The So Love of God

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProkway.org.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Father, we uh uh hymns like that use words that we don't use a whole lot, like words of certainty, like I am bound.

And so, Lord, because the Bible is full of certainty, uh, let us remind us today from your word to live with certainty uh that there's something that was accomplished by Jesus on the cross in our place and on our behalf, and we are the benefactors of that.

And so, because of that, we're not just forgiven, we're bound for heaven.

And so, in the meantime, we get to display and extend the kingdom of God here on earth.

Uh, we get to bring good.

Evil is the absence of good, and so evil's not going to triumph because your people, through obedience, are gonna unleash good here on this earth.

And so, Lord, let us live with a sense of understanding that we're bound for something certain.

We're not, you're not like a Walmart greeter.

You don't meet us, greet us with a friendly smile, and kind of point in some general direction and then say, Hey, you're on your own.

Good luck.

No, there's certainty.

Christianity is dripping with certainty.

That's why, Jesus, you said, Whoever hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who dug down deep.

It's like a woman who dug down deep and built their life upon the rock.

And when the storms came and beat against the house because it was well built and it was built on the foundation, it stood up underneath the trial.

And so, Lord, it's that kind of certainty that our soul craves.

We've had so many people tell us one thing and do another.

We've had so many people say they love us and when they really they just used us.

And so, Lord, our desire today is for the certainty that comes only, that it's born of the truth.

And so just kind of wash us with that certainty from your word today, Lord.

We stand here as your people.

We confess our need of you.

Strengthen what's weak.

The Bible says of you, God, that a smoldering wick, you will not snuff out.

You're that merciful.

So for the person that's barely hanging on today, Lord, let them be encouraged by your word and by your presence, the presence of your spirit in our midst today.

We're grateful, Lord.

And we say, lead us into the truth now.

We ask all this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 888.

And if you're a guest, we're going through the book of John, the Gospel of John.

Uh and so uh do me a favor if you would, if there's room on your row, kind of scoot in.

Uh, because some of our late our late comers were kind of hung over from Thanksgiving, and so we want them to be able to.

No?

I'm just kidding.

Anyway, uh, just scoot in uh because it's a it this is typically a pretty full service, and we're glad you're here.

Uh, if you're our guests, we're we're preaching through the book of John, uh, which we start in chapter 1, verse 1, and we'll kind of go all the way through today.

We're up to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Probably the most referenced conversation in the history of humanity is the conversation that takes place in John chapter 3 between Jesus and a man named Nicodemus.

John 3 · chapter mention

Nicodemus, let me give you a little background.

Nicodemus is a very religious man, but he's not a Christian.

Okay?

Nicodemus is a member of the Sanhedrin, he's a member of the Jewish ruling council.

To get in that holy club, you had to be really smart about religious things.

Like they had to memorize the first five books of the Old Testament.

Get you some of that?

Uh, and and so this cat is, I mean, he's very well educated, very well thought of, but they begin to get rumblings about Jesus, this Jewish rabbi who was saying and doing things that no one else could do.

And so they drew straws at the Sanhedrin, and Nicodemus got the short straw, and he had to go talk to Jesus, kind of check Jesus out.

And so he goes to Jesus at night, key phrase, file that away.

He goes to Jesus at night, and he says, he kind of starts sucking up to Jesus.

He says, Hey, Jesus, we know that you're a man come from God, because no one can do the things that you do if God weren't with him.

And Jesus cuts right to the bottom line and says, Hey, don't be surprised that I say to you that you got to be born again.

And Nicodemus is like, well, now that you bring that up, how can that even happen?

I mean, how can you enter a second time into your mother's womb and when you're old and be born again?

That's just kind of creepy, Jesus.

What are you talking about?

And Jesus explains a little bit, and then he says, Marvel not that I say to you that you must be born again.

What Jesus is saying to him is that, hey, being religious is not enough.

Coming up with a bunch of rules and trying to keep the rules is not enough because you were not created for rules.

You were created for relationship.

Let me say that again.

You were not created for rules, you were created for relationships.

So if you're in a relationship right now and it's focused on the rules, I promise you it's not very enjoyable.

It's just not.

You're just kind of like, oh, my parents are so lame.

Why do I have to clean my room?

That's nothing wrong with my room.

Yeah, there's a lot wrong with your room.

It smells like puberty and fritos.

Clean that thing up, okay?

It's not enjoyable.

Uh but a lot of times relationships get to where they're just all about the rules and you lose the sense of relationship that it's intended to be about.

And so what Jesus is doing, and where we're going to pick up the conversation, we'll start reading in verse 16.

