If it were pitch black in this
room, you couldn't see. You couldn't even see the person
beside you. You might have some kind of guess
as to what might be in this room, but it would be nothing more
than a guess. Nothing certain in the dark. When the light is turned on,
you see. Two things needed for sight. Number one, light. And if you're plum blind, even
if the light is on, you can't see. We need a light. We need a seeing eye. When these men asked in our text,
who is this son of man? There are many answers he could
have given that would have indeed been accurate. He could have
said God, the son. He could have said the creator. He could have said the promised
seed of woman. He could have said the lion of
the tribe of Judah. He could have said David's son
and David's Lord. He could have said, I am God
manifest in the flesh. He could have said, I am the
Lord God omnipotent that reigneth He could have said, I am that
I am. There are many answers that would
have been accurate that he could have given. But here is the answer
he gives with regard to who this son of man is. Verse 35, then
Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you. He identifies himself as the
light. Yet a little while is the light
with you. Now the Lord is speaking of the
fact that he's not going to be there much longer. Within just
over 24 hours, he's going to be nailed to the cross and he's
going to die. And this light will only be here
with you for a little while. Walk while you have the light,
lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whether he goeth. Now, Christ is the light. Everything else is darkness. Christ is the light of this book.
If I don't see him as the sum and substance of everything that's
said, I am in darkness. I do not understand what's being
said. I am the light. Walk while you
have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh
in darkness knoweth not where he goeth. While you have the
light, believe in the light. Now, I love the way the Lord
says this to these people. Believe. Believe the light. He doesn't
simply say you can't, although they couldn't. He says, believe.
I love that. Believe in the light that you
may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them. Do you know? This is with regard
to his public ministry. He's going to be speaking with
his disciples after this. No more message to the world.
He did hide himself from them. Light. Christ uses this to describe
himself. I love that. I love it when he
said I'm the door. The only way you're going to
get in is through him being the door. I am the light. This has said
many times with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, the light
by which we see. I want to say some things about
light that I probably will say wrong. If I say them wrong, forgive
me. I'm not a scientist, but I do know that light is made
of two things. It's made of particles and waves. Somebody says, what's that mean?
I don't know, but it's made of two things. And what I think
of is the Lord Jesus Christ, His pure Godhead. and pure manhood, perfect manhood,
not the two mixed and blended, the two natures of Jesus Christ,
absolute God, perfect manhood. I know that in grade school,
I think it was grade school, we learned about photosynthesis,
how plants convert light into chemical energy. And there we
have the source of all food. through that, and I think of
the Lord being the source of all life and all food, spiritual
and physical. He is the light of the world. I think of through this process
of photosynthesis and the plants, what kills us
is consumed, carbon dioxide, and what we live on is given
to us, oxygen. Now I don't know whether those
are, I think they are illustrations
of the Lord, although I also think I'm scared using any kind
of physical illustration because the Lord says there's none like
me. Any illustration we try to give is going to fall to the
ground when it comes right down to it because he's utterly transcendent
and glorious, the light of the world. But principally what this
is speaking of is the Lord Jesus Christ being the light. The only
way we're going to see who God is, is through him being the
light. He is the image of the invisible
God. The only light that you and I
will have concerning the character of God is Jesus Christ. The only light we're gonna have
about ourselves comes from seeing who He is. If I see who He is, I'm gonna say with Daniel, when
I saw him, my comeliness turned to corruption. Like Isaiah, what
was his cry when he saw, he said, in the year the king Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord. He said, woe is me. I am undone. You see, the only
way we're going to see ourselves in that light is by seeing him.
If I am resentful of descriptions of me as sinful, it's because
I'm not seeing him. If I see him, I'll see the truth
concerning myself. I'll see the truth concerning
salvation. The only light I have as to why
God would accept me is the light of Jesus Christ, who he is and
what he did. This is the issue. Who is? Jesus Christ. The issue is not what do I think
of Christ because he is who he is, whatever I think. The issue
is who he is, Jesus Christ. Who is this son of man? And he
answers the light. Walk while you have the light. And then we have those scary
words. And Jesus did hide himself from
them. And if he hides himself from
me, I will not see him. So my cry is, Lord, don't hide
yourself from me. Make yourself known to me. Now, turn to, you're in John,
turn to John chapter eight. Verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. Now he identifies himself
as the light quite often. I am the light of the world.
Now, when did he say this? This was right after that woman
who was taken in adultery in the very act. There was no question
with regard to her guilt. And you'll remember the Pharisees
thought they had the Lord set up. They said, we've got him
in an unwinnable situation. They say to him, the law says
stoner. And the law does say stoner.
