It's nice to have everyone here. Um, let's open tonight's service
with number 33 from your spiral gospel hymns and book number
33. Let's all stand together. I come, our Savior said, the
Savior promised long. I come to do thy will, O God,
and thus our hope was born. Behold, a virgin has conceived
and born a son of flesh. His name is called Emmanuel,
God dwells in human flesh. The angels left their high abode
to see this mystery. ? The great almighty sovereign
God ? ? A babe of feeble clay ? ? More tells me how his lovely
face ? ? The Father's only son has made ? How full of truth,
how full of grace, Christ came to save His own. In His spotless light of righteousness
and sin atoning death. Fulfilled his father's holy will
and satisfied his breath. Our glad Hosannas, Prince of
Peace, your glory shall proclaim. And crowned in heaven as our
king, we love to praise your name. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. I want to try to bring a message
tonight from John chapter 9 on Christ, the light of the world. And the way the Lord opens the
scriptures from the very beginning in telling us about physical
creation, we see a picture of the new creation that the Lord
does spiritually in the heart. Let's just read these first five
verses together. Genesis chapter one, in the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without
form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and
the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. We know
that water in the scriptures is used to represent the Word
of God and how the Spirit of God must move upon God's Word
in order for those who are of the earth, those that are without
form, those that are void and empty. And God said, and God
has to speak, And God said, let there be light. And there was
light. And God saw the light, that it
was good. And God divided the light from
the darkness. And God called the light day
and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning
were the first day. If you look over in verse 14,
you'll see that the fourth day of creation is when God made
the moon and the sun and the stars, which can only leave us
one conclusion, that this light that we just read about is Christ. He's the light of the world.
And... I hope the light of the gospel
will shine in our hearts tonight. Mary Williams fell yesterday
and broke her foot and she's in a boot and Don is having a
procedure on his heart tomorrow. They're putting a a defibrillator
or something in his heart. So I want us to pray for Don
and for Mary. All right, let's pray together. Our heavenly father, thank you for the revelation
that you've given us in your word of thy dear son, the light
of the world, the light that shined into the darkness, and
though the darkness comprehended it not, Lord, we pray that you
would cause us to have eyes to see, that you would speak, that
your spirit would move upon the face of the water. Lord, if you
leave us to ourselves, we will be without form and void. Oh,
how dependent we are for you to to reveal your grace and your
glory to our hearts in the person of your dear son. We ask that
you bless your word to that end. We thank you for Don and Mary.
Lord, be with the positions that that minister to dawn tomorrow
and make them skillful and give them success. And Lord, we know
that they are instruments of healing that are in your hand. And so Lord, we give to you the
praise and the glory and ask you to be merciful. Lord, we pray for Mary and pray
that you'd give her a good recovery and that she would not have to
have surgery. Lord, we pray for Sean as he prepares to preach
for us this Sunday and ask Lord that you would give him a word
that would be glorifying to Christ and encouraging to your people. And Lord, we pray for the meeting
in Missouri and ask your blessings on that time and on that church. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 273 from your hardback hymnal 273. walk in the light, so shall thou
know that fellowship of love is spirit only can bestow who
reigns in light above. Walk in the light and thou shalt
find thy heart made truly His. Who dwells in cloudless light
enshrined, in whom no darkness is. Walk in the light and thou shalt
know the high darkness passed away. Because that light hath on thee
shown in which is perfect day. Walk in the light, and even the
tomb, no fearful shade shall wear. Glory shall chase away
its gloom, for Christ hath conquered there. walk in the light, thy
path shall be a path, though thorny, bright. For God, by grace, shall dwell
in thee, and God himself is light. Please be seated. John chapter 9. John doesn't follow the same
order that Matthew, Mark and Luke follow. Most of the events
that they record are in some sort of chronological order. John, on the other hand, writes
his gospel account around the IMs of Christ, seven of them. And he builds this entire picture
of the Lord around these revelations that he makes of
himself. And in John chapter 8, the Lord
begins his a declaration of himself as the light of the world to
the Pharisees after the woman that was called an adultery,
he said, I am the light of the world. And now after the discourse of
chapter eight, he performs this miracle in chapter nine as evidence
of that, truth of who he is. And we'll read the first few verses
again. We've looked at this the last week or so. And as Jesus
passed by, he saw a man which was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did send this man or his parents? that
he was born blind, and Jesus answered, neither hath this man
sin nor his parents, but that the works of God should be manifest
in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work." The Lord's talking about his
death. He has to finish the work that the Father sent him to do
while it is still day. Because the night's going to
come when work cannot be done. And when the Lord dies, he has
to have already finished the work, which is what he did in
his dying breath when he said, it is finished. Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. And then he says in verse 5,
as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. The more I see of Christ and of the gospel,
the more understanding the Lord gives me of scripture, the more
impressed I am with that simple statement that I've said and
you've heard other men say it. If you're wrong on the fall,
you're wrong on it all. And the significance of what
happened in the garden when Adam sinned. Other than being born
blind, I mean other than spiritual death, the Lord likens our condition
outside of Christ as being dead in our trespasses and sins, and
a dead man can do nothing. Other than being spiritually
dead, I don't know of a more apt, clear description of our
spiritual condition than being born blind. When Adam sinned,
he plunged the entire human race into utter darkness, without
form, without void, without form, darkness upon the face of the
deep. If the Lord doesn't cause the light to shine out of darkness,
there'll be no light. And here, our Lord Jesus is saying,
I am that light. That's why I wanted to read the
first five verses of Genesis. Because the Lord is identifying
himself as the light of the world. Without him, there is no light.
