So let's ask the Lord to help
us now as we look into his word. Father, we thank you for your
word, for the gospel that explains to us the message of all of scripture,
that the Lord Jesus Christ is all in your purpose, your eternal
purpose, and that purpose will not go unfulfilled. We know that
you will accomplish your will, and you are accomplishing your
will, and we know that your will is salvation. It is to glorify
your Son in the salvation of your people. And this we love
to read about. We love to think about it. We
take this truth in our hearts and we confess it to you in our
prayers that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came down
from heaven and ascended back up to heaven, is all of our salvation. He's all of our confidence. He's our hope. our expectation
for eternal life and eternal glory, and He is our full assurance
in coming to you. He's the one we trust and find
peace and joy in trusting Him, because when we come to the end
of ourselves, then we can find rest in knowing that you have
spoken, and He has accomplished your will, and you've revealed
it to us in the gospel. And Lord, we know that it is
by your spirit that you make known these things to us. And
we know that this is not a work we can accomplish. Not only must
the Lord Jesus give his spirit to us in the beginning of our
salvation, in our conversion, but throughout our lives. And
so we pray, Lord, who can give all things and accomplish all
your will, Lord, we pray that you would give us your spirit
to open your word to us and bless those who hear your word by your
spirit visit in their hearts and speak the words of the Lord
Jesus to them, not my words but his, not by my voice but by his
voice from your gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, I want to be in John chapter three. If you remember
last time we were looking at the cleansing, the washing of
regeneration. I'm going to read that text of
scripture to you in Titus. Titus chapter 3. This is to just
bring you back to speed on what we covered last time, Titus chapter
3 and verse 5 says that, verse 3 and 4 talk about what we were
before the Lord saved us, and then he says in verse 4, after
all that we were in ourselves, hateful and hating one another,
after that the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man
appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, It was nothing
that we did, but according to His mercy, He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. In Scripture,
when the work of the Spirit of God in us is compared to several
things, one of them is washing. And it's called washing because
our consciences, our minds, don't think right. We're full of sin,
and we have the guilt of sin that is like a stain on our conscience. It prevents us from coming to
God. Because with this guilt, we know that God can't accept
us, and we know we can't come to God, and we think, therefore,
God is against us. We have no basis for anything. But when the Lord speaks to us
from His word and points us to Christ as all of our cleansing
of all of our sins by His blood, then that word applied to us
by the Spirit of God is called the washing of regeneration. We are made new, and that's another
thing that regeneration or being born of God is illustrated as
in scripture. We're made new, renewing of the
Holy Ghost. We're born. We're created in
Christ Jesus. We're raised from the dead, raised
to life. Look at 1 Peter, if you would. In 1 Peter, it says in verse
3, of 1 Peter, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, the same thing
we just read in Titus 3, 5, according to his abundant mercy, he hath
begotten us again unto a lively hope. by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
is a reason we're born of God. So you see here again, our resurrection,
our new birth, our being created in Christ is that washing that
occurs when the Spirit of God brings us to see the Lord Jesus
Christ in all of his saving merits by his blood and righteousness.
So that's the summary from last time. I wanted to give you all
to think about that. The Lord Jesus said that his
word was spirit and life, and throughout scripture we read
about the purging of our conscience, The washing of our bodies, the
washing of our feet, all these washings were cleaned by the
Word that the Lord has spoken to us in John 15, verse 3. All
these cleansings and washings that we experience are because
of the Word of Christ given to us by the power of God's Spirit.
So now back in John chapter 3, we want to continue because we
have covered this part, the first 10 verses is what we've covered.
I want to look at verse 11 now. It says, Verily, verily, in John
chapter 3, verse 11, Verily, verily, there's Christ's words
again. These are true things. There's
a lot of things in life that we hear. You hear the news, you
hear your neighbor's report, You hear the conversation of
your family, you hear your own thoughts, but there's really
only one thing that we can be certain of, it's what God has
said. That's why he says here, verily, verily, I say unto thee,
God has spoken by his Son. Jesus said heaven and earth will
pass away. but my words will never pass
away. Not one thing, not one jot, not
one tittle of all that is written in scripture will fail, Jesus
said, until all be fulfilled. And so we know that whenever
Jesus speaks these kinds of words, it's to draw our confidence to
convince us that what he says is the way things are. This is
the matter of our salvation here. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
we speak that we do know. The Lord Jesus has spoken what
he knows. And he says we here because he's
including all that God has spoken by the prophets and in himself. He says we speak that we do know
and testify that we have seen. and you receive not our witness."
