John, pt. 45 | John 8:12

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August 6, 2023 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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If you would, at this time, please open your copy of the Scriptures to the
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Gospel of John chapter 8. We will consider verse 12. The Gospel of John chapter 8, verse 12, and this will be the 45th message in this glorious gospel.
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Oh God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord in the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus, there is no other name under heaven by which men are to be saved outside of that name, through that name,
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I call you to focus your attention upon us today,
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Lord. As we gather to worship you in this unique way of worshiping you through your word, hearing from you, please, in that name, the name of Jesus, use this word to conform us to the image of Jesus.
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That is my prayer, amen. We'll begin with reading the text,
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John chapter 8, verse 12. Then Jesus spoke to them, saying,
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I am the light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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Our theme for this Lord's Day is another invitation. Remember, Jesus gave an invitation the day before.
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He tells them, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me.
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He who believes in me, as the scripture says, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
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He is surrounded by people. Some believe what he is saying, some are confused about what he is saying, and some just want him arrested so they can put him to death.
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He gives this invitation to all the above, right? He wants them to come to him and drink, and we see that coming to Jesus to drink is to believe in Jesus.
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Those who believe in Jesus will be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that which fills you comes from you.
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The next day, he gives another invitation, another invitation, see the love that Christ has for this people.
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Day after day, week after week, we as believers should be given this invitation.
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Every message is a gospel message. It's a call to come to Christ.
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It's a call for the unbelievers to come and drink, and for the believers to follow.
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You profess this, now possess this. You say you're this, now live like this.
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He has given you the Holy Spirit, so yes, you can. My proposition for this
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Lord's Day is this, Jesus permeates all darkness. Jesus permeates all darkness.
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Jesus transforms sinners into saints that still sins.
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Amen? Amen. But he will eventually conform us to his very own image, and that is done by following him.
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Today in our text, we're going to look at the call to follow Jesus, and also what following Jesus may indeed cost us.
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Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. It's not for the cowardly. And it's something that false converts can only do for a short time.
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In our outline, Jesus gives three reasons why we are to follow him over everything else.
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Three reasons. Because Jesus is God. Because Jesus is the
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Messiah. Because Jesus gives us the light of life.
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Point number one, because Jesus is God. Point number two, because Jesus is the Messiah.
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Point number three, because Jesus gives us the light of life.
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And as we transition, this is the day after the Feast of Booths. Jesus had just had an encounter with the scribes and the
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Pharisees who brought a woman caught in the very act of adultery. Imagine, Jesus is teaching his people that, what he has been teaching, that he is the
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Son of God, that he came down from heaven, and that believing in him is eternal life. He is teaching.
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He begins to teach. And all of a sudden, these Pharisees, they bring a woman caught in the very act of adultery.
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She might even have been without clothes. And we looked at this last week.
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They brought the woman as a way to test Jesus. But instead,
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Jesus turned the test upon them. Look at verse seven of chapter eight.
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But when the Pharisees persisted in asking him, he straightened up. Because remember, when they first brought him, he first brought the woman, he stoops down to the ground and begins to write.
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And we looked at what I believe that that was speaking about. He straightened up and he said to them, let him who is without sin among ye be the first to throw a stone at her.
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And then he stoops back down and begins to write on the ground. We talked about how at this time, it's what was called the
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Pax Romana, the Roman peace in that when Rome came in and they took over Jerusalem, Jerusalem was no longer the religious leaders were no longer allowed to execute people.
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They were no longer allowed to use the penal code of God, the penal code that that was delivered to them through Moses's ministry.
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They were no longer allowed to enforce that. And I was talking with my wife the other day and we were speaking about how even the sacrificial system was no longer in play because John came baptizing with a baptism of repentance.
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God has shut it all down. He shut it all down.
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None of this were none of this. The system that was built around Moses's ministry was active.
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It was shut down. Rome came in and they took control of Israel and they can no longer carry out the punishment for breaking the law.
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John comes with a baptism of repentance, not a sacrifice, a baptism of repentance.
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This Jewish people knew that they could not stone her. They're not in a remote place. If they was to pick up a stone and stone her, others would see it, the passerbys would see it.
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It would go to Rome and then Rome would kill those who stoned the woman. Jesus turned it on them.
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We looked at the Feast of Booths and we saw how the priest would take water, they would get water from the
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Gion spring that flowed into the Pool of Siloam and they would take a golden jar and they would pour that water in it and they would sing the song of Hallel.
