John chapter 19 and verse 38. And after this, after the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, after the scriptures were fulfilled,
not a bone of him shall be broken, and they shall look upon him
whom they pierced, verse 38, and after this, These are the
events of the work of God as recorded in the first Acts that
follow his death. I think they're incredibly significant.
This is the work of God, the primary work of God in the hearts
of these people. Listen to what happens. And after
this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly
for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away
the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him leave. He
came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came
also Nicodemus, which at first came to Jesus by night, and brought
a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, wound it in linen cloths, with
the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was
crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new sepulcher,
wherein was never man yet laid. There lay they Jesus, therefore,
because of the Jews' preparation day, for the sepulchre was nigh
at hand. Some people say that the garden
of Joseph of Arimathea was no more than 30 or 40 meters away
from the cross of Calvary. And like lots of gardens in those
days, there would have been a wall garden. And he was a very, very
wealthy and very prominent man. And so you can imagine the garden
with all of the things that the wealthy people had in gardens,
but especially this was a garden that contained his tomb, and
it was a new tomb. And I want us to think of what
it was like for those men on that day to come to the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ for Nicodemus and Joseph to look up to that broken
and dead body, the crown of thorns probably still on it, the sign
above it, this is the King of the Jews, the wounds, And then they had to somehow
take the body down. No doubt they had people with
them. They were both very wealthy people and they had servants,
but they lifted up that cross from out of the hole that it
was placed in. and they lay it on the ground.
You can imagine the reverence that they did this with and the
horror that must have filled their minds as they looked down
and they lay that cross of that body upon it down on the ground
next to the cross of Calvary with all the blood and the gore
and the excrement of all of those men that were crucified and all
that walked by. And then they took out those
nails. The nails were huge. Huge nails, so they had to take
them out. And then I imagine, and I'm only
imagining this, but you can just picture the scene that they would.
as reverently and as gently as they possibly could, moved that
body onto a cloth and carried it away from that horrible scene
as quickly as they could and taken it into this garden. And
they had little time. Preparation day was there the
Sabbath as the sun was going down. They had to be back in
their homes doing nothing by sunset. and they come into this
garden and the women are there watching. You can read about
them in the other Gospel accounts. And so it's an amazing picture
of what then happened, isn't it? There was the Lord Jesus
Christ, His body, and gathered with Him were these two men that
we read about here, plus the ladies, just pictures of the
church, pictures of all the redeemed. And in their haste, no doubt,
They would have removed as much of the blood as they could from
the Lord Jesus Christ. We know they didn't do a complete
job because the ladies went home to gather more anointing elements
to come back on the morning that we read about in the next chapter.
And then they wound that body, having cleaned it as best they
could, they wound that body and covered it in those spices and
then wound it and put more spices and herbs on, more of the myrrh
and aloes that we looked at in these previous weeks. They placed his body on a tomb,
in that tomb, and it was sealed up. And despite the fact that
it being a Sabbath, if you read Matthew's account, that the Jews
were horrified that he was placed in this rich man's tomb, exactly
as Isaiah 53 said, because they had planned for him to be put
in the garbage tip of everlasting burnings outside Jerusalem. And they went to Pilate, breaking
their Sabbath, and they went to Pilate and asked that there
be a guard and a seal put on the tomb. And Pilate said, you
make it as secure as you like. You can have as many people there
as you like. and the Church of God rested
on that Sabbath. What a Sabbath that would have
been for these people who knew from the Scriptures what had
happened. What a Sabbath that must have been for believers.
I think of Saul of Tarsus after his conversion how the Scriptures
just came alive to him. He thought he knew the Scriptures
just like a Nicodemus thought he knew the Scriptures, and then
the Scriptures just came alive in the most extraordinary, powerful
way. What a Passover that was for
these men. What a Sabbath. No doubt, as
with all the disciples, there was a despairing that things
had gone terribly, terribly wrong, and yet things had gone terribly,
terribly well and perfectly. I want us to go and follow the journey of Nicodemus
to this place. Nicodemus was asked a question.