They wanted to say they were Moses' disciples. Moses went
up Sinai, came down Sinai, he gave them God's law, they assumed
that he had the truth, he did, but it was still in that hidden
form in the law, it wasn't revealed as it is now in the gospel. But
the Lord Jesus came and preached the gospel, revealed it, but
they couldn't see because their eyes were still blinded. Like
when Moses came down, remember when he came down from Sinai
and the children of Israel saw his face, his face was glowing.
What did he do? He put a veil over his face.
So they couldn't look, they couldn't see to the end, as it says in
2 Corinthians 3. They couldn't see to the real
meaning of what Moses was saying because that was typified by
this veil over Moses' face. I believe that that shine on
Moses' face was because he saw Christ. Not in his physical form,
but he saw Christ in the truth that God revealed to him in the
law. But when he gave the law under God's purpose, the children
of Israel who heard it couldn't look to the end. They couldn't
see the fulfillment of the law. They couldn't see the consummation
of the law. And what is that? What is the
end of the law? What is the termination because
of its fulfillment? What is that in scripture? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. We're going to look
at that verse in a minute here. But Jesus said to Moses, we speak
him and John the Baptist and even Jesus' disciples. But before
John, there were all the prophets, Moses, David, the Psalms. We speak that we do know and
we testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness.
This is a condemning judgment by Christ of Nicodemus and his
peers. You don't receive it. And it
also serves to humble Nicodemus because he knew that Jesus was
sent of God. He said so in the second verse
of this chapter. We know you're a man sent from
God because no one can do these miracles that you do except God
be with him. And so he knew that Jesus was
from God, and yet he didn't receive his witness, so that's another
nail in the coffin of Nicodemus. In verse 12, if I have told you,
Jesus said, if I have told you earthly things, and you believe
not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
What are the earthly things that Jesus spoke and Nicodemus didn't
believe? Well, there's a lot of things.
First of all, we know that in the Old Testament the children
of Israel heard the gospel. Remember in Hebrews chapter 4
and verse 3, unto them the gospel was preached as well as unto
us. And how did they hear the gospel? Well, in many ways. Number one, God's deliverance
of Israel from Egypt was a redemption. And so that was a redemption
by what? The Passover lamb. It was redemption
by the lamb, the Passover lamb. When God saw the blood of that
lamb, he passed over Israel. But did Nicodemus understand
that? Well, he understood that Israel was delivered from Egypt
by the 10 plagues, the last of which was the Passover, and that
God destroyed all the firstborn. He understood that, but did he
understand the meaning, the earthly thing that had a heavenly meaning?
He didn't. because he didn't believe Christ
when he came, and so on. We could go down the list, and
he's going to do this in verse 14 when Jesus says, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, there's an earthly
thing, but it has a heavenly meaning. All the things that
Christ spoke referred to heavenly and spiritual things, even though
they had an earthly representation in what he had to say. Think
of the miracles that Jesus did. all the miracles that Jesus did.
Can you imagine what would happen today if Jesus was on earth and
he was healing whoever came to him? That he was delivering people
from paralysis, who couldn't walk, who couldn't speak, who
couldn't see, who were bent over and couldn't raise themselves
up, who had diseases inside of them, like leprosy or this issue
of blood this woman had. All these things, the Lord Jesus
came and he just spoke or touched and he healed them. Can you imagine
someone like that now? What would people do? They would
empty the cities and come out to be healed. when He raised
people from the dead. What an amazing miracle that
was. So all these miracles have a message in them. What is the
message of the miracle? Well, first it means that God's
power is present. Secondly, that means that God's
authority, His blessing on the one speaking is present. So He
sent the one who's performing these miracles. And thirdly,
we know that the message of the messenger is the message of God
because God is affirming it with these miracles. The Lord Jesus
performed more miracles than anyone ever performed. And people
were drawn to him. That drawing to him also is a
purpose of those miracles. Because whatever he did as a
miracle, they were drawn to him. Drawn to him. And in the miracle
we see his great compassion, and his mercy, and his kindness
towards people. People who couldn't return anything
to him. Couldn't pay him for it, couldn't
compensate him. Now, I just use all that to show that the miracles
had a message. from a messenger, ultimately
it was God the Father, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, He came,
and so in the miracles, Christ made Himself known in His compassion,
in His authority, in His power over devils and over sickness,
and remember, we were healed because of His stripes. The miracles
were pointing forward to our atoning work, the atoning work
of Christ. The work of Christ in our atonement
where he made a reconciliation between us and God by his blood.
