Nicodemus has been brought into
the presence of God. He's standing, sitting beside God
Almighty. We saw that he came out of the
darkness into the light. Nicodemus came as a man. Despite all those things, he
was still a Pharisee. A Pharisee in heart, a Pharisee
in practice, a Pharisee in belief. And so are we all. In fact, the best we can say
of ourselves is that we are recovering Pharisees. And it's one thing
to look upon the Pharisees with scorn, but I'm always much more
concerned about the Pharisees that lives in me than I am about
the Pharisees that are outside there. But the Lord Jesus Christ
speaks of him, of the new birth. He says, you cannot see and you
cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you have a birth from
above, unless you are fathered You cannot see the kingdom of
God, Nicodemus. You cannot perceive the kingdom
of God. It is the blessed grace gift
of God to open the eyes of those. You might recall in Matthew chapter
16, the Lord Jesus Christ asked that great question. It's one
of the great questions, isn't it? Whom do men say that I am? say that I am?" And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven. There is a necessity, necessity
to enter the kingdom of God. You have to see you have to be born of a new
creation that's what the Lord said to Nathanael hereafter you
shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending
on the son of man For in Christ Jesus, says Paul to the Galatians,
circumcision doesn't avail anything nor uncircumcision. But a new
creature, a new creature. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. And I love that verse in
Ephesians 4. Created by God in righteousness. one of them. I want to be one
of them. I want that to be said of us.
We are the children of God. He saved us according to his
mercy by the washing of regeneration, says Paul to Titus, and the renewing
of the Holy Spirit. By of his own will begat he us
with the word of truth that we should be the kind of firstfruits,
a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. We're born of God. Unless you are born Unless you are fathered from
above, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. And Nicodemus will be
told in the preceding verses that you cannot enter the Kingdom
of God. The Lord Jesus is going on in
this passage to talk to Nicodemus about the serpent in the wilderness. and to live, having been bitten
by the serpent, you had to look, to look and live. But you can't
look unless God gives you eyes to see. See, the problem for
Nicodemus is not, as we saw last week, is not his lack of education
and his lack of knowledge. The problem for Nicodemus and
the problem for everyone, whether they're in religion or out of
religion, the problem for everyone is they need life from above.
They need new life. See, when you were bitten by
the serpent in the wilderness, there was only one thing that
mattered. You were about to die. You had that poison in your veins,
and you looked to live. You weren't there to have a debate
and a discussion about it. But unless we're born again,
you can't see to look. You don't know where to look.
You don't know who to look at. You don't even know that you
have a need to look. Nicodemus. is going to experience
this in the most remarkable way. And first, of course, Nicodemus
has to be brought down. He comes to the Lord Jesus Christ
and says, we know. We Pharisees know things. We Pharisees, and some of us
like me, have actually known enough to say some really complimentary
things about you. But as we saw previously, Nicodemus
was wrong. He was completely wrong. Our
Lord taught Nicodemus so much in this meeting. Wouldn't it
be wonderful if he taught us the same things as he meets with
us. Nicodemus had to understand that
he is in the presence of God and therefore all of his categories
of understanding, his understanding of this world, of understanding
of its people, its religion, his understanding of who God
is, his understanding of the man who is standing before him,
is all not because of his ignorance
in so many ways, but because he doesn't have life. He doesn't
have life to see. He has a profound ignorance of
the character of God. Nicodemus came as a teacher,
wanting to be taught and acknowledging that Lord Jesus Christ is a teacher
as well. But only one thing matters in
the issue of salvation. The only one thing matters in
all issues, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ says to
him, I say unto thee. I just love the power of the
Lord's word, isn't it? I say unto thee. He, as God,
speaks to us and what he is showing us with eyes to see and what
Nicodemus will come to understand that salvation is the miraculous
work of God for a sinner. The miraculous work of God in
a sinner. It's nothing less than a creation.
