I want to continue our message
today from the book of John chapter 3. If you want to turn there.
Last week we talked about two things mainly. I hope you remember
some of that. If not, you can download the
sermon off Sermon Audio. If you recall last week, I wanted
to try to bring out what it means when Jesus said that when we're
born of our physical parents, we're only flesh. That means
that we're carnal by nature. By nature we're sinful and we're
nothing but sin, really, in our carnal nature. And that's described
in scripture as a spiritual death. We're dead in sins, according
to Ephesians chapter 2. And so, in order for us to be
born of God, we have to be given a spiritual nature. We have to
receive the nature of God our Father. And that comes about
by the Spirit of God. There's nothing we can do to
make it happen. We're helpless. to conceive ourselves
spiritually, helpless to give birth to ourselves spiritually,
helpless to create ourselves spiritually. We're entirely dependent
on the work of God. And that's what Jesus is telling
Nicodemus here. But I wanted to also emphasize
that this work of God, this creation, this resurrection, is a work
of incomparable and unspeakable grace, because what God describes
us as is a hateful thing. It's a corrupt, sickening, nauseating
thing to God in all of His holiness, so that He would He would raise
us from the dead is a marvel of His grace that we can't really
comprehend because we don't appreciate how sinful we are. That was the
first thing I wanted to bring out last week. But when I was
talking to Denise about this after the sermon last week, I
realized that there was a point where there might have been confusion
that it was my fault that I caused that. And that is, I said that
God doesn't raise sinners from the dead. And the reason I said
that was to emphasize that resurrection has to be based on a satisfaction
of justice and an establishing of righteousness. But that justice
satisfied and that righteousness established for us by Jesus Christ
is done in order that He might send His Spirit, in order that
He might give us life and create us. But in ourselves, we remain
sinners until God does give us life. And that's why in Ephesians
2 it says that when we were dead in sins, out of His great love
for us and His mercy, God raised us from death to life. And so I wanted to clarify that.
I hope that helps to address that if there was a question
in your mind. But the second thing I talked about last week
was the Kingdom of God. And I hope you get some sense
of what the Kingdom of God is. It's kind of an elusive term.
It's used so much, but it seems like things that are constantly
used aren't defined, or we don't have a good understanding of
it. So, what I was trying to show
last week is that the Kingdom of God, if you understand it
correctly from scripture, is the same as God uses as the Kingdom
of Heaven. Now, that doesn't really help
us understand it much better, but if you realize that in the
Kingdom of God there's a King, and the King is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The king is the Lord Jesus Christ
in this kingdom. The second thing is that there
are people in this kingdom, and the people that are in this kingdom
are those who are born of God. Now, if you see that in John
chapter 3, when Jesus tells Nicodemus, no one can see the kingdom of
God unless they're born again. And no one can enter the kingdom
of God unless they're born again. Therefore, it means that all
those who are born of God both see and are in the kingdom of
God, the kingdom of heaven. And so, this teaches us a great
deal about what this kingdom is. It's actually made up of
all those who are God's children, spiritually born by God. The
Church, in fact, is the Kingdom of God, and the Lord Jesus is
the King in that Kingdom. And so I want to continue that
subject with you this morning. I want to talk about the King.
who came from glory to the cross and went from the cross to glory
to reign as king. And this is so common in scripture
that it's almost something that I feel almost like a deer in
the headlights because there's so much light on this in scripture
that I can't really, it's hard to know where to start. So I'm
just going to take you to a few scriptures and show you how prevalent
this is in scripture. But I want you to realize that
what is true about the Lord Jesus Christ as the King, is not something
that just came to God's mind at some point in history and
He decided to do this. This is something that has been
in His heart and His mind from eternity. In fact, this is God's
eternal purpose. Everything God does, He determined
before the world began. There's nothing in this world
that happens that's not God's will, and there's nothing that's
done that wasn't determined by God before the world began. Acts
15.18 says, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning
of the world. And in Ephesians 1.11 it says that God does all
things according to the counsel of his own will. So there's nothing
that happens, nothing that's done that's not according to
God's eternal purpose. But especially in this, we see
the eternal purpose of God. If you look at Ephesians chapter
3, The Apostle Paul says that God has given him this ministry
and this gift to know the mysteries that God had hidden from the
foundation of the world. The mystery of this kingdom of
God. In Ephesians chapter 3, he says
in verse 1, For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ
for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of
the grace of God which is given to me. That means God's stewardship
that he gave to Paul. the stewardship of the gospel.
