I'd like you to turn in your
Bibles with me to John Chapter 3. Again, one of the things that
has been heartening, and I find very heartening and I'm thankful
for it, is that people come to me again and again and say, We're
not hurrying, are we? And someone, John said to me
the other day, this is going to be the first of a few messages,
I hope, on John 3.16, and that's exactly what I intended, and
I'm thankful for that. I think this glorious verse is
worthy of our study. It's certainly the most famous
Bible verse in this world of ours today. But I want us to
hear what Nicodemus heard, and I would like for us to know,
as John proclaimed, I'd like for us to know the love of God. I want us to be reminded again
that the Gospel is in these glorious words, the Gospels in John 3.14. John 3.14 is the Gospel. And always where there is the
gospel, there always is a must. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so in this same manner must the Son
of Man be lifted up. And the gospel is a declaration
of an infinite and sovereign God in all of his activities
and therefore necessarily things flow from the must. The must
of lifted up comes to verse 15 and this is the result of the
gospel, isn't it? That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have eternal life. We saw last week that they should
not perish because they cannot perish because it's impossible
for them to perish. Therefore they should not perish.
Therefore they must have eternal life. If they don't perish they
must have eternal life. John 3.16 begins And it is the cause of the gospel. And once again we are drawn back
to these remarkable words. For God so loved the world. God loved the world in this manner.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son in this same manner. 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. I want us, I want us to
see to enter into the kingdom of
God. I want for us to know what it
is to be born again. I want us to know that God loves
me in this way, in this particular way. John writes, and he tells
us exactly why he's written his gospel, in John chapter 20 verse
21. This should be our prayer for
each other. It should be our prayer as God
speaks through his word. These are written that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ. the Son of God, and that believing,
and that believing what that's just said, believing that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, that believing you might have
life through His name. It's not a might that it might
not happen. It's a definite reality that
might in the Bible doesn't mean what we think might means. And
I read these verses earlier to you. These things, 1 John 3,
513, these things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you alone can
give assurance, real assurance to the hearts of your people. that they know that you love
them. They know that all things are
working together for their good, for those that love you and those
that are called according to your purpose. We pray, Heavenly
Father, that you would be the one that calls us again this
morning, calls us back to your dear and precious Son and reminds
us yet again of the glories of redeeming love success of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that glorious victory on Calvary's cross, Heavenly
Father, that glorious resurrection, that glorious enthronement of
your Son in Heaven, may we have our thoughts and our hearts directed
once again to just simply believe Father, we know that these things
are impossible for men, but we praise you that that which is
impossible for men is possible for you. You are able, our Father. Bless your words to our hearts,
Heavenly Father. May the Blessed Holy Spirit just
simply do as he's promised to his people. We pray in Jesus'
name and for his glory. Amen. I want us to think through our
introduction to this verse and not lose sight of the fact that
this is a personal and private conversation between the Lord
Jesus Christ and a sinner. And I want us, first and foremost,
to think about what this meant to Nicodemus, how Nicodemus was
caused by the Lord to understand these things. This great context, isn't it?
