Tells me I am born of God, and
tells me I am born of God. My God is reconciled, His ardent
voice I hear, He owns me for His child. All right, let's go
back to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. We, just like the phrase born
again is so widely used and abused and corrupted, this John 3.16
is probably the most widely used yet unknown passage in the Bible. Most so-called Christians probably
only know this one verse. but really don't know. Brother
Ralph Barnard, I love that man. He made a real impression on
me. I was about 14 or 15 when he died, but he visited our home
quite a bit. He made a real impression on
me. He could say things powerfully, point blank. But he said the
gospel is not in John 3.16. It's in John 3.14. John 3.16 follows John 3.14.
Let's read this. Let's read these. Verse 14 through 17. 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. 4. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have eternal everlasting life. For God sent
not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the
world through him might be saved. Let's read the next verse. He
that believeth on him is not condemned. He that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Now, I'm not going to spend much
time arguing about the world, that God does not love every
person in the world. That's a waste of our valuable
time. I'm not striving. Our Lord, well, we read it in
Isaiah 45, let the potsherds strive. I'm not striving with
potsherds. I'm preaching to God's people,
I hope. And all of God's people will be taught of God. They're
taught of God. And they know. They know. Now,
the word world, let me just say this, okay? And turn with me
to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. And you need to know where this
is. You need to know to turn here
and point people to it who might ask you these things. It says, God so loved the world. The world in that verse is not
speaking of every person in the world. It does not mean every person
in the world every time the word world is used. That's not what
it's talking about. The Lord is talking to a Jew. Remember? Nicodemus. The Jews
believe this. that only Jews are saved, nobody
else in the world. They called all the world Gentile
dogs. They believed only Jews would
be saved. Our Lord is talking to a Jew right now and He says,
God so loved the world. of people out of every tribe,
nation, tongue, kindred under heaven. There's not one single nation, even kindred. How merciful is God? Not even
one family. He doesn't have an elect that
comes out. He's talking to a Jew, not just
Gentile. He's also talking about His creation
that He made Mankind as a species, creating His image in the image
of God, creating Him, male and female. Let us make man in our
own image. Christ in the image of Christ. Now, the image was marred, wasn't
it? But not destroyed. It's going to be a new creature. But look at 1 John 2. Verse 15,
love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. How does that go with John 3.16? God so loved the world. Here it says, if any man loved
the world, the love of God is not in him. It's not talking
about every person. Not at all. Look at chapter 4
of 1 John, chapter 4, verse 4. You are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore
speak they of the world, and the world heareth them." Chapter
5, verse 19. We know we are of God, and the
whole world lieth in wickedness. It doesn't mean every person
does it. Our Lord prayed in John 17, His high priestly prayer. Listen, I'll quote it for you.
He said, I pray not for the world. but for them which thou hast
given me." He said, they are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world. So our Lord is not talking about
every single person in the world. Here's the fact of the matter.
Whoever God loves, He saves. Wouldn't you? If you had the
power, and God has power, He said, all powers, all authority,
I have all power. Wouldn't you save whom you love?
Would you? Would you destroy somebody you love? You might, but you really didn't
love them then. You didn't love them. But God
can. Perfect love. is saving love. Perfect love never faileth. Perfect
love never quits loving. Perfect love is saving love.
That's the love of God. Fact is, whoever God loves never
perish. Isn't that what Christ said? I give unto them eternal life
and they'll never perish. Never perish. He said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come unto me. And he that cometh to
me, all the Father giveth me. Where to start? Why were they God's people? He
chose them. He loved them. He saved them. And gave them
to Christ. And they come to Christ. And what did Christ say? I will
in no wise cast them out. Under no circumstances. God loved
them. Whoever God loved, they'll never
perish. Whoever Christ died for, their
sins are paid. They're paid. They're paid. And
whoever God loves and Christ died for, the Holy Spirit is
sent by God with His Word to give new birth, new life, they
repent, they believe, they're made willing. What about whosoever
will? Barnard used to say this, that's
not the problem, whosoever will. The power there is not in the
will of man, because he won't. Our Lord said this, you will
not come unto me. John 6, I just quoted part of
it. He said, no man can come unto me except the Father which
hath sent me draw him. But all that the Father giveth
me shall. And he that cometh shall have
no wise cast out. And the Father gave them me,
and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Why? They're kept. They're loved. They're bought with a price.
