Alright, good morning brethren. Let's begin with reading the
scriptures and then we'll open in prayer and then we'll begin
the message. So I'm going to be in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. OK, I'm going to begin in verse
7. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with
the Lord. Wherefore we labor that, whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men, we preach the gospel of
Jesus Christ to them. we persuade men, but we are made
manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your
consciences. For we commend not ourselves
unto you, again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on
our behalf, that we may have somewhat to answer them, which
glory in appearance and not in heart. For whether we be beside
ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause,
For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that
if one died for all, then we're all dead. And that he died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them and rose again. Let's open in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your great mercy, your love and
kindness, which you reveal to us in the person of your Son,
Jesus Christ. And Lord, we thank you for your
constraining power, your love, your glory, which has called
us out of darkness into the glorious light of your Son, Jesus Christ. reveals this gospel to us, who
reveals light and life to us, that we may know our God, that
we may have fellowship with you, being reconciled to you by the
death of your Son Jesus Christ, to put away the sins of all your
people, that we might have a sure foundation and a good hope in
Christ, that we shall be received of you in that day, that we shall
stand faultless before your throne, accepted of God, having no fault,
no mark, no blemish, for we are made perfect by the blood of
Christ. We thank you, Lord, for this,
and we pray, Lord, that you would bless your people. Lord, help
us to hear. can be so many distractions at
home, and it can be difficult, and even a trial of our own flesh
to sit and listen, and to pay attention, and to hear your gospel. But Lord, help us to hear. We
know that it's not the flesh, but it's the Spirit which enables
us to hear your word, and we pray that you would indeed help
us to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. that we would
hear the voice of Christ, Lord, and that we would follow him,
for he is your salvation. He is the very revelation of
your love for your people. And we thank you for this. Lord,
we ask that you bless this message. We pray that you bless your people.
We ask that you help those that are sick, those that are weary,
those that are struggling, and those that are in sin and troubled
about many things. Lord, there's so many things
which ail this flesh and reveal just how weak we are in ourselves. But we ask, Lord, that you would
overcome our flesh, and that you would indeed bless your people
this morning, that we would hear Christ and be blessed and comforted
and fed of him. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray these things. Amen. All right, brethren, let's go
to John chapter three. John three, and we're gonna look
at verses 14 through 21. John three, 14 through 21. Now
this is, one of the greatest chapters
in the scriptures and it declares to us our great need of salvation. It declares to us our great need
of salvation and we see revealed to us in the scripture the one
salvation that God has provided, that he's freely given in His
Son, Jesus Christ. He's provided everything necessary
for us to save us and deliver us from the punishment of our
sins. And it's only one salvation. The Lord consistently declares
in the scriptures there is one salvation, because that's all
that God requires. That's all that he needs is one
salvation for his people because he's able to bring it to pass.
He doesn't need a plan B or C or D or anything else. He has one
solution, one salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's able
to bring it to pass. Now, what we'll see here in the
scripture is that God sent his son, his only begotten son, to
save his people from the judgment of God which is coming to punish
men for their sins, for their rebellion against God, their
Creator, their Judge, the One who made them. We've rebelled
against Him in Adam and with our own sins. And what we see
in this passage that we're looking at is the reason why God does
this is because of his great love for his people. He greatly loves his people. And what the Lord does, the very
revelation of Jesus Christ, is before us, we that are here in
the church gathered together to hear his word, he's set a
great door of salvation and that salvation is revealed in the
face of Jesus Christ. And what we find as revealed
here in this passage is that the great obstacle to salvation,
the reason why men won't hear is because of their own wicked,
corrupt heart. We are fallen in Adam and our
flesh is corrupt, our heart is corrupt. The Word of God describes
us as being spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, so that
when we hear the Gospel of God, and we hear it in the flesh,
naturally speaking, it is confusing to us, we hate it, we don't want
to hear it, we don't believe it, we refuse what God is saying,
we reject his salvation. That's what all men do. And so
the great obstacle to this salvation is man's own heart. And the reason why I bring that
