Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Text I'm about to give you has been triple checked and
verified. And so I'm able to tell you that
you could turn to John chapter 1 this morning.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, you weren't here
last week, but I'm very sure that we're in John chapter 1
this morning as we continue our. Series Christ is all look at the
characteristics of Christ, and this morning the characteristic
that we're looking at is that Christ is preexistent.
Now I want to be careful this
morning because it could sound more like a lecture.
It could sound more like just simply some teaching thing that
we want to give you and the fact that Christ is pre-existing is
important for us to be able to understand from the word of God.
There's a lot of false teaching out there about who Jesus Christ
is that we need to know about so that we can better be able to
explain Jesus Christ to our friends and our family and our
neighbors. But I will tell you this, that
the desire of my message this morning through preaching is not
simply to just stimulate your intellect this morning, but it's
also to reach your heart, because I believe that's what
preaching is truly all about. And the fact that Christ is
preexisting is something that truly should reach our heart
because there's very real consequences about the fact that
Christ is eternal. He always has been and He always
will be. That's what I mean by the fact
that Christ is pre-existing, that He's eternal in the future,
but he's also always been. He is eternal in his past as
well. We'll see here in just a moment.
You know, there's something about the human spirit that just
wants to live forever. And I believe.
That's probably the conscience of which God has put inside of
us to know that there's something greater than ourselves
that is out there. And that's something that is
been the constant throughout history that people are trying
to find a way. Can we maybe put it this way to
cheat death? Was reading an article this week
about two world leaders. And these world leaders were
caught on a hot mic talking with one another, thinking that no
one else was listening but talking about the fact that each
of them were hoping that through science they would find a way to
be able to live far past the expected time of our demise.
And really kind of in essence, wanting to live forever by
swapping body body parts as they fail with mechanical body parts.
To be honest with you, it sounded more like Star Trek and
science fiction than something that was reality.
But the idea is that mankind will go to great lengths to try
to extend their life, particularly apart from God.
You may have noticed yesterday that I know this is not really
big news, but there was some news yesterday that the manager
of the Red Sox, Alex Cora, was fired.
He's no longer with the Red Sox. And I was reading some comments
about that online and someone said maybe we can thaw out Ted
Williams and bring him back to coach the Red Sox.
And so you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you?
The field of cryogenics, right? That there were people that were
hoping that they would be able to extend their life because
right before they passed, that they would be able to stop their
life and hope that someday they would be able to be thawed when
there were cures for the bounties of which they had so
they could continue to live on. It was said that Walt Disney had
the same thing happened to him. That's been debunked, I think
over the years. But the idea that someday Walt
Disney would come back and on and on and on it goes.
Why? Because man wants to live
forever, and particularly man wants to live forever.
Apart from God. But I will say this this
morning, according to the word of God, there's only one way
that you and I can live for eternity.
And that answer is this because of an eternal God, an eternal
Christ who is God as we see here in John chapter #1.
Will you stand? Please for the reading God's
Word John chapter 1 this morning.
How many are happy here this morning?
Amen. All right, how many of you will
show it here in the next few minutes?
Please, anybody, All right, please help me.
It's God's house. It's God's day, right?
Where you get to be here today. Praise the Lord.
And so I'm glad to be able to be here.
And I was just really the Lord speaking about as I'm reading
the text this morning to see Serve.
The Lord with gladness, I was thinking, but we get to serve
the Lord. He desires to let us serve.
That's a little mini message I'm giving you in between the
messages, but we get to serve the Lord.
What a joy that is for us to be able to have so.
John chapter one, it says this in the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him and without him was not anything
made that was made. There's a lot being said there
in three very short verses and a very impactful section of
Scripture which is part of a very impactful chapter of
Scripture. And so by God's grace for the
next few minutes we'll try to look at this fact that Christ is
pre-existing. He's eternal, He always has
been. And he always will be.
We be seated as we pray together.
Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this morning.
And again, I just come before you humbly.
I know that I'm not equal to this message or equal to the
task of the calling of which you put in my life.
And Lord, I do just ask that you would do that.
That would change hearts and lives here today.
Lord, that's our desire to be here, to be changed into your
image. And I pray that what I say here
this morning, not because of my words, but because of your
words, because of the word Lord, that it would change lives here
today. We know that that's possible and
so I pray that that would be the case.