So you have to be made something that you were not. No one sees
themselves naturally as a sinner. No one sees themselves as God
describes them. All our righteousnesses are filthy
rags, says Isaiah, and our hearts are deceitfully wicked and beyond
cure. No one naturally sees themselves as enemies of God. No one naturally
sees God as he's described in this book. There is a need for a new birth. To enter the kingdom of God,
Nicodemus needs to have a birth from above. So let's go to verse
4 in our text. I had a lot of notes on the Kingdom
of God, but the issue here is a bigger issue than what is the
nature of the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus could have given you
dissertations, couldn't he? He could have written books on
the character of God and the nature of God and the Kingdom
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ cuts through all of that and
says there's only one thing that matters, Nicodemus. There's something
much more important than knowing what the Kingdom of God is all
about, and that's being in it. much more significant being in
it. He says, how Lord said to him, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse four, Nicodemus saith
unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb and be born? It's remarkable, isn't it? Here
is this man who was extraordinary intelligent. verse 10 says of him a master
of Israel the teacher of Israel and here in response to the Lord's
very simple declaration what's silliness what's silliness
what's silliness maybe it was done in contempt of scoffing
It's hard and we probably need to be careful about putting motives
on it. The point is that he was brought out of the darkness into
the light, but when he comes into the light he's going to
have to see that a whole bunch of his knowledge is darkness. There's a really, really important
lesson in Nicodemus' bumbling here in the very presence of
God. That when we're in presence of God and when we read
his word, would to God that we would be granted the grace to
be silent and simply hear what God says. Just hear what God
says. Let God be the one who speaks.
One of the problems for all of us is is that the sense is we
have a filter, don't we? We have a chatterbox in our own
minds and as I'm saying something, you're chattering away in your
own mind and you're filtering the things that are said through
whatever is going on in your mind. You might be filtering
them through your understanding of theology and your understanding
of doctrines and all sorts of other things. If only we would
just listen and take God at his word. Nicodemus is like all who
want to argue with the Lord. He's made to look like a fool,
isn't he? See, we only hear ourselves and
not God, unless God gives us ears to hear. If only we'd be
quiet. I love what Ecclesiastes says. Keep thy foot when thou
goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, Let
not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God
is in heaven, and thou upon the earth. Therefore let thy words Proverbs says in the multitude
of words there's lots of sin, but he that refraineth his lips
is wise. How often we would appear so
much more wise and so much more intelligent if we actually just
shut up. So often, so often our talking
is just an exposing of our ignorance and the silliness. Is Nicodemus
as silly as anything in the presence of God? Our God is not like us. He's above us and He's beyond
us, for us the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than yours, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So when we
have the Word of God, and when we have the Word of God preached,
we're hearing what God says. I'm not here to give you my opinion
about anything. Who cares about my opinion? I
don't even care about it. Why on earth should you? See,
only a new creation, created in grace, sees the foolishness
and the impotence of the old man of sin. See, unless God has
revealed his gospel, and his gospel is a person, unless God
has revealed the true character of his Son to you, all your filters
and all the chatterboxes hindering the sight of God. That's
why we keep preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's why
we keep preaching the same thing over and over again. Our God
reigns. Our God reigns and all flesh is grass. It rises itself up in so so many
ways doesn't it? The Lord's dealing with Nicodemus
is so contrary to the way the religious world deals with people.
We think that people need a little bit more knowledge. Nicodemus
had the most remarkable knowledge. We think people need to clean
up their lives. Nicodemus had the most abstemious
life you could possibly imagine. If you had been in the presence
of Nicodemus and saw what people would have called the holiness
of his life and his devotion and his prayer life and the way
that you would be amazed, you would be amazed at him. I just love how the Lord deals
with Nicodemus. The same way he deals with our
foolishness. Verse 5, he completely ignores him. He completely ignores
his statements. They're irrelevant. Your nonsense
is irrelevant to the situation, Nicodemus. Jesus answered, verse
5 of our text, verily, verily, I say unto thee, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus already thought he
was in the kingdom of God. Not only did he think he was
in the kingdom of God, he thought he was there with a prominent
position. They thought that when the Christ came back, he was
going to exalt the likes of Nicodemus to positions of power and authority.
Lord returns to what matters. You cannot see the Kingdom of
God and you cannot enter it. You must be born of water and
of the Spirit. And one of the things I keep
praying as we go through John's Gospel is that John writes with
the most extraordinary simplicity, and there's extraordinary power
in it. And the Lord speaks with the most extraordinary simplicity,
and there's great power in the simplicity of what he's saying.
