Let us pray. We bow our hearts before you under heaven, God, asking with great humility for your blessing upon the ministry of your word right now, Lord. All of us need to be fed with manna from on high. We are hungry and thirsty to hear from you through your word. So speak to our hearts, oh God. Inform our minds by the spirit of truth. Change us. Sanctify us through your word. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Please turn to John chapter three in your Bibles. I'll be reading a lengthy passage, verses one through 16. One through 15, actually. John chapter three, verses one through 15. 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 and said to him, most assuredly, 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, most assuredly 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 blows where it wishes, and you'll hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but he, who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Are you born again? Has anyone ever asked you that question? It's one of the most misunderstood questions because the concept is utterly foreign to the majority of people. You may have heard it in movies and music, but the term that's been thrown around, born again, has been borrowed from the Bible. Yet being born again is the most life-changing, exhilarating experience a person can ever have. Even more important, in order to go to heaven, you must be born again. Forget about exhilarating. To go to heaven for your sins to be forgiven, you must be born again. That's what Jesus said three times in verses one through seven. Verse three, unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Verse five, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Verse seven, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. I hope you're not uncomfortable in me asking you that question. Because sooner or later, if you're a serious seeker of salvation, you'll have to answer the question, are you born again? as Nicodemus did in the passage of Scripture before us. And so today we continue our study in the Gospel of John that began several months ago, and we went on a side path for several months, addressing other short series of messages, and now we're back on the narrow road of the Gospel of John. God willing, we won't fall off again for too long a period of time. And so let me just briefly review. You'll recall that the first 18 verses of chapter one, which is called the prologue or the introduction to the gospel, all the major themes in the gospel of John are mentioned in these first 18 verses of the book. These themes are life, light and darkness, faith, and the deity of Christ, which is the main theme of the Gospel of John, that Jesus is God. Now, John's primary purpose is to prove that very point indeed, that Jesus is the Messiah, God incarnate, very God of very God, and the one in whom all people ought to believe in for personal salvation. Jesus' teachings on the meaning of his ministry are given an important role in John. More so than any other of the Gospels, John focuses on the meaning behind the miracles of Jesus. Much elaboration is given by the Lord and by the writer of this book, the Apostle John, on why Jesus did the miracles that he did. Now the purpose of the Gospel of John is stated in chapter 20. Turn with me in your Bibles quickly to chapter 20 and verse 31. John 20 and verse 31. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. That's the purpose of the Gospel of John, that you may believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior and receive life, receive grace to indeed be born again. Now, let's look at the context of the Gospel of John, continuing our review. In John there are seven miracles, which John describes as signs. The purpose of the miracles, or the signs, is to prove our Lord Jesus' claims, and to prove his ministry, that they are approved by God. And these seven signs are turning the water into wine, the first one, which we looked at in chapter two, verses one through 11. Second, the healing of an official's son, chapter four, verses 46 through 54. The third sign, healing a lame man at the pool of Bethesda, chapter five, verses one through 15. The fourth, feeding 5,000 at the Sea of Galilee, chapter 6, 1 through 15. The fifth sign, walking on water, 6, 16 through 21. The sixth sign, healing a man born blind in chapter 9, 1 through 7. And the seventh sign, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, the most of chapter 11. Then in John, there are seven miracles where Jesus is proclaimed as the Messiah, the Son of God, or as God. The people who described Jesus in this way as being God, because there's a person, a witness, who proclaims this in each one of these seven instances, these people are John the Baptist in John 1, Nathanael again in John 1, Peter in John 6, the man born blind in John 9, Martha in John 11, Thomas in John 20 and Jesus himself in John 5 and John 10. These seven situations, Jesus is proclaimed as the Messiah God by these people, one of them being himself. Moving on, Jesus also refers to himself using the phrase, I am. Does that phrase sound familiar? I am. because this is repeated the way God describes himself to Moses. It's found originally in Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14 where Moses says, who shall I say sent me? He says, I am that I am. Tell the people that I am has sent you. Of course, this name of God, I am, means the eternal self-existent God. It's the root form of the word Jehovah or Yahweh. And John provides seven instances of Jesus using the term, I am, to describe himself, seven times. Do you want to prove the deity of Christ? Well, refer to any one or all of these seven instances where Jesus refers to himself as the I am, of Exodus 3.14. First, he says in chapter 6.35, I am the bread of life. Second, I am the light of the world, in 8.12. Third, I am the door of the sheep, 10.7-9. Fourth, I am the good shepherd, chapter 10.11. Fifth, I am the resurrection and the life. You remember that passage where He says at Lazarus' resurrection, I am the resurrection and the life. Sixth, I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14, six, many of you have that memorized. And then last, I am the true vine. Verse 15, where Jesus teaches that he is the vine, we are the branches. So as with Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John