We'll read down to verse 21, is Jesus is still responding to Nicodemus' question in verse 9, where he says, How can this be?

How can this happen?

In other words, you're saying that a person can have an actual relationship with God by this thing called being born again, being born from above.

And Jesus is answering that question.

And he continues talking in verse 16.

He says, This he says, 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 has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgment.

The light is coming to the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works are 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.

There's four things I want to just say in the text today.

And by the way, today's one of our family worship days, which means we have our young men and women among us.

And so let me ask this question.

If you're age 11 or younger, would you just raise your hand real quick?

Because I'm under the age of 11.

I'm 11 or younger.

Yeah, now let me say this to you.

Yes, help help help him get his hand up there.

Uh uh, I'm Pastor Neil, boys and girls, Pastor Neil's not going to say anything that's above your head because Jesus was very simple, very plain, and he just laid it out there where people could understand.

And so I might say a big word, like later on in the sermon, I'll say a word called reconciliation, and then I'll help you, I'll tell you a story to help you understand what reconciliation means.

Is that a deal?

Hello?

Yes, you you with me there?

Uh and so, but if I say anything in the service that you don't understand, come up to me after the service and say, hey, my mom's got a lot of Thanksgiving leftovers, and my dad said you could come over and have lunch, and I'll come over and have lunch, and we'll explain it all.

Amen.

You're like, you're not coming to my house.

Uh, four things that it that that the text tells us this morning.

First one is this, and this is what I'm gonna talk about.

Let's lay it all out here for you, uh, everybody.

This is what God did, this is what he didn't do, this is what we can now do.

Third thing I'll talk about, and the fourth thing I'll talk about is this is why some people don't do it.

This is what God did.

This is what God did, this is what he didn't do, okay?

This is what we can now do, and this is why some people don't do it.

Okay?

Let's go back to number one.

This is what God did.

It's verse 16.

If you want to accuse God of anything, if you want to shake your fist at God and kind of say, God, you're guilty of this, this is what God's guilty of.

The Bible says, for God so loved the world.

That's what I want to talk to you this morning about the soul love of God.

The soul love of God.

Not just the love of God, but the soul love of God.

The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

When I say that he's so loved, I want you to notice that the Bible doesn't say that God loves the world, but that he so loved the world.

Because that little word so is put in there for a reason, and I'll get to that in just a minute, but I want to ask you a question.

Think about all the things that you've seen people do or you've done yourself that can only be explained by the simple fact that I loved this person.

I couldn't help myself.

I got carried away.

Like I'll go first.

I'll give you an example.

I was speaking at a Christian school in Memphis, uh, Tennessee.

And I'm sitting there, and it's the second morning they have chapel, then I would speak itself at night, or I'd go to Bible classes and lecture, and it was great.

And bunch of students are like, hey, hey, you want to get together and go have dinner tonight?

And one of the teachers said, Yeah, and the coach said, Hey, I'll go and we'll all have dinner.

I said, Great, I'm all down for dinner.

We're in Memphis, let's go to Corky's and get some dry rub ribs.

This will be awesome.

And so we're all, and there's a guy standing there, and he's like college age, and he's he's doing something.

Oh, he graduated before, but he's just there hanging out.

And I said, Hey, would you like to come?

And he said, I can't.

I gotta go dumpster diving.

And I was like, Hello.

Now, by show of hands, how many of you know what dumpster diving is?

Yes, yes, dumpster diving, for those you don't know, is the big dumpster behind like a restaurant or a place of business where they take the trash.

And this is Memphis.

This is actually Germantown.

Germantown is kind of an upper scale little subdivision of Memphis.

You don't dumpster dive in Germantown, okay?

And so I'm now I'm fascinated.

I'm like, excuse me?

And he goes, Yeah, yeah, it's for my girlfriend.

And I was like, I'm in.

I gotta know what are you talking about?

And he said, Well, my girlfriend goes to college like three states away, and she's finished up her senior year, and we're in love, and but I'm broke.

And I was like, Oh, this gets even better.

You dumpster dive, it's for your girlfriend, and you're broke.

Why do you do it?

What do you mean?

And he says, Well, right now Wendy's has a promotion, and if you get 50 of these little cups that come in a value meal, they have a little sticker on the side of it, or excuse me, 40.

You collect 40 of these, you get a free round trip ticket on Delta Airlines.

And I was like, and he said, People, they they just think I'm not gonna eat it at Wendy's 40 times, and so they throw their cups away.

And so at night, I put on a headlamp and I go to all I got a little map I know where six Wendy's are in the greater Memphis area, and I go and I climb in the dumpsters and I get those cups out.

