Let us read God's word together. When they heard these words, some of the people said, this really is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him. but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priest and the Pharisees who said to them, why did you not bring him? The officers answered, no one ever spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered them, have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. Nicodemus, who had gone up to him before, and he was one of them, said to them, Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? They replied, Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Luke chapter 2 Simeon, the old man, spoke to Mary and said, Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed. Matthew chapter 10, our Lord Jesus tells us, Do not think that I've come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Friends, the preaching of Jesus Christ caused division. The preaching of Jesus Christ caused division because His preaching separated the wheat from the tares. It was the preaching of the gospel. It was the preaching of the conviction of sin. And so as we've read this passage together this morning, I think there are three things that you can tell from the account of the division. Three things that are warnings, that are encouragements, and that also give us direction regarding our Savior. The first of them is this, that knowledge without grace is simply insufficient. We can know everything. We can know the councils of heaven. We can be like the ancient Jews and have the scriptures memorized. Or we can recite them. We can know theology. We can logically be able to progress through the minutiae of the wisdom of the God of heaven, yet have hearts that are hard and that are unmoved. Knowledge is insufficient. Grace must meet knowledge and save our souls. Secondly, that the power of Christ preaching changes the hardness of sinful hearts. Whenever men hear Jesus' preaching, it's impossible to sit on the fence. If you're listening and you have ears that are open and eyes that are watching, when you hear Jesus' voice come out and ring out over the crowds, it separates the wheat from the chaff. It separates the sheep from the wolves. It does a definitive thing in the hearts of men. It shows them their sin and their need for a Savior. and then it chases them to the free offer of Jesus. The power of the preaching of Jesus is simply the gospel. This morning I want you to know that. That the power of the preaching of Jesus is good for the saint who is many years advanced in age and for the unconverted that they might believe even for the first moment. It shows you your sin and your need for Jesus and then it freely offers all that he has got to give to those who will be his. The power of Christ's preaching changes the hardness of sinful hearts. And then thirdly, I want you to see in Nicodemus that slow grace is grace still. Do you know that our Lord, whenever he works in the hearts of men, does not go by a playbook? He has different means to go into different hearts. One thing I want to assure you is that whenever the Lord works in the hearts of men, He is always bringing them to the same Savior, but He does it at different paces. We have in this passage Nicodemus, but in other passages we have the instantaneous conversion miraculously with a vision of the Apostle Paul. Nicodemus' was slow. It was at night. It was before the Sanhedrin. It was before Calvary. Slowly, grace was worked. in him. Slowly, he became more bold. Slowly, the seed of the gospel grew up into life in his heart. The reason why I want us to see this this morning, friends, is so that we will not despise slow grace in the hearts of our friends, in our own hearts, and in our families, but that we will be a people who praise God even for slow grace. In fact, maybe even seek it out. Let's consider God's word together. As we've read the account from verses 40 down through 44, we read that amongst the crowd that heard Jesus that there were some that had quite a bit of knowledge of the scriptures. There were some who considered Christ, who heard his teaching and his preaching, and what did they say of him? First, we're told that they think that he is the prophet. Of course, they're speaking of Deuteronomy, Chapter 18, verse 15. They know the scriptures. They know the promise of Moses, that there is a prophet who is coming after me. And they think to themselves, because they know the scriptures, Jesus is only a prophet. I know who he is. I know what's going on with him. He's the great prophet that Moses promised. Then, of course, you have others. who say that this is the Christ. This is the Messiah. This is the one whom we've waited for. This is the shoot from the stump of Jesse. This is the great Messiah that comes from the seat of David. This is He who will sit upon His throne and rule forever and ever. The right conclusion. Of course, Christ is a prophet. He is the great prophet. But He's not only a prophet. He's the prophet. He is the Messiah. But then still you have others. You have others that say, this can't be the Christ. It can't be. He's not from Bethlehem. We know that the Messiah will come out of Bethlehem. Surely that's the case. For that's where David was. That's where he lived. He has to be, if he is the Messiah, David's seed. He can't be the Messiah. Jesus