And it was by his stripes, Isaiah 53 says, that we are healed.
So the miracles, the message of the miracles is Christ and
him crucified. That's the message. But in the
physical sense, it was an earthly thing. He did earthly miracles
by heavenly authority and heavenly power, and it pointed back to
himself and drew men to himself in his compassion, his kindness,
his power to save, because they needed to understand this is
the Savior. And so God spoke by that. But
Nicodemus saw the earthly things. In the law, he saw all the historical
events and circumstances. He didn't see the spiritual reality
behind it. The law spoke of obedience that
would bring righteousness. He didn't see that that obedience
could only be met by one, the Savior, the substitute. And so
he didn't understand. And so Jesus goes on. He says,
if I've told you earthly things, all the types and figures in
the law, all the events in the Old Testament, the prophecies
of Christ to come. Like he says in Luke 24, the
prophets and the Psalms, and in the law and the prophets and
the Psalms, they're all written of me. I came to do the will
of God. That's what it was. That was
the message. But Nicodemus didn't see that, nor can we see it unless
the Lord opens our eyes to it. So he goes on in chapter 3 and
verse 12, if I tell you heavenly things, how are you going to
believe those? And now he does just that. He tells him heavenly
things. He says this, and no man has
ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even
the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Now this verse has always puzzled
me, and because it puzzles us, we tend to think about it more.
Don't you find that? When the text of scripture puzzles
you, it causes you to think it, turn it over in your mind, and
wonder, Lord, what does this mean? But if you look at this
verse and understand, when the Lord Jesus talks about heavenly
things, what is he talking about? In reference to their time, he's
talking about an eternal view. an eternal view from God's perspective
about the way things are. And so what is he focusing on
here? He's talking about the Son of Man. You see that? The Son of Man, which is in heaven. Jesus is the Son of Man. He said
so himself in, for example, right here, but also in chapter six
in verse 62, after he had given that, broken the bread and the
fish and the people had eaten, and they came and followed him
to this other side of the Sea of Galilee. And in John chapter
six in verse 61, Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured
because he told them that they had to eat his flesh and drink
his blood to have life. And so he asked them this, does
this offend you? Yeah. what and if you shall see
the Son of Man ascend up where he was before. So here, the Lord
Jesus says, it might offend you that you have to eat my flesh
and blood to have life, but it'll offend you a lot more when you
see me as the Son of Man ascending up where I was before. So now
we get a hint here, reading chapter six in verse 62, that not only
is this talking about the Lord Jesus, But it's talking about
Him who was in heaven before, because He said in John 6, 62,
if you see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before, and we
know that He's going to ascend after He rises from the dead,
from Acts chapter 1, He ascended back up in the clouds. But here,
the Lord is talking to Nicodemus about the Son of Man who says,
he has ascended, no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came
down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. He's
talking about his ascension as if it's already happened. That's
the way I read it, at least. No man has done this, ascended
up, to heaven, but he that came down, so that's the past tense,
from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. So we
have a difficult time establishing the time reference because of
this verse, the way it's written. But if we understand that the
Lord is talking about an eternal view, As an eternal view, the
Lord Jesus Christ has always been the Son of Man. Christ was
chosen from eternity as the Son of Man. He is the Son of God
and He's eternal. But He was chosen and ordained
and set up in this covenant that God established before time began
to be the Son of Man. So in that covenant, he was established
as our mediator. The son of God would be the son
of man. How would he become the son of
man? He would become the son of man because God would prepare
for him a human nature. And so we talk about it this
way. We say the son of God incarnate or enfleshed. He took on, look
at John chapter one. See how it says it there. John
chapter one, verse 14. He says, the Word, in John chapter
1 and verse 14, after he had just talked about how the Word
was in the beginning, the Word was with God, the Word was God,
and all things were made by Him, and now he says in verse 14 of
John 1, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That's
when the eternal Son of God, in time, actually took on our
nature, so that when we look upon Him, we see the Son of Man,
born of a man, born of a woman, or not born of a man, but descended
from David, but born of a woman, made under the law, He appeared
in every way like a man, because He was a real man. And we see
Him that way. So that's when the Lord of Glory,
the Son of God, became the Son of Man in time, when He was made
of a woman and made under the law. but he was the son of man
in the eternal covenant in the will of God long before that
because he said he's going to ascend back up where he was before. So in glory, the son of God has
always been the son of man. He has glory with the Father
before He comes into the world. So, now let's look at it again,
John 3, 13, look at it again with this view, this eternal
view of the role or the appointment of the Son of God to be our mediator
and so become the Son of Man. No man has ascended up to heaven.
