If you want to turn your Bibles
with me to the Book of John, the Gospel of John, Chapter 3.
We have been going through the Book of John in our own church,
and I want to continue that today with you, John, Chapter 3. And I've entitled today's message,
God So Loved the World. Now, that's a very challenging
title. It's taken directly from chapter
3, verse 16, from probably the best-known text of Scripture
in all the, at least, English-speaking world. I think the Gideons have
translated the Bible, they say, into some 66 languages, and they
talk about this verse particularly. Sadly, I think that verse has
been misunderstood by many by most but in John chapter 3 I
believe that God has given us a very clear explanation of this
text of scripture right here in this context and if you listen
to what is said here then I I trust that I pray that God would enable
you with all of his people to see the great comfort in what
he said here in this chapter to Nicodemus. Now, I want to
preface this that I have thought about chapter three and what
it means a long time. And I'm sure that I could continue
thinking about it for the rest of my life and never exhaust
everything in here. In fact, I was thinking yesterday
as I was going about my chores, that I believe when we get into,
when we get to heaven, we see the Lord, he's going to sit us
down and he's going to explain the scriptures in such a way that there will
be no ambiguity, it will be perfectly clear. And we'll see that He
fulfilled them all. And we will stand there, sit
there at His feet, absolutely enthralled. We won't get tired. We won't run out of time. There
won't be anything left out. All will be opened up to us.
I'm looking forward to that. But right now, I'm time limited.
And I'm also limited by my own capacity, so... Thankfully, you
won't have to be here for that much longer. John chapter three. Now, hopefully
you're familiar with this chapter. It doesn't really begin in verse
one. It actually begins at the beginning of the book. The purpose
of this book was these things were written that you might believe.
That Jesus is the Christ. son of God and that believing
you might have life in his name now hold that thought that's
the reason this chapter is given that you might believe but in
the course of pursuing that goal that purpose what we see here
is depicted a man named Nicodemus and he was capable as a man of
intellectually he had become very familiar with the scriptures
and everything about this man and here's this here's the key
that helps us understand this chapter everything about this
man that he believed that he practiced and that he thought
of others that he thought of God and of Christ was exactly
the opposite of the way things truly work if we understand that
and we also understand that point by point said right in contrast
with everything Nicodemus believed and taught and had taught others
his whole hope everything that he held to point by point Contrast to what he believed
in the opposite way Now we understand that helps us to understand this
creature What we see here is a man who was a Pharisee and
The Bible itself explains what a Pharisee is in Luke 18 Beginning
verse 9. It says that Jesus gave a parable
about two men that went up to the temple and One was a Pharisee. It says there that he trusted
in himself that he was righteous. That's what they taught. That
was their doctrine. They held to it. They believed
in their heart that when they would stand before God in judgment,
that they could take confidence in what they thought in their
heart and what they practiced in their life. that God would
consider that and would justify them. Nothing could be furthered
from the truth. Not only that, but if you read
in Matthew 23, point by point, Jesus gives an account of what
the Pharisees were. Many things are said there. For
example, they were blind leaders of the blind. Another thing they
did is that they taught men, they laid heavy burdens on men,
but they were unable, they were unwilling to lift those burdens
with one finger themselves. And they loved the high places
in the market and in the church, if you will. They loved to be
called of men, rabbi, master, father, and many other things
like this. So they loved praise of men. But all that they said, they
wouldn't do. They did it outwardly. Jesus
compared them to dishes like cups and platters, which were
outwardly washed, but inside they were still dirty. And he
said, you were full of extortion and excess. And he also said
they were like tombs, which are made white on the outside, but
on the inside were full of dead men's bones. So take all of that,
which is straight from Scripture. concerning the Pharisees. They
were proud, they thought they knew, but they didn't know anything
about the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus says here in
verse 3. He says, except you be born again, verily, verily,
I say to thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. Blind. That's what that means. They were blind and yet they
were considered by the Jews to be the capable ones, the teachers
and the preachers, the masters, so that it tells us something
about the nature of the Jews' religion. They were led by blind
leaders, proud, self-confident, trusting in themselves that they
