted in this entire chapter. And this text makes this point that Isaiah has already made many times. But the interpretive center of the text is light.

It's the light of the glory of God at work in the New Testament Church and what that light does and you know what you find here is that you know at the beginning of Isaiah we saw that the people of God were characterized like a remnant but it was like a hut in a in a cucumber field it was nothing it was less than nothing But now it's not like that at all because the glory of the light of Jesus Christ has dawned upon his people and everything has changed. But here's what we cannot miss here in Isaiah 60. There are physical, financial, political, legislative, emotional, relational transformations that come by the light of Jesus Christ. That's what he does. And it's such a beautiful picture of it.

And he takes us to all these different scenes to help us to understand it. Now, there are some often used words in chapter 60 that help us to understand what the central messaging is. You know, if you want to find what is the central message of a chapter or a section of scripture, often, not always, often there are words that are used over and over again in that context. And it can help you to understand what the center it is. So often when I'm studying the scripture, I try to look for oftenly repeated words in that text just to help me to understand what's really on the author's mind and if he's repeating it over and over again.

Well, it happens that in this passage, light is mentioned seven times in verse 1, verse 3, verse 5, verse 19, and verse 20. The Gentiles are mentioned four times. Glory is mentioned six times, but with two different words. One that really speaks of beauty and the other speaks of weight. It's that word kavod, heavy.

Heavy as in heavy in terms of value, like heavy weight of gold. The word wealth is used twice. Kings are used four times. So these kinds of words help us to understand the central message that Isaiah is trying to communicate in this passage. And since light is the center of it, here's something that we all ought to really grasp as we're reading this, and it's this.

If you have light now, it'll change your life now. And you will have light for all eternity. You will be in the land of eternal light and that light that's changing your life will be a never-ending light. And I just pray that soothes your soul for the things that are ahead. You might think by thinking about the days and the months and the years ahead.

And here's what you need to know about those days and months and years ahead. If you have the light of Jesus Christ, it will be an ever shining light for all eternity and no one can take it away from you. No earthly circumstance, no trial, no difficulty, no hatred from any nation or any friend or anything can take it away. It's an everlasting light. And so we see that here.

Now, the timeframe that he's speaking of here really tell us that there are allusions to Isaiah's day. I believe he's speaking as he speaks very often. He speaks of near-term events, perhaps through the coming events of the Babylonian captivity, but primarily through the time after the coming of Jesus Christ, all the way to the new heavens and the earth. When you get to the final verses of this chapter, you'll be reading things that you know are about the new heavens and the earth. But what we know here is that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself as light in all stages of history but progressively and increasingly and culminating in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ which ushers in the eternal light of life that is experienced for all eternity.

Now I know that this is a passage of Scripture that everyone would recognize as being a critical text for understanding eschatology And so as you read this you might, and I don't really want to delve into these various positions, but you know does this really fit with historic you know premillennialism? Does it fit with dispensational premillennialism? Does it does it fit with all millennialism? Does it fit with postmillennialism where Christ's kingdom is established at the resurrection of Jesus Christ? What does this seem to picture?

And of course we can have lots of debates about this. Here is a way that I understand this passage. Isaiah chapter 60 reflects the continuity of Israel to the church and to the eternal state and how each one of these prepares for the next stage and the glory of Jesus Christ increases from one stage of history to another. The Lord Jesus Christ brings out the best wine last and he does this in history as he has demonstrated that he has done throughout redemptive history from the beginning of time. You know, he makes things better and better.

The kingdom of God is a kingdom of continued beautification. This is one of the most wonderful parts of being a Christian, you see how God, he continues to identify the poisons, he identifies the flaws, and he begins to deal with them, you know, patiently and kindly toward us to remove them. Sometimes with severe trials and things like that, but he is a beautifying Savior. So at the same time, it doesn't just end with your life because there are national and there are political implications, and There are implications for what kings should do. What you find here in this passage is something that I pray that we will find increasingly, and that is that kings repent and they build the church of Jesus Christ.

And don't think that can't happen. Don't look around this world and think that cannot happen. The Lord Jesus Christ here in Isaiah 60 is promising that it is happening and it will continue to happen. And we'll get to that as we get further into the text. So let's begin here in the text now in the first section where you find light shining in the darkness and here you have at the beginning really sets forth the entire message of the chapter which concludes in a very similar way that it begins, 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.

