John 3:25-36

[0:00] Good morning. Good morning. Oh, flip with me to the New Testament. I'm finally going to preach out of the New Testament again. The past few times I've preached has been out of the Old Testament.

[0:14] That's alright, it's all about Jesus. And the Gospel of John in chapter 3. And then we've been in the adult Sunday school class the past year and a half in the Gospel of John.

[0:30] I told Missy when I felt like this is where I was going to be preaching from this morning. I was like, that's alright. I just hope I'm not wearing people out with John.

[0:42] There's a lot of good stuff in that Gospel as well as the other Gospels. Here in John 3, all of us know John 3.16. That's not where we're going to be reading from this morning.

[0:55] But that's been called the most central verse in all of Scripture. It's been called a verse that all of Scripture and all of the Gospel could be hinsed upon that one verse.

[1:09] And I, to a degree, can agree with that statement. All kinds of things have been said about John 3.16. But leading up to John 3, we have the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

[1:26] In John chapter 1, not necessarily that, but we do see the baptism. We see the calling of the disciples of Jesus Christ. In John chapter 2, we see the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

[1:40] According to John's account, when he turns the water into wine at the wedding of Canaan, we see all these things happen. John chapter 3 is the most famously known for the conversation that Jesus Christ had with a Pharisee named Nicodemus.

[1:58] And that's where we find John 3.16. Jesus speaks those words himself to Nicodemus there, this Pharisee that came to Jesus Christ by night. And said to him, he said, we know that you're coming from God.

[2:10] For only one come from God would be able to do these things that you're doing. And Christ told him twice that you must be born again. And he told him once and he told him again, Marvel not that I said unto you that you must be born again.

[2:25] And folks, that has not changed one eye out in 2000 years. If we are to have salvation, if we are to have a right relationship with God, if we are to be made right with God and be reconciled unto him, we must be born again.

[2:41] So that has not changed one bit where I'm going to be picking up preaching from us towards the end of this chapter. After this conversation with Nicodemus where Jesus Christ lays things out for Nicodemus very plainly, lays the gospel out for Nicodemus.

[2:59] And he tells him, he tells him the gospel to this man, to this Pharisee, to this religious person there. And then towards the end of the chapter, he says to Christ and his disciples, they went into Judea to baptize people.

[3:16] And John was at another place called Aenon and he was baptizing people. And so that in a very small condensed nutshell brings us up to speed with where we'll pick up our reading from.

[3:28] So John in chapter 3 beginning at verse 25 says, Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.

[3:39] And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizer, and all men come to him.

[3:51] John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the cross, but that I am sent before him.

[4:05] He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled.

[4:19] He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth.

[4:30] He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard he testifyeth. And no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.

[4:46] For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things unto his hand.

[5:00] He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

[5:13] And really and truly our concentration this morning will probably be there in verse 36. Like I said, a lot of people have said that John 3.16, the entirety of Scripture in the Gospel can be hinged on John 3.16.

[5:30] And again, to an extent I agree with that. But I believe John 3.36 comes in a close second to that. But anyway, we'll begin back at verse 25 again.

[5:43] But it says, then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold the same baptizer.

[5:58] And all men come to him. And John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven. So these folks that come to John and they tell him that this person that you are testifying of, which this person would have been Jesus Christ.

[6:18] We can read much in the previous chapters of this Gospel about John the Baptist testimony of Jesus Christ. The important thing to see here in these verses is that John understood his role.

[6:31] John understood whom he was. John understood that he was the forerunner to Jesus Christ. He was not the Messiah. And he told the people previous to this and he tells them again here that he is not the Messiah.

[6:47] He is the one, as Isaiah prophesied, hundreds of years before. He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness. John understood his role. John understood that he was the one to announce the coming of Jesus Christ.

[7:01] He was the one to make the way plain, make the way clear, make the way understandable. That Jesus Christ at the Messiah that God Almighty had promised in the Old Testament Scriptures, he had indeed stepped in on the scene.

