Good morning, brethren. Let's
turn in our Bibles to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. Verse 12 says, Then spake Jesus
again unto them. He had been preaching the gospel
in the temple And the Pharisees and scribes brought the woman
and interrupted him as he preached. And after he dealt with them
and with her, he once again began preaching. And he said, I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me, he that
believeth on me, he that walketh by faith, shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life. The Pharisees therefore said
unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not
true. Jesus answered and said unto
them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true.
For I know whence I came and whither I go. But you cannot
tell whence I come and whither I go. Ye judge after the flesh. I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment
is true, for I'm not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.
It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men
is true. I'm one that bear witness of
myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then
said they unto him, where is thy father? Jesus answered, you
neither know me nor my father. If you had known me, You should
have known my father also. These words spake Jesus in the
treasury as he taught in the temple, and no man laid hands
on him, for his hour was not yet come. The Lord declares here,
I am the light of the world. I am the light of the world.
You remember in Genesis chapter one, it says in the beginning,
God created heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form
and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said,
Let there be light, and there was light. Now, He didn't create
the sun until a few days later. This light He said, I'm the light
of the world. I'm the light of the world. Look
back at John chapter 1. I don't know how far we'll get
in this. We're going to just go slow here.
John chapter 1 and verse 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. This is Christ,
the incarnate Word, the Word that was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He was in the beginning with
God. He was God, and He created everything. All things were created
by Him and for Him. Verse 4, In Him was life, and
the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent
from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light, that all through him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that
light. That was the true light. which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Every man in
this world is born depraved, born in sin from Adam, and so
we have no spiritual light, none whatsoever. We're in darkness
by nature. But even just the The carnal light that a man has
to make him a moral being, that's from Christ. Every man that comes
into the world, he lights the man. Before this, the Pharisees,
the Lord stood. They were going to condemn this
woman. And the Lord said, whichever of you are without
sin, you cast the first stone. and they were convicted in their
own conscience, and they went out. It was not a saving light,
it was not spiritual light making them fall down and worship Christ,
but even that conviction of conscience was from Christ the light. The law is written on every man's
heart by nature. Romans 2 tells us that, so that
men accuse one another and excuse one another. That's from Christ,
the light. In Him we live and move and have
our being. And that light is the life. If we didn't have light in the
sky, we wouldn't have life in this earth. And He's that light. He gives the sun its light. But
He Himself is the light of God's glory. He's the light of God's
glory. He's God who came down robed
in flesh, veiling His glory, but He is the light of God's
glory. He's the brightness of the Father's
glory, Hebrews 1, 3 says. He is the brightness. Remember
when they saw Him on the Mount of Transfiguration? They got
to see that light. John and Peter, they saw it,
glistering white. And Christ is the light by which
his people have spiritual life and spiritual discernment. The
light of life, he said. He said, I'm the light of the
world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Once Christ shines in the heart
and gives a sinner light, he never takes away his light. They shall have the light of
life. I like the word have, because
that means it's of Him. And He's going to speak to it,
we have the light of life. He's the light that saves His
child from the darkness of spiritual ignorance. He's the light that
saves us from the darkness of our sin. He's the light that
shines more and more unto the perfect day. The light comes
up, the sun comes up in the morning, and there's light. But it's not
fully bright yet. And it rises. And it rises. And it gets brighter and brighter
and brighter. And that's the description of
a believer born of this light of Christ. The light grows more
and more. Day after day. And one day we're
going to behold Him. and be perfectly conformed to
His image. And the more light we have from
Christ, the more we see we are sinners. And the more we see
Christ is our only righteousness. John said, He must increase,
I must decrease. How is that going to happen?
By the light. By Him giving you more and more
light, you are going to see yourself Less and less and less to be
trusted. More and more and more of a sinner.
You're going to grow down in the estimation of self. And the
more you see Him, the more you're going to see He's the only righteousness
we have. Some days, the sun's behind the
clouds. And you don't see it bright shining. You don't see it. And it's dark
and it's gloomy. But you still have light. We
still have light. The light's still shining, though
we can't see it, it's still shining. We have dark days. We have dark
seasons. We have seasons where, from our
perception, we have no light. I was working, studying this
passage one day, and somebody contacted me and made this very
statement. about how it seems to be dark
and not have light. Well, look over at Isaiah 50.
