Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 8. The title of the message is Christ
the Light and the Life. Our Lord has just forgiven the
woman taken in adultery. We looked at that last week.
And when our Lord stooped to forgive, He showed us how God
can be just and justifier. And He showed us how a woman
who was born a sinner. She's a guilty sinner. He showed
us how she can go and sin no more. Now, that can only be seen
and understood in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the
light of His person and His work. But in our text, we have a solemn
warning, two solemn warnings. Look at the first one, verse
21. Then Jesus said again unto them, I go my way and you shall
seek me and shall die in your sins. For whither I go, you cannot
come. I pray that the Lord be merciful
to you and to me. Now Christ is the light and the
life. That's what we're going to see in this text. Well, here's
my question. How can I have light and life? My subtitle of the message, how
can I not die in my sins? I'm very interested in that.
Are you? How can I not die in my sins? And I want to be very
specific this morning. I want you. You, every one of
you here, I want you to know God. I want that for you. I pray
for it. You know, someone will say, well,
I know God. You know, I'm a Calvinist. I
know all the right doctrine. You know, I know God's sovereign.
I know these things. I'm a church member. I know God.
I'm here to serve. Of course, I know Him. Now, wait
a minute. God doesn't save Calvinists.
God saves sinners. God doesn't save church members.
God saves sinners. Are you a sinner? That's who
Christ came to save. And if you're going to know God,
you're going to know God by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you're going to know God, you're going to know God by coming to
Christ. You're going to know God by believing Christ. That's
the only way you're going to know him. Hebrews 1 says that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the brightness of God's glory and
the express, the exact image of his person. So if you're going
to know God, You must know the Lord Jesus Christ, and we talk
about believing Christ. You must love him. Truth, saving,
faith, believing Christ, loving him, loving everything about
him. In verse 32, our Lord said, you should know the truth and
the truth shall make you free. Now, we'll deal with that next
week, but it ties to this thing of light. Sinners are set free
by knowing the truth. And the truth is not a set of
doctrines. The truth isn't knowing the right
form of worship. The truth is a person. It's a
person. And if you and I are going to
know God, we have to know God as he is, not the God of our
imagination, but the God that he's revealed in scripture is
the true God. And the only way we'll know him
is that he's revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
the truth of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, I tell
you almost every week, look to Christ, look to Christ. You know
why I tell you that? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only manifestation of God we'll ever have. Now and
throughout eternity, the one we see enthroned in glory is
going to be Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only manifestation
of God we will ever have. Now, verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I'm the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Now
if you look back in Genesis chapter 1, light and life are tied very
closely together. In Genesis 1 verse 1, in the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth, and the was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there
be light. And there was light. And God
saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from
the darkness. And God called the light day,
and the darkness He called night. And the evening and the morning
were the first day." Now God's a God of order. Here the world
God had created it and somehow, I don't know what happened, somehow
it became, the word there in verse 2, the earth was without
form or void, it actually became. Somehow the earth became without
form or void. I don't know how, but it did.
And the world was in utter darkness, chaos and death. And God said,
let there be light. And after light appeared, then
life appeared. See, God's a God of order. In
creation, He created light first. Then He created living things
so that there'd be light to sustain their life, to give them life.
And just like the sun is the center of our universe, Christ
is the center of spiritual universe. The whole gospel is about Christ. If it's not about Christ, brother,
it's not the gospel. He is the gospel. And just like
the sun gives light and life to creation, Christ gives spiritual
light and spiritual life to his people. You know, if the sun
would quit shining, this earth would die very quickly. Everything
would die quickly. Without Christ, you and I are
dead. Without any hope of life, we're
going to remain in darkness and deadness unless Christ comes
and shines light into our heart. The sun gives warmth to creation. The light of Christ gives warmth
to His people. Warm people and dead people are
cold, aren't they? They're cold and hard. People
are living. Their flesh is warm and at least
usually it is, you know. You can maneuver a little bit.
Christ gives life and light to His people. That's how they have
life and warmth. And the sun, I don't understand
everything about this, but I read that this is so. The sun relieves
emotional depression. Well, Christ lifts the spirit
of his people. Gives joy to the hearts of his
people. I asked Janet about this. It's
S.A.D. is what they call the acronym. It's some sort of a seasonal
light disorder. If you don't get enough sun in
the wintertime and you're not producing enough vitamin D or
something in your body, you know, people get a little depressed.
