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The True Light, this will be part two, speaking from the Gospel of John chapter 1, primarily verse 8 -13. Please bow with me in prayer as we go to our Lord and seek His face and His help in this time of worship.
Our Father and our God, how loving are You, how long-suffering, how patient, how holy You are. How holy is Your name. And Father, by Your Spirit and by the help of Your Spirit, we bless Your holy name and we magnify Your holy name.
We thank You for Your holy word, the Holy Bible, the Holy Father, Son, and Spirit. Help us to worship You in spirit and truth. And Lord, we praise You for Your mercy and Your compassion and Your truth that has met together at the cross, justice and mercy, all displayed in full glory at the cross of Calvary.
Lead us there, Lord. Help us to behold the Lamb of God. Father, help us to see how You've shown and demonstrated Your great love toward us in Jesus, Your Son, Your one and only Son. You gave Your best to win, to win the sons of men.
Son, many sons to glory. Through the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, through His one perfect, holy, blameless life, through His death on the cross, through His burial, He took our sins, buried our sins, and by His glorious resurrection was raised, raised victoriously.
Lord, we thank You and we bless Your holy name for all and all is in Jesus and You're pleased in Your Son. It's nothing of us. It's all in Him. Hide me behind the cross, Lord, and hide each and every one of us behind the cross as we look into Your word and we behold the Lamb of God.
Lord, our prayer today is may Jesus Christ, Your Son, be lifted up on high and magnified as Spurgeon said, He alone is the magnet to draw His own to Yourself. And Father, we pray as Your Son taught us to pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
We pray this, Lord, and we pray this for Your glory and honor in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ is the grand theme of the Bible. Now, He's our subject and always will be the subject of the entire Bible, of the revelation in which God has given unto us.
He is the true light, as the scripture says and as we have been looking at. He is the true light, Jesus Christ. J .C. Rowell, Bishop Rowell of England, one of the greatest, godliest men, I would say, in his time.
And if he was here, he would say, no, I'm not great. But God used this man in a great way and I believe He used him in His writings more than anything. I would love to have heard this man preach. He was a God-fearing man, but he put it this way concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
Quote, Christ is to the souls of men what the sun is to the world. He is the center and the source of all spiritual light, like the sun. He shines for the common benefit of all mankind, for high and for low, for rich and for poor, for Jew and for Greek.
Like the sun, He is free to all and all may look at Him and drink health out of His light. If millions of mankind were mad enough to dwell in caves underground or to bandage their eyes, their darkness would be their own fault and not the fault of the sun.
So likewise, if millions of men and women love spiritual darkness rather than light, the blame must be laid on their blind hearts. But whether men will see or not, Christ is the true sun and the light of the world.
There is no light for sinners except in the Lord Jesus Christ, end quote. Amen. What a statement. What a statement. What a wonderful statement. What a truthful statement out of Scripture. As the sun is the light that lights the world, so Christ is the light that lights every man.
Verse 9. Verse 9 of chapter 1. The Apostle John through the Holy Spirit says that exact thing. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. Jesus Christ enlightens every man.
He is the only light for every man and everyone who is enlightened is enlightened by Him. John 8, 12. Jesus said Himself, I am the light of the world. No man who follows Me will ever walk in darkness.
Ever walk in darkness if he follows Me. His light is the light of salvation. As a matter of fact, in the Psalm, David cried out, The Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. He is the true light. There is no other light.
There may be other religions that claim light, but that's all they could do. They do not have the true illumination from heaven. The true illumination of heaven comes from this book, this Bible, this Word.
It is inerrant. It is sufficient.
It is God breathed.
There is no other light. And if you today have received Christ, you are saved by His grace through faith. That not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. And if you reject the light, you're judged. And there is many that has rejected Jesus Christ.
Now, that basically will sum up. We're going to look at in verse 10 and 11, we see Christ's rejection. Verse 10 and 11, Christ's rejection. In verse 12 and 13, we see Christ's reception. First, there's rejection, then there's reception.
