Alright, good morning brethren.
Let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Read here in verse 16. For God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is one of the most
quoted verses in the Bible. You see it at sporting events
and with athletes and people in the crowd. You hear it quoted
very often by religious folks. You hear it quoted by people
that aren't religious. But this is also one of the least
understood scriptures in the Bible. And that's partly because
of not knowing what comes before this or after this. It's commonly
taught that this verse means that God loves everyone in the
world without exception. It's commonly taught that the
Lord sent forth His Son to lay down his life and he redeemed
all sinners to give everybody a chance to be saved. It's commonly
taught that until a sinner believes on Christ, the blood of Christ
is not effectual. And they put it in the sinner's
hand, tell a sinner that he has a free will to choose or reject
Christ And so they make the deciding factor to be the sinner. They
make a sinner think that he can believe on Christ whenever he
pleases. And so it leaves sinners thinking
they are the final say in their salvation. And that's not offensive
to a man. Because man wants to, he wants
to think he is God. But this scripture doesn't teach
those things. First of all, who's speaking
here? This is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is
speaking to Nicodemus, who was a Jew, who was a lost man at
the time, who thought that by being born in Israel, that made
him an elect child of God, and that only those born in Israel
were God's elect. He thought that We were saved
by the works of the law. And what our Lord is declaring
here is that God has a people throughout the world. He has
a chosen people, Jew and Gentile from throughout the world. That's
why he uses the word world and he uses the word whosoever because
of who he's speaking to. Now, let's look at this and and
see what we can get from this. Now when you read for God so
loved, it means for God thus loved, or for God after this
manner loved, or for God on this wise loved. He had just used
the word so just prior to this. He spoke of the necessity of
being born again. That's the manner in which God
loves. We have to be born again of God. And he said, in verse
8, the wind blows where it listeth, and now here's the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.
So, it's the same Greek word. After this manner is everyone
that's born of the Spirit. It's irresistible. And he declared
after this manner, God loves. He said, in verse 11, we speak
that we do know and testify that we've seen. God saves through
the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching that exalts
Christ and Him crucified. And then he said, he said, as
Moses, verse 14, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so, after this manner, must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life. For God, after this manner loved, He gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. He saves through his son, shedding
his blood on the cross for his people. Now, when we see this
word loved, it's in the past tense. And that tells us whoever
God loved, he first loved them. He loved, this reaches back to
eternity. John said in 1 John 4, 10, herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. He loved
us. Whoever the world is, whosoever
he is, God first loved them. He loved whom he would freely,
without a cause in us. He loved sovereignly. God said,
Jacob have I loved, but he so have I hated. before they've
done any good or evil. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, that salvation be of God that calls, not of our
works, not of us, of God that calls. He said, I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. Nothing outside of God moved
God to love his people. Nothing outside of God, those
God loved, he loved without a cause in us. He loved us from eternity. He loved us long before we ever
knew Him or before we ever loved Him. In fact, there was nothing
in us lovely. God loves those that are unlovable.
Man loves because we're loved in return. God loved those that
did not love Him. We love Him because He first
loved us. Whoever the world is that God
loved, He loved them before He sent His Son. It says there,
for God so loved the world that He sent, He gave His only begotten
Son. So He loved before. Some say that He sent His Son
in order to love us, but that's not it. He loved His people and
that's why He sent His Son. That's why he gave his son. John
said, and this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because
God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son, the propitiation
for our sin. The father loved the people.
And that's the reason why he chose his people in Christ before
the world began. and His purpose He gave His Son
in eternity. Before as yet His people ever
fell in sin, God had provided a Savior in His Son. Before as
yet we became unclean, God had provided the cleansing fountain
in His Son. Before as yet we needed to be
purchased out from under the law and redeemed from the curse,
God had provided the Redeemer. And this is because God loved
his people. In scripture, the world, when
you read the world, it never means all men without exception.
