If you would, just mark your
place there in John 12 where Winston read, and turn over to
John 3. That's going to be my text, John
3, but I will refer back to that passage in my message. The title
of this message is God's Love for the World. And you know,
we're looking at a passage of Scripture here in John 3 that
talks about the love of the world. talks about God loving the world
and sending his own son, but you know, as I was thinking about
this God's love for the world, you know, the word love doesn't
necessarily have to be mentioned for you to hear about the love
of God. The entire book of Acts Read through it. You won't find
anything mentioned of the love of God. But is the love of God
spoken there? Is it talked about there? Absolutely. Anytime you hear about a justification
by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
hearing about the love of God. This whole book is about the
love of God for those that He chose before the world began
and gave to Christ. and sent him into this world
to redeem and justify by his blood there on the cross. So,
although we are going to see the word love in this passage
here, this book is about the love of God. So, in John 3, if
y'all were here last week, you know our brother Ken preached
on the first verses of this book, and this is a discourse between
our Lord and Savior, and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. I'm not going
to cover what Ken covered. He covered the first verses.
I want to try to deal with verses 14 through 18 here in this message
this morning. But he's talking about talking
to this man named Nicodemus, and the last thing Ken told us
down here in verse 8, he was telling Nicodemus, You, yourself,
must be born again. To enter into the kingdom, to
see these things, I'm telling you, you must be born again.
So, what I want to do here to start
out with, I want to really concentrate on verses 17 and 18, but let's
go through these first three verses, starting with verse 14
here. Christ said, 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. Now, in this verse 14 here,
we see a reference here to Moses lifting up the serpent in the
wilderness. That word, even so, right there
in the middle. Even so. We'll see that means
in the same manner. But let me tell you about that
serpent lifted up in the wilderness for a minute, in case you can't
remember that story. The children of Israel grumbled
and complained about the manna in the wilderness. And God sent
fiery serpents among them. And they bit the people. And
many of the people died. And so they prayed to Moses.
They said, pray to God for us and tell him to remove these
serpents. And so Moses prayed and the Lord said, make a fiery
serpent, a serpent of brass. Set it on a pole and lift it
up so all the people can see. And it'll be so that whoever
looks at that brazen serpent, and he's been bitten by one of
those fiery serpents, when he looks on that serpent, he'll
live. So he's given reference to that
right here in this verse 14. And the sense of that word, as
I said, is in the same manner. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, in the same manner must the Son of Man be
lifted up. Now, what manner was Moses lifting
up that serpent? Here's the manner. As the only
remedy for Israel's problem. The only way provided for them
to be healed from the bite of those fiery serpents was to look
to that brazen serpent on the pole that Moses lifted up. If
any man was bitten, it says, when he looked to the serpent
of brass, he lived. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that
in that same manner the Son of Man must be lifted up. That same
manner as the only remedy of God for sin. There is only one
remedy. It is found in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, verse 15, he says,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Now, this phrase right here is
seen and interpreted this way right down through here, but
I want to change that just a little bit. We don't speak like this,
so it's a little out of line for us. Whosoever believeth in
him should be understood like this, whoever is believing. Believing is not something we
did at some time in the past, and now that issue has all been
settled. It's something believers continue
to do. It's a persuasion that we have
of who Christ is and what He did and what He accomplished
by His doing and who He did it for and where He is now. So whoever
is believing, continuing to believe on Him and Him alone, So as we
read down through here, I'll try to remember to read when
I see that, whosoever believeth, that's whoever is believing,
and you'll know that's what I'm talking about. Now this verse
16 right here, For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son. This word, so, is the same word
back up there in verse 14 that I said should be translated in
this same manner. in this manner loved the world. God provided national Israel
the only remedy for their snake bite problem, the brazen serpent. And God in this manner demonstrated
His love toward spiritual Israel in the giving of His only begotten
Son. He gave His Son that that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The
provision of a brazen serpent for all of national Israel is
a picture in type of God's specific love for His elect, for spiritual
Israel, for the chosen objects of His eternal love. This verse,
as many have, we've all understood it, this way in the past. We all understood that this verse
was saying that God loved everybody, every single sinner ever born
into this world. But that's not what this verse
is teaching. It's teaching the manner of love that God had for
those sinners that He had chosen before the world began, that
He gave to Christ, and Christ came and delivered by His death
on the cross. It's talking about the manner
of love that He had for Him. What is that manner of love?
