and he's been baptized and God's really been
working in his life and one invite did really
impact him and who's grateful that Matt got saved?
I'm so grateful for that. And we are encouraging
everybody to invite because Easter's a time where
people respond and it's also, this is not about
attendance except that every person that comes
will hear the gospel, amen. And so that's what
we're. looking at today. If you had your Bibles,
we're going to be no surprise in John chapter
number three. John chapter number three, and
today we're looking at verses 22 to 36. It was
our reading today. And one of the things that
I'm experiencing right now is I'm getting older.
I feel older. This week, my son turned 10 years
old. So he's excited because double digits, right?
So we had a blast this week hanging out with
him yesterday. He's kind of an old soul. I got
him a pocket knife, which was awesome. And within
five minutes, Band -Aid's on the finger. It was
great. And so further pastoral and fatherly instruction
needed to happen. But also, he wanted to play,
of all things, Monopoly. Last night, so we played
Monopoly and of course Monopoly on a Saturday
night for a pastor on time change Sunday We cut
it off early, right? I'm not gonna brag, but
I was winning but anyway, um John John chapter
3 is gonna be but as I'm getting older one of
the things I'm noticing is about my my life is
that Sometimes there's now aches and pains that
I didn't used to have right. I'm getting a little
bit older I want you to imagine something with
me. Imagine imagine that you have a pain somewhere
in your body. I know for some of you it's easier
to imagine than others. But let's say you have
this pain that's in your body and over weeks
and weeks, just slightly, ever more, ever more,
it gets more and more intense, more and more
difficult. And it's like in a strange place on
your body. I'll let you imagine where. But the
point is it's getting worse and worse and worse.
So it's not going away, right? And so what you
decide to do is you decide to go to a doctor.
And when you go to the doctor, Imagine this doctor,
he runs through all the labs, all the tests.
He has all the charts. He's done this CAT scan
and the MRI and the, you know, the hearing test.
Now you're doing all the tests, right? And he's
got the charts in front of him. He sees the evidence.
He's a good doctor. He actually sees something
and it's not good. And he knows it's not good.
He knows it's bad. He sees it. He knows it's
bad. And so, but then let's imagine that his
report is, you know, this guy's got a lot of
negative things going on in his life. He needs
a good report, not a bad report. Life is hard.
This is gonna be hard for him. And if I tell
him that he's got the tumor, he's got the spot,
like he needs treatment, if I tell him that he's
gonna be down, he's gonna be depressed, he's
gonna be discouraged. So I know what I'm gonna
do. So he comes in. And he says, your body is
good. You got a good body. Your eyes see, your
nose smells, your feet run. Sometimes your feet
smell and your nose runs. Right? Most of your
body's doing great. Like a lot of your body is
doing great. It would be really negative for
me to talk about the part that's not maybe doing
as great, but you're doing great. Like, and so.
The pain will subside if you just ignore it.
And we'll just say it's all good. Now, is this
a good scenario for you? No, because an inaccurate
diagnosis is a bad diagnosis. Now, who agrees?
You probably feel like getting a cancer diagnosis.
or some disease diagnosis is also a bad, who
likes bad diagnosis? I love cancer, give me some
more cancer. Who likes that, right? Nobody likes
that. But what would be worse than being told
you have a disease is for somebody to know that
you have a disease and not tell you. That would
be rough. Last week I told you that it is important
to face brutal realities. That ignoring something
doesn't make it go And giving a good diagnosis
when it isn't accurate may be pleasant in the
moment, but that's deadly. And in fact, I would
say that's evil. That's not bad practice. That's
malpractice, right? There have been those in
the past though that have pushed for the need
for people to have a high self -esteem. You know
what the problem with this kid is? He's got a
low self -esteem. Okay, he's punching everybody.
