The Lord said, I am the light
of the world. This is either the most delusional,
arrogant statement ever made, fueled by a narcissistic personality
disorder, or it's the truth. I am the life of the world. This is one of the great I am's
that the book of John is built around. Look in verse 23 of this
same chapter. He saith unto them, you are from
beneath. I am from above. This speaks of his transcendence.
You are of this world. I am not of this world. I said, therefore, unto you that
you shall die in your sins. What a statement. For if you believe not that I
am, you'll notice that he is in italics. If you believe not
that I am, you shall die in your sins. Look in verse 57 of this same
chapter. Then said the Jews unto him,
thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus
said unto them, barely, barely, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. I am. the light of the world. Now if he is, and he is, I hope
we'll all see that by the end of this message, by the grace
of God. But if he is, there is no greater
crime than to not believe that he is. or to be apathetic or
indifferent that he is. He said, I am the light of the
world. Now there's only one man that
could say this truthfully, the God man, Christ Jesus. If I said I'm the light of the
world, how offensive would it be? How arrogant and delusional
would it be? How laughable, how blasphemous
would it be? But here he says, I am the light
of the world. And you know what our response
is? Bow down. He is the light of the world. the world. We see by light. No light, no sight. If we were in darkness, things
would be as they are, but we wouldn't see it. We see by light. We see who God is by the light
of Jesus Christ. They looked unto Him, Psalm 34,
6, and were lightened. We see the character of God by
the light of Jesus Christ. The Lord said, he that hath seen
me hath seen the Father. Only by his light do we see who
we really are. I love what Job said. I've heard
of thee with the hearing of the ears. Now mine eyes seeth thee. Wherefore I hate myself and repent
in dust and ashes." Daniel said, when I saw him, let's talk about
Daniel for a moment. You know, none of his faults
are recorded in the scripture. What a special man he was. Um,
kind of like Joseph. I don't know of any faults that
are recorded about Daniel in the scripture. What a brave,
courageous, believing man. And yet here's his testimony
with regarded to himself. He said, when I saw him, my comeliness
turned to corruption. Isaiah said in the year the king
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And what did he
say about himself? Then said I, woe is me, I am
undone. He is the light as to how he
could say to this woman who was taken in adultery. We saw that
a couple of weeks ago. Woman, where are those thine
accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. He is the
light as to how that can be. Now, let me say some things.
with regard to natural light, the sunlight. I know this, when
he appeared to the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, Paul
saw light, the scripture says, above the shining of the sun. This light is brighter than sunlight. But let's think about sunlight.
You cannot see without light. To see, you have to have a seeing
eye. Two things are necessary for sight. You have to have a
seeing eye. If you're blind, you can't see
the light no matter how brightly it shines. A man without eyeballs,
he's blind. He can't see the light. You have
to have a seeing eye to see. but you also have to have light.
You can have a seeing eye, and if there's no light, you will
be just as blind. You'll be in just as much darkness
as the man who has no eyeballs at all. You cannot see without
light. For me to see, God's gotta give
me light. God's gotta give me seeing eyes. Now, with regard to sunlight, There's no life without sunlight. There would not be any food.
Now, you young people, no doubt you've learned or heard of photosynthesis. The sunlight, the plants taking
the light and taking the energy of that light and converting
it into chemical energy and we have oxygen from that. The reason
you breathe right now, oxygen, is because of the sunlight. There
would be no life without this light. Now here's something that
I've read that I don't fully understand, and I hope I don't
say this wrong, but light is made of two properties. It's
made both of particles and waves. Somebody
says, I don't know what that is. I don't either. But it's
particles, that's something that has mass and takes up space,
waves, radio waves going through the air, you know, light is made
of particles and waves, not many things. I think maybe some, I
don't know if there's anything else that is made of those two
properties, but this speaks of the deity and the humanity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is 100% God, just as if he were not man
at all. He's 100% man, just as if he
were not God at all. He's not a mixture of the two.
