John 3:22-36

[0:00] John's Gospel, Chapter 3, and we ended last week at verse 22. So that's where we pick it up, John 3, 22.

[0:18] And before we do any of that, let's just bow our heads together and go to the Lord, and then we'll go to the Lord's Word. Our Father, it's with thankful hearts that we bow before you, thankful for the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth us from all of our sins, thankful for this holy Word of God that sanctifies us in this life and cleans us up and gives us wisdom and direction and gives us knowledge and your counsel.

[0:47] We pray that as we read through this testimony of John and his record of your life and ministry that we would come to understand these truths and make application where necessary.

[1:02] Help us to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Help us to just give us understanding and wisdom. This book is way, way, way above us. It's so holy and pure and true.

[1:12] And God, we are altogether undone and filthy. And we need your spirit and we need your life. We need your wisdom even to understand these pure truths.

[1:26] And so we pray that you'll give that to us. We pray that we submit to you and to your Word this morning. And we ask your blessing, literally ask your blessing on this time and this hour and this day and all that we do in this place this morning.

[1:40] We pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. All right, so John chapter 3. And we've come through a portion of him speaking with Nicodemus. And that comes to a close at this moment.

[1:52] And now he's going to move on to John the Baptist. And we don't get a whole lot of insight into John the Baptist or into his ministry. We saw him early and we saw him baptizing.

[2:04] And he continued to do that. And so we're going to see a little bit of that here this morning. But you don't get a whole lot about that man. And he's a man that Jesus Christ said he's the greatest prophet born of women.

[2:18] And so that's an interesting thing if he is that great. And it's not to say that he needs more, that he needs more FaceTime in the Bible. It's not that the case at all.

[2:28] But it sure is interesting that for somebody that Jesus Christ declares to be that great, that there's such very little of his ministry and of his preaching. And in a place, I don't know if we'll get to it today or not, in Luke, it describes some of his message that he preached.

[2:44] And it says, and many other things or many such things he preached. And that's one guy I'd love to hear. Because he's kind of, how do you say it, not an idol.

[2:57] He's just somebody I look up to in this Bible. He's got that fire. And he's got that conviction. And he's unintimidated. He'll preach to Herod, to the king, when he's wrong and committing adultery.

[3:10] And tell the king that he's guilty. And he reminds me, just like Elijah did the same thing. And so they're very similar characters. All right, now verse 22, the Bible says, After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea.

[3:25] And there he tarried with them and baptized. Now take a pause right there and look over at chapter 4 and verse number 2. It says, Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples.

[3:38] So there's baptisms going on with the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples. And that's something we don't really hear much about in the scripture. But here it does indicate that. But it's not the Lord Jesus Christ that's down in the water bringing people one after the other.

[3:52] It's his ministry, if you want to call it that. Or it's his disciples baptizing. And it's associated with him. So it says, He tarried there and baptized. Now verse 23, And John also was baptizing in Anon, near Salim.

[4:05] Because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. So there's two different groups in this time baptizing. And they're in different locations.

[4:17] These locations mentioned in verse 23, to my knowledge, they've never been located, the exact or precise place that these are. It appears that they're north of where Jesus Christ is.

[4:30] He's in the land of Judea, which would be to the south of Israel. And then there's the region of Samaria. And then above that would be Galilee. And so it seems that John's a little bit further north than Jesus.

[4:42] But that's not necessarily true. It's undetermined. But likely it's still in the region of the Jordan River. And there's much water there. But nevertheless, verse 24, For John was not yet cast into prison.

[4:56] So it's helpful to remember that this is all written in hindsight. This gospel is written probably 60 years or give or take after the fact.

[5:07] And so when John institutes or inserts certain lines and things, he's got a whole lot more revelation from the position of authoring the book. And here he just backtracks and says, Oh, by the way, he wasn't yet cast into prison.

[5:20] So he's still out there with full liberty. And while he has liberty, he's still obeying God's last command to him to preach and to baptize. And so he's doing it.

[5:31] Verse 25, There arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And so the question's not given. But we can kind of maybe presume what it may have been about.

[5:44] It says in verse 26, They came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, speaking of Jesus Christ, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.

