Once again, it's good to be with you with the Word of God open before us. We appreciate you being here in the Lord's house this Saturday afternoon. I trust the Lord Himself will draw near and go with us today. We're going to open our scriptures again at the third chapter of John's Gospel. John's Gospel, chapter 3. With the Word of God open before us, let's bow together as we come to the throne of grace in prayer. Our Eternal God and our Father in Heaven, we bless Thee for the gift of the Word of God in our own tongue. We thank Thee for the gift of Scripture. We remember how the psalmist rejoiced, the Lord gave the word, and great was the company of those who published it. Today, our God, we thank Thee that we are here to publish not the vain opinions of man, not the deliverances of a church council, but the very utterance of the eternal God, Still our hearts, our Father, we pray that Thou wilt speak to preacher and listener alike. Our Father, today cleanse this human vessel from every earth-gathered stain of sin and remove from this preacher every hindrance that would arise from self or flesh. Grant that the Word of God may have free course and be glorified. speak to every hearer, grant to each one of us a hearing ear, a receptive and a responsive heart. Our God, grant a word from heaven. And as, O Lord, we pray repeatedly, so we cry again, through this service and this Bible conference, hallow thy name declare the holy greatness of our God. Advance thy kingdom, the cause of God and Christ in our hearts, our homes, our lives, and our land, and to the ends of the earth. And do thy will in us as it's done in heaven. And to thee we give the praise and the honor and the glory. We pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Now, as you've heard, our theme for this Bible conference is a single text of Scripture. It's easy to say it's a single text of Scripture, and in some ways, a very straightforward text of Scripture. It's not a word in it, with the exception of the term only begotten, which is of vast theological depth and significance. Other than that, there isn't a term in it that is particularly difficult to understand. So it's a short and a very straightforward statement that meets us in John 3 verse 16. And yet, in all of human literature, I don't think that you can find a more profound or a more precious statement. Even in all the words of recorded DNA, I don't think you can climb to any higher heights or plumb any more profound depths than we find in John 3 verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Last evening, we thought on the theme of the simple gospel. And in a way, we will simply be going a little further down that road today with a specific emphasis. If you recall, last night I mentioned the examples of preachers who preached many, many times on this text of Scripture. Henry Morehouse, I mentioned, preaching night after night after night, service by service, to the amazement of D. L. Moody and his wife, preaching constantly on John 3, 16, and always seeming to find something fresh to say. And those were evangelistic meetings directed specifically and continually toward the many, many unconverted people who were then attempting the preaching of the Word of God. I mentioned the preacher who had preached hundreds of messages, at least he had hundreds of sermon outlines on this one text. Now that may seem a little extreme, and yet I can understand Though I wouldn't have the ability to do what he did, I can understand why he wanted to do it. You see, here is an inexhaustible mind. This text of scripture is so vast that if you were to spend the next 40 years seeking to exhaust it, at the end of the time, you would say the text, as Campbell Morgan said, is still too big. too big, we go around it, we touch it, we understand a little of it, we grasp something and yet the sheer magnitude and majesty of this single statement leaves us like little children with a bucket at the edge of the great Atlantic Ocean when we have filled our pail The ocean is as vast and uncharted as ever. You see, the problem with us is the problem of poverty of conception and poverty of expression. I think there is a trouble that many Christians have, many preachers have, and that is they read this verse and they say, well, I know that. It's wonderful and I know that. Now let's pass on. Truth is, we don't really know it at all. We find it difficult to get beyond the mere words of John 3.16. They are great words, but it will yet do us a lot of good to lay hold of the foundational truths, the great streams of divine revelation to which we're introduced in these words of our Savior. Today I want us to consider, from this text, the greatest proof of God's love. The greatest possible proof of God's love. We have read today in 1 John chapter 4, God is love. In other words, love is not simply something that God does. is something that God is. Now follow me very carefully here, for what I'm about to say will be in a few very straightforward sentences, and yet, if you pay attention and take them and concentrate upon them, you will find that there is a tremendous depth of theological truth in them. When I say that love is not only what God does, it is what God is, I am saying that God acts according to what He is. His works declare His nature, and His nature necessarily governs all His works. Now, I said that the sentences are simple. But if we could but grasp what I have just said, if I could but grasp what I have just said, if we could proceed beyond the mere syntax of a sentence or two and grasp the truth therein, when I say, for example, that God's works declare what he is, And what He is governs all His works. I am saying something that touches on the great mysteries of life. Could we but keep that in mind? That what God is doing declares what He is. And what He is governs what He is doing. Could we but keep that in mind? we would have an introduction from a very different angle than we usually take to the mystery of divine providence. For example, and I cannot take the time to