#95 Lu. 11:33-36  LIGHT FOR THE EYE AND AN EYE FOR THE LIGHT

Introduction:

    In our previous text Jesus answered the scribes and Pharisees
who had demanded a sign from heaven.  He refused to give them a
sign from heaven, but He did promise to give them a sign that was
even greater.  He promised to give them the sign of the prophet
Jonah.  He promised that as Jonah was three days and three nights
in the belly of the whale even so He would be in the grave for
three days and three nights.  In other words He promised that He
would arise from the grave.
    In our text today Jesus uses two parables that speak about
light.  The first is a parable about a candle and a candlestick.
This is now at least the third occasion recorded in Scripture in
which Jesus has used this parable publicly.  There may have been
still other occasions which were not recorded.  The first was in
The Sermon On The Mount.  The second was in Luke 8:16.
    On this third occasion, Jesus used the Parable of The Candle
and Candlestick to introduce a second parable, The Parable of The
Eye And The Body.  You might say that He used the to bring light
to the eye.

I.  The Parable of The Candle

    We will give our attention first to the Parable of the Candle.
V.  33, "No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a
secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that
they which come in may see the light."  Perhaps you may recall
that the word, candle, as used in Scripture does not refer to a
wax candle as we use today.  Rather, it refers to what we would
call "a lamp." It was a bowl of olive oil with a wick in it.  The
bowl was usually specially built so as to hold the wick upright
and not allow it to fall down into the oil or fall out of the
bowl.  The bottom part of the wick would be stick down into the
bowl of oil and the top part of the wick would stick up well above
the oil.  The oil would soak up into the wick and the oil in the
very top part of the wick would burn without the oil down in the
bowl ever catching fire.  The only fire would be at the very top
part of the wick.
    Jesus said that no man would light a candle, or lamp, and put
it in a secret.  That is, no man would light a candle and put it
in a hiding place.  No man would light a candle and then hide it
so that no one could see its light.  For instance no man would put
it inside a trunk and close the lid.  Nobody would be able to
benefit from the light.  He said that neither would any man light
a candle and put a bushel basket over it.  That way the light
would be hidden and nobody would benefit from the light.
    Rather any person who would light a candle would place it up
on a candlestick so that the candle or lamp would be held up high
and the light would shine to all who were in the room.  Without
the candlestick, the people who would enter the room would not be
able to see even though the candle was burning.  Without the
candlestick, they would stumble around in darkness even though the
candle was burning.  But by having the light on a candlestick they
could see all about the room and see to do whatever work they
might need to do.
    The light of the candle represents first of all the Lord Jesus
Christ, Himself, Jno. 1:4.  Jesus in Scripture is said to be the
Light of the world.  That is, He is the Spiritual Light of the
world.  He is the Savior of the world.  Jesus is the only hope of
sinners staying out of the fires of hell.  Jesus is the only hope
of lost sinners going to heaven.  The lost sinner, who is lost in
sin and headed for the everlasting fires of hell, can trust in
Jesus Christ as his Savior and be saved.  So, first of all, the
light of the candle represents Jesus.
    There is a sense, however, in which the light from the candle
or lamp represents the Christian.  In Matthew 5:14 Jesus told the
Christians, "Ye are the light of the world."  The idea is that the
Christian is to let the Light of the Lord shine through his life
so that the unsaved may know that Jesus saves and that he, too,
can be saved.  The Christian has no light of his own, but the
Light of the Lord can shine through his life when he is living a
godly life and is telling the gospel story to those who are lost
in sin.
    There is also a sense in which the light from the candle is
the word of God which tells the gospel story.  As men hear the
word of God and thus hear the gospel message, it is as though a
spiritual light has shined to them.  This light of the word of God
will enable them to see how to be saved.  It will enable them to
see how to come out of the darkness of sin that they are in, Rom.
10:17.
    So Jesus presented again the Parable of The Candle.  This time
the thing that He stressed was, in essence, that the people
already had in Him the sign from heaven that they were asking for.
He is from heaven.  He is the Light of God from heaven.  They did
not need for Him to make the sun to stand still.  They did not
need for Him to make a rainbow in the shy without the use of rain.
They did not need for Him to send a comet racing through the sky.
They did not need for Him to turn the sun or the moon to blood.
They did not need for Him to make the sun travel in reverse order
from the west to the east.  He was and is the Light of God.  He is
God dwelling in human flesh.  He would allow them to put Him to
death.  He would stay in the grave for three days and three
nights.  Then, after three days and three nights He would come
back to life out of the grave.  He would prove to them beyond any
reasonable doubt that He is the Christ of God, He is the Son of
God, He is the Savior of the world, He is the Light of the world.

