Remember those who requested
prayer. I don't know how Sharon's folks are doing. I guess she's
taking care of them, bless her heart. Continue to remember these
folks. No word on Debbie's brothers,
but as far as no word, probably a good word, so that's good.
Let's begin our worship service with hymn number 255, Blessed
Assurance Jesus is Mine. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. of his spirit washed in his blood. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior day long. This is my story, this
is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission,
perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love This is my story, this is
my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story,
this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking
above. filled with His goodness, lost
in His love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, ? Praising my Savior all the day long ? Hymn
number 354, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. ? What a friend we have in Jesus
? All our sins and griefs to bear ? What a privilege to carry ? Everything
to God in prayer ? Oh, what peace we often forfeit ? Oh, what needless
pain we bear ? Oh, because we do not care Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Can we find a prince so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden? ? But with a load of care ? Precious
Savior still our refuge ? Take it to the Lord in prayer ? Do
thy friends despise or save thee ? Take it to the Lord in prayer If you have your Bibles, travel
with me to John chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 23 through
verse 2 of the third chapter. John 2 verse 23, Now when he,
that is Jesus Christ, was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in
the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the
miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself
unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any
should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. There was
a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we
know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. And Jesus
answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. our Father in Heaven, blessed
Lord, King of Kings, you who rule and reign with absolute
power and sway in all the universe that you have created for yourself. We are thankful, Father, for
the shed blood of Jesus Christ for that perfect death that satisfied
your law and justice and put away our sins by the sacrifice
of himself. We are thankful that when he
had purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Father,
the right hand of the majesty on high, ever living to make
intercession for the saints. We are thankful that we are welcomed
in your presence because of what he did for us on Calvary Street
and what he did for you. Father, we pray for those who
are sick and going through trials, continue to remember those in
our area who are still suffering the effects of Helene. Ask Lord
you to be with them and comfort them and be with those who are
trying to help. Father, enable us when we are
able to help whenever we can. Father, we pray for ourselves
tonight as we gather here that you might be pleased to open
your word to us. show us what we need to see honor
your son in our midst lift him up that we might see him and
rejoice in his person and his work as he finished our salvation
on calvary's tree it's in that blessed name we pray amen now in the study of scripture
it is paramount uh paramount importance to always know the
context context in order to understand the meaning of the text. Text
without context, the old saying goes, is pretext. So we look
at the Word of God as it's set forth because our Lord knows
what He was doing when He put this down. To understand more
fully the astounding conversation between our Lord and Nicodemus
in the next chapter that we will be looking at for the next few
weeks, we must see that this passage gives light to grasp
the great gulf fixed between the flesh and the spirit, between
what a man understands naturally and what only a man who has been
made alive by the Spirit can understand. passage we will consider
this hour to a tee sets up that entire scenario of chapter three
which is one of the most famous chapters in all of scripture.
John 316 is said to be the most quoted verse in all of scripture.
I find a lot of people quoting it nowadays. There's this group
called Hallow which is a Roman Catholic group that has a prayer
app on your telephone, and the leader of that group often quotes
John 3.16. If you have a Gideon's New Testament,
you'll find that John 3.16 is set forth in that in about 40
different languages. But John 3.16 begins with the
word for or because, and so you have to look to the prior verse
and see what it's talking about, but we'll do that at another
time. But that conversation between nicodemus and our lord and it
goes from verse one through verse twenty three of that chapter
is set up by what we're looking at right here tonight it's important
to understand it's a continuation of a thought that's set forth
by the lord this is about our lord's response to men because
he knows the reason for their favorable response to him they
were following him now and many believed on him as it says in
verse 23, when they saw the miracles that he did. Now the words when
they saw the miracles which he did, the word when they saw designates
the catalyst for the belief. They believed him when they saw
the miracles that he did. Now none of the gospels declares
what miracles that our Lord had done up to this point. we know
of one john is recorded the miracle of the water being turned into
wine we know of no others but evidently he was performing miracles
all the time even though none are mentioned it is evident that
uh... lord's miracles were abundant
and obviously well-published by the community john gives us
some hints of that hint of that over in the twentieth chapter
of john and also in the twenty first
