June 19, 2025 • 37 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's continue today talking about this conversation with Nicodemus and
Jesus and John chapter three and the title of my messages.
What kind of love is God's love? What kind of
love is God's love? There's one thing that the world loves,
and that's love. You don't even have to be a
Christian to love love. A lot of people are searching
(00:24):
for love in all the wrong places. And we sing
about love a lot in our country, in our culture. Again,
even non Christians sing about it endlessly, as if love
is this secret path to happiness.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We have a whole day devoted to love. We just
had it. What is it called Valentine's Day?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Valentine's Day name for a third century priest in the
Church who married people in secret and.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Against the edict of the emperor at the top.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And for his efforts and because he disobeyed the Emperor,
Saint Valentina's was bludgeoned and decapitated. Yeah, just remember that
the next time you're munching on your Russell Stofers. Things
that don't make it into the Hallmark card. Honey, I'm
so in love with you, I've lost my head.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Terrible joke, I know.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Let's do a little game show moment here at church.
I feel like having a little bit of fun. But
we have a lot of songs about love. I wanna
sing the song for you. I'm gonna bring out my
inner American idol, and you tell me who wrote it
or sang it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Wrote it or sang it. All you need is love love.
That was the easy one, Beatles.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yes, You're nobody till somebody loves you. Dean Martin, but
not written by him Written by Russ Morgan. Okay, just
in case you're watching Jeopardy someday, your love keeps lifting
me higher than I've ever been lifted before.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That was terribly done. But because you'll love in lifted
me higher. You know I've ever been lifted me Jackie Wilson. Okay,
maybe I butchered that one.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I can't help falling in love.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
There you go, Elvis. I want to know and love be.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Foreigner, very good. All the eighties children in the house.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
When we're hungry, love will keep us alive, the eagles.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Oh, the first service to get it finally must be
the Boomer service. Okay, and let me finish, will.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Love you?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah yeah? Sung by.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Written by as sung by Dolly. Pardon, how about for
all the gen zers?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Wa bout a love in a hopeless place? Way bout
alive in a hopeless place?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hey? Huh Rihanna? Yes, in honor of her Super Bowl appearance.
Oh yeah, the world loves love.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I mean people love love. Here here's the thing. The
cry for love is universal.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
And when Jesus is talking about love, God and salvation
and being born again with Nicodemus, this scholar, this intellectual,
he turns the conversation to love in John three sixteen.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's one of the most.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Famous passages in all the Bible. And we're going to
talk about what that all means in just a moment.
But stand for the reading of God's word at this
locationlest honor God by standing for the reading of his word.
Verse eleven of John three, just picking back up with
Nicodemus and Jesus. Nicodemus is done talking. Jesus does the
rest of the talking. Here's what it says verse eleven. Truly, truly,
(04:15):
I say to you, we speak of what we know,
we bear witness to what we have seen, But you
do not receive our testimony. If I've told you earthly
things and you do not believe, how will you believe
if I tell you heavenly things. No one has as
sent it into heaven except he who descended from heaven,
the son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so somebody says, so, so the
(04:35):
son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes
in him may have eternal life. For God, so just
make a little mental note, so in the verse fifteen
or fourteen, and in so again in verse sixteen. 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
(04:56):
the world to condemn the world, but that through him
the world might be saved.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Whoever believes in him is not condemned.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he
has not believed in the name of the only son
of God.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And this is the judgment.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
The light has come into the world, but men love
darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and
does not come into the.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Light lest his works should be exposed.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And this is God's word. Let's pray together and ask
him to bless our time.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Father in heaven, thank you for the chance to say
time out to life, time out to our schedules, to
open the Bible, to hear your word and to receive it.
I pray that every ear is open, every heart is receptive,
every eye sees Jesus, Him and Him only in his
(05:59):
mighty name. We pray everybody say Amen, God, bless you
have a seat. Yes, our cry for love is universal.
Love tells you that you're worth something. Love tells you
that you matter. Love tells you that people think well
of you or in relationship.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
In Christ, we are perfectly loved.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And the heart of the Gospel is the demonstration of God's.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Love for you. And you need to get a hold
of God's love.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Like this verse John three point sixteen is the most
well known, most quoted, most memorized verse in the Bible.
And what's the center of the story. What was the
center of the verse that that God loved and he gave.
God loved and he gave that. Love is active, love
is demonstrable. Love is visible in the giving of God's son.
(06:58):
How did God love you? He gave you Jesus. He
gave Jesus to you. And in fact, when you love someone,
that's what you're really looking for. You're looking for someone
in your life. What That's what love is. That's why
people get married. They want someone in their life. Love
is to be in brave. Love is to embrace a relationship,
(07:20):
a community, cooperation with someone else.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
God loved you and gave you him.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
That's what you're looking for, by the way, in love,
that's what you're looking for in God. And I would
say this very, very firmly, be careful that you make
sure that you base.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Your life on the love of.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
God left you search this world.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
For all kinds of bad loves.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I have learned in my forty plus years of life
that people are fickle.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
They'll change their.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Minds about you, You'll maybe change your mind about them.
Don't base your life on the wrong person or the
wrong Don't put your life on the wrong person, the
wrong source of love.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Whose love are you living for? Whose love? Some people
they're living for the love of their parents. A father
or a mother. They're living for the love of a.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Spouse, they're living for the love of a child, or
even worse, they're living for the love of strangers.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's what our social media generation is all about.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
That's why kids are so anxious, so depressed, so wrapped
up is self image issues because they've got they've got
a world of strangers to try to impress, and and
they try whatever it is to do it, and they
don't get enough of it because there's no amount of
human love that can equal the infinite amount of God's
eternal love.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And I would say again, make sure you find your
worth and the love of God. Has you?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Have you ever been to the grocery store hungry?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
That's like rule number one.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
When you go to grocery shopping, have a snack before
you show up. You will end up with ridiculous foods
in your pantry.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You're gonna pasure a day.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
When did I buy ranch flavorite chickpeas?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What was I thinking? You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's what people are doing though in their emotional life,
looking for further the love that only God can give them.
I want you to write this down so I know
you're getting it. Our need for love is a hidden
desire for God. Our need for someone to value us,
celebrate us, think well of us, emotionally provide for us.
(09:36):
That's really just a hidden desire for God. God made
us in his image. And here's what the scripture says
in First John four eight. God is love. Now, I
have no problem with you loving other people and people
loving you, and that should be absolutely part of your life.
That's what the church is for. Made some love one another,
But we can't fully love one another if we're constantly
(09:57):
needing love from one another.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Our hearts, the scripture.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Says, need the love of God shed in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit, so that we have a fullness
of love to give to others. So let's talk about
this love that Jesus talks about with Nicodemus. And how
does Jesus describe God's love for us? Write the time
if you're taking those number one? What kind of love
is God's love? God's love is a self giving love.
