The Light of the World (II)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
I don't have to convince you that you and I live in a world that is shrouded with spiritual darkness. All around us, the thick blackness of ignorance about God. You find it at every side. Society around us is pitch black in spiritual ignorance. The culture in which we live is jet black. And those within the kingdoms of this world live in spiritual blindness, blindness of religious superstitions, vain imaginations about who God is and the way of salvation.
It's already midnight in the souls of unconverted men and women as they live in the gloom of guilt and tormented consciences. They cannot see God. They cannot see the truth about God. They cannot see the grace of God. They cannot understand nor see their own spiritual condition. They are in total, total darkness. And it is into such a world of spiritual darkness and blackness that Jesus Christ has come and announced here in verse 12, "I am the light of the world."
By this declaration, Jesus asserts that He has come to bring the true light of the knowledge of God, the true light of His saving grace to those of us whose hearts were born in darkness. He has come to bring the one light of salvation to those of us who once were in the blackness of sin. And He has come, blessed be God, to shine forth His blazing truth through the saving gospel and to accomplish redemption for us who once were ensnared in chains by sin, by iniquity, by transgressions.
The world in which we live, beloved, has no light of its own. And so John 3:19 says, "The Light has come into the world” and the world did not receive it, did not know it. First John 1:5 says, "God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." And He who is the Light is the giver of all light. And if we are to have any light, it must come from God and it will be mediated through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world.
Last time when we began to look at this portion of God's Word, we noted the first of four headings under the main heading, the astounding claim. The astounding claim, verse 12. And I want to remind us of what we've considered briefly last Lord's Day as we look at verse 12. We first look at these first few words, "I am the Light of the world." And we looked at those words under that first subheading, the identification of Jesus Christ.
Jesus here in verse 12 with these words declares Himself to be the Light of the world. But in doing so, you remember, He claims to be God Himself. Very God of very God. For He begins with those words ‘Ego Eimi,’ "I Am." And we noted how "I Am" is drawn all the way back from Exodus chapter 3 verse 14 where God, Yahweh, declared Himself, His name to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And Jesus here, by using those words, He claims to be co-equal, co-eternal with Yahweh God. "I am the Light of the world."
And we noted that this is the second of the seven "I Am's" in the gospel of John. And really, those seven statements of Jesus, the "I Am" statements of Jesus, they really form the backbone of the entire gospel of John. And when He says, "I am the Light of the world," He is saying, I am the only Light of the world. There's that definite article. I'm not a Light, I am the Light. There's no other Light. Even the light of the prophets, even the light of the apostles was nothing more than the light of Christ Himself shining through the revelation that they brought to the world. All light, all spiritual light that comes to us is the light of Jesus Christ Himself.
Now when He says, "I am the Light," He's obviously not speaking physically, literally. He's not speaking literally of a physical light. He's speaking figuratively, metaphorically, referring to God's revelation, God's disclosure of Himself to the world through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only mediator. Jesus as the Light means, first of all, that He is the true, the Light of the true knowledge of God. He has come into the world that is alienated from God, ignorant of God, without any saving knowledge of God, and Jesus Christ has come as the one and only Light of the knowledge of God to us.
Alfred Barnes noted this, and he said this rightly, and I quote, "Light is that by which we see objects distinctly. Light in all languages is put for knowledge.” It is by the Light of Christ that we see God. We see God in Himself as He is the fullest revelation of God to us. And that Jesus is the Light of the world also, we saw together last time, that He has come to bring the light of salvation as well as the light of holiness. And please note, not merely for Israel but for the whole world.
"I am the Light of the world." Isaiah 42:6 says that He is the “Light to the nations." Isaiah 51:4, "a Light to the peoples." Luke 2:32, "a Light for Revelation to the Gentiles." There's only one Savior, only one, one Savior in the world, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come to bring the light of God and the light of the glory of God and the grace of God not only to Israel but also to all of the nations of the world. Amazing, isn't it? How bright must this Light be? How dazzling must this Light be? That when it came into the world, it was a Light that was shining so brightly that it is capable of illuminating the entire expanse of the globe.
Matthew Henry writes, and I quote, "One sun enlightens the whole world. So does one Christ, and there needs be no more. What a dungeon would be the world without the sun. So would it be without Christ, by whom light came into this world. So many false lights lead to destruction, but Christ is the only true Light.” If any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, anywhere on planet Earth is ever to come to know God and have a relationship with God and enter into a saving union with Christ, it is only through this one true Light, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now second, not only the identification of Jesus, "I am the Light of the world," but I want you to note with me the next four words in this verse. Would you please see the invitation now of Jesus Christ in verse 12b. He goes on to say, "I am the Light of the world." He says, "He who follows Me." Stop right there. "He who follows Me." We must become a follower of Jesus Christ. We must. We must. And here, note with me, this is issued as an indicative. It's like a statement, "He who follows Me," but in reality it is more than a statement. It is really an invitation. It is an invitation to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
The most repeated statement that ever came from the lips of our Lord recorded in Scripture is this invitation: "Follow Me." To Peter, Andrew, and James, and John, He said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." To Levi, the tax collector, He said, "Follow Me." And to the open multitude that day, He said, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and"—what?—"Follow Me." As Jesus says this here in our text, in this context, He is, remember, standing before the unsaved multitude at the temple when He was there for the Feast of the Tabernacles, and He is setting forth Himself as the Light of the world, and He is inviting sinners to come and follow Him.
And please note that we are to follow Jesus Christ. We are to follow the person of Christ. The invitation here was not to follow a church, nor was it to follow a creed or a code or a cause, but Christ Himself. The person of Christ Himself, who is the light of the world. The invitation is not to follow religion. The invitation here is not to follow some sort of a ritual of do's and don'ts and a list to follow, but rather this invitation is issued so that men and women are called to follow the Redeemer Himself, the Light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The invitation also to follow is open to all. When He says, "He who follows Me," the "He" is as open and as broad and as wide as the entire human race. Anyone, anywhere, anytime who follows Christ will be transformed, will be saved. And the word, follow, ‘akoloutho’ conveys the idea of someone who gives himself completely to the one followed—completely, totally, wholeheartedly, from the top of your head to the sole of your feet, outside and inside.
It is not enough to merely look at this Light, Jesus is saying. It's not merely enough to look at the Light. It is not enough to simply gaze upon this Light. It is not enough to simply admire the Light. It is not enough even to call others to come and see the Light. We must follow the Light. We must follow the Light. One step at a time, we must follow the Light. We must follow the Light as a traveler follows the light on a dark night.
J. C. Ryle has written, and I quote, "As a soldier follows his general, as the servant follows his master, as the scholar follows his teacher, as a sheep follows his shepherd, just so ought a professing Christian to follow Christ." It is not negotiable. Jesus demands that all of us who would be identified with Him, we must follow Him. In other words, we must break from the world and no longer follow the course of this world, the mindset of this age. We must now turn around. Turn around—that's what repentance is. Turn around and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Turning around, turning our backs, to use the language of 1 Thessalonians, from idols and turn to the living God.
To follow here is synonymous with saving faith. To follow Christ is to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a decisive commitment of one's life to Christ that is so active, so dynamic, so wholehearted that one follows for the rest of their life Jesus Christ wherever He leads. Wherever He leads. To follow Christ is synonymous with committing one's life to Christ. And please note also that Jesus will not follow us. He will not follow us. We must follow Him. Jesus would not simply join up with our lives and go with us in the direction that we're already going. You know, let's add Him to our life. Lord, you know, hop in and we're going to make our own chart, our own course. You just hop along and just bless us. You know, we'll have You in our lives—fire insurance. No, no. No, that wouldn't do. That wouldn't do.
Instead, Jesus calls us to follow Him. And to follow Him and go distinctly in a different direction. This calls for a decisive change in one's life direction. Decisive change. This calls for a new life of supreme allegiance to a Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' — ‘Kyrios, Kyrios’ — and do not do what I say?" This calls for a new loyalty to Jesus Christ. Notice Jesus does not say where this will lead. There's trust. There's allegiance, loyalty. In other words, put your faith in Me, put your trust in Me, and follow Me wherever I will lead you for the rest of your life.
