we're supposed to be at maybe
half or a third. Remember those who requested
prayer a couple prayers names been added to the prayer list
a friend of Stan's named Brian Bryant I had some kind of serious
heart surgery this week. I don't know, he hasn't told
me how it turned out. A good friend of mine from up in Lexington,
Kentucky, the only guy I've ever known named Claire, his name
was Claire Sharon, and he's developed some kind of difficulty in breathing,
and it's not his lungs, it's somehow the trachea is starting
to shrink, and I don't know why. So they're gonna remember him,
because he's had difficulty breathing altogether. And remember those
who went through this mess we've all had to show up. Sunday we'll
go with just an 11 o'clock service offer rather than trying to cook
and all that stuff. So that's what we'll do Sunday. I'll tell everybody on the text.
Loretta's got it. Our leader's got it. I think,
I think, I think that's something, the leader's husband. over it, so we're thankful for
that. The floor is over it. But it's been a fun week, I'll
tell you. Let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 127. 127. ? For the Son of God who came ?
? Proving sinners to reclaim ? ? Hallelujah, what a Savior
? ? Bearing shame and scoffing you in my place condemned ? with his blood Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was He tonight. In His face was His cry. Now in heaven, in songs divine. Hallelujah! What a Savior! He comes, the glorious King. All his friends are home to bring. In a new pitch, some will sing. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hymn number 272, Solid Rock. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus'
blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but only lean on Jesus' name. Unchanging grace, in every high
and stormy gale, Our anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
no other crown, ? His goodness, the one of His
blood ? ? Support me in the well-being flood ? ? When all around my
soul gives way ? ? He is all my hope and strength ? ? Oh,
Christ the solid rock, I stand all around Him ? He shall come with trumpet sound,
only I did in Him be found. Christ in His righteousness alone,
all blessed to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all the good crowd is speaking, wander over the cold. John chapter 3 and verse 16. For God's soul of the world and
he gave his only begotten son and whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. Let us pray. Our Father
we are thankful for your word for the good news We are thankful that You loved
us and washed us in the blood of Your Son, made us kings and
priests unto our God. We are thankful You loved us
and gave Yourself for us. Help us as we look at this passage
of Scripture to understand and appreciate the words that are
here for us. Help us to know what it means. Pray for those who are sick still
and going through trials and tribulations. We ask the Lord
your help for them, especially Loretta. She's now a lot better
from her situation. Thankful for those who've been
brought back to good health. Pray for these who've been added
to the prayer list. This is Mr. Bryant with his heart condition,
and also Claire Sherrod. Ask the Lord your help for them.
We ask for your help tonight as we gather here that you might
be pleased Give us peace in Jesus Christ and cause us to look to
Him in all things. Help me to preach the gospel,
we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Now the 16th verse of John chapter
3 is possibly the most well-known and least understood verse in
all the scripture. As I was preparing this message,
I remembered it was one of the first verses I memorized. in
my days as a sunbeam in the Southern Baptist Church. I was about four
years old at the time, I think. It begins with a little conjunction,
for, which means because, and thus
relates to what has been spoken in the previous two verses. In
verse 15, excuse me, verse 14 and 15, that's even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life, for God so loved the world.
And he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. There's
no understanding of verse 16. It does not find its foundation
in verses 14 and 15. Verse 16 does not stand alone,
though it's quoted as it was the singular most important verse
in all of scripture. It does not stand alone, and
like all other verses, it is determined by the context in
which you find it. Especially in this case, that
that fact stands because it begins with the word for. Our Lord is
speaking to a man who at the time is an unbeliever, And our
Lord is setting forth spiritual truth garnered from historical
details of an event that this man is familiar with, but that
event informed future things to be. The account of Moses lifting
up the serpent in the wilderness and its attendant elements are
about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and its attendant elements. This verse is to be rightly divided
in light of Numbers 21. That's what our Lord uses the
word for, for. Discerning the activities that
took place in the wilderness to be pictures and types of what
is revealed in the words of verse 16. And this verse begins with
the words, for God so loved the world. The raising up of the
serpent had to do with God's love for the world. This is the
meaning of the word soul. It does not in any way address
degree of intensity of affection, though that's often how it's
quoted. For God so loved the world. That's not how it's worded,
and that's not what it means. The word means in like manner,
or thus, and it only means that. has nothing to do with intensity,
has nothing to do with affection. It means in this manner, or in
like manner, or thus, for God in this manner loved the world. So this love of God was in like
manner to the love that He expressed in saving the lives of those
bitten by Enlightenment? Is God loved this
way? Well, who did he love? Did he
love the Egyptians, whose caucuses lay at the bottom of the Red
Sea? Did he love the inhabitants of Canaan, whom he would overthrow
and give their possessions to this people, who were in fear
for their lives because of the venom that coursed through their
veins? Who did he love? What was the world that he was
talking about? For God saw in this manner, God
loved the world. In the manner of what? In the
same way that he loved those he saved from the serpent's bite
in the wilderness. He loved his chosen race. He loved his elect. He loved that nation. He loved
those whom he had delivered from slavery by the blood of the Lamb. They were in the world, and they
were His world. He loved them, and the elect
are the world He loved in like manner as spoken to Nicodemus."
