Love That Casts Out Darkness: John 3:16-21

The sermon text this morning comes, excuse me, comes from John chapter three, verses sixteen to twenty-one.

If you were here last week, you know that we're continuing in this text, this same text this morning.

Last week we looked at the love of God for sinners like us.

The depth, the breadth, the length, the height of God's love for sinners like us.

It is an amazing love, as the choir just reminded us.

It is an amazing grace.

Hear the word of God.

By the way, just to put this in context, John chapter 3, Jesus is having a conversation with a religious leader named Nicodemus.

John 3 · chapter mention

And he came to Jesus in the night in darkness.

It seems he wanted to have a private conversation with Jesus.

You know, a lot of religious people don't know Jesus.

Did you know that?

Nicodemus was a religious person.

He was a leader, he was a teacher, and he didn't know the salvation that we sing about this morning until Jesus told him that he, like all of us, need to be born again.

Unless we are born again spiritually by the Holy Spirit, we will not see God in heaven.

We will not be there.

This is why it's such amazing news and grace that we hear from God's Word.

Hear the word of God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed.

But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

This is the holy, precious, inerrant, infallible Word of God that we sit under.

It's his authority that we sit under this morning.

We ask the Spirit to help us to understand and to believe these precious words.

Please pray with me.

Father, thank you.

Thank you for sending your Son that we might be saved.

Thank you for sending your spirit that our hearts that were dead can come alive by your power alone.

Bring our hearts alive, make our hearts live this morning, Spirit of God, as we hear your word in new ways, we pray.

In Christ's name, amen.

This morning we're going to look as we continue from last week at love that saves, love that spares, and love that sanctifies.

Looking back, just a brief review from last week: love that saves sinners.

And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son.

Do you remember that word we looked at last week from 1 John chapter 4, verse 10?

1 John 4:10

He sent his son as a propitiation, as an atoning sacrifice.

That means that you should not expect God to be any less just than you would expect justice to be served in our own courts.

Now, why do I say that?

Because I've been a minister long enough to know that many people don't understand that.

There seems to be this, and it's a very mistaken, erroneous understanding today, that God, because he is so full of love, because that's what he is by nature, who he is by nature, God sees us in our mess, God sees us in our sin, and just looks the other way.

And says, all is forgiven.

You're good where you are, you're good as you are.

The Bible doesn't teach that.

Why do so many people believe that?

The reason that we can sing the songs that we do this morning about God's amazing love and grace is because the same God of love is a holy God, and he, because of our sin, poured out his wrath for our sin on his son.

This is the gospel.

It's a gospel that many are not hearing today in many churches, which is why so many people think, well, what's the big deal?

God has just already accepted me as I am.

No, he doesn't.

He doesn't accept us just as we are apart from Christ.

He doesn't accept us until he covers us with the righteousness of his son Jesus.

And in order for us to be covered by the righteousness of his son, the wrath, his wrath, over the ugliness of our son, his wrath was poured out on Jesus, his son.

Did you know that?

You don't come to God but through Jesus, a crucified Jesus, a resurrected Jesus.

This is why we call it good news.

There's nothing for you to do, as we saw last week.

But believe.

Oh, but believe.

How can we believe this?

Except that he gives us a new heart.

He's done that for many of us.

May he do that for all of us in this room as we look to Jesus.

Last week we looked at the type of that in the Old Testament when the Israelites were murmuring and grumbling and complaining against God.

And God sent fiery serpents in the wilderness who bit the people of God with their venom.

And many were dying.

And God said, God said to Moses, You take a bronze, piece of bronze, and you fasten it and shape it like a serpent, and you put that up in the middle of the camp, and you tell the people in the camp, the sinners that they are, that if they will look to this brazen serpent, that they will be saved.

That they will not die from the poison.

We saw last week that that was just a type, a word picture.

Jesus said it in John chapter 3, verse 15, just a verse before this.

John 3:15

He said, All who look to Jesus Christ will be saved.

But you have to look as a sinner.

You have to look to Jesus as a savior, not just a good example.

That's what so many churches are teaching today.

That Jesus is just really a good example.

He's more than an example.

He'll never be an example to you unless he first becomes a savior to you.

Unless he first becomes a savior for you.

Then you can follow him.

But not until you first receive him as your savior, as your Lord.

Love that saves sinners.

This is real love.

Charles Spurgeon put it so well.

You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if he were you.

Amen?

Think about it one day, Christian, you're going to stand before God Almighty.