chapter In John 20 and verse 30, He says
this, And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of
His disciples, which are not written in this book. So there
were a lot of things going on that were not recorded. the miracles
are not recorded down in chapter 21 and verse 25 and there are
also many other things which Jesus did in which if they should
be written everyone I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be written therein so he was
a miracle worker and they're not recorded I don't know why
but I know of our Lord he was the perfect human being that
means to be a perfect human being one has to be absolutely selfless
has to be interested in the life of others and not the interest
of life itself. Our Lord was that man and He
had compassion on the sick, compassion on the hurting, compassion on
the poor, so the miracles He performed probably were manifold
and are just not recorded because it would take too much space
to record them. It was His miracles that drew
men to Him, however, that drew men to Him and caused them to
believe on Him according to this. now the belief addressed here
is not necessarily saving faith because it says in scripture
many believed on him and walked with him no more after he opened
his mouth and told them the truth our lord never really got in
trouble for performing a miracle he got in trouble because he
opened his mouth and told men the truth about themselves and
about the lord god many who profess faith in him never knew him savingly
and he never knew them saving those who in john Matthew chapter
7 who came before me said did we prophesy in thy name do wonders
in thy name do great things in thy name he said I never knew
you depart from me ye that work iniquity and you do it in my
name my name but miracles are a wonder I've never fully experienced
a miracle I've seen some miraculous things happen I've seen people
who had cancer heal completely when the doctors stand aghast
and amazed that it happened. Sharon French had a type of cancer
that's deadly and usually don't present. By the time it presents,
you're already too far gone to recover from it. But hers presented
in a strange place. It actually presented on the
outside of her body on her forehead. And the biopsy was sent up to
Mayo Clinic and other fancy hospitals and they said well that's this
type of cancer she's got. But Sharon is a woman of faith.
More faith than me. Sometimes I think bless her heart
she's wonderful. She said well let's just pray about it. So
we did. We prayed about it. Next time she went back to the
doctor they did that scan that lights up, PET
scan that lights up cancer, and there was no word. They did seven
or eight different tests on her, blood tests, this test and that,
never found a cancer, and she was gone. But she had the cancer,
and it was gone. A friend of mine back in Winston-Salem,
his dad had cancer in the lungs, and they said, well, you get
cancer in the lungs, it's a death sentence. but he was cured and
lived 25 years longer. We don't know about these things.
Miracles are wonderful. I've never seen anything like what
the Lord did, raising a man from the dead, or telling a man with
a withered arm to straighten his arm out, or call a dead man
out of the grave. I've never seen anything like
that. So it's a wonder, and it's no wonder that when such things
happen, men are enthused by it. and they follow the one who does
the miracles. Some believe because they felt
the miracles were a signification that this man was a man of God. There are some who had the religious
understanding. Some who were familiar with scripture
thought that these miracles designated Christ as the Messiah who was
to come. Now, you understand, we who know
the Lord Jesus Christ have a different view of the Messiah. Most of
the Jewish nation believed that the Messiah would come and set
up an actual kingdom here on Earth. We know that His kingdom
is not of this world. But over in Isaiah, Chapter 35,
this was a promise concerning the coming of the Messiah. In Isaiah 35, Verse 5 and 6,
it says, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the
years of the death shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as an heart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing, and in the
wilderness shall waters break forth, and streams in the desert."
Now that's talking about the coming of the Messiah. We know
in Daniel it speaks more of the coming of the Messiah and the
sense of salvation. He shall introduce righteousness,
put away sin, put away iniquity, and seal up the prophecy of this
book and bring in everlasting righteousness is the promise
of the Messiah. But the promise of the Messiah was real in the
Old Testament. and those who spent some time in scripture
when they saw that Christ did his miracles they started saying,
is this the Messiah? In John chapter four we'll see
a woman who he confronted at the well who went into the city
and said, come and see this man, is this not the Messiah? So people
understood by studying scripture that this Messiah was going to
come. Others believed because it was
an oddity. It was a strange thing, something
new, something amazing and such wonders draw men as a moth to
a flame. The belief of man probably subsided
when the miracle worker left their borders but they were excited
while he was there. Many probably believed because
they wanted to go get in on the action. They wanted to know how
he did this and maybe figure out how they could do it too.
We know that's true in John chapter 6. just a few chapters over in
John chapter 6 when our Lord fed those 5,000 with a few fishes
and a few loaves of bread. The men followed him, wanted
to make him king, and when he wouldn't be a king, they wanted
to tell him how to do that thing. How to make that fish and bread
thing so they could feed their bellies. And they asked this
in verse 28. They said, then said they, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? We won't know
how to do that fish thing. That's what they were saying.
