and turn in your scriptures with
me to John chapter 3. I had hoped to bring to a conclusion
our journey through John chapter 3. This part of John chapter
3, this is This is the most remarkable conversation, it's the most famous
conversation in all of the Christian world these days because it contains
the most famous verse in all of the Christian world, John
3.16. So let's begin there and read down to verse 21. I wanted
to spend our time today looking at verse 21. Let's put this back
into its context again. 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 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, and 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
you have caused these words to be written and preserved and
to be the delight of your church through all ages. And once again,
Heavenly Father, we come wanting to express our utter dependence
upon you to be the teacher of your people and to lead and to
guide your people into the truth of your dear and precious Son.
Oh, Heavenly Father, may May it be You who speak by these
words of Your dear and precious Son to our hearts yet again today,
O Father, for we pray in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen. And here we have this remarkable,
remarkable occurrence, haven't we? It's something that must
meet all of Adam's children. You will be brought into the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have an appointment to meet
him. And what a glorious thing it
is for the children of God to meet him in this world before
they meet him in judgment when they leave this world. And so
this conversation typifies the meeting of people who meet with
the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. And I have no doubt, as
I've studied it long now, that Nicodemus is a picture, of course,
of what it is for a man to be brought out of the darkness.
He came, it says in verse 2, he came by night. He came by
night and he was brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Like the Queen of Sheba, he'd heard the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he'd heard the works of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he'd seen the things he's done, he'd seen and heard of his wisdom. And just in that brief week of
that festival in Jerusalem the Lord Jesus Christ had become
famous to this man who was the Teacher of Israel. So here we
are at the end of this passage looking at Nicodemus and looking
at ourselves. I trust as the Lord might enable
us that we might see ourselves pictured in all this. So let's
go down to verse 21 and let's read this verse again and contemplate
what's being said here because they are remarkable words, aren't
they, in verse 21 of John chapter 3. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God. I'm so pleased that God has written
this word. And I'm so pleased that he's
written it in such a way that we are left with words like,
statements like, doeth truth, doing truth, continually doing
truth is what it means in the original, that we might go and
obviously ask the question, what is it to do the truth? It's one
thing to know the truth, but here he's talking about doing,
doing the truth. Doing the truth. And obviously
the very first thing that comes to our mind is that you're coming
to the light, who's doing the truth. Nicodemus presents this
remarkable picture of the best of Israel's teaching and the
best of Israel's morality. The best that the Jews had on
offer was there before the Lord Jesus Christ. And like all of us, When we meet
the Lord Jesus Christ, everything changes. Every notion of who
we are changes, and every notion of who God is changes, and every
notion of how God saves sinners is changed. As we've seen so
often, man at his best state is altogether vanity. One of the glorious things about
the Gospel is when a man who is altogether vanity, altogether
emptiness, meets the Lord Jesus Christ who is altogether fullness.
It is the same, isn't it? There's light meeting darkness.
The light doesn't have to do very much to overcome the darkness.
All the light has to do is be and the darkness is gone, isn't
it? Eternal life is knowing Him. It's knowing Him, John 17, 3. And it's knowing Him as He declares
Himself to be. And knowing Him as He declares
Himself to be is knowing Him as He acts and as He speaks in
this word. And so to do truth, if you go
back to the previous verse, if doing truth initially is coming
to the light, then doing evil, verse 20, for everyone that doeth
evil hates the light. So there's not a neutrality here,
is there? There is a black and white. It's
like electricity, isn't it? It's on or off. There isn't any
in between. He that doeth evil hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light. They won't come to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Nicodemus' deeds were approved. The darkness must be dispelled. When you come to the light, the
darkness must be dispelled. And we've looked at it in the
past and I'll just summarise some of these things. But Nicodemus'
knowledge of God and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is defective. Even knowledge which speaks well
of him can be incredibly defective. Incredibly defective. The Pharisees
again and again and again came and spoke sweet words about the
Lord Jesus Christ and complimentary words. And he looked beyond what
they were saying and looked into their hearts and realised that
there was nothing but darkness and evil and enmity there. We
might remember, isn't it, that when Nicodemus came he said,
you're a teacher, come from God. And he was wrong. It was nice,
but it was wrong. He's God, come to teach, and
there's a huge difference. He said, you're doing these miracles
because God is with you. And that's nice and it's true. But there's a greater truth,
isn't it? God is now with you, Nicodemus. God is now here. God is now speaking to people
in this world as he did to Nicodemus. So his knowledge was defective.
