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like Ellie did and just keep
going. All right. You got to do what the pastor
did. Amen. John chapter eight. Now we are walking through the
gospel of John, but because of messages like today, it makes
it take a little bit longer because we're not going to get out of
verse number 12. We're just going to stay in verse number 12 today.
One verse. John chapter 8 verse 12 the Bible
says then spake Jesus again Unto them saying I am the light of
the world He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness But
shall have the light of life. I want to preach this morning
on Jesus the light of the world What a truth that Jesus is the
light of the world. In fact, the gospel of John begins
with that truth. Take your Bible, go back to the
first chapter. Look at John 1, and look at verse
number 4, where the Bible says, and this is speaking about Jesus,
in him was life. And by the way, if you're here
today and you're not in Christ, you're not connected to Christ
by way of salvation, you don't have this life. Eternal life
comes through Jesus Christ and Him alone. Nothing else. In Him
alone. In Him was life and the life
was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness,
the darkness of this world, and the darkness comprehended it
not. And the darkness still does not
comprehend the light of Jesus Christ. Verse six, there was
a man sent from God whose name was John. This is John the Baptist,
not the John who wrote this gospel, but John the Baptist. The same
came for a witness to bear witness of the light, the light of Christ,
that all men through him, through Jesus, might believe. He, let's
talk about John the Baptist, was not that light, but was sent
to bear witness of that light. And you know, that's our job
today. We are to bear witness of the light of Jesus Christ. My prayer is, as I stand in this
pulpit today, I'll bear the witness of the light of Jesus Christ
this morning. The Bible says in verse number
nine, that was the true light which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. It lights every man that comes
into the world. In other words, God wants to
save everybody. God wants to give everyone an
opportunity to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and that comes
by being exposed to the light of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the
light of the world. Not the light of a certain group
of people. Not the light of the elect only. No, he's the light of the world. Whosoever will may come. Whosoever
will can be saved. Whosoever calls upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. But if you get saved, it's gonna
be because you came in contact with the light of Jesus Christ. Now, real quickly, we're in chapter
eight, verse number 12. I want us to consider the identification
of Jesus being the light of the world. He said, I am the light
of the world. Now, here's what's one of the
interesting factors here in this. where he says, I am the light
of the world. When he says I am, what he's
doing is he's reaching back and connecting himself to what God
told Moses at that burning bush. When Moses wanted to know the
name of God, when I go to Israel, or go back to Egypt to speak
to Israel, who was enslaved in Egypt, and I tell them that God
has spoken to me and called me to be the deliverer. of the people
of God. They're going to ask me, what's
God's name? And God said, here's my name.
I am that I am. Meaning I am the ever-existing
one. I'm the self-sufficient one.
In other words, he is the great I am, therefore he needs nothing
from anyone to sustain himself. God doesn't need your help and
God doesn't need my help to exist. He exists because he is the great
I am. He's the great I am. And what
Jesus is saying, he's saying, I am the great I am. And as the
great I am, I am the light of this world. I don't need you,
but you need me, is what Jesus is saying. His identity, his
identification as being the light of the world is Jesus Christ.
He is the light of the world. But consider this, the illumination
of Jesus being the light of the world. I am the light of the
world. When you get exposed to light,
light reveals how everything really is. Light reveals how
things are supposed to be seen and how things appear. We're
all good looking in the dark. Everybody's good looking in the
dark. You flip that light on, some still are, most are not. That light makes a difference.
That light reveals what someone is. And the light of Jesus Christ
reveals who we are. The illumination. In fact, go
back to John 3 real quickly. The Gospel of John, still, John
3. Look at verse number 19. Jesus
said, and this. Actually, let's go, let's look
at verse 18 first. He says, he that believeth on
me, or on him, I'm talking about himself, he that believeth on
him is not condemned. But he that believeth not, believes
not on Jesus Christ, is condemned already, because he hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and his
name is Jesus. The light is coming to the world.
And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. You know why people reject Jesus
Christ, the Jesus of the Bible? Now, this world has a fake Jesus,
another Jesus, a false Jesus that they'll talk about, that
they'll speak about, But you know why people reject the Jesus
of the Bible? Because he is light, and his
light exposes their evil deeds, and they love their darkness,
and they don't want their evil deeds exposed and uncovered as
being a sin. Look at verse 20. For everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. Nobody wants their deeds reproved.
