John 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. Now, last week we looked at the
difference between believing in him and believing on him.
There is a difference I'm going to illustrate in a moment. One
illustration will suffice. We must believe in Him. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, that He is God. Believe He is God. We believe
in His existence. We believe in His power. We believe
in His authority. We believe in His person. We believe in His Word, that
it is God's Word. We believe in His name. We do. We believe He's the Lord. We
believe He's Jesus, the Savior. He's the Christ. He's the Messiah.
But you don't really believe in Him until you believe on Him. Believing on Him proves you believe
in Him. As I said, one illustration will
suffice. That bench right there, I believe
That's a bench, don't you? The one you're sitting in. I believe that's a strong bench. I believe that bench will hold
me up. Oh, do I now? I can say that
all day, can't I? But until I sit on a bench, I don't really believe
it. Now I have believed on the bench. I have put my whole person on
the bench. I have acted out my faith, my
belief in the bench by placing all my trust on the bench. You see that? There's a difference.
There's a difference. Believing in Him is confession
with the mouth. Believing on Him, casting yourself,
committing yourself, trusting Him, relying on Him, and casting
all your care upon Him is a profession of faith. You have witnessed
your confession. You have witnessed a good profession
with your life. in Him by placing your faith
upon Him. Look at John chapter 6. I won't
label this too much longer, but there is a difference. Because
I ran into a woman one time, and you hear people all the time
say, oh, I believe in God. Most people say that they believe
in God. No. Believe in the existence
of God, believe whatever. But they really don't believe
God. And they don't believe His Word,
or else they would read it and feed upon it. If they believed
God, they'd come and worship Him. They'd trust Christ. They'd
truly cast themselves on His mercy. John 6, verse 29. Our Lord answered those that
asked Him, what shall we do that we might do The works of God,
our Lord said in verse 29, this is the work of God that you believe
on Him whom He hath sent. Verse 40, this is the will of
Him that sent me that everyone that would see of the Son and
believeth on Him may have an everlasting life. It does matter what the little
preposition I think that is, the word is. It does matter.
The Lord just didn't pull a word out, in or on. The English language
is imperfect. Yes, it is, but the Lord had
the translator put that word in there several times. Verse 47, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Our Lord said in John 3.16, He
that believeth in Him should not perish. He that believeth on me hath
life. He is not condemned. As soon
as you trust on Him, believe on Him, you've proved that you
believe in Him. Okay? So that's what that means.
Alright, now here's great mercy from our Lord. Verse 17. God
sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through Him might be saved. I think sometimes we spend
too much time arguing with pot sherds rather than just feeding the
sheep sometimes. The error needs to be pointed
out. And what all men are saying today
must be refuted. It must be. Talking about the
world, we looked at that Sunday, who is meant by the world. But
I'm not going to dwell on that anymore. Here's mercy that God
sent His Son into the world, period. Here's great mercy that
God so loves His creation, mankind, creating His image, and a people
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue in the world,
and a multitude which no man can number, like the sands of
the sea and the stars of the sky. God so loved the world that
He sent His Son to be a bloody sacrifice on a tree, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Christ was crucified
on Calvary's tree. This is how God loved, how He
showed His love. He sent His Son to be a propitiation
for our sin. the sins of the whole world.
Every believer, every one, whosoever believeth. He sent His Son not
to condemn. Verse 18 says, He that believeth
on Him is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already. See that? He that believeth not is condemned
already. So, you know, we come into this
world, humanly speaking, Fleshly speaking, not believing. Rejecting. Not knowing. Dead and trespassed
in sin. We're under condemnation. But
God sent His Son. So love. He sent His Son into
this world to save the world. What mercy. What grace. What love. My, my. Verse 19. This is condemnation. This is
the condemnation. See, we condemn ourselves, don't
we? This is the condemnation that light is coming to the world.
