Several weeks ago, I began preaching
on this subject, related here in verses 30 through 32, on the
subject of Christ's disciples indeed. And the issue there has
to do with, if I claim to be a Christian, if I claim to be
saved, if I claim to be a disciple of Christ, can I really and truly
be assured of that? Christ said, if you continue
in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And what he's talking
about here is what we call the perseverance of the saints, the
perseverance of sinners saved by grace, their continuation.
Not only just a profession that we believe in Christ, that we're
his disciples. Verse 30, as he spake these words,
many believed on him. I'm sure out of that crowd, that
claim to believe on him. It's just like today. There are
some who claim to believe in him, but their claim is false. It's a counterfeit for various
reasons. We've been looking at several
things that apply to that in past messages. And then there
were some who truly did believe in him by God-given faith. That's
the miracle. If you truly believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you are a walking, talking miracle. Isn't that right?
A miracle of God's power, a miracle of God's grace in Christ Jesus. You didn't get there by your
own goodness, your own power, or even your own will. Scripture
teaches He gave you a new heart. That's why when He says, continue,
if you continue in my word, continuing in His word begins with the new
birth, doesn't it? You must be born again under
the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit,
where a sinner under the preaching of the true gospel, not a false
gospel, comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, who He is, the
God-man, the Savior. What He did, He accomplished
righteousness that ensures my salvation in which I stand before
God justified, His righteousness imputed. Why he did it, for the
glory of God and the salvation of his people, where he is now,
he arose from the dead and ascended unto the Father on high, ever
living to make intercession for me so that I can never be lost
again, pleading the merits of his righteousness. So that's
where it begins, with the new birth. I'm gonna talk a little
bit more about that next week when I talk about the truth shall
make you free. What kind of freedom is that
talking about? And then he's talking about those who continue
in his word as an evidence that they are his true disciples.
Remember we had those three points. Number one, God's people persevere,
continue in his word because God preserves them. Even our
perseverance, even our continuing is not by our own power. It's
not by our own goodness. We don't have any. It's all God's
power and goodness in Christ. It's His grace, sufficient grace,
keeping grace. He saves us, He keeps us, and
He'll bring us to glory by His grace based on the righteousness
of His Son. And then secondly, all of God's
people persevere by looking to Jesus Christ continually as the
author and finisher of their faith. And that's involved in
continuing in His Word We talked about several aspects of that.
That's believing in Christ, God-given faith, that's repenting of dead
works. You can't turn to Christ, follow Him, look to Him, and
be His disciples, and still hold on to the flesh, and to the works,
and to false religion, and false professions, and false experiences.
You can't do that. The Bible calls it repentance
of dead works and idolatry. Dead works because anything that
you thought recommended you unto God other than Christ's blood
and righteousness is a dead work. Leads unto death. And the God
that you thought accepted that is an idol. Is that right? You can't turn to Christ without
turning away from your sin. Now, most people hear that they
talk about, well, you've got to stop drinking, you've got to
stop being a glutton, you've got to stop doing... Well, all
those things are sinful and we're to turn away from. But what that's
talking about is turning away from that idol God that you thought
would save you or keep you or bless you based on anything but
the blood of Christ, but His righteousness imputed. That's
an idol God. And people don't like to hear
that now. That's why the gospel is so hated. So, this continuing
in his word, continuing in his word because we look to Christ
and what he said. It's not only who he is, it is
who he is and what he did and why he did it, but it's what
he said, what he commands us. And then thirdly, this perseverance,
this continuing is not the cause of our salvation, it's the evidence
of. It's not a condition for, it's
an evidence of salvation. Well this morning I want to back
up here in verse 12. The title of the message is Light,
Judgment, and Truth. Light, Judgment, and Truth. Now
keep this in mind in the context of what he said here in verse
31. If you continue in my word, his
word, what he says, what he taught, what he reveals, you'll be my
disciples indeed. My disciples indeed. Well, what
is his word? Well, we know the gospel. But
let's put it under this general heading. His word is light. Light. Now look at John 8, 12,
he says, Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light
of the world. Now that's speaking of, he's
speaking of himself as the light of the world. And he says, He
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. Christ is light. Christ is life. So let's start here with the
general. Number one, Christ himself is the light of the world. Now
turn back to John chapter one with me. John chapter one. Now listen to this in John chapter
one verse one. You're familiar with these verses.
