chapter 3. Let's look at John chapter 3. address as our subject this evening,
knowing heavenly things. God help us to know heavenly
things. We know earthly things. We certainly are attached to
carnal things, but those don't benefit us before the Lord. We want to have a knowledge of
heavenly things. Ask God to give us that knowledge.
Ask God to give us that understanding. We've been looking at this portion
of scripture about Nicodemus and I was in preparation for
this message, I was thinking here is a self-righteous This is a man who looks to his
own obedience for his acceptance with God. A man who sought to
live by the law, at least according to his understanding of the law. And he thought he was okay. And though He believed this way,
our Lord Jesus was such an approachable Savior that even this self-righteous
man could walk up to Him and begin to speak with Him. We know
from Luke chapter 15 that One of the things that really
irritated the Pharisees, the self-righteous, was that our
Lord Jesus, He was approachable, and He would receive publicans
and sinners. And I would draw this sort of
conclusion from all of these things, the fact that he allowed
Nicodemus, he really wasn't allowing, he was drawing Nicodemus to ask
him some things. And he received him. This man has an audience with
the king. He is the king of glory. He's the lord. He's the maker. He's the creator. This is absolutely the sovereign
of the universe. And this man, Nicodemus, who's
filled with self-righteousness, our Lord receives him and he
has a conversation with him. He receives sinners. He receives
publicans. He never turned anybody away.
And I would say to all of you and to me again, everybody who's
watching, oh, come to the Lord Jesus. You will find in Him a
reception if there is within you, by God's grace, a desire
to know God's truth. And I would even go further and
say, you come to the Lord Jesus for whatever reason. Because
He is a mighty Savior. And He does receive the lost.
And we are living evidences of the fact that He receives the
lost, aren't we? That He receives sinners. And
you know, when we first approached the Lord by His Spirit, and I
know Nicodemus came to Him physically, but when we began to get a little
interested in the things of God, in heavenly things, We didn't
have the answers. We didn't even know what questions
to ask. And yet the Lord didn't turn
us away. He didn't reject us. And there is within us Everything
that is objectionable. I mean, there's nothing within
us to cause the Savior to be attracted toward us or for Him
to receive us. What have we done? What are we?
Are we not rebels before God? Did we not in Adam lift up our
hands in rebellion against the Lord? Are we not filled with
sin and depravity and wickedness? And yet the Savior bids us come
to Him. And I say you, come to the Savior
this evening. Just as you are. I realized that
song by Charlotte Elliott. It has been through the mill. It's been wore out in so-called
evangelical circles. But this is the way you come,
just as I am. That's how you come. That's how
I come, just as I am. Without one plea. I have nothing
to offer Him. There's no way I can benefit
Him. I can't give him anything. He owns everything. And I know
people say, well, give him your heart. What's he going to do
with it? It's vile. Your heart is wicked. Your heart is so calloused toward
the things of the Lord. He doesn't even want your heart.
You know what he does? He gives us a new heart. He gives
us a heart of faith to believe Him. So, at the very outset,
I say, come to the Savior. You come to the Lord of glory. And it is absolutely amazing
that He, by His grace, by His mercy, He receives us, though
we are, in fact, miserable, wretched sinners. He receives it. So don't let your sinfulness
keep you away. I tell you, with most people,
it's their self-righteousness that keeps them away. It's not
their sin. It's not their sin. Here we have
in this Scripture a man by the name of Nicodemus. He's a very
religious man, but our Lord has informed him of this necessity. He must be born Again, you must
be born from above. And our Lord sets before him
the necessity of this work of the Spirit. In verse 8, it's
a sovereign work of the Spirit. This is the mighty wind of God. This is the breath of God, the
Spirit. He says, the wind bloweth where
it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but you can't tell where it's coming from, or whence it cometh,
and whither it goes. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit." Nicodemus, you must be born of the Spirit, of the
Spirit. You've been born of the flesh,
but that which is of the flesh is flesh. It will never be any
more than flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. And then he likened the wind
or likened the Spirit to being the wind. And then Nicodemus
says this in verse 9, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How
can these things be? Or if you want to read that out
of the Amplified Version, the Amplified Version reads this,
How can all of this be possible? I know the natural man has an
understanding of many, many things in the world. No question about
that. And through study, by himself, he can comprehend and receive
much knowledge about secular things. But the natural man doesn't
have any understanding of spiritual matters. Not until He's born
again. We will never know heavenly things. And our Lord in this context,
He's speaking to Nicodemus about heavenly things. We know earthly
things. We know carnal things. We know
temporal things. What we don't know is heavenly
things. And the only way we will ever
know about heavenly things, and the only way Nicodemus would
ever know about heavenly things, is for somebody who is from heaven
to teach him. That's what we need too. We read
in 1 Corinthians, "...but the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither
indeed can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Note again what the Savior said. Let me drop down to verse number
10. "...Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou the master
of Israel? Art thou a master, or literally
the master teacher, the doctor, the main teacher of all of Israel? Art thou the master of Israel?
