I always look once I have it. Good morning. We're going to
begin our second service singing number 268, How Firm a Foundation,
268. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to
you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will still give thee aid, I'll
strengthen Help thee, and cause thee to flit, Upheld by my gracious
omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow. For I will be with thee thy troubles
to bless, and say, When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy
supply. The flame shall never die. I only design thy dross to consume
and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will, not I will, Our second hymn will be number
106. 106, tell me the story of Jesus. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus
sang as they welcomed his birth. ? Glory to God in the highest
? ? Peace and good tidings to earth ? ? Tell me the story of
Jesus ? ? Crying out my heart every word ? ? Tell me the story
most precious ? ? Sweetest that ever was heard ? Fasting alone in the desert,
tell of the days that are past. How for our sins he was tempted,
yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor,
tell of the sorrow he bore. homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus who's
right on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they
nailed him, writhing in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where
they laid him, tell how he lived again. Love in that story so
tender, clearer than ever I see. Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
love paid the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Thank you. I would like to read from Revelations
20. Actually, let's see here. Revelations 21, starting
with verse 9. 21, verse 9. And there came unto me one of
the seven angels, which had seven vials full of the seven last
plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, and I will
show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away
in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me
that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
God, having the glory of God. And her light was like unto a
stone, most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
and had a wall great and high, and had 12 gates, and at the
gates 12 angels, and the names written thereon, which are the
names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. And on the
east three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the
south three gates, and on the west three gates, and the wall
of the city had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the
12 apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had
a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof,
and the wall thereof, And the city lieth four square, and the
length is as large as the breath. And he measured the city with
the reed, 12,000 furlongs. The length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof,
140 and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that
is, of the angel. And the building of the wall
of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold like unto
clear glass. and the foundations of the wall
of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, and the
third chalcedony, and the fourth an emerald, the fifth sardonyx,
and the sixth sardius, and the seventh chrysolite, and the eighth
burl, and the ninth topaz, and the 10th acrysoprasis, and the
11th adjacent, and the 12th an amethyst, and the 12 gates were
12 pearls. Every several gate was of one
pearl and the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent
glass. And I saw no temple there in
for the Lord God almighty and the lamb or the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine
in it for the glory of God did lighten it. And the lamb is the
light thereof and the nations of them which are saved shall
walk in the light of it. And the kings of the earth do
bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall
not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
it. And there shall no wise enter
into anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie. but they which are written in
the Lamb's book of life. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the Lamb of
God and of the Lamb, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street of it, and on either
side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bear
12 manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month. And the
leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, and there
shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall
be in it, and his servants shall serve him, and they shall see
his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads, and there
shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they
shall reign forever and ever. Our merciful, Father, we thank
you for allowing us to come together week by week here in this location.
What a great, great blessing it is, Father, to have a place
to come and to hear your gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ declared
unto us. Father, we thank you for your
amazing grace poured out upon sinners. For Father, we would
never seek thee. We would never have a desire
after thee, but Lord, we thank you for your for your unsearchable
riches in Christ and for your redeeming love. And Father, will
you remember Brother Eric this morning again? Continue, Lord,
to give him the strength and the courage to preach to us.
Give him the words to preach and also the liberty in the gospel.
Father, remember us as we listen. Give us an appetite for the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Father, remember us also
in this coming week where many are traveling, return us back
to this location at the appointed time, and remember those that
are sick that cannot be here. We think especially of Brother
Scott and Sister Johnny. Father, you know we miss their
fellowship, but Lord, will you bless them where they are and
return them to us as according to your will, and be with all
those, Lord, that we think of our loved ones. Father, will
you bless them and teach them also the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, remember us this morning.