gives his readers insights on Jesus' teachings and his death. throughout the gospel of John. In John chapters 13 through 15, we have the upper room discourses where Jesus summarizes the core spiritual teachings that he taught throughout his entire three and a half years of ministry. He summarizes them in a few hours in the upper room when they partook and observed the first Lord's supper. just before his death. And this summary of the core spiritual teachings of our Lord that he gave over three and a half years is nothing short of amazing and thrilling. And so if you want to read a compendium, a short summary of all the major spiritual teachings which underlie Christianity. Read John chapters 13 through 16. Of course, he caps it off in his high priestly prayer in chapter 17. Now, in the immediate context leading up to today's message, which is chapter three, verses seven through 15, in the immediate context, John provides evidence in order to accomplish his purpose that I read to you from John 20, 31. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and believing that you may have life in his name. If we go back to the beginning, where we started in chapter one and verse one, for a brief review of chapter one, Jesus uses seven names as, or which summarize his roles in both scripture and in prophecy. He uses seven names in chapter one that we already looked at. And we studied each one of them. These names are the word, chapter one, Verses 1 and 2 and 14. The Light. These are names of Christ. He is the Word. He is the Light. John 1, 4-13. The Son of God. Again, chapter 1, 14-28, 34-49. These are all in chapter 1. We looked at each one of these names. The Lamb of God, 1-29-36. Messiah, 1-35-42. The King of Israel, 143 through 49, and then lastly, the Son of Man, chapter 1, verses 50 and 51. Seven names of Christ in chapter 1 we already looked at. And then a brief review of chapter 2. shows us the signs or miracles which prove that He is indeed God, He is indeed the Savior. The miracles will grow more and more spectacular throughout the Gospel of John, but they start quietly in Chapter 2, and the use of contrast, by the way, is very important part of the Gospel of John. For example, the quiet, joyful miracle that the Lord did at the wedding in Cana in chapter two is very different from the loud public spectacle of cleansing the temple that we read about in chapter two also, at the end of chapter two. And during the temple cleansing, he also predicted his death and his resurrection. Now we have been in chapter three. Let's look at the context of chapter three, verses one through seven, which we already looked at in the last message on the Gospel of John. And of course, you can get these previous messages online on our church YouTube site. Now, remember, one of the main themes in John is the deity of Christ. And it's John's job, among other things, to prove that Jesus Christ is God. Do you believe that? Do you believe he is God, very God, in the flesh? Because this idea of Jesus being God is going to come up over and over and over again as you study and read the Gospel of John. It's going to be thrown into your face. It's gonna challenge you to decide, yay or nay, if Jesus is God. When I came into the room today to worship, I was talking with a few of the brethren, and I was given a testimony and a report of a man that has been attending our Bible study up in Fairfield, who, I was told, now believes that Jesus is God. All these months that he's been attending and years, our Bible study, he rejected the truth that Jesus is indeed deity. And now he has embraced it. And so that's a good sign because the Bible says, that unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. In other words, you cannot be saved, you cannot be forgiven of your sins, unless you believe that Jesus is God. And so this man is headed in the right direction, at least, and continue to pray for this man. Some of you know who he is. Now, chapter three contains some of the most important concepts in Christianity, the ideas of spiritual rebirth. and the need to believe in Jesus with your heart, with your life, with your all, are reinforced by the teachings of the rest of the gospel of John. And so this idea of the new birth or being born again and trusting in Christ for your salvation is reinforced over and over and over again as you study John. And John continues to use contrast moving from the loud and public temple cleansing to the quiet conversation now with Nicodemus. If you look at the end of chapter three, you see he goes from this awesome, boisterous, profound, radical cleansing of the temple to now having a very private and kind of quiet conversation with this religious leader named Nicodemus. After Jesus humbles Nicodemus by what he said in verses one through seven, and Nicodemus is a significant Jewish leader and teacher, chapter four will transition again as Jesus gives dignity and time to an outcast from Israel in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. So there's these contrasts in his actions in certain situations, going from the profound, outward, active situations to quiet conversations with people who are just wanting to know how to be saved and how to be forgiven. So we're in the middle of looking at this conversation now between Jesus and Nicodemus, and in the last message on John, we left off at verse seven where we'll pick it up in their discussion. The title of the message is, How Can These Things Be? Nicodemus and the Greatest Scandals in the Church. There's a lot in the first 16 verses of chapter three. I can go in many different directions here. And you may ask, why do I use the term scandalous in the subtitle, Nicodemus and the Greatest Scandals, or scandalous, in the church? Well, I choose the word scandal to bring out a few major applications of verses 7 through 15 that are often overlooked and neglected when this text is expounded upon. And the first one is the scandal of being lost in the understanding. Look at your outlines. Number one, the scandal of being lost in your understanding. Now let's look back at verse seven through 10. Jesus says to Nicodemus, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, but can't tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? That's the title of the message. Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? As I mentioned earlier, the new birth is so important, so foundational to true Christianity that he repeats the necessity of being born again in order to enter heaven three times in verses three, five, and seven. Jesus doesn't describe, however, an optional change, an optional way of life. He doesn't say that you might be born again, but that you must be born again. This Greek word for must here in the original is very interesting. He says you must be born again, just like he said in John 4, one chapter later, to the Samaritan woman. You must worship him in spirit and in truth. This is an inflexible, a non-negotiable requirement. If you're to worship God in a way acceptable and pleasing to Him, you must worship Him, His way in spirit and in truth. If you were to be a child of God, if you were to know the forgiveness of your sins and go to heaven when you die, you must be born from above, be born of the Spirit, be born again. In English, the verb must means a necessary requirement. And so I ask you, have you been born again? Because you and I will not go to heaven unless we are born again. We must be born again. And in this passage, Jesus changes the pronoun you, where he says you must be born again to Nicodemus. He changes the pronoun from the singular to the plural. Now he's just talking to Nicodemus there in a private conversation. Why would the pronoun be changed to the plural from the singular? He's just talking with this singular, this one person, Nicodemus. But the word Hugh is a plural pronoun. And what he's describing is the absolute need of every person to be born again. The proverbial you, the all-encompassing you, Not just Nicodemus, but the entire human race must be born again. Everyone who has ever lived, from beginning to end, from the first person, Adam, to the last one, must be born again. But why is this scandalous? I said the scandal of being lost in the understanding. Well, because Nicodemus didn't understand what he was saying. when Jesus taught about regeneration, or the new birth. He didn't understand what Jesus meant when Jesus said to him, you must be born again. Have you ever explained to someone what it means to be born again? Have you, as a Christian? When you have shared the gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ with someone, and you brought up the new birth, and I hope you bring up the new birth, when you share the gospel because you are not sharing the gospel unless you bring up the new birth. Unless you tell people in order to be born from above and become this new transformed person in Jesus Christ, you need to believe in him, you need to put your trust in him as Lord and Savior. But when sharing about the new birth. Have you ever gotten a blank stare? Have you ever gotten a confused look in response, where you sensed the person had no clue what you were talking about? Perhaps remotely or at some time in the past, they heard about this term born again, but they had no clue what it means. Well, Nicodemus never heard the term born again. This term is woven throughout the Old Testament, however. The concept and the wording of the new birth and the doctrine of regeneration is actually profuse throughout the Old Testament. Ezekiel said, I will give you a new spirit, says the Lord, in the new covenant. Jeremiah and Isaiah, two other major prophets, say the same thing. And there are many other places in the Old Testament where the concept of the new birth is found. Of course, not as profusely as in the New Testament, but it's there. But if you have a vast majority of unconverted teachers and priests and Levites who are required to teach the law to Israel, who have never been themselves born again, of course that doctrine is going to be neglected in their teachings. I know when I became born again, and when I read the Bible, whatever I am spiritually and powerfully influenced by, it's one of the first things I share with people. Because not only have I experienced it, but along with that experience, the Bible has given me a definition and an explanation of what I experienced. So I can explain it to other people. I can teach them. And one of the first things I began to share with people, and I didn't know a whole lot about the Bible the first month or two after my conversion, but one thing I knew about is I was born again. I could look at what God had done for me from the inside out, changing me, giving me a new heart, new desires. And when this person who shared the gospel with me read 2 Corinthians 5.17 to me, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. I knew exactly what he was talking about because that's what happened to me. I was this new person, this new creation in Christ Jesus. And I could explain it. But it was scandalous because Nicodemus, as a teacher, he didn't even understand this. When Jesus brought it up to him, he could not even remotely relate or draw from a memory or an understanding or an encounter with this term in his past training as a rabbi. And these rabbis in Nicodemus' day were trained extensively on much of the Old Testament law. Seminary professors of the day, as it were, like Gamaliel, were renowned for their great depth of knowledge. He was the teacher of the Apostle Paul himself, Gamaliel, before Paul's conversion as a Jewish rabbi. But Nicodemus didn't understand this truth of the new birth. He lacked an understanding of the most basic, fundamental knowledge and experience that every child of God goes through when they become a Christian, that you went through when you became saved. You could hardly explain anything in the Bible. But I guarantee you, the first week that you were aware that you were different, you were changed, you will never again become the same person, you've changed in your goals, your priorities, from the inside out, you could explain that. You can describe that to some degree or another. This is scandalous. There is such a lack of knowledge of the most basic truth in the Bible in Jesus' day. And when you look at various epics and time periods throughout church history, you see the same thing, because there's such a vast lack of basic fundamental knowledge of the essence of salvation. And when there are fewer and fewer people who are born again, It means, scandalously, that even the ABCs, the smallest, most fundamental truth of the Christian faith, has lost the mountain of truth above it and has been brought to a place where even the