The Eye Is The Lamp Of The Body

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. Thank you so much for being with us today. We’ve got a great sermon for you. It’s part of a, uh– not really a series, but it is a sermon that is
related to a few others that we have had.

One was, uh, last week called “Get Rid of It”, which was if–if there’s anything in your life that’s causing you to sin, then you need to get rid of it. And so I’ll put a card right up here.

If you’re on the YouTube channel, or you can go to our website, just type in “Get Rid Of It.” Another one we’ll come to later, I will reference it, but let’s start out with a little Scripture.

First of all, thank you for being here this week. If it’s your first time, we’re thrilled to have you. Please consider checking out more of our sermons, hitting that like button, subscribe button, and bell icon, or follow wherever you are watching or listening.

And if you are a returning visitor, then please share these sermons with others to bring more people in, so we can reach the world with the gospel of Christ, and to help them understand and interpret the Scriptures in the Bible.

All right, start out with a verse, Matthew 6:22 and 23: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, then your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Pretty significant verse. “The eye is the lamp of the body.” This is the light, like they say, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” Yes. Whatever you’re letting into your body has the power to create light or darkness within you. When you see something evil, you will never unsee that.

When you see something that is, like, so repulsive, you will never unsee it, and when you have things coming into your–your mind through your eyes, eventually, your mind starts to see things that maybe your eyes didn’t even see. Your mind’s eye will create these things. Can you unsee something from your mind’s eye? No.

So when your eyes are the lamp of the body, if you are having unhealthy things coming in, your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light within you turns to darkness, how great is that darkness?

Pretty great because if you have light, darkness does not really overcome light. Light overcomes darkness because darkness is the absence of light, and so, if the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness to have overcome the light within you?

Really, what happened is, when you are putting in darkness, you are really just getting rid of the
light. So that’s pretty significant. And Jesus is not talking about physical health in this verse, like, “Oh, the eyes are a lamp of the body, and if your eyes are healthy and you can see well in 20-20 vision, then you have great light within you.” No, that’s not what He’s talking about.

That’s what a lot of people–other religions, without the Holy Spirit, or people reading the Bible that don’t have the Holy Spirit, might see and might think He’s talking about.

I was at a sermon one time, it’s Catholic sermon—Catholic mass—and that’s what the guy was talking about— healthy eyes are the lamp of the body, so if you have glasses, you better have—it’s like, are you kidding me, man? That’s not what this is talking about.

This is talking about what you are letting in via your eyes. What are you looking upon? Are you looking upon good and healthy things, or are you looking upon evil things? Because that affects your spiritual health.

Remember, you are a spirit living in a body, and you have a soul. Your spirit should be filled with the Holy Spirit, that is of God, but your body and your soul is here. The body is obviously flesh.

Your soul is really your mind—your psyche—and so those two items could have demons. Now, demons can’t have believers, but believers can have demons, so if your eyes look upon unhealthy things, then your whole body could be filled with that darkness.

You could be allowing those demons in. The law of sowing and reaping—you sow evil, you are going to reap evil, but if your eyes look upon healthy things, your whole body will be healthy and good. Let’s go to Philippians 4:8 and 9.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Basically, whatever is of God, you need to do—you need to think about, you need to let into your life, and not only let it in or look upon it, but put it into practice. Because if you–if your eyes look upon the unhealthy and the bad things, then your whole body will be unhealthy and bad.

We have a sermon called “Be Careful Little Eyes.” That’s part of a series, a two-part series. Remember it’s from the uh, Sunday school song: “Be Careful Little Eyes What You See.”

You have to guard your eyes because you need to also guard your heart, and what you take in changes your heart. You are to be responsible for renewing your mind. Now the mind is not just your brain because, from the Greek, it’s the “Psyche.”

And you need to know what is going on, what is coming into your mind, to know how it is affecting your body and your spirit, because the spirit within you can be grieved.

The Holy Spirit could be grieved if you are taking in things that are not Holy. That’s how you can extinguish the light within you, and how great will that darkness be? Seek after godliness and holiness. You can either be full of good or evil. The choice is yours. You can be full of light or darkness. Let’s go to Ephesians 5:8.

Ephesians 5:8: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light.” What is this talking about? “You were once darkness.” Meaning, before you were a Christian, you were full of darkness. You were a child of the devil.

We have a sermon on that, “Child Of The Devil.” Before you became a Christian, you were a child of the devil. You were a child of darkness, of everything that is wrong, of evil. You were doing Satan’s will.

You were occupied, enemy territory, controlled by demons, a slave to sin—all of this is Biblical. You can Google those phrases and find verses on those topics, or you can watch more of our sermons. We’ve talked about them.

When you became a Christian, you crossed over from darkness to light, from death to life. Now, it is your job to renew your mind. You became a new creation. God made you a new creation.

Darkness to light, death to life: you are created new in Christ Jesus, and now, what you need to do is take action to renew your mind. How do you do that?