I've got two messages this morning. One is about Nicodemus and his
journey. There are three meetings of Nicodemus in the scriptures.
He's the one that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ by night in
John chapter 3, and he's asked that great question. Are you
born again? You must be born again. It's
not an option for the children of God. You must. The Lord Jesus
Christ spoke to this man and he said, you must be born again. Now turn with me back to John
chapter 3. I want to think about this and
for us to consider this in terms of how Nicodemus came to this
place through these meetings, but he came to this place and
he came to this act of reverence and adoration of the Lord Jesus
Christ through a process. And it's a glorious process.
And we know that regeneration is instantaneous, and I'm not
sure that anyone knows exactly when Nicodemus was born again. We don't relate days and hours
and minutes to these things. The issue is, what do you believe
now? There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, the 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. Nicodemus came with the knowledge,
he came with the judgment of God, didn't he? He could assess
these things through the eyes of flesh. We know, we know that
thou art a teacher. come from God for no man. So he's a teacher, he's a man,
and he does miracles. No man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. We'll see in a little
bit how far away from the truth of the matter Nicodemus was.
And I love the Lord's answer. He could have said, well all
that's very true, Nicodemus. But he went to the very heart
of the problem always, and I love how the Lord Jesus Christ goes
to the heart of our issues with him all the time. I love his
honesty. I love the simplicity of it.
Jesus answered and said unto him, truly, truly, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, accept a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter a second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is
born of flesh is flesh. That and that which is born of
the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. There must be a spiritual
birth. It's a must. You must. You must. There must be. washing of regeneration and a
justification by His grace. There must be the water and the
blood that flowed from Christ's side. That water must touch you
and that blood must come and cleanse you. Nicodemus. One of the things
I love about every other mention of Nicodemus in the scriptures
is that Nicodemus is the one that came to Jesus by night.
And every time they mention Judas, Judas is scared of the one that
should betray him. Nicodemus is identified in the
other parts of John's Gospel by his relationship to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so is everyone. Our identity
is in our relationship. The sum of our lives is measured
by our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have these three
meetings. the three mentions of Nicodemus. And I want us to look at the
three of them in light of what is promised by the Holy Spirit
in John chapter 16, 16 verse 8. This is talking of the work of
the Holy Spirit. You must be born of the Spirit.
And this is the work of the birthing of the Spirit. Go back to verse 7 of John, it
says, Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for
you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you when he is come. This is what the Holy Spirit
will do when he comes. If he's come to you, this is
what he's done. If you have been born again,
this is the work that he has done in your heart. When he has
come, he will reprove, convince, convict, that word is, he will
reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. There are three meanings of Nicodemus,
there are three works of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of
people. Of sin, what is the great sin? of sin because they believe not
on me. Unbelief is sin. Unbelief. is a reflection of the sin that
we sinned in the garden with Adam, of righteousness because
I go to my father and you see me no more, of judgment because
the prince of this world is judged. If you hold those things in your
mind you'll see that Nicodemus' path is one that is so, so emblematic
of these. Nicodemus is drawn out in John
chapter 3. Nicodemus is drawn out of humanity
and out of darkness and he's drawn into the light. And in all of these meetings
with the Lord Jesus Christ and people in the scriptures, we
have encounters of salvation, we have encounters of judgment,
but every time, remember, he came first. He came from heaven. He came to earth. He comes to
Jerusalem. He still comes to where his people