(10:22):
That's what Jesus does in giving us his body, giving
us himself Emmanuel God with us.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He is loving us by.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Coming toward us, coming to us, and giving himself for us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
The greatest verse of the Bible, which on three sixteen.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The subject is God, the object is the world, and
the verb is gave, gave, He gave. And that's what
love is. Love is giving married people, Love is giving.
And this is important for us to understand because what
our world does is it defines God according to love.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
But we must define love according to God. Let me explain.
God is love. We believe that.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yes, that's in the Bible. I just showed you that.
But listen, love is not God. Write that down in
your noses. No place to fill in the blanks. But
it's this important qualifier. Love is not God.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
What do I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean you cannot define God according to how you
feel about love. Another ridiculous thing that the world says
is love is love. What a moronic statement. That doesn't
mean anything. I know, it sounds, it sounds cute or whatever,
but no, love must be defined and it can't.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Be defined by itself. God is love.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Love is measured by who God is.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
God is not measured by what you think love is.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
This is imperative for you to understand because love must
not be about what you're taking.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Love is about what you're giving.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Because That's how God demonstrates his love for us. Now
let me take you to the text because I'm so
excited to share a little commentary about one little word
in John three sixteen that we skip over and we
misinterpret all the time.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I'll tell you which word it is for God. So
you got your notes out circle, so so love the word.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Let me tell you how we interpret that. We say
it like this, Oh God.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So love us.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I've heard preachers that God is madly in love with you.
That's defining God according to your version of love. No,
God is not madly in love with you. God is
not some forlorn, scorned lover in heaven really upset that
you didn't call this week.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
He is God.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
He is perfectly self sufficient in himself. And I've got
good and somewhat hard news for some of you to hear.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
God does not need you. He is fully self sufficient
in himself. And you want a God.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Like that, because a God that needs you is a
desperate God. A God that needs you can't get the
job done to make you who you are and who
you need to be. But our God in Heaven is
all sufficient, the only all sufficient one, whoever was, and
his all sufficiency fills our lives with who He is,
and makes our lives sufficient in him.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's going to the grocery store in a full stomach.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Now I can approach all the things that life offers
me with balance, knowing that I am loved by Him fully.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And finally, No, the word.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Sou is not God love you so much as if
you were cute, attractive, or brought her to the table.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
No.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
No, No, The word so is how to us, and
the Greek hotus thus.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Can be translated to us.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
In fact, I wish that the Bible writers had written thus.
But the reason why is because former generations were not
nearly as emotionally hung up as this one, and so
they translated it so because so.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Is this is how, this is how, This is.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
How God loved the world. God for God. Thus God
loved the world this way. It's a It's not a
quantitative love.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It is a qualitative love. Got it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Let's back up to where John uses that word so
in Jesus's words in verse fourteen, and as Moses what
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. So, in other words,
thus this is how, this is how the son of
Man must be lifted up because this is how God
has chosen to love the world. Is this important, Yes,
(14:57):
fundamentally important, so that you understand.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
What the gospel is and what it is.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
The gospel is not that God was hopelessly, you know,
in love with you and he's desperate for company in
heaven and so he's saved, you know. No, God demonstrates love.
That's what we do when we love. We demonstrate in activity. Ladies,
how did your man do on Valentine's Day? No applause,
(15:24):
no celebration. This we need a marriage conference is coming soon,
trust me. But love is demonstrated, and this is what
Jesus says. Here's the demonstration as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the What is he talking about? He's talking
(15:44):
about numbers twenty one.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Numbers twenty one.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
The Israelites have been wandering around the wilderness for forty years.
They're getting close to the Promised land. They're getting close
to the end of their wandering, and they've got to
go through a section of land that is owned by
the Edomites, the sons of Esau. And God says to them,
you can't attack them because they're your brothers. So if
(16:08):
they don't give you permission to go through, you gotta
go around.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
They've been wandering for forty years in.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
The wilderness, and now they gotta go around because Edien says.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
No, you can't come through, So they have to go
around at the backtrack. How many now after forty years
of wandering in.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
The wilderness, backtracking would be a real bumber. They got
to backtrack and go around. They start complaining numbers. Chapter
twenty one says it like this. The people spoke against
God verse five and against Moses. Why have you brought
us out of Egypt to die in the wiliness. There's
no food, there's no water, and we loathe Look what
they say.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Look what they say? This worthless food? What food?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The food that God had been miraculously giving them every morning,
the manna from heaven. It's amazing how it was the
thing that they asked for earlier and now they hate
it today.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Isn't that kind of the human condition?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
We ask for something in one season, God gives it
to us and we end up hating it in another season. Oh,
you prayed for that husband, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You did?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You prayed for him and God gave him, and now
you hate him.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Be careful of that.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Oh, you prayed for those children and God gave them
to you. You prayed for that job, and God gave
it to you. Now you're cursing everybody at the job.
This is what the israel The Israelites are exhibiting who
we are. That's why their stories are so familiar to us.
So the scripture says that God sends serpents verse six.
The Lord send serpents among the people, and they bit
(17:35):
the people, and many of them died. And immediately they repent.
They're like, oh, we messed up again. So they say, Moses,
help us, we're dying here. And scripture says this. So
the Lord spoke to Moses in verse eight, make a
fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone
who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So
Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole,
(17:56):
and if a serpent bit anyone, he would look.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Somebody say, look at the broad serpent and live.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Okay, My first question when I hear that story.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Is very simple, What the heck? What a weird story.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Amen, It's okay to admit that sometimes the Bible is weird.
God could have solved this problem any number of ways.
Here's an antidote from heaven.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Drink it. Here's some different food. There you go.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Let's let's give you a vaccine. He doesn't thank God. Amen,
but the serpent bronze pull. Look, it's not a story
I would write. If this story was part of my history,
I wouldn't tell you this story. This is why I
(18:53):
believe the Bible is inspired by God, because the weirdest
stories got published. Yeah, So I could tell you a
couple of things, like the typology of the story, because
the story is the story that Jesus uses the point
to himself.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The Old Testament is about Jesus.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
The Old Testament is preparing us to see Jesus fulfill
the stories and the types of the Old Testament stories.
So I can tell you Moses lifts up the pole.
Moses is a representative of the law. The law was broken.
