Christian, You Know the World is in Darkness
Christians know that this world we live in is in darkness.
Everyone can see it. We know that the world is both spiritually blind and
deaf. They will say that Jesus is a
fairy tale, demons don't really exist, heaven and hell, who knows what happens.
They disregard the Bible, the words of Jesus that are found in the book, but at
the same time they chase after these demons in video games and with drugs and
alcohol, experimenting with all kinds of strange sex, and they find these
demons to be real through their experience. And the world, even though it is
spiritually blind and deaf, is also very convincing that these experiences are
good. Not in a sense that they're godly,
but they are good for you to experience, that you may have more knowledge, more
information, maybe it's a way to seek after the truth, you can find joy in this
way. And they make sin look so sensational that even Christians fall into sin,
and Christians are blind. A hundred percent of the world is blind and deaf, but
probably now almost 100% of Christians, more than 97% of Christians are blind
and deaf, and also on their way to hell.
If you ask most Christians in their church if they sin, they will openly
confess with their lips that they are still sinners. They don't talk about a
transformation from sin. They talk about an experience like the world
experienced, but their experience with Jesus somehow has not led them to really
repent of their sin, it hasn't led them to change. If Jesus changed you, you would be a new man
and a new woman, you would be cleansed from the inside out. But because the
world gives this sensational kind of belief, the feeling that you don't have to
change, you can just believe whatever you want, and they're so convincing at it
that even Christians have become blind and deaf. But I want to remind us what
Jesus said about our sin problem, the sin problem that is taking the world to
hell and now most Christians to hell because they have followed after the world
and not after the words of Jesus Christ.
So this is what Jesus said to his disciples in John chapter eight. Then
Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, "if you abide in my word, you
are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make
you free." They answered him, "we are Abraham's descendants and have
never been in bondage to anyone. How can
you say you will be made free?" Jesus answered them, "most assuredly,
I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." So let's stop right
there for a second. Not just the world is in darkness, not just the world is a
slave, but also Christians are slaves because they are in sin. You say, oh no brother, I've put my faith in
Jesus Christ in the blood of the lamb. I've put my faith in the cross. It's not
by work, so no one can boast. No, Jesus
says that whoever sins is a slave of sin. Look at this, "and a slave does
not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son
makes you free, you shall be free indeed."
A slave is someone who is a slave of sin. The house represents the
kingdom of God or the kingdom of this world. The devil is the prince of this
world, and if you're in the world, you're living in the devil's house. And if you come out of the devil's house, and
if you bind that strong man, and the Lord leads you into his kingdom, into his
house, then you have a house that is on the solid rock that won't fall down.
But if you're still sinning, of course you're still a bond person. You are a
slave to sin, even if you say you're a Christian, even if you go to church,
even if you read the Bible. And this is
exactly what Jesus said. So we have to get away from these lies that the
Christian church is teaching, that we're just saved by the blood of Jesus, and
we don't have to actually repent. Because whatever kind of sinner you are,
whether you're a worldly sinner or a Christian sinner, you're still under the
condemnation of death if you haven't repented and obeyed the words of Jesus. So he says, "therefore, if the son",
meaning himself, if Jesus makes you free, you shall be free indeed. So does
that mean you're not actually free, but you're just forgiven? Does that mean
you continue to look at porn and cheat on your wife, and you continue to go
back to drugs and drunkenness and parties and associating with people who mock
and hate God, Is that what it means? Because that's what most Christians think
it means. They think putting their faith in Jesus means getting an escape from
hell card, that then they can go look at pornography the rest of their life,
and God will have to let them into heaven because of the blood he shed on the
cross. What a lie from Satan. He says,
"I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me
because my word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with my father,
and you do what you have seen with your father." They answered and said to him, "Abraham
is our father". Jesus said to them, "if you were Abraham's children,
you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has
told you the truth, which I heard from God.
Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. Then they said
to him, we were not born of fornication.
