In a few minutes, we're going
to look at John 3, but I want you to turn with me to Psalm
25. I'd like to just read this chapter, Psalm 25. This was a
real blessing to me. I read it just a few days ago. Psalm 25. Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift
up my soul." You know, it's the easiest thing in the
world to lift up our voice, lift up our hands, lift up our
eyes. But the psalmist says, under
thee do I lift up my soul. You know that takes the grace
of God. I mean to truly desire to want to commune with Him. A believer, as Brother Neal just
said, just struggles so. I mean, he wants to He wants
to talk with the Lord. He wants to be honorable when
he says something. He wants to pray. He reads in
the Word when the Lord Jesus Christ says, "...and when thou
prayest, enter into your closet." Get somewhere by yourself. And
a believer wants to do that. And then he tells the Lord. He's just honest
with Him. He says, I'm just struggling. And I want
to talk with you. I want to commune with you. Lord,
help me. Oh, there's nothing like just
being honest with God. Just don't try to hide anything. You're not hiding anything. The religion is so proud of its
formality. Well, I pray. And there's times that I try
to pray, try to talk to the Lord, and then afterwards, I'm just depressed. Do you ever feel like
that? Oh, my God, I trust in Thee.
Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over
me. Yea, let none that wait on Thee
be ashamed. Be ashamed which transgressed
without cause. Show me Thy ways, O Lord, teach
me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach
me, for Thou art the God of my salvation. On Thee do I wait
all the day. Remember, O Lord, Thy tender
mercies and Thy loving kindnesses where they have been ever of
old. Remember not the sins. of my youth, nor my transgressions,
according to Thy mercy. Remember Thou me for Thy goodness'
sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will He teach sinners
in the way. The meek will He guide in judgment,
and the meek will He teach His way. All the paths of the Lord
are mercy and truth, and to such as keep His covenant and His
testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. What man is he that
feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way
that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease,
and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Mine eyes are ever toward the
Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn thee unto
me, and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged. O bring thou me out
of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and
my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider mine enemies, for they
are many, and they hate me with cruel hatred. O keep my soul,
and deliver me. Let me not be ashamed, for I
put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness
preserve me, for I wait on Thee. Redeem Israel, O God, out of
all his troubles." Let's pray together. Our Father, thank You that we have this time
to be able to call on You. Lord, help us. We are weak frail
creatures. Lord, we realize something of
our frailty. And we realize the desperate
need of being taught. Lord, we are. We are ignorant
people. We see through a glass darkly,
but thanks be unto You, we do see. Eyes to see, ears to hear,
a heart to believe, Lord, I pray that You would help us. Thank
You for the Word that we have heard. Thank You for the encouragement. Thank You for teaching us afresh
of our comfort and security in the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
we pray the Word for Christ's sake and for our good. Amen. Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to John chapter 3. I'd like to look at just a few
verses, 19, 21. You know from our study last week,
we looked at verse 18. He that believeth on him 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. Scripturally speaking, the elect of God, and God has
an elect, have never been under the condemnation of God. Never. To have been under the condemnation
of God, I'll remind you, and while I remind myself, To have
been under God's condemnation and then to go from being under
His condemnation and wrath to not being under His condemnation
and wrath would be for God to change in attitude. God doesn't change. 1 Thessalonians
5 and 9 says, For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Now God's people, the sheep,
the church, the elect were not chosen in
the Lord Jesus Christ to be destroyed under the wrath of God, but that
they should be saved from the wrath of God by the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. His death, physically, humanly
speaking, took place in time, but not in God's sight. The Lamb
was slain from before the foundation of the world, so Almighty God
who has decreed all things. He said, My counsel is going
to stand. Almighty God has always seen His elect in Christ. He's always seen them in the
Beloved. He's always loved them. He's
always accepted them in Christ. But what's the evidence? You
say this is something that God Almighty has always decreed,
that He has said that this is what it is beforehand. You say, well, how could God
say something? Read the Scriptures. What has
God Almighty said is going to happen in the last day? God's
always decreed. He's always set forth that which
He shall do. Do you believe that there's going
to be a resurrection of all men? Yeah, God said there's going
to be. Do you believe that God Almighty can decree all things
from before the foundation of the world? He said He did. But what is the evidence? How
do we know? What kind of indication do we
have that God Almighty has always looked upon one in kindness,
loving mercy, gentleness, compassion. How can we tell something in
time that God Almighty has always decreed? How? Here's how it is. A man believes God. In time, he believes God. In time, the Spirit of God in
regenerating power. The scripture uses this terminology. He shall reprove. That means
correct. He's going to correct a man.
