We're continuing through our catechism series and the next couple of questions in our catechism ask, how are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? And the answer is we are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit applies the redemption that Christ purchased. And the next question asks, how does the Spirit apply to us, the redemption purchased by Christ? And the answer is, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. So those are the ideas in the catechism that we'll be looking at, but we will of course be turning to God's Word and seeing how God's Word teaches us these truths. So first, I would ask you to turn to the book of Numbers, chapter 21. Numbers chapter 21 verses 4 through 9, the accounts of the serpents and of the bronze serpent. From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we loathe this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Now please turn to the gospel according to John chapter three. I'll read the first 15 verses of John three. And towards the end of our reading, you will see a reference to the passage in numbers that we have just read. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind, or spirit, blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen. But you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Imagine for a moment that I were to tell you that tomorrow there is a stock, a publicly traded stock that you could purchase. And tomorrow around midday, it is going to increase twofold. And then every day after that, it is going to continue to increase by a factor of two every day. And it's never going to hit a ceiling. It's never going to crash. It is just going to go up and up and up for the rest of your life. Now, you would, perhaps very reasonably, I hope, respond with skepticism if I were to tell you that there was a stock that was going to begin to behave in this manner midday tomorrow. But for the sake of an opening illustration, suppose it's true. Suppose that there really is such a stock that is about to behave this way. You might ask the question, Well, how do I become invested in it? How do I gain a share so that I can participate in the gain that this company experiences? As long as this stock remains outside of me and apart from me, and as long as I'm not invested in it, as long as I don't have any shares in it, as long as I don't have any sort of participation in it, it doesn't do me any good. So how is it that I become invested in this stock that is about to go up? to move to heavenly rather than earthly matters. This is the sort of question that we encounter when we think about Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ has entered heaven, that he has gone through his estate of humiliation, but he has now entered into his exaltation and he has secured redemption. that Jesus Christ has entered heaven, enjoys the favorable presence of God, incorruptibility and immortality and glory, and He stands there as man, as a representative on behalf of men. But so long as men and women do not have a share in this Christ, As long as they do not have a share in his life and his humiliation and exaltation, what does it advantage them? It's like having a stock that goes up, but not having any shares in it. It is missing out on the redemption that he has secured. And so the urgent question is, well, how do we become invested in this? How do we become partakers, sharers, in this redemption that Jesus has purchased? The answer is that it's the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit applies Christ's redemption to us by working faith in us. The Holy Spirit applies Christ's redemption to us by working faith in us. This evening we'll take up this idea under two points. that gaining a share in Christ, first of all, is the Spirit's work. That for you to gain a share in Jesus Christ is exclusively and especially the work of God the Holy Spirit. And then secondly, we will look at what is the Spirit's work. Namely, the Spirit produces or works faith in us. So first let's consider the Spirit's work to apply redemption to us. It is not man's work. Man cannot, of his own effort, lay hold of and give himself an interest in Jesus Christ. We read in verse 3 of John 3, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And again, in verses five and six, we read about this necessity of a new birth. Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. How do I lay hold of Christ? How do I lay hold of his benefits? How do I enter the kingdom of God? And the answer is, flesh cannot do it. To be merely born of flesh, no matter how well you live a life in the flesh, no matter how well-born you might be in the flesh, no matter what the flesh might have to commend you for, It is insufficient for entering the kingdom of God. It cannot gain you the status of son of God. It cannot gain you a share in Christ. These words of Jesus to Nicodemus are so devastating. And Jesus is pronouncing over the life of Nicodemus lived thus far a giant negation. You weren't born right the first time, and another birth is necessary. You need a whole new beginning, and everything that you have done up to this point counts for nothing. in entering the kingdom of God. How devastating that must have sounded to a man like Nicodemus. A Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, so much to commend him, perhaps well-born, well-educated, and outwardly conforming to the law. And here Jesus, coming from God, tells him, you gotta start over. You gotta be born again. There are some young people in our congregation who just recently finished a cross-country season, and perhaps some of the older people in the congregation at one point ran track and field or cross-country when they were younger. Or if not that, maybe you have at least participated in a 5K, perhaps for a fundraiser or a turkey trot on Thanksgiving. Imagine running in a 5K race, And you're at least halfway through, maybe you're three miles in, and you've just got 1.1 mile to go, and you're coming up on the finish line. And all of a sudden, the race organizer or the race director comes out waving his arms and saying, stop, stop, stop. I know you've run a really good time up