I want to read a few verses from
Isaiah chapter 41. I've actually heard people talk
about how over there in Israel, in the Middle East, physical
land I'm speaking of now, how they've irrigated desert land
and brought it, you know, to become fertile land, and that
this was a reference to that. This has nothing to do with that. This has everything to do with
the spiritual blessings that God has promised to bring to
His people. In verse 18, verse 17 says, And when the poor and
the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth
for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, and I, the Lord God of
Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places
and fountains in the midst of the valley. I will make the wilderness
a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. I will plant
in the wilderness the cedar, the shita tree, the myrtle, and
the oil tree I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine
and the box tree together that they may see and know and consider
and understand together that the hand of the Lord has done
this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it." Oh, that's my
hope this morning. The Lord will open up rivers
of living water and satisfy the souls of His thirsty children
with the gift of life. We're going to begin by singing
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. So let's stand together,
Brother Tom. Come, let us to the Lord our
God with contrite hearts return. Our God is gracious, nor will
leave the desolate to mourn. His voice commands the tempest
forth and stills the stormy wave. And though his arm be strong
to smite, Tis also strong to save. Long hath the night of
sorrow reigned, the dawn shall bring us light. God shall appear and we shall
rise with gladness in his sight. Our hearts, if God we seek to
know, shall know him and rejoice. His coming like the morn shall
be, Like morning songs his voice. As dew upon the tender herb,
Diffusing fragrance round, As showers that usher in the spring,
And cheer the thirsty ground, So shall his presence bless our
souls and shed a joyful light. That hallowed morn shall chase
away the sorrows of the night. Please be seated. Good morning. Would you open
your Bibles to 2 Peter chapter 3. We're going to start at verse 9. This life is very fast. It's
a vapor. And we're here one minute and
we're gone the next. And one of my greatest fears
is that in that day when He does return, that I'll be found outside
of Christ. To stand on my own merits in
front of a holy God. I need an advocate. I need a
savior. This passage gave me hope. Start
at verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, that all should
come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in
all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto
the coming of the day of God? wherein the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look
for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent
that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless. And that's the only place you're
going to be found without spot and blameless in Him. And to count that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation, I'm so thankful He's long-suffering.
Even as our beloved brother Paul, also according to the wisdom
given unto him, hath written unto you, as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some
things hard to be understood. which they that are unlearned
and unstable rest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto
their own destruction. Yet therefore, beloved, seeing
ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led
away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness,
but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and
forever. Amen. The more I grow in grace, I realize
how completely dependent I am to keep me to the very end. The
very end. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you make us
to know our end, and that you would keep us from being so easily
led into the world and away from you. Send your spirit now to
bless this message. Give us ears to hear it, Lord,
eyes to see it, and hearts to believe it. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 158 from the Hardback Timnel, number 158. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours. Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily they go
to reach each In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues. And our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
Thee, and Thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove. With all thy quickening powers,
come shed abroad the Savior's love, and that shall kindle ours. Please be seated. Bert and Olivia
Dunbar are going to come bring some special music now. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to abide. In every change, ye faithful
will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best,
thy heav'nly friend. Through thorny ways, lead to
a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake to guide the few. as he has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let
nothing shake. All now mystic ? You shall be
bright at last ? ? Be still my soul ? ? The waves and winds
still know ? ? His voice who ruled them while he dwelt beside
me ? Be still my soul, the hour is
hastening on, when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief, and
fear Sorrow forgot, love's purest
joys restored. Be still my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed, we shall
meet at last. That was such a blessing. Thank you. That's what I want. I want the Lord to still my soul. I want him to still your soul. I want you to have genuine hope
in Christ for your eternal life. That's what we're here to proclaim. We're not here to try to help
you figure out how to live a better life here. Our objective is to
help you know how to die. And I know that if the Lord gives
you the miracle of the new birth and He stills your soul and enables
you to rest in Christ and to believe that you've been crucified
with Him, that you live, yet it's Christ that lives in you,
the life that you now live, you live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved you and died for you, your soul will be stilled.
