John chapter three. John chapter three. We're going to be looking here at the, what
would be considered for some of the most famous verse in the
Bible. John chapter 3 and verse 16.
Let's read the passage here. I'm not going to expound on the
whole chapter and the preceding context too much. But basically
just deal with this particular verse this morning. Lord, guide
me. John chapter 3 and verse 16.
Let's bow for a word of prayer. Lord, we come to you now this
morning needy and helpless to come to you this morning, knowing
that if anything is to be done this morning that is honoring
and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because the Holy
Spirit has come and give us aid in our prayer, aid in our preaching,
aid in our singing, aid in our heartfelt worship. Lord, we need
you today. We promise that when two or three
are gathered in your name, there you will be within our midst. And so we pray, Lord, in faith
that today you are with us morning that you would speak
to your people, that you would bring edification to them, encouragement
to them, instruction to them, Father. We pray as the Holy Spirit
teaches that He will open up understanding and grow us in
the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We are here because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are here to
worship the Lord Jesus Christ. We're here to proclaim the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the volume of the given to us and to proclaim his
name from it. Lord, we pray that things we
speak this morning will be a truth. I ask that you would help me
to preach the word faithfully, Lord, that I might not lean on
my own understanding, but that the spirit of God might give
me utterance this morning. And Lord, I pray for all of your
people that will be listening. that you might encourage them
through it. In Christ's name we pray these things. Amen. John chapter 3
and verse 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. This probably is one of the most
quoted verses in all of scripture, probably the most memorized verse
in all of scripture, probably the only other verse that would
probably, passage of scripture that would be more memorized
than this, and probably not, but close to it would be the
23rd Psalm, or the Lord's Prayer, what is considered the Lord's
Prayer. As popular as this verse is and
as widely memorized as this verse is, it is also widely misinterpreted. It is widely misapplied and doctrinally
deficient in most cases where we hear this passage being preached. We see this passage on billboards,
we see this passage on, you know, flashing up in on signs in ball
games and people have t-shirts and hats and wrist bracelets
and necklaces and all kinds of stuff that has John 3 16 on here. Whenever we see people handing
out tracts and things they always want to hand out the book of
John and then they specifically say read the third chapter. They
always want people to go to John 3 16 and Whenever we talk about
the gospel, everybody always brings up John 3.16. And in our
case, any time that we decide that we are going to preach or
speak or minister or discuss the gospel with other people
and we bring up election and we bring up predestination, the
first thing that everybody says is John 3.16. John 3.16. God so loved the world. So this
morning I thought we might just kind of ponder a little bit about
this and see what the Bible has to say about that, because here
is the main thing. It doesn't matter what I say,
it doesn't matter what you say, it doesn't matter what all the
theologians of the world says, it doesn't matter what this theological
group, whether they be Arminian or whether they be Calvinistic
or whether they be something else in between, outside of those,
more than those, less than those, It doesn't matter what theological
group you find yourself in. It doesn't matter what school
of thought you find yourself in. It doesn't matter how many
commentaries you've read. It doesn't matter who the person
is. The only thing that matters is
what does God's word say. We get our doctrine from God's
word. We don't formulate God's word
to create our doctrines. And what we've done is we have
been so influenced throughout the years by man's traditions,
by man's misunderstanding and misinterpreting of God's Word,
of plucking verses from their context, or from not taking into
account all of the things that God's Word says, that we have
created doctrines and schools of theology that revolve around
wrong thinking, about wrong teaching about Christ, about salvation,
about God's purpose and about God and who he is and what he
does and how he does it, about man and who man is and what man
does and how man functions and how man was created and things
like that. And so when we come down to these
things, we need to come down to what does the word of God
say? And whenever we look into God's
word and we see that God's word says this, And yet it contradicts
what we've always been taught or contradicts what we just naturally
think. Well, that doesn't seem right. Well, surely that ain't true.
We should always, always, always submit to what God's word says. If what we believe, if what we
have been taught as children or as grandchildren or as friends
and family or whatever, If what we've been taught in schools
and seminaries, by commentaries, if what is being taught contradicts
or doesn't line up with God's word, we don't question God's
word, we don't doubt God's word and say, well, it couldn't mean
that. We got to say, well, then I'm wrong. If God's word says
that, then that's what it says. And so I say that because as
we come to this passage of Scripture, there is a lot of stuff that
is being said here that is taken outside of what the rest of the
Bible is saying. The Bible is very clear about
a lot of things. And as I've always said, if the
Bible is clear in one thing and then in another area, it seems
to be contradictory. But in a gray area, we always
interpret that gray area. We always interpret that What's
the term that I want to use? That broad saying with a more
succinct or more close revealed saying. Whatever the Bible says,
if it says something in a concrete way, we let that determine what
we see in other areas where it's maybe not so concrete. Now, a
lot of people, whenever they read this passage, They equate
this passage with number one, God's universal love for every
person in the world. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son. So they say here that God loves
everyone. You see that on billboards. God
loves. God is love. And that's true.
