Of course, we are in John's Gospel,
chapter 1, and this morning we're going to be looking at verse
10. If you'll turn there with me,
I'd like to read again the prologue in its entirety. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men. The light shines in darkness,
and the darkness does not overcome it. There was a man sent from
God whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear
witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
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. But to all who did receive
him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children
of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory
as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John
bore witness about Him and cried out, This was He of whom I said,
He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.
For from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through
Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever
seen God, the only God, who is at his father's side, he has
made him known. Let's pray again. Father, I pray
that through the teaching of this word today, Lord, that you
would make Christ known. Father, that you would make him
known to those who may be here or may listen to this sermon
sometime later, who are in utter darkness, who are blinded, unable
to see, unable to rejoice, unable to exalt, unable to know, and
the assurance that comes through grace alone. Father, I pray that you would
make Christ known. And Father, to us who are the beloved, those
whom you have redeemed, those who have believed because of
your grace. Father, would you make him even
more known to us this day? Father, to help us see exactly
who we are without Christ, that the majesty and the glory of
this gospel would be ever so precious to us. And Father, I
pray that as a people, Lord, that we would not just take as
greedy souls this for ourselves, but Father, that we would rejoice
together in it, that we would come to the knowledge and the
depths of the knowledge of your grace every day to such a place
that our intimacy would be absolutely divine. that our spiritual maturity
and growth, and that the glory that we exude of your work, Father,
as a people, Father, would let the devil himself know that you
are King. For it is what you've taught
us in your Word, that the church displays your great and many
wisdom, that the powers and principalities of the world, of the darkness,
know you are God, and know Christ is King. and know your people
are sealed for redemption. And so Father, it is in those,
it is in that truth that we stand and rejoice today. And it is
by Jesus Christ in whose name we pray and by whose authority
we are sealed. In his name, amen. There's a
couple of words that are common in John's gospel. And one of
those this morning we'll look at as we get started. We're going
to be in verse 10 today. So let's hear verse 9, 10 and
11 together in context. Verse nine, 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. Look at verse 12, but to all
who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right
to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor the
will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. That is the
thought that John has here. But today, we need to focus on
verse 10. A few hours after lunch yesterday,
I started rolling through my mind. I thought, well, maybe
I should just preach all four of these verses and then come
back and do it again and come back and do it. No, I want to
so focus on verse 10 today that it may seem disjointed because
there's some doctrine there, some deep theology that we need
to be reminded of. And when you think about the
darkness coming, I mean the light coming into the world, and we
see this idea of world, the Greek word for world there is cosmos. Cosmos. And when we think of
cosmos, we think in our vernacular, the way we talk, of what? The
whole universe. The stars, and the planets, and
the sun, and the moon, and everything that we could consider being
in the universe. This galaxy, and that galaxy,
and black holes, and stars, and everything. But in John's gospel,
that's not the case at all. Right here in the context of
the prologue of John's gospel, he's not talking about all of
the created infinite universe. Of course, Jesus created it all.
But in John's writing, when we see the word world, and I've
said this before, we need to understand that it is talking
specifically about the sinful humanity that exists in the cosmos.
Because we don't see in John 3, Jesus loved the stars so that
he gave his only begotten son, do we? Jesus doesn't love the
trees so that he gave his son. Paul teaches in Romans 8 that
the creation, that the things of creation, the trees, the birds,
the dogs, the cats, the sand, the seas, they are not in need
of redemption because of their sin. So Jesus did not come to
redeem in the sense, the sin of the earth. He came to redeem
the sin of man. or to redeem man in his sin,
to pay, to become sin, who had no sin, that we might be his
righteousness. And so when we think about the
cosmos, when we think about world, this term can be confusing. But
I want you to know that the actuality of the term deals with the fallenness
of humanity. So when we think of world, you
need to think of the sick world, the dead world, the fallen world,
the sinful world. And it has everything to do with
humanity, with people, with us, with you and me. Because are
we not in the world? Were we not in some sense of
the world before we were saved? Before we were called out of
the world into darkness? So that we now can say we're
in the world still, for we're here physically, but we're not
of the world, for we're not a product of the world, because that which
the world produces is what? Worldliness. And worldliness
is sinfulness, and sinfulness is death, and death is eternal
destruction. So that if we are not of the world, that means
that we are of God. And as you'll see down in the
weeks to come, we who become the children of God are so because
God determined we would be His children. There's two things I want you
to keep in mind as we continue this morning. Number one. As
we've already learned, Jesus is the eternal light who is God,
who created all things, even the world. Yes, even the world
of sinners. Jesus created every sinner. He
didn't make them sinners. He created them. As people, we
are sinners because we are sinners. And we'll look at that as we
go. So keep that in mind, Jesus is the eternal light, who is
God, who created the world, everything in it. Secondly, keep in mind
that out of the world, God called a people for himself. So God,
Jesus created all things, and then out of the world, he called
a people for himself. Who was that first person? Abram. He called Abraham out of the
world to be a people for his own possession. So when John's
writing then, so when John's writing, the world is always
in contrast to the Jews. Because in the economy of God's
narrative, in the economy of God's decrees, the people who
have been called out of the world are no longer of the world. They're
his people, they're his elect, they're his special object of
affection. And the small, minute, microscope
picture of the macrocosmic reality is that the Jews of Israel was
a small, little, microscopic picture of the cosmic reality
of the church of Jesus Christ. And so when John talks about
these things, that's the contrast. Let me give it to you in a nutshell
again. Jesus is the eternal God who is the light, who came into
the world, and who created everything in it. And the world is speaking.