They're not their own. They're led by the Spirit of God. They
cannot fall away. They cannot. What about whosoever will, preacher?
What about it? What about it? Scriptures are
very clear. It's not of him that willeth
or of him that runneth. It's of God that shall have mercy
on you. But whosoever will. It is God that worketh in us,
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. But what? Who art thou to reply against
God? Psalm 110 verse 3, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. Not until then. When they're
born again, they will come. Isn't that what we read in Isaiah
45? They will come, they will bow, and surely they will say,
and the Lord have I watched. Someone was cleaning the building
and I threw something away. I had something on my desk for
a long time, this little thing, this little sculpture. I just got tired of
it and threw it in the trash can. And this person called me
and said, did you mean to throw that away in a trash can? What
it was, was a sheep. It was a black-faced sheep and
a little lamb lying beside it. I had that for a long time and
I just threw it in a trash can. She said, did you mean to throw
that away, cast that out? I thought, you know, I can't
do that. I can't do that. I got it out, she got it out
and put it on my desk and right there it sits. There's no way
that I'm going to throw that away again. No way. As an emblem of what our Lord
said, they'll never perish. No wise castamere. Black faced
though they be. Where am I? Oh, God's people
are made willing. Alright? God's soul, now here's
the beauty, that's a fact of the matter there. Here's the
beauty, the glory, here's the gospel, here's the good news
in these verses. No more arguing with potsherds. God's people know, they know.
It's like the new birth. You'll argue against the new
birth until you're born again. Yes, you will. And you'll argue
about man's will until you're born again. And you realize your
will didn't have anything to do with it. Now here it is, the Lord said,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. He's talking about being crucified. Throughout the Scriptures it
is written of Christ who was to come and be crucified, how
that Christ must suffer. This is the heart and soul of
the Gospel. How that Christ died for our
sin according to the Scripture. That the Christ must suffer many
things and rise again the third day. He came to die. He came to be a substitute. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Our Lord later on said, If I
be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me." All men? You see there?
Do all men come to Him? No. All the Father gives, He
comes to. All His people. He must be lifted up, crucified. That, verse 15, whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so
loved in this way. That's what that word so means.
In this way. This is the way. It just gave
an Old Testament type, symbol, story, shadow, picture of Christ
crucified. This is the one our Lord gave.
The first one our Lord gave to show Christ and Him crucified. God so, in this way, loved the
world, not every person, but a people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation, that He gave His only begotten
Son. Just like we're going to see
in a moment, He gave these orders, this command to Moses, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Well,
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be saved. Now he said in verse
18, he that believeth not is condemned already. Didn't he? That's everybody. That's everybody. None of us believe. None of us
call. None of us understand. The Lord
looked down to see if there were any. He said, there's none. None
good. No, not one. None righteous.
As in this story, I'm going to show you, we'll turn there, Numbers
21. Here's the story, Numbers chapter 21, go back there. As
in this story, these children of Israel who were sinful, rebellious
against God, God sent these serpents and they were all bitten by these
serpents and they were dying. But God, they're all not going to die.
Many of them are. But not all of them. And he sent something. He ordered
something. He commanded something to be
done, to be lifted up. And whoever looks won't die. God in great love sent His Son
to save some. Not try to save. Christ didn't
come to try to save. When God announced His birth
through the angels, He said, call His name Jesus, Savior,
God our Savior. And He went on to say, for He
shall save His people from their sins, not try. We just read in Isaiah 45, why
would you pray to a God who cannot save? Why would you believe on
a Jesus who tried and failed? Why would you believe in a God
who has no hands? No, that's an idol, God said.
I'm God, He said. I have hands. If I ever reveal myself to you,
you'll realize you're in my hands. Your breath and all your ways,
your salvation is in my hands, in the hands of my Son, engraved
in the palm of His hands. Love forever. Redeemed forever. Bought with a price. You don't
belong to yourself anymore. You belong to the One that bought
you. Good news. Now, our Lord didn't come to
show the way. He came to be the way. Our Lord
didn't come to make an attempt to save. He came to make an atonement,
a payment for sin. Our Lord didn't come to make
salvation possible. This is what false religion believes
across the board, without exception, that Christ made salvation possible,
and you just need to accept it. That's a lie. That's a false
gospel. He came to make a payment for
his people. He paid it. God is satisfied. The payment has been made. Their
sins are gone. They will come out. He shall save His people. He
came once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. But what about looking? What
about believing? All right, let's look at this. Here's the story.
