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Bro. Ben Mitchell
Well, good morning and happy new year, everyone.
My voice is a little raspy, I suppose, from all the holiday
craziness, perhaps, possibly getting over cold here and there.
So you'll have to put up with that.
All right.
Well, about three weeks ago today, we began...
Are you okay, Gemma?
Okay, go to Grammy's class.
About three weeks ago, we began the Book of Malachi.
We did a brief intro and covered...
We covered the first verse and started covering the second, but we're going to just kind of pick it up there and
go over a little bit of what we did, I guess, for the sake of review.
Again, it was about three weeks ago or so.
Just a couple...
We're going to reread a passage in Deuteronomy as well that we covered, but then get into some new material.
We're not going to get too far beyond Malachi verse two.
But it's for good reason.
You guys will see as we go along, but there's several things I want to really get covered
while we're here, while we're in these first three verses before moving on.
So that's what we're going to be hitting up today.
So y 'all can go ahead and turn to Malachi like...
And we'll start at verse two.
Okay.
So verse two says, I have loved you, saith the Lord.
And that first phrase there is a really important phrase that we're going to be looking at quite a bit this morning.
I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say, wherein hast thou loved us?
So we covered this a lot in our introduction a couple, two, three weeks ago in terms of the
attitude of God's people at this time.
They weren't so sharp in terms of having this
reciprocal love back toward God.
In fact, they were very lazy in their worship.
And they actually got to the point where at this point in history, they're rather bitter toward God, actually.
And so here, this is validating that in terms of their attitude.
And we're going to see this as we go throughout Malachi.
This isn't the first time they question God or kind of
answer with this...
I don't even know.
He makes a statement.
They question it.
He comes back and describes why what he said is true.
And it starts with a bang here in terms of the whole book.
It really sets the tone here.
He says, I have loved you.
And they question that.
Wherein hast thou loved us?
And as we go throughout the study, we're going to see a lot more of
why the Israelites here were kind of in this state
of disappointment.
They were in a state of, again,
their worship had become very irreverent.
We kind of talked about that a few weeks ago as well.
They didn't really care anymore.
They were going through the motions to some extent, but in doing so, they were also breaking the rules left and right.
So they just didn't really care.
They just got to this kind of careless state.
They found themselves in this careless state, which we'll cover in more detail as we move forward.
But here it is illustrated as they question God's love.
They ask, wherein hast thou loved us?
And God continues in verse two, was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I loved
Jacob.
So in Malachi, just in general here, we've come to the end of the Old
Testament and we've come to this final stretch of time before
the, well, yeah, getting very close to the time, this dispensation ending, the time of the
law is coming to an end.
We still got a few hundred years left before Jesus comes and gives
us, it gives everyone like a restart, but we are at the end of the Old Testament, at the end of
the line of the prophets.
And the Lord here, he's speaking of his love for Israel, but you kind of get this
sense of disappointment in it as well.
He's describing his love or he is, you know, he's claiming his love
for Israel again, but that is on the front side of
centuries of spiritual adultery, idolatry that his people had committed up to this point.
And as we go throughout Malachi, he's going to be reminding them that as well.
He starts by reminding them that he does love them, but he's about to start reminding them of
why they are in the state that they're in.
We're going to find out pretty soon that they're actually, one of the reasons why they're in this state of economic turmoil, they
are under the power of the Persians.
They're just, the kingdom that they were promised by all the prophets beforehand had not come yet.
Where's their Messiah?
They don't believe it's even happening anymore.
Just disappointment left and right.
And so what we're going to find out a little bit is one of the reasons why they find themselves in the situation is
God directly is cursing them, but we're going to discover, he's going to tell
them why that's the case as well.
Moving forward, he's going to remind them about this idolatry, about the spiritual adultery, if you will, that they've been committing
for centuries leading up to this point.
And so we are getting pretty close to the first advent of Jesus by the time we're in Malachi.
Again, there's still a few, oh goodness, close to 400 years.
I mean, in the grand scheme of things, we're getting really close, but we're getting really close to that.
But before Jesus comes back, Israel is going to be looked upon by God one more time
with disappointment as they usher in a time of non -relational worship.
Again, in a sense, they're going to be going through the motions, but they're going to be breaking the rules while they do it.
And this is actually what's going to be cultivating the Pharisees that will come about shortly.
The Sadducees, they didn't exist yet.