It's a sinner meeting the Lord Jesus Christ. Nicodemus' learning,
Nicodemus' abilities, Nicodemus' esteem in the eyes of men meant
absolutely nothing. When you meet God, you meet him
simply as a sinner. That's how you meet Him. All
of what this world esteems is absolutely evaporated in the
presence of God who is a consuming fire. In the presence of that
light, all of what we see as light in this world just disappears
and there's only one thing that matters. There's only one thing
that matters, do I know Him? The context, of course, is the
Lord Jesus Christ and this religious sinner. He's just a sinner. He just happens to be a religious
sinner. He happens to be a highly esteemed
sinner. He happens to be an incredibly
biblical knowledge, biblically knowledgeable sinner, but he's
a sinner. And the Lord, in the context of this conversation,
of course, Nicodemus had a great need, and that great need was
to be born again. It is absolutely impossible for
a man to enter the kingdom of God. It's impossible for a man
to even know what the kingdom of God is and who the king is,
unless there is a birth from above. That's the context of
it, isn't it? It's a must. You must be born
again. George Whitefield was harassed
by someone who said, why do you keep telling us we must be born
again? And he simply said, because you
must. You must be born again. You must
have life from above. You must have light that shines
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You must have that. So there
is a great need that the Lord had brought before Nicodemus
and a great thing missing in his life. And there is a great
remedy brought before Nicodemus. And the great remedy is that
glorious picture of the serpent in the wilderness. The Lord had
spoken to him of earthly things. And he wants to speak to him
about these earthly things in such a way that Nicodemus will
come to grasp the heavenly things that lie behind it all. And no
man has ascended, verse 13, up to heaven, but he that came down
from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. So the
only one that's ever going to reveal anything about heaven
is going to be the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one that descended
and he's the one that ascends into heaven. And in the lifting
up of the serpent, as with the lifting of him on the cross of
Calvary, there is a great picture of the descent of the Lord Jesus
Christ from heaven and a remarkable picture of his ascent back into
heaven. And the great picture The great
picture that's presented to Nicodemus is that picture of the serpent
in the wilderness. One of the things that I found
really helpful hearing some years ago from someone who I assumed
knew more of these things than I had at the time was that for
the Jews, their history was personal. for the Jews their history is
personal and so it ought to be for us. These stories of redemption,
these stories of salvation are pictures which are meant to be
living in our lives and Nicodemus when he heard that story of the
serpent lifted up in the wilderness, Nicodemus' mind would have been
instantly drawn back to a redemptive history. that went on and the
events that surrounded that redemptive history. As the psalmist says
in Psalm 77, I will remember the works of the Lord, surely
I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also on
all thy work and talk of thy doings. So there was, there was a great
need. There was a great need. Nicodemus
didn't know that he was a sinner and he didn't know who he was
in the presence of. And there was, there was in the
serpent lifted up, as there was in the Lord Jesus Christ, there
was only one remedy. There is just one place to look.
There is one place to be saved. There was no hope in Moses. There
was no hope in the law. There was no hope in Aaron and
the priesthood. There was no hope in your obedience
if you were bitten. There was no hope in the help
of man. There was no hope in the world. There was just nothing
in you that can take away the poison of this, which is a picture
of the sin that's in us. And of course, one of the things
that Nicodemus would have seen is that this comes at the end
of the wilderness wanderings of the Jews. And now their journey
is one that circuits the bottom of the promised land until they
reach the eastern side of the promised land. And Moses is about
to be taken up on top of Mount Nebo and he'll look across. to
the promised land, but he won't enter into the promised land.
And so this is at a critical juncture in that history, and
Nicodemus would have known all of it laid out before him. And
that is a great picture, isn't it? Jeremiah in chapter 12 speaks
of, how shall you fare at the swelling of the Jordan? And the
Jordan is a picture, isn't it? It's a picture of leaving this
world and crossing into the promised land. And who crossed into the
promised land? Who left this world and crossed
into that world of promise, that world where the wonders and the
provision of God flow? It's a picture, isn't it? Those
that entered in had looked. But as always with Israel, there
was a mixed multitude that crossed. There was a mixed multitude that
crossed the Red Sea. There was a mixed multitude that
crossed the Jordan. There were some of them that had no need
to look. But all of those that the Lord
Jesus Christ is talking to Nicodemus about, about those who looked. Those who looked and lived. So let's just get something of
that context in our minds as we begin our journey into this
glorious verse of John 3.16. The issue is, God, the issue is before Nicodemus
is actually seeing the king in all of his glory and being born
again and entering into the kingdom of God and not perishing and
having everlasting life are just pictures of what John has been
talking to us about all the way through his gospel. If you go
back to John chapter one in verse four and five, in him is life.
