In the sermon titled 'The Light Of The World Is Jesus,' the speaker addresses the diverse views on spiritual gifts within the church, advocating for unity rather than division. The sermon centers around the scripture from John 3:14-21, where Jesus converses with Nicodemus about the need for belief in Him for eternal life. The speaker emphasizes that salvation comes through faith in Jesus, who was sent to save, not condemn the world. The sermon explores the recurring theme of light versus darkness, highlighting how people often reject Jesus because they prefer the darkness of their sins. The speaker discusses God's boundless love, using analogies like the Mariana Trench to illustrate its depth. The sermon underscores the importance of evangelism, urging believers to come to the light and share it with others. It also highlights the paradox of love and judgment, explaining that while God loves the world, He also judges sin. The speaker stresses the necessity of being 'born again' and living a life transformed by faith in Jesus, encouraging listeners to continuously seek the light of Christ in their lives.

And the good morning church family. I need to address something right out of the gates before I even get started and that is something's been brought to my attention. Now, a few years ago, we went over the statement of faith for the Voice of Faith Bible Church. And in there, we have what is an explanation of, or we had, we went back and forth on it for quite some time, What is the explanation of the spiritual gifts? And so there's many, many different views on this.

It starts with extreme Pentecostalism and it ends with extreme legalism. And so we're faced with what is this great gap in between. We took a stand on that, and that stand was to not take a stand on that. And so the reality of that is that we did not want to put a line. We did not want to draw a line as far as the work of the Holy Spirit in the world and in the church today.

And so, I did in previous messages, I drew lines where I used extremes. And to me, it didn't seem like it was extreme or it seemed like it was far enough wide, but it really wasn't, and I apologize for that. I used extremes, I drew lines, and I don't want to use this particular point in doctrine as a point of division. And that's what the devil would have us do. And so, that being said, I want to caution us as a body on that particular situation where we don't hold experiences over the Word of God, over Scripture.

The Word of God has got to be the final, regardless of what's happened. But that being said, I'm open. And if anyone would like to talk to me about this at all, please feel free to pull me aside and talk to me. I'm not perfect and I make mistakes and I have done that And I apologize for that. I don't want to cause division.

My goal is to preach the Word of God in a way that it will affect our lives For the glory of God. I don't want to divide. And so that being said, I would like to get into our text today. It's a powerful text. We're in the end of this dialogue right now between what is Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and the man Nicodemus, the religious man Nicodemus.

And so in order to rightly grab a hold of this, I would like to get it right from verse 14 to 21, really. And this is where this conversation really takes a turn, where Jesus steps up and says, hey, I'm that guy. And here's what your proper response is. And so let's read that, follow along. John chapter 3 verses 14 through 21.

Jesus said, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is a condemnation.

That the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light. Lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they may have, that they have been done in God. Let's open in prayer.

Father, this morning we thank you for your Word. We thank you for this text, Lord God, this ancient text that speaks to us this morning as we sit here and we talk about Your Son. We talk about light and darkness. We talk about condemnation. Father, we talk about the gift of Christ.

Lord, might our hearts just be open wide to receive this, Father God, and our dispositions, our hearts, our possessions, our affections, just shift, Father God, this morning. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. And so we saw the progression of this. And what we see is in 14, 15, Jesus is calling Himself what He is. So must the Son of Man be lifted up.

And Nicodemus is not getting this all yet. And then in v. 15, it really says the same thing almost in three verses straight. It says that the Son of Man must be lifted up. And then in verse 15, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Right there, it's telling us that we need to believe on Him. It's our job? Believe. Believe. There's no works we can do.

And then verse 16, "...for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And then 17, it builds on that momentum and it expounds that, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And so we're looking at walking in that light. And so it's the same theme, literally, for a few weeks now. And I think we're on our fourth message in this discourse, this dialogue between Nicodemus and Jesus.

And it's just so thick. It's just so beautiful and exposing of the work of God in His Son, Jesus Christ. And it seems like there's a repetition. And we've been going through this, and it's almost to a point where I sit at home and I study this stuff for hours and hours on end, And I think how can I tell people what the importance of this is that I'm not rerunning last week and the week before and the week before? And Scripture does have some repetition in it.

And it overlaps and it has various meanings. It's like a diamond. You can look at it from every different direction and you can see something different. It's something that we need to really look at from so many different angles. And we can look at the repetition not as something like, you know what?

