Philippians 4:4-6-"Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness that is in the law, blameless."
A couple of years ago, I preached a sermon called, Are You Bad Enough to Get Saved? Today, I am going to ask the same question in a different way: "Are you good enough to go to Hell?" If you think you are good enough to go to heaven without being saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are good enough to go to hell. The Bible says in Romans 3:23, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." In Romans 6:23, the Apostle Paul wrote, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Are you good enough to go to hell? If you are relying on your own good works, or your practice of religion to get you to heaven, you are. You cannot see yourself as the sinner God sees. In Matthew 5:20, Jesus said, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
In our text, the Apostle Paul writes of the time before he was saved. He trusted in his own righteousness to get him to heaven. This is what he meant when he wrote about having "confidence in the flesh." But he was only good enough to go to hell, because he was putting his trust in his own righteousness, and not that of Jesus Christ. In the text, Paul gives five reasons he believed he was righteous before God before he was saved. All of these reasons are still used by Satan to cause people to believe they are going to heaven when in fact they are not. Actually, they are reasons people are only good enough to go to hell. The reasons are: i) he went through a ritual (circumcision), ii) he came from a good family, iii) he kept the law, iv) he was zealous for his faith, and v) he really believed he was a righteous man.
Of course, in the verses that follow this passage, Paul told the Philippians he regarded those reasons as "loss" and "dung" now that he was trusting Christ. He knew he was bad enough to be saved. But let us look at what he reveals about himself when he was good enough to go to hell. We will examine the five reasons Paul thought he was righteous before God, and show all of them are totally inadequate to get anyone to heaven.
I. The first reason from our text Paul was good enough to go to hell was that he went through a religious ritual. Our text says he was "circumcised the eighth day." A Jewish baby boy was circumcised eight says after he was born. He was part of the covenant between Abraham and God. If a baby boy was not circumcised, he was not under the covenant (Genesis 17:13-14). Paul was good enough to go to hell because he was circumcised and therefore believed he was part of the covenant. Some churches also have a ritual for babies that they say regenerates their souls and places them under a church covenant. They call it baptism. But this is not what the Bible calls baptism. If those churches think that sprinkling a little water on a baby, and then declaring he is now a "child of God" is going to get rid of original sin and save the baby, I would suggest that baby has a great start on becoming good enough to go to hell.
The word baptize in the Greek is baptizo, which means to immerse. It is not sprinkle. In a proper baptism, someone is put completely under water.
Neither circumcision nor baptism were intended to save the soul. Only a saved person should be baptized, because the reason someone is baptized is it is a testimony of his salvation. Baptismal water does not regenerate the soul, does not wash away sin, does not result in the new birth. It is symbolic that salvation has already occurred. Paul taught this in Romans6:3-5: "Know ye not, that so many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into his death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection."
Going under the water symbolizes Christ's death and burial as our death to sin. Coming out of the water is symbolic of Christ's resurrection as our resurrection to life. Baptism is symbolic of the new birth, and as Dr. Lee Roberson used to say when he baptized people, "Praise the Lord in the newness of life in Christ Jesus." If you want to make someone good enough to go to hell, make him believe he is righteous before God because he was baptized.
II. A second reason Paul was good enough to go to hell was he came from a good family. Or text said he was "Of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews" (verse 5b). It does not matter what family someone is born into: Unless he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he will only be good enough to go to hell.
This is clearly stated by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:7-9: "But when he (John) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham."
In the eyes of God, it does not matter what family someone is from. John 3:18 says of the Son of God, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already," and it does not matter whether he is from a good, bad or indifferent family. You are good enough to go to hell if you think you have "always been a Christian" because you were brought up in a Christian family.
III. A third reason Paul was good enough to go to hell before he was saved is he thought he was righteous because he kept the law. But the law can only condemn. It can never save. the purpose of the law is to show us our sin so we will accept the grace of Christ. Paul shows this in Romans 3:19-20, "Now we know that what things soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them that are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
The law cannot save anyone because no one can keep the law perfectly. This is precisely why Jesus came. As John 1:12 says, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." In Galatians 2:21, Paul writes, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." In other words, if you believe you can get to heaven by keeping the law, you are only good enough to go to hell.
IV. A fourth reason Paul was good enough to go to hell was he was zealous for his faith. In verse 6 of our text, Paul wrote he was "Concerning zeal, persecuting the church." Paul had Christians put in prison before he was saved (Acts 8:3), and he was the ringleader at the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1).
