Music and singing are a vital
part of worship, an essential part of worship, commanded in
Scripture. It's not an option, it's a command.
You cannot worship the way God has told us to worship without
singing. That's a fact. That's a fact.
Scripture tells us to, all through the Scripture, in glory, we're
all going to be singing. We're all going to be playing
harps. We'll be as the angels. Singing is good for us personally. And you remember the story of
Saul who was attacked and insulted by an evil spirit. And David
came and played the harp and drove away that evil spirit.
It's so. It really is so. It's not that
singing is some kind of magical thing, but when you start singing
these hymns, And hymns like that are so full of gospel, so full
of truth, and it makes you think of these things. And it really
will drive the dark clouds out of your mind. Really. I know
from experience. Scripture says speak unto yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody
in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always. Thank God for
music and singing these hymns. Thank God for those who He's
gifted to play these instruments. What a blessing, isn't it a blessing?
John chapter 8, the Gospel of John chapter 8, told John these
messages go together. Well, you know, if I'm preaching
it right, they all go together. You could just turn anywhere
and pick something in the old and pick something in the new
and they'd go together. It's all one story. We're going to
talk about darkness. And since we've talked about
it so much in the first message, I don't want to dwell so much
on that. I want to get to the light. There's so much in the Scriptures
speaking of light, and it begins in chapter 1 of Genesis, and
then ends in chapter 22. There's light forever. And my prayer, my hope, is that
God, the Holy Spirit, will shine the light of the gospel in here
this morning on us, in us. I hope we'll all, old and young,
see Christ's light and walk in the light. Chapter 8, verse 12. Our Lord said this. This is my
text. Then spake Jesus again unto them that the Pharisees,
scribes, saved. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He said, I am the light of the
world. Just like he said, I am the way,
the truth, the life. Now the world right now is in
darkness. The world began in darkness.
In Genesis 1, you know it, it says that darkness covered the
face of the deep, waters upon the face of the waters, the Spirit
of the Lord moved on the face of the waters, and the first
thing He said to the dark world was, let there be light. And
there was light. And then a little short time
later, just a few days, man was born, born again. You've got
to have light, the Word. Darkness, the world was in darkness
then and now. Darkness is a fearful and dangerous
thing. And if everyone would admit it,
the strongest man on earth would admit it, he's afraid of the
dark. I mean dark, no light. Some of you down in Mexico, no
street lights out there in the jungle. You know what's in the
jungle? And we'd go out there and we'd
have to pull over to the side of the road for a pit stop and
to get out and close the doors and all light out and you can't
see anything. You don't know what's out there.
And I don't care who you are. You're afraid of the dark. I
don't care what you say. You're no match for what's out
there. No match. Darkness, fearful,
dangerous thing. There's the darkness of sin,
an evil thing, a horrible thing, horrible. You know, we just see the tip
of the iceberg. We just see a little bit of the
news and so forth that we hear. It's awful and it's dreadful.