He says, in the beginning was the word. Now that word is Christ,
we know that. Because down in verse 14 says
the word was made flesh. and dwelt or tabernacled among
us, the incarnation of Christ. So in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That's the
deity of Christ, the second person of the Trinity. The same was
in the beginning with God, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit
and every attribute of deity. Verse three, all things were
made by him, creator God. And without him was not anything
made that was made. In him, verse four, now listen,
in him was life, and the life was the light of men. Now what
I believe he's talking about there is this, that Christ is
the light and power of physical human life. How many times have I told you,
take that next breath. That's a gift from God. And that means this, you didn't
earn it and didn't deserve it. Me neither. Every human being
that has life, physical life now, that's the creation of God. Man cannot create that. I know
they said they can create it in a test tube. No, they can't.
Not life. They may be able to put some
things together and come out with something that's living,
but the spark of life is from God. And in humans, which separates
us from the animals, there's the light of rational thought,
there's the light of understanding, and there even is the light of
conscience. That's a gift from God. Paul
said even the unbelieving natural Gentiles had that light of conscience.
But now look at verse 5. He says, and the light shineth
in darkness. That's Christ and his truth.
and the darkness comprehended it not." Now what I believe, and it goes
on, it talks about John the Baptist. Verse 6, there was a man sent
from God whose name was John. Now I believe that gives us a
clue as to what he's talking about, how the darkness comprehended
it not. Here comes John the Baptist doing
what? Preaching the gospel. Preaching the way of salvation
in Christ, bearing witness of Him. He said, Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away, beareth away the sins of the world. He
said, I'm not the Christ, I'm not the Savior. But I'm just
one who's, I'm a voice crying in the, you know John's message,
a voice of one crying in the wilderness. He says the same
came, this man, 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 men through him might believe. Believe what John said. He was not that light, John was
not that light. Now there are places in the scripture
where the ministers of Christ and the church itself is called
light. But we are light, shining lights in a dark world, Paul
told the Philippians. But we're not the source of the
light. Christ is, you see. Like John, we bear witness of
him. We're not bearing witness of
ourselves. We're not saying, come join our church and you'll
be saved. No, we're saying believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if you do that, you're a member of our church, the church of
the living God. So we bear witness of him. And
he says, he was not the light, verse 8, but was sent to bear
witness of that light. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now he's the
light of physical life. But he was in the world, verse
10, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Now what's that talking about? Is he just talking out of both
sides of his mouth or what? No. God is the creator and giver
of all physical life. But we know what happened in
the Garden of Eden, don't we? Man fell. Adam, the representative of the
whole human race, ruined the whole race, family of men, and
brought us from light to darkness. Isn't that right? So what he's
teaching here is this. Not only is Christ the creator,
along with the Father and the Spirit and the Trinity of God,
who gives physical life, He's also the only giver of spiritual
life. If you have spiritual life, it
came through Christ, the gift of God. Because man by nature,
as fallen in Adam, And born into this world, naturally speaking,
is totally in spiritual darkness. That's what the scripture teaches.
