Every New Testament epistle,
every New Testament gospel, every New Testament book is written
in such a way that the introduction of each of these writings lays
out an outline that emphasizes the whole of its purpose and
meaning and structure. Every bit of them, every one
of them. So that when we see what Paul writes the Church of
Ephesus, when he talks about the Lord, the election of God,
the purposes of God, the grace of God. It actually explains
everything else he's gonna teach. It outlines it. The same thing
is true with what Paul writes to Timothy. The same thing is
true for what Peter writes to the Jews, both in his first and
second epistle. And no matter what, it never fails that in
our culture, The Word of God has so been pushed aside as a
tool of the trade in ministry or as a go-to reference that
we don't even see people preach or teach or commentate on the
introductions to this writing. Hardly ever. Now you want to
see some really overdone exposition of some of the prologues of the
letters? Go look at the Puritans. You really want to think, how
in the world do you write volumes of commentary on 1 John? Because
these people paid attention to words, paid attention to sentences. And I'm not talking about word
studies and let's expound. We can never understand what
Scripture is teaching by going to the English dictionary. We
can never understand sovereignty by going to Webster. We can never
understand light by looking in the encyclopedia. We can't look
at all the 30 different variations of what a word might mean or
how a word is used and say, oh, that's what the Bible means.
You know how we understand what the Bible means? Simple language. Simple language in context. If I use the word hot potato
today, just out of the blue, it makes no sense. But if I tell
you a story about a potato that was hot, it would make sense.
If I wanted to use it as a metaphor and I said, the word of God is
like a hot potato, I would have to give some reason why. Just
to say it's like a hot potato, because sometimes it's too hot
to handle. You put it in your mouth and
it burns. I don't know, it's just silly. But we have to understand
that this writing, this literature is literature. But it is divine. It is the Word of God speaking
to us this very moment. It is inerrant. It is authoritative. And nothing that we think or
believe or no smart, intuitive ideas that pop into our mind
matter if it contradicts the fullness of what Scripture teaches.
If you want to know what John 21 is about, you must understand
what John 1, 1-5 says. If you want to know what Jesus
is talking about in John 3, heavens to Betsy, you better pay attention
to John 1, 1 through 5. The doctrine, that means the
teaching, that is in this prologue could take us a year if we really
sat in it. And that at that case, I'd be
old when we got through. The half of every letter of every
chapter took a year. 42 years later, how many children
will have come and gone in our church? Great grandchildren we'd
have. What's the point? The point is,
is that through this text, God is revealing himself as he intended
to be revealed for the sake of your joy and for the sake of
your redemption and for the sake of his glory. and we ought not
spend so little time in it that it has ill effect in our lives.
John 1.1, let's read again together. And 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 the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Let's stop for a second. Do you remember what we talked
about last week? Is it holding true in your heart
this morning? Is God, the Living Word, who was with God in the
beginning, who created all things, is that all still there, or is
it just gone now? The problem we have. Many problems, one in which I've
really not understood even in my own life. Is that we can forget
so much in such a short amount of time. So it is necessary that just
as we eat often throughout the day, we must also eat often throughout
the day in the word. When we feel frustrated, or flustered,
or tempted, or angry, or disheveled. When we feel like we just don't
care anymore, or that God is distant, it's because we are
starving. When I wake up in the mornings,
there's two things that must happen. I must brush my teeth,
and I must put food in my body. Quickly. If I go 30 minutes without
eating something, I am not good all day. And if that's true for
my physical body, what do you think it does for my spiritual
body? If I wake and hit the floor grumbling and complaining and
frustrated, well, why would you do that? Everybody will grow up one day.
There's always something to moan about. There's always something
to complain about. And we're spiritually starved
and we must continue to eat the word of God. In this dialogue,
or in this prologue rather, last week we saw the Word, who is
God, who was in the beginning. This relationship that we see
here is not something that should be toyed with or played with.
We shouldn't say, okay, this is proving this, and this verb
does this, though it's okay, but the English does just as
good. The English does just fine in teaching us what we need to
know. At the beginning of all things, there already was something,
and He is God, and He is the Word, and He was together with
God. This relationship that we see
that God the Word was with God, this isn't God the Father, this
is God. And we know that the Word is
God the Son, and He's with God, and He is God. And yes, we can
surmise that the Trinitarian relationship is visible there
with the Father and the Son, but it's not necessarily explicitly
talking about God the Father. It's just talking about God,
who Jesus is. And the Father is also God. And
they were together in the beginning. And they are the Word. And then
the Word became flesh. Jesus Christ, the Living Word.