These sects of religious leaders didn't even exist in Malachi.
And then Matthew, the next book, there they are, and just permeating everything.
The religion, if you want to analogize that with
the science, our science leaders today, they are the science.
If you question those people, you question science itself.
That's the Pharisees, but in religious sense, they were the religion.
They didn't even exist yet.
So we know things are about to get somewhat bad in order to cultivate these groups of people.
Now, again, he begins with his love.
He's talking about his love.
It wasn't the first time that the Lord spoke of this intimate love that he had for Israel.
We have some awesome examples of it.
Maybe we'll cover eventually Hosea, a lot of awesome passages in
Hosea and Isaiah.
And his love for his people was actually the ultimate driver
of his covenant with them in the first place.
So if you guys want to turn to Deuteronomy chapter four, again, we covered this about three weeks ago, but let's go ahead and
look at it one more time as we segue into some of the stuff we didn't get to last time.
Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 37, we're going to take a look at
the significance of not only his love in the most general sense,
him loving his people, but in the context of, again, it being kind of the driving force
behind his covenants with them and everything that he had set in place for them.
Deuteronomy 4, 37 says, and because he loved thy fathers, therefore
he chose their seed after them and brought thee out in, sorry, brought thee
out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt.
He always brings them back to that.
It was possibly the pinnacle of the Old Testament in terms of, I mean, he always referenced
that moment.
He did a lot of other miracles for him as well.
He brought them out of the hands of many other enemies beyond Egypt, helped him cross Jordan.
It wonders works all throughout the first five books, but even beyond that,
yet he always reminds them of the Exodus story when through his, by his mighty hand, by his mighty power brought
them out of Egypt.
Now that word where he says, therefore he chose their seed, that is
the Hebrew word.
Let me see if I can pronounce this.
Bahar, I believe, and it means to elect or to decide for.
Now that's going to be really important as we get a little bit further in today's lesson.
But again, this is setting the tone for what he's even, what he's referencing in the first place in Malachi verse two.
He chose their seed after them and brought thee out in his sight.
And then verse 38 says, to drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier than thou art, to
bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance as it is this day.
Know therefore this day and consider in thine heart that the Lord, he is God in heaven above and upon the earth
beneath.
There is none else.
Thou shalt keep, thou shalt keep therefore his statutes and his commandments.
And this is, this verse is a key here.
And his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee and that with thy children after thee,
after thee, that thou mayest prolong thy days and upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee
forever.
Now, right there, he tells, he gives them just, he outlines in a single verse
what they need to do to, to reciprocate the love back
to God.
What, he is giving them his infinite love and he gives them some basic
foundational guidelines for living their lives and honoring him with everything that they do.
And he tells them, if you do it, if you keep his statutes, Moses is telling them, if you keep his statutes,
if you keep his commandments, it'll go well with thee.
I mean, the ball was in their court, a hundred percent.
Now, knowing all this, Israel, of course, should have responded by loving him back and obeying his commands.
That was one of the reasons as we'll find, we'll flesh out more and more as we move forward, why they were cursed in the first place, by the time we
get to Malachi and again, why they're, they find themselves in this kind of turmoil.
They weren't obeying this verse 40 in Deuteronomy 4.
They weren't keeping his statutes.
They weren't keeping his commandments.
So, it wasn't going well with them.
I mean, it's just, it seems so simple, of course, reading it from our perspective, but I
mean, they were really missing the mark.
But instead of loving him back, what they ended up doing, as we just read in verse 2 a second ago, is they questioned his love for them by asking,
wherein, wherein has thou loved us?
So, they were essentially betraying God and showing disbelief in his very word to them.
I mean, he is explicitly telling them, I have loved you.
They're showing disbelief in that.
So, I mean, what state could you be in where you are hearing through the mouth of the prophet, God's
explicit word, I love you, and you turn around and you say, when or how?
When have you loved us?
How have you loved us?
So, they were in a really rough spot here.
Their failure to have faith in God's word caused them to fail to love him back.
And as we're going to find out, as we move forward throughout Malachi, even be hostile toward their own God, which is just
crazy.
I mean, how do you get there?
I mean, we're going to illustrate a little bit how they got there, but it still kind of boggles the mind to some degree.
Now, this word, wherein, in verse two, when they ask,
wherein has thou loved us?
That single word is pretty fascinating.