He is life itself. Not that he has life, but he
is life. And in him is light, the light
of man, to enter in and to be born again and to come across
the Jordan. is to believe the witness. Nicodemus
had not believed the witness of John the Baptist. Nicodemus
had not believed the witness. He and his Pharisaical friends
had not believed the witness. Nicodemus had seen some remarkable
things in Jerusalem, but still that group of Pharisees that
went up to Jordan came and they heard John the Baptist preaching
the most remarkable sermon that anyone had heard for 430 years.
No one had heard words from God for 430 years. I mean, John the
Baptist was preaching, a spirit-filled man preaching the Lord Jesus
Christ, and they'd gone back as empty as they had come to
Jerusalem. They hadn't believed the witness. I love verse 12, isn't it? Verse 11 says, he came to his
own people, his own nation, and his own received him not, but
out of that nation that didn't receive him, as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name is to be born again. It's to
see him, it's to enter into the kingdom of God. It's a declaration
in chapter, 1. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared Him. The Lord
Jesus Christ is declaring God to people and John the Baptist
is declaring the declarer of God and saying this. This is
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It's a
declaration. And John in the rest of chapter one goes on to
speak of this testimony, this testimony that John the Baptist
brought in verse 33. He says, I knew him not. You can't see him, you can't
know him, he was his cousin, he'd known of him for 30 odd
years. But you can't see him and you
can't know him unless you have a gift from above, you have to
have life from above. I knew him not, but he that sent
me to baptise the Lord, the same said unto me, upon whom thou
shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him. The same
is he which baptises with the Holy Ghost. And I bear record,
this is the Son of God. He didn't know who he was until
the Lord had revealed him to him. The same with Nicodemus.
Unless the Lord Jesus Christ is pleased to reveal himself
to someone, they'll never know who he is, doesn't matter how
much they know about him. You must have a birth from above. And the disciples, I love that
first description of the disciples in verse 36. John the Baptist says, behold
the Lamb of God, in verse 37, the two disciples heard John
the Baptist speak. What did they do? And they followed
Jesus. If you hear someone sent from
God by the power of God's Spirit, you'll do exactly what those
disciples did then. You'll do exactly what those
disciples did then. They obey the word of his command. In chapter 2, the Lord Jesus
and John the Baptist turn their back on that crowd that came
down from Jerusalem, and Jesus tells opposite direction away
from them. They go back to Jerusalem as
ignorant as they ever were, and the Lord takes his people to
a wedding. That's exactly what's going to
happen at the crossing of the Jordan, brothers and sisters,
isn't it? When you leave this world, the
only possible way of entering into the glories of that kingdom
is for God to come and get you, for God to come and arrest you,
for God to come and speak personally to you and say follow me for
God to give you a life from above a birth from above and then of
course in chapter 2 he comes to that temple and he finds that
temple desecrated by Nicodemus no wonder when Nicodemus comes
along and says we know the Lord him and silent and to hear and
to hear and here we are at this glorious passage in John 3 16
so let's read it again 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. Now I don't think I'm doing
any disservice to the people of this world because I've had
so many of them speak to me about this verse and they keep wanting
to remind people that this verse is about the universal love of
God for everyone. that he loves everyone with an
unconditional love and it's a love of yearning for them all. And that's how they view this
word, the world. And then they say he gave, and
he gave in such a way that he makes an offer to all humanity. that whosoever believeth in him,
by a decision they make, by an exercise of their free will,
should not perish, they shouldn't perish like all the others who
have refused the offer of his love for them, but have everlasting
life as earned by their doing. I don't think I'm being wrong
in saying that. I don't think Nicodemus would
have seen a single thing about that in this verse. And I want
us to look at how Nicodemus, briefly, I want us to look at
how Nicodemus would have understood what the Lord Jesus Christ was
talking about. The words that Nicodemus heard
would have shocked him to his core. So let's go back to Numbers
chapter 21 and remind ourselves of what Nicodemus heard and what
Nicodemus and we are encouraged to think about in terms of what
this word world means and what this love of God that's being
spoken of here is all about. So Nicodemus, unlike us, had
this picture laid out before him and he had it again and again
and again that Abraham was taken out of the world. One man, chosen
by God, one man spoken to by God, and all the rest left in
the world. And Nicodemus would have known
that Abraham had two sons. He had one son by the works of
man. by Abraham's effort to get right
with God, by Abraham's effort to try and further the activities
and the promises of God. They had Ishmael, by Hagar. He would have known, again and
again, as a Jew, he would have known that Isaac was the chosen
one, Isaac was the child of promise, and Ishmael and all of Ishmael's
race was left. And he would have known, Nicodemus,
he would have known that There were just two sons, Jacob and
Esau. And he would have known the verses
in Malachi, wouldn't he? Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. Now people these days want to
say that he loved Esau a little bit less. That's just a blasphemous notion,
isn't it? The notion that God could love
less. the notion that God's love is
anyway changeable. Nicodemus would have known. would
have known that Israel spent those 450 years down in Egypt,
and he would have known that God, by a sovereign hand and
a mighty redeeming love for his particular people, by a blood
sacrifice he brought them out and he decimated that Sud Peir
and he took Pharaoh and caused Pharaoh to follow after Israel.