doesn't meet the test of our biblical knowledge. You see, they're stacking up for themselves. various tests that the Scriptures have given them for the sake of their discernment. But the problem with their discernment is that it is all trapped between their ears. You see, the man that only knows Scripture, that only knows theology, But as it moved by the power of the Holy Spirit to not only know theology, but believe theology, is robbed from any real reading of the Scripture. And so his knowledge is nothing. It's impotent. It's not useful in any way. Now friends, the thing that I'm not saying is that scriptural knowledge or theological knowledge is wicked, nor am I saying that it's not useful. No, no, no. Hear me very loudly and clearly. Scriptural knowledge, biblical knowledge, is good. It is necessary. Romans chapter 10 tells the reader, how can they believe in whom they have not heard? You have to know some things to believe in Him. But the thing that I want to tell you this morning is it is not knowledge that saves. Knowledge is a means through which the Lord works. Again, it's not ignorance. I'm not encouraging that. J.C. Ryle has a wonderful quote that I think is really helpful to shine some light on this for us this morning. He says, an unknown God can never be the object of reasonable worship. Friends, ignorance is never the road to blessedness. Now, there are some quarters in the church that would say that theological acumen and theological precision only brings division. Well, in Jesus' day, certainly it brought division. In our day, certainly it brings division. But it is blessed division. It is a separation of God's people out from the nations, those who belong to this world and this earth and the ruler of this place. But nonetheless, a unspiritual knowledge is a knowledge that will only confuse the soul into thinking that they are saved when they are not. unspiritual knowledge. What do I mean by that? I mean knowledge that's not met by the grace of God. It's a great danger for us in our own day to be like these people and to be those who are built up in all sorts of knowledge, to have the scriptures downloaded into our psyche, to speak scripture, to think scripture, but to never know and believe it. It is not enough to only know the Bible, but you have to believe it. have to believe it. Biblical knowledge will never inform the soul of a man to bring about greater obedience and faith in Christ if the work of the Holy Spirit is not changing him to grab a hold of that sweet and wonderful mercy that is offered to him in the Scriptures. You see, the people who should have known most particularly had a hardness of heart most peculiarly. Those who knew where the Messiah was to come from, who knew that he was David's son, knew that he should come from Bethlehem, that knew so much about him, that if they even had the tiniest pricking of faith, the grace in their heart, that they should have grown up into a massive tree of faithfulness. They didn't know, because the only thing they relied on was what they could know for themselves. When we study the scriptures, when we hear the word read and preached, it is on our souls that we must pray for grace to believe it. This morning, I want to ask you Presbyterians at Second Presbyterian Church, do you only know or do you believe that Jesus is the Lord of all? Do you know that He is the Messiah and that He existed 2,000 years ago and that He did wonderful things? Or do you believe in Him as your Savior? Your knowledge is not going to get you into heaven. You can know all of the scriptures and still go to hell. Do you know that Satan knows the scriptures and is adept at using them? In fact, he even used them against our Lord whenever Christ was tempted in the wilderness. Do you know that? It is so important that you always put your heart before the magnifying glass of the Holy Spirit and say, Oh Lord, do I only know this doctrine or do I believe it? Friends, for those of you who have been raised up in the church that love theology, and I know that you do, that love the scriptures, and I know that you do, you must always seek spiritual learning that is seasoned with grace. Otherwise, what are you doing? You're building a house out of straw. You've got all sorts of ideas. You're little more than a theological philosopher. You say, but whenever I study the scriptures, I understand them. When I study all of theology and read systematic theology, ah, it's so good and I get it and I understand it. But it is important. Is it important that you only understand it or that your heart be moved to greater faith? Do you know that every piece of Scripture is utterly useless to the heart of a man if it is not met with faith? Do you know that? All it will do is send you to hell. It's going to tell you, you're a sinner, but if you don't have faith in Jesus, it's only going to point you to your destiny in the pit of hell, the punishment and the pain. All theology is not going to do anything for you if you don't know that Jesus is the Lord of glory and accept him and love him. Yes, as the seed of David. Yes, as the Messiah from Bethlehem. Yes, as the bread of life and the refreshing water of the soul. You must not just know him, but love him. That's a thing that we all have to be confronted with. Otherwise, you're robbing yourself from a mountain of grace and