John 3 // He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

all righty we are in uh john chapter 3 john chapter 3. we're going to pick it up in verse 16. anybody know what what that verse says it's one of the few verses that i had memorized uh before i um actually became a christian um because i went to my church uh went to church with my grandma and uh so i got baptized when i was seven i got saved when i was 16. it's a little backwards okay so start in uh john 3 16. let's start there uh forgot so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life for god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved he who believes in him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed but he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they've been done in god and so let's uh let's pray and we'll get into it father we just uh again thank you for your word thank you for john lord it's just a it's just a blessing to go through it and uh i don't know i like i like the the red letters i like the the words that that jesus stated and um it's a blessing to hear from him and uh to see the way that you worked uh through your people um through his ministry and and through his work and in their lives lord it's just encouraging to see that in the life of a guy like nicodemus and it just encourages us to uh follow after you and recognize that you're gonna do the same kind of work in us or we probably that you bless the teaching of your word tonight and that you do this all in jesus name amen okay john 3 16. and basically um we went through last week and started talking about nicodemus normally i would i would have finished that whole section but i ran out of time which is par for the course with me right in in any case as you go through and you look at what's happening here jesus is talking to nicodemus about how to get to heaven john 3 16 or john chapter 3 is about how to get to heaven and and so nicodemus has position he's got power he's got possessions he's got pretty much everything that a jewish man was supposed to have to be blessed of god they they believed that all of this stuff that he had in his life was the blessing of god and it's not that it's not but they believe that that was a blessing of god and the evidence that god was at work in a person's life and that god had uh accepted somebody if you had all these things going on the problem was that nicodemus realized that that's not enough that there has to be something more than this there has to be something more than religious education there has to be something more than you know being in the sanhedrin which was basically kind of like the supreme court slash executive branch of israel and there has to be more than possessions there has to be more to it than this and he didn't know if he was going to heaven and so he came to jesus by night because he's afraid of what people around him are going to think that's you know most of the time when when i have talked to people about coming to christ the reason that they don't is because they're afraid it's not because they don't agree and it's not because they don't know that god's real it's because they're afraid they're afraid of what's going to happen to them what kind of changes are going to have to be made they're afraid that they're going to have to give things up and most of all they're afraid of what people are going to think about them that's usually what the issue is it's it's not it's not whether or not it's true it's whether or not the guy sitting next to me is going to mock me if i do it and so that's uh that's something that um you have in every human being and it goes all the way back to the very first uh when jesus was ministering these guys we have to be able to uh recognize that we're gonna stand before christ alone in the judgment you're not going to be there with your pals nobody's going to be around us we're going to be standing before jesus alone we're going to be judged by him now obviously if you've given your life to jesus that judgment is going to be an awesome thing because it's a judgment for rewards if a person hasn't given his life to jesus that judgment is going to be a frightening thing it's a it's a scary thing it's a the bible says in the book of hebrews it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god and so we don't want to we don't want to experience that and so you give your life to jesus and and it's cool and and you're good you're still going to stand alone in front in front of him though you're still going to stand alone uh there's a there's a passage in second corinthians chapter five that talks about the fact that we're going to stand before the bama seed of judge of god the judgment seat of christ and we're going to give an account of what's been done in our bodies whether good or bad and so you know again that's a little scary because what if i've done bad things and i'm a christian right those things don't go away because i'm a christian those things go away because i'm a christian and i confess them that's when they go away and if i if i uh if i die without confession of my sin you can be sure that god's gonna take care of my sin when i stand before the before the bemis seat before the judgment seat of christ there are christians who kind of think that god just does this overall grace thing where all their sins are washed away that is not what the bible says the bible the bible teaches that my sin my sin is paid for it still needs to be confessed if i'll confess my sin he's faithful and just to forgive me and to cleanse me from all my unrighteousness but i have to confess and if i refuse to confess something what happens to us here on the earth if i refuse to confess my sin what do what does god do to me here on this earth what's he do give me an example he convicts me right sometimes he chastises me sometimes i go through huge trials because i refuse to stop doing the things that i know that i'm not supposed to be doing god deals with my sin here right does he hate me because he's dealing with my sin no he's dealing with me as a son and so children are chastised by their parents well that doesn't stop when you get to heaven and so if i if i go to heaven and this is what i'm talking about with this stuff i know christians that are just mean to people and think that it's okay with god they just do rotten things to people and think that they can go they can go along with their life and they justify it on one one level or another i've seen christians do things that if you did them in the world people would punch your face out that's what they would do and it would you know be taken care of right there you either you'd either stop it or you know you'd move on but christians don't do that with each other we don't punch each other out right because we follow jesus right and so that you know with some people that leaves them in a