John 3:12-21 (Teaching)

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Back in the Gospel of John this morning. Chapter 3. Once again, last week I've done what I'm so prone to do and continued on when I probably should have been quiet.

[0:21] But that's okay. We'll pick back up this morning. We began John chapter 3 last week. This is the famous, some people call it an interview, but the famous scripture where Jesus and Nicodemus have a conversation.

[0:43] I told you all last week, John 3 is where we find the most quoted and most well-known verse in all scripture, John 3, 16. And we also find probably the most used verse as far as preaching goes, which is, you must be born again.

[0:59] And we find both of those in John chapter 3. John chapter 3 is very significant. This conversation that Christ is having with Nicodemus here is very important.

[1:13] It's very important to the whole of scripture. If it wasn't, I mean, God wouldn't have it in here, yes, but it's very important to the Gospel of John. It's very important to the entirety of scripture.

[1:26] But just as a reminder, what we've got to remember as we're reading through this and through the next few chapters, like I said last week, is the context which we find it in, which is the last few verses of John chapter 2, which says, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.

[1:51] And we need to keep that in context here in John 3 and John 4 and John 4, where Jesus meets the woman at the well.

[2:02] And in John 5, where we see Jesus at the pool of Bethesda. He's having one-on-one encounters with these people, and we must remember he knew what was in man there at the end of John chapter 2.

[2:17] So last week, we began this conversation, the account of this conversation in John 3, and finished about halfway through it.

[2:28] We finished, I believe I read verse 12 last week, if I've told you earthly things and you believe not how, shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things.

[2:40] And I may or may not have read verse 13 last week, but we'll pick back up in verse 12, because I don't think I really touched on it too heavy last week.

[2:52] So John chapter 3 and verse 12 says, if I've told you earthly things and you believe not how, shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things. So John here, or John here, given the account of Jesus telling Nicodemus, I've told you of these earthly things.

[3:11] I've told you how the wind, not really how the wind works, but how you don't know how the wind works. And I've compared that, once again, Jesus speaking of Nicodemus, and I'm not putting words into Jesus' mouth, but this is basically what he's telling Nicodemus.

[3:29] He says, I've told you that you don't know how the wind works, you don't know where the wind comes from, you don't know where it's going. All you can really see is the evidence of the wind. And if I've told you this and you don't understand it, how are you to understand the heavenly things, the divine things?

[3:47] How's anyone? I mean, not just Nicodemus here, you think of yourself here in this church on a Sunday morning in 2023, and you think of the world out there doing what they're doing on a Sunday morning of 2023.

[4:01] Whoever it is, how do we understand the divine? How do we understand that God revealed things? And there's only one answer to that question.

[4:14] It is God will reveal to us what he wants us to understand. And that's exactly what Jesus is getting at Nicodemus here with.

[4:25] That's exactly what he's telling him, is you can't understand the divine unless the divine is the one that reveals it to you. Remember last week we read twice that Jesus said you must be born again to Nicodemus.

[4:41] Twice he said this and Nicodemus asked the famous question, how is this possible? How can a man go back into his mother's womb and be born again? You know, is this possible?

[4:52] Folks, what Jesus is getting at in all of this is that Nicodemus, nor you, nor I, nor anyone had anything to do with their natural birth.

[5:04] How many of us have heard the phrase, I didn't ask to be born? I didn't ask you to bring me into this world. How many of y'all had that attitude with your mama when she'd get mad at you when he was a kid?

[5:16] I didn't ask to be born. I didn't, you know, this is all your fault. This is you and dad. Y'all are the ones that are the reasons that I'm here. This is what Jesus is getting at here. You had nothing to do with your natural birth and therefore you can have nothing to do with your spiritual birth.

[5:32] The spiritual birth is completely and utterly and totally off God just as the natural birth is completely, totally and utterly of an outside source.

[5:43] It is off God. The natural birth is. Granted, there's a male and a female that calls that to take place. But birth, life itself is off God.

[5:54] God is life. So God gives that life and God can take away that life. Just as Job said, the Lord gave and the Lord take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. God gives and God takes at God's own will and for his, for his glory and his own good pleasure.

[6:12] God does these things and these are everything I'm bringing up here is what Jesus is trying to get into Nicodemus' head. Once again, we had nothing to do with our natural birth and we can have nothing to do with our spiritual birth.