[7:17] Jesus Christ at this point would have been about 30 years of age. We learned that from the Gospel of Luke, but this was toward the very beginning of his ministry here.

[7:28] But these disciples and these people, they come under John the Baptist and they say, there's some coming to this man and there's more coming under him than are coming to you now. And John tells them very plainly, he says, there is nothing good that can come down.

[7:44] There is nothing that we can have. There is no blessing that we can have except that it come from heaven. Except that it come from God above. John already saying what James would wrap years later when James said, every good and perfect gift coming down from the Father of life.

[8:02] John the Baptist already had an understanding of that thing, of an understanding of that concept that anything good that came down, it could only be from Almighty God when these people came to John.

[8:16] And they said there's more people going to Jesus than there are to you. This had the potential of stirring up strife. This had the potential of stirring up anger and envy and jealousy.

[8:30] But John knew his role. He knew his role as the forerunner of trust and because he was mature in his belief. He was mature in his faith and he knew the role.

[8:44] He did not let it bother him. Instead he said any good thing that's coming down is coming from God. And this was a good thing. In other words, what John was saying, it's a wonderful thing that more people are flocking to this Christ than are flocking to me.

[9:02] John's entire ministry seemed to be, or it was, on pointing people to Jesus. But his ministry was on repentance and his ministry was on baptism.

[9:13] Jesus Christ was the one that John the Baptist's entire ministry pointed to, the one who was able to spiritually clean. All John could do was point them to Christ.

[9:26] All he could do was say, this is the one. This is the way. This is the truth and the life. This is the way. This is the one that I have been sent to announce to you. This is the one that I said I'm unworthy to unletch his shoe lace.

[9:42] I'm unworthy to do anything. I cannot say to you, but this one that the people are flocking to is able to do so. Hallelujah.

[9:53] So, in a lot fewer words, that's what John was saying to these people. When he said what he did, a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven.

[10:06] Dear Christians, let me remind you, you don't deserve salvation. And you wouldn't have salvation if it weren't given you from heaven above. You've done nothing to earn your salvation.

[10:19] You've done nothing to marry your salvation. You couldn't do enough good deeds. You couldn't feed enough hungry mouths. And you couldn't blow enough naked bodies to earn your way into heaven.

[10:30] This was a good thing that Almighty God in his graciousness and God in his compassion and God in his mercy have us to bestowed upon you and upon everyone that has believed the gospel and repented of their ways.

[10:44] Anyone that has salvation, it is a gift of God. It is not of works, lest any mention both as Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus.

[10:55] It is a gift of God. It is a perfect gift of God. It is a wonderful gift of God. We can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven verse 28.

[11:08] You're so bear me witness that I said I am not the cross. John here reiterated the fact that he is not the cross. And he said, you just said yourselves, you're bearing me witness that I am not the cross, but that I am sent before him.

[11:23] But he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom which Stendathan here with him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice, this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

[11:39] Folks in Jewish tradition, the way that the marriages were arranged, the way that the wedding day came to be, it was the friend of the bridegroom or what we would refer to as the best man.

[11:54] It was his responsibility to get the things together. It was his responsibility to make sure that the bride was coming. It was his responsibility to make sure that the bride's maize were going to be there.

[12:06] It was his responsibility if we want to fast forward into our times. He's the one that would have been calling the tuck store. He's the one that would have been getting the flowers ready. He's the one that would have been getting the cake ready and delivered and all these other things.

[12:19] It was the friend of the bridegroom that done these things. But the bride did not belong to the friend of the bridegroom. The bride was for the bridegroom himself and the joy for the friend of the bridegroom was in the communion of the bride and the bridegroom.

[12:38] This is what John is saying here and it's a beautiful analogy that he is using here in this scenario that he is giving of the bride and the bridegroom and the friend of the bridegroom rejoicing when he hears the bridegroom's voice.

[12:57] John would have known something about this. John would have known something about this. Did he not leap in Elizabeth's womb when he heard Mary's voice knowing that the Savior was there?

[13:12] He may not have remembered that. He was still in the womb when that happened. But did he not leap in the presence of Jesus Christ in his mother's womb? He rejoiced in that presence.

