John Pt. 3 | John 1:6-13

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Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Pastor Jeff Rice September 4, 2022

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John Pt. 4 | John 1:14-18

John Pt. 4 | John 1:14-18

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If you will turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John, we will be considering verses 6 -13.
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The Gospel of John, verses 6 -13.
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Gracious God, Lord, in the name of your
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Son, Jesus, please at this time speak through me.
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Amen. So this is our third message in the Gospel of John, and our theme for this
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Lord's Day is the Divine Light of God. The Divine Light of God.
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Last week we looked at the Divine Word of God, and this week we will consider the
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Divine Light of God. Whatever this light was that intruded the darkness at that time is the same light today that intrudes darkness.
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Darkness in the first century was interrupted, and that interruption is still taking place.
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In the same way that we see in the book of Genesis where darkness covered the face of the deep, darkness was covering the face of the earth spiritually.
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Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 -3 says this, you don't have to turn there, but just listen. Genesis 1, 1 -3, in the beginning
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God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the
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Spirit of God was hovering over the waters, and God said, listen, let there be light, and there was light.
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When God said, let there be light, what did light do? Permeated the darkness.
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And we can conclude the same thing is taking place here in our text. That light has come to intrude, to interrupt, to permeate the darkness that was in the world.
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And what we are reading about, what we are witnessing as we walk through this prologue of John, what we are reading is a new creation.
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God through redemption is recreating the world because darkness was covering the face of the earth.
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You got to ask yourself, what was worse, darkness covering the face of the deep, or darkness covering the face of the earth because of sin?
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A creation that is not taking place in a literal six days, but rather a creation that is taking place until the second advent, the second coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, when Christ comes again and He fully inaugurates and heaven is fully seen on earth.
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This is the creation that we are speaking about as we're walking through John. This gospel, this book of good news.
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Read with me our text verses six through 13, but I want to start at verse one for the context.
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And we walked through this portion of scripture last week. Verse one of the gospel of John, in the beginning was the
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Word and the Word was with God and the
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Word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
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In Him was life and that life was the light of man. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
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Verse six, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.
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He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all may might believe through him.
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He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
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He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
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He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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And in our outline we will see a man with a message, the intrusion of light, and the rejection of light.
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So number one, a man with a message. Number two, the intrusion of light.
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And number three, the rejection of light. So as we transition, last week, remember we walked through the first five verses concerning the divine word of God.
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And we saw that this divine word of God was in the beginning, that it was with God, Logos in Prostanteon, and that it was
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God, Theos in Tan Logos. The literal translation is,
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God was the word, right?
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And we talked about the doctrine of the Trinity, how the doctrine of the Trinity, speaking of that there's one
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God, there's one being of God. We talked about the one what, that one what was the one being of God.
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And the three who's, the three persons, Father, Son, and the
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Holy Spirit. That right here, it's telling us that this word, that this
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Logos was in the beginning, it was with Prostanteon, Logos in Prostanteon, that it was face to face, and that this closing where it says, and the word was with God, that the actual
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Greek structure is that God was the word. And if our
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Bibles would translate it this way, that a lot of confusion would end concerning the deity of Jesus Christ.
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There would be no more Jehovah's Witnesses, if it was translated literal like that.
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No Mormonism. Verse four tells us, in him,
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Logos, the Logos was life. And that life was the light of man.
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So this Logos was life, and in him, his life was the light of man.
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Verse five says, that light shines in darkness. Think intrusion, an interruption takes place, and that this darkness has not overcome it.
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Remember, darkness cannot permeate light. I gave the illustration of my office being a dark room, that if I open that door, that dark room does not dim this room.
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But this room, which has light, permeates my office. That's darkness.
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We also read, as a way to identify what this light might be, we looked at 2
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Timothy, verse one, I mean 2 Timothy chapter one, verses eight through ten.
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I'm going to read that again. Second Timothy, chapter one, beginning in verse eight, it says this,
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Paul writing to Timothy, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our
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Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who has saved us and has called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ before the ages began.
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When did you receive this grace? In Christ before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our
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Savior, Christ Jesus, right here, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
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Jesus is the light. Jesus is the gospel.
