The Bible Baptist Church, located
at 2015 Beulah Road in Madisonville, Kentucky, would like to invite
you to listen to a message of the sovereign grace of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ by their pastor, David Edmondson. Accept a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. A new birth has to take place
in a man or woman's heart before they'll ever be able to see or
understand anything about God and his kingdom. John chapter
three, verse four, Nicodemus said, but how can a man be born
when he is old? How can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? And Nicodemus's question
proved the very thing that Christ was saying about the deadness
of a lost sinner's heart. In verse five, Jesus answered,
barely, barely I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
And careful study of verse four reveals the term born of water
here to be figurative of the grace of God. God's grace within
himself, is the only cause for him to create this spiritual
birth within chosen sinners. Except a man be born of this
water, this grace of God, and of the Spirit, meaning the Holy
Spirit, he cannot find access or entrance into God's kingdom
and be saved. Do you know why this has to be
done by God? Well, the answer is in verse
six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which
is born of the spirit is spirit. You see, a natural man, a man
born of the flesh, cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
Why? Because they're spiritually discerned, spiritually hidden,
and cannot be seen. Until God makes a man or a woman
spiritually alive, they cannot see and they cannot hear. Why? Because that which is born of
the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. And in verse seven, the Lord
Jesus said, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
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. You see, friends, the Spirit
of God is a free agent. In the matter of regeneration,
in the matter of salvation, the Holy Spirit works how and where
and when he pleases. And like the wind, it's a powerful
and irresistible overthrowing the corruption of a man's heart. None can oppose and withstand
the mighty wind, the mighty purpose of God's spirit. Now, every one
of us must honestly answer this question if we're to ever have
any understanding of God and his gospel. In verse nine of
John chapter three, Nicodemus answered and said unto the Lord
Jesus, how can these things be? How can these things be? And
Jesus answered and said unto him, art thou a master of Israel
and knowest not these things? When it comes to heavenly things,
even masters among men don't know much. And I don't care if
you're a doctor of theology or just a common man like myself,
Unless God reveals to you the gospel, spiritually opens your
eyes to the truth, you'll never see it. And here the Lord immediately
shows us that the salvation of chosen sinners cannot be naturally
understood. So we ask, how can these things
be? And before our Lord goes one
word further, he immediately makes known to Nicodemus that
salvation can only be obtained and understood by divine revelation. That simply means that God has
to show it to you. Verse 11, barely, barely I say
unto thee, we speak that which we do know and testify that we
have seen and you receive not our witness. Now first, who is
the we here of whom Christ speaks? Well, he's identifying himself
with his father, his father who was in him. He's speaking of
himself and the Holy Spirit who was upon him. He said, we speak
that we do know. He's no doubt referring to himself
and all the old Testament prophets, along with the new Testament
prophet, John the Baptist, who had been predetermined to come
before him to prepare the way of his coming. He said, we testify
that we have seen. And here's the dilemma, friends. In spite of these heavenly witnesses
and their testimony, the Lord reveals man's inability and man's
refusal to believe. And he says, you receive not
our witness. Why? Because men and women by
nature love darkness rather than light. They hate the light. And in verse 12, the Lord answers
Nicodemus's question with a question of his own. The Lord often did
that. He said, if I have told you earthly things and you believe
not, and here's the question, how should you believe if I tell
you heavenly things? Now notice the Lord doesn't say,
I have told you earthly things and you believe not. He says,
if I have or had told you earthly things, if I told you earthly
things, meaning plain things, easy things, things illustrated
by parables taken from earthly fleshly things, and you didn't
believe me. How can you believe the heavenly,
hidden, spiritual things of God that has to be revealed? How
can our finite minds perceive infinite things? Immediately,
the Lord Jesus teaches Nicodemus and us that salvation can never
be obtained by man's doing. Man is dead in trespasses and
sin. Man can do nothing to save himself. And that's exactly what he's
saying here, verse 13. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven. Oh, we need to learn something
about those two words found there in verse 13. No man. Though Enoch
and Elijah ascended into heaven, it wasn't by their power that
they did so. And what the Lord is teaching
here is that no man No woman can go up to heaven to receive
any knowledge of divine and heavenly things. No, Christ said, no man
can come to me except the father which hath sent me draw him.
Nobody by their own doing can elevate themselves to a spiritual
level to learn, know, and understand the mysteries of God and his
kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. And then somehow, Return to instruct
men and women and heavenly things just one who can Jesus Christ
is the one Verse 13, but he that came down from heaven even the
Son of Man which is in him No man hath ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven even the Son of Man which is
in heaven Friends There's only one way that a sinner can be
reconciled to God. Only one way a sinner can be
brought back into fellowship with God. The only man that can
ascend into heaven is he that came down from heaven, the son
of man, Jesus Christ, who, as God, has always made heaven his
home. Did you notice what he said there
in verse 13? Even the son of man which is
in heaven, How are you and I going to ascend to heaven to be brought
into fellowship with God? Here's how, the Lord tells us
right here, verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.
