The Golden Text Of The Bible

This morning, on this Lord's Day, I'd like to speak to you what is known as the golden text of the Bible. The golden text of the Bible. We're so familiar with it, aren't we? It's John 3 .16. Within this text, this one text of Scripture, the greatest story ever told is given to us in this precious book.

And it's in a nutshell in John 3 .16. It is the very revelation of God, and within its pages are the infinite treasures of God through Jesus Christ. And it tells us the greatest story that the world will ever hear.

And the story of redemption, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is actually the scarlet red cord that flows all the way through the entire Bible. From Genesis to Revelation. And it's all focused on one person, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that is our focus. And as we run the race of faith, may our eyes be fixed upon Jesus. And this scarlet cord, I like to say, runs all throughout the Old Testament and unfolds in reality. In the Old Testament, we see shadows and types, and we see Christ through the Old Testament.

But in reality, when you come to the New Testament, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, undoubtedly the most familiar and beloved verse in all the Scriptures is John 3 .16. We teach our children to memorize this great verse.

And honestly, what really makes me tremble is we are so familiar with this verse, do we really see the depths of what it really means?

Word by word.

And it is, no doubt, the golden text of the Bible. The late A .W. Tozer called this wonderful verse of Scripture, the burning bush of the Bible. The burning bush of the Bible. Rightly so. Therefore, as we approach this text, this golden text of the Bible, may we all have an attitude as Moses had when he approached the burning bush on the mountaintop.

And as he witnessed the burning bush, that it was not consumed, may we also witness in John 3 .16 that this verse is never consumed. It burns and burns and burns. Moses had an attitude of awe as he beheld the bush, and with awe and wonder may it be within our hearts as well as we come to this great verse of Scripture.

And say, behold our God. Behold our God. There is no way that I, myself, as just a student of the Bible, and what I know of Scripture through the forty years in which the Lord has called me, and since He has converted me to Christ, to unpack all that the truth that is given here in this great text.

Actually, if we could look at it and have the greatest preachers behind this pulpit, and you can hear the greatest preachers on this earth preach this text, they could not unpack it. There's no way because it's inexhaustible.

All we can do, by the help of the Holy Spirit, is to behold the greatness of the love of God that is given to us. And may we do so, as the Scripture says, with fear and trembling and rejoice with trembling as we kiss the Son and come to worship at His footstool.

And bow before Him and let this burning bush of Scripture warm our hearts this morning. Now, John 3 .16 is a wonderful verse. I've done this a few times, but I'd like for us to do it again. And children, I'd like all you children to really pay attention this morning because this is a wonderful verse of Scripture.

I'm sure some of you have memorized it, haven't you? Well, I'll tell you what, we're going to put that to the test. I'll tell you what I'd like for us to do. I'd like for us to all together in harmony, as much as we possibly can, say this wonderful verse.

I hope you've already turned there, by the way. And let's read this all together out loud with a strong voice. And I'll start us off. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have an everlasting life.

Praise God. Amen. That's good reading. I heard all those children's voices this morning. Praise the Lord. May we bow in prayer now as we look to our Lord, as we look and expound this verse by the help of the Holy Spirit and that God would help me to lead us in this.

Father, we thank You so much for Your words. Lord, take it from our ears to our hearts this morning. We pray and only Your Holy Spirit can do this. Father, we thank You for Your great love. We bow our hearts before You, Lord.

And this is the first thing we do. We thank You for Your word. For this is the greatest gift that You've given us is Your word. And second to that would be Your Son because we could not know Your Son outside of Your word.

So we thank You, Father, for the great word. You've exalted Your word even above Your name. Lord, You said in Your word itself, Heaven and earth will pass away but Your word will abide forever. It endures forever.

Your word goes forth and it does not return void but it accomplishes exactly what You've sent it to do. And Father, Your word, as the psalmist says, is more desirable. More desirable than gold. Even more than fine gold.

And sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Father, by Your word, it's forever settled in Heaven. So it's already settled. Regardless what men and unbelieving men say about it, it's already settled.

And by Your word, Lord, we are warned and keeping Your word. There is great reward. So Father, help us within this hour as we worship and look into Your word and this great text, this golden text of Scripture.