were righteous. They believed their heart. right
with God that God couldn't look at them in fact in Matthew 7
it's shown there in verse 21 through 23 that when these kinds
of people both taught by these and they themselves stand and
appear before the Lord Jesus Christ they will talk about what
they did Lord Lord haven't we prophesied in your name we were
preachers haven't we taught haven't we cast out devils in your name. Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And Jesus will say to them, this
is history yet to come. This is future history. He will
say to many in that day, depart from me. I never knew you. Now that describes Nicodemus
here. He was a blind leader of the
blind, so blind he didn't know he was blind. That's real blindness,
isn't it? And Jesus told at the end of
John chapter 9, he said, for judgment I am coming to the world,
that they which see not might see, and they which see might
be made blind. This gives us a great deal of
distress, doesn't it? Do we see? Will he make us blind? kind of sight Nicodemus thought
he had is that that self-confidence and what we're going to see here
is that the Lord Jesus Christ brings him down he humbles him
he brings him from his lofty place and all of his false notions
about God salvation about entering heaven about what heaven is like
he's going to obliterate Nicodemus so that he's left with his mouth
open and not anything to say in verse 9 when he says how can
these things be all right so if we understand that that point
by point Nicodemus with the truth now the other
thing that you'll notice and you can remember this from the
rest of the scripture is that the Pharisees condemned others
in Luke 18 9 it says they trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and they condemned or they despised others this
was one of the hallmark characteristics of a Pharisee In John chapter
8, they brought a woman taken in adultery. Pushed her right
out in the midst of the crowd and said, look at this woman.
She was taken in adultery in the very act. And what do you
say? Moses said this. What do you
say? You see? And then, so that their
aim was there to shame the woman and to use her to prove that
Christ was not faithful to Moses. somehow he was going to excuse
sin in an unrighteous manner of course he didn't do that and
then in Luke 7 Jesus came to the Pharisees house Simon and
a woman came when he was there with Simon and she washed his
feet with her tears and dried them with the hairs of her head
and he and the Pharisees looked upon this woman like Don't you
even know who this woman is? If you knew who this woman was,
you wouldn't allow her to touch you. So that the Pharisees despised
others and condemned others. Now if we keep all these things
in our memory of what the Pharisees were like, then the power of
this chapter in John chapter 3 will come home to us in a way
both of humbleness also comforting us because God has to humble
us before we will receive the truth of the gospel and be comforted
by it even in John 4 this woman of Samaria when she when she
when Jesus asked her for a drink from well there and she said
why are you asking me for a drink I'm a woman of Samaria and they
go back and forth and finally she gets to that point she says
Lord give me this water that you're talking about this living
water so I don't have to come here to draw. She didn't want
to have to show up in the middle of the day to get water she wouldn't
do it when the rest of them were coming because she was ashamed
of her life so she came by herself at noon so she didn't want to
come there. So she thought, if you give me
living water, I don't have to come here anymore. Jesus said,
we'll call your husband. And right away, it was like there
was this withering, exposing of herself as a sinner that led
to her saying, we know that when Messiah comes, he'll tell us
all things. And Jesus said, I have spoken
to you. And he, and revealed himself
to her. so that the truth came home to
the woman after she knew herself in the presence of Christ to
be nothing but sin. Now that's what John 3 does.
It brings this man, this proud man, down in order to show us
how God saves sinners. And to show us something more
than just how God saves sinners, but to show us what we don't
expect to find here. God's own thoughts. God's own
nature. God's own fruit. His heart. Because what we see here is that
everything Nicodemus was was entirely opposite and in contrast
to the Lord Jesus who is God in the flesh that what Jesus
said and did was totally antithetical to the pharisaical mind in other
words opposite to the way we are when you think of Luke chapter
18 when the two are used by Jesus to show us the Pharisee in contrast
to the publican how the publican went down to his house justified
rather than the other we often say I'm on the public, I'm not
like the Pharisee. Don't we? Because scripture is
written in a way it's called a hook. You know a hook does,
it's cast out with bait on it and then the fish bites it and
they're trapped, they're caught. And scripture does that, it lays
the hook and when we swallow it then we're trapped in the
very thing where we have to confess That's me. So that Luke chapter
18 setting side by side the Pharisee and the publican is doing what?