The light has shined in the darkness. The darkness, John tells us in
chapter one, comprehended it not. They couldn't understand
it. Why? Because they were blind.
They were blind. But to those whom the Lord gave
sight. Let's turn to that passage, John
chapter one. Look at verse four, in him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And we're spiritually
dead, without life, without Christ we have no life. We have physical
life, we have physical sight. But we're talking about spiritual
life here. We're talking about spiritual sight. Our physical
lives are gonna come to an end very soon. They don't last long. We're concerned with that which
is eternal, eternal life and eternal light. And the Lord says
here that in him, in the Lord Jesus was life and without him
there is no life and in him was light. And the light shined in
the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. The darkness could not receive
the light. And you and I wouldn't be able
to receive it. Why? Because in our Father Adam, we
are born into this world spiritually blind. We can't see. We have no understanding of things
as they really are, spiritual things. You know, I've read that a person
who... There are people who are born
with large cataracts over their eyes so that they can't see from
birth. And sometimes it's later in life
when they have the opportunity to have those removed. And... and though that person before
they had their eyes, before they had their cataracts removed,
could hold a cube or a sphere and determine the difference
between the two. But when you did the surgery
and they opened their eyes and you put a cube and a sphere in
front of them, they didn't know what it was because there was
nothing there was nothing registered in their brain to identify those
items even though they could now see. And it's just an example of what
blindness really does. It causes us to not be able to
put anything together. And it's not until we're able
to see that God begins to show us what these things really mean. Our inability to see the truth, left to ourselves, the truth
about who God is, the truth about who we are, the truth about how
it is that God saves sinners, we have no understanding. And
the Lord can show us these things and we don't know what they are.
The darkness comprehended it not. Verse 11 of John chapter one,
he came unto his own, his own received him not, he's talking
about the Israel, but as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name, which were born." We're not born because we received
him. We received him because we were
born. Very important distinction here,
isn't it? The Lord has to perform a miracle
of life in order for us to see the light. which were born, not
of blood, not of descent. You're not, you're not, you don't
receive the light or you're not born of God because you, your
parents are Christians or because you have, you know, some, something
in your family or your spouse. No, it's, it's not a blood nor
the will of flesh. It's not of decision. It's not
because I decided I'm going to see the light. No, you're blind. You're blind, you can't see. Nor of the will of man. It's
not by dedication. I'm gonna be committed to this
and I'm gonna work this out. So it's not by blood, it's not
by the will of flesh, it's not by the will of man. But we're
born of God. born of God. Oh, the Lord doesn't
birth us, we'll never see. We'll be, well the scripture
refers to the world groping as a blind man in darkness. And that analogy is used several
times in the Bible. And that's what men do in trying
to find God, they're just They're groping around and unable to
have any understanding. What a blessing. What a blessing
the new birth is. What a blessing it is when God
gives us eyes to see. We're able to have some understanding
and mostly we're able to have some faith in and what the Lord
has revealed in his word. I am the light of the world. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Verse six, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. That's Genesis 1.1. That's the
first few verses of Genesis. God commanded the light. He sent his son. He sent the Lord Jesus as his light
into this dark world. hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. The Lord has to shine the light
of the gospel in our hearts, revealing the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can't know him any more than
a blind man can see. A man born blind has no understanding
of what exists. Look at verse 18 in that same
chapter, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 at verse 18. While we look not on the things
which are seen, now there's natural sight and natural light and then
there's spiritual sight and spiritual light. And the problem that we have