And when he sees you, I mean, literally, you're in front of him.

He's not going to see you, the sinner.

He's going to see you the forgiven.

This is why we sing the gospel.

Because Jesus was punished for us.

We are welcomed.

We are forgiven.

We are accepted.

This is the gospel.

The love that saves sinners.

Secondly, the love that spares sinners from condemnation.

Verse 17 in our text.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.

Some people believe that.

And they can never get over the condemnation.

They can never get beyond the condemnation.

They carry their sense of self-condemnation with them their entire life.

They don't know what to do with it.

It shows up in a guilty conscience.

Jesus said, Whoever believes in me is not condemned.

Do you know that you can be freed from your condemnation today?

Whoever believes in Christ is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Do you believe?

And the only Son of God is your Savior.

Are you looking to him alone for your salvation?

There's no condemnation for you.

Not today, not tomorrow.

Never, never again.

There's no condemnation for you.

That's why we call it the good news.

For those who look to Christ, escape condemnation, but those who refuse to trust him are good as condemned already.

That's what he's saying.

Well, why is that?

Because if you to the person, to such a person, Jesus would say, as long as you continue to refuse to come to me for salvation, you stand condemned in your unbelief.

Jesus says, Don't do that.

Come.

That was our last point last week.

Come, come today.

He will receive you.

Jesus knows what to do with sinners like us.

Before Jesus comes the first time.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus came not to be judged, but to be savior.

But he's coming back a second time.

We read about it throughout the scriptures.

Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 2 that one day every knee will bow, one day every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

You have a choice, I have a choice.

We either do it before we leave this earth, we do it freely now, or one day we will do it under compulsion.

Don't wait for that day.

You don't want to see that day.

Jesus says, Come now.

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest for your souls.

This is the gracious Savior that we know.

The last point we're gonna spend a little bit more time this morning is love that sanctifies.

What is sanctification?

It's a biblical word, it's a theological word that means that once you come to Christ, God wants to grow you as a Christian.

He will grow you as a Christian.

Come to Jesus as you are, sinner as we are.

But once you come to Jesus, you don't stay as you are.

He gives you the Holy Spirit to believe these promises and to grow as a Christian and to believe and to be changed.

It's called transformation, metamorphosis.

The Bible uses that word.

Change from something that you were before to something that you're becoming now in Christ.

This is the power of the gospel.

Love that sanctifies people like us.

Verse 21.

But whoever does what is true comes to the light.

Look at verses 20 and 21 for a moment.

Verse 20, for everyone who does evil hates the light.

Look at verse 21.

What would you expect it to say?

What would be the contrast of evil?

Good?

But it doesn't say that.

We have to ask ourselves why.

Not he who does good.

Here's the contrast.

The alternative that God presents to our doing evil is not doing good.

This is critical that you understand this.

This is what non-Christians think before they can become a Christian.

This is what all of us once thought.

Well, if I've messed up, I need to make it up.

If I did evil, I need to start doing more good.

But that's not good news, is it?

How much good would you have to do to make up for your sin?

Roy Hessian speaks to this so brilliantly.

The alternative that God presents to our doing evil is not doing good, but doing truth.

I want us to think about that for the next few minutes.

What does it mean to do truth?

That is honesty in our souls, not trying to do good where we have done evil, not trying to be kind where we have been unkind, not trying to be friendly where we have been critical.

We could do all of this without repenting, couldn't we?

We could do all of this by trying to be our own Savior.

Trying to replace our evil with our good.

The only problem with that is all we have is evil.

We don't have any good in and of ourselves.

Jesus supplies all the goodness.

Praise God.

We could do all of this without any repentance, without addressing what's really going on in our hearts.

What God asks of us first of all is to do truth.

He will take us back to the cross for pardon when we sin.

Simple honesty, simply doing truth will put us right once again with God and with others that no doing good could ever do.

As I say that, just begin right now.

What's the first thing that comes to your mind?

What's the thing that haunts you?

What's the thing that keeps you up sometimes at night?

What's the thing that you find playing over and over in your mind?

What you did that you can't change?

How you've harmed others.

We've all harmed others.

Often.

What we're saying here is when we don't deal with the truth, when we don't do truth, we're just showing that we love darkness and we're avoiding the light.

And that's not how Jesus wants us to live.

He wants us to invite the light in.

He wants the light to shine on our darkness, our dark thoughts, our dark words, our dark actions.

Because Jesus has a remedy for that.

The cross.

Come back to the cross.

Come to the cross for the first time for salvation, yes.

