What's the Secret to Life? Part 2

0:03Check your bag that particular day. But the other guy, we're pretty ambivalent about him. Okay, he's there, but we don't give much thought to that person. It's rare to find people like that today in our culture and society, somebody that we don't have much of an opinion about, right? Donald Trump.

0:21You didn't expect to have that name thrown at you in the middle of a sermon, did you? But my guess is that there are varying opinions on that name in this room. Certainly, if you walked outside this room and said that name, There's going to be all kinds of varying opinions on that. Just look at how divided our world is right now about everything. Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Rangers, Astros, right?

0:43There's only one right answer on that last one, by the way, and it's the team that plays in Arlington is the right answer on that one. We live in a world divided, and it's so easy to see divisiveness and to see polarization everywhere we look in this world. There's not too many x-ray techs in this world, so to speak. Typically, we have an opinion about things and people.

1:06Jesus is no exception to that rule. In fact, I'm going to argue this morning that Jesus is the most polarizing figure in all of history. When it comes to Jesus, everybody has an opinion about Jesus. When it comes to Jesus, we have either made one of two responses. We have either decided that we will follow him in faith and repentance, Or we have decided to reject him.

1:30When it comes to Jesus, there's no ambivalence. When it comes to Jesus, there is no neutrality.

1:37And that's what our text bears out for us this morning. Everyone who meets Jesus makes a decision about Jesus. And if that's true, we would do well to consider, church, what that means for our mission here at Compass Bible Church. Take your Bibles and open up to John chapter 3, if you will. We're going to pick up in verse 17.

1:55We studied verse 16 last week. We're going to be in verses 17 through 21 together this week. I'll start in verse 16 just to get a running start. This is, again, I think John's commentary on Jesus' interaction with Nicodemus, but we pick up in verse 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Now verse 17, 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.

2:26Whoever 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. Let's stop there for a minute.

2:39Jesus is the most polarizing figure in the world. When it comes to Jesus, there's no neutrality, and that's what we're seeing here. See, John 17 picks up from John 3:16 to explain more of God's purpose in sending Jesus. John 3:16, we looked at it last week, the foundation, the root, the grounding of everything that God did for us in Christ is His love for us. And now we see more of kind of not just the motivation, but the thought process here.

3:07And that is that God did not purpose to send Jesus, the first advent at least, in order to condemn the world, but for a different purpose, in order that the world might be saved through Him. The Father's love prompted the provision of the Son, but this act of love would prove to be one of the most, again, polarizing acts in history. Look at verse 18, whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in Him is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Verse 18 says very plainly for us there's 2 camps when it comes to Jesus. Those who believe and those who do not believe.

3:48For those who believe, there is no condemnation. Romans 8:1 says that, right? Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What makes a person in Christ Jesus? It's belief.

4:01It's response to the gospel. It's faith and repentance. And so for those who believe in him, there is no condemnation. Why? Because verse 17.

4:11He did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. How is the world saved through Christ? They are saved through Christ through belief, through faith in Him. And we have talked about the nature of that belief a couple of times already in this series, but that nature of belief being a full surrender of the whole self to the whole Christ in faith and repentance. And if we do that, then there is no condemnation, but Verse 18 introduces the second camp as well.

4:40There are those who won't believe. There are those who have rejected Him, and for them, they are, as the text says, condemned already. Even though God's purpose in sending His Son into the world was not to condemn the world, their rejection of the Son, their unbelief results in condemnation nonetheless. The word for condemn in this passage is the word that also is translated as judge. And the judging here being done is a judging that brings with it punishment.

5:09That's why it's translated as to condemn. Those who do not believe the Son whom the Father sent to save the world stand condemned or sit condemned where they are. You see, this is the polarization of Jesus. There is no neutrality with Jesus. There's no third position with Jesus.

5:29There's no I'm still deciding what I'm going to do with Jesus. If you're there, you've already made a decision about what you're going to do with Jesus, because what you've done is you haven't responded in faith and repentance. And John is saying, if you will respond in faith and repentance, you're not condemned because God sent his Son to save the world. However, if you do not respond in faith and repentance, you're condemned already.

5:54Faith in life or rejection in condemnation. Those are the options. Those are the decisions. Those are the choices to be made. And there's a weightiness that you and I need to feel about that, church.

6:06Every time that we sit down and we share the gospel with someone, there's a decision made. Every single time you present the gospel, every time you call someone to faith and repentance in Christ, you are presenting an opportunity for them to decide to repent and believe in Jesus or to reject Him and remain condemned. And there's a weightiness to that. There's a gravity to that that we need to feel. There's a flippancy that can exist out in the culture that says, well, it's okay, whatever, I'll get around to Jesus later in my life.

