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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brody-thibodeau/face-the-light/
If you have your Bible with you, open it. Open it to Psalm 119. We're just gonna read one verse in Psalm 119 for our purposes for the first part of the gospel meeting. The 119th Psalm, verse number 105.
Verse 105 of Psalm 119. Now remember, what is God trying to say to me? Thy word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path. Again, we'll read it. Thy word is a lamp onto my feet and a light onto my path.
It is very possible, if we're all being honest, that at one time or another during our lifetime, we've all been a little bit scared of the dark. Now, not scared of the dark in general, but sometimes scared of what is in the darkness, right?
Scared of that imaginary animal that's lurking around the corner. I must say, when I was a child, I had some chores, but I wasn't always on top of it, right? Some people were like me. Part of my chores was to go out and get the wood from the woodshed and bring it into the house.
And instead of doing that during daylight hours, I would often leave it until after dark. Well, still had to do it. So I would run to the shed, right? A little bit scared of what I might meet. I'd pick up an arm load of wood and I'd make sure it was a big one because I didn't want to make too many trips.
And then I would hustle as fast as I could back to the house, not looking behind me, scared of what might be there. There are a lot of people who are scared of the dark. And won't admit it. But what I'm going to introduce you to tonight is not darkness, but light.
Not something that you should be afraid of, but something you should face. You see, what I'm about to express to you tonight is very simply this. God has given us a light to show us where we stand. God has given us a light to show us where we are located.
God has given us a lamp so that each and every one of us can know where we are in light of salvation and eternity. But God has also given us a light to see where we're going. God has given us a light to see what's ahead of us.
And you see, with those two things, I want to impress upon you the importance of this. Come to the word of God and face what God says so he can find out where you are, where you're going. Now, I understand that you understand, I'm not talking about your literal position geographically.
Right? I'm not exactly sure where I am tonight. I know it's Crawford High School. I know it's not far from Mount Sterling, but I'm quite content to say that I can find my way home. And I know that you know you're here in Wisconsin tonight, and there's no doubt about it.
So we're not shedding light on your physical location. And once you leave this building tonight, some of you after the hymn sing and after the little message and the little lunch, you're going to try and go home, or maybe to the house where you're staying for the conference.
So you know where you physically are right now, and you know where you are physically going after this meeting. So what we are doing here tonight is not trying to apply this to our physical location. We're trying to find out where we are spiritually.
What does the word of God tell me about my current spiritual condition? What does the word of God tell me about my future when it comes to eternity? That's what we're going to look at. Because his word is a lamp for our feet, and it's a light for our path.
If I were to take you to the scriptures and begin to investigate what the Bible tells us about after death, many of you could give this lecture, right? What does the Bible say about after we die? We know that according to the light now, according to the word of God, which is shining a light into the future, we are told that it is appointed unto men once to die, so that each and every one of us will die.
That's the lamp. That's the light. The light pointing forward is showing us we are all headed toward death. You see, there's none of us that will escape that apart from the coming of the Lord. And according to the New Testament in 1 Timothy in chapter six, we read that it is certain, it is absolutely certain that we can take nothing out, which implies that it is certain that we're all going out, that all of us are heading in the direction of death.
So now I'm using the light to shine forward, and you're thinking with me, what is God trying to say to me about my future? Death is in my future. But then we understand, of course, from Hebrews, that death is not the end of your future, and death is not the end of my future.
According to the light that is now shining forward, the light shines beyond death, so that as the light shines beyond death, we see that there is an after this, because from that verse, it is appointed unto men once to die, it says after this, the judgment.
And we are now using this light, and it's a powerful light. It's a powerful beam that now goes past death itself into eternity, right? And for those of us who are not familiar with that word eternity, eternity is really the opposite of your lifetime.
Your lifetime is lived here on earth from the time of your birth till the time of your death. And for the purposes of the gospel, eternity is where you will be after you die. Eternity has the idea of being everlasting.
It is a time, period, without end. But eternity has the idea of being unchanging. So eternity is, that's in our future now. We are looking with this light, and we're seeing past death into eternity, where we will exist unendingly, unchangingly.