Today we have people who think they are going to get to heaven by killing others and themselves. Hardly a day goes by when suicide bombers don't kill and die. They are zealous for their religion. They are like the Jews Paul writes of in Romans 10:1-4: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." They are only good enough to go to hell because they are breaking God's law against murder, but believe they are doing right. Many are young children who need our prayers and compassion. A prayer for their salvation, a prayer that God will send workers into that harvest of souls, a prayer that the Holy Spirit will touch the hearts of these people, is more powerful than all the car bombs in the world, combined. As Paul said in Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. God wants to save the terrorist, just as he wants to save anyone else.
V. The final, and ultimate reason Paul was good enough to go to hell before he was saved was that he truly believed he was a righteous man. The rest of our text says he was "touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." He was sincere, but he was sincerely wrong. Blamelessness is not the same as sinlessness. No one could point a finger of blame at Paul with regard to the law. To all appearances, he kept the law. Only God could see the sin in his heart.
At the end of his life Paul wrote these words about himself found in I Timothy 1:13-15: "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, f whom I am chief."
Friend, how about you? Are you like the old Paul, good enough to go to hell, or are you like the new, born-again Paul, knowing you are a sinner and trusting in Christ to save you? Do trust Him. His death was good enough to take away your sins, and His resurrection proves you can have a new and eternal life in Him.
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Monday, July 14, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Are You Bad Enough to Get Saved?
Luke 18:9-14: And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee and he other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift so much as his eyes toward heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Today I am here to ask you a question: "Are you bad enough to get saved?"
I mean, you have to know you are a filthy, wicked sinner in order to get saved. If you think you deserve to go to heaven, you do not understand your sinful nature. If you think you are holy enough to get into heaven by your own merits, or if you think you can get saved by doing good, you do not know God's standard of righteousness. If you think you will get to heaven if your good outweighs your evil on some mythical judgment scale, you are wrong. Your sins must be paid for.
Our text is a parable about two men praying in the temple at Jerusalem; a Pharisee, and a publican, a Jew who collected taxes for the Roman government. The one would have been thought to be a good man; the other, the worst of sinners. Yet Jesus said the Pharisee went down to his house as lost as he was before he went to the temple, and the publican returned to his home justified. This is a legal term meaning he was declared innocent. The word means God saw him "just as if he had never sinned." The "good man" was still on his way to hell, but the bad man was on his way to heaven. As we compare the two men, ask yourself the question, "Am I bad enough to go to heaven?"
I. First, let us consider the Pharisee. I want you to put away any misconceptions you may have about the Pharisees. They were the most religious of the Jewish sects. More than anyone else in Judaism, they desired to keep the law of God. They were what we call good men who were trying to do the right thing.
The Pharisee in the parable was like this: I see no reason to doubt that he was telling the truth according to his understanding of the Word of God.
But in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23, we see Jesus that delivered the most searing indictment He ever spoke against any group of people, and it was against the scribes and Pharisees. In the blistering sermon, He called the Pharisees hypocrites (vs 13, 14 15, 23, 25, 27 and 29), blind guides (vs. 16 and 24), fools and blind (vs. 17, 19 and 26), and serpents and a generation of vipers (vs. 33). In verses 25-28, He said they were clean on the outside, but on the inside they were full of extortion and excess; full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
The Pharisee praying in the Temple claimed he was not an extortioner. But in verse 14, Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation." Pharisees used their religion and law to extort property from widows, and then pretended their long prayers put them above the love of money. They were not only scheming hypocrites, but also sanctimonious bullies. So this claim was bogus.
The Pharisee in this parable claimed he was not unjust. But in verse 23, Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ye ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone." The tithe of the Pharisees masked neglect of the more important matters of judgment (or justice), mercy, and faith. The man's claim that he was not unjust was false.
The Pharisee bragged he was not an adulterer. But in verse 28, Jesus said, "Even so yo also outwardly appear to be righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
One shade of iniquity in his heart could have been adultery. "Relations" with a person other than one's spouse is not required for adultery to take place. Jesus said in Matthew 5:27 and 28, "Ye have heard it has been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whoso looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." The Pharisee was not as pure in his heart as his boast.