And men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. Light is coming. Now, there are
three ways, three things this light speaks of. Light is coming
to the world. You can turn with me to Psalm
19. Psalm 19. There's the light of creation.
When God created the heavens and the earth, when God created
this world in Genesis 1, it says in the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. What was the first thing God
created? Light, right? And see, the earth was without
form, and boy, that's a picture of us. It's a picture of man,
dead in trespass and sin, without point, void of understanding
of God, void of light. And darkness was upon the face
of the water. We're in darkness, even as others,
until the light shined. And God said, a word spoke. You have the Father, Son, and
the Holy Spirit in those first three verses of Genesis. God
said, let there be light. And there was light. and the
Spirit of God moves. This is a picture of regeneration.
Light, there's a light of creation. Psalm 19, the heavens declare
the glory of God, the firmament showeth His handiwork, day unto
day uttereth speech. What's that? That's day in the
sunlight. Night unto night showeth knowledge,
it's the moon that reflects the sun. Verse 4, they're lying,
of the day and night, the sun and the moon, goes out through
all the earth. They're words, but they don't
say anything. Oh, yes, they do. They say God
is. To the ends of the world, in
them, in the heavens, he set a tabernacle for the sun, who's
like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. Remember that. This is God's Word. So clear. This is God's Word. Everywhere
you look, you see Christ. John is going to say something
about the Bridegroom in this same chapter. Chapter 1, The
Light. The Light of Creation. I was
going to have you turn to Romans 1, but I won't for the sake of
time. Let me just read it to you a
little bit. The heavens declare His glory. The invisible things are clearly
seen, His eternal power and Godhead. They're without excuse. But when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination. Their
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. Change the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like man. God gave them up uncleanness.
Change the truth of God into a lie. Worship man rather than
the Creator who is blessed forever. For this cause, God gave them
over. There is the light of His Word. Look at Psalm 19. In the
same psalm, the light of His Word, verse 7. After creation,
there's the law of the Lord, the word of the Lord, converting
the soul. It's the voice of God. It's the
word of God, the incorruptible seed that gives life, the testimony
of the Lord. That's the gospel. It's sure. It makes wise the simple. The
statutes of the Lord are right. The commandment of the Lord,
pure. The fear of the Lord, clean. That's the word of God. The light
of His word. But here's condemnation in our
text. Light is coming to the world,
but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. Men love darkness because they
love sin, they love evil. And such were some of you. Such
were all of us, right? The light of His Word, I was
talking to someone recently about someone praying for their salvation. But, you know, and they won't
come. We can't get them to come, no
matter what. Can't get them to come. Talk to them, talk to them.
Why? Men hate the truth. They hate God. Now, that sounds
hard. That's what Romans 1 says, that's
what the Lord says. In Romans 1, He said, they didn't
like to retain God in their knowledge. They don't like to think about
God. Filled with all unrighteousness, and on and on it goes. And it
says they're haters of God. And in Romans 8, it says that
the carnal mind is enmity. against God. The natural man
doesn't want a God, doesn't believe God. The natural man loves sin,
loves darkness. He loves himself. He doesn't
love God, doesn't love God, doesn't love the Word, I was saying to
that person, the reason they don't want to come worship God
is because they hate God. They hate the truth. They love
themselves. And they don't want saved. Two things. People don't
come, number one, because they have a natural aversion to the
truth and to worshiping God. It's like it's worse than pulling
teeth to get people to come and just thank God. Just hear God's
Word. It's unreasonable service. Why
is it so distasteful and so hard? Our children, why is it so hard
to get them to come? Don't love God until God puts
that love in the heart and the soul and makes someone want to
come. That's the first sign that God's doing a work in someone.
They want to come hear about God. Start calling on Him. And people, number one, don't...
Believe God. Don't believe they need saving.
Saved from what, Preacher? I'm a pretty good fellow. And number two or three, which
is, I don't want saved. If they need saved, I don't want
saved. I'm fine the way I am. I like my life just fine. I like
this world just fine. I don't want to lose any of it.
