SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: Today I decided I'm gonna wear a navy blazer in honor of Saint Patrick and Saint Jeremy.
SPEAKER_00: So he's gonna be a missionary in Iowa.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm not sure if you gotta use a clover leaf to teach people about the Trinity, but uh this morning I'm gonna talk about a passage that is very well known to us.
SPEAKER_00: But before I get there, I would like to tell you a little story about uh people who like using their connections.
SPEAKER_00: We all like, you know, bragging about our connections.
SPEAKER_00: And so it was.
SPEAKER_00: A group of students uh were uh traveling Europe and they were going to attend this uh banquet of very distinguished men, and they thought they'll start using their connections and do some name-dropping.
SPEAKER_00: You see, these students were from Amherst College, and one of their former classmates were none other than President Calvin Coolidge.
SPEAKER_00: At that point of time, he was in office.
SPEAKER_00: So they sent him a telegram and they asked him to just kind of, you know, say something about them and something about Amherst College, and uh, and they would hope that he would get back to them.
SPEAKER_00: So the night of the banquet, the masters of ceremonies rose and he said, I just got a telegram here from the office of the President of the United States.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody was an uproar, everybody was excited, pushing back in their chairs, turning towards the speaker, waiting expectantly for the message of President Calvin Coolidge.
SPEAKER_00: The Master of Ceremony unfolded the telegram, everybody held their breath, and he started reading.
SPEAKER_00: Dear friends, greetings, Calvin Coolidge.
SPEAKER_00: Full stop.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the message?
SPEAKER_00: I bet you everybody went, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Where's the message?
SPEAKER_00: There is a salutation, there's a greeting, and that's it.
SPEAKER_00: Now you gotta remember communications in the 1920s wasn't quite what it was.
SPEAKER_00: Who have you remember telegrams?
SPEAKER_00: Who of you actually loved to receive a telegram?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we've got one, two.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's bad because I actually remembered receiving a telegram.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my mom and dad.
SPEAKER_00: And I looked at that, it was just this little strip of information because you paid by the the letter, and uh wasn't the most effective form of communication.
SPEAKER_00: But if you think about connections and dropped connections, uh probably one of the most disconnected verses in the Bible is what?
SPEAKER_00: John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: What is the most memorized verse in the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: What is the verse we use most in our communication of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Probably John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: And if you open up your pew Bibles to page 888.
SPEAKER_00: John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: Now, John 3.16 doesn't just hang in mid-air.
SPEAKER_00: It is actually connected with a context.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we we tend to pull John 3.16 out of the context, and then it doesn't quite carry the meaning that God attended it to have.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read from verse 14 so I can connect all the dots for you.
SPEAKER_00: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works be exposed.
SPEAKER_00: We can see there's a connection here between John 3.16 and other verses, and that's why I title my message here today, The 316 Connection.
SPEAKER_00: It's a connecting verse, it connects a lot of thoughts together.
SPEAKER_00: You will see there that John 3.16 connects God's love with the cross, verses 14 and 15.
SPEAKER_00: It also connects death, judgment, and condemnation with God's love.
SPEAKER_00: John 3, 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_00: God's love in turn is contrasted with that of what humanity loves.
SPEAKER_00: John 3, 19 and 20.
SPEAKER_00: Men love darkness.
SPEAKER_00: We become so comfortable with John 3.16 that I really hope today we will hopefully see how it connects so we can get a better understanding of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: We live in an age, in a time, where people are quite enamored with this idea of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: God so loved the world, that's where it stops.
SPEAKER_00: But however, it gives people a distorted and disconnected understanding of the way in which God loves.
SPEAKER_00: And today I'm going to highlight three truths from this passage about God's love, which is often disconnected, obscured, and often misunderstood because of humanity's love for sin.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we will we love sin, and so we will distort God's love to meet our desires and needs.
SPEAKER_00: Unless we understand these truths, the gospel of God's love will seem somewhat deserved and merited for all people.
