The Purpose of God's Love: Eternal life for All Believers - John 3:16

0:48And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'm going to read just quickly from John chapter 3, starting in verse 14, because that's kind of the meat of the message from last week when we said John 3.16, the prequel, because that's what happened before John 3.16. So let me just read from verses 14 through, well, probably about verse 21. This is Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel. He says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Why? So that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. 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. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, that men loved darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed, but he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

2:21I would venture to say that John 3.16 is probably the most recognizable, quote, statement in all of human history. In all of human history, there are more languages that understand what these words say than probably we would ever comprehend is the number of languages that exist. People have memorized this verse for a couple of thousand years. Ask any child, some children who are two years old, and they could rattle it off. It's stamped for some of us on our tongues and stamped in our minds. We could easily cite this verse. While chewing gum and walking at the same time and doing any number of things simultaneously, these verses are stamped in our mind. And I would say this: that I think, as well as these words are known in our hearts and in our minds, I think they're also severely misunderstood. And so, what I want to do today is bring to you, bring to us, what Jesus said to Nicodemus 2,000 years ago and ask the question: what did it mean to him?

3:30This verse has had such an impact on our world. Even companies, corporations, my favorite restaurant in the whole world. In-N-Out Burger, I realize you don't have that in College Station Bryant, but who's ever had In-N-Out Burger? All of you who haven't, you've missed out. I'm sorry. But having grown up in California, they're all over the place. And so, John 3:16, as you can see, circled on the bottom of their cup, is listed. So, if you're scarfing down your burger and you want to know what's on the underside of that cup, you're going to see John 3:16, something about God's love for the world. Hopefully, you'll go home and read it and take your cup with you and read it, and God will do something with that. There are other companies that love this passage. That would be Forever 21. Did you know that Forever 21 puts John 3:16 on their packaging?

4:20That's right. You have to go out to Forever 21 and buy something and look at the bottom of their bag, and then ask the salesperson behind the counter, what does this verse mean? On your packaging. What a perfect opportunity to share with them. Well, we have to ask the question: what do these 25 words mean to us? Depending on your English translation, it should come up to about 25. And I would say to you that what they mean to us today is what they meant to Nicodemus back then, what Jesus wanted Nicodemus to get out of these 25 words when he first uttered them to the teacher of Israel 2,000 years ago. So today, we're going to do what we've done for the last week and then last month when I considered the new birth, we're going to continue eavesdropping on this conversation that took place so long ago, 2,000 years ago. This conversation, as we know, is between Nicodemus. Nicodemus, Jesus, refers to him as the teacher of Israel, as if to say, Nicodemus, you're the guy. You're at the top of the heap. There's no teacher as high as you in the organization, Nicodemus. You should know what I'm talking about. And Nicodemus refers to Jesus as a teacher sent from God. Why? Well, to his own admission, he says, because nobody else can do the things that you do unless God is with him.

5:49We need to be reminded that Nicodemus is just one of the many that we looked at the last couple of times in John 2, 23 and in John 3, 2, who believed in some Jesus. Jesus facts. They believe that Jesus was a good teacher. They know that he caused water to become wine. They know that he cleared the temple with a little handmade whip of thousands of people and stinking animals. And so they know that he does some cool stuff. But in John 2:24, just a few verses up from our text for today, we see that Jesus has no faith in their kind of faith. John identifies the fact that Jesus was not entrusting himself to them. He didn't believe in what they were believing in, is the idea. Remember, Nicodemus is perplexed, or so it seems. He's perplexed at this new birth. How can somebody be born again? How can he enter into his mother's womb? And Jesus says it's impossible for man to be born again. It's the fact that it's a passive verb, you are birthed again. God causes the birth of a human child, and he causes the spiritual birth of a human being in Christ. On the one hand, he recognizes that Jesus is from God, yet, as I said, he doesn't understand the new birth. And so we considered, oh, a little more than a month ago, we looked at Ezekiel chapter 36 and 37, where God brings new birth into dead people's bodies, dry bones in the desert, an army of Israel that he brings back to life. Why can't he cause a spiritual birth in people like you and me?