6:35And some of you young people in the room, you may have that thought. You may think, well, right now I'm content, I'm just living the life however I want to live the life, but I'll get around to Jesus later. Let me just warn you, young person, you've already made a decision about Jesus. And if you die right now in that decision, you're facing an eternity without Him. Because there's no second chance.

6:56And so when we, church, present the gospel to someone and say, you need to repent and believe in Jesus, there should be a weightiness and a seriousness about it that we step into and that we feel. That's point number 1 for us this morning. Take every gospel opportunity seriously. Take every gospel opportunity seriously.

7:19Because of what's at stake. Let me ask you a question. If you were to present someone with the opportunity to choose between 2 doors, and you knew behind one door stood a stack of $5 million, and you knew behind the other door stood a hungry lion, how would you present the option to the person wanting to choose the doors?

7:39I don't think that you would sit down with the person and say, look, I don't want to offend you. There's many ways to the $5 million. Or, you know, I don't mean to step on your toes, but, you know, I'm really going to suggest— I don't want to tell you what to do, but I think you need to— if I were you, I would open the door over here. I think it's a better choice for you because of— no, of course not, right? You would, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:20, you would implore them, open this door, don't touch this door, right?

8:11When it comes to the gospel, we're dealing with something far heavier than that. We're dealing with eternity.

8:18And so when we share the gospel with someone, church, we're presenting them an option, a choice. Will you believe or will you reject? And there's a decision made every single time the gospel is shared. And so that's why we have to be careful. We have to be intentional.

8:33We have to be thoughtful about how we share the gospel every time we share the gospel. Gospel clarity is an imperative for us, church. We can't be unclear. We can't sit down with somebody and say, ah, yeah, you know, well, I mean, so people make mistakes in the world and our mistakes, you know, God's holy. We can't fumble our way through this.

8:57This is too important for us. It's too important for the people that we're sharing the gospel with. We have to be clear. We have to identify sin as sin, holiness as holiness, and call for the response. And so here's what I'm going to suggest for us.

9:11There's a couple of ways to think about how you should go about sharing the gospel. There's one way that I think is most clear, and that is this pattern. It starts with who God is, right? That's the first step. Who is God?

9:26His character, His attributes, His holiness, His justice. Second then, after we talk about who God is, it helps for us then to talk about who man is. We are created by this God, and we are inherently sinful human beings. We've rebelled against Him. We've fallen short of His standard of holiness.

9:48We are, as we say in the church, the word that we use to describe this is fallen.

9:56So then what from there? It is important that we get to the next stage in this, which is Christ. Who is God? God is holy, perfect, righteous, just. Who is man?

10:05Man is created by God and accountable to Him, and we are not holy. We are imperfect. We are fallen. What did God do about who we are? Enter Christ, that He sent His Son to live a perfect life that you and I couldn't live and to give us that righteousness and to take our sinfulness and to die on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven.

10:27And to rise from the dead 3 days later so that we can live with Him forever. And then there's the all-important part of the response. And this is such an important part that we have to call for a conclusion. We have to call for a verdict. We have to call for Him to make the response.

10:45God-Man Christ response. There's another way to think about the gospel that's more of the storytelling, the narrative version, which is creation, Creation, fall, redemption, consummation. Creation, God created everything perfect as He created it. Fall, sin entered the world. What needed to be done for that?

11:07Redemption provided through Christ and the cross. Consummation being the end when He returns and makes all things new. Still, even if that's the approach, we need to call for the response. There's a video that I'm about to show on the screen. I don't often do this, and so the reason we're doing this is this is a method that we use here and practice a lot here called the umbrella method, the umbrella analogy.

11:29And I want you to see it. I want you to listen to it. If you go through our partners program, this is the way we train people to share the gospel. I think it's really helpful. And so give your attention, if you will, to the screens for just a moment.

11:39The first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, tells us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The Bible teaches that God created everything that is, including you and me. The implications of that are huge. If God made us, then he is ultimately in charge. He owns us and we're responsible to him.

11:59He retains full rights over us as the designer and creator of human life.

12:06The Bible tells us that people were created in God's image to enjoy a perfect relationship with him and with each other. God intended and designed the ultimate in quality and quantity of life for his people, the people that he had made.

12:22Part of this ultimate relationship between God and his people included his desire to have men and women choose to love and serve him for who he is, willingly and freely. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 16 tells us that God is holy. That means that God is perfect. This verse also tells us that God requires that people be holy too. Unfortunately, from the beginning, the people that God had made chose to use their freedom to please themselves instead of obeying God and being holy.

