Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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God’s Love for the World

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

John 3: God So Loved the World

[audio unclear] do these signs that You do unless God is with Him. Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Thou which is born of the flesh is flesh, thou which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you a teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen and you do not receive our witness. I have told you earthly, earthly things, and you do not believe. How you believe if I tell you heavenly things. No one has ascended to heaven, but he who has come down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven, and as Moses lifted up the. Serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, believes in him should not have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the The light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest its deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen, but they have a done in God. We spoke last, a couple weeks ago about the new birth, And the main point I wanted you to understand is that the new birth is not optional. Jesus says, you, we, ye, ye, all, everyone, anyone who is going to enter the kingdom must be born again. Is there any confusion on that point? No. Okay. We need a separate meeting. We need a separate meeting in private. You must be born again. There’s no other way to get into the kingdom. There’s no other way to go to heaven, except the new birth of the Holy Spirit. So it’s not religion, it’s not good works. It’s not the law, it is the blood of Jesus that we receive or believe in, trust in. We rely on, that’s why Jesus talks about faith here. R. We are born again by the Spirit, but we are prompted to faith by the Holy Spirit, and through faith we receive the gift of eternal life. To receive the Spirit is to be changed from the inside out, amen? But when we are born again, we are also changed not only in our condition, we go from death to life, we also are changed in our position. And as we’re gonna see as we look further this passage, Jesus says those who do not believe are condemned already. That’s their position. But if they do believe, then they’re not condemned. They are acquitted or as Paul elaborates in Romans, they are justified. They are declared not guilty. Now, today I wanna talk about a couple things. First, I wanna talk about the love of God. Jesus says in John 3, you have memorized, right? – anybody- anybody want to stand up and quote it real quick? Yeah, go on. There’s more than whoever. There we go. Give them a hand, people. Give them a hand. If we don’t have it memorized, it ought to be memorized, right? Here we’re told that eternal life, that the motive, the prompting for eternal life, lies in the love of God. Octavius Winslow, the well-known Victorian preacher, says this. He says, if one perfection of God shines out in redemption with greater effulgence than any other, it is this. Love is the focus of all the rest, the golden thread that draws and binds them all together in beautiful cohesion. Love was the moving, controlling attribute in God’s great expedient of saving sinners.

It Is God’s Nature to Love

Justice may have demanded it, holiness may have required it, wisdom may have planned it, and power may have executed it. But love originated the whole. It was the moving cause in the heart of God, so that the salvation of the sinner is not so much a manifestation of the justice, holiness, and wisdom or power of God. It is a display of his love. Isn’t that good? Had not God’s love resolved to save man, [audio unclear] employed and displayed in destroying man. Love set its heart upon man, yearned to save man, and resolved to embark in the expedient of his salvation. It, meaning God’s love, did this by conceiving a plan that would harmonize all the other attributes of his nature and engage them in the divine and wondrous work of redeeming mercy. It is not, therefore, without reason and design, that we make the love of God, the concentric, the middle, all the others revolve around, the concentric truth from which we start. So Jesus says here, for God so loved the world. And when we’re talking about the love of God, we have to remember that we’re talking about God. And what I mean by God is specifically the God of the Bible. Now this is important because we live in a pluralistic society, right? So you can say to somebody, believe in God, sure, tell me about your God. It will be very different than your God. So when we say God, when Jesus said God, he was referring to the Old Testament Yahweh or Jehovah, the eternal I am, the creator of the heaven and heaven. He had a very specific God in mind, not a generic philosophical abstract God, but a person called Yahweh. This God, our God if you will, if we are true believers, is a person with particular attributes. And as we contemplate His love, we must contemplate it in light of His other attributes. For example, God is self-existent. And what does this mean? He has no origin. He has life in Himself. He is the origin of all other life. God has always been because it’s not possible for God to be God and not be. You get what I’m saying? Thus His love has no other origin but in Himself, not dependent on any other thing than Himself.