7:25Jesus recognizes that. It's not that Nicodemus doesn't understand. His Bible, because he's the teacher of Israel. He would understand it. We find it according to John 3:11, Jesus accuses the man of not believing that he is Israel's long-awaited Messiah. He likes the things that he does, but he doesn't like the things that he says. And so, when he comes off as the long-awaited Messiah promised throughout the generations of Israel, he doesn't like that. We need to keep in mind that it's not just Nicodemus that Jesus calls out for his unbelief. It's not just him. Jesus structures his words very carefully in this text. And he uses, as we saw last week, he used a Texan word, a y'all. It says, y'all aren't accepting me. He's talking about those in John 2:23 that are a part of the people that believe something about Jesus.

8:20And I would say and venture to say that that statement is inclusive of people around the world even today, living today. Now, in John 3, 16, Jesus gives the teacher of Israel the gospel message in about 25 words. And I'll say this, his life is changed for eternity. One thing that we're not going to spend a lot of time on is what happened to Nicodemus later in life. We know there were two people that buried Jesus. If you can picture the teacher of Israel who's not allowed to touch a dead body with his arms around this corpse, burying him in his tomb along with Joseph of Arimathea, I think Nicodemus came to know the Lord.

9:01Well, what is the application for today's message? Where are we heading with this? What do we want to take home out of today's message? In John 3, 16, using only 25 words, Jesus shows us really three ways that God demonstrates his love for the world so that you may have eternal life. That's the takeaway. How does he demonstrate it? And how do I apply that to my life? Here they are. Right out of this little passage, these 25 words, God demonstrates his love so that believers may have eternal life. We see it in God's supreme gift. We see it in God's supreme purpose. And we also see it in God's supreme rescue and reward. And I combined rescue and reward because I didn't want a four-point sermon. So it kind of fits all together in three. So just allow me a little bit of fudge room there. It fits, I promise. So point number one addresses the supreme nature of God's love so that you may have eternal life, the supreme nature of God's love. And I want you to notice the first 13 words in this famous verse of the Bible that tells us of God's supreme gift. These 13 words refer us to an analogy about God's love in verse 14. And we looked at that last week. We said the prequel. And so we looked at verse 14 last week, and there's an analogy there about a bronze serpent, about a snake, right? The bronze serpent. forces our attention to look all the way back to the Old Testament, specifically Numbers 21. We read that last week. We looked at Numbers 21, a passage that Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, would have been fully comfortable with. He would have known that passage. He would have been very familiar with it. So these first 13 words of John 3.16, it really describes the magnitude of God's love, the magnitude. of God's love. And just how vast is the target of God's love? Well, we would say the world. We would say the world. These 13 words provide us with a tangible manifestation of his love through the unique Son. In your text, it would say the only begotten Son, but that simply means unique. So you say, wow, how on earth do you get that out of 13 words in John 3.16? Where do you get all that from? And I would say I'm really glad you asked that question because it invites us to go along with me for an excursion through this passage in a way that perhaps you haven't considered before. And I would say this.

11:41As famous as this verse is, how come preaching doesn't take place in our world today? Why would we be shocked to hear some of the things that we're going to hear this morning? First of all, I want you to notice some words here. The word for and so. These words are so important. There's five letters in the Words, but they break open the gospel of Jesus Christ in such a clear way that after this morning, I promise you, you'll have a better understanding of John 3.16. The word for links to the analogy of Moses' bronze snake in 3:14. It's as if he were saying, For Nicodemus, I want you to look back into verse 14. That's what the four is so. And the word for is there. The word so tells us the manner in which the Son must be lifted up. The manner. It's analogous to the way that the snake, the bronze snake that was lifted up in Numbers. In other words, God's love for Israel was expressed in the giving of a bronze serpent to people who had been bit by snakes in the wilderness. And they had to look to that bronze serpent when they were bit by a snake so that they could be healed of their affliction. And in the same way, God's love for the world is expressed in that we must look to Christ. We must look to Christ in verse 14, the risen Christ. That explains why the Son of Man must be crucified and why we must look to his crucifixion so that we may have eternal life in verse 15. Let's revisit Numbers chapter 21 real quick so we can take a look at exactly what happened in that passage once again so that we have a keen awareness of what it was that Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand.

