John 10:30-11:10

[0:00] So let's dive right back in. We began the chapter with a parable, and verse 6 said, This parable spake Jesus, and then he expounds on some of the elements of the parable about a sheepfold and a shepherd and a door and a thief and a robber and things like that.

[0:21] And he's carrying forth that he is the good shepherd. He says it a few times, and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, and then he carries it forward about the sheep themselves and describes other sheep that he has.

[0:35] And we closed last Sunday morning in Sunday School Hour kind of running some verses on something that's an incredibly important doctrine for not just for new believers but for all believers, and that is the doctrine that you are eternally secure in Jesus Christ when you take him as your Savior, and he forgives you of your sin, and he places you in the body of Christ.

[1:03] You cannot fall out of that body. And we didn't go through all the teaching about the body, but we ran some scriptures to show that Peter says you're kept by the power of God. The Bible says in Jude that you're preserved in Jesus Christ, and that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ.

[1:23] And God's the one that began that work in you. He's the one that will perform it. Moreover, he's the one that sealed you with his spirit until the day of redemption. And so in verse 28, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never, never, you might want to underline that if you haven't already, get that, believe that.

[1:43] It doesn't just say they won't perish, like all things will be fine. No, they'll never perish. And there's no exclusions to this. There's no conditions on this. It's a statement of fact.

[1:55] When Jesus Christ gives eternal life to his sheep, then they'll never perish. They're passed from death unto life. And those sheep could go out and get dirty.

[2:06] And those sheep could wander out and get lost in the sense of wandering astray into the world. But they'll never perish because they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2:17] That's something you ought to understand. Your salvation is not based upon your performance, based upon your obedience to Christ after you're saved. It's a birth. And when that birth takes place, it's eternal life.

[2:29] And if it wasn't eternal life, it wouldn't be called eternal life. And so that's what the Scripture calls it. All right. So verse number 29, we read this last week. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

[2:42] And so even stronger, strengthening this argument that if you're in Christ, you're sealed and the Father's greater than all. And it's a great statement.

[2:54] It's a statement of truth, as a matter of fact. But you have to understand the doctrine. You're in Christ. This is settled. And it's not a matter of losing. That's the way we think all the time.

[3:04] That's the way we want religion to, you know, promote this. Be good, and then you'll be okay. But what happens if you're bad? And that hangs over your head, this cloud of my sin and of my unfaithfulness.

[3:16] And that doesn't come into the factor when it comes to the eternal salvation of your soul. What comes into play is that the Father is greater than all, including greater than your sin and your unfaithfulness.

[3:28] And it's His faithfulness by which we're kept. So no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Now verse 30, and then we'll start moving forward. He says this. It's such a short verse, but it's such a verse that just caused a scene.

[3:42] He said, I and my Father are one. And they didn't smile and say, that's wonderful, Jesus. No, rather they took up stones again to stone Him.

[3:56] They want to murder this man in front of their own feet. Right there, they want to kill Him. They took up stones again. This isn't the first time we've already come across this. They took up stones to stone Him.

[4:09] They believe He's blaspheming. Continue reading verse 32, Jesus answered them, many good works have I showed you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me? Now He knows very well that they're upset with His words.

[4:22] But He's going to bring these works in. He's going to say, look, I've been doing the works of God all this time. I've been healing your blind and you're sick and you're lame and preaching the truth to you.

[4:32] And what are you going to kill me for? And it's not about what you did. It's about what you said. Verse 33, the Jews answered Him saying, for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

[4:49] Now, up to date, they've been after Him for this Sabbath thing. Do you remember that? It came up several times that, oh, you violated the Sabbath.

[4:59] You healed a man on the Sabbath. You're in a temple doing these things on the Sabbath day and they're just getting after Him for the Sabbath. You broke the Sabbath. That's all they had. But now they've got blasphemy.

[5:10] And He did say it earlier. I'll point it out to you again. Come back to chapter number 8. Look at John chapter 8. This was why it says, again, they picked up stones.

[5:20] It happened in John 8. And recall verse 58, the very last two verses of the chapter. Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.

[5:31] And they knew what He was saying. Exodus chapter 3, I am, that I am. Then took they up stones to cast at Him. But Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

[5:42] Now, that one doesn't show up, but it's the Sabbath, the Sabbath, the Sabbath. And now this blasphemy is going to go on top of it. You may remember all the way to the accusations put against Him when they wanted to crucify Him.