[5:58] Now, we don't know the question. The question is about in the realm of purification. That's the question from verse 25. And the only evidence of that or something to compare it to or at least suspect it to be compared to is the baptisms going on with John and with Jesus.

[6:19] But the statement here that says all men come to him, it seems to be a little more advanced than just a question about purifying. So I don't know if that is even really the crux of their confusion with verse 26.

[6:34] But one thing we know about the Jews is that they're obsessed with purification. They're obsessed with cleanliness. Look back at chapter 2. And remember this wedding?

[6:48] And before you could even get into the wedding, you've got to wash. Chapter 2 and verse number 6, there were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews.

[7:01] And they were obsessed with washing feet. They were obsessed with washing hands. They accused his disciples in Matthew 15. They asked the question, Why did thy disciples eat with unwashed hands?

[7:13] That's transgressing the tradition of the people or of the elders. This is what they accused his disciples of. And Christ said, Who cares? If they transgress your traditions, you transgress the word of God.

[7:28] And he turns it around on them in that passage in Matthew 15. But the Jews were obsessed with that. Christ attacked them for that in Matthew 23, when he called them hypocrites and fools. And he said, You make the clean, the platter, the cup and platter, and everything on the outside is right, but on the inside, you're full of hypocrisy or iniquity and hypocrisy.

[7:48] You're filthy. And so their mind is to be clean, is to be undefiled, is to touch not the unclean thing and stay away, stay away, stay away. Anything that would defile the flesh, they avoided.

[8:02] And so it became a cultural concept to wash, to wash, to wash, to wash, to wash, to wash, to wash, to wash, and to be obsessed with it.

[8:13] And to them, it became their righteousness or their cleanliness. They were different than the dogs around them, different than all the other Gentile dogs, the filthy men.

[8:23] They themselves were clean. And it was an outward, carnal, fleshly thing that was rebuked by Jesus Christ. So the question comes up about purifying.

[8:37] And to me, there's no doubt that they're just, they're off track so far already in their mindset with their traditions and customs that they don't, they see John baptizing and they're like, well, this is, this is not just washing hands and feet.

[8:51] This is washing the whole body. This is something purifying the person. And, and then whatever exactly, the exact question they ask, we don't have for sure. But along this line, let's just look at something.

[9:04] Come back to Luke. Luke, Luke, Luke. Luke, Luke 7 and Luke 3. These are the two passages I want you to get. Luke chapter 3 and Luke chapter 7.

[9:22] And let me make sure I got this right.

[9:35] Is it 7? Yes and no. Okay, well, there's something, there's something I'm missing, but let me give you Luke 3 first.

[9:46] So, this is John in verse 2. He shows up in the wilderness. The word of God came to John in verse 2.

[9:59] You see that in the middle. And in verse 3, he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

[10:10] As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. That's his preaching. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled.

[10:21] Every mountain shall be brought low. The crooked shall be made straight. The rough ways shall be made smooth. He's going to bring all the high and mighty down. He's going to lift the low ones up. And he's just going to bring it all across the even plain.

[10:34] Everybody needs to repent. And in verse 6, all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And then said he to the multitude that he came forth to be baptized of him. So a multitude comes to him and he looks at them and he has some words for them.

[10:48] Oh, generation of vipers. It's not, oh, good. Come on. Praise the Lord. Come on in. Welcome, welcome, welcome. He's looking at them like, you generation of vipers, you filthy snakes.

[11:01] And he asked this question, who with warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And I want you to take that statement and realize that John's baptism of repentance was in line with fleeing from the wrath to come.

[11:16] It was in line with getting yourself ready and prepared for to be on the right side when Jesus Christ, or then God comes, the Messiah comes, to set all things straight.

[11:27] You want to be on the right side and anticipating and waiting for him and not being against him. Now, notice that his baptism was about repentance. Now, turn over to chapter 7.

[11:39] You're in Luke chapter 7 now. This is where Christ commends John the Baptist about being the great prophet that he was. In verse 28, Christ is speaking, I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

[12:03] And all the people that heard him and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized of him.