Yeah, the first time you said, you must be born again. I went, check that box. I got that box checked. I'm good, right? So now I don't need to listen.

I'm kind of checking out on you. But you know what? This repetition is a couple of things. Number one, it's a grace to our repetition of forgetfulness. We forget.

We're leaky vessels and we forget. And we need to be told again and again. And another point is that the importance of this, honestly, I could preach on it for one year straight and nothing else. And we still wouldn't get to the depth of the love of God for His people. For you in particular, the love of God for, put your name in there, I'm not gonna pick on anybody this morning, yet.

The love of God for Jerry. That's the depth of that we don't understand. And the importance of the text, it came to me as we see the doubt in the mind of Nicodemus and how we are called to go out and give this truth of this text how important this message is. And the immediate response to This gift that we've got has got to be to go out and give it. I remember when I got saved.

Who? Maybe Jim remembers, but I could not shut my mouth. I went and I told everybody they needed Jesus. And here I am, I don't know, 36 years, 37 years later, telling everybody, you need Jesus. And the message is the same.

But There's a man that was a doubtful person. And I don't want to fall into that and I want to cut that off in the beginning, but at the end of John, John 20, 29, this is about Thomas after he had been told that Jesus walked out of the grave. He's like, no, I don't think so. That just doesn't happen. And he said, no, we saw him.

And then Jesus stood in their midst and here Jesus said to him in John 20, 29, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And so we're standing in this place right here where we're hearing the truth, we see the truth, and we're hearing it in repetition. And the reality is that we have all been invited into a relationship where we cannot see, but we can believe. We are all invited, we're all called into this.

And as we pray and share this, I think about the times that I have wept for lost souls, for my family, for my mother who fell down again last night. And I see the clock ticking on her. She is not doing well. And we need to stop and get some paedial light for her on the way after, by the way, so I don't forget. That's one way to not forget, right?

And we need to drop that off and spend time with her, and we need to give her the Gospel again and again. You know why? Because I had to hear it a hundred times before I got saved. I think she's going on 5, 000 right now, but she doesn't have long. How many times have you wept over lost souls?

Over those who have not come to Christ? And what does your heart feel? What is your burden? And so we pray as we pray and we share with family, and we see our list of friends that we've been praying for, and co-workers, a list of reasons why they don't believe. And to a point, I almost need a better, a more theological reason why people reject Jesus Christ.

Because I did until the Holy Spirit took a hold of me and slapped me up good, and I received Christ as my Lord and Savior. And I don't understand why some people just don't get it. And today we're given an opening, an understanding, a greater understanding of why people reject Jesus Christ. Why do people reject God's love that we talked about last week? How big and deep and wide and marvelous God's love for the world is.

And yet it's rejected. Why is the way so wide that leads to destruction and so narrow that leads to Jesus Christ. Why does it have to be like that? And so today we're faced with what is a paradox of love and judgment. Because we have to go through Scripture as it is.

I could skip over this and I could tell you of the great love for you that God has. And how if you love Him enough, you're going to give money and then He's going to bless you more and He's going to love you more, and we would grow like you wouldn't believe and we would thrive as a church. We'd get a new building in no time. It's not going to work. And so, The fact is that we have this paradox of love and judgment.

After last week being on the love of God and how great that is, and now we're confronted with judgment and condemnation and conviction in the text today. John just said in verse 16 that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. This is God's love for us. And John 9.39 will read that Jesus says, for judgment, I came into this world. Okay, how do you reconcile those two?

How do you take the two of those and put them together? How can they both be true? Is it possible to offer an experience of love like he did in sending his son, and joy, and to have that experience turn into a judgment? See, it all comes together to a point in one thing, in one act, I'll say. He sent his son to the world because he loved the world, the sinners, the filthy, the rotten, even Me.

He loved. And so how can it be that he'd send people to hell? Why is there a judgment? And so there's an analogy that I had heard, and I'm going to temper it with my own analogy as well. But if a person, suppose we love great music, this symphony comes to town, and we're used to listening to our music in the symphony on the stereo, on the radio, on your AirPods or whatever it is now, I don't know.

But you just really get into the, and you never feel closer to God than when you're in the midst of the thunder of this great symphony, and you just, this amazing, the best of the best are coming to town, and you have a friend that you've told about this for a long time, And you tell them, I have to take you. You've got to go to the symphony with me. He's like, sure, I'll go. And so the guy, you pick him up, you take him to supper, you go to the symphony, and you sit down and you start listening. And you are just amazingly inspired.