[13:25] I guarantee you Elizabeth passed that on to John. She wouldn't let that go. That's neither here nor there. John says in verse 30, he must increase, but I must decrease.

[13:38] Dear Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ, this applies just as much to us as it did to the forerunner of Jesus Christ within these pages and within this passage of Scripture that we are reading now.

[13:54] He must increase, but I must decrease. This is something that I would like to preach to a room full of pastors and preachers, a room full of evangelists and deacons and teachers.

[14:06] He must increase, but in order for that to happen, we must decrease. It's not that we're anything and it's not that we can knock Jesus Christ out of the way. Jesus Christ is just as all-powerful now as he was back then.

[14:20] He is just as all-powerful now as he was at the beginning of time. He has always been all-powerful and he always will be all-powerful.

[14:31] But when we are presenting the gospel to a lost world, if we have increased ourselves in our own mind and we have increased ourselves to that crowd or to that individual, whatever the case may be, if we have increased ourselves, it is impossible for us to increase Christ.

[14:50] But when we decrease ourselves, just as John the Baptist did here in these Scriptures, just as he did, remember these folks came to him and they said, there's more folks going to Jesus Christ than there are to you.

[15:03] And John thought that was a wonderful thing. Hey, folks, when I see a preacher with a successful ministry, when I see a preacher that is glorifying Jesus Christ and his congregation is glorifying Jesus Christ, I hope that it grows.

[15:18] I hope that it prospers. I hope that it continues on. I don't wish hell against him. I'm not jealous of him. I'm not envious of him. I wish the best for him.

[15:30] Jealousy has no place in a situation like that. And John knew that he must increase, but I must decrease.

[15:42] Folks, Jesus Christ, the very light of the world, turn over to John chapter one, you can read about that, as well as other places throughout the Gospel of John. But the very light of the world, the very light of men, he was rising at this point.

[16:00] At this point, he was rising. Now he is arisen and the Gospel of God is in full view. But he was rising at this point. Again, this was toward the beginning of Christ's ministry.

[16:13] John had been baptizing people. John came out of the wilderness in Matthew chapter three, preaching repent. Christ came out in Matthew chapter four, preaching the same message, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[16:27] Repent, repent, repent. This is the message that John the Baptist had been preaching. But he saw that his time was dwindling. He saw that his time to shine, it was going down.

[16:38] And in order for Christ to shine brighter, John the Baptist had to decrease. In order for Christ to shine brighter, John the Baptist had to decrease. And he understood this as part of his role.

[16:52] It would do us good as Christians to learn from John the Baptist. Folks, if we are wrapped up in our pride, and we are wrapped up in ourselves, if we are wrapped up, there is nothing wrong with shaking the preacher's hand, there is nothing wrong with batting the preacher, saying good message, I enjoyed that.

[17:10] Nothing wrong with that. But when the preacher gets wrapped up in that, when the preacher expects it, when the preacher gets the attitude of, I can't believe more people didn't commend me on that message, Christ is not being glorified in that.

[17:25] Christ is, they could have got up and preached the gospel gun barrel straight and preached it till they were blue in the face. But if the preacher is preaching with that type of attitude, or hey, lay members, if you are presenting the gospel to a lost family member, or anyone else, someone on the street, and you have that attitude of, I'm saved and you're not, I'm more special than what you are, God and Christ will not be glorified in there.

[17:51] From the ministry where Christ is glorified. That's what I want. That's the whole reason Christ saved me. That's the whole reason God made a way for salvation. It wasn't because I deserved it, it wasn't because I was a good boy, it wasn't because you were a good boy or a good girl.

[18:06] God saves souls to glorify himself. God saves souls to bring him glory. God looks down on unworthy sinners. He looks down on the wretched. He looks down on the drunkard, on the pillhead, on the prostitute.

[18:20] He looks down on the liar, and the thief, and the murderer. And he has pity and shows mercy on them for his glory. Not because they deserve it.

