John chapter 3, I want to read,
as I mentioned, the first 16 verses. There was a man of the
Pharisees, verse 1 begins, and this is a continuation of chapter
2, where there were a group of men, people who saw the miracles
of the Lord Jesus Christ and believed on Him insofar as He
was a miracle worker. But Jesus did not commit Himself
to them because He knew all men, He knew what was in man. And
here we have a man whose heart He knew, and He exposes it here
in chapter 3. So that's where it picks up here,
verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. a
ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night
and said unto 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." Well, that was certainly
true, but it fell far short of the truth. If the truth that
we believe falls short of Christ, who He is, and what He's truly
done, then we haven't yet obtained saving faith from God. And this
was Nicodemus' case at this point in this chapter. So, as I mentioned
last week, there's something that happens first here. What
we see is that the Lord Jesus Christ exposes Nicodemus for
what he was. He exposes Nicodemus because
Nicodemus as a Pharisee trusted in himself that he was righteous
before God. This is the most deadly of all
diseases in the soul of man. Self-righteous pride, spiritual
pride. This is the sin that will keep
us unbowed before God. This is the sin that will fail
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because we don't see beauty
in Him. We have no thirst for Him. We
don't see who He is as the King of glory and so we come like
Nicodemus offering Him faint praise, praise that men give
to men, calling Him Rabbi, the name that He wore with dignity
and felt deserving of it. Jesus answered him. The Lord
Jesus Christ at this point startles Nicodemus by what he says. He
answered Nicodemus. Nicodemus wasn't thinking along
these lines at all. And he said to him, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Now to see, to not be able to
see is an indication of blindness. It's an indication of darkness
in the soul. It's an indication of being separated
from something, being without understanding, spiritual understanding,
no light in the soul. And so the Lord Jesus says, until
a man, or unless a man, except a man be born again, he can't
see, he can't perceive, he doesn't have that light of God by which
he can understand spiritual things. He's separated from the kingdom
of God. He can't see it. And this was
as if this statement of the Lord came out of nowhere. Nicodemus
hadn't mentioned anything about being born again or the kingdom
of God for that matter. He just acknowledged that Jesus
must have been sent from God because of the miracles that
he did. But when Jesus did this, as I said, he understands what's
in the heart of man. And so he immediately goes to
the heart matter. Nicodemus trusted in himself
that he was a Jew, that he was born as a son of Abraham. Therefore, he must be in the
kingdom of God. The Jewish nation must be that
kingdom, right? And the king of that kingdom
must be God's king. And therefore, Messiah must come
and reign on earth in that kingdom. That's the kingdom of God, Nicodemus.
thought. And he thought that being born
a Jew, he was also a son of God. His soul was completely without
understanding in this area. He was not in the kingdom. He
couldn't see it. He was not a child of God. He
was outside of it. He didn't know God. He didn't
know really much of anything spiritual. He knew nothing spiritual.
He knew the law, but he didn't know spiritual matters. The difference
between light and darkness is faith. And faith is the gift
of God. But we go on. Nicodemus responded. He said to him, he said to Jesus,
how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? He understood Jesus
to mean you have to be born a second time. But he didn't understand
what kind of birth that was. The only birth he knew was the
birth he had to his parents. There was a physical birth, and
so Jesus responded, and he answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee,
except a man be born, not of your parents, but of water and
the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And Jesus
goes on, that which is born of the flesh, is flesh. All that you can be by birth
to your physical parents is a physical man. Flesh. Until you're born
of God, you're nothing more than flesh. And flesh and blood shall
not inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 15. That which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. In order to be spiritual, in
order to have the Spirit of God, you have to be born of the Spirit
of God. And then Jesus goes on in verse
seven, he says, marvel not, because Nicodemus was startled, he was
stupefied, he was surprised and amazed. Marvel not that I said
unto thee, you must be born again. What else would you expect? You
were born the first time to physical parents. You were conceived,
like David said in Psalm 51, in iniquity, conceived in sin. You are a part of that old creation,
which was cursed. You were separated from the life
of God, spiritually dead in sins, outside of the kingdom of God,
in the kingdom of darkness. And here the Lord Jesus, speaking
to this man, telling him of spiritual things. Here's a man just like
us, just like me, just like you, a proud man, a sinful man. And
he had to be born of God in order to have, to be able to see, be
able to enter the kingdom of God. But I want to look at verse five
with you as soon as we read through verse eight. Look at this, it
says in verse eight, the wind, the Lord Jesus is still speaking
to Nicodemus, he says, the wind bloweth where it listeth, or
the word is, means where it pleases, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth,
so is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. What does
this tell us? It tells us that the new birth,
the being born again, is something that God does. He says the wind
or the spirit blows where it wants to go, wherever it pleases.