when we see that word of sinful humanity. Keeping this in mind,
we can really and clearly understand the meaning of the terms in comparison.
In John 1, we have this idea, He came into the world. And then
look at verse 10, He was in the world and the world was made
through Him, yet the world did not know Him, did not recognize
Him. And we'll look at that in a minute
when we start to take this verse apart. And then later in verse
11, and this is why I was considering teaching all this together, you'll
see a continuation of this sequence, but it's a contrast, it's a comparison.
He came to his own. So he came to the world, which
are not his own. Falling humanity. He came to
the Gentiles. He came to all the sinners of
the world in some sense. All the peoples. Yet he came
to his own, and his own people did not receive him. So keep
that in mind because it's very, very important not to lose track
of that. Don't push the gospel of John
into this universalistic track. Don't push the gospel of John
into some place where you can be fed a bag of lies. If you think about it, and those
of you who study the cults, I'm not saying you should, but there's
some of us who like to defend the faith and we've been encountered
so much by the cults. We've learned a lot of things.
But if you think about the cults, a lot of the cults take the gospel
of John and they twist the meaning of the words to fit their fancy.
And they take those words and the meaning of those words and
they take it and they mold it into something that sounds good
in our linguist language to the point then that they change who
Jesus is, they change what the world is, they change what redemption
is, and then next thing you know, people are following. You ever
ask the question, how in the world do they believe that stupidity?
You know what, if it weren't for the grace of God, we would
believe that stupidity and we would call it truth. Don't ever
sit here, beloved, thinking that because we're so smart and so
wise and so educated that we wouldn't fall for cultic doctrine. We would fall for it, hook, line
and sinker, start our own churches and get every dime we had to
promote it. We'd bang on doors and say, I
want to tell you how to have peace with God. And it's so close. The language is so close, but
they'll twist it. They'll twist it. Paul does the
same in Romans 2. He differentiates these people
groups, the world and his own. In Romans chapter 2, Paul talks
about that the Jew and the Greek are both guilty before God. We
see that continually. We see the differences in Ephesians
chapter two. We see that there's always a
contrast between those whom God has called out and the world.
Keep this in mind as we go. Jesus then continuing in his
divine collaborative of the gospel of John, details the difference
to a man in John chapter three. When Nicodemus comes, and many
believe in the name of Jesus, and Nicodemus comes in John 3,
and he says, we, speaking of all the Pharisees, we, especially
the Sanhedrin, know that you are from God. In other words,
let me put it in the context of the words here that we're
going to use in verse 10. We have knowledge and agree with
the fact that you have come from God. That's what he says. And Jesus
says, amen, amen. Truly, truly, it is so, it is
so. You cannot see the kingdom of
heaven except you be born again. So what is this? So the confession
of Nicodemus is absolutely powerless. He can say all he wants to say.
He can believe all he wants to believe. He can come and confess
anything he wants to confess to Jesus Christ. He knew in the
cognitive aspects of his mind that this man came from a divine
source. He knew that this man had been
sent by God. And more importantly, he knew
that the power that this man possessed and the words that
came out of his mouth, he spoke with the authority of God. So
at minimum, he was definitely a prophet, but yet we already
had John the Baptist, the prophet, who said, when they heard him
preaching, they came and inquired, what did the Jews ask John the
Baptist? We read it a couple of weeks ago. Are you the Christ? No. Who are you? And John says, actually, they
asked him who he is. John says, I'm not the Christ. I'm not Messiah. In this, In John 3, Nicodemus,
this man who confessed faith in Jesus Christ as the one that
came from God, Jesus told him, the teacher of all Israel, he
says, God doesn't just love you and your people, Nicodemus. God
loves the world. Now there's a gross error, and
we won't get into it this morning, but because the Word is there
and we're going to start defining our terms early on in this teaching,
when we get to John 3, we're going to really look at it. But
I want you to be prepared to see it. Because people who hate
the free and sovereign grace of God, now you might say, who
hates that stuff? Almost all people in the world. What does that mean? What does
it mean, the free and sovereign grace of God? That means that
God freely, without any consideration of who we are, bestows grace
upon some people. In his divine wisdom, He elects
to save some. And he does so through the hearing
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, through the word, and that in
that word, the Spirit of God gives life and they believe.
