R1616 Wonderful Love

An encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton, all about God's wonderful love. That is the topic, wonderful love, on today's edition of The Encouraging Word. If you haven't been by our website lately, drop in at www.tewonline.org. Wonderful resources there that'll help you grow your faith.

That's www.tewonline.org. The Encouraging Word. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. You know, I, like you, see a lot of Christmas through the eyes of our children, don't you? You just watch our boys and girls and it just comes alive. So I did a little research and I pulled down a couple of dear Santa letters.

I just would like to mention a few of them to you. These are the ones that I particularly loved, written by boys and girls. This is from Rebecca.

She's just six, okay? She said, Dear Santa, I wish that you will bring me a little live puppy and remember to poke holes in the box. Thank you for bringing lots of presents.

I just want to say thank you to you. This is from Claire. Dear Santa, it's Claire again, but I'm writing for my nine year old brother named Mitch. He wants a binder, bind a hole puncher with no N. I want a hole puncher too. And a skateboard, not spelt like it's supposed to be, but don't give the skateboard to him. Mitch is very kind-hearted, but he has a bad temper.

He also writes messy and he doesn't like to read. Just dropping these off here to give you a couple. Okay, this one comes from, I can't read the name of this, Nick, I think. Dear Santa, this year I would like Call of Duty for, is that wi-fi, some something guns, the Wimpy Kids series, some of you are more familiar than these than I am, and movies, some cars, a Pokemon poster, Pokemon cards, Pokemon action figure, my own tablet, an iWatch, MP3 player, headphones, Pokemon Pearl, and Dungeon DS games, black ops, Disneyland trip valued at $300, art studio, comics, own TV, and Pie Face.

This one is outstanding. Dear Santa, it's got actually a drawing on it. You better bring my pony this year.

In the bottom, or there will be consequences. Consequences not, I hope Santa saw that one there. All right, Dear Santa, you are awesome. Why do you bring us presents spelt wrong anyway?

One for Christmas, binoculars, old-fashioned, f-a-s-h-e-n-d, stuff, briefcase, b-r-e-e-f, ice skats, and lots of surprises. All right, this one is great. Dear Santa, I flushed my brother's head in the toilet bowl, in the toilet bowl, but can I have a puppy anyway?

Some of you parents need to get a life, eh? This one here really gets me. This is, if you talk about today's day and age, Dear Santa, how are you?

I'm good. Here's what I want for Christmas. If I could show you this, all it is, is h-t-t-p backslash w-w amazon.com g-p products b-o-o 32 h-f 60. I'd be a lousy Santa, I'm telling you.

I'd get so mixed up and it goes on there. Dear Santa, I believe in you. Did you notice the affirmation that you've got to win Santa over?

You know, you don't just ask somebody without winning them over. I believe your reindeer can fly. Santa, my presents I wanted are going to be given to me by my family, but I do have a favor for you to do.

Go to all the people that don't have food and give them food because I believe that's what Christmas is all about. You should hang that one up in the bridge. I love that.

That's absolutely fantastic. This one, Dear Santa, I mean, talk about dream. Dear Santa, I don't want much, but can I have an iPhone and a flat screen HD television?

She's four. Dear Santa, when it was yesterday, I thought I would try to be good the whole winter vacation, but it seems like I did not succeed. Will you still give me a present anyway?

This comes in the form of a question from Sophia. Dear Santa, Hi, I'm Devon and I would like to know, are you real? I don't believe, but my friends don't. So can you give me a signed picture of you and Mrs. Claus or something else? Please, please send back a bell from your sled and your picture. Oh, besides, you are really fat.

Or do you diet? Please answer all these requests and let me know. Two more, these are my best. Dear Santa, I've been very good this year for Christmas, not spelt like you spell Christmas.

I would like a Barbie house like my friend Macy, an iPad, a box of tacos, and a pet pig. All right, here's one more. This, okay, this takes the cake. This is it. This is the, this is it. Dear Santa, please text my dad.

He has my whole list. Open your Bibles to an incredible passage. I want to show you something amazing about the wonderful love of Christmas. You know, as I've been thinking about Christmas, the most incredible verse, which the Swafford family read so well for us just a moment ago, John 3 16 is just such a powerful passage. For God so loved the world that he gave the Lord Jesus, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life. Now I want you to just think about the wonderful love of God, this most amazing gift of the Lord Jesus. And I began to ask myself the question, why did God give that verse in that context? So just in 30 seconds, that comes at the end of Jesus' encounter with Nicodemus.

You'll remember that. And Nicodemus was just like you and me. He would have made a really good American. He was extremely religious and he knew all the answers and he had paid the price and he was a very good man, probably very generous.

He gave to the poor. He did everything right and he came to Jesus at night and he said, Jesus, what must I do to go to heaven? Can you imagine a person so culturally astute asking that question?