out is because then it reveals more gloriously the grace of
God who saves his people, who sovereignly provides for his
people and does everything necessary to bring them out of the darkness
that man is in. So on that backdrop of seeing
just how corrupt and evil man is left to himself, we then more
gloriously, more radiantly, more beautifully see exactly what
Christ has accomplished for us in grace. It's like taking a
beautiful diamond. They don't just show you a diamond
when you go in to buy an engagement ring for your bride. They don't
just hold it up in the air like this, they put it behind a black
backdrop and so that it shines more radiantly, more gloriously
to your eye. Now, I've titled this message,
The Reason is Love. The Reason is Love. And we're
gonna begin looking at verses 14 and 15, which describe the
remedy and the result of God's remedy. 14 is the remedy, 15
is the result. That's where we're gonna begin
now. So our Lord is still speaking to Nicodemus and Nicodemus is
a great example of us. Like every one of us, man and
woman, young and old, we must be born again. Christ's word
to Nicodemus, as studied and religious and as moral of a man
as he was, Christ said to him, and it's the same for us, ye
must be born again. It's an imperative. We can't
see the kingdom of God, we cannot enter the kingdom of God, except
we are spiritually born again. All right? This being born again
is not a work of man, as most of religion teaches. Our being
born again is a work of the Spirit of God, done graciously for the
sinner, and it comes upon all whom God will have to be born
spiritually, that we might know him and his salvation, that we
might be reconciled to God. And so, this salvation, this
gracious work is done entirely for the sinner in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, because it's a work of God,
and because it's done in Christ, it's therefore imperative, it
must be that Christ comes and dies, that he lays down his life
for his people, all right? If God's going to be gracious
to sinful man, to us rebels, he must sacrifice his son in
the place of his people, because there's no other way for us to
save ourselves. We can't make ourselves righteous
and do this work. We don't get ourselves born again,
all right? It's a work of God who gives
birth, who gives life to his people. And it says there in
verse 14, John 3.14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must, right, there's the imperative, must
the Son of Man be lifted up, because this is God's remedy
for the sin of His people. This is how God is determined
to put away the sin of His people. And the example that Christ gave
us here in the scriptures is it harkens back to Numbers 21,
where Moses was instructed by God to make an image of that
fiery serpent that was coming and biting the people, right,
and afflicting them with poison so that they were dying when
they were bitten. What the Lord is saying, what
he's revealing to us is that we have been bit with the venom
of the snake. We have that poison in us so
that we now are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And because we're spiritually
dead, we don't have fellowship with God. We don't have an understanding
of God and the things of God. We don't hear what he's saying
in his word. All it does is come to us in
a natural sense. We hear teachings of morality,
we hear about the law, we hear, do this, don't do that. But do
this over here and make sure you do this regularly and stop
doing that. And that's all that we hear in
the flesh. It's just a bunch of rules and regulations whereby
if we do those things, then God will forgive us of our sins and
we'll live eternally with him. That's what religion largely
teaches. It's all upon man. Salvation is a work of man. And even those who speak of their
faith, what they're saying is, well, if I don't believe, if
I don't have faith, if I don't work up faith, then I can't be
born again. No, you're not hearing what the
Lord is saying. The Lord is saying, except you
be born again, you cannot even believe. You can't see the kingdom
of God and you can't enter the kingdom of God. So first you
must be born again. Again, and so by nature, we have
the sting of death in us, which is sin, right? We have that sting
of death coursing through our veins and we're spiritually dead
and unable to do anything about it. We can't reconcile ourselves
to God. And there's no desire to reconcile
ourselves to the true and living God as he's revealed in his word,
right? We may worship a God of our imagination,
We may have an idol that we call Jesus, by which we think that
we are pleasing God by our faith and our works. But by nature,
what the Lord tells us and shows us is that in Adam, we are nothing
but children of wrath and children of disobedience. And therefore,
we cannot save ourselves, we can't reconcile ourselves to
God. Therefore, then, must the Son of Man be crucified. He must be lifted up on that
cursed tree and die the death of his people to put away their
sins that they might go free, that they should go free because
of what he's accomplished for them. And so for this cause,
that's why God sent him into the world to put away, to make
propitiation for the sins of his people and be raised up to
do that, be raised up upon that cross to put away their sin. And that's what's pictured for
us there in the fiery serpent being lifted up on a pole. And
we were told in Numbers 21, that everyone that is bitten, when