They rebelled and spoke against Moses. So Moses lifts up
(19:34):
the poll. A poll is a symbol of authority, and
the bronze serpent.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Bronze is a symbol.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Of God's righteous judgment, and the serpent is a symbol
of the curse of sin.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
The serpent tempted the woman and she led the man
into sin.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So all these types are coming true in this one
moment that the law is broken. But there's one who
has authority who bears the judgment on the pole for
us breaking the law and removes the sting of sin
from within our souls. That is what Jesus has done
for us. And then the simple solution to our sin
(20:11):
problem is what look to what God has provided in
the cross of Jesus Christ. He washes away our sins
because he bore our sins on the cross. Understand, the
gospel is that Jesus paid for your sins, and you are.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Saved not because you feel the love of God, not
because God is hopelessly romantically in love with you.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You are saved because you see your sin on him
at the cross. That's the gospel, and the simplest thing
we can do is look, that's it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Look. I love the fact that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Jesus went to this story because he could have picked
a bunch of other stories on how we get saved
from the Old Testament. He could have said, here's I
get saved. You gotta be like shat wreck me shocking
a bend to go and you gotta go through the
fiery furnace and stand for me, and then you'll be saved.
How many of you are glad that that was not
the requirement to get saved.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
He can be like, this is what you gotta do.
Remember the story of Jericho.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Marching around the city seven times and on the on
the seventh day seven times more, and then blowing a
trumpet and shouting. How many of you are glad for
your neighbor's sake that God doesn't make you do that
to get saved.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
What is John doing?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
He's a crazy man walking around his house shouting, going trumpets.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I'm so glad that this is.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
The story that Jesus picked, because this story shows us
that the work of our salvation is fully accomplished, not
in us, but in Jesus. Charles Spurgeon, probably the greatest
preacher of the eighteen hundreds from London, talked about how
it was just the look look to Christ that changed
(22:02):
his life as a young man looking for a salvation
in the middle of a snowstorm in London in the
eighteen hundreds, the only church that was open was a
little ancient Methodist church. Fifteen people showed up that day fifteen.
People never discount the number of people that show up
at church. You'd never know who's there. Charles Saden Spurton
shows up. The preacher's not even there because of the snowstorm.
(22:25):
So they ask a tailor, a layman. Some one of
you gets up and starts preaching. Here's how Charles Spurgeon
tells the story of his salvation moment. He says, now,
it is well that preachers be instructed, But this man
was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his
text for the simple reason that he had little else
to say. And the text was look unto me, look
(22:48):
under me, and be saved all the ends of the
earth Isaiah forty five, twenty two. He did not even
pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
This is a very simple text.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Indeed, it says look now looking, don't take it take
a deal of pain.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It ain't lifting your foot or your finger. It's just
a look.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, a man needn't go to college and learn to look.
You may be the biggest fool in that you can look.
A man needn't be worth a thousand and year to look.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Anyone can look, even a child can look.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
That's the simplicity of the gospel, and it's simple, but
it's tremendously deep as you unpack its realities for the
rest of your life.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Number two, What kind of God? What kind of love
is God's love? Number two? God's love is a wide
open love. It's a wide open love.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Now in our country, right now, we're filled with our
little tribalism, or this group hats that group, or our
group is different than that group, because and we separate
and divide on all kinds of it. Here's the love
of God is wide open to anybody. It's wide open
to any God loves the people that you don't love,
(23:55):
and salvation is offered to the people that you wouldn't
like to be saved. Be careful being a hateful person.
Be careful of not loving the people of God when
they're different than you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
God might play a.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Cruel joke on you and put your mansion next to
their mansion in heaven.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Talk about an awkward trip to the mailbox every morning.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh I didn't like you on earth, I'm not so
sure I like you in heaven. But God's love is
wide open. That's what Jesus says from verse fifteen to eighteen.
Whoever believes in him, how's he turned a life? First sixteen,
whoever believes in him? Verse eighteen, whoever believes is not
condemned the word whoever underline it, whoever, whoever, whoever. Here's why,
(24:39):
it's a whoever opportunity, because his love for you is
not based on you.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's based on him.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
This is what God says to the people of Israel
and Deuteronomy seven when he says, I saved you out
of Egypt. Why look what he says. It was not
because you. It was not because you were all that great,
or you were more number than all the other nations.
In fact, you were very small. It's because the Lord
set his love on you. He set his love on you,
(25:10):
and he is fulfilling his oath to his father, to
your father's that he will bring you out of the
house of slavery and out from under the hand of Pharaoh.
Write this down so I know you're getting it. God
does not love me because of me. He loves me
because of who he is.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You say, how does that help me? Here's why it helps.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Because some weeks you're not very lovable, and God's love
is not dependent on you being lovable as the goodness
you have off weeks, God never does.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
If you've got to earn.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
God's love, you got no shot because whatever amount you
earned today, I guarantee will be gone by twelve pm Monday.
That's how we are. We're fickle, we're back and forth.
God is eternal, He never changes. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And the opportunity of salvation is for everybody.
(26:11):
What is first Timothy too for say, God desires all
people to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth. Some of you are here for the
first time. You have no Christian history, no church background.
You're wondering what you're doing here. You're wondering what does
God want with you. Here's what he wants. He wants
you to be saved. He wants to know you. He
(26:33):
wants to bring you home to him two Peter three nine.
The Lord is not slow and fulfilling his promise as
some consider slowness, but his patient toward you, not wishing
that any should perish, but that all should reach prepentant.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Some of you came to church.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
You're like, I just know that God is mad with me.
I know that God is disappointed with me. I know
I no, no, no, no, no. What does a Bible say? Friend,
he doesn't want that for you. He wants you to
be saved. He wants you to be redeemed. I should
bring a home to himself. So wide open love. Number three,
What kind of love is God's love? God's love is
a forgiving love. It's a forgiving love. Now at the
(27:11):
heart of the matter of your standing before God is
your need for forgiveness. And forgiveness sets you free. That's
what the word forgive and Greek means. It means to
release the prisoner. You let them go. And that's who
you were.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
You were a prisoner. If you're a Christian, you were
a prisoner. But God let you go.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
He sets you free from the slavery of sin and
the slavery of guilt and condemnation.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Here's what Jesus says in John chapter three seventeen.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
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. Now that word condemned, it
means judged, made guilty, declared guilty. I am so glad
that Jesus didn't come to make us feel guilty, and
you know why because verse eighteen tells.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Us why we already are guilty. Look at verse eighteen.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
It says this, whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Not believe is condemned already. In other words, the.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Natural state of man is a feeling of guilt. That's
what we're born with. We're born feeling inadequate. We're born
feeling shamed. We're born feeling like we deserve punishment for something.
