And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus saith unto
him, Well, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, that's the Word and the Holy Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, which canst not tell whence it
cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Now here is a man about whom
it could be said he had the right heritage. The Apostle Paul said,
if any man hath worth the glory in the flesh, I more. I was a
Hebrew, a Hebrew of Hebrews. This man was a Hebrew, like Paul
was. He was a Jew. He was a man who
had the right tradition and the right upbringing. He was taught
in the law of Moses, well taught in the law of Moses. This man
had been to the right schools, accepted. This man had a high
office and was a ruler of the Jews. This man knew the right
people. He was a friend of the high priest.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin. This man was held in high esteem
by everyone. And yet, when the Master talked
to him, about things even our children here have heard and
have learned and have some understanding about these things. When our
Lord talked to him about the spiritual kingdom of God, not
an earthly kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom. Seeing and discerning
that kingdom and entering that kingdom by the power of God.
He asked, how can these things be? When our Lord talked to him about
a spiritual birth from above, by the power of God, a new life,
a new heart, a new nature, how can these things be? When our
Lord talked to him about the Spirit of God and the Word of
God creating the life of God within the heart, how can these
things be? when our Lord talked to him about
the sovereign mercy of God, showing mercy to whom He will. The Scripture
that Frank read a moment ago, this man read many times. Many
times. This man was a Jew. This man
was a teacher of the Old Testament Scripture. He read that many,
many times. Things our children have studied,
entered into, learned, and can discuss intelligently with you. He says in verse 9, listen, And
Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? How can these things be? Alright,
verse 10, our Lord's answer. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Are you a master? Are you a master of Israel? A
teacher? And you know not these things?
Yes, he was. He was a teacher. Schooled in
the very best Jewish schools. Educated. Religious, moral, and
no doubt, sincere. Very sincere. But my friends,
something more than education, something more than morality,
something more than religion, something more than sincerity
is needed to enter in to the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
Something more. What is that something more?
Revelation. Revelation. Turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Let's read verse 7. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 verse 7. This is the way spiritual truth
is learned. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 7. Paul said, we speak the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of
this world knew. That's talking about the leaders.
The leaders of this world. Nicodemus was one of those leaders.
Not just talking about leaders. in the secular world, he's talking
about leaders in the religious world, because they're the ones
that crucified the Lord of Glory. Which none of the leaders of
this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written, I hath
not seen, that's what I gave you this morning, I hath not
seen, nor ear heard. Neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him." Now here's the way these great truths are learned. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit, by His Holy Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. But what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him?
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. And he said, which things also
we speak. And not in words that man's wisdom
teacheth. I think a lot of this effort
to simplify the Bible is wasted effort. Putting the Bible in
common, everyday, what they call everyday language is a waste
of time. Because the things that we speak
are not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the
Holy Ghost teaches. Trying to teach children with
puppets, and this modern vernacular, and modern music, and these things
is foolishness. Because the only way for the
things of God to be understood is by revelation. And now look
at verse 11, and here it is, watch this. John 3, 11. Our Lord
continued, now this is the master talking to Nicodemus. He asked
him, he said, are you a teacher? You don't know these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, we, and he's talking about himself
and his disciples whom he taught, but mainly himself, we speak
that we do know. I teach what I know, Christ said. I know what I'm teaching. My words are the words of him
that sent me. I testify I've testified that,
I've seen. He was with the Father. Now here's
the problem. And you receive not our witness. There's the problem. That's the
cause of ignorance of divine truth. A person does not know
the things of God because he will not receive the Word of
God. That is the problem. Our Lord said, what I speak I
know. Will I testify? I've seen. And you received not
the word. And there's none so blind as
one who will not see. John 1.11 said he came unto his
own, his own received him not. John 5.39, our Lord said to the
Pharisees, you search the Scriptures. They searched the Scriptures
for the purpose of argument and debate and various other reasons. But he said, you search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have life. They are they which testify
of me, and you will not come to me, but you might have life. Turn to 1 John 5. A person does
not know the things of God because he will not receive the Word
of God, the witness of God. I speak that I know, I testify
what I've seen, and you receive not our witness. In 1 John 5, verse 8, listen. There are three that bear witness
in the earth. The Spirit, the water, that's
the Word, and the blood. And these three are one. They
agree in one. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. Isn't this amazing that people
will receive the witness of men but not the witness of God? Our
Lord said, let another come in his own name, and him you receive. I come in my Father's name, you
receive now. But we receive the witness of
men. The witness of God is greater. And this is the witness of God
which ye have testified of his Son. This is it. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not, God hath made him a liar. Because he believes not the record
God gave of his son. There's the problem. You start in the Word. And you camp in the Word. And
you walk in the light. And you receive the Word. And
you feed on the Word. And you search the Word. And
you find Christ. Christ in the Word. Neglect the
word, miss Christ. I testify what I know and what
I've seen, and you don't receive our witness. Now watch verse
12. Now he said, if I've told you earthly things, if I told
you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe I
tell you of heavenly things? What are these earthly things?
