I invite you to turn with me tonight to John chapter 3. John chapter 3 as we read together the first 21 verses, a familiar portion of Scripture as Jesus teaches Nicodemus about new birth, about being born from above. Chapter in which we find that verse which no doubt Most people, many people have memorized if they were exposed to vacation Bible school, verse 16, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Consider tonight the last verses of this portion, verses 18 through 21. Beginning in verse 1 of our reading as we give our attention to God's most holy Word. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him. In reply, Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked. Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. so it is with everyone born of the Spirit. How can this be? Nicodemus asked. You are Israel's teacher, said Jesus, and you do not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the One who came from heaven, the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who hates evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what He has done has been done through God. There ends the reading of God's Holy Word. May He add His blessing to the consideration of it tonight. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, we live in a diverse world. A world with many differences. Diverse cultures. Diverse climates. Diverse customs. And this is especially true with people, isn't it? Much diversity among people. There are differences with physical features. Differences with language, with talents and abilities, with intellect and with interest. There are all kinds of people. All we need to do is look around at our own community and we see all kinds of people, don't we? Yet in reality, there are only two kinds of people. And not the Jews and everybody else that Nicodemus might have been tempted to say. But the two kinds of people are believers and unbelievers. Very simply, those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and those who don't. And even then, there is one thing that all of mankind has in common, and we know, and that is by nature, every single one is lost in the darkness of sin. Every single one, as we said this morning, must be saved. And this is not good news, is it? This is not good news. But it is the teaching of Scripture. It is the truth of the Word of God. As Isaiah 53 says, all we like sheep have gone astray. Or as Paul says in Romans 3, there is none righteous, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Or as he describes in Ephesians 2, That by nature, we are objects of wrath. By nature, which includes everyone. And therefore, since we are conceived and born in sin from conception, mankind is sinful. Mankind is alienated, separated from God, and therefore condemned, declared as sinful and guilty based on clear evidence with the punishment in store for us of eternal doom. Paul says in Romans 8, verse 1, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That word now is important because that means that outside of Christ Jesus, before Christ Jesus, apart from Christ Jesus, there is only condemnation and no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is what Jesus teaches Nicodemus. And He also teaches Nicodemus that He is the deciding factor. He is the one on whom one's life stands by faith or falls. He is the light that has come into the world of darkness and sin to deliver from that darkness those who are born again, born from above by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is what He teaches Nicodemus here. It comes from above, from God Himself. Here, Jesus reveals Himself as the light of the world to Nicodemus. Jesus confirms John's introduction of Him when John says in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 1, in Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. And now to Nicodemus, He explains His function as light, pointing first of all to the power of this light. Power to expose. To expose the darkness. To expose what's in that darkness. To reveal. To make it clear. Because that's what light does, doesn't it? It is dangerous in the dark. The dark hides things. It can be scary because you don't know who or what is in the dark. It can be dangerous, for example. We can give many examples. But, for example, if cars travel at night without their headlights on, it's dangerous. Or if you go into a dark room and you don't know how the furniture is located, it can be dangerous. You can stumble. Jesus says in another place that in the dark, men stumble. In the natural dark, in the physical dark. But in the daylight, men do not stumble. And as I found out this past week, even if you do know the location of the furniture, it can be dangerous as I walked into our family room in the dark with bare feet only for my right foot to find a Lego community. It hurt. You see, even the youngest among us, even the youngest of the boys and girls here, even if they cannot actually articulate it very well, they understand the danger and the fear and the unknown of the dark. Yet, we also understand the beauty of the light. The sunshine, the daylight, reveals the beauty of creation. It reveals what's out there. If you have traveled and you've reached a location in the dark of night and you don't know where you are, you don't know what's around, in the morning you go, wow, I had no idea where I was. Or when you turn on the light of a dark room, you see quickly where to walk or where to sit in safety. You see where those Legos are, don't you? However, daylight also exposes things that aren't so pleasant. The light exposes the dust on the shelf. It exposes a messed up room. The daylight exposes sin and the effects of sin in the world such as hatred and hurt and murder and theft. Very simply, light exposes those things that are hiding in the darkness. And that's what the light of the world does. Jesus says in John 7, verse 7, The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that what it does is evil. As the light, when He came to the earth, Jesus, we know, on the one hand, revealed the truth and the love of God Himself. He revealed