And so far I've got five round trips.

I was just doing the math.

That's 200 cups, that's a lot of stanky trash.

And I just said, Hey man, how much is a round trip ticket?

He goes, It's like 350 bucks.

I said, I'll give you 350 bucks before I leave.

She can go see her six times.

I said, Now tell me about this woman.

He goes, I'm trying to decide if she's the one for me.

And I was like, pump the brakes, my man, because once you get married, that's the last person you're gonna kiss the rest of your life.

And he his eyes filled up with tears, and he said, She's the only person I want to kiss the rest of my life.

And I was like, Okay, now it's all tender.

I don't know what to do.

Hi five.

He.

He.

Yeah.

So when I think of love, when I think for God so loved the world, this man so loved this woman that he would go get in the trash and dig around and get cups, and he was weeping, going, Yeah, oh nah, I found 17 in one dumpster.

That's enough, man.

I'm just gonna write you a check.

Stop telling me about that.

Because there's behaviors that can only be explained or described by saying, I did this because I loved this person.

And that kind of gets us close to what the Bible's trying to say when it says we've heard it all our lives, but we we our attention's not been arrested by what it means when he says, For God so loved the world.

Why the little word so?

Because God doesn't want us to mistakenly think that he loves us the way that we love all the things that we love, like we love Black Friday and we love Cyber Monday, and we love chocolate, and we love Garth Brooks, and we love gravy.

Did anybody besides me, were you awakened in your passion for gravy this week?

I looked at my wife on Thursday and said, Why don't we do this more often?

This gravy, and she said, Well, because it's not good for you.

Shut up! I don't care.

We should have gravy more often.

Gravy is now my new favorite beverage, by the way.

And because once you have it on Thursday, you put it in the refrigerator, you put it on Friday, it's congealed like jello.

And my wife said, See, that's not good.

And I said, No, but you put it in the microwave, it turns to liquid again.

This is awesome.

We're not eating this anymore, so you enjoy it now.

I may get a spoon and just eat this like soup one day.

You're a sick man.

I'm like, great, but you love all that stuff.

We love, we love pizza.

You see, here's what I'm saying: don't see the love of God through the lens of the way you love, which is why that little word so is there.

It kind of interjected in there to kind of arrest our attention for God so loved the world.

Why does it say for God so loved the world?

Because it qualifies, quantifies, and it distinguishes.

It separates the way God loves from the way we love.

Here's why.

The word so in the Greek, the New Testament, was originally written in Greek.

And so the word so is the Greek adverb hutas.

Hutas, and it means this.

It means in like manner, or in this manner, or in this way.

And so he's referring to something.

So the question becomes what is he referring to when he says in this manner or in the same way?

What he's referring to is verse 14 and 15, where Jesus is explaining to Nicodemus, and look at verse 14 and 15 of John 3.

He says this, he says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

Whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

I told you this last week.

Jesus is referencing a true story from the life of God's people and Moses.

It's recorded in the Old Testament book of Numbers, chapter 21, where where God sent these serpents because the people are complaining.

Numbers 21 · chapter mention

They begin to bite the people.

And he Moses went to God and said, God, what do I do?

And God said, Hey, make a take a make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and hold it up.

And everyone that looks to that, they'll be saved, they'll be delivered.

And Jesus says, in the same way, he's referencing something that Nicodemus understands.

That Nicodemus is like, oh yeah, I remember reading about that in the law, because Jesus didn't come to make people feel stupid.

You should never come to church and walk out and kind of go, Well, I thought I was a religious moron, but now I'm confirmed in it.

No, Jesus takes something familiar and says, You remember that story about Moses?

And Nicodemus is like, Yes, I remember that.

He says, In the same way.

In the same way.

For God so loved the world.

God loved the world.

Now just kind of, and once you get past the that he didn't just love the world, but he so loved the world.

This is the manner in which God loved the world.

It's the love of God's not a noun, it's a verb.

He acted in a clearly demonstrable way and demonstrated his love for the world.

But let's just get for God so loved, and then it says the world, which is the word cosmos.

Cosmos, the entire world.

Can I just ask a question?

The older you get, you find it's harder to love everybody around you.

That's just my confession.

Like I was watching on TV on Saturday after Black Friday.

There's a man attacked another man in a Walmart over a toy car, threw him to the ground and broke his hip.

Yes.

And by the way, the Bible says that for God so loved the cosmos.

That means everybody and everything and all the created places and spaces that exist anywhere in the universe.

Let me say that again.

That means that God so loved, He loved in this demonstrable way, everybody and everything and every created space and place that exists in the entire universe.

