John 3.16. For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but should have everlasting life. For God
so loved the world. Now I want to talk about the
world. Who does it mean when it says God so loved the world?
Who does it mean? Who's He talking about? And the
world, gospel of the world, what does it mean? What does it mean? There's many objections. There's
many objections to the grace of God. People find lots of objections
to the grace of God. And they object, and this is
one of the first objections that they have, is that when we say,
the world, you know, and we preach about the sovereign grace of
God, that God's will and purpose is always accomplished, that
God effectually, effectually called and chose and called and
redeemed his elect. And then we preach man's responsibility
to believe that. They're not enemies, they're
just so. But whenever we preach the sovereign grace of God, people
always find an objection, and one of the objections is, it
says, It says God so loved the world, that's what it means.
Well, when God is presented as God, as we preach election, people
always run to John 3.16. You know, it says there that
Jacob ever loved, Esau ever hated, in Romans 9.13. Jacob ever loved,
Esau ever hated. And then they'll run to John
3.16 whenever we preach God's elect in grace. And they'll say,
but it says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son. They'll say that Jesus is the propitiation, not for our
sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. They run to
those two verses of Scripture. And they say, surely world means
world. It means you, me, and everybody.
Well, now I know from experience how hard it is to set aside traditions,
to set aside our false oppositions. to set aside our feelings, our
emotions, and our interpretations, and to be able to come to a verse
of Scripture after you've heard it and taught it a certain way
all your life, but to be able to come to it, come to a verse
of Scripture, come to the Bible without any bias, to see exactly
what it says, to see what it actually says. And that's hard
to do. because everybody comes to the
Scriptures with a supposition that they know what it means.
Well, I know what I believe, and this is what I think about
it. But, boy, to be able to come and open up the Word of God and
see what it actually says and take it for what it says. And
I know this, if we ever learn the mind of God, we're going
to learn it in this, in His Word. We'll have to come without any
bias. We'll have to leave our traditions and our presuppositions
behind. We're just going to have to leave
them alone. But most people think they already know the meaning
of John 3.16, so there's no need to, they'll say, there's no need
to study what it really teaches. But oh my, God save us from such
an attitude. I don't never want to, like you're
reading there tonight, it's good for me to be afflicted. Before
I was afflicted, I went astray. How in the world is God going
to get you back? Good for me to be afflicted. Good for me
to be afflicted. But now you take a concordance.
I'm going to talk about the world tonight. What does it mean? Who
is he talking about when he said, God so loved the world? If you'll
take a concordance and study the verses where the term world
is mentioned and used, you'll quickly, quickly understand that
world It's not so easily understood then, because it has so many
different meanings in the Scriptures, in the Word of God. And I say,
you know, I read John, look over here in John 10, chapter 1 and
verse 10. Here's three different worlds, word worlds, in one verse of
Scripture. The world does not mean the same
every place you look at it. Our Lord Jesus was in the world.
It means He came to this earth. And the world, the people that
were in the world, or the world, the earth, and all that was in
this world was made by Him, the earth. The universe was made
by Him. And the world, the people in
the world, knew Him not. Three distinct definitions of
the word world right there. Right there. So the word world
in the New Testament is not used in the same way. It's used several
different ways. And I want you to get your Bibles
and follow along with me, if you will. Let's look, first of
all, in Acts 17. Look with me in Acts 17, verse
24. We're going to talk about, they say, well, you all believe
that God don't love everybody in the world, and I do. And I
believe in God. And people say that all the time.
They say, well, preachers will say to you, God loves you, and
so do we. Like that really makes the love
of God that much better, because we do, too. But look what he
said in Acts 17, 24. Here's the word, world. God made
the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord heaven
and earth, and dwelt not in temples made with him. Now, the world
here means the universe. The whole, it means the whole
of the universe, that God made the world, the stars, the sun,
the moon, everything that's in this world that we see, God made
it. That's what he's talking about
here. So that can't mean people, and it can't mean salvation,
it can't mean everybody. And then back over in John chapter
13 and verse 1, I want you to see something. John chapter 13
verse 1. And I'll try to deal with him
without you having to turn to so much, but look what he said
here in John 13. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when
Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out
of this world, having loved his own which were in the world,
he loved them unto the end. Now, the world here, two verses
of it, two meanings of it, that's used, having loved his own which
were in the world. in the earth. That's all it can
be, on this earth. Having loved his people that
were in this world on the earth, and he was on this earth, and
he says, get me apart out of this earth, from this world here.
