Yuba-Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now, here's our pastor, Rick
Warda. The title of our sermon today is His Great Love. In John chapter 3 we see the
work of God in the salvation of His people. We see the sinfulness
of the best of men. We see the ignorance of the best
of men. We see the pride and unbelief
that is in the best of men. And we see the utter helplessness
of the best of men. And then we see the sovereign,
saving power of God that sprang out of His eternal love in the
obedient life and the sin-atoning death of the Son of God. We see
that God's people are not limited to one nation or one race or
one culture. God has a people and will save
them. Christ was crucified and has
redeemed his people out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation. Revelation chapter 5 verse 9
says, Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. All those
God loves, He gave His Son to redeem. All those Christ redeemed,
He gives His Spirit to raise to life, to be born into His
kingdom. And all who are born of God believe
that Christ accomplished all of their salvation when He cried
from the cross, It is finished. All who are born of God believe
Christ as Lord of all and trust Him as their only and complete
answer to God by His sin atoning death, by His obedient life,
and by His rule in heaven where He intercedes with His own blood
to save them to the uttermost. This is the summary of what is
taught in John chapter 3. But throughout time, men have
twisted this chapter to say what it does not teach. Here is what
this chapter does not teach. Men are not born again because
they believe or because they repent. Rather, men are turned
from their unbelief to believe Christ crucified as all of their
salvation when they are born again. Faith in Christ is not
the cause of our spiritual birth, it is the effect of it, the result
produced by it. The second thing John chapter
three does not teach is that there is no recipe, no process
that men follow, no steps that men take to become born again.
This is the work of God alone from beginning to end. God's
love, God's will, Christ's justifying obedience and sin atoning death,
and the resurrecting, life-giving, sovereign power of the Spirit
of God are without man's contribution. Man is the recipient only. The
motive springs from God's heart, not man's. The ground of all
love and acceptance and blessing is Christ, by His sin-atoning
death. Life comes by the Spirit of God,
and He commands that life when He takes the Gospel of Christ
crucified and applies it with saving, life-giving power to
those who are dead in their sins, living as the devil's children,
blind, and utterly hopeless and helpless in themselves. Men are
not saved by their decision, but by God's decision. Men are
not justified by their work, nor are they justified because
of their faith, but because of Christ's work alone. Men are
not created in Christ and raised from death to life, and born
as sons of God into the kingdom of his dear Son, but by the operation
of the Spirit of God when He uses Christ's gospel to speak
life to their souls. We are not saved because we respond
to God. We are saved because God determines
to save, Christ actually did save, and the Spirit of God in
response to Christ's cleansing work of atonement and by His
sovereign rule and glory gives life to dead sinners. Faith in
Christ is not a decision. It is not what causes God to
justify sinners or to give them life. Faith is God's gift by
which we are enabled to see what Christ has done and who He is. Faith is God's persuasion to
the sinner that Christ is all to God and all to us. Faith is implanted by the operation
of the Spirit of God who causes us to look to Christ and live
upon Christ in glad reception for pardon and peace and joy,
which we experience in believing that Christ is all in all that
God required and demanded from us. Therefore, the new birth
stands to both testify what God must do and what we cannot do
or cause to happen. The new birth is what God does
because Christ made us holy before him by shedding his blood to
put away our sins and establish our everlasting righteousness
in his death. The new birth prevents sinners
from boasting in their contribution. If we think or say that we responded
to God by our decision or by accepting Jesus or by asking
God to save us and therefore we are born of God, then we do
not understand the new birth. We must understand that this
is God's work alone to remove all boasting and to point us
to Christ that we may only boast in His eternal achievements for
sinners. In John 3, verse 1, we read,
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come
from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except
God be with him. Nicodemus was among those that
saw Jesus' miracles, but believed in him only as a miracle worker. Though Christ did not commit
himself to those who only saw and believed him as a miracle
worker, yet he did, in great grace, receive Nicodemus, though
he was a sinner. He did reveal Himself and His
saving work to him. Indeed, Christ revealed to Nicodemus
the whole saving work of God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit in this chapter of John. But Nicodemus trusted
his birth to Abraham. He trusted his understanding.
He believed he could make himself acceptable to God. He believed
that he was part of the kingdom of God because he thought the
nation of Israel and its king was that kingdom. Nicodemus called
Jesus Rabbi and a teacher come from God. But that is as far
as he went. His faint praise reveals his
ignorance and pride. He had high thoughts of himself
and he had low thoughts of Christ. He was blind to his own sin.
