God's Word Gives Life

Will you pray with me? Father, we praise You as the God who speaks. We thank You that You have made Yourself known to us. We thank You that You have spoken Your Word. We thank You, Father, that You have sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to be our salvation. Help us now as we turn to Your Word to see You, to worship You, And to love you because you first loved us in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. We are here this morning to. Here, proclaim and declare the good news, Jesus Christ is Lord. Now, in order to truly appreciate this good news, we have to set it over against, well, really all the bad news we hear. You turn the TV on, you listen to the radio, you go out into the market and the workplace and you hear bad news. There's wars raging, there's terrorism, there's disease, there's pestilence, there's famine. There's doctors murdering babies. There's terrorists killing children. The world is full of bad news. We come here because this The church is where God has made his good news known, that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord. In order to truly appreciate this good news, we also have to set it over against other declarations of good news. Really, we're studying the gospel. And the gospel isn't unique in terms of the declaration, Jesus Christ is Lord. In the ancient world, a gospel proclamation would have been a new Caesar has been crowned. A new political figure has authority and has victory. They would go out into the streets and proclaim, good news, there's a new Caesar. This is why it really makes sense for some to look to political figures as Messiah figures. For some to look at Obama. I know many Christians, they were concerned and bothered that atheists, especially, would treat Obama's candidacy, to treat his victory as if he were the Messiah coming to give hope. They have no other choice. They have no other hope. If you're an atheist, the most, the best hope you have is in a political figure like Obama. But We have a true hope. We need to go share with them the true hope they can have. And that is that the father has sent his son to die for us and he's risen again to be our Lord. Now we're looking to the gospel. We're starting a new study. And as someone has said, we finally get to study Jesus. Yes, for the first couple of years, we've studied Genesis. We've studied Exodus. And that's because that's all groundwork. That's all framework. So we can finally get to Jesus and truly appreciate everything the gospel declares. If you just go to Genesis or John 1, our new study is in the Gospel of John. Genesis language is present and absolutely necessary to understand even the first verse of the Gospel of John. Genesis is clearly behind Genesis 1-1. In the Exodus language of John 1-14 and John 1-17, to truly appreciate and understand what the Gospels are declaring, we have to see it in light of what God has been doing throughout all of history in His revelation. So we finally get to study Jesus. We'll be studying the Gospel of Mark. There are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We've chosen John. They're not four different stories. They're four different men who have declared the same truth about the same gospel, the same God, the same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we look to the gospel, this isn't just a biography. We're not just looking to say, what does it say about Jesus's life? This tells us that this person changed everything. We could see this in the way that authors write about Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great was a man from the West that conquered the East and forever changed the history of the world. They brought cultures clashing. Alexander the Great was a great man who changed the landscape of the world. Jesus Christ is also a man. When we see his story, he changed the landscape of the world. But it's not from a human perspective, from the divine perspective. God's story has forever been changed. God's history, what God is doing, is forever changed when Jesus came. He is the turning point for all of history. All the Old Testament is looking forward to this one who would come and finally remove sin. All the New Testament looks back and then points us forward to the day he will return. We're looking to the Gospel of John. You can turn there in your Bibles. We'll be flipping through as part of an introduction first, and then we'll look at the first few verses. If you're using a pew Bible, you can look to page 886. John is found on page 886. So what is the purpose of John? John is a helpful gospel in the sense that he actually declares his purpose from the outset or very clearly. In John 20, 33, he says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John's telling us why he has written these chapters. John's telling us why he decided to write a Gospel in addition to the other three Gospels. First, it's the message. Jesus is the Son of God. The Father has sent His Son. There's the call so that you might believe in Him. There's the truth, what God has done, and then there's our responsibility to believe in Him. And then there's the gift. Life. so that you might have eternal life, so that you may have life in His name, the only source of life. Now, let's go back to that call. If you're marking up your Bibles, and I hope you do as you study the Gospel of John, the word believe is used almost 100 times. We clearly see that is His