John, Pt. 13 | John 3:13-21

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November 13, 2022 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Pastor Jeff Rice

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John Pt. 14 | John 3

John Pt. 14 | John 3

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All right, if you will take your copy of the Scriptures, we're gonna be in the
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Gospel of John, chapter three, verses 13 through 21.
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The Gospel of John, chapter three, verses 13 through 21.
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Oh, glorious God, Lord, we come to you in the name of your beloved
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Son, Jesus Christ. And Lord, we ask that you speak to us today through your word, that you will speak through me, a mere man, to your people, and that you will reveal the hidden mystery of what you have for us to understand.
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Lord, that if I say anything that is cloudy, Lord, that you will make it clear as crystal, that you will work in your people, for you have filled them with your
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Holy Spirit, and he is our teacher. So please use me this day,
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I pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. So our theme for this
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Lord's Day is sola fide. Sola fide, so if you go back to the
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Reformation, there was five truths given in the Reformation. Sola gratia, sola fide, sola
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Christus, sola Scriptura, and sola Deo gloria. And what this is pointing to is the alones, right?
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That we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, who is found in Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.
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And so what we're gonna see here is sola fide, as we walk through this passage, faith alone.
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And my proposition is this, and I forgot to mention this is our 13th message in the book of John, so my proposition is this.
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Entrance into the new covenant is not by external works done in the flesh, but by looking to Jesus Christ in faith.
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Let me read that again. Entrance into the new covenant is not done by external works done in the flesh, but by looking to Jesus Christ in faith.
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We have already seen in this chapter that salvation is a sovereign work of God alone.
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The psalmist says that salvation belongs to the Lord. And we've walked through this several times, right?
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Like what does salvation mean? Right, it doesn't necessarily have the salvific meaning, right, if I give this instruction.
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We are a church that's right beside a highway, and this highway can be busy.
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And if a child was to run out into the road and a truck is bearing at the child, and if you or me or someone was to run and move that child away from the coming traffic, that truck, you in one sense would be that child's salvation, meaning that you rescue them.
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So that's what the word salvation means, it's to rescue. That the sovereign work of God in salvation is
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God rescuing us, right? And it's His work alone. It's God that steps out in front of His wrath and rescues us in the person of Jesus Christ.
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Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless one is born again, he cannot see, this is with your eyes, the kingdom of God, that the kingdom of God is here, but unless you're a part of God's business, unless you have been rescued, you cannot see it, right?
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Unbelievers have no understanding of why we gather week after week after week, worshiping
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God in psalm, hymn, and spiritual song, sitting under His word, fellowshiping with us.
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This does not make sense to the unbeliever. But to the believer, this is what we long to do, right?
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We long to gather in the house of God to worship Him, and not alone, but corporately as a body of Christ.
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The unbeliever cannot see this, because he hasn't been born again. The kingdom of God is the rule of God in Christ on earth from heaven.
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Jesus is our King. He is sitting on the throne of David at the right hand of the
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Father, ruling and reigning, and putting all of His enemies under His feet. And I said this last week, that one day, this kingdom is going to swallow up all kingdoms, right?
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As the kingdom of God is on earth, it's growing. Every person that receives
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Christ in faith and partakes in the baptism, this kingdom is growing.
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It's expanding. It started with 12, then it was 120, then 5 ,000 were added in Acts chapter two, then another 3 ,000, and what about 500 years after that?
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And another 500 years after that, and another 500 years after that, right? The kingdom of God is growing.
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And one day, this kingdom's gonna swallow up all kingdoms, because we are a kingdom among kingdoms.
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And in order to be a part of this kingdom, you must be born again. In the same way that you had nothing to do with your first birth, so too you have nothing to do with your spiritual birth, right?
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I made this analogy. We did not go to our parents in some vision and say, hey, I'm your future son or daughter, right?
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You and my mom hook up, and I'll be here in the world. We had nothing to do, right?
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We did not do anything. So too with being born again. The Greek there speaks about it, you're being born from above.
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Last week, we saw that baptism was a debated interpretation when it comes to verses five of chapter three.