God loves the world because God, it is in God’s nature to do so. I almost said God chose to do so, but I’m not even sure that’s the right way of saying it. God is, is, love the world because God is love, John tells us. Not just that he chose to love, but that he is. It’s his nature. God is also infinite. He has no limits. He has no bounds. Neither does his love. love is infinite and it cannot be enlarged. It cannot be diminished. When we speak of God loving, we’re not talking of something that can shrink. Although we think like this, we Christians especially, even though we believe in an infinite atonement, we still when we fail in sin, we think that God’s love shrinks. We think that God loves us less. God cannot love us any less because God’s love is infinite. It [audio unclear] And we could go through all of God’s wonderful attributes. We think of God’s immutability, which means God does not change. God’s love does not change.

And the most important word in that sentence is God. God loved the world. God loved the world. The self-existent God loved the world. The eternal God loved the world. The immutable God loved the world. The omnipresent God loved the world. So we see the greatness of God’s love by simply contemplating the greatness of God’s character. By looking at God Himself, we see the majesty in the boundlessness, the eternality of God’s love. The greatness of his love is rooted in the greatness of his character. Amen. But then we think about the object of God’s love. It says, for God so loved the good people. Isn’t that what your version says? That’s what it says on his feet, Don’t you don’t it? That was a joke. Just kidding. For God so loved the world. All. An obvious reference to mankind in general. Now some would argue that Jesus teaches that God loves all groups and all classes but not all people.

But Jesus tells us in Matthew, well, let’s turn there, hold your place, we’re gonna come right back to John. Look at Matthew five. In Matthew five, Jesus says in 543, y’all there say yes. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now, it’s astounding that they heard that because when he says you have heard, he’s saying you’ve been taught by the Pharisees. You’ve been taught to hate people. Scary, isn’t it? Scary what religion can do. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Why? That you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he, God, makes his Son to rise on the evil and on the good. Sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brother and only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So this is astounding. When I think of the love of God for the world, the obstacle in my mind is not that God could love everyone. I mean, what does Isaiah tell us? That the nations are a drop in the bucket to God. The nations are nothing. For God to love billions of people, that’s easy, because God is infinite, right? It’s not the quantitative problem, it’s not how many, it’s the qualitative problem. It’s God loving sinners, you see. It’s God loving the unlovable. That’s what boggles the mind. When the word tells us that God loves the world, remember, words hold not to love the world, right? The world’s bad, meaning the world’s system, the sin in the world, the godlessness in the world, the values of the world, the pride of life, the lust of the flesh. John says if you love these things, the love of the Father is not in you. And yet God loves the world, clearly meaning the people in the world, but it’s in spite of their worldliness. To put it another way, God loves sinners.

And this world includes many of them. As a matter of fact, we have a room full here. God’s love is so great that He loves those who hate Him. God loves men even while men love darkness. Here in John 3, Jesus said, for God’s help of the world, but it’s clear as He continues to speak that some of those in the world were not going to love Him in return. They were not going to believe in the sun. But he doesn’t say, God’s going to love those who are going to believe in him. He said, God loved the world and some of those in the world will believe, some of those in the world will not believe, but they were both loved a lot by God. That’s what Jesus was talking about in Matthew when he said, God even loves his enemies. God does not say, turn over a new leaf and I will love you. Clean up your act and I will love you. sinning and I will love you, go to church and I will love you, read your Bible and I will love you, take the sacraments and I will love you, become a good Christian and I will love you. The Bible does not say that. The Bible says, for when we were yet without strength, when we were weak and when we were sick, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly. You know any ungodly people, raise your hand. Good. Well, God loves them. For scarcely for a righteous or a just man, some will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, a kind man, some would even dare to die. But God, in contrast to these, commended or demonstrated or proved his own love toward us and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Please note that the object of God’s love, According to this passage in Romans 5, are the weak, the sick, those without strength. The object of God’s love are the ungodly, those without God, those who are godless. The object of God’s love are sinners and enemies. And all of these terms are used of those that God loves in contrast to those who are just and those who are kind. It was these, the weak, the ungodly, the sinful, the unjust, the unkind, the those who are an enmity with God, who are the object of God’s love. These are the whosoever mentioned in our text in John 3.16. Now it’s easy theoretically to acknowledge this, but the reality is it’s hard to believe this in one’s heart. And you see the ugliness of people up close, you know what I’m saying? And it’s on display regularly in our society. Just turn on the news and watch it for any length of time. Read the papers. Sin abounds, sin abounds, sin abounds. Hatred, vulgarity, immorality of every sort. It abounds, it abounds, it abounds. But what does the Bible tell us? That we’re sin abounded, grace and much more abound. Nothing needs a light like the darkness. And the challenge to believing God’s universal love is the fact that it is so hard for us to love the unlovely.