He had all of his army and he drowned them in the Red Sea.
He would have known the wonders of all of that, and he was a
descendant of that. So this is personal history for him. It
should be personal history for us. Nicodemus would have followed
the activities of Nation Israel all the way through these wilderness
wanderings. their wickedness and their evil
at the foot of Mount Sinai, their utter disbelief when they went
into the Promised Land. Those twelve spies went into
the Promised Land and they came back and it was exactly as God
said it was. And God saved two of them and
he killed the others before all nation Israel. Only two of them. Joshua and Caleb went into that
promised land out of all of that 600,000 people whose carcasses
fell in the wilderness. But when we come to Numbers 21,
which is where the Lord Jesus Christ took Nicodemus in his
thoughts, and he takes us in our thoughts there as well. And
let's just go and spend a little bit of time looking at Numbers
1. succeeding chapters in numbers
and just see what's going on here in chapter 21 at the beginning
of this story of the brazen serpent. They are at the bottom of the
promised land, aren't they? And when the king, verse 21,
chapter 21, verse one, and when King Arad the Canaanite, which
dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of
the spies, and he fought against Israel and took some of them
prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, if thou
wilt indeed deliver these people into my hands, then I will utterly
destroy their cities. And the Lord hearkened to the
voice of Israel. A whole tribe of the Canaanites,
or a nation of the Canaanites, were destroyed at the hand of
God and by the command of God. And of course that makes their
rebellion and their complaining, which followed that subsequently
in Numbers chapter 21, as they said that they detest, they detest,
Our soul loathes this manner. Our soul loathes God's provision. Our soul loathes what represents
the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread that came down from heaven. Our
soul loathes it. In that same chapter, now these
nations that we are now talking about are the world. This is
the world where Nicodemus was said, God loves these people.
For a very start, on the plainest superficial reading of it, you
cannot say that God loved every single Canaanite when God had
just destroyed a nation of them. You read on and see what he says.
In verse 21 of Numbers 21, And Israel sent messengers to Sihon,
a king of the Amorites, saying, Let me pass through thy land.
We will not turn into the fields or into the vineyards. We will
not drink of the water of the well. We will go along the king's
highway until we be past thy borders. And Sihon wouldn't suffer
Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people
together and went out against Israel in the wilderness. And
he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. And Israel smote him
with the edge of the sword and possessed his land from Anon
to Jabbok. And Israel took all these cities,
it goes on to say, Both Sihon and the nation, over
in verse 33 of the same chapter, an old king of Bashan went out
against them and he and all his people to the battle of Endri.