is that we We think because we can see something naturally that
therefore we have some spiritual understanding of it, but that's
not true. Why we look not at the things
which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. We're talking about being able
to see something that can't be seen. The eternal, those things
that are hidden from the natural man, those things that no amount of study or preparation
or intelligence could possibly discover. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes
chapter one. Look at verse 17, Ecclesiastes
chapter 1, Solomon. And when it says that he was
the wisest man that ever lived, God gave him a degree of wisdom
not only in spiritual things but in natural things. But here's
what he says about exercising the intelligence that he has
concerning natural things, the things which are seen. the things
which are temporal, the things which are of this world. And
I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this also is
vexation of spirit for in much wisdom is much grief and he that
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." Now surely he's not
talking about spiritual sight here because the more The more
the Lord gives us understanding and wisdom and knowledge of God,
the greater hope and comfort and peace and rest that there
is. He's talking about the things
of this world. What he's saying is that when
it comes to the things of this world, ignorance is bliss. You
know, the Lord has blessed me with the intelligence, I'm talking
for Solomon, to think very deeply about these things. And the more
I consider them, the more sorrow comes to my heart, the more confusion. You know, if in pursuing earthly
knowledge, We do it for the sake of understanding things. We will
come to this conclusion. With every discovery, we'll come
to 10 new questions. With every discovery will come
10 new questions. That's what Solomon is talking
about here. He said, I set my heart to know wisdom and understanding
and it was folly because the deeper I got into it, the deeper
it got. The more I understood, the more
I realized I didn't know. In Daniel chapter 12, verse four,
The Lord gives Daniel a prophecy of the end time. And he says
this, he says that knowledge, knowledge shall increase in the
last day. Has there ever been a time in
the history of mankind where we have not had more knowledge,
more information available to us? Now we've got AI, artificial
intelligence, which is what all earthly wisdom is. It's all artificial
intelligence. There's no substance to it. There's
no end to it. It's just, you know, what am
I saying? I'm saying that The natural sight
looks at things that are seen. And the things which are seen
are temporal. Spiritual sight, on the other
hand, looks on those things which are not seen. And those things
which are not seen are spiritual. And that's where the light and
the life is. Let us be careful not to get
caught up in pursuing too deeply the information of this world. Let us set our hearts towards
knowing Christ, who is himself light of the world, who is himself
life and truth, because all this other stuff It's temporal. It's temporal. What we just read
in 2 Corinthians chapter four, that which is seen, temporal. And you know what that word means.
I used that word one time, somebody said, what does that mean? Well,
it just means temporary. It means it doesn't last. It's
just here for a flash and it's gone. And we might use a little
bit of knowledge that we acquire in this world to impress one
another, but it's temporal. The things which are spiritual
cannot be seen. They cannot be seen by the natural
man. They are, we are complete, let's go back now to John chapter
nine. We are completely dependent upon
the Lord to open the eyes of our understanding, why? Because
we come into this world spiritually blind. We can't see. And we continue to come to the
Lord for sight. We, oh, what did the Lord, at the
end of this chapter, the Pharisees get it. And they, well, in John
chapter eight, you remember the woman that was caught in adultery
and the Pharisees bring her before the Lord and they want to stone
her? And the Lord says, let him who's without sin cast the first
stone. And he starts riding on the ground.
And one by one, from the oldest to the youngest, they all started
walking away. And the Lord looked at this woman.
And he said, are there any that accuse you? And she said this,
no man, Lord. What about you? What about you? She said, all
the men that were accusing me have gone but now I'm concerned. Look at you there chapter 9,
look back, look back with me in chapter 8. Verse 10, and when Jesus lifted
up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, no man, Lord. And you know what she's thinking.
