I'd like for you to take your
Bibles, turn back with me to John chapter 3. And I want to
focus on a single verse this morning, although I've got some
comments to make on others. But I want to focus on verse
16, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. Now let's read the text again
and get it fresh in our minds. John 3, verse 16. 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. I want to say some things
before we begin to consider this verse of Scripture. Before any
man, any woman, any boy or girl can hope to understand this great
and controversial declaration of God, they must first be a
student of chapter 1 and chapter 2 of this book and be a partaker
of what our Lord taught in the first seven verses of chapter
3. He hasn't left off talking to
Nicodemus. He's still talking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to the Lord, telling
the Lord what he knew, and the Lord stopped him. And he said,
except you be born again, you can't perceive the kingdom of
God. So quit telling me what you know,
because you don't know anything. But for any man, any woman, any
boy or girl, can ever hope to enter in to this great and controversial
declaration of God, he must first be a partaker. He must be born
again. That's what our Lord said. He
must be born again. And until a person is born again,
three things will continue without change. They're going to keep
on just the way they are without interruption. Our Lord said,
except you be born again, you cannot see. That is, you cannot
perceive, understand, or be reasoned with concerning the kingdom of God.
Our Lord said to His childlike disciples, He said, blessed are
your eyes, for they see. Isn't that what He said? The
Jews, meanwhile, these masters of theology were spitting things
back in his teeth and rejecting the things that he did and finding
controversy in how he walked and when he ate and how he ate
and everything else about him. They would just pick, pick, pick,
pick, pick everything he said and everything he did. Paul calls
them dogs in the scriptures, nipping at your heels, these
false prophets. Until a man is born again, he
cannot see, he cannot perceive. I don't care how much talking
you do. I don't care how many books you read. I don't care
how talented the man is that's telling you. He might be the
most gifted man on the face of this earth. You'll walk out of
here not understanding the mystery of this verse except you'd be
born again. And what I'm telling you this
morning, I've learned by experience. All right, here's the second
thing that's going to go unchanged. Except one be born of the Spirit
of God, he can't enter the kingdom of God. He can't enter into the kingdom
of God. He can't be a fellow citizen.
He can't be of the household of God's saints. He can't be
a partaker. He tells us back in John 1, verses
12 and 13, that's why I said, except a man be a student of
these chapters, except he have some understanding here of what
John is teaching and what our Lord declared, and be a partaker
of that, he's not going to understand John 3.16. He tells us in John 1, verses
12 and 13, That as many as received Him,
that is the promised Redeemer, this One who was with God in
the beginning. That as many as received Him,
to them gave, that's past tense, already gave to them. He gave
them power to become sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The one true
evidence of our eternal election and redemption in Christ is faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how it comes. The rite
of passage into the kingdom of God is the person and work of
Christ and it's manifest in the hearts and minds of all God's
elect through faith. They hear the testimony of God
and they believe it. They hear what the preacher says,
and they see it in the Word of God, and they say, that's it.
That's it. And this faith is brought to
pass by way of the new birth. And then the third thing that's
going to go unchanged, except a man be born again. I'm saying
that these things, if you've experienced all your life, are
going to continue just the way they are, except a man be born
of God. And here's the third thing. except
you be born again, your present state shall go unchanged, unaltered,
and unaffected. Apart from this divine intervention,
you'll live out your days as a normal person." Just a normal
person. Well, you say, I don't sound
like a curse. You need to read the Scriptures. The normal man. Receive with
not the things of the Spirit of God. That's what Scripture
says. The normal man. The normal mind
is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. That man will live out his days
as a natural person, just average in the world or above average
in the world, and he'll continue on in his blindness and ignorance
until he wakes up into judgment. I've experienced all these things
myself, and because I have, I can tell you about it with some detail
and some accuracy. Everything I have to say this
morning, every point I make, every illustration I give, every
conclusion I draw will have no effect on anyone in this place
unless the Holy Ghost gives him eyes to see and ears to hear. That's just so. It's just so. Well, what's all that got to
do with John chapter 3 verse 16? It has everything to do with
it. It has everything to do with
it. If you're left in your unregenerate state to attempt to perceive
it or appropriate this great promise of God to yourself, it
has everything to do with it. My friend, hell is full of men
and women who lean to their own ability and to their own reasoning
and took things like John 3.16 and built their salvation on
it. Hell's full of people like that. The scripture said, there is
a way that seemeth right unto a man. He's not talking about
all men. He's talking about natural men. There's a way. He hears
it. He sees it. He reads it. He said,
