In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'The Just Condemnation of Unbelieving People,' the focus is on John 3:18-21. The sermon explores the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, emphasizing the necessity of being 'born again' to enter the Kingdom of God. Belief in Jesus Christ is presented as the sole criterion for salvation, distinguishing believers who are justified from unbelievers who are condemned. The sermon discusses the implications of rejecting Jesus, highlighting God's just condemnation of those who refuse His remedy for sin. Dohm explains that unbelievers are in an ongoing state of condemnation due to their rejection of the atoning work of Christ. The sermon also contrasts the lives of believers and unbelievers, illustrating how believers embrace the light and truth, while unbelievers love darkness. The cooperation of the Holy Trinity in salvation is emphasized, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together to save sinners. The message concludes with a call to self-reflection and genuine faith in Jesus as the foundational requirement for salvation.

Our sermon text is John chapter 3 verses 18 through 21, but I'm going to start at the beginning of chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, We speak what we know, and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. 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, 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, 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 have been done in God. Let's pray. Oh Lord God I pray that you would you would come and that you would show us Christ today.

Lord that you would help us to see your mighty hand in this passage. Lord, I pray as Taylor prayed that you would be with Jason. Lord, that you would give him power and authority in the word of God and how He preaches today. Oh Father, I pray that we who are listening, that we would not hear and turn and forget, but that we would think about it, that we would seek out how this affects us, how this affects our lives. Oh Lord, please be glorified by how we use this time.

Please help us to pay attention and to be good listeners. Oh Lord, please bless this time. In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is The Just Condemnation of Unbelieving People. Last week's text was so wonderful because it was about the gracious salvation of God.

God loved the world and He sent His unique, one-of-a-kind Son, the Lord Jesus, into the world to lay down His life that anyone who repents and believes could be clean, could be washed as white as snow. There are implications of that for people who reject Christ, who do not believe in Christ, And that is the just condemnation of God. God is right to condemn them for rejecting His Son. We've been studying over the last three weeks a single interaction between Nicodemus and our Lord Jesus. In the first week, the centerpiece of the text was, you must be born again.

You know what? You can be a strict law keeper. You can even be an acknowledged religious leader. You can even speak well of the Lord Jesus that does not put you in right standing with God. Spiritual life is a work of the Spirit and you must be born again.

Last week the centerpiece of the text was the phrase, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. This is a pre-figure, a picture of Jesus Christ being lifted up on the cross. If you look to Him by faith, just as those Israelites who had been bitten by fiery serpents and they were dying, even as they were expiring, As they looked to the bronze serpent by faith, they were saved. This is just a picture of what Jesus is to his people. This week, our final week of studying the interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus, we get the alternative to believing and having everlasting life.

If you believe, you won't perish, you'll have everlasting life. But if you don't believe, you're condemned already. This is a text about that. As we go to the text, let's go to the text by praying and asking for the Lord's help. Our God, your Son Jesus is so precious.

It's right that life and condemnation would hang in the balance depending on our disposition towards your precious Son. May He be precious to us. May He be a great, all-sufficient source of life for us. May we not stand justly condemned because we've rejected Him. Give us soft hearts.

Give us a willingness to believe and to entrust ourselves to your Son Jesus. I pray that you would use this text in a mighty way in our lives to cause us to throw ourselves upon Him anew. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. I'm not going to subdivide the text as we normally do, I'm going to draw four main points out of it. The first is speaking of the person who believes.

So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, it's believes. The person who believes, the one who believes in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is not condemned. And of course, this is just a continuation of what we were learning last week in verses 15 and 16. It said so plainly, if you believe in Him, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you do not perish but you have eternal life. You are held back from the destruction that is reserved for sinners.

The Bible speaks so plainly about who is sinner. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We are headed into self-appointed destruction because of our sin. But if you believe in Him, in Jesus, you are held back from this destruction. In fact, even more than that, you are given everlasting life.