[6:00] One of the accusations was, He said He's going to destroy the temple. They were bringing that one out of John chapter, what was that? 1? No. 2.

[6:10] John chapter 2, where He said, destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. And so they're just grasping at straws. But this one's pretty strong for Him to say, I and my Father are one.

[6:24] Now, despite the fact that it's hard for them to receive that because they see this guy as a man and as a menace to their religion, for us by faith, it's easy to receive the statement by faith.

[6:39] It's what Jesus said. Okay, so I'll submit to His words, and I don't understand everything, but He said it, so it's right. But it's hard for us to understand this. It's hard for us to relate to this because, truthfully, we can't relate to this.

[6:53] What can we relate to of something that's describing the spiritual nature of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Father, and to bring it into play even stronger, the Trinity, the Godhead, the Comforter, or the Holy Ghost?

[7:07] Well, since I mentioned it, look over at chapter 16. No, 14. Let's look at 14. And it's just tough to grasp the Godhead and the nature of God.

[7:28] You and I being physical creatures, yes, we can say, well, we're body, soul, and spirit, but go ahead and expound upon that too much.

[7:40] The truth is what you know is that you're a body. You're a physical being, and you can think, and you can talk, and you can articulate your thoughts, and you can even call out on the Lord, but can you feel your soul?

[7:56] And can you feel your spirit, and can you reveal that to me and show me how that works? And the truth is while we can say, oh, we're like God, we're three parts too, you know that because the Bible says that.

[8:08] Without this book, you don't know that stuff. Without this book, you've got what the psychologists and the philosophers come up with, and they don't come up with these things, and if they do, they argue about them.

[8:20] So, getting back to this, look at John chapter 14, verse 16. Christ says, And I will pray the Father, and he, the Father, shall give you another comforter.

[8:34] Meaning, Jesus Christ is their comforter right now. Notice verse number 18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. So, he is their comforter, but he's going to give them another comforter.

[8:47] Right, back to verse 16. I shall give you another comforter that he, now who's the he? He, the Father, may abide with you forever. Meaning, the Father's in me, and I'm in him.

[9:01] I and my Father are one. And God, the Father, sent me to you as your comforter. But when I go away, he's going to send another comforter that he, the Father, may abide with you forever.

[9:14] It's not a reference to the comforter abiding with you forever, but rather the Father. Look down at verse 23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, I'll back up just a verse so you get the context.

[9:27] Judas saith unto him, Not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he'll keep my words, and my Father will love him.

[9:40] And here we go. And we, we, my Father and I, Jesus and the Father, will come unto him and make our abode with him. And how are you going to do that?

[9:52] It's through the comforter. It's through the Holy Ghost. That person of the Godhead, within him dwells the Son and the Father making their abode. It's just wild. It's just wild.

[10:04] All right, look back at chapter, what is it? 12. Look at John 12. Here's just another cross reference. I and my Father are one.

[10:16] John chapter 12, verse 45, something else he said. 44. 44. Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.

[10:30] And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me. He's telling the truth. He means what he's saying. It's not some word play and just some fancy way of trying to...

[10:43] No, he is the Father in the flesh. He is... Isaiah said that this Son that is given would be the... He shall be called the everlasting Father. That's who that person is standing in front of them.

[10:57] So when he says, I and my Father are one, he means it. And if you see me, you've seen the Father. Come back to 14 again, a little bit earlier in that chapter. He's dealing with Philip here and his lack of understanding.

[11:13] Let's see. Okay, verse 8. I'll start in 7. Now they're like, what?

[11:30] Peter saith, or Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long time with you? And yet hast thou not known me, Philip?

[11:43] He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how saith thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me?

[11:55] The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. Believe me for the very works sake.

[12:08] And he carries on. This is something that they're struggling to understand. Much less his own disciples, much less the Jews and those who did not want to receive him.

[12:18] One more reference. Look at 17. Kind of got you hopping around here, but it's all over this book of John. Chapter 17, toward the end. Let's start in verse, let's see, verse 21.

[12:31] 17, 21. That they all may be one. That is, not just those that believe on him, but those that will in the future all be one collectively.

[12:46] As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. And so there's something spiritual going on there for not just present believers, but future believers, all being one in the Father and the Son at one time.