You know how the wind is. You can't control it. You can't
initiate it. You can't impede it. You can't
stop it. You can't direct it. It just
blows where it wants to go. Look at a tornado ripping through
the Midwest. You can't direct it. You can't
start it up. You can't shut it down. It's
just going to go where it wants to go. The wind, the Spirit of
God, like the wind, blows where it will. In other words, God
gives life, He gives birth, according to His own will. And by His own
power, He gives birth to whom He pleases, when He pleases,
how He pleases. And that's what Jesus is telling
Nicodemus. He's leaving him, he's leaving Nicodemus utterly
unable to do one thing in order to have what he must have. Isn't
that ironic? The Lord Jesus first exposes
him, you're unable to see and outside the kingdom, and yet
then he tells him, and here is how it happens. The Spirit of
God does it. It's by his will, by his power. And Nicodemus is wondering, how
can these things be? Because that's what he says in
the next verse. How can these things be? But Jesus had just
told him in verse 5, you must be born of water and of the spirit. Until you are, you cannot enter
the kingdom of God. Now, I want to give you the bird's
eye view of these verses here, but I should continue to read
through here just so we have it all in context. So let's continue
reading. Nicodemus answered and said in verse 9, How can these
things be? And Jesus answered and said to
him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
Now what would that do if you were Nicodemus? Wouldn't it be
like a punch in the stomach? Wouldn't it be like Oh, you wounded
my pride. First of all, you showed me that
you told me I can't see and haven't entered. And you also said I
had to be born of the Spirit of God who gives birth as He
will, not as I will, or my parents will, or anybody else. It's out
of my control. And now you're telling me, you're
insulting me because you said I'm a master in Israel and I
don't know these things. No, I don't know these things.
This would leave Nicodemus as an ignorant man who claimed to
be a teacher and master and yet didn't know the ABCs of the kingdom
of God. Verse 11. And now Jesus is going
to talk through verse 16. He says, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, we speak that we do know. In other words, the Lord
Jesus, he himself, speaks what he does know. I'm not a master
who doesn't know. I'm the teacher. And I do know
what I'm saying. And you're going to have to hear
what I say. And if you don't hear what I'm
saying, Nicodemus, you will not be born from above. You will
not be born again. He says, I say unto thee, we
speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive
not our witness. Here's another accusation against
Nicodemus. We told you the truth. You didn't
believe it. You rejected the word from God,
the word from heaven. Verse 12, if I have told you
earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? I spoke of wind, I spoke of water,
you didn't understand those things. How are you going to believe
if I tell you spiritual and heavenly things? I perform miracles, you
didn't understand those miracles. We're pointing to the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ must first make atonement for sin in order
to heal the disease of man's souls. And so he didn't understand
spiritual things, didn't understand these heavenly things. He didn't
understand the earthly things. Here's a man who was, he was
brought low here, wasn't he? And then you would think that
that was about as low as he could go, but look at the next verse.
He says, the Lord Jesus says, 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 why did the Lord speak about
the son of man here? Well, remember, he had just told
Nicodemus he couldn't see what? The kingdom of God. Well, what
is the kingdom of God? Well, there has to be a king.
And there has to be people in the kingdom. And so he's speaking
about the kingdom of God. But when he speaks about the
kingdom of God, he first starts with the king. And you would think, well, that's
the Messiah. That's the one who is going to
be born to David. That's the one who's going to
come into Jerusalem and subdue all the enemies of the nation
of Israel and give and bless Israel with all these blessings
like Solomon did and so on. But that's not what he says.
