All right, let's go to the first
chapter of the Gospel of John. It's good to see each of you
here. And we have a visitor from Georgia
who kind of, he flew in under the radar, Brother Parker, and
it's always good to see him. You must have thought I'd give
you a job if you let me know you were coming to town, and
I probably would have. But it's good to see you, and
it's good to see the rest of you as well. All right. We're in the Gospel of John as
we finish or continue our studies in the first chapter of John. This evening, I want to talk
to you about the unrecognized light. Look at verse 6. After having introduced us to
the Word of Christ Jesus, we read, there was a man, or there
came into being a man, that's what it literally means. And
this man was sent from God. His name was John. John's mission. Like the mission
of every servant of the Lord is to exalt the Savior. You know,
John said this. Look over in the third chapter
in verse 30. This is how every servant of
the Lord feels. This is our great desire. He must increase. But I must decrease. That's what we want. We want
to exalt the Savior. Oh, let us, every time we speak,
every time we stand before those who are heading out into eternity,
let us always get behind the cross of our Lord Jesus. Let
the Savior be exalted. Let the message of redemption
sound forth. Let the message of the blood
and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, let it be proclaimed
to all and let us hide behind the message. Because I'm just
a man sent from God. You're just a man sent from God. John the Baptist. Oh, he's prophesied
in the Old Testament. He's a miracle child born in
the old age of his mom and dad. But he's just a man. He's a sinful
man. He's a needy man. He's a weak
man. But he's God's man. And he's
got God's message. And the message of John the Baptist
is the message of every servant of the Lord. John said, Behold,
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And that's
our message. There was a man. There was a
man sent from God. His ministry wasn't a lengthy
ministry. But it was a ministry that lasted
just exactly as long as God would have it to last. He was a voice in the wilderness. In the wilderness of false religion. In the wilderness of that day
that was without God and without hope in this world, in the dryness
of Judaism, there was a man out in the wilderness preaching the
gospel. He's God's man with God's message. Now what did this man do? Well,
he was a witness. Look at verse 7. This man, he came for a witness,
to bear witness of the Light, capital L, the Light that all
through him might believe. John's mission was not to exalt
himself, but to be a witness of the Lord of glory, It was
his business to give his own testimony. That this one who
comes behind me is before me. And I'm not even worthy to loose
his sandals. John is the first of eight witnesses
that are set forth in the book of John. They all give testimony
concerning the word. That is the Lord Jesus. Look
over in chapter 5. Look at a few verses here. John
chapter 5. And to just sort of set this
up. You know, our Lord had healed
this man on the Sabbath day. And that upset the Jews. This
man who for 38 years, he was lame. And he waited for the movement
of the water. He couldn't get in the water,
and our Lord Jesus, in sovereign mercy and grace, He came that
way, and He separated this man in his own mind, in his own heart,
for the grace of God, for the gospel that He would give him.
And our Lord healed him by His mighty power. And He did it on
the Sabbath day, and that caused a big uproar. among the Jews. You can't do that on the Sabbath
day. Nobody was rejoicing, here's
a lame man that's walking. Nobody said bless the name of
God for 38 years, he's been lame on both feet and now look at
him now, he's jumping around like a little child. He's got
all kinds of energy. Nobody's doing that. Nobody is
saying, oh, who is this that can heal this man by His great
power? No, what they are saying is,
He did it on the Sabbath day. Who do you think you are? And
our Lord responds to them and He said, My Father worketh and
I work. My Father worketh hitherto and
I work. And then they were really upset.
Not only because he did it on the Sabbath day, but also because
he said God was his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
And then later in this John chapter 5, our Lord begins to identify
witnesses, those who give an accurate record of who He is. Now you'll notice what He says
in the 31st verse. He says, if I bear witness of myself, in
other words, if I'm the only one who says that I'm the Word,
that I'm the Son of God, if I'm the only one, then my witness
is not true. Here's a reference you can just
jot down, look at it later if you like. Deuteronomy chapter
19 and verse 15. One witness shall not rise up
against a man for any iniquity. In other words, here's saying
the issue's got to be settled. If there's just one witness,
that's not enough. Case dismissed. Because the law
said, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word
be established. But if it's just one witness,
well, there is no case. Our Lord Jesus says, if I'm the
only one that bears witness of who I am, of my identity as the
Son of God, if I'm the lone voice saying this, then don't listen
to me. But then he begins to set forth
others who witness for him. There is the witness, first of
all, of John the Baptist, chapter 5, verse 32. He says, there is
another that beareth witness of me. Now notice the word witness.
