Well, as Randy said there, I'll
be preaching from this passage, not the whole passage. Those
of you who've been following along, I had a little series
of messages here, four messages. I think this is the fourth and
final message in this series. So we're going to wrap it up
today. We talked about I had Randy go back and read all the
way back from verse 1 there to give you the context because
we've talked about already the necessity of life. He told Nicodemus,
except a man be born again, born from above, he cannot see, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. So we talked about
that necessity, and then we talked about the necessity of Christ
lifted up. I had two messages there, Christ
lifted up, how he was lifted up, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, as the only hope of those who were bitten
by serpents to live and continue on in life. And why he was lifted
up, because he's the only hope of sinners. So, today we're going
to finish up this little series with the last necessity, and
it's the necessity of evidence. Evidence of eternal life. That's
what we'll be talking about here as we finalize this little series
of messages. And I'm going to start in verse
14 here. It says, and as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. As Brother Jim said in the 10
o'clock message here, we've got so much falsehood out in the
world. It behooves us every time we
preach to set Christ forth in truth. What we'll be looking
at right here is the object of God-given faith, because that's
what the Son of Man lifted up is. And we're talking about regeneration,
and the evidence of it will be The evidence I'll be talking
about, Brother Bill probably, I mean, he didn't probably, he
did preach on the things that accompany salvation. But the
first two of those things, faith, faith in the true Christ of his
word, and repentance of dead works, that's the necessary evidence
for you or me to see and enter into the kingdom of God, to know
that we've entered into the kingdom of God. So that's what we'll
be talking about, but we'll be talking about it in a lot more
detail. If there are necessities, You
must be born again. Christ must be lifted up. You
must believe. Faith is necessary. Faith is
necessary not as any part of the ground of salvation, but
it's necessary as an evidence of salvation. So anytime you
see a necessity involved with salvation, The Lord's going to
supply it. We don't supply those necessities.
They're of the Lord. They're of His mercy and His
grace. So let's look at this as the Son of Man lifted up as
the object of God-given faith. That always needs to be the first
consideration, especially when you're looking at verses like
we're looking at here. Because if you don't start out
with the right object of faith, You know and I know that you
can go all over the place with the scriptures you're looking
at. And these are some of the most misinterpreted and abused
scriptures probably in the word of God. And I was one to abuse
them before God graciously brought me out of that. The object of
God-given faith is none other than God in human flesh. He's
none other than the God-man. He's none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ, who came to this earth. He walked in obedience
to the law, being God in human flesh, walking in obedience and
coming and laying down his life, a sacrifice for sin. Why did
Christ, the God-man, have to come? Why did it have to be him
on that cross? Because the sinners he represented,
the objects of God's love we'll look at here in a minute, the
sinners he represented owed a debt to God's law and justice that
we couldn't pay. In fact, the only one who could
pay it, the only way it could be paid, is if he came and paid
that debt in our place. In other words, our sins had
to be imputed to him, and he had to go to that cross and pay
the debt of punishment that we owed and could not pay. That's
2 Corinthians 5, 21. God made him be sent by imputation
that we should be made the righteousness of God in him. So he's the God
man. Considering him as the God-man,
it's all about righteousness. The gospel itself is all about
righteousness. The righteousness of God is what
makes the gospel the power of God and salvation, Romans 1,
16 and 17, which we've looked at so many times. The righteousness
of God is the heart of the gospel. So when you're talking about
the object of God-given faith, you've got to understand the
God-man whose obedience unto death put away sin and established
the righteousness whereby God is just to justify ungodly sinners. If you don't see God's requirement
of righteousness, We ought to be righteous to stand before
God. If you don't say that, I can tell you without knowing anything
about where you worship or what you hear, your God's an idol
because the God of this Bible requires perfect righteousness.