You get to live in His presence forever and ever to enjoy Him and to worship this Savior. The other places that this is said, that if you believe you will be saved, especially in the Gospel of John, it's everywhere in the Gospel of John, and especially in the letter of 1 John, it is everywhere in those places, over and over again both inside and outside of the writings of John. One that is particularly noteworthy, at least to me, is in Mark 16, Because it says it so plainly. Mark 16 is the Great Commission, but it's not the one that we're most familiar with. The Great Commission that we're most familiar with is in Matthew 28.

Mark has an account of the Great Commission also in Mark chapter 16 verses 15 and 16. Listen to it. And he, Jesus said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. There you have it in the plainest words that you will ever see it.

He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. Jesus wants Nicodemus, This precise law-keeping Pharisee, this acknowledged religious leader, this one who even has spoken well of Him but is not in the Kingdom of God, Jesus wants him to understand that salvation turns on this single point. Are you with me? Are you following me so far? Salvation, whether you are saved or lost, turns on a single point.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Not do you have sincerely held beliefs, even beliefs that you'd be willing to die for. This is not some cloudy nebulous thing that if you just are sincere about your beliefs, you'll be saved. No, this is very precise. If you believe in the name of Jesus Christ, the name of Jesus Christ is just all that Scripture reveals him to be.

If you believe in God's revelation of the Lord Jesus, then you are saved. If you do not, then you are lost. By this standard, there will be tax collectors and prostitutes who feel the weight of their sins, repent and believe the gospel, and will be in heaven, while the most careful, precise, law-keeping Pharisees are left out." Just think of that. Think of how the grace of God turns things on its head. Because even the most precise, law-keeping Pharisee is a sinner and has evil in his heart.

God has to do something about that. While there will be many tax collectors and prostitutes, what we viewed as the worst, most vile sinners who have felt that way in their hearts. In other words, they've owned it. They agree with God about themselves, that they are sinners and deserving of condemnation, and that knowledge has made them flee to the cross. And they have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.

They have both ascended to the truth, meaning they embrace what the Bible says about Jesus, but they have also consented to the person. They have entrusted themselves to Jesus Christ and they have forsaken every other source of hope and hope only in Jesus' work on the cross and they are born again. They were prostitutes and tax collectors and adulterers and murderers, but now they are clean before God. While those putting up a facade of righteousness, having an external righteousness, and they have been so precise about keeping it up, will be lost because they've never been born again. They have never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is absolutely foundational. If you believe you are saved, period. Not comma in some other stuff. If you believe you are saved, period. And the only thing that should be said at this point is because Jesus says it in many other places and Paul says it in many other places and Peter says it, beware there are counterfeits.

Meaning, we can deceive ourselves by saying, I believe in Jesus but there's not a shred of evidence that we actually do believe in Jesus. There is a counterfeit that doesn't save, so be careful. Simple, genuine faith saves. Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter 8, Paul actually explains how this works.

The whole chapter is about that, but we don't have time for the whole chapter. So, we'll satisfy ourselves with 33-35. Romans chapter 8. Paul explains in Romans chapter 8 verses 33-35 how it is that a prostitute or a tax collector who believes can be saved. Romans 8 verses 33-35.

Paul writes, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? And that's a rhetorical question.

The answer is nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. With what Paul is teaching in Romans chapter 8, it's not that belief somehow allows God to overlook sin. There's nothing magical about trusting Christ that allows God to say your sin doesn't matter. There's something judicial that's happening in the justification of sinners, and it is the transfer of guilt. Do you understand the distinction and how important the distinction is?

One has God not caring about the guilt of my sin. The other has God making every wrong right and giving the just reward for every sin, and yet making a way for sinners to be clean and free from the penalty of their sin. God does condemn every sin. Not one act of treason against the Creator God goes overlooked. Everyone is dealt with.

God condemns every sin. Jesus is condemned and dies and the believer is justified because Jesus has taken his place and borne the penalty for his sins. This is why In Romans 3.26, Paul says that God is both just and the justifier of those who believe in Christ Jesus. God doesn't give up any of His justice in order to save me or you if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this is the person who believes.

He is not condemned. He is justified because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This goes back to earlier in the passage, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. This is the work of the cross justifying sinners. Now the person who does not believe, So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's does not.