SPEAKER_00: Because after all, God loves the world.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, people should see that God's love is wholly undeserved and unmerited.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you three things here from the passage.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved can be expanded in three ways.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the universality of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the peculiarity of God's love, and number three, the particularity of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: I should have used words that are easier to pronounce, but hopefully you won't forget these.
SPEAKER_00: The universality of God's love, the peculiarity of God's love, and number three, the particularity of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the particularity of God's love or the universality of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, God's universal love for all people.
SPEAKER_00: God's universal love for all people.
SPEAKER_00: Read there with me, John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: It says there, for God so loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: This sends a very strong message about the universality of God's love, which is of course contrasted with humanity's universal love for darkness.
SPEAKER_00: When I speak of the universality of God's love, I mean that God's love is expressed to the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike.
SPEAKER_00: This is consistent with passages like 1 Timothy 2.4.
SPEAKER_00: God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth.
SPEAKER_00: What this passage in John is saying to us is that God does not discriminate.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a group of people that he says, I won't love them.
SPEAKER_00: There is no distinction here.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't say, well, these are Jews and these are Greeks, these are circumcised, these are uncircumcised.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to love them.
SPEAKER_00: Love one and not the other.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is for the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: But his love has a purpose and an aim.
SPEAKER_00: His love is to provide a solution to a universal problem.
SPEAKER_00: What is the universal problem for humanity?
SPEAKER_00: Is that we die.
SPEAKER_00: That is a problem.
SPEAKER_00: We all die.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, 12 says, therefore, just as one through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men.
SPEAKER_00: All people, because all sin.
SPEAKER_00: Universally, humanity has this problem of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: And the John 316 connection aims to provide a solution that is universal for all humanity.
SPEAKER_00: All have sinned.
SPEAKER_00: But there's even a bigger problem than death.
SPEAKER_00: Death, my dear friend, is not your biggest problem.
SPEAKER_00: Death is a problem, but not your biggest problem.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5.18 says, so then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men.
SPEAKER_00: Condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: We have a bigger problem than death, and that is what follows death.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 9.27.
SPEAKER_00: And in as much as it is appointed for men to die.
SPEAKER_00: Once.
SPEAKER_00: Got to put that in.
SPEAKER_00: And after this comes judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Death is one thing, but what follows death is even a bigger problem for all of humanity as the condemnation and judgment by the living God.
SPEAKER_00: And so can you see that God's love for the entire world is to deal with their greatest problem.
SPEAKER_00: That is the problem of death and the problem of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And we can see this John 3.16 connection here with John 3.17.
SPEAKER_00: It's all connected.
SPEAKER_00: Read with me 3.17 and 18.
SPEAKER_00: For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
SPEAKER_00: He who believes in him is not judged.
SPEAKER_00: He who does not believe has already been judged because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten of God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God's love does not exclude this thought of judgment and condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, what it shows here is that God's love indeed is gracious and patient and forbearing, not desiring for any to perish, but for all.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, all to come to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter 3.9.
SPEAKER_00: So what it is saying here in John 3.17 is that in God's love, what he did is he granted somewhat of an amnesty period for humanity, giving humanity the opportunity to be saved before they are judged.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord is not slow about his promises as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: God's love seems a little paradoxical here in the sense that there is judgment still on the table.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't just like wipe away judgment, and in our times and in our society, we somehow think that because God loves the world, that he's like, yeah, let's forget about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just bury that one.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just sweep that one under the carpet.
SPEAKER_00: You see, this is true with humanity.
SPEAKER_00: You you you you we think of love in terms of letting someone off the hook.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be loving, let the man off the hook.
SPEAKER_00: You think of a criminal deserving of, let's say, the death penalty, and then we go, oh, that's not loving.
SPEAKER_00: Let him go.
SPEAKER_00: Just let him free.
SPEAKER_00: That is love.
SPEAKER_00: That is not love, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: That is a love for sin.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you something here about the peculiarity of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: The peculiarity of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: God shows his love in a very peculiar way.
SPEAKER_00: The love provides a peculiar solution to all people.
SPEAKER_00: All people.
SPEAKER_00: God's love for the world and its inhabitants, it's demonstrated in a very peculiar way.