It'll be stilled. Only way you can know how to
live is if you're ready to die. And apart from the new birth,
we will not be ready to die. That's what I want to talk about
this morning. The new birth. If you'll turn with me in your
Bibles to John chapter 3. And while you turn there, I would
like to remind you that we would love to be honored with your presence at
our home next Sunday. So I'm hoping that Trish is hoping
that you all will be able to come over for open house next
Sunday afternoon. And there's an announcement I
think in your bulletin if you want to read that. We may have
one or two people here that weren't here the first hour. Rich Petrowski
went in the hospital this morning with heart problems. He's in
ICU right now. So we'll get more information
about that later. John chapter 3. Very familiar
story. One that I'm so very thankful
that the Holy Spirit was pleased to put into the Word of God to
describe for us that which is involved in the new birth. the
new birth, a man by the name of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a leader
of the Jews. The Lord Jesus Christ has a private
conversation with him about the new birth. Now, back in the 70s
when Jimmy Carter became President of the United States, he popularized,
by I think writing a book, the term born-again Christian. I don't remember ever hearing
that term before that, but it became kind of the theme, I guess,
for a lot of things and a lot of people. A born-again Christian.
The irony of Mr. Carter proclaiming to be a born-again
Christian is that he was, and as far as I know still is, a
freewill Arminian who has absolutely no understanding of the gospel.
and has therefore not possibly experienced the new birth. The
second thing I would say about being a born-again Christian
is that there is in fact no other kind of Christian other than
one that has been born anew from God. What is the new birth? Have I experienced the new birth? The Lord makes it clear in chapter
3 of John chapter 3, except a man be born again, he cannot, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot perceive of it. He
can't understand it. He cannot enter into it. We must be brought by God's grace
from death to life. We're born into this world spiritually
dead. Only God can birth us into his
kingdom and make us spiritually alive. We're born into this world
spiritually lost. Only God can find us and redeem
us back into fellowship with Him. We're born into this world
blind. Only God can give us eyes to
see. We're born into this world, the scripture says, at enmity
with God. That means that by nature, by
nature, we are all, every single one of us, God-haters prior to
the new birth. We're God-haters. Now I hear
someone saying, I've never hated God. And my response to you would
be that I fear you still do and you don't know it. Because God
says we come into this world at enmity with Him. Oh, we love
the imagination of the God that we have formed, the idol that
we formed in our own minds. But the God that is, the God
that reigns sovereign, the natural man says in his heart, I will
not have that man to reign over me. And he stands in enmity with
God. And only a divine work of grace
can bring that man into fellowship with God. When the Lord showed
Ezekiel that valley of dry bones, he said to the prophet, Son of
man, can these bones live? That valley of dry bones is a
picture of you and me. That's our condition when we
came into this world. Spiritually dead, separated from
God. And what did the prophet say? Lord, if they're going to live,
you're gonna have to breathe life into them. And so the Lord
told the prophet, he said, prophesy to the bones, preach to dead
men, preach to dead men, and then prophesy to the wind, call
upon the spirit of God to come and bless the preaching of the
gospel. And the bones began to come together
and God gave them life. That's our need. Now, don't confuse
the new birth with a reformation of behavior or a reformation
of doctrine. Don't confuse it. You can move
from being a freewill Arminian to being a five-point Calvinist
and never experience the new birth. I stand before you as testimony
of that experience. I was there. And, prior to that, I considered
a reformation of my life. There were things that I used
to do that I quit doing when I had my first religious experience
at 20 years old. And I thought that I had experienced
the new birth because I didn't do some of those things I used
to do. Don't confuse a reformation of behavior or a reformation
of doctrine with the new birth. They are cheap substitutes. They
are lies from Satan. They don't have anything to do
with the spiritual birth that God gives to the heart. Don't
confuse the new birth with eternal justification. Some think, well, we love to
talk about eternal justification here, don't we? We love thinking
about eternal life. We love Knowing that God has
always viewed his people in the covenant of grace, in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That he is the lamb that was
slain before the foundation of the world. That before God, we
have been justified for all eternity in the person of our substitute.