The person who does not believe, the one who does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, is condemned already. This is what Jesus says, not condemned in the future, might be condemned at some point in time after death, but is condemned already, stands condemned. This is the person who has no part in the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. An atoning work is a work that brings two adversaries together and makes their enmity right, makes the point of conflict right, heals the breach, the atoning work of Christ. This is what Jesus has done.

He has taken adversaries, He has taken sinners and a holy God, and his atoning work has brought them together and made the point of conflict right by shedding his own blood. So a person who doesn't believe is a person who has no part in that atoning work because there's only one way to lay hold of that work, that atoning work, and it is faith. And because they don't believe they have no part in the only way prescribed by God to heal the breach between a holy God and the sinner. So this unbelieving person is in, presently, now, an ongoing state of condemnation. I'll say that again because this is really one of the main points of the text.

An unbelieving person is in today, presently, right this minute, in an ongoing state of condemnation. Meaning, they woke up today not trusting in Christ, they're already condemned, and tomorrow they're condemned, and next week they're condemned, and next month they're condemned, and next month in ongoing state. It isn't condemnation coming and going as they do a little better or a little worse. It is an ongoing state of condemnation with the wrath of God abiding on Him or abiding on her. Why is this so?

Why an ongoing state of condemnation? Because sinning makes you guilty, and the Bible is clear. We are all sinners, and God has given one and only one remedy. There is no back door. There is no way around.

God has given only one remedy to sinners, only one atoning work, only one thing that will bring the two parties who are in conflict together and it is the work of the cross. It is the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. What did Jesus say in John 14? I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but by Me, but through Me. So if you have rejected that one and only remedy in your unbelief. You stand in condemnation today. It is a present reality in your life and it is ongoing until you come into a state of saving faith, if that ever happens. Jesus said it is like Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness.

We studied that last week. Numbers chapter 21. Not believing in Jesus, not assenting to the truths about Jesus, and consenting to the person of Jesus and trusting yourself to Jesus. That's what it means to believe. Not believing in Jesus is like being bitten by the fiery serpent.

You're as good as dead. Unless you look to the bronze serpent, you're dead, though you might still be breathing. You're as good as dead. And Refusing to look. Refusing to look.

So Jesus gave us the Old Testament picture, Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness, and now he's speaking about not believing keeps you from the one remedy. So it's like you've been bitten by the serpent, but you won't look. I don't like God's remedy. I want another remedy. I'll call the doctors.

I'll try the home remedies. I'll Look for an antidote, another antidote. Think of how just the condemnation of God is. Meaning, how right He is to condemn sinners. What claim do we have that God would make a way to justify us?

Forget about rejecting Christ. Go upstream from that and ask yourself this question, what claim do I have upon this holy God that He would make a remedy for me to be clean and forgiven and in a right standing with Him again? I'm a traitor. Is the king obligated to make a way to keep the the traitor from the gallows? What king has ever been required to do such a thing?

And yet God has, and He's not only sent an angel or a prophet, He has sent His own Son who He loved. But you reject His remedy. So he had no obligation to keep you from the gallows, you traitor. You who have committed treason, high treason, against the God who gave you life, and yet you've lived in rebellion against Him and He had no obligation to do anything to keep you from the gallows, but He has. He sent His Son to bleed and die.

He was pleased to crush His Son and you want another remedy. You want another remedy. You reject His one remedy, how just God is to condemn these rebels. And so what Jesus has done has nothing to do with you. You're condemned already.

It's just a matter of time. Because you have rejected the remedy. Here's what Matthew Henry says, I think he hits the nail right on the head. Matthew Henry says, unbelief may truly be called the great damning sin, because it leaves us under the guilt of all our other sins. It is a sin against the remedy.

I'm going to read that again. That is pure gold. Matthew Henry says, unbelief may truly be called the great damning sin because it leaves us under the guilt of all our other sins. It is a sin against the remedy. Unbelief is a sin against the remedy.

God has made a way for sinners to be pardoned. But a rejection of the remedy keeps you under the condemnation for every other sin that you have. It is the great damning sin. So the first thing in our text is the person who believes. The person who believes is not condemned.

