Let's turn together to John, chapter 12, as we will close this chapter and this portion of John, and I say portion because often people will, if you are seeking a broad outline of John, it can't get any broader than two points. And the end of chapter 12, the beginning of chapter 13, would mark a transition point in the book. And this, let me only mention it again as we move to study this. Book, the first part of John 1 through 12, is often called The Book of Signs. And of course, the one which follows 13 through 20 would be considered the Passion, that is Christ teaching to His disciples, the Passion, and the story of the Resurrection. So we now would close essentially Christ public ministry out today. And reading John, chapter 12, verses 44 through 50, Jesus having already now withdrawn with His disciples, wrapping up and summarizing the teaching which we have studied to this point. Listen for it is God who speaks to us, and Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in Him who sent me, and whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness if anyone hears my words and does not keep them. I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given himself, I'm sorry, the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me, the Lord bless the reading of His word and the hearing of His people. We've mentioned the great tragedy of a once great denomination that has now determined and is preaching, and it's fall into apostasy, that Jesus is not the only way of salvation. To be charitable, they say that Jesus is a way to salvation, but they are a teaching their own people, that Jesus is not the only way of salvation. In an age where fear of judgmentalism trumps discernment and wisdom, in an age where egotism trumps repentance, we have come to understand that Christ is the center of theology, and repentance has become the purpose of our preaching. But instead of that, tolerance has now become the center of theology for those who would seek a different way. Chapter 12, again, is marking this great transition in the incarnational ministry of Christ. The first 12 chapters have presented Jesus in every possible way to people that they might understand. He was presented as the Word of God. He was presented as light or the Lamb of God or living water in the bread of life. He's been presented as the shepherd. He's been told to them as being the truth. In chapter 1, verse 11, we read that he came to his own and they received him not. And then in the first portions of chapter 13 and the first verse, we will read there that he has loved his own, that is those who are called out of the world and that he will love them to the end. And so we find in chapter 12 where Jesus has come and made a broad appeal to all men, that they might receive him. And now we understand as we are transitioning into chapter 13, that Jesus understands and he sees his own and he will love them to the end. And so there has been a distinction that is drawn between the world and the kingdom of God. We probed into that somewhat last week as we talked about those who were lost and who would not see. He has blinded their eyes. The Scripture teaches in Isaiah, repeated here by John, and hardened their hearts, less they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them. And so Jesus now following upon this tragic understanding of those who are not to be found in Christ, who are not to receive the salvation of the Lord. We read in the very first, verse 44, Jesus cries out. He cries out, not in the sense of weeping, but in the sense of an urgent proclamation. He is crying out, he is calling out, and he is saying, whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me. Consistently people have been moved and impressed with his miracles, but also consistently they have failed to distinguish between the sign that Jesus was giving and the substance of the sign or that to which the sign is pointing. They have marveled and they have been amazed and they have been enthralled as Jesus fed the 5,000. They have been marveled and amazed and enthralled as Jesus raised Lazarus from the tomb. But yet they have failed to understand what these signs point to. So they have followed Jesus on account of the signs. Jesus is here saying, it's not me, the person, the flesh which you are observing, it's not this to which you are being called. It is the God whom you should see when you look at me. So now Jesus is essentially saying it plainly what he said differently in so many other places. If you truly do believe on the Son of God, if you truly do believe on me, Jesus is saying. It's not me that is your conclusions that you've drawn based on my finite humanity, but on him who has sent me. If you see me as I truly am, then you see the God who sent me. Right after his discussion of darkness and blindness, he now says that anyone who truly sees him sees God. Anyone who has rightly discerned him, discerns God. This is not inaccessible in Jewish theology. This was not something that we would then look back and say, well, how could they possibly understand? They had the prophecies that we have touched on many, many times, certainly Micah 5.2 that says, from Bethlehem, one would come, who would be from everlasting. And so there was the sense of an incarnation of one who was eternal in his existence. The Jewish mind should have been reminded of these great prophecies of one who would come to be ruler of Israel, whose going forth were from old, from eternity. And yet, even with this great