And people try to relieve that depression with an artificial
light. Jan Scotland, she sits on a table, you know, sits in
front of it and it's supposed to do some of the same things
that natural sunlight will do. And I guess it works to a degree. But there's no substitute for
the sun that God hung in the sky. I mean, you just can't you
can't make it do what that thing does, what God created. When
I listen to me. There's no substitute for the
light of the Lord Jesus Christ. No substitute. Don't ever look
for some artificial substitute for Christ to do for you what
he does for his people. Now, our works won't do it. Our
study won't do it. Our knowledge won't do it. Our
faith won't do it. Christ is the light of his people,
and he lifts his people up and gives them joy. Christ is the
light of the world. And you want proof of that? Well,
we just read in those first five verses of Genesis, that wasn't
God creating the sun. The sun wasn't created until
the fourth day. This is Christ. He appeared. The light of the
world. Now, light is from above, isn't
it? Darkness is from beneath. Light is from above. Well, if
we're going to have spiritual life, you and me, we must be
given the Lord Jesus Christ. God's got to give Christ to us
in order for us to have light. He's the light from above. And
if you look in Isaiah chapter 42, Christ himself, was always intended to be the
light of the world, not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles,
too. Always, this was God's purpose. God told us this in His Word.
Men in their darkness didn't see it, but we see it here. Isaiah
42, verse 6. I, the Lord, have called thee
in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee
and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light. of the Gentiles. Christ is coming
to be a light to the Gentiles, too. Look over a few pages of
chapter 49. Isaiah 49, verse 6. And he said, It is a light thing
that thou shouldest be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preserve of Israel. I will also give thee
for a light to the Gentiles. that thou mayest be my salvation
unto the end of the earth. Look over page chapter 51. Verse 4. Hearken unto me, my
people, and give ear unto me, O my nation, for a law shall
proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light
of the people. Now is he just talking about
the people of Israel there? No. Look at verse 5. My righteousness
is near. My salvation has gone forth.
and mine arms shall judge the people. The isles, not just Israel,
but the isles, all the world, shall wait upon me, and mine
arm shall they trust." One more passage in Isaiah chapter 60.
Isaiah 60 verse 1. Arise, shine, for thy light has
come. And the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness to people. But the Lord shall
rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness
of thy rising." Now, we sinners, we're dead in gross darkness. And if sinners like you and me
are going to have light and life, That light and that life must
come from the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes to his people and
gives them light and life. And look over John chapter 1.
Christ himself, the Lord Jesus, is the fulfillment of all these
promises and prophecies. John chapter 1 verse 6. There is a man sent from God,
John the Baptist, whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him
might believe. Now, John was not that light,
but he was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true
light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
Now, that verse 9 does not mean that Christ saved everyone, He
gives everyone spiritual light. Moral light. Everybody knows
right from wrong. Everybody knows you ought not
lie. Everybody knows you ought not steal. That's a moral light that
God's put in everybody. God, in some people, he's put
a scientific light where they can understand science and medicine
and the workings of things, you know. God's put that light in
some people. But moral light, knowing right
from wrong, having some scientific light that you can understand
some things going on in the world, that's not life-giving light.
Christ is spiritual light. And knowing Christ, knowing Him,
that salvation, that eternal life is knowing the Lord Jesus
Christ. One more scripture, 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. Knowing Him is having life eternal. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6. For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God, where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
Because He's the light of the world. He's the spiritual light
and life of His people. Now, why make so much about this
issue? Christ is the light of the world.
Why make such a big deal of that? Well, because this world is a
place of utter darkness. Gross darkness, Isaiah said.
And just like light and life go together, Darkness and death
go together. They're hand in hand. And my
friend, every one of us here this morning, every one of us
were born into this world dead. In darkness and trespasses and
sins. In complete, utter darkness. And we're double-blind. I mean,
we don't have eyes that we can see. We're blind. So we cannot
see. But even if we did have eyes
that could see, we couldn't see a blessed thing. Because we're
in darkness. The darkness of sin, the darkness
of unbelief, it's gross darkness. And I'll tell you the greatest
proof that mankind is in utter darkness. God has to send a man
to bear witness of the light. Here we sit in our darkness.