this is it. This is it. And he begins to
build his house of faith on that perception, on that natural perception. That's where Nicodemus was. He
already knew what he believed. He couldn't tell the Lord what
he knew. He was a master of theology. Our Lord told him that. He said,
aren't thou a master and you don't understand these simple
things? There's a way that seemeth right
unto a man, a fallen, depraved man, and the end thereof is death
and destruction. Faith brings to the sinner. Are
you listening? Faith brings to the sinner an
understanding. First time in his life, he'll
understand what that verse of Scripture is saying. Have you
experienced that? Boy, I tell you, I was raised
in religion, and I didn't understand anything they taught. They saved
one minute, lost another minute, telling me Christ died for my
sins, put away my sins, buried them in the deepest part of the
sea, put them behind his back. Next day, I was being convicted
of sin. I didn't understand. It didn't
make any sense to me. One minute you're saved, the
next minute you're lost. The preacher's telling you, come
down the aisle and you'll be saved. Shaked my hand, kneeled
at the bench. Go into the pool, do all these
things. I did all these things. He said, now you're saved. Next
week, he told me I wasn't saved. I didn't understand. It didn't
make any sense to me. How could Christ put away sin
and not put away sin? Faith brings to the sinner an
understanding. Listen to what Paul said to the
Gentile believers who once walked, he said, in the vanity of their
minds. being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that was in them, blinded, their
minds blinded by the God of this world. They lived after their natural
reasoning and lived after their natural desires and lived according
to what seemed right to them, okay? And he said, you have not
so learned Christ. That's not how you learn Christ.
if so be you've heard him and have been taught by him as the
truth is in him, that you put off this old man, this fallen
man, this ignorant man, this rebel man, this depraved man
which is corrupt according to his own lust. Now watch this,
Ephesians 4 verse 23, and be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. In 1 Corinthians 2.16, Paul calls
it the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ. In Paul's
letter to Timothy, he said, God has not given us the spirit of
fear, but of a sound mind. I love when he sets forth old
Nebuchadnezzar after he'd been out there as a beast, feeding
out there the beast. Made him to look like a beast,
act like a beast, think like a beast. He said, when my reasoning
returns unto me. That's what Paul's talking about,
a sound mind. God hath given to us a sound
mind. And again to Timothy, he said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he's
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. That which the mind truly believes,
right or wrong, that which the mind truly believes, it'll act
upon without question. That's right. You put that foot
out to walk, you believe The ground in front of you, the floor
in front of you, whatever it is, the stairway in front of
you, whatever it is you're walking on, you believe that it's solid
enough to support your weight, and you throw that foot out there,
and you don't even look. You're convinced when you put
your foot down, that's going to stay right where it was. Not
going to change. Huh? And so you do that. You put your foot down without
question, don't you? This air, you're convinced this
air is pure enough to support life. I'm not trying to say it's
pure by any means, but it's pure enough to support life. You just
breathe it in, don't you? Don't even think about it. You
just breathe it in. This mind is persuaded of those things.
Water's wet, sky's blue, all these things. The mind knows
these things, and it acts on them without question, without
question. That which the mind truly believes,
right or wrong, it will act upon without question. The understanding of faith given
to a chosen sinner by way of the new birth persuades them
of the sufficiency of Christ and be persuaded to commit the
keeping of their soul in His hands. They're persuaded of it. They're persuaded that it's an
irrefutable fact that all sufficiency is in Him to save their soul. When you are, you leave your
soul in His hands. You'll turn loose. You'll turn
loose. In much the same way, when men
and women are given over to themselves, He said God gives them over to
a what? Reprobate mind. A reprobate mind. A reprobate
mind is a mind of antichrist. It's in opposition to everything
concerning Christ. The reprobate mind will not receive
the love of the truth that it might be saved. The reprobate
mind is after the working of Satan with all power and signs
and lying wonders. The reprobate mind is a mind
which God has sent strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned
for believing it. I'm taking some time on this
point this morning because until this work is done, one cannot
rightly divide the Scriptures. Nor can they tell when the one
speaking to them is rightly dividing the Scriptures. They just can't
tell. Paul said his preaching was not
with enticing words of man's wisdom. but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power." That's over in 1 Corinthians
2 verse 4. He said, when I come to you,
I come not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but I come to
you in plain speech. Now this word demonstration,
according to every dictionary and every word study that I read,
This word demonstrate means to present to the mind and reason
of men the truth of the gospel beyond all doubt. That's what
it means. And that's what Paul said he
did. That's what he did. And this is how Bible doctrine
is established in the hearts and minds of every believer.