[18:32] I didn't get it because I deserved it. I can name off a whole list of reasons. I deserve salvation. But God looked down on me.

[18:45] And he redeemed me. He redeemed me a lost soul. He redeemed me someone that denied him, denied his word, denied his work, denied Jesus Christ.

[18:58] And he redeemed me. And for him to increase, I must decrease. And I will gladly decrease to the glory of God.

[19:09] I will gladly decrease to the glory of my Savior. And that's the position that every saved individual should take. Decrease that God may increase.

[19:22] And praise God that he redeemed my soul. Verse 31, He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaking of the earth.

[19:34] He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies. And no man receiveth his testimony. John the Baptist here is saying that Christ had come from heaven.

[19:48] And what he is testifying of, what Christ is speaking of, and the things that he's taught and will teach on into the future. He's saying he came from heaven, therefore his authority came from heaven.

[20:02] Therefore his wisdom came from heaven. His wisdom came directly from God. Anything that Christ spoke, that is the thoughts and the very hearts of God.

[20:14] They say people didn't receive his testimony. Folks, when we testify of Christ, and we're trying to lead a lost loved one or anyone else to Christ, when we're trying to present the gospel to them, and they reject it, they had God Himself testifying of the things of God with perfect wisdom and with perfect knowledge.

[20:43] And they reject it here. What makes us think that they're going to believe us every time that we present the gospel? Folks, we can't make them do it. We can't make them believe.

[20:55] We can't make them accept. We can't make them repent of their ways and believe the gospel. We can't make them do any of these things. But we have a commission given unto us by Jesus Christ to go into all the world and to preach the gospel unto every living creature.

[21:13] We have a commission of Jesus Christ. He didn't say that we'd all be saved. He didn't say that we'd all fall on their face and repentance and turn to Him. But He said, go preach the gospel.

[21:26] Leave the results up to Him. Leave the results of that up to Him. We'll get to those results here momentarily. No man received it. His testimony. What a sad statement.

[21:39] That God Himself, testifying of Himself and testifying of His own goodness and of His own mercy. God Himself was rejected by the people.

[21:51] You know what? You know what one of the main reasons for it was? We read in the very beginning of this passage that there were some people, there were some Pharisees that got with John's disciples and they were talking about what?

[22:05] Purification. They were so wrapped up in ceremonial cleansing. And folks, ceremonial cleansing will do us no good. I don't know who here is saved and who here is lost.

[22:18] I don't know your heart, but God does. And some people say God knows my heart, like that's to their advantage. I assure you that it's not. The Bible says the heart is receptive above all things and desperately wicked.

[22:32] Who can know it? I don't know who's saved and who's not. But I can tell you now, you can be ceremonial clean all you want to.

[22:43] And it'll not do you one bit of eternal good. You can come to church, you can dress up in a shirt and a tie, you can look nice, you can shower up in on perfume or cologne, or whatever the case is.

[22:54] You can come however you want to, you can make yourself sparkle, you can make yourself look handsome or pretty, or whatever the case is. But that is the equivalent of being ceremonially clean, and that will do you no heavenly good.

[23:09] God is not above putting a check mark next to your name, saying he dressed well for this church service. He didn't dress well for this one. You're not getting smiley faces, you're not getting stars.

[23:22] What you've done with the gospel is what counts. What you have done with the gospel is all that will matter when the end of the way has come.

[23:33] Amen, man. Verse 33, He that has received His testimony has set to His seal that God is true. He that has received His testimony, received whose testimony?

[23:47] Received the testimony of Jesus Christ. He who has received the testimony that Jesus Christ is in fact the Son of God, as Peter so wonderfully stated when Christ looked at the disciples and said, Who do men say that I am?

[24:02] And they said, Some say that you're a logist, Some say that you're a prophet, Some say that you're this one, And that you're that one. He says, But who do ye say that I am? And Peter stepped up and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, those that have named Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God, those that have truly believed in Him, and in the fact of His Godhood, in the fact that He is God, in the fact that He came, laid down His life, or ransom for many those that they believe that He bled and died on behalf of them, and He has washed them clean of their sin.

