In the sermon 'The Lamb Is Its Light' by Scott Brown, the speaker delves into the biblical theme of light as presented in Revelation 21:23 and other scriptures. Brown emphasizes that in heaven, the glory of God and the Lamb will illuminate the city, eliminating the need for the sun or moon. He highlights the progressive revelation of light throughout the Bible, beginning with Genesis and culminating in Revelation, where the Lamb, Jesus Christ, is the ultimate source of light. The sermon explores the theological significance of light as a symbol of holiness, wisdom, and divine presence. Brown also discusses the incarnation of Christ, the guiding light during the Exodus, and the perpetual light in the tabernacle, all pointing to the spiritual light that believers experience through Jesus. He stresses the importance of biblical theology in understanding light's role in scripture and encourages believers to walk in the light of Christ, reflecting His glory in the world.

Please open your Bibles to Revelation 21 and find verse 23. Revelation 21 verse 23. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Revelation 21 verse 23. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it.

The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day, There shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. But there shall be no, by no means enter anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those things, only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And then I'd like you to look at verse chapter 22, verse five.

We're dealing with the final instances of the word light in the Bible. Verse, chapter 22, verse five. 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 now verse 16 in chapter 22 2216 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.

Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for the light of the world. We thank you for the light that shines in the darkness. We thank you for the Son of God and the coming of the light into the world so that we might be saved. We're so thankful for that light.

And you have given us such a rich and beautiful testimony of the power and the beauty of light. And so I pray that you would help us all to grasp it today. You are the light of the world. You are the day spring. You are the son of righteousness.

And we're here, oh Lord, to just give thanks that you came into the world as a baby and conquered the world. Amen. Please be seated. As you know, we're continuing in our studies in the book of Revelation. We're finding ourselves in the last mentions of various words and theological ideas in the Bible.

And of course, Genesis and Revelation are regarded as bookends of the Bible. And you have this reality in Bible Doctrine that the first mention of something and the last mention of something often contained tremendous meaning for the believer And these things are often mentioned throughout the Bible. And we've been doing this in Revelation. We're coming to the last mentions of brides and mountains and temples. We covered that last week.

There's no more temple. That's verse 22 in Revelation 21. And we're here this morning to speak about the last mentions of the word light. Because what we find here in scripture is that in heaven, there's a great alteration that takes place. There are things that were common on the earth and yet altered and improved.

This is progressive revelation where there's an improvement. And in scripture, often, one generation after another. And so today we're gonna do what we've been doing continue the pattern of doing a biblical theology of this matter of light. Of course, biblical theology, just by way of reminder, is an approach to scripture where you begin with the beginning of that idea and you work through that idea all the way sequentially through scripture to the end, to see the way that God has revealed himself over time throughout history. So we're doing biblical theologies, And this biblical theology is on the light.

Last week we read these words, but I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. What does that mean, that there's no more temple? Well, today we're pursuing a similar answer to the question. What is this about there, there's no need for the sun or the moon to shine for the glory of God has illuminated it. So, and also just to get our coordinates together on this section of Revelation.

Perhaps the key verse is in verse 9 in chapter 21, where John tells us what he's doing. Let me show you the bride. He's showing us the state of the church in heaven. Let me show you the bride. Everything in revelation is to show the existence of the bride, the body of Christ, the church in heaven.

And so we find this, this same matter here. The state of the bride in heaven is that she's not dependent on the sun or the moon any longer because the lamb, The Lamb Himself is its light. And this really is one of the great treasures of the Gospel, that God is light, that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. It was in the 1960s that I first heard that, and God saved my soul. I am the light of the world.

What a blessing it is to have light. The treasure of the incarnation, the treasure of this season that everybody all over the world is celebrating is that Jesus Christ is the light. And it really is actually a great blessing that there will be no more need for the Son. And we'll explain that later. But here we find ourselves in this great and wonderful doctrine of the incarnation of the Savior, that he is Savior, he's Redeemer, he's Lord, he's creator, he's the Son of God, he's the Son of Man, he's the beloved Son, he's the wonderful counselor, he's the mighty God, He's the everlasting Father.