But don't think for a moment that that truth, and it is true,
negates the necessity of the new birth. It doesn't. We're
still dead. We're still spiritually in need
of being made alive. Don't think that the doctrine
of election, we love thinking about election, God chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. And what God determines
in the covenant of grace in choosing His people cannot be reversed.
But don't think that the truth of election negates the necessity
of the new birth. If anything is clear in our text,
the Lord is making it clear that you and I must be born again. We must experience a work of
grace in our hearts whereby the Spirit of God opens the eyes
of our understanding and enables us to have faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't think that just because
God has predestinated all things to be, and he has, Everything
in creation, everything in providence, everything in salvation has been
predetermined by our sovereign God. The scripture makes it clear. He hath done whatsoever he wills. No man can stay his hand. No
man can say unto him, what doest thou? He has his purpose accomplished
with all the armies of heaven and with every inhabitant of
the earth. We don't serve a God here that
needs man to give him permission to let him be Lord of their life. We don't believe in that God.
That's a false God. That's an idol that's been devised
by the imagination of man. Nevertheless, though everything
Everything that happens in time has been predetermined by our
sovereign God in eternity, and everything is right on schedule.
Don't think for a moment that that truth, as glorious as it
is, negates the necessity of the new birth. The new birth. The Lord said,
except you be born again. The miracle of grace has to be
done in order to give us life in Christ. The scriptures are
clear. Ephesians chapter 2, you he hath
quickened who were dead in your trespasses and sins. He's made
you alive. Regeneration is a separate doctrine. from justification, redemption,
predestination, God's sovereignty. Now, if you experience one, you'll
experience them all. But regeneration, nevertheless,
is not to be presumed upon. Now, don't confuse regeneration
with a feeling. I'm waiting for an experience. I'm waiting for a feeling. If
God does a work of grace in your heart and regenerates you, there
will be feelings. Oh, there will be. There will
be feelings of joy and peace and hope in Christ that will
sustain your soul, as we just sang about. But feelings come
and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My warrant,
my warrant, my hope is the Word of God. None else is worth believing. It's God's Word that stands true
and sure for the hope of my salvation. What I'm saying to you is that
if God does a work of regeneration, the evidence of that work, the
evidence and the only evidence of it that's sure is faith. Faith. Believing God. Just believing God. You're not
budding the gospel, you're bowing to the truth of God's sovereign
grace in salvation. Now let's look at Nicodemus.
John chapter 3, verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees,
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And Nicodemus is mentioned
three times in the Gospel of John. He's mentioned here, he's
mentioned in John chapter 7, when he stands against the Sanhedrin. Nicodemus was not only a member
of the Pharisaical sect, according to first century historians there
were about 6,000 members of this Pharisaical sect. They were the
pious, self-righteous, law-mongering, religious zealots of the day. And Nicodemus was a member of
that sect. But not only was he a member
of that sect, but the scripture makes it clear here that he was
a member of the Sanhedrin. In other words, 70 men of the
top 6,000, the top 70 men made up the inner circle. They were
the high court for Jews. And Nicodemus was a part of that
court. And in John chapter 7, when they were discussing among
the Sanhedrin what to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, Nicodemus
stood up against his peers and said, should we judge a man before
we hear his case? And his peers quickly discounted
him and said to him, what, are you one of them? And then in
John chapter 19, the scripture makes it clear
that Nicodemus went with Joseph of Arimathea to get the body
you get permission from Pilate to take the body of the Lord
Jesus Christ and give it a proper burial risking his own life his
own reputation to identify with Christ giving evidence that Nicodemus
certainly had by then come to believe the gospel but here he's
an unbeliever Here he doesn't understand. He comes to the Lord
Jesus Christ as a Pharisee. The Pharisees were very scrupulous
in keeping certain aspects of the law, particularly the outward
performances of the law. The Lord said about the Pharisees,
He said, you tithe, mint, and anise, and cumin, and you ignore
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and justice, and
faith, and mercy? You see, those are things of
the heart. Judgment and mercy and faith
are conditions of the heart. The Pharisees were very zealous
in performing the outward things of the law which other men saw. Why? Because they loved the praise
of men. They loved the praise of men.