This speaks of the two natures of Jesus Christ, absolute deity,
perfect humanity. Darkness can't prevent light. This room may be totally dark.
When the lights come on, what happens? The darkness flees away. All of a sudden, there is light. Darkness is actually the absence
of light, isn't it? Light, the sunlight, can come
into contact with the dunghill and not be contaminated. That's
why Christ can come to people like me and you. Light comes
into contact with the dunghill and is not contaminated. You know, there is artificial
light. We have artificial light right
now shining in this room. That's artificial light. But artificial light's not sunlight,
is it? You know, the scripture says
with regard to Satan that he comes as an angel of light. Second Corinthians chapter 11,
and his ministers as ministers of righteousness, human righteousness. Here's how subtle this is. Imputed righteousness or righteousness
imputed. There's all the difference in
the world. There's only one righteousness and it's imputed, not imputed
righteousness as an adjective, but righteousness, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, the only righteousness there is, imputed to us by God. Paul said, there came a brightness
to him above the brightness. of the sun. And Paul was not
blinded until he saw the light. Now listen to this, I'm going
to quote two scriptures from the book of Revelation. The city
had no need of the sun, neither the moon, for the glory of God
did lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof,
and there shall be no night there, and they shall need no candle,
Neither the light of the sun. The Lord said, I am the light
of the world. The first time light is mentioned,
would you turn to Genesis chapter one? Verse one, in the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth and the earth 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. That's the first thing spoken
of. in the old creation, let there
be light. And it's also the first thing
in the new creation, the light of who Jesus Christ is. Now this
is, you'll find this very interesting. Look in verse 14 of the same chapter,
and God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven
to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days, and let them be for lights in the
firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. And it
was so, and God made two great lights, the greater light to
rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the
stars also, and God set them in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth to rule over the day and over
the night and to divide the light from the darkness, and God saw
that it was good. And the evening and the morning
were the fourth day. The sun and the moon and the
stars came on the fourth day. But there was already light there.
Jesus Christ is the light. God said, light be. Light was. This is what Paul is talking
about in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, when he said, God who commanded
the light to shine out of the darkness, picture this in your
mind, there's nothing but darkness. God said, light be, light has
shined in our hearts. to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What light that
is? God's glory. His goodness, his
name. That's what he said to Moses
when Moses said, show me your glory. He said, I'll make my
goodness pass before thee. God's good. He's good all the
time. He's essentially good. He only is good. I'll proclaim
my name before thee, my attributes, who I am, all my attributes as
they're revealed in the cross. And I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And I'll show mercy to whom I
will show mercy. That's God's glory. It's the
life that's seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Turn with me
to 1 John 1 for a moment. Verse 5, 1 John 1, verse 5. This then is the message. What catches my attention? Is
it yours? This then is THE message, which we've heard of Him, and
declaring to you. that God is light and in him
is no darkness at all. God is light. God is holy. There's no darkness
in him. Only he is inherently holy. His holiness is an underrived
holiness. That's the beauty of his character.
All of his attributes are holy. Only he is holy. Only he is other. Only he is separate. Absolutely pure. Originally holy. Essentially holy. Infinitely
holy. Eternally holy. Immutably holy. God is light. In him is no darkness
at all. God is good. That's his light. God's good. He's good all the
time. He's essentially good. His goodness
is underrived. It's who he is. He's eternally
good. He's immutably good. God is good. This is the beauty of his character.
God is light in him. There's no darkness at all. Now look what John says next. If we say that we have fellowship
with him, you know, a lot of people make that claim. I pray
to God and he hears me. I speak to him. He speaks to
me. We have fellowship. He hears
my prayers. I have fellowship with God. If we say that, if we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. He is the light. Anything other than him is darkness. If we walk in the darkness of
salvation by works, that's primarily what that means. Somebody says,
well, if you say you have fellowship with him and you sin when nobody
can see and you sin in private and you sin in the dark, you're
a liar. We ought not ever sin at all,
but is there anybody in here that doesn't sin in the dark
and doesn't sin in the darkness? If that's what that's saying,
me and you won't be saved. Amen? We will not be saved. That's talking about walking
in the darkness of salvation by works, religious superstition. If we say we have fellowship
with him and don't have any understanding of Christ being the light, we're
liars. And we do not the truth, but
if we walk in the light, The light of how God saves by
Jesus Christ. The light of salvation by grace.
