Jesus and the Judgement of God

This morning, we have been worshiping God through what we are saying and singing to Him. And now we worship God by falling silent, as it were, and opening our hearts to Him. And, and receiving His word into us. Worship is not just what comes out of you, it's also what you allow to come into you.

And our prayer is that God will help us this morning to allow the words of Jesus and the wisdom of Jesus to come in to us today. we're gonna be looking at John 3:17 through 21. And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be Jesus Christ and the judgment of God. Jesus Christ, And the judgment of God.

Let me start, with a question. How many of you enjoy the topic of judgment and condemnation? Raise your hand. Man, and that's what the whole sermon's about.

Actually, I anticipated that that response. None of us enjoy the subject of judgment and condemnation upon ourselves or upon anyone else. This is a difficult topic, and there are many other topics that would be at the top of our list that we would prefer to. To speak about and to hear about than judgment and condemnation.

Because this is not a fun topic or a topic that we would prefer maybe to hear about. There are many churches, we talked about this last Sunday briefly across our country, and pastors across this land of ours who have essentially decided that they will not speak of sin, they will not speak of judgment and condemnation and of hell. Newsweek magazine, a number of years ago, featured an article on mega churches, and not all large churches are this way, but they were talking about what characterizes some of the largest and most growing congregations in our country at that particular time.

And one of the things that they noticed is that, the language of sin and of condemnation and judgment and hell have been airbrushed out of the vocabulary of these communities of faith.

They quoted one member of one such congregation who said, and I quote, There's no do's and don'ts around here. The minister has banished hell and condemnation from his vocabulary, unquote. So this pastor, whoever he is, pastoring whatever church he is pastoring, has decided that in order to best serve my congregation, I do well to not speak of condemnation, and of judgment, and of hell. But whatever memo this pastor received that gave him that instruction, Jesus did not get that memo.

and we see that in our passage today, because Jesus throughout his ministry, he talked about judgment a lot. and our passage today is one such example of that. We all love John 3:16, right? God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life, right?

Did I quote the whole verse? I missed something, right? So that whoever believes in Him will not perish, teaching us that there is a real perishing, a real ruin. and spiritual destruction that befalls those who do not believe in Jesus.

And what Jesus essentially does in verses 17 and following, is he, he basically takes that word perish, And says, I want to talk about that. And so look at the language of judgment, verse 16, we have the word perish, verse 17, the word judge, verse 18, the word judged also in verse 18, we have the expression judged already. Verse 19, Jesus says, this is the judgment. And if there's any doubt about what that judgment is, in verse 36, the last verse of this chapter, in John, Jesus speaks of the wrath of God abiding upon the person who does not believe in Him and allow himself to be persuaded by the truth, and the beauty, and the saviorhood of Jesus.

And so this is Jesus, the heaven sent one, the one who came from heaven, who's like, I want to talk to you about these serious things regarding condemnation. And judgment. So even if this is not our favorite topic, we need to take this matter seriously and sit at Jesus' feet and learn what this heaven-sent one has to say to us about condemnation, and about the judgment of God. I don't know how many of you have heard of Chris Martin, the lead singer for the band Coldplay.

He was raised in a home where he was taught a lot of Christian doctrine, but by his own testimony between the ages of 16 and 22, he just went through a spell where he had a lot of doubts. And one of the things that he says he had a lot of doubts about was this matter of the judgment of God. and he basically, at the age of 22, just swore off the doctrine of hell altogether. And in an interview, not too long ago, he was asked if he believed in a heaven and a hell, and he says, I definitely don't believe in a hell.

That's why I gave up religion. To believe in Christian doctrine was to believe in a hell, and he swore that off. Nonetheless, it haunts him still, and he can't shake it. In his song Viva La Vida that he wrote the lyrics for, he says, for some reason, I can't explain.

I know Saint Peter won't call my name. He was asked in an interview with Q magazine, what do you mean? By that. And listen to his answer.

He says it's about, you're not on the list. It's always fascinated me, that idea of finishing your life and then being analyzed on it. That's the most frightening thing you could possibly say to somebody, eternal damnation. I know about this stuff because I studied it.

I was into it all. I know it. It's still mildly terrifying to me. And this is serious.

