It's good to see each one. We're thankful to be together this morning. If you have your copy of God's Word with you, turn with me to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. We have been making our way through the Gospel of John. And last time we came through, we stopped at verse 52 of chapter seven. On which Jesus, on the last, the great day of the Feast of Booze, the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, in this case on the eighth day is a special Sabbath day. John records beginning in chapter 7 verse 37 that Jesus stood up on that last day, that special Sabbath. He stood up in the midst of the crowded temple and He declared that He Himself was and is the ultimate fulfillment of the water ritual of this feast that they had been celebrating for the last seven days. He declared that he is the source and his spirit is the substance of life itself, which of course brought both great astonishment and great division among the crowds, as was recorded in verses 40 through 52 of chapter 7. And then you'll notice In your Bibles, at verse 53, it says that everyone went home. So, the feast is over and the vast majority of the people will now be traveling back to their homes. Right? And that might have been the case. But probably not. Probably not. because in chapter 7 verse 52 through chapter 8 verse 11, which includes the account of a woman caught in the act of adultery, it is what is known as a textual variant, meaning there are variations and not agreement in the ancient copies of the manuscripts concerning the text. There is ample evidence that though the accounting is true, we don't doubt that, It was probably not there in John's original record. I say there's ample evidence. There's internal evidence. At verse 52, there is an abrupt change in the Greek sentence structure and grammar. So there's internal evidence of this. And then there is external evidence as well. There is widespread disagreement among not just translations, mind you, hear me, not just translations, not just disagreement in the ESV, LSB, KJV, NKJV, not just disagreements there, but among the original manuscripts. to where this account should be placed. Some place it after verse 36 in this chapter, some after verse 44, some after, as we have it here, after verse 52. One even places it in chapter 21 after verse 25, and then another has it in the Gospel of Luke. in chapter 21, following verse 38. But most of the earliest manuscripts exclude it here. And a few that did include it, there were notations that indicate doubts about its inclusion. And also, even among the ancient scholars, there is no mention of this account here until well into the 12th century. So with all of that said, there is ample internal and external evidence of this variant text here. But probably most importantly, it's what happens if you set chapter 7 verse 52 through chapter 8 verse 11, if you set it aside for a moment and keep reading. Because what happens is the people don't just all go home. No, Jesus on this last great day of the feast, he keeps teaching. He has more to say. He has more to declare. So for now, we will return to this account, the account of the woman caught in the act of adultery. We'll return to this account when we get to the end of this section. But for now, we're going to set it aside and keep reading. And so I want us to begin reading in verse 12. Chapter 8, verse 12, and we'll read down through verse 20. John 8, verse 12, when Jesus again spoke to them. So if you go back to chapter 7, verse 37 and 38, look at that. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of water. Okay, and then after that, of course, we looked at what happens because of his statements there. But now again, as it picks up again in verse 12 in chapter 8, then Jesus spoke again to them. He has something else to say to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees said to him, You're bearing witness about yourself. Your witness is not true. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness about myself, my witness is true. Because I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I am not judging anyone. But even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone in it. But I am the Father who sent me. Even in your law it has been written that the witness of two men is true." In other words, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, a fact is established. I am He who bears witness about Myself, that's number one. And number two, the Father who sent Me bears witness about Me. So they were saying to Him, Where is Your Father? Jesus answered, You know neither Me nor My Father. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also. Notice verse 20, These words He spoke in the treasury, as He was teaching in the temple. And no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. So the last time we talked about how Jesus' declaration that He is the source and His Spirit is the substance of life, how His declaration was a response to the daily water ritual of this Feast of Booths. Well, guess what? There was another daily ritual that was very important to this Feast as well. It was a daily or a nightly lamplighting ritual. There were four huge lamps. In one place I read, it said that these lamps were 75 feet tall and that they would light up, they glowed so brightly that they would light up every courtyard in Jerusalem. And guess where these four lamps were? were located. Guess where they were placed for this feast? They were placed in the women's court of the temple, which was, verse 20, in the temple treasury. And so now on this last day, on this special Sabbath of the Feast, Jesus here, in the presence of these great lamps that have been lit and celebrated around all week long, now here, perhaps now on this Sabbath, their light has been extinguished and the dancing celebration has ceased, and Jesus stands and declares, basically, there's no need for celebration, there's no need for the joy to cease, no. Let it continue because I am. This is the second definitive I am statement. Which of itself is a declaration of His identity as I am that I am, as God Yahweh in the flesh. Now He says, I am the light of the world. The first declaration He made back in chapter 6, I am the bread of life. Here, I am the light of the world. As in, these great lamps may have physically illuminated the courts of Jerusalem, but I am and I will spiritually illuminate the world. I will spiritually illuminate people, the hearts of people, the minds of people, of every family and of every nation of the world." And we all need to understand, I hope we do, that this is a staggering declaration. I am the light of the world. This is something that only God Himself can stake claim to. For one, Jesus here is doubling down on His previous statement that He is the Source and His Spirit is the substance of life. He is declaring again in no uncertain terms that He and He alone is the ultimate fulfillment of this ancient God-given Feast of Israel. And of course, this is not missed by the religious leaders here. In fact, in the ensuing conversation between Jesus and them, we should see that light and darkness is light, and their darkness is actually exposed and contrasted here. So, notice this. First, notice the darkness of the religious elite. Remember who these Pharisees were. They were the religious elite of Israel. Verse 15, theirs is the darkness of fallen flesh. Jesus said, or Jesus said that they judge or they discern things according to their flesh, to their fallen flesh. Their darkness is the darkness of fallen flesh. And in this dead and dying, spiritually lifeless state, verse 13, they accused Jesus of pride-filled deception. Basically, they say, you're full of yourselves. Your witness is not true. You're full of yourself. You're talking about yourself. You're propping yourself up. You're exalting yourself. Your witness is not true. They accuse Jesus of pride-filled deception, but as Jesus exposes in verse 14, It is because they do not know where He has come from or where He is going. In fact, in verse 19, they are totally oblivious to Him and His Father. So, understand here what Jesus is saying to them and what He is showing us here. The darkness of fallen flesh. Our fallen flesh, the flesh, the mind, the heart that we are all born into this world with. By the way, even as born-again people of God here today, we still struggle with this darkness. We still struggle with this flesh. And this darkness is so dark that even the most religious among us What we have here is the biblical, the primary, the ultimate example of the religionists in the Pharisees. Even the most religious of all people. This darkness is so darkness, even the most religious of all people have absolutely no true understanding about God Himself. They have not a clue about where their God, the God that they claim to know and serve, according to them, better than anyone else on the face of the earth. They have no clue where He has come from, or where He is going, or even who He is. This is the greatest, most religious people in human history. And they have no clue Where? What? Their God is. These people, we, us, still today, listen, we need infinitely more than religion. We need infinitely more than religion. We need light. Light is the only deliverance from our inherent darkness. We need light. So then, in contrast to these men's darkness, now notice the light of Christ. Christ wasn't a pride-filled deceiver. No. Verse 14, He knew exactly where He was from. He and He knew exactly where He was going. Which, by the way, that is something that none of us fully understand. None of us human beings fully understand. Right? Where we have come from and where we are going. That's something that no human being has full understanding of. But he did. He does. He could give witness of himself. He knew the truth. He understood the truth. He spoke the truth, not deception. Because verse 16-19, once again, He declares the greatest, most evidential proof of His deity, that being His perfect unity and oneness with God the Father. He came from the Father. And He was returning to Him as well. He says here, according to the law, a fact is confirmed by the witness of two or more witnesses, and the fact that Jesus is indeed God, that He is indeed the light of the world, is confirmed by His and His Father's witness. According to the writer of the book of Hebrews, there can be no greater witness than the witness of Him who cannot lie. Not that he needed another witness, but there is even another witness, a