John chapter 3, I'm going to
pick up on verse 8 through 15. The title of the message is Look
and Live. Spurgeon made this statement,
there's life in a look to the crucified one. Life in a look. Now Nicodemus, came to our Lord
to ask Him some questions about the kingdom of God. But our Lord
stopped Him and told Him that before He could speak to Him
on that level and on that subject, He must be born again. The Lord
pressed upon Him the necessity, the absolute necessity of the
new birth in order to understand the things of the kingdom of
God and to enter into the kingdom of God to be a part of that kingdom.
There's an absolute necessity of being born again. The kingdom
of God was not as he thought it was. It's a spiritual kingdom,
it's a kingdom of righteousness, it's the Lord's kingdom. It's
not an earthly kingdom, it's a heavenly kingdom. Now in verse
8, And I know Nicodemus, he looked puzzled, but the Lord didn't
go by what he saw in his face, he went by what he saw in his
heart. The Lord looked into his heart, just like He looks into
my heart and your heart. You know, our hearts right now
are completely open before Him. They're completely open. Every
thought, every motive, completely open to Him. But he saw into
the heart of Nicodemus and he saw that Confusion, ignorance,
spiritual ignorance, deadness. He saw it. And he tells Nicodemus
that as far as this new birth is concerned, it is a sovereign
act of God. Because Nicodemus is like, how
can these things be? And he lets him know this matter
of a new birth is a sovereign act. It's a sovereign act of
God. Man has nothing to do with it. Zero. You know, I had zero to
do with my conception. Zero. I had zero to do with my
birth. I didn't help the doctor along.
I didn't help my mother along. I was totally passive in it. And the Lord is telling Nicodemus
and us that this matter of the new birth is a sovereign act
of God. You know, it's interesting. There
was someone, Vicki and I know, she gave birth to a baby boy
here not long ago, and the doctors were going to schedule her time,
that they was going to take the child. If it wasn't born, it
was going to induce labor. You know, there was a certain
time it was going to be born, but the time they were going to take
was a little earlier than what the time of her birth was to be. And I thought, isn't that religion?
They're going to set the schedule. They're going to try to help
this thing along. They're not going to wait on
God. I told her, I said, the doctors are working the births
around their schedule now. They're working it around their
schedule. That's why you don't have to get up early. I'm not
going to slam the doctors for that, but they're working it
around their schedule. And that's exactly what religion
does. It's trying to work and make birth happen around their
schedule. You know, we're all here together,
let's get somebody saved this morning. No, let's just preach the gospel
and leave the birth to God. We'll leave birthing to Him and
the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit is sovereign
in this matter of the new birth. He said there, the wind blows
where it will, and you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell
where it's coming and where it's going, so as everyone is born
of the Spirit. And so Nicodemus in verse 9, he asked this question,
how can these things be? And his question shows the necessity
of the new birth because he was totally ignorant of what the
Lord was talking about. If he had been born of God and
taught of God, he'd know exactly what the Lord's talking about.
He'd know it. He read the Scriptures. He read Ezekiel chapter 36. He read that. He read verses
22 through 27, even though it wasn't in verses at that time,
but he read that. Yet he was completely ignorant
of what the Scriptures meant there in Ezekiel 36. He was ignorant
of it. Listen, being religious does
not make one a child of God. Being religious does not make
one worthy of being a teacher. It doesn't make them able to
be a teacher. One's family heritage does not
make them a child of God. I'm sure Nicodemus could trace
his heritage back. You know, he could trace his
heritage back. I'm sure he could. To be a child of God, you must
be born of God. To call God your Father, you've
got to be born of God. Now God is the Creator of all.
He's the Judge of all. But He's not the Father of all.
He's the Father of all those who are born again, born of God.
He's their Father. Born from above, that which is
born of the Spirit is Spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Now listen, regeneration is not a process of reformation.
It's not a process. Regeneration is immediate. A
new birth is immediate. It happens right now. It's not,
listen, it's not the improving of that old nature. It's not
the old nature becoming better. You're not becoming a better,
better person. You're just born again a new person. It's a new
creation called in the Scriptures. Here we have a teacher of Israel,
a man educated. He was at the highest of education
in that day. In Jerusalem, he was at the height
of education, like the Apostle Paul, at the height of it. And
yet he did not know the ABCs of spiritual life. He didn't
know it, totally ignorant of it. He didn't know it at all. This is why John says in 1 John
4, "...try the spirits, whether they be of God." Not every teacher
knows what he's talking about. Not everyone who takes a Bible
and stands in a pulpit is preaching the gospel and is rightly dividing
the Word of Truth. I constantly ask God to enable
me to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Not give you my opinion. My opinion doesn't mean anything.
