John chapter 3 now. John chapter
3. Read one verse with me. John
3, 16. For God so loves the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. How do you feel upon reading
that and hearing that? What are your first thoughts? Isn't it sad and tragic that
the world has so abused this verse? It almost makes us want
to avoid it. Do you feel that way? The world has formed
a whole theology on one verse. Now, I don't want to spend too
much time refuting that. I hope that in this message we'll
all marvel and glory in and say, how can it be? How can it be? Now, very simply, let me just
tell you immediately what the word world means in this, when
the Lord was talking to Nicodemus. It means the Gentiles. Okay? Us. He's talking about us. That's
what John was writing. Three things, my pastor said
this wisely years ago. He told us, he taught us three
things you need to understand when reading the scriptures in
order to keep it in context and understand what's being said,
at least in your head. Number one, who is speaking?
Who is it? You might be reading somebody,
quoting somebody like Balaam. Okay, who is speaking? To whom
is he speaking? All the epistles are written
to the church. The epistles in the Revelation.
I stand at the door and knock. Who's there? The church, not
the world. Alright, who is speaking? To
whom is he speaking? What is the subject? What's he
talking about? Alright? Our Lord is speaking.
He's the one speaking here. He's speaking to a Jew. A self-righteous
Jew. A big, a narrow, a prejudiced,
Jew who thinks the Jews were the only people on earth saved. That they're the people of God
and nobody else. All right? The Jews called themselves
God's people and the world was a heathen. Every other nation,
every other tongue, every other whatever. The world. Okay. And our Lord is talking to this
Jew, and He says, God so loved Gentiles out of every kindred,
nation, tongue under heaven. And He proved that a short time
afterward at Pentecost, didn't He? There were people from all
over the world that came. And God saved 3,000 of them.
3,000. So that's who he's speaking of.
Let me just show you a couple of verses and then we'll just
look at the text. But Romans 11, Romans 11, you
know, Paul was a Jew. He's a Roman, but a Jew. And he's speaking really right
into the Roman Jews, okay? He deals a lot about Jews, doesn't
he? All through the Romans, a lot about the Jews. Chapter 2, he's
talking to his Jewish brethren and says, you claim you keep
the law, and so on and so forth. He said, he's not a Jew, which
is one outwardly behavior. In Romans 11, look at this. And
he talks about the world here. Romans 11, verse 1. He says,
now have God cast away his people. God forbid. I'm an Israelite.
Okay. Now he goes on to talk about
the Jews, how the Jews didn't believe. The Jews didn't believe. All right. Now look down at verse
12. Now if the fall of the Jews be the riches of the world. You see? Because the Jews didn't
believe, Paul said, I'm going to the Gentiles. Remember? The
world. And now look at verse 15. Let
the casting away of the Jews be the reconciling of the world. See that? People out of. And
here's what 1 John wrote in 1 John. He said, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's the propitiation
for our sins. John is writing to Jews. Paul
was the apostle to the Gentiles. The rest of the apostles were
apostles to the Jews. They stayed right there in and
around Jerusalem and Israel their whole lives. But Paul went out
all over the world. But John said he's a propitiation
for our sins, and not ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. Now you and I know that if Christ
died, whoever Christ died for, Whoever Christ was made a propitiation
for, that's pitch, that's the atonement. They're atoned for. Right? Their sins are covered,
because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all
sin. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass it on to you. Plainly, to us, we understand
that he's not talking about every single person in the world. The
word world is used several ways throughout the scripture, okay?
And you always need to consider it in context. The word world
is used many different ways. It can mean this planet. He came
into the world. The world was made by him. It can mean Gentile. The world
knew him not. But the planet didn't. The planet
knew him, but the Gentiles didn't. Okay? Unbelieving world. John
went on to say in 1 John, we are of God and the whole world. So we have an unbelieving world. We're going to be talking about
this material existence. Love not the world or the things
of the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. What's in the world? Lust
of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of the eyes. That's
all that's in this world. So, oh, aren't you thankful that
the Lord has given us that understanding All right, that's all I'm going
to say about that. Let's look at this now. Let's look and hopefully
rejoice, by God's grace, rejoice in thinking that God would so
love us, us Gentiles. All right? Now look at verse, go to the
last verse, verse 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. I believe. Do you? You have life. You have life
through His Son. Verse 18. He that believeth on
Him is not condemned. It is therefore now, right now,
no condemnation to them that are in Christ. There's too much
in this wonderful chapter. to just answer pot shards. Right. All right, he says in
verse 11, he's talking to Nicodemus, he said, verse 10, are you a
master in Israel who don't know these things? I do. We do, don't
we? Verse 11, we speak that we do
know. I know, John, we know whom we
have believed. The true and the living God,
the true Christ, we do. That's His name, that's who He
is, and that's what He did. John said, The Son of God has
come and given us an understanding that we might know Him that is
true. And we speak of Him. That's how you know God's people.