II.  The Parable of The Eye

    But having a light for men to see is not all that is necessary
in order for one to be able to see.  One must have an eye that can
see the light.  V. 34, "The light of the body is the eye:
therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of
light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of
darkness."  Light can shine in the room from the candle, but if
the eye of the person inside the room is unable to see the light
then the light does him no good.  Jesus said that the eye is the
instrument which makes the light beneficial to the individual.
Jesus said that the eye is the light of the whole body.  It is the
eye that enables the foot to know where to step and where not to
step.  It is the eye that enables one to know where to sit without
missing the chair.  It is the eye that enables the hand to know
where to reach to pick up an object.  It is the eye that enables
the mind to know the words that are written on a page.  It is the
eye that distinguishes the various colors that are so helpful to
us in so many ways.  It is the eye that makes the light from the
lamp beneficial to the whole body.
    That is, the eye makes the light beneficial if the eye is good
and not diseased.  Jesus said, "...therefore when thine eye is
single, thy whole body also is full of light..."  The word
"single," as used here, is to be understood as meaning "sound" or
"healthy." The eye is single.  That is it sees single.  It does
not see double.  It is not all blurry.  The eye gives a true
picture of what is really there.  When the eye is healthy and,
thus, is working right the whole body is supplied with good
helpful information.
    The problem comes when the eye is not healthy and is,
therefore, not working right.  When the eye is faulty then faulty
information is being fed to all parts of the body.  Either no
picture at all is given or the wrong picture is being given.
    One of the things that makes the spiritual eye of a man
function improperly is that the man himself is evil.  Jesus said,
"...but when thine eye is evil, thy body is full of darkness."
When sinful desires get in the way, it makes it difficult for a
man to see the truth of God in the proper light.  His own sinful
desires or sinful attitudes get in the way and distort the truths
of God.  For instance, it is a man's sinfulness that makes it so
difficult for him to see that he really is sinful.  His sinfulness
makes him want to feel that he is not really all that bad.  It is
his sinfulness that makes him want to believe that he can work his
way to heaven.  It is his sinfulness that makes him prefer a false
gospel to the true gospel.  It is his own sinfulness that makes it
hard for him to see the truth of God.
    V.  35, "Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee
be not darkness."  Jesus said that the individual should take heed
that he is not still in darkness.  He should take heed that he
does not have bad spiritual eyes.  If one really wants to know the
truth of God he can know, but if he twists the word of God to fit
his own prejudices then he will still have a distorted picture.
One can never in this life know the truth of God about heaven,
hell and the salvation of the soul until he is ready to lay aside
his prejudices and accept the truth of God.  If his view of
spiritual things is distorted by prejudices or by an evil desire
to continue in sin then he will never get the true picture until
it is too late.
    But if one really turns to God with a sincere desire to know
the truth of God then he can have the truth and be saved.  Jesus
would never tell a man to take heed that his eyes work right if a
man could not do something to make them work right.  What a man
has to do is to turn to God and allow God to show him the truth no
matter how much it hurts.  He needs to turn to God and let the
Holy Spirit of God guide him in rightly understanding the word of
God.  He should then be willing to let the word of God settle all
questions.  But if he is going to argue with the word of God he
will never know the truth.
    V. 36, "If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having
no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright
shining of a candle doth give thee light."  If the eye is right
and is feeding the true picture to that man, then he is getting
the full benefit of the light from the candle.

