Saw that special on the order
of service tonight, thought, well, Mike's voice must be better.
That was very good. Well, we have a very special
treat this evening. Pastor Clay Curtis, been here
many times before, and I truly look forward to this trip all
year long. Jay and I both look forward to
Clay and Melinda and Em and Will visiting with us and Clay coming
here and preach. He's got a standing invitation
here. Clay is just a very valued, valued
friend. I just love him so much. And Clay is a faithful, faithful
servant. He so consistently, every time
he gets in the pulpit, gets the text and gets to Christ and stays
right there. I just thoroughly enjoy listening
to him preach. And I will say this, if you ever
have the opportunity to get to New Jersey where Clay's the pastor,
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Princeton. I highly recommend
that you go. The folks that he preaches to
there are lovely, lovely people. They love Christ, they love the
gospel, they love their pastor, and even others who come and
visit and preach to them. They're always very gracious
and loving and they're just dear friends and I'm just so glad
that you're here. Well, I'm very thankful the Lord
has given us an opportunity to be together again this year.
Very thankful for your pastor. Thank you for letting us borrow
him last month and we were blessed by the messages and I know you're
so blessed to have him too. We're very thankful. That song, Brother Mike, I believe
is one of my favorite songs. That is outstanding writing,
isn't it? So beautiful the way that glorifies
our God and His love. I used to hear Brother Henry
quote that verse a lot, and I really, really enjoyed that. Thank you.
Let's turn to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. probably do not have to even
read this verse. You know it well. Everyone in
the world knows this verse. I want to read verses 16 and
17. John 3, 16, 4. Because God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, and the word is shall not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be or shall be saved. Now the subject tonight Are these
four words for God so love God so love that word so means in
this manner. It means in this manner. Let's read it again for God in
this manner loved the world. that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
shall be saved. Now most commonly we hear the
word soul preached as meaning the greatness of God's love. And without a doubt, the greatness
of God's love is manifest in the fact that He sent His only
begotten Son. That's so. That's so. But in context, as we look at
the context here and what Christ is speaking about and what He's
been saying, you see here that He's speaking about the manner
in which God loves. This is the manner in which God
loves. And what He's showing us here
is the manner in which God loved the world is that He sent Christ into this world to fulfill
all the works necessary to save His people. And He didn't leave
anything in the hands of His people. That's the manner in
which God loves. He sent His Son to do all the
work and didn't leave anything in the hands of those He saves. That's what I want us to see
tonight. First of all, God loves in this manner, by causing each
of His children to be born again. This is the manner in which God
loves. He will cause each of His elect
to be born again. Verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, and you know when you see those words, it means this
is of ultimate importance. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. God's people must be born of
the Spirit of God. We must be. We must be. And if we must be, that means
we shall be. If it's a necessity we be born
of God, of the Spirit of God, before we can enter the kingdom
of God, That means we don't have the ability to do it. And that
means we shall be. Everyone God loves shall be born
again. And the reason is because until
we're born of God, we're just flesh. Dead flesh. It said there in verse 6, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's how we're born
the first time. We're born of flesh. And all
we are is flesh. And that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Now Nicodemus came and he was
boasting to Christ of what he knew. He came to Christ and he
said there in verse 2, Rabbi, we know, we know thou art a teacher
come from God. For no man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. And Christ told Nicodemus
he was blind. That's what he's telling Nicodemus.
He said in verse 3, it says, Jesus answered that comment. And he said, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. He's saying, Nicodemus, you come
to me telling me you know me. But until a man's born again,
He cannot even see Christ. He doesn't know Christ until
he's born of God. And Christ would know Nicodemus
was not born of God. And he's telling him, you don't
know me. You don't see me. You don't know
who I am. You haven't been born of God.
You have not. While a sinner is in the flesh,
while he's in the flesh, while he's born of flesh and he's just
flesh, The love of God does not appear to him. He can't see the
kingdom of God. He cannot see the love of God. The love of God has not appeared
to him while he's in the flesh. And he can't see then. All he
does while in the flesh is he dwells in envy and enmity. Look at Titus chapter 3. Till
we're born of God, we dwell in envy and enmity rather than dwelling
in the love of God. Rather than living in the love
of God, we dwell in enmity and envy while we're in the flesh.