[12:19] So it wasn't a matter of just you get in the water and you're clean. You're purified. If you, you know, they'd just be running them through. Hey, we're all clean. Baptism cleans us. It was a brother, oh, it was on Wednesday night.

[12:33] A brother that was here said that he offered a guy a track and the man responded saying, oh yeah, I've been baptized. And he said, well, this will tell you how you can be saved, which was a great response.

[12:45] And you know what? Just getting baptized, just dunking somebody in water doesn't wash away their, it's not a purifying of the filth of the flesh. They were rejecting the counsel of God against themselves when they refused to submit to it.

[12:57] It was the counsel of God. It was the message that John preached. And back in chapter three, I didn't get into it, but if we would have continued, you would have seen some of the things he told those men about their dishonesty or about their violence or about not being content with what their wages were.

[13:16] And he's calling on men to repent. And I have to mention also, every gospel that brings it out, he's preaching the kingdom. There's a message about a kingdom that's coming that's associated with this baptism and preparing to meet that Messiah and that king who is God himself in the flesh.

[13:35] So come back to John. We're in John's gospel, chapter three. So of course, the Jews have questions about what's going on. It's not John's disciples, but it's the Jews.

[13:50] And it says in verse 26, they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, now remember we hit that word a little bit ago in this chapter in verse number two when Nicodemus came to Jesus and he said, Rabbi, and I pointed out to you that Nicodemus is not submitting to Christ as if he is the Son of God, the Holy One of Israel.

[14:10] He's just saying, Master. And where do you get that? Well, back in John chapter one and verse number 38, the words interpreted for you in the text. In verse 38, in the middle, they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou?

[14:29] Now, I'm just going to let the Bible punch this right through very, very clear because in verse number 10 of chapter three, when Christ responds to Nicodemus, he acknowledges that he himself is a master.

[14:42] Look at verse number 10, art thou a master of Israel? And so don't get the idea that Nicodemus is elevating Christ to something that he's not. When the word shows up, they're speaking to John, they're not putting him up where God would be.

[14:56] It's not a deity. It's just a statement of a teacher, of someone that's worthy of following. And so John's a master.

[15:06] They look at Christ calling him a master. And some of his disciples early on, when they left John the Baptist in chapter one, looked to Jesus and said master. So just understand the term.

[15:19] Even Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, was considered a master in Israel. Okay, coming back there to chapter three and verse 26.

[15:32] They came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. And John replies to this, that all men are coming to him.

[15:45] And like his ministry is fading, but this other one is growing. They're going to his ministry. And John answered and said, a man can receive nothing except to be given him from heaven.

[15:59] Now I don't know what that means. I mean, I know what it, I see what it means, but I don't know who it's applied to. I don't know if he's saying that a man, meaning Jesus Christ and his ministry that they're concerned about, that he would be nothing except it came from heaven and he's kind of exalting him.

[16:17] Maybe that's the case. I don't know if he's talking about these people that come to him with a question and he's saying, look, nobody gets anything unless God opens their eyes, unless God shows you what's happening here with me baptizing, with Jesus baptizing, who he is.

[16:36] And so, you could almost read it either way. But in verse 28, he says, ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride, here's an illustration, here's the hath the bride, the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because the bridegroom's voice.

[16:56] And then his statement is, this my joy therefore is fulfilled. So he's implying that if you're in the illustration that if you're the friend of the bridegroom, you're just one of everybody else, it's the bridegroom that gets the priority on the marriage day.

[17:13] And when he shows up, then everybody gives him the honor. And so John's saying, when he shows up, when Christ showed up, it's my honor to be associated with him and I'm rejoiced to see him get the honor and glory that the people following him, all men coming to him because he's the bridegroom.

[17:37] And so therefore, John is rejoicing to see people follow him. Remember earlier in chapter one, two of his disciples left and followed Christ. John didn't complain about that. That was exactly right.

[17:49] And here's a verse. This is a verse. You ought to know this verse and it should get inside of your heart. This testimony of John, he must increase, but I must decrease.

[18:01] And it's got to be a tough thing and maybe it's not in this place because it's literally Jesus Christ and his job was to set things up for him to take over.

