What does it mean? Who does it
mean? What does it mean, the world?
Who is it in reference to out of John 3.16? It says, 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. You know, there's lots of objections
to the grace of God. When people find out you believe
in the sovereign grace of God and preach the sovereign grace
of God, free grace, no strings attached, no conditions, and
when you preach that God's will and purpose is accomplished,
that he effectually chooses who he will, calls his elect to himself,
redeems them by the blood of Christ, the first thing they
say is, well, what about human responsibility? What about human
responsibility? I had a friend for years. And
that's what he said. He said, you fellas deal with
that sovereignty business, and I'll just deal with human responsibility. But when they talk about the
grace of God and human responsibilities, they're not enemies. They're
not enemies at all. And we call on men to respond
to the gospel. We call on men to respond to
God. We call on men. And if they didn't
have someone to answer to, they'd have nobody to be responsible
to. But most people, when they talk about human responsibility,
they mean that they are responsible to their own free will, to their
own ability, their own power to choose. That when God gives
them their chance, that they'll cooperate with God in that chance,
then they'll be safe. But human responsibility, I mean,
you know, you tell a man he's responsible, I want to until
God does something for him, and until he sees what God is and
who God is, he'll not do anything. But when God's presented as God,
and we preach election, and we preach His sovereignty, and we
preach that God saves whom He will, and Christ only died for
His elect, people always run to John 3, 16, and say, well,
God so loved the world, it says, that my Bible says, this is what
they'll say, my Bible says, that God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. And said, world surely means
world. That means you, me, and everybody else in this world.
And then they run to 1 John 2 where it says that Christ is not only
a propitiation for our sins, but also a propitiation for the
sins of the whole world. And whenever we tell them that
the children, being not yet born, neither having done good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, they
always run to this word, world, and all, and I'll deal with all
next week. And they'll say, surely, surely, world means you, me,
and everybody. Well, and I know, and I know
from experience, I know this from experience, how hard it
is to set aside the traditions of men, preconceived notions,
and to come to a verse of Scripture, and having heard it taught a
certain way all your life, and dealt with a certain way all
your life, and then come to it without any bias to see what
it actually says. And you always got to remember
this, who's talking and who he's talking to. Christ is talking
to a Pharisee, a Jew, who is a very religious leader, a master
in Israel, somebody that should have been teaching people and
was teaching people. And our Lord Jesus Christ told
him about the new birth. And he comes down here to tell
him, he says, and God, you think God's just the God only of the
Jews? You think God is just the God only of the Jews, and He's
only going to save the Jews, and He's only going to set up
a kingdom among the Jews. He said, I'm telling you that
God, my Father, loved this world so much that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.
And if we ever learn the mind of God in His Word, we'll have
to come to the Scriptures unbiased. And here's the sad thing about
it. Most people think they already know what the meaning of something
is, especially like John 3.16. So they think there's no need
to study it to see what it says, what it really teaches. And I
want to be saved from such an attitude. I want to know what
the Scripture says. I don't want to know what I think
it says. I want to know what it says. And you take a concordance
sometimes. You just take a concordance.
And you study the verses where the word world is at in the verses.
And there's lots and lots of them in the New Testament. And
when you look at those things, you'll quickly understand that
the world is not so easily understood in the sense that it includes
everybody. It's really not that easy. In fact, in 1 John 111,
it says, he was in the world, come to the earth, and he made
the world. That means he made this universe.
And the world, mankind didn't know it. There's three definitions
of world in one verse of scripture. Three different definitions.
And you know, when you start telling people things like that,
they just look at you like a cat staring at a new gate. They don't
know what you're talking about. But the word world, unless you
follow me along this evening, And the word world in the New
Testament is not used the same way. It's used in several different
ways. And look with me now in Acts 17.24. What did you say,
you had a Baptist Bible drill up there? And Bob said, let's
look here, let's look under. Look in Acts 17.24. Here's the
word world. I won't go through all these.