He thought that he was already in the kingdom of God because
he's Abraham's natural child and he thought he was already
in the kingdom of God and the Lord Jesus Christ tells him you
can't enter the kingdom of God unless you're born again and
you can't see it so you don't even know what it is Nicodemus
that's how dark your darkness of Jewish religion is and you
can't enter you can't enter Your understanding of your knowledge
is wrong, your heritage is wrong, your understanding of the Scriptures
is wrong. The Lord Jesus Christ in allusion
and in words takes Nicodemus to famous passages of Scripture
like Ezekiel 36 which talks about the new birth and new creation
where God promises to put a new heart in people and take away
a heart of stone, a heart of darkness. and put his spirit
within them and he'll cause them to do, to obey his words. He doesn't have a clue what's
going on in Ezekiel 37. And the Lord rebukes him, doesn't
he? He says, I'm telling you things that on earth you should
know, Nicodemus. You should know these things.
You should know these things. I'm sure she's fine. Are you
happy? I'm happy with her there. There's a sermon illustration
in Millie's activities. There were two people that entered
into the promised land out of 600,000 men. Two people entered
into the promised land out of 600,000 men. One of them is called
Joshua, which is Jesus. And the other one is Caleb. Only
two people entered into the Promised Land, Joshua and Caleb, and they
are a picture of all who have entered into the Promised Land.
Nicodemus should have known this, and we ought to know it as well.
Caleb means faithful dog. That's what Caleb means, faithful
dog. Anyway, Millie. Preserved for posterity. Okay,
let's go back to our text. Nicodemus was ignorant, wasn't
he? He was ignorant of who was in front of him. He was ignorant,
he had a defective knowledge. He had a defective understanding
and confidence in his heritage. He had a defective understanding
of the scriptures. He had a defective understanding
of his works. He thought his works were meritorious
before God. Flesh gives birth to flesh. And
the Lord had told them, you receive not our witness. We have given
you a witness in the miracles and in the statements and the
testimony of John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God and you
Nicodemus sent your Pharisees down there to the Jordan and
you heard John speak and you heard John's testimony of the
Holy Spirit coming and resting upon the Lord Jesus Christ and
abiding on him and you heard God the Father heard John's witness
of God the Father speaking from heaven and you went back your
little mob of examiners went back to Jerusalem as empty and
as ignorant as they possibly could have been. Flesh gives birth to flesh. Flesh gives birth to flesh. It can never rise above where
it is and what it is, Nicodemus. And you think that all of your
fleshly activities in religion, Nicodemus, have raised you up
to some spiritual level and plane and all of the people of Jerusalem
probably thought the same. Flesh gives birth to flesh, Nicodemus. So your works... Your works are defective. Your
birth is defective, Nicodemus. It goes to the very heart of
what you are, Nicodemus. It's built into your very being,
Nicodemus. You're a child of Adam. And unless
God does a work that he promises to do in the hearts of his people
and has done in the hearts of his people all through the Old
Testament, Nicodemus, you've seen this, you must be born again.
You must have a spiritual birth from on high to enter the Kingdom
of God. had no understanding of how God
saves sinners. God saves sinners by a sovereign
act of his will, by a sovereign exhibition of his grace. And
Nicodemus, you know it, because Jonah said salvation is of the
Lord. You have to be taken down to
where Jonah was to see that salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is
not according to your will. It's his will, not your will.
It's his work, not your work. It's his birthing, not your birthing. God is absolutely sovereign. You have no idea. that you have
in your very midst, the Christ of God, Nicodemus. All of this
darkness, all of this rubbish, I love what Nehemiah said, and
they are building the walls of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 4 verse
10 he said there's much rubbish to be removed, there's much rubbish
to be removed from us, much religious rubbish to be removed from us
that we might, and the light removes the rubbish of course.