You see, it would be one thing if I were to tell you tonight that eternity is forever. But I must also tell you tonight that eternity is unchanging. So that, so that a person who has Christ and has trusted Christ in this world, in this life, looks into a future where they will depart from this world, and they will be immediately with Christ, which, according to the Bible, is far better.
To be absent from this body, my light is shining now into the future, to be absent from this body, and to be immediately at home with the Lord. To never have to worry about judgment. To never have to worry about hell.
To never have to worry about the lake of fire and the judgment of the great white throne. To never have to worry about the consequences of sin. To never have to worry about the separation of sin. I am looking with the light into the future, and the future is glorious for those who are saved.
It's tremendous. That's what the light will do. But the light also shines and tells us about a lost eternity. The Lord Jesus himself said, enter in at the straight gate. Why? Because wide is the gate, broad is the way which leadeth to destruction.
And many there be which go in thereat. The Lord Jesus spoke of destruction in the future. Destruction. The Lord Jesus spoke about a man who lived and breathed on this earth, just like we live and breathe right now.
A man who enjoyed many pleasures in this life. A man who fared sumptuously, we are told, every day. This man lived his life without paying heed to the scriptures. And yet, had he gone to the Bible, he would have been able to shine a light into the future.
And instead of shining that light into the future, he neglected Moses and the prophets. And he rejected Moses and the prophets until he ends up in a lost eternity. Somewhat, somewhat surprised. But as we shine the light into the future, we know that if a person dies in their sins, the Bible tells us where he is.
He cannot come. That if a person dies in their sins, it is destruction in the future. That as this light shines into eternity, it is shining on a real, literal burning hell. Now, I hope we all understand that tonight.
From the very front until the very back is that this light is shining to warn you of a lost eternity. The Lord Jesus said, "'In that place, there worm dieth not, "'and the fire is not quenched.'". The Lord Jesus spoke in terms of judgment.
The Lord Jesus spoke in terms of no return from the judgment. So in the very simplest of terms now, we've taken this light and we have focused it. Are you listening to what God is saying? We're focusing it ahead so that we look toward death because the light shines to warn us of death.
We're focusing it into the future because the light is shining on eternity. And the glorious thing is that those with their sins forgiven who know Christ as Savior, who have been born again, they are looking toward an eternity of bliss with Christ forever.
The light is shining that direction. But then the same light is shining and there are people in our meeting and this light is shining on your future that is dim and dark and full of judgment. But the light is shining.
Will you look where the light is shining? Tough to face it, but we must look. So with that light now, we have information. With that light, we have information to help us make some decisions, right? Now, the light that is shining into the future with death being inevitable, we're thinking about death.
Knowing that there's a possibility in the future because of this light, we know that there's a possibility of heaven. Because of this light, we know that there is a probability. And let me say that again.
Young boys, young girls, men, and women, there is the probability of a lost eternity. And in case that play on words gets lost on my audience, I will tell you this. There is the option of heaven, but few there be to find it.
There is the reality of hell and many there be which go in there at. So that if you weigh the words of the Lord Jesus in light of the scriptures, we find this. It is much more probable that a soul is lost than that a soul is saved.
But now we see it. We see the two options for the future. But now we need a little bit of light for our feet. Why? Because while we have shown the light, I think shown is the proper word, past tense. While we have shined the light into the future, you are looking at your options and you're saying, there's definitely, definitely only one proper choice.
There's definitely only one choice for eternity. Nobody wants to be in the eternal darkness. And the only other option is the eternal bliss. Now I will challenge your mind tonight because sometimes that's really what it comes down to for most people.
It's not that they would desire to be in heaven where Christ is. They have no time for Christ. It is not that they would desire to be in heaven where there is no sin. They love sin, love sin. It is not that they want to be in heaven because they want to spend eternity praising the Lord Jesus.
No, and it's not because they wanna be in heaven because that's where the Lord's people are. No, they have no time for the Lord's people now either. It's not that they wanna be in heaven because that's where the word of God is.
No, because they have no time for the word of God, no time for Christ, no time for his people, no time for praise, no time for the scriptures. They don't want to go to heaven. They just don't wanna be in hell.