I'll quote a lot of them when we get there. But let's look
at this 17.24. Here's the word, here's the word
world, and how it's used, and you know they say God so loved
the world, and they run there, and they run the things of propitiation
for our sins, but not only ours, but for the sins of the whole
world. They mean that means everybody, but look at what John 17, Acts
17, 24. God had made the world, and all
things therein seemed that His Lord of heaven and earth dwelt
not in temples made with hands. Now is that talking about people,
or is that talking about the creation of the world? There's
not salvation in that at all. That's not talking about God
being sovereign and making the world. And then Paul goes on
to preach Christ, to preach God, and set forth God as to be world.
This God that made the world. This universe. He's not worshipped
with your hands. He's not worshipped in buildings.
He's not worshipped with silver and gold. And if you're going
to worship Him, you're going to come to Him as He is. You're
going to come to Him as the Sovereign and the Eternal, as the One who
upholds this world, made this world, and sent His Son into
this world. And that's why it says you ignorantly
worship Him. And I'll tell you another one
is, now that third word is not going to have nothing to do with
people. That has to do with the universe, God making the universe.
And then you find the word world is used oftentimes in meaning
the earth. Our Lord Jesus, having loved
his own which were in the world, that was on this earth. He chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's this earth.
Job asked the question, God asked Job the question, Job, where
was you when I laid the foundation of the world? When I laid the
foundation of the earth? So when he talks about, beloved,
that he loved his own which were in the world, those that are
on this earth. Not out in the universe. People live in here
on this earth. And then in John 12, 31, look
at that with me just a minute. It's this here, it's used to
the world system. It's used to the universe. It's used to the
earth. And here in John 12, 31, it's used to the world system.
Where it says, you know, we're not of the world. John 12, 31
says this. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now, shall the prince of this world be cast out? He's talking
about the world system. You know, the political system,
the social system, the economic system, the one that governs
and rules everybody in this world, the passion of this world, and
this world system, and everything that's against God, and everything
that's against Christ, everything that's against truth and righteousness. And that's why he says, you know,
John 5.19 says this, 1 John 5.19 says, We are of God. Now, we know we
are of God. But the whole world lies in wickedness. So there's two distinct people
there. We are of God. But the whole world, the world
system out there, lies in wickedness. Anybody doubt that the world
don't lie in wickedness? Anybody doubt that this world's
not wicked? Anybody doubt that this world's
not in sin? Anybody doubt that this world's not against God,
got both fists raised up in His face? No. And then there's the
word world in Romans 3.19. This is the whole human race
here in Romans 3.19. Let me show you this. It's used
in the universe in Acts 7.24. Of the world, earth, then of
the world system, and here's the whole human race, John 3.19. Now we know that what thanks
whoever the law saith, It saith them that are under the law,
now watch this, that every mouth may be stopped, and watch this,
and the whole world may become guilty before God. Every mouth,
every soul on topside of this world, on this earth, is guilty
before God, the whole human race. They're without excuse. You know,
I read it over there a minute ago, and I didn't get to it yet,
and we'll see it later, that God left himself without, did
not leave himself without a witness. He gave us rain from heaven.
gave us things to eat. So the creation itself will be
a witness against men and women in this world. And all the goodness
of God. So this is of the whole human
race. When they face God, the whole human race mouth will be
stopped. They will be without excuse. They won't be able to
argue with Him. And then the world, and I love this, the world
over here in John 15, 18. Let's look at this just a minute.
John 15, 18. Somebody asked me the other day,
why don't you deal with things like this? And I said, well,
I can do that. God willing, I can do that. John
15, 18 says this. Now, this is the world, humanity,
minus the believers. It's two different people. If
the world hates you, now who does it hate? God's people. You know that it hated me before
it hated you. Now that's the humanity with
the believers out of it. Here's the believers. Who's the
world hate? Believers. Your family don't want to hear
you talk about Christ. Your family don't want to hear
you talk about what Christ accomplished. They don't want to hear you even
pray. They don't want to tell you,
you know, they'll say, let's just not discuss it. I've just
read a lot of discussion. I don't want to talk about it.