And knowest not these things? Let me read the Amplified again. The Amplified, it will benefit
you, but you have to be careful. But the Amplified reads this
way, Jesus replied, Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet do
not know nor understand these things? Are they strange to you? That's interesting because that's
part of the meaning of the end of this verse. Are they strange
to you? You see, the things of God, spiritual
things, election, unto salvation, redemption by the blood, justification
by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation
altogether by grace. These sayings are absolutely
strange to the natural man. And they are confusing to him
in his natural thinking. But even though he gets confused,
we still must continue to speak of heavenly things, knowing that
the only one who can give an understanding of heavenly things
is the Lord God who's in heaven. Nicodemus might be the master
teacher in Israel, but he's altogether ignorant of heavenly things. I had Brother Joe read, to begin
with, this evening, a passage out of Proverbs chapter 4. And I'm not going to ask you
to go back to that, but I'm going to re-read one of the verses
he read, Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 19. The way of the wicked
is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble,
and who are the wicked? The way of the wicked is as darkened. Who are the wicked? Well, the
word wicked in that context means guilty. The way of the guilty,
the way of those who are absolutely hostile toward God. He's talking
about the ungodly. You know, in Romans chapter 8,
It says that the natural mind or the carnal mind is enmity
against God. There is hostility against God
in the carnal mind for it is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can it be. And like Nicodemus, every man
is guilty of sin and has enmity against God. We are all naturally
hostile against God. Every man in his natural state
hates the God of the Bible. And I realize that is a strong
statement, but it's absolutely the truth. We love the idea of
God being a great giver in the sky who gives and gives and gives,
and indeed He is a giver. But the natural man, while he
will receive God and believe God and bless God when God gives,
it's when God rules, when God takes the reins and controls
and dominates everything, When the natural man hears that God's
government extends over all of the earth, over all the people
of the earth, over all of the events of the earth, when the
natural man hears of that God, he says, no God for me. I don't
want that God. The natural man hates that God. And this is what the natural
man does. He stumbles over heavenly truths. He stumbles over heavenly truths. Listen to that verse again. The
way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. You see, when the natural man
hears of the things of God, the things of the Kingdom of God,
just like Nicodemus, he heard from the lips of our Savior about
heavenly things, about spiritual things. You know what he did?
He stumbled. He stumbled. And that's not surprising
because our Lord Jesus is set forth as the rock, but He's also called the stumbling
stone because people stumble over Him. They stumble over Him. In fact, 1 Peter chapter 2, He's
called a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense, even to them
which stumble at the Word, being disobedient whereunto also they
were appointed. Our Lord Jesus is the rock of
ages. He's the rock that was smitten,
and out from Him comes the water of life. He is the rock upon
which God is building His church. He's the rock that's firm. He's
the rock that's immovable. He is therefore the safe foundation
and the only foundation upon which to build all of our hopes
of salvation. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. What are you building on? Your
hopes of heaven. You hope to go to heaven. You
anticipate going to glory someday. Upon what do you build your hope? And if you build upon anything
less than Jesus Christ and His blood and His righteousness,
in reality, you're building on the sand. And one of these days, it's all
going to come crashing down. He's the rock. He's the rock
which provides a refreshing shadow for weary travelers in this world. The son of God's judgment. The
vengeance of the Lord shines down. There's only one place
of safety. You must hide in Him who is the
great rock. That's where you find shelter
from the storm. The Lord's our rock. In Him we
hide. A shelter in the time of storm. He's the rock smitten sinners. Over in John chapter 7 we read
that on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the 8th day,
the great day of the Feast, our Lord stood and cried saying,
now you got to remember on the 8th day of the Feast, In a very
ceremonial way, the high priest took water and he poured that
water out. That symbolized this is the end
of the ceremony. It also symbolized the water
that flowed from the rock. From the rock that Moses smoked
with the rod of God. And the water came out, and that
water followed them through their wilderness journeys. And when
the high priest did that, when he poured out the water on that
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Living water. He's the one who is smitten for
us. The waters of salvation flow from Him. Therefore, with joy
shall we draw water from the well of salvation. Come and drink. Come and drink. He's the rock
that was smitten. But this is what happens. Men
stumble over Him. They stumble over Him. Go with
me over to 1 Corinthians. chapter 2 or chapter 1. The book
of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. He's a rock smitten for sinners
by the vengeance of God when the sins of all of God's elect
were charged to the substitute. But here's what happened to Nicodemus,
and here's what happened to the Jews, and here's what happens
to every individual by nature We stumble over the rock. We
stumble over the rock. The very rock that is the only
Savior. The only rock that can help us.
