Connection Points

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn again to John chapter 3, and though our focus will be beginning at verse 9,
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I am going to read again, beginning at verse 1, to take us down to verse 15, just so that we will maintain the context of the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, which is the context of this portion of Scripture.
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But before we read, I want to make a statement about the
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Bible itself. The Bible is not a random collection of disconnected stories.
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The Bible is not a random collection of disconnected stories. From Genesis to Revelation, it presents a unified narrative, woven together by countless internal connections.
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The events, people, and themes are repeatedly echoed, fulfilled, and referenced throughout its pages.
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In 2007, a man by the name of Chris Harrison, and another pastor by the name of Christoph Romhild, assembled a digital database of all of the cross -references in the
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King James Bible. Cross -references, if you're unfamiliar, are the conceptual links between verses, connecting locations, people, phrases, etc.,
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found in the different parts of the Bible, and according to their research, having looked at the various cross -references in Scripture, they have come to the conclusion that there are over 60 ,000 cross -references, meaning 60 ,000 places where this verse references that verse, or this verse references a place from another place, or this references a person that's later fulfilled in another event later on.
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And their work has produced a beautiful illustration of these cross -references, and I wanna show it to you.
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I actually went out and purchased this image. Normally, people online just take stuff, but I felt like if I was gonna show it publicly,
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I should pay for it, so I bought the image, so I have the right to show it to you.
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This is the image of the work that they did. If you've never seen this image, it's a beautiful and fascinating picture.
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Along the bottom there, each one of those lines represents a chapter in the Bible. You'll notice the different lengths of the lines, that's the different lengths of the chapter.
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If you'll notice about in the middle, that's that long psalm, Psalm 119, which is quite a bit longer than the rest of the chapters.
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And what the colored lines are, which is a little hard to see on the screen, but what the colored lines are is that's where one verse connects to another verse.
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And the different colors represents how far apart they are. And so the red ones and the purple ones are closer together, the green and yellow are further apart.
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And you'll see way over to the left in Genesis, there are verses that connect all the way over to the right, which would be
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Revelation. Mike, of course, teaching through Revelation in Sunday School, has been talking about that. How many times the book of Revelation goes back and points to things in the
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Old Testament? Well, this computer program mapped it all out and created this beautiful rainbow picture of the connection points in the scripture.
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Psychologist Jordan Peterson referred to the Bible as the first hyperlinked book.
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I thought that was an interesting way of saying it. If you're familiar with computers and how hyperlinks work, if you click on a button in one website, it'll take you to another website.
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That's called a hyperlink. Well, the idea is in the Bible, we have a verse here, and it'll link to another verse somewhere else, or maybe two or three other verses somewhere else.
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The entire Bible is connected. And even if you wanted to debate, there aren't 63 ,000, maybe there's 62 ,000 or so.
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If you wanted to debate the number of cross references, you could do that. But it is without a doubt that the
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Bible is a divinely guided weaving of all of the stories within together to produce this tapestry of God's story that's not simply a random collection of disconnected ideas.
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And so, with that in mind as our sort of foundational thought going into today, that the
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Bible is not a random collection of disconnected stories, I want us to now read this interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus.
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And I want us to consider as Jesus begins to challenge Nicodemus about his own understandings.
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Are you the teacher? You don't even know these things. Because what he's saying is you're not making the connection between the old and the new.
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You're not making the connection between what was written before and what has now come. You're missing the connection points.
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And how often do we miss those connection points? Let's stand together and read the text.
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Again, beginning back at verse 1 just to maintain the context of the passage. It says,
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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,
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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.
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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,
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How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
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Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes, you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
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So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him,
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How can these things be? Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel?
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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.
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If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the
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Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your Word. I thank you for the opportunity to again stand and proclaim your
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Word. And I pray, O God, as I pray every time as I tremble behind your
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Word, that you would hide me behind the Word and Lord, that your Word would go forth, that this would not be a time of building up my own ego or reputation.
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Or Lord, that it would not be a time where I would seek to advance my own ideas or my own agenda.
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Or Lord, that it would not be a time that I would cower in fear of what men may think. But Lord, that I would simply stand upon the rock of the
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Word of God and say, thus saith the Lord, and that you would keep me from error. God, I pray for your people.
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Your Word tells us that you will take a people who are not your people and call them my people.
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And that's what you have done through the Lord Jesus Christ. You have made us your people. So Lord, today
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I pray through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that your people would hear your
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Word and be sanctified through it. Sanctify us by your truth. Your Word is truth.