He says, "He who follows Me," and would you note that "follows" ‘akolouthei,’ is in the present tense. You know what that means? In other words, this is something that we are to do every single moment of every day. We are to be always following Christ. This is not a one-time decision at the moment of conversion and nothing else, and then we go off and do our own thing. No, no. Rather, to follow Christ is to make a decisive commitment of one's life that will impact, affect, the rest of my life and everything within it. Everything.
When we step out of the world, we align ourselves with Christ, and as we follow Him, we are to think as He thinks. We are to act as He acts. We are to speak as He has spoken. We are to go wherever He leads. We are to do whatever He requires, to sacrifice whatever He demands. We are to teach whatever He has taught us. We are to be sold-out disciples to Him with a living, active, dynamic faith. A true believer, beloved, is a follower of Christ. A follower of Christ. There are no believers who are not followers of Jesus. Mark it down. That doesn't exist. To be a follower of Christ is to be so identified with Christ, so united to Christ, so joined to Christ, in union with Christ, that we will go wherever He leads.
In fact, the early Christians in Acts 9:2 were said to be those on “the Way." They're those of "the Way." They weren't those who merely were sitting passively. They belonged to "the Way." They were on "the Way." They were stepping out. They were moving out for God, so much so that they were identified as those who are part of "the Way." They are on "the Way."
So it must be with us as well. If we profess Jesus Christ, we are supposed to be those who are on "the Way," identified with "the Way." We must be identified as those who are actively moving out for the Lord Jesus Christ, serving Him, loving Him, obeying Him, expanding His kingdom.
James Montgomery Boice wrote a book titled Christ's Call for Discipleship. This book defines with much precision what it is to be a true follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple of Jesus Christ. In the first chapter, he gives five key words that define what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ, what it is to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to share those five key words with us, and it's not a multiple choice. They are all bound up in this word "follow" and the word "disciple." And it can't be just that you and I can pick two out of three, two out of five, or three out of five. No, no. It's all five. All five will be implanted, embedded in our soul if we are truly followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have responded to the invitation of Christ, "He who follows Me," these will be true of us. And the first word is obedience. Obedience.
When Jesus says, "He who follows Me," part and parcel of this word is obedience. Boice noted, and I quote, "Without obedience there is no real Christianity. Those who are genuinely Christ's sheep obey His call from the beginning and enter into a life characterized by obedience.” It would be impossible to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and not to obey Christ, for that is what it means to follow. You can't follow someone if you don't obey where they tell you to go, right? The obedience of a true believer will be unequivocal. It will be uncompromising, sincere, and an integral part of their salvation.
In fact, the Apostle Peter actually described salvation as an act of obedience. In 1 Peter 1:22–23, listen to the language. He says, "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." "In obedience to the truth." The truth here is a reference to the gospel, which is essentially a command to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:3, "By this we know that we have come to know Him," — How? Tell us, John, how? — "if we keep His commandments." "If we keep His commandments." ‘Tereo’—keep, watchful obedience. It's not obedience externally motivated by force or pressure or fear that is a trepidation, but internal obedience out of pure love, love from the heart, because now we have a new Master who is a benevolent Master. The Greek word ‘tereo’ means to watch or guard as something precious. Precious.
A Christian demonstrates he knows God by a heartfelt desire to guard his obedience as a treasure. To guard the word of God by obeying it as a treasure. People who claim to be Christians yet live in disregard for God's commandments are not following. You know what this does? It undermines their testimony and calls into question the validity of their claim to know Christ, to follow Christ. You can't really claim to follow Christ, but you're actually going in a different direction than Christ is leading.
The word that John uses for commandments ‘entole’ is also significant. In 1 John, the apostle uses it to refer to the precepts of Christ at least 14 times. "Follow Me" means that you exhibit a recurring, ongoing, consistent spirit of obedience toward safeguarding the precepts of God, the precepts of Christ. It means to have a regular desire that they be honored—the precepts of Christ—that they are obeyed, a consistent determination to obey them. So number one is obedience, and Jesus Himself, you remember, He said in Matthew 7, verse 21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does,” — does — “the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter."
The second word, not only obedience, the second word is repentance. Repentance. To be a true follower of Christ, there must be repentance throughout life's journey. Boice writes, and I quote, "How could it be otherwise? Jesus is the holy, sinless Son of God who has never taken one step in any sinful direction. Jesus has never led the way into a single sinful thought. So anyone who is following Him, not some imaginary Jesus, must by definition have turned his back upon sin and set his face towards righteousness."
Now Boice acknowledges that Christians do sin, but we're not perfect here, so he says when they do, they must confess it and turn from it and be restored to fellowship again. But anyone who thinks he can follow Christ without renouncing his sin is dreadfully confused, and anyone who claims to be following Christ while actually continuing in unrighteousness is deluded, and he or she is not a Christian. To be followers of Christ is to be identified by repentance. Listen to—I love the doctor—how the doctor put it, Lloyd-Jones. Listen concerning repentance, what he says. He gives us a good definition of repentance.
If you're wondering what repentance is biblically, here's what repentance is, and I quote, "Repentance means that you realize, you realize that you are guilty, vile, sinner in the presence of God, and that you deserve the wrath and the punishment of God, that you are hell bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, and that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form." He goes on to say, "You renounce the world, whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook, as well as its practice, and you deny yourself and take up your cross and go after Christ." And then he ends with this: "Your nearest and dearest, and the whole world may call you a fool, or say you have religious mania. You may have to suffer financially, but it makes no difference. That's repentance” Lloyd-Jones says.
Followers of Christ are identified by obedience, repentance, and Boice says, thirdly, submission. Submission. Picture submission. The Lord pictures discipleship, Boice says, as putting on a yoke, taking the yoke of Christ. And it's the picture of an animal coming into submission under the authority of its master and being engaged in the work of the master. He writes, and I quote, "Putting on a yoke suggests submission to Christ for His assigned work. It is the picture of an animal yoked to others as well as to a plow. When Jesus used this image, He was saying that to follow Him was to submit to Him. It was to receive Him as Lord of one's life."
Submission, obedience, repentance, submission, fourth, commitment. Commitment. “It's impossible,” —Boice writes, — “to follow Christ without being committed to Him. A lack of commitment means deviating from His path or falling away from Him. On the other hand, it is impossible to be committed to Christ without following Him, for a failure to follow really means being committed to some other thing or some other person.”
And finally, the fifth and last word Boice uses that is not negotiable on being a true follower of Christ is perseverance. Perseverance. He writes, “following is not an isolated act done once and never to be repeated. It is a lifetime commitment that is not fulfilled here until the final barrier is crossed, the crown received, and then all other rewards laid gratefully at the feet of Jesus. Discipleship,” —he writes, —- “is not simply a door to be entered but a path to be followed, and that the disciple proves the validity of his discipleship by following the path to the very end.”
Every true disciple of Jesus follows Jesus. Follows Jesus. Follows Jesus and follows Him all the way to glory. Follows Him all the way to the end of one's life. Follows Him, if necessary, to a martyr's stake and will not hold back, will not shrink back and evaporate into the crowd. This is the invitation that our Lord set forth when He said, "He who follows Me." Let me ask you before we move on, dear people in this place, are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Now that you understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ biblically, are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Notice I did not ask you, are you a passive professing believer? Are you an active follower of Jesus? Because to be a mere passive professing believer is a non-saving faith, is a pseudo-faith. But a true saving faith is synonymous with an active follower of Christ.
Let me help us really answer the questions being asked this morning according to the five words mentioned. Let me put it this way: are you pursuing a lifestyle of obedience to Jesus? Is that the pattern? We're talking again about direction, not perfection. Is that the pattern? Are you pursuing a lifestyle of obedience to Christ? Have you renounced a life of pursuing sin in order to pursue holiness and purity and righteousness and Christ-likeness? Have you submitted your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the ‘Kyrios?’ Are you willing to go wherever He leads you, and have you assumed His assigned work in His name? Are you so committed to Christ that you are not deviating from His path? And are you persevering in a lifelong commitment to Jesus Christ, following His path to the very end, no matter what, by the grace of God and the enablement of the Spirit? The answer to these questions will reveal if you are a true follower of Christ.
Third, I want you to note with me now the imitation of Jesus Christ—not only the invitation but also the imitation of Jesus Christ. Back to our verse, verse 12. As we continue and look at verse 12, the next six words, it says of such a follower—now this is absolutely important—"will never walk in the darkness." Such a follower of Jesus Christ, Jesus says, the one who comes to Him who is the light of the world and follows Him, Jesus Himself here, He says, "will never walk in the darkness," "will never walk in the darkness."