The next few moments work in a way that only you can.
We do ask in Jesus name, Amen. So let's start from this point.
What does it mean for? Something to be eternal.
What does it mean for something to be eternal?
You know, eternity can be relative in some ways.
You know, if you're waiting for somebody to call you.
You know, it could seem like an eternity before someone says
they're going to call you and when they actually do end up
calling you if you're in the car and you know, maybe you've been
in a situation. Before I know that I have, you
can almost see in accidents about to happen and you have
that moment where you hit the brakes and you're ready to hear
that crunch. And feel the impact and it feels
like the moment from when you hit the brakes till when it
happens is an eternity. It could just be just a few
short seconds. An attorney could be the time
difference between when a man says will you marry me and when
she. Says yes, it may be a couple.
Seconds, but I know in my situation it felt like an
eternity. What's she going to say?
An eternity can feel like well pastor, when does your preaching
ever end? That could be what it is.
Is that eternity? Is this ever going to finish?
Who knows? In some ways it can be relative.
How long is eternity? But really, if we were to look
not at the relativity of it, but the reality of it, eternity has
a very real definition. It's not just what our
perception of it is, but rather what does the word of God say
and eternity is well, we can find the definition of it.
I think we're going to find more here in the word in just a
moment. But the very definition of it
from Webster's 1828 dictionary is this without beginning or end
of existence, Stop right there. Without beginning or end of
existence. This tells us this is something
different than what we're used to.
And we're not just talking about something that is going future,
but we're also talking about something past as well.
Perpetual, ceaseless, continued without intermission,
unchangeable, existing at all. Times without change.
Well I could tell you someone who fits that definition just
perfectly. Seems like the word right here
in John chapter #1. This is the case that John is
making here. He is making the case for the
pre-existing Christ. You say, pastor, it seems like
you're being very particular with that term pre-existing.
I know you're talking about eternal, but the pre-existing
Christ, why is that important? Well, it's important because
there's a lot of teaching about there out there that is false
about who Jesus Christ is. There are some who will teach
that Jesus Christ came to be when the conception of Jesus
Christ took place with Mary, then before that Jesus Christ
was not. And the answer is that's false.
There will be some that say that Jesus Christ is a created being
and then when creation took place by the Father, then that's
when Jesus Christ came into existence.
And the answer is that is false, that Jesus Christ's pre
existence. The supposition here that John
is making is this, that Jesus Christ didn't come into being at
the conception. Jesus Christ didn't come into
being at the creation, but rather Jesus Christ has always
been. Why?
Because he is God. It says here in John chapter one
verse one in the beginning. What's that next word?
Oh boy, you. Have work with me today All
right in the beginning what's that next word was what tense is
that verb? It's a past tense meaning this
not in the beginning is the word not in the beginning will be the
word in the beginning was the word before the beginning.
Jesus was that's what's being said here that how to bring
encouragement, excitement to the heart of the believer to be able
to say that Jesus wasn't fashioned at the beginning.
Jesus was at the beginning because he always has been.
He was the word and the word was with God meaning that when the
beginning happened he was already with God.
Why because he was God. It says in verse one the same.
Was in the beginning with God Was, was, was all things were
made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Charles Spurgeon said this. He was not made a son.
He was always the son. He was not promoted to deity.
He was always God. The Manger did not create him.
It simply revealed him that it wasn't, that he just came on to
the scene, that that blissful night.
In Bethlehem, but rather it was revealed he who had been from
eternity past the pre-existing Christ.
Now you know the. Typical format of which we have
taken in this series so far is that we talk about the word and
then we go into the text in the little greater way and then we
go to another. Passage.
That is what I would maybe call a landmark passage, one of those
passages that I hope that you were aware of, particularly as a
new believer, a place like an Isaiah 53, a Psalm. 23 of
Philippians chapter 2 to be able to show you these places in your
Bible that you could mark to be able to learn some of the really
key passages of Scripture. Well, here we are in John
chapter 1 and I'll be honest with you, we're in a key passage
of Scripture already that we don't need to go anywhere else
to find this, which we're looking for here today.
