For God So Loved the World

The Love of God Revealed in Christmas and the Incarnation

It's all about His great love toward us, because that's what brought the Savior into this world.

For it's God that so loved the world. Think of that. So loved the world.

I'd like to speak to you this morning from John 3 .16. As you turn there, I want to give you a quote from C. H. Spurgeon on this Christmas morning as we focus on the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ and God's great love to this world.

Nothing can match it. Nothing. Nothing in this world, beloved, can even come close to it. Spurgeon said this, The love of God is a wonderful thing, especially when we see it on a lost, ruined, guilty world.

So, what was there in the world that God should love it?

There was nothing lovable in it.

No fragrant flower grew in that. Arid desert, enmity to Him, hatred to His truth, disregard of His law, rebellion against His commandments. Those were the thorns and the briars that covered the wasteland.

But no desirable thing blossomed there. Where did this love come from? Listen to that question. Where did this love come from? Nothing from anything outside of God Himself. God's love springs from Himself.

He loves because it is His nature to do so. God is love, 1 John 4 .8. Nothing on the face of the earth could have merited His love, though there was much to merit His displeasure. The streams of love flows from its own secret source in the eternal deity.

And it owes nothing to any earth-born rain or stream. It springs from beneath the everlasting throne and fills itself full from the springs of the infinite. And the gift of His one and only Son, God commended His love to us.

And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5 .8. The black background of sin makes the bright line of love shine out the more clearly.

Listen to this, folks.

When the lightning writes the name of the Lord with flaming finger across the black brow of the tempest, we are compelled to see it. So also when love inscribes the cross on the tablet of our sin, even blind eyes must see that love consists in this, 1 John 4 .10.

Now, beloved, that's a wonderful quote by C .H. Spurgeon. He's one of my favorite preachers. He's been known as the prince of preachers, but I'm going to have to draw back from that a little bit because we're going to actually hear from the prince of preachers himself this morning.

I love Spurgeon, but there's one I love better than Spurgeon, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the prince of preachers, folks. Now, I had to give you that quote from Spurgeon because he says it well, doesn't he?

But there's someone else that says it much more clearly, and he's the one that came from heaven, speaking about the great love of God. These are good words, I said, again, by Spurgeon, but now we're going to look at the Master.

We're going to look at the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has to say about the love of God because He is love manifest in flesh. He is that love of God. So, if you're not already there, John 3, 16, we're looking at this one great verse.

We should all know this by heart. It's no doubt one of the most familiar verses amongst Christians. Actually, Jesus summarizes the good news of the gospel into 25 words.

Think of that.

In 25 words, Jesus Himself gives us the whole plan of salvation in this one verse. It is called the gospel in a nutshell. Remember what Jesus said about His words? Now, Spurgeon's got good words, right?

I love the Puritans. But Jesus said, my words are spirit and they are life. So, the life-given power is in the words of Jesus. Jesus is speaking to a Pharisee, by the way. When He is speaking this great verse, He's speaking to Nicodemus.

Very religious man. He would be considered a conservative theologian of our day. A very religious man. A very upright, devout. He knew theology, but his theology was somewhat messed up. Jesus straightens him up.

But we must approach this, by the way, this great verse, with an attitude of awe and reverence within our hearts. So, as we come before this burning bush of the Bible, bow with me just for a few minutes as we pray.

And let's ask the Holy Spirit to help us within this time and remaining hour of worship. Our Father and our God, as we come to Thee now, we come before Your throne. We thank You, Father, for the blessing that we've already received.

But Lord, we want to bless You because You are the great giver. Every perfect gift comes from You. And You have given us the greatest, the most perfect gift from Heaven. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, as we pause to think about this, it is unspeakable.

The unspeakable gift.

There's no words that can utter it because all of Heaven is in Jesus. Heaven would not be Heaven if You take away the Lord Jesus Christ. So, Lord, we thank You this morning for Your one and only Son that You sent.

Your one and only great Son. We adore Him. Lord, we honor Him. Because we know when we adore Him, we honor You. Lord, we come to You and we worship You. And Lord, in joyful delight of Your gift of love to us, save us from apathy, Lord, of being so over-familiar with this verse.