This visible relationship. causes the reader to grasp very
clear things. This is a review from last week.
In the beginning of all things, before there was anything, existed
the Word already. And then we see that in the beginning
of all things, God already existed, and that God was with the Word,
and the Word was with God already before anything existed, and
the Word who existed before all things is God who existed before
all things. They are one God. Friends, we don't believe that
Jesus is a God, and the Father is a God, and that the Spirit
is a God. That's tritheism. That's polytheism. That's error. There is only one God. And He's
revealed Himself, His Father, and His Son, and His Spirit,
coexistent, co-equal. eternally. He is eternal, he
is one God, he is revealed in three persons, each distinct
in role, unified in essence, equal in prerogative. God, each
person of the Trinity, is revealed in scripture and worshipped as
God. Each person of the Trinity is not lesser than the other.
Neither of these persons are modes of God. You hear people
often, and I'll say this because it's actively a situation in
our culture today, there are people who would say, well, Jesus
is how God appears to some people. Or, Jesus is the mode in which
God transformed into during His earthly ministry. No, that's
heresy. It's called modalism. Jesus is eternal and has existed
always. The Father is eternal and has
existed always. And the Spirit is eternal and
has existed always. And each of them are distinct
eternal persons, but are one God. One being. Three distinct personalities.
That's what it means to be a person, that you have a distinct personality. They are co-existent. Remember,
we also learned last week that the Word is the creator of all
things. Now ask yourself this question.
What is encompassed in that all things? Well, as the writer would
take us back to the beginning of Genesis chapter 1, in the
beginning, when God created the heavens
and the earth, and the earth was what? Void and without form,
and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of the deep.
It was full of darkness. What was full of darkness? Nothing,
that's the point. There was nothing, so it was
darkness. The earth was without form, it did not exist. You understand
that? So out of nothing, the word created
all things. So that we see here that the
living word of God, Jesus Christ, as we already know, the punchline's
given away, church. If you don't know that the word
is Jesus, you've not been paying attention. If you don't know
that Jesus is God, you've not been paying attention. Jesus
created the entire cosmos. That ineffable, infinite, immeasurable
universe, upon universe, upon universe, upon universe, Jesus
Christ said, let there be and there was. Now, let that sink in for a minute.
Okay, we get it. Move it on along. This is a children's
Sunday school lesson. No, it's not. This is what's
to stop us in our tracks and go, wow. And then this God became
like us. He created Mary. He created her
family, and their family, and their family, and their family,
and their family, the root of Jesse, from the throne of David, all
the way back to Jacob, all the way back to Adam. He created all this and then
He created this woman, this young girl, and through her He created
a body for Himself and He came into the world. Jesus created
His own physical body. He created the womb in which
He came into the world. You want a polemic against abortion? Jesus Christ Himself was a zygote.
Jesus Christ Himself was an embryo. Was He not fully God in the womb
of the woman that He created? Yes, He was fully God. So to
say that that resides inside the womb of a mother is not a
life is to say that Jesus did not live inside of His mother.
There's no other argument. It doesn't matter what philosophy
says or anything like that. Jesus Christ entered the womb
of a woman. Jesus created the cosmos. Jesus
created all the life of the universe, everything from that which does
not breathe like the stars or the rocks. To that which does
breathe like the trees. And the fish. And the animals
and the birds and the humans, Jesus created them by the word.
The power. Of his command. He created humanity
and in humanity, he created the mind, he created the soul. He created then also those things
which are abstract in existence, as Paul tells us in Colossians,
he created the authorities and the rulers and the governments
and the kingdoms, he created them all. And it has subjected
himself to the very government that he created in Rome. He subjected
himself to the very brokenness of a chosen people called Israel. He subjected himself to the very
ridicule and the criticism of those who rejected him. He created
them. And his own did not receive them. The Word of God is through which
the heavens are made. The psalmist writes in Psalm
33, 6, for by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and
by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts. I made the point last week to
say stop looking at Jesus in creation or God in creation as
working his hands together and getting all this stuff together
and seeing all this sort of like a Disney cartoon of my youth
where you see Mickey Mouse with a magic wand and making everything
come together. God said it and it became. And the mountains were created
as though they had been here for millions of years. Adam was
not an infant in the garden, beloved. He was a fully grown,
functioning man at one second old. The Word of God creates all things. Last week we also talked about
the Word of God revealing all the things of God. The Word of
God God has said, therefore it stands. The Word of God, as we
looked at Tuesday night at one of the questions, are the gifts
to the church, the prophets and the apostles, the Word, the Scripture.