I don't know how many times I've talked to people and they'll
say, well, I just don't see it that way. And you know, you have
to admit to yourself, your own family don't want to hear what
you've got to say. They don't want to say, you know, we ask
them to come to services. I'm not going up there. I don't
believe that. You know, and when you say, well, I'm one of God's
elect, the first thing they say is, you think you're the only
one to say, that means to tell you that they hate you. They
hate not you, but the gospel that you're preaching. And here,
that's what our Lord said. Now listen, who hates Christ? The carnal mind is timidly against
God. Believers don't hate the Lord
Jesus Christ. Huh? The world hated me before
they hated you. We don't hate Christ. The world
hates Christ. The world hates you. Believers
don't hate their Lord. It's the world of unbelievers.
And our Lord said in John 17 and 9, I pray not for the world,
but for those which thou hast given me out of the world. I'm
not praying for everybody out here. I've probably told you
this before, but years ago I was reading one of Arthur W. Pink's
books, and I come across that where, you know, we're not supposed
to pray for everybody to be converted. You know, everybody, you know,
they'll pray, God save the world, save this people. And he says,
you're not supposed to pray for God to save people just indiscriminately. He said Christ didn't pray for
the world. Christ only prayed for his own people. He only prayed
for his elect. He said, I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me out of the world. And
he says, Father, I pray for these that thou hast given me. There
are people he prayed for, and beloved, we are believers because
Christ prayed for them. I shall pray for them which shall
believe on me through their word. And beloved, we believe this
word because Christ prayed for us in John 17. And I tell you,
believers ain't going to be judged by God either. Look in John 5.24.
And you know the world's going to be judged. They're not believers. Here's a different world, and
the same thing, it's humanity, and you take the believers out
of humanity. John 5.24, look what it says,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation. He's not going to come into judgment.
He's passed from death unto life. Now, God's going to judge the
world in righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody's
going to have to face God in judgment, but we're not going
to come into judgment like the world will, because we're in
Christ. We're not condemned in Christ. We're not judged in Christ.
And Romans 8, verse 1 says this, therefore, now, now, no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. So the world here doesn't mean
you, me, and everybody. And I tell you, if there's another
world, it's only used for believers only. Just strictly used for
believers only. John 3.16 is one of them. But
then you've got John 1.29. Behold, the Lamb of God has taken
away the sin of the world. Sin, singular. Now, does He take
away the sin of every human being on the face of the earth? Is
everybody's sin gone? If He took away their sin, then
they're not going to come into condemnation. If Christ took
away the sin of the world, when John beheld him there, behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, then there
is no way in the world if Christ took away their sin that they'll
have to face God in judgment. So it's a particular people that
he took their sins away. In John 6.33, look what it says.
Let me show you this. We're all worried over there. Christ said here for us, He's
the bread of God. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world." What world
has he given life unto? It's the world of his elect,
it's the world of those he redeemed, it's the world of those he was
given to, it's the world that Christ died for, it's the world
that the people of God gave him to. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing the trespasses to it. He didn't
reconcile the whole world, the world of His elect. So I gave
you several different, clearly defined, different meanings of
the World Testament. So let's look back over in John
3.16, just a minute. God so loved the world, and I
am thankful He did. I am thankful He did. I'm thankful He did. I'm thankful
that He loved the world. I'm thankful that He gave. I'm
thankful that He came. But when it talks about the world
here, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life. Does the world and all of its
different sects and cults and organizations All the world here,
all of them believe and agree that this means everything and
everybody. Whether you're a Universalist, a Unitarian, a Christian Scientist,
a Mormon, a Russellite, a Spiritualist, a Catholic, they all believe
that that world there means everybody in the whole human race. And it makes no difference to
them if a man lives in defiance against God, dies cussing God,
they'll still say, God loved him. Don't they right? They'll still,
I don't care, a man can die with both fists raised in God's face,
and die cussing, and they'll say, God loved him. And somebody go into eternity,
God loved him. And preachers get up and say,
God loves you, and so do we. And they'll use this kind of
phrase, that God loves the sinner but hates his sin. When the scripture
says, God commended his love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now, what does it mean to
