Father, as we've been going through
these words over the last six Sundays, there is a tension in our soul. We labor with our minds to consider
what this world might bring us and how we're to reconcile your
will and purpose for us. We labor in our hearts as we
fight against the idols of this world and we run after so many
times the dead vain things with empty return, only to be brought
back to your gospel, to the Christ, to the redeemer of our, of our
soul. Father, we labor to fight the
good fight, knowing that it is not us who holds ourself to you,
but you hold us fast. knowing it is not our volition
or the determination of our creed or our decision to continue to
stand before you, Lord, and stand in
confidence under the cross. But Father, it is your work.
It is the work of the Spirit. And Lord, as we come together
this morning, nothing's changed. That labor, though may be set
aside in actuality, Father, internally in each of us is still there.
The war that confronts our very thoughts, words and actions.
The war against our flesh and against your spirit. Father,
that even causes our eyes to peer certain ways. It is greatly
happening this very moment. Father, I pray by your absolute
mercy and by your infinite power, Lord, you would grant us the
peace in our heads. You would grant us the peace
with our eyes. You would grant us the grace with our hearts
to hear your word this day and to take heed the truths that
are found there, that you might grow us into a people for your
glory. And we pray these things in the
name of Jesus. Amen. We have had the Word of God in
our possession a long time. The New Testament
that we read from, though the version that we may have or the
actual pages and leather that we may hold, may be new. The words are not. The Word of
God is not new. And the Word of God has not been
hidden from us as a people, has it? We have had the scriptures
and I'm willing to say that almost everyone under the sound of my
voice that lives in America has numerous copies of scripture.
Numerous. So far as to say that we probably
have passages, I mean, versions of scripture we haven't touched
in years that sit on shelves and adorn our hallways or sit
upon coffee tables. We're probably the only culture
in the world that, in the time when it was in season, had family
Bibles sitting on our, leisurely, in cocktail tables or sofa tables,
whatever you call those things. Coffee tables. There they are.
Everything normal. They were so heavy you could
not pick them up. So expensive that no child was allowed to
touch it. It was so full of garbage, clippings, birth announcements,
recipes, that if you didn't want to look at it, it would spill
everywhere and make amends. The very idea that we use the Bible
for ornation just blows my mind. The very idea that on our walls
out in the little foyer area here, we have scripture stenciled
on the paint. We have the Word of God on the
radio. We have the Word of God, in some
respects, on television from now, every now and then. We can
look it up on our phones. We have apps for that. The Word
of God is all over us, all around us. The question is, is why is
it not in us? And the reason I start with this
is I want us to be in the right frame of mind. Because dare us
not be charged to be anti-Semitic. Do not hear the word of the Lord
this day out of verse 11 and think, those silly Jews, how
dare they not believe? Because the scripture last week
in verse 10 has already told us that we, the Gentiles, do
not believe either. But you have the Word of God,
you have it before you today. How often do we labor over it? How often do we read it? How
often do we desire it? Is it a second thought? Is it
an afterthought? Is it a mundane experience to
be in the Word of God for you, beloved? I pray by the mercy
of His grace that it is not the case. I pray that God would cause
a stir in us to such a degree that if He has to kill some of
us to get us in the Bible, that He would. That if something tragic
has to happen, like our house fall down, so that we would pray
and seek the Word that we would. Because the fullness of joy that
comes in knowing Christ is through the Word of God. And our flesh
is powerfully overwhelming if the Word of God is not in us.
What we consume in our lives this day with food and entertainment
and leisure and substance is overwhelmingly fighting against
the glorious truths of Scripture. And the enemy of God is at hand
and he will give you exactly what you want. And it is right
there. Let there never be another day
of counsel. to your ears that does not include
the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it should better be spat upon
than heard." Listen to the Word of the Lord. In verse 10, let's look at verse
9 through 11 this morning. And I want to focus on verse
11. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming
into the world. He, the gospel, teaches us the
word, teaches us that it's the word, who is Jesus Christ, who
is God. God was in the world. Think about that for a second.
God was in the world and the world was made through him, yet
the world did not know him. He, God, came to his own people. And his own people did not receive
him. Now think about that for a second.
That's where we are today. Let's just stop there. How in the world are you gonna
preach a sermon on his own people did not know it? Because it's
there in the scripture. And like I've said about this
prologue, it is the outline for everything. Until you get to
chapter 12, listen to me, from chapter one to chapter 12, verse
41, this is the outline. And this is the theological outline
of the rest of the letter, of the rest of the gospel. And these
first twelve chapters comprise three and a half years of Jesus'
earthly ministry, and the last part of the text is one week.
