Lars Larson Live Stream

First Baptist Church Leominster iconFirst Baptist Church Leominster

2 views

0 comments

00:02
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
00:40
I found my lapel mic this morning and I realized
00:53
I was missing the little plastic clip so Mary put it on with a paper clip but I don't know if that's going to work
01:00
Mark so if need be you may have to switch to this mic we'll see.
01:07
Well over the past four Sundays we've addressed this interchange this exchange between Nicodemus and Jesus regarding the new birth or what is commonly known as regeneration.
01:23
Regeneration is the great event experienced by everyone who becomes a true Christian it's a work of God's grace it is a creative life imparting life transforming act of God a sovereign act of God where he causes a spiritually dead sinner to become spiritually alive which is then seen or evidenced in the sinner's repentance from sin turning in God turning to God it's evidenced in faith in Jesus Christ it's evidence in the
01:59
Christians transform thinking feeling and acting and that he becomes a committed disciple of Jesus Christ that's what people who have experienced the new birth become they become disciples of Jesus Christ and also they join themselves with brought their brothers and sisters in Christ in the church.
02:20
Now last Lord's Day we stated that there is a subtle shift in the narrative beginning with verse 11 of John chapter 3 the narrative transitions from a dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus really to a straight monologue of the
02:37
Lord Jesus there's also a transition from the subject of the new birth to the subject of faith in God and I thought the hymn we just sang was so fitting it really sets forth the truth of John chapter 3 you know you don't know you were really clueless as to the way and the working of the of the new birth but we know whom we believed and that is that is the truth of the new birth and so we believe on him and so there is a shift from addressing the new birth the subject of the new birth to speaking about faith faith in Jesus Christ and so even though verses 11 and following or verse 13 and following or a continuation of our
03:26
Lord's conversation I thought it fitting to change the title from Jesus Nicodemus and the birth new birth to Jesus the brazen serpent and saving faith and so let's consider this we'll read
03:41
John chapter 3 9 through 17 and I'm reading from the New King James Version.
03:49
Nicodemus answered said to him how can these big things be in other words the new birth how can these things be
03:54
Jesus answered said to him are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things most assuredly
04:01
I say to you we speak what we know and testify what we have seen and you do not receive our witness if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things no one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven that is the
04:22
Son of Man who is in heaven and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the
04:30
Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life and then here's that golden text for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world to him might be saved and so the
04:57
Lord Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that though he was a very religious very educated and very highly regarded teacher in Israel he would never enter the kingdom of God unless he was born again this new birth involved him being washed from his guilt cleansed of his sin and also being given new life both are essentials to salvation forgiveness but also new life forgiveness of is gained of course through Christ in the sacrifice on the cross the new life is gained through the
05:35
Holy Spirit imparting spiritual life in regeneration or the new birth the
05:41
Lord Jesus made it quite clear to Nicodemus this new birth was absolutely essential in order to have everlasting life in the kingdom of God regeneration was due and solely to the sovereign grace of God there's no place in the
05:56
Bible that instructs you if you take certain steps you will be born again it's a sovereign work of God it's good to pray if you're not born again
06:05
God caused me to experience this new life in Christ but there's nothing you can do that will result in the new birth
06:12
God ultimately is sovereign in the bestowal of regeneration and this must be the case for human beings are incapable of knowing
06:23
God yet alone relating to God for Jesus said that which is born of flesh is flesh you cannot help but be flesh that's who you are and God is spirit sinners therefore must be born again of the spirit in order to truly be spiritual for that which is born of spirit of spirit and so the absolute need for this new regeneration then in verse 13
06:50
Jesus declared to Nicodemus that only he Jesus was qualified to speak of this matter
06:56
Nicodemus the teacher of Israel but he did not he was not qualified to speak he couldn't even understand earthly things yet alone heavenly things and basically verse 13
07:08
Jesus is making the claim that he is the only one who's capable of communicating these earthly and heavenly realities regarding the new birth and so basically verse 13 we may say that Jesus here is set forth as being alone qualified to save sinners and so he spoke
