The Love of God and the Love of the World

Call to worship

Welcome everyone!

Outdoor event will be postponed

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord,

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord,

SERMON

Introduction

The Way God Loved The World

John 3:16–17 NASB95

“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.

Explanation

“For God so loved the world that He gave”

Reading our English translations of this verse sounds like God loved the world SO MUCH that He gave His Only Son….BUT the Greek really says that God loved the world IN THIS WAY: that He gave His only begotten Son.

Paul says really the same thing but in a different wording: Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The proof that God loves people is in the historical fact that He sent His Son to die for the sin of the world

People are often searching for some kind of evidence of God’s love

They say God must not love the world because of all the killing and violence and hatred…and if God really loved the world then there would be none of that. He is passive

And people take at look at their own personal lives and think God must not love them, because they have experienced pain, or lived through difficulties or suffering or hardships

BUT this verse says people are looking for the evidence of God’s love in the wrong place! Because the evidence of God’s love is not that He will fix this world, or give us what we want, or make us happy, or make us wealthy, or make us healthy….BUT TO OFFER US ETERNAL LIFE

“that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”

John uses the word “believe” 98 times in his gospel. In comparison Mark uses the word only 18 times. We have already discussed the word two weeks ago and then also in chapter 1. But it is such an important word (the basis of the human requirement of salvation) that we are going to discuss it

The essence of this verse is that if a person BELIEVES IN JESUS the God will grant Him eternal life. I I want you to know that this verse means exactly that! Having eternal life, being born again, being forgiven of our sin is as simple as believing in Jesus.

Now the question is: what does it mean to believe?

Two weeks ago we talked about Nicodemus who not only believed in God, but also believed in Jesus. He testified that He knew Jesus was divine in origin. Yet Jesus still told Him that unless He was born again, He would not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. So His belief in God was not the kind of belief that Jesus is talking about here.

In John 3:16 we fine two specific points that God expects us to believe:

1) That all people will perish eternally apart from God’s intervention. Look what it says: “that whoever BELIEVES will not perish”.

That word perish means to be destroyed. It is of coarse speaking of the reality of spiritual death or hell. And this is not an earthly hell as in a difficult life, but in an eternal hell after this earthly life.

Why would people perish apart from God’s intervention. Because people are born sinners and constantly rebel against the laws that God has set. A little child who has never read the Bible steals, lies, covets, dishonors their parents, and so on.

And the evidence of that is in your human conscience. God has given us all a conscience, which is our moral guide in this life. When a person does wrong, they hide because they know their deeds are wrong.

And for one to believe in such a way that he will have eternal life, he must first believe this reality of the human race. We are sinners and without God’s intervention we will die in our sins and be judged for them.

2) Faith in Jesus is the only way to be saved

That is the essence of this verse “whoever believes in Him”. To Believe in Jesus is to trust in Jesus. Notice He does not say believe that Jesus is real, He says believe IN JESUS.

One believes in Jesus by entrusting your life to Jesus. That is everything He said and told us to do, we do it. No exceptions! Believe all that He said to us as is recorded in the Bible For us.

Shen God gave us Jesus, He did not just give us His sacrifice, but He gave us His teaching, He gave us His example, He gave us His life that we may understand who God is.

The Love of the World

John 3:18–19 NASB95

“He who believes in Him is not judged; 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, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

Explanation

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already”

The word “judged” is in the present tense referring to a state in which people live in now in this earthly life.

Judgment carries the idea of being condemned or punished. We often think about judgement as something to come at the ned of this age when we stand before God and that is correct. BUT judgement has already come upon those who reject Jesus in this present life in which we live.

How are they judged now?

(v 19) “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light”

Their judgement is not because they love the darkness rather than the light. It is the fact that they love the darkness rather than the Light is their judgement.

What is the Light?

Light in this verse represents Jesus. John 1 tells us that Jesus is the true Light that came into the World and revealed God’s holiness. Light refers to a moral dimension that is opposed to sin and evil.

Darkness then would refer to evil deeds or sinfulness. It also refers to a lack of understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus taught.

It is a picture of self-condemnation of God simply allowing people to stay where they are because that is what they love

Illustration: Picture a person shut up in a dark room.

The room has no window, the walls are black, the ceiling is black, the floor is black, and the door is shut, its completely dark. There is no light whatsoever.

That person who lives in that room has a poor existence. He exists, but is unable to see or really experience how things really are.

But that person does not have to stay there. The door is not locked. He can open it and walk out into God’s light.

But he does not. He loves darkness….and it is his love for darkness that confines him to his narrow existence.

John is saying that people who choose to follow a life of sin and refuse to believe in Jesus Christ are just like that.