God reveals Himself to the prophets and then the apostles. Of course,
Hebrews 1 says He speaks to us and reveals Himself through the
Son, who the prophets told of. Jesus Himself would say that
in John 5. Moses wrote of me. And then the apostles who wrote
the word of God and the words of Christ, the apostles, the
prophets, the apostles, the evangelist who took the word of God and
took it to the masses and took it to the nations. And through
hearing of the word, the spirit of God brought to life those
who could not know, for they lived in utter darkness. You
see the theme of John coming to life. Through the logos, God
has shown His light into the world by creating it. And then revealing Himself, the
light of revelation, to illuminate Himself that we might look and
behold and say, wow, we see you God. We see you in your splendor.
We see you in your glory. We see you in your majesty. No,
in our culture today, we'd rather see magic tricks than majesty. In our culture today, we'd rather
see glitter in the air than glory in the face of Christ. In our
culture today, we'd rather just see a great Mother's Day celebration
than the majestic honor of Christ. has said that His purpose is
unchanging and eternal and it will be fulfilled. The Word of
God reveals Him as He sees fit and the joy of His people and
their redemption is in the balance. God accomplishes all His desires
and He does so through His Word. He says that it is and it is. God's divine self-expression
is seen in the Word. He created through it, and creation
does what? Displays His glory. He specifically
revealed Himself through His Word, and that is salvific to
us, church. I want you to hear that. You're
not saved today because of what you know, you're saved today
because of what Christ has done, and because you believe in Him
and all that He is. Isaiah 55, 11, everyone knows
that verse. You may not know the footprint
of it or the address. So shall my word be that goes
out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish all that which I purpose and shall succeed
in the very thing for which I sent it. The Word of God always does
exactly what God intended. So beloved, let me tell you right
now, if this bores you, it is a fearful thing for you. You hear me? I don't like to say dogmatic
things like this, but I'll just leave it there. If the revelation
of God in all of His glory bores us, we have problems. If the
Word of God bores us, if we'd rather have our thumbs busy to
the text, or our games busy to the end, or our minds occupied
with the soaps, something's drastically wrong with our intimacy. What shall stand in comparison
to the glory of Christ? What shall stand in opposition
to the Word of God? What stands up and says, I am
greater than he? For the most glorious beings
that ever walked the cosmos stood up and said the very same thing
to God and he hurled them out of heaven. The kings of history
have stood to build a monument to themselves and with the word,
dust. Generations of men, generations
of kingdom, generations of wealth have been laid to waste, never
to be found. In the annals of our historical
chronicles, there is no place for them, for they do not exist
in the world that lives today, and no one will ever know who
they are, for they opposed God, and He wiped them from the record
of earth. And friends, one day in our history,
All that we are will be right from the records of this earth.
We are not leaving a legacy for anyone to behold if that legacy
is not the word of God. Jesus Christ in this gospel is
God, and He does all that God does, He says all that God says,
and He is saying and doing all the desires of God. As we see
in John 5, I don't want to get there today, but I just want
to bring it to your attention because it's important. Jesus
says, that which the Father was doing I now do. That which the
Father is saying now I say. Jesus is the expressed, divine,
perfect glimpse of all that God is. All the fullness of deity
was pleased to dwell. He is the visible image of the
invisible God that you want to see. And look here within the scripture. That's all review from last week. Now to today. We see verse two there, it says,
He who, what, the Word, who is God and was with God. John reiterates
the reality of what we just read. Wait a minute, God was in the
beginning, the Word was in the beginning, and the Word was God.
So common sense then says, the Word is God and He's with Him. So he just repeats it. He was
in the beginning with God, who? The Word. The Word is the subject
here. The Word of God is the subject
here. And if you peek on down to verse 14, you'll see the Word
became flesh. So we know it's Jesus. And we'll
get there. We're getting there. But I'm in a hurry. So this reminder... is also to
teach us what verse 3 says, which I've really not preached, if
you will. But it says, and that all things
were made through Him. Through who? Through Christ,
the Word. And without Him, who? Christ, was not anything made
that was made. And when we start to really grasp
that, we need to move to the practice of understanding the
depth of what John is teaching here. And it's not a lesson on
how the earth came about. Listen to me, church. Don't get
distracted here. And so, oh yeah, Jesus created
the world. Okay, good. Let's move right along. That's
not what John's talking about, though it is. Because if we didn't
have the rest of this, if we didn't have the rest of this
argument, this outline to bring us to this place, we would just
say, okay, good, Jesus creator, moving right along. But what
John is wanting you to see, beloved, is what he's going to explain
to you, starting in this first chapter, starting in verse 19,
when John the Baptist hits the scene and the Pharisees come
and question him and said, who are you? Are you the prophet?