That we may behold Your face in the glories of Christ and Your great love that is given to us through Your Son. Your one and only Son. Your unique Son.

Change us.

Transform us. More into the likeness and the loveliness and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the psalmist says in Psalm 19, so that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

We ask this for Your honor and glory. In Jesus' name. Amen. Such a humbling verse. Such a powerful verse, isn't it? I do feel almost in a sense like we're Moses on the mountain. And by far we see this burning bush.

Brightly burning. A wonderful text. Golden text of Scripture comes right in the middle of a conversation as we've been looking at. A conversation that's between Jesus and one of the most learned Pharisees and religious leaders in all of Israel.

In chapter 3 here. He was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus who comes to Jesus by night. And so, to get what is really said by the master here, the master teacher, because actually the master teacher Jesus, our Lord, is teaching Nicodemus.

He teaches him who is in need of being taught. And as we look into the text, it seems to appear that he is teachable. He comes to Jesus by night. And there's a reason he comes to Jesus by night. Now Nicodemus had heard of Jesus' teaching.

And I would say probably he witnessed Jesus Christ cleansing the temple in Jerusalem. If you look with me very quickly before we look to our text, I'd like for us to look at some surrounding verses so we can understand what John 3 .16 is really, what our Lord is really saying.

If you notice in John 2 .23, we've already covered this territory, but for you that has not heard this, I'd like to bring this out. Scripture says now when he was in Jerusalem, speaking of Jesus, when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, he always kept the Passover because he perfectly kept the law.

He fulfilled the law. And during the feast, many believed in his name. And when they saw his signs, that means miracles, in which he was doing. Now Nicodemus is no doubt, I believe, one of the many that saw the Lord's miracles, the signs in which it speaks of here in the text.

Because in verse 24 and 25, we see the revelation that's given to us, but Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them. Now let me pause there for a second.

Why?

Why did not Jesus entrust himself to them? These are very religious people here. And the Scripture answers that question.

It says,.

For he knew all men.

Now let's make a note of that. Not some men, all men. He is the searcher of our hearts. The Scripture basically says, the reigns of our hearts. The word reigns means our innermost being. He knows our very motives.

He knows everything about you. Children, God knows everything. Jesus knows everything about you. Everything. He knows our thoughts. He knows our motives. That's very convicting, isn't it? Because sometimes our thoughts are not too good.

But he knew all men.

And then he says this in Scripture,.

And the Scripture says this,.

And because he had no need that anyone bear witness concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man. What is in us that makes us so vile and evil? The sin nature. It comes down to that. Now that sounds like a simple answer, but it's really profound because we really don't know our sin.

Like God knows it.

And this is why God gives us the word to reveal our sin.

He gives us the law. It's like his holiness, and it's like a bright light,.

I would like to say, that shines upon a dark heart. It's like a great thick darkness.

The lights, the bright lights are cut on,.

And this is what the word of God does. It cuts the bright lights on.

To show us who we really are.

We need this.

And when we see who we really are,.

It's really vile,.

And it's disgusting,.

And it should be painful,.

And in that sense, it should make us run to God for the remedy. And this is the purpose of the giving of the law, and then we may know that we need a Savior, and there's a remedy. And that remedy and that Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ, none other.

No one else. Now, let me say this. Like Nicodemus, all men are depraved. I would actually say people that are even religious, this is the worst kind, that pretend to be righteous,.

And they're not righteous.

They pretend to be religious, and they don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's all a stage play, and they go through the emotions,.

And the externals.

But see, God knows, and God knew Nicodemus. He knew Nicodemus exactly what he needed. He knew his very heart. Our hearts are desperately wicked, folks,.

Before God.

And our righteousness are like filthy rags before the holiness of God. Now, before you say, wait just a minute, pastor, and ask the question, but I know people, they're very good people, they're very kind, and very nice.

Folks, just because a person is externally nice does not mean that they're good within their hearts. Because they see a righteousness within themselves, they think, is good. And all together, they're seeing it apart from God.

You see that. The scripture says, there are none good,.

No, not one.

Now, this is not including Christ. Christ is apart from that. Really, Christ is the good one. And even Jesus Christ, to give it an example, gave and pointed to the Father in heaven on the goodness of God, even to the rich young realer that came to him, and said, good master, what must I do to be saved?