But it’s not hard for God because God is God. It’s his nature to do so. Now, I know that there are some that would like to limit God’s love to the church or to the elect. So when Jesus said God of the world, he didn’t mean the whole world. He meant some in the world. But the fact of the matter is if, and I’m not going to spend time looking at a bunch of scriptures, but I want to make a simple observation about God’s love as related to that point, is this. If God does not love all, then how do you know that God loves you?

God Loves the World—All of It

Because the Bible doesn’t say God loves Jake. So what is the basis of Jake’s hope? It doesn’t say God loves Hannah. What is the basis of Hannah’s hope? It doesn’t say God loves Sean or Steve or Lauren. It doesn’t say God loves David. I go upon what do I put in my faith. I have no promise, I have no particular promise if I don’t have this promise. If I do not have a God that loves all, then I have no confidence that there’s a God that loves me. You say, wait a minute, well God loves his church and you’re in the church. How do I know I’m in the church? Well, I believe. So, if you think this through, But what you find out is that if you believe that God’s love is limited, then you’re saying your not in the text of Scripture, but it’s rooted in your subjective feeling that you’re one of the chosen. Now we know, Jesus taught us there’s tears amongst the wheat. And this is why you see in the Puritan tradition, which had many high Calvinists, now there’s high Calvinists and there’s what are called moderate Calvinists. I would be probably called a moderate Calvinist. high Calvinists limited God’s love to only some. And what happened was there’s this tradition that grew up in Pur-tinism where, people would spend years attempting to figure out if they really believed. Because if the problem, the teaching of Jesus and other texts would say that God loves all, if it doesn’t really mean all, And how do I know God loves me? Well, you don’t know. You really don’t know. So the offer of the gospel is a universal offer. It’s called the free offer of the gospel. Jesus has come unto me, all you that labor, and I will give you rest. It’s a universal offer. And you are able to say to anyone you share the gospel with, God loves you. You’re able to say that. And if you’re not able to say that, I’m not sure how you’re going to preach the gospel to them.

Now, of course, it’s very obvious Though God loves all, they do not benefit from his love. God distributes his gifts differently. Rhat some are given wealth and some are given poverty and some are given health and some are given sickness and some live in a society like ours where we have all of these freedoms and privileges and some live in terrible societies where they do not have these privileges that we have. have, so God distributes his gifts according to his sovereign will. And that even applies to his gift of salvation. But the atonement of Jesus Christ is not limited in its provision. The blood of Jesus by its very nature is an infinite payment for sin.

For those of you that like to read, anybody here that like to read theology? Here’s a book for you. It’s only 800 pages. Okay, so you can read this and we’ll talk next week when you’re done.

What this book does is it demonstrates that the notion that Jesus’ death was limited only to a few has not only never been the majority opinion of the church, it’s not even the majority opinion in Calvinistic reform circles. It’s not even the view of Calvin. I know that might, it is kind of funny when you think about it. Here’s what Calvin said. He said, to bear the sins means to free those who have sinned from their guilt by this satisfaction.