[6:25] It is all off God and if we go on to verse 13 and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. So here Jesus is once again referring to his deity and we've seen this several times since we began the Gospel of John, the deity of Jesus Christ.

[6:48] He being the second person of the God had been referred to and that's what Jesus is getting at here when he says no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven.

[6:59] But it goes on to say even the Son of Man which is in heaven. Now if you notice there in the last word of this verse, he which is in heaven, that's present tense.

[7:10] Well Jesus is sitting there somewhere over in the Middle East at this point talking with a man named Nicodemus but he's saying the Son of Man which is in heaven presently.

[7:23] So this speaks of the deity, this speaks of the omnipresence of God. You know we've seen reference so far to the omniscience of God, I mean we've seen that God has been there from the beginning in John 1-1.

[7:41] We read about that. So we've read about the omniscience, the omnipresence, we've read all this stuff about the Godhead that we know and Jesus here is saying that no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven.

[7:57] Well people will argue this verse and say well what about Elijah? Did Elijah not ascend up to heaven? What about Enoch where it says that God translated Enoch, he was and he was not is the way it's referred to in Genesis.

[8:14] They say what about these men, what happened to them? Folks the Bible plainly teaches that flesh and blood cannot enter into heaven, it cannot happen. We cannot go there with our sinful flesh, we cannot go there in these sinful bodies that we have.

[8:28] So if God translated Enoch I can guarantee Elijah was also translated when he went into heaven. But the Bible does not say that either one of these ascended to heaven.

[8:41] It says that Enoch was translated and it says that Elijah was taken up in a whirlwind. But neither one of those were necessarily talking about ascension.

[8:53] The only person in all of scripture that has or is ascended into heaven is Jesus Christ. As far as the word ascended goes now, does that mean that Elijah is not there now?

[9:08] No that's not what I'm getting at. Does that mean that Enoch is not there right now? No that's not what I'm getting at. I'm saying that the verbiage that is used in the scripture, the only person that has ascended there is Jesus Christ.

[9:23] As far as that verbiage goes. So again he tells Nicodemus, no man had to send it up to heaven but he that came down from heaven. He is telling Nicodemus here his qualifications for telling him of the heavenly things.

[9:39] He says, I have been to heaven. I can tell you about the divine because I'm the one that created heaven. I'm the one that created earth. I can tell you about all these earthly things. I can get into the most minute details of the earth because I'm the one that created it.

[9:55] And I'm also the creator of heaven. That was my abode before I came here. And even now I'm in heaven because he is omnipresent. These are the things that Jesus was telling Nicodemus here in reference to his qualifications for teaching him these things.

[10:15] Remember last week we read where Jesus rebuked Nicodemus. He said, are you not a teacher of Israel? Are you not a master yourself? Are you not the one that these people come to with their questions and they come to you for guidance from the Old Testament scriptures?

[10:30] And you don't even know these things. Now can you be a teacher when you yourself are not taught? This is exactly what Jesus was getting at with Nicodemus when he said that that we read last week.

[10:41] So here Jesus is giving once again his qualifications for teaching Nicodemus these things. The verse 14 says, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.

[11:03] So here he refers to a scripture out of the, excuse me, the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 21, that Nicodemus should have been and I'm sure that he was very familiar with.

[11:16] He says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Now this term lifted up, there's a lot of debate in the theological realm of exactly what Jesus was talking about as far as being lifted up.

[11:32] Was he talking about being lifted up on the cross? I believe that he was, me personally, I'm of that camp. But parenthetically, he also must be lifted back into heaven.

[11:44] He must be ascended to heaven. He must go to heaven folks. Jesus had died here and had remained here in the grave and he was still over there in some bar atum somewhere.

[11:55] His death would mean nothing to us. It would be useless to us. Granted, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. His blood was shed, but if he was still over there in that grave and had not ascended to the Father to make intercession, there would be no one there mediating between God and man.

[12:14] So he had to ascend and that vindicated who he said that he was. And that showed that he was indeed the Messiah that was promised. Not only did he die and not only was he resurrected, but he also ascended back into heaven, where he forever makes intercession for the saints of God, for all those that have believed the gospel and repented of their ways.