Lord willing, next Lord's Day, we'd like to look a little bit more into verse 12 and 13 because there's a lot there of His reception. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the bright, the privilege, the power, the authority to become the children of God to those who believe in His name.
But today, I'd like to focus our attention on His rejection. His rejection. In verse 10 and 11, look with me to verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him. And the world did not know Him.
Now, think of this. From the time of His virgin birth in Bethlehem, He was in the world through the incarnation. He was in the world. For 33 years, He was present in His creation. The world in which He made the world.
He brought the world into being. He spoke it into existence. He is its creator. He is its sustainer. He is the governor. He is the one that holds it all together. And He made it. Colossians 1 .16, the Apostle Paul says this.
For by Him, speaking of Christ, all things, all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, there's another translation that goes, whether rulers or authorities, all things, all things were created through Him and for Him.
It's incredible.
And we see that in Revelation of worship before the throne of God, that He created all things, so He created people for Himself to worship Him and to love Him. And that's why in Philippians 2, that one day believers and non-believers will bow the knee and confess with their tongue and bow the knee that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Now think of this. Instead of recognizing Him as the creator and recognize Him as Lord, men thought that He was just another man like themselves. Yet Jesus Christ came into this world full of grace and full of truth, lived a perfectly sinless life, befriended sinners, healed the sick, went about doing good, raised the dead.
Think of this, confronted oppressors. Yet like the prophet Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53 .3, He is despised and rejected by men. Here's human depravity right here. It's the rejection of Jesus Christ.
And I say this, the one sin that will take people to hell is not these lists of sins they think they're doing like smoking and immorality and so forth. And there's a list goes on with all bads and bad things and deeds that we do.
And we will be judged according to the deeds and everyone will be, except for those that are saved by the blood of the Lamb. Those deeds are washed and we will still, even as God's people, be judged according to our works.
But we're talking about the judgment. But really the one major sin that the Lord looks at that will send people to hell will be the rejection of the Son of God. To reject Jesus Christ of who He is and His claims that He's Lord and He's Savior and He's the Messiah.
He is despised.
Think of that. He is despised and rejected. People refuse to believe Him by men. He is rejected by men. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief and we hid. Listen to that. We hid, as it were, our faces from Him.
That makes me think about Adam and Eve in the garden when sin entered into the world. They wanted to hide from God. That's what sin does. People want to hide from God.
We hid.
We, we.
That's all of us. We hid our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Listen to Psalm 118, 22. And Peter quotes this and Paul quotes this. And this is a quoted, very much quoted Old Testament verse.
But Psalm 118, 22 says, The stone which the builders rejected. Listen to that. Rejected has become the chief cornerstone. God made Him the chief cornerstone. He is rejected. Rejected. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the King of glory, creator of heaven, creator of earth, creator of all things, came in grace and truth.
Yet He is rejected.
Rejected.
He was in the world. The very world in which He made. He shined His light when He came into the world. And He shined His light. Great light had come and shined in the great darkness that was amongst them.
And He demonstrated His creative power. The true light illuminates. The true light illuminated which gives light. He gives. He gives light. That light that burst forth from Him shines forth. And you see this again and again and again in His earthly ministry.
How He bursted forth His light everywhere He went, folks. How did He do it? He did it with His word. He cleansed the leper. He raised the dead. He disturbed funerals. He touched a coffin one time in Nain.
And a young man rose up out of the dead from a castic. Could you imagine that happening? Gave people new eyes. He opened deaf-mute ears. He controlled the storms and said, peace be still. He proved who He was.
He walked on the water, defied the laws of gravity. Again and again and again He demonstrated His awesome creative power and proved He was the Son of God in flesh. Even Jesus said, my works testify of who I am.
He puts Himself on display, folks, before a dark world. And that light shined in the darkness because He's the true light. Jesus, the light of the world. And yet the world knew Him not, knew Him not.
Think of that.
The world was made by Him. He was in the world and the world was made through Him.
And the world did not know Him.
Listen to Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry says, quote, I'm going to divide this up. I've got two quotes here, but it's got a lot here. But I'm going to finish it up later on. Here's the first portion of it.
