Let's turn in our Bibles and
with me to John Chapter 1. We are embarking on a journey
that I trust will be all about His wonders being proclaimed.
John 1.1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
light, and the light was the light of men. And the light shineth
in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was
a man sent from God, his 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we do pray that you would cause your words, as your Son promised,
to become spirit and life to us. That his promise that because
he lives, we also shall live, might be true in us as you give
us, Heavenly Father, a simple and joyful faith in your dear
and precious Son. We pray in his name, in his glory.
Amen. In the beginning was life, and
the life was the light of man. When we come to these extraordinary
words of John, we want to just I want the words to be words
that resonate with you and to you. So much of preaching is
just explaining the Word of God and saying, this is what God
says. That's all I wish to do. What glorious statements begin
this Gospel, isn't it? In the beginning was the Word.
His relation is the God of time. His relation of the Word was
with God and the Word was God. There is this co-eternal nearness
and a communion, there's a union with God and the Word was God,
and God was the Word. Lord Jesus Christ is God. The same was in the beginning
with God. We see Him as Lord of Creation
in verse 3. What a simple way of stating
the fact that He is Lord of all that we ever see in this world. All things were made by Him.
And just to make sure that you get the point, that every time
you see anything, it should proclaim to you the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you get to the new creation, when we'll have these unsinful
eyes and we'll see Him as He is because we'll be like Him,
every glance at everything in that creation will shout to us
yet again, Jesus Christ the Lord. that He gives us eyes to see.
We will see that all things are made by Him and we will see that
He gets glory for everything He does in His creation. Without
Him there is not anything made that was made. And here we have
Him as Lord of Life, in Him was life. So He doesn't say through
Him, it's in Him. Life is not just created by Him. He is Life. He was Life. He is life independently. Our great God and Saviour has
no needs. He has no unfulfilled desires. If He needed anything, would
He ask you, where is the cattle on a thousand hills? If He was
hungry, would He come and talk to you about it? Paul said in
Acts 17 that God, in Him we live and move and have our being.
He has no needs. And He's not worshipped with
man's hands, says Paul, though He needed anything, saying, He
giveth to all life and breath and all things. all the time. He giveth to all. In him was life. Was life. It was always in him. The life
that he's speaking of is eternally in him. He is the origin and
the fountain and the source of all life. All natural life is
his. All spiritual life is his. He's
the fountain of it all. All eternal life and you have no life with God
outside of his life. John's desire in writing is that
you you might have life through his
name. Without him, without relationship
with him, you have no spiritual life. This is eternal life, says
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is eternal life. This is
life eternal. But they might know thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. So the life that John's talking
about here is not just natural life. This life that he's talking
about is the spiritual life of God's people with him. He upholds all things, and all
life that exists on this planet is upheld by him, and at his
deemed time of taking it away, it is gone. Whether that is a
sparrow that falls to the ground somewhere, at the moment a sparrow
is falling and it doesn't fall without the will of the Father
and it's lost its life because God has taken it from it. And
when you go from here, at your appointed time and in your exact
appointed way, that life that he gives, in a sense, returns
to him. But for the children of men who
aren't like the animals of this world, we have life eternal. We have a creation which is above
and beyond the creation of animals. We have life turned to Genesis
2. John wants us to be in Genesis regularly and he wants us particularly
to be in the garden. Because when he says, in him
was life, and this life was the light of men, he's talking about
that created light, isn't he? Verse 7 they're speaking of the
creation of Adam, isn't it? And the Lord God formed, verse
7 of chapter 2 of Genesis, the Lord God formed man out of the
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and man became a living soul. Men become living, eternal,
everlasting souls. That's your creation. That's
the creation of every human being. This universe is upheld by the
word of His power and all life is His to give and temporal life
in this world is to give and to take. But he has life in an
extraordinary way. In John 10 verse 18 he says,
I lay down my life. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father. Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take
it again. I lay down my life for the sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ's life
wasn't taken from Him on Calvary's tree. He gave up the ghost. In Him was life. And just so we know what he's
talking about, he says, and the light was the light of men. It's a light, in verse 5, that
shineth in the darkness. It's a light to which John bears
testimony, in verses 8 and 9 and 6 and 7. John bears testimony. This life is the one rejected
by the world but accepted by God's children. He was in the
world and the world was made by him and the world knew him
not. He came unto his own and his
own received him not, but as many as received him. To them
he gave power to be the sons of God. So the life and the light to
which John is referring is a spiritual life. A spiritual life and the
spiritual light which both come from our God. A spiritual light
is characterized in the scriptures as being everlasting life, eternal
life. It is to have fellowship with
God. It is to have, as John in the book of life, the Lamb's
book of life, which is written for the foundation of the world.