We believe, beloved, because God has granted us belief. If
God does not open the doors of sight and give the gift of faith,
there is no salvation. That is the good news. Because
if it's on me, I'm utterly and hopelessly lost. If it's on you,
beloved, no matter how much... We sang it this morning, didn't
we? We sang it. I will fail when I can't hold
my love. And when it's stale, what happens?
He must hold me fast. He must hold me fast. Not, I
will hold myself up. I will keep myself up. I will
hold myself in the love of God. Even when Paul teaches the Thessalonians
that, he says, you can't do it. It's he who keeps you in his
love. He keeps us in his love. Friends, that's why it's good
news. It's not good news if it's on us. And people don't like
the free and sovereign grace of God because every human being
intrinsically, no matter how humble or no matter how strong
and powerful, every human being that exists in the world loves
self-power. They love self-will. They love
self-determination. They love to be able to say,
I paved the road that I walked upon and I succeeded in this
place where I stand. And I am the initial and only
agent of success in this. And people love that. Now listen,
I'm not saying that good determination won't let you climb Everest,
but there's a lot of bodies along the way to that summit. You ever
know that? People died and stay where they
lay. Why don't they just get them? You can't fly helicopters
that high. And if you decide to drag a dead man down, you'll
die in the process. And determination put some people
at the summit of that mountain. Just like determination has put
some of us in the summit of our success in this life. And we
look at it and we say, look what I've done. We'll come back. What have we done? In climbing
Everest or starting a business or raising a family or being
in good health, what is that? It's nothing but a providential
gift of God. God allows it and determines
to allow it and at the stroke of a breath, it's gone. It's gone. I don't care what
kind of health you're in, God can take you from this life this
very moment. I don't care what kind of empire you've built,
you can be bankrupt and living on the street tomorrow. Don't
believe it? Look at history. Who would have
ever told the Caesar of Rome, you're going down cuz. Who would
have said that? Nobody, because they got their
heads chopped off. Nobody would say that. Nobody would have looked
at Rome and went, man, we're losing foothold. They lost. They no longer exist. Christ is the author and the
agent of our salvation, and He is the promise of our security
and the assurance thereof. We, as people, are not the responsible
parties for boasting before God when we say, I have come to the
right conclusion. We praise God when we say, you
have given me grace. You see the difference? Free
and sovereign grace is just that. God gives mercy to whom he wishes. He loves who He wishes. He hates
who He wishes. And it's righteous. It's righteous. Jesus says that God the Father
loves the world, not just the Jews. So that Jesus Christ came
to save some out of the world, of every nation, of every tongue,
of every tribe. Now this idea that I just mentioned
about those who want to destroy or hate the gospel of grace.
Think about it for a minute. Think about your own life in
years past. Think about where you might have
been just a few months ago, or some of us may be today. There are many who purpose to
destroy the gospel of grace, and they'll argue with this sermon,
and they'll spend more time debating what I teach out of the gospel
of John than they will learning the scripture themselves. toward
me directly, but in this same theology. And people will passionately,
with anger and with gritted teeth, embroiled in eyes and veins popping
out of their head, curse people who dare preach a free and sovereign
grace. And they'll take this text and
they'll twist it, especially with a pretext of the English,
and they'll twist it up and they'll say that the world means every
single person who ever will live and that the context and the
subject of a particular sentence and where it lies has no matter,
has no bearing on the comprehension of the use of that word. Now,
what did I just say? They'll say that every time the
world is shown in the New Testament, that that means every single
human being. Well, if Jesus Christ died for the sins of every single
human being, then who will stand guilty before God? No one. Why are we doing this?
Why do we share the gospel? That's called universalism and
it's a heresy. It's a damnable heresy. Jesus
Christ did not pay for the sins of every human being. He paid
for the sins of only His people. He paid for the sins of only
those who believe on Him. Now we may argue in the nuances
of the Ordo Salutis, the order of salvation. We may argue on
a whole lot of things. But friends, when we do, we have
to be careful not to pit fairness against righteousness. Do you
hear me? Don't pit fairness against righteousness.