are at. He's the Great Shepherd. He knows
where the sheep are. He comes to them. You go back to verse 23 and we'll
see why this is such an amazing picture of the beginning of the
work of the Lord in Nicodemus' heart, I believe. Now, verse
23, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast
day, he just cleansed the temple, the temple that Nicodemus and
Joseph of Arimathea were responsible for maintaining. When he came
at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name
when they saw the miracles. They saw the things that he did
and they believed in his name. But Jesus did not commit himself
to them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any
should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. What's in man? Nicodemus came
to him and said, I know. I know you're a teacher, and
you're a man. I know these things, and we all
know them together. What's in man? What did the Lord
Jesus Christ see in man? In Adam he sees exactly what
Romans chapter 3 says, and it's exactly what he saw in Genesis
chapter 6 verse 5 if you want to see what
God sees. Listen to what he says. This
is God's prescription of Nicodemus as to why he wouldn't entrust
himself into men. Romans 3 verse 9. You know these
verses well, but I want you to contemplate them with me. What
then? Are we better than they? No,
in no wise. Romans 3 verse 9. For we have
before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under
sin. What is it then? Sin. They're under sin, so sin
is over them. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. This is Jews and Gentiles. There
is none that doeth good. No, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulcher, with tongues they have used to seep. The poison
of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. The way of
peace they have not known. And the summary of it all, there
is no fear of God before their eyes. He was the best that man
could produce in religion, wasn't he? He knew the scriptures off
by heart. He thought he knew the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He thought that not only did
he not have to do any more to get into heaven, but he thought
that when he got into heaven he was going to have a very special
place in heaven. And he couldn't wait for the
Messiah to come back to put him on a place of prominence and
authority that he and all of his crowd were looking for. He was in the business of preparing
the nation for the Messiah to come. That was their appointed
task, and they were excited about him coming, and they were looking
forward to him coming, and they were preparing themselves and
their nation for his coming. He came with what he thought. It was the knowledge and his
judgment of Christ. We know. As the natural man says,
every time you meet anyone and you're speaking of anything to
do with spiritual matters, you are in the presence of an expert.
I've never met one that wasn't. Never one. And who do they see as the ignorant
ones? The ones that come and talk about the Lord Jesus Christ.
We know, we know. He says you're a teacher sent
from God. No, he's God who's come to teach. You're a man. No, he's God. He's
God. And no one could do these miracles
unless God was with him. No, God was with Nicodemus, and
Nicodemus had no clue who he was in the presence of. And this
is Christ's diagnosis, if you're there in John Chapter 3, this
is Christ's diagnosis of his problem, and it's Christ's diagnosis
of all of the problems, of all of those he's come to save. Verse
6, that which is born of flesh, It doesn't matter how religious
and how righteous and how fancy and how knowledgeable and how
highly esteemed it is among men, that which is born of flesh,
listen to it, is flesh. It's as simple as that, isn't
it? That's all it is. All of the religion of man that
man makes up is fleshly religion. It's born of flesh. It's activated
by fleshly activities. It's maintained by fleshly activities. But that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit. That's Christ's diagnosis. Nicodemus,
you need to be born again. You must be born again. You must
have new life to see. You must have new life to enter
the Kingdom of God. Entering involves emotion that
God works in the hearts of His people. In verse 12, gives another diagnosis of Nicodemus'
problems. I have told you of earthly things,
and you believe not. How shall you believe if I tell
you of heavenly things? It's extraordinary how Nicodemus'
problem is made worse by these conversations with the Lord Jesus
Christ, it seems. He's raising the bar so that
the only possible way that Nicodemus can ever understand any of these
things is for God to do a work in his heart and to be born.