Okay?

That's a lot of people.

Now, you say, Well, what's the big deal about that?

Ask yourself, why was it so hard just for the past three days to love the people in my own family?

You say, Well, not all of them, but there's my sister-in-law that never brings food but shows up with empty templare bowls and then can't cook and then takes food.

I'm like, hey, if you don't contribute, you shouldn't take you food thief.

But here you are again.

Yes.

She came to your house too, huh?

Yes.

And guess what?

It's not for you, the miracle is not that God's so loved, but that God so loves people like that.

And yet he does.

Yes.

And once you get outside the little circle of your family, let's just expand the circle to your co-workers.

Yeah.

Immediately somebody in your mind went right to this one person.

Oh, yeah, Bill from accounting.

And the Bible says that God loves obnoxious bill from accounting.

Yes.

It's not just enough to say, but God's so loved, but what did God so love in a demonstrative way?

He loves the cosmos, he loves the world.

So much so that he made a way for them that they don't have to perish.

Ask yourself this question today.

Does everybody around you understand that they don't have to perish?

Here's the thing I don't like.

People find out I'm a preacher, they oh yeah, hey, oh, hey, here, let me hide this.

I'm just like, hey, uh the one thing I want you to understand from being in a relationship with me is that you don't have to perish.

You don't have to hope and wish and and think, and and and maybe I hope I can get to heaven.

That Jesus came to the world to make this available and possible.

You don't have to hide from that.

But this is what God did.

He is guilty of so loving you in such a way that it affects the way you love everybody and everything else.

The Bible magnifies that act with these words from Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

He says, For while we were still weak at the right time.

Just stop right there.

Hear that.

While we were still weak at the right time, why does the Bible say when you were weak, that was the right time?

Because you can't take credit for it.

And I can't take credit for it.

For while we were still weak.

So if you're weak today, if you're like, I don't even know this, I'm just here because my grandma said, hey, we're coming to Thanksgiving and now we're gonna go to church, and you're like, eh, I'd rather be on my phone.

Good news.

If you're weak, that's the right time because Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one might dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Did you hear that?

He didn't die for righteous people, he didn't die for good people, he died for ungodly sinners who eat too much, drink too much, talk too much, spin too much, take things that don't belong to them, have relationships with people they're not related to, people who disobey their parents, don't clean their room, live in obvious and secretive rebellion.

Christ died for all of those people.

So if you're in any of those categories, I want you to know the good news is that Christ so loved you that he offered up himself.

He left the purity and the sanctity of heaven and come diving into this dumpster called earth to redeem you.

It's just to say, yeah, not to give you a round trip ticket, but to give you a one-way ticket.

So the next time they sing the hymn that says, I am bound for the promised land, you just kind of giggle like, hey yeah, I'm I'm in that.

Yeah, yeah, and it was your idea, and you knew and you anyway, shut up.

No, yes, yes.

He says, Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we now have received reconciliation.

Now, boys and girls, my my my my peeps that are in here that are age 11 and under, the Bible says, For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

Now, reconciliation is that big word.

You mean like, I got nothing, man.

I'm just gonna draw here on the paper.

Uh let me explain reconciliation to you because you're smart people.

You can get this.

Uh, back when Pastor Neil was in school, like 110 years ago, we didn't have mobile phones.

I remember the first mobile phone a friend of mine had was a bag phone.

And you plugged it into the cigarette light in your car, and he gave it to me and said, Take this on your trip next time you go preaching.

I called everybody I knew.

Where are you?

I'm driving down the road talking to you on a mobile phone.

They're like, Shut up! What are you riding with?

Bill Gates?

Yeah, Bill's right here.

I got Stephen Jobs in the back.

I mean, it was like incredible.

But back when I was in school, we didn't have mobile phones.

We didn't have screens, we didn't have laptops, iPads, none of that stuff.

So we had to come up with creative games.

We did two things when I was in school.

I remember being in the second grade, had Miss Forster.

She smelled like lemons.

I don't know why, but she smelled like lemons.

And we had a thing called recess in the second grade.

I love me some recess.

Do they still have recess?

Are we done away with recess?

Because we had recess and we were physical.

We did stuff.

We played kickball and we played tackle the man with the ball and we played Red Rover.

That's all we did, those three things.

Kickball, which was great because you could kick it in the street and just run forever.

And we crossed the street and left school property to go get the ball, and nobody got sued.

Crazy.

Crazy.

And we played tackle the man with the ball where people did get hurt.

I remember a guy got his got his collarbone broke, and they were just like, hey kids, keep playing, we're gonna take them to the hospital.

