Why Do So Many Reject Jesus?

00:00:00.000 | [music]

00:00:04.380 | Happy Wednesday, and thank you for listening to the podcast.

00:00:07.060 | Last time we were together on Monday, we took some time to look at several judgment texts

00:00:12.820 | in the New Testament to answer a sharp Bible question.

00:00:16.880 | And one of the points Pastor John made on Monday caught my attention, it may have caught

00:00:20.100 | your attention too.

00:00:21.960 | It was how Jesus described judgment in John 3:19.

00:00:27.160 | And this is the judgment, Jesus said.

00:00:30.200 | The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because

00:00:36.540 | their works were evil.

00:00:40.760 | As Pastor John said on Monday, it's the world's love of the darkness that judges them in the

00:00:46.960 | end.

00:00:47.960 | I want to press into this point, press deeper into this text and go back to John Piper's

00:00:52.800 | sermon on this text, preached back in 2009.

00:00:57.880 | With that, here's Pastor John.

00:01:00.920 | So verse 19 says, "There is a kind of judgment."

00:01:04.600 | How so?

00:01:06.280 | How so?

00:01:07.280 | How is it that when light, this light comes into the world, judgment happens?

00:01:10.640 | How is that?

00:01:12.360 | The rest of the text explains.

00:01:14.960 | This is, let's read it again.

00:01:16.300 | This is the judgment that light has come into the world and, and here's what happens, here's

00:01:22.040 | the, here's the split.

00:01:24.800 | People loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

00:01:31.720 | For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest

00:01:37.560 | his works should be exposed.

00:01:39.400 | Stop.

00:01:40.400 | Now that's the negative response.

00:01:42.600 | Verse 21 is going to be the positive.

00:01:43.600 | So let's just stay with the negative a minute.

00:01:45.360 | Let's know ourselves and who we are, fallen under the wrath of God, under condemnation.

00:01:50.480 | If you're an unbeliever, that's where you still are.

00:01:52.240 | If you're a believer, you're still contaminated by it and need to constantly own your true

00:01:59.960 | identity in Christ and put to death the old identity.

00:02:03.240 | So let's know ourselves here, believer or unbeliever, let's know ourselves.

00:02:06.720 | You can sum up what I just read about this person in five steps.

00:02:11.520 | Number one, we'll go from the bottom to the top.

00:02:15.680 | Number one, their works, our works, works, what we think, we feel, we do, all that stuff

00:02:23.560 | is evil.

00:02:25.000 | Verse 20 at the beginning of the verse, I mean it says so at the end of verse 19, their

00:02:29.000 | works were evil.

00:02:30.000 | And verse 20 at the beginning, they do wicked things.

00:02:33.560 | Number two, they don't want this to be exposed.

00:02:38.240 | What we're thinking, what we're feeling, what we're doing, my whole life of evil, I don't

00:02:42.640 | want that to be exposed.

00:02:44.440 | So verse 20 at the end, lest his works should be exposed.

00:02:50.560 | He doesn't want that to happen.

00:02:52.360 | So first there's evil, and then there's the fear and the desire that it not be exposed.

00:02:59.040 | Number three, therefore, they love darkness.

00:03:04.960 | It's safe.

00:03:06.480 | Verse 20 in the middle of the verse, look at it, and people loved the darkness rather

00:03:13.760 | than the light.

00:03:14.760 | This is a love affair.

00:03:15.760 | Unbelief is at root a love affair.

00:03:19.560 | Love is a big word.

00:03:21.720 | He did not have to speak this way.

00:03:24.440 | He could have stuck with belief language.

00:03:27.120 | We all tend to think, "Oh, believing in Jesus is a decision."

00:03:29.920 | Well, sort of.

00:03:32.800 | I mean, underneath decisions are torrents of reality.

00:03:37.640 | And this is a description of them.

00:03:41.360 | There's love going on down there for all wrong things.

00:03:44.280 | Darkness, I love you, darkness.

00:03:46.600 | I love you, darkness.

00:03:48.160 | You are so safe.

00:03:50.520 | You love me so much.

00:03:51.520 | You protect me.

00:03:53.480 | Number four, and therefore, they hated the light.

00:03:58.040 | Verse 20 at the beginning, everyone who does wicked things hates the light.

00:04:06.120 | He got to.

00:04:07.880 | He got to.

00:04:10.360 | All that stuff is going to look so horrible and shameful, and I can't stand that thought.

00:04:18.200 | I just got to keep loving the dark and pushing the light away.

00:04:22.360 | And so number five, they don't come to Jesus.

00:04:26.120 | They don't come to the light.

00:04:27.920 | Middle of verse 20, "And does not come to the light."

00:04:32.920 | So there they are, five steps.

00:04:34.840 | One, I'm doing evil stuff inside, outside, I'm evil.

00:04:38.600 | Number two, I don't want that to be exposed.

00:04:40.400 | Number three, therefore, I love darkness.

00:04:42.140 | Number four, therefore, I hate the light.

00:04:43.660 | Number five, I'm not coming.

00:04:46.040 | I'm not coming.

00:04:47.120 | I'm not believing.

00:04:49.080 | Believing and coming.

00:04:50.080 | And John, same thing.

00:04:55.280 | So this is Jesus' explanation of unbelief.

00:05:00.000 | Remember that.

00:05:01.000 | The division into two kinds of people, verses 19 to 21.

00:05:05.200 | Same division as verses 16 to 18.

