In the passage we read, John
chapter 8, verse 12, we read this, Then spake Jesus 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. I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, that shall
have the light of life. Light is a precious thing. As the preacher in Ecclesiastes
11 tells us, truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing
it is for the eyes to behold the sun. But if a man live many
years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days
of darkness. for they shall be many. We appreciate
the light in the natural sense because of the darkness. We see
the light this weekend as spring has approached following the
darkness and gloom of winter and the light brings much joy
to man. The light in the morning after
the darkness of the night Promises much. But what we see in the
natural realm is simply a picture of the spiritual. We live in a world full of darkness. Darkness in every sense. Darkness of understanding. Darkness
of wisdom. Moral darkness. darkness of sin,
of unrighteousness, of evil, of rebellion. We stumble about
in the darkness. We know nothing and we see nothing
by nature. And if we're ever brought out
of the darkness, we will say with that preacher in Ecclesiastes,
Truly the light is sweet. Oh, to know the light, the light
of the sun, the light of the son of God, who said, I am the
light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. yes there's a sun that rises
in the morning and gives us natural light but the sun the son of God rose
in the morning of the first day of the week having been nailed
to a cross rejected of all men crucified slaughtered like a
lamb, sacrificed, beaten, bruised, scourged, spat upon, cast out, having suffered in the hours
of darkness upon the cross, having borne the sins of his
people, having drunk the cup of God's wrath, having waded
through the fires of God's torment against sin, God's judgment,
God's anger, God's righteous indignation, having gone to the depths of
hell, suffering an eternity of God's wrath in the darkness of
hell, in those three hours of darkness upon the cross. Having
at the end cried out, it is finished. Having given up the ghost. His
body having been taken down and laid in the grave and sealed
with a great stone early on the first day of the
week. The women came to the tomb. Mary came to the tomb and found
the stone rolled away and her Saviour risen. Then spake Jesus
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. This Son, was risen. This sun is risen. This sun is the light which delivers
from the darkness and except we know him Except we see this
light shining in the darkness, except God shines the light of
Christ into our hearts and in our souls, in the darkness we
will perish. Except God illuminate us and
lead us like Mary to the tomb and lead us in and show us the
place where the Lord lay. and say unto us, he is not here,
he is risen. Why seek ye the living among
the dead? He's risen, except God come unto
us and lead us under him. Then in the grave we will remain. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life, a light which
is never quenched, a life which can never be put out, a light
greater than the brightness of the midday sun, a light in which
there is no darkness, no unrighteousness, No sin, no sorrow, no despair,
no sickness. A bright and a shining light
which illuminates all things which can never be quenched.
That light which God spake of from the beginning of time, the
dawn of time. As we read in Genesis, 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 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. God divided
the light from the darkness This is God's work. None else
can do this. I cannot divide the light from
the darkness. I cannot divide the light from
the darkness to you. I can set before you the light
of God in the gospel concerning Jesus Christ. But only God can shine the light
within your heart. Only God can lead a sinner out
of darkness into the light. Until then, you and I would remain,
in verse two, 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. That's where we are by nature. In the darkness upon the face
of the deep, in the deep darkness of this world and the deep darkness
of unbelief, we see nothing except the Spirit of God should come
in the gospel moving upon the face of the waters. and stirring
up our soul. Not only is it dark, but we are
blind. Even when the spirit moves, even
when the truth shines, even when the light rises up in the morning,
we see nothing because we're blind. Even when the Spirit of
God comes upon the face of the waters and preaches unto us,
and the voice of God proclaims His Son, except the Spirit opens
our hearts to hear, we hear nothing. We're deaf and we're blind in
the darkness. and yet from the beginning the spirit has moved and from
the beginning God has spoken let there be light and there
was light and from the beginning God has seen God saw the light
that it was good he looked upon his son and from the beginning
God has divided the light from the darkness. From the beginning
of time God has sent forth his truth in the gospel throughout
all this world proclaiming his son, setting him forth and dividing
his son and all his people in him from the darkness around. God called the light day and
the darkness he called night and the evening and the morning
were the first day. 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. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness have the light of life. Outside of Christ, outside
of this light, all is darkness, all is. When Christ spake these
words in John chapter 8, to whom was he speaking? Prior to verse
12 we have read that Christ had come into the temple and he sat down in the temple
and all the people came unto him and the scribes and Pharisees
came unto him and they brought unto him a woman found in adultery
in order to accuse her and Christ wrote upon the ground
as though he heard them not And they continued asking him. So
he lifted himself up and said unto them, He that is without
sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again
he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard
it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one
by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus
was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself
and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are
those thine accusers? Have no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more. Then spake Jesus 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. Unto
whom was he speaking? He was speaking in the temple
to all the people that gathered, to the scribes and the Pharisees
who brought unto him to be accused a sinner. whom he forgave. All these to whom he speaks, religious and irreligious, scribes
and Pharisees in the temple, were in darkness. They were in darkness if they
knew not Christ. He that is without sin among
you, let him first cast the stone at her. And they which heard
it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one,
beginning at the eldest, even unto the last. And Jesus was
left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. Only one remained. Only one remained. The one that
the religious before him cast out as a sinner was the only
one remaining and she he forgave. By his words Christ separated
the light from the darkness. God divided the light from the
darkness. There was no light in these scribes,
in these Pharisees. They came with the law of Moses,
seeking to condemn those that they thought were full of sin.