One week. This light, who is Jesus Christ,
has come into the world that He created, existed as a part
of it, set himself off the throne of glory and came into this world
through a virgin that he created, in a womb that he created, in
a body that he created. Talk about choosing your parents. He's the only one who did. And the infinite wisdom, the
divine wisdom of such a thing, you might say, why? And the only
answer that we have is what the Scripture teaches, that it pleased
God to do such. Don't forget that John gives
us grand theology, grand understanding of who God is, and that Jesus
Christ, the living Word that dwelt among us, as we'll see
in verse 14, in just a few weeks, is the God of heaven. so that
Jesus Christ Himself, even in His flesh, though He was fully
flesh, fully human, He was also at the same time fully God. And
the mind of the Lord is immutable. And the will of the Lord is immutable. What is that? It never changes.
God is not determined sometime in history to go, well, I guess
this is what I'll do now. God decreed before He ever said,
let there be light. that the Son would come to suffer
and purchase a people. Suffer for, in the place of,
and purchase a people. That's what you need to have
in mind here. Because when we get to verse 11, we start to
see who had that promise. Because it's easy to say the
world. I mean, listen to the words of the God, listen to the
words of the Lord. in John 12, 37. Don't turn there,
just listen to it for a second. Though He had done so many signs
before them, they still did not believe Him, so in order that
the spoken word by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Now
think about it for just a second. What did that sentence just say?
Though He had done many things. That's a contrast there. He did
all this, but in spite of that, they still did not believe in
Him, in order that the word of the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled,
which is Isaiah 53 verse 1, where it says, "...Lord, who has believed
what He has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed?" Therefore, they could not believe, as Isaiah
says in chapter 6, Or as God has said to Isaiah in chapter
6, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest
they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and
turn and I would heal them. Isaiah said these things because
he saw the glory and he spoke of Him. Of who? The Word that
was in the beginning. Isaiah saw Jesus. Isaiah talked
to Jesus. Isaiah got the Word from Jesus. I thought he talked to God. Jesus
is God. Jesus is not the Father, and
the Father is not the Son, and neither are the Spirit, but they're
all one being. And He is God. His name is not
God. He is God. He is the High One. He is the Great High One. Nevertheless, many of even the
authorities believed in Him. Now this is what we get really
funny, and I mentioned this text last week. Many of the authorities,
that's the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, believed in Him,
but for fear of the Pharisees, rather. They did not confess
it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue, for
they loved the glory that came from men rather than the glory
that comes from God. You want to understand what darkness
is like? That's what darkness is like.
And last week I think I made it very clear that all humanity
has been born in darkness. All humanity has been born in
depravity. All humanity has been born without
the ability nor the desire to seek after God and see Him and
understand Him and know Him and be saved. And this is not an opinion, this
is context in the syntax of English. that is written in the text of
the Scripture that we study. And where it becomes problematic,
we go to the original language. We have all of it. We have a
lot of it. We have over 25,000 manuscript
pieces that we can look at. And we can see, wow, that is
what it says. There's no problem with the Greek
manuscripts. There's no problem. No one discovered
and decided on the Bible at the Nicaea Council. We have first
century lists of New Testament letters and it's the exact same
one. We have church fathers. We have people who spent time
on the Isle of Patmos with John who has a letter of all the apostolic
writings and this is it. We have the writing of Polycarp
who John trained. who in his letters and his commentaries
have 98% of the entire New Testament written. It's not an issue that
we might be wrong because the Bible might be wrong. It's an
issue that we hate the truth as fleshly human beings. I don't
argue any more evidence anymore. I don't argue the evidence anymore. I can't even talk this morning.
Can't think of a coffee table and can't speak. I don't argue
the evidence of archeology, though it's interesting and though it's
helpful and though it solidifies our faith in some respects, someone
who refuses to believe the greatest thing that we can give them is
the word of God so that they can believe. Because it's not
about convincing someone to understand and comprehend that which is
incomprehensible. It's about God's Word supernaturally
opening the eyes. So that in the same way God's
Word went through Isaiah, and God had sent Isaiah to preach,
and then God told Isaiah, I will not allow their eyes to be opened,
because I will not heal them, and I will not save them. As
a matter of fact, if you go to Isaiah 6, it is a terrifying
thing. Because not only does God say, I refuse to allow them
to see, He says, I'm going to mow them
over and if there's a stump left, I'm going to mow it again. What in the world? What made
God so angry? Unbelief. Who has believed what he has
heard from us? He came to his own, verse 11,
and his own people did not receive him. Now, I could do a little
Greek lesson here and play on words and all this kind of stuff,
but let's just think about it in context. God comes into the
world, the light of heaven, to shine the light in the darkness
that will not overcome it. He is God. He created all things.