Now verse 1 is both a command to arise and shine, but it also is a reality because light has come. And the Lord Jesus Christ so carefully connects himself to this verse when he said in John chapter 8 verse 12, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." And this is the central matter of all of history, that when you follow Him, You have Him with you. When you turn to His light, you have His light within you, and it shines not just upon you, but it shines within you and out from you. And out from you.

And this is why we read in the first chapter of John in verse 4, in him was life, and the light, The life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." This phrase, I believe, is a nearly perfect fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 60. And he's speaking of the value and the beauty of the light of Jesus Christ in the world. And you know the church really cannot be anything of beauty without the light of Jesus Christ shining in it. And that's why the Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew chapter 5, he said, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house and then he says therefore let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven He said that because when a person possesses light, he does work.

He lets his light so shine before men. He does works. And Isaiah 60 speaks of many of those works that come as a result of the light. If you say you have the light and you have no works, you don't really have the light. And the Lord Jesus Christ is making this very, very clear.

The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrates that she has light by doing good works in the way that Jesus Christ spoke of in Matthew chapter 5. And so you have in verses 1 and 2, you have the church doing good works as a result of the light that she has. And you know the glory doesn't come out of the people first, it comes out of heaven to the people. And then God becomes their great light and so you know you have this work of the light That you see in Isaiah chapter 60, but you know what if what if the Lord is not your light? What what if something else is your light?

You know what what if you love your own light? Better than the light of Jesus Christ. What are the implications if you love the lights of this world more than the light of Jesus Christ? Well the Lord Jesus Christ has so desired to call a people out so that they would be like those gentiles that see the light and they're attracted to it. And I think your only hope, If you don't have Christ as your light is that God would open up your eyes to see the light and You would love it more than your own light and you'd love it more than this world's light And you would come to that light with all of your heart So in in chapter 59 as as we go back to help us understand the context of the first two verses in chapter 60 about this light shining, in chapter 59 you see a picture of darkness and all the details of darkness are declared there.

And this is the result of paganism and unbelief. There's no delight in fasting for love. There's no delight in delighting in the Sabbath. There's just groping and blindness and darkness. So if you look at verse 2 in chapter 60, look at verse 14 in the previous chapter and you'll see the context of darkness.

Jesus Christ comes to the darkness. Now, he did come to a very dark nation when he came, when he was born into this world and was the incarnate Son of God. He comes out of these dark conditions. Now, what we find here is that the light is arising and it's shining. Now, in terms of interpreting chapter 60, I think it's very important that we understand this progressively phased fulfillment of the shining of the light that you see in Scripture.

And you see the fulfillments of all these things in chapter 60 in different ways in history. The primary way is the way that we know it today in the days of the new covenant as Jesus Christ, his comedies, poured out his spirit upon all flesh. But when you read about the camels and the dromedaries and the doves and all these pictures they just they describe the various realities and manifestations of light that you see from the time of the Babylonian captivity the return from captivity the rebuilding of the temple the coming of the Gentiles even to help the rebuilding of the temple, and then finally the coming of Jesus Christ and all the things that happened after that time. The pictures of salvation are progressive and that's why you have Babylon and the Incarnation and the Resurrection and the Lord Jesus Christ actually tabernacling with us, the church. And you have heaven as a tabernacle as well.

All of these pictures are lights that are increasingly shining as history goes on. More and more is revealed as time presses on in Scripture and that's why when you when you look at Egypt you're not only looking at Egypt you see you you see Egypt in the bondage there and the deliverance of the Red Sea and its parting you see the wilderness wanderings in the promised land all these things are pictures of salvation in Jesus Christ as well they were they were shadows for us to help us to understand more of the light to and to prepare people for it And so that's what you find in verses 1 and 2. And then in verses 3 through 8 you see these pictures of the expansion of the church. And In verse 3 you have the Gentiles coming to the light. This is the first matter.

And kings to the brightness of your rising. And now you have Gentiles. Who are the Gentiles? The word Gentile is a code word It's a code for those who are not religious who did not grow upright They did not have the laws and the ordinances and the kindnesses of God. They grew up in a pagan land They grew up in in lands that had not been favored previously.

The Gentiles are those people who have just grown up in paganism and they don't know much of God at all. And here these Gentiles are coming to the light. To what light? To the light of the church. And kings are coming to the brightness of your rising.

And this happens as a result of the command of Jesus Christ in Matthew 28 to go into all the world so that there would be at the end of the age people from every tongue and tribe and nation who have come to worship God. You see this picture in Revelation chapter 21. We'll focus on more of it in next week when we deal with the last section of this chapter. But you see the picture here? The kings and the Gentiles are coming to the light.