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So I'm gonna read three verses, chapter three verses three through five real quick, just to touch base on where we've been.
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Jesus answered and said to him, speaking of Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Remember, this is with your eyes. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is owed?
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Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly,
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I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
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So we had a Nicodemus, a Jew, a ruler, right? A teacher, the teacher of the
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Pharisees. He was a part of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council that judged.
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He entered the kingdom, right, the kingdom of the Jews by natural birth.
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And then he received, since he was a male child, he received the sign of the kingdom, which is circumcision.
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And last week, I pointed out that the new birth is our entrance into the kingdom.
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And our sign is baptism. If you reject baptism, you're not a part of the kingdom.
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Right? I mean, if a male child, if a father refused to circumcise their male child, they were kicked out.
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They were cut off. They had nothing to do with the people of God. So too, if you enter the new covenant and you reject baptism,
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I'll give this analogy. I'm reminded that Peter, on the day of Pentecost, they baptized 5 ,000 people.
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And I'm sometimes asked about baptism in this way. Is it salvific? And I'll say this.
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Imagine someone at the very end of the line, he's tired of waiting.
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He's like, man, it's been three hours I've been in this line. I'm tired of waiting. I don't need to be baptized.
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He goes off. And the guy standing beside him tells Peter what happens. You know, this one guy, he said he received you, he believed in Jesus, but he got tired of waiting.
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If this man dies, will he be in the kingdom of God? Peter would say no. Absolutely not.
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Same scenario. Let's say he doesn't get tired of waiting, but let's say he has a heart attack and dies.
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Right on the spot. Dead. That same man said, hey, he was waiting, and as he got up here, he had a heart attack and died.
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Is this man with Christ? Peter would say, absolutely yes. Baptism is important.
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The debated issue is, is this speaking about baptism? I believe that this passage is speaking about regeneration.
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Regeneration must, we looked at this already, regeneration must precede faith, and faith is followed by repentance.
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And this repentance that regeneration is followed by, it's a turning from sin.
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So you have repentance unto salvation and repentance unto sin.
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Repentance unto salvation, it's me. I got my own thing going. I hear the gospel. God grants me faith to believe.
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I turn from myself and my self -belief, and I turn to God in Christ. The Jews at this time of Acts chapter two, they trusted in the sacrificial system for the forgiveness of sins.
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Their repentance unto salvation was, stop trusting in sacrificial system and put your faith in what
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Christ has done. That's why Acts two, it tells them to repent and be baptized.
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That repentance there is a form of faith. Repentance unto faith. After regeneration, the repentance that follows is a turning from sins.
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Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine says this. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. The question is where it says this is not of yourself.
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What is the this is not of yourself? The nearest antecedent is faith. Faith is not of yourself.
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It is the gift of God. So our being saved by grace is the sovereign act of God in regeneration.
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The grace in regeneration is a forensic transaction. So to give you a little sentence of what a forensic transaction is, it's you, the guilty party, right?
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We've broken God's law. We've all told lies. We've all stolen something irrespective of its value.
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We've misused his name, right? We haven't been obedient to our parents. We've broken
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God's law. We're guilty. We deserve punishment. We deserve to die. We deserve hell.
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So a forensic transaction is you, the guilty party, being declared innocent by the righteousness of another.
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The faith that is given to us brings us ethical transformation.
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Once you have been given faith to believe, you are also given faith to live.
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So in one sense, it's a forensic transaction, and then it's an ethical transformation.
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You cannot have ethical transformation before the forensic transaction. The Bible says that the righteous shall live by faith, right?
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If you're in Christ, you are to live by faith. This is the obedience of faith that you read about in Romans.
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But it's the faith that is given to you to believe by which you are declared righteous, just like Abraham.
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This is what's called, the theologians call positional righteousness, the imputation of righteousness, you being the guilty criminal, you being the one who has broken
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God's law. Jesus comes down. Jesus takes on flesh in the incarnation, lives the life that you could not live in, took your punishment, both as a substitute.
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And the life that he lived is imputed to you, right? So everyone believes that Jesus Christ died for their sins, right?
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Your sins were imputed to Jesus Christ at the moment of his death.