That's why we do a whole bunch of things good
to make up for it. And ultimately that inward shame
(28:37):
and guilt causes us to condemn others.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
This is why we point the fingers.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
This is why our country and our culture is so
filled with hate.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
This group versus that group.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
And the more we feel condemned in our own sins,
the more we label other people because by labeling other
people's sins, we don't feel so bad about ours.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
That's what it is. And no politician can fix this.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
No law can write this, because the problem is not
the laws of the land. The problem is the condition
of our heart. And what Jesus comes to do is
remove that condemnation. So that you can be a forgiving
person knowing you've received his forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Look it, write this down.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Condemned people, condemn people, but forgiven people forgive people.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Are you the kind of person you look at other people?
You're always judging? Judging?
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It might be because you've never embraced the total forgiveness
that God has for you in Christ.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
He wants to do that in.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Your heart so that you are a forgiving person to
everybody around you. John chapter eight talks about the woman
brought to Jesus caught in the act of adultery. What
a shameful thing, What an embarrassing moment. Here she is
half naked, standing in front of all the leaders of
the Jews and Jesus, and they come in with a trap,
they say Jesus, Moses says, stone, What do you say?
(30:01):
They're trying to trap him? And what does he say?
Famous line of scripture? Let him who's without sin, but
cast the first stone? And I love what John says
in verse nine of that chapter.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
It says this.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
When they heard it, they went away one by one,
beginning with who the older one?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
The older ones go first? You ever think about that?
You know what?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Because the only difference between a young sinner and an
older center is the amount of sin they've committed. That's it,
that's all takes. That just takes more time to be
a greater center. And then suddenly realized I don't fit
that bilt drop the stone. And Jesus was left alone
with the woman standing before him. And he stood up
and said to a woman, where are they? Has no
(30:46):
one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord? And
what does he say, neither do I condemn you? The
one who could have condemned forgave her and let her
go with the qualifier though sin no more. It's not
easy believism. It's not you're checking in on Sunday so
(31:08):
that you can sin Monday through Saturday. It's forgiveness so
that your heart is changed and you obey God from
the heart. Yes you're gonna screw up, Yes you're gonna
make mistakes, but yes, God's grace is enough to not
just save you and forgive you, but.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
To change you.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
That's the love of God, a forgiving love. And number four,
God's love is a worth living for, love worth living for.
Once you get a hold of this love, there's nothing
else in this life that measures up to it.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
It's a love that sets you free to be who
God wants you to be.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
John describes the reason why people reject it.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Look what it says in verse nineteen. This is the judgment.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
The light is coming into the world, and people love
darkness rather than the light because their.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Works were evil for everyone.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
No one who does wicked things hate the light and
has not come to the light lest his works should
be exposed at the end of the day. Here's the reality.
Here's the problem with the human heart. It is not
that people do not have enough evidence that there is
a God. It is that they love their sin. They
(32:20):
love doing what they do. This is why salvation is
the work of God. Wherein the Holy Spirit changes our
heart and causes us to hate the things that God
hates and love the things that God loves. That's salvation.
My heart's been changed and my life changes as a result.
(32:41):
But people hide from God, run from God because they
want to, because they don't want to be exposed. That
The atheistic professor of so many other, so many notable
institutions in our country, Thomas Nagel, he wrote in his
book The Last Word, he said this, I want atheism
to be true. I'm made uneasy by the fact that
some of the most well known and scholarly people that
(33:02):
I know are religious believers. He says, I hope there
is no God. I don't want there to be a God.
I don't want the universe to be like that.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
That's a man who loves his sin and runs from God.
It's not that there's not enough evidence. Is this sin
holds this human heart captive? But John doesn't leave us there.
I love this verse twenty one. John goes, but whoever does, what.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Is what true?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Underline true because he doesn't say whatever, whoever does what
is good or good enough? Whatever is true comes to
the light that it may be clearly seen that his
works have been carried out by God or in God.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
What is Jesus?
Speaker 1 (33:40):
What is John saying? Whoever does what is true? What
does it mean to do what is true? Here's what
it means.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
You align with the truth of God in your life.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Number one, you admit you're a sinner. Number two, you
admit that Jesus paid for your sin. And number three,
you surrender your life and declare that God is right
and you are wrong.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
That's repentance.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
When it comes to your opinion about scripture, when it
comes to your opinion.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
About this book, here's the deal.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
If your opinion conflicts with what's in this book, pro tip,
change your opinion. God is true, He's righteous. That's what
it means to do what is true. And I feel
like I need to tell somebody today that is time
for you to lay down your weapons and your hostility
(34:31):
against this God, because he laid down his.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Life for you.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
One of the most tragic stories of the Second World War.
I know there were many, but this one is kind
of a tongue in cheeky tragedy. It's about second lieutenant
in the Japanese Imperial Army hero Unata hero Unada. He
was stationed in the Philippine island of lou Bang at
(34:56):
the close of the war, and his job was to
stop the US front the Pacific, and he accepted his
mission for what it was a suicide mission, so he
was standing in the February of that year, the American
Army troops came in and stormed the island, and he
and three of his companions ran up into the mountains
of lou Bang Island and hit out. Eight months later,
(35:19):
the bombs were dropped in Japan, and a few weeks
later after that, the treaty was signed and the war
was over. But for Hero Wuanata and his compatriots, they
had no idea that the war was over. The US
Army and the Japanese army flew over lou Bang Island
dropping leaflets to all the soldiers who might have been stranded,
(35:40):
declaring that the war was over.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Hero Unada would not believe it, and.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
He stayed fighting up in those woods, hiding out and
foraging for food for five years.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Five years.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
After five years, the Philippine island flies airplanes across the island,
the Philippine.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Government and they dropped morez.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
The war is over, Come home, Go home. Hero doesn't
believe them either. Two more years go by, five more
years go by, seven more years, ten more years go by.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Hero Anada was on that island.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Rejecting every message that the war was over for twenty
seven years, and in nineteen seventy two, a young man,
an adventurer from Japan, said he would be the guy
who would finally talk Hero Unada off that island. His
name was Nordio Suzuki. He got on the island with
one plan. He was going to walk around the jungle
(36:35):
and scream Hero's name and tell him that the Emperor
of Japan was worried about him. He found Hero in
four days, and when asked why Hero stayed on that
island and fought all those years and refused to believe
all those messages, he said, the original message that I
heard in my life was simple, do not surrender under
any circumstances.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
And I believed it and lived it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And he lost three decades of life fighting a war.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
That had been won thirty years earlier. And I wonder,
who needs to hear me? Did I tell you You've got
to stop fighting the war with God?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
That war was one two thousand years ago at the Cross.
God finished it.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
And paid for it and open the door for you
to come home.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
But you've got to stop resisting, stop refusing to surrender,
because this is what God has done for you in
Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
And that's the.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Gospel message truth that I proclaimed to you.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Come home,
Let's continue today talking about this conversation with Nicodemus and
Jesus and John chapter three and the title of my messages.