And the Lord said to Moses, fear not, for I have delivered him
into thy hand and all his people and his land, and thou shalt
do to him as thou didst to Sihon, king of the Amorites, which dealt
with his people. at Heshbon and they smote him and his sons and
all his people until there was none left of him alive and they
possessed his land. I want us to remember what Revelation
chapter 5 says and what is being sung and what is going to be
sung in the courts of heaven. They sang a new song, saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals of it, for
thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. God has his people. in this world
and they're scattered throughout this world. And what do they
look like in this world? They look like sinners. They look like sinners. Nicodemus
would have had all of these pictures so clearly before him. As you
read on in Numbers chapter 23, you see that Balak, the Midianite
of the Moabite, comes and he sees what's happened to these
other two kings and he summons Balaam. And we have all of that
horrible story of Balaam and what goes on against him. But Balaam is made by God to
speak the most remarkable sermon in the Old Testament. And not
a single word Balaam says is wrong about God. And Balaam is
held up before us in the rest of the Bible as the epitome of
a false teacher. And all he was doing was saying,
you go down and camp beside them. You just camp beside them. You
just compromise with them and all of a sudden you'll see your
people joining with them and you'll have these people worshipping
with them. In chapter 25, beginning in chapter
five, Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit
whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people
under the sacrifices of their God, and the people did eat and
bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto
Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
And so here we have God causing his people to be made to stand
in the midst of this, and there was wrath from God against them. And Moses said unto the judges
in verse 5, slay ye every one his men that were joined unto
Baal Peor. And then we have this remarkable
story of Pinnehas or Pinehus as the Hebrew says it, the son
of El in verse 7, the son of El. Eliezer, the son of Aaron,
the priest, saw it and he rose up among the congregation and
took a javelin in his hand. What did he see? He'd seen in
the previous verse one of the children of Israel came out and
brought unto his brethren a Midianite-ish woman in the sight of Moses,
in the sight of all the congregation of Israel. He was blatant about
his wickedness. And what did he do? And he went
in after the Israelite into the tent and thrust both of them
through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly.
So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. And those
that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. The scene is extraordinary, isn't
it? God goes on to commend Penny
Haskell for what he's done. He stayed the plague. The picture
of those two wreathing together in death with a spear turn around
to Nicodemus and said, in light of that story, God has an unconditional
love for all humanity. Nicodemus would say that's a
very, very strange sort of love indeed. He goes on in verse 31. This is all history for Nicodemus
that was just laid out before him in chapter 31. The God says,
the Lord spake unto Moses saying, avenge the children of Israel
of the Midianites. This is Moses' last act, isn't
it? And afterward thou shalt be gathered unto thy people.
And they were to go out, a thousand from each tribe, and
they were to go out and they were to destroy the Midianites.
And it's an extraordinary scene, isn't it? They come back with
all the women. And Moses, verse 18, said unto
them, have you saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused
the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit
trespass against the Lord, and the battle of Peor, and there
was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now, therefore,
kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that
hath none manned by lying." These are the stories that Nicodemus
was brought by the Lord Jesus Christ to contemplate in light
of the necessity of being born again, and in light of the fact
that God so loved the world. So in our verse in John 3.16, there
are those who are born again, aren't they? they are loved and
then they're equated to those who believe. Those who believe
in him should not perish. God, there are many ways, Vine's
dictionary says there are nine ways that the word world is used
in the in the scriptures and if you go and have time to read
John chapter 17 that you see that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
there to his father in his high priestly prayer and 17 times
he uses the word world and in John 17 verse 9 he says I'm not
praying for the world. And yet people want to say that
he loves everyone unconditionally, and he was about the next morning
to go and die for everyone unconditionally. And that night before he died,
he wouldn't pray for them, nor did he die for them. So the world
here, I think, really means it's not a description of all men.