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Transition that thought. The same way that our sins are put on Christ, Christ's righteousness is applied to us when?
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The moment we believe. Ethical, I mean, forensic transaction, just like Abraham.
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Abraham believed God, and Abraham was counted righteous positionally. Go on to read about Abraham.
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He messed up a lot after he was declared righteous. So too you and me, right?
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We're not perfect. Even now, even now, we break
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God's law, but we are positionally righteous. Having the imputation, our sins counted to him, his righteousness counted to us.
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And for the most part, when it comes to passages of scripture that speak on baptism, I always, y 'all know me,
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I always take it as a water baptism, unless the context says otherwise.
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So if you look at Matthew chapter three real quick, keep your finger in John, but Matthew chapter three.
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We'll look at one verse, verse 11. This is
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John the Baptist speaking. John says, As for me,
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I baptize with water for repentance, but he who comes after me is milder than I.
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I am not fit to remove his sandals. He, speaking of Jesus, will baptize you with the
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Holy Spirit and fire. Fire. So this one text names off three baptisms.
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And I believe that only one is literal baptism, in water, right?
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The baptism of John. And the other two are figurative. So you have a baptism of water for repentance, a baptism of the
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Holy Spirit, and a baptism of fire. I also believe that Christian baptism spoken of in Ephesians chapter four, where it says one baptism, is speaking about water baptism that represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in the name of the
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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And we just saw that take place, right? Aaron partook in Christian baptism.
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He had entered the covenant by faith, and he had received the covenant sign. Baptism. John the
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Baptist was, his baptism was a baptism with water for repentance.
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There's no way to make this figurative, right? John the Baptist dunked people in water for repentance, right?
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There's no debate, right? Is there debate on that passage? I haven't heard any. Before John the
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Baptist was doing this, this same baptism literally dunked in water was a baptism for Gentile converts into Judaism.
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However, John the Baptist was baptizing Jews. And in doing so, he is telling them that you are not clean despite your sacrificial system that you worship.
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You are filthy rags. John was prophesied as a road worker in Isaiah.
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Behold a voice crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his path.
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This is what John the Baptist was. He was a road worker. He was sent out to proclaim a message and that this message was going to prepare the way of the
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Lord. Prepare the way for Christ and for Christian baptism.
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The Jewish perspective of the new birth, we looked at this last week. That whenever Jesus is telling
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Nicodemus that he must be born again, that Nicodemus had a concept of what it meant to be born again.
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But the way Jesus said it is, you must be born from above. Meaning that this is not something that men can do.
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The Jewish perspective of the new birth was a Gentile convert entering into Judaism through two ways, circumcision and baptism.
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The moment a Gentile convert into Judaism would enter into the waters of baptism and come out, they would say that they were born again.
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But they would use the word as they were entered into a new birth.
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Once a Gentile, now a Jew. So the idea of being baptized into water is not just a
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Christian concept. It's not something that began with John and we're still doing it.
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It was before this. This is done in the interminable period when Jews, I mean when
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Gentiles would convert to Judaism. The baptism of the Holy Spirit, however,
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I believe is a figurative baptism. It's what's being spoken about here in John chapter three when
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Jesus tells Nicodemus, you must be born again, you must be born from above. This is something that you have no control over.
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This is, and he also, the way that he says it, he says it five times. Verse three, verse five, verse six, verse seven and verse eight.
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And ladies and gentlemen, this is non -negotiable, right? This is not something we can debate over. In order to see the kingdom of God, you must be born again.
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Something supernaturally has to happen the moment that the message is being preached. Nicodemus comes saying that they believe that he was from God without the message, only because of the signs that they were seeing.
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And what we're about to see today is Jesus lays out the message for Nicodemus.
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And we also saw the proper interpretation of this text and it's found in Ezekiel chapter 36.
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If you want to turn there, Ezekiel chapter 36. We'll be in verses 25 through 27.
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God speaking, and I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean.
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I will cleanse you from your uncleanliness and from all your idols.
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Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.
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And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues.
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And you will be careful to do my judgments. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the interpretation of being born again.