And Nicodemus thought that he was a man sent from God, so therefore
maybe he had gone up to heaven and received from God what he
needed to bring back and teach us. But that's not what he said
either. In fact, he tells him something
else. He says, no man has ascended
up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son
of Man, which is in heaven. And I want to address that in
a minute, but let's go on in verse 14. And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. Now, this was an account in Numbers
21. You remember what happened? The
people of Israel, the nation of Israel, complained against
God. They spoke against God and they
spoke against Moses. And God sent, because they complained
and spoke against Him, He sent fiery serpents, poisonous serpents,
to bite them. These people were obviously great
sinners because God sent a plague, a curse upon them to bite them.
And they were bitten and they were dying. Many of them even
died. So Nicodemus is standing here
and the Lord is telling him, first of all, you can't see.
You haven't entered. You don't understand these things.
You claim to be a teacher. and then you haven't received
our witness, you've rejected the truth we've told to you,
and now I'm going to put you in a different crowd. Here's
the crowd you're part of, Nicodemus, this man who was a ruler, a self-made
master of Israel, acknowledged by men, but not acknowledged
by God. He says, you're going to have
to take your place among those who were bitten in the wilderness
because of their unbelief, because of their sin against God and
against Moses, the one in whom you trust, Nicodemus. You're
going to have to take your place there because he says, 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. 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. Now, I
want to try to get to everything here today except verse 16. We'll
address that next week, not next week, but the week after. And
I hope to bring a message on the love of God. The love of
God. But here I want you to see first
of all that the Lord Jesus tells Nicodemus about the work of the
Spirit of God first. You see that? You have to be
born, how? By the Spirit of God. And then
he tells him about himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
Man, who did not ascend up to heaven. He was in heaven and
came down from heaven, and then he ascended up to heaven. So
he tells him about himself and he also tells him about the serpent
lifted up in the wilderness and how that Son of Man himself would
be lifted up and whoever believed on him would not perish but have
everlasting life. So he speaks about the Spirit
of God, then he speaks about himself, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who is also the Son of Man. And then he speaks
of God the Father, because it's God who loved the world and gave
His only begotten Son. So here we see the love of God
the Father. So do you see this? Our salvation
is the work, it's the will and the work of the triune God. The
Spirit of God is the one who operates in us to give us sight
and life and translates us from the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of His dear Son. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
is the one who sent His Spirit from the Father because of His
atoning work to His people, but it was His redeeming blood That
was the reason why the Spirit of God was sent. He who is the
King of Glory, the King of this Kingdom, sends His own Spirit
to people and gives them this new birth. It's His will. It's
His work. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the one who paid the price in order for Him to give us that
life. And it's the love of God that
was the original of all these things. Let's go back to verse
5 now and take this one step at a time. Jesus told Nicodemus,
verily, verily, in verse 5, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
This puts it completely out of Nicodemus' reach. How can he
obtain this new birth if it's of the water and the spirit?
A lot of people might say, well, you're born of water, that must
have something to do with what we have on earth, water. and
they begin to grasp for things like baptism. But do spiritual
things come from physical things? Do we get spiritually born through
a physical thing on earth, something created in this world? No. Was the thief on the cross who
was never baptized, was he born again? He most certainly was,
because he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And faith always
is the result of being born of God. And he was never baptized,
so baptism in water have nothing to do, physical water have nothing
to do with our spiritual birth. But you have to understand what
Jesus, when He always spoke of earthly things, He was using
those earthly things to teach us of heavenly things. So He
speaks of the Spirit as the wind. He's speaking of the Spirit of
God. And He speaks of something else, and He uses water in reference
to that. But what is this water? What
is this water? Let me take you to a few verses
of scripture that help us understand this. Look first at Ezekiel chapter
36, because this is what Nicodemus, as a teacher and master, should
have known. Ezekiel chapter 36. We can blame Nicodemus, can't
we? We can hold him up and say, well, he just hadn't done his
homework or something like that. That's not the problem. The problem
is that he had not yet had God's grace given to him in his soul. And so we read about this in
Ezekiel 36 in verse 25. First it starts in verse 24. The Lord promises in the new
covenant, in the covenant of His everlasting grace, He says,
For I will take you, speaking of those people the Lord Jesus
would save, He says, I will take you from among the heathen, and
gather you out of all countries. This is speaking about, this
is a synonym for the world he mentions in chapters 3, John
3, 16. He gathers them out of all, out
of the heathen, that's the Gentile places, the non-Jews, and all
countries. That means throughout the world.