Can you imagine someone so civilized asking that question? Can you imagine someone who had studied, been to church many, many times asking that question? But he did. He came to Jesus and he said that. And Jesus told him, Jesus told him straight, said, well, Nicodemus, in order to go to heaven, you must be born again. Then Nicodemus said, well, how can you be born when you're old? I think that's a very good, and then Jesus explained that. He said, you've got to be born of water of your mother, but you've got to be born of the Spirit that's of God. And after he had explained that to him, we pick up in verse nine. There's a question there which culminates with John chapter three in verse 16.

Let me read it to you. Nicodemus said to him, but how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and we bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. I have told you earthly things and you do not believe.

How can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, I, Jesus, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so it is that the Son of Man must be lifted up that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but should have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, and I'm going to stop at this verse, but that the world through him might believe and might be saved. So here is Nicodemus, very much like me and like you, coming to Jesus, the most unlikely person you would think to ask a question like that, because everything about him was right, but he had this deep hunger that he couldn't explain. He wanted to know, and Jesus said to him, you want to go to heaven, you must be born again. Nicodemus said, now I don't get that, Jesus explained it. You've got to be born, yes, of water, of your mother, and you have to be born of the Spirit. And even having said that, Nicodemus then says, but how does that happen? I, okay, I'm trying to get this, but how does a sinful person like me get to heaven?

How can that possibly be? How can someone separated from God be reconciled to God? How can someone who is searching for peace find peace in God? You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton. He'll be back with the rest of today's message in just a moment, but if you've dropped by our website, t-e-w online dot o-r-g. You've seen the wonderful leather-bound daily devotional that we're making available right now to launch into a brand new year studying God's Word. Again, I hope you'll visit and get your copy. It's at t-e-w online dot o-r-g. While you're there, you might be hearing about the wonderful opportunities some friends have made to help us reach even more people with the love of Christ.

Here's Dr. Don with the details. Wow, God has done incredible things again this year through the encouraging word broadcast ministry. Do you know that over 135,000 people have called us telling us what this ministry means to them in their spiritual life, and so many are coming to know Jesus. A friend has just given a $200,000 challenge gift to this ministry, and we are asking, as he is asking, that our listeners will give an additional $300,000 to this ministry by December 31st so that God's Word can continue to go out across the world.

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Yes, we can do it. Again, the number to call is 866-899, word if the Lord is leading you to give. That's 866-899-9673, or meet us online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilson. And so Jesus stands there because he loves us. He loved Nicodemus so much, and he explains it to him again, and he explains the issue of his wonderful love.

That's what he explains. And he explains this wonderful love from four different perspectives. Number one, from heaven.

As you're asking, how can this be? He said, well I'm going to explain this love, first of all from heaven. So what does he say about heaven?

He says, you can't understand. Look, you have enough problems trying to understand earthly things. How much more are you going to struggle to understand heavenly things? This is a heaven thing. This is spiritual. Jesus is looking at Nicodemus and he's saying, I'm going to tell you this wonderful love. Don't try and figure it out.

Just accept it. Because I am the one from heaven. Look at me. He explains his wonderful love in telling Nicodemus, yes, you may be brilliant. You may have PhDs. You may be a good person.

You may be brilliant. But when it comes to your relationship with God through Jesus Christ, trust me, it's a heavenly thing. This is a spiritual issue.

Don't spend your time trying to figure it out and explain it. That's the beauty of faith. This wonderful love hands to us what we cannot explain. It's from heaven. Number two, he says it's given to earth.

That's how you explain this wonderful love. And he uses the illustration that of all people would have understood, Nicodemus would have understood this because he understood the Jewish history. He takes him back into the book of Numbers. And you look back there where there was Moses and the children of Israel, and they were surrounded by poisonous venomous snakes. Snakes, they were symbolical of the sinful world in which they live and people being bitten and they were dying left and right. And God said to Moses, make a bronze snake and lift it up. And I want you to know, you tell the people that when they look up, they need to keep looking up at what I have said you do. And when they look up at what you're lifting up in the wilderness, these people, even though they are getting bitten by the poison of the snakes, they will not die.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so it is, the Bible says, even so the Son of Man is lifted up so that all who would look to Him would believe in Him, will not perish but have everlasting life. That's this wonderful love. This is Jesus explaining, answering the question of Nicodemus. My question, it's your question during this wonderful Christmas.

How do you explain this wonderful love? It's from heaven, it's to earth. Number three, it's for everyone. You know, I love that verse 15 there, it's so powerful, so that whosoever believes that all people might know Him. And what Jesus was saying here at this point is, all people are eligible to look up to Jesus, but only those who believe in Him receive from Him eternal life. Whosoever believes, not whosoever looks. Whosoever believes, that word there means to accept, to trust this incredible, spiritual, hard to understand, mysterious, wonderful truth about heaven.

