John 3 verse 21, but he that
doeth truth. Now that's an unusual way to
speak. He that doeth truth. Did you know that the truth is
something that you do? He that doeth truth. Now what in the world does that
mean? He that doeth truth. The truth is objective. Let me repeat that. The truth
is objective. It's not subject to our thoughts.
It's not subject to our understanding or the way we think. It's not
subject to our experience. It's not subject to the things
we do. He that doeth truth. In John chapter 17, verse 17,
the Lord said, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is
truth. The truth is this book. Turn with me for a moment to
John chapter 18. Verse 37. John 18, 37. Pilate therefore said unto him,
Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am king. To this end was I born. And for this cause came I into
the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice. Now the word bear witness is
where we get the word martyr from. The Lord said, this is
why I came to bear witness by my death of
the truth. Now I want you to listen to this
real carefully. The truth of who you are, and who I am is
only seen by the death of Christ. Now here's the truth. If God
left me and you to ourselves, you know what would happen? We would be the murderers of
his son. And there's no doubt you and
I have done bad things. I'm not justifying that, but
those things pale in comparison to what we really are. If God
leaves us to ourselves, you see by nature, we hate God and would
have him put to death. That's me and you. That's the
truth. That's the truth. That's how
bad you and I are. That's the truth. He came to
bear witness unto the truth. If you want to find out how bad
you are, don't look in your heart. Look to the cross. That's where
you will see the truth about yourself. He came to bear witness
to the truth by his death. His death tells us the true character
of God. Only by His death on Calvary's
tree, and thank God His resurrection as well, but only by His death
do we see the true character of God. We see His justice. We
see His sovereignty. We see His holiness. We see His
love. We see His mercy. We see His
purpose. Christ's death. Why? He's the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It's the purpose
of the universe. And only through the death of
Christ Do we see the truth concerning the true character of God? Only
through the death of Christ do we see the true character of
salvation. It is finished. It's not something
you do. It's something he did. The truth. Is always simple. If it's not simple, It's not
true. And the truth is its own witness. It recommends itself as true. If I tell you the truth this
morning, you'll know. You'll know. You'll hear and
you'll say, that's the truth. The truth recommends itself as
the truth. It's not somebody being able
to explain it. It's just something when you
hear it, you'll know that it's the truth. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. Now, the truth is objective,
It doesn't have anything to do with my natural thoughts. It's
true subjective. It's the word. It's seen in his
death. That's the truth. It's objective,
but it becomes subjective when I become a doer of the truth. He that doeth the truth. I want to be somebody who's a
doer of the truth, don't you? What in the world does that mean?
He that doeth the truth. When first John chapter one,
verse six, we read, if we say that we have fellowship with
him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. That person who says he has fellowship
with God, I pray, he hears, I believe, but yet he walks in darkness,
and that's not really referring to walking in the darkness of
secret sin, although that's terrible enough, but that's walking in
the darkness of salvation by works. The darkness of religious
superstition. He can claim to have fellowship
with God, but he's lying, he's not doing The truth. Now, what happens when you do
the truth? The truth has become subjective
when you've heard the truth. Now, this is when the truth becomes
subjective and you become a doer of the truth. It begins right
here. You've heard the truth. In whom you trusted after that,
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Now, this is where doing the
truth begins. You have heard the truth. You know, a lot of folks never
heard the truth, but when you've heard the truth, that's when
this thing of doing the truth begins and you believe. truth. I tell you what, when
you really hear, you do believe. Second Thessalonians 2 13 says,
we're bound to thank God always for you brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. You see, if you're sanctified
by the Spirit of God, you'll believe the truth. And the reason
you believe the truth is because you have been sanctified by the
Spirit of God. Now, doing the truth is hearing
the truth. It's believing the truth. And
it has something to do with worship. Worship. You hear, You believe,
and what's the result of that? You worship. The Lord said, they
that worship Him, speaking of God the Father, speaking of Himself,
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. You've heard the truth. The truth
of what Christ accomplished, who He is. You've heard the truth. You believe the truth. And here's
what happens when you've heard and you believe, you worship. You worship God for who he is. Turn with me for a moment to
2 Thessalonians 2. These all go together. You hear,
you believe, you worship. Verse eight, and then shall that,
chapter two, 2 Thessalonians chapter two, verse eight. And
then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of
Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because
they receive not, what's that? The love of the truth, that they
might be saved. For this cause, God shall send
them strong delusion. For what cause? Because they
receive not the love of the truth. Now, I can show you from the
Word of God that what I believe is what the Word teaches. I can
do that. And you can become convinced
that that is, in fact, what the Bible teaches. As I show you
from the Word of God, this is what the Scripture actually teaches.