Well, let's agree with Chris Martin. That there is nothing more frightening than eternal damnation. Let's agree with him that this issue is very serious. And let's follow his suggestion that this is a topic that is worthy of careful study and consideration.

Actually, this passage from Jesus today is for people who don't like the topic of judgment. It's for people who dislike the judgment of God so much that they want to avoid it. And Jesus says, Well, let me teach you about that. This, this is truth from Jesus for those who don't want to be judged and condemned by God.

He's teaching us how to be judgment free, and some people want to live judgment-free lives, and the way to attain that is, I just won't think about judgment. Jesus is saying the way to have a judgment free, a condemnation free eternity is to think about this, and to let me teach you about this, and then to receive the truth that I give you about this and make some decisions accordingly. Everyone, guys, who believes in a personal God thinks about that day that they are going to stand before God at the end of their life.

And what will that moment be like?

All of you are destined to stand before God one day and give an account. What will that day be like for you? How will you wish you had lived your life on that day, as you look back? What will you wish that you had believed?

We ask questions such as what will God decide about me on that day? Will God determine that I can get into heaven? What will he decide about whether I can get into heaven or not? Will he pronounce me guilty?

I've done a lot of things throughout my life. Will he declare me to be guilty of all of the sins that I have committed? And will he condemn me? Will he banish me from heaven?

And will he banish me to hell? And Given the fact that I've failed enough in my life up to this point, I've committed a lot of sins. I've done things that I feel great shame over. I've already blown it.

Is there anything I can do? Maybe I am going to be condemned by God, based on how I've lived up to this point. But is there anything I can do beforehand, right now, even that can change the verdict of God upon me? In that day, what will God's verdict on my life be?

That's the burning question that anyone who believes in a personal God is asking. What we're going to do is we look at verses 17 to 21 is we're going to observe five truths that Jesus gives to us. about himself and the judgment of God. These are not just truths about God's judgment, but it's about his involvement in the judgment of God.

We're going to see that the judgment of God has everything to do with Jesus. And this will help us to make sure that we are ready for that day when we stand before God. At the end of our lives. In fact, let's just read the passage beginning in verse 16.

Jesus says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This is the judgment. That the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

Truth number one that we observe here is this, that is that Christ did not come to judge the world, but to save the world from judgment. He didn't come to in his first coming to judge the world, but to save the world, to deliver the world, to rescue the world from judgment. He says, for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. Now Jesus is, we all know, most of us know this, that there are two comings of Jesus.

There was his coming 2000 years ago, but then there's what we call the second coming. OK, Jesus is saying right now in this first coming, I have not been sent by my Father to execute and unleash judgment upon the world. Now, we know from later revelation that when Jesus does come in his second coming, he will be coming specifically to judge the world, right? In fact, the apostle John, who's recording these very words of Jesus, looks into the future miraculously in the Book of Revelation, and he sees the second coming of Christ.

And John says, and I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. And he who sat upon it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges. And he wages war.

When Christ comes at his second coming, he will come to judge. John goes on to say there was a sword, a sharp sword that came out of his mouth, and with it, he smote the nation's hundreds of thousands of people in that day. will be cut to pieces. Those who oppose him in that day will be cut to pieces.

Blood will flow in the streets, and there will be so much blood in the valley of Meghetto, that it will be up to the horse's bridle. Jesus says, right now, in this, my first coming, my father did not send me to judge the world. Trust me, if I were here to judge the world, things would be very different right now, there would be blood in the streets. I'm not here to judge the world.

I am here right now in this coming so that the world through me might be rescued from that judgment. In other words, I am here right now in my first coming to rescue people from my judgment that is to come. I didn't come to judge the world. But to save the world from judgment.

Having said that, Jesus moves on to the second truth, and he qualifies himself a bit because one might think, I guess Jesus has nothing to do with judgment, then even in his first coming, and he would say, actually, that's not, not true. Even though I've not come to judge the world in this my first coming, my coming even now is intertwined very much with the judgment of God. The human race is being divided right now in preparation for judgment. Those who accept me and those who reject me.

Think about the analogy of the sun. The sun does not rise in the morning in order to cast shadows. But shadows inevitably exist because of the sun. And Christ is saying, in the passage that as it unfolds, I didn't come to judge the world.

however, my coming has everything to do with the judgment of God. Thoughts and intentions of the hearts of men and women are being revealed in this, my first coming, and how they choose to respond to me. The human race is being divided into two categories of people, those who believe in me and those who don't. So my being here is serving the purposes of God in judging the world.

