Verse 21 says, But he that doeth
truth. He that doeth truth. Now, how
in the world does one go about doing the truth? Well, it's my prayer that that
question will be answered by the end of this message. Let's
begin in verse 17 of John chapter 3. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world. Now, that ought to set the joy
bells of our heart to ringing. Christ was not sent to condemn. You see, the world already was
condemned, wasn't it? Is already condemned. The Lord
God the Father did not have to send His Son to condemn a world
that already was condemned, but here was His purpose in sending
His Son, that the world through Him might be saved. Now here's God's purpose in sending
His Son. Here's His design. That word might doesn't express
the word of uncertainty. It might happen, it might not.
No, this expresses design and purpose. This was God's design. This was God's purpose in sending
His Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved. Saved. I tell you who that means
something to is somebody who needs to be saved. I can't save
myself. I need to be saved, saved from
my sin. He sent his son to save us from
our sins. I'm so thankful for that. He
sent his son not to condemn the world. It already was condemned,
but that the world through him might be saved. Verse 18. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. And we're going to get to that
is not condemned in a moment. But for right now, I want us
to consider he that believeth. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. It is through believing that
we're not condemned. I must believe. Whatever it means
to believe, I've got to do that. I must believe. He that believeth
on him is not condemned. If I don't believe, I will be
condemned. I myself, personally, must believe. Believe what? He that believeth is not condemned.
What am I to believe? Faith must have an object of
content. What am I to believe? Well, our
text answers this question. He that believeth on him. is not condemned. Christ Jesus
himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the object of faith, the object
of saving faith. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. I do believe on him. I can say
that with depth of conviction when I'm speaking to you. I do
believe on him. I believe who he is. Jesus Christ
is God. Do you believe that? Jesus Christ is God. He's the creator of the universe.
I believe He's man. There's one God, there's one
mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. I believe He's God. I believe
He's man in the same person. I really believe that. I believe
He's Lord. You know, I believe as the scripture
says, he is Lord. We don't make him Lord. We don't
vote him into office. He is the Lord. That means that
I'm looking at however many people are in this room. Do you know
that you and I are in his hands? He's in control of you. What's
going to happen to you or me is up to him. That's what we
mean by his lordship. He's in absolute sovereign control. And I love it that way. I believe
His Lord. I believe His life. Do you know,
I believe that Jesus Christ, when He walked upon this earth,
never sinned. Do you believe that? He never
sinned. He kept God's holy law perfectly. And that perfect obedience that
He had before God's holy law, that is my obedience. That is
what I present to the Father. his obedience. It's mine. I believe
his life. I believe his death. I believe
that he actually died on Calvary Street. But not only that, I
believe what he accomplished by his death. I really believe
that when he died, he accomplished the complete salvation of everybody
he died for. When he said it is finished,
my salvation was totally accomplished. Do you believe that? Do you believe
in his finished work? that He finished the work the
Father gave Him to do. I believe His resurrection. I believe that
He literally was raised from the dead, and I believe His resurrection
sealed the complete salvation of everybody He died for. When
He walked out of that tomb, He went into that tomb with my sins.
He walked out of that tomb, my sins were no more. I'm justified
by what He did. I believe right now while I'm
speaking to you, I believe Him. I believe there's a man in glory
representing my interest before the Father. I believe on the
sun. I believe him most specifically
as the substitute. We just heard a song about substitution. I'm relying. He says he doesn't
believe it on him. It's not committed. I'm relying
on him as my substitute. Second Corinthians 521 says for
he God has made him Christ to be seen for us who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. I'm relying on
the fact that's true. You're relying on that. I'm relying
on Him as my substitute. What He did, He did for me. He kept the law for me. He died
for me. He was raised for me. That's
what I'm relying on. That's who I'm relying on. Christ
Jesus the Lord, my substitute. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. Christ Himself is the object
of faith. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned. I love the simplicity of that. A couple of questions I want
to ask myself and I want to ask you. What is the ground of faith? I'm talking about faith. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. What is the ground of faith?