God's got to send a man to come tell us the light's turned on.
The light has come. Why do we have to have that?
Light is the evidence of the self-evidencing, isn't it? Somebody
turns the light on? You know it. Only blind people
need someone to bear witness of the light. And that's what
we are by nature. We're spiritually blind. God's
got to send us a man to tell us the light's on. He's got to
give us eyes to see. The only person that needs someone
to witness to them that the sun is shining is a dead person.
I mean, a blind person can feel the heat of the sun, a dead person
can't. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. That's why God sends us a preacher
to tell us of the light, because we don't know. Now, that's true. God's given men some light of
intelligence and things in this earth. And I make no denial,
it's impressive. John 1, that's the light that
John talked about, the light of intelligence and things that
God gives men for the good of the world. It never ceases to
amaze me. Man's walked on the moon. The
Chinese say they're going to do it again. I don't care how
many times it's been done. If they do it again, I'm going
to be just slack-jawed. That's amazing to me. People
flying airplanes around the world. They sail ships across the ocean.
How in this world they get that ship to float and get it to the
exact point they want to go to across the ocean, I'll never
know. I'm impressed by that intelligence. If it were left up to me, man
never would have sailed across a pond. I mean, we wouldn't have
got more than a few inches off the ground, much less gone to
the moon. But all that intelligence is not spiritual light. Spiritual,
life-giving light is knowing Christ. The more this other light
of knowledge that mankind gets, it seems to me the darker and
more lost the world becomes. Because that light's not spiritual
light. We are in complete, gross darkness by nature. If you look
at John 17, there is one way to be delivered from that darkness.
Salvation is knowing God. Knowing the Father and the Son.
That's salvation. In John 17, verse 3, And this is life eternal, that
they may know thee, not the right doctrine, but know thee, the
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. If you know
God, Jesus Christ, whom he sent, you'll have the right doctrine.
You'll have the right form of worship. You'll have all these
other things. Salvation is knowing God. It's knowing the Father
and knowing the Son. Now, there are three points from
our text that I'd like for us to be able to take home today.
Because Christ is the light of the world in this conversation,
our Lord's having shows reveals three things to us. And the first
one is this. Christ is the light of the world. So only Christ
can reveal himself. He's the light. He must reveal
himself. We can't figure him out. We can't find him by searching. We can't know Christ by the light
of natural understanding. If you would know Christ, Christ
must reveal himself to you. He's the only one who can. Look
at verse 13 in our text, John 8. The Pharisees therefore said
unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not
true. Jesus answered and said unto
them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came, and
whither I go. But ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I
go. Because ye judge after the flesh, and I judge no man. And
if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone. But I am
the Father that sent me. It's also written in your law
that the testimony of two men is true. I'm one to bear witness
of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me."
Now, the Pharisees said, well, your testimony can't be true
because you're bearing witness of yourself. Well, no, that's
not so. John the Baptist testified of
himself, didn't he? They sat and asked him, are you
the Christ? And he testified, no, I'm not. They believed his
testimony. It was true. He testified of
himself. It was true. And they believed
it, didn't they? They believed John because they judged John. They made it formed an opinion
of John that he was a man. He was not the Christ. He was
a man because he looked like them. They judged him by outward
appearance. Well, they're trying to judge
our Lord Jesus Christ the same way. And the problem is Christ
can't be judged. He can't be understood. by outward
appearance or natural human logic. The Pharisees didn't know Christ,
and they didn't want to know him. They didn't want to know
him. They didn't want to know who he really is, so they based
their opinion on him by what they could see and what they
could understand with the flesh. In verse 14, our Lord says, well,
though I bear record of myself, yet my record's true. Now, look
back at John chapter 5. It almost sounds like he's contradicting
himself here. John chapter 5, verse 31. He
says, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. Now,
is he contradicting himself? Well, no, he's not. I'll tell
you why. In chapter 5, our Lord is speaking as a man. As a man,
he needed witnesses. In chapter 8, he's speaking as
God. And as God, he needs no one to verify anything he says. It's so and it's right just because
he said it, because he's God. Now, men do need two or three
witnesses, don't they? If we're going to listen to,
you know, have a definitive decision, definitive verdict, we don't
want to hear two or three witnesses to remove our doubt about the
testimony, because men have been known to lie. But Christ is not
a sinful man. He's God. And if Christ is the
only witness you ever have, It's enough. And we better believe
him, because I'll tell you this, Christ is the only witness we'll
ever have. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only witness we will ever have about how God saves sinners.
