Okay, now John chapter 3 and
verse 16. John 3, 16. The Scripture, our Lord is speaking,
and He says here, for, or because, for God so, and that word so
means in this manner, For God in this manner loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now,
the 4 tells us that everything He's been saying up to this point
tells us the manner in which God loves. Let's go back and
read it. Verse 1, there was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to
Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and
said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now this
is the manner in which God loves. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter into the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must
be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered, and he said
unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that which we do know,
and testify that which we have seen, and ye receive not our
witness. This is the manner in which God
loves, right here. We speak that which we do know.
The gospel is preached. That's the manner in which God
loves. Verse 12, If I have told you
earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven, this is the manner in which God loves.
And His Son, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Son of Man,
sent down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
This is the manner in which God loves. Right here. As the serpent
was lifted up in the wilderness. Verse 15, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. This is the
manner in which God loves. Right here. Now these are five,
six things here He showed us in the manner in which God loves.
And then He says, verse 16, for God That word so means after
this manner, for God after this manner loved the world. He hasn't
been talking about the quantity of God's love that he loves so
much and so dearly. He's been talking about the manner
in which God loves. And he says, He loved for God
after this manner loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life. Now let's turn to Numbers chapter
21 and let's see this in what happened in the wilderness. Numbers
chapter 21 verse 4. What would you place there in
John 3? We'll go back to it. I'll reference each one of those
things I said as I read that to you. Alright, Numbers 21 verse
4. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea to come past the land of Edom.
And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way. And the people spake against
God. and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread." Now here's the first thing. God, after this manner,
loves, not because of anything in those He saves. Or you could
say it like this, by grace. That's what's included in the
fact that a sinner must be born of God. He saves by grace. Now,
in our text here, this is a type of God's elect which make up
His spiritual Israel. Now, they are not all Israel
which are of Israel. Nicodemus had a problem with
this. He came, he was a Jew, and he believed that only the
Jews were the chosen elect children of God. And they considered the
Gentiles the world. And the Lord is telling him,
as He's speaking to him in John chapter 3, He said, for God,
after this manner, loved the world. He makes it clear to him
that God's people are not just an elect people among the Jews,
but they're an elect people among the Gentiles as well. But here's
a good example of what all God's elect are by our first birth
in Adam. Verse 5, the people spake against
God. That's what we are. We speak
against God. Verse 5 says, the people spake
against Moses. Moses is God's messenger. He
represents God's Word, God's Law, how He sent His Word to
them. They spake against Him. We broke
God's Law in Adam in the garden and we fell under the curse and
enmity entered in so that we hate God and we hate His Word
and we hate His messengers. because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. You ever wonder why, if you have
a spouse who doesn't love the Word of God, or you have friends
who do not love the Word of God, have you ever wondered why they
get real uneasy when the Word of God begins to be mentioned,
or the Gospel begins to be mentioned, or anything having to do with
religion begins to be mentioned? It's called enmity. Hatred it
bubbles up from the heart. That's what the heart is. It's
all it's made out of the natural heart Here's verse 5. Here's
another example. The people said, Wherefore have
ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? This
wasn't Moses' fault. They had already come to the
land of Canaan. They'd already come there and
sent spies into the land of Canaan and saw it exactly as God said
it would be and didn't believe God and came back and God turned
them around and said, You're going back into the wilderness
until every one of you perish in the wilderness. It was their
own fault that they were marching away from Canaan and not towards
Canaan. But who did they blame? They blamed God and they blamed
Moses. Everybody by nature that God
saves are self-righteous, self-justifiers. It's always somebody else's fault.
