Where am I at after Paul Duaneis?
All right, brother. It's good to be home.
I'm glad we're back. That song was wonderful. He leadeth
me. That's pretty well. Me and Mike
didn't work together. That's pretty well my whole message
tonight. His faithful follower I would
be. I want to follow my Lord in all
things. I mean it. What you read, there's
one more verse and that ends the paragraph. Everybody stops
short right before the end of that paragraph. That goes with
it, too. It goes with it. He's written his law on our hearts,
on his people's hearts, and I would. Brother David Emerson wrote an
article called I Ought. Oh, all the things I ought out
of a debt of gratitude, out of a debt of love. It's reasonable. I ought to do. I ought to do. But he leadeth me. He's a faithful
follower, I would be. For by his hand he leadeth me. How are we going to follow him?
Take us by the hand. He's going to say, come on. He's
going to lead us in. All right, John chapter eight. John chapter eight, we're going
to be looking at verses 12 through 19 as our text this morning,
but there's so much in this passage. are so much we can't glean at
all. And if I were to preach this
and other men preach that we had 50 faithful men here to preach,
and we all preach the same text day in and day out for a month,
we ain't gonna scratch the surface. It's precious. But I thought
I'd shelled some pinto beans the other day, just a few of
them that dried on the vine and in the pod. I just had one little
handful. And I thought, you know what?
That's just what one person could eat. Out of this text, if we
could get just one handful of crumbs from our master's table,
do you think that'd sustain us one more day? Do you think that'd
keep us? I hope he'd be with us. In John
chapter 8, our Lord begins this chapter, setting down at the
temple early in the morning. He rose up early in the morning.
He went and sat. He taught those that came to
hear Him again. They come again. Then they come
one more time. And then they come after that.
And then they come again. to hear His words. After speaking
with Him, they brought a woman caught in adultery. She was caught
in the very act. He dealt with those accusers
for an individual. Oh, that's not a broad blanket. The cross died for everybody
and He just pretty pleased loved the Savior. He dealt with the
accusers, multiple accusers, of a single individual. We partly quote scriptures all
the time, don't we? We quote parts of scriptures.
We quote halves of scriptures. Look here in John 8, verse 7.
End of verse 7. He looks at those accusers. He
said, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast
a stone at her. At her. You think that's important
if that's there? God's preserved it for 2,000
years. I think it's important. He speaks of His bride individually. Individually. He defends her
individually. Salvation is an individual act
of a holy God toward undeserving people. Aren't you thankful? The Lord stooped down again,
He wrote on the ground. Then the Pharisees, they left
one by one. These accusers, these ones that
brought this woman to Him, they left one by one. Verse 10 says,
And when Jesus had lifted up Himself and saw none but the
woman, He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers?
Hath no man condemned thee? And she said, No, man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. There's going
to be a listing after that. There's a colon there. Neither
do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Light had entered this woman.
She was given eyes to see and the presence of light was about
her. It had entered her. She had the
eyes that the Lord gave and she saw Christ right in front of
her. She understood in several ways the value of her soul. For the first time ever, it was
really important to her. More important than anything
else. More important than scuba diving.
More important than bungee jumping. More important than yard sales.
More important than a football game. More important than anything
else. For the first time, her soul had value. And for the first
time, she saw what the value of that soul held. How good am
I? She knew she was bad. She was
just caught in adultery, wasn't it? Well, the Holy Spirit brought
her all the way down. Almighty God in human flesh right
in front of her brought her down and she knew in my hand no price
I bring. This is important and I have
no price. She knew something of the power, the holiness, the
character of the God-man that saved her that stood right in
front of her. That physically saved her from getting stoned
by these religious folks. She knew something of His power
as the God-man. And she had an understanding.
And that new mind put in her that has eyes, that has ears.
She heard Him. She saw Him. Light was there.
It wasn't in darkness. And she had a mind that understood,
a heart that received Him, and had an expectation, a certain
hope for eternity. She had a hope for that day.
And she knew that when she stood to meet her Maker again, That transaction's took care
of. There's a peace inside her she's never had. When the Lord
said she was not condemned, He told her, go and sin no more. Does that mean she never sinned
again? That this is conditional on her
never sinning again? Of course it doesn't. What's
He saying? Go. Never seek to justify yourself
again. Go. Never attempt to make yourself
righteous again. Go and worship God for the first
time ever. Quit going to church and worship
God. Quit playing and just going into buildings and wearing phylacteries
where they got verses wrote on all over their garments. Knock
that off and you worship God. Meet with His people. You're
a sheep. Sheep need other sheep. Be with
them. Because the Lord said he's going
to gather them. Was he lying when he said he'd gather his
sheep? He wasn't lying, was he? We know better, don't we? He said, you go and walk this
world as a person that knows who you are. I know the sinner
that I am every time I leave that door. It's not oblivious
to me. It goes to the back of my mind
sometimes, and I start thinking what a wonderful person I am.