The second thing in our text was the person who does not believe. It's a person who through unbelief is sinning against the one and only remedy and so the weight of all the other sins remains. The condemnation for all of the other sins remains. And so you're condemned already. You don't have to wait another nanosecond in time for your condemnation.

You are in a state of ongoing condemnation. The next thing in the text is the nature of the condemnation. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, it's nature. The nature of the condemnation. Let's read again verses 19 and 20.

John 3, 19 and 20. And this is the condemnation, That the light has come into the world, and 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." Think back to John's introduction to his Gospels, the first eighteen verses of John chapter one. If you'll think back to that, Jesus doesn't say a word. There are no red letters in John 1, 1-18.

It's all John the Gospel writer setting up the great themes of his Gospel. So there are no words of Jesus, but it's the doctrines that Jesus teaches throughout the Gospel distilled in a most sweet way. You can tell John the Gospel writer has learned so well at the feet of Jesus. Go back to John chapter 1. I want to sort of have a running interaction with the first 13 verses of the Gospel so that you can see how plainly what Jesus teaches in our text is all found right here in the introduction to John's Gospel.

John chapter 1. I'll be stopping and sprinkling in comments. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, And without Him nothing was made that was made. Here in these first three verses we have the only begotten Son of God. I've been sort of re-translating that instead of only begotten, which can sort of be confusing as if Jesus was created to say, no, the real meaning of that, there's nothing wrong with the translation, but the real meaning of it is the unique Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God in a way that no believer is the Son of God.

He is a member of the Trinity. He was with God and He was God. That makes Him unique. He is the one of a kind Son of God. This is exactly what we see in verses 1-3.

No one else fits this description. No one can lay claim to all things being made through Him except for the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." Here in the very first verses of the Gospel of John, Jesus is identified as the source of life. Surely, not talking about just physical life, but definitely spiritual life is here as well.

Jesus is the source of spiritual life and light, truth, being able to perceive the truth. Jesus is the source of that. But we see already here something is wrong with mankind. Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it or understand it. Something is wrong with us.

Verse 6, There was a man sent from God whose name was John, John the Baptist. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might be saved. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. God is sending witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why?

We are told here so that we might believe and that in believing we might be saved. Verse 9 is so critical. Look at verse 9. That was the true light, this is speaking of Jesus, Jesus was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. Now we have the just condemnation of sinners.

No one can say, God never gave me any light. Or, John 1 verse 9 isn't true. You have to pick. You Have to choose at this point. Either this verse is not true that everyone coming into the world is given light by God, admittedly some given more light than other light, but all given enough light to be condemned if they sin against the truth that God has shown, made so clear to them.

Verse 10, He, Jesus, was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. So this is picking right back up. Something's wrong with us. The Creator came into the world not as a man who couldn't be recognized, but as a man who was fulfilling prophecy after prophecy and doing sign after sign that proved that he was who he claimed to be.

And yet, his own did not receive him. This is more on the backwardness and the dullness and the deadness of mankind, even in the face of the overwhelming evidence that God is keeping His promises in the life of Jesus. Finally verses 12 and 13, this is really the climax of this, verses 12 and 13, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This is just what Jesus has been teaching to Nicodemus. You must be born again. You must be born of God.

It is not a birth of flesh. It is not a birth that comes out of the will of the flesh or the will of man. No one can give this to you. You must be born of God. And you know that you've been born of God if you've been given the grace to believe.

All of this is here in the introduction, John's introduction. This is just what Jesus is teaching Nicodemus. What Jesus teaches in these two verses in John chapter 3 about men loving darkness, Jesus has Paul expand on in Romans chapter 1. So track with me here. In John chapter 3, Jesus says something very short about mankind and their love for darkness.

And he has, Paul expand on it in Romans chapter 1. By the way, this is how we should view all of scripture as Jesus having a human author expand, Teach on something. Jesus is the author of the Bible. In that sense, every letter should be read. Every word of Scripture is a word of Christ.

He is the Word. So turn to Romans chapter 1. In Romans chapter 1, Jesus, the author of the Bible, has Paul expand on what's being taught in our text. Romans chapter 1. Just think about belief and how belief saves and unbelief damns as we read Romans chapter 1.

