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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brandon-doll/john-3-36/
Before we read the scriptures together, we'll speak to the Lord in prayer. Father, we quiet our hearts in thy presence again this evening to thank thee for the day. We thank thee for the answered prayer, which thou hast been faithful to meet the needs of thy people.
And our Father, now the time has come for the preaching of the gospel, and we pray that there would be indeed a genuine working of the Spirit of God in the hearts of each of us again tonight. We think of those who are yet in their sins.
They know not the Savior. If they have died tonight, the best that they would have would be a hope for heaven. But our Father, we know that that is not enough. And so we would pray that there would be a great awakening tonight for those that need salvation, that they might be located as to where they are in the light of eternity and in the sight of God.
So we would just ask for help now as the gospel is to be proclaimed in the worthy name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We're going to read together in the Gospel of John, please, in Chapter 3. The Gospel of John in Chapter 3, and we'll read the very last verse of the chapter, verse number 36.
In John Chapter 3, verse number 36, these are the words of John the Baptist. And he says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that hath not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Lord, bless to us the reading of his precious word. The Gospel of John is a tremendous book when it comes to the person of the Son of God. And really that's what John the Baptist is speaking about. He's speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we're looking at this verse tonight, just in the opening of this meeting, I would like to get each and every one of us to find out where we are in the verse. Not where we think we are, maybe in our own understanding, but as we examine this verse, it is divided very clearly into two different groups of people.
There are those that have the Son, those that believe on the Son, have everlasting life. And there's those that believe not the Son, and they shall not see life. And so to start just very simply, if you were to die tonight, would you be in heaven and why?
If this would be your appointed day on earth, when you would go out into eternity to meet God, would you be those that have life or among those that have not life? It's just really that black and white.
When it comes to God's salvation, and when it comes to the work of the Lord Jesus, and when it comes to the love of God, the reality is very simple. We make the Gospel sometimes complicated in our thinking, but the reality is tonight is this.
You are either on one of two roads. You either have life tonight, or you do not have life. You can't be somewhere in the middle. You can't be half dead or half alive. Either you have Christ tonight, or you do not have Christ.
And it behooves us all tonight to ask the question, to search our foundation. Am I saved? Or am I lost? Am I in Christ? Or am I out of Christ? You see, there are billions of people on the earth tonight, and they believe about the Lord Jesus Christ.
They believe that He came at Christmas time, and they believe that He died at Easter time, and they believe that God raised Him from the dead. But you see, to believe about the Lord Jesus Christ is entirely different than knowing Him as your own personal Savior.
We can understand all the facts about Him, that He came, that He died, that He was buried, that He was raised again from the dead. But when did He become your Savior? When did He become yours? Not just the history about Him, but the reality of the work of Christ.
And what does it mean to you tonight? John says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And that tells us something very simple. There's a time when a person obtains everlasting life. A person isn't born with everlasting life.
A person isn't born on their way to heaven. We're born in sin, and shaped in an iniquity, but it says here that He that believeth on the Son hath. There's a moment in one's experience when the truth of the Word of God strikes home to the heart of the individual, and they trust Christ.
But the night that I was saved, I was saved without even thinking about believing. The reality of the truth of the scripture was so obvious, it was right there on the page. It was right there the whole time, but I couldn't see it.
Oh, why couldn't I see it? Because I was blind. Blinded by the Prince and the power of the air. Blinded by sin. And it's the same for all tonight. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into them.
So we're not born saved. We need to be born again. And John says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, shall never see life. But the wrath of God abides on him.
I want to take just a few moments and talk about the reality of the wrath of God. The wrath of God is something that is that is quite intriguing, really. How that a God that is love, described by that as his character, God is love.
And yet he has a wrath that is holy. That he has an anger against sin that is righteous. And to think that those that die without the Savior, they'll be under the wrath of God forever. Make no mistake about it.
God has done everything heavenly possible that you might be saved tonight. Did you get that? God has done everything heavenly possible that sinners would never see his wrath. That sinners would never experience a judgment for their sin.
God has done everything that heaven can do that souls might be rescued. But yet there'll be multitudes that'll be under the wrath of God. Human mind cannot comprehend what that's like. Most of the wrath of men is unrighteous.
Most of the wrath of man stems from hatred. You think of the wars that are going on and the conflicts that are going on, where one nation hates another nation, and then you've got the result of war. You've got the, you've got one ideology that hates another ideology, and what do you have?
You have a state of war. But when it comes to the wrath and the judgment of God, judgment is God's strange work. You think of the Lord Jesus as he looked over a city called Jerusalem so many years ago, and he did everything that he could do.
How often he would have gathered that city as a hen does gather her chicks under his wing, but they would not. The onus was on them. They would not. And there will not be, there was not one stone left upon another when the emperor come through and leveled the city, not that very long after that.
You see, the judgment of God can be seen in different ways throughout the scripture. We see a very good, we see it in Noah's day, don't we? Where there the thoughts and the imagination of the hearts of men were only evil continually, and God sent Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and there that man preached, and that man builded, and he made an ark, and God is going to destroy the world then because of their sin.