There is another that beareth witness of me. He keeps on bearing
witness of me. And I know that the witness which
he witnesseth of me is the truth." It is a true witness. In fact,
he says, you sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the
truth. But I receive not testimony from
man, but these things I say that you might be saved. He was a
burning and a shining light. And you are willing for a season,
for a short period of time, to rejoice in his light. So there's
the witness of John the Baptist. Secondly, there's the witness
of his own works. Look at verse 36. But I have
a greater witness than that of John. For the works, the miracles,
just like the miracle that he had just performed, the works,
which the Father gave me to finish, the same works that I do, they
bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. So I've got John
the Baptist who bears witness of me, and then my works. Back in John chapter 3, Nicodemus,
who's a master teacher himself, a ruler of the Jews, Even Nicodemus
acknowledged that no man can do the things that thou doest,
no man can do the works that thou doest, except God be with
him. So our Lord says, my works, they
attest to who I am. Then look at verse 37. Here's
another witness. My, what a powerful witness. And the Father Himself, they
just got mad at Him because He said God was His Father. But
He didn't back off. He didn't think to Himself, well,
I'm going to reword this in such a way that it won't be quite
so offensive. No, He said, the Father, the
Father Himself, which hath sent me. He is born witness of me. You have neither heard His voice
at any time, nor seen His shape." Listen, we don't ever back off
from the truth. When men are offended by the
Word of God, when they are offended by the Gospel of Grace, the Gospel
of Substitution, the Gospel of Satisfaction, The gospel of the
removal of sin by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ? The gospel
of God's free imputation of sins to the Savior and the free imputation
of His righteousness to us and we're justified by that righteousness? If men don't like that message,
give it to them again. That's what the Savior did. My
Father worketh hitherto and I work. We don't like that kind of talk,
they said. They rose up to kill Him. Well, perhaps He'll back
off. No! He again emphasizes the Father
Himself. My Father. My Father. So the
Father bore witness of Him. Here's another one. Number four.
The Scriptures bore witness of Him. Look at verse 39. Search
the Scriptures. And literally, you do search
the Scriptures. You men are busy studying the
Scriptures. You're involved in reading the
scriptures. For in the scriptures you think
you have eternal life. But they are they which bear
witness or they testify of me. What a strong witness. All of
the scriptures, and all of the scriptures that they had at that
time was the Old Testament, right? That's all the scriptures that
they had. And he said, these scriptures, they all testify
of me. They all bear witness of me.
All of the Old Testament. And then, the word of his followers. Go back to chapter 4. Here's
this woman of Samaria. And our Lord has effectually
brought her unto Himself. She has been fetched by almighty
free grace to the Savior. Look at John chapter 4 and verse
29. She goes into the city. She left
her water pots. I tell you, when the Savior reveals
Himself to you, you'll absolutely turn loose of everything. And
she dropped her water pots and she goes into the city and she
tells the men, verse 39, she said, to these men you come. and see a man which told me all
things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? This
is the Anointed One. This is the Messiah. This is
the One set forth in the Old Testament. She bore witness of
Him. And then the words of the Savior
bore witness of Him. Go to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. He says in verse 17, it is also
written in your law that the testimony of two is true. I am one that bear witness of
myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me too.
The Savior's words bore witness of him. Look over at John chapter
15. John 15, 27. speaking to his disciples. His
disciples bore witness of him. John chapter 15 in verse 27,
and he also shall bear witness because you have been with me
from the beginning. And then lastly, the eighth witness
is in verse 26 of John 15. But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify
of Me." Our Lord had many witnesses, and in the Gospel of John, eight
different witnesses are set forth who identify Him for who He is. Now go back to the first chapter.
So in John chapter 1, look at verse 8. The scripture says that John
was not the light, but he was sent to bear witness of that
light. Now you'll notice the continual
usage of the words witness and testify. They're used a lot,
especially by John. Now, when you talk about the
words witness and testify, they're words related to fact, not opinion. In other words, they're legal
words, the sort of words that would be used in a courtroom
setting. A witness, he doesn't give his
opinion. A witness just tells what he
knows. A man gets called up to the witness
stand in a case. The judge doesn't say, now what's
your opinion about this case? Well, nobody cares what his opinion
is. The instructions to the witness
on the witness stand is, listen, you tell us what you know. You
tell us what you saw. You tell us your experience on
this. These witnesses of our Lord's
deity They are called forth, as it
were, to give a testimony as to the identity of the Lord Jesus. Just the facts. Some of you used
to watch years ago, Joe Friday, Dragnet. Just the facts, man. Just the facts. Just the facts. And these witnesses, they come
forth with the facts. And they all agree. There are
eight witnesses that are, as it were, called to the bar of
justice. Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth? And eight witnesses all say with
unity and in one accord, He's the Son of God. He's God manifest
in the flesh. And He's got to be God manifest
in the flesh if He's going to save us. You see, if He was just a man,
Even if he was just an extraordinary man, he can't help us. He's got to be God manifest in
the flesh to meet our case, to meet our needs. Because nobody
but God knows what God demands. Isn't that right? Nobody but
God knows what God demands. And nobody but God can satisfy
God's demands. But God can't bleed, and God
can't suffer, and God can't die. And the wages of sin is death. So God came down here to this
earth and joined His deity with humanity, and that's a union
that will never, ever end. Great is the mystery of godliness,
and there is no controversy on this. Without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Why? To save His people from
their sins. God the Father gave Him a work
to do. Way back in the covenant of grace,
before the beginning, there was the Father and the Son and the
Spirit. And they convened in holy council. And a selection of a Savior was
made first, Christ the Lord, the Son of God. And in Christ
the Lord, a people were chosen unto salvation. And Christ the
Lord stood as the surety in that covenant of grace. And He stood
for us. God standing for us. I tell you, your Savior better
be God. or He can't help you. He better be God Almighty. He
better be the everlasting God. And He better have all power
over all flesh in order to give eternal life to as many as the
Father gave Him. And this is our great Savior
who stood for us in eternity and then in time He came to do
the work of redemption. To reconcile us to God. To do that great stupendous work
of removing our sin and bringing in for us everlasting righteousness. Nobody could do that but God.