Praise the Lord. He was also a cause of great disturbance. When the light of the world came into the world, Herod was terrified. The kings of the earth are terrified of the son of God because he actually brings authority, authority in people's lives that the kings of the earth want to claim. There's so much to talk about in terms of the significance of light in the Bible, and I hope we grasp some sense of it here.

So this is the last and most complete testimony of heaven that exists in Scripture. And what we've noticed is that everything you see in heaven you've already seen on the earth. You're experiencing actually earth, heaven on earth. That's why Jesus taught his disciples to pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We're meant to look toward heaven, to the conditions that are there, and find those things manifested on the earth.

And the same is true in this whole doctrine of the light. You've got to know heaven in order to reflect heaven in the world. And this doctrine of light is so critical to help us understand that. So Last week we focused on verse 22 there, I saw no temple in it. And now we focus on verse 23.

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. What does that mean? Well, first of all, it does not say that the sun and the moon disappeared. It does not say that.

It says that there is no more need. There's no more need. There's a, there's a difference. There's no more need for the light of the sun. It doesn't say that the sun has disappeared or the moon has disappeared, but there is something brighter than the sun.

There's something more significant, something more warming, something more powerful than the light of the sun. And it's the light of the Son of God. And there's a very interesting verse in Isaiah 24, verse 3, where it speaks of something that does outshine the sun. Then the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed. And he's talking about this figurative language that the sun and the moon are kind of hanging their heads in the way that someone would be ashamed because they're really nothing like they were because something has displaced them.

The brightest earthly lights will dim in the face of his marvelous and glorious light. And it's very interesting in that passage in Isaiah 24, verse 23 reads, and for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before his elders gloriously. This has to do with the reigning of the Son of God, the light of God greater than any other earthly light. The light of God is meant to be greater than every other earthly light. And that's what is here.

In verse 24, in chapter 21, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor to it. By the way, we're gonna get to that next week. In verse 25, and its gates will not be shut at all by day, there shall be no more night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. We'll unpack that in more detail next time.

But what you have here is the final mention of the word light. And it really is so significant, and it's so significant as people all over the world are celebrating the incarnation. Here's a parallel passage in Isaiah chapter 60 verse 19. The sun shall no longer be your light by day. No, nor you, no for brightness shall be, shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord will be, be to you an everlasting light.

And your God, your glory, your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself. Your sun shall no longer go down. In heaven, the sun will no longer go down, the light of the son of God will never go down. But that actually tells us something about the blessing of living in the light of Jesus Christ in this world, because the light of the Son of God never goes down in the heart of the believer. So, a biblical theology of light.

We're gonna walk through this. You have an outline in front of you, which gives the stopping points on this great doctrine of light. And you'll see if you have an outline that I've listed many passages of scripture. I would just encourage you, hey, read some of these this afternoon. They are such a blessing.

The gospel light shines so brightly in these passages. You'll learn a lot. You know, one of the helpful things about being in Revelation is you read something and you realize it's been mentioned many, many times before in the Bible. One of the reasons people don't understand Revelation is because they don't know the rest of their Bible, because the rest of the Bible actually explains these things. And I'll just give a plug for reading through the Bible every year in your life, because you begin to see the themes, you begin to see how it all fits together.

You're sort of rescued from taking everything out of context and not understanding what you're reading. The reason often people don't understand what they're reading is they just haven't read enough of their Bible and But when you've read your Bible over and over again You you your mind goes back and forth and you begin to see how things all fit together People don't preach from Revelation or read from read Revelation because they don't understand what it means. It's because they don't understand Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Psalms. They don't understand the prophets. And so it's incomprehensible to them when frankly it is comprehensible because the Bible has already explained it in other places.

So read the Bible through the earth. Here's the Bible reading challenge. Go get their Journey Through the Bible web app and do what I do every day. I open it up and I read the passage that's in front of me. And it's so helpful.

I want it to shape my soul. I want it to turn me around, teach me, correct me. And also help me to understand what God is saying. So anyway, reading Revelation is so rich because you're always going back to see the explanations of those passages. Okay, a biblical theology of light.