Nothing more fully shows the darkness of men's minds than that when light had appeared, there needed a witness to call attention to it. Christ was the true light, that great light which deserves to be called so.
By His Spirit and grace, He enlightens all that are enlightened to salvation. And those that are not enlightened by Him perish in darkness. Wow. Christ was in the world when He took our nature upon Him and dwelt among us.
The Son of the Highest was here in this lower world. He goes on to say, He was in the world, but not of it. He came to save a lost world because it was a world of His own making. Yet the world knew Him not, end quote.
You see, we see the Son rejected. We see Christ the Messiah rejected. The rejection of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11. He came unto His own, and His own did not receive Him. Makes me think of Jeremiah 17, 9.
Why Jeremiah 17, 9? The heart is deceitful.
Deceitful.
We don't know how deceitful our own hearts are. But the Lord said, the heart is deceitful above all things. Listen to that. Above all things. Our hearts are deceitful. We can't trust our heart to take us to hell.
We got to put our trust in the Lord. He's the true light. The heart is deceitful above all things. It goes on desperately and desperately. You know what that word in the original Hebrew means?
Incurably sick.
It's incurably sick. What's it sick of?
Physical sickness?
No, it's talking about sin sickness. Folks, we are born in this world in sin. And we are born with a serious sickness. With a serious sin sickness. With a serious disease. And the only remedy for that disease is the blood of Jesus Christ.
That's the remedy. Desperately sick. Wicked.
Bible says wicked. Wicked.
Who can know it? That's the question. This is God speaking. Who can know it? I really believe verse 10 answers that question. The Lord, only the Lord knows the heart. Notice verse 10, if you're there.
Because the Lord Himself speaks in the first person. He says, I, the Lord, Yahweh. I, Yahweh, search the heart. Search the heart.
I test the mind.
That's the secret parts. That's the inner parts. And even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. This is depravity, folks. This is why we reject the light. This is why people reject Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Himself said it. If you recall in John chapter 3, verse 19 and 20. This is very, very key. And this is the condemnation. Here's the condemnation right here. That the light has come into the world.
And men love darkness rather than light. Because, Jesus says, because their deeds were evil.
There it is.
Why were their deeds evil? Jeremiah says, because the heart is deceitful and evil and wicked. Above all things it's deceitful. Jesus says, because their deeds were evil. And in verse 20, Jesus says, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light.
Lest his deed should be exposed. And folks, that's why the true gospel of Jesus Christ always confronts sin. If it does not confront sin, it's not the gospel. That's why Christ says, repent and believe the gospel.
Repentance and belief. And, that word and in the Greek word basically puts repentance and belief like two sides of the coin. You cannot separate the two. There must be repentance, there must be belief.
Jesus Christ is the true light. He's rejected. He's rejected like none other, folks. Christ, the true light, has shined on sinful man and man's sinful ways and their wicked ways. Any wonder why they hate the gospel?
And by the way, when they pour forth hate toward us, it's not because they hate us. It's because they hate the truth. It's because they hate Christ. Because that truth penetrates within their dark heart and it exposes them for who they really are.
And, naturally, people want to hide. Like Adam and Eve did, right? Well, he came unto his own and his own received him not. He's rejected. Let's see what that means. Let's look through a few Scriptures.
Go with me to Matthew chapter 8. We're going to go to Matthew and we're going to go to Mark and we're going to then go to Luke. Let's first go to Matthew 8, chapter 8. I want you to see this from Scripture.
He's rejected. How is he rejected? Who rejected him? Notice in chapter 8, people rejected him. Look at verse 28. This is after Jesus demonstrated His power to calm the tempest that arose over on the sea of Galilee.
The boat was covered with waves and He was asleep. The disciples came to Him and woke Him and said, Lord, save us, we're perishing. And He comes up and He said, why are you so fearful? Oh, you have little faith.
Scripture says He arose and He rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm. He demonstrated His creative power, who He was. And so the men marveled and said, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey Him?
What manner of man is this? And then in verse 28, when He had come to the other side after He calmed the storm to the country of the Gergeshins, there met Him two demon-possessed men coming out of the tombs.