be a sinner? Do we become sinners when we sin? Or do we sin because
we're already sinners? So if God hates the sinner, I
mean, loves the sinner and hates his sin, how do you separate
the sinner from his sin? You can't do it. You know the
reason we started sinning? Sins are the fruit of what we
are. Ain't that right? And that's why, you know, a man
don't become a thief when he steals something. He steals something
because he's a thief. And so what he says here, that's
why it says, from the top of the head to the sole of the foot,
you're full of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. So they
use the love of God in a most demeaning, most despicable, most
low way. And you see, God is light as
well as love, and so His love must be a holy love. You put
holy in front of every attribute of God Almighty, but you can't
put love in front of all of it. You say, holy wrath, holy righteousness, holy love, holy justice, but boy, you put love in front
of wrath. Love and wrath? Loving justice? Loving righteousness? Oh, and to tell a Christ-rejected,
proud-hearted, stiff-necked, Christ-rejected, God-hating sinner
that God loves him, that just makes his conscience that much
harder. It just makes him secure in his sin. If God loves me,
what do I have to worry about? And the love of God is children's
bread. It's children's bread. And to
preach the love of God that way is to cast the love of God to
His enemies, to cast the bread to the dogs. And oh, the love
of God here, the only place that our Lord Jesus in the gospel
where it mentions that He tells sinners that God loves them is
right here in John 3.16. It's the only place. The book
of Acts doesn't mention the love of God. And the epistles, when
you find them addressed to the saints, every time the love of
God is presented, taught and read, it talks about God's love
for his own, for his own elect. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon who? Us. Us. God commended his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us. Jesus having loved
his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the very end. And I'll tell you, beloved, I
don't want to be hard, I don't want to be mean, I don't want
to sound overbearing here. The sinners don't need to hear
that God loves them. Look what our Lord said in verse
36 of John 3.16. Look what He said in John 3.
Look what He says in the last part of the last verse of John
3. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
Our Lord looked at him and said, except you believe I'm evil,
die in your sins. He said, you're of your father the
devil. And sinners don't need to hear that God loves them,
but that He is angry with sinners. That He hates the workers of
iniquity. That He's angry with sinners every day. And beloved,
when a man finds out God's against him, Then he wants to find out,
how in the world can I get out from under this awful cloud that
I'm in? How can I be saved from this wrath of God that's against
me? How can I get out of the way? How can this God and me
and my rebellion and me and my sin, what am I going to do when
I face him? When this preacher tells me that he's angry with
me. When this preacher tells me that he hates the workers
of iniquity. And then, you know, and what
are you going to do? There's only one thing you can
do. Either you stay in your sin, and you stay in your rebellion,
or you bow down one or the other. And that's what preachers have
done. They've coddled men and women on the road to hell. And
it's the wrong thing to do. And let me tell you something
else about the love of God here. The love of God is in Christ
Jesus. God's love is not something out here all by itself. It's
not an abstract thing. God's love is given to sinners
in Christ. All spiritual blessings are given
to us in Christ. And so you see the love. Who
shall separate us from the love of God? Who is it at? In Christ. God said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness have
I drawn you. And God loves us in the blessed
Son of God. And this shows that it's limited
in His sphere. Jacob have a loved. Whom the
Lord loveth, he chastens and rebuketh every son that him receives."
God's love is restricted to his family members. And when it says
here in John 3.16 that God so loved the world, it not only
looks forward, but it also looks backward. When it says that God
so loved the world, you've got to look all the way back to Adam.
There's a world back there. And then you've got to look all
the way to the future. You look from Adam all the way to the
last man. And what about the history of mankind before the
Lord Jesus came into this world? What happened to them? What happened
to all those people before the flood? Oh my, a million untold millions
perished having no hope without God in this world. It says when
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind. Men go through this world, and
I tell you, you know how many people are reprobates sitting
in churches? Sitting in services like this right here tonight.
They have been turned over to a reprobate mind. They don't
want to retain God in their knowledge. They get them a little sermonette,
they get them something from some denomination, they find
something they're supposed to say, they get them a set of doctrines,
they get them some outlines, and they get up and they say,
God loves you, Jesus died for you, and I love you, and we want
you to accept Jesus, we want you to let Him into your heart.