Verse 3, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery,
as I wrote before in few words, whereby when you read you may
understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. So God disclosed
to Paul, through a revelation, a great mystery. And that mystery
has to do with Christ. Verse 5, which in other ages
was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed
unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." So, this mystery
was hidden before, but now it's made known. "...that the Gentiles..."
This is the part of the mystery. "...that the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the gospel." Now, this is really summarizing the
entire mystery. There is a group of people that
are part of the kingdom of God. They are people of God's choosing.
1 Peter 2 says, You are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, that you should show forth the praises of Him
who called you. And so, in Ephesians 3, verse
6, this includes the Gentiles, it includes the Jews, God's elect
out of every nation under heaven. But it wasn't always known that
this was the case. The kingdom of God wasn't revealed
until it was revealed when Christ went to the cross and rose from
the dead. John the Baptist announced it. He said the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Jesus came in Mark chapter 1
verse 14 and 15 preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And he
told them then, repent and believe the gospel. But here, Paul is
revealing that this was a promise made by God. It was made to Christ. He's the King. It was made to
all of God's people in Him. The promises given to Christ
were given to them. And this is a promise that's
brought to us through the gospel. It's revealed to us by the gospel,
and we hear the gospel by God's grace, and under the hearing
of the gospel, the Spirit of God creates in us a spirit that's
alive to God and makes us partakers of His divine nature. He joins
us to Christ in spirit so that we're one with Christ in His
body, and thus we're put into the kingdom of God. Colossians
1.13 says, God the Father has translated us from the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. But continuing
in Ephesians 3 verse 7, Paul says, Whereof I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the
effectual working of his power. Effectual means whatever it takes
to get it done. God did it so that Paul really
understood it. In verse 8, unto me, Paul says,
whom less than the least of all saints is this grace given, that
I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. So here, Paul is given this ministry
and is commissioned to preach the gospel, which is called the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Verse 9, "...and to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ." So God created everything by Jesus Christ. There's
nothing created that wasn't created by Him. And it was created for
Him, because He's the Son of God. He's God over all. Verse
10, Paul says, "...to the intent that now unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God." And listen in verse 11, "...according
to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord." God's purpose is that in the Lord Jesus Christ there
would be a people chosen by God, loved by God before the world
began, predestinated by God through Jesus Christ to be made His sons,
and that adoption would be fulfilled because Jesus Christ, by His
sin-atoning blood, would send His Spirit and spirit would create
in them a spiritual nature. He would birth them as God's
children into a spiritual kingdom and they would become part of
that kingdom by the work of the Spirit of God who was sent by
the Lord Jesus Christ as the King on the throne of heaven. And how did the Lord Jesus Christ
get to this throne? That's what we want to see today.
Turn with me to Revelation chapter 5. Throughout the book of Revelation,
God repeatedly rehearses the whole plan, the whole work of
redemption throughout time, throughout history. From the cross, especially
from the cross to the end of time, the book of Revelation
is concerned about this and it repeats this vision over and
over. But one of the parts of this vision is seen in Revelation
chapter 4 and in Revelation chapter 5. If you look at the end of
Revelation chapter 4, verse 11, I'm sorry, not verse 11, yes,
in verse 10, it says, The four and twenty elders fall down before
him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever
and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne. Now, the twenty-four
elders here represents all of God's people in the church. And you can see that because
the 24 is made up of two 12s. The first 12 represents the church
out of the nation of Israel. The 12 tribes of Israel. And
the second 12 represents the church out of the 12 apostles.
And so those two are seen together in heaven around the throne.
