We're going to be in John 3 tonight
if you'd like to turn back there. John 3. Probably one of the most misconstrued
and misinterpreted passages of Scripture
would be John 3.16. And that is my title tonight
is John 3.16. That's our text as well. We're just going to
stay right here in John 3 for a bit and turn to a few other
places. I want to know what the Lord has to say about whatever
he's talking about. I want to know him. I don't want
to know man's opinions and I don't want to give opinions. I want
to know what thus saith the Lord. That's why we come, is to hear
what thus saith the Lord. That's the only comfort that
we're going to have in our heart. That's the only peace that the
Lord gives is through and by the truth. Truth is the only
thing that sets a believer or anybody else free for that matter.
Truth, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you
free. So we see Nicodemus coming unto the Lord. And he says, first
and foremost, he acknowledges that he's a rabbi. And he says
unto him, we know that you're from God, for no man can do the
things that you're doing. And I love the Lord. His response
to Nicodemus is not, yes, I am sent from the Lord. His response
is, you must be born again. I mean, he gets right to the
point, doesn't he? He calls out his righteousness
is what he's doing. Understand Nicodemus was a ruler
of the Jews. He was a Pharisee. He was a powerful
man. He was a man of authority. And the Lord said, everything
that you have believed that your righteousness is wrong, you must
be born again. That's, I mean, he meets him
right there where his righteousness is. Is that not what your testimony
is? Is when the Lord came to you, he showed you that, I know
he showed me, I was worshiping him in the form of a dog or a
form of a cat. I was calling a calf Jehovah,
thinking I was worshiping God. I wasn't worshiping God. I didn't
know who God was until he revealed himself. And he tells Nicodemus,
you must be born again. That's what he tells us, isn't
it? You must be born again. And our response to the gospel
of the Lord is the same until the Lord reveals himself. The
response is the same as Nicodemus. How? How can a man be born when
he is old? How can a man enter into his
mother's womb a second time and be born? How is that possible?
And the Lord said, oh, you're a ruler in Israel and you don't
know these things. love the way our Lord's authority
is, the way that the Lord, whatever he said was truth. It didn't
matter what proceeded out of it. That's all he could speak.
And Nicodemus listens for a long time after that doesn't, he shuts
him up. And so we see that no man can come. No man cometh to
the Father, but by Christ. No man can come and no man will
come unless the Lord reveals himself, our hope. Our hope is that he would say
unto us, come, take up the water of life freely. Did you know
every person he's ever said those words to do just that? The Lord
never gives a command without it being acknowledged and honored
and done. When the Lord speaks, it's truth and it's going to
come to pass. Does that give you rest? It gives me rest because
I know my hope then is when he says, seek you my face. That's
what David said. Then said my heart unto you,
O Lord, thy face will I seek. That's the only way because you
said seek. Now, being born again is not
letting Jesus into your heart. That is not being born again.
Being born again is not confessing. It's not confessing your sin.
It's not confessing what you think about who God is. It's
not confessing at all. Understand something, a confession
is made because of what's done already in the heart. Do we see
that? Repentance has already been given if we're going to
confess. Faith has already been given if we're truly going to
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So being born again is
not confession. Being born again is not feeling
really sorry for what you've done or what I've done. It's
not how bad you feel. Matter of fact, it's not what
we do at all, is it? Being born again is God breathing life into
our dead soul, saying, live. That's being born again. How
does he do that? He does it by the preaching of his gospel.
He sends his spirit in power and breathes the breath of life
into a dead dog sinner, and the sinner becomes alive unto him.
At the same time that he breathes life into him, he gives him repentance
and faith in the Lord. Something that men preach and
speak about that they don't understand is the Lord doesn't change what
we are when we're born again. He doesn't change our physical
form. We still have a sinful nature, don't we? We still are
sinners as far as each other is concerned, the way that we
see the things that we do. Now, as far as God sees it, we're
perfectly righteous in Christ. But He doesn't go and change
everything on the inside. And now we're We're some super
spiritual being. No, he gives us a new nature,
doesn't he? He gives us a new man. He doesn't save the old
man. He gives us a brand new man.
Why is that? Well, if you remember when the
Lord gave the trees that bore fruit in the Garden of Eden,
he continually said, and this tree brought forth seed of its
kind. See, our seed is wrong. Adam is our father. So our blood
is polluted. Our blood is wrong. We have to
have a new nature. And the only way for that to happen is for
the Lord to breathe the breath of life by the preaching of his
gospel makes us a new creature. Now, what I'm saying is, is we
have two totally different natures, don't we? We've been born again.