Reading the Bible, studying the Scripture, doing the Word of God, writing it in the tablet of your heart, binding it on your hands, in your door—not like literally tying it up and wearing it on—we’ve talked about that before, but you need to have it all around you.

You need to immerse yourself in the Word. Meditate on it day and night. Be with the Spirit. Let the Spirit rule your body and your mind, or your soul. You can either be full of good or evil, light or darkness. The choice is yours.

If you convert that light within you into darkness, that darkness is so great that it will overcome you. How? Because you are choosing to snuff out the light, and when you snuff out the light, the darkness is there.

It is so powerful, so full, that if you don’t have any more light, how can you overcome that darkness? So if you choose to snuff out your own light, how great is that darkness? Let’s go to Luke 11:35.

Luke 11:35: “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.” How do you do that? Do not let your light go out. You need to let your light shine. Remember, a city on a hill cannot be hidden.

What is that talking about? If you have light on a hill, you cannot hide that. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl. No, they light it so that it provides light to the whole house. You need to be bright. We’ve talked about that before.

You gotta be bright. How? Christians need to be bright by doing the Word of God. Be on fire for Christ. What does that look like? Not lukewarm because if you’re lukewarm, He spits you out of His mouth. That’s Jesus talking. He’ll spit you out.

Be hot. Be bright and be salty. Remember the salt? You are the salt in the light of the Earth, the Bible says, “If salt loses its saltiness, what good is it? It is no good. It is worthless. It is only good to be thrown out and trampled under the feet of men.”

When you eat something, you want it to be hot and you want it to be flavorful—bright and salty. That’s you. You gotta be on fire for Christ. Be the light of the world. How do you do that? How do you be bright and salty? I’m asking you, and I’m going to tell you.

How can you be bright? How can you be salty? Well, you need to start by doing the will of God. How do you know the will of God? It’s written in the Bible. James says you need to be doers of the Word.

We have a sermon on that: “Be A Doer.” So if the Bible says something, then you need to do it. When the Bible says, “Lay hands on the sick and they will be healed,” that’s you—you need to be laying hands on the sick, commanding healing, healing them.

When the Bible says, “You will cast out demons in my name,”—“In my name you will cast out demons,”—not in the name of Spencer Coffman. No, in the name of Jesus. Jesus is saying to you in His name, you will cast out demons.

That means that, when you see someone who has a demon, like maybe they are Multiple Personality Disorder, and you say, “Oh no. That’s just a diagnosis. I’m a psychology major—psyche—‘mind,’ ‘soul’ in the Greek—they have a psychological disorder, a soul or mind disorder.”

Remember the spirit cannot be taken by demons, but the soul or mind—the psyche—or the body, can be. So, if you see somebody, they have a mind disorder or psychology diagnosis—a psychological diagnosis—that could be a demon.

Guess what? Cast it out. You are commanded to set them free. “Be free in Jesus’ name.” Simple as that. You see somebody with a body disorder—soma disorder—they have a somatosensory problem, or they have uh–something where there is a sickness, and they need to be healed.

Lay hands on the sick. Be healed in Jesus’ name. Done. Do everything you are commanded to do. You are commanded to make disciples of all nations. How do you do that? Bring them into the faith.

Have them come into the body of Christ, accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and then you take responsibility for that new creation. What is a new creation? When a man and a woman get together and they have a new creation, what are they creating? A baby.

Who is then responsible for that child? Should be the parents, should be raising that baby. When you bring a new person into the faith, you make them a convert. You bring them into Christianity—they were once darkness, and now they are in light—you are responsible for that new creation.

Christ made them a new creation. Now it is your job to disciple them, to help them renew and transform their mind. You say, “I’ve only been a Christian for a week. I introduced my friend. How can I be responsible for them?”

Learn together. Be doers of the Word. That’s how you be bright. That’s how you be salty. That’s how you stay hot, on fire for Christ. “How do I know what to do?” Read the Bible. I gave you a few ideas of what you need to do; now you need to do it in faith. Learn more.

Watch more sermons. Study, meditate on the Word. You must be full of light, for by definition, there can be no light in darkness. If you have ever been in a room, I—I’ll never forget this experience. One time, there was a big gymnasium—no windows.

I went in one–one door. The light switch is on the other side of the gym. We’re talking maybe 40 feet by 60 feet. Big room, dark, pitch black, and I remember entering—stepping in that door, closed behind me, and I took a few steps.

I couldn’t, I couldn’t see anything. Literally, you could not see your hand in front of your face. You could poke yourself in the eye and not see it coming.

It was so dark, and I remember you could like, walk through, and as I’m walking through, you’re kind of looking like a fool, you know? And if somebody had night vision—is watching you—they’re probably just laughing like crazy.

God is probably laughing, saying, “What in the world?” But you can’t see anything, and you say, “Boy, I just hope I don’t find a chair.”

Boom and trip and fall over, but finally you can make it to that light source. The point is that darkness is so great, so overpowering, that it snuffs out everything. You can’t see anything. There’s no sensation. There’s no perception. You can’t perceive anything.