to this point, but you made a false start. And everything that you've done up to this point counts for nothing. If you keep going and you cross that finish line, what will be recorded is not this incredible time that you think you just ran, but those two awful letters that any cross-country runner would hate to see. DQ. Disqualified. A life in the flesh. A life born merely of the flesh. No matter how well it's run, according to the standards of the flesh, yet reaching the end merely in the flesh meets with this devastating answer, DQ, disqualified, all for nothing, no entrance into the kingdom of God, not a sharer, not a participant in the redemption purchased by Christ. So how does one go about entering the kingdom of God? How does one go about obtaining a share in Jesus Christ? The flesh cannot secure it, but it must be the work of God the Holy Spirit. We see this again in some of the same verses that we just looked at, verse 3. that one must be born again or born from above. Verses five through eight, a birth that takes place through the working of the spirit. Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind, or the spirit, blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. You don't see where the wind comes from, you don't know where it's going, but you see its effect. How is it that somebody who is in the flesh comes to be born of the spirit, It's a mysterious operation of the third person of the Trinity within them to bring about that new birth. But make no mistake, it is not accomplished by the hand of flesh. But it is accomplished by the Spirit of God. That only God's Spirit is able to commence this new life. We confess In the Nicene Creed that the Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of life. The Holy Spirit is the author. of life. And we see this so much throughout the scriptures, whether it's on the very first pages of Genesis, that the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters, the executive power of God that is going to shape and form and give life to this unformed chaos, earth that is formless and void. Again, we see the wind or the Spirit of God after the flood, causing the floodwaters to recede. And then Noah, with the animals, exits and there's a new beginning for humanity and for creation. When God is bringing his people out of Egypt, there is a wind, a spirit that God sends that parts the Red Sea. And while it may be a physical wind, it yet points us to a sign that it is God's Spirit that brings forth His people out of bondage and slavery and into new life. And Jesus Christ was raised according to the power of the Holy Spirit from the dead, and the Holy Spirit is the one who takes dead sinners and enlivens them. And this is the only way for that new life to commence, is if God himself undertakes to make alive what is dead, to give a new birth to a race that is always born wrong the first time, ever since our first parents fell. So if we are to gain a share in the redemption purchased by Christ, it must be the work of God, the Holy Spirit. We can grow discouraged if we forget this. We live in a world where so much can be controlled through human ingenuity. If you think just about the material world, how much mastery we have over the raw elements that God has placed into the earth. All sorts of things that can be manufactured. You could think up and imagine almost any shape And you could have it actually constructed using a 3D printer. There's so much power to control through processes and through technique the material world. And this even goes beyond just the inanimate parts of the material world. Think about all of the wonderful things in medicine and how Ailing bodies can be restored to health through various techniques and processes that are applied through the art of medicine. And even perhaps in the way people behave there is the ability to use technique to some extent shape the behaviors of people. You can think of the old-fashioned sort of propaganda of the mid-20th century to shape the way people think and perhaps as a result of that shape their behaviors. or even more recently, just through advertising and the way that that can shape the choices you make and what you buy. So much, whether it's the inanimate parts of the world, whether it's parts of our bodies, or if it's our patterns of consumption, so much can be controlled and manipulated by human ingenuity, by human strength. There's one thing that none of us can do. None of us can force or cause someone else to become a partaker of the redemption purchased by Christ. We can't do it. It has to be the work of the Holy Spirit. Now this isn't to say that there aren't means that we attend to. that yes, we are called to share the word, that God works through his word, and if people don't hear that word, how are they going to believe? To use an illustration, you can think of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the Chronicles of Narnia. The children go into the spare bedroom, and there's a wardrobe, and sometimes when they go in, the wardrobe opens up into Narnia. and other times they go in and it's just a plain, ordinary wardrobe with a wooden back to it. And it's beyond the children's control whether or not the wardrobe is going to open up into Narnia. You can bring your friends into it, you can bring your siblings into the spare bedroom, but whether or not it's going to open up into Narnia is beyond anything that they can do. And so we, as the church, we can bring people into the spare room. We can bring people the message of the gospel, and we are called as the church to do that. But as we bring that message, we are just bringing them only into the spare room, and whether or not they will enter heaven, whether or not the back of the wardrobe will open up, remains the prerogative of God the Holy Spirit. So maybe we grow frustrated and discouraged in prayer. Maybe we begin to think about prayer as a sort of process or technique that we can use to control whether or not someone believes, and then we don't see it happening, and so we grow frustrated. Perhaps we think of prayer as a kind of practical talisman to control or manipulate the results we would like to see. And we