Alright, verse 5. Again, the people said, there's
no bread, neither is there any water. God had given them quail
to eat, He'd given them manna. He'd given them water out of
the rock. God had provided everything you and I need in this world
as we journey through this wilderness. And by nature, we're murmurers
against God. That's it. That's the best you've
got to offer God. Verse 5, and they said, and our
soul loatheth this light bread. Be turning to John chapter 6
with me. That light bread was the manna
that he gave from heaven. And it is a picture and a type
of Christ Jesus the bread. And by nature, men despise Christ
the bread. They murmured and murmured and
he gave them the bread. Men will murmur and murmur and
murmur and God will give them the gospel. He'll give them Christ. And they'll hear it and hear
it and feed on it and feed on it and say, I hate it when you
give me something else. I hate it when you give me something
else. I loathe it. Well, look at what
the Lord said, John 6, verse 28. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him,
What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work? You remember when the Lord told
Ahaz, Ask a sign? And Ahaz in his pious self-righteousness
said, Oh, I don't want to tempt the Lord God. And the Lord said,
I'm going to give you a sign anyway. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and be with child." Christ is the sign. You know
why when He stood in front of the Pharisees and they said,
show us a sign, He didn't give them one? Because He is the sign. He is the sign. He is salvation. So they said, show us that we
may see and believe thee. What does thou work? Our fathers
did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. And they were talking about Moses.
Moses gave them the bread, they were saying. Then Jesus said
unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven. That's where you're wrong. First
of all, Moses didn't give it. And second of all, my Father
giveth you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God
is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore give us this bread. And he said, I am the bread of
life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I
said unto you, you also have seen me and you believe not.
You've seen me. You're looking right at me. You
see the sign, but you don't believe. You don't believe. Alright, back
over to Numbers 21. The curse of sin is God's judgment. Look at verse 6. The Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and
much people of Israel died. All this murmuring and complaining.
Now this was This happened in the garden. By one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. Death passed upon all men, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So absolutely
nothing of merit is in the one that is saved. This is the manner
after which God loves. There's nothing in the person
whom He saves that merits anything. It's all of God's grace. Jesus said to Nicodemus, he came
and this man was a strict Pharisee, this man was a learned man, this
man came boasting of what he knew. We know you're a prophet. And the Lord said, the Lord told
him some things and he couldn't understand them and he said,
are you a master in Israel? And you don't know these things?
You don't know the manner in which God loves. You don't know
how it is God loves. That's what he told us. That's
what he's saying to us. He says, we speak that we do know and
testify that we have seen and you don't receive our testimony,
he said. Here's the second. God, after this manner loves,
His children must be born a second time. They must be born of God
to be able to hear and understand and perceive and receive what
God has worked out. Look at verse 7. How's it? Note numbers 21-7. Therefore,
this is very important, therefore the people came. Now you notice
here, it wasn't until God sent the serpents in their midst.
It wasn't until God sent that serpent in their midst and it
began to bite them and they began to die that they came. The Lord
said, except a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God.
Except a man's born of God and been taught of God and been instructed
in his heart so that he's convicted in his heart and judgment sets
up in his heart and he beholds what he is, that he's sinned,
that he's bitten, that he's dead and dying and trespasses and
sins. Only then, therefore, when God
gives man life, quickens him, then he'll come to God, but he
won't come before that. He won't come before that. Paul
said, I was alive once without the law. He thought it was, he
thought he was righteous, but when the commandment came, when
God spoke in his heart, when Christ arrested him on the road
to Damascus and he saw who Christ is, he said, sin revived and
I died. I beheld I had been bitten by
that serpent. I beheld that I was dead in trespasses
and sin, and the poison had entered into me. Here's the third thing. God, after this manner, loves
through a mediator. Look at verse 7. Therefore the
people came to Moses. They came to Moses. God makes
the sinner to know they need a go-between. They need somebody
to go, we need somebody to go between us and God. We can't
go to God ourselves. And these folks, when they began
to be bit by that serpent, they began to figure out, we need,
we need mercy. We need mercy. And they went