07:31
Jesus spoke of his unique qualification to be the Savior's sinners he declared no man has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven that is a son of man who is in heaven let's break this down a little bit first our
07:49
Lord declared no one has ascended to heaven this is almost a direct quote from the book of Proverbs Proverbs chapter 30 verse 4
08:02
Proverbs 30 we have the words of a man named Agor who was writing and so we read in Proverbs 30 the words of Agor the son of Jacob his utterance this man declared to Ithiel to Ithiel and Eukal surely
08:21
I am more stupid than any man and do not have the understanding of a man
08:26
I neither learn wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One who has ascended into heaven or descended who has gathered the wind in his fists who has bound the waters in a garment who has established all the ends of the earth what is his name what is his son's name if you know these are the words again of Agor who is lamenting his own lack of wisdom his ignorance in understanding the ways of God he knew that he was incapable of knowing the ways of God he lacked wisdom it's not as though Agor was more ignorant than others rather he knew that no human being could have true wisdom for God alone is wise and so he asked the rhetorical question who is ascended into heaven or descended and of course the answer would have been no one from Agor's point of view who has gone up to heaven learned from God then returned to live according to the wisdom that he acquired there in heaven so he was stating that no one had ever done so no one had ever ascended to the
09:40
Lord but the Lord Jesus was telling Nicodemus no man could acquire the wisdom that God alone possesses that is no one is ascended into heaven so as to come to know
09:52
God and live before him but he had because he had come down from heaven and so Jesus is basically declaring to Nicodemus he is the only one qualified to be able to tell and reveal the truth about the true nature of God and how to know him and how to live before him and so though no one had ever ascended into heaven
10:16
Jesus declared that he had come down from heaven again we read no one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven and so here we see the
10:26
Lord declaring his pre -incarnate deity before he took up residence in the womb of the
10:35
Virgin Mary he existed the eternal second person of the Godhead of the
10:40
Trinity he had been in heaven and he came down his coming down speaks of the incarnation when the eternal second person of the
10:50
Blessed Holy Trinity took upon himself our human nature and thereby being eternal
10:56
God he also became man no one's ever ascended to God but I came down from heaven and so I have the ability in fact the only one who has the authority and ability to tell you about the heavenly things and these earthly things that we've been discussing as one wrote
11:16
Jesus now makes it clear he can speak authoritatively about things in heaven though no one else can you know we we're regarded as bigots today when we claim that Christianity is the only true religion that exists in the world all others are false religions and this is one of the unique claims of Christianity Jesus Christ is the only true revealer of God to mankind he came down from heaven no one else has ever ascended to heaven regardless of their claims
11:48
Jesus Christ came down and so again this one wrote no man has ever ascended into heaven but he's come down from here throughout the gospel
11:58
John insists on Jesus's heavenly origin this is one way in which he brings out his point that Jesus is the
12:06
Christ here the heavenly origin marks Jesus off from the rest of mankind men are as Paul puts it of the earth earthly and as John put it that which is born of flesh is flesh but he is from heaven men cannot raise themselves to heaven and penetrate divine mysteries it was part of the sin of the
12:28
Son of the morning he's referring to the devil here and he said in his heart I will ascend into heaven but he could not do it he remained a boast and an ambition
12:38
Jesus however really has been in heaven and he has brought heavenly realities to earth and that's
12:46
Jesus's claim here he is unique he is the only human being that could ever reveal the truth of God and how to know him because he was in heaven and he came down the reason that Jesus announced this truth
13:02
Nicodemus was to show him as his credentials for teaching both earthly and heavenly things
13:08
Nicodemus could neither understand earthly or heavenly things where he had never ascended to heaven as one wrote the authority that belongs to Jesus and the authority that gives him the right to speak of earthly and heavenly things is an authority rooted in his heavenly origin he's eternal
13:25
God who took upon himself our human nature so again here
13:31
Jesus declares his incarnation and that he came down from heaven that is he assumed a human nature and by the way when we talk about Jesus assuming or the
13:42
Son of God assuming a human nature the human nature means our human soul as well as a human body that's encompassed in the idea of human nature
13:58