You have no idea of the Christ ascending and coming down from
heaven and being in heaven at the same time, Nicodemus, and
here I am right in front of you. How close the Lord is to people
who are completely ignorant of his very presence and his very
being and his very character. You have no idea of sin, Nicodemus. What was the sin? And the picture,
of course, is a deeply serious picture. If anyone ever speaks
to you of John 3.16, I pray that having studied and learnt of
the Lord, you immediately want to take them to Numbers chapter
21 and speak of that story of the serpent being lifted up in
the wilderness. It was those who were bitten,
those who were bitten and saw their sin that looked to the
serpent and lived. The great issue of Nicodemus's
life and the great issue of all of our lives is sin. They loathed the light bread. They loathed the Lord Jesus Christ. Nicodemus had no idea of judgment. It's an extraordinary word, isn't
it? In verse 18 it says, condemned already. Condemned already. Condemnation. There is in the exposing of Nicodemus'
darkness and his blindness, there is an exposing of all of us in
our religion and all of us in Adam's nature. When the Lord
Jesus Christ brings you into his presence, and brings you
to the light. The darkness overcomes, the darkness
is expelled by the light. The light came into the world
and the darkness didn't perceive it. But to those who are born
of God, to those who are born of God, as many as received him,
to them he gave power, gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them which believe on his name, which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God, but of God. The refuge of lies is only ever
removed by the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Jews remained, almost completely remained in darkness. And such
was the depth of their darkness that they actually thought, in
70 AD when the Romans had besieged, as promised, the city of Jerusalem,
they thought that the safest place on all this earth was in
Jerusalem. And a million, 1,100,000 of them died. It's a great picture,
isn't it? There can be a complete and utter
misunderstanding of God and His purposes in this world, in this
darkness, if He gives people over and you will have the comfort
of many, many people agreeing with what you say. The Lord Jesus
Christ alone, the light of the world, sweeps away the refuge
of lies. The truth reveals, the truth
exposes exposes what we are. Only the light, the Lord Jesus
Christ, will expel that darkness. Only the new creation will see
the old creation for what it is. You must be born again, you
must be made a new creature and creation is God's activity. And
when you are created anew, all of a sudden, for the first time
ever, you will see what your Adam flesh really is. you will throw away your knowledge
and you will come as a child into the very presence of God.
You won't claim any earthly heritage, your heritage will be on the
child of God. The scriptures will go from being
a rule book for how to live to a book all about Him. It's a
hymn book. It's a hymn book. It speaks of Him and Him crucified
and Him saving His people. You'll see that salvation, entering
into the Kingdom of Heaven, is not my doing but His doing. You'll
see that all of your works, as Paul says in Romans, all of these
works are evil, evil. That's what the Lord said of
the Apostles, isn't it? He said, you being evil. know how to do good things, give
good things to your children. And you'll throw out, when the
light comes, you'll throw out all of your righteousness and
you'll just have one righteousness before God, the very righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave. He's only begotten
Son and He gave Him with a purpose and God sent His only begotten
Son into this world and He sent Him with a purpose to achieve
these things and God says He shall not fail. He shall not
fail. Whatever the Lord Jesus Christ came to do, He did. He shall save His people from
their sins. He shall save His people. Did He do it? Did He do it? God says he did. And we proclaim
that he did. We don't proclaim that he tried
to do it. We just proclaim that he did.
I love the fact that John repeats things and paints pictures
don't he? So when you're painting a picture
you have an outline and then you add more colours and add
more colours and that's what John does and he paints a remarkable
picture of salvation in these verses. And there are so many
synonyms, I think there are about 15 synonyms of salvation just
in this one small conversation. Aren't we thankful the Nicodemus
came? Aren't we thankful that this is recorded for us? Listen
to the synonyms of salvation. It's to be born again, verse
3. It's to see the kingdom of God. It's to enter the kingdom of
God. It's to be born of water and
spirit. It's to be born of the spirit.
It's ascending into heaven. It's not perishing. They should
not perish because they cannot perish any of these. It's having
eternal life. It's having everlasting life.
It's believing on Him. It's believing on His name. It's
being saved, not saving yourself by something you do. It's doing
the truth. It's coming to the light. It's
to have your deeds wrought in God. find great comfort in all of
that. What a glorious Savior and God we have. So doing truth,
let's look briefly at what it is to be doing the truth. It's not a rare Phrase, it seems
an unusual phrase when we first hear it, don't we? Doing truth.