to Moses and they said, Moses, we need mercy. That's what the
Lord told Nicodemus. 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. This is the manner in which God
loves. He loves through a mediator. There is one. There is one mediator
between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus. He's the
only one. He had to come down because men
couldn't come up to God. He had to come down to do something
for men because men couldn't come to God. The only way. He said, I am the way. He's the
door. He's the way. The only way. The
only entrance to God. He said, I'm the truth. He is
the word. He is the gospel we preach. And He said, I'm the life. He
is our life. You need the way. You need the
truth. And you need the life. That's what you need. That's
what we need. And that's who He is. Look at
verse 7, and they said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against
the Lord and against thee. Now coming to Christ is going
to involve repentance. It's going to involve a confession
of what we are. We've sinned against God, and
we've sinned against His Christ. We've sinned against God, and
we've sinned against His Son. We've sinned against God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Do you behold
what you are? Do you behold this, that all
you are by nature is against God, against His law, against
Christ, against His gospel, and against His people? That's what
these people were. That's what they were. Verse
7, that they come now and they said, Pray unto the Lord that
He take away the serpents from us. This is what's involved. They left everything in Moses'
hands to intercede for him. They came to him now, they were
arguing against him, boasting against him, and now they come
and they say, Moses, pray for us. Intercede for us. A picture
of Christ Jesus, the intercessor. True faith is repenting from
your sin and your rebellion against God, and it's casting all your
care on God. and crying out for Him to show
you mercy in the person of His Son. Believing on Christ Jesus
the Mediator. And look at the next verse. Verse
7 at the end. And Moses prayed for the people.
This is what the Hebrew writer said. He is able also to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession for them. This is a picture of Christ
Jesus. They came to Him, and guess what
happened? They got what they asked for.
They got what they asked for. He interceded for them. Here's
the fourth thing. God loves after this manner,
in righteousness which is manifest in the faithfulness of His Son.
Verse 8. Verse 8, And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a
fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole. The Lord told Nicodemus
in John 3.14, He said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Why
is this so? Why is this a must? Why is this
a must? The Son of God was faithfully,
willingly made, made what His elect are. First of all, He was
made of a woman. He didn't come to save angels,
elect angels. He didn't come to save spirits.
He came to save children chosen of God who are flesh and blood. For as much then as the children
were partakers of flesh and blood, He likewise took part of the
same. that through death He might destroy them that had the power
of death and deliver them, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death have been all their lifetime subject
to bondage. He was made according to the
flesh, made of a woman. He was made under the law, perfect
Son of Man, perfect man, the only perfect man, holy, perfect,
spotless, the spotless Lamb of God. He was made a curse. Everybody that sinned in Adam,
and as everybody, fell under the curse of God's law in Adam. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and He was made a curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth upon a tree. He was made a curse, that he
might redeem his people from the curse of the law. And Paul,
when he quotes that in Galatians 3.13, right after that, he says
the very thing the Lord says here when he said, For God, after
this manner, loved the world. Paul says in Galatians 3.14,
he says that the promise that was made to Abraham, might come
upon the Gentiles, the world, His elect among the Gentiles
through faith. That's how the promise is given.
But He's made the curse, and when He was made the curse, He
bore the wrath of God. But Christ makes His people what
He is. That's what we read in 2 Corinthians
5.21. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. That's what you've got to have.
The righteousness of God. You've got to be made the righteousness
of God. Here's the fifth manner. God
loves after this manner through faith alone. Look at verse 8
there. Numbers 21.8. Second part, and
it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh
upon this fiery serpent, he shall live. He shall live. And Moses
made a serpent of brass and put it up on a pole. And it came
to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived. Now that's why the Lord told
Nicodemus when he was lifted up, He said, John 3.15, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. The Son of Man must be lifted up like that serpent was.
He's got to be made of a woman. That's why I'm here, Nicodemus.
That's what He was telling him. It's got to be made under the
law. That's why I'm here at Nicodemus.