The only one. So don't look for another witness.
Don't try to find some other proof. Don't try to find anything else
about God other than what he's revealed in this book. This is
the only witness, the written word. There's record of the Incarnate
Word. It's the only thing you ever
need to know right here is what reveals the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is interesting, even though it's right and it's just
just because he said it. Our Lord still gives many witnesses
to his deity, doesn't he? The problem is men are dead.
They're lost in darkness. They just don't believe him.
But he gave many witnesses so that they're left without excuse.
The Father gave witness, this is the Son. He spoke many times
from heaven. This is my Son. You hear Him. This is the only witness you're
ever going to have. You better hear Him. The Scriptures give witness
that Jesus is the Christ. You know, the Pharisees knew
that one of the names of the Messiah would be light. You know
how they knew that? The Old Testament Scriptures. We read several of them in Isaiah.
They knew the Messiah would be light. The Scriptures all give
witness Jesus is the Christ. John the Baptist, all the prophets,
they all gave witness that the Lord Jesus is the Savior, that
God would sin. Yet men don't believe Him. Well,
why not? Because men by nature are in
gross darkness. The darkness of sin, the darkness
of unbelief. And we will stay that way until
Christ comes and gives light. He must reveal Himself to us
because He's the light of the world. Now, while men are stumbling
around in gross darkness, our Lord always knew exactly what
He was doing. Everywhere He went, He went there
on purpose. He must need to go through Samaria. He's going to
stop by Jericho. Everywhere He went, He went on
purpose because He's always doing exactly the will of the Father. Obeying the law, establishing
righteousness, and saving His people from their sins. Nothing
was hid from him. He knew that people were thinking
about him. He called them out on their thoughts.
Because he wasn't in darkness. He saw. He saw in their hearts
just as plain as you see me up here. Because he's not in darkness. He even knew the exact moment
that he would give himself to be an offering for the sin of
his people. And the unbelief and the ridicule of the Pharisees
didn't faze him one bit. That bothers us. They didn't
faze him a bit. Because he had the knowledge
of God. I said this in the study school
class. There's more appointed doctrine
now. That makes salvation sure and certain. He knew exactly
what he was doing. He accomplished everything that
was necessary for the salvation of his people. And here these
Pharisees are. They're standing in judgment.
Can you imagine? Standing in judgment. of God
standing right in front of them. And he let them alone. I mean,
what an awful thing for the judge to be in darkness. He can't see
a thing. They're unable to judge, to make
any opinion about our Lord, but our Lord leaves them alone. That's
scary, isn't it? And they're going to stay in
darkness because he left them alone. The only way they'll have
light is if he reveals himself to them. Now, when our Lord talks
about judging here, when he talks about judging, he doesn't mean
hand down a verdict from the judge. He means to understand
or to discern or make an opinion of something. Well, these Pharisees
could only see things of the flesh. Everything they saw was
tied to the world. So all their understanding was
based upon the flesh, the understanding of the flesh, what the mind could
understand, what it could comprehend. And their problem is still man's
problem today. Man hasn't changed one bit. God
isn't discerned. He isn't understood by what makes
sense to our natural mind. Now, the gospel makes perfect
sense. I mean, it makes perfect sense.
But men don't believe it, so it can't be what's understood
with the natural mind. Christ must be revealed. He has
to reveal himself to us. If you only believe. What you
understand with your fleshly mind, you hear someone preach,
that makes sense, I believe that. If that's all your faith is,
you're lost. Your faith is no better than
the so-called faith of these Pharisees. That's just what they
could understand with a natural mind. Now, our Lord says, I judge
no man. He means two things. First, He
means I judge no man right now. Right now. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God, but he didn't come to judge the first time, did he?
When he first appeared, he came as a lamb to be slain as a substitute
for the sin of his people. He didn't come to judge. He has
that authority, but he didn't come to judge. He came to save.