12:51The Bible calls this sin. Because people chose to sin, they forfeited their privileged position and their ultimate relationship with God ended. The Bible teaches that everybody born since Adam and Eve were born into a state of separation from God. Sin created a barrier that ruined what should have been a perfect relationship with God. The Bible also tells us that God is just.

13:15Because he's perfectly just, he cannot overlook sin. His justice requires a payment for sin. According to passages like 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9, God promises to punish sin severely and exactly. Though God's grace and kindness prevails during the present age, the Bible is clear that there will come a time when each person will stand before God, and a payment for sin will be required. That's what hell is all about.

13:41It is a place away from God's kindness where people will pay for their sins that they've committed. Thankfully, 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is a loving God. His love for sinful and separated people has provided a solution, a way out for people who would otherwise have no hope. This is the good news. Much like an umbrella, God has provided Jesus, his own Son, God in human form, who's endured the punishment that we deserve so that we will not have to.

14:11As God, Jesus lived a perfect life for us, as well as incurring the wrath of God for us while dying on a cross. Because the umbrella is rained on, there's a place beneath it that isn't. So it is with Christ. After living the life we needed and dying the death we deserved, Jesus rose from the dead to prove to the world that sin and the penalty for sin had been adequately dealt with. What Jesus has done for us is definitely good news, but it does not do us any good until we respond to it the way that God requires.

14:43Though many believe that amassing a lifetime of good deeds will somehow earn God's favor and forgiveness, to the contrary, the Bible says that we can acquire God's favor and forgiveness right this moment by repenting of our sins and placing our trust in Christ. If today you choose to turn from your sin and trust completely in what Jesus has done for you, then God's Spirit will place you in Christ, and you're guaranteed to never incur the punishment your sins deserve. Are you ready to do that right now? If so, express to God your desire to be in Christ. Tell him you will right now turn from your sin And that you are placing your trust in what Jesus has done to save you.

15:30That's a method to use, but did you see it? Did you hear the God-Man-Christ response in there? The presentation is a creative way using the illustration of an umbrella, but that's what we're talking about here, y'all, and we have to take this seriously. We have to be clear with it. And lifestyle evangelism has a place in building relationships with our neighbors, building relationships with our coworkers, building relationships with people.

15:53In order to get to a place of sharing the gospel, but you have to get to a place of sharing the gospel. No one is going to go to heaven because you had them over for dinner. No one is going to go to heaven because you showed up at their kid's soccer game. No one is going to go to heaven because you opened a door for them. The only way people are going to go to heaven is if you get to the content of the gospel.

16:12And when we get to the content of the gospel, we have to realize that what we're doing is we're calling on people to make a decision regarding eternity. Every single time the gospel is presented, a decision is made. If you think about salesmen, right? I just went through the car buying process recently, which is not ever fun, but the car salesman has to try to close the deal, right? Otherwise, he wouldn't be a very good car salesman.

16:38If all he did was let me take the test drive and sit down with me and talk to me about all the different features of the car and then say, okay, well, We'll see you later. He's not doing his job, is he? Right? He's given me all the information, but he hasn't done what a salesman is supposed to do. A salesman is supposed to close the deal.

16:54Or imagine a lawyer in a courtroom has presented all the evidence. Everything has been laid out, and he's given all of his arguments and presented the evidence there. What is that lawyer supposed to do with the jury at the end? He's supposed to call for a verdict. Church, when we share the gospel, we have to make sure that we call for the response, that we call for the verdict, and that we're clear about it because of what's at stake.

17:18Repent from your sins. Trust in Christ as your Savior. Gospel clarity is abundantly imperative, absolutely imperative for us as we go about the task of reaching people for Christ. If every encounter with Jesus produces one response, either condemnation or faith, we want to be doing everything we can in our power to encourage the right response. Now that said, I acknowledge and realize that we can't save anyone.

17:44In fact, even in that analogy, that illustration, right? The 2 people that are walking under the umbrella, God is the one that places us under the umbrella. He's the one that does the heavy lifting. He's the one that causes us to believe. He's the one that saves us.

17:55But church, our part in this is making sure that we're clear in that, making sure that we're clear in that.

18:01Speaking of God's work in people, 1 Timothy 2:4 says this. Paul says, God desires, or who, the who here is God. God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. All people. Okay, how can that be true if not everyone is saved?

18:23How can God desire everyone to be saved if not everyone is going to be saved? Because not everyone is going to be saved, right? We can agree on that point. We're not universalists, in other words. We believe that hell exists, that it is a place of eternal torment and punishment.