Those who are following Christ, who is the Light, the true Light, the only Light, "will never walk in the darkness." And would you please notice with me that Jesus issues this emphatic negative in the Greek? He puts a double negative, ‘ou me’—no, not, never—no, not, never, will walk in the darkness. And here the word "walk"—we're familiar with this word. We've come across this word many, many times. ‘Peripateo’ —it speaks of one's daily lifestyle. It talks about a lifestyle, one's daily activities, one's daily choices, the course and the conduct of one's life as a whole, the pattern, the daily walk. It pictures the path and pursuit that we follow in life, and Jesus Himself says that the one who “follows Me will” —no, not, never— “walk in the darkness.”
The darkness here refers to two things. One, it refers to spiritual ignorance. It refers to the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of lies. It refers to false teaching, false doctrine, false gospel. It refers to soul-destroying errors. Now, the one who has come to Jesus Christ by faith, has become a follower of Jesus Christ, has now the Holy Spirit—got the Holy Spirit indwelling him or her—and has now the mind of Christ. And 1 John chapter 2, verse 20 says, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know." And the anointing of the Holy Spirit we have as believers—He guards the believer from soul-destroying errors. Those who are followers of Christ will not walk in the darkness of the devil's lies, false teaching. There will be those who will adhere to the truth and will know the truth and seek the truth and guard the truth.
But second, the darkness here refers to spiritual wickedness. Spiritual wickedness. It refers to the darkness of sin, impurity, the darkness of perversion. It refers to worldliness, self-pursuits, sinful lifestyles, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. And Jesus said, if you are a follower of Me, categorically, you will never walk in such darkness. Every unbeliever—every unbeliever—is in the darkness. Every true believer has left the darkness and no longer lives in the darkness, no longer walks in the darkness as a lifestyle.
Let me give you some cross-references. This is a very important subject. John 12:46, "I have come," —Jesus said, — "as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” “Will not remain in darkness." Jesus is emphatic. He says, if you have believed in Me, you will not remain in the darkness. You will come out of the darkness. You will forsake the darkness. You will come to the Light—the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the world. You cannot be a true believer in Jesus Christ and remain in the darkness as a lifestyle.
1 John 1:6, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him"—if we say, I'm a believer, I believe in Jesus—"if we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness," —John says, — "we lie and do not know the truth.” “Do not know the truth." If we say we have fellowship with Him—in other words, if we claim to be a believer, if we claim to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, if we claim to have union and communion with the Lord—and yet walk in the darkness, he says, “we lie and do not do the truth.” That is to say, our testimony is bogus. It's empty. It's false. Our testimony is a lie. It has no basis whatsoever in reality.
If we claim to be a Christian, if we claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ and yet continue to be as a pig that goes back to wallow in the mud—to use the language of 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 22—and to be like a dog that returns to its vomit, John says, we lie. And our testimony is not valid. It's not. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 7:21–23, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you;’” — I never knew you. There was never a day that I ever knew you. — “Depart from Me, you who"—what?—"practice lawlessness." To put it in John 8:12 language: you who walk in the darkness.
Those are strong words, Jesus says. A true believer, in looking at the macro picture—looking at the habitual lifestyle of a person, the pattern, not just an isolated five minutes here and there, no, no—but the big picture of a person's life, the pattern, the lifestyle. If you're a follower of Christ, you will not be living in the darkness. No, never. First John 2:11,John writes, "But the one who hates his brother" —meaning there's no love in his heart for another believer, — "the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness blinded his eyes." Such a person professes to know Christ, but such a profession, John says, is a lie. It's not the truth because your very lifestyle raises, really, questions about your confession. It doesn't match.
One final verse, 1 John 1:7 — on the other hand,1 John 1:7 "but if we walk in the light," —and the word walk here, same word, habitual, walking, pattern, direction, lifestyle, if we are walking, habitual walking in the light, referring to God now as He, God, Himself is the light, — "we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." What a contrast. What an amazing contrast. One walks in the darkness, the other walks in the light. The one who walks in the darkness hates his brother or so-called supposed brother, and the one who walks in the light loves the brother.
John says the one who walks in the darkness has never been born again because to come to the light, you will no longer walk in the darkness. These verses are very powerful. Many of us, no doubt, as you're listening to these verses and as you hear this truth being underscored, these verses being quoted, no doubt, many in our midst, perhaps, are thinking of loved ones. You think of family members, think of people very close and dear to us, and when we've reached out to them in the name of Christ, and we want God's best for them, and our heart is burdened for them.
You probably heard it said before, a right diagnosis is half the cure. We must understand that those who are even the closest to us, who say they are Christian, who live a deviant lifestyle, worldly lifestyle—now we turn to them and lovingly say, you are my mission field, and I'm here to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to you, and I long for your salvation, and my heart weeps over you as Jeremiah wept over the sinful people of God, religious but lost. But every true born-again believer will not, will not walk in the darkness.
I must hasten to the final heading in this powerful verse, verse 12. I want us to see the illumination of Jesus Christ now, the illumination of Jesus Christ. Please note verse 12, how it concludes. And I'll have to admit, many times, as I read the Scripture, you get so caught up with the first half of a verse—like a verse like this—you get so caught up and taken by the first half of the verse that you don't always really ponder appropriately the latter part of this verse because you get so excited about Jesus saying, "I am the Light of the world," and you don't always get to the end of the verse to contemplate there what it is saying. But I want us to note this, if you would, the last seven words, verse 12. He says, "but will have the Light of life." "But will have the Light of life."
If you're a follower of Christ, if you have stepped out of the world, if you have separated yourself from the course of this world, if you have come to align yourself by faith in Christ, this says that we have the light of life. What is this saying? This says that all who follow Christ have within them the light of life. This is a reference to Christ Himself, the light of the world, that He will live in us by His Spirit. He will shine in us—not only shine in us, but shine out of us, through us. In other words, Jesus implants in every genuine follower the Light, His Light. And this Light, He says, is the Light of life.
This is speaking of the new birth, the life of God in the soul of man. This light of life refers to spiritual life, refers to supernatural life, eternal life, abundant life that is now within each and every follower of Jesus Christ. And at the very beginning, this Light of life is the personal saving knowledge of God. John 17:3, “this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." This began in that act, the act that we call the act of regeneration, the act of the new birth.
And would you please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4 for a moment? Such an amazing text, and the sentence really begins in verse 3, in which the Apostle Paul is writing regarding the obstacles that we face in ministry, the obstacles we face in proclaiming the gospel, in evangelism, in reaching others in the name of Christ. And he says in verse 3, "even if our gospel is veiled," — and the idea here is almost like a blanket placed over the gospel, that the gospel itself cannot be seen, it's really veiled, cloaked, covered over, such that unbelievers cannot see what we're holding forth to them by presenting the gospel — "even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age"—who is that? That's satan, the devil, the evil one—"has blinded the minds of the unbelieving."
Every unbeliever, his eyes, her eyes are blinded by Satan so that they cannot see the gospel, they cannot desire the gospel. He goes on to say, "so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." That is to say, the gospel is Christ, and Christ is the image of God, and the glory of God is shining forth, bursting forth in all of its brilliance in the gospel, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the gospel, and it is shining brighter than 10,000 times 10,000 suns in the sky above. But the unbeliever is blinded, completely blinded to this brilliant, blazing, dazzling, glorious, splendid, resplendent, majestic, transcendent truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Look at verse 5: "For we do not preach ourselves." Now, why would he say something like this? Well, because there are those teachers and preachers, when met with rejection as they minister the Word, they become tempted to change their message and begin to really try to put salt and pepper by talking about themselves and parading themselves and use themselves just endlessly in their messages in an attempt to get through to the people whom they are speaking to. And Paul says, we're not here preaching ourselves. When we give witness, when we stand and give a testimony, it's not about us. We don’t preach ourselves, we will not trivialize the eternal message of the glory of God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. “We will not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as what? ‘Kyrios,’ Lord, as Lord, and ourselves as ‘doulos,’ slaves, slaves for the sake of Christ.