It's what thus saith the Lord. What does the Word of God say?
You know this, you who believe. You know how many conversations
you've been in with religious people that do not quote the
Scriptures at all. They just talk about, this is
what I believe. What do you believe? Well, what my preacher believes.
What does your preacher believe? What I believe. That's about
the way it goes. They can't tell you the Word
of God. Give me Scripture for why you believe and I believe
what we believe. But listen to the Lord's reply
here in verse 10. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a
master? Boy, that's a strong statement. A teacher, a master
of Israel. You got a master's degree. You
got a master's degree, Nicodemus, and you don't know these things?
You call yourself a teacher and you don't know these things? Are these spiritual truths strange
to you? Are you the master of Israel
and these things are totally strange to you? They ought not
to be. They ought not to be. There is nothing more deadly
than a teacher who's wrong. There's nothing more deadly than
a teacher who's wrong. I remember one time, I was playing
racquetball. I was young. I just learned how
to play it. And then I was playing with this other guy who'd never
played before. And I started telling him the rules, some of
the rules of how you play racquetball. And there was a man overhead
watching us. He said, you don't know what
you're talking about. I was telling him things that would, and I
know now after I played a lot of racquetball, I was dead wrong. I was wrong. There was a couple
things I told him that was right that was wrong. And the teacher
upstairs corrected me. There's nothing more deadly than
a teacher who's wrong. And the Lord is revealing to
this man his ignorance, his spiritual ignorance. And listen, this is
the most dangerous place to be wrong. You can be wrong in In secular
things, you can be wrong in those things and nobody's soul is at
stake. You'd be wrong in this. Eternal life is attached to it.
Your soul is attached to it. Always be careful who you listen
to when they open the Word of God, you better open it too.
And pray that God give you understanding. Because not everyone who opens
it knows what you're talking about. Listen, I'll show you how dangerous
it is from the Scriptures. Matthew 23, 15. Woe unto you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! He says, you're hypocrites. For
you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he's
made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. You've made him twofold the child
of hell. You've given him, you've not
only brought him from his false religion into your false religion, Listen to this scripture, Matthew
6.23. If thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness. How great
is that darkness! Nicodemus, how great is that
darkness in you, and you're spreading it to others that are listening
to you. You go around with this title,
Master of Israel, and everybody sits down and listens to you
and says, well, he's got to be right. He's a teacher. He's a master of Israel. He's
got to be right. And he wasn't right on anything.
He was totally twisting the scriptures. And all those who listened to
him, all those who followed him, he made them twofold the child
of hell. That's how serious it is. The religious man is still
just a natural man apart from the new birth. He's as lost as
anybody else. Now the Lord lets Nicodemus know
that what he's saying is truth. He knows what he's talking about. I've heard Henry say this many
times, you can't tell about someone you don't know, no more than
you can come back from where you have been. And the Lord is saying,
I've been where I'm, I've been there, I've seen this, I'm a
witness to it, I know what I'm talking about. But he doesn't
say I, he says we. We. Verily, verily, truly, truly,
listen to me, listen to me. I say to you, I'm talking to
you, give me your attention. We, we speak that we do know
and testify that we have seen, and you receive not our witness.
Our Lord claims absolute perfect knowledge of what He's talking
about. That's what He's doing. His testimony is that of something
He has seen and heard, something He's a witness to. He's a witness
to it. And I want you to notice the
unity here He speaks of. He says, We. And I believe He's
speaking here, first of all, the unity of the Trinity. He
says, We. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Christ said, As I hear, I speak. He's speaking here of the unity
of the Holy Spirit. I believe he's speaking of the
unity of the prophets. He's speaking of the unity of
John the Baptist with him and the prophets. John the Baptist
being a prophet. He's speaking of the unity of
his disciples and of his ministers. We all speak the same thing.
We have the same message. We have the same message. These
things are not made up. John says over in 1 John, we
declare those things unto you which we've seen and heard from
Him. We've touched Him, we've touched
the eternal light, we've seen Him, we've heard Him, we've touched
Him, and we declare Him unto you that which we've seen and
heard. And what this is, is this, this unity of message of truth
identifies those sin of God. It identifies us with the Lord
and with His ministers. But here's something that's sad.
Here's something sad. The Son of God has come into
the world. He's declared the Father. He's declared the truth.
He's speaking of those things which He has seen and heard.