You're lifted up in the thunder. And you can't help but notice he's like fidgeting through the whole thing. It's just not His thing. And so the beauty of this is just it's completely missed. He's sitting there evening wide in this fidgety disposition and afterward, he's like, I don't want to be rude or nothing, but that didn't care for me.

There was no guitar solos, no nothing. I'm sorry, but it's just not me. I just got nothing out of it. See, this does not judge the symphony. The symphony was amazing.

It was glorious. It judges the person that listened to it. And at times I feel the same way. I have friends that I'll take out fishing. I mean, there's so many.

I could say turkey hunting in the spring. I could say deer hunting in the fall. I could say Lake Michigan fishing. And we get up early. Maybe I lost most of you right there.

But we get up early and we get out in the boat. And there's a couple of you that have done this with me. And it is just to me, it's just this experience where you get out there in the boat and it's dark in the morning yet, you can see the stars. And as you motor in the dark to this spot that you have predetermined, talking with charter captains and such where you're going to do this, and you start dropping lines down, and you put lines down in the water as you troll. And then as you're going, you're sitting and you're waiting, and the sun starts to come up, and the birds start to fly around.

It's just glorious. The hum of the motor, the water, the fishing poles all bent like this. They're waiting for a fish to bite. Boom! One pops.

Boom, boom, boom. Fish on! The excitement is just over the top. You grab that rod and you hand it or you reel it. It's just amazing.

I can tell by the boredom in some of your eyes that it just doesn't do much. This to me is just like, you see God in His creation. From the time you hook up the boat to the time the fish pulls off the grill. It's just glorious. I just love that.

Some people just don't get it. That's not a judgment on the experience. It's a judgment on the person. See? And so this is sometimes the same thing when we're sharing Jesus with other people.

They can see Jesus in you. You can tell them the truth. But it's missed. They don't see the glory and the beauty of Jesus in your life, in the world today, this is a judgment on them because they miss what is the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of humanity. And it says, but to those who are saved, there's a new perspective.

Colossians 1.13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. This is the work of God. This is where we stand if you are a true born-again believer. This is the perspective we're given.

And so, To not see the glory in it is not an option. And too often, and I'll admit myself, I miss things. I don't see that glory in it. I miss things until I reset. I've got to get in the Word.

I've got to get in prayer. I've got to talk to my wife who pulls me out of the pickers and puts me on a track sometimes. And so, I look at verses 17-21 and they reveal more of why we need the new birth, but also why so many people reject this glorious truth. In 316, it sounds great that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish. It sounds great until the light exposes what's in a person.

Until they come to that light, and that light exposes what they really are inside. What their heart is, what their life is, what their affections are. And so, it's not belief if it doesn't cost you anything. So your belief will cost you your life. Ultimately, it will cost you everything.

It'll cost you everything that you have because when you get born again, you died. When you are resurrected into real life, when that heart of stone is turned into a heart of flesh, everything that you have is not yours. You lost everything. All your time, all your money, all your possessions, your wife, your children, you've lost it all. It all belongs to Jesus now in you.

You're accountable to Him. And so, in the text today, we see what are two responses to the light. There's two responses. Those that find comfort in it and those that flee from it, that hide from it. So the reason that people refuse to believe what they cannot see is because they love what they can see.

I see this too often in witnessing two people. I have several family members and friends that dwell in religiosity, and it feels good because they can see it. They're given affirmation that they can see. They're told to walk down this road where they're affirmed salvation by action. And they can see that and it feels good and so they do it.

They're being lied to. They're being lied to. Those people have a destination that is not in glory someday. And if you get an opportunity, beg with them, plead with them. But the problem is that they love their sin and they don't want to give up what's in the dark in this.

And I want to get into that deeper right now, but The first point is that Jesus came on a mission to save verse verse 17 And that's in it reads for God not sent his son of the world to condemn the world But that the world through him might be saved The mission that Jesus came on is my first point. It's a mission to save. This is a mission to save. God is about unafraid evangelism. He is about sending His Son, This is the example we're given, to a lost and dying, hopeless bunch of losers.

That's us. To save their filthy, rotten, rebellious souls. That's the mission that God had in sending His Son. He sent Jesus to live among them 2, 000 years ago. He sent Jesus to live among us today.