Are you ready for a flyover here? I'm sorry we can't get as deep as would be a blessing in each one of these, but I at least want you to see what This means that there will be no more need for the sun or the moon. And I think it's all explained in this biblical theology. So the first stopping point here is that God is light. The first mention of light is in Genesis 1, 1 through 15.

Then God said, verse 3, Let there be 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 and the darkness night. So the evening and the morning were the first Day. Light, by the way, was created before the sun and the moon.

It's not until the fourth day of creation that the sun and the moon, the things that are designed for lights, were created. Designed for lights were created. Light is a supernatural quality of God. God creates visible light without the sun. God emanates light without the lights that are normally giving light.

You can experience the light of God without the sun. You can experience light without an earthly sun. You know, light in the Bible is often a symbol of holiness and wisdom or knowledge or grace or hope. And it's God bringing order out of the chaos. He brings light.

And of course, you know, light appears in so many different forms. You know, light can be the flicker of a candle. It can be a red dot. Light can cut metal. Light travels at over 186, 000 miles per second.

Light never goes under the speed limit or over the speed limit. Light is just absolutely a remarkable category of nature. It has energy and it actually behaves like a particle, but it's also a wave. We use light for our communications. When I go to my office, There's a fiber optic cable that fires information all over the internet.

There's nothing we know of in the universe that moves faster than light. And those who study light, physicists say things like this, it's different from anything else we know. There's something about light. But in the beginning, God created light and he created light. He emanated light before he created the sun.

And you'll find that in verses 14 through 19. In 1 John 1, 5 we read, God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. In Daniel 2, 22, we read, And light dwells with him. God is light. God himself is light.

God emanates light. Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon called Christ, the Light of the World. He says this, as the sun when it rises all things are revived and awakened out of sleep and silence. So when Jesus Christ shines into the souls of men, They are revived out of their deep and dead sleep of sins. Before he shines into men's souls, they are dead.

He says they're softened by the beams of the sun of righteousness. The stony rocky hearts of men are thawed, mellowed and softened, and made fit to receive God's grace. He goes on and talks about the plants and the trees and the fruits of the earth are all brought out by the sun. And that's true spiritually. God himself is a spiritual light.

Man needs a spiritual light. And this alteration of the soul happens as a result of the light. But God is light. Edward says this, Christ by his spiritual influences increases grace. All the fruits of the earth are brought to perfection by the sun, so all the graces of the soul do continue to be increased and ripened by the light that Christ gives.

God is light. If you want to be enlightened, go to God. God is light. Second, let's talk about guiding light. The guiding lights in the Exodus, the the light that guides you, the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud in Exodus chapter 13, verse 21.

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. This is God guiding his people. Light guides you. We need God because we need guidance.

We need Jesus Christ because he's the shepherd and his light leads us through this life. This is guiding light. The light will guide you. And of course the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, they symbolize God's presence. They were assurances that God was there.

Assurances that God was leading them. Your Bible is like that, that's an assurance that God is leading you. And of course you had the plague of darkness on the other hand outside of the location of the people of God, the darkness was so dark that you could feel it. I remember when I was a boy, my parents took us to Carlsbad Caverns, and at that time, they would take you into the caverns and it would be all lit up, it would be so beautiful. And then the ranger would switch the lights off.

And it was dark. It was darkness that you could feel. But with God, there's no darkness. And this is really just a picture of God's intention for his people, to always give them light when the rest of the world is in darkness. And then you have perpetual light, the perpetual lights that burned in the tabernacle, Exodus chapter 25 verse 30.

This is light that is perpetual. It's a symbol. It's a symbol to tell the people of God that his light never goes out. God's light never goes out. And you know the menorah, the candlesticks that were in the tabernacle and in the temple, they were made of gold and they were fed by olive oil perpetually and they were never supposed to go out.

And it's very interesting the way that God commanded the tabernacle to be constructed is that the lights were, God told Moses to design it so that the lights were shining on the table of the bread, so that the people would see that he would always perpetually give them bread. But that light was shining on the means of grace. And the whole arrangement of the tabernacle was such that the light was shining, shining on the showbread, the loaves of the table, and the frankincense. This was the bread of the presence, so it says in Exodus 25 verse 30. And it's to say that Jesus Christ is, He is the perpetual light.