Literally, from dead works, we've been born and made alive unto
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have literally a new man living
inside of us. And boy, that new man and old
man hate each other, don't they? This is what being born again
is. We're born after his seed, after his kind, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're born after him. This is
why we call him Abba Father. This is what he's telling Nicodemus,
you must be born of the spirit. It's not physical. I'm not telling
you about the physical. I'm telling you that it's a spiritual
birth. And this is what he does for his people. Now, let's read
a few verses here where we were in John 3. Verse 14 tells us
again, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Now understand
something, he's given an account of the serpent, the brazen serpent.
And I know we've looked at that in time past, but I want to reiterate
what was happening during that time. The serpents were given
of the Lord because of the children of Israel's murmuring and their
disobedience. And it was a judgment unto the children of Israel.
And every single person that was bitten died. Every single
one, except when Moses entreated for them, when Moses interceded
for them, he said, take you a serpent and put it up on a pole. and
whoever looks at that serpent will live. So there was a death
sentence upon everyone that was bitten, and their only hope was
to look. Now, I would ask us, how many people do you think
thought I was gonna look at that serpent that's been bitten? Now,
to the contrary of that, somebody that hadn't been bitten at all,
that serpent would have meant nothing to them, would it? The serpent
wouldn't have mattered, honestly. Maybe for a loved one, but not
for them. They were good because they hadn't been bitten yet.
What am I saying? He's telling Nicodemus, you've
been bitten. And the only hope that you have is that the Son
of Man be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent. Your only
hope is to look unto Christ. That's what he's saying. Now,
the children of Israel were in vast quantities at that time.
Some 3 million, they say, came out of Israel. And this was some
time after that. So more may have been born by this time.
So you can imagine all of them congregating together. And you
had one serpent on the pole. That was it. And everybody, if
they crowded around it, how are you going to see it? Well, maybe
they didn't even know where to look exactly until somebody said, no, the
serpent's over that way, I know. And is that not exactly what
I'm trying to do here tonight is say, listen, the Lord Jesus
Christ is this way. This is what he's right here.
Here he is. Look unto him. And I can't make you look. And
I can't even look myself unless he calls us to. But everybody
that was bitten, look, didn't they? Everybody was bitten. Have
you been bitten? What am I talking about? Well,
you have a death sentence by birth, don't we? We have a death
sentence upon us. We have been made to know that
we're dead in trespasses and in sin. And unless we look unto
Christ, we're going to die. We can't look because we're blind. We can't go to where he's at
because we're lame. Lord, I want to look, I want
to see, open up my eyes. What would you have me doing
to you? My sight, I gotta have my sight so I can see you. That's why we come here, isn't
it? To look upon the brazen serpent and live. Only those that were
bitten, only those that were made needy, only those that had
the need of the venom that was coursing through their vein.
They seen that their seed was polluted, that they were dead
in trespasses and in sin. I know all these are type and
shadows, but that's exactly what that type and shadow represents.
They were the ones that looked, didn't they? Let's read on. He tells us 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. For
God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but
that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on
him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hateth the liar, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God. That his deeds, think about that,
that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God.
What is he saying? The Lord gets all the glory.
If you're gonna come to him, he just told us, he reiterated
both things. Only those that are needy will
come to him. Only those who are of the light,
he says. He that doeth evil, hateth the
light. He that doeth evil, hateth the
light. Neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved. He's telling Nicodemus that the
only way that you're gonna come to the light is if your evil
deeds are reproved. You've been given repentance.
You've seen that you're nothing, that your deeds are filthy rags,
that your righteousness is nothing before God. That's what he's
telling Nicodemus here. In the word of God, he tells us
verse 20, they don't come to the light. Why? Because they
can't. Men won't come to Christ, will they? Now, God's word does
not contradict itself in any way, shape, or form. Line upon
line, precept upon precept, What we have is the clear message
from the beginning, the harmonization, harmonization of all scripture.
