All right, John chapter three.
Last week, I preached a whole message on John 3, 16, because
that is such a misused and abused and misunderstood verse. But
let's begin our reading there, verse 16. For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him,
on the Son, on Christ, is not condemned. But he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. 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 everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth," that's
the title of the message, he that doeth truth, cometh to the
light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought
in God. May the Lord bless the reading
of his word. He that doeth truth. That may
sound strange to a person. How do you do truth? I'm reminded
when I see that passage, I'm reminded of this passage over
in the book of James. James chapter one. In verse 22,
James wrote, but be ye doers of the word. And what I would
like for us to see this morning is that doers of the word and
doers of the truth are basically the same thing. James says, but
be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your
own self. Now the Bible is clear that faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And that
hearing is the hearing that the Spirit gives in the new birth.
We have to have ears to hear, eyes to see. Remember Christ
told the disciples in Matthew 13, he said, blessed are your
ears for they hear, blessed are your eyes for they see. So James
in saying this, when he says, be ye doers of the word, not
hearers only, he's not negating or denying or removing the necessity
of being a hearer of the word. You have to be a hearer of the
word. And you have to hear it with spiritual ears. You have
to see it with spiritual eyes. That's why Christ over in John
3 told Nicodemus, you must be born again or you cannot see
the kingdom of God. And that seeing there is understanding
and knowing and believing and loving the kingdom, the gospel. But he says, don't just be a
hearer only. but be a doer because if you're
just a hearer only and not a doer, you deceive yourself. And James
wrote in verse 23 of James chapter one, for if any be a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his
natural face in a glass, that's a mirror. For he beholdeth himself,
and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man
he was." The Word of God which we're to hear is like a mirror
that shows us the reality of what we are. And if you're not
a doer of the Word, you'll just walk away from that and go about
your business. And so he says, In verse 24,
he says, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he was. You forget about it.
But look at verse 25 in James 1. He says, but whoso looketh
into the perfect law of liberty. Now, what is the perfect law
of liberty? It's the gospel. It's the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace. in the salvation of sinners,
conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ, who by himself, as the
surety, the substitute, the redeemer of God's chosen people, given
him before the foundation of the world, by himself fulfilled
all those conditions and set us free, free from sin, free
from death, free from condemnation. It's his righteousness established
on our behalf. For from that righteousness,
that justice satisfied, comes freedom, liberty. Paul said,
stand fast in the liberty which you have in Christ. And so that's
the perfect law of liberty. It's the gospel. And he says,
but whoso looketh into that perfect law of liberty and continueth
therein, Now, doing the word here is continuing in that perfect
law of liberty, continuing in the gospel, believing the gospel.
He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, a doer
of the work means living by faith. It doesn't mean working for your
salvation, because Christ already did. He said, this man shall
be blessed in his deed. Now, not blessed by his deed,
but in his deed. In other words, there's a blessing
there. And it's the blessings that Christ earned for us, and
as we walk in the word, all right? Now with that in mind, go back
to John chapter one, or John chapter three, rather. Now let's
just build up to this. John 3, 16, God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him, should not perish but have everlasting life. And I
dealt with this verse last week in detail, a whole message on
it, showing you that the world there is not every individual
without exception, but it's God's people, God's chosen people,
whom he chose before the foundation of the world, the elect, and
gave them to Christ, put all the responsibility of their salvation
and eternal well-being on Christ, imputed their sins to Christ,
as our surety, sent his son into the world to substitute himself
in their place and die for their sins. John 3.16 does not teach
that God loves everybody, that Christ died for everybody, or
that God is trying to save everybody if they'll just believe. John
3.16 teaches that God has a people all over this world, Jew and
Gentile, for whom his son died And the evidence of their election
and the evidence of their redemption is they believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They will have eternal everlasting
life. That's what it teaches. So God
sent his son into the world to die for their sins and pay their
debt to God's justice. And this ensures their complete
salvation, including their faith in him. He said, all that the
father giveth me shall come to me. and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. You see, the righteousness of
God, which is the merit of the obedience unto death of Christ,
is that which demands their eternal salvation and eternal life and
glory. So he says in verse 17 of John
three, for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through him might be saved. Christ didn't
come into the world to condemn the world, and we're gonna learn
in the next verse that the world's condemned already. We fell in
Adam, fell into death and sin and death. And the word, having
fallen into sin and death, we all deserve condemnation. Christ
did not come into the world to condemn it, condemned already,
but God sent his Christ into the world to save the world,
not every individual in the world, but to save the world by the
salvation of his chosen people, a remnant, according to the election
of grace. If God saved one person, he would
have saved the world in essence, but he saves a multitude which
no man can number, the scripture says, but not all without exception. So he didn't come into the world
to condemn, he came into the world to establish the ground
of salvation and to establish that which would bring about
the salvation of his people. Now look at verse 18. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. The sinner who is brought by
God to faith in Christ gives evidence that he's not under
the sentence of condemnation. And that's a blessing. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
But now, he that believeth not is condemned already. Now, he's
talking about those who come into this world, as we all do,
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, in unbelief, but who
live their whole lives in unbelief and die in their sins. That's
who he's talking about here. They are the condemned. You know,
the Bible over in the book of Romans chapter nine makes a distinction. In verse 22, listen to this. This is Romans 9, 22. What if
God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, fitted
or made up to destruction? Now that's the non-elect. And
I know people don't like to hear that, but that's who they are.