It just doesn't. Our Lord was speaking to a Jew
who thought he was God's elect, and he thought only the Jews
were God's elect. And Christ used this word world
and whosoever to show that he has a people scattered throughout
the world. Not just Jews, he has an elect
people among Jew and Gentile. Go to John 17 and let's hear
what our Redeemer said in his high priestly prayer. This is
the Lord's prayer right here. John 17. Listen to verse one. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hours come glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him." There's who the world is. They're
those God gave to his son. Look at verse 6. I've manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they've kept thy word.
Later he says, and I pray for them who shall believe on me
through their gospel. Look at that at verse 9. I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. You see,
Christ, God loved a particular people. His elect. And he loved
them in his son. The love of God is in his son. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus? You read sometime in Ephesians
1 and just go through that chapter and see how many times he says,
in Christ, in Christ, in the beloved. Everything God has for
His people is in Christ. He loves His people in Christ.
So what manner did God love those that He gave to Christ? In what
manner did He love? What's the manner in which God
loved His people? It says, For God, after this
manner, loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God manifested His love for His
people by giving His only begotten Son. His only begotten Son. You see the love of God in that?
God gave, freely gave. He gave His only begotten Son. That's love. He'd given his son
for rebels, for sinners, for those that, while dead in our
sins, hated God. He gave his son, his only begotten
son. That's the son of his love. That's
the son of his choice. That's the son who was with him
from eternity. That's the son who is God. He
gave his only begotten son. After this manner, God loved
his people. He gave his only begotten son
to save us through faith in Christ. So that it wouldn't be by our
works, it's by Christ's work. He gave his son to save us through
faith in his son. He said there, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What a
manifestation of love to not leave it up to our works. He took the works out of our
hands. He gave his son that we might be saved through believing
on his son, trusting his son to do all the work. To do it
all. And look there in verse 13. He
said, no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down
from heaven. even the son of man which is
in heaven. He said, and as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so after this manner must
the son of man be lifted up. He must be crucified. He must
go under the law and he must bear the sin of his people that
he might bear that curse that we deserved. You see, he laid
down his life for a particular people. He's paying the sin debt
of a particular people. He's purchasing a particular
people. He didn't go to the cross and
lay down his life and just somehow make some universal atonement
that really didn't atone for anybody. No, he atoned for his
particular people. He made satisfaction to God. He fulfilled the law and he brought
in everlasting righteousness. He did that for a particular
people. Verse 15, that whosoever believeth
in him should not, and the word is shall not perish. but have
eternal life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
shall not perish, but have, freely have, freely be given everlasting
life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
shall be saved. Those that he came to save, he
shall save. because he fulfilled the law
for them. He put away their sin. He justified
them. He reconciled them. That's why,
because the work's finished, there's no might or maybe to
it. They shall be saved. And the reason that, that's why
he declared there that they must be born again. Listen to the,
in 1 John 4, 10, when he says, here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son. The words to
be are added. He sent his son, the propitiation,
that means the appeasement, the satisfaction, the justifying
justifier, that one who accomplished it for our sins. The love of
God for His people is that here you have God who is the offended
judge who provides His own only begotten Son to take the place
of His rebel people to bear that suffering of hell that we deserve
on Calvary's cross so that God could be just to save us. And that's love, brethren. Nobody ever heard of a judge
providing his own son for the offender? For the one that deserved
death? And that's what God did. He provided
his son to die in place of his people. And because he did that,
brethren, he satisfied God. He satisfied the Father. Look
over at Romans 5 and look how certain this word is. He's speaking here to believers,
but notice what he says Christ accomplished. Verse 6, he says,
When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, Yet perventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But who's going to die for wicked,
vile, wretched sinners that nobody else would die for? That's what
he's saying. Who's going to die for them? For you and me? He said, but God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood. Justified how? By His blood. He did the justifying. His blood
did the justifying. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. For if when we were enemies,
you see that? When we were enemies, we weren't
yet reconciled to Him. Our faith hadn't even entered
the picture yet. And when we were yet enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. He'd accomplished
something. He didn't make salvation possible,
he accomplished it. He didn't make reconciliation
possible, he accomplished it. He didn't make justification
possible, he accomplished it. Much more than being now reconciled. Now that we've been brought to
faith in him, now that we're friends, with God and reconciled
to God in our experience of it. If he did that for us before
we believed him, we know we shall be saved by his life. See, Christ
really got the job done. When he said it is finished,
he meant it is finished. And that's another reason that
Christ said there, we must be born again. Not only because
we're dead in sins, we are, and that's one reason we must be
born again, but because Christ accomplished this salvation for
his people, each one of them must be born again. They must
be born again. Without his regenerating work,
none would believe on Christ. Look at the, here's, people say,
John 3.16 is the gospel. Well, it is the gospel, but listen
to what comes next. Look at John 3, 19. This is the
condemnation. That light is coming to the world
and men loved darkness rather than light. There's where our
love was. Our love, those he came to save. We didn't love God. We loved
everything God hated. And that's where we had to stay.