Okay, Jesus lives among us today. And to bear His Father's name and the mission is still the same today as it was then, to save sinners. And so to show the deep, deep love of God on a mission to save, Ephesians 3, 18 and 19, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. We can't really understand the concept of salvation of the gospel until we understand the love of God for filthy, rotten people to redeem a lost people. It's hard to understand that and there's a place that's called the Mariana Trench that's in the ocean and early sailors couldn't figure out the bottom.

Anywhere else they could kind of find the bottom of the ocean. And so they put a ship over it and they took ropes and they dropped them down. Well, there's no bottom there, so they tied another rope on. And they did that until they had every single rope on the ship tied together and dropped down. And I don't know how much rope that was.

Thousands of feet. They still could not feel the bottom of the ocean floor. They could not do it. And so they determined that there is no bottom to the ocean right there. This is an analogy of the love of God for us.

There is no bottom to it. By the way, there is a bottom to that. It's about a little less than seven miles down the Mariana Trench. It's 36, 000 feet. So that's how far down it goes.

They actually got a vessel down there and they discovered because the pressure down there is a thousand times what it is on the surface. And so when they got down there, they found unique marine life down there that had adapted to living in that. In that 36, 000 feet down. This is God's creation. It's His handiwork.

It just blows me away. I know I went on a rabbit trail there and I apologize, but the fullness of God, we could never reach the end of this well. We could never get to the end of it. And as we receive it, as we receive it in, we're called to bear it out. And like I said, this has just got to be a reflex and I'm bearing it out.

1 Peter 4, it says, above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. And we talked about this at a meeting yesterday and how important that is as Christians, love. I'm gonna say stupid things, I'm gonna screw up. I'll guarantee you that. And I'm asking a favor.

Take a look at that thing that I said, that I did, and put love on top of it. Talk to me if you need to, but put grace on it. This is what we're called to do as we receive this. How deep the Father's love for us. How vast beyond all measure.

I think I talked about that last week now that I'm mentioning it. It's just, it's a truth that I can't grasp sometimes, but most of the world doesn't get this. Most of the world will not understand this. Many don't like God because they don't want God to judge their lifestyle. And I get that a lot when I talk to people.

Other people don't fear God, so they live how they want to. And that's why. You don't fear God. You don't want to know God so that you can live how you want to. Their favorite verse is to quote, and I've been told this, quit judging me.

Don't judge. The Bible says don't judge. Matthew 7.1, judge not that you be not judged. And so that's their favorite verse. And so if you wanna talk about that later, we can talk about that too, but I'm not gonna right now.

But God will judge and God hates sin. God does hate sin. Psalm five, four and five. For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight.

You hate all workers of iniquity. Okay, so God loves the world, but he hates all workers of iniquity. Another paradox, right? And so we thank God that God is a rescuing God. That God came to earth to rescue sinners and lost people.

If He wasn't, we as in this world of people, we'd have no hope. And so, last week, I talked about how generous God is, how much He loves us. His generosity at creation, creating this beautiful world for us to see. He was generous at the fall, responding with redemptive promises. He was generous in giving His covenant to Abraham.

He was generous in delivering His people from slavery. He was generous in giving them the law. They did not know how to live. And giving them the promised land. Flowing with milk and honey.

So sending prophet after prophet after prophet, He's generous to us, giving us His word, giving us this building, giving us the love that He has, food every day, clothes on our back. His generosity is amazing. Psalm 91, 14 and 15 reads, "'Because He holds fast to me in love, I will deliver Him. I will protect Him because He knows my name. When He calls to me, I will answer Him.

I will be with Him in trouble. I will rescue Him and honor Him. This is God's generosity to us today. We cry out to Him. He answers.

He will not leave us. Last week I spoke about God's love in Bible history and that is something that we can look back on, but we can also look back on what is His love in our history. Our personal history. How He loved us. There's a million things I could list.

Maybe we need to make a list. The whole Bible, to be honest, it's shouting from the beginning to the end that God loves you. God loves you. Jesus is the Savior, the rescuer that you need. God loves you.

Jesus is the exact image of God. And it tells us that in Colossians 1.15 and in Hebrews 1.3, He's kind, He's patient, He's interruptible. And if you're a parent, you understand what that is. He's protective of the outcast. He is authoritative towards self-righteous people?