Titus 3 and look at verse 3. Titus 3 and verse 3. He says, we ourselves also were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts
and pleasures, living in, we were dwelling in, we were abiding
in malice and envy, hateful, envy and enmity, envy, hateful,
full of hate, toward God, full of hate toward God, and hating
one another. You know, envy is what kept you
and I from believing on Christ while we were in our flesh. Christ
is wisdom. He's the wisdom and power of
God. And we envied Christ having that glory. We wanted to have
something to do with teaching ourselves and knowing God. We
envied that glory. Christ is the righteousness and
holiness that God has provided for His people. We envied that
glory of Christ. We wanted to have a part in producing
a righteousness and a holiness. Christ is redemption and we envied
that. And so because we envied Christ,
we hated the true Christ and the true God. It was because
we abode, we were abiding in envy and enmity against God. Well then, how is it we're going
to see God's love and know God's love and believe the love that
God had to us? If that's where we abode and
that's all, that was our life, that's where we lived was in
envy and hatred. So how are we going to be made
to see the love of God. Look at verse 4. But after that,
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Remember Christ said you can't
see the kingdom of God till you've been born of God from above.
Well then after that, the love of God our Savior toward man
appeared. How was it we were made to see
this? How did it appear to us? How were we made to see it? not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ, our Savior. It was Christ who sent the Spirit.
Remember, he said, I'll pray the Father and he'll send the
Spirit. And when he's gone, he won't speak of himself. He'll
speak of me. That's how we're made to see the love of God,
how it appeared to us by regeneration. While we were in the flesh, we
lived in envy. We dwelled in envy and in enmity,
full of hate and hating one another. Paul said, though, charity. The
love of God envieth not. So how do we cease being full
of envy and hatred and love? Turn over to 1 John 3. 1 John
3. Frank just read this in 1 John
4. I'm sorry, 1 John 4 verse 16. We have known and believed the
love that God hath to us. God is love. So how did we come
to know and believe the love that God has to us? He that dwelleth, he that liveth
in and abideth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. That's how we came to abide in
love. That's how the love of God appeared
to us. God began to dwell in us and
he made us to dwell in him. so that we stopped dwelling in
envy and hatred and we started dwelling in the love of God. We started living in the love
of God. I'm not talking about living
in the sense that now you started things you started doing although
that did have that did come about but I'm saying you went from
being dwelling and abiding in envy and hatred to living in
the love of God because God began to dwell in us and we in God. I want to show you one more place
in Romans 8. Telling us the very same thing in Romans 8. Romans
8. This is why we must be born again. Paul declares here that Christ
died that he might fill his people with the righteousness of the
law. That it might be filled full in his people. That is with
Christ our righteousness abiding in us. And He's saying that it's
by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us. And He's saying it's so
that when He gives you life and sets you free from the bondage
of that flesh, the bondage of living in envy and enmity, He
makes it by His Spirit dwelling in you where now you can obey
God. I'm not saying you can fulfill the law on your own. and keep
the law of God. I'm saying you can obey the commandment
of God to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the
only way you and I established the law is through faith in Christ
who established it for his people. Look here, Romans 8. I'm going
to read a little lengthy section here, but it's just so this is
so good to see if we can see this. Look at verse one. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. He keeps
saying this over and over. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh. Now why? that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, or we might be filled
full with the righteousness of the law, us who walk not after
the flesh but after the Spirit. He's saying that we might have
eternal life by Christ our righteousness filling us, filling us with His
Spirit so that we can rest in Him by faith. Look at verse 5. Why was that a necessity? For
they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
Christ said that which is flesh is flesh. But they that are after
the Spirit, born of the Spirit, they mind the things of the Spirit.
Verse 6, For to be carnally minded is death. To be carnally minded
is death. To be of the flesh is to be dead. To be living in envy and enmity
is death. To be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the
law of God, the word of God. Neither indeed can be. So then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. How does the Hebrew
writer say that we please God? Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. But in our flesh, we lived in
envy and we lived in enmity against God. We weren't just hateful
toward God. All we were, all the flesh is,
is hatred of God. It's envy and enmity against
God. So that we couldn't obey God's
law. We couldn't obey God's command to believe on Christ. We couldn't
obey that. We couldn't be subject to that
word and neither could we be. We wouldn't be and we couldn't
be. Because we minded the things of the flesh. We couldn't rest
in Christ for all righteousness. We had to be born of the Spirit
of Christ for Him to free us from that carnal, fleshly bondage,
so that for the first time, we could actually hear God say,
this is my Son, hear ye Him. This is my Son, believe on Him.