Romans chapter 1, I'll be reading 16-23 and then just pointing out a couple of spots after that. Romans chapter 1, 16-23. I'll be reading Romans 1, 16-23. Paul writes, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

For the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them." Just think back to John chapter 1.

Every man coming into the world gets light. This is exactly what Paul is teaching. Verse 20, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Now a downward spiral is being described.

As men suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, meaning loving their sin, and so anything that contradicts or tries to separate them, any truth that tries to separate a man or a woman from her sin, gets jammed down. It gets overridden. And as this happens and continues, and they won't acknowledge, he or she won't acknowledge God as God or be thankful, something begins to happen. Futility of mind, you become futile in your thoughts. You begin to lose the ability to think rightly about things and even perceive and acknowledge what is really true.

Your foolish heart is darkened. 22. 22. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things." Then in verse 25, they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. So they take the truth of God that is self-evident, even in what you can see in creation, and they trade it for a lie.

And then in verse 28, Look at verse 28, the first part of it. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind. You see, he's saying the same thing in different ways. They didn't want to retain God and their knowledge, and so God gave them over to a debased mind, and they lost the ability to even think rightly and recognize truth. It was judgment for their rejection of the knowledge, of the light that He had given them.

And then in verse 32, here's how it ends, Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but approve of those who practice them. So here's the end of the downward spiral. They know in their heart of hearts that the people who do these things deserve death, but they do them and they approve of others that do them. So, Paul is teaching here that we in our nature, in our natural condition, are not just ignorant, but that we are willfully ignorant. Willfully ignorant.

We suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Back to our text, John chapter 3, where Paul speaks of loving darkness and practicing evil. Here's what J.C. Ryle says, it's really helpful. It helps us not to misunderstand, and you'll know what I mean when I read this quote.

J.C. Ryle says, their habits of life may not be gross and immoral. They may be even comparatively decent and pure. But the last day will prove them to have been in reality evil. Pride of intellect, or selfishness, or love of man's applause, or dislike to submission of will, or self-righteousness, or some other false principle will be found to have run through all their conduct.

When Christ is refused, we may be quite sure that there is something or other in life or heart which is not right. What is J.C. Ryle saying here? He's saying that there are very respectable ways for this to be true. For what to be true?

For it to be true of you that you love darkness and you practice evil, but no one can tell. So J.C. Ryle observes that, there are these people that you and I know, they live in our neighborhoods, we work with them, and their habits of life are not gross or immoral. In fact, they seem comparatively decent and pure." So how can it be true that they love darkness, that they practice evil? Well J.C.

Ryle says it's easy to hide. These are all things that can be done in the heart where the outward facade looks fine. There are respectable ways to love darkness. There are respectable ways to practice evil where no one on the outside knows, but God knows. God sees the heart.

Here's from a note in the Nelson Study Bible. People offer many excuses for not accepting Christ. Some cite the presence of hypocrites in the church. Others claim inability to believe some of the truths about Christ or the gospel. These are merely attempts to conceal a heart in rebellion to God.

The ultimate reason people do not come to Christ is that they do not want to. You have to know this, especially if you're going to embark on evangelism. We all should be embarking on evangelism. What this means is you're going to have people who are going to give you a thousand reasons why they can't and won't accept Christ. Rock layers and evolution and hypocrites in the church and they can't believe this about the Bible, and they just can't make themselves believe that the Red Sea could part, and it's not about those things.

This just masks a heart in rebellion to God. What scripture says about those people is that at a minimum they're deceiving you and they might have even deceived themselves. At the heart of it they don't come to Christ because they don't want to. They hate Christ because they love their sin. Finally, so that was The nature of the condemnation.

The nature of it is people love darkness. People want to cling to their wickedness. Finally, the one who does the truth. That's the last topic taken up in our text. The one who does the truth.

A person doing the truth is someone whose pattern of life is consistent with what God says is true and good and beautiful. If you do the truth, you're doing the things that are in harmony with what God says is right. The believer isn't afraid of light. The unbeliever is afraid of light. He doesn't want his or her deeds to be exposed because they're evil.