Nobody could do that but God manifest in the flesh. Here He
is. Eight witnesses are called to
the bar. And they all say the same thing
about Jesus of Nazareth. The law says in the mouth of
two or three witnesses, let every word be established. What about
eight witnesses? What about eight witnesses? This
is undeniable evidence. He is who He says He is. He's the Lord of glory. You know,
it's interesting in the New Testament, there are 113 usages of the words witness and testify
or testimony, any word like that. And out of those 113, 77 of them
are used by the Apostle John. He keeps on setting before us
the deity of our Savior, of our substitute, of God's sacrifice
for sin. Look at verse 8. Now it says
of John, he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness
of that light. Say, but didn't we just read
that our Lord referred to John over in John 5, 35 as he was
a light? Well, look at it again. John
5, 35. What did the Savior say? He said of John, John was a burning
and a shining light. And then, it's said over here
in John chapter 1, he was not that light, but was sent to bear
witness of that light. What's this all about? In John
chapter 5, the word light means more like that which is a candle,
that which is lit. Somebody has to light it. But
when we read about our Lord being the light, this is light that
is His essence. It comes forth from within Him.
In other words, nobody lit Him. He is the origin of the light.
In fact, all light proceeds from Him. If you are enlightened tonight,
enlightened to the gospel, if the Lord has invaded your darkness,
And when He invades the darkness, the darkness has got to go because
He's the light. He's the light that is within
us. But that light within us is a
light that had to be begun within us because we hadn't always been
shining lights. The Lord said, you're the light
of the world. Have we always been shining?
No. When did we begin to shine? When
He lit us. But nobody lit Him. He's the
light. The light emanates from Him.
He said, I'm the light of the world. He went up on the Mount
of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John. And He showed
them just a little bit of that light. That glory of God within
Him. And the brilliance of that light
was brighter than the noonday sun. He is the Son who has arisen
with healing in His wings. He is the Son of righteousness.
And light proceeds from Him. And if you are in the light tonight
on spiritual things, if you see what you are, You see who God is in His holiness,
and in His righteousness, in His justice, in His grace, and
in His mercy? You see something of your own
depravity? You see something of your own
rottenness? Of the deformity, the spiritual
deformity of yourself? It's because of the light. Well,
who is the light? He's the light. And He shines
within us, and when He shines within us, you know what we see
really? We see Him, because we see the
light. We see the light. And isn't it
evidence of our great depravity, when it says in verse 9, that
was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. He was in the world and the world was made by Him and
the world knew Him not. The light came into the world
and men didn't recognize the light. You got to be bad off if you
can't see the light. He who is the Son of Righteousness,
He came and walked on this earth. He was here for about 33 and
a half years, and most people couldn't see the light in Him,
that He is the light. Oh, how great must be our darkness
when He who is the light of the world comes into the world and
men can't see Him for being the light. Men can't see Him as being
the light. He is the light of Himself. Have
you ever been in caverns. Yeah, you take these caves, you
know, and you see the stalactites and stalagmites and all that
kind of stuff. You go down there and they got
the lights on, you got a guide, and I know Nancy and I, we've
been in several of them. You get down there, and then
he said, now just get ready. They used to not even give you
any warning, but I think they have to give you warning now
because you're liable to have a heart attack. Just prepare yourself.
We're going to turn the lights out. And they turned the lights
out. Man, is it pitch black. It's
pitch black. And the guide says, don't worry,
I got a flashlight. And then he turns the flashlight
on. And nobody says, what is that over there? Oh, that's a
light. No. When the light comes on,
your eyes are immediately drawn to it. Oh, there's the light.