And I will bring you into your own land. That land they thought
of, and maybe when they read this, that was the land of Israel.
But he's speaking about another land. He's speaking about a spiritual
land. A land of salvation. A land that
is the kingdom of God. A land where the Lord Jesus Christ
reigns and rules. It's the kingdom of God. It's
being in Christ. In verse 25, then, when I do
this, I will sprinkle, what? Clean water upon you, and you
shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statues, and you shall keep my judgments and do them.
Here is God's promise. What is he going to do? How is
he going to clean, cleanse us from our filthiness? He says,
here I'm going to sprinkle clean water upon you. Now look at Titus, the book of Titus. because
the Lord here speaks of this new birth in the book of Titus.
And thankfully, it helps us understand what Jesus meant by the water
and spirit in Titus chapter 3. He says, first describes us what
we are by nature, which is just like Nicodemus. He says in chapter
3 verse 3 of Titus, For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish,
disobedient, deceived, just like Nicodemus, serving divers' lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, not for any goodness in us, but
according to His mercy, He saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost. You see the washing there? That's
the water. Ezekiel says, I will sprinkle
clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your
filthiness. And here he says it's the washing of regeneration. So being born of God includes
two things, washing, the washing of regeneration, and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. the washing, the sprinkling.
What do these things signify? Well, look at 1 Corinthians chapter
4. We're going to answer this from
scripture so that it's unambiguous. I hope that you can see this.
The scripture itself teaches us the truth about what this
water is. He says in 1 Corinthians 4, Paul
in verse 15 tells the Corinthians, for though you have 10,000 instructors
in Christ, yet have you not many fathers? For in Christ Jesus,
I have begotten you. Listen, I have begotten you. What does that have to do with
birth? Through the gospel. What was it that Paul said he
came to the Corinthians with that was the means by which they
were begotten of God? The Gospel. Look at James chapter
1. The same thing is spoken of there
very clearly. James chapter 1. And this is speaking about what
God the Father does. He says in James 1 verse 18,
speaking of God the Father, of His own will, This is like the
wind. He blows like the wind, like
the wind blows wherever it will, wherever it pleases. Uncontrolled,
uninfluenced, unimpeded, uninitiated by man. Of his own will, not
man's will, but God's will. Of his own will, begat he us. That word begat means to give
birth to us. How? He begat us with the word
of truth. What is the word of truth? It's
the gospel of our salvation. It's the gospel. Look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, in verse
4, he says this, Paul speaking to the Corinthians again, he
says, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
So the gospel is hid. In whom the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine to them. So he says then, for we preach not ourselves,
but what? Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. That's the gospel, preaching
Christ Jesus the Lord and him crucified, which Jesus himself
did in John 3. And verse 6 says, For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the revelation
of God in Jesus Christ. The gospel reveals Jesus Christ,
who He is, and what He did. And in seeing Him, we see the
glory of God. But how do we see this? Because
the gospel is hid to those who are lost, God has to shine the
light. Remember in creation? When the
world was in ruins, when it was void and darkness, God spoke
out of the formless darkness, and He said, let there be light,
and there was light. So is the soul of man. It's a
place of formless darkness and void spiritually. And the Spirit
of God, as He moved upon the face of the waters in creation,
the Spirit of God comes in the new birth and God says, let there
be light. And that command is the gospel
preached to us in a way of application. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. We
see that also here, Hebrews chapter 9. In Hebrews 9 verse 11, the writer
to the Hebrews, which I believe is the Apostle Paul, he said,
"...but Christ being come, and high priest of good things to
come, not as the high priest in the Old Testament, but Christ
who is the fulfillment," he says. being come a high priest of good
things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, his
own body God had given to him, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building. Verse 12, listen carefully. Neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Understand what is being said
here. The Lord Jesus Christ offered himself to God. His offering,
like the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, was an offering
of blood. He offered himself. He gave his
life. He suffered under the wrath of
God, and his suffering was the equivalent of the curse poured
out on his people for their sin. But when he shed his blood, he
offered himself to God by the eternal spirit, it says. He entered
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. Redemption, what is it? It's
a ransom paid in order to obtain the freedom of the captive. Or
in order to obtain the remission of the debt owed by the debtor.