And here's the second truth that he gives us regarding himself and the judgment of God. And that is that those who believe in Christ are delivered from God's judgment. He says in verse 18, he who believes In him, he who believes in me is not judged. Is not Judged.

This word judged could be translated condemned. Anyone who believes in me is not condemned. So I'm here to deliver people from judgment. And what you need to do in order to be delivered from judgment by me is simply believe in me.

This ought to bring great relief to us. Jesus does not say, he who does good deeds, is not judged or condemned. He whose good works outweigh his bad. is not judged.

He who cleans up his act and gives money to charity. will not be judged. That's not what he says. He's speaking to sinful people who are already under the judgment of God, as we're going to see in just a moment.

And he says, if you just turn to me and believe in me, you will not be judged. You will be declared not guilty by my Father. You will not be under his condemnation. Imagine being a believer in Jesus, and then you come before God at the judgment.

this is the God, who Killed everyone on planet Earth except Noah and his family because of their sin. This is the God who struck someone dead for merely touching the Ark of the Covenant. This is the God who opened up the ground and swallowed thousands of Israelites whole, destroying them for rebelling against him. This is the God who struck Ananias and Sephira dead for their deception to him, to the Holy Spirit.

Imagine standing before this one with all this authority and power and this holiness coming before him at the judgment, where your fate is going to be decided, and you're brought before him in that final day. And God looks at you and says, and all that you've done. what you've done throughout your life, but God looks at you and says, not guilty. Not guilty Uncondemned.

Uncondemned. Jesus says, anyone who believes in me, will be uncondemned. As Paul says in Romans 8:1, there is no condemnation. For those who are in Christ Jesus.

Later in chapter 8, he's like, who is the one who condemns, who's who's going to bring a charge against us and condemn us? Christ is the one who died, and who was raised again, and who's now at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. This is wonderful news for us. us who are sinners who have failed, and we have sinned, and we know that we deserve God's condemnation.

But Jesus says, I'm here to reveal myself to you, to teach you the truth about your sin, and about the judgment to come. And I'm making this offer to you. If you believe in me, You will not be condemned. The only way to get into heaven uncondemned is through believing.

In May. There's a third truth that he gives us about Himself and the judgment of God. And that is that those who do not believe in Christ remain under God's judgment. Those who do not believe in Christ remain under God's judgment.

He says he who does not believe Well, he's been judged already. Anyone who looks upon me, hears my teaching, and chooses not to believe in me. It's not he will be judged. He's already under judgment.

See, this is part of why Jesus is saying I didn't come to judge the world, because the world in a sense is already under the sentence of God's judgment. The world is already under God's condemnation. Christ came to. deliver people out from underneath that judgment that is already there.

And so what he's saying is, you are under the judgment of God. If you believe in me, then you will be delivered from that judgment. If you do not believe in me, you will remain. Under that judgment, and not only will you remain under that judgment, but by disbelieving in me, you have just added a very fat layer.

To that judgment. He says, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. What Jesus is saying is this, to look at me, to see the truth about me and to turn away and to not believe in me. It's not just one sin that gets added to your list of every other sin.

It's actually, it's the worst sin. that you can commit. It's your greatest sin, and you will be judged by God for choosing not to believe in me. Think about that for a moment.

how Christ and God the Father view the choice of people to not believe in Him. That's a serious sin in and of itself. Matthew Henry says it this way, unbelief, meaning unbelief in Jesus, may truly be called the great damning sin. Because it leaves us under the guilt of all our other sins, and it is a sin against the remedy.

You're sinning against the cure. And you might think, man, I just don't believe in Jesus. what, what's the big deal about that? think about the measure of that sin.

You measure the greatness of a sin or of a crime by the standard of the greatness of the one that you're committing that crime against. To not believe in Jesus is as infinitely bad of a sin as Christ is infinitely holy and good. And totally trustworthy and loving. And gracious That's how bad the sin of unbelief is to look at Jesus, as he's revealed in Scripture.

And he's full of grace and full of truth. He's absolutely perfect in all of his perfections. He is holy and righteous and just, and he loved the world so much that he allowed himself to be surrendered in death and lifted up in death to bring salvation to anyone who believes in him. What fault do you find in Jesus?