And by that I mean, how can I know that what he did, he did for
me? And the reason I got asked that
question is because what he did, he did not do for every son of
Adam. When he died on Calvary's tree,
He did not die for every individual to ever live. Now, he didn't
do it. He died for his elect. He died
for his sheep. He died for those the Father
gave him. If he died for everybody without
exception, then everybody without exception would be saved because
their sins were paid for. We know that's not going to take
place. He said, I lay down my life for the sheep. Now, what
I want to know is, how can I know if I'm one of them? Upon what
ground can I really believe that Jesus Christ did what He did
for me without it being an act of presumption? I don't want
to simply take it for granted, do you? I don't want to take that for
granted. I want to know if what He did, He did, if what He did,
it was for me. How can I know? Upon what ground
can I believe He died for me? Well, listen to this Scripture.
1 Timothy 1.15 says, this is a
faithful saying, and it's worthy of all acceptation.
You ought to accept this and receive it and rejoice in it.
Everybody ought to believe this. That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners. Of whom I am the chief. Now those are the words of the
Apostle Paul. Now here's the ground that I can believe that
he died for me. I fit that description. It doesn't say he came to save
awakened sinners. It doesn't say he came to save
repentant sinners. It doesn't even say he came to
save believing sinners, although all those things are true. But
it says he came to save sinners. And listen to me, when I come
to Christ, When I call on Him for mercy, I don't even come
with my faith. I don't even come as a believing
sinner. I come as an empty-handed sinner with nothing to recommend
me at all. An empty-handed sinner looking
to Him for mercy. That's the only way I come. Romans
5, 6 says we were yet without strength. Without strength. Having no strength. No spiritual
strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Now, that's the ground upon which
I believe he died for me. I'm without strength and I'm
ungodly. I am a sinner. Anybody who really
believes themselves to be a sinner, and I mean really believes it
by what the Bible means. I don't mean somebody says, yeah, I admit,
I make mistakes and I do bad things and I commit sin. I'm
talking about somebody who really believes they're nothing but
sin before God. And I mean, that's all they are.
Somebody really believes that? That's somebody Jesus Christ died for. I know it. I know it. Are you
a sinner? Then you can take this precious
promise, he that believeth on him is not condemned. What's my warrant for believing?
What right have I to believe? I have a simple answer to that
because he told me to. Paul said to the Philippian jailer,
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Now that's a command. It may
sound like an invitation, and I suppose it's got an element
of that in it. You know, coming to me all ye
that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you a rest. But it's more
than an invitation. It's a command. And your personal
right to believe the gospel is because he commands you to right
now. Everybody in this room, you are
commanded to believe the gospel. So don't think, well, I wonder
if he's telling me to believe, or I wonder if I'm one of the
elect, or I wonder if Christ died for me. You don't need to worry
about that. Your business is to believe on
Christ. It's a command for you to believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now, what a precious verse. He
that believeth on Him. That means you rely on Him. Are you relying on the Lord Jesus
Christ or are you relying on yourself? That's an easy question
you can answer. He that believeth, he relies
on Christ, is not condemned. I'm not condemned. You know why? Because I'm justified. That's why I'm not condemned.
I am justified. I am not guilty. Now, how can I be not guilty
when I've committed a crime? And this is what the mystery
of the gospel, how he could take somebody who I've committed the
crime. Therefore, I'm guilty. And God can say he's not guilty. How can that be true? If God
says I'm not guilty, I'm not guilty, but I did it. How can
that be? He that believeth on him is not
condemned. Well, it's because he is justified. I couldn't help but think of
the publican in the temple. He beat on his breast, crying,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. You know what the Lord said about
him? He said, I say unto you, that man went down to his house
forgiven. Well, he was forgiven, but that's
not what the Lord said, is it? He said, I'll he said, I tell
you, that man went down to his house justified. Not guilty, nothing to condemn
me for. Now, how is that? How can that
be? That can only be understood through
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is God's work,
this thing of justification. It is God that justifies. It's not something even you receive.
It's something God declares you to be. I mean, you ought to receive
it. You ought to believe it. But
justification is not, well, I believe, therefore, I'm justified. No,
this is, it's God that justifies. And if He justifies you, you're
justified. And this happens and I hope I'm
repeating something that's often repeated. How God can be just
to justify the ungodly, but I can say. With honesty. This thrills me more than it
ever has. And I like hearing about it more than I ever have.