He corrects a man concerning sin. That is that he shows him,
first of all, that he is a sinner. Man by nature. You know why? Man by nature. Does not cast
himself upon the mercy of God. Left to himself. Just leave a
man alone. You know why he doesn't? He doesn't believe he's a sinner.
He doesn't believe he's a rebel against God. I don't. He will
reprove man of sin. He will reprove that man of righteousness. Teaching him that man by nature
doesn't have one that is accepted of God. Oh, he's got one. He's
got a righteous. But the Scripture says it's nothing
but self-righteous rags, filthy rags, self-righteousness. But a righteousness that God's
going to accept, there's only one. There's only one righteousness
that Almighty God is accepting. It's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And He will reprove that man
of judgment, that is to say, that there is no judgment, there
is no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. So faith
in Christ. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the evidence that Almighty
God has eternally been pleased to show mercy. How do you know
a man believes God? That's it. He believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He that believeth. That's what we looked at. He
that believeth. Last week is not condemned. He that believeth
evidences that he's never been condemned. Remember, there may
be a change wrought within a man. He goes from darkness to light.
Death to life. But there's no change in God.
Any time, boy, I'll tell you this, man, I tried to, every
time Brother Scott would tell me something, he'd say something
like this, he'd say, I've got something for you. And I'm telling you,
man, I'm going to listen to this. He told me, he said, whenever
you prepare, you lay down the immutability of God. God never
changes. And you build everything that
you're going to preach on that. And he said, you won't go wrong.
I thought, man, I'm going to write that down. I want to remember
that. He that believeth is not condemned. He evidenced it. But he that
believeth not is condemned already. I got to thinking about that
a minute ago. And I thought, you know, when I was growing
up, I came up, well, Roman Catholic
for a while and jumped out of that frying pan into another
frying pan. That was something else. And I thought, you know, there
was years I sat and listened to men preach a little gee God
who is no God. Trying to do something. Trying
to get people to do something. And I had a bunch of buddies. I mean, you know, we'd hang around.
We'd all sit in church, you know, and try to hide. And none of
us believed anything. We were sitting under a false
gospel. There was no salvation under a false gospel. If there's
salvation under a false gospel, then let's just take out that
scripture that Brother Neal just read, Romans 1, verses 16 and
17. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of God, for it is the power of God unto salvation, for therein
is the righteousness God revealed. Therein. So I'm sitting under
this false gospel. And I got, you know, my friends
and cousins and this, that and the other, and none of us believe
anything. In time, Almighty God calls this
simple, wretched sinner out of darkness and reveals to him the
unsearchable riches in the Lord Jesus Christ, teaches Him Christ,
shows Him what He is by nature, shows Him that I didn't have
any righteousness. I walked down the aisle. I know
I walked down the aisle twice. Maybe three. Three times. So what? But my thought process
was this. Here I am sitting under the false
gospel Lost. Dead. Dead to God. Dead. Don't know God. Don't love
God. Don't even know who He is. Like
Paul. Saul saw, why persecutest thou
me? Who are you? I don't know who
you are. And then God is pleased to call
one out of darkness and leaves another one to Himself.
time revealed that God Almighty had purposed before the foundation
of the world to show mercy. And there was one that was not
under His condemnation, and one died in unbelief and was. You
say, well, how can that be? God says it is. How do you know the difference? Almighty God is going to, in
time, call His people out of darkness and reveal, I've always
loved you. I've always loved you. You were
not appointed unto wrath. That's what He said. That's what
Paul said. God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
through our Lord Jesus Christ. How do you know? He won't lead you to yourself. But is God unjust if He lets
a man do what He wants to do? God is not unjust. He said, I'm
a just God. A man that dies in unbelief proves
the fact that God was just in condemning him and man's unbelief
does not slip up on God. Look at the last few verses of
chapter 2 of John. Now when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in his name,
listen to this, when they saw the miracles which he did. But
Jesus did not commit himself. See the word commit? Same word
as believed. Many of them believe. That's
a miracle worker. Nicodemus said, you must be. come from God, nobody could do
the miracles that you do. You've got to be a prophet. Many
of them believed when they saw the miracles and the Lord didn't
believe them. He didn't believe them. Why? Because He knew all
men and needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what
was in man. The foreknowledge of God concerning
man's unbelief. Listen well. I thought on this
for a long time before I wrote this down. The foreknowledge
of God concerning man's belief. I read it wrong a moment ago.