Are you Elijah? Are you the Christ? Certainly
I'm not. And why are you baptizing? The one that will come after
me will be baptized with fire, with the Holy Spirit. He will
actually birth you anew. I'm just wetting folks. And then you'll see Jesus later
and he'll say, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins
of the world. Friends, they didn't grow up together. They weren't
Facebook friends. Just as John the Baptist leapt
in the womb of his mother when Mary came, conceived of Christ,
conceived of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist leapt in the
womb of his mother to such a degree that it became Scripture. Not
just a little turn and, oh, I feel my baby kicking. It must have
racked her ribs. He must have grabbed hold of
there and said, pretzel. I mean, he must have just, there
must have been something there. And you ladies all got, yep,
I've been there. And now, by the same spirit that
testified to John in the womb of his mother, testifies to John's
spirit that this is the Lamb of God. Nothing was made that exists
that he did not make. He is the what does that teach
us? The essential cause of all things. As Jesus would say in Revelation,
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He
speaks in the same manner in which God speaks through Isaiah
in Isaiah 46. I am God and there is no other.
I am the first and the last. God would say He is the Ancient
of Days. You know what that means? There is no beginning to Jesus
Christ. He was not, though He was born of a virgin in this
world as a human being, with a fully human nature, with a
fully human mind, with a full human soul. Yet without sin,
he was also fully God. The ancient of days became like
us. And Jesus creates, and he is
the essential cause. He is what philosophers of old
would call the unmoved mover. Everything that moves, moves
because something caused it to move. An object at rest stays
at rest until it's acted upon by an outside force. And so,
in the same way that there is nothing, if there is something
else to behold, if there's something that is created, if there's something
that exists, it has to have what? It has to have something that
existed before it so that it could live. So if something existed
before there was nothing, then that something either had something
else to make it or existed always. Jesus Christ is the one who has
always existed. He is the primary cause of all
things. He is the first mover. He is eternal, has no beginning,
and He will have no end. He has always been. And He, as
He creates, He does so through His Word, who He is. And the
Word creates that which did not exist to exist, and the Word
gives life. And that's where John's going
now. John's going to the creation, from the creation of the cosmos
and the world, to the creation of life. And we're not sitting
here talking about the creation of life that exists in this room
because we breathe and the lungs work and the mind works and the
electrical impulses and the synopsis of the brain are working together
that we don't even know that we're moving our hands like we're
Kung Fu Master or whatever. But we're just existing. It's
not just that life, beloved. It's a greater life than that. In Him was life, verse 4, and
the life was the light of men. That's where we are. Jesus gives life in creation, and Jesus gives life in regeneration. Now, if you bother with commentaries,
they never go there. There's been a few that have
alluded to it. But friends, false gospel purveyors
around our day read this and use this as a Semitic
example of the rejection of Jesus Christ by Israel. And they suppose that John is
writing this for the sake of his Hebrew brothers so that they
may see all the things we learned about the creation. Now we need
to know that this is really God. So pay attention. Is that the
gospel message? If there wasn't the rest of this
prologue, we could probably argue that with good intent because
we can infer what John meant. But God is impeccable and He's
perfect. And God in His Word has established
a clear argument that shows us from every jot and tittle. Friends,
you know why I know that what I say up here is correct? Because
I can read English. That's a bold statement, isn't
it? And I know a lot of people who
are not born of God, who can read an argument. So this is
what it's saying. It doesn't mean that we see it. It doesn't
mean we believe. But we can read the words. But you know what
we've done? We would never go to a recipe
book and we would pull out just, oh, let's page 34, page 63, page
129, and rip it into four pieces. Oh, let's put that, that, and
that together. Some cumin and some sugar and some maple syrup.
And let's see, a little bit of jalapeno. What do we have here?
Diarrhea. Sorry. And that's what we end
up with when people snatch this verse, and that verse, and this
verse, and that verse, and they make an argument, they have theological
problems of the bowel. Where does this stuff come from?