And so the Lord Jesus Christ, by His blood, paid the price
that the debt of God's people's sins owed to them. God is the
creditor. We're the debtor. Our sin, our
crimes against God incurred His wrath. A debt had to be paid,
a debt to God's justice. And the death of Christ paid
that debt. And it was a debt equivalent
to all that God's people owed. And He obtained redemption, the
liberty that that ransom price obtained. He obtained it. And
what kind of a redemption? Not a temporal redemption like
the animal sacrifices, but an eternal redemption. The liberty
of our sins forgiven before God. The full remission. God says,
I will remember their sins no more. That's redemption. Redemption from the curse of
the law. Redemption to know God. Redemption in order to be justified. He justified his people before
God by his blood and obtained it. He actually made full remission
when he offered himself to God. That's what happened in the court
of heaven. Christ offered his blood and in the court of heaven
All of our sins were put away. God was satisfied. And now look
what happens. Because in the court of heaven,
the blood was sprinkled. Look what happens now in verse
13. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of
a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifyeth to the purifying
of the flesh, Because that's what they did back then, they
took the blood with water and mixed it with water and took
some hyssop and dipped it in the water and blood and sprinkled
it on the person who was offering. And if that sprinkling of that
blood and water then, of those animal sacrifices and their blood,
if that purified the flesh so that the person could actually
perform the services and be ceremonially accepted by God. He says in verse
14, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God. Now listen to these
next words carefully. Purge, cleanse, wash your conscience. from dead works to serve the
living God. So here the Lord is saying that
the blood sprinkled in heaven which obtained our atonement,
which made atonement to God and obtained our justification before
God, that same blood is sprinkled on our conscience. And He purges our conscience
by that blood. As Ezekiel said, I will sprinkle
clean water upon you. How does that happen? The Spirit
of God takes the truth of the Gospel and He makes it the only
truth. that we believe about how sinners
are made right with God. And it's the truth that we believe
so that we come to God by Jesus Christ. We see Him. We're convinced
that all of my acceptance before God is what God thinks of His
Son. It's not by works of righteousness
which we've done. It's what God thinks of His Son. And that faith that God gives
us in the new birth enables our conscience to be clean. We can
be satisfied that God is propitiated. God is satisfied for our sins
in the blood of Christ. God has declared it in His Word.
We're convinced of it. We understand now how God can
be just and justify the ungodly. Now look at 1 Peter 1. The same
thing is said there. 1 Peter 1. He says in verse 20
that the Lord Jesus Christ was ordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
It wasn't an accident that Jesus was crucified on the cross. God
purposed it before the world began. Verse 21. Who by Him, the Lord Jesus Christ,
believe in God. We believe in God by Jesus Christ. God raised Him up from the dead
and gave Him glory that your faith and hope might be in God.
Look at verse 22. Seeing you have, what? Purified
your souls in obeying the truth. Now that's just, what that means
is that like we just read in Hebrews 9 verse 12-14. When we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ by God-given faith, by the work of the Spirit of God
operating in us and giving us life and sustaining that life
as well, our souls are purified because we see that before God,
we have been purified by the blood of Christ. And we see that
in Christ, God accepts me for what he thinks of his Son. And
therefore we put down our weapons of warfare against God. The hatred
that we held for God because we knew His judgment was against
us for our sins is taken away. Because we see that God is at
peace with us through the blood of Jesus. He's received full
satisfaction for our sins. The one who offended Him He's
taken the cause of that one and laid it on his son and he made
his son a propitiation and he received full satisfaction and
thereby reconciled us to himself by the death of his son. Romans
chapter 5 verse 10. But here he says we've purified
our souls in believing the truth or in obeying the truth as it
says here through the spirit. unto unfeigned love of the brethren,
see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
These two things are always joined together and inseparable in scripture. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and love. Love for God and love for His
people. Verse 23 sums it up. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, That's our first birth. Our first parents, we were conceived
in sin, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And look at verse 25. But the
word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached to you. How does the spirit of God give
us life? How are we born of God? Just
like in the creation in the beginning, God speaks by his word and light
is shown into the darkness. We're translated from the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. The gospel is
no longer hid, it becomes light to our souls and in the gospel,
We see how God can be just and justify sinners. And we, finding
ourselves to be sinners and finding no hope in anything we can do,
knowing we can't control this thing or make this thing happen.