In Numbers 21, verse 5, it says, the people spake against God
and against Moses, and they complained. They were murmuring and complaining. What people? Israel. They're
supposed to be the people of God. But they were no better
than the Gentiles were. This proves they were no better
than the Egyptians where they came out of. No better. No better. They didn't believe God any more
than the Egyptians did, did they? They were murmuring and complaining
in spite of all God had done to them. There's nothing we're more prone
to than murmur and complain. Nothing. In spite of all the
blessings. Barnard used to say, anything
this side of hell is mercy. To murmur and complain is to
spake against God. God who ordered all things. God
who gives all things. Why? What evil? Our Lord said
in Jeremiah's Gospel, He said, what evil has your fathers found
in me that they should rebel against me? What have I done
against anybody? Scripture says that, it's tender
mercies over all His work. But people rebel. I rebelled. You rebelled. And we still at
times murmur and complain against. It's against God. When David
sinned, what did he say? against thee, and thee only." These children of Israel, sons
of Jacob, they didn't know God, they didn't care, but God came
one day to them. chose them, and made Himself
known to them, and gave them the Lamb, the Sacrifice, and
the Covenant, and the Word, and the Testimony, and the Way to
Worship, and a High Priest, and all these things. Spoke to them,
revealed Himself to them, nobody else. Made promise and promise
after promise, fed them, clothed them, brought them out of Egypt,
promised them a promised land, watched over them for 40 years. Their feet didn't even swell. And they murmured against Him. Brethren, we ought to be ashamed
of ourselves. We'll murmur if we have to wait
in line at Walmart. We've got a pocket full of money
and credit cards. We can buy the whole store. But
we've got to wait five minutes when there are people in Africa
that don't know if they're going to get a meal. Long lines of children starving
to death waiting for a cup of rice. Preachers stand up and say, every
man deserves a chance to be saved. We don't deserve anything. Israel
didn't deserve anything. They deserved. What they deserved
was to be cast out, didn't they? You know, all of sin comes short
of the glory of God. From the garden, the first man,
whether it's one man or one million, sinned against God, spoken against
God. Adam and Eve, here's what happened
in the garden. Adam and Eve. We're going to
look at the serpent. First mention the serpent. Adam
and Eve in the garden. Man. The serpent came and injected
his poison, bit them as it were, and injected his poison into
them. What was that poison? Free will. That's it. This is not doctrine. This is
rebellion against God. Adam and Eve, here's what they
were saying. We want the choice to be ours. We will not have you reign over
us. We want to be as God's. We want the choice. We want the
decision to be ours. Huh? Alright? What did they choose? This is Adam. Eve. Sinless. What did they choose? Sin over God. That's the choice. And that poison has been in our
bloodstream from the beginning. From the serpent. Bitten. Satan. Sin. The God of this world, Scripture
says, has us in captivity. Bound. Our natures have us, man, we
will not choose good. We will not, people, if we're
offered a choice of something holy and righteous and godly,
and that's by nature, holy and righteous and good, and something
full of sinful pleasure and meat. You know it's so. You know it's
so. The serpent is mentioned. Look
at verse 7. Verse 6. So the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Fiery serpents. James talked about the fiery
darts of the wicked. He said, above all, there's one
thing that will repel them. The shield of faith. One person. The serpent, Satan, And sin is
his poison. If bitten, you'll die. And he
bit our parents, and we've had that in our bloodstream. We're
born dead in sin, and we're waiting to die. Unless God does something
for us, unless God does something for us, we'll perish forever
in our sins. The serpent, a serpent, listen
to me, every one of you, run across a snake, a viper, a serpent. It's very silent, isn't it? Very
silent. The other day, I was walking
out my back porch. We all have stories like that.
