The True Light

Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don

Noble of Pure Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today

with exceedingly abundantly and lots and lots of overflowing joy.

This is the season of joy, Amen. This is a

joyous time of year, and I have titled my message

the True Light. This beautiful Christmas season is a holy season.

I know it's a time to celebrate and have family

festivities of gift giving, and that is a traditional part

of the season. But as Christians, we know that Jesus

is the reason for the season. So what I wanted

to do tonight was I wanted to put a spotlight

on Jesus. And I was taken to these two scriptures

and they kind of imprinted my heart. So kind of

that's where I'm going tonight. And so I'm starting in

the Book of Luke. I'm reading out of all my

scriptures tonight are out of the New King James version.

I'm reading out of Luke chapter one, verses seventy eight

and seventy nine. Now, this set of scriptures is the

prophecy of Zachariah. Zachariah was the father of John the Baptist,

so I'm just reading these two specific verses that Zachariah

prophesied verse seventy eight, through the tender mercy of our God,

with which the dayspring from on high has visited us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and

the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into

the way of peace. The second set of scriptures is

from Second Peter, Chapter one, verses sixteen through nineteen. Peter writes,

for we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we

made known to you the power and coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. But were I witnesses of his majesty.

For he received from God, the Father, honor and glory,

when such a voice came to him from the Excellent Glory, saying,

this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

And we heard this voice which came from heaven when

we were with him on the holy mountain. And so gooh,

we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you would do

well to heed as a light that shines in a

dark place until the day dawns and the morning star

rises in your hearts. Okay, when Peter is talking about

being an eye witness of his majesty, he's obviously talking

about the amount of transfiguration. And so that's when there

is this glorious light shining around Jesus and they hear

they actually hear the audible voice of God speaking to

Jesus saying, this is my beloved son in whom I

am well pleased. Now, when Peter goes on to say,

we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well

to heed as a light that shines in a dark

place until the day dawns and the morning star rises

in your hearts. Peter is telling you and I he's

telling us to heed this light that shines in a

dark place. Heed this until the day dawns. Now that

scholars say is returning to when Christ returns. Now, is

that his second coming? Is that when he comes for

the bride of Christ. I'm not sure, But until the

day dawns and the morning star, which is really referencing Jesus,

he's the morning star. Remember Zachariah called him the day spring.

If you look up what that means in the Greek,

it means dawn, so it's it's the beginning of the day.

It's light. So the morning star rises in your hearts.

Is talking about when he returns, then the revelation of

Christ will be in our hearts. Will when we see him,

will have that revelation of Christ in our hearts. Now,

Zachariah's prophecy that the day spring on high has visited

us is the birth of Christ. That's what he's prophesying.

Now interesting his wife Elizabeth, Zacharia's wife, Elizabeth is pregnant. First,

she is pregnant with John the Baptist and Mary. There's

no even talk of Mary yet, of Mary being pregnant

and visited by the Angel. But see, Zachariah has already prophesied.

He's prophesied that the day spring on high as has

visited us. He's prophesying boom, the birth of Christ. Day

spring means dawn. So the light, that light that he's

talking about is the true light that visited them, and

that light came to give light to those who sit

in darkness and the shadow of death. Now, others proclaimed

and prophesied about that light. David in Psalm twenty seventy

one says he proclaims way before Jesus is ever born,

He says, the Lord, and remember that David had a

revelation of Christ. The Lord, he says, is my light

and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? How did David

know that the Lord is my light? I mean, you

have to you have to really think about these things

when you're reading them. You need to really put it

in context and think, David didn't know Jesus, but David

had revelation by the spirit. David hadn't heard zachar Rai's prophecy, obviously,

but David knew by the spirit. In Psalm forty three three,

this psalmist declares, Oh, send out your that's capitalized meaning

the Lord. Oh send out your light and your truth.

Let them lead me, the psalmist says, let them bring

me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle. How

does this psalmist know about God's light and God's truth? Now,

of course, you know they've read the Torah in the beginning.