[12:39] But without that ascension and without him being there, I said his death wouldn't have meant a whole lot to any of us, because he wouldn't have been who he said he was if he was still in the grave, because he made the promise.

[12:52] We read the promise in John chapter 2. He said, you tear down this temple and I will raise it up in three days. And that's exactly what he did. And the scripture goes on to say he was talking about the temple off his body.

[13:04] He was referring to his body. But here he tells Nicodemus, and as Moses lifted up the servant and the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. I want you to pay attention to that word must.

[13:15] There's no alternative, folks. That was the only way for salvation was for the Son of Man to be lifted up. And that was both on the cross and both in the ascension back to the Father to make the intercession that we were talking about.

[13:31] He says even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. There's no other way to it. There's no other way to salvation. There's no other way of salvation. The Son of Man must be lifted up.

[13:44] And he was telling Nicodemus this before his death, before his crucifixion on the cross. And he was telling Nicodemus this also before his ascension back into heaven.

[13:56] He said this must happen. It's got to be this way. You must keep in mind while we're reading this that the Jews were looking for a Messiah. They were promised a Messiah.

[14:07] That Messiah was promised way over in Genesis chapter 3, and it's promised throughout the entire Old Testament by different prophets, different men of God, different scriptures.

[14:18] But all of them refer to a Messiah that was to come. And of course we know that Jesus Christ was and is that Messiah. He was promised and they were looking for a ruler to come.

[14:32] Someone to boot the Roman government off of the back of the Jews that were there, and to sit on the throne of David, and to rule and to reign forever.

[14:44] All these things were promised in the Old Testament. But folks, Jesus is first advent, the first time he came. That wasn't his purpose.

[14:55] His purpose was to redeem mankind. And that's what we're going to get at in the next few verses. He didn't come to be ruler. He didn't come to be king. Jesus is king and he has always been king.

[15:08] He has always been ruler. He has always been maker. He has always been master. But he came to be a servant. He came to be a servant to whom? To God the Father.

[15:19] How so? To give his life as a ransom for many. This is why he came the first time around. So with that, we go into John chapter 3 and verse 16.

[15:32] The most famous verse in all scripture, and all of us can probably quote it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[15:44] And we could spend the rest of our lives on this verse, and never mind all the gems and jewels that are buried in it. On this one verse, it's been said by several theologians, and Bible teachers, and preachers, that the entire Bible can be hinged on that verse.

[16:04] And I can understand why they say that, because it tells the gospel in that one verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

[16:19] And I'm glad that God so loved the world, and I'm glad that he gave his only begotten son. And I'm glad that anybody that believes should not perish, but they have everlasting life.

[16:30] And we're not going to spend days or weeks on this one verse, but just real quick. For God so loved the world that we're... Well, first of all, the word for that this verse begins with, it lets us back, back to another context, back to a different context than what a lot of people take this verse in.

[16:52] It means pay attention to what was said before this, what was said before it. Jesus Christ said, even as Moses lifted up the serpent and the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

[17:03] And we've got to go back to that. Once again, you can substitute that word for with the word because. And Jesus in verses 14 and 15, when he's talking about Moses lifting up the serpent and the wilderness, in verse 15, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

[17:22] Then he says, for. Once again, just substitute that word for with because. Because God so loved the world. This goes back to, well, we taught it in 1 John, I guess a couple of months ago, a few months ago, I don't remember exactly when it was, we went through the book of 1 John.

[17:40] But we talked about this very thing that, that John in 1 John chapter four says in this, in this was manifested the love of God toward us.

[17:54] And we talked about it then, what was the this that he was talking about. That he sent his only begotten son. They sent his only begotten son to be the propitiation for our sins.

[18:08] 1 John four, nine and 10. That's why God sent his son was because he loved us. He sent his son because he loved the world.

[18:21] He loved his creation, even though his creation was rebellious against him, even though his creation was doing things that they knew better than to do, they were doing things against their own consciences and against the laws of God.

[18:36] The Jewish people went, God's chosen people. That's who the laws were applied to at that time. Y'all have heard me say it before, but I'll say it again. When Moses come down off Mount Sinai and presented the Ten Commandments, he didn't present it to the tribes in the surrounding countries.

[18:52] He didn't give it to the Parasites and the Moabites and the Hittites and all these other people. He gave it to God's chosen people. That's whom the law was given to, even though they were breaking those laws and many times knowingly breaking those laws.