The people that think they've got it all going on? He's a healer of the sick? Why? Why is He that? Because Jesus was for people.

Jesus loved people. He came to save them. The world. You look at verse 16 and 17. They both have the word world in them.

And it's again repetition too, or forgetfulness. But it's telling us how much He loves the world. What He would do. And so Jesus did that. He's for people.

He came to save them from their sin, from their own destruction. He came to save us from our own destruction. If you don't like people, If you don't like people, we need to be more like Jesus. I've said that before too. Church would be perfect, or this would be perfect, or that would be perfect if it wasn't for people.

Well, that's not God's plan. God's plan is for us to love people. That's the pattern that He set forth for God to still love the world. He loves people. We are to love people.

Now, He loved the world in spite of their sin. We are to love people in spite of the way that they look, or the way that they dress or talk. People that are poorer or dirtier or less moral. And so don't be stuck in our typical American box where we had exposure from our youth on this belief and that belief and what a Christian is supposed to look like. And then when we see somebody that's got purple hair and they look like they've been hit in the face with a tackle box, they've got so many piercings, that you just really don't want to talk to them.

That's our Americanism clicking in. Because when you look at that person's heart, it's no more saved than your heart was before God got ahold of you. And so we need to get cracked out of our American-isms in a big way. Jesus came into the world to save it. And that's the great news for us today.

The word world in verse 16 and 17, That's humanity in a general sense. God loves the unregenerate world. But not that it automatically means that we're all going to heaven. It's not universalism. And I think we understand that as a people.

Because God so loved the world, it doesn't mean that He's going to take the entire world, grab ahold of it, and bring it to heaven with Him someday. That's not biblical. And it's called universalism. That everyone's getting saved. And that's not going to be happening.

So, the Bible is clear that He will love you. He will love you. He loves the world. Now just like I used the example of the symphony, everybody looked at or they listened to it. He didn't like it.

He walked away, rejected it. We are given, and you are given this morning, a picture of the love of God for you and in your life. Now, you can accept that or reject that. God will love you with that offer of His Son right until your final day. If you continue to reject Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior right until the day that you die, the thief on the cross, he received Jesus at the last second.

He spent eternity with Christ. He's there right now. But If you reject Jesus Christ, you will spend an eternity in hell. He loves you until He sends you to hell. And that is your just reward for your rejection of Him.

So most people don't understand that concept. And so, most people do not need the faith. They feel that they don't need faith. They walk in darkness, they feel they don't need the light, they don't need the faith because they feel that they have everything that they need. They feel that they have everything that they need in this life, and your rejection of Him will condemn you." And so, this is 2 Corinthians 4, 3, and 4.

But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God, should shine on them." So this morning we're talking about the dark, the light, and this morning I'm saying, come to the light. That is the command this morning. Come to the light. We all need to think on this, but the small God things that are in our life, they cloud our vision. And we need a Savior.

We need to be shook out of this. This is another text that we can't go past it. We can't miss this. This is pivotal in our Christian walks, in our lives. If you're not a Christian, this is pivotal in your life.

Today, not at the eleventh hour like the thief on the cross, today will determine your eternity. Your rejection of Christ will condemn your eternity. Your rejection of Him today could determine your eternity. We all need to think and understand that the small gods in our life, they cloud our vision. And we are a morally neutral people.

We are not born morally neutral. We're born into sin. We are born condemned. And there's not a soul on this planet that has ever done enough good things throughout their life to merit them into heaven. There's not a single soul that has ever done that.

Romans 5-12, therefore just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. Because all sinned. Point two is unbelief leaves us condemned already, which I just explained sum up. This unbelief that we have in verse 18 it talks about, it leaves us condemned already. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in Christ.

And so a response to the Gospel is at the core. The core of this whole point, this whole discourse between Jesus and Nicodemus, The core of that is a response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So you're being called to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have you received that? Have you responded to that?

To believe is to trust alone in Jesus and to trust your entire life to Him, to the way of Christ, to not believe is being condemned already. And so Hebrews 9.27 says, and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment. This is everyone. Unless you put your faith in Jesus Christ, There's only one way to escape that eternal judgment and that is to put your faith in Jesus Christ. And you look at what is a courtroom setting.

And so I've been in a courtroom quite a few times. A couple times for other people even. It's a joke. I've been in a courtroom and you have what is the judge up front and the defendant. And you have the case is pled, pleaded, and in this case, the judge would find us guilty.