You know, God created the heavens and earth, and God said,

let there be light. So they have some revelation that

God is light. But David has true revelation. In Psalm

one eighteen, verse twenty seven, this psalmist declares, God is

the Lord, and he has given us light. Interesting Isaiah

the great prophet Isaiah, seven hundred years before Christ. He

prophesies about the light. In Isaiah sixty, verse nineteen, he says,

he writes, the sun shall no longer be your light

by day, nor the brightness shall the moon give light

to you. But the Lord will be to you an

everlasting light, and your God your glory. You know, Isaiah

is a very profound prophet, no foolan. This fella prophesies

Jesus' birth, prophesies Jesus' death, and prophesies to us what

it says in Revelation in the Book of Revelation. So

Isaiah is telling us. Can you imagine He's saying, the

sun isn't going to give you anymore, and the moon,

the brightness of the moon, isn't going to be light

to you, he says, But the Lord is going to

be an everlasting light to you. So I'll prove it

to you. In Revelation twenty Revelation, well, there's two places

Revelation twenty one, Verses twenty two and twenty three. John writes,

but I saw no temple in it for the Lord

God Almighty and the lamb ards temple. 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, he writes, the Lamb is its light. Now,

that's exactly what Isaiah prophesied. Hang On chapter twenty two

of Revelation, we're almost at the very end of the book.

John writes verse one, and he showed me a pure

river of water, of life, clears crystal, proceeding from the

throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle

of its street, and on either side of the river

was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each

tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the

tree were for the healing of the nations. And there

shall be no more curse. But the throne of God

and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his

servants shall serve him. Verse four. They shall see his face,

and his name shall be on their foreheads. There shall

be no night there. They need no lamp or light

of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.

And they shall reign forever and ever. So we see

that scripture backs up scripture and Isaiah's prophecy. Is you

know fulfilled here? Well, it hasn't been fulfilled. Yet we're

not there yet in time and space. But the scriptures

in the Book of Revelation, the very end of the Bible,

are telling us the same thing that the prophet isa

Isaiah says. Now you can turn with me to Hebrews

chapter one. And the writer of Hebrews more than likely

is Paul. But of course it doesn't say that. And

verse one says, this God, who at various times and

in various ways spoke in time passed to the fathers

by the prophets. Well, I've just shared a whole bunch

of things prophecies with you, has in these last days

spoken to us by his son Jesus, whom he has

appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made

the worlds who verse three, who, being the brightness of

his glory and the express image of his person, and

upholding all things by the word of his power. When

he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at

the right hand of the Majesty on high. So the

writer of Hebrews establishes this truth also, that this Jesus

is the brightness of God's glory. That has to be,

that has to be. I can't imagine I mean that

light has to be so phenomenally bright because he's the

Jesus is the express image of God. Right now, I

want us to turn to Matthew chapter five. So I've

established that God is light, Jesus is light. Oh, one

other scripture I almost forgot. John chapter one. The Gospel

of John chapter one, Chapter one. Verse one. In the

beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. He was in the beginning

with God. All things were made through him, and without him,

nothing was made that was made. Verse four. In him,

Jesus was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness

did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from

God whose name was John. This man came for a witness,

to bear witness of the light, that all through him

might believe. He was not that light, but was sent

to bear witness of that light. And that was the

true light which gives light to every man coming into

the world. And so the title of my message tonight

is the true Light. John declares in God's Word that

Jesus was the true light, and that true light is

the light which gives the light that is given to

every man coming into the world. So when you think

about that scripture, that was the true light, which gives

light to every man coming into the world. He's not

saying to every man getting born again. He's saying, which

gives light to every man coming into the world. In

other words, Jesus offers light to every person born into

the world. They have an option. They can believe he's

the light and come into the light, or they can

never believe that Jesus is who he says he was

and never come into the light. But Jesus came willingly

died on the cross so that that light would be

given to every person coming into the world. And verse

ten it says he Jesus was in the world, and

the world was made through him, and the world did

not know him. He came to his own, meaning the

house of Israel, and his own did not receive him.

But verse twelve, but as many as received him, meaning

Jesus Christ. But as many as received Jesus to them,

he gave the right to become children of God to

those who believe in his name. Hallelujah. Oh right. So

John confirms that the true light is Jesus, and that

light shined in the darkness, but the darkness did not

comprehend it. And basically what that is saying is that

you know, when he came to the House of Israel,

how many of those people received who he was? They did,

They didn't even comprehend. The Pharisees did not even comprehend

that he was the true light. They were in utter darkness,

and most of them remained in utter darkness. Okay, so

let's turn to Chapter Matthew Gospel of Matthew, chapter five,

and we're gonna look at what Jesus says Verses fourteen, fifteen,

and sixteen. Jesus says, you are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamb and put it under

a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light

to all who are in the house. Let your light

so shine before men, that they may see your good

works and glorify your Father in heaven. So I shared

all these scriptures to show you who is the true light.

Jesus is the true light. He's the light of men.