It says He sent His only begotten Son. He didn't send a hireling.
He didn't even send an angel as powerful as an angel is. He
sent His only begotten Son into the world. that the only one
who could deliver them from their standing of condemnation, from
their perishing, the only one who could gain them and give
them eternal life. In this discourse directed to
Nicodemus here, Christ makes much of believing. And we'll
look at some of those things here. Look at verse 15. It said,
whoever is believing. And then in verse 16, that same
statement is made, whoever is believing in Him should not perish.
And then on down in verse 18, he says, whoever is believing
on Him is not condemned. So Christ makes much of believing
in this discourse. And the Word of God, in general,
makes much of believing. Believing is important. Believing
is vital. It's not an unimportant matter
in this word, believing. After Philip preached the gospel
to the Ethiopian eunuch, the eunuch said, See, here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
And Philip said to him, If thou believest with all thine heart,
thou mayest. And the Ethiopian eunuch answered
and said, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And Philip
baptized him. Philip had preached the gospel
to him from Isaiah 53, as you well know. This word makes much
of believing. The Philippian jailer asked Paul
and Silas. You remember that story? They
were in chains inside a prison, and God shook the prison doors
open, and all the prisoners came out, and the jailer thought he'd
be killed because everybody had escaped. And the Philippian jailer
asked Paul and Silas, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they
said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved
in thy house. And they spoke unto him the word
of the Lord. That's the gospel. And to all
of them that were in his house. In the scripture Winston read
for us in the introduction, Christ told his listeners, I am come
a light into the world. Whoever is believing, that same
phrase that we find over here in John 3, whoever is believing
on Me should not abide in darkness. He that rejecteth Me and receiveth
not My words hath one that judges him. The word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge and condemn him in the last day. So the Word
of God is filled with commands and exhortations for sinners
to believe. The Word says much about believing. But in none
of these contexts that we read here are in numerous others where
believing is lifted up. In none of these contexts is
it ever just believing. It's not ever just believe. Don't
matter what you believe, just believe. No. It's never that
way. The object of the believing. Who are sinners to believe in? That's another important thing. Look back in verse 15 of John
3 here. It says that whoever is believing
in Him, who is Him in verse 14? The Him
is the Son of Man who must be lifted up. It's the Son of Man
who in this manner, the same manner that Moses lifted up the
serpent as the only remedy for the snake bite, the son of man
who was lifted up on the cross as the only remedy that God has
provided for sin. Who is the hymn in verse 16 that
says that whoever is believing in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life? The hymn in this verse is the
one who was made known, who did make known the manner of God's
love. It's the only begotten Son given. to save the objects of God's
love from perishing and to give them eternal life. And who is
the Him that we're to believe on in verse 18? He that believeth
on Him is not condemned. The Him is the Son who came not
to judge or condemn the world, but that the world through Him
should be saved. He didn't come to judge, but
to save. And then look back at, we're
in John 3, just look at verse 30 here. John 3 and verse 30. This is
John the Baptist talking. He said, Christ must increase,
but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that of the earth is earthy
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he has seen and heard,
that he testifies. That's what Christ said over
there in that scripture Winston read. He said, I don't speak
of my own. What the Father tells me, that's
what I speak, what I've heard of Him. Verse 33, He that hath
received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true,
for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God gives
not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son,
and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. That same phrase is whoever is
believing on him has everlasting life. But he that refuses to
believe on the Son, he that will not bow to this Son lifted up
on the cross, and this Son lifted up in the Gospel as the only
remedy for sin, he who refuses to believe on the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Every context
of this word directs sinners not just to believe, but to believe
on that one single same object, the Son lifted up, the Son who
by His obedience unto death justified every sinner the Father gave
Him there at the cross. The Son of Man must be lifted
up, and He is the object that sinners are directed to. The
only begotten Son who may know the manner of God's love toward
those objects that He purposed to save in verse 16, that's the
same object. that this Word always points
sinners to. And the Son who came not to judge
or condemn the world, but to save every sinner that his Father
had given him before the world began. Now we've come to the
heart of the matter that I wanted to get to today a little bit
and spend a little time. This Word commands sinners to
believe, and it commands sinners who they are to believe in. The
command of this Word toward all men is believe in the only begotten
Son of God. The one who God Himself lifted
up on the cross. Believe in Him whom God has sent. Why? Because in our context it's
clear, whoever is believing in Him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life. Why are we to believe in Him?
