GOD’S PURPOSE FOR MEN IN THE GOSPEL

P. van den Berg

John 3: 14, 15; 4: 13, 14; 6: 53, 54; 10: 27–30

The passages that have been read have in view that we might have life eternal. John’s gospel is in view of that, that we may believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that we may have life in Him. The gospel presents to us the antitype of the way the people of God were delivered out of Egypt, what is learned in the wilderness as to the brazen serpent and the springing well and in going through the Jordan, all in view of entering into what God has prepared for those that love Him, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9. God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2: 4). When He delivered His people out of Egypt, and they had eaten the lamb, so John presents to us at the outset, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29), the Lord Jesus, the Lamb who was “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the

world” (1 Peter 1: 20), in order that we might be delivered out of this present evil world and enter into God’s eternal purpose for us in a land flowing with milk and honey. That is what God has in mind for you and for me. He would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, and God in His word instructs us in the Old Testament as to the way He takes in view of reaching what He has in mind for us in relation to eternal life. It is presented to us in Christ. It is not in you nor in me, it is in Christ. It is by the Spirit as life in the believer that we enter upon it, and we have this presentation in John’s gospel in view of the inheritance in order that we might enter into all that God has in His purpose for us.

So I read those verses beginning with John 3 where the brazen serpent is referred to as lifted up in the wilderness. The Son of man had to be lifted up. He came into the world indeed to save sinners. He was going on to the cross. John refers to it early in his gospel in view of life eternal, in view of the land. So we have this reference to Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. The people were bitten by serpents. Edom would not allow them to go through their territory, they had to go round it and they murmured and were bitten by serpents. Sin has come into the world, and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but God in His wonderful grace has come out in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was lifted up on the cross in order that He might bear your sins and my sins, in order that the whole matter of sin might be resolved, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Corinthians 5: 21. God has secured everything for His eternal pleasure in the Person of Christ. He gave His own Son for you and for me. What a giving God He is! “God ... who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?”, Romans 8: 32. Is it not wonderful how the heart of God has come out to men?

You see it set out in Abraham and Isaac, the father and the son, going on together in view of Isaac being offered up, typical of the way the Lord Jesus was to be offered up. All this was in the counsels of God, that One of the Persons of the Godhead should come into manhood to accomplish the work of redemption, a Lamb foreordained, and that He, the Lamb of God, is the One that God provided. Abraham said to Isaac, “God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering”, Genesis 22: 8. The Lord Jesus came in obedience to the will of the Father. John’s gospel shows us the Father and the Son moving together in view of the accomplishment of redemption and securing the purpose of God. What God is presenting to you is that not only you might be saved from your sins but that you might be brought into the inheritance. The report of the glad tidings was not believed by the people in the wilderness.

The spies that were sent out into the land returned and there was no faith in the report. Isaiah says, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?”, Isaiah 53: 1. Dear friends, let there be no unbelief in our hearts as there was with the people in the wilderness, when they fell in the wilderness. May we go in for all that God in His purpose has in mind for us. It is to be entered upon in Christ through the work He has accomplished.

Oh what grace is outshining in the glad tidings! God in His wonderful grace is shining out,

“the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared” (Titus 2: 11), and now grace is reigning “through righteousness to eternal life”, Romans 5: 21. The righteous claims of God have been met, the work of Christ has been accomplished, and now God is able to come out in grace. The blood of Christ has met every claim. The blood is on the mercy-seat, the righteousness of God has been met in the work of Christ and God is now able to come out in saving grace for whosoever will to come. And so the Lord says to Nicodemus,

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of

man be lifted up”. He knew not sin and He was made sin for us. He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. He became obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. So it was for the people to look on the serpent that was lifted up. The Lord Jesus, holy, harmless, suffered for sins. God gave His own Son for you and for me. There He was on the cross for all those who were bitten by the serpent. Each one of us has been bitten by the serpent, sin has come into the world, and Jesus is the One who has met the whole matter on the cross. Look on Him, look on the crucified One. There is life in the crucified One. All those that looked at the brazen serpent lived (see Numbers 21: 9).

In John 4 we see Jesus sitting at the well, wearied with the way He had come. How wonderful are the movements of the Lord Jesus in John’s gospel, movements that had in view bringing man into blessing. Here He is sitting at the well just as He was. There comes a woman whose sinful life was manifest to the Lord Jesus because He knew everything about her. Revealer of secrets was a name given to Joseph in Egypt (see note ‘f’ to Genesis 41: 45). The Lord is the Revealer of secrets. Not only does He reveal the secrets of your heart, but He is also the Saviour of the world. That is what the men in the city came to in this chapter when the woman had rendered her testimony, they said, “this is indeed the Saviour of the world” (John 4: 42). So the Lord raises matters with this woman. He said, “Give me to drink”. He says later in the passage, “Every one who drinks of this water shall thirst again”. Nothing in this world satisfies. You might try it out, I tried it out as a young man, but nothing in this scene will ever satisfy your heart. There are the pleasures of sin for a season, but they soon pass away and you feel worse after. Oh come to Jesus! What a change it makes in your life when Jesus comes in. He says, “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You have the gift of Christ in John 3, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him might not perish, but have life eternal”, and here it is the gift of the Holy Spirit. We can thank God for His unspeakable gift, the gift of Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life “. It is the Holy Spirit as life in the believer springing up into eternal life. It is by the Spirit you lay hold of what God has purposed for you; you lay hold of eternal life. Paul when writing to a young man says, “Lay hold of eternal life”, 1 Timothy 6: 12. John’s gospel is written that believers might have life eternal. God delivered His people out of Egypt to bring them into the inheritance. The lifting up of the serpent is in John 3, and the springing well in chapter 4, and it leads into chapter 6 where you come to the Jordan. You get the food there that takes you over Jordan. God has terminated the man of sin and shame in the death of Christ and now there is nothing that God will not give to you. He has given everything to you, His heart is open, His house is open, He has everything to offer to you. The world can never offer what Christ offers to you, what God offers to you in Christ, it is for your eternal satisfaction.

