So often when I think of that
delightful hymn, we call it Daisy's Hymn, don't we? I'm allowed to
play it any time Daisy's going. Why am I allowed to play it when
Daisy's coming? But it's a reminder to me of the extraordinary grace
of God in the lives of his people because I was so taken with that
hymn in my twenties that I went away to a photocopying place.
I don't know how I got hold of the Tim book anyway. I went away
to a photocopying place and I reduced it and reduced it and reduced
it down to the tiniest writing that I could read. And I folded
it up and had it in my wallet and used it to get it out and
look at it occasionally for 20 odd years in unbelief. It's wonderful
to sing the gospel. It's wonderful to think that
God in his time will draw his people I want us to look at these verses
and I may, Lord willing, come back and I'd like to spend some
more time with them next week. The Lord Jesus Christ in verse
35 is saying that Him being lifted up, He says, In yet a little while is the
light with you. It's a little while. There is
just a little while for everyone on this earth. A little while for those of us
who've lived longer than you young people. A little while
is always there, isn't it? How long is life? How long is
life? You look back on it, it was a
little while. a little while we have just a
little while and here is the Lord Jesus Christ on his way
to Calvary and he's saying there's just a little while there's a
little while for our life on this earth We assume that we
have a long time. We all assume that we're going
to live forever. We have a little while. This world seems like
it's been going on forever and ever. And God says it has just
a little while left to roll around. God's gathering of his people
throughout history has been a gathering for a particular group of people
and for a particular purpose and for a particular time to
save a particular group of people and for the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ to be revealed a little while. None of them survive. We long and we love for the ones
that survive. where the testimony continues
on, but generally it's just for a generation. It's just a little
while. There is just a little while
for the light. As we read in 1 John 1, God is
light. 1 Timothy 6.16 says God dwells in light. God is light. It's just a declaration
of the holiness of God. It's a declaration that the only
light in this world is the light that comes from God. The light
that enables you to see right now is the light that's come
from God. When you turn on your lights in your house at night,
you are turning on power that God has stored. Every light in
this world is a light that God brings. And the Lord Jesus Christ
in John chapter 8 declares himself to be the light. And he's saying
that this light and the time of this light is so precious.
He says, I am, John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. And he
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but have the light
of life. He is the light. He is the light
of who God is. He's the light of who you are.
He's the light of how God saves sinners. And John begins his
gospel by talking about the Lord Jesus Christ being God Almighty. And then in verse four he says,
in him was life, and the life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ,
was the light of men. Verse five of John 1 says, the
light shineth in the darkness. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
a dark world and He is the light of that dark world. He's the
light of who God is. He's the light of that. that
illuminates what that world is. And the world in the scriptures
is a description of men in their enmity against God, in their
natural hatred of God. Men hate God. I had a long flight,
I couldn't expect better things, but I was sitting next to an
atheist on the plane, and she was a lawyer and an atheist,
and we had, I think we had four hours together, and I thought,
oh dear, oh dear, this will be very interesting. And I talked
to her about the fact that I don't hate atheists. We just want people
to know the truth, don't we? We don't hate anyone. We just
want them to know the truth. And I spoke to her about the
gospel and she said, I know I'm an atheist. And so I thought,
well, I said, well, God, reveals himself to every human being
in two ways, doesn't he? According to the scriptures in
Romans 1, he reveals himself in creation, and he reveals himself
in Romans chapter 2 in the consciences of people. And they're not saving
revelations of God, but they're revelations of God that cause
people to be 100% responsible for their rejection. And so what
is the modern thinking of atheists today? You came from nothing
by accident. That's how you got here, isn't
it? Just one big accident. And millions and billions of
happy accidents got you here. And then after you finished your
little sojourn on this planet, you... What do the atheists believe? You
cease to exist. You go to nothing. So I said,
how on earth, and we've talked about it for a while, how on
earth do you actually construct an understanding? And obviously
I was hoping the Lord would do a work in her life because that's
the only way you can see any of it. But I was hoping for her
to see the sort of emptiness of it. You say you began with
nothing and you end with nothing and yet you want to make meaning
out of the bit in the middle. But every time you see something
you have to say, when you see a beautiful sunrise, and you
see a beautiful bird, and you see a beautiful storm, you see
all the majesty of God in His creation, you have to keep telling
yourself, that means nothing. It's pretty nothingness, isn't
it? Really it came from nothing by accident. And if it disappears
and goes to nothing, what's it matter? Because it comes from
nothing. So men, according to Romans chapter one, every single
human being on this planet is in the business of suppressing
the truth. And it's like being in a swimming pool with three
soccer balls, isn't it? You're actually trying to hold the three
of them down, you only have two, because they just pop up all
the time. The sunrises, I take pictures of the sunrises, Lee's
going to put them in a book at some stage. I just love the sunrises
of Trier, and they're just extraordinary how different they are, and how
amazingly beautiful they are. And the birds are amazing, aren't
they? What a sad, sad state. Unbelieving
people. What darkness is that? And that's
the darkness that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about. The
light shines in the darkness. To shine a light on who the Lord
Jesus Christ is, there is a God who created all of this. There
is a God over all of this creation and He keeps reminding us at
the beginning of His Gospel, He is, John came to bear witness
to the light, that through the light, through the witness of
the light, through the message of the light, men might believe,
might believe to the saving of their eternal souls. And she
has to believe that she goes to nothing. I said, well you
have an extraordinary faith system. You really work far harder at
your faith than I do at mine. Mine's much easier, isn't it? God did it. God rules it. God gets all the glory. True light has come into the
world, and that light the light of why this world is here, the
light of who God is, the light of who man is and the light of
how God saves sinners has come into the world. And that light
comes and it brings light, just like the light of the Shekinah
glory of God when that cloud separated the nation Israel from
Egypt. That light was light on one side
and hopelessly on the other side. Such darkness that a superpower's
army just had to wait until God says, my people are going through
and now I'll let you go. Now God is absolutely sovereign.
