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FBC Travelers Rest sermon from November 26, 2023 by Pastor Rhett Burns
When you turn your Bible to John chapter 3, we're pausing our series in the book of Acts. We got to the end of Acts 12, a good stopping place, and so next week we're going to pick up with our Advent, start our Advent sermon series, Knowing Christ.
And that leaves us this week with a week in between, and what I want to do this morning is to preach just a simple gospel sermon. What I would call a simple gospel sermon, kind of a back to basics reminder of the glorious truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Why do that? Well one reason is it's Thanksgiving weekend, and in Christ and in the mercy of God we have a lot to be thankful for. It is appropriate, it is good and right and fitting that we give thanks to God for salvation in Christ.
We're coming up, beginning to prepare for Christmas, prepare our hearts for Christmas, and so we prepare by remembering that Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost. He came to seek and to save the lost.
We're going to preach a simple gospel sermon this morning to help us remember. One of the persistent biblical calls from God to his people that we find in the Bible is to remember, because we're prone to forget.
We're prone to forgetfulness of God's mercy, of God's free grace, of our forgiveness, and so we want to remember the gospel. We don't want to assume it, we assume it, we forget it. We want to remember it intentionally.
And then also just as a foundation for life. So one of the things we like to say here at First Baptist is we want to preach and teach all the Bible for all of life. We want to take the scriptures that we find, that apply to every domain of human existence, it applies to every human endeavor, and we want to press the Bible out to the edges of life because it has to do with everything, and while we want to do that, we never want to graduate from the simple gospel message that Jesus Christ saves sinners.
We never want to move on from that. We never want to get over the gospel, and so this morning, from John chapter 3, I want us to see the simple gospel. I'm going to read verses 1 -21, we're going to focus in mainly on that most famous of Bible verses, John 3, 16, and then draw from a few other verses in this chapter, but let me read John 3, verses 1 -21, and God's word says this.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them.
Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered him and said, Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, 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 has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 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.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed, that he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.
Amen. Again, this is God's word to us today, and what I want you to see in this passage first is the source of our salvation. In this simple gospel message, we have the message of salvation in Christ, and I want you to see first, the source of our salvation is the love of God.
The love of God. For God so loved the world, John 3, 16 begins. One reading of this phrase, for God so loved the world, some people take it to mean that God loved the world so much, that God loved the world to a maximal degree, and there's truth in that, because here in Christ we see the boundless, limitless, deep, high, broad, unquenchable, inexhaustible love of God.
We see the love of God in Christ Jesus. Now we think about the love of God, we need to define what love is. So what is love? Here's how I would define it, it's not simply just an emotional feeling towards someone, love is an action, love is action that secures the true good of another person.
Love requires us to look out for what is good for another person, and acting to secure that, that is love. I say true good there because some people think they know what is good for them, but we need to define good as God defines good.
How the scriptures define what is good, so to love is to act to secure the true good of someone else, and to do so with affection for them. And so what we see is that love is more than an emotional feeling, but it's not devoid of the emotion of affection and care, but it is acting for someone's good, often at great expense to oneself, with affection for that person.
And so we see the love that God has for the world, the love that God has for humanity, the love that God has for the kingdom of man, and his sending of his son. If you look in 1 John, you see that God is love, God in his essence, he is love.
And so this distinguishes the God of the Bible, Yahweh the Lord, from say, the Islamic conception of God, Allah. And so if you think about it, we believe, and the Bible teaches, that God is trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And we saw that love requires a direct object, someone or something to love, right? And so God can be love, because before God created anything, there's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one, one in three, and so from eternity, the Father is loving the Son and the Spirit, the Son is loving the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit is loving the Father and the Son, there is a fellowship of love in the Godhead.
That's different than say a radical monotheist conception of God like you find in Islam, which before creation, if that were true, there's nothing, there's no one to love. And so the essence of the Islamic conception of God is power, raw power, but what we find in the scriptures is God is love, and He has existed in eternal fellowship of love from everlasting until everlasting, that love overflowed and made a world, and that love overflowed into that world that had fallen into sin, and God sent His Son.