Probably same place. This text is teaching a sovereign
grace This text is teaching a powerful, regenerative, divisive, particular,
decisive, rather, salvation of a people. This text
is proving beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond all doubt, beyond
every doubt, it proves that God is the Father and the Author
and the Power of salvation, period. For if God, through His Word,
brings to life the things that are not into existence, then
surely God, through His Word, who is Jesus Christ, will bring
to life those who are dead in the darkness. That's the argument
that's here. In Him was life. And the life
was the light of men. The life was the light of men.
The creation of man? Absolutely. That's included there. It's understood
because John has already begun to argue that through the illusion.
That means looking back. Not illusion. That's a magic
trick. But the illusion of looking back to Genesis chapter 1 in
the beginning. And John does the same thing in his first epistle.
That which was from the beginning. He uses the impersonal pronoun
that to refer to He or Jesus, the Word. that which was from
the beginning. Jesus Christ created man, yes,
but He also recreates men. You see that? Well, how do you
know that? Because it says there, and it
was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness.
The darkness has not overcome it. Well friends, darkness, if
I turn out all the lights, there's no particular darkness in here. Darkness is not an existence
of a presence or an essence. It's just nothing shining. Why
do we look into the sky at night and see black? Because there's
no light. So darkness and creation of the
world existed because there was no light to shine upon anything.
And there was nothing for any light to shine upon, rather. How could the darkness that is
just the absence of light overcome anything? What darkness, pray tell, is
John speaking of? The darkness of depravity. The
darkness of sin. the darkness of the rejection
of God, the darkness of rebellion, the darkness of death, the darkness
of evil, the darkness of wickedness, the darkness of false gospels,
the darkness of the devil, the darkness of false religion, the
darkness of false interpretation, the darkness of self-righteousness
and self-worth and self-esteem, the darkness of all these things
that man thinks he is God and he sets himself above the Lord. Where does man sit? It says there,
those who do not receive Him, He came to His own and His own
did not receive Him. See, He's talking about the Jews there.
We'll get to that in a few weeks. Man does not receive Him. Man
walks in darkness, living in the what? What does Paul say?
The kingdom of darkness? Blindness? What does Jesus say? They stumble
because they walk around in the what? Dark. Creation reveals God. Romans chapter 1 says that creation
reveals God. That what God has made, He's
clearly seen and known through these things. It's about to get
real fast, so pay close attention. But general revelation, that
means knowing that God exists, is not something that you come
to, it's something that we, every one of us, in our humanity, from
the time we're born to the time we die, if we're not born again
by the Holy Spirit, we know that God exists. We may not know who
He is, or what He's done, or what His name might be, or how
He's called, But we know that there is a high power that exists
in the world that created it and everything in it. Some people
call it a bang, some people call it evolution, some people call
it all sorts of things because they posited in their ignorance
and in their darkness and in the suppression of the truth
to create their own God and label it as such. And ultimately it's
the God of self-righteousness, the God of power, self-power
and self-control. Creation then, by its very existence,
reveals not just that God is, but God says, through Rucall
in Romans chapter 1, that the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness. So general revelation is a condemnation. For Paul argues that men are
without excuse in their wickedness, for they know that God exists.
But they suppress that which they absolutely know with works
of unrighteousness. Thereby God turns them over to
reprobation. One of the first aspects of that
is sexual immorality. to love the creature, to love
the body, to love the things of the world, to love the mind,
to love self-righteous, all these things, God turns them over to
reprobation that they may do what is not natural. And in turn,
He is more, He's justified anyway, but He builds a case against
them more and more and more. They knew, but they did not see
God and thank Him and worship Him, but rather they worshiped
man and creation and the creatures and the creepy and the crawly
things. I met someone some years ago that felt like that was pets.
I simmer down now. Don't tell me I love my dog too
much. The wrath of God is revealed.
The light is shown that God lives and He is and He exists. And
knowing the light of creation shines on the glorious one who
created it, Jesus Christ. Why What Jesus says in John 3
illustrates this clearly. The light is coming to the world.
