I'm still kind of struggling
with this cataract surgery, so if you see me stop to put glasses
on, you'll know what it is. For a minute or two, things will
be perfectly clear, and then all of a sudden, they start being
blurry. I invite you to turn back with
me now to the book of John, chapter 3. My text this morning is concerning
one verse of Scripture, John 3.16. This is a well-known, well-publicized
verse of Scripture, perhaps the most well-known verse of Scripture
in the world. In my travels, I've seen it on
billboards out on the road, John 3.16. I've seen it on church
signs everywhere. Over and over and over. I see
it out there on the church signs, John 3.16. It was the first verse of scripture
I was taught in the church I was raised in and the only verse
of scripture that I ever committed to memory. John 3.16. And I dare say you'd be hard
pressed to find anyone anywhere who has not read or heard read
John 3.16. Well, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. But for all its worldly promotion
and exposition and publication, John 3.16 may be one of the most
misunderstood verses of scripture in the Bible. John 3.16. I'll never forget when I first
began to see just a thing or two about God's election. The elders in the church that
I was attending would just bombard me with John 3.16. John 3.16. And it's most often used, as
they used it, as a foundation text for universalism. They used
John 3.16 as the basis of saying God loves everybody and Christ
died for everybody. Says that right here in John
3.16. It don't say any such thing. There's not one ounce of universalism
in this text. Not one. If there's even a hint
of universalism in it, it is universally to be preached. I'm
to preach to every creature. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. The scope of this gospel being
preached, I don't have a problem with that. Does God love everyone? Did Christ
die for everyone? That's contrary to the scriptures.
There's not one ounce of universalism in this text. Actually, this
verse, as I read to you earlier, is part of a conversation between
our Lord and a self-righteous Pharisee. You ever think about that when
you read it? He's talking to Nicodemus. He
was a Pharisee. Tells you that. The very first
thing the Lord told him, he went contrary to it. No, no. How can that be? How can that
be? He starts to reason with the
Lord. He's going to teach the Lord about these things. And then even after the Lord
told him what he told him, he's still going backwards. How can
them things be? He said, Nicodemus, I've condescended
to talk to you in earthly times, things that you can understand,
of birth, the birth of a baby. I've condescended to talk, what
if I was to talk to you in heavenly times? Right where you're at. You wouldn't understand anything
I'm telling you. But he said, I've come down on
your level. And I'm going to teach you something. Our Lord began telling him that
he must be born again to perceive, to see, to understand anything
about the Kingdom of God. And I don't care how smart you
are, or what school you went to, or how long you've been attending
church. Doesn't make any difference.
Except you be born again, you cannot perceive the Kingdom of
God. The only thing long-term attendance,
if you're not hearing the truth, the only thing long-term attendance
does is just bury you deeper in the mire. You won't even let a man talk
to you, just like Nicodemus. He's talking to the Lord of Glory.
He's talking to the Eternal Word. He whose name means communication. He's the Word. made flesh and
dwelt among him and you stand there talking to him and Nicodemus
was just cutting him off. He was so deep rooted in these
concepts that he had of God and had been taught about God that
he wasn't even gonna listen. Wasn't even gonna listen. A fallen man, the scripture says,
there's none that understandeth. But boy, there's a multitude
that think they do. None that understandeth. None
that seeketh after God. Paul said, when in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Whose idea was that? God's. That's what it said. When in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God, It pleased God through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Listen to this, John chapter
one, verse 10. He, who's he talking about? Talking about the eternal word. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him. He's the one who spoke Adam into
existence. He's the one who took from Adam
the woman. All things were made by him and
for him. He's the maker, he's the creator
of the world. And he was in the world and the
world was made by him and the world knew him not. I'm gonna take a piece out of
our Sunday school lesson. The devils knew him. Then we know thee who thou art. That's the first thing they said.
The winds and the waves knew him. They obeyed his voice. The elements changed at his command. He turned water into wine. Everything
else in the world knew him except man. He was in the world and the world
was made by him and the world knew him not. Now watch this, verse 11, John
chapter one. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. He came among the Jews, the only
people on the face of the earth who had any inkling of who God
was. He came to them. They had the
prophets, all the information that God had given out and written
down and preserved for their learning. They had it in their
possession. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. Now watch this. But as many as
received him. Now wait a minute, the world
wouldn't have him and his own wouldn't have him, who are these
people? As many as received him, how come they received him? To
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name who were born. You see what he's
telling Nicodemus? He given Nicodemus the very foundation principles of
the kingdom of God. It begins with you in a new birth. Nicodemus wanted to get up here,
way up the ladder, and communicate with you, up here. But Nicodemus
wasn't up there. He was way down here. And the
Lord just stopped him. He said, you must be born again. You can't perceive anything.