Because whoever is believing in Him is not judged under condemnation. But verse 18, he's not condemned. He's not judged on the condemnation.
So here's the heart of the matter. How can we know we're believing
in Him? We're commanded to believe. We're commanded to believe in
Him whom God lifted up. But how can we know? I mean,
everybody you and I know in this world names the name of Christ,
but maybe a few. They say they're believing in
Christ. Are they believing in the same Christ that I'm telling
you about, that we heard about in the 10 o'clock hour? Is it
the same Jesus in every gathering of religious people around this
country this morning? How are we to know who we are
to believe in? Belief in a Jesus. It's popular
in every generation. Countless thousands believe in
Jesus. They believe in the Jesus who
was born in a manger. And this time of year you see
little scenes in the front of religious organizations all around
this country, little manger scenes where the so-called Jesus is
there. And Jesus was born in a manger.
They are commanded to believe on the one who was born of a
virgin, the one who died on a cross, the one who died for sins, the
one who rose from the dead, the one who ascended to the Father.
And these are all historical truths about the true Christ.
But these historical truths by themselves do not identify the
Son of God who came. More than historical facts are
needed to distinguish the true Christ from the many antichrists
gone out in the world. We heard in the back, in John's
day, he said many antichrists are going out. Well, that number
today is multiplied many times over. There are, like I said,
on every street corner just about there's somebody naming the name
of Christ. But historical facts don't distinguish and identify
the true Christ from these antichrists. We must know something of the
work Christ finished, and more specifically, we must know something
about the work Christ accomplished there on the cross for every
sinner he lived and died for. We must know that it's Christ's
work alone, His very righteousness charged to the account of those
sinners He lived and died for. It's His righteousness alone
that saves sinners. And not anything done by sinners
are done in sinners. We must know to what purpose
God sent His Son and whether Christ accomplished that purpose
or not. That's what we'll see here in verse 17. Let's read
verse 17. It says, For God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. Now let me just read that verse
a little differently. I'm not going to say anything
different, but I'm going to read it a little differently here,
more like it is in the original. For God did not send His Son
into the world that He should judge. That word condemn is really,
it should be translated judge. Now, it's a judgment under condemnation,
but it's a judgment nonetheless. God did not send His Son into
the world that He should judge the world under condemnation,
but He did send His Son into the world that the world, through
Him, should be saved. We have to understand this word
interpreted condemned as judge. It's talking about a judgment
that is under condemnation. But God didn't send His Son at
this time, at the time He's talking about here, at His first coming.
He didn't send His Son into the world to judge the world under
condemnation. He didn't send His Son into the
world at that time to execute the sentence of death which passed
upon all men through the imputed sin of the first Adam. Romans
5.12 said, For it was by one man, that one man Adam, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon
all men in whom all did sin. Christ did not come at this time
to judge the world under condemnation. Now that day of final judgment
is appointed. It's appointed and the man wants
to die, but after this, the judgment. And in Acts chapter 17, look
with me over at Acts chapter 17, God has appointed a day of judgment
when He is going to judge this world in righteousness. Acts 17, verse 30, And the times of this ignorance
God winked at, but now commands all men Everywhere to repent. In this gospel age, under the
gospel, God is commanding all men everywhere to repent. To
change your thinking about how God saves a sinner, change your
thinking about who God is. God is a just God and a Savior,
and He is just to justify based on the imputed righteousness
of Christ alone. Verse 31, because God has appointed
a day in which He will judge this world in righteousness by
that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance
unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead. He's
given assurance unto all men that He's going to judge this
world by that righteousness that Christ worked out by His obedience
unto death. That day of judgment is appointed.