He came to give light and life to sinners. The next time he
appears, he's still God. Next time he appears, he won't
appear as a lamb. He'll appear as the judge. And the second
thing he means is this. When I do judge, I'll judge right. I won't judge according to outward
appearances like you do. I'll judge according to the heart,
the truth of the matter. And the only way to be found
not guilty in that judgment is to be found in Christ, who came
as the sinner's substitute. And Christ's judgment, when he
judges, will be true because his judgment is divine judgment.
He said here, I have the same judgment as the Father. The Father
and the Son have the exact same judgment because they're God.
Now, there's one God. One God. But He is revealed in
three persons, isn't He? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But there's one God. And all three persons of the
Godhead always agree because there's one God. There's one
judgment. They agree. And again, this is not just a
point of doctrine. This is good news to sinners. Our Savior is
God. And because our Savior is God,
He's got the power to save His people from their sins. Not one
will be lost because He lacks the power to save them. Not one
will be lost because He has the power to find them in their darkness
and bring them to Him. Not one. He's got all power. Our Savior is God, so He's perfectly
righteous. He's holy because He's God. And
he's able to make his people holy and righteous and accepted
in the beloved. Third, our Savior is God. So
he has all knowledge. There are lots of things I don't
know and I don't understand. He does because he's got all
knowledge. And because he's got all knowledge,
he'll never make a mistake. And not one of his people will
be forgotten. Not one. He's got all knowledge.
And God's elect love that. A believer who has been given
light loves that. That's good news. But now, knowing
Christ is more than just knowing who He is. Knowing just, yeah,
Jesus is God. Okay, you know, I can buy that.
The devils believe that and tremble. That's not saving faith. Knowing
Christ and light and life is loving Christ. Loving everything
about Him. There is nothing I read, nothing
I ever hear about Christ that just doesn't make my heart leap.
I love everything about Him. Everything. That's saving faith. And knowing that makes me put
all my trust in Him. If He reveals Himself to you
and you see Him as He is, you'll put all your trust in Him. Complete
trust and rest. And you can only know Christ
like that. if he reveals himself to you in light, in life. Secondly,
it's obvious men by nature do not know God. They don't know
the Father, Son or the Holy Spirit. Well, if you would know God,
know this, Christ reveals himself to you. And if you're going to
know the Father, Christ must reveal the Father to you because
Christ alone reveals the Father. Look at verse 19 in our text.
Then said they unto him, where is thy father? Jesus answered,
you neither know me nor my father. If you know me, you should have
known my father also. Now, God's children know their
father. They know him. Wayne, your children
know you. I mean, they know your character.
They know your name. They know you better than anybody
up there, I reckon. They know you better than anybody.
God's children know our father the exact same way. You know
his name. You know his character. You know
His grace and His love. You know the Father better than
anyone outside of Christ, because the only way you can know the
Father is by knowing Christ, being in Him. That's why our
Lord told His disciples, He that has seen Me has seen the Father. They weren't looking at Him.
They're looking at the Father. He that has seen Me has seen
the Father. But again, see doesn't just mean behold with your eyes.
It means to understand. You understand His name, what
it means, what it reveals about Him. You understand his character,
so you understand how he can be just and justifier. And the
only way you know that is Christ has revealed the Father to you.
That's the only way he can be revealed. And these men should
have known the Lord Jesus is God. I mean, you talk about gross
darkness. As bad as they hated our Lord,
they never could seem to take Him, could they? Do you think
they ever could have dawned on him? I mean, we hate him. We've
made all these different plans and plots and schemes to take
him and put him to death. And they never could. Why couldn't
they? He didn't hide from them. Why
couldn't they? Because his will was being done, not theirs. He's
God. Look at verse 20. This conversation
is taking place in the most public place in all of Israel. Verse
20. These words speak Jesus in the treasury as he taught in
the temple. And no man laid hands on him, for his hour was not
yet come. Now, I reckon this is what the law makes people
do. This is where our Lord was talking, was the place where
people put their tithes in. They had several different boxes
there and people put their tithes in. And the law, people who love
the law, made this the most public place in all of Israel. We better
make it the most public place because we've got to check on
everybody and make sure they're putting their tithe in, you know. And let's make
it a public place so people see me put my tithe in. That's just
what the law produces, you know. But this was a public place.