And this one who is infinite in all of his perfections, you would look at him and say, yeah, I don't, I don't believe in him. I don't trust him. I will not put my trust in him. That is a serious violation.

It is the greatest of all sins, and it's the sin that leaves you under the condemnation of all other sins that you have committed, and it is, as Matthew Henry says, a sin against the remedy that your soul needs. You can also measure the greatness of one's crime of not believing in Jesus by the standard of the degree to which the Father, God the Father actually trusts his Son. just think about it, the Father, the, the chasm between us and God needed to be bridged. Who did the Father choose to bridge that gap?

He didn't choose Buddha, or Confucius, or Muhammad, and he didn't choose you. He didn't choose me. He could have trusted us and said, I'm gonna trust you to bridge this gap. Here's 10 things you need to do.

If you do this, then you can get all the way to me. And I trust you. I believe in you to do this. That's not the gospel.

The gospel is God looks at you and looks at the chasm and says, I don't trust you one whit. To make one iota of progress, to bridge that chasm between you and me. I only trust my son to do this. Only my son.

is worthy to do this, and is able to do this. I will only invest my total unmitigated trust in my son to be the savior. And Jesus is sent into the world and the Father loves his son, adores his son, trusts his Son so much that on the mountain of Transfiguration, he, he said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased listen to him at his baptism, he says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The Father commended Jesus.

to the world saying, this is the one that I trust to bridge the chasm between God and man. And if those announcements from heaven are not enough, God declares it all the more in raising his son from the dead, thereby making the statement to us that I approve of him as the Savior, who will bridge the chasm between God and man. So when we read the New Testament, we behold, amongst other things, the Father's trust in His Son. And then to look at that one that the Father entrusted the task of our salvation, and to say, I don't trust him, is basically to disagree with God the Father.

The father apparently trusted him, but I don't. I think I can bridge this gap myself. It is a sin against Christ. The greatness of this sin is measured by the greatness of Christ, and also by the greatness of the Father's trust.

And so this is the greatest of all sins, and Jesus says, anyone, anyone who refuses to believe in me, well, he's already judged, and there's no deliverance. For anyone who does not believe in me, when they stand before God on Judgment Day, they will be declared eternally guilty. Of their sins and they will be judged accordingly. There's a 4th truth that we observe here as the passage continues to unfold.

And I want you to put your thinking caps on with this one. Christ says it this way, nonbelievers in Christ will be judged for loving darkness rather than light. Nonbelievers in Christ will be judged for loving darkness rather than light. Jesus says, and this is the judgment.

What he's saying here is the Father has given me permission to go ahead and announce what the verdict will be. People who don't believe in me, this is the verdict that will be read upon their life. This is the inscription, just as when Christ was judged or crucified, there was an inscription over him. Christ is saying this is the inscription that will be written over those who do not believe in me.

This is the judgment. This is the condemning verdict that light is coming into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. Let's word it this way, to make it personal. Those who do not believe in Jesus, this is the inscription.

that will be read against them, that will be hung over them. Here's the inscription. Here's the charge, the light, that's Jesus, who himself says, I am the light of the world. The light came into the world.

And this person, whatever their name is, loved the darkness more than they love the light, because his or her deeds were evil. That's it. That's the verdict. The condemning verdict.

Now you might say, well, I, I just don't know what I think about that., I don't believe in Jesus, but I personally think my unbelief in Him should be differently explained than this. well, this is the God of the universe talking. And Jesus is saying, I want you to know how my father views your refusal. To believe And me.

This is how God understands it. Light came into the world. And you. Love the darkness.

You don't really have an unbelief problem. You do have an unbelief problem, but that emerges from an affection problem. You have an affection disorder. It's, it comes down to what you love, and what you love is darkness, and you don't love the light.

You don't believe in me, not because of a lack of evidence, but Because you don't love me. You hate me You hate the light that exudes from me, and you love the darkness instead, so you have an affection disorder, and that disorder emerges from a deeper fact, and that is that your deeds are evil. You're living the way you want to live. You're doing what you want to do.

You're living for your own glory. Rather than for the glory of God, and that is evil. God created you to live in relationship with Him and to live your life orbiting around Him. That's where you find your truest self in full orbit and in relationship in and around him.