Of course, he said this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom you have sinned. But you remember Simon Magus
in Acts chapter 8? Who was a sorcerer and a great
man, a man that ruled a lot of people's lives by his sorcery
and his trickery. In chapter 8 of Acts, in verse
9 it says, But there was a certain man called Simon, we say simon
magus because magus means magician which are four times the same
city used sorcery and bewitched the people of samaria giving
out himself as some great one to whom they all gave heed from
the least to the greatest saying this man is the great power of
god now that's what they were saying about this man and to
him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched
them with sorceries But when they believed Philip, these people
that had been following him and believed Philip preaching the
things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ,
they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself
believed in that little word also. means a great deal. He believed because they did.
He believed also. He didn't believe in Christ,
but he believed also. And when he was baptized, he's doing everything
right. He got baptized and continued
with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which
were done. He's there. He's seeing it. Now when the
apostles, which were in Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received
the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when
they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive
the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was not fallen
upon them, only they that were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the
Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw, through the laying on of the
apostles' hands, that the Holy Ghost was given, He offered them
money. He said, I'll pay, I'll give
you whatever you want if you'll give me that power. So this draw,
miracles draw men. And the idea of miracles, that's
why these so-called faith crusades and things like that, when a
man gets up and slings his coat and knocks people out, and they
say that's the Holy Ghost, and stuff like that, that's why it's
so hot and so big, and why they feel those things. My dad used
to work as a police officer, and police officers had moonlight
jobs where they would guard at certain events. And he was, one
night he was hired to guard, to run guard at one of Oral Roberts'
big crusades there in Winston-Salem. And he said, boy, he said it
was something. He said people would get up on that stage and
he'd touch them and knock them down and talk in terms and all
that. He said, and they didn't pass around a collection plate,
they passed around bushel baskets. He said, and every time, they
did it three or four times during the service there. He said every
time that thing was full of money. People will pay to see that kind
of stuff. So it's no wonder that many believed
on Jesus Christ because of the miracles that He did. They believed when they saw. But the praise of these men did
not draw the Lord to them. They were drawn to Him. he was
not drawn to them. Verse 24 says, But Jesus did
not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men. He did
not. They were enthused, but he was
not. The word BELIEVED and the word COMMIT are actually the
same word. It is actually the same word. It is saying they
believed on him, but he did not believe them. He did not commit to them because
he knew all men, and note that the word men is in italics. That
means it was added by the translator supposedly for our understanding,
and probably because the next verse mentioned men, that's why
they added it. But if you look up that word, the first definition
of that word without the word men is just all, and it means
all things. so it says there that Jesus Christ
did not commit himself or did not believe them because he knew
all things. He knew all things. You remember
when he talked with Peter in John 21 when he asked him three
times, Do you love me? And the last time he asked Peter,
Do you love me? Peter says, Lord, you know all
things. You know that I love you. You
know that I love you. so countless times our lord read
men's thoughts there's no doubt about that knowing their minds
and hearts even the words of their tongues before they were
uttered man looks on the outward appearance but god looks on the
heart the messiah does not judge as men judge in isaiah chapter
eleven in that grace chapter about the ensign being set up
in israel that ensign being the lord jesus christ speaks of the
messiah in isaiah chapter eleven verses one through three it says, and there shall come
forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, that is the line of David,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of
the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and
the Spirit in the fear of the Lord, this is the Messiah, and shall
make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and
he shall not judge after the sight of the eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of the ears, but with righteousness shall
he judge the poor, and reprove with equity or righteousness
of the earth. He shall smite the earth with
the rod of his mouth, and the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked." That's speaking of the Messiah. He doesn't judge
as other men judge. We judge basically by what we
see, because that's what we are by nature, we're natural men.
from what follows in this text, in our text in John, he knew
that their belief was nominal. It was a nominal belief. It wasn't
real faith. It wasn't true faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They believed him because they
saw the miracles that he did. But he knew that their faith
was nominal and in all probability pretty soon they would disappear
from his presence. first twenty five is an interesting
verses and he needed not to be should testify for you what was
in man and we tied that to what he says you all things he saw
right through what they were thinking that's what it means simply saw
through no one needed to tell him that these believers would soon
prove that their belief was born of what they saw and soon they
would be out of sight and out of mind and he knew that what
was in man he knew what was in man for he read people's thoughts
we see that many times in scripture he said to the pharisees one
time reading their thoughts he says why do you think this evil?