SPEAKER_00: And it's indicated by that verse, that phrase in John 3.16 that says, He gave his only begotten son.
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: You see, we as human beings uh we we we often uh demonstrate our love in an interesting way.
SPEAKER_00: We have this warm feeling towards this person.
SPEAKER_00: We we like, well, I love the person in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: But but God's love is expressed.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is demonstrated.
SPEAKER_00: And it's demonstrated to the world.
SPEAKER_00: But it's peculiar, it's different.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the look at John 3.16 very carefully, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: Look at their verse 16, it says, for God so loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we think of that word so loved, that phrase so loved, as speaking of the intensity and degree of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: You got God, you so, so, so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what it says.
SPEAKER_00: That's a misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_00: That is not speaking of the degree or the intensity of God's love, but rather of the way in which God loves.
SPEAKER_00: God loved the world in this way.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: He gave his only begotten son.
SPEAKER_00: That is in which way God demonstrated and expressed and acted upon his love.
SPEAKER_00: The New Living Translation, I think, does a good job here of translating this.
SPEAKER_00: For this is how God loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: That he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: So the word so there indicates the way in which God loved, and it's a peculiar way of loving, and it is in the form of a sacrificial gift.
SPEAKER_00: And that sacrificial gift is connected with what?
SPEAKER_00: The Christmas story or the Easter story?
SPEAKER_00: The Easter story, dear brothers and sisters, and this is another part of the 316 connection.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 15 there.
SPEAKER_00: It says there, or let's go back to verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: It says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the world and as even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
SPEAKER_00: What is that speaking of?
SPEAKER_00: That is the allusion to the cross, so that whoever believes in him have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This is obviously going back to Numbers 21, 8 and 9, where Moses made a bronze snake and put that bronze snake on a pole so that whoever turned and looked towards this bronze snake would have life and not die because of the venomous snake bites.
SPEAKER_00: You see, venomous snakes biting people, rebellious people, I think is a fitting illustration here of God's judgment and of course the wages of sin.
SPEAKER_00: What are the wages of sin?
SPEAKER_00: Death.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 3.23.
SPEAKER_00: And so the only means of escaping death in this illustration is to look to the Son of Man who is lifted up upon a cross.
SPEAKER_00: So we cannot connect or disconnect rather God's love from the cross.
SPEAKER_00: If we want to exclude the offensiveness of the cross, we are giving people an incorrect understanding of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: We must speak about the cross, which is often a very offensive thing for people.
SPEAKER_00: But this atonement made on the cross is a message that is valid for each and every human being on this planet.
SPEAKER_00: If God's love encompasses the entire world, so must his atonement for sin cover the sins of the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: John 1 29.
SPEAKER_00: The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the world.
SPEAKER_00: God's love for the world was.
SPEAKER_00: Not something he felt for the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's rather what he did for the world.
SPEAKER_00: Namely to give his son as a gift to the world to take away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 1.29.
SPEAKER_00: God's love for the world was not something he felt for the world, but rather what he did for the world, providing an atoning sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God and his judgment.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 2, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in the demonstration of God's love, he did so in a very peculiar way.
SPEAKER_00: You see, human beings, if we express our love for somebody, we often do that even in the form of a gift.
SPEAKER_00: But often we give people jewelry or flowers or a fishing pole or something nice that they could use.
SPEAKER_00: But you see, God did not give us what we wanted.
SPEAKER_00: He gave us what we needed.
SPEAKER_00: And we needed someone to take away our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And that who is included as sinners?
SPEAKER_00: Just about everybody on this planet, with the exception of Jesus Christ, who did not sin.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how God demonstrated his love, dear friends.
SPEAKER_00: He did so in a very peculiar way, Romans 5, 8.
SPEAKER_00: But God demonstrates his own love towards us, that in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: God's love cannot be separated from the work of atonement on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And this atonement is a once for all completed atonement.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world once for all.
SPEAKER_00: And so very peculiarly, God's love is not a sentimental love, it's not an emotional love, it's not the type of love that we really, as human beings, always understand or want.