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They would take it and they would walk to the altar of sacrifice every morning and they would pour out the water on that sacrifice.
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And they did so by way of remembering that God in the wilderness provided water for them.
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But also at the Feast, there were these huge golden menorahs.
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If you remember at our conference that we had, Kevin Hay preached on this verse.
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There were these huge golden menorahs that the priest would go at night and they would light and that light from those lampstands would shine so bright that every courtyard in Jerusalem would be lit.
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So why should you follow Jesus? Point number one, because Jesus is
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God. Look at verse 12, we'll just look at a small section of it.
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Then Jesus again spoke to them so that them here would be those who were around him as he was teaching when they bring in the woman who was called to adultery, saying,
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I am. We'll stop right there. I am. Right here we've come to the second
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I am statement in the Gospel of John. The Greek word for I is ego and the
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Greek word for am is amy, amy, ego amy or amy depending on if you're from California or the
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South, right? Ego amy, ego amy, either one's fine with me.
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The first I am statement, I pointed out that ego means I am and amy also means
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I am. They both, ego and amy, mean I am. This takes us back to the encounter that Moses had with the burning bush where God encounters
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Moses and he tells him his name by saying, I am who I am.
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And according to the Greek Septuagint, God said, ego amy,
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I am, I am. So when
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Jesus says these words, I am, he is saying ego amy.
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He is saying that I am God. He is saying that I am the one who spoke to Moses.
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And how did he speak through Moses? Through a fire, through light.
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Again, John here, the Gospel writer, is showing us, and he does so in other places as well, that Jesus proclaimed himself to be
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God. Perhaps ask the question in Sunday school, you know, what verse would you go to in Scripture to show that Jesus is
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God? And I had so many in my head just kind of, well, which one do I pick? I mean, he's only wanting one.
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He's like, don't make this tough on me, man, come on. And he's speaking about right now the doctrine of God and how there is this one what and these three who's and the one what is the one being or the one essence and the three who's is the
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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And there's no, there is no outdoing one another.
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There is no division in the Godhead, right? Just as much as the
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Father is God, Jesus is God, just as much as Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God and vice versa.
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There's no mixing it up. There is no hierarchy. There is no one trying to out God the other. They are all one
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God and yet they are three distinct persons in this one distinct person.
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Jesus comes in two time. And right now they just got done celebrating this, this great feast and there's these golden manures and the lights during this feast and all the surrounding courtyards were lit up.
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And listen, if there were helicopters at this time or planes and you were to fly over Israel and see such a sight, you would be in wonder.
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It was beautiful. And I believe that's why
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Jesus is speaking about it because it's the next day and as he's probably as he was telling these
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Pharisees and these scribes off, people were probably still talking about how beautiful it was the night before with these lights.
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They lit these lights as a way to remember how God led them in the wilderness.
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Everything done was for a reason. Everything done was for a reason.
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The Feast of Boots was for them to remember the people in the wilderness who lived in the wilderness in tents.
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They draw the water and pour it out on the altar of sacrifice to remember that God gave them water and now they're lighting these big old lights in the sky, these candles as a way to remember that God led them by fire through the wilderness.
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In the daytime, he led them by a cloud and I imagine this cloud looked very distinctive from all the other clouds.
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And so I imagine that there's some kind of a light tint to these. Can you say light and tint in the same word?
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These light tint stuff in the clouds that made the cloud distinguished from all the other clouds.
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But at night, this cloud would turn into a pillar of fire, a great fire in the sky and they would follow wherever this light, wherever this cloud went, wherever this fire went, the
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Jews would pack up and follow the cloud and they knew that it was Yahweh. They knew it was their God leading them.
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And now in our text, it is the day after the feast and this narrative is probably going on and people are probably talking about how beautiful, it must have been back then, but how beautiful Jerusalem was with these big giant manures lit.
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I imagine that as they were saying this, Jesus says,
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I am the light of the world. Y 'all are focusing on shadows.
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You're doing these things repetitively, thinking about the past when God himself is in your presence.
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I am the light of the world. With that in mind,
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I want to read all of verse 12. And Jesus spoke to them saying,
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I am the light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they never walked in darkness.
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In the daytime, they had the light and was following the cloud.
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And when night fell, they had a big ball of fire who was Yahweh that gave them light.
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Jesus is telling them that he is God. Listen, ladies and gentlemen, there's no clearer way you can say these things.
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He has taken what they know and he is showing how there are shadows leading to him.
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During this wilderness, the Israelites would follow, again, they would follow the cloud by day and the fire by night.