Can that happen to a believer? Look at Isaiah 50. I say this
to comfort you, brethren, but I want you to see what the Lord,
this is the Lord speaking here, and He knows this. He went through
those three hours of darkness when God forsook Him. But he
never ceased looking to the Father, did he? When it was dark. He
believed the Father even when it was in that gross darkness.
Now this is what he says about a believer. Who is among you
that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of Christ his servant? That's who he's speaking about.
Who are you in whom the light has shined, you fear the Lord,
you want to honor Him, you want to walk after Him, you believe
Him, And you obey the voice of Christ his servant that walketh
in darkness and hath no light. I thought Christ said that he
that follows me shall not walk in darkness. You won't. Even when it appears to you that
you are walking in darkness and have no light, he says you will
have the light of life. What does he say to us to do
in that situation? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. Go over to Habakkuk chapter 3. Lord willing I am going to try
to preach on this passage sometime soon. But look over here at Habakkuk
3. He is talking here in Habakkuk
about the days that are to come. You know when Christ came there
was gross darkness. There was no witness. They were
just going through a form. Those days are coming again.
The witnesses are going to be falling in the street, he said
in Revelation, and there's going to be a dire time in this world. He said when he comes, will he
find faith in the earth? There will be a multitude like
the foolish virgins whose lamps have gone out. A lot of the things
we call blessing, a lot of the things that we think is light
and blessing, it's going to take all that away. Now listen to
what Habakkuk said. He said when he heard this he
trembled. But listen to what he said. Habakkuk 3.17. Although the fig tree shall not
blossom. He is speaking of spiritual things
here as well as physical things because a fig tree does not blossom. A fig tree brings forth fruit.
But he says though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall
fail. the field shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut
off from the fold, there shall be no herd in the stalls. In
other words, all the prosperity that we have right now, where
we are a little spoiled over it, he said, when all that is
going to be gone and there will be a famine of bread in the land,
right now we can just listen to sermons any time and And he
said there's going to be a famine of bread, a famine of the means
of grace. We're so full now that if we
don't have enemies without, we'll try to make enemies within. And
that day is going to be a blessing just to find a believer. Now
listen to this. Verse 18, Yet I will rejoice
in the Lord. See, when He's all you've got,
you've got all. He's going to make us see He
is all. It's not all these outwards.
We love this means of grace. I was glad when they say, let's
go to the house of the Lord. But He is the one that is everything
to us. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength.
He will make my feet like hinds feet. He will make me to walk
upon my high places. You see that he's the one thing
needful. You talk to a dying believer
who has nothing else. Ask him what matters. There's
just one thing that matters. That's having Christ. That's
being found in him. That's all that is needful for
us right now, brethren. He's that light. But David, he
was without this light at times. He was in darkness and he said
this in Psalm 18.28, he said, Thou will light my candle. The Lord my God will enlighten
my darkness. What's the candle? Solomon said
in Proverbs 20.27, The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. Searching all the inward parts
of the belly, that spirit the Lord creates in us that inward
new man, that's the candle. And how is it lit? Christ said,
it's the spirit that quickeneth, or that is quickened, that spirit
that is made alive. And He said, the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. That light of life, He
quickens you inwardly. That's what David was saying,
He will light my candle. He will quicken me inwardly.
I'll stay on Him till He enlightens my darkness. But, now let's go
back to John 8. Now I want you to see what real
darkness is here, brethren. The Pharisees, some went away
after the Lord silenced them. Some went away. But there were
still Pharisees sitting there in the congregation as he's preaching
in the temple and he turns and makes this statement, I'm the
light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not
walk in darkness. He shall have the light of life.