That's where we'd have stayed. But for the love of God, but
for Him giving His Son, but for Him giving His Holy Spirit and
regenerating us, He said, we love darkness rather than light
because our deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hates the light. He neither comes to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. Why don't men preach that? Why
don't men stand in pulpits and declare in no uncertain terms
that sinners are spiritually dead, they're lovers of darkness,
they hate God, and they can't come to God unless God sends
the Spirit and regenerates them. Why don't men preach that? He
declares it in that verse, men love darkness rather than light.
And the thieves that they don't want to be reproved is their
will, and their works, and their decision, and their faith that
they've turned into a work whereby they think they justified themselves
by what they did. And that's wickedness. That's
the wickedness he's talking about. Men don't want to be reproved
for that. Men don't want to be told that they can't do anything
to save themselves. We didn't either. We didn't either. But see, this is why we have
to be born again. This is why God didn't leave
the work in our hands. You think that if that's so,
and it's so of every single sinner born of Adam, we love darkness
rather than light. Would we really impute to God? Would we charge God with foolishness? Would we say, knowing that God
sent his only begotten son who laid down his life and just left
it up to sinners that love darkness? That would be imputing just utter
foolishness to God. Of course God didn't do it that
way. We'd have never believed on him if he did it that way. But after this manner he loved
his people, he sends the gospel to his people and he sends the
Holy Spirit into the heart of his people and he regenerates
us and draws us to Christ and gives us faith to believe. Look
over at Titus 3. This is what he's declaring here
in Titus 3. Verse 3, we ourselves were some
time, for a long time, till he came in grace, till he came in
power, till he regenerated, we were foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. That's the darkness we love.
And most of us did that in religion. That's the totality of most,
that's the totality of Will Work's religion right there. Envy, hateful,
hating one another. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Not by works of
righteousness we've done. We didn't make ourselves, we
didn't prepare ourselves to come to Christ. We didn't do anything
to make ourselves be born again. It wasn't by any works of righteousness
we'd done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. And he shed
that on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, who
had justified us by his grace and made us heirs according to
the hope of eternal life. We had to be born again because
this is the work of God. After this manner, God loved
his people. He made our salvation to be by
simple faith in Christ. And when I say simple, I don't
mean it's simple in regards to us. It's not easy believism. But it's nothing else but faith.
It's not complicated. It's just trust Christ. It's
the singleness, the simplicity of Christ. Look and live. Believe on Him. and thou shalt
live. And that's rather than by our
works. That's rather than by our works.