In other words, no one wants to be exposed as being sinful
and wicked and wrong. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants somebody else to
say, you're sinning, you're against God, you're wrong. The Bible
says this, but you're going another way. Nobody enjoys that. This world hates that. they do
not come to the light, the light of Jesus Christ. If you reject
Jesus Christ as your Savior, this more than likely is gonna
be one of the main reasons why. You never wanted to deal with
your sinfulness and your separation from Jesus Christ. People don't
wanna deal with that. And we're living in a day where
the devil has raised up plenty of his own preachers. And you
can go to that church and you can live like the devil and still
go to a church. And they'll still applaud you
and they'll tell you that you're okay. I preached in Alabama this
past week and I was talking to the pastor there and he was talking
about a church, a very large church, a very growing church
in their community, just one or two towns over. The Lord's
church and that pastor, he will buy alcohol for his church members
and drink with them. He has said from his pulpit that
it's okay to look at ugly things on the computer and on your television
if it's just between you and your wife. Jude said that's turning
the grace of God into lasciviousness. What that is, that's a place
who's pretending to have light, but there's no light at all.
It's darkness. because when you come in contact
with the light of Jesus Christ, it's gonna hang you out over
hell. You're gonna realize I am a sinner, I'm condemned to hell,
I'm worthy of hell, I deserve hell, that's what you'll see.
And people don't like to hear that, but it's still the truth
of God and we all need to hear it because when you hear that
you're a sinner condemned to hell, what you can do is turn
to Jesus Christ who will save you and take you to heaven. The
illumination of the light of the world of Jesus Christ, He
illuminates, He exposes who we are. One of these days, you're
gonna stand before God. We all will. If you're saved,
you'll stand before God at the judgment seat of Christ. That's
immediately after the rapture of the church, the resurrection
of the saints of God. At the end of the ages, you'll
have the great white throne judgment. You're not saved, you'll stand
before the Lord there, but we're all gonna stand before Jesus.
And a lot of people have this idea that God will either compare
their own life to other people's lives. And if I'm better than
everybody else, he'll let me in. Or they have the idea or
the concept that God will put my good works on one side and
my bad works on the other side, and if my good works outweigh
my bad works, I'll be let in. And they have this mindset of
comparison. God's gonna compare me to something
that I can be superior to, whatever that is, and I'll get in. Now I will say this, you're gonna
be compared to something. God's comparing you right now
to something. But it's not to me and it's not
to anybody else in here. And it's not to anybody else
around here that you could be superior to. You know who God
compares us to? Jesus Christ. He's perfect, he's
sinless, he's pure, he's never done anything wrong, never had
a bad thought, he is absolutely holy. And none of us are. all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Jesus is the glory of God, and
we've all come short of the glory of God. We've come short of who
Jesus Christ is. And because of that, when we're
compared to Jesus, we fail the test and we're condemned to hell.
You've got to be as righteous and as holy as Jesus Christ to
get to heaven. And somebody may say, well, Preacher
Wampler, I know good and well you're not. And I say amen to
that. I'm not as holy and righteous
as Jesus Christ. Well, how in the world do you
think you're gonna get to heaven? Because Jesus Christ died on
the cross for my sins. He paid for all my sins. He rose
again the third day, and he promised that if I call upon him, trusting
him for salvation, trusting him to save me from my sins, he would
save me forever, and that's exactly what he did. I placed my faith
in him, he came into my life, he saved me from all of my sin,
he put me in Christ Jesus, And now when God sees me, he don't
see me, he sees Jesus. And that's how we're getting
to heaven. I'm going to heaven on the light
of Jesus Christ, not on my darkness. The illumination of the light
of Christ, the illumination of Jesus being the light of Christ. And the devil's doing his best
to try to hide that light. Hold your place in John. We're
coming back to John chapter eight, but go over to second Corinthians
real quickly. 2nd Corinthians chapter number
four. Look what the devil's up to. If you're here today, you're
lost. This is what the devil's trying to do in your life. 2nd
Corinthians chapter number four. Look at verse number three. But
if God, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God, notice that,
that's the little g-o-d, God of this world, that's Satan,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not. Why would he do that? Lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves for your sakes, for
Jesus' sake. I said I read that wrong ourselves
your service for Jesus sake for God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness and shine in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
What the devil wants to do is hide Jesus Christ and his light
from sinners If he can't He will hide your
mind today He'll make sure you notice that
little baby crying in this service. He'll try to get you to watch
that person going to the restroom. Get your mind on something else. He'll try to get you distracted.
