God's Love

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Raise your hand if you're familiar with this song. I became a Christian when I was 18, and it was after a very reckless life of sin. And I was saved by reading the Bible and a letter. And so I had no Christian to care for me, to help me understand what to do and how to live life. And most of all, I didn't know any good songs except for this song. And so my first few months as a Christian, I would drive around and just sing this song over and over again. Because it was the only song I knew. I could get a few lines of Amazing Grace, but it was this song that my parents taught me at a very young age. It was the only song I could sing completely, and I didn't like to sing the first five words of Amazing Grace. And so I wore the song out of my own head. It's a powerful song. It says it all. Jesus loves me. I know this. Because God has said this. It's the simple truth we must teach our children. It's the most powerful and profound truth that we must be reminded of every day. Soon after I became a Christian and I began to read more and understand more, I started to believe in a very dangerous lie. That I needed to go beyond the gospel into the deeper truths to truly grow. I began to study more of theology and church history, and these things were good, but the problem, the lie I believed in, was that I moved beyond the gospel to the deeper truths of God. I had to come and realize later that these things had built up an arrogance in me. See, any study of God, any seeking of God, any wanting to know more of God must center in and hover around and always be reminding us of the great truth, God loves us. He sent His Son to die for us. Everything we know about God and everything we learn more about God, it must bring us back to understand that powerful truth more. This morning, we're going to spend our entire time on a very simple, clear declaration of that truth. We're looking at John 3.16. We're walking through the Gospel of John, and by God's providence, here after VBS, we're going to meditate upon John 3.16. If you do not have a Bible, you can use the Bible in the view in front of you. It's on page 888. We're going to be looking at the gospel truth that God loves us and sent His Son to die for us. It's a call to believe. Here are God's word. 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. 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. The people love 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. Whoever does what is true comes to life so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Will you pray with me? Lord, as we come now to meditate and to learn and to think about your text. Lord, may your spirit guide my words. May your spirit guide our hearts. so that we are truly stirred and moved by what you have done for us so that our love for you is purified and it grows so that we might worship you more faithfully. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Our focus this morning is really going to be on just John 3.16. I'm going to order the sermon around just this one simple verse. Because the other passages here, verses 17 and verse 20, you see there are four. There's a grounding of what he's saying in the other verses. So, we're really going to focus on the big, heavy verse. John 3, 16. And the other verses will be used to think about what this verse is saying. We'll have four points this morning. We'll see God's desire. First, we'll see God's desire. Second, we'll see Christ's death. Christ's death. Thirdly, our duty. And then finally, two destinies. God's desire. Christ's death. Our duty. Two destinies. You see there, God's love. His desire. Christ's death. God so loved the world, He sent His Son. Our duty. so that whoever believes in Him and the two destinies, whoever believes, they shall have eternal life. If you do not believe, you will perish. We are called this morning to believe in the Son of God. If you're not a Christian this morning, this is a belief that saves you from your sin. It's a belief that will remove the wrath of God from you so that you are forgiven and given a new identity. If you're a Christian this morning, This is a reminder so that you rejoice in who you are in Christ. God's desire. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. God's desire for God so loved the world. This is one of the most overwhelming declarations in scripture. This is actually very provocative and profound. I realize this is probably one of the two verses every American knows. There's two main verses we know. God so loved the world and then judge not lest ye be judged. That's our two main verses. Here we see God loves the world. The subject, God. He's the one who does the action. What is the action? He loves. Who is the recipient of that love? The object. The world. Let's walk through and think about who this God is, what love is, and then the object. God. As we know from John 1, He's the Creator. He's the good and righteous and holy and just God. He is the one who spoke. And everything came into existence. He is the Almighty God who did not need the world, but He chose to create it. And He chose to make us in His image, to know Him, to be known by Him, to love Him, and to know His love. He is the Great Almighty God. Secondly, what is love? This is really one of the harder words here. Because we use love in so many ways in our culture. I think that's why we have such a difficult time ordering ourselves properly. We use the same word love for the affection we have for a cheeseburger and our spouse, child, or parent. We say we love things. We say we love all kinds of different things. And this