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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.
Believing in the Light: Walking in Truth Today
John 12:36
While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them.
| Sermon ID | 1125241818115639 |
| Duration | 36:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 12:36 |
| Language | English |
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