We're in the dark. And when He who is the Light
comes to us in His regenerating grace, in His illuminating grace,
you know who we look to and see and we have eyes for from then
on? The Light. We look to the Light. Our eyes are drawn to the Light.
And we've been looking at Him ever since. looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith. And I know when He
shines the light of His presence within us, when He comes to us
in His life-giving power and in His life-giving power, I know
we see who God is, at least to some degree, not near what He
is, of course, and we see something of our own depravity, But mainly, we see Him. We see Him. And we say, thank
God for the light. Thank God for the light. How
bad must man be if the light comes into the world and men
don't recognize Him? I mean, you take a man who's
blind and you lead him He said, well, come with me. I'll guide
you. OK, hold on to me here. And you
take him outside at noon. And you say, look up in the sky. Can't you see that sun shining
and it's brilliant? No. No. What is his problem? He's blind. And you don't get
mad at him. You're not upset with him. What's
wrong with you? You can't see the light? No.
Your heart goes out to him because you know he's blind. The only
difference between you and him, you can see and he can't see. Listen, folks who don't believe
the gospel, who don't see the glory of God shining in the face
of Jesus Christ, they are blind. They are in the dark. Don't get
mad at them. If you're not going to believe
this, I'm never going to talk to you again. Don't do that. You pray for them. And here's
what you ask God. Oh God, send the light to them. Send the light. Because if God
doesn't send the light to them, they'll never see. They'll never
see. The Lord Jesus is the light. And He has to speak in creating
power to us. You know, in the first creation,
what did He say? In the darkness, what did He
say? Let there be light. And you know what happened? There
was light. And that's the Word of the Lord.
He uses the Word, it's the Word of the Lord, the incarnate Word,
using the written Word, and He speaks and He says, let there
be light. And I'll tell you, if He says,
let there be light in your soul, in your heart, there will be
light. There will be light. and you'll
see and you'll never be blind again. We're children of light. That's what the Scripture says.
Children of light. You see, who needs to be directed
to the light? Somebody who's blind. Somebody
who's blind. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Look at verse 3. But if our gospel,
this message of good news, glad tidings, of great joy, of forgiveness,
of righteousness, of acceptance, of sins put away by the substitutionary
death of our Savior, the good news, if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost, 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." Well, so what should we do? Just leave them
alone? No, wait. Let's preach to them. Let's preach
to them. See, that's what he says next.
For we preach not ourselves. That's not going to help them. Not going to help a blind man
for you to exalt yourself. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. This glorious gospel of Christ
is put into earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. What are we going to do for these
blind people? Let's just keep preaching to them. Just keep
preaching the gospel to them. And the Lord will do His work
in His time, if it's His will. Isn't that right? That's why
we just keep preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
in His time, if it's His will, He'll give sight. Blinded eyes. Go back to John 1. Let me just
show you something else. You know, see, we're like a bunch
of blind Bartimaeuses, aren't we? Standing by the roadside
begging. Can't see. And then we get some
good news. Somebody tells us Jesus of Nazareth
is passing by. Somebody told Bartimaeus that. And he said, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. Be propitious to me. Show mercy
to me on account of the sacrifice. On account of the blood. And our Lord did. Says immediately
he received his sight. John 1, 9 says that was the true
light. which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world." He was in the world. The world was made
by Him. And the world knew Him not, unrecognized. In fact, He came into His own. He came to His own family, to
His own nation, to His own world, and His own received Him not. But, but, as many as received
Him, some do receive Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God. Even to them that believe on
His name, and we'll work on this more next week, which were born.
Why is it anybody receives Him? Well, they're born. I'd be born
into the kingdom of God. I'd be born. Which were born. It's not of blood heritage. No, it don't run in the bloodline.
Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. It's not about
your free will. Your will is not free anyway,
it's enslaved. Nor the will of man. Nobody else
can talk into it. This new birth. This new birth
that precedes receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as prophet, priest,
and king, where does this new birth, where does it come from?
It's of God. It's of God. And those who are
born of God receive Him. We receive Him as He's set forth
in the Scriptures, as the God-man. There's a verse, you can jot
it down if you want to, we won't take the time to look at it.
Ecclesiastes 11 verse 7, truly the light is sweet. I like that. The light is sweet and it is
a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun. And it is a pleasant thing. for
the eyes of the soul to behold the Son of Righteousness, the
Lord of Glory. Oh, light is sweet. Aren't you
thankful for light? Thankful for the light, Him who
is the light, and that the light has shined and is shining within
us, illuminating us. We used to be in the dark, darkness
of error, and ignorance, but we are not in the dark anymore.
We are in the light. Walk as children of light. That
is what the scripture says. Alright, let's sing a song before
we go home. What is it?