People talk about people being
men of faith. One of the Anglican leaders in
England said that Prince Philip was a man of faith. I don't, and I'm not here to
comment on his eternal destiny. That's nothing that I can be,
have any notion of. But there is just so much talk
in this day and age about faith. people of faith, people of all
sorts of different faith, people of different faiths, there is
a particularity about the faith that saves. So it's not faith
that saves, it's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not some
trust It's trust, a particular personal
trust in Him. It is a receiving of Him. I love what that verse says. It doesn't say receive things
about Him or receive blessings from Him. It's to receive Him,
verse 12. And it's to believe on His name. The believing has a place, a
place of rest. The name is a particular name. There's so much religious noise
in this world and it's so challenging for people to navigate their
way through all the confusion. When we were teaching in India
with 70-something different missionaries from all over the world there
and hundreds of children from Most of the denominations, Protestant
denominations around the world, the one overriding thing that
must have been in the minds of children as they left Hebron
is that Christianity was confusing. Because every time someone got
up to speak, they'd have a different message. They'd all used the
name of Jesus somewhere in it, but the activities of the Jesus
they were talking about were extraordinarily different to
the activities and the Jesus that's revealed in the scriptures.
The promise of God is that there's another Jesus, and there's another
gospel, and there's another spirit. So how do we know? How do we
know? that those promises that we read
about there, those promises that I trust are promises that you'd
love to have applied personally to you. How do we know? How do
we know? John, in his letter that we read
from 1 John, repeatedly says, we know, we know, we know. So
God doesn't want his children to be floundering around in the
dark and God doesn't want his people to be in any doubt about
the reality of who he is. When he comes to people, he comes
as a light that shines. And if he'd asked Paul about
who the Christ of God was as he went down that road to Damascus
with letters in his hand, he would have had all sorts of notions
of who the Christ of God was and who God was. And then all
of a sudden, a light from heaven came. And Paul, the first words
that come out of his mouth is, who are you, Lord? All of his
religion and all of his obedience and all of his morality hadn't
taught him a single thing. The thief on the cross that morning,
that fateful Friday morning would have had all sorts of notions
of God and all sorts of notions of himself. But a light from
heaven, a new creation was born. And all of a sudden he looks
across at that bleeding, dying, mocked man beside him and he
says, Lord, Lord, you are a king. You are a king. All the voices
around him that day and all that he heard was nothing other than
mockery of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet he heard a word. I'd like us to begin just looking
briefly in verse 9. John came as a witness in verses
7 and 8. He's not that light, but he's
sent to be a witness of that light. And I love this description
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the true light. That was the true light. That
is the real light. That is the genuine light, is
what that word means. It is the light, the true light,
which lighteth every man. Any light that any man ever has
regarding God in this world is a light that comes from the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is the light of creation
and the light of conscience. There is some sort of natural
light of reason and intelligence and in some sense all of that
comes from God but all of that does is leave people guilty and
not saved. There is a light. that is a saving
light, there is a light that comes as the gospel is proclaimed. It's the true light. The light,
the genuine, the true light. Now necessarily, necessarily
the declaration that there is a true light means that there
are lots of false lights in this world. a light that's shadowy,
a light that is counterfeit. There is a light that seems as
if it lights a path. There is a light that countless
multitudes believe is a light that has led them on a path where
they proclaim to themselves peace, peace, and their ministers proclaim
peace, peace to them, and they give them assurance of their
eternal salvation. But there is, there is just one
true light. I love the definite article,
THE light. The light, the genuine. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11 we
have that warning, which is one of the many, many warnings in
the scriptures. He speaks in verse 13 of false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
apostles of Christ. That word apostles means sent
one. They're saying we're sent from God. We're speaking on God's
behalf. And no marvel for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers
of righteousness." So they act with the righteousness that men
can see, and they applaud the righteousness of men, and they
say nothing, nothing of the truth about the only righteousness
that matters. In the Scriptures there is just one righteousness,
and that's the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. There is light. There is true light. And there
is false light. In the Sermon on the Mount in
Matthew Chapter 6, the Lord spoke of this false light He says in verse 23, "...but
if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great
is that darkness!" If the light that you think you
have is darkness, how great is that darkness! The true light is a great description
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world.
He came into this world as a light that His people should not walk
in darkness. Our God is light, 1 John 1. In Him there is no darkness at
all. God dwells in light. 1 Timothy 6, 15 and 16, which
no man can approach unto. Which means if you're going to
be in the presence of this light, the light must come to you, which
is exactly what John is saying. The true light. The distinguishing
marks of the true light is that, of course, the true light reflects
the true character of God. The true light has true witnesses
to it. John bears witness of this true
light. And when John's bearing witness,
he's not bearing witness of himself in the sense of anything exalting
him. He says, he must increase and
I must decrease. He has one message, doesn't he?
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The
true light, the true witnesses to the true light, don't shine
a light on themselves at all. They shine a light on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The true light is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the light of the world. And the true light, I love that
verse that we have thought about often, the true light, in verse
5, shineth. The true light's a shining light.