Well, have we read this conversation, Nicodemus and our Lord? But these
earthly things that our Lord is talking about here include
a lot more than these few words He said to Nicodemus that are
recorded here. He's holding Nicodemus responsible
for what He said back here. You see, Nicodemus is not a novice. Nicodemus is a student of the
Scriptures. A student of the Scriptures.
I said to my class recently, I said, God's going to hold you
responsible for what you did here and what you could have
heard. What you did here and what you
could have heard. You could have read this, couldn't you? We have
plenty of time to read it. So he's saying to Nicodemus,
if you've been told earthly things and you didn't believe them.
How could you believe if I tell you heavenly things? If you don't
believe what you see, How do you expect to believe what you
don't see? And what had he seen? All right. Man's fall. Nicodemus knew about Adam's fall.
He read the same Scriptures you've read and I've read. He studied
Adam's fall, the consequences of that fall, what took place
in the fall. Nicodemus knew about God's wrath
and God's judgment against sin. He knew about the flood. He knew
about Sodom and Gomorrah. Nicodemus, the scripture Frank
read to you a moment ago, Nicodemus read that many times. He knew
about the tabernacle of congregation and he knew about the tabernacle
of sacrifice. He knew about the slaying of
the lambs and the bullocks and the turtledoves and the offering.
He knew about the high priest and the holy of holies, the mercy
seat, the lock. He knew about all those things.
Those are things that took place on the earth. Those are earthly
things. All the patterns and prophecies
of the Messiah, when you read Isaiah 53, he read it too. Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He read that. He was wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, by His stripes we are healed. He
knew that as well as you do. When Moses said, the Lord will
raise up among the brethren a prophet like unto myself, right here
on this earth, he knew that. Job knew it. Job said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth and He'll stand on this earth, earthly things. And though
worms destroy this body, earthly things, yet in my flesh I'll
see God." He will die. All the patterns and prophecies
of the Messiah, what the eunuch read, he read. What Cornelius
read, he read. The Messiah that would come to
earth and redeem the people, all these Messianic Psalms They
asked these Pharisees, Christ said, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They said, son
of David. Where is he going to be born? Bethlehem. Of whose
house? Jesse, tribe of Judah, house
of David. This man knew every one of those
things. I have told you earthly things
and you don't believe. How are you going to believe
when I tell you you have everything? If you don't believe what you
read and don't believe what you see, how are you going to believe
what you don't see and can't see? What if I talk to you about
the divine counsel in eternity? When God the Father gave the
Son of People, the Son of His love, He gave Him a people. As
the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea show out of
every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue unto heaven to be
redeemed by Christ and make Christ their designated shirt in righteousness."
Nicodemus, there is no reason for me to talk to you about that. And why should I talk to you
about the mysteries of God becoming a man? How that the glorious
nature of God was joined in union with the nature of man, and the
God-man was born of a woman on this earth to fulfill the holy
law, and satisfy justice, and die for a people, and be buried,
and rise again to ascend to heaven, and intercede for his own. How are you going to believe?