It's setting us in our natural selves in contrast to the effect
of what God does when he saves us. We start out just like the
Pharisee. we end up if God has saved us
just like the public and that's how we know the Lord has done
so let's look at John chapter 3 and I want to just read through
this and comment with you and then we're going to get to the
heart of this in verses 13 through 16 he says in in 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 to 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. What he said
here was a conclusion drawn from observable evidence. He could
see that Jesus obviously did miracles, no one could deny it,
even the Pharisees. That's what made him so mad,
frustrated. And he drew the conclusion that
a natural man must draw. If he did miracles, he must be
from God. And yet, the faith of the natural
man, which draws conclusions from observable evidence, is
not the faith that saves. He goes on. Jesus answered and
said to him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You have
to be born again. Nicodemus had been born once
like we all have. He didn't vote on it. He didn't
coerce his parents, didn't counsel them. They acted independent
of his input. He had nothing to do with his
physical birth. fact he was born to Abraham's children so he could
trace his lineage back to Abraham himself and he trusted in himself
because of that then he had access to the kingdom of God. Jesus
said no you got to be born again. Nicodemus said to him how can
a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered Verily,
verily, I say unto thee. Now the words verily, verily,
really they're the same way we say amen, amen. This is the truth. This is true. Jesus himself in the book of
Revelation is called the amen. He's the truth. He's the verily,
verily, and he says I say unto you. What's he saying here? call
me a master like yourself as one of your peers you have no
idea the infinite distance between who I am and who you are an infinite
distance barely barely he didn't even say Moses said he said I
say to you except a man be born of water and and of the spirit
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Water and wind are the
original. In other words, two physical
things pointing to two correspondingly spiritual things. Water points
to the word of God. In Psalm 119, he says, in verse
93, I will never forget thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickened
me. Thou hast given me life. Through
the word of God, God gives life. And in the book of 1 Corinthians,
chapter 4, verse 15, the apostle Paul says, I have begotten you
again by the gospel. Through the preaching of the
gospel, God is pleased to give life. And he says, by the spirit. Jesus said it himself in John
6, 63. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. Breathe out from Christ
is the spirit of God through the word of God. They're inseparable.
You can't separate the saving work of the spirit from the gospel
of God. In James 1, verse 17, it says,
Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variables nor shadow attorney of his own
will, the ideas, by the word of truth. By the word of truth. And in 1 Peter 1.23, the same
thing, be born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God. And Jesus said in John 15, he
says, now you are clean through the
word that I've spoken to you. And in Ephesians 5, he says,
through the washing of water by the word. So we see clearly
that when God speaks, when the Lord Jesus speaks here of the
water and the wind, he's speaking of the word of God, the gospel
of Christ, which is spoken by men, by the Lord himself, and
in the speaking of the gospel, God the Spirit is pleased to
apply that gospel to us in a life-giving way. And that is called birth. We're born of God by his Spirit. In us is created a new man. We're created in Christ Jesus.
It's also called a resurrection. We're raised from spiritual death
to spiritual life. and it's by the Word of God,
by the Spirit of God. Can you do it? Of course not.
You can't see it. You can't enter. Nicodemus, the
most learned among the Jews here, says, how can these things be?
He didn't know anything about this. It was plain if you understand
it from Scripture, but if you don't, then you're blind to it. So we can't understand it. even
if we understand the words that communicate the truth of it unless
we understand the truth of it by the application of it we still
can't know so let's go on so Jesus says you have to be born
of water and spirit you can't enter the kingdom of God that
which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the
spirit spirit people have people and when they give birth animals
have animals flesh he gets flesh it's nothing more but the Spirit
of God births spiritual men and women boys and girls the Spirit
of God alone gives birth to spiritual what spiritual God's children