position where they think that they can get away with this stuff you don't get away with any of that and if you're going to sleep at night after you've done things that are rotten to people you better you better watch out because what's happening there is you're getting a hardened heart and that is going to be taken care of than judgment you're going to give an account before god of what you've done in your body whether good good or bad that's why you keep the list short you know that's why you stay open to the conviction of the holy spirit that's why you don't let your heart get hardened that's why you look at what jesus is like and you act like him and when you read your bible and god brings to mind that person that you did that thing to when that happens you do something with that because that again is the conviction of the holy spirit you can be sure it's going to be taken care of here or it's going to be taken care of the bema seat and you don't want it taken care of at the bema seat it's a little bit more public than here you know god when he's convicting me here is just you know i'm going to sleep at night and god's like uh you know what you did today what you said today you know you hurt that person's feelings you did this to them you did that to them and i need to go and take care of those things and if you don't um you can uh again you can know that god's gonna god's gonna do it he's gonna he's gonna take care of that stuff in any case um we go to heaven because of what god's done for us and i want to make the reason that i'm talking to you about that stuff is because in this passage we're dealing with it talks about everyone practicing evil hates the light and refuses to come to it and everyone who's practicing uh he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they've been done in god that's that's what it means to be a follower of christ and so again i'm not going to be a perfect person there are going to be these times when i fall short of what god wants me to be and what god wants me to do and that doesn't mean that i need to hide it or ignore it or um or you know some in in some way cover it up and it doesn't mean that i need to walk around an absolute defeat what it means when i do that is i need to confess it i go to the lord and i confess it because that's what a righteous man does that's what somebody who's walking in the truth does and so we're not perfect we're forgiven but we're forgiven when we confess and that's the way that that whole thing works um again i want to i want to make a distinction here between salvation and a right relationship with god salvation is given to you when you become a christian you become part of the family of god and that's the deal with you the whole idea that god forgives all your all your sins forever that becomes the problem in a lot of in a lot of situations with christians because if god forgives every sin that i'm ever going to commit then what is the point of me telling him i'm sorry and there are some people who teach that you don't have to tell god that you're sorry and that's a problem once again um here's the here's a difference again when when we're looking at this this is not like um i don't want to say it's not like a contract because on one level it is but it's a contract that brings you into the family of god and so it's legal in the sense that you're going before god and he says that i will do certain things for you if you if you will do this and you know there's your part and there's his part and all that kind of stuff there is that whole aspect to it but it's a contract bringing you into the family of god and as soon as i come into the family of god now who is god to me who is he he's my father and now we have a father-son relationship or if you're a woman you have a father-daughter relationship and you're part of the family and that's just there you're part of the family but when you're part of the family and you're a punk then god gets to discipline you and things aren't right between you and him unless you make them right if you're part of the family and you go over and you punch your brother or your sister then god as the father is going to come to you and said say why'd you punch your brother why'd you punch your sister why did you do that and you're going to have an issue with the father at that point there's going to have to be for there's going to have to be correction there's going to have to be forgiveness there's part of the correction is the father is going to go say say to you you go tell your sister that you're sorry and it's no different than that that's how it is in our families and that's how it is in the family of god and so the fact that you punch your brother or your sister does not mean that you're not part of the family anymore it means you're a punk who punched your brother or your sister and if you punch your brother or sister for for good reason it still means you're out of line but then the brother or the sister needs to take care of things too and so it's it's just like that it's like a family and so when i step out of line as a son of god god convicts my convicts my heart can't sleep at night and he makes me go and take things and make them right with people as much as i can make them right with people you know the bible recognizes that there's some people you can't make anything right with right but as much as you can as much as lies within you the bible says you go and you make things right with people and you get it right with them and you get it right with god and that's forgiven and it never comes up again forever but if you're going through your life and you're doing those things and you're ignoring the the ignoring the conviction of the holy spirit what happens is god god turns up the heat on you as time goes on he turns up the heat on you and sometimes he allows certain things to happen to you to get your attention to make you stop it that's what happens here on earth and if you don't do it if you don't take care of those things you're going to be standing before him in the judgment and he'll do it publicly and that's why we fear god in that same passage in 2nd corinthians 5. actually let me read it to you check this out it says it says this um therefore we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him this is 5 9 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ that each one may be may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad knowing therefore the terror of the lord we persuade men but we are well known to god and i also trust you're well known in your consciences and then uh he goes on and talks about some other things knowing the terror of the lord there are things that i really do not want you to know about that i have said or done or thought or you know whatever in my life i don't want those things being brought out at the judgment seat of christ i don't