It is to drink of the water of life. It is to have access to
the tree of life. It is ultimately to have the
crown of life. In Him was life. In Him was life. So in John 5, 26, we just read, So we understand more clearly
what our Saviour is saying. John 5.26 For as the Father hath
life in himself, so have ye given the Son to have life in himself. We don't have life in ourselves. Our lives are a gift from God.
John 6.48 The Lord Jesus Christ says, I am that bread of life. I am that bread of life. You
might recall that he goes on to say that you eat and you drink.
You eat his flesh and you drink his blood to have that life. He says in verse 53, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He's talking about spiritual
life. He's talking about eternal life. In that glorious picture
at the tomb of Lazarus at the meeting
of Mary and Martha, the Lord Jesus Christ said these extraordinary
words in John 11.25, I am the resurrection and the life. See Martha was right. She'd been
taught and she understood intellectually, didn't she? She knew that there
was a resurrection. Job knew there was a resurrection. David
knew there was a resurrection. The Old Testament speaks of resurrection
all the time. And Martha said, I know that
he shall rise again. I know he's rotting in this tomb
now. He'll rise again at the resurrection of the last day.
And Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. The life is a person. The life
is to be in relationship and union with a person. And then
he says, shall he live? And he was about
to prove what that meant by the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
And then he says, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. So life and believing The life
and the light beget believing. Whosoever liveth and believeth
in thee shall never die. Do you believe this? Do you believe
it? I love what Paul said on that
boat. And everything was chaos all
around them and all they were facing, in all of what human
reasoning could possibly bring before you, was chaos and death
and drowning in a tempestuous sea. And what did Paul say? He
said, I don't, he didn't say, I believe in God. Although he
did. But what he says, I believe God. I believe God. So much of saving faith is simply
just believing God. In the beginning was life, and
the life was the light of men. There is a light In this creation, that's a light
that's above this creation, there is a light in this creation which
is seen and witnessed to by the children of God. came before creation. You might
recall, as John wants us to, those glorious words in Genesis
1. He says, What sort of light was he talking about? If you go down to verse 16, the
created lights were created on the fourth day.
He made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day
and the lesser light to rule the night. There is a light,
a God-given, God-created light, which is above and beyond the
light of this world. The light of the Son of God,
the S-O-N light, comes before the S-U-N light and is above
the S-U-N light. You remember in Acts chapter
9, what happened? What did they say in Acts chapter
9 when they're on that Damascus road? He journeyed, came near to Damascus
and suddenly there shined about him a light from heaven and it's
described as a light doesn't it a light that was brighter
than the noonday And it's the light, it's not
created light, it's the light that's above the brightness of
the sun. And all the blessings of salvation
come, as Paul is a pattern, they come as that light comes, doesn't
it? That light which comes as a created created in righteousness and
holiness. There is a light that shines.
You recall the verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 that we We read often,
he speaks of the darkness, isn't he? He says in verse three of
2 Corinthians 4, but if our gospel be hid, it's hid from them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world had blinded the mind
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine upon them.
We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. And listen to this glorious,
glorious statement. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our heart to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. This is a heavenly light. But let's read 2 Corinthians
4. You can well read it as the commas
would encourage us to. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, you can leave that out in a sense
And you can read it, 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. All the glory of God you're ever
going to see by the light from heaven is going to be in the
Lord Jesus Christ. All the blessings of salvation
are in Him. All the blessings of union and
communion with Him are in Him. It is that light, isn't it? That
light that shines. It's that light that the Lord
Jesus described, isn't it? His words are spirit and they
are life. And they are spirit and life
as the Holy Spirit enlightens His Word and takes the Word of
God and reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. The light is a light that shines
and reveals who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Man rejected Him, and man's rejection of Him doesn't
change anything at all. Light is such an extraordinary
thing, isn't it? And it's so easily and so common
around us that it's just taken for granted, isn't it? illuminates all and yet remains
unchanged. The Light comes into creation
but the Light in a sense is entirely separate from it and it's undefiled
by it. The Light illuminates the creation
that we might see the Creator. What extraordinary wonders Adam
witnessed in that garden. What extraordinary wonders it
was for him to be in that place of union and communion. This life is the light of men. It is the light that shows the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to all this creation. Romans
1 gives us a remarkably clear picture of what's going on in
the hearts of all human beings and whether they confess it or
deny it. This is what God says. For the wrath of God, Romans
1.18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth, who suppress,