They're born, we're all born dead in trespasses. We all deserve
condemnation. But these are those who live
their whole lives in unbelief and die in their sins, die without
Christ, die without a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
justice and appear before God on their own They're under the
sentence of condemnation. No matter who they are or what
they've done, their best works, their worst works are all dead
works. And they're under the sentence
of condemnation. But there's a distinction made
between them and God's chosen people in Romans 9.23. And that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto glory. Now that's the elect. We have always been vessels of
mercy before the foundation of the world. God set his sovereign
love upon his people, determined to save them through Christ by
his grace, the election of grace. Now look back at John chapter
three. So in verse 18, he that believeth on Christ is not condemned. Your believing did not exonerate
you. under the sentence of God, Christ's
righteousness does. Your believing gives evidence
that you have been set free from condemnation. But he that believeth
not is condemned already, fell in Adam. He has no mediator,
has no substitute, has no righteousness, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That's the evidence
of condemnation. If you go through life, without
hearing and believing the gospel of God's grace according to the
power of God, and die in your sins. The evidence of that is
you believe not. Look over at verse 36 of John
3. It says, he that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. How do I know I have eternal
life? How do you know that? Well, I believe on the Son as
he's identified and described in the word of God. And he says,
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Whoever he's talking about here,
they shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
That's those who go through this life and die in their sins. Well,
how am I to react to that? Well, somebody says, well, if
I'm not elected, it doesn't matter what I do. Now listen to me,
you're not God. You don't know anything about
that. All you know is this, the Bible tells you, God's word tells
you, the mirror of God's word tells you, you're a sinner and
you cannot save yourself from your sins, no matter how good
you try to be. You may try to be the best person
you can be today. You may have been doing that
for years. You may have gotten baptized. You may have gone to
church, but none of that can save you. None of that can wash
away your sins. None of that can bring you to
a righteousness that equals and answers the demands of God's
justice. You have no hope but Christ. Now you look to Him,
run to Him, believe in Him. And if you do, it wasn't because
of your free will or your goodness or anything like that, it's because
of the sovereign power of God Almighty. who gave you the faith
to believe. By grace are you safe through
faith. That's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, lest any
man should boast. The secret things belong to God. The revealed things belong to
us. Well, look at verse 19 of John three. This is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Now, what does the
word of God tell us? Well, it tells us that light
has come into the world. And what is that light? Or better
yet, who is that light? Well, that's Christ. That's the
gospel, the gospel light. And what does the gospel light
show? That I'm a sinner. And I cannot be saved by my best
deeds and my best efforts to save myself, to make myself righteous
by my deeds, Does what? It shows them to be evil. Light's
coming to the world. Now here is the evidence of condemnation,
he's saying. This is the condemnation. This
is the evidence of God's sentence of condemnation from his court
of justice, that light is coming to the world, the gospel light,
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. That's Christ's
righteousness imputed to us. which we receive by God-given
faith. And if we never have God-given
faith, if we never receive it by God-given faith, and continue
in our lives to love the darkness. Now what is the darkness here?
Mainly what he's talking about is false religion. That's the
darkness. Who's he talking to here? A religious
man named Nicodemus. A man who thought that he could
be saved and accepted with God by his works, his obedience.
