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Reading John 3:17-18 where we are told Jesus did not come to condemn the world, because the world was already condemned. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
People love John 3 .16 because we love talking about the love of God. It's not as popular to look two verses later where it says the reason why we need God's love is because we're condemned when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand the Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website, www .tt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Gospel of John chapter 3, and today we'll be looking at verses 17 and 18. I'll begin by reading verses 16 through 21 again because, as I said yesterday, it's a section you should have memorized anyway.
John 3 .16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
John 3 .16 is one of those verses that summarizes the gospel in a single verse. That's one of the reasons why it's so popular. When you quote this verse to somebody, you quote the gospel. For God, the Father, so loved the world that he didn't pour his wrath out on the world, which is exactly what the world deserves.
Instead, he gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who came to this earth, born in human flesh, God incarnate, and lived a perfect life, died on the cross for our sins, rose again from the grave, and whoever believes in him, turns from sin and follows Jesus, puts faith in him, should not perish under the coming judgment of God, but will have eternal life.
We inherit the righteousness and eternal life of Jesus Christ for all those who put faith in him. That's what we have there in John 3 .16 when you quote that verse. Surely you know the story of Tim Tebow, who put John 3 .16 on his eye black when he played in the BCS Championship game on January 8, 2009.
It made John 3 .16 the most searched for item on Google. Would you say item? The thing that people most searched on Google that day was John 3 .16 because of what Tim Tebow wore on his eye black. People got to see the gospel just searching for that on Google.
The story gets even better than that because then three years later to the day, January 8, 2012, Tebow, now the quarterback for the Denver Broncos, won a playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in which he threw for 316 yards.
He averaged 31 .6 yards per completion, the highest single game postseason completion average in NFL history. At the time that he threw the winning touchdown pass, CBS, the network that was airing the game, recorded that their overnight ratings were 31 .6.
That means 31 .6 of America was tuning in to watch that football game. It caused John 3 .16 to once again be the most searched for thing on Google that night. All because of a football player who put John 3 .16 on his eye black three years before.
The providential hand of God working in all of these things to put the message of the gospel in one verse in front of so many millions of people who Googled it on the internet. How do you like that? So that many millions of people who searched for it read, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Today, we go on to the next couple of verses. In verse 17, we read, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Oftentimes when you see someone share, see or hear someone share John 3 .16 and they include more than just that verse, they'll tack on verse 17.
It's a very friendly verse. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, all right? You know, we're not condemning anybody, so it's a good, light, encouraging thought. But I think if you're going to include verse 17, you need to be sure to also include verse 18.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. That verse is not as popular to attach into the context of John 3 .16 because then you do have the message of condemnation there.
God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world. Jesus coming was not a judgment. It was a deliverance. His sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection from the grave was for the forgiveness of sins.
And as we have talked about out of Titus 2 just a couple of months ago when we were in the book of Titus, in Titus 2 verse 14, we read that Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
That was why Jesus came and died, to purify for himself a people. He did that by the sacrifice of his blood. He rose again from the grave conquering death so that we have nothing to fear of the grave, but we will live forever with him.
We inherit his eternal life. We will not perish under the judgment of God, but we stand before him as righteous because of what Christ has done on our behalf. So that was what he came to do. God's coming to this world the first time, the first advent is what we refer to.
We're looking forward now to the second advent. Every Christmas we remember God's first advent, the coming of Christ into this world, a baby born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. That's what we remember at Christmas, the first advent.
We are looking forward to now the second advent, the second coming of Christ. The first advent, God did not send his son into the world to condemn it. This was not the judgment. This was the fulfillment of the prophecy that was made in the Old Testament regarding a Messiah who would save his people from their sins.
This was not the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Old Testament about a judgment. You find both things there. There's prophecy about judgment, a final judgment, and there is prophecy about a coming Messiah.
So this was the fulfillment of the Messiah prophecies, not a fulfillment of the final judgment prophecies. So God sending his son into the world was not to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Understand even the usage of that language as it's translated there, in order that the world might be saved through him, not that the world would be saved through him. Because the whole world of men is not saved by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, only those for whom he died.