Matthew Henry wrote of this verse our Lord Jesus and he alone was fit to reveal to us a doctrine thus certain thus sublime in other words true no man hath ascended up into heaven but he first none but Christ was able to reveal to us the will of God for our salvation
14:15
Nicodemus addressed Christ as a prophet but he must know that he is greater than all the
14:20
Old Testament prophets for none of them had ascended into heaven they wrote about they wrote by divine inspiration and not of their own knowledge
14:31
Moses ascended into the Mount or the mountain Mount Sinai but not into heaven no man hath attained to the certain knowledge of God and heavenly things as Christ has it's not for us to send to heaven for instructions we must wait to receive what instructions heaven will send to us and he did so God did so through his
14:53
Son Jesus Christ notice in verse 13 here we see
14:59
Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man when we see this self -designation in the synoptic
15:07
Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke Jesus is commonly referring to himself as the promised
15:12
Messiah but when he uses the term Son of Man in John's Gospel he's referring to his human nature and so here we have
15:23
Jesus's divinity as well as his human nature set forth before us take note of the clause and if you were following in a newer translation you probably noticed this the clause at the end of verse 13 that I read in the
15:40
New King James Version reads this way, no one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven that is the
15:46
Son of Man and then this clause is added who is in heaven this relative clause is not in the newer translations of the
15:56
Bible it's not in the ESV not in the New American Standard Version not in the NIV not in the
16:02
RSV Revised Standard Version it's only in the King James Version in the New King James Version the oldest manuscript that contains this clause dates to the 5th century and I was looking at this variant in the some of the resources
16:18
I have and aside from that one 5th century reference the manuscripts that have this reference are from the 9th century all the way to the 15th century and so it was probably not an original writing to John when he penned
16:39
John's Gospel and so if the editors of the modern Greek New Testament chose not to include it in their
16:47
Greek text and therefore the modern the translators of the modern versions chose not to include that clause in their versions in their translations and they were probably right in doing so.
17:02
By the way one of the modern Greek texts one of the most commonly used ones was edited by a
17:10
German Kurt Alant and another man Bruce Metzger and others and they have a unique way of rating variants in other words they have the
17:21
Greek text and then when there is a variant like from a different manuscript they'll footnote it if there's several different readings they'll identify them all in the footnotes they put their preferred reading first and then they give it a rating as to their confidence that this was the reading they chose was more than likely that which was originally in the
17:46
Gospel that John wrote and so they rate these variants A, B, C, and D.
17:52
A, they're absolutely confident they got the right one. B, they're pretty sure. C, we think so.
17:59
D, it's a pretty good guess. In other words the committee there must have been differences of opinion.
18:05
They rated this reading C. In other words they think they believe that it should not have been it should not be regarded as having been originally written by John but there was some measure of doubt but let me assert this that even though this clause may have not been written by John when he wrote
18:27
John's Gospel in the first century it's a true statement and it could be demonstrated from other places in the
18:36
Holy Scripture and what we mean by that is that when Jesus Christ was ministering on earth in his human nature obviously when you saw the person
18:49
Jesus that's who he was a human nature a human body a human soul but in his divine nature his divine nature was not confined to his human body.
19:03
In other words God because he is spirit and Jesus being the second person of the
19:08
Holy Trinity is omnipresent. There's no place where Jesus that is in his divine nature is not and so this declaration that we have in this variant put in by some scribe in a later century is a true statement.
19:29
The divine nature of Jesus was even in heaven even as Jesus was standing there talking to Nicodemus and so when
19:38
Jesus was here ministering on earth his human nature was of course physical and limited to his physical presence but his divine nature omnipresent everywhere.
19:52
Upon the resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus from the grave to heaven now his human nature that is body his human body and human soul is in heaven not here among us but in his divine nature he's with us.
20:10
There's no place you can go where the divine nature of Jesus Christ isn't. In other words a person of Jesus is with us because of his divinity and that's the point that's being made and this is an important point.
20:25
There is a man enthroned in heaven he's in a human body a glorified body but a human body with a human soul and he's enthroned on the very throne of God.