Aren't you glad God didn't leave it to us to have to work this
out when all we did was love darkness? And because He didn't
leave it to us, because He made it to be by faith in Christ,
this salvation is sure to all God's elect. Because think about
it, if he had made it to be by the works of the law, he didn't
give the works of the law to us Gentiles. He didn't give that
old covenant to us. He only gave it to Israel. If
it was by the works of the law, how's the Gentiles going to be
saved? Look at Romans 4, look at verse 16. That's exactly what
he's saying. He did it by faith so that it
would be sure to all his elect, both Jew and Gentile. Look here,
Romans 4, 16. Therefore it is a faith that
it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to
all the seed not to that only which is of the law but to that
also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of
us all. You see that Abraham didn't have
the law. This promise wouldn't have been
sure to Abraham if God would have said, now it's going to
be by your works, Abraham, that you're going to be saved, but
I'm not going to give the law for 430 years later. Well, on
the opposite end of that, you and I never were under the covenant
of works as Gentiles. So God sent his son and fulfilled
the whole law for his people and says I'm saving you by believing
on my son. This way the promise is sure
to Abraham. It's sure to all his elect Jews
and it's sure to all his elect Gentiles. And we're all saved
one way. Believing on Christ. Believing
on Christ. You see love in that? That's
love, brethren. After this manner, God loved
His people. He made salvation to be the free
gift of God's grace. In Romans 6.23, the wages of
sin is death. If we perish and we are condemned
to hell, it's because we earned those wages. The wages of sin
is death. It meant earned death. And we
were all earning that. That was what we were earning.
And that's what we would have been paid if it wasn't for God's
grace. Look at this love now, but the
gift of God, the gift of God, free gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He said in Romans 5 17, if by
one man's offense, death reigned by one, Much more, they which
receive, and that means they which are given, they which are
freely given abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Righteousness is a gift. Men are out trying to earn a
righteousness. That's what Paul said in Romans 10. They have
a zeal for God, but it's not according to knowledge because
they're going about to try to establish their own righteousness.
And brethren, I don't care if men say it's for justification,
which nobody says that. Nobody's going to be that foolish.
They actually use Romans 10 to say, well, he's the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe, but just for righteousness.
And then they bring in holiness and say, but now if you want
to be holy, there's some things you're going to have to do. Brethren,
Christ is the end of the law for a justifying righteousness
and a sanctifying righteousness. He's all our salvation. It's
a gift of God. He gifts you with everything
you need to enter into His presence. It's of His abundant grace. That's
love. After this manner God loves His
people, He brings us to give all the glory to God. Don't you love to glorify God?
God's people love to give Him the glory. We're not wanting the glory now
that he's shown us his glory. We want him to have the glory.
And that's this God will have his son be glorified. He loves
his son. He'll have his son be glorified
for working all our salvation. And in glorifying his son, we
glorify the triune God because he's one God. And he brings his people to love
to glorify him. That's the unity of love. The
Father and His children all glorying in the Son. And that's the gift
of His love to bring us to glory in Him. He said in John 3 back
there in verse 21, He that doeth truth comes to Christ the light. You want to do truth? John called
it doing righteousness. Come to Christ the light. Come
to Christ the light. And he that does, does so that
his deeds may be made manifest that they're all worked in God. Isaiah said this in Isaiah 26,
12. He said, Lord, thou will ordain
peace for us because thou also has wrought all our works in
us. You did it all. You did it all. That's the love of God. He didn't
leave anything up to us. Well, a sinner's got to believe
he's going to work in his people that which is well-pleasing in
his sight. He will work faith in his people, but his people
will give him the glory for doing it. Well, you got to repent. He will work repentance in his
people. And his people know, we know something about what
we are. And we know the only reason we repented is because
God worked it in us. A believer's got to do good works.
He ordained beforehand. Every work he's going to bring
his people to work, walk in. And when he's created that fruit
in the heart of his people and made them to walk in the good
works that he's ordained, they're going to give God all the glory
because he worked it in them. But those works aren't for righteousness. Those works aren't for salvation.
Those works are because He already saved us. He already did the
work. We're glorying in Him for being
our salvation. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1.29,
the reason He saved through Christ crucified and He sends this gospel
declaring He's the only one that saved. The reason He saves this
way, He said that no flesh shall glory in His presence. God's
not going to share his glory. That no flesh should glory in
his presence. He said, but of him, of him are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. We don't glory in our wisdom,
do we? We glory in Christ our wisdom. Only reason we know God
is because he's given us the mind of Christ. We've been given
some wisdom to know him. Because he made Christ's wisdom
to us. And he's made unto us righteousness.