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And for those who are not yet your people, that you would, by the mercy of God, open their heart to believe.
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For Lord God, no one can come to you unless you do a work on the heart.
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So we praise you and thank you for what you have done in the lives of so many and what you are still yet to do in the lives of some.
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And we look forward to that in Jesus' name. Amen. In John chapter 3,
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Jesus lays out for Nicodemus, a Jewish Pharisee and a member of the
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Sanhedrin, the truth about the doctrine of regeneration.
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The doctrine of the new birth. And we have over the last several weeks walked through that doctrine together.
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We have, as it were, taken somewhat of a break from a verse by verse exposition and sort of looked at the doctrine as it pertains to both the
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Old and New Testament and what it teaches. But we haven't departed the, excuse me, we haven't departed the text.
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We've simply expanded on what it is that Jesus is referring to. He tells
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Nicodemus that the new birth is the barrier for entrance to the kingdom of God.
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That without regeneration a person will not perceive the kingdom. It says, unless you are born again you will not see the kingdom and without being born again you will not enter the kingdom.
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So you will neither perceive nor participate in the kingdom of God if you are not born again.
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He also tells us the nature of the new birth. He says it's not a physical birth.
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He says that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit.
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All of us are born of flesh. We are born in the image of our parents.
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We can look at a child, look at the face of the child and we will often see the physical characteristics of their parents in their faces, in their hands, in their feet.
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And we see the image of their parents on them and we know that is a physical thing.
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We also bear the nature of our parents as being sinners. When Adam sinned and brought sin into the world he passed that sinful nature down to all of his posterity and because all of us are related to Adam by birth we all inherit this dreadful sinful nature which causes us to be at enmity with God which is not a good thing.
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Enmity means to be at war with God. And Jesus says that which is born of flesh is flesh.
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But that which is born of spirit is spirit.
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And so in that simple phrase he defines for us what the new birth is.
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It is spiritual birth. We read in John chapter 1. Jesus came unto
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His own and His own received Him not, but to as many as received Him, who believed in His name, to them
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He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God.
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If you are born of the Spirit that means you are born of God. It is different and distinct from your physical birth.
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It is the new birth that comes through an act of the
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Spirit who is, as Jesus says, like the wind which blows where it wills, the
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Spirit moves on the heart as He wills, giving life, opening the heart, and even imparting the gift of faith.
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This is the doctrine of regeneration. And so we come this morning to verse 9 and as we continue in this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus we find ourselves at the place where Jesus is actually deriding
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Nicodemus for being a teacher of Israel and not understanding what
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He is saying. So notice what
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He says in verse 9. Nicodemus said to Him, How can these things be?
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What are these things? What are the things that Nicodemus is asking about? Jesus has just explained to him the new birth.
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Jesus has just explained to him in simple terms the doctrine of regeneration. That which is born of flesh is flesh.
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That which is born of Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I say you must be born again. This is the context of Nicodemus' question and so now
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Nicodemus says, What do you mean by that? How can this be?
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This does not compute. And Jesus, in His ineffable way, answers him with a question.
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Are you a teacher? Actually, He didn't say that. He said,
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Are you the teacher? Definite article, meaning you have a position of prominence among the people of Israel.
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You're the teacher. You're one of the ones that people would come to in their hour of need with questions about the scripture.
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You're one who has probably memorized large portions of the scripture. You are one who stands before the people and proclaims the scripture.
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You are the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things.
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Now, I want to propose a question that I would like for you to consider, not answering out loud, of course, but just answering in your own mind.
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Why would Jesus expect Him to know this? Why would
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Jesus expect that Nicodemus would understand these things?
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Nowhere in the Old Testament is the phrase, born again, used.
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Nowhere in the Old Testament is the term, born from above or born again, as we translate it in the
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Greek, we don't find that term in the Old Testament. So couldn't
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Nicodemus merely claim ignorance? Yeah, I know the book.
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I've read it. It ain't in there, could be the response of Nicodemus.
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Why are you giving me a hard time, Jesus? I'm a good student, but what you're talking about,
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I've not read before. And I want to give you two answers to this question.
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Why would Jesus deride Nicodemus for something that isn't in the
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Old Testament? The first thing is simply a statement of something that is,
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I think, relatively easy to recognize. That while the term, new birth, is not in the
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Old Testament scriptures, the idea of a life change being associated with coming to faith is all over the
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Bible. And in the Old Testament, the term, born again, is not used.