Verse 6: "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness.'" “Light shall shine out of darkness.” That takes us all the way back to Genesis 1, right? Verse 3—you recall the six consecutive days of creation—and on day one, it was God who said in a dark universe, "Let there be light." "Let there be light." God sovereignly, omnipotently commanded there to be light in the darkness, and the entire universe, I mean, lit up in a millisecond. Now continue in verse 6: "For God, Who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness’" — Now watch this — “is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” You know what that is? That is sovereign, sovereign regeneration. That's sovereign grace. Because the same God who omnipotently spoke physical light into a dark universe. It is the same God—the very same God—who performed an even yet greater display of power by commanding spiritual light to shine into darkened hearts.
And that is the only way any one of us here today—anyone on the entire planet—has ever come to a saving knowledge of Christ. There has been a divine, supernatural light that God has commanded to shine into a darkened heart such that we see it. We see it. Our eyes are opened. The veil is removed. We see God. We see the cross. We see Christ. We see ourselves now as we've never seen all of this before, and in the moment, it's like the lights come on, and we are illumined and enlightened by the grace of God.
That is the only way that any one of us has come to be a follower of Jesus. This is the only way. It's not that we were smarter than the person to our left or the person to our right, or we were more spiritual. It's not like I was smarter than my other three brothers and two sisters. No, no. It's not that we are smarter. It was simply God—God by His mercy—the God who said, "Let there be light." He said in my heart, in your heart, child of God, "Let there be light."
He initiated, and by His mercy, and God by His tender compassion chose to initiate and to act upon your darkened heart and my darkened heart. And God commanded a shaft of light to come beaming from His throne of grace and to light up—that would be your testimony—you could say, to light up my soul and to light up my mind. And in a moment, it was as though the sun itself was shining within my own heart. I could see, and it was so bright that I, in a moment, saw my need, my desperate need, of Christ. And I ran to Him and I looked to Him and embraced Him by faith.
And that's precisely what Paul is saying. And that is what Jesus is saying in John 8:12, that we will have within us the Light of life. And as He commands light, He commands life, and there's a spiritual resurrection, and we are raised, raised up from the grave of sin, and the light of God shines upon us, our once spiritually dead soul, and we're birthed into the kingdom of God. And our first step is a step of following Christ. "Awake, sleeper," —Paul says in Ephesians 5:14, — "and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
The new birth is a great awakening. It is a spiritual resurrection. It is divine illumination, and we no longer remain in darkness, but we see a great light. And I love Colossians 1:13, "He rescued us." “He rescued us from the authority of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The previous verse, verse 12, says that "the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints"—where? — “in light.” “In light.”
God, if you will, invaded the kingdom of darkness, laid hold of us by His grace, and transferred us, rescued us out of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of His light. And 1 Thessalonians 5 says that He has made us to be “sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness." We no longer walk in the darkness; we are now living in the light. We now see what we could never previously see. We now experience that which once we were dead to. It's the light of the world that has come shining forth and beaming forth from God into our once darkened hearts.
And Jesus says in Matthew 5:14, you remember, of us, He says, "You are the light of the world." And there, when He makes that statement, remember this light is not a self-derived light. It is a Light that has been placed within us. It is the Light of life. It is the One who is the Light of the world now coming to indwell us, and now we become a city set on a hill. He says let our light shine. Then, the darker the world, the brighter the light will shine. Jesus said, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket.” In other words, we're not just to be living unto ourselves. We meet, we have a holy huddle, and live unto ourselves—just meet sort of in the basement of life all the time—and for our light to never shine into the highways and the byways and the marketplaces of the world. No. No.
He says you are to take the light and set it on top of a mountain and remove anything that would hinder it from shining, and let it shine to the end of the world. He says in verse 16, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Are your good works important in the Christian life? Absolutely, they are. We're not saved by works; we're saved by grace. But we are saved unto good works, prepared for us beforehand.
If there are no good works, it's because there is no true faith. There's no true faith. All true faith is moving out to follow Christ. And as we do, we are a city set on a hill, and we are to let our light shine. Ephesians 5:8, "for you were formerly darkness"—that's who you were, formerly darkness, — “but now you are light in the Lord;" and then He gives the command, "walk as children of light." Walk in accordance to who you really are.
Romans 13:12, "The night is almost gone, the day is at hand. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." Let us walk properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, and sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” And I want to say again at this: this light is not a spark that we ignited, that arises out of us, that is self-generated. This Light is the Light of Christ Himself, who has come to occupy our souls and to indwell our innermost being. And Christ now is at the very epicenter of our life. Wherever we go, we are to be light—light of the world like Him. Jesus is the Light of the World, capital L. And you and I are like the moon to the sun—we are simply reflecting His supreme light that has been placed within us. We are to let Christ shine out of our lives by our good works, by our gracious words, and by the way we conduct ourselves.
I want to give the last word to Matthew Henry. And I quote: "They shall have the light of life—that knowledge and enjoyment of God which will be to them the light of spiritual life in this world and of everlasting life in the other world, where there will be no darkness, no death." Henry says, “follow Christ, and we will undoubtedly be happy in both worlds. Follow Christ, we will follow Him into Heaven.” Let me ask you again, are you following Christ? Are you following the Light of the World? He's the Light of the World. He's the Light of the World. And if you don't have Christ, you have nothing but darkness within.
The message is shining forth right now this morning. It is the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you do not see it, if you do not see your desperate need of it, it is because you're blinded. You're still in darkness. It's not because the Scripture is not spoken directly this morning and pointedly this morning. No, no, it's because in the clear presentation of the gospel, it remains veiled to you, and you just don't get it. You don't see it. I pray for you. I pray for you, and I long for God to remove the covering from your eyes this morning. I long for God to circumcise your heart and for the light—the light of the world—to finally burst forth and to shine into the dark recesses of your mind and your heart, and for you to be lit up by God, to be lit up by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.
And it may very well be, it may surely be, that there are some here this morning, sitting right where you are, who have not yet become a follower of Jesus Christ. You might call this church even your home church. You might even attend Tuesday Bible study or Saturday night youth meeting, or you might come periodically, or you might even attend prayer meeting. But you are actually—let me put it this way—you may do all of these things, but are you actually a follower of Jesus? Are you actually so identified with Christ that as He moves to the left, you go to the left; as He goes to the right, you go to the right; as He steers away from sin, you steer away from sin; as He journeys on to the truth, you journey on to the truth?
That has never happened to you. Maybe today is the day that you realize for the very first time that that's never happened to you. I plead with you this morning. I plead with you to ask God—ask Him—to shine the light into your darkened soul this morning, and for you to at last have eyes to see, to believe in Jesus Christ with an active faith whereby you no longer are passive and paralyzed, a mere hearer of the Word, but you at last are awakened by sovereign grace and raised by sovereign grace and illumined and enlightened by sovereign grace.
Oh, may God do this in you today. I urge you, I plead with you to follow Christ. Step out. Take that first step. Follow Him. Ask Him. What would hold you back this morning? What would hold you back? Why would you procrastinate? Why would you push the can down the road? Why would you not step out and follow Jesus Christ? Why would you follow the devil? Why would you continue to go with the world? The devil is going to Hell. The world is perishing, and it will be subject to eternal destruction. Why would you go with that crowd in that direction when you could step out now—this moment—and follow after the Light of the World and follow Him all the way to glory, to Heaven? You must in your heart believe, and as an act of your will, you must take one step after another in following after the Light of the World.
If you will, it would be so obvious and it would be so clear, and you will no longer be in the darkness, and you will have the light of life within you. And you will literally go from darkness to light, and you will go from death to life, and you will go from the road to Hell to the road to Heaven—that narrow path. And it could not be any more clearer. So I ask you again: What is your verdict? What are you gonna do with Jesus? Right now. What are you gonna do? What is your choice? I press this to you yet one more time, and I pray—I pray that as you sit here, if you're outside of Christ, I pray that you feel so uncomfortable. So uncomfortable. I put it before you: follow Christ. Because if you do not follow—listen carefully—you will have no one to blame but yourself. Not only now, but all throughout the ages to come in the lake of fire and brimstone, where there is not one drop of mercy.
Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, and you will be saved. And, child of God—but the rescued from darkness to light. Let us live as sons and daughters of light. And if you're dealing with a besetting sin, don't buy into the lie of the enemy and the devil to say, oh, you know, you messed up so many times, God doesn't even want to bother with you. Oh no. Failure is never final, because we have a gracious God. Turn to Him. He's by nature forgiving. Turn to Him, and He will cleanse, and He will restore, and He will set you back on the right path.