I talk to you about things like that. the resurrection and ascension
of our Lord and the resurrection of His people. If you don't believe
these earthly things, forget the heavenly things. And that's the problem in religious
circles today. They don't believe what they've
read. They don't believe what is plain. They don't believe what is declared.
So how could they believe if you tell them about mysteries?
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of the angels, preached to the
Gentiles, believed on in this world. The mystery of Christ
and the church, the mystery of Christ and the Gentiles, the
mystery of the resurrection. No. It's sad. It's a sad story. You're a master of Israel and
you do not know these things. And then he said in verse 13,
And Nicodemus, no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came
down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. What
does that mean? Number one, our Lord did not
say, now read it again, He said, no man hath ascended up to heaven. He did not say no man hath entered
heaven. Enoch had entered heaven. Elijah
had entered heaven. Moses had entered heaven. What
He is saying is this, listen, there never has been nor could
there be a man who could go up to heaven and learn the mysteries
of God, and the mysteries of the covenant, and the mysteries
of God's providence, and the mysteries of God's purpose, and
the mysteries of the kingdom of God. No man has ever left
this earth and gone up there and learned those mysteries,
and came back, returned to the earth to enlighten me, and to
illuminate them, and to teach them, and to redeem them, and
make them heirs of heaven. No man had done that but one. He that came down from heaven. He that was in the beginning
with God, and was God, and all things were made by Him. He's
the one. Even the Son of Man came down
from heaven. Jesus Christ. He came down from
heaven. Even the Lord of heaven came
to earth in a human body and revealed to us the mysteries
of God, heavenly things. No man has seen God at any time. The Son declared Him. The Son
revealed Him. And let me tell you, this Son
of Man, which is in heaven, There is a sense in which He
never left Heaven. The Father is in Heaven, isn't
He? Yes. I am a Father of One. The Father is in Heaven, isn't
He? Oh yes, He is. Well, Christ was born into this
world and He said, unto us a child is born and a son is given. His
name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the One. The Everlasting Father. Somebody
said, if Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then the Father had
to be before the Son. No. He's the Everlasting Father. He's always been the Father.
Always. God has always been as God is
now. He's the Eternal Father and Christ
is the Eternal Son. He's eternally the Son. The Father
is eternally the Father. And the Son came to this earth
in human flesh, and yet in essence, in power, in glory, never left
heaven. Now, Nicodemus couldn't handle
that, could he? How can you be God, they said?
They took up stones to stone him. A lot of people believe Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Did you know that? But most people
do not believe He's God the Son. That's right. He's the Son of God, but He's
God the Son. Now then, he says Nicodemus,
he's going to enlighten him a little bit. I don't know what he heard,
what he believed, what he received, Our Lord took him back to the
Old Testament. He said now, verse 14, And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness... You know about
that, don't you, Nicodemus? You know about that? How that
the people had murmured against God's providence, murmured against
God's will, And the Lord sent fiery serpents in the camp. And
the fiery serpents were everywhere. People had them in their beds,
in their tents, out on the pathways, everywhere. Those fiery serpents
were biting the people and the people were dying. And Moses
prayed to the Lord for mercy. And the
Lord said, Moses, make a serpent of brass. in the likeness of
the serpent that has bitten the people and lifted up on a pole. Make a serpent of brass in the
likeness of the serpent that has bitten the people lifted
up on a pole. And whosoever will look will
live. And Moses made that serpent of
brass and lifted it up on a pole. And all those people in various
stages of illness, Dying, having been bitten by the fire serpent's
look, and whosoever looked lived, was made whole. And what our
Lord is saying to Nicodemus is that serpent, that brazen serpent,
is the Son of God, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up that
serpent, even so must the Son of Man who, what's bitten us?
Sin has. Flesh, sinful flesh. What causes
our death? Our pain, our anguish, our condemnation. Sinful flesh. Christ came into
this world and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And in the flesh, bearing our
sins and our guilt, our Lord's substitute was nailed to that
cross and lifted up. That's right. That's the remedy.