is the real key here. In our culture, I believe the object of our love usually defines what kind of love it is. So when I say I love a cheeseburger, I love my wife, you automatically know, I hope, that those are two different kinds of love. So, the object of our love is what defines the kind of love you have. Here, God says He loves the world. We need to understand what the world is to truly understand what the love is. There's two real options of what John is declaring here when he says, God so loved the world. The world could be referring to the scope. Everything, everywhere, everybody. I think there's some truth to this. We can see in John 21-25, this is how John uses the word world. The world could not contain all that Christ said and did. The world could not contain it. Just as we just sang, if every ocean were the ink and every parchment, the sky the parchment, every one was a scribe, we couldn't contain everything. I believe there's something here to the scope. Even though I don't think this is the primary focus of what John's saying with the word world. If you're a Jewish man at this time, you would expect Jesus or John here to be saying, God so loved Israel. You would expect that kind of focused, intentional declaration, God so loved Israel. This is provocative because it doesn't say God so loved Israel. It says God so loved the world. That the scope has been stretched. I think we can define world a little more precisely to really see how profound and powerful this love is. The majority of uses of the word world through John is used in the sense of something opposed to God. Something that hates God. John 15 verses 18 through 19. Jesus says this, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. The world, as John normally uses it, is that system, that group of people, all of creation, opposed to God, resisting Him and hating Him. Another passage that's informative for how world is typically used, 1 John 2.15. Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that the world is, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of possessions, it is not from the Father, but from the world." Here we see that the world and God are opposed to one another. The world is against God. It is fighting against God. I believe the emphasis is on the intensity of God's love because God is loving that which hates Him. God is loving that which hates Him. The world refers to that system that we are all part of. that has refused His right to rule, that has rejected His right standard and said, we're going to do it our way, we're going to love what we want to love rather than you. We see this actually in the verse itself. Our translations say, for God so loved the world. There's an emphasis, there's an emphatic declaration, He so loved the world. Another way of literally translating this, Oh, how God loved the world. And then we see what happens next. He loved the world so much that He sent the most precious and greatest gift He could have sent, His most beloved, His only Son. Let's meditate for the next few minutes on God's love. The first thing we have to see is that God's love is undeserved. God's love is undeserved. God loves that world that hates Him. He does not fall in love with the world. There's nothing about the world that attracts God other than what He says about that world. Other than what He chooses to determine about that world. We are against Him. He doesn't look at us and say, I must have them because of what's so good in them. He looks at us and He sees that we're spitting against Him, and fighting against Him, and cursing Him, and refusing Him, and rejecting Him. We all were designed to love God. But instead of loving God, we've loved everything else. We're idolaters. We worship everything but God. And God's wrath, being a just God, should be against us. But instead, He chooses to love us. We are unlovely, and it is His sovereign choice, despite our words, deeds, acts, motives, and thoughts, to say, I'm going to love you even though you are not lovely. The second thing I hope we see is that after being undeservedly loved by God, God loves us under one condition. There's one condition that determines God's love and that is His choice to love us. That's the one condition. He says He will love us. He chooses to love us. Now the point here is that there's nothing conditional about you that makes God love you. It's not if you clean yourself up. It's not if you do the right things. It's not even if you come to church and bring your kids to PBS. That doesn't make God love you. The only thing that causes God to love you is God Himself determining that He'll love you. His love is free. His love is sovereign. Now, this is different from us. When I love someone, it's because I need them. I love people I need. I love them for who they are. I love them because I need them. When I'm jealous for someone, I feel this sense of need. I must have them, or whatever that may be. It could be a cheeseburger, since we also use love in that way. It's not quite lunchtime, so you shouldn't be hungry when I mention food yet. This is what makes God's love so amazing. And this is where I've really been hung up on the I wish I had another month or a year to think about this, but this is a paradox that is really just... I wish I had more time to wrap my head around. God doesn't need us. God doesn't need us. That's one truth. He is perfect in His own love. The Father perfectly loves the Son. The Son perfectly loves the Father. It's a perfect love union. He in no way needs us. He's jealous for us. He's jealous for us. He in no way needs us, but He's perfectly and completely jealous for us. And what we get