SPEAKER_00: We often want people to love us in a particular way.
SPEAKER_00: But God loved us to give us not what we wanted, but what we needed.
SPEAKER_00: And so, dear brothers and sisters, can you see that the John 3.16 connection connects more to the Easter story than the Christmas story?
SPEAKER_00: And while God gave the world this gift, it was a peculiar gift, that of making atonement and payment for sins by sacrificing his only begotten son on the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: The benefits of that atonement and that sacrifice, however, is not going to benefit the entire world.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to benefit a particular people in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that's my third point here is the particularity of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is a love that is particularly beneficial to a certain people.
SPEAKER_00: God's particular love for some people.
SPEAKER_00: Who are those some people?
SPEAKER_00: Who are those particular people?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me take you to the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That's always a good thought.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes, whoever believes without exception, will not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: So that whoever believes in him have, will have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, there's a particular benefit from this particular love for the world, is that it gives eternal life to sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Is that a something, a benefit that the entire world will have?
SPEAKER_00: That's not what it says here.
SPEAKER_00: It says that there's a particular group of people who will benefit from God's love gift.
SPEAKER_00: Those who receive it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: You buy a car insurance, automobile insurance, right?
SPEAKER_00: You pay for it.
SPEAKER_00: You can be glad you don't live in California.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy what it's out there, but you pay it, you sign for it, it's yours, but it really doesn't cover everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm in an accident, I can't go to your insurer and go, hey, I didn't get this insurance.
SPEAKER_00: You know, could you just kind of help me out here?
SPEAKER_00: The guy's like, no.
SPEAKER_00: And the same here.
SPEAKER_00: The benefits of this peculiar love gift is applied and beneficial to who?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes.
SPEAKER_00: That's the particular group of people that will benefit.
SPEAKER_00: It's a comprehensive.
SPEAKER_00: What is eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal life is a comprehensive solution to this thing called death.
SPEAKER_00: That's number one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, it is a comprehensive solution to this problem of judgment and condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: It's got great benefits.
SPEAKER_00: Sign up.
SPEAKER_00: Takes care of death, it takes care of judgment, and it happens right now.
SPEAKER_00: You see, and while God's love is universally demonstrated and expressed through Christ's death on the cross, the reception of the benefits and the particular application of those benefits are only helpful to a particular group of people.
SPEAKER_00: And who are they?
SPEAKER_00: And what are the benefits?
SPEAKER_00: Well, number one, the who?
SPEAKER_00: They are the ones who believe.
SPEAKER_00: What are the benefits?
SPEAKER_00: As I said, the benefits are twofold.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is it's a comprehensive plan against judgment and condemnation and also the dealing with the problem of death in a sufficient way.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at this word believe because it's very important that we understand this word belief because it's a particular group of people.
SPEAKER_00: It's the believing people.
SPEAKER_00: Look at John 3:15.
SPEAKER_00: So that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Believe, have.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing about eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: We think about eternal life as something future, and it's not.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal life is something you have.
SPEAKER_00: Now as you believe.
SPEAKER_00: The moment you believe, you receive the gift of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: It's immediate and it has benefits and consequences that reverberates into eternity.
SPEAKER_00: But what does it mean to believe or to be believing?
SPEAKER_00: That whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: You see, eternal life is something that you receive.
SPEAKER_00: It is the application of God's love, that peculiar type of love that is applied, the benefits of that is applied to your life.
SPEAKER_00: And those who believe, they have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: They have it.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal life is given to those who have a simple faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to believe.
SPEAKER_00: It is the simple faith in the person and the work of the only begotten Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: You see, eternal life provides a comprehensive solution to a universal problem of death and damnation, because it says there in 316, they shall not perish.
SPEAKER_00: So there's something you have and something you will not have.
SPEAKER_00: You will not have condemnation or damnation.
SPEAKER_00: That word perish there in 316, it means utter destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Utter destruction.
SPEAKER_00: You will not have this utter destruction of God's judgment if you believe.
SPEAKER_00: John 6.47.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: It's right now you covered.