Yes.

But we also played Red Rover, and I love me some Red Rover.

I don't know if you remember what Red Rover is, I don't know if you still get if you've outgrown that boys and girls, but Red Rover basically was two teams.

Team over here would line up, hold hands.

Team over there would line up and hold hands.

And you'd call out somebody's name.

Red Rover, Red Rover, let David come over.

And David would come run as fast as he could and try to break through the line.

And if you held on, then he had to stay and be on your team.

But if he broke through, he got to pick anybody off of your team and take back to his team.

When the Bible, boys and girls, uses big words like reconciliation, what the Bible tells us is that we were born, this is God's team, and we were born on that team.

We're born on the wrong team.

And so when Jesus dies on the cross, what he does, it's like God said, Red Rover, Red Rover, let the world come over.

And Jesus crashes through and he breaks through and he looks and says, Hey, not only did I just die on the cross for you, but I want you to be on my team.

And he takes you by the hand and takes you back over here and places you in God's family.

That's what reconciliation is.

You don't have to live with the sense of, I'm not a good person and I'm kind of out of sync and out of sorts.

No, you're not.

You're a child of God if you've ever been converted.

So when the Bible says this, hey, this is what God did, this is what he did.

Secondly, the Bible tells us this is what God didn't do in verse 17.

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.

Hear that again.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.

Did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.

Now, why would God send his son into the world to do something that did not need to be done?

You realize that there's people here in our city in Fort Bean County, there's people in Lubbock, Texas, and there's people in Amarillo, and there's people in Kansas City, Kansas that believe all they know about God or they think about God, they don't know what it's based on, is that God is somehow out to get them.

That God came to point the big long finger at them.

And this is what condemnation sounds like in the head and the heart of a person that doesn't know God.

It sounds like this.

Um it's that internal little brother and little sister.

I remember I grew up with two older brothers, and anytime they would do something, I love telling on them because they would get in trouble.

And so anytime they did something, my first thing was like, um, I'm telling.

And they would begin to negotiate.

Oh, please don't tell, please don't tell, please don't tell.

And my question was always this what are you gonna give me if I don't tell?

I got some of my best stuff that way.

Here's the thing the Bible says that Jesus did not come, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world.

Why?

Because the world was already condemned.

So Jesus comes not for condemnation.

If you're here today and you're not a believer, just here's the one thing I want you to walk out here in a few minutes, knowing with certainty in the marrow of your bones about God, he did not come to make you feel bad.

He didn't come to say, um I'm telling, I'm telling my dad, and my dad's God, and you're in trouble.

God already knows.

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.

Here's the really the better question we should ask.

Maybe it's this what does God know about the world that we are unwilling to admit?

Let me ask that again.

What does God know about the world that we are unwilling to admit?

Because clearly God knows something so serious about the world that only his son can do something about it.

And so he leaves the sanctity and the purity of heaven and comes to earth, not with condemnation in mind, but with invitation in mind.

To come to say to the world, Red Rover, Red Rover, let the cosmos, let all created people and things come over.

The third thing the Bible tells us this morning is this is what we can now do.

Because of this is what we can now do.

Verse 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

There's not a plan B in God's mind.

It's not like, oh, if Jesus doesn't pull through, then man, I don't know.

No.

This is what we can now do.

What is that?

Whoever believes.

Belief is now possible because of the life of Jesus.

The life of Jesus provides us with a framework and a body of work that we can look to and believe in.

It's something valid and real.

And it says, hey, you know what?

This is what it's all about.

And this is what happens to Nicodemus.

Nicodemus in John chapter 3 is religious, but he doesn't have a relationship.

John 3 · chapter mention

And he's unsettled in a way he doesn't have words for it.

He comes to Jesus and under the cover of darkness at night to kind of say, Hey, you're making us rethink everything we've ever thought.

Absolutely.

The truth has the capacity to do that.

And so he comes and he says, Hey, this is what we can now do.

And what he's saying to Nicodemus is, now you got something to believe in because of who I am.

I'm the truth.

I'm the real thing.

I'm not just empty religion and a bunch of rules you guys came up with back at the religion factory just to kind of oppress people and keep them down.

I came to set people free.

Which is why Jesus will get later in John chapter 8, Jesus will say, out of his own mouth, you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 8 · chapter mention

So he didn't come for condemnation, he didn't come for bondage, he came for freedom.

And because of that, you you can now believe.

Now, you read a verse like verse 18, and it sounds innocuous.

And innocuous, by the way, boys and girls, is a big word that sometimes we adults use because we want you to know we've been to college.