What kind of love is God's love? What kind of
love is God's love? There's one thing that the world loves,
and that's love. You don't even have to be a
Christian to love love. A lot of people are searching
(00:24):
for love in all the wrong places. And we sing
about love a lot in our country, in our culture. Again,
even non Christians sing about it endlessly, as if love
is this secret path to happiness.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
We have a whole day devoted to love. We just
had it. What is it called Valentine's Day?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Valentine's Day name for a third century priest in the
Church who married people in secret and.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Against the edict of the emperor at the top.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And for his efforts and because he disobeyed the Emperor,
Saint Valentina's was bludgeoned and decapitated. Yeah, just remember that
the next time you're munching on your Russell Stofers. Things
that don't make it into the Hallmark card. Honey, I'm
so in love with you, I've lost my head.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Terrible joke, I know.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Let's do a little game show moment here at church.
I feel like having a little bit of fun. But
we have a lot of songs about love. I wanna
sing the song for you. I'm gonna bring out my
inner American idol, and you tell me who wrote it
or sang it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Wrote it or sang it. All you need is love love.
That was the easy one, Beatles.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yes, You're nobody till somebody loves you. Dean Martin, but
not written by him Written by Russ Morgan. Okay, just
in case you're watching Jeopardy someday, your love keeps lifting
me higher than I've ever been lifted before.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
That was terribly done. But because you'll love in lifted
me higher. You know I've ever been lifted me Jackie Wilson. Okay,
maybe I butchered that one.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I can't help falling in love.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
There you go, Elvis. I want to know and love be.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Foreigner, very good. All the eighties children in the house.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
When we're hungry, love will keep us alive, the eagles.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Oh, the first service to get it finally must be
the Boomer service. Okay, and let me finish, will.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Love you?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah yeah? Sung by.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Written by as sung by Dolly. Pardon, how about for
all the gen zers?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Wa bout a love in a hopeless place? Way bout
alive in a hopeless place?
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Hey? Huh Rihanna? Yes, in honor of her Super Bowl appearance.
Oh yeah, the world loves love.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
I mean people love love. Here here's the thing. The
cry for love is universal.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
And when Jesus is talking about love, God and salvation
and being born again with Nicodemus, this scholar, this intellectual,
he turns the conversation to love in John three sixteen.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
It's one of the most.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Famous passages in all the Bible. And we're going to
talk about what that all means in just a moment.
But stand for the reading of God's word at this
locationlest honor God by standing for the reading of his word.
Verse eleven of John three, just picking back up with
Nicodemus and Jesus. Nicodemus is done talking. Jesus does the
rest of the talking. Here's what it says verse eleven. Truly, truly,
(04:15):
I say to you, we speak of what we know,
we bear witness to what we have seen, But you
do not receive our testimony. If I've told you earthly
things and you do not believe, how will you believe
if I tell you heavenly things. No one has as
sent it into heaven except he who descended from heaven,
the son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so somebody says, so, so the
(04:35):
son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes
in him may have eternal life. For God, so just
make a little mental note, so in the verse fifteen
or fourteen, and in so again in verse sixteen. 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
(04:56):
the world to condemn the world, but that through him
the world might be saved.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Whoever believes in him is not condemned.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he
has not believed in the name of the only son
of God.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And this is the judgment.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
The light has come into the world, but men love
darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and
does not come into the.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Light lest his works should be exposed.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
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.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
And this is God's word. Let's pray together and ask
him to bless our time.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Father in heaven, thank you for the chance to say
time out to life, time out to our schedules, to
open the Bible, to hear your word and to receive it.
I pray that every ear is open, every heart is receptive,
every eye sees Jesus, Him and Him only in his
(05:59):
mighty name. We pray everybody say Amen, God, bless you
have a seat. Yes, our cry for love is universal.
Love tells you that you're worth something. Love tells you
that you matter. Love tells you that people think well
of you or in relationship.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
In Christ, we are perfectly loved.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And the heart of the Gospel is the demonstration of God's.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Love for you. And you need to get a hold
of God's love.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Like this verse John three point sixteen is the most
well known, most quoted, most memorized verse in the Bible.
And what's the center of the story. What was the
center of the verse that that God loved and he gave.
God loved and he gave that. Love is active, love
is demonstrable. Love is visible in the giving of God's son.
(06:58):
How did God love you? He gave you Jesus. He
gave Jesus to you. And in fact, when you love someone,
that's what you're really looking for. You're looking for someone
in your life. What That's what love is. That's why
people get married. They want someone in their life. Love
is to be in brave. Love is to embrace a relationship,
(07:20):
a community, cooperation with someone else.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
God loved you and gave you him.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
That's what you're looking for, by the way, in love,
that's what you're looking for in God. And I would
say this very, very firmly, be careful that you make
sure that you base.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Your life on the love of.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
God left you search this world.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
For all kinds of bad loves.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
I have learned in my forty plus years of life
that people are fickle.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
They'll change their.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Minds about you, You'll maybe change your mind about them.
Don't base your life on the wrong person or the
wrong Don't put your life on the wrong person, the
wrong source of love.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Whose love are you living for? Whose love? Some people
they're living for the love of their parents. A father
or a mother. They're living for the love of a.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Spouse, they're living for the love of a child, or
even worse, they're living for the love of strangers.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's what our social media generation is all about.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
That's why kids are so anxious, so depressed, so wrapped
up is self image issues because they've got they've got
a world of strangers to try to impress, and and
they try whatever it is to do it, and they
don't get enough of it because there's no amount of
human love that can equal the infinite amount of God's
eternal love.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
And I would say again, make sure you find your
worth and the love of God. Has you?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Have you ever been to the grocery store hungry?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
That's like rule number one.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
When you go to grocery shopping, have a snack before
you show up. You will end up with ridiculous foods
in your pantry.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You're gonna pasure a day.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
When did I buy ranch flavorite chickpeas?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What was I thinking? You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's what people are doing though in their emotional life,
looking for further the love that only God can give them.
I want you to write this down so I know
you're getting it. Our need for love is a hidden
desire for God. Our need for someone to value us,
celebrate us, think well of us, emotionally provide for us.
(09:36):
That's really just a hidden desire for God. God made
us in his image. And here's what the scripture says
in First John four eight. God is love. Now, I
have no problem with you loving other people and people
loving you, and that should be absolutely part of your life.
That's what the church is for. Made some love one another,
But we can't fully love one another if we're constantly
(09:57):
needing love from one another.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Our hearts, the scripture.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Says, need the love of God shed in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit, so that we have a fullness
of love to give to others. So let's talk about
this love that Jesus talks about with Nicodemus. And how
does Jesus describe God's love for us? Write the time
if you're taking those number one? What kind of love
is God's love? God's love is a self giving love.
(10:22):
That's what Jesus does in giving us his body, giving
us himself Emmanuel God with us.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
He is loving us by.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Coming toward us, coming to us, and giving himself for us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
The greatest verse of the Bible, which on three sixteen.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
The subject is God, the object is the world, and
the verb is gave, gave, He gave. And that's what
love is. Love is giving married people, Love is giving.
And this is important for us to understand because what
our world does is it defines God according to love.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
But we must define love according to God. Let me explain.
God is love. We believe that.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yes, that's in the Bible. I just showed you that.
But listen, love is not God. Write that down in
your noses. No place to fill in the blanks. But
it's this important qualifier. Love is not God.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
What do I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean you cannot define God according to how you
feel about love. Another ridiculous thing that the world says
is love is love. What a moronic statement. That doesn't
mean anything. I know, it sounds, it sounds cute or whatever,
but no, love must be defined and it can't.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Be defined by itself. God is love.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Love is measured by who God is.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
God is not measured by what you think love is.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
This is imperative for you to understand because love must
not be about what you're taking.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Love is about what you're giving.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Because That's how God demonstrates his love for us. Now
let me take you to the text because I'm so
excited to share a little commentary about one little word
in John three sixteen that we skip over and we
misinterpret all the time.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I'll tell you which word it is for God. So
you got your notes out circle, so so love the word.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Let me tell you how we interpret that. We say
it like this, Oh God.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
So love us.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I've heard preachers that God is madly in love with you.
That's defining God according to your version of love. No,
God is not madly in love with you. God is
not some forlorn, scorned lover in heaven really upset that
you didn't call this week.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
He is God.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
He is perfectly self sufficient in himself. And I've got
good and somewhat hard news for some of you to hear.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
God does not need you. He is fully self sufficient
in himself. And you want a God.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Like that, because a God that needs you is a
desperate God. A God that needs you can't get the
job done to make you who you are and who
you need to be. But our God in Heaven is
all sufficient, the only all sufficient one, whoever was, and
his all sufficiency fills our lives with who He is,
and makes our lives sufficient in him.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's going to the grocery store in a full stomach.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Now I can approach all the things that life offers
me with balance, knowing that I am loved by Him fully.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
And finally, No, the word.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Sou is not God love you so much as if
you were cute, attractive, or brought her to the table.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
No.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
No, No, The word so is how to us, and
the Greek hotus thus.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Can be translated to us.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
In fact, I wish that the Bible writers had written thus.
But the reason why is because former generations were not
nearly as emotionally hung up as this one, and so
they translated it so because so.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Is this is how, this is how, This is.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
How God loved the world. God for God. Thus God
loved the world this way. It's a It's not a
quantitative love.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It is a qualitative love. Got it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Let's back up to where John uses that word so
in Jesus's words in verse fourteen, and as Moses what
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. So, in other words,
thus this is how, this is how the son of
Man must be lifted up because this is how God
has chosen to love the world. Is this important, Yes,
(14:57):
fundamentally important, so that you understand.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
What the gospel is and what it is.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
The gospel is not that God was hopelessly, you know,
in love with you and he's desperate for company in
heaven and so he's saved, you know. No, God demonstrates love.
That's what we do when we love. We demonstrate in activity. Ladies,
how did your man do on Valentine's Day? No applause,
(15:24):
no celebration. This we need a marriage conference is coming soon,
trust me. But love is demonstrated, and this is what
Jesus says. Here's the demonstration as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the What is he talking about? He's talking
(15:44):
about numbers twenty one.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Numbers twenty one.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
The Israelites have been wandering around the wilderness for forty years.
They're getting close to the Promised land. They're getting close
to the end of their wandering, and they've got to
go through a section of land that is owned by
the Edomites, the sons of Esau. And God says to them,
you can't attack them because they're your brothers. So if
(16:08):
they don't give you permission to go through, you gotta
go around.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
They've been wandering for forty years in.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
The wilderness, and now they gotta go around because Edien says.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
No, you can't come through, So they have to go
around at the backtrack. How many now after forty years
of wandering in.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
The wilderness, backtracking would be a real bumber. They got
to backtrack and go around. They start complaining numbers. Chapter
twenty one says it like this. The people spoke against
God verse five and against Moses. Why have you brought
us out of Egypt to die in the wiliness. There's
no food, there's no water, and we loathe Look what
they say.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Look what they say? This worthless food? What food?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
The food that God had been miraculously giving them every morning,
the manna from heaven. It's amazing how it was the
thing that they asked for earlier and now they hate
it today.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Isn't that kind of the human condition?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
We ask for something in one season, God gives it
to us and we end up hating it in another season. Oh,
you prayed for that husband, didn't you?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You did?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
You prayed for him and God gave him, and now
you hate him.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
Be careful of that.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Oh, you prayed for those children and God gave them
to you. You prayed for that job, and God gave
it to you. Now you're cursing everybody at the job.
This is what the israel The Israelites are exhibiting who
we are. That's why their stories are so familiar to us.
So the scripture says that God sends serpents verse six.
The Lord send serpents among the people, and they bit
(17:35):
the people, and many of them died. And immediately they repent.
They're like, oh, we messed up again. So they say, Moses,
help us, we're dying here. And scripture says this. So
the Lord spoke to Moses in verse eight, make a
fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone
who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So
Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole,
(17:56):
and if a serpent bit anyone, he would look.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Somebody say, look at the broad serpent and live.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Okay, My first question when I hear that story.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Is very simple, What the heck? What a weird story.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Amen, It's okay to admit that sometimes the Bible is weird.
God could have solved this problem any number of ways.
Here's an antidote from heaven.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Drink it. Here's some different food. There you go.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Let's let's give you a vaccine. He doesn't thank God. Amen,
but the serpent bronze pull. Look, it's not a story
I would write. If this story was part of my history,
I wouldn't tell you this story. This is why I
(18:53):
believe the Bible is inspired by God, because the weirdest
stories got published. Yeah, So I could tell you a
couple of things, like the typology of the story, because
the story is the story that Jesus uses the point
to himself.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The Old Testament is about Jesus.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
The Old Testament is preparing us to see Jesus fulfill
the stories and the types of the Old Testament stories.
So I can tell you Moses lifts up the pole.
Moses is a representative of the law. The law was broken.
They rebelled and spoke against Moses. So Moses lifts up
(19:34):
the poll. A poll is a symbol of authority, and
the bronze serpent.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Bronze is a symbol.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Of God's righteous judgment, and the serpent is a symbol
of the curse of sin.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
The serpent tempted the woman and she led the man
into sin.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So all these types are coming true in this one
moment that the law is broken. But there's one who
has authority who bears the judgment on the pole for
us breaking the law and removes the sting of sin
from within our souls. That is what Jesus has done
for us. And then the simple solution to our sin
(20:11):
problem is what look to what God has provided in
the cross of Jesus Christ. He washes away our sins
because he bore our sins on the cross. Understand, the
gospel is that Jesus paid for your sins, and you are.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Saved not because you feel the love of God, not
because God is hopelessly romantically in love with you.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
You are saved because you see your sin on him
at the cross. That's the gospel, and the simplest thing
we can do is look, that's it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Look. I love the fact that.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Jesus went to this story because he could have picked
a bunch of other stories on how we get saved
from the Old Testament. He could have said, here's I
get saved. You gotta be like shat wreck me shocking
a bend to go and you gotta go through the
fiery furnace and stand for me, and then you'll be saved.
How many of you are glad that that was not
the requirement to get saved.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
He can be like, this is what you gotta do.
Remember the story of Jericho.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Marching around the city seven times and on the on
the seventh day seven times more, and then blowing a
trumpet and shouting. How many of you are glad for
your neighbor's sake that God doesn't make you do that
to get saved.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
What is John doing?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
He's a crazy man walking around his house shouting, going trumpets.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I'm so glad that this is.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
The story that Jesus picked, because this story shows us
that the work of our salvation is fully accomplished, not
in us, but in Jesus. Charles Spurgeon, probably the greatest
preacher of the eighteen hundreds from London, talked about how
it was just the look look to Christ that changed
(22:02):
his life as a young man looking for a salvation
in the middle of a snowstorm in London in the
eighteen hundreds, the only church that was open was a
little ancient Methodist church. Fifteen people showed up that day fifteen.
People never discount the number of people that show up
at church. You'd never know who's there. Charles Saden Spurton
shows up. The preacher's not even there because of the snowstorm.
(22:25):
So they ask a tailor, a layman. Some one of
you gets up and starts preaching. Here's how Charles Spurgeon
tells the story of his salvation moment. He says, now,
it is well that preachers be instructed, But this man
was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his
text for the simple reason that he had little else
to say. And the text was look unto me, look
(22:48):
under me, and be saved all the ends of the
earth Isaiah forty five, twenty two. He did not even
pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
This is a very simple text.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Indeed, it says look now looking, don't take it take
a deal of pain.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It ain't lifting your foot or your finger. It's just
a look.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Well, a man needn't go to college and learn to look.
You may be the biggest fool in that you can look.
A man needn't be worth a thousand and year to look.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Anyone can look, even a child can look.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
That's the simplicity of the gospel, and it's simple, but
it's tremendously deep as you unpack its realities for the
rest of your life.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Number two, What kind of God? What kind of love
is God's love? Number two? God's love is a wide
open love. It's a wide open love.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Now in our country, right now, we're filled with our
little tribalism, or this group hats that group, or our
group is different than that group, because and we separate
and divide on all kinds of it. Here's the love
of God is wide open to anybody. It's wide open
to any God loves the people that you don't love,
(23:55):
and salvation is offered to the people that you wouldn't
like to be saved. Be careful being a hateful person.
Be careful of not loving the people of God when
they're different than you.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
God might play a.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Cruel joke on you and put your mansion next to
their mansion in heaven.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Talk about an awkward trip to the mailbox every morning.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Oh I didn't like you on earth, I'm not so
sure I like you in heaven. But God's love is
wide open. That's what Jesus says from verse fifteen to eighteen.
Whoever believes in him, how's he turned a life? First sixteen,
whoever believes in him? Verse eighteen, whoever believes is not
condemned the word whoever underline it, whoever, whoever, whoever. Here's why,
(24:39):
it's a whoever opportunity, because his love for you is
not based on you.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's based on him.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
This is what God says to the people of Israel
and Deuteronomy seven when he says, I saved you out
of Egypt. Why look what he says. It was not
because you. It was not because you were all that great,
or you were more number than all the other nations.
In fact, you were very small. It's because the Lord
set his love on you. He set his love on you,
(25:10):
and he is fulfilling his oath to his father, to
your father's that he will bring you out of the
house of slavery and out from under the hand of Pharaoh.
Write this down so I know you're getting it. God
does not love me because of me. He loves me
because of who he is.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
You say, how does that help me? Here's why it helps.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Because some weeks you're not very lovable, and God's love
is not dependent on you being lovable as the goodness
you have off weeks, God never does.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
If you've got to earn.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
God's love, you got no shot because whatever amount you
earned today, I guarantee will be gone by twelve pm Monday.
That's how we are. We're fickle, we're back and forth.
God is eternal, He never changes. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And the opportunity of salvation is for everybody.
(26:11):
What is first Timothy too for say, God desires all
people to be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth. Some of you are here for the
first time. You have no Christian history, no church background.
You're wondering what you're doing here. You're wondering what does
God want with you. Here's what he wants. He wants
you to be saved. He wants to know you. He
(26:33):
wants to bring you home to him two Peter three nine.
The Lord is not slow and fulfilling his promise as
some consider slowness, but his patient toward you, not wishing
that any should perish, but that all should reach prepentant.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Some of you came to church.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
You're like, I just know that God is mad with me.
I know that God is disappointed with me. I know
I no, no, no, no, no. What does a Bible say? Friend,
he doesn't want that for you. He wants you to
be saved. He wants you to be redeemed. I should
bring a home to himself. So wide open love. Number three,
What kind of love is God's love? God's love is
a forgiving love. It's a forgiving love. Now at the
(27:11):
heart of the matter of your standing before God is
your need for forgiveness. And forgiveness sets you free. That's
what the word forgive and Greek means. It means to
release the prisoner. You let them go. And that's who
you were.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
You were a prisoner. If you're a Christian, you were
a prisoner. But God let you go.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
He sets you free from the slavery of sin and
the slavery of guilt and condemnation.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Here's what Jesus says in John chapter three seventeen.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
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. Now that word condemned, it
means judged, made guilty, declared guilty. I am so glad
that Jesus didn't come to make us feel guilty, and
you know why because verse eighteen tells.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Us why we already are guilty. Look at verse eighteen.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
It says this, whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Not believe is condemned already. In other words, the.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
Natural state of man is a feeling of guilt. That's
what we're born with. We're born feeling inadequate. We're born
feeling shamed. We're born feeling like we deserve punishment for something.