He's a bully. He eats whatever he wants He doesn't
obey his parents, but his problem is he's got
a high self -esteem or he's got low self -esteem
He needs to have a high self -esteem. You know
the problem is He's a bad kid Did you just say
there's such a thing as a bad kid Yes, you know
the Bible calls him a sinner a sinner and by
the way We've all been bad kids. We're all sinners.
Now I'm not saying that if a kid's always down
on himself and thinking negatively, or any of
us are always like that, sometimes that can be
as much pride as thinking too much of yourself,
that you're thinking of yourself too much in
that sense. The issue though is that some would
say, is that people nowadays have a low self
-esteem. The answer is a high self -esteem, yet
this is not good. One of the most difficult things
to get right about ourselves is thinking about
ourselves. If we think about ourselves too much,
that's pride, that can lead to selfishness, that
can lead to self -centeredness. If we think pessimistically
about ourselves, I'm the worst, I have no worth,
this is not entirely accurate either. What's
important is having an accurate esteem of yourself.
Thinking about ourselves rightly. We can only
think about ourselves rightly and here's the
key. We can only really truly think about ourselves
rightly when we have God's perspective on us.
When we think like God. Repentance is agreeing
with God about what he agrees with. about my
life, seeing my life the way that God sees my
life, seeing myself as God sees me. And this
is one of the reasons that the most important
thoughts we have are what we think about when
we think about God, because how we think about
God impacts how we think about everything else,
including us, ourselves. How we think about God
impacts for right or wrong, how we think about
everything, especially ourselves. And we see
that in today's text. For context though, and
before I give you the objective, I'm gonna walk
through to give you what's happening in the text.
Jesus and his disciples continue to minister.
The last two weeks, we went through the first
part of John chapter three. As we walk through
the whole book of John, it's pretty fun, it's
exciting. Last week, we had this really intense
conversation that Jesus has with Nicodemus about
what it means to be born again. And Jesus told
him, what Jesus says, as the serpent was raised
up in the wilderness, even so must the son of
man be lifted up. Moses had this problem in the
wilderness with the children of Israel. They're
grumbling and complaining. God sends poisonous
snakes. They start biting the people. Matt, you
sat in the same spot. I'm not doing it to you,
okay? Yeah, feeling freaked out a little bit.
But the snakes were biting and killing people,
like the poison was in their veins. God, he goes
to Moses, Moses goes to God, he says, God, what
do I do about this? Moses, he tells Moses, hey,
put a serpent up in the midst of the camp. And
when people look at the, they're gonna attack
me, okay. Just got baptized and now he's mad
about it. Okay. So Moses puts his serpent up
on a pole. He makes it out of a bronze serpent.
And when the people got bit, they looked to the
bronze serpent and they lived, look and live.
And Jesus says, I'm gonna be like that brass
serpent. I'm gonna be lifted up. And as he was
in the wilderness, as the snake was raised in
the wilderness, the son of man is gonna be lifted
up that whosoever believeth on him should not
perish. but have everlasting life. He said, he
who does not believe, or he who believes is not
condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned
already. Meaning, everyone is condemned. The
venom of sin, death because of sin is running
through our veins. And he who does not believe,
you're rejecting the only thing that's gonna
get rid of the venom. That's gonna deal with
death. And so, so. for God loved the world so
much, for God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him, whoever looks to him, should not perish,
but have everlasting life. So the conversation
leaves that, but that subject is still kind of
in the air. And Jesus goes in verse 22, read
with me. After these things came Jesus and his
disciples into the land of Judah, and there he
tarried with them and baptized. We learn in John
chapter four that Jesus, he baptized in the sense
that his disciples are baptizing, right? Verse
23, and John also was baptizing in and on near
to Salem because there was much water there.
Now I wouldn't be very Baptist if I didn't say,
and also biblical, that you need much water when
you baptize by immersion, right? The word baptize
means immerse, baptizo to immerse, right? It
became religious as we use that word, we took
it from the Greek and just made it English, baptize.