As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 2:23, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." The Pharisee did not realize how much he was like the publican. By "devouring widows' houses," the Pharisee betrayed the most helpless people in the nation while enriching themselves at their expense. He was no better than the publican. His contempt for the tax collector was misplaced: If he was looking for a sinner, all he had to do was peer inside his own heart. He would have seen more wickedness than he could have handled.
II. Now let us turn to look at the publican. He, unlike the Pharisee, was bad enough to go to heaven. This man knew he was a sinner. Unlike the Pharisee, who proudly boasted to God that he was better than other people, the tax collector would not even lft up his eyes toward heaven as he prayed for mercy. "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner" is, after all, the first prayer God will assuredly answer for anyone.
The publicans did not receive a set salary for collecting taxes. They collected the taxes the Roman government wanted, and then took anything they wanted for themselves above that. As long as the Romans got their cut, they didn't care what the publicans took beyond that. Under this system, abuse of power was rampant: As the ordinary Jews became poorer, the tax collectors became richer. It is no wonder the publicans were hated and despised as the worst of sinners.
Luke 19 tells the story of Jesus' encounter with a publican named Zacchaeus. This little man was the head tax collector for the city of Jericho. One day a crowd gathered as Jesus walked through the streets of that city. Zacchaeis wanted to see Jesus, but was too small to get through the crowd. So instead of fighting the crowd, verse 4 says, "He climbed up into a sycomore tree."
Jesus saw the little man when He passed by the tree. In verse 5, He said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down, for today I must abide at thy house." According to verse 6, the tax collector instantly "came down, and received him joyfully," and Jesus was a welcome guest at his house.
Zacchaeus knew he was bad enough to get saved. "And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give unto the poor; and if I have taken from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold" (verse 8). Here was a sinner who knew he needed mercy, and gave to the poor. The thief returned the goods to the owners, multiplied by four, thus proving he repented of his sins.
In verse 9 we read, And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he is also a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." In Matthew 9:13, Jesus said it this way, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
The Pharisee could not meet God's standard to get into heaven. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:20, the Lord said, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." The standard God requires is absolute perfection, and there has only been One Who has ever lived a life of perfect holiness, and He died on the cross for our sins. Jesus Christ has provided the perfection needed to save every sinner who has ever lived.
Jesus Christ paid the same price to save the Pharisee as He did to redeem the publican. It costed Christ just as much to provide salvation for you and me as it did for any other sinner. The price He paid was His life. It does not matter what you have done You can be justified, and God would view you as He did the publican; just as if you had never sinned.
Are you bad enough to get saved? Then the publican's prayer, "God be merciful to me, a sinner, is the prayer for you to pray. It is a prayer the Lord will surely answer.
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Today I am here to ask you a question: "Are you bad enough to get saved?"
I mean, you have to know you are a filthy, wicked sinner in order to get saved. If you think you deserve to go to heaven, you do not understand your sinful nature. If you think you are holy enough to get into heaven by your own merits, or if you think you can get saved by doing good, you do not know God's standard of righteousness. If you think you will get to heaven if your good outweighs your evil on some mythical judgment scale, you are wrong. Your sins must be paid for.
Our text is a parable about two men praying in the temple at Jerusalem; a Pharisee, and a publican, a Jew who collected taxes for the Roman government. The one would have been thought to be a good man; the other, the worst of sinners. Yet Jesus said the Pharisee went down to his house as lost as he was before he went to the temple, and the publican returned to his home justified. This is a legal term meaning he was declared innocent. The word means God saw him "just as if he had never sinned." The "good man" was still on his way to hell, but the bad man was on his way to heaven. As we compare the two men, ask yourself the question, "Am I bad enough to go to heaven?"
I. First, let us consider the Pharisee. I want you to put away any misconceptions you may have about the Pharisees. They were the most religious of the Jewish sects. More than anyone else in Judaism, they desired to keep the law of God. They were what we call good men who were trying to do the right thing.
The Pharisee in the parable was like this: I see no reason to doubt that he was telling the truth according to his understanding of the Word of God.
But in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 23, we see Jesus that delivered the most searing indictment He ever spoke against any group of people, and it was against the scribes and Pharisees. In the blistering sermon, He called the Pharisees hypocrites (vs 13, 14 15, 23, 25, 27 and 29), blind guides (vs. 16 and 24), fools and blind (vs. 17, 19 and 26), and serpents and a generation of vipers (vs. 33). In verses 25-28, He said they were clean on the outside, but on the inside they were full of extortion and excess; full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
The Pharisee praying in the Temple claimed he was not an extortioner. But in verse 14, Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation." Pharisees used their religion and law to extort property from widows, and then pretended their long prayers put them above the love of money. They were not only scheming hypocrites, but also sanctimonious bullies. So this claim was bogus.