But instead, you've chosen to live your own life, and to have all things orbit around you, and you live for you. That's evil. That's evil. That's not what you were created for, and you want to continue in that.

And because you want to continue in that lifestyle. You therefore love darkness. You don't like the light of Jesus that shows that for what it really is, that shows your deeds for the evil that they really are. And so you don't like the light.

Instead you love the darkness, and because you love the darkness, you choose not to believe in Jesus. Do you see the logic? that Jesus is giving to us. In Romans 1:18, Paul tells us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of men who suppress the truth.

And unrighteousness. They want to live the way they want to live, and so they suppress the truth so that they can live the way they want to live. It's not that there was a lack of evidence for the truth, or that the truth wasn't there. No, it was there.

It was even inside of them, but they press it down. They live in denial of the truth so that they can keep living in unrighteousness. Aldous Huxley, the guy who wrote Brave New World, he died in 1963, a brilliant writer, a brilliant thinker, but he had embraced the philosophy of meaninglessness. and he lived his life accordingly.

And to his credit, he was honest about why he embraced that philosophy of life. Listen to him as he gives his rationale. He says, and I quote, I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning. Consequently, I assumed it had none.

The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is concerned to prove that there is no valid reason he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.

He calls it freedom. We call it bondage. Nonetheless, what he's saying is, I want to be able to do what I want to do. And the philosophy that best allows me the freedom to do that is the philosophy of meaninglessness.

The world, is meaningless. There is no God to answer to. And so he suppresses the truth. So that he can live within his own version of freedom.

And the verdict that will be hung over him for all of eternity is the light came. The light came into the world. And this person loved the darkness more than the light because his deeds were evil. Bertrand Russell, the, another bright thinker, but an atheist, was asked, why don't you believe that there is a God?

And he said, frankly, there's not enough evidence. Jesus is saying it's not an evidence problem. I'm not saying that we don't, when we interact with the lost, provide evidence and, and work with them patiently, but we do that, but at the same time, we understand that at the root, it's not an evidence problem. It's not even really an unbelief or belief problem.

It's an affection problem. It's a rebellion problem that can only really fully be addressed by the spirit of God entering into that person's life and bringing them to life and causing them to be born again. To where now they love the light and they hate the darkness. And they're willing for the light of Christ to come into their life and expose them in whatever ways the light exposes them, and they come running to Jesus, and they believe in him.

This is the way God views. People's unbelief. Light came into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light. Because their deeds were evil.

There's a 5th and final truth that Christ gives to us regarding the judgment of God and how that intertwines with Himself. And let's go ahead and word it this way. Number 5, people's response to Christ reveals much about their attitude toward God's judgment. Christ says in verse 20, everyone who does evil hates the light.

He's like, let me, let me amplify on this and show you the two different ways that these two categories of people in the world respond to me, those who reject me, those who receive me and believe in me. Let me, let me explain to you how this gets worked out. First of all, the evildoers, those who do evil and want to persist in doing evil, living their own life for themselves. He says, for everyone who does evil, hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

He says, this is, this is what evildoers who want to persist in evil doing do. They, they hate the light. It's not that they don't see the light, they see it, and they despise it. They hate the truth.

And so where there is light, they don't, they don't even want to get near the light, because of what the light does. See, one of the characteristics of light is that it brings light to everything around it. And things can be seen as they are. And Jesus is saying the reason that you won't, that some won't believe in me, reveals more about them than it does me.

They hate the light, because they are afraid of what the light might reveal about themselves. They are actually afraid of seeing themselves truly. They're proud They don't want to see the truth about themselves. Imagine That you have a room in your house with a mirror and it's where you go to fix yourself up and You go into this room and there's really bright, harsh lights and you look at yourself in the mirror and there's like blemishes.

Every blemish in your skin, on your face is exposed and you're like, oh, I don't, I don't, I don't like the way I look here. So I'm going to solve this problem and imagine you solve the problem by just turning the lights off. And then you look toward the mirror and it's totally dark in the room and you're like, I have no blemishes. I really like this, or you dim the light so much to where those blemishes are concealed, and you can feel better about yourself.