18:38And so if not everyone is saved, what do we do with a verse like this? In fact, even more so, what do we do with a verse like this when we read another verse like this in Romans 8:30 that says that those whom He predestined are those whom He called, and those whom He called are those whom He justified, and those whom He justified will be those who He will So here we see an unbroken chain of God's sovereignty in salvation wherein He is the one that is the actor that saves us. He predestined us. He called us. He justified us.

19:11He glorified us. That goes all the way back from before the foundations of the earth. So how do we reconcile the fact that God says on the one hand to— through Paul to Timothy that He desires all people to be saved, and yet we know that not all people will be saved, and those that will be saved are those that He predestined? What do we do with this? Well, if you're looking for the nice neat little bow on how to wrap up God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, I hate to disappoint you this morning, but I don't have it.

19:39I don't have it. In fact, how these 2 things are true is not ours to know, but they're ours to trust. What we find in Scripture is a parallel tension, and the parallel tension is this, that God is 100% responsible and sovereign over our salvation. God is 100% sovereign over where we stand with Christ, in other words. And we are 100% responsible to choose to repent from our sins and put our faith in Jesus.

20:06How do those 2 things hold together in tension? I don't know aside to say that's what Scripture teaches time and time and time again.

20:16Here in John 3:16 through 21, we're focused on the love or desire that God has that all would be saved. That's why He gave Christ. Thus, according to verse 17, He sent His Son for that purpose. However, we know that not all will be saved, right? That's what we've been just talking about.

20:32And so what does that look like? Why will not everyone be saved? Because there is this real decision that people have to make about what they will do with Jesus. And that's what verse 18 was talking about, that those who do not believe in Him are condemned already. Pick up in verse 19.

20:45This then is the judgment, he says. The light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 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.

21:05Condemnation naturally brings judgment. That's what it means to be condemned. And here John explains that the judgment is already at work in the lives of those who have rejected the offer of life in Christ. He says, this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light.

21:27In Romans chapter 1, Paul walks through basically an indictment of everyone, of all humanity as sinful and in need of salvation. And one of the things he says as he's making his argument is he says this 3 times in verse 24 and verse 26. 6, in verse 28 in Romans chapter 1. There's a terrifying phrase, God gave them up. God gave them up.

21:50God gave them up. To describe— he uses that phrase to describe the passive judgment of God on the lost who continually suppress the truth about Him. In other words, there's a passive judgment at work, and we're seeing it in John 3:19 as well. This is the judgment. That they loved the darkness and hated the light.

22:10This is what Paul's talking about in Romans 1, that God gave them up, that God allows them to love the darkness and not to come to the light. God allows them to hold fast to that which is their undoing, to that which is their condemnation. And so that's what we see in verse 19 here. The light that has come into the world is Jesus. John 1:4, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

22:36Okay, John 8:12, what does Jesus say there? I am the light of the world. Same thing in John 9:5, I am the light of the world. So Jesus is the light. So rather than coming to Christ, which is the answer for what our need is, our sinfulness, instead they hate the light.

22:56Instead of coming to the place they can find freedom, they remain enslaved to their sin. He goes on and says, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light, hates Christ, and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed.

23:15The picture here is quite tragic when we lay it out, when we understand it, when we try to wrap our minds around it. You have a person living a life characterized by sin, and that's all of us prior to Christ. This person does wicked things. The verb tense there is present active, meaning it's an ongoing pattern of life. This is a person who is perpetually pursuing sinfulness and wickedness and evil things.

23:40None of us in this room, even still right now where we sit, are free from sin. That won't happen until we go to be with Him. So this is not a person who simply sins, but this is a person whose life is owned by sin, whose life is characterized by sin. In fact, it's their works that are evil. Their works there, that word suggests a pattern of life.

23:59Their works are evil and they are wicked, and as such they hate Christ. And yet they're presented with the opportunity for forgiveness and salvation, but it's the sin that they need forgiveness from that keeps them from coming to Jesus to find that forgiveness.

24:16It's a tragic scene that we find here, and it's one that I don't know that we think about often enough. And if we did, I imagine it would move us to grief. I imagine it would move us to sorrow. I would imagine it would sadden us to think about our neighbors, to think about our loved ones, to think about our family members, to think about our coworkers who are in the darkness and who have not yet come to Christ. Second point this morning is this: we need to mourn over the rebellion of the lost.

24:48To mourn over the rebellion of the lost.