And for the first time, we could actually believe on Him. We had
to be born of God to be able to do that. Now look here, verse
9. Now that you're born of God,
what does it mean? You're not in the flesh. You're
not living in enmity, but you are in the Spirit. You're dwelling
now in the Spirit. You live in the Spirit. You dwell
in the love of God, He said, if you're born of Him. If so
be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. See that? Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. He's still dead, still of
flesh. And if Christ be in you, now
watch this, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. But the spirit is life because
of righteousness. I've heard people object when
we say that we speak about an imparted righteousness and men
will object that we don't have an imparted righteousness. But
brethren, if we don't have an imparted righteousness, we don't
have life. Because Christ is life, and Christ
is righteousness. The Spirit is life because of
righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 3.17, it says
the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Lord is, there's liberty.
He just said there, the Spirit of life in Christ has made me
free from the law of sin and death. He's made me so now I
can believe on Christ. I can mount the things of the
Spirit. I can obey God's command to believe on Christ now. And
if Christ is in you, that Spirit is life because of righteousness. Righteousness is life. To have life is to have righteousness. You can't have life without righteousness. Death is sin. Death is sin. Sin is death. But righteousness
is life. That's the only kind of life
there is, is righteousness. The Spirit is life because of
righteousness. Whenever they were in the garden,
Adam had life. He was made upright by God. He
had life. It wasn't until he sinned and
became unrighteous that he died. You see, they're equal. To be
unrighteous is to be dead. To be righteous is to have life.
So we had to be born of the Spirit of Christ to have this life.
And when you're born of the Spirit of Christ, you've got Christ
in you. We wouldn't dare say Christ is not righteousness.
With Christ in you, you're righteous. Now listen to me carefully. What
I'll be accused of by saying this is He's teaching sinners
to look within and look at themselves. That's not what I'm doing. What
I'm telling you is there is a work that Christ must receive the
glory for doing in His people the same as He received for doing
for His people. There's a work that Christ must
do in you the same as He's done for you. And when He's done this,
you're not in the flesh now, you're in the Spirit. The Spirit
of Christ dwells in you. Now that body, that flesh, what
is it? It's still dead. But if the Spirit
of Him that raised Christ from the dead dwell in you, He says
He's even going to raise up your mortal body one day. And when
He does that, you know what will be? Will be all righteousness
in body and spirit. So we don't owe the flesh anything.
The flesh didn't do this. Flesh is flesh. The body's dead
because of sin. It's the spirit that's life because
of righteousness. So this is a work Christ must
do. He must create a new man in us in righteousness and true
holiness. You must be born of the Spirit
of God to believe on Christ. This is the love of God. God
loves after this manner. Those he loves he's going to
make to be born of the Spirit of Christ. So that we dwell in
love with God dwelling in us and us in him. And we behold
Christ. We behold how God loved us now.
And we believe him and trust him. Because this is Christ's
glory to do this. He gets the glory for doing this.
The scripture says this, blessed is the man unto whom God will
not impute sin and in whose spirit is no God. Two things float out
of Christ's side, blood, that's how God does not impute sin to
us because there's no sin to impute. He purged us of our sins
so there's no sin to impute. and water flowed out of his side.
We must be made holy. And he did both. Blessed is the
man to whom God will not impute sin and in whose spirit there
is no doubt. Both those works are of Christ.
And now this is the manner in which God loves. He's our righteousness
and our holiness. And just like he said there,
one day there's another work that's included in this. He's
going to redeem our bodies. We're going to be called totally
righteous by Him. Everything that will be in glory
will be the creation of Christ and it will be nothing but righteousness. Everything, because He made it.
Won't that be good? Won't that be a good day? When
we dwell in a place where everybody there will be the righteous creation
of Christ our righteousness. So that's the first way His love
is manifested. They're going to be born of God.