It comes from the Hebrew word, just the Hebrew word is ma, and it means how
or what.
And the remaining sentence in verse two, in English, it says, hast thou loved us?
The remaining part of that sentence, all of that comes from a single Hebrew word, ahab,
which simply means to love, or the act of being one's lover.
So, God's people are literally asking him here, how, okay, I'm sorry, that
word, it means to love, or the act of being a friend or a lover.
So, God's people here are literally asking him, how are you our friend, or perhaps
even better than that, how do you love us?
How can you even love us?
Now, I don't know, at this point, like, they're asking this question.
I don't know how introspective the Israelites were actually being in this moment and asking this question, or
if they were actually being somewhat, oh, what's the word?
Just, I mean, well, yeah, like, maybe they were just brushing it off, brushing off the
question, and returning, or I'm sorry, brushing off the statement, and then returning with this rhetorical question.
I have no idea.
Or maybe they were actually being, you know, actually considering this.
Again, I'm not sure, but either way, God answers their question with a very specific example of
how he does, in fact, extend his love to his people.
And the reason this is really important for us to study is because it actually extends to all of us in this room as well,
because this is validated.
It's reaffirmed all throughout the New Testament, but in looking at this, we can, it can be edifying for
us as well, as it should have been for them at this time.
So, whether it was a rhetorical question, whereas, wherein hast thou loved us, or whether they were actually being somewhat
introspective and trying to figure out how could he actually love us, either way, he's going to answer it.
He's going to give them the answer, and from that point forward, you know, they have that information, but we'll see what they do
with it.
All right, now, he's going to answer the question, wherein hast thou loved us, but first, let's consider God's
characteristics for a second.
So, when you guys think of God's attributes or his character, I mean, what are
some of the first things that pop out, just like right off the bat, right off the top?
Yeah, right?
I mean, I'm pretty sure that's where just anybody would go.
Like, if someone just pops that question, what are God's attributes?
That's going to be the first thing that pops to mind.
Of course, we could think of all sorts of other awesome ones as well that may flow right
behind it, but that will most likely be first.
I mean, maybe we throw out his sovereignty first, but it really depends on the
context of the question, whether or not we were dwelling on anything.
If it just came out of the blue, I would assume that just about any person would throw love out there first.
I mean, it is one of his greatest attributes.
I mean, it's the reason why we can sit here today, know anything about him through his word,
and why obviously we, through grace, have salvation in the first place.
So, obviously, his love is a big one.
So, it makes sense that that's a huge part of his characteristics.
It's not the sole part, but it's a big part of it.
Now, 1 John 2, I don't know where Katie just went.
She was just sitting there.
Okay, to reaffirm what Katie just said, 1 John backs it up, and it explicitly tells us, perhaps, his most well -known
attribute.
In 1 John 4, 8, I'm just going to read it.
It says, he that loveth not knoweth not God, semicolon, for
God is love.
It's as clear as day.
It's actually even stronger than the verse sounds, though, because that Greek word is, which I believe you pronounce
it esti, it literally means consistent.
Okay, so you could read it, God consists of love.
It's a part of his very essence.
And so, we know that, yes, this is not only a huge part of his character, but it's a very important part of his character as well,
specifically for us and for his people that he's speaking to in Malachi.
Now, according to this passage in 1 John 4, 8, where it says God is love or God consists of
love, according to this passage, love is part of God's very essence.
And because of that, we can deduce that his love is infinite, because he's an
infinite being.
And just as with, you know, the very blood that he shed on the cross for us, which was also infinitely powerful,
his love being part of his essence, being part of his character, is also infinitely powerful and
infallible as well.
Now, what do you guys think of that?
Would you guys agree that God's love, considering that it's something that
he consists of, would y 'all agree that it is infallible and that it's all powerful?
I mean, I don't think anyone would disagree, but it does make the next verse all the more interesting, because
then we have to start considering our view of God's love, which we'll get to
in a minute.
But if we agree with that, then we have to take verses and passages like what we're about to read
in Malachi, we really have to take a deep dive in
it to make sure that we really understand what we're being told here when it says that God is love, that God
consists of love.
So, with that reality in mind, and we do all agree, I certainly agree, we all agree that this is true, his love is
infallible, his love is infinitely powerful.
With that in mind, let's read just the first phrase of the next verse in Malachi, because again, it weren't really verses, it was all one scroll.
We just read verse two.
In fact, let me read verse two again.
