Turn with me, if you would, this evening for a short time, as the Lord may enable, to John's Gospel, Chapter 12. The Gospel according to John, Chapter 12. You may take as our text, verse 36. While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. or you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. We, before the last week, began to look at John's Gospel, chapter 12 onwards, because here you have the last five days, last six days, actually, of the life of Christ. John's gospel, half of the gospel is taken up with the last six days of the life of the Lord Jesus. And as we saw last week or when we spoke on it, as we see of that, we realize that to stop at the birth of Christ, how wrong that is, or to stop even at the miracles of Christ, you must go on and look at the death of Christ and his rising again the third day. But when you come to the last, this chapter here, you have the last address given by the Lord Jesus, the last public address that he is ever going to give before he goes to the cross, Chapter 12 gives you the last public address that Jesus gives. After this, there will be private address in the upper room with his own disciples. But here you have the last public address that Jesus will give. Now, if you go to any person, and the opportunity that someone would have at the end of their life to give a last address, a last public address to anybody, what do you think they would think that they would speak about? An atheist may speak about his life or all that he's achieved in his life, but that will come to an end. The philosopher may speak about philosophy. The humanist may speak about human things. The mathematician may give a discourse on maths, but when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and the last public address that he gives, we surely should take note of that. And the last public address that Jesus gives is basically saying, faith alone in Christ alone. In other words, what the reformers discovered or rediscovered at the time of the Reformation in 1560, faith alone, Christ alone, by grace alone. All these are the topic of what Jesus has to speak about. It's the necessity of saving faith. You see it in verse 36, while you have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. Verse 7, but though he had done so many miracles, yet they believed not on him. Here it is again. Verse 39, therefore they could not believe because the Isaiah said again. And there it is, they could not see, they should not see with their eyes nor understand. In other words, they could not, they should not believe. And when you come to verse 42, you discover that some of the Pharisees did believe, many of them did believe, but they were frightened of people. Frightened that they would be put out of the synagogue. Then you come to Jesus, and this is a separate address that he gives, because Jesus himself arises and goes, but when verse 44, Jesus cried and said, he that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And once again, he takes up this great subject of belief, faith, faith alone. Jesus doesn't give a discourse on being good to your neighbor. Jesus doesn't give a discourse on saving the planet. Jesus doesn't give a discourse on any of these things. Jesus, in his last public address, which you have beginning in verse 44 to the end of the chapter, he speaks about what it is to have saving faith. Saving faith. And we want this evening to look at three things that we find here. There is, first of all, the command, believe in the light. You see that in our text. Jesus says, while you have the light, believe in the light. While you have light, believe in the light that you may be the children of light. That's the first point. That's the command. to believe. But secondly, we see that though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not in him. So that's the second point. There is a command to believe, but yet they did not believe on him. And the third point is, and that belief is the gift of God. You see that when he goes back to Isaiah. They're not believing, wasn't something that just happened unannounced to God or unknown to God, but it had been prophesied in the Old Testament in Isaiah 53. So we want to look at these three things. Believe in the, while you have the light, believe in the light. Secondly, they believed not in the light. And thirdly, belief is the gift of God. First of all then, believe in the light. While you have light, believe in the light that you may be the children of light. This is Christ that is commanding here. This is not the church. This is not just a denomination. This is Christ that is commanding belief. in the light. And he says later on, and you can see that for yourself when you go down into verse 40, he says, I am come a light into the world. I am the light of the world. In other words, he is commanding belief in himself. Believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. And we may immediately see something of the simplicity of salvation. of what it is to be saved. That's the great subject of the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation, how to be saved. And it is through faith, belief in Christ himself. You see the simplicity of the gospel, the uniqueness of the gospel. It is not that you must do this, that, or the other in order to be justified. In order to be justified, it is faith in Jesus Christ. You see that when you go back, and John is going to refer back to Isaiah 53, but look what he says after that in Isaiah 55. For everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy, eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness, incline your ear, and come unto me. How unique the gospel is, isn't it? If you go to any other religion, this is what you must do. You must do penance. You must pray seven times a day to Mecca. You must go round the doors. You must do something. But here is the glory of the gospel. Here is the glory of the gospel. It is by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith alone in Christ alone. Not of works, lest any man should boast. To believe is to trust. to cast oneself upon Christ as the Savior. He enlightens the mind. He brings light where there is darkness. He is the one. And it is Christ here that commands that. He says, while ye have light, they had the light of Christ's presence with them. And they were to take advantage of the fact that Christ was with them by believing in the light. But even today, we have light. He says, while you have light, while you have the gospel, while you have great privileges, make use of them. Take advantage of the light. Yet a little while, he says, is the light with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whether he goeth. Whatever light and whatever privileges God gives to us, we are to take advantage of these privileges. We are to take advantage of the light that we have, because we don't know when that light will be taken from us. May come a time when illness, sickness, will put you into your bed, and you're into darkness. While you have light, believe in the light. Now is the day of salvation. And when he talks about the opposite of light, he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whether he goeth What a sad condition it is when someone is in darkness and walking in darkness, they're stumbling about, they don't know where they're going. It can be very dangerous. But he says, when you have the privilege of the light before you, believe in that light and walk in the light. Walk in that light. And if you walk in that light, you will be, he says, children of light. Wonderful thing, isn't it? children of light. Paul, when he writes to the church at Thessalonica, he says, but ye brethren are not in darkness. A Christian, you are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. children of life. The Christian is one who has been enlightened, enlightened by the glorious gospel, enlightened as to their own state and their own condition, enlightened as to their own sinfulness, their own inability to save themselves. They are brought to see Jesus Christ as the only Savior. They are enlightened in the knowledge of God. Jesus is later going to say, if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, he is rejecting God himself. I have come a light into the world that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness. There is that command. to believe in the light, to believe in Jesus Christ. Do you believe in Jesus Christ this evening? Have you been enlightened in your own sinful state? Have you taken advantage of the many privileges that God has given you? While you have light, while you have the light, while you have that opportunity to take every advantage that God gives you, while you have the light, believe in the light. That you may be children, the children of the light, a candle that is lit. Lest you walk in darkness, you don't know where you're going, you're stumbling about. That's the command. The command is to believe, and today is the day of salvation. Today is the day when we believe in Jesus Christ. not tomorrow, because we don't know when these privileges may be removed from us. As Jesus was going to leave them, and he was going to go and depart from them, who knows the day may come when you won't have the opportunity even to come to God's house, be in God's house. If people should be taking the opportunity and the privileges that are given to them now, while you have the life, then believe in that life. But the second thing we notice here, if that's the first thing, the second thing is they believe not. Verse 37, but though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. The word there, but though, is almost saying you would hardly believe it. You would hardly believe that they would not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, instead of believing on him, in verse 36, it would appear that Jesus had to actually pass out of their company. These things spake Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them. It would appear that rather than even believing on him, they were offended at what Jesus had to say to them. They were offended by him. People can be offended by what the minister says, especially when the minister challenges them from the pulpit. The minister from the pulpit is the truth. Surely that should open our eyes and our ears to where we are and what we're doing. Though he had done so many miracles, Though he had done, it's almost as though he's saying, this is incredible. Think of the miracles that Jesus did. Think of the miracles that he had performed. The blind, the deaf, the dumb, lepers cleansed, the sea is calmed at his command, Even the dead are raised, not just very shortly before this takes place, Lazarus is raised from the dead. Lazarus is raised. You would have thought that someone being raised from the dead would awaken them, say this man must be the son of God. But instead of that, we are told in verse 36 that he hid himself from them. Though all the miracles that he had performed, and if we see two things here, the number of miracles, that he had done so many miracles, and