want them to and so what i do is i take care of those things i go to the lord ask him to forgive me and then he takes it and throws it as far as east is from west and he never remembers it again keep a short list with the lord because he's going to be he's going to be taking care of it one way or another and that's from a personal perspective that's from my sin the sin of other people a lot of times you're sitting there looking at the things that they've done to you and some of them have been christians you're looking at the things that they've done to you and it looks like they're getting away with it and nobody's getting away with anything nobody is getting away with anything god's going to take care of it all and again that doesn't mean necessarily that they're not saved and they might not be that's a possibility but it doesn't mean that they're not saved it means that you know they're a punk christian and you know they should be taking care of things but in any case you know as you look at as you look at this passage as you look at what jesus talks about when he talks about having a relationship with god um many times it's something different than than the things that are being taught in churches especially in modern times in the united states something different than that and so we need to be paying attention to the words of jesus in any case nicodemus is coming to jesus and asking basically he wants to know how to get to heaven and jesus tells him how to get to heaven nicodemus goes i don't understand that how can these things be jesus goes you're a teacher of god you know a teacher of israel and you don't know these things he expects him to actually know his old testament and then he goes through and he gives him a little education on jesus because what nicodemus came up to jesus and said said to him was rabbi we know that you're a teacher come from god and he uses the term rabbi which is a term of respect but all it means is teacher and what jesus lets him know is i'm not just a teacher i'm not just a rabbi i'm someone that was prophesied in the old testament and so he talks about the fact that he's the one who comes down from heaven and he's the only one who's come down from heaven and he talks about the fact that he's the one that we have to look to to be saved just like the serpent in the on the pole in the wilderness and then in john 3 16 he talks about the fact that g that jesus is the sacrifice for my sin for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life in the old testament when they did sacrifices it was a covering for sin it was it didn't it didn't take sin away it didn't deal with the sin issue all it did was covered it up covered it up and that's literally what the word atonement um in the old testament means it means to cover and so it's like you know back back before they had vacuum cleaners when you would uh when uh people would sweep their house they would have rugs on their hardwood floors because they didn't they didn't usually have lots of carpets and stuff like that and so they'd sweep their house and if they didn't want to get the dustpan and all that stuff what they do is they pick up a rug and they'd sweep the dirt under the rug that's exactly what sacrifice was in the old testament it's like the the the sin is dirt and the sacrifice was the rug and you're taking the dirt and you're sweeping it under the rug and now it's covered by an innocent sacrifice but it's only covered when jesus comes he's the ultimate sacrifice and now the sin is taken away and so i have the ability to come to god anytime i want to and be forgiven for my sin and again when you're looking at what christ did on the cross he paid for my sin all my sin is paid for but i still have a relationship with god and if i don't confess my sin i put a distance between him and me and so in the old testament it says it's not that my eyes can't see you it's not that my ear that i'm that i'm deaf and my ears can't hear you it's not that my arm is short and i can't save you it's that your sin has separated between you and me and that's the problem with sin in a christian's life it separates us from god so you get that distance and you can you can tell that the distance is getting more and more intense or more and more um well just intense is good more and more intense when you when you get older in the lord and you refuse refuse to deal with your garbage if you refuse to deal with the things that god's convicting you on the distance starts getting bigger as time goes on and so what you have to do is you have to replace that relationship you had with jesus when you first got saved where you were absolutely in love with him and just enamored by everything that he said and everything that he did and you start replacing it with other stuff and it can be nice and religious and so jesus becomes christ you don't call him jesus anymore you call him christ now he doesn't have a name he's got a title and i you know it's like i i um i always kind of watch out for that and i'm not saying that everybody who who calls jesus christ is distant distant from him but i've noticed this in the lives of people that i've been close to as they get more distant from christ they stop talking about jesus altogether they start talking ab they start giving him titles instead instead of calling him by name and as a matter of fact over time they stopped talking about jesus altogether and they start talking about god and it's an indication of the distance that's taken place with them and they're replacing jesus with religion you know you can replace jesus with your bible you can replace jesus with bible reading you can reach replace jesus with church you can re replace jesus with worship songs you can replace jesus with all kinds of stuff that is that looks really spiritual on the outside and if i looked at you i could see you doing all these things and it looks to me like you're right with the lord but in fact you're distant from him and you're you're trying to replace it with religiosity and so then you go to candles and then you go to you know it's like people people get into all kinds of weird things when when jesus is no longer the focus we need to be tight with him and so anything that puts distance with between him and me my sin that's what it always is anything but that puts distance between him and me needs to go and i need i need to be willing to confess those things and that's just having a soft heart towards the lord you need to have a soft heart towards him and if you don't have a soft heart and you're seeing the distance what you do is you go to him and you say jesus i don't have a soft heart and i'm distant and i don't want to be i kind of do want to be but i really don't want to be because that's really the truth right but i don't want to be and so i want you to do whatever need whatever you need to do to to soften