Hello and welcome to another teaching by 119 Ministries.
Our ministry teaches that the whole Bible is still true and directly relevant in our
lives.
If you would like to know more on what we believe and teach, please visit us at testeverything.net.
We hope that you enjoy studying and testing the following teaching.
Do you want to let your light shine?
Do you want to hide your light?
What an absurd question, right?
None of us wants to hide our light.
There is even a popular Sunday school song devoted to teaching us not to hide our light,
that we are to let it shine.
This of course is the teaching right out of the mouth of our Savior.
Matthew chapter 5, You are the light of the world, a city that is on the hill cannot
be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives
light to all who are in the house.
Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father in heaven.
So what is the light?
As a clue, Jesus, his Hebrew name being Yeshua, equates our light to others as our observable
good works.
So we are to understand by this that our light is seen by others and that it is something
that we do.
And because of our good works, the light, the Father is glorified.
What is our light?
And where do we find this light?
Why does Yeshua find it completely acceptable to use this term as though his audience already
knows what it means?
He makes the assumption that we have read the front of the Bible to define light.
As it turns out, Yeshua was using biblical terms in biblically defined ways.
This is good because what we should really want to know is this.
How can we do light and not hide it?
Let's read some verses out of the part of the Bible about light that the audience of
chapter 5 would have been intimately familiar with, Proverbs chapter 6, where the commandment
is a lamp and the law a light, reproofs of instruction are the way of life.
Isaiah chapter 8, to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word
is because there is no light in them.
Isaiah chapter 51, listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, O my nation, for the law
will proceed from me and I will make my justice rest as a light of the peoples.
Psalm 119, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
There are many verses we can use to prove that the law of God is the light.
As we all know, two to three witnesses establishes a matter.
According to our Lord's teaching in Matthew chapter 5 and the biblical definition of light,
in order to let our light shine before all men, we are to practice the same light as
it was given to us.
Doing the law of God as a believer in the faith produces observable good works for others
to see and then others will be drawn to that light.
We should also consider that our Savior is the light of the world.
John chapter 8, I am the light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness
but have the light of life.
So is light redefined?
Not at all.
We must remember our Savior is the word in the flesh.
John chapter 1 verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his
glory, the glory as if only the begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.
So if Yeshua is the word in the flesh, then this is precisely why he also has to be the
light according to the front of the Bible.
Again, Proverbs chapter 6, for the commandment is a lamp and the law a light.
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life.
Light of life, just like what we read Yeshua is in John chapter 8, Psalm 119 verse 105,
the word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
The word which includes all of the law of God is the light.
We cannot ignore that the law of God and the Messiah are the same thing.
This is because the Messiah is the perfect example in the flesh of the law of God.
As a result, he is also the perfect, observable light.
Yeshua practiced the light perfectly and he is asking us to practice the same light
that he was.
We should do it and not hide it.
Yeshua will certainly will not ever be a perfect light like Yeshua is in our current
corruptible state, but we are to try our best.
Where we fail, grace covers us.
But just because we are covered by grace, Romans 6, 1, it does not mean that we should
not try to practice the law of God.
In fact, breaking the law of God is sin, verse John 3, 4.
Certainly everyone agrees we should not sin, that is darkness.
We are to walk the law of God and that is light.
If we agree with our Messiah that we should not hide our light and we agree with the Bible
on how it defines light as the law of God as written by Moses, then that answers a very
important question for us.
It answers how we might be hiding our light.
The answer, sadly, we hide the light by not doing the light.
The Bible has already defined for us what light is.
It is the law of God as written by Moses.
We have no excuse for not doing the light.
If we are not doing that light, then we are hiding it.
Our Savior even practiced that light perfectly and then said he was the light and told us
to walk the same light that he practiced.
Again, this is the law of God as written by Moses.
So when we hide or not do the light, we are in fact hiding Christ, the light from others.
We are hiding the very same word that Christ is in the flesh.
We are hiding the way of life, the truth, and the light.
These are all terms used to describe the law of God as written by Moses and also Yeshua,
our Messiah.
Obviously, the nations cannot see the word if we refuse to do it.
The light is then hidden from them, and if we only do some of the word, then the light
is not as effective as it is intended to be.
This is obviously a concern of Yeshua, because just after he warned us that we are not to
hide our light, he then tells us that he did not come to abolish the light.
He then continues to tell us that whoever does not fully teach the law of God is hiding
their light and will be least in the kingdom.
Matthew chapter 5, Do not think that I come to destroy the law of the prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to fulfill, for surely I say to you, till heaven and earth
pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so,
shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, when whoever does and teaches them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Yeshua tells us that he did not come to change or abolish the light that has already been
biblically established.
He then tells us that he came to simply walk or fulfill the exact same light.
He then tells what happens to those who choose to teach some of the law has passed away.
He tells us very simply what happens to believers that hide their light.
Those that decided to hide their light become least in the kingdom in the end.
Those that let their light shine become great in the kingdom.
This must be a rather big deal to have a whole reward system for believers built on it.
Apparently the light, or the law of God, remains as the exact same light at least until all
the law and the prophets are fulfilled, when heaven and earth passes away.
It should go without saying but heaven and earth have not passed away and thus all the
law and prophets are still not fulfilled, which means, according to Matthew chapter
5, that all of God's law is still the same light that we are supposed to do as observable
good works for all men to see.
To what started off as a seemingly absurd question, do you hide your light?
Now might have a practical impact that you may have never considered.
We hope that this teaching has blessed you, and remember, continue to test everything.
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Learn how you can partner with us to take the whole word of God to the nations.
In Genesis, we learn that the sun, moon, and stars are the perfectly ordained timepieces
of our Creator.
Church, of course, are designed to teach us how to biblically calculate the days, months,
and years.
Yet, there is so much confusion.
Orthodox Jews have a version of the biblical calendar.
Karaite Jews have a version of the biblical calendar.
Even still, many more have their own versions of the biblical calendar.
How are we to make sense of all this?
There are few topics that inject more confusion into the body of the Messiah than trying to
understand the calendar.
How can we all be one when we are all divided?
How are we to calculate His appointed times?
What does the Word of God really teach?
His Word teaches that two to three witnesses establish a matter.
We bring you the witnesses and ask you to test everything.
Watch in amazement as the Torah, the prophets, and our Messiah all teach in one accord, the
one true biblical calendar.
Time, our Creator's calendar series.
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