Think of this.
Exceedingly fierce. Exceedingly fierce. So that no one could pass that way. No one could. They were fearful of these demon-possessed men. In verse 29, suddenly they cried out saying, these demons cried out basically inside these people, what have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of God?
They knew who He was. Have you come here to torment us before the time? They knew torment was coming to them. They knew this.
You know why?
Because they knew Jesus Christ is Lord. They knew, see, they know who He is and they tremble. This is a trembling that they give way to. And now in verse 30, a good way off from them, there was a herd of many swine feeding.
And notice what happens here. So the demons begged Him saying, if you could cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine. Cast us into the swine. They were asking permission.
Listen to that.
Verse 32, He said to them, He just said, one word, go. So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine and suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea and perished in the water.
Now, this is someone's swine and they get really upset about it. See, they're more concerned about the animals than the souls of men. Does this remind you of something today? That people are more concerned about saving the whales and the spotted owls than babies in the womb of the mother.
More concerned about the animals than people's souls, little children's souls. And verse 33, how do we know this?
Listen to this.
Then those who kept them fled. And when they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened, the demon possessed men. And behold, look at verse 34 tells us, the whole city came out to meet Jesus.
Could you imagine a whole city coming out? And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region. Get, please, leave. Rejected of men. The people rejected Him. There's another example. Go with me to Mark chapter 6.
We see His rejection in Mark chapter 6. He's rejected at Nazareth. Nazareth? He's Jesus of Nazareth, right?
This is His hometown.
This is His own people.
Listen to what the Scripture says. Then He went out, verse 1, from there. And this is right after He, again, He's doing miracle after miracle. He's doing nothing but good. He came out to His own country.
And His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, where did this man get these things? No one taught like Jesus.
No one. They never heard such words that perceived. They were gracious words.
And what wisdom.
The wisdom is this, which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands. See, they even knew His teaching was like no one else's teaching. He did works like no one else from His hands.
And then in verse 3, listen to what it said. Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Josie and Judas and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? So they were offended at Him.
Listen to that. They are offended at Him. Are people offended at Jesus today? Absolutely. Nothing's changed. But Jesus said to them, notice what He says. A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.
His own household. He came unto His own, His own received Him not. Now, He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And in verse 6 says,. And He marveled because of their unbelief.
Unbelief.
They did not believe who He was. Then He went about the villages in a circuit teaching. He's rejected of His own people. Go with me to Luke chapter 4. Jesus begins His earthly ministry here in Luke chapter 4.
Look at, I like to begin in verse 16. Again, He's rejected at Nazareth. He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. Luke kind of gives us, it's a synoptic gospel. He gives us a different perspective, but it's the same story, right?
And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue, verse 16, on the Sabbath day and He stood up to read. Of course, He's going to read from the Word of God. This is the living Word. And He reads the written Word.
And it was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. Basically from a scroll. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written. And to us, this would be Isaiah, I believe, chapter 60, I believe.
Am I right about that? 61, I'm sorry. Chapter 61. And the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And this is what He reads. Because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.
Listen to all the goodness that He does. To proclaim liberty to the captives. To recovering the sight to the blind. This is His mission. To set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
And we know why He stops there. Because the day of vengeance of our God doesn't come until later. But this is His mission. He comes to do nothing but good.
He's the Savior.
He's the Lord. He's the Messiah.
The anointed one. And verse 20 says, He closed the book and He gave it back to the attendant. And He sat down.
You can picture this.
Scripture says, And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.
It's interesting.
They were fixed on Him. But listen to what happens. And He began to say to them, Today, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So all bore witness to Him and marveled at His gracious words, which proceeded out of His mouth.
And they said, The saint, listen to what Mark tells us, Is this not Joseph's son? In other words, what they said, He's the son of the living God, as Peter says. That's the confession. He's the son of the living God.
Is this not Joseph's son? Is this not just another guy that's amongst us? He's not really God in flesh. And actually, when He said that, all the rulers of the synagogue took Him. And that's why they hung Him on the cross.