But the Greeks would have used that just meaning
to plunge something in the water. A mama could
have said to a Greek little girl, hey, go baptize
this towel in the river. And she wouldn't be
talking about, you know. She wouldn't be talking
about that. She'd be talking about taking this
and plunging it into the river, right? So baptized
means that. And so Jesus is baptizing and making
disciples of himself and John had already been
doing that. Remember, this is John the Baptist.
Makes sense, right? And so Jesus is coming near
him and it says in verse 24, there's this explanation
for John was not yet cast into prison. That's
something that's gonna be coming later. And so
you have these two kind of groups of people,
Jesus and his disciples, made up of some of John
the Baptist's disciples who started to follow
Jesus, if you remember. And then John the Baptist,
who still got his remnant of disciples and they're
both doing similar things, they're both baptizing.
And so there comes, in verse 25, a question.
The word for question here, if you go look at
the Greek, is kind of the idea of, a question
in the way that people ask questions and take
sides on a matter, like a dispute. There are
people who are pro -choice and pro -life. There
are people who are anti -gun and pro -second
amendment. It's a question, it's a debate. You
get it? And so that's what's happening. There
was a question between some of John's disciples
and the Jews about purifying. So the disciples
of John the Baptist are responding. to some changing
dynamics around the ministry of the man that
they're following, John the Baptist, that apparently
made them feel threatened, at least it seems
that way. Those dynamics were this, that Jesus
and his disciples made their way down to Judea,
which referred to the southern part of Israel,
and they were both baptizing people. They noticed
their comment here in verse 26 about Jesus and
his ministry, verse 26, and they came unto John
and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee
beyond Jordan, He's referring to Jesus, to whom
thou bearest witness. That's how we know it's
Jesus, because what was John's ministry to point
to Jesus, right? And they said, behold, the same
this Jesus baptizes and all men come to him.
So this is like saying, hey, I'm noticing our
disciples and our crowds getting smaller. and
his crowd and his disciples are getting bigger.
You used to be the talk of the town and now he's
the talk of the town. Are you with me? Do you
get it? There's a new church plant and everybody's
going to the new church plant. That's a silly
application that's kind of the same thing, right?
Kind of a similar thing. And so there's the second
dynamic that. There were disputes between some
of John's disciples and the Pharisees. Some commentators
guess what the disputes about. Here it says the
purifying, which may include questions about
baptizing. We're not exactly sure, but if it
was about baptism, it may have included stuff
like, was the baptism of John legitimate? We
know that that question comes up later. Was the
baptize of... Baptism of Jesus, the same as John.
Was John a legitimate spiritual leader even though
he wasn't a Pharisee, a priest, or some traditional
rabbi? Who's greater, John or Jesus? Like this
is the kind of thing that could be happening.
It seems to me that the context here is that
the disciples of John were worried about what
seemed to be the declining influence of who they
were following, John the Baptist. And so John
hears all of these comments coming from his followers
and seems to understand the assignment. because
it says in verse number 27, John, what's the
next word? Answered and said, now interesting,
notice they didn't actually say a question, right?
What did they say? Hey John, the guy you pointed
to, his ministry is increasing, he's baptizing,
everybody's going to him. Is that a question
or a statement? Just a statement. But I think
John knows what they're getting at, like, huh,
huh, huh, huh. There's less over here, what's
going on, right? And I love that John answers.
John sees himself rightly, I think that's really
cool. They were wondering about how John was
feeling about that. They seemed to be worried
about how successful John's ministry will be
and how. He is being perceived in comparison
to Christ. And John's response is profound. Look
at verse 27. John answered and said, a man can
receive nothing except to be given him from heaven.
What's he saying? Here's what he's saying. Jesus'
success is happening because God is allowing
it to happen. What's happening with Jesus is
of God. This is all part of God's plan. He then
reminds him of what he had said about Jesus earlier.
Look at verse 28. Ye yourselves bear me witness.