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But in the Old Testament, there is the idea of someone who comes to faith, and the term that is used there is the term, the circumcision of the heart.
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And I'd like for you just for a moment, if you would, turn with me to look at that passage. There's many of them, it actually occurs several times, but the one specifically
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I'd like you to look at is in Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 6.
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In Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 6, it says this.
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I hear Bibles turning, so I'll give a second. It says,
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And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the
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Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live.
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Notice a few things about this passage. Number one, this is something that God does. And the
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Lord your God will circumcise your heart. Notice also the result of the circumcision of the heart, so that you will love the
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Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and that you may live.
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So we have in this passage at least an example of what we would say is a heart change that is associated with faith.
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And so can we say that the Lord that Nicodemus should have understood at bare minimum the idea that coming to faith includes a change of heart.
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It's not merely an external thing, but it is an internal change of heart. But the second thing
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I think is even more important, because not only should
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Nicodemus have recognized that a life change is always associated with faith, but also there are specific prophecies about a new administration of the
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Spirit that would accompany the new covenant. There are specific prophecies about a new administration of the
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Spirit that would accompany the new covenant. And now I'd like for you to turn again in your
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Bible. I know that recently I've been doing a lot more Bible, like turn in your Bibles. I know I don't often do a lot of cross -referencing, but these are so important for us to see so that we don't miss.
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Go to Ezekiel 36. And we're actually going to look at chapter 36 and 37, so I would like for you to turn with me.
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Because in 36, we have Ezekiel's prophecy of what
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I believe Jesus is referring to here. Jesus is talking about being born again.
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Which again, the idea of new birth has within it not only the idea of a change of heart, but it also has the idea of receiving the
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Spirit of God. And I will tell you that, my friends, is a new covenant promise.
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The indwelling and continual living of the
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Spirit in the heart of the believer is a new covenant promise. We do not see that in the
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Old Testament. We don't see the Holy Spirit indwelling and staying with the people throughout their life.
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We see the Spirit moving on people, yes absolutely. But what else does He do? He departs people, right?
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Which is kind of a big deal, because don't we make a claim in the New Testament that once the Spirit indwells someone,
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He doesn't depart? That's a big distinction. But also this, in the
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Old Testament, where is the presence of God known to reside? The temple.
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The Spirit of God is known to reside in the temple. This is why that there had to be the sacrifices made at the temple.
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This is why the priest, when he goes into the temple, must go in and he must make a sacrifice for himself.
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Then he goes in and makes a sacrifice for the people going past the holy place into the holy of holies in that annual time of year where he would go in on the day of atonement and he would place the blood on the mercy seat, thereby making an annual atonement for the people of God there in the presence of the
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Spirit of God. But when
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Jesus died on the cross, a very important physical thing took place.
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When Jesus died on the cross, the veil which separated the holy place from the most holy place was torn in half, and the book of Matthew says, torn in half from the top to the bottom, which
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I believe is symbolic of God doing the tearing. It wasn't grabbed by a man and ripped from the bottom to the top, but as if God had grabbed with His own hand the top veil and He ripped it in two,
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He demonstrated that now the Spirit who had prior to this been housed in the temple of God would now be released to make
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His abode in the hearts of men. This is the new covenant reality, that not only will the
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Spirit of God be within us,
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I have a lot of friends in differing denominations. I tend to make friends with people with whom
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I disagree quite a bit, because I learn from people. If you only spend time with people you agree with, you're never going to learn anything.
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Just to remind you, you should spend a few minutes with people you disagree with because you might learn something.
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But this is one of the areas where I disagree with some of my Presbyterian brethren who I love, because at least the ones, and this is not a ubiquitous, all
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Presbyterians believe this, I don't know if all Presbyterians, these are just my friends, people I spend time with. There is a belief among some of them that the
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Old Testament movement of the Spirit in the individual living with the person and abiding is not different than the new.
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That the administration, the Old Testament, because again, it's the same covenant with just two administrations. If there's anything
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I'm convinced of from the New Testament it is this, that the new covenant comes with a new, a change in the way the
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Spirit is administered among the people. That He is, yeah, that's part of what is new, is that He will write
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His law on our hearts, that He will change us, and that He will abide with us forever.