But the believer isn't afraid of light. Believer comes to light, not runs away from light. The believer can say with David, listen to Psalm 139, Psalm 139 is a Psalm of David, Psalm 139 verses 23 and 24, David cries out, search me oh God, know my heart, try me, know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting." This is the heart of the believer. Welcoming light. Why?

Because there's nothing bad to be exposed? No, because they're not afraid of their evil being exposed. In fact, they want it exposed. They want it dealt with. They want to part with it in their heart of hearts.

In an unbeliever's heart of hearts, they will not part with it. In a believer's heart, in their heart of hearts, they want to part with it. They do see it for what it is and sometimes they find themselves going back to it but they hate that. Why? Why is this true?

Why is it true that the believer isn't afraid of the light? Runs to the light, not away from the light. I think there are three reasons. Let me give you the three reasons. One's in the text.

I'd like to give you two others that I think I could prove from Scripture. One, as a believer, I know who I am. I don't have to pretend that I'm not a sinner anymore. As a believer, I own who I am. I have believed what God has said about me even as unflattering and Ugly as it is I believed it and it's okay with me that other people know it I don't have to protect that ground anymore because The blood of Christ cleansing me has freed me from the fear that comes along with having to keep up the facade.

So the believer doesn't have to keep up the facade anymore. Like I'm sinless, I can't be condemned for anything, I'm better than other people. The believer left that ground a long time ago. Number two. The indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is allowing me to clean out works of darkness.

The indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is allowing me to clean out works of darkness. So that there is less and less to be ashamed of over time. There is less and less over time that If you knew about me, you would be ashamed of me. You would condemn me. Because the gospel not only breaks the penalty of sin, the gospel breaks the power of sin.

Does that mean that Christians don't sin anymore? I didn't say that. I don't believe that. The Bible doesn't teach that. But, the power of sin has been broken in your life if you have truly repented and believed the Gospel.

You don't have to be a slave of sin anymore. And it should be true if the Holy Spirit is living inside you, that more and more you're cleaning out these corners of darkness. Number three, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is bringing me into God glorifying patterns of life. In other words, the power of the Holy Spirit isn't just to clean out the bad, it's to actually engage you in the good, the things that bring glory to God. So that your patterns of life change and there are patterns of your life that lift up Christ as a good, transforming Savior.

Someone can look at your life who knew you in times past and say, wow, what a mighty Savior has been at work in this life. This is what our text calls, Deeds done in God. On this point, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit brings us into God glorifying patterns of life. Listen to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10, Paul writes this, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." Paul started this section by saying, I don't even belong with the apostles.

I was like one born out of time. But God's grace hasn't been in vain in my life. God's grace has done real, lasting, transforming work in my life. So even though among these other apostles I don't even belong among them, God has made it so I've labored more abundantly than them all. But it wasn't me, it was God.

It was the grace of God working with me. Believers should be able to say that. Believers should be able to look back in their life with all the discouragements, with how slow your sanctification has been. If you're really in Christ, things you're discouraged about, you should still be able to look back and say, the grace of God really has transformed me. I am different.

Now, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and the grace of God has not been in vain in my life, I'm changed. I'm different and I'm becoming more different. This is what Paul said. Now, something important that I haven't commented on yet. Jesus teaches that the person who doesn't believe loves darkness and practices evil.

We're talking about patterns of life. So a Christian is going to have places where he said, where I say, here I've loved darkness. Oh Lord, forgive me and change me. Here I've done evil. Oh Lord, forgive me and change me.

Here I've done evil. Oh Lord, forgive me and change me. But we're not talking about pattern of life. Jesus is teaching that the pattern of life of an unbeliever, someone who doesn't believe in Him, is that they love darkness. It's the rule, not the exception.

And they practice evil. It's the rule, not the exception. And that, on the other side of that coin, The person who does believe, who was born again, who was a child of God, their pattern of life is that they come to the light. That's the rule, not the exception. And that they do the truth.

That's the rule, not the exception. Brothers and sisters, friends, the scripture doesn't know anything about a hybrid. What is a hybrid? A confusion of the two. Where a person who doesn't believe comes to the light as a rule and not as an exception.