For Jesus' sake alone, amen. Good morning, everyone. Okay, we're gonna be, let's go
to John chapter one. John chapter one. So John one, and we're gonna
be looking at verses two through nine. And we opened our study
in the Gospel of John a couple of weeks ago. And we looked at
one of the main themes were these teachings of Christ, these discourses,
or where Christ is teaching us the spiritual nature of our salvation. when I saw it anyway, it really
struck me then why John opened the book the way he did, why
he highlighted and focused on the Word of God. And in the very
first verse, when he spoke of Christ being the Word of God,
and he said, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. And that's because it is the
Word of God that is teaching us, that's revealing to us the
Gospel, and that's revealing to us the spiritual nature of
our salvation, and that it's our God who does for us what
we cannot do for ourselves. And as we go now through verses
two through nine, we'll see how they simply bear this truth out
further for us. It just further confirms what
we've seen, that we depend upon the grace of our God and Jesus
Christ to reveal himself to us and to continue to save us and
deliver us from this darkness and cause us to stand in the
grace of God and Jesus Christ. All right, and so I've titled
this The Light and Life of Men. The Light and Life of Men. So
let's read these first two verses together. John 1, verse 1 and
2. 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. Now, you'll notice there in verse
two, he uses that same phrase again, in the beginning. And when he said, in the beginning,
in the first verse, he was talking about or was lifted or taken
from the same words in Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And we asked, what beginning? What beginning is the Lord talking
about there? Is it eternity? in the beginning
of eternity? Well, no, that makes no logical
sense whatsoever because eternity isn't subject to time. It has
no beginning and it has no end. So that's not the beginning that
he's talking about. Instead, what he's talking about
is the beginning of the manifestation of God to reveal his grace toward
a people whom he chose in Christ. In the beginning when God began
his work to save a people and in the beginning of it he created
the heaven and and the earth for this purpose, to create man
and put man in it, that he might redeem that man, that he might
save, create, and form, and redeem, and call the people for himself. And so this second verse, when
it says, the same was in the beginning with God, what that
is really showing to us is that the Son of God, who is the Word
of God, the Son of God, He is one with the Father and with
the Spirit and is in agreement, is in agreement with this purpose
of God and doing this work of God to reveal to us the salvation
of God and the covenant of grace. And so the will of God being
shown to us in grace toward man, that the Son and the Spirit and
the Father are all one in agreement with this work to reveal salvation
to this people that he's created for this very purpose. And 1
John 5 verse 7 says, for there are three that bear witness in
heaven, the Father, the Word, who is the Son of God, and the
Holy Ghost, and these three are one. There is one God in three
persons, and they're one in agreement to do this, to reveal themselves
in glory and grace and power to a people prepared for the
Lord. All right, so with this agreement
in purpose and counsel, the Word then went into action. began
to create, began to form that which God purposed for the salvation
of his people in grace. And then John 1 verse 3 tells
us this, all things were made by him and without him was not
anything made that was made. And so the testimony of of scripture
here is borne out as it's revealed to us. It's manifest to us the
judgment of God, the purpose of God, what God is doing all
the way to his revelation, making known his salvation all the way
out to the Gentiles scattered far and beyond where Israel was,
right? He's revealing his judgment even
to the ends of the earth where the Gentiles are. It's a picture
of our God revealing his covenant of grace to his whole church,
the whole church, all men and women, Jew and Gentile, free
and slave, rich and poor, all that are his are witnessing and
coming into the knowledge of God's God's revelation, manifestation
of grace toward them. All right? And that all began
in time when he created the heaven and the earth. It was all begun
there, a creation. And so what Why I say that is
because what God is revealing to us in creation, he's showing
that it's ever been this way. God isn't changing. He's not changed his mind on
anything that he purposed to do from the very beginning. Some
of you may be aware that in one particular end time theology,
they speak of the church as being a plan B of God, that he never
intended to save, the Gentiles. He was going to reveal himself
to the Jews in that they were supposed to believe Christ, but
they didn't. They rejected him. And so God
went away from plan A and fell into plan B, which is the church,
the Gentile church. And I'm telling you, that's not
what the scriptures confirm. It reveals that from the very,
very beginning, this was the purpose of God in creating the
heaven and the earth to save all his people, Jew and Gentile,
from the very beginning. God does not change. And I'll
show you this if you turn with me to Ephesians 3. Ephesians
3. And so as you're turning there,
Paul's declaring to this Gentile church in Asia, the church in
Ephesus there, and he's declaring to them his knowledge in the
mystery of Christ. That's what he says in verse
four. And then we find out in verse eight that this is what
he's preaching among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is what he's been led of
God to do and declare the unsearchable riches of Christ, which is the
mystery of Christ. He's making known that which
has been made known to him. Now look with me in verse nine.