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Jesus, we're going to talk a lot more about this as we go through John, because how many times did Jesus say in John, I must depart so the
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Spirit can come, so that why? So that He can dwell in you and be with you forever. But here's the thing,
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Nicodemus should have known this, because that's the very thing that was promised by Ezekiel. And that's what
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I want you to see with me. First, let's look at chapter 36, verse 25. Notice what it says.
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And we read this a few weeks ago, but I'm reminding you of it today. He says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols
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I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit
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I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my
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Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues, and be careful to obey my rules.
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Do you understand why God gives us His Spirit? He doesn't give us His Spirit merely to produce emotional outbursts.
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Oftentimes people will say, oh, you must have been filled with the Spirit, you got excited. The Holy Spirit of God does not indwell you to excite you.
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The Holy Spirit of God indwells you that you might obey God. That's the purpose of the
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Spirit's indwelling. It says it right here. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules.
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God, people, oh, he must have been filled with the Spirit. He was so charismatic, and so loud, and so, just His voice was so booming.
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I've heard people say, oh, you were filled with the Spirit today, Pastor, you really got into it. Beloved, obedience to God is the work of the
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Spirit. Now, am I saying that emotions are wrong?
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No. I talked about this on Wednesday night. Facts, faith, and feelings, all part of how we express ourselves as Christians.
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We should know the facts, we should have our faith in the facts, and that should produce feelings in us. Emotions. I do hate to see a sour grapes looking bunch when we're worshiping, because it should be a joyous time.
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It should be an introspective time. It should draw out the emotions. We're not emotionless.
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We're not stoics. We're not those who are afraid of our emotions, but at the same time, the
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Spirit of God in us produces obedience, not emotion.
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But now, oh, and I do want to mention this, you don't have to turn there, you don't have to turn there, but Jeremiah 31, which we're going to get to someday, through what, chapter 5, chapter 6, today.
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In Jeremiah 31, we also have a similar promise about the coming of the new covenant, and I just want to read it to you, just to remind you, because we're going to read in Ezekiel 37.
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But before we get there, Jeremiah 31 says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made in the days of their fathers, when
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I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the
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Lord. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them.
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I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor, or to his brother, know the
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Lord. For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. And I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
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This is the blessing of the new covenant. The new covenant is God's going to write His law on our heart. That's the
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Spirit of God coming to live within us and giving us that desire for obedience. That's the new covenant, and it comes with the blessing of, one, knowing
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God as our God. Two, knowing that we don't have to continue to say, know the
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Lord, know the Lord, know the Lord, because they will all know me. All who have been born again, all who have been brought into the new covenant, know the
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Lord. This is why, by the way, this is why worship services are not evangelistic crusades.
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We got convinced in the latter part of the last century that every worship service needs to be a
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Billy Graham crusade, because every worship service should be what? Pointing people to the moment of decision.
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Pointing people to the moment of decision. No, worship is for the people of God to gather together and worship
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God together. Now, will there be unbelievers here? Yes. Should there be a clear presentation of the gospel?
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Certainly. But the purpose of gathering is not evangelism. The purpose of gathering is worship and equipping us so that we can go out into the world and evangelize.
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That's what we're here to do. The people of God know the
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Lord. If you're a member of the new covenant, you know the Lord. That's how you got in.
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And that's why you're in. Now back to Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 37, we have this marvelous story, which is a prophet prophecy about the
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Valley of Dry Bones. And remember, we're talking about connection points, right?
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We're talking about how this is connected to that. We've looked at the connection points. Here's a connection point.
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I want to read it to you. It's only 14 verses. I know it's a long section here, but I want you to hear this.
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Some of you may not have ever heard this unless, obviously, hopefully you've all read your Bibles all the way through, but maybe you haven't heard anyone talk about this.
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The Valley of Dry Bones is a very important prophetic passage where the prophet is given a picture of what
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God does to the dead, rising them from the dead, and putting his spirit within them.
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So let's read. It says, The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the spirit of the
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Lord, and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones.
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And he led me around among them. And, behold, there were many on the surface of the valley, and, behold, they were dry.
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That's where you get the Valley of Dry Bones. And he said to me,
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Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered,
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O God, you know. Then he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and say to them,
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O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones,
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Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the
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Lord. So I prophesied, as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
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And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them.
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Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, Son of man, and say to the breath,
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Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.
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So I prophesied, as he commanded me. And the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
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Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say,
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Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, we indeed are cut off. Therefore prophesy, and say to them,
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Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will open your graves, raise you from the grave,
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O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord when
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I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. But notice verse 14, this is the connection point.