The Pharisee in this parable claimed he was not unjust. But in verse 23, Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ye ought to have done, and not to leave the other undone." The tithe of the Pharisees masked neglect of the more important matters of judgment (or justice), mercy, and faith. The man's claim that he was not unjust was false.
The Pharisee bragged he was not an adulterer. But in verse 28, Jesus said, "Even so yo also outwardly appear to be righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
One shade of iniquity in his heart could have been adultery. "Relations" with a person other than one's spouse is not required for adultery to take place. Jesus said in Matthew 5:27 and 28, "Ye have heard it has been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whoso looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." The Pharisee was not as pure in his heart as his boast.
As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 2:23, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." The Pharisee did not realize how much he was like the publican. By "devouring widows' houses," the Pharisee betrayed the most helpless people in the nation while enriching themselves at their expense. He was no better than the publican. His contempt for the tax collector was misplaced: If he was looking for a sinner, all he had to do was peer inside his own heart. He would have seen more wickedness than he could have handled.
II. Now let us turn to look at the publican. He, unlike the Pharisee, was bad enough to go to heaven. This man knew he was a sinner. Unlike the Pharisee, who proudly boasted to God that he was better than other people, the tax collector would not even lft up his eyes toward heaven as he prayed for mercy. "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner" is, after all, the first prayer God will assuredly answer for anyone.
The publicans did not receive a set salary for collecting taxes. They collected the taxes the Roman government wanted, and then took anything they wanted for themselves above that. As long as the Romans got their cut, they didn't care what the publicans took beyond that. Under this system, abuse of power was rampant: As the ordinary Jews became poorer, the tax collectors became richer. It is no wonder the publicans were hated and despised as the worst of sinners.
Luke 19 tells the story of Jesus' encounter with a publican named Zacchaeus. This little man was the head tax collector for the city of Jericho. One day a crowd gathered as Jesus walked through the streets of that city. Zacchaeis wanted to see Jesus, but was too small to get through the crowd. So instead of fighting the crowd, verse 4 says, "He climbed up into a sycomore tree."
Jesus saw the little man when He passed by the tree. In verse 5, He said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down, for today I must abide at thy house." According to verse 6, the tax collector instantly "came down, and received him joyfully," and Jesus was a welcome guest at his house.
Zacchaeus knew he was bad enough to get saved. "And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give unto the poor; and if I have taken from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold" (verse 8). Here was a sinner who knew he needed mercy, and gave to the poor. The thief returned the goods to the owners, multiplied by four, thus proving he repented of his sins.
In verse 9 we read, And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he is also a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." In Matthew 9:13, Jesus said it this way, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
The Pharisee could not meet God's standard to get into heaven. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:20, the Lord said, "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." The standard God requires is absolute perfection, and there has only been One Who has ever lived a life of perfect holiness, and He died on the cross for our sins. Jesus Christ has provided the perfection needed to save every sinner who has ever lived.
Jesus Christ paid the same price to save the Pharisee as He did to redeem the publican. It costed Christ just as much to provide salvation for you and me as it did for any other sinner. The price He paid was His life. It does not matter what you have done You can be justified, and God would view you as He did the publican; just as if you had never sinned.
Are you bad enough to get saved? Then the publican's prayer, "God be merciful to me, a sinner, is the prayer for you to pray. It is a prayer the Lord will surely answer.
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Thursday, July 3, 2008
Condemned Already
John 3:18: He that believeth on him is not condemned: But he that beliveth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
On July 8th, 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached one of the most powerful sermons ever preached: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The text was one phrase in Deuteronomy 32:35: "Their feet shall slide in due time." In that congregation in Enfield, Connecticut, people hung on to pews and pillars of the church to keep from sliding into hell.
This text implies, Edwards said, among other things, " That they (sinners) were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he will stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: which is expressed in Psalm 73:18 and 19: Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down to destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment."
If you get nothing else from this message, remember this observation made by Edwards: "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." This is so because, as our text, John 3: 18 says, unbelievers are "condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." As there is no one who is not a sinner, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, everyone who does not believe in Christ is condemned already.
