In John's Gospel in chapter 3,
from verse 14, we read the following, As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. 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 every one that
doeth evil hateth the light. neither cometh to the light 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 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. At this time
of year many will speak of and hear of the fact that Jesus Christ
came into this world, that Jesus the Son of God was born in Bethlehem. that the light of God entered
into the darkness of this world. They will sing in the carols
of Jesus Christ, of his entrance, of his reception, of the angels,
the shepherds, the wise men, of his redemption. of His bringing
in everlasting life and eternal life. Multitudes who know not God will
hear the name of Jesus and hear the words concerning His birth
and His entrance. And yet, despite the fact that
light is set before them. They will show forth in their
response the truth of what John speaks
in these verses. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. because he have 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 love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. Christ declares who He is in
this passage. He declares why He came. That
God loved the world and sent His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. That
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but
that the world through Him might be saved. And yet He makes it
plain Those that believe not on Him are condemned already
because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. They're condemned already and
this is the condemnation that light has come into the world
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. Light is come into the world. From the very beginning of time,
God declared his gospel. When this world fell into darkness,
when Adam turned his back on his maker, and disobeyed God,
and sin entered into the heart of man, and death by sin, when
mankind fell in Adam, And the darkness and evil of sin entered
into this world. God made known his gospel from
the dawn of time. He came unto Adam and said, where
art thou? And Adam and Eve, knowing that
they were naked before a holy God, knowing that they were exposed,
knowing that they could not hide, were seeking to make themselves
clothing out of fig leaves, they were seeking to cover themselves
up, they were seeking spiritually to cover up what they did, to
cover up their sin, to cover their sin, to conceal it, to
hide it, to appear righteous on the outside, when inside was
darkness. and blackness and evil and since
that time man has done the same thing throughout he constantly
seeks to cover up what he is and what he's done and yet God
came and found him and said unto Adam where art thou? and God finding Adam and his
wife and knowing what they had done God slew a sacrifice. He slew an animal and took the
skins of the animal and clothed Adam and Eve in that skin. And
in so doing, God made known his gospel. He said unto mankind,
you who have sinned must have your sin covered. But you cannot
do anything about it yourself. A price must be paid. The consequence
of sin is death. And if your sin's to be covered,
then someone must die. You will either die to pay the
price for your own sin, or a sacrifice will die in your place and shed
its own blood. and pay the price of the condemnation
that has come upon you because of your rebellion and clothe
you with its own skin, with its own blood. In such an action God made known
His Gospel. For that sacrifice was a picture
of the sacrifice of God's own Son. God's own Son, whom God
would send into the world, in the fullness of time, as promised
from the very beginning, and promised throughout all the prophets,
that God would send His only begotten Son, and offer Him up
as a sacrifice for sin, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. So God in the Gospel shone
light into the darkness of this world. But that light in that
promise and that prophecy of the coming of Christ was nothing
like the light that appeared when Christ himself actually
entered the world. Until that day when he was born
and then grew as a man and went forth preaching the gospel the
world essentially laid in darkness and John in his gospel from the
beginning of chapter 1 pictures the world in that sense he pictures
the world as lying in darkness until this day when the light
comes when Christ enters the world and the light shone in
the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. But here,
at the coming of Christ, the light shines. And the light shines because
God presents his Son to this world, to every individual that
is ever born and lives in this world and says, behold my Son,
whom I give as a sacrifice for sin. The light has come into
the world. And what did the world do when
that light stood before them? What did men do when Christ came
in their midst? What do men today do? when the
light is displayed before them. What do you do when the light
shines before you? When, as Moses who lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, when the Son of Man, the Son
of God, Jesus Christ is lifted up before you in the message
of the Gospel, when the light shines before you, what's your
response? Men loved darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. When Christ came into this world,
born a Jew, came unto his own, the Jews, they received him not. And they took him in the end
and put him to death. Light has come into the world
and men love darkness rather than light. They put him to death. This is the condemnation that
light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. So it was at the coming
of Christ and so it is today and so it is with you. Light
is come. Christ is come. Christ is made
known. And what do you do with the light
that God presents to you? You turn away. You bury your
head in your hands. You look down and wander off.