God shows us, your only hope is in Jesus Christ. And we look
to Him, and we find everything God requires of me, He has provided
in His Son. And we look to Him as sinners,
knowing that that is our only hope. And we finally agree with
God then, that Christ deserves all the glory. And he's the one
in whom we trust. Look back now at John chapter
3. So I hope you see, the water is the gospel. Applying the blood
of Christ to our conscience. Cleansing our conscience, because
in the court of heaven, Christ shed his blood and justified
us before God. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
on the cross, he cried, it is finished, because at that time,
Our justification, our redemption, our sanctification was all obtained
by what He did. We don't contribute to it. It
was outside of our own personal experience. It happened on the
cross and the application of it is when God makes it known
to us through the gospel and gives us faith to believe. He
operates in us. He gives us life. 2 Corinthians
5.17, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. A new creation. That's what the new birth is.
It's being created new. It's light flooding into the
soul. It's being translated from the kingdom of darkness to the
kingdom of light. It's being raised from the dead,
spiritual deadness of our sins, to life in Christ. All these
things describe the same thing. But here, Nicodemus was attached
to his birth to Abraham. as his entrance into the kingdom
of God. God says, no, that won't do it.
Not at all. You have to see Christ and Him
crucified as your only hope. And God alone can do that in
a soul of a man. So that's what he says in the
next few verses. And so that's where we're going to pick it
up here in verse 13. John chapter 3 verse 13, 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 notice here, it
seems again, when Jesus first spoke about being born again,
it was like the rug was jerked out from a Nicodemus. It was
a hard right turn. We were going down this path
in the conversation and suddenly you're on a different track.
But here again, it seems like, where did this come from? Why
are we talking about the Son of Man and ascending up to heaven
and all these things? Again, it's because He's the
King of Glory. And the King is the King in the Kingdom of God.
And we were talking about the new birth because something has
to happen on the throne of heaven in order for a man to be born
again. And so he says, no man has ascended
up to heaven. What does it mean to ascend up
to heaven? Does it mean simply to go to heaven? Well, we know
that Elijah was not found. He was taken up to heaven in
a fiery chariot. So he certainly didn't ascend
up in this sense. And Enoch also was translated
that he should not be found. God translated him. He wasn't
ascending up in this sense because Jesus says no man has ascended
up to heaven. But this ascension up to heaven
has something to do not just with going to heaven. It has
something to do with rising in ascension and being seated in
glory in heaven. I have set my king upon my holy
hill of Zion. Psalm chapter 2. Look at Ephesians
chapter 4. Let me explain this to you from
Ephesians 4. This is one of the most helpful verses to understand
verse 13 of John 3. He says in Ephesians chapter
4, in verse 8, well actually let me read verse 8. He says, Wherefore,
he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive. and gave gifts unto men. He's
speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ. When He ascended up on
high, up on high means the place of rule, the place of authority. He led captivity captive. Those who were taken captive
by the devil because of their sin, He led them as His liberated
captives. And He gave gifts to men, in
verse 9. Now, that He ascended What is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? So you see here the order. Jesus
said, no man has ascended up to heaven but he that came down
from heaven. This verse says, now that he
ascended, what is it but that he also first descended first
into the lower parts of the earth? And he gave, and then it goes
on, he says, he ascended up far above all heavens, that he might
fill all things." Now go back to John 3, verse 13, where Jesus
says, No man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down
from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. It seems
like there's too much packed into these few words, but here's
what it means. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
eternal Son of God. As the Son of God, He was eternally
equal with the Father. There was never a time when He
was born as the Son of God. He always was the Son of God.
As long as God is God, Jesus Christ has been the Son of God.