he looketh, shall live. All right? Our Lord words it
there in that beautiful type back in Numbers of the remedy
for our sin in Jesus Christ. That when we are bitten, when
the spear comes upon us, and we now see and know I've been
bitten with that poison, I'm dead, I have no hope of salvation. He says, when you look to Christ,
you shall be saved, all right? You shall be delivered of him
so that we see that Christ is the provision of God. And we'll
talk a little bit more about that coming up, all right? He
sent his son, and then we see in verse 15, that whosoever believeth
in him, right, whosoever looketh upon Christ should not perish,
but have eternal life. And that's the result of Christ's
death. The remedy is Christ himself,
and the result of what Christ has done is that when we look
to him, right, all who believe him shall be saved. And that's
what our Lord tells us. And so, The experience of believers,
our experience in these truths, is that the Spirit of God blows
upon the children of promise. We're all there lumped in with
that children of wrath and disobedience. But because God loved his people
from the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the
world, He's determined to save us, and so we all fell in at
Him. We're all children of wrath and disobedience, but because
we are children of promise, whom He foreknew and loved in Christ
before the foundation of the world, He's determined to come
upon a people. The Spirit blows upon us in the
preaching of the gospel. As He's pleased, He comes upon
whom He will. and He reveals to them their
great need, that they are sinners, and He blesses them by applying
the blood of Christ to them, and making them to know what
they are in Adam, and that Christ alone is their salvation, and
He gives them life. and light to behold Christ, to
look to Him, to believe Him whereby they believe and live. And so it's all a gracious work
of our God's salvation for us. And what we see in this is that
God is justified therefore. He's just to forgive His people
who believe Christ. He's just to forgive them because
this is the remedy and the result of the remedy that he's provided
for his people, that he may be gracious to them. He's gracious
to them in Christ. Because Christ, he died as our
propitiation. And what that means is that he
was punished for his people that they might go free from the punishment
that they deserved as a result of their sins. He's the propitiation. And so he makes us righteous
in himself. And therefore the Lord, he's been saying this throughout
the scriptures. He says in Isaiah 45, 22, look
unto me and be saved all ye ends of the earth for I am God and
there is none else. All right, so Christ is the one
remedy that God has provided. And the result of that is they
shall be saved because Christ cannot fail. He does not fail. All for whom he died, they shall
believe. They shall come out of that darkness. All right, let's move on to our
second point, which is the reason. That brings us to John 3, 16,
the reason. All right, the reason why God
provided this remedy and the result of that remedy is because
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. that
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." Alright, and what that word really says there in the
original is not that whosoever believeth, but that those believing
should not perish, but have everlasting life. And that just helps us
understand that a little better. What the Lord is declaring is
his love. He's declaring to us that he
foreknew his people. He has a chosen elect people
whom he foreknew, whom he loves, and and has provided salvation
for them. Now, on the death, when we look
at the cross, when we look at Christ's death and what he accomplished,
we see the holiness of God. We see his wholeness, his completeness,
and his perfection. We see that God is righteous,
that God is a just God, that God is true, and we see no evil
in God. We see no unjust thing in God
there on the cross. But what I don't want us to miss
is we also see in the cross the great love of God. We see the
love that God has for those whom he foreknew. And so this love
is the foundation of our of our hope, of our believing. It's
the foundation of our assurance that God has done everything
necessary. He's provided all things for
us that we might know Him. Now, this atonement, the atonement
of Christ, it's not the cause of why God loves us, but the
atonement is actually the result of God's love for us. Isn't that
beautiful? That God should love a sinner
like me, right? That he should love, we know
what we are, we have some understanding of what we are in the flesh,
in our hardness of heart, our coldness, our indifference, our
rebellion and sin, and yet God knowing what I am in this flesh,
yet loved me before the foundation of the world and provided for
my salvation in his son Jesus Christ." In 1st John 4 verses
9 through 10, the Apostle John there in that epistle said, in
this was manifested the love of God toward us. In this atonement,
God is manifesting his love toward us because that God sent his
only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. And when the scriptures, or I
use the word might or should, it's not that there's any possibility
that it won't come to pass. It's revealing, it's just how
we phrase it to speak of God's will coming to pass for his people,
all right? That we might live through him.