Let's pray.
It's already midnight in the souls of unconverted men and women as they live in the gloom of guilt and tormented consciences. They cannot see God. They cannot see the truth about God. They cannot see the grace of God. They cannot understand nor see their own spiritual condition. They are in total, total darkness. And it is into such a world of spiritual darkness and blackness that Jesus Christ has come and announced here in verse 12, "I am the light of the world."
By this declaration, Jesus asserts that He has come to bring the true light of the knowledge of God, the true light of His saving grace to those of us whose hearts were born in darkness. He has come to bring the one light of salvation to those of us who once were in the blackness of sin. And He has come, blessed be God, to shine forth His blazing truth through the saving gospel and to accomplish redemption for us who once were ensnared in chains by sin, by iniquity, by transgressions.
The world in which we live, beloved, has no light of its own. And so John 3:19 says, "The Light has come into the world” and the world did not receive it, did not know it. First John 1:5 says, "God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." And He who is the Light is the giver of all light. And if we are to have any light, it must come from God and it will be mediated through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world.
Last time when we began to look at this portion of God's Word, we noted the first of four headings under the main heading, the astounding claim. The astounding claim, verse 12. And I want to remind us of what we've considered briefly last Lord's Day as we look at verse 12. We first look at these first few words, "I am the Light of the world." And we looked at those words under that first subheading, the identification of Jesus Christ.
Jesus here in verse 12 with these words declares Himself to be the Light of the world. But in doing so, you remember, He claims to be God Himself. Very God of very God. For He begins with those words ‘Ego Eimi,’ "I Am." And we noted how "I Am" is drawn all the way back from Exodus chapter 3 verse 14 where God, Yahweh, declared Himself, His name to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And Jesus here, by using those words, He claims to be co-equal, co-eternal with Yahweh God. "I am the Light of the world."
And we noted that this is the second of the seven "I Am's" in the gospel of John. And really, those seven statements of Jesus, the "I Am" statements of Jesus, they really form the backbone of the entire gospel of John. And when He says, "I am the Light of the world," He is saying, I am the only Light of the world. There's that definite article. I'm not a Light, I am the Light. There's no other Light. Even the light of the prophets, even the light of the apostles was nothing more than the light of Christ Himself shining through the revelation that they brought to the world. All light, all spiritual light that comes to us is the light of Jesus Christ Himself.
Now when He says, "I am the Light," He's obviously not speaking physically, literally. He's not speaking literally of a physical light. He's speaking figuratively, metaphorically, referring to God's revelation, God's disclosure of Himself to the world through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only mediator. Jesus as the Light means, first of all, that He is the true, the Light of the true knowledge of God. He has come into the world that is alienated from God, ignorant of God, without any saving knowledge of God, and Jesus Christ has come as the one and only Light of the knowledge of God to us.
Alfred Barnes noted this, and he said this rightly, and I quote, "Light is that by which we see objects distinctly. Light in all languages is put for knowledge.” It is by the Light of Christ that we see God. We see God in Himself as He is the fullest revelation of God to us. And that Jesus is the Light of the world also, we saw together last time, that He has come to bring the light of salvation as well as the light of holiness. And please note, not merely for Israel but for the whole world.
"I am the Light of the world." Isaiah 42:6 says that He is the “Light to the nations." Isaiah 51:4, "a Light to the peoples." Luke 2:32, "a Light for Revelation to the Gentiles." There's only one Savior, only one, one Savior in the world, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come to bring the light of God and the light of the glory of God and the grace of God not only to Israel but also to all of the nations of the world. Amazing, isn't it? How bright must this Light be? How dazzling must this Light be? That when it came into the world, it was a Light that was shining so brightly that it is capable of illuminating the entire expanse of the globe.
Matthew Henry writes, and I quote, "One sun enlightens the whole world. So does one Christ, and there needs be no more. What a dungeon would be the world without the sun. So would it be without Christ, by whom light came into this world. So many false lights lead to destruction, but Christ is the only true Light.” If any man, any woman, any boy, any girl, anywhere on planet Earth is ever to come to know God and have a relationship with God and enter into a saving union with Christ, it is only through this one true Light, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now second, not only the identification of Jesus, "I am the Light of the world," but I want you to note with me the next four words in this verse. Would you please see the invitation now of Jesus Christ in verse 12b. He goes on to say, "I am the Light of the world." He says, "He who follows Me." Stop right there. "He who follows Me." We must become a follower of Jesus Christ. We must. We must. And here, note with me, this is issued as an indicative. It's like a statement, "He who follows Me," but in reality it is more than a statement. It is really an invitation. It is an invitation to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
The most repeated statement that ever came from the lips of our Lord recorded in Scripture is this invitation: "Follow Me." To Peter, Andrew, and James, and John, He said, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." To Levi, the tax collector, He said, "Follow Me." And to the open multitude that day, He said, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and"—what?—"Follow Me." As Jesus says this here in our text, in this context, He is, remember, standing before the unsaved multitude at the temple when He was there for the Feast of the Tabernacles, and He is setting forth Himself as the Light of the world, and He is inviting sinners to come and follow Him.
And please note that we are to follow Jesus Christ. We are to follow the person of Christ. The invitation here was not to follow a church, nor was it to follow a creed or a code or a cause, but Christ Himself. The person of Christ Himself, who is the light of the world. The invitation is not to follow religion. The invitation here is not to follow some sort of a ritual of do's and don'ts and a list to follow, but rather this invitation is issued so that men and women are called to follow the Redeemer Himself, the Light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The invitation also to follow is open to all. When He says, "He who follows Me," the "He" is as open and as broad and as wide as the entire human race. Anyone, anywhere, anytime who follows Christ will be transformed, will be saved. And the word, follow, ‘akoloutho’ conveys the idea of someone who gives himself completely to the one followed—completely, totally, wholeheartedly, from the top of your head to the sole of your feet, outside and inside.
It is not enough to merely look at this Light, Jesus is saying. It's not merely enough to look at the Light. It is not enough to simply gaze upon this Light. It is not enough to simply admire the Light. It is not enough even to call others to come and see the Light. We must follow the Light. We must follow the Light. One step at a time, we must follow the Light. We must follow the Light as a traveler follows the light on a dark night.
J. C. Ryle has written, and I quote, "As a soldier follows his general, as the servant follows his master, as the scholar follows his teacher, as a sheep follows his shepherd, just so ought a professing Christian to follow Christ." It is not negotiable. Jesus demands that all of us who would be identified with Him, we must follow Him. In other words, we must break from the world and no longer follow the course of this world, the mindset of this age. We must now turn around. Turn around—that's what repentance is. Turn around and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Turning around, turning our backs, to use the language of 1 Thessalonians, from idols and turn to the living God.
To follow here is synonymous with saving faith. To follow Christ is to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a decisive commitment of one's life to Christ that is so active, so dynamic, so wholehearted that one follows for the rest of their life Jesus Christ wherever He leads. Wherever He leads. To follow Christ is synonymous with committing one's life to Christ. And please note also that Jesus will not follow us. He will not follow us. We must follow Him. Jesus would not simply join up with our lives and go with us in the direction that we're already going. You know, let's add Him to our life. Lord, you know, hop in and we're going to make our own chart, our own course. You just hop along and just bless us. You know, we'll have You in our lives—fire insurance. No, no. No, that wouldn't do. That wouldn't do.
Instead, Jesus calls us to follow Him. And to follow Him and go distinctly in a different direction. This calls for a decisive change in one's life direction. Decisive change. This calls for a new life of supreme allegiance to a Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' — ‘Kyrios, Kyrios’ — and do not do what I say?" This calls for a new loyalty to Jesus Christ. Notice Jesus does not say where this will lead. There's trust. There's allegiance, loyalty. In other words, put your faith in Me, put your trust in Me, and follow Me wherever I will lead you for the rest of your life.
He says, "He who follows Me," and would you note that "follows" ‘akolouthei,’ is in the present tense. You know what that means? In other words, this is something that we are to do every single moment of every day. We are to be always following Christ. This is not a one-time decision at the moment of conversion and nothing else, and then we go off and do our own thing. No, no. Rather, to follow Christ is to make a decisive commitment of one's life that will impact, affect, the rest of my life and everything within it. Everything.