And he's like, you brought it up when you didn't
ask the question, but when you referred to the
statement. The one you pointed to, the one you
magnified. Isn't that what he said in verse,
where are we at? Yeah, 28. We're in 28, but he
says in verse 26, Rabbi, he that was with thee
beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness.
He's saying, You are bearing witness that I bore
witness about Jesus that I said, I'm not the
Christ. Christ is a Greek word that means anointed
one. It's the equivalent of the Hebrew word for
Messiah. Okay, so he's saying, I told you from
the beginning, I've always said, this has been
my ministry, I'm not the Messiah. But that I
am sent before him, before the Messiah, right?
This is all. part of the plan of God. John knew
that Christ's value is greater than his value
and that he was sent to point to Christ. And
so then he uses this amazing illustration that
I like so much, verse 29, about a wedding, verse
29. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom,
but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth
and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because the
bridegroom's voice, this my joy therefore is
fulfilled. That's a pretty cool illustration,
isn't it? He's saying, I want you guys to imagine
this. Before, in my life, I've been in a bunch
of different weddings. In college, I think I
was in like eight or nine or 10 different weddings.
I become friends with a lot of people that end
up getting married, right? And I was a groomsman
in a lot of weddings. And you know what the job
of a groomsman is to do? Is basically to be like,
to be there, to stand by your groom and to be
happy for him and don't mess up. Don't trip,
don't make a scene. The point of the groomsman
in some ways is to point to the groom. Are you
with me? And what he's saying is, I'm not the
main player here, I'm over here off to the side.
I'm not the main character, he's the main character.
Are you with me? He says, at a party, you're
not upset when you're a groomsman, you're not
upset when the focus is on the groom. In fact,
you know you're messing up if the focus is on
you, right? You're just there to be happy for
the groom and to be happy for the bride. I love
that picture. When someone's in the bridal party
or attending the wedding, jealousy and envy are
not the right attitude. The right attitude is,
for the inevitable culmination of the marriage.
Joy at that. And John is saying that Jesus' prominence
is the point of his own ministry and in that
he is joyful like the groomsmen for the bridegroom.
This is summarized by the most well -known verse
in the passage where he says, verse 30, he must
increase, but I must decrease. What God wants
is for me to play a lesser part because Jesus
is playing the main part. When John says that,
he's saying something very specific about his
ministry. Once the person that announces the
main act is done, he moves off the stage. The
focus is now on the main player. And that has
some very specific implications for John the
Baptist. Now here's what I wanna tell us. What's
the point of this? in terms of how this applies
to us. We ought to be like John in this story.
Why? Those of us who know Christ as Savior have
one job when we're on this earth. That's priority
over every other job that we have. We sang a
song, Christ be magnified in me. We lift up not
ourselves, we lift up who? Jesus, we point people
to. Jesus, he's the main player. We're called
by God as Christ's disciples to point in every
way we can to Jesus. John the Baptist came to
prepare the way of the Messiah. We're to point
people to the Messiah. In the midst of that,
we can get distracted by a lot of stuff. Sometimes
we get distracted from it completely. Sometimes
we think too highly of ourselves and of our own
ministry. Sometimes we think only of ourselves.
And we all think about ministry. Sometimes we
have too low a view of ourselves and the importance
of our ministry in terms of what obedience means.
Sometimes we can believe that we're in control
and it's all up to us. And really, who's it all
up to? And we're supposed to be obedient, but
it's really up to the Lord. John understands
that in this moment, Jesus' prominence must be
by necessity increasing while his role decreases.
And that is an application for us as well. which
introduces us to the main point of this sermon.
Are you ready? We can have an accurate view of
our own self -worth by valuing three aspects
of the worth of Jesus Christ. There's three aspects
of his worth here that need to color and shape
and influence the way we think about ourselves.
Here's the first one, his value. He is greater
than me. He is greater than me. You're like,
Pastor Ben, you're saying something obvious.
I understand that it's obvious, but I don't always
live that way. And neither do you. Sometimes
in your life, it probably happened this week,
in the way that you lived and the way that you
thought you were the most important, not Christ.
