The Word part 3

We'll take your Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of John. John chapter 1. Now, we have been in our series in John for three weeks, and the last two weeks we have taken our time in verses 1 through 5, and I have done that purposefully. There is truth that is taught there that we need reminding of, and no doubt there are some of you here this morning. We've never seen some of this truth in these verses, and this is preliminary truth. This is foundational truth that prepares us for the entire book. Now, you know that the past two weeks we have been in verses 1 through 5, as I've already said.

Now, part 1 was called the Word, and in part 1, the Word, we learned that Christ is preexistent. That is maybe a truth that some of you have not seen, and we've seen that. We've seen that in the Old Testament, as we went all the way back to what we have learned in the book of Genesis. But another place that eludes to or teaches the preexistence of God is in that great Exodus story. I don't know if you're familiar with God's people when they were in Egyptian bondage. It was God who called Moses. It was God who came to Moses and spoke to him from that burning bush.

He said, "Moses, I want you to go, and I want you to rescue my people." They are in Egypt. Of course, Moses had run from Egypt. He was a Hebrew, but yet Moses kind of, not argued, but discussed matters with God. He basically says, "Who do I say has sent me?" What did God say to Moses? He says, "I am who I am." Finally, God said to Moses, "You tell them I am sent you." Now, when you do the language study in the original Hebrew, there is no other way to interpret that except that God is saying, "I am the eternal one. I have always existed." How can God describe himself? He has no name.

He obviously is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but God is sending Moses to say, "The great I am has sent you." What are we seeing with that? The pre-existence of God. We learn in the first portion of that message, verses 1 and 2, that Christ was there in the beginning prior to Genesis 1 in the creation account. Then last week we looked at part 2, the Word, and we learned that Christ is creator. I would venture to say that some of you have never seen that Christ was in the creation.

We took a journey back to Genesis 1, verse 26, and even over into chapter 3, but we saw that when God had that great holy conference, when it was God the Father and it was God the Son, and they had been in this creative process. They had created the heavens and the earth and the water and the land. They had gone through the creation event. What did God say? He said, "Let us create man in our image." That language is clearly plural, and we see that it was God the Father and it was God the Son there, and we see that over in the Paul's writings and Colossians, Paul says, "For by him all things were made." What is Paul saying?

Exactly what God said. In Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26, Christ was a creator. Christ was there. And as a matter of fact, Paul adds to that, and he says, "All things were created by him and for him." Now this morning we're getting over to the last portion. I call it part 3 of the Word. We're going to continue, and we're going to finish up these verses, and we're going to see what John wants us to see. Now, we do know by now, and I've been repetitive with this, and it's been purposeful, that this part is part of the introduction.

I have encouraged you to take notes right in your Bible, however you do that, and we must realize the purpose of the introduction in this book of John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 18. John has a purpose with an introduction. John is laying the foundation about who this Christ Jesus is before he can tell him his story as the last living apostle. You know the history because I've given it to you. John's the last one. There's this erroneous teaching that is out there, and he is writing to combat that, but he lays the groundwork.

And you might say to me, "Well, you know, isn't this very factual information?" Yes, it's factual, but it must be understood because if we don't get the introduction, we will not understand how Christ has the authority to do and to say what he says and what he does all throughout the Gospel. Now remember John's purpose. First it was apologetic. Apologetic means he is making a proper case for the deity of Christ. He has a systematic argument. John is dealing with what I have introduced to you as a proper Christology. John is teaching a proper theological interpretation of the person of Christ and his work.

Remember the context, these heretics that are distorting and perverting who Christ was and what Christ did. And the church history tells us that those Ephesian Christians were saying, "John, you've got to set the record straight." So he's making that case. Then second we know his purpose is evangelization. John uses the verb to believe nearly a hundred times more than twice as much of all of the other Gospels. What's John's purpose? He's laying the foundation of who Christ is and he's going to get into all that Christ said and did and who he was. And John's purpose is that men might believe and know and have life in Christ Jesus.

We see that later on in the theme verse that I gave us. The first message, John 20 verse 31, "But these things have been written that you may believe." That word, "believe," that he lists and uses so many times that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing he may have life. This is all preparation for the wonderful message that we will see in the book of John. Now as I said earlier, this is the third message, the last message in verses 1 through 5. I'll go ahead and give you the truth that we're going to look at in these verses.