And these religious Pharisees are just like the Pharisees of
today. just like the men and women who
are very zealously religious, who are committed to their outward
performances of the law for the sake of impressing their peers
while in their hearts, while in their hearts there's no judgment,
there's no mercy, there's no faith. Why? Because there hasn't
been a new birth. There hasn't been a new birth.
You and I have got to be born again. We've got to be born of
God. In all his religious zeal, in
all of his achievements, in all of his dedication, the scripture
says that he came to the Lord Jesus Christ at night, indicating
his spiritual condition. He was in spiritual darkness.
He did not understand the truth. The Lord makes that clear to
him. He came to Jesus by night. Look, verse two, the same came
to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, teacher, how do I
know if I've been born again? You know, knowledge puffs up. There's a whole lot of folks
that get religious for the sake of learning new things that other
people don't know. And they come to Jesus by night,
just like Nicodemus, to add to their repertoire of knowledge
more doctrine and more information so that they can compete with
their peers. And that's all Nicodemus is doing. He calls the Lord Jesus
Christ teacher, teacher, rabbi, We know that thou art a teacher
come from God. Now, how do I know that I've
experienced the new birth? Well, Thomas expressed it like
this. Remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ appeared to Thomas after the resurrection? And Thomas
is the one that doubted. Thomas is the one who said, I'm
not going to believe until I can touch his wounds. And what did
the Lord say? Thomas, here I am. Put your hand
in my side. Stick your fingers in the holes
in my hands. And Thomas never touched the Lord Jesus Christ.
What did he do? He fell at his feet and he said,
not rabbi, not teacher, we know that thou been son of God, for
no man can do the things that thou doest except God be with
him. What did he say? He said, my Lord and my God. He bowed in total submission
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's faith. That's faith. Nicodemus has not yet been born
again. He's still looking to Jesus as a teacher. And he's still looking at the
outward miracles. Look at what else he says. For no man can
do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Show us a sign and we'll believe.
Isn't that what they said? Nicodemus was impressed with
the outward manifestation of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ
to perform miracles. Men still do that. Show me a
miracle and then I'll be satisfied. Here's what the Lord said, a
wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign. The unbelievers
always looking for signs. You know, they talk about, we
looked at this when we considered the dew a few weeks ago. When Gideon brought the fleece of
wool and put down on the ground and the dew of God fell and saturated
the fleece and then he rang the fleece out and he put it down
again and the dew of God fell on the ground. And people take
that example and they say, well, you know, we need to put out
our fleece. We need to get a sign from God. You've already got
the sign. The dew that came on the fleece
was the power of the Spirit of God on the Lord Jesus Christ
in His successful work as our Savior. And what Gideon did to
that fleece when he wrung it out is what God did to the Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. The sign's already been given.
And now the dew falls on others because it's been wrung out of
the Lord Jesus Christ. A wicked and perverse generation
seeketh after a sign. No sign will be given to it except
for the sign of Jonah. What was the sign of Jonah? Who
spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale and
was vomited forth onto dry land. There's a picture. of the death,
the burial, the resurrection, the successful work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God could not allow His Son to
remain in the tomb because He was pleased with what He accomplished. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
His head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished, He had
accomplished everything the Father sent Him to do, the redemption
of His people. And he went into the tomb and
God brought him forth victorious. There's our sign. There's the
miracle. Nicodemus was impressed with
blind people seeing and lame people being able to walk and
all the things that our Lord was doing. He saw the acts of
God. The scripture says of the Israelites
in the Old Testament that they saw the acts of God. They knew the acts of God. That's
what it says. They saw the ten plagues that
God sent on Egypt. They saw the dividing of the
Red Sea. They walked across on dry ground with walls of water
on both sides. They saw the manna on the ground
every morning. They saw the quail that God sent.