It sounds like, hey, it's no big deal, but there's a big deal.

There's two things that are true because of what the Bible says in verse 18.

Let me read verse 18 again.

I'll tell you these two things.

They'll even come up on the screen.

Uh here's verse 18.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.

Now, when you first read that, it's kind of like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It's like when your mom tells you, don't hit your little brother.

And you're thinking in your mind, as soon as you walk away, I'm gonna hit that little creep, okay?

So say whatever.

It's like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Here's two things that you need to notice about this verse.

Number one, unbelievers, people that don't believe, they do not have a positive or neutral standing before God.

They're under condemnation.

Matter of fact, this conversation with Nicodemus ends, and we'll get to this after Advent in the new year.

It ends with Jesus saying these words, hey, for those who don't believe, the wrath of God remains on them.

Now, for the wrath of God, the wrath of God is the holy displeasure of God.

It's God's fixed posture towards sin.

It's his displeasure towards sin.

He says, Hey, for those who don't believe, the wrath of God remains on them.

So for it to remain on them, it has to be on them in the first place.

And so when he says, hey, hey, if you don't believe in God's one and only son, you're condemned already.

What the Bible's telling us is, hey, an unbeliever, you can't have a positive or a neutral standing before God.

A lot of people is like, hey, I'm kind of indifferent to this whole thing.

I'm kind of neutral.

I mean, I don't believe in God, and I, but I don't hate on people that do.

That's not gonna help you.

Second thing, which I think we really need to hear in this politically correct culture, is this.

This rules out the belief that a sincere person following any religion can have eternal life with God.

This rules out the belief that's so prevalent in our culture that here's what it sounds like.

Well, hey man, you got your thing, I got my thing, I'm sincere, you're sincere, we'll both get there, we'll just take different roads.

No, you won't.

No, because if sincerity is the mark of truth, if sincerity is the thing that established, hey, if this is right or wrong, then you can live however you want.

You can be indifferent to Jesus Christ, his life, death, resurrection, and get to the end of your life and go, Well, I was sincere.

I hear it all the time in counseling.

I say to people, hey, tell me about what governs your life.

Well, I've kind of got this internal creed that I kind of go by and I don't hurt anybody.

And one guy said to me, a 58-year-old man said out of his mouth in my office, hey, a rolling stone gathers no moss.

Excuse me, this is not woodstock.

What are you saying?

Well, I mean just live and let live.

Okay, could you stop quoting bumper stickers to me?

And it's like peeling an onion.

You get down to that, and you have a man that thinks that he can be neutral towards God.

And the Bible, let me tell you something, folks.

If the Bible's true and it is, and that people that don't believe are condemned already, how do you get neutrality from that?

You you can't.

So that's why I just say, hey, if you just think, hey, I'm sincere and I'm gonna follow whatever religion fits me, and I'm gonna have eternal life with God, no, you're not.

Last thing the Bible tells us is this.

This is why some people don't do it.

Is verse 19 to 21.

Jesus begins verse 19 with these, here, hear these five words, and this is the judgment.

In other words, this is this is why, this is, hey, let me just put it down, and the final say is this is what it's all about.

This is why you do what you do.

This is why some people don't believe.

Okay?

There's a lot of, especially nowadays, everyone's like, oh, the church is this and Christians are this and they're extremists and and and they just hate on this and they're against this and they're against that.

Jesus says, before anybody comes along and says anything, Jesus himself says, hey, this is why some people don't believe.

It's not because we have intellectual issues with God or Christianity.

That's way too highbrow.

It's real simple and real straightforward.

He says, we know that what we're doing is wrong.

We know it's sinful, it's wicked, but we don't want to stop, so we don't come to the light.

It's not on intellectual grounds, it's not because of some global consciousness or deep concern for the man in Africa who's never heard.

What about him?

Or the injustice of the doctrine of election.

It just doesn't seem right that God would create people who would never know, blah, blah, blah.

It's as simple as this.

You don't want to be found out.

You don't want to be found out.

That is the human nature, that is the human psyche that says, Hey, I don't want to be found out.

You say, What do you mean?

Just hear it.

Now keep in mind, Jesus is talking to a man who came to him under the cover of darkness.

If you think Jesus, oh man, Jesus is awesome.

Jesus is like having a BFF forever.

Jesus Christ was the most straightforward person you will ever meet in your life.

He's talking to Nicodemus, who's come to him at night.

And look what Jesus says in verse 19.

And this is the judgment.

The light, me, says Jesus.

The light is coming to the world, and people love 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.

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.

He is talking to Nicodemus about Nicodemus, and Nicodemus knows it.