Now, if everybody's just like me, the world would be a great
place. And the Lord brings me back to know what I am. I know
what I am, and I know who I am, and I know whose I am. I'm just
a sinner saved by grace, and Almighty God sent His Son to
be the propitiation for my sin, to be that accepted bloody sacrifice
for me, a worm like me. I've seen that. He's made me
hear that. He's made me hold that in my
heart. And I know every word He has
promised shall come to pass." It's going to happen. It's going
to happen. He says, go and sin no more.
You think she left? You think she went? You think
she obeyed her Lord that just saved her? She called Him Lord,
didn't she? This wasn't just a, I didn't
get hit in the head with a rock today. Christ is going to teach
those there some more. They saw all this, they're going
to teach Him some more. He's about to tell them something
about Himself. He's going to speak of Himself.
He speaks of Himself to us. If we're going to know Him, He's
going to teach us something. Isn't He? We're going to know a person.
We're going to know something about that person. He's teaching
them here in this text and us something. And then He's going
to give a word about His people. And then a word about those that
are not His people. Now you imagine sitting there
in this temple early that morning. You got up to go hear this man
again. And he sets down on the steps
of that temple, and he begins to teach as he did teach. Imagine
him reading the Scriptures. He's the one that wrote it. And then here comes this woman,
snatched up underneath the arm, drugged by a bunch of legalists,
and says, we caught her in the very act. And of course they
butchered the law, as always. They stopped short and didn't.
read God's Word with any understanding whatsoever. And this woman came
and everybody there just got real quiet. Somebody's disrupting
the church service. People have stormed in, causing
a scene. He attacks those accusers. Those
ones that are attacking her, he just shuts them down. Stops
them dead in their tracks. And he looks at this woman and
everybody there knows she's guilty. She knows she's guilty. We know
she's guilty because she's just like us. And he says, I don't
condemn you. Where's your accusers? You ain't
got none. Go and send them. What just happened? What just
happened? We were sitting here. We were
learning some things. This lady got drug in by mean
men. I kept trying to type men. And
it kept coming up mean. And so I left it. Mean men. That's
what they was, wasn't it? Those weren't hoity-toity moral
upstanding folks in the community. They're mean. Mean men. They got dealt with, then they
leave, and this woman is forgiven. She was given light to see. She was given eyes to see. She
was given life. Right in front of their eyes.
Right in front of their eyes. That's what happened. That's
what had took place. How did this salvation come to
be? This will be our text. John 8, verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them. To who? The Pharisees that come
accuser? No, they left. They ain't there.
Those that showed up early that morning at the temple. He was
teaching. He dealt with the problem. And
he turned right back around and continued to teach. Then spake
Jesus unto them again, saying, I am the light of the world. and the light of the world. That
complicated? Easy, short-syllabled words. There's two things. I was taught
this my whole childhood. And I hope you young folks grow
up remembering this. There's two things that's needed
to see. Physically, there's two things
that's needed to see. If we're going to see in this
flesh, we're going to have to have eyes that work. to see something, ain't we? If
we had eyes that were just 20-20, had perfect vision, but you were
in complete darkness, you couldn't see. So we have to have eyes
that work, living eyes that can see, and we have to be in light.
You have to have light to see. Something has to illuminate what
we can see, or we wouldn't see anything. We'd walk around. We
need that to get around, to understand, and know what's around us. And
this is just as true spiritually. The seeing eye comes from the
Lord. He gives that. But Christ is the light. He illuminates
everything. He gives us eyes to see and He
gives us something to see and a means by which we do see. And
He's the means. He's the one that provides it.
He's the means. By Him, the light, we see what we truly are. We got sin. Well, I've committed
sin. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. You
ever just had your face in a pillow and it was soaking wet because
you knew what you are before a holy God? He'll make us see
that. He'll make us see what we are.
And it don't matter who's around and we just assume nobody was
and we'll snot in our pillow. We'll know what sin we are. We'll
see that. And we'll see who the great Godhead truly is. This
God man that came. He is holy. Oh man, it ain't pretend. And
we can't even enter into what it is. He is perfect. Sin cannot be in His presence.
