The NXR Podcast - October 08, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - Calvinism, Arminianism, & “Prevenient Grace”

Topics
justification by faith alone faith and obedience prevenient grace hostility towards God's law worldliness worldliness and righteousness legalism hypocrisy
Hosted by
Joel Webbon Harrison Smith Antonio Griffith Dale Partridge Wewsley Todd Calvin Robinson
Mentioned
Adam Jacobus Arminius Pharisees Jonathan Edwards Jesus Christ Abraham David Charles Finney John Calvin Tim Keller Joe Rogan Behold Paul
DAILY TRUTH - Continually Growing In Conviction Of Sin DAILY TRUTH - Are Christians Totally Depraved？

Episode Stats


Length

51 minutes

Words per minute

151.16

Word count

7,784

Sentence count

510

Harmful content

Toxicity

32

sentences flagged

Hate speech

21

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Pastor Ken continues our series on the Gospel of John 3:16-18, and looks at the difference between the life and death language of John and the legal language of condemnation in verse 18. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Again, our text for today is the Gospel of John chapter 3, starting in verses 16 and finishing in
00:00:06 verses 21. The Bible says this, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever
00:00:13 believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world
00:00:19 to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in
00:00:25 him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed
00:00:32 in the name of the only son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world
00:00:38 and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. Everyone who does
00:00:45 wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed. But
00:00:51 whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have
00:00:56 been carried out in God. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead
00:01:03 and dive right in. I'm going to do my best to be a briefer today because we started late and then
00:01:08 we had a special prayer. And yeah, so I'm going to try to be considerate. Here we go. Verses 16
00:01:14 and 18 are mirror images of one another. That's the first thing that I want us to notice in the
00:01:19 text today, verse 16 and 18, actually are mirroring one another. You could almost say that it seems
00:01:24 as though verse 18 is entirely redundant and that there's no purpose for it being there at all. That
00:01:30 would be a bad position to hold because you don't want to say that something in the Bible shouldn't
00:01:34 be there. It's the Word of God. But there is a purpose because the same principle is being stated
00:01:39 but with different language. The difference is that the language of life and death from verse 16
00:01:45 is now transitioned to the legal language
00:01:48 of judgment and condemnation in verse 18.
00:01:52 Now, the significant question arises in verse 17 in between.
00:01:56 I'll go back to verse 16 and 18 here in just a moment.
00:01:59 But the significant question from the text today
00:02:02 is verse 17.
00:02:04 The question that arises from verse 17 is this.
00:02:07 If Jesus did not come to condemn the world,
00:02:10 then why are so many still condemned?
00:02:12 And the answer to this question
00:02:13 is clearly laid out in verse 18. Even though some are condemned, it is because they were already
00:02:20 in that condition when Jesus arrived. So now let's look at verse 16 and 18 comparing. Verse 16,
00:02:27 I trust that many of you are probably familiar with, for God so loved the world that he gave
00:02:32 his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish. That is the eternal death should not
00:02:38 be destroyed, should not perish, but have life, eternal life. Now, verse 18 is the same principle,
00:02:45 but again, different language, going from life and death to judgment language, legal language.
00:02:51 Whoever believes in him, that is Christ, is not condemned. So instead of he shall not perish,
00:02:57 now we're seeing that perishing is likened to condemnation, being condemned. To be condemned
00:03:04 in a legal sense is the same as to perish. The condemnation is what leads towards the perishing
00:03:11 of life. So whoever believes in Jesus will not perish. Also, he will not be condemned, verse 18.
00:03:18 But whoever does not believe, now this is where we get some insight, whoever does not believe
00:03:24 is not just condemned, but it is proof, a revelation that he was already condemned. He is
00:03:31 condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Now look at
00:03:38 John chapter 3. We're skipping forward now, but it's the same chapter, the same thought. John
00:03:44 chapter 3, moving forward to verse 36. It says this, same principle of what we just saw in verse
00:03:50 18. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life.
00:03:58 So now we're going from that legal language of condemnation back to the life and death
00:04:03 language of John 3, verse 16.
00:04:06 So whoever believes in him, this is verse 36, in the Son has eternal life.
00:04:11 Whoever does not obey the Son, that's interesting.
00:04:14 I'll comment on that here in a moment, does not obey the Son, shall not see life, but
00:04:19 the wrath of God, and here's the key word, remains on him.
00:04:24 It is not as though the wrath of God comes to him for the first time initially,
00:04:28 but rather what the text says is that for the one who does not obey the Son,
00:04:33 the wrath of God was already there, and it simply remains.
00:04:38 It stays there.
00:04:39 This is an individual, the person who does not kiss the Son, lest he be angry, Psalm 2,
00:04:45 the person who does not pay homage to Jesus, and not just in word, but in deed, in action,
00:04:51 the one who does not obey Jesus, is the one who doesn't all of a sudden garnish initially for the
00:04:59 first time condemnation, but the one who simply proves, he simply exposes the reality that he was
00:05:06 already under condemnation. That is to say, in other language, that the wrath of God remains on