The Bible teaches that God is love. That is his character. That is who he is. That is his
makeup. God is love. But just because God is love
doesn't mean that God is required to love everybody. Because we
also know the Bible teaches us that God is wrath. That God hates. Now a lot of
people will disagree with me on that note. As a matter of
fact, it may be a surprise to many for somebody to say that
God hates anybody. But the scripture is very clear
with that. And so whenever we come to John 3.16, and we see
a phrase like, for God so loved the world, and we say, well there
you go, God loves everybody, but yet we come to other passages
of scripture that denies that, at least that interpretation,
then we have to figure out, well, what is it talking about then?
If it's not talking about everybody, Who is it talking about? See,
the word world here in John 3.16 is the word cosmos in Greek. I'm not going to get into technical
stuff and I'm not going to get into a lot of stuff, but this
word cosmos can mean several things. Whenever we go to interpret
words, whenever we go to find out what the meanings of these
words are, we don't go to dictionaries. And we don't go to lexicons and find out what man
has defined these words as. We go and we find out how has
God defined these words and how has God used these words in the
context in which he used them. And so it's very easy to go and
you'll see that this word behind that is cosmos and if You look
up the Greek word cosmos throughout the scriptures in the New Testament,
and you see everywhere that that word is used, you'll see the
different ways that this word is used by God. Therefore, God
defines the word himself. And in so doing, we find that
cosmos is used in several different ways. Whenever we speak of the
term world, it can mean of the earth and everything that's in
it. When we talk of the world, we
talk about the system of the world, the government of the
world, the system of the world, the understanding of the world.
Whenever we speak of the world, we speak of a particular place
within a certain region, like a known world at that time. Whenever
the Bible was written, they didn't know about things over here in
this part of the country. All they knew was over there,
in that part of the world, the Middle East, and then northern
part of Africa, and over into Europe a little bit. They knew
that part of the world, that was the known world, but that
wasn't everything everywhere, everybody. The word world could
also talk about a world of a specific kind of people. The world can
speak of a certain group of people. So we see that this term can
be used in several different ways. And so we have to find
out what does it say. On the surface it looks here
that God loves everybody in the world. But see, when John wrote
this, John also wrote in other places things that were very
particular. That shows us that the world
that he had in mind is not the world that everybody is preaching.
Now, before we get into that, let's see some concrete things
and establish some things by God's word in this doctrine so
that we might be able to clearly understand and clearly be able
to see if the Spirit will give us understanding that the fact
is, is God does not love everybody. So if that's the case, if the
Bible does teach that, Then when we come to this passage, we can
now see and know that this passage obviously isn't talking about
every person, head for head, that's ever lived in this world.
Okay? And see how I use the word world?
What did I mean? This place that we live, this
earth that we live in. Okay? Does God love everybody
in this world that we live in? If so, then the Bible should
be able to substantiate that, corroborate that. But if there's
other places in the scripture that says God doesn't love everybody,
if there's even one person that the Bible says that God doesn't
love, then this verse here does not mean that God loves everybody
in all of the world. Right? Now, does that make sense? I mean, if the scriptures clearly
teach that God doesn't love any people, then that means He doesn't
love everybody in the world. And if that's the case, then
we should quit saying that God loves everybody. And that's not
a theological position for us to side with Calvinists or Arminians
or whoever, Molinists that's in between and tries to balance
the two. It doesn't matter what anybody says. Is that what the
Bible says? And if that's what the Bible
says, If every other church and everybody who professes to be
Christian says opposite of that, then let God be true and every
man a liar, right? If we are the only persons in
the whole entire world to stand for that truth, then let us stand
in the truth of God's word and let everybody else in the whole
entire world, no matter how much history supports something else,
it doesn't matter. History doesn't matter. And I
say that and I know people are going to cringe about that. I
love history. I love reading church history.
I love reading how doctrines have been held throughout the
years by different groups of people and everything. But listen,
just because you can trace a creed and confession back amongst a
group of people does not mean it's true. If God's Word says
it, means it's true. Whatever God's Word is, is true. And I know everyone will say,
well, a creed and confession is all it is, is a summarization
of what God's Word says. No, it's man's interpretation
of the summarization of some of God's Word. That's not God's
Word. A creed and confession is not
God's Word. God's Word is true. Everything
else, is just perceived as truth as people understand what someone
else is saying. But only God's Word is truly
true. And therefore, if God's Word
says something, and we have 2,500 years or 4,000 years of church
history that says, this is what this means, but yet that goes
against what God's Word teaches. then who cares what that 4,000,
they have held for 4,000 years of error. And I know people have
said, well you mean to tell me that you're smarter than the
Westminster divines, you're smarter than the Baptist theologians
of the 1600s, you're smarter than John Gill, you're smarter
than blah, blah, blah, all these men, Calvin, Luther, Zwingli,
all these reformers, you're smarter than them. I'm not saying I'm
smarter than anybody. Number one, we don't know these
things by human wisdom or understanding. We come to these understandings
by spiritual teaching. And the spiritual teaching supersedes
any of man's teachings. Therefore, yes, if the spirit
teaches this, then I don't care who says it, they're ignorant
of that fact. They're ignorant of that truth.
They have yet to be taught that truth. And so I'm not demeaning
anybody. I'm just saying that's wrong. If you teach that, it's wrong.
If you teach contrary to God's Word, I don't care if there's
4,000 years of history to corroborate that people have believed that.