That's how you know He's a preacher. We testify what we've seen. We've
seen everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him hath
life. And Christ said, I'll raise him
up to life. I've seen his glory. Haven't
you, John? I have. And he said, but you don't receive
our witness. The Lord said to Nicodemus, you receive not our
witness. I have. Look down at verse 33. He that
hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. I have received it. The witness. I believe. As many as received
him to them that gave you the power, the right to become the
sons of God. Who? Those that are born of God.
I have. I've received the love of the
truth. Have you? I love the truth. I love the truth. All truth. Every truth. Don't you? Is there
one verse in this Bible that you'd like to take out? No. Not John 3, 16. There's whole chapters of the
world I'd like to take out. God's people have received the
love of the truth. What a blessing. Verse 12, He
says, If I've told you earthly things and you believe not, The
Lord preached in parables, didn't He? And the Pharisees didn't
understand them. I do. Do you? Every parable He preached, I
understand. Don't you? Why? Well, He said
to His disciples, it's given unto you to understand. Because
you've been given to me, Christ said, by the Father. They don't
understand because he that is of God heareth God's words. They
hear them not because they're not of God. You hear them because
you're of God, born of God. My, my. Parables of types and
shadows we preach from the Old Testament, types and shadows,
and we just marveled at with glory. What do you see in those?
Christ. That's who Christ preached to.
His disciples on that road to Emmaus, And they understood. They knew
Him when He opened the Scriptures to them. And so do we. We must
be His children. He must love us. Those whom the
Father loves, He shows pictures of His Son. Margaret just, she
happens to have like 1,432 pictures of her new grandchildren. She'd
be much obliged to show them to you if you're interested. That's what you do with those
you love, and you show them to people. I remember one time I
went to Crossfield, and Don Bell's first great-grandchild. I asked
Marguerite, can you love your grandchildren like your own children?
She said, oh, she couldn't even put it into words. She was babbling. She said, I didn't think it was
possible. Well, Don Bell had his first
great-grandchild. He has two or three now. No way you can love your great-grandchild
like that. But I went down there and she
was there, Riley. Remember, Mindy? We were there.
And she was in another room and Don couldn't wait to show her
to me. He couldn't wait. And we came
in and didn't even take her bags out of the car. And he said,
come here, can you get Riley? And he brought her in and he's
grinning from ear to ear. He has her in his arms and he's
waiting for my reaction. I said, she's beautiful. Look
at her. I smiled. Donnie's grin got even
bigger. He loves me because I love her. That's a fact. That's exactly
what Christ said. Father loves you because you
love me. And who the father loves, he shows them pictures of his
son, and they just are delighted. Look at that. Would you look
at that? That's him. Spitting image. Image of the father. Express
image. All right. He said, How will you believe if I tell
you heavenly things? And we know these parables that
the Lord has given us an understanding of parables, earthly stories
of heavenly things, and how God has blessed us to see Christ
in the trees, the water, the bread, everything. Christ is
all. All right, verse 13. Now our
Lord said, No man hath ascended up to heaven. He said to Nicodemus,
No man hath ascended up to heaven. He that came down from heaven,
the Son of Man, is in heaven. He's telling this self-righteous
Jewish teacher, and this man is like talking to an elder of
the Amish religion today, or a Catholic cardinal, or a freewill
Southern Baptist preacher, who thinks they actually keep the
law. who thinks God is actually pleased
with them, the way they're keeping His law, and God ought to be
so proud of them or something. They're just going to come into
heaven and get all sorts of rewards for all that they've done? Paul wrote in Romans 10, You
know, oh, Romans 10, he said, the law is that Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone to believe in. Moses
described the righteousness of the law, the man that doeth those
things shall live by them. The righteousness of faith doesn't
say this. Don't say in your hearts, who
shall ascend into heaven. You can't get there. You cannot... Who shall ascend unto the holy
hill of the Lord? Psalm 24 says. He that hath clean
hands, a pure heart, never lifted up his soul unto vanity, or sworn
deceitfully. And the Lord opened the gate
to a sinless man. Come on in here. Walk in here.