He is the living word. He reveals himself to us through
his presence and through what he says and through what is written. And he came into the world that
he created, but the world did not know him because they're
judicially and spiritually blind. But then the argument comes then,
well, what about Israel? You see, you hear that all the
time. What about Israel? I mean, I see stickers on the
back, we stand for Israel, good. I stand for Palestine also. Matter
of fact, I personally have more friends who do mission work on
the ground in Palestine than I do in Israel. I've had more friends with their
heads taken off and shot by snipers and are missing that have worked
in Palestinian missions than I have in Israeli missions. I
think it's okay. Stand with Israel, stand with
Palestine, stand with Syria, stand with Afghanistan, stand
with anywhere. I don't believe tyranny should be allowed to
be unchecked at all. But most importantly, the church is in
all places. And ethnic Jews are not the church.
God did not establish a nation of Israel in 1948. He didn't. Who did? The UN. The very orthodox Jews of that
day hated, hated the Zionists because they did not stand for
what biblical Israel stood for. But yet they were, we know the
word better today as lobbyists. And I'm not here to give you
a history on the political state of Israel. I'm here to tell you
that that's the argument a lot of people have when John's gospel
was written. As we're going on Wednesday nights,
we started Romans this past Wednesday, 7 o'clock. And Paul never made it there
freely. He went there, how? Under arrest. Paul never made it to Spain either,
which was his hope. He was going to go to Jerusalem
and get some money so he could go to Spain and on his way he was
going to stop into Rome. He wrote them this letter so that they
would have a good theology of the gospel. And so it would dispel
any of the myths that though we are the oppressors of Israel,
that we cannot be God's people. And Paul very clearly argues
in Romans that they are God's people and that God's people
are not those who are the seed of Abraham, but those who are
the recipients of the promise. who was Jesus Christ, who was
the word. Now Jesus came to his own, but his own people did not
receive him. The world didn't see him, the world didn't receive
him, his own people didn't. And if you can think about it
for a second, think about the pagan nations of antiquity. I
mean, everybody in here could probably name one. Babylon, the
Assyrians. There's a lot of them. And all
of us would look at them and go, wow, what a barbaric pagan
people. Those are the people that we're
not like, because we're a Christian people, we live in a Christian
nation, and we're doing Christian things. That's not so. Just because
we have a baseline of morality that establishes itself from
a biblical narrative does not mean that we're Christian. It doesn't mean that we're Christian,
because Christ is the king of Christianity. Not the law. Christ and mercy and grace and
the kingdom of priests are the people of Christianity. Not the
law. Not morality. Not ethics. I say
this and I don't say it enough. Jesus Christ did not come down
here to cause us to have moral transformation. Jesus Christ
came into the earth to save us from our own morality. To save
us from our self-righteousness. To save us from sin. At the same time, we have an
obligation. We have an obligation as human
beings. And what is that obligation?
The command is very simple, be holy for I am holy. So even as
born again believers, that obligation is not gone. The difference is,
I like to say, is that as Christians, we will not pay the consequence
for the failure to uphold holiness because Jesus paid it. For unbelievers,
they will pay forever, eternally. their lack of holiness. But these own, of course they
should have seen Jesus. I often think about this text
when I'm out in the world, in our local world, and I think
about all the people who have had their Bibles since they were
this big. When I was in the fifth grade, the Gideons came in and
handed out Bibles in our classroom. They might even still do that
here. And you know those Bibles that
go in a backpack, some of them go home. I mean, there's Bibles in every
hotel room, there's Bibles in every coffee shop, there's probably
Bibles in brothels. I mean, you just never know.
You never know. If the Gideons have anything to do with it,
there probably are. And yet, so when I hear people
say, when I hear the Word of God say, He came to His own and
His own didn't recognize Him, I see conversations that I've
had with you. I can't believe these people
are so blind. as if we're so smart and we can see so well.
And in this reality, sometimes I think that America is just
like Israel at this time. So we've had the word of God,
we know the truth, yet we just don't want to see it. We don't
want to see it. That's why cultural Christianity
is the norm. Let me talk for three minutes.
Cultural Christianity is the norm. And what does that look
like? Friends, that looks like let's do all sorts of cool things
that are fun in the name of Christ. Let's just turn our worship time
and the time in the Word of God as a time for humanism. Let's
just enjoy each other's company. Let's enjoy what we call fellowship. Get some casseroles and some
games and let's just have a good time. Friends, let's have a good
time. but for the love of everything
holy. We cannot, we cannot usurp the
sublime worship of Jesus Christ and the power of learning His
word and praying together as a people for having a good time. Because if I have to compare
the two, eating dirt, versus going out to a five-star
restaurant and having prime rib doesn't even come close to the
comparison of being in God's Word with God's people together
and doing something fun together. And I pray that one day you will
have that. It's not a statement to convict
us or make us feel guilty. It's just a statement of reality.