It's no good for me to sit here and talk to you about all these
things. You're not going to hear anything that I have to say. And it hadn't changed a bit.
I'm standing here telling all of you that's sitting in here
this morning, and some of you ain't getting anything. It just,
right over your head. And the reason why is you must
be born again. That's what our Lord told Nicodemus,
just proud. He had a master's degree, William,
in theology. He had his degree. And this man
standing there before him didn't have anything. And he's, man, he's describing
his problem to a tee. To a tee. They were born. Not of blood. Wasn't because
they were Abraham's children. Not of the will of the flesh.
It wasn't by the will of man. What's the difference between
the will of the flesh and the will of man? The will of the
flesh is your nature. The will of man is like a group
of men. Church, I want folks to be born
again, but that ain't gonna make them be born again. It's not
of the will of man. It's of God. It's of God. And Nicodemus heard what our
Lord said, and he treated what our Lord said as absolute, total
foolishness. Total foolishness. And he tells
him in verse 11, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that
we do know and testify of what we've seen. Now his idea of a Messiah was
that a man from the tribe of Judah was going to rise up and
sit on the throne of Israel. He's going to deliver them out
from under all the bondage of their enemies, the Romans. and
reestablish Israel as a government, as a people, as a nation, and
return them to their former glory. That's what he thought about
the Messiah. Why would he think such a thing?
He thought that because natural men had sat around trying to
unravel scriptural mysteries And they taught their concepts
and their twisted ideas to their children. And he was one of them. My friend, the purpose of this
world, and I hope you hear me, the purpose of this world and
all of its inhabitants is to manifest the glory of God in
the salvation of a chosen people. That's its purpose. There's no
other sense in which our Lord could say that God so loved the
world. You know, when he created the
world, he looked on it and he said,
behold, it's very good, very good. Well, now wait a minute, Adam's
gonna fall here in just a short time. And Adam's own children, one
of them, gonna come out and throw some carrots and celery and stuff
up there on the altar and he's going to totally ignore the blood
that was taught to him. He's going to go sideways. In
just a few generations, God's going to have to destroy the
whole world because every thought or the imagination of their hearts
was only evil continually. There's no other way that God
could look at this world and say it's good And you remember
who God is. God's looking for all time and
eternity, ain't just look. You say, well, he looked before
the fall. That ain't how God looks. When God looks, he sees
everything. He sees the end from the beginning. And he saw it good, and there's
only one way he could say that about this world, and that is
because of its purpose. Its purpose. God purposed to save a people
by his son, and in so doing, he's gonna manifest the glory,
his own glory, the glory of his name. Now I want you to listen
to something. This is in Romans 8, 19. Paul said, the earnest expectation
of creation. Now creation is just a, piece
of wood and some glass and rocks and rivers. He's not talking
about what the earth itself expects, he's talking about his expectation
of creation. And the earnest expectation of
creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. You see what
I'm saying? The purpose of God in this world
and all of its inhabitants The reason for its existence is to
manifest his glory in the salvation of a people through the person
and work of his son. That's God's purpose. God has a people and Peter tells
us that he's not willing that any of them should perish. A man told me that one time,
he said, God's will's not salvation. He said, that ain't salvation. He said, because it's not his
will that any man should perish, but they perish. I said, no,
whoa, whoa, whoa. I said, let's back up and see
who he's talking about here. He's talking about his elect.
I went back and showed him that in the book of Peter. And I said,
what he's saying here is God's not willing for one of his elect
to perish. Every one of them is gonna be
brought to repentance. And you can't be brought to repentance
apart from faith. Brethren, we can't take the plain
teaching of scripture and contradict it with a verse that seems to
say something different. We have to look at these things.
There is a, a commonness through the scripture. Whatever he says back here in
the garden, he's not gonna contradict that clear through the book of
Revelations. That's gonna be so. That's gonna be so. It ain't never gonna change.