Listen, there's been, ever since the 3rd and 4th century, there's
been Catholic belief, and the Catholics have held to their
doctrines and passed their doctrines down from generation to generation
to generation. Should we listen to them because
they've held that? Listen how, look how long that's
held. Matter of fact, most of the things that we know today
in modern church, all stem from the stinking forefathers of the
Catholic Church, and everybody keeps calling them the forefathers. All of our forefathers taught
this, the church fathers. Number one, the Bible says to
call nobody your father when it pertains to stuff like this.
Call nobody your father. Second of all, they were Catholic. Why are we following after what
these Catholics said? They didn't have the truth. God's
church has the truth. Not false church. But anyway,
not to get into all that. Just because a historical line
of belief is established does not mean that the truth is found
there. If God's word contradicts that.
And for years, ever since I was a little kid, ever since I even
knew anything, I have always heard in Christian circles, whether
it had been from my family, or whether it had been from other
churches that we have associated with, or listening to TV, listening
to radio, listening to anything else, I have always heard that
God loves everybody. But turn with me, if you would,
over to Proverbs, chapter five. Proverbs, chapter five. We need
to establish the fact of whether or not that statement is true,
according to According to Billy Graham it's true, but is Billy
Graham telling you the truth? Proverbs chapter 5, now look
with me if you would. I think I might have wrote that
in the wrong verse here. First I'm going to try and think
of... I apologize brethren, that's the
verse that came to my mind this morning and I wrote it down so
I remember it, but I wrote down, must have wrote down the wrong,
was thinking of the wrong verse. Well, look at Proverbs chapter
6, starting verse 16. The Bible says, these six things,
thus the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination
unto him. The proud look, a lying tongue
and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked
imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief. a false
witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord among
the brethren. So those are some things that
God hates, right? God hates those things. And if you look in, I wanted
to get the one in Proverbs. Let me look here, give me just
a second here, because the one that I'm thinking of, I really
wanna, because it's very, very clear in that passage, and I
just happened to forget what it was. It says, The foolish shall not
stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. The reason I read those verses
and the main reason I wanted to get to this is because the
first set of verses that I read, it talks about certain deeds
that God hates. God hates a lying tongue. God
hates those who are swifty, run into mischief. God hates those
who, God hates sowing discord among the brethren. And a lot
of times people say this, and you've probably heard this expression,
well, God hates the sin, but he loves the sinner. Have you
ever heard somebody say that? Well, God hates the sin, but
He loves the sinner. Because they have this notion
and they have this teaching in their mind from tradition that
God loves everybody from John 3, 16. Well, we know that God
loves everybody, so God doesn't hate the person, He just hates
the sin. He loves the person, but He loves the sinner, but
hates the sin. Well, here it's very clear God
is not talking about the exec. He's not hating the sin. He's
hating the worker of that sin. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Now, that's pretty clear. Now, we've established now that
God does hate some people, right? God hates some people. So when
we come to John 3, 16, when it says, for God so loved the world,
then obviously the world there doesn't mean everybody that has
ever been in the world, because here we find, in contradiction
to that statement, that God does hate some people. So we've got to throw out that
notion. And someone again is going to say, well, yeah, but
that means that he hates the sin but loves the sinner. No,
it says he hateth all workers of iniquity. Whenever he judges
the reprobate at the end of the age, he's not going to judge
their works and say, you bad works. I love the people, but
those works, them are bad. No, who is he going to throw
into hell, the works or the worker? The worker. The one that he's
going to throw into outer darkness where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth, where the flames consume not, but yet never
die out, is the worker of iniquity, not the iniquity itself. The iniquity itself comes from
the worker of that iniquity. He hateth all workers of iniquity,
but now someone's going to say, Preacher, isn't everybody a sinner?
So therefore, then, does God hate everybody? Well, there ends
your conundrum. If it's talking about everybody
everywhere in John 3, 16 and everybody everywhere in Psalms
5, 5, then we have two extremes, right? God hates everybody and
God loves everybody. So which one is true? God hateth
all workers of iniquity and God loves the world. That's two extremes. God loves everybody. God hates
everybody. Well, here's the thing, brother.
If you are a child of grace, if you are the seed of Christ,
you are not a child of iniquity. You are a child of grace. The
ones who are the children of iniquity are the ones who are
the seed of Satan, the child of Satan, the wicked one. Those
who were not elected before the foundation of the world. Those
are the ones who are the workers of iniquity. Now, is it children
of grace? Did they work iniquity? Absolutely,
just like everybody else. However, Christ has been their
substitute. Christ has been their mediator.