When we step out of the world, we align ourselves with Christ, and as we follow Him, we are to think as He thinks. We are to act as He acts. We are to speak as He has spoken. We are to go wherever He leads. We are to do whatever He requires, to sacrifice whatever He demands. We are to teach whatever He has taught us. We are to be sold-out disciples to Him with a living, active, dynamic faith. A true believer, beloved, is a follower of Christ. A follower of Christ. There are no believers who are not followers of Jesus. Mark it down. That doesn't exist. To be a follower of Christ is to be so identified with Christ, so united to Christ, so joined to Christ, in union with Christ, that we will go wherever He leads.
In fact, the early Christians in Acts 9:2 were said to be those on “the Way." They're those of "the Way." They weren't those who merely were sitting passively. They belonged to "the Way." They were on "the Way." They were stepping out. They were moving out for God, so much so that they were identified as those who are part of "the Way." They are on "the Way."
So it must be with us as well. If we profess Jesus Christ, we are supposed to be those who are on "the Way," identified with "the Way." We must be identified as those who are actively moving out for the Lord Jesus Christ, serving Him, loving Him, obeying Him, expanding His kingdom.
James Montgomery Boice wrote a book titled Christ's Call for Discipleship. This book defines with much precision what it is to be a true follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple of Jesus Christ. In the first chapter, he gives five key words that define what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ, what it is to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to share those five key words with us, and it's not a multiple choice. They are all bound up in this word "follow" and the word "disciple." And it can't be just that you and I can pick two out of three, two out of five, or three out of five. No, no. It's all five. All five will be implanted, embedded in our soul if we are truly followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have responded to the invitation of Christ, "He who follows Me," these will be true of us. And the first word is obedience. Obedience.
When Jesus says, "He who follows Me," part and parcel of this word is obedience. Boice noted, and I quote, "Without obedience there is no real Christianity. Those who are genuinely Christ's sheep obey His call from the beginning and enter into a life characterized by obedience.” It would be impossible to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and not to obey Christ, for that is what it means to follow. You can't follow someone if you don't obey where they tell you to go, right? The obedience of a true believer will be unequivocal. It will be uncompromising, sincere, and an integral part of their salvation.
In fact, the Apostle Peter actually described salvation as an act of obedience. In 1 Peter 1:22–23, listen to the language. He says, "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, that is, through the living and enduring word of God." "In obedience to the truth." The truth here is a reference to the gospel, which is essentially a command to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:3, "By this we know that we have come to know Him," — How? Tell us, John, how? — "if we keep His commandments." "If we keep His commandments." ‘Tereo’—keep, watchful obedience. It's not obedience externally motivated by force or pressure or fear that is a trepidation, but internal obedience out of pure love, love from the heart, because now we have a new Master who is a benevolent Master. The Greek word ‘tereo’ means to watch or guard as something precious. Precious.
A Christian demonstrates he knows God by a heartfelt desire to guard his obedience as a treasure. To guard the word of God by obeying it as a treasure. People who claim to be Christians yet live in disregard for God's commandments are not following. You know what this does? It undermines their testimony and calls into question the validity of their claim to know Christ, to follow Christ. You can't really claim to follow Christ, but you're actually going in a different direction than Christ is leading.
The word that John uses for commandments ‘entole’ is also significant. In 1 John, the apostle uses it to refer to the precepts of Christ at least 14 times. "Follow Me" means that you exhibit a recurring, ongoing, consistent spirit of obedience toward safeguarding the precepts of God, the precepts of Christ. It means to have a regular desire that they be honored—the precepts of Christ—that they are obeyed, a consistent determination to obey them. So number one is obedience, and Jesus Himself, you remember, He said in Matthew 7, verse 21, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does,” — does — “the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter."
The second word, not only obedience, the second word is repentance. Repentance. To be a true follower of Christ, there must be repentance throughout life's journey. Boice writes, and I quote, "How could it be otherwise? Jesus is the holy, sinless Son of God who has never taken one step in any sinful direction. Jesus has never led the way into a single sinful thought. So anyone who is following Him, not some imaginary Jesus, must by definition have turned his back upon sin and set his face towards righteousness."
Now Boice acknowledges that Christians do sin, but we're not perfect here, so he says when they do, they must confess it and turn from it and be restored to fellowship again. But anyone who thinks he can follow Christ without renouncing his sin is dreadfully confused, and anyone who claims to be following Christ while actually continuing in unrighteousness is deluded, and he or she is not a Christian. To be followers of Christ is to be identified by repentance. Listen to—I love the doctor—how the doctor put it, Lloyd-Jones. Listen concerning repentance, what he says. He gives us a good definition of repentance.
If you're wondering what repentance is biblically, here's what repentance is, and I quote, "Repentance means that you realize, you realize that you are guilty, vile, sinner in the presence of God, and that you deserve the wrath and the punishment of God, that you are hell bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you, and that you long to get rid of it, and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form." He goes on to say, "You renounce the world, whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook, as well as its practice, and you deny yourself and take up your cross and go after Christ." And then he ends with this: "Your nearest and dearest, and the whole world may call you a fool, or say you have religious mania. You may have to suffer financially, but it makes no difference. That's repentance” Lloyd-Jones says.
Followers of Christ are identified by obedience, repentance, and Boice says, thirdly, submission. Submission. Picture submission. The Lord pictures discipleship, Boice says, as putting on a yoke, taking the yoke of Christ. And it's the picture of an animal coming into submission under the authority of its master and being engaged in the work of the master. He writes, and I quote, "Putting on a yoke suggests submission to Christ for His assigned work. It is the picture of an animal yoked to others as well as to a plow. When Jesus used this image, He was saying that to follow Him was to submit to Him. It was to receive Him as Lord of one's life."
Submission, obedience, repentance, submission, fourth, commitment. Commitment. “It's impossible,” —Boice writes, — “to follow Christ without being committed to Him. A lack of commitment means deviating from His path or falling away from Him. On the other hand, it is impossible to be committed to Christ without following Him, for a failure to follow really means being committed to some other thing or some other person.”
And finally, the fifth and last word Boice uses that is not negotiable on being a true follower of Christ is perseverance. Perseverance. He writes, “following is not an isolated act done once and never to be repeated. It is a lifetime commitment that is not fulfilled here until the final barrier is crossed, the crown received, and then all other rewards laid gratefully at the feet of Jesus. Discipleship,” —he writes, —- “is not simply a door to be entered but a path to be followed, and that the disciple proves the validity of his discipleship by following the path to the very end.”
Every true disciple of Jesus follows Jesus. Follows Jesus. Follows Jesus and follows Him all the way to glory. Follows Him all the way to the end of one's life. Follows Him, if necessary, to a martyr's stake and will not hold back, will not shrink back and evaporate into the crowd. This is the invitation that our Lord set forth when He said, "He who follows Me." Let me ask you before we move on, dear people in this place, are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Now that you understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ biblically, are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Notice I did not ask you, are you a passive professing believer? Are you an active follower of Jesus? Because to be a mere passive professing believer is a non-saving faith, is a pseudo-faith. But a true saving faith is synonymous with an active follower of Christ.
Let me help us really answer the questions being asked this morning according to the five words mentioned. Let me put it this way: are you pursuing a lifestyle of obedience to Jesus? Is that the pattern? We're talking again about direction, not perfection. Is that the pattern? Are you pursuing a lifestyle of obedience to Christ? Have you renounced a life of pursuing sin in order to pursue holiness and purity and righteousness and Christ-likeness? Have you submitted your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the ‘Kyrios?’ Are you willing to go wherever He leads you, and have you assumed His assigned work in His name? Are you so committed to Christ that you are not deviating from His path? And are you persevering in a lifelong commitment to Jesus Christ, following His path to the very end, no matter what, by the grace of God and the enablement of the Spirit? The answer to these questions will reveal if you are a true follower of Christ.
Third, I want you to note with me now the imitation of Jesus Christ—not only the invitation but also the imitation of Jesus Christ. Back to our verse, verse 12. As we continue and look at verse 12, the next six words, it says of such a follower—now this is absolutely important—"will never walk in the darkness." Such a follower of Jesus Christ, Jesus says, the one who comes to Him who is the light of the world and follows Him, Jesus Himself here, He says, "will never walk in the darkness," "will never walk in the darkness."