You know what that does? That makes us God and we tell
God what we think is fair. When He's God, which means High
One, Elohim, And everything he says is right. Everything he
does is true. Everything he decrees is absolute
and no one can say otherwise because he is God. What do we do when people come
against us and come against the gospel? Well, the Bible tells us not
to answer a fool with his own folly. Friends, don't debate
it. Don't debate it. Don't get into the ins and outs.
If someone is seeking truth, engage them with the Word of
God and prayerfully talk to them. If someone wants to just make
you look like a fool, let them think you are. For the very person
who brought the gospel to the Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus, said
that he's a fool for Christ. And said that everything that
he believed in, everything that he ever knew, was garbage in
the contrast to the priceless gain of knowing Christ as its
Lord and Savior. And that everything that He ever said was nothing
but Christ and Him crucified, because Jesus Christ's message,
the message of the cross, the message of the incarnation, the
message of the burial and the resurrection of Jesus and the
ascension, the message of the gospel is how God supernaturally,
in His divine wisdom, has purposed to bring people from darkness
to light, from death to life. And so that when we engage in
such a way that our creativity or our academic ability becomes
the force through which someone is going to believe, we are leading
them not to the gospel of grace, but we are leading them to a
philosophical theology, or to a determined point in history
where they can always put their finger, oh, I remember the day
where I prayed, or where I believed, or that I came to the conclusion
that, rather than I know that Jesus Christ has saved me from
my sin, that God in his absolute mercy has caused me to be born
again. A dear brother in the Lord, mentor
for years, told me one time that the United States of America,
the church of this culture, has a love affair with the salvation
experience. You know why? Because we want
to have our handle We want to have our hand in the brass ring
of redemption and say, look what I grabbed, rather than standing
there helpless and hopeless and naked going, look what God did. They want to paint God as a cosmic
hopeful, a cosmic hopeful who attempts to save dead souls with
the idea that they, that is humanity, the world, are vital and empowered
to move the mind in the hand of God. Listen, these are the
ploys of the enemy. And the devil wants to seduce
and steal away the glory that belongs to God. And many people
fall prey to that. Remember though, what the scripture
says, we've already learned in the last few weeks, the light
is shining in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome
it. Because if we think like this too much, we get really
overwhelmed with the idea, oh, what if God doesn't save me,
but He has, beloved? If you believe on Jesus Christ, God has saved
you. The call is clear. The power is divine. And salvation
is certain. The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it and will not overcome it because
it cannot overcome it. Remember that Christ, when His
gospel is heard, shines the light of the gospel in the hearts of
all who see it. And most assuredly, He shines it in the hearts of
the world, meaning that He is not a respecter of persons, nor
does He love one person greater than another or one group of
people greater than the other. No, Jesus is shining the light
of His gospel and it blinds out the darkness, the devil who blinds
the minds of unbelievers. Jesus saves and he is perfect
in all his intentions. He did accomplish redemption,
beloved. He accomplished salvation for his people and he will secure
us until the very end. We have to believe on Jesus Christ
and not ourselves. We have to believe on the gospel
of Christ so that we might live. For if we continue to believe
on our own lives and our own efforts, we are not able to live. Verse 10. He was in the world
and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know
Him. Let's just take it one phrase
at a time. He was in the world. Well, when you think about this,
what is the subject of the sentence? He. He. Jesus Christ is the subject of
the sentence. The light is the subject of the sentence. The
Logos, who is God. So Jesus Christ, who is God,
is the subject of the sentence. Don't forget it. And you might
say, well, that's silly, why would we forget it? Listen, when
you read throughout the rest of this gospel, and you see Jesus
speaking, remember you're hearing the voice of God. Remember when you read this account,
even the letters that aren't read in color, not that aren't
read by you, but aren't read in color, if you have one of
those red letter Bibles, I don't. Still the word of God. And it's
the word of the law God that is speaking to you. And through
this word, God brings life. And through this word, God brings
joy. And through this word, God brings
assurance. Why? Because our assurance is
held on our confession of hope in Christ. Who do we believe? James or Jesus? Who do we believe? The Puritans? The pastor? Or the pages of scripture? We believe Jesus Christ. Jesus
then has said there, He was coming to the world as the light, verse
9. Jesus has come into the world. He did not come into existence,
for He was before all things. He is the eternal God, and from
the beginning He already existed. He, the God of heaven, came to
earth. Now, some have recently suggested
that the story of Jesus being conceived by a virgin, by the
Holy Spirit, is not important. How many of you have heard that
in the last year or so? You've heard that in the news. Some prominent pastors around
the world have said, around the country, have said that it doesn't
matter. We need to get away from this mythological mindset about
Christianity. And when you get to some pragmatism
that steps aside of the mystical, so that we can we can we can
talk to the to those who are intelligent, because you tell
an intelligent person that a woman who was a virgin had a baby and
it was God. I mean, they think you're crazy,
right? Yeah, that's correct. They think you're crazy. So intellectually,
that makes no sense to us, but it's what Scripture teaches.