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And Jesus is telling this group of people that it is he who is speaking to you that they should follow him now because he is the light.
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And again, I want to add that just like it was Jesus in that burning bush who spoke to Moses, ladies and gentlemen, it was
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Jesus that they were following in the wilderness. Jesus was the cloud.
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Jesus was the fire. Scripture is clear. No one has ever seen
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God, the father. Adam walked with Christ. Jesus came to explain, to express, to exegete the father.
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You don't know the father outside of Christ. You do not have the son.
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You do not have the father. So why should you believe in Jesus?
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Because Jesus is God and you all should believe in God. Point number two, because Jesus is the
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Messiah. Again, verse 12, the Jesus spoke to them. Jesus again spoke to them saying,
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I am the light of the world. He who believes in me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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The first question that needs to be answered is what does Jesus mean that he is the light of the world?
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One of the great sayings of the Reformation is Post Tender Brass Lux.
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Now I heard there's a good Bible rebinding company called Post Tender Brass Lux. But that's one of the sayings, the slogans from the
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Reformation. And Post Tender Brass Lux is Latin for after darkness, light.
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After darkness, light. After darkness, light is in fact the story of the
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Bible. It's the story of redemption. Turn with me, if you will, to Genesis chapter one.
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We'll begin reading verses one through three. Genesis chapter one, one through three.
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void.
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And darkness was over the surface of the deep.
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And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water. Then God said, let there be light.
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And there was light. Darkness first, and then light.
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Look at verses four and five. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.
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And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.
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And there was evening, and there was morning one day.
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Or day one, or the first day, however your Bibles want to translate that. In the
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Jewish calendar, it's always evening first, then morning. The way
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Genesis lays it out, it's evening first, then morning. Evening first, nighttime, darkness.
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Then morning, daytime, light. And in one sense,
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Jesus in the incarnation, God himself leaving heaven, coming to earth, the creator entering the creation, the infinite becoming finite, enters into a dark world as the light.
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Ladies and gentlemen, every one of us have experienced light permeating darkness.
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You ever been outside and watched the sun rise? You know that light, when the sun comes up, the darkness disappears.
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I've given this analogy several times. My office, there's no light on right now, and if you open the door, the darkness doesn't come out and dim this room.
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It doesn't permeate light. Darkness is absence of light.
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But if you open that door, the light from this room will permeate my office, and you'll be able to see.
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Go in there and close the door, you won't be able to see. Open the door, you'll be able to see. You won't stub your toes.
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That's a big deal for me, right? Sensitive feet, I don't want to stub my toes. Light permeates darkness, ladies and gentlemen.
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Not the other way around. Jesus enters a time in the world where light was absent.
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The truth of God has been lost. God enters into time to explain to us, to exegete who
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God is. Jesus comes as the light of the world to permeate all darkness.
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And you say, Jeff, it's still dark. Yes, it is. It is. But one day it will not be.
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One day it will not be. And we'll see that later on. Now, real quick,
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I want us to look at some verses as supporting text concerning the light.
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So Psalm 27, verse 1, Psalm 27, verse 1.
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Your Bible might say the Lord, capital L -O -R -D, capital L -O -R -D is the translation is the personal name of God, which is
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Yahweh. Yahweh is my light and my salvation.
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Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the stronghold defense of my life.
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Whom shall I dread? First question, who is that talking about?
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It's clear in the text, it's speaking about Yahweh, calling Yahweh the light, calling
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Yahweh their salvation. Isaiah chapter 9, we'll look at verse 2 and verse 6 and 7.
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Isaiah chapter 9, verse 2 and verses 6 and 7.
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It says this, the people who walk in darkness will see a great light.
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Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light will shine on them.
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Now look at verse 6, for a child will be born to us, think incarnation, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called
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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Ever, I mean, excuse me,
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Mighty God, Eternal Father, Ever. Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace.
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On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and to uphold it with justice and righteousness.
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From then on and forevermore, the zeal of Yahweh, of host, will accomplish this.
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Ladies and gentlemen, who is that talking about? Talking about Jesus. Now in our next passage is a prophecy of the
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Messiah, who is the light. All these light passages are speaking of a
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Messiah coming. Isaiah 42, verses 5 through 9.
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Isaiah 42, verses 5 through 9. Thus says
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God, Yahweh, who created the heavens and stretched them out.
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I want to remind you that John chapter 1, verse 3, tells us Jesus created the heavens and who stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, and who gave breath to the people on it and a spirit to those who walk in it.