The reason so many people enjoy cultural Christianity is because
they hate Jesus. Why is that? Well, let's look
at this verse. Two phrases. He came to His own,
His own people. He came to His own. His own people
were those who are Israel, the Jews, that He called out of the
world by His grace for Himself. Does that sound familiar? God
called a people out of the world. Who are the Jews? Well, we'll
get to that, but we all know the first Jew was Abraham. He was a Hebrew, right. He was not a Jew. He was a Hebrew.
Jew is later in the kingdom of Judah. Abraham was the first chosen
person of God. From where? Yell it out. Ur. From Ur. Does that sound Jewish? Does
that sound Hebraic? No. He was not anybody. He was
a pagan in the darkness of the world, worshipping a reflection
of the sun in the moon. And God called him out. And through
Abram, God said, I will choose, I will elect, I will predestine
me a people, and I'm going to set them apart. That's what he
did. He set them apart, and then he
gave them his word. Now see, this is crazy. God didn't
just pluck Abram. and Sarah and say, okay, have
some kids and then take Jacob and just spin a top and hope
they get it right. Because if you know the narrative
of that, we'll go through it in a minute, that wasn't their plan
anyway. He gave them His Word. And in that Word, He gave them
the promise of Messiah, Christ. Same word, different language.
He gave them the promise of Messiah. They are those who are no longer
of the world. See, Jesus snatched Abram out
of the world and created a people who were in the world but not
of the world. And their shadow had a purpose.
Their pointing had a purpose. They were the type. And Jesus
Christ is the true. And His body is the true. And that's what John wants to
bear in mind here as he talks to his readers. When this evangelist
writes this gospel, he wants people to dispel any idea that
it's just the pagan world that rejected Jesus. It's all the
world. Even those who were chosen by
God centuries ago. These who were chosen by God
are not ignorant of who Jesus was. Don't think that that's
something that is in play here. Though the world may have never
heard of the coming Messiah, every Hebrew person knew it from
memory. Every young child by the age
of four knew the teaching of the promise of Messiah. Every
single person with Hebrew lineage knew the truth of the coming
Messiah, even in the days of Rome. Generation after generation
after generation, though they could not worship like they wanted
to, though they could not operate in their courts as they were
accustomed to, they still knew Messiah was coming. The very
half-breed woman in John 4 knew Messiah was coming, and in Him
alone did she place her trust. Isaiah 1 says, the ox knows its
owner and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know,
my people do not understand. See, this was a long time problem
with Israel. It's a long time problem with
the Hebrew people. And friends, before we start
throwing stones, it's a long time problem with cultural Christianity. Are y'all hearing me? They did not receive him. So
he came to his own, but his own people did not receive him. Let's
think about that for a second. They did not receive him because
they had lost sight. They did not receive him because
they no longer desired to see his ways. And this was historical
for Israel. It was historical for the Jewish
people from the beginning. Abram, Hey, I'm going to make
you the father of many nations through you. The world will be
blessed. He's like, man, I don't believe it. My wife's old. I'll
go. I don't go have a baby with Hagar. Nobody did. Here's God's promise. Here's Abram's faith. Nah, I'll
take matters into my own hands. That's what we've done. That's
what we've done with evangelism. It's what we've done with the gospel.
It's what we've done with the authority of scripture. It's
what we've done with ecclesiology. It's what we've done with the
local assembly. It's what we've done with everything in our culture
has been turned upside down because we want to take our methods and
place them above God's wisdom. Not you and I, but we as a culture.
And it's infecting third world nations. It's infecting mission
fields everywhere we turn. Where people are more interested
in proper leadership acumen than they are absolute miracles of
rebirth through the word of God. When people are more concerned
about having certain types of numbers and certain numbers of
baptisms and certain absolute decisions of some kind for some
type of gospel than they are of just being a servant to the
church. And then there's the greedy ones,
the charlatans who know they can prey on the
lives of impoverished people who are scared to death and somewhat,
somewhat superstitious. But if you plant this and you
do this and you say this and you believe this and God will
do this. So they're seeking after what's on the master's table
rather than seeking the master. John 6, they wanted the food
that Jesus gave them instead of Jesus. They had lost sight. They did
not receive Him because they got what they wanted most. And
when Jesus came along, He refused to give it to them. They didn't
receive Him. What is it that Israel wanted
most? Freedom. Israel wanted freedom from Rome.
Israel wanted freedom from slavery. Israel wanted freedom from captivity. How many times do we see in the
gospel narratives where they tried to take him and make him
king? And what does Jesus do? Vanishes through the crowd. He didn't come to be an earthly
king. He's the God of the earth. Why would He want to be the king?