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If you look at 1 John, chapter one, verse five, speaking in the context of talking about this, that in the beginning, that this word was manifested.
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Verse five tells us the message. This is the message. So notice the word message.
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This is the message. We have heard from him speaking of Jesus and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.
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There is no darkness in God. So point number one, a man with a message, the gospel of John, chapter one, verses six through nine.
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But let's just read verse six first. Verse six says this, there was a man sent from God whose name was
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John. Notice with me that outside of him being sent from God, him being a prophet, he was just a man, like we are, not saying that all women are men, but he was a human being.
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He was a person, just a person, not deity. Not deity. He had began to talk about in the beginning the logos was with God.
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The word was with God and that he was in the beginning, that he was with God face to face and that he was, that God was this word and we're going to find out that this word enters into creation.
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That this word takes on flesh, that this word is divine, that it's both
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God and it's both man. And right here he's clarifying that a man was sent from God, telling us that who it's about to introduce to us is not the logos.
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It's not who was in the beginning. It's not who was with God face to face and it's not who God was.
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He's just a man. He's just a person, like we are.
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That John had an earthly father and mother, like you and I, we have earthly fathers and mothers.
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That John was begotten in time, like you and I. Right, there was a moment, a time where I did not exist and then there was a moment where my parents came together and I existed,
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I came into existence. So too with John. And we can read about his birth in the book of Luke, that both the mother and father of John were elderly and his mother was past the age of childbearing.
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So in his birth, it is supernatural, but he's not the logos.
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He's not the God who took on flesh. So the writer here, the disciple
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John whom Jesus loved, is trying to show here in this verse that this is not the word that became flesh.
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It says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. Now this
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John who we are introduced to is none other than John the Baptist, also known as John the
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Baptizer. John the Baptist was sent from God with a message, a message about the light.
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Now I want us to notice that the light is the message. He was sent with a message and it was a message about the light.
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If you look over in chapter, I mean in verse 29 of this chapter, it says that the next day he saw that he here is
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John, Jesus coming toward him. And he said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, that this is just a message of light, that sin, that this darkness of sin is in the earth and that he sees the lamb of God who comes to remove the darkness.
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John was doing something that would be considered radical in his day. He was baptizing
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Jews. You might say, well, how is that radical, right?
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He's baptizing Jews. There were many washings in the
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Jewish tradition. This particular baptism was a baptism of Jews used only in two cases.
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For Gentile converts, or if he was a descendant of Aaron, it was used to bring you into the high priest.
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The immersion of baptism this way was only using those two functions.
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And yet John was baptizing Jews as a way of repentance, not sacrifice, not going to the temple, not offering your lambs, not offering your sacrifice for repentance.
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But you being emerged, dunked underwater as a way of repentance, as though this baptism was a way of turning back to God.
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And we will focus more on John in the weeks to come. Let's read verses six, verse six with verse seven.
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Again, verse six, there was a man sent from God whose name was
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John. He came, notice, as a witness to bear witness about the light.
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You could look at verse four. In him was life and that life was the light of man. Light shines in darkness and darkness has not overcome it.
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So verse seven is pointing back to verse four. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.
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John came with a message, a message about the light that was coming, that was interrupting, intruding.
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The main purpose for the baptizer was to bear witness. His main purpose, no other reason, his main purpose was to bear witness, to be a witness about the light.
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Now I want to look at what light is. Light as perceived by the world, which we, scientific, right?
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Light is electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by a human eye.
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Light travels at about 186 ,282 miles per second.
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Can anyone run that fast? Just me? No, I'm just playing. We can't fathom the power of light, the speed of light.
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So light is a primary tool for perceiving the world as we know it and interacting with many organisms.
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The light of the sun warms the earth at 93 million miles away.
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And to quote Ray Comfort, it can ripen your tomatoes, right?
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Hallelujah, amen. And that's not the light that John came to bear witness about.
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That's not the light that John came to bear witness about. He came to bear witness about another light.
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You have the sun, S -U -N, versus the sun, S -O -N. So it's a different light, a more powerful light, and it says that all may believe through him.