purpose. The word believe, it's always the verb. Believe is used almost a hundred times. He's constantly telling us they believe. He's constantly calling us to believe. The call of John is to believe in the Son, Jesus Christ. This is encouraging for us, the saints. If you are a believer, this book is for you because we're constantly moving from baby faith to bold faith. We're constantly supposed to be growing in a greater trust and a greater faith in Jesus the more we see him. I hope you see this as our study. I realize I get to do most of, well, all the talking. But I want you to see this as our study. We're studying together the Gospel of John. We are coming together and we're going to meditate weekly. I hope daily. upon the Gospel of John so that we're gathering together and thinking about his word together. That's what it means to be the body under his headship. We come under him to study his word together. Another emphasis in John is that you believe and then you also marvel and wonder. You'll constantly see as we go through the Gospel of John that those who believe were marveling And they were wondering. They had a sense of awe because they had never heard someone teach the way Jesus taught. They had never seen someone do the things Jesus did. They had never seen God Himself in flesh. That is the proper response when we see who Jesus Christ is. We believe in Him and we marvel. We wonder. There's a challenge already as we prepare our study. Have you lost your sense of awe and wonder at the gospel of Jesus Christ? Have you heard it so often and studied it so many times that it's lost its awe and its wonder? Has the gospel become routine for you to hear and to talk about? The love of God, it stirs. The love of God cannot just be spoken about as if some other fact or some other story. It's the love of God for us who are sinners. When we talk about the gospel, we talk about Christ. It needs to stir us to love him and to have all in worship. Now, as we look to the gospel, we also want to say it's for non-Christians. If you're not a Christian here this morning, I welcome you back. Please come back. Please ask me. I will study this with you individually and corporately. Walk through the gospel of John with us so that you might see the one and true hope, Jesus Christ. Now, the gospel is about Jesus Christ, but John is a unique gospel. 90% of what we're going to see in John, or 90% of what we're going to see in John, is unique to John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they have a lot in common. John is quite different. He focuses on things the other Gospels do not. First of all, let's look at the structure of John. And this is just to give you some helpful parameters as you study it. John has a prelude and a postlude. The prelude is John 1, 1 through 18. That's what our first three sermons will be on. He has a postlude. He ends the story of the resurrection with a final declaration. That's chapter 21. There are really two main sections in John. Chapter 1 through 11. 119 through 11. And then chapter 12 through chapter 20. Chapter 119 through chapter 11 and then chapter 12 through 21. And the turning point is Jesus goes to Jerusalem. Half of the book is on Jesus' final ascension into Jerusalem, where he will die for sinners and will rise again. Notice the transition chapter, the death of Lazarus, who was raised from the dead. John is very intentional in giving us pointers for where we're going. Now, there's some clear patterns and pointers through John. There are three sets of seven that we're going to highlight, and we'll send these out in the evangel. But there's three sets of seven. First, there are seven signs through John. There are seven signs through John. One sign is the wedding of Cana. That's actually declared as the first sign. There's a raising of Lazarus. That's the last sign. We'll be studying the different signs. There's seven discourses. There's seven discourses. The most popular discourse is with Nicodemus. And then he has the seven I am statements. John has seven signs, seven discourses, seven I am's. I am the bread of life. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection in the life. I am the true vine. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the light of the world. These are important, absolutely important declarations that Jesus gives us. Other unique teachings that we see in John. John 17. We call the Lord's Prayer the prayer that we often recite. Really, John 17 is his prayer. That's his final prayer before he is going to die for us. That's where he is giving his heart to God and revealing his heart for us in his prayer. It's a high priestly prayer. The Gospel of John also gives us the most insight, I think, into the doctrines of Trinity. We have the most language of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I haven't collected the data yet. But I can say, I think, with great assurance, more than 50% of what we know about the Holy Spirit is from the Gospel of John. He has such an emphatic teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. So those are things that are unique to John. Let's now turn our attention to the prologue. The clear picture, John is calling us to believe in the Son who has been sent from the Father to die for us. The prologue is verses one through 18, and we're only looking at the preface of the prologue. Isn't that fantastic? The preface of the prologue and that's verses one through five in the