Bibles once again and turned
with me to the Gospel according to John chapter 3. John chapter
3. I was sitting there musing a
moment ago concerning the mercy of our God.
I was thinking on that In those
passages we just looked at, Christ is the end of the law. You know,
when it comes to fulfilling it, He's the end of it. He fulfilled it all. Every jot
and tittle, He's the end of it. And then the goal, the end of
the law, is faith in Christ. That's what the law is. The Spirit
of God gives a man a heart. God's law shows him his need. Mercy of God. John chapter 3. I'd like to just
look for just a very few minutes at a couple of passages of Scripture. Actually, we're going to look
at verse 20 and 21. Last week, we considered Verse
19, we know that in the end times, you know this, you know there's
going to be judgment, but concerning God's judgment, condemnation,
there's a basis for it. What does God base? Condemnation. What's the justification for
condemnation? Well, verse 19 told us, this
is the condemnation, that light is coming into the world and
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were
evil. The light of the Lord Jesus Christ
set forth in the light of His glorious gospel. Men are condemned
because they will not come to Christ. Verse 20 picks up on
and tells us this very thing. The wicked in that day are going
to prove that God is just. They're going to prove it. They're
going to prove that God was just in condemning them. And what's
going to be the proof that God was just? Now here it is. This is all of it right here.
It's because man will not come to Christ. Count everything else if you
want to. This is what God's going to base condemnation on. He would
not come to Christ. Verse 20 says, that doeth evil, hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved
or discovered. Everyone that doeth. Now, verse
20 and verse 21 has got a word in there that's a common word
to both passages. One of them is in verse 20, it's
doeth. Doeth evil. Everyone that doeth
evil. And in verse 21, there's one
that says doeth truth. Those are two different words.
Two different words. And I'll look at it. I'll tell you what the meanings
are and pray that the Spirit of God gives us understanding.
I don't have any ability to give anybody any understanding. I
can tell you that's just like schoolmaster. I can tell you
what the word means. But it takes the Spirit of God
Himself to teach us. He that doeth." Everyone that
doeth evil. Now this is what doeth there
means. Everyone that practices or performs repeatedly. That's
pretty understandable. Everyone that doeth, practices
a habitual act that never will profit the sinner. It's an act. that he does habitually
over and over and over. Never stops, never stops, never
stops, never stops, never stops. He that habitually, continually,
never ceasingly, he that doeth evil. This is what the Scripture says.
He hates the light. He hateth the light. You know, I thought about that. I'm reading that. And let me
tell you what the natural man thinks. Now, see, I can speak
with some freedom here. I can speak with some pretty
good liberty right here because, as the little cartoon character
Pogo said one time, I are one. I can speak with some pretty
assured here. as being born in Adam. That means just being a man by
natural birth. Just being born into this world. Being born in succession from
Adam all the way back. With Adam's guilt charged to
me and my own guilt to back it up, prove it, let me tell you
I naturally think, this is what I naturally think. Whenever I
read something like this, everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light. Now, let me tell you what I naturally
think. I don't hate him. I don't hate him. I don't hate
the Lord. I mean, the Lord's good. God's good. God gives us rain
and God gives us sunshine and I don't hate the Lord. Well, the only problem is that
God says I do as being born in Adam. You see, my understanding
and God's revelation is two different things. He said my ways are not
your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
Listen to this. He that is not with me is against
me. Here's an established fact. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light. What, Lord? is the evidence of
what you're saying. What's the evidence? He that
doeth evil, hateth the light. See, the problem is, is man,
as he's born in Adam, does not realize how bad he is. That's the problem. It's not until a man sees something
by being reproved, talking about the comforter when the Lord says,
I'll send the Comforter and He shall reprove the world." I just
talked about that last service. He shall reprove the world of
sin. See, here's the basis of getting
some understanding. I realize that I am a sinner
against God. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light. And here's the proof of it. Neither
cometh to the light. What does that mean? It means
to come to Christ by faith. Everyone that does evil hates
the light. Men are born into this world
haters of God. And they said, I don't think
I am. God says we are. Boy, I tell you what, here's
the first evidence of the miracle of God's grace. A man believes
God. He believes God. He doesn't believe
what other men say, because other men are not going to tell me
this. A man is not going to tell me this. By nature, he won't
tell me this. But this is the way it is. Everyone
that doeth evil, that has a habitual, continual, repeating practice
of evil, What is the evil? I'll tell you
as simply as I know how. It's the exact opposite of holiness. Evil. Everything that does not
meet God's standard of holiness, everything that's not as holy
as God. Evil. Evil. You see, there's
no gray area with God. It's not almost holy. It almost
was holy. It's just a little less holy.