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Notice the all here. Have you ever been in a debate with someone and they'll say, all means all, all the time, and that's all all can mean?
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I'll say that again. All means all, all the time, and that is all all can mean, right?
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If you have an Armenian friend, you've had that debate. God so loves the world that all, which we'll get there in the
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Greek in chapter three. But that's not true.
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Just take them to this verse. That's not true. That's not what this is saying.
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It says he came to bear witness. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.
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When John says that all might believe through him, he was particularly speaking about the
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Jews of his days. When you came to faith, was it through the preaching of John?
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Not me. It was through Ray Comfort preaching about Jesus Christ. Ray Comfort was the little light that pointed me to Christ.
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When John was asked about himself, he quoted Isaiah chapter 40, verse three.
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Verse 23 of John says this. John answering, he says,
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I am a voice crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet
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Isaiah said. I want to look at this message from Isaiah.
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If you would turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 40, we'll look at verses one through three.
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Listen to this. Comfort, comfort my people, says your
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God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her for her welfare has ended.
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That her iniquity is pondered, that she has received from the
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Lord's hand double for all of her sins. Verse three, a voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the
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Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for God.
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Zachariah chapter 12 tells us that this message was given to Judah first. Zachariah chapter 12, verses seven and eight.
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And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah.
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On that day, when the Lord protects the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David.
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And the house of David shall be like God. Thank Jesus, the son of David, right?
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This is a prophecy of Christ's coming, shall be like God, like the angel of the
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Lord, right? Going before them to Judah first.
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And in Matthew chapter three, we find out the message as well as John, as well as to whom and where John was preaching.
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Matthew chapter three, verses one and two. In those days,
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John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, Judah. His message was, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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The message, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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The first thing we know about the light from John's life is it is the kingdom of God.
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No longer was God's attention going to be focused on his earthly kingdom, but his attention was going to be focused on a heavenly kingdom.
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And John is telling us that this kingdom is at hand and he is a witness to it.
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Verses eight and nine says this, he, speaking of John, was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.
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The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
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John the Baptist was not the light, but he was a light, but he was not the light.
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To prove that he was a light, I'm going to look at chapter five. Chapter five, verses 34 and 35 says this, not that the testimony that I have received from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.
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Speaking of John, he was a burning and shining lamp, and you are willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
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John was a light, he was a lamp, but he was not the light.
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Just like you and I, we are not the light, but we are called to be lights. Just like the sun gives its light to the moon,
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John, you and I receive light from the sun, S -O -N. Right?
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When we look up in the dark sky at night and we see this bright moon, we need to understand that that moon only has light because of the sun,
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S -U -N. And when you and I receive Christ and we're out in this world, people should be able to see the light radiate off of us because of the sun,
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S -O -N. We are to be a witness of this light, and in turn, his light should shine and reflect off of us.
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People should see that from us the same way as the moon reflects the light of the sun.
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The same way people believe the message through John, we should be a message about this light to where people can believe through us.
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Romans chapter 10, beginning in verse 13, says this.
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For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
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I'm going to read that again. For everyone who calls upon the name of the
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Lord will be saved. How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed?
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And how are they to believe in him whom they have not heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching?
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And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
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If you are in Christ, we are to be preaching this message about light.
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And to show you that we as a church are a light, remember it called John a lamp, Revelation chapter 1, verse 20 says that the church is the lampstand and that Christ walks amongst the lampstands.
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If you are a part of the church, you are a lamp, you are a shining light, you are to radiate the light given to you by the sun,
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S -O -N. And as we transition in John chapter 8,
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Jesus himself tells us that he is the light, John chapter 8, verse 12.
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Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world.
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Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of life.
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Jesus is the light, he is the gospel. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you will have the active work of the gospel in your life, in your life.
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Jesus is the light, the intrusion, the interruption, he's the one who permeates the darkness that was and the darkness that is in the world.
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And if we're following him, we will not be in darkness. But as we are walking into dark territories, this light that's coming from him that's shining on me brightens the darkness because of the message, the message that we have to proclaim.