You know, the Scripture does teach that God controls everything,
that He really is God, that He's absolutely sovereign. He's in
control of everything. The scriptures do teach that
men are dead in sins. And you have He quickened who
were dead in sins. There, right there. The scripture teaches
that God elected who would be saved before time began. according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
I can show you that. Bible teaches that. Anything contrary to that
is wrong. Somebody says, well, I see that.
I can demonstrate from the scriptures that Christ is a successful Savior,
that everybody he died for must be saved, and that he only died
for his sheep, the elect. I can show you that grace actually
saves. Grace actually saves. By grace, you are saved. I can
show you that God's people persevere to the end and you can see, yes,
this is what the Bible teaches. But you know, that is, that's not receiving the love
of the truth. You know, I remember one time
I actually talked to somebody that was coming to church here
for a while. And I remember he came over to our house and I can't remember
what the guy's name was, but we were talking about this and
he says, I see that the Bible teaches election, but that doesn't
mean I like it. I do. I do. Now, it's one thing to see
that the Bible teaches God is sovereign. It's another thing
to cleave to it and delight in the fact that he controls everybody
and everything because he's God and that he's the first cause
behind everything. You know, people talk about that,
well, that's the permissive will of God, that's the, what's the
other, the direct will of God. No, whatever it is, it's the
will of God. Whatever it is, it's the will of God. And if
you love God, you're glad it's that way. I not only see that the Bible
teaches total depravity, I see I'm totally depraved, me. I'm
not talking about somebody else, I'm talking about myself. I thank God that the Bible teaches
that he freely elected a people. I love that. I find salvation
in the fact that salvation is by his choice. And oh, how I
love that Christ is a successful savior, because that's my only
hope. That when he said it is finished, my salvation was finished. It wasn't made available if I
do something. It was accomplished by what he
has done. I love, I receive the love of
the truth. I love the salvation by grace.
All of grace. I love that. I love that God
preserves his people so that they persevere all the way to
the end. It's one thing to say, yeah, I see the Bible teaches
that. It's another thing to receive the love of the truth. Repentance and faith. There's
no salvation apart from repentance and faith, is there? The Lord
opened his public ministry saying, repent and believe the gospel. And when he closed his public
ministry, well, it's already, this was after he was resurrected
and he was getting ready to send back to the father. He said,
this is what is to be preached. Repentance and remission of sins
is to be preached in his name. Now turn with me for a moment
to second Timothy chapter two. I want you to see this. 2 Timothy
2. What is repentance? Verse 24. And the servant of
the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to
teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God perventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. Now that's what repentance is.