And they weren't listening to believe Christ. They weren't
listening, looking for the light. They were listening to accuse
Him of something. That's all they were listening
for. And listen to what they said. Verse 13. The Pharisees
therefore said unto Him, Thou barest record of Thyself, Thy
record's not true. Now you think about this. This
is the light of the world. the express image of God standing
there in human flesh that's speaking to them. This is the one who
was giving them their natural life. That life they had and
the strength they had to reason the way they did, as corrupt
and polluted as it was, to be able to just speak to Him and
say anything to Him, He was giving it to them. He could have just
withdrawn it and let it drop like a dish rag. Or He could have revealed His
glory and let it fall back backwards. Now that's darkness brethren,
to say to the living God, Thou barest record of Thyself, Thy
record is not true. That's what we did all our days
of unbelief. That's what unbelief is, calling
God a liar. Let me ask you who believe on
Him, why do you know the record is true? Why do you know the
record is true? Christ is shining your heart
to give you the light of life. That's the only reason, the only
difference between you and them sitting here saying you're a
liar. Look over at 2 Corinthians 4.6. 2 Corinthians 4.6. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, back there in creation, that same God has
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Look over at
1 John 5. That's when a believer, that's
when a person is going to believe and when they're going to have
understanding is when Christ shines the light. Until then,
what are we? We're darkness. We're just like
those Pharisees. We hear these things and we don't
believe. And we're saying in our carnal
heart, I don't believe God. I don't believe God. I believe
He's a liar. That's what we're saying. But look at this, 1 John
5, 10. He says, He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of His Son. That's what we see in our text.
But you that believe, the one reason you do is He shined in
your heart. You have the witness in you.
The Spirit, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that
we are children of God. Listen, verse 11, and this is
the record. Here is the witness that God
has given to us, freely given to us eternal life and this life
is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. The light of life. If you have
the Son, you believe on the Son, you have eternal life. And he
that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. Isn't that just
simple as can be? I mean, that narrows it down
to the one thing needful. If you have Christ, you have
life. If you don't have Christ, you
don't have life. No matter what else you have,
if you don't have Christ, you don't have life. There's only
one that ever walked this earth that pleased God. There's only
one man that ever walked this earth that gave God perfect obedience
and pleased God so that God will receive him. That's the God-man,
Christ Jesus. He's the only one that ever did.
He's the only one that ever worked righteousness in this earth.
He's the only one. And when He gives life, when
He shines the light, this is the knowledge He gives you. He
is the only one God is pleased with. And if you have Him, if
you've cast everything into His hands and trust Him to save you,
to present you to God, to bring you to God, you have life. Isn't there more to it? More
than Christ? Think there is more than Christ?
This is the record God has given of His Son. Go back now to this
text and listen to what the Lord said. John 8.14, Jesus answered
and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record
is true. He is the truth. He is the incarnate
Word. Now listen to what he said. Though
I bear record of myself, yet my record is true because I know
whence I came and whither I go. But you cannot tell whence I
came and whither I go. Christ said my record is true
because I know whence I came. I know from where I came and
I know where I go. Nobody else could say this like
he can say this. He was with the Father. He's
been with the Father from eternity. He is one with the Father. He's
God. That's John's whole testimony
through this gospel. He's showing us he is God in
human flesh. And by him saying, I'm the light
of the world, he's saying, I am God. And he was with the Father. And he came into this earth.
Sin of the Father. He never left the bosom of the
Father. Because he's God. present. When He was in this
earth, He was with the Father. Because He's God. But He knew
where He came from. He's bearing witness. I came
from the Father. We want to witness. Here's the
witness. He's saying, I came from the
Father. What's the difference between
a man believing His testimony and not believing Him? Him shining
the light. You know, you can say all these
things in the scripture. You can go through any given
scripture and preach the scriptures and for the most part, one man will say amen, another
man will say amen. When one believes and another
doesn't believe, who makes the difference? He does, shining
the light. Shining the light. He said He came down to glorify
the Father. He came down to work out a righteousness
for His people and to show how God's righteous. God didn't trust
us to fulfill His law. He came down and fulfilled it
for His people. He didn't trust us to honor it,
magnify it. He came down and honored and
magnified it. He came down and put away the
sin of His people and made His people perfectly righteous And
because he finished the work and accomplished it, Christ said,
and I know where I'm going. I'm going back to the Father. You know, this is having an identity,
to know where you came from and where you're going. If you have
that sort of knowledge and that sort of settled and know that
you're something, you're not tossed here and there. You know.
