Verse by verse teaching - Proverbs 13:9 "A Dark Lamp"

Alright, we'll be in Proverbs chapter 13 verse 9. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 9. I sure enjoyed my study, so I'm looking forward to teaching. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 9. The title of the message tonight is "A Dark Lamp". "A Dark Lamp". Everyone there? Alright. So we'll go ahead and begin now in verse 9. The Bible says in verse 9, "The light of the righteous." The light of the righteous. In the Bible there are different kinds of light. There is the light of the sun, for example. There is the light of knowledge and understanding. But Solomon is speaking about the light of the righteous tonight. It's a different kind of light than the light of the sun. And being made in the image of God, we need to understand tonight that both the righteous and the unrighteous person possess a unique type of light that we're talking about tonight. that's given to them by God. We're special creatures, very special creatures. And being created different than the animals, God made man a trichotomy, which we've learned before consists of body, soul, and spirit. And it's that spirit part of us that gives us a consciousness of God. The part of us that God communicates with. Romans chapter 8 verse 16 says, "The Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit itself, beareth witness with our..." What? Our heart? Our mind? Our body? No. "...with our spirit." It bears witness that we are the children of God. So, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit. Our spirit is the part of us that receives the knowledge of God, that comprehends the spiritual truths of God. And without that spirit, we could not comprehend the truth of God. Our spirit was designed by God to retain the light of the knowledge of God within us. I'm going to repeat that again. Our spirit was designed by God to retain the light of the knowledge of God, and have that light retained within us. Proverbs chapter 20, we're going to get a little ahead of ourselves, because we'll eventually get to Proverbs 20 in the future. When we do, you may already forget about it, I don't know. But it's an incredible verse, listen to this. In Proverbs 20 verse 27, the Bible says, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." Isn't that fascinating? Searching all the inward parts of the belly, the Spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Now what does a candle do? It bears light. Now we won't expound this scripture, that'll come when we get to chapter 20. But what I want you to see is this. Every man has a spirit, every woman has a spirit. The Spirit is that part of us that God bears witness to, that gives us our God consciousness. And the Bible says the Spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Now, every man has a spirit. That means every man has a candle. Everyone. God designed us with a candle inside of us. In Proverbs chapter 13 verse 9, underscore the word "lamp". You see that little further down, the lamp of the wicked? Underscore the word "lamp". Now in Proverbs 20, 27 that we just got through reading, the word "candle" is the same Hebrew word translated "lamp" in our verse tonight. So, the Spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. And now we see in Proverbs 13, 9 that the wicked have a lamp, right? The righteous have a lamp, the wicked have a lamp. What is that lamp? It's the spirit within them that an animal doesn't have. But the type of spirit within us that God gave us to be able to retain the knowledge of God, which oftentimes is referred to in the Scripture as the light of God. And so, that's why it's referred to as a candle or a lamp inside us. So, the Spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord. As we see in our verse tonight, even the wicked have a lamp, because God created all men to live by the light of the knowledge of God. Every one of us were created to live by the light of the knowledge of God, so every one of us have a lamp inside of us. We are a soul that lives in a body that contains a lamp. A lamp. It's fascinating how God designed us. The Spirit of man is a candle, and the Bible says that the body of man is a tabernacle. The body of man is a tabernacle. Remember the Apostle Peter? And we don't have that in our verse line up tonight, but just popping in my head, the Apostle Peter, when he was speaking of dying, he said, "The Lord has shown me I'm going to have to put off my tabernacle shortly." We are a tabernacle, and our spirit is a light, and so mankind is a tabernacle with a light burning inside him. That's the way we were designed to be. We walk around in a fleshly tabernacle with a light burning inside of us all the time. That's the way God designed us to be. So, think about that now as we're talking about the light of the righteous, the lamp of the wicked. The Old Testament was a picture of Jesus, that Old Testament tabernacle. It was a picture of Jesus in humanity. You had the body of Christ, which was the tabernacle. You had the light inside Him, which is the Holy Spirit, that candle. Then you had that innermost man deep within, which is God, in that most holy place, in the deepest part within. And that's the way God designed us to be, to have a candle of the light of God and God dwelling inside our tabernacle. Exodus chapter 27 verse 20, God said, "And thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring the pure oil, olive," or we'd reverse that today and say olive oil, "beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn always." The lamp inside the tabernacle was to always be