He is just. And we see what our end is. Outside
of His Son, outside of the substitution that God Himself provides, we're
graveyard dead for eternity. And boy, you're going to moan.
gnashing of teeth, a worm that never dies. And people have all
these cartoons that they spoil little children with and lie
to them about God. Say, oh, there's a guy with a pitchfork and flames.
It's going to be much worse than that. You're going to know of
the Almighty God, man, who is holy, perfect and just, a triune
God, manifest in a body. You're going to know Him and
see how He deserves to be loved and worshiped and honored. And
then you're never going to be with Him. He says, depart from
me. If you know anything about Him,
that's the worst thing that could happen. That's what Paul was getting
at. That we see Him truly. He's the light. Turn over to
2 Corinthians chapter 4. A few pages there. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3, But if
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. That's
not hard, is it? Christ is the light of the world.
Man is going to see eternity. Man is going to see Him in His
holiness and be with Him throughout eternity. It's going to be in
Christ. He's the one that does it. If our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. They have
minds. They have eyes, don't they? Our
Lord asked them at Mark 8. He said, you got eyes, don't
you see? You have ears, don't you hear? You got a mind. And He says, don't you remember?
You've been instructed these things. Don't you remember? The
lowercase god of this world is their God. They're just like
Him. They are their own gods. That's
how people are blinded to self. Self. Pride. Arrogance. Haughtiness. Self. That's what
David wrote about in Psalm 135. He said, The idols of the heathens
are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Look what I did.
You know what I did? That's their God. They have mouths,
but they speak not. What don't they speak of? God's
grace. You don't hear about that. Well, you get a good message
every now and then. Hogwash. They don't believe it
or they'd preach it. Eyes they have, but they see
not. They don't see Christ lifted up. They don't see Him worshipped.
They don't see Him as He deserves to be worshipped. They have ears,
but they hear not. They will not come and hear our
Lord exalted, because they're dead, there's no light in them.
Neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make
them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them.
That's what it is to be blinded. And all that is play in religion.
That's not drug pushers down on the bad side of town. That's
people who wear ties and carry Bibles and open orphanages and
have soup kitchens and they preach in the prisons and they have
all these outreach ministries and all these things and they
hand Bibles out to every motel you can find. Verse 4 says, 2 Corinthians 4.
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them." That's his
design, isn't it? Our great accuser. That lion
that seeks whom he devours. Whatever he can do to keep people
away from Christ. Don't talk about that. Don't
bring him up. Don't say anything about him.
Do something else. Whatever. Camping. Those jacks where you bounce
the ball and scoop the things. I don't know. Whatever. Something.
Not him. Paul says in verse 5, For we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine. He commanded Christ to come.
He commanded Christ the Messiah, the Anointed One, the fulfillment
of all things in Him. He commanded that out of darkness.
He hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge. What knowledge? Who we are, who
He is, why we need Him, of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. He commands that light and we
see His glory because light was commanded. His glory was commanded. He's going to exalt His Son,
the Father is. The Son honored the Father in this earth. We're
going to see that. We're going to see it. This is a word from
our Lord about Himself. By Him saying, He's the light
of the world, that means there's no other light worth anything.
All other light is excluded. This world does not have its
own light. And no other light will do. Back in our text here in John
8. Verse 12 says, Then Jesus spake
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. Now,
here's a word to His people. Those listening to Him right
then. Those ones blessed with God to
sit there and hear Him speak softly. and to us right now who have
ears to hear Him, to us right now who have eyes to see Him
in His life. And Jesus spake again to them
saying, I am the light of the world. What world? Jew, Gentile, bond-free,
educated, uneducated. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Turn back to John 1, just a few
pages. Our text says there that he shall have, his people shall
have the light of life. Did you know that light and life
are the same thing? To have light is to have life.
That's where all of our life comes from. What if the sun turned
off? The S-U-N. How long are we going
to make it? It gives us heat. It gives us
food. It gives us energy. It gives
us everything. We have vitamin D. We make our bodies make it.
The Lord's designed us magnificently. We have to have the sun, S-U-N,
to live. Light and life go hand in hand.