Now, if you think about that and you lay that over the the
template of what happened that Nicodemus was aware of. Who ascended
up, when you think about Old Testament scripture, to Nicodemus?
Who ascended up? Well, the first one that comes
to my mind is Moses. Moses went up Mount Sinai, and
what did he do? He went up to receive from God
the law. And when he was there, it says
God spoke to Moses and gave him those two tables of stone written
with the finger of God. So Moses went up Sinai. It would
naturally then, by an extension in Nicodemus' view, that somebody,
a man, a mere man, would, as Christ, would come and he would
ascend up to heaven to get something that he could bring down for
us to do so that we could have eternal life. And the rich young
ruler in Matthew chapter 19, in so many words, said the same
thing when he said to Jesus, good master, what should I do
or what shall I do to have eternal life? What can I do to have eternal
life? And Jesus said, why do you call
me good? There's one good and that's God only. And then he
goes on to corner up that young man and teach him that he couldn't
do anything because he was a sinful man and his heart was covetous
by nature. He had no way of breaking free.
He was a servant of sin, guilty, and couldn't do, if something
was given to him to do, to enter eternal life. It was impossible
for men, it was only possible for God, and it's only possible
for men by God's doing through the Son of Man. So, again, when
Jesus says in John 3, 13, no man has ascended up to heaven,
he is comparing in contrast what a mere man, Moses, did when he
ascended Sinai to receive from God the written Word of God and
bring it down to men for men to do, in contrast to Moses,
not a mere man, the Son of God. has alone ascended up to heaven. But a man couldn't ascend up
to heaven unless he was a man first on earth, right? So he
says, but he that came down from heaven. So now we see that in
order for him to ascend up, first he must come down. He had to,
and how could he come down from heaven if he wasn't already in
heaven? He didn't start on earth, go
to heaven, and return to earth. He started in heaven, came to
earth, and then returned to heaven. So this is a completely different
revelation that the Lord Jesus Christ is giving to Nicodemus
than he had ever thought about. No man has, if it weren't so
that Nicodemus was ignorant of these things, Jesus wouldn't
have asked him, why didn't you believe the earthly things? How can you believe the heavenly
things? And talk about earth, Nicodemus not even being able
to see the kingdom of God. He didn't perceive it or understand
it. And this is speaking about the one who is the king in the
kingdom of God. And how that kingdom is established,
it's by the son of God, His incarnation coming down according
to the eternal will of God, taking on that nature, and then, he
says, ascending up, doing something in that nature on earth, and
then ascending back up to heaven. And then he says, in the last
part of John 3.13, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. So
he speaks about him being in heaven even though he was standing
right next to Nicodemus on earth. And I know that it's true because
as the son of God he's everywhere. He could be speaking about his
nature as God being in heaven, but I really think he's talking
about it as God who calls those things which be not as though
they were. In other words, Jesus is speaking
about a certain accomplishment and a certain exaltation because
as Son of God, he humbled himself to take on our nature, as it
says in Philippians 2, verse 6 through 8. He not only took
our nature, but made himself of no reputation, and he took
on the form of a servant, and as a servant, He humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,
so that his obedience was in submission of his whole life,
all the time, setting aside what he would do if he were an independent
man doing his own will, but he wanted, he gladly, he delighted
in doing the will of God and so he submitted to it. throughout
his life, and all the way up to that humiliation of taking
our sins, being charged falsely for them, beaten because of them,
and suffering in soul and in body, and finally submitting
to his own crucifixion by the hands of wicked men, laying his
life down. That is obedience. That's what
the Son of Man did as a servant who is the Son of God who took
that place of inhumility and suffered in humiliation. He who
was higher than the heavens. had glory with the Father before,
stooped to the lowest place, so that he was the song of drunkards,
and the abjects were speaking against him. The abjects of the
earth, the hateful of the earth, were speaking against him as
if he was a worm and no man. That's humiliation. bearing our
sins as his own with all the shame of them, stripped naked,
beaten at the hands of men, mocked, spit, whipped, hit in the face,
crowns put on his head in pain and shame and mockery, hung up
for all the world to see as if he were a helpless victim when
he was truly the Lord of Glory, Almighty God. That's humility. That was humiliation. That's
what the Son of Man did, who is the Son of God. And so, no
man has ascended up because something had to happen first. He who ascended
up had to first come down from heaven, Son of God, even the
Son of Man, which is in heaven, because as Son of Man, He had
already, He's speaking of it as if it's present and eternally
established, He has already accomplished the will of God, He's already
saved His people, and therefore He is exalted and given the place
