Well, I invite you to turn this morning in the Bibles that are in front of you to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John, chapter 3. You will find that on page 1055. Your visitor this morning, we are working through the Gospel of John, and this morning we have come to this great, wonderful passage of John 3, 16. The text will be 16 through 21 of John chapter 3. We have been working our way to this in the story of Nicodemus. You'll remember that he has come to Jesus. He is a teacher of the law, a teacher in Israel, a Pharisee, and he didn't even know he needed to be born again. Raised in the church, had all the privileges of church life, and did not know what he needed. And here Jesus is preaching the gospel to him. And Nicodemus is somebody to consider as he receives more than he ever could have thought or asked for as he hears the grandest announcement that God has ever given to this fallen realm. We're going to pick up at verse 9 in John 3. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If 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, the Son of Man. 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. And now our text. 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, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he's not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and 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 work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. And there ends the reading of his word today. Well, I don't think I need to make the case this morning that we come to one of the grandest and most glorious passages in all of the Bible as we open up John 3 and listen to what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus. And I struggled with this again this week because I thought, how do you do justice to such a great text like this and something that is so beautifully said? There are moments that you come across when you're studying the scriptures and verses that are so grand and so beautiful, you know as a pastor your words can do a lot to detract and subtract from the beautiful thing that is being said. Nonetheless, here we are. We are in John 3 today, and the passage is about what Paul prayed that we would all understand what is the height, the depth, the width of the wonderful love of God to us. I said last week at the end of the consideration in Psalm 84, how could we not respond to a God who has treated us this way? How could we sit here with sour hearts to a God that has responded to us this way? It's remarkable and says a lot about the human heart, doesn't it? The simple point here is just that today. If God has announced to his love to the ends of the earth with such a gift as this, the gift of the life of his son, and you have to understand why that was necessary, why that was needed, if God has done that, we ought to run to Him for life. We ought to be a happy people. We ought to be a cheerful people. But sadly, before us, you have just come out of a world this week that sits in the darkness. You have just come out of a world that hates the light, and that is the great problem that Jesus is raising in this text. And that's why I believe we have to understand the context here is so important to understand what Jesus is precisely saying to us. Considering that context, you remember that Nicodemus had come to Jesus by night. It was a difficult situation, wasn't it? It was kind of a tense moment as Nicodemus had come. Jesus had said what would have been one of the most offensive things to one of the greatest rabbis and teachers in Israel. He told him, Nicodemus, you need a new birth from heaven. You need to be born again. You need life given to your dead heart. That would be like walking up to whoever you consider to be, the greatest pillar in Christianity, the smartest fellow, the one with the greatest understanding, and saying to that person, you are still dead. Feel it. That's what Jesus was doing. Jesus then explained something that was more startling, if you think about it. Jesus then goes on to say that you can't get this yourself. This is not something that you can just readily achieve like you do everything else in life. This is not something you can go and work hard for. This is not something by all of your human ingenuity and everything that you do, you can accomplish. The human heart is so dead, it cannot come and it cannot receive Jesus. That's the problem. The Holy Spirit has to work. That's why I'll keep coming back to Corey this morning, but the work of the Holy Spirit to implant life in a heart so that when they profess faith in Jesus, Jesus is saying, blessed Blessed are you, Simon Barjona. Blessed are you, Corey Brower. Flesh and blood did not accomplish that. My father gave it to you. That's regeneration that makes such a thing possible. That's why we say you have to be born again, born from above, for you're ever going to believe this gospel. And that's why there's so much hatred of it. But last time we left off, Jesus started remedying the problem. That's what I love about this text. Jesus didn't just say something that was hard to understand. Jesus said something that Nicodemus couldn't get, period, and he starts to remedy the problem. How did he do that? He starts preaching. He started preaching the Old Testament to him. He started preaching the cross to him. He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so I must be lifted up, is what he was saying there, that whoever believes in him would be saved. Now, that is the mystery to us. This is a hard thing for people to understand and appreciate. But as the gospel is announced, as God sends you pastors to preach the gospel to you, the Holy Spirit actually takes angry, dead, bitter hearts and regenerates them. Beautiful. That's what he does. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it. You don't know where it comes from or where it goes. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. That's how he works as the gospel is preached. Life comes into hearts. Life is implanted there. But we don't want to miss how Jesus deals with Nicodemus' spiritual blindness. How do you think we deal with blindness? Well, that's what's now described. Nicodemus, the greatest teacher in Israel, didn't understand this. But what didn't he understand? The cost for us to have this life. Hear me. The cost for you to have this life. You see, what John 3.16 is saying to us is overwhelming, if we'll hear it. The problem is so great right now. Our hearts are so dead by nature that God had to do the most unthinkable thing to provide a remedy to this. The fallen realm hates him. The world despises this. Does the world know the Lord today? I think that's the remarkable thing of trouble for us is it seems that this whole world makes no recognition of him. period. Does it understand him? Does the world know him? And the answer unequivocally is not at all. The world does not know the Lord. The world does not know his kingdom. The world does not know spiritual things like this. Just last week on Abounding Grace Radio, I posted a Nicodemus discussion that we did, and you wouldn't believe we sort of boosted it to different areas of the U.S. you wouldn't believe the vile comments that came back. And they weren't just disagreeing comments. They were comments of absolute hatred of the Lord that I had to delete, delete, delete, delete. He gets called terrible things. It isn't just that we're in some kind of darkness. It is that we despise God to the core of our being. The God who made us. The God who formed us. The God who knows us. And this is what Nicodemus just doesn't get. This is where Nicodemus is in such darkness. That is why John 3.16 is so misunderstood. Jesus says here something that is so important, the announcement so grand, that God has shown his love to us in this remarkable way. But you need to know, here's the problem, and I'm going to, the outline's a little backwards from what I gave you. But here's the problem, and I want to start with that first. Notice here, whoever believes in Him, verse 18, is not condemned, but, big but, whoever does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only Son of God. That is the most sobering statement in all of the Scriptures if you have stopped and pondered what was just said to you. We don't think like this. We don't think of life. Everyone look down at verse 36 of John 3. If you have your Bibles open and you'll see it. Whoever believes in the Son of God has eternal life. So you've already passed from death to life. The principle of life reigns in you. You're headed for glory. But whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, listen to this, but the wrath of God remains on him right now. That's the tense. Jesus doesn't have to come and condemn the world. It's already condemned, is what he's saying. Hear the statement because it's lost in Christianity today. Right now, the heaviest wrath of God remains and abides. It's the Greek words orge. It's the hottest, intense wrath of God. The heaviest wrath of God rests upon those who don't believe. Right now. You realize right here is the real hardship in Christianity. How do you say that to the world? That's hard business, isn't it? You can say anything nice about Christianity. I could stand up here today and preach love until I'm blue in the face, and you know what all of you will do? It's great. Wonderful. But this, this is the stuff and the reason Christianity's hated. This is the reason the whole thing is rejected right here. I have seen people walk away from the ministry right here because of this truth. The love that is announced to the ends of the earth is absolutely wonderful, but for those who do not believe the gospel, they are in the worst possible present predicament. And that's why it's so difficult to communicate. Right now, that wrath and judgment rests. If they die under that condemnation and sentence, they go to a place of eternal judgment. Awful. That is absolutely awful. How do you communicate that? We don't even like to say it. It's so awful, so we've jettisoned it. Jesus just said it. Nicodemus, you don't know how bad your predicament is. See the problem? You don't know what your problem is. That's the problem. Remember John 2. He didn't know what was in the human heart. He had no idea what was wrong with the human heart. Jesus did, and that's what he's dealing with here. So the question then is, what did God do about this problem? The sentence is rendered. It was rendered at the fall. Guilty. What did God do? Out of Jesus' mouth, at this moment, came the most beautiful truth in the Scripture, the most succinct summary of an answer to this. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him might have eternal life. Why is that verse so misunderstood? You understand the word love? Do you understand that word love? At weddings, I always inevitably get asked to preach about love, right? I don't know anyone who's asked me not to preach about love at a wedding. And pastor, what do you want me to, pastor, we want you to preach about some version of love in the scriptures. And it's usually Ephesians 5 or other passages. and I say, okay, but it really is one of the most confusing things in the Scriptures. I mean that. I always say, at late, in the last few weddings I've done, I've been thinking a lot about the fact that when a couple is standing right in front of me and they're committing to love, that right at that moment all over San Diego County and all over the world, people are promising as they