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And I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land.
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Then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the
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Lord. Now there is great debate about the relationship between Old Testament Israel and the
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New Covenant or New Testament Church. And some would find it very odd to make a connection point between the two.
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In fact, those who would come from a more dispensational background, and if you don't know what that means, praise the
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Lord. I don't have time to go into it right now, but for those who come from a more dispensational background, there would be a hard distinction between church and Israel.
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They would say there are promises that are given to Israel that are not meant for the church. There are promises for the church that are not meant for Israel. However, as I said last week, and I don't know how many of you caught this, the
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Old Testament is the kingdom of God typified. The New Testament is the kingdom of God inaugurated in the coming of the
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King, and it is consummated in His return. So what is the purpose of Israel?
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Is the purpose of Israel to be a different economy of God, where He is going to do something different with them than He does with His people, the church?
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No. The church is the fulfillment of the promises that God made to Abraham.
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And therefore, when we see these promises of God gathering His people and putting His Spirit within them, who is
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He referring to? Is He only referring to ethnic Jews? The answer is no, because the
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New Testament says that now there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for we are one in Christ Jesus.
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In Ephesians chapter 2, we love verses 1 through 10, but we often don't read verses 11 and following, because Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 and following are all about God breaking down the dividing wall between Israel and the
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Gentiles. And He says, how has He broken down that dividing wall? Through Jesus Christ.
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We are all one in Him. And therefore, this promise of life from death, this promise of regeneration, can you read the valley of dry bones and not see regeneration?
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It's literally dead, dry bones being brought to life and the
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Spirit of God being breathed into them. Is that not what every man in Christ can say about himself today?
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Can you not say that you were not a personal valley of dry bones, that you yourself were not dead in your trespasses and sins?
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And God being rich in mercy gave you life by grace, you have been saved.
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Now, I don't want to be misunderstood. Is it possible, based upon some passages in the
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New Testament, such as Romans chapter 11, that there is coming a day of great revival among ethnic
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Jews? I can say yes. But I can also say this, it will not be apart from Jesus Christ.
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There will be no promises enjoyed by anyone outside of Christ, now or forever.
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Therefore, if they say there will be a revival among the Jewish people and a receiving of promises, but it will be separated from Christ, I say no.
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For all the promises of God find their yes and amen in Him, not apart from Him.
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Therefore, when we see this passage and it talks about this promise,
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I think it applies to all who have been born again. So now let us go back to John 3, and let me just say this, we ain't getting to the snake today.
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I know I was excited to talk about it, but goodness me, we're 40 minutes in, and if I start the snake now, we're going to have to go another 40 minutes.
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But I think what we've said is important, so let's go back to John 3 and talk for just another moment about verse 11.
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Because he says, are you the teacher of Israel? You don't understand these things? Why should he have understood these things? He should have understood these things, because they're prophesied, and it points to these things, and Jesus is answering the question.
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He's saying, you haven't made the connections. Now he says this, 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.
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I've struggled with this a little bit. Verse 11, I've struggled with, and the reason why I struggle with it is because of the plural.
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Jesus is speaking here, but he speaks as if he's part of a group. He says, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen.
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Who's the we? Well, Jesus could be speaking of himself and his disciples.
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He could be speaking of himself and those who have believed. He could be speaking of himself and John the Baptist, who came before him, who gave a testimony about him.
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It could be a veiled Trinitarian reference. Father, Son, and Spirit. We speak of what we know and what we have seen.
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But I think that it must be understood in light of verse 12, where he points back to Nicodemus and uses the plural for Nicodemus.
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Because notice what he says in verse 12. I'm sorry, at the end of verse 11, but you do not receive our testimony.
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He says, 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.
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The word you there in the Greek is plural. In the same way Jesus is saying, we speak and you don't believe.
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If this were in Southern English, it would be we speak and y 'all don't believe. Because Southern understands how language works and we decided many years ago to stop using you to refer to a bunch of people.
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You is plural. No, you is singular. Y 'all is plural and all y 'all means bunch of plurals.
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So with that being said, what Jesus is saying is we speak of what we have seen and y 'all don't believe.
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Who's the y 'all? It's the Pharisees. It's the teachers.
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It's the men that Nicodemus represents. Jesus came and he did all of these miraculous things.
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Nicodemus comes to him and says, of course you're from God. No one can do the things that you do except God be with him.
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And Jesus says, yeah, but there's a problem. You don't believe. You and your cohorts don't believe.