familiar witness of the deity of the Godhood of Christ Jesus here again in verse 20. Jesus is saying all of this loudly, right? He's standing up in the temple and he's shouting this. He's crying out in the temple. He's saying this loudly, right out in public, in the middle of the Jewish chorus, where all of Israel is gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. And remember, remember from last time, the warrant for his arrest has already been issued. But yet, again, no one arrested him. Why? Well, verse 20 tells us why. Because his time had not yet come. In other words, the only thing that is keeping him here from being arrested and dragged out of the temple and then stoned to death for blasphemy in the city streets, what's the only thing keeping him from that? Him. Him. The appointment that he made for himself with death was not yet come. The time which He determined before the foundation of the world, when He would lay down His own life to death to save His people from their sins, the day, the hour, the moment, the moment when He would put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, that time was not here. Not yet. So no, Jesus is not a pride-filled deceiver. Jesus is exactly who He says He is. He and the Father and the Spirit are one. He is God Yahweh in flesh. And all and everything that He is saying here is absolutely true. In fact, This being the case, let's go back to verse 12 and make sure we see and hear the truth that he declared here on this last great day of the feast. Look at his words in verse 12 again. I am the light of the world. Having come through John, we already know this, don't we? Yes, we do. It's one of the many things that John gave us a sampling of back in his prologue of this gospel back in chapter 1. He told us there that Jesus is the light. That Jesus is the light of men. Jesus is the light of men who even enlightens or gives his light to men, to women, to people of the world. John even told us about what we are actually reading right here, how this, how his, Jesus' light shined in the midst of darkness, but the darkness was so dark, so dead, the darkness did not comprehend it, or did not comprehend him. That's exactly what we are seeing here in these Pharisees. When we studied John's description of Jesus as the light back there in the prologue, remember, we saw that light, biblically, is more than just a brightness, if you will. Biblically, light is revelation. Light is illumination. Light, or here it is, light is the truth. Light is the truth. Light is the illumination, the revelation of what is actually true. Of what is actually true. So when Jesus declares here that He is the light of the world, what is He saying? He is saying that I am the truth of the world. I am the truth bearer of the world. Think about that. I am the truth of the world. So let me ask us, could it be that everything, everyone, everywhere, physically, spiritually, is ultimately all about this Jesus? Could that be? Everything, everyone, everywhere is ultimately about Jesus. This world, its existence, us in this world, our existence, is actually, really, ultimately, all about Jesus. No matter who you are, where you are, when you are, it's all ultimately about Jesus. Could that be? Is that what Jesus means when he says, I'm the truth of the world? Yes. In fact, that is exactly what the Apostle Paul was getting at in his letter to the Church of Colossae when he wrote in chapter 1 verse 15 that Jesus is, listen, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn or first in rank of all creation. For, because in Him, in Jesus, all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things have been created through Him and for Him. All things. You, me, this world, everything in it. has been created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things. And in Him, all things hold together. So yes, Jesus is the truth of the world. Jesus is the truth of all the world. This Jesus, yes, pre-eminently, The first and the last. The beginning and the end. The Alpha and Omega. This Jesus is preeminently everything. Everything, everyone, everywhere is ultimately about Him. It's about Him. So Jesus declares, I am the light. I am the truth of the world. I'm the truth of everything, everyone, everywhere. And that's not all he says. Look, still in verse 12. I am the light of the world. He who follows me. This word follow has the meaning of giving yourself wholly, not half-heartedly to something, or in this case, to Jesus, to the truth. He who follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have will possess the light of life, will possess the truth of life. Jesus, the truth of the world, gives Himself to those who will follow Him. He gives Himself to His true and faithful disciples, and they can be delivered from their darkness, and they can possess and live in the actual truth of life. That's what he's saying here, right? So think about this now. We know, because it's already been well established, we know what Jesus is saying here, that what he is saying here is true. So since Jesus is the truth, the real essential truth of everything, everyone, everywhere around us, listen, Think about this question. Since He is the truth of everything, how can we live without Him? This Jesus. How can we