Well, let's open our Bibles to the Gospel according to John, chapter 3. And we'll be looking into verses 16 through 21 this morning. And so we will begin reading in verse 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment. that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. Father, as always, we are so thankful that You've given us Your Word, that You have spoken to us in the sacred Scriptures You've given us. We're thankful, Lord, that You've opened our minds and hearts to want to hear You, to be able to hear You, to want to know You. And Lord, we pray that as this Word is delivered to us, that Your Spirit will be at work transforming us by the truths that We read here, and we ask it, Lord, in Christ's name. Amen. Well, it seemed like just one week, one Lord's Day wasn't enough for this particular verse, verse 16 of John chapter 3. We've been looking into John's recounting of Jesus' conversation, a meeting with a Pharisee named Nicodemus who, after seeing and becoming aware that Jesus was performing these miracle signs, came to him by night. And he said to him, we know that you have come from God. He recognized Christ had come from God. How? Because he said no one can do such signs unless God is with him. And Jesus didn't really directly respond to those words of Nicodemus. He responded by saying, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again, born of water and the Spirit. If a man is to enter the kingdom, there must be an inner transformation. There must be a major significant change, a spiritual rebirth. It's something that no man can work in himself. It's a work that only God can do in a sinner. And this work must mean a radical change in one's understanding, in one's will, in one's desires, and in one's affections. He must become a new creature, laying the old self behind. He must be brought into union with the one and only source of spiritual life, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is necessary because as a result of the fall of Adam, all men come into the world spiritually dead, separated from God, children of wrath. And God is the only one who can make a man spiritually alive, who can restore him to spiritual life and to fellowship with himself. So we've looked at some of the signs. You wonder, have I been born again? Well, we've looked at some of the signs that one has been born again. He believes in Christ, and we see it in his life. He believes in his atoning death. He has submitted himself to Jesus Christ as his Lord. And that's not just in words, but in the way he lives. He has sorrow for his sin. He's turned away from his sin. That's repentance. He has a love and a hunger for the Word of God as our brother just prayed. That's a mark that you've been born again if you love to open this book and you want to hear the creator of the universe speak to you. He has a love of people that he didn't have before, especially for the people of God. And this love is manifested, again, in the way he lives, in compassion for and service to others. He regularly comes to the Father in prayer. He has the peace of God and the joy of fellowship with God. And if all these things describe you, then you can have great confidence that you have been indeed born again of the Spirit. Now, in verse 11, we've seen that the dialogue with Nicodemus that Jesus was having now becomes more of a discourse of Jesus. He's still speaking to Nicodemus, who was still very much in confusion and apparently in doubt. Because in his fallen mind and his human reason, by his human intellect, he couldn't understand the things Jesus was saying. He was incapable unless he's born again. You can't see into the kingdom of God. Jesus was saying divine things to him, things of God he couldn't understand. And Jesus responded to Nicodemus. He told him that he was speaking divine truths, things known only within the Godhead. And Jesus spoke as one who was possessed of this divine knowledge because he had come from heaven itself. Heaven had always been his home, still is. But no man, no man will, no man is able to believe the things of God, to believe in the gospel unless he is born again of the Spirit. That must come first. His mind must have been opened by God. And that's what Jesus will show us here in the passage again this morning. That's what Scripture shows us on nearly every page. 1 Corinthians 2.14, a natural man, meaning a man who has not been born again, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. He makes a choice not to accept the things of the Spirit of God because they're foolishness to him. You have unbelieving friends? They think this is foolishness. That's why they don't believe. They cannot understand them, Paul says, because they can only be appraised by the Spirit, and His Spirit is dead. So you see why it's so necessary that God make a man spiritually alive, that He raise him from that state of spiritual death. And in verse 13, if you look at it, here Jesus declared His divine credentials to Nicodemus. He tells him that he has descended from heaven. No man has descended from heaven but the Son of Man. He declared that He had come from heaven and that He possessed the knowledge of the things of heaven because He was there from all eternity. When God the Father made His eternal decree that He would send His Son into the world to become a man and bear the curse of sin for those chosen in Him and to redeem them from their sin, the Son was there. Nicodemus wasn't talking to someone who wasn't there before the foundation of the world. And Jesus is now speaking to Nicodemus about these things that had come from the mind of God in eternity past. And then He alludes to an event that had occurred while Moses was leading the sons of Jacob through the wilderness to the promised land of Canaan. They had again fallen into sin and God sent serpents among them. And Jesus, by this illustration of telling Moses to put a serpent on a pole and raise it up and tell the people, if you look upon this serpent, God will heal you. What Jesus said was this. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The key word is must. So that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. Our spiritual life, eternal life is in Christ. It's in union with Him. So Jesus used this illustration to show that in order to be healed of our sinful condition, we must look to Christ. His death was absolutely necessary if anyone was to be redeemed from sin and its penalty. Now if you hear nothing else today, don't lose sight of that. He had to die. He had to shed His blood as a substitute for sinners. Because all have sinned. All fall short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is what? Death. And because without the shedding of blood in God's providence, there is no forgiveness. And no other man, no animal could ever be an acceptable offering to God for the sins of men. So He had to come and He had to do this. And the lifting up of the Son of Man on the cross was the one and only possible remedy for the condition of fallen men. This was the only way that the demands of God's justice and righteousness could be met. So the salvation of sinners and Jesus' return to the glory that He had with His Father before the world began would be won by His being lifted up on the cross. and God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love, as Jesus says here, with which He loved us, He gave us His Son unto suffering and death, so that we might live through Him. So last Lord's Day, we came to John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." We asked, could God really love the sinful, wicked, rebellious world that hates Him? God gave His one and only Son, whom He loves, to suffer and die on the cross for people who hate Him. Who were His enemies. All who have been and who are being saved are called out of that evil world that hates God. We were once among those who were enemies of God. But God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't die for us when He looked upon us and said, you know, there's one who really deserves me to suffer and die for him. No, He died for those who were His enemies. That's us who believe. His love came down despite the fact that none of us who are recipients of that love in any way deserved that love. That's the love of God. It's so different from the love that we love with. This is the love of God for His people, for those He had chosen in His Son in eternity past. And by use of the term world here, God so loved the world, Jesus is showing us that God's love is not restricted by race. It's not a love that He extends only to the sons of Jacob. Until Christ came, as we know, the assembly of the people of God was limited to the physical descendants of Jacob and to those proselytes who had come into that assembly through circumcision in adherence to the law of Mount Sinai. But now Jesus was announcing that God's love reaches into the whole world, not through circumcision of the flesh. That's not how you come into His kingdom. You come into His kingdom through the new birth, something only He can do, the circumcision of the heart. And there's no contradiction. You may be thinking, well, wait a minute. Doesn't the Bible tell us don't love the world or the things in the world? It sure does. But there's a distinction between God's love of the world and what the Apostle John is writing in 1 John 2.15. He says, don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now why does he say that? He says it because all that is in the world. He's talking about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life. That's not from the Father. That's of the world. And he's saying don't love that. The world's passing away, and also its lusts. The one who does the will of God lives forever. So in that passage, John is not using the term love in the same way Jesus used it here in John 3.16. Jesus was speaking of God's self-sacrificial giving of Himself for those who didn't deserve John, the apostle, is saying to us, don't be enamored of the things of the world. Don't long for, don't lust after worldly things. He's warning us, as James did. Chapter 4, verses 3 and 4. James wrote, you ask and you don't receive because you're asking with wrong motives. so that you may spend it on your pleasures." We pray, give me a new boat, Lord. Give me a million dollars. That's not the kind of prayer that God is going to receive. James goes on, you adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility to God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. God's calling His people out of the world because He loves those of us who are in the world and of every nation, tribe, and tongue. And Paul teaches, Romans 12, 2, don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed, though, by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. How are we going to be transformed by the renewing of our mind? Where do we find that transforming power? In the Word of God. In prayer to God. That's where we find that power. So Christians are not to love the world with the self-indulgent love of participation in it or by loving the stuff of the world. When we speak of God's love, though, we speak not of any desire in Him to gratify Himself, but to give of Himself to undeserving men. So let's understand the distinction here. John and Jesus are using the word in two different ways. So God gave His one and only Son. One writer describes this as the astounding greatness of this gift. 1 John 4, 10, and this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. To God, love is all-giving. And He gave His Son. His giving of His Son was entirely an act of love. So that men He had chosen in His Son would escape that fire of hell, would escape the judgment, and would be saved unto eternal life. And you know what's wonderful about this, among other things, is that in this gift of His Son is also the assurance of the ultimate fulfillment of every promise. Paul writes, Romans 8, 32, if He didn't spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us, won't He give us freely all the things He's promised? If He's going to go that far, you think He's not going to go the rest of the way and deliver to us this inheritance and glory? God's purpose in giving His Son to us and sending Him into the fallen world was so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Now, the perishing of which Jesus is speaking here is not annihilation out of existence. It's eternal condemnation. It's being banished from the presence of God forever. Because God, remember, is the source of life. And one who is separated from God, who is not believing in Christ, remains forever, forever under the perpetual wrath of God. Eternal. Adjective that's rendered eternal. Everlasting in some translations. You know, it's used 17 times in John. It's used 6 times in 1 John. And do you know that in every single case it's used in connection with the word life? We read the word eternal, the word life is going to be right there. And this life has to be given as a gift before a man can know God. John 17, just hours before he went to the cross, Jesus prayed to his father in heaven and as he prayed he said, this is eternal life that they may know you. You see there's a connection between being spiritually reborn and knowing God. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So God gave His Son, He sent His Spirit, and He gives us the faith to embrace the Son. And because faith is itself a gift of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. It's fruit, eternal life, is also a gift of God. We should never think we've earned or merited anything from God. The Jews thought that when Messiah came, what was He going to do? He was going to overthrow Rome. He would bring judgment on Rome. John the Baptist was surprised. What's going on here? Are you really the Messiah? We don't see this overthrow we were expecting. Everything's still going on as before. Well, Jesus had come, not on a mission of judgment, but on a saving mission. Yes, He will one day judge all men according to God's standard of righteousness. But in His first advent, in His first coming, God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world, people from every nation, tribe, and tongue might be saved through Him. This mission was a mission of salvation in the eternal counsel of the triune God. The Father decreed He would send the Son into the world, a world which in His omniscience He knew would rebel against Him. The Son agreed. He came willingly. He went to the cross willingly. Let us understand that. He came into a world that He had created to accomplish for those who would believe, those He had saved, a right standing before God by offering Himself on this cross to take the punishment due their sins by the shedding of His own human blood. We know this to be true because this is what He said and because this is what He did. And again, one day He will return in glory. I mean, this is what we all look forward to. This is the promise that is assured by the fact that He sent Him in the first place. He's going to return in glory and when He does, He will judge the world. And what will occur on the day of Christ's return will be the imposition of sentence. He'll sentence those who did not in this life believe in Him. But look at verse 18. To the praise of the glory of His grace, Jesus said, He who believes in Him is not judged, is not condemned. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. When we heard this statement of this Pope, Bergoglio, many ways to God, he said, all different ways of God, all different religions are all coming to God. That man is a heretic, and yet he rules in that denomination. There isn't some other way into God's kingdom. Don't ever believe that. But rather than hate God because He's made only one way to enter into His kingdom, maybe we ought to be eternally grateful that He's made even one way. He didn't have to. He gave His only begotten Son to suffer humiliation, torture, and death so that we could enter into the kingdom. So while many bring condemnation on themselves by their sin and unbelief, Romans 8, 1, therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. None. If you've been joined to Christ, born again of the Spirit, joined to Christ, there's no condemnation for you. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death which condemned you. So try to imagine Nicodemus standing there. He's now in silence. He's got the eternal Son of God incarnate speaking to him. Try and picture that. Here's Jesus now revealed to Nicodemus that night. He told him who he was, that he had come down from heaven so that he knew the things of which he spoke. And not only did Jesus attest to His divine nature, but in that illustration of lifting up the serpent and Him being lifted up, He revealed His saving mission to Nicodemus. Although Nicodemus certainly did not understand at that time. Jesus revealed these things. Yes, the language was a little bit cloudy for Him. It's not for us. We understand the Son of Man had to be lifted up. In Jesus, all the divine realities, His grace, His love, His power, His power to redeem, and the absolute necessity of faith in Him were laid open before Nicodemus. He taught him all these things. Whoever believes in Me has eternal life. All those things being true. Tell me, why would any man reject Jesus? Why would anyone turn away from Him? Why? Jesus tells us why. Because all have sinned and men love the darkness. Men love their sin. So they've joined in Adam's rebellion against God. Men love their sin and so all men stand condemned unless and until God acts to save them. And if He doesn't, they'll remain in that state of condemnation by their own choice. They have free will, but they will always choose that which gratifies them and serves them. And then Jesus said, He who doesn't believe has already been judged, because he's not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. You've judged yourself, in other words, if you don't believe. You have chosen hell. You've chosen eternal misery. Every believer has already been judged. What's going to happen on the last day when Christ returns is that that verdict will be publicly proclaimed. That's what's going to happen that day. And hear Jesus' words in verse 19. This is the judgment. The judgment of condemnation He's talking about. That the light has come into the world. He's the light. And man loved the darkness rather than the light. for their deeds were evil." They love the darkness because their deeds are evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light. That's why when you try to bring Christ to somebody who loves their sin and wants to stay in their sin, they won't listen to you. That's why we pray, not for them to do something, but for God to do a work in them. To open their heart and open their mind to hear those words of the gospel that you're speaking to them, that God has given us. Everyone who does evil hates the light. Not my words, Jesus' words. And he doesn't come to the light. Why? For fear that his deeds will be exposed. We all fear that our deeds will be exposed. But they're going to be exposed anyway. And you know who knows already all about all of our evil deeds? Our Father in heaven and His Son and His Spirit. The light has come into the world. This isn't the first time that John has written these words. John frequently in this gospel and in his letters makes this contrast between the light and the darkness. Christ being the light and darkness being evil and wickedness. Chapter 1 verse 4, in him was life and the life was the light of men. You want to talk about a few words that are so full of amazing divine truth, go to John 1.4. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not receive it. Why did the darkness not receive the light? Well, Jesus tells us, because men love the darkness. They resist and they reject the light of God shining on them and shining in them. And why is that? Because what that light exposes is the evil deeds, their evil thoughts, their evil words. That's why. And make no mistake, none of us were any better than anybody who's in the darkness right now. What's happened is that God, by His grace, has rescued you from it. And now you believe. But it's not because any of us are any better than anybody else. But in Christ was and still is the very embodiment of light, meaning the divine truth of righteousness, of goodness, and virtue, and love. All of this is of the light. Darkness is the power of sin and death that actively wars against the light. And yet men loved the darkness rather than the light. They preferred to live without the knowledge of God and His righteous purity because they didn't want sin. They didn't want to confront their sin. We all had to do that. We all must confront our sin. That's what sends us to the Savior. The law became a tutor to lead us to Christ. Adam and Eve wanted to hide themselves, didn't they? But God could see, and He can see us. People stay in the darkness. It isn't because of a lack of information. God has impressed the works of the law on the heart of every man. Every man has a conscience. Every man knows there's a God who created all things. Every man knows right from wrong. The reason people reject Christ is not a lack of information. It is moral failure. It's a love of sin. They're lost in sin. They love their sin. And that's why we pray for them, that God would rescue them as He's rescued those of us who He has now rescued. And nothing's changed in the nature of fallen man. Fallen man is the same today as Adam was the day he fell under the wrath of God. Those to whom Jesus came, though, and people today were not willing to receive Him. Since the fall, man's nature is such that he has no inclination to humble himself and recognize his sin and come to Christ for forgiveness. So he hides his sin under this cover of darkness. And for some, that darkness, by the way, might be some false religion, might be some imaginary God. But by his love of the darkness, he condemns himself. By his avoiding Christ in the practice of some false religion, he condemns himself for all eternity to eternal darkness. And as our brother said this morning, lost people are deceived because they think they are basically good. They think they're good enough. The light here says, no you're not. It says there's none righteous, there's none who does good, there's none who seeks after God. It says all have sinned and fall short of His glory. They think they're basically good, but not by God's righteous standards. So what happens is the unbelieving are always avoiding the light. That's what Jesus is telling us. They'll have nothing to do with him, who's the very source and embodiment of God's truth and love and life. The only means through which anybody could obtain forgiveness of his sins and the one who actually accomplished the redemption and forgiveness of sinners. They want nothing to do with the Bible. Or with Christ's church? With His people? That's why the chairs aren't always filled. People don't want Christ. Because they love the darkness, he says. That's why they don't want me. They want their sin. They cannot even abide hearing the truth spoken to them. How often have you been interrupted the first time you took a breath when you were witnessing to somebody? Don't want to hear it. Because it's the light of truth. But we have to keep witnessing. Don't stop. Don't ever stop. Even if in their hearts they hate the light. So did we. And He made a change in us. They think they're basically good because they think that all our deeds have something good in them. And they refuse to acknowledge something. That not only our deeds, but our thoughts, our motivations are already laid bare before our Creator. They don't stop to think. God can see inside us. He knows our hearts as we saw the other just a week or two ago. It's a sad, sad verse. It's difficult to look at this and see that people will just refuse to open their heart to a God who can already see them. So as God is light, darkness is the direct opposite. It's where Satan It's all that men imagine and invent of their own foolishness regarding God, their own souls, their eternal destiny. And people don't even want to believe that there's an enemy out there who's trying to lead them away from Christ at every opportunity. But while unbelievers choose to remain denizens of the domain of darkness, and cling to their evil and unbelieving ways, the true believer, Jesus said, comes to the light. He comes to the light, and as a result, his deeds will be manifested as having been wrought in God, because God changes us. So, here's Jesus now, finally, against the negative, he sets the