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which is being developed in industry, communication, science, and medicine,

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and is advancing with amazing developments.

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Surgery, testing, computer technology, manufacturing, and weaponry

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all are utilizing the power of physical light found in the laser.

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In a different realm and thought regarding physical light,

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the presence or absence of it has been found to have dramatic effect

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on the lives of at least some people.

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Some of us need more exposure to light than others to lead happy and healthy lives.

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I'll say one thing, it may be cold in Minnesota, but the sun shines a lot.

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That helps, doesn't it? At least if you're like me.

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I enjoy the sunshine and I need it.

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Some people are encouraged to sit in front of banks of light during the wintertime

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in order to absorb the light that they seem to need in their bodies

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for their physical and mental health.

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Physical light has yet untapped resources that will likely be discovered in the future.

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But physical light is not the most important kind of light.

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The most powerful light is that which is moral and spiritual.

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For that has the potential to change the heart of a human being.

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I invite you to consider Saul of Tarsus, who when our Lord appeared to him

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on the road to Damascus was immediately changed and became the Apostle Paul,

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serving our Lord.

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The power of the light of Jesus Christ to change a man is seen in Saul.

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Or consider Zacchaeus, who after meeting with the Lord and coming to faith in him,

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gave evidence of his repentance in the way that he treated people

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and promised to repay those from whom he had stolen.

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Or think of Peter, the rough macho fisherman who was changed by his encounter

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with Jesus Christ to become the Apostle that he was who led the early church.

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Or consider modern day men like Chuck Colson, who served a president in the White House,

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but his means were so ruthless and ungodly to his own admission that he ended up in prison.

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And there came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to the witness of some faithful people,

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including one of the former governors of our state.

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And today Chuck Colson is a modern day prophet.

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Speaking of Colson, he has authored a new book called Against the Night.

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In his book he deals with these figures of darkness and light

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in terms of moral and spiritual darkness in our culture.

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I'd like to quote something from that book written by Charles Colson.

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We live in a new dark age, he says.

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Having elevated the individual as the measure of all things,

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modern men and women are guided solely by their own dark passions.

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They have nothing above themselves to respect or obey,

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no principles to live or die for.

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Personal advancement, personal feeling, and personal autonomy

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are the only shrines at which they worship.

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He continues, the reigning god of relativism and the rampant egoism it fosters,

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Corson character, destroy any notion of community, weaken civility,

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promote intolerance, and threaten the disintegration of those very institutions

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necessary to the survival and success of ordered liberty.

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This cultural crisis, Colson says, is all the more sinister

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because it is invisible to those who have already become captive to its lie.

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Radical individualism, which has brought us to this critical juncture,

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blinds most people to the fact that there is a crisis.

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Freed from the archaic impediments of family, church, and community,

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these men and women cannot see how their liberty has enslaved them

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to alienation, betrayal, loneliness, and inhumanity.

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And then he says significantly, they have grown so accustomed to the dark

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they don't even realize the lights are out.

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It was to a darkened world like our own today that the light came, the light in our text.

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There was the true light, which coming into the world enlightens every man.

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He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.

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He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

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But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God,

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even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood,

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nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

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John tells us in this text what happened when the true light came into the darkened world.

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Light demands response, doesn't it? That is true of physical light.

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Think of the pupil of your eye when light hits it.

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It immediately contracts, if it's a healthy eye, it is a natural reaction.

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Light demands response.

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Think too of the morning glory as it opens to receive the morning life-imparting rays of the sun.

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Light demands response, and that is true of spiritual, moral light as well.

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When the light came in the logos, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, a response was unavoidable.

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John tells us of three groups and three responses.

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The first response came from the world, he says in verses 9 and 10.

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The world has its so-called lights, doesn't it? Imperfect, shadowy, illuminaries,

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whose voices offer a perspective on the things as they are.

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Such were Socrates, Plato, Zoroaster, Buddha, and Confucius.

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In more contemporary times, such were Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke.

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Or even more in our own age, Spencer, Thomas Huxley, Frederick Nietzsche, and Dewey.

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All of these were the world's lights.

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But like blind men who have hold of a part of the elephant and are trying to describe the entire animal, they were lost.

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The lights of the world are dim, and in fact they fade away as nothing to oblivion in the presence of Jesus Christ, who is the true light.

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He is the true light in the sense that he is the real, the genuine, the authentic light.

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He is the one in whose radiance all other lights dim.

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And his coming into the world affects every man.

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Not in the Quaker notion that somehow his coming has given inner enlightenment to every person.

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But rather in the sense that by casting the light of his life, his perfect humanity, upon the wrecked race of Adam, he affects all of us.