uh... uh... uh... uh... he's the word made flesh in the
beginning was the word it says in this very book in this last
chapter in the beginning was the word the word was with god
the word was god the same was in the beginning with god the
word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory
well he's that living word but he's also this word he's also
this word and let me show you that over in hebrews chapter
four why does he know men's hearts I remember one man saying one
time after I think it was Henry Mann preached, he said, I felt
like somebody had been reading my mail. And that's what it is when the
gospel is preached, it reads your mail. It reads your mail. Hebrews chapter
4 and verse 12 says, For the word of God is quick, or quickening,
and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even through the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart." The Word of God is that. But look at the next verse.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight. This is a personification of
the written Word right there. Word is quick and powerful like
a two-edged sword. Nothing is not manifest in His
sight. But all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Jesus Christ
is the Word. He's the Word. How does He know
your thoughts? He sees the Word. He discerns the thoughts and
intents of your heart. That two-edged sword cuts all
the way down to the marrow. Even where you don't see what
you know, He knows. he knows the very thoughts of
your heart so when he said he knew all things he knew what
was in man he knows what's in man and by God's grace and God's
mercy you are taught as children of God what's in man you know
something about it now naturally you knew what was in man naturally
when you were in nature but in spirit you know what's really
in man you know that man drinks iniquity like water you know
as soon as he's born he comes forth in womb speaking lies you
know that he can only hold one breath at a time there's nothing
to him you know he's dust and will return to dust you know
this about man you know he's weak and frail and impotent not
at all like people picture him you know that about man the lord
knew that too the lord knew that and as if to solidify the fact
that he knows what's in man and he knew all men and knows that
the flesh can never grasp the spiritual things after it is
said that he knew what was in man the very next phrase in chapter
three verse one is there was a man that's the connection so he knew
about this man because he knew all man and knew what was in
man and knew about this man who was coming to him by night to
speak to him now this man there was a man that was a religious
man an important man, a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, and
the Lord knew what was in him. He thought by coming at night,
probably to hide so nobody would see him coming to talk to Jesus,
and that's kind of proven in the words of Christ all the way
through this text with him. He thought that he knew something
about Jesus, but he didn't. He couldn't, but Jesus knew him. he knew him. Nicodemus had arrived at a conclusion
that God was with this man because he saw the miracles that Jesus
did. For he said, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. We've seen these
miracles that you do. God's got to be with you. The
word that Nicodemus used, know, means that he's seen with his
own eyes. The Lord will tell him something
must happen to you that you have not experienced for you to actually
see what you claim to see. You claim to see something, but
you don't see it. Something's got to happen to
you for you to see what you're claiming to see. and that will
be proven that he didn't see it in all that conversation with
the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord would say something
spiritual, Nicodemus would point to the flesh. Every time we'll
see that. We'll see that. Basically our
Lord says you ain't seen nothing yet. The Lord knew what was in
man and knew that what was not in man was the ability to discern
anything spiritual. what is in man is bound to what
he can see, taste, touch, feel, smell. He's bound to that. That's as far as he can go. Now
if he sees a miracle, he'll probably believe on the Jesus that can
do miracles. But if you tell him the truth,
that'll validate whether or not he's a real believer. Paul said to the Corinthian church,
We look at things that cannot be seen. What does that mean? We see differently than the world
sees. We see what cannot be seen. We
see the invisible God. We see Jesus Christ. We see Him
in our minds and hearts and our souls and in our thoughts, sitting
at the right hand of the Father, ever ready to make intercession
for us. We see Him. He can't be seen. we see that
this world is ruled by invisible power that men can't see. We
see that. He said we see things that cannot
be seen. We look at things that cannot be seen. He says in 2
Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18. One of my favorite verses of
scripture is found in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 7 and 8. Speaking of the trial of your
faith, in verse 7, being much more precious than gold that
perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found to
the praise and honor and glory of the appearing of the Lord
Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love, in whom, though
now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. we don't see christ but we see
him when our lord after he had talked about eating his flesh and drinking
his blood and many departed from him because of what he had said
in john chapter six he looked and said you guys going to leave
too? Peter said to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of
life eternal life and we believe and that's how it works seeing ain't believing in the
spiritual realm believing is seeing he knew what was in Nicodemus
and we're going to see this played out in the weeks to come as we
look at chapter three it'll probably take two or three weeks to get
through that chapter but we'll do it father bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name amen