SPEAKER_00: Right now you covered.
SPEAKER_00: Believing connects us with God's love.
SPEAKER_00: Believing in the work and in the person of the only begotten of God, Jesus Christ, will give us eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And the benefit of that is you will not experience condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: Does any other verse in the Bible confirm this?
SPEAKER_00: Anything comes to mind?
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8:1.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Condemnation is not something that, okay, the, you know, that's that's still something looming over me.
SPEAKER_00: We will figure that out on judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what this means.
SPEAKER_00: If you have eternal life, God's condemnation and judgment lifts from you.
SPEAKER_00: That should be a weight from our shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: Lift it.
SPEAKER_00: First John 4, 17.
SPEAKER_00: For by this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Because as he is, so also are we in this world.
SPEAKER_00: For those who believe, those particular individuals in this world who believe, they have this confidence that they can sleep well.
SPEAKER_00: They will die yet have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: They will die and not need to worry about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you this: whether people like this or not, and I will show this from the passage, they try and talk themselves out of this idea of death, and they try and talk themselves out of this idea of judgment and condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: No, you might sit here today and be very smart and intellectual, and you might have read some philosophers, good for you, and you might say, condemnation and death, that's good for you, Anton.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to believe in that stuff, that's good for you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in it.
SPEAKER_00: And that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: But if I say to you, I don't believe in pelicans, you might go, you are nuts.
SPEAKER_00: So, well, I've never seen a pelican.
SPEAKER_00: I actually have seen a pelican, but let's say I haven't seen a pelican.
SPEAKER_00: He would go, it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not, pelicans are real.
SPEAKER_00: And I might say, Bring me a pelican.
SPEAKER_00: They're coming.
SPEAKER_00: Spring is here.
SPEAKER_00: Believe it or not.
SPEAKER_00: The pelicans are coming.
SPEAKER_00: So is judgment.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good message, right?
SPEAKER_00: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You see, believing in the only begotten of God gives real people who have real problems a real solution to life's greatest problems.
SPEAKER_00: And that is death and condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friends, this idea that John 4.17, we may have confidence in the day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: That's a huge thing.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you whether people would like to admit it or not.
SPEAKER_00: And they more likely not to admit it.
SPEAKER_00: But they somehow in the back of their minds think about this idea of a creator God who they have to answer to.
SPEAKER_00: And they they whether they like it or not, whether they believe in it or not, in the back of their minds, they think, Will I be okay?
SPEAKER_00: Will I be okay?
SPEAKER_00: For those who believe, they say, I am okay.
SPEAKER_00: Not that I will be okay, I am okay because the condemnation is lifted.
SPEAKER_00: As Romans 8 once says, no condemnation, no condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: You will not perish, my dear friends, you will not be condemned to hell if and if only you would believe.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you today and be honest with yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You can put up the appearances and you can put up the face as much as you like, but do you have a confidence about the day of judgment?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a confidence?
SPEAKER_00: Do you rationalize why you would be confident in that day?
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you it is not merited, it is not worked for, it is not earned.
SPEAKER_00: This confidence comes with eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Where does eternal life begin?
SPEAKER_00: It begins the moment you believe.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal life is a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It is not earned, it is not worked for, it is simply something we have.
SPEAKER_00: We possess it the moment we believe.
SPEAKER_00: It comes through faith in Christ alone, by grace alone.
SPEAKER_00: Faith results in eternal life, but eternal life results in a few things.
SPEAKER_00: How would you know if you have believed?
SPEAKER_00: How would you know you have faith?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you can say to me, I I did.
SPEAKER_00: I did believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I do believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I do believe that Jesus died and rose again from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: I believe in all that jazz.
SPEAKER_00: I might say, okay, do you have a love for God?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's a telltale sign that you possess eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: What about loving the things that are important to God?
SPEAKER_00: Namely his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Do you obey the commandments of God?
SPEAKER_00: Number two.
SPEAKER_00: And do you have a love for God's people?
SPEAKER_00: Number three.
SPEAKER_00: Let me quickly take you through that.