I mean this. God can be just absolutely holy
and yet take somebody like me when I'm unjust and say he's
just because he takes the perfect obedience of Christ. It's mine. He charges it to my account.
He took my sin. He charged it to Christ's account.
Christ was made sin. He bore my sin. He put it away.
And now before the very justice and holiness and law of God,
I'm absolutely just. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. Now, this is a present justification.
There is therefore now no condemnation, no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. It's a continual justification.
It's God that justifies. That means it's always in effect.
That means I'm going to be justified tomorrow, too. And it's a complete
justification. Acts 1339 says, By him, all that
believe are justified from all things from which you could not
be justified by the law of Moses. I'm justified from all things.
This is a complete justification. Now, he that believeth on him
is not condemned. You know that this is God's work.
If you're somebody that believes, you know it's a work of His grace.
And you know, this certainly excludes all boasting, doesn't
it? You don't have anything to boast about. But it also excludes
all reasons for doubts and fears. It excludes all reasons for doubts
and fears. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. Let's go on reading verse 18. He that believeth, he that relies
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, he that believeth not, we've
been talking about him that believeth, but what about that person who
doesn't believe? Well, this passage of Scripture tells me he's condemned
already. He's judged by God already, because
he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
If I told you I am personally guilty of the most grotesque, vile,
heinous sin that anybody can commit, and I committed it yesterday,
you know what you'd be thinking about?
What did he do? What did he do? Your mind might
go to all kinds of different terrible things. I might have
done. Did he murder somebody? Something worse? What did the man do? And
if I said, I've been guilty of unbelief. You know what we'd think? And? What else? I mean, sure,
you know, I mean, everybody's guilty of that, but what else? Do you realize that to not believe
the Son of God is the greatest of all sins in God's sight? We
say we don't want to categorize sin. Well, we don't, but this
is still the greatest of all sins to fail to believe on the
name of the Son of God. It's the greatest insult I can
give to God. I say by that that what his son
did really was not necessary. I'll try to come on my own. And
that is the greatest insult to God. He insults God like this. He's condemned already, this
passage of Scripture says, because he has not believed on the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Now, let's go on reading verse
19. Now, this is the condemnation.
And that word condemnation can just as easily be translated
the verdict. Here's God's verdict. Here's God's indictment against
us. And this is the verdict that
light is coming to the world and men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Now, here's what God's
got against everybody that doesn't believe the gospel. He says,
light is coming to the world. Now what's he mean? Light is
coming to the world. I know what we think of when
we think of light. We think of this stuff that makes us see. But
turn a few pages over to John chapter 8. Verse 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Now,
the setting of our Lord saying this is so important. What is
the setting of our Lord saying, I am the light of the world?
Now, you remember the story. There was a woman that was caught
in the act of adultery. They caught her in the very act.
She just committed this sin. They caught her, and as soon
as they caught her, they come in and they drag her in before
the Lord, and they set her down. Her ashamed, embarrassed. What all was going through her
mind at this? And she's set before this Sanhedrin, all these religious
fellows, and they say, now, we caught this woman red-handed
in the very act. She is guilty. Now, Moses, in
the law, said that such a one should be stoned. But what do
you say? What are we going to do about
this woman? What do you say? And they thought that they had
entrapped the Lord. They thought, well, if he says,
just let her go, we'll say, well, I thought you respected the law
of God. I thought you respected the word of God. If he says,
punish her, we'll say, well, we thought you were merciful
and gracious. How come you're so harsh with her? They thought
they had the Lord trapped. What do you say? What are we
going to do about this woman? What did he do? He said, she's brought before him, and
he said, woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned
thee? Now you think about that. Where
are those nine accusers? She was caught red-handed. She
still felt the blush and the shame of it. She was guilty. And he said, Woman, where are
those nine accusers? Has no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. And he said, Neither do I condemn
thee. She was guilty. How could that
be? Because her sin was put away. And yet, the Lord said the same
thing to you. You may have something fresh on your conscience right
now, but you feel so ashamed of it. Yet if you're a believer,
if you believe on Him, He says, neither do I condemn thee. Then
He says, I'm the light of the world. Now, the only way you
can understand that is through the light of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, that's the light that's spoken of, the light of how God
can be just and yet justify somebody who's guilty and make them to
where they're not guilty. That can only be understood in
the light of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to me, I don't condemn
you. There's nothing there to condemn
you for. Well, praise God for that. He says, I am the light
of the world. Now, back to our text in John
3. Now, this is the condemnation.
That light is coming to the world, the light of how God saved sinners
for Christ's sake and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. Verse 20, For everyone that doeth
evil hates the light. Neither comes to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved or exposed. Everyone that does
evil, he doesn't want to come to this light, and here's why.