They saw the quaking of the mountain and the thunderings and the lightning.
They saw the rock rent and the waters come forth. They saw the
acts of God. It didn't change them. It didn't
change him. You and I see the acts of God.
You want a miracle? The fact that you're able to
draw your next breath is a miracle. It is. If a miracle is something
that only God can do, it's something supernatural,
the drawing of your next breath is a miracle. And everything else is a miracle. is a work of God's grace. Israel knew the acts of God. They saw what God was doing.
And the rest of that verse says, but Moses knew his ways. Moses had been born again. Moses knew why God was doing
what he was doing. Moses knew that that rock was
Christ. Moses knew that that manna was
Christ. Moses knew that that water that
came forth from the rock was Christ. He understood it. He knew the ways of God. Lord,
give to me the new birth so that I'm not just looking at the miracles
of life, but I'm understanding that you are the power. You are
my hope. You're the only one that can
put away my sin. You're the only one that can
make me accepted before God. You are the Lord and you are
my God. Nicodemus came to the Lord by
night. He was a Pharisee. He was a ruler of the Jews. He
was extremely religious. I mean, I've said this before. If you lived in Jerusalem in
the first century and you knew Nicodemus, here's what you would
say about Nicodemus. If he's not going to heaven,
nobody's going to get there. That's what you would have said
about Nicodemus. And he comes to God by night
and calls God a teacher. And is impressed with the miracles
that he's performing with no understanding of why he's doing
it. And so what's the Lord say to
him in verse 3? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, Truly, truly. Every word in this book is verily
the word of God. But when God pauses to say verily,
verily, what He's doing is He's taking a lot of things that He
said and summarizing them into one point. He's not saying this
is more important than everything else. He's saying this is a summary
of everything that I've been talking about. Verily, verily,
Nicodemus, pay attention. Pay attention, Nicodemus. I say
unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. I want you to think with me for
just a moment about this word, except. Except. Except your righteousness exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall
not enter into the kingdom of God. Now as outwardly righteous
as the scribes and Pharisees were, God says you've got to
have a better righteousness than theirs. How are you going to
have that? You're going to have to have
a righteousness outside of yourself. You're going to have to have
one who is righteous to stand in your stead before God. That's
the only hope you're going to have. except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Verily I say
unto you, except you be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Now that's
what the Lord said. Except you be converted and become as a
little child. Suffer the little children to
come unto me for such is the kingdom of God. I tell you, except
you repent, you shall all likewise perish." Now these are the exceptions
that were spoken from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Except
you repent. Except you have a change of heart.
How are you going to repent? It's a work of grace. That's
all part of the new birth. Repentance is the work of God
changing our minds, causing us to believe something we never
believed before. A man can receive nothing except
it be given to him from heaven. Did you hear that? A man can
receive nothing That means the next breath you draw comes from
God. That means the spiritual life
that we have in Christ comes from God. A man can receive nothing
except to be given to him from heaven. Here's another one. No
man. No man. There's what the Lord
said. No man. You say, what's this mean? It
means no man can come to me. What's that mean? It means what
it says. No man can come to me unless the Father which sent
me draw him. God's got to make you come. He's
got to make you willing. He's got to cause you to believe.
This new birth is a work of grace. Our Lord said, except you eat,
of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink of His blood, you have
no life in you." And when our Lord said that,
the Jews were offended. They thought He was talking about
cannibalism. Unless you eat of My flesh, that's
His perfect life, His sinless life before God. unless you trust
me for all your righteousness before God. Unless you drink
of my blood, that's looking to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
for all the hope of your justification before God. Nothing will put
away your sin other than the blood of Christ. God said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. Not when I see your good
intentions. Not when I see your prayers.