explore this at much length, but for example, every Christian sooner or later comes into circumstances that are to him utterly inexplicable. You know the hoary old question, why do bad things happen to good people? Why do God's people suffer? Why does God allow this, this and the other thing into our experience and into our lives? And we will find a host of people who will be the mouthpieces of the devil, who will come and hiss unbelief in our ears when inexplicable, mysterious, deep and troublesome happenings are occurring in our lives. We have many an example of Job's miscalled comforters. And many Christians have not proceeded beyond the carnal logic of those men. If these terrible and troublesome things are happening, it must be because God is angry. It must be because God hates you, is judging you, etc. You must have sinned. For example, in the modern charismatic movement, this is a theory that underlies much of their treatment of sickness and healing. Remember this, and I trust you will never forget it, if you are born of the Spirit of God and washed in the blood of Christ. I want you to remember this. God never deals with a Christian. Whatever he is doing in that Christian's life, whatever he is bringing into that believer's experience, even however he must chasten that believer for whatever reason, God never deals with His people except in love and grace, and there are no exceptions. Never let us seek to read the book of Providence apart from the Scriptures of truth. I do not understand much of what is happening. As I say this, I have a particular set of circumstances in mind. I have a nephew who was called after me. I had the privilege of dedicating him to the Lord as a little babe. I will never forget the occasion as a very profound strange sense of God's presence came, and I am far from being a charismatic, but when I say that for no apparent reason every hair in my body stood at edge as I prayed for that little one, I felt at the time perhaps God was going to make him a preacher, a missionary, some great servant of Christ. What I didn't know was that Because of German measles, when his mother was three months pregnant, vital parts of his brain had been destroyed. With profound grief, our family watched as that little one failed to develop. He never walked. He never heard. He never spoke. For many years, he suffered greatly. as did his parents. The haunting question in my sister's mind, to which I hope erroneously the mother and father believed the preacher had supplied the answer. The haunting question was, why? Why? They thought the preacher said, I say I hope they misunderstood him, for if they didn't, he had no earthly right to stand in a pulpit. But this and similar things was the evident judgment of God. I cannot tell you why that little boy was born that way. To this day, I don't know all the answer. I believe that in the sovereign grace and mercy of God, and I'll not go into all the reasons why I say this, not because he was born innocent and without sin, but because he was born needing a Savior, and because of my understanding of what the Savior and his apostles teach. I believe that God in sovereign grace has extended the merits of the blood of Christ and the covenant grace of God to his soul. I remember talking to my sister one day. She was greatly embittered. Why would God do this? I said, I can't give you the full answer, but I know That what God does is good because God is good. What God does is right because God is right. And I said, and I have to be careful when I say this because you must understand that my sister and I are peculiarly close. I don't think I'd be saying too much if I say she would tell you I was her closest friend. On God's earth, we can't be very frank without being obnoxious. I said to her, with great respect and love, you have other children. I have no assurance Unless God steps in, then I'm going to see one of them in heaven. And if they go the way of your bitterness, they will be damned. This little one has suffered for a while, but I have an absolute conviction. He will be glorified with Christ for all eternity. God is good, even when we can't understand it. Never seek to read from your limited understanding of providence. Read from that what becomes a slander on the divine nature. Start with what you know. God is what He has revealed. God is what He says He is. And what He does reflects what He is, even when I do not understand it. So though I freely confess that the book of Proverbs is to me largely a closed book until the events with which I am dealing are well and truly over, yet, going through them, I can say, the Lord does all things well. He is love. There are many arguments we may muster from God's Word to prove the love of God. Though it's not often dwelt upon, you see His love in the initial creation. You see His love when He entered into a covenant of life with Adam in the Garden of Eden, promising eternal life upon condition of obedience to the simplest possible probationary command. We see His love after the fall in one of the most haunting and searching scenes of Scripture. When Adam having sinned, and Eve having sinned, are running away from God, consumed with a sense of guilt, they cannot face their God. Isn't that the story of humanity ever since? And yet we read, the voice of the Lord God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and in the first question God ever put to man, We hear that voice echoing and re-echoing, not only around Eden, but down through the centuries of time. Adam, where art thou? Oh, the love of a seeking Savior, calling after stubborn sinners. We see the love of God in His choice of Israel. this constant oversight of them. We see His love in His raising up and sending the prophets. As He says, rising up early, remaining up late, day and night, going after this stubborn people, revealing His truth to them. The message of heaven for men on earth. Go through Scripture and in every page you will find the evidence of the love of God. But of all the innumerable demonstrations of God's love, there is none to compare with the one that our Savior mentions in John 3, 16. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Quite simply, let me say that God shows His love and gives the greatest possible proof of His love in the gift of His Son. This is what Paul had in mind when he wrote to Titus in Titus chapter 3 and verse 4 he said that after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Now the word love there is different from the word in John 3.16. The word love in Titus chapter 3 is the Greek word that gives us the English word philanthropy. That's why here it is, His love toward man. Now, He's speaking about the kindness, the love of God toward man. And He goes on quickly to explain, it's not on account of any works of righteousness that men have done. He goes on to speak of Him shedding on us abundantly. the regenerating and renewing grace of the Holy Spirit. But here's the point that he makes. God shows His kindness, God shows His love to man, God showers the regenerating grace of His Spirit upon men through Jesus Christ. This is the heart of the biblical revelation. Paul put it in different words writing to Timothy, there is one God, there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The whole of scripture says God is a God of love. But I want you to hearken to this, all God's love is channeled through Jesus Christ. You miss Christ. You miss Christ. And you will find no love in God. You miss Christ. You will find no mercy in God. You miss Christ, there is no salvation in God. You miss Christ and there is nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment. This is the truth that God, the God of love, the God of mercy, He channels it all through Jesus Christ our Savior. The greatest possible proof of the love of God. is His gift of His Son. God showed His love by giving His Son first to be born as a babe in Bethlehem for us. You remember the words of Isaiah the prophet, chapter 9, verse 6? Unto us a child is born. The child emphasizes the humanity of the Savior. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given, and that emphasizes His deity. The One who is the Child born in the mystery of the Incarnation is the Son of God given. And if you want proof of that, the rest of the text supplies it. The government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Consular, the Mighty God. The Everlasting Father? Don't consider that a reference to the Father in the Holy Trinity. It is not. It is a Hebraism, literally the Father of Eternity. To give it its simple English force, He'd be saying His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Eternal One, the Prince of Peace. Now, that's the gift. What a miracle. Man of being born. The mighty God. Let that sink in. If you can. This never ceases to fascinate me. I know it may be invidious to speak of one mystery of revelation to be greater than another, for really they are all inextricably bound. But, I have to confess, to me this is the foundational and in many ways the greatest act of God on earth in the history of all creation. Here is a babe, this child born of the Virgin Mary. And He is as truly the mighty God, the Eternal One, who though then lying in the lap of an earthly mother, is yet upholding all things by the Word of His power. A mystery, a miracle beyond all comprehension. What a gift! What a gift! But you know, in the giving of that gift, God the Father not only displayed to us the marvelous glory of the gift, but also He revealed to us something of the marvelous glory of the giver. We read in John chapter 1 verse 14 concerning that incarnation via the virgin birth of Christ. The Word was made flesh, or the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So that's who we're talking about, and that's what we're talking about in John 1. It's the person of Christ, incarnate deity, and we're focusing upon the fact of His incarnation. Now verse 18. No man have seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. When you look upon Christ, God is declaring Himself. And in John 1, you'll see a lot of that revelation. For instance, God is light. That's declared. But most of all, God is love. Follow me carefully. ...into the world. That's the great message of the birth of Jesus Christ. Do you remember how Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist put it? When he looked forward to the soon coming of the Lord Jesus, Luke 1 verse 7 to 8, he said, The tender mercy of our God, whereby the days spring from on high, hath visited us. When you look at that beam, what is the message? The message is God is love. That's the message. Remember how Simeon put it when he took that little newborn babe in his arms. He said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. And that, of course, was the very meaning of the name Jesus. Jehovah, our Savior, or Jehovah, our salvation. He took Jesus in his arms and he lifted up his eyes and he said to the Father, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. To a people born in sin, with the poison of depravity and corruption coursing through their veins by natural generation, God the Father says, Go look on the babe of Bethlehem, In Him, I have intervened in the destiny and history of the world. In Him, I have broken the endless curse of biological birth. In Him, I have opened a door of hope for a new birth, a rebirth from the deadness and corruption and curse. who has fallen upon spiritually dead sinners. Look upon the babe of Bethlehem! Here is a Savior who was as really born of a woman as any child in the history of the world, and yet in Him is none of the poison of Adam's sin. Sinless in His birth, He is the Dayspring from on high. the light to dispel the darkness of both Jews and Gentiles. If you wish to grasp the vastness of the love of God for men, you must see the marvel of the Incarnation. I must say that there are certain things, well, as I get older, maybe it's just because I'm getting older and more crotchety, I don't know. But there are certain things that peeve me. One is the shallowness, the