He's talking about the difference between a natural birth and a
spiritual birth. Born of water, that's how we
are born, isn't it? Our mothers' waters break, and
we come forth. And a spiritual birth. See, both
involve the beginning of life. But the spiritual birth is a
different birth. Being born again is a birth,
it's a real birth, but it's a separate, different birth. So water reflects
so many things in the Scriptures. It speaks, obviously, of the
Word of God. But I think in the context here,
it's best to take it in its natural sense, and that's where the Lord
goes. He says, the wind blows where it wishes. He's talking
about things that are readily seen. We can talk more in time
about the water of the spirit and the washing of water in all
of those remarkable pictures that we read in Ezekiel 36 about
the washing from our God and the removal of a heart of stone
and the giving of a heart of flesh. See we had a water birth
from our mothers, but you have to have a birth for water and means in addition to and also
you need a spiritual birth to know to perceive to see the kingdom
of God and to enter the kingdom of God you must be born naturally
and you must be born spiritually water and spirit and there's
a different seed involved in this conception isn't it turn
with me to that passage that we look at so often in 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 21
and following. See, we by Him, it says in verse
21, we by Him do believe in God, that raised Him from dead and
gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing
you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit, to unfeigned love the brethren. See that you love
one another with a pure heart, fervently. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is grass,
and all the glory of man is as the flower of the grass, and
the glass rithereth and the flower thereof all the way, but the
word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. That Word, which is the means
by which God births these people again, is preached by the Gospel.
And the Gospel is a declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and what happened on Calvary's tree, what happened in eternity,
what our Lord did in eternity, what He did on this earth, what
was promised in the Old Testament, all of the sublime and amazing
character of our God. And all of it culminates in what
happened on the cross of Calvary. You're born again. You're born,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed. To know,
to know, to see, to perceive the kingdom of God. requires that EXCEPT you be born
again. There are no alternatives, there's
no shortcuts, there's no side entrance to all of this. EXCEPT
you be born. You cannot see. EXCEPT you be
born. You cannot enter. We are translated,
aren't we? Colossians says. We are translated. out of the power of darkness
and into the kingdom of his dear son. And it's a new birth that
brings these things to birth. So the word is the means by which
this birth occurs. But I think here the Lord is
teaching this incredibly bright man by teaching him really simple
things. Nicodemus, you need another birth. The birth you have from
Adam is a birth that doesn't allow you to see who I am and
I'm standing right in front of you and I'll tell you and your
cohort what I am and who I am and I'll tell you that I am God
all through my three and a half years before you and you, not
you Nicodemus, but your cohort will be as blind and even more
blind at the end of those three years let's go to the next verse John
chapter 3 verse 6 that which is born of the flesh is flesh
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit flesh gives birth to flesh that's all it ever gives birth
to is flesh fleshly devotion, fleshly activities in every way
possible see Nicodemus came with the knowledge in verse 2 he says
we know, we know but Nicodemus' problem was all
of his knowledge was fleshly knowledge he had no sight and
he had no access unless God gives him life Nicodemus is a picture
of a sinner coming to the Lord. He's a sinner being brought into
the presence of God. He says you must be born again
Nicodemus. As we saw last week in Psalm
39 verse 5, man at his best state is altogether vanity. Nicodemus
is man at his best state. birth is not a modification of
the old but it's a different it's a separate birth it's a
creation of God in the sinner that wasn't there what's the
hope of glory according to Colossians 127 what's your hope of glory
it is Christ in you what a remarkable thing that God in the new birth
takes up residence inside sinners like us you see of glory as he said to these
Apostles on that night before he died in that day you shall
know that day in the new birth you shall know that I am in my
father and you in me and I in you it's a mystery isn't it is
an extraordinary mystery. But this is what that birth is
about. It's a birth from above. It's a separate birth. It's a
birth of a different nature. It's a birth that's opposed and
separate from the old nature. And so one of the evidences,
the great evidence, of the new birth is of course simple faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. But part of what happens in that
new birth is now, because there's a new nature in people, there
is a war that goes on. There is a war between the two,
isn't there? Romans 7 speaks of that war between
the two. You want to do good, and you
can't do it, and everything you do, every time you do anything,
sin is mixed with everything you do. As Paul says to the Galatians,
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, so you cannot
do the things that you would. So much for man's exalted sense
of free will, and so much for man's exalted sense of his power
and dominion. The flesh remains flesh. It should be a great comfort
to sinners that the Lord Jesus Christ says, your flesh is flesh,
and your spirit is spirit. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. You
must be born again. It's the new creation that loves
God. It's the new creation that worships
God. It's the new creation that believes. It's the new creation that serves
God Almighty. Not the old man, but the new
man. It's Christ in you. Keep quoting those remarkable
verses out of Galatians chapter 2, isn't it? Paul says, I'm crucified.