they hold down the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godheads, so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew
God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, became
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. So there is a light, and in that
light, that created light, men think themselves wise, don't
they? And they change, verse 23, the glory of the incorruptible,
uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man to
birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. There is,
into that darkness, a light, a spiritual light, that must
shine, and it shines on the Saviour. He is the light, and the light
that comes from God is a light that illuminates Him. And then,
as that light comes into the hearts of people, they see Him
in His glory. and they see themselves, and
they see his salvation. Now unto Paul prayed for the
Ephesians, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power? This light comes with the working
of the mighty power of our God and it comes spiritually into
the hearts of God's people, hidden in a way from the world, that
when the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed, there is a glory in
his being, don't we? And we join with Paul in saying,
Who is like unto our God? Isn't it lovely what he says
in Colossians? For it pleased the Father one night, that all
in him should all fullness dwell. Fullness dwell. Over in verse nine of chapter two, for in him
dwelleth all the fullness of sovereignty, the
fullness of holiness, the fullness of truth, the fullness of righteousness,
the fullness of justice, the fullness of grace, the fullness
of mercy and love, every fullness of any attribute you can find
of God, live in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fullness. And then he says those words
which are to be believed because God says them. You are complete
in him. That word complete and the word
fools are exactly the same words. You are full in him, which is
the head of all principality and power. No wonder John says
that as so he is, as he is solely in this world, right now God's
people, because of who he is, are people who are accepted in
the beloved. In Him was life. In Him we are
accepted. In Him there is now no condemnation. In Him, He says, I am the resurrection
and the life. It's all in Him. It's all in
Him. It's spiritual life. Light enables us to see. And light from heaven enables
us to see the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the light of who God really
is. See, our God dwelleth in light. As if, unless he gives us the
grace to see, it's like trying to look into the sun, isn't it? God is light, says John, and
in Him there is no darkness at all. This life and this light
is a picture of the holiness and the separateness of our God,
a picture of His absolutely glorious sovereignty. To see Him, to have
light to see Him, is to see God. And he took his disciples into
that upper room, and Judas was cast out into the darkness. And
he took them there, and he spent those hours, whatever that amazing
time was. And there, at the end of his
days, Philip says, show us the father. I just want to see the
father, John 14, verse nine. I want to see the father. And
he says, I've been with you so long, Philip. If you've seen
me, you've seen the father. the light that shines on God
the Father. He is almighty God, as Isaiah
declares him to be. They sing it at Christmas time
and then deny it as they sit down in their pews again. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given. He's given to us, he was always
there, he was always created. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful. Prince of Peace. He is Almighty God. He is the Light. He is the only
Light that men will ever receive of who God is. And He is the
Light. That same Light that reveals
who man is is the Light that reveals who He is. He is the
Light that reveals the depths in the nature and the reality
of the darkness of fallen human men. We're so accustomed, aren't
we? We're so accustomed to saying
that he's a nice person, he's a good bloke. I hear often these
days, this person has a pure heart. How on earth can you look
in anyone's heart and say it's a pure heart? And because they've been good
blokes, when they leave here, they go to a good place where
there can be barbecues with their mates and playing golf and rugby
and all sorts of other things. Good blokes. What does God say? What does God say? We have spent
some time looking at Genesis 6, haven't we? But the same words
are echoed throughout the rest of the scriptures regarding man. God looks down from heaven. And
when he looks, he sees perfectly, doesn't he? Upon the children
of men to see if there are any that did understand and seek
God. They're all gone astray. They're
all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Man at his best state. Man at his best state. Psalm
36.9 is altogether vanity. When will you be made to see
as God sees? God saw that the wickedness of
man was greater than the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. When do men see what God sees? We read it in Psalms 36, didn't
we? David, had met with himself in his sin. And he says, the
transgression of the wicked saith within my heart. is what I am. The transgression of the wicked
sabre in my heart there is no fear of God within his eyes. So you will only know man and
you will only know yourself when light from heaven reveals the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are so prone, aren't we, to
comparing men with men. And thankfully, we'll always
come up pretty good, because of Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot and
Caligula and a whole bunch of other horrible people that we
can name. And as soon as we're challenged, we think, well, I'm
not like them. And therefore, I have some measure of righteousness,
and God must reward me because I'm not as evil and as wicked.
What's the difference between the most evil man that has ever
walked on this earth and the very best human being apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ you can possibly think of? God sees none. I'm so thankful
for good people in the sense of good with inverted commas.
I'm so thankful that people generally are nice, but I'm particularly
thankful for the Lord that he actually causes them to be that
way and he restrains the evil that's necessarily and naturally
in their hearts. You'll only know yourself. This
light from heaven, this light that was the life of men, will
reveal the glory of the character of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and it will reveal the nature of men. And you'll
only see sin as sin when you have light from heaven to show
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And you see the glory of his
person, the beauties of his holiness, the wonder of what he did, and
the extraordinary wonder of his condescension and what it was
for him to die on Calvary Street. We are best in poetry with these
things so often. Oh, what a sad and doleful night
preceded that day's morn, when darkness seized the Lord of light
and sin by Christ was born, when our intolerable load upon his
soul was laid and the vindictive wrath of God flamed furious on
his head. We in our Jesus will may boast
for none but God alone. can know how dear the victory
cost. how hardly it was won. Forth
from the garden, fully tried, our bruised champion came, to
suffer what remained beside a pain and grief and shame. Mocked,
spit upon, and crowned with thorns, a spectacle he stood. His back
with scourges, lashed and torn, a victim bathed in blood. Now to the cross through hands
and feet he hung in open view to make his sorrows quite complete
by God deserted to Beyond her amazing sight I see
the incarnate Son of God expiring on the accursed tree and weltering
in His blood. Behold the purple torrent run
down from His hands and head, the crimson tide His groans awake the dead. The trembling earth, the darkened
sky, proclaim the truth aloud. And with the amazed, centurion
cry, this is the Son of God. In this light, in this light
that gives spiritual life, We see who God is in this life that
is the light of men. We see who man is. And in this light, we see how
God can accept me, can love me, can be in sweet communion with
me. How someone as Job described
me. How much more abominable, filthy
is man which drinks iniquity like water. accepting us as sinners. It's a transaction that comes
in the light because of a transaction that came in the darkness. I want us to turn to John chapter
8. You might recall this is one
of the passages where the Lord Jesus Christ declares himself
to be light. In him was life and the life
was the light of men. And Jesus in verse 12 of John
8 says, I am the light of the world. I am the light of the
world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but have the light of life. So the light is
spiritual light. It's a light that is a life-giving
light, and it's a light that shines on the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ the depths of the depravity of
man. And here, if you recall the story,
if you just go back, these scribes and Pharisees in verse 3, they
brought a woman, caught in adultery. There's absolutely no question
that they contrived this whole event. They caught her, but didn't
manage to catch the man. He may well have known the hypocrisy
and the evil of the Pharisees, been one of them. There they
are, these law-keeping people. thinking that they can come and
organize an entrapment of light. We don't have time to go into
all the story, but the situation was an easy trap for them, wasn't
it? They have this woman and the law of Moses says stone her
to death. And if the Lord Jesus Christ says stone her to death,
then where's this mercy and compassion? Where's this friend of sinners? And if he let her go, he has
no respect for the law of God. Isn't it extraordinary that man
would want to entrap deity? That man, he who saw their hearts
and was there when they were plotting and scheming, saw all
of it and they try and trap him. Oh, let's be honest with God,
brothers and sisters in Christ. He sees all and knows all, his
light shines everywhere. But I love what it says, what
he says to her when he had, by causing them to be convicted
in their consciences, not convicted by the Holy Spirit. If they were
convicted by the Holy Spirit, they would have come to him.
They were convicted in their consciences and they went away ashamed of
themselves. And he says to her, at the end
of verse 10, Where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
me? No man, Lord, said she. And Jesus said unto her, Neither
do I condemn thee. Go, and sin no more. On what
basis could the Lord Jesus Christ say that he couldn't condemn
her? It's only one basis for it, he
tells the truth. And the reason is that she is
not guilty. Because her sin was laid on him
and he earned her sin as his own. And on Calvary's tree he
bore the infinite wrath of God for that sin. He's not excusing
sin and no one is excusing sin in anyone. But that's the glory
of salvation. Drink like water. For all of
those people, it was laid on him and it's gone, it's taken
away. What glorious words the light
of the world says. When he shines in hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, he says
to his children, neither do I condemn thee. You might condemn yourself sorts of circumstances and I
condemn you. When God speaks, when God speaks
the words of life and light, he says to his children, neither
do I condemn thee. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we
do thank you for your Word and we thank you for the Word that
illuminates thee who is the Word and we praise you Heavenly Father. that this light shineth. May
this light, the light of who you are, the light of who we
are, and the glorious light of salvation by a crucified saviour
be light to us. May his light Enlighten our lives
and may His light be a light to our path in this world. May
that light cause us to look to Him who is the light and to see
things in light of who He is. Thank you, our Father, for sending
your Son. We thank you for the glory of
what happened on Calvary Street, the light that revealed all the
glorious attributes of God in the person and the doing and
the dying and the glorious resurrection of our precious Saviour. Grant
us, Heavenly Father, the simplicity and the peace of childlike trust
in Him. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.