Secondly, Back in our text, God loves by Christ effectually revealing
Himself in a man's heart to the preacher of the gospel. You have
to be born of God, but we have to be taught of God too. And
the God who teaches us is Christ Jesus, God our Savior. He's going
to get the glory for teaching us who He is and revealing Himself
to us. Look at verse 11, John 3, 11.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak, we speak that we do
know. And we testify that we have seen. And ye receive not our witness,
Christ said. If I have told you earthly things
and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly
things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven. And what's Christ saying there? He's saying there's no man that
ascends up to heaven. No man is able to pick himself
up and ascend and teach himself who Christ is and what Christ
accomplished and make himself to know Christ. No man's able
to do that. No man's able to do that. And
he said, and it's an evident fact by this right here, I've
told you some earthly things. I've told you you need to be
born of the Spirit of God. And the reaction to that was
Nicodemus said, how can that be? How can a man be born again
when he's old? Can he go into his mother's womb
a second time? And the Lord says, you just evidenced
the fact that I've got to teach you. He had told him. He had told him it, but he didn't
speak it affectionately in Nicodemus' heart. Or else Nicodemus would
have bowed. He was showing him there that
I've just told you something that has got to take place and
you don't believe me because it has to be revealed to you.
And Christ is the only one who can ascend to the father and
go between the father and his people and teach his people the
gospel and teach his people who he is and reveal himself and
his people. He's the only one that can do
that. It's impossible for you and I to do that. When you look
at Nicodemus here and you see a man rejecting what Christ said
when he said he must be born of God, know this. Every time
Will Works Religion rejects the gospel, they support the truth
of the gospel. That's what Christ did. I've
just told you some things that are the gospel and you verify
that it's so because you don't believe me. I had a friend one
time, the Lord had just called him, just saved him. And he didn't
know a lot, but he knew the gospel. And he was telling an older man
about the fact that you've got to be born of God and you've
got to be taught of God because you can't make yourself be born
of God. You can't bring yourself to Christ.
You can't grant yourself repentance. You don't even know who Christ
is unless he teaches you who he is. And this boy listened
to him and he said, you mean to tell me I've got to be born
of God and drawn by God and irresistibly made to believe on Christ or
I can't believe? And my friend said, that's exactly
right. And this boy said, I can't believe that. And he said, you
agree with me. Anytime a man rejects the gospel,
he's verifying the truth of the gospel that it takes God to teach
a man or he can't know God. And Christ says here, we. He's
talking about those sin of God. Christ was sin of God. And those
he sins to preach the gospel are sin of God. We know. We know. We speak that we do know and
we testify that we've seen. We're telling you what we know.
We're telling you what we've seen. And the only one who has
access between the Father and His people, the only one who
can give a true revelation of the Gospel, is the Son of Man
which is in Heaven, Christ our Prophet, Priest, and King. He
gets the glory. After that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom didn't know God. God gave some time
and showed that a man by his own wisdom can't know God. But
after that, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Why is that? Because it's the
only way Christ is going to get all the glory. They must be taught
of God. And God our Savior is going to
teach His people who He is. And He does it, He said, He chose
foolish things and weak things and no bodies to preach it. And
He uses preaching so that no flesh or glory in His presence.
I'm going to tell you what that means. When Christ reveals Himself
into the heart of those He's teaching through this preaching,
Flesh won't glory in flesh anymore. Christ will teach you that of
God are you in Christ. You're made to dwell in Him and
abide in Him because He's the one that's come and abode in
you. And He'll make you to know that Christ is the wisdom and
the righteousness and the sanctification and the redemption. And for the
first time, instead of glorying in the flesh, that man will start
glorying in Christ. That's because Christ is speaking
into the heart through the preaching. I can't do that. If all you hear
is me, it won't do you any good. But if he speaks this, no man's
going to glory in his presence. And I love the fact that he does
this through preaching. You ever notice when you're trying
to talk to somebody one-on-one, unless the Lord has evidently
made it clear that he's opened the door to talk to somebody
one-on-one, I have never seen any profit from it. Because most
of the time when you're sitting there trying to teach somebody
the scriptures and teach them the gospel, they're just thinking
about what they're going to say to you next. And they don't hear
what you say. But when you're preaching, they
can't get ready to rebut what you said. They got to sit there
and listen. And when Christ enters in the heart, they'll listen. He's going to teach them. He
said, I'm the only one that can do that. So the second way, first
of all, God loves after this manner. He makes His people be
born again. And secondly, He loves after
this manner. Christ Himself teaches us in the heart, revealing Himself,
who He is. And here's the third thing. Here's
the third thing. The last thing. God loves by
making His people righteous through faith in Christ our substitute. He said in verse 14, and he's
been telling us barely, barely. And he says, and in addition
to that, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in
him shall not perish, but have eternal life. You know, you know
the story from over in numbers when the children of Israel sinned
against God. God sent fiery serpents and they
began to bite the children of Israel and they died. A bunch
of them died and they began to cry out. We've sinned against
God. We've sinned against you, Moses. And the Lord told Moses,
you make a fiery serpent out of brass and you lift that fiery
serpent up on a pole. And when they behold this fiery
serpent lifted up on this pole, they'll live. And that's what
happened. But Christ said, as Moses lifted
up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. There is no other way my people
can be redeemed. There is no other way they can
be made righteous. There is no other way their sin
can be put away. That thing that was killing you
and me, that poison that was going through us was due to our
sin. We sinned against God in Adam.