He's convicted and convinced of the Spirit of God that that
which is presented to him in the gospel as it's stated in
the Word of God is true and without question. Now, let's take another step.
There are certain facts that are established as the believer
hears and is taught of God. John tells us some of that back
in John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. And everything that was made
was made by Him. Made by Him. Now our text says,
For God so loved the world. Who did? God did. Now, believers know God with
the mind of Christ. There is no other way to know
Him. Isn't that what He said over there in the book of John
a little bit later on? Our Lord is talking to those
Pharisees and talking to His own disciples and He said, I am the way and the truth and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. You are not going to come to
any understanding of the Father. You're not going to come and
bow and pray to the Father. You're not going to do any. There
is no coming to the Father apart from Him. In another place, old
Matthew, he said this. He said, no man knoweth the Father
save the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him. Believers know God with the mind
of Christ. John said, we know that the Son
of God has come and given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true. That's 1 John 5, verse 20. What do we know? If you read
that first epistle, general epistle of John, all through that epistle,
he keeps saying, we know, we know, we know. What do we know? What do we know? We know basically
that God is almighty. That's one of the things we learn.
That's the first thing I saw in the Scriptures before I ever
heard anything from anybody. Nobody ever told me that God
was almighty. They might use the term every
now and then, but nobody showed me in the Scriptures His proclamations
of who He is. He's almighty. By his word alone, he created this universe. By
his word alone, he created this universe and he sustains this
universe and shall sustain it until he winds this whole outfit
up. We know that God is almighty
and we know God is all wise. He does. Some fellow told me,
he said, well, even Jesus made mistakes. Oh, I beg your pardon. I beg your pardon. God is all
wise. Nothing takes him by surprise. David said he knows my down sitting
and my up rising. He knows. He knew me when I was
curiously wrought in the earth, when I was still just minerals
in the earth. He knew me. Paul said, to God only wise,
only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. That is, the
glory of this wisdom is manifest in Christ who is made of God
to be unto us wisdom. And thirdly, God is unchangeable. Did you know that? Religion talks
about God changing His mind. God ain't going to change His
mind. God doesn't change. He doesn't change. He's unchangeable. With Him, and especially concerning
His spiritual gifts to men, James said there's no variableness
in Him, neither shadow of turning. And Christ said of Himself in
the Old Testament, He said this, He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Now listen, therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed because I'm unchangeable. God is just. Every transgression
has and shall receive a due recompense of reward. God is righteous. He is of pure eyes than to behold
iniquity, that is, to look on it with favor or disregard. God is eternal. What He does
in time, He purposed in eternity. He's eternal. People talk about God thinking. God never had an original thought.
He's eternal. I can't even conceive of such
a thing. Can you? God's eternal. In everything
that He does in time, He purposed in eternity. The Bible said God
is love. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Now what it says, it didn't say
God loves, although He does. He said, He is love. He is love. So, man with the mind of Christ,
with this mind of Christ that I've been talking to you about,
let's look now at John 3.16. For God so loved the world, that
is, the Almighty, All-Wise, Unchangeable, just, righteous, eternal, loving
God. So loved the world. So loved the world. Now let me
tell you, give you just a little something to think about. That
word, so. I'll just leave two little words
in it. So. God so loved the world. You know what that means? That
means inconsistency with who God is. Inconsistency with the
attributes and character of God, this almighty, unchangeable,
eternal God. He loved the world. I personally
believe that word so is used in the verse as a reminder that
this love is in consistency with His nature. So then, Whoever
it is God's love, he must love forever because he's unchangeable. And because he's eternal. He
said, whom I loved, I'll love to the end. Before Jacob and
Esau was ever born, he said, Jacob have I loved. When did
he love? He loved him from the beginning. Whatsoever, whosoever God loves,
he must love forever because he's unchangeable and eternal
and all-wise and almighty. Where is the foe? Where is the
enemy? Where is the force, if you will,
the invisible force that's going to separate you from the love
of almighty God? Think about it. People don't
think about what they say. They don't think about what they
believe. They just read something and take it at face value and
take off running with it. Think about these things. Where is the enemy or the force
to turn God's love away from its object? In Romans chapter 8, Paul attaches
the anchor of our insurance to the God of all grace. to the
God of all grace and to the person and work of His Son. And He said,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword? No,
He said. In all these things, we're more
than conquerors through Him that loved us, for I am persuaded
that Neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor life, nor death, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Because this is the love of an
all-knowing, all-wise God, preparation has been made and means ordained
to secure and redeem and justify all those He loved. I was talking to a man one day
not too long ago about these things, and he said, yes, but
there are extenuating circumstances. I said, well, you may be, but
not with God. He said, I'm God, and beside
me there's none else. I declare the end from the beginning.