You see the title of the message, the word part 3, and we're going to see that Christ is life out of verse 4. Christ is light out of verse 4. And then out of verse 5, we're going to see that Christ shines into the darkness, but the darkness cannot apprehend it or comprehend it or do anything to the light. So let's look at the scripture together. I'll go back to verse 1 because this all does go together. That's one message in its entirety, but yet we've had to divide it because of time. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He, that's Christ, was in the beginning with God.

Verse 3, "All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." Verse 4, this is where we will be this morning. "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 or apprehend it." So what we're going to do is we're going to divide these verses and see what John is trying to teach. So number 1, I want us to see Christ is life. Christ is life. That comes directly from verse 4. "In Him was life." Now all of the translations that are before us this morning translate this portion of verse 4 the same.

I make it my habit to know what you have in your hands, what translation, and I always want to go back to those English translations that we have and see how those translators deal with these verses, but this verse really comes out in all of the translations the same. Now what we see in this verse is God's very nature. Within Christ Jesus, who is God by the way, didn't we learn that at the last portion of verse 1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That's that mystery that we don't understand. We have God the Father, God the Son.

They are separate, distinct entities, but yet they are one in their nature. And so what we see within Christ who is God, we see God's very nature, and within that nature there is life. We already know that all life came from Christ. Verse 3 tells us this truth, and I want to review sometimes to help us to hold on to what we learned last week to carry it over into what we're learning this week. So we already know that life came from Christ. But I ran across something in some of my study and reading. Vincent's Word study says it like this. He talking about Christ was the fountain of life. I like that.

But he goes on to say he was the fountain of life, physical life, moral life, and eternal life. And that's so true. Now in the original language, this word is used, this word life, it is used for spiritual or eternal life. But I want to borrow what Vincent said because Christ, he says, is the fountain of physical moral and eternal life. Let me show you what I mean. First, Christ is the fountain of physical life, is he not? We've learned that. Genesis 1 tells us that. Genesis 2 tells us that. That great creation story prior to the fall in Genesis 3, what do we see?

That holy conference, God the Father, God the Son, and God says let us create man in our image, in our likeness. Christ was there in the beginning prior to Genesis 1.1 and he was there in that creative process. That's what we see from Paul in the book of Colossians, that Christ is the very fountain of all physical life. And it's continuing, we know that, even though it's been affected by the fall. So when we see physical life, when we see babies born, when we are part of physical life, we know that that comes out of the very fountain of Christ, who Christ is. Second, Christ is the fountain of moral life.

This is hard for us to understand because we live on this side of Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3 gives us the fall. Remember that story? Satan came in the form of a serpent and what did he do? He questioned God's word, he questioned God's character, he questioned God and he tempted Eve and what happened? Eve disobeyed God and he fell and in her falling she tempted Adam and he fell and all of mankind and all of the creation was affected by that fall. I don't know if you know it, but the creation itself was affected. Everything is fallen and we live on this side of that.

But prior to Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve lived in a perfect moral state. They were perfect. They were perfect in our relationship with God. They were perfect in who they were and all of the creation was perfect. But Christ is the fountain of all moral life because he created them perfect. It wasn't Christ's fault that they sinned. They exercised their will in being disobedient to what God said. But third, Christ is the fountain of eternal life. Now why do I go through physical life, moral life, eternal life? It's important for us to see that Christ is, he is the beginning of all life.

What John is saying is it's more than just Christ the creator of physical life. It is Christ the creator of eternal life because it emanates from him. It is, he is a life by his very nature. That is who Christ is. Christ is the source. But by his nature, he is life. Now I want to contrast this, this Christ being life, spiritual and eternal life. And I want to contrast it by looking at the life of man. Now I said just a moment ago that we live on this side of Genesis 3. We live in a fallen world in a fallen time. Every man, woman, boy and girl who has ever been born, they are fallen. This world is corrupt by sin.