He'll get you to think about your stomach growling and what
you're going to have for lunch. What restaurant are we eating
at today? He'll do his best to get your mind on something else
other than the light of Jesus Christ. Why would he do that? Because
you were created in the image of God. And it thrills Satan
to see things that bear the image of God burn in hell. He'll never
get God in hell, but he can get the image of God in people in
hell. He wants to blind your mind and your eyes to the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Now go back to John chapter number But Jesus said, I am the light
of the world. You know what we know that we
know it's true. It's true about light. Light
is always greater than darkness. You turn off these lights, it's
going to be dark. But as soon as you turn them on, the darkness
is gone. You can cut the lights out and
it be pitch black in here and you can just turn on a little
tiny pin light and you'll see it. You know why? Because it
is greater than darkness. Satan wants to keep you in darkness,
but I'm glad we have a God who's greater than the darkness of
Satan. He wants to expose to you the light of Jesus Christ,
the illumination. of Jesus being the light of the
world. Why do I need to be illuminated? Why do I need to see the light
of Christ? Because it shows you for who
you are. And it shows Christ for who he
is. And when you see who you are and that you need Jesus Christ,
you come to him. I got saved because I realized
what I was and who I was. I came to Jesus because I know
who he is and I knew what he would do if I came to him by
trusting him. You trust him. And trust that
light of Christ. He'll save you from all your
sin and save you for heaven. But notice number three, the
influence of Jesus being the light of the world. Jesus said,
he that followeth me, you get saved and you start walking with
God. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. That's the
influence of Jesus and it's light upon a person's life. You place
your faith in Jesus Christ and you begin, I believe the very
first song we sang this morning was follow on. One of the first
songs we sang this morning was follow on. You begin to follow
Jesus and walk with Jesus. Jesus says here that you will
have the light of life and you won't walk in darkness. The very
first message I ever preached here at Fundamental Baptist Church
as the pastor, Was that a 1 John 1, verse number seven? Where
the Bible says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we walk in
the light as he is in the light. I'm glad we have a God who is
light. And when we walk with him, we
walk in his light. And the darkness is expelled
from us. We're protected from the darkness
by the light of Jesus Christ. And this light that we walk in
is the light of life. You don't know life until you're
walking with Christ. You don't know life until you
walk in the light of God as he is in the light. And the benefits and the blessings
of walking in the light of Christ is so amazing. Which brings me
to my last thought, the implication of Jesus being the light of the
world. What does Jesus being the light of the world and you
and I following him and walking in his light and having the light
of life. That's what it says. He that
followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have or walk
in the light of life. Life is the opposite of death.
Life indicates health and strength. Death, that's sickness, that's
disease, there's something wrong. But the light of life means it's
health and strength. It's what we need. Begin to meditate
on that as I study this verse and thinking about the fact that
Jesus, when we follow him, we're not walking in darkness and we
have the light of life. And I started thinking, you know,
you hear it, you hear it in health class in high school, you hear
it from medical professionals all the time. We need the sunlight. You need the sunlight. It helps
you in the area of health, helps your life. And I thought, you
know, I'm gonna do some research on that. I'm gonna look into
that research. Anytime a preacher says, I'm
gonna do some research, that means he's doing some Googling. He does some Googling. So I did some Googling. Because
Jesus is the light of the world. The sun is the physical light
of this planet. And they say if you walk in the
light of the sun, the S-U-N, it has benefits. So I started
looking into those benefits of the S-U-N. And I found this. Exposure to natural sunlight,
you spend some time in the sunlight outside. It regulates, this is
what Google said, it regulates the natural cycle, listen to
this, of physical, mental, and behavior changes that the body
goes through in a 24-hour cycle. You have physical, mental, behavior
changes that you go through every single day of your life. It's called a circadian cycle.