The true light continues to shine. Even if the darkness doesn't
comprehend it, the true light shines. Even if it's rejected
by men and rejected by people who ought to know better, the
true light shineth in the darkness. The true light shines by words
spoken by a man. Words spoken by a man that are
the words of God. The Thessalonians heard the words
of Paul, a very ordinary looking fellow in every possible way,
about to be driven out of town. He got to Thessalonica having
been imprisoned in Philippi and beaten out and plagued by the
Jews all around him. But he says, He says, this word
came, you received the word of God, which you heard of us, not
as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. The true light that shines is
a word that comes by man, but in fact, it's the word of God.
1 Thessalonians 2.13 is that verse I was quoting. And this
light that shines, the true light, As God says, which effectually
worketh in you that believe. This light is an effectual light.
This light is a shining light, but this light is not a passive
light. This light is a light that shines. And the shining has an impact.
is a shining that is a creative shining. You're bought again,
you're begotten by the word of God. True light, the true light,
if you read verse 10 with me, the true light is going to be
rejected by most. He was in the world and the world
was made by him and the world knew him not. He came to his own and his own
received him night. This light will shine, this true
light shines when the darkness doesn't comprehend it, when the
world doesn't acknowledge him, the world shows no love for him
and where he's not received. This light shines because there
are, in verse 12, there are those who receive. And the other thing
that is very, very clear and evident about the true light
is that the true light alone reveals all the false lights. You'll only ever see the false
lights as false lights when the true light shines. Who would
have thought? Who would have thought that the
religion of the Jews, with all of its morality and all of its
obedience and all of its great knowledge and all of its sound
doctrine, Who would have thought that that was nothing but darkness? And a darkness made deeper, according
to John Chapter 8, because these men said they can see. And in
their seeing, these men said that they can judge. This true light reflects all of the darkness of all of
the other false lights in this world. Men, according to the scriptures,
die with a lie in their right hand, the hand of power. They're clinging on to a refuge
and God calls it a refuge of lies. And when the overwhelming
flood comes and death comes upon people and they get to meet God,
all of a sudden all of what they thought was light will be seen
for darkness. Oh may God give us the grace
to be people who value the true light, who are thankful to the
God who shines as light. So many in religion are speaking
things about God and yet, as much as there is sunlight
there, the darkness is like a yeast that infiltrates the whole lot
and ruins the whole batch of dough. They put darkness for
light, and light for darkness, says Isaiah 5. Woe to them! They're
wise in their own eyes, and they're prudent in their own sight. Romans 1 summarizes it, doesn't
it? They're professing themselves
to be wise. They became fools. There is a
way, there is a way that seems right to a man and the ends thereof
are the ways of death. The world says follow your heart
and God says a fool follows his heart. The world says follow
your reason and wisdom. Lean not on your own understanding
in all your ways. Acknowledge Him and He will direct
your paths. He will direct your paths. He
comes. This true light is the light
of life, John 8, 12. It's a light that brings life. It's a light that reveals light. Reveals life. I am the light of the world,
says our Lord Jesus, John 8, 12. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. This light is the light that
comes into this world. He says in John 12, 46, I am
come, a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me
should not abide in darkness. You have been in darkness. And
you're brought out into the glorious light and the glorious liberty
of the sons of God. See, the true light reveals the
true character of the true God. The true light leads away, doesn't
it? They said, we don't know where
you're going. And the Lord Jesus in John 14
says, I am the way. The way is a person. I am the
truth. The truth is a person. The life
is a person. The true light. reveals the character
of God as is declared in this Word of God. The true light is
the light that comes from the Word. The true light is the light
that shines on the Word. The true light is the light that
looks only to the Word. The true light is revealed by
the person who speaks as a witness says, thus saith the Lord, all
the time. This is what God says. When the
Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by Satan in the wilderness after
those 40 days of deprivation, when Satan came tempting him,
what did he say? What was his response to him? written. True light reveals the
true nature of man. That we're in darkness. We were part of that world in
John 10 that knew him not, that had no love for him. We are,
like those in John 11, that receive him not. And the light shines. The light shines in the new creation
that God creates in the hearts of his people. A creation in
righteousness and true holiness. Light is a reflection, in a way
of course, of the holiness of God. Light shines a light on
the character of God. So the true light reveals the
true character of God. The true light reveals the true
character of man. true character of man in his
fall, the true character of man in his rejection of God, the
true character of man in the satanic, dark underpinnings of
all man-made works, free will, religion. But most gloriously,
the true light shines a true light on the true saviour of
men. There is no other saviour. True light reveals the true crime
of humanity. Fallen short of the glory of
God. And it's revealed in those verses
before it, isn't it? The world knew him not. The world
had no love for him and no regard for him. And the world received
him not. The true light shines as the
glorious butt of sovereign grace. The glorious butts of sovereign
grace. The God came into that darkness
and as he did in the darkness at the beginning, he says, let
there be light. Let there be light. Let there be light. And the light shines. Light be
and light was. It's a light of God. It's a light
that shines. Isn't it a glorious thing, brothers
and sisters, that it's shining now? It shineth. It shineth in the darkness. May the Lord bless His words
to our hearts. Let's have a break, have a cup
of coffee.