Let the Lower Lights be Burning

1. Read: 2 Corinthians 4:6 – “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

2. About the Text:

1) Philip P. Bliss wrote this song in 1871.

2) He also wrote “Wonderful Words of Life,” “Almost Persuaded,” and the music to “It is Well with my Soul.”

3) The song, “Let the Lower Lights be Burning” is an evangelistic song.

4) Let’s consider the lyrics.

3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. “Brightly beams our Father’s mercy from His lighthouse evermore.”

2. “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

3. God’s light is comparable to the Sun.

4. “The sun shall no longer be your light by day, Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you; But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, And your God your glory” (Isaiah 60:19).

5. This light is for everyone far and wide.

6. “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9)

7. This is the light of Jesus.

8. “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life’” (John 8:12).

1. “But to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.”

2. Christians are the lesser lights than the light that God gives through Christ.

3. They are comparable to a candlestick or city.

4. “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp 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” (Matthew 5:14-16).

5. Their job is to reflect the great light that God has given.

6. “that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15).

7. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).

1. “Dark the night of sin has settled, Loud the angry billows roar; Eager eyes are watching longing For the lights along the shore.”

2. Darkness represents sin and condemnation.

3. “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

4. Those who are in darkness do not know where they are going.

5. “Then Jesus said to them, ‘A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going’” (John 12:35).

6. Jesus does not want anyone to abide in darkness.

7. “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:46).

1. “Trim your feeble lamp, my brother! Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed, trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost.”

2. Christians have been delivered from the darkness.

3. “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13).

4. As Christians we must be the light for those who are lost.

5. “You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5).

6. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8).

7. Jesus told Saul that he wanted him “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18).

8. This is what we must do also.

1. Let the Lower Lights be Burning . . .

1) God is the Lighthouse

2) We are the Lower Lights

3) Sin is the Darkness

4) We Must Bring them In!

2. Invitation