Back to Titus 2 .14 again, Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people, a specific people for whom he died. And who is that specific people? It is whoever believes in him.
Just as we read back in John 3 .16, it is only they who believe in Jesus that Jesus died for. He did not die for anyone other than those who believe in Christ. They are the ones who are the recipients of the grace that God has given through his son.
John 10 verses 28 and 29, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.
I and the father are one. We have been given into the hand of Christ. We are a specific people who have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and we've been given to Christ by the father. And this was decided before the foundation of the world.
Now as I've said many times, I've shared this with my congregation, I share it on this program as well. We do not know who the elect are. So it is not for us to know whom God has chosen for salvation and whom he is not.
Who has God given into the hand of Christ that he died for so that we would be forgiven our sins? Well, we don't get to know that. So we must preach the gospel to everyone because this is the manner in which God has chosen to bring about the salvation of his elect.
That they would hear the gospel proclaimed and turn from sin and believe it and therefore be saved because they become followers of Jesus. Jesus said also in John 10 that he's the shepherd. He's the good shepherd and the sheep know his voice.
They don't follow a stranger's voice, but they follow the voice of the good shepherd. So the sheep are the ones who when they hear the voice of the shepherd called to them to follow me will turn from sin and follow Jesus Christ.
Then we will know by that act of faith that they were the ones whom God had elected from before the foundation of the world. So we don't get to pick and choose. Well, that person's elect, that person's not.
God knows that he is sovereign. He is the one who sees all and knows all the thoughts of man and everything that is in his heart. We must preach the gospel and we must do it without prejudice. We must withhold it from no one.
We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ loud and clear so that those who hear it would turn from sin and be saved whom God had elected and wrote their names in his book before the foundation of the world, as it says in Revelation three or 13 eight.
So again, John 3 17, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. Now even though this isn't the final judgment, it's still a judgment because we go on in verse 19 to read and this is the judgment.
The light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. So it's because of what Jesus taught and what he did that the evil of our hearts was exposed by the proclamation of the gospel because that's part of the gospel exposing the sin nature of man so that we see our need for a savior.
You would not know that you need Christ unless you were able to see your sin and the Holy Spirit does both reveals our sin to us and shows the righteousness of Christ. Those things are exposed to us by a work of the Holy Spirit that is done in our hearts.
And again, all of this is accomplished by the preaching and hearing of the gospel of Christ. So there is a sense in which Jesus coming was a judgment. It's just not the final judgment, but we'll talk a little bit more about that tomorrow.
We get to verse 19 verse 18. Now, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God. If a person does not believe, why are they condemned already?
If Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, well, he didn't come to issue final judgment to pour out the wrath of God on the world. That was not the reason for Jesus coming. But the person who does not believe in him is is condemned already.
Why would that be? If Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, well, it's because he didn't need to condemn the world. The world was already condemned. We were already under the judgment of God left in the state that we were in.
We would have perished under his wrath because of our sin and rebellion against God. That was that was the position that we were in. So that's why verse 18 says that whoever does not believe is condemned already if left in that state.
If we come to that final judgment, we will receive that final condemnation because we're still dead in our sins. We're unworthy to stand in the presence of God and certainly unworthy to be in his presence for all eternity.
So whoever does not believe is already condemned because they do not believe in the name of the only son of God, as we'll read going on in John three thirty six. Whoever believes in the son of God has eternal life.
Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him. Now that's not a popular verse. So people love John three sixteen. It's great enough that people will at least quote that verse.
You won't perish, but you'll have eternal life if you believe in Jesus Christ, because that is the exclusive statement that is being made in John three sixteen. Oftentimes we use John 14 six as the exclusive statement with Jesus saying, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the father but by me. That's absolutely an exclusive claim. But John three sixteen is as well. God so loved the world that he gave his only son and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life, can't believe in anyone else, anything else but Jesus Christ in order to be forgiven your sins and have eternal life.