You turn your attention to everything but the light. Men love darkness
rather than light. As I said at this time of year,
multitudes will hear the name of Jesus. Multitudes will sing
carols and songs regarding the coming of this light into the
darkness of this world. Multitudes will speak of the
birth of Jesus, the Son of God, and they will hear some facts
concerning His entrance into this world, and they will turn
aside. The words will flow from their
lips as they sing and nothing enters into their heart or understanding. And all their thoughts and attentions
will go to everything and anything but the light presented to them. They will seek after these things
and those things. They will feast, they will be
merry. but they love darkness rather
than light. And you, my friend, by nature,
no matter how much you know regarding Jesus, no matter how much you
may hear even at this time of year, no matter how many times
you hear the Gospel, by nature your heart loves darkness. And these things are just words
which flow over you. which is why God says concerning
the son that he sent into this world that he sent him not to
condemn the world but that the world for him might be saved
but that the fact that you do not believe by nature is because
you're condemned already you're already under condemnation you're
already in darkness Isaiah prophesied of the coming
of Christ that the people that walked in darkness have seen
a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them have the light shined. Are you walking in darkness?
Have you seen this great light? Do you dwell in the shadow of
death? Yes, you do. We live in a world
of death. Men like not to think about it.
It's one of those subjects that they speak little of, that they
avoid. That's taboo. Yet it's all around
them. Every generation is born, lives,
dies. Born, lives, dies. It's all around
them. And in the darkness of winter,
how much we see of it. How we're reminded of it. The
cold, the darkness, the death. We live and dwell in the land
of the shadow of death. And yet, in the darkness, God
has shined his light. But do you come to it? Do you
come to it? No. Men love darkness and that's
the condemnation. You don't want to know. So many
other things seem so important and yet one day your brief life
will be over and death will come to your door too and then you
will stand before this God and His Son and you will have to
answer, why did you not come to the light? Why did you not
love the light? Why did you not receive the light? Why did you not believe on the
name of the Son of God? Why did you go your own way? This is the condemnation, that
light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. You won't come to the light,
you won't hear the gospel, you won't seek Christ, you won't
turn unto him, because you know that if you come to the light
it exposes you. It shows what you are. Your deeds
will be reproved. So you run around in the darkness
and the shadows and you avoid the gospel. You avoid the truth. You avoid opening up the Bible
and reading it in case as you read it you feel yourself found
out by it. It searches you out. The message
therein finds you out so you don't want to read it. You avoid
listening to the Gospel because it's uncomfortable to sit under,
because you know it reproves you. And you love the sin that
you indulge in, you love the darkness, so you'd rather go
off into the darkness and not have this light around. Don't
talk to me of religion, your heart says. Don't talk to me
of Jesus Christ. Leave me alone. That's for another
day. Men love darkness. You hate the
light, you won't come to the light, you won't come to the
scriptures, you won't come to the gospel, you won't listen
about Christ, you won't read about Christ, you don't want
to know about Christ, because you love darkness. And your deeds
are evil. And you know that that light
will reprove you. but God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world that's what we are like by nature
we're in the darkness and we love the darkness and left like
that that's how we remain but God sent the light that the world
through him might be saved he sent the light that some would
see and believe that some would hear and believe. Everyone that
doeth evil hateth the light, 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. There are some who do come to
the light, There are some, who though they want love darkness,
are brought to a point where when the Son of Man is lifted
up before them, when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is displayed
in the light of the Gospel before them, they come to a point where
they must know, and they must hear, and they must understand,
they're sick of the darkness they're sick of the darkness
without and the darkness within they know they're under condemnation
they know their heart loves darkness but they know that the darkness
will cause them to perish they know they're dead by nature they
know they must live they want to flee from the Raftakar they
want to know he who is the light of the world they want to know
his salvation something has changed something has changed in these
that come to the light and what has changed is that God has shone
the light not just around them not just in the outward words
not just in the carols they sing not just in the form and the
motions of religion but God has shone the light into the darkness
of their hearts He shone the light in and yes
that light reproved their sins And yes, they felt condemned. They felt that God would be angry