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Notice he's talking to Nicodemus as well as the rest when he says y 'all don't believe. At this point,
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Nicodemus is not a believer. Nicodemus will be a believer by God's grace.
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Chapter 7, we see him arguing for Jesus in the Sanhedrin. He's there with the other men.
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He's arguing for Jesus and in chapter 19, we see him with Joseph of Arimathea taking the body of Jesus to have it buried so we know that he eventually sides with Jesus.
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But at this point in the story, he's still not a believer. At this point in the story, at best he's a skeptic.
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And Jesus says, if I've told you earthly things and you don't believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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I gave you the simplest analogy. Unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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And what did you do? You ran off into crass literalism. I've got to go back into mama's womb and be born? See, it wasn't a matter of ignorance.
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It was a matter of unbelief. Most of you today who are outside of Christ are not there because of ignorance.
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It's willful unbelief. It's willful unbelief. Nicodemus was a skeptic.
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Some of you are skeptics. Because of that, you don't see the connection points in scripture.
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You don't understand quite much of what I'm saying because at this point, you're still looking at it with a natural eye.
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If I've told you natural things, how can you believe heavenly things? You don't even understand the natural, Jesus says. But let me tell you something as I draw to a close.
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There's a difference between being an honest skeptic and a dishonest skeptic.
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An honest skeptic is a person who has reservations, but once they are faced with the evidence, those reservations are removed.
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I'm skeptical about a lot of things. I don't know about y 'all, but I'm a pretty hard skeptic when it comes to most everything
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I hear on the news. But when the evidence is presented and I have the opportunity to evaluate the evidence,
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I want to be an honest skeptic and be persuaded by the truth. But a dishonest skeptic is a person when he is presented with the truth, will simply jump to another argument.
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And you've been in conversations with guys like this before. You provide them with evidence for the truth, they jump to another argument.
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You provide them with an answer to their question, they jump to another question. Years ago, my favorite debate that I've ever listened to was years ago when
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I listened to the debate between Greg Bonson and Gordon Stein. It happened in California.
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Greg Bonson was a Christian, he was debating Gordon Stein, who was an atheist professor at the college.
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And during the debate, Greg Bonson, the Christian, asked
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Gordon Stein, the atheist, he said, what would it take for you to believe that God exists?
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What would it take to move the needle? Because you've proclaimed
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God does not exist. And Gordon Stein thought for a moment, you can go back and listen to it and check my work.
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I've heard this debate several times, I believe I'm correct. But he thought for a minute and he said, well,
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I'll tell you what. He said, if that lectern, which is like this, he said, if that lectern rose up six feet off the platform and stood suspended between the ground and the sky, and I knew that it wasn't wires or mirrors or some other magic trick, he said,
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I would have to at that point concede that God may exist.
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And Bonson said, no, no matter what
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God shows you, you will continue to find a reason not to believe.
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That's dishonest skepticism. The Bible says we all have ample evidence that God exists.
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It says the very creation around us is proof that God is there. There's no such thing as an honest skeptic when it comes to the existence of God.
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Because what does the natural man do with the truth of God? Suppresses it in unrighteousness.
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Thanks be to God, Nicodemus' heart was opened. And I pray that God would open your heart as well.
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If you've come this morning and you're still wondering about the truth of scripture, remember the thing I showed you earlier. How many connection points in the scripture there are from start to finish?
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It's the most powerful book ever written. Over 40 different authors written over 1500 years in three different languages.
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And it has one message from start to finish, and that is the redemption of man who is lost in sin in need of a savior.
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And Jesus Christ is that savior and he can save you. If you turn from your unbelief and trust in him, you will find him to be a perfect savior.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity to again be in your word.
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And Lord, while often we are considering how much we may get into, we sometimes get drawn back and forced to slow down a bit.
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And I pray, Lord, that this morning and slowing down and looking at these Old Testament texts and the connection points that they make to the
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New Covenant text and understanding what, God, you have expected of us and recognizing who you are.
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And Lord, the propensity of all of us to be skeptical, I pray this morning that you would do a mighty work in the hearts of the people here, that you would, by the truth of your word, persuade men and open their heart to believe.
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And Lord, that now as we gather around the table to be reminded of what
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Christ has done and the perfection of that finished work, which is represented in the bread, which points to his body and the cup, which points to his blood.
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May it be, O God, that we are again renewed in our faith and reminded again of that great sacrifice that was made for all who will believe.