Do Men Love Darkness More Than Light?

T. A. McMahon:

We are going through the gospel of John with a particular emphasis on salvation that we have in Christ and, as we have been saying, our life in Christ begins with our understanding of the gospel and our acceptance of it by faith.  Dave, we are picking up where we left off last week, John 3: 19.  Let me read that for us (John:3:19-21 [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. [21] But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
See All...).  “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  Bu he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”  The light has come into the world, this is the Lord.

Dave Hunt:

So that in the first chapter of this gospel—we could go back and read that again.  Talking about the Word, “…all things were made by him—(this is chapter 1, verse 3) without him was not anything made that was made.  In him was life and the life was the light of men.”  It’s not talking about physical light; it’s talking about something spiritual.  In our newsletter we did an article on DNA, you remember, and the amazing information content stored in the DNA and we noted that without words.  This is information, this is language, it tells the cells what to do, what kind of a cell they are, what to do, how to construct the body and so forth and without words there is no life, no physical life.  It’s incredible and even Einstein himself admitted there is no way that matter can come up with information so there has to be an intelligent source.  But the Bible calls Jesus Christ the living Word and Peter says we are born again of the Word of God.  So there’s no spiritual life without words.  This is “Search the Scriptures Daily,” this is the word that we are talking about, the Word of God.  So this Word, who was in the beginning with God, who is God, who created all things, He is also the source of life, physical life as well as spiritual life and this is called the light of men.  It’s not a light that shines on rats and chimpanzees, but it’s a light that shines in the heart of man.  So, Paul says, in 2 Co. 4:6 “God, who caused the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts— (not a physical heart, in our understanding) — to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  So, He is the light of the world.  He came into this world to bring life, in Him was life, He came to bring life to mankind separated from God by sin, dead in trespasses and in sins, but the darkness doesn’t like the light.

T. A. McMahon:

And men loved darkness rather than light.  Dave, is this in the statistical manual it talked about earlier?

Dave Hunt:

Yeah, they don’t want to know the truth.  I would say that whole statistical manual is a witness to this fact; men loved darkness rather than light.  Instead of accepting the truth that we are separated from God by sin, that we are rebels in our hearts, that we need to be reconciled to God, we need to recognize that Jesus Christ is God who became a man to die for our sins, paid the penalty for our sins, died for our sins, rose from the dead and we open our hearts to Him and we allow Him to come in and He changes us completely.  We are born again of the Word of God, Peter says.  This Word that brings understanding, the truth that is the light that Jesus brought.  Now, it says they hated me without a cause because the light of Jesus Christ shows up the darkness, the darkness being what?  Well, rebellion against God, running to hide from God, not wanting to know the truth and so forth.

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, turning to a 900 page manual that gives you every excuse other than recognizing your sin?

Dave Hunt:

Yeah, that’s part of it but of course, the Jews in Jesus’ day didn’t have a DSM but they are the same, the heart of man is the same everywhere.  And, the perfection of Jesus Christ, His purity, His holiness, His humility, His patience and kindness just showed up the evil in the human heart and they hated Him for that reason.  So, this is the condemnation, light has come into the world.  This is Jesus Christ who is the light of the world.  Men loved the darkness and He said to the rabbis, remember, you won’t come to me that you might have life.  People don’t want to come to Jesus Christ.  They will go to a psychiatrist, they will join AA or they will study all kinds of philosophies, anything but acknowledging that I am a sinner.  And, there is only one hope and that is through Jesus Christ.  You know, as Christians we need to recognize that as well because many Christians, they become Christians, they believe in Christ but they are doing what Paul said to the Galatians, having begun of the spirit are you now made perfect in the flesh?  You’ve been born again of the Spirit of God, you are in the family of God now, you’re a child of God and now you think that in your own strength you can live up to the standards that God has set.  No, only Christ can live His life through you.  We have talked about this in the past and I don’t know how we could emphasize it.  All I can say is, Tom, one of the greatest discoveries that I ever made was that Jesus Christ, instead of me trying to live up to His standards, He wants to live it in me.  It’s the reason why so many, well you know, I don’t know whether we mentioned it on this program—I was sitting next to a very bright woman a couple of months ago on the airplane.  A skeptic, she had a friend who is a born again, she said, nice lady, but she said her husband, he claims to be born again—You ought to see the mental abuse he lays on her, you ought to see the selfish, the self-centered kind of life he lives, if that’s born again stuff I don’t want it.  So, one of the reasons why so many Christians give God and give Christ a bad name is because they are trying to do it in their own strength, in their own self centeredness, their own selfishness, their own folly, their own lack of understanding, impulsiveness, whatever it is, all these things that you would have in the DSM, they come out and we can’t overcome this in our flesh, we need to allow Christ to live His life in us.  But, of course, that’s not exactly what it is talking about.  It’s talking about His life condemns; He condemns sin in the flesh.  We’re condemned by the life of Christ.  Now, there is only one hope, that He paid the penalty for our sins.

T. A. McMahon:

Right.  Now Dave, I think we were talking about aspects of this that are important for today.  Things, to use a King James phrase here, waxing worse.  People from day to day are dealing with things that generations ago they didn’t have to deal with.  Almost every sin, every iniquity is being promoted today whether it be through TV, wherever it might be, magazines or whatever.  So, we are subjected to that in ways that generations before us weren’t on a daily basis.  And the only antidote to that is what you are talking about.  It’s got to be Christ.  We have to turn to Him more and more to deal with the daily things that we are subjected to.

Dave Hunt:

Yeah, not to try to mimic Him but to allow Him to live His life through us.  Tom, you mentioned, when we have a little break here between segments on the program, you mentioned the fact that homosexuality used to be in the DSM back there as aberrant behavior.  It was a problem, it was not normal.  Now, it was because the homosexuals threatened to cut the power when they voted on a revised version that they voted it as normal and now if you think homosexuality, if you agree with the former DSM, now you are homophobic.

T. A. McMahon:

You’ve got a disorder of your own.

Dave Hunt:

That’s right.  So, what we need is to get to a standard that doesn’t change.  Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever and those who want to continue in their own ways and own evil, they run from the light, everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved.  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God, that God is the One who set the standard and now Jesus Christ is living this through me.  And Tom, I don’t know anything more thrilling but it begins with, first of all, believing that He is my Savior that He died for my sins and paid the penalty I couldn’t pay.

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, for our listeners out there, you know, we have covered some things today that I’m sure got some people very upset.  On the other hand I hope some other people are encouraged by what we say.  We are not trying to push our deal, our perspective on these things.  We are trying to encourage them in the Word of God, explain the Word of God as we understand it, but then, encouraging people not to just trust us in this but to go to God’s Word.  That’s where your understanding about your own heart, your own situation, [and] your own circumstance is going to come and that’s what we want them to do, get into God’s Word.