[18:16] And so maybe in that scenario, that's just, it's just kind of normal and it's expected of John to back off. But it's not as easy for you and I to desire that because I don't know, there's so much pride inside of us that everything in us says I must increase.

[18:35] I must increase, I must increase in my popularity, I must increase in my friendship, my followers. Everything about you wants to get more, get better and have more attention and more likes and whatever the case.

[18:49] John got this thing and he testified, it's such a powerful statement that this is what must happen right now is the Lord Jesus Christ, it's time for him to increase.

[19:01] It's time for all men to come to him, not to me. My role has been fulfilled, it's time for me to back off. And it's not an easy thing for some men, especially in the ministry that have been experiencing preaching like John and following like John and baptizing and seeing people repent and seeing God work and do things to just say, okay, so now I need to just back off and fade out of the picture because it's time for somebody else to take over.

[19:32] That can be a tough thing and like, I'm not really trying to apply this but it just crosses my mind while I'm talking about preachers. It can be a tough thing for pastors to back off and know when their time's up and to bring somebody around and of course you need to trust the Lord for that stuff.

[19:48] That's a whole other thought. But in this case, John, this was a favorite verse of my, when I was a child, my childhood pastor. He would sign this in Bibles if anybody asked him if he ever gave a testimony.

[20:01] That was the verse that was his heart's desire was he, Jesus Christ must increase but I must decrease. And I remember as a boy seeing that and looking that verse up and just associating that with that man and then as I grew up in life coming more and more to realize how important that statement is in the ministry to realize that it's all about Jesus Christ, it's all about keeping him up as high as possible and at the same time keeping yourself low.

[20:30] I think if you, if you increase Jesus Christ in your life, the natural thing is that you drop. You can't increase with him. It's one or the other.

[20:41] If you, you personally put him up then you are automatically going to be knocked down a peg which is the way it should be. And if you want somebody to know the Lord Jesus Christ then increase him in your life.

[20:52] You want somebody to see Christ in you then increase him in your life. You want others to get saved? It's not going to be by you showing them how good you are. Just increase Christ.

[21:03] Preach Christ. Let Christ have you and change you and do the work in your heart. And drop yourself. Just drop all your ambitions and who you think you are and let Jesus Christ mold you.

[21:17] Let him do something with you and then folks will see that. Then it will make a difference. And so what a blessing of a statement that John gave there. I'm glad it's recorded in the text of scripture because it really means a lot to me.

[21:30] Verse 31 says, He that cometh from above is above all. That would be the Lord Jesus. A very strong statement that John makes about Christ. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth.

[21:42] He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth. And no man receiveth his testimony. Now that's kind of a general rule.

[21:55] Something that he dealt with I'd say all along the way in the ministry is that Christ was always being challenged. And people always questioning. Even Nicodemus from this chapter.

[22:06] How can these things be? And so no man receiveth his testimony. He's speaking of things that are from above. Look back. Remember this verse.

[22:17] We read it recently. Look back at chapter 3 and verse 12. Verse 11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness.

[22:28] If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And so John says he's preaching truth from God from heaven and you're not receiving his testimony. Verse 33.

[22:40] He that hath received his testimony, he'd be the exception to that statement, hath set to his seal that God is true. And so he's just making that statement he's verifying or vouching or in agreement with that this is from God and it's true.

[22:54] Verse 34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words, the words, the words. That should be, that should jump off the page at you.

[23:08] He speaketh the words of God for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him. He doesn't speak the doctrine or the thoughts or the concepts or the fundamentals or the ideology.

[23:23] He speaks the words of God. So what comes out of his mouth are the words of God. The reason I'm putting an emphasis on this is because John, or God, puts an emphasis on his words.

[23:40] The words of God. Back in Psalm 12, it's the words of the Lord are pure words. It's words. The emphasis is very strong. Let me show you just a few in this book.

[23:51] Look at chapter 5. John chapter 5. Why do I make this comment this morning and point this out?

[24:08] Because people are changing the words. And they've been doing it for a hundred years and more. And God puts an emphasis on the words. And shame on anybody that thinks they can just mess with the words and put it different words and still call it the words of God.

[24:27] That's not the case. Look at John chapter 5, verse 46. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my teachings, my thoughts, no, my words?

