All right. Let's go ahead and get started. May you pray for us as we begin. Thank you, Lord, for this morning. I thank you for your word. Thank you for sustaining all of us that are here and gathering us together, Lord. as our good shepherd, we being like sheep scattered across the city. And each Lord's Day, you call us back to yourself to worship you in a sweet picture of what eternity will be like. Pray, Lord, that as we consider what you have done for us, what you alone are able to do in changing the hearts of man, that we would rejoice and be thankful that we would continue to deny worldly lusts that cling to us and instead set our minds on the things that are above where you are seated, Lord. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right, so we are in John chapter 3. If you guys want to turn there, I'm going to go ahead and reread the first eight verses that we looked at last week and keep that context going for us for what we're looking at this morning. Before I do so, is there somebody willing to give us somewhat of like a recap of what were some of the key points that we considered last week? Because as I said, I didn't want to, we did because of time, but I didn't want to necessarily split this little narrative right in half, but we did. And so that's, it is what it is. What did we mainly emphasize last week? Cedric. Yeah, we can't cause the Lord to save some, or who we will, but who he will. Yeah, and that was one of the big points Ryle was stressing, and this is a good, if you're wanting a reference in your Bibles for good, section on regeneration, verses 1 through 8 of chapter 3 emphasize regeneration. And then what we'll look at in this next section is more aligned with specifically justification. All right, so let me reread John chapter 3. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Verse nine, Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen. But you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world. And people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." All right, so Nicodemus, the one of the leaders of the Pharisees, kind of the highest religious order in Israel, does not understand Christ, who he is, doesn't see him for who he is, is trying to understand where, by what authority he's coming and doing what he's doing, and making sure it's valid. He also misunderstands regeneration. He misunderstands being born again. He doesn't understand how to do what Jesus is saying must be done in order to see God's kingdom. And so this, starting in verse nine then, that's been revealed, how can these things be? This is underlining again, he is still missed, even after the analogy Jesus gives of the spirit and the wind, right? almost synonymous there. How can these things be? He does not understand Jesus' teaching. So then looking at verse 10, Jesus continues to answer him. Are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. So not only does Jesus reveal the failure of the religious leaders to instruct, the Israelites, but in this rebuke, Jesus also affirms something that I want us to think about carefully, is that the Old Testament has not taught an alternative way of salvation. It has always been consistent. Salvation has, since the fall, man has needed a new heart, and God alone is the one who will give man that new heart. And he's going to point to that with that very specific example in verse 16, that well-known passage, right? So listen to Ezekiel 36, 26, maybe make a note of this. I referenced it last week. It says, the Lord says, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. All right, so emphasizing there what. I'm not sure what Nicodemus' teaching was like, we're not told, but he obviously did not understand this. And this is what he was meant to know. I kind of draw a line in my mind between Nicodemus and Saul before he became Paul, right? A Pharisee of Pharisees. Nicodemus was kind of in that same category. And yet he knew his Old Testament and he missed it because his eyes were not open, he was in darkness. And so Jesus reveals that, calls that out in him. Again, he affirms, truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. So remember at the beginning, you can look up and see how Nicodemus begins this conversation, right? 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. The issue that Nicodemus and the Pharisees who are having this conversation internally about Jesus, their issue wasn't their intellectual ability to understand. It's not that they were not smart enough and they couldn't critically review the Old Testament manuscripts. I say Old Testament. To them, that's just all they had, right? But they couldn't review those things carefully enough, and there was something that they weren't doing right that wasn't showing them Jesus. The problem is, the issue is that the Nicodemus and the Pharisees did not receive Christ's testimony about himself. They did not believe. That was the issue. And so one of the points I made last week was that we cannot intellectually convince or persuade somebody to come to Christ. But another point I want to add to this is that we need to be wary of apologetic tactics that try to do that, that try to correct or triumph in like a debate, right? Because sharing the gospel is not debating. Those are not the same thing. And so we need to make sure we have the gospel going out by grace, and we're not just trying to intellectually overcome arguments and give rebuttals for everything. Yeah, so I hope that's helpful for you to see. It's giving us a very clear picture of what the beginning of the gospel talks about with the light coming into