13:37Numbers chapter 21, verses 1 through 3, it says this, When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Athraim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, If you will indeed deliver this people from my hand, into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. They're vowing a promise to God. Verse 3, the Lord heard the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities, and thus the name of the place was called Horma. Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, saying, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? All of a sudden, they forgot that God just delivered the people into their hands. Now they're complaining about the food. It said, For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. God, we hate the food that you're giving to us.

14:42The Lord got upset just a little bit. Verse 6, it says, The Lord sent fiery serpents, snakes, among the people, and they bit the people, so that many of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, We've sinned because we have spoken against the Lord, and you intercede, pray. Pray with the Lord. Pray to the Lord, that he may remove the serpents from among us. And Moses interceded for the people. He prayed for them, just like he said they would, or he would. The Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard, and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, will live. Simply, they had to be obedient. They got bit by a snake. They look at the standard, they look at the serpent, and they can live.

15:27And Moses made the bronze serpent and set it on a standard, and it came about that if the serpent bit any man, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Here's what Jesus wants Nicodemus to take away from these words for and so. It's really so in the same manner, consistent with how Moses lifted up this bronze serpent when they got bit, consistent in that manner in which Israel had to exercise their belief by simply looking at that bronze serpent. He's saying to the peoples of the world in John 3:16, look to the risen Christ. All the believing ones in John 3:15 are those looking to the crucified Son of Man in John 3.14, so that they may not perish but have eternal life. That's the analogy. The bronze snake saved them from their quick death, their physical death, but the risen Christ saves them for eternity.

16:27Jesus in John 6:40 paints. Really, a terrific illustration of this point when he says this. John 6:40 says, For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him, everyone who looks at him and believes in him, will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. In other words, for this is the will of my Father, that Pas. Remember, we talked about that word pas last week. Pos means all. P-A-S. It means all. Every, everyone. All, whoever beholds and looks at the Son, observing him with a sustained attention. That's what the word behold means. It's not just a glance, a passing glance, it's a study, and believes in him. Present, ongoing, continuous action will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. That's the idea. It's that looking at him as though we're Israel looking at that bronze serpent. So, in the manner in which God gave the bronze serpent, illustrates the expanse of God's love for the world, which is expressed in the giving of his unique son. Turn back to John chapter 3 for now. John chapter 3, and we'll pick up the narrative here in just a moment.

17:52What is the magnitude of God's love? How expansive is his love? We've seen it's the world. It's the world, not just a bronze. Bronze snake for the nation of Israel, but for the entire world. God loves the world. And I'm shocked at, as I shameless advertisement here, but it fits well. As I consider the summer in the Psalms that we're going to start next Sunday night, I think about God's love for the world. And I was just going to develop Psalm 118, the most common, often quoted or alluded to, Old Testament passage in the New Testament. And as I began looking more in depth at that psalm, it dawned on me that I couldn't do Psalm 118 without Psalm 117. And Psalm 117 expresses God's love for the world, all the nations, not just Israel. You see, back in the days of Numbers, when Moses held up that snake, it just saved Israel. But in Nicodemus' time and in our time, the gears shift and it saves the entire world. God loves the world, we see in Psalm 117. Come back for that next Sunday night.

18:59What does the Bible say about the world that God loves? It has a lot to say about the world that God loves. In order to comprehend God's love for the world, we must really first understand what Jesus wants Nicodemus and us to know about his love. First of all, the word love is agape that we're talking about here. It is the most profound kind of love. It's the kind of love that dies for another. I want you to take note. What we're about to observe is that God chooses to love God. Love people who hate him and that which repulses him. Remember, the people in Numbers, they didn't like God very much. They wanted better food, and so they were complaining about him. They wanted to go back to Egypt and die in slavery. I said to turn to John 3, I want you to pick up the narrative in verse 19 as we take a look at what people think of God.

19:54The world that Jesus loves, the world that God loves, it says in verse 19, this is the judgment that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness. They agape the darkness. The most supreme kind of love for the darkness is what they had, rather than the love for the light, which is love for the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed. There are other verses that tell us this world that God sent his son into, people that hate him. John 7, 7. He says, the world cannot hate you, speaking to believers, Christians, but it hates me. Why? Because I testify of it that its deeds are evil. What else do we know about this world that God sent his unique son into? John 15. You can turn there with me to John 15, verses 18 through 23.

20:46More about this world that God sent his son. Verse 18 says this. He says, if the world hates you, he's talking to believers. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because this world hates you. Remember, the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know the one who sent me. There's the reason for persecution, Christians. They don't know the one that sent God. That's what he's saying here. Verse 22, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sinned. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father also. Why would God send his Son into a world that so despitefully hates him? What about Revelation 2.6? Because this looks a little confusing. It's the only time in the New Testament we read the words where Jesus says, I hate.

21:58He says to the church, yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He sent his Son into a world that hates him, but he hates their actions, but he loves them and wants to send his Son so that all the believing ones in him will have eternal life. Jesus is so repulsed by the deeds of the Nicolaitans who are members of the church of Pergamum. Jesus tells us in Revelation 2.14 that the Nicolaitans We're teaching horrible doctrines that if they continued, he would wage war with them if they don't repent. The Nicolaitans were in the world that God loved and gave his Son. That's the idea. That's the expanse of this world that we're talking about here. To the ears of Nicodemus, the idea that God loves the whole world is a disturbing thought.

22:53He didn't understand Psalm 117. He didn't understand Psalm 118 that God loves all the nations and will pull people from all the nations, not just Israel. What Nicodemus heard would be likened to ten fingers screeching a trail down a chalkboard. This hurt his ears. Israel thought that they're the only nation that loves God. You go to Israel today and some parts of it, you can walk the streets where the Orthodox Jews are, and if you're walking more than somewhere around 200 meters, they might stone you.

23:26They think they're the only ones that God loves. They forgot the Old Testament. They forgot it. The Jews knew that they were God's chosen people. And from their wayward perspective, this meant that God loved no other people and no other nation than them. I like the way that one author, D.A. Carson, summarizes this understanding for us. He says these words, quote, he says, Jews are familiar with the truth that God loved the children of Israel. Here, God's love is not restricted by race. Even so, God's love is so admired not because the world is so big, and I love this, not because the world is so big and includes so many people, but because the world is so bad. That's what's shocking about God's love for the world. He continues, the world is so wicked that John elsewhere forbids Christians to love it or anything in it. 1 John 2:15 through 17. There is no contradiction between this prohibition of the fact that God loves it. Christians are not to love the world with a selfish love of participation. God loves the world with the selfless, costly love of redemption. That's the kind of love, the redeeming kind of love, to bring people to himself.

24:49God's love for the world is his passion to redeem those believing in him. Our kind of love for the world should be the same as his. As I said in Sunday school this morning, those who are killing Christians around the world, they're not our enemies. They are those for whom Christ died. And we should be able to reach them for Christ in some way. Let's move along because we have some more words to identify in John 3:16. I want you to notice the first time the word that, T-H-A-T, is used in John 3:16. This little word is critical because it provides us with the result of God's love for the world. The result of God's love for the world. World is this, it's giving his only begotten son. That's the result of it. He loved the world, so he gave his son.

25:37English translators could have easily used the word therefore here instead of the word that. Here's what it would sound like: God so loved the world, therefore he gave his only begotten son. That's the idea. We could say God's love for the world resulted in him providing the gift of his son to the world. Well, we still need to keep drilling into this passage because it's packed with even more tidbits of information that bring it alive. The English text tells us that God gave his only begotten son.

26:12We like that, that God gave his only begotten son. We hear that, and we understand that to some extent, but in the English language, it sounds like the Father created this Son, like it's begotten, like he birthed his son. And that's not what Jesus is communicating to Nicodemus at all. No passage in the Bible teaches that Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, was created. In fact, passages like John 1:3 and Colossians 1:15 and 16 and Hebrews 1.2 show us that Jesus is very clearly the creator. John 1 says that he existed long before, from eternity past. Verse 14 says that's when he became flesh as a man, but he existed before. Those words, only begotten, come from a Greek word. I want you to remember this word. The word is monogany. Mono meaning one, gene, one gene.

27:05And it literally means unique. It means one of a kind. It means there's no one else like him. The best demonstration, and I love this in the New Testament, that word monoganes, is found in Hebrews 11, 17. This is where it's so important to understand this only begotten. This is so important that we get this. I want you to watch this. It says, Now by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, he offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was offered up, or he offered up his only begotten son. So my question is, was Isaac Abraham's only son?

27:41Not at all. Isaac wasn't his monoganes, in other words, the only begotten son. He was unique. He was different. We think about it. Between Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah, his wives and perhaps concubines, Abraham had eight sons. So Isaac's not the only one. Isaac was Abraham's monoganes because he was uniquely the son from which the 12 tribes of Israel would come. That's what he's saying here. He's unique because there's nobody else from whom the 12 tribes of Israel would come. Judah was one of those 12 tribes. Jesus was in the line of Judah. He's unique. He's different. The fact that God gave his unique son to the world is an astounding expression of his unimaginable depth, the unimaginable depth of his love for the people, the world who hate him. With such severe animosity, why would he do this?

28:35Turn to Romans chapter 5 as we take a look at why he would do something like this. Romans chapter 5, in spite of man's hatred for God, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, describes God's love for people who are repulsed by the very thought of him. Romans chapter 5, verse 8, starting in verse 8, says this. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, while we're in the very midst of sinning, he's saying here, Christ died for us. Much more than, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. For if while we were enemies, in other words, the idea presently enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

29:35You say, what's the purpose? Why would he do this? Why on earth does God give this unique one-of-a-kind son? What was he thinking? When we understand the hatred that man has for God, well, we find the answer to that question in the second way. God demonstrates his love for the world so that he may have eternal life the second way. And it's this, God's supreme love. God's supreme purpose for sending his son. I want you to notice the second time the word that is mentioned in John 3.16. Believe it or not, the purpose for which God sent his Son is expressed in the word that. The second time that appears in John 3.16, this time Jesus tells us the reason for which God sent his Son. It's the reason God sends his Son here. Just looking at verse 16, do you see the purpose? Do you see the reason? Here's God's purpose. Here it is. The reason God sent his Son is so that all those believing in him, present, ongoing, continuous verb, action, shall not perish, but have eternal life. Put it another way.

30:46God loved the world in such a magnificent way that he's willing for his unique son to be crucified, his unique son to die on the cross for our sins. And so why? Well, so that those who are looking at him with sustained attention, not just a passing glanch, but we focus on him and who he is and believing in him. Those are the ones that would live forever in John 3.16. In order for us to fully comprehend what Jesus wants us and really Nicodemus to know out of this passage, to understand out of this passage about God's love, are the implications of what his love brings to bear in our lives.

31:25We need to break this down just a little bit further, get into these 25 words just a little bit further. First of all, there's a few more items to dig into so we understand what Nicodemus was to understand. We come across that word whoever, whoever, it's a remarkable word. It's the word pas. Again, it means all. It means every, everyone. As a reminder, it's the Greek word that occurs 65 times in this gospel, 65 times, and only four of those times is it translated whoever, like it is in John 3:16 and John 3:15. It's repeated again two more times in John chapter 4 and John chapter 5, where it's in reference to water. But why would he say whoever? It just means all. It means everyone. So when you see that passage, it's okay to just say all. It means everyone or every.

32:17So hold on to the word pas for a moment and file it away in our minds because I just want you to remember it means all or every. We're going to revisit it again. Let's move on from that word to the word believes. Believes, again, it's a present, ongoing, continuous action. It continues to go on, as opposed to Nicodemus' kind of belief and the belief that those who had this kind of belief in John 2.23, they believed in Jesus' facts, but their faith was not the kind of faith that Jesus had faith in.

