Well, it is a privilege, a fearful
privilege, a very solemn privilege to be here. I was thinking what
Brother Scott Richardson would say, and he would say, it's time
to put up or shut up. I have been making fun of the
Pope. and been pretty tough on free
will. So now let's see what I can do. See if I can do any better. Sometimes it's time like this
where I wish I could say, I'm not really called to preach.
You'd faster just call me down here to comment, son. I have two texts of scriptures,
if you'd like to turn. Bear with me, one is found in
the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah, and one is found
in the book of John chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 31 and St. John's Gospel chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse
3. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee." In verse 16, I don't know of a text of scripture,
probably, that is more familiar to most religious people. But
I don't know of a text of scriptures, a single verse in all the Bible,
that would be utterly impossible to explain with any meaning apart
from looking at the context in which this verse is written.
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." You remember who the Lord Jesus
is speaking to. Verse 1 tells us here that he
is speaking to a man by the name of Nicodemus. He is a Pharisee. He's a self-righteous man. He was a legalist Jew. He was
a law keeper. He was a theologian. He was a
master, a teacher. He may have very well taught
in one of the local seminars. And it's said here in verse 2
that he came to the Lord Jesus by night. Now, we're not told
why he did that. Maybe he felt intimidated. He said, we know that your teacher
comes from God. Maybe he thought the Lord Jesus
may corner him up, ask him questions. He was intimidated. He wanted
to be there by himself at night. Maybe he just wanted to have
a private conversation. Who was this man really? He just
maybe wanted to know. Or it could have been that he
was ashamed to come to the Lord Jesus at day. He did not want
anybody to know that he was here speaking to Jesus of Nazareth. And he made a statement here
in verse 2. He says, We know that you are
a teacher come from God. Nobody can do these miracles
that you do except God be with him. Now, some have said Nicodemus
sought to flatter the Lord Jesus. Some say he is so sincere when
he makes this statement. I would imagine he tried to flatter
him. But you know the Lord Jesus knows the hearts of men. He always
receives heart praise. He never rejects heart worship. But he's not impressed with the
words of men's lips. He's not impressed if it doesn't
come from a man's heart. He told him after this, he said,
you draw near to me with your heart. You honor me with your
lips, with your mouth you honor me, with your lips you draw near
to me, but your heart is far from me. In vain you worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." The Lord
Jesus knows us. He is not flattered by what we
possess, but what we profess with our lips. What impresses
him is a heart worship. And the Lord Jesus here, instead
of being flattered, he immediately begins to expose this doctrine
of the Lord. He exposes his ignorance of who
God is. He exposes his ignorance of true
worship. He exposes his unbelief. Immediately
he confronts them with this in verse 3, "'Verily, verily, I
say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God, and immediately he confuses this man to death.
He says, how can a man be born when he's old? And I can almost
see this man. I can almost hear him begin to
think in his heart, I shouldn't have never come here to this
place. I shouldn't be talking to this man. I should have listened
to what they told me. This man is crazy. How can a
man be born when he's old? Are you telling me I've got to
enter back into my mother's womb and be born? Is that what you're
saying? Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God." He cannot see it. He cannot enter
it. That which is born to the flesh,
it's flesh. You can make nothing else out
of it. You may educate it. You may separate it in a monastery
somewhere. You may clean it up. But it's
flesh still. It's born flesh, it lives flesh,
and it dies flesh. And it will never rise any higher
than what it is. But that which is born of the
Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit
from above, the eternal Spirit, that which is born of the Spirit,
that is Spirit. And it will never fall any lower
or diminish from what it has always been, Spirit. Marvel not
that I say unto you, ye must be born again. The wind blows
where it will, and you hear the sound thereof, but you cannot
tell from whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit of God. And Nicodemus answered
and said unto him, How can these things be? And Jesus said unto
him, Are you a master of Israel, and you don't know these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak what we do know. We
testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony. If I have told you earthly things,
and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things?" And he makes this wonderful statement here
in verse 13. Nicodemus had just said, you
are a teacher, you are from God. And now the Lord Jesus says here,
no man has ascended up to heaven. But he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven." What does he mean
by this? For years I wondered, because every time I read that
I thought, well, wait a minute. There have been some men ascended
up to heaven. Enoch ascended up to heaven.