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ." And so Paul is tying this whole
mystery right back to the purpose of God in creation. This is why
God created the heaven and the earth. To the intent, verse 10,
that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places
might be known by the church, the whole church, Jew and Gentile,
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose. Not his
change of mind purpose, but the eternal purpose which he purposed
in Christ Jesus our Lord. So this was always the purpose
of God. This is why he created the heaven and the earth. And so this is the purpose, the
same purpose of John in declaring here what he's saying at the
beginning of his gospel. The same was in the beginning
with God. He's telling us this is the agreement
in the mind of God between the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost to do this work of creation. because he's revealing himself.
The mystery is he had a people whom he chose, whom he loved
and foreknew, and chose them and put them in Christ. And this
is the manifestation of it now, just unfolding before us in the
preaching of the gospel. All right? And so we are right
to say this world was created for the honor and the glory of
the Son of God. for the honor and the glory of
the word of God. And I'm gonna quote from Colossians
1 verse 16. It says, for by him, by the word
of God, were all things created that are in heaven and that are
on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions,
right, thrones or dominions here on earth or in the heavens, thrones
or dominions, and principalities or powers, all things were created
by him and for him. for the Son of God, for his glory
and honor, power, and praise. All right, what does that mean
for him? Do we see that borne out in scripture or anywhere
else? Yes, indeed, in Revelation, all right? In Revelation 4, where
we see the 24 elders that are in heaven, and they cast their
crowns before the Lord, and they cry out and praise God continually,
saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power, for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure,
right, for thy pleasure they are and were created. And that
really blows our mind because we always think of ourselves,
don't we? But now we find out our God has created all things
for himself. And that is a help, even as we
were talking this morning in the midst of persecution when
we realized God didn't create me for me, he created me for
himself, for his own pleasure, for me to glorify him and worship
him and to bear testimony of him even in the face of persecution
and tribulation and hardship coming against that which he's
revealed to us in the gospel of his son. Okay, so speaking
of glory and honor, This is where John goes to, naturally, spiritually
speaking, naturally when I say that, this is where he goes to
in revealing the honor bestowed upon the son in our text in John
1 verse 4. He says, in him was life, and
the life was the light of men. Jesus Christ, Him for whom we
are created, for His glory and pleasure, He's our life and He's
the light of men. Now, as the Creator, we understand
that He is the fountain of life for all people. He's given life
to everyone. Everyone that, there's no living
creature that is alive that was not created by him. And every
creature only draws its next breath because God allows it. He purposes it to be so. Otherwise,
we couldn't take our next breath, no matter who we are, whether
we believe on him or not, right? And even the inanimate things,
the dust and the rocks, right, which were formed, they're all
created of God for his glory and purpose. And he created all
things ex nihilo, which just means out of nothing. He created
out of nothing. He didn't need anything to exist
for him to form. He created it into existence
by speaking it into existence, something we have no power to
do. We can only make use of that
which he's created, all right? And so in that same sense that
all living things have their life from he who is the fountain
of life, so there's a sense in which there's a natural light,
if you will, a natural morality in cultures, right? We have a
sense of what's right or wrong. It's not a spiritual knowledge,
it's not a true knowledge that is a saving knowledge, but there's
a natural understanding that we have of God in Adam. In Romans 2 verse
14 and 15 speaks of this light. He says in Romans 2 14 and 15,
When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these having not the law are
a law unto themselves. We, you know, a lot of cultures,
they understand that it's wrong to murder someone, to take the
life of another human being, or to just take someone's cattle
for themselves or someone else's property. We understand that's
wrong. And so most cultures understand that there's certain things that
are just wicked and you don't do. And that's what Paul is saying
here. Verse 15 says, which show the