[19:07] Even so, God still so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Y'all have heard me say this before and I'll say it again.

[19:18] As far as salvation goes, God did not save you because he loved you. And Scripture will back that up. God saved you for the sake of his son.

[19:31] I'm not saying that Jesus Christ was sent to die of death and there are people out there that will teach you this, but I'm not saying that Jesus Christ will die of death to instigate pity in God that God would save us.

[19:49] No, folks, read this verse. For God so loved the world, that word love, it doesn't say so loves, it's not present. For God so loved, it's past tense.

[20:00] This goes back to what Paul wrote to the Romans and what we find so many other times in Scripture, God committed his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, cross died for us.

[20:15] While we were yet sinners, were as past tense, cross died for us. For God so loved the world, it's past tense. God loved the world before the world was ever created.

[20:29] He loved you before you were ever born. He loved me before I was ever born. He loved the world, he loved his creation and he wanted to, and he knew his creation would rebel against him, but yet he put this plan in place and it wasn't just something that popped up out of nowhere.

[20:47] God knew it all along, how his creation would react towards him, how his creation would rebel against him, and yet he had this plan in place to redeem them, not just the Jews and not just the Gentiles, but to redeem for a chance of redemption for all of mankind.

[21:09] Whosoever believeth in him, not everyone on planet earth, but whosoever believeth in him should not perish. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

[21:25] Again, read all that and read it in the tense that it's in, and you remember that at this time, this would have been present tense to Nicodemus, whom Jesus was speaking to, but he said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

[21:41] All this was in place before the world was ever formed. It's all past tense to a man that was having a conversation in the present tense. All of it was in place before you and I were ever thought of by our parents, or before the world was ever created, before the first grain of soil, or grain of sand, or the first drop of water, or any of these other things.

[22:08] God already had this plan in action, and it was already taking place. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, whosoever, this is another one of those things of, you know, it's just like the word all in Scripture.

[22:25] I know I've talked about it. I know Brother Verne's talked about it. All means all considering, or taking into consideration the context that it's written in. Whosoever means whosoever considering the context that it's written in.

[22:42] Here in this context, it's exactly what it says, whosoever, whether they be Jew, whether they be Greek, whether they be Gorbarian, Scythian, no matter who they are, no matter their background, no matter what continent, or country, or state, or city that they come from, whosoever believeth in him should not perish.

[23:02] Now listen, that word should doesn't institute any reason for doubt there. It's saying whosoever believeth in him should not perish, or will not perish.

[23:16] They won't perish. If they truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and they've truly repented of their sins, they will be saved as per the Scripture.

[23:29] We confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead, and the Scripture says, if we do those things, thou shalt be saved.

[23:40] And praise God for that, folks. That's the simplicity of the Gospel. You believe and you repent, and you're saved. It's that simple. It's not believing, repent, and throw a thousand dollars in the coffer every Sunday.

[23:51] It's not believing, repent, and do this or that, folks. It is not of our works. We just covered that a little while ago. It is a complete act of God, and God is the very one that grants belief to us.

[24:05] God is the very one that created us. He's the very one that put it in our minds that we can believe something and give us the ability to believe. And He's the one that gave us the ability to repent.

[24:17] It is all of God. It is not of your works, nor is it of my works. It's of no works of any man, lest any man should boast according to what Paul wrote to the Ephesians church in Ephesians chapter 2.

[24:31] Who so ever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. We have everlasting life when we believe in Jesus Christ. The moment that we believe, the moment that we truly believe.

[24:45] Now, what does this word believe and tell? How deep does that get? It actually gets pretty deep, but not really. Y'all have heard me talk about what do we believe, what Christ do we believe in, because there's many Christs out there that many different people believe in, but there's only one true Christ that we can believe in for salvation.

[25:11] That's what we're getting out here. If we believe in the only begotten Son of the Father, who so ever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. If we simply believe in the Son of God, and this belief would be entrusting Him for our salvation.

[25:31] If we believe that Jesus Christ truly came into the world to save sinners, which He did, Jesus said that, Paul said that, it's written all over the New Testament.