It is so unsettling.

He finds it, as we go through the Gospel of John, you'll see that Nicodemus finds it increasingly more difficult to keep being religious without a relationship.

Let me ask you this question.

What do you find increasingly more difficult this morning?

Because of the truth of God and the gospel.

Jesus says to Nicodemus, and he says the same thing to you and me.

Hey, the reason you don't believe is not because you're some global citizen that's concerned about all this injustice in the world.

He brings it down on a real simple level and says, Hey, 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 there may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

This is the judgment.

This is the final word Jesus says.

Let me just lay it down here where you live.

And Nicodemus is arrested.

His mind, his attention and his affection.

The attention of his mind and the affection of his heart is kind of like you know how somebody, you ever have somebody say something and it's so true that you can't respond?

It's kind of like men when you're having an argument with your wife, and then she lands that killer blow, she says that thing, and you're like, I'll get back to you.

That's what happens here.

Notice that Jesus doesn't yell, he doesn't scream at Nicodemus, he doesn't, oh man, he doesn't make fun of him.

He loves him enough to look him in the eye and tell him the truth.

And he says, This is the verdict, this is the judgment.

I'm not saying I'm giving up on you, I'm washing my hands of you, but let's just call a spade a spade, Nick.

Come on.

You come to me under the cover of darkness because you love darkness.

And Jesus says, hey, because what you do is wicked.

Some of the most wicked things that are ever done, the most sinfully evil, wicked things ever done are done in the name of religion.

Yes.

Jesus says, hey, you can crawl back to the religion factory and tell all the other people there that worked at swing shift there, they come up with rules to oppress people.

That they're just the light, not a light, the light has come into the world.

And it's gonna be harder for you guys to do what you do.

So much so that when Jesus is crucified and they take his body down off the cross, two men come to get him: a man named Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.

And here's why.

Listen to this, and we'll be done.

Because over time, Nicodemus can no longer believe what he used to believe.

Here's why you should find a church that teaches the Bible and loves you and will shoot you straight.

Because over time you'll find it more and more difficult to live in the dark and believe things that aren't true.

And you'll find it easier to come to the light and walk in the truth.

You'll find it easier to love your wife like Christ loves the church.

Like this past weekend, Black Friday, I thought, I'm gonna get all my Christmas shopping out of the way.

I'm gonna start with my wife first.

And so my wife's been saying, hey, we got a problem, our commodity, something's wrong with it, it kind of rocks.

And so for Christmas, I got her a new toilet.

I know, I know.

You're probably thinking, how thoughtful, absolutely.

And I had it installed on Black Friday.

And I cumbled her in there and said, Merry Christmas.

So you will not see me at the mall.

Why?

Because the more I walk in the light, the more I want to be in the light.

I want to do the right thing.

Yes, I feel your scorn, ladies.

Some of you are like, You're a sick animal.

I'm so glad I'm not married to you.

Now, let me be serious for a minute because somebody said to me that was visiting our church, I met with them last week, we were talking, they said, Yeah, when we first came, you joked a lot about your wife, and it makes we we visited other churches because we didn't think you respected your wife.

I have so much respect for my wife.

She's the best thing that ever happened to me, okay?

Don't get me wrong.

But the more I walk in the light, and by the way, I don't get to the end of the year and have to make up for a lot of stuff.

My kids are like, How do you get away with this?

I don't get away with anything.

But I also want them to understand, hey, your dad's not just being funny.

I want you to understand it's my privilege to love your mom year-round the way Christ loves the church.

Not because I'm a good person, I'm better than anybody, or because I'm a preacher, because hear this.

The longer you walk in the light, the easier it gets to do the right thing.

It just gets easier.

So if you're standing, if you're living in darkness today, it's gonna be hard for you to look and kind of see.

The natural responses kind of say, Oh, I could never do that.

You can't live in the dark.

You can't.

The Bible says it like this what fellowship does light have with darkness?

But God calls you out of the dark.

That's why the light comes into the world.

He comes into the world to look at you and say, Red Rover, Red Rover.

Let John come over.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, we like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.

So just take a moment and ask yourself, hey, what stood out to me?

What had my name on it?

What do I want to think about driving to work tomorrow?

The first thing to God, the Christianity is not a feeling you maintain, it's a truth.

It's a truth that you come up under.

And so just ask, hey, this is what God came to do.

This is what he did not come to do, he didn't come to condemn.

Why?

Because we're condemned already.

We're born on the wrong team.

But big reconciling Jesus breaks through all the stuff that holds us down and says, I want you to come with me.

I want you.

He says it like this in Matthew.

Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden.

