If you would, turn back to John
chapter 3. John chapter 3. In this story we see that there's
this Pharisee named Nicodemus. He came to Jesus by night. Jesus
talked with him. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke with
this man. I believe this man was probably
saved because of it. In the scriptures, that seems
to be the only ones the Lord saves is the ones he actually
shows himself to. And he did here. Other Pharisees
had went about questioning him in public. And he had told them,
he said, you believe not because you're not mine. This man came
alone. In the first verse there, he
says that he was a man of the Pharisees. I looked it up. The Pharisee, best definition
I found was a Jewish seat known as for strict observances of
rights and ceremonies of the written law. These Pharisees,
we have Pharisees today. Most of religion is trying to
work their way to heaven. Most of them are trying to work
their way to heaven. To give you a description of a Pharisee,
look with me in Luke chapter 18. This is the parable of the Pharisee and the
publican. And this was Nicodemus coming
in at this point. Said in chapter, or verse 11
of chapter 18, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
And he prayed to God. He prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in
the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. But the publican standing afar
off, he wouldn't even lift his eyes up. All he could do was smote on
his breast and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's what
happens when God gets hold of a man. He'll beg for mercy. But this Pharisee, Nicodemus,
he was a ruler of the Jews is what it says. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
10, he said that his brethren had a zeal of God, but it wasn't
according to righteousness. He said they went about, they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, went about to establish their
own. And that's every man and woman before Christ gets a hold
of them. Once Christ does a work in them,
they're like the publican. They beg for mercy. That's all
a Hindu is, beg for mercy. And then it came to him at night. He wouldn't come by day. He came
to Christ by night. I was listening to a message.
I don't know, couldn't tell you when it was preached by Henry
Mahan. It was a radio message or TV message that he brought.
And he just said he didn't know all of his reasons for coming,
but he was glad he came. And that's what we need. We need
to come to Christ. Come to Christ. Hear what he
has to say. See what's preached in this scripture.
If a man's not preaching what's in this scripture, deviating
from it, go find somebody else. Find Christ. Search Christ. Nicodemus was a scholar. He was
probably in the Sanhedrin. He didn't want, he didn't want
his lifestyle to change because he was seen with Christ. He came
to Christ in the night. That's all man. That's what first, verse 20, for everyone that doeth
evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds be reproved. Nicodemus came in the night.
He came to talk with Christ. He had seen some things. He wanted
to talk more and find out about them. He could only come because
God brought him. Christ said that no man can come
to Christ except through the Father brings him. That's the
only way is the Father has to draw a man. And we see also that you remember
the Apostle Paul, he was a Pharisee. Turn with me to Philippians 3. Paul was a Pharisee and he told
about his being a Pharisee. He told, starting in verse 4
of Philippians 3, he said, though I might have a have confidence
in the flesh, if any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might
trust in the flesh, I more." He was circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew
of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless, so he thought. Until Christ showed him who he
was. Stopped him on the road to Damascus. This was the same with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus probably could have said all these things too. But
after Christ got a hold of him, Paul's tone changed. In verses
7, he said, But what things were gained to me, those I counted
lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered all things and do count them
but done, that I may win Christ." At this point, all he wanted
to do was win Christ. Once Christ showed him who he
was and what he was, what Paul was as a man, a sinner, He wanted
to win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is the faith of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know
Him and the power of His resurrection. That's what everyone that Christ
gets a hold of will say. May we know Christ. May Christ
be in us. May Christ be our faith. our
wisdom. Christ is all. Christ is all
in and all. Salvation is of the Lord. But
Nicodemus, he coming by the night, he came seeking Christ, not knowing
the true Christ, just knowing that this man was different than
everybody else. All he had seen so far was that
he was a man from God. He had not seen the God-man yet. We're told, Isaiah 55 tells us
to seek the Lord. Call on him while he's near.