But come back again and again and again.

Come back to the cross.

That's the answer.

Thank him for the forgiveness that he offers every time we come back.

People in darkness cannot understand God's love.

This is why the death of God's Son is required to make atonement.

Before people become Christians, they just don't understand this.

Before people become Christians, they wonder in their heart, what's the big deal?

Doesn't the Bible say that God just accepts me as I am?

No.

Doesn't the Bible say that God accepts me if I'm trying to be good?

No.

Churches may teach that.

The Bible doesn't teach that.

God will forgive you, and God will welcome you back only if you see what Jesus Christ had to do to bring you back, to make you whole.

He will take you back.

But it's only through Christ.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Nobody comes to the Father but by me.

Jesus said that.

Our world today hardly knows that with the pluralism of the world.

The world today teaches that there are many roads to God.

The world today says that this road is good, this road is good, this road is good, this faith is good, that faith is good.

That's a lie.

The Bible never teaches that.

Why do so many people believe it?

It's the message of the world.

Jesus said, nobody comes to the Father but by me.

You go by Him.

You go through Him.

And the Father will welcome you.

Otherwise, the love of God just becomes sentimental.

I've noticed that.

Before you become a Christian, the love of God is just a nice sentiment.

It's like granddad who can't say no to the grandkids.

Ah, you know.

What can you do?

Except just love them, whatever they do.

This is the gospel we're looking at this morning.

We could say that light is required to understand love.

We could also say that God's love is required to accept the light.

The only thing that brings us to the light is God's love.

But God uses the light to shine on our darkness to show us his love.

But at the same time, you can have all the light in the world.

You can see the light, meaning you can be in your Bible for your whole lifetime and not really see the light.

Only God's love.

Once you believe and trust God's love, will you see the light?

And the light will start to shine on your life, and you'll see other things that God says, I want to speak about that.

That's not why I made you, that's not why I created you.

Let's address the darkness that still remains.

Let's address that.

That's what we're talking about right now.

There is much about ourselves that we would like to hide.

Is that not true?

1 John 1, verse 8 says, We deceive ourselves.

1 John 1:8

When we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us.

God's love casts Out our darkness.

I was struck this week as I was preparing the contrast by the same author, the Apostle John, the verse that we've just been looking at these two weeks, God so loved the world.

But the same apostle wrote near the end of his life in 1 John chapter 2, verse 15.

1 John 2:15

If anyone loves the world, the Father's love is not in him.

This contrast.

John says, For God so loved the world that if anyone believes, he will not perish.

He will not be punished for his sin.

I have a home in heaven for that person through Christ.

But the same author says, if anyone loves the world, the Father's love is not in him.

Let's talk about that.

We're going to finish this morning by thinking about loves.

We talked about that last week, Henry Nowen's article on second loves.

I had a number of great conversations with you this week.

Many of you wanted to talk about that.

Some of you told me about the battle for second loves in your life.

Yeah, that's good.

Let's talk about the loves of our life.

Let's talk about why it's so hard at times to let God's light continue to shine in us and why sometimes we prefer to stay in the darkness, although it makes no sense.

We fear the light unless we're looking to the life of God in Jesus Christ.

There's things that can shame us in this world.

There's things that can imprison us in this world.

Jesus came to set us free from those things, but we have to address those things.

A Scottish preacher by the name of Thomas Chalmers wrote a brilliant, well, preached a brilliant sermon.

The title of the sermon was The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.

It was an amazing sermon.

It is an amazing sermon.

It's not easy to get through the language, but it's worth the attempt.

Let me just give a few excerpts from the sermon.

The object of the gospel is both to pacify the sinner's conscience as well as to purify their heart.

What mars the one mars the other also.

The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure affection, and by the love of what is good, to expel the love of what is evil.

Thus it is that the freer the gospel, the more sanctifying is the gospel.

And the more it is received as a doctrine of grace, the more it will be felt as a doctrine that leads to godliness.

Now I know that was a lot.

But do you get the gist of that?

Let me paraphrase it.

You can't just say no to sin.

You're not that powerful.

I'm not that powerful.

We don't do Nike theology here.

Just do it.

The Bible doesn't teach that.

The Bible says take a look at your sin.

By the Spirit of God, put the things that you cherish.

Wait a minute, are you saying I cherish sin?

Yeah, I am.

Put the things that you cherish, Tom, put the things that you cherish, the things that keep you in the darkness.

Ask the Holy Spirit to bring the love of God and the light of God to bear and put it under that light of the gospel.