Come to me, all you that are tired of losing at this game of life called Red Rover.

Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden.

And you'll find rest for your souls.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart.

And because of that, you can believe today.

And for those who don't believe, it's it's very simple.

We just love darkness.

You're not done with darkness.

And I love you.

I want to be your pastor.

If you don't have a pastor, I want to be your pastor.

I'll walk with you.

But I want to love you enough to say that's not where God created you to live.

Let's think about these things, beloved.

Father, we're mindful today that you are the light of the world.

And when you come into this world, when you came into this world, you didn't come shining that bright flashlight in our eyes like some cop who's pulled us over because he's suspicious.

That's not the God of the Bible.

You don't shine the light in our eyes and blind us.

You shine the light at our feet and say, This is the way, walk in it.

So I pray for my friends in this room today who need some illumination and some revelation.

That you would just shine the light at their feet.

You didn't come to blind us.

You came to love us in a way we've never been loved before.

To so love us.

To demonstrate your love for guilty people who feel condemnation.

You came to say, hey, this doesn't have to be like this.

I'm not trying to get you all jammed up here in the name of religion.

I'm trying to set you free into a relationship.

Come to me.

Stop laboring, stop working hard for what you have to receive as a gift.

Come to me.

You'll find rest for your souls.

You'll find what you've been looking for, what you've been dreaming and thinking about.

You find it in me.

God, that's so beautifully rich.

Thank you, Lord.

We're grateful, so we say thank you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest, let me say thanks for being part of our service.

I know some of you are in town visiting uh for the holidays, and we're honored that you've chosen to be a part of our worship services today.

When you came in, you were given a worship folder on the far right side, and this is for all of you.

On the far right side is a little tear-off portion uh that asks for some information.

If you're a guest today, uh hopefully you've had made time to fill that out.

And if you would, just tear it off and drop it on these wooden boxes by the door on your way out.

You matter to God, and because of that, you matter to us.

We want you to find a church that teaches the Bible.

And let me just say this: I lay all my cards on the table.

I don't want to just preach to you, I want to be your pastor.

And what does that mean?

That means that we know your name and the name of your children, and then when something's going on, you can call any of us, any of our pastors here, and say, hey, I want to get lunch or breakfast or come by for a cup of coffee or whatever, and we'll walk through it with you.

We're not gonna shine a light in your eyes.

Uh we're just gonna say, hey, maybe maybe this is what God would have for you.

Make sense?

Uh and so anyway, if you've had a chance to fill that out, if you're visiting our church for the first, second, or third time, just tear it off and drop it in the box.

Uh keep that, take that worship folder with you.

There's information about different events at our church.

Let me highlight two of them before you're dismissed.

Uh, first of all, it's our family Christmas festival, and it's next Saturday, December the 2nd from 9 to noon.

Uh, it involves stories, crafts, conversation, and there'll be a short movie shown.

It's a family uh opportunity to kind of learn about the biblical background of Advent.

Uh, we as a church start Advent next Sunday, and it's the four Sundays leading up uh to Christmas.

And so our Family Christmas Festival is next Saturday, 9 to noon.

It's 10 bucks a family.

Uh, and tomorrow's a deadline to register.

You can register online on the website.

Second thing I want to remind you of is our churchwide hayride.

It's December the 15th.

It's$5 a person, uh, dinners included,$5 a person, and it's a maximum of$20 for the entire family.

Uh we meet at Beeland Park.

Like I said, there's there's dinners provided, there's games, there's music, and then we'll take a hayride uh on a laid out course through Pecan Grove, which is a very decorated neighborhood here in our city.

It's a great opportunity to get together, invite your friends, your neighbors, whatever.

Uh you can restaurate online.

Or also tickets are available in the lobby.

Uh they'll be selling after this service.

If you're a guest and you say, hey, I'd like to come to that, you're more than welcome, okay?

You don't have to be a part of our church to come to that.

It's open to anybody that wants to come.

All right?

Last thing I'll remind you of stop, stop pinching your baby so you can get out of here.

Uh our new devotionals are available.

Uh, these are free.

If you see them by all the exits, the ushers will have some, they'll hand them to you.

Basically, it's just little half-page devotionals each day.

That's what you read.

It's just half a page each day.

It kind of helps get your head and your heart aimed in a Godward direction.

Uh they started in they start in December, and so you can pick one up.

You can start this week.

Uh, it's our gift to you.

We'd love for you to take that with you on your way out.

All right.

We'll be available down front if you have any questions.

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Your God doesn't just love you, he so loves you.

And because he so loves you, so depart now and live like loved people.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, dismiss.