of all power in order to bring His people to Himself. Do you
see this? This is what Jesus is putting
just in these few words here in John 3, 13. And so he talks
about in the next two verses the obedience required, the suffering
required for him to do this as it was prophesied by Moses and
all the prophets. And he goes on, I'll read it
to you, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
This is a familiar story. The children of Israel had grown
tired of the manna, they had grown tired of the wilderness,
and they despised Moses in their heart. They spoke against God
and Moses, and they despised the manna, which we know pointed
to Christ coming down from heaven, making himself, his body broken,
our life, by making himself the bread of life. They despised
all that. And so God sent flaming serpents
or fiery flying serpents called, well it just says fiery serpents
there in Numbers chapter 21 verses four through nine. It talks about
how God sent these serpents to bite the people. They were bitten,
they were dying, some of them died. And so they cried to Moses,
what do we do? Do something, help us. and Moses
was commanded by God, this is what you are to do, take a serpent,
make a serpent of brass, take some brass, heat it up, hammer
it out, nail it, or fasten it to a pole and lift it up. And this is exactly what happened
in truth to the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses, the law of God, brought
the hammer of God's justice and his judicial penalty upon the
Lord Jesus Christ And he was crucified. He was nailed to the
cross, which was the place of cursing. The serpent was the
beast that was cursed by God from the beginning. And so he
said, God told Moses, God spoke as if to his law, I want you
to curse my son. Fasten him to the pole and then
lift him up. because this is the substitution.
This is the sin-bearing, curse-bearing substitute God has appointed
to save these wretched, God-hating, law-hating, Christ-hating people. who ought to die and are dying
under the curse themselves without any remedy. And God comes and
he provides for them a savior. And so Jesus is explaining this
to Nicodemus. He had read this story in Numbers
21. Nicodemus probably talked about
this story, probably told his disciples, oh, this is what it
means, and gave them some explanation. Maybe he didn't know what it
meant. Maybe he just said, I don't know what it means. It's just
God did a miracle. He healed the people, but he
didn't see beyond that. But here, the Lord Jesus says,
as Moses. Now he's talking about the Son
of Man. He had just spoken about how, as Son of God, he had to
become incarnate, come down in humility and in humiliation,
accomplish the will of God, and then go back up to heaven in
ascension, in victory, in power. He says in verse 14, this is
how he's going to do that. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must a son of man be lifted up. Moses
spoke of Christ here, didn't he? Look! He nailed him to the
cross, that whosoever And you would expect him to say, like
Moses told the Israelites, look and live, he said, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. Amazing. Here we see that the Son of Man,
the Son of God come down from heaven, accomplished the will
of God by himself bearing the curse for his people. That was
why he came. And he ascended up again to heaven
because he accomplished that will. He bore that curse, he
removed the curse from his people, and they have eternal life. They
don't just live again as those bitten by a poisoned serpent,
but live in spirit and forever in body, soul, and spirit with
the Lord Jesus Christ. because of his substitutionary
curse bearing, because he bore our sins in his own body on the
tree. 1 Peter 2, verse 24. So this is the explanation that
Jesus gives. Now notice in this explanation,
he takes Moses and sets him aside. No, not a man, not a mere man
can ascend up to heaven. You think Moses, there's gonna
come a man, a Messiah who's going to somehow rise up above every
other man, go up to heaven and get the real law and bring it
down and Israel's gonna somehow be glorious on the earth. Nothing could be further from
the truth. He's not talking about Israel on earth, he's talking
about the Israelites who believe him, those who don't perish but
have everlasting life. He's not talking about a man,
a mere man, he's talking about the Son of God who first descended
that he might accomplish the will of God and therefore ascend
in exaltation and power to give the salvation he accomplished
to his people. And God's law even points to
Christ. He says he lifted him up. The
Son of Man must be lifted up. So the Law of God even points
to Christ. And in that declaration of what Christ has done from
the Word of God in the Gospel, those who believe Him will not
perish. This is the verily, verily of
the Lord Jesus Christ. All who believe Christ have eternal
life. But not everyone believes Him,
right? Not everyone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. The
next verse even says so. 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. Not all in the world have
everlasting life. It's interesting how this verse
is so often quoted with the emphasis on it being universal. that God
loved and that Christ died for everyone. But what good would
that do if only those who believe receive the eternal life spoken
of here? What good would the love of God
do us if we perish? It wouldn't do us any good, would
it? And what good would the death of Christ under the curse of
God's law do us if we perish and don't have everlasting life?