He doesn't want his deeds, the things that he does. He doesn't
want to be exposed. Now, by deeds, it's not just talking about the
bad deeds. Now, understand this. It's not just talking about the
bad deeds. It's talking about deeds all together. It's talking about
the good deeds. It's talking about the righteous deeds, the religious
deeds. Now, here's the point. If I'm hoping in what I do, in
some way, to some degree, if I'm hoping in what I do, if that's
what my hope is in, then I'm not going to like the light of
the gospel because it's taking away my hope. That's why that one
who does evil hates the light. It takes away his hope. If I'm
hoping in myself in any way, I don't care what degree it is,
if I'm hoping in myself, the light of the gospel takes away
my hope. It strips me of that hope. And so that person hates
the light. He doesn't want to come to the
light because he doesn't want his deeds exposed as nothing but sin. And
that's what the light of the gospel does. It exposes our deeds
as nothing but sin. And that's why he hates the light.
Everyone that doeth evil hates the light, neither comes to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved or exposed or made
manifest. But, verse 21, He that doeth truth. Now, before we get into what
it means to do the truth, it has something to do with believing
the truth, putting into practice the truth and so on. The truth
is something you do. It's not just giving an assent to something.
It's something you do. He that doeth truth. Let's don't
get past this word truth. He that doeth truth. What's the truth? Well, wouldn't
it be better to say who is the truth? Did not the Lord Jesus
Christ say, I am the truth? Now, this truth that Christ is,
is something we do. I am the truth. He's the truth
concerning who God is. If you want to know who God is,
you'll only know him through Jesus Christ. You'll never see
anybody else but Jesus Christ. He is the truth concerning God. He said, He that has seen me
has seen the Father. He said, I and my Father are
one. If you're going to want to know the truth concerning
God, you're only going to know it through this man, Jesus Christ, and Him
crucified. In His death, every attribute
of God is fully displayed, fully manifested. He's the truth concerning
who we are. You want to find out who you
really are, I've said this several times, Don't look within your
heart. You won't find out who you really are. You look to the
cross and you'll find out who you really are. You know the
truth about yourself? Look to the cross. He's the truth
concerning salvation because of what he did. Every believer
is holy, unblameable and unapprovable on God's side. And he's the truth
concerning salvation. Now, he that doeth the truth. He that doeth the truth. The only way I know how to do
the truth is to believe it. Now, when I'm talking believing,
I'm not talking about just giving an assent. Agree? Well, yeah,
I agree with that. That's what the Bible says. That's
part of it, no doubt. But it's more than that. When I do the
truth, I am completely relying on that one who is the truth. What he did on Calvary 3, I'm
completely relying on him as everything in my salvation before
God. And I really am. I'm doing the
truth right now. I'm practicing the truth. I'm relying on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he that doeth the truth.
Now, let's go on reading. That means he believes the truth.
It's not just giving a bear a seat to something. It's I'm actually
relying on him who is the truth as my salvation before God. But
he that doeth truth, what does he do? He comes to the light. He's not afraid to come to the
light. Now that one who hates the truth, he won't come to the
light because he doesn't want his deeds to be made manifest.