And what we see here is that God is the initiator of our salvation then, it wasn't like we realized our situation was in peril, that our situation was bad, and then we devised this mechanism for the forgiveness of our sins, and we figured something out in order that we might work up to our salvation, no, God is the initiator of our salvation, God looked down on us, God saw our low estate, God saw our fallenness, God saw our need, and God had mercy, and God devised a mechanism for our forgiveness of sin, more than a mechanism, He sent a person, a person of His Son, Christ Jesus, a person who would come and bear the sins of the world on His body, on the cross, and die in our place, and rise on the third day.
And so it all begins with God, who looks upon humanity with love, a warm-hearted insistence on acting for our true good, for God so loved the world. And so one way to read that, for God so loved the world, is like I said, God loved us to a maximal degree, I think probably a better translation of the grammar there, a better sense there of the grammar is, God loved the world in this way.
I think both readings are true, but the sense is that God loved the world in this way, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life. God's love that is made known to us in this, He gave His only begotten Son.
And so when God wanted to express His love for humanity, He didn't send flowers, He didn't send chocolates, He didn't, you know, just lay the affirmation on thick, He didn't indulge our appetites, He sent His Son.
He saw our greatest need, and He acted to meet it. He saw our great distance from Himself, and He acted to close that distance and bring us near. First John 4, verses 9 and 10, I want to read to us, it says, In this the love of God was manifested to us.
In this, this is how God's love is made known to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Romans 5, verse 8, says something very similar, but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is how God demonstrates His love, this is how God makes known His love, this is how God loves us.
In this way, He sends His Son to die for sinners. So when you look at Christ, especially with the eyes of faith, you look to the cross, you see the boundless, limitless, high, broad, deep, unquenchable, inexhaustible, love of God.
The source of our salvation is God's love, because God is love. Second thing we see is the means of our salvation, how our salvation is accomplished, and that is through the cross of Christ. There in verses 14 and 15, we see where Jesus, Nicodemus, ruler of Israel, teacher of Israel, is asking these questions, how could it be, and Jesus gives him an Old Testament example saying, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
What's Jesus referring to there? It's found in Numbers chapter 21, verses 4 -9, I want to read this, give us a sense of what Jesus is teaching Nicodemus here. It says in Numbers 21, Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, this is after the Exodus while the Israelites were in the wilderness, to go around the land of Edom, and the soul of the people became very discouraged along the way.
And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food, there is no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.
They're complaining. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you, pray to the Lord that He may take away the serpents from us.
And so Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and so it was.
If a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. By God's grace, and by God's action, when bitten by a fiery serpent, simply looking at the bronze serpent high and lifted up among the people of Israel, it would heal a man and he would live.
No matter how badly he had been bitten, no matter how many times he had been bitten, look upon the serpent on the pole and live. It would heal a man. Here's the thing, every person on this planet is snake bit by sin.
We're sick with it, but here's the good news, no matter how badly you've sinned, no matter how many times you've sinned, 70 times 7, look to Christ on the cross and live. This is the means of our salvation, Jesus Christ, high and lifted up.
And how do you look? You look with belief, it says in verse 15, whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That is, they shall look to Christ and live. You see, the wages of sin is death, Romans 6 .23.
And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin, Hebrews 9 .22. And so the plan of God was for Jesus to die that death and shed that blood. He is the means of our salvation. This is how our salvation is accomplished, Jesus Christ crucified.
For you see, on the cross, Jesus condemned sin in the flesh, Romans 8 .3. And on the cross, there Jesus, he who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5 .21.
And Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law that we might receive the promise of the Spirit by faith, Galatians 3 .13. We're coming up on Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Why did Jesus come? Why did the Son of God come and take on human flesh? Why was Jesus born? He was born to die. This was the plan of God, to redeem sinful humanity and to die on the cross. And so the message to you is to look to Christ high and lifted up on the cross and live.
Christ crucified is how our salvation is accomplished. Look to Christ. Now one temptation we have is we want to look to our faith. We want to look to how we are perceiving of Christ. And then we sometimes get doubts because of that, because we know that our faith isn't perfect.