And what we have to do is we have to understand
that he is number one. In a sense, John was being
asked to compare his ministry with Jesus' ministry.
And we get asked to compare ourselves to others
too. Women can be tempted to compare themselves
to the fake models on the covers of magazines
and on Instagram. Sometimes we compare our lives
to the postings of other people on social media.
We compare our wealth and our cars and our clothes
to others. And if you think it doesn't affect
ministry leaders and pastors, you're wrong. People
get sized up based on the size of their attendance,
the size of their staff, the size of their budget.
And in the end, there is no win in comparison.
Let me say that again. In the end, there's no
win in comparison. Because you can always find
somebody doing something better than you, and
you can always find somebody doing something
worse than you. And that's not how God measures
it anyway. It's required in stewards that a man
be found faithful. Comparison can be something
that robs us of joy, can motivate us towards
unfaithfulness to the Lord. Success is an interesting
concept. On the one hand, stewardship compels
us to measure impact. We want the growth charts
to go up and to the right, right? We want our
wealth to go up and to the right on the chart.
Like we always want it to go. that way, we always
want more this year than last year, yet there
are times where being faithful to God means that
there will be a decrease in impact. Are you serious?
Yeah. Just because, the Bible describes sometimes
riches as a curse, not a blessing. And there
are ministries that have more people and the
reason they have more people is because they're
being unfaithful. Sometimes the reason the church
is decreasing is because it's being faithful.
Sometimes it's decreasing because they're not
doing evangelism. The point is success should
be measured in faithfulness to the Lord and not
in comparison to other people. John here gives
an incredible insight to that. In this example,
Jesus is greater than we are. His success and
prominence is more important than ours, yet there
is an incredible connection between his success
and our eternity. John's mission, like ours,
was to announce the coming and arrival of Jesus
Christ, the Messiah. Like it would be inappropriate
for an attender or a groomsman at a wedding to
try to take prominence over the groom, so it
would be wrong for John to fight the focus and
growing influence of Jesus. We're like that.
We're to point people to Jesus. He's the main
player. He is more valuable than me. He must
increase and I must decrease. Now how do we know
that Jesus is more valuable than us? That brings
us to the second aspect of his worth that will
help us accurately view our own worth. Number
two is it's his experience. We talked about his
value. He's greater than me. Now we're talking
about his experience. He is from above. He's
from above. We're getting this right from the
text. Are you there? Verse 31. He that cometh
from above is above all. Jesus isn't like a man
that just came into existence and came from earth.
Jesus is from heaven. Jesus' start wasn't at
his conception. He existed from eternity past
and he's saying here he that cometh from above
is above all and he that is of earth is Earthly
and speaking of the earth he that comes from
heaven is above all Part of the way that we know
to Christ value is greater than ours is because
of where he comes from Right Mankind is of earth
Jesus is from heaven God is from heaven. He's
the creator and he's more valuable than his creation
Don't I mean you can turn there if you want,
but I'll be on the screen first Corinthians 15
47 says this the first man is of earth of the
earth earthy Now Paul uses this language first
Corinthians was written by Paul Paul uses this
language About the first Adam and the second
Adam. He does that in Romans. He's speaking to
it here again in first Corinthians The first
man Adam the second Adam the second man is Jesus,
okay, so I'll just give you that and won't prove
it to you, but that's what he's talking about.
And he says, the first man is of the earth, earthy.
The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is
the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.
And as is the heavenly, such are they also that
are heavenly. Jesus is heavenly. Man was made
of the dust of the ground. Genesis 2 .7. And
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life. The man became a living soul. Because of
our sin, our physical bodies are buried and turned
to dust awaiting the resurrection. Genesis 3
.19 says, in the sweat of, this is part of the
curse after man's sin, he gives this curse to
man. He says, in the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground.