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He who created all things is bringing about a new creation through this message.
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Now let's look at our second point, the intrusion of light. John 1, verse 10, the intrusion of light.
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He, speaking of Jesus, was in the world and the world was made through him.
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And yet the world did not know him. I'll read that again.
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He was in the world and the world was made through him.
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And yet the world did not know him. Look back at verse three. All things were made through him.
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It's talking about the word, the logos. And without him was not anything made that was made.
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The creator entered creation, him by whom all things are enters into that which was.
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The creator by whom all things are enters into that which was. He was the invisible and he became visible.
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Remember Hebrews 11, verse three, we, we walked through this and find it, okay.
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Like we, we walked through this one passage that led us all the way to the end of the chapter, right? This one passage led us to the end of the,
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I mean, to the end of the whole book. Verse three says this, by faith, we understand that the universe was created, listen, by the word of God, the word of God, the logos by faith.
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We understand that the universe was created by the word of God. So that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
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If it was visible, then it did not make everything that the word of God that created all things, the invisible became visible.
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And that which was right now I'm speaking about his creation, particularly his own people, the Jews did not know him.
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Those that were given the word of God, the law, the Torah, the scriptures did not recognize his voice.
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When he spoke to them audibly, they didn't have to read it. He was there in their presence speaking.
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Then he was with them face to face in their presence, and they did not know him.
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And as we transition the God whom they worship, the God whom they sacrifice to, whom their fathers wrote about, he appeared to them, before them, face to face, in front of them at that time, and they did not recognize him.
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They did not know him. They did not know God. When light came to his own people, his people were the darkness.
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So this would be terrifying right here for us, because I want to say, let us, his people, you and I, not be the darkness when he comes back.
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His own people, when he entered into creation, his own people, when light took on flesh, this message became about to intrude, to interrupt, to permeate darkness.
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It was his own people. And let us, his people, who profess faith in him, not be the darkness that's overtaken by the light at his second advent.
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Point number three, the rejection of the light, verses 11 through 13 of John's gospel.
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He, speaking of Jesus, came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
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But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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He came to his own in the incarnation. We read this in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 2, very well, clearly spells this out, beginning in verse 14.
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It says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, speaking of Jesus, likewise partook in the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.
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How was the devil destroyed? Because Jesus took on flesh and was crucified.
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He died. Through the death of our Savior, he destroyed the power of the one who had, he destroys the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.
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And he delivers all those, through fear of death, were subjected to lifelong slavery.
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For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
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Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of his people.
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Remember, propitiation, the payment for wrongdoing. He came to his own in the incarnation, but his own people did not receive him.
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We have the trial that was taking place, you know, you had Jesus on one side and Barabbas on the other side.
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And for Jesus, they were saying, crucify him, crucify him. Give us
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Barabbas, give us this maniac who makes war. Does Jesus crucify him?
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He came to his own in the incarnation, but his own did not receive him.
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But they order his crucifixion. They order his crucifixion.
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Verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
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Jesus gave the right for us to become children of God. We receive
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Christ by believing in his name, the name of Jesus, by calling upon the name of Jesus.
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When you call upon the name of the Jesus, when the name of Jesus, Romans 10, 13 says, you shall be saved, whoever calls upon the name of the
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Lord, the name of Jesus shall be saved. Believing that he,
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Jesus, is the Christ, the son of the living God, and it's by believing in his name that we may have life.
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And that life is life in his name through that light, through that message. So the question is, is how do we believe, right?
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How is it that we go from not believing to believing? Verse 13, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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Right here, not of blood, what does this mean? It's not of heritage. It's not of descent.
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You're not born a Christian, right? You're not born into this world a
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Christian. You're born dead in your trespasses and sins. You're born under the covenant federal head of Adam.
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You're born covered in dust. And if you die covered in dust, you are going to bust hell wide open.
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The resurrection of the dead, you will be raised, clothed in dust. It's not of heritage.
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It's not of descent. It doesn't get passed down to you because of your father, who your father or who your mother is.
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You're not born a Christian. You're not born covered in the garment and the righteousness of Christ.