24:57My mother-in-law is a— she works as a dietitian in a hospital in San Diego, and she had a coworker who's since moved on to another role, but this coworker's dad— this coworker just reached out to her recently and was telling her about her dad. And her dad was healthy by all appearances, but all of a sudden started to battle vertigo pretty severely. Bouts of dizziness coming out of nowhere, didn't really know what was going on, thought maybe it would go away. It just continued to persist. In fact, it was getting even worse, and he eventually started to struggle to stand up without falling over.

25:34So it got to that point, he said, okay, I need to go get this looked at and examined and figure out what's going on. So he went to the doctor's office. The doctor examined him, said, okay, well, we need to run some tests on you. They ran a CT and they found that he has 2 brain tumors. So they said, well, we don't know what is causing this.

25:51We don't know whether these brain tumors are malignant or benign, but they're there. We need to run some more tests. When running some more tests, they found out that the cancer was not just in the tumors, but the cancer has literally spread through this man's entire body. It's in his pancreas, it's in his lymph nodes, it's everywhere.

26:10Until he started to experience vertigo a couple of weeks ago, he was fine, or he thought he was fine. He thought he was fine. The cancer was there, the tumors were growing, the cancer was spreading throughout his whole body, and yet he was living his life as though everything was fine.

26:30It's only after he went in and they ran the CT and they did the rest of the tests that he realized and his eyes were opened to the true desperation of his plight. That is lost humanity.

26:42That's your neighbor.

26:46That's your wife or husband.

26:50Those are your children.

26:53Those are your coworkers.

26:57They think they're fine.

27:01But the disease of sin is ravaging their bodies and they have no clue.

27:09And they're content in that. They don't want to know.

27:15They don't want to have the light shone on their lives to reveal the fact that they are not right with a God that they are accountable to.

27:24And so they don't want to hear it.

27:30See, church, that's the problem here. They love the darkness rather than the light. And so I want you to think about your neighbor. I've got a neighbor across the street from me who literally, literally has gods and idols sitting on the mantle of their fireplace and on the kitchen counter in their home.

27:51And they have no idea how much darkness they're in.

28:01Family members— in our family, we just lost someone.

28:15And you can't save any of them.

28:21Well then, what can I do?

28:25You can make sure that they hear the gospel.

28:29You can make sure that they hear the gospel.

28:33Like Spurgeon said, if the lost are going to go to hell, let them jump over our bodies on the way.

28:40C.T. Studd said, some want to live within the sound of a church bell. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

28:52We don't know how much time those that are in our lives who don't know Christ have left.

29:03So whatever our excuses as to why we haven't shared the gospel yet.

29:11What if tomorrow's too late?

29:19They don't know the danger they're in. Your nephew who wants to be your niece now doesn't recognize the darkness of his choices.

29:29Your boss who professes to be saved but denies it with every word that comes out of his mouth that profanes God and calls all kinds of names, doesn't realize the depth of the darkness that he's under, the judgment of God that he's facing. And I want to ask us a question, church. Do we find that their rejection of the gospel frustrates us more than it grieves us?

29:54Do we find their immorality more infuriating than we do heartbreaking?

30:02Do we find ourselves looking to more— win more arguments against the lost or win more souls for Christ?

30:13This is a switch that we can't just flip, by the way.

30:18This is something that means we've got to begin cultivating these relationships with people enough that we care about them and love them enough that we're going to care where they're going to spend eternity.

30:29We need to pursue those relationships with unbelievers. Do you have relationships like that in your life with people who don't know Christ?

30:36If not, can I gently ask you why it wouldn't be better for you to be in heaven with God than here?

30:45That's the main reason why we're still here, church.

30:49It's not to give you the perfect Instagram family. It's not so that your kids end up as the next athlete superstars.

30:58It's not so that you get to enjoy retirement.

31:03The reason you're here is to do the work of the mission of Christ, which is to share the gospel with people that need it. It's to bring light to darkness and to call the people who love the darkness into the light and to trust in the God who's able to do that. Because why? Because 1 Timothy 2:4, God does want them to be saved. Okay, but if God wants them to be saved, why is not everyone saved?

31:30I don't know, that's above my pay grade, way above my pay grade. But I know He tells us in His Scriptures He wants them to be saved, and He's given you the message and called you, like we read in our Scripture reading, to be His ambassador with the message and to go and implore people just like the Apostle Paul said, I implore you, I beg you, I plead you, God making his appeal through us, be reconciled to him through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 is so encouraging to us, church. Here's why. The Apostle Paul is the same one who wrote Romans 8:30, that those whom he predestined are the ones that he called, and those whom he called are the ones whom he justified, and those whom he justified, those are the ones whom he glorified.

32:11That's the doctrine of God's sovereignty over salvation in a nutshell. And yet that same one, that same author also said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, I'm going to urge you and plead with you to go out as an ambassador and implore, beg, plead with everyone that you can to be reconciled to Jesus on behalf of God.

