John chapter 3 this morning. John chapter number 3. We are turning our attention to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the person in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And this morning I wanna begin to talk about his ministry in salvation. So we're gonna look at John chapter three, I think, well, I'm pretty much sure that we will. that I'll spend a couple of weeks here dealing with some of this will be a little broader than just the ministry of the Spirit. But John 3 is obviously certainly worth our attention. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for our salvation and we are interested in it. We know that the angels are interested in it, and we know that you are interested in it, and you are the author and the finisher of our faith. So we pray that you would help us to understand and appreciate all that you have done and are doing in the lives of your people to bring them to yourself, and also to give to your son a worthy subject And so we pray your blessing on our time together today in Jesus' name. Amen. So we will not look at all the verses in equal proportions this morning, but verses 1 through 22 will be our passage, will constitute our passage. And as I mentioned, our focus is going to be ultimately on the work of the ministry and the work of the Spirit in salvation. But there's a lot more going on in this passage, but I think that we'll find it very helpful. So, let's turn our attention to it, just for if you're taking notes, if you care, note taking. Verses one through 10 are a discussion that Jesus has with Nicodemus about the subject matter, so let's begin there. Verse number one gives us both a brief biography and helps to establish the credibility of Nicodemus. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The Pharisees are a segment or a sect of Judaism that arose at some time in the intertestamental period, sometime in that 400 silent years between the conclusion of Malachi and the dawn of the New Testament age. They are generally, and these of course are always generalizations, but the Pharisees are certainly the conservative wing of Judaism. They believe in the core doctrines, if you will. They're obviously adversaries of Jesus, so I'm not putting them in our camp, but he never had a conversation with them about whether or not there was really a resurrection, whether or not they were really angelic beings. Those are the kind of conversations that he did have with the Sadducees. The Sadducees tended to be from among the aristocracy, kind of the wealthy class of Jewish people. The Pharisees tended to be more middle class kind of people. And of course, the Pharisees were really derailed in their obsession with the laws and means of salvation. And that is no end of all of the conflict. But that's not all that is told us about Nicodemus. We are told that he is a ruler of the Jews. And the word there that is used is the word that gives us our word arch in the top or the very and this is signifying that he is a member. We know that Israel, right, Israel has lost its political independence. It lost it under Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. It did not recover any form of political independence until after World War II, when the United Nations, in conjunction with Britain, who had controlled the land of Palestine, granted to it again political independence in 1948. And so it had been under Gentile leadership and Gentile rulers, whether it be the Babylonians and then the Persians, and as it is now, the Romans for a period of time, the Greeks, and now the Romans. And so the Romans allowed them some latitude but not true independence, and they were politically governed by what we know as the Sanhedrin, a council of about 70, perhaps 72 men, and of course they were all men, who wielded political authority under the Roman authorities, who were functioned as, like the Supreme Court and the legislative body, interpreters of the Law of Moses, And all of those tensions then kind of show up throughout the gospel stories. The Sadducees had developed a rapport with the Roman leadership and were cooperative with them. Many of the Pharisees found this very treacherous, tritorious, that they would make alliances with arch enemies. And then you had people like Judas Iscariot, who were zealots, who advocated for an independence movement of their own. And so you have all of those kind of political tensions that go to it. Nevertheless, Nicodemus, who is a Pharisee and ultra conservative, is also one of the ruling members of the nation. He is a man of tremendous significance in his world. And in fact, if you look down at verse number 10, Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a, and you may have a note in your Bible because in the Greek language there is a definite article that is used there. It is not really a master, it is the master. Nicodemus is recognized as the leading teacher in the nation of Israel. If it were possible, and I'm just drawing this, it will, so if I make some error there, please don't burn me too severely. This is kind of equivalent of bringing somebody with the political clout of a Kennedy and the economic potential clout of a Bill Gates and the Bible teaching history of Billy Graham. And Jesus is talking to that kind of man, a man who is well-versed in politics, who is the leading expert in Jewish religion. One source that I read said, beyond any shadow of a doubt, Nicodemus had memorized the entire Old Testament. This was just kind of part and parcel of the expectation of being on the council where he sat So again, here is a man, right? Verse number one is establishing his credibility by giving you his biography. This is a man of spiritual substance and he comes to Jesus. Verse number two provides you the setting for the conversation, right? How the conversation is going to go is determined by what we are told. in verse number two, the same, this man of tremendous intellectual renown and spiritual capability from a Jewish standpoint, came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, the teacher, 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, right? So with reference to his biography, right, he is a man who is important to the nation of Israel in his leadership role, in his spiritual insight role. He is a tremendously