You've earned heaven. All have sinned that comes your
way. But one. Wait a minute, who is
this? That psalm goes on to say, the
gates opened up. The gates. We're going to look
at the gates Sunday morning, Nehemiah. The gates opened up. Open up the gates. Who's coming
in? The King of Glory. The Son of
Man. The Son of God. Christ the Lord. God is well pleased for His righteousness. Come on in. Well, look behind
him, his train is filling the temple. Like the bridal train,
you know, all those procession right behind him coming in. By his virtue, by his righteousness,
that's how. No man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down. He that came down. It was he
that ascended, Paul wrote in Ephesians 4, was the first who
descended. The lower parts of the earth.
Now here's something to marvel at. That the Son of God would
become the Son of Man. In Psalm 22, the Lord, that's
a messianic psalm from start to finish. Every verse. Some
think that Christ quoted that whole psalm on the cross. But in that psalm he said, I'm
a worm and no man. For him to come to this earth,
we can't understand the condescension, what it was like for him to come
to this place. For him to leave, His home with
his father. God is love. Perfect love. Nothing but love. Nothing but
righteousness. Purity. Happiness. To come to this place full of
hate. Everybody in heaven loved him. Everybody in heaven adored
him. Everybody in heaven worshipped
him. He came down here, everybody hated him, despised him, and
rejected him. Nobody wanted him. Nobody in
heaven wanted to see him leave. Nobody on earth wanted to see
him come. Think about that. The Son of Man. Don't you love this verse 13?
It says, He that came down from heaven, the Son of Man which
is in heaven. Wait a minute. I mean, was in
heaven. It doesn't say that, does it? Here's a great mystery. God was
manifest in the flesh. Here's a mystery. God came to
this earth, but God never left heaven. Explain. I can't. He said to his disciples
who couldn't understand it, they said, show us the Father. He
said, Philip, have I been so long with you? Yet thou hast
not known me. He hath seen me, hath seen the
Father. Believest thou not that the Father
is in me, and I in the Father? The Son of Man is in heaven,
in the bosom of the Father. He never left the bosom of the
Father. God is Spirit, he said. Everywhere. So is the sun. Well, then he
says in verse 14 to this man who doesn't have a clue what
he's talking about. We do, don't we? As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness. Numbers 21. Go back there. Numbers
21. Oh, my. Are you ever tired of
hearing this story? Look. I've got an article in
Sunday's Bulletin. Look. Salvation in a look. Salvation
is just for those who look. Old Nicodemus doesn't need to
look. He's proud of himself. Oh, man. If the Lord gives you
a sight of yourself, if you realize you've been bitten and dying,
good news. Just look. And the million bees
say, look at Numbers 21, verse 4, they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea, compass of the land of Edom,
and the soul of the people was much discouraged, grieved because
of the way. A little bit of hardship, just
a little bit. God had pulled them out of the
pit. Slime pits in it. What an ungrateful, wretched
people these were. They hadn't been gone long, they
were all murmuring and complaining. Oh, this is hard. Oh, is it? People spake against God, against
Moses. You know, any of our murmuring
and complaining is against God. You know that? They're all guilty.
against Moses. Why have he brought us out of
Egypt? To die in the wilderness? No. To live. Not die. There's no bread. Yeah, they
had bread. The best bread. They said our soul loatheth this
light bread. Man, oh man, they didn't deserve
that bread, did they? You know, I was raised under
the gospel and under the bread of life and heard it and didn't
appreciate it and my soul loathed it. I'm tired of this. I want out of here. I want to
go to Egypt. The Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people. They bit the people. It says
much people died. Many of them died. The Lord didn't show them a serpent
on the pole. Many of them. He hid it from many. Many people
did not see the serpent on the pole. Some of them did. Look
at verse 7. Some of them came to Moses and
said, We've sinned. We've spoken against the Lord
and against thee. Pray unto the Lord. Take away
the serpents from us. Moses here represents our Lord
in the cry. The intercessor for the people.