utter abominable shallowness of most preaching and of most thinking among so-called evangelical Christians. One is taking the great things of God and doing with them what Israel according to Hosea did with the law of God. You remember Hosea said chapter 8 verse 12 the words of Jehovah I have written unto him the great things of my law. But they were counted as an unclean thing. So many people take the great things of the gospel and they treat them as if they were light and frivolous things. People talk sentimentally about the birth of Christ, especially around Christmas time. You'll have heard the words, away in a manger, no crib for a bed. Sounds so romantic. I love the words. The man who wrote them did not mean them to be trite. They're true to scripture. But it's a little bit like Christians wearing a cross. I've never got over that. Christians wearing crosses. It's big in America. You better get used to this, brother, because you'll find it there. I have often said it to them, would you ever think of making an ornament of the electric chair? Do you ever think of making the gallows into a bit of gold you hang from a chain around your neck? That's what the cross was. It was an instrument of the most horrible, painful, hellish torture unto death that depraved men could invent. Hasn't put a lot of people off, but there's nothing like human stubbornness. So what's the way in a manger? For city slickers, there's an excuse. They don't know what a manger is. But they should find out. But at the end of the day, what it's saying is that the mighty God of Glory, laying aside not His deity, but every outward manifestation of that deity, took it to union with Himself. A true humanity was born of a virgin and He was led in the cattle's feeding broth. What a miracle, what a marvel, what a mercy. Peter tells us something very, very, very interesting. He said of this, which things the angels desire to look into, and the Greek text is very, very picturesque at this point. You will know exactly when I say it, because you've seen people do it many a time. When they want to see something, they crane their necks. And that's the meaning. The angels, when they first heard it whispered in heaven, that the Son of God is leaving glory to go to earth to be born as a babe and laid in a manger. They stretched their necks to try to get a glimpse of this mystery, to try to understand this glorious truth that God would come to be with man, united with Him in the indivisible unity of the person of Christ. That was a theme worthy of the angels' song. Is it any wonder then that when the angels came down to the hillsides of Judea, they said to the shepherds, we bring to you good tidings of great joy? Is it any wonder that suddenly there was with that angel who announced the coming of Christ, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and singing, glory to God in the highest, good will toward man. A message of peace on earth. Why? The incarnation of Christ. Men and women, I trust today that through the feeble and beyond the feeble and faltering words of a very limited preacher, you will catch something, something of the unspeakable mercy, majesty of God incarnate. God incarnate. How do I know God loved the world? How do I know that? He gave his son, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, to come down to be born as a babe and laid in a manger. And then he went further. For God showed His love by giving His Son to live in obedience to the law for us. Now, that's another statement that's so easily made, and yet so usually misunderstood. You see, in giving His Son, God made the Sovereign a servant. In fact, if you go back to the book of Isaiah, one of the determining Titles of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to Isaiah, as the prophecy is rightly often called, is the title servant. Remember in the great 53rd chapter, verse 11, the Father speaks of my righteous servant. The Son became a servant. Now let's stop off for a moment. Because in human relationships, You would say, because you are a son, you should obey. Doesn't every father teach his children that? At least he ought to. Because in human relationships, the son comes after the father. Theologically, we say that is posteriority. Okay? The son is therefore inferior to the father. The son is therefore subordinate to the father. This is all in human relationship. So, because I was my father's son, I obeyed my father. He was mature, I was immature. He knew a lot, I knew nothing. Even when I thought I knew everything. So because I was a son, I obeyed my Father. But that is not so in divine relationship within the Holy Trinity. Because now when we get to the relationship between the Eternal Father and the Eternal Son, sonship does not denote that there is any posteriority that the Son comes after the Father. They are co-eternal. It does not speak of any inferiority. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory. It does not speak in any way of any subordination. Let me make this very clear, because even some of the greatest theologians in the history of the world have found it difficult. And I understand why, because human language is not capable of plumbing the depths of divine mystery. But they found it difficult not to speak of eternal subordination. Subordination of the Son to the Father came in this world in His incarnate state. How do I know? Hebrews 5 verse 8, Though He were a Son, despite the fact that He was God's Son, yet learned he obedience. Here's the love of God. He gave his son not only to be born, but to plumb the depths of servanthood and become obedient. And this humble obedience declares God's love. Unfortunately you have a clock in this building and I see the clock is way ahead of where I ought to be. I am going to have to cut through this very very quickly. You remember how the Lord Jesus himself quoted Isaiah in Matthew 12, Behold my servant, verse 18 of Matthew 12, Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. And he goes on to say, I have put the Spirit upon him, and this