Good morning. I'm going to read 1
Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And I,
brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech
or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but a demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world,
nor of the princes of this world that come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world unto our glory. which none of the princes of
the world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which
is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God,
which things we also speak not in the words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. pairing spiritual
things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges
all things, yet he himself is judge of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning
thankful for this chapter of Scripture. And Father, we're
thankful that you have revealed those things to us that you haven't
revealed to everyone. And Father, that you reveal them
to us in spite of ourselves, not because of anything we did
to deserve it to be. opened up to us. And Father,
we just come to you again today, thankful for a place to come
in here. And Father, we may be a small
group, but if it be 10 or 10,000, Lord, just please let the message
always be preached here. And Father, we're thankful for
the one that you've sent to bring that message. And Father, we
just ask that you continue to watch over him in his time of
study and as he brings the messages to us. And Father, we just ask
that you watch over and care for us all in Christ's name. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 288. wonderful piece, 288. And we'll just sing the first
four. Far away in the depths of my
spirit tonight rolls a melody sweeter than song. In celestial-like strains it
unceasingly falls, O'er my soul like an infinite calm. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above. Sleep over my spirit forever,
I pray, In fathomless billows of love. What a treasure I have
in this wonderful peace, Buried deep in the heart of my soul. So secure that no power can mine
it away While the years of eternity roll. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. I am resting tonight in this
wonderful peace, resting sweetly in Jesus' control. For I'm kept from all danger
by night and by day, and His glory is flooding my soul. Peace, peace, wonderful peace,
coming down from the Father above. Sleep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of love. Send me thanks when
I rise to that city of peace, where the author of peace I shall
see. That one strain of the song which
the ransom will sing, in that heavenly kingdom shall be. Peace, wonderful peace, coming
down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless pillows of love. Thank you. Alright, let's turn to John chapter
8, and we're going to look at verses 12 through 21. There's
three statements that our Lord makes in verse 12, and they're
truths that every child of God are going to come to know and
believe about her Lord. She's going to have an understanding
of Christ. She's going to know Christ. She's
going to believe the Lord Jesus Christ is her salvation. She's going to understand them
because the Spirit of Christ, whom He's given to His people,
gives her life and faith hope and understanding in her Lord. Verse 12, 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. And so every born again child
of God is going to have these three statements, is going to
know Christ, who said these words and what he means, that we're
going to have an understanding of these words of Christ. And
contrary to that, every child of the devil will not understand. They will not hear it, they will
not receive the word of Christ, and they will not believe him. They're not going to seek Him
for salvation, the One who spoke these words, not the true and
living God. They're not going to seek Him. They may seek a
salvation, but they shall not find it. And the Word of God
tells us that they shall perish in their sins without a hope
in Christ. I've titled the message, Christ,
the Light of the World. Christ the light of the world,
and we're going to focus primarily on these three statements that
our Lord makes in verse 12, and then we'll close with the sight
of the unbelief that these Pharisees had and what that means concerning
them and how they shall perish. So let's look here in the text
And what our Lord is saying here, in short, is, I am the Messiah. He's declaring that he is the
Savior whom God promised and whom God the Father sent into
the world to save his people from their sins. And in verse
12, let's read it again. 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."
And the Pharisees that were standing there, they responded in verse
13, Therefore they said unto him, Thou barest record of thyself,
thy record is not true. In their minds, this Jesus of
Nazareth could not be the Christ. It just didn't add up for them. And they looked at everything
he did, and they said, there's just no way. You're not the Christ.