That's like stepping down. He would not give them what they
wanted most. They did not receive Him because just like the world
that they thought they were not of, they were spiritually blind. The reason I started in John
12 and Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 53 is to show you that Jesus says
this. Not James Tippens. Not a commentator. Not a collective works of some
specific reformed or non-reformed or evangelical theologian. But
Jesus says that He did everything He could to prove Himself to
them and even though He showed them clearly that He was God
and He was Messiah, they would not believe. In order that, God's
decree shown through Isaiah would be fulfilled. So it's not even a temporal issue,
is it? Now the fairness question comes
into play. And I mentioned this last week.
And I just dogmatically said, fair doesn't question righteous. But why is that fair? Friends, it's fair. if God assigns
every living, breathing human to eternal damnation. I want
you to hear that. Let me say that again. Kids,
listen very carefully. It is right if God does not save
anybody. It's just and holy and righteous. Now this is tough, but that's
the core of the questions that's gonna start coming from the Jews
who refuse to see Jesus. But we have the oracles of God.
But our father, Abraham, what does Jesus say about that? If
Abraham were your father, you would know me, for he rejoiced
in me. How dare you say you knew Abraham? That's what does Jesus say, before
Abraham was I am. I love that. Have you ever heard
that in the Greek? It is just like a poem. It's
just one of those things. I can feel it. If I were standing
there amongst the crowds, not as a Pharisee, but just standing
there witnessing this and hear Jesus say stuff like that. Of
course, He didn't speak it in the Greek, but it was written
in the Greek. I can imagine what it feels like
to those people. Let's be like if somebody came
up here right now and said, excuse me, and they came out here and
says, I just want you all to know I am Jesus Christ. You'd be like,
is there a stone anywhere? Get one of these bricks out of
this wall. Let's take care of this guy. Imagine the fierceness of the anger and
righteous justice that the Jews had when they heard him say that. They were spiritually blind. They did not receive Him then,
ultimately, because they hated Him. They hated Him. They knew,
they knew, but they hated Him. John 12, as we've already looked
at, we see the Logos, the Creator, the Revealer, the Redeemer. He
has come into the world and amongst His own people and no one can
see Him. Friends, listen to me. You ought
to worship God passionately with tears of joy running in your
soul and maybe down your face every time you think of the reality
of what it would have been for you had God not reached down
into this darkness and plucked you out of it. We are saved, beloved, so that
we can praise God for His glorious grace, not boast before Him in
our glorious choice. There's nothing more damning
to me than to hear people defend their freedom at the cost of
eternity. You talking about politics? I'm
talking about salvation. I have heard people say, I have
a right to choose God if I want to. Go ahead. You tell him that. If somebody
said that to the king, I have a right to do what I want to.
What do you think the king would do? Oh really? Seize him. Wait a minute, I have a right.
Let me go, I have a right. Let these chains off me. Don't
put my head in the guillotine. I have a right. Plop. He had
a right. That was a little macabre, maybe.
Don't punt heads. Don't punch throats. What is our right? Our right
is to be judged righteously. God's grace is compassion. Now get this, what we learn and
what we'll learn in this, why did God dare come to earth? Why would he save me? Now, everybody
else here may say, well, you know, I know some reasons why
God would save me. Pretty good. I'm a nice guy, I'm a nice guy,
I'm sweet. We'll talk about lying next week. What about me? Let me just, I
can talk from my perspective. It is an absurdity and almost
blasphemous that God would grant me mercy and give me eternal
life. Why did he do that? Because in His love for me, He
gave me life. You see what that does? That
takes away all boasting. That takes away all expression
of pride. It takes away all exertion of
volition. It takes everything away. And it gives God all the glory.
And it is the most glorious and most beautiful thing. That's
why the scripture talks about choosing, electing, predestining,
snatching, grabbing, pulling, carrying. God is the author of all these
actions. No one can see this logos. Even His own could not
see. And what John is wanting to show
us here so simply is that the totality of all humanity lives
in a spiritual and judicial darkness that cannot be overcome except
by the light. It's already been said. The light
is the only thing that overcomes. So when we sit here today and
we go, oh, well maybe I'm judicially blind. Stop crying over it and
hear the Word of God. By the grace of God and the mercy
of God, would you hear the Word of God today? That is the command
given of the prophets. That is the command given of
the evangelists. That is the command given of the prophets.
And that is the command given of each of us today through the
Word of God, that we would hear the Word of God. And that in
God's timing and in God's mercy, some of you have said, wow, I
hear it. I see it. I behold the same Bible
that you've been carrying around and swapping coffee tables with
for 30 years may be the very same book that brings you to
life tomorrow. The utter, absolute, irrefutable
condition of humanity is darkness and lostness. Do you see who
Jesus is this morning? Do you see Him? Or do you peer past Him to look
and see what else He might be trailing behind Him? What did
you bring me, Daddy? What did you bring me, Uncle?
Digging in His pockets for the candy. Have you ever seen kids
do that? Somebody I haven't seen in six
months. What did you bring me? Not, oh, it's good to see you.
