Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
John, the gospel of John chapter one. And I'm going to be talking
about Christ, the light of the world. Now there's several passages
in the scripture that speak of light. And of course, light has
to do with the truth of God shining in the darkness of this sinful
world. And that light has its culmination,
its brightest glory, its effulgence, if you might want to say it that
way. in the glorious person and the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as I've preached on this
passage many times before, I wanted to do it again as going through
John chapter 1, where it speaks of Christ being the living word
of God. The Eternal Word that was in
verse 1 of John 1, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with
God. The Word was God. That's Christ
who is the Word of God. He is the wisdom of God. He's
the way that God communicates to His people. through Christ
reveals Himself through the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ. It says in verse 2, the same was in the beginning
with God. Verse 3, all things were made by Him and without
Him was not anything that was made. In Him was life, verse
4 tells us, and the life was the light of men. Now there's
that light coming forth. the life that God has given to
everyone who lives by natural creation. And I say natural,
it's actually supernatural because God creates life. But we're all
born with that spark of life, physical life, and the mental
capacities, all the faculties of life. And all of that came
forth from Christ. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. Now, if we're talking about spiritual
life, then we understand that what this is talking about is
that spiritual eternal life from God is in the person and work
of Christ. Now, not everyone has spiritual
eternal life. The only ones who have that life
are those whom God describes in His Word as being believers.
Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in the book of John chapter
three, it speaks of this. It says that, verse 18 of John
chapter three, listen to this. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, But he that believeth not is condemned already because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Now that condemnation is death. And so how do I know if I have
spiritual life? Well, the only way that I know
that is do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Because believing
is not the cause of life. Believing is the evidence of
life. And so this is how we know. And
that life comes through the revelation of truth, the revelation of the
light. So back here in John chapter one, our text, he says, in him
was life. Christ said, I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. So there's a distinction that
we have to make if we're going to understand the scriptures,
even this passage. There is the physical life that
all people who live on this earth have, born with, but there's
spiritual life that comes forth from God in Christ and it's applied
by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. And we'll be talking about
the new birth later on. But you remember what Christ
said in John chapter three when he was talking to Nicodemus.
He said, you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom
of God. You must be born again or you
cannot enter the kingdom of God. You see, spiritual life, spiritual
eternal life is the result of the new birth by the Holy Spirit,
which comes forth from Christ, the resurrected Christ. The Bible
says in Romans 8 and verse 10 that this body is dead, talking
about our physical bodies that are in a perpetual state of dying
as we get older. But he says the Spirit is life,
the Holy Spirit is life, spiritual life, because of righteousness.
And that righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ, the merit
of His whole work of redemption. And so what we learn from this
is that those who are born again are those who have already been
justified by the Father through the Son. They've been forgiven
of all their sins on the ground of the blood of Christ. And they've
been declared righteous before God, legally righteous, based
upon Christ's righteousness imputed to them, charged or legally accounted
to them. So that's the difference we have
to see here. But it says in verse 5 of John
1, the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not. Now this is the light of the
gospel, wherein Christ, Jesus Christ, is identified and distinguished
in the glory of His person and in the power of His finished
work. who Christ is and what he accomplished to redeem his
people from their sins. And that light shines in the
darkness, the darkness of this world, the darkness of our own
natural eyes and our hearts. You see, man has been created
by God, created in the image of God. Man fell when Adam fell. and we fell into a state of spiritual
death and darkness, unbelief, a state of sin. So that when
we're born into this world naturally, we're born spiritually dead.
Now we have physical life, our mental faculties and all of that,
but that physical life and those mental faculties are under the
darkness and the condemnation of sin. So we're born spiritually
dead and depraved, totally depraved. Now, total depravity, when we
talk about people being totally depraved, we're not talking about
the fact that people cannot have a conscience and cannot do things
that are right in the sight of men or even be religious. But it's summed up in a verse
that I quote all the time on this program. It's 1 Corinthians
chapter two and verse 14. which says the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them. They are spiritually discerned,
spiritually understood, spiritually judged. And man has no capacity
or desire to receive and believe and rejoice in the things that
glorify God as He reveals Himself in the salvation of sinners by
His grace through Jesus Christ. And one of the evidences of that
is man by nature believes, insists on believing, that his salvation
is in some way, at some stage, to some degree, conditioned on
what he does or what he decides. That's spiritual depravity, spiritual
death. Now we do make decisions all
the time. I'll be talking about that later on in a message. But
the decisions that we make are not that which glorifies and
honors God in the way of salvation. A person can try to be the best
person they can be. They can be religious. They can
be sincere, dedicated, moral in the eyes of men. They can
be generous, very charitable. But if they don't know Christ,
if they don't believe in Him, they're still spiritually dead.