But back over here in our text, when He says He did not come
to judge the world, He didn't come for that judgment. Christ's
first coming was not for that final judgment, but rather He
came to save the objects of God's love. Who is that? Those chosen
by God the Father before the world began. He came to save
the objects of God's love from the sentence of death that they
were under, from the condemnation that they were facing based on
Adam's sin imputed to them in the garden. That sin that passed
on all, and that death that all were facing based on Adam's sin
imputed. The purpose for which God sent
His Son at this time was not to judge, but it was
to save those objects of His love, those chosen in Him before
the world began. Now the question, the heart of
the matter, I say, is this, the question, did Christ accomplish
that purpose? Did He do what He was sent to
do? The angel told Joseph in a dream in Matthew chapter 1
and verse 21, he said, Name that child who will be born to Mary.
Call Him Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
The question is, did He fulfill that mission? When His work on
the cross was finished, had Christ done what the angels said He
would do? Had He saved His people from
their sins? Well, this Scripture says He
had. Look at John 17 and verse 1. Talking about the accomplishment
of Christ's death on the cross here, these words spoke Jesus
and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
just flip a page or two over to John 19 here in verse 30.
Christ's last words on the cross. I'm in 1930. When Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, the last thing that was written of
Him, He said, It is finished. is accomplished. That's what
that word means. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. He pillowed his head in death.
Did Christ accomplish what the Father had sent Him to do? Did
He finish the work that He was given to do? Well, this Word
said He did. But look with me further in Ephesians
chapter 1, at another statement concerning
Christ finishing the work that He had been given to do. Chapter 1, and look at verse
3. Now what we're going to see right
down through these verses right here, we're going to see six
benefits of the cross. Six things that Christ accomplished
by His death. And we'll see down at the end
that it's all connected to His blood. Look in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be, that's a statement of purpose, that we should be, and here's
the first of those benefits of the cross, that we should be
holy, sanctified, set apart under God's design. And without blame. Without blame is justified. That's
just another definition of justified. It's the same thing as no condemnation. So there's two benefits. Holy
and without blame before Him. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will. The adoption of children. That's
a benefit of the cross. Verse 6, To the praise of the
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. He made us accepted. There is
another benefit. Accepted means endowed with grace. What is grace? It is salvation
conditioned on and accomplished by Christ alone. We are accepted. We are saved and kept by the
person and work of Christ alone. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace." Redemption. The ransom has been paid. His
blood paid the ransom for every sinner he lived and died for.
And the forgiveness of sin. Not charged with sin. Not even
chargeable with sin. Since when? Since the cross. since Christ shed His blood.
Because all these benefits you see there in verse 7 are through
His blood. So what Paul is doing here is
connecting all these benefits that Christ accomplished by His
death on the cross. And he told you that when he
said it's all through His blood. Did Christ finish the work He
was given? Did He accomplish the justification
of every sinner He lived and died for? Well, the Scripture
is pretty clear, to me anyway, that He did. All represented
by Adam came under a sentence of death. When Adam sinned, and
his sin was charged to the spiritual accounts of all men. All became
condemned. I wasn't there. I wasn't there
when Adam sinned. But the scripture says that the
sin he committed there in the garden was charged to my account. And all deserved to remain condemned
as we were in Adam. All deserve to remain that way.