And he said, there's none good. Only God. Only God.

He says, why call us me good? Only God's good.

So, there's a goodness that we basically put on scales on ourselves, and compare our goodness to other people's goodness, but the goodness of God is apart from man's goodness. You see that? Because our goodness,.

Our righteousness,.

Is like filthy rags to God.

It stinks.

Now, until we see that, we will not see, not until our sin becomes, I went on a period and said it like this, not until our sin becomes bitter, until we see Christ being sweet. So, we need to see that, and Nicodemus needed to see this.

He's a very religious man. He comes to Jesus by night, and by the way, he's confused. He's looking at only external signs.

And miracles,.

And keeping of the law,.

And righteousness,.

And in a sense,.

He thinks he's good enough to get to heaven, and Jesus, and his great wisdom and love, tells him something profound. We won't go through the whole story again,.

But he simply,.

Jesus gives analogies, one by one here, and Jesus does this on purpose to help Nicodemus to see that apart from God, you have no power to come into the kingdom of God. None of us does. You can't do that.

Within your own willpower,.

As we heard Steve Lawson this morning talk about that from the gospel of John, and other scriptures, because our will is corrupt. It's in bondage because of sin. So, if you think you can just all of a sudden turn to God on your own willpower and strength, you can't do it.

It's God's will. It's God's choosing. It's God's power. Now, what does he tell him that's so profound? Well, if you look with me to John 3 and verse 3,.

We looked at this.

Jesus answered and said to him,.

And he says this,.

By the way,.

When the text actually says Jesus answered, Jesus is giving him an answer,.

By the way,.

That Nicodemus never asked. Why? Because he searched his heart. He's answering his heart. He answers his heart at a question that's within.

Deep of his heart.

That he had a void there. Now, Nicodemus is up in age. It's like he's been a church, a faithful church goer, or a very religious man for years upon years, and actually a teacher of the Jews. A Pharisee was learned, supposedly, in the law of God since youth, all the way up.

He knew all about the words of God, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, the prophet, and all the prophets, and Genesis, and all that, and yet he did not understand what Jesus was referring to. But Jesus tells him something profound in verse 3.

He says,.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So, really, the entire chapter 3 of John is devoted and focused on the kingdom of God. How can we come into the kingdom of God?

How can we inherit eternal life? How can we enter into the kingdom? The kingdom! Because it's the kingdom not of man, it's the kingdom of God.

And Jesus says to him,.

You must be born again. Unless one is born again, he cannot see or enter into the kingdom of God. It takes the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to bring us in the kingdom of God. So, really, the whole focal point of the whole chapter 3 is about the kingdom of God and how one must be born again and born from above.

It's a supernatural birth. It's a birth that must take place.

Jesus says,.

Must!

You must!

It's a necessity. Now, I didn't say that. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't say it. Billy Graham, he preached many times on this. There's no how-tos. Other preachers have preached on this. But Jesus is the one that said it.

It comes from His lips. Truly, truly, I say to you,.

To you,.

He's speaking in Nicodemus, but let's apply it to us, to you, me. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, you must experience a new birth, supernaturally changed and transformed by the sovereign grace of God.

Now, to emphasize for Nicodemus that there is no excuse for him to be ignorant of the way of salvation, because Nicodemus later on says, How can these things be? In verse 9, Jesus rebukes him and says, Are you the teacher of Israel?

Do not understand these things. He should have known.

So Jesus basically,.

Later on in the text here, appeals to another very familiar incident in the Old Testament, namely Numbers chapter 21, verse 3 through 9. We won't go there, but in verse 14 and 15, if you look with me,.

He says this,.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Now, that's the surrounding verse. That's the verse right before, in verse 14, and then verse 15 says, So that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

The term must, must, emphasizes that Christ, the necessity of Christ's death, His part of God's plan of salvation, was for Him to die on a cross. So why is Jesus to die on the cross? There's a reason why Jesus came to die on a cross, because His death was not like no one else on this entire planet of billions of people.

His death is apart from everyone else's death, because He is the Lamb of God. He is the person of God, the second person of the Trinity in flesh. And now at the cross, He was to be our substitute. That means He takes our place a place in which we deserve to die, and He takes more than just death, He takes the wrath of God upon Him.