smallest, most essential truth of the faith is withering away. It's fading away. It's lost among the majority of professing churchgoers. When people in church hear the question, are you born again? Or do you understand what it means to be born again? And they cannot give you a detailed definitive answer, even a general answer that is scandalous. That is a desperate situation that the church has fallen upon. That's why this is scandalous. The lack of this truth in the understanding, the lack of the knowledge of this truth, not only in Nicodemus, but Nicodemus is representative of the vast majority of church members who have no clue what the doctrine of regeneration is, what it means, how to define it, and whether or not they themselves have experienced it. Jesus said in verse 7, A, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Now Jesus here, when he said this, anticipates Nicodemus' ignorance when he says, do not marvel. Nicodemus didn't really say much. He just said, how can these things be? And this points to a precious attribute of Christ here, if I can make an application. Jesus already said in verses one through seven that you must be born again. The only thing Nicodemus said to that, to Jesus, is how can a man be born when he is old? in verse 4 in the context. And so, how would Jesus know that Nicodemus would be shocked to find out that you must be born again? Jesus anticipates Nicodemus' shock and says, don't be surprised before he even expresses the shock. This points to our Lord's omniscience. Is there another place that we read about this? Yes, well, two chapters earlier, in chapter one of John, in verse 47, turn there, John 1, 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Here again, we see the omniscience of Christ. Before he and Nathanael ever spoke, he saw Nathanael under the fig tree. He knows all things before they happen. Jesus is God in the flesh, and he has the full amount of the attributes of God in him, including omniscience, that is, he's all-knowing, omnipotence, omnipresence, and every other characteristic of the nature of God. We read in Colossians 2, 2 and 3, both of the Father and of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Christ, there's the fullness of wisdom and knowledge, exhaustive knowledge about everything. He is the author and source of all knowledge. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. How much of our worship as believers in the future in heaven with the Lord Jesus and the saints will be devoted to acknowledging and extolling Christ himself for his infinite knowledge and wisdom. As we think back to our conversion, and our election, and our salvation, that Christ knew all about us before we were born, before we sat under our own proverbial fig tree, before we were even conceived in our mother's womb, He had all knowledge of us. The hairs of our head were all numbered before they came into existence. And he fixed his love upon us before my body took shape and form in that embryo in my mother's womb. He loved me. But the tragedy of Nicodemus is that he didn't understand the concept that was so essential for salvation and of saving faith. Therefore, as Christians, we must get out there. We have the secret of eternal life. And the older we get in Christ, the more we learn about doctrine and truth. We are able to define that truth more accurately More articulately, we need to take this truth of the new birth to the lost and share this knowledge of regeneration. Explain it to the lost. We need the Holy Spirit's courage, boldness, and power to overcome our hesitation, our carnal timidity, our shame and shyness. And we need to share the explicit, implicit, definitive meaning of the new birth with everyone we can, every day of the week. God gives you this knowledge for it not to remain idle. but to bring it out, unpack it, and share it. He gave you a mind and an intellect to coherently think thoughts. He gave you a vocabulary to be able to not only think, but to express truths, divine spiritual truths that all the Nicodemuses in the world have no clue about. But he's given you an intellect and a vocabulary and a heart and a spirit, the spirit of God in you, to overcome every hindrance and weight that would keep the gospel of regeneration bottled up into our weak, carnal hearts, instead of sharing it. Jesus, after Nicodemus expressed his lack of understanding, Jesus then mercifully explains the concept. the ABCs of the new birth to Nicodemus, using the metaphor of the wind. When Jesus did this, it would be like someone stooping down to a five-year-old in kindergarten and saying, OK, Johnny, let's learn our ABCs now. Repeat after me. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. That's a similar situation between Jesus and Nicodemus, here is the infinite God of all knowledge, stooping down to a supposed teacher of some of that knowledge, who was still in kindergarten and had not learned his ABCs yet, because the first thing you learn when you become a Christian is what happened to me that I've gone through this enormous change where I am not even the same person any longer. How could this have happened to me? How can these things be? And then we receive the explanation from the person who has shared the gospel with us. The metaphor of the wind is explained in verse eight. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. It's a perfect analogy, the wind. Jesus is teaching that the new birth, or being born again, is like the wind, where first of all, the wind has a mind of its own. Nobody instructs the wind, OK, I'm putting up the stop sign, north wind. Turn around and go south. No, we don't direct the wind, and we don't know where it comes from. It has a mind of its own, so to speak. The wind doesn't have a mind, but it is sent by God, and nobody can control it. Nobody knows where it comes from and where it goes. And Jesus takes that metaphor of the wind and applies it to being born again. He says when a person is born again, they don't know how it works. They don't know where the Spirit of God comes from when he enters you. We really can't pinpoint a specific moment in time. We cannot reduce our new birth to a specific second or hour or even day sometimes. Most people don't know the exact day or even month when they became born from above. But they know they are because of the fruits and changes in their life, which describe