It ain't ever gonna change. What he said in Isaiah will be
just as true when Christ comes and just as true after Christ
has ascended into heaven for a thousand years. There's a harmony in the scripture. But God knows how Satan works,
and Satan works in the realm of religion. And he has put in his word, and
tells us this in the book of Isaiah, that he has set in his
word djinns and snares. And that's exactly what he did
in John 3, 16. It's a djinn and a snare. And men with no understanding,
They got their robes, they got their degrees. Everybody in the
building says they're a preacher, they love them. And he picks up the scriptures
and he reads that and he just falls all over himself. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. Problem is, that's not what it
says. Not what it says. God said, now listen to me. God
said he loved Israel. He loved Israel. And he said
that all Israel shall be saved. Was all Israel saved? No. Did God love them, all of them?
No. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. Esau was an Israelite. Judas
was an Israelite. When he said, all Israel, he
said, I loved, I loved them, I loved them forever, I loved
them. Well, I can't take that to mean
every individual in Israel, because that's not how it was meant.
I find out later on that God has a spiritual Israel. You read about it over in Galatians
chapter four. We're all children of Abraham
by faith, amen, faith in Christ. Now I'm a child. He says, and
I think it's Romans nine or Romans 10 one, he says, he's talking
about them and he says, I think it's in Romans nine, he said, these children, these natural
children, these are not, he said, the children of God. They're
not the children of God. But he said he loved Israel,
and that all Israel shall be saved, and the Jews took that
to mean every son and daughter of Jacob. Listen to this. This is in Malachi, the last
prophecy in the Old Testament. Malachi chapter one, verse two.
I have loved you, saith the Lord, Yet you say wherein hast thou
loved us was not Esau Jacob's brother? He said, yet I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau. And I laid
his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the
wilderness. Then later on we learn who true Israel is. They're the elect of God. But
Israel in general misunderstood the word of God. And I'm saying
that this world has misunderstood John 3.16. They've done the same
thing with John 3.16 as they did with the writings of the
prophets. God was not wrong to say that
he loved Israel and that all Israel shall be saved, and he's
not wrong to say that he so loved the world if I keep in mind the
world in its proper context. Revelation 7 tells us that God's
elect are gonna be made up not only of the 12 tribes of Israel, but of a people that he chose
out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people under heaven. In short, God's love for the
world is the same as his love for Israel, his elect. And also, I would remind you
of this when reading John 3, 16. I would remind you of the
Jewish prejudice concerning Israel Believing that they were the
only people in the world that was gonna be saved. And these apostles had learned
better, and they were anxious to preach it, but the Jews fought
it, they hated it, they contradicted it. And so the apostles chose
to use that word world. That was like fingernails on
a blackboard to a Jew. World, God so loved the world. Oh, he loved those Galatians,
didn't he? Huh? He loved those Ephesians. Now having said all this, the
subject of this verse is not universalism and it's not election. Those two things is where all
the trouble seems to meet as unlearned men try to use that
verse of scripture. But what's being taught in this
verse of scripture is the love of God. The love of God. And his gift of Christ and the
salvation of all that believe. That's what's being taught. So
let's talk about the love of God. And I wanna stick primarily
to our text. I could go all over the scriptures
and talk to you about the love of God, but I want to try to
hold myself to the love of God as it's revealed in this text,
and I've got five things that I want you to see. The first
thing is this. This love is without limit. In all the rebukes that I got
over John 3, 16, not one of them ever mentioned the unlimited
love of God for his people. Not one. There's a word in our text that
men so overlook. I'm so bad about it, so bad about
it. And the word is so. So. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. And one of the definitions
of the word so is to measure. I love you so much. That's a word used to measure. To measure. God so loved the
world. Oh, what's the measurement? He
gave his only begotten son. He gave his only begotten son. The measure in this case is infinite.
He said, in this was manifested the love of God toward us because
that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. In 1 John 4 verse 10, he said,
herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. And Paul uses this very thing
to exhort us to be satisfied with all the provision that God
has made with it. Listen to this, Romans 8, 32.
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If
God held nothing back, and he emptied heaven of its treasure,
He took the most valuable thing in heaven and he gave it to you. Huh? What else he gonna hold
back? Nothing. If God holds anything
back for you, it's for your good. It's for your good. Why aren't
we all millionaires? Because money would destroy us.
That's why. We don't know how to use it. Why aren't we all bankrupt? Same
thing. We curse God. He gives us what
we need. But He's not going to withhold
anything from you. And we all know that because
He didn't withhold His Son. You think about that. Oh, my
soul. Christ reminded Nicodemus of
a time when Israel fell under the wrath of God. They rebuke the very word of
God and the servant of God. And they talk to him like he
was a dog, like he was a liar, an imposter, a man who just took
that office to himself and God didn't have anything to do with
it. And boy, God sent fiery serpents among them. And they were dying
by the thousands. You know that's a picture of
what's going on right now? That's a picture of what's going
on. Death is an active part of this world. It's an active part. Dying, dying, dying, dying, dying,
everywhere dying, in and out of all dying. Death all around
us. No way out. No way out. And no weapon they
had could take care of them fiery serpents. And the result was the same.