And Elijah ascended up to heaven. What does he mean, no man has
ascended up to heaven? Well, he must mean this. He must
mean, since Nicodemus said, You've come from God, he must mean this. Nicodemus, do you think I, as
a man, have ascended up to heaven and have been taught of God and
He sent me back down here to teach you? Is that what you think? That's never happened before,
and it's never happened since, and it didn't happen this time.
The only man we know that ascended up to heaven and was taught anything.
was the Apostle Paul. And he came back down and said,
So marvelous, it's so amazing, I can't tell you about it. And
he never did. But what the Lord Jesus said to him, No, I haven't
ascended to heaven. I haven't been there and been
taught of God and come back down here to teach you. But he said,
I tell you this astounding thing. I am from heaven. I have come
down from heaven. I am indeed from God. And he
makes this another astounding statement. And while I'm standing
here, he says, talking to you, I am in heaven. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? And here
is this man, he's already confused. How much more so now? Who am
I talking to, he says? I've addressed this man as a
teacher from God, but who is he really? And the Lord tells him here in
verse 14. Lord tells him here in verse
14, Lord had been telling Nicodemus the necessity of this new birth,
but he didn't understand it. He didn't understand anything
about the new birth. He had never heard anything about
it before. He said, How can these things be? How can these things
come to pass? How can this happen? One version
says. Well, let's be fair to Nicodemus.
What do you and I know about the New Testament? We've had
almost 2,000 years. We've had books written on the
subject. What do we know about it? Well, we know it's necessary,
but that's just about it anyway. We know we're dead in trespasses
and sins. We know we have to have life.
We know we're held in the bondage of darkness, and we have to be
delivered from it and translated into the kingdom of God's Son.
But how does that happen? When does that happen? Tell me
about this new birth. Explain this to me." Well, the
Lord Jesus just attempted to explain it to him. He said, it's
like the wind. The wind, it blows where it wills. The Spirit. He speaks whenever
he desires to speak, and whoever he desires to speak to. But you
can't tell where he's come from, and you can't tell where he's
going. That's the way the new birth is. But did he understand
that? He was more confused than ever.
How in the world can this be? The Lord tells him something
here in verse 14 and verse 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent
and the Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." If I told you the new birth was
something like this, being born again was something like this, back there in the beginning.
as God began to create this world. And it was without form and void.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of
God moved upon the face of those waters. He hovered over those
waters. And God spoke and said, Let there
be light. And there was light. That's the
way the new birth takes place. It's the Spirit. He's like the
wind. And He comes and He speaks. And
there's life. There's life. But you don't know
any more about it than you did before, do you? The Lord gave this definition
of the new birth. It's like the wind, but it only
confused this poor man the more. What does that tell us? When the Lord Jesus, and I say
this with all reverence, when he attempts to teach someone
something and they can't understand it, what does that tell us? Well, that tells us this, you
can't isolate the teaching of the new birth and explain it
with any satisfaction and with any comfort to those who are
concerned about it apart from the cross of Christ, apart from
faith. You isolate the teaching of the
new birth over here by itself, and all you do is confuse people
and confuse yourself. The Lord Jesus, the Prince of
Preachers, never even tried to do it. How can these things be? I don't understand the new birth.
I just explained it to you, and I don't understand it. And the
Lord tells Nicodemus here something. He said, I'm going to tell you
something, Nicodemus. I want to tell you something. I've already
been talking to you, and you've not received my testimony. You've
not believed it. But I'm going to tell you what
I know. I'm going to tell you what I've seen, and if you're
going to be profited by it, you're going to have to receive my testimony,
and you're going to have to believe it. If you don't, you'll never
be helped, and your Jewish brother will never be helped. Here's
the testimony that he gave. Here's the testimony of God concerning
this new birth. Here's what happens, Nicodemus.
It's like this. As Moses lifted up that serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish." Nicodemus had probably
read the account of this serpent being lifted upon a pole. He
could probably memorize it. He probably had it memorized.
But he had no idea what it meant. He read about the children of
Israel out in the wilderness, and the way had gotten discouraged,
and they had been murmuring and complaining in their hearts.