It's the beautiful melody of the gospel that we hear, the
song that the Lord puts in our heart. It is a beautiful, beautiful
picture throughout the entire word of God, harmonizing with
itself. It never contradicts itself in
any way. We have the clear message from the very beginning, even
as Lord speaking to Nicodemus here, men want to be God. Men
will not come to Christ because they have not been bitten and
they want to be God. They don't have a need. In this
hour, I want to look on a couple of words found in John 3 16.
And I've kind of gave a preface and I kind of gave the after.
This is the whole conversation took place. The very next verse
says, after these things came Jesus to disciples under the
land of Judea. That was the end of the conversation. That's all
that was said. It was all that had to be said. We know that
Nicodemus later on was mentioned. He believed, the Lord called
him. So we see that it was all about what the Lord knows exactly
what to say to you and I, doesn't he? He knows exactly what to
say. Why do we come to each service? Well, because sometimes I come
and I can't hear a whole lot. other times I come and I feel
like I'm just seated right at the table and he's feeding shovels
to me. You don't understand what I'm
talking about. I've sat under different gospel preachers, couldn't
hear a thing, and I felt so aggrieved. Lord, I want to hear. I'm here
to hear, but I think about the world. I think about things that
don't even pertain to the gospel at that time. So why do we come
in hopes that today I might be able to see his face? That's
why we're here. Nicodemus didn't know that he was going to see
Christ, did he? He saw Christ. So let's read
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. This starts the same way
that every gospel message should start, for God. It is an interjection
And you could say, but God who is rich in mercy. You could say
for God, however you want to put it. It always starts with
him, doesn't it? It's a declaration of who he
is, his sovereignty. It's a declaration of his self-sufficiency,
his self-existence. He tells us in Malachi 3.6, I
am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. The reason we're not consumed
is because the Lord changes not. He declares that he is from the
very beginning and the first cause of all things. What does
Genesis 1 say? In the beginning, God. That's
it. What does John 1 say? In the
beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word
was God. In the beginning, God. Everything that has ever been
or ever will be, he is the first cause of it for God. He said, I am the Alpha, I am
the Omega. That's the beginning and the end, first and the last.
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Omega is
the last letter of the Greek alphabet. He says, I'm everything
from A to Z and in between. That's what he's saying. He's
the only potentate, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Lord is
everywhere all the time and he knows everything all the time.
That's good if you're in Christ, but that's not good if you're
coming to him with your own righteousness, right? If I'm coming to the Lord
and he knows everything about me all the way down inside, that's
not a good thing unless he sees the blood of Christ. There's
the hope of the gospel, isn't it? He's the invisible God. He can't
be seen by man. He must be revealed. And he is
revealed to his people. Scripture tells us that just
and holy is his name. So we see that it's for God.
The reason anything's done is for his glory. for his honor. What did he do? What did he do? He so loved. He so loved, for God so loved. Every attribute of God must be
a reflection of his character, meaning that he cannot be any
way when one of his characters contradict the other. If he is
sovereign, If he is sovereign in election, we know he is. If
he's sovereign in choosing, we know he is. He's also sovereign
in love. He's also sovereign in hate.
Everything that comes from him is truth and sovereign and right. And no attribute can be contradicted
one with the other. He's perfect. We contradict every
bit of our actions, don't we? We do one thing and I tell my
children, Don't do as I do, do as I say, because I feel like
I do the wrong thing sometimes in teaching them. You know what
I'm talking about, but not the Lord. Not the Lord, he's perfect. The Lord has no compromise, no
compromise. He is, he is, and he is what
he said he is. He's God. Our Lord has a holy
love, a sovereign love, a perfect love, and he only has one love. You and I, you probably remember
being raised up and maybe you had a boyfriend or a girlfriend
when you were younger and they call it puppy love. You ever heard of
that before? The Lord only has one love, one love. Three distinct
characteristics of his love is that they're everlasting. His
love is everlasting. His love is immutable. That means
it cannot change. And his love is conditional.
His love is conditional. Men say God's love is unconditional.
That's not true. If you and I are not in Christ,
he does not love us. That's what the scripture tells
us. He hates the workers of iniquity. So my only hope is that Psalm
chapter five, verse five says, he hateth all workers of iniquity.