Well, that's darkness. You see, understand that just
because a man or a woman gets religion doesn't mean they have
the light, the light of truth, the light of Christ. They may
say, well, I'm gonna reform my life and be the best I can be
and that God will accept that. That's darkness. That's unbelief. and it's the deeds that are evil. What kind of deeds is he talking
about here? In verse 19, deeds that are evil. Well, he's talking about man's
efforts to save himself. Salvation is not by works. Listen, by deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in God's sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of sin. So these evil deeds are deeds
that are done in unbelief, done motivated by self-righteousness. They are the best works of the
best people that you can think of without God, without Christ,
without His grace, without believing in Him. You see, without Christ,
without being washed in His blood, without being clothed in His
righteousness imputed to us, Everything we do falls short
and is evil in the sight of God. You remember the false preachers
in Matthew 7 verse 21 through 23, they said, Lord, Lord, haven't
we prophesied in your name? Haven't we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And he said, depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I
never knew you. Why was their preaching and their
wonderful works and their casting out, why was it iniquity? Because
it didn't equal out to righteousness. How can I, a sinner, equal out
to righteousness? There's only one way, and that
is to cling to Christ, the Lord my righteousness. Everything
else is evil. And so understand that. Condemnation
is evidenced by hatred of the light. And let me tell you something,
hatred of the light means you don't believe it. You don't believe
that light. You love darkness. So that's the deeds that are
evil. And it says in verse 19, men love darkness rather than
light. Why do they love darkness? Why did I love darkness when
I was in? Because it felt good. It gave me a hope. Now it was
a false hope. It made me comfortable in my
flesh. And so when I went to hear preachers,
and they told me what I wanted to hear, and I loved it. But when I heard a preacher of
the gospel tell me the truth, the light, at first, I hated
it. But then God changed my heart.
God changed my mind. He gave me a new heart. He gave
me eyes to see and ears to hear. And then I loved the light. Look
at verse 20, he says, for everyone that doeth evil, now doing evil,
what is it? That means walking in unbelief,
living by the darkness, seeking righteousness by the law, by
your works, rather than finding it and seeking it and finding
it completely in Christ. You do evil. Working to earn
God's favor and blessings, working to earn salvation. So everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light. Now why do they hate the light?
Because the light exposes all that they love to be darkness,
all that they love to be evil, all that they love to be done.
The light exposes their false refuge, their false comfort. It takes you out of your comfort
zone. And so you hate the light. Neither
cometh to the light. You won't believe the light,
you won't listen to it, lest his deeds should be reproved,
that is exposed, discerned, judged to be evil. You say, well, I've
gone to church all my life. Well, if you went to a church
where the gospel's preached, that's fine, but if you think
you're going to church makes you righteous or saves you, that's
evil. And verse 21 now, but he that
doeth truth Doing the truth. You know, when he says up there
in verse 20, everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light. But here in verse 21, he says,
he that doeth truth. Now there's a distinct line marked
here. Doeth truth means walking in
the truth. He comes to the light, that his deeds may be made known,
may manifest. that they're wrought in God.
What does that mean? They're the work of God. The same sun that hardens clay
melts the wax. There may be some of you listening,
you may listen to this and you may say, well, I don't believe
the word he's saying. Even though I back it up with
the word of God, I don't believe what God's word says here. And
you're hardened. And then there are others of
you who listen to this and you say, boy, that's what I want
to hear. Tell me more. The same sun that
hardens clay, melts the wax. Back over in Ezekiel 36 and verse
26, the prophet wrote of the future coming of Christ and the
future coming of the spirit to save God's people. He says in
verse 26, God says, a new heart also will I give you and a new
spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh. And
I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes
and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Verse 21 says, he
that doeth truth. Doeth truth. You know, when the
Lord stood before Pontius Pilate, Pilate asked him, Are you a king? Christ answered, thou sayest
that I'm a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth, he said, Christ said. Everyone that is of the truth,
he said, heareth my voice. Remember what Pilate responded?
What is truth? Pilate was simply expressing
a common form of belief called relativism. And that's the doctrine
that knowledge and truth and morality exist only in relation
to culture and society and historical context, even in relation to
individual thought and desire. They're not absolute. We have
that today. People say something is right
because they believe it to be right. People say this, even
in the Bible, even in false Christianity. I remember sitting around in
Sunday school classes and we'd read a scripture and they'd ask,
well, what does that mean to you? Or what does that mean to
you? People say, well, you can look at the same verse and get
differing truths out of that. That's relativism. You see, the issue in salvation,
the issue in the light, is this, what did the Lord say? What does
the word of God say? We had a gentleman and his wife
visiting here years ago who left a church because they said that
that church preaches progressive Christianity. And she asked me
if I knew what that was. And I said, well, I'll tell you
what I believe it is. And you tell me if you agree
with me. Progressive Christianity teaches that there's not one
way to God, but there are many ways to God. Now, progressive
Christianity is false Christianity. And the lady agreed with me.