children born of God So he brought Nicodemus now to a point of dependency. He can't produce this, no more
than he could produce his physical birth, much more even than he
could not produce his physical birth, he could not make his
spiritual birth happen. What is happening here? Nicodemus
has become utterly aware that he's dependent upon work of God
and Jesus is the one who is telling him that he's utterly dependent
upon God so he needs God to do something for him and he can't
make it happen God has to do this and verse 8 really seals
it up tight he says Jesus says verse 7 marvel not that I said
to you you must be born again the wind blows through where
it listed, wherever it pleases, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth,
so is every one that is born in spirit." You don't know where
the wind comes from, you don't know where it's going, you can't
direct it, you can't slow it down, you can't make it happen. That's the work of the Spirit
of God. But what does that make us? It makes us utterly dependent
upon God, doesn't it? But more than that, what we're
going to see here is that Nicodemus came to Jesus, his condition
was described as the time of day, it was night, he was darkness
itself, a blind leader of the blind, they both would fall into
the ditch, professing himself to be something, trusting in
his own righteousness, despising others, knowing nothing about
the kingdom of God, couldn't see it, couldn't enter it, he
was outside of it at this point. Jesus tells him you have to be
born of the Spirit from above born as God's own son so then
Jesus says this notice in verse 9 Jesus after he said that in
verse 8 about the Spirit acting sovereignly he says Nicodemus
answered and said to him how can these things be now Nicodemus
didn't understand it this clear But there's something more in
this verse than just a lack of understanding. You know what's
in this verse here? Angeli. Notice what Jesus says
next. He answered and said, art thou
a master of Israel and knowest not these things? You profess
to be a master? Who are you teaching? What are
you teaching them? You don't know the earthly operations
of God in the hearts of men? You don't know that? what in
the world can you be teaching that he goes on in verse 11 notice
he's bringing Nicodemus to the point where he has to acknowledge
that unless he bows to the Son of God who's speaking to him
he cannot have his life notice what Jesus says barely barely
I say unto thee we speak that we are know what we tell you
we know we testify and we testify what we have seen and you receive not our witness
what's he saying Nicodemus said how can these things be Jesus
is saying I told you what I do know I told you what I have seen
and you haven't received my witness. No wonder you don't know because
you don't believe and your unbelief is your fault. You're guilty
of not believing the one God sent. And when he says we here,
he's talking about himself and all of his people because we
all speak the same thing. our master he says in verse 12
now if I have told you earthly things and you believe not that
reaffirms what I just said Jesus tells him he wouldn't believe
wouldn't receive it but if I tell you earthly things and you believe
not how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things
and I was talking to my wife about this verse a couple weeks
ago saying I don't know what that means But as we think about
it, it has to mean that the Lord Jesus was just explaining to
Nicodemus the things of God he does on earth in the hearts of
men. And he's about to tell him the
heavenly things which are the basis of that earthly operation
of God. Nicodemus didn't believe the
things he had already said about what he did know. had seen how
would he believe these heavenly things if he didn't believe the
earthly things and now in verse 13 and here we get to the gospel
the Lord Jesus Christ has brought this man to a place of frustration
and humiliation in his presence and even though there's no one
else around he had to feel a as if he was made naked in the presence
of God, just like the woman in the well. Don't call your husband. I don't have a husband. Yeah,
the reason is you had five and the one you're now living with
is not your husband. He knew all men. He knew what
was in man. He searches the hearts and tries
the reins. And so in verse 13, it says,
Jesus says, and no man has ascended up to heaven. But he that came
down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. This
seems like a verse just taken out of the ether and locked right
into the conversation, doesn't it? What does this mean? How
does it even fit with what Jesus had been saying? Well, again,
remember, what the Lord is doing here is he's setting, in contrast
to Nicodemus's error, the truth. Nicodemus and those like him
sought the praise of men. They wanted the honor of men.