It's fearful, the things you hear going on. Isn't it? That's
part of the reason I don't like to even watch the news. It's
just, it's just, it's always just bad, horrible, terrible. I know it's out there. I don't
need to read about it. I read this book. It's awful. Darkness of ignorance,
superstition, tradition. Talk about religion. Our Lord
said if the light that is in thee be darkness, it's the worst
kind of darkness. Double darkness. And without
God's Word, God's Word is light. Christ is light. God's Word is
truth. Everything else is a lie. Yes. Everything and everyone. In the darkness of religion,
people follow and fall for. In the darkness, you'll stumble
and fall, won't you? The rulers of the darkness of
this world and His ministers transform themselves into angels
of light, but they're not. They're in darkness. And they're
blind leaders of the blind, our Lord said. And if you're in the
dark, you're going to stumble and you're going to fall. You're
going to fall for anything. It doesn't matter The plainest
ditch in front of you, you're going to fall in. And people
fall for everything and everyone, don't they? You wonder how doctors
and lawyers and all these supposedly wise and knowledgeable people
professing themselves to be wise, all this. How could they fall
for this stuff going on in religion? How? God, Christ hasn't given them
that. Then you got some cowboys and
truck drivers and laborers and factory workers. They don't fall
for that stuff. They walk in the lights. How
do you explain that? Election. Sovereign election. It makes me smile like it did
our Lord. He said, I thank you, Father. He hid this thing from
the wise and prudent and revealed it unto babe. Even so, Father,
it seemed good in thy sight. I'm sure thankful for sovereign
election. I would never have chosen him. I'd still be in the
dark, if not dead. Or I might be a preacher preaching
this, a blind leader of the blind. I might be one of those. That's
worse. That's worse. A whole lot worse. Religion. John 3. Go back to
John 3. Remember when Nicodemus came
to our Lord. When did he come? At night. At night. Why? He's a Pharisee. He doesn't want people seeing
him talking to Christ. He feared men more than he did
God. You don't want to be kicked out of Sanhedrin, you know. Boy,
you need to be kicked out fast. John 3, look at verse 19. Our Lord said, This is condemnation,
that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved. This world is in darkness. How
do I know? Because there's not much gospel
being prayed. Christ is not being prayed. He
really isn't. A lot of talk about Jesus, you know. A little talk
about Jesus. Mostly men talk about man's worth
and man's will and man's works. That's a lie. It's all a lie.
Man's goodness and man's decision, you know, deciding all that.
That's a lie. That's another gospel. That's not the lie. That's
not what happened to Saul of Tarsus, was it, John? It's all
just make your decision. Accept Jesus. Accept Jesus. He
hath it. But the Lord Jesus said, the
light surrounded Solomon. That's what's got to happen to
people. That's who's got to happen to people. No. The world's in darkness because
of religion. You know, Scriptures in Ephesians
6 talks about we're wrestling with the rulers of the darkness
of this world. Colossians 1 tells the glorious
gospel how He delivered us from the power of darkness. He did
deliver us from the power of darkness and translated us into
the kingdom of His dear Son, the kingdom of light. Bless His
holy name. And our Lord said, People, light
came into the world. Christ is the light. He came
into this world. Men are lovers of darkness rather than light.
You looked at Isaiah 8 with me. And he talked about them refusing
the water. Refusing the water of Shiloah.
This water of life. of Christ, Shiloh, the Prince
of Peace. Christ is the water of life.
Do you see people clamoring, thirsting for the water of life,
thirsting for Christ? Do you? Do you see them? No. Going after other things. Saddened. It's not only sad, it's evil.
Rejecting what Christ said. Rejecting Christ in favor of
all these phonies. Why? Men love darkness. They love
lies. They'd rather believe a lie. And such were some of you in
religion, weren't you? But God. We read in Isaiah 8 how that
Christ is a stone, a stumbling, a rock of offense. Many will
stumble and fall, and most do. But, but, God. He said, like
he said to Moses of old, he said to every one of you through the
gospel, now there's a place by me and I'm going to put you on
the rock. I'm going to come down and proclaim
the name of the Lord unto you. The Lord Jesus Christ. And not
only that, I'm going to put you in the rock. And when I pass
by, you won't be destroyed. You'll be kept in the cliffs. A rock of ages cleft for me.
How many people, how few people know what rock of ages that song
means? We do, don't we? Bless his holy
name. And then Isaiah 8, it talked
about darkness and they follow these familiar spirits. What's
that mean? Familiar spirits and wizards
that peep. What does that mean? Familiar
spirit, somebody's familiarity, they speak about things like
they're light, like they're frivolous, like they're... You know, I speak
to my wife, I'm familiar with her, and we speak... You don't
talk about God, you don't talk about Satan, you don't talk about
any of these things like you talk to a human being, or talk
about a human being. They're infinitely higher and more powerful.