You are guilty. You are guilty of this action. Okay, I was doing 120 and a 25. Okay, you're guilty of this. The doctrine of justification is that Jesus takes our punishment for us.

So we stand guilty in front of the Judge. And as we are going to be sentenced for this crime, for the sin and corruption in our lives, As we're going to be sentenced for that, Jesus Christ stands between us and God. We hide behind the light of our Savior Jesus Christ. And because of that bright, blinding light, God doesn't see our sin. He sees this righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ.

He doesn't see our sin. This is justification. This shows us this picture as God is to pronounce us guilty, Jesus enters and it's His perfect righteousness that takes our sin. That's been imputed to us. He says, I will take that sinner's place in judgment.

You know why? Because He already took it on the cross for us. He suffered that penalty that we pay. And if you believe in Jesus, This is your future. This is your future.

You'll go to that courtroom, that whole thing, you're innocent, you cast your crowns of your works, you get rewarded in Heaven, and you live forever with Jesus Christ in Heaven. This is your future. That's not fair, is it? That's not fair at all. I didn't do a thing.

I'm getting off scot-free for all the sin and all the corruption that I have committed in my life. I'm getting off scot-free and that's not fair. Because God the Father only sees Jesus. This needs to tune up the way that we live for Jesus. Really, it needs to shift our perspective on how we treat other people, how we walk in Christ, our perspective of the great love that He has for us.

That we can live this life of stumbling and fumbling, screwing up, coming back to Him, walking into the light, repenting, and given another chance. Wash clean. It's not fair. The cost was so great. We don't deserve it.

Talk about the judgment in verses 18-19. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. This is the condemnation. And so, why don't more people believe in Jesus? We rub elbows with family, with friends, with co-workers.

Could it be that light exposes this darkness and people are comfortable in darkness? People are comfortable when they don't see the heart issues. When they don't see what's going on. Could it be that people are comfortable in this darkness so they see what is, and I've had this happen at times, sometimes people can live in darkness and come to church every day. But a lot of times what happens is that people see the light and they don't like that.

And so they attack it. They attack the people, they attack the church, they attack the lifestyle. And they can't tolerate it. They don't like the light. John 11, nine B through 10 says, Jesus answered, if anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

But if one walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him. It's about the light being in you. It's another beautiful picture that God gives us because our human minds do not understand glorious spiritual things so often. So he gives us a picture of us stumbling around in the dark, but then you get a light in the daytime, day and night. These people attack the church because they don't like the light.

They know life in Jesus is different and people don't want to live the way the Bible tells them to live. So people say, I know I need to do this, but I'm not ready for it yet. I'm working on this. And I've heard a lot of that. My friend need to step into the light.

Verse 20 works to be exposed and hates the light. And I've heard that. Don't bring that around here. People are uncomfortable in their self-righteousness and they hate being exposed or being called out to be more radical. And I can remember some of the first Christians I ever met.

And I was like, what are you, crazy? I'm not going to be like that guy. The guy in high school, he was walking around with a pencil pouch, and it said, Jesus saves on it. And I'm like, nut job. Guy's name was Greg Bonten.

I don't know where he is, but I'd love to talk to him and tell him how he's affected my life by writing in a magic marker on his pencil case. When I was in high school, Jesus saves. Have you ever had people apologize when they find out that you're a Christian? I'm sure you have. Excuse the language, I'm sorry about that.

Foul language, inappropriate jokes, bad actions. The thing is they don't need to apologize to me. They need to apologize to God. They need to repent. John 1, 4, and 5, in Him was life.

And life was the light of man. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. See, light shines in the darkness and it exposes the darkness. It's the problem in the world. Many people don't care about this message.

They hate the light. They hate the people that carry that light. They hate the topics of that. And we see that as we turn on the news. We're seeing it in Minnesota.

And oh man, just the wars going on and whatnot and in him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. See it's the problem in the world. Many people don't care about this message. They hate the light, they hate the people, they hate the right to life, they hate the sanctity of marriage. There's so many things.

Real moral issues. And the problem is this, that it says in Psalm 51, 5, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Ephesians 2, 1. And He made and you He made alive. This is the miracle.

This is the miracle. It's what He did and it's what we were. Who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others." That was us. But all of us started there. We all have to get to the point where we say, it was my sin that held him there.

