If you would please turn with me in the word of God, the gospel according to John, John's gospel and chapter one. John, chapter one. John's gospel, chapter one, I want to begin reading with verse one, and I'm going to read down through verse 14. Says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let's bow together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come to You now and we come to You through the Word, the Logos, Jesus Christ. We come to You, Father, and we pray that as we come to Your Word now, that You would speak to us in Your Word. We pray heavily, Father, that as we gather around Your Word, Your Word would have preeminence. That it would have a central place in this worship service. We pray, Father, that we would make it a central place in our own hearts, that we would receive the truth of your word, that we would take it as the very words that are yours yourself. We ask, O Father, that you would not only speak to us through your word and help us to respond to your word, but Father, help us that as we go from this place today, we would go forth and we would share that word and declare that word. with all that we meet and share with others the wonderful good news of the gospel in Jesus Christ. We ask You, O Father, that You would strengthen Your people and bless them. We pray, Father, that You would speak to those perhaps here today who do not know Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. Lord, that Your Spirit would come upon them and move in that supernatural and secret way that we cannot see ourselves. And yet that inner work of your spirit, which is absolutely necessary for salvation. We pray, O God, as You are pleased to do it, that You would draw sinners to Yourself, that You would take those who are lost, and Father, that You might save them by Your precious Son. We pray, O God, that all of this would be for your own glory's sake, not for our glory, not for our enjoyment, not for our pleasure, but, O God, for your glory and for your honor and for your pleasure. We ask this now, Father, grant our prayer, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. This Lord's Day morning, we are going to return to our exposition of the gospel of John. Some of you may remember that 15 months ago, before the fire, we were going through an exposition of the gospel of John. Some of you can't remember 15 days ago. And so for you, that may be new for you, but that's OK. Fifteen months ago, we had just begun an exposition of this wonderful gospel, the gospel according to John. And then because of the providential hand of God, our situation was displaced. We found ourselves meeting one time on the Lord's Day, and we were also going through the epistle of Romans. And so we finished the epistle of Romans. And because of the circumstances, we did not come back to the gospel of John until today. And now we come back and we continue in this series of messages from the gospel, according to John. We believe in the centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ at First Baptist Church. We believe that we are to preach Christ and him crucified. And while we certainly affirm that in a sense, every page of Scripture has Christ written on it, there is no greater place for us to have an encounter with Jesus Christ and learn more of Christ than in the Gospels themselves. The Gospels present us with the earthly ministry of our Savior. What I would like to do this morning is actually just give something of a review and a refresher course on what we have covered, and then next week we will actually continue in the exposition of the Scriptures. It's interesting when we hold in our hands the word of God, we all know that we have four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each of these presents Jesus Christ, it has a unique perspective, a unique truth that is being conveyed and portrait that is presented to us as the people of God. For example, whenever we study the gospel of Matthew, that first gospel, we read in there as we understand the writer's perspective that Matthew is writing and presenting to us from a Jewish perspective, Jesus Christ, as that messianic sovereign king. That is the perspective that's being conveyed. Jesus Christ is presented as that one who the Jews were looking for and whom the Old Testament had prophesied His coming. It presents Jesus Christ as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It presents Jesus Christ as that Messiah, the King of the Jews. And it presents Jesus Christ in his office as king, his office as a sovereign Lord. When we look at the Gospel according to Mark, we find a different perspective being presented. In the Gospel according to Mark, we read of Jesus Christ, not so much as a messianic king, but as the servant of the Lord. And in that very rapid succession of account in the gospel of Mark, we read about Jesus Christ immediately going from one situation in one episode to the next. And Jesus is presented as the servant of the Lord. He is presented not so much in his sovereignty in Matthew's gospel. He's sovereign. He is presented in Mark's gospel more in his humility that he was the servant of Jehovah and that he had come to do the will of Jehovah. When we look at the gospel, according to Luke, we read of Jesus Christ as the son of man. And there we find, as Luke records of part one of his two volume writing, the gospel of Luke and, of course, Acts, the second volume. In that gospel, Jesus Christ is presented as the son of man. He is presented as one who can uniquely identify with sinners like you and me, because he himself came into this world as the Son of Man. We read in Luke's Gospel, Jesus Christ, not so much in His sovereignty or in His humility, but in His humanity. He indeed is the