And he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
So he's talking about this earth here. And then thirdly, world
is used oftentimes of the world system. Look in John 12, 31.
We're talking about the world system. You know the world system,
how this world out here operates, that the governments and the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
and how the world operates. Look what our Lord Jesus said
here. Now is the judgment of this world. What world? He's talking about the world
system. He's talking about the people who run the world, govern
the world, these Pharisees and those people like that. And you
don't have to look at it, but I'm going to read something to
you over at 1 John 5.19. It says, We know that we are God, and
the whole world lies in wickedness. Now, what world lies in wickedness?
The world outside Christ. The world system out here lies
in wickedness. Politicians, social system, religious
system, school system, you name it. Think about every system
out here in the world. Banking system. Every system
out here lies in wickedness. They've got motives. The motives
and the reason they do everything is not for the glory of God.
That's why God says the plowing of the wicked is abomination
to Him, because they're plowing for their own profit, not for
the glory of God. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, that's why he says the world's system out here. And
then the world sometimes is used for the whole human race. He
says, Now we know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them
that are unto the law that ever mouth may be stopped, and the
whole world become guilty before God. The whole human race. And sometimes the world is used
for humanity. Minus believers. Now what do
you mean by that? Look in John 15, 18. The world
is often used for humanity, excluding believers. John 15, 18, look
what it says. If the world hates you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. Now, we know that we as
believers, we don't hate Christ, but the world hates Christ. The
world doesn't do with Christ. I mean, he's a joke to the world.
His name, his words are bywords. They ridicule him at every opportunity
they get. They ridicule Christians in every
opportunity they get. They despise the mention of the
name Jesus Christ. They don't want to mention Him
in the military anymore. They don't want you to mention
Him any place in public. They don't want you to talk about
Him. They don't want you to, you may say, say, well, you can't
talk about Jesus Christ and say that you can't use His name because
that will offend this one or that one or another. And He says
the world hates you. And now we, we're not the world,
we don't hate Christ. We love Christ and we honor Christ. Now look what it says over here
in John 17, 9. Now here's the world of believers
minus humanity. John 17, 9. Now this is the difference
between the world of believers. Our Lord sees Jesus said, I pray
for John 17, 9. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world. What world is he not praying
for there? the world of unbelievers. I'll tell you what, He's not
praying for these people over here that hate Him. He's not
praying for that world that lies in wickedness. He's not praying
for that world's system. No, He's not doing that. And
oh, beloved, I'll tell you what, and I'll tell you this, and He
says, I know this, the world hates you. And I tell you, we
don't hate our Lord. We love our Master. And He's
talking about the world of unbelievers. And I'll tell you what, and I
know this. Believers shall not be judged by God Himself, and
I'll tell you why. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ. That word condemnation is judgment.
That's what it means. You know, Christ came into the
world that we should not be condemned, and we're not condemned. So the
world doesn't mean you men of the world and everybody that's
in it. And I'll tell you, let me show you something else where
the world is used only, well I'll just, I'll just, John 12,
let me show you John 12 real quick, and I'll use that and
move on. The world is often used only
of believers, and there's one place where it's used to show
that God is, just loves the world, the Gentiles, and he sets aside
the Jews, and he said if the Jews were cast away, and it was
the salvation of the world, the world of the Gentiles, that the
world is brought in, the world of God's elect is brought in
because the Jews were cast aside. But look what it said here in
John 12, 47. This is what I'm talking about.
The world is used of only of believers. And if any man hear my words
and believe not, I judge him not. For I came not to judge
the world, but to save the world. Now what world is he going to
save then? Huh? What world is he going to save?
Every man in the human race? Everybody that is? Every person
that exists right now near us, is that who he's going to save?