00:05:13 him. It was already there, and it's staying there. Now, one more point on this, a simple point that
00:05:20 you hear in our church every Lord's Day as Connor faithfully leads us in the liturgy. But it's
00:05:26 important for us to recognize the relationship between both gospel and law, grace and obedience.
00:05:34 So again, this is John 3, 36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Here we're speaking
00:05:41 of faith, saving faith, belief. That we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ
00:05:47 alone, but then it continues in verse 36. Whoever does not believe is what you think would be said,
00:05:55 right? Whoever believes, if you do believe in the Son, you have eternal life. If you don't believe
00:06:00 in the Son, then you will not see life. You will perish, and that's not an initial perishing or
00:06:07 condemnation that's coming for the first time, but rather it simply reveals that you've been
00:06:11 under the wrath of God already, and that the wrath of God and his condemnation remains. But that's
00:06:16 not exactly what's said. In the middle of verse 36, instead of saying whoever does not believe,
00:06:23 if you believe, you'll have eternal life. If you don't believe, you'll perish. No, it says if you
00:06:28 don't obey, whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
00:06:36 So what is it? Which one is it? Is it believing in the Son that guarantees salvation, eternal life,
00:06:44 the life to come, or is it obedience? And the answer is, well, it's both. It's both. Now,
00:06:52 it's not both. Here we have to be precise in our language, lest we deny the doctrine of
00:06:58 justification by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. It is not both in the initial
00:07:03 sense that it is both faith and works meriting salvation. It is not faith plus works equals
00:07:11 salvation, but it is, the correct formula is salvation equals faith plus works.
00:07:22 Or we could say faith equals salvation plus works. So it's not faith plus works. It's not
00:07:30 faith in Jesus plus obedience to Jesus' commands is what gains for us salvation. But instead,
00:07:37 faith that is true faith, saving faith, garnishes for us salvation and will also always produce
00:07:48 good works. So it's not faith plus works gets us heaven, gets us Christ, but it is true faith and
00:07:57 faith alone, which receives Christ and the gift of grace. But that faith that is alone, if it's
00:08:05 True faith, it will always be accompanied by obedience.
00:08:10 So we're justified by grace alone through faith alone, apart from any works of man.
00:08:15 But if you're truly justified, the fruit of justification will always be sanctification.
00:08:22 The person who says, I've been justified, but has no signs of being sanctified,
00:08:28 is a liar, according to 1 John.
00:08:31 that if a person does not obey
00:08:34 the clearest commands of Scripture,
00:08:37 obeying Jesus and his commands,
00:08:40 also seeking one of his commands,
00:08:41 to love his brother.
00:08:43 If a man hates his own brother,
00:08:46 then the Bible says he is a liar
00:08:47 and the truth of God is not in him. 1.00
00:08:49 He is a liar. 0.99
00:08:51 And in a sense, he's made God out to be a liar. 0.99
00:08:57 And again, it's not our love for the brethren
00:09:00 that saves us. But loving brothers in Christ and sisters, obedience to Christ's commands in
00:09:07 practical, tangible actions and deeds, all of this is not what gains salvation, but it is
00:09:15 an undeniable proof or evidence of salvation. You can claim that the seed of faith, in this case,
00:09:24 using an illustration, an apple seed was planted. And therefore, because an apple seed and apple
00:09:30 seeds in this illustration represent true saving faith, because an apple seed was planted, then you
00:09:35 are without any doubt, without question, an apple tree. But if year after year goes by and you
00:09:44 produce pears, right, and you produce peaches and you produce all sorts of different fruit, but never
00:09:53 a single apple, then at the end of the day, we're not saying that apple seeds, I guess, well, I guess
00:10:00 the conclusion is that sometimes apple seeds produce pears. No, what we would do is we would
00:10:07 go back to the original premise and say, your premise is faulty. We wouldn't say, well, you know,
00:10:15 doggone it. I guess, you know, it turns out that apple seeds sometimes make a tree that produces
00:10:20 pears and cherries and peaches. No, we would say, friend, I think you're mistaken.
00:10:28 You are insisting that an apple seed was in fact planted, but I think you might have got that wrong.
00:10:36 If it was an apple seed, this would be an apple tree. And if this was an apple tree,
00:10:41 it would produce apples. So that's what we're seeing in John chapter three, verse 36. Whoever
00:10:48 believes in the Son has eternal life. Faith alone. Faith alone is the empty hand. Faith is the empty
00:10:55 hand or the instrument that receives the grace of God that lends to eternal life. However, whoever
00:11:02 does not obey the Son won't have that eternal life. Well, I guess it's obedience then. No,
00:11:08 obedience is the fruit of faith. Not faith plus obedience equals salvation, but faith alone
00:11:15 equals salvation plus obedience. True faith gets you salvation, but it also gets you a heart
00:11:24 that's willing to obey. Christians love God's law. And if you don't love God's law and you're
00:11:32 constantly kicking against the goads, you're constantly saying, well, that's legalism. That's
00:11:38 legalism. That's legalism. You might not be a Christian. I'm not speaking definitively. God
00:11:44 alone sees the heart. But if your biggest objection, your biggest concern in the body of
00:11:50 Christ, especially given what time it is today in the West, in 2023, if your biggest concern
00:11:57 is that you think evangelicals and Christian churches might just be too legalistic,
00:12:04 then at best, you're clueless. At worst, you're an unbeliever. 0.85
00:12:08 you're just not saved you hate obedience you hate the law of god you hate righteousness 1.00