But all of a sudden we now see something different.

Jesus is speaking to us as believers in Christ. He says,

you all, you, all you out there listening, You are

the light of the world. You are the light of

the world because a city that is set on a

hill cannot be hidden. Think about that for a moment.

Jerusalem sits if you ever have been there, or if

you've never been there, it sits up high. It sits

on a hill. It literally sits on a hill. So

that's why he Jesus uses that analogy. A city that

is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do

they take a light light, a lamp and put it

under a basket. That'd be kind of foolish, wouldn't it

if you have a lamp in your house and you

put it under a basket. No, you want the light.

You turned on the lamp because you wanted the light.

And when you turn on the lamp or the light,

it gives light to everybody in the house. That's what

you want. Then he says, let your light so shine

before men that they see your good works and glorify

your father in heaven. Oh hmm, Okay, here's the deal.

The day Spring on high has visited us, and he's

come to shine His light in the darkness. But now

the point is, this day spring, this morning star lives

in you and I. He lives in us. Now we

are the light of the world. We are the light

of the world. And you know, sometimes I know that's

hard to grasp, but Jesus said it, so it has

to be true. So Christmas is really about shining His

light in this dark world. Okay, that's really what Christmas

is about. It's really about you and I shining God's

light that lives in us in the darkness. We should

be so full of light that when we come in

contact with any kind of darkness, meaning you come in

contact with people who aren't born again, you come in

contact with people who are atticts, you come in contact

with people who are far, far far from God. But

you're the light and they're in the darkness. Ah, So

you have a responsibility to be that light, to shine

in the darkness. Now, this is my prayer. My prayer

is that this Christmas season that you will be so

full of the light of Christ by praying, reading your word,

worshiping the Lord, honoring him, adoring him, that you will

shine so bright at the dinner table, at the festivities

at the store that you're shopping for gifts at that

people see that light emanating from you and they want

that light. See a lot of people are looking for

the light. They just don't know how to get there.

So you've got to help them. And so this is

my prayer. That you have family members, you have neighbors,

there may be strangers that come your way. I'm praying

that you will be so full of the light, not religious,

not shaming people, not blasting people because they don't know

Jesus and they don't read a Bible. No, stop that nonsense.

That's horrible, that's not christ Like. Just live the life

of Just live like Christ. Just carry his light and

his love and be loving to those in your family

at the table, or friends or neighbors. You don't have

to talk about Jesus. Let your life reflect the light.

Let them see your love, your kindness, your gentleness. Amen.

That's my prayer for you this Christmas season. And you

know what, this is what I want you to do.

I am so serious. I want you to email me

if you're able to lead anybody to the Lord, if

you you know, if you've got a testimony. I want

to hear the testimony because I want to share it

with the rest of our listeners. So please please email me.

If you know, you meet a stranger, you have a

loved one, you have a neighbor that you get to

share and maybe you don't even get to lead them

to the Lord, but you get to share and they listen,

so somebody else can come along. You're planting the seed.

Somebody else will come along and water that seed, and

God will give the increase. Amen. So that's what I'm

praying for for you, my listeners, and I want testimonies.

I want you to email me testamenty. I want to

share them on the air. Please now, Monday, December sixteenth

and the twenty third, I'll be airing the Christmas Show

and I get excited about that. So the two following

Mondays will be airing the Christmas Show and so oh,

I just want to say Marry, Merry Christmas to you,

Happy New Year, have a blessed time with your family,

and be the true light. Amen. Well, this is Don Noble.

You can go to www Dot Purehart dot today and

listen to this podcast again. You can email me at

all lowercase letters all one word Don Dawn at Pureheart

Dot Today down at Pureheart dot Today and you can

listen to this podcast twenty four to seven on you

can download the iHeartRadio app go to Pure Heart Ministries

podcast and you can listen again twenty four to seven

at your convenience. And of course, I'm really thankful, very

very thankful for your prayers. It means a lot to me.

I I'd love for you to email me and just

say hey, I'm praying for you, or just send me

a note, hey I'm praying for you. It would mean

an awful lot to me, and thank you for helping

to support Pure Heart Ministries. You can send a check

to PO Box eighty five, Valley Grove, West Virginia, two

six six. So that's Pure Heart Ministries po Box eighty five,

Valley Grove, West, Virginia, two six six to Oh. Well,

I look forward to being with you at those at

my Christmas show and we'll see you soon. This is

Don Noble saying Shalom shalom, Peace be un to you.