2 Peter 2, Peter said, and Paul and Jude talks about these preachers
speaking evil of dignities. Things they don't know anything
about. Speaking evil of evil spirits. All this bragging and
boasting. I'm going to step on the head
of the devil. Look at that. Tell the devil now. Michael, the archangel wouldn't
do that. There's only one, there's only one person in the universe
who's stronger than Him. That's Jesus Christ. And our
only way to resist Him is through, by the faith, through calling
on Jesus Christ. Lord, help me. He's a roaring
lion. Darkness. You know, a lion is
a nocturnal animal. They come out at night. after
their prey, and there's nothing that's a match for them. King of this jungle, I'd say. Peeping wizards. Sorcerers. They don't know what they're
talking about. Darkness is fearful. Darkness is dangerous. There's
pits. There's traps. There's snares. There's vipers.
There's thieves. There's deadly things out there.
Deadly things. But now, the people that walked
in darkness have seen a great light. Upon them, like Saul of
Tarsus, hath the light shined. We're not in darkness. You believers,
those of you who know the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the
world, those of you who know Him, are not in darkness, even
as others. The light shineth. Christ the
light, the people that walked in darkness, Christ the light
has shined upon them, a great light, the great God. Isn't that
John 1? Go back there, John chapter 1,
in the beginning was the Word. He was there in the beginning.
The Word was with God. The Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. Who's that?
Jesus Christ is God. Do you know how few people believe
that? If He's not, He's the biggest
imposter to ever live. He's the most blasphemous man
to ever live. And if you worship Him, if anybody
worships Him, you're an idolater if He's not God. He is God. He said so. Jehovah Witnesses
said He never said so. Oh yes He did. Oh yes He did. Over and over. I am, I am, I
am. He just said it. I am the light. God said let there be light.
Who said that? Jesus Christ said it. And He's
the one that must say it for us to walk in light. The light
of life. To give life. He's the giver
of life. He's the taker of life. John 1, verse 4, in him was life,
life, in whom we live and move and have our being. People say,
Jesus is a big part of my life. Then you don't know him, you
don't know God, you don't know Christ. If you know him, you'll
say, I sure hope I'm a part of his, because in him we live and
move and have our being. People say God has no hands but
your hands. They don't know Him. They don't know Him. But those
that know Him, those who have seen the light, Christ, they
know that He's the God in whose hands our breath is in all our
ways. And I'm glad. My times, aren't
you glad? My times, these times, all times
are in His hand. You know, we can go to sleep
in the darkness, and not fear the darkness. Why? Because he
that keepeth this shall never slumber to sleep. The darkness is light to him.
There's no darkness to him. He's the one who created life. Verse 5, the light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. God is light. 1 John
1 says this is true. God is light. In Him is no darkness
at all. Verse 9, look at verse 9 of chapter
1. Christ is the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. The true light.
The living and true God. Christ said, I am the light.
The light. Definite article. When you see
the in front of something, that means it's only one. The. The Creator, the Owner, the Judge,
the Father. The Father. He said, He that hath seen me,
hath seen the Father. Now I don't understand. I don't either. But I believe
He's God. Almighty God. Father. Everlasting
God. Even the Father. I really do. I really do. He called his disciples
little children, and I want to be one of his little children.
I want you to be. I can't make you. He does. He can. Mind you, when Groover
sent her a picture of all her little children, she got seven
grandchildren. She's younger than me. Beautiful. Beautiful. She sent this picture
of all her grandchildren, okay, lined up. She's in the middle.
She's right in the middle of them. Just beaming. Holding high
in the children that God gave them. Just beautiful. And you
know what? They all look alike. You know, some of them are Sarah
Williams. They all look like Williams.
They all do. They all look like pledgers.
They all look like groovers. They all look alike. Children,
they're all beautiful. There is that beaming parent
right in the middle. You know what I want? I want everyone in this room,
young and old, to be one of His children. To be one with Him
in glory. For Christ is going to be in
the middles of gold and the children. You know what? They all look
just like Him. Oh, but they're Henry's, they're Montgomery's,
they're Fannin's, they're Davis's. No, no, no. They're Christ's
people. They're individuals and all that, but they've all been
conformed to the blessed image of Jesus Christ. And He's right
in the middle of it. Beanie! Look what I've done. Now, yes, he's the father of
all his children. He gave birth to all of them
on Calvary's tree. Like Eve was created out of Adam's
side, so were we. Second half. He's the light of
the world. Our Lord said in our text, he
said, I am the light of the world. The light of the world. Lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. What's that name? If anyone has any light, any
light, it comes from Jesus Christ. He's the light. There is no understanding. There is no wisdom. There is
no knowledge of anything except through Jesus Christ. Right?