with them. They felt the wrath of God revealed
from heaven above. Perhaps you do. Perhaps you have. Perhaps you know that you're
not as you should be. Perhaps you know that you're
under condemnation. perhaps you know that you're
guilty before a holy God but you've come to the point where
you want to come before this God and know that He has forgiven
you you want to come before Him and cry out for mercy you want
to come before Him and cry out that He should save you and spare
you You know that you've nowhere else to go. There's no point
going into the darkness. There's no point going into the
darkness of this world's religion. You've heard of their Jesus. You've heard the world speaking
of religion. But it was all just words and
it did you no good. You need the light. The light
within. The light that transforms. You need to know Christ. You need to hear Christ. And
you know you need to know Christ. And you know you need to hear
Christ. And you cry out that He might
speak unto you. And that He might make His truth
known unto you. And whereas once you fleed from
the light, and fleed from the truth, and the truth of the gospel,
and the truth of a sovereign God, who sends his Son unto those
whom he will save, a sovereign God who sent his Son into this
world and slew him upon a cross that he should die to save his
people from their sins. You want to know the truth concerning
this God and this Saviour. And no longer do you turn from
the truth. No longer do you reject the truth,
but you cry out to God to hear your voice and to hear your cries
and to have mercy upon you. When you come to know the gospel,
that Jesus came to save his people from their sins, that there's
a people, a particular people whom he loves, for whom he came,
for whom he suffered and laid down his life, whose sins he
bore as their substitute upon the cross. When you hear that
message, that there's a particular people called the elect of God,
that God had chosen from before time, before Adam fell, before
the condemnation came in, before sin entered the world and death
by sin, before the darkness, came into your soul, when you
hear the truth of this gospel that God has a people, an elect
people for whom Christ suffered, no longer do you flee away, no
longer do you reject it, no longer do you trample it underfoot,
but you cry out unto God, O that I might be one of those, O that
I might be one for whom he died, one whom he loves, one for whom
he came. Oh Lord, don't let me perish
but give me everlasting life. Have you been brought there?
Do you come to the light? He that doeth truth cometh to
the light. What is it to do truth? It's
to believe the truth. It's to receive the truth. It's
to believe the gospel and come to Christ and walk before him. And the only ones who come to the light, who do
the truth, whose deeds are manifest, that they are wrought in God,
are those whom God has chosen. Their deeds are wrought in God,
they're wrought by God, God's chosen them. And He's chosen
to draw them to the light, and chosen to draw them to Christ,
and chosen to wash them clean in the blood of Christ. And these
no longer run away into the darkness, but they're drawn irresistibly
unto Christ. They're drawn irresistibly towards
the light, towards the gospel, towards the Son of God. They're
drawn towards Him. As the wise men from the East
saw the light of the star, and followed it. They could do none
else. They must know whom this star
would lead them to. They must come and find the king. He that is born king of the Jews,
they must seek him out. They're drawn. God drew them. God made known the truth unto
them. God led them to his son. Like the shepherds on the hillside,
unto whom the angels appeared, the messengers of God appeared
and led them unto the babe, unto Christ, unto the Son of God.
They came. They were given a desire. God met with them. God, as it
were, in the Spirit of God, comes unto sinners and works in their
heart and says, come, come see the Saviour. Come see the Son
of God. Behold my Son. Hear ye Him. The Spirit of God. goes forth
into the darkness of this world. He goes into a far country in
the east and finds those whom he makes wise. Wise unto salvation
and leads them by the light of a star unto his son, the light
of God. So the Spirit of God can go to
the furthest country in this world. no matter how far off
you may be, no matter how dark the land in which you dwell may
be, no matter how dark your own heart may be, God can come by
His Gospel, by His Spirit and seek you out and draw you by
that Gospel and draw you irresistibly to follow to follow the light
of that Gospel, to follow the light of the star, to journey
where that Gospel message leads you and bring you step by step,
mile by mile, day by day, year by year, until eventually you're
brought to bow down before the Son of God, the King of the Jews. the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. He'll bring you, He'll seek you
out by that Gospel and He'll bring you irresistibly to the
light. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light,
that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
God will find them. and if you're his he'll find
you, he'll find you by his gospel and he'll lead you step by step,
day by day, month by month, year by year until eventually he brings
you unto Christ and you behold and know that he is the light
of God, the light of the world, your saviour. How does he do
this? He does this by causing you to
do truth. And you do truth because you
come to know the truth. Because he makes known the truth.