You see, the elect are His world. The elect are His world. That's
who He's speaking of here. Look over at Deuteronomy 32 just
for a second, verse 9. Here's what the Lord says about
His people. We know this Old Testament text
and pictures of God's elected nation is a picture of God's
spiritual election of His people to Israel, the Israel of God.
In verse 9 it says, for the Lord's portion, Deuteronomy 32, 9, for the Lord's
portion is His people. Jacob is the lot or the cord
of His inheritance. So what is the Lord's portion?
What does it for God? That's what it's saying, if you
can say it in common terms. His people do. So when it talks
about God loving the world, He loves the world in this manner.
God so loved the world. God loved the world in the manner
that He loved His people. The world is rarely used as an
inclusive term of all humanity, but it is exclusive to this context. For example, the Lord said in
His high priestly prayer that He prayed for those the Father
had given Him, which are the elect, but He prayed not for
the world. for God so loved the world, he
prayed not for the world. What was the world there? The
world was the non-elect enemies of God. That's who they were. In the same chapter, he said
that his people were in the world, speaking of their geo-religious
political world, they were in this earth, this planet, but
they were not of the world. They were of another world. They
were in this one, but they were of another world. And that world
is His kingdom. His kingdom. This is how He describes
His people's world to Pilate. He says, My kingdom is not of
this world. It's not of this world. So we
know that the world that He would not pray for, and the world that
His people were not part of, And the world that was not his
kingdom, he didn't love. People try to prove the universal
love of God. Of course, there are numbers
of scriptures that simply say that's not so. God didn't love
the whole world. For Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated. He hateth the workers of iniquity
every day, it says in scripture, and hates them with a perfect
hatred. The world he loved, so. The world he loved, thus. The
world he loved in like manner to those he loved in the wilderness
are his people chosen to salvation in Jesus Christ. That's the same
thing. His elect, his bride, the church,
and his beloved, he loved them, so. In that like manner. And what was the manner in which
He loved them? He saved them from death. He saved them from
death. In picture, from the fatal wound
inflected by the serpents in substance and like manner, He
saved His people from eternal death by raising up Christ on
the cross. As is always the case, the expression
of love is singular in Scripture. It's always giving. It's always
giving. If you want to know what love
is, that's what love is. It's not sentimental affection
or romance. That's a type of love. That's
a physical love. But true love is simply this.
It's giving. It's always giving. It's always
outward. It's never inward. It never looks
for a return of what it does. It doesn't say, if you love me,
I'll love you. If you love someone, you will
give yourself for them. We understand or perceive the
love of God that He laid down His life for us. He gave Himself.
That's the language of Scripture. And here it is before us in John
3, 16. For God, in this manner, loved the world. And He gave,
He gave His only begotten Son. To look to Christ is to believe
on Him. God gave his only begotten son
in the form and the picture of a serpent in the wilderness lifted
up on a pole. How does that work? Here you
have the Son of God lifted up. He says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. That serpent was raised up on
a pole. And at the appointed time, in a light manner, he gave
his son, raised up on a cross. And the word cross in scripture,
in the original language, is stalos. It means a pole. It means a pole. We have what is called the Christian
cross, which had a cross member on it. But crucifixion, in the
old days, often was just a singular pole. And the hands were nailed
above the body, and they hung down. That created asphyxiation,
collapsed the lungs from just the weight of the body. She made
for a fairly quick death. Made for a fairly quick death.
