Title: The Last Day
Text: John 12: 44-50
Date: December 31, 2009
Place: SGBC, NJ
We met here January 1, 2009. Now here we are December 31, 2009. The last day of the year, like the first day of the year, tends to be a day of reflection and of looking ahead. And like the first day and the last day, the first words and the last words a person speaks tend to carry the greatest of all weight.
Our text tonight is the last public sermon from the Lord Jesus Christ to the Jewish nation. As our Lord speaks these last words on this last day, he speaks of THE word and THE last day. Imagine if this were the last day that Christ would ever speak to you. Would you listen to what he says? Will you listen right now to what he says?
I. THE MANNER IN WHICH HE PREACHED THIS WORD DECLARES THE IMPORTANCE OF BELIEVING HIM AND THE WORD HE SPEAKS.
John 12: 44: Jesus cried and said,
Christ spoke with boldness and earnestness.
Proverbs 8:1: Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?...20: Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
Wisdom himself, Understanding Personified, openly publishing the one message of the gospel no matter to whom he spoke, not crying as one that mourns helplessly, but as one urging sinners to take heed to the one message that is able to save from darkness and death.
Christ Jesus spoke this word and in this manner because of his Father sent him and these words are life everlasting.
John 10: 49: For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50: And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
The Lord Jesus Christ trusted his Father who sent him, just as his ambassadors trust Christ who sends them. Our Lord was not ashamed of the doctrine his Father sent him to proclaim, just his ambassadors are not ashamed of the doctrine Christ sends them to proclaim.
Be sure you get this: If I thought God was too weak to save you then I would soft-peddle the gospel to you. If I thought God was dependent upon you or me to make you bow to him then I would present this gospel in such a way as to make you feel like you had some ability in yourself.
But because I have seen the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, because I know whom I have believed and am persuaded he is able, having been called by Christ the Power and Wisdom of God, I have to preach his word not mine.
Isaiah 50:7: For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
II. BELEIVING ON JESUS CHRIST MEANS NO MORE DARKNESS
John 12: 44: Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. 45: And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. 46: I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
God is Light and in him is no darkness at all.
Jesus Christ the Man is God the Son, equal with the Father in power and glory. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. He is come a light into the world. Christ Jesus is the righteousness of perfection which God requires of those he gave to his Son. Christ Jesus is the righteousness of perfect fidelity to God which God requires of those he gave to his Son. Christ Jesus is the righteousness of the law—the righteousness of mercy and love in harmony with satisfied justice which God requires of those he gave to his Son—the fulfillment of the law in justifying his people. This perfection, fidelity and holy righteousness is the very glory of who God is. When you see God's glory, and you will, either in this life or in judgment to come, then you will you see God's glory in the face of Christ Jesus the Brightness. When you are given faith to believe on Christ, to see Christ with the eye of faith, you have the Light.
2 Corinthians 4: 6:…the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 1:3: Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Be sure not to miss this: Many saw him with the natural eye and claimed to believe on him. Many believed him with the natural mind but would not profess him openly. dWe see the result in verses 42, 43:
John 12: 42: Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
They did not have the light so they abode in darkness.
Illustration: Absurd to say that we walk in light while we grope in the night. Absurd to say we walk in darkness in the light of the sun.
When God gives faith there is not a remote possibility that you will do anything other than bow and confess Christ. You will no longer debate and compromise about who he is but you will proclaim that Christ is the Eternal Righteousness who alone makes his children one with the Father—nothing more is needed than Christ Jesus the Son of God and nothing less will be accepted of God than Jesus Christ. Everyone who has ever seen the glorious Light of God in the face of Christ Jesus the Light have bowed to him and followed him from then on.
What comfort for the believer! What assurance for you who trust Christ! Night seasons—but no more abiding in darkness.
John 8: 12:…he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Review: First, Christ spoke with boldness because of the urgency. These are the words of eternal life. Secondly, faith in Christ means no more darkness—believing on Christ we believe God, seeing Christ is we see God. And we shall have perpetual Light. You have God in Christ.