I was walking out my back porch, you know, early in the morning,
having a cup of coffee, and walked out. What are you talking about
waking you up? A big old black snake. Just a
black snake. A big snake, boy, just slithered
right by me. Steve at one time on his farm
had chickens laying eggs. He reached up in a nest out of
sight to get those eggs. There was a snake in it. Silent. Subtle. Nothing more subtle than
any creature. That's what God said. The serpent
was more subtle. Deceptive. Hidden. Even camouflaged. There are certain
snakes that camouflage themselves, disguise themselves. Now, this
serpent takes on many forms. This thing of sin and Satan,
many forms. He's deadly. A snake, a viper,
is always deadly. Injects its poison. And our Lord
wrote in 2 Corinthians how that Satan has transformed himself,
disguised himself into an angel of light and his ministers, little
snakes, just like him, with the doctrine of devils, ministers
of righteousness, his preachers, everywhere, everywhere. And their venom is poisonous.
Sin represents, the snake represents sin. Something that is so subtle. Something deceptive. The deceitfulness
of riches. Fiery. When you think of fiery,
you think of painful, don't you? You get burned, and it is. We've
all been burned a little bit. Oh brother, our sister was burned
horribly. Nothing more painful. Nothing. But it's not always painful,
I'm talking about fiery. We burn with lust. We burn, we're
consumed with and taken up with passion, with the desire for
pleasure, until it just consumes you like
fire. It runs through your whole being.
You can't think straight. You can't act straight. You're
full of this burning desire for whatever, whoever, arching, burning. until you're consumed and destroyed
by it. Now, nothing will cure us of this
poison, but one thing. Religion won't do it. Fig leaves,
you can try to cover it, but it's still there. It's still
there. Education is not the answer. Regeneration. Our Lord said you
must be born again. Salvation is of the Lord. Now,
look at verse 7. Here it is. Much people died. But therefore, verse 7, the people
came to Moses and said, we have sinned. We've spoken against
the Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people,
not the world, but for these people that came to him. Whosoever
it was, whoever it was that came, who was guilty, sinning against
God, that came to the mediator sent by God, they went away healed. God heard his music. They came
to him. All right? What made these people
come? And other people died. Huh? Some came, some died. I'll tell you, Romans 2 says,
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Listen to this in 1 John, 1 John
chapter 2. Listen to this. It says, if any
man, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth
is not in us. But if, 1 John 1, if we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar. His Word is not in us. This is
the first thing God does to someone bitten. By saying that someone
gives new birth, the first thing they realize is they're a sinner
against God. And they confess their sins.
Listen to this, I'm still reading. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. My little children, these things
I write unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, whosoever,
Male or female, Jew or Gentile, whoever it is, sin. Sin against
God. We have an advocate, a mediator,
a go-between, like Moses was. He's Jesus Christ the righteous,
and he's the propitiation, the bloody sacrifice for our sins. Not ours only, but the whole
world. Every person in the world that
comes to God by Him, God will receive. Whosoever will. These people came. They repented. They repented. Every one of them,
the first thing they said was what? We've sinned against the
Lord. There's a difference between
getting caught in your sin, a difference between sorry like Esau for the
consequences, for losing the blessing. This is salvation. This is a new birth. When a person... God opens their eyes and ear
and their heart to understand, I've sinned against God. I've
sinned against goodness. I've sinned against mercy. I've
sinned against my Creator. I've shaken my fist in the face
of my Creator. He's done all this for me all
my life. Sent His Son down here to die
for the likes of me, and I didn't care. Oh, God, be merciful to
me. None of this accepts Jesus. It's like the public in the temple. God, be merciful to me, be a
sinner. Listen to this, it says, and
we're talking about repentance, godly sorrow, sin against God. These people said, we've sinned
against God. Please take away these serpents.
You know what God's people want Him to take away? Our sin. Our sin. Psalm 32 says this,
For this shall everyone that is godly pray, in a time when
thou mayest be found. Take away my sin? Oh man, I wish
we had two hours. But Job, listen to this. I was so blessed. Job 33. Elihu's
message to Job and his friends. Oh, I love this, I love this,
I love this. It says that a soul that draws
near to death One who's been convicted of his sins comes to
God and says and asks this, is there a messenger with God, an
interpreter? Is there one among a thousand
to show me his righteousness, his uprightness? If he's gracious
unto them, he'll deliver them from going down to the pit. He'll
tell them, I've found a ransom. He'll tell them, whoever comes
to, I've sinned against God. He'll tell them, I've found a
ransom. Like that prodigal son came, Father, I've sinned against
heaven and against you. He said, bring the calf. Bring
the robe. Any man, whosoever will. And
it says, his flesh will be fresher than a child. He'll return to
the days of his youth. He'll pray unto God. God will
be favorable to him. He'll render unto man his righteousness.