you go back to the Old Testament, and we've said this before, go to Elijah and Elisha, they performed miracles. If you look at the miracles that Elijah and Elisha performed, they were very, very few. Sometimes years between them. Very, very few miracles. Do you find any prophet of the Old Testament performing miracles? They are very, very few and far between. And they don't do it in their own name. It's God that does it for them. But you then think of three years that the Lord Jesus has been performing miracles. Miracle after miracle, one Sabbath day, they came to Peter's house, and they were there from morning till evening, bringing their sick to the door. Jesus went off, and when the disciples awoke the next morning, they couldn't find him. He was in the place of prayer. What do they say to him? All men are seeking for you. All men are seeking after you. Miracle after miracle after miracle. So many of them. And such a variety of these miracles. And sometimes miracles that were repeated. Jairus's daughter is raised from the dead. Well, that might be an accident. But then there's the widow of Nain, her son is raised from the dead. Maybe it's a second accident. But Lazarus is lying in the grave dead. That's no accident. So many miracles performed. And not only that, look at what else it says here. But though he had done so many miracles, before them. These miracles weren't done hidden and simply related by others. Did you see the miracle? I never saw it, no. Well, I've been told that this man did X, Y, and Z. John here tells us that he did these miracles and it was before them. They saw them. They were witnesses of these great miracles. My friend, what would you do if you saw Jesus performing a miracle? You know what you would do? You wouldn't believe in him, because that's what they did. Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. What does that tell us? What does that tell you? Well, can I suggest to you, it tells you two things. It tells you the hardness of the human heart. The human heart that will see, physically see Jesus, physically and see him performing such glorious miracles, and yet so hard is the human heart against Jesus Christ that they will not even believe him, no matter what he does. You see that when Jesus, when you see the rich man in hell, and he cries up, send someone to my father's house, lest my brethren enter into this place of torment. You know the answer he gets? If they believe not Moses and the prophets, then neither will they believe, even supposing one were raised from the dead. To be raised from the dead, not to raise someone else from the dead, but to physically be raised from the dead the third day, and to be seen, 3,000 at one time, and yet still they will not believe. That tells you the hardness of the heart of man. It tells you the hardness of your heart. Never mind the heart of man, it tells you the hardness of your heart and my heart. Because no matter what miracle Jesus did, yet they would not believe. Why? Because of the hardness of the heart. But it tells you a second thing. It tells you a second thing. It tells you the futility of so-called miracles today. The charismatic movement. Come in and you'll be healed and you'll be cured. And if you see someone being cured today, you'll believe in Jesus, my friend. No, you won't. No, you won't. You may believe in the powers of some kind of minister. You may believe in a church, you may believe in this, that, or the other, but you will not believe in Jesus Christ. Because even those who saw the miracles that Jesus, not phony miracles, not pathetic miracles. No, I can't move my, oh look, there's a wee bit of life in my fingers there, that must be a miracle. Jesus didn't do that, Jesus cleansed lepers. Jesus raised the dead, blind, deaf, dumb. They saw, they heard, they spoke. Not the pathetic things that appease for miracles today. Or go to Lourdes and you see a rock weeping the Virgin Mary. My friend, suppose you see all these things. They're nonsense. Every single one of them. Because what you see here in the verse here is that it doesn't matter, supposing it's the greatest miracle that Christ himself performed, raising Lazarus from the dead, even that was insufficient to get them to believe. They wouldn't believe. So you see the command, first of all, of the Lord Jesus Christ, while you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. Secondly, they believe not. But thirdly, we now see, and the third thing is, that that belief, to believe, is the gift of God's grace. See, it's not just faith alone. And it's not just in Christ alone. by grace alone. It's the mighty hand of God that's needed. How do we get that? Well, you see here when John, he says that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. You see, this unbelief, this unbelief, you read in Isaiah 53, it's prophesying. This was not some kind of event that should upset the early church. You see, the early church might be upset because when Christ is crucified and so many reject the gospel, how disheartening that can be. And nevermind the early church, you come to our own day and generation. and how disheartening the whole situation is in our land. So many reject the Christ of God. And that could get you to be cast out. It could have got the early church to be cast out. But John tells us that this was prophesied in Isaiah. Take heart. take heart. You find there, for the saying of Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? You see, in order for a sinner to be saved, it will take the arm of the Lord. The arm of the Lord is his power. It's the power of Almighty God that's needed here. It's the power of Almighty God that's needed in the sinner's life. Because left to himself, he will always reject the Christ of God. And it doesn't matter what miracles they may see or may not see. This is what will happen. And it was prophesied by Isaiah the prophet that he would not be believed in. Who had believed our report? Here is the report that is handed in of what is going to take place. There is a report that is given of the gospel. And the question is, who is going to believe in the gospel? The early church might see how many rejected the gospel, how many rejected Christ, his own people. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. And what is the early church to think of that? Go back to the scriptures. The scripture tells you, who hath believed our report. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Who knows the power of God's arm? It's wonderful, though, you see, you might say to yourself. They're in blindness. They have the light right in front of them, and they're in blindness. And they're left in blindness. Why? Because God has a people. God has his elect. God has his people, not just among the Jews, but by God even passing by these, even passing by those here at this time has a wonderful purpose. You look at Romans chapter 10 and verse 16. It's speaking about how will they believe the very thing that we're talking of here? How will they believe, except they have a preacher? How will they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful the feet of them which preach the gospel of peace. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, they have heard. They have heard. Didn't Israel know? Yes, they did know. But Isaiah is very bold. I was found of them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. In other words, the Gentiles. The Lord has a purpose for the Gentiles. Although these Jews rejected the Christ of God, and we are told that God passed them by, Let me make it plain though. They're responsible for their own unbelief. They're responsible for their rejection of Christ. The fact that God does not reveal this to them is not for God, it's their responsibility. They have rejected the Christ of God. They have reviled against him. They have spoken against him. He has had to even hide from them, such is their belligerence. They're responsible for it. But the church might say, well, wait a minute. What's going on here? Well, he says, they could not believe. Why? Because that Isaiah has said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart. How did he blind them? By not giving them the grace. that was necessary. They are responsible. All men are in exactly the same position. All men that reprobate and they're in exactly the same position. But one, the preaching of the gospel will be a savor of life unto life. And another, it will be a savor of death unto death. God will pass by one and will bless another. And the one he passes by, is responsible for his own destruction, that I might heal them, i.e., their hearts became so hardened against Christ that they would not even listen. They could not, and their eyes nor understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should heal them. They had become so hardened in their hearts against Christ that no blessing was going to come to them. And that was their responsibility. But God had a purpose. Does it mean to say that God and purpose and Christ's purpose has somehow been thwarted? Not at all. He will pass them by. and he will bless another, even the Gentiles. All the privileges that we have in the church here and that we have, who knows, but that the Lord one day could pass us by and bless some other people. But remember this, The simplicity of the gospel, it brings you back there, doesn't it? Belief in Jesus Christ. Belief in Jesus Christ. He says right at the beginning, believe while you have light, whatever light that may be, while you have light in your midst, preach to you Christ, the light of the world preached. Believe in that light, that you may be the children of light. Can I ask you this today? Are you the children of light? Has the light of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ shone into your hearts? Are you trusting in Christ alone, believing in him and on nothing else? Are you rejoicing this evening that in 1560, our land saw a great reformation coming back to faith alone, in Christ alone, and by grace alone. And by that, God is glorified. God is glorified. The last five days of the Lord Jesus Christ, his last public utterance, was from verse 44 onward. And what is his subject? He that believeth in me believeth not in me, but on him that sent me. To believe in Christ is to believe in God the Father, and it is to be safe for all eternity. Let us join together in prayer. Most gracious and ever-blessed Lord, we thank Thee for the goodness of Thy grace that we this evening are encouraged by the Lord Jesus Himself. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. Yet we saw how many miracles there were seen, witnessed by those who were there, and yet they did not believe. It takes a new heart, a divine work of the Holy Spirit in the heart to draw us, to make us children of life. We pray therefore this evening that we would come and wrestle with thee in prayer, that thou would enlighten our hearts and our minds in the knowledge of Christ, that thou, Lord, would be glorified. in the midst of thy people. Bless us now, pardon us all our sin. For Jesus' sake, amen.