It's not a description of all without distinction. It's a description
of the world that hates him. Nicodemus would have been shocked
by that statement. We think it's just exactly what
God ought to do. He ought to love everyone because
that's what he is, and he is love. But his love is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he loved a world that
hated him. of sinners, this world of rebels, this world who are
described by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 5 verse 8. Don't you love Romans chapter
5? It's just the most remarkable, remarkable picture of the way
God's sinners are being justified. By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace. wherein we stand and we rejoice
in the hope of the glory of God. He goes on to say that we also
rejoice in tribulations and we learn patience and hope through
these things. In verse six he says, for when
we were yet without strength, when we had no ability of our
own, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely will a righteous
man die for one peradventure. For a good man some might would
even dare to die. But God commended his love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners, sinners, sinners in
this world, Christ died for us. Does that describe you? Ungodly, ungodly. That word in the original or service with a negative in
front of it, an A, just as we have moral and amoral. These
are people who don't worship God. It's exactly the people
that Nicodemus is being caused by the Lord Jesus Christ to think
about, the fact that God could have a love for some of those
people. Having destroyed that Moabite, that Midianite nation,
there was one, wasn't there? There was one in that nation
that he loved. What was her name? Ruth. How do you get Ruth across
the Jordan into the arms of her kinsmen redeemer? You send her
trials, and you take away from her all earthly comfort, and
you bring a word from God that he's visited his people with
bread in Jerusalem, and you cause her to be knitted together way
that it doesn't matter what Naomi's circumstances are, no matter
what the situation, no matter the extraordinary uncertainty
that lie before Naomi, she's going to cling. Not to Naomi,
but she's clinging to Naomi and Naomi's God all at the same time.
He loves a malebitous girl. They're just about to go into
the promised land. And what happens in Jericho? There's a woman there that he
loves. How do you get Rahab the heart to cross the Jordan, to come
into the promised land, to be born again, to see? You send
her a word, don't you? You send her a message from afar
about a God who is absolutely sovereign, about a God who has
destroyed all these other nations around, and you cause her to
receive a promise from God's messengers. See, God, in the
midst of the destruction of this world, can never destroy his
own. They can never perish in any
way at all. There is a journey to this crossing
of the Jordan. There is a journey that the Lord's
people have taken on And as we saw from Simon's message, so
clearly just a little while ago, it's a journey that brings trials
to us. The only people who looked were
those who were in desperate need. One of my favorite characters
in all the Bible is Blind Bartimaeus. You see, for everyone else, almost
everyone else in Israel, The Lord Jesus Christ healing the
blind would have been a remarkable thing to witness. But for Byron
Bartimaeus it was a different thing altogether. This is personal.
And so when he hears of the Lord Jesus Christ coming by him, he
has one determination. He's just going to call out,
he's going to cry, he's going to cry like someone bitten by
that snake in the wilderness and they're dying. The look is
a desperate look for them, isn't it? For Bartimaeus it was a desperate
look. Have mercy on me, Son of God, our son of David. Have mercy upon me. Modern Christianity begins in
a different place to where the Christianity of our fathers began. You might remember well that
in all of the books of all that 30 year history in the Book of
Acts, not once is the love of God mentioned for all the world. Not once is it mentioned in one
message. Did God the Holy Spirit make
a mistake in his recording? Did the apostles get it wrong
somehow? There is a necessity of the Spirit's
work in being born again, and the necessity of that Spirit's
work comes in such a way that it brings pain, as it did to
Nicodemus, as it has done to all of God's people. I love Psalm
107. You can turn there with me if
you like, but there are four thens. Then they cried. I don't have time to read the
whole psalm. I trust you'll go and look at it more closely.
But in verse 5 it says, Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted
in them. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
Verse 12, Therefore he brought down their heart with labour.
They fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. Verse 17. Fools, because of their
transgression, because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their
soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw nearer gates.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth
them out of all their distresses. Verse 27, they reel to and fro,
and they stagger like a drunken man, and ah, at their wits' end,
then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth
them out of all their distresses. Nicodemus, meant to be brought
to a place. where he confessed his ignorance.