Three points will be made in this discourse: First, there is a way out of the condemnation of God. That way is to put your trust in Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God. Secondly, If you don't believe on the Son, you are already sentenced to hell. There is nothing you have to do to go there, because you are condemned already. Finally, it will be shown from Scripture that sinners are condemned already because their deeds are evil, and they will not come to God's light.
I. The first thing we will see is that there is a way out of the condemnation of God. You don't have to go to hell. The text says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned." The Lord Jesus Himself is speaking here, teaching a man named Nicodemus how to be saved. He tells him, in verses 3-7, "Ye must be born again."
He tells them in verses 14 and 15, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus tells him He will be lifted up on the cross, crucified for their sins, and yours and mine. He will take upon Himself the curse of sin, and be made a curse for us. He will do this so that those who rely on Him will escape the condemnation of hell, and live with Him forever. As verse 16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This eternal life is a gift from God that is accepted by trusting the One Who gave it. The next verse says, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Again, the first part of our text says, "He that believeth is not condemned." They who trust Him have gone from being "condemned already" to "not condemned." It is a complete change in destiny; a change from being an unforgiven sinner on his way to a devil's hell, to a forgiven sinner who has a home with God in heaven.
A word of warning: If you really believe something, you will act in accordance to that belief. Trusting Christ as your Savior will change your life. James 1:22 says, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." There are many who play "Church." They say they believe in Christ, but are they really only deceiving themselves? They go to church on Sunday and live without even a thought for God for the rest of the week. Trusting in Christ is having a relationship with God Himself, not merely assenting to the doctrines of Christianity. It is to put your total reliance on Christ for salvation, and to live your life as a "doer of the word."
Being born again means you are trusting Him to do a work inside you. II Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." If you truly believe Jesus died for your sins, you are not going to dishonor Him by doing those things that put Him on the cross. If you believe Christ was resurrected from the dead, you will live by relying on the power of that resurrection. If you believe the Lord is coming again, you will live like you are expecting Him at any moment.
You are a hypocrite if you say you believe in Christ and live the same way you always have. If you come to a service like this and act like a Christian , and then go out and disobey every commandment God gave, you are a child of the devil, no matter how loudly you may protest otherwise. You say you believe, but do you really believe? James 2:19 speaks to this: "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Professions of faith are only as good as the life backing them up. Because you are "condemned already," your hypocrisy is only going to make your condemnation that much worse. You must repent, and turn to Christ, and depend on His power to enable you to live His way. Don't dare say you believe in Christ if you are not willing to back it up with your manner of living. As John the Baptist said in John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
II. A second thing we see from this text is this: If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you don't have to do a thing to go to hell. You are condemned already to go there. As our text says, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God."
Jonathan Edwards said of unbelievers, "They are already under a sentence of condemnation to Hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them, so that they are bound over already to Hell."
You don't have to get drunk one more time to go to hell. You are condemned already. You don't have to stick one more needle in your arm and blow away your mind with whatever drug is in it. You are condemned already. You don't have to go into that "adult" bookstore one more time and purchase one more magazine or video. You are condemned already. If you don''t place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, your sin has already put you under sentence to hell.
You don't have to cheat on your taxes one more time to go to hell. You are condemned already. You don't have to load one more pornographic DVD into that player, or look at one more member of the opposite sex (or the same sex) with lust in your heart, to go to hell. You are condemned already. You don't have to keep up the pretense of being a believer through one more church service, knowing what a hypocrite you really are, to go to hell. You are condemned already.
As John the Baptist said in verse 36, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." You who do not believe on the Son of God are condemned already. The wrath of God already abides on you! To paraphrase Edwards, "There is nothing that keeps you at any moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."
III. A final thing seen from our text is, the reason men are condemned already is because their deeds are evil and they will not come to God's light.
A. Men are condemned already because their deeds are evil. Jesus said in verse 19, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
The Humanist believes that man is basically good. The vast majority of Americans, whether they admit it or not, if they are not Humanists, are influenced by this philosophy. A lot of churches in this post-Christian world do not even preach a semblance of the true Gospel, but do try to change society. This, in many cases, is well-intentioned, and churches should try to change what is wrong. But in the long run, apart from Biblical truth, doing so will only have a minimal effect on society or in eternity.God did not leave His people on earth to change society. He left His people here to teach His Gospel and make disciples of those of those who will come to Him. God's strategy is to change society by changing one person at a time. It is only the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that save, because it is His truth that is eternal. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
Herein lies the error of Humanism, which teaches that mankind is basically good: The truth is that mankind is basically evil. This is what the bible teaches, and this is what is borne out by the facts. As every parent knows, children do not have to be taught to get into mischief and cause trouble. They do that quite naturally on their own. They have to be taught to do right. Doing wrong is what comes natural.