And that is what John 3.16 is all about. John 3.16 is showing
that Christ has died for those people Therefore, those people
are no longer considered workers of iniquity, but recipients of
God's grace. And in God's grace, God has given
them a righteousness that's not their own, an obedience that
they never could do on their own. Christ's obedience is their
obedience. Therefore, they have obeyed the
law 100 percent. Therefore, they are not a worker
of iniquity. by imputation. They have been
imputed perfect obedience to God's law. Therefore, they have
not broken God's law. Therefore, they are not a worker
of iniquity. Therefore, God loves them and
he loves them not based upon works that they've done, whether
good or bad, but he loved them because in his eternal purpose,
he had an everlasting love set upon them as he chose them and
gave them to Christ, those are the ones that God loves. The
workers of iniquity that God did not choose will stay and
remain workers of iniquity and God remains hateful towards them. Now, look at Malachi chapter
one, last book in the Old Testament. Malachi chapter one. This is
a very familiar verse, speaking of this subject. Malachi chapter
one, and if you would look with me at verse one, it says, the
burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. Okay, now we're seeing something
written that speaks of a physical thing. But when we get to Romans 9,
we learn that this physical reality sheds light on the spiritual
reality. God had chose Israel out of all
the people of the world. At that time, God called and
chose Israel as a nation for himself, as a people for himself,
and he gave them the laws and the ordinances. He promised to
be with them. His glory went with them. Christ was among them everywhere
they went. Christ appeared to them. Christ
spoke to them. Christ led them. Christ defended
them. Christ fought for them. Christ
was among them. And they alone are the ones who
had this. God never sent the message of
Christ, never sent the message of who He was and gave His commandments. to anybody outside of Israel. They weren't included. So God
chose Israel for Himself. And all others He hated. He did not give that honor to. He did not give that grace to. In the spiritual reality, in
Romans chapter 9, we see that whenever the Old Testament speaks
of Israel as a nation who actually was a physical nation, when it
speaks of that, that that is a type of the spiritual Israel
who is all the elect of God. It is the elect of God whom God
has set his love upon and all of the ordinances, all of the
promises that God has promised the inheritance of God is promised
to that people and that people alone. And Paul was very clear
in Romans 9 whenever he made the distinction. Not all people
who are of Israel in a natural way, a national way, a physical
way, are of Israel in the spiritual way that he was talking about.
Not everybody is spiritual Israel. Even though you may be a physical
Israelite, that doesn't make you a spiritual Israelite. Just
because you were chosen as a group of people in the type doesn't
mean that you are chosen in the people in the substance. That's
what Paul was saying. And so here we see the burden
of the word of the Lord to Israel. This is God speaking to His people. here in a physical way in Malachi,
but as we learn in Romans in a spiritual way, this is what
God is saying to his spiritual people. I have loved you, saith
the Lord. Yet ye say, wherein hast thou
loved us? Now, we can easily go to Jeremiah
31.3, and in Jeremiah 31.3, the Bible says that God has loved
us with an everlasting love. That means he has always loved
us. even before creation, he loved us. But he says here, how
have I loved you or how I have loved you, sayeth the Lord. Yet
ye say, wherein hast thou loved us? The Israelites would want
to know. Well, how do we know? Show us what is it that proves
to us that you have loved us, your people? What does God say? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? Now, why does he mean, why did
he say that? Why did he say that? Well, because he's speaking to
Jacob, the children of Jacob. He's speaking to the lineage
of Jacob here. Now, in Old Testament, the people
of Jacob is also a type for the people of God, the elect of God. Don't get so hung up on a lot
of these things and think, well, okay, well, I thought Israel
was the type of God's people Now you're saying it's Jacob,
and sometimes you say it's Joseph, or sometimes you say it's Benjamin,
or this or that. Brethren, remember that these
types are overlapping. They can mean, while they have
different things, they mean or are speaking of the same thing.
There are multiple, just like with the types of Christ. You
look, Moses was a type of Christ, Joshua was a type of Christ,
Abraham was a type of Christ, Jonah was a type of Christ. I
mean, we see throughout the scripture there are these types. So just
because now he's talking to Israel, he says in the first verse, and
now he says Jacob, Jacob is Israel. But who is Jacob and Esau? Well, they were brothers, right?
They were brothers. Isaac had a son, or had these
two sons, and whenever they were born, they were twins. Esau was
the first to come out of the womb, and if you remember, Jacob
was the one who came out, and he was clutching on to Esau's
heel as he came out. Now, there's a whole sermon just
in that, what that means, but Jacob and Esau came out and they
were twins. And the Bible says that here,
look if you would, was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord?