Let me read you a couple of Psalms here that talk about that. Psalm
11 and verse 7 says, For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance doth behold the
upright. That's those he's made upright
based on his righteousness imputed. And then Psalm 33 in verse 5,
he said, He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full
of the goodness of the Lord. The righteousness of God is one
of the main reasons, maybe the main reason Christ came. Daniel
spoke of this in Daniel 9 in verse 24. He said, He said in verse 9 and verse
24, he said he will make an end of sin. He will bring in everlasting
righteousness. And then righteousness is God's
standard of judgment. A verse we've looked at so many
times, Acts 17 and verse 31, God has appointed a day in which
he's going to judge this world in righteousness. So when we're
talking about the object of faith, you can't hear enough about righteousness. The primary concern in salvation,
the salvation of ungodly sinners, is the glory of God. And the
primary concern in that glory is the righteousness that Christ
worked out. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our heart to give the
light of the knowledge of His glory, to show how He can be
both a just God and a Savior, how He can be both a righteous
judge and a merciful, loving Heavenly Father. So, when you're
talking about evidence, necessary evidence, you've got to start
with the foundation. You've got to start with the
object of true God-given faith. Look on in verse 15. Christ must be lifted up that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now this believing here is God-given
faith. This is not something the natural
man can come up with. This is something that is given
by the Spirit of God in regeneration. It's a gift. It's not something
we can do. It's not the product of natural
man. Here's what the scripture says
about the natural man. Now the natural man is all of
us as we're born into this world. And here's what the scripture
says of all of us as we're born into this world. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. They're
foolishness to him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually
discerned. When you're talking about God-given
faith, every regenerate sinner has the same object of faith. And as I said in the opening
there, the object of faith is Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. When you've got a sinner, two
sinners, one believing universal atonement, one believing that
Christ died for all men without exception, and another believing
that Christ died for an elect people, for a chosen people.
You've got two doctrines there, but you've also got two Christ
there. When you've got one who believes that the death of Christ
left some of the sinners that he died for condemned, and you've
got another who believes that every sinner Christ died for
is delivered from condemnation, there is no condemnation to those
who Christ shed his blood for. You've got two different Christs
there. It's not just different doctrine, it's two different
saviors. When you've got faith making
the difference, I can talk a lot about that because that's what
I came out of when God brought me to the gospel. When you've
got faith making the difference over here on one hand, and the
righteousness of God, the imputed righteousness of Christ making
the difference on the other hand, you don't just have two different
sets of religion here. You've got two different saviors.
God-given faith is to believe on the Savior whom God has sent,
the one who is the object of true God-given faith. That's who sinners to whom faith
is given look to. They look to that God-man whose
obedience unto death put away the sin of every sinner who died
for and whose righteousness is what entitled sinners to life. All right, let's look on at this
next verse here, verse 16. It says, 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. Okay. God-given faith, it's the gift
of God. Who is this faith given to? Why is it given only to them? Or why is it given to one sinner
and not another? Why do some get it and others not? It's given
only to the objects of God's everlasting, eternal love. And I know that professing Christians
in every generation have rested this verse. I told you, I rested
this verse in my former religion. They try to make this verse say
that faith is what makes the difference between saved and
lost. And that's not what this verse is talking about at all.
Those who believe that there are any conditions left on sinners
in order for God to eternally bless them. If there's a condition
you or I have to meet, that's another gospel. That's another
Savior right there. It's not the Christ of His Word.
Who are the objects of God's love? It says, for God so loved
the world. And I know that they interpret
that word world as all without exception. But that word world
seldom, if ever, means all without exception. You have to interpret
the word world always, all world, all those things in the light
of the context that you find it in. Rather than try to Talk
about all the things, ill things, wrong things, misinterpretations
that are said here. Let me just give you several
things that are clearly stated in John 3.16. It's clear that
God loved someone. He's got someone in mind that
He loved. And it's clear that He loved
someone in particular. Someone here described as the
world. It's also clear that because
God loved this world, that he gave his son for them. And it's clear that he gave his
son to this world with a particular goal in mind. He gave his son
to deliver this world, this world that he loved, to deliver them
from perishing and to give them everlasting, eternal life. Now,
these things are clear from this verse if you understand the object
of true God-given faith. Where do we see the love of God?