And if you think, or anyone thinks, that salvation is conditioned
on anything you do or decide, my friend, that right there shows
spiritual death and depravity. And there's a light though, and
that light is the light of Christ in the gospel that shines in
the darkness, but it says the darkness comprehended it not. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. So what's got to happen? Well,
you must be born again, or you cannot see, you cannot comprehend
and understand the kingdom of God. You cannot enter it. Well,
verse six of John one says, there was a man sent from God whose
name was John. Now here he's talking about John
the Baptist. John the Baptist, who was the
last of the Old Testament prophets, and who was the forerunner of
Christ. And it says in verse seven, now listen to this, This,
the same man, the same man, John, came for a witness. In other
words, he was bearing a testimony of somebody else. He wasn't trying
to draw followers to himself. He wasn't trying to gain a group
for himself, not promoting himself, but he came for a witness to
bear witness of the light. John the Baptist came to bear
witness of Christ, the light of the world, the light of men. And he did that. He said, behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. And
then he said to the crowd, he said, this person, Christ, must
increase and I must decrease. And that's a good motto for every
true preacher of the gospel. An old preacher once told me,
he said, it's like this, preach Christ, point sinners to Christ
and get out of the way. Don't bring men to yourself or
women to yourself, point them to Christ. That's what John the
Baptist did. And so he says, the same came
for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through
him might believe. Now that's all who are going
to believe. That's not all without exception, because all without
exception are not going to believe. But whoever believes, whoever
they are, he says they believe on Christ. They have the light. Now this light is a revelation. John said that in verse eight,
or it's said here of John, he was not that light. John was
not the Messiah. John was not the savior of sinners.
John was not God manifest in the flesh. That's Jesus Christ.
So he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that
light. And look at verse nine now. That was the true light. See,
John bore witness of the light that was the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Every man that
cometh into the world. Is that talking about every individual
without exception? You know, people always, when
they look at passages like that, and John 3, 16 is one of the
major ones, you know, God so loved the world, and they automatically
assume that the word world there means every person who ever came
into the world. Well, my friend, that's not true.
Look at what it says. Read it in the context now. That's
important. Remember what he says in verse
five? The light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. And then let's look on. It says, look at it again, verse
nine. Christ was the true light which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. Verse 10, he was in the world
and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. Now,
if you don't know Christ, You're not enlightened. If you don't
believe in Christ, you're not enlightened. Christ as the light
is a revelation from God. In Romans chapter one and verse
16, which I quote a lot on this program, Paul wrote, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. In other words, if I preach the
gospel to you, and you believe it by the power of God, not by
your own power, not by your own goodness, not by your own so-called
free will. That's not how it comes. But
if I preach the gospel or anybody preaches the gospel and you believe
it, Then that gospel has been made the power of God under your
salvation to everyone that believeth, the Jew first, the Greek also.
Paul makes it clear, this is not a Jew-Gentile thing. This
is for any sinner who believes it. And then in verse 17, he
says, for therein, in that gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. And the righteousness of God
is the entire merit of Christ's work of redemption. as the surety and the substitute
of his people on that cross, to bring about a righteousness
by which God is just to justify. So, for therein is the righteousness
of God. Now listen to this, from faith
to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now
from faith to faith. From faith, that's the light
revealed, that's knowledge revealed. God has shined the light in his
people. He's given them spiritual life,
given them a heart, a mind of affections. They've been born
again and it's revealed from faith to faith. That's knowledge,
faith, light, believed. You understand? So this is a
revelation. So Christ here in John 1, when it says, that was
the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world, he's not talking about every person without exception.
He's talking about everyone who believes the gospel in this world. Now how do you know that? Look
again, verse 10. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Now is that
everybody without exception? Well, by nature, none of us know
him. But look on in verse 11. He came
unto his own, and his own received him not. Now some people say
that's talking about the Jewish nation that in general did not
believe. So that he came unto his own
nation. But I believe it's talking about His sheep, God's elect,
who He came to redeem. By nature, none of us know Him,
believe Him. But what happens in the power
of God, look at verse 12, but as many as received Him. Now there are some who receive
Him. There are some who comprehend the light. Now how does that
come about? We'll look at it. But as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become or to be called
the sons of God. Now that word power there does
not mean ability. It means the right, the privilege. And what he's saying here is
those who have received Christ, who believe in him, who rest
in him, who plead His blood and His righteousness as their only
way of salvation. Those are the ones who have the
right, the privilege to be and claim to be the sons, the children
of God. If you don't believe in Christ,
you don't, listen, the Bible says those who don't believe
are children of the devil. It's what Christ called the Pharisees
in John 8, 44. He says, you are your father, the devil. You're
blinded. But those who are born again
and who receive Christ, they have the awesome privilege by
the grace of God, not by anything they've done or decided to do,
but by the grace of God, they have the awesome privilege to
call themselves children of God. I'm a son of God. You ladies
who believe, you're daughters of God in that way. And so look
on verse 12, but as many as received him, to them gave he power, the
right, the privilege to become or be called to claim to be the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Now his
name is that which identifies him. and distinguishes Him from
all counterfeits. He alone is the Savior. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. There's no other
Savior. There's none other name given
among men under heaven whereby we must be saved. Again, Christ
said in John 14, six, I'm the way, the truth and the life.