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And because we're born in Adam under his covenant federal head, covered in dust, we must be born again.
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A new birth has to take place. The first birth only condemns us.
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We need the second birth. We need to be born again. It also says, nor of the will of the flesh.
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What does this mean? It means that it's not of effort, moral effort or spiritual effort.
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It's not by making a decision. It's not by walking an aisle, shaking a hand, signing a card, praying a prayer.
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I cannot convince you to be a Christian.
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Now, do I go out, preach the gospel, and I would use a human terms to compel, to convince?
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Yeah, of course. Like, I go out and I do, you know, like I'm up here now and I'm preaching.
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And if you're given, and if you become born again, it's not that I'm trying to con you into it, right?
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It has to be something else. It's not something that I can con you into it.
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It's not something, it's not of my effort. It's not of your effort. It's not of a moral effort. It's not.
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So the moral effort would be you. It's not of a spiritual effort would be me trying to compel you. It's not you making a decision.
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It says, nor of the will of man, that this is not something that can be done to you, nor is it something that you can do to someone else.
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It's not being circumcised. It's not being baptized as infants. This is not something that we can put on our children, though we do pray that our children are born again.
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I think that's the prayer that I've prayed more in my life than any other prayers, that the
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Lord will grant to my kids faith to believe, and that he will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh, that he would put his spirit within them that would obey his commands, because I know what will happen if he doesn't.
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It's not something that I can have happen to my child. The Bible says, but the will of God, and it's the will of God that you receive a new birth.
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That's the only way. It is the will of God that the new birth, you being given faith, not from me, but from that message, that through that message about the light,
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God can open your heart. He can remove this heart of stone, give you a heart of flesh, put his spirit in you that will cause you, cause you, cause you to walk in his light, to follow his commands.
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It is the will of God that the new birth, you being given faith, will come by the message of the light.
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How can they believe if no one is preaching? We're here, we're in this new building, we're surrounded by a new community, and listen, how will they believe if no one preaches?
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They can't. They can't. They don't wake up one day and decide to become a
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Christian. They hear the message about what God has done for them, and God redeems them.
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He snatches them from the fire. He rescues them. He gives salvation, the message about the light, that the life of Jesus, giving up his life in our place through the gospel, that Jesus is both
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God and man, right? The Bible says that man cannot keep
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God's law, and God cannot die. So Jesus had to be both
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God and man in order to fulfill what the word says. In order for Jesus to keep the law, he has to be deity.
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He has to be God, because we cannot keep his law. So in order for the law to be kept,
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Jesus had to be God, and in order for Jesus to die upon a cross, to take upon himself my sins,
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Jesus had to be a man. In order for redemption to take place, he had to be both
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God and man, and that's what John is telling us, that he was in the beginning, that he was with God, and that he was
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God, and next week we'll see that this word, this logos became flesh, and it's through that message because of what he has done, living the life we couldn't live and taking the punishment we deserve.
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We're given life, we're given faith, and it's upon hearing with our ears that message, someone preaching that one is given faith to believe that one is born again.
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We know how we're born the first time, I won't get into the graphics, right? Our parents came together and we were born.
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In order to be born again, someone has to preach the gospel, and that someone is me and it's you, the
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S -O -N. His light is to reflect off of us, and we are to be lights in this world, proclaiming redemption of what
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God has done for man. And I pray this day that you have been given faith, and that you have called upon the name of the
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Lord, and that you have life in his name. I'm available to anyone who wants to talk,
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Pastor Cal as well as Josh. Let's pray.
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Our dear God, Lord, I pray that I was faithful with your text.
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I pray if I did not speak clear, Lord, that you through your spirit will cause them to understand.
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I know that at times I can be as clear as mud, but I rely on your spirit to make it as clear as crystal.
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We thank you for Jesus, for what he has done. We thank you for your spirit.
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And Lord, right now we thank you for the supper that we are about to partake.
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I pray right now all those that are about to partake are preparing themselves. And Lord, that you are giving grace, that you are giving mercy, and that you are giving grace right now.
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We love you, and we just thank you for all that you do. Please continue to be with us through the rest of our service.