That's what Nicodemus did. The Lord drew him. He called
on him. And then he spoke to him. He spoke to Christ and he said,
Rabbi, we know thou art a teacher come from God. The other Pharisees knew the
same. He said the reason that they
knew he was from Christ or from God was that no man can do the
miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Christ could only do the miracles
that he did. He gave his apostles powers to
do miracles too. There are no more miracles in that sense. They're still,
the devil out there is performing miracles and wonders to a point,
but he couldn't perform what Christ did. He couldn't perform
a salvation that the Lord did. And those men were told in 1
John 4 1 to try the spirits, whether they be of God. God has given Satan some power
to do some things, and it'll fool some. It won't fool the
elect. Christ said that all that the
Father giveth me, he should lose none. So those can't be fooled,
but some men can. But we need to try the spirits
just because a man is doing miracles that look like they're great
and good deeds. Try the spirits. The man's message
will betray him every time. Every time. He'll be just like
Satan. He'll be a liar. In Exodus, We've seen that. The Lord sent Aaron and Moses
to Pharaoh, told Aaron to cast down his rod, and it would become
a serpent. And he did that. Pharaoh's magicians
did the same thing. They cast their rods down, and
they became serpents. But the serpent that God had
made swallowed up all the other serpents, showed that he was
in charge. He ruled. He is the ruler. He
is sovereign. Our God is in control, and that's
comforting. In this day and time, seeing
this world the way it is, it's a comfort knowing that God is
in control. At the point where Nicodemus
said this in verse 2, the Lord met him where he was at, of being looking to himself and looking
to his righteousness to get there, looking to the law that he thought
he was keeping. The Lord met him and said, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. Right off the bat, he tells him,
you must be born again. And one of us in here that can
do anything to make ourselves born again. That has to be done
by the divine spirit of the Lord. The only way to be born again
is if Christ does something for us. And that's exactly what he
told him here. He said that he had to do something for him before
he could be saved, before he could see the kingdom of God. A man that's born in Adam is
dead. We're dead in sin. If we're born
in Christ, we're a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. In Christ, we're new creatures.
We have a new spirit. We have a new man in us. We're
still sinners as long as we're on this earth. Second Corinthians 517 says,
therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. A man can read this scripture,
read this Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and if the Lord
doesn't do anything, doesn't open the Bible to see it, he
will not see Christ. He can have all of the knowledge
of the Bible that he wants, but if he doesn't see Christ, he's
missed Christ. It's a terrible thing to go through
life thinking that you're religious. But maybe the Lord, just like
this, He has mercy and bestows His grace on a few. On a few,
He bestows His grace, shows them who he is, shows him God the
Son. Over in our text, over in verse
36, John the Baptist, one of his, one of the preachers sent
by God, sent by Christ, he said, he that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. All we are told to do is believe.
We can't do that without being born again. We have to be born
again to believe. And he that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. All God has to do is leave man
to himself. He doesn't have to do anything
to send a man to hell. All he has to do is leave him
alone. He's dead in sin. He's dead from sin. And man will get there on his
own. But he chose to have mercy on some. Chose to show his grace
to some. He said, Christ said, you must
be born again. Christ gives that new life. Christ
is new life. Christ is the kingdom of God.
He said, you can't see this kingdom of God, except you be born again.
He is the kingdom of God. Matthew 6, 33 says, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. It's Christ's righteousness that
we look to, not our own. It's by His mercy, His grace, that we even look or think on
Him. And then Nicodemus, his reply
in verse 4 showed his lack of understanding of the Gospels,
or of the Old Testament that he had at the time. So the lack
of understanding. He didn't understand the fall.
He didn't understand its consequences. And the Lord told him in verse
12, said, if I have told you earthly things and you believe
not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
We are men, we are sinners, and Christ has to show us, open our
eyes to these things. There was a time when I could
read the scriptures and they were scriptures. They had good
meanings, but that's all they had. When Christ opened my eyes
to Christ, and that Christ was on every page, His name doesn't
have to be there. He's on every page. It doesn't
have to say the word Christ. It doesn't have to say the word
Jesus. But to see Him throughout the scriptures, see Him in the
Old Testament stories, see him as the woman's seed. Immediately after Adam and Eve
sinned, the first thing he did was tell them about the woman's
seed. He came to them and told them about the woman's seed.