I don't want to have to give up having fun. That's what they
think being saved is, you can't have fun anymore. Right? You know it's so. And such were
some of them. But God. Then you have the light,
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ through the life of the gospel. The God,
the Holy Spirit. This is the work of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The light of creation. God created
the heavens. The light, the Word, was made
flesh and dwelt among us. And the Holy Spirit takes the
gospel light, the light of Christ, and comes and shines in your
dark heart and creates light, creates love, creates desire,
creates affection, creates the life of God in a dead tone. Light. Men hate darkness. I mean, hate light, love darkness.
Men loved darkness rather than light. They hated Christ. How
could you hate Christ? How could anybody hate the Lord
Jesus Christ? Holy, harmless, merciful, loving, good, kind,
gracious, went about doing nothing but good. Why would people hate
Him? Why wouldn't people come worship
Him? Why don't people come here and listen to His Word? Why aren't
they interested in Jesus Christ's wisdom? They don't love Him. They don't love Him. They love
darkness. Who said that? Christ said that. That was Me. That was Me. Men love darkness. Why do they
hate the light? Look at John 15. Go over there.
Why do men hate the light? John 15. Our Lord tells us here. Why men hate Him, hate the truth,
hate the Word, the light. John 15, verse 22. Now, He said
in verse 18, if the world hate you, you know it hated Me before
it hated you. Remember, He said to His disciples,
you're the light of the world. Verse 19, if you were of the
world, the world would love His own, because you're not of the
world. Why not? I've chosen you out of the world.
Therefore the world hateth you. Verse 22, If I had not come and
spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no
cloak, no covering for their sin. Light, you see, even natural light exposes darkness,
doesn't it? Uncovers things that you think
are hidden in the darkness. The light, you turn on the light
in a dark room and you see things that were once hidden to the
naked eye, right? But our Lord came light. Light,
pure light. And exposed, and He looks on
the heart. He knew the thoughts and intents
of the heart. That's what the Word of God does,
doesn't it? The Word of God first comes to
us like light and exposes the darkness in our heart. To us. To us. And so he came and he
said, men love darkness rather than light. They love themselves
because their deeds are evil. But look at verse 20 in our text,
John 3. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should
be reproved. Everyone that loves sin won't
come to God. Everyone that loves this world
won't come to Christ. God is light, His Word is light,
Christ is a light, men are not interested. Those that do evil,
doers of evil, now that's both the openly profane, don't come
to worship God, don't read God's Word, aren't interested in Christ,
and that's also the religious, the proud self-righteous religionist
does not like, will not hear, will not come to the true Christ
of Scripture. lest his deeds, his evil religious
deeds be made manifest. And he did it, always, to the
Pharisees. This chapter started out by a
Pharisee named Nicodemus coming in the night. He was ashamed. He didn't want to be seen talking
to Christ. But God was doing something to
that old boy, thankfully. And after God did a work, our
Lord said, you must be born again. That's the first thing. That's
all He said to him. You must be born again. And when He was,
and I believe He was, He came in broad daylight to Pilate nonetheless
and begged the body of the Lord. He's now an open disciple of
the Lord. He was in darkness, He's now
in light. He was dead, He's now alive. And so, they that do evil,
hate the light, neither come to the light, lest their deeds
should be made manifest, lest their deeds should be discovered
or reproved. But now look at verse 21. He
that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may
be made benefit, that they are wrought in God. He that doeth
the truth. What's the truth? It's God's
Word. It's Christ. It's the Gospel. To do the truth,
number one, is to believe God. To do the truth is to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He said. We read
that. John 6. To do the truth is to keep His
commandments. Our Lord said, He that loveth
me keepeth my commandments. That's the one that loves me.
That does what I say. That acts on what I say. Say
you believe in me? Do it. That's what he said. Do what he says. Not to be saved. If you do it, you'll be saved.