burning, to never be put out. And the lamp inside our tabernacle, inside our tent that God has given us, was meant to burn the light of God's life forever within us. We were always supposed to have that eternal light of God, which would be the eternal life of God. Because it's impossible for the lamp of man to have the light of God without having the life of God. Light and life are inseparable in the Bible, because God's light and life are one and the same. The Gospel of John chapter 8 verse 12, "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of..." What? "Of life." The light of life. If you have the light, you have the life. If you have the life, it's because you've received the light. You've seen the light. Therefore, you have the life. God's life and light are one and the same. So a burning candle is a symbol of an earthly tabernacle. A living soul in an earthly tabernacle in this world, in that life of God burning inside him. Remember, both the righteous and the unrighteous have a lamp within them. But only the righteous have the gospel light burning in their lamps. When you look in Scripture, like... we don't... he probably can't go back, but let me read this to you again in Exodus 27, 20. It says, "And thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring thee pure oil of olive, beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always." So, the lamp and the light aren't always the same. The lamp burns the light, but can you have a lamp without light? Absolutely. You get your old kerosene lantern, and you gotta light that thing before it's got light in it, you have a lamp. But it's not until you put that flame on there, and have that olive oil, or that kerosene, or whatever fuel source you're using, that the lamp actually bears light, or has light. And so, the wicked have a lamp, but they don't have the light of God, they just have a lamp. So, both the righteous and the unrighteous have a lamp within them, but only the righteous have the gospel light, burning in their lamps. Matthew chapter 25, verse 1 through 9. Matthew chapter 25, verse 1 through 9, Jesus said, "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps." Ten virgins take their lamps. Every virgin has a lamp. "And went forth to meet the bridegroom." Who's the bridegroom? That's Jesus. Every one of these ten have a lamp, and they're going to go meet Jesus. "And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. Now if they don't have any oil, what do they have? No light. That's why God told them in the book of Exodus to make sure and have pure olive oil so the light can burn in the lamp, right? Or in the candle. So they don't have any oil because they don't have the Holy Spirit of God in them. And so they don't have the light of God in them. So they're foolish. He goes on to say, "They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, 'Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.' Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps." Look at that, they're all trimming their lamps. "And the foolish said unto the wise, 'Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.' But the wise answered saying, 'Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you. But go ye rather than sell and buy for yourselves.'" So the idea is that everybody has a lamp, but because they have no light for the lamps, they can't go meet Jesus when He comes. They have no way to see their way to meet Jesus. They have no ability to see Jesus because Jesus said, "He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness." They'll have the light of life. Well, they haven't followed Jesus. And now the time comes and they want to go out and it's too late. Both the foolish and the wise had lamps, but only the wise had oil for their light. The wise virgins had the light of the righteous, which is what Solomon is talking about tonight. The wise virgins had the light of the righteous within them. The foolish virgins had the lamp of the wicked within them. And the lamp of the wicked is mentioned in this text too tonight. So they both had lamps, but only the wives had oil, so only they had the light of Christ. And thus, only they were able to see their way to Him when He came. The foolish virgins had lamps burning with the light of darkness. And this speaks of the godless people who reject the glorious light of Jesus Christ. And they light their lamps with the darkness of false religion. The darkness of their own belief system, which they deem to be light enough. In Matthew chapter 6 verse 23, Jesus said something quite fascinating. He said, "But if thine eye be evil..." That is, if your eye doesn't work, if your eye is sick, if your eye is put out, he says, "Thy whole body shall be full of darkness." Now, this is spiritual, not physical. It is true in the physical, but he's talking about the spiritual. "If therefore," Jesus said, "the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." Isn't that something? If the light in you is actually darkness, that is some really dark darkness, Jesus is saying. It's very dark, because you're making the mistake of thinking that your darkness is light. You see, if you understand that you're in darkness, you can appreciate the light when you see it. If you, however, mistake your darkness to be light, then you reject the true light, then that's a very bad darkness, because now what's going to happen? If I... Have you ever walked in the darkness in your house and ran into something before? Man, I did that one night, and I'm walking in the darkness, And I really thought, "I've got this. I know my house, I know the layout, I'm doing