Told them their way of salvation. Showed them Christ. But Nicodemus' response here
in verse 4, he said, how can a man be born when he's old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born? Nicodemus was still looking for what he could do to get to
heaven. And too many men are doing that
now. They're claiming that they believe God, that they're trusting
in God, but they're looking to their own righteousness. We need
to look to his righteousness. In Genesis 6, it says, Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Doesn't say Noah did anything
different than those people that God destroyed, but Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. It was what was done for Noah
that saved Noah, put him in the ark. It's what God did for him.
because if he's just too late man tells us for by grace are
you saved through faith and that's not according to yourself it's
not according to any works we do it's all and christ spoke back up to him
and told me he said verily verily i say except a man be born of
water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of god not that you have to try to do
this or that. As he said it, same as saying
being born again, he's telling him here, you've got to be born
of the water. Christ is that water. Christ is that water. He told the woman at the well,
he said, if you drink of the water in the well, you'll thirst
again. But his water that he would give
her should never thirst again. We'll never thirst again as long
as we have Christ. Christ in us makes us a new creature. We have to be born again to be
that new creature. We can't go out. We can't go
out and do anything to earn our way to heaven. It's all about
the Lord and what he's done. He came to this earth as a man.
He came and humbled himself to live as a man in the flesh, to
know our temptations and struggles. And then he laid down his life
that he might take it again. He laid it down that he might
take it again to pay the sin debt that we could never pay. And then in verse, lost my place, sorry. The only way for a sinner to
be cleansed is with the blood of Christ. The only way to be
made clean is with the blood of Christ. He told us He told him in verse
7, he said, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again.
Being born again is the only way to see the kingdom of God. The Lord kept making this point
to Nicodemus. You must be born again. Takes
all of the works out of it. We have to be born again. That
is something done to us and for us. not us doing it and having
any thinking we have any reward in it or any way of salvation
because salvation is of the Lord. We have to be born again. The Lord chose who he would Turn with me to Ephesians 1 while
I'm trying to get my thoughts out here. The Lord is the one
that does the work. The Lord is the one that chose. Ephesians 1, he tells us in verse
3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. He chose us that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. Christ paid our sin debt. It's
the only way we can be holy with God is in Christ. If Christ sees
us, we're cast out. We can only be holy and without
blame in the sight of God if we're in Christ. And He predestinated
us, having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. All things, nothing in that part
of the Scripture says anything about man doing anything. It's
all Christ. Christ is all and in all. He created everything, and it
was for His glory, for His honor. He did the work that needed to
be done to save the people that He chose. It has nothing to do
with us. Romans 8, 29 and 31 tells us,
if I can get there, Romans 8, 29 through 31 says, for whom
He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, He justified.
Whom He justified, He glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Christ said
no man can pluck any of His sheep out of His Father's hand. All
the Father has given Him are in His hands and He'll lose none. What a blessing to know that.
But we need to be born again. Unless we're born again, we will
not call on Christ. We will not seek Christ. We will
not believe Christ. And if we do any of those, it's
because the Lord did a work for us first. And the only reason in 1 John
he said that we love Him because He first loved us. First loved
us. Back in our text, the Lord said
in verse 8, He said, The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell where it cometh,
and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. everyone that is born of the
Spirit. The Lord has mercy upon whom
he'll have mercy. Speaking of this wind, we've
just had a lot of wind here in the last few weeks, toppling
trees. It made me think of a tornado
path. I don't know whether anybody's seen tornado paths, kind of aerial
views. It's like a finger, which is
God's finger, that he controls those tornadoes and that wind,
where it blows. But you'll see a row of houses,
and this one will be gone, and that one will be standing. The
next one will be gone, that one will be standing. Is it not like
that with his people? I can think back to all the years
that I've been here, and all the people that have sat in these
pews, God has passed over one and chose another. Passed over
one, chose another. Two people sat side by side.
One's here, one's not. It's all of the Lord. He does
the choosing. He does the saving. His spirit goes where his spirit
wills. His spirit is sovereign. His
will is done in all things. In all things. And then Nicodemus
answered him, and he said, how can these things be? A believer, once the Lord shows
him some of these things, he'll say that to start with. The Lord
will open his eyes, and we'll teach him. And Christ answered him and said,
art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
I mean, here was a man that claimed that he was a master in Israel,
a leader, a teacher. He studied the Old Testament,
the law and the prophets. He studied all of that. And the
Lord asked him, he said, you don't know these things? I mean,
Christ knew them all. He wrote them. But the people
that he showed, The Savior, too. They knew Him, too. He had opened
their eyes to these pictures and types. Everything was about
the Christ to come. Everything. The Old Testament
was looking for the Christ to come. The Jews are still looking
for the Christ to come. Because unless God gets a hold
of them and shows them, they don't want to admit That is,
people, they did what God determined before to do done, but they put
him on the cross. They put the Son of God on the
cross. And they don't want to own up
to that. And as long as God leaves them in there, leaves them alone,
they'll believe that the Christ has not come yet. But the Christ
has been here. We've been given these scriptures.