00:12:17 you hate the scripture you're an antinomian
00:12:20 and again it's not that you would not be a christian in this scenario because you're not
00:12:27 obedient you would not be a christian because you don't have faith and how do we know you don't
00:12:34 have faith because Jesus said you will know them by their fruit. That you can look to the life of
00:12:40 a person and be able to say, hey, there's fruit. There's obedience. That's the sign of faith. And
00:12:47 if there is no fruit, then there is a certain point. We don't do this presumptuously, prematurely,
00:12:54 arrogantly, but there is indeed a point where the people of God, the church, can say and look at
00:12:59 someone's life and say, brother, sister, there's nothing but bad fruit. There is no fruit of
00:13:05 genuine obedience to the true law of God. And therefore we cannot continue to affirm a salvation
00:13:13 which you claim to have, but there's no evidence that you in fact actually possess.
00:13:19 At this point, we would be merely offering to you a false assurance. And a false assurance is one of
00:13:27 the most hateful things that the people of God could ever offer to anyone. To assure someone
00:13:34 who very likely is on their way to hell that they don't need to make any changes whatsoever
00:13:41 because they're doing just fine. The devil loves two ministries. One is a ministry of false
00:13:50 accusations. He is the great accuser of the brethren. He is a liar. When he lies, he speaks
00:13:56 his native language for he is the father of lies. He is an accuser. And when he accuses, sometimes 0.89
00:14:04 he says what is true, but those accusations for brothers in Christ, for the people of God, fall
00:14:10 flat because Christ has already paid the penalty. But there are other times where he falsely accuses
00:14:17 that he is in fact a slanderer. But this is not his only weapon in his arsenal. Satan is a great
00:14:25 accuser, but he is also a great assurer. He does not only accuse the righteous, he assures the
00:14:35 wicked. Let me say that again. Satan does not only accuse the brethren, the righteous, those who are
00:14:43 righteous for Christ's sake, because of Christ's work, by grace to faith in him alone, but Satan
00:14:48 does not only merely accuse the righteous,
00:14:52 he assures the wicked.
00:14:55 So the righteous who is on the path to life,
00:14:57 he constantly accuses him and says,
00:15:00 you don't belong here.
00:15:02 You shouldn't be going this direction.
00:15:05 Do you think that they'll let you in?
00:15:07 You?
00:15:09 Do you think that you have a chance
00:15:11 before the throne of God?
00:15:14 Do you think that heaven is your inheritance? 1.00
00:15:16 Oh, you fool. 1.00
00:15:18 Turn back. Quit while you're ahead. There are easier paths. Take one of them. He accuses the 1.00
00:15:27 righteous, but he also assures the wicked, the one who is on the path to destruction.
00:15:33 Although God's word comes to him and says, turn back, repent. This is the path that leads to death.
00:15:41 This is the path that leads to perishing. Satan comes and says, oh, this is the right path.
00:15:46 you're doing good you're doing well stay the course continue ahead
00:15:53 satan is an accuser of the brethren he is an assurer of those who are lying
00:16:03 comfortably in the arms of satan who is if you're not a christian for the record your father
00:16:11 John chapter 8, Jesus says of the Pharisees,
00:16:14 you're not children of Abraham,
00:16:16 and you're certainly not children of God. 1.00
00:16:19 You're children of your daddy, the devil. 0.94
00:16:22 And one of the ways that I know that you're his children, 1.00
00:16:25 sons of Satan, children of the devil, 0.93
00:16:27 is because children always bear a striking resemblance
00:16:30 to that of their fathers.
00:16:32 And you look just like your daddy. 1.00
00:16:35 You look just like the devil. 1.00
00:16:37 He was a liar and a murderer from the very beginning 1.00
00:16:39 and so too are you. 1.00
00:16:41 You're lying and producing false accusations,
00:16:44 bearing false witness, slandering me. 0.99
00:16:48 And here you are also seeking to murder me. 0.97
00:16:51 Your fathers murdered all the prophets 0.99
00:16:53 and here you are, their true sons 0.99
00:16:55 and their true likeness, 0.98
00:16:57 seeking to murder the prophet of all prophets,
00:17:00 the one who has prophesied about
00:17:01 the son of God himself. 1.00
00:17:06 For those who are children of the devil,
00:17:08 the devil as their father in this life
00:17:10 seeks to assure and quietly console his children
00:17:15 as he rocks them in his arms,
00:17:18 hoping that they fall back asleep.
00:17:22 But for those who are going against the grain,
00:17:25 going upstream,
00:17:26 who have been awakened by the grace of God
00:17:29 and regeneration, the ministry of the Holy Spirit,
00:17:31 who now have spiritual eyes to see
00:17:33 and spiritual ears to hear,
00:17:35 the devil becomes an adversary, waging war against us at every turn.
00:17:43 Whoever believes in the Son, belief alone, saving faith alone, has eternal life.
00:17:50 But whoever does not obey the Son, obedience is the fruit of faith,
00:17:55 that would be proof if you don't obey the Son,
00:17:58 it is likely because you do not trust and believe in the Son.
00:18:02 And on that basis, in that basis alone, you are not justified.
00:18:07 If there is no sanctification, there can be no justification.
00:18:11 And if there is no justification, which does in fact come by faith alone,
00:18:15 then you do not gain the wrath of God,
00:18:19 but the wrath of God that was always on you remains on you.
00:18:24 That's verse 36, illuminating and giving insight to verse 16 and 18 of our text today.
00:18:31 Both are true.
00:18:32 Life and death language.
00:18:34 In the very next breath, the language, legal language of justification, condemnation, and wrath.
00:18:43 Now, verse 17, again, is where we're going to focus our attention.
00:18:48 Verse 17, the question is now begged.