The light of being saved by having the righteousness and the merits
of Jesus Christ as my life before God. His life. If we walk in
the light as He is in the light, We have fellowship one with another.
We do, don't we? This is what fellowship is. Fellowship
around the gospel. I'm looking at people who believe
what I'm saying. We're having fellowship together. The fellowship
of the gospel. We have fellowship with one another.
You hear somebody talking about salvation by works, you don't
have any fellowship with him. You hear people making boasts
of how good they are and how right. You don't have any fellowship
with him. You're offended by him. But oh, if we walk in the
light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
And the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from
all sin. Turn to John chapter one. Verse one. In the beginning. The word didn't begin to be.
The word already was. This is the eternal, unoriginated,
uncreated word of God. In the beginning, was the Word. I love the way the Lord Jesus
Christ is called the Word. What's in my mind? The only way
you're going to know is by the words that come out of my mouth. Jesus Christ is the Word that
comes out of God's mouth. That's how glorious He is. In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God as a separate
person and the Word was God. We have the Trinity right there.
He was with God as a distinct person. He was God, equal with
God, just as much God as God the Father and God the Spirit.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made
by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and
the darkness comprehended it not." Now, in Him was life, life
before God, spiritual life. This is true life. Oh, what a
life of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is life. I'm living the
life. No, you're not. Let me assure
you, you're not. He is life. He is eternal life. He is the life, the life, the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect humanity, the law
keeping, the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he's so glorious. He's so beautiful. The life was
the light of men. Now the only way that you're
gonna have life before God is if you have the life as your
life. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The righteousness and the merits of Jesus Christ. His life. His life is the light of men.
The only way you're gonna understand who God is is through him. Amen? The only way you're gonna
understand who you are is through him. You know the reason people
have such high thoughts of themselves and don't see themselves as completely
sinful? It's because they haven't seen
Him. If you ever see Him, you'll know you're a sinner. I won't
have to convince you of it. If you ever see Him in His glory,
who He really is, the life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the obedient life, the sacrificial life, the resurrected life, everything
about His life, oh, the life of Christ, that's the light of
man. Verse five, and the light shineth
in darkness. You know, when the light shines,
what happens with the darkness? It's gone. I think it's so powerful
to go into a dark room. You know, every morning when
I get up, I turn the light on, it's dark. In our laundry room,
it's the first light I turn on, and it's got these bulbs that
are almost hard, real bright. We got new ones the last couple
of weeks, or a couple of years ago. Used to be real dim in there,
but I turn that light on, boom! I see everything. The light shined in the darkness. There it is. But look what it
says with regard to this. The light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. Now, this word, this
Greek word that's translated comprehended has two different
meanings in the dictionary and they both apply. It means to
understand. Do you comprehend? Do you understand? If you have the light from the
Lord, yeah, you do. If not, you don't. You can't. A natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him.
Neither indeed can he know them. He's blind. He can't see the
light. He doesn't understand. No matter how clear you preach
the gospel, he's still not going to understand. blind, he lacks
the ability to comprehend. But you know what else this most interesting word means? It means seize or overcome, apprehend, arrest. The point
is. Darkness can't stop the light.
If God shines his light on you, your darkness is not going to
prevent it. You're going to see. That's how God's light works. You can't stop it. You can't
keep it from happening. Oh, this is such a joy to know
this in preaching. Lord's going to have every one
of his people. I don't need to worry about it. I mean, I want
everybody here to believe, but I can't make anybody believe,
can't make myself believe. But I know this, the Lord can,
and the Lord does. And if you belong to the Lord,
he's going to have you. I'm so, I'm so sure of that. You can't
stop the light. When the light is turned on,
the darkness flees, doesn't it? It's gone. Look in John chapter
three. Verse 19, and this is the condemnation. Listen, this is the condemnation. If you and I are condemned, here's
why. That ought to catch our attention.