Everybody was bit and died. They all died. It's an awful scene, boy. These
fiery serpents everywhere, men dying here, dying there, all
over the place. And they all deserved it. for
what they'd done. It was a just judgment of God. And they were all dying and this
wrath was actively killing them by the thousands, but God had
a people among them and he commanded Moses to take a serpent of brass. Now I want you just to think
about something. We're not talking about today when you got this
computerized thing and you could go in there and stick a piece
of brass in and it'd come out a serpent in five minutes. These
things had to be done by hand. The brass had to be molten and
made and chiseled out and shaped, had to be fashioned on a pole
and taken out in the middle of Israel and raised it up. He made the serpent of brass
and he raised it up on a pole and everybody that looked Lived. Looked at what? A serpent on
a pole. The very thing that was killing
him. There it is up there on the pole. Being judged of God. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, now listen, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. Not only did God's Son become
one with our flesh, but he, according to the will of God, submitted
himself to the cross and bore our sins in his own body on the
tree. God's giving of his Son as the
sinner's substitute is the greatest manifestation of God's love that
we'll ever have. We can't doubt His love. You
can't look at the suffering Savior on the cross and doubt God's
love. You can't do it. Can't do it. And then secondly,
God's love is commended. It's commended. God's love is
not a secret love. Not a secret love. But it's a
love displayed. It's set Somebody said it was
like you go into a jewelry and you don't just find a bunch of
diamonds laying out on white tablecloth. They take black velvet
and they take that gold ring with that diamond in it and they
set it on that black velvet. Boy, on that backdrop, you can
see it, can't you? That's God's love. He manifested
his love in Christ crucified. He commends his love to us. We
all walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, lived out our days after the
lust of our flesh, and were by nature, the scripture said, children
of wrath, even as others. Ephesians 2.4, but God, now watch
this, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us. Even when we were dead in sins,
quickened us to gather with Christ, by grace you're saved. And hath
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2 saying, that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. The gift of God. Every man, woman,
and child that he died for, he's gonna bring them to see his love
manifested on that cross. He died the just for the unjust. He came to save sinners. And
here's the question, am I a sinner? Am I willing to take my place
as the sinner? If I were by myself and walked
into a synagogue to pray, would I pray like that tax collector
prayed who went in there and he couldn't even turn his eyes
toward heaven and he said, God have mercy on me, be sinner. Can I take my place as the sinner? Can I take my place with the
guilty? Guilty. Guilty. If I can, then look at the Son
of God dying on that tree and see the love of God and the grace
of God and the mercy of God. God commended for helpless sinners. The scripture said, God commendeth
his love for us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And then thirdly, God's love
is undeserved. It says in our text, for God
so loved the world that he gave his own begotten son. He gave
him. I can't, in my wildest imagination,
figure how anybody could think that they merited the death of
Christ. I can't. I can't figure that. How could any man think that
he merited the death? I did this and I did that. You
know, over in Let's see, where is that? Romans 10, where he's
talking about faith. He said this saving faith doesn't
say that I brought Christ down. That is, I merited his coming
into this world. I merited the giving of the Son
of God. And faith don't talk that way. God commendeth his love for us
in the while we're yet sinners. Christ died for us. And this
love is misunderstood, it's undeserved. God's love is not a reaction. God's love is eternal. Can't
fathom that, can you? God loved you before you was. And it's not so much that God
loves, though he does, rather God is love. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. And when I think of God, I think
about, first thing comes to my mind is power. I think about
God. Power, he spoke the world into
existence. He commands the winds and the
waves and they obey his voice. He declares the end from the
beginning, ancient times of things, the power of God. Power to do his will in all things. And when I think about God, I
think about his wrath. I can't help but think about
his wrath, my soul. We experience it all the time
in storms and disasters in this world. God's wrath, hell, everlasting
torment. And I think about God's justice.
He told Moses, he said, I keep mercy for thousands, and I forgive
all manner of sin. But he said, you better know
this, I will by no means clear the guilty. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die, And when I think about God, I think about those things, but
God is just. God is righteous. This is who
he is. God is love. He's love. He's equally love,
mercy and grace. or the very character of God.