Son of Man. When we get to John's Gospel, we find another portrait another perspective, another presentation of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel according to John, we are presented with Jesus Christ as being the Son of God. In this Gospel, He is presented in His deity, that He is indeed the second member of the Holy Trinity, that Jesus Christ is indeed God who came into flesh. Why were we given these four different portraits? Why were we given these four different gospel accounts? Is one of them right and the other wrong? Which one is correct? And the answer, of course, is they're all correct. Amen. All of them taken in their totality and taken comprehensively, they present to us four different, unique perspectives of Jesus Christ. Four different ways of considering and looking at, and more than that, the Holy Spirit revealing to us who Jesus is. He gives us a wonderful picture of Jesus Christ. I like the story about the little girl who was sitting by the dining room table with her crayons and her paper, and she was coloring away at a picture, and she was so excited. She'd been working for a long time, and her mother came up and looked the artwork her daughter was doing, and she said, What are you drawing there? What are you doing? And she said, Well, I'm drawing a picture of Jesus Christ. The mother looked at the picture and she said, Well, dear, honey, don't you understand? We don't know what Jesus Christ looks like. We don't have any pictures of Jesus. The little girl looked back at her mother and said, Well, they will know whenever I get finished. We don't have any physical pictures of Jesus. We don't have any portraits of Jesus, and that is good, because if we did, knowing men's hearts, we'd probably try to bow down to them and enshrine them and make them some graven image and idol to bow down to. But we don't need some picture of Jesus as a physical representation of what He looked like, because we have in the Gospels all the picture that we need. Amen. It is the accurate picture. It is the inerrant picture. It is the truthful picture of who Jesus Christ is. Jesus in His sovereignty. Jesus in His humility. Jesus in His humanity. And yes, Jesus in His divinity as the unique God-man. Now, if you recall, as we were looking at this gospel, I read the first fourteen verses as we looked at this passage some months back, we considered in verses one through five, just as way of review. If you look again at chapter one, verses one through five, we have what I called the prologue of the gospel. It is the introduction and it is a picture, a synopsis of who Jesus is. Jesus is referred to as the Word, the Logos of God. And notice the picture that is presented for us in these first five verses. Look at verse 1. In verse 1, we have Jesus in His eternality. It says, In the beginning was the Word. The phrase there, in the beginning, tells us that Jesus Christ was in existence from the very beginning. It is a statement of His eternality. Jesus Christ did not begin in the beginning. He was in the beginning. Jesus Christ existed and observed and indeed was a participant of that truth of what happened in the beginning. His eternality. Look at verse 1 again. We note His personality. It says, In the beginning was the Word And the Word was with God. This phrase here is an interesting phrase describing the person of Jesus Christ. We are told here that in the beginning, the Word was with God. Look at verse 2. He says the same was in the beginning with God. This tells us several things about Jesus Christ. It tells us that Jesus Christ was equal with God. And there is an essential unity with God. And yet we are told here something of a distinct identity with God, the Father. No falling into the errors of tri-theism or the errors of poly-theism or the errors of modalism. No, the statement here is that Jesus Christ was with God, the Father. Speaking of his unique and very real personality. Notice, if you will, in verse one again, we note not only his eternality, his personality, but we are clearly told in the very first verse of his deity. He says at the end of verse one, and the word was God said a moment ago, the very theme of the gospel, according to John, is a presentation of Jesus Christ in his deity. And in the very first verse, as the Spirit moves John to write this account, he says, Jesus Christ, he was in the beginning. He was with God. But more than that, and equal with that, he indeed was God. Brothers and sisters, that is so important for us to understand, because there are many folks today who say that they believe in Jesus Christ, and yet they do not affirm his deity. They say Jesus Christ was a historical figure. They say Jesus Christ was a great leader and there was a great movement of followers after Jesus Christ. Many folks even say Jesus Christ was a great prophet of God, perhaps the greatest prophet. You realize that even in the religion of Islam, they recognize the existence of Jesus Christ. Judaism recognizes the existence of Jesus Christ. But Christianity says that they do not understand Jesus Christ correctly, because Jesus Christ is indeed not only seen in his eternality and personality, but we must affirm his deity. He is indeed God in truth. And this is what we see. He continues in this prologue and he speaks about the activity of the Son of God. Look at verse three. He speaks of him as being the creator. He says all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. Here we see that Jesus Christ is the one, as Hebrew says, by whom the father created. He is referred to in Colossians. as being God's agent in creation. Jesus was in the beginning with God. Jesus in the beginning was God. And His activity as God was creating all things. Look at v. 4. In v. 