And in Revelation 4 and in Revelation 5, there's a theme here that
I want you to see. I've highlighted it in my own
Bible. And I didn't count the times it's repeated here, but
there's one phrase here that's repeated over and over in Revelations
chapter 4 and 5. And it's this. The throne. The
throne. There is in heaven a throne.
And God is describing here, in these two chapters, God's perspective
of the entire universe. At the center is a throne. And
on that throne, God the Father sits. and He rules over all things. There is no opposition to His
rule. Nothing can keep Him from doing
His will. Around that throne we see these
24 elders and they've cast their crowns at His feet. Because they're
admitting by that, that all of their salvation, all grace given
to them, even their worship of God, is only by God's grace to
them. And so they cast their crowns.
There's no glory due to them. It's all due to Him. But here
in Revelation chapter 5, something unfolds. And that is that there's
a scroll And in heaven, there's a search made to see who could
possibly open this scroll. And this scroll represents the
eternal purpose of God throughout time. God's will. His eternal
will. And no one in heaven or on earth
is found worthy to open this scroll. To open it means not
only to reveal it, but it means to fulfill it. But John the Apostle
weeps because he sees that there is no one to open this scroll
that's worthy. Until, stepping forward, comes
someone. And there's just one who can
open this scroll. And he's described here as the lion of the tribe
of Judah. But when John looks, he sees
not a lion, but he sees a lamb. And I'm going to read this to
you beginning at verse 1 in Revelation 5. He says, the Apostle John,
and I saw on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a
book written within and on the back side sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor on earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much. See, no one
could even see. They couldn't look into the will
of God because it was sealed. And I wept much, John said, because
no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither
to look thereon. Now remember what we just read
in Ephesians chapter 3? It was hidden from the foundation
of the world until something happened. And one of the elders
saith unto me, Weep not. Behold the lion of the tribe
of Judah. A lion is strong. the strongest
of beasts. And so, the one stepping forward
here is described by his strength. He's almighty. He says, the lion
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. The tribe of Judah
is the tribe that God chose. It was the tribe out of which
King David came. And so, the one stepping forward
is from David. And David was the king, remember.
It says, the lion of the tribe of Judah The root of David has
prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof,
to make it known. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne, now where does this one who is of the Lion
of the tribe of Judah come from? The throne. In the midst of the
throne and of the four beasts and in the midst of the elders
stood a lamb as it had been slain. The word is actually slaughtered.
having seven horns and seven eyes because the horns describe
the strength and the eyes describe the all-seeing eyes by the Spirit
of God that the Lord Jesus Christ has. He has the strength of God. He has the strength of the lion,
but he came forward as the lamb and was slaughtered. And so it
says, the seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent
forth into all the earth. And he came, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came and took the book out
of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when
he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty
elders fell down before the Lamb. having every one of them harps
and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the
saints." Now this represents all of God's church, His people,
saved by Christ. And it says here, fall down before the Lord Jesus
Christ. To fall down means to worship.
They're worshiping the Lamb. And listen to what they say in
verse 9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy
to take the book, God's eternal will, and to open the seals thereof,
to make it known and to fulfill it, for thou wast slaughtered. and has redeemed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation."
Do you see this? Who took the book? The Lamb.
He was from the tribe of Judah. He was the son of David. But
they're falling down to worship the Lamb. He says in verse 10,
"...and thou hast made us..." These are the four and twenty
elders and all those who are singing this song. The whole
Church of God gathered here. He says, "...thou hast made us
unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth."
These are the people in the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Christ.
How did the Lord Jesus Christ get to this place, this throne?