They had no water, and they were tired of this manna that had
come down from heaven, and they began to murmur against God and
murmur against Moses. And God sent these flying, fiery
serpents among them, and they bit them, and they began to die
of the multitude. And they came to themselves and
went to Moses and said, we're dying. Pray to God for us. And
the Lord told Moses, said, get your chisel and get your piercing
instruments and your fire and you beat out this serpent and
you cut him out and you fashion him out and you hang him on a
pole. And if anyone's bitten, as soon as he looks to that serpent,
he lives. Now, Nicodemus, no doubt, knew
all about this. No doubt he had taught it to
his students. He had got up and read it to them. And they asked
him, What in the world does that mean? He said, All it means is
God performed a great miracle. How do you apply that? I have
no idea. All it means is God has done
a great miracle. And he knew nothing about the application
of that. But the Lord Jesus says this,
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so, here's
the application. Likewise, in the same way must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish. What's the first thing you and
I see about the new birth? What's the first thing we find
out about being born again? It's vitally linked to the cross
of Christ and faith in him. It's so vitally linked that if
you attempt to separate them, you only confuse people. What
is the new birth? I know this about it. It's looking
to Christ on the cross. It's believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. You and I can debate all about
new birth and faith and which comes first. And there's good
men on both sides. But no matter which side we come
down on, we'll have to agree with this, that the new birth
in faith is vitally linked to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's so vitally linked that there's
no new birth without believing. And there's no believing without
a new birth. And there's neither of them without Christ and Him
crucified. The Apostle Paul was writing
to the Corinthians, and he said, I came to you declaring the testimony
of God. And he tells them what that testimony
was. I claim to know nothing. I knew nothing among you but
Christ and Him crucified. Then he quickly adds this, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. What is the power of God? It's Christ and Him crucified. Where is our faith? It's in Him.
How can these things be? Explain to me the new birth.
It's a hard faith in a crucified Christ. Have I been born again? I used
to think I knew everything there was to know about the new birth.
I knew right the instant I was born again. I can tell you the time and the
place, exactly, the minute, what I was saying and everything,
until I began to sit and think a while. What was a poor dead sinner doing,
crying out to the Lord? What was a poor dead sinner doing,
turning from his sin and abhorring himself and saying, Lord, be
merciful to me a second? Was I born again there? Was it
a few minutes before then? When will I be born again? I
don't know. But I know when I look to Christ
and lift. And that has something to do
with the assurance of the new birth and the evidence of it. I was, two or three weeks ago,
I was out visiting with Brother David Pleasure. And we were talking
and he told me something I'd have never dreamed. He said,
you know, I struggle with assurance. I struggle with assurance. It
sort of shocked me at first. I mean, you know David Plancher.
You've met a more faithful minister and more able minister than he
is. I struggle with assurance. And
it tickled me. It made me glad. Unbelief loves
company, you know. Misery loves company. Have you
been born again? Do you have the assurance of
it? Is my faith vain? Am I still
in nature? When I come to the river of death,
will this faith be swept away or will it end in sight? Am I
born again? I struggle with that myself.
And it's because we don't understand this new birth. We can't explain
it. This generation wants everything
explained with a little footnote. One man said he bought theological
books just to read the footnotes. That's this generation. Explain
it to me quickly! Well, I can't. That's why I'm
just going to rattle on about it for about 30 or 45 minutes. What's the evidence that I've
been barned again? Well, it's right here in passages
like verse 14 and verse 50. The Son of Man being lifted up,
and my heart looking to him. Two thousand years ago, God sent
His Son into this world. He took our humanity to Himself,
a real humanity, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
seeing and accepting. And on the cross, He took that
and paid all that God's people owed. Do you believe Him? Have you liked that person who
was bitten? Have you looked and have you
lived? Is He really your life? Is He
your living? Is He all your salvation? Is
He all your hope? Is He all your acceptance? Is
He your all in all? Is your heart truly rested in
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified? Then you are born
of God. You may not know when exactly
it took place. You may not be able to explain
it. But don't give too much credit to nature. Nature never truly
trusted a crucified Savior, and it won't do it. Have you done
it? Saving faith is a mysterious
thing, and you can't see it. We're told to believe with all
our hearts. But as soon as you turn your
eyes within to try to see if you do, you won't see a thing
but darkness. You can't see that you have faith.