mercy. There's no theological truth that is worth knowing in the heart of a man, other than it rears grace in him to live. Why do we love the substitutionary atonement? That wonderful doctrine, that thing that is so hard to understand, because it tells me, my God loved me so much, He sent His Son to die in my place. That's why we love that doctrine. The doctrine of double imputation, so heady, so erudite. Why do we love it? It means this. I don't die where I deserve to die. He died for me. I have hope in him because of that. All our knowledge must be seasoned with grace. If it's not, you'll be just as hard as these Jews who heard him, who knew and hated him. They hated him. They wanted to arrest him. They wanted to lock him up in chains and pierce his hands. They wanted to put him to death on a cross. Knowledge without grace is not worth anything for anyone. Friends, ask yourself the question, do I know and do I believe? The second thing I want us to see this morning is the power of Christ's preaching for the changing of the hard hearts of sinners. This passage is sort of divided in three. Depending on your translation, you can see and easily pick them out. Verses 40 through 44, we just studied. Verses 45 through 49, the second division. And then the account of Nicodemus and the priest and the Pharisees, 50 through 52. Our focus for the second point is mainly verses 45 through 49. The power of Christ preaching and the hardness of sinners' hearts. You see, we read that the officers who were sent, the high priest and the Pharisees, to take and arrest Jesus, that apparently they were called back to give some report about what they were doing. And what's their response, friends? Whenever they ask, why have you come back and you've not brought Jesus? What did they say? They say this, well, we've never met anyone like this man. They could have had a multitude of excuses. They could have said, well, you see priest, you see Pharisees. We went and we tried, but the crowds, they loved him and so we couldn't arrest him. Wasn't the truth, the crowds hated him. They could have arrested him. They could have even had people volunteer from the crowds to hold him as they locked him in chains. They could have said to the Pharisees and the chief priest, we never could find him. There were too many people in the city. There were so many people that as we searched, we never saw hide in her hair. That was a lie. They couldn't say that. They'd seen Jesus. In fact, he'd been preaching right in their backyard in the temple complexes. They saw Jesus, they heard his preaching, and their response is simply, no one ever, ever spoke like this man. You see, their response gives us a picture into their souls in that moment. They could have done everything to be afraid of those men who could actually send other officers to arrest them as officers and take them in chains and put them to death. But instead their hearts were impressed with Jesus so much so that they had only one word to say, no one ever spoke like this man. They were impressed. They were impressed. Those officers who were sent to take Jesus had now become taken with Jesus. Why were they impressed though, friends? Why is any man impressed with Jesus? We've read in the book of Isaiah that there was nothing about him to behold, that he was like those who men turn their faces from. Jesus was not an impressive looking man. Was it the case that Jesus had some great measure of eloquence in his speech that when he spoke his booming voice in his wondrous locks that people looked at him in adoration and said, now that's a man I could listen to for hours? No. Did he have great rhetorical skill to be able to take an idea and to press it on the hearts, to press it on the minds of men, and then to drill down again and again and again? Doesn't seem like it. Jesus often says strange things to his hearers. Unless you eat my body and drink my blood. It's not exactly rhetorical style that's going to impress men. Did Jesus speak with some great measure of force? Was He standing like a hellfire and brimstone preacher with both fingers pointing, pressing in on the person, exerting Himself in all of His power upon them? We don't read about that. We read about a meek Lord who speaks to angry people. Or did Jesus take His language and use it to manipulate their emotions and feelings? I don't think so. Let's take a moment and actually look at what Jesus did say to them. Because I think if we read again what Jesus said to these men, and that we read it afresh from the scriptures, we'll have some real sense of why they were so incredibly impressed. Verses 37 and 38 of chapter 7. This is what Jesus preached to these guys. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Friends, I think the thing that struck the hearts of the officers so profoundly was that Jesus' ministry pierced into the deepest recesses of the souls of men. He had an intention to show men their sin and their need for a Savior. Two things Jesus' preaching does. You can track this through the Scriptures. You'll see it inevitably again and again when He preaches. Two things. First thing that Jesus does always in this passage and in other ones, the first thing is simply this. He shows the people their sin and shines a spotlight on their need for a Savior. Verse 37, let's put it to that test. If anyone thirsts, Oh, man, don't you see the thirsting of your soul and sin? If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Don't you see your sin, humble sinner? Don't you see your need? Come to me. Come to me and drink. Second thing that Jesus has done in his sermons, Always, again and again, even to the cross, He freely offers the grace that He has for needy sinners. Thirsty men, I know you're thirsting. Sinful men, I know you're languishing. I know your heart is floundering in your alienation with God. I know you feel the hotness of His wrath against you. I know you feel your guilt before Him. Thirsty men, come to Me. Come to Me and drink. Come to me and have reconciliation. Come to me and have grace. Come to me and have love. Those of you who have never felt love, come to me. I will give you all that you need. Come to me and let me bless you. Come to me and be saved. You see, Jesus's ministry is such and his preaching is so unique that he spoke like no man had ever spoken before because no other man could in the sufficiency of his own soul say, I am what you need. The power of Jesus's ministry was simply the gospel. It's not that Jesus was the most eloquent of preachers, the greatest of rhetoricians. He wasn't the most logical or the most pressing. of orators. Jesus simply knew the gospel and he invited men to love him. If you want a rubric to judge preaching on, simply judge it from this. Does that preaching show men that they need a redeemer because they're sinners? And then does it offer that redeemer? Jesus' preaching was powerful because it simply dealt with man's issue. It dealt with my issue and it dealt with your issue. The issue that we all have is simply this. In our hearts, as we have been raised up, we are contorted because of sin. And Jesus in His preaching dealt with it by offering His body and His blood broken, that we could drink it and receive it by faith. His preaching invites man to simply believe and be redeemed. That's the power of Christ's preaching. All of the wonderful revivals that have ever been done, every effective sermon that you've ever heard simply does this. Shows you your sin and your need for a Savior and offers you that Savior. Nothing more, nothing less. You need nothing more than Jesus for a sinner and nothing less than a full Savior will save your soul from hell. You don't need anyone to patch you on the back. You need to derive encouragement even as a maturing saint from the simplicity of the gospel. See, the world would teach us that we grow from a child into maturity and manhood. But the gospel teaches us exactly the opposite. That you grow from manhood into childhood. That you go from being someone that feels so independent to being a child, seated before God, drinking because you're thirsty, like as a child from a bottle of the sweet milk of the faith. Cutting teeth on the gospel. And so as you hear the gospel preached simply again and again and again, believer, you never outgrow this. You never outgrow this. Because what it is doing is it is applying the full measure of salvation. Yes, you've been justified, but sanctification is an application of Jesus's blood against your sins. It's Jesus killing all that little bit of the old man in you and bringing you to be a fully living, spiritual person. The power of Jesus' preaching was simply the gospel. It's simple. It's simple, but it's blessed. I hope this encourages you, friends. I hope it gives you some barometer, something to have like a thermometer on the wall of whether or not the preacher is preaching or whether or not am I hearing the gospel. Is it good for me? If he's preaching like Jesus, it's good enough for your soul. If he's preaching like Christ, it's good enough to save sinners and to sanctify them as well. The last thing I want to show you from the passage this morning is verses 50 to 52, that slow grace is still grace. Slow grace is still grace. You see, we've met Nicodemus before in John's Gospel. We met him in Chapter 3. I wonder if you remember that far back. It's been close to a year since we went through those passages together. Nonetheless, let me give you a refresher. Nicodemus, one of the high Pharisees, probably One of those in the cabinet of the chief priest, most likely a teacher, came to Jesus because he had heard about his teaching and heard about the things that he was doing. He came to Jesus under the darkness of night because he was afraid if the world would see him coming to Jesus that he might endure the persecution that is due to his believers. He came and he asked Jesus, Jesus, how are you doing the things that you were doing? Only a man who comes from God can do the things that you do, Jesus. You must be from God. Jesus, tell me that you're from God. And let me remind you briefly what Jesus says in response to Nicodemus as he comes inquiring of Christ and his ministry. Jesus says, unless you were born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Again, Jesus is looking into the soul of the man, into Nicodemus. Again, he's not concerned with his knowledge, but with his faith. Again, Jesus is showing him that he's sinful. Unless you're born again, Nicodemus, you need to be born again, you're dead in sin. Unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of heaven. Jesus then goes on to offer him the kingdom of heaven that he needs to be born again by water, and