We freeze to death, starve to death. We need the S-O-N, it's just
the same. Christ the light and our eternal life have to go hand
in hand. We have to have him. Here in
John 1, 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same in the beginning with
God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. When we have eternal life, we're
going to have Christ in us. Him abiding in us. Now this part
here is unfortunate. Verse 5. and the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. We need
eyes and light. He has to give us eyes to see
the light, and He has to give us light to see. We have to have
ears to hear, and He has to give us a word. He has to speak comfort
to our heart. We have to have a heart, a heart
of flesh, not an old stony heart. We have to have a heart that
loves Him and believes Him, but He has to love us. He has to put that faith of Christ
in us. Those go hand in hand. There in our text, it says, I
am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. We that follow
Christ, we do not walk in darkness. We have the light of life. We
have Christ. And in view of Him, Just like
that woman here that was caught in adultery that he forgave,
in view of Him, in the light of His light, we see He is the
Lord of creation. He's created all things. He's
the Lord of providence. He rules and reigns over every
molecule that's ever floated on this earth, ever. He's the
Lord of salvation. If somebody's going to be saved,
He's going to do all of it. They're being given faith to
believe Him. Saving faith. He's the author
and the finisher. Complete. Of judgment. When He
judges, sin will not be sweeped underneath the rug. He's just
and the justifier. This isn't pretend. This isn't
as if you're saved. Not as if the man fell in the
garden. It will be dealt with. Will it
stand alone? You'll have a hard time not paying
attention that day. I care for your souls. People make fun of us on this
earth. People ridicule me, belittle
me. I can't believe y'all down there
having church services again. And they can ignore it. They
can sleep through it. They can do anything they want. But they're
only going to do it here. You ain't going to do it in hell. We're convicted and we see in
His lot eternal glory. Him lifted up and us with Him.
What is it to follow Christ? He said, He that followeth me.
It means to commit ourselves entirely to Him. In totality to Him as our captain,
as our head, as our Savior, as our Lord. I mean, just lock,
stock, and barrel. That means people don't have
guns anymore. That's the whole weapon assembly.
The totality of it. You turn yourself over to Him.
All of you to Him. Total commitment to His Word.
Total commitment to His keeping hand. Total commitment to His
promises. I made a promise. Who cares? He made a promise. That matters.
That matters. What He says. It's submission
in every matter. In practice. In practical things. The Lord's right. He ain't lying
to us. Let's do it. That's the easy part. It's submission
to human doctrine. Well, I don't know about this.
Well, He says it. I don't know. I don't have to. I don't like
that. You don't have to like it. He
says so. That's it. End of argument. There's no debate. And whatever. We submit to a person. To a person. I don't want to spoil it for
you. You all heard a little bit of it. Psalm 23, the Lord is my
shepherd. I just preached on that Saturday
morning, so it's fresh to me. In totality, wherever God is,
He's there in totality, in completeness. He's everything to His people. He provides for us. He heals
us. He keeps us. He sustains us. He leads us.
He guides us. Everything. He's all. That's following. The following here is defined
as to be in the same way and to accompany. Now the people
that's following Christ, like those two on the road to Emmaus,
was they walking with Him? They were in agreement. Two that
aren't in agreement can't walk side by side, can they? There's
an agreement. They're together. I like being
around like-minded folks. Do you? If you're following Christ, you
follow together. You follow those that follow
Him. My pastor followed the Lord, because he was led by His hand.
And you know what? He was made our pastor. And it
was 700 miles that woman back there drove to go hear her pastor
preach at a conference. Was there other pastors there?
Yeah, there was, but mine was going to be there. I'd stay back
and preach, but she got to go. And she heard a message Thursday
night, and she drove 700 miles, and Friday night she heard the
same message, same text. She picks on him a little bit.
It was special that day, both days, wasn't it? Why? As accompanying
one another, following one another, walking together with the Lord.
End up in the same place, won't you? To follow Christ is to be
one with Him, to believe Him, to have Him abiding in you, and
that is all He is doing. I've been following the Lord,
believing Him, for several decades now. I followed Him last week. I followed Him this morning.
I followed Him at lunch today while I didn't have a message
and I was begging to God for your souls that I would have
something for you that God might turn the lights on and let you
see something. I hope I'm following Him right now. And by His grace,
I'll follow Him tomorrow. I'll believe Him tomorrow. I'll
rely on Him tomorrow. He'll be my all in all tomorrow
by His grace as He sees fit. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness. If you follow someone, you walk
with them. Noah walked with God. That means you go where they
go. The speed that they choose and their destination is your
destination. We followed the Spirit into the
depths of our sin and our depravity. We saw what we were. Then we
followed the Lord to the base of His glorious throne, where
His feet were, and we begged for mercy. We believed, we followed
in that calling out of mercy, and we shall. We shall not walk
after darkness, not now, not ever, but we shall have the light
of life. We'll have Him forever. That's
what the children of Israel followed that cloud by day, and they followed
the fire by night. It says there in Exodus 13, and
the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to
lead them the way. and by night a pillar of fire
to give them light. Give them light to go by day
and night. He took not away the pillar of
the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before
the people. He didn't take them away. He
leads his people. He guides them by his clouds
and his light. Is that complicated? Is that
real hard? Israel, a couple million folks,
pack your stuff up, clouds moving. We go where the cloud is. Well,
the cloud stopped. Unpack the camels, set the tents
up, fix you some dinner, go to sleep, wake up next morning.