[13:05] That's a spiritual body. And Christ saying that I'm in him and he's in me, they need to get out of their mind and understand or receive spiritual truth. Remember chapter 6, 63, where he said, The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit.

[13:21] When he's talking about the bread of life and eating my flesh and drinking my blood. These are spiritual words and truths that I'm teaching you. All right, so that's back to 10, 30.

[13:32] I and my Father are one. If you see Jesus Christ in the flesh, you're looking at the Father that has been God in the flesh, is what Paul calls it in 1 Timothy chapter 3.

[13:49] And so there's a reference to deity, the deity of Jesus Christ, and they see him as a man. That's what they say in verse 33 at the end, because that thou being a man makest thyself God.

[14:03] God doesn't look like you do, but oh, he does. So verse 34, Jesus answered them. This is amazing. Is it not written in your law? I said, ye are gods.

[14:14] He's referencing the Psalms and Psalm 82, where it says, I said, ye are gods, but shall die like men. Isn't it written in your law? I said, ye are gods.

[14:24] If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, so they are. Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemest, because I said I'm the Son of God?

[14:38] He's so witty. He's so sharp with the scripture and so quick with it too. He's putting their own scripture on them that is said of their own people themselves and saying, if any one of you would claim that you're a child of God or claim that psalm, would you pick up stones to blaspheme or to cast at them and say they're blaspheming?

[15:02] Why would you ever do it to me? I'm just agreeing with your scripture. He's got them. They can't answer that. It's an incredible thing that only somebody that's super versed in the scripture can do, or the Lord Jesus Christ who's just got it like that.

[15:21] And the scripture cannot be broken. It's a phrase I feel like I could run for a while on. It's a blessing to have that verse in your Bible, John 10, 35. The scripture cannot be broken.

[15:33] That's like a side note. It's a statement of fact that's kind of building what it says back there, and it can't be broken, so it's true, and it goes forward.

[15:44] We could spend some time on that thought there because that means everything. If it's scripture, it can't be broken. And if it's scripture, it will come to pass. And something that Dr. Uckman would say in Bible school all the time was, this book right here, it runs the world.

[16:00] The world, mankind, the nations, they're powerless to defeat what the scripture has declared. And it's a blessing to get that concept in your mind and to realize it doesn't matter all this ups and downs and the argument and fighting.

[16:14] The scripture cannot be broken. So let's get our attention on the scripture and understand what God wants to accomplish in this world. Verse 36, Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified.

[16:25] I got that. Thou blasphemest. Verse 37, If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. So he's a very reasonable, logical man. He is not pulling out things that they can't handle.

[16:38] Just, that's pretty plain. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works. Like that's pretty much elementary level stuff.

[16:50] He's been, we've seen this, he's been declaring that these works bear witness that he is from the Father. And he said this several times to them. It's pretty elementary that I came, I did something supernatural right in front of your faces.

[17:05] How are you going to just ignore that because you don't like me? And you don't understand my speech because you're not of God. But come on, he keeps going right back to what they saw and experienced.

[17:15] Because God gave signs to the Jews to get them to believe the man or the prophet or the preacher that was doing the signs. And they're programmed for this.

[17:27] And this is a whole other Bible study in of itself. But they are as a nation programmed to believe signs and to follow the one doing the signs. And he pleads to that.

[17:40] If you don't believe me, but believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him. So if the works that he did were false and they flopped, then whatever he says doesn't have any veracity to it.

[17:55] It could just be bogus. It could be blasphemy. But if the signs are true, then so is the word that he speaks. That's the connection to be made going back to Deuteronomy.

[18:08] Now verse 40, or verse, where did I stop? Verse 39. Therefore, they sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their hands. So his time was not yet come, and nothing was going to happen before the time.

[18:22] So off he goes. And they went away again beyond Jordan, that is across Jordan. They call that Transjordan, or across the east side of Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized.

[18:34] And back in chapter 1, that was Bethabara. We studied that. And there he abode. And many resorted unto him and said, John did no miracle. But all things that John spake of this man were true.

[18:46] And look what John the writer continues to insert in every chapter of his epistle. And many believed on him there.

[18:57] And that was the conflict right in front of us. You don't believe me. You don't believe me. Believe the works. Believe on me. Believe on me. Believe on me. And they wouldn't. But he doesn't close it until he lets us know many did.

