Why, why, why would an offended God be good to sinners whom He could righteously judge, wipe off the entire earth, bring it all to an end in vindication of His justice and holiness?
Why would He do that? Because God so loved the world. We're glad you've joined us for The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hi, I'm Bill Wright. Last time, we began our look at what may be one of the most well-known verses in Scripture, John 3.16, focusing on God's immeasurable gift of love towards mankind through His Son's sacrifice on Calvary as payment for our sins. Today, Don brings us the second half of his message called God So Loved the World, looking at the promise of God the Father to those who receive His Son, Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior. So turn once again in your Bible to John chapter 3, verse 16, and we'll begin today's lesson.
Here's Don in The Truth Pulpit. This is what Scripture says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and your sin demands justice, and you cannot pay that justice in yourself. You, as a sinful, finite creature, cannot pay the penalty that a holy, infinite, uncreated, holy God requires for the violation of His law. You're lost!
You are utterly and completely lost. And so, my friends, that's the background of what is being said to us here in John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
When it says God so loved the world, understand, He loved a sinful world. He loved a world that hated Him, and out of that love, He provided a gift, the gift of God, the gift of Christ, the gift of one who could satisfy the demands of His justice on behalf of sinful people. What a gift.
What a gift. And so, the love of God motivated God to give a gift of God on behalf of sinners just like you, just like me. And you see, as men and women under the judgment of God, the judgment of God humbles us.
It silences us. When we picture ourselves at the judgment seat of God and He asks us, as it were, why should I let you into heaven, one of the first things that the one with understanding says, God, if you're to let me into heaven, it obviously can't be anything in me because I don't deserve it. The last thing that you want to do in the presence of a holy God is to say that He owes you something based on your righteousness.
There's no such thing. So if we are to be saved at all, it's going to have to be from something outside of us. It's going to have to be something that is given to us because we can't earn it on our own. And in these precious, familiar words of John 3.16, we see that God loved a sinful humanity and He gave a gift to them that they didn't deserve found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that gift, we've already explained, it was found and fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ at the cross. He came with a mission. He came to be a sin-bearing sacrifice. He didn't come simply to be an example to us. He didn't come to show us the way so that we could live up to that example as if we could save ourselves by our own works.
He came to die. The purpose of the coming of God to earth was so that He would die on behalf of sinful men. Well, you see the love of God, you see the gift of God. Thirdly, we see the promise of God here in John 3.16. The promise of God.
God loved the world. He gave His only begotten Son unto this purpose, this promise that is given, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. It's kind of a two-sided promise.
It's kind of a two-sided promise and it's really clear and simple in one sense. The one who does not believe in Christ perishes. The one who believes in Christ has eternal life. In other words, all of humanity is brought to this crossroads in the presentation of Jesus Christ.
All of humanity is brought to a point of separation when Christ is presented to them. You either receive Christ and humbly bow before Him as Lord. You believe in Him and what we mean by this, what we mean by this faith is that you receive Christ and you rest in Him. You receive Christ as Savior and you rest in His righteousness. You rest in His death on the cross as your only hope of reconciliation with God. You forsake utterly everything about your own righteousness and you rest and believe in Christ completely, entirely, and exclusively for your righteousness and reconciliation with God. That's what it means to believe in Him.
My friend, the text is so plain and simple, isn't it? The one who believes in Him shall not perish. There is this promise of God that if you would believe in Christ as we've spoken about here today, you will not die. You will not perish in hell. You will not be sent away at the final judgment. But by contrast, you will have eternal life. You will receive life of equality that comes from God. Forgiveness and new life and new birth given to those in Christ.
Now look, I know it's more fashionable to pass over these kinds of things, but you can look at me and see I don't care much about fashion, right? Revelation chapter 20 verse 21, what does it mean to perish? What does it mean to perish and what are those of you facing who are rejecting Christ today? Revelation 20 verse 11, what does it mean to perish?
Let's let scripture tell us. I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small standing before the throne and books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds.
Those deeds of which scripture has already condemned as we've seen. The sea gave up the dead which were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. An eternal death of unending punishment. As we've taught in the past, Jesus himself taught about the reality of hell. He taught that hell is real. Hell is painful and hell is eternal and hell is the destination for all sinners who do not repent of sin and receive Christ.