It is not so much that God is saying, “I’ll punish you!” as they are punishing themselves. Their love for darkness, their rejection of Light, is itself their punishment, and they have chosen it for themselves

The reason people do not respond to God’s great act of love by sending Jesus Christ to save them is because they love their sin more

What is the love of the world? It is darkness! It is to do contrary to what God calls us to do! It is to seek the pleasures of this world and not desire the holiness of Christ!

The reason people come into a church and hear the Word of God preached and reject it in their hearts is because they would rather have their sin then they would eternal life

“men loved the darkness rather than the Light”

That is what these two verses are teaching.

And the truth is this present judgement is only a precursor to a fuller judgement in eternal life. People are judged in this life by loving darkness rather than Light, and when they die Jesus will give them exactly what they opted for in this life: eternal darkness forever.

John 12:48 NASB95

“He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

Application

The great difficulty of the gospel for many is seeing that living life in the Light is much better in this life WHEN COMPARED to remaining in the temporary pleasures of sin

Often people show up to church because their sin has made a full circle and they are reaping the consequences of it. And they want God’s help. And God certainly can and does help people who come to Him looking for help.

But unless they step out of that dark room into God’s great Light no amount of help will do them any good.

The problem we all have at some point in our lives is that we love our darkness more than God’s Light.

And until that love changes, and we learn to hate sin and love the righteousness of God, that judgement remains and our future permanent condemnation remains.

3) The Movement from darkness to Light

(v 20-21) “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.” John 3:20–21

Explanation

John is going to expand on what it means to love darkness or love the Light. He contrasts two kinds of people and characterizes them by how they live.

1) “for everyone who does evil hates the Light”

What does it mean to do evil?

Evil is anything that is contrary to God’s goodness. It is sin in its entirety. It is wrongdoing. It is doing what God says do not do.

BUT the idea here is the the practice of sin. It is the embracing of sin as a lifestyle. And the word evil is general. Its any kind of sin from greed to murder.

When sinful behavior is a pattern in someone’s life; repeating the same sin over and over without remorse, without sorrow, and primarily without repentance, it is the evidence that person walks in darkness.

Why do those who practice sin hate the Light?

“For fear that his deeds will be exposed”

What is the nature of this fear?

I think they fear the judgement of God. They fear the judgement of God’s people. They fear the reality of having to take an honest look at themselves and admitting the way that they have lived their lives Before a holy God.

But what people are forgetting is that John 3:17 says Jesus did not come into the world to judge the world, but to save the world.

And that fear that people have of being judged is really a false reality that is keeping them from God’s great light!

There certainly is fear to come to Jesus. To leave behind a life that we have known forever, it’s all we know, to leave behind the things that’s we think are our source of happiness, to leave behind people that have been part of our lives forever! YES THERE IS FEAR IN THAT!

But the truth is life is so much better lived in the light of God.

“But whoever practices the truth comes to the Light”

This is one of those major differences in our lives when we come to Jesus. I spent my whole life in hiding of certain people. I never wanted church people to see who I really was. I did not what my teachers to know what I did when I was away from school. I did not want people to know who I ran with, because they were not good people. The older I got the less I cared. I loved my sin more

But when I came to Christ, I was freed from that guilt and shame. I could let people see who I was because who they saw is who I really was. I was not perfect, but I lived according to truth and it was freeing.

The contrast John makes between Light and Darkness

There will always be a great chasm between those who walk in darkness and those who walk in the Light. You see it in the church, and you see it in the world.

Those who belong to the same moral dimension will truly be comfortable with each other.

BUT when those who walk in the light are mixed with those who walk in darkness it can and will often be very uncomfortable.

Why?

Because Light exposes deeds of darkness.

It makes the people who practice evil uncomfortable and they want to be around their own people

But do not fear coming to Jesus!

Jesus did not come to judge, but to save!

And to remain in our sin is actually to remain under judgement!

Conclusion

I want to close with this illustration: ]

John 3:16–17 NASB95

“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.

When the titanic began to sink, all that went through the minds of those people was being saved from those frigid waters. They were 400 miles from the shore, The water was 28* and death would come in a matter of minutes for those who would end up in the water.

There were over 2240 people on the titanic. And I imagine that none of them thought that ship would sink and so many would die.

There was a ship, the SS California which was only about 20 miles away from the Titanic when it sank. In fact they saw the Titanic before it hit the iceberg, and sent an ice warning to it, but the Titanic crew ignored the warning.

When the ship began to sink, they called out to the SS California first, but the call did not come in time and around 1500 people died in those waters.

POINT: The people of this world are perishing, because the opportunity to be saved is now! It is not on our death beds, it is not after we die and then beg for mercy, the time to be saved from the waters which we swim is when we realize our need of Jesus!

And the only way to be saved is to leave the darkness by which we have all lived in at one time and step into God’s Great Light of Jesus Christ.

And maybe that is you today.

~PRAYER~

RESPONSE

PUBLIC INVITATION

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

OFFERING

We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.

BENEDICTION

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’”