prophetic tradition that they held, we even with these scriptures that were so accessible, they still failed to discern the true Christ. This one who was born as a man, but existed eternally. Jesus had demonstrated power over the waves. He had demonstrated authority over the Sabbath. He had demonstrated authority over the graves, and he had proclaimed the authority to forgive sin. These evidence not mere human power, tricks or magic, these evidence divine power. And they should have grasped and been able to understand these. These things were not beyond comprehension. And yet, they are not able to discern spiritual truth. This Jesus that is the revelation of God in the planist sense. He's not just a prophet bringing to them a word, but he is of the same essence as God. His holiness, that holiness of God, demands that we keep the righteousness that the law requires. At Mount Sinai, God revealed his righteousness to his people in the law, and then immediately sin Aaron to sacrifice to show his grace. Jesus is the revelation of God to man. And he is the revelation of God's righteousness to man. And he is the revelation of God's grace to man. But this was modeled for them in their own history. The righteousness of God because of his own holiness revealed in the law in Mount Sinai, then because the law which was given to them and they were required to keep because God is holy. And he cannot compromise on his holiness and his righteousness. And yet they were unable to keep these. And so right after giving the law, there is a sacrifice that is initiated. God commanded the impossible, Donald Gray Barnhouse tells us. Through Moses, he commanded the impossible, and then he did the impossible through Aaron. Romans chapter 10, verses 1 through 4. Brothers, Paul says, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. What knowledge, Paul, is that you speak up? What knowledge is it that they are lacking? They have the scriptures. What knowledge is it that they do not understand? For being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone who believes. God gave man a standard of righteousness that man cannot achieve. Man cannot rise to this standard of righteousness. And so, instead of bowing humbly before God and begging for pardon, he seeks to establish his own. Man would seek to establish his own righteousness, instead of turning to God for mercy. Instead of turning to God and receiving a sacrifice which is the due penalty for unrighteousness, man would seek to establish his own righteousness. Paul, again, in 2 Corinthians 5, 18, reminds us of the same point that all this is from God who, through Christ, reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. Here's the point of this. Here's the point of what we have just uncovered together. God did not use this man Jesus the way the lambs were used in the past. They were used in themselves to be signs of that great redemption and forgiveness and sacrifice which was to come. God, through the incarnation, was actually reconciling us to Himself. 1 Timothy 3.16, God was manifest in the flesh. The one who sees Jesus as He truly is sees God. Here is John's emphasis on the incarnation. Here's how it becomes practiced. You say you believe in God, not the one true God, unless you also receive Christ as He is revealed. Some say there's more than one way, but there is no way to God except by God. And so God was made incarnate in flesh and it is by God incarnate in Christ Jesus that we have access to God. It is only by God that we are able to go to God. There is no other way to God except by Himself for it is His righteousness and His holiness that is the standard that must be achieved. Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate in flesh, the revelation of God Himself, who is God Himself, this Jesus whom we call Christ, who is our salvation. And because this Jesus who is our Christ is God Himself, establishes and lives and attains the perfect standard of righteousness that is required and beyond that. He also has been the Lamb which takes away the sin. Hebrews 1-3, speaking of Jesus, He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of His nature and upholds the universe by the word of His power after making purification for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So the one who believes in Jesus believes in God and the one who does not believe in Jesus does not believe in God, not the true God. They may profess to believe in a God, but not the true God, but they have not put their faith in the one true God. They have not believed upon the one true God, they have not believed on the holiness and the righteousness of the one true God has been revealed to us through the law. So therefore they do not turn to the one true God for their salvation which is in Christ. Jesus goes on from this and He mentions again the light and we have studied and explored the concept of light rather at length. So we will not spend a great deal of time but only be reminded today of what we have learned about light. I have come into the world as light, Jesus said, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. Jesus returns again to this theme of light because without Jesus the world is in darkness. He is the light that has come into the world and revelation we understand that in the new creation it is the light of Christ which illumines the world. He is the source of truth, He is the source of life, He is the source of understanding, He is the source of knowledge, He is the source