Nicodemus, like all of those born again, children of God,
will be brought to a place where they'll be made by God to cry,
because they've been made by God to see what they are. Nicodemus has been taken by the
Lord to those glorious pictures of God's new creation in the
hearts of his people in Ezekiel 36 and 37 and many other places
the Lord may have taken him to, but Nicodemus knew these things
so, so well. And it's the glorious picture
of the sovereign work of God in redeeming a sinner. He speaks
of giving a new heart in Ezekiel 36, 39. A new heart also will
I give you. You need a new heart. The heart you have is no good.
People say, well, give your heart to Jesus. Well, you don't have
the ability to give it to him. What would he want to do with
it? It's deceitfully wicked and beyond cure. He gives you a new
heart. a new heart to love him, a new
heart to obey him, a new heart that sees him in his glory, sees
him in the majesty of what he done. In all of those stories
we read in Numbers chapter 21 and following, was God just?
Was God righteous? Was God holy? This is the God
that we need, brothers and sisters. we have a desperate need to cry
and if you started crying you'll be crying like Simon reminded
us of Lord save me Lord save me I don't know how many times
a day I pray that prayer but I never get tired of saying it
I pray you won't either Lord save me Look what happens in
Ezekiel 36, this remarkable picture that Nicodemus was taken to.
He's talking about, you must be born of water and a spirit,
then I will sprinkle clean water on you, verse 25, and you shall
be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will
I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh. Do you remember your stony heart?
I remember my stony heart. Nothing moved me. You can show pictures, can't
you? You can take, not pictures in physical pictures, you can
take people in word pictures to the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ and you can have them all must see and smell the blood
and know the agony of it all. An astounding artist completely
unnerved by all of that. You could take them to the very
fires of hell and singe every hair on their bodies. I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments
and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I'll
be your God. I will also save you from your
uncleannesses, and I will call for the corn, and will increase
it, and lay no famine upon you, and I'll multiply the fruit of
it, and increase the field." The Lord would give us time to
look at the spiritual pictures here, they're delightful. that you shall receive no more
reproach of famine among the heathen. Verse 31, just listen
to this. After all of that remarkable
activity of God in the hearts of people to give them a new
heart. This is a new heart, this is the born again heart that
Nicodemus needed. Verse 31, then. shall you remember your evil
ways and your doings that were not good, and you shall loathe
yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your
abominations." That's exactly what the Lord's saying in John
Chapter 16, isn't it? The Spirit comes. When the Spirit
comes, what does He do? He convinces the world convinces
who in the world he convinces all those people we've been talking
about all of the children of God the sinners in this world
he convinces them he will come he will approve the world of
sin and of righteousness and judgment of sin because they
believe not on me what was Nicodemus is great sin So he had the most
remarkable moral life, and if he'd been brought back today,
he would have been at the vanguard of all of the moral issues of
today, wouldn't he? What would he have said about
abortion? What would he have said about marriage? What would
he have said about homosexuality? What would he have said about
the way people treat the Bible today? Nicodemus would have been
at the forefront of all those things and yet he was standing
before the Lord Jesus Christ and didn't know who he was and
he didn't know that he was an unbeliever and he didn't know
that he hadn't entered the kingdom of God and he couldn't even see
it. When he comes, He will reprove, he will convince the world of
sin and righteousness and judgment, of sin because they believe not
on me, of righteousness because I go to my father, leave me no
more, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. He'll convict this world. He convicts all of his own in
this world. This new heart that he gives,
this new heart that Nicodemus needed, made a new heart to see what
God means in this book. God means what he means when
he's written this book. And he doesn't mean what men
think he means all the time. He means what he means. It needs to be seen in the very
context of the Lord Jesus Christ, put this verse. What a glorious
verse. Let's read it again. For God
so loved the world. God, in this remarkable way,
loved the world. And notice the past tense of
it. People these days say God loves everyone and God loves
you. In the scriptures it's always
loved. It's loved. I have loved you
with an everlasting love. See the love of God is free. The motivation for God's love
is in himself. The love of God is distinguishing
love. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. The love of God particular love,
isn't it? He says in Jeremiah 7 verse 60,
so I've just loved you because I've loved you. I love that. I love the fact that he loves
and the motivation for love is in himself. God's love is always
an active love. Every time in the scriptures
God's love is mentioned, it's always related to an action,
and that action is always someone being drawn to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jeremiah 31 says, I have loved
you with an everlasting love. I've loved you everlastingly,
therefore with loving kindness, therefore with grace myself. Love gives. Love is God giving
His Son and sending Him. God's love is in Christ. Romans
8.38, God's love is in Christ. And anyone outside of Christ,
anyone who hasn't bowed and surrendered and come to love the Lord Jesus
Christ as He's revealed in these texts of scripture, has no reason
to believe that God loves them. His love is in Christ. his love
is always successful it's always saving love isn't it it's called
in Ephesians chapter 2 God who is rich in mercy for
his great love, wherewith he has loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. God's love
is always successful. God's love is always in Christ.