And then you make a rule that when I'm in this room, no one in the family is allowed to turn the lights on. That's the rule. What what you do in this room when you're by yourself, that's a private matter. You can turn the lights on if you want, if that helps you.

but when I'm in this room, no one is allowed to bring light. Into this room. And imagine you doing this or anyone doing this, and they don't want to see their blemishes, so they don't like the light, they won't let anyone shine any light on them. And when someone does come up to them and say, I think you have a blemish, They call that person a hater.

They try to get laws passed that prohibit people from speaking the truth about their blemishes. And they live in an insecure way inside this world where truth is not allowed and light is not allowed. Why? It's because they hate the light because they are terrified of seeing the truth about themselves.

This is why in our society today, Christians are, being put upon in some circles, about not being allowed to speak the truth. It's because people are afraid of the light. And there's a light within them, that's their conscience, the law of God written in their heart. That's testifying, and they're doing all they can to suppress that.

And then there's these Christians who believe in Jesus, and they're talking about Christ and, and from their lives and through their words, there's a light that emanates from that and they can't, they can't abide the light, they hate the light. And if they could prevent you from speaking the truth, they would. Because they are afraid. To see themselves.

As they truly are, they're afraid that their evil deeds should be exposed. And when Jesus says this, he's not simply saying that they've got hidden deeds that they don't want anyone to know about. What it also means is they got deeds that they're engaging in that they know about everyone else knows about, but they don't want the evil of those deeds to be exposed. John Piper says it this way, Jesus is not saying that no sins happen in public.

Many people flaunt their sins in public, but they only do this where the light of Christ is so banished that they can get approval from the people that matter to them. In other words, where darkness abounds publicly, you can sin publicly without coming into the light. And that's the society they want. They want a society with no light to where they can sin, they can do whatever they want publicly.

But the evil of what they do. Is Concealed Such people, our hearts should break for them. Because they live in fear. They live in terror of seeing themselves truly.

And often when they come out or they confess publicly some truth about themselves, they say, I got to be true. I got to live in my truth. And how telling is that? That's what they're doing.

They're living in their truth. They don't want to live in God's truth. See, our response is not that we're better than them. Actually, we're the guilty ones.

We're the ones who've acknowledged our guilt, and we've looked at God's truth and allowed that to expose the truth about ourselves and to realize we're broken and we're guilty, and I'm running to the lights for salvation. I want to live in his truth, not my own version of the truth. How does One who practices truth respond. This is the other category of people, those who believe in Jesus, Jesus describes them as people who do the truth.

Truth is not just something you accept and believe and understand. Truth is something you do. He says the one who practices truth, let me tell you how he responds. But before we look at how he responds, what does it mean to practice the truth?

To practice the truth. It it means to receive the truth as it comes from Jesus. Jesus, you got permit, say whatever you want to say. And whatever you say, that's the truth to me.

If it contradicts, contradicts my truth, that's fine with me. Even if your truth, Jesus, shatters me, and is the last thing I want to hear, I want to know the truth. As it comes from you, Jesus, to practice the truth means to receive the truth, to face the truth, even when it hurts us to do so. Someone who practices the truth is not someone who sings, Tell me lies, tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.

Now, tell me the truth. Even if it wounds me. Even if it ruins my day, I want the truth. I can handle the truth by the grace of God.

Someone who practices the truth is someone who looks hard. At the truth. He looks at hard truths about himself and about things like the judgment of God, and he faces them squarely with courage, and he repents and follows God's truth, rather than his own way. And then he lives according.

To that truth and seeks to obey. And when he falls short, he shows courage and facing up to his failings and admits them as sins, and he repents. Jesus says, someone who lives in God's truth in this way, and they're a doer of the truth. When the light comes, They come to the light.

I, the light of the world, I've come into the world. And people who are the way I've just described, they come to me. See, I, you could tell a lot about a person by how they respond to me. Whether you accept me or reject me, you're revealing volumes about you.

Based on how you respond to me, and one who is a doer of the truth in this way, when the light comes, they come to the light, in order that their deeds may be manifested. Like there's nothing to hide. I want my deeds of repentance to be manifested. I want my deeds of love for this one who has loved me and forgiven me in service to him.

I, I have nothing to hide from him or from anyone else. So I'm willing to come into the light. See, that's the difference between Christians and non-Christians. It should be.