[24:42] Those are the ones that we're talking about here. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He says, He that has received His testimony has set to His seal. That God is true.

[24:55] To receive the testimony of Jesus Christ, to truly receive it, not to believe it as far as intellectual ascension goes, there's plenty of people like that.

[25:09] But to truly receive it and truly believe it, they believe that Christ is true, therefore they believe that God is true, according to what we're reading here.

[25:21] In this verse, He said to His seal that God is true, for He whom God has sent, speak of the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him, He whom God has sent, Christ is whom God has sent, Christ sent God into the world.

[25:40] Christ said to Nicodemus just a little while previous, in the same chapter, He said that He had not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He had came into the world because He was sent by God.

[25:54] He was sent by God to redeem the world. He was sent by God to be the propitiation. He was sent by God to be the ultimate sacrifice and the ultimate atonement for sin that there would never be another sacrifice needed, nor would there ever be another that was available.

[26:12] Cross came for these reasons, for whom God has sent, speak of the words of God, God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.

[26:24] Folks, the prophets of the Old Testament, because remember, we're reading the New Testament. It was in play at this point. The prophets of the Old Testament, some of the kings of the Old Testament, Moses, Abraham, Noah, any of these men, they were dealt the Spirit, they were dealt in a measure.

[26:47] The Bible here says that the Spirit was cross without measure. Without measure. That's why, I mean, not only is He God, we just know how perfect God is, because the Scripture tells us that, that He's omnipotent, that He's omnipresent, that He's omniscient.

[27:06] We know that He is perfect, but this perfect man, God, this perfect God-man that we have here in the Scriptures, dealt the Spirit without measure.

[27:20] That affirms to us that the words that He spoke are true, that the words that He spoke were from heaven, that the words that He spoke were from God, and they carried the weight of eternity with them.

[27:37] Praise God. Verse 35, The Father loveth the Son, hath given all things into His hand. The Father loveth the Son, hath given all things into His hand.

[27:48] We read this at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus says, all things that are given to me in heaven and in earth, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. It was all given to Christ.

[28:01] God has entrusted Jesus Christ with this power. He's got the power to redeem. He's got the power to save. He's got the power to convict. He's got the power to help.

[28:12] He's got the power to comfort. He's got the power to heal. All of these things are given unto my Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, I have no worries about my life.

[28:23] I take no thought for the moral because all power and all things are in His able hands. Hallelujah. It's all been given.

[28:34] Under Christ, it was given unto very able and capable hands. The Father loveth the Son, hath given all things into His hand. Then we have this verse, verse 36.

[28:47] He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth on him.

[28:58] Folks, this verse contains really truly the very essence of the Gospel. He that believeth has life.

[29:10] He that believeth has life for you again. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. These words, Jesus Christ is speaking himself. That word hath that is in the perfect hands, which means forever.

[29:24] It means perpetual. It means it's continual. It goes on. Folks, I don't have to wait for a future event to have eternal life and to have everlasting life. Everlasting life and eternal life was given to me 15 plus years ago when God reached down and saved my soul.

[29:43] He redeemed me. He picked me up out of the manor he played, set my feet upon a solid rock and foundation and established my goings. Hallelujah.

[29:55] Eternal life has been my sense. I don't have to wait on it. It's mine. Salvation is given in three different tenses in the entirety of Scripture.

[30:07] We have been saved that's past tense. We are being saved that's present tense. And we shall be saved. That's future tense. That is to everyone who has believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and repented of their sin.

[30:23] We have been saved. Christ saved me 15 years ago. I'm being saved right now. Not only am I being saved, I'm being sanctified.

[30:34] I'm continually being consecrated, consecrated by God for His service. And I shall be saved in one glorious event somewhere out there in the future. I shall be saved and I shall be with my Lord forever and forever and forever.

[30:50] This everlasting life has granted me now, it was granted me then, and it is granted me in the future. Hallelujah. He that believed in the Son, had everlasting life.