But what sayest thou? They thought we've got him in
a position to where he's going to lose with whatever answer
he gives. If he says stoner, we'll say,
where's your mercy? If he says, let her go. We can
say, where's your respect for righteousness and what the word
of God says. But they asked the Lord and I love the Lord's answer
when he says, he that's without sin among you, let him throw
the first stone. And they all left. And he was
left alone with that woman. And he said, woman, where are
those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Now, wait a minute. She was guilty. Caught in the
very act. How could the Lord say when she
was guilty? I don't condemn you. What would
you say if your child was murdered and the man was caught and brought
before the judge and the judge says, I don't condemn you. That's
an unjust judge. That's a corrupt judge. How can
the Lord say to this woman who is caught in the very act, I
don't condemn you. There's only one reason. there
was nothing to condemn her for. That's the gospel. Christ Jesus
made it to where there was nothing to condemn her for. He is the
light as to how that can be, how God can look at me and say,
I do not condemn you. because there's nothing to condemn
you for. That is the gospel. Christ is
the light as to how that could be because he took my sin and
put it away and made it not to be and gave me his righteousness
so I stand before God sinless, one who has kept God's law perfectly. There's nothing to condemn me
for. It's not just as if I never sinned. No, I never sinned. Who is this son of man? The light,
the one who is so bright, he covers himself with light as
with a garment, the scripture says. In creation, what came first? You know, in the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form
and void and darkness covered the face of the deep. And God
said, let there be light. Now, the sun and the moon were
not created to the fourth day. This is the light of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God who commanded the light to
shine out of the darkness has shined in our heart to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. In Revelation 21, 23, we read
this about heaven. And the city had no need of sun.
neither the moon to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten
it and the Lamb is the light thereof." In heaven, he's the
light. He's the light right now. Now even with him being the light,
I can't see the light except he give me eyes to see. And I
pray that the Lord will give me eyes to see so I can see what
the light reveals. Look in John chapter one. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the one who is with God and the one who was
God. Verse four says in him was life. Now that's speaking of life independent. You and I have life right now,
physical life. You know why? Because we're given
what is needed to live. We're given food, we're given
clothing, we're given water, we're given shelter. We're so
dependent. The next breath we take in this
life we live, we're dependent upon the Lord to cause it to
take place. The Lord has life in himself. He has no needs. He is independent God. I love to think of the bus that
burned and was not consumed. It continued to burn and it didn't
need the energy of that wood to continue burning, which pictures
Life independent, the life, the Lord Jesus Christ, the life.
In him was life and the life was the light of men. The only light I have as to who
God is, is Jesus Christ, amen. The only light that I have as
to who I really am is Jesus Christ. If I see who he is, I'll see
who I am. If I don't see who I am, there's
one reason. I've not really seen who he is. He's the light as to how holy
righteous, perfect, glorious God can accept me. The light of the world. He said in John chapter 14 verse
6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Now this life, his
life, That's the light of men. The only way I'm going to be
accepted on judgment day by a holy God is if His life is my life
before God. Now, have you understood that?
Have you seen that? The only life there is that God will accept
is the life of His blessed Son, Jesus Christ. And the only way
that I can have His life as my life is if my sin became His
sin, He was punished for it, He paid for it, and He gives
me His perfect life. Oh, He is the life. Turn to John chapter three. Verse 18. John chapter three,
verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned. Do you hear that? He that believeth on him is not
condemned, not now, not ever. Nothing to condemn you for. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
He that believeth on him is not condemned. If you and I believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not condemned. Someone says,
what's that mean to believe on Christ? It means to trust who
he is and what he did as your only ground of acceptance before
God. Do you do that? Do you look to
him only? Then the scripture says, you
are not condemned. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not. What's it mean to believe not?
It means you do not look to him as your only and all sufficient
ground of salvation. You look somewhere else. You
don't look only to him, you look somewhere else. That's the person
who believes not. He that believeth not is condemned
already. Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You see, you believe
on his name when you understand that his name is the only reason
you're saved. His name, not your name, his
name, his character, that person behind the name. If you believe
not, you look for salvation somewhere other than his name. 19. And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world. When the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world, light was coming to the world. Thank God
for the light of life. Light came into the world. and men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light Neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. Now, why do men have no desire
to come to the light? Because of what the light says
about them. I don't want my deeds. That's talking about all my deeds.