Not when I see your efforts. That's all pharisaical. When
I see what Christ has done for you, Then I'll pass by you. Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. Who's that corn of wheat? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that died. He's
the one that died. He's the one that fell into the
ground. He's the one that brought forth life. And he's the one
that bears much fruit. Abide in me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine, no more can you except you abide in me. God puts exceptions on this new
birth, doesn't he? And in every one of those verses
we just looked at, the Lord's saying, except I do it, it won't
be done. It's not something for you to
do. It's something for you to believe. And that is a work of
grace. That is a work of grace. All right, let's go back with
our text. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him,
How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? See, Nicodemus, like
everybody that's still spiritually dead, that can't understand,
Are you talking about being born again? I'm a grown man. It's
impossible. Yes, it is impossible. But what's
impossible with man is possible with God. It's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to
enter in the kingdom of heaven. He's not talking about material
wealth. He's talking about those who are rich in their own righteousness,
in their own works. Those who are hoping that something
they've done or something they haven't done is going to earn
them favor with God. And God says, it's impossible. And the disciples said, Lord,
if that be true, who then can be saved? And the Lord said,
with man, it is impossible. It is impossible. But with God,
all things are possible. The Lord strips you of your righteousness
and makes you naked before God and causes you to know that you
are a slave to sin. That in you, that is in your
flesh, there is no good thing. Nothing good. Nothing. You're sinful before God. If
He does that, it'll be the work of grace. Man by nature won't
come to that conclusion. He will spend his whole life
comparing himself to himself, thinking that he's getting better.
He will spend his whole life comparing himself to other men,
believing that he's above average. And it's not until the work of
God's grace brings him in the presence of Christ, and causes
him to see he's never ever been able to produce one thing that's
righteous in the presence of God. Not a single thing, not
a single thought, not a single word, not a single motive, not
a single deed have you and I ever done that God's pleased with.
He's pleased with Christ. He's pleased with Christ. The
only hope that you and I have is to cast the entire hope of
our salvation on Him. That's faith. How can this be? I don't understand. Verse 5, And Jesus answered,
Verily I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now what is this
water? Well, it's the word of God. It's Christ. He's the water. He's the river
of crystal clear water that flows from the throne of God. And he's
the sum and substance of this book. In the volume of the book,
it is written of me. This is a biography, an autobiography,
if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a rule book
for Christian living. It's a testimony of Christ. That's what this whole book is
about. And God says, of His own will, of God's own will, begat
He us, birthed us into the Kingdom of God by His Word. By His Word. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of Truth. So that's what he's talking about.
And then the scripture makes it clear in John chapter 1 that
the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the Word of God. In the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. The Word
of God dwelt among us. We beheld his glory as the glory
of the only begotten of the Father. He's the one that's full of grace
and he's the one that's full of truth. And he's the one we
need. What? We have no hope outside
of Christ. We're here to preach Christ. To lift up Christ. He said, and I, if I be lifted
up. He's going to say this to Nicodemus.
He's going to say, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And I, if I be lifted up,
I will draw men to myself. That's all we do. All we do is
lift up Christ and say to dead dog, hell-deserving sinners,
come to Christ, look to Christ, rely upon Christ. Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. God
uses His Word. I know people say, well, that's
your interpretation. Just read the Word of God and
ask Him to open the eyes of your understanding. You'll see that
it means what it says. It's not convoluted. It's not confusing. It's not
some deep... It just means what it says. It's
clear. The only people that don't understand
it are people that are trying to make it to mean something
it doesn't mean. If you go to the Word of God
with error already in your heart and try to get the Word of God
to reconcile to that error, it's going to be confusing to you.
But it just means what it says. Look, that which is born of the
flesh is flesh. That's how we came into this
world. The Lord's teaching Nicodemus. He's teaching us. What about
this new birth? Nicodemus, I'm not talking about
anything fleshly. That which is done in the flesh
is flesh. And that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. The flesh profiteth nothing. It is the spirit that giveth
life. You're not going to will your way into the kingdom of
God. You're not going to work your way into the kingdom of
God. The Lord said it is not of him that willeth. It is not
of him that runneth. It is of God that showeth mercy.
