Well, as Brother Jim said there,
I am in a series of messages coming from John chapter 3. So
if you want to turn to that, follow along with me. I'll be
reading a lot of verses out of John here, but we're talking
about the new birth. That's what John 3 right here
in the first 21 verses is all about. The new birth, regeneration. He's talking to a man named Nicodemus,
a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, a well-known man and respected
man in his community, and he's told him some things. He said,
before a sinner can see or enter into the kingdom of God, he must
be born again. And before a sinner can be born
again, the Son of Man must be lifted up. These are things that
I've told you before. And look at John 3 and verse
14, and I'll show you that verse that we're going to start with
here today. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Now, I told you when I started
studying this passage of Scripture that two questions came to my
mind. How must Christ be lifted up? And why must Christ be lifted
up? Well, the last message we looked
at how Christ must be lifted up, and it says as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness. So we looked at that incident
back in Numbers chapter 21 in verses 4 through 9. We saw this
incident. Moses lifted up that serpent
as God's remedy. The only remedy for those Israelites
who were facing certain death because God had sent fiery serpents
among them. And he lifted it up as the only
one, the only remedy for that that death they were facing,
and also as the only source of life. If a serpent had bitten
a man, when he looked at that brazen serpent, he didn't die
the death he was certain to die, but he lived instead. These Israelites
tempted Christ, and they deserved death. But by that serpent of
brass, they were delivered from death, and they were given life.
And we learn from that that that's a picture of Christ. You know,
everything in the Word is a picture of Christ. It's talking about
Christ from Genesis to Revelation. So when we study the Old Testament,
we have to see it in light of how does it apply to the person,
the work, the offices of Christ and what he accomplished for
those he was given. So we saw it as Christ the God-man
who must be lifted up as God's only remedy for those facing
the eternal wrath of God. See, that's what we're all facing
by nature. We all deserve the eternal wrath
of God, every one of us, no exception. So how are we delivered from
that? Well, we saw in that picture
a picture of Christ. He's the one who delivers from
eternal death, and he's the one who gives eternal life. Now that
story in Numbers is what must precede the work of the Spirit
in regeneration. Christ must be lifted up in truth. Christ lifted up, how he must
be lifted up, that's what that's all about. But today we're going
to turn our attention to that other question I want to ask
and answer. Why must Christ be lifted up? And we see the general
answer to that question right here in verse 15, John 3, 15,
it says, Christ must be lifted up that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish but have eternal life. So that's the general
answer. He's got to be lifted up in order
that those who look to Him and Him alone will not perish but
have eternal life. In other words, Christ is the
difference between a sinner remaining under the eternal wrath of God
and perishing and being delivered from perishing, being given eternal
life. Christ is the reason sinners
don't perish, and Christ is the reason that sinners are given
eternal life. The one whom sinners are commanded
to believe in, that one, is the difference between a sinner perishing
and a sinner living eternally. If any son or daughter of Adam,
no exceptions, if any son or daughter of Adam does not perish,
it will be because Christ delivered them from perishing. And if any
one of us has eternal life, it'll be because Christ gave us that
life. The title is, Why Must Christ
Be Lifted Up? Let's consider some reasons here.
I think I have four reasons why Christ must be lifted up. First,
Christ must be lifted up because the scriptures are abundantly
clear that those believing in Him, and only those believing
in Him, not those believing in a counterfeit, but those believing
in the Christ that's lifted up in the gospel, will be saved. Only those. When Christ sent
his disciples out to preach right after his resurrection and before
his ascension to the Father, he said, go into all the world
and preach the gospel. That's the gospel of Christ to
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
will be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. And then listen to John. You
can look at it. You're right there in John 3 in verse 36. 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 abides on him. So the first
reason Christ must be lifted up, because only those believing
in him have life. Only those are saved. All right,
the next reason. It's because the scriptures are
equally clear that believing in Him is God's work. Now, men
by nature, you and I included, before God brought us to the
gospel, we think it's man's work. We think we need to do something. We think man can do something
to deliver himself from perishing or to give himself eternal life.