00:18:52 If Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, then why are so many condemned?
00:18:56 To read verse 17 once more so that it's fresh in our minds.
00:18:59 The Bible says this.
00:19:00 For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.
00:19:04 Why?
00:19:05 Because the world was perfectly capable of doing that for itself.
00:19:11 We don't need Jesus to come to the world in order to produce condemnation.
00:19:18 Humanity was perfectly capable of condemning ourselves all on our own.
00:19:25 I believe it was Edwards, Jonathan Edwards, who once said
00:19:28 that man contributes nothing to his salvation
00:19:31 but the sin that made it necessary.
00:19:36 If there's anything that people can do
00:19:38 and do all by themselves
00:19:40 without any of God's help,
00:19:44 it's gain for themselves a just condemnation.
00:19:48 It is to ensure for themselves
00:19:51 that they will indeed perish.
00:19:55 For God did not send his son into the world
00:19:58 to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. If Jesus didn't come
00:20:04 to condemn the world, then why does the world stand condemned? Because the world has condemned
00:20:11 itself through its own unbelief. And why is it that people choose unbelief? Why is it that people
00:20:21 again and again, left to themselves, apart from saving grace, choose to harden their hearts,
00:20:26 to have stiffened necks and to rebel against God,
00:20:32 the God who made them,
00:20:33 and his son, Jesus Christ, who is the only savior?
00:20:38 And the answer to that question
00:20:40 is because the world, humanity,
00:20:43 apart from God's saving grace,
00:20:45 we choose to hate God precisely because we love our sin.
00:20:51 We love our sin.
00:20:53 see verse 17 what we're gaining from this what we're learning from this is that christ doesn't
00:21:00 come to a neutral world and condemn some and awaken others causing some to oppose him and
00:21:10 others to join him not one person was neutral during jesus earthly ministry 2 000 years ago
00:21:16 and not one person is neutral today.
00:21:20 We have all sinned.
00:21:22 Therefore, we all begin our lives
00:21:24 under the just wrath of God.
00:21:26 That's the starting place.
00:21:28 We begin our lives under the just wrath of God,
00:21:31 the condemnation of God.
00:21:33 We all begin our lives as criminals
00:21:35 who stand condemned
00:21:36 in need of merciful, gracious justification.
00:21:41 Whether or not we stay that way
00:21:44 depends on how we respond to Jesus.
00:21:48 David says in his prayer of confession
00:21:50 in Psalm chapter 51, verse five,
00:21:52 behold, I was brought forth in iniquity
00:21:55 and in sin did my mother conceive me.
00:21:57 Children are not born into the world physically
00:22:01 as a blank slate.
00:22:05 That's not the case.
00:22:08 Children are born into the world with original sin.
00:22:12 the doctrine of original sin
00:22:15 which regardless of what side of the aisle you fall on
00:22:19 if you're underneath the ultimate banner of orthodoxy
00:22:22 one of the most riveting
00:22:26 and descriptive definitions
00:22:29 of total depravity
00:22:32 comes to us not by John Calvin
00:22:35 but Jacobus Arminius
00:22:37 he would never have dreamed
00:22:41 of denying the doctrine of total depravity 0.89
00:22:44 because it's basic Christian orthodox, orthodoxy. 0.68
00:22:50 He knew people were totally depraved. 0.99
00:22:51 The only difference with Jacobus Arminius, 1.00
00:22:53 that's where we get Arminians,
00:22:54 is not that he denied total depravity,
00:22:56 that he thought that people were somehow born
00:22:58 in a moral neutral state.
00:23:01 He knows that that's completely antithetical
00:23:03 to everything the Bible teaches.
00:23:05 Jacobus Arminius, all he thought
00:23:07 was that people are born totally depraved,
00:23:10 but that there's such a thing as prevenient grace, and that prevenient grace was something
00:23:17 that would come to a person before saving faith actually occurred, and it would be kind of a
00:23:23 window of opportunity unto salvation, a window of grace, and that under prevenient grace, which
00:23:29 often would come through the preaching of the gospel, perhaps in an old-timey, you know, revival
00:23:34 meeting, that the Holy Spirit would work sovereignly this prevenient grace, and that it would bring the
00:23:40 individual person to a temporary state of neutrality. Not that they were born with moral
00:23:46 neutrality. They were born, even according to the father of Arminianism, totally depraved.
00:23:52 But in some kind of moment, a window of grace with a prevenient grace, it would bring someone
00:23:58 who's totally depraved to all the way up. It would temporarily suspend their spiritual blindness.
00:24:05 So like the man who Jesus prays for, and he says, can you see now? He says, well, I see people
00:24:09 walking around, but they look like trees. That would be kind of a good illustration for the
00:24:14 doctrine of prevenient grace, that the person is not a Christian yet. They have not placed saving
00:24:19 faith in Jesus yet, but faith is actually a work of man in this scheme, not a work of God,
00:24:25 which for the record, that's wrong. And the person is able to place faith in Jesus because a totally
00:24:30 depraved person never would, but somebody who's neutral would and prevenient grace brings them
00:24:35 from total depravity and hostility against God
00:24:37 to this temporary place of neutrality.
00:24:40 It brings them not to perfect spiritual sight,
00:24:43 but the momentary, temporary suspending
00:24:47 of spiritual blindness where they all of a sudden
00:24:49 can see for a little while and they can see a little bit.
00:24:53 And with this spiritual sight,
00:24:55 seeing men walking around like trees in that moment,
00:24:58 in this gracious window, momentary window,
00:25:02 provenient grace, they then, in hearing the gospel,
00:25:05 must choose, as a work of man, conjuring it up on their own, choose to make the right choice,
00:25:11 choose to make the decision, right? This is where you get guys like Charles Finney.