In like manner, this is what this passage is all about. In
like manner that whosoever believeth, whosoever believeth, in the wilderness
believing was simply looking, and so it is in the world. To
look to Christ is to believe on Him, to trust Him. To trust Him, this word believe
means to trust, to trust, to commit to, to commit to. Our Lord said in Isaiah 4, 45
and 22, look unto me. All the ends of the earth. For
I am God and there is no other, a just God. and a savior. And you can't have one without
the other. In order for him to be a savior of men, he must do
it in a manner where his justice and law is satisfied. Mercy must
fly on the wings of satisfied justice. He said, look to me. There is no other. There is no
other. Paul said, looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now
set down on the right hand of the Father." Hebrews chapter
12 and verse 2. The word whosoever can mean all,
it can mean any, and most religion would have it be an all-inclusive
proposition. Now with the principle of in
like manner, or thus, we find that in the wilderness the term
was exclusive. It was to somebody in particular. Who was it? Numbers chapter 21. Verse 8, And the Lord said to
Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole. And it
shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten when he looketh
upon it shall live." Not everyone who looks upon it shall live.
They're not told to look upon it. They're not bid to look upon
it. Everyone who's bitten, everyone who's died, everyone who has
the venom coursing through their veins, and they know they are
soon to die. All who were bitten were bidden
to look and live. The poet wrote this, Jesus was
a sailor when he walked upon the water, and he knew that only
drowning men could see him. And that's the truth. We talk
about that. Religion misses the mark when
it tells people who have no need that they have a need. You need Jesus. Why? If I don't need him, if I need
him, I reckon I know I need him. If I was thirsty, I'd know I
was thirsty. If I was hungry, I'd know I was hungry. You can't
tell me I'm hungry if I ain't hungry. You can't tell me I'm
thirsty if I ain't thirsty. But if I've been bitten, and
I know that I'm gonna soon die, and you tell me that fiery serpent
up there, if you looked at that, you won't die. I got a need. I got a hunger. I got a thirst
for life, and I'm going to look. Those who knew not the sting
of the adder had no need to look at that serpent, none whatsoever. Only those for whom imminent
death awaited were bidden to look, and in like manner. Whosoever is made to know that
their sin has brought them to the imminent death are bidden
to look. The soul that sinneth, It shall
die. You'll never look to Christ until
you know that in your heart and soul. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Only those who by the gospel
have been taught that the soul that sinneth shall die believe
and know that this alone is salvation. I don't have to tell people to
look. But I tell them to look anyway. Because if they're bitten, And
one fellow said, I spend my life as a preacher looking for a sinner.
Because if I ever find one, boy, do I have a message for them.
But I'm not going to try to make you feel like you need something
you don't need. I'm not going to tell a sad story
or sing a whole lot of hymns at the end of a service. I'm
going to tell you about Jesus Christ. I'm going to raise that
serpent up on that pole. And I know this, if you've been
bitten, you'll look. to tell you. Only those who've
heard of the gospel and have been taught that they're dead
and dying, they'll look. Knowing and believing are products
of life. The products of life. Remember
when our Lord has spent all this time telling Nicodemus here in
this first, this third chapter, that you can't know anything
or see anything or do anything unless you have a life. That
life is spiritual life, and if the spirit does as it pleases
and goes where it pleases, it always does what it's supposed
to do, just like his word does. Knowing and believing. I tell
you, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this about that.
Unless you're alive spiritually, you won't do it. You can't do
it. You must be born again, he said. in order to even perceive
life, to see life. In this very chapter, in verse
36, it says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him. If you look over at 1 John chapter
5, 5 verse 11, it says, And this is
the record, then, that God hath given to us eternal life, and
this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. He that believeth on him hath
eternal life. This is the strength of the word
believeth. It is a singular word in scripture. It is in the present tense, which
means it's actually occurring. He's believing. It's in an active
voice. It's being done at the time.
It's in the participle mood. The participle mood means it's
going on now. He that is believing and believing
and believing, the participle mood is called a verbal noun,
a noun that's active. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Those bitten and dying looked
and were spared in the Old Testament. What did that mean to them? What
had just bitten them? What had just sunk its fangs
into their legs? A serpent. A serpent. And now they're told to look
to a serpent. Strange, isn't it? Strange, isn't
it? What were they looking at? A
serpent, brazen and shiny, and it reflected the consequence
of their sin. That serpent was death to them,
and yet they told him to look to the serpent. In like manner,
believing in the Son of God. He's looking at death. It's what
we do. It's what we do. Gospel, what's
it about? The death. Burial and resurrection
and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel's about his
death, and what do we do about that? Baptism is about what? His death. About his death. And we submit. The Lord's table
is about what? His death. We receive. Whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. Those dying in the wilderness
looked and lived. Those dying in this world today,
look at death and live. 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. Father, bless us to understand
the prayer of Christ. Amen.