live without Him? We can't. We can't. We can only die, be dead, in darkness, without Him. He's the truth of it all, and if you don't have Him, for who He is, you do not have the truth. You're still in darkness. You're still in darkness. Or let me state it, let me illustrate it, like this. The contrast here between darkness and light, this is showing us, if you will, this is showing us two worlds. Two worlds. One is darkness, deception, death, godlessness. Darkness, deception, godless, death. The other world is light, truth, God word, God word illumination, God word revelation, life. Two worlds. One is darkness, death. One is light, life. But the thing is, one, the dark, the dark, the deceived, the godless world, is lived in by sight. It is lived in by physical perception. But remember, Like these men, they were living in their world by physical perception. But remember, they were deceived. They were blinded. They were in darkness. That was darkness. Deceived physical perception is what they were living in. They thought they knew, but they didn't. Not at all. They were completely deceived. Completely deceived. They thought they were it. But they weren't. Not at all. They were everything but it. They were nothing. Going nowhere. They were just dying in the darkness of their death. That was it. But on the other hand, The true, lighted, God-word, illuminated world is lived in by faith. Faith in, and all life-consuming faith. All of life consuming faith. That's what faith is. Remember James? Don't tell me a bunch of this and that and the other thing. If you're not living out the faith, you don't have faith at all. Faith, true biblical faith, consumes all of your life. We saw that in our discipleship class this morning. David had true faith. And it consumed his entire life. God. God Himself. His desire. God as His everything consumed his entire life. It moved Him. It motivated Him. It moved His lips to praise. It moved His hands to praise. Everything about Him was moved and motivated to praise God. So the true, lighted, Godward, illuminated world It's lived in by faith and all of life consuming faith in and into this Jesus. Listen, light only comes from this Jesus. It cannot be found anywhere else. Light only comes from this Jesus, if you want to put it like this. Truth only comes from this Jesus. He is the truth. It only comes from Him. Right now, this moment, we can only have this Jesus, His light, through faith. So which world are you living? Which world are you spending your life in? His world or your world? Two worlds are being contrasted here. One's darkness, one's light. Two worlds are being exposed here. One's death, one's life. One is lived by physical perception. Deceived physical perception. And it leads to death. One is lived by faith in Christ Jesus. and all life-consuming faith in Christ Jesus, and it is life itself. So which world are you living in? Which world are you spending your life in? His world or your world? Are you dominated? Are you dominated by physical perception? Or are you dominated by faith in Christ Jesus? Are you pursuing what you see with your eyes? What your eyes want? What your deceived heart craves? Like Eve? Are you pursuing Christ and what is His, the truth that is in Christ? Are you pursuing it in faith? Which is it? Which world are you living in? And according to the truth, according to the light, according to the reality of this text, according to Jesus' declaration here, which world should we be spending our lives in? By the way, I'll remind us all, this same Jesus is the Jesus who rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of God the Father where He lives forevermore. I mean, these men, these Pharisees, lived in their perceived reality, their physical reality, lived out for the praise of men, physical praise of men. They gave their lives for the praise of men, and they're dead. They're dust somewhere in Israel. Jesus is Living, sent into the right hand of God. Ever living, for ever living, to make intercession for His people. Which do you believe? Which man do you want to believe here? Which man should you believe? Do you see where their physical perception got them? Do you see where His truth, the truth, the light, got Him? Whose world do you want to live in, yours or his? The Pharisee's world or his? Which world should you live in? So let me close today with a quote from A. W. Tozer's book, The Pursuit of God. Quote, if we would rise into that region of light and power plainly beckoning us through the scriptures of truth, We must break the evil habit of ignoring the spiritual. We must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen. For the great unseen reality is God. He that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. This is basic in the life of faith. From there we can rise to unlimited heights. You believe in God, said our Lord Jesus Christ. Believe also in me. Without the first, there can be no second. If we truly want to follow God, we must seek to be otherworldly." But are we seeking to be otherworldly? Will we seek to be otherworldly? God help us, because the truth, the light is, I am the light of the world. He who follows me in this otherworldly pursuit, he who follows me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. Let's pray.