statement, a bruised reed shall he not break, a smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. But in order to do all that, in order so to treat sinners and introduce them to the love of God, he had to live his life under the law. What does that mean? Well obviously it means that he made himself amenable to the law of God. He set out to keep all its standards. He bore all its strictures. And it means of course that he endured every privation. It's an amazing thing that he was born in poverty and he served his life in hardship. The God who created this vast universe, when he came to this earth, never laid claim to one square inch. He said, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, the son of man hath not where to lay his head. So he put himself under the law. That's a huge statement. God put Adam under that law and I said He gave him the simplest probationary command. It was as easy for Adam to be holy as it is easy for fallen men to be sinful. It was as difficult for Adam to sin as you can imagine. It was against his nature, his bias, everything. God made it easy for Adam and he yet fell flat on his face. The Lord Jesus came as the last Adam, the second man, the Lord from heaven. And he placed himself under the law as our new covenant head. And bless God, not for a moment, not to fulfill an easy probationary command, but to meet the law of God in all its depth and all its fury. And he fulfilled it all. That's love. In doing so, He opened Himself up to unspeakable temptation. We read in Matthew 4 that Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And God said, I'm well pleased with this. How could that be? Well, here's the answer. Galatians 4, verse 4, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law for what purpose? To redeem us who are under the law. That's love. God showed His love, of course, by taking the ultimate step and sending Him not only to Bethlehem, not only to live, work out a perfect obedience, but to go to the cross. God commended his love toward us. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I'm sure you've often sung from the 22nd Psalm, that cry that Christ made on Calvary, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Do you know the answer? The answer This is Scripture's answer. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. If God didn't say that, I would be afraid to say it. If my memory's right, Mr. Murray can correct me here if my memory's at fault, and it may well be, but if my memory's right, this is the direct parallel of what God could say at creation. God saw that it was good. It was good. He looked at the cross. He says, it's good for me to visit vengeance upon the head of my son. It is good for me to pour out the vials of my wrath upon the head of my son. It is good for me to withdraw the comfort of the Father's presence. It is good for me to abandon him to the pains of hell in his body on the tree. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. I hear it when people say, If God is a God of love, then why not, my friend, this utter, absolute, demonic blasphemy? I have already confessed there are many things I cannot understand, the whys and the wherefores, but I'm going to say this to you. After Calvary, after what God did for us to His Son at Calvary, There is no reason ever for any man to put a question mark over the love of God. I think it was Mr. Spurgeon who pointed out that God didn't give His Son in the past and quit. He's still giving His Son. By that, I think he means that there meant that God shows His love by giving His Son to us in the Gospel. He commendeth His love toward us. He sets Him before us as worthy. The word commendeth means to introduce it to us. He introduces His love to us, shows to make us stand together. What a love is this! It's almost as if God is saying, I have given My Son. But I'm going to do more. How can he do more? The God who made the gift now becomes an advocate. He now becomes a pleader. He stands before you. Can you imagine this? This is the meaning of the word. God Almighty stands before an insignificant little wretch of depraved humanity such as I And He commands, He stretches forth His hands, He introduces His love, He pleads. He pleads with me, with you. Can you understand it? Can you take it in? As Paul said, this is a faithful servant. It's worthy of what? Discussion? Perish our foolish discussions! It's worthy of what? Some pipsqueak theologian rapping God's glorious revelation in incomprehensible language? No. It's worthy of all acceptance. This is worthy to be accepted by all who hear it. And those who hear it and fail to accept it are guilty of unspeakable and abominable crime. God shows His love, commending Christ, accepting us in Christ, clothing us in the righteousness of His Son. so that we are inseparable from Him. Thank God He'll show His love when He sends Him a second time without sin unto salvation. I want you to understand this. John 3.16 says, God so loved the Word that He gave His Son and in that giving you have something that carries you all the way to the second coming of Christ and then the glory that is forever. God, what I'm saying simply is, he has done great things in the past, he's doing great things today, and his giving will never cease. Christ is the gift that God will never retract. A gift of inexhaustible fullness from which we will draw for all eternity. God is love. How do I know? He gave His only begotten Son. What can I say? I can but bow before Him, as I quoted yesterday, take the words of Paul, lift my heart in humble gratitude, and say, thanks be unto God. for His unspeakable gift. Let us bow together in prayer. Father in heaven, To Thee we return thanks for a love whose breadth and length and depth and height far surpass our ability to comprehend. And yet, Lord, we cry with Paul that we may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of God which passeth knowledge. Take our thanks for such a gift, for such an unspeakably marvelous proof of God's love for unworthy men. We pray in Jesus' name,