Why? Because John chapter 1 is one of
those places in Scripture that is a believer you need to be
familiar with. The John chapter 1 is one of
those places that you need to be able to study out.
You say, well, how long would it take me to study just one
chapter of the Bible, a chapter like this, a lifetime.
If you think I can stuff it all into one sermon, well, you've
missed the mark. And I'll miss the mark if I
think I can try to be able to do it because there's so much
doctrine that's here in John chapter 1 and it is so very
relevant to that words we Live Today.
So there's three things I want us to see from this text this
morning that are the important implications of the pre
existence of Christ. Again, we're not just talking
about an academic lecture here this morning.
I'm not just trying to tell you what the Bible says about this,
as this is some dry, dusty, old boring book that has no
relevance to you today. But there's some very real
relevance with comes the fact that Jesus Christ was from
eternity past. And the first is this.
Only someone pre-existing can bring forth all existence.
Only someone who is pre-existing can bring forth all existence.
The fact that John starts right out-of-the-box with this verse
about eternity and the pre existence of Christ is important
for two reasons. First, it's important.
To the Jews. Because it showed them that
Jesus is the creator God. This was so important to the
Jews as John himself as a Jew, and he's writing this epistle or
whether he's writing this gospel, the last of the gospels
to be written is believed. As he's writing this gospel, he
is appealing to the Jews that Jesus Christ is the creator God.
Now, does verse #1 sound an awful lot like another verse you
can find in Scripture somewhere? I think it would be.
That's what I'm looking for, right?
Yeah, that's it. Yes.
See, you know, y'all can just do that.
Get into it, man. All right, So Genesis 1, one, in
the beginning, we see the shades of Genesis 11 right there.
Why? Because the Jews would have been
familiar with the fact that the God, the creator God had created
all the universe and always was. And So what is John doing here?
He's making a link between the creator God the Father and
creator God the Son. He wants the Jews to know that
he who was spoken of in Genesis 1 was not simply the Father and
the. Spirit who moved upon the face
of the waters, but also Jesus Christ himself.
This is a stumbling block to the Jews.
They were willing to accept the Father.
They had strange concept of the Spirit, but understood that it
was somehow involved. He was somehow involved, but yet
Jesus Christ the Son of God and God the Son.
Oh, this was a great stumbling block to the Jews, but yet we
see in verse #3 all things were made by Him.
And without him was not anything made that was made.
Now think about verse #3 for a moment.
If without him was not anything made that was made, that means
that He wasn't made. I would say that again, all
right. If by him everything made, not
everything made was made, I shouldn't have walked away from
that. Because it's kind of a paradox,
isn't it? I got myself into a bad way
there. The idea is this.
If Jesus is the creator then he cannot be the created being.
He did not create himself. See I know what I'm saying, I
just didn't get it right there up there.
OK John is laying down the gauntlet that the pre-existing
God is the creator God into the Jews.
This was a stumbling block. In fact, it's talked about in
the book of Colossians. It says in Colossians chapter #1
verse 14 through 17, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, whose blood? Jesus Christ, even the
forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the
first born of every creature. For by Him we're all things
created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and
invisible. That covers everything, doesn't
it? Whether they be Thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created
by Him. Who's Him?
The one who shed his blood, Jesus Christ.
And He is before all things. What?
Does that mean he's pre existent?
He's before all things, and by him all things consist.
The Jews had trouble with this, that's why they tried to stone
him in John chapter 8 verse 58 when Jesus said unto them,
verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was I am.
That was a 2 fold problem for them.
One, how could Jesus be before Abraham?
That would have meant he was thousands of years old.
And the second part was this, well he used the 2 words I am
linking himself to God. Jews couldn't handle that.
See this verse was important. Only someone pre-existing can
bring forth all existence. Because the Jews needed to know
that he was the creator God. But also to the Gentiles this
was important as well because they needed to know that he was
not a created God. See the Jews need to know he was
the creator God and the Gentiles needed to know he was not a
created God. The Gentiles, the Romans and the
Greeks, they worshipped so many gods.
I think the term you would use as a pantheon of gods, just this
host of Greek and Roman gods that we find in mythology.
And sometimes today they're studied as something to be able
to have as myth or as fiction. But I can tell you this, that
nobody thought it was myth or thick fiction when the Romans
and Greeks were lecturing and teaching and propagating this
falsehood. Why?