He was blind to who Jesus is and blind to his saving work.
Nicodemus stood before the Lord Jesus Christ, the physician of
men's souls, but Nicodemus did not know the plague of his own
heart. He could not see that Jesus was
the Lord of glory because he could not see the light of the
world. Nicodemus did not know that Christ is king in God's
kingdom. He did not know that God's kingdom is in heaven. He
did not know that God's kingdom is in the hearts of all those
who are in that kingdom. And he did not know that the
throne of the kingdom of God is the throne of heaven. He did
not know that the people of the kingdom of God were not limited
to the Jews, but were those for whom Christ shed his blood to
redeem out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation throughout
the world. Therefore, Jesus strikes at the
heart of Nicodemus' pride and ignorance, and at the same time,
he opens the first work of God in the heart of this sinner.
In verse 3, Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Jesus told Nicodemus he had not
seen and could not see the kingdom of God unless he was born again. He must be born again to see
the kingdom of God. But Nicodemus did not understand
what Jesus meant. Can you blame him? We have had
over 2,000 years to understand the new birth. Can you explain
it? Books have been written about
how to be born again, yet the very title of those books proves
those authors do not understand the new birth. Nicodemus could
think only of physical birth. So in his response, Nicodemus
asked Jesus in verse 4, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Having made known Nicodemus'
ignorance of spiritual things, Jesus proceeds to declare the
truth of the new birth and the requirement of the new birth.
In verse 5, Jesus said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Much
to Nicodemus' surprise, Jesus told him that a man must be born
again, not in physical rebirth, but he must be spiritually born. Our first birth is physical.
All men are physically born. We see and enter the physical
world by physical conception and birth. In the same way, we
must be spiritually born to see and enter the kingdom of God.
Again, the Kingdom of God is the life and rule of Christ in
the hearts of His people by His Spirit. It is Christ reigning
as King in us and Christ reigning in heaven as King of Glory. Jesus said a man must be born
of water and of the Spirit. He was talking about spiritual
things. Spiritual birth is accomplished
only by spiritual things, just as physical birth is accomplished
only by physical things. Therefore, the water refers to
the Word of God. Jesus said, the words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life, John 6, verse
63. The Apostle James said, of his
own will begat he us by the word of truth. And the apostle Peter
said, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the word of God. Jesus was not talking about words
as mere words only, but the doctrine of the gospel, which the word
of God teaches. Therefore, the apostle Paul said
this, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, Romans
1.16. Because the gospel is the doctrine
of Christ's blood shed to make atonement to God and cleanse
His people from their sins before the Lord. Therefore, the water
is the gospel, which is the message of the Word of God that tells
of Christ's work to save His people by washing them from their
sins before God with His own blood. A man must be born of
water and of the Spirit. When the Spirit of God applies
the Gospel to the conscience of a sinner, that sinner is born
of God. A man must be born of water and
of the Spirit. The Spirit of God commands life
when he takes the doctrine of the Gospel, of Christ's redeeming
blood, and he makes that truth the only confidence and hope
of a sinner. Just as God spoke and all things
were created out of nothing, the Spirit of God speaks the
gospel where there is spiritual nothingness in the heart of a
man and creates a new spirit in that man. He sprinkles the
clean water of the gospel of Christ's blood on his conscience,
giving him faith to see, faith as a persuasion that the truth
of Christ's finished work on the cross is the whole truth,
about the way things are between me and God. That gospel, applied
by the Spirit of God according to Jesus, is life. The words
that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. And
Nicodemus must have stood amazed at what Jesus said, because Jesus
continues, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
or where it pleases, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. We must not let our surprise
of the truth stand between us and believing the truth. We must
know that we cannot see until God gives us sight, we cannot
live until God gives us life, and we cannot believe until God
gives us faith. And Jesus makes it clear that
this is all God's work. Just as the wind blows without
man initiating it, and without man directing it, and without
man impeding or controlling it, so the Spirit of God gives life,
spiritual life, without man initiating Him, without man directing Him,
without man stopping Him, or without man controlling Him.