Why didn't they take him? He's God. They couldn't. His
will was being done. His hour to offer himself as
a sacrifice for the sins of his people was not yet come. And
they couldn't see it. They couldn't see it. Salvation
is not by the will of man. Salvation is not by our law keeping. Then we need to beg God to save
us, have mercy and save us, and reveal Himself to us. Reveal
Himself and reveal the Father. Third, only Christ reveals men
as they really are. Christ reveals Himself. In His
light, He reveals the Father. And in His light, He reveals
to you and me what we really are. Look at verse 21. Then said
Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and you shall seek me, and
shall die in your sins. Whether I go, you cannot come."
Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? Because he says, Whether
I go, you cannot come. And he said unto them, You are
from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not
of this world. I said therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I
am, and again that word he is in italics, it's been added by
the translators, just cross that out. If you believe not that
I am, you shall die in your sins. Now, our Lord here is speaking
to the best religious people of this day. These men were the
most moral. They were the most upright people
in all of Israel. These were people zealous for
the law. They didn't hate the law. They
loved the law. They paid tithes even of their spice racks, mint
and cumin and anise and whatever the spices that they And our
Lord says, you avid tithers, you people who are moral and
upright, you're lost in darkness and unbelief. You're lost, you
only have one nature. You've got Adam's nature. Our
Lord says, you're of this world. You're formed of the dust of
this earth and you've never risen above that dust. Just like Adam. And then He says, you're from
beneath. And He doesn't just mean from beneath heaven. He
means from beneath. He means you're from hell. You're
a child of hell. You're not a child of light.
You're a child of Satan. You're not a child of God. That's
pretty harsh, isn't it? That's harsh. But that's what
every one of us is by nature. Not just them. Us too. Every
one of us are by nature. And you know, we never see that
about ourselves. Because we're in darkness. But the very moment
We see the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I see. By comparison, now
I see what I am. And that'll make me cry, God
be merciful to me, the sinner. Now I see what I am. Not just
what I've done, but what I am. In creation, God said, let there
be light. And light appeared. You could see what was going
on, all this darkness and chaos. Now you can see it. In salvation,
when God says, Let Christ the light appear. Now we see ourselves
as we really are and have life in him and his light. And the
Pharisees wonder, well, was he going to go kill himself? Ridiculous. That's having your understanding
darkened. And the same darkened understanding
says Christ died for everybody and they got to do something
to make it effectual. And if they don't, people go to hell anyway.
People for whom Christ died will go to hell. That's darkened understanding. Well, he's not going to take
his own life. But I'll tell you what he is going to do. He's
going to give it. He's going to give his life as
a ransom for many. Our Lord didn't take his own
life. He willingly offered his life so that his elect would
be saved. He willingly died so his people
would have life. And these same Pharisees are
going to mock that, too. Come down from the cross and
we'll believe you. And they'll still mock it today. But I don't
want to talk about people that aren't here. Let's talk about
you and me. You and I do the same thing. We would do the exact
same thing if Christ had not revealed to us who and what we
are. Every one of us now, I've been
raised right here under the sound of the gospel. Sitting in the
pew, listening to the greatest preacher of our generation. Just
like him. Just like him. Worse. And one day God said, let there
be light. Oh, that's His mercy. Now, what can we conclude from
this truth? Christ is the light and life
for the world. Well, that tells me Christ is
the sinner's only hope. He's the only source of light.
He's the only source of life. Matthew Henry says, my Lord,
says you should die in your sins. Matthew Henry says in the original,
that was sin. You should die in your sin. Because
the Lord is speaking here of one specific sin. The sin of
unbelief. The sin of unbelief is what will
damn men and women. They persistently reject the
Lord Jesus Christ, so they'll perish because they refuse the
only Savior. They refuse the only form of
light and life, so they will die in their sin and darkness.
And this is such a solemn warning. You know, we don't, I said this
in the Sunday school class, we don't trifle with God's Son.
We don't trifle with this matter of the gospel. This is a solemn
warning. There's a day coming when men
who have rejected Christ repeatedly, over and over again, one day
they'll seek Him. They'll seek a Savior. They'll
seek some sort of salvation. They'll seek something because
they realize they don't have any. They realize they're in
trouble. And men of our day have made it sound like this may-be,
may-be Jesus you're preaching is just waiting for somebody
there, you know, just any time anybody would ever accept Him,
you know, He'd just love to have them if they just accept Him.