I have loved you, saith the Lord, yet ye say wherein hast thou loved us?
Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord, yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.
So, that's the first phrase in the next verse there, in verse three, and I hated Esau.
Now, you can look at the Hebrew word there, but it means exactly what it says.
It means hate in a very strong sense.
So, now we have to ask, if God's love is truly infallible, it can't fail,
how could he then hate anyone or anything if he loves everybody?
I mean, that's what we're told.
That is the conclusion that I would say 99 % of the world comes to.
God is love, therefore God loves everybody.
Well, if that's true, and God's love is infallible, it cannot fail, then how on
earth could this statement in Malachi be true?
How could he have hated Esau?
So, if that conclusion is true, that God does love everybody and loves everything,
then perhaps his love isn't infallible, and therefore, when the Bible says God is love, his love can't, even
though that has to be a reality because it's in Scripture, maybe his love can fail because, as we just read in verse
three, he sometimes hates people, and not just people.
This isn't just some guy.
This is the very offspring of his servant Isaac.
This is Isaac's son that we're talking about, and yet he says that he hated Esau.
So, which is it?
Is his love infallible, or can it fail because he just said that, I hated Esau?
So, what do you guys think?
So, maybe it is infallible.
Well, that's a really deep point there, and for those listening online, what Dave just said is if it's true that
his love is infallible and can't fail, and there's an infinite dimension to that.
If you look at the other side of that coin, and we read a phrase like he hated Esau, it's infinite in the
other direction, and Dave also said, well,
his love is infallible, and he doesn't love everybody.
So, maybe what's happening here is the premise just needs to be changed, and why are we even bringing this
up?
Maybe, I mean, I know that you all probably see where I'm going with this.
Obviously, I don't necessarily believe with the conclusion that God loves everybody.
I mean, how can you with the phrase that we just read unless God's love isn't infallible?
Well, it is because 1 John 4 tells us it is because it's part of his essence.
It has to be infallible if it's part of his essence, part of his character.
So, the only way that Malachi 1 .3 can be
incorporated in the broad context of the Bible and not there not be any contradictions, which we know there aren't, is
the premise has to change.
Perhaps God doesn't love everybody.
Perhaps that's not the correct conclusion.
Perhaps he doesn't love every person or everything, but instead he has preordained
the method by which his love is extended forth from himself
to certain individuals or a remnant, if you will, which of course is a very common biblical
term.
I mean, that's not just me talking.
It's always a remnant, whether it's spiritual salvation or physical salvation.
He always brings a remnant out.
So, perhaps his love is infallible, and it is infinite, but
he preordained the method by which he extends that.
He didn't just preordain the love.
The love wasn't a preexistent character, but perhaps the method by which he
extends it is a particular method that he came up with.
So, if you look at it, if you change the premise a little bit and you
ignore what 99 of the world says in terms of just that phrase that's such a
cop -out and it's such an easy thing to throw out, because by saying that God loves everybody, it releases
from, one, skepticism and critique from the world
who would have problems with the reality that we're getting into here.
It saves us from that ridicule because God loves everybody, so I'm a good guy.
But it's also just a way for us to get out from having to take the time to take a deep
dive into the word to see if we can figure out what exactly does it mean when it says, for God is
love, because it's such a simple sentence, but yet it's so deep at the same time.
So, let's throw away the premise for a minute that God loves everybody, and let's just start from scratch.
So, God is love.
He consists of love.
It's infinite.
It's infallible because it's part of his very essence.
Yet, Malachi 1 .3, and I hated Esau.
Okay, so now we have a God that has this character of love.
He consists of love, and we know that he extends his love to some because in verse 2,
it says, I loved Jacob.
So, you have Jacob receiving an infinite amount of love from God, and yet to Dave's point, you have Esau in the
very next phrase receiving an infinite amount of hate from the very same person.
How is that possible?
So, we've got to correct the premise a little bit, and his love is infinite.
It's infinite by virtue of it being a part of his essence, of course.
It is infallible.
It can't fail, and it's not a contradiction that he can and does hate certain people.
It's not breaking in character, so to speak, and that can be illustrated in many ways, but we're going
to look at this specifically for a bit.
Rather, what he does, as we alluded to a second ago, is he preordains the method,
and that method is given in verse 2 as well, and it's also given
to us in that Deuteronomy passage we read earlier as well.