What about you? And he speaks those words of
comfort and truth and light to her when he says unto her, neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Neither do
I condemn thee. And though her accusers had left,
his accusers were still listening. because the rest of this chapter
is a conversation he has with the Pharisees who are challenging
him on his ability to forgive this woman of her sins. And he
says to them, he says in the next verse, then Jesus spake
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 life. See how this theme is just repeated
over and over again. And this spiritual light is completely
different. It's that which cannot be seen. And the Lord confirms that when
he says to these Pharisees, look at verse 15 of John chapter eight,
you judge after the flesh. You're making your judgments
based on what you can see. You judge this woman guilty because
you saw her caught in adultery. The man wasn't brought up on
charges. You just wonder if this wasn't
a whole setup on the part of trying to bring this woman in
order to trap the Lord. But he says, he says, you judge everything
according to what you see. Why? Because you're blind. You're blind. And at the end
of chapter nine, they finally understand the accusation that
he's making against them. And he says to them, they say
to him, are you saying that we're blind? We're blind. Oh, and I love what the Lord
said. Oh, if you were blind, then you could see. You could see. But because you
say that you can see, therefore your sins remain. That's not an exact quote. Look
at verse 41. If you were blind, if you were
blind, you should have no sin. But now you say we see, therefore
your sins remaineth. If you were blind, you'd have
no sin. Why would you have no sin? Because
you would see God for who he is. You would see yourself for
who you are. You would see how it is that
God is able to be just and justify the ungodly at the same time.
But you can't see any of these things. Why? Because you're making
your judgments based on what you see physically. All that we will ever see, brethren,
of our God, we will see in the person of the Lord Jesus. He
said, I am the light of the world. I am the way, I am the life,
I am the truth. There's no other way. We find all the glorious truths
about our God displayed in the person and in the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ and they take their highest demonstration of
glory at Calvary's Cross. The flesh must die. You and I have to die. We're
to be made alive, we gotta die. Be born again, we gotta die.
We gotta see that we're blind, we have no life. A sacrifice for sin that satisfies
God's justice must be made. No sacrifice that you and I make
will be sufficient. This is the condemnation. This
is the condemnation. Light has come into the world,
but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. They wouldn't come to the light.
Why? Because the light exposes them for what they are. It exposes
the sin of the, of the irreligious, it exposes the sin of the self-righteous,
it exposes all sin for what it is, falling short of the glory
of God and worthy of judgment and wrath. But they that are
of the light come to the light and confess that their deeds
were wrought by God. The only way that they could
that they could make a confession that Jesus Christ is their life
and that he is the light of the world and that they have no capacity
to see anything apart from what he gives them. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter one.
2 Peter chapter one. This is the means by which the
Lord reveals the light of the gospel. And Peter, prior to verse 19,
is testifying of that experience that he and James and John had
on the Mount of Transfiguration when the voice of God was heard
and the veil of our Lord's humanity was was removed and the radiance
of his glory was shined forth and they were put to the ground.
They were put to the ground, they couldn't look. And what
a glorious Peter saying, we're not bringing to you fables, cunningly
devised fables, things that we made up. We're telling you what
we saw, what we experienced. And then in verse 19, he says,
and I'm so encouraged by this, because I've never had an experience
like that, but here's my experience. Look at verse 19. We also, we
also have a more sure word of prophecy,
more sure than that experience that Peter, James, and John had.
That experience had lots of feelings and lots of subjectivity involved
in it. As glorious as it was, the word
of God is objective, clear, black and white. We have also a more
sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well that you take
heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your heart. Here's how I know
that the light has shined. Christ is my life. The only hope
of I have of knowing God is in the person and work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I believe that. I'm looking to
and resting in and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to say
to me, neither do I condemn thee. Neither do I condemn thee. I
am the light of the world. Left to ourselves, we are blind
as to who God is. We come into this world spiritually
blind and the idle factory of our darkened hearts go to work
very soon in life, don't they? And we begin to forge and fashion
our little idols that look like ourselves. And we set ourselves
up on the throne of God. Why? Because we're blind. We're idolaters by nature. And
that's because we don't know God. If we don't know him, we'll
make one up. And the Lord said, you thought
that I was altogether such a one as thyself. And that's exactly
what we do. I can't know God unless he reveals
himself. And I will be as content with
my idols as a barbarian or as a heathen making sacrifices to
a sun god. Oh, I'll not be concerned if
the Lord doesn't cause me to need him and reveal himself to
me. We won't know anything about
God's holiness. don't know anything about his
justice, don't know anything about his love, don't know anything
about his eternality and his sovereignty, except he revealed
himself in his word and by his person. And when we read and hear that sure word
of prophecy, The evidence that we have eyes to see is that we
say, truth, Lord. Yes, yes, there's my hope. I have no hope outside of Christ.