Listen to what he says in verse 13. And no man has ascended up
to heaven but he that came down from heaven. You can't ascend
up to heaven unless you go up in him. Even the Son of Man which
is in heaven. He's saying to Nicodemus at the
same time, I'm here talking to you as God in human flesh and
I'm in heaven. If you reckon you can figure
that out. We just believe what God says
and we rejoice. That's Christ's diagnosis, isn't
it? Man's crisis in verse 18. Let's turn over a page in my
Bible. In verse 18, we've seen His judgment, Christ's response,
Christ's diagnosis of his problem, man's crisis in verse 18 of John
3. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. If you ever get to have a look
at a Greek Bible, and God speaks really good English, that word
condemned is the word crisis. If you just wrote out the letters,
it's crisis. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That's just not his name, that's
all of what his name implies, all of his character as God,
as Christ, as Jesus. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. This is Christ's
diagnosis of the problem. Their deeds are evil. We have a problem. as Adam's children. We have a
problem with sinners. It's much, much deeper than something
just that reforms the outside of us. Verse 20. For everyone
that doeth evil hates the light. There is a hatred of God. There's
a love of darkness. There's a hatred of God. Neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. There's man's crisis. And because
of the greatness of the crisis, the greatness of the solution
is so, so wonderfully honoring to God. In verse 8, The Lord
Jesus Christ gives Nicodemus the solution. The wind, the spirit,
blows where it wishes, and thou hearest not the sound thereof,
and canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So
is everyone that is born of the Spirit. There's a supernatural,
miraculous activity that's going on in the hearts of people, and
they're going to be born by a spiritual activity of God Almighty taking
the words of the Gospel and applying them to the hearts of His people. Christ's solution You've got
to be born again. You must be born again. The Spirit
of God must come upon you. The Spirit of God must come in
the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus is
preaching to Nicodemus. And these words, as we'll see,
went deep into Nicodemus' heart. But listen to what the Lord's
diagnosis is in verse 21 of this same chapter. But he that doeth
truth... What is it to do the truth? It's to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's to come. It's to believe on Him. He that
doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds, the deeds of
the one that does the truth, may be made manifest. They'll
be brought to light that they are... What? Who does the work? Nicodemus, you need God to do
something. They are wrought. That wrought is the word we get
wrought iron from. How do you make wrought iron?
with a lot of heat and a lot of pressure and a lot of effort.
It's God's work, isn't it? They are wrought in God. He has, in those intervening
verses, told Nicodemus those words that we looked at earlier
in verse 14. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
There are the two musts, aren't they? Two musts that must meet. in the salvation of a sinner. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but
have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Nicodemus needs to be told, like
all of us need to be told, that eternal life, everlasting life,
is not what you do for God, but what God does for you. And specifically
and particularly it's what God does for you in the death of
his dear and precious son on the cross of Calvary. Nicodemus
looked up to that cross and saw things that I pray we might see Nicodemus was not told how to
live to make his life better. He wasn't given moral lessons.
Nicodemus was simply told that God must do something for him.
Something outside of him must come into him and be done for
him. He must have a new life. Just
as he was born into this world and had no place and no activity
in his first birth, he must have a birth that comes from heaven. He must have new life. He must
be made a new creation. He must have a new heart. That's
the passage of Scripture in Ezekiel 36. He's got to remove a heart
of stone out of the heart of people and he puts in a heart
of flesh, a heart of flesh that loves God, a heart of flesh that
obeys God, a heart of flesh that delights in who he is. But to
come back to our friend Nicodemus, Nicodemus had come to Christ.
He'd come to Christ where Christ was proclaiming himself. That's
exactly what we've done today. That's exactly what church is. It's coming to a place where
God Almighty reveals himself and unveils himself and preaches
himself to his people. Nicodemus was a sinner. The Holy
Spirit's work is to convict the world of sin because they believe
not on me. The second activity of Nicodemus
is a short one in John chapter 7 if you turn over there. I do
love, if you go and read this whole chapter you'll see that
the Jews had plotted to murder the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's
continually telling them of himself and the glory of who he is and
the glory of what he was doing. He says, if any man thirst, let
him come unto me and drink. Verse 38, he that believeth on
me as the scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. This is the Holy Spirit he's
talking about. He was speaking to them of spiritual
things and the response It's the same response that has been
from the garden. Some believed and some believed
not. Verse 43, there was a division
among the people because of him. There's always a division among
the people because of him. Verse 44, and some of them would
have taken him, and we know from earlier in this passage that
they were taking him to kill him. That was the purpose of
taking him. But no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers
to the chief priests and Pharisees and said unto them, why have
you not brought him? And the officers answered, never
a man spake like this man. What a true word about our savior.