But it's the judgment of the world, it's the crisis of the
world, it's the crisis of every individual in the world when
they hear the gospel. This is the condemnation, that light
has come into the world. The Lord Jesus Christ has come
into the world and men loved him. darkness rather than the
light because their deeds were evil. It's all about love. God brings that light and brings
love of that light into the hearts of his people. For everyone that
doeth evil hates the light. Hates the light. Neither cometh
the light lest his deeds should be reproved. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that light of the world. He is, in John 8, the light of
the world. He says, as long as I'm in the
world, I am the light of the world. I am the light of the
world. God is light, and in the Lord
Jesus Christ there is light. glorious way. And that light,
as the Lord Jesus reminds us here in John Chapter 12, that
light shines, that light is with you, is a lifted up light. There is no light in the Lord
Jesus Christ who is not exalted to the very highest state that
you can possibly put in, which is what the scriptures do. Only,
only an absolute sovereign saviour, only a perfect substitute for
sinners, only God Almighty in human flesh can bear the wrath
of God Almighty on the sins of all of His people such that God
Almighty in perfect justice must put them away. A Saviour who
is not lifted up, a God who is not lifted up, will do sinners
no good. He's the light. He's the light
of how God saves sinners. I do love that story in John
chapter 8. What is it to the Lord Jesus Christ to be light?
In John chapter 8 you remember the story, well I hope, that
there was this woman caught in adultery. She's a miracle woman. She's the first woman ever to
have conducted adultery on her own because they couldn't find
the fellow. But they caught her in the act
and he disappeared. So she's a miracle woman, isn't
she? Shows you the stupidity of man-made religion. and the
deceitfulness of man-made religion. And there she was brought before
the Lord Jesus Christ while he was preaching in that temple.
And I'm sure she was brought there with all of the evidence
of her wickedness displayed. She may well have been naked
or just had a few scraps of clothes, but they wanted to make her an
example. And the Lord Jesus Christ has this sinner guilty before
the law of God. you take her away and you stone
her to death, and him with her. And he, as he always does with
all of his children who are brought to him, he stands between her
and her accusers, and stands between her and the very law
of God. And they're gone. He sends them
away with just the power of him writing some words in a bit of
dust on the street. And then he says to her, woman,
where are thy accusers? Has no man condemned me? condemn
thee, and she said, no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, the
most remarkable and comforting words of salvation you'll ever
hear, neither do I condemn thee. Why? There was the one person
in all that crowd who could have legitimately condemned her, not
just for that act, for a million and a billion other acts that
she was committing and would commit into the future. Why? Substitution is the glory of
the gospel, isn't it? That's what light is. The light
refers to the light of how the Lord Jesus Christ can be the
one who can cause God to be both perfectly just and perfectly
holy and perfectly faithful and perfectly truthfully and honour
and magnify every single attribute of God at the same time, save
sinners. No condemnation. No condemnation,
he said. Why? Because there is absolutely
no basis in the courts of God for the condemnation of anyone
that the Lord Jesus Christ died for. none whatsoever. The justice of God becomes our
great friend and advocate. It is impossible for God to punish
his son for the sins of anyone and for those sins ever to be
punished again. Otherwise God loses the glory
of his character. So it's a lifted up Christ that
shines. It's a lifted up Christ that
we saw in 1 John at the beginning of our Our service. The Lifted Up Christ is the one
that brings fellowship and joy. The Lifted Up Christ brings a
confession of who we are. The Lifted Up Christ reminds
us that all the time when we sin, we have an Advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. This light is
so essential for salvation. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, just briefly. This is what is absolutely essential
for your salvation and my salvation, and all who are saved in this
way by God Almighty. are perfectly secure because
it's a gospel that we declare. The gospel we declare and the
gospel our friends declare is the gospel of the free and sovereign
grace of God. God does it all. He says in verse
3 of 2 Corinthians 4, If our gospel be hidden, see the Lord
Jesus Christ is about to hide himself from those people and
he alone reveals who he is. It's hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world, Satan, 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 upon them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. That's the lifted up Saviour,
isn't it? Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for
Jesus' sake. For God, because this is how
God creates life, this is how God says, for God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's a lifted up saviour, brothers
and sisters. Now there is a parenthetical
statement in this and I want us to leave it out. For God,
and then he's declaring something of the character God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. You can read it without that.