And they thought they had God's respect, his approval for what
they did. They trusted in themselves. Jesus
says all that in contrast to the truth. No man has ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Now it turns out that these words
here were taken almost from Moses' words in Deuteronomy chapter
30, where he says, don't save your heart. It's quoted in Romans
10 verse six. Moses describes in Romans chapter
10 verse six, Moses describes the righteousness, which is of
the law, the righteousness, which is of faith. Let me say, let
me read it there in Romans chapter 10. because this is a quotation
from that place in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 30 but listen to
this he says in Romans chapter 10 Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it that's an important
text of Scripture and I'm going to tie it back in to John 3 13
he goes on in Romans 10 5 for Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law and that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. If you want to have the righteousness
of the law, if you want to live, then you have to do what the
law says. But, notice, listen to these words with the overlay
of John 3, 13. The righteousness which is of
faith speaketh on this wise. This is quoting Moses now. Say
not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven. Jesus said,
no man hath ascended up to heaven. Here it says, say not in thine
heart who shall ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down
from above. Or who shall descend into the
deep. That is to bring up Christ again
from the dead. What is he saying here? He's
saying that gospel says Christ alone can
ascend up to heaven and the way he ascended is that he first
descended and in the second half of this where he says don't say
who shall descend into the deep because the only one who could
descend into the deep the flood of God's judgment against sin
and and bear the curse for God's people and rise again is the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one man, the Son
of Man, who could ever keep the law. The law is so holy that
only Christ could keep it. That's why it says in verse 4
of Romans 10, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
He's the fulfillment of it. he brought it to a consummate
end. This was the purpose of the law,
to set forth God's holy law and righteousness in the obedience
of the Son of Man. He first descended, made under
the law, putting himself under the law in obligation for his
people, bearing the obligation the entire weight of the law
which the Pharisees put on other men and they weren't able to
lift it with one finger the Lord Jesus didn't put it on other
men he bore it on himself and he took it willingly and he owned
not only the obligations of the law for righteousness but he
took the sin that was his people and was made sin we might be
made the righteousness of God in him so that unlike the Pharisee
who looked around to see how much better he was than others
Christ was the only one worthy the only one appointed and chosen
of God in order to fulfill his law for righteousness in order
to do that for his people and he would do it not by exalting
himself as the Pharisees but making himself a servant, even
coming in the likeness of sinful flesh. And so we see here that
in entirely contrasted to Nicodemus and the Pharisees and the natural
man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God himself in the nature
of man, which was an infinite stoop for God, has to stoop to
even behold the things on earth that in heaven took to himself
the nature of his people in order that he might be under the law
for them bear the weight of the law fulfill it to then take their
sins and as the high priest in Leviticus 16 confessed the sins
of Israel on the head of that scapegoat he confessed their
sins upon his own head he laid them on himself and he bore them
away into a land uninhabited a land of forgetfulness and God
says I will remember their sins no more and he did it in love
love that fulfilled the law because he loved a sinful home it was
in fulfillment of God's law Exodus 21 verses 2 through 6 talked
about The servant who loved his master and loved his wife and
loved his children, all of which were given to him by his master,
he says, I love my master. I love my wife. I love my children. I will not go out free. The master
would take him, put his ear against the post of the door and take
the awl or his ear through. The Lord Jesus says in Psalm
chapter 40, Your law was within my heart. I come to do your will,
O my God." And he laid his life down. Bearing our sins and fulfilling
God's law in our righteousness, we put upon the scales of God's
justice, the infinite justice of God on one side, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, in his love for sinners, we read just a few moments
ago in Psalm 22, I am a worm and no man laid aside his reputation
and he became obedient unto death even the death of the cross.
God scales with his infinite justice on that side and the
glory of God in all of his perfections manifested in the work of Christ
as our Redeemer. righteousness everlasting righteousness
in the one who is the son of man who first descended and God
has highly exalted him and so that he ascended and that son
of man is now in heaven and guess what it is from him and him alone
that the Spirit of God is given Nicodemus couldn't make it happen. The Lord Jesus alone could. He
sent his spirit. The woman at the well said, give
me this water. Jesus said, if you knew the gift
of God and who it is that says to you give me to drink, you
would have asked him and he would have given you living water,
the water in the world. the water and the spirit. And
in John 7, 37-39, whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink,
as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. And this he spake of the spirit,
which was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
When he was glorified, because he stood and descended and fulfilled
the law for righteousness and bore our sins, in order to make
us righteous in his own righteousness, then he was highly exalted and
given a name above every name, so that he now gives his spirit. He gives it. He says, ask, then
I'll give it to you. And so then he says this in John
3, 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Moses in the wilderness numbers
20 21 You can read this the children of Israel Were weary because
of the way and they spoke against God they spoke against Moses
And God sent fiery serpents to fight them and kill them God
sent They sinned. They despised the word of God. They despised the law of God,
Moses. They were dying. And many of
them had died. And they cried to Moses. They
cried to God's law. Tell us what to do. They couldn't
do anything. There was no medicine. There