just fine." But man, I tell you, I got off somewhere to the wrong direction, and I'm walking just fine, and boom! I hit my corner of a bookcase, and I made my eye blue. And, you know, the reason that's so dark is because I mistook it as light. I thought I knew where I was going, and I didn't. And the reason that's so dark is because you depend on the darkness you're in, and you trust it to navigate through life. And the people, like the Pharisees for example, they had all of these washing the hands and all the rules that they had. To them, that was light. But it was actually darkness because the light came and what did they do? Crucify Him. They rejected the light, but they were navigating through life into eternity in the darkness that they confused as light. So they had lamps, but the darkness on their wick, they confused as light. Their light was actually darkness. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! The lamp of the wicked burns the dark lies of the world." They think they are walking in the light, but without Jesus they're walking in the darkness, having not, as Jesus said, "the light of life." Listen to this, Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20 and 21. Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20 and 21. Isaiah said, "Cursed are those who give the name of good to evil, and of evil to what is good." We see that today, don't we? "Who make light dark, and dark light." That's what Jesus was talking about. If the light that's in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? These people, they take that which is evil and they call it good. Whatever is good to them, they deem that to be evil. And whatever is light, they call that darkness. But whatever is darkness, that becomes their light. And they have that in their lamp. And that becomes their spirituality. And He goes on to say, "Who make bitter sweet and sweet bitter cursed are those who seem wise to themselves, and who take pride in their knowledge." So in their knowledge, the knowledge that they've obtained, that they have, as false as that knowledge is, that becomes their light. The righteous have the glorious light of Jesus forever burning in their lamps. And that's why the light of the righteous, look back at your text tonight, what does it do? It rejoices. You see that? "The light of the righteous rejoiceth." Jesus, in John chapter 1 verse 4, it says, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." And that light of Jesus rejoices in our lamps tonight. In my spirit that is burning the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that light rejoices in me. And that literally means, in the Hebrew, where it says "rejoices", literally means "burns brightly". It's kind of like a play on words. It means to rejoice. In fact, pretty much every time this Hebrew word is translated in the Bible, it's translated to some form of rejoicing. But in its actuality, it means to burn brightly. And so, the idea is this candle, this lamp that has this beautiful, glorious flame, and the flame burning has this light, and the light is rejoicing in its flame. And I tell you what, the more light I get of Jesus, the more I learn of Jesus, the more I rejoice. The greater that flame is in my heart, the happier I am in Christ. So, the light burns brightly in our lamps, which speaks of the exceeding great joy that we have in Christ Jesus our Savior, and the exceeding great life that we have, that because of Him shall never burn out. It'll never burn out just like the light in the tabernacle. The reason God told them to not let that light go out in that tabernacle is because the light burning in that tabernacle never to be extinguished was a picture of that same light that one day through the gospel would be burning in us. Now do you remember what that light shined on in the tabernacle? The Bible says the light was to be pointed to shine on that bread. So when we have the gospel, that bread was speaking of Jesus being the bread of life. He said, "The bread that I will give is my flesh which I'll give for the life of the world." And so when you're looking at that bread in the tabernacle, you're seeing as they break that bread and they eat it, It's a picture of the priests that go in there feeding on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and living by that sacrifice. But the only way they can get to that bread is by the light that shows them that bread. And so the light represents the gospel, it burns by the oil which represents the Holy Spirit, And so the oil makes that flame go, and when the flame goes, it lightens the inside of that tabernacle, which is a picture of us being enlightened on our inside. And guess what happens when we get the light of the gospel? Our hearts and our minds inside us get aflame with the glorious light of what Jesus did for us on the cross. There's our bread of life, and what do we do? Daily we feed on that bread. We feed on the knowledge of what Jesus did for us. Praise God, Jesus died for me. Well, thank God, it's all in the blood. You all ever said that? Thank God, you know, Jesus died for me. When you're doing that, you're feeding on that bread. But the only way you can feed on it is because you've been able to see it in your heart and mind to understand it. And that's the light that we have inside us. And God says that light will never go out on that tabernacle. And what that's talking about is this, once we receive the glorious light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our lamp then is lit, and it never goes out. It's eternal life, eternal light of Jesus Christ. It can't go out, because