It's a change of mind to where I actually acknowledge, embrace
the truth. Look in Titus chapter one. Here's
what faith is. Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth. Now that's what the faith of
God's elect is. It's the acknowledging. It's
the embracing. It's the perception of the truth. He that doeth truth. And when you do truth, You find
liberty in the truth. You find freedom in the truth
and nothing else. The Lord said in John chapter eight, verse
32, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free. If the son makes you free, you're
free indeed. There is such liberty. There
is such freedom in the truth. And if I'm not liberated by the
truth, And I'm not talking about my knowledge of the truth. I'm
talking about the truth himself who makes me free. He is the
truth. The truth is a person. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. Anybody who does the truth finds
liberty, freedom in the truth. Now let's look at this statement
back in our text in John chapter three in its context. beginning in verse 17 of John
chapter three. For God sent not his son into
the world to condemn the world. You know, the world already was
condemned, wasn't it? Already was condemned. He didn't
have to send the son of the world to condemn the world, already
was condemned. But here is his reason for sending his son, that
the world through him might be saved. Well, I'm interested in
that, aren't you? I want to be saved. I want him
to save me. I know I can't save myself. Lord,
save me! I want to be saved. Verse 18. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. May the Lord enable me to say
some very clear, pointed, simple things concerning faith. Wouldn't
it be a blessing if the Lord gives us something like that?
He that believeth on him is not condemned. Now, the first thing
that I would notice is the object of faith. He that believeth on
him, on the Son of God, on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
object of faith. It's not the Father. Somebody
says, well, if I just knew I was one of the elect, that God had
chose me, I could believe. No, no. That's not faith. It's not God the Holy Spirit.
If I could just see and experience the Spirit's work within me,
and I could feel that the Lord had given me some kind of new
life, then I could believe. No. He that believeth on him,
not the father, not the spirit, but the son. He is the object
of faith. Faith is not what you believe
about yourself. Faith is what you believe concerning
him. Nothing else. Well, I believe I'm saved. That's
not faith. That's not faith. If I have faith, here's what
I believe concerning Him. He's God. He's God. He's the creator. He's the absolute
sovereign of the universe, the one who controls everybody and
everything. He's man. He is the man of Christ Jesus. And I believe that He as the
God-man is my righteousness before God. That's what I believe with
my faith. I believe His perfect obedience that He worked out
in the flesh when God was manifested in the flesh. I really believe
that His obedience, His righteousness is the only righteousness I have.
I really believe that. It's what you believe concerning
Him. I believe! I believe that his precious blood is the only
sin payment. I can't do anything about my
sin. You can't do anything about your sin, but his blood cleanses
from all sin. Nothing. What can wash away my
sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole
again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
It's what you believe concerning him. I believe that he was raised
from the dead because he rendered to God complete satisfaction.
That's why I was raised from the dead. God said, I'm satisfied
with him and everybody in him. Faith is what you believe concerning
him. Whoso believeth on him. Somebody says, well, I could
believe if what? If Christ died? No, I believe
that He died, but I could believe that I could see some evidence
of a work of grace in my heart. That's not believing on Christ,
that's believing in yourself. And whatever evidence it is that
makes you think that you're saved is nothing more than an antichrist.
That's it. Antichrist. anti means in the
stead of. You're looking to something instead
of Christ. He that believeth on him. What is the reason one man believes
this and somebody else doesn't? He that believeth on him is not
condemned. He's justified. He stands perfect
before God. You know, there's some in this
room that really believe this and there's some who don't. What
is the reason? Well, one sees their need and
the other doesn't. Well, that's true. That's true. But why do you see your need?
Why do you see your need? There's only one reason because
he revealed to you your need of him. The reason one believes
and the other doesn't is the sovereign grace of God. The Lord looked at the Pharisees
one time and he said, you believe not because you're not of my
sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear
my voice. I know them and they follow me. What's the difference being a
sheep? They're sheep and they're goats. A goat never becomes a
sheep and a sheep never becomes a goat. The difference is the
sovereign grace of God. By grace are you saved. Not by
grace is salvation offered to you. I hate that kind of teaching. By grace are you saved. Now, upon what ground Can man believe he's somebody
that Christ died for? What makes you think you're somebody
that Christ died for? Now, I need to bring this out
and I need to bring this out every time I talk about the death of
Christ. Jesus Christ did not shed his blood for all men without
exception. And somebody that preaches that
he did is not preaching the gospel. There's no gospel in that message.