00:25:16 He's the father of the modern altar call, right? Because the idea was, in a decisionism,
00:25:24 revivalism, Arminianism kind of church history, somewhat recent church history in our nation,
00:25:31 think second not first but second great awakening the idea was right now under the preaching of the
00:25:37 gospel come down to the anxious bench right that was your original altar call come down to the
00:25:43 anxious bench and i'm going to preach just to you for the next 45 minutes and people would come
00:25:49 trembling the whole idea was decide decide decide make a decision now's the moment now's your
00:25:57 opportunity. The window of grace is opened, and it could close in the next 30 seconds. Who knows?
00:26:04 You've been brought to this place of a temporary suspended hostility against God, and all of a
00:26:11 sudden you have a moment of neutrality where you can choose to fall back into your depravity,
00:26:16 harden your heart against God, or believe. And if you believe, then you'll be regenerated.
00:26:21 this is the arminian scheme i'm saying scheme just means theological framework not necessarily
00:26:29 a malicious scheme although i think it is here's the point faith does not gain regeneration
00:26:37 but rather regeneration precedes faith a person is born again as an act of god's sovereign grace
00:26:44 alone and then responds with this new heart being born again being made alive spiritually alive
00:26:51 a new creature in Christ Jesus, that person then places faith in Jesus.
00:26:59 That's when they place faith in Jesus. But again, this whole idea of prevenient grace,
00:27:04 these kinds of things that you're brought to, this temporary suspension, partial suspension
00:27:08 of spiritual blindness, that's not the picture of a human child when they're physically born
00:27:14 into the world. And there are many people who teach this still to this day. There are many
00:27:19 parenting books that ultimately affirm this. They believe that children are blank slates,
00:27:25 that they could go either way. They teach moral neutrality when it comes to a child.
00:27:32 And that's why it would be taught that you could train a child in the same way you train an animal.
00:27:36 have hostility towards Jesus in their hearts.
00:27:47 No, it's that man has hostility towards Jesus in their heart.
00:27:51 In iniquity, I was brought forth.
00:27:54 And in sin did my mother conceive me.
00:27:57 From the beginning of my life, that is a human being made in the image of God,
00:28:01 Their life, from the beginning of life, I'm starting off with a hostility towards God. 0.90
00:28:07 Romans chapter 8 says that the mind of the sinful man, the unregenerate man, the non-Christian, 0.93
00:28:12 is neutral, indifferent, uninterested. No. Hostile towards God's law, he does not submit to it, nor
00:28:19 can he. He is unable and unwilling. Why? Because his nature will not allow for that choice.
00:28:28 in the same way that the nature of a herbivore doesn't allow for them to eat meat.
00:28:38 They won't do it. They won't do it. Why? Because it's not the way they're made. It's not their
00:28:45 design. It's not who they are. The whole idea of the gospel is that we become new creatures.
00:28:54 The whole idea of Christian faith, of salvation,
00:28:57 is that we gain, by God's grace alone, a new nature.
00:29:03 The reason why the Christian can say, as the Apostle Paul does in Romans chapter 7,
00:29:07 in my inward being, I delight in the law of God.
00:29:11 I love it.
00:29:12 The reason he can say that, in my inner being, I delight in the law of God.
00:29:15 In Ezekiel chapter 36,
00:29:22 that the heart of stone is removed
00:29:24 and replaced with the heart of flesh.
00:29:26 Faith follows the new nature.
00:29:29 Faith follows regeneration.
00:29:32 And all this is the sovereign work of God
00:29:35 and the sovereign work of God alone.
00:29:38 God does this.
00:29:40 And He must do it for all of us.
00:29:42 He must do it for each of our children.
00:29:44 And I believe, for the record, in covenant succession, even as a Baptist, and so I believe,
00:29:50 not as a 100% guarantee, but as an ordinary principle that we should eagerly expect,
00:29:55 that God will do it for our children. That he will. That he will save each one of our children.
00:30:01 But listen, your children do need saving. That's the point. I believe he will save them.
00:30:08 But they do need saving. You cannot train up a child from the womb in the way that you were 0.99
00:30:14 train up an animal. Because the animal doesn't have a hostile nature against the law of God,
00:30:20 but your child does. And to deny that is to deny Christian orthodoxy. It's not up for debate. 0.82
00:30:28 Jacobus Arminian is. The father of Arminianism would agree with me and not you. The idea that
00:30:37 total depravity is not a thing. The only question is, is prevenient grace a thing?
00:30:43 and would it overcome total depravity
00:30:45 so that faith could precede regeneration?
00:30:48 Or is there no prevenient grace,
00:30:50 only sovereign grace, salvific grace,
00:30:52 where regeneration precedes faith?
00:30:54 That's the debate that's an in-house debate,
00:30:57 a debate among Christians. 0.95
00:30:58 Now, somebody's right, somebody's wrong,
00:31:00 but you can have either side
00:31:01 and still be within the bounds of orthodoxy.
00:31:04 To debate total depravity at all,
00:31:07 that your child isn't totally depraved,
00:31:09 that people are not born,
00:31:10 that's not a debate that's in-house.
00:31:11 That's a debate with Christians and heretics. 0.92
00:31:16 Period. 0.98
00:31:20 There's no question about that.
00:31:22 It's not up for debate.
00:31:27 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity.
00:31:30 David doesn't say, I was brought forth in neutrality.
00:31:32 But then at around six, seven years old, I decided to make some bad choices and became a sinner.
00:31:39 No, not how it works.
00:31:44 So Jesus did not come to condemn the world
00:31:47 because the world could do that for itself
00:31:49 and had done it and continues to do it to this very day