Huh? And I tell you why he's going
to have to judge the world, because the world is under the judgment
of God and always has been. And it's He that brings us and
saves us out of the world, saves us out of that judgment. And
we are not under condemnation in Christ. And look what He said
in John 6.33. I told you I wouldn't do this
again, but I'm going to do it anyway. I don't mean to be lying
to you. But talking about the world, God's people, it's the
world. He said in John 6.33, For the
bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life
unto the world. What world does He give life
unto? Who is the bread of life for? Who did you eat bread in
the wilderness? You know who only ate bread in
the wilderness that came down from heaven? Only Israel. You
know who only eats the bread of God that come down from heaven?
Only His elect. Only His people. Only those He
died for. They're the only ones that want
the bread of life. And I tell you why we want the bread of
life, because He gave us a hunger and a thirst after righteousness.
And if a man ain't hungry, he ain't gonna eat bread. He ain't
gonna come to Christ until he gets hungry. And when he gets
hungry, he'll come to Christ for the bread of life. And He
came down from heaven as that bread of life for the world,
for His world, His people. And also, there are seven clearly
defined meanings of the world in the New Testament. Now, back
over in our text, John 3.16. It says, God so loved the world.
Now let me tell you, I'm going to tell you how you can interpret
Scriptures. You must interpret Scriptures
by asking it questions. But it says, God so loved the
world. Now you think about this. Every sect, every cult, every
denomination, organizations of all ages, whether they're Universalists,
whether they're Unitarians, whether they're Southern Baptists or
Northern Baptists, Christian scientists, Mormons, Jehovah's
Witnesses, Russellites, Spiritualists, Church of God, Assembly of God,
you name it, beloved, every one of them agree and tell you that
God so loved the world and He meant everybody in the world.
So if every false religion in this world agrees to the same
thing, you can bet that billionaire that it's the wrong interpretation. That ain't that right? Just mark it down. Who believes
that God so loved the world? And He loves everybody in the
world. That right there tells you that they've got the wrong
interpretation. When a Mormon and a Southern Baptist can agree
on the same verse of Scripture, there's something that's wrong. And I tell you, they tell you
this, and it makes no difference if a man lives in defiance against
God, and he dies cursing God. God still loves him, they tell
us. And that's why when you go to
a funeral, whether it's a young person, or an old person, or
a middle-aged person, they may have never, ever thought of Christ,
called on Christ, worshipped Christ, read a Bible, said a
prayer, or done anything, but 99 out of 100 times they'll tell
you that God loved him, and God loved him, and it's a shame that
he died such a way as he did. And if so, what happens if everybody
sits there and says, well, if God loves him, well then, oh,
he must love me too. And they'll sit there and say,
oh, he's in a better place, he's in peace. What makes you think
he's in a better place? If you defy God, if you cuss
Christ, and you live without God, and you live without Christ,
what makes you think that you're at peace? What makes people think
they're at rest? What makes people think that
they're better off? The preachers have told people
that for as long as time has been. Oh, told some men about
a young man a minute ago, and I told Mary when it was over,
oh, I just got sick in my stomach. I said, oh, that poor boy's done
gone. He's done gone, and he's in hell
right now. Immediately gone. Live without God, you die without
God. Live without Christ, you die
without Christ. So it's ridiculous to stand up
and tell everybody that God loves you. What if somebody, the average
evangelist today, the average preacher would have Esau in their
congregation. And then to hug him up and to
let go, Esau, we're so glad you're here. Oh, Esau, I know people
have been telling you, you've been a pretty rough character
and all that, but say, poor God so loves you. Oh, He loves you
so much. Won't you come up here and alter? They've been lying
to Esau. They've been lying to him. And they'll say, this is one
of the things they say, God loves the sinner and hates the sin. What is there in a sinner but
sin? Here's a verse of Scripture they
never quote. God hates the workers of iniquity.
God is angry with the wicked every day. Huh? And what is there
in a sinner but sin? God loves the sinner but hates
his sin. You can't separate the sinner and his sin. Do you know
why a sinner sins? Because he's a sinner. He can't
do anything else. Now what in the world? How is
he going to quit being one of them? For God saved him by his blessed
grace. And I tell you, God commended
his love toward us in that while we were young. What? Yes, sinners. And all sinners are full of wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores from the top of their head to
the sole of their feet. And they're not bound up and
they're not modified. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, God is light. That means He's holy and He's
righteous. as well as love. So God's love
must be a holy love, based on His nature and His character.