Because of His claims. Verse 23, He said to them, You will surely say this proverb to Me. Physician, heal yourself. Listen to the wisdom behind this. Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in your country.
And He said, Surely I say to you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you truly, Many widows here were in Israel in the days of Elijah, When the heaven was shut up three years and six months, And there was a great famine throughout the land.
But to none of them was Elijah sent, Except to Zephath, Zephath, Zephath,. And in the region of Sidon, The woman, a woman who was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elijah, The prophet, and none of them was cleansed, Except Naaman the Syrian.
And all those in the synagogue, When they heard these things, Were filled with wrath.
Listen to this. Rejection, folks.
They're filled with wrath.
What did they do?
They rose up, Thrust him out of the city, Led him to the brow of the hill, They tried to kill him here, On which the city was built, That they might throw him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went his way.
Was it his time to die yet?
You see?
You see the rejection? You see the rejection? He came unto his own, His own did not receive him. His own, his own. He came unto his own, His own did not receive him. Twice the word his own is used. The first usage is basically, Likely refers to mankind in general.
The second usage here basically refers to his own Jewish nation. The gospel comes to the Jew first, Then to the Greek. Pastor John MacArthur's note says this,. But never, never has that wretchedness and profound nature of darkness.
Been more on display when people reject the light. He says this,. It's one thing to reject the light of the law, It's another thing to reject the word of the Old Testament prophets. It's another thing to reject the revelation of God Written in the Old Testament.
He goes on,. But it is far more indicative thing to reject Christ. This is incomparable testimony to the depravity of man. But put the blazing light of heaven, he says, Full of grace, full of truth in the world of sinners,.
And when they reject him, You might have the most dramatic evidence of the depth of their depravity. It's one thing to reject a man, a prophet. It's another thing to reject a scroll that someone wrote.
But it's quite a flagrant thing to reject the living God in human flesh. It's far, far worse to reject Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, that light. Go with me to Matthew chapter 10. That rejection leads to judgment, always.
Always leads to judgment. When light is rejected, judgment comes. Matthew chapter 10. Look at verse, Jesus is preaching. I'm sorry, I believe it's Matthew 11. I'm sorry, it's Matthew 11. Matthew 11. Look at verse 20.
Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done. He rebuked the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent. So what happens when no one refuses to repent and believe?
Listen to what he says. Woe to you, Corozin. Woe to you, Corozin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than in the day of judgment, than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.
But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than in the day of judgment, than for you. Now let me stop right here. Why is he saying this? Because he's the great light. They saw more light in Christ than anyone else in history.
This is God in flesh. He comes, and now He's rebuking them, these cities, for all the mighty works that He had done, and they did not repent. See, that's the purpose of the works. That's the purpose of the miracles, is to bring people to repentance.
They refused to repent. They rejected Jesus Christ. He pronounces judgment on them. And in the midst of that judgment, but yet He gives a blessedness to those that come to Him. Look at verse 25. In that time, Jesus answered and said, and here's a prayer.
He's praying to the Father. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and have revealed them to the babes. See, I love that word revealed because it shows God's intervention.
It shows it's not something of them, not something of us. It is God's revelation to us graciously given. It's revealed to the babes. What's he speaking about babes? Humility. Humility and broken. You look at a child.
They're innocent, humble.
Even so, Father, He says, so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
And then He gives this beautiful invitation to those, come to me. You come to me, all you who labor and heavy laden. He's speaking about those oppressed and burdened, heavy laden under the works of the law that the Pharisees put heavy burdens upon them.
And Jesus says, no, you come to me, and I will give you rest, soul rest. Take my yoke upon you. Link up with me. Learn from me, He says, and I am gentle. I'm meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burdens light.
Isn't that beautiful?
So glorious is our Lord. You see this? Do you see what I see here from the Scriptures? God, that is absolutely good, and do us good, and does good and gracious and loving and mercy, comes to give Himself, and yet people reject Him.
How does it make you feel when people turn their back on Jesus? Let me finish the quote by Matthew Henry, before I go to the application, and before we go to the Lord's table. Matthew Henry says this, when He comes as judge, speaking of Jesus, the world shall know Him then.