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The righteousness of Jesus Christ, the perfect life that he lived as the God-man, is the measurement by which all of us are judged.

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That light coming into the world affects all of us.

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The light was in the world, says John. That is the realm of mankind.

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The world of which he himself was the agent of creation, for all things came into being by him.

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Therefore the world which he created should have known him.

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But John tells us the response. The world did not know him.

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That is, the world did not acknowledge him.

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That is a sad fact, exposing the darkness of the human heart.

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For it was not just a mere intellectual grasp of who he was that was missed.

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That would be one thing if man simply failed to recognize him for who he was.

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But John tells us in fact that when he came there was resistance to him.

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It's not just that man was ignorant, but he resisted the light that was in Jesus Christ. Remember verse 5?

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The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it, implying that the darkness actually raised up in resistance against the presence of the light.

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And so John tells us that when he came to the world, the first group, and we may say the broadest group, that the world did not acknowledge him.

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John tells us then of a second group, whom he calls in verse 11, his own.

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We need to distinguish between the two phrases, his own, in verse 11, because they are different in their thrust.

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The first one, he came to his own, means his own things.

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It is a word that is neutered in the Greek language. It refers to one's own possessions, or it can mean one's own home.

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For the very same phrase is used that way in chapter 19 and verse 27, when it says regarding the apostle John that he took Mary, Jesus' mother, to his own home, his own things, in order to care for her.

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What is said here by John is that the light came to what was in a peculiar and special sense his own possession that includes the whole world and all of mankind.

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But in a special sense, it refers to the Jewish nation, its land, its temple, the city which he had called his own.

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He came unto his own things and his own, and here it's masculine.

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It refers to people, not to things. And his own people did not receive him, referring to the Jewish nation as a whole.

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His own people did not reach out to welcome him or to embrace him. On the contrary, they utterly and totally disowned him.

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They rejected him, just as they had done throughout the Old Testament.

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I remind you of the closing words of Stephen's sermon just before he was killed as the first martyr of the church, when he accused the Jewish people of always killing their own prophets.

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His words were no stronger than the words of the Savior himself. These words I'd like for you to read with me in the Gospel of Matthew, the 23rd chapter.

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Beginning in verse 29.

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Our Savior says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

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and say, If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.

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Consequently, you bear witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

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Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?

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Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify,

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and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city.

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That upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barakiah,

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whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.

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And then our Savior says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her,

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how often I wanted to gather your children together the way I had, gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

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Behold, your house is being left to you desolate.

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My friend, those are the words of the Christ Himself, the light, the logos, who came into the world to His own.

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And of His own found only rejection, and from them found that they disowned Him and did not desire Him.

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The response of the world was that it did not acknowledge Him as the Creator.

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The response of His own when He came to them was that they rejected Him.

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John now tells us of a happier group, a third group, whom he calls those who are born of God, verses 12 and 13.

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Now we have to say here that in the context, John is saying that from among His own who rejected Him,

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there were some who did not reject.

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As a whole, as a nation, they did.

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But there was a remnant which responded differently than the rest of the nation.

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There are two perspectives actually given to us here in these verses.

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There's a human perspective and a divine perspective.

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The human perspective is that there were those who received Him, that is, who believed on His name.

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To receive is the opposite of to reject.

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It means to welcome, it means to embrace, it means to appropriate.

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The tense of the verb that John writes down means that in one act they did this.

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As many as received Him, an historic event in their own lives, a moment that came when they understood the light,

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they saw themselves in the light, and they received the light.

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They accepted, they appropriated the light, the Savior, as their own.

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What does that mean? Well, it means to believe in His name, says John.

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It's the same thing. To believe means to trust.

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It means to commit. It means to rely upon.

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John here puts this in the present tense.

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Even to those who are believing in His name, what does it mean to receive Jesus Christ?

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It means to believe and to go on relying upon Him.

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John is writing here of a continuing, active commitment to the Savior.

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In other words, it is not enough for a person at one time in his life simply to go forward

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and to pray some kind of prayer in which he claims to receive.

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The truth of that reception is evidenced in his continuing to believe on the name of Jesus Christ.

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One who has genuinely embraced and welcomed Christ into his life goes on then and keeps on believing in Him.

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John says this is as many as would receive Him.

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That little phrase that John writes, as many as to them,

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is actually an Aramaic idiom that means whosoever will, as the Apostle Paul would write it.

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It's an expression that means if anyone, as many as to them, or whosoever will receive,

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will believe on His name.

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It is John's way of saying that the door of salvation is wide open because the light has come.

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That anyone who will may trust the Savior.

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There is none who is denied who will come.

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All are welcome to embrace Him and to receive Him, and in fact are responsible to.

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That's the human perspective.

