The Old Testament is a type, or a shadow, of the New Testament. In the New Testament Paul calls it ensamples. The word ensamples means types. In the book of Genesis we find the word image, "Let us make man in our image and in our likeness." And God created man in His own image. When you look up the word "image" in the Hebrew, you will find it comes from a Chaldean word meaning shade. In the Hebrew the word just before image is the word shadow. In other words, the "image" here comes out of the root word shade. We see that this was not the very image, but it was the shadow image. You have two images when the sun is shinning on you; you have your physical image and you also have your shadow image cast across the ground. Have you ever made shadow pictures? Can you recognize someone from a shadow picture if they don't reveal first who they are? In Hebrews 10:1 we read about the very image. Today we are in the very image of God through Jesus Christ. He has made us and brought us into that place in Him. We are the true sons of God.

Now let us look at this word "world" in John 16:8. Speaking of the Holy Ghost, it says, "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me." To whom did He come? He came to His own. He came to the Jews. He came to the Israelites. He preached the word of God to them but they did not receive Him. They rejected Him. "Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more: Of judgment, because the prince of this world (arrangement) is judged." In the eighth chapter of John, Jesus tells them who they chose to be their prince. "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" (John 8:44). Who were these? The Bible tells us in the thirty-first verse that they were Jews who believed on Jesus. Now Jesus is saying to them, "You are of your father the devil." We know that under the old arrangement man could not live above sin. The reason the Jews crucified Jesus was because the prince of that arrangement was not Jesus. He is the prince of the new arrangement in which we now live. We have been transformed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. The children of Israel under the law lived in darkness. All the things of the Father were behind the veil of His glory and they could not see that glory. Jesus came as a light into the world. If He came as a light into the world, or a light into that arrangement, does not that signify that the arrangement was dark? Otherwise it would have no need of further light. Do you go into a room that is all lit up and turn on a light? When the sun is shining bright, you do not use a flashlight. You do not need a light until it gets dark. When there is darkness, you do need a light and that light causes the darkness to flee away.

Light is stronger than darkness. When you are in a room that is lit up, you cannot see darkness coming into that room from under the door; but when you are in a dark room, you can see light come in under the door. Light is stronger than darkness. When light comes, the darkness disappears. Jesus became the completeness of the Old Testament by revealing what it really meant. As long as it stood as a shadow, it could stand; but once the truth was shared with them, they were to no longer looked the shadow. Have you ever seen someone coming around the corner when you could only see the shadow? You would say, "Someone is coming." You did not say who was coming because the shadow did not reveal just who was coming, only that someone was coming. Sometimes the shadow may be big and monstrous looking and only be a small child.

When a person appears, and you know that person, you do not say, "Someone is coming." but rather you say, "There's Joe." or, "Susie is coming." The shadow did not reveal to you who was coming; but after seeing the person, you no longer talk about the shadow. You do not say, "The shadow was looking so good. It just lay there on the pavement and it looked this way or that way." No, you say, "She was pretty. Did you see the way she did her hair?" or, "He was handsome. Did you see the color of his eyes?" You could not see the color of someone's eyes in a shadow, nor would you fall in love with a shadow. You cannot embrace a shadow. When Jesus appeared, the reality of the shadow, those waiting for the appearance of that which the shadow revealed saw the reality of the glory of Jesus. John's disciples, hearing him on one day and seeing Jesus the next day, departed from John and followed Jesus. John was baptizing under the shadow and, when the reality of that shadow came forth, they departed from the shadow and followed Jesus. There is no word recorded where they went back to visit John although I am sure they loved him.

John was willing to decrease. The more light you have, the more the shadow decreases. Have you looked for your shadow when the sun is at its glory? The shadow is decreased because of the brightness of the Son. John said, "I must decrease and He must increase." When you have the light, why look for darkness? The Father proved this point. John 3:19 tells us, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Isn't that strange. As long as they were living under the shadow a lot of things were covered up. Consider the woman at the well. She had been married many times and the man she was now living with was not her husband. When the light came He revealed that the one she was living with was not her husband. She realized that the light exposed all her life because she went back into the town and told the people, "Come see a man that told me all that ever I did."

When you get close to the light, you must watch out. The light lightens up every area of our lives. Aren't you glad? Would you like to face God knowing there were areas of darkness in your life that were not revealed to you? You would not want that. You want to enter His presence and hear Him say, "Enter in thou good and faithful servant. Enter into all that I have prepared for you. All things are made ready." Would you like to enter in today? You might say, "Brother Rankin, I have already entered in." Would you like to stay entered in and enter in some more? There is a "going on" in God. There is no stopping place. I had a pastor friend who was "four-square." He had it all figured out and there was no way you could convince him God had anything else. It was a safe place for him because that was all for which he could be held accountable. He did not want to be around me because I would plant thoughts in his mind. Then he would have to think. He would accuse me of trying to confuse him. If someone can confuse you on the beliefs you have, you are not very sure of what you believe.

John 3:20, "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light." Have you ever heard anyone say, "I just hate that preacher. He aggravates me." They always find something to pick at. "All he ever does is ask for money." Now he may spend twenty minutes of a thirty minute broadcast to ask for money, but what about the other ten minutes? It isn't the money they are worried about. Why worry about the money that preacher gets when they themselves don't give anything to him? They are just finding a way to condemn him because light is shining and they want to darken that light. Beware of someone who has too much condemnation in their mouth. Condemnation can be a cover-up for darkness. That is what a cover-up is, it is darkness. Every once in a while one of the small children in the church will hide herself from me. She hides herself by putting her hands in front of her eyes. Although she is visible to everyone, she feels she is hidden. That is a cover-up. Everything is exposed, but someone is trying to hide something. If you are convinced you are right, it does not matter who thinks otherwise. When the true light shines, it will expose you if you are doing something wrong. It irritates a person and causes them to strike back. There is that old serpent nature. Jesus said, concerning the Pharisees, the religious leaders, "Ye serpents and ye vipers." This meaning it is a nature in us, the serpent nature that wants to strike. It strikes by saying, "All those preachers do is ask for money." or, "There is no love in those churches." or, "I don't want to go over there. All they preach on is hell." They are not really worried about any of those things. They are worried about the light that has come into their life for it has irritated their darkness. Because their darkness has been irritated, they don't feel comfortable in that darkness any more.

There was a policeman on a college campus whose job it was to keep the young couples off "Lover's Lane" because the college did not want to encourage such activity. It was surprising how the behavior of individuals changed when the light shined on them. A couple times he told the couples, "Go ahead, go back to what you were doing. Don't mind me." But they would not do anything because the light was there. Sometimes people do things in darkness that they would not do in the light. Sometimes the light makes a person feel naked, even when they are not. Many new stores are all lit up with lights and mirrors and glass. It is for security purposes. They have cameras back of the mirrors and glass to cut down on shoplifting. It can make a person feel like a thief because you know people are watching to see what you touch or if you are going to pick something up.

The Bible says concerning the ungodly, "...neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." But concerning the Godly the Bible tells us, "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." When your life is truthful, you like light. Light attracts you because there is light in you and you desire more light. I want to minister to the children of light. I want those who are attracted to truth. Someone else can fill the great auditoriums with those who prefer darkness. There can be nothing done with them for they are dwellers of darkness.

We are the light when we preach the truth. We can light up dark places. We have the reality of His light. Let us go in and be possessors today. Let us reach beyond this natural realm and reach in and touch the hearts and lives of those around us.

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