[25:42] Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. Paul said this is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

[25:54] He came into the world to save sinners. And we talked about that again back in 1 John when we were studying that here in Sunday school. And we talked about how this saving of sinners, that's destroying the works of the devil because we've got two things there in the same chapter in 1 John, as far as the reasons that Jesus Christ came into the world, but all those conglomerate into one reason, and that was to save sinners.

[26:22] That's why He came here. Why did we need to be saved? Because we were under the curse of God. We were born into this world. We were born in this world under the curse of God.

[26:33] That curse that took place over in the garden, it has transferred to every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, ever since Adam and Eve. We were born under the curse of God.

[26:45] And the only way to have that curse lifted is to believe on the Son of God. We're under the curse, but we believe on Christ and we can have everlasting life.

[26:57] Verse 17, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. This is important as far as what I was talking about a little bit earlier, what the Jews were looking for in a Messiah.

[27:13] Jesus says, I came not into this world to condemn the world, but that the world through me, or as the Scripture says, through Him might be saved. The Jews were looking for someone to come condemn the Romans and condemn the Roman government for treating God's chosen people, the apple of His eye, the way that they had been treating them for years and years and years, for decades, upon decades, they'd been doing this.

[27:41] Jesus has forgot not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Folks, there's no reason for Jesus to come and condemn the world at this point.

[27:53] The world was already condemned. You and I, just as I said a little while ago, when we were born, we were born under the curse of God. Every one of us were.

[28:05] And there's no exceptions to that. Jesus didn't come in His first advent to condemn the world. It was already condemned. Everybody.

[28:16] And everything in this world is under the curse of God. For God sent us into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

[28:27] This is why Jesus came, that the world through Him might be saved. Let's go back to, whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The entire world could be saved if the entire world would repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[28:46] And that's bar none. There's no exceptions to that. The worst person that you can think of in your life can be saved by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[28:59] The worst killer on death row right now, the worst rapist that's ever been known in history. I mean, just the worst people you think of, Hitler, Mussolini, all these people, every one of them could have been or can be, could have been if they're already dead, but can be if they're still living saved by the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[29:24] It is possible, but they must repent and they must believe. They're already condemned. And there's folks out there that literally have the attitude, I've done nothing to be condemned for.

[29:39] I've never sinned. I've never done anything wrong or I don't do anything wrong. Maybe when I was a child, I might have told a white lie once in a while, or I might have stolen a piece of gum out of Mama's purse when I was a kid.

[29:52] All these people have all these excuses for themselves, but the Bible says that man will stand one day without excuse. We have no excuse.

[30:03] No excuse whatsoever. We're all condemned, but Jesus came that the world through him might be saved. Verse 18, He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

[30:23] So he that believeth on him is not condemned, but praise God for that. Praise God all day long for that lie. He that believeth on him is not condemned.

[30:34] It makes me think of Romans 8 once, as therefore there is now no condemnation to those that be in Christ Jesus. Those that are in Christ Jesus, those that have believed, those that have repented.

[30:47] There is no condemnation. The world is condemned. Folks, I am not considered the world. I am considered a child of God.

[30:58] Praise God for that. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Once again, this is a present tense conversation that Jesus was having with Nicodemus.

[31:11] He was saying anyone that does not believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God is condemned already. Jesus is presenting the gospel here to Nicodemus.

[31:24] In this very account that we are reading here, Jesus is preaching a message to Nicodemus. It is exactly what he is doing. I have told many people that think that just because a preacher doesn't jump up and holler and spit and slobber and shout, that he is not preaching a message.

[31:45] That is not true because you will never convince me that Jesus was screaming these words at Nicodemus, but he was preaching him a message. That is exactly what he was doing.

[31:57] So it is not in how high anybody can jump as far as their ability to preach. It is the context of their message. That is what makes a sermon. This sermon was the gospel.

[32:09] It is the gospel. Even present day it is still the gospel. He that believes on him is not condemned. He that believes not is condemned already because he tells the what. You all have heard me say it a thousand times, God gives a what and he gives a why.

[32:23] He tells the what, but he that believes not is condemned already. The why? Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. It is believed. Jesus said himself, only believe.

[32:35] Believe in. Folks, if we truly believe that we are sinners and we truly believe that Jesus Christ is a Savior, that should drive us to repent. So repentance and belief in the Son of God work hand in hand and they go together.