perfect holiness and righteousness through his sinlessness and perfect obedience to God's law. And as he revealed all that, as he revealed the very glory of God by his very life, Jesus exposed the sin of man. His perfect obedience exposed the disobedience of man. For example, of the religious leaders, of those model law keepers of his day whom He called whitewashed tombs. The outside was clean. But compared to Jesus, they were badly coffee-stained cups next to a brand new crystal clear clean glass. Jesus in His very being reveals the glory of God and at the very same time, He reveals the holiness required to be in God's presence. Yet He not only exposes sin deep in man's heart, but as light, His is power to save. His revelation of His Father included all of the divine realities, all of the divine truth of God, including not only His Father's hatred for sin, which we see poured out upon Jesus on the cross, but at the very same time, He reveals the Father's love and mercy and grace and desire and power to redeem and save lost sinners, which we see through Christ on the cross. You see, that was the purpose for His coming, wasn't it? As Jesus says in those well-known verses, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Indeed, Jesus came with the sword, He says in one place, the sword to fight against, to go to war against sin and Satan and the devil and hell. But He did not come to condemn the world. The world was already condemned. You see, we are not to think that Jesus came into a world unto people or that even today we are not to think that the Gospel is preached to people who are on neutral ground. Who have either nothing for them or against them. To those who are standing on the fence and they will choose which way that they will go. Because all of mankind has already chosen which way to go. All of mankind is already lost, as we have said, on the pathway to hell. I heard it explained this way one time, that all of mankind is like a pack of sewer rats. The sewer rats, they love that sewer. They love the darkness and the dampness and the hiddenness of the sewer. And all of mankind is like that flow of sewer rats running as fast as they can toward that sewer called hell. Jesus came as the light to shine and to show the pathway of hope. The only way to be rescued from perishing. And that's Himself. His is the power to expose one's sin and to save from sin. And along with that power is then, in the second place, the effect of this light. When you want to see where you are going, you're grateful for the light. You desire to have light. But when you're sleeping, you don't appreciate the light. You might even despise the light. You're not very happy with the one who comes into your bedroom and turns on the light when you're comfortable sleeping in the dark. Jesus, the light of the world, has a two-fold effect on mankind. By so many, He is rejected. Notice again verses 18-20, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed by so many. He is rejected because they don't believe in Him. Jesus Christ is unmistakable proof through His perfect life and His perfect death. He is unmistakable proof of man's sin and of man's desperate need for a Savior. And He is held out as the only way, truth, and life. The only way to the Father. The Gospel message, beloved, is a message of good news. Great news. The news we need. News that there is hope. Yet He is not believed. Why? Because many are in the dark into which they had plunged themselves. He is not believed because so many are blinded to their need and therefore they are blinded to His usefulness. They think they don't need Him. They don't understand their desperate condition. Or they are blinded, for example, to the lie that there is no life to come or that all will be saved no matter what. Or that there are many ways. Allah, Buddha, Jehovah, whatever you want to call Him, many ways to heaven, many ways to nirvana, many ways to whatever you want to call that. And therefore, they reject Him because they love the darkness. That is the verdict against them. They've cast themselves into that darkness. They wanted nothing to do with that light. And proof that they love the darkness is that their deeds were evil. They love living in sin. They love how it makes them feel now. They love enjoying it. They love wanting more and more of it like those rats running for the sewer. They love gratifying the desires of the sinful nature. They love the darkness of ignorance of their own desires, of their own way of life, of their own standards, thinking they are the captain of their own ship, the master of their own fate. They are blind to the end of the road. They love constantly practicing sin. The sin that Paul outlines in all of its grossness in Romans 1. Idolatry on the one hand. Exchanging the truth of God, the Creator for created things. Or of immorality in the most grossest of forms. No love for neighbor. Every man for himself. Now, of course, we know that every unbeliever does not run around being as absolutely as evil as he can be all the time, only by the restraining hand of God. But you see, this is true. A love for darkness is true in all those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We live in a world that pushes a tolerance for sin. It's no secret as we look all around is that there is open war against holiness. Holiness is not tolerated. Holiness is scoffed at. Holiness is made fun of. Who would want that? And instead, all are being pushed to accept sinful behavior and to encourage it by at least not being judgmental against it, by not condemning it. Beloved, what one does how that one lives what that one says is evidence of where their heart is of what they believe of what they think of Jesus Christ they love the darkness which means that they also have hate for the light the light shines they want nothing to do with it unbelievers don't want to be told they don't want to be preached to They don't want to be told what the Bible says. They don't want to be told about sin and hell and a need for salvation, and especially that their only hope is in Jesus Christ, that they need another. Some