If he could shed his blood for somebody and pay for their sins
and they wind up in hell anyway, you've taken away my only hope.
My only hope is his death. Now, upon what ground can this
person, upon what ground can you have any hope that he died
for you? Do you know there's only one
ground? Christ Jesus came into the world to save what? Sinners. of whom I am the chief."
The only ground upon which you or I can believe that Christ
died for us is if we are sinners. Somebody says, but isn't everybody
a sinner? Well, yeah, they are, but not everybody knows it. Not everybody knows it. Now a
sinner is somebody, I say this all the time, I'm gonna say it
again, a sinner, according to the scriptures, is somebody who
all they do is sin. They cannot not sin. And their
sin is all their fault. It's all their fault. They're
not looking to blame it on somebody else or blame it on God. It's
all their fault. It's my fault, I am what I am.
And I don't have the right to look in judgment upon anybody
because of my sin. I do all the time because of
my self-righteousness, but I shouldn't. It's pure hypocrisy when I do.
And I have, in and of myself, no claims on God. Now, not everybody
believes that about themselves. But everybody that believes they're
a sinner, they do believe that about themselves. And let's do
this scripture. Romans 5, 6 says, When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died. for the ungodly. Who did he die
for? Those who are without strength
and those who are ungodly. Well, that's me. Then he died for you. It's for
sure. He died for you. Well, upon what
warrant can I actually believe without it being an act of presumption?
Because Christ commands you to believe. That's a command. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There's as much a reason that
you should be saved as anybody else, which is no reason at all
in you. No reason at all. Salvation is
for Christ's sake. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And how I love the results of
faith. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. You hear that? He that believeth
on him is not condemned. Why? There's nothing to condemn
him for. He's been justified. Christ has
put away his sins. He stands before God without
guilt. There's nothing to condemn him for. He that believeth on
him is not condemned. But he still sins. Yeah, but
they're not charged to it. But he sins often. Well, yes,
that's true too. It's through the infirmity of
the flesh. But he's got a nature that would never sin again. He's
got a holy nature. This is what the Bible calls
justification. Now go back to our text. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not, is condemned already because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. This is why a man goes to hell. That light has come into the
world and men loved darkness rather than light. because their
deeds were evil. Now Christ himself is the light. He's the light. It's how God
could have something to do with me or you. He's the light of
the world. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. There's no love for
the light, but a love of darkness. Men prefer being saved by works
to his grace. Men prefer man getting the glory
and him not getting all the glory. They love darkness rather than
light. Why? Because their deeds are
evil. Now look in verse 20. For everyone
that doeth evil, now there's the doing of the truth and there's
the doing of evil. Everyone that doeth evil, hateth
the light. Neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. My marginal reading says discovered,
exposed to be what they are. Do you know why men hate the
light? All of their deeds are exposed as evil. All of them. That's why men hate the light.
All the light does is expose everything they do as evil. That's what the light exposes,
and the natural man hates that light. He hates the God who is
light, and he's not gonna come to the light. I love what the
Lord said in John chapter seven, verse seven to some people. He
said, the world can't hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify
of it. that the works thereof are evil. All of the works thereof are
evil. That's why men hate the light.
Now here's our text, verse 41. But he that doeth truth cometh to
the light that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are
wrought in God. Now, in the original, the word rot,
talking about our works, that's what the word is generally translated,
works. My father worketh hitherto, and
I work. What must we do that we might
work the works of God? Now that man that does the truth,
He comes to the light that his deeds might be manifest, that
they're wrought in God. Now, this is very important. In the original, this is in the
perfect passive tense. Now, what does that mean? Language
means something. It's very important how something
is said, and this is important for me to bring this out. His
deeds are perfect. They're not lacking anything.
And it's in the passive tense, meaning it didn't have anything
to do with them doing anything. They're deep. They're deep. They're perfect. And it doesn't
have anything to do with them doing anything. They're wrought
in God. Now, that word in, it's a preposition. And quite often it's translated
with the word by. They come to the light that their
deeds might be manifested that God is the one who did them.