If Jesus Christ is all, what does that mean? Everything else
is nothing at all. If Jesus Christ in him dwelleth
all the fullness, of the Godhead. What does that mean? You can't
know God apart from Jesus Christ. He's in. If in Him dwelleth all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, what does that mean? I don't
care what you know or what you think you're wise about if you
don't know Jesus Christ, you're a fool. You're a fool. Anybody that says so, you're
a fool to follow him. Don't follow him. He's a blind
leader of the blind. Christ said, I am the light.
You follow me, you'll not walk in darkness. You'll not stumble. He's the true light. He's the
light of the world. You know, the sun, S-U-N, is the light
of this world, isn't it? If there were no sun, there would
be no light. You know how dreadful that'd
be? We'd all die. Christ, the sun, S-O-N, son of
righteousness. is the light of this world. The only light. He said, No man
knoweth the Father, but the Son. And he to whom the Son will reveal
it. No man. No man. Didn't he say that? He's
the light. The truth. The way. The truth.
Psalm 36 says, With thee is the fountain of life. And in thy
light shall we see light. I want you to look at this, 2
Timothy 1. This is the passage that the
Lord used to save a wild Red River steer named Donny Bell,
who was religious in Pentecostalism. You know, they think they've
got the spirit. It's another spirit. It's an evil spirit. In darkness, they think they
see the light. They talk about the full gospel,
don't they? Pentecostals, don't they? We got the full gospel.
If Christ is not all the fullness of your gospel, you don't have
the full gospel, do you? If every message you preach is not full
of Christ, you don't have the full gospel, do you? You're full
of it, that's what you are. Not the Spirit. Something else.
Done! Let me say it. Did I say it?
I just said it. I just said it. The whole world
is full of it. Where am I? 1 Timothy 1, this
is what the Lord used through a preacher named Henry Mahan
to open the blind eyes of that religious wild man named Donny
Bell. I wish he was here to tell this
to you. But he said in verse 8 to Timothy,
Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me his prisoner. Be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel, the gospel that's according to the power of God.
See, the gospel is the power of God. What is the gospel? It's
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's how that God before the
world began, knew, according to his purpose,
that the world would be in the darkness of sin and fall to Satan. Knew that, why? He allowed it,
he purposed it, to fall into darkness like the first world
without form, void, and darkness. God said there's going to be
light in this dark world. And God gave his Son a people,
sinful though they were, Rebels though they were, haters of God
though they were, blind, deaf, and dumb though they were. But
God chose them, every one of them, and gave them to Jesus
Christ in a covenant before the world began. Gave them to Jesus
Christ and said, now you go to this dark planet named planet
Earth, this evil place. You go down there. Let the sun
of righteousness shine on planet Earth. I remember his birth began in
darkness, in darkness at night, in a little stable where he had
his beginning where sheep eat. And one lone star shone in the
darkness. So there he is, there he is. And then he kept getting brighter
and brighter, brighter, brighter. He got 30 years old and he walks
out in public. I'm here. Alright, and then he
kept getting brighter and brighter, Brother John, until he finally
ascended Mount Calvary. He's going to do this work. What?
Destroy the works of darkness. This is the gospel. That Christ
came, the good news, that men are in darkness and only one
can turn them from it. Only one can translate them from
it. Jesus Christ, the Savior, the light of the world. He came
and He hung on Calvary's tree. And in darkness, the darkness
covered the world from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. Is that
right? Oh, but the sun never shone more
brightly. Twelve noon, the world was in
darkness. Oh no, that's when the sun shines
its brightest. So much so that one thief on
the cross, dead in trespass and sin, looks over to his left and
says, seize the son. Seize the Lord. The light suddenly
shone round about him. And he said, Lord. He suddenly
dawned on him. I'm going to die and I deserve
it. And he looked and he saw light. And Christ said, today. Today. In the midst of the darkness,
you're going to be with me in paradise. The gospel. Christ crucified. The Holy Spirit
sends this gospel. Where am I? 2 Timothy 1. I don't believe Donnie could
preach it any better. But this is a gospel of the power of God.