He says many, meaning all. It is of course certain that not all enjoy the fruits of Christ’s death, but this happens because their unbelief hinders them. That question is now dealt with here because the Apostle is not discussing how few or how many benefit from the death of Christ, but means simply that he died for others, not for himself. He therefore contrasts the many to the one. I was talking about a text from the Gospels, but the point is he says the many means all. And I can give many more quotes. I’ll give you one. Again Calvin talking about Jesus where he said his blood is shed for many. By the word many, he means not a part of the world only, but the whole human race. For he contrasts many with one. And then he goes on, he says, well, you get the point, right? I’ve talked to many people in reform circles and I consider them my brothers in Christ and I would actually refer to myself as reformed, who continually make the mistake that it’s the reformed position. It has never been the reformed position. Now I understand why some people believe in it, but it is misleading to say that because it’s simply not true. And if you read Alan’s book on the extended of the Talmud, you see after reading 800 pages, that’s not really the case. Jesus Christ died for all. He has provided the means by which those who believe will be saved and will receive the eternal life. Jesus says here in John 3, [audio unclear] saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. We see God’s great love by His own intrinsic character, God’s attributes, if you will. We see his love by the fact that he loves the unlovable. Now I really believe that this is a problem for us as Christians. I think that we can not love people because they’re unlovable. Do you know I’m saying? And I think it’s easy to begin to limit God’s love in our mind or Or should I say rather in our heart? We can limit, we come to faith believing God loves everybody then that’s how we’re drawn because we’re part of the everybody. So we come into the kingdom, well if God loves the world he must love me. Right? If we come to Jesus then we get saved because God loves me. And then we think, well if he loved me he must love my unsaved friends. So we share the gospel with our unsaved friends time as we go on in the Christian life, our view of God begins to, as it should get bigger, in reality it begins to shrink. And the focus of our concern becomes glared at God’s great love for the world and becomes more God’s love for the church. And then maybe God’s love for my family. And then maybe God’s love for me. Oh wait, my friends. Then God’s love for me. that we begin to forget about God’s universal love, that very love that brought us into the kingdom. And as we go into holiness, guess what happens? Sin gets more offensive. It gets more distasteful, it gets more disgusting. Not only the sin in our own hearts, but the sin around us. And whereas we lived in sin, but we’re in the world, now we look at the world and we get disgusted. So what do we wanna do? Remember, discuss that we want to draw back. We withdraw. Even worse still, we start to condemn. And yet, what does Jesus say? He said, God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn, but to save, not to condemn. When we look at the world and its ugliness, it’s easy to be repulsed repulsional level. And that’s a challenge to our faith. But the fact that I don’t like somebody’s behavior doesn’t mean God does not love them. Let me say it again. The fact that I am repulsed by somebody’s behavior does not mean God does not love them. That is not the Christian spirit. That’s the pharisaical spirit. That’s what the pharisa- read Luke seven and meditate much on it and what you see. The pharisees despised The woman in Luke seven despised her because she was unclean. Jesus loved her. They were repulsed at her sinfulness. Jesus loved her. And there are people that the church hates that God loves. I’m gonna say it again. There are people the church hates that God loves. It’s true. I hate to say it, but it’s true. Now, I’m not talking about condoning wicked behavior. I think the church should be very clear and prophetic in its annunciation of God’s moral standards. Those moral standards apply not only to the church, they apply universally, and the church should be clear in teaching that. No, amen to them. But that does not mean that therefore if someone breaks God’s law he hates them because God loved us when we were ungodly, when we were sinners, when we were weak, when. We were enemies. The idea of enemies had active hostility toward God. I would rather somebody be hostile than indifferent. I don’t know about you. It’s often to hostile people to get saved. It’s true. Paul’s the perfect example. This guy was rastled, man. He was killing Christians, and he gets saved. It’s the people like, eh, Hamlet remote, you know, I’m not interested. Those are the people that are hard to get a hold of. Let me tell you a little. If we could see, Every human heart, I’m so glad I’m not God, but if we could see every human heart, we would see that every human heart in its natural state is repulsive to God.

That’s why Paul says, we have concluded all, meaning Jew and Gentile, which meant everyone, we have concluded all under sin. We have concluded all are guilty before God. All. and yet, God loves that world. That world. The world that repulses us because of its moral ugliness, that’s the world that God loves. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Pretty amazing. But I’m so glad God loved the world because I was in the world at one point. I was all in the world, not a little bit in. And yet God in his love and mercy loved me a sinner, loved me an enemy, loved me while I was without strength, loved me while I hated him, then I did. And he saved me. It’s amazing. Because of God’s great love, He sent His Son. But I want you to notice something here in John 3, that sees it overlook. In John 3, 16, that verse, it doesn’t say God loved the world, right?