of salvation. All the things which light would give in life and living and in understanding Christ Himself gives without Jesus, we are plunged into darkness. To such an extent that we are living as if we have a veil pulled over our eyes and we cannot see clearly the world in which we live. While men are capable of thought, spiritual truth will allude them. Great men have great thoughts, great women have great thoughts. But carnal men has no spiritual thought. Just as a fallen man cannot master his own flesh to be righteous so a fallen mind is incapable of mastering spiritual truth. To proclaim whatever way they will to God there is only one way revealed by God and that is Jesus Christ. For many it is being exposed as dwelling in darkness that actually it cites their passions against Christ. There is nothing who would make one who is sinning more ill than to have someone point out their sin. But then they don't hate the sin, they hate the one who would point out their sin. There is nothing like one who is living in darkness, having their deeds exposed to the light of the gospel to make them hate the gospel all the more. They don't hate sin, they hate the one who shows them their sin. Second one is not only did Jesus come to give light to the world but Jesus has come to deliver us from the darkness. He's come to give light but he's come to deliver as well. He's come to give and he's come to save. So that whoever believes will not remain in darkness, he says, so that whoever believes will not remain in darkness. Psalm 1828, the Lord my God, lightens my darkness, what encouraging words. And in 1 Peter 2.9 the same thing, you are chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. We are being drawn to Christ who is the light, who is taking us out of the darkness of ignorance, out of the darkness of sin, out of the darkness of lostness, out of the darkness of superstition, out of the darkness of guessing and hoping against hope for a way to God, except the way God Himself prescribes. How is it that man will be brought from darkness into light? Jesus says very plainly, whoever believes, believe. Jesus in verse 40-47 says that the ministry has, he has presented to them, is not meant to excite them against him because he has not come pointing a finger to accuse them of their sin at that point. He has come to bring to them a message of salvation. Jesus' appearance was the expression of God's matchless grace. There is a time of judgment that is to come, but his coming to them was an expression of mercy and of grace. Jesus had the law and expression of God's righteousness that man could never achieve. The Jews had that. Jesus was the righteousness they could not achieve, and then after the law had came the Lamb. Jesus came preaching the good news, preaching righteousness, but then also He is the Lamb. Isaiah 53 has born our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions. He's cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of people. But then He also tells us that there is a judgment that is to come for those who do not receive His Word. What you've seen on the television commercials, the airline, the airline commercial where there is a young lady and she's standing at the counter and the man is buying his ticket and he's very pleased because the cost is not that great. And then as he looks down to get his billfold, she turns around and she has a face on both sides of her head and this one looks a bit scornful and she is telling him, now there's going to be all these fees and she starts saying, give me, give me, give me your wallet, give me all of it. And he's a bit amazed and he says, well, I didn't understand. I didn't see how that would be so. I thought it was going to be a lot cheaper than that. Well this will be something of the experience on the last day of judgment for those who are not in Christ. Not that Christ is too faced. I certainly would never imply that nor is Christ schizophrenic, but the gospel which was offered to them so gently, the invitation, the to come to Christ which they've heard so frequently and now turns to them the very words which will condemn them. Jesus has come to offer Himself in grace but He warns that there is a day which is coming a day of judgment and in that day we will once again hear that kind invitation of our Lord to come but like an echo of the past, those who rejected will hear their own words of rejection and refusal of Christ so the word of salvation will turn to a word of condemnation. Even the blessing which they had offered to them will be turned to a curse. Perhaps one of the great errors of our day is the conviction that we can just simply wait and work it out in the end. Procrastination is the word of our day. How many times do we wait until life's events, no matter what it is. Not just in the spiritual realm, it doesn't matter what it is, we wait till there's crisis and then we just work it all out. We don't work out things way far in advance. We wait until there's a crisis point and then we just apply ourselves to our best and let the chips fall where they may and we'll live with the result. The consequences of doing this with our soul are grave and dire indeed. We live as if things will just go on and on, unchanging, we continue to live unconvinced of Christ's return. The second Peter, three, four and, and verse 10, they will say, where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with the roar and the earth and the works that are done will be exposed. There is a