And warm our hearts this morning as we hear from the words of Jesus. Speak to us from Your Word. Because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by Your Word. We pray, O Lord, that You would open our eyes, the eyes of our hearts today, as we take off the sandals of our hearts before You, before we come, as we come to this great burning bush.

So may we never be the same. Change our hearts, O God. And we ask this for Your honor and glory in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. John 3 .16. I'd like for us to do something I've done here or there. Very seldom I have preached on such a great verse.

And I do not approach it lightly. It is one of the greatest verses in the entire Bible. So let's all read this awesome verse together in strong voice. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Isn't that wonderful?

Praise God.

Wonderful verse of Scripture. Wonderful verse. Words of life. Words of life is no doubt the most well-known passage in all of Holy Scripture and all of Holy Writ. No doubt one of the most familiar, as I said, in the Bible.

We see it on bumper stickers nowadays, don't we? We see it in banners. We see it waved on poster boards as athletes use it. I've even seen a nail salon on my milk route. It said nails, John 3 .16. People use this verse and I don't believe that's right.

There should be more respect to the Word of God and leave businesses out from it, away from it because it is separate in of itself. Now, we even hear it quoted by some politicians, shamefully to say, from time to time.

It is one of the first verses, actually, that children and adults, we have learned to recite it from memory. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think it should be one of the first verses we should teach our children.

I'm not going to speak against that, but for some people it is the only Bible verse they can identify with reference and it's a good one, but there's much more in the Word of God. I will say it is the heart of the Bible and is the burning bush of the Bible and reads everything else in the Bible and the whole gospel and the whole counsel of God along with it.

But, again, with verses that people can identify by reference, that's a discussion for another time. Suffice it to say that John 3 .16 is one of the most familiar verses in the Bible, rightly so, but what makes me tremble is this, folks, is that we have become too familiar with it.

We can quote it, and I think it's wonderful to quote it, I'm not saying anything against that, but do we really know the meaning of it? Do we really get what Jesus is saying.

When He says,.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life? Now, this has been called the gospel, the pro-evangel, in a nutshell.

A summary of Scripture and a blueprint for salvation is also a wonderful verse to reflect on and meditate on with respect to missions and bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. Rightly so, rightly so.

And it is within that context I would like to somewhat look at, but I also like for us to look at the surrounding verses around John 3 .16. Now, to get the meaning of this wonderful verse, we must see and hear by the help of the Spirit of God, what is God saying?

What is God saying through His Son, Jesus Christ? As Jesus mentions, For God so loved the world. We must see the context in which our Lord is speaking. And this is a wonderful chapter. Now, I'm going to go through this as fast as I can so we can get to it.

It's going to take me a few minutes to get to John 3 .16, but we're going to look at the passages that comes before it and some that comes after it at the conclusion of this message. But this passage comes right in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and one of the most learned teachers of Israel.

Think of that. He was a well-known teacher in Israel. He was a ruler of the Jews. His name was Nicodemus. Now, according to John 3 .1, this is a man of the Pharisees. There's been different views and commentators saying, why did he come to Jesus at night?

This is very interesting. This man comes to Jesus by night. And I'm going to say probably because of being afraid of the implications of associating with Jesus, possibly, open conversation with Him.

In daylight.

So he comes to Jesus by night. So his fellow Pharisees and his fellow theologians would not say anything to him about approaching Jesus. Now, Jesus has become, at the beginning of His ministry here, after cleansing the temple, He goes to Jerusalem, and His popularity is beginning to grow.

Miracles.

He's performing miracles. Many things have taken place here. He's already turned, in chapter 2, the water into wine in Canaan and Galilee at the wedding feast. That was a great miracle. And that miracle has a great significance and symbolism to it of the wine, symbolic of His blood and His death.

Now,.

Since the Pharisees were Jesus' number one enemy, I want you to keep this in mind as well.

Think of this.

This religious party.

Are the ones that eventually ended up killing Jesus. Jesus called them out.

Many times.

He calls them out and calls them hypocrites, whited sepulchers. He was not afraid to get the truth because He is the truth. He's going to tell the truth and that's what love does. So love is not a fuzzy feeling.

It tells truth and warns people of the wrath to come. Jesus is here to be Savior. He comes in this first Advent and He comes to save. But He still warns these Pharisees and these religious people and He calls them hypocrites, flat out play actors and vipers.