The only rock that can hold us up. When the rest of the world
sinks and goes to hell, only those who are on the rock are
going to stand. But we stumble over Him. Look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 verse 23. But we preach Christ crucified, under the Jews a stumbling block,
and under the Greeks foolishness. But under them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, oh, this is Christ the power of God and
the wisdom of God. A natural man stumbles over the
rock. When it came to our Lord Jesus,
people stumbled over His birth, stumbled over His origin. They said of Him, can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? They said to Him, art Thou also
of Galilee? They said, search and look, for
out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. They stumbled over His family.
They said in John 6, 42, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He said,
I came down from heaven? They stumbled over His lowliness.
They stumbled over His lack of approved education from them. They stumbled over all of His
claims of deity. They stumbled over His miracles.
And they said, well, you do these miracles, but it's by the power
of Beelzebub. They stumbled over His words.
His words offended them. And He said, My words are life.
But they stumbled over His words. They stumbled over the disciples
that He chose. They stumbled over His kingdom,
which was not an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom. And
they especially stumbled over His sufferings and death, because
the Messiah that they had been anticipating wouldn't suffer
and die, He would make others suffer and die. They stumbled
over Him all along the way. Now, why did they stumble at
the Christ of God? Why did they stumble over the
rock? Why did Nicodemus stumble over
Him here in John chapter 3? Well, that passage in Proverbs
4 tells us it's because man's in the dark. Man's in the dark. Did you ever get up at night?
I do this every once in a while. I get up at night to go to the
bathroom. Well, I know the way. But I forgot, left my shoes kind
of in the pathway, stumble over them, maybe stub my toe on the
end corner of the bed. We stumble. That's what happens
to people when they walk in the dark. You stumble. What's the
problem with Nicodemus? What is his real problem? He's in the dark. You see, people
who are in the light, when God turns the light on, oh blessed
day, when God causes the light of the gospel to shine, things
are illuminated, you don't stumble then. You're not going to stumble
over the rock when God shines the light on him and he shows
you who the rock is. You'll run to the rock. You'll
be thankful for the rock. You'll embrace the rock. You'll
bow to the rock. You'll kiss the rock. You'll
believe the rock. You'll lean on the rock. But
you won't if you're in the dark because you don't even know he's
out there. That's our problem. And here our Lord's talking to
Nicodemus about heavenly things. These are heavenly things. And
he's just stumbling along. You can just see he just keeps
on falling on his face. What's his problem? He's in the
dark. He's in the dark. and your friends
and your relatives, those people that you love and you care about,
and you try to talk to them about the things of God, and you say,
you know, I believe salvation is by grace. And it's only in
Christ Jesus. You know, He's the way to God.
And they'll say, well, yeah, I know, but... Then they stumble over the very
gospel that is the good news of salvation. Why do they stumble? in the dark. So don't get mad at folks. Don't
get upset with them. I don't know why you don't believe.
I just don't know why so and so doesn't embrace this. I mean,
it's so clear in the Bible. What's the matter with you? Well,
they don't know what's the matter with them, but I can tell you
what's the matter with them. The same thing that was the matter
with you before the lights came on, they're in the dark. People
who are in the dark stumble over the rock. And here's what we ask God to
do. Turn the lights on. Turn the lights on. I got to where now I use my cell
phone And my grandchildren have told me that there's actually
a flashlight on my cell phone. If I have a question, that's
who I ask. And I can turn that on and, boy,
hey, yeah, I'll watch those shoes right there. I'll watch the corner,
that bed post right there. I won't stump my toe on that.