Proverbs 4.19 says, The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. Christ described the message
and ministry of the Pharisees as this, Blind leaders of the
blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. darkness. He described them as
those who stumbled at the stumbling stone. So the Christ, the Creator
God, Christ himself, who is the giver of physical life, is also
the only giver of spiritual life and light. Christ alone can give
life to the dead and sight to the blind. You remember when
he stood in his hometown synagogue and they had read from the passage
in Isaiah where he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised. Remember what he told his disciples
in Matthew 13 when they asked him, why are you speaking in
parables? He says, given unto you to understand the mysteries
of the kingdom, but it's not given unto them. They have ears
to hear, but they don't hear. They're spiritually dead. They
have eyes to see, but they're spiritually blind. They're in
darkness, but blessed are your ears, for they hear. Blessed
are your eyes, for they see. That's a gift from God. How many
people do you know that fit that old country song, 20-20 vision
and walking around blind? That's what it is. That's what
we were before God opened our eyes, gave us eyes to see, gave
us a new heart. Salvation in the Bible, listen
to this. These verses, it's described
this way in Colossians 1-12. He talked about the salvation
by which we give thanks unto the Father which hath made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son." The writer of Hebrews said
this, but we see Jesus. Do you see Jesus? I'm not talking
about a picture. I'm not talking about something
hanging from your neck. I'm not talking about, do you see the
Christ of this book? Who he is, what he did, why he
did it, where he is now. 2 Corinthians, let me just read
this to you. 2 Corinthians 4, listen, listen
to this. And you might notice here, it
talks about Satan in 2 Corinthians 4. And what is Satan called in
the Bible? The prince of what? Darkness. He says in verse 3 of 2 Corinthians
4, if our gospel be hid, It's hid to them that are lost. In
whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, just like in John 1, 1 through 4,
the God who created this world and said, let there be light,
That same God hath shined in our hearts, our mind, our affections,
our will, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. Light. If you're one of Christ's
disciples, at some point in time, in the sovereign, powerful providence
of God, He brought you to hear the true gospel of His glory
in the face of Jesus Christ in the power of His Spirit who said
in essence, let there be light. And you saw things you didn't
see before. Heard things you didn't hear before. Believed
things you never thought were possible. And then you also saw
something else. You saw the rottenness and the
wretchedness and the depravity and the evil of everything before
that. that you thought made you right
with God. Isn't that it? Now there's that light. But here, look secondly at this.
Christ himself in the glory of his person and accomplishment
of his work is the light of the gospel. He's the light that shows
us that God is righteous and we are not. The problem then comes to bear.
How can we who are not righteous, unrighteous, ungodly, have a
right standing and a right relationship with a righteous God? Look at
John 3. That's what Christ is doing here,
is related by John. Verse 14. Here it is. Remember, he'd already
told Nicodemus, you must be born again or you cannot what? See
the kingdom of God. You're in darkness until you're
born again. Verse 14, John 3, and as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now, what's the crux of the matter
here? What's the ground of it all? What's the cause and the
source of it all? It's not man believing because
if you leave one thing out here, man believing wouldn't do him
any good. And what is that one thing? The son of man must be
lifted up. If the son of man is not lifted
up, you can believe all you want to believe, anything you want
to believe, everything you want to believe in order to do you
absolutely no good. But the Son of Man being lifted
up is salvation. That's how God can be just and
justify the ungodly. By taking His Son, charging Him
with the debt of the sins of His people, sending Him to that
cross to be lifted up on that cross to suffer and to bleed
and to die, to satisfy His justice and pay that sin debt in full
and establish a righteousness by which God can be just and
justified. How do you know that He accomplished
that? Well, He was buried. He died. He was buried. He arose
the third day. And He's now seated at the right
hand of the Father. And so He says in verse 16, for
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life. Now to believe in Him is to believe
in who He is and what He accomplished in His death on that cross. The
ground of salvation. He says in verse 17, For God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved. He's not saying here that
Christ came into the world to try to save everybody there.
He's simply saying this, that He wasn't sent here to condemn
the world because the world was already condemned. If failing
Adam, send him here to save his people. To save his people from
their sins. And so listen to this now. Well
what does all that have to do with the light? Well look, verse
18. He that believeth on him is not condemned. Now just about
everybody in this building here today says I believe on him.
Well if you really do, you're not condemned. Well, can people
say I believe in him and not really believe? Yes. If you continue
in my word, you're my disciples indeed. But he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name,
and his name identifies him and distinguishes him, of the only
begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world. And men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved, uncovered, exposed, discovered. Here's what he's saying. As good
of a person as you've tried to be, religiously, humanely, however,
When you compare your goodness, your righteousness to Christ's
righteousness, you know what the Bible calls your righteousness
compared to his? Filthy rags. They don't earn you or gain you
anything with God. Now, how do you respond to that
message? How do I respond to it? How'd the Pharisees respond
to it? Christ said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter in the kingdom of heaven. That light exposes all the efforts,
the most sincere, dedicated, moral efforts of men aimed at
saving themselves or keeping themselves saved or recommending
themselves as dead works. all their religious experiences.
This is the light of Christ. This is the light of the gospel.
Now go back to John 8. Let me tie this in. Now what that means is this.