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I am Yahweh. I have called you in righteousness. So right here,
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God is calling someone in righteousness. I will also take hold of you by the hand and guard you, and I will give you as a covenant to the people, listen, as a light to the nations.
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This is a prophecy of the Messiah, and he's going to do some things. Listen, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who inhabit darkness from the prison.
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I am Yahweh. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another.
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John chapter 17, verse 5, Jesus says, Give to me the glory that I had with you in the beginning, nor my praise to a graven image.
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Behold, the former things have come to pass. Now I declare these things before they spring forth and cause them to hear.
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Who is that talking about? Jesus, the Messiah. All these things, these prophecies about the light and the
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Messiah, they find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
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17, 5. God the
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Father here is speaking to Jesus in our text, God the
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Son, concerning the covenant of redemption, the new covenant.
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God the Father chose to save a people, and in Christ, Christ comes and accomplishes the purpose, and the
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Holy Spirit applies that purpose, and that is in the new covenant.
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We are no longer under the old covenant. Jesus fulfills the old covenant. We are to live in the light of what
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Jesus has done. And Jesus saying that He is the light of the world,
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He is not only saying that He is God, but He is also saying, I am the long -awaited
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Messiah. One more verse, Revelation chapter 21, to prove this point.
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Remember I said that there's a day coming when He will remove all darkness.
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Revelation chapter 21, verses 22 through 23. Now this is in the context of the new heavens and the new earth.
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The new heavens and the new earth. And then I saw no sanctuary in it.
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In where? The new heavens and the new earth. For the Lord God, the
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Almighty, and the Lamb are its sanctuary. They don't need any structures.
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God Himself is the sanctuary. Look at verse 23. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it.
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For the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the
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Lamb. Jesus is the light of the world.
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These people, they're remembering how God led them through the wilderness, and they light these manures that lit up the courts of Jerusalem with God Himself, the light in their very presence.
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Although they could not see it then. So why should you follow
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Jesus? Because Jesus is the Messiah. Point number three, because Jesus gives us the light of life.
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Again, verse 12. Then Jesus again spoke to them saying,
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I am the light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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Now our focus on this third point will be on following Jesus. Those who follow
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Jesus, don't get scared, we'll never walk in darkness.
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Again, He's speaking about the picture that is laid out before them on how the
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Israelites would go through the wilderness, never being in darkness. Because once the sun went down, the cloud turned to fire, and gave them light, gave them heat, provided their needs.
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So we will never walk in darkness. We will never walk in darkness because we will have the light of life.
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Now when I was a kid, I don't know how far back this goes, Haps. You're the old man in here today.
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We used to play this game called follow the leader. And we played it on a bicycle, right?
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So you're riding a bike and they go up the hill, you go up the hill. If they ride with one hand, you ride with one hand. If they ride with no hands, you ride with no hands.
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And so whatever the person in front of us did, the people behind us would have to do, follow the leader, right?
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Now what does it mean to follow Jesus? Well, we can't keep the covenant like Jesus did, right?
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Jesus just did some things that you and I cannot do, right? Him being God. Following Jesus is not walking in darkness.
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And so if you turn to 1 John, 1 John really explains what this means.
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I'm going to read verses 5, 6, and 7 to begin with. 1
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John 1, beginning in verse 5. And this is the message that we have heard from him.
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The hymn here is Jesus. And declare to you that God is light.
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And in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him, speaking of Jesus, and yet we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.
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But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.
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Walking in darkness is living in sin. Walking in darkness is not committing a sin, but it's actually living in sin.
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And a good analogy that I always give is to say, you know, like right now it's really hot outside.
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And if we were standing by a pool, like if we were having some kind of a barbecue, you know, someone invited us over and we was hanging out and there's a swimming pool and I'm sitting there chilling and it's 90 degrees outside, but it feels like 150 and you push me in the swimming pool.
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Like there's not going to be any real hurry to get out, right? I'm going to play this feels a lot better than when
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I was standing out by the swimming pool. And I'm going to enjoy the swim.
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Versus if I'm standing beside this swimming pool that should have a tarp over it and it's because it's 30 degrees outside and you push me in.
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And the moment you push me in, the shock of that cold is going to drive me. It's going to force me to get out of the pool.
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It's going to be such a shock. I'm not going to be wanting to be in the situation that I'm in.
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Those that can live in sin, it's like being pushed into the pool and they don't want to get out.
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But if you're a Christian and you fall into sin, it's going to be like the pool that's a 30 degrees.