And there's a multitude of people perished because they don't want
to have God as He is. Who can say that God loved all
mankind in the past? And you look in Revelations,
and how many times did it say there, were men, when God poured
out the vials and poured out all the bowls upon men, it says,
there were men who repented not of their hatred, repented not
of their blasphemy, repented not of their wickedness, and
they were in eternity still gnashing with their tongues against God. And this is the thing about it,
that if you make a man convinced that God loves him, and he goes
out into eternity, and he don't know Christ, and he don't know
the love of God in Christ, and God has not made shed abroad
his love and his heart by the Holy Ghost, that he's going to
go out into eternity, and he's going to get the shock of his
life. And that's a scary thing to me.
Ain't it you? Our Lord didn't get up in every
crowd. He did and said, now God loves every one of y'all. And God cannot and does not change.
There's no variableness of light, no change about Him. And oh beloved, and our Lord
Jesus, you know, when He was with His family, He was preaching
and they said, if you are who you say you are, His own brothers
and sisters said this to Him in John 7 verse 4, show thyself
to the world. Show yourself to the world. Did
they mean show yourself to all mankind? Go all over the world,
show yourself to everybody? The Pharisee says, behold, the
world is going to enter him. Did they mean the whole human
race was going to enter him? When Paul told the Romans that
your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world, does that mean
everybody all over the world is talking about them Roman believers
down there? And what a great faith they had?
No. It wasn't a subject of every
soul on earth. But now let's look back over
here quickly. I won't hold you much longer. You know, our Lord
is speaking to Nicodemus here, and John. And he has all Jews. Gary and I were talking about
this the other night. He has all Jews who believe God's mercies
were confined to the Jewish nation. And you find a true Jew today,
and he has no love for a Gentile. You find a Jew that's a baptized
Jew, an orthodox Jew that believes like a Jew does, and believes
there's only one God, that Jesus Christ was a false prophet, that
He was not the Messiah, and all they've got is the Old Testament.
They do not like Gentiles. They think we're dogs. They despise
us. You go to New York City, and they wouldn't give you the
time of day unless you're buying something off of one of them.
Unless you're buying diamonds or something off of them. They
run around in their black hats and their long curls. and the
long black coats, and they won't look at you, won't give you the
time of day. And that's what they believe. They believe that
they're elect. They believe that God's sovereign. They believe in the Bible. They
believe that God's going to set up a kingdom on this earth, and
He's going to set it up right here in Jerusalem, and set up
a throne there, and going to rule from there, and He's going
to rule all the Gentiles from there. So that's the kind of
people that our Lord's dealing with here, with Nicodemus. He
is a ruler of Israel. He was a man, a ruler of the
Jews. And he came to Christ and started talking to Christ. Christ
didn't come to him. He came to Christ. And he started
asking Him some questions. And our Lord says, you know,
your problem's not Your problem is not what you're teaching.
Your problem is with your heart. Your problem is with what you
are. You must be born again. Everything about you is wrong.
He said, well, how in the world can a man be born again when
he's old? He just thought naturally. He says, can a man enter a second
time into his mother's womb? Now, the Lord said, oh, except
a man be born of water, the Word of God. Just like water, when
a baby is born, the woman's water breaks and then the baby's coming.
And that's why He says you got to be born of the water, the
Word of God and of the Spirit. The Spirit takes the Word and
it comes to you and it works in your heart and it sets a seed
in your heart. And when that seed brings forth
fruit, beloved alive comes from that seed. And that new birth
comes, that new nature comes, that new heart comes, that new
spirit comes, that new mind comes, that will to bow down in love
and worship the Lord Jesus Christ just put in you. And he said,
Oh my! I said, well, he said, and if
you was born again in your mother's womb, he said, you'd be just
in the same boat you are right now, you'd still be flesh. So
that's where he's at. And old Nicodemus said, Oh my!
I don't get it. I just don't get it. And he says,
you're a master of Israel, and you don't understand these things.
And here's where he starts the gospel. Now look here in verse
14. Here's the gospel. Here's the
gospel. John 3.16 is not the gospel.