Many say that they are Christ's own, yet do not receive Him, because they will not part with their sins, nor have Him to reign over them. All the children of God are born again. The new birth is through the Word of God as the means.
1 Peter 1 .23, Peter says this, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. Matthew Henry goes on to say, and by the Spirit of God as the author, and by His divine presence, Christ always was in the world.
But now that the fullness of time has come, He was after another manner, God manifest in the flesh, but observed the beams of His divine glory, which darted through this veil of flesh. Men discover their weaknesses to those most familiar with them, but it was not so with Christ.
Those must imitate with Him. Saul must of most of his glory, although he was in the form of a servant, a bond slave, as to the outward circumstances, yet in respect of graces, his form was like the Son of God in His divine glory, appeared in the holiness of His doctrine and His miracles.
He was full of grace, fully acceptable to His Father, therefore qualified to plead for us, and full of truth, fully aware of the things He was to reveal. Does it remind you of 1 John 3, 1 -3,. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God?
Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet revealed what we shall be, but we shall know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Are you looking forward to the day to see Him as He is? Listen to this, verse 3, John says, the same apostle John,. For everyone who has this hope in Him, the Spirit of God, when we come to Christ, born of the Spirit of God, that Spirit, the Holy Spirit abides in us.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's what separates those who are false and those that are true. The true children of God has the seed, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Everyone else, there's a lot of people that may be claiming to be religious, claiming professing, but their deeds profess who they really are.
Their deeds deny who they really are. It basically tells who they are. They play religious, don't they? They have a form of godliness. They are reformed, folks. Doesn't this make you want to search your own hearts?
Because anyone could make a change and reform, but there has to be a new birth. There has to be something miraculously happen. There has to be the Spirit of the living God. And when real repentance takes place, real repentance, not worldly sorrow.
Even the Word of God tells the truth of what godly sorrow is and worldly sorrow is. What true repentance is and what false repentance is. What true praying is and what false praying is. We should see what the genuine looks like.
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. That's sanctification.
Just as he is pure.
Beloved, when we are children of God, we live in the reality of Christ's soon return. But we live in the reality that we have a passion to be sanctified. A huge difference, isn't it? The believer's behavior, since the believer in Christ someday will be like Jesus, that passionate desire should be to grow in the knowledge and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Work out your own salvation, the scripture says, with fear and trembling. Is not this the heart cry of every Christian? Is this not your heart cry? Lord, purify me. Create in me a clean heart. Purify me.
Cleanse my mind. Help me to be pure. Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. See, there's salvation. And when there's true salvation, there's always true sanctification. And J .C. Rowe said, true sanctification always shows true salvation.
Because that's the only way we could tell that we are truly saved. But salvation is by grace and through faith. Then sanctification follows that, right? It's basically God does everything in salvation, and then we are to work at sanctification.
Basically, salvation is the theological word here, is monergistic. And then you got synergistic, is we to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That is to work it out to sanctification is work, much work, and it's labor's work.
But I'm going to tell you this. It's discipline work, and it must happen. But for it to must happen, if we have a desire for sanctification, a desire to be holy, then salvation's taking place. I tell people all the time.
I said, if you were to die and go to heaven right now, you would hate heaven. Because you're not holy. You're not made holy in Jesus Christ. Because everything about heaven is holy. And by the way, the one who made heaven is the holy God.
And he's the reason why heaven's heaven. Because he is the holy God. We worship him. That's why the seraphim and the angels and the saints of glory say, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, right? Paul said it.
Now, how does this lead to our, in the application here? Paul's passion expressed it. In Philippians 3, verses 12 through 14. And this should be your passion. This should be my passion. This should be something we think of every day to endure to the end, to persevere, right?
Every true believer has a passion. Not that Paul says that, not that I've already attained or I'm already perfected, obtained it. But I press on. Do you press on every day? I think about this every day I get up.
I must press on in Jesus Christ. It's laborious.
It's hard.
But the Lord is there to lift my burdens and to make it where the journey is sweeter. Even though physically, outwardly, it is difficult. And Jesus said it's not going to be easy. There's a cross to bear, right?