What is it to do truth? What is it? I want to ask if
the Lord would enable us to go from here and knowing what it
is to do truth, because God puts these things in his word for
all of us to learn and to grow in the grace and knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Just listen to how he says it
again in exactly the similar words. He says in verse 5 of
1 John 1, this then is the message which we have heard of him and
declare unto you, 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. If we walk in the light as he
in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. It's not to walk in darkness.
In John's Gospel and in all of the stories that we have, and
in 1 John, again, walking in darkness is walking in the darkness
of religion. Nicodemus came out of the darkness
into the light. walking in the darkness of works
religion doing the truth Doing the truth
is coming, as Nicodemus did, out of the night of Judaism and
into the light of the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
coming to the light. The light, of course, is the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's coming to Him. And how do
you ever come to Him? You only ever come to Him because
you're drawn into His very presence by the sovereign hand of God. You can't come to the light until
He comes. That's why God gave and God sent. The truth is a
person in the scriptures. I am the way, the truth and the
light. The truth is objective. The truth is unchanging. The truth is unmoved by the opinions
of men. It's unmoved by the thoughts
of men. It's unmoved by experiences. It's unmoved by our doings. It's
unmoved by our superstitions and suppositions, doesn't it?
The truth is the truth. I am the way. The truth, of course,
is the Scriptures. I love how the Lord Jesus Christ
described them. It's written in the prophets.
They shall all be taught of God, every man therefore that hath
heard and learned of the Father." It's coming to the light. Every
man that has heard and learned of the Father, if God the Father
teaches you, you'll come to Him. You'll come to Him. It is a spiritual
activity. It is an activity of God the
Father. The truth is the Scriptures.
Turn with me in John chapter 18, let's see why the truth came. Doing the truth is so significant
isn't it? Doing the truth is coming to
the light in John chapter 18. In verse 37 we have this famous
conversation between the Lord Jesus Christ and Pilate. Verse 37, Pilate therefore said
unto him, Art thou a king? It's interesting, I think as
a result of this conversation Pilate had that notice written
above. This is the king of the Jews
and he wrote it in the language of the Romans, he wrote it in
the language of the Greeks, the common language, and he wrote
it in the language of the Jews so that no one passing by would
ever get to misunderstand what was written. This is the king
of the Jews. He says, Art thou a king then? And Jesus answered,
Thou sayest, I am a king, to this end was I born, that I should
bear witness unto the truth, the truth of who God is, the
truth of who man is, the truth of how God saves sinners. should
bear witness to truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. Now that word of is the word
that denotes origin in the scripture. So often it denotes origin. Everyone
who's born above, born from above, everyone who's born of God, hears
my voice. Not just the words on a page,
you actually hear the shepherd's voice. That's what John 10 says,
isn't it? They hear the shepherd speaking to them. That's what
church is about, isn't it? Not that you'll hear my voice.
Who wants to listen to a farmer from Tererah? But if you hear
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, a different thing will happen
altogether, brothers and sisters. That's why he came. He came to
do his Father's will. He came to bear witness to the
truth. He says, the will of the Father. What's the Father's will? What's
God's will? We don't have to guess about
God's will. John 6.39 says, And this is the Father's will which
has sent me, that all of which he hath given me... When did
he give them to the Son? He gave them into the Son's hand
before the foundation of the world. You read it all through
the Scriptures. He gave them into the Son's hand, the Son,
the Great and Good Shepherd. should lose nothing I should
lose nothing they should not perish he should not lose I should
lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day he
raises all of them up at that last day all of them must enter
heaven all of them must be raised up so the truth The truth is
a person. The truth is a person on a mission
from God, isn't it? The truth is a person come to
do the Father's will. The truth is a revelation. The truth is only known by revelation. You have to be taught of God.