positive. He says to practice the truth. He who practices the truth comes to the light. That means that one who puts the truth he's received in his heart into his life, into his actions. His works are now works that have been wrought by God, have been motivated by this change that's happened in him. Jesus calls them works of the truth. Only one who has the truth in his heart can practice the truth. In other words, if you don't have God's truth in your heart and believe in it, you're not going to live according to it. And the truth which Jesus is speaking here is the saving truth, the good news of God's grace in Christ. Let me put it another way. in no other way than through faith in Christ can even a single work of ours be wrought in God or pleasing to God." Hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. One of Satan's great lies is we're all basically good. Our good outweighs our bad. That's the religion of the unbelieving. It is a damning religion. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. We don't really see what we really are. We don't really see the evil in us, the self-indulgence in us. The works of the new man in Christ, they're not perfect. None of us is going to be perfect. But we're now moved by the Spirit of God indwelling us. That's why Jesus uses this term. These works that we do will reveal that they've been wrought in God. And they should. Our lives should reflect His character more and more each day. God's work in a man who comes to the light, in other words, is shown in the man's practicing the truth he has learned. Showing that the light did its work in him. His will, his desires, his affections have changed. His new life has begun with contrition and repentance for all past evil works. With a genuine profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. These are all works wrought of God. In a daily pursuit of laying aside the old self and putting on the new self in Jesus Christ. In union with Him. If you've been born again, do you understand you've been joined into a spiritual union, a real union, with the Lord Jesus Christ? He's walking with you. His Spirit is within you. His Spirit is teaching you, moving you, convicting you. And look, a perfect practicing of the truth is not going to be immediate. But if you've been born again, understand that God has already begun the work of conforming you to the image of His Son. That's what's happening. And the one who's been born again has now surrendered his life to Christ. And he daily pursues Christ's likeness himself. It's worth it, you know. He is coming back. There is an eternal state for every person. If He's opened your eyes to the truth, then let us live according to it. In his commentary, John Calvin wrote, some think it harsh that they who do not believe in Christ should be destined for eternal condemnation. Anybody want to sign on to that fallacy? Calvin tells us, every man who stands condemned by God and destined for an eternity apart from Him will receive the very thing he has desired and chosen. And that's the truth. His sin and unbelief are a testimony of his own conscience and of his love of the darkness. That's what Jesus is saying to us here. Calvin goes on, it's his own wicked heart that has hindered him from coming to Christ. By rejecting the remedy God has provided for his dire condition, he purposely clings to the very ground of his condemnation. And that's what Jesus is saying to us. Today, Jesus is still calling out to all mankind through the gospel, through people like us who are sharing the gospel. Calling people to come to Him for forgiveness. To come into the light. To be reconciled to God. Even as millions this morning continue to choose to remain in the darkness. To be somewhere else right now on the day that the people of Christ gather to worship Him. The question for us is, do you want to remain in darkness? There's only one means of escape, and that is trust in Christ and surrender of your will to His. No one, no one can escape the sentence of God except by placing your trust in Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish. And this is demonstrated by surrender of our will. Our lives are the expression of what we truly believe. Our repentance is the expression of what we truly believe. Question for every one of us is set forth in very stark terms by the writer of Hebrews. Chapter 2, verse 3, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The answer? If you neglect the salvation offered in Christ, there is no escape. You are condemned and will stand condemned. Unless we are very different from every other gathering of professing Christians this morning, chances are we may need to hear this reminder. Some of us may need to hear it this morning. I want you to hear these words again from the writer of Hebrews. see to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven." He's the one and only hope for anyone. And he said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life. He's the one and only way of reconciliation to God. He's the only source of spiritual life. And if you've not come to Him, if your life is not about serving Him as Lord, if there's still anything you're still placing ahead of Him, He calls you to come into the light and be saved. If you've been blessed by that love, may you live your life in a spirit of gratitude for that gift, manifesting that your works are wrought in God. And do so with a heart filled with love for Him who saved you because of His love for you. Let's take a moment, meditate on the Word spoken to us this morning. The words of our Lord as He speaks to our hearts by His Spirit and His Word. And then let us bow before the Savior. Let us examine ourselves. And then we will gather at His table. Lord, Your Word is filled with power. We feel we can only begin to touch the surface of the depth of Your meaning. Lord, I pray we've heard You this morning. I pray You've improved on what I've spoken here, that You've, by Your Spirit, spoken directly to the hearts of all who hear. And Lord, let no one leave here not having been made spiritually alive not wholly trusting in You for Your kingdom and for Your glory. In Christ's name, amen.