00:31:53 because the world is under the curse of sin.
00:31:57 And I'm using world in this context to speak of mankind.
00:32:02 Image bearers of the living God, humanity, male and female.
00:32:06 Because of Adam's sin, all his posterity have been born with a sin nature.
00:32:13 Not only born, but according to Psalm 51 verse 5, conceived.
00:32:17 From the moment of conception, we believe Christian orthodoxy has held that life begins at the moment of conception.
00:32:26 And that conception is not, for the record, implantation, but rather fertilization.
00:32:32 that's the moment that life begins consequently according to scripture that's also the moment
00:32:40 that the sin nature begins both the moment you have a human life you have a human center
00:32:48 this is what christian orthodoxy teaches so jesus doesn't come into the world to condemn the world
00:32:55 because the world has already done that.
00:32:58 Adam condemned the world.
00:33:01 The second Adam, the last Adam, the final Adam,
00:33:04 the better Adam, Jesus Christ,
00:33:05 he comes to undo what our first father did.
00:33:09 He doesn't come to condemn the world.
00:33:11 Adam already did that.
00:33:13 Jesus comes so that his blessings might flow
00:33:16 as far as the curse is found,
00:33:19 that he would undo by his grace and power,
00:33:22 by his death, his resurrection,
00:33:25 and glorious ascension in power and authority to the right hand of God,
00:33:30 he might undo all the works of condemnation.
00:33:34 As far as the curse has flowed because of Adam's sin,
00:33:38 that by Christ's obedience, his blessings would flow.
00:33:43 And that little by little, throughout this gospel age,
00:33:46 as the Great Commission goes forth and brings forth fruit,
00:33:51 that the curse would be undone.
00:33:52 starting with individual hearts, but working out into every element of society. And the last
00:34:00 element of the curse to be undone is physical death itself, which will be undone when Christ
00:34:06 himself returns. The last, not first, but last of his enemies to be defeated. Going on in your notes
00:34:13 in verses 19 through 21, Jesus clearly explains why some people choose to believe while others
00:34:19 do not. Here we find a description of the type of judgment that actually does occur when light
00:34:26 comes into the world. So Jesus comes, verse 17, into the world not to condemn it, but to save it.
00:34:32 It condemned itself. Humanity can do that on its own. But if humanity is to be saved,
00:34:39 that's where Jesus comes in. That's where we need Jesus' help. Not for condemnation,
00:34:44 but for salvation. So he comes into the world not to condemn the world. It's already condemned.
00:34:49 but rather to save it but now what we do see in the remainder of our text and this is where we'll
00:34:55 go ahead and finish for this morning verses 19 20 and 21 is that we see that there is a sort of
00:35:02 judgment there is a sort of judgment that does come in the coming of christ here we find a
00:35:10 description of the type of judgment that actually does occur when light comes into the world what
00:35:15 we see is that those who are condemned by this judgment are condemned already by what they love
00:35:22 and what they hate. It is their loves and their hatred, their affections and aversions that
00:35:31 ultimately betray them, that condemn them. Not Jesus, but their own hearts. Their affections
00:35:36 and aversions is what condemns them. But Jesus coming into the world reveals their hearts. It
00:35:43 reveals their affections and their aversions. Jesus is revealing that he knows exactly why
00:35:49 some people choose not to come to him. The reason why people choose not to believe in Jesus is
00:35:57 because they are still in love with the world. Now using the world in this context to mean
00:36:03 the demonic system underneath Satan's domain. I'm not saying that the one who is condemned
00:36:10 loves the world insofar as the world represents humanity. I'm not saying that the one who is
00:36:15 condemned loves the world insofar as the world represents the created cosmos. I'm saying the one
00:36:20 who is condemned loves the world insofar as the world represents all that which is antagonistic
00:36:28 to the character of God. I'm speaking of the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful
00:36:35 pride of life. I'm speaking of worldliness in the terms that 1 John speaks of worldliness.
00:36:42 Or what we see in the very beginning in the garden in Genesis chapter 3.
00:36:47 Eve, who is deceived by the serpent, she saw these three aspects of worldliness.
00:36:55 She saw that the fruit, that it was good for making one wise. That is the boastful pride of
00:37:01 life. She also saw that it is good for nourishment. That's the lust of the flesh. She also saw that it
00:37:08 was beautiful, appealing, attractive to the eyes. That's the lust of the eyes. That's worldliness.
00:37:15 To be in love with the world and the sinful sense is to love that which stands in direct
00:37:22 opposition to the things of God. It is the love of money, for instance. It's just one illustration
00:37:28 and example, the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil, not money itself. Job was
00:37:36 rich. Abraham was rich. You can be rich and love God and not love money, but rather use money
00:37:44 wisely to expand the kingdom. So love of the world is not the love of stuff. See, that's where
00:37:52 Christians have messed up. Let me just make this point. It's important. We have conflated love of 1.00
00:37:58 the world in the sinful sense that the Bible actually speaks of with the love of the world
00:38:02 in the physical sense, insofar as the world represents the created cosmos and stuff. So we
00:38:08 say, if you love stuff, you're worldly. And there's a sense in which if you love, truly,
00:38:16 affections flowing from the heart, love stuff more than Christ, more than God in an idolatrous
00:38:22 fashion, then yes, you are worldly in the sinful sense of the term.
00:38:28 But what we've done is we've conflated these terms.
