I invite your attention to John
chapter 3. The gospel according to John
chapter 3, my text is Verse 16, John 3, 16, my message is titled
God's World. Now again, there is a synopsis
available and it will have that title, God's World, at the top.
If you do not have a copy, raise your hand and Jackson will ascertain
now that you receive it. So if you do not have the synopsis,
let us know. And I'll let you, we'll follow
along together in looking at these texts because again, we're
going to cover some ground in a short time and look at a number
of texts. And so the texts are going to
be in the synopsis that you have before you. But John chapter
three, it's a very familiar passage. probably the most familiar text
in all of God's Word, verse 16. I'm going to begin reading in
verse number 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. And here's my text. For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved. You know, this
text is so easily understood. Most of the words are one syllable.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. I mean, you know, it is so simple.
This text is so easily understood. And yet, many misunderstood. One word
in here, the word world, world. What does it mean? You ask most
people and they're gonna say, oh, the word world means everyone
with that exception universally. God loves everyone universally
with that exception. God hates no one and God loves
everyone alike. And that's the common belief
in so-called, shall we call it churchianity, that, you know,
God loved everyone just alike. Now, that cannot be true, can
it? did not a sacred psalmist write
under inspiration of the Holy Spirit to God saying, you hate all workers
of iniquity. Oh, that is serious. Workers
of iniquity. You hate them. Wait a minute, I thought God
loved them. God hates workers of iniquity.
The scripture says so. The psalmist continues. You destroy,
you shall destroy those who speak falsehood. Jehovah abhors the
bloodthirsty and deceitful man. Psalm 5 verses 6 and 7. Well, I ain't believing that
because God loves everybody, some may say. And yet it's true. Here, the
psalmist said so. Psalm 5 is just as true as John
3, just as true. There is a world that God loved from all eternity. Notice that
the text does not say God so loves the world he loved. He
loved from old eternity. God so loved before the foundation
of the world, he chose his people to stand before him in love because
he loved them then. What world is this? It is that
world to whom Jehovah appeared to me of old of saying, I have
loved you with an eternal love and therefore with love and kindness,
I have drawn you to myself. That's the world that God loved. It is his people. We may call
it God's world, God's world. There is more than one world
on this earth. Jesus in his high priestly prayer
to his father said, I do not pray for the world. Wait a minute,
Jesus, you better because God loved them. No, Jesus says, I
do not pray for the world, but for those whom you gave to me.
Oh, so there is a world that is distinct from God's people. The world for whom Jesus would
not pray and God's people, that's another world, a world of God's
people. God so loved the world. We're
gonna look at this term this morning about God's world, God's
world. The world that God loved from
all eternity and loves now and shall love forever is identified
in two ways in our text, two ways. For God so loved the world
that he gave to that world his only begotten son. And the text
does not say God offered his son. The text says God gave his
son and nothing is given until it is received. Jesus came into his own and his
own received him not, but as many as received him, to them
he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who did
what? Believe on his name. How do you
receive Jesus Christ? Well, God gives him to you. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. You receive him. When you number
yourselves among whoever believes in him, because he is received
by faith. God's world identified by three
marks here in John chapter three, verse 16. God loved them. He gave Christ to them and therefore
they received him and they received him through believing in him.
This is God's world. This is God's world. God's world is mentioned in at
least six texts in scripture in which this world that God
loved is distinguished from other worlds on this earth. Now bear
that in mind, there is more than one world on this earth. For example, again, I remind
you the world that God loved and the world for whom Jesus
Christ refused to pray. We're not gonna spend much time
talking about that second world this morning, but we're gonna
be looking at this world that God loved. God's world. What do we know about God's world?
The world loved by God shall be saved by Jesus. That's point
one in your synopsis. They shall be saved. God did
not send his son into the world to condemn the world. They already
were condemned. They already were under condemnation,
but God loved his world so much that he sent his son and said,
save them. And the son said, I will, I will. He shall save his people from
their sins and on Calvary, they were saved. And they received
that salvation through faith in him. Everyone in the world
that God loved, will receive Jesus Christ. And they will receive
Jesus Christ through faith in him. And through faith in him,
they shall be saved and passed from condemnation into everlasting
life. God's world. I tell you right
now, I want to be a member of that world. I want to know that
I am in this world that God loved. How can I know? Through faith
in Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in him shall
not perish. I tell you this morning by the
authority here of God's word, that if you believe in Jesus
Christ, you will be saved. When you believe in Jesus Christ,
you receive him. And you receive him because you're
in that world that God loved from all eternity and manifested
his love there on Calvary. The world loved by God and saved
by Jesus Christ. And every person in this world
loved by God shall be saved. Point number two. The world whose
sin has been taken away by Jesus Christ. John chapter one, verse
29. There's a man called John the
Baptist. He's a cousin of Jesus Christ. Born about six months
before Jesus was born. Raised in the wilderness. One day, he steps out of the
wilderness in the robe of a prophet, eating
the coarsest of food, locusts and wild honey. He is, we might say, a man among
men, and he was the man made for this hour. He was sent by
God to prepare the way of Jesus Christ. And it took a rugged
man to do it. John the Baptist was that man.
