Why God Will Condemn You If You Dont Believe

(John 3:18-21)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
Weve seen that there is such a thing as a second birth
Something that is beyond what natural birth can give
A spiritual rebirth.

Weve seen that its necessary to see and enter Gods kingdom
Not just to know it exists,
But to see its beauty,
So that you would want to enter it through faith in Jesus Christ.

Weve seen that the Spirit gives this second birth when and where,
And to whom He wills
That He is absolutely sovereign in the bestowing of this gift,
And generally gives it under the Gospel
Which is why we need to take every opportunity to share it.

And weve seen why the Lord can give this new birth,
And how you can know you have it
He can give it because of what Hes done through Jesus,
And you can know you have it if you believe.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son
So that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

B. Preview.
Jesus next addresses the question, what if you dont have that new birth?
What will happen to you if you dont repent, if you dont believe?
He also gives us some further insight into how you can know whether you have
believed or not.

This morning, lets consider three things:

1. If you dont believe in Jesus, you have already been judged/condemned.
2. You have been judged because of your spiritual condition.
3. How you can know what your spiritual condition is.

II. Sermon.
A. First, Jesus clearly says, if you dont believe in Him, you have already been
judged.
He isnt saying here that you will be judged
Although there is a future aspect to this judgment
But that you have been judged/condemned.

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God (v. 18).

Before we jump into this subject, notice first the encouragement:

If you do believe in Him, youre not judged.
If you are trusting Jesus,
If you have turned from your sins,
You wont be condemned

You are forgiven.

Youve passed from death to life.
The thief on the cross merely looked to the Lord,
And said, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom,
And Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise
(Luke 23:42-43).
If you believe in Jesus, He says the same to you.
You are safe
When you die, you will be with Him in heaven.
If you havent trusted Jesus,
I urge you to do so
He is the only way, the only door through which you can enter heaven.

I urge you to do so especially in the light of what follows:

If you havent believed in Him, youve already been judged,
Youre already under the sentence of condemnation.

Why are you condemned?

Is it because you havent believed in Jesus?
We might get that impression from what He says here
That this is why Hes condemning you.
There are those who believe this is the one sin the only sin God will ever judge;
That Jesus blotted out every other sin on the cross but this one,
And this one alone will send you to hell.

But thats not what Jesus means.

He tells us in another place that those who dont repent
Will be judged for every sin they commit
Even for every word
Not just for their sin of rejecting Him:
He said to the Pharisees, You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak
what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good
man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of
his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people
speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your
words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned (Matt.
12:34-37).

For another, the Bible nowhere tells us

That everyone will have the chance to hear the Gospel.
The vast majority of those who lived before Jesus came never heard it.
The vast majority of those who have lived since Jesus have never heard it.
There are billions living today who have never heard it
Which is why Jesus calls the church to do the work of missions.

The vast majority of those in hell today

Were condemned without ever hearing the Gospel.
They werent sent there because they rejected Jesus.

Lets not forget that it is a very great sin to reject Him.

If God has blessed you to be one of the very few
In the history of the world who actually get to hear

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What He has done out of His infinite love to save sinners,
In sending His only beloved Son
To die on the cross for all who will trust Him,
And you reject Him,
You will be condemned with those who never heard it,
But your judgment will be much more severe.
The more light you are given and reject, the greater your condemnation.
In Matthew 11:20-24, we read, Then He began to denounce the cities in which
most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. Woe to you,
Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and
Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth
and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be
exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had
occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day.
Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in
the day of judgment, than for you.
You here this morning
Who have heard the Gospel,
But have not trusted Jesus,
This stands as a warning to you.

There is a greater punishment for hearing and rejecting the Gospel,

But that isnt what condemns you.
Jesus is simply saying that by not believing in Him
By not turning from your sins and trusting Him to make you right with God
You are rejecting the only way you can escape judgment.
He says, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me (John 14:6).

B. If you arent condemned for rejecting Jesus,

Why does God condemn you?
Its because of the condition of your heart
Because you love darkness and hate the Light.
Jesus says in John 3:19: This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the
world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were
evil.

Everyone born into this world is condemned for two reasons

Though Jesus here emphasizes only one
Because you are guilty,
And because you are evil.

Both of these are the result of the Fall.

When Adam disobeyed God
As your representative
He made you guilty.

Since youve come into the world,

Youve disobeyed God even more,
Making yourself even guiltier.

But the reason you disobey

Is because Adams sinful choice
Also gave you a sinful heart

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A heart that loves what God hates,
And hates what He loves
Or as Jesus puts it,
A heart that loves darkness and hates the Light.
That, too, is sin.