the darkness and This is the darkness that we're seeing here and there's clearly still darkness. Also keep in mind, remember the imagery here of Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night is used as this kind of picture of where the state of Israel was and where Nicodemus was. He was in darkness and so he wasn't receiving what Christ was teaching about himself. All right. Jesus goes on, if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, what are those earthly things Jesus mentions there? He said he's told him earthly things. If I've told you earthly things and you don't believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? What would those earthly things be? That's right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's not to be lost that, right, I mentioned being born again is being born from heaven, and yet this is still an earthly thing, because these are things that are happening to humans here in time on Earth, right? And if Nicodemus can't understand that, what Jesus is then revealing is, He's challenging him. If this leading scholar of the scriptures can't understand this, then how could he hope to understand even deeper, more heavenly things that could be talked about, these heavenly truths? In other words, if Nicodemus is not born again, and therefore not able to see the kingdom of God, then why would Jesus begin describing the kingdom of God to him? You see that connection there? All of this is affirming, again, the darkness of Israel. Many people are like this today. So many, maybe you have some family members, but so many have read the Bible or parts of scripture, sometimes just the book of Revelation, and they want clarity. on some of those ideas that are communicated there. And the more they talk about that, the things in scripture, they reveal that they have no idea what they're talking about. And they're trying to draw connections to what's happening in history or what's happening today, or political leaders and all this stuff. They're trying to understand things that they don't have eyes to see. So, sorry. Anyways, so the more these questions are coming out of Nicodemus, it's good. It's good that he's asking and he's come to meet Jesus, but it's also revealing the state of his heart and where he is at. So don't be discouraged when you have been sharing the gospel with somebody and they're taking Hail Mary shots at truth and they're trying to get their head around things and they're missing it. Don't be frustrated. Trust the Lord to work, but do continue to give them truth and wait for the Lord to open their eyes to that. So, that's the paradigm of these earthly things and these heavenly things here. He's not able to see this humble, lowly mustard seed of Christ in his kingdom working, changing, you know, individual people, they're starting to establish or prepare the way I think you should say for the church. And Nicodemus, he's missing it. He's missing the connection there. He then goes on, Jesus goes on in 13, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. This is really kind of comes across awkward for us. And so it's, you know, it's just helpful to have, you know, reliable commentaries on passages that can help kind of explain really the English translation is where the tripping up can happen here. It can be a little confusing. But it must be read in light of or connected to verses 12 and 13 because there's an and here. So if you look at where it says no one, There should be an and there, and no one, because it's following that same line of thought. And the logic of Christ's words is emphasizing two sides to his teaching. It's communicating, Jesus has the authority to speak of heavenly things. Okay, so that's, he's communicating that to Nicodemus, he's showing him, I have the authority to talk about these heavenly things. And then the second part is he is a part of the counsel of God, something that no human can testify to. Okay, so when he tells Nicodemus that essentially he's not ready to hear of heavenly things, and we think that sounds a little withholding or exclusive, you know, the sinful thought would be, well, who are you to decide if I'm ready to hear about heavenly things or not? Well, Jesus is the one to decide about whether or not you're ready to hear about heavenly things, right? It contributes to the teaching that Paul communicates in Philippians 2. It kind of adds to that picture. Listen to Philippians 2, starting in verse 5. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We know there's a fuller, there's a whole book around that passage for Paul, but Christ left, or he left his place in heaven to come and be here on earth, okay? He came, as we saw at the beginning, He was born, he became flesh, he took on flesh, he's dwelling among men, and so he has descended from heaven, the son of man, and is now telling Nicodemus, you're not ready to hear about these heavenly things because you're not understanding the things that I'm doing here on earth. So let me do a little bit of recap before we go in, because as you can tell, this is part of the reason why I broke it up where I did. It's getting thicker and thicker in teaching, and I want us to just enjoy it for what it is. This emphasized Jesus' authority to know man's heart. Remember this whole section, starting back at the end of chapter two, is emphasizing Jesus' ability, his authority to know man's heart. Nicodemus misunderstands being born again, and he sees that as a literal birth. The earthly thing is being confused. He is not then ready to hear of the heavenly things. Who is Jesus to decide that? He is the one who was in