Equal with the Father, equal in power, and authority, and
wisdom, and all these things. But as the Son of Man, He was
eternally ordained to stand as the head, the representative
head for His people. From eternity, God said of His
Son, He's going to be joined together with human flesh and
blood and soul in one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of
God would take to himself the nature of man, and in one, Son
of God, Son of Man, he would be the one mediator between God
and men. And God would require of him
all that he required of his people. He would stand as their representative
head. And so in 1 Corinthians 15, it says, the first man was
of the earth, earthy. That's Adam. But the second man,
In 1 Corinthians 15.47, the second man is the Lord from heaven.
The Lord is God. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. How can this be? Because the
Lord Jesus Christ, His Son of God, took on human nature. He took on flesh and blood. He
became the Son of Man. He had glory with the Father.
Look at John chapter 6. This glory He had with the Father
as the Son of God, not just the Son of God, but also as the ordained
Son of Man, the One who was chosen by God to stand for His people
and redeem them from their sins. Therefore, in eternal decrees,
God saw in Him all that He required to magnify His glory, and His
grace, and His mercy, and His love, and the salvation of His
people. And He had already in His decrees exalted Him in glory. And so in verse 62, John chapter
6 verse 62, He says to the Pharisees, they hated this thought of Jesus
being exalted. They hated it because they wanted
to kill Him. They hated the thought that He
was God's beloved, well-loved, the one in whom God was well
pleased. And so he says in verse 62, verse 61, when he told them,
you have to eat the flesh and drink the blood of my flesh and
my blood, and they couldn't stand the thought of that. And so he
says in verse 62, after 61 he says, does this offend you? What
and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was
before. If this offends you, if it offends
you that you have to have life from God by believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ, crucified, His body and flesh, that faith,
partaking of Him and finding life from Him, in Him, if it
offends you, how much more will you be offended when you see
that One whom you despise and reject it, sitting on Heaven's
throne, judging, All men, the one who came the first time and
did not condemn the world, will sit as judge over this world.
And so he says, you're gonna see the son of man ascending
up where he was before. In the counsels of God, he was
the son of man. And the son of God took our nature
in God's eternal covenant and gave it and made him the head
and representative of his people. I'll read one verse to you from
Psalm 89. In Psalm 89, he prophesies of this because as you know,
Jesus is the son of David. He says, in Psalm 89 verse 19, I'm just reading from Psalm 89
verse 19, Then thou speakest in vision to thy Holy One, that's
the Christ, the Messiah, and said, I have laid help. One that
is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant
with my holy oil have I anointed him. He's speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ there. Because David had already reigned
as king. He wasn't speaking of David there.
He's speaking of David's son. And then he says in verse 27
of the same chapter, I also will make him my firstborn higher
than the kings of the earth. So all these things are spoken
of Christ in this eternal covenant of God. Look at John 17. John
17, the Lord Jesus Christ as the high priest for his people
about to offer himself to God to obtain their eternal redemption.