my heart and get me right back to the spot that i was when when i first knew you when i was first in love with you and that's what jesus was talking about in uh the letter to the ephesians in in revelation chapter two um he said i you know it's it's like you've worked you've labored you've done all this stuff you're really religious you know when somebody's off the wall you know i'm paraphrasing here but this one thing i have against you you left your first love you didn't say you lost it he said you left it you moved and again when you're when you're looking at that whole thing and uh again jesus seems distant guess who moved and wasn't him and i always keep that in mind i want to keep it fresh i want to be you know it's like i've been a christian for over 45 years now and i want to be a jesus freak my whole life i want to love him my whole life i want to i want to be going after him even even more than i was when i was first a christian my whole life and i want to be satisfied with anything less than that right and so father-son relationship father-daughter relationship and there's a difference between being in the family and being a brat or a punk or you know just somebody who needs to be disciplined right there's a difference between those two so again he's the sacrifice for these things he pays for all my sins all my my sin has been paid for and he is the one who did it and not only my sin and this is the scary thing he paid for the sin of the whole world and again look at verse 16 for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him did not perish but have everlasting life forgot so loved the world that he gave his son and so when when you read for example romans chapter 5 the whole chapter is about the fact that adam got it got us into the problems that we're in actually the last half of the chapter adam is the one who got us into the problems that we're in because of original sin and because adam sinned sin passes down to every single one of us and we got this sin problem and then along comes jesus and jesus takes care of all the sin he's the one who takes care of it all and not for us only but for everybody when jesus went to the cross he paid not just for my sin past present and future he said he paid for the sins of the whole world past present and future and that's what this verse is talking about god loved the world it doesn't say god loved the christians for god so loved the christians that he gave his only begotten son or for god so loved the elect that he gave his only begotten son it doesn't say that it says for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that the world through him might be saved now you know there's there's people who are into radical calvinism and they believe that jesus only died for the people who are going to be saved otherwise you know his sacrifice on the cross would be pointless because why would you die for the sins of somebody who is never going to come to you and it might be because you love them maybe maybe that's why you would in fact that's what the passage says and so calvinist will talk about the effectual sacrifice of christ on the cross but when you look at this passage and you try to throw that in there let me just do that for you for god so loved the elect that he gave his only begotten son that whoever uh whoever of the elect how many of the elect are going to believe in him so that doesn't even make any sense when you know the the idea of the elect is all those who are actually going to come to christ that's what the idea of the elect is and so they teach that a certain amount of people are going to come to christ and they have no choice really about that they're just going to come to christ because god chose them they're coming because of that whole thing right and the bible does teach election but it's in a different context and so for god so loved the the elect that he gave his only begotten son that whoever of the elect believes in him that doesn't work should not perish are the elect ever going to perish if you know anything about election the answer is no absolutely not and so it makes no sense just in the verse itself but have everlasting life then look at verse 17 forget god did not send his son into the elect because if world is elected in verse 16 then world would be elected in verse 17. for god did not send his son into the elect he didn't send it to something elect he sent him into the world god did not send his uh his son into the elect to condemn the elect but that the the elect through him might be saved and again that's a nonsense it's a non-sequitur it's a nonsense statement if you're talking about the elect it's not the elect it's the world he so loved the world and so jesus paid for the sins of the whole world here's the tragedy of anybody going to hell they already had heaven paid for they already had their sins paid for all they had to say to god was yes and they said no whenever i've talked to somebody who's involved in calvinism about this whole this whole issue you know they try to fight against that and it's it's like this if you know if i want to buy you a ticket to disneyland i can buy you a ticket to disneyland and i can come up to you and i can have this ticket to disneyland say you know what if you if you can actually i'll buy a ticket and an airplane flight to disneyland right and so i come up to you with with an airplane ticket and a disneyland ticket and i walk up to you and i say you know what love you so much that i wanted you to go to the happiest place on earth right and so i bought you this plane ticket so uh because i know that you might have a problem getting there and i bought you this 150 disneyland ticket because that's how much it costs to get in there now i think it's 150 somewhere around there i bought you these two things so that you could go to disneyland and spend time there and i reach out to you and i hand them to you and is it yours not until you take it it's already bought it's already paid for and it is not yours until you take it right and obviously use it and that kind of stuff and that's a picture of salvation god's done exactly that he's made the way to heaven he's he's going to he's given you a ticket to the happiest place in the universe and all you got to do is say yes and take the gift that he's given to you and that again it's what's being taught in that passage and verse 17 is a cool verse um it talks about the fact that that jesus was not sent to condemn you but to save you for god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world and a lot of times we think that's exactly what god's around for we think that that's exactly what the bible's around for we think that that's you know what the what the whole thing is around for you know it's like we don't want that to be something that god does before we get in but after we get in there's a bunch of people who