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And the moment you realize that you're in the pool, you're in sin, there's going to be a shock to you and nothing is going to keep you from getting out.
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So yes, I can fall into it. I can sin and fall in. You know, I can fall into a sin, but just because I fall into a sin,
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I stub my toe and give the F -bomb, right? Or whatever it is, because I've got sensitive feet.
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Whatever it is that causes me to commit a sin. The moment I do so, I realize it and confess it.
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Versus living in it, lavishing in it, celebrating in it. Living in sin is saying,
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I don't care what God says about sin. This is my life and I'm going to do what
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I want to do. And if we continue to read, we'll go back to verse 7 to verse 10, and read chapter 2, verse 1 and 2.
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We can conclude that walking in darkness is not just committing a sin. As long as you're in this flesh, you're going to sin.
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But that doesn't mean you have to indulge yourself in it. So let's start back at verse 7.
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But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins.
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Right here, verse 8. If we say we have no sin, that's present tense, right now.
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If you say that you have no sin, guess what? We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Verse 10. If we say we have not sinned, that's past tense. We make
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Him a liar, and His word is not in us. Chapter 2, verse 1.
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My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. He doesn't want us to sin.
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And if anyone sins, listen, here's the gospel. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
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And He Himself, speaking about this, Jesus, who is the light, is also, right here, our propitiation.
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The propitiation for our sins. That means that He is the payment for all wrongdoing. And not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
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So John writing to Jews, saying it's not just for the, Jesus is not just for the Jews, He's also for the
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Gentiles. He's the propitiation. He's the payment for all of our wrongdoings.
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Following Jesus means denying yourself and taking up your cross.
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Mark, chapter 8, beginning in verse 34.
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Mark, chapter 8, beginning in verse 34.
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Jesus speaking, and He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and He said to them, if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow
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Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospels will save it.
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For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to forfeit his soul?
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For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the
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Son of Man will also be ashamed of Him when He comes in the glory of His Father with His holy angels.
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Ray Comfort often gives this analogy. He says, if I give you a million dollars, would you sell me one of your eyes?
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Of course, the answer is no. What about if I give you 10 million? Will you sell me both of your eyes?
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And it's no. How much more your soul?
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Your eyes are just the windows to your soul. If we wouldn't sell our eyes, and yet we freely give up our souls, how stupid can we be?
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It means this. What about my wants? Jesus first.
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What about my life? Jesus first. What about my wife or husband? Jesus first.
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What about my kids? Jesus first.
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Jesus first. Following Jesus means seeking first the
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Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 says this. This is but seek, Jesus speaking, but seek first the
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Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. What is the
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Kingdom of God and His righteousness? The Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of Jesus Christ over His Kingdom people.
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The Church of Jesus Christ, we are a church, we're not the only church, but we are part of the church, the universal catholicity church.
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The Church of Jesus Christ is the visible manifestation of this
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Kingdom. But unless you're born again, you will not be able to see it.
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You think we're idiots. God's righteousness is alone found in Jesus Christ.
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Righteousness means law keeping. Unrighteous means law breaking. You can tell which one you are, right?
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The righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness is Jesus Christ keeping the law.
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We are to seek first His Kingdom. The Church, the manifestation of His Kingdom and His righteousness,
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Christ. These are the two things that we are supposed to put. It doesn't matter.
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We are not to forsake the gathering of ourselves to be assembled. Why? Because here in this church is where you receive the means of grace.
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God wants to grow us who were in darkness into the image of His beloved Son. Well, how does
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He do that? How does He do that? It's in His church. Being under the preached word, those who have been baptized receive the
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Lord's Supper. This is how He grows us. This is how He transforms us. This is how He takes us from darkness to light.
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Those tender -breast looks. We are to make sure that this is a priority.
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We seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness through the growth of the local church.
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And we see this as the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. I'll just read it.
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And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
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Now here is where the rubber meets the road. Now here in America, this is where we begin to tread water.
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This is where we begin to swim against the current. Because this goes against our flesh.
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Because this command can get in the way of our free time, family time, or just other things that we want to do with our life.
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And trust me when I say this is a battle that me and my wife face every day. Trying to find time to work and have personal study and sermon preparation, time with my kids, time with my wife, and also finding time to evangelize.
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But it means, what about my wants? Jesus first. What about my life?
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Jesus first. What about my wife or husband? Jesus first.
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But what about my kids? Jesus first. That's what it means to follow
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Jesus. It can mean nothing else. It's that you put
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Him above everything. This is why I believe Paul stresses singleness.