Oh, the cloud's moving. Pack our stuff up. Hang on. You start talking to
someone about the gospel. of the Lord Jesus Christ, about
forgiveness in His blood, about His effectual atonement, His
everlasting love, no matter what. Believing Him, following Him
in complete and total submission. And you'll quickly see the darkness
of this world. It's a sad thing. You'll quickly
see the lack of illumination. It's prevalent. Those that are
in darkness, that's the majority of the world. They do not have
light on the value of their souls. That it's eternal. That they
have no value of themselves. They have no price to bring. That's important. Throughout
the Scriptures, the Lord talks about the value of a soul. And
He said, what will a man give in exchange for his soul? They don't understand or bow
to the true nature of God. His character, who He is. All of a sudden, this ain't playtime
no more. It's serious, isn't it? I know Him. He loves me.
I love Him. But I don't take that lightly.
They don't understand or have light on the reality of the world
to come. They may be religious, but they're
in darkness. They may have a zeal for God. They're in darkness.
They may know the Scriptures. They quoted them to our Lord
who wrote the Scriptures. but they're in darkness. Might
be some of the best people you've ever met in your life. You understand
that? I mean moral, kind, upstanding citizens, hardworking, diligent
people. That's just solid. Oh, I just
love them to death. They're in darkness. Total ignorance
of who they are, who God is, and what's to come. That doesn't make me arrogant.
That doesn't make me puffed up, look down my nose at somebody.
That makes me want to do anything I can To tell people who God is. To
tell people how Christ saved sinners. Verse 12, And Jesus
spake again to 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. The Pharisees therefore said
unto him, Not those ones that brought the woman. These are
some other ones that were there. Lying in wait. Those listening
to find a fault. Those listening to trip him up
in his words. You said that wrong. I got you. Those Pharisees therefore
said unto him, Thou barest record of thyself, thy record is not
true. They're budding the words of
the Lord instead of bowing to the words of the Lord. They're
experts, you know that? You ain't going to tell me nothing
wrong. A fool, I know some fools, a fool won't take the witness
of seven faithful men. That's what Solomon said, wasn't
it? Seven people come up to you and
say, don't do that. You may want to knock that off. Knock it off. That's just good sense. They
knew something. They knew something. I got an
email. I was invited to a lunch. They said it's free admission,
free lunch, and a free book. I was like, you can keep all
three. There's a keynote speaker there, Dr. So-and-so. And you
know what his titles were? The first was a doctor, his name. He was an author, debater, New
Testament Greek scholar, conference speaker, member of a pastoral
team at some church. professor of apologetics and
church history at another church that several stayed away. How
does he get back and forth? Sounds like he can't hold a job.
And co-founder, director, and apologist. I got to thinking,
you know, I don't want to go lunch to this guy. Does he know
God? If that's one of my brethren,
if that's somebody that knows God and follows God, I want to
be with them. I want to go talk to them, get
to know them. We got to meet some brethren
we've never met before this weekend. I love that. I got emails today. We're invited to their home on
the other side of the state. An apologist. An apologist is
a defender of something controversial. I'm not an apologist. I don't
defend something that's controversial. Man's controversial. The gospel's
not. We take offense to it. This is wonderful. This is good
news. It's simple good news. Mankind's what has a problem
with it. Our old nature's what has a problem with it. But they
got him. They said, you bear witness of
yourself. Your record's not true. He said back in John 5, he said,
if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. Well,
which is it? You getting spun up over the
stumbling stones on the way to the city of refuge? Because you're
a scholar? Maybe you ought to understand
God first before you go speaking. Verse 14, And Jesus answered
and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record
is true. For I know whence I came and
whither I go, but ye cannot tell whence I come and whither I go.