How can you know who God loves? Well, listen to 1 John 4 and
verse 9. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son
to be the perpetuation for our sins. He doesn't love those who
end up perishing. He loves those through whom will
be given life, that we might live through him. The objects
of God's everlasting, eternal love will live. They can't perish. Why will any sinner, every sinner
who believes in the only begotten Son of God, why will they not
perish? Will it be because of something
they did? No, it must be and is because the son they believe
in has delivered them from perishing. And He delivered them, not just
them individually, but He delivered every sinner He died for from
perishing. It must be and is because the love of God for them
calls God to send His Son to die in their place, to take on
their sins, to be charged with their sins, and to put those
sins away in a just satisfaction. It's every object of God's love
that Christ delivers from perishing. Every object of God's love. None
can perish whom God loved. Why will any sinner, every sinner
who believes in the only begotten Son of God have everlasting life? It must be and is because the
Son they believe in established the everlasting righteousness
that entitles them to life. No sinner Christ died for will
perish and no sinner Christ died for will be left in the unbelief
of him that we start out in. Christ's righteousness imputed
to these sinners, these objects of God's love, is the ground
of their justification, and it's also the source of their spiritual
and eternal life. God's love for them ensures that
they won't perish, and it ensures that they won't be left in unbelief,
but they will be given faith. Faith is given to the objects
of God's everlasting love, and it's never given to the natural,
unregenerate man. It's never given to us as we
start out in this world. It's only given to those who
are given life and then faith based on Christ's righteousness
and beauty. All right, let's look on at verse 17. I've got
to drink a little water here. John 3, 17, for God sent not
His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. What does this faith, this God-given
faith, do to those who receive it? It's given to sanctify. It's given to separate the objects
of God's love from the condemned world that we live in. Regeneration
is all about God. separating his people, sanctifying
his people, bringing his people out from among those who will
ultimately perish. God's people are the objects of his love, obviously,
but they are the vessels of mercy, which he hath before prepared
unto glory. But we live in a world where
there are also vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction. Faith is given to those to identify,
to separate us, to show who we are, to distinguish us who are
born of God. It's the first foundational evidence
of spiritual life, the first foundational evidence of resurrection
from the dead. We're not set apart. We're not
distinguished before this faith. Now, there are a lot of things
true of the objects of God's love. God loved them with an
everlasting love. He chose them in Christ unto
salvation before the world began. They are justified based on Christ's
righteousness imputed. They're redeemed by the blood
of Christ. All that's true of every object
of God's love. But we don't know anything about
that. We can't claim any of that till God brings us to faith in
Christ and repentance of our dead works. We're not distinguished
till God brings us to faith. It's God-given faith that separates
the objects of His everlasting love from the unbelieving and
unregenerate world that we live in. Go on to verse 18. He that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he has not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. How does faith, God-given faith,
how does it separate God's people from the world? Well, he's kind
of summarizing what he said down to this point right here concerning
the object of faith and the faith that those objects are given.
Belief in the Son of Man lifted up in the Gospel. The God-man
is the first evidence that we are born of God, that necessity
that we read about in the first part of this chapter. We must
be born again, and God-given faith is the first evidence that
we are. Those given faith by the Spirit
of God in regeneration believe the same gospel, that gospel
identified and distinguished in Romans 1, 16, and 17. We worship
the same God, the God who justifies the ungodly based on Christ's
righteousness imputed alone. We trust the same Savior, the
Lord, our righteousness, and we rest in the same righteousness.
We see Christ's righteousness imputed to us not only as the
only ground of our salvation, but the only thing that entitles
us, the only source of spiritual and eternal life. And that evidence
is always accompanied by another evidence that proves it to be
genuine. And I'll explain that as we go
through here. It's always accompanied. God-given faith is always accompanied
by repentance from dead works and idolatry. He that believeth not is condemned
already. Now let's look at verse 19. And
this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world.