God's love is always absolutely sovereign. God's love is giving
all the time. Giving of love, isn't it? Is
to give, is to be a giver. God's love is always received.
There is no fight at love in God. We love Him. Why? 1 John 4, we love Him. We really do love Him. We love
Him because He first loved us. His love is successful. His love is reciprocated. God's love is always eternal. I trust the Lord will cause us
to see that God's love and God's grace and God's sovereignty and
God's power and all of God's attributes are wrapped up in
one. But as I finish, I want to ask a couple of questions.
They crossed into the promised land. Where did the poison go? Nicodemus
met the Lord Jesus Christ as a man poisoned, just like all
of God's children meet him. Poisoned, and the result of that
poison is death. The reason for that poison is
sin and our rebellion against God. Where's it gone? Where's
it gone? Of course, numbers doesn't tell
us, but the Lord Jesus Christ does. That's what he's saying
in the gospel, isn't it? As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
He was lifted up. Why? He was lifted up by God. He was lifted up because sin
was laid on him. He was lifted up. He was lifted up as he was promised. He was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we
hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he has borne our grief.
Listen to what he carried to that cross. Listen to what happened
there as a holy, righteous father slew his son because of the sin
that was on him and in him, and it was a just and righteous thing
that God the Father did as it was in the destruction of those
nations. Surely He has borne our griefs, and He has carried
our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray,
and we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's where the poison's gone,
brothers and sisters. And if the poison's in him, and
the poison put him to death, then the poison cannot be on
us, and the poison can't put us to death. Nicodemus would have had no understanding
of what passes the modern evangelism. But I trust we do. I trust looking
at what Nicodemus saw might cause us to esteem the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ even more. To esteem the wonders of redeeming
love. To take this promise and see
it as Nicodemus might have seen it that day. that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life as a possession."
How do we know? How do you know? How do you know
that you have everlasting life? How do you know? See, the Scriptures
are written so that God's children would not be guessing about it.
The Scriptures are written giving us such an extraordinarily clear
description of the Lord Jesus Christ and what happened, that
we have no question about what the name is. And we have no question
about his operations in the hearts of his people. Whosoever, says
John, 1 John 5.1, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. It's not what you believe about
yourself. It's not what you believe about
other people. That didn't matter when you were bitten by a serpent
in the wilderness. One thing mattered. One thing
mattered. Him. It's what you believe about
him. You read the story of the Ethiopian Munich or the jailer
in Philippi. Only one thing mattered. It doesn't
matter what you thought about yourself. It's what you think
about him. Perseverant believer that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. Not a possibility. They are born
of God. And everyone, that loveth him
that beget. You love the begetting one. You love the one that births
you from above. And you love him that's forgotten
of him. You love your brothers and sisters in Christ. These things have I written unto
you that believe, on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have eternal life. There's a special love that Nicodemus
is being told of. It's a remarkable love. It's
a great love. It's a powerful and effectual
love. You may know that you have eternal life and that you might
keep on believing. You believe on the name of the
Son of God. It's not what you believe about
yourself, brothers and sisters. It's believing Him. It's looking
away. Looking away, to him rise up. Let's pray.