You know. The world is in darkness and
have no knowledge. Here's the problem in the world. They don't have an identity.
And they say it. You hear people say, I'm going
out and striking out and I'm going to try to find myself.
And they think they found themselves in something that They have some
identity and then the next thing you know they're off on to something
else and it's just tossed here and there and let the Lord bring
some providence that's painful and it's just, there's no anchor,
there's no settled, they're here and there and everywhere. But
those in whom Christ shines the light, we know who He is. We know Him. And you're anchored. You're anchored, you're settled,
you have an identity. The fact is, by Christ's light,
we know whence we came. We know in our flesh we came
from Adam, ruined sinners who need Christ to do all the saving.
We need Him to be the author and finisher. We need Him to
be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. We need Him to be
our salvation. We know that because we know
we came from Adam. But here's what else we know.
We know by His witness, by Him bearing witness, we know before
Adam fell, God put us in Christ. He didn't put everybody in Christ.
Scripture says, of God are you in Christ Jesus. He chose a people
by free grace and put us in Christ. And this we know, and so we know
whence we came from. When Christ came, when He said,
I know from whence I came, that's where you came from, believer.
Because you were in Christ from eternity. And when He came and
He walked this earth and He pleased God and He went to the cross
and put away our sin and went back to the Father, you know
where you're going because you already went back to the Father.
You know that by His light, by His Spirit. God who is rich in mercy for
His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in
sins, quickened us together with Christ, by grace are you saved,
and He raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness to
us through Christ Jesus. He did that for us before we
knew Him. He raised us up together in Christ
and made us sit together in Christ. You know from whence you came
and you know where you're going. And when you know that, you got
an identity. You have an anchor of the soul,
both steadfast and sure. You have a sure hope that is
entered into the veil, into the holiest of holies where God is,
and you know there is my life. I'm already there in Him. You know that. But until Christ
shines this light, we're only darkness. Verse 14, He said,
But you cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. You judge after
the flesh. This is what all sinners do.
It's what we did. Until the Lord gives you spiritual
sight. Until He gives you spiritual
judgment. Spiritual discernment. Until
He shines the light in our heart. Everything they were judging.
The word judge here means discernment. You discern. He's saying after
your five senses. The eye, the ear, the nose, the
taste, the touch, that's what you're discerning by. The feel,
the hearing, you're discerning by the five senses. There stood
the light of the world. What did they see? A man. There
spoke the incarnate word. What did they hear? Just a man. And they thought what He said
was a lie. Christ said, I judge no man. He didn't come to judge,
He came to save. But what He is saying here is,
I judge no man after the flesh. He judges according to the heart. That means the only ones that
have been born of the Spirit and have a new man, born of incorruptible
seed, and in that new man is no sin. It's only in He sees
that heart, he knows that heart in his people. So he knows the
heart, he knows when it's sin, it's of the flesh, and he knows
the faith that he's put in the heart. He knows when the motive
is just carnal and sinful and he knows the motive he put in
the heart. He judges after the heart. He
said the law doesn't just talk about the outward, what you can
see. The law is in the heart. The
law is dealing with if you think an evil thought, you have sinned
against him. That's what he's looking on.
He's looking on the heart. And the only ones who have a right
spirit with the Lord, whose spirit is steadfast, is those who he's
given a new heart, in whom he's the life and the light, and they
have the light of life. They never don't have it. And that's what he's looking
upon. The new man he's made. This is
what Paul was getting at over in 2 Corinthians 5.15 when he
said the love of Christ constrains us. Because we thus judge. This is
the discernment he has given to us. That if one died for all,
if one died for all his people, then all his people died. We
all died in him. Your brothers and sisters who
profess to believe on him, you don't doubt them, you trust they
really believe on him. And those that have really believed
on him died when he died. Our old man died. I am crucified
with Christ. You are crucified with Christ.
That old man of sin is dead before God, before the law. And that
he died for all that they which live now by his spirit in us
should not live unto ourselves but to him that died for them
and rose again. Wherefore, having this spiritual
discernment, henceforth know we no man after the flesh. We're not judging after the flesh. We're not judging by the carnal
senses. Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, we know Him henceforth no more after the
flesh. What's the opposite of that?