How do you know Christ? Because God takes the truth of
the gospel and makes that truth known unto you in such a way
that you say, yes, here is Christ. Once I heard from men of their
Jesus, and I found him to be a lie. Men said, behold, here
is Christ, lo, there is Christ. They led me there and they led
me here. They said he's like this and
he's like that. But all they ever presented unto
me, even though they used the Bible, And even though they preached,
and even though they were in churches, all they ever presented
unto me were lies. And when I came to know the truth
in the Scriptures, when God began to show me the truth in the Scriptures,
when He began to preach the Gospel unto me from the Scriptures,
I discovered that the Jesus and the Christ in the Scriptures
was not the one that they preached. Not the one that they described. He was not a Jesus who died for
all, for then all would be saved and none would be condemned. He was not a Jesus who saved
those that saved themselves. He is not a Jesus who saves those
who work. and make themselves righteous
and clothe themselves with fig leaves as Adam and Eve tried
to clothe themselves. If that was the Jesus of the
scriptures then Adam and Eve would have been covered by their
fig leaves. For that covering would have
worked but I found that covering didn't work as they found that
covering didn't work. It never hid their sin and it
won't hide my sin. Works will never save me. I may
strive away to live a life like this and that. I may strive to
keep the law of God and read the scriptures and try to pray,
but I know I fail every day. There's no salvation by my works. There's no covering of sin with
fig leaves. And even my will is rotten. There's
none that runneth after God, there's none that seek him, there's
none that willeth. As John makes plain earlier in
chapter 1, when he speaks of the light coming into the world,
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that 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. So as God makes known his light
unto you in the gospel, he will make known the Son of God, the
Jesus Christ. He'll make known that salvation
is of God. It comes by grace through faith. and that it is God by the Spirit
who will lead you by the light of the Gospel under His Son and
He will make you to see the truth concerning His Son in the Scriptures
and when you see the Son of God as made known in the truth of
the Gospel then you will see the light He that doeth truth
Cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that
they are wrought in God. You will discover that you are
wrought in God. God has taken you. God has revealed
his truth unto you. God has made Christ known within
you through the truth. God has wed you unto Christ so
that you are now in Christ and Christ in you. Oh, read John's
Gospel from start to finish, how the message is the same. In chapter 1, in chapter 3 here,
where Christ speaks unto Nicodemus of the need to be born of God,
to see the Kingdom of God. in chapter 15 and later we read
of being one in Christ and Christ in us being part of that vine,
branches on the vine, united to Christ in chapter 10 where
we read of the sheep not the goats of Christ suffering for
the sheep and leading the sheep under him and how none of the
sheep shall perish how great is his salvation how great is
the grace of God how great is the light of God and how those
who are saved of God are drawn irresistibly to the light they're
drawn to it They come because God has led them. The people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them have the
light shined. Jesus answered and said unto
the people, this is the work of God that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. Do you believe? Have you come
to the light or do you love the darkness? If you ever come to
this light, it's because God has worked in your heart. He's
made known the light through the truth of the gospel and drawn
you unto the Son of God. Oh, may He do that for you. you
fallen broken sinner if you know what you are and know the desperate
straits that you're in oh do you want to be saved or are you
with the wicked content in the darkness love in the darkness
and hate in the light John as well as his gospel wrote the
epistles And in John chapter 1, in the first epistle of John,
chapter 1, he wrote, That which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life,
for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness
and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father
and was manifested unto us that which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and
truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus
Christ And these things write we unto you, that your joy may
be full. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you, that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all
sin. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not enough. Have you sinned? Have you sinned? Are you walking
in darkness or are you walking in the light? Oh, may you know what it is to
be drawn by the Spirit of God unto the light. This then is
the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that
God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Amen.