The Scriptures also make it abundantly clear that men are basically evil:
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
King David, after committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband, Uriah the Hittite murdered, wrote in Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
There are many passages in the New Testament which point to the same truth, that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and all are under sin: Romans 3:9 reads, "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they all are under sin."
Romans 1:32 reads, "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
In Galatians 3:22, Paul wrote, "But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise of faith by Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
Many popular "gospel" presentations open by teaching that God loves man. That is certainly true, but it is not the Biblical place to begin a presentation of the Gospel. Man's inclination to sin is the first theme of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Paul did not mention God's love until the fifth chapter. The first three chapters deal with sin and judgment, topics that are avoided in churches that compromise the truth. Yet these topics are at the very heart of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some verses from chapters 1-3 will substantiate these statements:
Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
We read in Romans 2:12, "For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have the law shall be judged by the law.
And Romans 3: 19 and 20 read, Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth be stopped: and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
Here is an excerpt from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God about the sinful nature of man: "Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury, and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas, if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature, and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin is not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul onto fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone."
The reason a man is condemned already is because his deeds are evil, and the reason his deeds are evil is because his heart is evil. The Lord Jesus, in Matthew 15:10 and 11, said, "Hear and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." In verses 18-20, He gives His reasons for this statement: "Those things which proceedeth out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile the man. Only through trusting Christ can one be changed from being condemned already to being saved. Only through the true Gospel message can this change take place.
B. Not only are men condemned already because their deeds are evil and are sinners by nature, but they are condemned already because they refuse to come into God's light. John 3:20 reads, "For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be reproved.
Like cockroaches scurrying for cover when someone turns on a light switch, so do sinners run from the light of Christ and His Word. Even if they are not committing sins that can be seen by others, they are sinning in their desperately wicked hearts. Conscience will bear witness to this fact even if a man does not know a word of Scripture. It is not hard to silence the conscience, but do not find it so easy when faced with God's Word. This Word is described in Hebrews 4:12 as "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This Word knows all and will judge not only actions, but also a man's very intentions. The scope of the judgment is shown in the next verse: Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." In other words, the Word knows everything you do and think, as well as the intentions behind your thoughts and actions.
Sinners do not want any part of the Light. They hate Him, but they need him. Jesus Christ is the true Light, which, as John 1:9 says, "lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The sad part is that there is no need to run from the Light, but people run from Him all the time. By running from the Light, sinners run from salvation. They choose not to repent of their sins. Like roaches, they would rather keep on living in the filth of their sin, and continue to scurry away form the Light. Unlike the roaches, the consequences for not coming to the Light are more horrible than can be imagined. Sinner, it is better to have your sins reproved while you still have an opportunity for salvation than to is to face the condemnation of Hell, to which you are condemned already. God is under no obligation whatsoever to give you even one more chance to get saved than you have already had.
In II Corinthians 6:2 Paul wrote, " Behold, now is the accepted time; behold today is the day of salvation." Edwards warned, "This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such favor to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and bitterness of mind."
Sinner, if you continue to reject the salvation Christ offers you, God will give you up to hardness of heart. If you continue to scurry from the Light, He will give you over to spiritual blindness. If you continue to suppress and deny the knowledge of God that you do have, He will, according to Romans 1:28, "give you over to a reprobate mind," that is, one that is incapable of having His approval, or in other words, a mind that can't think in a godly way. Remember what Jonathan Edwards said, "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."
If you are not trusting Christ, you are "condemned already." But that does not have to be your end. Come away from the slippery places and plant your feet on the solid Rock. Rely on God and His promise in Acts 16:31: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
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On July 8th, 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached one of the most powerful sermons ever preached: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The text was one phrase in Deuteronomy 32:35: "Their feet shall slide in due time." In that congregation in Enfield, Connecticut, people hung on to pews and pillars of the church to keep from sliding into hell.
This text implies, Edwards said, among other things, " That they (sinners) were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he will stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: which is expressed in Psalm 73:18 and 19: Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down to destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment."