But God said, she's one of mine. For all the darkness of her deeds,
for all the darkness of the sin of her heart, I've shone my light
upon this one and into this one. She's mine. And for all that
these scribes and the Pharisees said, we see they were the ones
who were blind. God divided the light from the
darkness. Outside of Christ, outside of
him saying unto you or I, neither do I condemn thee, go and sin
no more. We live and dwell in darkness.
There is no light in the wisdom of this world. There is no light
in the knowledge of this world. There is no light in the ways
of this world. There is no light in the life
of this world. There is no light in the religion
of this world. All is darkness. All will keep
you in the darkness. All will keep you from coming
unto the only one who is the light of the world. The Pharisees did what they could
to keep the people from Christ. And in the end they had him crucified
in order to stop any from hearing him, from following him, from
believing him. They did all that they could
to stop others from believing in him of whom they rejected. They rejected him and they wouldn't
have anyone else believe him. So much for their religion. They
were blind and they sought to make others blind. They led the
blind into the ditch. Blind leaders of the blind, stumbling
about in the darkness. As with them, so with the wisdom
and the leaders of this world. This world promises much. You may look out with the natural
eye and say, well I don't see darkness, I see light. I see
riches. I see beauty in the world. I
see places to go and things to buy. I see treasures. It's all light to me, you say. But every day, the sun goes down. And darkness is cast across the
face of the world and you cannot stop it. You go in your house,
you turn on the lights, but it's night. Every day you are reminded
that in this world is darkness. And in this world the light has
been divided from the darkness. Yet we grasp after what we can
see. for the few moments that we're
here the few years, the few decades which are fast taken away until
we then see no more what vanity there is in the wisdom of this
world that says unto us lo, here is pleasure lo, here are riches
lo, here is life when all is dark. Isaiah warns us of the deception
of this world. Woe unto them that call evil
good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light
for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Oh what a day we live in in which
this is so. How the world would tell us that
that which is right, that which is good, that which is light,
that which is sweet, is evil, is dark and is bitter. Oh how
the world would say don't follow Christ, don't listen to the gospel,
have nothing to do with it. And oh how it would put its ways,
its ideals, its knowledge in its place and say, Lo, here's
good, here's light, here's sweetness and how the evil's promoted as
good and how the darkness is made out to be light and how
the bitterness is made out to be sweet what a deception, what
a lie But God divides the light from
the darkness. In Exodus 10, we read of how
God divides the light from the darkness. His people chosen in
Christ. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness
over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither
rose any from his place for three days. but all the children of
Israel had light in their dwellings. Pharaoh would not let God's people
go. Pharaoh amongst all promoted
evil as good, darkness as light, and bitterness as sweet. He stood
as it were as the archetype of those today who would lead us
astray and keep us in bondage, who would deceive your soul.