Oh, it's amazing what the light will do. And when God shines
the light, When He illuminates, then you see. And that's the
reason we can't fuss at people. We tell people the truth. That's
all we can do. I'm just a reporter telling people
the truth. But you won't believe the report
and it won't be good news to you until God turns the light
on in your heart. And when the light comes on,
you'll say, oh, I get it now. I see Him. I see Christ now. I see the beauties of the Son
of God. We're so dependent upon the Lord,
aren't we? See, we'll never receive heavenly
things. Knowing heavenly things, how
can we know heavenly things? He who is from heaven must teach
us. He's got to show us. They stumbled
because they were in the dark. Look again at verse number 10
here in John 3. Art thou a master of Israel,
and knowest not these things? Nicodemus, are you the teacher
in Israel, and you still have need of being instructed? Here's
a man with a reputation of being the greatest teacher of religion
in all of Israel, and yet he needs himself to be instructed. And he's not by himself. I tell
you, there are a lot today, there are a lot of religious teachers
today, so-called experts in religion, they're absolutely ignorant about
the gospel of God's grace. And they'll remain so. And you'd
still be ignorant, and I'd still be ignorant, if it weren't for
the fact that God has revealed the truth to us. He quickens
whom He will. Now look at verse 11. He says,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and
testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. Verily,
verily, truly, truly, of a truth, of a truth, or amen, amen. Thus
saith the Lord. We speak that we do know and
testify that we have seen you receive not our witness. Now
note the Master's use of the word we. There's that pronoun
we. We speak, we do know, we have
seen. Or we've seen. Why does our Lord
use the pronoun we? Who is He talking about when
He says we? Well, I think it's going to be
understood in one of two ways. First of all, He speaks as the
spokesman for the Trinity. For the Father and for the Spirit.
The we are the Trinity. Father, Son, and Spirit. So the
Father is speaking, the Son is speaking, and the Spirit speaks.
The Father knows, and the Son knows, and the Spirit knows.
The Father has seen, the Son has seen, and the Holy Spirit
has seen. The triune God speaks, through
the Son of God. And here's the question, who
can understand what God says? Who is it that will receive?
That will receive what the Lord says? Well, go to John chapter
6. John chapter 6. I'll show you
who will receive what the Lord says. Here's Christ Jesus as
the spokesman, as the spokesperson for the Trinity. Well, who's
going to understand what the spokesman has to say? What the
Father is saying? What the Son is saying? What
the Spirit is saying? Look at John chapter 6 and verse
44. No man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me drawing. John 6, verse 44. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all
be taught of God. All of those who are ordained
to eternal life, all of the elect, all of those for whom the Lord
Jesus came to suffer, bleed, and die, they shall all be taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me." These
all shall be taught of God. They shall be taught of God by
the Spirit to know themselves. They shall be instructed they
should be taught of the Lord to know who God is. They should
be taught of the Lord to know who Jesus Christ is. They will
all sooner or later in a special manner, in a special manner be
taught of God. This instruction, this teaching
is more than external teaching. It's more than receiving external
instructions from a preacher, although that's necessary. This is a special teaching, a
teaching that is attended with divine energy. I can't make you learn heavenly
things. I can't do that. Oh, you can
get a head knowledge, you can memorize some facts. But to have
it taught to you in your soul, in your heart, to where you can
comprehend to some degree the gospel. You can understand how
God can be just and justify the ungodly through the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be no real comprehension
nor reception of the gospel except God teach you. You can't get heavenly things
without being taught from heaven. You know, when our Lord, go back
over here to John 3, when our Lord spoke to Nicodemus about
the necessity of the new birth? Well, that was just foolishness
to this ruler of the Jews, and we know it was foolishness unto
him by his responses. The Savior said, you must be
born again. He said, how can a man be born again when he's
old? Well, can he enter in a second time in his mother's womb and
be born? Smart aleck. He's just making wise cracks. What's his problem? He's in the
dark. He's in the dark. He's ignorant. He's blind. Heavenly
things, he has no comprehension of them. He's a religious teacher. He's an expert. He's a preacher
of the preachers, he's a professor of the religious leaders, but
he has no understanding of spiritual things whatsoever. No knowledge
of heavenly things. In fact, our Lord says this,
look here in John chapter 3, look at verse 12. If I have told
you earthly things, I've used an earthly illustration about
the new birth. You must be born again. If I've
told you earthly things and you don't believe them, how shall
you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? If I go into
the gospel now, if I go into the depths of the eternal purposes
of God, how are you going to receive those things when you
can't receive what I've told you already? He's saying, if I've condescended
to the level of your weak capacities, for the purpose of setting before
you the things of the Kingdom of God by way of illustrations
and by way of figures of an earthly nature. And you don't understand
me? Well, how can you understand or how could you ever believe
if I said before you divine truth in its purity? It would be an
impossibility. Notice what the Savior says. In verse 12, how shall you believe? How shall you believe? And there's
only one way a man can believe. How shall you believe? Listen,
I call on you, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but the question
keeps coming back, how shall you believe? You say to your neighbor, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the question is still there,
how can they believe? What's got to be done? Is it
just a decision that the sinner's got to make? How shall you believe? How does anybody believe? Well, the Savior has stressed
over and over again, you must be born again. You must be born
again. That's how you believe. You're
brought to believe. So, the we I believe, first of
all, is a reference to the Savior. He speaks as the representative
of the Trinity. Secondly, the we that the Savior
spoke of, this group of whom He's a representative, I believe
He speaks on behalf of those who believed Him. He spoke on
behalf of His people. We speak, there's some people
behind him who did believe. And he speaks as their spokesman.