SPEAKER_00: Turn uh to first John.
SPEAKER_00: And first John is particularly helpful when we study John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: Go to 1 John 2.15.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 2.15.
SPEAKER_00: Do not love the world, nor love the things of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I said people who have eternal life, they love the things of God, not the things of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But he warns us, he says, if if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in M.
SPEAKER_00: You see that love gift, that peculiar love gift, the benefits of that have not been applied to you.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what about 1 John 3:4?
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
SPEAKER_00: And let's go on.
SPEAKER_00: That means you are not obeying the commandments of God.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: We know that we have passed out of death into life, meaning you have eternal life, because we love the brethren.
SPEAKER_00: He who does not love abides in death.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the most difficult things that I often see for churchgoers to do is to love the very people who Christ died for.
SPEAKER_00: There's a fundamental problem here, dear friends, if you do not have a love for the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says you've not gone from death to life.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to John 3.16.
SPEAKER_00: That's where it began.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, meaning that they have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know if you have eternal life, eternal life is not something you will have, it's something you have right now.
SPEAKER_00: It is this particular state of being, it's a disposition.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about do you love God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love the things that are important to God?
SPEAKER_00: And number three, do you love the people of God?
SPEAKER_00: John 3.36.
SPEAKER_00: He who believes in the Son has eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: You have it right there, the moment you believe.
SPEAKER_00: But John 3.36, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him, or on him, rather.
SPEAKER_00: What this verse is saying, if there is no love to obey Jesus and to obey him unequivocally, there's no eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Yet, yet, it can't change.
SPEAKER_00: No, don't understand me wrongly here.
SPEAKER_00: Love and obedience do not merit eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get this right.
SPEAKER_00: Love and obedience, these two things do not merit eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, eternal life produces love and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Faith in the only begotten of God results in eternal life, yet, eternal life produces the fruits of love and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal life produces a particular type of fruit in a particular group of people.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, these fruits are also not present in those who do not possess eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And that is very clear from John 3, 19 and 20.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read that.
SPEAKER_00: This is the judgment that the light has come into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And people are like, hooray! Here's the solution.
SPEAKER_00: Happy days are coming.
SPEAKER_00: No, it says a man loved Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness rather than the light.
SPEAKER_00: For the deeds were evil.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
SPEAKER_00: If God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, surely people would go, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we've been waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: Happy days.
SPEAKER_00: But it says there, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.
SPEAKER_00: For everyone who does evil hates the light.
SPEAKER_00: They do not come to the light for what reason?
SPEAKER_00: By any chance, they might be convicted that they are sinners.
SPEAKER_00: You know what people fear most is being convicted that they are sinners.
SPEAKER_00: It's often the hardest thing for me to do when I evangelize somebody, for them to come to the realization that they are sinners who stand condemned.
SPEAKER_00: What's the first thing people would say?
SPEAKER_00: Would say, well, uh, I'm not I'm just a human.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know you're not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: You a sinner! But not only just a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: You a sinner who loves your sin.
SPEAKER_00: That makes you happy.
SPEAKER_00: And men love darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Men hate light.
SPEAKER_00: They hate light because they are fearful that their deeds will be exposed, and maybe for some reason or not, they might not want to sin anymore, or they could not have this sin anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Who's the true you?
SPEAKER_00: The true you can be described as what you love, what you hate, and what you fear.
SPEAKER_00: That's the true you.
SPEAKER_00: That says a lot about who we are on the inside, the true you.
SPEAKER_00: Universally, you and I came into this world loving darkness, hating the light, and we so fearful that somebody's gonna spoil our favorite activity, which is to sin.
SPEAKER_00: If people only love darkness less, they might find an opportunity to see God's love in its proper perspective.
SPEAKER_00: If people would only love the light more than they love darkness, they might find what they've really been looking for.
SPEAKER_00: What people are really looking for is a solution to death and judgment.
SPEAKER_00: That is ingrained in us.
SPEAKER_00: But where do we find a solution for death and judgment?
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere but the light.