[31:03] Praise the Lord. He that believed, but the thing is, do you truly believe? Do you believe? Not only do you truly believe, do you believe the right Christ?

[31:15] Do you believe the right Savior? Because the world has come up with many Christs. The world has come up with many a Savior. I want to tell you right now again, I don't know who's here saved and who is here lost, but the Christ of the Bible is the only Christ that we can depend on.

[31:33] He is the only Christ that we can trust in, and He is the only Christ with the power to save. If you're putting your trust in the Christ, it just allows you to go off your way, do whatever you want to, act however you want to, talk however you want to, do whatever you want to with whomever you want to, that's not the Christ of the Bible.

[31:54] That is not the Christ of the Bible, for the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new, when you have become a new creature, you do new things, you talk a new talk, you walk a new walk, and you don't go to the places that you once went to.

[32:15] Hallelujah. If you had no change, you didn't have salvation, there's no change in your life, there's no salvation that took place.

[32:26] He the Believer, He the Believer on the Son hath everlasting life. This Nicodemus, previous in this chapter, was a religious man.

[32:38] He was oozing with religion. He knew the Torah, the Old Testament front, frontwards and backwards. He knew it sideways, he knew it diagonally.

[32:50] He knew the Old Testament law, he knew the Old Testament scriptures, he dressed in the garb of his day, he acted in the ways that he should act, but folks he still was not saved.

[33:01] Amen. But I believe that he believed, according to the Gospel accounts, and I may be not immediately there in John chapter 3, according to a couple of other accounts we have of Nicodemus throughout the scriptures, and particularly the Gospel of John.

[33:17] I believe that he believed. But we've got him as a religious person. Folks, religion will get you nowhere but hell. That is the only place that religion will take you.

[33:32] We need a relationship with Jesus Christ. To believe on Jesus Christ is to believe that he created you for his glory. And you believe in the person of Jesus Christ.

[33:43] You believe in the works of Jesus Christ that he has performed, and you believe in the work that he is performing right now as far as being a mediator and advocate for all of those who believe.

[33:56] He that believed was on the Son, hath everlasting life. Hallelujah. Flip over, you don't have to, but flip over one chapter.

[34:08] To chapter 4 of John, you'll see a woman from Samaria at a well. She lived a rather, rather bad lifestyle, we'll say.

[34:22] And everybody in town knew it. Everybody knew the lifestyle she lived, including Jesus Christ. Don't look at Christ, dear lost friend, if you're here today, don't look at Christ and say I've sinned too much.

[34:38] Don't look at Christ and say you can't help me. Don't look at Christ and say I've sinned too much for you to wash that much off of me and that much away from me.

[34:51] If he could save that woman there at the well in Samaria, and if he could save Saul of Tarsus, who was on his way to Damascus to have Christians arrested and the persecute them, have them jailed and murdered and killed.

[35:07] If he could save those, who makes you think he can't save you? It's the very purpose that he came. I understand 1 John says that Jesus Christ came into the world to destroy the works of the devil.

[35:19] Praise God, Paul wrote to Timothy. He said this is a faithful saying, worthy of all the acceptations that cross Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If you recognize that you are a sinner and in need of salvation, believe on this Jesus that I preach to you now.

[35:37] Believe the words of this Bible that we say to you now. That you may be a sinner, you may be wretched, you may be evil, you may be filthy, but God is a wonderful, powerful, merciful, compassionate, able and willing Savior.

[35:55] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That's the God that saved my soul. That's a God that can save you. The Bible says not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[36:10] That includes you, lost friend. That includes you, he that believed with on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believed with not the Son shall not see life.

[36:23] It's plain black and white. There's no purgatory. There's no midtown. There's no halfway point.

[36:34] If you believe the Son you have everlasting life, if you believe not the Son, you shall not see life. What does that convey unto us that those that have not the Son still haven't seen life?

[36:48] Ephesians 2 describes us before we're saved as being dead in trespasses and sin. It also describes us as children of wrath before we're saved.

[37:02] And of disobedience. Disobedience to what? Disobedience to God, our maker, and our creator. Disobedience to the law. Disobedience to the ways of God, and the things of God.