Sadly, were not going to be able to go into this subject this morning,
But we will this evening,
So I would encourage you to join us.

But let me say at least this much:

The guilt you have from Adam,
The guilt you have from your other sins,
And the disposition of your heart towards God
Are the reasons God judges and condemns you.
He is infinitely holy and good.
He cant approve the evil thats in your heart.
He is infinitely just
He must judge and punish all your sins.
Thats why you are condemned,
Unless you trust in Jesus Christ.

C. Since thats true,

The most important thing you can know this morning,
Is the condition youre in

Where you stand with God.

You might say: I know Im saved.

Ive trusted Jesus.
Ive confessed Him before others
Ive made public profession of my faith
Ive been baptized and joined a church.
That might be true, but that isnt enough.

Jesus says the way you can know

Whether you are darkness or light
Whether you are saved or not
Is not by what you say, but by what you do:
How you respond to the light.
He says, This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men
loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil (v. 19).
Since you can only know by how you relate to this Light,
Its important for you to know what this Light is.

The Light is Jesus.

Notice in the NASB at least that Light is capitalized.
This means the translators and editorial staff for that translation
Also believe that Light refers to Jesus.
This also makes sense in view of what Jesus says in verses 20-21, For everyone
who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his

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deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so
that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
Those who do evil hate Jesus and wont come to Him
Because they dont want their sins exposed
They dont want to be shown theyre guilty and on their way to hell.
They would rather convince themselves theyre alright without Him.

But those who do whats right

Because the Lord has shown mercy on them,
Because He has given them the new birth
Come to Him because they love Him
And want to live the kind of life thats pleasing to Him.

That was true then, when Jesus was literally present on earth:
Those who hated Him didnt come to Him
Such as the Pharisees and Sadducees
But those whose hearts were changed by the Spirit
Who received the second birth did.

Its also true today.

Those who hate Jesus
Which includes everyone on earth who havent received the second birth
Wont come to Him
When He is offered to them in the Gospel
Unless their hearts are changed by His Spirit.

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Those who are born again by the Spirit, do.

What about you?

Has He changed your heart?
Have you come to Him
Have you turned from your sins and trusted Him?
How can you know?

As I said before,
Its not enough to think you have,
To say you have,
To tell others you have,
To be baptized,
Or to join a church.

Your heart, your disposition, towards the light has to have changed.
Doing the things Ive just mentioned might show that it has
If youve done these things because you love Him
But there is a more obvious way you can know:
And thats how you respond to His Word.

The word light can refer to many things in the Bible, as weve seen,
But it usually refers to truth.
Of course it does refer to Jesus, because He is the truth.
Remember, what Jesus said earlier to Thomas, I am the way, and the truth, and the
life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6).

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He is the Word of God, the One who reveals God.

But when He left, He didnt take the light with Him

He left it behind in the form of the written Word.

How can you know whether you love Jesus, or hate Him?
You can know by your disposition towards His Word
Whether you love it or hate it.

If you really dont love Jesus, who is the Light,

You wont love the light of His Word.
You wont read it or try to understand it,
You wont examine your life by it,
You wont want it to convict you
To tell you youre doing something wrong
Or to command you
To tell you what to do.
Jesus says, For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the
Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed (3:20).

Of course, we do need to leave room for Christian imperfection

We will all fail to live up to what He calls us to do.
But as a general rule, we will love the Bible
Because it is the Word of the One we love
And we will want to believe and obey it

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Because that is how Jesus tells us to love Him.

If you dont love Gods Word

If youre not reading it,
Examining your life by it,
Submitting to what it tells you to do
Your heart is still full of darkness
You need to repent and turn to Jesus.
You need the new birth.
If thats the case with you,
Pray and seek the Lord for His mercy.

But if, on the other hand,

You are reading,
You are examining,
You are applying
And submitting to His Word,
Because you really want to do so,
You can know you have received His mercy
That you are born again.
Jesus says in verse 21, But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that
his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

Your love for Gods Light for His Son, for His truth
As evidenced by your faith and repentance,

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Is how you can know that you belong to Jesus
That you are not judged,
Because Jesus has taken that judgment for you on the cross.

If you have received His mercy,

Then give God all the credit/glory,
And purpose to give yourself to Him more fully
To love and serve Him
By loving and serving others according to His Word.

But if you havent,

May the Lord grant you His mercy
May He change your heart by His Spirit
That you might repent and believe,
And be saved. Amen.

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