Here in his love, he says, verse 10, not that we loved God, but
that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for
our sins." Alright, the deliverance from the punishment of God for
our sins, because he himself bore it. He died our death and
we died in him that when he rose again, we rose in him and are
accepted and received of God. Alright, and so our Lord when
he laid down his life, it's how we know, it's how we understand
that God is love, that he is love, 1 John 4.8. All right,
now, our third and final point here. Let's look at the rest
of these verses, 17 through 21. All right, so, verse 17, for
God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved." Now, this scripture
here actually confirms what we opened with, showing that man
is dead in trespasses and sins, right? Ephesians 2, 1-3 shows
that we are spiritually dead, walking about in this corrupt
flesh, having no fellowship or knowledge of God or how to save
ourselves under the power and influence of the evil one, being
children of wrath and disobedience and displaying that very well
in ourselves. But what the scripture is saying
to us is that Christ's coming, that isn't why we're condemned. We're already condemned. We're
born sinners. We're born of that corrupt seed
of Adam. When Adam rebelled and sinned
in the garden, we were yet an Adam, we rebelled and sinned
in the garden. And every one of us born are
born of Adam's corrupt seed. That's why there's no spiritual
fellowship and no spiritual understanding of God. You may be spiritual,
you may consider yourself spiritual, but you don't know the true and
living God. you're dead to the things of
the true and living God who reveals himself in the person, in the
face of Jesus Christ alone, all right? And so, Christ coming,
that's not why this world is condemned. This world is already
condemned because of our sin and rebellion against our God,
all right? Romans 5, verse 18 says, therefore,
as by the offense of one, our father Adam, right, our federal
head, our, our, our first seed, the seed from which we come in
Adam. Therefore, as the offense of
one or by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation. We already come forth condemned
and separated from God. So we didn't need Christ to come
to be justly condemned. We're already justly condemned
for our own sin and rebellion. But what we needed Christ to
come and do is save his people. We need his salvation. We cannot
save ourselves, and this is what the Lord is consistently repeating
throughout the scriptures. He's consistently revealing to
us that for us to be justly delivered from our condemnation, Christ
must come. It's imperative that he come
and lay down his life on the cross for the sins of his people,
to put them away forever. And that's what the second part
of Romans 5.18 says is, even so, by the righteousness of one,
Jesus Christ, of whom now his children are born of his spiritual
seed. This is why we bear fruits of
righteousness, including faith, being born of his spiritual seed. By his righteousness, the free
gift came upon all men, all his men, all those whom God foreknew,
all men unto justification of life." And it's revealed to all
in the gospel. It's revealed to all. So, our
Lord has come in grace, and he's revealed to us in Christ his
tremendous love toward his people who don't deserve it. And Christ
by himself, apart from any help from us, apart from any works
from us, obtained eternal life. redemption for us. That's Hebrews
9, 12. All right, now, John 3, 18. Back in our text, 3, 18. Therefore,
he that believeth on Christ is not condemned. Because of what
Christ has done, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but
he that believeth not is condemned already. He's already condemned,
he that believeth not. Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son, of God, all right? So the one who's not condemned,
all right, he's not condemned, it's because Christ has died
on the cross and is his propitiation, his deliverance from the punishment
of sin, all right? Now, what the Lord's telling
us here in this passage and throughout these first 21 verses of John
chapter three, he's telling us that this faith This looking
to Christ, this faith and belief in Him, it's a gift of God. It's the gift of God, right?