work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else
excusing one another. But when we read this as believers
of Christ being the light and life of his people, it goes beyond
that natural life and that natural life. It's a spiritual life that
we understand, and it's a spiritual light that He's given to us by
His Spirit, which is not of this flesh. And so, it's Christ, right,
that shines upon our natural darkness. He's the one who shines
His light in upon these dark, dead hearts, and brings, gives
the knowledge of God by His light. We're in darkness. We can't see
but Christ reveals Our God and our salvation to us what we are
and who he is he reveals it by the light of his person He makes
that known to us. We don't know that apart from
Christ. That's why he's the light and
the life right we have no no spiritual life in us because
we're dead spiritually. We don't have that living in
us. We have no fellowship with God
and we're dead spiritually until Christ comes and gives us his
spirit and makes us alive in himself. We're just blind men
in darkness and shut up to the things of God until He shines
His light. And we have no life until He gives us life by His
Spirit. And so we speak of that, we call
that spiritual regeneration. We're alive spiritually by the
power of the Spirit and not because of something we've done. We didn't
earn that. We didn't grow into that or come
into a phase of higher understanding. Not at all. We were dead and
didn't even exist spiritually until Christ gave us life in
Him and gave us light to behold and to see what our God has done
in Christ. And so that's what we call being
born again. That's a spiritual birth which
we have no power or control over to shape or to even cause. It's all caused by our God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. new birth, this new creation,
that's where he manifests his fruit and manifests what he's
done and accomplished in us as his people. Alright, so looking
at this a little more, look at verse 5. And this gives us an understanding
why Christ must give us light and life. Why is that necessary
that Christ gives us light and life? Well, because verse five
shows, the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended
it not. All right, that's why there can
be visitors or when you're speaking to others and you're declaring
the gospel to them, And they're being nice, and they're listening,
and they're maybe smiling and maybe nodding, right? But there's
no comprehension. They don't hear what you're saying
until the Spirit gives them life. Right? At best, they'll only
understand the logic of what you're saying, but they won't
believe it in the heart and receive it in Christ. And so, What we
see, we'll probably be looking at a lot of what John puts in
his gospel just to help describe these truths as we go through
the gospel of John. But over in John 3, if you look
there with me, John 3 in verse 19 and 20, he shows us, this is, we that
are left to ourselves are in this darkness. Verse 19, and
this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world.
Speaking of Jesus Christ, 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 this
is true of all of us who are naturally born of Adam. And every
one of us is naturally born of Adam, right? No matter what man
does to try and change that fact or alter that truth, we're of
the natural seed of Adam, which is corrupt and sinful and has
no spiritual life in it. And that's where we come from.
And so we must be born of Christ's spiritual seed. And why he said,
that which is flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit, right? It's never, they don't cross.
It's not, we can't change that truth. And that's why our Lord
said, you must be born again. We've got to be born again. And
I can't get myself born again. I'm dependent upon the grace
of God. And so we come here to hear the
gospel, to hear his revelation, to hear the light of God, praying
and begging him that he would shine that light in our hearts,
that he would give life and light and liberty to set us free from
the bondage of this sin and death that we are in the flesh. And
we trust him. All right? in the fall of Adam,
we will never come to God unless He draws us. And that's why our
Lord said, ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. It
just won't happen unless He draws us, unless He gives us a will
that is alive by the Spirit, then we'll come. We can't help
but come because it's his power. And so what we find in the scripture,
what the law reveals to us over in Romans 8 for example, is that
this flesh is naturally enmity against God. It's rooted in hatred
against the true and living God. And we won't hear that. Some
people might be in agreement with that because they actively
hate him. But a lot of people are very religious and think
very highly of themselves and don't believe that naturally
we are enmity against God and we hate the true and living God.