00:05:07.080 | Some believe, some don't believe, and now he's going into the inner workings of our

00:05:11.320 | soul.

00:05:12.320 | So let's just linger here for a minute.

00:05:14.840 | I'm a sinner.

00:05:15.840 | You're a sinner.

00:05:18.320 | What I mean by that is my life is never fully in sync with the infinite worth and beauty

00:05:25.140 | of God.

00:05:26.440 | Never.

00:05:27.760 | Never fully in sync with the beauty and the worth of God.

00:05:34.000 | God is always worthy of more than I give Him.

00:05:37.380 | He's always worthy of more intensity than I feel for Him.

00:05:40.360 | Always worthy of more consistency of obedience than I give Him.

00:05:43.720 | Always worthy of more consistent mental work for Him than I give Him.

00:05:47.680 | Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind.

00:05:51.840 | Who does that?

00:05:52.840 | Raise your hand if you do that.

00:05:54.440 | All of it.

00:05:55.440 | All at all times.

00:05:56.440 | Nobody.

00:05:57.440 | Because you don't, and I don't either.

00:05:58.440 | We're sinners.

00:06:00.040 | And therefore we're under wrath because God is so infinitely worthy of more than we give

00:06:06.360 | Him and we dishonor Him every day of our lives, believer and unbeliever.

00:06:12.120 | We do this.

00:06:13.120 | And the difference is not that one is good and the other is bad.

00:06:17.640 | Simply.

00:06:18.640 | The Holy Spirit's at work on believers.

00:06:20.800 | They are changing.

00:06:23.560 | But I've been a Christian for, since I was six, I'm 63.

00:06:26.920 | I'm not optimistic about finishing without sin.

00:06:34.360 | I hope my sights are not too low.

00:06:36.000 | I just love grace more.

00:06:37.960 | A lot.

00:06:39.480 | Jesus says now that we dishonor the Lord every day and the reason that people hate the light

00:06:51.680 | and love the darkness is this.

00:06:55.320 | When by some amazing work of providence we begin to know ourselves sinful, it becomes

00:07:06.360 | either really angry making or really fear making that that might be exposed.

00:07:18.160 | Just imagine your whole life and all you did last week and all the weeks before.

00:07:25.240 | Just out there.

00:07:26.720 | Just out there.

00:07:29.040 | This is why people don't come to Christ.

00:07:31.240 | This text says, "lest their deeds should be exposed."

00:07:36.520 | Shame that is deserved is a horrible thing.

00:07:41.000 | You ever been embarrassed to the point of just wanting to run out of the universe as

00:07:45.440 | a little kid?

00:07:46.440 | Wetting your pants at school?

00:07:48.720 | I mean that's nothing.

00:07:52.520 | What if everything were laid bare?

00:07:56.080 | This is why people don't come.

00:07:58.920 | It's just terrifying that I might actually have to live in absolute light.

00:08:09.720 | Nothing hidden anymore.

00:08:14.000 | They don't come.

00:08:15.780 | They stay hidden.

00:08:17.040 | Now careful.

00:08:19.280 | That does not mean people don't commit public sins.

00:08:26.000 | You might draw the conclusion from what I just said, "Oh people are afraid that their

00:08:29.880 | sin will be exposed so they never do it in public."

00:08:32.320 | What?

00:08:38.320 | Why?

00:08:42.320 | Why?

00:08:43.520 | If it's so terrifying to come into the light with your sin, why are sins so publicly flaunted

00:08:51.840 | in our day?

00:08:52.840 | There's a real simple reason.

00:08:56.760 | As long as the public banishes the light, there are enough people to admire the sinful

00:09:04.560 | behavior that you don't feel shame but approval.

00:09:09.800 | As long as the light of Christ is kept out of the sphere in which you're acting out your

00:09:17.200 | evil, public sin is in the dark.

00:09:26.320 | Public doesn't mean light.

00:09:29.160 | Public means dark people observing dark behavior and liking it because it confirms their own.

00:09:37.840 | But if God shows up, we call this revival, moving on a people in a church or in a community

00:09:50.440 | and suddenly Christ and all of his standards, the holiness of God and all of its perfection

00:09:57.640 | begins to rest with some weight upon the world, you know what happens?

00:10:05.360 | People are either driven to Christ because of the horror of their own shame or they're

00:10:11.060 | driven away further into darkness and the ways divide and that's the judgment that this

00:10:19.680 | verse is talking about.

00:10:22.520 | Sobering and vivid.

00:10:24.000 | This clip was taken from a sermon on John 3, 16 to 21, titled "This is the Judgment.

00:10:30.860 | Light has come into the world," preached on May 17, 2009.

00:10:34.920 | The whole thing is available in audio and in video at DesiringGod.org.

00:10:40.760 | If you have a sermon clip to share, email me.

00:10:42.400 | Give me your name, hometown, the sermon title, the timestamp of where the clip happens in

00:10:45.800 | the audio and make a note of what stands out to you.

00:10:47.920 | Put the word clip in the subject line of an email and send it to me at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:10:53.680 | That's my email address, AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:10:59.000 | Well faith and hope, we need both of them, faith and hope, but what exactly is the difference

00:11:04.060 | between them, between faith and hope?

00:11:07.040 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.

00:11:08.040 | We are rejoined in studio with Pastor John for that when we return on Friday.

00:11:12.360 | We'll see you then.

00:11:12.860 | [End of Audio]

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Why Do So Many Reject Jesus?

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