And for me or anybody else to tell a Christ-rejected sinner
that God loves him, you know what it does? It just hardens
his heart and spills his conscience and just makes him that much
more secure in his sins. Ain't that right? Oh, I just, oh. Conscience is
shared. I'll tell you what the love of
God is. The love of God is the children's bread. And for us
to present it to His enemies is to cast His bread before dogs. You say, preacher, you're hard.
I don't mean to be hard. But I'll tell you, this generation
has been thrown a curveball by preachers. And I'll tell you
what, if we don't tell them the truth, who's going to tell them
the truth? If we don't tell them what the world means, who's going
to tell them? If we don't tell them who Christ died for, who's
going to tell them? If we don't tell them who the
character of God is, who's going to tell them? Let me tell you
something here in John 3, verse 16. This is Christ speaking.
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. This is the only place in the Gospels where the Lord
Jesus is telling sinners that God loves them. You see, in the
book of Acts, where all the preaching was done, from Peter, Paul, and
John, and James, and Philip, and all these men who preached
in the Gospels, and message after message after message after message,
not one time did any preacher, Paul, or Peter, or James, or
John, or Philip, when he had the Ethiopian Union, not one
time did one of them sit there and say, now get up here in the
cart with me, and I'm going to tell you how much God loves you.
Paul never stood on Mars Hill, he said, oh, listen, smile now,
God loves everybody, you bunch of heathens out here, you gather
up here on Mars Hill, you bunch of philosophers. That's not what
he said, no. He started out with God. And in the epistles, who are
addressed to the saints and the saints alone, That's where the
love of God is presented. That's what John said, Behold
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. God committeth His love
toward us, believers. We love God. Why? Because He
first loved us. Jesus having loved His own, which
were in the world, He loved them to the end. I'll tell you, unconverted
men don't need to hear God loves them. But that he that believeth
on the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son hath not life,
but the wrath of God abides on him. God's wrath abides on him. That's
my children and your children. That's my father and your father.
That's your mother and my mother. That's your grandchildren and
my grandchildren. And that's why it's so imperative,
that's why it's so necessary for us to be honest with them
and be true to them and be honest and tell them the truth. And I'll tell you something else
about the love of God. The love of God is only in one place.
You know where that's at? In Christ Jesus. I'm persuaded that nothing shall
separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. That
shows us it's limited. You know, if you won't get it,
it's only in Christ. Huh? That's why he says, you
know, Jacob hath a loved. Where did he love him at? Loved
him in Christ. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth ever so.
So God's love is restricted to his family members. People that's
in his family. And then, though he says that
God so loved the world, does that mean the entire human race?
Let me ask you a question. Let's look at it this way. If
God sold off the world, that means the entire human race.
That means you've got to go all the way back to Adam and deal
with the human race up until Christ came, and deal with the
human race not only forward, but backwards. Huh? Now, you look at the history
of mankind before the Lord came. You know how many people perished
before Christ came into this world. Huh? Do you have any idea? Millions
having no hope without God in this world? Look in Acts 14,
16, just a minute. Acts 14, 16. Oh, this is... God says, "...who in times past
suckered all nations to walk in their own ways." He just let
both nations walk in their own. They want to worship other gods.