Where's my prize? Most of the world who claims
Christ love him that way. All the millennia of promises
that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the very ones, they
are the Jews, the very ones who knew. that it had actually happened. I mean, think about that. The
entire Word of God given them for millennia, they held it.
And what happened? They saw it fulfilled and they
went, nah. Nah. I'm not going to like it. I don't
want it. What happened was they actually
hated Him. Sometimes we find ourselves in that same heart.
We love the world. We live for future hope. We take
and find our joy and worldly pleasure. We grasp hold of idols,
leisure, and self-glory. So what hope do we have if we
do these things? What do we do? See, some preachers could actually
stand in front of their congregation and transform the way people
think and transform the way people talk and transform the way people
walk. Because I could take those very
statements of reality and say, you know what? We're all like
these people sometimes, and we grab hold of things that are
darkness, and we do all these sorts of things. And I could
say, well, you better watch yourself. You better live this way. You
better walk this way. Is it wrong to say you better
walk this way? No, because the Bible teaches us we have to walk
certain ways, right? The Bible's teaching us as the
church to walk certain ways in which God has equipped us to
walk. And even when we walk perfectly, Those perfect walks are not righteousness.
Our righteousness is Jesus Christ. Our righteousness is how He walked,
and how He lived, and how He obeyed, and what He looked at,
and what He said out of His mouth, and what He loved with His heart.
And one day we will be like Him in that glorified state. One
day we will no longer be fighting that war that I prayed about
this morning. One day we will no longer have the mind at odds,
the flesh at odds, the eyes at odds, the ears at odds, the hands
and feet at odds. One day we will be at one forever with Jesus
Christ intimately without any sin or temptation ever. And beloved,
I hope you are looking for that day. The only hope that we have is
the light. Because even in our best of days,
it's not good enough. Even in the best of moral days
or ethical days or spiritual days, it's not good enough, is
it? Now, I'm not sitting here saying, well, we can't be good
enough, we might as well not do anything. That's baloney. Because
the love of God compels us. Our love for Jesus Christ that
He's given us compels us to want to honor Him and glorify Him
and live according to the call that we've been given. But the Logos, the Word, the
Lord is coming to the world and His light is shining through
His Word this morning. The light of the Gospel shines
when the Word of God is preached. Can you see it? I pray that the
Lord would open your eyes to be able to see it this morning. We're conflicted in our souls,
in our minds, in our hearts, in our eyes, in our lives. We
know one thing, but so often stammer in the drunken stupor
of idolatry. as we're trying to walk then
straight and narrow to ill effect. The point I'm making here, beloved,
is that there's nothing you can do in your life to warrant redemption except believe in Jesus Christ. And the Scripture teaches that
that is a gift of God. You hear that? So that God is glorified
in it all. What do I do about this in my
life? Believe on the Gospel. Believe in Jesus Christ. What
do I do about that in my life? Believe in the gospel. Need your
brothers and sisters. Friends, we are here together,
not so you can look at me, but so that you can also be in tune
to look at each other. God has equipped every Christian
to be part of a local church, so that they can be intimate
with people who will love them in spite of them. And every single person throughout
all the last few decades of my ministry has always looked at
me and my family and go, Ann, I wish my family could be like
yours. You do not. Well, maybe so and so. No, you
don't want their life either because they're wanting yours
and you're thinking they're crazy. We can just all be honest and
confess that every one of our lives is mired in this same staggering
battle. Whether it be flesh, or whether
it be finances, or whether it be marriage, or whether it be
sickness, or children, or whatever it may be, job, or neighbors,
persecution, whatever it might be, we're all in a battle. And the temptation is there to
not believe that Christ is enough, to not believe that the gospel
is the power of God and the salvation, to not believe that the Word
of God is all I need. You mean all I need to do is
just read the Bible? Yes, read the Bible. That's it. You don't
need therapy to make it through the day. How dare I say what
I'm about to say. You need theology. You need the Word of God. The
simplistic, childish, read me a story, daddy, should be on
the hearts of all of us. Read the Word of God. What's to save this wretched
man of me? Christ. Christ. It is Christ. He makes Himself known to us.
Do you hear His voice? Do you behold His glory in all? Do you see Him? Christ makes
Himself known to us. He is the light. That is His
purpose. That is His business. He shines
that you may see Him in the darkness. Do you see? The Word says, the Logos says,
the Lord says, I've come into the world to seek and to save. That is what Jesus does. That
is what Jesus did. And that is what Jesus is doing. He says, I came for the sick.