of you have experienced that in conversations with co-workers or neighbors. You know this to be true. And we must maybe confess too that there are times when we know that we're not doing something quite right. We don't like to be corrected either, do we? And we must also confess that when something will reveal a weakness or a fault, a sinful tendency in us, we want to keep it in the dark. We don't want it revealed. For example, if someone was to come in and do a search on your computer history, what would they find? What are the sites that you have visited? You see, we don't want our sin to be made known, Yet, we need to remember that God knows every single bit of it. Those who reject Jesus Christ don't want their sin exposed. They don't want to be shown for what they really are because the word exposed, when Jesus says, everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. That word exposed there has the idea of being properly, thoroughly sifted and tried with the truth coming out. With the truth being made clear. And that then comes with an obligation to confess their guilt and to turn from their sin. And this they refuse to do. And Jesus says here, He teaches that that is a demonstration that they are condemned already, as verse 18 says. No one can blame their condemnation on Jesus Christ. So many want to blame God for those who are lost. The truth is one who is condemned is condemned because of their own wickedness. It is their own fault. But so many think that God is harsh and He is unfair if it's true as we believe it is that some are condemned to hell. They want to blame God for that. And they want to say, well, why aren't there many ways to be saved? Yet, true unfairness, you see, is really the unfairness toward God. And that is this. Why are any saved at all? Why did He provide even one way? You see, beloved, those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ get what they deserve. they get what you and I deserve, what we all deserve. Yet believers get what we don't deserve. Therefore, there is now no condemnation. That's the other effect. He is believed. Verse 18 begins again, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. He is believed by grace. And here's kind of the kicker, isn't it? You see, those who are lost have no one to blame but themselves. They are responsible for their own condemnation. But for those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they receive absolutely no credit whatsoever. All of the credit goes to God. He is believed by the grace of God. God has chosen some of us rats to pluck out of the pack. and given His Holy Spirit as Jesus teaches Nicodemus, who gives new spiritual birth, brings from death to life, and given that blessed gift of faith so that Jesus Christ is believed as the only Savior. And God's people are not condemned. Those who are condemned are condemned already and remain condemned, but those in Christ Jesus are not condemned. And it's not only a future thing where we look forward to one day being released from this condemnation that our sin had thrust us into. But no condemnation right now. God accepts us as His very own. Right now we are His. He is believed by the grace of God and He is believed by demonstration. What I mean is that belief is demonstrated as Jesus teaches in verse 21, But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. It is the work of God in one's life. It is God who works, Paul says. God's people, those to whom He gives new birth by the power of the Holy Spirit, they live by the truth. Their lives are a demonstration of the saving truth of Jesus Christ. that truth received in the heart is put into life. It's put into action. As God's people, heed the Word of God to work out your salvation with fear and trembling because it is God who works in us to both will and to act according to His good pleasure. And God's people, the believer, comes to the truth. Continually comes to the truth. Again and again, He puts Himself under the inspection of the light of God's Word again and again and again. He's not afraid of it. He's not terrified of it. Even though that light, that inspection will show up day by day, it will show up my sin and my weakness of faith and my many faults. Things such as anger and lust or pornography or lying or laziness or jealousy or whatever false sin you might live with. It shows up. Yet the believer is not put out. He is not discouraged by what the light of God's Word reveals. Instead, he rejoices. He rejoices because that Word of God, as Paul says, it not only teaches and encourages, but it rebukes and admonishes and corrects. And the believer rejoices in that rebuking and in that admonition and in that correcting because that is a part of that training in righteousness that Paul teaches. The believer transformed by the Holy Spirit desires to be rid of his sin and to gladly submit to the healing power of the light. And the believer, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, willingly says with David the psalmist in Psalm 139, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. What a prayer to be prayed. God, look at me. Inspect me. I want you to see, David says, whether there is any offensive way. Can you imagine that? Is that your desire? For God to inspect you? For God to bring to your mind and to put upon your lips the secret sins of your heart that you might confess them. The child of God continually comes to that truth. He loves that truth because by the grace of God, the believer understands, lastly, the necessity of this light. Verse 18 says again, whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. Again, there is no hope without Jesus Christ and one will not understand their need for Him without being exposed by Him. One must be brought face to face with the holiness of God, with the truth of His Holy Word as we are every Lord's Day as we consider the law of God that reflection of the holiness of God as we are brought face to face with it. As we are brought face to face with the Word of God through the preaching of it. As we are brought face to face with it throughout the week as the