was no remedy. They were sinful. They had sinned
against God, against God's law, they were condemned by God, and
they were dying, and there was no remedy. They were without
hope. God said to Moses, you take a
serpent, the symbol of the one that bit the people, the symbol
of death, and you take that serpent and you hang it on a pole. And
you fasten it there. And everyone who looks at that
lifted up serpent lives. Everyone who looked lived. Though
they were bitten and dying, though they were condemned, and justly
so, and had no hope, and though there was no remedy, when they
saw that serpent lifted up by Moses, according to God's own
decree, they lived. Jesus said this is what it means
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. That's the descent we were talking
about a moment ago. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law he made a curse for us. the promise of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles that we might receive the Spirit
of God you see what had to happen for him to be born again what
has to happen for us to be born of God Christ has to be crucified
lifted up he himself has to give his spirit that we might look
upon him and see him with God-given eyes and faith in him He says
in verse 15 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have eternal life. Unlike the Pharisees, the Lord
Jesus Christ took the lowest place. And unlike the Pharisees
who could not keep the law, He actually kept it, but He didn't
seek honor from them. He did it in order to glorify
His Father. And verse 16 sums it up. 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. Now, first of all, notice what's
prominent in this verse. Is it not the love of God? And
is it not how the measure of his gift is the measure of his
love? Who can measure the gift of God's
Son? Can anything be put alongside
the Son of God in any way, in a comparable way? No. God says, there's none beside
you. Go ahead and measure. Look in
the Hubble telescope. See if you can see the edge of
the universe. Oh, scientists say it's like
two billion light years or some dumb thing like that. No, it's
not. It goes beyond your vision and
you're not willing to admit it. You know why? Because God who
made it by his word, heaven and earth, it says in Solomon said,
the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.
God is infinite. The son of God cannot be measured. There's nothing to compare it
with. God gave son, he gave everything. Son of his love, he gave everything. That's the measure here. God
so loved. And then the next word, the world. The reason this verse is a problem,
and it shouldn't be, is because the interpretation of those words,
the world, Now, there's several things that happen here. Arminians
will say, and Arminians just mean evangelical people or it's
religion. You're talking about the churches
in America. Let's stick to those. 95% of
the churches in America. I'll say all of man's religion
makes salvation a transaction between you and God, where you
bring your condition, you meet your conditions God has put forth,
and then he gives you his blessing. If salvation depends on us meeting
a condition, I can tell you right now, without any shadow of doubt,
all of us will spend eternity in heaven. That's right. There's no possible way for us
who are dead in sins to rise up from the casket and undo the
sins of our life. Even if we could, what are we
going to do? Are we going to somehow produce
a righteousness now that God will give us life for? absolutely
ridiculous in the highest sense it's an offense to God why would
God give his son and leave a little part up to you that is it that
is awesome but we still have the words that Jesus you this
is the words of Jesus to who Nicodemus the proud religion
is to looks on others and despises them who is this world Well,
it's the same people who were in the wilderness, bitten, dying,
and justly condemned with no remedy and no hope. They had
spoken against God, spoken against Moses, and the Lord Jesus, in
these words in Nicodemus, he says, you take your place among
the bitten. You take your place among those
dying under the justice of God without hope. And you look up
to the Son of God crucified. Who descended? God so loved the
world. And who is this world? Well,
we like to think of it in terms of the scope of love of God,
in terms of the number of people God loved. But if you understand
it in the context, it's really describing the character, isn't
it? Isn't it describing the nature of those those God loved for
whom Christ died? Isn't it describing the very
fact that's revealed so plainly in scripture that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners? That's the world, the world of
sinners that God loved. He says in promise to Abraham,
he says, in thee and in thy seed, meaning Christ, shall all nations
of the earth be blessed. How many were blessed? Were all
the inhabitants of the world justified by the Lord Jesus Christ? No. No, of course not. But those
who were the spiritual children of Abraham, chosen by God, given
faith, given the Spirit of God, by the authority of the risen
and exalted Christ, who suffered for their sins. So the world
here describes the nature of those, those that Nicodemus despised
and condemned and thought he was on the right side of God
when he did it. That woman taken in adultery in John 8, or the
woman who washed Jesus' feet, or the sinners who came, the
publicans and the sinners Jesus was with and allowed to come
into his presence. Why do you let sinners and publicans,
you eat and drink with them? Yes I do. the righteous don't
need opposition he didn't come to call the righteous isn't that
what he said and how could they then be in the world here because
God only saves sinners and if you're not a sinner you're going
to have to be made a sinner in order to be saved in Romans chapter
5 it says the love of God How does he shed a rub of love
of God in our hearts? For when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Think of demons. Take your place
over there. You're on the wrong side. You
can't see. You haven't entered because you're
not a sinner. You're not ungodly. And he goes
on in Romans chapter 5. Not only did he die for the ungodly,
Let me read it to you from Romans chapter 5. He says, this is the
nature of God's love. These are those we love. God
said this, and this is our condition. And notice the magnitude of God's
love. When we were sinners, he says
in Romans chapter 5 and verse 7, for scarcely for a righteous
man will my God Yet peradventure, for a good man, some would even
dare to die. But God commended. He made known. He set forth. He recommended
to us His love. He commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If you're ungodly, you have no
strength to keep God's law like those bitten in the wilderness.