Is that what our Lord says here? They didn't get that from the
Bible, that notion from the Bible. Our Lord said, you'll seek me
and you won't find me. You won't be able to find me
because you cannot come where I am. If you can't be where he
is, you can't find him. They don't have the ability to
come where Christ is because they're dead. They don't have
the ability to find the way to where Christ is because they're
in darkness and unbelief. They don't have the ability to
come where Christ is because they don't have the right nature.
You never will come to the light unless you're holy and righteous.
Sinners don't want to come to the light and be exposed. Self-righteous
people don't want to come to the light and be exposed. They'll
show me for what I am. They don't have the right nature.
You've got to have a holy nature to be in the presence of God.
And the only nature that they have is the nature formed from
gross darkness. And it's an impossibility for
light and darkness to dwell together. Can't happen. It's an impossibility. Sinful man in our darkness cannot
live, be where God is. God's holy. And God must punish
sin. So we cannot come where Christ
is. And we'll die in our sin of unbelief.
But now listen to me. The Lord hasn't come as judge
yet, has he? Today is still the day of grace. It must be. The gospel is being preached.
It must still be the day of grace. Then what do we conclude? Come
to Christ, that you might have light and life. Believers who
have come to Christ, they're not in darkness anymore. Believers
are stumbled around the dark, wondering how God saved sinners.
You know how God saved sinners. If Christ has revealed himself
to you, believers are stumbled around wondering how God's to
be worshipped. You know how God's to be worshipped because Christ
has revealed himself to you in light. And you're following Christ. Just stumble around darkness.
You're in Christ who is light. Just like Israel followed the
cloudy pillar. There that cloudy pillar was.
Israel over here had light, didn't they? Egypt back here at darkness. They're stumbling around the
darkness. Couldn't see their hand in front of their face. Israel had light
because Christ was their light. Christ is the light. of a believer's
feet. So you're not stumbling around.
Not just our eyes. He gives his eyes to see and
he gives us light to see the path, to follow him. David says,
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Those who have light follow Christ
who is the light. Lastly, you know everybody's
going to die. Unless the Lord returns, everybody's
going to die. All of our bodies must die because
of sin. It's frightening to read this
statement of our Lord, you'll die in your sins. Dying in sin,
as we are, is very, very different from dying in Christ, isn't it? Dying in sin is to die eternally,
to be eternally separated from God and cast to outer darkness. But dying in Christ is precious
gain. Isn't that gain? Because Christ
has already died for his people. There's no death to God's people.
The believer doesn't die. The believer sleeps. And death
is just a passageway to leave this dark world of sin and go
to eternal life. Why we call it glory, a place
of eternal life? Because Christ is there. You
read this, I can't remember the exact, I think it's Revelation
22. Let me see if I can find it. Don't ever do this. Revelation 21. If you don't have
it in your notes, just don't do it. Revelation 21. Why do we call heaven the place
of eternal light? Because Christ is there. And
verse 23, the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon
to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the
Lamb, Christ, is the light thereof. May God be pleased in His mercy. to reveal Himself to us, light
and life. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we bow before Thee
with hearts that are full of thanksgiving. How can we ever
thank You as You ought to be thanked? Praise You as You ought
to be praised for Your mercy, Your grace in sending Your Son
into this world to be the light of the world. How we thank you
for your mercy and grace. There are many here this morning
that you called, that you revealed yourself to, you've given light,
you've given life, eternal life. And Father, we're grateful. Oh,
how thankful we are. We know there's nothing that
we've done, no goodness of our own that has caused you to act
so mercifully and gracious to us. But it's in your Son. It's because of Your Son. And
Father, we're thankful. And we beg of Thee that You would
continue to be merciful, that You would continue to call of
darkness the people of this area, that You'd call them out by Your
grace, that You would pull them out, that You'd take them out
of the bondage of darkness, the prison house of darkness, of
sin that they're in. Reveal your Son to them and end
them and cause them to run to Christ. Father, we beg your mercy. How
thankful we are for it and we beg your continued mercy. In
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks.