Lamad, as I was thinking of what passage to preach in connection with your baptism, I couldn't help but think of how I asked you, you know, what convinced you that the Bible rather than the Quran was the Word of God? And your answer to that question was, I just see all the love as I read the Gospels. I see the call in the Gospels, Jesus called to love God and love neighbor. I see the love of Jesus. He's compassionate, kind, forgiving, and he's selfless to the point of sacrificing himself. Everything all about Jesus is love. And so I thought, we need to find a passage in the Gospels that talks about the love of God, and there's no better one than John 3, 16, so that's where we're going. And John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, the word for there tells us we need to look what comes before. building on the previous verses. And the previous verses are verses 14 and 15, which refer to Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness. So we want to read that first. That is found in Numbers chapter 21. Let's look at Numbers 21, and that's on page 236 in your Pew Bibles. The first generation of Israelites have died off in the wilderness during their 40 years of wandering. And as we get to chapter 20 and 21, the second generation of Israelites are ready, they're poised to enter the promised land. But once again, this is the second generation, 40 years later, once again they're grumbling and complaining. They're getting impatient. That's what we read of here. Not been a lot of improvement with the people of God. But let's hear the word of the Lord. Numbers 21, verses four through nine. Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way, or an alternate might say, the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. pray to the Lord that he takes away the serpents from us.' So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, He lived. And now we'll jump to John 3, reading verses 14 through 18. That's page 1634. If you want to look at the page number, page 1634. Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus, and here is the point in the conversation where he refers back to this passage. John 3, 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. There ends our reading of God's Word. Let's ask for his blessing upon it. Father, we give you thanks for your Word. We give you thanks for this conversation we have recorded between Jesus and Nicodemus, and what Jesus here tells us about the amazing love he shows, that you show through him. We pray, Father, that you'd move among us by your Spirit. Remind us of your love for us in Christ, or perhaps teach us for the first time. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Brothers and sisters, John 3.16 is probably one of the most popular Bible verses, one of the most well-known. You see it appear on signs at sporting events. I never go to them, but I'm told they appear there. You hear them on bumper stickers, on social media posts, and it's not surprising that this verse is so popular because it beautifully highlights the saving love of God universally offered to everyone. At the same time, it's also one of the most misunderstood verses There's a danger when you just flash this one verse around by itself that it's taken out of context, and we overlook the costly nature of the love of God, and we miss the qualifier about the recipients of the love of God. And if we're not careful, this verse can become used to portray God as this generous, jolly Santa Claus who throws the candy of his salvation indiscriminately out to everyone, and everyone actually receives it. But to properly understand what this verse is saying about God's amazing love, we need to consider it in context. And when we do, we see the extent of our sinfulness. We see the perilous plight we are in. And we see the price that had to be paid for our redemption. And when we see those things, we see how utterly amazing the love of God is. It is unlike anything else in the world. So we want to consider three things. The loved of God, the gift of God, and the promise of God. First, the loved of God. Who is the love of God directed to? Our verse says, the world. God so loved the world. But what is the world referring to? Is it referring to the quantity, the number of people out there? All the people who've lived throughout history, and the 8.1 billion alive today? Is it referring to the ethnic diversity of all the people? It's true, God shows love to every member of the human race throughout history by causing the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and by sending the rain on the righteous and unrighteous. And it's true that his love moves him to say, I don't want any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But that's not what the word world is referring to here. It's not referring to the large number of people, but to the sinful nature of the people in the world. In John's writings, we see that. In John 15, 18, Jesus says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. The word world in John's gospel is frequently used to refer to those who hate God, who hate Jesus, and who hate the followers of Jesus. Or look at 1 John 2, his epistle. Do not love the world or the things in the world. And what's that defined as? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These sinful desires, that's what the world refers to. Or think of James. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is, among other things, to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. The world is this source of contamination, this toxic waste that fills your soul. James 4.4, the world is at enmity with God. Whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So the world is a reference to everything that's opposed to God, opposed to Jesus, and it's a reference to wrongdoing, those who live in rebellion against God. We see from the Old Testament background to this passage that the Israelites, the Old Testament people of God, are included in this category. What we read of in Numbers 21 is the story of an exceedingly worldly, you could say, group of people. They are exceedingly sinful. As we mentioned, this is the second generation of wilderness wanderers. The first generation did plenty of grumbling and complaining, and they, as a result, had to die in the desert of starvation and dehydration. Sorry, they thought they would die in the desert of starvation and dehydration because they didn't trust God, but in the end, because of their unbelief and their grumbling and complaining, they died as a result of God's curse. Now we have the second generation at the end of the 40 years, and surely they are going to be better than their forebearers, right? Wrong. In chapter 20 of Numbers, they're complaining that they didn't have enough water. And they say to Moses, why did you bring us up out of Egypt so we could just die here? This is the second generation. They didn't learn from their forefathers. They complain, why did you bring us to this terrible place? There's no grain, no figs, no grapevines, no pomegranates, no water. God is patient with them. He tells Moses, go speak to this rock, and I'll bring water for this second generation out of the rock. But Moses loses it now and strikes the rock. They're so sinful. There's this positive moment, yes, in chapter 21, verses 1 through 3, where the Israelites cry out to God for help and actually receive strength to wipe out King Arad. And they do. They wipe him out. They're successful in defeating the enemy. Something that shows faith and action. But then now, chapter 21, verses 4 to 5, they've got to take a detour around Edom, and what's their first impulse? I don't know, what's your first impulse when there's traffic? Impatient. You've got to go around the long way. There's construction. No, King Edom's there. Got to go around him. They're impatient. And look at this, verses 4 and 5. They spew forth the most bitter complaints ever, even outdoing their forefathers. The soul of the people became discouraged, they became impatient, and they said, why did you bring us up to die in the wilderness? There's no food, no water, and our soul, and this is a strong word, our soul loathes, our soul detests this worthless bread. Referring to the bread of heaven, the manna, as worthless. You see, the world lives inside the hearts of the people of God. Naturally, we are no different than the people of the world. Supernaturally, we are, by the grace of God. But naturally, no. Look at Deuteronomy 9, how God describes His people. There's this threefold repetition. As the second generation is about to enter the Promised Land, Moses is saying to them, listen, it's not because you are so righteous that God is giving you this land. Don't say to yourself, it's because of my righteousness. Verse five, it's not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you're gonna take possession of this land. Verse six, as if they haven't sunk in yet, understand then that it is not because of your righteousness for you're a stiff-necked people. There's a lesson for us here. The poison of Satan and the evil of the world isn't just out there, it's inside the heart of each one of us. Adam and Eve let the serpent get too close. They listened to his voice and they got poisoned by his venomous bite. And they passed that poison on to every one of their offspring. Lord's Day three, question and answer seven says, the fall of Adam and Eve has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners, corrupt from conception on. Oh, it's true, the Holy Spirit sanctifies and makes us more holy and enables us to do good works, but that's the supernatural at work in us. The natural is to hate God and our neighbor. In and of ourselves, we are not loving, we're not lovable, we're not lovely. Look at Romans 3, verses 9 and following. Paul says, what shall we conclude then? Do we, that is the Jews, the Old Testament church, the people of God there, have any advantage over the Gentiles? Not at all, for we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one. And then in verse 13, he says, the poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. And he concludes, there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. That's a description of the world. Rebellious people running from God, poisoned by sin and Satan. It's a description of the world. But it's also a description of those loved by God. Isn't that amazing? Think about our human love. I might love you because you're nice to me. or because I can get something from you. I might love you if you continue to be nice or unless you cross me too many times, but there comes so easily a limit to our love or Criteria for what's gonna allow me to love you or not love you, and criteria for who we love. I mean, it's easy for us to love a family member or a friend who's endeared themselves to us, or a neighbor who's moving in, or maybe even a cranky neighbor who we're trying to get on our good side. But what about someone who slanders us, makes their life miserable? It's easy