One of the remarkable things about summertime here in North Carolina is that when you turn on a light out in the darkness, what happens? All kinds of insects, all kinds of bugs come to the light and they're shining around. I try to not turn lights on too close to my doorway so that when it swings open, all those bugs won't fly in. But whenever you see the bugs coming to light, Those despicable beetles and gnats and flies and all kinds of mosquitoes, you know, they're coming to the light. Just picture that.

That's you. You are the Gentiles coming to the light. You see the light, you want to get near it, and you'll hover around it, and if that light goes out, you're going to go find another light. But whenever you see a light and a bunch of bugs around it, you think of this verse right here. Think of verse 3 in Isaiah chapter 60.

It's a picture of the despicable insects of the world coming to a light. Here you find the Gentiles are coming to the light. There's this ingathering in verse 4. Look at verse 4. 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. So then he says, now lift up your eyes. It's even more than that. It's not just kings, but it's also your sons and daughters.

And they're coming. They're coming to you. They're coming to the light as well and He says that they are nursed at your side I think I think the King James might say care, you know carried on your hip and it has to do with the gospel spreading in families and how sons and daughters come to the light and they love the light more than they love the darkness and they're walking with their parents. I think it's a fulfillment perhaps of what We read in Malachi where it says that one of the signs of the gospel being outpoured in the work of the Holy Spirit is that the hearts of the fathers will turn toward their children and the hearts of the children will turn toward their parents. And they all come.

It's a sign of the power of God working in a family. Your sons and daughters will come to your light. And Matthew Henry speaks very compellingly and beautifully about this. He says, sons and daughters shall come in the most dutiful manner as thy sons and thy daughters resolved to be of thy family, to submit to the laws of thy family and put themselves under the tuition of it. They shall come and be nursed at thy side, to have their education with thee from their cradle.

The church's children must be nursed at her side, not sent out to be nursed among strangers. There where alone the unadulterated milk of the word is to be had, must the church's newborn babes be nursed, that they may grow thereby." So it's a picture of family life and a beautification of families because the sons and the daughters are coming and they're being nursed, they're being cared for. John Gill said that this really had to do with the ministers the word who preach the Word of God, the sincere milk of it and the breasts of the gospel ordinances, so he says. But here, you know, you have this picture of this great in-gathering of people. And you might ask, is that happening today?

Are there more Christians, are there more true believers in the world today who praise God, who repent of their sins, and who obey the Lord than there were at the time of this writing? Or at the time of the coming of Jesus Christ are there more? You know like how many people were in Israel at this time? You know or how many people in the entire world at that time had turned to God? Well, I mean today.

You know only there Only 8 million people live in Israel, less than the population of North Carolina. But here you have this vision of expansion. While the light is expanding, the church's light is also expanding as well. And God doesn't leave his church alone, but I mean, are there more today? There absolutely are.

This is fulfilled today. It's fulfilled in your hearing. The Lord Jesus Christ stated it, and it is true. There are far, far, far more people who've named the name of Jesus Christ than in the time of this writing and in the time of the coming of Jesus Christ Himself there in Israel. And then you see the abundance that comes and it causes radiance and joy.

That's verse 5. When you, then you shall see and become radiant. Now don't get lost here. Isaiah's painting a picture. Now he's saying, then you'll see.

You'll see it. And you'll become radiant and your heart will swell with joy because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you." So you have, first of all, the whole emotional fabric of the Church of Jesus Christ has to do with the heart swelling with joy. Faces are radiant. And Then what happens is people bring what they have into the church and they give it.

You see various manifestations of this in shadows in the Old Testament. You have Egypt being plundered and the wealth of Egypt being given to the people of God. The gold and the silver was given to the church as they departed Egypt. Then you have it again in nations, it came to help build Solomon's temple. And here you have this very, very similar picture.

And then in verse 6 you have people from various nations will praise the Lord. The multitude of camels shall cover your land. The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and incense and they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord so now you know we've just turned from ships now now you're looking over the landmass and here here's this hoard of animals camels and and and and their dromedaries and They're coming from all over the place.

They're coming from the most surprising places. And it says here that they're coming with gold and incense. Now the way I understand this is this term incense can also be translated frankincense and I'm confident this is an image of the wealth coming to Jesus Christ when he was a child. But it continued on. It continued on in the most dramatic ways.