to here is the fact that we see God designed us to be loved and to be loved by Him and to love Him. And He created us with that purpose and He has not changed His mind about it. And though He doesn't need us, He's sending His own Son to die for us. He longs for our love. He longs for our affection. He doesn't need it. But in His mysterious plan of salvation, in the power of the Gospel, we see He longs. He longs for that love. The third thing we should see about God's love, it does not change. From the very beginning, that's what He designed us for. That's how He created us. He chose from the foundation of the world to love us. And God doesn't change His mind. God doesn't change His mind. Most of all, we can see that His love doesn't change because He chose to send His Son to die for us. The love of God is sealed in the blood of Christ. The love of God is sealed in the demonstration that God so loved us. that He sent His greatest gift, His most beloved Son, to love us. If you're a believer, we shouldn't question the love of God. Because we look back to the Son and we know there it's because of the Son we have assurance that God loves us. If you're not a Christian, looking to the Son is the most sure foundation of love and identity and security you will ever have. Fourthly, God's love changes us. God's love changes us. This is following the declaration that Jesus just said. You need to be born again. That great dialogue with Nicodemus. You're dead. You need to be given new life. You need regeneration. You need a new life. And that new life is a complete change. He gives us a new life. Now, children, I especially want you to be listening right now. A wise person is defined by someone who has their affections properly ordered. The love that you should have for God is given to God. The love you have for your parents is given to your parents. The love you have for friends is given to friends. The love for the other stuff of the world is given to the other stuff of the world. This is where we all go wrong. The love we have for God We give it to someone else. The love and respect and honor you should give to your parents, you're tempted to give it to your friends or to others. You must properly assign and align your affections as God has designed and determined. That is how to live the wise life. The love you have for God must be the greatest and highest love. Our problem is we're so prone to idolatry. We're so prone to love the things of this world rather than the Creator of it. To truly seek the wise life is to love God above everything else. So, here are the questions that I challenge you to talk about during lunch, or the VBS celebration, or at dinner tonight. How are your loves ordered? How is your love ordered? What do others think you love the most? What are your friends, your spouse, your parents, how do they see your love's ordered and where do they see it out of line? Where do you know that it's out of line? The harder question, the question we must always be asking ourselves because we're so prone to idolatry. What is competing for our greatest love? Something is always competing for our greatest love. What is competing for our greatest love that only God deserves. Let's go to our second section here, our second point. Jesus' death. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Now, Jesus is God. So, what does this mean that God gave His Son? There's ways in Scripture in which when the word God is used, it's referring to all three persons equally together. So, God created the heavens and the earth. That's referring to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The one God, He created. I think that the best way of understanding this kind of reference to God, when it's in relation to the Son, it's primarily referring to the Father. So, you can read in here, I think, quite legitimately, quite clearly and helpfully, God the Father so loved the world that He sent His Son. That's important because it's the entire Godhead, the Father of the Holy Spirit, that as we read from Ephesians, that is on a mission to save you. The Father sent down His Son to bring you back up with Him. The Father sent down His most beloved so that you could know His love and experience it. The Father sent His Son, and this is important. The Father sent His Son to save sinners. It was a complete rescue mission. It wasn't to help. It wasn't just to teach. It wasn't just a model. He came to save sinners. Look at verse 17. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but an order that the world might be saved through Him. Some conclusions here. We need rescuing. We don't need a little help. We don't need a little nudge. We don't need just good advice. We need to be rescued from our own sin. Secondly, we're not condemned because we reject Jesus Christ. We're condemned because we refuse God's right over us. Denying Jesus Christ is just the fruit of our complete denial of God. When we deny God His right to be worshipped every day, every morning we wake up, that is what declares as condemned. It's only faith in Christ that saves us. As we meditate upon Jesus' death, the sending of the Son, the first thing we have to realize is that we're sinners in need of grace. We're sinners in need of rescuing. If you aren't a sinner, you don't need Jesus. If you're not a sinner, you don't need Jesus. If you don't think you're a sinner, the first thing you need to be convinced of is that you are a sinner. You can look to God's holy law. Have you lied? Have you stolen? Have you refused God's right to be worshipped? That's what makes you a sinner. That's what makes us need Christ. If you don't think you're a sinner, stay