They want to worship snakes, they want to worship monkeys,
they want to worship idols, they want to set idols on their mantles,
and they want to have statues to bow down to, they want plastic
things to bow down to. And you say, people don't do
that. They do that in America. Right down the road here, a woman's
got a statue of Mary out in the yard. Go other places and they got
statues and you got this thing Jesus hanging up there on a cross
with a purple thing hanging around it. Idols that God suffers people
to walk in their own way and then it says over in Romans 128
that God gave them up for a reprobate mind. Who did God give up? A
whole world of people. You know where the gospel started
at? The gospel started in Africa. Do you know that? Start over
in the Mideast, the first place they went over in North Africa,
over in there, start preaching the gospel. Went over to where
Turkey's at. Paul went to where Turkey is
right now, where they're fighting over there. Paul was one of the
first people to go into Turkey and preach the gospel. It's called
Asia Minor. Went down to Greece. They started
the gospel in Greece. Down there right now, them folks
are as poor as church houses and fighting like thieves and
dogs. And that's where the gospel was born. What happened? They
rejected Christ and God gives them up. And I tell you, everybody say
that God loved all mankind in the past. Well, as I tell you, if you look
in Revelations, and it says, you know, tells us there that
he go low, low, whoa, he starts to put judgment on men on this
earth. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, and judgment after judgment after
judgment falls. And I'll tell you something about
God. He never changes. He's the same God that said,
let there be light, is the same God who is light. The same God
that created the world and destroyed the world with the flood is the
same God that we worship today. Huh? And you know, I'll tell
you, I'll tell you what world he loved in Noah's day. You know what world he loved?
Noah, Noah's three sons and Noah's three wives. The rest of them,
he let perish. He said he saw that the whole
world lied in wickedness, and the imagination of man was only
evil contingent. Now, you reckon God loved that
bunch? What Scott said one time, he said, boy, if it had been
this day, they'd have had a great big sign on the back of that
ark, you know, while the folks were drowning. Smile, God loves
you. That would have been no good
for them. That would have been taunting them. That would have
been torturing them. That would have been ridiculing them. That would have
been despising them. That would have been a cruel
thing to do to them. Oh, they love it. But they say
world means world, but world here doesn't mean world. Oh, man. Our Lord Jesus, His
brother told Him in John 7, verse 4, said, Show thyself to the
world. Did He mean go and show yourself
to every person on the face of the earth? Show yourself to all
mankind? Is that what you reckon they
meant? No, He said go and show yourself to the world in which
you're living in right now. the people you live among right
now. You know, we use the world in the sense, well, that fellow,
his world's not very big, is it? And then I get out here in
America, and I say, America, I say, boy, this world's a great
big world, ain't it? And then how many times we say
about somebody, I said, boy, he's in his own world, ain't
he? You all like that story. You all in your own world. But
you see how we use world in different ways? And that's the way the
Scriptures does. The Pharisees said about the
Lord Jesus Christ, they said, the world is going after Him. Did they mean the whole human
race had gone after Christ? No, the world that they lived
in, the world they was involved in, the world of religion and
the world of Jerusalem at that time, they said, everybody's
going after Him. Well, they didn't go after Him. The whole multitude of people
did go after Him. But they said the whole world's
going after Him. And when Paul wrote to the saints in Romans
1.8, he says, your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
Did he mean that the saints, that people everywhere you went,
was saying, boy, them saints, you went over somewhere, you
know, and said, boy, he said, your faith is spoken of throughout
the whole world. You reckon every subject on earth was talking
about the faith of the saints at Rome? No, just the church,
the church, the world, the people of God's people, they understood.
The whole world, when we preach the gospel, the world that we
live in, they have heard of your faith. Now, let's look at John
3.16 in its context, and see, that's another thing you've got
to do when you start to speak. You've got to deal with words
and what it's talking about. Who's talking, who they're talking
to, and what they're talking about. Now, in this context,
our Lord Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. It is, there is a
man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And as a
Jew, Nicodemus was like all Jews. He believed that God's mercies
were just confined to the Jewish nation and only going to save
the Jews. That God wasn't going to do anything
for anybody else but the Jews. But look what our Lord said in
verse 14 of John 3. And 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. 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. For God sent His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. Now, what our Lord is doing here is announcing
to Nicodemus, announcing to the Jews, that God's love in giving
His Son reached beyond Israel, reached beyond the Jewish nation.
What Christ is doing, He's announcing that God has a purpose of grace
towards people outside the Jews, the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
So our Lord is saying here that God loves His world. He's going
to love the world. He's going to love every kindred,
type, and tongue, and people out of the world, every character,
every race, everything. He's going to say, I'm going
to go outside the Jewish nation, and I'm going to save people
from all over the world, out of every race. And, oh, beloved,
let me show you something here. Let me show you the world. I
want to show you who are the objects of God's love. Look in
John 6.33. No, not again. That's the world
of the godly. I told you that, you know, that he's that bread
which came down from heaven. I believe that's what that is.