And there are the praises of the Lord. And they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord." I think this is perhaps one of the most prominent evidences of a true conversion, praises to the Lord. A person gets off all the disappointments of this life, and his whole disposition changes to the praises of the Lord. It's the converted heart that gives thanks. It praises God, it obeys, but the unconverted don't feel this way at all.

The apostle Paul told us this in Romans chapter 1. The unconverted are marked by a number of things, but one of the things that an unconverted person can mark themselves by is their unthankfulness. Because in Romans, Paul says that those who hated God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful. They weren't thankful. But here you have a picture of thankfulness.

And then you have in verse 7, the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you. The rams of Nebiyoth shall minister to you. They shall ascend with acceptance on my altar and I will glorify the house of my glory. Now who's Kedar? Who's Nebiyoth?

Well these are the sons of Ishmael. These were the two most prominent sons of Ishmael. Ishmael had 12 sons. You can read about it in Genesis 25 verse 13. But these two, Kedar and Nebiyoth, were the most prominent of Ishmael's sons.

Kedar refers to Arabia. Kedar and Nebiyoth refer to the Turks. And the sons of Ishmael are modern day Muslims. And here what you find is that they will come and worship God. God will glorify himself through Muslims who turn to Jesus Christ.

And by the way, there are more Muslims turning to Jesus Christ today than any time in the last 200 years, I'm told from people who are out in Islamic nations. And you know as you see the rise of Islam in the world today, which you do see, you can know with authority what will be the outcome. Now, Martin Luther's commentary on Isaiah, when you get to Isaiah 59 and 60, he speaks of the Islamic threat. And he speaks about the impending destruction of Germany by the Muslims. And of course, you know, this was a great distraction to the Holy Roman Emperor as he began to wage war against the Muslims, which was actually a blessing to the church as it allowed the church to expand during the days of the Reformation.

But what you find here is that Martin Luther speaks of the fact that if he, Luther says this, if Germany is destroyed the light of the gospel will be destroyed. That isn't actually accurate. He was overstating the case just a little bit. But he did make it very clear that God would be victorious. He would destroy all of his enemies.

He makes that very clear in his commentary. Hey, don't think that the Islamic threat is some new thing. It's something that's always been there at varying degrees. But there are two outcomes that you can absolutely count on regarding Islam. There are two and the scriptures speak of them and they are alluded to here.

The first outcome is that some of them will be saved. Preach the gospel to Muslims. Preach the gospel. Don't be afraid of them. And the second outcome is that the rest of them will be obliterated and they will be thrown into the lake of fire.

And that's the destiny of Islam. It will be one or the other. And it would be right for us to share the gospel with Muslims who are in this country. There are more Muslims today in America than any time in its history and we should take advantage of that. We can be fulfillments of this passage of scripture where the sons of Kedar and Nebaiath, they're worshipping God.

They're offering sacrifices in the holy place of God where he is worshipped. Let's be part of that. Let's don't turn aside from it in fear. And then they will come, where will they come? They'll come to the house of his glory.

The house of his glory. And again, we find an illusion of this progressive revelation of God's glory. We see, first of all, the house of the Lord in the tabernacle, and then we see it in the temple in Jerusalem. And then We learn of the power of the resurrection and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And when that happens, your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Your body becomes the tabernacle of God. And the church also is the tabernacle of God. It is a holy place. And then in verse 8, we come to this cloud of doves. Who are these?

Who fly like a cloud? It's like Isaiah standing back and he's saying, who are these? Who are these? The sons, the daughters, the Muslims, the kings, who are they? And then he says, they're like doves to their roosts.

And so he's comparing the church to a flock of doves. And they're flying in to the church. And nothing can stop the cloud of these doves that is coming in. The wind blows where it wishes. God will raise up a cloud of doves at will.

It happened on the day of Pentecost when 3, 000 of them flew into the church as a flock. And it does continue to happen. How many doves are going to fly into the house of God today? You know, all over the world the gospel is being preached on the Sabbath day. I don't know how many tens of thousands or millions are gathered in churches today.

But the gospel is going to be preached all over the world on the Sabbath day, and there will be doves that will come out of those congregations, and they will fly into the church. What a wonderful thing it is. And they're coming to roost. There's the language here, I'm not sure it's a security and safety in coming to roost, But it's rather to wait. Like there's a strategic place for her advancement.