If you get nothing else from this message, remember this observation made by Edwards: "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." This is so because, as our text, John 3: 18 says, unbelievers are "condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." As there is no one who is not a sinner, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, everyone who does not believe in Christ is condemned already.
Three points will be made in this discourse: First, there is a way out of the condemnation of God. That way is to put your trust in Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God. Secondly, If you don't believe on the Son, you are already sentenced to hell. There is nothing you have to do to go there, because you are condemned already. Finally, it will be shown from Scripture that sinners are condemned already because their deeds are evil, and they will not come to God's light.
I. The first thing we will see is that there is a way out of the condemnation of God. You don't have to go to hell. The text says, "He that believeth on him is not condemned." The Lord Jesus Himself is speaking here, teaching a man named Nicodemus how to be saved. He tells him, in verses 3-7, "Ye must be born again."
He tells them in verses 14 and 15, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus tells him He will be lifted up on the cross, crucified for their sins, and yours and mine. He will take upon Himself the curse of sin, and be made a curse for us. He will do this so that those who rely on Him will escape the condemnation of hell, and live with Him forever. As verse 16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This eternal life is a gift from God that is accepted by trusting the One Who gave it. The next verse says, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
Again, the first part of our text says, "He that believeth is not condemned." They who trust Him have gone from being "condemned already" to "not condemned." It is a complete change in destiny; a change from being an unforgiven sinner on his way to a devil's hell, to a forgiven sinner who has a home with God in heaven.
A word of warning: If you really believe something, you will act in accordance to that belief. Trusting Christ as your Savior will change your life. James 1:22 says, "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." There are many who play "Church." They say they believe in Christ, but are they really only deceiving themselves? They go to church on Sunday and live without even a thought for God for the rest of the week. Trusting in Christ is having a relationship with God Himself, not merely assenting to the doctrines of Christianity. It is to put your total reliance on Christ for salvation, and to live your life as a "doer of the word."
Being born again means you are trusting Him to do a work inside you. II Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." If you truly believe Jesus died for your sins, you are not going to dishonor Him by doing those things that put Him on the cross. If you believe Christ was resurrected from the dead, you will live by relying on the power of that resurrection. If you believe the Lord is coming again, you will live like you are expecting Him at any moment.
You are a hypocrite if you say you believe in Christ and live the same way you always have. If you come to a service like this and act like a Christian , and then go out and disobey every commandment God gave, you are a child of the devil, no matter how loudly you may protest otherwise. You say you believe, but do you really believe? James 2:19 speaks to this: "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Professions of faith are only as good as the life backing them up. Because you are "condemned already," your hypocrisy is only going to make your condemnation that much worse. You must repent, and turn to Christ, and depend on His power to enable you to live His way. Don't dare say you believe in Christ if you are not willing to back it up with your manner of living. As John the Baptist said in John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
II. A second thing we see from this text is this: If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you don't have to do a thing to go to hell. You are condemned already to go there. As our text says, "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God."
Jonathan Edwards said of unbelievers, "They are already under a sentence of condemnation to Hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them, so that they are bound over already to Hell."
You don't have to get drunk one more time to go to hell. You are condemned already. You don't have to stick one more needle in your arm and blow away your mind with whatever drug is in it. You are condemned already. You don't have to go into that "adult" bookstore one more time and purchase one more magazine or video. You are condemned already. If you don''t place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, your sin has already put you under sentence to hell.
You don't have to cheat on your taxes one more time to go to hell. You are condemned already. You don't have to load one more pornographic DVD into that player, or look at one more member of the opposite sex (or the same sex) with lust in your heart, to go to hell. You are condemned already. You don't have to keep up the pretense of being a believer through one more church service, knowing what a hypocrite you really are, to go to hell. You are condemned already.
As John the Baptist said in verse 36, "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." You who do not believe on the Son of God are condemned already. The wrath of God already abides on you! To paraphrase Edwards, "There is nothing that keeps you at any moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."
III. A final thing seen from our text is, the reason men are condemned already is because their deeds are evil and they will not come to God's light.