It's coming to the light. It's coming to the light. The
Lord Jesus Christ rejoiced in the fact that God is discriminating
in who He gives the light to. Do you rejoice where the Lord
Jesus Christ rejoices? He says, I thank you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Nicodemus,
you need to be a babe. You need to be born again to
see the kingdom of God. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Doing the truth is coming to
the light. Doing the truth is coming to
a person. Doing the truth is being drawn
into the very presence of a person. Doing the truth comes by revelation. The truth is always simple. The truth is never convoluted. The truth is never complex. Paul's great concern for the
Corinthians, wasn't it? 1st Corinthians 13, 2nd Corinthians, I'm sorry, isn't
it? He was concerned that you would be... 1st Corinthians 13,
my Bible's being naughty, I'm training a new Bible. I'm sorry,
Ben and Daisy gave me a new Bible and I have to train it. He was concerned, wasn't he,
that people would be corrupted as Eve was led astray by the
subtlety of certain, that the people would be corrupted from
the simplicity that's in Christ. The Gospel is simple, it is not
complex. The Gospel is so simple that
a child can understand the Gospel. The Gospel is so simple that
it doesn't need It doesn't need the theologians and the Bible
colleges of this world to have its power and impact. It comes
from God. It's a revelation of God. We've
just read about that. It's always simple. It's a simple,
simple story, isn't it? God the Father created this universe,
but before he created this universe he gave a people into the hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that happens in this
universe revolves around the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The reason this universe exists is because of the Lord Jesus
Christ and him crucified. The reason things are happening
in this world in this way that causes so much consternation
and we wonder what's going on, the answer is God did it. God's
doing it. As he thought, says God, so it
comes to pass. Everything is happening according
to his will and his purpose. Man complicates things and makes
religion complex and we want to make the gospel simple. We
want to put nothing between a sinner and go back to that picture in
Numbers 21. There you are bitten by that
serpent and you have that poison coursing through your body. gripping
your chest and your heart and your limbs and there you are,
breathing in agony. You don't need to be told theological
niceties about superlapsarianism and all sorts of other stuff.
You need a simple thing, don't you? And that's the state of
Nicodemus and it's the state of everyone that we preach the
Gospel to. You are dying, you're already condemned. It doesn't
matter about theological niceties. Can you see the Saviour? Can
you see the Saviour? Religion puts so much junk between
a sinner and the Saviour. Always it's putting so much junk
between the sinner and the Saviour. And the worst of the junk is
it's putting their activities and their works between the sinner
and the Saviour. It's putting their knowledge
and their wisdom and their righteousness between the sinner and the Saviour.
You've just got to look. If you're dying in the desert,
brothers and sisters, you've just got to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you don't look anywhere else. That's what doing
the truth is, isn't it? In the picture, there's a story.
The ones that went into the promised land were the ones that looked.
And the only ones that looked were the ones that were bitten.
And there was a particular group that was bitten and looked. They
looked at what God had provided. They had nothing else to look
to, did they? They couldn't look at their works
and their activities. They couldn't look around at
anyone else and all their good advice and all the nice things
they were doing to them. They looked one place. If God
makes you a sinner, if you come to the light and you are doing
the truth, you will be caused to look there and look nowhere
else whatsoever. God alone makes sinners. A sinner is a precious thing.
The Holy Ghost has made him so. The truth is simple. The truth
is always comprehensive. The truth that was spoken in
the councils of God before the foundation of the world are the
truths that are spoken throughout this world in the salvation of
sinners and those same truths are the truths that will be there
in heaven. We'll be saying the same things. We'll be singing
the same songs in heaven. Thou art worthy. Thou hast redeemed
us. Thou hast saved us by thy blood.
Thou hast made us priests and kings unto God. It's all of God's
doing. The truth is always comprehensive. The truth is its own witness. The truth commends itself. The
truth resonates with God's people. They'll hear the shepherd's voice.
They'll hear the truth speaking. The truth about Him and about
who they are and about God's salvation. The truth As I said
earlier, it's objective, it's a reality, isn't it? God changes
not. The truth changes not. It never
changes. Adam's gospel is the gospel that
the last saved sinner in this world will hear. Noah's gospel
is fine by me. Abraham's gospel is fine. The
gospel doesn't change. The gospel's a person. The gospel's
a declaration of a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth
is objective, it's unchanging, it never changes, but the truth
changes everything. The truth changes everything.