And so some well-meaning so-called shepherds of God's people say
that it's not necessary for us to deal with the idea that there
is a virgin birth. Let's just leave it off the table
for a while and move on. But see, the virgin birth is
right there. So how do we leave it off the table? How do we take
the incarnation? the miraculous incarnation of
Jesus Christ coming into the world as the light? How do we
take it off the table when it's the dag-blasted outline of the
entire Gospel of John? How do we take it off? What do
we do? We pay attention. It's not an absurdity. It's a
requirement. It matters because if Jesus Christ, who is God,
is supposed to take on the likeness of humanity in a human flesh,
but he's born in depravity like the rest of us, guess what? He
deserves hell. Oh, my goodness. That's blasphemous. No, it's not. If Jesus Christ
had an earthly father, he in his flesh deserves hell. And he would have sinned. Because
we're a fallen people. You see, that's what we're learning
right here in verse 10. We're a fallen people, created
by Jesus Christ, our infinite creator, the majesty on high
that spoke into being everything and all that we know leapt into
existence, breathed the breath of life into our Father and Mother,
Adam and Eve, and that from them all humanity exists. But the
Bible says He came into the world. Jesus Christ came to the world.
He came to the world of humanity like us. He who is righteous
and holy and perfect and divine, who cannot look upon sin, took
on human flesh that He might walk among sinners. that He might
obey as we have been commanded to obey, that He might live in
a way that gives glory to God in everything, so that He would
be justified before the Father, because He never sinned. He never
disobeyed the law. He never violated the holiness
of God. He is the righteousness of God
in His humanity. Jesus wasn't righteous just because
He had a divine nature. His human nature was righteous.
Let that sit for a second. Jesus Christ and His humanity
was righteous. Verse 14 clearly shows us that
the Word became flesh. You see that there? And dwelt
among us. And in the flesh of Jesus Christ,
we've seen the glory of God. The fullness of His glory. Grace
and truth we've been given through the life and through the incarnation
of Jesus Christ. We've seen it all. So that in
some way, the Imagio Dei that we talk about in Genesis chapter
one and two, specifically two, where it says, let's make man
in our image, the image of God, is perfectly seen in the person
of Jesus that we have been required and
commanded to show. But Jesus came into the world, with the rest of all the fallen.
And he became part of the world, but yet was not mired in sin
because he was born of a virgin and he was sinless. And look
at this next phrase. Probably should have mixed these
up, but switch them around a little bit. Look at this next phrase.
The world was made through him. The world was made through him.
What do we see there? Well, he came to the world of
humanity and he created the world of humanity.
And he was outside the universe because he was not a created
being, but all of a sudden he became like a created being. And this
world is the human race. This world, the negative aspect
of world is the fallen, the ones who have fallen far from the
glory of God because of what? Rebellion. Where Adam and Eve,
they were tempted and tricked. Yes, they were deceived, but
they disobeyed God willingly. Adam, Eve, and then every human
being since, except Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is the Creator God,
should be known by us because He created us. We should know
Him. Matter of fact, there's such
a thing that we call in a systematic theology class, we would call
it general revelation. In other words, God is revealed
in two ways. Generally, according to Paul
in Romans chapter 1, and if those of you who come This coming Wednesday
we'll get started in this in Romans. But general revelation
says to us that everything that we see in the world points to
the fact that God is. And so we're without excuse because
we know that God is. But because we hate Him, because what Jesus would tell
Nicodemus in John 3, we love the darkness, we don't come after
Him, do we? And I'll show you that actually
we cannot come after Him. Because we are fallen. We're fallen. And because we're
fallen, we sin. Because we're sinners. We're
sinners by guilt before we ever sin. Now let me tell you something
here. Let me just get on my soap box for just a second. Not my
soap box. My soap wrapper. I won't get up so high. Anyone who tells you And you
put it to the test, don't take my word for it. Anyone who tells
you that humanity is intrinsically good, and that there comes a
time when people begin to start to sin, and that they're only
guilty of being a sinner when they actually willfully commit
sin, you go to that person and say, I'm gonna be a prophet.
And you close your eyes, and you can do it theatrically, or
you can just come right out and say, I perceive you have no children. That's what you can say. I perceive
you have no children. You don't know what you're talking
about. You don't know. Well, yes, I have children, but
they didn't start rebelling until about 12. Oh, you must have worked
on the road, buddy. Ask your wife. 12 days, 12 hours,
12 seconds. And no, the selfish, intrinsic
need of a baby to be coddled and fed and held and tottered
around the house is not wicked rebellion, but it's a result
of a depraved nature. The baby's not going around,
I'm going to tell my mama, just pushing everything aside and
ruling everything. But because of the depraved nature
of humanity, we see the results of it. We see results of the
fall. Jesus should be known to us.