Never a man spake like this man. Listen to the judgment of the
Pharisees. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? They could stand in judgment
of these people. Have, and listen to their reason,
have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? Has the religious world stood
up and patted you on the back and told you how wonderful you
are for doing what you're doing? Listen to what they go on to
say. These people who are responsible for teaching these people. These people who are responsible
before God for leading these people into the truth of who
God is according to the scriptures. But these people that knoweth
not the law are cursed. Whose responsibility was it to
teach them the law? condemned by their own words.
Then I love what Nicodemus, in the midst of all of this hypocrisy
and judgmentalism, Nicodemus stands up to great peril of all
of his reputation, as we'll see. Nicodemus saith unto them, he
that came to Jesus by night, being one of them, doth our law
judge any man before it hear him, and knoweth and know what he
doeth." He's quite simply saying that our law says we are to judge
righteous judgment, we are to judge righteously, we are to
judge on the basis of evidence laid out before us. And listen
to their response, this bunch of religious self-righteous hypocrites. They answered and said, unto
him, Art thou also of Galilee? That's no compliment. That is
no compliment at all. It's like saying, are you from
Nowra in modern parlance almost, isn't it? Sorry. It's nice being
at the bottom, because everywhere is up, whichever way you go.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude about our hometown, but
a lot of people... Anyway, keep going. Are thou also of Galilee? It was an affront to Nicodemus.
They were being contemptuous of him. Search and look out,
for out of Galilee arises no prophet. What was the one sign that Nicodemus
was going to be a witness to? The one sign that was given that
people, the sign of the prophet Jonah, as Jonah was three nights
and three days in the belly of the great fish, the Lord Jesus
is going to be three days and three nights in the earth. Where was Jonah from? Galilee. These guys were just
liars, weren't they? There they were, standing in
judgment of all of these people, You want to mark it down, the
most wicked people on this earth are the religiously self-righteous,
the Pharisees, the separated ones, the ones who put themselves
above the rest of religion and the rest of people. You beware
of any religion that encourages you to stand in judgment of others.
We judge on the basis of the gospel. God sees the hearts of
all men. But there was in Nicodemus, I
want us to see, When the Spirit comes, he's going to convict
the world of righteousness. There was in Nicodemus a stirring
which I love to see in people. The stirrings of Nicodemus's
heart were to love the truth and to love justice and righteousness,
and together with that a hatred of lies. If God the Holy Spirit
is working in your heart, he will bring you to love the truth.
And you cannot love the truth if you don't hate everything
that stands opposed to it. And you'll buy the truth, as
Proverbs says, and you'll sell it not. You won't let anything
of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ fall to the ground. Other
men can say as they like, but you'll stand, as Nicodemus did,
in the midst of all of these people. They had known him well
for a long, long time. He had a place of high esteem
and prominence. He was the teacher of Israel.
They had judged the Lord Jesus Christ worthy of arrest and judgment
and condemnation. They had judged these people
that they were in care of as being cursed. They had judged
these people that had been sent to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ
as being deceived. And yet Nicodemus is there standing
in the power of God in judgment of them. They twist the scriptures
to their own destruction. John 16.10 speaks of this convicting
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God, taking the
things of Christ. Of righteousness because I go
to my Father. There's a conviction of sin because
you don't believe. Your greatest crime is unbelief. Of righteousness because I go
to my Father. The Lord Jesus Christ went to
the Father in righteousness. It was a righteous act of a righteous
God to take his Son back into heaven. because he had fulfilled
all righteousness under the law. He had lived a life of perfect
righteousness. He had been made sin, and now
he can go back to his father as perfectly righteous as he
ever was, because the sin is gone altogether. That's the convicting
work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of people. I go to my
father of righteousness because I go to my father. Nicodemus may well have been
there at the cross when he heard the Lord Jesus Christ praying
those prayers and quoting those words out of those psalms. Psalm
22, my God, my God. Psalm 69, I thirst. Psalm 31,
into thine hands I commend my spirit. of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. Not that he will be judged. He's
judged. Judgment happened at the cross
of Calvary, brothers and sisters. All of the sins of all of God's
people were judged at the cross of Calvary. Satan was judged
and made a mockery of by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross
of Calvary. Satan was disarmed. Sin has been
put to death and it's gone. That's what justification is. He goes to his father. Nicodemus
had been taught in remarkable ways in John chapter 19, there
when he comes into the light and he openly identifies with
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. He openly honors the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ and gives it a burial fit for a king. he been through this convicting
work of the Holy Spirit. So let's remember Nicodemus'
journey. One of the things that I love
about Nicodemus' journey is it's a journey that so many of us
have been on. He came having a judgment of
Christ, which is what everyone does when they come in their
first meeting with the Lord, they stand in judgment of him.