I mean, He came from glory. And He says, you receive not
our witness. And here's how serious this is. You receive not our
witness. To reject one is to reject all. They thought they were just rejecting
this man named Jesus Christ. Christ said, he that receives
you, receives me. If you reject him or you reject
his messengers, you reject the Lord. And Christ said, you reject
me, you reject the Father. They said, God's our father.
No, he's not. If God were your father, what did he say? You
would love me. If God were your Father, you'd
love me." When you hear of His sovereignty and of His work,
His redemptive work, you'd love Him. You'd love Him. You wouldn't
stand against Him. Now He says, if I've told you
earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you heavenly things? You remember when Paul came back
from the third heaven, he said, I heard things that were unlawful
to utter. I can't put them into words. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ
can put them into words. He can make them known to us.
But if you can't grasp these simple illustrations I've given
you, how can you grasp the great truths of God? How can you grasp
these things? The key phrase here in verse
12 is this. If I've told you earthly things and you... Now
listen, He didn't say if you understand them or not. He says
you believe not. Now there's something here. There are a lot of things I don't
understand in the Scriptures. I can't comprehend the Trinity.
I don't understand that. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three
distinct persons, yet there's only one God. Here's something
else I cannot grasp and understand. Christ, it says in 2 Corinthians
5.21, "...he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin."
How can Jesus Christ be made sin and at the same time know
no sin? Only God can do that. But I tell
you what, I believe it. I believe it. I believe in the
Trinity. I believe the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit are three distinct persons, and yet there's only
one God. I believe that. I believe it. Our Lord used the simplest examples
and He said, you can't even understand these things, and you believe
not. But here's why you believe not, let me tell you. Here's
why they don't believe, and I'm going to give you the Scriptures.
In 1 Corinthians 1.18, For the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness. Foolishness. God's electing grace
is foolishness. Christ's redeeming love Christ
redeeming those He died for. None of them will be lost. The
world looks at that. The religious world and the world
look at it and say, that's foolishness. You know what they're saying?
That's not the way it ought to be done. That's just not the way it ought to
be done. We think God ought to do it our way. You thought I
was altogether like yourselves. That's what it says in the Psalms.
It's to them that perish is foolishness, but unto us which are saved,
it's the power of God. It's the power of God. 1 Corinthians
1, 22, 23. For the Jews require a sign.
They kept saying to him, show us a sign. And every time he
did, they said again, show us a sign. He'd do another miracle.
Show us a sign. He's a lot kinder than we would
be. I'd be calling him a name by now. But he didn't. He was so patient and so gracious.
The Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified. And to the Jews, that's a stumbling
block. It's just a stumbling block. And unto the Greeks, it's
absolute foolishness. That's just foolishness. But
to us, being saved is the power of God. Here's how it works. Receiving, then knowledge. Believing, that's receiving.
Believing, then knowledge. Believing what God has said,
then understanding what God has said. It's like, no, I got to
understand first. That's not the way faith is.
It wouldn't be faith. It wouldn't be faith. Here's
faith. Hebrews 11.3. Through faith. We understand that the world
is framed by the Word of God through faith. Not through understanding,
through faith. Through faith, we understand. You don't believe God, you're
never going to understand. If you don't take God at His Word, you're
never going to understand the Word of God. You're never going
to understand redemption until you take God at His Word. You've
got to take Him at His Word first. You see, faith is the root of
perception. It's the root of understanding.
David said this in Psalm 27, 13. I had fainted unless I had
believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. And it's in that order. I had believed to see, not see
and then believe. You see, we take God at His word.
I don't want to stand, but Lord, this is what you said. I believe
it. I believe it. That's right. It's through faith we understand
these things. And then he says in verse 12,
if I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall
you believe if I tell you heavenly things? If you don't believe
these earthly things, the simple things, we don't need to move
on. If you don't listen, if you were
a student in school, And you just can't get it. You don't
get it from the very first day, and the whole year's gone by,
and you're not any further advanced than the first day you came to
school. Why go to the next grade? You know, learning, knowledge,
is step by step. We build on it. Knowledge builds
on knowledge. Now, if you miss all this down
here, and you're just gonna go from the first grade to the 12th
grade, We don't even do that, do we?
And that's what the Lord's saying. If I've told you these earthly
things, then why should I talk to you about the kingdom of God?