He calls them these names and He's not out just calling names to be mean. He is actually telling them.

The way they are.

In their hearts. Now, listen to this. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and at least... I will say this for Nicodemus. At least he comes. He's a hypocrite but he comes. He comes to Jesus and by the way, he goes to the right source.

He goes to the right person. He goes to the truth. And in verse 2,.

Listen to this,.

Nicodemus approaches Jesus and he addresses Him, this is interesting,.

As Rabbi.

He addresses Him as Rabbi.

That means teacher, meaning teacher.

And notice what he says. We know, we know, he's talking about the Pharisees or the Jews, the Jewish people, that you are a teacher come from God. Okay, you're a teacher. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with Him.

Right here, I want to bring out something very interesting. Nicodemus acknowledged the Lord to be a teacher sent by God. Now, and somewhat there's some truth to there. You can kind of sense there's some flattery going on.

And Jesus doesn't go for it. Okay, and I will show you how in His answer He does it. Since no one could perform such miracles, Nicodemus says, without the direct help of God.

That's what he's saying.

But in spite of all his learning, Nicodemus did not recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh. He did not see this. He saw Him as just another miracle worker and a teacher. Now, this is interesting because Nicodemus was like so many other people like in our day.

And that they addressed Jesus, they know Jesus as a great man, a wonderful teacher, He's an outstanding example, He's an example to follow, even a good prophet. I've heard the cult say that, folks. He's a good prophet.

He's a good teacher. He is all these things. But all of these statements fall very, very shy and short.

Of the full truth of who Jesus really is.

Jesus was.

And is God. And I don't know, and as you read through the whole entire Gospel of John, that is the theme.

He is God.

In flesh.

He is God.

He is the God man. There is none other.

Now,.

At first sight, the answer of the Lord Jesus does not seem to be connected with what Nicodemus just said. But, Jesus is right on target, folks.

And I want you to see this.

In Scripture. This is beautiful.

According to John 2, let me read it. John chapter 2. Go back one chapter. Look with me at verse 23 and verse 25. You know what this is telling us? Jesus is the discerner.

Of hearts.

He searches the.

Reins of hearts. He knows our hearts. He knows our thoughts. And He knows all people's thoughts and hearts. Listen to what He said. Verse 23. Now, when He was in Jerusalem, at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.

But notice the next verse.

But.

Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify.

Of man,.

For He knew.

What was in man. That is a powerful verse that Jesus knows our hearts.

The hearts.

Of depraved men cannot be trusted. Deceitful,.

Wicked, naturally. Adamic,.

Fallen. And Jesus knew this. Even the most religious men. And you can kind of connect this this last piece of these last verses in chapter 2.

To Nicodemus.

Now, Nicodemus. Jesus answers Nicodemus. Now, He's answering a comment. This conversation.

Begins.

Not with question from Nicodemus. You notice that. I think Nicodemus was very teachable though. We're going to see that in a minute. But He starts with a comment, a flattery. Then Jesus in John 3 -3 gets right to it.

Jesus answered Nicodemus and said to him, most assuredly. Now, in some translations, whatever you have, says, some says barely, barely. Or truly,.

Truly. You know what that means? That means.

Amen and amen. Jesus connects two amens before He makes the statement. We usually say amen after a truth is being.

Stated. Jesus.

Says amen and amen because He is the truth. And by the way, when He speaks of this, I heard R .C. Sproul speak about this. He said, when He is saying that we better have a tent of ears because He's saying something very important.

Anytime in the Gospels when you hear Jesus saying most assuredly or barely, barely or truly, truly, amen, amen, we better pay close attention to it. Now, all the words of Jesus we pay close attention to, but really, when Jesus is saying this, Jesus is saying something, a revelation that's anew.

And He gives, He reveals this and He says, truly, truly, I say to you,.

You,.

Unless one is.

Born again, born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What our Lord is saying to this very religious man, this ruler of Jews, in essence is, Nicodemus, you have to come to me, you come to me for teaching, but what you really need is to be born again.

That's what He's really saying, in essence. He says, you need a new birth.

You know what He's.

Saying in that? This is a very old religious man that's been religious all of his life, and Jesus is saying, Nicodemus, you must begin all over again.