[19:10] Many believed on him. And remember, that is the purpose or reasoning for John writing this epistle, is that you'll believe on the name of the Son of God.

[19:21] So he continues to put that in front of us, that many did believe on him. John's testimony, John the Baptist's testimony, and his works still bearing witness of him as the people concluded that John didn't do any miracle like this guy's doing.

[19:36] But what John did say about him, he said he was going to do many works, and he's doing them. Like, we've got two witnesses. They're agreeing to that. Okay, so moving on.

[19:47] Many believed on him there. Chapter 11. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary, and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

[20:05] If you're familiar with this Mary, you can read about her in several of the gospel accounts. And there's a little bit of argument here. I'll just point this out. Look ahead to chapter 12, and verse number 3, and you see what John's talking about.

[20:23] This is the Mary that took a pound of ointment, spikenered very costly, anointed the feet of Jesus, wiped his feet with her hair. And that's exactly what he said.

[20:34] Anointed the Lord with ointment, wiped his feet with her hair. So that's her. But look back at Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7.

[20:51] And there's another time when his feet were wiped with a woman's hair and anointed with ointment. And it happens in Bethany.

[21:08] And this is verse 37. Behold a woman in the city, which was a sinner, once she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house.

[21:19] That would be Simon. Where are we at here? Brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, and began to wipe his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, kissed his feet.

[21:34] And so Simon is the one by name. He's mentioned in verse 44. Verse 44. The woman's not mentioned by name. And by the timing of this, it appears this was a good year and a half to two years before what John writes it happening in chapter 12 in verse 3.

[21:50] So the speculation is, is Luke 7 the same woman? Is it the same occurrence? Is it different things? It's really hard to say. There's a few things that you can kind of, if you lay them out and look at them side by side, you can, you have to bring Matthew and Mark into this as well.

[22:06] You can't prove it is what I believe, what I see. You can't prove one way or the other. But there does seem to be some discrepancies and differences in those two that they're separate accounts.

[22:18] So then, when we're in John chapter 11, when we refer to Mary, it seems very likely that we're referring to John chapter 12 because he's mentioned in Bethany and in verse 3, her name is Mary and Lazarus, it's like that's the ones.

[22:36] So it seems like that's the reference and Luke 7 could be a different woman or she did it beforehand. It's hard to say. But if that's the case that this is John telling us about what's going to happen in chapter 12, then a parenthetical, before it ever shows up, he just inserts who this is.

[22:55] And I point that out to say two things here. Really, if you're going to, the Bible will have seemingly, seeming contradictions in it or passages that you're not sure if they're saying the same thing or are they different things.

[23:07] And you can't always get the truth on it as far as with certainty. Sometimes you just have to lay it out, study it out, search it out, and be content to not know. Don't ever suppose something and then go preaching that to be truth and doctrine when you don't necessarily have all the facts before you.

[23:25] But it's interesting that God will, before it happens, insert things kind of like the author is writing after the facts. So he has the liberty. Moses does this a lot.

[23:35] He does it quite a bit back in the study we're doing in Exodus and throughout his five books. Even in Genesis, when he's giving this kind of chronological outlook, he's throwing things in that don't really fit into the chronology, but it's still, it's truth and it's fact, and he's just kind of giving, like giving you insight, preparing the way for the future.

[23:57] So just recently, somebody called me and asked me a question, a Bible question, and it was, man, I don't even remember the thing, but my statement was, well, Moses wrote that after the fact.

[24:09] And as soon as I said that, the guy goes, oh! And it was like, done, like, okay, we're good, and we hung up. And he went back to his studies, and it made perfect sense to him that Moses, it wasn't like something that we didn't understand yet.

[24:24] Moses did understand it when he wrote it about the past. I hope that makes sense to you. So anyway, Matthew, John chapter 11, and verse 2, it was that Mary that anointed him with ointment. All right, verse 3, Therefore his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

[24:42] He whom thou lovest, speaking of Lazarus, their brother. When Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

[24:54] Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Show me how many times in the Bible it describes Jesus loving an individual.

[25:05] It's not to say that he didn't, but this was special. If John's going to point it out, this was something close and special. He knew these people, he spent time with them in their home, and he loved them personally, as in a personal relationship with them, beyond just teaching them the truth.