Notice what follows. And I beheld, and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and
the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand and thousands of thousands. An innumerable company, and saying
with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power and riches and wisdom and strength, and honor, and glory,
and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in
the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. This is how
the Lord Jesus Christ was enthroned in heaven as the Lamb of God,
because He was slaughtered for His people, because by His blood
He redeemed them, and He brought them out of every kindred and
tribe and tongue and people and nation on earth. They are His
people, His church, His body. They're the saints. In Revelation
15, verse 3, He's described there as the King of saints. So this
is the kingdom of God. And this is how the Lord Jesus
Christ was put on the throne of that kingdom. Look now back
at John chapter 3. I want you to see in John chapter
3. Who then is talking to Nicodemus? Who's talking to him? Who's the
one who told him, verily, verily? It was the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who is the word of God, the prophet. the great prophet,
who was the end of all prophets, because he's the one God speaks
to us in this last time. The one who is the Word of God,
who reveals God in his person, and in his work, in his will.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to Nicodemus as a prophet. And he speaks to him, he tells
him in John chapter 3, He said in verse 11, we speak that we
do know. Jesus Christ knows what he's
talking about. He has first-hand knowledge of
it because he came from heaven. And so he's speaking to him as
a prophet. What does a prophet do? Why does
God send a prophet? Well, a prophet makes known God's
will to us. He makes God known to us. That's
what the prophet does. A prophet speaks for God, and
so the Lord Jesus Christ makes God known to us. But not just
with His words, not just with what He says, but by Himself. Did you ever notice in the Old
Testament how God spoke through prophets? For example, in Ezekiel
chapter 4, The prophet Ezekiel was told to lie on his side 390
days, his left side, and then on his right side for 40 days
because of the sins first of Israel and then of Judah. And
he was to take a piece of tile work and make a picture of the
city and lay siege against the city. So what Ezekiel was doing
was part of the message, because God spoke not only through the
words of the prophets, But he spoke by their lives and what
they did. There's another prophet named
Jonah. Remember how God spoke by his
words and by his life? Jonah was told to go to Nineveh. But he refused. He went to Tarsus
instead by ship. And while he was traveling there
by ship, God sent a great storm. And all of the men on board were
terrified and were about to perish in the sea. And Jonah told them,
you need to pick me up and throw me overboard. And they were reluctant
to do that. But he said, this is the only
way that you'll be saved. So they pitched him into the
sea. And God prepared there a great fish and swallowed Jonah. Jonah
was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
And in that place, Jonah said, and I cried to the Lord, out
of the belly of hell, cried I. And the Lord heard him. And the
fish, you know, spit Jonah out on the land. And he went and
preached to the people of Nineveh. And God spared that great city
of Nineveh. But Jesus said that was all done
in order to communicate another message. All that happened to
Jonah was to teach us something. So not just with Jonah's words,
but with his life, God spoke. Jonah's being thrown overboard
look forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, who as a substitute for
His people was cast under the judgment and the wrath of God.
He bore their sins. And as the whale swallowed Jonah
and he was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
the Lord Jesus Christ endured the wrath of God and He was buried
And he lay in the grave three days and three nights, but he
rose again just as Jonah was spit out by the whale. God delivered
the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave because He satisfied God's
justice. So the point is that God spoke
by prophets, both by their words and by what happened to them,
and by what He told them to do. Now, this is significant because
Jesus is called the Prophet, the Great Prophet, that Moses
predicted would come in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. But we know that
that's true. that He is the Prophet. It says
in Hebrews chapter 1, God in these last days has spoken to
us in His Son. He's the One through whom God
has spoken. He's the Word of God. No one has seen God at any
time. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. But not just
with His words, with His life as well. All that He did in His
life, that He did in healing, performing miracles, raising
up the lame and the dead, and casting out devils, and healing
the lepers. All this was done in order to
bring the message of God, the gospel. Especially in his life
and death, his sufferings on the cross, it was all the message
of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
prophet. He's the Christ. And he's speaking
here to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, as that prophet, that great
prophet. But he is the Christ of God.
And the word Christ means anointed. God appointed him to do this,
to be the prophet. Not just the prophet, but also
the priest and the king. And I want to focus mostly here
on the king. Because it says here in John
chapter 3, when Nicodemus asked Jesus, how can a man be born
again? Jesus said this in John chapter
3 verse 13. He says, No man has ascended
up to heaven. What does it mean to ascend up
to heaven? How can someone ascend up to heaven? To ascend means
to be acknowledged by God with great honor. Remember Mordecai? He was acknowledged by King Ahasuerus
with great honor because Mordecai told the king about the plot
of Haman, that wicked Haman, to overthrow the Jews. And Mordecai
spoiled Haman's plot and saved the king's honor, and so the
king honored Mordecai. And so he exalted him. And so
that's what ascension means. It means that the Lord Jesus
Christ rose not only from the dead, but was lifted up to heaven. And this is what Jesus is saying.
No man has ascended up to heaven. No man on earth. But he that
came down from heaven. So before the ascension, there
was something else that had to happen. It was the descent. Jesus had to come down. So, just
like we read in Revelation chapter 5, Jesus Christ, as the Lamb
of God, was exalted to the throne because he was slain. Here in
John chapter 3, Jesus Christ ascended because he first descended. And that's what he's teaching
Nicodemus here. Now, the one who ascended is the king. And
the king is speaking to Nicodemus about how he became king. He
was already the king as the creator. He made all things by his power.
He rules over heaven and earth. There's nothing that escapes
his will or his word. But that says God. Here He is
describing His reign and rule as the mediator. The one who stands between God
and men and brings His people to God. And does all that God
requires for His people. And so he speaks as a prophet
here, and he shows Nicodemus as a prophet that he's the king.
Now, what does a king do? What does a king do? Well, we
know that kings are in control of things. Kings rule, don't
they? Kings are sovereign. They do
whatever they want to do. And the Lord Jesus Christ does
whatever he wants to do. And that's why God has made him
king. Because he knows that his heart is exactly like God's heart. It beats with the Father's heart.
He is one with the Father. God the Father has entrusted
to His Son everything. There's nothing left out. His
will is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ to fulfill it. And
He trusts that His Son will do exactly what's in His mind and
in His heart. And of course He does. In Hebrews
chapter 1, it says he loves righteousness and he hates iniquity. This is
Jesus Christ. There's nothing that he does
that's apart from God's will. He does all that's in his heart
and all that he does and all that he thinks and says is precisely
according to the will and the word of God the Father. And so
he does it in obedience, but it's in a delightful obedience
of love. And so, as the king, he controls
all things. Now you and I need a king. We
don't realize that, but we need a king. And we need the Lord
Jesus Christ to be our king. We need this one who is the king.
In the Old Testament, the Jews thought that they were going
to be saved in so many different ways. They thought that because
they were born to Abraham, they were God's people. but is not
by Abraham. They thought because they knew
the law of Moses that they would be saved. That they kept the
law somehow, but it was not by Moses. They thought they had
David as a king, but David was not the king God had in mind.
They thought that Elijah the prophet would bring them the
message, or that a prophet like him would do that. But it was
not in Elijah. It was not in Noah, not in Abraham,
not in Moses, not in Elijah, not in John the Baptist, not
in King David. It was only in Christ that God
would save His people. And so in Acts chapter 4 and
verse 12 it says, there's no other name under heaven. given
among men, whereby we must be saved. And this is the kind of
king we need. We need a king who can save us
from our sins. And so in Matthew 1.21, God says
his name will be called Jesus. Jehovah is salvation, for he
shall save his people from their sins. And the one who is Jesus
is the son of David. And so all through the Old Testament,
when God spoke of David in prophecy, he was really speaking about
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the son of David. And so Jesus
is telling Nicodemus, no one has ascended up to heaven, but
he that came down from heaven. The king of heaven, the mediator
who is the king of heaven, is none other than the one who was
in heaven before. And so this is important because
he's both the son of God and the son of man. And so he had
to come down first in order to be exalted. Look at Daniel, the
book of Daniel in chapter 7. In Daniel chapter 7, he talks
about the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, no one
has ascended up to heaven but he that first came down from
heaven. He says in Daniel 7, verse 13,
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. The Son of Man is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Ancient of Days is God the
Father. They brought the Son of Man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, near because this is the ascension of the
Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection, after He told His disciples,
you wait here for the promise of the Father, the Spirit of
God. When He comes, then I will send him and when he comes then
you'll be enabled to preach the gospel and all the people to
be gathered into the kingdom of God will be called out through
that gospel. And so here the Lord Jesus Christ
has ascended now and he's brought near to the Father in prophecy
and he says, they brought him near, in verse 14, and there
was given him to the Son of Man. There was given him dominion.