Do you guys recall in that Deuteronomy 4 .38?
No, it was which verse?
Yeah, it was verse 37.
It says it right there, and because he loved thy fathers, there's the infinite love therefore
he chose their seed.
So, what's the method that God uses to extend his infinite love,
and what is the Hebrew word for choose?
It's elect.
So, the doctrine of election, of course, also permeates the entire New Testament.
We know that's not exclusive to that Deuteronomy passage, so through
election, that's the method that we're given in Deuteronomy as well as verse 2, because, I mean, he
is implying the election of Jacob when he says, I have loved you, I've loved Jacob, and I hated Esau.
I mean, the election is explicit in other passages about Jacob, but it's implied here as well, and then it's explicit in the
Deuteronomy passage we just read.
So, the method by which he extends his infinite love, which can't fail, is through election,
through his divine election of individuals from every race and from every people.
He then unleashes his infinite love on them.
The infinite love is there, which included making the ultimate sacrifice of his own son for them as well,
and I bring that up because of where we're about to go.
The answer to their question in verse 2, how does he love us?
The answer is that he chose Jacob in his seed rather than Esau in his seed, and that
is in Genesis, and that enmity between those brothers.
I mean, we just finished Obadiah, and that book was all about their enmity that extended all the way through the Old Testament to the
point where the Edomites were eventually, ultimately crushed.
I mean, they will eventually be ultimately crushed, but as of right now, I mean, they were pretty well crushed
in ancient history as well.
I mean, they're still around today.
We know the bloodline of Esau is still somewhere because they are going to return to the Battle of Armageddon, but that's all
what we talked about previously.
The answer to their question is that he chose Jacob in his seed rather than Esau in his seed, so God's love is,
let's see here.
Okay, so there's that reality.
Now, coming back to God's love for a second, again, why is it that the
conclusion of so many people out there is that God loves everybody, and maybe they would even use 1 John 4, 8
as the proof text of that for God is love.
If he is love, how could he hate?
Well, number one, when you look at these
passages and you get to the understanding that his love is infinite, but he chooses the method by
which he shows or extends that love, it's through election, so we've concluded that using
the Malachi passage.
But in addition to that, there are so many other passages that talk about
the infinite love because it's such a massive thing that it's not like it ends here
with Malachi 1, 3 or verse 2 and 3.
Often, God's love is culminated by most people, I say most people, I'm talking
whether you're a theologian, commentator, or just a person that reads the Bible,
believes it's true.
It's culminated in a single verse, and obviously, it goes without saying, it's the most
popular verse in the world.
It's the quintessential verse on God's love, at least from the viewpoint of everybody.
Of course, that's John 3, 16.
And I want you guys to go there for a second because while any of us could quote it, I do want us to look at it
together for a minute because we're going to break it down and we're going to see if we can get a little bit more information on
this infinite love that God has and the way in which he extends it
to the human race.
So, John 3, 16.
I'll read it really quick and then we're going to break it down pretty much word for word.
For God so loved the world, so there is his infinite love that cannot fail.
The world, that's a pretty broad statement.
For God so loved the world, he has just that one little phrase right there implies
that he extends his infinite love to a pretty broad scope.
What's interesting is it's actually even more broad than what our translation here
implies.
We'll get to that in a second.
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.
It's beautiful.
Let's break it down a little bit though.
So, the first word I want to look at is, we have just a little bit more time, the first word I want to look at is the word so.
Dave, very important word.
Dave gives me a hard time a lot of times because I'll ask him this, I don't even, I'm trying to think of a good context.
It used to be in the context of work.
I'd be like, Dave, can you proofread this for me?
Can you proofread this email before I send it to this guy, this response?
Or take a look at this, you know, like marketing piece I helped with.
And he'll read like however much I put on there.
And he would come up with like a single sentence that said in way better
terms than what I said in like a paragraph or something.
And so, from that point forward, that happened once.
It's happened many times since.
But since the first time it happened, I will say something and say, what do you think about that, Dave?
And he says, so.
Implying, because that first example, he literally wrapped up like several sentences
of this paragraph I put together with the word so and then continued on.
Anyway, so it's a very important word.
So, for God so loved the world.
The word so there is hoitu, I think is how
you pronounce it.
And it means in this manner.
So, for God in this manner, this is a manner that he is about to discuss
in this manner loved.
So, what's that word?
It's agapeo.