When we come to John 6 the Lord is testing the disciples as to how far they were prepared to go. It says, “From that time many of his disciples went away back and walked no more with him” (John 6: 66). The eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Son of man was a hard matter. God has terminated man in the death of Christ and you need to come to an end in yourself. God gives you a beginning in another Man, the Man of His purpose. John is writing for these last days, days of apostasy. There are those that deny Jesus Christ come in flesh. I remember it being said that Jesus Christ come in flesh is the setting aside of every other man.

No other man could do for God. Jesus Christ come in flesh involves a new order of man in which God is going

to have His eternal pleasure; John 6 helps you to come experimentally to it. It is a difficult chapter but it shows you the kind of food that, in the type, took the people of Israel over the Jordan. They were to secure victuals, which is literally ‘venison’ (see footnote to Joshua 1: 11), involving what is obtained through death. The manna sustained the people in the wilderness but it did not involve death. It is the way that Jesus lived here in everyday circumstances similar to yours and mine. What will sustain you in the wilderness will not get you into the purpose of God. It is through the death of Christ that you come to the purpose of God.

God maintained His glory in the death of Christ. He manifested His nature, and maintained His attributes in the giving of His Son, in order that we might enter into life, in order that we might have life in Christ. John 6 is the termination of the man that could never do for God, and it is through death we have an entrance to what God has purposed for those that love Him, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10. The Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance by which we enter consciously into what God has prepared for those that love Him. The purpose of God stands in relation to what is collective.

Many think that there is not what is collective today, but God has brought out, in the day in which we are, the truth of the inheritance, what is beyond death in relationships that will go through into eternity. Union with Christ, our being one with Him where He is, the dignity and glory of sonship, the inheritance, eternal life, are all collective. It is by the Spirit we come consciously into them, the Spirit being the earnest of the inheritance.

So that in John 10 you come to what is collective. The Lord Jesus is presented to us as the good Shepherd. The work of God comes to light in persons in the first

nine chapters in John, but it is in view of what is collective. The one flock in John’s gospel underlies the truth of the one body in Paul’s ministry. We have been brought back to the light of Paul’s ministry in the day in which we are, the last day that John has in view in his ministry. Outwardly everything has broken up, but inwardly God will see through what is for His eternal pleasure. The Lord says, “I am the Good shepherd; and I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father”.

Do you know the Lord Jesus? Do you know the love of Jesus? How wonderful He is! What a wonderful Saviour He is! He feels for you and with you, in your circumstances, in your needs. He loves us, He loves us to the end, a Saviour we can fully trust. He is a friend who is near you and He knows the answer to all your problems. Jesus is a wonderful Friend. I have known Him for many years and He has never let me down. He is a wonderful Saviour, an all-the-way Saviour. He will lead us through this evil world. He is a Shepherd you can count on, the good Shepherd. We read in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd”. Can you say that?

What He has in view is eternal life. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal”. What a wonderful Saviour! He saves us right through into the purpose of God where we enjoy the full range of what God has purposed for us in blessing in the enjoyment of eternal relationships in the glory and light of the assembly.

The assembly is God’s prime thought. Next to divine Persons there is the assembly, the vessel in which He will have adequate response throughout eternity according to the way He has come out in blessing in this wonderful dispensation.

So it is that finally in John 17 the Lord Jesus says, “this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. Just think of what it means to be brought into this knowledge, that we might know God. God has been revealed in Christ. God in His love has come out in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is one of the greatest blessings to be in the knowledge of God. The Lord Jesus says, “this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. May we have this knowledge. May we, as sinners, come to the Saviour. He who comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out. Whatever your need, however many sins you may have committed, grace is reigning through righteousness unto eternal life. Someone dreamt that when he came to the gate of the palace he was so well received that he went in, and in every room he entered he got a better reception, until he came into the king’s presence where he was received with acclamation. That is the grace that reigns, the grace that would have us be in the dignity of sonship in His own presence. Mercy is great in the greatness of the need, it is God’s disposition in the new covenant, meeting us in all our need; but grace goes beyond that in having us in His presence in the dignity and glory of sonship. This is what the gospel has in view, that you might be delivered out of this present evil world, and by faith in the work of Christ on the cross, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, you might come into what God has prepared for you in the gift of eternal life. May God bless the word.

Preaching at Barnet
13 February 1994