Not just based on Adam's sin imputed alone, but because of
our own sins also. Listen to Romans 3 and verse
23. For all did sin, and themselves come short of the glory of God. It's not just Adam's sin, but
it's the sin you and I commit daily that had God not intervened,
we would all be worthy of His eternal wrath. Not one sinner
born into this world has ever done anything that in itself
deserves anything but the eternal wrath of God. Have you owned
that fact? Have you owned the fact that
God would be just to send me, me, to eternal misery, but for
one reason, Christ died on that cross for me. He paid the sin
debt I owed. He established the righteousness
I needed and couldn't produce. And God the Father charged that
righteousness to me there at the cross. And that's the only
reason any sinner can ever stand before God and be counted just. Those who understand this fact
are the ones who find the gospel to be good news. Because it's
in the gospel that we learn how a multitude of sinners of God's
choosing, those objects of God's love that we read about here
in this context, how those objects of love were delivered out of
that standing of condemnation and into a standing of justification
at the cross when Christ bore away their sins and God charged
to them the righteousness Christ established. The legal standing
of all men was fixed when Christ completed His work on the cross.
Now we were born in that standing, just like all men, of condemnation
in Adam. But Christ delivered a multitude
out of that standing by His death on the cross and the imputation
of His righteousness to our account. But the day He died on that cross,
the standing, the legal standing before God of all men was fixed. It's set, and it can't be altered. The standing of all men was fixed,
but nobody knows what their standing is by nature. We're not born
into this world knowing whether we're still condemned in Adam
or whether we've been delivered from that condemnation in the
person of Christ our Savior. Nobody rightly learns of that
standing until God brings them to the gospel. We all think we're
saved based on something we've done until God brings us and
sits us down under this message. The object of our believing before
then is a Savior who made salvation a possibility. You know, that's
the popular Christ of this world. He came and died for all men.
He made salvation possible. And if you'll just meet that
condition of believing, if you'll just believe that He died for
you, you'll be saved. That's not what this Word teaches.
That's not the Savior this Word lifts up. Or, perhaps it's a
Savior who made it certain for a certain number of sinners.
but are only saved when God does something in them. No, that's
not the Savior either. We don't know by nature the Son
of Man who was lifted up the cross. We're not trusting in
the only begotten Son of God until God brings us to the gospel.
Now, how can we know who's been delivered from that sentence
of death? The judgment that is unto condemnation that all of
us were facing in Adam. How can you and I tell who Christ
has saved? Well, verse 18 gives us a little
light on this. Let's read verse 18. John 3,
18. Whoever is believing on him is
not that should be judged unto condemnation. But he that is
not believing on Him is already judged, because He has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now, let me tell
you what this verse is talking about, and then we'll look at
it in a little detail here. This verse makes a sharp contrast
between those believing on Him, on the Christ God sent, on the
One this Word sets forth in truth. It makes a sharp contrast between
those believing on Him and those who are not believing on Him,
those who will not believe on Him, who refuse to believe on
Him. And it says that those... This verse states emphatically The one believing, whoever is
believing on Him is not judged under condemnation. He's not
being judged. He's not being judged at this
moment under condemnation. And the contrast here is conversely
it says whoever is not believing on Him already has been judged. It's a judgment that's already
been rendered against them, a judgment that will be unto their eternal
condemnation if they continue in that unbelief, in their not
believing. Now that's what that said, and
I might have confused you more by trying to tell you what it
said, but I'll straighten it out right here when we get to the
details here, verse 18. Whoever is believing on Him,
that is, Believing on Him who by His obedience unto death alone
delivered every sinner He lived and died for out of their standing
of condemnation and into an unchangeable standing of justification. Whoever
is believing on this specific Savior set forth in the Gospel,
the Savior who accomplished all of those benefits that we read
about over in Ephesians 1. Whoever is believing on Him,
it says, is not Again, that's not condemned, but is not judged.
He is not judged under condemnation. That is the sentence of death.
The judgment under condemnation that he was under in Adam has
been removed from him. He is no longer being judged
under condemnation. He can't be judged under condemnation.