It's the verb version of the noun agape that we're all familiar with.
That supernatural love that only God can have and that only we can have if we are in relationship with the Lord.
So, for in this manner for God in this manner loved,
agapeo, to love dearly the world.
So, here's this is a big one.
What is this word world talking about?
Is it as broad as it sounds?
Well, it's actually it's actually very broad because the word is cosmos.
And the Greek word for cosmos is literally talking about the harmonious arrangement of the
universe.
It's talking about the entire universe.
It's not just the world is in the earth, but it's an apt and harmonious arrangement.
The ornament of the heavens.
The universe that God created.
So, for God in this manner loved, agapeo, the universe.
The harmonious arrangement of the stars.
Everything.
That he gave his only begotten son.
What is what about the word that there?
The word that and the reason I want to look at this is because the word that is used again later in the verse, but it's a totally different Greek word.
The word that is hoiste, which means in so much.
So, or in other words, to such a great extent.
So, for God in this manner, agapeo, loved the universe
to such a great extent he gave his only begotten son.
So, this is an interesting thing because already we've gleaned a little bit of information that
sheds so much light on this verse that it could be quoted by just about anyone in the earth on the planet and
anyone in the cosmos.
And it's beautiful as written, as translated in the KJV in my opinion, but it is so much
deeper.
Like if you just break it down part for part.
And why not?
I mean, you might think, what is the point of breaking a verse down word for word?
I mean, it can drag on.
You could do this, you go forever.
Well, okay.
Fair enough.
But it is the most popular, well -known, famous verse
in the history of man.
So, why not break it down word for word?
And so, already we've gleaned a lot of information.
We haven't even finished the verse yet.
But what we've gathered is you can start to kind of see a really broad context here because in the Garden
of Eden, what happened was Satan, in his
temptation of Eve, in his success of that temptation, he actually earned
a very powerful title, which is the God of this world.
The God of this world.
That is a massively important title to earn.
When I say earn, I mean literally by right of conquest, he duped
the Son of God, which was Adam.
That's in the chronology.
I can't remember if it's Luke or Matthew when it's going down the chronology from Jesus back to Adam.
It says in Adam was the Son of God.
So, Satan duped God's person, God's man,
and got him to sin.
So, he won by conquest the title of the God of this world.
And that title is talked about by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4.
So, we know that's a legit title of the devil.
He is the God of this world by right of conquest.
But then Jesus, who has another name, in that
context, can you guys think of another name of Jesus in the context of Adam and what
transpired at the beginning?
If God was the first Adam, Jesus, as it said in 1
Corinthians 15 .45, is the last Adam.
So, Jesus is the last Adam because he took back the title that was meant for the
first man, Adam.
God created Adam to have the title of the God of this world.
He gave him dominion over everything.
He created everything and cultivated everything specifically for this guy.
And he gave it up.
So, Jesus, as the last Adam, had to take it back.
It was meant for Adam, but he failed.
So, the perfect, the last Adam had to come take it back.
And at the crucifixion, he put the cosmos, which went into absolute
disarray because of the fall of man, he put it back in order.
Or at least, if you want to look at it very linearly from a human viewpoint, you could say he
set the groundwork for putting it all back in order in its totality.
But from God's viewpoint, he put it back in order at that moment.
And really, even before the foundation of the earth, if you want to look at it from his perspective.
But that gets a little bit crazy.
So, he put the cosmos back in order by right of conquest.
As Satan took it by right of conquest and became the God of this world, Jesus took it back by right of conquest at the crucifixion.
So, now consider the love and the care that God put into his creation and in
cultivating this perfect environment for his son Adam to be the quote unquote God of this world
himself.
So, naturally, his infinite love for this cosmos would also extend to humanity, which it
tells us in the latter part of this verse in John 3 16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
So, that's like the big grand finale of this verse.
This is what makes it so incredible to us sitting in this room.
Okay, I'm making sure my watch is working.
I still have about 10 minutes, right?
Maybe 11 minutes.
Okay, the latter part of the verse.
Okay, so that's the part that makes it great.
So, let's start breaking down the last half of John 3 16 now.
So, here we are.
There's a word that here again in English.
It says that whosoever believeth in him.
That Greek word is a different Greek word than the first that we looked at.
It's the Greek word hina, which means in order or in order that something
happens.
Something's about to follow in order that whosoever.