20:36
God the Father seated him there giving him all the authority in heaven and earth but because he is the second person of the
20:43
Holy Trinity he is spirit he is not limited in any way to time or to space he is everywhere and he's with us today as well thank the
20:55
Lord. Now let's look at verses 14 and 15 here we have
21:00
Jesus and the brazen or bronze serpent. With verses 14 and 15 the
21:07
Lord Jesus draws attention of Nicodemus to a great illustration from the Hebrew scriptures that set forth the manner in which
21:14
God brings salvation to his people. In doing so Jesus set before Nicodemus the need for his own
21:21
Jesus's own crucifixion in order to save sinners. Nicodemus was probably as most
21:28
Jews he thought that when the Messiah came he would do so in great power and glory he would be favored by all universally acclaimed as king and he'd bring
21:38
God's blessings upon his people that they had forfeited in history due to their sin but Jesus showed
21:46
Nicodemus that he must suffer and die and be put to an open shame that is not the kind of Messiah that the
21:53
Jews were anticipating they should have but they were not anticipating this Jesus that he would hang in humiliation upon the cross cursed of God and Jesus must have bewildered
22:06
Nicodemus when he made this statement again in verses 14 and 15 as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the
22:15
Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
22:22
Nicodemus must have been stymied by that comment it was as though Jesus said to Nicodemus are you expecting me to take to myself power and restore the kingdom to Israel cast away such vain expectation
22:35
I've come to do a very different work I've come to suffer and to offer up myself as a sacrifice for sin.
22:45
Our Lord referring to this brazen or brass serpent was referring to an account back in Numbers chapter 21 in which
22:55
God judged his people for their sin he first judged them condemned them they were dying and then he saved them from that very fate he judged them and then saved them and we read of the account here in Numbers 21 4 through 9 talking about Israel after they'd come out of Egypt under Moses then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the
23:20
Red Sea to go around the land of Edom and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way and the people spoke against God and against Moses why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness where there's no food and water and our soul loathes this worthless bread referring to manna.
23:42
So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died therefore the people came to Moses and said we have sinned for we have spoken against the
23:56
Lord and against you pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us.
24:02
So Moses prayed for the people then the Lord said to Moses make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and it shall be that everyone who's bitten when he looks at it shall live.
24:16
So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole and so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone when he looked at the bronze serpent he lived.
24:28
What a beautiful illustration of what the Lord Jesus did on behalf of his people and the ease in which sinners can experience salvation by God's grace.
24:43
There are comparisons that can be drawn between this event and what
24:48
God provides for his people through Jesus Christ. First we see the portrayal of sin in this event of Numbers 21 these poisonous serpents or snakes were both the result of sin as well as the emblem of sin itself.
25:03
God has declared in his word behold all souls are mine the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine the soul who sinned shall die and these people sinned and they were dying but this is true of all humanity death is a result of sin the just wages for a life lived in sin is death for the wages of sin is death and so just as the
25:31
Israelites were dying because of their sin all mankind is dying due to sin. Yes there's a sense in which outside of Christ every person is spiritually dead but it's also true that every person outside of Christ is dying or perishing.
25:49
It might be said that Christians are dying too but there are other statements we're going to find them in John in actuality we're living.
25:57
We're gonna fall asleep one day for a while but we're living we'll never die. Who can say to God as did the psalmist for all our days pass away under your wrath we bring our years to an end like a sigh that's how we end our life.
26:20
Similarly we can say that sin against God results in God's just punishment of death.
26:26
God had sent these poisonous snakes into the midst of his people after they murmured after they complained they deserved what they were experiencing the people spoke against God and against Moses they rebelled against God and his leader and so God punished them for their sin in his justice.
26:47
Moses was God's representative to them and he acted here like a mediator on their behalf before God and by the way the type and the anti -type there is not the type
27:00
Moses and the anti -type of New Testament pastor you know although I've heard things like this abused but the type is
27:07
Moses and the anti -type in the New Testament is Jesus Christ he's the mediator murmur against him is to murmur against God.
27:19
Third the bronze serpent that Moses held up publicly before the people was a portrayal of Jesus Christ hanging on his cross
27:26
Jesus makes that very clear. How is this? Well when
27:31
Christ hung upon his cross he bore our sin that he suffered the penalty that we deserve due to our sin.
