The Irresistible Draw

John 3:19-21 ESV

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

This morning as we close out our exposition on the famous conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, I want to begin by speaking a parable that Peter used in his second epistle, that I believe can be applied to what our reading speaks of concerning the majority of the people in the world, when Peter says that “the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

Now, what is being relayed to us in this particular proverb is pretty obvious as it tells us that when a dirty pig is cleansed from her filth, its not long before she returns to the mud puddle and wallows around in it, becoming just as filthy as she was before she was cleansed. And why does she do this? It must be because she prefers to be filthy, and so, once being exposed to cleanliness, she can’t wait to go and dirty herself up again.

But what if, on the other hand, the pig not only doesn’t mind being clean, but actually wants to be clean? What if, when the pig farmer gets out his bucket of soap suds and water he calls for his pigs and almost every one of them know what is coming and they hightail it back to their mud puddles, but yet others willfully and joyfully come running to the pig farmer, begging to be cleansed? That would be pretty miraculous, would it not?

But even more than that, what if after being washed, the pigs that are washed no longer have a desire to be filthy again? What if they joyfully live out the rest of their lives in a state of cleanliness? I think that if that happened, that pig farmer would gain quite a bit of notoriety for being the only pig farmer who cleansed his pigs so well that they never wanted to be dirty ever again!

Well, as we conclude our exposition this morning, we will see Jesus in a much more eloquent manner, speak of this very phenomenon, but not concerning pigs, but rather, people.

At the close of our reading from last week, in verse eighteen, Jesus had spoken of the condemnation that is upon those who do not believe in the name of the only Son of God.

Now, as we begin the exposition of our reading for today, we begin to see why these would not believe on Him as we look at that which led to the judgment being made.

We see this as we look at the beginning of verse nineteen in our reading, which says,

John 3:19a ESV

19a And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world,

And so here, as we consider the judgment that was mentioned in verse eighteen, what we see is what preceded the judgment, as Jesus tells Nicodemus that “the light has come into the world”.

At various places in scripture, different and people and different groups are described as “lights”. For example, later in this same gospel, in chapter five, verse thirty-five, Jesus describes John the Baptist as “a burning and shining lamp”. Over in His Sermon on the Mount, in the gospel of Matthew, chapter five, verse fourteen, Jesus tells us as believers, “You are the light of the world”.

But though these are considered to be lights, Christ alone is the light. In fact, in the first chapter of John’s gospel, verse nine, John says that Jesus is “the true light, which gives light to everyone”. Thus, Jesus, Who alone is the true light is indeed, the source of the light that He gives to others like John the Baptist and all other true believers.

And so, this light, the light, which is Jesus Himself, is the Word which became flesh and dwelt among men. For this reason, Jesus says that “the light has come into the world”, to illuminate the world.

But the true light came into the world, He was not generally received, for Jesus says in the next part of this verse:

John 3:19b ESV

19b and people loved the darkness rather than the light

So, here is the tragic reality that is just as true today as it was when the Lord Jesus tread the earth. People do not come to the light because they do not love the light, instead, they love the opposite of light, they love “the darkness”.

Now again, we need to utilize the first chapter of this gospel, from what is commonly known as the prologue to the Gospel of John. First, in John, chapter one, verse eleven, John says that Jesus “came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him”.

“Coming to His own” speaks of Jesus’ coming to the land and commonwealth of Israel. This was God’s own land, sanctified and set apart by Him and for Him, thus, Jesus coming to Israel is synonymous with God coming to His own. And “His own people” of course, is indicative of the inhabitants of Israel.

This was God’s own land, His own place, and these were God’s own people, yet He was not received among them.

Now, it isn’t as though all Israel refused to receive Jesus, refused to receive the light, for as verse twelve of the first chapter of John tells us, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.

So, there were indeed some among Israel who received the light, but as the number of those who received Jesus are spoken in comparison to “His own people” it lets us know that there were relatively few who truly received Jesus when compared with the vast number of those who rejected Him.

And so, Jesus says that though He is the true light, though He comes to illuminate the world, the vast majority did not receive Him but rejected Him in favor of “darkness”.

In other words, though salvation came to the world, the vast majority of Israelis and still the vast majority of humanity today loves damnation, prefers damnation over salvation, allegiance to Satan over allegiance to the God of heaven and earth.