Oh, I think often about the Israelites there in the wilderness, the
fiery serpents bit them. And as the poison of the serpent
permeated their body flow through their bloodstream, they begin
to die a thousands upon thousands. And the Lord instructed Moses
to construct a serpent of brass and put it up on a pole and lift
it up and tell the folks, look and live. And all those that
look, live. There's only one way you can
escape the fiery serpent of sin's poison, which permanates your
body of flesh, and that's by looking. You and I have to look
to live. You have to look at that brazen
serpent made in the likeness of the serpent of sin that is
lifted up. And here's an interesting note.
It's Moses that lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and
it's Moses who represents the law of God. Now, ultimately,
it's the law of God that lifts Christ up. Now, what do I mean
by that? Why is the law of God lifting
him up? because all the sin of all the
elect throughout all time has been imputed, charged to him,
and the law holds him up and exposes him as guilty before
a holy God. That's why Christ was lifted
up on the cross. He who knew no sin is standing
and dying in the place of his elect, his people. He must be
lifted up to face the wrath, judgment, and holy justice of
God for his people who are the true guilty party. He must be
lifted up to die the just for the unjust that he might bring
his people to God. That is why he's being lifted
up. And sinner, you better look to him if you don't wanna die. Look to him who bears all your
sin and puts it away. And all who looked upon that
brazen serpent lived and all who didn't look died. You must
look to Christ to be saved. And let me tell you something
else. Those that look to that brazen serpent believed that
by looking they would live. And in that sense, they believed
in that brazen serpent and knew by looking upon it that they
would not perish. Oh, hear me when I say, Christ
is that brazen serpent. Looking to him alone for salvation
is the gospel message. Verse 15, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is
how God's people are saved. So what do we know? Well, we
know that we cannot see, we cannot see God's word until we're born
again. We cannot enter into the things
of God unless we are given spiritual life. Then we ask, how can these
things be? Well, it's found in the first
four words of verse 16. Here's the gospel in four words.
For God so loved. Now religion has so misinterpreted
this verse that they've made their gospel message to be centered
around their love for God. which caused God in return to
love them. But that couldn't be further
from the truth. And I'm telling you that kind of preaching doesn't
nothing but cheapen the love of God since his love for his
people has never been conditional on their love for him. You see,
man has made a false gospel out of loving God. That's exactly
what men have done. The good news of this book is
not about our love for God. Our love for God is the result
of his loving us. Now let me repeat what I just
said. The gospel has never been about
our loving God. The gospel declares for God so
loved. There's no good news to be found
in looking within for a love for God that does not exist. We love Him because... He first loved us. True redemption
can never, never, ever, ever be traced back to the same sinner's
love for God. Yet our redemption can always
be traced back to that eternal grace and love bestowed upon
God's elect in Christ before the foundation of the world for
God so loved. Oh, may we never preach the glorious
doctrine of election in a way that portrays our Lord as anything
but a patient and long-suffering Savior, one who reasons with
sinners concerning His sin-atoning sacrifice as their substitute.
God says, come now and let us reason together. Oh, let's never
get so caught up in our Calvinistic doctrine that we preach that
our precious Lord in any way finds pleasure in the destruction
and death of the wicked who do not love him. God himself testifies
that's not the case. In Ezekiel 33 verse 11, he says,
as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn
ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house
of Israel? And yet at the same time, no
sinner can truly know the gospel and think, believe, and preach
that God is in any way dependent upon the cooperation of man's
free will. Oh, it's a great error to suggest
in any way that the sinner's salvation is based upon the sinner's
love and acceptance of God. The gospel is for God so loved. And one might say, well, you
claim to be such a horrific sinner. I don't see how God could love
you. And the child of God says, I don't see how he could love
me either. You see, it takes an act of immeasurable grace
for God to love and save a wretch like me. Truly, what is thy servant
that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? Herein is love, John said, not,
herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins, 1 John 4.10. Oh, God loving and saving sinners
has never been dependent upon the cooperation of man. God's
redemption for lost wretches has never been influenced by
the so-called free will of the sinner. You see, one who is dead
has no will, much less free. Our will is in bondage to sin. Our will is dead. Salvation has
always been by God loving, God calling, God saving, justifying,
and promising to one day soon glorify the chosen sinner as
he conforms that sinner to the image of his dear and beloved
son. For God so loved. Now, did you pay any attention
to that little two-letter word found before the word loved in
verse 16? For God so loved. That word so is what our English
calls an intensifying adverb. An intensifying adverb pronounces
and exaggerates the statement being made. Our Lord added it
to cause us to consider the depths of this love that God has for
his people, for God so loved. How wonderful a thing is the
love of God, especially when you see that it's set upon a
lost, ruined, and guilty world. Why, it seems that even Christ
Himself cannot express in human terms, anyway, God's love for
His people. Therefore, He uses that intensified
word, soul, to express just how much God loves His chosen in
Christ. And God's love cannot be explained
or expressed by mere mortal words. God says to his people, I love
you so much. We have no word that can fully
describe the love that God has for his son and for those for
whom his son died. We simply must use words like
soul to attempt to describe the greatness of God's love. Who
did God love? Well, our text says that He loved
the world. To those who believe that God
loved and Christ died for the whole world, will you permit
me to ask you another question? What is there in this world in
which we live that would cause God to love sinners in the world?