When a man's judging after the flesh, what's he doing? Doing
what the Pharisees were doing. Paul said, they glory in appearance,
not in heart. You know, John spoke about the
lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes is not only
the lust of what you look on and covet, it's that lust to
have others look on you and see you with a mighty reputation. When Christ shines His light,
we discern Christ blotted out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against His people. Took it out of the way and nailed
it to His cross. Justified us. God says, I do not condemn them.
I've cast their sins away. I've blotted them out. They don't
exist. As far as the East is from the
West, they're gone. Know that about your brethren.
Know that about yourself. Know that about your brethren.
That's so. That's discernment to know. That's
so. And he is not a Jew which is
one outwardly. That's not circumcision. It's
outward in the flesh. Religious things done outward
in the flesh. That's not. It profits a little. But true
circumcision is in the heart. True worship is in the heart.
True godliness is in spirit. That's where it's at. We're going
to drop this body one day. We're still going to be worshipping.
Still going to be worshipping. So we regard our brethren as
righteous in Christ by Christ's righteousness. That's how we
discern. And we don't doubt brethren. We trust they're one with Christ
and Christ justified them. And so It's just to love one
another and care for one another and be merciful to one another
and forgive one another and try to help one another to see the
light. It's just a thing to do. We cease
looking upon the fleshly, the outward differences. We're not
judging and basing things after the flesh. We've put on the new
man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. The light has shined where there's neither Greek nor Jew. We're not worried about that
there is still Greek and Jew outwardly in the flesh. But that's
not what matters in Christ. It doesn't matter what your race
is in Christ. In our flesh we're sinners. What
matters is Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek.
There's neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. It's not that which is outward
in the flesh that makes the difference. It's not barbarian or Scythian,
bond or free. It doesn't matter if you're educated,
uneducated, rich, poor, any of those things. None of those things
are what matters in Christ as judging after the flesh. What
matters? Christ is all. And here's what
matters too. Every believer, he's in awe. Christ is awe and he's in awe.
These Pharisees were the concision. They were proud, they were judging
after the flesh, they were puffed up by their knowledge, they were
puffed up by their good works. Christ-like makes us behold ourselves
in light of Christ. And when we start getting puffed
up and thinking that we can do like those Pharisees and we're
going to bring somebody to Christ to be stoned rather than to be
healed. You know what Christ does through
this gospel? He speaks into our heart just
like He spoke to them and said, you're not without sin. And that,
when He does it in spirit, that humbles you. That brings you
down. That makes you remember, He's
the only holiness. He's the only one that's righteous.
I'm not. He's the judge, I'm not. Makes you see yourself as foul.
Makes you esteem him as all. It makes you esteem your brother
better than yourself. You know, the more the light
shines, the more we see that this building we're in, this
body, is a condemned building. That's all it is. And it's going
to be torn down one day. and go back to the dust. The
more we see Christ as everything, the light humbles you. The light
humbles you. The light never makes us see
ourselves as loving as we ought. The light makes you look back
on your past and you don't find things in your past to make you
go, oh, I'm doing a good job. You don't. The light makes you
look back and say, oh, The light makes you look to Him
and say, there's my only hope right there, Him, Him. We'll pick up later with the
rest of this. It makes you say, I want to know
Him, I want to be found in Christ's righteousness. It makes you press
toward that mark, toward Him, looking to Him, looking to Him. Father, we thank you for this
word. We pray you shine the light in our hearts and bless it to
our hearts and make us truly behold Christ as our only righteousness. Make us see that you are the
light of life. Lord, if there's any that are
walking in darkness, Lord, strengthen their faith to look to You and
stay on You even when they don't perceive the light, they don't
feel the light of Your countenance shining upon them. And help us, Lord, to look out
of ourselves, away from this world and all the chaos of it
and the darkness of it, and help us to look to the true Son of
Righteousness and bathe in those healing rays of Your light. Strengthen us, Lord, by your
light. Forgive us of our sin. Forgive
us of our darkness. We thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.