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Jesus took what Nicodemus was saying, Nicodemus gave, when he was talking about, do
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I enter into my mother's womb to be born? Right, Jesus takes it from there and he uses the being born again pointing back to scripture and I believe it's speaking of, we're reading about in Ezekiel.
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And this is what Titus 3 .5 calls the washing of regeneration.
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Again, this word washing is in the Greek and it means figurative baptism.
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So the Greek word here for washing in the Greek, it's not baptismo, right?
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Where would we get the transliteration for baptism? Well, baptism is a transliteration of the
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Greek word baptismo. That's not what this word is. But the
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Greek word, it means figurative baptism. That the washing of regeneration is a figurative baptism.
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And I believe that this is what it's talking about in our passage, the being born again.
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The God doing something that we can't do and that is the sprinkling us with clean water, removing our heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh putting his spirit, the
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Holy Spirit in us and this Holy Spirit will do what? Cause us to obey his law.
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This is that repentance after the born again takes place, this turning from sin.
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I believe that what the Bible is telling us is that God, it is
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God who sprinkles you with clean water and it is God who removes the heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh.
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It is God who puts his spirit in you and causes you to keep his commandments. Ladies and gentlemen, if this doesn't happen, then you will not see the kingdom of God.
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And when you die, you will be baptized in fire. Right?
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Whenever John is quoting this, he says, I baptize you with water. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I.
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I am not worthy to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
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The ax is at the root of the tree and any tree that does not bear good fruit, it's cut down and it's thrown into the fire.
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He said the whittle and fork is in his hand and he would thoroughly cleanse the threshing floor and he would gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff, it will burn with an unquenchable fire.
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Speaking of judgment, speaking of burning, going to hell. Ladies and gentlemen, if you're not born again, given the
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Holy Spirit to believe, you will be baptized only in judgment, in fire.
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Christian baptism is what someone does, is what someone does after they've been born again, after God has supernaturally done a work in their life and we believe as Reformed folks that it is the sign and seal of the new covenant, the covenant of grace, the covenant that's promised to first to Adam and Eve, the
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Genesis 3 .15. Our promise was the curse to Satan that an offspring would come from the woman that would bruise his head while bruising his heel and we see that was passed through Abraham, was passed through his sons, down through David and that Jesus is the son of David who sits on the throne.
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And so now let's look at our text. And so I made this big spill,
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John chapter three, beginning in verse 13. It says, and no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the son of man.
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And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes will in him have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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For God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but in order that, but in order, but that the world might be saved through him.
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He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has already been judged because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
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And this is the judgment that the light is coming to the world and man loved darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil.
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For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, least his deeds be exposed.
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But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds might be manifested of having been done by God.
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Ladies and gentlemen, in this chapter, we've already walked through verses one through 12, we see the sovereign hand of God and regeneration.
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But then what takes place in verses 13 through 21 is God the father sending his son to accomplish the work of redemption and human volition.
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So this week, I wanna lay out an outline of our text. And next week, I wanna go through the two truths that parallel through scripture.
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And that is the sovereignty of God and salvation and human responsibility. Both are true.
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And then the week after that, we'll finish this outline. So we'll begin the outline. Next week, we'll look at the two truths that parallel through scripture.
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And the following week, we'll finish this outline. So in our outline today, we'll see that faith is the proper response to the message and work of Jesus Christ.
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We have four points. The message, the response, the consequences, and the behavior.
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Point number one, the message. Point number two, the response. Point number three, the consequences.
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And point number four, the behavior. And as we transition, last week I mentioned about verse 13, that there was a textual variant.
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That there's some translations that have a longer ending. I've decided not to address it in the message, but the next time that I fill in for Sunday school,
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I feel like this is something best that we can have a discussion on, instead of, because it really isn't like a preachy subject.
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I think it would be better if we just open it up, we look at all the different translations, look at the Greek, and we'll just have a discussion.
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So we'll look at that in Sunday school. So point number one, the message. And it's taken from chapter three, verses 13 through 14.
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And here once again, in this little section of scripture, of the gospel,
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Jesus is pointing to his incarnation. Him, the second person of the Godhead, entering into time, right?