That means a region, a rule, a scope, an extent over which
he rules. There was given him dominion
and glory. Remember, God says, I will not
share my glory with another. So this one who's given glory
is the son of man, but he's also the son of God. He says, there
was given 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." This is what happened when the
Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and ascended to glory. Now
look at Matthew in chapter 16. Jesus asked His disciples, who
do people say that I am? In verse 13, Jesus asked them,
whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, some
say that thou art John the Baptist, and some, Elijah, and others,
Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And Jesus said, but whom say
ye that I am? Whom do you say that I am? And
Simon Peter answered and said, Listen carefully. Thou art the
Christ. The Christ. That's the anointed.
The appointed one of God. The anointed by the Spirit of
God. The one who is the prophet, the anointed prophet, the anointed
priest, and the anointed king. That's what Peter said. You are
that one. Jesus, and he says, you are the
Christ, the Son of the living God. The prophet brings God's
word to us. The priest brings us to God. And the king rules over us for
two reasons. First, to save us from our enemies.
And second, to cause us to obey with a willing heart. It says
in Psalm 110, verse 3, Thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. And so here, Jesus says, after
Peter said, you're the Christ, you're the Son of the living
God. And it says here, Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. The only way that
Peter could know this is by God the Father. To know this is to
be in the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. To know this
about Christ. And so Jesus goes on. Not only to know this is God's
gift to those who are in this Kingdom which brings us in, but
in verse 18 Jesus said this. Now remember, He's the King.
And I say unto thee, this is the King speaking. that thou
art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. I will
build my church, he says. Who's going to build it? The
King, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. What does the King do? He
saves us from our enemies. What does the King do? He causes
us to obey, to be obedient in heart, in mind, in will, in all
that we are. This is what the king does. I
need a king who causes me to believe the gospel. That's obedience. To believe the Gospel according
to Romans 1.5, 10.16-17, 16.26, 1 Peter 1, all these places is
obedience to the Gospel. Obedience is believing the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can't do this until He gives us this life. I want you to turn with me to
another text of scripture. In 1 John chapter 5, in verse
1 it says this. We're going to read a couple
of verses here. It says, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. Whoever believes that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God. We can't believe that Jesus is
the Christ unless we are born of God. That's what that means.
But whoever believes is born of God. That's the evidence of
being born of God. And notice what else he says
in the same verse. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. When we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, We love the one who has birthed
us into this kingdom. We love the King. And verse 5,
he also says this, Who is he that overcomes the world? Who
overcomes this world? He says, only he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God. There's only one kind of person
who overcomes this world. The one who believes that Jesus
is the Son of God. that Jesus is the Christ. To
believe that Jesus is the Christ, as Peter said, to believe that
He is the Son of God, this is true faith. This is God-given
faith. It comes about because we have
been born again. All who believe have been born
again. And that birth is by the will
of God. It's by the Spirit of God. And
it's because the Lord Jesus Christ, as the King, descended as the
Lamb of God was slain and redeemed His people by His blood. And
then He ascended. And having ascended, He took
the throne of Heaven and Earth as the Mediator, the King. I
want you to consider what this is in believing the Lord Jesus
Christ for just a moment here. Sometimes I have found it to
be the case that when we look at chapters in the Bible, like
John chapter 3, and we describe the work that must occur what
must be done to us. And we know that we must be born
again. We know that we must have something
that we can't perform, yet there's this tendency in us to try to
produce it. We hear about the evidences and
we try to produce those ourselves. And so we hear the work of God
and we think that we somehow have to produce what only God
can do. And so therefore we get distracted.