Believer, get this in your heart. We're not trying to establish
the law. We have. We've perfectly established. We gave it more We gave it what
only the eternal son of God could give it. We gave it perfection,
eternal perfection. And he's made unto us sanctification. We've been separated and made
holy by the Lord Jesus Christ, by what he did for us at Calvary's
cross, perfecting forever them that are sanctified, by his blood
and by his creating us anew inwardly through the spirit. He's made
unto us sanctification. And he's made unto us redemption.
And he said, if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free
indeed. And he's redeemed us. He bought
us. He paid the ransom price, the
price of his precious blood. And he bought us from under the
law. And we're free now. We belong to Him. We're under
His power. We're under His dominion. We're
led of His Spirit. He's abiding in His people and
He causes His people to abide in Him and it'll never change.
He'll never let go of His people. He'll never lose one of His people.
He's going to keep His people looking to Him only. And you
know what? We're going to do this for all
eternity. It's not just here that we're going to give Him
the glory, we're going to do it for all eternity. And so He says, He
did all this so that according as it's written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. Now sinner, if you're sitting
there without Christ, listen to me. Believe on Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'll tell you this, if you can, it's proof that you're one
He loved. That's the proof you're one He
loved because He said, I've loved, He said of His people, I've loved
you with an everlasting love and therefore in loving kindness
I've drawn you. I've drawn you. That's how come
people believe on Christ's sinner because He drew us to Him in
loving kindness. Come you sinners poor and needy.
Are you poor and needy? Weak and wounded by the fall? Dead by the fall? Jesus ready
stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Let not conscience
make you linger, nor fitness fondly dream. All the fitness
he requires is to fill your need of him. If you're a sinner with
nothing in you, no qualifications in you, nothing about you that
can save you, he said, that's who I came to call. I came to
cause sinners to repent, believe on Him. And brethren, for you
and I who He's brought to believe on Him, let us glory in Him by
our witness and by our walk. What does that mean? We declare
to lost sinners what Christ said. We declare that which we do know
and we testify that which we've seen. Christ Jesus, our Savior. This message I'm sitting here
preaching to you now. And we not only do that to lost
sinners. Don't complicate this, brethren.
This is how we love each other for the rest of our walk through
this earth. Right here. If God after this manner loved
us, we ought also to love one another after this manner. There's
three simple things right here that we just saw. Christ bore
our sin. How do we love each other? We
bear one another's burdens. What did we just see? He restored
us by sending the gospel and holding up Christ and Him crucified
before us and teaching us what He's done for us. You know how
are we going to love each other? By reminding each other of what
Christ has done for us. In every trouble, every trial,
remind each other what Christ has done for us. And how else
did He love us? He sent the Spirit of God and
He regenerated us and He brought us to faith in Him. He brought
us, made us willing to look to Him. And as we bear one another's
burden, as we hold up Christ to one another, we deny ourselves
by waiting on the Spirit of God to work in the hearts of our
brethren. And that's how you love one another in this world. I pray, God, Oh, bless that. Our gracious Father, we thank
you for this word. Thank you, Father, that you brought
us here and given us this rare gift to have the gospel of Christ
and him crucified. That you've given it to us in
spirit and in truth, that you've made us to know your word and
know your eternal purpose, that you've made us see Christ and
rest all in him. Lord, we pray for Your lost sheep,
we pray that according to Your will, You'll send this word to
them and call them out. Bring them to faith in Christ.
We pray for one another, Lord, that You would make us to continue
to look to Him ourselves. Make us love one another by pointing
each other to Christ. And Lord, forgive us for our
sins. Forgive us for failing. Forgive
us for the burdens that we cause our brethren to bear. Or we thank
you for mercy. We thank you for free forgiveness
for Christ's sake. This is our song. This is our
gospel. This is our rejoicing. You loved
us and you gave your son. Who saved us, made us righteous. So that salvation of be simply
believing on him. Lord, strengthen our faith, strengthen
us in love and keep us looking to Christ. We pray this for all
your saints everywhere. Pray this for each church and
for this church here. Thank you, Lord. In Christ's
name we ask it. Amen.