We've been given all of these things to see. And he said, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, we speak that we know, and testify that we
have seen, and ye receive not our witness. The only thing a
man can tell is what he knows. If he has not seen Christ, he
can't tell about Christ. He can't tell what Christ has
done for the believer, for the sinner. He can't tell it. He doesn't know. He hasn't seen
himself a sinner. He can't tell that God's in control,
that salvation's of the Lord. He can say it with his mouth,
but other words will let it out that he doesn't know that. Christ
is in control. But once the Lord reveals it
to us, we can tell it. He has his men stand in little
congregations all over declaring his word, declaring Christ and
him crucified. We're blessed to have one of
those men preaching for us. And he said, no man in verse
13 he said no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came
down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven he
just told him here as the Christ as the son of God he had sat
on the throne before he came down and he can go back up that's
exactly what he's saying there he's No man hath ascended up to heaven,
no man has done that, but Christ has. And all that are in Christ
will ascend with him, will stand one day in glory with him. And
Nicodemus here, that's thinking, Nicodemus, he was a master, he
had the Old Testament. The Lord had not revealed himself
to him prior to him talking with him here, bringing him to talk
with him. But Nicodemus had the law. He had Genesis 3, Christ
the woman saved. He had not seen the fall of Adam,
that Adam died spiritually. He died spiritually. He couldn't
see until the Lord opened his eyes. No man can. He had Genesis 6, Christ is the
ark that he had Noah put in. Noah was put, shut away in the
ark by Christ. He had those scriptures. He didn't
see Christ in the ark. It was just a story of a flood
and the destruction of mankind. He had Christ is the ram as a
substitute in Genesis 22. Abraham was told to take his
son, which is the same thing that God did, took his son to
put him on the cross. But Isaac didn't have to die.
A ram died in his place. Christ died in our stead. For
all his people, he died on that cross a horrible death. Exodus 12, Christ is the Passover
lamb. God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over. That is, he was the Passover
lamb. It even said that was the Lord's
Passover. And by the time that Christ came
to this earth, it was the Jews' Passover. They had missed Christ. Missed Christ. Joshua 2, Christ
was the scarlet line. Rahab was looking, had put out
that scarlet line. That was her hope of being saved
when Jericho fell. Christ was that scarlet line.
In Ruth, Christ was the kinsman redeemer. Until a person is born again
by Christ's blood and righteousness, we cannot see the things we are
blinded by sin. We are blinded by sin. We can't
see. And once he opens our eyes in
this world, in this life, we'll see through a glass dimly, but
he will show us some things. He'll show some more than others,
but he will show us Christ in all things. He will teach us
in all things. And if he makes us, if he puts
life in us and makes us alive, I want to read Ephesians 2. a
portion of that in closing. This is what the Lord does for
us. Shows us what we are. First thing He does is He shows
us what we are. If He doesn't do that, we won't
see our need of Him. But He says in verse 1, He said,
And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
We were dead in trespasses and sin. He'd give us life. I love to talk to a pastor about
this, the he haths. I love those in the scripture.
He hath done this and he hath done that. But he saved us while
we were in time past. We walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." Every one of God's people that he saved fits this description. And then verse four, but God,
who is rich in mercy for his great love were with, he loved
us. That's hard to fathom that he
could love us. with a great love to save us. Even when we were
dead in sins, He had quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. And He hath raised us up together
and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
All of His chosen will be with Him in glory. One day Sooner
rather than later, we'll be with our Lord and Savior. We'll be
looking to Him, singing to Him, singing His praises. That's all
we can do is sing His praises. That in the ages to come, He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. He's going to show us His exceeding
riches of grace. His exceeding kindness to us
because of Christ. It's all for Christ's sake. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Are you born again? If you are,
you're his workmanship. Nothing to do with yourself.
You're his workmanship. To be born again. That's what
everyone says and strives for. But the only way to be born again
is to be born of the water and of the spirit. We have to be
born again by what Christ has done. Christ has done it all.
There's nothing left. All we need to do is enter into
his rest. Enter into his rest. If you would
stand with me.