All right, let's open our Bibles
to John chapter 3, verse 16. John chapter 3, verse 16. Our gracious Father bless us
now in this study from your book and Lord, may we be led by your
spirit, not by preconceived ideas. May we take your word for what
it says. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Now, we are continuing
our series on the fundamentals of the grace of God, and we are
in the section which I have entitled Problematic Scriptures. By problematic
scriptures, I mean those that are thrown up in the face of
people who believe the grace of God and think that these scriptures
deny some aspect of these fundamentals of the grace of God that we have
been teaching. Now, John 3.16 is likely the most widely known Bible verse
in all the world, with the possible exception of our Lord's words,
judge not that ye be not judged. It seems everybody knows that
one, because as soon as you say something is wrong, they say,
well, didn't Jesus say judge not? So that's become the popular
one. But among just believers, shall
we say, John 3, 16, It may be the first verse they ever learned,
it may be the first verse they ever heard, but it certainly
is a prominent scripture. And, well, it should be. It speaks
to us of the important issues of the gospel, though it does
so in only a very basic form. You could learn what all the
words this verse mean and still not really understand the gospel. However, this scripture does touch on
the major points of the gospel. Now, most people claim that it teaches
that God loves every individual in the world and and that Christ
died for every individual in the world, and that God's universal
love and his universal giving of his son is not effective to
save anybody unless and until a person believes. And they rather plainly say that. because they will use this verse
as their opening salvo in their evangelistic efforts, and they'll
begin with, God loves you. Because see, here it says, God
loved the world. And Jesus died for you because
God who loved the world gave his son, and it's obvious he
gave him for the whole world. But this love and this work of
Christ will be of no benefit to you unless you believe. But
if you believe, then it will be effective for you. Well, this
scripture does not teach that at all. It does not teach that
God loves every individual in the world or that Christ died
for every individual in the world. And it certainly does not teach
that the love of God and the sacrifice of Christ are not effective
unless and until a person believes. However, we need to notice this.
This scripture also does not teach that God does not love
everyone in the world. And it does not teach that Christ
did not die for everyone in the world. But that is only because
it is not addressing those subjects at all. And that's part of the
problem when people take this verse out of its context and
then use it to teach things that it was not intended to teach. The primary thrust of this verse,
that is, that which it is teaching, is that every person who believes
God, who trusts Christ, will not perish, but have everlasting
life. And so the point, and we're going
to see this, the point is that the gospel is not confined to
the people, the natural seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
but is applicable to people from all over the world. And every
person, whether he is a Jew or a Gentile, every person who believes
will not perish but will have eternal life. Now that's the
meaning of that scripture. Now, in the King James Version,
and I'm going to quote that simply because that's the version that
nearly everyone is aware of, and also it's because the King
James Version, it uses one word that's meaning has changed significantly
since the days the King James Version was translated. That's
the word whosoever. But it says in the King James,
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten that
whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting
life. Now, out of context, that seems
to be pretty straightforward. Out of its context, you can see
why people might come to the conclusions they do about this
scripture. But within its context, you cannot
come to the conclusions they draw. Normally it doesn't take
a careful analysis of a verse of scripture in order to understand
its basic meaning. But once an incorrect interpretation
has been put on a scripture, and that erroneous interpretation
has gained popular acceptance, it often requires a rather careful
analysis to prove that it's not saying what most people think
it says. but teaches something different. So, seeing that this
verse suffers from two basic problems, That is, I say it suffers. It suffers at the hands of people
because they don't take a couple of things into account. First,
they don't take the context into account. And secondly, they don't
understand the meaning of two of the vital words in this scripture,
which is the word world and the word whosoever. Now, the easiest
way to deal with this then is simply to show what it actually
does mean. And in order to do that, we must
begin by looking at the context and the applicable context begins
with verse one. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. So
let's take note that this scripture, verse 16, is part of a conversation
between the Lord Jesus and Nicodemus. Now, I wanna add, put this in
here. the original manuscripts and the early copies of those
manuscripts do not have any such thing as quotation marks. And
so here you read, you know, Nicodemus said this, Jesus said this, Nicodemus
said this, and then in verse 10, you are Israel's teacher,
said Jesus, and you do not understand these things, and it goes on
and on and on, and never does tell you where the end of Jesus'
words come. Now in the Bible that I've got
right here in front of me, which is one of those red letter Bibles,
it includes everything through verse 21 as the actual words
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many believe that the Lord's
words ended with verse 15 and that John begins to comment on
what the Lord said with verse 16. Now, I only bring that up
because I have said that verse 16 is a part of a conversation
between the Lord Jesus and Nicodemus. But even if verse 16 is not the
Lord's words specifically, they are John's comment on those words
and gives the significance of what the Lord had said beforehand.