Well, they're gods. Were created, their gods were
not pre existent. Go go and study some of the
Greek and Roman gods. And even as I kind of went
through some of it myself here this week and and you will find
that as you look at the mythologies of these Greek and
Roman gods, what do you find? They were always created by
someone else. They were not pre existent.
In fact, that thought process to the Gentiles would have been
wild because they were used to their false gods having been
created from some other gods who were also created from some
other gods. In fact, most of the major gods
had origins and Greek myths. For example, the Olympians such
as Zeus and Hera and Athena came to existence through genealogy.
They were born from earlier divine beings like the Titans,
who themselves came from primordial entities such as the
Gaia, who was the Mother of all life and interestingly enough,
the Mother of all life. As I studied the Gaia this week,
not my normal sermon preparations, the mother of all
life also had an origin story. Well, if she's the mother of all
life, then why'd she need an origin story?
You think she just always was because life was within her?
See, to the Jews, they needed to know that Jesus was the creator
of God. But the Gentiles need to know
this. God's different.
He's not like you're false gods. He's not like those pieces of
foolishness, of wood and stone and marble that you're
worshiping. No, this is not a created God.
This is the very real Creator God.
The fact that Christ is pre-existing seemingly is more
controversial than we would think.
I imagined this morning as I provided you the text and the
title that you are not surprised by this today.
That many of you are very aware that Christ has always been, but
yet throughout history this has been quite controversial.
But yet the Word of God couldn't be more clear about the origins
of Jesus Christ. That His origins were He always
has been. Micah 52 But thou Bethlehem
Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall be shall he come forth unto me, that is
to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old,
even from everlasting. Hebrews 7 verse 3, without
father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son
of God, abideth a priest continually talking about
Melchizedek, who I believe was a Old Testament appearance of
Jesus Christ without father, without mother.
How can you get any other conclusion that that has to be
Jesus Christ? Hebrews 18 But under the sun he
saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy Kingdom.
His throne is forever. What about Revelation 18?
I'm the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end sayeth the
Lord. Which is, which was and which is
to come, He Almighty. Oh yes, what do we see?
That only someone pre-existing can bring forth all existence.
Only someone pre-existing can create all that we see.
And he is the creator God. But that brings us to our second
point this morning, which is this Only someone pre-existing
can bring meaning to all existence.
Only someone pre-existing can bring meaning to all existence.
Look at verse #4 it says in him was life.
Now again was is a past tense verb which means was he given
life? No, he always had life.
It's important not the goddess of life that needed to have a
creation. This is a Christ who always has
life. Now again, you say, pastor,
what? What does any of this mean to
me? Like pastor, I'm with you.
I hear what you're saying. It sounds like you're like
really passionate about this, but I don't understand what this
has to do with my day-to-day life.
And the answer is right there in verse #4 in him was life, and
the consequence of that was this.
And the life was the light of men because he had life.
He is able to give light because he has life.
He is able to give life because there is life in him from
eternity past. It means that he brings forth
light even in this Dark World. Now save your place there.
And I want you to go to another of John's writings, first John
chapter #1 All right, first John chapter #1 we'll go back to John
chapter 1 a few moments, but first John chapter one.
That's just near the end of your Bible, because John says
something very reminiscent of what we read in verse #4 and it
should be very helpful to us here this morning.
John chapter one, first John chapter one, verse one says
this, that which was from the beginning.
Now, does that sound familiar? Which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled. Of the word of life.
For the life was manifested. And we have seen it.
And bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was
with the Father, and was manifested unto us.
So what do we see in verses one and two?
That He is. Life.
Echoing what we just read just a few moments ago in first John or
John chapter one verse 4. Now read in verse #3 that which
we have seen and heard. Declare we unto you, that He may
also also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son
Jesus Christ. And these things right we unto
you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which
we have heard of Him and declare unto you, that God is light.
In Him is no darkness at all. And look at verse #7 If we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
What's being said here? He was life.
Because He was life, He can give light, and that light means
what? We can have joy and we can have
fellowship with Him and with one another.
Meaning this. He gives life meaning.
What's life without Christ?
Some of you who are saved now can give testimony.