No, no, no, no. You do it because you're saved. As a result of
salvation. Because you're saved. He that
doeth righteousness is righteous. That's what John wrote all in
1 John chapter 3, didn't it? Go over there real quickly. 1
John 3. Close with this. 1 John 3. Well, I want to read you a psalm
after that. 1 John 3. John deals with this
all the way through this chapter. And you need to read my pastor's
commentary on this chapter. You want a good, concise, clear
description or definition of what these words mean, read Henry
Mahan's commentary on these verses. 1 John 3, 3. Every man that hath
this hope in Christ purifies himself, even as he is pure.
What does that mean? It means if you trust Christ,
you're clean. You're pure. We're going to deal
with that a little more in the next message. That's what purifies
your soul. Alright? It also means if you
have this hope in Christ, you endeavor to be like Him. Yes,
it does. Verse 4, "...whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is a transgression of
the law." You know He was manifested. The reason He came was to take
away our sin. That's why He came. To make us
holy. And in Him is no sin. If you're
in Him, you have no sin. There's a new man, a new creature
created in Christ Jesus that's holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight. A new man. Whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. This is also saying, and my pastor
always said, Scriptures are bifocal. Not only is this new man in Christ
holy and unblameable, but he walks in holiness. Whoever abides
in him sinneth not. That means sin is not his course
of life. It was. It was. As Paul wrote one time,
he used to run to the same excess of riot with them. But not now. He said, they think it's strange
that you don't. Something strange has happened.
Yes, it has. He committed the sins of the
devil. You know, we can't go into God's
presence with one sin. We have to be perfect to be accepted. Well, that's in Christ, isn't
it? Verse 8 is also speaking about a course or a tenor of
life. That person is very clear to
see. The person right now that's sitting on a bar stool somewhere
and not sitting in the pew, they don't love God. Do they? That's
plain. That's their course of life.
And God's people, what's their course of life? What's their
habit? Scripture says that our Lord, as His habit was, of Paul
as his habit was. His tenor of life was to always
be worshiping God. Here's the marks of a believer.
Number one, they worship God. That's where you'll find them.
And they have the fruit of the Spirit, perfectly. Well, the
new man, and this is the best I can do with it, but the new
man, yes, he is perfect. But Scripture tells us he shall
perfect that which concerns him. He sent preachers, teachers to
perfect the same. How? That they might grow up
in Christ in all things. Not only faith in Him, but to
be like Him. To conform to His image. The
only way to do that is by looking to Him. And I close with this.
Here's a good Psalm 90. Our Lord said there, he that
doeth truth comes to the light that his deeds might be made
manifest. That his deeds might be made
manifest. That they're wrought in God. Deeds are what? Acts,
works, aren't they? Throughout all the letters to
the churches, he said, I know your works. I know your works.
I know your works. I know your works. Everyone,
I know your works. First thing. He even commended. Six out of seven. I know you
were. We're all ashamed. And every
church but one or two, he said, I have something against you. Our works aren't perfect. That's
why he's telling us that. Our Lord said, he that doeth
truth comes to the light that his deeds might be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. Not only our faith, we need to
come to the light of His Word to test our faith, but He says,
deeds. Meaning, I want to know if God
has truly done a work in me. I want to know. Don't you? Worketh in us. It is he that
worketh in us both the will and do of his good pleasure. And
he that hath begun a good work will finish it. This sums it
all up right here. Psalm 90. This sums it up. Verse
16 and 17. Let thy work appear unto thy
servants. This is Moses speaking. This
is an old Psalm. Let Thy work appear unto Thy
servants. What's His work? Salvation is
of the Lord. Oh, how we need to see His work.
No, see Christ. And Thy glory. What's God's glory? The glory of Christ. Christ in Him crucified. And,
verse 17, let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. And establish thou the work of
our hands. Yes, the work of our hands. Establish thou it. That's what
old Peter said when the Lord started washing their feet. He
said, wash my hands, wash my feet, wash my head, wash me all
over. Why, Peter? I want to be just
like you, Lord. Let these hands get filthy. And
the Lord blessed his holy name, the Lord said, you're clean.
But your feet do need washing up. Okay, may the Lord use that. Thank you.