So really we approach it, whether these are Jesus's words or John's
words, doesn't change what it means. But I'm going to go with,
for the sake of this lesson, just to make it easy, I'm going
to assume these are the Lord's words. John 3.16 was said by
the Lord. And it's spoken to this Jewish
man, a Pharisee and a leader on the ruling council, a member
of the ruling council. And in verse 10 it says that
he's Israel's teacher. So here he is, he's a Pharisee,
the most zealous sect or denomination among the Jews. He is on the
ruling council of the Jews and he is a teacher or a rabbi. Now
you can't get much more Jewish than that. mean this, you know,
he is like Saul of Tarsus, a Hebrew of Hebrews, you know, concerning
or, you know, he was of the strictest sect, says Paul, the Pharisees,
and that's Nicodemus. And I believe that the Lord arranged
for Nicodemus to approach him like this precisely because the
words that our Lord said were specifically for Jewish ears. In other words, as we look at
these words, as we read them, we've got to read them, hear
them from the viewpoint of a Jew in the first century. Complete
with all of their prejudices, their preconceived notions of
the kingdom of God, their preconceived notions of Messiah and what he
was going to do. Because Nicodemus was completely
immersed in that. So, he comes to Nicodemus. I'm
assuming Nicodemus comes to him. Now, he was likely sent by the
ruling council, for when he spoke, he said, and you see this in
verse 2, we know. So it was either the Pharisees
or the ruling council, but he'd been sent by a group of people
to speak to the Lord. And when Jesus answered him with
the words like, I tell you the truth, in verse 3, the word you
is plural. And so, and specifically, when you
get down here to verse 7, it says, you should not be surprised
at my saying, you must be born again. We know that to be plural. So he is addressing not just
Nicodemus, but also the people who sent him. That's good to keep that in mind.
Our Lord knew that Nicodemus was going to take this back to
those who sent him. So if he'd have been, you know, a modern
American, he would have said something like, don't be surprised
that I say y'all must be born again. It's all y'all's, you
know. So. Our Lord had the entire ruling
council, the Pharisees and even all those Jewish leaders who
were at best confused by the things that Jesus said and at
worst enraged by the things he was teaching. Now as near as
I can tell Nicodemus was an earnest and genuine person. He was not
like many of the other Pharisees we meet with in scriptures, at
least I don't get that impression. There is no reason to believe
that his interest in Jesus was not genuine. Nicodemus and many
others were indeed convinced that Jesus was sent by God. And they were convinced of it
because they saw the works he did And they rightly reasoned
no one could do those things unless God was with them. In fact, later on, we find out
that's what frustrated those who hated him the most. They
could not deny the reality of his miracles. They knew that his miracles testified
that he was indeed who he said he was. So there's no reason to believe
that Nicodemus was being like many other Pharisees who came
to the Lord to trap him with questions. Seems Nicodemus really
wanted to understand. But as is often the case with
the Lord Jesus, he completely dismisses what Nicodemus said, and he addressed the matters
that needed to be addressed. The vital issues of who he is
and what he came to do, this is what Nicodemus and those who
sent him needed to hear. Now there's been much speculation
as to what the kingdom of God is. Our Lord said in verse three,
I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless
he is born again. And some even try to make a distinction
between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. They're the same thing. And we're
not gonna spend a lot of time developing what that means, but
I think it would be safe to say this, that the kingdom of God
includes all those things that are the product of his gracious
work in Christ. And that would include everything
from his first promise of the coming of Christ until the very