That's not talking about just the bad deeds. That's talking
about the good deeds, too. Everything that comes from me, the light
exposes it as evil. And nobody wants to have that
naturally exposed with regard to themselves. But, verse 21,
he that doeth truth. I love that phrase. He that doeth
truth. You know, believing is the doing
of the truth. Knowing Christ is doing the truth. Being saved by Christ is a doing
of the truth. There's something so powerful
about that. I want to be somebody that does
the truth, don't you? A doer of the truth. He that doeth truth
comes to the light that his deeds might be made manifest that they're
wrought in God. Now, do you hear that? If I do
the truth, I'm willing to come to the light because you know
what the light is going to expose? That my deeds were wrought by
God. Wrought in God, wrought by God. When I come to the light, I'm
saying my righteousness is that which He did. And I'm not ashamed
to bring what He did to the light. I'm ashamed to bring what I did
to the light, but I'm not ashamed to bring what He did to the light. And when I come into the light,
I say, whatever deeds I have, it's God that worked in me both
to will and to do his good pleasure. Now, I'm not ashamed to bring
what he has done to the light. And that's why a believer does
not fear the light. You see, my salvation is the
work of the Lord. Is your salvation the work of
the Lord? That's my hope. And I'll bring what he did to
the light. I am the light of the world. If you have any light, it's him. Everything else is darkness. You see, 1 John 3, 4-6 says sin is the transgression of the
law. He was manifested to take away
our sin. Do you hear that? To take it away. To make it where
it no longer is. And in Him is no sin. If I'm in Him, I have no sin. And the only light I have with
regard to that is Him. Who is this son of man? He's
the light. He's the light of who God is. He's the light of who I am. He's
the light of how God can embrace me. Turn to first John chapter
one. Verse five. This is the message. Now that
ought to catch our attention. This is the message. Here it
is. Which we've heard of Him. This
is where we got this message, Him. And we declare unto you, that
God is light. And in him is no darkness at
all. There's one being in the universe,
and I don't know how to say this properly because he's not in
the universe, the universe is in him. That's how immense and
glorious he is. So I won't even try to say one
being in the universe. There's one being that doesn't
have a dark side. Only one. No dark side with him. He's light. You know, the scripture
says he's holy. He's spirit. God is spirit. God is love. And God is light. He is other. There's no one like
him. This light we're speaking of,
this is one of the glorious things about light, even in the physical
sense. Light can come into contact with
the dunghill and not be contaminated by it. The light of God can touch
me and you without being contaminated by us, but he can touch us in
the gospel. God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with
him, and walk in darkness, we lie. And do not the truth. Remember we read of doing the
truth? Well, here we will read of doing
not the truth. If we say we have fellowship
with him. Now, a lot of people make that claim. I fellowship
with God. I know him, he knows me. I speak
to him, he speaks to me. I have fellowship with God. I
have a relationship with God. He's got a relationship with
me. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,
the darkness of natural religion, the darkness of salvation by
works, the darkness of thinking my salvation, my acceptance before
God, there's something I must do before he can do something
for me. That's works. If you're thinking
there's something I need to do to get things straightened out,
to make it better for me, I'm going to change. You're in darkness. You're in religious darkness,
Egyptian darkness that can be felt. If we say we have fellowship
with him, but walk in darkness, we lie. We're not doing the truth. It's
all an act. Verse seven, but if we walk in the light, and that's talking about the
light of John 8, 12. I am the light of the world. I am the
light as to why I can say, I don't condemn you. Now, I love to think
of this, of the Lord Jesus Christ saying to me, there's nothing
to condemn you for. You stand without guilt before
me, without sin, perfect in Christ Jesus. That's the gospel. To
think that he would say to me, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord. I think, well, how could he say
that to me? I got light now because of Jesus
Christ. He is my righteousness. He is
my obedience before God. There's no sin to condemn me
for because he put it away. When he said it is finished,
my salvation was accomplished. My sin was put away. I stand
before God justified. Now if we walk in the light,
As He is in the light, I love to think of Him being in the
light that no man can approach to. In the very presence of His
Father, even now. And I'm in Him. Seated together
in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. He's in the light. He's
in the light of, oh, to think of the light of God. You know, the scripture says, When the Lord appeared on the
Mount of Transfiguration, He appeared and His countenance
was altered and the Scripture says His face did shine as the
sun and His raiment was white as light. He's the light. When
He appeared to the Apostle Paul, the Scripture says He appeared
above the brightness of the sun and this one is equal to the
Father in light. And he dwells in the very presence
of the Father. And there's somebody else dwelling
in the presence of the Father. Everybody in him. Everybody in
him who has his life as their life before God. Now I'm asking
you, are you trusting only his life as your life before God?