There are other places where we see, like in Psalm 84, which was quoted earlier today, where you have the church is likened to a bird that has come to its nest and is raising its young in its nest. Such a beautiful picture of refuge and nourishment. This might be a little bit different picture rather than refuge. It's a place of deployment. It's a place of waiting for the assault upon the works of the devil in the world.

They come to roost. And then in verses 9 through 14 you find an expansion of this, but you have new converts coming in with their treasures. Surely the coastlands shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish shall come first, to bring your sons from afar, their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you." Now, the treasures are coming from the coastlands here in verse 9. They're coming from all over the place and they seem to be coming in ships and you might say you know is this happening today is treasure coming into the church today? I mean is this being fulfilled now or is this in heaven, you know, where the gold comes into the church?

And I would just suggest no, no. There are people who are bringing their silver and their gold into the church today. In fact, it's happening all over the world here on the Sabbath day. People are bringing their gold and their silver on the Sabbath day. You know, I read recently that the annual giving in churches in America is about 50 billion dollars.

That means almost a billion dollars is being brought into the church today. Isn't that remarkable? Possibly almost a billion dollars a day on the Sabbath day, 52 weeks a year being brought into the church. The gold is flowing into the church. There's no question about it.

You know, what about, you can just think of the wealth of the church, the true church of Jesus Christ. And there's cash, there are buildings, but then there's enormous wealth in the human resources in the church. All the varying gifts that God has laid upon his church. The giftedness in the church is remarkable. But there's treasure in the church.

God calls his church his treasure in the book of Ephesians, I believe. His treasure. But he brings treasure from many different directions. You know, We have a church, God has always given us a place to meet. He's always given us enough food.

He's given us money to give away. He's given us a certain amount of cash at different times in our history. Always a margin to help us go on. It's remarkable. And even today, our church has more cash than it's ever had.

It's because, you know why? Because the Gentiles, the fleas, the flies, the jackals, the hyenas of this world have come into the church and they brought their they've brought their treasures They brought their gifts the Gentiles and its wealth has been coming into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and that that's happening today because the Bible tells us so. This isn't part of the get rich scheme of the elders of this church. This is just part of what Christians do. They come together and they bring their treasures and they give them for various purposes to support the work of the ministry to promote world missions to give to give a church you know a place in a community that's that's why God has done this and he's glorifying himself you know Luther said if you win their heart you'll win their purse And that's what you see happening here.

And then you see the sons of foreigners in verse 10. The church is made up of foreigners. How many nations are represented in this church alone? Lots. Many nations represented in this room today.

It's amazing. All over the world. People are here. They've come to Christ and they're now worshipping together. So many different backgrounds.

So many different nationalities. So much baggage and God has brought us all together. It's such a wonderful thing. And then, you know, you have these kings verse, and their Kings shall minister to you. You know, this, Kings, Kings will come.

Now there have been many Kings who have come into the Church of Jesus Christ over the centuries. You know, last week I was tempted to speak of something that Jonathan Sides told me about, King Alfred the Great. He wrote a song that really is a quote of Isaiah 59, King Alfred the Great's song. You should go look at it. It's a war song.

It goes like this, when the enemy comes in roaring like a flood coveting the kingdom and hungering for blood, the Lord will raise a standard up and lead his people on. The Lord of hosts will go before defeating every foe, defeating every foe, and the song goes on. But he's really quoting Isaiah 59 and really reflecting this whole picture of King's coming. Many of you visited the Reformation wall in Europe recently, and you saw this wall where you had Calvin and Beza and Pharaoh, the great theologians of the Reformation, and then kings who took the instruction of the Word of God and desired as best as they knew how to bring the Word of God to bear in their nations and so you know you have various civil rulers that were also there really not as prominent as the great preachers of the Reformation because they took the words of God and they were the kinds of kings that loved Jesus Christ. So this does happen and it will continue to happen.

And then in verse 11, Therefore your gates shall be open continually. They shall not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles and their kings in procession. Now what does this mean? There are probably three possible meanings to this gates being open. It could have to do with safety, a city that needs no walls, people that just can come and go.

Secondly, it can mean wealth, free flowing, goods coming into the church. And it can mean Gentiles coming in. It could mean all three. I think the inflection point of the whole thing has to do with this whole chapter has to do with the Gentiles coming in and their wealth and you know they're there The doors of the church are open. And Matthew Henry speaks of the doorkeepers of the church always need to have the doors open for the Gentiles to come in.