Ephesians 2.8 says, by grace are you saved, through faith,
and that, that faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, right? Faith is a gift of God, and so
this gift that God gives, His Spirit, which gives spiritual
birth to the children, the promised children of God, back before
the foundation of the world, this gift reveals those for whom
Christ died. The fact that believers believe,
it's making known, it's manifesting the love of God in them, and
they're bearing those fruits of righteousness of their husband,
Christ. They're bringing forth that fruit,
which is revealed in faith, the faith that God reveals in them,
whereby they look to Christ and believe him. They believe, they
hear his voice, and they follow him. They believe God's remedy
for salvation. They say, God, you're just. I'm
a sinner. You're right, I can't save myself.
And you've provided that salvation. Thank you, Lord. So we're manifesting
the gifts of God by His power and His glory and His salvation
of what Christ has accomplished. He cannot fail. He's the successful
Savior. And so it's showing to us, it's
manifesting that that sinner who believes is born again. We
don't get ourselves born again by believing. That's a complete
contradiction of everything Christ said in this chapter when he
said, you cannot see the kingdom of God except you be born again,
right? Verse three, you cannot enter
the kingdom of God, verse five, right? You can't even enter the
kingdom of God except you be born again, all right? And so the believer who believes
Christ, it's an evidence of things not seen. It's an evidence of
what God has accomplished in that sinner by the Holy Ghost. All right, now, all this is the
result of, this is the result of the remedy, right? This is
the result of what Christ accomplished. And therefore it says, he that
believeth on him is not condemned. They're delivered from that condemnation
which the whole world lieth under, right? That judgment of God that
they're sitting under awaiting the judgment of God. And what
he's saying is they're already delivered. They believe and therefore
they're delivered from that condemnation. Now, the next declaration that
we're given in this verse is, but he that believeth not is
condemned already. As we saw earlier, it's already
on display that man in Adam is condemned already for his sin
and rebellion against God. And so it's being revealed to
us, you could say it this way, it's revealed to us that that
one who does not believe, it's clear that Christ has not laid
down his life for them. At least we have no grounds,
no means of giving them confidence and assurance in their hatred
of God, We can't say, we can't give them any confidence that
God loves them because we don't know. Faith hasn't been revealed
in them. They're continuing in their condemnation,
in their unbelief. And it says there, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Well, how do you know? Well, he's not exhibiting the
effects of the Holy Spirit who reveals faith in his children.
They're not revealing, they're not bearing the fruits of the
Spirit of God in them. There's no faith, there's no
hope in Christ, there's no looking to him. They're trusting in their
works. They're trusting that either
God doesn't exist or that God doesn't mean what he says, that
surely there's some kind of mistake, I'm not as bad as my neighbor,
God'll negotiate with me and maybe I'll slip by. Man just
relies on any false vain hope, but it's not the fruits of the
Spirit of God. And so, it's because he hath
not believed in Christ, it's the evidence that they have not
the love of God in them. They don't have the Spirit of
God evidenced in them, all right? And that's because faith reveals
to us the one whom Christ has laid down his life for. They're
bearing those fruits of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right? And
then the absence of faith is, well, I don't, I don't know that
Christ often. I don't see any evidence or proof
in it. Right? Man teaches about what religion
today teaches about being born again is that it's a work, it's
the product of man believing on Christ. That we're born again
by something we've done in the flesh. We have faith. We've done
something that gets God to say, oh, they've done what they needed
to do, and now I have to save them. And that's like saying,
that the trees outside, right, Christ said, he says there in
verse eight, Romans 3.8, he says, the wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is everyone
that's born of the Spirit. A man says, well, the way it
works is that the trees move their branches, and the leaves
make a noise, and then the wind comes up. There it is. I better
get over there to the tree. And then it begins to blow upon
the tree. That's not how it works. It's
the wind comes, and the wind blows the tree. And the wind
makes the leaves move and flutter and do what they do under the
power of the wind. And so that's what the Lord is
saying is we see the revelation of whom Christ died as the Spirit
is applying the blood of Christ and revealing faith in them whereby
they believe, whereby they look to Christ and live. So another
thing that we see here is that God's not unjust to do this.