This is a really important word to look at here because this word, this verse can be used out of context
as we've illustrated here before from the Armenian viewpoint in
terms of God dying for every single person and then them having ultimate control over
their own fate.
It sounds kind of crazy, but that's the conclusion of Arminianism, and this is a proof text for them in their teaching,
and they use this word here.
So, this is an important word.
Whosoever.
It's the word.
Can you take a stab at what word you think it is?
We talk about this word a lot.
We talk about it.
Is it pos?
It's pos.
Okay, so normally the English translation of that is all.
The English word all.
In this verse, it's the English word whosoever.
It's the Greek word pos, and it can mean two things, and what's interesting about it?
Well, I don't want to get ahead of myself.
It can mean a couple things.
It can mean individually or like each person, each thing,
or it can mean collectively, meaning some of all types.
Now, as we've determined in so many of the passages that use this Greek word, if you look at the
context, it's the latter, some of all types.
When it's Paul talking to the Jews, letting them know, guess what?
You're not all that special.
You are special, but he didn't just die for you.
He died for the people that you call dogs as well.
He died for all men.
He died for Greeks and the Jews.
He died from some of every race.
We talk about that a lot, but in this context, and Dad, feel free to correct me if I'm missing something here.
I believe it's actually the former, individually.
In other words, the word pos here means each.
In other words, each individual.
I'll get back to that in a second.
The next Greek word is believeth, and that Greek word, another very important word here, is
pistio, and that means to place confidence in something.
People take this phrase, whosoever believeth, to mean that the human act of believing is the
cause of one's salvation, but if you look at the precise grammar,
it gives us, again, even more insight than what you gather just by reading the verse really fast in our English translation.
If you look at the precise grammar, the verb pistio here, which is believeth,
it's in the present active participle.
Normally, I leave this stuff to Dad.
This is the first time I've ever tried to do this because it's kind of
cumbersome, but that's why I want Dad's help in a minute, but it's important.
Again, we're looking at John 3 .16 here, so we got to figure this stuff out.
It's in the present active participle.
In other words, the word is in the continual action.
In English, when something is in the present active participle, typically we put the,
what is it called?
Not a prefix, but an ing.
What is that?
A suffix.
We put the suffix ing at the end of the word, denoting continual action.
It's happening right this second.
The verb is happening right this second.
That is the grammar behind the Greek word pistio here.
The proper translation, if you are looking at the precise grammar of it in the Greek from which our KJV is
derived from, the proper translation closest to the actual meaning in Greek is,
whosoever is believing in him, or even better,
whosoever is found believing actively, continually in him
shall not perish.
Again, that sheds a whole lot of light on this verse.
For this reason, a lot of, if you go look at like a Greek interlinear New Testament where it doesn't read that great, but
it's because they are literally putting English words in the exact place where the Greek word is, they
typically translate it like that rather than how the KJV reads, which again, the KJV reads great.
I think if you look at the full context of John chapter three, I think you come to the same conclusion,
but it's kind of fun to break just the single verse down as well.
I'm going to read John 3 .16 now, but I'm going to read it with all of the Greek
words we just broke down and the meanings of those Greek words with the tenses of that or the tense
of that one particular verb as well.
And this is how John 3 .16 reads, for God in this manner
loved dearly the universe to such a great extent he gave,
I'm sorry, to such a great extent that he gave his only begotten son in order that
each person that is found believing in him should not perish,
So you get the sense of what's happening here.
He's telling us that the way in which a person can even be found
believing in the first place is the fact that he put this universe back in order.
That's one thing you can take from it.
But again, he looked out, he saw
Satan, who took the title of the God of this world, and kind of looking at
this from the human viewpoint for a second, the disarray and the destruction that he was bringing on his
otherwise harmonious creation.
And he loved his creation and everything he had put in place so
much to such a great extent that he wanted to put all of that back in order.
But in doing so, he also made it possible that whosoever is found believing in
any given point in time, they are found actively believing on the name of the Lord that they're not going to
perish.
Instead, they're going to have everlasting life.
There's a sense of eternal security.
You can almost conclude that, I mean, I'm not saying it is exclusively this,
but a part of this is being an eternal security verse.
I mean, what we can gather from all of it is how does it apply, number one, to our less than Malachi,
and how does it apply to us?
Well, for starters, we learn that the fact that Malachi 1 .3 says, and I
hated Esau, that does not violate God's character when we read a verse like that.