He speaks in John 17 and he says this in verse 1. Father, he says,
these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. He sits on heaven's throne. What
is he going to do there? He's going to give eternal life. How does he do that? First, by
his own blood, obtaining their eternal redemption. Second, by
sending his spirit, and by his spirit quickening them, raising
them to life, when he speaks the gospel, and gives life to
them in that gospel word that he speaks to them. In verse 3,
and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified
Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me
to do, and now, and listen carefully, O Father, glorify Thou Me with
Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee, before
the world was. The Son of God, as the eternally
ordained Son of Man, had glory with the Father before the world
was. Because God looked upon Him,
and God saw in His Son, the head of His people, the One who made
full satisfaction for their sins and brought glory to His name,
all of His perfections, displayed in the death of his son. And
he says, I am well pleased with my son. That's what he said when
he was baptized and at the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my
beloved son. Hear him. the son of man, who, he says
it again, I'll say it in verse 13 of John 3, no man has ascended
up to heaven, no one has gone up and sat on heaven's throne
as the Messiah in the kingdom of God, but he that came down
from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, took our nature,
and in that nature he was made a servant, a servant to his people,
he offered himself a ransom for their life, and then He gave
himself in obedience even unto death, and that obedience was
the sacrifice of himself. And then he says, no one has
ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even
the Son of Man which is in heaven. Because the one who first descended,
ascended up above all things. He's always been in heaven, eternally
appointed as the Son of Man, and there in his nature as Son
of God. But he descended, in humiliation, and then he ascended
in glory. That's what this verse is speaking
about. Nicodemus is so amazed at this point. The kingdom that
I envision has nothing to do with an earthly kingdom. It has
everything to do with a heavenly one. A king in heaven. A king
on heaven's throne who first descended. and was made man,
and then humiliated as man, because he says it in the next verse,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
a son of man be lifted up. What was this? God told Moses
the people were dying. They had been bitten by the serpents
because the plague God brought upon them. It was a curse of
God upon the people for their sin. And God sent the serpents
this plague, this curse, this bite, that they were dying. And
God said to Moses, take a serpent, take brass, and hammer it out,
and heat it up, and fasten it to a pole, and put it up there
for the people. Everyone who's bitten, looking
upon that serpent, shall live. What is he saying? Jesus explains
it. He speaks of this to Nicodemus,
the same one he just spoke about, who has ascended to heaven's
throne because he first descended. who was pre-incarnate, the Son
of God with all the glory of heaven, came down and took the
nature of man and paid all their debt as the Son of Man and then
was ascended back up. Here's how he did it. Just as
Moses took that brass in the wilderness and hammered it out
and put it on that pole, So the Lord Jesus Christ, he has to
take the very plague that came upon the people because of their
sin, and it had to be put upon him. Their sin had to be made
his, and the curse they deserve had to be poured out on him.
The sword of God's justice had to pierce his side. And he had
to be under the law and under its curse in order that he might
take that curse and justify us before God. Everyone who looked,
lived. And so he says in verse 15, whoever
believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Our faith
doesn't make God give us the new birth. Our faith doesn't
produce life in us. Our faith is given to us by God,
and that faith is always in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nicodemus was wondering, what
is this? What does this all mean, the new birth? If you try to
explain the new birth apart from Christ and Him crucified, you
just confuse yourself. You confuse everybody else. You
can't explain it. You can't say, well, it's the
way the Spirit works inside of us and He does this and that.
It completely leaves you bewildered. But if you preach Christ crucified,
then the Spirit of God comes along and He takes that word
and He applies it to our heart in a way that He only understands.
And we only see the effects of it. And sometimes the effects
are so astounding that outwardly we see this, it's like a tornado. This person, they believe Christ
and there's a complete and radical recognition of it. And then it's
like that leaf while you're standing on a still day just blows across
the driveway and you go, where did that, why did that happen?
You just see the effects of it. That's the way the Spirit of
God works. Christ is preached. God's people believe it. He grants
faith to those he ordained from eternity to eternal life. And
the way we know it is that we find in Christ our only hope,
all of our salvation before God. How do you know you've been born
again? You don't look within. You don't say, well there was
a point in time when I made a decision for Jesus. I walked the aisle,
I raised my hand, I said the sinner's prayer. If that's what
you're looking to, you're not looking to Christ. You have not
yet been born of God. The only way you know you have
saving faith is to, what do you trust when you come before God?
Who do you look to? Do you look to your act of faith?
Or do you look to Christ and Him crucified? Because if you
look to what you've done in any way, if you trust in your trusting,
or you have confidence in your confidence, your confidence will
not uphold you in the day of judgment. Only one can do that,
the one who has already answered God. His answer At Calvary, in
the court of heaven, has to be your answer in the court of your
conscience, so that on Judgment Day, Christ is all of your answer. Let's pray. Father, we pray that as the Lord
Jesus Christ opened to us our necessity, our great and horrible
condition as sinners, and our necessity to be born of God,
we pray, Lord, that you would grant us this mercy, that each
one here hearing your word would hear it with God-given faith,
the light of the gospel would shine, and your command to live
would bring with it that life which we need to live, and we
would see Christ as everything, We would know that You have provided
and received from Him all that we need and we would find it
in Him. By Your grace and Your mercy, we pray in Jesus' name,
Amen. All right, we're going to stand
for our last hymn. Our last hymn on page 92, Near
the Cross. page 92.