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That as many as will receive Him, to them He gave the privilege, the power, the authority

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to become the children of God, even to them that believe and keep on believing in His name.

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The human perspective.

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But the divine perspective is found in that phrase, born of God.

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Now John makes it clear in verse 13, he is not talking about anything earthly or human.

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He says it's distinct from physical descent.

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It's not those who are born of blood, literally bloods.

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Just because one is a child of Abraham, a descendant of David, does not mean that one is a believer and has received.

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Just because one has Christian parents or grandparents does not mean that he is a believer or has received.

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It is not a matter of human descent, nor is it of the will of the flesh, he says.

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In other words, it is not by any human achievement that one is born of God.

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There is nothing that we do to merit being born of God.

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We do not add up our good points and present those to God hoping that He will cause us to be regenerated, to give us life.

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It is not a matter of achievement or the will of the flesh, nor, he says, is it the will of man.

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The word there means man as opposed to woman or a husband.

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John seems to be saying that being born of God has nothing to do with a biological decision or urge.

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But being born of God, he says, is an act of God separate from all of that.

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It is the act of God in which He imparts life to the spirit of a man, a woman.

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It is what is called regeneration.

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It means whereas one before was dead in trespasses and sins, suddenly there is life that is there.

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Whereas before there was no evidence of any life,

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suddenly there is indeed life and evidence of it.

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It is a new birth. It is being born of God. That is the divine perspective.

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From the human perspective, those who are born of God are those who believe, who receive.

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But from the divine perspective, those who believe and receive do so because they are born of God.

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The two work together in God's purpose.

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There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves born of God.

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It is the work of God alone.

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And when God gives that birth, that regeneration, we are then enabled to believe,

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whereas before we were dead in trespasses and sins.

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Now because there is that response, what happens?

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Well, John says, to those who receive and believe who are born of God,

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he gave the right to become the children of God.

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To them, not to others, not to anyone else,

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but to them who are born of God who believe, to them only.

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There is an exclusiveness to our faith

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that is difficult for the natural man to accept.

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We live in a world that preaches pluralism.

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That seems to be saying that all teachings are equal truth.

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And if you believe it's true, then it's true for you and that's all that matters.

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It is relative truth, the kind of relativism that Colson was talking about.

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And that kind of relativism has led us to a new dark age,

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when what anyone believes is truth to them.

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The fact is there is only one truth in the world, and that is the truth of God.

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Truth that is revealed in this book, his book, the Bible, and in the person of Jesus Christ.

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And the truth of God says that it is to them who are born of God who believe and receive, that are saved.

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It is them, it is they, and they alone.

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But at the same time it's open to anyone who will.

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You say, well I'm not sure I'm one of those.

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You can be, if you will be, if you choose to be.

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You can be today.

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Now to them, says the text, he gave.

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The emphasis is upon the gift.

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The emphasis is upon the free act of God in giving.

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This is the gift giving season of the year.

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How many of you have your Christmas shopping done?

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I can't put my hand up, I don't.

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Some of you do, many of us have yet, what, seven days? Six days? I don't mean to panic you.

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But it's getting short, it's getting short.

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We buy gifts because we love people.

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We buy gifts with the idea that we're giving this freely to them, with no obligation on their part.

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Is it not amazing that God offers salvation the same way?

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He gives gifts, He gives the gift of salvation because He loves us.

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And He does not give it because we do something for Him.

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It is a free act on His part, it's a gift.

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To them He gave the right, or the authority, or the privilege, we might say, to become the children of God.

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To become, do you notice that? Something we were not before.

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It is a popular liberal idea that all men are the children of God.

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That is not true. We are all the creatures of God.

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But not all are the children of God.

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Because to be a child of God one must be born, and that's what He's talking about here.

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One must believe and receive.

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Those who believe and receive, to them He gives the right to become something they were not before,

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that is, the children of God.

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This word children is a word that emphasizes relationship because of birth.

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It is a word that emphasizes the fact that we are given birth to by God.

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And because we are given birth to by God, there is the likeness of God in us.

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Your children bear your likeness, don't they? For good or for otherwise?

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Sometimes it's more true, sometimes less true.

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People look at my two boys and they say, we can tell they're your boys.

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I always hang my head wondering exactly what that means.

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Well, they are my boys because I had part in their birth, and they bear likeness after me.

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Sometimes too much.

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But you see, because we are the technon, the children of God, we bear His likeness.

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And that likeness is not always immediately apparent, as we wish it were.

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There is a sense of process and growth and change that is involved.

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But the fact is that we become the children of God.

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Being born in one instant as His children, we go on then to become more and more in the likeness of our Father.

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That's what John is saying.