[24:46] Look at chapter 6, verse 63. John 6, 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I speak unto you.

[25:00] They are spirit and they are life. He never says, the message that I'm preaching to you, because if I say, in a little bit I'm going to preach a message about such and such, that's just like the whole concept and the whole thought, you know, maybe in a particular theme.

[25:21] But he doesn't talk about the message that he preached. He says, the words that I speak, the very words, those words are spirit. They're alive. They are life.

[25:33] Look at chapter 8, John 8, verse 47. He that is of God heareth God's words.

[25:50] Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. The emphasis is on the words. It's important to get that and to see that the scripture exalts and emphasizes and distinguishes that they are very words that are to be intact and that are of God and that are blessed of God and that are expected to, they're promised to be preserved.

[26:12] Look at chapter 12, verse 48. John 12, 48.

[26:25] Just two more we'll look at. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words. Again, he doesn't say my message or my teachings. He says my words.

[26:37] You're to receive his words. Hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

[26:48] One more is chapter 14 and verse 23. And this one's a blessing. 14, 23.

[26:59] If a man, Jesus' answer said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words. And we're going to come back to that verse in a second so maybe you can keep your place there.

[27:14] Yeah, just keep your place right there and go back to John chapter 3. It's important for you to believe that and not because I say it and just show you a few verses but to let the Lord God, the Spirit of God, open your eyes to the importance of his words, that he gave words, that it's not up to man to alter, to clarify, to update or change words.

[27:44] It's up to God to give the words and if their life, if there's spirit in their life, then they're alive and they're very capable of teaching and expressing the exact intent that God gave them for.

[27:58] Shame on anybody that changes the words. So come back to John 3 and look at, that was verse 34. Look at verse 35.

[28:09] The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand. Now, I'm just going to make a quick point here.

[28:20] I've done this before and it's just, since we're here, we'll hit it. The Father loveth the Son. Who does the Father love? The Son. The question is, does God love everybody?

[28:33] And people say, yes, he does. God so loved the world and that's kind of the only verse that they ever give to talk about God's love. But the Bible says, the Father loveth the Son.

[28:45] And look at John 14 again, where we just were. And I firmly believe that if you want to experience the love of God, then you have got to get connected to the Son that God the Father loves.

[29:00] And in verse 23, Jesus, 14, 23 again, Jesus answered and said, I mean, if man love me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him.

[29:12] My Father will love him. And we will come unto him and make our abode with him. So, does the Father love the one that doesn't love the Son and doesn't keep his words?

[29:27] That's a question that you might want to answer. Better do it with the Bible though, not with your own heart. Let's see, look at chapter 16. Chapter 16. And it's verse 27.

[29:46] Christ is speaking to these disciples of him that he already said. Well, I'll move past that. Look at verse 27. To his disciples, for the Father himself loveth you.

[29:58] Why? Because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. So, the believers and the followers and lovers of Jesus Christ, now the Father loves them too.

[30:12] Look at chapter 17. And one more time here in John chapter 17. Verse 23. Christ says, he's praying to the Father.

[30:23] And he says, I in them. I in them. Meaning those men, those believers rather. I could go back a little bit further to show you this can be you. Verse 20 says, neither pray I for these alone, these disciples with him, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.

[30:50] So, how do you get to be one in them? As if you believe. In verse 20, through their word, their message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you become part of Christ, you're placed in the body of Christ.

[31:02] And verse 22, in the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

[31:23] Well, I thought God so loved the world. But he's saying that the world, distinguishing between the world and the believers, the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them.

[31:36] Look at the end of the chapter. Verse 26, And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.

[31:49] Remember we read in John 3 that the Father loveth the Son. And if you want to experience the love of the Father, then you better get one with the Son because he loves the Son.

[32:03] And the doctrine is it's in the scriptures. You can preach this pretty easily that to get to the Son, you go to Calvary. And the love of God was displayed or manifested or commended toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

[32:21] And, you know, I mentioned it the other week and I didn't quote the verses, so I'll just give you another one here. In 1 John 3 verse 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us.