So my only hope is that he put away my iniquity, which means
I have to be in Christ. That's our only hope, isn't it? Jeremiah 31 tells us about his
everlasting love. He says, the Lord hath appeared
unto me an old saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. You know what
everlasting means? It has no beginning and it has
no end. Isn't that glorious? It never
had a starting point. I don't understand that because
everything in our life has had a starting point. Everything
around us has a start and an end, doesn't it? Even time will
come to an end. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
the scripture says. Not the Lord's love. It's forever. It's forever. It's an everlasting love. How
is it that we can be loved then and we can be loved now and we
can be loved always? How can that be? Because the
Lord and everything that pertains to him is immutable. That means
he cannot change or be changed in any way. He cannot change
or be changed in any way. Scripture tells us Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is unchanging and
unchangeable. That's good news, isn't it? That's
good news. If the Lord loves you, that's
good news. Our love is so, so different
than what the Lord's love is. But Paul said, I'm persuaded
that neither death, nor height, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, or things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. That's the condition,
isn't it? It must be in Christ Jesus that
we are loved. And thanks be to God, he loves
everyone that Christ died for, eternally, everlastingly, immutably. That's how he loves. Because Christ was successful
in putting away our sin, He loves us, His people. God does not
love the sinner and hate the sin. Have you ever heard that
before? God loves the sinner and hates the sin. No, God doesn't
love sinners. God loves his son and those sinners
that's been put in his son. Do you know why? Because he don't
see them as sinners anymore. See, we see ourself as the sinner,
but Christ's sufficient, successful salvation blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances against us that were contrary to us. And by his
own blood purged our sins. We're no longer sinners in God's
eyes. He sees the blood of Christ. Christ was successful. That's
why he loves us. Christ is our righteousness.
And the scripture tells us, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. See, the Lord doesn't, you all
know this, but the Lord doesn't love everybody. And Christ didn't
die for everybody. He loves righteousness. That's
what he loves. Christ is our righteousness.
Does that know what the scripture tells us? Christ has been made
into us wisdom. righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. We've been justified before the
Lord because of the work of Christ. God so loved, God so loved that
when he sees his people, he sees the blood of the lamb and he
declares his justice. Satisfied, your sin has been
put away and you are perfectly righteous in his eyes. That's
what his love does. See, his love doesn't try to
accomplish something. His love accomplished something. His love successfully accomplished
something. Come with me to John 17, a few
pages over. I want us to see why he loves
his people. I've told you why, but I want
us to see why. John 17. Look at verse 22. John 17 is
the Lord's Prayer. And he's praying unto his father
and he says in John 1722 and the glory which thou has given
the glory which thou gavest me. I have given them that they may
be one even as we are one. I and them and thou and me that
they may be perfect may be made perfect in one and that the world
may know that thou has sent me and has loved them. So the world's going to know
that he's sent them. But that He has loved them and
thou has loved me. Father, I will that they also
whom thou has given me be with me where I am that they may behold
my glory which thou has given me. For thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world. What is the condition? What is
the condition of the Lord loving us? The condition is we must
be in Christ. We must be one with Christ because
he is one with his father. The Lord loves his son He tells
us right here before the foundation of the world. So what does that
mean? Well, that's that everlasting love, isn't it? How did he not
say that Christ was the lamb slain for the foundation of the
world? So before the world was even
spoken existence, Christ was viewed as the lamb slain for
his people. That means you were loved then before you before
the world was ever even created. Christ had already purposed to
die for his people. He's always loved his people. So men would hear this and they
would have the question, the same as Nicodemus said, how can
a man, when he is old, enter into his mother's womb a second
time to be born? If I have to be in Christ, how do I get in
Christ? Well, we don't, do we? He must
do it. He must do it. He says in John
15, 16, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. God chose,
God redeems, God quickens in time. God saved us, then God
calls us. He did all of it and gets all
the glory for it. Now, men believe that it is a choice, a choice
that they make for salvation, that they are choosing to allow
the Lord to do something, that they have, their will is stronger
than the will of God, the God that I've been referring to tonight.
They believe that their will is stronger than his will. But
salvation doesn't come to pass because of something we do, thank
God. Salvation doesn't come to pass because of something we
do. In Titus 1, verse 1, he says, Paul, a servant of God and apostle
of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth, which is after goodliness, in
hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised, when? Before the world ever began.