And from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel will stand and I'll do all my pleasure. There may
be extenuating circumstances with you, but not with Him. And the reason God's love for
His people cannot fail and cannot change is because He loved them
and He chose them in His Son. Now with the mind of Christ,
consider the text. 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. Whatever the Holy Spirit
intended with this word world does not imply that God loves
all of Adam's race without exception. All humanity is not called to
faith. All humanity has not the privilege
of hearing. How shall they preach except
they be sent? And all humanity shall not be
saved. For many shall hear Him say in
that day, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I never
knew you. And then think about this. Our
Lord in John 17 in His prayer to the Father, He said, Father,
I pray not for the world. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me." Wouldn't you think it a
bit strange that if Christ was appointed as your High Priest
that He would refuse to pray for you? Wouldn't you think it
strange if you believe in universal salvation and here's Christ and
He's talking to the Father, He's making His intercessory prayers
for His church, and He refuses to pray for you? So I'm praying
for him. Now you try to justify universal
love with, I refuse to pray for you. You can't do it. What's going on here in John
3.16? John is recording here a conversation between our Lord
and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. One who, through worldly reasoning
and religious influence, thought he was a saved man, thought he
was a preacher and a teacher, thought he was a master of theology. And the Lord's showing him that
he's not. The Jews were prejudiced. Nicodemus was a Jew, and Jews
believed that God only only loved Jews. Huh? That's what he believed. God only loves the Jews. Abraham's
children. The rest of the world, read the
Old Testament, the rest of the world were Gentiles, they were
strangers, they were enemies, they were an abomination to God.
God told Israel, kill every one of them. Kill them all. And they believed that. And Nicodemus
was looking for the Christ, and his concept of the Christ was
one who was going to come into this world and raise the Jews
who were under Gentile enslavement. And he's going to take these
Jews and raise them back up. And when he gets them up into
power, he's going to lead them again against the nations, and
he's going to kill them all. Just leave a little handful out
there as servants. Can you imagine what kind of
impact our Lord's statement here made on Nicodemus? God so loved
the Gentiles. God so loved those Ethiopians
and those Chinese and them old red Indians. God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. Can you imagine what kind
of impact that had on Nicodemus? It was unthinkable when our Lord
made this statement that he could love one born in heathen idolatry
ever wit as much as he did this Pharisee. But he did love them, and because
he loved them, he sent his only begotten son that they might
have everlasting life. and be given the divine privilege
to hear and the ability to believe. John 3, 17, listen to this. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, that's what the Jews believed,
but that the world through Him might be saved. The Jews believed
that Christ would come and deliver them from heathen dominion and
raise them up to the former glory and judge the nations. But that's
not why Christ came. He came to save His people from
their sins. Isn't that what Scripture says?
John 3.18, He that believeth on him is not condemned. I don't
care if he's an Indian or a Chinaman or a lowly white man. Don't make
any difference. Doesn't make any difference.