He Gave His Only Begotten Son

It said God so loved the world. He so loved the world. And this is important. Because he is trying to tell us there that he loved the world so much, so much that he would give his son for the world. That’s how much. So we can think about the greatness of God’s love based upon his character. We can think about the greatness of God’s love based upon the moral obstacles it had to overcome that he loves the unlovely, that makes his love amazing to me, but the focus here is that God so loved the world and the greatness of God’s love is revealed by what he gave. So let’s say, hey, Sean, I really love you, so I’m gonna give you a gift. I don’t love you that much. I’m going to give you a couple of certs. I would give them to you, but I want them back. Or I could say, I love you so much, I’m going to give you… Oh, there’s money in there. And I could say, I love you so much, I’m going to give you a dollar. Or I could say, I could give you a $5 bill. I actually have a $10 bill. He wants the book, doesn’t he? And the fact is, if I really loved him, I’d probably give it to him. OK. If you want the book, I’ll give you the book.

You have to promise me you’re going to read it. Witness, witness. Got a witness. All right. Is there a quiz? I do love Sean, by the way. So loved.

And if you knew how much I so loved books, you would know, you would know how hard that was. But let me tell you that illustrates what Jesus is trying to say to us. Do you think the father. Did not so love the son? Right? All of you that are parents, you not love your children? I mean, would you really lay your child on an altar so that your neighbor would be saved? I doubt it. Who do you love most in the world if not your own children, right? So Jesus, when he speaks of giving the son, he is trying to get us to appreciate the depth of God’s love based upon what he gave, the value of what he gave. And the Father loves the Son in ways that we will never fully comprehend. Because Jesus is all perfect and all beautiful. Jesus is the fairest amongst 10,000. He is the choice one, the elect one, the beloved one of God. And there’s nothing in Jesus that could in any way hinder the love of God. God loves the Son more than we love our own children. Infinitely more. Yet he was willing to give that gift for us. That’s what John means when he says so loved. He doesn’t say for God so loved the world that he saved some of them. That’s not the point. The point is the value of the gift that he gave shows the depth of his love There was nothing more valuable than God could have given Are you hearing me? There was nothing more valuable than the life of his son I mean think about your own children Is there anything more valuable than children if you had to say okay? I can a house if I sacrifice my kid No, you wouldn’t do it. You wouldn’t do it.

Are we greater than God? Do we have more love in our hearts for our children than God had for his own son? Of course not. God’s love for the world is displayed by the value of of the gift he gave which is Jesus and Jesus was and is and ever shall be priceless. There is no greater gift because there’s nothing of more moral spiritual perfection than Jesus. Now, I could share a whole lot more, but let me just conclude with this.

This passage says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus says that God sent His Son not to condemn the world, not to condemn the world, but to save the world, right? But He says it’s contingent on believing in the Son. Believing. Now, let me go back to Shawn and use him again. So, he went, see, he grabbed the book, he’s smart. No, I just wanna illustrate something. I’m not taking it back, Because I believe in the perseverance of the saints. So you get the right. So, so, so a valuable gift right here. Okay. Offered to Roshan. What did Roshan do? Why? He took it. Why did he take it? Because he believed that the offer was sincere and he wanted it. Well, it’s true. He wanted it and he thought it was sincere, right? So it’s offered and it’s taken. That’s faith. And he said, well, you don’t really mean that you’re just doing that because everybody’s looking at you, you’re feeling guilty like you should offer to me. So I’m not taking it. Well, then he didn’t believe the offer was sincere. Or maybe he hates theology and doesn’t want to read it. So he wouldn’t take it. There’s a lot of, you know, it could be a lot of reasons, but the point is he believed the offer was sincere and he wanted what was offered. That’s faith. So Jesus says that God gave the Son, the Son comes to the world, the Son dies for the world not to condemn the world but to save the world. But he says you have to believe. In other words, you have to take what is offered. You have to take the Son. That’s what faith is. Faith is taking the Son. It is receiving the Son. It is believing in the Son. It is trusting the Son. those words will do. But you have to believe the offer is sincere. You have to believe the offer is valuable. Now I heard the gospel for, I don’t know about you, I heard the gospel probably for about a year before I received Christ and looking back after I became, after I came to Christ I realized that the offer, I didn’t think it wasn’t sincere. That wasn’t my problem. My problem was that I didn’t I didn’t want it. You get what I’m saying? In other words, I didn’t appreciate the value of it. And so, although it was offered to me, I was like, that’s cool, but I didn’t want it. I didn’t see my need. I had no desire for it. So, I didn’t receive it. Until eventually, eventually, I did. I believe the offer was sincere, and then at one point, I realized that the offer was what I needed. I don’t know if I’d say I wanted it, but I certainly realized I needed it. Because I realized that without Christ, I was heading toward destruction. I realized that without Christ, that I was already under, as Jesus says, under condemnation. And so, I’d already believed the offer was sincere, and now I not only believed that, but now I realized I wanted it, and I needed it, and I received Christ. Jesus says some believe, but some do not believe, that men turn away because they love darkness.