He stepped out of the wilderness and into the Jordan River and
began to preach the gospel. He said, there's one coming after
me. I'm not worthy to loosen his
sandals. He's greater than I am. He's
coming after me. Back yonder over there, somewhere
he is, he's headed this way. He preached evidently for about
six months there at the Jordan River, telling people, repent,
repent. Turn from your sins. The ax is
laid to the root. You need to repent. And many
believed in him. Or the message that he preached.
He said, there's one coming after me. He's not far away. I am sent
to prepare the way for him. And many people have believed
what John said. And he baptizes them in the Jordan.
The sacred ordinance of baptism administered to believers in
Jesus Christ. His baptism was as much Christian
baptism as was the baptism you saw here in this baptistry last
Lord's Day. Baptizing believers in the Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, whom they had not seen, whom they
did not know. They just knew he's coming. He's
coming. John, John evidently knew Jesus. They were cousins. Their mothers
were close. John's about six months older
than Jesus. So he evidently knew Jesus. They had probably seen each other
quite a few times in the 30 years of their lives. Each of them
began this ministry when he was about 30 years of age, which
was the legal adult, legal age of an adult in Jewish society. And John's preaching there in
the Jordan every day. One's coming behind me. He's
not here yet, but he's on his way. I am sent to prepare the
way for him. And here come people day by day. And John is preaching one day.
And he looks and there's his cousin, Jesus of Nazareth. He looks and he says, behold,
the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What a
glorious declaration is that. Behold, look, fix your attention
on this one. Behold, who is he? The lamb of
God. Only a lamb could be used with sin removing sacrifices. Millions of them were sacrificed
under the old covenant. One lamb every morning, another
lamb every evening. Two lambs on the Sabbath and
on and on for about 1400 years. not including all the people
who came with their lambs for their own personal offenses.
I tell you that priest was there with his altar just about all
day long, sacrificing lambs, standing in an ocean of blood
around a creaking altar, and not one single sin was ever taken
away. Not one. Until this lamb came. Behold,
the lamb of God. What's he gonna do? He's gonna
take away what no other lamb could do, the sin of the world.
The sin of the world, the whole world of sinners, he's gonna
take their sin away from them. How's he gonna do it? Jehovah
says, I will take their sin and lay it on my son, Jesus Christ,
Isaiah 53. And we say he bore our iniquities. He has borne them. How? He took the sins of a whole world
of sinners, carried them to Calvary, And there on an altar, His cross,
there on an altar, the Lamb of God was slain. And when He was
slain, every sin was gone. For a whole
world of sinners, every sin was gone. Behold, the Lamb of God,
He takes away the sin of the world. Where are they, God? Where are
those sins? Behind my back. What if you turn around to look
at them? They're still behind my back. I can't see them. In
the most bottom part of the sea, blotted out, remitted. And God
says, I am the omnipotent one, but even I do not remember those
sins. They're gone, taken away for
a whole world of sinners. What sinners? They who behold
with the eye of faith, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of a whole world of sinners. Now it is evident that he did
not take away the sin of everyone because many will die in their
sins. But it is also true that he took
away the sin of everyone who has believed this gospel. Isaiah
says in the beginning of chapter 53, who has believed our report? And then he answers the question
by saying, to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed? When
Jehovah reveals his arm, you believe his gospel. When you
believe his gospel, you realize Jesus Christ is that lamb who
took away your sin. Behold, the lamb of God who takes
away the sin of God's world. Third, This is the world who
receives life from Jesus Christ. John chapter six, verses 33 and
51. Jesus said, the bread of God,
you did not get it at the bakery. The bread of God is he, it is
a person, a male, who comes down from heaven, like the man of
the dead in the wilderness, and gives life, it is spiritual life,
to people who already have physical life, and he does it through
regeneration. He quickens the dead. And to
whom does he do it? A whole world of people. To the
world, there's that term again. Jesus said, I am the living bread,
which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he
will live forever. And the bread that I shall give
is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the whole world."