The God they love naturally is the God of their own idle imagination
God, not the God of this word that says, you can't save yourself,
your works don't please me. The work that pleases me is the
work that my son accomplished, whom I sent to save my people. And when they realize salvation
is out of their hands and out of their power, that's when the
offense comes and they get angry and hate that God who created
them. naturally created them. And so
the scriptures say in Romans 8 verse 5, they that are after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They don't want
to hear that they can't save themselves, they want to hear
about what they can do to make things right and make themselves
acceptable to God. But, verse 7, Romans 8, 7 says
the carnal mind is enmity against God. That's our natural flesh,
dead set against the true and living God. For it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And that's why no man,
no woman can make themselves righteous under the law. It's
enmity. It cannot keep the law perfectly. and so as to please God, all
right? So the child of God, when our
Savior reveals this to us, makes us to know these things. That's
why we cease to have confidence in the flesh, because we're taught,
as we fall into sin, as we see the weakness of this flesh, as
we come to feel and learn that unbelieving old man, that old
nature that still desires the things of the world, desires
the things of this flesh, that doesn't love the Lord, that doesn't
believe the Lord, that wants for itself when it wants it,
that's how the Lord shows us so that we cease having confidence
in the flesh because we see, Lord, we're not for you. We're
not for your grace. I'm a dead man. I'm worthy of
hell. That's all I've earned. That's
all I've accomplished in this life. But we come to believe
and trust that the blood of Christ is sufficient to save us and
that he put away our sin perfectly, perfectly, all right? He accomplished
it all, all right? And so our Savior in mercy passes
this knowledge to us. He reveals this to us and assures
us of it, comforting us in his gospel whereby we receive him
and believe him and rest in him, all right? Now to further verify
the depths of our corruption to us, We understand it. Look
at verses 6 and 7 in John 1. We're told here that there was
a man sent from God whose name was John. He's speaking of John
the Baptist. The same came for a witness to
bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.
And just so we're clear, the John spoken of here is John the
Baptist. It's not the one who wrote the
Gospel of John. who wrote it is the disciple
John, not John the Baptist, right? So our God raised up this man
before Christ in the flesh to come and preach, to prepare the
people so that they knew that Christ, who was promised of God,
is coming. He's coming right behind me.
Get ready, because here comes the light and life of God. One thing we see there is that
God sends men to preach the gospel. He sends his people with that
message to preach the gospel. How do I know if they're sent
of God? Well, because those that are sent of God preach Jesus
Christ and him crucified. We preach that salvation is of
the Lord and not of this flesh. We glorify Jesus Christ in salvation
and not this flesh. And so that's how we know who
is sent of God, because they lift up and exalt Christ. We're
servants of Jesus Christ. We preach not ourselves. Now, he was sent of God to bear
witness of the light. And that's our commission. That's
why God has assembled us together. and giving us a heart to meet
together and to give to this work and to continue in this
work because that's our commission, to preach Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. All right, now the Lord confirms
for us that John the Baptist himself was not the word of God.
Some thought this is it. This man is a prophet unlike
any other that we saw. He must be the word of, this
is the Messiah, the one who was promised to us. But the Lord
says in verse eight, John 1.8, he was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. Now, let me just say on
this point, that when we speak of Christ, when we're bearing
that light, when we're testifying of the light of God, when we're
speaking of Him, we will find that what is said of Christ will
be said of us. And here's what I mean by that. Look at verse five, back in John
1.5 again, as the light shineth in darkness, right, as we're
testifying of the light, The light of Christ is shining in
the darkness. It's landing upon the ears of
those that believe not. We're testifying, and it says
the darkness comprehended it not. So if they don't comprehend
Christ when he came in the flesh, they're not gonna comprehend
us when we're saying it. I remember someone saying, if
they didn't see Jesus in Jesus, they're not gonna see Jesus in
you and me, right? No matter how good we are and
what we say, they're not gonna believe us either if they believe
not him. And our Lord said to us in John
13, 16, he said, verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is
not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than
he that sent him. And so many are not gonna hear. We shouldn't be surprised if
many do not believe us and they don't rejoice in that which we
rejoice in. And their hope and confidence
isn't fixed in Christ because the same thing that the way they
treated Christ is the way they treat us. And sometimes people
I think, well, I'm sure I've said it, and when I was younger,
you know, that, oh, if we lived in the time of Christ, we'd be,
I'd be a disciple of his and I'd follow him and I'd go contrary. And that's just not true, right?
That we can't talk like that. But the other reason why I'm
saying that is because those that heard Christ and rejected
him would hear us and reject him as well, is what the Lord's
saying, is if they receive me, they'll receive you. If they
reject me, they'll reject you. And our Lord would go on to say
in John 15, verse 18 through 21, John 15, He said, if the world hate you,
ye know that it hated me before it hated you. The world rejected
Christ, and so they're gonna reject the servants of Christ.