But the amazing thing to me is if you will share the gospel with people on a regular basis, what you will realize is you will be really surprised at those that respond positively and those who respond negatively. You will be really surprised. And as you talk to people, it’s easy to make all kinds of prejudgments about people, right? Well, that person would never come to church with me. That person would never engage in a conversation about God with me. And then you think, well, this guy, he’s a pretty good guy. He’d probably talk to me. Well, then you find out it’s actually in reality just the opposite. And sometimes it’s the moral people that are the most hostile. And it’s the people that maybe you find most offensive or you think you’re going to be most hostile to be the most open. You just never know. And the only way you will know is to share the gospel. To actually share the gospel with people. Now we gave out, how many of these last week? Is that all we gave out? How many did you give out this week? One? I couldn’t see your finger. You said one? All right. Two? That’s three. Four? 4, 5. Okay, so out of 200, we gave out 5. Is that a good percentage? I’m just asking. What percentage is that I’m not good with numbers. Ha! Sean, the mathematician. No. I gave one out the other day, so that’s 5. So I was at 6. So five out of a hundred would have been five percent, is that correct? So five out of two hundred would be two and a half percent. Good word Sean, low. There was a song in one song, there was a line in one of the songs we did today.

It’s referred to as the spotless Lamb for every sinner slain. You see the fact that we took 200 of these and only gave out five tells me that we’re shrinking the love of God. We’re shrinking the love of God. And when you leave today, if you go out to lunch you’re gonna meet people, restaurant, you have waitresses there, and by the time When you get there, it’ll be easy to forget that God loves them. Maybe they’re going to ballet today, or you’re going to basketball, or you’re going to the gym for this or that, and the people you see, God loves them. If truly the spotless land for every sinner’s flame, if truly, right?

We Are the Mouth of Jesus

So the, for us to believe in God’s love for the world. I mean, do we believe it? I mean, do we really believe it? Or do we just believe God loves us and our clan and our tribe and our religion? Well, God loves the world, Jesus said. Amen.

And the way that he communicates to the world besides his convicting work of the Spirit is through his people, his church. We are the mouth of Jesus. We’re the mouth of Jesus. [audio unclear] Then he spoke. I got saved. I got saved, I spoke. Other people have gotten saved. That’s how it works. It’s really not complicated. God’s method, read to the book of Acts, God’s method for telling people his love is for those who have received his love to then communicate his love. Do you believe God loves you? Raise your hand. Okay, then if you believe God loves you, then you’re saying whether you realize it or not that God loves the world. But if you really believe that, then you need to begin telling people about God’s great love. Begin to share with them. Let me ask you this. If you gave out one of these every week for a year, how many would you give out? Okay, well let’s just say 50 because I’m like going numbers. I’ll give you two weeks off. So no, I want you to think about this seriously. You could share, now just giving this to somebody isn’t really witnessing, in a way it is. When I use the word witnessing, I like the idea that you’re actually conversing with people. You’re helping them understand the gospel. But even if you weren’t doing that, if you gave out one a week, you would have given up, that means that 50 people had the gospel in their hands at least, right? I did the other one every week rounding it off to 50 What number is it if 50 people did that I? Don’t I’m I really don’t know because I’m like good with numbers 2500 there are 50 50 people in this room if every person this room would gave out one of these a week 2,500 people in one year would have the gospel in their hands. Does that blow your mind? It blows my mind. 2,500 people could have the gospel in their hands. Now let, let giving out one gospel a week really isn’t radical. Imagine if you gave out one a day.