need some condemnation right and so i don't want the condemnation but after i get in there's these other people that need the condemnation they're all politicians jesus loves politicians too right i was just doing the q a today and i was you know i was talking about the you know that whole issue that we're here on the earth to preach christ to people and you know if i ever got a chance to talk to nancy pelosi my first my my first thing that i would say to her if we ever got a co in a conversation would not be all the junk that she's done or about all the you know the the the garbage that she's come up with and you know i have a real problem with that lady in a lot of levels that would not be the first thing that comes out of my mouth the first thing that come came out of my mouth would be the fact that jesus loves her and that jesus wants her and that she needs to go to heaven then she would come back with i'm a christian i go to catholic church once you know every five years or whatever she does and then we talk about that whole thing and what a real relationship with god is like i witnessed to her like i'd witnessed anybody else and then if she didn't want to hear all that stuff then we could talk about the other stuff and where that was going to get her right because jesus loves people and he doesn't want to condemn them god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost that's always been his mission and again he's a straightforward guy as we as we're going through and and looking at the life of jesus and you know some of the things that john puts in his gospel uh well we've already seen some of that stuff he he is not above calling a spade a spade he deals with things he's already driven guys out of the temple with a whip and you know all of that kind of stuff he's a straightforward guy but he still loves these people and he does not want to condemn them and he wants them to be with him and so it's kind of that that's that's kind of a weird balance especially if you if you kind of grew up my grandma grew up in church and she was so she thought everybody was wonderful and you know i loved that but i love that about her but she was wrong everybody's not wonderful we live in a fallen world in any case he goes on and he talks about uh the fact that we need to have a part in this and we need to believe so god made his part he gave his son as a sacrifice he didn't do it to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved and then this is our part he who believes in him is not condemned and so i have to believe in christ i have to believe in jesus i have to follow him the word believe in this passage you guys know this it means to trust him to rely on to cling to to adhere to that's what it means if i'm believing in something it's not uh in the sense that you have in the bible here it's not believing with a head knowledge type of thing you've heard that saying that some people miss heaven by 18 inches the distance from their head to their heart and believing biblically is a heart thing it means i trust in him i i follow him i'm i'm with him uh believing uh in in general well i'm believing in this stool i'm putting my faith in it believe the word belief in the word faith come from exactly the same word in greek and so it means to trust and so i'm trusting in this stool and as soon as you know as soon as i saw the stool i came up and i put the stool in a certain place i got up on the stool and i sat on the stool i didn't stand over there and look at the stool and go i believe that stool will hold me up i didn't even think about doing that what i walked what i did was i walked over and i sat my you know sizable derriere onto the stool and now i'm believing in the stool like the bible says i'm trusting in it i trust that i that it's not going to fall out from underneath me and make me hit the floor right and that's the same kind of term that you have in this passage it's not an intellectual belief it's a belief where you actually trust him and you're you're adhering to him you're clinging to him he who believes in him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god what gets you condemnation not believing how about murder does murder get you condemnation is that in there nope how about adultery does adultery get you condemnation is that in there nope how about homosexuality does that get you does that get you condemnation how about pedophilia does that get you condemnation you see what i mean it's a lack of trusting in christ and the key to this is that when i'm really trusting in christ i'm not going to be murdering people i'm not going to be a pedophile i'm not going to be somebody who commits adultery i'm not going to live in those things i may fall in some area but that's not who i'm gonna be anymore and so again it's not that we don't that we don't sin as christians but there's not a sin that keeps me out of heaven except for one there's only one sin that keeps me out of heaven and it's a lack of trust in christ i don't trust him i don't believe in him i don't follow him i'm not with him and so heaven is getting to heaven it's not about being good as a christian and i need to emphasize this because of what i said at the beginning of the study getting to heaven is not about being a good christian getting to heaven is all about jesus and my actual relationship with him otherwise if it was about anything else we'd have a problem in all kinds of areas and whenever whenever you think about these things you got to think about examples in scripture my favorite example in scripture about being saved is the thief on the cross did the guy do anything no he can't because his feet are like this and his arms are like this and he's hanging on a stick well a tree he's hanging on a cross and he didn't he cannot do anything did he do anything before he got to the cross yeah he was a thief in fact the romans were were putting him on the cross most likely because he wasn't just a thief but probably because he was a thief and a murderer he was a robber he would be he would have been a brigand is what they would have called him back in those days and so he's on the cross for everything that he's done and he got caught for it and he deserves everything that he got and he flat out said that when he was talking remember when he's talking to the other thief on the cross he goes we deserve to be here but talking about jesus he doesn't right and so he knows exactly who he is he knows exactly what he's done and then what does he say to jesus he said lord when you come into your into your kingdom remember me has he done anything has he gone out and made anything right has he asked anybody to forgive him has he done it you know and again he hasn't done anything except for one and it was trusting in christ and that's why he was going to heaven that's what jesus said to him he said verily verily i say to