everyone who is born again. And then the second thing about the wind is you cannot see it physically. There is no form to the wind. It's invisible. But thirdly, We can see the effects of the wind. He says you can hear the sound of it. You can hear wind howling. You can hear it audibly. And also, you can see the effects of the wind. in the elements, the natural creation. When the wind blows, you could see branches and leaves blowing in the wind. You could see the effects of the wind, especially during a storm, a big storm. You still can't tell where the wind is based in its source and where it's going after you see the effects. And he says, so is everyone who was born of the Spirit. That is why many well-meaning but wrong Christians seek to reduce a conversion experience to a formula, to a moment in time, believing that if they will walk down the aisle of a church meeting at the end during the invitation or the altar call, And if someone will just give mental assent and agreement with what the Bible has to say about Jesus and agree with that and bow their head to say this formulaic prayer, they will be saved at that moment. They will be born again at that moment. They will be regenerated at that moment. The Bible knows nothing of such a process of being born again where you can reduce it to a systematic analytical formula where you have control over the time and place of someone's regenerated experience. The Bible says just the opposite here. No one knows the moment when they became saved exactly. You cannot reduce it to any kind of process or formula whatsoever. Our job is to just preach the gospel, share the good news of salvation, and the Spirit of God will take over and do the rest in his way and in his time. And that is one reason why the scandalous effect of using this scriptural, or excuse me, this unbiblical method of the altar call and praying with somebody to receive Christ at a specific time, at a specific moment, and believe that that person is saved at that moment, and the worker tried to convince the person that they are saved, is very unscriptural and it has filled our churches with masses of chaff of unconverted religious people who are still not saved. and have no desire or little desire or no power to live the Christian life because they're yet unconverted. And all they received during that altar call was an emotional stimulation and a greater desire than they had before to be religious, to follow this religion called Christianity. But they still have no heart for God. They still have no power or ability to live for God. and to be holy. Now look at the exclamatory shock of Nicodemus in verse 9. Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Now there are two questions here. The first one is by Nicodemus, who asked, in shock and surprise, his question of Jesus, how could these things be? But it reveals his dire ignorance, doesn't it? And that is scandalous in and of itself. Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? The second question was asked by Jesus, not Nicodemus. in admonition and correction of Nicodemus, because he didn't know the most fundamental, essential kindergarten doctrine and truth that you learn when you become a child of God, revealing to himself, Nicodemus, that he is not born again. Jesus loves to use questions, so does the Apostle Paul, in teaching doctrine and truth. And so this spiritual blindness speaks to the need of preaching the gospel to the lost. It also addresses the need to preach the whole counsel of God and not cut out the elements that expose sin and blindness. Why? Because the unsaved are groping in darkness and blindness due to sin. Here's Nicodemus. He's blind. He's ignorant. He doesn't understand the most essential truth. The youngest, newest Christian in this room, listening to this message, could teach Nicodemus volumes. He was that ignorant. Thank you. And so this spiritual poverty, this blindness, this ignorance on Nicodemus' part, points us to the fact that there's a desperate need of preaching the gospel, the gospel of the new birth, the full gospel of Christ, the whole counsel of God. This is our work. This is touching upon the major ministry of the church. We are armed with the oracles of the gospel and we need to get out there. And we need to preach it. We need to tell people about the new birth. We read in Ephesians 4 the reason why in verse 17. Turn to Ephesians 4 and verse 17. This is the condition of the lost. They're in this scandalous, desperate condition of not understanding truth. Most unsaved people make up truth in their own imagination. And they believe it, and they cling to it, and they follow it with a dedication second to none. The first thing we need to do is unravel it and show them that by nature they don't understand the kind of spiritual truth that God desires a lost person to understand as a condition for their salvation. Ephesians 4 17 this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind having their Understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God Because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart Here is Nicodemus walking around with this scroll under his arm as it were this Hebrew Bible He has the word of God this close. He has the truth of God this close. But he's walking around in the futility of his mind. His understanding is darkened. He's alienated from the life of God because he's ignorant. And he's blind. And today we have multitudes who are walking around with their Bibles under their arms. In churches, they're walking down the aisle, up and down the aisle, with their Bibles in hand. Blind, lost, because the pastor just finished preaching and teaching a 10-minute sermonette, five minutes of which was filled with stories and anecdotes and jokes with no doctrine, with no sound teaching. And the people who walked in the church like a revolving door go around and walk right back out and are not taught the scripture. This verse in Ephesians 4 points to a critical element of the depravity of man. This aspect of depravity and original sin which has sifted man and woman from birth concerning no knowledge of God. They have no truth. All of us at birth have no understanding of truth that would lead to our salvation. We walk around growing to a child, an adolescent, an adult, yet still in the utility of our mind, having our understanding darkened. In 2 Corinthians 