[32:51] You can't separate those two things. If I truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I am going to believe every aspect of him in the Scripture including that he is my judge.

[33:04] Jesus Christ is the judge of all. Paul said that we must all stand at the judgment seat of Christ. That's lost and saved alike. All is all. Is it not? In that context, it means everyone when Paul wrote that.

[33:19] Verse 19, and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

[33:30] He tells Nicodemus the very condemnation of the entire world. This is the condemnation that light has come into the world.

[33:41] He being the light, we read about that back in John chapter one. That light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. He says men love darkness rather than light.

[33:55] And I've told a lot of people over the years when I hear people say, my goodness, did you hear about that murder that happened down such and such or over wherever it is?

[34:06] Did you hear about the war and the battling that's going on? Did you hear what this person done to another person? Why is it that people are locked in? And folks, this verse right here tells us why, because men love darkness rather than light.

[34:20] That's why those things happen. That's why babies are murdered. That's why adults are murdered. That's why women are raped. That's why there's so many drugs. That's why there's so many alcoholics. That's why all of these things are going on because men love darkness rather than light.

[34:36] This one verse encompasses every bit of that. Men love darkness rather than light. And that's the condemnation. He says, because their deeds were evil.

[34:47] That's why they love the darkness because their deeds were evil. We'll try and get to the next couple of verses real quick. For everyone that doeth evil, hatheth the light, either cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

[35:00] Everyone that doeth evil hatheth the light. Why do they hate the light? He tells us why. Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. If he comes to the light, if he comes to the gospel, folks, this is why lost people hate to read the Scriptures because it condemns them.

[35:17] It condemns me. It condemns everyone. It shows everyone their condemned state. It shows everyone their depraved state before a thrice holy God. This is why people don't like to read the Bible.

[35:30] And especially lost folks. And that's why they don't like to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ because it condemns them. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God.

[35:45] So those that do evil, those that do wickedly, they hate the light and they try to avoid the light. They don't want the gospel. They don't want Jesus Christ. They all want the Holy Spirit showing them their wrong because they have convinced themselves in their minds that they're not doing anything wrong.

[36:02] What they're doing is right. They've convinced the adulterer, if my wife treated me right, then I wouldn't be doing this. They've convinced the rapist that, you know, if I was just better looking, I wouldn't be doing this.

[36:13] They've convinced the murderer that, you know, if they hadn't done this to me, I wouldn't have killed them. They've convinced themselves of these things because they love darkness rather than light and the scripture shows them that they were condemned already and they will not come to the light because their deeds will be reprude.

[36:31] They'll be rebuked for their deeds when they read the gospel of Jesus Christ. The he that doeth truth cometh to the light. Folks, that's me and that should be you.

[36:42] You should love to read the scripture. And why? Because we're doing good deeds. We're doing the things that God wants us to do and we love to come to the light. Not only that God can see the deeds that we are doing for him, but so that the other deeds, the contrary deeds in our life and every one of us have got them, the sin in our life can be exposed by that light and we can repent of those deeds.

[37:10] But a say born again child of God is the only one that will come to the light so that they can repent of what the light has exposed in them. Lost people will never do that.

[37:23] The Holy Spirit will show them when the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit will show them their deeds and he'll show them their wickedness, but they hate it and they run back to the darkness and they try to avoid the light.

[37:39] His deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God. They might be manifest, they might be made apparent that his deeds of saved person are wrought in God, they're worked in God.

[37:52] Y'all have heard me say it before, we can do good deeds all day long, you know, being lost people. I mean, you know, I've done good stuff in my own opinion when I was lost, but that didn't make me right with God.

[38:06] It wasn't wrought in God and therefore it didn't save me and folks, I couldn't have relied on that to save me. No one can.

[38:17] We can't rely on our works to save us, but a saved person that goes to the light, they go to the light that their deeds might be manifest, that they are indeed wrought in God, they are worked in God.

[38:31] You go out and you give a homeless person or a hungry person a couple of hamburgers, God bless you for it, but if you do it outside of Jesus Christ, it's not meriting you anything spiritually.

[38:42] You give anything to anybody in the name of Jesus Christ and it will help you spiritually and it will hopefully help that person spiritually.

[38:54] That's a work that is wrought in God. Anybody got any questions or any comments on any of that? Alright, God bless you, I appreciate you.