You're not saved by the quality of your faith. You're saved by Christ. And so for assurance, I love what Kent Hughes says, commenting on this passage. He says, do not look to your look. Look to Christ.
Do not look to your own look. You're not looking at yourself. You're looking to Christ. And by faith, looking to Christ, you live. See, the means of our salvation is Christ crucified. Next thing we see is the blessing of our salvation, everlasting life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have what? Everlasting life. What we see in this passage here in John 3 is that Jesus lays out two possible outcomes for a person.
Two possibilities for a person. Everlasting life and never ending death. There's salvation and there's condemnation laid out in this passage from Jesus Christ. There's everlasting life. What is that? It's union with Christ.
Being indwelt by the Spirit. Fellowship with God forever. We have a down payment of that now. The Spirit indwells in us. We live life by the Spirit. We live what Jesus calls the abundant life or life to the full.
We have the down payment of that eternal life now. But we have fullness awaiting us in the future. In heaven. Think of Psalm 16 when I think about heaven. In your presence there is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
And so eternal life has this concept of pure joy. Eternal joy in the land where there is no sin. Exploring the depths and the riches of wisdom and knowledge of God which are hidden in Christ Colossians tells us.
That eternal life is knowing God. Jesus says that in his high priestly prayer John 17 verse 3. That this is eternal life. That you know God. Everlasting life. When heaven and earth are reunited. And you just keep going further up and further in.
And when you just don't think it can anymore. It just keeps getting better and better. As you're with God more and more. This is everlasting life. Fellowship with God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And then the other side of that is never ending death.
We see the words perish. We see the word condemn and condemnation in this passage. This refers to being judged for sin. And cut off. Cut off from God. From Son, Spirit. Cut off from the joy and the pleasure that are in God's presence and at God's right hand.
Cut off from life. Think about a flower. You pluck a flower out. Eventually it withers. Right? It's never ending withering. But it's never final. It's what the Bible refers to as hell. The place of eternal conscious torment.
And experience of the wrath of God. These are the two realities that Jesus lays out before us. Everlasting life. Never ending death. And what's the difference between the two? The difference between everlasting life and never ending death.
John 3 .16 says is belief. In surrounding verses we see that. Verse 15. Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Whoever believes. That's how we look to Christ. It's through faith.
By belief in Christ. In verse 16. Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Verse 18. He who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already.
Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. I often talk about what I call the hinge question. It's the question which heaven and hell, life and death turn. Who is Jesus? It's the question that eternity turns on.
How you answer the question. Who is Jesus? And a related question to that is. Do you believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is? And that Jesus has done what the Bible says He's done. And that Jesus has accomplished what the Bible says that He has accomplished.
Do you believe? People are inherently religious. And we are strivers. We think that we can do enough to somehow clean ourselves up. Do enough to somehow merit our own salvation. Do enough to fix ourselves.
We think that this puts us in control. We like to be in control of our lives. But here's the thing. God doesn't tell us to strive and fix ourselves up. He tells us to believe. We may mourn. We may lament the fallenness of the world.
And give ourselves to religious acts and religious ordinances. But God says only faith will save us. And the faith that saves is belief. The ascent to truth of the scriptures. About who Jesus is. And what Jesus has done.
And why Jesus has done it. And what it has accomplished. We ascent to those things. We believe them. And we trust it. And so the faith that saves is belief and trust. Or we might say trusting belief. So I ask you this morning.
Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus is very God and very man? That Jesus came into the world to save sinners? Do you believe that Jesus walked on water? Do you believe that Jesus fed the 5 ,000?
That He made blind men to see? That He raised Lazarus up from the dead? Do you believe that He lived a perfect life in your place? Perfectly obedient to God's word in every way? Do you believe that He died a sacrificial death in your place?
Atoning for your sin? Do you believe that He washes away your sin with His blood? That He was raised on the third day? That He defeated Satan's sin and death? That He ascended into heaven where He rules from the right hand of the Father?