It is all of God. Everyone that is ever born of
God will be born this way. Jesus said, so is everyone that
is born of the Spirit of God. And then Nicodemus answered and
said, how can these things be? Here, we have a pause in Jesus'
sermon to Nicodemus. We are allowed to draw a conclusion
here. Nicodemus was the best that men
could produce. He was born to Abraham, he knew
the law, and he thought he kept it. He was religious. Men recognized
him as a master in Israel. And by all accounts, he was the
best of the best that man could produce. But here, the Spirit
of God records his words to show that he was completely ignorant
of spiritual things. He could not see the kingdom
of God. He had not entered it. He did
not understand the new birth. He did not understand the kingdom
of God. He did not know God's king. He did not know the people of
that kingdom. He was proud, ignorant, and most
of all, helpless, unable to contribute one thing. He was utterly dependent
on the work of God. Until we are brought to see this,
we also are ignorant and proud. We do not yet know spiritual
things, because spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and
only the Spirit of God can reveal them to us." 1 Corinthians 2
verse 14. And then Jesus answered and said
to him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things? Jesus says this both for us and
for Nicodemus, for us to teach us that Nicodemus, though recognized
as great among men, was yet entirely in the dark, ignorant, and spiritually
blind. But Jesus also said this to humble
Nicodemus. We also must be humbled before
we will believe. We must realize that we don't
know before we will be persuaded and believe the truth. And Jesus
continues, verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do
know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our
witness. If I have told you earthly things
and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly
things? Jesus now shows that Nicodemus
is a willful unbeliever. He does not yet believe. He has
refused the truth he heard. Our Lord is convincing him that
he is a sinner and that his sin is unbelief. Jesus said, If I
have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall
you believe if I tell you heavenly things? What were those earthly
things Jesus told Nicodemus? Well, Christ had told him about
the new birth. He had compared it to physical
birth. He had told him about wind to teach him about the Spirit
of God. He had told him about water to
teach him about the gospel of Christ's cleansing blood. But
more generally, the earthly things included everything God had given
in the law that pointed to Christ. And now, the Lord Jesus brings
Nicodemus' attention to another earthly thing from the Old Testament,
to hold it up to him as the object of all saving faith. This is
very important. Christ is going to hold up to
Nicodemus the gospel in a picture and explain that picture and
it will be by this that the Spirit of God gives life to Nicodemus. This is how God, not man, gives
life and birth and faith to every sinner that he saves. Jesus had
told the Pharisees the truth about himself. John the Baptist
had also told them. The problem was not that they
had not heard. The problem was that they had
not believed. They rejected the truth. They
refused to submit to the righteousness of God. And Christ crucified
is the righteousness of God. He is the only one who fulfilled
God's law and therefore he is the only righteousness that there
is. And Jesus continues to first
reveal who he is to Nicodemus. He says, and no man hath ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son
of man which is in heaven. Nicodemus thought Messiah would
be David's son, a mere man. He thought David's son would
sit as king in the kingdom of God on earth. But Jesus, in Matthew
16, told his disciples that he himself is the son of man and
the son of God. He asked them, whom do men say
that I, the son of man, am? Peter answered, thou art the
Christ, the son of the living God. All whom the Lord saves
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man. Now, to ascend up means more
than to just go up. It means to be seated in the
place of unlimited authority and power with the glory of God. God promised to raise Christ,
David's son and David's Lord, to sit on heaven's throne in
Psalm 110 verse 1 and Psalm 132. But Christ would not be seated
on that throne as Son of Man until he first came into the
world. Before his coronation, he must
come in humiliation and fulfill the will of God. Therefore Jesus
says to Nicodemus, No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.
In a few short words, the Lord describes who He is and His saving
work. He is the eternal Son of God,
who from eternity has been with the Father. But He is also the
Son of Man, who from eternity was chosen and appointed as God's
Christ. From eternity, God the Father
chose His only begotten Son to take into union with Himself
the nature of man. He would be God's Christ. He
would be the image of the invisible God. He would save His people
from their sins. Therefore, from eternity, in
His decree, God set up Christ as Son of Man and as son of man
he had glory with the father before he came into the world
jesus told the pharisees what if you shall see the son of man
ascend up where he was before jesus tells nicodemus that he
had glory with the father before he came into the world that he
descended involuntary humiliation as a servant to do the will of
God in his death and that he would rise from the dead and
ascend heaven's throne as king of glory, as son of man. In short,
Jesus makes known to Nicodemus who he is and he goes on to explain
what he would do. His saving work. He explains
what he would do as son of man in his humiliation before he
would be exalted to heaven's throne. He must first go to the
cross, he must destroy the works of the devil, and he must put
away the sins of his people. That is what Jesus means when
he says in the next verse, And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Here is the earthly thing that
Nicodemus had heard but had not believed. In Numbers chapter
21 verses 4 through 9, the children of Israel spoke against God and
Moses. They said that they hated the
manna that God gave them from heaven. This is very important. Jesus describes what these people
were like before God lifted up that serpent in the wilderness.