Faith is not discerned by looking at itself. Faith is only discovered
and discerned by its object. No other way. And how it reacts
to that object. He hears the object that it believes
in. It rests, it joys in the object
that it looks to. We look within ourselves at our
faults and our failures, and we almost despair. We look at
ourselves and our victories, and we get lifted up in pride. We look at our running sores
and feel sorry for ourselves. You'll not discover faith. Not
saving faith. Not looking within. You'll never
do it. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus
over and over and over, Whosoever believeth in him. God so loved the world, he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, he that believeth
on him hath life everlasting. He kept saying it. Faith is discovered
by its object. That the world through him, I
just love that, the world through him might be saved. He's the access. He's the door. He's the life through him. Hebrews chapter 10, the apostle
says, having therefore, brethren, boldness. That word means freedom. Fearless, confident, cheerful
courage to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By this
new and living way which is made for us through the veil that
is His flesh. And having this high priest over
the house of God. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. Have you received this testimony?
Do you believe him? Do you believe him? Are you thankful? Sometimes I'll be sitting around
the house or driving down the road doing nothing, really. And
suddenly it just dawns upon me that I'm saved. Did that ever
happen to you? I'm saved. I said, oh my soul,
I'm saved. That happens to me sometimes.
Are you amazed at that? How do you know it? Here's the only evidence. Here's
the first evidence. And you'll never get away from
it. I'm looking to Him who took my place before God. God gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him. Right in the midst of all of
this new birth and this faith that I've been talking about
to you this evening, this Christ that has been crucified, we find
this text, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son. How can we even talk about a
new birth? How can we talk about faith?
How can we talk about these precious truths with any confidence that
we have any interest in them? When the world sins, Why didn't
God just destroy it? Why is anybody saved anyway?
Why is the world, why does society keep going on as it is? Well,
verse 16 tells us, For God so loved the world. For God so loved
the world. Remember who the Lord Jesus was
talking to here now. This was a self-righteous, legalistic
Jew. Nicodemus believed two things,
mainly concerning God's love. One, he believed this. It was
limited to the Jews. It was limited to the Jews. God
chose Abraham. Abraham had a son, Isaac. Isaac
had Jacob. He had the twelve sons, the twelve
patriarchs, the twelve tribes. God had chose those twelve tribes.
and he passed by all the other nations of the world. God made
a covenant with them, he gave them his presence there in the
temple, and God loved the nation of Israel. It wasn't that Nicodemus
believed that he loved all the Jews without exception. He could
point to places where the Lord abhorred some of them and destroyed
some of them. He could probably point to some
of them in his day that were perishing. He didn't believe
that God loved all the Jews without exception, but he did believe
this. It was limited to the Jews. And with very few exceptions,
God loved nobody but a Jew. And everybody else was dogs.
Everybody else was gentiles. Led away into dumb idols. Worshipping
of devils. Well, who can argue with that? Can you imagine Nicodemus' utter
surprise when the Lord Jesus stood here and tells him that
God loves the Asians, and God loves the Africans, and God loves
the Babylonians, and God loves the Romans? Oh, no, not the Romans.
Not those oppressors. Yes, the Romans. To you that
be at Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, God loves the Romans? God's love extends to the Romans. You know, this is one of those
things that has inspired men and women to sell their houses, leave their relatives and go
off to some strange land and preach the gospel to them. Because
they know the love of God is not limited to one nationality. or to one culture of people, or one sex, or one race of people. You go anywhere you want to in
this vast world, and if you find a group of human beings, you're
probably going to find some people who are beloved of God. And you
just begin to preach the Lord Jesus Christ to them, and you'll
probably see it pretty quick. You'll see some evidences of
it. You'll see some fruit of it. I have loved you with an
everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn
thee." Nicodemus believed something
else about the love of God, that God only loved good people. He
only loved righteous people. I was reading somebody, and I
forgot who it was. I think it was John Gill. He loved to quote
those old Jewish writers. He said there was an opinion
among some of the old Jewish writers that the Messiah was
indeed coming. Some of them had no idea for
sure what he was going to do when he came. But they believed
the Messiah was coming. But they believed what must take
place before he could come and would come, the nation of Israel,
the Jewish people, had to make themselves worthy of his coming. They had to be good enough for
his coming. Well, here was a man who thought himself good enough
for the Messiah's coming. He believed God loved him because
he was a good man. God loved him because he was
a Jew, and God loved him because of what he was doing. He was
one of these men who went up into the temple to pray and said,
God, I thank you that I'm not like everybody else. I'm not
like this public. I've never committed adultery.