General revelation is that we know that God exists. Special
revelation is when the light of the gospel shines in the heart
of a dead man who cannot see. When I say man, I mean human.
But if I had to go man, woman, and child every time I mentioned
humanity, I'd be here all night. When we come to know the special
revelation of God through Jesus Christ, we have seen the glory
of God. And when we see the glory of
God, we know God. And the only way we know God
is that He knows us and shines in us the light of His glory
through the gospel message, who is Jesus Christ, who is the life
of men. You see that? A pun even in the question. The fall caused enmity. with
God. Our nature, our depravity, calls
enmity. It's different than intimacy,
isn't it? Intimacy versus enmity. We are hostile to God. The world
was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. You see
that next phrase? Though we know He is in the humanity,
in human race, we know that God is. I've never met a true atheist
in my life. In just like five minutes, an
atheist confesses he doesn't know that there's not a God. They're so adamant. The world did not know him. The word there for knowing and
knowledge is gnosko. And some people say, well, it's
just about understanding the facts. Let me tell you something. I understand the facts of a lot
of things on a small scale. Does that make me an expert?
I understand the facts of a few things on a large scale. Does
that still make me an expert? It's knowing the facts, knowing
something. If I go take a book that's written
about Barack Obama, and I read all the volumes it ever wrote,
and I know everything about him, does that mean I know him? Does
that mean I've met him? Does it mean he knows me? No. So John doesn't use that word
that way either. He's using this word not in the sense that there's
a factual knowledge of, but there's an intimate knowledge of his
divinity. So when it says that the world did not know him and
the NIV and maybe the King James, they might translate it, recognize
it's still a good translation, but it's trying to define the
term a little bit outside the translation. It's called commentary. Don't recognize and don't know
Jesus. In other words, we don't know,
the world doesn't know that Jesus is God. It doesn't accept it,
doesn't receive it, doesn't acknowledge it. Doesn't look at it. The knowledge of humanity of
the divine is what it means here when it says they do not know
Him. Do you know Him? Do you know Christ? Do you know
Christ or do you know of him? You know about him. Friends,
all of the glorious, and I may be saying this out of ignorance
or just affection because I like history, church history specifically. I mean, look at all the great
seminaries of yesterday and all the great geniuses that came
to the forefront of sacrificing their childhood for the pursuit
of Jesus Christ through the scripture. Who by the ages of 13 and 14
went off to divinity school to get their doctorate, because
they did not care about anything but Christ. You're thinking,
that's a weirdo. That's what we'd say in our day.
Play with this truck for a little while longer, buddy. Think about those schools and
to look at them now. They're the most liberal wastes
of theological education on the map. But yet some of the most
brilliant minds you'll ever stand in front of. And what happens? The same thing that happens when
people create in their mind a false gospel, a false hope, a gospel
of works. It just becomes a gospel of knowledge. The world did not know him. They should have known him. They
should have known him. They should have known Jesus.
But they didn't. Why? Well, first, I want you
to see that the scripture teaches, as a matter of fact, John's gospel.
I could go through every chapter. Let's try it for a minute. John's
gospel shows that they could obviously see Him. In John 1,
John the Baptist cried out, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away
the sins of the world. He told them, look, there He is, there He is, there
He is. And they went, nah. See, all the prophecies that you've
been looking for, all these things that you've been looking for,
there He is, there He is on the voices crying out of the wilderness.
They even inquired of it. They wouldn't see Him. John 2,
What happens there? Many believed in His name, but
Jesus did not Himself believe in them, for He knew the heart
of man. No one had to tell Him what was in a man. John 3, Nicodemus
comes and confesses, we know that you are from God. And Jesus
says what? You can't see me. You can't see me. There's a game
that I made up months or two ago that I didn't know I'd made
up a game, but Abigail was not paying attention, and I just
pretended like I couldn't see her. She would talk, whatever,
and she'd get over here, and I'd just look the other way.
And I'd look right at her and just look beyond her. I'd say,
Abigail, where'd you go? And she'd go, I'm here, I'm here.
And a couple of weeks later, she's talking to me. She said,
hey, Dad, let's play the Nazi game. And I'm like, I don't think we
can play that game. I don't know what that is. I'm
like, what's this preschool been teaching her? She goes, you know, you pretend
you do not see me. That's how it is with Jesus.