The whole world. No one is accepted among those to whom he came to
give this bread of life. A whole world of famished sinners. A whole world of hungry people. We've eaten that bread and it
was moldy. We've eaten that bread and it
was dry. We ate that bread, it had pebbles
in it and we could not be nourished from them until he came and said,
I'm the living bread. Well, What does that mean? I'm going to give life. Notice,
I give life. He regenerates. As the father
raises the dead, even so has he given the power to the son
to raise the dead, the spiritually dead. He quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sins. He quickens them. He comes by
them and they're dead and he says, live! And they live, they
live. with spiritual life through regeneration. Then he says, eat. And the same
bread that gives life to us is the same bread that nourishes
us. And it is for a whole world of sinners, God's world. Now, it is evident that Jesus
Christ does not give and sustain life to all with that exception
universally. For many, will never have spiritual
life. Many will die dead in their sins
and experience the second death. Therefore, if that be true, they
are not in that world that received the living bread. They were not
in that world that was given life by Jesus Christ. They were
not in that world that had their life sustained by feeding on
him. But there is a whole world of
sinners, a whole world of hungry people, a whole world of famished
people. And Jesus has come to them as
the bread of life and said, live, now eat. And he gives us himself
to eat. A whole world of sinners. And
you are in that world if you believe. because you feed on
Jesus Christ by believing in him, trusting in him. Number four, there is the world
who was reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. It's the same world,
folks. It's the same world. The world
that God loved and saved is the same world whose sins were taken
away by Jesus Christ. It is the same world who receives
life from Jesus Christ. And it is, number four, the world
who was reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. We looked at this
in the lesson this morning, but let's review it and look at it
again. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18 and
19. God has reconciled us to himself. He did not try to reconcile. He did it. It's accomplished. He reconciled. Yeah, but preacher, It's not done until we do something.
No, it's not. This is not a hypothetical reconciliation. This is not a conditional reconciliation. It is not conditioned upon you
doing this or doing that or believing this and saying that. Not at
all. There's nothing hypothetical
or conditional about it. It's done. He reconciled. He reconciled. Now, to himself, through Jesus Christ,
and Paul says he has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Well, that's what I'm doing today.
I am a minister of reconciliation. I'm coming to you to tell you
that God has reconciled the whole world of sinners to himself.
That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself,
not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to
us the word of reconciliation. Paul speaks for all gospel preachers. We are the ambassadors of Jesus
Christ sent from God. We have terms of reconciliation. We as his ambassadors go to nations
that are at enmity against him. We go to God's enemies with terms
of peace. And the terms of peace are simply
this, believe the gospel, be reconciled
to God, And if God has reconciled you to himself through Jesus
Christ, you will be reconciled. We are ambassadors for Christ.
That's our ministry. We come and tell people that
it's time to stack your arms. It's time to disarm yourself.
It's time to seize your rebellion. You've lived in enmity against
God for way too long. It is now time to stack your
arms and surrender to King Jesus and be reconciled to God. And everybody who is in this
world who was reconciled to God through the death of his son,
they will do so. I did. I surrender. I surrender. I'll be reconciled to him. And
God says, yes, I reconciled you to me when my son died for you
for your reconciliation on Calvary 2,000 years ago. God has reconciled
the world to himself through the death of his son. At the
very moment he said it is finished, God said, they're reconciled. Then he goes and tells his preachers,
go tell them, go tell them. That's what I'm doing today. I'm a minister of reconciliation,
an ambassador for Jesus Christ, saying to you, be reconciled
to God, seize your rebellion. Well, it is evident that all
will not do so. Because many will die as God's
enemies. He says, I reserve wrath for
my enemies. Wait a minute, God, did you not
reconcile the whole world to yourself? Yeah, I did. Well, then how can you reserve
wrath for them? They're not in the world I reconciled.
It's that simple, folks. It is that very simple. There
is a world of sinners who have been reconciled to God through
the death of Jesus Christ. And there is a world of sinners
who will know God's wrath and never known his reconciliation.
How can you know that you've been reconciled?
Believe this gospel. And God says, everyone whom I
reconciled has never had a sin imputed to them. Think about
it, folks. I mean, we have sinned with every
breath we've taken from the time we came from our mother's womb,
speaking lies estranged from God. We live to sin. It's our occupation. And yet God says, because I reconciled my people
through the death of Jesus Christ, I have never imputed their sins
to them. Balaam says, he beholds no iniquity
in Israel. He doesn't. God looks upon his
people and he says, there's not a single sin among them. Look
at that. I'm not imputing sin to these
people. They have none. How can that
be? My son took them away. No sin
imputed to them. Because when God made him who
knew no sin to be sin for us, we were made God's righteousness
in him. No, I do not understand that,
but I believe it. It's in the same chapter, folks.