There is one and only one way. And so, my friends, I've felt a particular compulsion today to emphasize these things to you. Go back to John chapter 3, verse 16 with me.
We see the significance of it. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish. While you have breath and while you are under the sound of the gospel, there is opportunity for you to be reconciled to a holy God. It is found and presented to you in Christ. There's nothing that I can offer you. There's nothing this church can do for you.
There is nothing that we have to give you that can help you. We can only present Christ to you and plead with you to repent of sin and to come to Christ for your eternal salvation. And the promise of God that we see here is that the one who receives Christ like that doesn't experience that eternal death, does not perish eternally as Scripture speaks, but is given a gift instead, the gift of eternal life, the gift of salvation, the gift of forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to a holy God. Look over it and go back again to 1 John.
1 John helps us understand some of the statements in the Gospel of John. 1 John chapter 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins, my dear unsaved friend, if you would go to Christ confessing your sins, go to him in repentance, forsaking your sin, calling upon him for mercy.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and he is righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The promise of eternal life, the promise of forgiveness is incalculable. You coming to God with a burden of immeasurable guilt and violations against his holy law, God promising you that he'll wipe the slate clean, that he will not hold those sins against you for the sake of his Son, that he will forgive you and receive you and accept you as though you were as righteous as Christ himself if you will simply put your faith in Christ and Christ alone for your eternal salvation. That you would acknowledge Christ as Lord and submit to him and rely on him as the one person, the one thing, for lack of a better term, that can reconcile you to God and bring forgiveness of your sins. If you receive Christ like that, the promise of God is eternal life. That the Spirit of God will come and indwell you, that you will be given a quality of life that is joy and peace inside and with unending blessing in heaven for you forever and ever without end, amen. Promise of God. And so let's kind of reverse engineer this and think about the majesty of forgiveness of a gift of righteousness that leads into eternal life in heaven. Laid upon you, given to you who were sinful, guilty, and a rebel against God and had nothing of your own that you could do to reconcile yourself to him. How does that gift, how could we ever get a gift like that?
Well, it's provided in the gift of Christ, specifically secured for us at the cross of Calvary. Well why would God do that? Why, why, why would an offended God be good to sinners whom he could righteously judge, wipe off the entire earth, bring it all to an end in vindication of his justice and holiness?
Why would he do that? Because God so loved the world that God was gracious to sinners and sent Christ to secure that gift for untold numbers who would one day believe in him. And so here we are. It's not that everyone receives this gift. It's not that everyone gets saved. The fact of the matter is that Jesus said, comparatively speaking, there's not many that do.
Comparatively speaking. I mean, in the context of billions and billions of people who are on the world now, if millions and millions get saved, that's comparatively few, but it's still an awful lot of undeserved grace coming down. But let me remind you, turn with me to Matthew chapter seven here. And while there is this promise of God for eternal life, it's incumbent upon a preacher of the gospel to encourage you, to warn you, not to trifle with it. Not to walk away from the presentation of Christ and shrug it off as though you had simply heard something on equal value with a commercial for detergent soap.
No, we're talking about matters of great eternal consequence. And many, many people, blind in their sin, dead in trespasses, will walk away as though I had been speaking foolish things not worthy of the time that it took to hear them. Well, my friend, I trust that that's not you.
I trust that that's not you. I trust that the Spirit of God would have mercy on many of you in this hour to help you see Christ and to draw you to faith in Him. But with the help of the Spirit of God, I want you to see that this opportunity that is before you to receive Christ, to be saved, is not something to be treated lightly. You say, well, when you say it's only Christ, you're saying every other religion is wrong and is condemned. That's right.
That's exactly what I'm saying. But it's not just me in some kind of proud moment saying, this is the teaching of Scripture. And the warning of Scripture is this, is that not many find the gift. Matthew chapter seven, verse 13.
Look at it there with me. And if the things that I'm saying are burning in your heart, even now, let these words jump off the page and show you the urgency of coming to Christ today. Matthew seven, verse 13, enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it. If I were not a Christian today, in light of the things that I've heard, if I was sitting in the audience not a Christian and hearing these things from God's Word, there's one thing that I would be wanting to do and there's one thing that I would be pleading with you and calling upon you to do is to say, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I'm so lost I haven't even known the gospel. I'm so lost that I thought I was righteous.