Before the world ever began. Did you know that if you look
at those words, before the world ever began, you'll find that
the word is the same word as everlasting, everlasting. So when did the Lord love his
people? When did the Lord save his people? It was before time
ever began. And I'm speaking of things that
I can't even, I can just declare it. I can't fathom that. Before
time ever began, the Lord loved me. He saw me. We can't see anything
futuristic, can we? We don't even know if our car's
gonna get us home tonight, but the Lord knows everything. Isn't
that glorious? And he chose to love his people. That's our hope. That's all our
hope. It is amazing that God chose
to love us. There is no merit from one person
to the next. There's nothing that would cause
us to deserve love. We can spend time on how wretched
we are and how bad we are in his eyes and how opposite and
other we are in his eyes. We know that already, don't we?
So knowing that, think about the love that had to be shown
unto you for you to be loved. I mean, for the grace that had
to be shown unto us in order for us to be loved. It's amazing.
His love is amazing. His grace is amazing, isn't it?
We stand in awe of it. It's full of awe, isn't it? Now, the next word that we find
is the word world. For God so loved the world. For God so loved the world. I didn't tell you to go back
to John three, sorry. When I go, but you probably know the verse
if you wanted to, but for God so loved the world. Now that
word world means, that's the Greek word cosmos. Cosmos defined
as an ornament, a decoration, an adornment, It could mean a
broad sense or a narrow sense. It could mean everyone without
exception or a specific number. A good example of that would
be found in John chapter one. When men say, God so loved the
world, it means he loves everybody, right? That's what man's natural
conclusion comes to. Well, what did John say when
he was going to, he saw Christ coming and he said, behold, the
lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Now, do
you believe that the Lord took the sin of every single human
being that's ever been upon him in the face of the world? If
he did, everybody's going to heaven. Is that not true? Or
he's not successful, one of the two. That's the only two conclusions. If he took away the sin of every
person, everyone's going to heaven. Or sin remains and Christ is
not sufficient, he's a failure. If he says that he loves the
world in the sense that what I'm describing to us is everyone
without exception, What does his love have to do with salvation
if he loves somebody and they still go to hell? What good is
his love? What good is his blood if he
shed his blood for one person and they go to hell? What good?
What good is his blood? It's not successful, is it? His
blood wouldn't be sufficient, would it? His blood didn't put
away sin. He's relying on you now to do
something to put away your sin. That's the lie, isn't it? That's
the lie. That's man wanting to be God.
That's what they've said from the beginning, that you'll be
like gods. You'll be just like him if you do this. That's what
men want to be, is God. He was successful, wasn't he?
He was sufficient, and every sin that he paid for with his
blood is gone. It is gone. It'll never be brought
up again because the Lord says, I don't remember them. I don't
even remember them because they don't exist. The Lord don't forget,
does he? It had to really be put away.
It couldn't just be covered up or smoothed over, could it? No,
you had to be justified. That doesn't mean just as if
you never sinned, it literally means never, not one time have
we committed any iniquity, any trespass, any transgression of
His law in His eyes. We're perfect. Isn't that glorious? That's what Christ did. He didn't
try. We know that it's all by His
purpose. I think I quoted this earlier,
but all things work together for good. All things work together
for good. Why? Because it's his purpose.
It's according to his purpose. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them are thee called according to
his purpose. Ephesians 2 tells us, but God
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace you are saved. Understand
something. If he quickened us when we were
dead in sins, that means that we were dead in sins. I'm not
being sarcastic. Think about what he's saying
here. We're dead in sins. How are we going to make ourselves
alive if we're dead? This is the lie that men say.
Well, the Holy Spirit's passing by for this brief moment. All
you got to do is come forward and give your heart to him. Well,
that's not in the scripture. That's not in the Bible. What
is in the Bible? That God quickened us when we were dead and trespassed
in sin. He said, live, and we were alive.
Is that not true? This is the God I'm talking about.
He so loved us. He so loved us that he put away
our sin and made us alive in his time. Yeah, it's great love is our
hope, isn't it? So what does he mean by the world? Well, thanks
be to God, we know because he was talking to a Jew, a leader
of the Jew, an arrogant Pharisee. And he said unto him, it's not
just for the Jew. It is not your blood that will
cause you to become born again. This gospel is, there's going
to be a representative, the scripture says, of every nation, every
tribe, every tongue, every kindred. That gives me hope because I
know that I'm an American and I don't know what my heritage
is. It could be, I think I have Scotch-Irish in me, maybe some
other things too, but what if we knew that Scotch-Irish, the
Lord didn't die for them? What if it was just to other
Americans? That's what Nicodemus thought.