Here's the gospel. John 3.16 is the cause. And here's the effect. 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." He went to something that
Nicodemus would understand. He understood about all of Israel
being bitten with those flaming serpents, fiery serpents, being
infected in their blood, because they murmured and rebelled against
God. They understood that Moses made a serpent of brass and put
it on a pole and lifted it up, and God told every man that looks
at that serpent, said, he'll live. I don't care how dimmy-eyed
he is. I don't care how little faith
he's got or how much. If he looks to that serpent on
that pole, he'll have life. And he says, as that serpent
was lifted up, that's what I'm going to do. Christ, he said,
I, the Son of Man, I'm going to be lifted up. I'm going to
be lifted up on the cross. I'm going to be lifted up before
the world. I'm going to be lifted up for you Jews. And the reason
I'm going to be lifted up is because God so loved this world
that He gave me to be lifted up. And everyone that looks to me,
sees me, believes on me, who is lifted up, they'll have life.
The Gospel is not in John 3.16. The Gospel is in John 13 and
15. And I'll tell you, the cause of John 13 3 and 14 is because
God loved the world. So our Lord is announcing here
to Nicodemus and the whole world that God loved and given His
Son, reached beyond Israel, beyond the nation of Israel. He's announcing
that God has a purpose of grace toward the Gentiles as well as
the Jews. He said God's love is going to
be international. It's going to go past the borders
of Judea. It's going to go out into the
whole world. And there's going to be believers from every tribe
and kindred and nation and tongue on the face of the earth. So who are the objects of God's
love? Well, I tell you, look at 2 Peter. Just a minute. 2 Peter. Oh, listen. John, that's why he's telling
Nicodemus here, he said, Nicodemus, you've got to understand. The reason that Moses lifted
up that serpent in the wilderness is just to show you that I'm
going to be the one lifted up. I'm going to be hung up before
the world. I'm going to be the sin bearer.
That serpent was not a serpent itself, just representative of
a serpent, symbol of a serpent. And then look at it, Christ himself
didn't become sin. He wasn't a sinner. He was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as a sacrifice for sin, he
was made a sacrifice and an offering for sin. But look what it says
here. Here's the people. That's not some of the objects
of God's love. And look in verse 5 here, 2 Peter 5. And spared
not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, was this, bringing in the flood upon the world of
the ungodly. But John 6.33 said, He is that
bread which came down from heaven, which giveth life unto the world.
There's two different worlds there. There's a world of ungodly,
and there's the world that Christ gives life to as the bread. So the world in John 3.16 must
refer to God's people. God's people. What else could
it possibly mean? What's the alternative solution?
If it means the whole human race. Well, one half of the human race
was already in hell before Christ ever came. Before He was ever
lifted up. And it's unfair. It's unrighteous. It's ungodly in my way of thinking. To say it means every human being
now living. It's not scriptural. It dishonors
God. It's lying to men. A fella come here, I couldn't tell
you how many people have come here mad at me and come into
my office and had over these things. Like this year, we had
those newspaper articles. You know, I put a newspaper article
in there, Who Does God Love? The fellow banged on the door
and he says, you know, this has caused some woman to quit. She says she ain't going to come
to church anymore if God's like that. You know what she's saying
is? I don't want to be saved God's
way. Now when Moses lifted up that
serpent, you know who was the only people that were saved?
People looked at that serpent. What she's saying was and what
he's saying was, we're not going to look at that serpent. We're
not going to look to Christ if today. We're going to look to
our free will. We're going to look to our rise. We're going
to look to our power. We're going to look to our altars. We're
going to look to our rises. We're going to look to our works.
We're going to look to our opinions. And he says, don't you believe
that God loves everybody? And I said, no, I don't. And
why would you believe he does? Why would you believe he does?
He said, well, John 3.16, I told him what John 3.16 meant. And
this is what it means. If you tell everybody that God
loves them, it's like the wisdom of God. To say that God, in His
wisdom, would create a man, and tell him He loves him, and then
let him perish, what's the love of God have to do with my salvation
or yours? It has no power to it, no effect
on it. You can't trust it. Huh? If the love of God is, if
it reaches everybody, that's no different. That's just like
a man saying, I love every woman. No different. That it loses all of its power,
loses all of its effectiveness, loses all of its glory. And it
doesn't honor God. It really dishonors Him. It dishonors Him. It brings Him
down to where men can, you know, It brings him down to man's level.