He's not condemned if he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
not condemned. He's not left in his natural
state. He's not left to himself. He's
not left under the curse and influence of this world. He's
not abandoned in God's providence to some remote tribe who will
never hear the preaching of the gospel at all. But he that believeth
not, listen, he's condemned already. Now wait a minute. What do you
mean he's condemned already? He was condemned in his father
Adam way back yonder in the garden. And he's been under the curse
ever since. Isn't that what the Scriptures
say? Here's our problem. We don't
know who we are. We don't know we're sinners,
do we? By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men. What's the evidence? They all sinned. They all sinned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Romans 8.32 says, 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? This is not talking
about men and women making up a wish list and believing that
God has somehow obligated Himself to give them anything they want. This is simply telling us that
in the giving of His Son, nothing else. will be withheld. Believing not only manifests
a person's election of God, but it also reveals to him that he's
an object of God's everlasting love. So then, the controversy
here in John 3.16 is not who God loved, but who believes on
the Son. Huh? Isn't that where it lies? The giving of His Son and He
for whom He was given is manifest in the hearts of chosen sinners
by faith. Turn with me to John chapter
10. Let me show you something. Over here in John chapter 10. The unbelieving Jews grew tired
of Christ's parables and similitudes and the way he talked to them
like they were little children. And they gathered around him
these men of authority, these men of reputation, with their
degrees and their dress and their long, broad phylacteries and
their robes and all these things that identified them. They gathered
around our Lord and they said, how long dost thou make us to
doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Verse 25, Jesus answered them,
I told you, and you believed not. The works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness in me. But you believe not. Now listen, here's the reason.
You're not my sheep. It didn't say you're not my sheep
because you didn't believe. That's not how it reads, is it? It says you believe not because
you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow
Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." I don't know of any preacher
or commentator who can make it any plainer than that. That's
as plain as it gets right there. In Acts 13, when Paul turned
from the unbelieving Jews, there again, they got tired of listening
to him, got jealous of the multitudes who were listening to him, They'd
been over there trying to make proselytes, and these Gentiles
didn't want to be proselytes. And Paul comes over here and
preaches, and thousands of them are converted under his preaching.
And they got jealous and angry, and they just started talking
to the people, and talking to anybody listening to them, and
poking fun at them, and making fun of their message. And Paul
said, well, since you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
he said, I've turned to the Gentiles. And boy, when the Gentiles heard
that, You know what they heard? God so loved the world. Huh? When the Gentiles heard that,
they were glad. And they glorified the Word of
the Lord. Now listen. And as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. Isn't that something? Christ was not given to, nor
did he die for the world in a universal sense, but in the sense that
his people would come out of every nation, tribe, kindred,
and tongue under heaven. Every last one of them. If you try to apply this in a
universal sense, you compromise the very character of God. You
can't help but compromise. And you go contrary to the principles
of grace and you deny the Word of God. Now let me say this and
I'll close. Election, particular redemption,
and effectual calling do not in any way prevent any man, any
woman, any boy or girl from coming to Christ. It's not a shut door,
it's an open door. If it wasn't for the election
of God and the appointment of Christ, nobody would believe. And nobody could be saved. But
He's going to save some. And you say, oh, He's not going
to save me. I live way down here in Arkansas. Every kindred, nation, tongue,
and people under heaven. I don't know about you, but that
swings the door wide open for me. Wide open. It doesn't bar the door whatsoever. It opens it up. Opens it up. If Christ had not been given
for the salvation of a people, and accomplish their salvation
and be raised from the dead for their justification and be seated
in glory, make an intercession for them, there'd be no need
to go preach, I can tell you that. You'd be wasting your time. There'd be no reason to send
the Holy Spirit into the world. Now hear me. It is the very doctrine
that religious men despise the most that establishes the love
they so ignorantly talk about. Is it not? Is it not the particular redemption
of Christ that manifests that love? He died for us while we
were yet sinners. Manifested that love. Manifested
that love in our election. Nothing lovable in us. Nothing
He looked down through the telescope of time and seen in us. God loved us from all eternity
because He chose us in His Son. And that's where His love is,
in His Son. So the real emphasis in John
3.16 is the sufficiency of Christ. It's the sufficiency of Christ
that God loved has given so that all who put their trust in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. So the next time somebody
looks at you and says, that particular redemption, that ain't so. God
loves everybody. You take him over to John 3.16
and tell him what I just told you. If he loves everybody, then
God's a liar. Because he said he didn't. He
said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And he said it.
This is what it says. You can read it for yourself
on John chapter 9. This is what it says. Before these two were
ever born, having done any good or any evil that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, it was said to their
mama, the elder is going to serve the younger as it's written,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. May God give you some understanding
of what I've said here today.