Sometimes, if there’s just a hint of light, like from a–a–smoke detector or an outlet plug or something like that, the–the little light it gives—enough that you can see some shadows and kind of feel the dimension of the room. I’m talking, this was nothing.

You couldn’t see where the floor was. You couldn’t see where the wall was—nothing. It is a strange feeling, and that’s what this is saying on when the light within you is gone. How great is that darkness?

It is so great it is almost incomprehensible, but with just a little bit of light, you can overcome darkness, and that is what Jesus Christ is. He is the source of light, and you need to have Him in you, and the Holy Spirit stir that thing up. It’s in you. It’s ready to move.

You gotta go. You gotta do. So, take care to keep your eyes healthy. I’m not talking about physical health here. Yes, you want to do that as well. Oh yes, I make sure I eat my carrots. I have my beta carrot—all that stuff. Great.

We are talking about spiritually, take care. Do not gaze upon sin. Do not. Proverbs says, “Do not look at wine when it is red in the cup, and it’s sparkling.” Because guess what? In the end, it poisons like a snake, stings like a viper, poisons like a viper—it is bad in the end.

Do not gaze upon it when it is red and sparkling, and it looks great—no. Avoid it. Take care to keep your eyes healthy and look upon good and holy things. Let’s go to Psalms 100.

Psalms 101:3, so 101:3: “I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do, and I will have no part in it.” This is some pretty strong words. You will not look upon anything that is vile. What is vile? Alcohol—alcohol causes people to get drunk.

Drunkenness causes sins, causes death, causes all kinds of stuff that is vile. Drugs—vile. You will not even look upon it. Pornography—vile. Do not even look upon it, and you will hate what they do—not them. Hate the sin, not the sinner.

You must hate it. If you hate it, you will never do it, so you need to learn to hate sin. Crucify those sinful desires within you. Move on from them. Get it out of your life. You do not want it. You want no part of it.

“Avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn from it and go on your way.” As Proverbs says, avoid sin and temptation. Yes, you can avoid temptation. The Bible says. “The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.”

That’s how much Jesus avoided temptation, that He had to be led into temptation. People like us—humans—we don’t need to be led into temptation. We go willingly most of the time.

How about living a life of such holiness, of such godliness, that you need to be led into temptation—that temptation doesn’t have anything on you—that there can be no temptation.

The Bible says, “God cannot be tempted.” How about if you live a life of such holiness that you cannot be tempted? How about that? It’s possible with Christ. You say, “No, we’re humans. We can always be tempted.”

Uh-uh, what does the Bible say? The truth says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That means you could live a life like that if you choose to do that. “Be holy because I, the Lord, am Holy.”

Do that. See, Jesus knows that if you see something, you begin to absorb that and internalise it, and that thing will influence you, and He doesn’t want those things to have any influence over you.

He wants you to be influenced by good things. So if there are things in life that are not good, if there’s a TV show, a commercial—whatever—zap it—change that channel. Fast forward, shut it off, unplug it—I don’t care. Get rid of it.

The eye is the lamp of the body, and the lamp of your body needs to be pure. Only take in good things. Be influenced by good things and fill your whole body with light. Let’s go to Matthew 5:14-16.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Let your light shine so that others will see it and glorify your Father in heaven, then they can come into the body of Christ, and you can work with them, raise them up to be disciples. The eye is the lamp of the body.

Be careful what you let into your body; what are you giving light to? What are you shining your light upon? If the eye is the lamp, what you look at, you are shining on. You are absorbing. You are taking in, you are gracing with light.

You are letting others know that it’s okay to see this. Make sure that you take extra special care to know that what you are letting in is Godly, is pure, is Holy—a great way to do that is to stay in the Word and do the Word.

If you spend your life living to accomplish the will of God, basically doing what the Bible says, the lamp of your body will be bright, and that darkness will have no place in you.

Let’s pray. Father, thank you so much for this message today. Help everyone remember that the eyes are the lamp of the body, that they should not look upon anything that is evil, that they will hate all of those evil things, that they will avoid them—turn from them—go on their way.

That they will not travel on the road of the wicked, that they will know what is right and wrong.
Father, give them that discernment. Have the spirit be stirred up in them; they have the Holy Spirit. They need to tap into it. They need to access it.

Lord, let them be willing to get out of their own way, to let the Holy Spirit shine through them, that that brightness will be so bright—exactly like Jesus when He rose from the dead.

The light that came from Him was so bright that it turned that shroud into like a negative, the light coming out that it made an impression on there so bright.

Have them be bright like Moses. He was so bright after being with you that he had to wear a veil to cover himself because people were so afraid.

Give people the desire to be bright, that the eye is the lamp of the body, that they would remember that, that they would absorb and take in good things, and that they would do your will each and every day here on Earth as it is in Heaven.

In Jesus’ name, amen. Have a great week, and God bless.