The Light Has Come
A Sermon on John 3:19
Originally preached April 14, 1957
Scripture
19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Sermon Description
In this sermon on John 3:19 titled “The Light Has Come,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that this is the most tragic verse in all of Scripture. This is because though God has provided a way of salvation in His Son Jesus Christ, in sinful blindness people reject Jesus. They stumble over the message of God’s free grace in Christ because they seek to establish their own righteousness apart from God. Why do they oppose the gospel message? The answer is because they do not believe that they are in need. They do not see that they are sinners in need of redemption and God’s mercy. They do not come to grips with the clear facts of their own sin and brokenness; they seek to explain away sin, guilt, and death. The answer to humanity’s hopeless condition is Jesus, who is able to save even the worst sinners. Because they are unable to believe the message of the gospel on their own, it is only God who can grant the gift of belief and repentance. Even though humanity is lost in darkness and alienated from God, God in His power is able to give sight to the blind and restore the hearing of the deafest sinner. This is because God is the author of all salvation and blessing.
Sermon Breakdown
- Men do not realize that the fact of Christ is the most momentous question facing them.
- Men do not realize who Christ is. They regard him as irrelevant.
- Men do not realize that all we need and infinitely more is found in Christ.
- The world is as it is because men are spending time with theories instead of facts.
- The world does not know who Christ is, so they do not consider the fact of Christ.
- The Bible and Christianity call us to face the facts, the primary fact being that the light (Christ) has come.
- Christ is not just a man but the eternal Son of God who came down from heaven. The incarnation is a fact of history.
- We must look at the facts of Christ's life, death, resurrection, and impact as recorded in the Gospels and history.
- The world desperately needs light on God, man, the world, life, death, and eternity. This light is found only in Christ.
- Christ reveals God as holy, glorious, infinite, and light. God is not like man.
- Christ reveals that man is sinful, perishing, and helpless to save himself. Man is a slave to sin and needs to be born again.
- Christ reveals that the world does not know God. The world was once paradise but now is fallen due to sin.
- Christ shows us how to live an abundant life of joy, peace, and rest in him. He can liberate us from sin and enable us to conquer.
- Christ provides light on death and eternity. Death is not the end. There is life after death and judgment. Christ died so we can have eternal life.
- We must come to the light (Christ) by believing in him, confessing our sins, and surrendering our lives to him. Then we will walk in the light of life.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.