Those who are following Christ, who is the Light, the true Light, the only Light, "will never walk in the darkness." And would you please notice with me that Jesus issues this emphatic negative in the Greek? He puts a double negative, ‘ou me’—no, not, never—no, not, never, will walk in the darkness. And here the word "walk"—we're familiar with this word. We've come across this word many, many times. ‘Peripateo’ —it speaks of one's daily lifestyle. It talks about a lifestyle, one's daily activities, one's daily choices, the course and the conduct of one's life as a whole, the pattern, the daily walk. It pictures the path and pursuit that we follow in life, and Jesus Himself says that the one who “follows Me will” —no, not, never— “walk in the darkness.”
The darkness here refers to two things. One, it refers to spiritual ignorance. It refers to the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of lies. It refers to false teaching, false doctrine, false gospel. It refers to soul-destroying errors. Now, the one who has come to Jesus Christ by faith, has become a follower of Jesus Christ, has now the Holy Spirit—got the Holy Spirit indwelling him or her—and has now the mind of Christ. And 1 John chapter 2, verse 20 says, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know." And the anointing of the Holy Spirit we have as believers—He guards the believer from soul-destroying errors. Those who are followers of Christ will not walk in the darkness of the devil's lies, false teaching. There will be those who will adhere to the truth and will know the truth and seek the truth and guard the truth.
But second, the darkness here refers to spiritual wickedness. Spiritual wickedness. It refers to the darkness of sin, impurity, the darkness of perversion. It refers to worldliness, self-pursuits, sinful lifestyles, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. And Jesus said, if you are a follower of Me, categorically, you will never walk in such darkness. Every unbeliever—every unbeliever—is in the darkness. Every true believer has left the darkness and no longer lives in the darkness, no longer walks in the darkness as a lifestyle.
Let me give you some cross-references. This is a very important subject. John 12:46, "I have come," —Jesus said, — "as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” “Will not remain in darkness." Jesus is emphatic. He says, if you have believed in Me, you will not remain in the darkness. You will come out of the darkness. You will forsake the darkness. You will come to the Light—the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the world. You cannot be a true believer in Jesus Christ and remain in the darkness as a lifestyle.
1 John 1:6, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him"—if we say, I'm a believer, I believe in Jesus—"if we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness," —John says, — "we lie and do not know the truth.” “Do not know the truth." If we say we have fellowship with Him—in other words, if we claim to be a believer, if we claim to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, if we claim to have union and communion with the Lord—and yet walk in the darkness, he says, “we lie and do not do the truth.” That is to say, our testimony is bogus. It's empty. It's false. Our testimony is a lie. It has no basis whatsoever in reality.
If we claim to be a Christian, if we claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ and yet continue to be as a pig that goes back to wallow in the mud—to use the language of 2 Peter chapter 2, verse 22—and to be like a dog that returns to its vomit, John says, we lie. And our testimony is not valid. It's not. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 7:21–23, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you;’” — I never knew you. There was never a day that I ever knew you. — “Depart from Me, you who"—what?—"practice lawlessness." To put it in John 8:12 language: you who walk in the darkness.
Those are strong words, Jesus says. A true believer, in looking at the macro picture—looking at the habitual lifestyle of a person, the pattern, not just an isolated five minutes here and there, no, no—but the big picture of a person's life, the pattern, the lifestyle. If you're a follower of Christ, you will not be living in the darkness. No, never. First John 2:11,John writes, "But the one who hates his brother" —meaning there's no love in his heart for another believer, — "the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness blinded his eyes." Such a person professes to know Christ, but such a profession, John says, is a lie. It's not the truth because your very lifestyle raises, really, questions about your confession. It doesn't match.
One final verse, 1 John 1:7 — on the other hand,1 John 1:7 "but if we walk in the light," —and the word walk here, same word, habitual, walking, pattern, direction, lifestyle, if we are walking, habitual walking in the light, referring to God now as He, God, Himself is the light, — "we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." What a contrast. What an amazing contrast. One walks in the darkness, the other walks in the light. The one who walks in the darkness hates his brother or so-called supposed brother, and the one who walks in the light loves the brother.
John says the one who walks in the darkness has never been born again because to come to the light, you will no longer walk in the darkness. These verses are very powerful. Many of us, no doubt, as you're listening to these verses and as you hear this truth being underscored, these verses being quoted, no doubt, many in our midst, perhaps, are thinking of loved ones. You think of family members, think of people very close and dear to us, and when we've reached out to them in the name of Christ, and we want God's best for them, and our heart is burdened for them.
You probably heard it said before, a right diagnosis is half the cure. We must understand that those who are even the closest to us, who say they are Christian, who live a deviant lifestyle, worldly lifestyle—now we turn to them and lovingly say, you are my mission field, and I'm here to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to you, and I long for your salvation, and my heart weeps over you as Jeremiah wept over the sinful people of God, religious but lost. But every true born-again believer will not, will not walk in the darkness.
I must hasten to the final heading in this powerful verse, verse 12. I want us to see the illumination of Jesus Christ now, the illumination of Jesus Christ. Please note verse 12, how it concludes. And I'll have to admit, many times, as I read the Scripture, you get so caught up with the first half of a verse—like a verse like this—you get so caught up and taken by the first half of the verse that you don't always really ponder appropriately the latter part of this verse because you get so excited about Jesus saying, "I am the Light of the world," and you don't always get to the end of the verse to contemplate there what it is saying. But I want us to note this, if you would, the last seven words, verse 12. He says, "but will have the Light of life." "But will have the Light of life."
If you're a follower of Christ, if you have stepped out of the world, if you have separated yourself from the course of this world, if you have come to align yourself by faith in Christ, this says that we have the light of life. What is this saying? This says that all who follow Christ have within them the light of life. This is a reference to Christ Himself, the light of the world, that He will live in us by His Spirit. He will shine in us—not only shine in us, but shine out of us, through us. In other words, Jesus implants in every genuine follower the Light, His Light. And this Light, He says, is the Light of life.
This is speaking of the new birth, the life of God in the soul of man. This light of life refers to spiritual life, refers to supernatural life, eternal life, abundant life that is now within each and every follower of Jesus Christ. And at the very beginning, this Light of life is the personal saving knowledge of God. John 17:3, “this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." This began in that act, the act that we call the act of regeneration, the act of the new birth.
And would you please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4 for a moment? Such an amazing text, and the sentence really begins in verse 3, in which the Apostle Paul is writing regarding the obstacles that we face in ministry, the obstacles we face in proclaiming the gospel, in evangelism, in reaching others in the name of Christ. And he says in verse 3, "even if our gospel is veiled," — and the idea here is almost like a blanket placed over the gospel, that the gospel itself cannot be seen, it's really veiled, cloaked, covered over, such that unbelievers cannot see what we're holding forth to them by presenting the gospel — "even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this age"—who is that? That's satan, the devil, the evil one—"has blinded the minds of the unbelieving."
Every unbeliever, his eyes, her eyes are blinded by Satan so that they cannot see the gospel, they cannot desire the gospel. He goes on to say, "so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." That is to say, the gospel is Christ, and Christ is the image of God, and the glory of God is shining forth, bursting forth in all of its brilliance in the gospel, in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the gospel, and it is shining brighter than 10,000 times 10,000 suns in the sky above. But the unbeliever is blinded, completely blinded to this brilliant, blazing, dazzling, glorious, splendid, resplendent, majestic, transcendent truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Look at verse 5: "For we do not preach ourselves." Now, why would he say something like this? Well, because there are those teachers and preachers, when met with rejection as they minister the Word, they become tempted to change their message and begin to really try to put salt and pepper by talking about themselves and parading themselves and use themselves just endlessly in their messages in an attempt to get through to the people whom they are speaking to. And Paul says, we're not here preaching ourselves. When we give witness, when we stand and give a testimony, it's not about us. We don’t preach ourselves, we will not trivialize the eternal message of the glory of God in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. “We will not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as what? ‘Kyrios,’ Lord, as Lord, and ourselves as ‘doulos,’ slaves, slaves for the sake of Christ.