And He illuminates His food, His bread, that's meant to be eaten. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This is the perpetual light that the believer has. In fact, if you go to Zechariah chapter four, this very dramatic scene, Zechariah is trying to convince the children of Israel that God is doing a great thing because they're building the second temple. The first temple was torn down by Nebuchadnezzar and now the second temple is being built by those who are returning from Babylon after 70 years of captivity.

And Zechariah is there to encourage those people who are rebuilding the temple. And he and he refers to this matter of the menorah and it's shining. But what's the meaning of it? Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. This is the perpetual light of Jesus Christ.

And then the prophecies of the coming light, the prophets speak of the coming light with remarkable clarity. Dozens and dozens and dozens of places. It was hard to try to narrow any of this down. I wanted to read all of them to you. Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 through 7.

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. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. In other words, you have help and counsel when you need it. Mighty God, you have strength from heaven.

Everlasting Father, when you are feeling so insignificant. Prince of Peace, when all around you is in turmoil. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. By the way The coming of Jesus Christ as a baby was the establishment of a government and the governments of the world were terrified We'll get to that later the government and Peace there will be no end Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom in order to establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. You know all month long we've been singing, O come, O come, Emmanuel. Every stanza in that song is a quotation from one of the prophets about the coming of the Messiah. And it's such a beautiful song. Isaiah 7 14.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel. And then, oh come, thou day spring, come and cheer. That's from Luke one verse 78.

O come, thou rod of Jesse, free. That's from Isaiah 11, 10. O come, desire of nations, Bind thy sons and daughters in one heart and mind." That's from Haggai to 7. But all of these are prophecies. We've been singing the messages of the prophets in singing that song about the coming of the Messiah, about the baby born in Bethlehem, and He is the day spring.

This idea of day spring, it means a rising, it means an uprising, that light is shining in your heart. The glory of God arises within your soul. The rod of Jesse, This is a promise of the Messiah. It's really a metaphor of the Messiah. The Rod, the root, the beginning of the Messiah was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Jesse was King David's father. He sends out a branch that continues on until Christ himself. The desire of all the nations. This is from Haggai. Haggai is also trying to encourage the builders of the second temple after return from Babylon.

And he says the nations are going to come, the wealth of the nations are going to come here. We'll elaborate on that next week. So you have the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings Malachi 4 2 you have David in Psalm 27 the Lord is my light and my salvation Whom shall I fear you have this cry of David in Psalm 43 verse 3, oh send out your light and your truth let them lead me let them bring me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle and then there is incarnate light This is the fulfillment of the prophets. In Matthew chapter 4, we read actually a quotation that fulfills the words of the prophets. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region of the shadow of death, light has dawned.

People in darkness saw great light when Christ came. The Magi came to see Him. These are royal counselors. They were prudent. They were learned men.

We don't know very much about them, but what they saw a star that led them, a light led them, and they rejoiced. In Luke chapter 2 verse 25, it is a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. Gentiles is just code for unbelievers, for people who hate God. The light shines in the hearts of people who hate God and they change and they begin to love the light and they begin to walk in the light. That would be us, we're the Gentiles.

In John chapter 1, the very beginning of the gospel of John, we read these words, All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made 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." He's talking about Christ He was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. If you turn over to St. Corinthians 4 verse 6, there's really a commentary on what we've been reading in Revelation. St. Corinthians 4, 6, for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness.

That was a creation. God commanded the light to shine out of darkness in creation who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In creation, you had a spiritual manifestation of the light of God because God is light. And in the soul, you have a manifestation of God's creation of light by the light of Jesus Christ. That's how the Bible is written.

That's how the Bible in Revelation can say, and there's no more need for the sun because the lamb is its light. Just like it was before man was created, God's light emanated into the universe. And it was in all that if anyone were alive would be needed would be the light and in heaven it's the same way. The beginning is like the end in this story. This was a very disruptive light when Jesus Christ came.

In Matthew 2-3, when Herod heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ would be born. And they told him of the prophecies in Bethlehem, the land of Judah, the light of the world would come. And then Herod, Herod began to fear and he started running around secretly trying to find the back story of when the time the star appeared and so that he could find this child and kill this child. And then these Magi were divinely warned in a dream that they should not go back to Herod, so they went home.