And God's wrath is upon what?

Sin.

The scripture says that Jesus Christ became sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He that knew no sin became sin. He was sinless. He never committed a sin. Not even in thought or deed or whatever from the moment of His birth to His death.

Not one time did He break the law of God.

He fulfilled it.

Now, what's important about this is the necessity that He must die on the cross. And this is what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

Jesus, the substitute Lamb of God for sinners, slain. He was slain. So as the Israelites were cured, because many snakes bit them because of their murmurings and complainings and their sin, they were cured by looking to the elevated serpent apart, the serpent on the pole, as Moses lifted it up.

And Jesus says, as. That's a type of what is going to happen. And in other words, basically, apart from any works of righteousness of their own in complete hope and dependence, utter dependence,.

On God's Word alone,.

The same way whosoever looks in faith alone to the crucified Son of God will be cured from the sin's deadly bite. This whole human race that we live in and we enter into, we're bitten by sin. And we are to look by faith to the Son of God on the cross who died and became our substitute.

Now, it's within that context, beloved, that John 3 .16 comes to us. It comes to us within that context and it makes it sweeter than honey, does it not? It makes it even more sweeter because of the great love of God.

And I like to kind of compare it in an analogy here, a small little example, like a bright shining diamond. It's like I take a large diamond up before you and put it in the lights. And the more you put that diamond in the lights, and as you well know, it's a beautiful rock, one of the hardest substance on this earth.

And it's the most beautiful rock that God has created. And as I take the diamond, and if you can see in your mind's eye, a huge diamond. And diamonds are cut beautifully. And as it's cut, there's a facet in each one.

And if you well know, you put it up against the light or the sun, you see the glories and the glitter and the beauty of it as you look at each facet. Now, I like to use that as we're looking at John 3 .16.

I lift it up high, illuminated, and may the Holy Spirit, by faith, will behold and see it glow and behold the glory of every facet and every word that proceeds from the mouth of God from this wonderful verse.

So let's behold this wonderful love of God that's found in this verse. And I'm going to give you my outline as I go along. The first thing that we see in this wonderful text is, for God so loved the world, for God so loved the world, declares God the Father's love.

God the Father's love. It declares. There's a declaration. What a glorious revelation. The first thing you notice here is God's motive. The motive why He gives Jesus Christ. You know, 2 Corinthians 9 .15, the Apostle Paul says, in thanksgiving, he says, Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

Notice from his heart, the Apostle Paul thanks God.

Thank you.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable,.

Indescribable gift.

You cannot even give the language.

There's not enough right English words or language to even to explain it, folks. I don't know how to tell you because it's almost like I do not have within myself sufficient words to tell you the greatness of the love of God.

Because God in His infinite goodness, loved and very evil, wicked, sinful world that's fallen, rebellious humanity, that's depraved, broken the law of God, curses God, and there was absolutely, and let me point this out, there's absolutely nothing in you or me or in mankind that attracted God's infinite love to save us.

Rather, God loves us because He's sovereignly determined to do so.

He chooses it.

Why?

Because God is love, the scripture says.

It's His nature. That's the way God is.

And by the way, nothing changes His love. Nothing can ever change His love. That's called immutable. It's a theological word and that means no matter what happens, the change of seasons, we change, we need changing, we grow old, we change from season to season, from own and our phases of life change, but God never changes.

His love is always steadfast and the same. Isn't that great? We could count on it. You know, that's His nature. His unchanging love.

It's pure.

And by the way, it's holy.

It's set apart.

It doesn't mean that God is compromising with sin. By the way, that's for the reason of sin. He sends Jesus to the cross.

To deal with sin.

In which we cannot deal with it within ourselves apart from Jesus. See, this love is separate. Paul says, yeah, it's Christ. God is reconciling God. It's God reconciling the world to Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, and we are sinners, vile sinners, lawbreakers.

And naturally, people do what they naturally do.

They break God's law. They hate God.

They're enmity against God. They're children of wrath, Paul says. And they fulfill the lust of the flesh. We do what we like to do because we love the sin within us. But God doesn't. And by the way, the Scripture says God's angry with the sinner every day, the wicked, every day.

We don't hear that enough, do we? Because people are afraid to offend people,.

But we need to tell people the truth in love.