And Jesus goes on to say at the end of this nineteenth verse that the chief reason why the majority love the darkness rather than the light is,

John 3:19c ESV

19c because their works were evil.

This hits the nail on the head! As I said, this is the chief reason why the majority of people in this world love the darkness rather than the light.

All people are born into spiritual darkness, and when it pleases God to do so, He brings certain people out of that darkness and into the light. Out of a state of damnation to a state of salvation. But while people are in spiritual darkness, it then naturally follows that they indulge in darkness. In short, they love spiritual darkness, because they too are spiritually dark.

Because they are spiritually dark, they prefer to remain in the dark. And this is the case for all people until God is pleased to shine light into those whom He is pleased to shine light into.

And thus, the true light has come into the world, but the majority of people in this world do not love the light, but instead, they love the darkness, and the reason why is because they themselves are dark.

But it isn’t just a love of evil which causes the world to love to the darkness, it’s also a hatred of the true light. We see this described for us by Jesus in verse twenty, which reads:

John 3:20 ESV

20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Those who are spiritually dark, seek to remain in darkness. And because these seek to remain in darkness, because these seek to remain in a state of opposition to God, what they most certainly do not want is the light to reveal to themselves that they are truly dark.

You see, the reason why those in darkness hate the true light, the Lord Jesus simply boils down to the fact that Jesus is holy and they are not. If someone, a faithful believer relays the message of the gospel to one who is still in darkness, one whom God has not already shined light in and caused to be born again, the response will always be one of hostility.

And the reason why that is, is because they are reminded that because Jesus is holy, because God is holy, the standard that He sets is a holy standard, indeed, the holiest standard. And, as I said, because those in darkness are not holy, but even more than that, because they have not been born-again by the Spirit of God, they never respond to the gospel call in humility and submission. Instead, they just become all the more hostile and hardened to it.

That’s why Jesus says that those in darkness will not come to the light, for if they came to the light, their works shall be exposed, their dark nature would be revealed, it will be in their face, there will be no denying it. And because they have no love for God, they have no desire to be near the light. They have no desire to be confronted with their sin so that they may humbly submit to the true light.

But thankfully, that is not all that there is to it, there are others who do come to the light, who indeed, love the light. Jesus speaks of such people in the first part of verse twenty-one, where He says:

John 3:21a ESV

21a But whoever does what is true comes to the light,

So, we see here that there are indeed some who “come to the light”, who seek salvation and righteousness and love of God. They are identified by Jesus here as “whoever does what is true”.

Now, when Jesus speaks of doing what is true, He refers to being in the light, that is, being born again by the Spirit of God. And Jesus says that whoever does what is true, whoever is legitimately born again, “comes to the light”.

In this, we are reminded of the great truth that Jesus says later in this same gospel, in chapter six, verse forty-four, when He says:

John 6:44 ESV

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

And so, while most love the darkness, hate the light, and will not come to the light, those who do what is true on the other hand, those who are legitimately born-again are drawn to the light.

Light invades darkness, and those who love darkness flee from the light, but for those chosen to salvation by God Himself, they flee to the light as God effectually draws them to the light. As Jesus says there in John 6:44, all men are so naturally dark in the spiritual sense that they cannot come to the light, but for those whom the Father has graciously and miraculously caused to be born again, they are irresistibly drawn by Him and to Him.

And Jesus closes this conversation between He and Nicodemus at the end of this twenty-first verse of our reading by saying that this is accomplished:

John 3:21b ESV

21b so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

What a wondrous truth this is! What this truth relays is that the one whom God causes to be born again, comes to the light, receives salvation in Christ Jesus so that God may be glorified in the one He has saved.

Look at what Jesus says here, the one who is born again, comes to the light, comes to trust in Jesus, so that it may be clearly seen by all that his works, that his being born again has been accomplished, completed, completely carried out in God, by the will of God through the power of God to the glory of God.

For those of us here today who can legitimately say that we are beloved, blood bought children of God, may you know and be fully persuaded that you are what you are today because God wanted you to be the blood bought child of God that you are today and thus, He lovingly made you that blood bought child of God that you are.

Beloved, we bask in the heavenly, eternal light of God’s love and God’s favor because God loved us so much that He ensured that we loved Him in return.

Blessed be His name!

Amen?