by the Spirit, by water and by the Spirit. That's the first time we see Nicodemus. And Nicodemus slinks back into his normal life, into his prideful place. We don't hear about him again until chapter 7, verses 50 through 52. And in this passage what we read is that in the midst of the angry Pharisees who have heard what the officers have said, and have called them deceived, and have called the crowd of believers those who are accursed, which is what the world will do to those who believe in Jesus. They will revile you, they will hate you, but it doesn't matter because you're loved by God, the King of Heaven. Nicodemus stands up and he speaks for Jesus. The man who was once afraid, who came to Jesus humbly, in the shadows with a shady theological deal. Now he stands before the chief priests who want to kill Jesus, who he's heard their designs and knows their hatred. And he stands up with a small seed of grace in his heart. And he defends Jesus, even with simple words, really simple ones. Notice what he says. He says, Does a law judge a man without first giving him a hearing? and learning what he does. It's not the strongest that Nicodemus could have brought. Maybe it's not the best defense that Nicodemus brought. It does tell us a little bit about the seed of grace in his soul. It means that he believes that the words of Jesus change people. He's saying this. Why don't we bring him in? Why don't you meet the man? I bet you'll be a little different about your opinion if you knew him. If you knew Jesus, I bet you'd believe Jesus. That's what Nicodemus is aiming at. Of course, they don't take that. Of course, after Nicodemus has his single one line defense, there's not a word that continues to flow from his mouth. He's had his defense and he has sat down a defeated man. Because how do they respond? They say, are you a Galilean too? Are you one of his? Have you been convinced? You know, we want to kill him. Do you want us to kill you? Come on now, Nicodemus, tell us, are you one of his disciples? Search the scriptures, oh wise Nicodemus. They insult him. Search the scriptures and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee. Search him out. They seek to neuter his counsel. But the thing that I want you to particularly see is that in the life of Nicodemus, he is progressively brought from a curious man to a more bold man. to in John chapter 19, a man who lays down everything to honor Jesus. John chapter 19, what do we read about Nicodemus? This is the third time we read of him in the scriptures and the last time in the gospel of John. We read that he and Joseph of Arimathea went to those who were the officials of the city and petitioned to take Christ's broken body off the cross. so that birds didn't pick at his bones and men didn't mock him continually, to take him, to prepare him, and to give him a right burial. He stood up and he said effectively to those chief priests, yes, I'm a Galilean. Yes, I'm a Christian. But do you know why it's so profound? Because this man with this tiny little measure of gospel grace that grew up in his heart, that had to mature to boldness, this man who was not to be assumed to be a great defender of Christ, who in the trials obviously never spoke up with any great counsel to stop them from murdering the Lord, the King of Glory, that whenever the disciples of Jesus who had followed Him, watching all of His ministries, all of His miracles, when they cowered and abandoned Him, and even others condemned Him, saying, I never knew Him, this man, with a tiny measure of grace, he stood and he said, Can I have His body to honor my Lord? Friends, never despise small measures of grace. What would it have been the case if Jesus had known Nicodemus and said, Nicodemus, why aren't you sold out? Quit your job, Nicodemus. If you want to be mine, you've got to be mine right now. This whole thing would be different. The whole Bible. would be switched around without the small, slow, deliberate working of the grace of God in Nicodemus' heart. Friends, when you see that tiny speck of grace in a family member, you pray for it. You pray that the Lord would give it increase. You nourish it, that they would be fed by the word and that it would grow And you look for the day in faithful expectation that the tiniest measure of grace that saved a man's soul will grow up into a pillar of righteousness like Nicodemus as we see him in John chapter 19. Don't despise small graces. Rejoice in them. Pray for them. If you're the person that has that small grace and says, ah, I have a faltering heart, I'm a doubter. Do you know that the grace of God is not wasted on you, that the Lord is still dealing with you to root out some sin in your life to bring you to where he wants you to go? The Lord's not shocked about where you are spiritually. He knows you and he loves you. He's going to bring you through to his purposes. Doesn't matter what ours are. You could be a coward in a moment. You can fail and falter. But the Lord can use all those whom he is designed to use. Let's pray. Lord in heaven, we thank you for your word and we praise you for its mercy. Lord, with the power of Christ gospel and the mercy of his atonement fall upon us freshly. Help us to be a people who consider him and that know him and that love him and that risk it all in him. Our Father bless us we pray in Christ's name.