32:35That's the freedom that we have, y'all. Listen, do I believe in God's sovereignty over salvation? Yes, unabashedly, 100%. And some people will say, man, that then, then you don't believe we need to evangelize. It's quite the opposite.

32:46I think we are freed up to go and evangelize to everyone. Here's the deal. I don't have an election radar. Neither do you. I don't know who's part of God's elect and who's not.

32:55And so I get to go out to every single person on the face of this planet and share the gospel, knowing that it's not on my persuasiveness to convince them them to follow Jesus. It's on my faithfulness to the gospel, and God's going to do the heavy lifting to change their hearts.

33:10So church, be freed up to go and share the gospel with your neighbor, your loved one. Well, Pastor, I've already shared it with them so many times. Great. You got tomorrow? Do it again.

33:20Do it again. Keep going. Keep going. How many times? As many times as it takes.

33:26George Müller prayed for over 50 years for the salvation of somebody, died, and then that guy was saved after he died.

33:33What if George had been like, well, I shared it once, I'm good. They didn't want it, so I'm good. I don't have to do it again. No, again, go back to point number 1. Remember the seriousness of what's at stake here.

33:46Mourn over their plight, their darkness, and call them to the light.

33:54See, and that's the thing, that's the problem, is they're in darkness, they're blinded. 2 Corinthians 4 tells us that the god of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

34:09They're in the darkness, and really that's what changes, that's what differentiates somebody who is a believer from somebody who's an unbeliever is whether or not they're in the light or in the darkness. And again, God is the one that reveals the light of the glory of Jesus to us, as 2 Corinthians 4 goes on to say. But, but for us, we as believers, we're on the flip side of the equation because we want to come to the light. And that's where John goes next. Pick up in John chapter 3, verse 21.

34:37Then he's talked about those that hate the light, that love the darkness and want to stay in the darkness. And then in John 3:21, there's those that do what is true. Verse 21, 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 in God. This is the one who believes and is not condemned. In other words, this in verse 21 is the Christian.

35:04This is the contrast. This is the other side of the equation. What does it look like if you're not in the darkness anymore? It means that you come to the light, and that should be true of all of us. And there should be that distinction, that, that, that difference that people see in our lives.

35:17It's our 3rd and final point this morning. You can write it down this way. Be light amid the darkness. Be light amid the darkness.

35:28Have you ever been out on a boat in the middle of the ocean at night?

35:35Talk about darkness.

35:39It's pitch black everywhere you look. I remember doing that once in California and it was enough for me because God did not give me gills, so I don't like to be in the water.

35:50But I was cajoled by one of our pastors to attend this 3-night deep-sea fishing thing that we did with our men's ministry there. And there were fun moments, but man, that first night that fell, talk about feeling small and alone. It's pitch black everywhere. There's no land in sight. There's no— I mean, it's just you and the stars and the moon, and that's it.

36:16That's darkness. That's darkness. It always has been. So what did we start doing? I don't know when, a long, long, long, long time ago, because it didn't take us long to realize that it would be good to mark off the land with what?

36:33Light. Light. And those became known as lighthouses, yes? And so today they're mostly there for people to take Instagram pictures in front of and post about, look at this amazing lighthouse that I'm by. But they serve a purpose, and they still serve a purpose.

36:49And that is when the ship is out in the midst of the darkness, when it's pitch black everywhere you look, in every direction you look, there's one source that you can look and find and go, that's the light. And what does the captain of the ship do? He makes a heading for the light. He sets his course by the light and towards the light.

37:10That's Christ. For us, church.

37:13The world that we live in is dark, pitch black everywhere you look, and it's getting darker. But there is light. There is a light. There is the beacon. There is the hope for us, and that is Christ.

37:28Everyone who does what is true then comes to the light. The light emanates from the only true source of light, and that is Jesus. In Him was life, John 1:4, and the life was the light of men. John 8, I am the light of the world. John 9, I am the light of the world.

37:44Make no bones about it, Jesus is the light. And so for us to come to the light is to draw nearer and nearer and closer and closer to Him. What does that look like? Well, thanks for asking. It looks like this.

37:59The verse explains it to us. First, He does that which is true. He does that which is true. Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5:8-10, the Apostle Paul says this: For at one time you were darkness. Notice that he's talking about the dark-light contrast here again.

38:18This is a common motif in Scripture. Believers are to be characterized by light and called out of darkness. Ephesians 5:8-10: For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in in the Lord. Walk then as children of light, for the fruit of light is what is found in all that is good and right and true. Does what is true is what John says.