We begin to look at ourselves. But what the Lord describes here
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't describe something
that we are. So, when we're born of God, Notice,
we're given this gift of faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe who He is. We believe
that He is the Lord. We believe that He is the Son
of God. We believe that He is the Christ, the prophet who brings
God's word to us, the priest who brings us to God by His sin-atoning
death and righteousness and the King. who orders, who commands
our life and sends his own spirit to give us this life and grants
us this gift of faith from his throne. These are all things
the Lord Jesus does here. But in order for us to believe
and to truly believe, we have to understand something about
this faith that God gives to us. This is something that, again,
we can get confused about, because we hear what must happen, like
Nicodemus was told by Jesus, you must be born again. You can't
see or enter the kingdom of heaven unless you are, and immediately
people go about trying to give themselves that birth, to conceive
themselves spiritually. And you see this in all sorts
of ways. They say, well, we need to make a decision, or we need
to exercise our will, or we need to be sincere. I knew a man when
I was younger, and he said, I want to be saved, but I'm just not
sincere enough. And so we look at our own selves,
and we don't see anything there that would help, and we're frustrated. We continue to beat our heads
against the wall. But faith, true faith, and I want you to
see this from 1 John 5, verse 1 and 5, and what we read in
Matthew about Peter's confession. True faith, is not what you believe
about yourself. A lot of times we think, well,
I know I'm a Christian. Well, how do you know? Well,
because I'm one of God's elect, or I believe that Jesus died
for me. And we begin to talk about all
the things about ourselves. Or we might do like the men in
Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 through 23, where they said, Lord, Lord,
haven't we prophesied in your name? We've done many wonderful
works in your name. We've cast out devils and all
these things. And they began to describe things
about themselves. But true faith has nothing to
do with what we think about ourselves. And this is a hard thing for
us to realize. True faith is what God has revealed concerning
Christ and what He's convinced us about Christ. Faith is concerned
only with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not concerned about ourselves
at all. So when we hear about Nicodemus'
humility, we hear about the need and necessity for him to be born
again, it's natural for us to begin to think how to make ourselves
pour His Spirit. But we can't do it, can we? All
we can do is hear what God says we are by nature. And then our
eyes have to be lifted up to someone else who is the King,
because He Himself accomplished our salvation. And in telling
us who He is, in telling us how He has obtained our salvation,
then under the hearing of that Gospel, He sends His Spirit to
us, and He falls upon us, and He gives us life, and causes
us to believe. And we're born of God. And this
is His work. When Jesus asked His disciples,
Who do men say that I am? And Peter answered, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of God. There was nothing in Peter's
statement. that said, and we believe this about ourselves.
It was all about what he said God had revealed about the Lord
Jesus. Remember the thief on the cross? He was the only one, it seemed
like, at that scene who really understood who Jesus was. And
what did the thief ask Jesus to do? He said, he spoke to him
while Jesus was hanging on the cross, his body, completely emaciated
because of the sufferings, and he was torn because of the whips
and the beatings that he had received, and the piercing in
his hands and feet, and the crown of thorns on his head, and the
thief looked at him, and you know what he said? Lord, he called
him, Lord, you are the God of heaven and earth, You're the
Lord. And he said, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. And this tells us what the kingdom
of God is. The Lord Jesus Christ, having
accomplished the will of God, having laid his life down and
shed his blood to redeem his people from their sins, took
the throne of heaven And the thief on the cross saw by God-given
revelation and God-given faith that the one hanging before him
was the sin-atoning sacrifice, the Lamb of God, who would sit
on heaven's throne because he accomplished the eternal will
of God. And he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom,
which he was going to do shortly when he ascended to heaven and
took the throne and sent his spirit. And he said, remember
me, Lord. And you know what Jesus said?
He didn't say, Thus saith the Lord. He said, Verily I say unto
you, Today, today you shall be with me in Paradise. You see,
the thief wasn't concerned about all the things about himself.
He looked to the Lord Jesus Christ and saw in Him a full and capable
King, Almighty, and able to save, and He rested on Him alone in
what He was doing, in what He was going to accomplish, and
He laid His eternal destiny in the hands of Christ in trust.
And so, God declares to us that when He gives us this grace to
see that Christ is our all, that we're born again. We've been
born again. We can't make it happen. He does
it by declaring Himself to us. He does it when He reveals to
us His work. He descended in humility. He suffered in humiliation. It was a voluntary gift of Himself. He gave Himself for His people.