So we want to make a big deal out of the word world here, because
we like to put man in control of his own salvation. God loves
everyone, and it's up to everyone to do the right thing, believe.
And if you don't, then you're damned. But if you do, then you
have everlasting life. So it all becomes a works religion.
That's why that universalism in the word world there is so
touted and so clung to by false religion. But now I want to go
to Romans chapter 10 with you now, and I want to take Romans
10. I've done this a little bit when
we first started, John chapter 3, but I want to go through this
with you so that you can see how God emphasizes The gospel
throughout scripture, and the Apostle Paul here, and also in
Ephesians, explains what Moses himself said about how our righteousness
before God is by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and has
nothing to do with our own personal law-keeping. This is what Jesus
was talking about in John chapter 3 verse 13. He's talking about
the Son of Man, wasn't he? Going up, he said, no one has
ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even
the Son of Man which is in heaven. Notice the same words are used
here. Let's read it in John chapter 10, I'm sorry, Romans chapter
10 and verse 5. I'm gonna read this first, then
I'll read a broader scope here. Notice, for Moses, so this is
in the law, it's actually in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse
11 through 14. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. That's from Leviticus 18.5. Basically
it says this, do and live, fail and die. That's what the law
says. Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. So a contrast is being set up
here, isn't it? Because the next thing is going
to say, but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise. In contrast to do and live and
fail to do and die, this is what the righteousness which is of
faith says. And Moses is quoted here and
it's expressed here in the negative. So I often wonder, why did God
say, this is what the righteousness of faith says, and then it immediately
starts out, don't say this, say not. You see that? To me, that's
not the way I would have done it, but that's because I don't
have the wisdom of God. He says here, say not in thine
heart. So he's contrasting the righteousness which is of the
law, which is our own personal obedience to God. None of us
have any. But if we could, theoretically,
if we could, then that would be our own personal righteousness. But no one has it. There's none
righteous. No, not one. all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God." So none of us have the righteousness
which is of the law, right? But in contrast to that, he says,
the righteousness which is of faith, speaketh on this wise,
say not in thine heart. In other words, our natural heart
is so bent on legal righteousness that Moses himself had to dissuade
us, had to dislodge, had to remove that from us. Say not in thine
heart who shall ascend into heaven. You see, the proud and ignorant
heart of man stubbornly refuses to let go of this thought that
I can do something to make myself acceptable to God. Things are
bad in my life, it must be what I'm doing. Things are good in
my life, it must be something I'm doing. I've turned a new
leaf, or I've been doing well this last week, things are running
well. Or I thought I was doing well, things are running badly.
It's all a self-focus, you see. That's so entwined in our nature
and in our thinking that we can't see further than our own selves
in the matter of our standing, our righteousness before God.
But he says here, don't say this in your heart. And here's what
he says not to say. And this sounds exactly like what Jesus
said to Nicodemus. You'll recognize it. Who shall
ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach. All right, it's helpful to start
from what we do know. What is the word of faith which
we preach? What did Paul preach? I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He said, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation,
for in it, or therein, is revealed the righteousness of God. from
faith to faith. That's Romans 1 verse 16 and
17. So the gospel is the word of faith which Paul preached. Christ and him crucified, what
Jesus told Nicodemus, the law holding up Christ as the one
smitten of God, cursed of God, for the salvation of his people.
That's the gospel. Christ preached it. Paul preached
it. That's the word of faith, which we preach. And that word
of faith, which is the gospel, is the righteousness of faith. Faith looks to this righteousness.
Faith sees this righteousness, the righteousness of God in the
gospel. But he says, don't say this in
your heart in unbelief. The natural man is so opposed
to the truth of the gospel that Moses corrects him, and in doing
so, directs him to the only truth by which a man can be saved.
And let's read it again in verse six. Who shall ascend into heaven? Don't say that. Why? Because
that is to bring Christ down from above. And you can't do
that. The only way that righteousness
can be established is if Christ comes down from heaven. And so
don't say in your heart, who, as if someone else like you,
could do what only Christ can do, you see. I'm reading what I wrote here
in my Bible because it's helpful. I've thought about it a little
bit more than just speaking off the top of my head as I'm doing
here. But what I wrote here as a note
to myself when I was thinking about this was that the gospel
is not what a man does to get to heaven. That fits here what
he's saying. Don't say this in your heart.