38:44Paul says the fruit of the light is all that is good and right and true. That which is true. Well, what is the ultimate standard of truth for us, Christian?

38:57The B-I-B-L-E, right? The Bible, God's word, is our ultimate definition and standard of truth. So if I'm going to do what is true, that means I'm going to do— I'm going to put into practice the things of God's word. I'm going to hold my life up to the passages like those in Colossians 3, the put off and put on passages. I'm going to hold my life up to the passages like in Galatians with the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

39:22And I'm going to say, how do I look? What's the inventory of my life look like in these passages? And then I'm going to say, man, I want to go about not just being a hearer of the word, but a doer of the word. So I want to see more of the fruitfulness in my life. I want to see more light in my life.

39:35I want to see more of what's true in my life. And what's true in my life is more of God's word working its way out in how I live. And so we come to the light, we do what is true, but then the second thing is we come to the light. We come to the light. How can we be light in the midst of darkness?

39:53We need a source of light that's not— that's alien to us, that is not inherently natural within ourselves. This is not a light that we're shining forth from the goodness of our humanity. No, that's not it at all. This is a light that's fueled by someone else, and that someone else, as I've said, is who? Jesus.

40:14You remember the Lay's potato chip commercial? They may still be on the bag, I can't remember, but there was a catchphrase. Do you remember what it was? Bet you can't eat just one. There's nothing truer I've ever come across on the face of the planet, aside from the gospel and God's Word.

40:30But man, that's so right. I don't think I've ever eaten a single Lay's potato chip. I've eaten bags, like one bag, okay, yeah, I'm with you there. I can eat one bag and I can win that bet, but if you're talking one chip, there's no way. They're so— whatever it is about it, they're just a plain potato chip, but they just— they— it's a vortex.

40:49It just sucks you into the potato chip goodness, and then you're just locked in, and then you're eating crumbs before you know it. You're like, what happened? Why? Well, scientists have studied this. Why is that true?

41:02And the scientists— and I'm going, okay, who's writing their paychecks? Because I need that job, because I don't think we needed the scientists to show us this, um, but, but it's this. It's, it's true because they said that the combination of salt and carbohydrates lights up the reward centers in our brains and keeps us coming back for more. Again, how many of you didn't know that this morning, right? If you've ever tasted a carb, you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and you've gone back for more of those carbs.

41:32So bet you can't eat just one. We don't need a scientist. We can just look at human history and be like, yes, This is truth. Okay, pivot that to your pursuit of Jesus, your time in the Word in the morning. Is your time in the Word in the morning more like taking up a Lay's potato chip or like taking your multivitamin?

41:54Talk about something that sometimes I don't even want to eat just one.

42:00Does your time in the Word, does your time in prayer keep you hungry for more of Jesus? Does it draw you in more?

42:14What do you listen to on your drive to work?

42:18Are you listening to things that stir your affections for Jesus? Are you listening to things that cause you to say, man, I love him? Are you listening to good worship music that praises him? Are you listening to podcasts of sermons or podcasts about the Daily Bible Reading, whatever it may be that say, man, I love him. I want more of him in my life.

42:42Is your relationship with Jesus, is it drawing you in more and more and more to him? Are you meditating on his word throughout the day, thinking about things that you read that morning?

42:56Are you surrounding yourself with relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ that are going to encourage you in your walk with Christ? That are going to point you to Jesus more and more and more?

43:09This is what it looks like to come to the light.

43:13There's so much noise in this world.

43:18I mean, not to oversimplify things, but if you want to know about what's going on in the world, just, just, you can just have a reminder that pops up on your phone first thing in the morning that says things aren't good, and then get into your Bible after that. I mean, I'm not suggesting we bury our head in the sand and just la la la, I don't want to hear it, but I'm just saying turn off the true crime podcast, turn off the sports talk radio, turn off the political talk pundits, and turn on more of Jesus in your life.

43:54Turn up the illumination in your life, the brilliance of your light. And if you want to shine brighter in this world, if you want to be more effective in reaching the lost, if you want to be more effective when you are there saying, hey, I want to sit down and talk, talk with you about Christ, you have to have that light input in your life to be fueling that. Third then, what does it look like to have light or to come to the light or be the light amidst the world? It means that we're reflecting the glory of God. We're reflecting the glory of God.

44:27Think about the moon, okay? The moon doesn't have any light inherently within it, does it? No, because the moon does what?

44:38Reflects the light of the sun. The moon reflects the light of the greatest source of light. And so when we look at the moon and we see the brilliance of a full moon, really what we should be doing is saying, wow, how brilliant, how bright is the sun?