Yet I loved Jacob. Jacob was the secondborn. Usually
the inheritance, usually all the stuff from the father, whenever
he would bless the children, it was the firstborn who would
receive the blessing. Esau had the birthright. Esau
was the one who should have had all the promises and the inheritance
that the father had to give, yet God didn't choose Esau. He chose Jacob, the second one. Not the first born, but the second
born. Now, I hope you're kind of seeing
some of the types here. Not the first man born, which
is the natural man, but the second man, who is the spiritual man,
the children of promise. who is the child of promise,
not Esau. Adam is the natural man and he
is not the child of promise. He is not the one to whom the
inheritance and the promises are made. The promises are made
to the spiritual man, the second Adam, and all who are in the
second Adam. We are Jacob The Spirit of God
that lives within us, that new man, is the substance of who
Jacob is. Jacob is the secondborn. Not
that which is firstborn, which is natural, but that which is
secondborn, which is spiritual. He's the one who was to receive
the promises. And Jacob was the one who God
had said His love on. And as we learned in Romans chapter
9, the Bible said that God loved Jacob over Esau and it wasn't
according to anything good or bad that either one of the boys
had done. Esau wasn't hated because he'd
done bad and Jacob was loved because he did good because Jacob
did as much if not more bad than Esau did. So the Bible said having done neither
good nor bad but that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. God said, I have loved Jacob
and I have hated Esau. And here we see God says, and
I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the
dragons of the wilderness. So here we see Esau and all his
descendants God hated. Now here, brethren, we clearly
see that God hates a people and loves a people. There's some
that God hates and some that God loves. You'll say, well yeah, but it's
the one that believes that God loves, so if you believe, then
God will love you and you will no longer be like Esau, but you'll
be like Jacob. But that's not also, neither
is that also what the Bible teaches. He says, for God so loved the
world, he so much loved this group of
people that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever, believe it in him,
and that word whosoever actually isn't in the Greek, it says that
the believing ones in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. See, we hear about that whosoever
will all the time. Well, that whosoever actually
is added in the English translation so that we can understand or
read it more fluently because there isn't, in Greek, a good
one-to-one translation there. So they add whosoever to make
it able for us to read a little easier. But the whosoever is
not there, it's the believing ones. That God loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that the believing ones
should not perish. So who did Christ die for? The
believing ones, right? So everyone will say, once again,
well, there you go, preacher. Jesus died, and he gives it all
to the believing ones. So if you'll believe, then you'll
get it. So long as somebody believes, then they'll get to be that person.
You keep saying that God doesn't want people saved, but if they'll
believe, then God will save you. God does want to save everybody. Brethren, that's not what that's
saying either. Now, why do we know that? Why do we know that? Well, because we know who the
believing ones are, right? This right here, I agree that
only the believing ones are the ones whom Christ died for, and
anybody who does believe, they have everlasting life. Notice
it says, that he that believeth on him is not condemned, but
he that believeth not is condemned already. But he that hath not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, he that
believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already. See, God has already, the ones
who will not believe, God has already set condemnation upon
them. And their condemnation is the
fact that they will be unbelievers the rest of their lives. They're
condemned to that place. That's why, and I think it's
in the epistles of Peter, he wrote about those false teachers
whose condemnation that God had ordained. They were ordained
to be condemned as false prophets, false teachers. But it says here, verse 15, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. And that have as a present perfect
means something that they already had and continues to have. So now we're beginning to see
the world here is talking about a specific group of people. It's
not the ones who God hated, it's the ones who God loved. Verse
16. But the ones that He loved is
not everybody, but only the believing ones. But who are the ones who
are the believing ones? But see, some may say, well,
anybody that believes on Jesus, if anybody will come and just
believe on Him and anybody can believe on Him, if they'll just
put their faith in Him, they can believe on Him. But that's
not what the Bible teaches. Turn with me, if you would, to
Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Brethren, who are
the ones who believe on Jesus? And if Jesus died for the believing
ones, If God sent His Son to die for the believing ones, and
it was the believing ones whom God loves, then who are the believing
ones? Well, in Acts chapter 13 and
verse 48, a verse that God, whenever He finally taught me this verse,
was a complete turnaround in my theology, was a complete eye-opener
to how I had been wrong and have been preaching a false gospel
my whole entire life. Acts 13 and verse 48 said, when
the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life,
believe. Who are the believing ones? Those
who are ordained to eternal life. Didn't Jesus say, that God gave
his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life? The ones who are not perishing
are the ones who have everlasting life. The ones who have been
ordained to eternal life are the ones who would believe. All
those who were ordained to eternal life believed. The ordaining
to eternal life came before the believing did. The reason for
their believing is because they had been ordained to eternal
life. Meaning God purposed eternal
life to them. God gave them eternal life in
the Son. If you have the Son, you have
life. In the Son is life. In Him is life. And you have
life because you are in Him. And He is in you. You've been
given eternal life in Christ Jesus. And that life is not a
life that we get here. It's a life that was out there
before the foundation of the world. It's eternal. We have
been given everlasting life. Why? Because we are children
of Christ. He made everything after its
own kind with its seed in itself. We are His seed, therefore the
life that was in Him is the life that is in us, not in these flesh,
not in this old man, not in this natural man, but in that spiritual
man that we were talking about, in the Jacob, in the Israel man,
the second Adam man. That's who we are. That's who
God loves. God loves those people. It's
that world that God loved. It's that world, the world that
is not of this world. Jesus said, these people that
you have given me, they are not of this world. They're from another
world. Where is that other world? That other world is wherever
God is. Now, the Mormons are going to
tell you it's from some star of, I can't remember the name
of it, But there's some other planet that everybody comes from
and there's other gods and blah, blah, blah. We're just some people
on this God's planet. Wherever God is, that's where
we came from. The Bible says that we are pilgrims.