This is the condemnation. God is he will reward the righteous
and punish the wicked. We know that this is the condemnation
that light is coming to the world and men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. The reason they don't
love the light is because what the light exposes them to be
all their deeds every one of them non-stop All their deeds
are evil. Have you had the light to see
that with regard to yourself? That all your deeds, every one of
them without exception, they're evil. All of them. Now a natural man doesn't like
that light because he doesn't believe that. Verse 24, everyone
that doeth evil, hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light lest
his deed should be reproved, exposed, but he that doeth truth. I love that phrase. True something
you do. It's more than believing. It's
doing. It's believing. He that doeth truth. He comes
to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they're
wrought in God. I tell you what, I bring what
he's done to the light. And I'm not afraid to bring what
he's done to the light. It's the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's my life before God. And that's his working. He wrought that. That's my only
hope. I'm not ashamed to bring that
to the light. I can bring that to the light with full confidence. Back to John chapter eight. John chapter eight. Here the Lord makes this glorious,
amazing, staggering statement with regard to himself and his
glory. He says, I am the light of the
world. And when I hear him say that,
I say, yes, yes. And I bow before who he is. I am the light of the world. And look what he says next. He
that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. You cannot separate faith in
Christ and following Christ. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now, there are many things implied
by following Christ. If any man will come after me,
he said, let him deny himself. Take up his cross willingly,
the confession of the cross and follow me. I love Matthew. Follow me. He got up, forsook all, and followed
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I know this for sure. With
regard to following Christ, there's a lot of things implied in that,
I realize that. But the way you follow somebody
is keep your eyes on them. You don't look anywhere else.
As a matter of fact, Hebrews chapter 12, verse two says, looking
unto Jesus. And that word looking, is the
word that means turn your eyes off of every other object and
fix your gaze upon one object. Following Him is keeping your
eye on Him. Now if you're following somebody
and you look down at your feet, what's going to happen? You're
going to lose them. I guarantee you will. If you
look back behind you, you're going to lose them. If you look
over to the side at somebody else, well, I get so discouraged
about other people. Quit looking at them. You're
not called upon to look at other people where their example discourages
me. Quit looking at them. You look
to Him. You're not to look back at your
experience. Well, I must be saved because
of what I experienced. No, you look to Christ. Nothing more. Not yourself. Not your evidences. Don't even look to your faith.
Look to Christ. Looking unto Jesus. Looking at his person, his life,
his successful death, the glories of the accomplishments of his
resurrection, where he is right now, who he is. Looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And here's the assurance that
we're given in following him. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life. His life. is my life before God." Do you understand that? His life,
His perfect obedience, His law-keeping, His love to His Father, His perfection,
is my life before God. You see, his life is the righteousness
of God. And second Corinthians 521 says,
for he hath made him, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin. Can God do
that? Yes, he can. Yes, he can. With God, nothing shall be impossible.
He took my sin and gave it to his son and it became His sin. He never committed sin. Don't
anybody misunderstand. He never committed a sin even
when he was made sin. But that sin became his sin and
he became guilty of it. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God. Now that's the light we have,
the light of his life. We're made the very righteousness
of God. in Him. My sin became His and
His life becomes mine. My history is changed by His
story. His life. That's why I can come
into God's presence with boldness because His life is my life before
God. Union with him, the light of
life. What a glorious, staggering statement. I am the life of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Believe on Him. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
Son. How we thank you that He is the light of life. How we thank you that He is the
light of the world. And Lord, we ask that you would
give us spiritual eyes To see Him as the light of the world,
the light of who you are, and enable us to trust Him, His life,
as our life before you. In His name we pray, amen.