Oh, there's much to merit His displeasure, but what is there
in this world that would cause God to love them? The stream
of love, the stream of God's love, flows from its own secret
source in the eternal deity of God. Man's sin has ruined everything
that God loved of his creation. He certainly doesn't love this
sin-ridden physical world and those that sin who are in it.
Why, the scriptures say he's angry with the wicked every day.
He destroyed this world once already. And he's promised to
do it again. And the word world comes from
the Greek word cosmos. The original word cosmos is used
at least seven different ways in the scriptures. It's used
as the universe as a whole. It's used as the earth, planet
earth. It's used as the world system. It's used as the whole human
race. It's used as humanity with the
exception of believers. It's used as Gentiles in contrast
to the Jews. And it's also used as believers
only. So in the context of scripture
as a whole, we have to interpret scripture that way. World here
must refer to those he chose and gave to Christ before the
foundation of the world, that time before time was. For even
God's chosen people in and of themselves are so much a part
of the world that he doesn't try to attempt to distinguish
any difference between his elect and the world. In this verse,
he just throws all the sons and daughters of Adam in the same
dirty laundry marked world, just as we throw our dirty clothes
in the hamper and call them dirty. The only distinguishing factor
in the matter of the elect salvation is that God so loves these worldly
sinners that He delivers some of them out of the world, separating
them as dirty laundry and washing them clean. The world here could
only mean those that God loves who are still in this world.
The Lord Jesus said, I pray for them. I pray not for the world,
but for them, them, which thou has given me for, they are not
in another place. He said, father, I pray not that
thou shouldest take them out of the world, but thou should
escape them from the evil, that evil, which is in them and in
the world in which they live for God. So loved. He so loved those that the Father
gave him in this world. And they are in this world, but
they're not of this world, and that's who God loves so. I'm afraid that we've made the
word love of little or no value today. We throw it around flippantly. Men, women, boys, and girls claim
to love the most insignificant things. Oh, I love this, I love
that. None which amount to anything,
but not God. God loves some who are totally
undeserving of even a glance from Him. I want to give you
five quick things concerning the gospel of our salvation. First, First, we see that the
gospel is concerning the love of God for his people and not
the love of his, not the love that his people have for him.
For God so loved your salvation is not based upon your love for
God, but upon his love for you. Your salvation is not based upon
what you do for God, but what God has done for you. Secondly,
we see that the gospel is concerning a gift that God gave. Senator, if you're saved, it
was not by works. It was the gift of God. So that
you may not boast for God. So loved the world that he gave
salvation is God giving you that which you do not earn. You do
not deserve, nor do you merit. That's what makes salvation a
gift. Thirdly, we see that salvation
is the gift of God's beloved son, for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. And this is the record John
wrote in his first epistle. This is the record that God had
given to us eternal life, and this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life,
and he that hath not the son hath not life. Fourthly, we see
that the objects of this great salvation are the elect of God,
the whosoever wills, he will have mercy on. For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever
believeth in him. And I am so glad that salvation
is for whosoever. Whosoever. does not leave me
out. Whosoever believes in time were
chosen by God in eternity. Whosoever believes are the who's
that God elected and gave to Christ long before the world
was ever made. And you and I don't know who
the elect of God are, so we preach to whosoever's. Whosoever will
hear, whosoever believes, whosoever comes, whosoever confesses, whosoever
bows to his will, whosoever shall lose his life shall find it.
Whosoever shall humble themselves will be exalted. Whosoever believes
in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Do you
see that salvation is for whosoever? Whosoever God wills shall be
saved. And the fifth and last thing,
Lastly, we see that the result of God's salvation is everlasting
life, eternal life, fellowship with God in Christ forevermore. Oh, I love the thought that there's
nothing I can do to make God love me. There's not. Christ
has done it all for me. But beloved, there's one thing
that I love even more than that thought. If I'm one of his, there's
nothing I can do to make God not love me. Isn't that the most
incredible thing that you ever heard? You see, my salvation
is by the work of Christ. It's by Christ taking my sin
putting it away and giving me his perfect righteousness. And
for that, I am eternally grateful. Oh Lord, have mercy on us, even
now, as we endeavor to trust and rest in you. You have been listening to a
message by David Edmondson, the pastor of Bible Baptist Church
in Madisonville, Kentucky. If you would like a copy of this
message, or to hear other messages of God's free, sovereign grace
in Christ, you can write to our mailing address at P.O. Box 652
Madisonville, Kentucky 42431. or log on to our website at FreeGraceRadio.com. If you would like to come and
worship with us, we meet at 2015 Beulah Road, Madisonville, Kentucky,
and our service times are Sunday morning Bible study at 10 o'clock
a.m., worship services begin at 11 o'clock a.m., Wednesday
evening services at 7 o'clock p.m. Please tune in again next
Sunday morning at 10 o'clock AM for another message of God's
free and sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.