For out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art
and unto dust thou shalt return. In verse 32,
John goes on to say that because Jesus is from
heaven, he speaks the words of heaven. So man
is from earth, we're made of the stuff of earth,
there's a part of us that will live forever,
but we're different than Jesus because there
wasn't beginning to us, there's no beginning
to Jesus. Are you with me? There was a time when
we are not, but there will never be a time where
we will never be again. But there has never been
a time where Jesus was not. I make your head
spin. Jesus has always existed, right? If you
don't believe that, you're not Christian. He's
always existed. Or at least you're mistaken.
Verse 33, sorry. Verse 32. And what he has seen
and heard, that he testifies, and no man receiveth
his testimony." This is talking about Jesus.
Jesus' experience is in heaven, he's seen heaven,
he's bringing heaven and the experience of that
to earth. He's saying, he's saying Jesus is speaking
what he knew from heaven and no one's receiving
it. This is exactly like what we studied last
week, John 3 .11, where Jesus said, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, this is Jesus talking to Nicodemus,
we speak that we do know and testify. that we
have seen and ye receive not our witness." What
Jesus is saying to John is, you're saying that
I'm from God, right? Nicodemus came to Jesus
and said, Jesus, we know that you're a rabbi
come from God, because no one can do the things
you're doing except God's with them. And Jesus
ends up saying in the conversation, well, you're
saying I'm from God. And I'm saying what I heard
from God, I'm saying what I've seen, what my
testimony is, and you're not receiving what I'm
saying. Is that a problem? And John's having
exactly the opposite effect here. He's saying,
Jesus is greater, why? Because he's from heaven.
He's not made, he's not from earth, he's from
heaven. He's greater than we are. John the Baptist
was making a case. Jesus' ministry must grow
even at the expense of my own personal ministry.
He says, because he's more valuable than I am,
he is the focus. Why? His success is the intention
of God. His success is the point of John's ministry.
He's the bridegroom and John's just attending
the wedding. He's from heaven and John is merely
from earth. He testifies of heavenly things and
John has only been on the earth. He goes on to
say that there's a responsibility then to receive
his testimony and result. for people based on
how they respond to Jesus. Look at verse 33.
He that hath received his testimony. This is
what he's saying. John's saying, if you receive
Jesus' testimony, you're setting to his seal
that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. What's John saying? When Jesus
speaks, he's speaking on behalf of God. For God
giveth not the spirit by measure unto him." He's
saying God's not limiting what effect of the
Holy Spirit that Jesus is having. To believe
Jesus is to believe God the Father himself because
Jesus is God. That's what he's saying. Of course,
John, the gospel writer, quotes John saying this
right after having recorded Jesus' conversation
with Nicodemus. John said that Jesus is the Logos,
the Word. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us and we beheld his glory. So what is my point?
My point is, it's important to listen to Jesus
because the incarnation of Jesus is the word
made flesh and dwelling among us. He is the authoritative
son of God who tells us the truth from heaven.
Who has a right to say what happens in heaven?
Jesus does. That's where he's from. Who has the
right to tell us how we get to heaven? Jesus
does. He came. brought the words of life to us.
And then he died on the cross and rose again.
He has a right. And so he's more valuable than
us because of where he comes from. And we can
have an accurate view of our own self -worth
by valuing three aspects of the worth of Jesus
Christ. Here's the last thing. His position is
this, that he is supreme. His value is that he's
greater than me. His experience is he's from
above. His position is this, he is supreme. I
love verse 35, I love this, ready? The father
loveth the son and hath given all things into
his hand. Isn't that amazing? While Jesus has
been rejected by so many and received by so few,
God the father has completely accepted his son.