I come up with these points of songs in my head as I'm going through this, but it's never a matter of doing more good than bad. It's never a matter of rituals or traditions. You didn't do anything to get in your condemned state. You were born unto sin. You were born into this world that way.

And we die that way unless we turn to Jesus and repent and get saved. And so saved from condemnation. And we talked about this a couple weeks ago, but saved from the wrath of God by God. God saves us from the wrath of God. The good news of the gospel is that it's wide enough to include the vilest of sinners.

See, the gate is small. That leads to it. But it's wide enough to include the worst, most horrible sinner. And it's narrow enough to exclude a moral person that comes pseudo to Christ on their own standing. And it's broad enough to include the murderers and vile people that repent, and yet it condemns a minister who never received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, who works on his own merit and his own good works.

And so, 1 Timothy 1, 12-15. And I thank Christ, Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did not. I did it ignorantly and in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief." This is the apostle Paul. And so what a testimony. Our life's mission is to tell others that they can be saved from the condemnation that comes. This should be motivation. This should put fuel in our tanks for this mission.

We become like Jesus when we do this. And the third and final point, true believers come to the light. Verse 21, but he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. And so, believers do what is true. 1 Peter 2, 9.

But you are a chosen generation of royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Is that how we feel? Is that how we live? As a believer following Jesus. Not being true to yourself following your own heart.

That's a message from the world. Not God. Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion, and he wants to feed these stupid things into your brain. That it's about these other things. And that if I can only do this, then I can do that, and I can do that.

I knew a man who was going to gain a wealth of properties and money so that he could serve God. And he's pretty much got his wealth and his money. And he goes to his pseudo church on Convenient Sundays. The service, I'm sorry, I'm not seeing it. And so, the thing is that it...

Come to see Jesus and identify the snares of the devil. When we step into the light, we'll be able to identify those. And When you follow Jesus, you don't care what the culture is doing. It doesn't matter what other people are doing, what they have. You only desire to live a life defined by the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in you.

In that power to live in the light. And believers come to the light also and they love what it reveals. It says that in here, 21b, that their deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. Believers come to the light and love what it reveals. Unbelievers run, like when you click the light on in an old building and the cockroach is like, they're gone.

That's what unbelievers do. The light will reveal the sin that the believer hates when you are born again. It will sanctify him. Our fleshly temptations that we hate are exposed. If you're a believer, you hate these fleshly temptations.

You hate what the world is doing in and through you. And that light, when it shines on you, when you pray, when you read the Word, you see that sin, it identifies it, and you hate it. And you love that that light is peeling that off of you. And you cry out, help my unbelief. There's this war raging and we need to keep coming to the light.

We can't walk in the darkness. We need to keep coming to the light. Coming to the light. We need to keep getting washed and cleansed. Romans 13-12 says, the night is far spent, the day is at hand, therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.

See, be seeking right. And as the light reveals my sinfulness, it reveals the mercies of Christ. When we see the light of the Word and the truth of the Spirit coming into our lives, we see that filth stripping off and we see the mercies of Christ. The more you live in that light, the more your life is going to testify that. And So it is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And so the plan, the point of the message this morning as I close, it's come to the light that you may be the light to other people. Come to the light that you may know that you have eternity in Christ. Come to the light and keep coming back to the light. This is God's plan for evangelism too. He sent the light down to us.

That light is in us. We go forward as the light. Right? We go forward as the light and other people see this light. So this is God's plan.

Matthew 5.16. Let your light so shine before men, so they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The light of the world is Jesus. And I started last week by saying what we all need more of is to see Jesus in His Word. We need to see Jesus in our lives, in our hearts.

A brokenness unto Him. Father, we thank You this morning for Your care and Your love. We thank You for the power and the strength of Your Word, Lord. Might it melt our hearts, Father God, as we seek You, as we continue to come to the light, Lord God, I pray for that power to work in us, Lord. This morning, I want to lift up Brother Soto, Lord God, as he is healing from a good surgery that he had yesterday.

Father, I pray that You would just show him, Lord, Your grace and mercy and heal him, Lord. I pray that You be with Becca and Niko, Lord God, the family, as they Come alongside, Lord, to minister to Him. And Lord, might our hearts be moved this morning by the power of the word through your Holy Spirit, Lord God. Shake us, Lord, unto action, I pray, in Jesus' name, amen.