Let's go to the book of John
chapter 8. Back to John chapter 8 this evening. When we get to verse number 12,
this begins a lengthy section of scripture Our Lord Jesus and the Pharisees,
they exchange words here, and it's all happening in the temple. In fact, if you look at the second
verse of chapter 8, it says, early again He came into the
temple, and all the people came to Him. Then go to the end of
the chapter, if you would. You'll see at verse 59, John
8, 59, Then took they up stones to cast at him. But Jesus himself
went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and
he so passed by the people. So, our Lord Jesus is in the
temple, and He has these words that He speaks to the Pharisees
and the Pharisees, they have some things that, of course,
that they want to say to Jesus of Nazareth as well. I think
it is of interest to see that this meeting between the Pharisees
and the Lord Jesus, let's see where it took place. Look at
verse number 20. It says, these words spake Jesus
in the treasury as he taught in the temple. That was a very
interesting building and the various sections of the building
of the temple, different areas. There were seven different areas
in the temple, innermost part of the temple. Of course, there's
the Holy of Holies, and that's where still the high priest would
go once a year on the Day of Atonement. And the two goats,
and you've studied that, we've studied that in the book of Leviticus,
the goat, one goat for the Lord, another goat, the scapegoat,
the goat for the Lord, died. The other goat, Aaron confessed
all of the sins of Israel over the head of the scapegoat. There was really no literal transference
of guilt to the goat, but it's what it pictured. The sins of
all of God's people being charged to the Lord Jesus. And then that
scapegoat being led by a fit man out into the wilderness. That goat that died, that pictured
the death of our Lord Jesus, his substitutionary sacrifice
on the cross in order to satisfy God's justice and remove our
sins. And then that scapegoat, that
pictured the result of his death, and the result of his death was
that he took away all of the sins of all of his people. And that happened in the very
innermost, innermost section of the temple in the Holy of
Holies. But if you go back out, go section
by section, working your way toward that Holy of Holies, some
interesting things that you'll observe. The first section was
the area of the Gentiles, called the Court of the Gentiles. That's the outside of the temple,
and of course that's where the Gentiles could go, but they couldn't
go any further. They couldn't go, not in another
section, a seventh section of the temple. They could go into
the Court of the Gentiles, but that's as far as the Gentiles
could go. And there was a second area of
the temple that's called the Court of the Women. And that's where the women, the
Jewish women, could go, not the Gentile women, because they could
only go in the Court of the Gentiles. But the Jewish women, they, of
course, go in the Court of the Women. And that's as far as they
could go unless They were offering a sacrifice to the Lord, bringing
an offering that they would present to one of the priests. And in
that case, they could go into the court of the priests, which
was further. Otherwise, that's as far as they
could go. So you had, first of all, the
court of the Gentiles. Then you had the court of the
women. Then you had the court of Israel. That is the court
of the men. The men could go there. They'd
go further than the women. Lots of times they sat there
and fellowship together, maybe read the scriptures, discuss
some theological, um, doctrine, uh, or visit with, uh, each other. Uh, that's where the men could
go call the court of Israel. Then the next one was called
the court of the Levites. That's where the Levites would
join together. They would offer sacrifices of
praise to the Lord. That's where they would read
the Scriptures. And, of course, those outside
because there was no roof. There wasn't a roof over the
temple until you got to the holy place and the most holy place
of the holies. The other sections were open-roofed
and so if you were in the court of the Gentiles or if you were
in the court of the women or in the court of Israel, the court
of the men. You could hear the Levites as
they were singing, as they were reading the scriptures, as they
were praising the Lord in the court of the Levites. And the
next court was the court of the priests. This is where they offered
their offerings to God. There was the brazen altar. You
know from the Old Testament, the brazen altar, that's so vital
to the Jewish way of worship because that's where the sacrifice
was offered. That's where the blood was shed.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins.