And men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. The light here is the light revealed
in 2 Corinthians 4, 6. It's the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's an understanding
from God's testimony of how God can remain just and yet justify
ungodly sinners such as all of us are by nature. The first thing this light reveals
is what honors God in salvation, but this light also exposes. It exposes something. It exposes
the going about of those who are walking in darkness. It exposes
what we're all doing by nature. It exposes any other ground of
salvation other than the imputed righteousness of Christ to be
an ungodly, evil ground. And it exposes any claim to eternal
life, any evidence of eternal life that you think is based
on anything but Christ's righteousness imputed, and that alone is evil. You see, if you go into a dark
room and you flip on the light switch, it was in darkness. And you might see the beauty
of that room. It might be colorful and wonderfully
appointed. You see the beauty of it. But
it also exposes something you might not want to see, something
you might not be interested in seeing. Maybe a scrape on the
wall or a cockroach in the corner, heaven forbid. Anyway, it exposes. It does both. When that switch
comes on, it reveals and it exposes. Now, it can't do just one of
them. It does both. Every time. When the light comes to us in
this world, now, the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. When it comes to us in this world
here, here's where we are. Every one of us, no exception.
All by nature prefer darkness to light. See, we're the ones
spoken of in this verse. The natural man, which is all
of us by nature, is the one spoken of in this verse. We all prefer
darkness to light. Why? Because our deeds are evil.
We're not looking. We're looking over here and over
here. We're looking at all kinds of
things. This one's looking at faith. This one's looking at
worshiping on Saturday. This one's looking at something
else. But we're not looking to the only ground of salvation. We're not looking to the Christ
who is the object of true God-given faith. We're not looking to his
righteousness imputed for all of salvation. The only thing that can expose
this evil to us, the only thing that shows us what this evil
is, is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God revealed
in Christ. The light of the gospel. That's
the only thing that will expose this evil. This evil is what
is spoken of in 2 Corinthians 2 verses 9 through 10. It says,
now he's talking about the Antichrist here. Even him who's coming is
after the working of Satan. with all power and signs and
lying wonder, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved." Righteousness is not normally deceivable. I mean, unrighteousness. We know
what unrighteousness is for the most part. But this righteousness
right here, is going about to establish our own righteousness.
It's trying to work out our own salvation while we're ignorant
of, while we have not been brought to the light of the gospel. And
it's evil, but it's only revealed to be evil when that light, when
that object of faith is set before us. True faith, God-given faith. the Christ of this world. It's
not evil to anybody else. In fact, those who won't come
to that light, they'll never see this evil. When I was in
this evil, I was going about to work out my own righteousness,
but I didn't see it as evil. That's the unrighteousness he's
talking about. That's the evil he's talking about. I didn't
see it as evil. I do now, but I didn't then, because the light
hadn't come on. The light hadn't been shined
in the face of Jesus Christ. The light can't reveal here the
truth and not expose the error. It can't do one and not do both. Here's what I'm saying. Here's
what this verse is saying. If the Spirit of God has made
the Christ of the gospel your savior, if he's made the God
who justifies the ungodly based on nothing but Christ's righteousness
imputed alone, if he's made him your God, If He's made Christ
righteous, He's imputed your only ground of salvation, as
well as the only source of your spiritual and eternal life. If
your faith is truly God-given faith, then this light exposes
everything prior to that, that moment, when it exposes, it exposes
its evil. And according to God's command,
we are to repent of those dead works in idolatry. We're to repent
of that evil. And that's the second evidence
of necessary faith. That's the second evidence of
the faith that we need, the evidence that we need to prove ourselves
to be in the household and family of God. We're all in darkness, we're
walking in darkness, we're doing evil until God brings us to the
light and shows us what we need to be saved. What we need for
God to declare us righteous. We need the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us. We can't get there any other
way. All our righteousness are as filthy rags. Let's look on
verse 20. For everyone that doeth evil
hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. Now that first verse was talking
about all of us by nature. Talking about all natural men
who haven't been given God, who haven't been given faith by the
Spirit of God. But this verse is talking about those brought
to the light, brought under the sound of the gospel, but don't
want to see what the gospel exposes in them as evil. They refuse
to repent of their dead works and idolatry. They don't want
to give up their religious past. Now, let me just say a word right
here before I go on. I know this is a difficult subject
for the natural man. And I'm not trying to be difficult. I know that if God hadn't delivered
me from where I was, in darkness, doing evil, I'd be without hope
right now. He had to deliver and the message
by which he delivered me is the one I'm delivering to you. This
not wanting to give up our religious past is just like Lot's wife.