God made Christ to be sin. Oh, what an unfathomable thought. Yeah, this one also is unfathomable. I am now God's righteousness
in Christ. Now explain that to me because
I do not understand it, but it's true. This is true of everyone
whom God reconciled to himself through the death of his son. Number five, God's world is the world for
whom Jesus Christ is the propitiation. 1 John 2, verse two. He himself is the propitiation. Notice, he himself is the propitiation. Now that's a big word. I can
explain it to you here rather simply and rather easily. It
means guilt removing sacrifice. It means wrath appeasing sacrifice. And by the way, this is a word
that was used among the Romans and the Greeks for their gods.
They were always offering an offering to, you know, their
gods were always wrathful and, you know, full of pranks and,
you know, just rather uncomplimentary gods, if you will, And they were
and you know, the Romans and the Greeks went to their gods
coming with offerings, you know And they called it a wrath removing
sacrifice Maybe Zeus will be satisfied with this Well, John takes the very same
term and applies it to Christ Propitiation guilt removing sacrifice,
or if you will, atoning sacrifice. The one that makes atonement. Now what is an atonement? It is said to be an old English
word made up of three syllables that meant at one meant. Two have now been brought together
into one. They're at peace. This is an
atoning sacrifice. He himself, Jesus Christ, is
the atonement for our sins. And not for ours only, but for
the sins of the whole world. John, who is ours only and who's
the whole world? It is the world of God's people
internationally. John was a Jew. He's writing
to Jewish believers. Jesus Christ is the propitiation
for our sins, not only for the sins of Jewish believers, but
for the sins of the whole world, including Gentiles. John, are
you telling us that God did for Gentiles what he did for us?
Yep, that's what I'm saying. They're in the same world. God's
world, this world for whom Jesus Christ is the propitiation, God's
world is comprised of both Jews and Gentiles. Did we not read
a little earlier this morning in the revelation of Jesus Christ
about God's people out of every tribe and tongue, language and
people, out of both Jews and Gentiles, the whole world, Jesus
Christ is the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice for people
who have come from all seven continents and the islands of
the seven seas. A whole world of them. That's such a glorious truth.
Atonement is made. Now, it is evident that when
John speaks of the whole world, he does not mean all with that
exception universally. For Jesus Christ is not the atoning
sacrifice for all universally with that exception. How do we
know? Because Jehovah said so. He says in Isaiah 22, verse 14,
to some people, There will be no atonement for
you even to your death. Wait a minute, God, you can't
do that. Jesus Christ made propitiation for all with that except universally
and God says, no, he didn't. No, he didn't. Because there
are some people to whom I said, their sin is so great, there
never will be atonement for them. No propitiation for them. No
sin atoning sacrifice. But there is a whole world of
sinners. God's world for whom he is, the
atoning sacrifice. Who are they? They're identified
in the context. And it would always be good to
look at a text in its context for a text taken out of context
as a pretext. This is no pretext. Look at it
in its context. In verse three, the verse immediately
after 1 John 2, 2, He made propitiation for those who keep his commandments. Well, now that does not include
everybody. What are his commandments? First of all, repent and believe
the gospel. Second, not only does this world for
whom Jesus Christ is the propitiation keep his commandments, but they
are told when we sin, Oh, John, you mean even though the sacrifice
has been made, we still sin? Yeah, we do. Yeah, we do. Well,
he does not have to convince me. But when we sin, we, in God's
world, have an advocate with the Father. So I stand before
God to be judged. And I'm guilty. I need somebody to defend myself. What is it they say in the legal
practice? He who defends himself has a
fool for a client. Well, I am no fool. I am no fool. I stand before God and the sin is pronounced against
me. What are you to say for yourself?