Whosoever believes, it's amazing. And then he says finally, but not conclusively, you want to understand this wonderful love, Nicodemus? It's out of love for God so loved, you want to explain the wonderful love of Christmas? You just explained it. God so loved, which you could have seen Karen and I in a shop not too long ago, trying to shop for our grandkids. It's just out of love. I was looking at things I have no earthly interest in.

I was looking things that cost far too much money, but it didn't seem to bother me. I was wanting to get it exactly right, Karen and I for every grandchild, their age group. We even went so far as to text one of the mothers to make sure that this one would be happy with this and that one. How do you explain the wonderful love of the Lord Jesus in terms of a people like you and me? Just look at how we respond to COVID. We're all so, in a way, beautifully individual, aren't we? We all have our own disposition and our own response and our own needs and our own framework. Someone said to me recently, you know, pastor, you'll never make everybody in the church happy. I said, hello, man.

Were you born yesterday or not? But let me tell you what you do, do. You keep preparing the food, the most delicious meal ever.

You keep the main thing, the main thing. You know what Jesus did? He gave himself. He loves us so much. Out of love. What does it mean it's out of love? That little word love there means that his love is complete.

You know, there's another whole story here, so. But if you want to understand the complete love of God, you have to unpack all the attributes of God. Are all incorporated into God so loved? Do you know that God has many attributes? He's infinite. He's immutable or unchangeable.

He's self-sufficient. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He knows everything.

He's omnipresent. He's wise. He's faithful.

He's good. He's just. He's merciful. He's gracious. He's loving. He's holy.

He's glorious. All of these attributes, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. So here comes Nicodemus. By the way, at night, he might have been a little embarrassed because he didn't want everybody to think for one minute that he didn't know. Because he was supposed to know everything. And besides, why would anybody want to associate with this Jesus? Lord, what must I do to go to heaven to receive eternal life? You must be born again.

What? I don't understand that. You must be born of water and the Spirit.

Well, how can that be? I'm coming to you because I've all of a sudden realized I'm a sinner and I'm separated from you. I'm condemned. Jesus said, let me explain this wonderful love. It's from heaven.

That explains everything, which means it doesn't need an explanation. Just look at me. That's why I've brought this to earth. I'm lifted up.

Now you look at me, you got all your explanation. I'm the way, the truth and the life. Oh, by the way, it's for everyone.

That means I died. I gave my life for everybody. Nobody's excluded.

Men, women, boys, girls, people from every tribe, nation, language, culture, everyone. And all who believe receive eternal life. You have to believe. What's this based on? God's love? What's his love? Everything God, nothing man. And it's all for you. What wonderful love? Would you bow your heads with me this morning?

Right there where you are today. You know, we stand on the eve of a beautiful Christmas week. Do you know Jesus? Why don't you give your life to him?

I want to help you today. Would you pray this prayer, dear God? I see Jesus lifted up.

I don't understand it. I struggle, but I believe. I look to him and I believe in him. I believe Jesus is God. I believe he died.

He was raised from the dead. And I believe that you will forgive me because you gave your life for me. And I will have eternal life in Jesus' name. If you prayed that prayer, wherever you are, would you raise a hand? Raise a hand to the Lord today. God bless you.

You can call that number. Remember, we're worshiping by every meal. Wherever you are right now, sitting in that chair, that office, and medical personnel that we love and admire, nurses and doctors.

Maybe you've just paused in between and you've looked at that TV monitor or you're listening, live streaming, giving your life to Christ. What a wonderful Christmas because it's a wonderful life. And we sure do love you. We're here for you. We're family together. God's house is open.

It's never closed. Never. And he calls us to worship him together. We pray this prayer with thanksgiving in our hearts. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Perhaps the Lord has stirred your heart. We would love to speak with you right now. There's someone ready to talk with you and pray with you about what it is to rededicate your life to Christ or give your life to Jesus. Call us at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 or meet us online at tewonline.org where you'll discover great resources like this. Many people have endured a lot of changes, loss, and hardships over the past two years. As you reflect upon your life this season, think about giving a gift of hope and encouragement to your friends and family this Christmas. This season, Dr. Wilton wants to encourage you to make a commitment to meet Jesus every day so you can not only learn more about him, but be able to live a life of absolute trust and not fear in anticipation of his return. With your gift of $25 or more support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive Heaven, Life, and the Resurrection, a beautiful 52-week leather-bound devotional written by 52 trusted pastors and church leaders, including Dr. Wilton. You will find blessings upon blessings as you read uplifting scripture verses, daily devotions, and prayers. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request the new devotional.

That's 866-899-9673. This will make great Christmas gifts of hope and encouragement to those who need it so desperately right now. Thank you for your continued partnership. Merry Christmas to you from all of us here at The Encouraging Word. Our time's gone for now, but let's stay connected on our website at www.tewonline.org. Don't forget the resources, the daily devotional, the book about Dr. Billy Graham, it's all there at www.tewonline.org.