Put it under the love of God's gospel and let Jesus do his work.

How could we possibly love evil?

Well, we do sometimes.

Sometimes we would rather live for comfort than taking action, doing the things that we really need to do.

We'd rather live for comfort.

We'd rather not rock the boat.

We'd rather not make waves.

Alright?

That's evil.

If the Holy Spirit is saying you're avoiding truth telling, truth doing in your life, you're avoiding that just because you want to keep everything comfortable.

You want to keep everything peaceful.

You're not bringing that under the light of God's truth.

That's one example.

Chalmers uses the example in his sermon of a young man who falls in love, a young man who grows and matures in his life.

And as he grows naturally in the natural realm of life, he puts down the things that he cherishes earlier in life as a boy, but his heart is then captured by other things that capture his heart as he grows more into a man.

When he falls in love with a young lady, he starts to exchange the things that he's put his love on.

He just uses that as an example.

This is what he says: the only way to dispossess the heart of an impure affection is by the expulsive power of a new affection.

What do you think that new affection is?

Love of God.

Love for God.

Then we come back to this example of just living for comfort, which seems innocuous to a lot of people, but it's not.

When God's light comes on and shows me that, wait a minute, am I living for my comfort?

My peace?

Am I trying to control people?

Manipulate people.

God says, bring that under the light.

Bring that under the light.

And when that affection is repented of for my comfort and my love for God grows, I can say no.

I can say no to that sin and you can say no to that sin.

And you can say no to any other sin.

Lust?

Are you struggling with lust?

Are you struggling with greed?

Are you not trusting God with your money?

Are you struggling with your anger?

What is it that just feels dark and heavy?

Jesus wants to bring that under his light.

But you won't come unless you see his love.

What is this new affection that the God who made you loves you at the cost of his own son?

But it begins with our understanding and experience of his love for us.

How many of you have been camping out in Ephesians 3 this week?

I know a bunch of you are, you've been telling me that prayer last week, that according to the glory of his riches, he may grant you to be strengthened with power in your inner being through the Holy Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

So that you, all of us, being rooted and grounded together in the love of Christ, may grasp, may comprehend what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth of God's love and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge.

Are you experiencing the love of God that surpasses knowledge?

It's there.

But we have to come in humility to receive it.

We have to come in faith to take it.

But the Holy Spirit is there.

The Holy Spirit can do for you what you can never do in your own.

Praise God.

This is true.

If you've not experienced it, it's only because you haven't tried it.

And I don't mean in your strength, I mean in the strength that Jesus provides.

Let me close with a quote.

I think a pretty good summary of Thomas Chalmers' sermon.

I don't know who said this first.

Ashley Knoll is somebody that I found it from.

Whatever the heart loves or desires most, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.

Now that bears repetition, especially while they go down the road.

Let me say it again.

This is profound.

This can change your life.

Whatever the heart loves or desires most, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.

What is that saying?

We always do what we most love at any given moment.

And if we're in the darkness and we're under the grip of the darkness and we live for comfort, we live for security.

Whatever it is that we live for, we're choosing that at the moment because that becomes a gospel to us.

Whatever you love most, you're going to choose.

And your mind is going to justify.

That is profound.

That's why we justify our behaviors.

Whatever our heart is most inclined to choose, whatever your heart finds most beautiful, whatever your heart finds most beautiful.

What I say to you, my friends, this morning is this there's nothing as beautiful as the love of God.

There's nothing as beautiful as the finished work of Jesus Christ.

May the Holy Spirit increase my love for Jesus Christ.

May the Holy Spirit increase your love for Jesus Christ.

May the love of God be shed abroad in our hearts even today.

To deal with those second loves that we all have to deal with in the week ahead.

My Jesus, I love thee.

Oh, I'm sorry, we did sing it.

My Jesus, I love thee.

I know that thou art mine.

For thee, all the follies of sin.

I resign.

That's a beautiful text.

May the Spirit give us that heart.

Father, would you please touch every heart in this room?

Touch our hearts.

Holy Spirit, would you open us up to the love of God the Father, the love of Jesus, the sacrifice?

May we see this morning that his sacrifice is enough.

May we see this morning that his sacrifice is the only thing that can bring us your love.

Thank you, Father, that it's enough.

Jesus, thank you for so loving this world.

You didn't come to condemn this world, you came to save this world.

May we understand that, may we believe that.

May we rest in your love this morning.

May it outshine all other loves in our life.

I pray in Christ's name.

Amen.