future day of accountability coming but it's coming will be so sudden that there will be no opportunity to work things out at the last moment. How will you answer? Not just for what you've done but for who you are on that day. It's not just the things that you have done but it's the person that you are in Revelation chapter 6 when the sixth seal is broken and all civilization collapses around us. Then we will understand that the Lamb which is the symbol of our hope will be a terrible sight for those who do not believe for it is described as the wrath of the Lamb, the wrath of the Lamb. That Lamb which has been the symbol of our hope and our salvation, that Lamb which was given that we might live, now we understand the wrath of that same Lamb will fall upon those who do not belong to Him. And so we must be concerned with the now, the now because there is a command to believe. We like to talk about it and I've even used the expression today of an invitation to believe, an invitation from Christ. We even in some services not our own but in some churches they will at the end of the service give an invitation but God's word shows that God is not issued an invitation. He's issued a command, a command to all men to believe. It's not an invitation we have the luxury of turning down and carrying on as if nothing has happened. There is a command to believe and we either disobey the command or we obey the command versus 48 through 50 of today's passage. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day for I have not spoken on my own authority but the father who sent me has himself given me what an invitation to extend an opportunity to plead, no, a commandment, what to say and what to speak. I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say therefore I say as the father has told me. Think of the words which we often read in the scripture that we have taken to be invitations. For example, hear them now I might say as a commandment with an ultimatum, a commandment to believe or perish in Matthew 1128 come to me and I will give you rest. You have often heard that as a pleading, almost a helpless plea to please come so that I can grant you rest but hear it now as a command come to me and I will give you rest. There is a command with a promise attached to it or Isaiah 553 here and your soul shall live. It's not a plea to give me some time, give me a hearing. It's a command to hear, a command to dismiss worldly thought and meditate on the Lord to push out of our mind all those thoughts which would occupy the space that should be occupied with pondering on the things of God. He says, hear me and then your soul shall live and then the words of Jesus follow me. We see even in the example of scripture that that was a command because when Jesus issued that command to follow me, Matthew grows to follow from the gate and the fisherman dropped their nets and the nets they were mending and immediately turned from that life and they followed Christ. Acts chapter 17 29 through 31 we find Paul on Mars Hill and he's been walking amongst all of their monuments to false gods and he finds one there which is a monument to the unknown God just in case there's one that they missed, they're polytheistic, a people who are very committed to philosophy and to thinking and to making sure they've appeased the gods of this world and Paul standing there amidst all of this paganism and unbelief says being then God's offspring we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man, the times of ignorance God has overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Just Paul say he's overlooked the time of ignorance and now he wants to extend a kind and a gracious and a patient invitation that if you would just consider these things and see it within yourself, that's what an invitation is isn't it? See it within yourself to come and to heed this word that he would give to you, he's not saying that at all to this pagan culture of thinking people, he's saying the God which I'm telling you about, now he commands all people everywhere to repent. The most loathsome of activities of all mankind to repent because he is fixed today on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. I want to close with this command in mind. I want you to leave today pondering this repentance. He has commanded all people everywhere to repent for there is no attaining to the righteousness of Christ without repentance and this has been a consistent theme in all of Christian teaching from the beginning. John Calvin said the beginning of repentance is the confession of guilt. So it would seem the first step of our repentance is simply confessing we are guilty of sin of crime of high treason against God, a confession of guilt, not in a generic sense where we would say Lord we know that because we are born and sinned, therefore blaming our guilt on our ancestors, blaming our guilt on Adam, instead we confess we too have sin and committed treason against God or Al Martin, repentance is the soul's divorce from sin, having confessed that we are guilty against God, are we willing to divorce ourselves from sin? We'll divorce ourselves from anything else it doesn't suit us, we'll divorce a spouse, we'll divorce a church, we'll divorce anything that we don't like at a drop of a pit. But will we divorce ourselves from sin? We would divorce ourselves from sin we would find ourselves not needing to divorce ourselves from everything else in life, for it is sin that drives us away from everything. We