Moses prayed for the people. Some of the people realized what
they'd done. God granted them the goodness
of God, led them to repent. And they called to their mediator,
the man between them and God, and asked him, would you pray
for us? He did. And then the Lord said
unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, set it upon a pole.
Why? It's got to be lifted up for
everyone to see the sun back there. They're dying. They're
just almost dead. They're full of poison. They're
down. They're down for the count. They
might not get up. You see, they can't take the
first step. They can't do anything. They
can't do anything. They're lying there at the point
of death, lifted high up now, Moses, in the likeness of that
which bit them, sin, this serpent of brass. And it was no sin,
no venom, but it was made in the likeness, and that's Christ
in it. And they lift him up, Moses,
this serpent, And it shall come to pass, it shall, that every
one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, just look, shall live. Did you hear that? Just look. Just look. Not do. Look. Really? Really. Shall live. Oh, till Moses made a serpent
of brass and put it on a pole, came into pass, the serpent had
bitten any man. When he beheld the serpent of
brass, he lived. Oh, and we beheld his glory. As of the only begotten of the
Father, the sin sacrifice, the sin offering, Christ made sin
for us, crucified for us, we beheld him. Whosoever looks shall live. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
because if He's not, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men
to me. If not, none will live. They'll all die. And Adam all
died, but didn't cry. All made alive. Now, whosoever
believeth, whosoever just looks to Him, look, trust Him, look
to Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. And he went
on to say, John said, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life. Already, right now, hath everlasting
life. Here he said eternal life. That's
the quality of it. That thief on the cross. We were talking about this when
we came on. That thief on the cross his whole life, he was
a worthless human being. He didn't deserve to live, did
he? But God, of all people, God showed His great love, greater
love, no man did, God showed His great love, Christ showed
His great love to the most unlovely, wretched man on earth. And had him hanging on that cross
on his right hand. And all of a sudden, and he was
cursing, the man was cursing Christ, just right up to a moment
till he looked. Now, he'd looked at Him before
then, but no, God gave him eyes to see. God gave him ears to
hear. Everything Christ said on that
Father, forgive them. They looked. My God, my God,
why is this hell so sacred? I thirst. And he looked. Born again. Born again. All right? He didn't deserve
to live, that man. But Christ said today, You're
going to have eternal life right now, beginning right now. You're
going to have life more abundant. You're going to go in. You see,
there's joy in heaven over one sinner repentant. Heaven erupts. May I say it? They throw a celebration. And here comes the thief. And Moses and Joshua and Abraham. He's here! Everybody, He's here! That's eternal life. It's the
quality of it. Joy unspeakable, full of glory.
Life more abundant, full of glory. Come on in here. Sit right down
here in the best seat. Amazing. And oh boy, when they started
singing that song unto him that loved us, that thief was singing
louder than anybody, wasn't he? Still a while later, Mary Magdalene
joined in. Boy, they were singing it for
whom, who's been forgiven much. Eternal life is a quality of
it. And the Lord talks about everlasting
life. It will never end. And everybody in glory is thinking,
is there ever going to come to an end? I hope not. Never. Verse 16, 4. You see, it begins with a 4.
God, so, in this way, as Moses lifted up the serpent, so, as
Moses lifted up the serpent, so God lifted up His Son. But his son on the cross, God
so loves in this way, showed his love for not just Jews, but
people out of every nation, tongue, kindred. We looked at that, kindred. You know, my kinfolk were Irish.
And I've said this before, but everybody is popular to be Irish. Well, the Irish were about the
most heathen people on earth. Really. Celtic, they went into
battle naked. Seriously. Worthless. Drunks.