[37:15] Those that are lost are in darkness yet. Christ, the Son, was rising at this point. He was rising at this point this early in the Gospel, this early in His ministry.

[37:29] The Son was rising, and it was shining on the lives and the hearts of everyone around it. Christ was doing this. Christ was shining upon these people.

[37:41] He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Shall not see life. If you do not believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you shall not see life, period.

[37:57] You are condemned to forever, to forever burn in a place called hell. You are condemned to suffer the wrath of Almighty God, forever and ever.

[38:12] Hell is not a place where you go to for just a little while, and then you disappear off into eternity like some other people teach. It is not a place that you go to, and you spend a number of years, or a number of months, or weeks, or whatever, and then you float off into eternity somewhere.

[38:30] The Bible describes it as eternal punishment. Daniel chapter 12 says that there will come a day when those that are asleep in the dust will rise, some of them to have life everlasting, and some of them to shame, and everlasting contempt.

[38:47] Everlasting means everlasting. I promise you, I promise you, if he that believed in the Son had everlasting life, if God can give everlasting life, he can also make it so, and has made it so, that everlasting punishment is just as possible.

[39:09] This is the God that I serve. I am not trying to scare anybody into salvation. I am just telling you what the consequences of the rejection of the Son of God are, and the consequences are grave.

[39:26] Folks, this verse holds the entire gospel within it. If you believe you have life, if you don't, you have death. The Bible describes it in the book of Revelation as the second death, and just because it describes it as a death doesn't mean that you will eventually die.

[39:44] You will die forever, and forever, and forever. You will continually die. You will perpetually die. It will never stop. The Bible describes it as a place of outer darkness, a place of wheat, man, whaling, and gnashing your teeth.

[39:59] It describes it as a bottomless pit. It describes it as a lake of fire. It describes it in many different ways. Either way, it's a place I won't know part of, and God redeemed my soul, and I don't have to go there.

[40:12] And if you are here lost without the Son, you are here lost without Jesus Christ, I promise you that doesn't mean that you are without hope. You can have the same hope that I have Peter said to be ready always to give a reason for the hope that lies within me and within you that saves brothers and sisters in Christ.

[40:31] I give you the reason that God is good, and God is gracious, and God is able, and wants to save lost souls. Hallelujah.

[40:42] He didn't believe it on the Son, he was left everlasting life, and he that believed with not the Son shall not see life. They don't get much planer than that, folks.

[40:53] But the wrath of God abideth on him. If you're here without Jesus Christ, if you're here lost, the wrath of God currently abides upon you.

[41:07] You might say, I don't feel any wrath. I don't even feel conviction. Man's heart is hard. Man's heart is hard. Man is groomed, almost immune to the tugging and the pulling of the Holy Spirit of God.

[41:24] I don't feel any wrath. I don't feel any fury. Folks, I promise you, God is a jealous God. The book of Exodus says that his very name is jealous.

[41:36] God says himself in Deuteronomy, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, I will recompense. The Bible says in Hebrews, there's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

[41:49] It's a fearful thing to fall into those hands. The praise God for those that are redeemed. The day I got saved, the wrath of God fled away.

[42:01] The wrath of God was lifted off of me, and it is never about their sins. Hallelujah, the Bible says in Romans 8 and 1, there's therefore no condemnation that them they be in Christ Jesus.

[42:15] I have no condemnation from God upon me. Why? Because I am in Christ and Christ is in me. And if I am in Christ and Christ is in me, God is not going to punish his own son again.

[42:28] Jesus Christ suffered my punishment once on a cross at Calvary. He suffered the mocking. He suffered the shame. He suffered the humiliation. He suffered the death for me.

[42:40] And he'll never do it again. It's been done once and for all. He that believeth on the Son hath life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth again that's perfect tense.

[42:54] It perpetually abides upon you. And the only way out for underneath that condemnation and that judgment and that curse is through this Jesus which we preach to you this morning.

[43:08] God bless you all. That's the message. I appreciate your all's attention.