And much of his judgment was wrong, but he came. He came. And I really believe he came
with sincerity, and he came without any of the hostility that others
had. You remember all of those, so
many of those other meetings with the Pharisees, they came
with an agenda in mind, didn't they? When they brought that
woman caught in adultery, they thought, we've got him now. When
they brought that coin with Caesar's image on it, they thought, if
we can get him to touch this coin, we'll know he's defiled.
Again and again and again they came and he saw their hearts. He watched them scheming all
of those things in their dark little caverns where they were
trying to trap him. Nicodemus came. He came with
sincerity. He came without hostility to
the Lord Jesus Christ. that convicted him of his utter
ignorance and convicted him that salvation is in the hands of
God Almighty and not in his hands at all. We're in God's hands. He is the one who is absolutely
sovereign. And Nicodemus stands up before
that religious crowd and honors the Lord Jesus Christ. What we're
doing is unrighteous and this man is righteous. He came to
the light. And if we will rest in and rejoice
in the light that we are given, God will give more light. And God never in the scriptures
has rejected a humble seeker. Never. Everyone that came to
the Lord Jesus Christ in genuineness and in need went away satisfied
and fulfilled. The Holy Spirit does a work that
is powerful in the hearts of God's people. I've quoted this
verse hundreds of times. I want us to read what God says
about the work of the Blessed Holy Spirit. It's when he comes in power and
it's when he comes and takes the glorious things of the life
and the death and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and he
reveals them to people. He says in verse 13, how be it,
when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, every time you read
a will from God you can This is exactly what God the
Holy Spirit is going to do. He will guide you into all truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
truth. You have him. Christ is all.
You have him. You have all the truth. For he
shall not speak of himself. Anytime you hear people talking
about the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit, he doesn't speak
of himself. He speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me. He shall receive of mine and
show it unto you. You must be born of the Spirit,
Nicodemus is told. God must do something for you.
This is what he does. he will show it to you, he will
receive of mine, he will receive of the glory of who the Lord
Jesus Christ is according to the scriptures, and he will show
it to you, he will reveal it to you in a way that is powerfully
manifest to you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore I said I, he shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you." He'll show it unto you. He'll make it known. He'll announce it. He'll proclaim
it. He'll bring to the hearts of people a glorious report. Nicodemus needed life from above. Nicodemus needed God to do something
for him and something in him. He'd done something for him on
the Cross of Calvary, and he'd done something in him over this
period. He heard the Lord Jesus Christ
preach And so many were offended at the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How do people come to love the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ? When God works in their hearts,
they have to have spiritual life. I've taken up more time than
I wanted, but let's turn quickly to Romans chapter 8. I just want
us to read some of these verses and see how typical this is,
not just in the life of Nicodemus, but in the life of all of God's
people. I love how Romans 8 begins with
no condemnation and finishes with no separation. But listen
to how all of this in Romans 8 is so parallel to what we've
looked at in the life of Nicodemus, and may it happen in our lives.
1. There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2. The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
You must be born again. Are you born again? Am I born
again? We mustn't give God any rest
until this matter is settled. Listen to what he goes on to
say. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh, that the result of it is, the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit,
the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. If any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken, give life to your mortal bodies
by Spirit that dwelleth in you. What a remarkable journey. What a remarkable Saviour. God
we have. What a remarkable salvation for
what remarkable sinners are saved by this God. You must, you must
be born again.