All of you who are saved now can give testimony.
My life before Jesus Christ it wasn't all that was cracked up
to be I tried to find all the things the world had to offer
you listen to all the. Siren songs of the world that
sang their sweet melodies, but once you looked into their eyes
and you saw. Them for what they are.
You realized not only do they not offer what they say that
they offer, but they actually bring destruction, bring
bondage, and ultimately their ways lead to death, not just
death in this life, what the Bible calls a second death.
There's no meaning to that. There's no meaning whatsoever.
But yet the self-sustaining, pre-existing one, Jesus Christ
was and is life. With that life comes light.
And with that light, when we step into the light, His light,
we can have joy and we have fellowship and we have.
Peace. And we can have that which the
world says that they offer, but yet they cannot give, but rather
they take. Away, and we can have that with
the Lord, which gives meaning to this life.
Even in the midst. Of the darkness, It's dark out
there. You think of all that's going on
in this world right now. All that has gone in this world,
all that's going on in this world.
It's dark. But yet for the believer, we
have meaning and purpose to this life.
Why? Because he and he alone as the
pre-existing one can give meaning and purpose to this
life. Mankind's always trying to find
meaning and purpose. Think about it, people build
monuments. I think of Absalom.
We've just been studying him on Sunday nights the last few weeks
and the end of his life. What did he have to show for it?
2 pillars that he built his monuments to himself.
Mankind funds scholarships, they put names on buildings.
I'm not saying in of themselves those things are bad, but man's
always trying to find a legacy that outlasts themselves.
They're always trying to find meaning and purpose.
Closer to home we can do things like give inheritance.
Sometimes people live vicariously through their kids
and their grandkids. They sometimes explain away
their bad decisions as other people's fault to try to clear
their own conscience. Now, I'm not saying that all
these things are bad at giving an inheritance.
Being able to pass on a wealth from one generation to another
generation is a very prudent and a wise thing.
I'm not saying that. But what I.
Am saying this morning is this, if you are looking for meaning
and purpose and these things, then you are missing meaning and
purpose and life really all about and who it's through and
that's Christ and Christ alone and only someone who always has
been could truly give meaning to this life.
You know, if you live for Him, you'll never be disappointed.
I'm not saying disappointments won't come into your life.
Of course they will. But if you truly live your life
for Christ and look back at your life, at the balance of your
life, if the Lord allows you to in the way that we pass, you'd
say this as the testimony of millions upon millions of
believers have been. It was a testimony as this.
I look back and say I'm not disappointed.
I gave my life to Christ. It gave meaning and purpose.
In fact, a lot of the disappointments come from this
when we didn't live for Christ once we knew him.
I'll tell you where a lot of my regrets come from today.
Regrets. I've had a few.
That'd be a that'd be a good song.
But actually, no, it wouldn't. But here's what I know.
Where do my regrets come? Not because I live for Christ.
Because there are times I walked away from Him and didn't live
for Him when I knew I should have.
Those are the regrets that come, but you won't be disappointed
living your life for Christ. Why?
Because Christ gives meaning to life.
Investing your life in His work, you'll never miss out.
Would you invest your life in his work?
He said. Oh, Pastor.
This is one of those money sermons.
Again, no, I'm not talking about.
Investing your money. Although the Bible talks about
tithes and offerings, I'm talking about something more
than just your wall. I'm talking about investing
yourself in the Kingdom, in souls, and reaching other people
for the gospel and doing his work building his Kingdom and
helping His church and doing those things.
Yes, there's meaning in those. Things, Amen.
If you make your life about this book and about the God of this
book, the Word, your life will always have meaning and purpose.
A purpose that mankind can't offer to mankind.
You know why? Because we're all fallible, weak
beings, but yet a meaning and purpose that only an eternal God
can give. He is the light, He is the life
because we will have fellowship and joy.
What does that old hymn say? Joy, unspeakable and full of
glory. That's what we can have in Jesus
Christ. See, only someone with
preexistence can bring forth all existence.
Only someone with preexistence can bring meaning to all
existence. And 3rd and finally this
morning, only some with a preexistence can grant us
eternal life. Only someone with preexistence
can grant us eternal life. Go back to John chapter 1, if
you will. John chapter #1.