It's not an offer. It's not, what will you do with
Jesus? No! Now, I'll tell you what you did with Jesus. You
rejected Him all of the day. Here's the question, what's he
going to do with this? Oh, let's hope and pray that he'll do something
to us, to our children. The gospel is according to the
power of God. Who hath saved us? Who saved
who? He saved us. And called us. Who did the calling? He did.
With a holy calling, not according to our works. but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. When did this start? Before the
world began. And it was as good as done when
God said it. Read on. That's a comma. But is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. We now
see him. Who hath abolished death. Somebody laugh with me. Abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He's the light. He's the light. And back in our text, and I'm
going to quit. You know, this one verse, you could spend a
thousand messages on it. I am the light of the world,
he said. And look at verse 12 again. It says, He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Our Lord bless His holy name.
He said, My sheep are going to hear my voice. They shall hear
my voice. I know them. They shall hear
my voice and they will follow me. They'll hear a stranger,
but they won't follow him. That gives me hope. I hear the
other voices, too. There was a time when I followed
the crowd, like our young people right now are probably following
all their friends. They don't think they are, but I didn't
think I was, but I was. Oh yeah, whatever ditch they
fell in, I fell in too. Whatever they were doing, I did
too. But God. I can't preach without those
two words. There is no salvation heart from those two words. Here's
the gospel, and you. There's the bad news, there's
the dark, and you. Here's the gospel, but God. But
God. If you follow me, he said, you'll
not walk in darkness even as others. You'll have the light
of life, the entrance of thy word. God's word is light. God's truth is light. I thought about this. You know,
a child is born. Before it's born, it's in darkness,
isn't it? The child in the womb, it's in
darkness and happy, real happy, real content. in darkness. It's born of water
in it. But there comes a day when there's
a violent thing that happens. It's born. Expelled. Compelled to come forth. Where does it come? The light.
The light. And you know, the child, I remember
Hannah, I'll never get over it, I'll never get over it. I love
it. It's my story. She was born,
Hannah. And you know, we loved her before
she was born, didn't we? We named her before she was born.
And, okay, she's real happy in that darkness, but then it's
time to be born, life to begin. And she's expelled out, and her
mother, her mother pushed. Right? She wouldn't have been
born without her. In the seat of the Father. She
comes forth, and when she came out, she had her eyes closed. I don't blame her. You know what
you're going to see when you open your eyes in this world,
when the Lord gives you light, when the Lord gives you life,
you know what you're going to see? You'll cry. You'll start crying. Sad. You know, the birth of a
child is both a wonderful thing and a sad thing. You wonder what
are they going to go through? Who are they going to be? Are
they going to be one of God's own? Or one of these others? You better not be born if you
don't belong to the Lord. Okay? She came out. And I took
her in my arms. I gave her to me. She still has
her eyes closed. They flipped her over and she's crying. And
said, this is me. And I took her over to a basin
of water and started washing her, the filth. And I started
talking to her, honey, honey. She opened her eyes. She opened
her eyes. You know what the first thing
she saw was? Me. Like that blind man, John 9.
You know who the first person he saw was? Jesus Christ. I said, it's okay. It's okay. And I wrapped her in a blanket,
took her over and gave it to her mother. And then she looks
into the face of another one that loves her dearly. That's
the Spirit of God in it. It's okay. It's okay. That's it. You've seen a great
light. What is that light? Light of
what? That's who. That's why we make much of Christ.
He's all there is. He's the light. He's the way.
He's the truth. He's the life. He that hath the
sun, hath life. He that hath not the sun, hath
not life. And will be cast someday into
outer darkness. Come to Christ. Oh, may the Lord
shine in the hearts of some in here. Okay. Brother John, you come,
please.