He's right there, and we can't see him. John 3, Nicodemus confessed,
and Jesus said, you couldn't see me. John 4, the woman at the
well of Sychar, a Samaritan, what did she say? Oh, behold,
you're a prophet. If you knew who it was, woman,
who asked you for water, you would ask Him for water, and
He'd give you living water that wells up unto eternal life. She follows the logic of her
knowledge of Judaism. She follows the logic of her
heritage, Jacob, their father. She couldn't see. And the disciples
come back, you want something to eat? I have food already that
you don't know about, Jesus says. Who gave him food? John 6, he
fed some people. And they saw the signs of glory. And they follow Him. Five thousand
men follow Him in boats to Capernaum. And what do they do? When did
you get here? And Jesus says, you don't come after me because
of me. You come after me to get food.
Don't labor for the bread that perishes. They couldn't see,
but they should have seen. And what do they ask Him? Where's
the sign? Show me, show me the sign. He says, I am the sign. They should have seen John 7.
Oh, it's a tough one. John 7, we get into verse 4 of
John 7. If you do these things, the disciples
said, if you go and you perform all these miracles, remember,
because what they wanted him to do is go and show himself. He said, if you perform all these
miracles, if you go and you reveal yourself, you'll show yourself
to the world. And then when Jesus begins to
talk, He says, you both know who sent me and where I'm from,
and that I've not come from me, but the one who sent me is truth,
but yet you don't know Him. You should be able to see, Jesus
says, but you can't see. You see who I am and what I say,
you hear. You know who I am, but you cannot
see who I am. John 8, you shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free. And he goes on in John 8 and
says, you know, you don't know me and you don't know the Father.
John 9, he asked the question, do you believe in the Son of
God? And here, here, some believe. But what happens to the blind
man in John 9? He's thrown out. He was blind from birth and he
can see and he goes into the priests and they're upset. They're
mad. They're angry. They can see,
but they can't see. They should be able to see. John
10, Jesus uses it more of a hearing. My sheep know my voice. In John
11, what happens there? I'm going to show these people
my glory. For Lazarus is not ill, except
that the Son of Man be glorified in his death. And then he says,
Lazarus, come out! And Lazarus comes out. And they
say, let's kill them both. They can see, but they can't
see. We should be able to see. In
John 12, he quotes the Old Testament. He says, to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed? In John 11, what happens? It's
better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish.
So Caiaphas could see that Jesus was divine, but he's like, man,
let's just let him go or we're all going to suffer. Many of the rulers in John 12,
42 believed, but they dare not confess it, for they feared the
Pharisees, and they loved the glory that came from man rather
than the glory that came from God. And I could go on, 13 to
the end. It's all there. We should be
able to see. We should have known Christ. But there's a problem. Why don't
we see Christ? Two reasons. The world does not
know Jesus because it hates Him. You hear that? Oh no, we don't
hate Jesus. No, listen. The world hates Jesus. And there was a day, beloved,
where you and I hated Jesus. We may not have recognized it,
but we hated the true God of the Bible. We hated the Jesus
of Scripture because for some of us, and I won't ask you to
raise your hand. If you want to testify, jump
on up. But some of us, maybe not, you might freak somebody
out. The chosen frozen here, let's stay calm. Some of us know good and well
when we came to see the truth of the gospel and the sovereign
and free grace of God, that we hated that God for a minute because
it wasn't the God that we knew. No way, this can't be right.
This picture of Jesus in my mind is not the Jesus. It's not the
Jesus who said what he said in John 12. He's not the Jesus who
said, they hate me. And they're going to hate you. He's not the Jesus who says,
depart from me. I don't know about that. He's
not the Jesus. I don't think I know that Jesus. Well, beloved,
if we don't know the true God, we don't have eternal life. In
John 17, Jesus says this is eternal life, that they know you, the
one true God, and the Son whom you have sent. You know what's
wrong in our culture? Christianity has become a playground.
It's a playground for social status. It's a playground for
activities. It's a playground for worldly
alternatives. We're supposed to be a people
for God's own glory, yet we can't even see the glory of God. It's a mockery. But by His grace,
we have seen Him. And the reason many people don't,
and the reason you and I didn't until we did, is because we truly
hated the Scripture. We hated the God of Scripture.
And because of that, we can do nothing to change it. The world
hates Him and everything He does, and everything He says, and everything
He stands for, except of course for the Jesus that grants wishes.
The genie Jesus everybody loves. The genie Jesus that gives all
the good jobs, and gives all the good relationships, and gives
all the good prestige, and gives all the good power. Of course,
God gives it all. What does Solomon say to the
wicked and the faithful? Everything comes from God. All
good gifts, James says, are from above. But most people just want
the good genie Jesus. And when suffering comes, what
does Jesus say in the parable of the seeds, of the sower? When
the strangleholds of life come around, they just say, I'm done,
I'm going to climb my own mountain my own way. The genie Jesus. The innkeeper didn't want Jesus when Mary was giving birth. Herod
didn't want Jesus so much so that he killed every baby three
years younger, every firstborn son of the whole realm. Did you know that? You forget
that about the Christmas story. See, we like those second commandment
violations. We go, oh, little Jesus. You know, how many people
died because he was born? Because they hated him so much.