That's what they're not afraid to bring to the light. Now, I'm
afraid to bring anything that has my fingerprints on it to
the light. I'm not going to do it, because I know it will be
exposed to be rotten, and no good, and sinful, and insincere,
and hypocritical, and everything else. I know that. Anything that
has my fingerprint on it, I'm not bringing that to the light.
All it's going to be is filthy rags, because the Scripture says
our righteousness is our filthy rags. But here's what I'm not
ashamed to bring to the life. This is what I can boldly bring
to the light. My deeds are perfect because
He did them. Now, is this some new novel teaching
what I'm talking about? Well, if it is, it's not true. If what I'm saying is something
new, it's not true. But it's what the Bible's always
taught. Turn with me for a moment to Isaiah chapter 26. Verse 12. Lord, thou wilt ordain peace
for us. And here's what that peace consists
in. For thou also hast wrought all
our works in us. And my marginal reading says
for us. For us. Now, he's ordained peace. And here's what that peace is.
He has worked all of our works for us. And we'll bring that
to the light. Now, what in the world does that
mean? Well, first of all, my perfect deeds are nothing short
of the law-keeping and merits of Jesus Christ. They're mine.
They're mine. That's my life. It's what the
Bible calls justification. That's my life. That's why I
can come into God's presence without fear. Why? I bring my
deeds to the light. and my deeds are the righteousness
and merits of Christ. Because Revelation 19 says she
has fine linen, clean and white, and this fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints. Somebody says, no, that's the
righteousness of Christ. Yes, it's the righteousness of
the saints. The righteousness of Christ is
the righteousness of the saints. And I'll bring that to the light. I'll let the very holiness of
God look that over. I'm not afraid. Perfect righteousness. Well, what about faith? What about repentance? What about
love to God? I'll bring all that to the light,
too, because that's His work. If I have faith, it's the faith
of Christ. It's the faith He gave me. Everything He requires
of me, He gives to me. The repentance I have is His
gift. That acknowledging of the truth
is His gift. Everything is His gift. The love
I have is His gift. It's Him in me. I'll bring anything to the light
that He did. Now, if it has my fingerprints
on it, no. No, I'm not bringing that to
the light. I'm scared to death. but I'll bring to the light that
which is wrought by God. Salvation is of the Lord. As he is, so are we in this world. But he that doeth truth. Now
what's that mean? Well, he's heard the truth. He
believes the truth. He worships God through what
he's heard. And he's received the love of
the truth. And he's found liberty, freedom,
only in the truth that the Son shall make you free, you'll be
free indeed. I think of that scripture, Hebrews
7.25. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost who come unto God by him. Now, I come
to God by Him. That means when He comes to God,
I do. And I come to God only by Him. I don't come pleading
anything else. That's what the doing of the truth is. It's really
believing the Gospel. It's that simple. The doing of
the truth. I'll bring what He did. I love
what Charles Spurgeon said. He said, I look at my good works
and my bad works, and I can't tell the difference between the
two. And the only safe thing to do is throw them all overboard
and enter heaven through the plank of free grace. Amen to that. He that doeth truth comes to
the light that his deeds might be manifested, that they're all
worked by God Himself. Now, Paul put it this way in
Philippians 2.13. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both
to will and to do his good pleasure. May the Lord enable you and I
to be doers of the truth. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you from the
depths of our heart that we don't have to bring anything into your
presence that has anything to do with us. but we come boldly
into your presence through the Lord Jesus Christ being in him,
pleading only his merit and knowing the fact that the reason we plead
only his merit is it's because of your work in us. We, Lord,
we don't want to have anything to do with anything that has
our fingerprints on it. Oh Lord, by your amazing grace,
cause us to be doers of the truth. And Lord, indeed, our hope is that all of our works
are solely what you have done. Bless us for the Lord's sake.
In his name we pray. Amen.