He actually says this is the judgment, that the light is coming
to the world, but that men love the darkness rather than the
light because their works are what? Evil. But those who come
to the light, and between that he says, and they don't come
to the light lest their works be what? Exposed. But those who
do come to the light do so that it may be clearly seen that their
works have been carried out in God. No one wants to be seen for who
they are when they're evil. No one. Pride does not allow
that. I don't want anybody to know
what I've done. I don't want anybody to shine the light on
me. I don't want anybody calling me a sinner. How many times have you ever
heard that? How many times have we said that in our own hearts? My friends, Jesus very clear
didn't come for the righteous but the sick. He didn't come
for the self-righteous. He didn't come for those who
didn't need a Savior. He came for those who did. And when we think we
don't, He didn't come for us and we're reprobate. Even as God's children, we must
continually be reminded of the good news of Jesus Christ, that
He has given us life undeservedly. No one wants to be seen for what
he is, because all things will come to the light and be seen.
Just as in creation the earth was dark, the earth was without
form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and
the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters of the deep.
Now in mankind there is void, there is darkness, nothing with
any form of godliness. Even though He was made in the
image of God, because of our rebellion, beloved, because of
our rebellion, we now live in darkness. We have no form of
godliness. The light has gone out of us
because of sin. And we have fallen far from the
glory of God. While in creation, the darkness
of the void was not evil. Think of that. But the darkness
of humanity is evil. And darkness reigns. Not because
of the absence of light, but because there is a positive evil
in man. Did you hear that? Darkness, by definition, in an
abstract thing, is the absence of light. But evil is not the
absence of light. Evil is an absolute positive
existence. It's an entity of itself. It's
rebellion. It's darkness. It's sin. It's
fallenness. It's judgment worthy. It's vengeful,
vengeance worthy. Justice and righteousness must
be poured out upon sinners, lest God be a liar. The darkness in our hearts is
not because of the absence of light, because we and our humanity
and our fallenness, listen, we care not to make room for it. Don't believe me? John 8, 12,
Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Some people say, well, I don't think men are inherently dark.
I don't think men are inherently evil. Really? Happy Mother's
Day, moms. Raise your hand if your children
are perfect. There's no hands in here. There's a pointing going
on. No. No. We are guilty before God. Whether it's to be aggravated
that our sister took our Lego, or whether it's mad because we
have to pay taxes, or whether the fact that our Xbox got turned
off, or whatever it might be. We're sinners. And we walk in darkness, and
there's no hope except that Christ comes. Jesus says in John 12,
The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you
have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks
in the darkness does not know where he is going. John 12, 46,
in the same chapter, I've come into the world as light, so that
whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 1 John 1,
5, this is the message we have heard from Him. That what? And proclaim to you that God
is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. See, the
light shines in the darkness. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. Look at that in verse 5. That's what the Word of God does.
That's who Jesus is. He's the light that shines in
the darkness. Where's the darkness? In us. The darkness is in us. We are the darkness. Let's just
say it the way it's supposed to be said. We are the darkness. We are the evil ones. We are
the reprobate. We are the ones who, who? I'm
talking about humanity. Beloved, I'm not talking about
you. We're the righteousness of God.
But we were like those in utter darkness. And God reached into
darkness and He saved us. The light shines in the darkness. And I pray that the light has
shined in the darkness of your soul. That Jesus Christ, the
Living Word who created all things, has created you anew. Are you
new this morning? Are you born again this morning?
Is your hope and life and everything that you hold fast to as your
hope for eternal life, is it Christ Jesus or is there something
else that stands in the way? Friends, do not let pride, I
said this last week, do not let pride swallow you up. Do not let pride keep you from
salvation. Now I know that many people would
argue theologically and as we get through this letter, that
will come to be more prevalent in this text and the understanding
of what that means will be clearer. But ultimately, when we are not
willing to say, God has saved me, my hope is in Christ because
it makes us look like we're not seasoned in the faith. Friends,
we're cut off. We're cut off. I remember sharing
my testimony in California, my first few months at the church
there. And it was on a Wednesday night, and it might have been
a Sunday evening. And there was just a small group in the fellowship
that night, and we were having open questions, and they were
asking me questions. And then some of them asked me
about my testimony and about where I'd come from. And I shared
this statement, and it freaked them out. I says, I'm not really
sure when I was born again, but I'm certain of it today. And
they look at me sort of funny. And the answer is still correct.