away from Jesus. Don't make Him a trinket in your self-righteous religion. He's only for sinners. He's only for those who know they need rescuing. The second thing we need to see here, the second meditation, Jesus came as a result of God's love. Jesus is exercising God's love. We failed to live the way we're supposed to. We did not live under God's rule. We have not submitted to Him. We have not worshipped Him. We've rejected Him and refused Him. And so God Himself, the Son, came and became like us in every way, living the obedient life we could not, so that when He is nailed to the cross, when He dies, He's an innocent man. He's a righteous man, but God counts our sins against Him. So that when we believe in Jesus, our sins are counted to Him, and therefore we're declared forgiven. And then His righteousness is declared to us. And then we're declared forgiven. We're declared free. We're declared to be new children of God. It's a complete transaction that is all in our favor. Jesus came as a result of God's love because God desires to be reconciled to us. And it is our sin that keeps us from knowing God. Our position is based solely in what Christ did. So, what is our duty? Our third point. Our duty. That all who believe, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him. This is a hard one. We're called to trust. We're called to stop trying to work at it. We're called to actually believe there's something wrong with us and it's beyond our fixing. Belief and faith, they're central to the Gospel of John. If you weren't here for the introduction of the Gospel of John, belief is used a hundred times. We can see the purpose of John in John 20. Now, Jesus did many of the signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that believing you may have life in His name. The purpose of John is that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He has died and risen again. So, what is belief? What is belief? First, it's not a feeling. It's not just a feeling of being dependent. It's not just a feeling. It's also not just an intellectual decision. It's not looking at data and saying, well, this makes sense to me, so I'll agree with it. It's agreeing intellectually, emotionally, and volitionally. It is depending upon God. To believe is to trust. It means you're saying, I can't do it. God, you have to do it for me. To believe is to be changed. When you believe, you start seeing sin differently. When you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins, You have to start seeing sin for what it really is. Destructive, devious, powerful, controlling. That which is to be avoided. That which we're supposed to keep ourselves from. So, what are we to believe? What are we to believe? What are we supposed to put our trust in? This is the simple gospel. If you're not a Christian, this is what you must believe to be a Christian. That God is good and just. That He deserves all of our worship and we've given Him none of it. And that God loved us so much and desired our relationship so much that He sent His Son to be like us. So that when He died, we can be forgiven if we believe in Him. So we are forgiven. He stood as a sinner in our place. He rose again victorious over the grave. And He is the only way we can be saved. If Jesus is not the only way, He is not a way. How do we believe? How do we believe? First, God blesses you with the opportunity to hear or read the Gospel. I pray that God has blessed you to hear the Gospel this morning. You are confronted with the truth of God. You are confronted with your sins. You are confronted with the need of forgiveness. Now, I pray that you wrestle with this. This is a big, heavy moment if you're wrestling with it. Because it changes everything. It changes the way you live, the way you think. It changes everything. I believe you need to pray for God to help you understand and to trust Him. Now, I want to challenge you with this. If you're wrestling with, is the Gospel true? The way you answer that isn't actually, I think, primarily an intellectual one. If you're asking yourself, is this really true? How could this be true? I don't think what's keeping you from believing the gospel is an intellectual problem. I believe it's a volitional problem. As John says in verse 9, this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, the cause of their works were evil. What keeps people from the gospel? What keeps sinners from the gospel is their love for sin. Christianity is the one world religion that's based upon historical evidence. That's based upon evidence that has been corroborated with other historical data. It is the most historical religion. The intellectual data is there. And I believe it's irrefutable, but I don't think that's the main problem. Your problem is a universal problem. We love sin. And that's what keeps us from loving God. What sin is keeping you from loving God? What sin are you afraid of losing? Is it your sense of control? Your sense of worth? Your sense of, I can do it? The first thing you have to believe is that we need help. And only God can help us. What is the effect of belief? What is the effect of belief? When we believe that Jesus came to die for our sins and to free us from our sins, we repent of sin. When you truly see sin as it is, you become disgusted by it. When you truly see sin for what it is, you want to stop pursuing it. Faith changes the way we look at the world. We see ourselves no longer as those who can do anything and everything. We see ourselves as ones who need God to do it. We can look to verse 20 and 21. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and has not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. Whoever does what is true comes to light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." If you're a Christian, what this text is saying is that if you're walking in the light, if you're walking by faith, trusting God, you're not afraid of the light exposing your life. But if you're pursuing sin, if you're walking in darkness, you don't want that exposed because your works have not been enough God. Christian, is there something you're ashamed of this morning? That if it were put up on the screen, you would know, the church would see, I've been walking in darkness. I've been pursuing sin. Friend, the believer in Christ, he pursues light. He rejects darkness. And the beautiful point of the gospel is, I believe we probably all have something we've said, done, or thought that if put on the screen, we'd be embarrassed of. The power of the gospel is we're always forgiven in Christ. The power of the gospel is that we're always eager, and should be eager, to forgive one another. Before I leave the duty of faith, I want to give three words that I think will be helpful for many. Faith, or growing in faith, is slow, steady, and continuous. Slow, steady, and continuous. Most of my discipleship and counseling is those who wish they were so much further along than they really are. And the point there is growing in faith is a slow and steady process. You're always going to see others that seem to be thriving and going. You don't know what kind of trials they've gone through to be where they are in trusting God and how they're trusting Him. Growing in faith is a slow and steady process. It means you have to be patient, Because God is patient with your sin. You have to be patient that God is growing you out of your sin. You need to be steady. We don't grow weary. The third point. It's continuous. Raise your hand if you've arrived. Praise God for that. It's continuous. Are you growing more and more dependent upon Christ and what He's done for you every day? It must be continuous. You don't retire. You don't grow to a point where you no longer seek. You continue to grow in God's grace. Our final words. Will not perish, but have everlasting life. The two destinies. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Two destinies. There are two ways to live. There's the broad way of destruction. There's the narrow way of faith. There's two ways to live and there's two different consequences. If you believe in Christ, you will live forever. It's very clear. You'll have eternal life. You'll be reconciled to God. You'll be in heaven forever rejoicing in the glory of God. If you do not believe, you're already condemned. If you do not believe, you're walking in condemnation. It's very important to notice here The two ways to live isn't walking righteously and walking in sin. We're all walking in sin. It's belief in Christ and in pursuing Christ. It's not our righteousness that makes us better. It's our belief in God that saves us from being sinners. Secondly, you're already on the broad path if you're not believing in Christ. Yes, you're breathing, but you're living in destruction. You were meant to live with God, and God has so loved you that He sent His Son to you to bring Him back to you. 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 Son of God. Our sin is what condemns us. Belief in Christ is the only thing that saves us. The perishing. Just as those who believe in Christ, they will live forever in the glory of God. Those who deny Christ and continue in sin, they will live forever. But they will live forever in the wrath of God. They will live forever without the common grace that protects you from actually experiencing the full wrath of God. When we die, the clear judgment will come upon us. Our sins will be clear. God's righteousness will be clear. And that will consume us. for all of eternity, unless you believe in Jesus Christ. A few points of application. If you are a Christian, trust God and His Word. You haven't matured beyond the Gospel. Never mature beyond the Gospel. Grow in the knowledge of God and what He's done for you. I'll bring you back to the Gospel. The Gospel isn't the entry point into Christianity. It is Christianity. If you want to grow in faith, go back to John 3.16. Go back to Ephesians. Grow in understanding of what God has done for you. If you're a Christian, remember and rejoice. If you're a Christian, constantly be reminded of the Gospel and constantly rejoice. If you're a Christian, the main judgment is that we are walking in darkness. What keeps us from delighting in the love of God is our pursuit of the darkness. Walk in the light as He is in the light. Walk by faith, pursuing the things of God so that you can truly rejoice in the love of God. If you're not a Christian, I pray God has blessed you to hear the gospel this morning. I pray that you are confronted with what your sin is and what your love of sin is. I pray that you will See that that sin is destroying you and will condemn you. That you can be free and forgiven by believing in Jesus Christ. Will you pray with me? The love of God. How measureless and how pure. Father, we thank You that You have loved us. Even while we rejected You and refused You. and hated you. You loved us. And so we can only come before you and praise you and thank you. Thank you Jesus for dying for our sins. Thank you Jesus for rising again so that we have hope and assurance of who we are in you. Holy Spirit move among us. Convict Christians, convict us of our sins so that we can delight in Christ and the Father. Convert and convince those who are rejecting you now. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.