And gave his flesh to the world, giveth his life unto the world.
That's the elect. Now let me show you the world
of the ungodly. 2 Peter 2.5. That's the world
of the godly. Look at the world of the ungodly.
2 Peter 2.5. Oh God, Christ came down from
the world, He's the bread of life to give life unto the world,
His people, His elect. And then look what He said in
1 Peter 2, 5. And spared not the old world,
but saved Noah the eighth preacher, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. A world of ungodly people. Godly people, a world that Christ
died, a world Christ redeemed, and there's a world of undodliness.
There's a world of God's elect, and there's a whole world that
lies in wickedness. And so, you know, people say, well, in John's,
world in John 3.16, you know, that still means world. But I
tell you, world in John 3.16 must refer to God's people and
God's people alone. The world of God's people. And
what's the alternative solution if that's not what it means? It can't mean the whole human
race. One half of the human race was
already in hell when the Lord came. And it's unfair to say it means
every human being now living. Why? It's unfair to say that
God loved every human being that's living now. Let me tell you why.
Where is the wisdom of God in loving people that He knows are
not going to believe, that's not going to come, that's not
interested, and will not part with their sins? Where's the
wisdom of God in the gospel? In His Son coming, His Son dying,
His Son bearing sin, His Son going to the grave, His Son resurrecting,
His Son sitting at the right hand of God, and then not saving
all for whom He died, if it means the whole human race. What about
the wisdom of God? And people say, well, it really
honors the love of God. No, it don't. It don't honor
it at all. Because every other place in
the New Testament where God's love is mentioned, it's limited
to one person, one people, His people. His people. And I'll tell you what, beloved,
that's why we're saying, how can it be, how can it be that
thou, my God, should die for me? For Him who We did to death
pursue? Oh, that he would... It's an astounding
thing. I can understand God not loving
me. I really can. I can understand
God treating me like Esau. I can grasp that. I can. I can grasp... I can grasp...
God said, God said, you know, the way I am and the way I was,
I could see God just said, leave him alone. Just leave Him alone. Let Him go. But that's not what
the love of God had intention for me. I was in that world that Christ
died for. I was in that world that Christ
came to put my sin away. I was in that world that wasn't
lying in wicked. I was in that world that wasn't
spared. I was in that world, beloved, that God gave to Christ
before the world ever began. Every place you find the love
of God is limited to His people, I'm telling you. And the object
of God's love in John 3, 16 is the same object of Christ's love
in John 13, 1. Having love is all which were
in the world. And then let us look here in
John 3, 16, and I'm going to wind this up. I know you all don't have no
problem with this, but it's good to refresh our minds about it
and remember things about it. And why we do this is because
people presume on God. They presume that they know the
right thing. They presume they're doing the
right thing. They presume they believe the right thing. And
until they find out from hearing the Scriptures and looking at
the Scriptures, they'll die in their presumption. So I don't
know who has presumption here or not. But I know that that's
the way we are by nature. We presume that, you know, I'm
right in my thinking, I'm right in my belief, I'm right in my
ideas, I'm right in the way I feel, I'm right in everything I do.
But, beloved, we won't know how wrong we are until we find out
who God is. And that's why we do these things
to kill presumption. I presumed for years that I was all right. And I was
a legalist. I presumed for years that I was all right when I was
preaching against everything that was... preaching everything
but Christ. I presumed when I was telling
women that they shouldn't wear makeup, that they shouldn't wear
pants, that they shouldn't have a television in your home. I was full of presumption. And
I was right, until God came along and said, now listen. And by
God's sovereign mercy, he came along and tore down that stronghold. That's what he calls the imaginations
of your stronghold. The mind is a stronghold. And
he says he comes down and breaks down that stronghold of your
imagination and tears it down and just begins to break that
stronghold around your mind. He breaks it down and he breaks
it down and breaks it down. And then all of a sudden that
light gets in there. And you say, oh me, how could I have
been so wrong? How could I have been so blind?
How could I have been so dumb? How could I have been so presumptuous?