Throw away.

All your religion.

Dump it. Paul says.

It was like manure to him. That I may win Christ. Read it. You can read it in Philippians chapter 3. Paul says that. And Paul even says, I was a Pharisee of Pharisees. But when I came to Jesus, when I saw Jesus, when I was born again, basically Paul was saying all that religion.

Is manure.

Manure.

Throw it out. You've got to begin all over again. You must be born from above. You must be born again. You must have a spiritual birth, a new birth. Otherwise, you cannot never see or enter into the kingdom of God.

Very serious.

Very serious.

There's no other way to get into the kingdom of God, folks. One must be born again.

And when Jesus.

Says that,.

It's serious. It's very serious.

And being naturally fallen in his lost condition, of course, Nicodemus, he refers and he comes back with a question now. Now, notice he doesn't get it.

He says,.

How can a man be born when he's old? How can a boy be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

He's.

Thinking fleshly. Jesus answered, it's kind of comical and humorous in a sense, but the master comes back and he says, he says it again, amen, amen.

He says,.

You better pay attention. I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh.

Is flesh.

That which is born of the spirit is spirit. And he says, do not marvel, that means don't be surprised, Nicodemus. Do not marvel that I said to you, notice the you, it's personal, you must be born again.

Verse 8, the wind blows where it wishes. And now he's speaking about the working of the spirit of God, folks. He's referring to the wind. You can't see the wind, but you can see.

The effects of it. That's what he's saying.

The effects of the spirit, you can't even see the wind, but the effects, you can see it. And Jesus says, you can hear even the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit.

It's outside of ourself, folks. It's the spirit of God that must regenerate us and make us new creations. And he's referring to Ezekiel and the new birth. He's referring to that when he takes out the stony heart, puts in a heart of flesh and he writes God's laws on it and it says time and time again, God says, I.

Will, I will, I will.

It's not us, our will.

It's God's will.

That does the work. How many times have you heard people say, I have Jesus, I gave Jesus my heart. Hey, look, Jesus, you can't get into the kingdom of God by giving Jesus your heart.

It's God that gave. It's God that gave.

His son. It is God that gave his gift. And we.

Receive it by faith.

Alone, see. It's the operation of the spirit of God. And all this, Jesus has taken Nicodemus somewhere. Now, I'm not going to break down verses 9 through 13. I want to read it, but not break it down. Because I think it's very important for us to get it.

Look at verse 9 through 13. Nicodemus answered, said to him, how can these things be?

That's a good question.

Very good question. And Jesus answered, and Jesus has got an answer for it. And you can guarantee it. The answer that Jesus gives is just not a partial answer, or it is the answer of answers, folks. It is the truth from heaven.

This is a revelation.

Jesus answered and said to him,.

Are you a teacher of Israel and do not know these things? It's like Jesus.

Is basically saying, it's in Ezekiel,.

It's in Jeremiah. You're a teacher of the Jews, and you don't know this? And then he says, most assuredly, again, verily, verily, truly, truly, amen, amen, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness, if I have told you earthly things, and you do.

Not believe, how will you believe.

If I tell you heavenly things? No one, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven.

Now,.

When we come to verse 14,.

Jesus.

Is about to unpack some powerful truth, folks. Now, I want you to keep this in mind. I mentioned it already. Nicodemus' theology.

Is messed up.

It is messed up. His theology is not sound. He really doesn't know anything about the new birth which is taught in Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

How's this man.

A teacher of the Jews?

He's a ruler of the Jews, and Jesus has already lovingly rebuked him for that in a sense. But some of the greatest truth that's about ever to be given is about to be said. So, we better pay close attention.

The penalty of man's sin, folks, must be met. It must be dealt with. Now, people cannot go to heaven in their sins.

Nobody,.

Not a one of us. I don't care how devout, how religious somebody is. This man, Nicodemus was one of the most religious men in his day. Paul the Apostle as he was Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee of Pharisees.

And he had to dump all of his religion. But in verse 14, Jesus gives this revelation. Listen to this. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be.

Lifted up.

Now, folks, this is powerful. Now, listen.

To me very closely. What's Jesus.

Referring to?