They were sinners. They had sinned before, and they
would sin again. They did not believe God. They
accused God of evil intent, that he brought them out of Egypt
and led them into the wilderness to kill them, not to bring them
into the land of promise. And they spoke against Moses.
Now, all of this was recorded so that we can see that we are
just like them. By nature, we do not believe.
Those people hated the manna, but that manna pointed to Christ
crucified, the bread of life who was sent from God. Many things
are taught in this account. First, Jesus further humbled
Nicodemus. He shows that he not only could
not see and had not entered the kingdom of God, but that he refused
to believe God, that he refused Moses and refused Christ. Nicodemus
was therefore required to take his place with those God sent
serpents to bite. The serpent was God's plague
against the people for their sin. They were cursed because
of their sin. Many died from that curse, and
while many others were dying, God did something, and by this
God teaches what he did to save his people from their sins in
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said that he, the Son of
Man, would be lifted up as that serpent was lifted up. The serpent
was the curse against the people. Christ must therefore be cursed
to save his people from the curse they deserved. He was to be lifted
up on the cross of cursing, as the serpent was lifted up on
the pole. Moses lifted that serpent. God's law would curse Christ.
God commanded Moses to lift up that serpent for the life of
those cursed sinners. God determined to crucify His
Son to save His cursed people who were sinners under the wrath
of God. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for
us. Christ was cursed by God to remove
God's curse from His people. Their sins were made His, and
He bore them as His own. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, He hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Thus, Jesus explains
the gospel to Nicodemus. Christ was made sin. The sins
of his people were made his. He was made guilty of them, and
therefore he bore the curse for them. He satisfied God's justice,
and he fulfilled God's law by his voluntary obedience in his
humiliations, in his sufferings, and in his death. It was all
done by God. We had nothing to do with it.
We had nothing to contribute to it. Christ did it all. God crucified his son out of
his sovereign love for his people. God delivered up his son for
them, and with him he shall give them all things." Romans 8, verse
32. All for whom Christ died are
redeemed from the curse they deserved. Because they are redeemed,
God sends his spirit to give them life. This is what Jesus
meant when he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. All
that Christ came to do, He did as a substitute for His people,
as their representative, to live and die in their place, so that
God would look upon Him and receive from Him all that He requires
from them. God set Him up from eternity
as Son of Man to fulfill this. And when He cried from the cross,
it is finished. He made full atonement and obtained
eternal redemption and cleansed his people before the Lord from
all their sins for all eternity. And here the mystery of the new
birth is unfolded. All who believe, who look to
Christ as all of their salvation, as those looked at that serpent
on the pole who were dying in the wilderness, all they are
born of God. They are not born because they
believe, but they believe because they are born. Our faith is the
result of God's work. It is His gift. We contribute
nothing to our birth, nothing to our resurrection from the
dead, nothing to our creation in Christ. We contributed nothing
to Christ's atoning work, and we can never earn the love of
God. All is of God, by His sovereign
grace in Christ. If you believe Christ, you have
been born of God and you are loved of God. If you do not believe
Christ, you are not yet born of God. God only loves those
for whom he gave his Son. The Spirit of God gives spiritual
birth to all those for whom Christ died. The evidence that we are
born of God is that we believe Christ crucified as all of our
acceptance before God, all of our righteousness. all of the
cleansing of all of our sins. Now almost all who call themselves
Christians today believe that God loves everyone in the whole
world and that Jesus died for the sins of everyone in the world. But this is not the truth. God's
love is holy. He only loves those in Christ,
those he chose in Christ, in love from eternity, Ephesians
1 verse 4. His love is saving. He will save
all whom He loves. Zephaniah 3 verse 17 says, the
Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. God's love is everlasting, it
has no beginning, and it has no end. God's love is undeserved
and unfailing. Song of Solomon 8 verse 7 says,
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown
it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love,
it would utterly be contemned. For those He loves, God gave
His Son to bear their sins and the curse of His law by Christ's
sufferings and death on the cross. And if He did that for them,
then He will, without fail, give them all things with Christ.
Romans 8.32 says, He that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give
us all things? Nothing can separate one of God's
elect sheep from his love. Romans 8 says, I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you believe that God loves
all people alike and that Jesus died for the sins of all people,
then you do not understand either the love of God or the death
and the merits of God's dear Son. None for whom Christ died
can perish in their sins. All whom God loves in Christ
shall be everlastingly saved. He will rejoice over them with
singing. He will rest in His love. You have just heard a sermon
by our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at YSGraceChurch.com.