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We talked about it, the creator of all things enter into creation. The infinite became finite.
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And as we're going to see when we walk through this, it's that it's not in chronological order.
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This is not in the order in which things took place. Chronologically, the son of man, which is a messianic title, and I believe y 'all spoke about that in Sunday school.
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Kind of caught the tail end of it. Descended from heaven in the incarnation, lived the life we could not live, took the punishment by dying the death that we should die for our sins, right?
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And both, I explained earlier, were substitutionary. If you don't know what a substitute, like if you grew up in public school, like I did, and your teacher wasn't there, they would send a teacher to teach in your teacher's place, right?
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That was a substitute. What she was doing was in place of your original teacher, right?
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So Jesus being our substitute, that's what it is. Jesus lives the life we could not live and takes the punishment that we deserve.
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Substitutionary. Then he died, was buried, and he rose again on the third day, and he ascended into heaven.
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That's the chronological order. The chronological order is not how
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Jesus tells the story. He begins first with his ascension. Verse 13.
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And no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the
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Son of Man. First off, what he's basically saying to them is that him being the
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Son of Man, the Messiah, who at that time was on earth, will once again ascend to heaven.
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He will once again return to where he came from, right? The creator entered into creation, will one day enter back in to eternity.
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Now we can get on a rabbit trail here, and you don't know how tempting it was for me, right?
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We're not going to, but just real quickly, I want to point out Enoch and Elijah.
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Both Enoch and Elijah did not die. They were taken to heaven.
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Look at verse 13. No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. What do we do with this?
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Both of them did not die and were taken to heaven. And for the sake of time, and for the sake of breaking out into a series on heaven, which
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I thought about, right? You know me, right? I love little break off series.
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I think it's clear to understand that wherever it was that Jesus is speaking about coming from, being in the presence of the
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Father, that that's not the same place Enoch and Elijah went to.
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And just for a supporting passage in the book of John, if you look at chapter one, verse 18. Jesus, speaking about Christ, it's the writer tells us no one has seen
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God. Thank the Father at any time. The only begotten
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God, Son, who is in the bosom of the
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Father, he has explained him. This is telling us that no one's ever seen the
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Father, but the Son, and the Son has come down to explain him. The Greek word here is the same word we get for exegete, to exegete something, to explain a passage.
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I'm up here today, and I am exegeting the text. I got the book laid before me, and I'm trying to explain to you the meaning.
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Jesus comes down to explain to us the Father, whom no one has ever seen, right?
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The Bible tells us that God dwells in unapproachable light, that there's nothing you can do to approach him, right?
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It also says that no one can go to the Father unless they go to the Son, and no one can go to the Son unless they go to the
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Father. This is why the gospel is important. Outside of the gospel, we cannot approach
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God. So, verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up. He's still using the Messianic title,
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Son of Man. He points to a time when the Israelites were in the wilderness of Numbers chapter 21, and in Numbers chapter 21, the
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Israelites prayed to God that God would give them victory over the Canaanite armies, and they vowed to Yahweh that if God gave them the
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Canaanites into their hands, that they would devote their cities to destruction. Ladies and gentlemen,
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God gave them into their hands. So, if you would turn with me to Numbers, Numbers chapter 21, we're gonna read what takes place after God gave them into their hands.
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So, we'll read verses five through nine. See how quick the turning of the people's heart can be.
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And the people spoke against God, this is after he gave the Canaanites into their hands, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, why have you brought us up out of Egypt?
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Did you imagine that? Why have you rescued us from slavery, God? Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
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Remember when it was going through the Hebrews, why weren't they led out of the wilderness?
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Unbelief. They did not enter the land because of unbelief. It says, for there is no food and no water, right here, and we loathe this miserable food.
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They said there was no food and no water, but we know that God was giving them food. They just didn't like what he was giving them.
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Verse six, so Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.
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Then the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you.
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Pray to Yahweh that he may remove the serpents from us, and Moses prayed for the people.
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Then Yahweh said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard, and it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it will live, and Moses made a bronze serpent, and he set it on a standard, and it happened that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked with his eyes,
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I added the eyes, but when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
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Jesus, in John 3, 14,
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Jesus points to the bronze serpent, and he says, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the son of man be lifted up.