32:50The kind of faith that Jesus calls for here is not just a one-time acknowledgement of some things that are true, but an embracing of Jesus Christ. Nicodemus and the many in John. 2.23 believed that Jesus was a teacher sent from God. Nicodemus thought he obeyed all the man-made rules. He thought he was a good boy. Yet Jesus has no faith in his faith. It doesn't matter how good he was. Don't be deceived. We can't be deceived into thinking that just because we once prayed some prayer or we walked some aisle or we talked a woman out of having an abortion or clothed the homeless or filled the stomachs of a refugee that we have a ticket, a one-way ticket to see and enter the kingdom of God because you see Nicodemus was all those things, but it wasn't enough. Don't lull yourself into thinking that just because you've been baptized or partook in the Lord's Supper that your eternity in Christ is secure. Don't be fooled into assuming that just because you live in the Bible Belt that you'll surely go to heaven. We can't take comfort in the fact that these would be our legal claim to eternity with Christ. Obedience never got anybody there because Jesus told Nicodemus, you will never see or enter the kingdom of heaven. If you try to do it on your own good works, that's the idea. You see, your belief and my belief must be in him. You have to place your trust in Christ. That's the idea. You can stand outside an elevator all day long and watch it going up and down, but unless you climb in the elevator, it does nothing for your life. You just know that it does something, but you've never experienced it. You've got to get in it and take it for a ride. Ride. That's the idea. Okay, so I was one of those kids that pushed all the buttons on the 105-story building so you could stop everywhere. The idea is you've got to get in the elevator. That's what he's talking about here: belief in Christ. Jesus shows us how this kind of belief works in John 8:31. He told the Jews in John 8:31, those who said they believed in him, he says, if you continue in my words, then you're disciples of mine.

34:57It's a continuance. So, what's the supreme purpose of God's love? The supreme purpose of God's love is that pas, is that all, everyone, whoever is believing in God's unique Son will not perish, but have eternal life. Well, that's odd. You say, Eric, if eternal life is given to those who are presently continuously believing and trusting in Jesus, what happens when I sin? What happens when I blow it? Does that mean it's over? What happens when I step out of line? Those are great questions that need to be answered. The reason Jesus is having this conversation with Nicodemus is to demonstrate that sinless perfectionism doesn't exist. Really, from a legal perspective, again, Nicodemus was a good boy, but it wasn't perfect. He must be birthed again by God Himself, who is perfect. He must believe in Christ in order to enter God's kingdom. He must turn from sin, must repent and believe that the Father sent the Son. That's the message that Jesus is giving to. This teacher of Israel 2,000 years ago. And so must each one of us. That's the idea. Simply stated, the purpose of God's love is eternal life for all believers. The extent of God's love is so expansive that it includes people like Paul, the Apostle Paul, who in the latter part of his life admitted in 1 Timothy 1:15 that he's the foremost sinner of all. He says, I am right now, present tense, the chief of all sinners. Even as a redeemed saint, he admits that he sins. So we don't lose our salvation because we sin. We thank God for his mercy that even those sins are forgiven.

36:46Christ came into the world to save sinners, he says, among whom I am foremost. And yet the gospel message is structured in such a way that it excludes those who continue hating God, which is the next section that we would come to here, verses 18 through 20. John Newton, got to love John Newton. He's the author of a famous hymn. You just sang it, Amazing Grace. And if you don't know the story behind John Newton, he was a slave trader. He was a slave at one point in time. He hurt people, and yet he understood God's amazing grace. God birthed him again and rescued him from his hatred for God, the same kind of hatred that we. Looked at earlier, several passages. Out of an expression of his gratitude for God's love, he penned the verse, so the song Amazing Grace, and those famous lines, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, and now I'm found, was blind, but now I see.

37:52It's an astounding message. Indeed, God found him and gave him new birth, gave him new birth, and so that 200, some 200 years later, we're still singing the hymn that he wrote that recognized God's grace in his life. That's amazing. This brings us to our last observation about God's love so that he may have eternal life. It's this one. God's supreme rescue and reward. God's supreme rescue and reward. The reward for all those believing in Jesus is twofold. Believers will never perish, and believers will have eternal life.