I've never extorted anybody. I'm not an unjust man. I fast
twice a week and pay tithes of all that I possess." And he thought
to himself, God loves me because of this. And if I can just maintain
my integrity, He'll continue to love me. God loves me because of who I
am and what I am and what I'm doing. You know, this pendulum,
it's strange how this pendulum of God's love, at least people's
perception of it, how it swings from one extreme to the other.
You talk to one person and they say, well, God loves good people
because they're good people. Then you talk to somebody else,
God loves that old sot because he's an old sot. Because he's an old sot. Because
he's good. And here's the whole problem
with this view. It has God's love dependent upon
what he sees in a person. There's a good man. God loves
him. There's a soldier who suffered
and died for his country. There's a mother who went into
a burning house to save her child and was burned and died. There's a beautiful woman who
contracted this awful disease and fought it for ten years,
so patiently, and it finally got to best ever. God-level. Don't we think that way sometimes?
We make God's love dependent upon the object of His love. But here's the thing about God's
love, and here's what surprises us. The cause of it is never
found in the object of it. God loves without cause. If He
loves without a cause, the cause is found in Him. I will love
them freely, without any cause, without any obligation. without
having to demand anything from them or of them. I love because
I love. Don't that surprise you? Don't
that amaze you? Can you imagine what a surprise
it was to this man? He knew the Jewish nation wasn't
prepared for the coming of the Messiah. He knew everything was
in a mess. He was ignorant of spiritual
things, but he could look around and things were in a mess. They
were being occupied by another country. All these religious divisions,
groups of them that hated each other. The whole nation of Israel
was full of poverty and diseases. No, they weren't prepared for
His coming. They weren't worthy of His coming. And now he stands
here before this man who says, indeed, I'm the Messiah. I came
down from heaven. I'm the only begotten Son of
God. And not only did he come to this
miserable nation of the Jews, but now Nicodemus hears that
he's come to this world, this condemned, this perished, this
hateful world. Not to set up some temporal kingdom.
He didn't come here to change anybody's government. He didn't
come here to overthrow armies. But he came here to save, to
give eternal life. To who? To this miserable world. Imagine what a surprise this
was to this man. And he said, I'm not going to
do it, but they're fasting twice in a week. are paying tithes
of all that they possess, but by my dying upon a cross." What
a surprise! What a surprise! The just for
the unjust. Moses was going to get out his
chisel again, and his instruments to pierce, and his fire to heat,
and his hammer to bruise. And the Son of God, who came
down from heaven, was once again like that serpent of old, hanging
up on the cross, bruised, afflicted, smitten of God, hanging, accursed,
there just for the unjust to bring us to God. Not just Jews,
but the world, the Gentiles. And I imagine this was a most
surprised man when he found out the Lord Jesus wasn't soliciting
a contribution from him. His fasting has nothing to do
with it. His paying of tithes has nothing to do with it. His
morality has nothing to do with it. What about this then? What about
that then? It has nothing to do with it.
You're going to be saved in a manner altogether apart from yourself.
And you're going to have to stoop down and look up and live. Do you remember the two men? That was there the day the Lord
Jesus hung upon the cross, and when he died, there were two men that went
and bagged his body and wrapped it up. Do you remember who those
two men were? One of them was Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man.
The other was this man, Nicodemus. Can you imagine what he experienced
that day? When he walks up to that cross,
it was probably just a foot or so off the ground, and there
he stood looking at that bloody, bruised, mingled body of him
that had come down from heaven. Blood had seeped out of the pores
where the thorns had been. His beard was gone. Blood was
coming out of his hands, the hole in his side. The deep and
long furrows on his back were the whites of the bones, dear.
He was a bloody mess. I just sometimes wonder, as this
Nicodemus stood there looking upon him, that dead body, if
this night did not come back to him. The serpent on a pole. There he is. And I bet you if
he had never looked before, he'd look now. If he never was born
again before, I bet he was born again now. The Son of Man lifted up. And
I believe in him. I believe in him. And what would he have traced
all of this back to? His believing? His new birth,
the Savior coming and dying for unworthy him. Unprepared for him to come. Unworthy
of his coming. And here he is now looking, and
he's believing, and he's born again. What does he trace all
of this back to? He traces it back to this. For
God so loved the world. For God so loved. Are you a believer? Are you a
scriptural believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you been born
again? Have you been born from above?