And we're well aware of the fact that the blood of bulls and goats
could never put away sin. That's where they were offered
and of course they pictured the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and
the fact that He would indeed put away the sins of His people. And then under roof, you got
to the holy place. There's the golden lamp stand,
there's the table of showbread, and there's the altar of incense.
And then back of the veil, Last area, the seventh area of the
temple, there's the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant with
God's Law inside that man had broken. And over the Ark of the
Covenant, the Lead of Gold, the Mercy Seed. The Mercy Seed which
had for many, many years been sprinkled with blood every year. And so it was a bloody lid. And of course, that pictured
the area where the substitutionary sacrifice of our Savior. But
go back out with me now to that area known as the Court of the
Women. That's where they had the treasury. That's where people came to put
in their offerings, put in their, they all gave a tithe. Everybody
had to give a tithe of a half a shekel. They had actually 13
receptacles where you put your offerings in and they had one
mark for this, another mark for that. It was kind of narrow at
the top. You put your money in at the
bottom. It kind of widened out. The money
went to the bottom, of course. There were 13 of them. And that's
where they gave all their monies. And, you know, the Pharisees.
And the Pharisees, of course, they're very prominent. in this
portion of Scripture and we're not at all shocked to find them
there because it says of the Pharisees, a tithe of all that
they possessed. So we know that's where they're
going to be. In fact, go back with me to Mark chapter 12. Let
me show you something here out of Mark chapter 12. In fact,
I'll go back first of all to chapter 11. Chapter 11, just
to show you where he was. Chapter 11 of Mark, 27. Mark 11, chapter 11, verse 27. It says, and they come again,
the Lord Jesus and His disciples, they came again to Jerusalem.
And that was as He was walking in the temple. So that's where
He is. He's in the temple. Now go over
to chapter 12. And look at verse 35. Chapter
12 of Mark, verse 35. And Jesus answered and He said,
while He taught in the temple, He said this, He said, I have
to say to the scribes that Christ is the Son of David. than his son, and the common
people, they heard him gladly. He said unto them in his doctrine,
beware the scribes, which love to go in long clothing and love
salutations in the marketplaces, and they love the chief seats
in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at feasts, which devour
widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers, they shall
receive greater damnation. And Jesus sat over against the
treasury. This is where He's been teaching.
And He would, as you take this passage, and you go back to the
passage in John chapter 8, as we will do here in just a couple
of minutes, we would draw this conclusion. This seems to have
been His favorite place from which to teach. He sat over against
the treasury. He watched how the people cast
money into the treasury. There are 13 vessels to receive
their money. And many of them were rich, says
they cast in much. There came a certain poor widow,
and she can go into that area because it is the court of the
women. Remember that, it's the court
of the women, and there's where the treasury is. So she threw
in two mites, which make a farthing, and he said to his disciples,
he called unto him his disciples, he saith unto them, Verily I
say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than
all they which have cast into the treasury. He's been teaching,
and as he's been teaching there in the treasury, he's been watching
people drop money into these containers. For all of those,
they did cast in of their abundance. But this woman, out of her want,
she did cast in all that she had, even all of her living. So go back with me then to John
chapter 8. So now we know, we know the area
of the temple he's in. And we also know this, there
are lots of womenfolk. They could be there. If he had
gone into the next section, they couldn't go that far. But he's
in this area, the treasury, which is also in the court of the women. So here's a great number of people
in here, and as I've already said, we're not at all shocked
to find the Pharisees here, because what they gave, they gave for
public viewing. They wanted everybody to note
and see how they cast their money in. And I'm sure, I don't want
to walk away from the camera here too much, but I'm sure when
they put their money in, They put theirs in. I want everybody
to see, you know, what they put in and that they were there contributing
their half shekel in there. Of course, the Scripture says
a time of all that they possessed. Well, that's where our Lord is. And this is what He had to say
in this lengthy section of Scripture. First of all, beginning at verse
number 12. And spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light
of the world. He's been interrupted for a little
bit. And we talked about this because they brought this woman
caught in adultery. And so this has been settled.