And Herod understood that he was being mocked, and so he murdered the babies two years old and under. He was afraid of this child who was born a king. The problem with Jesus Christ is that he commands authority, authority over your life, greater than any other authority, greater than your own opinions, even greater than your own civil government. And so in Luke 2 here we learn that the incarnation, the baby Jesus, He destabilizes nations. That baby is a political statement that there's a king on the ground.

The king of kings and the lord of lords is reigning. And the state is always disturbed when people believe that there's a king higher than Caesar. The secular fundamentalism does not appreciate biblical authority. And that's why history is full of the persecution of the church. Because the church often cramps the style of the secular state.

We saw, you saw that in the riot in, in, in Ephesus, in Acts 19, people, people were bringing their magic books and they were burning them in the square. It was causing a huge disruption. It was destabilizing the economy of Ephesus. And that's because the church was being persecuted. Because biblical authority means that you turn away from your idols.

And the state often receives much income from the idolatry that both they and the people have. You know, I was reading just last week in China, the Chinese government is pulling a new trick to try to persecute the church. Of course the Chinese church has been driven underground and their properties have been taken away. But, and they do different things along the way. And it's interesting, the Chinese Christians have just kind of figured workarounds.

They just keep working around it. They have sort of a different, they don't seem to obsess about it. They just kind of keep doing workarounds. But the latest is to stop them from tithing. So their pastors are being charged with fraud and by running illegal businesses.

So they're trying to terrify the people so that they won't tithe. In fact, one of the elders of early rain church where here he was from was writing an article about this, just encouraging the people, no, this is part of being the church. We tithe, we give our money. We're gonna keep giving our money. But the pastors are being charged with fraud so the people are afraid to give So they're trying to figure out Workarounds here's what he writes This elder at early rain covenant church Which has been scattered throughout the land Persecution is focused on three areas church property church doctrine and church polity Which includes courage clergy All of this is aimed at restricting the church from exercising the basic mission entrusted to it by the King of Heaven, worship, discipleship, and evangelism.

Well, Jesus Christ came into the world and it was disturbing to Herod Because the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is a political statement, because it has to do with the hearts of the people in all the nations of the world. You know, in John 3.19 we read, and this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for everyone Practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light Lest his deeds should be exposed But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." The light of Jesus Christ destabilizes nations because there's a new authority that is speaking, a new authority speaking into people's lives. And then walking in the light, Not only is God light, not only is Jesus Christ the day spring at hand, but God calls His people to walk in the light. In Matthew 5, 14, Jesus says, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

In 1 Peter 2, 9 we are told, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. In Ephesians 5, we learned that you were once darkness, but now You are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in 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 those things which are done by them in secret, but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light. For whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. Christ calls his children to walk in the light, and actually to be life. In, To the Philippian Church, Paul tells them that in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, they shine as lights in the world.

And So not only is God light, God designs his children to be full of light and to walk in the light. And then there are angels of light, if you're following me in the outline, there are angels of light. 1 Corinthians 11, 14, For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ, and no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. So be careful about light that appears to be light.

All light is not light. Jonathan Edwards says, the same spiritual son whose beams are most comfortable and beneficial to believers will burn and destroy unbelievers. He calls them God's apes. He says, as a false comforter, he flatters men with counterfeit grace, with counterfeit faith, with counterfeit love, with counterfeit repentance, with counterfeit charity, counterfeit humility, counterfeit thankfulness, imitating the discoveries of God's Spirit and the work of Jesus Christ, the true angel of light, the light of the world. The light that the world shines, The light that the angels of light shine is a fake.

It's a copy. It's an attempt to give what God has given. And Then there's the light of the word of God, the lamp of the word of God. Psalm 119 verse 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. You can always have light.

Light is always available. Is always available. Psalm 18 28, for you will light my lamp, the Lord my God will So how do we apply all this? The moon, the stars, the sun, they really are huge blessings. They point us to the light.

But I think the message is here is that if you have God, you don't need the light of the sun or the moon. You don't even need the light of friendship. You don't need the light of comfort because the light of God is all you need. Because God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. And even in this world, there is no need for the light of the sun.