How can I talk to you about the eternal counsels of God? How
can I talk to you about the mysteries of the kingdom of God? You can't
even get the ABCs right yet. If I've given you simple illustrations
like wind and birth and you don't comprehend what they mean, do
we need to go further? How many preachers are standing
in the pulpit this morning, have read this chapter? They've read
this chapter. Now listen. Marvel not that I
said to thee, you must be born again, because the wind blows
where it lifts us, and you hear the sound thereof, but you can't
tell where it's coming, where it's going, so it is that everyone
is born of the Spirit. You've read these scriptures
of the sovereignty of God and salvation, and what do you do?
You turn right around, put the pressure on somebody to do something,
showing you don't understand what you just read. How dangerous is that? What good
would it be for Christ to speak to him about heavenly things
or things pertaining to the things of God and the mysteries of God
if you don't get these simple things? I said to a Mormon one
time, I said that we were talking, you know, their prophet, they
claim their prophet gets revelations from God, new revelations. I told him, I said, this is all
that God's given us. I said, everything God has given
to us and is going to give to us is right here in this book,
is right in this book. And he said, you mean to me,
you mean to tell me, you mean to tell me that God doesn't speak
new things now anymore? And I said to him, I said, well,
do you understand what he's already said? I said, did you understand
what this book says? Do you understand? Look, we've
got Genesis and Revelations. Why should he say anything new
if you haven't got it yet? I was told, I was called in the
office and told to quit speaking to him. They did, they called
me in the office. I was the plant manager. The
Mormons owned the business. And one of the head guys called
me in there. He said, you need to stop talking
to him about this. I said, OK. And I never spoke
to him about it again after that. I let him listen to a message
from Henry on self-righteousness. Boy, I could tell we were on
a sales trip. And I had him in the car with
me. And I said, let's listen to this. And we listened to that
message. And he heard the gospel. He heard the gospel. And then
he called me and said, don't talk about that no more. And
I haven't. And I haven't talked to him anymore. But God is not going to give
us any more revelation than what he's given us right here in his
book, in his word. I thought of this last night.
I thought if we cannot grasp the low hanging fruit, Forget
the high-hanging fruit. If you can't grasp the little
things, forget the big picture. You can't get it. And then the
Lord gives him a glimpse of His deity in verse 13. And no man
hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And He's telling him
here, we know what we're saying because He said, listen, I came
from heaven. I came from the place I'm talking
about. No man has ascended up to heaven.
No natural man has ascended up to heaven. But the One who came
down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven at
the same time He's standing there talking to Nicodemus. He's in
the bosom of the Father at the same time He's on this earth. What a mystery. You say, I can't
understand that. I can't either. I believe it. I believe it. He's
telling Nicodemus, I'm from above. I'm from above. I'm God. I'm
God. The heavenly things here to which
the Lord is referring to hadn't been clearly revealed
to men until our Lord came into this world and He opened it all
up. He's opened up the great mystery
of the Gospel, the eternal counsels of God and grace. He's opened
all that up. Until then, nobody had done that.
We have it here a little, there a little. Bits and pieces here.
Throughout the Old Testament, our Lord came and put it all
together. He put it all together. Only the One that came down from
Heaven, the Son of Man, only He can reveal the mysteries of
the Kingdom of God. Only He can tell us. Only He
can make us to know these things. That's why when I read the scriptures
and I'm coming out here to preach, I say, Lord, show me the message. It's in this portion of scripture.
Because he's the only one that can. The only one. Now our Lord did not say, no
man has entered heaven. He said, no man has ascended
up to heaven. And He's talking about ascending up to heaven
in His own power. Christ ascended to heaven as
a man in His own power. Elijah went up, he ascended up
to heaven, but he went up by the power of God. And you and
I are going to go up by the power of God. He went up by His own
power because He's God. Now He says here in verse 14
and 15, I'll close. He's going to now speak of the
cross. He said, Nicodemus, you gotta be born again to understand
what I'm talking about. You gotta be born again to enter
the kingdom of God. No man has been to that place
but me. I came down from heaven. And he came down from heaven
to do the father's will, to redeem us, and to reveal his father's
will. And he says this in verse 14.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up." You see, he spoke of the new
birth. Nicodemus was like, what are you talking about? Now he
reaches to the Scriptures and takes a simple illustration that
he knew Nicodemus was very, very aware of. Nicodemus knew why
they were bitten. Those serpents came in the camp,
poisonous serpents. Israel had been murmuring, complaining. God sent these serpents in the
camp and they bit the Israelites. And many of them died. Many of
them died. And God told Moses, make a serpent
of brass, one that looks like that's in the appearance of the
one that bit them. Because it's going to be in the
nature that we fell that we're going to be redeemed. Christ
became a man. A man fell, a man is going to
raise us. Sin entered the world by a man,
righteousness is going to enter by a man. That man Jesus Christ. And so he gives him an illustration
here that he is aware of and he can understand it. So he's
telling him here that before the kingdom of God can be set
up, Before the Messiah, listen, before the Messiah takes the
throne, before He ascends to the throne, He's got to go by
way of the cross. You see, they've expected the
Messiah to come in and set up the kingdom, to come in and reign,
but before He reigns, He's got to die. That's what they missed. They missed that. Nicodemus missed
it. And the Lord is clearly telling
him the gospel here. Nicodemus' eternal life comes
through my substitutionary work and death. The sacrificial work of Christ
is the foundation for the work of the Spirit of God. You're
not going to be born again unless Christ is lifted up. That's why
he said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men, all sorts of men
to me. So if I want to see sinners saved, if you desire to see sinners
saved, I desire to see sinners saved, what's got to happen?