simply can't say, been there, done that when it comes to repentance. It is not once accomplished for all time, as oil-dabney points out the saint as a penitent until he reaches heaven. We must continually repent, see H. Spurgeon, another great teacher of the church recognized that he said, you are not living to God as you want unless you repent daily, unless we cease to sin daily. In Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer and theologian said there is no repentance in the grave so the urgency is to repent now, now. You do not wait, you do not hold on to the end, you do not handle this as a crisis with your last breath, you repent now. And to reach even further back to Tertullian, I was born for nothing but repentance, he says. Repentance has been such a cardinal doctrine and shall I say virtue of the Christian life. For all of the church's history, that with its loss in modern time, is it any wonder the church is in the shape that it is? Repentance was considered to be the way of Christian living, but now we have to justify even today's call to repentance. We shouldn't be such down in the mouth about it, there should be great joy, repentance brings nothing but sadness and gloom. repentance should bring liberation, for it is sin that chokes us, repentance is the separation of our soul from sin and a calling out to God and yet it's that separation that we find to be so depressing. We would rather remain unrepentant and not have our sins pointed out to us and not be reminded that we are sinners so that we remain firmly in the embrace of sin, refusing to divorce our soul from it. Why would we do this because God has adopted us as His own and there should be a radical transformation in our lives, a radical transformation, not a subtle change, a radical transformation that we would have in us, the mind of Christ, who was perfect righteousness. And that is the mind that we are to have, we are to determine that our own righteousness is rags and in humility, trust in Him. So let me simply ask this question, have you believed on Christ? Have you believed on the Son of God as the only way established by God that we might attain to God? Have you believed in this Lamb of God who came to take away the sins and that we ought to believe in Him by repenting and turning to Him and away from the world? Have you stopped seeking your own self-righteousness and humbled yourself before God? Have you believed in this way? Have you believed not as the Pharisees did who would not confess it? Who simply were content to believe but remain quiet because they loved the opinion and the glory that comes from man greater than the glory that comes from God? Have you confessed and have you come before Him and said, you knighted me with your body that I would be saved and secure for eternity? Have you believed? Have you believed? We must continually repent, see H. Spurgeon, another great teacher of the church recognized it. He said, you are not living to God as you want unless you repent daily, unless we cease to sin daily. In Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer, theologian said, there is no repentance in the grave, so the urgency is to repent now, now. You do not wait, you do not hold on to the end, you do not handle this as a crisis with your last breath. You repent now, and to reach even further back to Tertullian, I was born for nothing but repentance, he says. Repentance has been such a cardinal doctrine and shall I say virtue of the Christian life, for all of the church's history that with its loss in modern time is it any wonder the churches in the shape that it is? Repentance was considered to be the way of Christian living, but now we have to justify even today's call to repentance. We shouldn't be such down in the mouth about it, there should be great joy, repentance brings nothing but sadness and gloom. Repentance should bring liberation, for it is sin that chokes us, repentance is the separation of our soul from sin and a calling out to God, and yet it is that separation that we find to be so depressing. We would rather remain unrepentant and not have our sins pointed out to us and not be reminded that we are sinners so that we remain firmly in the embrace of sin refusing to divorce our soul from it. Why would we do this because God has adopted us as His own and there should be a radical transformation in our lives, a radical transformation, not a subtle change, a radical transformation that we would have in us, the mind of Christ, who was perfect righteousness. And that is the mind that we are to have. We are to determine that our own righteousness is rags and in humility, trust in Him. And so let me simply ask this question, have you believed on Christ? Have you believed on the Son of God as the only way established by God that we might attain to God? Have you believed in this Lamb of God who came to take away the sins and that we ought to believe in Him by repenting and turning to Him and away from the world? Have you stopped seeking your own self-righteousness and humbled yourself before God? Have you believed in this way? Have you believed not as the Pharisees did who would not confess it? Who simply were content to believe but remain quiet because they loved the opinion and the glory that comes from man greater than the glory that comes from God? Have you confessed and have you come before Him and said, you knighted me with your body that I would be saved and secure for eternity? Have you believed? Have you believed?