We're just passing through. This is not our home. But yet
this is the only home we've known. But it's not talking about this
natural man who is of this earth earthy. talking about, the spiritual
man from heaven. Just as Christ was the spiritual
man that came down out of heaven, we too are spiritual people that
came down out of heaven by God, by a new creation, not the old
creation, but a new creation. It is those who are the ones
who are ordained to eternal life, and all those who are ordained
to eternal life believe. They're the only ones who will
believe. They're the only ones who can believe. They're the
only ones that will ever be found in that world of people. The
ones of that world are the believing ones. The world of the believing
ones. Now, is there other verses that
might corroborate that? Well, actually, John wrote, by
the Holy Spirit, John 3, 16, right? He wrote that down. But
look at John chapter 10. Look at John chapter 10 with
me. It says in John chapter 10, and
I'd like to start reading verse 7, but because of the time, I'm
going to just jump down to maybe starting at verse 13. It says, the hireling fleeth,
because he is the hireling, and careth not for the sheep. Verse
14. of himself. I am the good shepherd
and I know my sheep. I know the ones who are ordained
to eternal life. I know those who are my children,
my seed, my lineage, my creation. I know them and I am known of
mine. That means those who know me
know me. They know who I am. They know
that I'm a good shepherd. And he says, as the father knoweth
me, even so know I the father. Now, if you remember, brethren,
that word knoweth there isn't just a cognitive know. I know
Daniel. How do I know Daniel? He's been
coming to our church now for a couple of years or three. That's
how I know Daniel. But this word know here means
more than just I am an acquaintance with. I know that person. I know Donald Trump, but I'm
not friends with him. I'm not related to him. I've
never been around him, but I know him. I know who he is. This word know here, especially
as it's used in the Greek, is an intimate knowledge, is an
intimate relationship. He says here, I am the Good Shepherd,
and I know my sheep. I have an intimate knowledge
relationship with these sheep. And these sheep are known, or
know me, have an intimate relationship and knowledge of me. That's why
they believe. They believe because they've
been ordained to eternal life. And that eternal life that is
in them has given them faith to believe who I am, and who
I said I am, and what I did on their behalf. As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for who? The whole world? No, he says
here, I lay down my life for the sheep. So now we have a broad
statement in John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son. But now we see Jesus says, there's
a world that is called my sheep, and that's who I laid down my
life for. My sheep know me, and I am known
of my sheep. I know them and they know me.
There's this eternal relationship. There's this eternal knowledge
that has been given to them, excuse me, not eternal knowledge,
but there's this knowledge that has been given to them of this
eternal relationship that they have to me. And he says, I lay down my life
for the sheep. And you say, well, the sheep
are just anybody who believes. Ain't that what the Bible says? The sheep are just anyone who
believes? No, Jesus said that they believe because they are
my sheep. The fact that they were already
existing as sheep was the cause of their belief. So that goes
along with what we said a while ago. The very fact that they
were ordained before the foundation of the world to eternal life,
they believed. Why? What was the cause of their
belief? They were ordained to eternal
life. They were given eternal life. What is the cause of them
believing? Because they are my sheep. My
sheep believe. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. Another's voice they do not follow.
Why? Because they've been given eternal
life. Why? Because they are mine. and those
are the ones who I lay down my life for. Why? Because I have
loved them with an everlasting love. God loves the world of
his sheep. Now look at verse 16, he says,
and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring. So there was a divine appointment
of Christ to not only bring the sheep of Israel, Jews, but of
also the Gentiles. He said, I don't just have a
people here among you Jews, as you thought, but I also have
a people of every tribe, nation, language. I have people of every
people group. And them I must also bring, because
that was the command of my father. That all that he giveth me, I
should lose none. That all that he giveth me shall
come to me. and I will raise them up at the
last day. All that the Father has given me, I'm going to die
for, and everyone whom I die for gets the benefits, gets the
reward, gets the inheritance. All the promises of Christ, or
all the promises of God, are yea and amen in Christ. Therefore,
all the promises of Christ are yea and amen to us, because we
are His. He says, no sheep I have which
are not of this fold, then also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth my father love
me, because I lay down my life that I might take it up again.
No man take it from me, but I lay it down of myself, and I have
power to lay it down and power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father. And it's just right on the heels
of him saying that, that the people said, or began to have
divisions. Many of them said, he has the
devil, he's mad. That's what people, whenever
we start preaching election, and we start preaching that Christ,
or God doesn't love everybody, and that Christ died only for
his elect, what do people start saying? That's the devil's doctrine. I've heard that, I don't know
how many times. That's the devil's doctrine. What did the people
say whenever Jesus preached election just right there? He preached
election. He preached predestination. And
what did the people say? And many of them said, he had
the devil and is mad. Why hear ye him? Yet there was others who said,
These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil
open up the eyes of the mother? Some that believed and some that
thought he was the devil. And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of
the dedication was winter. Jesus walked into the temple
and saw him at the porch. Then came the Jews, round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
you, and ye believed me not. I told you that I was the Christ,
and ye didn't believe me. He said, and ye believe not.
The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
But ye believe not, because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. There's that intimate knowledge.