In our trespasses. And sins, if we pass from this
life in our trespasses and sins, we've experienced what the Bible
calls the second death. Revelation 20 verse 14 says, and
death and hell were cast in the lake of fire.
This is the second death. Judgment is real.
For those who do not accept the forgiveness that Christ gives
for our sins, it is real, and whether you find that palatable
or not does not change the degree of heat in hell by 1°.
Whether you believe it or not does not change the reality of
its existence by one bit. Your consent or your agreement
with His existence is not required for it to exist, for it
does. It was prepared for the devil
and his angels, the Bible says. But yet those who refuse the
gospel message, those who want to be separated from God from
all eternity because they don't want that gift, will abide there
forever, the Bible says. But a few verses before
Revelations 20, Revelation 20, verse 14, a few verses before
Revelation 20, verse 6 says this blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no
power. Amen.
Why is this so important? Well, we're back in John chapter
one. Look at verse #7 let's drop down
to verse #7 It says the same came for a witness.
Now let's just. Go to verse number six.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
This is talking about John the Baptist.
That man same came for a witness to bear witness of.
The light that all men through him might believe.
So what was John's job to say? Behold the Lamb of God.
Which taketh away the sin of the world.
Now to be clear, verse 8, he was not that light.
Could we put it this way? He was the moon.
To the sun, the moon, To the SON sun.
Does the moon have its own light?
No, it simply reflects what comes from the sun was.
John a light, He was a light, but his light only came from the
radiance of being that close to Jesus Christ and to have the
message of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed from his lips.
And it says verse 9 that that was the true light which lighted
every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the
world knew him not. He came into his own, His own
received him. Not verses 10 and 11 or some of
those sad, saddest verses of Scripture.
He came into the world, the world was made by him, and the
world knew him. Not his own creation.
But here's the good news. That blessed conjunction we find
in the Word of God. But but as many as received him
to them, gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name, which was born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
How could he do? Verse #12 Because the reality of
verse 13 is the reality of the other verses that we saw before.
He can grant eternal life because He has eternal life.
He showed his power over death and hell by resurrecting after
dying on the cross. No, no, mankind cannot give
existence to Himself for eternity.
And even if mankind was able to extend life by 100 years or 200
years, the Bible says that death is certain and judgment is sure
for those who do not know Jesus Christ their Savior.
Been appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment
and the Word was made. Flesh dwelt among us.
We beheld His glory. The glory is of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Only an eternal being can offer an infinitely sack, a sufficient
sacrifice for sin. Bulls and goats were at best
temporary to cover the sins of the people, but it took a
perfect, sinless sacrifice, and that was Jesus Christ.
You need to know the One. You need to know the One that's
spoken of in this text, the One who always has been, the One who
always will be. You know putting your trust in
man is a fool's errand. Putting your trust in the arm of
your own flesh is a fool's errand.
You know you can't grant yourself eternal life if I could
be so bold to say it. The only thing you can do is
make your own life more of a mess.
You say who? Who are you talking to pastor?
Someone just like you who gets myself into plenty messes.
And I realized why am I in such a mess?
Oh, because I wasn't listening what the Lord told.
Me to do. So in our life, even when it
considers eternity, we can only make life more of a mess.
But what do we see in the Word of God?
You appeal to the One who always has been, because only He could
truly grant eternal life because of the fact that He is eternal
Himself. That life is light.
By the way, who's going to be the light of heaven?
Bible says the Lord Himself is that light.
There'll be no need for sun or moon.
It'll be light and just because the the very radiance of who he
is. And that one who brings light in
heaven brings light also to life here and now as well.
Revelation 2123. The city had no need of the sun,
neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God didn't
lighten it. And the Lamb is the light
thereof. I know it's clear just from our
study here today. And again, this is if we're not
careful, this can become more of an academic study and one that
really doesn't truly affect our heart.
But there's an immestakable theme that we find here in our
text and John, as well as in First John, it's adjoining
passage there as well. There is no issue in this life
or in the next that can't be resolved with a little more
light. There's no issue that can't be
resolved in this life or in the next.
They can't be resolved with a little more of the light.
It's a few years ago, Diane and I went to and I think Kaylee
went to Silver Dollar City, Branson, MO.