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What a right, what a privilege God has given to us because we have believed and received.

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John says that when the light came into the darkened world, there were three responses.

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On the part of the world at large, they did not recognize Him.

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They did not acknowledge Him.

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He was the Creator. He brought it all into existence, but the world missed Him.

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Regarding His own things, His own nation, His people, they did not welcome Him.

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In fact, they utterly rejected Him when He came as the light.

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To those who are born of God, that is those who receive Him, who embrace Him,

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who throw open the door, as it were, and say to Him, come in, that is those who believe on Him,

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who commit themselves to Him in the continuous ongoing relationship, to them and to them only,

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God gives the authority to become the born ones, the children of God.

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Light demands response, and I think we can also say that light makes responsible.

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Have you looked under your bed recently?

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You know those little critters that begin to grow under there?

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They just kind of fly around when wind hits them, those little creatures.

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You're not responsible for those, I suppose, as long as you don't look under your bed.

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But when you lift up the sheets and you look under there and the light hits them,

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suddenly you're responsible for them, aren't you? Because you see them there.

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Light makes us responsible, and the light that is in Jesus Christ makes each of us responsible, too, to God.

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He exposes us for what we are. He reveals our nature, our fallenness.

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The fact that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

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He reveals that, and because of that we are responsible to God.

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There are some today who blindly refuse to acknowledge Him.

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There are others who will not open the door of their heart. They resist Him.

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But there are those, a remnant, not the most, but the few, who will open the heart.

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Many of you have done that.

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And the evidence of it is the fact that you're going on in your relationship believing, walking with God.

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But there are some of you that have not yet opened the door to Jesus Christ.

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Now it may be that somehow you think that by your descent in your family,

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or by the religious heritage that you have, or some ritual that was done to you when you were a baby,

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that you think that automatically you are a part of all of this.

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But the fact is that one must receive and believe.

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There must come a time in one's life when that decision is made to open the door.

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Are you at that point where you're willing to do that today?

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Will you believe and will you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior?

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We live in a new dark age because the darkness of our human hearts

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is less restrained than it has been in our culture in the past.

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And we face a darkened world as we look into 1990 and beyond.

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In his Christmas broadcast of 1939, just 50 years ago, this very season,

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King George VI spoke to the British nation.

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And in doing so, quoted many Louise Haskins.

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These are the words.

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I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year,

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give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.

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And he replied, go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.

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That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.

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Well, of course, England was involved in a very bitter war with Hitler at that point.

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The future was indeed dark and bleak for them as a people.

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But what sound advice from their king.

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I want to say to you who are believers in Jesus Christ,

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who have responded to that invitation of his,

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that we face a dark culture.

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And there are a lot of unknowns before us.

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But you and I can go out into that culture.

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Indeed, we are called upon to go out into the darkness

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with our hand in the hand of God.

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Jesus said that those who believe on him shall no longer walk in darkness,

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but shall have the light of life.

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We walk with God in the midst of our culture.

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And we are light in Jesus Christ.

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We are called the sons of light.

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I encourage you, I exhort you to shine brightly where you are

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and not to allow that light of Jesus Christ in you to be dimmed or compromised by your lifestyle,

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by the choices that you make, by the activities that you're involved in.

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But rather through all of those, through lifestyle, through decisions, through relationships,

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let that light of Jesus Christ shine through you in the midst of our darkened culture.

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And that light will demand a response.

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And it may be that there are some who will reject you,

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and there are others who will not acknowledge you,

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but there will be some who in the sovereignty of God will see that light and will respond to it.

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And they will receive Jesus Christ because of the faithfulness of your testimony and your witness.

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And so as the choir sang this morning, shine on.

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Be like that star and shine on as the sons and the daughters of light.

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Let's pray.

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Jesus said, I am the light of the world.

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He who follows me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.

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Oh, what a privilege it is to be a child of God.

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And my friend, that is your opportunity today to be his child.

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The reason that he came into the world as the light was that he might go to the cross

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and there pay for the price of our darkness and sins.

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That he then might be raised from the dead to forever shine in the darkness.

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That you might be called out of darkness to follow him.

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And right where you're seated, you can make that decision to receive, to believe on him.

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Will you do it? Right now.

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May your heart attitude be something like this.

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Lord Jesus, I am in the darkness, but I see the light in you.

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And I understand that you died for me, that you might save me from my sin.

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I throw open the door of my heart.

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I welcome you and I believe on you.

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Save me now.

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Friend, he will. He promised.

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Lord Jesus, apply this text to our lives by the Spirit and change us.

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Change us through it, that we might become more and more in the image of you, our Heavenly Father.

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Truly become the children of God.

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In Jesus' name, Amen.