heaven and has now descended to earth, taking on the flesh as the son of man. Okay, so that's, I'm bringing us up to where we are now. Nicodemus doesn't get to ask his next question because Jesus continues to answer and that reveals what The question would be if Nicodemus was to actually open his mouth and speak and ask the question. Remember, he knows man's heart. It's like Nicodemus in his mind is thinking, if you aren't going to tell me of heavenly things, then why are we still talking? I came to get answers from you, and you've told me you're not giving me what I want to know almost. Let's look now at 14 through 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." Jesus teaches Nicodemus his reason for descending by comparing it to a picture that Nicodemus would have known and understood well. So listen, this reference here, your Bibles will point you there, Numbers 21. I'm going to read this little section here. It says in chapter 21 of Numbers, verse 6, then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, that is Israel, they're in the wilderness, he sends fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. There's some really neat pictures going on there. And we'll just wait until Shane preaches through numbers to get that. But there's sweet biblical theology happening. But what we do want to just touch on right now In being the son of man, the son has taken on flesh with the intention to do something. Just as the physical lives of the Israelites were saved, right, their physical earthly life, they were not eternally saved by looking at the serpent, but physically they were preserved from the deadly venom of the serpents when they looked upon the bronze serpent, so the eternal lives of those who believe in Christ are saved from perishing in eternal death." Okay, that is the picture that Jesus is making for Nicodemus. What is he doing? He is sharing the gospel news, the good news, with Nicodemus, okay? And he's using this analogy from the Old Testament to help him better understand what is happening now in the New Testament. Okay, so when you hear of stories or people in the Old Testament, I'm not talking about Nicodemus, when we today are reading our Bibles and we're hearing of stories of people in the Old Testament, Maybe, for instance, just off the top of my head, when we hear of priests in a sacrificial system, okay? These are those shadows and types, right? That's exactly what is meant and happening here. Something's happened in the Old Testament that is meant to point us to a reality, a fullness in the New Testament. The pole with the serpent on it was a type of what was to come. What was the anti-type? What was the end thing that did come? Christ on the cross, okay? So the type and the anti-type, those are just two good words to have in your mind. It's going to help you as you're reading your Old and New Testament. So there's the type, the bronze serpent, and then there's the anti-type, Christ on the cross. And now, Nicodemus must truly be bewildered. And he's trying to figure out what is happening now, what are you talking about, okay? If you are who you say you are, if you're the son of a man, if you were in heaven with God, as he testifies, why in the world would you leave heaven, the privileged divine dwelling place, to come down to earth? Right? It'd be like Nicodemus, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisee of Pharisees, stepping away from that position to go sit in the street with a Gentile beggar. Okay? Why would you do that? And then we read, for God so loved the world, that's why he did it. Ryle says, the truth before us is the very foundation stone of the Christian religion. Christ's death is the Christian's life. Christ's cross is the Christian's title to heaven. Christ lifted up, remember the picture, Christ being lifted up. and put to shame on Calvary is the ladder by which Christians enter into the holiest and are at length landed in glory. He goes on, it is true that we are sinners, but Christ has suffered for us. It is true that we deserve death, but Christ has died for us. It is true that we are guilty debtors, but Christ has paid our debts with his own blood. This is the real gospel. This is the good news, on this let us lean while we live, to this let us cling when we die. Christ has been lifted up on the cross and has thrown open the gates of heaven to all believers. So God is the source of salvation. It's the same source that was in the Old Testament. It's not different now. God is the source of salvation. What has changed, though, is the covenant. how we access the fathers through the grace of Christ, okay? D.A. Carson, this was helpful, another little quote, he said, God's love is to be admired, not because the world is so big and includes so many people, but because the world is so bad. Okay, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. So Jesus is stating to Nicodemus, this religious leader, that in him there is a new covenant being inaugurated and it goes beyond just the people and the nation of Israel. The scope of this new covenant is accessible. It's made ready for the whole world. Eternal life can be secured now by Jew or Gentile by believing in the Son of God. And many point to this verse and make much more out of it than is there. What is being clear here is that those who believe in the Son of God have eternal life, right? That's what's being communicated here. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. It is those in the world who believe in the Son of God have eternal life. And then if we, continuing, for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. This is paramount. It's good news for Nicodemus because he now has a real, a true way to God. Verse 18 then is going to help us flesh out the teaching of 16 and 17. Okay, so for whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. All right, so connect there condemned and perish in verse 16. Those who are perishing, those are the same people who are being condemned. Those who do not believe, they're like chaff, that the wind is going to blow away. They are like the Israelites who were bitten by the serpent, but they did not look up at the pole, so therefore they died. That's the picture he's staying with. One commentator pointed out that those who do not believe in the Son of God being lifted up, those who do not believe, they're not in a neutral place. Okay? And this is making that clear. It's not, we're all here, and for those who believe, then you kind of go up to the next, no, we're all, we're condemned if we do not believe, and if we do believe, we are not condemned. Okay? Those are the only two ways that Jesus puts before him, condemned or not condemned. No matter how genuine or earnest or sincere one's faith is, If it is not on or in Christ's death and resurrection, then you are condemned, okay? If you look at verse 19, he starts bringing in some of the imagery from the beginning of chapter one, light and darkness. Well, let me say before I go there, I think I put this a little later on in my notes. I meant to put it here. Yeah, I'll just wait until I get there. Look at verse 19. And this is the judgment. So now there's a judgment being discussed. The light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. So think back to chapter one, verse nine. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. And so this is the basis by which God judges. Do they love the light or the darkness? That's how God is judging man, okay? How or what reveals where man's loves lie? Look at verses 18 and 19. What is the basis? How do we know whether somebody is going to be condemned or not condemned? And I know I already talked about looking to Christ being lifted up, but use the verbiage here in verses 18 and 19. How do we know who is condemned and who's not condemned? Whoever believes. All right, so how do you say that using the words from verses 18 and 19? Yeah. Yeah, no, no, you got it, yeah. Because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God. So that belief has to be in the name of the only son of God. That's the line. There's a hard line. It is black and white before the holy judge. Those who have believed in the name of the only Son of God are not condemned. Those who do not believe in the name of the only Son of God, they are condemned. Ryle identifies the scope of what is taught in just these few verses. So man's salvation is entirely of God. But if man is lost or condemned, that will be entirely of himself or of his own doing. Right? Because he has not believed. God so loved the world, he gave his only son. He did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. God did that. But if you're condemned, he condemns those because they have not believed in the name of the only son of God. Do you see the difference in responsibility there? And then verses 20 and 21 kind of go a little bit further and they give very clear distinctions between verse 20 is a picture of the wicked and then verse 21 is the picture of the righteous. So if you look at verse 20, For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed." So the wicked are those who do wicked things, right? Yes, right? Obviously. Their life is according to wickedness. They do wicked things. The reason the wicked are condemned or the condemned ones are wicked is because they flee from the light and they love the darkness because it conceals their works, okay? What the early verses reveal is that these efforts of the wicked to conceal their works, it's in vain. It's futile. They cannot conceal it by darkness because the Lord already knows their hearts and he has condemned them. They are condemned. He doesn't find out and then condemn them. They are condemned. That's what's being taught here. And then in 21, we're getting this picture of the righteous, okay? So the righteous, but whoever does what is true, okay? So those who do what is true, their life is according to truth. Whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." The works of the righteous are carried out in God. They see God as the one working good in and through them. They recognize that they would not do that on their own. They couldn't do that on their own. They loved the darkness. Something has changed in them, and that is God. The Son of Man has been lifted up for them, and they believe, and they're not condemned. They work, they love the light. They don't love the darkness. They don't want the darkness to conceal their works. They want their works to be exposed because they can be sanctified. They are not doing it of themselves, they're being carried out in God. So listen to how Paul encourages the church in this way, and this is how I want to encourage us in this way as we close. We as the Church of Christ, we are to, as Paul says, walk as children of the light. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. Repent of sin, confess sin, ask for forgiveness from one another, and pursue the light. The light is good, it exposes our sin that remains. And there's forgiveness in Christ who has been lifted up. Any questions before we close in prayer? Yes, sure. Yeah, so let me go back up here. So this is connecting to, yeah, there was a whole, rewording that that would take place if you were to like transliterate writing out that sentence versus the English is trying to do its best to kind of communicate. Um, but this is, this is the, uh, so you almost have to read it, uh, not chronicle chronologically. Um, but the son of man who is now on earth, uh, sorry, I'm looking back at my notes now to make sure I'm saying this carefully. The one who has ascended, when we think of ascended, we think we were here and now we've changed position, we've gone up. Think about this as being the one who is ascended in heaven, right? the son of God in heaven, right? He is the ascended one. Um, he is in a, in a position that no one else is. Okay. Um, that, that's how he is able to, uh, descend. Okay. And he, and it says there descend from heaven. Um, what it's emphasizing there, and this is what I was talking about before is that, uh, This is the, he's speaking to the authority of being this ascended one. He has the counsel, the wisdom of God, because he is God. He is one of the triune persons of God. And so he can testify to himself in these ways, and he can know man's heart, and therefore he is able to say to Nicodemus, you don't understand this, why would I then tell you about these heavenly things? Is that helpful? Yeah. So, and again, I pointed to Philippians 2, verse 5. If you, verse 6, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in likeness. And then there's the point of him descending, right? Think of that as the ascended one, the form of God. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know if it is making that. I didn't read that in any commentators that I was using while I was preparing, so I'm not sure if that is going to make that that hard of a case. Because we do know that he does bodily ascend, right? We don't want to deny that. Yeah. Sure. It has a huge effect. We always take things like wind, light, and dark. Those are just things that exist, right? And so Christ uses them to teach us about who He is. When we think about the fact that God is the Word and He was in creation, then these things are real. for the purpose of here, the culmination of history, Christ's existence, can be made into points to those things to give us understanding. There doesn't really have to be wind, but when God created wind, he did so so that here in this passage, we could say the spirit is wind. We could have an image of an uncontrollable, unseen, very powerful thing. Yeah, yeah. Yes. So looking at things like that, which is in my own history, goes back to my first day in bed. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he is, uh, all things are for his glory. And we just can be kind of become trite because we just, we, we, you know, say it all the time, but it's so true, right? Everything is for his glory in so much so that even like thirst or sheep or even a, um, yeah. Yeah, but even think beyond that how he uses even what sin has done to the world is not out of his control or messes up his plan. Yeah, it's a good thing to meditate on. That's right. Yeah. That's good. Any other questions? Yes, Kurt. Okay, so when you get towards the end of what we were just talking, 20 and 21. Yes, yeah. Take the light. Yep. So for those of us that say, yes, we believe in Christ, we believe in this, but yet we continue to in essence, is wickedness like those who eventually just sin, like they are sinners, or is that also a feature of a believer that deals with constant sin in his life, and he always maybe comes to a doubt that says, I can't. I still see darkness in me, and yeah, absolutely. So keep in mind, remember, what we're talking about is regeneration and justification. We're not talking about the believer. I'm making connections for us as believers, right, later on, but that is a good point to keep in mind. That's why I worded it so those who do wicked things their life is according to wickedness. It's characterized by wickedness. Those who do what is true, their life is according to truth. They're living by that. And we know, as we read elsewhere in our Bible, that that only happens because of Christ's sanctifying work in us. But if we jump ahead and say this is talking about 20 and 21, that's how we're thinking about us today will, if I've done a wicked thing, and there are times where I desire wicked things, right, because that's sin, and I don't do what is true all the time, all of a sudden it messes up. justification, right? And sanctification, it can start to confuse those things. So keep these for what they're intended to be as Jesus is talking to an unbeliever, Nicodemus, and is wanting to teach regeneration and justification. So it's a good question. All right, guys, I got to pray. And then if there's other questions, we can keep talking. Lord, I do thank you that out of your rich, overflowing, abundant love, you had no need for us. We don't add anything to you, but because you loved us and you sent your Son to die for us, we get to commune with you. We are in you and you are in us and nothing will undo that, Lord. You forgive our sinfulness that continues to linger in this life. But surely, Lord, as your word promises, you will do away with all sin in a fullness that was seen at the cross and will be consummated at the end of time where we will be glorified with you. We will have no more sin and we long for that day, Lord. I pray that we would be faithful in this life and in this day and in this week to be faithful testimonies of this light of Christ to those around us who still live in darkness, and that we would trust that you can and have the authority, but you're also willing, out of love, to change the hearts of man, give the hearts of flesh, Lord. Okay.