SPEAKER_00: That is how we are programmed, that's how we leave the womb, that's how we begin life.
SPEAKER_00: Wired to gravitate towards darkness.
SPEAKER_00: In some way or another, we share something with animals like bats, rats, and cockroaches.
SPEAKER_00: But at least they do some good in light or in darkness.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they eat all the little scraps.
SPEAKER_00: We are creeped out by bats, rats, and cockroaches because they are creatures of the dark.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we are not creeped out about who we are as human beings.
SPEAKER_00: We love darkness rather than light.
SPEAKER_00: And what we do in darkness is absolutely despicable in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a wonderful quote of Charles Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The dislike of Christ is caused by a love for sin.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody doesn't like Jesus, it's because they love their sin.
SPEAKER_00: If men did not hug their sins, they would embrace the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: You see why men do not come to Christ?
SPEAKER_00: They do not want to give up their sin.
SPEAKER_00: They do not want to be made uneasy in it.
SPEAKER_00: They are afraid of being reproved.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is light.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is light.
SPEAKER_00: This word is light.
SPEAKER_00: And if we bring the light to people, exposing them for who they truly are, they tend to flee.
SPEAKER_00: And as they flee, we need to tap them on the shoulders and say, This is actually good news.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to tell you about the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: Darkness, rather than being a fearful place, becomes a comfortable place for people.
SPEAKER_00: The place they choose to live in because they are fearful they might find out about the true me.
SPEAKER_00: As one author said, they cut themselves off from the light.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because their deeds were evil.
SPEAKER_00: Immersed in wrongdoing, they have no wish to be disturbed.
SPEAKER_00: They refuse to be shaken out of their comfortable sinfulness.
SPEAKER_00: My dear brothers and sisters, you may go, oh, what a hellfire and broomstone preacher! Terrible.
SPEAKER_00: Away with them.
SPEAKER_00: What I am doing here is to shake you out of your comfortable sinfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Don't play with sin.
SPEAKER_00: It will suck you into the darkness deeper and deeper, and you will become blunt and blind to the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is what another author said is ignorance is not what keeps people from believing in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's their love for darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what John 3, 19 and 20 showing here is here's God's love, and yet we are groveling here in the things that we love.
SPEAKER_00: Living in darkness means we are denying, deflecting, and defending ourselves all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Fearful that we might be discovered as sinners who stand in judgment of God.
SPEAKER_00: My dear friend, I'm pleading with you today.
SPEAKER_00: Come to the light, be done with darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Cut that love affair with sin.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful and righteous, ready to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: The atonement made on the cross by the only begotten Son of God is for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's for you.
SPEAKER_00: But you must believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: In conclusion, to disconnect God's love from sin and judgment is like that disconnected telegram from President Coolidge.
SPEAKER_00: There was some disconnection that happened there.
SPEAKER_00: To disconnect God's love from the duty to believe in his love gift is to disconnect the message from the author and the receiver.
SPEAKER_00: It's very much like those students at Amherst College.
SPEAKER_00: To disconnect love and obedience from eternal life and God's love.
SPEAKER_00: It's much like a telegram that has a salutation and a greeting, but there's no message.
SPEAKER_00: So, my dear friends, may I encourage you, as you share John 3.16 with people, don't just give them the salutation and the greeting.
SPEAKER_00: Give them the entire message.
SPEAKER_00: Or it is in California.
SPEAKER_00: Give them the whole enchilada.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, your love for the world is so astounding and so amazing.
SPEAKER_00: We are truly thankful, Lord, that you did not come to the world to judge it.
SPEAKER_00: For who will be able to stand?
SPEAKER_00: For we have all sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: We all stand condemned.
SPEAKER_00: Yet in your great love, you sent your only begotten Son as a peculiar gift to the world to die on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: May we not become inoculated to this message.
SPEAKER_00: May we may not be blunt and comfortable with this great call to love God back by believing in his only begotten Son.
SPEAKER_00: Help us today.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, God, if your spirit has stirred up conviction, uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe someone sitting here with a troubled heart, may they not leave this premises today without being reconciled with their Creator God.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.