The Exclusivity of Jesus, Part 2

Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for another episode in his series, The Exclusivity of Jesus, on Leading the Way Audio. You're hearing an inspiring look at the I Am statements of Jesus, seeing how Jesus taught his disciples about who he is, and helping them understand the Father and the Kingdom of God.

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866-626-4356. Now, listen with us as Dr. Michael Youssef begins his message called, I Am the Light of the World. In the last message, we saw how Jesus is the only life giver. He's the only life giver. There is no life apart from him, certainly no eternal life apart from him. And Jesus said, I am the bread of life, as we saw that in the last message. Today, we see him that he's the only light giver.

He said, I am. In order to remind him that he is the one who appeared to Moses, the pre-and-coniff Christ appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And when he said to him, who do I say sent me to rescue God's people out of the slavery of Egypt, he said, tell them I am.

And in Greek, we saw that aga eme or aga emi, every one of the so-called founders of these religions, they looked to be bleak darkness in comparison with Jesus. Turn with me please to John chapter 8, beginning verse 12. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The context in which the Lord made this declaration, I am the light of the world, it was the great feast of the tabernacle. Will you say Michael was the great feast of the tabernacle?

I want to tell you. It is when God's people were celebrating how God delivered them out of the slavery of Egypt, how God protected them, how God provided for them, how God guided them in the wilderness with this pillar of light at night when they could not see their way in the darkness of the, he gave them a pillar of light. You remember, he provided that for them the entire time they were in the wilderness. John chapter 8, follow it with me please. When Jesus claimed that he is the light of the world, he was telling them and telling us even in the 21st century that we may understand and comprehend that he is the divine light in human body. That he is the source of all light to humanity. That he is the only one who can banish the darkness of sin and guilt. That he is the only one who can banish the darkness of death and the grave. That he is the only one who can banish the darkness of addiction and slavery to sin. Therefore, everyone, everywhere, doesn't matter where, which part of the world you come from, you need to turn to him and to him alone if you want to avoid the collision course with the lighthouse. But there is something else that I don't want you to miss here about Jesus, the light of the world.

It's very important. Just let me remind you, in case you've forgotten the story from Sunday school, in the book of Exodus, you remember God called Moses. We saw that in the last message. And he said to him, he said, go and confront Pharaoh and tell him, let my people go. And after reluctance, Moses goes and then he said, whom I tell you send me?

He said, tell them I am sent you. So he goes in there in order to confront Pharaoh and Pharaoh hardened his heart. And he said to Pharaoh, you've got to let my people go. And Pharaoh's hardened heart would not give in and would not give up because he did not want to lose that cheap slave labor. And so God sent him ten plagues, one after another, one after another. And every time one of those plagues comes in and plague the nation of Egypt, Pharaoh cried crocodile tears. And he said, okay, okay, I'll let you go, I'll let you go.

But as soon as God answered the prayer of Moses, he reneges and goes back on his word. Ten different times. But the one plague that I want you to focus on is the ninth one, number nine.

Number nine. I want you to focus with me, okay? It's very important.

Because it's very important even for us today, in this day in which we live. Plague number nine. The whole country of Egypt was in total darkness for three days. I mean, if you've ever been in the Middle East, you would know that noontime there, the light can blind you, literally, if you're not careful. It's so bright, it's so vivid, it can blind you. Imagine, these Egyptians who have never seen anything but bright suns in the middle of the day, it was total darkness.

They couldn't see each other, they couldn't see their hand in front of them. Total darkness. The whole land was covered in darkness. And yet, God's people, in their dwelling place, they had light. Only God could do that. He gave His people light.

Darkness everywhere else. The pre-incarnate Christ lit their community. Not only that, but the pre-incarnate Christ provided this light for them as they left Egypt, out of the land of the slavery. And as the light guided them all the way to the land of promise.

Now, beloved friends, please listen. Today, so many of us who have experienced the love of Jesus, those of us who have experienced the light of Christ, the light of the world, we cannot help but see how darkness is engulfing our culture, how darkness, spiritual darkness, is engulfing our society, how the forces of darkness are now gathering like a very dark, ominous clouds, how the forces of darkness are now uniting together like never before. These are people normally at each other's throats, but now they are united against God's Messiah, and they're united against His followers. It appears to me, at least, that the evil one senses his time of being thrown into the lake of fire, is drawing near.