But it's God's work. Listen to John 6 and verse 28. Now Christ is talking to those
people that have followed him after he fed the 5,000 with barley
loaves and a few fishes. They said unto him, what shall
we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe
on him whom God has sent. That's not the work of man. See,
if you believe on the Christ of the scriptures, it's because
God has enabled you to do so. God says believing on him is
a miracle of God. Listen to John 1 in verse 11. Christ came unto his own and
his own received him not, but as many as received him to them.
gave He power, the right, the privilege to become, to become
known as the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name,
which were born, not of blood, not of heritage or pedigree,
not of the will of the flesh, not by the works of man, nor
the will of man, not by man's will, but were born of God. The second reason Christ must
be lifted up is because believing in Him, in Christ, in the true
Christ of this Word, it's God's work. Third, Christ must be lifted
up in order that sinners can know and understand who the scriptures
command us to believe in. Before that, before Christ is
lifted up, none of us knows who to believe in. We have to be
brought to the gospel to see the Christ that God lifted up
on the cross and in the resurrection to know who to believe in. Listen
to Romans 10 in verse 11. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in him of whom they haven't heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? Until we hear of Christ, in other
words, until he's lifted up in the gospel, we don't know who
to believe in. We believe in a Savior. We believe
in a God before them. But we don't know who God says
we're to believe in and not perish but have eternal life. Before
any sinner can or will believe in Christ, we must be taught
of God. Listen to John 6 in verse 44.
Now this is a pretty emphatic statement right here. It says,
no man, no man can come unto me except the Father which hath
sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
None of us by nature has within us the ability, that's what that
word means there, that no man can come. We don't have the ability
to come to the Christ of this word. And like Bill said in his
message this morning, if God gathered all the people of the
earth together and said, okay, come unto me, all of you who
want to believe in me and me alone, nobody would come. None of us, by nature, has the
ability to come. Listen to John 6.46. We have
to be taught of God before we come to the Christ of the Scriptures.
John 6.45 said, it is written in the prophets, and they shall
be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father comes to me. Only those
sinners taught of God, only those sinners that have learned of
the Father come to the one He sent. Now how does the Father
teach us? How does the Father draw sinners to Him? Well, He
does it by the Gospel. He does it by the good news that
I read about back there in Romans 10. Christ must be lifted up
in order that those believing in him should not perish but
have eternal life. Now, I'm emphasizing here that
any sinner who would count themselves saved, any sinner who would count
themselves going to heaven, the only way you can give evidence
of that is to believe in him whom God has sent. Christ has already been lifted
up on the cross and in the resurrection. Over 2,000 years ago that event
took place. But what we're talking about
here is Christ must be lifted up in the gospel, in the message. Brother Jim preached on this
a couple of weeks ago. What is the gospel? It's the
message we have to hear in order for God to deliver us from perishing,
show us who Christ is and what he's done to deliver sinners
from perishing and to give eternal life. Believing in Christ requires
hearing the gospel. Hearing God's gospel is the most
urgent need of a fallen son or daughter of Adam. Now, we have
a lot of needs in this world, but if we're going to be saved,
if we're going to be blessed of God, if we're going to know
that we're blessed of God, we've got to hear God's gospel. The
Bible paints a pretty grim picture of the fallen sons and daughters
of Adam, which we all are by nature. Now, we've looked at
that picture a lot of times in previous messages, and I just
want to summarize it in a paragraph here from three different contexts. It says in Ephesians 2, verses
1 through 3, that we're spiritually dead, that we're in league with
Satan, and by nature, we are the children of wrath. It says
in Romans 3, 10 through 18, that we're not righteous. We're not
seeking the God of the Bible. We have no reverence for the
God of the Bible, a just God and Savior. And it says in John
8, 31 through 36, that we're in a bondage we don't even realize
we're in. We're slaves to a sin we don't
recognize and in need of a liberation that we're clueless to be in
need of. Now, like I said, that's a pretty
grim picture of fallen man. And it doesn't change. It can't
change until God brings a sinner under the sound of his gospel.