We have one father, God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you
would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of
myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are
not able to listen to my word. You are
of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He
was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own
resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not
believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do
you not believe me? He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore, you do not
hear, because you are not of God. This sums up most of the Christian church, as
well as the world. They are of their father, the devil, even though they know
the scripture, they know the Bible, they say Jesus, Jesus, they say the blood
of Jesus, the cross, he is risen, he is risen indeed, we're going to celebrate
Christmas and Easter. Even though they profess with their lips that Jesus is
Lord, they continue to serve their father, the devil. They mock the true prophets, they mock you,
they mock me, if we are preaching the words of Jesus, because they hate Jesus Christ.
They can't hate us, but they hate the Jesus Christ that is in us and working
through us. We have to be changed by the blood of Jesus, not those that are
just talkers. The Christian church today is filled with men and women who are
talkative. They love to talk about their theology. They of course love to talk
about end times and prophecies and revelation and the prophets of old. They love those really sensational stories
about Elijah and David and Goliath, Samson, Moses, the Ark, the Ark of the
Covenant. They love to talk about these stories and pull out really obscure
texts from the Old Testament to enamor their congregation. But because they
haven't truly repented, they're still slaves. They're blind, they're deaf,
they're miserable, they're naked, and they refuse to come from just talking to
actually repenting. See, if the Son truly sets you free, you are free indeed
from sin. You can repent because we have a God who is mighty to do
anything. He is powerful enough to set
you free from the bondage of sin if you desire true repentance. Jesus didn't
come to just make you free from your conscience, but not from sin. He didn't
come to just set you free from the consequence of sin, like a lot of Christians
preach in the hyper-grace gospel. He didn't come to just let you get into
heaven by this ticket of His blood, but that you could continue to go on
sinning, but just escape hell. Jesus came to set His people free from sin, to
let His captives, to bring His captives out of hell, that they would follow Him
into the newness of life and be changed. So, are we Christians who have fallen
into this sensationalism of the world that is blind and deaf and doesn't know
the truth? Are we chasing after people in the world, teachers in the world,
athletes in the world, or are we really fixing our on Jesus and allowing the
Son of God to set us free? Because that's what His promise was. His promise
wasn't just to cleanse us of outward things, looking bad on the outside. He
didn't come to just make us look good enough to wear nice clothes and go to
church and pay tithe. He didn't come just to give us fancy clothes and fancy
things in this world, but He came to purify our hearts, to purge us from sin,
and to give us a new life, to purify us on the inside, so that then we could be
clothed in righteousness and enter into the presence of a holy God. This world,
of course, is on its way to hell because they've rejected their only salvation
in Jesus Christ. But you, as a Christian, are also on your way to hell unless
you are truly washed clean by the blood of Jesus. It's not about just believing
that Jesus died on the cross, but it's about putting your faith in what Jesus
said by obedience. And what Jesus said
is true. If the Son of God sets you free, if He sets you free from sin, you are
free indeed. You'll be free from drunkenness.
You'll be free from addiction. You'll be free from lust, from
pornography. You'll be free from bad behavior, from cursing. I hear so many Christians that proclaim
faith, but then they drop the f-bomb. They can't stop cussing. They can't stop
taking Jesus' name in vain. They don't really love Him. If you really have been
changed by God, if you really love Him, if you really want to walk with Him,
you will hate the old man. You will hate the old way of life that was you. You will put the old man to death so that you
can walk in the newness of life with the Holy Spirit. You will allow Him to
purge you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and to transform your
mind that you can be a true child of God. "So, Lord Jesus, I pray for those
who are stuck in the grips of sin. I
pray that whether those listening today are in the world or whether they are
Christians who have backslidden, that they may come to know You as the true
living God, the Messiah of the world who came to save us from our sins, even
when we were in sin. We thank You for loving us. We thank You for dying on the
cross and resurrecting, but we pray that we are purged and purified by Your
blood and that You would come into our lives and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness and take addiction from us, take worldliness out of us, take
the false gospel out of us, and place in us a new heart that beats for
righteousness. I pray for my fellow
brothers and sisters that they would truly repent and no longer be deceived by
the darkness of the devil, that You would set them free in Your name and that
they would be free indeed. In Your name I pray, Lord Jesus. Amen."