[25:23] They got into a fellowship with Jesus Christ, the man, and he loved them. And that's a beautiful thing, and I'm glad that John notes that, because Jesus Christ loves people that spend time with him and that get to know him.

[25:41] The relationship grows with time, does it not? Is it not true about every relationship in your life, every friend, or every person you've ever known, people at work, you just know on this little level, because all you do is pass by their station twice a day, coming and going.

[25:58] You don't know them. Maybe some of you know their kids, or you know their wife's name, or you've seen them out one time at the store, but you don't know them. But when you go to their home, when you spend time with them, you develop, Jesus Christ developed a real relationship with these people, and he spent time with them.

[26:16] You'll see in another place that he was at their house, he was teaching the word, and the one was busy, cumbered about with much, because she's working. Like, this was a normal thing to him to stop at their home while he's in town and spend time.

[26:29] Praise the Lord. Jesus Christ knew some people, and he wasn't off limits. So, he tells them that this sickness is not unto death, but verse 14, he has to say, Lazarus is dead.

[26:43] So, why does he say it's not unto death? Well, I guess in his mind, thinking forward, he knows what's going to happen, and he knows what he's intending to do. He's going to resurrect this man, so the death, whatever, it's just a temporary, he's just sleeping.

[26:57] It's not a permanent thing. But he did say it that way, didn't he? This sickness is not unto death. So, that seems to imply, it's okay. It's okay.

[27:07] Remember, they sent unto him. So, he told the messengers, don't worry, they're leaving, thinking, oh, he's not going to die. It's the way it sounds. This sickness is not unto death. But for the glory of God, the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

[27:21] Very similar thing to that blind man in chapter number nine. Neither hath this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. So, there's blindness and there's sickness and these things God allows in this nation and these people so that Jesus Christ can show up and work the works of God and declare his deity before them.

[27:43] Verse six says, when he had heard, therefore, that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. So, he either had some business, he had some preaching, he had some healing, or he's just stalling and he's not allowing, he's allowing the death and the sickness to fully come to pass so that he can go after the fact and work the works of God.

[28:07] Verse seven, then after that he saith to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples said unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again?

[28:21] That's a legitimate question. Your life is in danger. There's threats on your life to go back there. Why? And look at his reply. We're going to park here for just a moment in verses, his answer in verses nine and ten.

[28:38] Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in a day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth because there's no light in him.

[28:53] And he doesn't talk much more about that. He just lets that be and then he goes back to Lazarus. So what's he even talking about? It's not explained by John. It's just thrown out there.

[29:05] I have to point out that this talk of day and light is a reoccurring theme from John chapter one, the very beginning in verse, I want to say four and five, and then throughout the first ten or twelve verses, he's dealing with light.

[29:20] Chapter three, he just talks about light again and darkness, contrasting the two. Men love darkness rather than light. It happens a few times, twice, where he calls himself the light of the world.

[29:32] And that should have stood out to you perhaps in chapter 11, verse nine, when he says, Because he seeth the light of this world. And this is an illustration that he says to the men.

[29:44] When it's light out, that's when you take your journeys, when you walk through the woods. You don't do that in the darkness. You're going to stumble. You'll fall. But you do it when there's light.

[29:58] Now, that's not really what he's trying to teach them. Man, there's so much in here. I want to keep my thoughts together here. If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

[30:15] Would you consider, let's run to, mm-mm-mm. Let's go to 2 Corinthians, chapter four.

[30:28] 2 Corinthians, chapter four. When his disciples are concerned that he's going to go into the danger zone, his response is, listen, when it's light out, that's when you walk, because you're not worried about stumbling.

[30:49] It's when it's dark out. In other words, when the power of darkness is in control, that's when you're afraid. He's told him this. Oh, man. Okay, let me get this one before that.

[31:01] Go back to chapter nine of John. We'll get to 2 Corinthians in a moment. Here's something he told them just shortly ago in our study here. John chapter nine and verses four and five.

[31:16] Notice this, and we're comparing this to what we just read. Verse four says, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man can work.

[31:27] As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. Well, Jesus, don't you go to Judea because they're seeking to kill you.

[31:38] He's like, you know, it's daytime right now. I'm the light of the world. In the world, I'm here to work the works of God. I am not afraid of the men that are coming against me or that have put a life threat.