If you are, you've got some light. He's given it to you. If not,
you are yet in the darkness. His life. Now, if we walk in
the light as He is in the light, and we know our salvation's in
Him, He dwells in the light of the Father and we're in Him,
we have fellowship one with another. We really do. The fellowship
in the gospel. Anybody who looks to Jesus Christ
as the only reason why God would accept them, I've got real fellowship
with that person. We're fellows in the same ship.
We're in Christ and we look to him only. And there's not that
religious competition that is in so much religion. Who's the godliest? Who's the
most righteous? Who's the, all the things that
men do? No, no. We have true fellowship
one with another. We're fellows in the same ship
in Christ Jesus. We have fellowship one with another
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us, present
tense. Well, if you were cleansed, why
do you need to be continually cleansed? Well, I was cleansed
by what Christ did on the cross, but my dirty feet need to be
cleaned every day through the gospel. That's what he's talking
about. We have fellowship one with another,
not some kind of religious competition, true fellowship and the blood
of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us. From all sin, verse eight,
this all goes together. If we say, there's that language
again, if we say. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. We're not doing the truth.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Self-deception. Now here the word sin, I've said
this before, it's a noun. It's not a verb. It's not talking
about what you do. It's talking about what you are. And you're always aware of what
you are. David said, my sin is ever before
me. If we say we have no sin, what
have we done? We've deceived ourselves. We've told ourselves a lie and
we've made ourselves believe that lie. And the truth is not
in us. We've lost all credibility. Verse nine, if we confess. our sins. Now, obviously that does not mean
you need to articulate every sin you've ever committed. And
there's two reasons for that. Number one, you don't have enough
time to do that. And number two, most of the sins
you and I've committed, we don't even know about. So this thing
of, well, have you confessed? Yes, I have, in this sense. When I confess my sin, what do
I do? I speak the same thing God says
about my sin. To confess means to speak the
same thing. It means agreement with the Lord. It means taking
sides with God against yourself, agreeing with whatever He says. Do you agree with God, what He
says with regard to your sins? Now, I love this promise. If
we confess ourselves, He's faithful and just. He's faithful to forgive our
sins because He determined before to do it and He's being faithful
to what He determined to do. And He's just, not just merciful,
not just gracious, absolutely just. He's faithful and He's
just. You see, He's made a way to be
just and justify the ungodly. That's how this is. He's faithful
and just. Forgive us our sins. And to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. And he says in verse 10, if we
say we've not sinned. Now there the word is a verb. Not talking about a sinful nature
so much as talking about what I do. With regard to anything
I do. If I say, well, I didn't sin
there. What does he say? We make him a liar because he
says we have and his word is not in us. Who is this son of man? He's the light. He's the light of who the living
God is. He's the light of who I am. If
I see who he is, I'll see myself. And if I don't see myself as
I am before him, it's because I'm not seeing him. That's where
a sinful view of yourself comes from, from seeing who he is.
But he is the light as to how God can look at me and see no
sin. Because there is no sin, because
of what the Lord did for me, I am the light of the world. Now one last statement with regard
to our text, John 12. Yet a little while Verse 35,
is the light with you. And he knew he would very soon
be going to the cross. Yet a little while is the light
with you. Walk while you have the light. Now, right now, my dear friends,
you've been given the light of how you can be accepted solely
in him. Nowhere else. Walk while you have the light,
lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knows not whether he goes. While you have the light, believe
in the light." Now, here is Christ's Word to me and
you. Believe. Believe. This is the work of
God. Do you remember when they said,
what might we do that we might work the works of God? He said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath
sent. Believe. Believe the gospel. You say, I can't believe it.
Ask God to give you the faith. Ask God to give you the light.
Believe the gospel. Don't say, well, I can't. Ask
him to give you the grace to do it. Don't use any excuse to
say, I hope everybody walks out of this room believing, believing
the gospel. While you have the light, believe
in the light that you might be the children of light. These
things fake Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them. While you have the light, believe
right now in the light. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's blessed, holy, glorious,
all sufficient name. that you would give every one
of us, for Christ's sake, the grace to believe in the light, to believe that he is the light
of all who you are. He's the light of who we are.
And he is the light as to how we can not be condemned because
there's nothing to condemn us for because of the precious blood
of your son putting away our sin and giving us his righteousness
to stand before you. Lord, deliver us from unbelief. Give us faith in the light. In his name we pray, amen.