We don't believe you. And the Lord tells them why they
don't believe him, why they don't hear him. In verse 15, ye judge
after the flesh. ye judge after the flesh. And
anyone judging Christ after the flesh will not believe. They will not believe. They will
not hear his words. And he's showing that man, left
to himself, judges after the flesh, and he seeks a salvation
that is fleshly. He seeks a salvation that he
works for himself. And in verse 21, the Lord says
again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall
die in your sins. Whither I go, or where I go,
ye cannot come. And so there's a great difference
in how the child of God hears Christ and how the child of the
devil hears Christ. There's a great difference in
how we hear the Lord. And I want to speak to you today
about the salvation that our Lord has provided for His people
in His Son. And this salvation is made effectual
in His sheep. Our God graciously makes His
salvation effectual in the heart of His people, for His people. And we're going to look at these
three statements, these three declarations of our Lord. First,
I am the light of the world. And second, he says, he that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness. And third, he that
followeth me shall have the light of life. He shall have the light
of life. And then at the end, we'll see
what our Lord meant when he spoke to the Pharisees. In verse 21,
ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins. Where I go, ye
cannot come. So the first thing that our Lord
says here is, I am the light of the world. Now when the Lord
says, I am, it's as He said before Abraham was, I am. And He is declaring that He is
God. He is God. He's very God. And when Christ says, I am the
light, He's declaring that He is the giver of life to all creatures. He is the creator. In John chapter
1, verses 3 and 4, we're told that all things were made by
Him, this Christ. All things were made by the Word
of God, the Son of God. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life and the life
was the light of men. So we live because Christ gives
us life. We live because God gave us life. The Son of God created us and
gave us life. Now many people believe that
God is the creator. And some even believe that God
is their creator, meaning they see Him in a more personal way
than some others see God as the creator. But there's something
that our Lord is saying here when He declares, I am the light
of the world. There's something more special
in what He's saying that the children of God hear of their
Savior. And what He's saying there is,
I am the giver of spiritual life. I am the Savior, I am the salvation,
the salvation of God. You know, in the same way that
plants and beasts on the earth and man, the way we would perish
without the S-U-M, without the sun, we would be cold. We would be utterly cold. We
would be in darkness, and if we were sprung up and the sun
was no longer there, we would die. we would immediately die
and perish. Well, without the S-O-N, the
Son of God, we are cold and indifferent to the things of God. There's
no sense, no feeling of God. We are in darkness, meaning we
have no knowledge of the true and living God. And without the
Son of God, we too perish in our sins. There's no life there.
There's no spiritual life. And so without Christ, There
is no spiritual life. We don't have it. If we don't
have Christ, we have no spiritual life. There's nothing we can
do to manufacture a righteousness and a life with the true and
living God. There's no light and there's
no life apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior came into
the world for this purpose, to give spiritual life to dead sinners. That's why He came, to give life
to spiritually dead sinners who cannot save themselves. We cannot cleanse ourselves of
our sin with our filthy, vile hands. We cannot wash ourselves
and get ourselves clean by our works. And the Lord is teaching
us that. He's showing us that that's why He sent the Savior.
If we could save ourselves by our works, there'd be no reason
for the Son of God to take upon Him flesh and come and minister
salvation to His people, for His people. And so, That's why
Christ came to obtain life for His people. He went to the cross. He fulfilled the law of God perfectly
for His people. And being the acceptable, perfect
sacrifice, the perfect Lamb of God without blemish, without
spot, He, as our High Priest, took Himself as the sacrifice,
as the Lamb of God, and sacrificed Himself unto the Father for His
people. to make an atonement, a covering
for our sins. And there on the cross He obtained
life and forgiveness for His people, in whom we're told we
have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. That's Colossians 1.14. We're
purchased of Him and we have forgiveness with our God. Moreover,
He's saying that He is the revelation of God. He's the revealer of
God. He is the light of God. He is the revealer. As light
reveals what's in the darkness, so Christ reveals and makes known
to us that which we cannot see. He's the light whereby we see
and know God and have an understanding of who God is. We're told in
Colossians 115 that Christ is the image of the invisible God,
meaning To us, God is invisible. We don't know who God is. He's
invisible to our understanding. He's invisible to our eyes. But
we see Jesus. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
whom God sent. And he, the light of the world,
makes us to know who God is. He reveals who God is to his
people so that we understand him. And no, God isn't like these
idols. They're not like the idols that
man makes with his hands. or that man imagines with his
imagination. God's not like that. He's not
approached by our works. He's not approached or pleased
with our sacrifices and the things that we think God should be pleased
with. All that is taken away in Christ because we see him
and we know this is the true and living God who came and gave
his life for my life. who came to put away my sin,
because that's how filthy and vile and dead I am in this nature. And I cannot earn God's favor
or work for my salvation. And so we see in Christ that
he's not approached in the way that man naturally thinks God
is approached and pleased. And so we learn in Christ that
we must come to the Father in the blood. That's how we're received,
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally he says,
when he says, I am the light of the world, I am the light
of the world, he means I am the only salvation that God has provided. I am the light of the world. I am the only Savior, he's saying,
that God has provided for the salvation of his people. There's
one way. One way, one truth, one life. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And without him, we will perish
in our sins. Now, the world is how the Jews
refer to the Gentiles. That's how they spoke of the
Gentiles, where they're the world. There's us, the Jews, and everyone
else is the world. Everyone else are the Gentiles.
And Christ is saying, I'm not the Savior of only the Jews. I'm the Savior of all. I'm the
Savior of Jew and Gentile. My people scattered throughout
the world are saved one way, through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn over to Isaiah 49. Isaiah
49 and let's look at verse 6. All who believe on Christ shall
be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 49.6, and he said, it's
a light thing, it's a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of
Israel. That's small, just the Jews. I will also give thee for
a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto
the end of the earth." And so the purpose of God there is saying,
you are the only salvation. And it extends not just with
the Jews, it extends out to the ends of the earth. so that all
my people among the Gentiles, I'll call them, I'll draw them,
I'll give them my spirit and they'll believe you as well and
they'll be saved by your blood. Turn over to Isaiah 42. Isaiah
42 and let's look at verses 5 and 6. Thus saith God the Lord, he that
created the heavens, and stretched them out, he that spread forth
the earth, and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath
unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein,
I the Lord have called thee, speaking to his Christ now, I've
called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and
will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people
for a light of the Gentiles. And so our God is showing that
salvation always embraced. the Gentiles as well as the Jews. The promise of God to redeem
a people for himself by the blood of Christ was always the will
and purpose of God from the foundation of the earth. That's why he is
called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. And so The Apostles, when they
came and preached, they confirmed this. They confirmed this in
their word. Acts 4.12 says, neither is there
salvation in any other. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. They said that when preaching
to the Jews. There is no other salvation for
us. There's no other salvation under the whole of heaven There's
no other name and there's no other salvation than the Lord
Jesus Christ given to his people. And so with that understanding
then, we rightly understand the scriptures and some of those
scriptures where men take them and twist them to declare a savior
who's failed, one who cannot save those he came to save, right?
In John 3, 16, where we're told that God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. And we understand, oh,
he's talking to a Jew there who thinks that salvation is for
the Jews only. But God has his people scattered
among the Gentile nations. His love extends to those Gentiles
out in darkness. And he's going to send that gospel
word out to them so that they hear and are called by his grace
and mercy to believe him. And so when Christ came, He came
for Jew and Gentile, for all his sheep scattered throughout
the world. And he says, he confirms this himself in John 10, 16.
He said, other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall
be one fold and one shepherd. And so what our Lord brings to
our understanding is that there is no life apart from him. There
is no salvation apart from him. We believe and know that He is
the Savior, and there can be no salvation apart from Him. And He gives His people an understanding
of His salvation, whereby we know the true and living God.
And we believe and are saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and
trust Him, committing all to Him. being persuaded fully that
he is salvation and that what he's promised us we have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We know that because he reveals
it to us. And so we have a knowledge of him, we have a knowledge of
his salvation, we have a knowledge of God by him, so that he is
the very salvation that God has provided for all his people scattered
throughout the world. And God's people receive that. We believe, yes, Lord, you are
the light of the world. You are salvation. And others
hear it and are indifferent to it. but God's people hear it
and rejoice in what he says. The second thing that our Lord
says here is that, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness. So that it's not enough for us
to recognize that Christ is the Savior. There's a lot of people
that would say, yeah, Jesus Christ is the Savior. He's the Savior
of men. It's not enough just that he's
the Savior. The Lord gives His people to
know that He's my Savior. He's my salvation. I need Him. I need salvation. It's not enough
just to give a mental assent that, oh yeah, He's the one that
God sent. It's, I need that salvation.
I need His blood. I need the forgiveness of sins
which only He can give. And so it's a personal Savior
that we come to. We do come to a knowledge of
Him and rest in Him. And so Christ's lost sheep follow
their Savior. They're called out of darkness
and they follow the Savior. They follow with Him continually. And so we follow Him believing
Him, believing that He is the Savior, that He's my Savior and
that I need Him. This isn't just some religious
thing where I just choose to be a Christian as opposed to
a Catholic, as opposed to a Muslim, as opposed to whatever. we believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He's my Savior, who I need, because
I've offended a holy God, and need that which God has provided
freely and in grace in His Son. And so the children of God, we
feed upon Him who said, I am the bread of life. We see Him who said, I am the
light of the world. And we enter into life through
Him who said, I am the door. We enter in through Christ, and
we follow Him who said, I am the good shepherd. I'm the good
shepherd. And we believe Him who said,
I am the resurrection and the life. All who believe me have
eternal life, and I shall raise him up at the last day. We trust
him who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes
to the Father but by me. We believe him. We trust him.
And we abide in him who said, I am the vine. He's made all
things to the believer, and we follow Him. You know, there's
a description of the believers, of the children of God, in Revelation
14 verse 4, and they're described as being 144,000 virgins. And they sing the song of redemption. They sing the song which every
believer knows and only believers know. We sing the song of God's
grace and mercy for us provided in his son Jesus Christ. how
that He redeemed us by His blood, delivering us from the condemnation
that we so rightly deserved because of our sins and our offenses
against God. But He delivered us in Christ,
so that's our song. We rejoice, we praise God for
the salvation He's given us in Christ. And it says in Revelation
14, 4, These are they which were not defiled with women, for they
are virgins. And what the Lord is teaching
us there is that we are not defiled with the whore of Babylon. And
we're not defiled by that false religious way, that false doctrine
that speaks of salvation by something we do or some other way. No,
no, no. We're not defiled with the whore of Babylon. We're saved
by the blood of Christ. These are they which follow the
Lamb whithersoever he goeth. And the picture there is like
Israel of old when they came out of Egypt. And they were led
by the cloudy pillar by day. and the fiery pillar by night.
And when that pillar stopped and stood still, they stopped
and stood still. And when that pillar went, they
went. And so they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
And these were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits
unto God and to the Lamb." Meaning that we are His very purchase. We are the purchase of our God.
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so by nature, how
does man walk? By nature, how does man walk?
He walks in darkness. He walks in darkness to God,
darkness to what he means, darkness to an understanding of his salvation,
ignorant of the things of God and what God has declared so
plainly in his word. And yet it's all darkness to
them. We're told in Isaiah 60 verse
2, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness
the people. And what it's saying there is
that all man walks in a thick, heavy, blanketing darkness so
that they cannot see. It's a gross darkness. And that's
where we are by nature. We need to be delivered, led
out of that darkness. We need the grace of God. We're
nothing apart from him. We're never going to find our
way out. We're never going to get ourselves out of that blanket.
It's like being a one-year-old child that just has some motor
skills and you throw a big blanket over them, like an Afghan or
something like that with the holes in it, and they're stuck. They
ain't ever getting out of it. And that's how we are, right?
Until you come and you pull that thing back for them and lift
it off of them, they're stuck under that gross darkness. That's
how we are, stuck under that gross darkness until the Lord
strips it away and removes that veil that's covering our heart,
that's preventing us, keeping us from seeing him and from knowing
him and believing on him. And that brings us to the third
thing that our Lord says. So he says, I am the light of
the world. Then he says, he that followeth
me shall not remain in darkness. He's going to bring us out of
darkness. And then he says, he that followeth me shall have
the light of life. Shall have the light of life.
In Isaiah 42 verse 7, We're told why our Lord came, what He accomplishes
in His coming, what He accomplishes in His redemption, what He accomplishes
for you, His people, in His salvation. And we're told in verse 7, it's
to open the blind eyes and to bring out the prisoners from
the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. And so, our Lord brings us out
of that darkness. He brings us, He delivers us
from that prison that we're all in by nature in Adam, where we
can't get ourselves out of it. And so, if you turn to Ephesians
chapter 4, you see here what Paul writes. Ephesians 4, let's look at verse
17. Many hear this as a command to
their flesh. the blessing that when you read
this, see this is what the Lord's declaring to us is this is my
will for my people. He's making known to us what
his will is for us so that we desire for that to be revealed
in us as God wills it and purposes it in his people and we begin
to seek him by faith. We seek his face that this be
revealed in us. Ephesians 4 17, this I say therefore
and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. This is the will
of God for his people. Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. who
being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness
to work all uncleanness with greediness, but ye have not so
learned Christ. If so be that ye have heard him,
and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. And
so by declaring this, what the Lord does is He's showing us
this is my will and purpose in saving you. This is what I accomplish
in the hearts of my people to deliver you from this. And seeing
this is the will of my God for me and what He's accomplished
for me in His Son, we don't have any power in the flesh. to affect
this, or to deliver ourselves, or to make this happen, we seek
Him. By faith, believing, Lord, this
is your will and purpose for me in Christ, and you deliver
me from darkness. Lord, deliver me. I pray, I beg
you, Lord, have mercy on me and your Son. Keep me, keep me ever
following you. Lead me out of darkness, lead
me out of the lusts and the passions of the flesh here in this life,
that I may walk in the light of Christ always before you.
And he gives us that heart and that desire, beholding this is
the will of my God for me, why he saved me in his Son. And so Christ makes us followers
of him. It's the Spirit that gives us
life. It's the Spirit that makes us born again, born of the seed
of Christ, born to know him and to be servants of our Lord, children
of our Lord, crying out, Abba, Father. have mercy upon me."
And so he reveals this faith in us whereby we believe and
walk after him. And him having removed that thick
veil of darkness as he does for all his children, removing nature's
darkness, we behold His light, we hear His voice, we believe
Christ, and we abide in that light, we continue in Him, all
thanks to the glory and praise of our God. And He keeps us growing
in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, and that's what
He does for all believers. He delivers them from death,
eternal death, and delivers them unto His kingdom of light, His
kingdom of life, His life, His salvation. Our Lord tells us
in John chapter 3, why don't you turn there, John chapter
3, because we'll come back to that chapter in a moment. John chapter 3, 35 and 36. The
father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hand. And when our Lord says, I am
the light of the world, He's just saying that verse in another
way. That the Father's given all things
into my hand. I am the giver of life. I am
salvation. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And so, we that believe Christ
The Lord's saying, you have life. You believe because God has given
you life. And you believe as a living soul,
as a living child of God, you believe. You cannot do anything
but believe on His salvation and trust Him. And we've been
delivered from the wrath of God because where the wrath of God
remains, that's where unbelief is. That's where you see unbelief,
where the wrath of God continues on. Now we all were children
of wrath at one point and God delivered us. So the hope is
we keep preaching. We keep declaring the truth because
it's God who delivers out from that wrath, who brings them into
Christ in a knowledge of what he's accomplished for his people. And so man's not going to deliver
himself from that thick darkness. It's by the grace of God. Now
let's move on to the second and final point. This one's much,
much more brief. This is the condition of those
men who do not see the light of Christ. They are left to themselves,
and being left to themselves, they will not believe Christ. And our Lord says in John 8.21,
we're coming back to 3, but in John 8.21, Then said Jesus again
unto them, I go my way, ye shall seek me, and shall die in your
sins, whither I go ye cannot come. Our Lord has shown us,
we've seen in the first part there, that our Lord saves His
chosen seed. He's going to reveal faith in
His people. He's going to reveal salvation
in them. They're going to see His light.