Christ lifted up. Christ and Him crucified preached
in all His offices, in all His character. That's what's got
to happen. That's the foundation for the
operation of the Spirit in the new birth. It's the Son of Man
who is to be lifted up. It's His blood that makes the
atonement for our sins. It's in the nature of man that
He redeems man. People out of every kindred,
tribe, tongue, and nation under heaven. It's as He says here
that the world through Him might be saved. The world is saved
through that man. The world will be saved. But
not everyone in the world is going to be saved. The animal world was saved on
the ark, but not every animal in the world was saved. They
went in two by two. And so when he says that the
world might be saved, the world is going to be saved. But not
everyone in the world is going to be saved. All those sinners
in heaven, that innumerable company, came out of this world. They
came out of this world. And God's going to save it. But
not everyone. Not everyone. In fact, those
whom He leaves alone, they want Him to leave them alone. They
want to be left alone. No God for me, is what the fool
says. Don't bother my life. The Jews expected the Messiah
to be lifted up on the throne, but they missed the cross. They
missed it. But now listen here. He says
in verse 15, I'm going to close, that whosoever believeth in Him,
believes in Him, looks to Him, it's the same thing, it's to
look to Him. Whosoever believeth in Him, and
he's saying this to a Jew, a high-ranking Jewish official, a Pharisee. And the Lord says, whosoever
believeth in Him, you see, Nicodemus is like, Gentile world is cut
off and gone. And the Lord says, no, you see
that Syrophoenician woman over there? She believes in me. She's going to be part of the
kingdom, too. She's going to enter the kingdom, too. You see a harlot
over there? She's going to be a part of the
kingdom, too. And Nicodemus in all his self-righteousness would
go, ooh, you serious? I got samples out of her? You watch a harlot come in here
and sit down, and you find out real quick who the self-righteous
ones are. They'll go to the other side of the room. You're not
going to sit beside of that. He's making Nicodemus realize
this. Nicodemus, salvation is of the free, sovereign grace
of God. Whosoever is the free, sovereign
grace of God. You don't have to belong to a
certain family or a certain denomination. You don't know. It's the free
sovereign grace of God. Whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. The people were bitten
by these fiery serpents. You know what Moses said to them?
Crawl over here. Crawl over here and God will
save you. Crawl over here and touch this
piece of brass. You know, they made an idol out
of that brass. If they could find a cross right now, they'd
make an idol out of it. I guarantee you the Roman Catholics
would grab that thing up and run over there and put it behind
a glass and collect money on it every week, every day. Let
people come through, this is the cross. As Henry said one
time, if they find it, burn it. If you could actually find the
cross that Christ hung on, burn it, because people will make
an idol out of it. We do not worship that cross,
we worship the one who hung on the cross. That's the one we
worship. And so Moses, he carried that
through the camp. He didn't ask them to do anything. You know what he said? Look,
look. He walked around the camp. Look, you who've been bitten,
look! And you know what happened? Those
who looked were healed. Those who looked. I don't pressure anybody to come
forward, come to a front. I tell you right now, everybody
in this room, look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look and look now
and look always. And that's all. Don't ever do
anything, just look. And I tell you what, He'll motivate
you to do what you need to do. If you want to confess Christ,
confess Him in baptism. That's how we confess Christ.
We follow Him in baptism. Those who look in faith to the
Lord Jesus Christ are saved. That's it. That's it. That's
it. That's all. That's all. You say, well, that's easy. Well,
do it. Do it. It takes the power of God to
raise you from the dead and enable you to look. It just takes the
power of God.