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So the question is, what does it mean to be lifted up in the context? And I believe there's a clear answer given to us in chapter 12.
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So in chapter 12, verses 31 through 33, this is what it says. Jesus speaking, he says, now judgment is upon the world.
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Remember in chapter three, we're going to be reading, he says that he didn't come to judge the world. Chapter 12, now judgment is upon the world.
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Now the ruler of this world will be cast out, speaking of Satan, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth,
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I will draw all men to myself. So whatever this is, him being lifted up from the earth is going to draw all men to himself by this lifting up.
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The verse finished, it says, but he was saying this to indicate by what kind of death by which he was about to die.
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Question. Again, I know we're Baptists. We don't like to talk, but please.
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What kind of death did Jesus die? I can't hear you, brother.
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Right? Crucifixion. Death by crucifixion. He says, if I be lifted up,
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I will draw all men to myself. If I be crucified, I die for your sins,
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I'll draw all men to myself. And as we transition, just as Moses lifted up the serpent on a standard, this is speaking about a pole,
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Jesus Christ was nailed hands and feet to a Roman cross. And verse 15 tells us why.
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So let's look at our second point, the response. And we'll read verses 14 with 15 for the context.
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And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
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Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.
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Eternal life is in him. Right? If you have eternal life, it's because you are in him, you are in Christ, Jesus.
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In Numbers, they look to the serpent that was on the pole, they would look to that serpent and they were healed.
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Ladies and gentlemen, when you and I look to Jesus, same thing, we're healed.
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We're forgiven of our sins. The snake bite of death is taken away. The main verse that structures
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John, the Gospel of John, is found in John 20, verse 31, we've quoted this several times. It says, but these things have been written, speaking of the
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Gospel of John, but these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
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How do you have life in his name? Believing. Well, how can you believe when you're a depraved wretch like me?
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Something has to happen, and that's why the Gospel has to be preached.
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I wanna go to the book of Ephesians real quick, and I wanna look at the end hymns.
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I'm gonna try my best not to give any commentary as I do this, beginning in verse three. Blessed be the
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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love.
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He predestined us to adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glory and grace, which he graciously bestowed on us in the beloved, in him.
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We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions according to the riches of his grace, which he calls to abound on us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him.
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For an administration of the fullness of time, this is him coming in the incarnation, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things that are in heaven and things that are on earth in him, in him we have been made an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, to the end that we who first to have hoped in Christ will be to the praise of his glory in him.
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You also have after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the
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Holy Spirit of promise. Listen to this, we'll read that verse again, verse 13, in him you also after listening, with your ears, right?
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The word of truth, this gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the
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Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge for our inheritance unto us the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.
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Now look at chapter two, verse four. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ.
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By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ so that in the ages to come he might show his surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards those who are in Christ.
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Are you in Christ today? If you are, you have been seated in heaven in him.
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There's this already and not yet aspects of our future inheritance right now, we are in him.
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Colossians, turn to Colossians chapter two. Look at verses nine through 15.
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We see what else is in him, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells. He by himself is fully
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God. He is truly God and he is truly man. For in him, speaking of Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells bodily and in him having been filled who is the head over all rule and authority in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, the removal of the body of the flesh and the circumcision of Christ.
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You wanna know what the circumcision of Christ is? Right here, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead and you being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him having graciously forgiven us of all of our transgressions, having counseled the certificate of debt consisting of its decrees against us which was hostile to us.
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He also has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
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Our sins were that record of debt that stood against us has been nailed to the cross. Right here, verse 15, having disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public display of them having triumphed over them in him.
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As they were nailing him to the cross, they were still in their own faith, their fate, excuse me, in him.
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There's so many, many more verses I could go on and touch on but quickly we have been chosen in him, we have redemption in him, we have forgiveness in him, we have an inheritance in him, we have salvation in him, in him we are sealed with the promised
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Holy Spirit, we are in an already not yet seated with him in the heavenlies, in him we have been circumcised if the removal of the body, the circumcision of Christ, speaking of Christ's baptism, not him being baptized by John but him being crucified, dead and buried and raised to the newness of life.