fail to recognize that prayer is quite the opposite. It's recognizing that we have no technique that we can apply, that we have no strength, no process that we can apply to a dead heart, and that we are appealing to God to give the life that only He can give. And so we need not grow discouraged when we recognize our own inability, but instead this should drive us back to the one who does have the ability, who does have the power to grant this new birth, this new life to dead sinners. So, it is the Holy Spirit's work, it is not man's work to accomplish this new birth. To make somebody a participant in the redemption purchased by Christ. Secondly, we can look at what it is that the Spirit works. What does the Spirit work? And the answer is faith, within the heart of sinners. And here we do see that there is a genuine human response to the song of the Holy Spirit. Faith is a gift of God and is produced by the Spirit within the hearts of men and women. But it is also a genuinely human response, as we'll see in the next catechism question, the next catechism sermon, that the Holy Spirit enlivens our hearts, renews our hearts and our wills, and persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. So faith is a genuine human response. But as we respond in faith, we realize that it's only... The Spirit was already there renewing, enlivening, persuading, sovereignly wooing the will so that we might lay hold of and rest in Jesus. And so the faith is what the Spirit works within us. It is a sovereign gift of God, but it is also a genuine human response but to illustrate the nature of faith, to illustrate the nature of what the Spirit works in us. I think it would do us well to pay attention to what we read in verses 14 and 15 and consider the passage that we read from Numbers. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. eternal life given to all those who believe. As we think about the passage in Numbers, it illustrates for us what faith is like. Here you have an unbelieving, grumbling people who are upset with the Lord for the provision that He has made, for having brought them out of Egypt. And so there is a punishment, a serpent's scent to punish the people. And they begin to think better of their rebellion. They ask for mercy. And the Lord responds by commanding Moses to make a bronze serpent that he lifts up and which when anybody looks on it, he will live. That's such a beautiful picture of faith because it's such a simple thing to do. Just look. Believe that there is a way that God has provided for you to escape the venom that is coursing through your veins and is about to kill you, and just look to the means that he has provided. We're not told that any particular Israelite responded in this way, but you could imagine how frustrating it would be for a family member of somebody who had been bitten, and the family member is there telling them, you're about to die, you're in agony, but just outside, there's a serpent lifted up on a pole, and if you look at it, you will live. And the person who doesn't believe is inside and says, it's not gonna work. You say, just go out there and look at it. No. You don't even have to get that close. I know it's a long walk, but you don't even have to walk that close. It's off in the distance and you can see it. Just look. Even if it's small, it's blurry, you can't quite make it out, the faith is weak, just look and see. You just gotta see it a little bit. And you will live. You can imagine the frustration of somebody saying, no. I won't go. I won't look at it. It's such a simple thing. Just go, you're so close to death. And there's life that is offered, just go look at it. What persuades such a person to go look? Not at the serpent, but at Jesus Christ lifted up on a cross. It's the work of God, the Holy Spirit. But that simplicity of looking at the serpent illustrates just the beautiful nature of the simplicity of faith. Look at Jesus. Believe in Him. You say, well, my faith isn't strong, it's challenged at times, it's unclear, it's far off, it's like I have blurry vision. That's okay, blurry vision. If you glimpse Him at all, You say, I'm too weak to walk that close to make out all the details of what I'm looking at. Then look from afar. Look from far away and just get a glimpse. Believe the promise that God has provided a way of escape As He did in the Old Testament in a temporal way, look at the serpent and you will live. So believe in His Son and you will have everlasting life. Such a beautiful simplicity to believing and trusting and resting in Jesus Christ. And it's this simple faith that the Holy Spirit works in us. that He produces in us and by which we lay hold of Christ and become partakers of all of His benefits. Though you only saw Him from far away at a distance, couldn't make it out precisely clear, but you saw Jesus and you believed. Then you have a vested interest in the Messiah. You have at least one share in the best stock that you could ever have a share in. You have an interest in the one who sits at the right hand of God and in perfect favor with the Father. And so, congregation, do not grow discouraged if you are here this evening and you have not yet looked to the Savior. Look to Him. And if you are in a position where you have prayed earnestly for someone you love, and you are wondering, will they ever believe? Do not grow fainthearted in going again and again to the only one who can produce that faith within them. God, Father, Son, and especially the one who applies that salvation and produces that faith, God, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray together. Our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we do praise you for so great a redemption. And we thank you that this redemption that Christ has secured does not just remain outside of us for us to look at. while we look at all the other people who are gaining an interest and a share in it, but it comes sincerely and freely to all who will hear and listen, that we too may gain an interest in your Son. And so we pray this evening that not one person would leave here this evening without being interested in Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.