[32:36] That's where the love of God is. It's at Calvary. In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world. Verse 10, 1 John 4.10, Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

[32:57] It's always loved, past tense, and it's always connected to Calvary. And you'll have a hard time divorcing those two things in the Word of God.

[33:08] The love of God is always pointed and displayed at Calvary. If you want to get in the Father's love, you better get to Calvary. In plainer words, just picture the Christ-rejecting sinner.

[33:22] The Bible says in John 3, we're about to hit it, verse 30, we might as well hit it so I can clarify this and not just be talking. Look at John chapter 3 again. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand.

[33:35] Verse 36, 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.

[33:48] Where's the love of God? I thought God loved everybody. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. No, God's wrath abides on the one that has not believed on his Son.

[33:59] He loves his Son. If you're in his Son, he has given us power to become the sons of God. We're in them. What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God?

[34:10] That's 1 John 3, verse 1. So, if you're in Christ, you're loved of the Father as a son of God because he loves the Son. If you've rejected the Son and you're trusting your own religion and your own righteousness, your own good works, or that God doesn't exist and I don't believe in any of that nonsense and I follow the science, if that's who you are, the wrath of God abides on you, not the love of God.

[34:35] Somebody's preaching a false gospel today telling everybody that God's in love with them and he just loves you. It's almost like they just believe God loves you, loves you, loves you all the way up to, okay, you're in hell. You're damned.

[34:48] Love you all the way up to that moment of death and then judgment and you're in hell. But no, the wrath of God abides the whole time when they step up in front of him. He that believeth not is condemned already.

[35:00] John 3, verse 18. Right there in the chapter. He that believeth not is condemned already. But I love him. I condemned him. I love him. I put my wrath upon him.

[35:12] In Ephesians chapter 2, the lost are without Christ. They're without hope. They're without God. And the Bible says that they're called children of wrath and children of disobedience.

[35:24] And it's hard for, I mean, it's kind of semantics. I know it's kind of like being nitpicky, but I guess it's because this lovely gospel has been preached so often and so hard so hard that when you take a closer look at Scripture and you understand where God's love is aimed or placed, then you'll see it differently and you'll realize I need to get in the sun.

[35:48] I need to get to Jesus Christ or I'm going to hell. Because he is angry with the wicked every day. And him that loveth violence, his soul hateth.

[36:00] And he's, things that are an abomination to him, it's a proud look and it says, he that soweth discord among the brethren. There's things that God hates. Hates.

[36:12] And we need to be careful not to put this big blanket of love all over the place. So the Father loveth the Son. Amen. And we can believe that and follow that. Now the wrath of God in verse 36, we're going to end with this chapter here.

[36:27] It's in the present tense. You see that in your English Bible that the wrath of God abideth on him. Now the unbeliever doesn't feel that wrath, does he?

[36:39] Well neither does the believer feel the everlasting life. And this is going into a whole new study but you could look at the, you'll see the words the spirit of something.

[36:51] Peter said, the spirit of glory resteth upon you. And it's a reference to future glory that will be revealed in you. But for now, the spirit of glory. resteth upon you. He says, Paul says, we've received the spirit of adoption.

[37:04] And the adoption hasn't taken place yet. So the spirit of adoption is upon us. And here, he doesn't use the word spirit but I'm using that to give you the idea that the wrath of God abideth on him.

[37:15] And it's not yet been manifested. He hasn't tasted the wrath of God yet. And he will. But if I could use the term the spirit of, the wrath of God abideth on him, that can be removed if he'll come to Jesus Christ.

[37:29] And he'll take that away quickly and put his love upon him. So, it's a present tense thing and it's hard to just receive that as a concept.

[37:41] It's easy to believe the words of the Bible and just say that's what the Bible says. But to understand it, it's tricky to understand, well, it doesn't seem like God's doing anything to him. You know, if his wrath's upon him, you think of the wrath of God as hell and damnation and torment.

[37:58] But, just like the believer doesn't feel the everlasting life yet, it hasn't been made manifest, so is the wrath of God not yet been made manifest, although they are called in Ephesians 2, verse 3, the children of wrath.

[38:12] So, I had a note here. No, don't worry about that. So, we'll just quit right there.