As a matter of fact, the creation yearns for Christ's return. But what I want you to see is what Paul gives this in Romans chapter 5. You don't have to turn there. But Paul tells us what emanates and what is man's nature and what emanates from man. Notice what Paul says in Romans chapter 5 verse 12. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world." Now who is that one man? That's Adam. "Adam sinned and therefore sin entered the world." Now notice what he says. "And death through sin." So because of Adam sinned, sin entered the world and therefore death entered the world. And notice now what he says.

"And death through sin." And so death spread to all men. We have a heredity problem. All men and women, all young people are born in the image of Adam. And therefore we are born into sin and we are born into death. Now before we heap too much condemnation on Adam, notice what Paul says. So death spread to all men. Now notice because all have sinned. I have preached this verse before. As a matter of fact, I preached it to the students at the student camp we do in the summer and I said it like this. Man is double damned. We are damned because of the sin of Adam and we are damned because of our own sin. Now what's the point? Man is dead.

Isn't that the language that Paul uses? Paul is saying by his very nature he is dead and death emanates from him. Death comes from him. That is the antithesis of what we see in John chapter 1 verse 4. Because what emanates out of Christ is life because he is life. Now let me give you a little more evidence. You don't have to turn there. Romans chapter 3 tells us what man does. And he quotes the book of Psalms, Psalm 14. Paul says there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside together. They have become useless. There is none who does good.

There is none, not even one. Why? Why is he describing that kind of behavior? What Paul is saying is exactly what the Psalmist said and what the Psalmist said is by his nature he is dead so therefore death emanates from him. All that is is a description of a dead man. But like I said, by Christ's nature he is life. And not just physical life, not just moral life, but eternal life, spiritual life, true life. See, church, listen. I talked about it last week with us that we live in this all inclusive world. We live in this world where we must, we just must accept truth as it comes from any person in any source.

We live in a time and a day where we must accept this religion and that religion. There is no exclusive truth. But what we see even in this verse is the exclusivity of Christ because it is only Christ who has life and it is only Christ who has spiritual life and eternal life. This is a hint to what John says a little later in John chapter 14 verse 6. Jesus steps up and what does he say? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me or through me. What is that? That is the exclusivity of Christ in verses 4 alludes to that, points to that, directs us to that because what is he saying? John says Christ is life.

Look church, there is no life outside of Christ. All physical life, all moral life comes from Christ and true life, spiritual life, eternal life only comes from Christ. Now you might say well pastor, what about these people who are lost and without Christ and they are living their life? Yes that is called common grace and they receive that gift from God. And they will stand before God and they will give an account before God. I guess I am going to paraphrase it and say it the way I would. They will stand before God and God will say you must give an account for that which I gave you which was physical life.

Dead men give an account for the gift of life. But Christ is life. So let's move on. And the second truth I want us to see is Christ is light. Christ is light. Go back to the verse, in him was life and the life was the light of men. Now again all of the translations before us this morning basically say the same thing. There is no need to wade into those translations. But John moves from life to light but the two cannot be separated. They are not two different subjects. They are dependent upon one another. Now I want us to see first Christ is physical light. Now what do we see in the creation story? Genesis chapter one.

We see that God himself Christ was there. Christ was creator. He is the creator of all physical light. What does it say? I am not going to turn back to Genesis for the sake of time. But it says that the spirit of God was there in the darkness. There was no light. But what did God say? He said let there be light. So God, Christ Jesus, He is physical light. There would be no physical light that we enjoy without God, without that creation. But the point John is making is second, Christ is spiritual light. Christ is spiritual light. Now this light is nothing more than a manifestation of life.

Now earlier I read over in Romans about the behavior of man. I am going to go back there just to help us. But what does Paul say? He is quoting the Psalms. There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. No one seeks God. Notice the behavior in verse 12. All have turned aside and together they have become useless. There is no one who does good. Now listen. That is behavior that comes from man's nature. That is a manifestation of death. Man turned away from God. They rebel against God. They sin against God. That is a manifestation of death. That is a manifestation of their nature. Now what is John saying?

John is saying that light is a manifestation of the life of Christ. Life and light cannot be separated just as God and Christ can't be separated. God, Christ, the Word and eternal life are all inseparable and light is a manifestation of light. You see this in the garden. God wears their life. That's Adam and Eve. And God wears their light. Let me explain that. I'm going to turn there. You don't necessarily have to turn there. But in Genesis chapter 2, we're still prior to the fall. What do we see in verse 7? Then the Lord, this is a summary. Then the Lord God formed man from the dust to the ground. And what does it say?