So corrupt, so abominable, and we're no different tonight than they were then. The thoughts and the intents of the heart are only evil continually. And what God had made had been so defiled and so destroyed and so distorted from what he intended it to be.
And the people in their hatred of God, and their hatred of authority, and their hatred of that which is good, and God now sends the flood upon the earth, and you can see how God moves when the time comes.
With those in all their pride and all their unbelief, and they reject God. They reject God and his love. And the wrath came in those days. And God spared not the old world, but took them away with a flood.
And you see the wrath of God in Sodom and Gomorrah, 2 Peter chapter 2. And there the fire and brimstone comes from heaven, and it burns those cities up. And again, we're reminded that God is holy, and that sin will not be tolerated.
God is long-suffering tonight, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so even this night, God is long-suffering, waiting for sinners to listen, and to change their mind, and agree with him.
And that's repentance. But the wrath of God abides on him. I used to think that, before God saved me, that I was in my, I was in my unbelief, and I knew I was, have you ever been convinced of your unbelief?
There's a dear brother in Iowa, he always prays that God would convince people of their unbelief. Have you ever been convinced of your unbelief? And I used to think this was me in my life, and, and I was a pretty good kid, and, and I knew I wasn't saved, and the wrath of God was over me, and that's true.
But do you realize what's keeping that wrath from falling tonight? I used to think that God was waiting for me to make my last sin, or maybe my biggest sin, whatever one it might be, that would trigger the judgment to fall, and he would smash me into hell.
That couldn't be farther from the truth. You see, what kept me out of hell all those years, was the mercy of God. You see, I deserve to be under the wrath of God. It was what I had done. It was my sin, and it's the same with you tonight, friend.
Your sin deserves nothing less than the wrath of God. And tonight, it's God's mercy that you're here. It's God's mercy that you're not experiencing that wrath, and the wrath of God abides on him. And God now is longing in this day and age of grace that souls would be saved, that they'd be forgiven of their sin, that they would find the Savior, that they would know that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's only way of salvation.
That's why it is, the verse is talking about believing on the Son hath everlasting life. If a person has it, they don't wonder if they have it. They know that they have it. What does John write in 1 John chapter 5?
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know. Do you know tonight? Oh, nobody can know for sure until they get there. That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible says if you don't know, you won't go. They that believe, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Did you know tonight? We don't really know what life is until we're saved.
That's so real. People are seeking to be satisfied in everything that never satisfies. The businessman, he's not satisfied with what's coming in. There's always opportunity for growth, and there's always opportunity for expansion.
And whatever avenue, whatever aspect of life you think about, men are never satisfied. But the Christian, those that have Christ, they are satisfied. And the peace that comes with knowing Christ is my Savior.
To know Christ is the substitute that was under the wrath of God for me. The one that suffered for sins, but not his own. The one that satisfied God on behalf of sin. If you've never been saved, you have no clue what true life is really all about.
And the devil will tell you that if you're saved, it's going to ruin your life. You'll never be able to have any fun. You'll be a miserable old Christian with your lip dragging on the floor because all everything's going wrong.
It's just the opposite. A true believer tonight, one with everlasting life, knows not only the quantity of that life, but the quality of that life. Is that you tonight? To lay your head down on your pillow and know if you die in your sleep that is well with your soul, that's life.
To lay your head down tonight and not know and and just hope that you live and wake another day and I hope you don't have a some sort of a wreck or something that would take you out into eternity. That's no way to live.
Men through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. But when a person possesses presently and eternally everlasting life, what a quality of life. And so just to start this meeting tonight, are you located tonight where you stand before God?
This isn't a matter of if God doesn't accept me the way I am, that's his loss. That's not the attitude to have. It isn't that if I'm not good enough and my good works aren't good enough, then that's just too bad.
It's not the idea of this is what I've been raised in and I've I've always been taught that and we're the 17th generation that have been to this church and have done these things and carried out these ordinances.
That's not everlasting life. It's found in the sun. The sun. And there at the cross of Calvary, when John here is talking about the sun, John the Baptist didn't understand the depths of the suffering that Christ was going to go through.
But Christ at the cross of Calvary suffered the wrath of God for sin. Christ died for our sin according to the scriptures and he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
And what took place at Calvary was God dealing with sin. Not men dealing with sin. But God. But God. And because God has settled the sin question through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross and the resurrection, you can know for certain tonight that you'll be in heaven at the end of life.
There's a lot of people want to dispute that but they're going to have to argue with God. Because God says everlasting life. Everlasting life. So which are you in this verse? Do you have this everlasting life?
If you have the sun, you have life. Or are you missing out on this everlasting life? If you do not have the sun, you do not have life. And the text goes even further. But the wrath of God abides on that person.
This is very solemn tonight, but it's very exciting at the same time. That there might be someone in this audience tonight and you're wanting to be right with God and you're wanting to know the forgiveness of sins that you can be saved tonight.
You can be rescued from your sins and their consequences tonight. Why? Because Christ finished the work. Nearly 2 ,000 years ago at the place called Calvary, where he made payment for sin that was not his own.
And when he suffered for sins that were not his own, and when he satisfied God's righteous and holy wrath, the judgment that sin deserves, it fell upon him. It fell upon Christ. What's the text say? Think about it tonight.
He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.