Verse 6: "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness.'" “Light shall shine out of darkness.” That takes us all the way back to Genesis 1, right? Verse 3—you recall the six consecutive days of creation—and on day one, it was God who said in a dark universe, "Let there be light." "Let there be light." God sovereignly, omnipotently commanded there to be light in the darkness, and the entire universe, I mean, lit up in a millisecond. Now continue in verse 6: "For God, Who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness’" — Now watch this — “is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” You know what that is? That is sovereign, sovereign regeneration. That's sovereign grace. Because the same God who omnipotently spoke physical light into a dark universe. It is the same God—the very same God—who performed an even yet greater display of power by commanding spiritual light to shine into darkened hearts.
And that is the only way any one of us here today—anyone on the entire planet—has ever come to a saving knowledge of Christ. There has been a divine, supernatural light that God has commanded to shine into a darkened heart such that we see it. We see it. Our eyes are opened. The veil is removed. We see God. We see the cross. We see Christ. We see ourselves now as we've never seen all of this before, and in the moment, it's like the lights come on, and we are illumined and enlightened by the grace of God.
That is the only way that any one of us has come to be a follower of Jesus. This is the only way. It's not that we were smarter than the person to our left or the person to our right, or we were more spiritual. It's not like I was smarter than my other three brothers and two sisters. No, no. It's not that we are smarter. It was simply God—God by His mercy—the God who said, "Let there be light." He said in my heart, in your heart, child of God, "Let there be light."
He initiated, and by His mercy, and God by His tender compassion chose to initiate and to act upon your darkened heart and my darkened heart. And God commanded a shaft of light to come beaming from His throne of grace and to light up—that would be your testimony—you could say, to light up my soul and to light up my mind. And in a moment, it was as though the sun itself was shining within my own heart. I could see, and it was so bright that I, in a moment, saw my need, my desperate need, of Christ. And I ran to Him and I looked to Him and embraced Him by faith.
And that's precisely what Paul is saying. And that is what Jesus is saying in John 8:12, that we will have within us the Light of life. And as He commands light, He commands life, and there's a spiritual resurrection, and we are raised, raised up from the grave of sin, and the light of God shines upon us, our once spiritually dead soul, and we're birthed into the kingdom of God. And our first step is a step of following Christ. "Awake, sleeper," —Paul says in Ephesians 5:14, — "and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
The new birth is a great awakening. It is a spiritual resurrection. It is divine illumination, and we no longer remain in darkness, but we see a great light. And I love Colossians 1:13, "He rescued us." “He rescued us from the authority of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The previous verse, verse 12, says that "the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints"—where? — “in light.” “In light.”
God, if you will, invaded the kingdom of darkness, laid hold of us by His grace, and transferred us, rescued us out of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of His light. And 1 Thessalonians 5 says that He has made us to be “sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness." We no longer walk in the darkness; we are now living in the light. We now see what we could never previously see. We now experience that which once we were dead to. It's the light of the world that has come shining forth and beaming forth from God into our once darkened hearts.
And Jesus says in Matthew 5:14, you remember, of us, He says, "You are the light of the world." And there, when He makes that statement, remember this light is not a self-derived light. It is a Light that has been placed within us. It is the Light of life. It is the One who is the Light of the world now coming to indwell us, and now we become a city set on a hill. He says let our light shine. Then, the darker the world, the brighter the light will shine. Jesus said, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket.” In other words, we're not just to be living unto ourselves. We meet, we have a holy huddle, and live unto ourselves—just meet sort of in the basement of life all the time—and for our light to never shine into the highways and the byways and the marketplaces of the world. No. No.
He says you are to take the light and set it on top of a mountain and remove anything that would hinder it from shining, and let it shine to the end of the world. He says in verse 16, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Are your good works important in the Christian life? Absolutely, they are. We're not saved by works; we're saved by grace. But we are saved unto good works, prepared for us beforehand.
If there are no good works, it's because there is no true faith. There's no true faith. All true faith is moving out to follow Christ. And as we do, we are a city set on a hill, and we are to let our light shine. Ephesians 5:8, "for you were formerly darkness"—that's who you were, formerly darkness, — “but now you are light in the Lord;" and then He gives the command, "walk as children of light." Walk in accordance to who you really are.
Romans 13:12, "The night is almost gone, the day is at hand. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." Let us walk properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, and sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” And I want to say again at this: this light is not a spark that we ignited, that arises out of us, that is self-generated. This Light is the Light of Christ Himself, who has come to occupy our souls and to indwell our innermost being. And Christ now is at the very epicenter of our life. Wherever we go, we are to be light—light of the world like Him. Jesus is the Light of the World, capital L. And you and I are like the moon to the sun—we are simply reflecting His supreme light that has been placed within us. We are to let Christ shine out of our lives by our good works, by our gracious words, and by the way we conduct ourselves.
I want to give the last word to Matthew Henry. And I quote: "They shall have the light of life—that knowledge and enjoyment of God which will be to them the light of spiritual life in this world and of everlasting life in the other world, where there will be no darkness, no death." Henry says, “follow Christ, and we will undoubtedly be happy in both worlds. Follow Christ, we will follow Him into Heaven.” Let me ask you again, are you following Christ? Are you following the Light of the World? He's the Light of the World. He's the Light of the World. And if you don't have Christ, you have nothing but darkness within.
The message is shining forth right now this morning. It is the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you do not see it, if you do not see your desperate need of it, it is because you're blinded. You're still in darkness. It's not because the Scripture is not spoken directly this morning and pointedly this morning. No, no, it's because in the clear presentation of the gospel, it remains veiled to you, and you just don't get it. You don't see it. I pray for you. I pray for you, and I long for God to remove the covering from your eyes this morning. I long for God to circumcise your heart and for the light—the light of the world—to finally burst forth and to shine into the dark recesses of your mind and your heart, and for you to be lit up by God, to be lit up by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.
And it may very well be, it may surely be, that there are some here this morning, sitting right where you are, who have not yet become a follower of Jesus Christ. You might call this church even your home church. You might even attend Tuesday Bible study or Saturday night youth meeting, or you might come periodically, or you might even attend prayer meeting. But you are actually—let me put it this way—you may do all of these things, but are you actually a follower of Jesus? Are you actually so identified with Christ that as He moves to the left, you go to the left; as He goes to the right, you go to the right; as He steers away from sin, you steer away from sin; as He journeys on to the truth, you journey on to the truth?
That has never happened to you. Maybe today is the day that you realize for the very first time that that's never happened to you. I plead with you this morning. I plead with you to ask God—ask Him—to shine the light into your darkened soul this morning, and for you to at last have eyes to see, to believe in Jesus Christ with an active faith whereby you no longer are passive and paralyzed, a mere hearer of the Word, but you at last are awakened by sovereign grace and raised by sovereign grace and illumined and enlightened by sovereign grace.
Oh, may God do this in you today. I urge you, I plead with you to follow Christ. Step out. Take that first step. Follow Him. Ask Him. What would hold you back this morning? What would hold you back? Why would you procrastinate? Why would you push the can down the road? Why would you not step out and follow Jesus Christ? Why would you follow the devil? Why would you continue to go with the world? The devil is going to Hell. The world is perishing, and it will be subject to eternal destruction. Why would you go with that crowd in that direction when you could step out now—this moment—and follow after the Light of the World and follow Him all the way to glory, to Heaven? You must in your heart believe, and as an act of your will, you must take one step after another in following after the Light of the World.
If you will, it would be so obvious and it would be so clear, and you will no longer be in the darkness, and you will have the light of life within you. And you will literally go from darkness to light, and you will go from death to life, and you will go from the road to Hell to the road to Heaven—that narrow path. And it could not be any more clearer. So I ask you again: What is your verdict? What are you gonna do with Jesus? Right now. What are you gonna do? What is your choice? I press this to you yet one more time, and I pray—I pray that as you sit here, if you're outside of Christ, I pray that you feel so uncomfortable. So uncomfortable. I put it before you: follow Christ. Because if you do not follow—listen carefully—you will have no one to blame but yourself. Not only now, but all throughout the ages to come in the lake of fire and brimstone, where there is not one drop of mercy.
Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, and you will be saved. And, child of God—but the rescued from darkness to light. Let us live as sons and daughters of light. And if you're dealing with a besetting sin, don't buy into the lie of the enemy and the devil to say, oh, you know, you messed up so many times, God doesn't even want to bother with you. Oh no. Failure is never final, because we have a gracious God. Turn to Him. He's by nature forgiving. Turn to Him, and He will cleanse, and He will restore, and He will set you back on the right path.
Let's pray.
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