Do you believe? That's the question. Do you believe that you're a sinner who has broken the law of God? And if you've broken the law of God in one place, you're accountable for the whole thing. Do you believe that you cannot save yourself?
That left to your own devices, you will only go deeper and darker into sin and rebellion and perversion and disobedience? And that outside of Christ, there is only never-ending death. The place where the worm never stops feeding and the fire never stops burning.
Do you believe? Do you believe that your only hope in life and death is that you are not your own but belong with body and soul in life and death to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ who has fully paid for all of your sins with His precious blood and has set you free from all the power of the devil?
Do you believe? Are you drowning in the stormy sea of your own sin and unable to reach shore? Then, with gasping breath, look up and see the hand of Jesus reaching down to you to grab you and snatch you up out of the waves.
Grab that hand. Hold on to it and Jesus will lift you to higher ground. Look to Christ high and lifted up on the cross. Look to Christ high and lifted up, resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven.
Look to Christ high and lifted up. Believe and live. Now sadly, not everyone believes. What accounts for a man's lost soul? What we see here from Jesus in John 3, what accounts for a man's lost soul is his love for sin.
A man's love for sin. We see it in verse 19. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Christ is the light.
He has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. People love their sin. Some people love the darkness more than the light. They love their sin more than holiness.
They love themselves more than God. And loving their sin, they turn their back on Jesus. They turn their back on His mercy. They see His hand coming down to reach for them and they dive deeper into the darker waters because they love the darkness of their sin more than they love the light of the gospel.
They love the darkness of their sin more than they love the light who is God. It's a really bad trade. They choose the fleeting pleasures of sin rather than the everlasting and eternal pleasures that are at God's right hand.
And in the end, they choose hell rather than heaven. They choose darkness rather than light. They choose death rather than life. And they do this because they love their sin. And the pull of sin is strong and their loves are disordered and they love the darkness.
And so what accounts for a man's lost soul? His love for sin and his own rebellion. What accounts for a man's saved soul? God. The boundless, limitless, high, deep, broad, unquenchable, inexhaustible love of God.
For the only thing that can overcome the disordered loves of sinners is a greater love, the love of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever will believe in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Commenting on this passage, John MacArthur said,. The free offer of the gospel is broad enough to include the vilest sinner, yet narrow enough to exclude all those who reject Christ. But to those who come to Him on His terms, Jesus gave the marvelous promise.
The one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. And so the call is to come to Jesus on His own terms and believe. Believe that we deserve death and that Christ died. And believe that we are debtors and that Christ has paid that debt.
And to believe that we are sinners but Christ has washed away that sin. To believe that we are rebels but Christ has subdued us and made us into friends and made us into sons of God. And we who were once far off have been brought near by Jesus Christ.
This is the good news. Believe it and live. Let's pray. For Father in Heaven, I know that in this room we're filled with people who believe this message. This is not a new message. But it is a foundational one.
And Lord, I want our people to be encouraged in their belief. To remember the glorious truth that You have saved us from our sin. You have saved us from death. You have saved us from ourselves. You have had mercy on us.
A mercy we did not deserve. A mercy that we did not earn. A mercy that we could not just reach up and grab on our own. But You, because of Your love for us, have reached down to us. And You have saved us through Your Son.
You, because of Your love for us, have sent Your Son to us. Help us to remember that. We know that this simple gospel message is the soil in which every good fruit of the Christian life grows. And we want to bear fruit for Your glory.
So encourage us with the gospel today. Lord, I also know that in a group this size, that there may be some among us who do not believe. They might not come here this morning with any intentions on making any major life decisions.
Those glorious words from Ephesians 2, 4 are true, but God. But God, being rich in mercy, and because of the great love with which He hath for us, made us alive together in Christ Jesus. Lord, I pray that if there are any among us who are not believing, that You will make them alive this morning.
If they have dead hearts, dead in the trespasses and sins, may You make them alive this morning, calling them to Yourself, saving them because of Your love. Lord, I pray that we would all, every last one of us in this room, respond to Your word, to Your gospel, in faith.
And that we would make it our habit in our lives to look to Christ and live. We ask all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