Here John makes a clear statement that Jesus
has been given all things the whole of creation
is Jesus is Jesus's everything is by him and
For him and to him so when confronted with the
success of Jesus's ministry John makes it clear
that he understands Jesus supremacy over everything
What he's saying is this is amazing Yeah, he
gets more I get less. You know why everything
is his to begin with It's all his God's given
everything into his hand. He is supreme. The
writer of Hebrews talks about that, Hebrews 2
.7. Thou made us, Tim, a little lower than the
angels in his incarnation. Thou crowned us, Tim,
with glory and honor, and did set him over the
works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things
in subjection under his feet, for in that he
put all in subjection under him. He left nothing
that is not put under him. But now we see not
yet all things put under him. Paul declares,
that he wanted the Ephesian church to understand
about Christ in Ephesians 1 .19, this reality.
And what is, he says, I want you, this is my
prayer for you, Ephesian church. This is what
I want you to know. I want you to know what is
the exceeding greatness of his power to us who
believe according to the working of his mighty
power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised
him from the dead and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places. You know what he's
saying? He's saying the power that you have available
to you in Christ is the same power that raised
Jesus from the dead. And he says, verse 21, he
set him at his own right hand in heavenly places.
Verse 21, far above principality and power and
might and dominion and every name that is named
not only in this world, but also in that which
is to come. You know what he says? There's nothing,
there's no place where Jesus is not greater.
Verse 22, I put all things under his feet and
gave him to be the head over all things to the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him
that filleth all in all. In fact, John the Baptist
goes on to say that every person's ultimate end
is based on what they do with Jesus. If they
believe on Jesus' life, if they reject Jesus,
they will endure the wrath of God. Jesus says
this about himself in John 14, six. Jesus said
to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father, but by. What was
John's answer to Jesus? What was his answer to
his success compared to his own? It should be
the same as our answer about Jesus. It's not
about me. It's not about us. It's all about him.
He is greater than we are. He is from above.
He made everything below. Everything is by Him
and for Him. He is supreme. The only way to get
to the Father is through the Son. God sending
Jesus so that we could believe was an incredible
act of love in response to this impossible and
incredible state we find ourselves in as sinners
and enemies of the Holy and Living God. And so
that's why this passage ends with this. terrifying
and terrible and incredible truth. Are you ready?
This is so simple, but it's so profound. Verse
36. He that believeth on the Son has everlasting
life. And he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth. You
know what abideth means? remains. It's already
there. It's already there. Condemned already.
It's the same theme. What you do with Jesus,
is the most important decision you could make.
Isn't who you marry important? Yeah, not as important
as this. What about what I do for a job? Is that
important? It's important. Is it more important
than what you do with Jesus? Not a chance. He
that believeth on the son. Who's for this? Hath
life. Hallelujah. And he that believeth not in
the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath
of God abideth on him. The wrath of God is the
necessary response of a holy and just God of
the universe. He sent Jesus to give us life instead
of wrath. Hear what the scripture says very clearly.
He is not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. Another way
of thinking about that is this. He's not willing
for you to ignore Jesus and go to heaven. I am
the way, Jesus said, the truth and the life.
No man. cometh to the Father, but by me." In
this text, you see a couple of things. First,
you see the prerequisite for hell. The prerequisite
for hell is this simple. Believe not the Son.
Believe not the Son. Reject Jesus Christ and
you will go to hell. Most folks reject him. Nothing
brings out animosity like the mentioned or the
following of Jesus Christ. But it doesn't have
to be that way. There's a prerequisite for hell,
believe not the son. There's a prohibition of
hell. Shall not see life. There are no benefits
in unbelief. All the advertising of sin is fraudulent.
Earlier in this chapter, Nicodemus was told that
he could not see the kingdom of God unless he
was born again. Rejecting Christ is hard on that
eyesight. The prohibition of sin, prohibition
of hell, is you will not see life. You have the
prerequisite for hell, the prohibition of hell,
the pain of hell. What is it? The wrath of God.
Anyone's anger you can survive, but not the wrath
of God. We much prefer to think about the love
of God, but reject his beloved son, and you will
incur wrath unlike any wrath you've ever experienced.