Really. Men wear skirts. The world. Every kindred. Every nation. Heathen. Ethiopians. On and on it went. And all through
the Old Testament, if Nicodemus had thought about it, He thought,
you know, Isaiah does say a lot about the Ethiopians and the
burden of Moab and the burden of even the Egyptians. All of
them. All through Isaiah. I've been
reading Isaiah. All through there. He's going to save a people out
of all those worthless tribes. Heathen. Why? Why would God love? Here's the marvel, is that God
would love any, let alone every. There's no way He could, you
know, as said, the world thinks that God ought to love everybody. No, He ought not to love anybody. This is the marvel of God. All
right, but here's, Here's the love. God so loved. Now John
wrote, it's not that we loved God. He loved us. And sent his
son to be a bloody sacrifice. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son as their substitute to die in
their stead, to take the punishment, the wrath. God put his son on
a tree. God allowed Yeah, he directed
them to pluck his beard, to smite his face, to beat his face beyond
recognition that the Scripture might be fulfilled, to beat his
back into a bloody pulp. God did that. How can it be? To fulfill the Scripture, to
show man's utter depravity, to show what sin deserves, to show
what we deserve, to show how that God, what great love God
would do, has to do that to his son. My, my. And I've used this
before and I'll use it again. I can't think of any other way
that we could enter into this really than this. But if you
have a, you love your daughter, Would you give her life? Can
you think of anybody you'd give her life for? Would you take her to a maximum
security prison and throw her to the dogs and let them do whatever
they feel like doing? Can you imagine? Ain't nobody
worth that, is it? You know my daughter. You love
her, too. I love her. I wouldn't do that for anybody. I would not sacrifice her life
for anybody. Ain't nobody worth my daughter's
life. But that's exactly what God did.
That's hard to understand it. How can it be? If I did, if we
did, if you did, if I did that, It's going to count for something.
Her life's not going to be in vain. Her blood is not going
to be shed in vain. And if I had the power, I'm going
to make sure that whoever she laid down her life for is going
to love her for all eternity, and give her all the glory, and
sing her praises, and talk about her from now on. For dying for
such an unworthy person. You see? God so loved. How? hearing His love. Not that we love God, but He
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the bloody
sacrifice for our sin. Beloved, if God so loved us.
So, that's what He's saying. To have everlasting life and
never end. But God, verse 17, let's go on. God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
might, through him, through him might be saved. He that believeth
on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already. You see that? People don't, they don't go any
further than verse 16. It goes on, it already says,
he that doesn't believe is condemned, under condemnation. Can you be
under the love of God and under the condemnation of God at the
same time? Look at verse 36. He that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
right now on him. Can God love somebody and the
wrath of God abide on them? No. God has loved his people with
an everlasting love from before the world. Before I formed you
in the belly, I knew you. Yea, I have loved thee before
you were born, when you were born, while you were yet sinners. You see, here it is. For scarcely, scarcely for, here's
what Paul wrote. He said, now, scarcely for a
righteous man will one die. And peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to doubt, but God. Commendeth His love toward us.
Why we were yet sinners? Well, we never gave Him a thought.
We didn't care if Christ lived or died. Didn't care. Christ
died for us. And you see, those whom God loves,
they're going to know, they're going to realize, like those
people bitten, against God. At Pentecost, 3,000 men, plus
women and maybe some young people, came and said, what have we done?
What are we going to do? Tell us, Peter said, look. God must love you. He that believeth not is condemned,
but he that believeth on him is not condemned. Brethren, I
believe, don't you? Verse 19, this is condemnation. Light is coming to the world.
Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were
evil. There was a time we were in darkness
even as others, right? And we loved darkness. Not only
the darkness of this world, the sin out there, all that is in
the world, that's what we love, that's what we live for. We're
dead in trespass and sin. has called us out of darkness
in His marvelous, translated us from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of His dear Son. And God puts the love of
God in the hearts of His people, love for the truth. He's given
us, we've received the love for the truth. We come to the light. Come to the light. Come to Christ. Everyone that doeth evil, verse
20, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light. Christ has
lighted him, lest his deeds should be reproved. Discovered. Oh, you know, Psalm 139. Don't
you love that? That's your favorite Psalm, isn't
it? He said, Search me, O God. Turn on the light. See if there
be any wicked way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. What's that? That's Christ. He
that loveth, doeth the truth, believeth on Christ, who is the
truth, follows Him, cometh to the light, that his deeds may
be made manifest. They're wrought in God. Lord,
I want to know if you've done a work in me. I want to know
if there's life in me. I've come into Christ. I look
to you. I want to know if it's you that's working in me, both
the will and do of your good pleasure. If this faith that
you've given me is of you. If this life He's given, you
give me, is of you. I want to know. Is it of the
Lord? Here's what Moses wrote in Psalm,
and I quit. Moses wrote this in Psalm. He said, Let thy work appear
unto thy servants, thy glory upon their children. That's Christ.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish
thou the work of our hands upon us. The work of our hands is
established now. I want to know, am I born of
God or am I not? Well, he that is cometh to the
light. He looks and lives. All right, stay with me.