And then he says to everybody who's in this section, and no
question about it, the Gentiles who might be, any Gentiles who
might have been in the court of the Gentiles, kind of back
behind these pillars, these dividing pillars, because you just kind
of walk through them, but that divided it all. They couldn't
come into the court of the women, but there were the Gentiles back
there, and here were the men and the women that were listening
to Him, and then Jesus spake again to all of them who were
there, and He said, I am the light of the world. He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now, had anybody else said that,
they'd have been the words of a lunatic. And for anybody to say this was
utterly amazing, especially to the unbelieving Jews in the crowd.
As far as they were concerned, as far as the Pharisees were
concerned, these were blasphemous words when he said, I am. For a mere man to use that expression
that he was identifying himself as Jehovah, for him to say that,
he's saying, I am God, I am divine. He's identifying himself as being
that very one who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. But our Lord spoke these words.
He knew what the reaction would be. And this was the reaction. Verse 13. The Pharisees, therefore,
they said unto him, Thou barest record of thyself, thy record
is not true. What record? What record? Thou barest record of thyself.
What was his testimony concerning himself? Well, it was just what
he said. He said, I am the light of the
world. And they said, that's what you
say. That's what you say. But what you say is not true. You're not I Am. You're not God. You're not the Holy One of Israel. You're not the God of our fathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We know who you are. You're the
boy, you're the son of Mary and Joseph. That's who you are. You're
from Nazareth. Can any good thing come out of
Galilee? You bear record of yourself.
Your record is not so. Is not so. But it is so. It is so. Christ said, I am the
light of the world. I'm sure it just kind of blew
their minds when he said that. But he isn't. What sort of light
is he? Well, to the darkness of falsehood
and lies, he's the light of truth. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. To the darkness of error, He's
the light of perfection. To the darkness of ignorance,
He's the light of wisdom. To the darkness of evil, He's
the light of infinite goodness. Remember what they said one time?
There's none good but one. That's God. Well, that's Him. To the darkness of impurity,
He's the light of righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness. And to the darkness of grief,
He's the light of joy. to the darkness of death and
the grave. He's the light of life. He said
to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He's the light. He said, I am the light of the
world. They said, you bear record of yourself. You're talking about
yourself. You're blaspheming the name of
God. The word that you're speaking
is a lie. Your record is not true. What
they're saying is they were looking at him and saying, you're a liar.
You're a liar. Your record's not true. Your
testimony is inaccurate. Now when he said this, I am the
light of the world, I think a couple of things would have entered
into their minds. First of all, that in the Old
Testament, God himself was the light. He was the light, as evidenced
by that pillar of fire in Israel by night. Why, He illuminated
all the camp of Israel. They didn't need any dusk to
dawn lights. They didn't need any torches
and candles to be lit at night. The Lord was their light. He
illuminated all the camp of Israel. God did. God is light. And when
He said, I'm the light of the world, they knew He is saying
He is that Shekinah glory. He is that pillar of fire that
illuminated the camp of Israel by night and He's the pillar
of cloud by day. They didn't like that. They didn't
like that. They knew the Scripture, Psalm
27, the Lord is my And salvation? The Lord is my
light? You're saying you're the light?