4, we see His activity not only as Creator, but we see uniquely His identity as life giver. He says, in Him, in the Word, in Christ, was life. And the life was the light of men. Jesus Christ is the life giver. Jesus Christ is the one from whom we have all physical life. Jesus Christ is the one through whom we can have spiritual life. And Jesus Christ is the one through whom we can have eternal life. My dear friend, today as we look at this truth, of Jesus being the life giver. Let me share with you today, if you do not know Jesus Christ, if you have not come to Jesus Christ as the life giver, then you do not have spiritual life. Because it is only through Jesus Christ that you can have spiritual life and you can have eternal life. Because He is life and He is the light of men. Look at verse five. In verse five, he continues and he says, Jesus is the great illuminator, he says, and the light, speaking of Christ, shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. Here we see this great reality of Jesus Christ being the revealer of truth, the illuminator of men. the one through whom our reception to the Father, our understanding of God, our access to God comes. It is only through Jesus Christ. He is the one who came. He is the one who comes spiritually. And He is the one who destroys darkness and sheds light and points men to the life. Here we have this statement of who Jesus is. Now, in verses six through 13, we are introduced to John the Baptist. And we're going to read all of the text there. But we are told that there was this one who came, according to Scripture, according to prophecy, to foretell and to be the forerunner and the preparer of Jesus Christ. And we are told that his name is John the Baptist. This, brothers and sisters, is why that we know that Baptist go all the way to the New Testament, because there you have John the Baptist. We know that the Baptist religion is the right one because of that. Some of you are laughing, and I appreciate that because it's supposed to be funny. But here we have this great revelation about this forerunner who came. He did not come to attract attention. He did not come in order to be the focus of attention. He came to point attention to Jesus Christ. And brothers and sisters, that's what we are to do as well. Amen. Our job is to be like John the Baptist. We are to point people to Christ, not to ourselves. We are to tell people about Jesus Christ and share with people Jesus Christ, because it is Jesus Christ Who is the life giver alone? I want you to, if you will, please pick up in the passage down in verse 10. It says he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not speaking of Christ. And then you have this quote from Old Testament prophecy. He came in unto his own and his own received him not. What a statement. Verse 12, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Here we have this great truth about the very reality of the gospel. Life, salvation, being in a right standing with God has to do with receiving him. It is receiving him. It is embracing Christ in all that He is, in all that He has done for your salvation and for your eternal life. As many as received Him, they are given the power to become the sons of God. They believe on His name. As we continue in this passage, we see here this shift from the forerunner, beginning in verse 14, to speak of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Look, beginning in verse fourteen, it says, And the 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. We are already understanding something about this Jesus, the Word, according to the prologue. We are told already that Jesus Christ is indeed in His eternality the One who was from the beginning. We have already understood that He was with God in His unique personhood. We already understand that He was indeed God. The Word was God. We understand His activity of creating and life-giving and the activity of shining light among men. Now we are told in verse 14 how God accomplished this great work of redemption, that word, which was from the beginning, which was with God and which is God. He came out of eternity into history in the incarnation. He did not lay aside his prerogatives of deity. He did not lay aside the reality that he was indeed God. And yet we are told that he was made flesh and dwelt among us. This is the mystery of the Incarnation. Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man. Absolutely and totally in one person, Jesus Christ. And what we cannot understand with our minds, we must embrace with our hearts, for it is surely the truth of the Word of God. Jesus Christ was made flesh. He dwelt among us. And John says here in verse 14, he says, We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. As we continue in verse 15, we have presented here this incarnation of Christ down through verse 18 and then beginning in verse 19. We have more of the ministry of John the Baptist. And actually, it just is a review here very quickly. We know here in these continuing verses down to verse 34, we have this ministry of John the Baptist as it is outlined, as it is explained, as God had called him to go and declare. Look at verse 34. At the end of this is and I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. That was His mission. That was His purpose to bear record of the Son of God. Now, beginning in verse 35, down through verse 51, we have this account of the call of the disciples. It is a glorious picture and insight of Jesus Christ as He calls His disciples to Himself, as He calls them to this mission at the beginning of His ministry to carry out this vital task which he would call them to fulfill. Now, if you will look at chapter two. In chapter two, we will remember that we have two great