So let's just read it without. For God, has shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's what happens, brothers
and sisters, in salvation. God Almighty shines. God Almighty shines in the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We gather here and we gather
together with our friends throughout the world. We gather because
of one thing. Because of one person. We're gathered to him
because the light shines. We're gathered to him because
he's been lifted up. We're gathered to him because
in his lifting up he draws us all to himself. And the cross,
the ground at the foot of the cross is perfectly level because
the cross addresses all men as sinners. And necessarily it offends
the dignity of man. It declares salvation to be the
gift of God, a shining gift. And it declares salvation to
be not of works. That offends the pride of man. The cross of Christ reveals a
full effectual atonement. He did it all. He said it's finished.
Completely and utterly finished. The sins of God's children do
not exist. They do not exist. The sins that
I'm committing now do not exist. A fallen affects your atonement,
and that offends man's effort to save himself. And the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed as light that shines, and it
comes by revelation, and it offends man's wisdom. See, to preach
a lifted up Christ is to preach this light coming, isn't it?
To preach Christ crucified is to preach that Christ came. He
was sent by the Father 46 times in John's Gospel. He says he
was sent by the Father. Who was he before he came? He
was God the Word. What did he do before he came? He entered into a covenant with
his Father. He took from his Father a bride,
a precious gift to his son. And before he came, in that covenant,
he took absolutely full responsibility. He said, I'll bring them back
to you. And when I bring them all back to you, they will be
perfectly holy. They'll be perfectly unblameable
and unapprovable in my sight. To preach Christ is to preach
the Christ foreordained and appointed. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. To preach Christ lifted up is
to preach Christ incarnate in a human body. God cannot die,
but the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, can and did die. That's what he was talking about
in John 12. To preach Christ is to preach
the sin offering Dying before a holy God. To preach Christ
and Him crucified is to preach the resurrected Christ. He was put to death because of
our sins and he was raised because of our justification. To preach
Christ crucified is to preach that Christ accepted and seated
in heaven and all of his people in him and with him. To preach
Christ crucified is to preach his ascension gifts by his spirit
being poured out upon his church to gather his people. To preach
a lifted up Christ is to preach him that in his sacrifice all
of the divine character of God is revealed. And the character
of God becomes the greatest comfort of all of God's people. And that's
why in the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ to lift him up is
to lift him up in all of his attributes as God Almighty. He
says, who that has any who have seen me have seen the Father.
In the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is the manifestation
of the love of God. He says in John 13, having loved
his owner in the world, he loved them to the end. He loved them
completely and he loved them perfectly. In the sacrifice of
Christ there is a putting away of sin by atonement. It's blood.
We're talking about blood washed clean from all of our sins in
his blood. In the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the sting of death is taken away in 1 Corinthians
15. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ assures believers of a full and free and welcomed entrance
into his presence. In the lifting up of the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified there is a death of us to this
world and this world to us. God's children have a new country. It's called Immanuel's Land.
I love the sound of that. Immanuel's Land, Isaiah chapter
8. We have a new family. I've met
a bunch of them. Ben's going over the next year.
He'll meet a bunch of them. Daisy will be there later this
year. She's going to meet them. It's family, isn't it? I went
to a family reunion. I went to three or four of them.
And I trust that some of them will be here in the not too distant
future and we'll have a family reunion. We have a new country,
we have a new family, we have a life beyond this world, we
have a home and an inheritance, all because the Lord Jesus Christ
loved us, the Lord Jesus Christ lived for us, the Lord Jesus
Christ died and reigns for us. I have a new history. I have
a new history. My history before God was lived
out 2,000 years ago. loving other people. To lift
him up is to declare that he's able. Don't you love that phrase,
he's able? He has the power to fulfill all
his promises, to keep all that I've entrusted unto him. He's
able to present you faultless. He's able to raise these vile
bodies and make them like his own. We have a glorious, glorious
Christ. That's the message, isn't it,
of 1 John. That's our message. It's the message of our brothers
and sisters around the world. We cannot possibly find any comfort
in a Christ who tries and fails, a Christ who wants and cannot
have what he wants. He shall not fail. May the Lord bless those words
to us and may he cause us to rejoice in the glories of our
lifted up souls.