Your record is not true. And then, I'll tell you something
else they knew. Secondly, they knew that, that
one set forth in the Old Testament as the Messiah, He would be the
light God would send into the world. They knew that. They knew
that. That's in the Old Testament. They knew God is the light and
they knew whenever God sent the Messiah into the world, He would
be the light. Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7, it
says, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, I will
hold your hand, I will keep you, I will give you for a covenant
of the people, and I will give you for a light of the Gentiles,
to open their eyes of blindness, to bring out the prisoners from
the prison, and them that sit in the darkness of the prison
house. And when our Lord said, I am
the light of the world, here's what He was saying. I am the
Messiah. I am God. I am the light that's
coming to the darkness. And we read earlier in the book
of John, He's the light that came and the darkness comprehended
Him not. Look at the last part of verse
12. Back up just a little bit. He said, I am the light of the
world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life. What does it mean to follow Him? I got to thinking about that
today. What does it mean to follow the Lord Jesus? Actually, several
different shades of meaning to this. First of all, it means
to go along with. Go along with the teacher. If
I said to you right now, do you follow what I'm saying? I'm not
saying, are you walking with me or are you standing back behind
me? No. Are you following my thinking,
my train of thought? Are you with me? The Savior is
saying, I'm the light of the world. He that is with me. He that goes along with what
I'm saying, He who comprehends the words that I speak, He who
knows me, doesn't walk in the darkness anymore. He walks in
the light. That's what He's saying. You agree with His Word. Those
who follow the Lord Jesus, we agree with Him. We agree with
Him. It means to join in as a disciple. That is, you take His side over
all others. That's exactly what our Lord
meant when He was saying, when He said to Peter, James, and
John, follow Me. Follow Me. That is, others may
be against Me, But you must be for me. You must be for me. You must be on my side. You must absolutely, you must
take sides with me against everybody else who's against me. Even take sides against yourself. See, the issue is not whose side
is the Lord on. The issue is who is on the Lord's
side. That's the big difference. Big
difference. You see, a genuine follower is
on the Lord's side. I'm on His side. Whatever He says in His Word,
I'm on that side. Aren't you? I'm not going to
go on the other side. That's the reason I can't walk
with free willism. I can't walk with a work salvation. I can't walk with any doctrine
that says, well, this segment of salvation is a man that the
Lord has done what He can do and now the sinner's got to make
his contribution. I can't go with you on that.
I can go with you on some other things other than the gospel
maybe, but I can't. I'm not going to go with you
when you're against the gospel. That's what I'm trying to say.
I'm on the Lord's side. Isn't that what Moses was saying
to the Levites? He said, it's on the Lord's side. Let Him come over here. Come
over here. Strap on your sword. Draw out your sword. And now
look back over there. Whoever's over there, that's
the enemy. That's the enemy. Who's on the
Lord's side? When He says, He that followeth
Me shall not walk in darkness, He's saying, those who are on
My side, whose side are you on? I'm asking you that tonight.
Whose side are you on? Are you on the Lord's side? The
side of grace? The side of the gospel? the side of sovereign mercy? Are you on the side of effectual
redemption? Redemption that got the job done?
Are you on the side of irresistible grace, the successful work of
the Spirit of God? Are you on God's side? Or are you on the other side? You're on God's side if you're
a follower of the Lord Jesus. We're letting the Spirit to be
on his side. And then it means to follow.
This word follow means as a soldier follows his captain. A captain says, men, we're going
this way. If you're really a soldier, a
faithful soldier, you're not going to say, no, I think I'll
go that way. The captain says, no, we're going
this way and you're going to follow me. I tell you, in Revelation
it says, these are those that follow the Lamb whether so ever
he went. Wherever he goes, that's where
I want to go, don't you? I want to go, I want to follow
him, follow in line. He's the captain of our salvation. And then the word also is used
of a slave. who follows his Master. In other
words, this idea of following Christ Jesus means submission. You're not your own anymore.
You're bought with a price. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians
6. You're bought with a price. It's not your will. It's not
your way. It's not whatever you want to
do. It's His will. It's His way. You're the Lord's.
He bought you lock, stock and barrel. He owns you. Like Saul of Tarsus, Lord, what
will you have me to do? What do you want me to do? Tell
me what to do. Then fifth, this word follow,
that's a person who follows wise counsel. He's our counselor. We follow his wise counsel. We follow his word. We listen
to his word. This is our Lord speaking to
us. The Savior says, He that followeth
me shall not walk in darkness. Oh, God, make us all to be followers
of Christ Jesus. I want to be a follower. You
see, the natural man wants to lead. That's what the natural
man wants to do. He wants to lead. I'll do my
own thing. I'm the master of my own destiny.