There's that intimate relationship. And they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life. Who gets the eternal life? The
sheep get the eternal life. Not because they believe. They
believe because they were sheep. The belief came because of the
sheep. So you don't get the love, you don't get the belief, you
don't get the eternal life because you believe. That comes because
you were already given eternal life and love by God. That is
the reward, or that is the, I say a reward, that is the promise
and the grace that has been given to you because you are His child. I think that very well establishes
the fact that in John 3, 16, that the word world here doesn't
mean everybody. It only means God's sheep. But
just to solidify that and what little time we got left here,
let me show you that the word world is used in different ways
throughout Scripture. And let's apply, let's apply
the logic of those out there who believe that God loves everybody
and died for everybody. And let's apply the word world
as they do. World means world. All means
all. Let's apply that logic to where
the same word, cosmos, is used. Especially here, we're going
to look at a couple of verses of scripture in John, used by
the same person who wrote John 3.16 and John 10. But look with
me, if you would, at John chapter 12. up so you can hear where we're
at. It says, verse 14, And Jesus,
when he had found a young ass, sat there on as it is written,
Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, the king cometh, sitting on an
ass's colt. These things understood not his
disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered
they that these things were written of him, that they had done these
things unto him. The people, therefore, that was
with him, when he called Lazarus out of the grave, and raised
him from the dead, bear record. For this cause the people also
met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle.
Look at verse 19 now. The Pharisees, therefore, said
among themselves, Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing? Behold, the world is gone after
him. Now, the Pharisees are saying,
now look what's going on here, the whole world is going after
this guy, Jesus. Now, if world means everybody,
everywhere, has everybody went after Jesus? No. The Pharisees that are saying
it are the ones not going after Jesus. The very ones that said
this are not going after Jesus. So the world here didn't mean
world of everybody, everywhere that has ever been. But who is
going after him? What does the word world mean?
It was a word that they were using to mean, hey, look, everyone's
going after him. Well, does everyone mean everyone?
I mean, whenever we use that phrase. Well, who was it? Who was at the fellowship last
Sunday? Oh, man, everyone was there. You wouldn't believe it.
Well, did that mean everybody in the world was there? No. Well,
who was there? Everyone that was there was there.
Everyone that we know, all the normal ones, all the ones of
that church and those fellowships were there. That world of that
people is there. Who are the ones going after
him? Well, the whole world is going after him. Everybody, and
they're seeing, hey, everybody's following after this guy. Not
only Jews, but Gentiles are also going after this guy. So the word world here doesn't
mean everybody, right? Look over just a few pages in
your Bible to chapter 14. Starting in verse 16, Jesus talking about
going away and sending his spirit back to them. He says, I will
pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter, which
was handed himself, Jesus, in the form of the spirit. that
he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you." Now, does the world here mean everybody everywhere?
Well, no, because he right here, as soon as he said that, says
that there are, you're gonna receive him, you're gonna, You're
gonna understand and believe. You're gonna be taught of Him.
You're gonna know Him. But He said the world cannot
receive the Spirit. Well, what world? Well, this
is talking about the world outside of God's elect, everybody outside
of God's elect. So now we have the word world
that means all of God's elect. We also see the Bible uses the
word world to mean everybody outside of God's elect. The world
that is not elect, who does not have belief, is not going to
receive him. Those who have eternal life and
have been given faith and belief, they are going to receive him.
There's that world, there's this world. God died for this world,
but not that world. God loves this world, but not
that world. Two different worlds. But you
see the Bible itself uses the word world in different ways. One last one and we'll close.
Romans chapter 11. I intended for this verse here
for two reasons. Number one, not only to show
that the word world can mean more than just everybody everywhere. And actually the word world here,
cosmos, means an orderly creation. God's orderly creation. There
are some that believe that that applies to every place that that
word is used. It's talking about God's orderly
creation and God restoring everybody to that orderly creation again.
But here, we see that God also uses the world to refer to Gentiles
as opposed to Jews. And we make this argument often
whenever we say that he's not only the savior of us, but also
of the whole world. Right? Well, what does he mean
there? The Savior of us. Well, he's talking to the Jews.
He's not only the Savior of us Jews, but of the whole world,
meaning people out of every nation. Every group of people. The Gentiles. Jew and Gentile. And this is
where we see that. Romans chapter 11, verse 15.
He says, for if the casting away of them, meaning the Jews, He's
talking about the Jews have been cast away by God. For if the
casting away of them, the Jews, be the reconciling of the world. So he's talking about the inclusion
of the Gentiles into the people of God, into the gospel. The gospel going out to them,
them being part of the believing ones. He said if the casting
off of the Jews means the reconciling of the world, meaning God has
turned from the Jews and now has taken the gospel, who has
only been to the Jews, now he's taken it to the Gentiles, and
they too are believing upon him. Why? Because he has a sheep that
is not of this fold, but is also of that fold, and these two come
together to make one fold. These two come together to make
one vine, branch, together. They come together to make one
man. There is no division now, no
long separation between Jew and Gentile. There is neither male
nor female, Jew nor Greek, no rich nor poor, no black, no white,
no this or that. All God's people are one in Christ
Jesus and there is no difference. So he says here, for if the casting
away of the Jews be the reconciling of the Gentiles, What shall the
receiving of them be but lie from the dead? So you see here
the word world here doesn't mean everybody everywhere, but it
is in reference to the Gentiles. To the exclusion of the Jews.