He senses that, and therefore he's intensifying his attack, the dark forces' attack, on God's children. But there's good news. There's great news. There's fantastic news. Just as the children of Israel, in their dwelling places, had light while the rest of the land was dark, God's children today, God's children today can live, function, operate, thrive in God's light in the midst of the darkness of the world.

That's the good news. And if anyone at the sound of my voice who has not crossed over from the darkness of Satan and sin into the light of the world, you can do that today. Turn to the light of the world before the complete darkness engulfs. Turn to the light of the world and experience the power of His light. Turn to the light of the world and let His powerhouse engulf you, deliver you, set you free. Turn to the powerhouse and let Him pluck you out of the middle of that life's darkness. Change course now.

Change course now. And let the light of the world, Jesus, take you to a safe harbor. In the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 9, they're talking about witness. You're the only one, and yet they went running out in the wilderness to listen to John the Baptist. Listen to what John the Baptist said in John chapter 1, verse 9. He said, the true light that gives light to everyone has come to the world.

Yet, here's the sad part about this. Many then and many even now, many have rejected the light of the world. Many have preferred to stay in the darkness of sin and death.

The folks who have rejected the light of the world, Jesus, have chosen to live in darkness. Which reminds me actually of a true story that I read many years ago about an Arab nomad, a Bedouin. He woke up one night in the middle of the night and was hungry. So he lit a candle and kept looking around in his tent, trying to find some food, and he found a plate of dates. And so he took that plate of dates, went back to his mat and sat down, and he started eating. He took one bite of the date, and then he put the date close to the flicking light of the candle. And there's a worm just coming out of that date. So he tossed it out. He took a second one, took a bite of that one, put it close to the light of the candle. Worm was coming out.

Then the third date, then the fourth date, worms in the dates. What can he do? What can he do? He's hungry. If he's going to do this every time he's going to eat a date, he's going to put it near the light. He's not going to eat. He's going to toss them all out. So what does this smart genius do? He blew the candle off and ate the dates. Worm and all.

Worm and all. This man represents so many people in our culture who have rejected Jesus, the light of the world. The only one who could save them eternally. They're literally blowing out the candle light so that they can eat the worm of the world. They are rejecting the light of the world for the sake of instant gratification, whatever that may be. They have rejected the only light that can light up their life, forgive all of their sins, give them peace and joy in this life, and assure them of eternity in heaven.

Oh, beloved, listen to me. That is why we must never, those of us who don't love Jesus, must never, never, never, never grow weary of lovingly calling everyone who would listen, everyone who will respond to come to Jesus, the light of the world. Listen, for this Jesus is not only the only light, but he can never be found anywhere else other than in the word of God. They could never find the light of the world in any religion. They cannot find the light of the world in any philosophical thought. They cannot find the light of the world in their progressive thinking.

No, no, no, no, no. Only Jesus, the light of the world, can truly change our lives. Listen, why did Jesus refer to himself as the light of the world? Because by definition, light does two things, two things. First, it radiates energy, power, energy. And secondly, it shows the way. It reveals the way. The rays of light breaks through the ether and its effect renders the invisible visible.

Look at Jesus' claim one more time with me, please. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness and will have the light of life. We are seeing today utter darkness resulting from rejecting the light of the world. We have utter darkness of moral relativism. We are seeing the darkness of sexual perversion in many a church today. We have the darkness of biblical relativism. If the Bible condemns something that we like, if the Bible condemns something that our culture approves of, if the Bible condemns something that the law said is okay, then we'll get unhitched from these biblical passages.

Today, we are facing the darkness of devaluing human life. And in the midst of this engulfing darkness, we who now love Jesus must uphold his exclusivity as the light of the world. We must always not give in in order to accommodate to the culture, in order to please the people of the world and say, yes, you're right, Jesus is just my Savior, but he's not everybody else's Savior.

He is the only Savior for everyone around the globe. Let me dig deeper into the context of this passage. If you look at the first 11 verses in chapter 8, John 8. If you look at the first 11 verses, you're going to find that the self-righteous Pharisees came to Jesus and basically dragging a woman who was caught in sin.

Each of them with a big stone ready to stone her to death. All these self-righteous Pharisees came to test Jesus. They came to say to him, okay, she was caught in sin, what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? Are you going to follow the law of Moses or not? I love what our Lord did.

It's the most amazing thing. He just sat on the ground. Remember the dirt ground, there was no pavement.