He's going to Numbers. We've already read through that. Numbers chapter 21. You can read it in your devotional time. Verse 4 -9. Let me give you a little, just a briefing on it here. As the children of Israel had been bitten by snakes, they wandered through the wilderness for 40 years.

In the wilderness to the promised land. They were going in circles. Disobedient to God. Murmuring. Complaining. The children of Israel became very discouraged. Very impatient with the Lord. They murmured.

They complained against the Lord. And to punish them for their sins, the Lord sent fiery serpents among them.

Many, many of them died.

Now,.

The survivors cried out to the Lord in repentance. You can read the story. The Lord in His grace told Moses. Moses, that's God's man. God's prophet. He said, you take a serpent made of brass and you put it on a pole and you.

Lift it up for them.

To see it. And as the bitten Israelites who would look on the brass serpent, as He lifted up that pole, was miraculously healed by God. Now, I'm telling you, there's a great truth behind this. What Jesus is quoting in here, in the Old Testament incident, is to illustrate how the new birth.

Takes place.

It's basically this old song I used to sing years back.

Called, Look and Live.

I wish I had the words to it, but I can find it one day for you, but it means look and live. And it's based upon that incident in Numbers. All men and women, folks,.

Have been bitten by the deadly.

Vipers of sin.

Everybody.

And all are condemned to eternal death and hell. And by the way, to suffer justly under the wrath of God. We deserve it. We have been bitten by Adam's sin.

We come into the.

World already condemned. There's nothing we have to do to go to hell.

It's what you don't do.

That takes us to hell.

And that's not to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The serpent of brass in the Scriptures was a type or a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, that picture, I'm sorry, the brass in the Bible speaks of judgment.

Okay?

That speaks of judgment. The Lord Jesus was the spotless, the sinless, perfect son of God, without sin, the just one, the righteous one, but in His great love, He was our substitute. He took our place.

He took your place. We're the ones that deserve the death. We deserve the wrath. We deserve the hell. Jesus came.

As our substitute.

Folks, this is the gospel.

This is the gospel. The perfect son of God, the Lamb of God, bore the awful consequences of judgment in which He was so, in which we so deserve, and He did not. He did not deserve it. He was the perfect one.

But yet He chose to come.

In His love, and the Father's love, to take your place and my place of all that judgment, and all that hell that is placed upon man for all eternity.

Brother Keith referred.

To it this morning. By God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Right there, those three hours, as Jesus died on the cross, He was taking that eternal judgment upon Himself.

That we deserve.

Folks, this pole is beautiful because it speaks of the cross of Calvary. That's what Jesus is talking about. He says, that pole, as Moses lifted up that pole with that brass serpent, so also shall the Son of Man.

Be lifted up.

For the world to see.

Folks, I can't help it. It warms my heart to think of this. That's the altar, the mountain of God. It's the mountain that we all must go to to get into heaven and to have the new birth. That's what Jesus is referring to, to this religious.

Man.

The lifted up pole is referring,.

Jesus says, I'm going to a cross.

See, He knew that mission.

He knew every step. He already knew it from eternity past. And He lovingly, gladly went there, folks.

He knew all of it.

He knew what He would bear.

Beloved, we are saved by looking to Him. In faith.

By faith alone.

By receiving Jesus Christ. Not by good works. Not by going to church. Folks, people can go to church and be as religious as Nicodemus and go to hell. You must be born again. This is the gospel. Verse 15.

He's coming to verse 16, but notice what He says in.

Verse 15. That.

Whosoever believes in Him.

Should not.

Perish but have eternal life. See, that's the latter part of John 3, 16. But that's in verse 15. He's basically saying whosoever believes in Him should not perish.

But have eternal.

Life. We must get that. Beloved, the Savior was made. This goes right along with what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. That He was made sin for us. He who knew no sin was made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

My friends, let me tell you this. This is the very heart of the.

Gospel. You take this.

Out. You take out.

Imputation. You.

Take substitution out. You've taken out reconciling. You have taken away the gospel. This is why Paul says, I know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There's nothing else that really, I'll be honest.

With you. I'll quote.

Spurgeon one more time. He says, if I preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified,.

That would be sufficient.

For me to preach while I live here on this earth. Now, we're to preach the whole gospel, the whole counsel of God.

But I'm telling you,.

Everything from Genesis to Revelation and back, all points to the cross. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.