III. CHRIST IS NOT THE REASON YOU ARE UNDER CONDEMNATION
John 12: 47: And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48: He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
The word of Christ allows no neutral ground.
Either you believe on Christ to be the very person and righteousness God requires of you, that God will take nothing less than the perfect nature, perfect faithfulness and righteousness of his Son Or you reject Christ, will not receive his words to be true AND are yet attempting to come another way OR attemting to come with Christ plus something of your own holiness. Only the word of truth can sanctify sinners from adding our holiness to the holiness of Christ.
But you who don’t believe, Christ is not the reason you are under condemnation.
I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
John 3:17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18: He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God
Every sinner was already condemned when Christ came. You were condemned before you ever began to hear the word of truth. Listen to the Lord Jesus Christ define “the condemnation” and the evil you are doing right now.
John 3: 19: And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20: For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (hold your place here)
Be sure you get this: All men do what their nature determines they will do. The natural man is conceived with an evil nature. Therefore, he does evil. He hates Christ the Light, will not come to Christ the Light, because he does not want his deeds, his very being, reproved as being evil. Confusion and shame of sin will not allow him to admit he is a sinner; the same confusion and shame of sin convinces him he has made himself something God will receive. Deep down the self-made, self-righteous man knows his refuge is all fig leaves. He is not at rest. He has no ease, no comfort, but is always working to make himself better. But this condemnation is: he loves that evil and hates Christ the Light. What an awful condition to be in! Now listen to the Lord Jesus define what it is “to do truth.”
John 3: 21: But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Be sure you understand: The sinner who is born of the Spirit of God is regenerated with a new nature from the incorruptible seed, one with Christ the Truth. Therefore those born of God do truth by coming to Christ the Light. The conscience is purged, the sinner is freed in liberty, is given faith and repentance, is made to rejoice in Christ and be ashamed of the fig-leaves, and now can say that all the deeds which God requires of me have all been worked by Christ Jesus my All.
2 Corinthians 5: 19: God was in Christ reconciling [me] to Christ, not imputing [my] trespasses unto [me],…21 For he hath made him to be sin for [me], who knew no sin; that [I] might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Galatians 2: 20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law [me in any regard], then Christ is dead in vain.
Romans 8: 1: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
John 12: 48: He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
If you meet God in that last day, not believing on Christ alone, it is not Christ’s words that condemned you, you were already condemned. But your refusal to receive his word will be the clarion proof that in the last day that you are the reason for your own condemnation.
Just as the blessing is all the more great because Christ is the Son of God, the glory of God, even so shall the condemnation be all the more great for the very same reason.
John 12: 49: For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50: And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
APPLICATION:
Here it is the last few hours of the last day of 2009. We started this year on Thursday night, January 1, 2009, here together just like this. All year you have had Christ’s words readily available to you. We have met here 2 times a week—around 104 times. The scriptures have been read by these men for your hearing, multiple times every time we have met. Around 155 sermons have gone forth from this pulpit. It has been time for you to search his word, to seek his face.
Have you used it wisely? From the first day of this year until this have you heard the Lord Jesus Christ speak? Have you believed on him, received his words? Are his words the words of life to you? Or have you rejected Christ and not received his words? For you who do not believe, Christ has suffered long with your rejection of him for 364 days and 20 hours. Today is Thursday, December 31, 2009, the last day. But what if it is THE last day?
Illustration: Short graves in the grave yard.
John 12: 50: I know that his commandment is life everlasting:
1 John 5:11: And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Give yourselves to the words which Christ speaks. These are the words of eternal life because these are the words that point you to Christ, the words whereby the Father teaches you of Christ, draws you to Christ and makes you alive in Christ through the Holy Spirit. If the Lord tarries another year, I pray this will be the year that he frees you from the awful bondage and terrible labor, the choosing and never ending, tiresome, fear of rejecting him, that we may be one in sweet rest with both God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace!
AMEN!