No man cometh under the Father, but by me. So there are no other
saviors. There's no other ways to God.
He is the one and only true savior. And so those who believe on his
name, who he is, God manifest in the flesh. His name shall
be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin.
The power and the success of his finished work. Christ did
not come to this world to make salvation possible for sinners
who would cooperate in whatever way religion says. If that were
the case, we'd all be doomed. Christ came into the world to
save His people from their sins. And all for whom He lived and
died and was buried and rose again the third day shall be
saved. That's the case. Now, how does
all that come about? Those who receive Him, we talked
about how the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, but there are those who receive Him. Verse 12, but as
many as received Him that believe on His name. Where did that come
from? It didn't come from man, doesn't come from us. Believing
in Him, receiving Him, faith in Christ is not natural to us. It's not the result of some spark
of goodness that we fan into a flame of fire. Saving faith
is a gift from God through Christ. And I quote this verse quite
a bit, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for by grace are you saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, even that faith. Somebody said,
well, that means salvation. Well, that's right, it includes
faith. Salvation or no part of is of
yourselves. That not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now
think about, how does that come about in the process that God
uses? Well, it comes about by the new
birth. Look at verse 13. Now those who received him, those
who believe on him, verse 13, which were born, not of blood,
Now, the blood birth there is natural birth. In other words,
it didn't come through your pedigree. You weren't born into this world
physically with this gift of faith. You had to be born again. You had to be born from above,
born of God, begotten again by the word of truth, empowered
by the Holy Spirit. So they were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh. Now, I believe that's talking
about the works of the flesh. In other words, this new birth
by which we see the light, have the revelation of Christ in the
glory of His person and the power of His finished work, whereby
we receive Him, submit to His righteousness imputed as our
only ground of salvation before God. This receiving Him does
not come about by the works of the flesh. It's not by works,
lest any man should boast. And then he says in verse 13,
nor of the will of man. It didn't come about because
you made a decision for Christ. It's not your will that wills
you into the kingdom. By nature, you have no will,
no desire. and will not choose the true
way of Christ. But in the new birth, God gives
you a new heart, a new mind, you might say, a new spirit,
new life. And He changes your mind. He
changes your will. And you become willing in the
day of His power. because by the power of the Spirit
through the preaching of the Word, wherein Christ is identified
and distinguished, He convicts you, He convinces you. The Bible
says in John chapter 16, verses, I think it's eight through 11,
He convinces us of sin because we believe not on Christ. In
other words, without Christ, nothing but sin. He convicts
us of righteousness because Christ has gone unto the Father. That's
the work of Christ in establishing a perfect righteousness whereby
God is just to justify the ungodly. And he convicts us of judgment
because the prince of this world is cast out. Satan's accusations
will no longer stick because we've already been judged. We
who believe have already been judged for all our sins when
Christ died on that cross. Our sins were imputed to him,
charged to him. and he was judged under the wrath
of God and he paid our debt in full, he satisfied God's justice,
he put those sins away, he purged them away, and he brought forth
an everlasting righteousness of infinite value whereby God
is just to save sinners like us. And that's what this is about. It's not by blood, it's not by
the works of flesh, it's not by the will of man, but which
were born, verse 13, of God. Of God. Over in the book of Romans,
chapter nine, the apostle Paul is referring back to a time when
Moses asked the Lord to show me your glory. Lord, show me
your glory. And he says in Romans nine and verse 15, he says, for
God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then, verse 16, it is not of him that willeth. It's not
man's decision that saves him. It's not man's willingness that
saves him. By nature, none of us are willing.
But God gives us a new will in the new birth by the preaching
of the gospel and the power of the Spirit. It's not of him that
will, nor of him that runneth, that's works, but of God that
showeth mercy. Salvation is by grace, not by
works, not by man's so-called free will. It is totally by grace. Over in John chapter three and
verse 19, listen to this. It says, this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. Now that's Christ and the gospel. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. Christ is the light
of the world and he enlightens all of his people to believe
in him and receive him. And that's who have the revelation,
the light in their hearts, in their minds, in their affections,
and in their wills. And they're born of God. Come
to the light, not to the darkness. We're in the darkness by nature.
Man by nature is dark. Come to the light, which is Christ.
Hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.