Nicodemus thought the Messiah was just for the Jew. Aren't
you thankful the Lord says world here in that regard? Oh, okay,
so it's not just for the Jew, it's for the Jew and the Gentile.
It's in a broad sense, but it's a narrow sense, isn't it? It's
a specific number. The Lord's not contradicting
himself here. He's saying, no, Nicodemus, it's
for the world. It's not just for the Jew. This is the gospel
that saves to the uttermost. It doesn't matter where you're
born. It doesn't matter what you've done. Christ saved his people
successfully. He tells us when we did this,
when we were dead in trespasses and in sin, Now saying everyone without exception
is foolish because if God loves everybody and everybody doesn't
go to heaven, his love doesn't really matter, does it? We know
that to be true. So what is our hope? That he
would love us. Lord, he said, Peter, do you love me? Lord,
you know I love you. Feed my sheep, feed my sheep. We love the Lord, don't we? We
love his gospel, don't we? Do you know why? Because he first
loved us. You know how you pass from death
unto life? You love the brethren. That's what the scripture says.
Do you love one another because of this glorious gospel? It's
because the Lord has done something. He's given you a new nature that
calls you to love one another. And why do we love one another?
Because he first loved us. He first loved us. He so loved. The world, I like
the, I'd say translation, I guess that's the right word to say.
The word cosmos, one of the definition, that's the word I was looking
for. One of the definitions is he adorned, he adorned, he robed
in his righteousness is what he's saying. For God so loved
those that he adorned, that he put ornaments on, he decorated.
What did he decorate them with? His own blood, his own righteousness,
didn't he? It's the same ideology of a Christmas
tree, if I can use that shallow example. The Christmas tree doesn't
decorate itself, does it? That's silly. That's silly. but
we take ornaments and put upon it. And maybe it's for memory
or maybe it's for whatever reason, but it becomes something beautiful
to us. Well, the Lord takes us and he
adorns us with the righteousness of Christ. He robes his people
in the righteousness of Christ. That's what he's saying here,
for God so loved those who are robed in the righteousness of
Christ that he gave his only begotten son. That's what he's
telling us here. This is who he loves, his people. I want to read John 3.16 again.
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. Begotten denotes who Christ is. He is the begotten Son of God.
Other versions, translations, whatever, just say that he's
God's one and only Son. No, it's his only begotten Son.
He had his blood coursing through his veins. He had the blood of
the Father. It's his begotten Son. That's our hope, that Christ
was God. He was the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Knowing this, he says, whosoever believes that, this
Christ that I'm talking about shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. Well, what are you believing? Christ is God. And it takes faith
to believe that. We can't come to that knowledge
by ourself. No man's gonna come to Christ. No man's gonna come
to the Father, but by Christ. It's a revelation of who he is.
This is what we're confessing. Christ is all to the glory of
God the Father. Now I have two places I wanna
turn in closing. One of those is John chapter
eight, just a few pages over. The Lord's having a conversation
with the Pharisees and the scribes. And you'll remember this very
chapter, it was the woman that was called on the act of adultery.
They bring the woman out, they called the act of adultery and
said, She is to be stoned under the Mosaic law. And he says,
he that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. And what
does he do after that? He begins writing in the sand. Well, what
did he write? Well, we can speculate is probably
the 10 commandments or something. All we know is, is every single
man that was present was convicted in their own conscience and left
until the Lord and this woman was standing there and nobody
else was around. He said, where are that accusers?
And she said, they're gone. And he said, well, I don't know.
I won't accuse you either. Go that way and sin no more.
Immediately following that, he begins to have another conversation,
meeting up with some of these Pharisees and scribes. And as
the conversation continues, look with me in John 8, verse 31. He says unto him, Then said Jesus
to those Jews which believed on him, You continue in my word,
then are you my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be
Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man, How sayest
thou, ye shall be made free? Now, we need to understand something. This is still a conversation
between the Pharisees and Christ, but he turns to those that believe
him and says the first part. Then the Pharisees say, they
answered him, we be Abraham's seed, and we're never in bondage
to any man. How sayest thou, ye shall be made free? Jesus
answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whoever committeth
sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth ever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you
are Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because my word has
no place in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father, and ye do that which you have seen with your
father.' They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.