It's just neutral now. Now it's getting to be a little
bit more evil. Now it's evil way down here. Oh, no, no, no,
no. Everything that does not meet
God's absolute holiness, evil. What's it going to take, I've
said this before, for a man to find himself in heaven? He's
going to have to be as holy as God. As holy as God. How can that be? Only in Christ. Charged with the righteousness
of Christ. Found in Him. Accepted in Him. Accepted in the Beloved. If I
come not by Him, I don't come at all. Oh, listen, everyone that doeth
evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light. Come to
the light. Cometh to the light, cometh to
the light. Remember, I told you that ETH
on there, it's a present progressive. It never, never, never, it's
always he that cometh to the light, cometh to the light. You
that believe. You didn't come to Christ years
ago. And that was a one inclusive
act. Let me tell you something. You
that have come to Christ are coming to Christ right now. And
I'm not talking about by the faith when you first sat down
in this congregational meeting this morning. He that cometh
now, cometh now. cometh and cometh and cometh. He's at cometh. My sheep, hear
my voice. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And you come. You come right
now. Right now. Right now. By faith
given right now. It's a continual act of faith. wrought in the heart in power
by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God. He grants
a man faith. You know, that's our natural
thinking. Well, I was saved when I was 9 or 14. I came to Christ when I was 14.
Well, normally what men mean is they walk down an aisle. Or
I was baptized. Or I prayed through. I've told you I've always wondered
about that stuff. Prayed through. Prayed through what? I don't
understand. But I can tell you this. By the
grace of God, Almighty God, by His Spirit, grants a man faith. Faith. It is the grace of God
by which a man believes God. And he comes to Christ in his
heart That's a scriptural language that is only understood by a
new heart. He comes to Christ. He comes
by faith. He comes in need. He comes in
Him who is His hope. So a man, every one that doeth
evil, hateth the light, and he that cometh to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved. A man that comes to Christ flees
to Him. from himself, from my unworthiness, from my
inability, from my own merit, cast himself upon Christ. An
evil man will not come so that his deeds should be reproved. You say, well, I don't understand.
A man without Christ Loves darkness. They don't want. Their evil to
be discovered. Now, you know, that's just evidence,
you know, think about crime. Dark night time, that's that's
usually when. As a general rule, I know people
do stuff in daytime too, but as a general rule, night time,
why? I don't want to be caught. I don't want to be discovered.
Man by nature hates the light. A man by nature will sit under
a false gospel because he hates the light. This is God's Word. I've told
people before, you know, if I fail to preach this, do you know what
that would mean? It means I didn't believe it, first of all, if
I didn't preach it. But it didn't change anything.
What did it change? I don't like that preacher down
there. What else can I preach? But he, verse 21, that doeth
truth. You know, when I first read that,
I thought, you know, in my silly thinking, everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light. And verse 21 would have probably
said, but he that doeth good. That's not what it says. but he that doeth truth. That first doeth right there
was a continual, habitual practice, a repeated. This word doeth here,
this is a different word. He that doeth truth. I love this. He that agrees. He that agrees. He that abides. He that agrees with truth. And who is the truth? Well, you
know this. The Lord said, I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me. Not by His own works, not like
that young man, what lack I yet. You know, I've done all these
for my youth. Not by works of righteousness
that we've done. Not by my ability to perform
some works of morality and stuff. Everything I've ever done is
just putrefying sores, rags, filthy rags. It's not worth talking about.
What have I ever done? All I've ever done is rebel against
God and myself. And I know that. But he that
agrees with truth. You know, a man that agrees with
truth, you know what the first thing he's going to say? Lord,
you're right. If God says, I am, I am. There's none that doeth good.