The gospel is God's means to change that picture. It's God's
means to change our thinking. It's God's means to teach us
and to bring us to Christ. Listen to Romans 1, 16. It says,
Paul writes here, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that
believe it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel
of Christ. God's gospel, the only true gospel,
is the power of God and the salvation. Now what does that mean? It means
that that gospel is the means God uses to deliver his sinners
from death to life, from darkness to light, from bondage to liberty,
from no fear of God to a reverence and respect for the God of the
Bible, a just God and a Savior. Now why is the gospel the only
means? Why is it the only message God uses to save sinners? Go
on in Romans 1 to 17, and it says, The gospel is the only
means because of what it reveals. It reveals the righteousness
of God. And what is the righteousness of God? The righteousness of God is stated
in many ways, and every gospel message tells you what the righteousness
of God is, whether it goes into detail or whether it doesn't.
But stated in a statement, the righteousness of God is what
Christ, who he is, and what he's done to enable God to be merciful
to sinners like we all are born by nature. What Christ has done
is the righteousness of God. The reason sinners don't perish, Christ is that reason. And Christ
is the reason that sinners are given eternal life. Why is He
the reason? Why is Christ the reason? Who
is Christ and what has he done to deliver sinners from perishing?
Who is Christ and what has he done to give sinners eternal
life? Now, for the remainder of this
message, I want to talk about the righteousness of God, and
I want to answer those two questions along with this question. What
does it mean to perish? Nobody talks about perishing.
Nobody ever perishes as far as I can see. I mean, you just never
hear of anybody perishing. What is this that Christ keeps
sinners from? To perish is to end up as a final
judgment under the eternal wrath of God. It's to end up finally
and fully charged with the legal guilt of sin. It's to end up
as a final judgment liable to the just punishment that we all
deserve and none can pay. It's to arrive at the final judgment
void of a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. To perish in the scriptures is
to experience what the scriptures call the second death. Listen
to Revelation 21 in verse 8. He says, but the fearful and
unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death. And listen to Revelation 2.11,
it says, Well, Revelation 12.10 tells us, And I heard a loud voice in heaven
saying, Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom
of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our
brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God.
day and night. That's who must be overcome,
the accuser of the brethren. And how do sinners overcome him? And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and
they loved not their lives under death. They overcame him by Christ,
by who he is and by what he did, by the righteousness he established
in that alone. You've heard this statement made
before. We all have a life to live, a death to die, a judgment
to face, and an eternity to spend. The second death concerns that
eternity we'll spend. We will all spend eternity either
in the bliss of heaven, in Christ, there based on his righteousness
imputed, or we'll spend an eternity under the eternal wrath of God. That's called the second death. We have a well-known passage
of scripture that speaks of sinners being sent into that second death.
Look with me or listen, if you will, to Matthew chapter 7 and
verse 21. Christ says here, not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, now that day he's
talking about is the day of final judgment here. Many will say,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name
have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works. And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. That centers at the final judgment.
being ushered into that second death because they rejected Christ. They came pleading their works
at the judgment. They didn't come pleading the
work of Christ alone. They didn't come pleading his
imputed righteousness alone. They pleaded their works and
they were sent into that second death. So what does it mean to
perish? It means to go through life and
end up at the final judgment not believing in him whom God
has sent. It means to go through life and
end up at the final judgment, void of a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice. And therefore,
it means to suffer the eternal wrath that God's justice demands
of every soul that sins. Now that brings us to the next
question. That question was, what is it
to perish? Well, it's to suffer the eternal
wrath of God. This is the next question. Who
is Christ and what has he done to deliver sinners from perish?
Well, who is Christ? Christ is God in human flesh. He's infinite deity and true
humanity and one unique person. Listen to John 1 in verse 1,
or you're right there, you can look at it if you want to. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. So you have a distinction of
person in the Godhead there. The Word was with God. That's
the second person of the triune Godhead. That's the Son of God. And the Word was God. And then
on down in verse 14, it says, And that Word, the eternal Word,
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. The incarnation of Christ is
spoken of throughout the scriptures. Isaiah 9 says, Unto us a child
is born, and a son is given. A child born, but a son not born,
but given. That's Christ's humanity and
his deity. And Romans 1 says, He was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared to
be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the
dead. So Christ's incarnation is spoken of throughout the scriptures.