His heart was hardened against the Lord. So God sent Moses to
him. And having resisted and resisted, Pharaoh had this brought upon
him and his land Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and
there was darkness over all the land of Egypt darkness which
may be felt darkness which may be felt a thick darkness in all
the land of Egypt for three days and they saw not one another
neither rose any from his place for three days they couldn't
see it was so dark But all the children of Israel had light
in their dwellings. What a picture of the cross.
These three days of darkness in Egypt. What a pointer to that
place where God divided the light from the darkness. Where he took
his people in Christ. And he took their sins and laid
them upon him. And he sent those sins into the
abyss. His Son bore them, His Son took
them away, His Son suffered God's wrath against them. The light
of God took the darkness and swallowed it up. How God divided the light from
the darkness. A darkness which may be felt. Oh has God taught you anything
of the darkness in which you dwell and anything of the darkness
which dwells in you? For this darkness is not just
outside. It's not a darkness of the world
around you. It's a darkness which pervades
the soul. It's a darkness which pervades
your thoughts and your thinking. Why don't you believe because
of the darkness? Why can't you understand because
of the darkness? Why can't you see because of
the darkness? But can you feel the darkness? Has the Spirit of God come upon
the waters of your soul and the waters of your sin in which you're
drowning and begun to speak unto you? Can you feel the darkness? Can you feel the depths? Can
you feel yourself sinking? Can you feel like you're lost
without Christ? For you are. We are. Except the light of the world
and the light of life comes unto us, we sink. John tells us, this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved 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. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest. that they
are wrought in God. This is our condemnation that
we love the darkness and though Christ has come and though we've
seen him in the gospel and though he comes unto us in the gospel
and though God declares him unto us and sets him forth before
us we love the darkness. rather than the light. We know
that to come to Christ exposes our sin. We know that to turn
to him we must confess that we are sinners. We know that our deeds will be
reproved. So we turn away and we shut our
ears and we close our eyes and we hurry off back into the darkness. Oh, how we'd avoid the gospel
if we could. Oh, how keen we would be to hurry
off somewhere else and listen to another thing. How we shut
our ears. And yet God comes unto his own no matter
how far off they are no matter how hard their hearts may be
no matter how disinterested no matter how unbelieving no matter
how rebellious he comes and he comes and he comes the spirit
comes upon the waters and he speaks gently unto the soul and
points unto Christ and says here is the light of the world. He that follows him shall not
walk in darkness but have the light of life. God comes to his
own to divide the light from the darkness and to draw them
out of the darkness around and the darkness within and point
them under his side and say, here is my side. Hear ye him. Hear ye him. Behold the Lamb
of God. Look unto the one that when you
hated him, he loved you. When you rejected Him, He came
unto you. When you despised Him, He suffered
for you. When you were taking your hands
to pierce Him, He stretched them forth for you. When you were
nailing Him to the cross with your unbelief and your despising
of Him, He took your sins. He took your unbelief. He took
your hatred and he suffered for it. He comes unto his own and
he says, though you hated me, I loved you. Though you would
not come, I came unto you. Though you would not listen,
I was there for you every day. Though you had no time for me,
I spent all my time. All my energy, all my strength
for you. Though you gave him nothing,
he comes unto his own and he says unto them, I gave my all
for you. And he comes unto them in the
gospel as dead blind sinners. And he puts his fingers upon
their eyes and says, see. He puts his fingers upon their
ears and says, here. He takes them by the hand and
lifts them up. He calls out to dead Lazarus
in the grave and says, come forth. He comes unto us in the darkness
as dead dry bones in a dark dead valley and says, live. And he says, I am the light of
the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He does not
merely come and stand and offer. He does not come unto us in the
gospel and stand before us and say, get up and follow me. He
does not merely say, if you will, you may live. but he picks us
up, he touches the blind eyes, he makes the deaf ears to hear,
he divides the light from the darkness, he shines his light
into the soul, he causes us to live and we cannot but live. Oh what a light there is in this
gospel and what life there is in that light. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. It's life
giving light. The gospel brings light and the
light it brings is life. Because the gospel makes known
Christ. The living Christ. The one true
and living God. God comes into the gospel to
sinners like you and I who are sat in the darkness, lost and
blind, dead in trespasses and sins. And God shines the light
into our hearts. The people which sat in darkness
saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow
of death, light is sprung up. to give light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into
the way of peace. The gospel is a light to lighten
the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel. For Christ
is the light of the gospel. Has God brought this light unto
you? Have you seen anything of it?