That's why we do a whole bunch of things good
to make up for it. And ultimately that inward shame
(28:37):
and guilt causes us to condemn others.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
This is why we point the fingers.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
This is why our country and our culture is so
filled with hate.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
This group versus that group.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
And the more we feel condemned in our own sins,
the more we label other people because by labeling other
people's sins, we don't feel so bad about ours.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
That's what it is. And no politician can fix this.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
No law can write this, because the problem is not
the laws of the land. The problem is the condition
of our heart. And what Jesus comes to do is
remove that condemnation. So that you can be a forgiving
person knowing you've received his forgiveness.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Look it, write this down.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Condemned people, condemn people, but forgiven people forgive people.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Are you the kind of person you look at other people?
You're always judging? Judging?
Speaker 1 (29:30):
It might be because you've never embraced the total forgiveness
that God has for you in Christ.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
He wants to do that in.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Your heart so that you are a forgiving person to
everybody around you. John chapter eight talks about the woman
brought to Jesus caught in the act of adultery. What
a shameful thing, What an embarrassing moment. Here she is
half naked, standing in front of all the leaders of
the Jews and Jesus, and they come in with a trap,
they say Jesus, Moses says, stone, What do you say?
(30:01):
They're trying to trap him? And what does he say?
Famous line of scripture? Let him who's without sin, but
cast the first stone? And I love what John says
in verse nine of that chapter.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
It says this.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
When they heard it, they went away one by one,
beginning with who the older one?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
The older ones go first? You ever think about that?
You know what?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Because the only difference between a young sinner and an
older center is the amount of sin they've committed. That's it,
that's all takes. That just takes more time to be
a greater center. And then suddenly realized I don't fit
that bilt drop the stone. And Jesus was left alone
with the woman standing before him. And he stood up
and said to a woman, where are they? Has no
(30:46):
one condemned you? And she said, no one, Lord? And
what does he say, neither do I condemn you? The
one who could have condemned forgave her and let her
go with the qualifier though sin no more. It's not
easy believism. It's not you're checking in on Sunday so
(31:08):
that you can sin Monday through Saturday. It's forgiveness so
that your heart is changed and you obey God from
the heart. Yes you're gonna screw up, Yes you're gonna
make mistakes, but yes, God's grace is enough to not
just save you and forgive you, but.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
To change you.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
That's the love of God, a forgiving love. And number four,
God's love is a worth living for, love worth living for.
Once you get a hold of this love, there's nothing
else in this life that measures up to it.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
It's a love that sets you free to be who
God wants you to be.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
John describes the reason why people reject it.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Look what it says in verse nineteen. This is the judgment.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
The light is coming into the world, and people love
darkness rather than the light because their.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Works were evil for everyone.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
No one who does wicked things hate the light and
has not come to the light lest his works should
be exposed at the end of the day. Here's the reality.
Here's the problem with the human heart. It is not
that people do not have enough evidence that there is
a God. It is that they love their sin. They
(32:20):
love doing what they do. This is why salvation is
the work of God. Wherein the Holy Spirit changes our
heart and causes us to hate the things that God
hates and love the things that God loves. That's salvation.
My heart's been changed and my life changes as a result.
(32:41):
But people hide from God, run from God because they
want to, because they don't want to be exposed. That
The atheistic professor of so many other, so many notable
institutions in our country, Thomas Nagel, he wrote in his
book The Last Word, he said this, I want atheism
to be true. I'm made uneasy by the fact that
some of the most well known and scholarly people that
(33:02):
I know are religious believers. He says, I hope there
is no God. I don't want there to be a God.
I don't want the universe to be like that.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
What is that?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
That's a man who loves his sin and runs from God.
It's not that there's not enough evidence. Is this sin
holds this human heart captive? But John doesn't leave us there.
I love this verse twenty one. John goes, but whoever does, what.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Is what true?
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Underline true because he doesn't say whatever, whoever does what
is good or good enough? Whatever is true comes to
the light that it may be clearly seen that his
works have been carried out by God or in God.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
What is Jesus?
Speaker 1 (33:40):
What is John saying? Whoever does what is true? What
does it mean to do what is true? Here's what
it means.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
You align with the truth of God in your life.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Number one, you admit you're a sinner. Number two, you
admit that Jesus paid for your sin. And number three,
you surrender your life and declare that God is right
and you are wrong.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
That's repentance.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
When it comes to your opinion about scripture, when it
comes to your opinion.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
About this book, here's the deal.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
If your opinion conflicts with what's in this book, pro tip,
change your opinion. God is true, He's righteous. That's what
it means to do what is true. And I feel
like I need to tell somebody today that is time
for you to lay down your weapons and your hostility
(34:31):
against this God, because he laid down his.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Life for you.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
One of the most tragic stories of the Second World War.
I know there were many, but this one is kind
of a tongue in cheeky tragedy. It's about second lieutenant
in the Japanese Imperial Army hero Unata hero Unada. He
was stationed in the Philippine island of lou Bang at
(34:56):
the close of the war, and his job was to
stop the US front the Pacific, and he accepted his
mission for what it was a suicide mission, so he
was standing in the February of that year, the American
Army troops came in and stormed the island, and he
and three of his companions ran up into the mountains
of lou Bang Island and hit out. Eight months later,
(35:19):
the bombs were dropped in Japan, and a few weeks
later after that, the treaty was signed and the war
was over. But for Hero Wuanata and his compatriots, they
had no idea that the war was over. The US
Army and the Japanese army flew over lou Bang Island
dropping leaflets to all the soldiers who might have been stranded,
(35:40):
declaring that the war was over.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Hero Unada would not believe it, and.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
He stayed fighting up in those woods, hiding out and
foraging for food for five years.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Five years.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
After five years, the Philippine island flies airplanes across the island,
the Philippine.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Government and they dropped morez.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
The war is over, Come home, Go home. Hero doesn't
believe them either. Two more years go by, five more
years go by, seven more years, ten more years go by.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Hero Anada was on that island.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Rejecting every message that the war was over for twenty
seven years, and in nineteen seventy two, a young man,
an adventurer from Japan, said he would be the guy
who would finally talk Hero Unada off that island. His
name was Nordio Suzuki. He got on the island with
one plan. He was going to walk around the jungle
(36:35):
and scream Hero's name and tell him that the Emperor
of Japan was worried about him. He found Hero in
four days, and when asked why Hero stayed on that
island and fought all those years and refused to believe
all those messages, he said, the original message that I
heard in my life was simple, do not surrender under
any circumstances.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
And I believed it and lived it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
And he lost three decades of life fighting a war.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
That had been won thirty years earlier. And I wonder,
who needs to hear me? Did I tell you You've got
to stop fighting the war with God?
Speaker 1 (37:18):
That war was one two thousand years ago at the Cross.
God finished it.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
And paid for it and open the door for you
to come home.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
But you've got to stop resisting, stop refusing to surrender,
because this is what God has done for you in
Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
And that's the.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Gospel message truth that I proclaimed to you.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
Come home,
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