Jesus said unto them, if you were Abraham's children, you
would do the works of Abraham, but now you seek to kill me,
a man that had told you the truth. A man, that's the reason they
wanted to kill him is because he told them the truth, which
I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. You do
the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, we'd be
not a fornication. We have one father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, you would love
me. For I proceeded forth and came
from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot, you cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father, the devil,
and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. You believe,
and because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. This is why, that they wouldn't
believe, is because he was telling them the truth. Why? Because
they were of their father, the devil. It's very clear. Which
of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth God's
words. Now here it is, brethren. This is what we need to know. He that is of God, heareth God's
words. You therefore hear them not,
because you are not of God." Now we have stark contrasts between
men that are being called of their father, the devil, and
those that are being called of the, what he said, those that
believed on him before. So you have two different characteristics
here. Those that believe the truth, those that hear God's
words and those that do not, those that will not, and those
that cannot. He literally said every bit of this. Now, did he
die for those that cannot hear his words, that are not of God,
that are of their father the devil? What would be the point
of him dying for those people? Who's the one that made them
of their father, the devil? See, he's sovereign in all things.
We have to understand that. The very foundation of our salvation
is completely dependent upon God doing something. He has to
be sovereign in salvation or I have no hope whatsoever. He says, because I tell you the
truth, you believe me not. See, men don't want the truth,
do they? Men do not want this man. Do you know why men don't
want Christ? Because he is God. And He strips
man of every bit of their own righteousness, every bit of their
own glory. That's why men will not come
to Him. He says, ye therefore here not because you're not of
God. Christ is telling them I am from God. I am from God. I am sovereign. I choose not
you. Now in closing, 1 John chapter
4. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
4. I am still preaching on him for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. And we just heard a very valid point that no man can believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ unless they're of God, unless they're
born of God. And he's the one that does it,
isn't he? Now, in 1 John 4, I want us to see this. This is
so, I love that in 1 John, he uses the exact same words that's
found in John 3, 16, the exact same words. Look with me in 1
John 4, verse 7. 1 John 4, verse 7. Beloved, now who's he speaking
to? I wanna stop right there. Okay,
that's so important. Who's he talking to? Beloved
of God, those that God loves. Beloved, verse seven, let us
love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God for God is love. In this was manifest the love
of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved
us, We are also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected
in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because
he hath given us of his spirit. We have seen and do testify that
the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. Now
there it is again, isn't it? The same exact word, the same
cosmos word that was before. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. He used the exact same words
as he did in John 3, 16, didn't he? And who is he speaking to?
The beloved, the beloved. I wanna reiterate again that
if God loves you right now, he's always loved you and he's always
going to love you. And there is nothing that can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. So if the
Lord allows one person that he loves to go to hell, his love
doesn't mean anything. It's not a sovereign love. It
doesn't accomplish anything. Thanks be to God. It does accomplish
everything he purposed. It is a sovereign love. It is
a perfect love. What did he do for us? He became
the propitiation. That means he appeased the wrath
of God. It's the exact same thing as
saying that he satisfied justice. He satisfied the justice of God. Who did he do that for? The beloved
of God. Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Our sins, the beloved of the
Lord. telling us that it's the Jew
and the Gentile. There's always an issue in the New Testament
about even Paul was writing to Hebrews, literally the Hebrews.
It was always an issue. They thought they would be saved
differently than the church would be because of circumcision, or
they thought it was just to the Jew or whatever else may be.
But he's saying to us, no, it's not based upon you at all. It's
the Lord's doing. It's the Lord's choice. It's
the Lord's purpose. So that it's not of him that
willeth. Or of him that runneth. but God that showeth mercy. Now
I'm gonna read 1 John 3, which is a page back if you wanna turn
there. Told what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world,
the cosmos knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now
are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. In our text, John 3, 16, at the
end of that, he said, shall not perish, but have everlasting
life. That means if you're alive right
now, in his eyes, you've always been alive. You've never been
dead in trespasses and in sin. Think about that. You've never
been dead. That's what he's saying. Everlasting,
never had a beginning, never had an end. Isn't that glorious?
That's how the Lord views us in Christ. That's how, I don't
know how else to say it, but to say that's how good of a job
he did. I mean, that's what he accomplished. That's how successful
he was. The Lord views us alive in Christ
right now as his son. We've been made as holy as he
is by his precious blood. 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'm so thankful he said
whosoever, that gives me hope. I hope I'm a whosoever.