Knowing who Christ is, knowing that he is God and man in one
person is not just additional information. It's not just something
that we can take lightly. Listen to a discourse that Christ
had in his generation with the Pharisees of his day. In Matthew
22 in verse 42, he said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son
is he? They say to him, the son of David.
He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him
Lord, saying, Thee, Lord, said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my
right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David
called him Lord, how is he David's son? In other words, how can
he be David's Lord and David's son? How can he be both? And
they couldn't answer. They didn't know, which means
they didn't know the Christ of the Scriptures. They didn't know
the Christ that God lifted up on the cross and in the resurrection
and the one he lifts up in the gospel. Knowing who Christ is
is vital to our understanding of the work that Christ finished
on the cross and what that work accomplished for those he was
given. Until you understand Christ to be the God-man, God and man
in one person, Jesus, who will save us, and Emmanuel, who's
God with us. Until you know him that way,
you are attributing a work to him that only the God-man could
accomplish. If he's not God, he can't overcome
eternal death. If he's not God and man in one
person, I mean, he can't overcome eternal death. Nor can he bring
in a righteousness that ensures and demands eternal life. If
he's not man, how could he die? God can't die, but the person
who is God did die. It has to be attributed to his
humanity. If he's not God in human flesh,
how could he have finished the work that the Father said he
came to finish, and he said on the cross that he did finish,
and which his resurrection testifies that he finished? Only the God-man
can deliver sinners from perishing. Only the God-man can give sinners
eternal life. You don't have in mind the one
God sent. You don't have in mind the object
of true God-given faith until you're believing on that one
who is God and man in one person. Great is the mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. Now let's look at the second
part of that question. What has Christ, the God-man, done to
deliver sinners from perishing? Well, every son and daughter
of Adam deserves the eternal wrath of God. All, without exception,
deserve to perish. Christ was sent by God to show
sinners that he's just, like Jim read in Isaiah 45. He's just, first and foremost.
He's a just God and a Savior. He must do right. He can never
do anything that's wrong. And God must punish sin. He can't just overlook sin. He
can't just say that it didn't happen or pretend. No, He has
to punish it. The reason Christ became incarnate
was to suffer the punishment. that the sinners he was given
deserved. Their sins were imputed to him
and he came to suffer the punishment they deserved. He came to satisfy
the justice of God. The reason Christ became incarnate
was to endure the second death in the place of those he represented. We were facing that death. Those
that were given to Christ in eternity were facing that death
and would be under it, except Christ came and endured that
death in our place. Who are we all without exception
when God brings us to his gospel? Well, we're guilty sinners. We're
guilty in that we deserve nothing less than the eternal wrath of
God. And for all we know, at that time, when God brings us
to his gospel, we are sinners who are under the sentence of
eternal death. The scripture is adamant that
God won't clear such sinners. He won't clear the guilty of
their guilt. He will not clear us of the punishment
we deserve. In Exodus 34, when Moses asked
God to show him his glory, here's what the Lord did. He set him
down in a cleft of the rock. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
until the third and the fourth generation. God is merciful. He keeps mercy for thousands.
He forgives sin, all kinds of sin. All kinds. That's what that's
talking about when it lists all three verbs there for sin, or
nouns. Iniquity and transgression and
sin. He forgives all kinds. But that phrase that says, He
will by no means clear the guilty, Although he does forgive sin,
he will not forgive any sin that has not been punished with all
the punishment that his justice demands and the soul that sins
deserves. He won't forgive any sin, but
that one. He punishes the guilty. He won't
fail to punish the guilty. He can't. He's just. He must
do what's right. Because he's just, he can't do
otherwise. Now, there's no doubt that Christ
was appointed in eternity. He was appointed to a particular
end. The prophet Daniel stated that
end in Daniel 9 in verse 24. He said, Christ will finish the
transgression. He will make an end of sins.