Why? Because his Savior was judged
under the condemnation he deserved and put it away by his death
on the cross. Whoever is believing on Him is
not under a sentence of death. Why not? Because they're believing? No, that's not what the Word
says. But because Christ delivered them out of their condemnation
and into justification by His death there at the cross. And
the believing on Him is simply an evidence that He's looking
to that Savior who accomplished that work on His behalf. As I've
already stated, the standing of all men and women was fixed
at the day of the cross. That standing is evidenced in
all by each individual's belief or unbelief of the Christ who
fixed it. No sinner born into this world
has any warrant from God, any right reason to consider himself
not condemned. Who in this world has any right
to think I mean, we're sinners. We sin daily. We sin constantly. We sin continually. So who in
this world has any right to think that they don't deserve to go
to eternal misery? Except those who are looking,
those who see themselves delivered from condemnation and therefore
justified by the death of Christ alone. But here's the contrast
in this verse. I told you the Word says much
about believing. Whoever is believing on Him is
not judged under condemnation, but whoever is not believing,
this verse says, has already been judged. And that word there,
because, that should be either interpreted since or seeing that. The one, whoever is not believing,
has already been judged, seeing that he hath not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God. According to God's testimony,
the only way any sinner is not condemned is in the death of
Christ alone. It's in his righteousness reckoned
to his account alone. Seeing that this unbelieving
sinner here in this verse has not believed in that Savior,
who by his obedience unto death delivered Any sinner that will
ever be delivered from condemnation was delivered and is delivered
in the death of Christ alone. Seeing that this unbelieving
sinner has not believed on that Savior, he has already been judged. He has already been judged by
his unbelief. Now, you can't judge him condemned. You can't judge a sinner condemned
just because he's not believing. Why not? because Christ delivered
every sinner he lived and died for from condemnation by his
death on the cross. And just because one of his elect
is still in unbelief, that doesn't mean he's condemned. It just
means he's being judged in that standing of unbelief, that standing
that this Word says those who remain in such a standing, and
we'll look at a couple of verses here, This is a judgment unto
condemnation if he continues in that unbelief. Look over with
me at Mark 16. Mark 16.15 here. Christ told
his disciples here. Christ said to his disciples,
Go ye in all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
This is that same phrase we have in our verse. Whoever is believing. and is baptized shall be saved.
But whoever is not believing shall be condemned in our context
over here in John 3. Whoever is not believing has
already been judged in his unbelief because this word has nothing
to say about those who remain in unbelief. But he will be damned. And a scripture we've studied
recently in Hebrews 3, God said in his wrath, they shall not
enter in because of unbelief. No unbelieving sinner has any
warrant to think that he has any acceptance with God according
to this word. Whoever is not believing has
already been judged. He's judged in his unbelief.
He's aligning himself with those in the Scriptures, those the
Scripture are clear will not enter into heaven, and with those
who have been left in their sins and whose end is eternally condemned. He is judged by his unbelief.
Here in John 3 and 36, that verse that we read, the one believing,
Whoever is believing on the Son has life, but the one refusing
to believe, the wrath of God abides on him. Now, in these
last verses down here in this discourse, Christ talks about
the light. Look in verse 19. I'm not going
to go over these verses right now. I'm about done here. But
I want to tell you what they mean because they go with this
message. It says, this is the condemnation. Now that word right
there is different from the word translated condemned back up
in the earlier verses. This should be, and this is the
judgment. How do you tell? How do you tell
whether a sinner is in condemnation or in justification? How can
you tell? Well, you tell by the light that's come into the world.
You tell by the gospel that sets forth Christ in truth. You tell
by the gospel that tells sinners of us who lived and died for
specific sinners, who put away their sin by death on the cross,
and established them in a perfect standing of justification by
His righteousness imputed alone. And that's what we'll learn next
time I come before you. I'll try to have a message on
that. But today, how do we know of God's love? God sent His Son
not to judge those objects of His love under condemnation,
but to give them eternal life based on His work alone.