Do you care anything for it? John 1 we read, in him in Christ
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 men 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. John was
sent to preach the gospel concerning the light of God Christ. This is the gospel we preach
unto you today. that you should see Christ and
know him. Christ says later in John's Gospel,
chapter 12, I am come a light into the world that whosoever
believeth on me should not abide in darkness. But before ever we come to this
light, will be made to feel the darkness experimentally the darkness
outside of us, the darkness inside of us will be made to feel our
emptiness our utter emptiness without Christ because without
Christ we've got nothing your health, what is it? it's gone
in a moment As so many have learnt in the days in which we live,
you don't know what a day may bring. You don't know what disease
might come to your door tomorrow or today. You don't know what
may come upon you. We're not in control. We're not
in control of our lives. We're not in control of our freedoms. We're not in control of where
we can go and what we can do. So much is outside of us. even our health. God gives us
life. God causes us to breathe. God
causes our hearts to beat. And he can say in a moment, drop
down dead and we're gone. And yet every day we take off
his riches, we take the life he gives us and we steal from
him to use it for our own ends. We never thank Him, we never
praise Him, we never seek Him, we don't care. We take everything
from His hands and we use it for our own gain. But if we're ever brought to
know Him, He'll teach us this. He'll teach us our emptiness
outside of Him, that there's no life, there's no strength,
there's no light. outside of Christ. Health, it's
gone in a moment. Wealth, it's gone in a moment.
If you ever attain to anything in this world, it's gone the
day that you pass from it. It doesn't last, and your health
doesn't remain to use it. How many old men are there who
finally have earned enough to buy themselves some toys, some
sports car or something, and they're too old? Foolishness. Soon we go and then we'll discover
the darkness. But oh that God should teach
us the darkness now, our emptiness outside of Christ. We've got
nothing. There's nothing in this world
that lasts. Life itself doesn't last. It's a living death. It's gone
in a moment. but if God divides the light
from the darkness and comes unto us in the gospel and makes us
to see then we'll discover riches beyond measure treasures that
cannot be quantified life of a different realm and order to
anything we've known before, then we'll discover that Christ
and Christ alone is our all and be outside of Him with nothing. Indeed if you discover this,
O believer, if you know Christ as your Savior, if you've been
delivered from the darkness and know Him as your Savior, You
will realize that outside of Him there's nothing but darkness,
there's nothing in this world around us. It's all empty, it's
all a desert. If we look for anything in this
world, if we look for any prosperity, any hope, any sort of life, if
we hope for things in this world we'll be sorely disappointed. But if we are brought to see
that there's nothing here, and our passing through this world,
our joy, our riches, our food, our water, our life is to be
found in Christ alone. If we expect nothing here but
sin, darkness, death, corruption, then we'd cease to be disappointed
when things seem to go wrong. We'd cease to be cast down by
the ups and downs and the trials of life. We'd cease to be buffeted
by the things that come upon us because we know there's nothing. We know there's nothing in this
world. We know there's nothing in the
governments and the countries and the nations. We know there's
nothing in the entertainment and the riches and the pleasures.