He's the potter. We're the clay. He has the sovereign
right to make of the same lump of clay some vessels of honor
and some of dishonor. Look at verse 8. It means what
it says. How can you misunderstand this? He's talking about being
born of the Spirit. Look at verse 8. The wind bloweth
where it listeth. I always chuckle when I read
these scientific journals about ideas about what they're going
to do to try to redirect a hurricane. They're going to seed the clouds
and they're going to do this and do that. You're not going to control the
wind. The wind listeth whithersoever it wills. You hear the sound thereof, but
cannot tell where it comes or whether it's going. So is everyone
that's born of the Spirit. The Spirit of God now is being
likened to the wind. You see its effect, you feel
its effect, but you can't control him. You can't say to the wind,
come this way. You beg for God to send his wind,
but it's his sovereign prerogative whether to send it or not. So
is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. Nicodemus answered
and said to him, how can these things be? You see, he's still
trying to understand salvation. He's still trying to understand
eternal life based on something that he does. Surely there's
something I can bring to the table. And the Lord's saying,
no, there's nothing. And Nicodemus is saying, how
can these things be? This is contrary to everything
I've ever believed. This is contrary to everything
I've ever taught. This is contrary to everything
I've ever heard. It doesn't make sense to me. And the gospel is, the gospel
is. How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto
him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?
Now what's the Lord saying to Nicodemus? Nicodemus, you have
prided yourself all your life in being a student of the Bible
and you don't understand any of it. You don't understand any of it.
In another place, the Lord told the Pharisees, Nicodemus' peers,
you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal
life. But you missed it. For these
are they which testify of me. Happens today, all the time.
People take this book and they think, okay, I can do that. They're
like the children of Israel. Moses came down off the mountain.
We talked about it in the previous hour. We'll do that. Everything
God says, we'll do it. And what did Moses say? You can't obey God. You can't satisfy the demands
of His law. You're in need of a Savior. You're
in need of a substitute. You're in need of the only man
who's ever been able to please God with perfect obedience to
stand in your stead before God and speak to God on your behalf.
It's the only hope you've got. Only hope you've got. Nicodemus would have believed
in the Messiah. I know the Messiah's coming,
but we still gotta do our part, right? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
we speak that which we know, and testify that which we have
seen, and you receive not our witness. Nicodemus, I'm telling
you the truth, and you can't receive it, you won't receive
it, because you're still trying to reconcile it to your works
religion. And there's no reconciling the
two. You cannot put works and grace together. You cannot put
free will and God's sovereign grace together. There's no place
for them to meet. It's one way or it's the other.
And the Lord's saying to this Pharisee, you won't receive my
witness. I have told you earthly things
and you believe not. How shall you believe if I tell
you heavenly things? Now Nicodemus had asked, how
can these things be? The Lord's already told him,
you've got to be born of the Spirit. It's got to be a work
of grace in your heart. Now the Lord's saying, that's
earthly things. That's your experience. And when
you ask, how can these things be? Now you're asking to delve
into the mind of God and explain to you why God would choose a
particular people of His own will and purpose before time
ever began. Why He would pass over others.
And you're asking to understand heavenly things when you've not
received earthly things? But isn't that what men do? They
hear the gospel, and what's their first response? What's their
first response to the gospel of God's free grace? Their first
response is, that's not fair. My God's not like that. I want
to know, I want to know why God would do such a thing. That's
exactly what Nicodemus is asking. And the Lord says to Nicodemus,
you didn't receive that which I told you, which is just part
of your experience. How are you going to receive
that which is in the mind of God? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
He's talking about when those children of Israel, God, because
of their unbelief, God sent venomous snakes into the camp of the Israelites
when they were in the Sinai desert, wandering around. And many of
them died. And God told Moses, he said,
take some brass and fashion a snake and put it up on a pole and hold
it up high. And whoever looks at that serpent
on that pole will be healed from their snake bites. So I thought the serpent was
a picture of Satan. In the serpent, Satan in the
garden? Yeah. Yeah. And all that Satan brought into
this world, the fall of man, and all the sin that we've been
infected with, all came from him. And that's what the Lord
Jesus Christ bore in his body upon the tree. Cursed is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. Yes, the serpent was cursed in
the garden. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
cursed by God on Calvary's cross. And God Almighty forsook His
only begotten Son, my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?