Don't think this. Don't believe this, because this
is what you're naturally inclined to do. Don't believe this in
your heart, that something you do, like who shall ascend into
heaven, that's the wicked thought that you can do something which
only Christ can do. So the gospel is not what a man
does to go to heaven. or in verse 7, or who shall descend
into the deep. That is to bring up Christ from
the dead again. The gospel is also not what a
man can do to obtain release from his sins. from God by suffering
himself. You can't do that. Only Christ
could enter into the grave and rise again. Notice he says in
verse 7, don't say who shall us descend into the deep, that
is to bring up Christ again from the dead. So neither can you
do what is necessary to bring the Son of God into the world
to atone for the sins of his people, becoming their curse-bearing
substitute and mediator, and having to descend that way, nor
can you, by your own righteousness, ascend up to heaven in reward
of that for eternal life. You can't do those things. Now
look back at verse 1 of Romans chapter 10. See Romans 10 verse
1? The apostle opens this chapter, he says, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Clearly they weren't, or he would have not prayed for
them to be saved. I bear them record, he says,
for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. Zeal is not salvation. Zeal is
not the evidence of salvation. Zeal isn't the cause for which
God saves us. They were zealous but without
knowledge. And that means they didn't understand,
just like Nicodemus. He couldn't see the kingdom of
God. There's none, Romans 3.10, there's none that understandeth,
none that seek after God. So what we need is the knowledge
of salvation. Remember 2 Timothy 3.15? The
scriptures are able to make you wise unto what? Salvation, which
is in Christ. So we need the true knowledge.
We need God to show us the truth of how we're saved. And the Israelites
were lacking that knowledge. There's only one truth. It's
the gospel. And therefore there's only one
way we can be saved is by believing the truth of the gospel. But
these didn't. And he goes on to show not only
were they ignorant, but they were rebellious in their stubborn
pride. He says in verse three, for they,
being ignorant of God's righteousness, what were they ignorant of? God's
righteousness. They had zeal, but not according
to the understanding and faith in God's righteousness. And so,
because they were ignorant, going about to establish their own
righteousness, Here's the rebellion. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. You see, I've said this before,
and I've taken you to several scriptures, and I'll name off
a few even now, that faith is obedience. Faith is obedience. It's the obedience of submission
to the gospel that Christ is our righteousness. That's what
these refuse to do. They have not submitted themselves.
In fact, look at Romans 10, if you're right there, in verse
16 it says, I'll read verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they have not believed? Notice, we only call
if we've believed. And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? So you can't believe unless you
hear. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? You can't hear and believe and
call unless God sends a preacher. Verse 15, and how shall they
preach? Preachers don't send themselves,
except they be sent. As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach what? The gospel of peace, and
bring glad tidings of good things. Now, listen to verse 16, but
they have not all obeyed. the gospel, for Isaiah saith,
Lord, who hath believed our report?" The gospel is the report. Isaiah's
report in Isaiah 53 of Christ's substitutionary work on the cross
to save His people, to justify them according to the will of
God, That is the gospel. And if we don't believe the gospel,
we're disobedient, we're refusing to submit ourselves to God's
righteousness. But in believing the gospel,
what are we doing? We are trusting in Christ's righteousness. We're trusting Christ and His
righteousness. We're submitting ourselves to
the righteousness of God, which is the obedience of Christ in
His substitutionary sufferings and death on the cross. Isn't
that what he said in Hebrews chapter 10 and Psalm 40? I come
to do what? To do thy will, O God. Thy law is within my heart. I
delight to do it. And so why did Christ come? To
establish the righteousness of God, that righteousness which
God ordained, provided, that righteousness by which he can
justify a sinner, because he sees that sinner in the very
righteousness of his son. And that's all of God. It's all
of God's gift, all of his doing. So in verse 4 of Romans chapter
10, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believe it. And now, if you review back in
verse 5 here, going on, reviewing quickly what we said a moment
ago, so God is contrasting the righteousness which is of the
law, with the righteousness which is of faith." And what is the
righteousness which is of faith? It's Christ doing. It's Christ
suffering in obedience, out of love, total submission from the
heart, with His life and in His death, so that all the will of
God the Father was His greatest delight. For the joy that was
said before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame."