How could I have been so wrong and thought I was so right? I tell you, this is a true story.
Five or six years ago, I was in the study one morning. I put
an article in the bulletin. And I think the article, I mean,
in the newspaper, and I think the article was that three lies
the devil's told this generation. The first one is that God loves
them. Second, Jesus died for them. And the third one is that, well, I don't
remember. But anyway, I was sitting back
there one morning, and this, somebody beat on the outside
door. I went and opened the door, and
there's a great big fella standing there. Big ol' fella, like, about
as big as Milton Heinemann. Big ol' boy. And he had a paper
in his hand. He had that newspaper arc in
his hand. He said, Did you write this? I said, I did. He said,
Do you believe it? I said, I do. He said, Do you
mean to tell me you believe that God don't love everybody? I said, I do. And I probably calmed down a
little bit, and I said, well, come in here and sit down. Let's
just talk about this. Let's talk about this. He is
upset. A Baptist church out on 127 North. He says, one of our church members
read there that God didn't love everybody and Jesus didn't die
for everybody. She said she was going to come back to church.
She couldn't believe that God would be like that. That's all she's doing, going
to church anyway. It better all happen in that bunch. But anyway,
we sat there and talked and talked and talked. And we went through one thing
after another. And you show them from the scriptures, and they'll
automatically say, well, that's not the way I believe. That's
not the way I believe. That's not the way I was taught. Well, I wasn't taught that way
either, and I didn't believe this either. How in the world
do we come to this place where we believe like this? The Spirit
of God, the Holy Ghost of God comes and teaches us and instructs
us and shows us these things. And then when He shows us something
and we know it's true, there ain't but one thing for us to
do. Either say, I ain't gonna believe it, or run up and hug
up to it and say, thank you, Lord, for making me know this,
for revealing this to me. Thank you for letting me know
this, saving me from my ignorance and my blindness. from myself,
Christ, save me from myself. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving
me from this awful, awful ignorance. And let me just go here to John
3.16. Let me go through John 3.16 quickly. Look what it is. For God so loved the world that
He gave. Christ is the gift of God. Isn't
that what He says? What did God give? He gave Christ. Christ is the gift of God. Why
did He give Him? Because He so loved. Who did
He give Him for? For whosoever believeth. Do you
believe? Do you believe? If you believe,
then Christ came for you. Christ gave Himself for you.
God gave Christ for you. And the purpose, not only that
you believe, but that you should not perish. That if He saves
you, and you believe on Him, and God gave Christ for you,
then you'll not perish. You'll not perish. Is that right? The world refers to the world
of believers, being distinct from that world of the ungodly.
You know where God commended His love toward us, of why we
are sinners. Hebrews 12, 6 says, God, whom
he loves, he chastens. And every son whom he receives,
he chastens, and he rebukes and chastens. And who he doesn't
rebuke and chasten is a bastard, not a son. He only deals with
his own children. And I tell you, God is good to
the unthankful and the evil. He's kind to them. And the Scriptures
tell us in Roman 9.22 that the vessels of wrath, He endures
with much longsuffering. He endures people. He just endures. You know how we endure things
that's in this world? You know how we endure? We endure
lots of things that we just don't like. We don't enjoy. We put
up with it. We endure it. We're enduring
The situation of our country right now, we're enduring it,
we don't like it. Well, that's the way God does with the vessels
of wrath. He just puts up with them, and puts up with them,
and puts up with them, and puts up with them. He put up with
the world for over 600 years, 1,500 years before Noah came,
and then for 120 years. Noah preached 120 years, and
I got one convert. Got one. But I'll tell you something who
God loves. John 3, 13, 1. Read it when you get home. Jesus
having loved his own which were in the world. How long did he
love her? To the end. Oh, you think about it. I don't. Oh, to think that Christ
Christ himself, John, he called him the disciple whom Jesus loved. He would lay his heart on the
Master's breath. And it talked about when Lazarus
was sick and Lazarus died. It says that Jesus loved Mary,
Lazarus and Mary and his sister Martha. He loved those two. There's some Martha's, and some
Mary's, and a whole bunch of Lazarus around here, and the
Lord loves them all. Don't He?