Holy Spirit has hidden that law, inscribed that law upon our hearts. We must be brought face to face. One must be brought face to face with the holiness of God. And that being brought face to face brings a certain dread and a certain trauma. such as Moses, no doubt, experienced at the burning bush. Or Isaiah when he cried out, I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips. Or Peter when he looked at the Savior when the boats were overflowing with fish, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Or Paul as he knelt in the light of Christ on the Damascus road. John Calvin says in his Institutes of the Christian religion, men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God. One will not understand his need for a Savior until he is brought face to face with the holiness of God and then to see his own unholiness. And what God exposes indeed is hideous and it is painful. Yet, what He produces, as the writer of Hebrews 12 says, the harvest of righteousness and peace, that is beyond compare. You know, we can make all kinds of comparisons in this life because, again, there is such a diversity of people and things out there. I wish I could be like Him, or I'm glad that I'm not like her. But there's only one comparison that matters, and that is a comparison with Jesus Christ, with the truth of the Word of God. And that comparison brings only bad news as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes by faith to see our helplessness, our hopelessness, and our unworthiness. Yet, it is so necessary. Because one must come face to face with God's holiness if that one will ever be convicted of their sin. Because only then does the light of Jesus Christ reveal good news. The great news. the best news for those who believe in Jesus Christ for those who trust in His finished work alone to make them right with God He alone gives confidence of no condemnation that my sin and my guilt and my spiritual ugliness and my sentence of everlasting punishment is gone right now never to return upon me because God's wrath and God's hatred and His punishment has been turned away from me and poured out on Jesus Christ and I am justified in His sight. I am forgiven of all of my sins and made right with God and I have eternal life. And I am the work of the Holy Spirit, His sanctifying work as He continues to mold me and make me more and more after the image of Jesus Christ. and beloved just as if I had turned on the light in the family room it would have saved me from temporary pain and suffering of stepping on those Legos the light of Jesus Christ delivers from the never ending pain and suffering of hell and that good news of Jesus Christ is demonstrated as the believer loves the truth of God and lives the truth of God as he finds that truth of God to be his standard for living. And it is demonstrated as the believer is seen as one who has been with Jesus Christ, who belongs to Him. Indeed, there's a warning here, isn't there? That apart from Jesus Christ, all are condemned because of their own sin. And all are headed for hell, which is real and which will be terrible. But the blessed promise is those who are brought into that light by the Holy Spirit to see the truth of themselves and who confess their sins and lay them at the throne of God and trust in Jesus Christ alone. Therefore, there is now no condemnation, but only justification, eternal life with God. We live again among many people who are quick to heed warnings, to take action. When there are warnings with regard to severe weather or rough waters or earthquakes or tornadoes or to sell your stocks or of disease that might come upon you like H1N1, so many rush. They take them seriously and they take action with regard to these warnings of things that may or may not ever come to pass. But so many fail to take seriously and heed this warning of something that will come to pass. That apart from Jesus Christ, there will be eternal separation from God. They fail to heed the warning to turn to Jesus Christ. And beloved, as those who have the assurance of such a great salvation, who have that comfort that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, we are called to spread the Word, to share that message of Jesus Christ. And as we said this morning, it won't be a popular message. but we're not in it for popularity are we in order for one to recognize by faith what Jesus Christ has done we know that they must also recognize and confess why he has done it because my sin is great and because I have no hope without him and because his salvation his work alone is great there are only two kinds of people in the world those with Jesus and those without and there's no comparison, no similarity between the two. It's either death or life. It's either hell or heaven. It's either hopelessness or hope. It's either dying forever because of one's own sin or living forever because of Jesus Christ and His perfect work. Well, beloved, praise be to God for opening our eyes to see His light. For rescuing us from deadly darkness and bringing us into the marvelous light of His truth. and for preparing us to live with Him in the light of His glory forever. May we not ever take the light of God's truth for granted, but delight to walk in the light with Jesus, the light of the world. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for that blessed light, that saving light of Jesus Christ. And we acknowledge and confess, Father, that we sometimes don't want to be found in that light, but how we need that light daily. Continue to shine upon us with Your truth and Your love. Continue to lead us and guide us by Your Holy Spirit. Make our eyes open that we might never drift away from the light of the truth of Jesus, but that we might ever dwell in that light. And then again, others may recognize us as being children of the light. Children of the Most High God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, for Your truth which saves us. Lead us and guide us and bless us and make us to be a blessing for You and to those with whom we have contact. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.