Let’s round that off. Five days a week. So whoever’s really good at numbers, tell me what happens if one person gives out one of these five days a week for 50 weeks. You’re pulling your calculators out, aren’t you? I can’t hear you. 250? 260. 260, one person would give out 260. [audio unclear] repeatedly over the past couple months, the gospel is not the problem because the word of God says the gospel is powerful to save. Right? It is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel still saves. Still saves just like it saved you. Still saves. Even in America, it still saves. Even your neighbors, it still saves. Even your coworkers, it still saves. But as Paul said, how will they believe without a preacher?

How will they believe without a preacher? Meaning, no, they won’t. People can’t believe a gospel they have never heard or they’ve never read, right? Can you give one person a week a gospel of John? Is that something that’s realistic for you to do? Maybe at the gas station, the grocery store, the quick trip, work, the gym, I mean when you think about it, I’m asking can you do that, yes or no? You can do that, I mean it’s possible for you to do that. So if one person gives out one, that’s 50, right? well then if you can do that, then why don’t you do that? Really, why don’t you do that? I’m not asking that question as a like a guilt thing. I’m like, why don’t you do that?

Well, we don’t do it because we’re thinking about everything else other than the fact that we’re around lost people who who God loves. We’re very self-absorbed. When I I say we, I mean the evangelical church in America is about itself. Okay. Yeah, we lose focus. Now, I’m not saying that self-focus is important for growth or that family focus is important for parenting. No, it’s about balance, right? It’s about balancing the fact that yes, God loves you and God’s were trying to clean you up and he’s sanctifying you, and yes, he wants you to raise your kids in the faith. That’s all true, but that’s not everything that’s true. And we have to be careful of inadvertently shrinking the love of God to our tribe, our clan, our lives.

Not realizing that the people all around us, who don’t know Christ, are the object of God’s love and compassion. But they’re not gonna know that if we don’t tell them. At least one amen, maybe? We have to tell them. The gospel’s been entrusted to us. So, 50 people, about one a week, that’s 2,500. That’s a lot. Now, if you’re just gonna go out and pass these out like crazy, do it, great, God will use it, I believe God. That’s how my brother got saved, so we just pass, didn’t say a word to him, didn’t say a word, he got saved. But it’s even better that you use things like this to begin conversations with people, to have dialogue with people, to help them understand the gospel. And every one of us knows people that need Jesus, amen? We all do. So we, we are the ones that need to share with them God’s love, the great love that we have received because we were in the world at one point like they were in the world. But we believed the message that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him, Even that terrible, terrible neighbor you have. Even that coworker in the cubicle next you that you can’t stand. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. It’s an astounding message. Astounding. Let us not be the limitation on God’s love.

Let us not be the reason that the unsaved have never heard of God’s love. Amen? Let’s stand and pray. Lord, I thank you that you have sent your son. Lord, we need more and more to understand what that little word so really means. We need to understand, Lord, the greatness of your Son, the glory of your Son, the beauty of your Son, the Son that you gave for us. I pray, Lord, that as we Christians who know you, that as we read your word and as we pray and as we hear the word taught and as we fellowship that we would grow in our knowledge and understanding and love for you, our appreciation for the fact that you sow the Lord remind us regularly that you so loved, not just the church, Lord, as this text says, you so loved the world. And that each of us has been placed in the world in a strategic place, a missionary post for each one of us to share your love, share your gospel with those that are still in the world. I pray Lord Jesus that you would empower and prompt and move all of us to share your love with those in the world. That they might truly believe that they might not perish but that they might have eternal life. Lord, remind us lastly what a grand privilege it is to know you but then to be able to speak for you. What a grand privilege it is to be able to tell people good news and not bad news.

Make us, Lord, a people who, as Paul said, “I have believed, therefore I speak.”

We ask it for Jesus’ glory. We pray in his name. Amen.