And to know God is to know him as he's just and justifier and
righteous in his remission of sins. It's to know something
about the love of God as it is in communion with all his other
attributes. And the only place you can see
it is on the cross. Love is proclaimed in the Savior,
whose love is revealed in righteousness and justice. God's attributes,
they're never compromised. They're all working equally all
the time, all the time, never compromised. And then fourthly,
God's love is active. In 1 Corinthians 13, what some
people call the love chapter in the Bible, he uses another
word instead of the word love. Now some of the translations
will use the word love, but in the King James, he uses the word
charity. What's the difference between
charity and love? Charity is active love. It's active love. James talks about our faith is
just useless faith. If we see this poor guy and he's
hungry, he's not got enough clothes, it's cold out, we meet him out
there on the street and we talk to him for a few minutes and
we shake his hand and he says, well, the Lord bless you, brother,
and he walks away. Huh? That ain't active love. Active love will take his jacket
off and say, here's your coat. Let's go down to the restaurant
and I'll buy you something to eat. Active love. God's love
is active. When did it start being active?
Way back yonder before the foundation of the world. God began to make
provision for the sinner. Provision for those he loves. God don't just say, well, I love
you. He said, husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church.
Now listen, and gave himself for it. Gave himself for it. And God's eternal love is the
wellspring for all his provision for his people. He chose us in
his son that we might always be before him in love. You know,
over there in Ephesians 1 where he says that he chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy,
without blame, before him in love. He's not talking about
you being before him loving him. Actually, scripture said not
that we love God, but that he loved us, that love. He chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we might always
be before him being loved. That's what he's talking about. The other definition of that
word so is to state a reason. And so he punched him in the
mouth. He had a reason, didn't he? Well
John 3.16 begins with the word for which reaches back to what
our Lord had said about Moses raising up the serpent in the
wilderness on a pole and then tells us 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. The world
was already judged. This world was judged back yonder
in the garden. We're under the condemnation
of God. We're not fiddling around here
in a vacuum, and one of these days, then we're gonna be under
the wrath of God if we don't straighten up. That's baloney. This world was judged in Adam. In Adam, all died. By one man,
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all men. And that's what our Lord said.
I didn't come here to judge. I already judged before I came
here. I didn't come here to judge.
I came here to save. And he that believeth not on me.
What's he say? You condemned already. You was
already condemned. Like old Barabbas. He sat down there in
that cell. Just waiting his turn. He knew
where he was going. He was going to the cross. He
was going to die. Already been convicted. Already
been judged. He's guilty. He's down in the
cell. He's chained up. Waiting his turn to die. And
they come down and they said, well, you're free to go, Brabus. He said, what? Another has been
chosen to die in your stead. Oh, my soul. That's good news
of the Gospel, ain't it? God's love is an active love. His Son is the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world, and then even past the cross.
Where he talks about love in Romans chapter 8 at the end of
that chapter, just before he talks about that, he talks about
his intercession for us. He sat down at the right hand
of God who also maketh intercession for us. For who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Arranging all things, bringing
all things to pass for those he loves. And then lastly, God's
love, as it's declared here in John 3, 16, is an effectual saving
love. His love, he's not gonna lose
one for whom he died. Every last one of them gonna
be brought to faith in Christ. They're all gonna look. What
are they gonna look at? Christ raised up, Christ crucified. And they're gonna look, they're
gonna see His love and His mercy and His grace and His kindness
toward them and Christ Jesus. They're gonna see it. And they're
gonna rejoice in it. And they're gonna lay hold of
it. And they're gonna talk about it and preach about it and confess
it. Because it's the only hope they
got. Only hope they got. And it's effectual. Let me close with this, in 1
John 5, 19. Having said all these things,
a testimony of God, about Christ, in 1 John 5. And therefore, he that hath the Son
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
He works his way on down, and then in verse 19, he said, and
we know that we are of God. Why? He saw the resurrected Christ. He saw the Christ raised up on
that cross. He saw these things, lay hold
of these things. We know that we are of God and
the whole world, life and wickedness. And we know that the Son of God
has come and given us an understanding. Where did we get our understanding?
The Son of God. He given us an understanding
that we might know Him that's true, and we're in Him that's
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and 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. And He looked at those
Jews and they said, if you're the Christ, You tell us. He said, I told you. I told you. You believe not, because you're
not my sheep. You're not my sheep. All right.
Thank you.