Here's Christ. He's the light of the glory of
God in the gospel. He's the light in which all His
disciples walk. We walk as children of light,
John said, 1 John 1. If we know Him, if we're united
to Him, if we have fellowship with the Father and Son, we walk
in the light and not in darkness. The darkness of false religion,
the darkness of immorality, or any of the darkness you want
to talk about, we don't walk in that darkness. We walk by
faith in Christ. That's God-given faith. God turned
on the light. Well, here's the third thing.
Now, this is what he's talking about in John 8 and verse 12.
Jesus Christ, as revealed in the gospel, is the light of all
judgment. And this is where, with a lot
of people, it gets down to the real nitty gritty, as you might
say. He's the light of all judgment. He said, I'm the light of the
world, didn't he? Verse 12, he that follow me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now look
at verse 13, 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. I know where I came from. Where
did he come from? Came from the Father. Came from
heaven. I know where I'm going. Where
there I go, where's he going? Well, he's going back to the
Father. But he had a stop to make before. He's going to the
cross, going to die, going to be buried, going to be raised
again. He's got a job to do, a work to do. He says, but you
cannot tell whence I came and whither I go. You don't know
where I came from, you don't know where I'm going. Now look at
verse 15. You judge after the flesh, I
judge no man. Now does that mean that he didn't
judge any man? Well, obviously not. In fact,
You don't even have to go past this chapter to find out that
he did judge them. Look at verse 23. He said unto
them, you're from beneath, I'm from above. You're of this world,
I'm not of this world. Verse 24, I said therefore unto
you that you shall die in your sins. That's a judgment, folks. If I looked at you and said you're
gonna die in your sins, what am I saying? I'm saying you're
gonna die damned and you're gonna perish. I can't do that with you. Don't
get me wrong. But that's a judgment. He says,
for if you believe not that I am, the I am, you shall die in your
sins. Later on, he talks to him. He
says, I know you're Abraham's physical children, but you're
not Abraham's spiritual seed. He makes judgment. What does
he mean when he says in verse 15, you judge after the flesh,
I judge no man. He's saying you judge after the flesh, I judge
no man after the flesh. That's what he means. Judge no man after the flesh.
Well now, think about this. And if we're honest, we spend
our lives every day making judgments. And we do. You had to make a
judgment this morning whether or not you were going to come
to church service or not, where you were going to go, why you
were going to go there. You have to make a judgment right
now. Do you believe what I'm telling you or you don't believe
or you may not even care. That's a judgment. I hope you believe what I'm saying
because it's the word of God, not because it's the word of
Bill. But check me out with the Word of God. What does God's
Word say? You're making judgments. We all do. That's what the conscience
is all about. We're not dumb animals. We make
judgments. Man judges things about religion,
about morality, about life, according to his conscience. Isn't that
right? We've got a conscience. Conscience is the seed of judgment
in the mind. What's right? What's wrong? What
doesn't matter? The problem with man by nature
is that our consciences are defiled. That means guilty, condemned,
or relieved, sued, by things that dishonor and deny God. That's
the problem. You understand what I'm saying?
Somebody says, my conscience is bothering me. Well, what's
going to relieve that guilty conscience? Well, I'm going to
go out and do as many good works as I can do. Well, that dishonors
God. Because by deeds of law shall
no flesh be justified in His sight. That denies Christ. If righteousness come by the
law, then Christ died in vain. You see what I'm saying? Man's
conscience by nature is defiled. Well, what is it that can cleanse
the conscience, according to the Bible, in the sight of God? Let me just read this to you.