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Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 7. I might be five minutes longer than usual.
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I'm sorry. Look at verse 29. Paul writes, but this
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I say, brothers, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none.
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And those who have, and those who cry as though they did not cry, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it, for the form of this world is passing away.
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But I want you to be free from concern. The one who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the
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Lord, and how he may please the Lord. But the one who is unmarried is concerned about the,
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I mean, the one who is married is concerned about the world, and how he may please his wife.
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Verse 34. And his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the
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Lord, that she may in her body both, be holy both in body and spirit.
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But the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, and how she may please her husband.
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Christians, Jesus, God, wants us to be concerned about the
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Lord. Ladies and gentlemen, when it comes to preaching Christ to a lost and dying world, we are to be as if we're unmarried, even though we're married with children.
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We're swimming against the current, right? The rubber has met the road. We're treading water.
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Because there's other things we want to do, and believe me when I say there's other things I want to do. We must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to us.
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Wants, life, wife, husband, kids. But we have to seek first the kingdom of God.
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So what does it mean? So why should you follow Jesus? Because Jesus gave, gives us the light of life.
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And what is the light of life? The light of life is being in the light.
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It's that fire above us. But for us, it's us being in Christ, and that happens at salvation.
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In closing, Paul the Apostle was told by God how he was going to bring people from darkness to light.
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And we see that in Acts 26, beginning in verse 18.
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It says, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins in the inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.
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So King Agrippa did not prove, so King Agrippa did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, meaning that he'd done those things.
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But kept declaring both to those in Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem, and then throughout the region of Judea, and even to the
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Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, practicing deeds appropriate with repentance.
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For this reasons, the Jews seized me in the temple, and were trying to put me to death.
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Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand here bearing witness both to small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place, that Christ, the
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Christ would suffer, and that he, and that as first resurrection from the dead, he was going to proclaim light both to the
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Jews, Jewish people, and to the Gentiles. Also, Ephesians chapter 5, and we'll close, we'll end in this verse, this area.
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Chapter 5 beginning in verse 7. Paul writes again, he says, therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the
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Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
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Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord, and do not participate in unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even expose them, for it is disgraceful even to speak of things which are done by them in secret.
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But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
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For this reason it says, awake sleeper, arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.
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The gospel is post -tenderbreast lux.
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It's you who were in darkness are now in light, because of the righteous for the unrighteous, because God himself came into time and lived the life that you and I could not live as that light.
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And that light was also put to death in the body, taking my punishment, taking your punishment for breaking
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God's law. And he was buried, and on the third day he rose again from the dead. And right now he is at the right hand of the
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Father on the throne of David, ruling and reigning, putting all of his enemies under his feet, and he always lives to make intercession for those that draw near to him by faith.
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And that light permeated the darkness, and ever since then the world has been getting brighter, even though it's dark.
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I want you to just look down from your pew, and I want you to see the shadow that your pew is causing in the darkness.
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And I want you to look down from your pew that your pew is causing in this light, this room that's filled with light. And yet there's darkness, and that darkness is the shadow of the darkness that's still here, those that are still are going to be footstooled by Jesus, either by the bowing of their knee in faith or by the screams and smoke of their torment.
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For the non -Christian, I pray this day that you will repent and believe the gospel.
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Go from being in darkness to being in light. For the
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Christian, are you following Jesus? Are you putting him first?
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If not, repent and believe the gospel. Believe the gospel. For the church attender, if you do not come to true saving faith in Jesus Christ and follow him, when you die, you're going to hear, depart from me, you worker of iniquity.
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I never knew you. So why should you follow Jesus? Because he is worthy.
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He's worthy. I'm available to anyone who wants to talk.
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The leadership here is available. Let's pray.
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Oh God, Lord, in Christ's name, I pray,
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Lord, that you used me this day, that I did not come with some witty message that I've created for myself, but that you, through the spirit that you have placed in me, have used me this day to correctly articulate your word to your people.
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And Lord, we pray for those in here who are still in their sins, that you will grant to them faith and repentance.
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And for those of us who are in Christ, Lord, that you will give us a greater boldness to follow you in a world of darkness.
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And we know that you have called us to be lights, Lord. The church in Revelation is called the candlesticks, the lampstand.
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And Lord, I pray that the church will do what it's supposed to do and be the light of the world, removing the shadows, calling them to repent and to put their faith in Jesus Christ.
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And now, Lord, I pray for the supper. Lord, I pray that you will use this supper to grow us into the image of your beloved son.