beginning was the word. And the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Now, last week we tried an experiment with antiphonal reading. We're going to try it again. Everyone stand up. Get your Bibles. Hold your Bibles out. We're going to read one side, one phrase, the next side, the next phrase. So so the purpose here is to encourage one another with the gospel truth. So you want to turn towards one another. And so this side will begin with in the beginning, this side will say, and the word was with God. This side will say, and the word was God. This side will say he was in the beginning with God. This side will say all things were made through him. Now, this side, this is a tricky one. I get tongue twisted on this particular phrase, so say it slowly and clearly. And then we'll move back to in him was life. The life was the light of men. The light shines the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Sam, come up here. Let's let's let's help folks out. He had no idea this was coming. I know, I know. So you're going to lead in the beginning for this side and I'm going to lead and the word was with God for this side. So if you need a cue. You can look up here. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome them. Let's do it again. That was great. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the darkness has not overcome. Amen. Thank you all. Our message this morning is. The same as the message of John, we are called to believe the good news that the creator cares for his creation and has sent his son to save us. There's two main points we're going to make from these five verses. First, we are called to believe that Jesus is the creator. We are called to believe that Jesus is the creator. The second is that we are called to believe that Jesus is the source of eternal life and light. First, Jesus is the creator. This is the main point of verses one through three. It's setting apart this one that we're going to be studying, Jesus, and he calls the word here, he's God. The clear point of verses one through three is to establish that this isn't someone else that God has sent to proclaim a good word. This is God himself who created this world. He has come to speak to us. In order to truly appreciate this, we have to have the framework. First, monotheism. So all the work we've seen beforehand, Genesis and Exodus, and especially Deuteronomy 6, Hero Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. We're beginning with one God. That is the framework that God has established before the Gospels. So we're already working with monotheism. And because of Genesis, we're also working with this hopeful category. And I realize this is very basic, but it's also helpful. There's a creator and there's the creatures. There's a creator, there's creatures, and you're either going to establish that Jesus is in the creator category, which is alone God, because only God creates. Or he's a creature. Either Jesus is a creator, the one God worthy of all praise, worthy of all of all worship, or he's a creature just like one of us. Now, John actually answers the question, is he the creator or is he a creature in two ways? The first is verses one and two, and this is where he makes these strong allusions to Genesis. The other is in verse three, where he just gives very straightforward propositional truth. Let's first look at verse three, because it is just a clear declaration. There's actually a positive and a negative affirmation here. All things were made through him. All things were made through him. He is the source of everything that was made. So automatically we see that he himself was not made. But to make it very clear, he doesn't just give us the positive affirmation. He states it in the negative. Without him was not anything made that was made. So everything you're going to put in the category of created, he made. Nothing that has been created was created apart from him. Therefore, he cannot be created. Now, the negative is really the stronger. And the negative says a lot about Jesus in the same way we say this word is inerrant. When I say that this is inerrant, it has no error, that's actually giving a very strong affirmation. Well, it's in the negative. What it's saying is everything this book says is without error. The implication being that everything this book says is true. So here we see Jesus. Nothing was made apart from him that has been made. He is the creator. But verses one through two really say it with much more poetry, you would say, give much stronger declaration. And it even begins to give us some principles for how to think through this as monotheists. So let's turn to one and two where we're going to spend most of our time. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Now, you already see this strong declaration of word is a very important term that he uses at the very beginning. There's only five instances of the term word in the Gospel of John, and three of them are here. He really moves on and he prefers sun and light and life. But here he's chosen word. John establishes the nature of Christ in the history of the Old Testament canon by alluding back to Genesis. But why does he choose the term word? Some have thought that he's referring back to philosophical usage. Plato and Stoicism and others, they've used logos, they've used this word to refer to reason and wisdom. And I don't want to dismiss this completely, but we have to see it in the context of what God has been saying. So, for instance, we could look at Proverbs 319. The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps broke open and the clouds dropped down the dew. I believe here this is referring to Jesus as the wisdom. But it's not an abstract, impersonal wisdom of the philosophers. It is the personal wisdom of the God who speaks. It's clearly referring back to Genesis 1. Now, you can turn back to Genesis 1. It should be around page 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I believe John is clearly trying to bring allusion into the beginning of his gospel. He's beginning the new creation in the same way that Moses began declaring the first creation in the beginning. Was the word there, I believe he's referring to how each day is set apart and God said. And God said, God spoke the world into existence. In the beginning was the word. This is how the world came into existence. By the wisdom of God, by the declaration of God. God's word was with him in the beginning. Now we're looking to see who is this word. Again, beginning with monotheism, we have to ask, how can God coexist with his word and both be God? Now, to help us out with the phrase, or how two are part of this creation, I want to turn to 1 Corinthians 8.6. Let me just read it. You can look it up later. 1 Corinthians 8.6. Yet for us there is one God, the Father from whom all things and for whom we exist, the one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Notice there that Paul, he's declaring how there's one God and both are part of the creative activity. The Father is from whom all things exist and the Son is through whom all things exist. This makes perfect sense of Genesis 1. God spoke and all things existed. The Father is from whom all things exist. The Son is the word through whom all things were created. Now, the God word is the key issue. How is the word God and how does the word relate to God? Now, let's just go through each phrase by phrase. The word was in the beginning. Again, we break into this Genesis language. The word was in the beginning before the world existed before creation. The word was. Now, this is important if you're a student of church history or, well, a Christian. Because one of the great heretics, his mantra was this, his name was Arius, and his mantra was this, there was a time when Jesus was not. He's trying to attack the foundation of Christianity by attacking the one and only one through whom Christianity is built upon, and that is Jesus Christ. He's trying to declare that there was a time when he was not, to say he's not God. But here John is saying in the beginning he was. Before time began, he was. Before there was anything, he was. He has always been and he will always be. He is eternally existent. Now the next two phrases, those are the meat and potatoes of this passage. In the beginning was the Word. He has always existed. But now, how does he exist? Alongside of God and with God and as God. Let's look at this declaration. He, the Word, was with God. The word was with God. It's interesting that the typical word for with the typical preposition is not the one used here. It's actually the word for toward the word was toward God. I think what John is trying to declare here is what if you see two people walking in front of you on the sidewalk. Let's just say they're acquaintances. Their body language, the way they walk next to each other, there's a certain way in which they're with one another. But you can tell they're, well, they're just friends. They're just acquaintances. Now, put in front of you two people who love one another, a husband and wife. They don't even have to be touching one another, but you can see that there's something different about the way they walk with one another. There's a towardness. There's a love between them. When they're with one another, there's a declaration in the way they carry themselves that they love one another. I believe here in declaring that the Word was with God, it isn't just saying that He was alongside of him. He's pointing out that there's an intimate, close, loving relationship. This is important for us. Because when we declare that God loves us, it's this kind of love that the Father loves the Son with. It's that forever, eternal, perfect love that we share from the Father. Let's go to the second declaration. The word was with God. They're side by side, but with one another, toward one another. It's very straightforward. The first declaration was one in relation to one another. The second is just a proposition of declaration of his essence. The Word was God. This Word is with God. This Word is God. Now, I'm going to change the language here to help make sense of this, because God and Word Those are hopeful in terms of what he's doing with Genesis, but we know from further revelation in John, there's a more precise and more helpful way of referring to God and the word and the way he's doing here. It's with the father son language. We know the Trinity more clearly. We know God more clearly because of the father and the son language. So let me read this differently with this interpretation. In the beginning was the son. The son was with the father. The son was God. He was in the beginning with the father. Now the interpretation, the important interpretation there is that God was used once and I translated as father and God was used another time and I translated as God. The rule there is whatever God is referenced