influential person. I guess that would kind of go without saying. And yet the first thing that John tells you about this man in setting the stage for the conversation is that he comes from a position of darkness. Comes from a position of darkness. John is a lover. It shows up in all of his writings, particularly 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, the Gospel of John. John is a lover of using light and dark in metaphorical senses. This doesn't mean that it is literally night. He literally comes at night. But one of the common ways that we approach that is he came at night out of fear. And I don't think that that is completely defensible. Pharisees had conversations with Jesus. They did not shy away from conversations with Jesus. And sometimes those conversations were very earnest and eager, right? They were not all traps that they were setting. They talked with Jesus. And Nicodemus, at the end of the gospel story, uses his considerable influence when it comes to recovering the body of Christ. So I don't know that John is trying to paint the picture that Nicodemus is coming because he knows if somebody sees him talking to Jesus, it's gonna undercut him. I think that John is using the darkness as he does, right? When he tells us, for instance, at the end of the Gospel of John, that Judas Iscariot went out and it was night. Is it night? Yes. Is the sun shining? No, it is night. Is that what I need to know? No. John is using his metaphorical mentality to tell you that Judas Iscariot went out in the deepest of spiritual darkness and Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the deepest of spiritual darkness. He does not know that. And that emerges very quickly in the story. But John knows that and John wants us to know that. that for all of his biography and credibility in verse number one, he is a man in tremendous spiritual darkness. Verse number two, but not only does he approach Jesus from a position of ignorance, he approaches Jesus from a position of confidence. The same came to Jesus by night, verse number two, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know. Which kind of raises the question is who are the we? He could not possibly be speaking for the Sanhedrin because the Sanhedrin were very divided on this issue. It is possible that he is speaking on behalf of the members of the Sanhedrin and the members of the Pharisees who recognize some spiritual significance to Christ, but it doesn't really appear to be that way. he is perhaps speaking from the position of what we call the royal we. The kind of the public speaking we. I've done it. I've learned by hard experience as pastor never to say we, when what I really mean is me, because I will invariably get called on that. Who's the we? You said we, who we? Not me we. So, and I'm And I'm not trying to overblow that, folks, but Jesus, I believe, will pick up on that. And he will turn that back on Nicodemus. Nicodemus comes to Jesus. I don't think he's coming from a position of fear. He's coming from a position of confidence. He believes, he is on line with thinking that he has found in Christ from his pharisaical position, kind of a kindred spirit. We know, right? We know that you are a teacher come from God. Nobody could do what you could do except God be with him. Which, if you will think carefully about that, folks, you will realize how dark that statement actually is. you will realize, and again, I will make the argument that Jesus picks up on this in a minute, Nicodemus is missing critical information. Not that he is inaccurate, but that his information is complete. And here's one of the reasons, right? And so then in verse number three, you have Jesus' response. 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 I just, we need to make a little bit of a grammatical note here, folks, because again, it may be a little difficult to connect Jesus' answer in verse number three to Nicodemus' question in verse number two, which isn't really a question, it's a statement of fact, right? There's no question there. Again, Nicodemus is not being argumentative. He's not trying to bait Jesus, as so often happened. He comes and he makes a statement of fact. We know that God sent you, and the evidence that God sent you is the works that you do. The word know in verse number three, or verse number two. We know is actually a Greek word that means we see. We see. If you care, it's the Greek word, Ido. And the Latin word, when the Latins took the word, they turned the word into video. Well, we can see. We see. There's the connection, folks, between verses two and verse number three. Nicodemus said, this is what we see. We see that God is with you. We see the works that you do. This is what we see. Jesus' response is, nobody sees the kingdom without being born again. What Nicodemus knows in verse number two is accurate but incomplete. It is a dimension of spiritual darkness. You must be born again. Or actually, you may have a note in your study Bible, he must be born from above. He must be born from on high, verse number three. So there's, right? So we have Nicodemus introduced, there's his biography. Nicodemus' setting for the conversation. What are we going to talk about? Nicodemus wants to talk about the fact that it is obvious that God is with Jesus Christ. And Jesus wants to talk not so much about the kingdom, but about the necessity of this idea of the new birth. And we will come back to that. So in other words, folks, by the time we're at verse number three, Jesus has made it plain to Nicodemus that some form of transformation is necessary to see clearly. If you really want to see spiritually, you need some form of transformation. You need to be born from on high. And with that, I want to jump down to verse number four, because now Nicodemus, right, who has come in this kind of confidence And the kind of confidence that is unaware of his ignorance asks the question, verse number four, how can man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Nicodemus is not arguing against the idea of the new birth. Nicodemus is not going, Well, you say we need to be born again, but I think I'm good enough as I am. Nicodemus is asking about the mechanics of it. How would this possibly work? And he is, folks, kind of utterly accused or utterly confused. But again, he's not utterly confused, I don't think, about what Jesus is fundamentally explaining. that you need a whole new person to come into existence. Nicodemus picked up on that right away with the idea of being born. There is a whole new person. This is something, by the way, Jesus, when he goes through that, not lengthy, but his short little explanation on patching the old wineskins, Jesus is not here to fix something that needs to be repaired, he is here to introduce something entirely new. And humanity needs to be entirely new. And so then between verses five through eight, Jesus explains the answer to Nicodemus in greater detail. How can this be? Verse number five, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And let's just pause there before we read the rest of it, because this is one of the most perplexing statements in the Gospel of John. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Well, what does that mean? And if we were Roman Catholics, the answer would be easy, wouldn't it? What's the water? Baptism. You have to be born by baptism. But we're not Catholics, we're Baptists. And as Baptists, we tend to enter it this way. That's a reference to the physical birth. You're born of water. Prior to, prior to, prior part of labor is the water breaks. And so you have to be born physically. But the real questions, folks, the real question is not what do we think it means? The real question is what would Nicodemus have thought that it meant? And before we get to that, we need to ask this question. What would Jesus have meant? when he said that. And so let me ask you to do something, if you would. This is not original with me, but I found it very helpful, my own self. If you will look the best you can simultaneously at verse number three and at verse number five, and let's just eliminate the stuff that is identical. For instance, in verse number three, Jesus answered and said unto him, you can scratch that out. And verse number five, Jesus answered. Well, those are the same things. OK, and then you go back up to verse number three, verily, verily, I say unto thee, and then you go down to verse number five, verily, verily, I say unto thee, those are the same. And you can kind of Mark them out. Verse number five, or verse number three, if you look at the end, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And at the end of verse number five, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Close enough. You can mark them out. So the only place there's anything that might even remotely be considered a discrepancy between verse number three and verse number five is this. Verse number three, except a man be born again. And verse number five, except a man be born of water and of the spirit. And I would propose to you folks that Jesus is using two different expressions, but he just means the same thing. In other words, there's not a being born again, a being born again, and there is not being then born of water and spirit. And then if you really want to add to the mix, if you look down at verse number eight, 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 every one that is born of the spirit. So Jesus attaches this concept of birth either to three very different things, or he is using three different expressions to describe the same thing. You are either born again, born of water and the Spirit, or born of the Spirit. If those are three distinct things, then it is entirely possible that not all of us got our salvation exactly the same way. Some of us were born from on high, some of us might have been born out of the Spirit, and some of us might have been born of water and of the Spirit. Or they could just be different perspectives on the very same and exact event, which is the argument that I would take. It is not New Testament baptism. Now we're going to come back to John chapter 3. Let me ask you if you would to turn to Ezekiel chapter 36. Here is a man, Nicodemus, who is the undisputed master of the Old Testament in his time. He is the teacher in Israel. If you want to know something about the Old Testament, Nicodemus is the guy to find the answer to. So again, the question is, when Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must be born again, Nicodemus wants to know about physical birth. And when Jesus talks about being born of water and the Spirit, which I would argue is a clarification for Nicodemus' purposes. Jesus is not trying to confuse the issue. He's trying to clarify it. Nicodemus, let me give you something that you can identify with. Ezekiel chapter 36. verse number 21. And of course remember that Ezekiel is one of the captives being hauled away under the Babylonians and he is carried off to the land of Babylon and the nation is in ruins. I'm gonna jump in in the verse number 21, which is in kind of the middle of the Lord's speech here. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathens, the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for mine holy namesake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. Now, again, in Leviticus, we've been kind of dealing with that, right? Profane, made common, did not recognize as sacred or holy. This is how they had treated their God. Verse number 23, and I will sanctify my great name. which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. Now, how will this happen? Verse 24, for I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land. Now, I made mention earlier of 1948, a significant date but not the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy. And the reason that we know that it's not the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy is because of Ezekiel 36, 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses and I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you, and I will multiply the fruit tree in the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord God. In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the way shall be built. Now remember, this is Babylonian destruction, cities and ruins. And the desolate land, verse 34, shall be tilled, whereas it lay in the sight of all that pass by. And they shall say, this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden. and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fence and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined places and plant that was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it and will do it." So there is the prophecy. And almost certainly, folks, when Jesus talks about water and spirit, A man who is a leading expert in the Old Testament is going to be thinking about, or is at least expected to be thinking about, this passage. Because, folks, our salvation is treated as both a washing and a renewing. We are cleaned and made new. Titus 3, 4, But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward men appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. So to go back to John chapter three, folks, whatever, let me cover all of my bases, whatever is meant by water and spirit. It has Old Testament, not New Testament meaning. Because Nicodemus wouldn't have thought in terms of baptizing. Nicodemus thought in terms of circumcising. And when Jesus deals with him, Jesus doesn't fault him for not being able to think in New Testament terms. He, Fletcher, should have been able to go to a passage like Ezekiel 36 and go, you know what we need? We need to be born again. We need a transformation from within, not simply the imposite, right? Because here is the fair, sacred way, folks. And by the way, it is the way of the world. It is, if you don't think it's the way of the world, just think about the place where you work. The answer to every glitch is a new rule. You wait and see. Part of the process of it being decreed that it is safe to go back to McDonald's will be them assuring us that they have put new policies in place. That's what we do. We make everything clean by imposing external rules. That's the way of the world. That was the way of the Pharisees. Got a problem? Need a rule. Got a problem? Need a rule. What's Christ's position? Got a problem? You need something radically new. You need a whole different nature created from within. So again, folks, back to John chapter three. This is the expectation that Christ will have. He will not expect Nicodemus to understand New Testament baptism. He will expect Nicodemus to have understood the Old Testament. And I want to point out to you that in verse number 5, Jesus is being very insistent here that this is a mandate. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And that brings us then to verse number 6. Why is it a mandate? Jesus is elaborating. Nicodemus, you must be born again. Back into the womb? No, born of water and of the spirit, like I talked about in Ezekiel 36. And you need something that comes from above Nicodemus because of verse number five, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. In other words, folks, the evidence for this is not just simply in Old Testament prophetic literature. The evidence for this is in the natural world that Nicodemus inhabits, like we inhabit. One of our sons-in-law has a poodle, I think, a poodle. And so he bred the poodle with, my wife could tell you all this because I'm not going to tell you the breed because I'm going to get it wrong and then I have to have that conversation with her. That wasn't the breed. So he bred it with some dog that wasn't a poodle to get some mix that was highly desirable and they ended up with a bunch of puppies that he sold for a bunch of money. But there was never any question in anybody's mind, folks, that what were going to be born were dogs. because dogs only give birth to dogs. That's the point Jesus is making in verse number five. Sheep give birth to sheep and goats give birth to goats and turtle doves give birth to turtle doves. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Humanity can never produce anything other than humanity, which is sinful. That's the way it has been since the Garden of Eden. So whoever the best Christian in the world is in the male form, if they were to marry whoever the best Christian in the world is in the female version, their children would be sinful because that which is flesh is flesh. and that which is spirit is spirit. And that's the reason, folks, that in verse number seven, Jesus says to Nicodemus, this should not shock you. This should not come as a shock to you, Nicodemus. The evidence is everywhere. The evidence is everywhere. It should come as no surprise that mankind need a birth, again, the word again means from on high, and a birth that originates in heaven. This should not come as a surprise. And then Jesus goes on to point out in verse number eight, that since a birth from heaven is mandatory, a birth from heaven is the work of God. And it works like this, verse number eight. The wind bloweth where it listeth, an antique word that simply means will. It is simply the Greek word will. It is translated will or willeth all over the place. And here it is translated with the word listeth. The wind blows where it wants. The wind blows where it wants. And thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh. I mean, look, in Nebraska, we understand that the wind blows and we can go, oh, the wind's out of the west today. And we know enough about science to know that it's connected to pressure systems and elevations. But when the wind just gusts, it just blows and it blows wherever it wants to blow. And you may hear the leaves rustle. You may hear the paper shuffle. You may hear something fall over, but you don't see the wind. The wind just does what it wants, and all that you see of the wind are what the wind produces. That's verse number eight. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. Where does the wind go when it blows by my house? So is every one that is born of the Spirit. And by the way, that little word of there means out of. It is a birth that is generated by the Spirit. It is born from on high. It is born of water and spirit. It is born out of the spirit. These are the words explaining the new birth. You do not see God's spirit because he is spirit. and you don't know where he, seriously, I mean, there is one sense, folks, without, you know, wading down into theological minutia, but we just kind of all know this, right? On one hand, God is everywhere. Because there's no place that God cannot be. He is omnipresent. But he is not everywhere equally, if I could put it that way. Wherever two or more gather in my name, there am I in the midst thereof. And sometimes the Spirit of God comes mightily, and sometimes he doesn't. Now that is activity reserved to the Spirit of God, just as it's activity reserved to the wind. But here's the point I think that Jesus is making. You can't see the wind, but you will know that the wind has been there. And we cannot see the Spirit but we will know when the Spirit has been there. Folks, there is the invisible work of conversion, but there are no invisible Christians. Because when the Spirit does a work, he generates something that is visible. That's the argument Jesus is making in verse number eight. The wind blows, you don't see the wind. But you know the wind has been there. You've heard the wind. You've seen the effects of the wind. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. You didn't see the Spirit, but you know the Spirit has been there. That's the argument that he is making. Nicodemus responds yet again in confusion. How can these things be? How can this be? And that brings us then to Jesus' final question for him. Or his question that contains a little bit of rebuke. Art thou the master of Israel and knowest not these things? It would be like having a conversation with William Shakespeare where he said he wasn't very good in the alphabet. You're the greatest author in English history, and you don't know your ABCs? Beginning then in verse number 11, and down through verse number 13, and I'm gonna have to deal with this quickly. Jesus now, right? Nicodemus is still, right? He is still reeling trying to figure out how this will work. Jesus is not unkind to Nicodemus, but neither is he particularly gentle with him. And I think that's what's going on in verses 11 through 13. Jesus now, rather than answer a question, right? The question is, how can these things be? Jesus now elevates the argument a little bit. Verse number 11, and my take on this is that now we have a little bit of a play on what Nicodemus, on Nicodemus' attitude in verse number two. Here's why I say Nicodemus comes with confidence, because he uses kind of that royal way. We know that thou art a teacher come from God. And now Jesus is gonna take that royal tone with him in verse number 11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, Who's the we? Who's the we? And testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness. Who's the we? But then in verse number 12, Jesus turns immediately again to the first person. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not." Now once again, folks, we want to make sure that we read this carefully so that we grasp the way these kinds of conversations work. Here is, beyond any doubt, the leading religious figure of Israel. In his words, he sounds confused. Jesus accuses him of not believing. Verse number 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not. And that is a plural, right? None of you believe. Most of you don't believe. At this point in time, very few, if any, of the Pharisees or religious leaders believed. You do not believe. How shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? So there's a sense here, folks, in which it appears that Jesus is labeling the new birth as something, not that it's heavenly in its origin because it originates in heaven, or as earthly in its origin, it originates in heaven, but it's something that happens at an earthly level that earthly men can come to an understanding of. And if you can't get that, Jesus says, if you don't believe that, then in what universe would you believe if I told you something more complicated? That's the question he asks. Again, I don't think Jesus is being unkind, but neither is he being particularly gentle. The fact that Nicodemus has the respect of the entire Jewish nation by virtue of his position does not mean that Jesus Christ is awed by him. He is, after all, his maker. And then, folks, and this is just my opinion, because I'm reading thoughts into Nicodemus. The declaration of verse number 13 is abundantly clear. Jesus is doing in John 3.13 exactly what he will be accused of doing that will bring about his arrest. He is making himself equal to God. Verse number 13, no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man which is in heaven. That's him. That's him. So Jesus' authority to talk to Nicodemus in this way about the necessity of new birth is anchored, folks, not in his own expertise in the Old Testament, but in his own identity as the Messiah. I can tell you that you need to be born again in part because I am so instrumental in the new birth, and that's where we'll go next week. And I'm already, I'm out of time, but in verses 14 through 21, then Jesus really explains both the mechanics of the new birth and the obstacle to it. And I just wanna, I'm not gonna read them, I'm just gonna highlight them, right? It is like when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Again, the leading Old Testament scholar is gonna know immediately the story and the context, right? Widespread rebellion, God sends a plague, God sends a savior, a serpent that is lifted up. And what was the instruction? Look. That's all you needed to do, look. Okay, just like that, the Son of Man is gonna be lifted up. And every time, by the way, folks, that lifted up, it's a crucifixion reference. John uses it, I don't know, half a dozen times. It's always a crucifixion reference. The Son of Man is lifted up. He's put up on a tree. And you have to believe. That's all you have to do is believe. Believing is looking. Looking is believing. God is doing the work. That's where John 3.16 fits in. But we'll look at that a little bit more next week. The problem then in verses 18 through 21 is that people don't believe. And they don't believe because they like their sin. They don't believe because they like their sin. And John returns now to that light dark metaphor. He's used it at the beginning of Christ, John chapter one. He was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And here men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. So that becomes kind of the impediment, right? Because all you got to do is look, which raises the question, why won't you look? And the answer is, because there are other things we like better. And so that raises kind of the question of, brings us back to the necessity of the work of the Spirit, which we will turn to next week. Okay, I gotta stop. I'm over my time.