enter into marriage to love one another and that that love would be for better or for worse and that it would be in the whole course of their lives before God. They're making those very promises. And I've often thought, are Christians the only ones truly married? And the answer to that would be, of course not. Marriage is enjoyed by all, right? Marriage is enjoyed by all. I've looked at a lot of unbelievers who've entered into marriage and they enjoy this, what we call, definition of marriage, a definition of love and trust and companionship that they enjoy together. And the striking thing in the course of ministry that I have actually seen is that many non-believing people have actually demonstrated love in their marriages in surprising ways and have outshined Christians in the way that they've loved one another. I've seen people married for 60 years who don't believe any of this. And am I going to say they don't really love one another? This is why I've always stopped and said, what makes a Christian marriage different? That's an important question, isn't it? And there's something about love that the Scriptures have taught us that is not just enjoyed by anyone. There's something about love that is entirely different than our love. Instead of bringing judgment now, this is the point, God brought His Son to us. God did the unimaginable. God gave a way for a fallen realm to be delivered. You see, that's not a quantitative statement. What I mean is everyone wants to read that and say that God universally loves everyone out there. It's not a quantitative statement. It's not talking about how many. It's a qualitative statement. What it's saying here is, here is how God answered this realm. He showed his love this way. In response to our hatred, he gave his son to lay down his life. The amazing truth about this love is the nature of it. It was extreme sacrificial love in a way that we had never known or ever seen. That's why love is the most misunderstood concept in the world and even in the scriptures. People in general in marriage don't know this. When the world speaks of love, it often speaks of a general affection. But this love is entirely different. Remember what Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Just as I taught you love, I'm showing you what love is. Now I want you to show love that way. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. It's not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, Believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. That's the love of the cross to us. Who has ever treated you that way? I want you to think about that. Look at our conflicts in life. All of you have been through them with people. All of you have been through them in your marriage, and maybe right now are. You don't treat people this way. little offenses and we refuse people we're hard on those closest to us marriages separate all the time because they don't know this people fight because of an absence of this kind of love here's what God is saying to us when he knew just what you were, when he knew everything about you. This is why I highlighted Corey's profession this morning when he said, I sat in church a long time and there was a real sin in my life I held to. That's what kept me from coming. It's a moral issue. We pursue all kinds of things against him all the time. The things you've done against the Lord, your deepest thoughts, your deepest desires, your deepest lusts, all that. You have actually, in those sins, taken a stand against him. Understand that. And he came and instead gave you his son. Now, I told you, I can't communicate it how wonderful it is the way that I want. I used this illustration at Austin and Rachel's wedding a few weeks ago. Imagine you had a father who was a good father to you, Who is kind and compassionate, loving. And you, as a son or a daughter, have really been awful to your father. You never listened to him. You hated him. You despised him. Your whole life has really proven to be an unfaithful son and daughter. Imagine, in the worst sort of way, you treated this good man to you. And then, when you said, give me the inheritance now, when you've been like that, he gave it. Jesus told a story about that. He was the only one there for you. He was the only one that truly knew you. Imagine he did more. He saw you in the pigsty. And he ran there, having such compassion on you. Seeing that your life was in great danger, he died for you. That kind of love breaks your back. It just wins you. All you can say in the midst of that death is, thank you. You know what the Father did? Heavenly Father, that's an earthly analogy. The Heavenly Father gave what He treasured the most. I could lay this on real thick right now, the love between the Father and the Son. They said to each other, before you ever were born, they're miserable. They're blind. They're empty. They're hell-bound. son, go and take their judgment and alienation upon your back so that they can be freely given, and the son says, I'll do it. What love is that? What love is that? The results and consequences of that love are overwhelming. Here is the first. As the Spirit gives life, here's what's happening right now. Right now. Many are hearing that and they're receiving it. Naturally, you never would. You'd think it's crazy. But many are hearing it and receiving it and the Lord just announced to you when you receive this and you believe this, guess what? You have passed from death to life. You will not perish. You will not. you will know the love of God forever. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but the goal in what we're doing, the goal right now in the gospel, the goal in the Christian life is that we would make Jesus known so that people in the world might be saved through Him. That's what's going on in the world right now. That's why the world's here right now. Anyone who's heard it, anyone who's considered it, should stop and ask, why would anyone turn away from a God who is announcing love like this? He's not announcing he's going to incinerate you. This right here is the greatest question to all unbelievers. It's the greatest question to all the atheists today. Do you know who you're turning away? Do you know what you're turning away from? Clearly, all the misery around us, the world stands condemned. If you don't think the world is condemned right now, look at what happened just this week. Look at how the world is full of wars and rumors of wars. Look at the brutality. Look at the hatred. Look at the crimes that are happening everywhere. And yet the world laughs at our solution to this problem. And that gets to the heart of the problem that Nicodemus just doesn't understand. Jesus explains for us why we see the responses that we do and why regeneration is so necessary, why life has to be given is so necessary. This is the judgment. Here it is, right here he says. Light has come into the world, and here's the problem. 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 work should be exposed. Two things are said there you can't miss. People love darkness more than light. And they don't want to have, because of that, their sins brought out into the open. That's the characteristic of those in darkness. That's why people don't like to come to worship, and they make excuses to stay away. It's coming to the light. It exposes their lives. It makes people uncomfortable. What do people do with the light? Well, nobody, if our rooms were wide open for everyone to see, would we be ashamed? darkness covers things we think. Jesus says people who practice evil and make sin a way of life hate the light and they will not come to the light. They get mad. They get infuriated. They despise what this is all about. We deal with this all the time. And address sin in people's lives? I mean, how many of you have walked to your son or daughter and said, And this is why we pray for our young people so much, young adults, as they start off into college and what are the choices they're going to make. And then they start making bad choices. A parent can walk in the darkness by okaying those choices. But think of the parent who cares. Son, daughter, you're choosing a path of darkness. What is inevitably the response? Anger. Don't you condemn me. And depending on how hard that heart gets, it progresses in evil even to call God a great abuser at some point. This is the challenge. Jesus explains why the world is not in church today. Here it is. And you see the beauty of what Corey just happened? He came to the light. What just happened in front of you was a son, coming to the light and saying, I'm okay. My deeds are exposed. I know what I am. That was his profession. I know what I've done. But this is the safest place to be, because before the throne of God is mercy to the needy. Saddest thing. I remember Dr. Godfrey's series in the Canons of Dort on election and he made the important point that we never want to get over too quickly. It's not that God is standing over people saying no to those who want glory and want heaven. They don't want it. They want the darkness. They want the darkness and they're content to stay there. God will not refuse any who come to the light. Isn't that beautiful? Serious question. Do you have sin in your life that keeps you from coming to Christ and receiving his love? Isn't that a fair question in light of this for all of us? For me? Do you have sin in your life that keeps you? Don't you think it'll show in something like what we looked at last week, Psalm 84, your attitude to coming to worship the Lord and enjoy Him? We are closest to the light right now. I asked today, is there anyone here still in the darkness? Will you be honest with yourself like Corey was? Do you lack a new birth? Think of what's being said. It's as if God is saying, if you come to me, and he is saying it, I will receive you, I will wash you, I'll cleanse you, and I'll take those scowls off your face, and I'll give you happiness. Whoever believes in me, this is the glorious truth here today, has already passed from death to life. It's over. You're forgiven. You're freed. And those who come to the truth and come to the light, you come that your deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. That is a work of God that he has done for you. Nicodemus came to Jesus and got way more than he bargained for. But his story is left open-ended, don't you think? For a reason. I think you can deduce from John, and we will, that Nicodemus came to that light. We see it in the resurrection. but it's not immediately told to us. This ends the discourse with Nicodemus, and I think it's meant to have that effect on us. What are we doing with this? Leaving it open-ended. Did Nicodemus receive life? Did he receive life? No, no, that's not the question. That's not the question about Nicodemus. Have you received life? That's the question. Have you come to the light? And have you partaken? That's what's held out for you. Praise the Lord for such grace. Let's pray to him. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and thank you for helping us to understand and give us light and life. Bless now, Lord, your worship and your response of your people to the truth as it is in Jesus. And may, Lord, all who hear today come to the light and receive forgiveness of sins and enjoy your love. What a wonderful thing that's been announced. May everyone here enjoy and believe the gospel and receive from you love and acceptance and forgiveness. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.