He will make reconciliation for iniquity. He will bring in everlasting
righteousness. Christ's entire work in coming
to this earth was to satisfy the law and justice of God in
the salvation of ungodly sinners. And a major part of that work
was to deal with the sins of His people. It was to deal with
our legal guilt. It was to deal with our legal
liability to God's just punishment. Christ came to deal with the
sins of His people, and He did deal with them in four different
ways. As the surety of his people, Christ has already dealt with
the sins of his people. He did it in eternity. He died
as the surety of a particular people. Now he was set up as a surety
in eternity in the everlasting covenant of grace, that covenant
that's older than time. It's older than the Mosaic covenant.
As the appointed surety of his people, Christ assumed the legal
debt of the particular sinners that God had given him. He said
to his father in this everlasting covenant of grace exactly what
Paul said to Philemon concerning his runaway slave, Onesimus. You remember over in the book
of Philemon, Philemon had a slave who ran away, maybe he stole
from him, who knows, but anyway, That slave was brought under
the sound of Paul's preaching, the sound of the gospel, and
God saved him. And Paul wrote back to Philemon
these words. He said, if thou count me therefore
a partner, an equal, receive him, receive Onesimus as myself. Receive him as you would receive
me. If he has wronged thee or oweth thee anything, put that
on my account. I, Paul, have written it with
mine own hand. I will repay it." Now, put that
on my account means charge it to me. Impute it to me. Those
are the words that Christ said to his father in that everlasting
covenant of grace. Those that you've given me, if
they owe you anything, if they've wronged you in any way, put it
on my account. Charge it to me. Impute it to
me. I'll repay it. I'll take care
of the debt. So Christ dealt with the sins
of his people in eternity. As the substitute and surety
of his people, Christ dealt with their sins at the cross. The
cross is where Christ made an end of sin's legal guilt. It's
where God charged him with the legal guilt of his people. And
he satisfied that demand. He answered those charges in
full. Hebrews 9.12 says, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, Christ
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. The cross is where Christ bore
the full punishment of sin that his people deserved. It's where
the God-man suffered the equivalent of eternal death, that death
that we deserved and would be facing but for his death in our
place. A major part of Christ's work
was dealing with the sins of his people. He took care of sin's
guilt. He delivered sinners from their
just punishment. He satisfied the justice of God. He delivered those he was given
from perishing. Christ dealt with the sins of
his people at the cross, in eternity and at the cross. And that brings
us to the third and final question. Who is Christ and what has he
done that he might give sinners eternal life? Again, Christ is
God and man. Don't ever forget that. That's
important. As the God-man, Christ's obedience unto death not only
satisfied the justice of God in its demand for the punishment
of guilty sinners. He not only obtained eternal
redemption by his blood, but by his obedience unto death,
he also established the righteousness by which he earned eternal life
for every sinner he was given. Christ earned the right to give
eternal life to every sinner that the Father had given him
in that everlasting covenant of grace. In John 17, verse 1,
he said, These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven,
and said, Father, the hour is 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. Because Christ earned the right,
because His righteousness imputed is the only source of eternal
life. Christ is right now, right now in this generation, in this
era of time, He's right now dealing with the sins of His people.
He's doing it through regeneration, the subject of John 3. He's right
now delivering His people from their bondage, their slavery
to sin. He's right now changing minds. He's right now overcoming legal
guilt. He's right now bringing every
one of His sheep to the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now this is an ongoing work.
It's in this area of time right here. It's going to continue
until Christ comes back. He's not going to stop until
every one of His sheep has come to faith in Him and repentance
of their dead works. The last way Christ will deal
with the sins of His people is future. It's in final glory when
He'll deliver all of His people from the very presence and power
and influence of sin. We're still under that presence
and power now. We have to fight sin every day, but He will deliver
us even from that. Why must Christ be lifted up?
In order that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life. As the God-man, Christ has delivered
his people from perishing. As the God-man, he has given
and will continue to give eternal life to as many as the Father
has given him. He is the straight gate and the
narrow way that leads to life. And the only sinners who will
perish, the only sinners who will suffer that second death,
the only sinners who will not be given eternal life are those
who refuse to believe on Him. So the command and encouragement
of the gospel is look to this God-man lifted up in the gospel,
this one who made an end of sins and brought in everlasting righteousness.
That righteousness imputed the sinners of the righteousness
by which God is just to justify the ungodly. May the Lord bless
His word to our understanding.