They deserved it. Nicodemus even knew that. But
he wasn't one of them. He never spoke against Moses.
He never spoke against God. And that's a problem. Because
Jesus didn't come to call the righteous. You see the difference? The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his life for the sheep. Those given to him by his Father. In Romans chapter 8, this is
the last verse and we'll close with this. I wish I had time
to demonstrate from scripture to you that this is the nature
of God's love, undeserved. Romans 8 verse 29, whom he did
foreknow. If God knows us, that's unique,
isn't it? Jesus told those in Matthew 7,
I never heard it here, he says, for those he did foreknow. In Romans 11 he says, God doesn't
cast away his people, here those he did for now he
knew them in love he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son does God ever do anything
that he doesn't know he's going to do before he does it has God
ever done one thing time that he didn't know he would do before
time and set it down in his counsel and decree known unto God are
all his works from the foundation of the world. He works all things
according to the counsel of his own will. His word and his will
and his work are all one. They're all one. He does all
his will, and all that he does is his will, determined before
time. So he says here, plainly, he knew his people, he predestinated
them to what? To be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he, Christ, might be the firstborn among
many brethren. They were going to be his children,
brethren of Christ. He predestinated him to that.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called. Whom he
called, then he also justified. Whom he justified, then he also
glorified. An unbroken chain from beginning to end. Those
in heaven are those God determined to save before time. If he didn't,
he's not God. I'm telling you, Scripture affirms
this. There's no separation between
those in heaven, in fact, Matthew 25, 34, he says, enter into the
kingdom prepared for you of my father from before the foundation
of the world. If you were known, if you were
loved of God, then you shall be glorified. That's what these
are saying. Verse 31, what shall we then say to these things?
Notice, if God be for us, is God for those he loves? That's
what this is saying. Is God for those he does not
love? If God loves you, he's for you. If God is for you, read
on, who can be against us? God himself is for you. Verse
32, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for
us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all? God gave everything to his son.
And God gave his son, that means He'll give you everything with
his son. There's no question about it. If he gave his son,
there's nothing to compare. He's going to give you everything.
Therefore, if you perish, it's because he didn't give you his
son. Who shall lay anything to the charge? Those of God's elect. That's what he's talking about.
It is God that justifies it. Who is he that condemneth? Stand
up! Who condemns? What's the answer
of God? What is the answer of God to
all condemnation against his people? Come on. It is Christ
that died. That's the answer. What's your
answer to God? My answer is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has to answer. And with himself. For me. That's the answer. God
received him from You see, God's love for his people
has no beginning, it has no end, and it has consequences. God
does something for those he loves. He's for them. No one can separate
them. They and their sin cannot separate
themselves from him because he loved them when they were sinners
ungodly. Enemies of God he reconciled
by the dead. So thankful that the Lord says,
God so loved the world, the world of sinners, the world that Jesus
came to save. There's no question about it.
If the Lord loves the people, he's for them. And if he's for
them, no one can separate him from his love. His love is eternal. What an amazing thing. You see
the differences between Nicodemus and Christ? Jesus is the son
of man. Holy God, as if he were only
God. Holy man, as if he's only man. But he's the God man. And what
he said and what he did when he described the son of man to
Nicodemus, when he described the love of God for the people
that Nicodemus despised, was entirely antithetical to Nicodemus
and all who are like him, which we are by natural birth. And
the evidence of being born of God is what? It's the publican. God, be merciful. Leave the sin. That's the evidence. We are at the foot of the cross,
looking up upon Christ lifted up. And God did that. And Christ and his Spirit do
that in us. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I hope the Lord
is pleased convince you of these things.