Foreknowledge of God concerning a man's belief in Christ. And salvation according to His
mercy to grant repentance in faith never gives a man any glory
in that salvation. If any man believes, it's not
because that man is going to receive any glory for that. Almighty
God gave him, granted him faith to believe. It's given unto you
to believe. Now this is the mercy of God.
Now here's a bunch of rebels running around, hating God, despising
God, dead in trespasses and sins. I will not have that man to rule
over me. I will not come to you. And Almighty
God reached down power and regenerating grace by His Holy Spirit? I said no. No. It gives a man a new heart. And here is a man that absolutely,
willingly, willingly, willingly, thy people shall be willing. Do you know why a man comes to
Christ? Because He wants to. He wants
to. I want to trust Him. I want to
lift my heart before Him. I want to lift my soul before
Him. Why do I do now what I didn't
do before? I'm born again. A new man. A different creature. Imparted. And I'm right in there
with the old man that I was before. There's not one thing that's
been changed. in this old man. The difference
is a new man has been put there. There's a new man there. And
here's a brand new man that's doing just exactly what he wants
to do. God's people are not robots. Did I rebel against him because
I wanted to? You got it, buddy. And I'm going
to tell you something, that old nature is still there. I still struggle with that. You
do too, you that know Him. But oh, there's a new man there.
And that new man wars against that old man, that spirit in
the flesh, and they strive one against the other. If a man believes
God, it's because God Almighty absolutely said, I will have
mercy. I will have compassion. on whom
I'll have compassion. For God so loved the order of
man, the arrangement, He was not going to let mankind be obliterated
under His wrath and justice. God Almighty had to come in flesh
and obey Himself, His law. In perfect obedience, God Almighty,
Lifted up the Son of Man just as that serpent
was lifted up in the wilderness. Listen, there's nothing that
a man's going to glory in save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Lord, here I am. You're worthy to receive all
the honor and the glory and the praise. Lord, You stop me. You
stopped me when I was just... I hated you. I hated you. That's Scripture. Man born in
trespasses and sin. Haters of God. We were all just
like children of wrath, even as others. Not under the wrath,
but that means We were wrathful toward Him. Children of wrath.
But on the other hand, God's foreknowledge to appoint a man
to condemnation because that man will not come to Christ. You're not going to lay that
fault of man's rebellion and unbelief at the feet of God Almighty. Men are responsible for their
unbelief. Here's the way it is. The Scripture
sets forth that God Almighty looked to see if there were any
that were good, that any did seek Him, and there were none.
There were none. And what's happened? God Almighty,
because it pleased Him to do so, chose. Read it. It's in Revelation 5,
4 or 5. I can go back and see. I know where it is on the page. I think. Revelation 5, they sung a new
song, verse 9, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book To open
the seals thereof, thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nations."
Lord, here's what happened. God Almighty took some. He chose
some. Out of every kindred, every family,
God's going to have representatives of all the kindreds and families
and tongues and tribes Everybody's family is going to be represented.
God's going to save some of them. And they're going to reign with
Christ. They'll be seated with Him. But if God Almighty leaves
a man alone. So when it comes to condemnation,
the act of God to distinguish and to judge a man's actions,
What's the basis? What's the basis of that condemnation? I can tell you what it is. Verse 19. This is the condemnation
that light is coming to the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. I'll tell you what
I'm going to do for the sake of time. I won't wear you out.
I'm going to look at this verse 19. I was going to do verse 19,
20 and 21. But let's look at verse 19 and then Lord willing,
we'll pick up with the other two next time. This is the condemnation. This is the basis of God's condemnation. This is what God bases condemnation
on. Light is coming to the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. Light Himself, the Lord Jesus
Christ says in John 8, 12, Then spake Jesus unto them, saying,
I am the light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not
walk in darkness, but hath the light of life. Light is coming
to the world. But I'll tell you another thing
that is set forth concerning light that's coming to the world.