I came for the sinner. I came to find the lost. What
does that imply? If you're righteous, if you're
well, if you can see, Jesus didn't come for you. You see that? No pun there. Let's look at it from the history
of the Hebrews. I find it odd that the Hebrews
letter written by Paul, I will argue, evidenced by 2 Peter, God in many times and many ways
spoke to our what? Forefathers through the prophets. And in these last days, He speaks
to us through His Son. If you've never read Hebrews chapter 1,
I suggest you do it. And you won't stop until you
get to 6, and then you'll call me. And you'll be like, uh-oh, I'm
in trouble. No, you're not. It is Christ who completed the
covenant. It is Christ who paid the penalty.
It is Christ who satisfied the judgment of God. By the way,
Hebrews is a polemic against Judaism and all the practices
and all the types and all the shadows they're in. They're gone. But the Jews knew in Jesus' day,
they knew what the prophets had taught their forefathers. So this unbelief is a decisive
action of their flesh, of their free will, a rejection of their
father's teaching, a rejection of their heritage, a rejection
of the oracles of God, a rejection of God Himself. The word perfidy
comes to mind. A gross violation of trust and
fidelity. What a terrible infidelity. For God called Israel and gave
them a name, set them apart as a people in order that through
Israel the world might be saved. And then they went, we hate you. Do you hate Jesus? I keep asking that question because
the more we go through this gospel, the clearer you're going to see
Jesus. I said, what, about three Sundays ago, I said, if you don't
have a hold of John, you don't have a hold of Jesus. And what
I should have said, a different word, if you don't have a good
handle on John's gospel, you're not gonna have a clear picture
of Jesus. But when you get through with this gospel, you're gonna
start seeing Jesus in such a light, it's gonna blow your mind. And
you're gonna say, that's not the Jesus I know. I can't believe
He'd say that. I can't believe He'd do that.
I can't believe. I can't believe. Well, friends, this is the Jesus
of Scripture. This is the truth. This is who
Christ is. And this is how God has called
you out of darkness. That you know Him. And you know
the Son. And you believe in Him. And by
believing, you have eternal life. Don't believe in a man-made equation. Do this, say this, go here, you're
saved. Believe in a God-decreed equation. Believe on the Son and you shall
live. Believe not on the Son and you are condemned already.
See that? That's John 3. This decisive action to reject
the truth of Scripture was also a judicial action that God had
established before the beginning of time, as we saw in the 12th
chapter. To reject the one that was sent
by the Father, knowing full well who He is, is really grievous.
And people say, well, you know, He came to us all, maybe they've
just forgotten through all the years. Nah, it's been that way
from the beginning. In the garden, Adam and Eve walked
with Jesus. And He said, the whole world
is yours. Subdue it. You know what that
means? No boundaries, no property lines,
no fences, nothing off limits, except these trees right here.
These two little trees don't eat of these trees. And they
believe the lie and the temptation of the flesh that they could
be like God if they ate of that tree, and they did. They rejected Him. Adam went
against God's promises. Abram was told he'd have a son
that blessed the nation, and as I've already mentioned, Abraham
went against God's promises. Jacob was not the firstborn. But God said He would, through
Jacob, bless the world. Why? Because it's not about lineage,
and it's not about heritage, and it's not about tradition,
and it's not about the rules. It's about God's decrees that
break the rules, because He sets the rules, and He doesn't break
His own rules. And God chose who? Jacob. Not Esau. And lo and behold, Abraham even
was not going to let God do that. He was going to bless Esau despite. And so Jacob, the supplanter,
deceives his father and gets the blessing anyway. Jacob's sons then sell Joseph
into slavery because he reveals God's plans for them. Moses leads
Well, God leads Israel out of slavery and what do they do? Bark and fuss and complain. Moses is set apart to lead Israel
and then they complain against him. They actually have the audacity
to say, we're the assembly of God, who are you to tell us what
to do? We're God's people. I've been
in some business meetings at churches that sound like that.
The deacon possessed churches. Jeremiah in preaching to Judah. What does it say there in Jeremiah
44? As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name
of the Lord, we will not listen. You ever been like that? What's the point? Oh, there's
one more. Amaziah. Remember Amaziah? What
was he like? The king's regent? the days of
Amos. And Amos tries to go and tell
him to say it to the Lord. Amaziah, what does he do? He
goes to the king and says, Hey king, Amos is trying to usurp
your throne. And so that when Amos shows up
by the authority of the king, he said, Amos, you are not to
preach. You are not to speak. You are to leave this place never
to return. And it's horrifying for us, but
friends, I've been there. in ministry. You ever been there? You ever been there when something's
going on and you knew what the Word of God would call you to
and you're thinking, I really could settle this on my own.
Especially us men, we get into a conflict, we could settle it.