He says, God not only keeps a good house in his church, but he keeps an open house. That at any time by the preaching of the word in season or out of season, the forces of the Gentiles and the kings or commanders of those forces may be brought into the church." He says, lift up your heads, oh you gates, and Let such welcome the guests as they come in the Gentiles are coming into the church We're proof of that right here today verse 12 You see the punishment that there is for those who don't serve the church by the way this this is a remarkable Verse Verse 12 you can claim in times like these where you have governments, nations that do not love the Church of Jesus Christ. Here's what you can expect. For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you shall perish and those nations shall be utterly ruined." And by the way, this is the history, this is a description of the history of the world from the beginning till now. In the last 6, 000 years of history, God has destroyed every single nation that has raised up its head against Jesus Christ.

And he'll continue to do so until the end. Verse 13, you have the glory of Lebanon coming in. These are these wonderful resources being brought into the church. And you have cypress trees and pines and box trees. These are images of just of more things that come into the church.

They're figurative. These great and beautiful trees that were in Lebanon are figures of something greater. You know, in Isaiah chapter 41 verse 19, you see this used in the very same way here where Isaiah says, or the Lord says, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and The box tree together. This is a picture of abundance and just beautification in verse 13 and Then in verses 14 and 15 the former persecutors will bow down and give thanks.

Verse 14, also the sons who afflicted you shall come bowing to you, and all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet and they shall call you the city of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel." There will always be persecutors in the world, But don't forget what God has said about all persecutors of the church. Don't let your heart be fearful in this world. There's no need. Because God has made it very plain what he will do. And even though you may be forsaken and hated as it speaks of in verse 15, so that no one wants anything to do with you because of your godliness, God says, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.

Here what you find is the preferential treatment that God gives his church, that he gives his church eternal excellence and joy of many generations, while the others, they only hate and they only oppose, and they're given this forever. Now this language of forever will be inspected more carefully next Sunday because verses 18 and 19 and 20 all speak of this very same matter of the forever blessing of the church and this joy that comes upon the people of God because they saw the light. So let's take some applications here. I just would start with the whole matter of light, and that the centerpiece of Isaiah 60 is light, shining, And that light is the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the only true glory of the church.

And it is the only everlasting light. So here's a question. If you're here today, is it because the light of his glory has drawn you here? Or are you seeking something else? This is a very important matter.

Because often people want sort of the things of the Christian life, and they should, but they often become confused between the things of Jesus Christ and Christ. Christ is the source of all the things. That's absolutely true and you do want the things of Jesus Christ but you always have to ask yourself in your mind do I just want the things Or do I want Christ and everything that He is? Or have I just picked out certain things that I like? It's a tragedy when people desire the things.

And they might be able to get a couple of shadows of the things but they don't get Christ and they don't get everything of Christ when they need everything of Christ. And so is it is it his light that you desire or is there some other thing that you would like? Light, treasure. The church is made up of people bringing their treasures for the glory of God. And you as the church should always ask, what have I brought to serve the church of God?

In all of the various treasures that God has given me, in wealth, in time, in gifts, Is there anything that I'm holding back from the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I bringing a minimum? Am I zealous? Do I just show up on Sunday or am I zealous to bring my treasure into the church? And not your own words and not your own ways, but his, everything that he's given.

This whole chapter is about one thing that comes from God, light. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the true light which enlightens every man. But it doesn't come from man. Light comes come from man. Light comes to man from God.

And one of the central matters of Christianity is the work of the light of Jesus Christ. You know, whatever is a work of man will always fail and it will come to nothing. Whatever work in the church, whatever thoughts, whatever conversations that are had here in this church today, If they are not of the light, they will be destroyed. Whatever is a work of God will prosper. It'll endure.

It'll flourish forevermore. And this is the light of Jesus Christ. It is an everlasting light that can never be put out. And God has given his light to his church. We're so privileged today to be able to gather around the light.

You know, even this whole idea of these despicable bugs gathering around the light, I do think it's helpful. We come to Him. We come to Him as we are. We come to him to put off who we have been But we come to the light and it's an everlasting light and I I'm confident this one thing to the extent That love for Jesus Christ and his light prevails in your hearts and mine will be the extent of the shining of the glory of God in this community. And so That's why he says, arise, shine.

It's a command on the one hand, but it's a reality on the other hand. And so, arise, Shine. Your light has come. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for these beautiful ways that you have helped us to understand the glory of your kingdom, of your light.

And I pray, oh Lord, that you would draw us to your light with such intensity with such love amen