And our own self we sinned against God because of Adam. But I'm
saying to you, that was the poison of the serpent's bite that was
going through our body that killed us, was that sin. And so Christ,
like that fiery serpent, was made exactly like what was biting
them. Christ was made sin for His people
and lifted up. Lifted up on the cross, the spotless
Lamb of God was made to be the very thing that killed His people
that God might be just and justifier of His people. God had made Him
who knew no sin to be sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. On that cross, Christ loved God
and His people as Himself. Showing His people, manifesting
to His people, He is the righteousness of God. He is the righteousness
of the Lord. He loved God and His people as
Himself. And He did it by burying our
sin away as the scapegoat and by making propitiation as the
Lamb of Atonement. And Christ accomplished that.
And that is the love of the law. That is the righteousness of
the law. To lay down your life for God and for your people.
To be made the very least they can possibly be because of your
love for God and for your brethren. You and I can't do that. We can't
fulfill that law. We've never loved anybody like
that. To the point that we were willing
to be crucified and made a curse for somebody. We couldn't do
it. Christ did it. And He is that
righteousness. And by doing it, in the course
of doing it, He put away the sin of His people completely
and declared God just and justifying His people. And he did that for
a reason. He did it for a reason. Galatians
3.14 says that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles
through faith, through Christ. He did it that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. It says in Galatians 3.5
that we might receive the adoption of sons. I mean, Galatians 4.5,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. And so because you are
sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Abba, Father. In other words, Christ laid down
His life that all His people would be born again. He laid
down His life that Christ would be revealed in the hearts of
His people. He laid down His life that we might be made one
in Christ with God in Him. You see, the good news of this
whosoever It's not what the world preaches on. The world declares
that that whosoever means that that Christ did everything he
could do. And now it's up to you. Whosoever
will, if he's willing, he can make Christ work a success and
effectual and what have you. And that's not what the whosoever
means. The whosoever is declaring to us the good news is because
God loves in this manner, by doing all the work Himself by
Christ Jesus. Whosoever you are in this world
will not prevent God from saving you. Whosoever you are in this
world, you shall be saved by the work of Christ. Every child
He chose is scattered all over this world. They have been, they've
been everywhere. And they've got a people everywhere.
But Christ redeemed each one of them on the cross. And Christ
will send the gospel unto them. And Christ shall make them to
be born again by sending the Spirit of God to them to rebirth
them. And He shall reveal Himself in
them. And He shall give them faith
to believe on Him. And they shall rest in Him. So
it doesn't matter whosoever you are. It doesn't matter how bad
you are. It doesn't matter I guarantee
you this, because this is the manner in which God loves, everyone
that He loves shall be saved and not one shall be lost. What
good would it be to even talk about the love of God if that
wasn't the case? Verse 16, John 3, 16, For God
in this manner loved the world. that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, no matter who you are,
no matter how sinful you are, you shall not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
shall be saved. And you know what? The world
through Him shall be saved. Every one of them, they're going
to be born of Him. Every one of them is going to
be have Christ revealed in them, and every one of them is going
to be brought to believe in our substitute on the cross. Preacher,
if that's so, then that world can't mean everybody. We don't have to define the world,
we just have to declare the truth. And you'll know who the world
is. It's everybody He saves. And He's going to save every
one of them that makes up the world that He loves. He's going
to save every one of them. You see, the manner in which
he loves is that he sent his son to work all the work so that
all his people shall be saved. Now, let me tell you that men
do not hate the love of God, which leaves some aspect of this
work in their hands. That's what you hear all the
time. God loves you. God loves you. Won't you make
that love into something by loving him back? Men don't hate that
message at all. He says that in verse 20, everyone
that does evil, the manner that they hate is the love that gives
him all the glory. That's the love they hate. And
he says there, everyone that does evil hates the light. Neither
comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. The
reason men don't come to Christ is this love, this manner in
which God really loves, takes all the work out of man's hand.