And the cross confronts our flesh. And we must deny ourselves on a daily basis. Take up your cross, He said, and follow me. Deny yourself.
Take up your cross.
That's obedience to the commands of Jesus Christ.
That's tough.
That's hard.
But Jesus makes it all worth it. Jesus makes it sweet. And why is He worth it? Because He's worthy. He's worthy, amen? Nothing else in this world's worthy.
He's worthy.
That's why we say He's worth it. And this time, I like what the old Puritans, they would always remind us of that. The time from salvation, the time of our journey on this earth is so short. So short in comparison to eternity.
He says the time until you see Jesus Christ on this earth, from the moment you come to Christ in time you see Jesus, it's so short in comparison to eternity. I think about this often. I think about all the great godly men that lived before, I mean, before us, has gone before us.
And I'm sure right now they're in the presence of God. And they said, I've not regretted it. It's all worth it because He's worth it. And beloved, that's the way it is with us. Don't ever think, many times in the flesh, you may feel like giving up.
I feel that, let's be honest. But Jesus is worthy, He's worth it. Paul says, I press on, why? Why does he press on? That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, in other words, I basically have not counted myself to have arrived.
What a humble apostle. He's basically saying, I have not arrived, but I press forward. But one thing I do, this is sanctification, this is doing here now. One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
Verse 14, what things? What things? I would say eternal things. Mainly Jesus Christ. Matthew 6, 33 is a very familiar one. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.
Press toward to Christ's likeness. That's what he's saying. Press toward to being like Jesus. Press toward to the goal for the prize of the upward cause. The call of God in Christ Jesus. To be like Jesus Christ here and now.
We will be like Him when we see Him face to face, but what Paul's saying, in the midst of darkness, in the midst of hardship, in the midst of what we're going through, how hard it is, press toward it.
Each and every one of us in our jobs, in your call, and what God has called you, press forward and be like Jesus. Mothers in the home, when no one sees it, but your husband and your children and God, press toward Christ's likeness.
If you're undergoing, if you're battling with something hard in your life,.
Be like Jesus.
How did He respond? How did He handle it? May it be with us. And this will lead us, and Lord willing, we're going to look at this next Lord's Day, but how gracious is this? There's rejection. He came into His own.
His own did not receive Him. But notice verse 12, the but, the transition. But, but, as many as received Him, to them He gave the right, the privilege, the authority. God does this, to become children of God to those who believe in His name.
Praise God, who were born, not of the blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. You know what that tells us? Salvations of the Lord.
We're going to see that.
It's not a man. A lot of people say, well, there's the human side, there's the divine side. It's all of God. Yes, we must believe. We must do the believing. Spurgeon said that, but it's like God gives us the gift to believe.
And we're going to look into that. Praise God. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, our hearts cry truly, Abba, Father. Abba, Father, thank you, Lord, for your great love toward us. That you receive us, and we receive you.
Thank you for the great gift, this unspeakable gift, as Paul said.
That you loved us so.
May this never leave our sights. And as Luther said, I must listen to the gospel. It tells not what I must do, but what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for me. And what has he done for me? You said it in your word.
By this we know love. Because Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, for us, for his sheep. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Oh God, I pray, help us. By your blessed spirit, not to love just in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth.
May it be demonstrated. And by this, we know the truth. Lord, we thank you. And we bless you. We thank you, that you assure our hearts before you. Lord, bless us now as we come to this time. As we turn our complete attention to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Thank you, Father, for loving us with an everlasting love.
That you gave your best, Lord.
That we have the light, the true light, that gives life. That we may have eternal life with you. All for the praise of the glory of your grace. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. And I'd like next Lord's Day, again.
I can't help but think, because of time and we're having communion. I cannot help but think about, we're going to look at this. There is another place, as we go to the cross. In the accounts of Matthew and Luke, two thieves.
What do we see there? One rejecting, one received them. One rejects them, one receives them. Amen? This is the way, there's no neutrality. There's rejection or receiving, nothing else in between. Amen?
Amen. Praise God.