Remember Lot? Lot was delivered and his family
was heading out of Sodom. But Lot's wife, she looked back. Why? Because she had a fondness
for Shabbat. She hadn't given that up like
Lot and the rest of them did. It's like those in Hebrews 11
and verse 15. It says, now these are those
that all died in the faith. But it says of them, truly, if
they had been mindful of that country from which they came
out, they might have had opportunity to return. In other words, if
you don't count evil, what you were in, I'm not saying before
you walk through these doors. I'm saying before God brought
you to the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus
Christ. If you don't count that as evil,
see, you might have opportunity to go back there. If you don't
repent of those dead works and idolatry, you might have opportunity
to go back. Now, these sinners that we're
talking about here in this verse, they might embrace the gospel
for a while. like the stony ground here. Remember
the stony ground here? The Word was sown, the seed was
sown, the Word of God, the Gospel, and he immediately received it
with joy. But when persecution came over
the Word, when he had to tell his lost father, his lost son,
look, I don't mean to be harsh here, but you need to check out
this message, this Savior, this God, this righteousness, because
the one you're in is evil. Or they might be like those in
1 John 2 and verse 19 who went out from us. Those in 1 John
2, 19 were among believers. They embraced the gospel. They
seemed to believe the gospel, but they went out. And he says
they went out, that it might be manifest that they never were
of us. You can go out. because the Spirit
of God has not given you faith. Now, the natural man, like I said,
he can embrace it. He can even embrace this message
right here. We've got children. I've got a son sitting back there.
Jim's got a daughter. Bill had a son. We've got Kristen. Randy's got a daughter. They
grew up under the gospel. And Timothy told me he gave mental
agreement to it, but it just didn't ever He just had no value. He had no concern, no regard
for the glory of God. It just wasn't life and death
to him until God brought him to true God-given faith and godly
repentance. How can you tell the difference
in an unregenerate sinner's mental agreement to the gospel and God-given
faith? Well, repentance always accompanies
God-given faith. And repentance probably never
accompanies, they don't even want to agree with repentance
of dead works. Those who don't repent give evidence
that they don't value the work of Christ like God values the
work of Christ. They don't see Christ's righteousness
like God sees it. See, God's glory in salvation,
the salvation of ungodly sinners, is wrapped up in Christ's work. and Christ's work alone, and
not salvation based on anything sinners do. All right, let's
look at this last verse, and I'm about done here. But he that
doeth truth, now he's contrasting doing evil here with doing truth,
so he that doeth truth comes to the light, that his deeds
may be manifest, that they are wrought in God, they are worked
in God, they are the work of God. from beginning to end. Salvation is of the Lord. The
sinner to whom the Spirit of God has given life and faith
and repentance of dead works and idolatry, those who doeth
truth, they come to the light. That sinner loves the light.
He rejoices in the light. The gospel is the delight. This
is the message he wants to have the world to hear. He wants to
be working to get this message out to the world. He counts the
righteousness of Christ imputed The regard... Let's see what
we got here. He rests in what he sees God
giving him. Like I said at the beginning
of this message, anything that's a necessity, imputed righteousness,
Life, eternal life, spiritual life, faith, repentance, perseverance,
anything that's a necessity to the people of God. It's all based
on what Christ has done for us. It's never based on anything
we do. So we don't glory. If God brings
us to faith in repentance, we don't glory either in the faith
or repentance. I worry about my faith sometimes.
It's up here today and down here tomorrow. So I'm thankful that
my salvation is not conditioned on my faith. So we don't glory
in the gifts. We glory in the Christ who has
given us life. and brought us to these gifts,
this faith and repentance. He's given us life based on his
work alone. So, the necessary evidence I've
covered too. God-given faith and godly repentance
is that necessary evidence that we need to rightly, scripturally
count ourselves in the household and family of God, to say aright
that we are born of God, that God has given us spiritual and
eternal life based on nothing but Christ's righteousness alone.
May the Lord enable us to hear and believe his word.