And if it comes to Christ, all the things he's trusting in to
contribute to make Christ's work effectual, He's going to be made
to see. That's all evil. Every bit of
it is evil. And that's why He won't come
to Christ. That's why He hates this love we're proclaiming.
But those to whom He's made this love appear, and showed us that
the way He loves us, He sent His Son to successfully save
us by all His work. We love the love of God. And
we declare the love of God. We come to Christ to declare
this. The whole reason we're saved. The only reason we're
saved. Every work involved to make us
saved. He did it. He worked it. Look
at verse 21. He that doeth truth cometh to
the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they're
wrought in God. God worked them all. He did every
work necessary to save us. And that's what we love to proclaim.
Now let me give you one more thing to send you home. Go back
to John. 1 John 4. Brother Frank just
read this. 1 John 4. Look at verse 11. It says there, Beloved, if God so loved us, if God in
this manner loved us, we ought also to love one another. And
you're not doing jeopardy to the text to say in this manner.
If God in this manner loved us, we ought also to love one another
in this manner. Well, how can I possibly love
God in the manner in which He loved me? There's only one way.
Number one, preach only Christ our substitute. He must be lifted
up. He must be lifted up. Preach
Him in the gospel. Lift Him up as the substitute.
That's love. to preach Christ our substitute
to needy, perishing sinners, that he's the substitute. He's
the righteousness, the holiness. He's the one who accomplished
the redemption of the people. He's the wisdom and power of
God. He alone who laid down his life in the place of God's elect.
Number two, wait on the spirit to make them be born again. To
do anything else to try to get people, coerce people into a
decision, that's not loving sinners. That's making them twice dead.
That's making them two-fold more the child of hell than when you
found them. Because now they got a false hope. They got to be
unsaved just to get back to zero before they can be taught the
truth. Wait on God to give them life. And number three, wait
on Christ to reveal Himself. And that's not just a one-time
thing. You know, you and I, every time we get into a trial, You
know what the reaction of our brethren is? We want to take
them out of that trial and comfort them and get them out of it as
fast as we can. You know what the best thing to do is? Pray
for them, point them to Christ, bear with their burden, bear
with their sin, bear with their ugliness and whatever's going
on and wait on Christ to reveal Himself. Because every time a
trial comes, what Christ is teaching us is a little more about Him
and how He's all our salvation. That's what He's doing. He's
separating us from something that would separate us from Him.
making us cling to Him a little tighter into this world of the
living. Wait on Him to teach them that. He does it in the
very first hour and He keeps doing it all our day. Preach
Christ, wait on this Lord to make them born again, and wait
on Him to reveal Himself in them. That's love. That's how we lay
down our lives for others. The opposite of that is saying,
I'm going to preach what I want to preach. I'm going to try to
build a church because I just want to build a church. I'm going
to snatch my brother out of this or that just so he'll glory in
me. That's exalting ourselves. Laying down our lives for one
another makes sure Christ gets all the glory in every aspect
of our salvation. And that's what he's saying.
If God so loved us in this manner, this is the manner in which we
need to love one another. All right. Thank you. so plain, just unmistakably plain,
that's the gospel. I'm so thankful I was here tonight
to hear that. Thank you. Let's bow in prayer
before we stand and sing. Our Father, how we thank you
for your gospel that you enabled us to hear one more time this
evening so plainly and simply. Father, we thank you that in
such a manner You love sinners such as we are, how thankful
we are. We do pray that you'd bless your
word as it's been preached this evening. Bless it to your glory.
Cause it to bring glory to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Father, we pray you'd bless your word to our hearts, to the
hearts of your people, that you'd apply your word, that we would
believe these things, rest in these things, and leave here
rejoicing in Christ our Savior.