I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. I
believe that he is the only light of the world. I believe that
I was born in darkness. I believe that I have no hope
of salvation or knowing God apart from him. I'm dependent upon
him. And I believe what God's word
says about me. We wouldn't believe ourselves
to be sinners. We'd be holding on to some remnant
of righteousness in our filthy rags. We wouldn't believe that
the best thing about us is filthy rags before God. Paul said, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. When God brought the truth of
the gospel home to my heart, when he revealed in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his glory, I came to one conclusion,
I am vile. I came to one conclusion, I have
no righteousness outside of him. I came to one conclusion, He
must save me. I came to one conclusion, I have
nothing to offer God on behalf of my works or my will, my righteousness. I cannot satisfy God like that. We will be like Job. Justifying
ourselves until God speaks. Until God speaks. Oh Lord, surely
I had spoken without knowledge. I repent in dust and ashes. We'll be like Goliath. You remember
when David came up against Goliath? And Goliath... in indignation
said, what am I, a dog? Am I a dog that you would come
against me with stones and sticks? You know, what is this? We'd
be just like that. God's pleased to have mercy on
us, reveal his grace and glory to us. We'll say with that Syrophoenician
woman, truth Lord, Truth, Lord, the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from the master's table. Lord, would you feed me with
some crumbs of life and truth and light? What a blessing it is to be stripped
of our righteousness. To be shut up to Christ. To have no place else to go.
That's how we know that the Lord has shined the light of the gospel
in the face of Christ in our hearts. We have no place else
to go. Lord, to whom shall we go? You
alone have the words of eternal life. And we know and we're sure
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Here's the light of the gospel. Here's the light of the world.
Here's what you and I will not come to and the world will not
come to. This is the result of the fall. And we will remain blind as to
how God remits sin, how God saves sinners, how God can remain just
and justify the ungodly at the same time. We will think that
there's something that we can do to satisfy the justice of
God. There is a way that seems right
unto a man, but in the end, that way leads to death. What is the
way that seems right unto man? Free will, works. Well, I'll
make a decision, but it's not a blood. It's not of the will
of the flesh. It's not of will of man, it's
of God. But we will be left believing
that there's something we can do to balance the scale. There's
something we can do to satisfy God. Until the light of the gospel
in the face of the Lord Jesus shines in our hearts, and then
we realize, I can't do anything. And he has done everything. Everything. Everything that God
requires of me, the Lord Jesus accomplished it. Everything. Not a decision I can make. It's
not a work I can perform. It's not something that I can
abstain from. There are many, many voices in
this world giving men something to do. The Tower of Babel is
still with us. Men trying to build a city for
themselves and a tower that reaches up into heaven. and taking bricks
that they fashioned with their hands and putting them together
with slime. And what did God do? He confused
their language. So now there's millions of towers
of Babel's being built all over the world. And one tower builder can't communicate
with another tower builder because they speak a different language.
This tower builder says, no, you got to build your tower like
this. Another one says, no, you got to build it like that. But they're all working their
way to heaven by building a tower. It's confusing, isn't it? Voices
everywhere. What are the voices saying? We
have the way. We have the way. That's what
the voices of religion are saying. That's what the voices of darkness
are saying. We have the way. And what does
the voice of God say? I am the way. And when the Lord said, you are
the light of the world, remember John in Matthew chapter five,
the Lord talking to his disciples, he says, you are the light of
the world. He said, a man doesn't, a city up on a hill cannot be
hid and a man doesn't light a candle and put it under a basket, no,
he puts it up on a candle so that the whole world can see. And so let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. Now that, people, I want to live my life
in such a way. as to not be a stumbling block. I don't wanna be an offense to
the gospel. The gospel has enough offense
to it already without me adding my part to it. And I pray the
Lord will keep us. I pray that the Lord will make
us a testimony of his grace. But ask yourself this, Who exactly
is going to see your good works and glorify your Father which
is in heaven? Who's gonna see that? Who is
the only one that can glorify God? Believers. And so the Lord
says, you're the light of the world. You're gonna be preaching
the gospel. And as the gospel goes out, you're
gonna be declaring to men that your good works are his work. And that outside of him, you
can't do anything good. Religious are always trying to
impress everybody with how good they are and how self-righteous
they are. We are preaching the gospel and
we are saying there is none good but God. and that God must cause
His work to be our work. He must put us in union with
Christ. He must impute to us the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ because that's the only work before God
that's good. The only work that's good. So
we preach the gospel, what are we saying? Behold the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sins of the world. He must increase,
I decrease. His work is perfect. His work
is perfect. And we look in faith to Him for
all of our acceptance before God. I am the light of the world. In me There is no darkness. There is no darkness. Tom. 2-11. 3-11 in the hardback hymnal. Just the first three verses.
First three verses. He would see Jesus, for the shadows
lengthen across the little landscape of our life. He would see Jesus,
our weak faith to strengthen, for the last weariness, the final
stride.