So how does that which is unchanging become a reality to me. How do
I do the truth? This is what the Lord says, isn't
it? He that doeth truth, doeth truth. Well, they come to the
light and they find the light revealing in the most glorious
way. They hear the truth. They come
to He who is the truth. They hear the truth. As Ephesians
1.13 says, It's hearing the truth. It's hearing the Word of God
as it really is, the Word of God. I love what Paul says to
the Thessalonians when he came to them. He knew their election of God
because of their reception of him and reception of the word,
isn't it? He says, for this cause also
thank we God without ceasing because when you received the
word of God which you heard of us you received it, not as the
word of men but as it is in truth, the word of God. And listen to
what the next phrase says, it's remarkable, isn't it? No wonder
all of God's servants always just want to say, this is what
God says. They want people to read and listen and hear what
God says. Not as the word of man, but as
it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh. It begins a work and it continues
on that work. That's what that ETH ending means.
It worketh in you also that believe. Doing the truth is coming to
the light. It's hearing the truth. It's
believing. To be a doer of the truth is
to believe. No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ
speaks that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Whosoever
believeth in him should have everlasting life. He who believeth
in him is not condemned. It's believing in the name of
the only begotten Son of God. So you doer of the truth hears
the word of God and believes, and believes. We just hear the word of God.
I love John the Baptist's declaration further on in this chapter, isn't
it? He that has the bride is the bridegroom. The bridegroom
has a bride. But the friend of the bridegroom,
John the Baptist, which standeth and heareth him, rejoices greatly
because of the bridegroom's voice. He rejoiced. John the Baptist
rejoiced to hear the Lord Jesus' voice. This, my joy, is therefore
fulfilled. Doing the truth is coming to
the light. It's being drawn by that light
that shines in the darkness. It's coming away from the darkness
into the light. It's hearing the truth. It's
believing the truth. what God says in this word about
himself, about how he saves sinners. That's the rejoicing of all of
God's servants. It's the rejoicing of God himself. He says in 2 Thessalonians, speaking
of these same people, he says, But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Through what? through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. If you are sanctified by the
Spirit of God, you believe the truth. If you believe the truth,
you are sanctified by the Spirit of God. It's as simple as that,
isn't it? Belief of the truth. And so believing the truth is
a spiritual work. Doing the truth is a spiritual
work, isn't it? You must be born again to do
the truth. I love reading 1 John, and maybe
one day the Lord will allow us time to go and study it. But
he says in verse 27 of chapter 2 of 1 John, But the anointing
which you have received of him, that anointing oil, It's an effectual
work. this preaching of the gospel.
There's never been the preaching of the gospel without there being
some impact on people. There always must be an impact
when the gospel is preached. So it's coming to the light,
it's hearing the truth, it's believing the truth, it's a spiritual
work. And if you turn over a page in
your Bibles to John chapter 4 you'll see that it involves worship. These pictures of women coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ are pictures of the church being
brought out of darkness into light, isn't it? In verse 21,
the Lord said to her, That's exactly what most people
in this world are worshipping in all sorts of religious activities.
You don't know what you're worshipping. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews, but the hour cometh and now is when
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. And I love the reason they do
so, because, or for, the Father seeketh such to worship Him. If God seeks them, they'll worship. For doing the truth involves
worshipping God, worshipping God as He really is. And worshipping
God and loving the truth go hand in hand, don't they? Doing the
truth is coming to a knowledge of the truth. Doing the truth
is coming to repentance and faith. And we'll talk more about that
later on, Lord willing. Doing the truth involves liberty. There is a glorious liberty for
the children of God. The Lord said in John 8.31, He
said, Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If
you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free. The truth shall make you free. And he says in verse 36, If therefore
the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. to freedom. Those that do not
the truth bring people into bondage. Do you worship? Do you delight
in the glorious liberty? There is a glorious liberty for
the children of God. God looks at his son for everything
that he requires of me and he says I'm well pleased and I'm
satisfied. I'm satisfied, we're God satisfied. It's a glorious liberty. Doing
the truth. Doing the truth is not walking
in darkness. Doing the truth is coming to
the light. Doing the truth is hearing, believing. being born again, doing the truth
is worshipping, doing the truth is loving the truth, doing the
truth is delighting in the very freedom, the glorious liberty
of the children of God. I have no righteousness of my
own. To proclaim or to defend Christ
Jesus is all the righteousness I have before God. God accepts
him and I'm accepted in the Beloved. That's liberty and freedom. Okay, may the Lord bless his
words to our hearts. Thank you. Let's have a break.