It's talking about the gospel. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
4, verses 3 and 4, But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them
that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them." My dear friend, if you believe Him this morning, if
God Almighty has given you a heart to love Him, I am talking about
as he has set forth in the report. Now, let me tell you who I'm
not talking about. I'm not talking about this Jesus
that people set forth that's trying to. I'm not talking about
Jesus that died on the cross for everybody because the Christ
of this Bible did not die. I'm not talking about God who's
trying to save somebody if they'll let him. That's not the God of
this Bible. The God of this Bible is God
Almighty, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign God. And He does as
He will. This is the condemnation that
light, the light of Christ, the light of His gospel that sets
forth the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to the world. And men
loved darkness because their deeds were evil. They love the darkness of their
sin and ignorance and rebellion against God. So they say, would
you come and sit and just sit and listen? I had somebody come
up to me the other day. And he was sitting around and
caught me back in the fellowship hall and walked up I mentioned
this to you, the one that came up to me last week and said,
I've always loved God. I've loved Him since I was, you
know. And he said, I just heard that Calvinism was preached here. I said, well, we preach Christ
here. I said, I understand what you're
saying. So anyway, but he said, well, I've just always been interested
in learning more about, you know, different religions and stuff
like this. And I told him, I said, well,
I said, listen, here's what I'd recommend. I said, I'd recommend
you just come sit. Just come sit. And I said, really,
it would probably be best if you told me, you know, I'd like
to join. I said, won't you just wait?
Won't you just wait? I'm not trying to fill up any
roles. I don't want to see how many,
you know, how many can we add up, you know. if we can get our
roles enlarged. Now, won't you just come sit
and just listen? Who knows? God might be pleased
to do something. God Almighty might be pleased
to call a man out of darkness. But if you told me you wanted
to join, I'd say, not now. Let's just hold off. Just come
and sit. A man that's concerned with the
glory of God is more concerned with God's glory than your name
on a roll. He's interested in Almighty God
doing what God's pleased to do. Men loved darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. They loved their religious
superstition and they're not going to part with it. Now, I've
always been taught, well, let's just see what God has to say.
Let's see what the Word of God's got to say. To come to Christ,
that means you're going to have to forsake everything that you
formerly held to. You're going to have to give it up.
Am I going to have to forsake my former profession? Let me
say it like this. If Almighty God ever gives a
man a new heart, He will. He will. He'll say just like
Paul the Apostle, oh, I was circumcised the eighth day of tribulation.
I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, Pharisees. Dung. All those that I counted
gain, lost. Lost. For the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ, men are inexcusable. for not believing
the gospel and coming to the light of Christ. They're inexcusable. Romans 1 states that. They're
inexcusable. Light is coming to the world.
Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil. They love their own dark ways.
Proud of them. Proud in them. Love darkness. And if God Almighty leaves a
man to do what He wants to do, that's what he'll have. He'll
be cast into outer darkness. Lost souls will have just what
they want. Lost darkness. You know, the habits
of an unregenerate life may not be immoral. Their habits may not be immoral. But the last day was going to
prove whether or not God Almighty allowed them to do what they
wanted to do. And He declares them to be evil.
If a man does not love the light of Christ as He set forth in
this Gospel, if he doesn't love, bow to, cleave to, come to, have
He want to say it? If He does not, His deeds are
evil. Evil. God's people proven or
revealed by coming to Christ prove that Almighty God has had
mercy upon them. In this day of great Great darkness. Unbelief. It's amazing when we consider
God Almighty has mercy on any. We're all dug out of the same
pit. Some might say, well, you just, you know, you guys just,
you think that you're, you know, you're better. No, if you talk
to a believer, I tell you that every believer that I know struggles. Every one of them. I mean, that's
just... They are soldiers. This is a
warfare. This is a sojourning. This is a wilderness. It's not
their home. And they do have an expected
end. They believe God. They die daily. They realize that this life is
but a vapor. They're dead to sin. Sin doesn't
have power over them, though it's present with them. They look to Him, thank Him,
bless Him for His mercy and grace, and they have no confidence whatsoever
in their flesh. Oh, may the Lord be pleased to
show mercy today, encouraging His people, comforting His people,
and calling His elect out of darkness for Christ's sake. Amen.