Or at least we'd try. We could settle it. We can deal
with this. We can handle this. These problems in life, nah,
I don't want to hear the Bible right now. I don't want the church
to come over and pray with me. I don't want to hear from a brother
or sister. I don't want anybody to dig their
nails into my life, you know. We don't want anybody in our
lives when we don't want to hear the word of God. Too bad. You can sleep in separate bedrooms,
but you can't leave the house. And that's what the body of Christ
is all about. Last week as I closed, I said
two things. Jesus is gloriously divine and
man is grossly depraved. And all throughout the history
of humanity since Adam and Eve, men have been running from the
light of the gospel so that they can stay hidden in their sins,
which they love. Only Christ can save us. Only
Christ can save us from that, friends. The world couldn't escape
it. Israel couldn't escape it. We're
not going to escape it. Except that the light of Christ
come and shine. Believe on Jesus Christ. Do not harden your hearts or
stop up your ears. Think of Stephen, Acts chapter
7. Can you imagine? Here is Stephen. A pious, spirit-filled,
Christ-exalting man, born a Hebrew. And he's preaching. What is he
preaching to them? What does he tell them? He preaches the
whole Old Testament. And they know what he's saying,
and they know that it's true, but they do this. Home alone
on the ears. I don't know if that was loud
or not, but I plugged my ears up. They screamed so they could not hear
Him and they plugged up their ears and they screamed as they
hurled stones at His head and killed Him. Sometimes we don't want to hear
the Word of God. Beloved, I pray that that's not your heart today.
As I said already, I pray that God would cause us through any
means to have such a desire to be together under the teaching
of His Word that everything else would be left undone. What is man to do? The true light
which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He
was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the
world did not know him. He came to his own and his own
people did not receive him. Verse 12, but to all who did
receive him. Wait a minute. I thought nobody
received him. See, that's what we're going
to explain next week. But for those who did believe,
They are the ones who received. They are the ones who believed.
They were the ones who were born of God. Believe on Jesus. He came to His own, but beloved,
guess what? His own and His heritage and His genealogy were not His
own. And that's what John's gospel
proved to you. They were not His own. They were a shadow,
just like the lamb that was sacrificed into the Holy of Holies. That
was not Jesus. Who are the own of Jesus? We
are. We are His own. In John 13, now
before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour
had come to depart out of the world to the Father, having loved
His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. I don't
know about you, church. There's a powerful, powerful
peace that comes with hearing that. The world didn't know Him
and hated Him. His own Hebrew people didn't
know Him and hated Him. But His own, who were out of
the world, He loves them till the end. Do you know that? He
loves them until the end. Believe on Jesus, in Christ. That means His revealed person,
His essence, His work, His promises, all that He is. The light is
yours, beloved, and it will overcome the darkness. It will overcome
the darkness. Nothing that we are will save
us. Nothing that we do will save us. Nothing that we say will
save us. No knowledge or wisdom of the world will save us. Nothing
that we can do can earn our salvation. Only Christ can earn it. Only
Christ has earned it. And only Christ can give it.
Nothing we own will establish eternal life. Only faith in Jesus. And by the Lord's mercy, I pray
that you would have faith this morning in Jesus Christ alone. And as you fight, that that's
your only battle tool, that you come. I heard a preacher say
Thursday that the breastplate of righteousness is the good
works and the moral acts of men that guards our hearts. Hell doesn't exist yet in the
sense of eternal judgment, and the devil's not there, but this
term, we know what I say, that comes from the pit of hell, y'all.
The breastplate of righteousness is Jesus Christ. The breastplate
of righteousness is Jesus. Jesus guards us for the day of
judgment. Jesus guards us for the day of
redemption. Jesus guards our minds and our hearts and our
lives and our souls this very moment as we're trying to work
through the teaching of scripture. Jesus is our righteousness. Now we are the righteousness
of God. Let's pray. Lord, to take a small little
verse like that sometimes seems like a redundant journey. But Father, it is worthwhile
to pause in that moment and to consider that there is no greater
or lesser of persons in this world. There is no group of people
that are more holy or more righteous or more worthy of your love than
anybody else in this world. We are all on equal standing.
We are all guilty before you. We have all fallen from your
glory. There is no Jew and there is
no Gentile that has caught your eye with greater affection. than the other. But Father, you
have put your eye of affection on a people. Lord, we thank you for that.
We thank you for bringing the gospel to us and saving us out
of darkness. We praise you for your grace,
for your love, for your mercy, for your power to save. And Father,
we pray right now as a church that you would just continue
to empower us to hold fast to Jesus Christ, who is our hope,
by faith. And that every turn of our day,
when we see our flesh trying to not only sin, but take credit
for our redemption, Lord, would you just give us the words, the
words of the gospel, by grace you have been saved. Father, I pray that for everyone
here, that we would hold to Christ, that we would believe on Him,
and that our children would know the message of the Gospel. Not
only that they hear it here, but they hear it at home too,
when things are good and when things are not good. Lord, I pray that You would continue
to do Your work, to lead us and guide us, and prepare us for
that day when we shall forever be like Jesus. In His name we
pray, Amen.