And up steps Jesus Christ, stands beside me and says, be quiet,
I'll answer for you. Father, see the nail prints in these
hands? See this wound in my side? My blood pleads for him. I made propitiation for him. I am the sacrifice for his sins. And God says, and I am satisfied
for he is the propitiation. And my advocate was the father,
Jesus Christ. He does all my speaking because
he has all the wounds. It was his blood. All right,
let's see, where are we now? Sixth and final point. This world
God loved is the world for whom Jesus Christ is the Savior. John
4.42 and 1 John 4.14. Now we believe for ourselves. We ourselves have heard him and
we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. At first glance, that may not
mean much to you. Savior of the world. You need
to know who said it. Who said it? They were Samaritans. In the beginning of John, chapter
four, we read Jesus had to go through Samaria. And you may say, wait a minute,
Jesus. You're a good Jew, we do not go through Samaria when
we go to Jerusalem. There's a caravan route goes
directly from Judea or from Galilee down to Judea and Jews would
not take it. They would walk many miles out
of their way east, cross the Jordan, go down the other side
of the Jordan River then crossed the Jordan again. It's deeper
in the South than it is in the North. They would cross it again
and then travel a few miles West to get to Jerusalem. They went
all those miles out of their way just so they could say, I
did not set foot in Samaria. Samaria. Jews and Gentiles hated each
other. And they both hated Samaritans
because Samaritans were half Jew, half Gentile, mixed blood. And the terms that people use
for them today, or did at least a few years ago, they were amplified
in that day. Samaritans, no one goes through
Samaria. Half breeds, mixed blood, impure,
unholy. But in the beginning of John
chapter four, we read, Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why did he have to go? Did anybody
make him? No, no. He had to go because there was
a woman waiting on him at a well down at Sychar. Jacob's well
in Sychar. She's one of his. Jesus, are
you saying that you're going to go to Samaria and save a woman? No, I'm going to go save a woman
and all her friends. And here he goes, walking through
Samaria. High noon, sun is up. He's tired,
he's hungry, he's thirsty. There's nobody at the well but
him. And here she comes. Here she comes. She's coming
for water at the wrong time of the day. Because respectable
woman would come for water early in the morning before the sun
was high or late in the evening when the cool of the day had
come. But this woman, she comes at
high noon. Why? So she does not have to
mingle with those women talking about her. Even Samaritan people
had their levels in society and she's at the bottom. And besides,
she had been probably busy all night and slept in. And here she comes at high noon
and Jesus is there and he's sitting on the well. She comes up to
the well. He says, woman, Give me a drink." She looks at him and she says,
you're a Jew. And you Jews have no dealings
with us Samaritans. Now, why do you ask me for a
drink? And he said, if you knew who this is talking to you, you'd
ask me and I'd give you water that you cannot get anywhere
else. Water of life, water of life. He tells the gospel to her. He
proves his Messiah-ship to her. He says, why don't you bring
your husband here? And she says, I have no husband. That's the
truth, and you've had 500 husbands. And she says, wait a minute,
you know all that? Yep, know all about you. You are a prophet. And her eyes are opened. She
is now seeing this man standing before her as the Christ. We heard he's coming. I'm him. I'm the Christ. You believe? Yes. And off she runs, off she
runs. We're not told, but it appears
that maybe she left Jesus to get his own water. But off she
runs back into the village and she says, come see a man who
told me everything about myself. Evidently, Jesus had a long conversation
with her. He just opened up her heart and
let her see what she was. He knew her past and all of it. Come see a man. He just told
me everything I did. And here they come. Here they
come. And he tells them who they are.
He declares the gospel to them and they believe. Then they say,
we know that you are the Christ, the savior of the world. not
only of the Jews, but even of us Samaritans, even we Samaritans,
we have a savior. What a glorious world is this?
What a glory. Jesus is the savior of Samaritans, of a Samaritan woman, of a Samaritan harlot. That's the kind of sinners who
are in the world for whom Jesus is the Savior. Well, there's
room for me. There's room for me, the Savior
of the world. John the Apostle writes, and we have seen and testified
that the father has sent the son as savior of the world. That's why God sent him. God
did not send his son to be the savior only of Jews, nor the savior of Jews and some
Gentiles, but even of Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans and even
the chief of sinners, such as myself and you, a whole world
of them. The whole world of them. Now
it is evident that Jesus is not the Savior of all but that exception. For many will die unsaved. But Jesus Christ is indeed the
Savior of God's world. And who are they? All who have
heard his voice and believe in him. He's their Savior, their
Savior. Is it yours? We're going to walk out of this
building in a few minutes. Service is over. Do not walk out that door. Until
you know that you are in this world that God loved. for whom
Jesus died, whom God has reconciled to himself, who's been justified,
sanctified, reconciled unto God, and knows Jesus Christ as the
Savior. For God so loved the world, his
world, that he gave his world his only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, that whoever believes in him, that's all. Just believe. Shall not perish
ever, ever, ever, but have everlasting, eternal, never-ending life. And I want you to believe that
and trust in Him. And I pray that you will. But do not walk out that door
until you've done so.