last day, everything that God has set up through the power
of his grace. That's the kingdom of God. However,
the kingdom of God was not, the structure of it, so to speak,
was not set in place in time and space, not fully set up,
until the arrival of the Lord Jesus Christ and the accomplishment
of his work. Now, the kingdom come, I mean
the kingdom has always been in existence in heaven. That's why
in the Lord's Prayer we're taught this, your kingdom come, doesn't
mean your kingdom come into existence. Your kingdom come here. Your
kingdom come. That is, your will be realized
on earth just as it is already realized in heaven. Now, when Jesus Christ came and
did what he was sent to do, the entire structure of the kingdom
of God had been set up. Why? Because the king has been
seated on his throne. Now, this kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. And throughout the days of this
age, more and more people will be brought within the scope of
that kingdom. But it's the kingdom of God's
grace. Now, the Lord's point, and he was not trying to give
a definition of the kingdom of God, his point was that you can't
see, that is, you can't perceive the kingdom of God. You won't
know what it is, you won't know how to enter it, You don't know
how it's set up, you don't know how it operates unless you are
born again. Now, the Lord is not teaching
that this new birth was a new feature of the kingdom of God
that had not happened before now. There were people in Old
Testament days In fact, every real believer in Old Testament
days had been born again. And they could perceive the kingdom
of God. And there were people in Israel
in that day who had already been born again, and how do we know
it? When they heard what Jesus had to say, they understood it,
they followed him, they acknowledged him as the Messiah. But I don't think many Pharisees
did, and many, if any, on the ruling council did. Why? They could not perceive the king
because they could not perceive the kingdom. The Lord Jesus says, my kingdom
is in you or among you. He said to Pilate, my kingdom's
not of this world. But that's where everybody was
looking for it. He says the kingdom will not come by your observation.
That is, it won't come by things that you can see and detect.
It's indetectable and un-understandable by any natural faculties. Well, Nicodemus proved the Lord's
point because he missed the spiritual nature of the Lord's words. He
says, how can a man be, this is verse four, how can a man
be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked, surely he cannot
enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born. Well, he missed the spiritual
significance of what the Lord said, didn't he? So the Lord
goes on, verse five, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the
kingdom of God unless he's born of water and spirit. Now, once
again, you know, the Lord said born of water and spirit and
people get all twisted up as to what that means. And it's
a common tactic of Satan to take scriptures that we do not immediately
understand and get us into some curious trying to understand
it. And maybe trying to understand
it before the Lord gives us grace to understand it. You know, it's
good to study, but don't come to any dogmatic conclusions until
the Lord shows you what it means. Don't sit down and say, okay,
today I'm gonna learn what this means. Maybe you won't. But I'll
tell you what I think he was talking about. In Titus 3.5 we
read this, he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal
by the Holy Spirit. Now this ties together the concepts
of water by view of washing, the concept of rebirth and renewal,
and the Holy Spirit. And that's the things that the
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of here. And there's also this
reference from Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26, speaking of Christ
saying, cleansing her, that is the church, by the washing with
water through the word. So the water could be the word
or the water, you know, where it says the washing of rebirth. that the washing is simply the
Spirit, or the water is just another way to refer to the Spirit.