in relation to the son or the spirit, it's probably the father. When God is referenced by himself, it's all three persons together references to Godhead. That is a rule for interpreting scripture as Christians. So they read this again. In the beginning was the son. The son has always existed. The son was with the father. Those two are codependent and interdependent for their identity. There is no father of the son. Their very names declare that those two must always be together. The Son was God. He is not left in deity, he's not even equal in deity, he's the same deity. He was in the beginning with the Father. Again, going back to the principle of Genesis, he was in the beginning with the Father, he has always existed. So important truths are revealed in these three phrases, three rich theological phrases. First, There's one God. John is in no way denying monotheism, there's one God. This is where it gets tricky. That one God is father, son, and we will see later is Holy Spirit. There is one God and that one God is a father and the son. Those two have always been God together. Those two both created and are not created. Now, as we see this, let's go back to the God word language. Because it's the God who spoke all things into existence, He is now declaring something new. And the word that He is declaring to us is His own self-expression. God is declaring to us Himself. When He reveals through His word, reveals the Father sends His Son, He's sending Himself. Some very helpful practical application of this. His revelation is personal. When God speaks, he's revealing himself personally. He's letting us know who he is. Now, of course, he doesn't disclose everything about who he is, because if he did, we would be consumed. But he reveals to us who he is. It's not just another prophet. It's not just data. It's not just information. The personal God reveals his own personal nature to us. Second thing, his revelation is for us. When he speaks, it's not to hear himself speaking. When he speaks, it's so that we can know him. When he speaks, it's so that we can be confronted with our sin, repent of our sin, find forgiveness, and know that we are his children in the Son, Jesus Christ. Now, we've gone through a lot of theological categories this morning. The Bible, as Peter says, has complicated things in it. Some things are difficult. The doctrine of the Trinity is a difficult doctrine. It's okay for your heads to be spinning a little bit. What's not OK is to ever be comfortable with what you do know about God. You see, the beautiful thing about Scripture is it reveals more than we can ever understand. That's where that marveling and the wondering come in. Because God's word is so thick, because our words are so weak to declare the glory and the majesty of the infinite God, we will always have wonder. We will always have all and who God is. Let's look at the implications of this passage. The first thing we see, the creator cares. Our creator cares. I realize that this isn't necessarily earth shattering truth. There's a creator, there's a creation. What we have to realize is that the creation has rebelled against the creator. The creation has said we no longer want to follow you, our creator. But the creator, he still cares, he cares for us, the entire Godhead is searching and pointed towards us to save us. The creator cares for us in a way that the father has sent his son to die for us. See, we can look out into the world, we can look in creation, we can go in the mountains, And we can see the creator, he's wise and he's powerful. We can see those two things if we just look out into creation. But it's only here that we see that the creator actually cares for us. It's only here that we see that wise and powerful God is a holy God who should judge us. But instead, he has come down to us to care for us. The second thing we need to see from this passage. All of God is for us. All of God is for us. The entire Godhead, God is unified in seeking us out. If the father has not spared his own son, what would he ever hold back from us? Whenever we see that the Father has sent His Son to die for us, we can never question that the entirety of God, God in His entire purpose, is not seeking to do all that He can to save us and care for us and redeem us. There's not two purposes in God. There's no hesitation in God. God is entirely focused and purposed to save us. And whatever God wills to do, He will do. The final implication. Jesus, because he's God, he is worthy of our worship. Because Jesus is God, he is worthy of our worship. We first worship Jesus because of what he does for us. That's how he woos us. That's how we first begin worshiping. But you begin, you must begin worshiping God, not just because of what he's done for us, but just because he's worthy of worship. In the midst of trouble, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of despair, we don't stop worshiping God. We recognize what he's done for us, and we recognize that he is always worthy of worship. Let's go to our second main section. Jesus is the source of eternal life and light. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1.1 begins with creation. He skips over the entirety of the Old Testament. Unlike Matthew, who begins with a genealogy, he traces throughout the Old Testament history to the genealogy. John doesn't do that. He begins with creation and he jumps straight to new creation. He goes from creation straight to new creation. He begins to address our present predicament. We live in darkness. We live in death. We live in darkness. We live in death. He declares the light is shining in the darkness. He moves from the exalted language of who Christ is, that God himself, the creator, and focuses on the mission. The mission of Christ is to be the light of the world. God came down. The creator came into his own creation. The perfect God stepped into his corrupted creation. In order to appreciate that Jesus is life and Jesus is light, we must first come to terms with something. We must first understand something about ourself. The first thing is that we're dead. The first thing is that we're dead. The second thing is that we are the darkness. We must see that we are dead in our sins. in order to see that Christ is the one who gives regeneration. He gives new life. He's the one who provides us the ability and the opportunity to be born again, to be born from above. We must first see that we are dead. You can see this death in John 3. You can just flip over one page. John 3, beginning in verse 18. Whoever believes in Him, is not condemned. Whatever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light. because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Look down further to John 3, 36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him. Notice there the description. People loved the darkness. They were doing wicked things. They hated the light. They shall not see life. The wrath of God remains on them. Now, the clear declaration of John, if you believe in the sun, you will receive life. But here he says, if you do not believe you are already condemned, you will remain under the wrath. Why does he say this? Because we are all born as sinners and we are all actively pursuing sin and rejecting God. We saw this at the end of Exodus. We're all naturally born idolaters. We seek in our foolish, darkened hearts, Paul says in Romans 1, to love things that are not God, to worship things that are not God. We are opposed to God and we fight against Him. Now, there is one thing that everyone under the sun will agree upon, I think, and that is that this world is evil. This world has evil. The doctrine that evil and sin exist are hard to ignore. As we said earlier, and as we began, you turn on the news, there's evil and there's sin all around us. We can just think of the events that have happened recently. Two young men set bombs beside a child at the Boston Marathon. A doctor, someone trained to preserve life, goes in and preys on young women to kill their unborn children. He forces abortions. He celebrates it like it's his religion. We can look in to see all the terrorist activities that are taking place. We can see people who hate others and are proud of it and proclaim it. We can look back in history. There's Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong. The world is full of sin and darkness. This no one really denies. It's the most obvious, evident doctrine from scripture that's true to everyone. What we have a hard time recognizing is that we are evil and sinful. that we're part of that world that hates God. We may not have done the same acts, the same heinous and gross acts that we've just listed here, but we've done the greatest sin. Now, I in no way want to take away the sinfulness of the things I described, but we're all guilty of the worst and greatest sin. We wish God was dead. When we live as if God is dead, we are saying we would prefer him to be dead. When we say, I'm going to do it my way, God, I don't care what your word says, we are in essence saying, God, I'd be better off if you were just dead. We are all guilty of living as if God were dead and wishing he were dead. We hate the light. Because we love our sin, we are all guilty of this great sin. Now, this is the good news. This is the good news, friends. God Himself, while we hate Him, He sent His Son because He loved us. That son lived a life that we could not live. That son followed God, lived in the light, spread the light. He obeyed God perfectly. He obeyed the Father perfectly all the way up to the end of the cross. At the end of his life, when he died for our sins on the cross. You see, the wrath of God is on us because we refuse God. But when Jesus Christ died for everyone who believes in him, the wrath of God was removed from us, was placed upon him. He takes our place in receiving the death we deserve and receiving the wrath that we have earned. And in the place of the wrath, he gives us righteousness. We now live because he died for us. We now have a right relation with God. Because he suffered the wrath we deserve. Let's look at some implications from this truth that he is the life and he is the light and we are the darkness. First, new life is only found in him. New life is only found in him. Have you experienced the new life that is only found in Christ? Do you have a new heart with new desires? Do you have a new purpose for his glory? Do you have a new peace? that comes only from His forgiveness. Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the only salvation. He's the only God who has come down to take upon flesh for us. The other prophets, the other men, they couldn't do it because they themselves were sinners. We needed God to come down to forgive us. He is the only way. That means he's the only one we believe and he's the only one we proclaim. Do we trust that he is truly the only source of salvation? And is that is that revealed in our proclamation? Secondly, Christian, we need to pursue his light continually. We need to pursue his light continually. We're clever in our sin. We're clever, wanting to live in the darkness that we love so easily. We need to be on guard against getting to the point where we say, we're just religious enough. This is clever foolishness. This is clever foolishness. We are to look to His Word constantly, asking for His light to be shown on our sin so that we see our sin in the light of Jesus Christ and His holiness. And we're to see our sin in the light of Christ so that we see that he is perfectly forgiven us. We must see that Christ is the supreme authority. We can turn to John, 1 John, let me just read 1 John 1, 5 through 10. This is a message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we work, walk in darkness, We lie and do not practice the truth. Christian, if we've been saved by the light, we're called to walk in the light. If we have been saved by the light of Christ, by his life, we are now called to put off all darkness and walk in Christ. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of the son of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Christians, we are called to walk in the light. We pursue the word so that it puts the light on our sin, so we repent of it. Finally, I want to close by looking at the passage, the darkness will not overcome it. The darkness would everything it can to destroy true light. The gospel work is taking the good news of Jesus Christ into every place which is dark. And I wanted to focus here because gospel work is dangerous work. Gospel work is dangerous work. We have to recognize that we are not yet the church at rest that we sung about. We have to realize we're the church militant. We are called to be the church militant. We do not battle with guns. We do not battle with fists. We do not battle with fights. We battle with the power of God in prayer and gospel proclamation. What we have to recognize is that we're at war because we will be attacked. If we're doing true gospel ministry, the darkness will hate it and will seek to destroy it. If we're doing gospel work, we're going to say things that offend people and they will hate the message because they hated the messenger. My fear is that the church, too quickly and easily, wants to be the church at rest now. The church at rest is something that's hopeful in the future when Christ returns and puts all things in subjection to his feet. We too much, we too easily fall into the temptation of saying, I want my comfortable Christianity now. I want rest to be now. Rest isn't for today. Rest is for when we die and Christ returns. It means we aggressively proclaim the gospel now. The problem we have is when we're not going to battle against the true darkness, we either get lazy in the church and try to find comfort or we start being militant within the church. I've seen the heads nodding. People have experienced this. And that's a sad truth. We're supposed to be united as a band of brothers and sisters moving the light into the darkness. The only way we will do that is if we're united in that effort. If that's not what we're doing, we're either going to be lazy and seek comfort here, or we're going to go to war here. Now, we're inviting possible new member candidates. And I want to warn you. I see both of these dangers susceptible at Jefferson Park. I see both of these dangers in my own heart. A desire to be comfortable. A desire to be militant. Those who are our brothers and sisters, there's a desire to be critical. There's a desire to be comfortable. We must repent of these and realize that we are called to be unified under the headship of Christ and take his message to those who need it and it will be dangerous. When we take it there, this is the comforting news. We have the most powerful weapon known to man. It's the power of the gospel. It is the power of God to save sinners. When we go out and we declare the gospel, God in His good will, He will empower it and no one can resist it. The power of the gospel changes lives, changes hearts. It brings life to death rather than killing life. Do we trust that power? Do we trust that power as we're counseling and caring for one another? Do we trust that power as we're sharing it with those we do not who do not know God? It is what comforts us. It is what counsels us to be bold, and caring with God's truth. To God be the glory for he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son. We pray with me. Father, we come to praise you. Because you are worthy of our praise. We thank you that we not only know you and see you as the one God who is The Creator in wisdom and power, but we see you as a God who cares and loves us. We thank you, Father, for sending your son so that we have no doubt that you love us. Help us, Lord, to love you. Forgive us for our idolatry, forgive us for our bickering and our complaining within the body, forgive us for seeking comfort and rest now. Help us, Lord, to be unified with the one purpose of building up the Saints for your glory, for your mission, to proclaim your message. We thank you. That the darkness will not overcome the light. While we oftentimes have fear of where this world is going, where this nation is going, we have fear of our own safety. Lord, help us to have that assurance that your light is our sure foundation. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.