They're going to follow him out of darkness, and they're going
to abide in Christ, in the light of Christ. But these Jews here
that Christ was speaking to, these Pharisees, they would not
believe Christ. They would not hear him. They
argued against him. They challenged him at every
point. They resisted the truth that he was declaring to his
people. And it says, the reason why we're
told is in John 3, verse 19 and 20, where our Lord says, this
is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world. Christ
is the light of the world, and he's coming to 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. And so the Lord is speaking to
these Pharisees and he tells them, I go my way. In other words, I'm going to
accomplish the salvation work that my father sent me here to
do. I go my way. I'm going to do the will of my
father. I'm going to the cross and I'm going to lay down my
life for my people and shed my blood to cover their sin and
to give them life. I'm going to accomplish the will
of my father. Nothing's going to stop me. And
he says, and ye shall seek me. In other words, you're going
to look for a Messiah. You're going to look for salvation. It won't be Jesus of Nazareth
that you're looking for because ye will not believe me, he said. But you're going to seek salvation. And they're going to continue
to look for one according to the flesh's expectations. They're
looking for salvation. Looking for a Savior is very
fleshly. They just want to be saved. And it's especially true
when man comes into calamity, when he comes into trials and
difficulties in his life, he's going to seek for salvation. And for many, it will be too
late. You know, there's many that have
heard the gospel, that have heard the grace of God in Christ, and
they forget all about it. And then they come into calamity
and they turn around and they start looking for the seed. What
did he say? How is salvation? What did he
say about salvation? I can't remember now because
that hardened path that they've trampled upon, that they've walked
over and hardened, all that seed that fell there has been picked
up and taken away by the birds. And by the time they go back
to look for it, they have no recollection of salvation. They don't remember. They don't
remember Christ's who said, I am the light of the world. They
don't see him as the Savior like you do. They don't see their
need of Christ. They never followed him. They
didn't see his light. They don't understand it at all.
And so they might look for salvation. They'll run to what their hands
can do. They'll run to the idols of man
and the false ways of man. But Christ says, you will not
find it. You won't find me. You won't
find the truth. And so they rejected the light,
right? Because they were reproved. He
reproved their works as being false. He reproved their works
as being fleshly. He reproved their works as being
insufficient and not pleasing to God, that they could not save
them. And they were offended in that. They were offended,
or they thought it foolish to trust him. And so he says, you
shall die in your sins. You shall die in unbelief without
a remedy for your sin. So our Lord is showing there
what a blessing He's given to His people to hear. You that
hear those blessed words, I am the light of the world, and you
say, yes Lord, you are the light of the world. You are. You're
my light. You're my salvation. You're such
a merciful, And blessed Lord, so kind to me when my sins don't
deserve any of your kindness. But the Lord shows us mercy and
grace, that he is salvation, that he is your salvation. And that's grace, because we
see what man is left to himself. He will not believe, he will
not hear. He's gonna look for salvation
one day, but he ain't gonna find it. He's not going to find it
because he refused the Lord Jesus Christ. So bless the Lord. You that believe continue in
his salvation, continue in him, trust him, seek him and never
be turned away from it. Beg the Lord that he keep you.
So I pray the Lord bless that word to your heart. Amen. Our
gracious Lord, we thank you father for your, for your grace and
showing us and helping us making us to hear those words of our
Savior, who declared that He is the light of the world, and
that all who follow Him shall not walk in darkness, but shall
walk in life, shall have life and walk in the light of Christ.
Lord, we thank you for this mercy. We thank you for your grace,
which is so rich, free, and abundant toward us in your Son. Father,
forgive us of our unbelief. Forgive us of our foolishness.
Forgive us of our of our willingness in this flesh to just let it
go. But Lord, we thank you for your mercy, which keeps us. We
thank you for your grace, which keeps us even when we're tried
and reveals faith in us and shows us again the mercy of our God
in Christ. Lord, we're nothing apart from
you. We're nothing without you. Lord, we need you. Keep us ever
knowing this truth and ever seeking You and finding hope and peace
and rest in the Savior. It's in His name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, number 63. Take the name of Jesus with you,
number 63. Taking the name of Jesus with
you, child of sorrow and of woe. It will joy and comfort give
you, take it then where'er you go. Precious name, oh how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven
Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Take
the name of Jesus ever As a shield from every snare ? If temptations
round you gather ? ? Read the holy name in prayer ? ? Precious
name, oh how sweet ? ? Hope of earth and joy of heaven ? ? Precious
name, oh how sweet ? ? Hope of earth and joy of heaven ? ? O the precious name of Jesus
? ? How it thrills our souls with joy ? ? When his loving
arms receive us ? ? And his songs our tongues employ ? ? Precious
name, O how sweet ? ? Hope of earth and joy of heaven ? Precious
name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven,
At the name of Jesus bowing, Falling prostrate at His feet. King of kings, in heaven we'll
crown him, when our journey is complete. Precious name, oh how
sweet, hope in earth and joy of heaven. Precious name, oh,
how sweet. Hope of Jordan, joy of heaven. Thank you. I haven't sung that one yet, so
it's kind of a new one. I sang it this morning at home.