If you're mad at me right now, just know that
I'm like the doctor who has the charts, and it
would be unloving for me to say, you're condemned
already and not tell you. It would be really
unloving for me to, Come to this passage and
to skim by this verse and to tell you I'm okay,
you're okay. That would be awful. That's why
we see the permanence of hell in this. It says
the wrath of God abideth or remaineth. The word
abideth means to continue upon a person. Other
texts tell us that hell is for eternity. What
an awful experience for the soul to come. to
inhale and realize that he is to suffer the torments
of hell forever. Hell is a result of the wrath
of God. Christ rejecters will spend eternity
in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone,
it says, that is the second death. But I don't
love talking about hell. The idea that somebody
would go there, I hate that. And that's why I'm
so excited to tell you, he that hath the son,
Hath eternal life. John said it in his epistle
later, if you have the son, you have life. If
you don't have the son, you don't have life.
If you don't have the son, the wrath of God abides
on you. And so, I love this new hymn that we've
been singing. My worth is not in what I own.
It's a great song. And it says in that passage,
and I love this. Two wonders here that I confess
my worth and my unworthiness My value fixed my
ransom paid at the cross You know what Jesus
did about the wrath of God The Bible says he
became sin who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him It says about
Jesus that he became a propitiation for our sins.
The word propitiation, it's a big Bible word.
Here's what it means, a wrath bearing sacrifice.
You know what that means? That on the cross,
see, God doesn't just let sin go, right? If I
were to go to Dave Fawcett and Jan Fawcett's
house. and I were to knock on the door and Dave
opens the door and I run in and I just start
beating up Jan. I'm just, I think I could take
her. And I'm just wailing on her and I'm kicking
her and I take out my pocket knife and I start
stabbing her. That's a gruesome thing, isn't
it, right? And Dave gets me off and I think I
can't take Dave and he would. He would get me
to stop and the police would come. Jen makes
it. I made it so you make it. Are you happy?
Okay. That's better. But I stand before the judge.
There are witnesses. The guilty verdict comes
back and I'm going to jail. If the judge were
to say, you know what? I noticed here that you're
a pastor. And there's a list of things that you
wrote out of all these good deeds that you did.
And so I'll let you go with a warning. What kind
of judge would that be? You'd be a messed up
judge, right? That would be a messed up judge,
right? A good judge doesn't let that grow. You
do the crime, you do the time. Right? And that's
how we think about human justice. So when I say,
well, are you going to heaven? And you say to
me, well, yeah, God's loving and he's forgiving.
So he'll just let me into heaven because I'm
a good person. The truth is none of us are good.
We've all messed up. And here's what Jesus did.
When Jesus went on the cross, God became flesh
and dwelt among us. He was born of a virgin.
He never sinned. He never did anything wrong.
And when he went on the cross, not only did he
have the physical pain of death, but he also
had the wrath of God poured out on him. That's
why on the cross, Jesus says, Eli, Eli, Lama,
Sekhbaktani, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? That's why the sky got dark. And at 12, one,
two, three, it's like nighttime, why? Because
that's the judgment of God. He became sin who
knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. God poured out his wrath on Jesus
so that then He can legally do something. He
can take Jesus's righteousness. And for those
of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus,
he can take Jesus's righteousness and put it
on our account because he took our sin and the
judgment for our sin and he put it on Jesus.
And if God did that for you and you don't acknowledge
it, you don't believe it, there is no other hope
for you. And by the way, church, that's why we
can't be silent. That's why we can't ignore telling
people the brutal reality of where they're at.
If they have the son, hallelujah, they have life.
But if they don't have the son, they don't have
life and the wrath of God abides on them. And
if you know that someone's got a terminal disease,
how much do you have to hate them not to tell
them? We're not better, we're forgiven. He that
hath the Son hath everlasting life. He that hath
not the Son of God, the wrath of God. abideth
on him. Two wonders here, I confess, my worth
and my worthiness, my value fixed, my ransom
paid at the cross. Would you bow your heads and
close your eyes with me?