It's a little theme park that's actually a pretty big theme park
that's there, but it was all built around a cave and it's
called Marvel Cave. It started just as a cave tour.
They ended up saying, well, people are waiting for The Cave
tour. What about we put a, you know, a
merry go round here? Then why don't we put a tilt A
whirl here? Why don't put a roller coaster
here? Before you know it, there's this
whole whole theme park that's built around a cave.
And I remember going down. I have a fear heights.
Have I ever mentioned that here before?
Yeah, I don't like heights. And I remember going down the
steel steps to go down into this cave and I'm holding on like I'm
holding the horns of the altar. You know, I'm just, I don't want
to go. I don't want to go all the way
down. I remember going down into this,
into the depths. You know, Kaylee Dian are having
a great time and here's Dad, you know, like.
Why am I doing this? I would have rather been on the
roller coaster, to be honest. Anything, just go down those
steps. And so we're getting all the way
down. There's lights down in The Cave.
And so obviously we see where we're going.
The tour guide, probably about fifty of us there, stopping to
show this over here and this over here.
Look at these beautiful structure, unlike anything I
think I'd ever seen before. Almost the untapped creation of
God there. Beautiful.
But then we went deeper and deeper and we got to a place
where there was a small room and she said, I'm going to do
something that might make you a little uncomfortable.
I'm thinking, well, it's hard to get much worse than this at this
point. She says, I'm going to turn out
the light for just a moment. Now.
You know, when you say, man, it's dark and then your eyes
adjust and you realize, oh, it's not so dark.
I've even been in bedrooms with, you know, blackout blinds and
all those kind of things, especially if you times where
I've worked at nights and those kind of things and you know,
they, they're pretty good. But even then, you could put a
mask over your eyes, and even then, sometimes a little bit of
light can come through underneath.
I don't know that I've ever been in a place or a time before
where in that moment I could have had my hand one inch from
my face and wouldn't even have known it was there.
I didn't want to move my feet. I didn't want to move anything.
You know, in that moment, even a match, even a struck match would
have been a blessed assurance to know, oh, that little flicker of
light, at least I can see where I am.
And you want to talk about eternity?
It was probably 5 seconds, but it felt like days we were down
there. And she turned that light back
on. And I've never been so happy
that the electricity worked as it was at that moment.
The lights were back on. You know, I think about that
darkness, and that's the darkness of our trespasses and
sins. That's the darkness of our
flesh. And you know, we trust ourselves
to the darkness of the flesh and our trespasses and sins.
The best we can do is this. You hope you know what you're
getting into, but you don't. You may be touching your spouse.
You may be touching the tour guide.
You may be touching a bat. You don't know.
You think you know, but you don't know because you're just
doing the best you can. You know what you need light.
You say I, I don't, I don't see the the relevance for me today,
Pastor. OK.
Because he is always been life. He is the light.
And some of you are just groping around in the darkness, one of
your trespasses and sins. You don't know how to get to
heaven. You're not going to find your
way like this. You know what you're going to
do. You'll find your way straight to
the pits of hell. That's where that leads.
There's only one who can bring light when it comes the issues
of eternal life. That's Jesus Christ.
You know what you need? You need the light.
Somebody going through some troubles right now.
So how do you know that, Pastor? I don't need to know.
I just know I'm dealing with people.
You're dealing with trouble. How, how am I going to get out
of this financial mess? Well, let's start here.
Here's OK, let's up here. OK, listen up.
Let's start here. See, I'll pass you.
You're going to give me 5 financial tips right now.
Is that what it is? Give me give me a hot stock that
I can I can get into. Can I give you the hot tip?
If you will? It's not going to come from
CNBC. It's not going to come from Dave
Ramsey. Here's your hot financial tip.
Are you ready? Get into the light.
Jesus Christ will help you. Now, I didn't say he's going to,
He's going to put money in your wallet.
But if you follow the principles of his word, he'll help you.
He'll help you. How do I raise children, Pastor?
How do I raise these kids? I don't know how.
You know, it's amazing, of all the things that we're given in
life to have instruction manuals, the most important one,
we get nothing. I pulled up to that hospital
very when we had Bethany, had a car with no bumpers on either
side. The radiator was exposed.