And why did Herod hate him? Because the oracles of God said
that he would be a king. And Herod's like, I'm not sharing
my glory with that guy. Let's kill him. Men love the darkness rather
than the light. Men hate him. Cain killed Abel because Abel's
works were righteous. And the question has always been
given to me, why can't people just see? Why can't they just love
Jesus for who He is? Why do they have to be so hateful
in their hearts? Because that's the condition in which we're
born. Blind and dead. And let me tell you something,
until people see that they are unable to see in love, they never
can. You know how we're able to see
that we can't see in love? When we're given eyes to see.
How does that look? By somebody telling you and teaching
you the scripture and the Holy Spirit going, I grant repentance
to him. Has God granted repentance to
you today? Can you believe on Christ? Can you see? But I'd be a fool to leave it
here, wouldn't I? The world not only does not know Jesus because
it hates Him, the world does not know Jesus because it is
judicially blinded by God. And this is where we start getting
into trouble. I don't like that, Jesus. John 12, 41 quotes Isaiah
6, and the evidence is clear. that they can't see, that they
can't perceive, that they can hear, they can't understand,
because if they saw and understood, then Jesus says, then I would
heal them. Many claim to believe in Jesus,
but they only hold to a work, to an action, to an outcome.
The closer we become to our ability, The closer we hold on to what
we've done, the closer to how we can say, look man, I opened
my eyes and I saw, the closer we come to that, the further
away we are from truth. And it's about Christ alone.
I quote this text a lot, but 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the
natural person does not accept the Spirit. I mean, verse 14,
the things of the Spirit, they are foolishness. They are foolishness! And he is not able to understand
because those things are spiritually discerned. Paul says that the
natural man cannot comprehend spiritual things, and it's proven
through every discourse of John's Gospel. Jesus talks about spiritual
things. The people argue about physical
things. What do you mean I've got to be born again? What do
you mean there's water? You don't even have a bucket.
What do you mean you've got food? I don't see you eating. What
do you mean there's bread? What are you talking about your
flesh? What do you mean you're the resurrection? I know we'll
be raised up at the end times. You see it? The command to be holy is there.
for all men, but let me ask you, how do you do it? How do you do it? How do you
stand before God holy today? What in the world does it look
like? Even as Christians, the command is still there, be holy. What are we going to do? None of us can perfect it. None
of us can get close to it. None of us in all the works of
so-called righteousness that we do for a hundred years will
ever come to any smidgen. Is that the word? Minute, microscopic
dot of righteousness. It cannot do it. No way possible
can we be holy. So what's our hope? Our hope
must be in Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession,
so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light. See the contrast
there? Jesus is gloriously divine, and
man, humanity, the world, is grossly depraved. And there is
nothing that the grossly depraved can do to approach the gloriously
divine. So the gloriously divine must
become like the depraved, yet not be depraved, so he can snatch
us out. That's the gospel. That's what
Jesus did. Adam and Eve ran from God the
minute that they sinned. They knew they were naked, they
were ashamed. And they ran and they hid and they tried to cover
their own sin. Beloved, stop trying to cover your own sin.
Those of you who are hearing this this morning, who hope in
your holiness, are utterly lost. For it is Christ who is your
righteousness. It is Christ who is your holiness. It is Christ
who sets you justified before the Lord. It is Christ and Christ
alone. Hold fast to Him. Believe on
Christ. Trust in what He has done to
set the record straight. No man has ever been holy except
Jesus. Only Jesus Christ can save us.
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome
it. The darkness does not recognize the light, but the light shines
anyway. And the light does all that it
is supposed to do. The light has come into the world,
beloved, and my prayer is that God would shine in your heart
this day to give you the light of the knowledge of His glory
in the face of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Oh, what a glorious truth we
have. Jesus Christ, our righteousness. Nothing good we have done. Nothing. It's not in us, Lord. It's all
in you. It's all in Jesus. To him we
owe all things, yet we could bring nothing to him to pay him.
For he gave himself. to satisfy your judgment against
us. We praise you, Father, for your grace. We love you, Lord,
and we thank you, not just for the salvation, but for every
day where your spirit guides us and your word directs us.
And Lord, we know that we are yours because we hope in Jesus. Give us confidence, Father, in
Christ, not in ourselves. In his name we pray, amen.