[31:51] I've already avoided and gotten out of that more than once. He's not afraid of that, but I have the light and I need to, it's day, it's time to go. Now, I'll come back to 2 Corinthians.

[32:01] I wanted you in verse, chapter four. We'll start in verse three in this passage. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the binds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

[32:23] Now, pause here. Notice that Christ is the light of the world as long as he's in the world. But he's not in the world now, but he is in the world in the meaning of you have Christ in you.

[32:35] And we're called children of the day and we're called children of light. And we have the light of the glorious gospel of Christ in us. And that's what is shining or to be shining today.

[32:48] In verse five, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, the light of the world and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

[33:08] So we preach Christ Jesus, the Lord. that is, in effect, preaching light. It's shining light. Look at Ephesians chapter five.

[33:21] Let's just hit a few verses here. Ephesians chapter five. And while you're going there, I'm going to read one from 1 John chapter one.

[33:33] 1 John chapter one. It says, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declaring to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

[33:46] If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another in the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin.

[33:59] Same author. And he's got this same theme permeating his epistles of light. God is light. The glorious gospel of the light. Jesus is the light of the world.

[34:10] Now coming back to Ephesians five, look at verse number eight. It says, for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.

[34:24] Walk as children of light. In verse 11, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them for it is a shame to even speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

[34:37] But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, which in this case is your walk, your testimony, your Christian life.

[34:49] For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, and here comes an Old Testament quote, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light.

[35:01] But do you realize that the light that Christ is going to give to the lost in this age is coming from you. It's coming from who's inside of you and shining out of you. Look at one more.

[35:12] First Thessalonians chapter five. So when Jesus Christ says, illustrative saying that there's 12 hours in a day, just daytime, the sun's shining, I'm not talking about the sun.

[35:30] He's not describing the sun at all, or really that's just an illustration. There's a time to work the works of God while it is day, because the night comes when no man can work. And for Christ, this is the time for him to be active, for him to be working the works of God, not to be hiding in fear of the Jews and what they might do to him.

[35:50] That hour is coming. So it's time for him to fulfill the will of God and the Father's word without fear. And so it is for you and I. All right.

[36:00] First Thessalonians five. And let's start in verse five. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day.

[36:11] We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober for they that sleep, sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

[36:24] But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love for a helmet to hope of salvation. We're not dealing with 12 hour increments in this passage.

[36:36] We're dealing with you are no longer of the night. You are of the day. You are born again with the glorious gospel of Christ in you and the light of the world in you.

[36:48] You are children of light. Therefore, your lives are not 12 hour increments of darkness and light, but it is you are of the day. From the beginning to the end, that's who you are in Christ.

[37:01] Of the day. And so it's our job to carry the light in us. And so Jesus Christ said, look, there's daytime and nighttime and we're not afraid.

[37:15] So the point I'm trying to drive at you is you don't have any reason to fear or any reason to cower. If the Lord God puts on your heart to do something for him, you're of the day.

[37:27] You have the light. God will direct your path and you won't stumble. You don't have to fear what man can do unto you. If God puts on your hearts at the gas station, hand that man a gospel track.

[37:39] Reach in your car, get a track out and hand it to him. Your darkness inside of you says, no, no. He'll spit at you.

[37:50] He'll laugh at you. He'll just can't do it. But God says, no, you're of the day. The light is shining right now. You are shining. He's in the darkness. So go shine to him.

[38:03] It's an opportunity for you to do something for God. That's what Jesus prayed. I'm not going to back down because somebody's against me. This is the time to work. And church and Christian, this is the time to work.

[38:15] And if you have an opportunity, take advantage of it because that is God trying to shine his light into someone else's life. And he doesn't want to, he's not willing that any should perish.

[38:26] And that person at the gas station or that person that works in the cubicle beside you, even though they have filthy mouth, it's because they're of the darkness. They're of the night. But they need some light.

[38:39] So be faithful and be considerate that God has you as a light, as a child of the day. See yourself as that. Believe that that's true about you because it's going to come time and recognize, oh, that's just the darkness in me that wants to hold the light in.

[38:55] Don't let it hold it in, but be faithful. So let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, please give us opportunity and courage to fulfill this last part of our study and to be children of the day, to not be ashamed, to shine forth as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.

[39:12] And may Jesus Christ be glorified by our obedience. We pray you'll bless the rest of our day and time together in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's take a break. Amen.