But we don't have to make a decision between those two. Why? Because
the Spirit never operates apart from the Word. And it doesn't mean here the
Bible is talking about the Word And the person of the Word is
Christ, and the message of the Word is the gospel. And the Spirit
always operates by that Word. And by that Word, He washes and
gives the new birth. He chose to give you birth through
the Word of truth. So that's the birth He's talking
about, the birth that comes from the true Word in the hands of
the Spirit of God, and He gives life. Now, he said, no one can
enter the kingdom of God apart from the Spirit of God giving
spiritual life to a person by the act of regeneration, that
is, being born again. Now, the Lord is setting Nicodemus
up for what he's gonna say in John 3, verse 16, and looking
at the clock, I can tell we're not gonna make it through John
3, verse 16, but we might get the context set up. But he's setting it up so that
John 3.16 is gonna make perfect sense to us once we get there. So, Nicodemus, as Jewish as a
man can get, and the Lord tells him, you cannot perceive the
kingdom of God unless you're born again. You cannot enter
the kingdom of God unless you are born of water and spirit. Now, having, shall we say, laid Nicodemus rather low right
there, by describing to him his inability to perceive or enter
this kingdom of God apart from the new birth. After all, Nicodemus,
up until right now, thought he was one of the leaders in the
kingdom of God. And he says, you can't even understand
it or enter it. You're not even in. You don't
even understand. And the only way you'll understand
is if you're born again by the Spirit of God, but he's got more
for Nicodemus. Verse 8, the wind blows wherever
it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot
tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone
born of the Spirit. Okay, Nicodemus and all of his
friends were watching what was going on. They were seeing the
prostitutes and tax collectors entering the kingdom of God ahead
of them. And they didn't understand that.
In fact, they didn't understand it to such a degree, they didn't
even acknowledge that the prostitutes and tax collectors were entering. They thought that they had the
kingdom of God under control. They thought it was them who
determined who was in and out. And the Lord said, no. He said,
the wind blows wherever it pleases. And remember, in Greek and in
Hebrew, the word for wind, breath, and spirit are all the same.
So the Lord's doing a play on words here. He said the wind blows wherever
it pleases. He's illustrating the work of
the spirit by the action of the wind. The wind blows wherever
it pleases. Everybody knows that. You cannot direct the wind. The weatherman may be able to
predict now with the science that we have available what direction
the wind is going to come from. But he cannot call up someone
at the National Weather Service or whatever and say, look, that
northwest wind, could you get it to come directly out of the
north? No. The wind just comes, that's all,
that's it. Now notice this, he goes, you
hear it sounds, but you can't tell where it's coming from or
where it's going. What's he saying again? Now I
did not check to see whether at this point it's a plural U
or a singular U, but it doesn't matter. whether he's just saying
it to Nicodemus or all of them, but I would apply it to all of
them. He's saying, you're hearing it. You're hearing it. You're hearing this wind when
I speak. You hear its sound, but you don't
know where it's coming from. And you don't know where it's
coming. You see its effect. You see that prostitutes and
tax collectors are repenting believing me and are entering
the kingdom of God with joy. And you can't stop it. And you can't make it happen.