And it also affects the sleep patterns of that day. I got to
think, huh? The SUN regulates all of the
natural cycles, physical, mental, behavior, all the things that
I go through and you go through in a day, that SUN regulates
it. Well, if I get that benefit from the SUN, Think about what
I get every day from the SON. The light of Jesus Christ will
regulate everything you go through in a day. When you walk in the
light of Jesus Christ, it regulates every cycle. It regulates everything
you face, every change that takes place in your life every single
day. If you walk in the light of the
SON. Google also told me this. Walking
in and being exposed to natural sunlight improves your mood,
reduces stress, and lowers the risk of depression. That's just
the SUN. You walk in the light of the
S-O-N, guess what's gonna happen? It's gonna improve your mood.
He's gonna reduce your stress. He's gonna lower your risk of
depression. Jesus just lights up the room,
if you will. When you walk with him, he picks
you up and gives to you joy that no one else can give. You walk
in the light of the S-U-N, it produces vitamin D, which is
crucial for bone health, Immune function and an overall health
It just it helps you in every area of your overall health to
have be exposed to the SU in You know what happens when you
walk in the light of the SO in It makes you spiritually healthy
as a person overall Every area of your spiritual life is strengthened
by walking in the light of Jesus Christ. I like this one. Exposure to natural sunlight,
and this is only moderately. You can't do this too much with
the S-U-N, but moderately. If you get moderate sunlight
every day, it can stimulate the production of collagen and elastin,
improving skin tone and texture. If you're, just moderately, it
will improve your skin tone and texture. That means it affects
your appearance, your countenance. Now with the SUEN, you gotta
be out there just a little while, or it can do some damage. But
the SON, you can bask in his light all day long, and it'll
affect your countenance. You know why some of us today,
we don't have a very bright countenance? because we've not been walking
in the light of the S-O-N. He'll brighten up the smile.
He'll put something in your heart that no one else can do. Number
five, also learn this one. Walking in the light of the S-U-N,
it boosts the immune system, it's stated already, by stimulating
the release of immune-supporting cells. Cells in your body that
fight all sicknesses, the sun, the S-U-N, will stimulate the
cells inside your body that help fight the sicknesses and disease.
That's the S-U-N. The S-O-N, he'll strengthen the
things in your life that helps you to be spiritually healthy. You walk in the light of the
S-O-N, everything that God has put in your life to help fight
off spiritual disease, it strengthens those things as well when you
walk in the light of the Son of God. It helps lower the S-U-N,
outside, helps lower blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart
disease. Think about that. Spending some
time in the light of the S-U-N every day helps lower your blood
pressure and reduces the risk of heart disease. That means
it combats the things inside us that could kill us. So if
you bask in the light of the S-U-N, it's gonna fight against
the things inside of you that could kill you, that could take
your life, spiritually speaking. The S-U-N. strengthens and protects
us from what's in us. So I got some things in me that's
bad, spiritually speaking. You and I, we got some spiritual
things inside of us that are damnable, that are evil, that
are wicked, but the light of the S-O-N, walking in his light, reduces the risk of those things
destroying us. It increases, number seven, it
increases, the S-U-N. Increases alertness and energy
levels throughout the day. It increases your alertness and
energy levels throughout the day. That's just the S-U-N. That means the S-O-N. If the S-U-N can increase my
alertness and give me more energy, think about what the S-O-N can
do. Helping me to be more alert concerning Satan's attack does
not the Bible say be sober be vigilant Because your adversary
the devil walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour
We have to be alert and we need the energy to live victoriously
over him and his temptations our flesh and the s o n Does
that very thing? We will walk in the light of
Jesus Christ. It strengthens us, protects us,
if you will. Number eight, it improves the
S-U-N, outside. It improves cognitive performance,
such as attention and memory. The more sunlight you get, it
helps your attention span and your memory. Sounds like a renewing
of the mind to me. You walk in the light of God's
word, it affects your mind. It helps you think. as you ought
to think. The SUN, I love this, one of
my favorite ones. The SUN creates a sense of warmth. When natural
sunlight hits an area, it creates a sense of warmth and comfort
and well-being, enhancing the aesthetics and psychological
appeal of spaces, of where you're at. In other words, it makes
everything look better. It makes everything look more
beautiful, the S-U-N. And when you're walking in the
light of the S-O-N, it makes everything better around you. You say, but I'm having a bad
day. The light of Christ will make it better. But I'm going
through this, but the light of Christ will improve that, make
it better. He'll comfort you. He'll strengthen
you. And you can see what he has in
your life more clearly when his light is shining upon him. The last one that Google told
me about. Was that the S.U.N. improves
your mood and increases happiness. The sun on the outside. It improves
your mood and increases happiness. Guess what Jesus is like will
do. It improve your mood. It'll increase your happiness.