Have you experienced a new birth? That heavenly blessing that can
never be taken away? What do you trace that back to?
What do you owe that to? This one single thing that you
owe all of this to, what is it? If you have to begin with yourself,
then you've missed the message of this text. If you have to
say it's because of what I am, it's because of who I am, it's
because of what I've done, it's because of what I'm doing. If
that's your attitude, you've missed the whole message of this
text. If you're a believer this evening, if you've been born
of God, you trace it back to this one cause, for God so loved. Why am I a believer this evening?
Because God loved me. Why am I born again? Because
God loved me. Why do I have a Savior who bled
out His heart's blood to atone for my sin? Because God loved
me. You can go no further than that.
But if you stop short of that, you miss the message of this
text. You go back, Your Honor, to the
foundation of the world. Back, Your Honor, to the beginning
of time. There where God spoke. And it was done. And you jump up on the wings
of faith. And you begin to soar. Just lay
off of that foundation and soar back through the depths. And
soar back into eternity. And soar as far as the wings
of faith will carry you. And you'll go back there far
enough and you'll find another foundation. You'll find another
beginning, an eternal beginning. And on that foundation, you'll
find this written. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. And then you mark that next word
well. Therefore. Therefore. Everything follows, I have loved
you. Nothing came before that. I have
loved you, therefore I have chosen you to salvation. I have loved
you, therefore I have redeemed you. I have called you. I have
given you faith and the graces of the Holy Spirit. I have loved
you, therefore I have glorified you. What do you attribute your
salvation to? You get in that stream, and you
follow it up to its fountainhead, and where does it lead? Why are
you saved? Why do you have a saving interest
in the Son of God? You trace it to this one cause.
God loved me. God loved me. John saw all that multitude there
in heaven. The end had come. The Son of
God had the nations gathered before him. He had signed every
man his long home. The wicked had been told to depart
into outer darkness, and the sheeps had come and sat by my
side. It was all finished. And John
looked at them, and their robes were white. And the first thing he realized,
this group of people came out of all nations. He was Jews and Gentiles, old and young, male and female. All nations had been blessed.
They had come from the north and the south and the east and
the west, and there they sat. And the one reason they said,
We're here, He loved us. Ain't that it? And He washed
us. Loving comes first, and everything
else follows. Because I've loved you. And if
He loved you back in eternity, He loves you now. And if He loves
you now, He'll never cease to love you. God not only loves,
He is love. And His love for His people can
no more change than He can. Are you amazed at that? Oh, if you come here this evening,
your attitude is this. I know what John 3.16 means.
It means that God loves everybody. It means that God loves everybody
the same. And you go away unaffected by it all. You've missed the
message of this verse. Why are you saved? God loves
you. And you have to stop there. And
when you're able to stop there, you're amazed by it. I'm amazed. Sometimes we're so amazed at
it, we start looking for a cause within ourselves. Then we wind
up on our face, all confused. And then we're made to look again,
and we see, no, the cause is not in me. It's in Him. And then
we're amazed by it. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love me. Do you believe in me and wonder
how He could love you? Ten years, twenty years, sixty years, and
you've never got over it. You're amazed at it. You go out tonight, and it'll
probably be a beautiful, clear night. The skies will be full of stars,
and you can look up in that sky and realize the vastness of this
universe. And he that spread those things
out like a tent to dwell in. And the very faithful and eternal
Creator that created all of this vast universe has underneath
you those everlasting arms of love upholding you. Ain't that
amazing? And you go look in the fields
and you see the lilies, how beautiful they are. And you see the birds
flying through the air. And the same Heavenly Father
that clothes those lilies and feeds those birds, He clothes
you and He feeds you. And you take all your anxieties
and all your burdens and all your doubts and all your fears,
and maybe they're too heavy to lift, but just roll them and
roll them upon Him and leave them there, knowing
this, that He careth for you. Will you ever get over that?
No, you'll never get over it. In your weakness, in your other
unworthiness, he cares for you. Oh, that's amazing. For God so
loved. It goes back to that, doesn't
it? For God so loved. Thank you, Pastor. God bless
you.