He doesn't want him to be exposed for what they are, but he that
does the truth, what does he do? He comes to the light, the
Lord Jesus Christ, for this purpose that his deeds, the things that
he actually does may be made manifest That they are wrought
in God. Now, here's why this fellow comes
to the light. He wants it to be seen that his
deeds, the things that he does. They're wrought in God. Now,
what in the world is that? His deeds manifest that they're
wrought in God. Well, see the word in. He wants
his deeds made manifest that they're wrought in God. That
little preposition can just as easily be translated by. Galatians
chapter 2, verse 20, Paul said, I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live
by. That's the same word. I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. So this fellow that comes to
the life that does the truth, he wants it to be seen that his
deeds are wrought by God, that God did them. His deeds, it says
his deeds, but it says, he says, God did it. See that word rot? It can just as easily be translated,
having been wrought. It's in the perfect tense, perfectly
completed, never to be repeated. That's what that means. Now,
this man who believes the gospel, he's not afraid to bring his
deeds to the light for everybody to see that God did them, but
they're his deeds. Now, how in the world can that
be? You're saying God did your works? Yes, that's exactly what I'm
saying. God did my deeds. When He kept the law, I did. And that's what I bring to the
light, and I'm not ashamed of what He did. I'll come in boldness. I'll come in confidence in what
He did. You see, my deeds, The things
I did, I did my deeds, God did those deeds. Their righteousness,
their personal righteousness, God said in Isaiah, is of me. I bring my deeds to the light. I'm not ashamed of them. What
he did is my deeds. Now, let's take it, let's keep
going with that. When I bring my deeds, my faith,
Let me tell you something about my faith. It's my faith. Nobody
can believe for me. I believe myself. I must believe
the gospel. Young people, your parents can't believe for you.
You're commanded to believe the gospel. My faith. I'm not ashamed
to bring my faith to the light because I know my faith is what
He did in me. It's the work of the new birth,
the new nature in me. And I'm not ashamed of my faith
in that sense. Paul said, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself for me. I bring my faith to the
light. I bring my repentance to the light. You feel good about
your repentance? Well, I don't feel good about
anything that has anything to do with me, but I know I'm the one that repented,
and I know it's His work in me, and I bring my repentance to
the light. I'm not ashamed of what He's done. My deeds are
His deeds. I bring my love to God to the
light. I do love the Lord Jesus Christ. I adore Him. I love Him. You know, I can say when we sing
that song, all that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than
life to me. When I sing that, I mean it.
He is all that thrills my soul. I love Him. And I'm not ashamed
to bring that love of mine to the light because I know that
it's His work in me. I know that didn't come from
me naturally. I know it's His work. Any good works I have,
I tell you what, if you're a believer, you certainly don't feel good
about anything that you do. But I can also say this, if you're
a believer, you have good works. You have it. By grace, you say
through faith that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast when we are his workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that you should walk in them. I'm not ashamed to bring my good
works to the light because I know it's his work. Here's the point
I'm trying to make. I bring what He did for me. That's
my deeds. His righteousness imputed to
me. I bring what He's done in me.
I know it's His work. My faith, my repentance, my love
to Him, whatever it might be, it's His work. And I bring that
to the life. You see, everything He requires
of me, He provides for me and He gives to me. Everything He
requires. He requires faith. He gives me
the faith. He requires a new heart. He gives me the new heart.
He requires love to Himself. He gives it to me. I bring His
righteousness. That's my grant of acceptance.
I bring His works in me, and I'm not ashamed to bring His
work to the light. I confess the deeds that I bring
are His. Now, I'm not ashamed to bring
that into the light, and I can come with such confidence. It's His work. He that doeth
truth cometh to the life, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they may be seen, that they are wrought in God, that they
are worked by God. To do the truth is to believe
the truth. And that believing the truth
is seen as that you're not ashamed to come into the life, that your
deeds might be made manifest. Now, I am not ashamed for God. Let's put it this way. Now, I've
said this before. If I put the thoughts that you've
had since you came in here on a screen for everybody to see,
would you ever be able to come back in here again for everybody
to see the things that you've thought since you've been in
here? You'd be so ashamed. I mean, you'd... Well, let me
say this again. Believer, if I put your thoughts,
your thoughts on a screen, for everybody to be saved. You won't
be a bit ashamed because all that's going to come up are the
thoughts of Christ. That's how real union with Christ
is. All that's going to come up are the holy, perfect thoughts
of Christ, which are yours. The deeds of Christ, which are
yours. And you're not ashamed to bring that to the light, are
you? I can come with boldness. like that. May God give us grace
to do the truth. I'm doing the truth right now.
Let's pray together.