Christians are willing to come to the light and let that shine on them and show them up for what they are, all of the brokenness, we are the ones of all people who should show the greatest courage in seeing and acknowledging and owning up to our own sins, and our failures. We don't live in fear. The way that those who are afraid of the light do. One who is a doer of truth, he comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

This is a humble person. He's like, what? I don't mind that the light shines on me. I want my deeds to be seen, manifested, not as something that has come from me that I get the credit for.

I want everyone to know that anything good in me, it has been wrought in God. God is the one who has produced this in me. I've been born again by him. I didn't beget myself again.

I've been born again by the power of God. And every good thing in me has been wrought in me by God, and I want God to get all the glory. From the life that I lead. And from the way that I live my life.

In John chapter 1 verse 14, we'll close with this. John tells us the essence, in my opinion, of what the light of Christ is. John says, and the word became flesh and he dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. It's another word for light.

You could paraphrase it, we beheld his light, full of grace. And truth. The, the light of Christ. The light that emanates from Christ is His grace and his truth.

See, if there were not the grace and the light came to us and it was nothing but truth, oh, we couldn't stand that. We couldn't stand that. We could never let the truth of our brokenness and the magnitude of our sin and our failings, and even from day to day we could never look honestly at our sins and It would crush us. We, we couldn't stand the light.

But the light that comes from Jesus is the light of not only truth, but his grace, resist. Yes, this is what my light is revealing about you, but, but you are loved, you are loved and believe in me, and there is a remedy for everything that you see that is wrong with you. And it's that perfect mixture of grace and truth. That exudes from Jesus, that is what caused in the gospel accounts the harlots and the tax collectors to see that light and move towards that light rather than run away because it was not just the light of truth, it was the light, it was the glory of grace.

In truth, And so, we can come to him and know that there's forgiveness, there's grace, there's healing, and there's love here. And that's why Christians of all people are the ones that should show the greatest courage. And looking at our sins squarely. Seeing them for what they are and repenting, Because we have a savior who is not only truth, but he is also grace.

Me ask you to bow your heads. Christ is so wonderful in his wisdom as he speaks to us about. This hard topic. If you want an eternally judgment free existence, then, Then you want to grapple with these things rather than, Ignore them.

Even as Christian people, there are times where we feel the pain of, like a little bit of light gets in as we're reading scripture or, maybe the example of somebody else or something, the Spirit of God working in our hearts, and we start to see something maybe we haven't seen before, or we see the magnitude of it, and we start to feel that crushing weight of realization of, of sin. And our hearts want to run and flee, but then we're reminded, wait a minute, I'm loved, I'm accepted, I'm in the embrace of God.

Christ died for this, and I can come to him with my brokenness, and I can freely repent, and I can, I can face my sins squarely. Knowing that even this pain that I feel is a sign of life.

And the only thing that gives us this freedom is grace. And I pray if you've never walked into God's truth, the truth of Christ, if you've never walked to the light, just I beckon you to walk into the light today and know that it's not just the light of truth, but the light of grace. And Christ says, anyone who comes to me, I will not cast them out. Do you want to live your life, a life of courage, a life of honor, a life of honesty and truthfulness and facing your sins?

Or do you want to run away from the light? And live in darkness and pretend you're OK. And you don't need a savior and that you're not even broken. And then one day you're going to stand before God, And you will be judged for running away from the light.

Which will it be? Come, come into the light today. Lord, you, you speak to us in your marvelous wisdom, and we thank you for, What you have said to us, these words go deep, and they, they minister truth. They minister perspective to us that's so needful to us in our culture today.

There are people around us who are living in evil and they want to persist in that, and because of that, they live in fear and may they look at us and say, wow, these people show an unusual courage. And facing their sins and failing squarely, where does that courage come from? May we as Christians not be, As known for our denunciation of the sins of others as much as we're known for denouncing our own sins. Not that we limit ourselves to that, but that, that we show the world the beauty of repentance and the courage that's embodied in that.

That comes because we're living in the light of the grace and the truth of Christ. Give us a heart for those that are presently under condemnation. And to speak to them forthrightly about what needs to happen, telling them that the light has come into the world. And he has come not to judge, but to save all those who believe in him.

Make us all deeper believers in you today, Jesus. We thank You, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds, do much with them. This is an amazing message that we're called to deliver. And may every penny that is given serve the cause of Christ and the further spread of this great message of salvation and of grace and of truth through Jesus.

We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.