you it means amen on main so be it so be it it's literally what it means in greek so be it so be it today you will be with me in paradise because he said those words and there was something behind it it's not my sin or my sins that get me into hell it's the sin of unbelief that gets me into hell and when i get to hell i pay for my own sin and that's the deal so again it's pretty straightforward he believes in him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son and then he says this and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light unless it's deed should be exposed remember what i was talking about at the beginning of the study we don't live this way anymore we don't we don't do that anymore that needs to stop and so if i'm if i'm going to be a follower of christ i need to be somebody who loves the light and again verse 19 this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil you know i i still see this in myself i do something wrong and i look at it and i don't want to deal with it and it's kind of like i almost in my head turn my face away from it and i just don't i don't want to deal with it and that doesn't last very long you know i've been a christian for for a while now it doesn't last very long but there's this overcoming of my fleshly desire to turn away from light and i have to go okay god you're right and if it's my wife saying it to me it's a little bit more intense okay fine you're right that kind of thing but what i have to do is i have to turn away from the darkness i have to turn away from that attitude of not wanting to see the thing that i know that i've done wrong and that's where the world's at they don't want to admit that they're wrong when you call somebody a sinner it's why they get so offended you don't even have to call him a sinner you can say well jesus came to die for our sins and people get offended almost immediately are you calling me a sinner are you calling me a bad person i'm a good person and when you when you run into somebody who adamantly goes after it that way saying i am a good person and they have that kind of attitude that's what's wrong right there they they love the darkness rather than light and they don't want anybody to tell them that they've fallen short in some area and the problem with that is that's how we come to salvation that's how we come into a right relationship with christ i'm fallen i'm messed up i need jesus and here i am 45 years later fallen and messed up and i need jesus still and every every time i'm dealing with that it's that kind of thing then he goes on and says for everyone practicing evil evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deed should be exposed that's one of the one of the problems with being close to jesus is he's going to point things out to you and he doesn't have your same agenda he doesn't have your same attitude towards the things that you're dealing with in your life and i've talked about this before there are times when i'm praying i have specific things that i want to pray about and god has other things that he wants to talk to me about and it's a little irritating because i got you know it's like i i got business to deal with and we need to take care of this stuff and god's like yeah no no no no yeah i think that you just did the other day or that thing that you just watched on the tube or that thing that you just said to that person or you're you know you can go on and on with this stuff that lust that you have that thing that you don't want to confess that problem that you have with that person all that kind of stuff and you just don't want to deal with it and what do what jesus does is it exposes the light here's the thing about this the closer you get to him the more he exposes it's kind of you know it's like it's like uh um fluorescent light in a motel i you know and every time i go to a motel man it's just like you know when i go when i go into my um when i go into my bathroom we still got the led things or you know what whatever those things are called um we don't we don't have the good old um incandescent bulbs anymore because they out loud those that's irritating but we don't have those anymore and that was all nice soft light and made you look really good and you you go into a motel and turn on the fluorescent light the bathroom it's like you see every pock mark on your face you ever you see everything that ever happened to you over the last 60 years or however long you've been around and it's sitting there you know in all its glory and you're like do people actually see me this way and then you you know if you're a lady you put on the makeup and all that kind of stuff and if you're a guy you just deal with it in any case when you're coming to christ the closer you get to him the closer you get to jesus the the brighter the light that's why paul at the beginning of his ministry said i'm not i'm not one of the least of the apostles and at the end of the of his ministry he said i'm the chief of sinners and so you know he's been around for for decades following jesus and you know in the very last letter that he ever wrote he said i'm the chief of sinners and it's because again that's that's what happens with you the closer you get to christ the more uh that you see this stuff and so um you know when when i was first following jesus i thought that i was doing pretty good because i wasn't cussing anymore and i hadn't gotten in a fight for five years and i um you know i uh wasn't drinking and i went you know it's all the stuff i don't drink and i i don't chew i don't hang out with girls who do you know and so it was it was that kind of attitude there were these big things that were happening in my life and i thought i was doing pretty well and then you know i'm sitting there and there's been these times in my life where god just showed me stuff i'm sitting there five years and jesus goes okay you got all this outward stuff going on and it's all taken care of and stuff what about this thing and then he starts zeroing in on my heart and some of the attitudes that i had and you know uh some of the things that that i was watching you know there were there was a period of time there where god just convicted me totally of watching r-rated movies because just nothing you know it's like literally you you go in and you're paying for filth and you know it's like it's like i i i um am doing this and i'm like well it's not you know it's not all that bad i mean they only said the f word like 15 times and there was only a little bit of sex in there and there was a you know and i'm i'm going through this stuff and god's got like really if i was there with you would you take me to the movies steve that's how he does things with me would you take me there and you know it's like you can't treat him like mitch and say shut up he's god and so you just you just deal with it and again that's