I control what I do. I'm under nobody's authority.
Now, I beg to differ with you. In all things, you're under the
authority of God. But I want to be His willing
follower. A willing follower. Look at verse 14. Well, Jesus answered and said
to them, though I bear record of myself in saying I am the
light of the world, yet my record is the truth. I speak the truth. He says, for I know whence I
came. I know where I came from. Where
did he come from? He came from heaven above. You know, there are those There's
some teachings in religion that say that Jesus really didn't
know where He came from, really didn't know why He came into
the world. He kind of found out as He went along. That's not
true. That's not true. He knew where
He came from. He came from the Father. He came
from heaven above. He says, I know where I came
from. I know where I'm going. I'm going back to the Father.
And He knows what's going to happen along the way. His route
will lead Him to Calvary. His route will lead Him to die
on an old rugged tree. His route through this world
will take Him into not only the valley of the shadow of death,
but all the way into death itself. And then He is going to conquer
it for His people. He said, I know where I came
and I know where I am going. After my substitutionary death,
I'm going to be raised from the dead because I'm going to do
the work the Father gave me to do. And then I'm going back to
glory. And I'm going to take a seat at the right hand of the
Father. My Father, my everlasting Father. I'm the everlasting Son.
I know where I came from and I know where I'm going. But you
can't tell where I came from and you can't tell where I'm
going. You don't know. You don't know. In other words,
you're ignorant. You're ignorant because you don't
know anything about me. Oh, here they are, full of themselves,
sitting over against the treasury. They're the Pharisees. They're
so full of hypocrisy, so arrogant. They think they know all there
is to know about the Bible. Nobody can tell them anything.
And the Lord Jesus says, I know where I came from and I know
where I'm going, but you don't have a clue. You think you're
so wise, you think you're so knowledgeable of the Old Testament. You don't know me, and all of
the Old Testament is about me. You don't know where I came from,
and you don't know where I'm going. That's a pretty good way to sum
up false religion in it. People who don't know the Lord
Jesus Christ, don't know where He came from, don't know where
He went back to. He says in the next verse, verse
15, He says, You judge after the flesh. I judge no man. That is, I judge
no man after the flesh. The Lord doesn't look on the
outward appearance. He looks on the heart. We learned
that all the way back there. When Samuel went to anoint a
king in the house of Jesse, he went to Bethlehem. He said, He
said, where are your sons? Here they are. And he brought
the firstborn out. And man, he's a big strapping
guy. Boy, if ever a fellow looked
like he'd be the king of Israel and he could just absolutely
whip every enemy of the sons of Jacob, boy, he could do it. And God said, no, that's not
him. Man looks on the outward appearance,
but he's so big and he's so strong. He looks so good. God says, I've
rejected him. Man looks on the outward appearance.
God looks on the heart. He says in verse 16, yet if I
judge, That is, yet when I judge, when I make a determination,
my judgment is true. It's true. It's accurate. Because He says, I'm not alone,
but I am the Father that sent me. Boy, what a declaration of
His deity. I am the Father that sent me. He says in John 10 verse 30,
I and my father are one. Jews took up stones to stone
him. He said, it's also written in
your law, the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear
witness of myself, and the father that sent me, he's the second
one that bears witness of me. You men, you'll have to acknowledge
this, that in the Law of Moses, it's in the mouth of two or three
witnesses, let every word be established. Well, my record
is true because I'm not the only one that said I'm the light of
the world. The Father says I'm the light of the world too. that
bear witness of Me, Myself and the Father." And you go back
to John chapter 5, He said, John the Baptist bears witness of
Me. He said, My works bear witness of Me. The Word of God bears
witness of Him. Actually, there are several witnesses
that bear testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messiah,
the Son of God. Well, then they said to Him,
look at verse 19, Then they said to him, where is thy father? Where is thy father? Jesus answered. He ignores their
ignorance. He says, you neither know me
nor my father. Because if you had known me,
you should have known my father also. Do you remember in John
14? We'll get over there in a few
weeks. Philip comes up to the Lord and he says, if you'll show
us the Father, it will satisfy us. If we could just see the
Father. And the Lord Jesus said, Philip,
I've been with you all these many, many months. And you don't
comprehend the fact that in seeing me, you see the Father. You see the Father. You neither know me nor my Father. What words of condemnation and words
that show that He does judge a right judgment. What this is
saying is He does see the heart. Because He could look right in
their innermost being and He said, you don't know me and you
don't know my Father. These words spake Jesus in the
treasury as He taught in the temple. Nobody laid hands on
Him for His hour was not yet come. Oh, they wanted to, but
they couldn't. Then said Jesus again unto them,
I go my way. and ye shall seek me, and ye
shall die in your sins. Whether I go, ye cannot come."