We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and
you receive not our witness. We speak, we know, we've seen. We speak, we know, we've seen.
We have. He speaks for all of His people. Aren't you glad you have a spokesman?
This is what kind of got a hold to me today. We speak. But these aren't saying anything.
But He says, we speak. We know. We've seen. Our representative, the representative
of His people. He's been speaking for us ever
since the covenant of grace. He's always been the spokesman
of His people. And He's still speaking up for
His people. You see, Nicodemus, go back to
verse 2. Here's Nicodemus speaking as
the representative of His people. In verse 2, the same came to
Jesus by night and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know. We. Me and the people that are with
me and I'm their spokesman. We know. And the Savior says
in verse 11, we speak, we know. Nicodemus didn't know anything.
But the Savior and those to whom he had revealed himself, they
have a knowledge of God. They have a knowledge of heavenly
things. Just like Christ, or just like
Nicodemus was the spokesman for his group, Christ was the spokesman
of his group. I tell you, to me this is absolutely
thrilling. That he associates himself with
us and that he speaks for us. Listen, He speaks to God for
us this evening. I mean, right now. He's the spokesman. And get this, He's God's spokesman
to us. And He's our spokesman to God. That's why the Apostle Paul says
there's one God and one Mediator. Between God and men. The man
Christ Jesus. When we offer our prayers to
God, it's in His name. It's in His name. And when our
prayers are received by God, it's not because of the purity
of our prayers or the quality of our prayers, because we know
we pray selfish prayers and there's much sin in our prayers. But
guess what? Could I put it this way? He takes
our prayers and dips them in His blood, washes them in His
blood, robes them in His righteousness, puts the fragrance of His own
beauties upon it, the fragrance of His substitutionary work,
and He speaks to the Father and presents it to the Father, and
we are received by God, and our worship is received by God. He's
our spokesman. And you know what? He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. He's not ashamed to identify
with us. That's what he told John chapter
20. Look at John chapter 20. Look at verse 17. Look what He said to Mary. Jesus
saith unto her. John 20 verse 17. He said, touch me not. That means
stop holding on to me. Stop clinging to me. It doesn't
mean don't put your finger on me. Don't do that. It means you
stop embracing. She's embraced. She just wants
to hug Him and not let go. He said, touch me not. Stop touching
me. Stop clinging to me. For I'm
not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, go to
my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your
Father, and to my God and your God. Go to my brethren. Go to
my brethren. And in Hebrews chapter 2, it
says, He's not ashamed to call us brethren. You know, sometimes
we may be ashamed to associate with some of our brethren for
whatever reason. You know, maybe they've offended
us or said something to us or their personality rubs us the
wrong way or for whatever reason. Well, I'm not even going to associate
with them. I'm ashamed to even be seen in public with them.
The Savior is not ashamed of us. Oh, my goodness. Doesn't that just melt your heart?
He's not ashamed to call us brethren. He's our elder brother. He's
a brother born for adversity. He's a brother that sticks close,
close, close to us. He said, I'm not ashamed of you.
I'm not ashamed of you. But Lord, all that I've done,
all that I've thought, All that I've said. I'm not ashamed of
you. I washed your sins away. You
don't have any sins. But Lord, I see them and I feel
them and I agonize over them. He says your sins which are many,
I say they're gone. They're forgiven. I tell you,
I wish we had learned to enjoy the forgiveness of God. Instead
of whipping ourselves on the back all the time. I know there's
a conviction of the Spirit. He shows that we're sinners.
But the Spirit of God always pours in the oil and the wine
of the Gospel. And we say, bless the name of
God, I'm forgiven. I know I'm a scoundrel, and I
know I'm wicked, and there may be some people who are ashamed
to be associated with me, but my Savior is not ashamed to be
associated with me. Ain't that good news? That's
good news. The Savior says, we, we, we, these that I represent, we
speak, we know, we see. He's our representative. Thank
God we got a spokesman. We got somebody that speaks for
us. Boy, with a spokesman like this, you just seal your lips
and open your ears and say, oh Lord, I'm thankful you speak
up for me. You speak before the throne of
God on my account. I bless your name. We can't know
heavenly things unless He who is from heaven gives us light. Shows us the way. Oh God, show
us the way. Show us the way. Alright, let's
sing.