to just have a slurry of words for them, or ignore them, or give them a cold shoulder. What about a spouse who's been cranky to us? I mean, we know we need to love them, but that's not always our first impulse, is it? Or what about someone who murders a family member, a friend, a neighbor? How do you respond? If you're in an adrenaline rush and lose your cool, you might pummel them to death. If you maintain your cool, you probably still want to have them imprisoned or executed. But as a father, Are you going to offer your son to be executed in place of that murderer? You say, no! That's just crazy! That's just, how can you... That's just too above and beyond us. But you see, that's exactly what God is doing for us in Christ. You say, that just blows my mind! No human father would do that, but that's the difference between human love and divine love. You see, we give nothing to the very worst of people. But God gives to the very worst His very best. Isn't that amazing? Contrast also God's love with the love, so-called the love, of false gods. We could think of the gods of the Greco-Roman mythology, but Think for a moment with me of the love of Allah in Islam. What is it, who is it that Allah loves? Those who do good deeds. Those who ask for his forgiveness. Those who purify themselves. Those who fear him. Those who are steadfast. Those who trust him. Those who act justly. Those who strive for his cause. Those who follow his prophet. I mean, it's good that God would love such people, But how comforting is that when we don't always do good deeds, when we're covering up our sin instead of confessing it, when we're acting unjustly, when we're having trouble trusting God, when we're not following his prophet Jesus. But you see, God so loved the world, the sinful world, That is the object of his love, and that's what makes it so amazing. Romans 5, amid all our sin, we read, in due time Christ died for who? The ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone might even dare to die. We just celebrated Remembrance Day, and we remember how there are many soldiers who gave up their life to protect fellow citizens in their country, right? Sometimes a good man will dare to die for fellow citizens, but someone who's gonna die for their enemy? That's divine love. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When we were enemies of God, we were reconciled him through the death of his son. So the reason that God's love is so remarkable, so staggering, is not because the world who he loves is so big. but because the world is so bad, the people are so bad, and yet He loves them. Now what is the gift that God's love moves Him to give? What is it that the world needs? Well, think about our plight. Each member of the human race is infected with the poisonous venom of sin, and we are dying, and we need a cure. How can we be cured? Can God just say, Thanks for your repentance, I forgive you, you can go. No, that would not be just. God, because he is God, is the most just judge. And if we wouldn't let a human judge just dismiss someone saying I forgive you and not implement a penalty, how on earth can we say that God, who is the most just judge, can do so? That would not be just. It would also not be truthful if God just said, I forgive you, go on your way. God said to Adam and Eve, in the day you eat, you will surely die. And God, if he's going to be a God of his word, which he will, which he must be, and is, then he must punish sin with the penalty prescribed in the law, and that is death. You say, that sounds severe. Well, it is, and it shows the sin for the serious problem it is. Is it loving to overlook rebellion and evil and just let it go? No. That's unprincipled. Evil must be punished. Serpentine words and thoughts and actions must be impaled on a pole and put to death and cursed. And Numbers 21 is a picture of how this is done and how we are cured in the process. Again, that word for, in the beginning of our text, for God so loved the world, for directs us back to the verses that come before, And so does the word so in John 3, 16. For God so loved the world. The word so isn't first and foremost a reference to the degree of God's love, how much he loved us. It's actually a reference to the way in which God loved us. The Greek word that's used for so, in verse 16, is used two verses before, in verse 14, and it's translated even so, or in the same way. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, or in the same way, the Son of Man must be lifted up. It establishes a point of comparison. And so we need to read the so of verse 16 in the same way. For even so, or for in the same manner, the same way, God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son to be placed on a pole and cursed by God. Let's go back to numbers 21, because it's a picture of us and our plight. By nature, we are like the Israelites. We are not, by nature, those who stay within the bounds of God's law. We are not, by nature, loving husbands and submissive wives. We are not, by nature, obedient children. I think it takes some spankings to get us to be obedient, right? We are not by nature always thankful and always trusting and believing. To the extent that we are these things, again, that's supernatural grace at work in us. But what is natural is to not be all those things. God must punish sin. The wages of sin is death. That's why he sent those venomous snakes to deliver death-inducing bites to the Israelites. what's happening in the camp there. They cry out as they're dying, we've sinned. Pray to the Lord that the serpents will be taken away from us. And God says to Moses, make a fiery serpent. Create a replica of those venomous snakes and impale it on a pole. Impale that cursed snake, that symbol of evil and death, on a pole. And now Jesus is using that with a snake wound around it as a picture of himself. Think, how can Jesus compare himself to something so horrid? It's jarring that Jesus would compare himself to a serpent on a pole, isn't it? Serpents symbolize sin and Satan, and the pole is a symbol of being under the curse. Deuteronomy 21, anyone who is hanged on a tree is under the curse, is accursed of God. How can Jesus compare himself to a serpent on a pole? As shocking as this is, brothers and sisters, this shows us the seriousness of sin. It's ugly, it's serpentine, and it needs to be cursed. And it shows us the costly nature of God's love. God's love, it involves emotion to be sure, but it's not just an emotion. It doesn't start with that, and it's not all it is. It's not just a feeling. It's action-oriented. God gives self-sacrificially, and this is the greatest display of love that ever has been shown or ever will be shown. If I give you $100, you might say thanks. If I give you a million, you'll be wowed. If I give you a billion, if you're like me, you'll probably say, whoa, I don't even know how to count that high. But what about a father giving his son to save you from death, from eternal life? How much is that worth? I hope we're not trying to put a price tag on it. You can't monetize that. God, the Heavenly Father, is giving his son Jesus, his sinless son. He only has one. He doesn't have 30 or 13 or three. His only son, who he spent eternity and harmony and joy and delight with, 2 Corinthians 5, for God made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us. The sinless one took the filth of our sin upon himself and received the curse. Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. You see, that's why Jesus can refer to Himself as being pictured by the serpent. Because when He is on the cross, the Father is laying all the sin of those who believe on Him. He is covered with the filth of all our sin, all our serpentine ways. And in order to redeem us, He has to die. If a living, breathing, sentient animal with blood is not a sufficient substitute, This bronze-shaped mass of metal on a pole is not a sufficient substitute either. God's justice required man sin, man must pay for sin, or another man who will stand in your place. If that other man has sin, his death will only pay for his own. But Jesus, the sinless one, had no sin of his own to die for. And he said, come, I will take yours from you, and I will endure the curse. I will be the sin bearer. What love is that? And on the cross, the wrath of God falls, right? The darkness falls when the sun is at its highest point in the day, signifying divine judgment falling upon Jesus. The earth quakes and the father turns his back on his son. Hell came to Jesus on the cross. What costly love, what amazing love. God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were still sinners, while we were still his enemies, Christ died for us. Costly gift. Great love. And that brings us to thirdly, the promise of God. What is promised? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that Whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What is promised here? Negatively, we're promised you will not perish. This is a reference to spending eternity in hell where you endure the wrath of God for your sin. Physical death is nothing. Everyone's gonna be raised again and spend eternity either in heaven with God, heaven coming down to earth here, restored, or in hell apart from him. Place where there's eternal fire, eternal punishment. A place where the worm doesn't die and the fire isn't quenched. Hell is the community of the condemned. Except there is no community. Everyone is just eternally self-focused as they're filled with regret and remorse and flashbacks and negative memories and living in eternal isolation and alienation and loneliness as the wrath of God is endured. We're spared from that. That's the promise if you look to Jesus. And positively, you won't perish, but you'll have everlasting life. You will live forever. I don't know about you, but I don't want to live forever on this earth. It's way too much trouble. Our bodies break down. There's too much sin to fight against, too much trouble in the world, too much terrible stuff on the news. We're going to live forever in the new heaven and new earth. Jesus is going to come and remake this world, Paradise 2.0, and we will dwell with him and each other in perfect harmony. Jesus, when he was on earth in those three and a half years, gave a glimpse of what Paradise 2.0 looks like. He restored people to physical wholeness. The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the mute, they were all healed, restoring physical wholeness. He restored mental and emotional wholeness, casting out demons out of those who tormented people. And he restored people to spiritual wholeness, saying, you are forgiven, you're loved by God. That's what's promised. That's the kind of everlasting life, if you are trusting in Christ. And who is it promised to? Whoever believes, no one is excluded from this promise. There is no limit, no restriction on who the promise goes out to. Christians are often accused of being narrow-minded and exclusive because, well, Jesus is the only way to God. We need to be thankful there's any way back to God. It's not, why is there only one way? It's, why is there even one way? Even one way. And brothers and sisters, this one way is open to everyone. everyone. There are not two separate forms of the gospel, one for the elect and one for the reprobate. There is only one gospel, and it's addressed the following way, to sinners. Every sinner who believes is given this gift of eternal life. Now, how is it received? Clean yourself up, change your ways, Get educated, learn the Bible, and come to me? Is that how it's received? We need to improve our godliness, we need to learn the Bible, but that's not how we receive this gift of eternal life. It is so simple how we receive this. Believe. Believe that when Jesus was on the cross, he suffered the curse in your place. Think back to Numbers 21. What was required of those Israelites dying there from snake poison? What did they have to do to be saved? Crawl closer to the pole? Pray longer? Gravel in their pain longer? Look. Look at that serpent on the pole and believe it'll heal you, that God will heal you through that. Same God says to us, look at Jesus on the cross. That's all, and you are forgiven. And the phrase whoever believes is built of three singular words in the Greek, three words in the singular number. Literally, it's each believing one. And this is important because your pastor or pastors, your parents, your family members can't believe for you. Each believing one. Do you believe? You need to believe for yourself. and each believing one, it's present tense. You don't just believe this once at the beginning of your life, your Christian life, and then put it behind you. You need to believe this daily, moment by moment. Jesus and his death on the cross redeems me. So brothers and sisters, our plight is one that's not pretty. We're born with deadly poison of serpents coursing through our veins. That doesn't sound nice. We're born as those dying and destined for eternal death in hell, and if you do nothing about your sin, hell is guaranteed. John 3, verse 18, he who does not believe is condemned already. Or the last verse in the chapter, he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, John 3, 36, but the wrath of God abides, the wrath of God remains on him. It already was on him, and it remains on him. But the good news is God loves you. If you are hearing the gospel today for the 100th time or the first time, it's a demonstration of God's love for you that you even hear this message. God sent Jesus to die for you in your place. Do you believe that? Are you looking to him in faith? There are a whole lot of ways you can reject this promise, this offer, Oh, this crossing, this is an angry, raging lunatic of a God who's engaged in cosmic child abuse. That's a lie. The father, at great cost to himself, gave his son. And the son voluntarily says, I lay down my life, John 10, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down in my own accord. You need to receive that gift. Don't let your ego stop you from believing this promise. You can say, if you know how filthy I am, all that I've done, you know I'm beyond the love of God. Listen, God knows everything you've already done. He knows everything you've done before you did it. He knows everything you would do before you were born. Your worst sins are no surprise to God. Your worst sins didn't stop Jesus from going to the cross for you. It's what caused him to go there. That is his love. So don't let your false humility keep you from coming to the cross. No, you're not lovable, but God loves the unlovable, and that's the gospel. I can understand if you're hesitant to approach a king in resplendent regal robes in a pristine palace, and you're not gonna bury your dirty heart in confession in that setting. I get how a sense of shame could keep you from approaching a king like that, but Jesus is a very different kind of king. Resplendent, royal, majestic, yes, but he left that in heaven and came down, he left that all, came to earth and went to the cross. And He bared Himself on the cross. He hung there completely unclothed, completely covered in shame. No one understands shame like Him. So don't let your sense of your own sin keep you from coming to Him. He knows and experiences shame. You can come to him. He won't condemn you. He will receive you because he was condemned in your place. He won't mock you. He won't laugh at you. He won't condemn you. He will love you and forgive you. Brothers and sisters, the love of God satisfied the wrath of God on the cross to redeem the people of God. Are you believing that? do so today because the cross is the greatest ever display of love. On the cross, the greatest possible being, God, showed the greatest possible ethic, love, in the greatest possible way, self-sacrifice. That's amazing love. That's divine love. Let's thank him for it. Father, we thank you for your amazing divine love Your love just surpasses human love in a way we can't even imagine, but we rejoice in your love. Father, if there be any here today or hearing this message who've not ever come to you in faith yet, Lord, bring them to faith today. And Lord, if we have been believing the gospel from childhood on, or from some middle stage in our life, whatever it might be, may we have a fresh understanding of your love for us and live in love for you as you're redeemed, joyfully living for you and telling others about the great love you've shown in Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.