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That is the circumcision of Christ. In him we have the baptism that saves and the baptism that saves is the crucifixion.
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We see this in first Peter chapter three, verses 18 through 21. First Peter beginning in verse 18 says this, for Christ also, listen, suffer for sins once and for all, right here, the righteous for the unrighteous, that's imputed right there.
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Who's the righteous? Christ, who's the unrighteous? The righteous for the unrighteous.
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For Christ also suffered for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous so that he might bring you to God having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
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This is speaking about his crucifixion and it tells you what his spirit went to in verses 19 through 20 and it gives this concept of Peter's pointing back to the time of Noah, listen, 19 and 20, in which he also made, which he also went and made a proclamation to the spirits now in prison who once were disobedient and the presence of God kept waiting into the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely, excuse me, through water.
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Verse 21, this is the debate. Corresponding to that, to what?
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To the ark that's going through the water, baptism now saves.
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The question is, is this a literal baptism or is it figurative? So we have the ark, the wrath was the water, the ark was the safety, right?
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The water, God sent water, the sea gave forth, it burst forth and water came down from the heavens.
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So you had like the grounds bursting forth water and the sky itself giving water to flood the world.
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This was the wrath. This ark was their safety, it was their salvation.
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Whoever entered the ark was safe from the wrath. I believe what he is saying here is in the same way that that ark was their salvation,
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Jesus is our ark, our salvation. Corresponding to that, the ark being their salvation from the water, baptism now saves.
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Right here, this is how we know this is not speaking of literal, this is not the removal of dirt from your flesh.
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This is not washing water on your body. But an appeal to a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Notice at the very beginning in chapter 18, it talks about his death, burial, him going to preach and at the very end of 21, it speaks about through his resurrection.
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Real quick, if you turn to the gospel of Luke, we'll see that his baptism that he's speaking about is a figurative.
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So first in verse 49 of chapter 12, it says this, Jesus speaking,
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I have come to cast fire, judgment. That's what this means, upon the earth.
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And oh, how I wished it was kindling. And this,
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I believe is pointing us to one destruction that would ultimately point to an ultimate destruction and that was the destruction of Jerusalem in 70
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AD. He says, but I have a baptism to undergo.
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And how distressed I am until it is finished. He had already been baptized in water by John to fulfill all things.
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Him, again, that baptism earlier with water, the only
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Jews that partook in a baptism of immersion was a priest entering into the high priesthood.
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You had to be one of the five families of Aaron. In order to enter into the priesthood, you were baptized and as you came up, your father would say how well pleased he was of you.
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They would anoint you with oil, baptize you, and your father would say how pleased he was with you.
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And we saw that took place in Jesus' baptism. So what is this baptism that he's speaking of that's future to him?
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It's his death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus is speaking about his death, burial, and resurrection.
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His baptism is figurative. It's not with water. In him, when we're baptized in water, we're baptized into his death, burial, and resurrection.
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That's what Romans chapter six is about, right? Aaron today was baptized in the name of the
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. He's identified with Christ.
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In him, in Christ is our identity. In him, we are Christians.
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We are Christ -like ones. And we become one with Christ by looking to him on the cross in faith, in belief, by trusting.
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And I will end there because I want to lay a foundation for faith next week before we pick back up on this point.
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However, I believe the record that we have in numbers happened.
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So them being mocking God, mocking Moses, and God sending snakes to bite them.
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I believe all that happened because of the predetermined plan of God to send his son and lift him up on a tree so that all who look to him will be healed.
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And the question is, is are you looking to Christ? And I pray that you are.
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I'm available to anyone who wants to talk. If God has done a work in your life, please come and talk to me after the service.
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Let's pray. Father, Lord, in Jesus' name, we come to you.
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Again, we ask for your mercy. We ask for your grace. Lord, I pray where I was not communicating well,
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Lord, that you cause the understanding to take place. And Lord, right now, we are about to partake in a supper that you have given to us to remember you.
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And Lord, we pray that as we're doing this, that you will use this to grow us into a greater degree of holiness.