We know there's nothing in the wisdom and the knowledge of this
world. It's all empty. We see it for the darkness that
it is. The sin, the hatred, the rebellion
because that's all that's in them. and we'd see the glory
and the riches of God in Christ alone. For all life, all our
life, all our light, all our understanding, all our wisdom
is in Christ and in his gospel alone. Oh what a gospel, what
a message. Oh that God would divide the
light from the darkness by shining the light in the midst of the
darkness. Paul knew this Gospel, Paul preached
this Gospel, but he did so because God delivered him from the darkness
of his religion. Paul, that Pharisee of the Pharisee,
that Jew of the Jew, that Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe
of Benjamin, that keeper of the law, that moral man, that man
of knowledge, man of wisdom, man of the scriptures, man of
the book. How dark and blind he was until
he went on the road to Damascus to persecute the children of
God, to persecute the light and to try to cover up the light
with his darkness. When he travelled to Damascus
and in the midday A light shone down from heaven
above the brightness of the sun and shone round about him and blinded him. until he met with Christ the
light of the world and the light of life until that day when he
came face to face with Christ and Christ stood before him and
opened his eyes and made him see and when Christ sent forth Saul,
Paul to preach this light of the gospel As Paul says, he was
sent forth to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to
light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive
forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in me. He was sent to open the eyes
of the blind like you, like me. to turn us from darkness to light,
from the power of Satan unto God. Because if we're in the
darkness, if we don't know Christ, the reason is, is that in the
darkness, in our unbelief, Satan has his grip upon us. We're under
his power and we're under his deception. We've heard his lies
and been bewitched by them and we continue to be. And except
God come in the gospel to open our eyes and to turn us from
that darkness unto light, there we will remain. We will see out
our days under Satan's power in this world and enter the grave
into eternal everlasting darkness in which Satan rules our realm
and torments us day and night. Oh the folly of those that dwell
in the darkness. But oh the light that Paul preached
in the gospel. He preached that Christ should
suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from
the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. Has God shown you his light in
Christ, in his Gospel? Or has he hid it from you? If
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom
the God of this world have 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. The God of this world have blinded
the minds of them which believe not. blinded our minds, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, the image of God,
should shine unto us. 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, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Why do we preach these things? Why are we insistent that sinners
like you hear these things? Are we keeping a form? Is it
a ritual? Is it a persuasion? No, it's
because God has shined in our hearts and we know Him and we
know His life and we know the truth of it and we know the glory
of it and we know the power of His gospel. We know what it is
to rejoice in Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of our sins.
We know what it is as those who once were dead now to live. We know what it is as those who
once dwelt in darkness to see and to know the light of life. Oh that we may see, oh that you
may see what God has shone and shown unto us. This then is the
message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. We've heard
and therefore we speak. We've seen and therefore we declare. We know and therefore we preach
what we know to be true. Come see a man that showed me
all that I have done, that knows me inside out, that knows my
end for my beginning, a man who receiveth sinners, A man who
came into this world in the place of sinners, a man who bore the
sins of men and women, who went to the cross, who suffered the
wrath of God, who took away all sin, who took away the sins of
all his people, who conquered sin, death and hell. A man who
brings light in the darkness. Come see him. Oh how we love
darkness by nature. and how this darkness hates the
light it rejects it, it contends with it you reject it, you contend
with it you shut your ears to it you argue with it you're persuaded
otherwise you know better but God knows best and when he
shines the light then we will see He shines the light where
he chooses. He divides the light from the
darkness and man complains. God shines the light into the
hearts of his own and only his own. He has a people he's chosen,
a people for whom Christ died, a people whom he divides from
the darkness. A man says of God and his gospel,
why not all? Why did Christ not die for all? Oh how foolish. By nature we
don't want the light, we reject the light, we hate the light. Given a choice we go another
way, but then we contend against the truth of the light. by complaining
that if there is light, if there is salvation, if Christ did die
upon the cross for sinners, then that salvation should be for
all. We don't want it, yet we don't
want others to have it. We hate it and despise it ourselves,
yet we complain at a God that delivers some and not all. We seek to make God the author
of our own folly and our own unbelief. We've rejected him,
we've despised his gospel and yet we seek to lay our rejection,
our unbelief at God's feet. Despite the fact that God has
come and stood before us in the gospel and preached his son day
and night. throughout time and said behold
my son and we've said no, no, no. Yet we contend against his
truth, his gospel and his mercy. Oh how wonderful if God delivers
us from our foolishness. If he makes us to see, if he
shines the light of this gospel into our hearts. Oh if we could
but see a glimpse of this light, to see Christ by faith, to be
able to say with David the Psalmist, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Oh,
that God should take us and lead us with Mary On the first day
of the week, early in the morning, to a tomb where the Lord had
been laid, and discover that he who is the light is risen,
that he suffered for her sins, that he took her sins, that he
died in her place, and that he rose again. Oh, that he should
come unto us and say unto us, I suffered for your sins. I took
your sins. I was judged in your place. I died the death that you should
die, that you should live and reign in me. Oh, that we should
see him and know him as our light and our life, which shines forevermore. Amen.