Why? Because my eyes are too pure
to look upon sin. As the sin-bearer, the Lord Jesus
Christ suffered the wrath of God's justice in order to put
away the sins of His people. And in the Old Testament, if
they looked at that serpent, they would live. And the Lord
said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so
must the Son of Man be lifted up. And anybody that looks to
Him, anybody that looks to Him will be delivered from the sting
of death. Which is what sin is. Christ is all. He's just all. And He's in all. The natural
man won't have Him. He won't have Him. He's bound
up in His own will and in His own works. He believes that He's
got something to say about His salvation. He will not bow. He will not submit. He will not
put all His trust and hope in the accomplished work of another
to save Him. He wants to save himself. Nicodemus
wanted to save himself. Whosoever believeth in him should
not perish. Should not perish. That's what's
going to happen to everybody that doesn't trust Christ. They're
going to perish. And it's like Logan said earlier. This life is a vapor. Death is charging us like a steam
engine. I mean, it's coming quicker than
any of us think. All that are found outside of
Christ in that moment of truth will spend eternity separated
from God. and what he calls perishing.
Perishing. That's why I introduced this
message by saying our hope here is to learn how to die. I want
you to know how to die. I really do. I want to know how
to die. I want to have hope in death. Only then Only then can you have
any understanding about how to live. Man-made religion today, every
bit of it, you just listen to it, every bit of it is based
on trying to help you be a better person, you know, let you just
put this principle into practice and do this and do that, and
it's pop psychology and entertainment and all that kind of stuff. There's
no truth to it. The truth of the gospel is the
person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His life, which
we see in the bread, and His death, which we see in the wine. We come to this table eating
of His flesh and drinking of His blood that we might have
life in us. This is just an outward symbol. of a work of grace that God does
in the heart. Don't take of the table if you've
not been born again. If you have, oh, you're welcome. You're welcome. This is a time
of celebration for God's people to rejoice in the righteous life
of the Lord Jesus Christ and in his sacrificial substitutionary
death for all their salvation. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful for thy dear son. We pray, Lord, that
your Holy Spirit would lift him up in our hearts and cause us
to look and live. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. I ask the men if they'll come,
please, and distribute number 12 in the blue handout, number
12. Bread of heaven on thee we feed,
for thy flesh is meat indeed. Ever may our souls be fed with
this true and living bread. Vine of heaven, Thy blood supplies,
This blessed cup of sacrifice. Lord, Thy wounds our healing
give, To Thy cross we look and live. Day by day, with strength
supplied, Through the life of Him who died. Lord of life, O let us be Rooted,
grafted, built in Thee. Life affords a lot of different
celebrations, doesn't it? We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries
and lots of things that we enjoy to celebrate. Nothing can be
compared to celebrating the new birth. That's all we're doing
right now. We're celebrating the new birth.
We're rejoicing in what the Lord has done in sending his spirit
to reveal to his people the accomplished work of his dear son. The Lord
said, as often as you eat of this bread, do it in remembrance
of me. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. I love that. That's what the
Lord told Moses. Put the blood on the on the lintel
and the doorposts of the houses and get behind the blood. Stay
in the house. Don't don't stick your hand out
the window. When the death angel comes by, he'll pass by you when
he sees the blood. What a picture that the Lord
would see the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to cover me
and to make me acceptable in his sight. As often as you do
this, do this in remembrance of me. All God's people said, Amen. Amen. Adam, would you dismiss
us, please? Let's stand together. Adam's
going to pray for us before we dismiss. Merciful Heavenly Father, we
thank you for drawing us together to hear your word. We pray that
your messages today would have an effectual means on our heart,
Lord. We pray that you would cause
us to continually love your Son, Jesus Christ, for all our salvation.
We pray that you would continue to draw us to your word. We pray
that you would keep us in your Son, Jesus Christ, forever. In
your perfect and holy sons name we pray, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.