Because that's what he's doing here. The Jews have been excluded
and been cast away, except for the ones who are of Israel, the
spiritual Israel, they've been cast away And God has taken that
away. And if you look now, the Jewish
religion continues in its search for Messiah. They rejected Christ
as Messiah. They continue on in their false
Judaism. And by the way, I'm going to
make a brief statement here. Christianity is not a Judeo-Christian
belief. Christianity is not Judeo and
Christian. There is no Judeo in Christianity. Christianity is not Judaic belief. Christianity is something completely
and totally different than Judaic belief. We are not a Judeo-Christian
society. Okay? We don't want a Judeo-Christian
society, brethren. Christianity has Christ as the
Messiah. Judaism has no Messiah yet. They denied and crucified Christ
and said, we'll have no Messiah to rule over us if it's this
guy. That's why Jesus said, I'm going
to leave your house desolate. And that's what he's talking
about. The casting away of them, the Jews, in contrast to the
world, the Gentiles. The Gentiles will start to be
brought in now. And until the remainder of the
Gentiles be brought in, then we'll all be together as one
people of God. So the word world here does not
mean everybody everywhere. It means Gentiles. So the word world can mean the
world system. It can mean the world as it means
all the reprobates. It can mean the earth, where
we live, a region of area. A specific group of people within
a region of an area could mean people of another region outside
of our area. But brethren, John 3, 16, in
no way, no shape, and no form teaches that God loves everybody
in the world and that Jesus died for everybody in the world. He
only died for those that the Father gave him. And he gave
them to him because he loved them. And because he loved them,
he sent his only begotten son, that any of those that had been
given to him should not perish, but have everlasting life, be
given faith in Christ Jesus, come to Christ Jesus, and believe
upon him. And brethren, that is the gospel. That other is not the gospel
because it speaks ill will of Christ. To say that God loves
everybody whenever the Bible says he doesn't is a lie. To
say that Christ died for everybody and he didn't is a lie. Not to
mention to say that Christ died for everybody and yet shows hatred
towards them by casting them into hell for an eternity of
wrath and hatred upon them means that Christ did not succeed in
coming and saving the world. So, brethren, there's a lot of
conundrum that those who preach universal salvation, preach universal
love, universal atonement, there's a lot of problems that they have
with the rest of Scripture. But let us preach what God's
Word says. Is that a popular teaching? No, they're going to
tell us we're doctrine to the devil, or you're mad, you're
crazy, You're gonna have all these questions that, well, what
about this? Well, what about that? Well,
if they ask those, then have an answer for them. By God's
word, answer them, not by what you feel or what you think. Don't
be coerced because they're pulling at your heartstrings. Well, what
about all your kids? So you're gonna serve a God that
may not save your kids? That's not up to us. Who God
saves? And anybody he saves is only
sheerly by grace. And anybody that he throws into
hell, They're not gonna go there undeservedly. They're gonna go
there deserving everything that they get. Well, they didn't get
a chance. Well, God doesn't owe anybody
a chance. Who art thou, O man, who replyeth
unto God? Why hast thou made me this way?
Can anybody resist God's will? And God says you don't have the
right to even ask that because I am the potter. You are the
clay. I have a certain purpose for
every one that I've made. Some for destruction. And if
you're the one for destruction, you're going to complete the
purpose for which I made you. Some people say, well, I don't
want to serve a God like that. I don't want to serve a God that
makes decisions like that. Brethren, that's the God of the
Bible, and if you don't serve Him, then you're serving somebody
else, and it's not God. If you're not serving Him, then
you're not being given to love the one true God. You've not
been given to believe upon Christ Jesus, but another Jesus. You've
not been given the gospel, you've been given a false gospel. And
these lies you'll believe because you're the children of the one
who is the father of all lies. Does anybody have any questions or
anything for me? Any questions or comments? Corrections? All right, brethren, let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your grace once
again. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and we thank you
for the word of God that brings us the truth revealed in these
pages. We thank you for the Holy Spirit
who bears witness with our spirit, not only that we are his, but
as our teacher that he stands to be true. Father, we pray for
those that are outside that continue to believe the lies of the devil.
Lord, we pray that you might give them understanding and that
you might give them faith. They be yours. Lord, I pray that
here today, we may be together. Lord, let us bear your children
in faith to believe on the gospel. Believe on Christ Jesus alone
as their salvation. That they might show forth that
confession of faith in Christ Jesus by being baptized. Lord,
that we might add them to the church. They might be part of
this fellowship, Lord. We just thank you so much. We
pray, Lord, that there be any others in this town that you
see fit to add to our number, Lord. May they be brought to
us. May they be a place where, may this be a
place where they find comfort and joy and peace in Christ Jesus
through the fellowship of the gospel. Lord, we thank you. Again,
we are so grateful for all that we are in Christ Jesus. Lord,
we know that we don't deserve any of this. We know we don't
deserve your love. We don't deserve your grace.
We don't deserve faith. We don't deserve forgiveness,
but Father, you've given that to us. And Lord, we know that
it's sheerly because you have chosen to do so and that you
have that right to put that upon anybody that you desire. And
Lord, we just, are thankful that you've given it to us today,
and may we be humbled by that. As we preach the gospel, may
we not be arrogant or boastful because we know that we did not
make ourselves to differ, that we, like anybody else in this
flesh, are children of wrath, even as others, enmity against
you, sinners, deserving of hell, but, Father, only because of
Christ Jesus as our substitute can we stand before you your
people in love. So thank you. It's in Christ's
name that we pray.