If they want to know the remedy and the cure for their sin, we must tell them the truth. And folks, man is rebellious within our hearts, our hearts. The Scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We've all come short.

We've all missed the mark. But here's another Scripture. For the wages of sin is death.

That's the wages.

What is wages?

We all understand what wages are, especially us that goes to work from sunup to sundown. It's something we earn, isn't it? It's something we earn.

We earn death. We earn death.

And Scripture says for the soul that sins, it shall die. So, but there's another side of the coin.

Of that Scripture,.

But, don't you love the buts? The door hinge, it opens to revelation. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

He is that gift,.

And He comes as our Savior.

To save wicked sinners from the sin. That's what He comes to do. But the sinner must repent. You see that? He calls for sinners to repent, to turn from the sin. Now we're all born as children of wrath,.

Rebels,.

Fighting against God and desiring to do our own way. You know, I think it was Frank Sinatra that sung that song, I do it my way, my way.

That's the way people live. I do it my way, not God's way.

Naturally born sinners depraved rebels against the holy God. Now it's important to note that the world is a non-specific term for humanity for a general sense. That statement in verse 17, for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

You see, this verse proves that it does not mean that everyone that has ever lived, since all will not be saved. See, all will not, it's not a universal salvation. We'll see that in just a minute. But John 3 .16 cannot be teaching universal salvation since the context promises that unbelievers will perish in eternal damnation and judgment.

Verse 18, He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. So first we see the declaration of Father's love, the declaration of the Father's love.

God declares His love through His Son. Romans 5 .8, but God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for us. The great love of God is declared in verse 4, God so loved the world.

Next we see the next phrase that He gave, that we gave. Now, if God so loved the world declares, declares, then this determines God's, the Father's giving. Determines God the Father's giving. It determined, James 1 .17 and 18 says this, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Comes down, comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will, God's own choice, God's own will, He brought us forth. That's regeneration by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

And notice back in John chapter 3, verse 13,.

And Jesus says,.

And no one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. It's interesting, this verse of scripture contradicts all of the religious system claims to special revelation from God.

Jesus is basically saying that no one, no one has ascended to heaven in such a way as to return to talk about the things of heaven and all that the glories of God has.

No one has.

Even though there have been many false prophets throughout the years say that they have. They're liars folks.

Jesus is the way,.

The truth,.

And the life.

And Jesus says,.

No one, no one comes to the Father but by me, He says.

So Jesus is basically saying.

He is the only one that can have that claim on this. Only Jesus had the permanent abode in heaven prior to the incarnation as He came to this world. And only He was the true knowledge, He has the true knowledge regarding heavenly wisdom.

Therefore Christ descended from heaven to earth.

It's like a descent.

From the glories of heaven in which He made and comes into this dark earth.

He descends.

It's a great descent.

Shows us the descent.

Then at His resurrection and after His resurrection.

He ascends back.

Glorious.

Look at Philippians chapter 2 very quickly. And Paul the apostle speaks about this descent and ascent. He says this in chapter 2. Look at verse 6. Who although existing in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied Himself.

He emptied Himself by taking the form of a slave by being made in the likeness of men being found in the appearance of a man. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even the death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow those who are in heaven and those on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

What a great verse.

But notice there's a descent and then there's an ascent. As Jesus came to descend and He was born in a manger this is why we celebrate Christmas, right? Not because of Santa Claus and goods and gifts and all those things.

It's because of Jesus. It's not just a birthday. It's a baby that was born in a manger. Who is Jesus Christ.

And that was His descent.

He was born there in a lowly stable.

In a lonely place.

In a little town called Bethlehem.

And then from that point.

He lives a perfect life.

And His descent continues.

To humble Himself.

As He goes to the cross and that He dies in shame and nakedness upon a cross for our sin for your sin for my sin as the Lamb of God. So this wonderful passage as Paul brings out speaks about that great great descent and ascent.

For God so loved the world.

Declares the Father's love that He gave and determined that He gave. Determines God the Father's giving. Now third, look at this. His only begotten Son this describes Christ's great sacrifice His great sacrifice.

Turn with me very quickly to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. This is a wonderful passage here in Titus as Paul the Apostle brings this out and it's one of my favorite texts. Verse 11.