That's what happened to his old flesh. I'm crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, but yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. This is the new creation. And
the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith,
the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. There is an impact on the old
man of flesh, but it's always flesh. It's always flesh. The spirit is willing and the
flesh is weak. What a remarkable night it was
in Gethsemane. The Lord asked his disciples
one simple thing. thing can you stay and watch
with me in that hour of his the only time he ever expressed any
need of anything from them ever and what was the result came
back again and again what were they doing they were asleep I
love what he says isn't the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
your flesh is weak my flesh is weak that's why we shut up to faith is a reliance
isn't it faith is a dependence on faith is putting all my eggs
in one basket i am completely and utterly and totally dependent
upon the lord jesus christ to do everything everything in this
life and everything to get me into heaven and everything to
cause me to see heaven and see that's what nicodemus was taken
to by the lord jesus christ the lord jesus christ was not like
the modern soul winners, do they, who think that people just need
an increase in knowledge? Nicodemus was brought to a place
where he was made to see that he had absolutely no ability
and he was completely, utterly dependent upon the grace of God.
And if that's what God does to you in the preaching of the gospel
and causes you to be stripped of anything of yourself and can
be completely, utterly a beggar, to be a beggar at his mercy seat,
then that's the very best place And again, every time the flesh
rises up, God draws us back to his mercy seat. You must be born again, a creation,
a new creation with a new seed. And the Lord says to Nicodemus
in verse 7 of our text, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye
must be born again. We were told once that our gospel
is too good to be true. Too good to be true. Christ has
done it all. He did it all in eternity. He
did it all on Calvary's tree. He's doing it all in the hearts
of his people right now. When we get to heaven, the shouts
will be, Grace unto it, Grace unto it, Glory unto the Lord.
It won't be anything about us, will it? Marvel not! The Gospel
is a marvel, isn't it? The Gospel is a complete and
utter marvel to the unregenerate people. Without the grace of
God, without the new birth, everything in the Gospel is a marvel. We've been looking at these opening
chapters of John in light of the fact that these are foundational
Christian things. The Lord Jesus Christ is taking
Nicodemus right back to the very foundations, because Nicodemus'
foundations were all wrong. This is foundational, isn't it?
This is foundational of who God is. Nicodemus had to come to
understand who God is. Nicodemus had to come to understand
who man is, and Nicodemus had to come to understand how God
saves sinners. This is the teacher of Israel.
Didn't have a clue who God was, didn't have a clue who he was,
didn't have a clue who God saves sinners. As I said earlier, the
simplicity of Christ's words are so beautiful, aren't they?
These illustrations are so simple, so simple that they can be readily
understood by children. And Christ's command and promise
is simple, isn't it? I know there's a depth behind
all of these things, but let's not get caught up in the depths
of things until we actually get the foundations right. Let's
get the foundations right. Salvation is a powerful, creative,
regenerating, life-giving grace wrought by God. And everything that God requires,
God must provide. And everything that God provides,
God provides in the Lord Jesus Christ. Please don't butt away God's
words. That's what happens all the time,
doesn't it? People butt God's words away. Don't butt them away,
just listen. Marvel. It's a marvel, isn't
it? It's particularly a marvel that
we've always been taught from our childhood, all of us, that
salvation is a decision that we make. You just imagine Nicodemus
there as the teacher of Israel, and if you go back to Acts chapter
2, there were people there from 15 different nations and apostolites
and others. And when Nicodemus met those
people and they came to his Bible classes, Nicodemus would have
said, you guys have made a great decision. You've done so, so
well, haven't you? And here you are, you've turned
from that evil paganism. Here you are, polished up like
we Jews, and you're keeping your Sabbath, and you're keeping all
these dietary rules. Some of them were even circumcised. The
thought of that horrifies me, but they did. Such was their
devotion. Such was their devotion. Nicodemus
would have welcomed them. Well done. Good decision. You're saved. You're now ready
for the kingdom of God. You might be horrified to read
what the Lord Jesus Christ's description of these people were
in Matthew chapter 23. He says you travel over land
and sea to make a proselyte and when you bring him back to yourself
and polish him up like you've polished yourself up. He is twice
the child of hell that he was before. flesh gives birth to
flesh religious flesh gives birth to religious flesh and it doesn't
matter how polished it is and how fancy it looks that's all
it ever is and the only person who ever sees it clearly is God
Almighty and the only time religious flesh is exposed for what it
is, is in the very presence of God. And that's the presence
that we'll be in when we take our last breath. What a remarkable
mercy that God has given us an opportunity to examine ourselves
and to look at these things. You must. You must. The Lord's last illustration is about the wind. The wind bloweth
where it listeth. That word means to be resolved.