III.  The application of the parables to our lives

    The world in which we live is full of darkness and sin.  The
sin that is in the world is all caused by Satan.  Satan was
created as one of the holy angels of God.  But long ago before man
was ever created Satan rebelled against God.  It seems strange to
me that a holy angel would rebel against God.  He did rebel, but
of course, by the time he rebelled he was no longer holy.  Satan,
or Lucifer as he was known then rebelled against God and somehow
persuaded about one-third of God's angels to join him in that
rebellion.
    Then after man was created, Satan tempted Eve and deceived her
into eating fruit from a certain tree that God had forbidden.
Eve, in turn, tempted Adam to eat from that same tree.  The result
was that all mankind has inherited the sin nature from Adam and
all mankind has sinned against God.  This world is filled with
spiritual darkness and sin.
    If God had not intervened to provide a way of salvation ,
there would be no hope for any man.  All have sinned and come
short of the perfection that God requires for man to enter the
kingdom of heaven.  However, God did intervene.  God sent His Son,
His only begotten Son to be born of a virgin and live in human
flesh.  He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of Mary in
Bethlehem of Judea.
    Jesus is the Light of the world.  Jesus is the one and only
hope of sinful man to stay out of hell-fire.  He is the only hope
of lost and sinful man going to heaven.
    God has also sent the light of the gospel message throughout
the whole world.  All who have opened their eyes to the light of
the gospel and trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior have been born
again and have been saved by the grace of God.  But all who have
allowed Satan to blind their eyes to the gospel are doomed to
spend eternity in a Devil's hell.  The Apostle Paul said in II
Corinthians 4:3-4, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that are lost:  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the
minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them."  Paul was talking about Satan who has lifted himself up and
assumed the position as god over this world system.  Satan seeks
to blind the spiritual eyes of men so that they will not see the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ and be saved.  Satan does
not want anyone to be saved.  Satan does not want any man, any
woman, any boy or girl to be saved.  Satan wants every unsaved
person to go to hell and to suffer there forever.
    We think it is a great tragedy if someone is burned in a fire.
Two of my mother-in-law's great great grandsons were recently
burned in a fire near Tyler.  It seems a great tragedy and it is.
But there is a tragedy that is far greater.  When men allow Satan
to blind their spiritual eyes they will burn forever and forever
in the fires of hell and this is the greatest tragedy of all.
    Now when it comes to our physical eyes, we can very easily see
the need of taking care of our eyesight.  We would not want to do
anything that would totally blind us or that would even partially
blind us.  It is up to us to take care of the eyes that God has
give us.
    Likewise, in the spiritual realm, God has given man spiritual
eyes that are capable of seeing the gospel clearly enough to be
saved.  It is up to man to take care of his spiritual eyesight and
not let the Devil blind him or even partially blind him so that
our vision of the gospel light is distorted.
    Man needs to believe God.  Man needs to believe God's Holy
word.  Man needs to believe God's Holy Book.  Man needs to believe
the inspired word of God, the Holy Bible.  Man needs to believe
the gospel message that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He
is able to save his soul.  Man needs to turn to Him and call on
Him and ask Him to save his soul.  Man needs to trust in Him to
keep us out of hell.  He need to depend entirely on Jesus to take
him to heaven by the grace of God.  Then after he is saved he
ought to love the Lord and seek to live his life for Him.

Conclusion:

    Let me suggest that you stop wasting time.  Come this morning
and get this matter settled with God.  If you are lost, come and
get your soul's destiny settled with God.
    If you are saved, then come and get your life in the will of
God.  Come and present yourself to this church to unite with this
church and dedicate your life to the service of God.