acts in this chapter. The first is found in the first eleven verses of chapter two, it is Jesus first public ministry recorded in the Gospel of John, it is turning water into wine. And then in chapter two, verses twelve down to verse twenty five, we have Jesus cleansing the temple. He will look with me. Chapter two, beginning with verse one, it says, And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were sent there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two and three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast, and they bear it. Then the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew. The governor and the feast called the bridegroom, and he saith unto them, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then at that which is worse. But thou has kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. As I said a moment ago, this is the first of the great miracles in John's Gospel. Actually, you have seven great miracles, seven great attesting signs to the divinity of Jesus Christ. You have the water being turned into wine. You have the healing of the sick man, the healing at the pool of Bethesda, the feeding of the 5,000, the walking on the water, the healing of the blind man, of course, all culminating in that great and final miracle, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Those seven miracles become something of a structure from which this gospel moves. Those miracles were there to authenticate and validate the person of Jesus Christ. Remember, we said the theme of this gospel is the deity of Jesus Christ. And how do we know that Jesus was indeed God in the flesh? How do we know that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and He was indeed the very begotten of the Father? Well, we know this is true, John tells us, because this same Word that was made flesh, He came into this world and He performed great miracles which no one could deny and no one could in any way demerit, and they pointed to His divinity. John is telling us in these great truths. Do you want to know that Jesus was in fact God in the flesh? Look at what he did. Look at what miracles he wrought. And you will see the deity, the divinity of Jesus Christ. Culminating, of course, in that great resurrection from the dead of Lazarus. Now, when we continue in chapter two, as you will remember, we pick up in verse 12 And verse 12, down through verse 25, is this cleansing of the temple. It begins here at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Jesus comes into the temple and He cleanses His temple. It speaks of a purification which Christ brings to His house. You recognize that Jesus over and over again had these encounters, and yes, these conflicts with established religion. Jesus Christ came as the great life giver, as the great illuminator, as the one who was made flesh to save sinners from their sins. And the established religion, they saw Jesus. They noted the miracles of Jesus. And yet, by and large, they rejected Jesus and turned from Jesus and gave Jesus a cross. Of course, their very rejection was a part of the providential moving of God's hand, because even in their rejection, Jesus was providing our redemption. The cross, what they thought they were giving Jesus to punish Him, became the provision for our sins. And so we see here this cleansing as Jesus goes into His temple and He sets right those things that were not right. and he purifies his temple. Then, beginning in chapter three, we have this very familiar passage about Jesus and Nicodemus. I spoke about religious leaders and their interaction with Jesus. One of the most interesting, of course, is this encounter between Jesus, the Savior, and Nicodemus, the man of religion. Beginning in verse one of chapter three, it says, There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. A ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Remember, I said a moment ago, what was the purpose of his miracles? It was to attest that he was God's messenger and God's son and God in the flesh. Nicodemus recognized this reality. He says, we can't deny the fact you must become from God because we see the miracles that you're doing and no one can deny it. This Pharisee told Jesus. Verse three, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus did not respond in Nicodemus directly. He simply made a statement of divine urgency. He said, except you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Here was Nicodemus, a man of religion who had spent all of his life, all of his work, all of his study, all of his waking moments preparing for, anticipating and desiring the coming of the kingdom of God. And Jesus, as the Son of God, shows up and he says, except you're born again, Nicodemus, you cannot even see the kingdom of God. Verse four, Nicodemus saith unto him, Can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into a mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, are truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the 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, You must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? And Jesus answered and said unto him, Thou art a master of Israel, and knowest not these things. Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, We speak that what we do know, and testify what we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This famous encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, it began as a theological point about Jesus and his identity. Jesus turned the conversation to Nicodemus and his own salvation, and he tells Nicodemus, except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except you are born of water and spirit, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Don't marvel. This is a part, verse 8, of the sovereign, selective, purposeful moving of God's salvation upon His people. This is something, Nicodemus, as a master of Israel, which you should understand and you should have grasp. What is the point in this encounter? Well, we see, first of all, very importantly in this encounter, the nature of the new birth. The encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus reminds us about the nature of the new birth. The new birth is a sovereign movement of the Spirit of God upon sinners who are lost and depraved and dead in their trespasses and sins. And the Spirit of God must move upon them and must grant unto them life and lights And that spirit that blows and you don't know where it's going, you don't know where it came from and you don't know where it's going. It is not something that man can control. It is not something that man can manipulate. It is not something that man can program or plan. It is the sovereign moving of God's spirit. And Jesus tells Nicodemus, the nature of the new birth is that it is the sovereign, supernatural hand of God, where God moves upon the hearts of men and draws them to himself. My dear friend, if you're here today, you need to heed that reality. So many today believe that salvation is basically on their own terms. They believe that salvation is whenever they decide to decide, whenever they want to get some religion. And Jesus will be obliged to grant it whenever they are desirous to have it. And they set back and they wait and say, I will do that later, I'll do that one when it's more convenient, when it's more appropriate, when I feel like it. That's not what the Bible says salvation is about. Salvation is the sovereign moving of the Spirit. It is God's hand calling effectually, inwardly, by His supernatural means, taking those who are blind and making them see, those who are deaf and making them to hear, so that they believe and receive Christ as their Savior and as their Lord. The nature of the new birth tells us that, dear brothers and sisters, we can't plan or have a program to squeeze more new births into the kingdom. Amen. It is not about us working hard enough, and if we were just inviting enough people and praying harder and having more witnesses, then we would have a whole lot more folks saved. That is a man-centered view of salvation. God saves people on His terms. You say, Preacher, you're saying we should invite people. We shouldn't attest to Christ. We shouldn't be sharing the gospel. Dear friend, I'm not saying that we are to be sharing the gospel. We are to be inviting people to Christ. We are to be leaving this building and telling people the good news of Jesus. But we need to realize. that not a single person is going to turn to Christ until that Spirit of God gets a hold of their soul and drives them to the cross. It is not our persuasion. It is not the slitness of our music or the eloquence of our preaching or the ability to program and have a lot of planning that will get folks saved. It is the sovereign moving of the Spirit of God as God is pleased to save souls. And God will do that in his time on his terms, according to his sovereign purpose. So we see something of the nature of the new birth. It is the sovereign, supernatural moving of the spirit, drawing men to the Savior. Then we see, of course, in this this great passage, the necessity of the new birth, and that's where we will close the necessity of the new birth. My dear friend, if you have not come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are lost and you are outside the Kingdom of God. Jesus made it very clear in this passage, except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Don't think that your religion or your good actions or your trying to be good is going to make you right with God. It is only by means of that new birth in Christ that you can be a part of Christ's kingdom. Jesus Christ extends this glorious invitation in John 3, 16, for whosoever believeth in him shall have everlasting life. And my dear friend, he speaks to you today right where you are. And the Spirit of God extends to you this general call and this general invitation. Come to Christ. Receive Christ. Believe in Christ. Christ is the way. Christ is the life. Christ is the life of man. And my dear friend, He calls you today and He calls you right now. He calls you through His Word. He calls you through the message. And He calls you to come. and receive and believe in Jesus Christ. Will you not come? Will you not receive the Savior? Will you not come to Him and put your faith and trust in Him? My dear friend, except you be born again, ye cannot see the Kingdom of God. Come to Him. Receive Him. And though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Let's bow our heads and hearts before the Lord. Oh, God, as we come to you now and Lord, as we have just had a very brief superficial review of these. Two and a half chapters We do again, Father, come away with a sense of this picture that You have given to us in Your Word. This picture of Jesus Christ as the life giver. Jesus Christ as the Savior of men. And Father, we pray that even now as the general call and the outward call has been extended that Your Spirit would sovereignly come and extend that inner call upon those who are lost, that they might receive Christ, that they might come to Christ and be born again. Oh, Father, we recognize that the nature of that salvation is Your sovereign moving and supernatural saving. And yes, Lord, we recognize that the necessity of that, it compels us to preach it and declare it and to share it with those around us. O God, save many. Draw sinners to Yourself and save them, O we pray. We ask this all in Jesus' holy and precious name. Amen. Amen.