Where a person who doesn't believe does the truth as a rule and not as an exception. Scripture doesn't know anything about that. Scripture doesn't know anything about a believer who loves darkness as a rule, and a believer who practices evil as a rule. Scripture doesn't know anything about those confused hybrids. Turn to 1 John.

This will be our last stop. 1 John 1. 1 John 1. So again, we've got the same author, John the Gospel writer, John the letter writer in 1 John 1. Follow me as I read verses 5-7.

1 John 1 verse 5. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." It's another place just saying in a little different way the same thing.

Christians believe in Christ And the pattern of their life is to walk in the light, they come to the light, not run from the light. That's the rule, not the exception. And they do the truth. They do the things that are in harmony with what God says is true and right. That's the pattern of their life.

An unbeliever is a person who the rule of their life is they love darkness and the rule of their life is they do evil. That's the pattern. This should have us all asking ourselves, do the patterns of my life say that I love darkness or light? Do the patterns of my life say that I practice evil or do the truth? It's not what we say.

It's what the patterns of our life declares. This is a wonderful help to us to diagnose, am I self deceived, am I kidding myself? Of all the things you can kid yourself about, do not kid yourself about this. The pattern of your life is telling the story. What's the rule and what's the exception?

Is it the rule that you love the truth and you do the truth? You love the light and you do the truth. You do what is right in God's eyes or is that the exception? Is the rule that you love darkness and practice evil, or is that the exception? This helps us to know whether we're self-deceived.

One final point. And in this one discourse, going all the way back to the beginning of it, we have the cooperation of the Holy Trinity in salvation. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have conspired to save sinners. They are working together to save sinners. We have a Father who loves the world and sends his son.

We have the only begotten son who is lifted up to be the saving object of faith. We have the spirit who blows and makes born again. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are working together to bring traitors, to save them from the gallows and to bring them into right standing in the kingdom, right standing with the king. One application and one application only. In the form of two questions.

Do you believe? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you ascent to the truth? Do you believe what the Bible says about Jesus? And do you consent to the person?

Have you thrown yourself upon him and entrusted yourself to him? This is what it means to believe. Those two parts of belief. If you have one or the other but not both, you don't believe in Jesus in the way that the Gospels say to believe in Jesus. Ascending to the truth, consenting to the person.

Do you believe in Jesus? This is saving faith. Here's the next question. Is there evidence? You don't have to prove it to me because many of these evidences, do I love darkness or light?

I can't see that. Do you practice evil or do the truth? In many of these ways, in spiritual pride, self-righteousness, I can't see that. So we don't have to prove it to each other. We have to prove it to an all-knowing, all-powerful, omnipresent God.

You just know this. That's the Judge. He's omnipresent. He's present everywhere at once. That means you can't run from the judge.

There's nowhere you can run that he's not. He's an all-knowing judge. He's an omniscient judge. He knows everything. So you can't hide your thoughts from him.

He knows them all and he's going to render the right verdict on every thought that you think, every word that you say, every deed that you do. And he's almighty. He's omnipotent. You could never hold back his hand of judgment to keep the penalty from being applied. It's impossible.

Is there evidence? Do you love the darkness or light? Do you practice evil or do you do the truth? This is just what James teaches, that saving faith has evidence. Saving faith produces fruit in your life.

Don't get it the other way around to say, I have to go somehow produce the fruit so that I'll be saved. No, no, no, it works in the opposite order. If God has really given you spiritual life, it produces this. God, let us be anything but self-deceived. Let us do anything but fool ourselves about the one thing that matters most, saying with our mouths that we believe in Christ, but in our hearts loving darkness and practicing wickedness.

Save us from that terrible fate of being surprised on the day when we stand before you who know everything about us. I pray that you would pour out your grace today on people who have heard but who have not embraced the gospel yet. They would see how just your condemnation of sinners is. You who had no obligation to hold back the traitor from the gallows, and yet you have sent your only son to make a way. Oh, let us run to the way.

Let us cling to your remedy with all of our hearts. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.