44:54Your life should be that for God.

44:58That's why John says in verse 21, whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out— here's the phrase— in God. That phrase, in God, okay, it means by God or through God. So it's not that they're being carried out in the sphere of godliness, right? Because that would be— that's something inherent in ourselves. We're being godly, we want people to see that we're being godly.

45:26No, we want people to see that our works, that our life, that our light that is shining is being carried out in God, that is by Him, through Him, in accordance with His power working in and through us, Philippians 2:12-13. Why? Why does that distinction matter? Well, because who gets the glory is what it comes down to, right? If we're giving glory to the moon for having the light, we're missing the picture, aren't we?

45:52If we're being praised for our godliness, then we've short-circuited the whole purpose of our godliness. Jesus talks about our godliness in Matthew chapter 5, verses 14 through 16. Matthew 5:14 through 16, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. I did not say Siri, I said city.

46:17A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that it may be seen that your good works— they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

46:39What's the purpose of our good works?

46:42That He gets the glory, right? And that's the purpose here too. And that's how all of this ties together. That's how all of this comes back to the very beginning that I said, look, every presentation of the gospel is a decision that's going to be made by that person. That Jesus is the most polarizing person on the face of the planet.

46:58And, and the reason that, that matters is because the weightiness of that decision, either faith and repentance in life or rejection and condemnation. And we need to take that seriously and we need to mourn for the fate of the lost in our lives. And then third, we need to be thinking about being light in the midst of the darkness. But even that has to do with reaching the lost because we want people to look at our lives lives and say, why are you the way that you are? Well, I'm glad that you asked.

47:25We want our light to redound to the glory of God. We want our light to open the door to the gospel. We want our light in our life not to be there so that people are impressed with us, but impressed with our God. And so that's why we live the life that we live. That's why we pursue Christ.

47:43That's why we want that relationship with Him that just keeps getting closer and closer and better and better over time because again, y'all, with humanity there is no neutral with Jesus. Jesus isn't the x-ray tech in the TSA line. Yeah, okay, he's there, whatever.

48:06Every interaction with Jesus results in a decision about him and we live in a world mired in darkness, and you and I know the light. What are we doing with it? What are we doing with it?

48:25If we're going to be effective witnesses here at Compass Bible Church, we have to understand what it means for us as the mission of our church that every time we go out into this world, we're going out into a world that as they sit, stand, drive, walk, shop, they do so condemned in darkness. But we go as ambassadors with the light to call them out of the darkness and into the light. And we can trust by God's grace, because he desires that all should be saved, that he will do that in accordance with his plan and his will. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this morning.

49:04We thank you for the reality that you have called us out of darkness and into light. And I thank you for those that are here this morning that have made that decision, that have realized that. I thank you for that. God, I pray for those that haven't. God, I ask that they would feel this morning in a way that perhaps they have never felt before, that they are currently choosing actively to reject Jesus this morning, that there is no neutral ground with you.

49:29There is no position of neutrality. There is no ambivalence towards Jesus. That one is either His follower or His enemy.

49:40God, the gospel has gone forth this morning. We know that it has. I pray that for anyone who is in the room that needs to make a decision for Christ this morning, that they would make that decision this morning. This is yet one more opportunity that they've been presented with a choice about Jesus, and they may not get another one. And so, God, I pray that this morning that those decisions would be made.

50:00That people would choose this morning to repent from their sins and to come to the light, that they would see the sickness, the disease, the cancer that is sin that is wrecking them and destroying them, and that they would see the free offer of life in Christ that is here.

50:14That in Christ that there is a new creation, the old is gone, the new is here. And God, I pray that people would choose Jesus this morning.

50:24Today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow, because we don't know that tomorrow will be here. And God, I just quite honestly— and I thank you for the instability of our world right now, because that is pressing in on people. I'm sure it is, that there are people whose fingers are on buttons to do damage to this world in ways that perhaps we've never seen before. And we can't trust in another day.

50:52And so God, draw people to yourself this morning. Open the eyes this morning to their need for Christ. Today's the day.

51:01Lord, for those that are in Christ, for those that are here that know him, I pray, God, that this passage would be a rallying cry for us to remember what's at stake, to feel the weightiness of our responsibility as your ambassadors to go with the gospel of Jesus to the lost world all around us and to preach the gospel. I pray that we would do so with clarity, and I pray that we would call for that response from those that are hearing the gospel from us. And God, I pray by your grace and your mercy, you would open blind eyes to respond in faith. God, make Compass Bible Church fruitful with the gospel, ultimately for the glory of Jesus. We pray this in his name.

51:38Amen.