You need to go back and look at that. I just rushed through
it. Job 33. Oh my. Here in Numbers 21, look
at this. It says in verse 8, And the Lord
said unto Moses concerning every one of these
people that came to him, every one of them, whosoever, whoever
it was that came to him, why did they come? God gave them
repentance. Right? Why did you come? Why
did you come? You know, don't you? Alright, verse 8, the Lord gave
this command to Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent. Set it upon
a pole. Set it on a pole. Fasten it. Nail it to a tree. And it shall
come to pass, here's my promise, that everyone that is bitten,
when he looketh upon this serpent, lift it up, when he looketh upon
it, shall live. That's it. A serpent of brass. So Moses, verse 9, made a serpent
of brass. It was made in the likeness of
that serpent. But it was of brass, an alloy
of two metals. This is Christ. This serpent,
our Lord said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in Him, would not perish, but have eternal life. For God's
soul, this is the way He showed His love to His people out of
every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue, that whosoever believe
it by His grace, by His Spirit, by His power, whoever believes
they're a sinner, whoever knows that they've been bitten and
are dead and come to Him, come to God by this, whoever looks,
here's my promise, believe and you shall be saved. You won't
perish. He won't perish. Our Lord Jesus Christ was made,
the Scripture says, in the likeness of sinful flesh. But He's holy,
harmless, separate from sinners. That brass serpent looked like
it was impervious to that poison. It was not a dead thing at all. I mean, you know, it wasn't a
snake made in the likeness of it. And here it is, God sending
His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, Scripture
says, condemned sin in the flesh. God hath made Him to be sin for
His people, to be a curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, we read it in Isaiah 45, didn't
we? Look unto Me and be ye saved. Just look. Now people, have you been bitten? Are your loins like David said in Psalm 38, filled
with a loathsome disease? Are you like Paul in Romans 7,
who said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing? You know, there
are two natures in a believer. We talked about the new birth
this morning. Well, there are two natures. There is an old
man that is never gone until we lay this body in the grave.
This body of death. This body of flesh. That which
is flesh, our Lord said, is flesh. And the flesh lusts against the
Spirit. And God gives this new creature, this new person who
was never there before. He got this old fellow, and they
are fighting all the time. Until that new birth happens,
there's no fight. There's no fight. You just love
it. You go after it. It doesn't bother you at all.
You don't confess it. You're not ashamed of it. You
love it. You go after it. You live in it. But then when
God gives this new spirit that loves holiness and loves God,
loves the truth, hates sin, hates self, it's a fight, a constant
fight. The greater is he that is in
you. Sin will not have dominion over
you. The old man serves, somehow,
serves, number one, to remind us who we are. Number two, to
drive us to cry. Number three, to remember Christ,
that He's our salvation. But Christ was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. God sent His Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh to condemn it. And God made him to be sinned,
laid on him the iniquity of all of his people. And like these people who came,
some of them died. They didn't come. God didn't even give them a promise.
And they didn't come. They didn't confess. They didn't
come. They died in their sin. They
got what they deserved, didn't they? But God in great love and
mercy drew these others to His mediator. Moses represents Christ
too. Christ is all. And Moses gave the command, God
gave the command through Moses, that whosoever looketh shall
live. So He did, verse 9, He made a
serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, And once in the end of
the world hath Christ appeared to be crucified, to put away sin. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. Now there it doesn't even say,
look. It says, just beheld. There may have been some Some
so low, some so smitten, some so dying, their eyesight's gone. But if they just behold with
the eye of faith, if that's what you say, I believe. It doesn't say, if you do, You'll
be saved. It doesn't say if you quit this
or that. You'll be saved. It doesn't say
if you, if you, if you. It says, look. Just look. Look. And whoever did, whosoever,
believe it, won't perish, but have eternal life. Because Christ
came to put away sin. He did it. By Himself. By Himself. Oh my, have you looked? Have you? Have you confessed? Have you come? I pray the Lord
will work in you to do so. And me. Okay.