The wind blows where it's resolved to blow. The Spirit of God blows
where it's resolved to blow, where it's determined, where
it's purposed, where it wills to go. We don't control the Spirit
of God. I remember listening to a church.
I turned it off immediately. I couldn't believe it. No. The
guy got up at the beginning and said, Holy Spirit, we invite
you to come and worship with us. As if somehow we are on a
throne and God is a beggar at our feet. Oh dear, oh dear. And
the wind blowers were listed. And you hear the sound thereof.
We hear the sound of the wind in the trees. We don't know where
it's come from. That's not talking about whether
it comes from the south and goes to the north. But if you audibly
chase it back, you don't know where it came from. And you don't
know where it's going. You don't know where those little
particles are going from here. is everyone that is born of the
Spirit. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. It's a wonder. Salvation's a
wonder. It's a wonder to ourselves. It's
a wonder to everyone around us. When we've saved, we think that
we can go and explain what's happened to us, and we think
that this is so, so clear and so amazing about who the Lord
Jesus Christ is, that all we have to do is go and show them
and go and tell them and give them a little bit more knowledge,
and we think, dear, I doubt we'll pop some faith and out will pop
devotion. And what's the response, brothers
and sisters? It's exactly the same response
that the Lord Jesus Christ had before these people, unless they're
born of flesh. They will find the sovereignty
and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ offensive. You must be
born again. You must be born again. They're sons of God, says John
in John 1.12, isn't it? Sons of God, and they are born.
They're born not of the blood, not your lineage to Abraham. If that's not gonna cause you
entrance into the kingdom of heaven, you won't even know what
it is. nor of the will of the flesh, not your decision, not
your walking an aisle, not your saying the sinner's prayer. Flesh
gives birth to flesh, nor the will of man, not a bunch of men
all getting together and by our combined efforts bringing something
to part. The wind blows where it wishes.
But what a lovely, lovely picture of the absolute sovereignty of
the grace of God. again says our Lord you cannot
see you must be born again there is no way to see the kingdom
of God there is no way to enter the kingdom of God this is eternal
life it's to know God as he is therefore you must be born again
Nicodemus represents men at his best. Like Saul and Tarsus, isn't
it remarkable that the Lord saved these two particular Jews? These
two remarkable Jews. The best that Judaism had on
offer. The wind blows where it wishes. birth begins for us with pain. Nicodemus had to be brought low. He had to be brought to a place
where all his knowledge and all his religious devotion and all
of what men saw as esteemable in him. See what's highly esteemed
in the sight of men is abomination to God. If only we'd see that
fleshly activities, abomination to God, Apart from the new birth
and apart from his spirit, because of what we are, because of what
we were in our Father Adam, reformation won't help us. Religious education
won't help us. Obedience to the law won't help
us. You need a new life. to God, we are taken into heaven,
wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you get into
heaven, isn't it? Our lives are hidden with Christ
in God. Far from that esteeming the activities
of men, God hides himself from us in his Son to take us into
heaven. You must. You must. You must. You must because God's
commands come with his power. When he said to that man in the
synagogue, stretch forth your hand. The only thing the man
couldn't do was stretch forth his hand. When God's gospel comes
with his power from on high, And he commands, doesn't he?
He says, come unto me. Come unto me, all you that are
weary and heavy laden. With his commands, with his proclamation
of himself comes the power. You must be born again because
God's purposed it. He keeps saying, I will be his
God and he will be my sheep. They'll all know me from the
least of them to the greatest of them. You read John chapter
10 and John chapter 6. He must be born again because
of God's eternal promises. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold. Then also I must, I must bring
in. So they were given to him before
the foundation of the world. Later on he'll go on and say
unto Nicodemus, the Son of Man must be lifted up as a serpent
was in the desert. There is a must about the effectual
atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. people into his presence because
their sins are gone forever they've been laid on the Lord Jesus Christ
by a holy and just and righteous God and God the Father punished
them in his son and they are gone and he remembers them no
more God's cleansed children are perfectly fit to enter heaven's
glory they are He must, his word must go out
and his word must return having achieved what he set it for. The word became He came to his own and they rejected
him. He came to Nicodemus and as we see further on in John's
Gospel, Nicodemus earns the righteousness of God and condemns the unrighteousness
of the Sanhedrin. And then at the end of his life
he comes and he honors the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You must. I love the promises
of God. That's a must. Every one of his
children must be born again.