38:24Perish doesn't mean annihilation. In fact, the word perish is the polar opposite of annihilation. Annihilation teaches that you'll cease to exist. We're talking about eternal life for believers, but those who reject Christ will continue on for eternity. The word perish is written right there in verse 16. We need to understand this word a little more clearly. The Greek verb for perish is what's called a middle voice. We don't really do this in the English language, so we have to describe it. It means that they're going to perish themselves. They're going to. Cause themselves to perish is the idea.

39:03He who believes in him shall not perish himself is the idea, so that they may have eternal life. The implication is those that don't believe perish themselves. That's the idea. John 3, 16 is really the perfect verse for the doctrine of eternal security. Once your salvation is secure in Christ, you won't lose your salvation. And it fits well with passages like John 11, 26, where it says this, and everyone, Pos, who believes, who lives and believes in me, will never die. He says, Do you believe this? John 6:37. Again, we see the same concept. All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out.

39:48You can't sin your way out of your security in Christ. That's not an excuse for sin. That's not an excuse for living apart from God's word. But it does give comfort to those of us who are like Paul, who are the chief of sinners presently in our lives. It gives us a call to still repent. So the purpose of God's love for all those believing in Him results in bypassing eternal judgment. That's the idea. You say, well, what exactly is the eternal judgment that we bypass? What does that look like? Eternal judgment? What am I escaping here? Well, we could see it spelled out very clearly in Revelation chapter 20. Join me over there real quick, and we'll bring this to an end in just a moment. Revelation chapter 20, verse 10.

40:38We're talking about eternal judgment. And we read the words penned from John, who received this message from Jesus directly from God. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it, from whose presence the earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 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 those things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead, which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every one of them, according to their deeds.

41:29Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Those are the ones who perished themselves. That's the idea. The supreme reward is this. For you see, as if to say, for you see, Nicodemus, God, in the same way that Moses lifted up the bronze serpent, loved the world, not just Israel, the entire world. Therefore, he gave his unique son. His one and only son, why? So that everyone believing in him shall not perish themselves, but have eternal life. Literally, the life of the ages. If you were to read it in the Greek language, it's fascinating the way it looks. My question is: have you done this?

42:20Have you looked to this risen Son the same way that Israel would look to the risen bronze serpent and embraced him and placed your faith in him? Today, we've seen the purpose of God's love, his eternal life for all believers. The supreme gift to the world is God's unique Son. All those who are birthed again from above in John chapter 3 are the very same ones who are among the everyone, the whoever and the all and the every of those who are believing. And all who are believing will not perish themselves, but are given eternal life, which can never be taken away. They will never die, is the message that Jesus is giving to Nicodemus 2,000 years ago, and he gives to us today in the year 2014.

43:13That is John 3:16, the way it was presented to Nicodemus so that he understood exactly what Jesus was saying. And that's what he's saying to us today: to surrender our lives to him. And for those of you who are believing in him, our message, our call. Paul is to do what Psalm 117 says, to let the worlds know that they can praise God, all the people, all the nations. Come back next Sunday night, and we'll look at God's passion for the world, even the way it's presented in John 3:16, it's presented in the Old Testament. For those of you who may not have trusted Christ yet, would you just place your trust in Him? Because He loves you, you're in the world, and He's forgiving and will forgive.

44:01Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we're grateful for Nicodemus. We're grateful for this teacher of Israel who came to Jesus at night, had some questions. Jesus gave him a message that he no doubt was shocked by. He thought he knew it all. He thought that his behavior was the kind of behavior that you would honor and that you would certainly allow him to both see and enter the kingdom of God. But Jesus had a different message for him and for those in John 2:23.

44:40Lord, would we not be those who just simply embrace some Jesus facts and God trivia, but that we would get in the elevator, we would get in, we would place our trust in you and trust you, that we would be those who. Just like you called for throughout the New Testament, throughout the Gospel of John, that we would be those who would repent of our rejection of you, of our sin, and that we would be those who are believing that the Father sent the Son, and that we would place our trust in you, Father. Perhaps even today there are those who haven't. And I pray that as we have just a moment of silent prayer on our own, that you would move in their hearts even now, and that they would place their trust in you, that they would repent, Lord, and call on your name.