that's what happens as as you go on the older i get in the lord the more god is zeroing in on inward heart issues and all the all the junk that it's kind of like he's come into my house done basically a uh a basic overall cleaning of the house and it all looks really good except for there's some closets with some junk in them and he's going over to the closets and opening it up and going what is this maybe we should clean this out too it goes over to another closet what is this maybe we should clean this out covered up up over the fridge you know that nobody ever looks in there what is this and he wants to clean that stuff out too that's a good thing that's a good thing that's what our life is all about so we come to the light and if we don't want to come to the light it's an indication of where our hearts at or at verse 21 he says but he who does again the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they've been done in god and that's that's what i want to be that's that's who i want to be as a believer here's another thing about this when you when you look at this um it says verse 18 he who believes in him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of god you see you see how he phrases that he doesn't say he who does not get saved is going to hell he he he says in the passage the reason you're going to hell is because you have turned away from the light because you love darkness rather than light and so going to hell is not is not something that happens because somebody didn't say the prayer or going to hell is not somebody something that happens because they didn't decide to get saved going to hell is something that happens because you actively turn away from the only salvation that you could ever have you love darkness rather than light that's what causes people to go to hell because they reject jesus that's why people go to hell not because they don't accept him it's specifically because they reject him so the offer is given and they go no i don't want that i want this you get that that's an important thing and it's not that that we can't we can't frame it in in the other uh in the other position dude you need to get safe you need to you need to actively give your life to jesus it's not that we can't uh frame it in that kind of thing because the bible frames it that way too but jesus talks about the reason that people don't come to him or the reason that people are condemned is because they have actively rejected jesus actively rejected him and so somebody who doesn't actively reject jesus is not somebody who's going to hell and here's who i'm talking about babies when when you know there there is this process that people go through when they are growing as a human being and most often you know obviously when you're when you're talking about babies they're not innocent they're sinful but they are not actively rejecting christ right they they haven't looked at the light and decided to turn away from the light what they're doing is they're just screaming because they're babies and they want something they don't they don't have the ability to reject jesus and it's the same thing with two-year-olds two-year-old may be bratty and that kind of thing but they haven't sat there and gone you know what this whole jesus thing this following god thing i think that i really don't want to do that i i don't have any desire for that i would actually after good you know uh rather go after lustful things and so instead of jesus i i don't know i want gummy bears you know whatever a little kid is going to want and to replace jesus with that doesn't happen does it and when you're talking about five-year-olds now that gets to be a little bit different as time goes on because they're they're learning things and they're making decisions and the older they get the the more the decisions are are impacting their life and there comes a point where they're accountable before god for the decisions that they're making they're not just a little kid who doesn't know the implications of these things god does not condemn anybody that has that has not rejected him that's why in the bible children go to heaven it's not because god you know kind of made this this little thing where okay from the age of you know zero all the way up to the age of whatever age you want to give it eight or ten or twelve or whatever at that age they're kind of covered there's no passage in the bible that teaches that what the bible teaches is that somebody who goes to hell is somebody who's actively rejected christ somebody who goes to hell is somebody who's been given light and they've rejected the light and they don't want to have anything to do with it because they love darkness and that's what gets people in hell and babies don't do that and three-year-olds don't do that and again as you get get up in age you can have kids who who are more intellectually um able and they understand more things uh by the time that you're getting into the teenage years that's the point where you really know that people are making choices here and they're not children anymore and so they're you know there there is this concept called the age of accountability when you're accountable before god for your actions and for the things that you've done and little babies are not accountable before god for those things because they don't have the ability to believe and so when you're talking about an infant you say you know walk up to an infant and try to share the gospel with them you know what honey you need to get saved you need to give your life to jesus right now just say this prayer after me they can't even talk and they don't even understand what you're saying right and god's not going to hold them accountable for that and that's the point that's being you know that's one of the points that that's being made in this passage it's why i emphasize the fact that there is an active turning away from the light now what about people who've never heard of jesus they've never heard the name jesus right and so you got the people you know the pygmies in africa and they've never heard the name jesus and how they how can they how can they come to the lord um and are they all going to hell and so we have that whole thing um if they haven't heard the name jesus the reason that they haven't heard the name jesus is because there have been no people that have gone to them and shared the name of jesus with them right that's the implication there no missionaries have come they have no knowledge of this stuff and so now they're just stuck and they're all going to hell um does god need missionaries to tell people about jesus does god need missionaries to give people light no can god do this all by himself yes he can and that's exactly what's happened in the bible you know why abraham got saved it wasn't because somebody talked to him there's no there's no indication in