00:38:31 That word world is used at least four different ways just in 1 John alone.
00:38:37 But we've conflated worldliness to the point where we've said, well, worldliness is the lust of the eyes.
00:38:43 It's the lust of the flesh.
00:38:44 It's the boastful pride of life.
00:38:45 It's also just loving stuff.
00:38:47 It's also, you know, if you like to hike, you know, you're probably worldly.
00:38:50 And then what we've done is we've said, well, righteousness, we're going to define righteousness in the exact opposite way.
00:38:55 And what does righteousness become conflated with, synonymous with?
00:39:00 Pietism.
00:39:01 So what does it mean now to be righteous?
00:39:04 To be righteous is to care nothing for this world at all.
00:39:08 Right?
00:39:08 To not care about your country, to not care about your family,
00:39:11 to not care about your posterity,
00:39:13 to not care about your own descendants, your own grandchildren.
00:39:18 Right?
00:39:19 Because all that's worldly.
00:39:21 To not care about creation.
00:39:25 Right?
00:39:25 So worldly means to care about temporal things,
00:39:30 which means to be not worldly, to be righteous,
00:39:33 is to not care, to only think of heaven.
00:39:37 That the only righteous thing that anyone could ever do
00:39:40 is sit in a chair by themselves
00:39:42 as the world is going up in flames
00:39:43 and think delicious, romantic, erotic thoughts about God.
00:39:50 That's your modern evangelical.
00:39:52 and that that would be called righteous
00:39:57 whereas what that should be called
00:39:59 is effeminate. 0.77
00:40:05 It's effeminate. 1.00
00:40:06 It's gnostic. 0.60
00:40:08 It's pietistic. 0.88
00:40:12 And it's...
00:40:14 I'll be careful.
00:40:19 It's not manly.
00:40:21 I'll say that.
00:40:22 And I don't mean manly as defined by Joe Rogan.
00:40:28 I mean, it's not manly in the sense that it's not manly defined by Christ himself,
00:40:33 who is the perfect example of biblical manhood.
00:40:39 That is not the way that Christ lived in his earthly ministry.
00:40:46 So, all that being said,
00:40:48 verse 19 through 21 it tells us now the sense in which judgment did come when jesus came into the
00:40:57 world in his incarnation in his earthly ministry 2 000 years ago he didn't bring condemnation that
00:41:02 was already there the wrath of god remains on the one who rejects christ because the wrath of god
00:41:07 was already there condemnation remains because it was already there the world is perfectly capable
00:41:11 of condemning itself so jesus therefore came into the world not to condemn but to save but in his
00:41:18 coming. What he does is not bring condemnation, but he does expose and reveal condemnation. And
00:41:25 he does so by laying bare the affections and aversions of the hearts of men. Because Jesus
00:41:33 comes to the world as light. But mankind, apart from saving grace alone, is like a bunch of
00:41:41 cockroaches. And when the light comes and exposes the darkness, the cockroaches scurry away under 0.98
00:41:47 the bed. And that's what happened when Jesus came. He didn't cause people to hate God. But what he
00:41:55 did was he came as God, God incarnate. He came as light. He came as the Christ, the anointed one of
00:42:02 God, the son of God himself. And all those who were averse to the things of God and in love with
00:42:10 things of the world, they scurried away from Christ. They sought to condemn Christ. They
00:42:19 falsely accused Christ. They opposed Christ. They hated Christ. And eventually, all this is proved
00:42:26 by the fact that mankind killed Christ. That the one time that Jesus, God himself, becomes vulnerable,
00:42:35 people seize the opportunity to kill the son of god
00:42:41 rather than the light why because their works are evil the light exposes the evil in our hearts
00:42:55 see in the darkness what you can do is you can love evil and hate good but put a spin on it
00:43:03 do a little bit of PR.
00:43:07 That you can love evil and hate good
00:43:10 and call yourself ethical
00:43:12 all while doing this.
00:43:15 But what happens when Jesus comes is like light,
00:43:20 he is the light of the world,
00:43:21 he turns on the light and exposes the hypocrisy.
00:43:28 That those who are loving evil and hating good,
00:43:30 but Jesus exposes that and he shows that these aren't good men. They're not actually righteous.
00:43:37 They don't actually, actually love that which God loves as they claim and hate that which God hates.
00:43:42 No, they, they hate the very thing that God loves and they love the very thing that God hates
00:43:48 and he exposes it. Remember, I've said it before. I'll say it again. The number one accusation that
00:43:54 Jesus levies against the religious rulers of his day is not that they are legalist. 0.98
00:43:59 it is that they are hypocrites. He does not say, woe to the Pharisees because they care about my 0.94
00:44:06 law. Woe to the Pharisees because they're meticulous about obedience to Moses. And that's
00:44:13 really bad. No. He said, woe to the Pharisees because they don't do as they preach.
00:44:22 Because they lay heavy burdens on you, but they will not lift it with one little finger.
00:44:29 because they boast of obedience to the law of God. They're like white sepulchers bleached and 0.99
00:44:35 pretty on the outside, but inside it smells like death. It's a rotting corpse. They clean the
00:44:41 outside of the cup, but they leave a Petri dish of a virus in the inside and drink the whole thing. 1.00
00:44:49 They're hypocrites. They're a brood of vipers. Legalism is not the chief problem that Jesus 1.00
00:44:57 cites among the Pharisees, hypocrisy is. They claim to care about obedience to the law,
00:45:04 but what they've done is they've twisted the law of Moses to suit their own desires,
00:45:10 and they expect others to obey, but they themselves are disobedient.
00:45:17 They themselves are disobedient. Jesus comes into the world as light and exposes that,
00:45:23 that all those who claim to be righteous are revealed as wicked. And Jesus continues to do