That is as much an exclusive claim there in John three sixteen as what Jesus will say later in John 14 six. So it's said there as well. It is only through Christ that we receive salvation. But people just kind of ignore that aspect of John three sixteen.
We don't pay attention to that again. We think of it as being more light and encouraging. So that's why a person would quote John three sixteen and not include verse eighteen. And they especially won't use John three thirty six because there we have the very wrath of God being talked about.
It's it's offensive enough that we're talking about people being condemned already because they don't believe in Jesus in verse eighteen. But then you're even talking about the judgment of God, his wrath being poured out.
Hang on. I don't want to talk about God's wrath. I like talking about his love. That was a lot better. That made me feel better. I got the warm fuzzies out of that. God loved me so much that he gave his son.
Just leave me in that world. Don't start talking about the wrath of God. But again, we don't need John three thirty six to understand that God's wrath is even mentioned in John three sixteen, where it says whoever believes in Jesus will not perish.
Well, what do you mean perish or perish under the judgment of God? That's exactly the context. John three thirty six explains it. But it's not like we weren't talking about it when we were in John three sixteen.
So John three thirty six, again, we must believe in the sun for eternal life. We must also obey the sun. Whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the sun shall not see life.
But the wrath of God remains on him. Now, that doesn't mean that obedience is the way that we are saved. You do these laws and then you receive salvation. No, obedience is the evidence that we do have faith in Christ, which is why it says whoever believes in the sun has eternal life.
By faith, we have received our eternal reward. But if we don't obey the sun, then we are showing we're conveying by our life and by our actions that we don't truly know Jesus. Therefore, we will not receive that wonderful treasure and gift of Christ's eternal life to all those who believe in him.
But rather, the wrath of God remains on the person who will not obey. And that's, again, a passage that we just don't like as much because we want to think of God as loving. We don't want to think of him as a judge.
But if God is anything, if he's described as anything in the Bible, he is eternally that thing. So if God is loving, praise God, he is eternally loving. In the Psalms, we read about how his love is steadfast and endures forever.
Amen. But if God is a judge, and indeed he is, then he is eternally just. And whatever sentence he gives to somebody is an eternal sentence. God is a God of love, but that's not all he is. He is also a God of wrath.
And those two things do not contradict one another. It's not like God is a contradiction in his own nature because he's a God of love, but he is also a God of wrath. No, on the contrary, what we read in Romans 9, verses 22 and 23, we read this.
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.
So he is enduring with much patience those vessels of wrath who he has prepared for destruction, who continue to go on and do things that are worthy of the wrath of God. And he is allowing that to happen in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, those whom he has prepared for glory beforehand, that we would see the mercy and love of God.
So a day is coming on which he will pour out his wrath on the ungodly, but we who have become believers in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins as an atoning sacrifice, will be delivered from his wrath on that day because he shows his glory through his mercy.
This is all to the praise of his glorious grace, as the apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter one. So praise his name, knowing that what you deserved was condemnation and eternal condemnation. But what you receive instead is eternal life because God is merciful and gracious.
And the mechanism that God has chosen to deliver these gifts, these blessings to you through his son is faith. By believing in Jesus, you are saved because you have believed in the name of the only son of God.
There are going to be people out there are going to argue about what a horrible, monstrous God that he would condemn so many people to hell. And in fact, the majority of people who have ever lived are going to end up going to hell.
What a terrible God that is. Well, the reason why they say things like that is because they don't realize their own sin and that what they have done is worthy of the wrath of God. If they understood their sin, then they would rejoice in the giving of a savior who forgives them of their sin.
And then they would praise God for his mercy instead of blaspheming him for the thing that they actually really, truly deserve. So praise God for the love that he has shown to us through Jesus Christ.
By faith in him, you are saved. We praise God and Lord, our father, we thank you for considering our need that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We deserved your wrath. Instead you gave us mercy through your son.
So let us praise your great name and take the message of your gospel to others so that they who hear it would turn from sin. Believing this message, they would repent and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ who raises us from the dead and seats us in the heavenly places with him.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray in his name. Amen.
Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.