Normally men without the Spirit of God, they hear this and they
say, well, that's not fair. God should give everyone a chance
to be saved. The reality is that if God gave
us a chance, if we had a chance to be saved, the truth is none
of us would be saved. None of us would ever believe
because we're dead in trespasses and sins. If it comes down to
us doing something first, then we're never going to be saved. What the Lord's telling us is
that everyone in Adam, everyone who's born of Adam's corrupt
seed is condemned already. They're born of a corrupt, defiled,
wicked seed that cannot believe God, that is enmity against God,
that's deep-rooted hatred against the true and living God. You're
fine with your idol God, but you don't love the true and living
God. your enmity against him. A sovereign
God who does as he pleases angers the heart of the natural man.
He rebels against him just as Adam rebelled against God. And
so, God doesn't owe man anything. Man is the one who has earned
his punishment. He's earned the wrath of God.
And verse 19 says, and this is the condemnation, that light
is coming to the world And men loved darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil. That's true of every one of us.
Even Paul said in Romans 7 verse 18, he said, for I know that
in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. There's nothing
good about me. Even before Christ brought reconciliation
to Paul, and he was Saul of Tarsus, and he was out there persecuting
the church, before the Lord reconciled him to God and delivered him
from his spiritual darkness and rebellion, we see that Paul loved
darkness. Just like it says here in verse
19, he loved darkness rather than light. because his deeds
were evil. He was a religious, moral rebel
against God. He was a sinner against God and
hated his salvation. And that's true of you and me. That's true of every one of us
until the Lord comes and gives us a new spiritual birth, until
he gives us life in him. And so, Everyone who's not Christ's
child, they're condemned because light, the Lord, he's come into
the world and it shows us their condemnation. It reveals that
they are condemned because it says they love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. We see their condemnation
revealed in Christ, in his coming, because they don't believe. They
have not the love of God in them. Men testify by their unbelief
that they hate the true and living God, all right? And so we see
in verse 20 now, John 3, 20. For everyone that doeth evil,
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should
be reproved." All right? And so, our God, He's just to
punish sin. He's just. He's just to pour
out His wrath upon the rebellion of man, because that's where
man continues in that rebellion. And, you know, men love to boast
about their free will. Well, no, it's my free will. Don't I have a free will? I've
got to believe. God can't do anything. He's a
gentleman, and he won't do anything unless I allow him. And so what
he's doing there is calling God a liar, and he's justifying himself. And he's continuing in his rebellion
against God, saying, no, God, I don't need you to save me. I don't need your spirit to give
me spiritual life. I don't need you to do it. I'll
do it for myself. I'll take the blood of Christ,
and I'll decide whether or not it's good for me, and I'll choose
to be saved or not saved. And so he's justifying himself.
He's calling God a liar, and he's declaring his own righteousness,
that he's not really dead in trespasses and sins, but that
he has the power and the ability to apply the blood of Christ
to himself so he can get himself saved. But in reality, he's simply
rejecting the salvation that God has provided in his son,
which also necessitates the result by God as well, right? Christ
provided the remedy, but it also requires the result of God to
apply that blood by the Spirit to give his people life in the
Lord Jesus Christ, to bring forth that fruit of faith in them,
which looks to Christ, and they live. And it's all part of his
salvation. It's all his work. Salvation
is of the Lord, as it says there in Jonah 2, 2-9. All right, so
it's a work of God. Or Psalm 3-8, it says the same
thing. All right, now, we need a Savior. whose salvation is a complete
salvation. If you look over, since you're
in John, look over at John 5 verse 40. John 5 verse 40. Our Lord speaks of man's so-called
free will. Man, his will is bound. He doesn't see that he's bound
in darkness, that he's bound under the dominion and the reign
of sin. He's born of corrupt seed. He
cannot believe. He has not the faith of God.
It's not manifest in him. And Christ said to the Pharisees,
these religious Pharisees who should have heard, He said in
John 540, and ye will. Your free will, which is not
free, but bound in sin, your will will not come to me. You will not come to me. You
will to not come to me that you might have life. That's man's
will. And he goes on and he's saying
in the next verse, verse 41, that I'm not bound by your will.