4, turn to 2 Corinthians 4, verse three and four. The scandal of a lack of understanding of the truth. in our day, 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age, that's Satan, has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine in them. Now remember, believers, that our gospel is veiled There's a veil over the eyes of the lost. And their minds have been blinded by Satan. We read in the gospels where sometimes where the word of God is sown, the devil comes, Satan himself, and snatches away the word that you in your gospel outreach have sown into their hearts. There is the ability of Satan to enter the minds and hearts of unsaved people, and take away and remove a powerful word of conviction, a powerful word of truth that shined the light in them like they never had shined before into their minds, and remove it completely so they forget about it. Just like the cupholder of Pharaoh forgot about Joseph in the prison. when God, or when he was raised up out of the prison. How could he forget about a guy who told him a dream that led to his freedom from prison? That's how unsafe people are. They're so powerfully affected by the gospel one moment, the next moment, it's all gone. And that's why there's this urgency, there's this emergency going on where Satan is controlling these lost people, these dear lost people. And they don't believe. Now, not only does Nicodemus represent this kind of blindness of all unsaved people, but he's also an example of the blindness of the Jewish nation. Jews, as unsaved people in general, are blind. They're born sinners just like you and I. But specifically, God has given them a double blindness because they're blind as to the role of the Messiah, except for a remnant, a small portion, a 10%, as it were, that will put their trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and Messiah, like myself. In Romans 11.25, here's the theology, part of the theology of the blindness of Israel. Romans 11 25 go ahead and turn there don't hesitate if I say a verse Especially if I ask you to turn there take your Bible and turn there. I'll wait well within reason. I'll wait Romans 11 25 I want you to see the theology of Israel Romans 11 25 for I do not desire brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery and lest you should be wise in your own opinion. That blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. That blindness will encompass all Jews, all those who have Jewish blood in them, either fully or partially, and we don't know who those people are. They will be blind until the fullness of the Gentiles come in, except for the remnant that will believe. And then in the same book of Romans, look up to verses 7 and 8 of Romans 11. verses 7 and 8 of the same chapter. What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks, but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were what? Blinded. Just as it is written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day. That is, back then, when this was written, right up to that day, and including right up until today, in our day. Over in 2 Corinthians, turn to 2 Corinthians, a couple books to the right of Romans, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 14. Speaking of the Jews, 2 Corinthians 3.14. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away." And then it goes on to talk about the Spirit of the Lord provides this liberty. The Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of truth, takes away and removes this veil so that they can understand this truth. But Nicodemus had this veil over his eyes. That's why he didn't understand the truth about the new birth. Let's move on then. Secondly, the scandal of being lost in the church, verses 11 through 14. Most assuredly, I say to you, back in John chapter three, verses 11 through 14, John three, 11 through 14. Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen. And you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man, who is in heaven, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And so in verses 11 through 13, since Moses Nicodemus didn't have a grounds and a basis of knowledge to go by to either test what Jesus is saying or to understand what Jesus is saying. Jesus says to him, unlike you, Nicodemus, I know what I'm talking about because I'm the author of regeneration and I can testify to you what I do in people's lives when I cause them to be born again. I can testify to you what I have seen and what I do when I bring about the new birth in someone. But you, Nicodemus, don't receive our witness. You don't understand and believe what I'm teaching you about the new birth. If I try to teach you about earthly things, how a cow will plow a field, or how the Pharisees ought to minister in the sanctuary, or how many Jewish people will be allowed to sacrifice today, you'll understand those natural, earthly calculations that you can see with your eyes and figure out with your organized mind. But if you can't even understand an analogy about the wind describing something that is a mystery you don't understand intellectually, how are you going to understand spiritual truths or heavenly things? If you can't understand physical things, even if I bend over backwards and use analogies and metaphors and descriptions, how are you going to understand much deeper truths and mysteries that I teach you on a spiritual level? So he's revealing Nicodemus' ignorance on a greater level. That Nicodemus here is really straining hard to understand what Jesus is saying, and he can't even understand it when Jesus uses earthly metaphors and stories and analogies to teach him this spiritual truth. He's that ignorant and that unable to understand this. It requires a sovereign, powerful, work of the Holy Spirit to communicate this truth to Nicodemus's mind and heart. And Jesus says, no one is ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven. And he points to the greater spiritual work. The one who knows everything and has all knowledge and knows all truth, and he is the truth himself. He's the one that knows it all. He's been to heaven. He has a relationship with the Father. He and the Father are one, and Jesus is just as omniscient, all-knowing as the Father. But also, there's a purpose for this knowledge. Jesus would come down from heaven. And he would die on the cross to give this knowledge to those who put their trust in