Hebrews 9, 14. Hebrews 9, 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge or cleanse your conscience from dead works
to serve the living God? How does the Holy Spirit cleanse
my conscience? By applying in the word of God
the blood of Jesus Christ. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see what I'm saying? Now
if your conscience can be cleansed any other way, it's a defiled
conscience. If when you're feeling guilty,
you think back on all you, well, back when I was 12, I made a
profession, got baptized, and just felt so good about it. You say, well, preacher, why
are you down on such things like that? I'll tell you why. Because
they don't even begin to commence to start comparing to the blood
of Jesus Christ. That's why. Compared to his blood,
they're filthy rags. Compared to his righteousness,
they're filthy rags. All judgments. Now listen to
me. You judge after the flesh. That's
what that's doing. A person who thinks back on things
like that or tries to do, makes promises or anything but the
blood and the righteousness of Christ is judging after the flesh. You say, well, I've got a good
friend and they've been reading their Bible all their life. Well,
okay. But if that's your standard of
judgment, you're walking in darkness. Judging after the flesh. You
see what I'm saying? Judging after the flesh. You say, well,
they're such a good person. They've given their lives, or
they've suffered life here on earth. And that's why I know
they're saying, that's judging after the flesh. What did Christ
say here? He says, if you believe not that
I am, you shall die in your sins. That's what he said. That he
is what? That he's God in human flesh
who accomplished the redemption of his people through establishing
righteousness for them. That ensures their salvation.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. This will be the last verse that
I'll have you turn to. Here's what I'm saying. Remember
he said, if you continue in my word, then you're my disciples
indeed. Well, part of that continuing
in his word is this judgment issue. How do you know that? Well, here's what it says. All
judgments must be settled as they relate to Christ as the
light. That's a huge part of continuing
in His Word, evidencing that we're truly disciples of Christ.
Anything that I label sin, for example, it must be judged in
light of Christ. And that's why I say, listen,
all religion, all sincerity, all activity, all experience,
all dreams, all divisions that don't lead a sinner to Christ
for salvation, for righteousness, and for assurance, and for eternal
life and glory is sin in the sight of God. Do you believe
that? Even the most noble things that people will talk about. What is it that makes a sinner
right with God? If it's anything but His grace
through Christ and His righteousness alone, it's sin. And now what
the Holy Spirit convicts us of in John 16 and verse 8? Convicts
us of sin because we believe not on Him. All righteousness. Anything you
put in the category of righteousness has to be settled as it relates
to Christ. If you say, well, I prayed a
righteous prayer. Well, what made it righteous?
Well, I was sincere. Or I was having a good day. No. The only one righteousness we
have to plead, and that's Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. All religion, all fellowship
that is godly must be settled as it relates to Christ. Now,
look here at 2 Corinthians 5 and I'll close. Everything that the
Apostle is saying here is founded upon verse 21. The ground of
salvation, the ground of justification, the ground of reconciliation
to God. He says, for God hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. That sin imputed, charged, accounted
to Christ, righteousness imputed, accounted, charged to his people.
Is that right? That's what it is. No other ground. And sinners who believe that
God is reconciled to them and they're reconciled to God on
any other ground, What are they? They're lost. They're in darkness.
Now, look at verse 16. Now, he's talking about those
who are one with Christ, chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, and
born again by the Spirit. And he says in verse 16, wherefore,
or for this reason, henceforth, from this time forward, that
is, from the time forward that we were brought to Christ in
faith, Know we no man after the flesh. In other words, what we
know of each other concerning a right relationship with God
has nothing to do with the flesh. All right? Yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Think about
how Paul the Apostle, before he was converted, how he judged
Jesus of Nazareth. He judged him after the flesh.
man of sorrows, acquainted with the grief, his appearance was
not anything special, and he even went so far as to call him
a devil. But he said, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
We don't know him after the flesh, we know him after the Spirit,
who brought us to the Lord of glory, God in human flesh, the
Lord our righteousness. That's how he knows him now.
How does he know him? By the Word, in the power of the Spirit. If you continue in my word. So
he says in verse 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. What's
he talking about? He's talking about that old judging after
the flesh. He said, behold, all things are
become new. Judging after the Spirit. What he's talking about?
He says, all things are of God. It's of the all things are of
God. Who hath reconciled us to himself? By Jesus. You see, it's
all. How? You say, well, you're my brother,
sister in Christ. Here's the first thing I have
to know about you. I have to know, how do you believe sinners
are reconciled to God? On what ground? On what basis? Because that's the issue. And
if you say, well, I made a decision when I was 12, and that's what
got me there, or I've done good, or I've got a Sunday school pin,
or I've been baptized, I have to say, well, if that's your
case, you're not my brother or sister in Christ. I love you,
and I pray for your salvation, but let me tell you the truth.
Let me shed a little light on the subject. And that light is
Christ. See what I'm saying? We judge
no man after the flesh. continue in my word. That's part of it now. That's
the issue, okay.