And he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. God is so good after he created man. Verse 8 says he gave him a home. And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden and there he placed the man whom he had formed. And what do we see? God created man and God gave him a home. Then we go on down in verse 15. Then the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat." What do we see?

Within that home he had a purpose. Within that home he had life. Within that home he had a purpose. But what we do see is within the fall, after they had sinned against God, what does it say that God came and as God was walking in the garden of the cool of the day, what does it say they did? They hid themselves. Why? Because of their sin. Now what am I showing you? God created Adam. God created Eve. God cared for them. He gave them a home. He gave them purpose and he gave them instruction. I want you to notice something. Even in their perfect condition they still had to have the instruction of God. But notice what happens.

He gave them life and he was the light of that life. It was God's habit to come and walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. He was the life that was present with them. He was the light that was present with them because God is light. But in Genesis 3.8 what do we see? They have broken fellowship. They have sinned against God. So what am I showing you? In the garden God was their life and God was their light. And that life of God, now notice that life of God was a manifestation, that light that they had was a manifestation of God's life. But what do we see in verse 4? We see the incarnation.

This alludes to the incarnation of Christ. The coming of Christ physically. When Christ came to mankind he was what? The light of men. And that light was a manifestation of eternal life just like when God would come and walk with Adam and Eve. Listen, that was a manifestation of the life of God himself. As a matter of fact, Vincent says the word becomes light through the medium of life. And what do we see? This points towards the incarnation. The fact that Christ Jesus would come. He would be born of a virgin. He would be that perfect sinless sacrifice. He would walk and talk with men. He would put on flesh like you and I have.

He was the perfect God-man. One hundred percent God but yet one hundred percent man. That is a seeming contradiction but we accept it by faith. What? And he was what? The light of men. A manifestation of eternal life. So when John looked at Christ and he looked him in the faith, the scripture says that he leaned his head on his bosom. What was he doing? He was looking at the light of men and he was looking at the manifestation of true life. Let's move on and I want us to see number three. Christ shines in the darkness. Christ shines in the darkness. Back over in John chapter 4, excuse me, verse 4.

"In him was the life and the life was the light of men." Here we go, verse 5. "And the light shines in the darkness." Now the only variation in the translations we have, the King James says the word "shineth" but it means the same thing. Now I want you to notice something that there is a transition in verse 4 and in verse 5. We are moving from who Christ is. He is life, he is life. That tells us who Christ is and we're moving a little more into what Christ did. Now obviously when he became the light of men that is action, but verse 5 really speaks of action. So I want us to see the verse. First, the light shines. What does it say?

"And the light shines in the darkness." Now in the original it is in the present tense. I have told you that we need some help sometimes in the language and I always try to go back and find out what the language says. And that's very important because this means that the light of Christ has gone out continuously. This was not a one time event. Christ came and He still is coming. Christ is still working in a continued action in that light shining into darkness. But the second thing, notice that light shines in darkness. Now this word darkness is used very little outside of John's writing in the original form.

In the New Testament there were different words for darkness that were used. That was a different word that was used in 2 Peter 2 and verse 4 and verse 17 and also in the book of Jude. But in the classical Greek language of the day, the word for darkness used here in verse 5 is the strongest word that is used. Now what am I trying to show you? John uses the stronger of the words to describe darkness. This darkness represents sin. It represents rebellion against God. And John's language is that he uses the strongest word to describe this darkness. It is a deep darkness. It is a deep sin and it is a deep rebellion.

John uses the harshest word that he can use. I'll give you an example of this word. I want you to see in John chapter 8 verse 12, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." There's that word light again. He who follows me shall not walk in what? Darkness. There's that word. But shall have the light of life. All of this in John 8 flashes back to what we're looking at here in verses 4 and 5. What do we see? Christ shines in the darkness. It is a continual action and this is a deep, deep wicked darkness. I don't know about you, but for me this causes me to think about it in two ways.