Now here's the challenge. Sometimes the gospel preacher comes and he starts visiting and talking to people and you'd almost think that people really sincerely want to be saved. They come and they sit in a gospel meeting like this and they're very solemn and they're very serious and they're locked in and they're thinking about their soul, we think, right?
But you know what? Behind the face of that little boy, girl, young man, woman is a heart that loves sin. Say the Bible speaks in terms of being a sinner and the Bible speaks in terms of committing sin, but I'm going to tell you the reason that a lot of people aren't saved is because they want their sin more than they want God.
But based on that information, you know, I don't want to be in hell. I want the alternative. I want to be in heaven. But now we have to understand that we're not only using the Bible to look into our future.
We use the Bible to look at our feet, a lamp onto our feet, so that we want to know what the Bible says about our current condition because our current condition will help us determine the course to reach our desired destination.
In other words, it's not good enough to know where you want to go. You have to find out where you are now. So we take the same word, the same lamp, and instead of shining it into the future, we shine it right down on my feet.
We find out that the Bible says, I am on a road that's going down. You thinking with me tonight? The Bible says, I was born and had my spiritual start on a road that is going down away from God into a lost eternity.
I'm looking now at my current position and I am on a road going down. You know what that means? If I want to end up in heaven, I'm going to have to leave that road. But the scriptures are telling me that's the road I'm on.
And I think in terms of the future, being in heaven where Christ is and then I have to think in terms of the lamp because the lamp is not just showing me the road I'm on. The lamp is showing me and illuminating my sin, showing me my sin.
So that now I know if I'm going to be where God is in his holiness and in his righteousness, if I'm going to be where Christ is in his perfectness, I've got a problem because my sins have separated between me and God so that I can't come nigh to God and he can't bring me nigh to him.
So that right now, as I am sitting in this auditorium in Wisconsin, you have to say based on the lamp, looking at where you are, your sin is currently keeping you from God and your sin will eternally separate you from God.
Don't miss it. The lamp is shining. The lamp is shining at two feet that are on a downward road going away from God. The lamp is shining on a heart that is full of sin and separated from God. And the lamp is shining.
The lamp is shining to show you where you are. You know, if I were to have the two roads chart here tonight, which sometimes we do, I would take the lamp and I would project it onto the chart, not physically, but to make you think.
The Bible says you were born and had your spiritual start on the downward road. And the Bible says that anyone who is on the road heading for heaven has had a time, has had a real experience whereby they have trusted Christ personally.
They're aware of it. They know that it's happened. If I were to tell you that anyone who does not have that experience where they've trusted Christ is still on the downward road, then the lamp is very, very clear for you, isn't it?
Bible doesn't leave us guessing. The Bible doesn't want to see us in limbo. God doesn't want us wavering on this. God wants us to face the light and to be absolutely sure. So while the light is shining now, you're shining it on your own feet.
You're shining it on your own heart. And what do you see? You see a person on the road down or the road up. You see a person full of sin. You see a person with sin on them. Do you see a person with sin separating them?
Or do you see a person who's been cleansed from sin? You see the light will show you. Here's something that bothers me. It should bother you more than it bothers me is that people sit in gospel meetings and they don't know they're saved.
They don't know they're lost. And you'll talk to them sometimes about their soul and they'll say, well, I don't know. I think I am, but I'm not sure. Then you ask that same person, well, what are you doing to try and find out?
But you know what? They really don't wanna find out because if they found out, they'd have to face it. But a person who sincerely desires to find out their condition before God has to come to the light.
You see, if you're sincere and you want to know whether or not you're saved, you have to come to the Bible. If you're sincere and you understand from the Bible that you're not saved, you have to face it.
But the flip side is this. According to the Bible, my sheep hear my voice. I know them, they follow me. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. You say, here's a gospel preacher up there quoting verses from Sunday school when he was a boy and he doesn't even know what they mean.
I know this. Once you're saved, you can never be lost. But you won't get assurance if you don't come to the light. For you to sit here tonight not knowing but not facing the light is really you saying, I don't want to know because I'm scared I might not be saved.
Happens all the time. But thy word, the Bible. You have one? Do you have a Bible? This is a lamp to show your feet. This is a light to show your future. If you want to know where you are and you want to know where you're going, open the Bible and shine the light.