Nehemiah 8, verse number 10 says, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength. There is the real possibility
we have somebody in the building today saved, saved on your way
to heaven. But we can't tell by just the
appearance of your countenance or your attitude. There's been some damage, there's
been some trouble that has come into your life. Some discouragement. It's affected, it can't help
but affect you. Storms and trials, difficulties,
they can't help but affect us. They cause stress. They cause disappointment. And
here you are. You have to fight your own emotions,
fight your own mind. You contemplate thoughts of quitting,
walking away, trying something different, putting something
in your life that ought not be there. All kinds of thoughts
can take place. But Jesus said, I'm the light
of the world. If the light of the S-U-N can
be a great benefit to you and I, Just think what the light
of the S-O-N can do for you. If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship, one with the other. And the blood
of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin. Sin is that darkness. Sin is the thing that separates
us. Sin is the thing that gets in our way. And by the way, sin
can be something other than lust and murder and hatred. Sin could
be just a lack of faith. Sin could be trusting yourself
instead of God. Sin could be allowing yourself
to stay in a bad mood. That's sin. Because you're saying,
I'd rather stay in this mood and get connected to the joy
of Jesus Christ. I'm not fussing at anybody today. I'm trying to encourage you to
walk with Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean that every
single day is going to be a bed of roses. Every single day, you're
going to be on a mountaintop. Every single day, you're going
to have revival. That's not what's implied, but
it is implied. every single day of your life
and mine, we can live in the light of Jesus Christ. And it
gives us help. It gives us strength. It gives
us guidance. It helps us know who we are,
where we are and where we're going. The light of Jesus Christ
does all of that for us. But when we do not follow Christ,
and we don't walk in the light of life, even to save people,
we'll get into some darkness that can be very dangerous for
us. So let me ask you today, child
of God, are you walking in the light of the world, the light
of Jesus Christ? Jesus said, he that follows me
shall not walk in darkness. but shall have the light of life."
It is not God's will for God's people to live in darkness, to
live and bask in disappointment. It's not God's will. It's not
God's will for you and I to live in despondency and confusion Life's hard. Whether you're saved
or not, life's hard. And when you get saved, you got
a whole new set of difficulties just because the devil's now
mad that you're saved, and your flesh is mad about it. And now
you got extra conflicts because you're saved. Life is difficult. Life will throw curveballs that
you can't hit. It'll confuse you, you'll scratch
your head and wonder, what is going on in life? It'll affect your home, it'll
affect your marriage, it'll affect your relationship with your children,
your relationship with your parents. It affects you on your job, just
life and its difficulties. And you go to bed at night, and the lights cut out, the sun
goes down, and you have a hard time getting
to sleep, because your mind is just going through the day and
going through all the things and thinking about all the stuff. You can't cut your mind off.
You're fretting and stressing, how am I going to face tomorrow? But then, the S-U-N comes up. You know it's true. You went
to bed, I don't know how I'm gonna face
tomorrow. The S-U-N comes up, problem's still there, but you
have a little more glimmer of hope. The Neelans used to sing a song
years ago, And the sun's coming up in the morning. Every tear will be gone from
our eyes. This old clay's gonna give way
to glory. And like an eagle, I'll take
to the sky. The sun's coming up in the morning. The S-U-N. It comes up every
day and it brings a little more light and help and hope. Well, let me remind you, the
SON, he woke up one morning and walked
out of that tomb victorious over everything you and I would ever
have to face. And that son will never go back
down again. He's always up, he's always risen,
he's always alive, and he's ready to strengthen you no matter what
you're having to deal with in your life. The sun came up that
morning, and it ain't going back down. It's not gonna get dark
again. Jesus Christ is the light of
the world, and he wants to shine upon your life if you'll walk
in his light. He'll approve everything about
your situation. Now, the situation may still
be bad, but just the light of Christ will make it better. Let's walk in his light. If you
don't know it, you are walking in darkness. You don't even know
the light.
Jesus: The Light of the World
Series Behold the Lamb - Gospel of Jn
| Sermon ID | 25251526281002 |
| Duration | 38:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | John 8:12 |
| Language | English |
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