First of all, personally, for me, Christ shines into my darkness. I was talking to a good Christian friend of mine. As a matter of fact, it was Brother Tyler Powell who's visited here before and he was telling me that this week he was celebrating his spiritual birthday. All people that I know that are born again, they know their spiritual birthday. And see, for me, when I look at this verse, it causes me to worship him in a new way because I remember the time when Christ in a continual manner shined into the darkness that I was living in. It was a deep darkness. It was a rebellious darkness.

And all men and women and young people who have been born again can relate to that because they know that the light of Christ shined into their darkness. Yet Christ came and He shined. And I'm so thankful. But the second thing that it makes me think is, is when we take as born again believers Christ into the world, we are going into imminent darkness. It does not matter if it's your mother and your father who are lost and without Christ. It doesn't matter if it's your neighbor. It doesn't matter if they've been baptized or prayed to receive Christ and they're not born again. It does not matter if they're a deacon.

It does not matter if they're Hindu or Muslim or Buddhist. It does not matter if they're a good citizen or a bad citizen. Those who are without Christ are living in darkness. And when we take the message of the gospel, when we take the message of Christ, when we take the message of what God has done in us, we are taking that message into darkness. And I think we must see that those that we love are not good people. They might be good by our standards, the world's standards. They might be good when you compare them to terrorist groups around the world. But yet according to the word of God, they're in darkness.

So you might say, "Well, Pastor, my little Johnny, I just can't believe that he's in darkness." Yes, he is. You never have to teach little Johnny how to lie. You never have to teach little Johnny how to be selfish. You'll never have to teach little Johnny how to pick up on dirty words from the playground. Why? Because he is born in death and he comes from death and he chooses to sin. He chooses to rebel against God. And that is a reflection of the darkness that is he was within. So Christ shines in the darkness. And then the fourth thing I want us to see is the darkness did not comprehend the light.

Verse 5, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it." Now the English Standard Version, which some of you have, it reads, "Overcome it." The New American that I preach from and the King James say the same thing. Now of all the language that we're looking at here, there can be some misunderstanding in this verse. Some can misunderstand this comprehend or overcome. The Amplified that I will read sometimes, I like it. It's kind of wordy, but the Amplified is kind of a paraphrase, but sometimes it helps us get our mind around it. And the Amplified does capture it well.

It says, "For the darkness has never overpowered it, pulled it out or absorbed it or appropriated it and is unreceptive to it." What is that saying? The original language tells us what this means. The darkness could not absorb it or appropriate it or overcome it. The darkness could not defeat it. So notice two things. First, the powers of darkness do not understand the light. The powers of darkness do not understand the light. Now let me explain what I mean. Those demons who rebelled against God with Satan, they know who Christ is. Do you realize that? Do you realize that they fully know exactly who Christ is? They do know Christ.

They do know who Christ is. They do know all about Christ, but yet they are not converted. They have rebelled against God and they live in a state of rebellion. We learned that in James chapter 2 in our study through the book of James, verse 19. What does it say? "The demons also believe and they shudder." What was James dealing with? Those who just profess Christ, but they don't know Christ. They have a profession of faith, but they've never been born again. And what James is saying, "Your words don't matter. You say you believe in Christ. Even the demons believe in Christ." And so what I want you to see is the power of darkness.

They do not understand the light. They understand who Christ is. I like how MacArthur says it. The thrust of this verse then is not that the darkness failed to understand the truth about Jesus. On the contrary, the forces of darkness know Him and they know Him well. So what I want you to see is the powers of darkness. They do understand who the light is. But the second thing is I want you to see the powers of darkness. They can't overcome the light. Though they understand who the light is, they cannot overcome the light. The idea from the language is that the darkness can't overcome it. The darkness can't eclipse it.

The darkness can't overwhelm it or extinguish the light. The darkness is no match for the light of Christ. Although the darkness and the powers of darkness understand fully who Christ is, they still are no match for the light. I tell you, some scriptures that best flesh this out for us, that's the testimony of the demons themselves. I'll read this one. Matthew chapter 8 verse 29. What do the demons say to Christ? Jesus, they say, "What do you have to do with, what do we have to do with you, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" What do we see?

As Christ was in his physical earthly ministry, as he would come across those demon-possessed individuals, a lot of times he would command them to be quiet, but in this instance, what do we see? They automatically know who he is. They automatically know his role, and they automatically know about the time of judgment, because what do they say? "Have you come to torment us before the appropriate time?" The powers of darkness understand who Christ is. See, that's unfathomable for many of you. They know Christ, they know the Word, they know him when they see him, but yet the darkness cannot overcome the light.