I'm so lost that I can't even find my way to you unless you help me. I've heard of your love. I've heard of the gift.
I've heard of the promise. And God, I just ask you, have mercy on me. I can't save myself. If you don't have mercy on me, I will be eternally lost. I can't be born again if you don't come to me.
And so, God, have mercy on me. And I want you to understand that the exclusivity of the message that we're talking about here, this is what Christ said himself. You know the verse in John 14 when Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.
Peter said in Acts chapter 4 verse 12, there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, in one sense, we feel the significance of the things that we've heard. In the other sense, as we sang earlier, there's joy to the world. This is why we sing joy to the world.
Joy to the world. There is a way of forgiveness given to you. Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will receive you if you come to him.
He said that the one who comes to me, I'll never cast him out. And so, all of this great love, this great mercy, this great gift, this great promise, I want you to see something and never forget it, my friends, that God in the Lord Jesus Christ has come and he has given the most magnanimous offer of grace and mercy to sinners that could ever be heard. And that there is nothing in God that prevents you from coming to Christ and receiving eternal life. There is nothing in God that keeps you from the forgiveness of your sins. There is nothing in God that keeps you from heaven.
He has flung the doors open. He said, you simply must come through my Son. And it's an offer of grace and forgiveness that is made in love, that is made in full sincerity. And those who walk away from this have no complaint against God. There's no complaint against a God like this, a God who gave a gift like this.
There's no complaint against him for those who refuse to believe. But for those of you who would receive him, there's a promise of eternal life. And for those of you that do know him, those of you that are in Christ, I just want to encourage you to bring this to bear on every circumstance that you're facing in life. This year has been difficult, not just generally, socially, for all the reasons that we know and understand. This year has been difficult for many of you in particular. Life has been difficult for you in particular.
I get that. And there may not be any hope of change in those circumstances. But what I want you to see, beloved, is that if you have Christ, you have everything. If you have Christ and God has made you an object, of his saving love and mercy and grace, and you will one day enter into heaven with him, you must understand, you must embrace the reality that the passing momentary things of this transient life are not worthy to be compared to the love of God and the grace of God that has been given to us in Christ. And that these momentary afflictions are producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.
And that's your hope. So hope not tied to this life. It's a hope tied to Christ and the truth and the utter reliability of his word. So Sinner, I call you and invite you to Christ here today. My brother and sister in Christ, I invite you to see afresh the glory of Christ and to dwell in it, to honor him, to thank him and to find the full satisfaction that everything your soul desires is found in Christ and in Christ alone. Jesus said in John 14 verse 27, he said, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled nor let it be fearful.
Christ and Christ alone my friends. That's Don Green bringing his message called God so loved the world to a close. You know a message like this one is perfect to share with unsaved friends and family members and it can also serve as a gracious and perhaps much needed reminder of God's love to the Christians in your life. If you'd like a CD copy or a link to listen again, just go to thetruthpulpit.com. You'll find this message along with all of Don's teaching available to you anytime.
Again, that's thetruthpulpit.com. Well, Don, untold millions have seen or heard John 3 16 referenced at some point in their lives on a billboard or a Bible tract or maybe a preacher on TV. In many ways it's a verse that gets right to the heart of the matter isn't it? You know John 3 16 is famous for a reason. It is a wonderful verse about the promise of God and it shows us that God extends his love to all of mankind with the free offer of the gift of his only begotten son. And this verse shows us the purpose of his love is nothing less than the salvation of those who believe in Christ and giving them the gift of eternal life. It is a wonderful promise my friend. You can have eternal life and the forgiveness of all of your sins if you come to Jesus Christ by faith alone in him alone for the salvation of your soul. And so my friend I urge you to go to Christ. He is the friend of sinners and based on his promise I can assure you with certainty that if you go to him he will receive you in love, forgive all of your sins and set you on a path that certainly culminates in the glories of heaven around his glorious throne. I want to see you there and so I encourage you go to Christ and find your salvation in him. Thanks Don. And friend thank you for listening today. I'm Bill Wright and we'll see you next time for more from the Truth Pulpit.
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