If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But
because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word
that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they
have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these
things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they
know not Him that sent me." And so, if this is the case regarding
Christ, if that's true, that this world will not receive us,
that they won't hear us, Why do we rejoice in Him? Why do
we keep His saying? Why do we continue in Him? Why
do we continue lifting up the banner of our Lord and Savior? Why do we continue in the faith
of Christ and seek to faithfully serve and honor Him? All right,
why is that? Well, verse nine tells us that,
that was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. And so what the Lord's declaring
to us is when He's the true light, when He lights us and gives us
light and life in Him, that's why we rejoice in Him because
He's given us life and He's called us out of darkness. Unlike all
the rest, we've been called out of the darkness and deadness
of this nature. The flesh, Those who have not
the truth, who love not the truth, they hate Him and they're His
mortal enemy. But the flesh, right, we know
that the flesh will soon perish. And we know that those who perish
in their sins, they'll stand before their Creator to be judged
of Him. But to you that believe, Christ,
the true light which lighteth every redeemed man that cometh
into the world, we know that if any is given this light, then
Christ is indeed their very life. He's given that to them. So,
that's our hope, and that's why we rejoice in Him, because He's
given us that light and life in Him. That's how we stand and
trust Christ. So that's why what is being traced
out for us very plainly here by John so that we understand
this whole foundation is a spiritual foundation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So I pray that that message comfort
you and you remember those words as you see your family members
and friends that you haven't seen in a long time and you're
speaking those things. We know that. They won't hear
us unless Christ gives them light and life, but we pray for that,
right? Because we love them and we want
to. We want them to rejoice in the salvation. We rejoice in,
but just remember those simple words of what Christ has done
and speak that truth and pray that that same faithful word
of faith reveals faith in them as well. So I pray that the Lord
blesses you with that word. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for just the simplicity of Christ. We thank you for the
light and the life which he's given us and what you've revealed
in us in him. And we pray, Lord, that you would
comfort your people. Lord, that we not get angry with
those that will not hear us or receive us, but that we would
be patient and we would not Seek to shove things down people's
throats, but that we would be faithful and kind and gracious,
that we would not repay evil with evil, but that we would
bless those that curse us, that we would bless them and not curse.
And if any persecute us, that we would be kind and gentle toward
them in the hopes that you would have mercy and forgive them of
their sins. even as we trust, Lord, that
you forgive us of our sins. Lord, we pray that you bless
this congregation, bless our brethren, those that could not
be with us due to illness and sickness and other various troubles,
Lord, that you would comfort them and you would help us to
serve and minister to them and that we would grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank
you for him. We thank you, Lord, for all your
many blessings in our Savior, Jesus Christ, that you purpose
to manifest yourself in this world, that you created us for
yourself. And we pray that you continue
to manifest yourself in us by grace. It's in the name of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. All right, brethren, let me just
remind you there won't be a midweek service this week. So we'll meet
again on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. So I pray the Lord give you all
safe traveling mercies and that he give safe traveling mercies
to your family and friends coming in from out of town that and
that you have a really nice time together and a time of rest and
that'd be great. All right, brother. Closing hymn will be 258. 258,
He Hideth My Soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life
in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand. With numberless blessings
each moment He crowns, and filled with His fullness divine, I sing
in my rapture, O glory to God, for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life
in the depths of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with His
hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported, I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. So, Michelle invited me for lunch.
Oh, good. I was planning on going to Mom
and Dad's, but I thought, I don't have much time anyway. Yeah,
so you can just run in, get ready, and then you can... Oh, okay.
I was going to say, otherwise, yeah, I was just going to go
work. Whatever you want. Their place is on the way. Oh,
good. But I was thinking, let's plan something and I'll make
it back. Sure. It'd be nice. Yeah, it'd
be nice to have you guys, because you guys always have us over.
We haven't been in a while. Are you talking to me, buddy? Hi. Are you ready? I know you
love to be held. You know that passage that Joe
read? He said, we're seeing the new
Jerusalem coming down from heaven. I heard Todd say that. We're
already there. You know, they came down from
heaven. We're already seated in heavenly
places. Amen.