00:45:31 that for the record to this day. Jesus does that through his body, the church. Jesus is still in
00:45:38 the world in a sense. He is in his glorified state seated at the right hand of the Father
00:45:44 in heaven. But in a spiritual sense, Jesus through his church, his body on earth, and by the ministry
00:45:52 of the Holy Spirit, which exudes the spirit of the risen Christ. In that sense, Jesus is still
00:45:58 on earth to this day. And wherever Jesus is preached, wherever Jesus is seen, all of a sudden
00:46:05 the lights are turned on and the cockroaches scatter. All of a sudden the lights are turned on
00:46:10 and those who claim to be so ethical, they claim to be good, are exposed as wicked.
00:46:17 right i think of elon musk about a year ago where he said i think i'm going to vote republican for
00:46:24 the first time in my life and people are like why and he said well i used to think the democrats
00:46:28 were the party of kindness and compassion right it's like okay dude like you're you're you know
00:46:33 like i don't know about like 90 years too late you know but but good for elon you know like
00:46:40 better late than never you thought the democrat but but that's what people think people actually
00:46:45 think that. But that's what the truth does. It exposes hypocrisy. It exposes reality. It shows
00:46:53 that what is called compassion and empathy and care, all of a sudden it's like, oh no, that's
00:47:01 actually not compassion, empathy, and care. That's evil. And for the record, just to be fair, it
00:47:07 exposes at the same time on the Republican side, oh, there's plenty of hypocrisy there.
00:47:11 now for the record not equal right that's a whole third way ism that's destroyed 0.90
00:47:20 so much that i can't even begin to express but it's the idea well democrats are bad republicans
00:47:25 are bad and what's implicitly said in that is they're equally bad so you could go either way 0.89
00:47:29 no they're not they're not equally bad both bad sure but you have one party of wicked men 0.80
00:47:37 And then you also have, on the other hand, the spawn of Satan.
00:47:42 So they are different.
00:47:45 We're talking about bad men versus demons.
00:47:49 They're not the same.
00:47:52 So I have to have that caveat because I don't want to bust a Tim Keller third way.
00:47:58 Jesus is right here in between. Conveniently, right?
00:48:00 Isn't it convenient? Jesus is never on this side or that side.
00:48:02 So you get to avoid all controversies for your entire life.
00:48:05 So that's, no.
00:48:08 But the point is, Jesus exposes sin.
00:48:10 He exposes sin.
00:48:12 Why do people run from Jesus?
00:48:14 Because he introduces condemnation.
00:48:16 Nope, they're condemned already.
00:48:17 The condemnation is now just simply being revealed
00:48:20 and it's being revealed by their heart's affections
00:48:23 and aversions.
00:48:24 They love evil, hate good.
00:48:26 When Jesus, the embodiment of good,
00:48:28 the son of God himself comes into the world,
00:48:31 those who hate good run.
00:48:34 They run.
00:48:35 but the righteous. And this is the final point, verse 21. But whoever does what is true comes to
00:48:41 the light so that it may be clearly seen that he's better than everyone else. No. So that it may be
00:48:47 clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. That's the final point of the text.
00:48:53 When Jesus comes and not just speaking, remember, I've already kind of drawn this out with a bigger
00:48:58 picture, not just Jesus coming in the flesh and the incarnation 2000 years ago in his earthly
00:49:04 ministry, but Jesus continuing to come through the church, through the preaching, through the
00:49:09 expansion of the great commission, through his body here on earth, by the power of the Holy
00:49:13 Spirit, which exudes the ministry of the resurrected Christ, the spirit of the resurrected 0.91
00:49:18 Christ as Jesus, the parousia, as he continually comes, as he continually comes, the wicked hate
00:49:25 him and they draw back into the darkness so they can keep loving evil while calling it good and
00:49:31 keep hating good while calling it evil. But the righteous, on the other hand, the righteous are
00:49:37 drawn to Christ. Wherever Christ comes, the righteous are attracted. Wherever Christ is
00:49:44 magnified, lifted up, he draws all the righteous to himself. Why? So that they who are doing what
00:49:52 is righteous, doing the fruits of righteousness, can expose how good they are, how many good things
00:49:58 there? No. No, the righteous heart is the humble heart. The righteous heart is the heart fashioned
00:50:03 by grace. And it knows that everything it's ever done is by grace. And the righteous heart that
00:50:10 truly loves Christ comes to Christ, who is the light, who exposes all things. And the reason why
00:50:16 the righteous one comes to Christ is because he knows everything he's done that's good is actually
00:50:22 Christ doing. That it was Christ who produced any ounce of goodness in his life, and that Christ
00:50:27 produced it by his grace, and he comes to Christ so that Christ might gain glory. The Christian
00:50:34 wants to live in the light, not so that he might boast in his own right doing. The Christian longs
00:50:41 to live in the light because all of his right doing is the product of God's grace, and he wants
00:50:46 to be in the light so that God's grace is put on display so God gets glory. The wicked run so they
00:50:54 can continue to lie in hypocrisy and say they're good when they're evil. The righteous run to
00:51:00 Christ, not from, but to Christ, not to gain glory for themselves, but to be able to lay all their
00:51:07 treasures bare, anything they've done good at all, and say, look at what Christ has done through me.
00:51:13 To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Or as Ephesians 1 would say, to the praise of his
00:51:20 glorious grace. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Bless it to your people
00:51:25 and may it bring you glory. We pray this for Christ's sake. Amen.