This might not be the greatest example, but I'll give you an example that I think helps us illustrate this. On a Wednesday night, I came to you in our Bible study time, and I had a testimony concerning those Egyptian Coptic Christians who were brutally murdered by ISIS. I don't know if you keep up with that much. It's kind of hard to keep up with what the terrorist group ISIS is doing now. The atrocities come more and more often, but the testimony that I gave you was something that our friend Brother Luke gave me, and it was the testimony of the family members of those Egyptian Christians.

Someone was interviewing them and saying, "Are you sad? This is an awful thing." Literally a brother of two of the individuals who were killed said, "We praise God that they had the opportunity to be martyrs for Christ. Our village praises God that martyrs came from our people." Then he went on to thank ISIS because he said they allowed them to open their mouth and testify to Christ. And although there were the powers of darkness working through those men, the darkness could not extinguish the light even to the very last minute because what did those Egyptian Christians do?

They opened up their mouth and they basically said, "Though you behead me now, I still love Christ." They preached Christ. Though in the midst of that darkness, they still could not extinguish the light. So for me and for you, when we go to see our lost loved ones, their darkness cannot overcome the light that is within us. I have referred to one of my favorite old preachers who's a great authority on revival and prayer. His name is Leonard Ravenhill. I think he really summarizes the meaning of this verse greatly, especially when it relates to man. But I heard Ravenhill say this in a message one time.

He said, "One man plus God is a majority." You get that? Those of us who were born again, we know Christ and he lives within us. No matter how dark that darkness might be, we are still the majority with Christ Jesus because what is John saying? The darkness could not overcome it. The darkness never will overcome it. So in conclusion, I want to ask us, what have we learned in these verses? Verses 1 through 5. I said it from the beginning. I said it earlier. This is really one message, the word. It's all about the word.

But because of the length and the depth of the text, we just had to go slow because I wanted us to get everything that we needed to see. But what have we learned in verses 1 through 5? We've learned that John has introduced us to the word. He is pre-existent. He is the Creator. And he is life that is manifested into the light, into the world. He is the light of men and he is none other than Christ. And I want you to see that John is starting off his version of Christ's life by establishing very quickly in perfect language the absolute deity of Christ.

From the beginning, the first few verses, all he does is exalt Christ for exactly who he is and it is in perfect language. But John is also making an evangelistic appeal. What does he say? The light shines in the darkness. What is that a picture of? Exactly what Christ did. This light, the light of Christ, was a manifestation of true eternal life. And I like how A.W. Pink says it. He says, "It speaks of the relation which Christ sustains to men, all men. He is their light." You get it? Right from the beginning, John is just exalting Christ. And then he immediately moves to his evangelistic heart.

And oh, by the way, this God who is in the form of the Son Jesus, he is the light who has come to darkness. So as I close, I want to ask you, where are you in relation to these verses? Do you know Christ this way? Now I'm not saying that when we are born again that we understand this fully. Listen, we can have the greatest minds. We can have the greatest theological understanding, but we never can fully comprehend the truth that is taught here. So I would venture to say that there are some of you. You are born again. And there's just been new truth. There's been new revelation. There has been new understanding granted to you.

You were able to see Christ in a new way. Therefore you can love Him in a new way. You can worship Him in a new way. But what I want to say to you is that there could be some of you here this morning, and you've never been born again the Bible way. You've prayed maybe a prayer, or are you a member of a church somewhere, but you've never been born from above. And Christ has never shined His light into your darkness. You've never gone from death to life, and you're still in the image of Adam. And if that's you, this is the Christ that you need.

And I'm sorry to say, in so many churches, this sissy, five, limp-wristed, un-life-changing gospel has been preached, but that's not what John presents. He is God, the living Lord. And if you've never been born again the Bible way, this will start to lead you. Now listen, down the path of John's evangelistic message. So what do we see? The Word. The Word. Let's pray together, Lord, I thank You that You give us what we need. Lord, You knew forever ago that we would need this message. You knew in John's time that we would need this message.