the same life that Jesus has is the same life that I have. The only way I can die is if Jesus dies. It's the same life in me. The Holy Spirit's in me. You know what the Bible says? Jesus says, "I'm going to go away, and if I go, I'll send a comforter. He's going to come, that He may abide with you for how long? Forever." The Holy Spirit. What's the Holy Spirit? He's the oil and the lamp. What's the lamp? That's our spirit. And then His Spirit bears witness with our spirit. You see the oil going in the lamp? That we're the children of God. How does He bear witness that we're the children of God? He shines light and suddenly we see that bread. We realize we're saved by what Jesus did for us. I tell you, man, it's absolutely wonderful. That's why the Bible says, "The light of the righteous rejoices." Man, we may have cancer. We may have heart trouble. We may be poor. We may be sick, we may be dying, we may have famine, in war, but you know what? That lot will always rejoice in Jesus. Always will rejoice in Jesus. Psalm chapter 5 verse 11. Psalm chapter 5 verse 11. "But let all those that put their trust in Thee" what? "rejoice." That's why the light of the righteous rejoices. Because the light is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and when we put our trust in Him as our Savior, what do we do? We rejoice. He says, "But let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice, let them ever" or that means forever, "shout for joy." Why? Because thou defendest them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. Why do we rejoice? Because Jesus is our defender. He defends us in the court of law. He defends us against the devil. He defends us against the grave. He defends us against all our enemies. He defends us against death. And so because we put our trust in Him, we can rejoice forever. Because of the sacrificial death and endless life of Jesus Christ, the light in our lamp shall never burn out. It shall never flicker, falter, or fail. The burning flame of the gospel forever rejoices within us. Look back in your text, "But the lamp of the wicked." See, they still got a lamp, but they have no oil in their lamp. They have no light, therefore, they've eaten no bread. The lamp that burns darkness in their earthly tabernacle, and how great is that darkness, Jesus said. And what happens to the lamp of the wicked? Look at it. It shall be put out. It shall be put out. Even the little light that they have shall be put out. That temporary fleshly life even shall be put out. They shall perish and not have everlasting life. The life in our body going out is symbolized by the light in our tabernacle going out. Does that make sense? If we're a body, then the body is our tabernacle and the light or our lamp within us, if that light goes out, then it'd be the symbol of our life in our body going out. dying inside our body. It says, "But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out. They have not the oil of God's Holy Spirit in their lamp. The darkness of the world's lies burns in their lamps, so the light in their tabernacle shall forever go out." Job chapter 18 verse 5 through 6. Job 18 verse 5 through 6 says this, "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him." The light shall be dark in his tabernacle. Isn't that sad? We're all given a tabernacle. We're all given a lamp. We're all given light, if we'll receive it. The light shined the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle. And God willing, we'll take back up in the next verse next Wednesday. Thank you, sister. I know what I was missing. Becky Shepherd. That's good preaching, brother. That's what I was missing, her saying that. You know what she usually does though, when they're not here? By the time I get out of the car, I got a text message from her. She's a good preaching brother. Huh? What are you saying inside? Well, hey, you know why? That's because you got a light in your lamp. It had lights over there just flickering, just woo, that's good. Yeah. I'm sitting there thinking, "Why is it so awkwardly silent? This just doesn't seem right." And no one's leaving, everyone's just still staring at me. And I'm thinking, "Does my mom need to play the piano? What am I missing that we normally have?" And finally, one of our church members said, "Are you going to pray or do you just want us to leave?" I forgot to close in prayer. I apologize for that. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. I'm so glad, Lord, we can laugh at ourselves. And I'm so thankful for these precious people. Lord, thank you, God, for the incredible truth that you've given us. Thank you, God, that you've given us all lamps. I'm glad our lamps aren't empty. God, Lord, by your grace, you have taken that pure olive oil, unadulterated olive oil of your gospel. And you have graciously filled our lamps. And with your life, by our new birth in Jesus Christ, when we believed on Him, we had new life in us. And by believing on Him, the flame in our lamp was lit. We receive the Holy Spirit of God, we receive the light of God, we receive the life of God. All at the same time. And Father, we're so grateful that that lamp will never, ever, ever go out. It's not our light, it's the light of Christ. It can't go out. "He will abide with you forever," Jesus said. Just like the oil that never ran out of that woman's cruise, dear Lord, of oil. God, our lamp will never run dry either. We thank You. I pray, the Lord, for each prayer request mentioned again tonight, and You'll give everyone a safe trip home. God bless our church, each and every one, in Jesus' precious name. Amen.