It was just all dirt. And the Bible said he'd start writing. He was writing, and he was writing, and waiting with a bated breath. They can't wait to get this woman stoned.

I mean, they were just so ready. Jesus keeps writing, keeps writing. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us what he was writing.

Okay, so I don't go beyond the scripture. But there are a lot of speculations. There are a lot of speculations. There's one speculation that I really love.

I'm telling you my bias ahead of time. Is that what Jesus was writing is the sins of these Pharisees who came with the stones. Shmuel, and he writes his sin down. Yossi, and he writes his sin down.

The reason I think this is feasible is because the reaction these Pharisees had. They would look, ooh, that's my name. Ooh, he knows what I did. And they start walking away, and they walk away. And it comes in the next guy, oh, that's my name.

Ooh, he knows what I did. They kept going away, and then one after another, they kept going away until no one is left but Jesus. Jesus said to them, he of you, any of you, without sin, cast the first stone. Listen to me.

Here's the sad part. There are so many today so-called progressive evangelical preachers who stop at this point. And they walked away because the light of the world has exposed their hypocrisy, exposed their sin. Beloved, listen to me. Sin has only one cure. Sin has only one answer. Sin has only one remedy. And it is confession and repentance and receiving forgiveness and grace from the hand of the light of the world.

That is why we must never leave the rest of the story out. He said, go and leave behind your life of sin. Listen to me. Self-righteousness takes pride in sin. Self-righteousness says, I'm a good person. Oh, I'm a good person. And they have to say it louder so that they convince themselves, I'm a good person. They're not deep down, they're not. None of us are. Self-righteousness said, I can't help my sin, therefore God has to accept it and has to accept me that way.

No, no, no, no, no, no. That is blatant, blatant denial of the power of God over sin, of the power of God to forgive sin. Of the power of God to enable us to have victory over sin. When this woman, whose sin was exposed to the light, repented, she was totally forgiven.

She was totally forgiven. And the one thing that all of us who have received the light of the world know experientially, that when we repent of our sin, we know that this light of the world is full of grace and full of mercy and willingness to forgive and exposed and confess sin. The psalmist said, if I hide my sin in my heart, if I don't confess it, if I cherish it, one translation said, God will not forgive me, but if you confess it. John said, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, but if we confess. God is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and our righteousness.

Beloved, listen to me, I'm getting close to the end. Do not fall for the falsehood that says that God is soft on sin, that God winks at sin now in the 21st century. That God rationalized sin, no, but God forgives a confessed sin. God redeems a repentant sinner.

God justifies a confessed sin. Sadly, those who are on a collision course with the lighthouse, the light of the world, those who think that they have no sin to confess or that their good is somehow going to outweigh their bad, they are on a collision course with the lighthouse, the light of the world. But the good news about the exposure of our sin, confession of our sin, repentance of our sin is the light of the world. Listen to me, the light of the world, after you receive him, you can never walk in darkness again. You can never live in darkness again.

He made sure of it. He's the one who sustains us to do that. You see, once we exposed our sin to the light of the world, we could never habitually, unthinkingly go back in the darkness again. We could never do that. We cannot stay in the dark for very long, but rather we cannot wait to get back to the light. Hear me right, please, it's important, by nature, whenever light shines, darkness vanishes.

You cannot have both light and darkness coexist together. When the light of the world, Jesus, comes into our life, sin no longer is committed thoughtlessly, habitually, or calculatingly, or even for a very long time. Now the question is, what does it mean for Jesus' disciples to live in the light and stay in the light, the light of the world? Does it mean we'll become perfect? Does it mean we'll become sinless?

Absolutely not, absolutely not. But when we are tempted and fail, Christ, the light of the world, will shine the light in that dark corner, we confess. We repent and we're restored. Run back to the light, for that is the only way you can be restored.

You know, there's nothing can be more frightening than being lost in the darkness. All of the rationalizing of sin will not work. If you are in the darkness of sin, come to Christ, the light of the world. All the trying of silencing the voice of God and speaking to you will not work.

All of the effort to extinguish the light of the world will not work. Today the bright light of the world that I'm lifting up as high as you can see is waiting for you with open arms. Come to the light, come to Jesus, come to Jesus. Internationally known pastor and Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Yousaf, with his inspiring message, I am the light of the world, on leading the way. Do you have faith questions? Well, you can always speak to one of our compassionate Leading the Way pastors or counselors.

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