It would not go over 40 miles an hour.
It sounded like it was in a perpetual cycle where at any
moment it could explode. And I pull up, there's my
beautiful wife in a wheelchair, wheeled out, baby in tow.
And I was sure that nurse was going to say Nope and pull, pull
away. She just looked at us like we
pulled up in a Cadillac and said, have a wonderful day, hope
everything goes well. And we were off.
Went home. Bethany got a little bit of the
snot in the nose. You know, I don't know if I
should say snot in a sermon. That's all right.
Already referenced Frank Sinatra, Sinatra already.
So it's all right. I thought she was going to die
and we were trying to find the bulb syringe and we thought if
we didn't find this bulb syringe in the next 5 seconds, this kids
gone. We were panicking.
But you know, I look back now and I think about how cute that
was and I think of the real issues of parenting are so much
harder than that. How how do we raise our
children? It's an answer that could be
solved with more light. They need to know the word of
God. They need to be able to be in
the House of God. I'm going to say something some
of you aren't going to like, but I'm going to say it because I'm
your preacher. That means being here when the
doors are open. Because you give us an hour a
week and you give the public school 30 hours a week.
Who's going to win? I mean, this is exactly the way
I thought it would, but that's OK.
I'm just telling you, I'm not here to win awards.
I'm here just to tell you, we have fellowship with one another
that they can learn from other people in this church.
I'm not talking about they need to listen to me for three hours
a week. God help you all for having to
listen to me for three hours a week, to be honest with you, but
to be around other believers to learn from them.
How those little boys and little girls learn how to be boys and
girls that serve Jesus well. They're going to learn from you,
mom and dad, but they're also going to learn from the moms and
the dads that are here and the elders that are here who can
teach them what it means to be a Christian.
You come to me and say, I don't know what to do with my child.
I'm going to tell you the first thing.
Do you come three times a week? Let's start there and then we'll
move on from there because there's other things to do as
well. You say, pastor, I don't know
that I care for this. I understand and I say I
understand it's a sacrifice, but if you don't make a sacrifice
spiritually for your children, you will sacrifice them on the
altar of the world. And I'm going to run that by one
more time. If you don't make a sacrifice on
behalf of your children's spirituality, you will sacrifice
them upon the altar of the world.
I don't say this is an animosity in my heart or hatred.
I'm just saying this light is needed for parents.
How does a marriage make it when it doesn't seem like it's going
to make it? Light is needed.
Do you go to the gurus on the outside?
No, they have some good ideas sometimes.
But where do you get the real counsel from?
His Word. His word.
It'll save a marriage, and when it's ignored, it could kill a
marriage. I could tell you stories,
including one very relevant to my own life right now, where
someone was immersed in the Word of God and ignored the Word of
God, and now the blast radius is larger than you could imagine.
There's no issue in your life that can't be solved with more
light. Are you reading your Bible every
day? And there's no other way than to
read your Bible every day. When you read.
Your Bible every day. Are you trying to just learn
more about the Bible or are you letting the Bible speak to the
issues of your life? No, no, what I'm saying is we're
not just reading it so we can learn more about random Bible
knowledge, but Holy Spirit, will you apply this word to my heart
today so I can be more like Christ?
Are you in prayer to the one who brings light?
Are you in the House of light where we hear of him?
No, no, not of me, not of of Dan, not of of the special
speaker, but where we hear God's Word, it brings light.
How do I break the bondage of habitual sin?
Well, there's light in the word. Well, you know, Pastor, I just,
I believe somebody has deals with addiction, they'll they'll
never be free of that. We didn't get that from the
Bible because the Bible says he who is free is free indeed.
OK, you can be healed biblically from the addictions of alcohol,
of substances, nicotine, gambling, pornography.
God can help you with these things.
But you know where you get it from the light.
We go on and on this morning and I can't go on on this morning
because now it's the afternoon. Remember that eternity thing?
I think we're getting there. Light is needed and when you
ignore the light that comes from the pre-existing 1, you know
what you're doing. Like me in the bottom of that
cave and before you know it you could be off a Cliff and you
didn't even know it was there because you were groping in
darkness. But the pre-existing One, who is
life and can bring light, bring light to every situation in this
life, and light to your eternity as well.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.