I mean, I have an idea, I know how old I was, but at that time
I was so conflicted with all of the bad things that I'd held
to, all of the false teaching that I'd held to, all of the
abusive ministerial practices that I'd practiced, I was unsure
if I was even regenerate my first 10 years in ministry. And so
I said, I don't know, a year ago maybe, To which if I had
been a little lighter, the woman sitting on the second row would
have sucked me into her mouth. I saw hymnals come up out of
the pews. And she just, I said, yes, ma'am, you mean to tell
me that we could have had a pastor that might not even be saved,
but just a little while? I said, rather that than an unregenerate
one. My pride's not going to keep me from Christ. It can. But by the grace of God, he breaks
through it. Because you know what pride is? Darkness. And
you know what we can do to get rid of our pride? Nothing. Here
we go. Because everybody's going, what do I do? How do I get rid
of my pride? You can't. Your pride is yours and it's
part of who you are. It's like saying, how do I get
rid of the air in my lungs? You have to die. How do I get
rid of this blood that runs through my body? You got to bleed out
and die. How do I get rid of this complexion? Sorry. You've got to die. How do you
get rid of pride? How do you get rid of unbelief?
You've got to die. It's got to be Christ alone. You can't do
it. You can't clean up. You can't get better. You can't
become more sanctified. You can't decide, I'm going to
be a greater Christian. What does it mean to be righteous?
Total perfection. What does it mean to be holy?
Absolute perfection. Who here has ever been able to
accomplish that? For one hour. No one. Don't raise your hand.
That's a trick question. Please don't. Because it'll be an embarrassment. None of us. Because even the
greatest of deeds and the greatest of worships and the most amazing
sermons, which you've not heard before, and singing or praising
or missions or all this stuff, none of it counts for righteousness.
None of it makes God go, well, man, I'm so glad they started
acting straight. No. How do you have eternal life?
Because the light shines in the darkness. Come on, world, let's see the
light of the gospel here. Let's take this. Memorize John
1, 1 through 18, and go out into the world and say, hey, there's
a light shining, do you want to see it? And whether they want
to see it or not, give it to them anyway. How is one born
of God when the light of God shines into their hearts? That's
how one's born of God. This is the point of this entire
gospel. Every bit of everything in 21
chapters here actually comes to the culmination of this particular
verse. This is the point. These things
are written that you may what? Believe that Jesus is the Christ,
and by believing in His name, you may have eternal life. How
can you believe? Nicodemus said he believed. And
Jesus says, you can't see me unless you're born again. How
am I to be born again? The Spirit of God blows where
it wishes, just like the wind. Hear the words of God. God will
blow into the lives of people who are dead in darkness, and
the light will come on. And the light's not an illumination
for us to grasp and say, hey, I think I'll read and agree.
The light is a new birth whereby we agree. That's why everywhere
we see faith in Scripture, it is a gift of God by the Spirit. That's the point of the gospel.
See and believe and believe and live. Jesus Christ is the shining
one. Jesus Christ is the light of
creation. Jesus Christ is the light of redemption. He is the
author of salvation. He is the one who shines in the
heart of darkness. He is the one who overcomes the
darkness. As we see right here, beloved,
the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome
it. See, that's what makes the gospel
the gospel. That's what makes it good news,
y'all. It's not good news if the shining light is there as
a lighthouse on the hill, and we have to meander our way and
stumble our way to it, and we have to resolve to come and climb
the staircase of life, to grasp hold of the torch and shine ourselves
to victory. We cannot, nor would we, for
halfway there we would say it's not worth it. The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it. Therefore,
having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart,
Paul says. I quote this text, second only
to John. But we have renounced disgraceful,
underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning
or to tamper with God's Word. But by the open statement of
the truth, we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the
sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled,
it is veiled to those who are perishing, who, in their case,
the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep
them from seeing. Here it is, the light of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, of the glory of Christ rather, who is
the image of God. For what we proclaim is not of
ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your slaves.
with ourselves as slaves for Jesus' sake. For God who said,
let light shine out of darkness, let light shine out of darkness,
let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. The darkness of your soul will
not overcome the light of the gospel of Jesus. And God will
save all those who He intends to save through the hearing of
His Word. And when we have people in our lives who do not receive
the gospel of Christ, let's not stand and twist things and tamper
with things and to coerce them and to make them follow some
set of rules or to say some sort of magic words or to say some
prayer to come down and cry at the altar. Let's not tell a story
or use a flannel graph or use a video to woo the emotions.
Let's not do that. like the heretic devil worshipper
Charles Finney who comes to the table of saying we can create
revival in the lives of men. Let's not do what Billy Graham
has done throughout the century and say that you just gotta come,
that God loves every one of you, you're reprobate and you're heretic.
That is not true. God loves His elect and the darkness
of their soul will not overcome the light of His love for them
for He has loved them with an everlasting love and nothing
will overcome the gospel of Christ. He will save His own people.