You don't control me. You're not sovereign God. I'm
sovereign God, he says. He says, look, I receive not
honor from men. I'm not waiting on you to decide
whether or not you want my salvation or not. I don't receive honor
from you. I don't need you to decide whether
or not you're going to be saved or make a decision for Jesus.
God's not bound by our puny will. And that's what he's saying.
I receive not in the honor of men. I'm not waiting for you
to do something because if that were the case, then no one would
be saved. We'd never believe on him. And
then he says, verse 42, but I know you, You don't know me, but I
know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. In other words, the work of the
Spirit is not manifested in you. God's love isn't manifest in
you because if God's love was revealed in you, you would love
me whom he has sent. You would believe me. The fruits
of the Spirit would be made evident in you because you'd know it. We'd see the gift of the Spirit,
which gives life to his people, believing on Christ. You'd look
to him and live, all right? And so, as Christ would say later
in John 10, 26, ye believe not, because ye are not my sheep,
as I said unto you, all right? John 10, 26. That's why they
don't believe. All right, now, what the Lord
is showing us is that there is a people A people from the Jews,
a people from every nation of the Gentiles, every tongue and
tribe and people whom God loves and whom he sent his son to save
to the glory and praise of his name. And they're described here
in verse 21. John 3, 21, but he that doeth
truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest
that they are wrought in God. Now the one who's hoping in their
free will, who trusts in their free will, they think, oh, see,
he's saying you've got to do truth. But what the Lord's saying
here is that he that manifests the work of God in them, that
doing truth is that one who looks to Christ. That's the truth.
We can't save ourselves by our works, and these fruits of the
Spirit are not of us, they're of the Lord. So doing truth is
looking to the one whom God has sent. And so, in this, the love
that God has for us and our love to Him is manifested in us. It's that work of God, our Savior,
so that we confess, Lord, all my works, this faith which you've
given me, this spiritual birth whereby I hear your word and
follow you and believe you and have no confidence in my flesh,
Lord, This is your fruit in me. This is your work, the product
of my God, my Savior, my Husband, who loved me and laid down his
life for me. And that's what he's saying there.
We're saying that the deeds, those righteous deeds that are
manifest in me, that faith, whereby I believe, it's wrought in God. That's the confession of the
child of God. My faith is wrought in God. All
right, now, I'll just close. Well, since my voice is gone,
we'll close here. All right. All right, brethren, so let's
close in prayer and we'll be dismissed. Actually, I can't
even, hold on. All right, let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy and grace to us and your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, bless this word to the
heart of your people and that if there's any yet in darkness,
that you would manifest that one for whom you've died, that
you would manifest your love in them by revealing faith causing
them to look to Christ and to believe you and rest in your
salvation. Lord, thank you for your great
love manifested in the coming of your son, who laid down his
life for us and successfully delivered us out of darkness
and death and condemnation, that we might have fellowship and
be reconciled to our God. Thank you, Lord. In the name
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray these things,
amen. I can tell you what happened. You didn't go to the church page
to push live, so it was on my page. which I didn't notice because
when it first went live, the audio was on. I'm glad everything's
good. It wasn't until Barb texted me
and she goes, is Eric having problems? And I said, no. Are you able to see? She goes,
no. It's not up. So I came over here
and I looked and it was on my page. And when I looked over,
I noticed Lexi's former old friend Jamie Lambert was on and a co-worker
of mine was on but That just means yeah, I want somebody else
to hear that message. So Did you notify the others? Yes, I texted everyone and said
I don't know how that happened, but it was on my page It wasn't
on the church page. I was looking at that too because
I was gonna check to see if I saw live and I just hit live.
I just assumed that was it. Which is fine. I looked on the
origin of it and said I might have put up one of our friends
on Facebook because I have a fake account. So that might be why. It was such a good basic message
in the fact that... I had a lot of co-workers. One of her old good friends.
There were seven people on there at one point. Alright.