And He did so in success. He rose again. He ascended again.
And He sits in heaven. And this is what Jesus tells
Nicodemus. No man has ascended up to heaven to rule over heaven
at the will of God and by the appointment and the honor and
exaltation of God, except he that came down in humility and
suffered in humiliation to accomplish the will of God, to save his
people by his own sin-bearing, curse-bearing death on the cross.
And that one who descended first and ascended now sits in heaven. because in the eternal purpose
and will of God, which he was about to fulfill, he was already
seated there, already exalted. It couldn't fail to happen. And so he points him to himself
and then he says to Nicodemus, and as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, he describes then his curse bearing death,
where he satisfied God's justice and delivered his people from
that curse, that whosoever believeth in him has eternal life. That's
the evidence. We've been born again because
God has opened to us the eternal will to save his people by the
king, by the prophet, by the priest. And seeing Him, so seeing
Him with God-given eyes, we see that all of our salvation is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's lots of times when
you think about these places in scripture that says, if you
shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in
your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. We think, sometimes I do, I can
tell you, maybe you haven't thought this way, that I wonder if I
really have truly believed in my heart that Jesus is the Lord. And what does it mean? In 1 Corinthians
12, verse 3, it says, No man can say that Jesus is Lord but
by the Spirit of God, unless we're born of God. And what does
that mean, to say that Jesus is Lord? To confess that He is
Lord? And I thought about that in connection with this, being
the King. And if you think about it, A lot of times we think about
the Lord as being a master over us, like a boss. Like a slave
thinks of his boss, and we kind of shrink back in somehow that
this is going to be a hard thing. This is going to be a difficult
thing, and I can't measure up to it. And I see myself, I have
not submitted myself to Jesus as the Lord, as I ought to do.
And so I wonder, can I truly say in my heart that Jesus is
the Lord, and we get this this attitude in our mind of ourselves
as being subservient to the Lord and yet not subservient and so
we're still rebellious and we tremble at the fact that we maybe
don't have Jesus as our Lord because we haven't truly submitted
to him. But I want you to understand that when God describes Christ's
role as the King, He's describing to us His role as the King to
save us from our sins and to cause us, to enable us by His
Spirit, to believe Him with a willing heart. These are the things that
God does Jesus said to the Pharisees, this is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. They asked, what can we
do to work the works of God? And Jesus said, this is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. You'll believe,
but it'll be God's work. And that work of your believing
will be obedience to the gospel. But what we see in this is that
when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we gladly own Him as
the King. In Hosea chapter 2, I want to
read a verse to you just real briefly here, because this helps
me. In Hosea chapter 2 it says, And
it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call
me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Bailey. Ishi means husband,
loved, one who loves and you understand that you're loved
by that one. Ishi, a very endearing term.
Bailey means boss or lord, master. You're not going to call me master
in that sense of cringing and fear. you'll call me king and
lord as husband, one dear to you." Remember Thomas? After the resurrection he said,
I will not believe, I won't believe unless I see the nails, the print
of the nails in his hands and in his feet. And Jesus came to
him, appeared to him when he was with the others. the other
apostles, and he showed him his hands. He said, Thomas, stretch
forth your finger and put it here in this print of the nails
in my hands. And reach hither your hand and
put it in my side where the spear pierced me. And when Thomas saw
the resurrected king having been pierced, the lamb having been
slain, He himself slain, cursed, under the judgment of God, because
he bore our sins, and because he purged them, took his place
on the right hand of the throne of God. Thomas said, My Lord,
my God, because he no more thought of Jesus as merely a man, And
he saw in his sin-atoning work that he came to save him from
his sins, and he willingly and gladly owned him as the one who
loved him and gave himself for him. And he trusted him that
he would deliver him all the way and save him to the uttermost.
And that's the way we come to Christ as King. We believe that
he's our prophet to make God known to us and give us fellowship
with God, to bring us to God. and to bring God's blessings
to us as our King, and to give us eternal life at His will and
by His power, and by His power save us from our sins to the
uttermost, and bring us to God, and present us to God without
fault, dressed and clothed in His righteousness.