Lord, you're right. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Lord, I agree with You. I agree
with truth. I am the way. Lord, You are the
way. He that doeth agrees with, abides with truth. A heart that
is made honest. I am going to tell you something. This is the most liberating thought
that a man will ever have. It will set a man free. Because
you see, if you think that you've done something to establish a
righteousness before God, remember this, when Almighty God, under
His all-seeing, all-knowing, scrutinizing eye of absolute
holiness, if there's one infraction in
there, and let me settle your mind, There's not one good thing
in there. It's all evil in yourself. He that doeth agrees with truth. This is what he does. He cometh
to the light. He cometh to the light that his
deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. That which I do by the grace
of God, believe Christ, it is wrought in God. I do know that when the woman
that had the issue of blood came to the Lord Jesus Christ, She
saw him, and she said in her heart, if I can touch but the
hem of his garment, I'm going to be made whole. I know I will. And she believed him. She believed
him. And she came to him, and in the
press, she touched the hem of his garment. Immediately, the
issue of her blood was dried up. That's what Scripture says.
The Lord stopped. He said, who touched me? Remember this last
week I told you, and they said, well, everybody's touching you.
You're in the press. Everybody's pressing you and touching you.
No virtue has gone out. And he looked at her. They all
partied. And he looked at her, and she was fearful. And he said,
daughter, be of good cheer. Now listen to these words. Your
faith hath made thee whole. Two things. Number one, faith
was given her from above, and it was hers. The Lord gave it
to her. It didn't originate with her.
He gave her faith to believe. It's given. That's what Scripture
is. It's given unto you to believe. All men have not faith. When
God grants faith, a man believes God. But when He told her, Thy
faith, let me tell you more exactly what He said. The object of your
faith has made you whole. The object of your faith. It is given and we do believe. But I'll tell you this, we make
no claim to have originated anything that is good. Every good gift,
every perfect gift is from above. If a man or a woman believes
God, it's by the grace of God, because I'm telling you, it don't
start with us. God looked and saw that every
imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was evil, wicked,
continually. If a man believes God, that man
comes to Christ. He that agrees with truth. He comes to the light. He comes
to Christ that His deeds may be made manifest, that they're
wrought in God, not in Himself. His deeds believe in God, trust
in God. A believer, one made honest about
himself, honest about God before whom he must stand. He desires
that all things be made manifest. He wants that. He does want that. I do. I do. You that believe,
you do too. You want all things to be made
manifest. What do you mean? Well, you don't mind things being
made manifest that you are what you are in yourself as being
born in Adam. It doesn't offend you. Somebody
tell you that you're a rotten, stinking sinner in yourself. That doesn't offend you. I don't
know one believer that's offended by somebody telling him that
in yourself, from the crown of your head to the sole of your
foot, you're nothing but putrefying sores. That doesn't offend a
believer. I agree with you. And a believer
will be the first one that will tell you. Everything that is
manifest in me that has anything of honor to it, believing Christ,
Trusting Christ. Coming to Christ. Loving the
brethren. Loving His gospel. Whatever you
want to say. None of those things do we ever,
ever look at as having any confidence in as far as something that we
started. They're all wrought in God. And
we know that. Paul says, I am what I am by
the grace of God. Standing before Him. Standing
in Him. Accepted in Him. Accepted in
the Beloved. That's the most comforting thought
that I could ever have. That God Almighty is not looking
to me to satisfy Him. Christ has satisfied Him. Christ is my surety. Christ is my Savior. I'm not
trying to keep myself saved. I couldn't keep myself saved
if I had to. We're kept by the power of God.
How do you know? Through faith. Faith is the evidence
of it. Let me just say it like that.
I always have to try to qualify these things so we'll understand.
The thing that shows that a man is kept by the power of God is
that that man keeps believing God. And the faith by which he
keeps believing God. It's truly his, but God gave
it to him. It's wrought in God. Oh, may
the Lord teach us something of salvation by grace. Salvation
by grace through faith. Evidence by faith. For by grace
are you saved through faith and not of yourself. It's the gift
of God. Why? Because we boast in it. I'm telling you, this old body
of death, Freddie, that we hang around, that we're in one of
these days, God's going to put it off. That's what Paul says,
Oh, wretched man that I am, that I am, not that I was, that I
am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I'll
tell you who shall. Our blessed Lord, Savior. Coming a time that we're going
to see Him as He is. be like Him. For Christ's sake, may He bless
these words to our heart. Amen.