And we as His people have been saved because Christ loves us,
and He gave Himself for us, and He atoned for us, and our sins
are paid for, and there is no debt that we have to our Father
because it has been paid in the person of Christ. And that every
moment of unbelief in our life is nothing but an opportunity
for us to take hold of the perfection of Jesus Christ, that by His
cross and by His life we are healed, and we know that we are
the beloved, and we know that we will live forever, and we
give glory unto Him for all that He is, because He has done the
work to the praise of His glorious grace, beloved. That is the gospel
of Jesus. It's about looking at what God
has done. God has the power. We do not. When we stand and
say, look what we've come to, God, thank you for the opportunity.
And we took it. We boast in the face of God.
And it is a mockery of the grace where he has come. And our culture
has buried many of confessing Christians who are sitting and
awaiting judgment today because they believed in themselves. And brothers and sisters, we
must come to the place sometimes in our life where we actually
recognize that we are evangelizing more professing Christians than
we think we are. Look what God has done. He is the power. He is the power. This grand picture
of election and redemption and salvation and sovereign grace.
It forms the entire Bible. It forms the entire gospel. It
forms our Bible, too. But it forms this entire gospel.
Why is this my favorite thing in the world to read and to preach
and to teach? When I die in this life, I want
somebody to read the whole Gospel to everyone standing there. I
almost want to watch it. Because it is through the Scripture
that Jesus is seen. It is through the Scripture the
Spirit gives life. It is through the Scripture that
we die to ourselves and we are made new in Christ by His hand. The darkness cannot overcome
it. Nothing can stop the shining of the creative, powerful Word. Nothing can stop the Word. Nothing
can stop God's work in you. Nothing can put out the light
of the gospel, and no man can refuse it when it shines in his
heart. If Jesus Christ is atoned for
the sins of someone, they will see when they hear. Are you sharing
that faith? Are you sharing the gospel? I pray that you do. Friends,
it's not on you. You don't have to lead them through anything. You
don't have to, hey, just say it and leave them dumbfounded,
wondering, that's a weirdo. Leave it. The Word of God is
the power, not us. How's it going today? It's great.
Jesus Christ. You know who He is? He's God of heaven. He created
all things. You're wicked. You deserve justice. But Jesus
died. He lived. He came to earth. Born
of a virgin. He lived. Holy. You couldn't. And He got on the
cross and He died and He rose again for the third day. And
only by faith alone and what He has done can you have eternal
life. You believe that? Get out of my face. I'm praying
for you. You don't need much. Jesus created the light of the universe. I think it's
fitting to think about this. Christ created the stars and
hung them in their places. How perfect then at His advent,
at His coming, at His birth, that He take one of those stars
and shine it brighter. that the very Creator, the very
Word, who hung it in its place and set it in motion and put
it where it was, spoke to it that it might burn brighter so
that the Chinese men from Asia would take two years to come
and find Him, that they might worship Him. Jesus put a star in the sky to
guide them, and He's put the light in the heart of men to
give us knowledge of Him. whereby he creates a new heart
for us in the place of the dead one. He creates a new mind for
us in place of the hostile one. He creates a new soul and life
in us in place where there was none. We are not worthless objects
of wrath, but precious objects of mercy. Are you trusting in
the grace of God today through Jesus Christ? What does that
mean for you? What does it mean for you? It
means that nothing, listen to this, nothing can separate you
from the love of God. Romans 8. Nothing. Nothing can take you out of His
hand. Nothing can take away his grace for you. Nothing can stop
God working out what he began. Nothing. Let's pray. Oh, God, how glorious is your
word for us this day? I thank you, Lord, for being
together this morning to worship and to celebrate. I thank you, Lord, for your love
toward us in Jesus Christ and for the light that shines in
our hearts because you took pleasure in saving us. Lord, help us to just Stand strongly
and firmly on the rock of Christ. Give us a hunger for His Word.
Give us zeal and compassion for our neighbors and for each other. Give us a burden for the lost. Help us to believe fully in the
work that you've done. and to cast away any self-righteousness
or works that might linger so that your glory and your grace
is praised. Father, may the word of God preached
today set in the hearts of our children and our teenagers and
each one of us. And as those who are not with
us today hear this sermon later in the week, Lord, may it be
as beneficial and profitable to them as it was for us today.
By Your mercy, for the sake of Your name, in Christ we pray.