What does God's word say? See, here's the light. John 14,
six. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the life, no man cometh under the
Father but by me. That's what God's word says,
that's the life. Christ is the truth. Christ told the Pharisees
in John 8 and verse 31, he says, if you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. There's only one truth
of salvation. That's salvation by God's free
and sovereign grace based upon Christ and his righteousness
imputed. What is it to do the truth? Well,
it's to come before God in truth, in all honesty. Coming before
God in Christ. admitting, confessing that I'm
a sinner and have nothing to recommend myself unto God. No
righteousness, no goodness. With all my church going, all
my do-gooding, all my morality, I have no righteousness, no goodness
to present to God in order to attain or earn or maintain His
salvation and blessings. It's to come before God in Christ,
believing His word, pleading His righteousness alone. His
blood alone, walking in His grace and mercy, bringing forth fruit
unto God. Think about this, doing the truth,
it's believing and loving the gospel light. I wanna hear the
gospel. I don't wanna hear how good I
am or how faithful I've been, I wanna hear Christ crucified
and risen from the dead. I don't want to brag on me or
you, I want to brag on Christ. I want to hear, God forbid, that
I should glory save in the cross of Christ. I want to hear about
His righteousness, not mine, because He is mine. His righteousness
is imputed to me, and from His righteousness I have eternal
life, spiritual life. Paul wrote about the Jews who
were ignorant of God's righteousness because they were going about
to establish one of their own and had not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. And in verse four of Romans 10
he said, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Doing the truth is walking in
his righteousness. Doing the truth is living and
walking by the light of truth in our confession of sin. John
wrote of that over in 1 John chapter one. Listen to the words
of the apostle here by the Holy Spirit. He says, verse five, this then
is the message which we heard of him in declaring you that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we
have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and
do not the truth. You see John over in John three,
he's talking about those who do the truth. But if you claim
to have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, you're a liar.
You don't do the truth. You don't believe God's word.
You don't rest in Christ. You don't rest and submit to
his righteousness alone for all salvation. And he says in verse
seven, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanses us from all sin. I heard a preacher years
ago say on television about the forgiveness of sin. He said,
how does the forgiveness of sin comes about? He says, by your
repentance. Not so, he's not walking in the
light, he's walking in dark. The forgiveness of sin comes
to a sinner by the blood of Jesus Christ. And whenever, if God
the Holy Spirit ever gives that sinner eyes to see, then he'll
confess his sins, then he'll repent. Doing the truth is judging by
the light of truth. That's how we judge. Somebody
says, well, I don't judge at all. You're a liar. You do judge. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter
five on that subject, talking about the new creation, the new
creature. And it says this in verse 14.
It says, for the love of Christ constraineth us. Now that's Christ's
love for his people. It constrains us. It urges us,
it motivates us. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then we're all dead or literally all have
died. Here's my judgment. If Christ died for all of his
people, then they all died with him. Christ didn't die for any who
perish. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose again, I rose again. And therefore I'm saved. And
verse 15 of 2 Corinthians 5 says, and that he died for all, not
all without exception now, but all who died with him, that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. In other words, he died
for us that we would be born again, be brought to faith in
Him that we might live for His glory and not for our own. Verse
16, wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh. We
don't judge people after the flesh. Yea, though we have known
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.
Think about Paul the Apostle. Before he was converted on the
Damascus Road, how did he think of Christ at that time? As a
blasphemer. But then when he was converted,
his mind changed. You see, he didn't know him after
the flesh anymore. And verse 17, therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now what are the old things? He walked in darkness. What are
the new things? He walks in the light. So we
judge by the light. And what does the light say?
that God has commended all men everywhere to repent because
he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and that
he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised
him from the dead. My friend, when you go to meet
God, if you go without Christ, you go without forgiveness, you
go without righteousness. Old Paul said, I wanna know him
and be found in him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. Stand before God, washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness. His righteousness imputed. What
will you hear? Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. You've done the truth, and it's not by your power, your
goodness, it's by the grace of God. But to stand before God
without Christ? Condemnation, horror. Well, back
over in John 3.21, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light. That's all he wants. I don't
wanna hear men brag on men. I don't wanna hear about the
works of men, the achievements of man, the glory of man. That's
darkness. I wanna come to the light. I
wanna keep coming to the light. It's not just a one-time thing
for me or for you. I wanna keep coming to the light.
I wanna live in the light. I wanna walk in the light. That
his deeds, the works, may be made manifest, known that they
are wrought in God. This is the work of God. You
know, a sinner saved by grace, bringing forth fruit unto God,
that's all God's work. It's not works that we should
brag on ourselves about. I think about Matthew 5, 16.
Let your light so shine before men. that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Now, usually
people go to that verse and they emphasize, see your good works. But you see, the only way we
can know those works are good is as we walk in the light, let
your light shine before me. The light there is not your good
works, the light there is Christ, God's grace. His works, the merit
of His righteousness, my only hope. And if I'm walking in that
light, the works that the Spirit does through me are the works
of God, they're wrought in God. And who do they glorify? Who
do they point to? Who do they draw attention to?
To the glory of God. That's what the scriptures talk
about. That's the light of truth. That's the light of the gospel.
Do you do truth? Do you believe the truth of God
as it is in Christ? Do you walk in that light, walk
in that truth? Do you judge by that truth? That's
what doing truth is. That's what being a doer of the
word is. May the Lord bless His word to
our hearts.