You can't even make it happen to you. Now do you see how the Lord is
really tying Nicodemus up in knots? He's saying, you and your
buddies, you think you're so important. You are nothing. You
think you are princes and governors and whatnot in the kingdom of
God. You aren't even in the kingdom of God. You can't even understand
the kingdom of God. You must be born by the Spirit,
and you're seeing that happen to others, though you don't recognize
that that's what it is. You see something going on, you
don't know where it comes from. You can't see that I am from
heaven. You can't see that this is indeed
a work of God upon the people. And you don't know where it's
going next. Now this has given us a foreshadowing
of the meaning of John 3, 16. Just like the wind, you don't
know where it's coming from. And you don't know where it's
going next. And that word next indicates something about John
3, 16. But he goes on, so it is with
everyone born of the Spirit. The Spirit gives this birth to
whom he will, wherever he will. Now, Let's skip to verse 14. Just as Moses lifted up the snake
in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone
who believes in him may have eternal life. Now, in all previous
verses, he's been tearing Nicodemus and his buddies down. Not for
mean purposes, but you cannot build what is new until you've
taken what is old out of the way. And so he has undermined their
foundation, their confidence in themselves. He's undermined
them with regard to their understanding and their abilities. Now he begins
to build and to teach. And he refers to a story that
they do know. All of them would have known
the story of the fiery serpents in the desert. You find this
story in Numbers 21. But because of the people's sin,
the Lord sent these snakes into the camp and they began biting
people and the bite was deadly and people were dying by the
thousands. And they went to Moses and they said, we have sinned
against the Lord, pray for us. So Moses went in and prayed to
the Lord. Now I want you to notice the
things that were present before anyone was ever saved from the
fiery serpents. There was repentance. We have
sinned. Repentance and confession. We
have sinned against the Lord. There had been an appeal to the
mediator, Moses. Moses, go to God and pray for
us. And the mediator had gone in
and had sought the Lord's mercy. But with all of that, nobody
had been yet saved. from the fiery serpents. Now
this has a bearing on John 3.16. When was it that their repentance,
their appeal to a mediator, and the mediator's intercession,
when was it that any of that had any significance at all?
It wasn't until According to God's instruction, Moses made
a brass serpent, put it up on a pole, lifted it up right in the center of the camp
so that people could look to it. And it is written that everyone
who looked lived. Now, in that story, you have repentance,
confession, faith all jumbled up in that all put together in
that we have sinned against the Lord. You have a mediator in
place, and they've appealed to him. The mediator has gone to
God and asked his help, but none of that produced salvation. It was the serpent on the pole
that brought about deliverance. Now, I don't want to just stop
there. I'll give you a little foreshadowing
of next week. Whether these are the Lord's words or John's commentary,
doesn't matter. For God so loved the world, not
just you Jews, Nicodemus. You're seeing the work of the
Spirit of God. You don't know where it's coming
from, and you don't realize it's gonna break the borders of Israel. because the love of God goes
beyond the borders of Israel. When it says God so loved the
world, it's not speaking about the individuals in the world.
He's merely saying God's love was not confined to the Jews. Nicodemus and his friends thought
it was. Christ loves people, God loves
people from all over the world. And here, That last part of it,
and we'll, again, we're going to go over this in more detail
next week, but, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life. Your common interpretation is
that God loves everyone, Jesus Christ died for everyone, but
that will not mean anything unless you believe. It's exactly the
opposite. Just as with the serpents. Faith and intercessor and intercession
didn't accomplish anything until the serpent was lifted up. What
this is teaching us is not that faith makes the sacrifice of
Christ effective, it's saying that the sacrifice of Christ
makes faith effective. Do you see that difference? Without
Christ being given, without Christ being lifted up, you could believe
Him all you want and you'd still perish. Faith doesn't save anybody. Christ does. God's love doesn't
save anybody. It motivated Him to put this
whole program in place. But it is Christ crucified that
saves. And it saves everyone. who believes him, Jew or Gentile. Now, I'll think about what we've
taught this morning and see whether we need to do any more about
it. I think that kind of covers the issue. The world doesn't
mean everybody in it. It means the world as opposed
to just Jews. And the word whosoever, in fact,
I'm just going to go ahead and finish this. A couple more minutes,
we'll be done. The word whosoever, we think that's like a blank
check. It means we don't know who this is gonna be, but just
whosoever believes shall be saved. That's really not what the Greek
says. Now I've read that in, when the
King James was translated, the word whosoever would have meant
what the Greek says. But what it actually says is
everyone that believes. It's not acting as though there's
any doubt or any question as to who will believe. It's just
saying, as a positive statement, everyone that believes, Jew or
Gentile, bond or free, male or female, anything, whoever believes
will be saved. Actually, I think we did get
it covered. Okay, you're dismissed.