A. Men are condemned already because their deeds are evil. Jesus said in verse 19, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
The Humanist believes that man is basically good. The vast majority of Americans, whether they admit it or not, if they are not Humanists, are influenced by this philosophy. A lot of churches in this post-Christian world do not even preach a semblance of the true Gospel, but do try to change society. This, in many cases, is well-intentioned, and churches should try to change what is wrong. But in the long run, apart from Biblical truth, doing so will only have a minimal effect on society or in eternity.God did not leave His people on earth to change society. He left His people here to teach His Gospel and make disciples of those of those who will come to Him. God's strategy is to change society by changing one person at a time. It is only the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that save, because it is His truth that is eternal. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
Herein lies the error of Humanism, which teaches that mankind is basically good: The truth is that mankind is basically evil. This is what the bible teaches, and this is what is borne out by the facts. As every parent knows, children do not have to be taught to get into mischief and cause trouble. They do that quite naturally on their own. They have to be taught to do right. Doing wrong is what comes natural.
The Scriptures also make it abundantly clear that men are basically evil:
Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"
King David, after committing adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband, Uriah the Hittite murdered, wrote in Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
There are many passages in the New Testament which point to the same truth, that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and all are under sin: Romans 3:9 reads, "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they all are under sin."
Romans 1:32 reads, "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
In Galatians 3:22, Paul wrote, "But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise of faith by Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
Many popular "gospel" presentations open by teaching that God loves man. That is certainly true, but it is not the Biblical place to begin a presentation of the Gospel. Man's inclination to sin is the first theme of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Paul did not mention God's love until the fifth chapter. The first three chapters deal with sin and judgment, topics that are avoided in churches that compromise the truth. Yet these topics are at the very heart of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Some verses from chapters 1-3 will substantiate these statements:
Romans 1:18 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
We read in Romans 2:12, "For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have the law shall be judged by the law.
And Romans 3: 19 and 20 read, Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law: that every mouth be stopped: and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
Here is an excerpt from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God about the sinful nature of man: "Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury, and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas, if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature, and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin is not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul onto fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone."
The reason a man is condemned already is because his deeds are evil, and the reason his deeds are evil is because his heart is evil. The Lord Jesus, in Matthew 15:10 and 11, said, "Hear and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." In verses 18-20, He gives His reasons for this statement: "Those things which proceedeth out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile the man. Only through trusting Christ can one be changed from being condemned already to being saved. Only through the true Gospel message can this change take place.
B. Not only are men condemned already because their deeds are evil and are sinners by nature, but they are condemned already because they refuse to come into God's light. John 3:20 reads, "For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be reproved.
Like cockroaches scurrying for cover when someone turns on a light switch, so do sinners run from the light of Christ and His Word. Even if they are not committing sins that can be seen by others, they are sinning in their desperately wicked hearts. Conscience will bear witness to this fact even if a man does not know a word of Scripture. It is not hard to silence the conscience, but do not find it so easy when faced with God's Word. This Word is described in Hebrews 4:12 as "quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This Word knows all and will judge not only actions, but also a man's very intentions. The scope of the judgment is shown in the next verse: Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." In other words, the Word knows everything you do and think, as well as the intentions behind your thoughts and actions.
Sinners do not want any part of the Light. They hate Him, but they need him. Jesus Christ is the true Light, which, as John 1:9 says, "lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The sad part is that there is no need to run from the Light, but people run from Him all the time. By running from the Light, sinners run from salvation. They choose not to repent of their sins. Like roaches, they would rather keep on living in the filth of their sin, and continue to scurry away form the Light. Unlike the roaches, the consequences for not coming to the Light are more horrible than can be imagined. Sinner, it is better to have your sins reproved while you still have an opportunity for salvation than to is to face the condemnation of Hell, to which you are condemned already. God is under no obligation whatsoever to give you even one more chance to get saved than you have already had.
In II Corinthians 6:2 Paul wrote, " Behold, now is the accepted time; behold today is the day of salvation." Edwards warned, "This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such favor to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and bitterness of mind."
Sinner, if you continue to reject the salvation Christ offers you, God will give you up to hardness of heart. If you continue to scurry from the Light, He will give you over to spiritual blindness. If you continue to suppress and deny the knowledge of God that you do have, He will, according to Romans 1:28, "give you over to a reprobate mind," that is, one that is incapable of having His approval, or in other words, a mind that can't think in a godly way. Remember what Jonathan Edwards said, "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."
If you are not trusting Christ, you are "condemned already." But that does not have to be your end. Come away from the slippery places and plant your feet on the solid Rock. Rely on God and His promise in Acts 16:31: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
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