Hebrews chapter 12. So here we see that in contrast
to our personal obedience, God has received the obedience of
another. And the way that Christ provided that obedience was He
first descended, verse 7, He descended first, and then He
ascended, verse 6, because He had accomplished that will, and
having accomplishment, God exalted Him and enthroned Him, and from
His place in glory there, He does what? He subdues our enemies,
And he gives salvation to his people by sending his spirit
in the preaching of the gospel so that they hear and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at Romans 10. He says
in verse 9, that if thou shalt confess In fact, let me read
8 again. For what saith it, the word is
nigh thee in thy mouth and in thy heart. What word? The word
of the gospel, that is the word of faith which we preach, that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, what? The Lord Jesus. The one who is Jesus to save
us from our sins. is the Lord of glory. He came
down from heaven and is exalted back to heaven because he accomplished
the will of God in saving us. He says, if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord, Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, which we know was our
justification, God declaring by that resurrection of Christ
from the dead, he did the will of God, he fulfilled all righteousness,
he put away the sins of his people, and now God is exalting him.
If you believe that, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart,"
remember don't say this in your heart, this is what the heart
of a believer says, in the heart we believe unto righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation because
we see Christ as our righteousness and we say it freely. Don't we? Don't you say this when you're
speaking to God's people? And don't you say it in your
prayers? Even to others. You exhort sinners. When God
opens the door, you exhort other sinners. Look, I am a sinner
and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. And
you're happy to say that. So he says, for with a heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with a mouth confession is
made to salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. But there's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. And then he goes and shows
in the next few verses, which we just read, that faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The blessedness
of hearing Christ and him crucified is what Nicodemus heard from
the Lord Jesus himself. We can't go to heaven because
we're sinful. Only Christ could do that, but
he had to first descend, suffer in obedience, fulfill the will
of God, and then having done that as our forerunner, the captain
of our salvation, the author of our eternal salvation, he
ascended back to heaven, and that's where he sits in power,
and he will always sit there. Look at one more verse of scripture
before we close here tonight. Look at Daniel chapter 7. I want
you to see what the Lord Jesus did when he ascended on high.
In Daniel chapter 7, In the Old Testament, there's a scene that's
described in prophecy, and it is what Jesus was speaking of
when he spoke to Nicodemus. No one has ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is
in heaven. He came down to do the will of
God. He did the will of God, and he is therefore eternally
enthroned in heaven, and he got there by ascending up in glory.
Look at Daniel chapter 7 and verse 13. Daniel says, I saw
in the night visions, and behold, that's another way of saying
this was the revelation of God, And this revelation is the gospel.
He says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the son
of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient
of days, and they brought him near before him. So who is this
that's coming? The son of man. And what was
he coming to heaven in? The clouds. When did this happen? When did the Lord Jesus Christ
as Son of Man in the clouds draw near to the Ancient of Days?
It happened at His Ascension, didn't it? Acts chapter 1. It
says, so one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven
and came to the Ancient of Days and they brought Him near before
Him. This was the Son of Man. Now Man, a Man came near to the
God of Glory. Who can approach God? Can a man? No man has ascended up to heaven,
but the righteous one, the one that Revelation speaks of as
the worthy one, the lamb alone was found worthy to come near
to the ancient of days, the mediator. Notice in verse 14, and there
was given to him, given him, look at all the things, the accolades
that God, puts upon the Son of Man, and there was given to Him
dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations, and
languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom, that which
shall not be destroyed. The one who accomplished our
salvation sits on the throne of glory. because he was rewarded
and he didn't receive the rewards for himself alone, but he brought
all of his people with them. And so it says so in Ephesians
chapter 4, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive
and he gave gifts unto men. He, from His throne on high,
with all power and authority, having been given all that belongs
to God the Father, then gives His Spirit to His people with
everlasting life and faith in Himself when they see Christ
in Him crucified. Remember, Jesus said in John
17, Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, the Son of Man.
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
we would be given this side of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who
is the Son of God, the Lamb of God, and has taken upon Himself
our nature as Son of Man, forever sitting on the throne of glory,
because He accomplished the eternal will of God in our salvation.
All to His glory, and all for our salvation, all to His reward,
and all because of Your grace given to us with Him. We can't comprehend such grace
that He would stoop so low that He would raise us with Himself
and we would be given all things with our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Help us to bow down in our hearts,
on our faces, and be thankful and forever praise you that you
found another when we were completely unable to do one thing towards
our own righteousness and you found another and even preordained
and determined to provide and accept and give his righteousness
to us and to give us faith to know it. Thank you for him and
help us, Lord, to worship you because of him. In his name we
pray, amen.