I didn't come to do away with the law. I came to fulfill it,
to establish it in righteousness and justice, to honor and magnify
it. He's got to be lifted up because he's got to be made a
curse. He's got to be made what his people are. That fiery serpent,
that sin that was biting his people, he had to be made what
his people are in order to make his people what he is. And he
says, and here's why the Son of Man came, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish. They should not perish, but have
everlasting life, eternal life. You know all they were required
to do, this is all they were required to do, was look. That's
it. That's it. All they were required
to do was look. He said, this is the work of
God that you believe. in him whom he hath sent." That's
the work of God. Why is that all that I do? Well, God's the justifier. He did the justifying. Christ
fully established the law, honored and obeyed the law. He's the
holiness of His people, the righteousness of His people. God is just. He satisfied His justice. He
sent His Son, His Lamb. He's the justifier. He poured
out His justice. He satisfied His justice. He
sends forth His Moses. He sends forth His messengers
with His Word declaring, look. He said, after this manner, we
testify that which we've seen and which we know. And He quickens through the Spirit. He gives life in the inner man.
He causes you to become alive. And behold, you've been bitten
that the sin is revived and you've died. You realize you cannot
do anything. You cannot save yourself. He
draws you and causes you to come to Him and cry out. Pray for
us that God will have mercy on us. Lord, I cast all my soul
upon you in mercy. I need you to intercede for me.
I need you to mediate for me between God the Father and the Son of Man. Intercede
for His people. And everything is done. Everything
has been worked out. Everything is completely accomplished. And now all faith does. is take
what's already done, what's already accomplished, what's already
finished, what's already been wrought, being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God set forth to be satisfaction through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier
of them which believe. Look at Romans 3.27. Look at
Romans 3.27. Where is boasting then? It's
excluded. It's excluded. By what law? By the law of works? No, but
by the law of faith. It's excluded. Therefore we conclude
a man's justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seeing it's one God which shall
justify the circumcision, the Jews by faith, and the uncircumcision,
the Gentiles through faith, do we then make void of the law
through faith? No! That's how we establish the law.
That's how we establish the law, brethren. Then the Lord told
Nicodemus, now look back to John 3.16. The Lord told Nicodemus, for God
so after this manner, that's what it means, for God after
this manner. You got to be born of God. There's
nothing in you. It's by grace. You've got to
be born of God. Secondly, you've got to be taught. This Gospel's got to be preached
to you. We testify that we've seen and
heard. Thirdly, the Son of Man had to come down. You're only
going to come to God in a mediator. Fourthly, He's done it in righteousness. The Substitute paid all His people
owed. They're justified from all sin.
They've been made righteous in God. Lifted up as a serpent in
the wilderness. In verse 15, He receives only
through faith. That's the only way. Only through
faith. For God, verse 16, after this
manner loved the world. And He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. You see, the problem with sinners
is not that we're unwilling to do something to save ourselves,
but that we're unwilling to do nothing that we might be saved
by another. That's what makes believing absolutely
not easy. God has to work a work of grace
in the heart. Salvation's open to everybody who's willing to
come God's way. Why then do so few come? Because
God has to make you willing to come His way. And nobody's willing
to come this way. Nobody's willing to come as a
nobody, nothing, unable to do anything, begging like a dog
on their hands and knees, licking his feet and begging him to have
mercy on you. Just throw you a crumb. And say,
I loathe that light bread. I loathe it. I'm too wise and
I'm too prudent for that. We're going to look at that in
our second hour. This is how God saves. Faith takes nothing
from you. Faith takes nothing done by you.
Faith demands you add nothing. Faith is believing and continue
believing. Not in anything you've done,
not in anything you've not done. Faith is casting your care, your
whole self, your whole eternal salvation into the hands of Jesus
Christ. And Paul told the Ephesians,
and this is the gift of God, if you believe Him, thank Him.
If you believe Him, praise Him and thank Him. Because there's
just not very many people in this world that do. Not very
many. Amen.