And the Jew said, will he kill himself? Is he going to commit
suicide? Because he said, whether I go,
ye cannot come. He said of them, ye are from
beneath. You're from the earth. You're
from the earth, you're going back to the earth. Dust to dust
and ashes to ashes. He said, I'm from above. You're
of the world. I'm not of this world. Therefore
I said unto you that ye shall die in your sins. For if ye believe
not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. And just read it
this way. For if ye believe not that I am, if you don't believe that I am,
you shall die in your sins." If you don't believe that I'm
God, if you don't believe that I came from above, if you don't
believe that I am the Messiah, you're going to die in your sins.
And then He's already said this, if you die in your sins, where
I go, you can't come. And I'll say the same thing to
all of us tonight. If anybody here, you die in your
sins. You die without your sins being
forgiven. You die without a mediator. You
die without a redeemer. You die without the Lord Jesus.
You die graceless. You die godless. And the Savior's
own words are these. Where I go, you can't come. Where did he go? He went to heaven. Where did he go? He went to paradise. Where did he go? He went to the
Father. In my Father's house are many mansions, but you can't
go if you die in your sins. Oh God, don't let me die in my
sins. Don't let me die in my sins.
If you've got any brains in your head at all, Right now you say,
oh God of glory show me mercy. Oh I flee to Christ Jesus. I
need this Savior. I don't want to die in my sins.
If I die in my sins, I'm not going to glory. You can't. Nothing ungodly is going to enter
in there. Nothing filthy is going to enter
in there. Nothing unrighteous is going
to enter in there. You got to be righteous to go
to that Holy place. And that righteousness is only
in the Lord Jesus. You've got to get to the Lord
Jesus. And they said to him, verse 25,
Who are you? Who are you? And Jesus said unto them, even the
same that I said unto you from the beginning, I already told
you who I am. He said, I'm the light of the
world. I have many things to say and to judge of you, but
He that sent me is true. I speak to the world those things
which I have heard of Him. In other words, I don't say anything
independent of the Father. In verse 27, boy, this is the
truth. They understood not. I tell you, I took the yellow
highlighter and I underlined that in my Bible. They understood
not. This is our problem. We don't
understand. And nobody ever will unless... And go read Luke 24 when you
get home toward the end of the chapter. Then opened He their
understanding." That's what's got to happen. You say, I just don't get it.
I just don't get it. I guess I'm thick-headed. Yeah, you are thick-headed. Like
we all are by nature. And you'll never understand unless
the Holy Spirit teaches you. Holy Spirit, Christ's Spirit
has got to open up your mind and open up your heart and give
you understanding. Then said Jesus unto them, when
ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that
I am, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath
taught me, I speak these things. One of these days, people are
going to find out who He is. either at conversion or at the
judgment. You are going to find out who
He is. He says in verse 29, He that
sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please Him. The Father said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He said, I
always do those things that please Him. Always do. We'll pick up
right there next Wednesday night. Let's get our.