The serpent lifted up was the remedy in Israel, and Christ
lifted up is the remedy now. That's the remedy. As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. And he told them later, he said,
the Son of Man must be lifted up. And he told them later, he
said, and when you lift up the Son of Man, you'll know that
the things I've said are true. Like the centurion stood there
after our Lord died on that cross, and he said, surely this man
was the Son of God. That's the remedy. The Son lifted
up. Crucified. Now here's the results. That whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. It's just that plain, and
really it's just that simple. that whosoever believeth in Him,
believes He's who He is, that He's doing what He did to redeem
us and enable God to be just and justify, that He's the Son
of God, that He's the only Savior. You'll not perish, but have everlasting
life. Who believes it, and who believes
it in a way that he keeps believing. Now here's the reason for all
this. Here's the reason. For God so
loved the world. Here's the foundation of all
this. The love of God. It's not our works and deeds
and our righteousness. It's God's love. For God loved
us. We didn't love Him. He loved
us. And gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Here's
the foundation of it. Here's the reason for it. For
God so loved the world, not just Jews, but Gentiles and people
of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven. God so loved
the world, He gave His only begotten Son to be our substitute, to
be our Savior, to be our Redeemer, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Oh, what love! Oh, what
love! Let me show you five or six things
and I'll close. I'll tell you this, the atonement
is not the cause of God's love, it's the result of God's love. The remedy, as Moses lifted up
the serpent, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. The result,
that whosoever looks and believes may have everlasting life. And
the reason is God's love. God loved. The effect or result
of His love is Christ's coming, not the cause of it. Christ's
coming didn't enable God to love us. It enabled God to be just
and justify us. But He came because God loved
us. God loved us. Well, let me show you this. Here
are five or six things. Number one, God so loved. God so loved. That's the tense
of his love. Past tense. L-O-V-E-D. God loved. He said, I've loved
you with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn you. God so loved. Always did. Always has. The magnitude of
it, secondly, God so loved us. So loved us. Infinite love. Indescribable love. Unspeakable
love. loved us. Here's the scope of it. God so
loved the world. You know, those old Jews had
a lot of trouble with that. A lot of trouble with that. The
Apostle Peter wouldn't even go down and preach to those Gentiles
without a special revelation and prompting by the Lord. But
God loved Gentiles and there's going to be a people in glory
from every Every tribe on this earth. Every nation. God so loved
the world. It doesn't say He loved every
human being in the world. He loved the world. The world
of people. Alright, notice the fourth thing.
God so loved that He gave. That He gave. That's the nature
of love. He gave. Freely gave. He didn't sell it. He didn't lend it. Gave. God so loved that He gave, freely
gave. Now watch this, He gave His Son. He gave His Son. And you know
over there in Philippians chapter 2 when it's talking about Christ's
exaltation, listen how Paul writes that. He said, let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus our Lord. who thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon himself the form of a man, the habit of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and became obedient
unto death." Watch this, even the death of the cross. Some
deaths are honorable. This was ignominious, evil. And God, listen, loved, so loved,
the world. Aren't you glad we Gentiles are
included? That He gave, gave what? His Son. To what? To the cross. To the cross. And here's the
results of it. That whosoever believeth on Him
should not perish. but have everlasting life. That's the design of His love.
Redemption. Redemption. And they will be
redeemed. All that my Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh I'll in no wise cast out. For God, verse 17, here's my
closing verse, for God did not send His Son into this world
to condemn the world. It was already condemned. I hear
people say, well, the only sin that will send you to hell is
not believing on Jesus Christ. Well, that's just not so. That
makes Him the condemner and not the Savior. If the only sin that
will send me to hell is not believing on Christ, it would have been
better for me if He hadn't come. If He hadn't come, then I wouldn't
have to not believe on Him. That's just not true. That's
why He came. He didn't come to condemn the
world. He didn't come to become a sign
of condemnation. He came to save. He came to redeem
sinful men. Not to condemn them, but that
the world through Him might be saved. And he that believeth
on the Son is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he believes not in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. All right, let's turn in our
hymn books to number 46 and sing together, oh, for a thousand
tones, to sing my great Redeemer's praise. Number 46.