him, to provide salvation and the forgiveness of sins. And then he begins to introduce this wonderful truth of believing in Christ for salvation by drawing from an Old Testament analogy that that Moses used in verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. When the serpents or the snakes were running rampant within Israel because of their unbelief and their complaining, many were being bitten and dying and suffering God's punishment because of the Jews' unbelief and complaining. And then to stop that rampant death in the camp of Israel, Moses told someone to take a bronze serpent, not a live serpent, but a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole and lift it up. And whoever looks on it will be healed of those snake bites. And that was pointing to the future, when Jesus would come. That was a type and a figure of Christ's atoning work on the cross. And he says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up. So Jesus here in his conversation with Nicodemus doesn't get all frustrated, doesn't walk away and say, well, if you're not gonna understand what it means to be born again, I'm not gonna have anything else to deal with you. Go back to your temple and sit there in ignorance and on an ash heap of foolishness. No, he doesn't do that. He just keeps preaching the gospel to him. He doesn't stop and wait, okay, let's get back and have another Bible study next week on the 15th. And no, he just keeps preaching the gospel to him, he says. But he uses an analogy that Nicodemus would know about from the Old Testament and that incident where the bronze serpent was lifted up. And among those Jews, whoever looked on that serpent and had even the smallest faith that they would be healed from the snake bite, they would be healed. And he transfers that analogy to the New Testament, and he's saying, look, that very incident was pointing to me specifically coming. And I, like the serpent on the pole, I would be lifted up on a pole, that is a cross. And whoever looks upon me, that is whoever, and doesn't even need to see me, puts their trust in me and believes that he or she would be saved by putting his trust in me or her trust in me, he would be healed spiritually. He would be forgiven of their sins. Now why is this so scandalous? Because Nicodemus represents the massive amount of lost people in the church. Nicodemus is a religious person. He's a Pharisee, he's a teacher, he's like a New Testament pastor. He's the equivalent of like myself, a pastor. Teaching and teaching and teaching and preaching and discipling and shepherding and... And he represents the unsaved church member, which has filled our churches. And like I said, these bad methodologies, these bad methods of evangelism have filled our church with mostly unconverted religious people. Nominal, counterfeit believers. have turned many churches into synagogues of Satan. Read Revelation chapters 2 and 3. At least three times among those seven churches, God either told them they were turned over to be a synagogue of Satan, they were turned over to Satan, or they were in the process of being turned over, or he threatened them that if they didn't repent of their sin, they would become a synagogue of Satan. That is, there would be so few converted church members in those churches that Satan is filling the hearts of 90 plus percent of them. Instead of it being a church of Christ, Satan now is the most active one in the lives and in the hearts of those people. Jesus told religious people in John 8, he told the Pharisees, a large group of Pharisees, you were of your father the devil. Their father was the devil. These are a group of religious leaders, a group of pastors in the Jewish church of his day, so to speak. The false teachings of free will, easy believism, and antinomianism have set aside and dismissed the necessity of regeneration with its fruits, and the gospel is given away Instead of the necessity of regeneration, it's given way to this idea of mental ascent alone in Jesus is good enough to be saved. And that's why you have all of these methods where people walk down the aisle during a church service to get saved, quote unquote. These pastors are either ignorant of the fact or they have changed their beliefs and methodologies so that they now are only looking for some acknowledgement mentally that Jesus is Lord, for them to equate that with regeneration. Mental ascent alone does not equate to the new birth. to regeneration. And they don't look at the life of this professing believer. These pastors have canceled the doctrine of holiness and progressive sanctification, looking for the evidences of the new birth. And they've replaced it with mere verbal acknowledgment of belief in Jesus. The Bible is full of warnings. Like Matthew 7, where Jesus says, not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father in heaven. Like 1 John 1, he that says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Mental assent will lead to someone saying they're a Christian, but that's not the final evidence. The new birth brings forth undeniable, irrefutable, refutable evidence and fruits that will show up in the life of every genuine Christian. We need to reserve judgment until we see those fruits because Jesus said, by their fruits, you will know them. Not by their mental ascent and their verbal testimony, by their fruits that change life, the born again, Transformation. And lastly, and briefly, the scandal of being lost in the ministry. I'll not spend much time on this. Verse 15, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Why is this scandalous? Because Nicodemus needed to hear this. He needed to hear that whoever believes in Jesus should not perish but have everlasting life. Do you know we need to go to most pastors of evangelical Protestant churches today. I'm not talking about Catholic churches. We need to go to most pastors of evangelical Protestant churches and preach this verse 15 to them. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have an everlasting life. Most pastors are not saved. It's sad for me to say. And I know some of you watching online or listening, you're gonna think me severely critical your scathing judgment, that's unwarranted. But this phenomenon that in any given generation, the vast majority of church leaders, pastors are not saved is not new. This is an old, very old phenomenon. When you look at the school of the prophets under Elijah and Elisha, Most of them were not converted. They had no faith. When Elijah was taken up by God, was translated into the kingdom, Elisha went and told them, God took him up to heaven. He told the school of the prophets, because they went out looking for Elijah. Where is he? And Elisha told them, no, no, no. He's up into heaven. They wouldn't believe. They went back out, and they kept looking and looking and looking. They had no faith. They were always thinking on a natural, physical level. The same thing is true with the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin as a whole, beginning in the 5th century BC, after The captivity in Babylon in 587 BC, that began the downward slide of the leadership. They were already apostate within Israel. And during that 500 year period from 500 BC until the birth of Christ, the leadership in Israel, the teaching segment of Israel had become so apostate, so ignorant of the truth of God that almost to a man they were unconverted, all of them. And we see the Sanhedrin did not know God. Look at the Roman Catholic Church. from about the 4th, 5th century BC, probably the 3rd century, just before Augustine, the great theologian, Augustine, all the way up to the Reformation. How many converted priests were there in Romanism? Every 100 years or so, there'd be a bright shining light that would emerge like John Huss or John Wycliffe. Tyndale, John Taller, few and far between. All of those priests were unconverted. None of them had a burden to teach and preach in the language of the nation. So the people would get the gospel. Look at the Lutheran Church. Just 30 years after the Reformation in the mid in the mid-sixth century, 30 years after this big revival, when the doctrine of justification by faith was brought in. Church of England separated from Romanism, and the Lutheran Church started. Luther never agreed to a church being called after his name, but his followers started the Lutheran Church after Luther's death. 30 years after the church started at the Reformation, that church had become apostate. One of the three Protestant churches that emerged from the Reformation, the Lutheran Church, the Anglican Church, and the Presbyterian Church, the first three Protestant churches, among those three, the Lutheran Church had a revival when they first started. 30 years later, every priest in the Lutheran Church was lost and unconverted. A man by the name of Johann Arndt, a priest in the Lutheran Church, got converted as a priest. And he saw the absolute scandal of a lack of conversion in the ministry among their priests. And he wrote a book called True Christianity. Well, you know, the major theme of that book, the necessity of regeneration. He just wrote about the ABCs, the need to be born again. That book caused the revival, but they called that revival the second reformation. Because 30 years after the first reformation, the church had become dead and apostate, including its ministers, were lost. So there needed to be a second reformation of the first reformation. And so go back throughout church history, even before that, throughout Israel, in any given generation, the majority of pastors and church leaders are lost Lost. Does that cause your conscience and your mind and your heart to be dreadfully sorrowful? Look at what dominates the attention of church polity today. That is the way the church is governed and operates. Doesn't entertainment dominate? Doesn't the idea of getting more people to come church growth movement, the emergent church with its emphasis on showmanship and salesmanship and entertainment. And what is the fallout from all of that movement? The preaching and teaching of sound doctrine has gone by the wayside, has been denied. the convictions of pastors to preach the truth, regardless of any external factors, just preach the truth line upon line, verse upon verse, here a little, there it a little. the milk of the Word and the meat of the Word, the whole counsel of God, expounding the scriptures, crying to God in prayer for the Spirit of God to come down, take the preaching of the Word, take the Word of God, which is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the hearts of the people, slaying them as it were with conviction. causing them to hate their sins, giving them grace to be sorrowful and repentant over their sins, and granting them saving faith where they would believe in one whom they've never heard nor seen before to save their never-dying souls. That's the only way God has ordained to pluck a sinning soul as a bran from the burning and plant their feet on the only foundation that can be laid, which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And whether we have a handful of people or a thousand people in a building matters not as we gather for worship. What matters is that we are preaching the truth, we are living out the truth, we are experiencing the truth of God's truth, his doctrine, his word. and we know Him personally. And the Spirit of holiness and the Spirit of God is controlling our life and deepening the work of grace in our hearts and in our life. So that there will be fewer and fewer people who will be lost in their understanding, lost in the church, and lost in the ministry. Because hell is a reality. And the worst place in the lake of fire is reserved for those who have pursued false religion, including counterfeit Christianity. And if you don't want to go there, and if you're concerned that your profession of faith, in other words, is genuine, you will pursue the things that matter most, spiritually speaking, to God. because those are the conditions and the standards and the criteria by which we can know we are walking in the truth and are not lost in our understanding, in our profession and in the ministry. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would have mercy upon your church, that everyone listening on this live stream broadcast would examine themselves and would not say, how can these things be, as Nicodemus, but that you would shine the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ through the scriptures, the light of truth into their hearts and on their pathway. Help them, Lord. And if they don't know you, Like Nicodemus, let them go from being religious to being born again. Save them, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.