You can have the light of the Son of God in prison. I was reading stories of men who have been imprisoned for years for the gospel. And the light of the physical sun and the moon was shut out, but not the light of God. The light of God never went out in those prisons. And I know people get very upset about this little light, that little light that they miss in this world, but are not as satisfied with God's light.

And so they're not satisfied with what God has given them. Because God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. Spurgeon said, at all. Spurgeon said, Why should we dread to descend into the dark shaft of affliction if it leads us to the gold mine of bright and spiritual experience. In the darkness of our adversity, we are better able to count the starry promises with which the faithful God has been pleased to gem the sky.

That's why David said, it was good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. It was good that I was afflicted because it drove me to the light of the word of God. The light of friends, the light of money, the light of a job, the many things that are a light to help in this world, they're a blessing, but they're not even necessary for the soul of man. And I think that's why we have this phrase, there is no more need for the Sun, Because in heaven there will be only one light competing with our affections. What a blessing that is.

But let it be so now. I want to close with something I read a long time ago. And it's from John Calvin's preface to a French translation of the New Testament. And he uses the word gospel over and over again. I'll just read a couple of lines.

Without the gospel, everything is useless and vain. Without the gospel, we are not Christians. I want to replace that with the word light and read it to you. Without the light, everything is useless and vain. Without the light, we are not Christians.

Without the light, all riches is poverty. All wisdom is folly before God. Strength is weakness, and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God. But by the knowledge of the light we are made children of God, brothers of Jesus Christ, fellow townsmen with the saints, citizens of the kingdom of heaven, heirs of God with Christ, by whom the poor are made rich, the weak strong, the fools wise, the sinner justified, the desolate comforted, the doubting sure, slaves free. It is the power of God for salvation of all who believe.

It follows that every good thing we could think or desire is to be found in this same light of Jesus Christ. For He was sold to buy us back, captive to deliver us, condemned to absolve us. He was made a curse for our blessing, a sin offering for our righteousness, marred that we should be made fair. He died for our life so that by him fury is made gentle, wrath appeased, darkness turned to light, fear reassured, despisal despised, debt canceled, labor lightened, sadness made merry, misfortune made fortunate, difficulty easy, disorder ordered, division united, ignominy ennobled, rebellion subjected, intimidation intimidated, ambush uncovered, assaults assailed, force forced back, combat combated, war ward against, vengeance avenged, torment tormented, against. Vengeance avenged, torment tormented, damnation damned, the abyss sunk into the abyss, hell transfixed, death dead, mortally Mortality made immortal.

In short, mercy has swallowed up all misery and goodness and all misfortune. For all these things which were to be the weapons of the devil in this battle against us and the sting of death that pierce us, are turned for us into exercises which we can turn into our profit. If we are able to boast with the Apostle saying, Oh hell, where is thy victory? Oh death, where is thy sting? It is because by the Spirit of Christ, who promised His elect, we live no longer, but Christ lives in us.

And we are by the same Spirit, seated among those who are in heaven, so that for us the world is no more, even if our conversation is in it. But we are content in all things, whether country, place, condition, clothing, meat, and all such things. And we are comforted in tribulation, joyful in sorrow, glorying under vituperation, abounding in poverty, warmed in our nakedness, patient amongst evils, living in death. This is what we should, in short, seek in the whole of scripture, truly to know Jesus Christ and the infinite riches that are comprised in Him, are offered to us by Him from God the Father, the Father of lights, the one in whom there is no darkness at all, the day spring that is at hand, the light of the world, Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord for such a wonderful Savior.

Praise the Lord that in heaven there will be no need for the sun or the moon, for the Lamb is its light. I hope that's helpful. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord, we thank you for these rich blessings from heaven to know the world the way you created it, to see light the way you see light, and the light of the gospel, the light of Jesus Christ, for those who walk in darkness have seen a great light.

Those in the shadow of death have had light everlasting. Oh God, I pray that you would just give us such a dependence on your light in this world that your kingdom come, your will be done on earth in our hearts as it is in heaven where there is no more need for the Son. Amen.