His love is infinite, and it is infallible, but he's also very specific about how he extends that
love to the whole cosmos, and by extension of the cosmos, the human
race.
How does he extend that love to the human race, which was otherwise totally fallen, and
100 of which deserved hell?
He does that through his election, and in two specific ways.
Dad, did you have a thought?
Think about that for a second.
The Severinos say that love is intentional, and that love is a choice.
I would say we all agree with that from our perspective, me as an individual.
My love is absolutely a choice, and specific, and intentional.
It takes a lot of energy to love, and so you're not going to be wasting that.
You know what I mean?
If we were created in God's image, and we are to be like this
little, tiny, minuscule reflection of his attributes, which, of course,
his attributes are infinite.
We can have love.
It's not necessarily an infinite kind of love, unless we're walking with Christ, in which we get agape, but
that's a whole other thing, but just from the sense of us being humans, yes, we can have love, so we
can emulate that characteristic of God, because he created us in his image, and how do we do love?
We do it intentionally, to the Severinos point.
We choose who we're going to love, who we're going to be expending that amount of energy on,
and I don't mean that in a negative sense.
I mean, I'm just saying it takes ...
We are specific, and intentional about our love for good reason, so why would it be
any different for God, whom we are supposed to be the reflection of, or to emulate the characteristics of?
That's a wonderful point.
Really quick, I'll end with this.
We have gathered that his love is infinite, and that he extends it in a very specific way, which
allows
Let me start over.
It makes it clear to us how Malachi 1 .3 is not contradictory to 1 John 4 .8, or
John 3 .16, so he extended his love in at least two specific ways, not that it's exclusive to these,
or that
What's the term?
Including, but not limited.
You know what I'm saying.
It's not that this is all of it, but this is two specific ways that he extends his love.
Number one, it's by electing his people before the foundation of the earth, which of course included Jacob in
his seed, as he expressed in verse two, so that's one way that he extends his love, but another
way is by putting the entire universe, or cosmos, as we get from John 3 .16,
back in order, which he did at the crucifixion, which made it possible for those who are
believing in him to have eternal security in their salvation.
That's an enormous amount of love, not only for his creation, but for his people as well, so I mean, John 3 .16,
yes, it can be, it is an awesomely concise
version of the gospel, because that is wonderful news.
The fact that he took back that title from the devil, the god of this earth, by conquest,
by conquering him at the cross, so that not only the universe could be put back in order, but
for those who do have faith in Jesus can be saved, who are believing in him actively in the continual
sense at this moment can be saved, I mean, it's still just as powerful, not
just as powerful, it's even more powerful than just the common casual cursory glance
at the verse with the conclusion that therefore God loves everybody.
It's way more satisfying, both theologically and emotionally as well, because one of the
awesome things about election is, as dad says all the time, it tells you just how special that you really are.
I mean, it's, oh man, it's, who wouldn't like it?
I mean, I get that people don't, especially from an emotional sense, and sometimes they'll try to
stretch it theologically as well, but I get that a lot of people don't like the doctrine
on the surface, and it depends on where they're at.
I don't want to get into all of that, but my point is, eventually, who wouldn't get to the conclusion that election is one of the
most awesome things, because it tells you just how special you are as an individual to God, the
creator of the cosmos.
Really, really awesome stuff.
So I'll end it there, and we're about a minute over, and sorry I didn't leave enough time for like
comments and stuff, but I'm actually surprised I got through all that.
I didn't think I would.
If, I guess, I'll go ahead and ask if anyone has anything they'd like to share, might as well.
We go a little bit over every Sunday, so.
Okay, so that
no one is.
That one is.
Yes, in the Incredibles, the bad guy said, I'm going to make everybody a superhero so that no one
will be.
Wow.
Right, dad?
Oh, thanks, Ray.
I appreciate that much, and we're not done necessarily with verse two and three.
There's, I want to, and maybe this will be next week, or maybe a little bit later, I'm not sure yet, but the next time I do this,
we're going to look at some commentaries on verse two and three, and some
commentaries from some really solid guys, not just any old commentary, and some of the stuff they
say about this passage is, like when I was reading, I was like, really?
So I want to read this.
I want to read it to you guys as well and get y 'all's thoughts on it, and I want to finish with the ultimate
commentary on this passage, which we'll get to next time, but with that being said, Dave, would you
mind dismissing
this
in
prayer?
Amen.