And God's not like us. God's not like us. I love to
talk about the love of God. I tell you about the love of
God. But to do this indiscriminately. And they use John 3.16 to make
everybody. And I'll tell you another reason
why I don't mean that. Because every other place in the New
Testament where God's love is mentioned, it's only limited
to His own people. So the object of God's love in
John 3.16 are the same objects as John 13.1, that Jesus having
loved his own, which were in the world, having loved his own. And so John 3.16 says this, that
God so loved, what did he give? He gave Christ. Christ is the
gift of God. Is not life the gift of God? Oh, He gave Christ. Why did He
give Christ? Because He so loved. Why was Christ hanging on that
cross? Why was Christ bearing our sin? Because He so loved
us. He so loved His people that it
would take nothing less than the sacrifice, the blood offering,
the death, the bloody death of His own blessed Son. And who
did He give because He so loved? For whosoever or everyone that
believes on Him. And that believeth there means,
beloveds this, that once you start believing, you never stop
believing. It's not he that believed on the Son of God. He that believeth. Believeth is always in the continuance. And we continue to believe in
the Son of God. Every day we believe. How many
times do we say, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief? How many
times do we see something that's sold to my moment by moment by
moment by moment? I need thee every hour, every
hour, precious Jesus, I need you. And so, beloved ones, we
believe. Now, if somebody doesn't believe
on Christ, do we have any indication that God loves him and that Christ
died for him? And the purpose that he gave
his son, the purpose that he loved, is that we might have
life and that we should not perish. If we love our children, love
our wives enough that we will do anything in our power to save
them from suffering, and we love them, and we do that,
how much more then would the love of God preserve us? Unlimited in its power. So the
world here refers to a world of believers. A world of believers. And when you look in the scriptures,
wherever you find God's love, it's always referring to His
people, His elect, His elect. We love Him. Why? Because He
first loved us. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He sent His Son into the world to be the propitiation
for our sins. You know, God pities the wicked.
He is kind to the wicked. He says in Matthew
18.33, he says he's kind to the unthankful and the evil. He causes the rain to fall on
the just and the unjust. And he told us in Romans 9.22
that the vessels of wrath, he endures them. He endures them.
He endured for 120 years. A world mocking him and ridiculing
him and hating him and rejecting him. While Noah was preparing
an ark, and there were people that worked on that ark that
ended up getting rounded. This Noah and his three boys
didn't build that ark. It took them 120 years to build
that ark. They had to cut down trees, and
they had to cut all of it into lumber. And then they had to
season it out, and then they had to bend it and mow it. And
then they had to get all them animals together. So you're talking
about a multitude of people building a boat. And that went for 120 years,
and the Scripture says that Noah condemned the world when he done
this. So people worked on that boat that perished. Because this was just a job to
them. They didn't believe Noah. Once
Noah told that bunch, he said, Oh, God loves you and He wants
everyone to be on this boat. God endured those people. for
120 years. And God's enduring this world
right now. He is putting up with this world. He's not putting
up with me and you. He's not enduring us. He loves
us in Christ. He gave us life in Christ. He called us to Christ because
He loved us. Loved us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Set his affection on us. Loved
me long before I ever knew him. But the rest of this world, he's
endearing them. If it bothers us so bad, imagine
what it bothers him to see this world in conditions
here. And I hope, I hope I haven't
sounded mean. I hope I haven't sounded harsh. I hope I've told
you what the world means. It don't mean every verse you
find in it. You know, you've got to find
out in the context what it means. But I do know this, that the
world that, talking about John 3.16, is the world of sinners
for whom Christ died. That's who it is. People from
every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue, from every character,
every class. He saves the rich, the poor,
the ignorant. Just look at us. Our blessed Father, in the precious
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for your mercies.
Oh, thank you for being so merciful. Lord, I pray that you would take
what's been said and use it to your glory. Use it to the good
of those that are here. And I pray that you take anything
that's so unlike you, take it out of it. Don't take my opinions
and my feelings, take them out of it, Lord. Take what's good
and righteous and just and cause it to be a blessing. Father,
we need you. We desire you. We want you. God, cause the church to flourish
and grow. Please have mercy upon those among us who have never
come to Christ, who ask it in His holy name. Amen.