He's the only man that's ever walked this earth that can say
that. The only one. Though I bear record of myself,
my record is true. He's his own witness. Isn't that
true? If the only word you had to go on is what Christ said,
Will that sustain you for eternity? That's it, isn't it? If you know
Him, if you know Him, you'll know that's so. He said, ye judge
after the flesh. I judge no man. Oh, that I could
have that heart. Oh, that I could have the heart,
the people that fight me and not judge them, just preach to
them. Before, He was instructing as a man. Now, He's Almighty
God speaking to them. I'm the light of the world. They
didn't have that understanding. And he says, you know what? I
don't judge you. You're looking on the flesh. Now, there'll come
a time when he will judge. He was there to be about his
father's business. He was there to accomplish something for his
people. And he says, I don't judge you. Oh, if I could be
about my father's business. Y'all pray for me. Pray for me
that those that just ignore me, hate me, put me in the dirt and
support others that ought not be supported or mock me or whatever,
that I don't judge them. And I'd just keep on preaching.
I'd just get up to help who Christ is one more time. He said, and
yet if I judge, my judgment's true, mine ain't. His is. For I am not alone, but I and
the Father that sent me, they're one. It is also written in your
law that the testimony of two men
is true. and one that bears witness of
myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me." You
have the Father and the Son bearing witness right in front of you.
If that ain't enough for you, there's no satisfaction in your
souls. Then said they unto them, Where is thy father? They're
not asking him where's the heavenly Father. They're sick because
they know him, right? Where's Joseph? Where's your
daddy? Is he up building a house? Get
him over here. That's what they're asking. They don't see. Their eyes are closed. That was three stooges, wasn't
it? I can't see, I can't see. Open your eyes. The lights are
on. He has to do that. They said,
where is your father? And Jesus answered, you know
neither me, neither know me nor my father. If you had known me,
you should have known my father also. You'll know that they're
one. These words speak Jesus in the treasury as he taught
in the temple. And no man laid hands on him,
for his hour was not yet come. Do you know why no man laid hands
on him? Why that's recorded? They wanted to lay hands on him.
You ain't gonna tell me these things. We know him. He's revealed himself
to us. He is as he said he is. He is who he said he is. And
we know who we are, who Christ is, and we know what's to come.
We know what's to come. We who have life shed abroad
in our hearts, who have light shed abroad in us, we don't grope
around, we don't flounder around in darkness. We don't have all
of our dealings in doubt and despair. We don't see. We're not blind leaders of the
blind. We don't see. He's gave us light, gave us eyes.
And as we look to Christ our light, we don't fumble. As we
look to Him, we don't stumble around. We don't doubt, we don't
despair because we know Him, and we have the light of life,
and we know Him. I know so. As we look to ourselves,
in this body of darkness and death, we fear, we struggle,
and we stumble around, and we get just so grabbed to hold this
earth. We can't shake it, and that's all we can talk about.
all that He'd turn us to Him. He'd shed His light in our eyes
that He's given, make us be focused on Him. And declare in our hearts that,
fear not. Till the end. Till the end. If He's done the work, He'll
finish it. If He's done the work, He will keep them to the end. I've never experienced dying
grace. I haven't needed it yet. I'm still here. Death isn't on
my doorstep. And I can't speak for all, but
those who I know that left this world at peace, they weren't grabbing the gurney,
they weren't fretting, trying their best to stay alive. Oh
no! Oh no! Oh no! God sustained His children
to be faithful to the end, looking to Him. And they were in total
submission. This is fine. I'll holler against the pain.
I don't want that part. But to leave in this earth, I
know Him. He has made a covenant with me.
And I'm going to Him. Now that'll give you some peace
on that deathbed, won't it? To go to Him. Just going home
is all it is. He promises in the Scripture,
and He promises in our hearts what He has done. That sheds
a whole lot of light on things, doesn't it? I hope that's a blessing
to you. Let's pray together. Father, forgive us for our disobedience,
our ignorance, our pride that keeps us from looking to your
son. Lord, you know our frame. Make us know our frame. Make
us know what this world is. Nothing. Vanity. Keep our eyes fixed on him. Lord,
allow us to see Christ and follow him. Have him lead
us by the hand and let us follow him. Forgive us for what we are. Lord, be with your people everywhere.
Those that you've sent heavy trial, give them comfort to know
they have life. They hath life. Lord, the life
that you give ain't going nowhere. Allow them to see that and allow
them to be encouragements to their family and those around them
in this dark world. Christ's words are true. Be with
us as you promised you will be, Lord. Give us peace. Speak that
comfort to our hearts. And it's solely on the merit
of your son as to who he is and what he's done for us that we
petition these things, Lord. Amen.