scripture that anybody came up and witnessed abraham and said get saved dude nobody did that and according to to jewish tradition the reason that abram actually abraham well in the bible um stephen in acts chapter 7 says abraham was was an idol worshiper he started off as an idol worshiper and according to jewish tradition this isn't in the bible but according to the jewish tradition his dad ran an idol shop and one day he was looking at the idols and you know he's making these things and and that kind of thing he realized that you know he's worshipping things that actually he made he's looking up at the stars he's looking up at the sky he's looking up at the at the sun and he's looking at the moon and he's seeing that the moon and the sun obey laws and at one point he decided i don't want to obey or worship things that are obeying laws i want to worship the one who is the lawmaker and that that's the reason that that abraham came into a relationship with god because he looked around at the creation and realized that the creation itself obeys laws and so there's got to be somebody above this whole thing so that's abraham so if that can happen to abraham can it happen to a pygmy in africa yes absolutely and so what the bible what jesus says here is everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deed should be exposed but he who does the truth comes to the light and earlier on in john john said in john chapter 1 that jesus is the one who came into the world and he's the light and he's the one who gives light to every man and i think that that probably means every man and woman obviously it's in the generic and so he's he gives light to people even pygmies in africa did you know that when they found the pygmies in africa that they found out that they had the ten commandments how'd they have the 10 commandments where'd that come from you know it's like they've never even seen a white guy and so how do they get the 10 commandments they don't they don't know that there's anybody on the on the planet but black people they had no no record of anybody coming and giving them to it giving the commandments to them and the reason that they had them is because jesus is the light and he gives light to every man who comes into the world and all you have to do is respond to the light and so they're in the same position actually they're probably in a better position than you were when you got saved because they're out at night every night with this with the skies ablaze giving a testimony to the fact that god is the creator of everything and so they might be an animist and worship trees and worship animals and stuff like that and they're in the same position that abraham would have been in where they're like i'm worshiping these animals and i actually eat them i'm worshiping trees and i actually cut them down and make things out of them including the gods that supposedly represent the trees and at some point they can they get you know god's gonna bring into their mind the fact that isn't this stupid and what about the heavens who made that whole thing and you know they're in that kind of position and god can speak to that kind of person there's a book that everybody every christian should have it's eternity in their hearts it's a book that was written by a missionary and it's all about the stories of christian missionaries who have gone into unreached peoples and found out that they know about the creator god they usually it goes like this they're serving some other god but they know about the creator god and their people used to know used to follow the creator god but they don't follow him anymore and they don't know how to get back to him and a lot of times he actually he's called the god of heaven he's called the sky god in anthropology he's the god of heaven and usually he has a son and these are stone age tribes many times people who have never been contacted by anybody in the modern world and these guys go in and they find this stuff out what what modern missionaries do now when they when they go into an unreached group of people they don't go in just preaching the gospel they go in and ask them to tell them their stories tell them tell me your stories about your gods and they'll go through and listen to all the stories and when they get to the sky god the one who created everything and the one that they don't know anymore they go that's the guy i want to talk to you about and then they should start sharing the gospel from that point because this is ubiquitous this is across the board with every person on this planet and it's because god gives light to people god's totally capable of reaching these guys and again verse 21 21 but he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they've been done in god and that's you know that's again where we want to be i didn't mean to take that much time but that's it because i can't do anything else in eight minutes okay let's pray do you guys like that isn't that cool i think that's really cool yeah it's awesome so let's pray father we again we just thank you for uh jesus thank you so much lord for for the words that he spoke the um the way that he shared with nicodemus i love it that nicodemus came to him and that this was recorded i love the the way that he reached this man i love the things that jesus said about salvation and condemnation and light and walking with him and uh father we just we know that there's no way that we can do this stuff on our own um even even the belief that we're called to is something that we need to be dependent upon you for um there's there's so many times when i fall short of uh the calling that you've called us to and uh lord god like the uh blind man said i believe help my unbelief excuse me not the blind man but the the guy whose daughter was dying um i believe helped my unbelief and lord many times we're in that position we want to trust you and we want to trust you totally and completely lord help us to do exactly that thank you lord again for your word thank you for the salvation that you've given us um lord i i love it that it's all been paid for it's all been taken care of i also love the fact that you're not just a deal maker you're my father i love it lord jesus that you're my savior and holy spirit you're my guide and or just again thank you for the relationship that we have with you we pray that um we'd walk in the way that you've called us to just ask that you do this all in jesus name amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 480

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: The Creation Story, Truth, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Jesus, Evidence of A God, Bible teaching, Sermons, verse by verse bible teaching, Good bible teachers, John, Gospel, Jesus on the earth

Id: fG3hfjrNDFI

Length: 60min 10sec (3610 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 29 2021