27:39
The bronze serpent represented the bearer of the sin of the people of the sin that had brought
27:45
God's judgment upon them. By the way some have had a real bizarre interpretation of this that somehow the serpent was a representative of the devil which is just absolutely absurd.
28:00
People don't look to the devil and receive life you know he's talking about the death both physical and spiritual that sin brings that's the emblem of the serpent.
28:15
But the bronze serpent represented the bearer of the sin of the people and so the sin had brought
28:20
God's judgment upon them. Paul had written of our Lord Jesus for our sake he made him that is
28:27
God the Father made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
28:37
Of course the bronze serpent only set forth the imputation of the people sin upon the serpent.
28:44
The serpent did not represent the righteousness of Christ imputed to us only that sin was atoned for.
28:51
Please recognize that there's no righteousness on the part of the serpent being credited to those who looked and believed it's only talking about the atonement of sin here.
29:03
Now when Jesus hung on his cross he did so as God the Father had constituted
29:08
Jesus Christ as guilty for our sin in which he died on behalf of his people.
29:15
Now we're going to get into a finer point here that maybe people don't think about but I hear errors about this and so I think it would be good for us to address this.
29:26
So please give close attention to what we're saying here. As we alluded above when
29:33
Christ died there was a reciprocal transaction that took place when the sinner believes on Jesus.
29:40
The sin our sin is credited to Jesus when he hung upon the cross but the righteousness of Jesus is credited to us when we believe a reciprocal is a two -way transaction that takes place.
29:54
So when the sinner sees in Jesus Christ crucified that his sin was atoned for when he believes on Jesus Christ alone for salvation
30:01
God who constituted Jesus Christ as a guilty sinner not only pardons him for all of his sin the believer sin but God at that moment constitutes that believing sinner as righteous.
30:18
We use the word constitutes and that's an important word another word might be reckoned or counted or accounted.
30:28
We are not made righteous in and of ourselves at that moment. Being made righteous like Jesus Christ takes a lifetime of work of the
30:37
Holy Spirit in our lives. When you believe the gospel however you are constituted as righteous you are reckoned as righteous
30:45
God regards you as righteous even though you're not really and so from the moment of true faith in Jesus Christ God no longer regards and treats that believer as a guilty sinner but rather as a righteous man as a righteous woman righteous as Jesus Christ himself.
31:06
That's incredible if you are a Christian a true Christian that's how
31:12
God regards you you are not just forgiven of your sin but you have a positive righteousness that God regards as yours.
31:22
Jesus Christ righteousness and that's how God regards you as a Christian and that's how you're to regard yourself by the way according to what
31:30
Paul teaches in Romans 7 and 8. Our sin was laid upon Jesus his righteousness is laid upon us and sometimes it's like and say to a robe of righteousness that you would put on a robe with which we're clothed it covers our nakedness and shame of our sin and so the prophet
31:51
Isaiah once declared I'll greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my
31:56
God for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he's covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments as a bride adorns herself with jewels.
32:08
He's not talking about merely or only forgiveness of sin he's talking about being regarded as righteous in the sight of God because he's put on this wedding garment as it were this garment of righteousness it's the righteousness of Christ in which every true child of God is clothed and so when
32:26
God looks down at him he doesn't see a sin he sees him as righteous as righteous as Jesus Christ himself so as a garment covers one the shame of nakedness so the robe of Christ's righteousness which is given to every believer freely upon faith covers his sinfulness
32:43
God sees the believing sinner clothed in the robe of Christ's righteousness and that comes to us through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone that's why the gospel is the gospel that's why it's good news a wretched sinner can be the farthest from God one day and he's in the bosom of God the next day because God the
33:10
Father treats that one as though he were as righteous as Jesus Christ because the righteousness of Christ is credited reckoned to be that of the believing sinner.
33:26
It's important to think clearly about this matter and we have a friend in our New England Reformed Fellowship NERF Doug Vickers he's in his 90's now
33:37
I talked to him the other day on the phone by the way he was converted under D. Martin Lloyd -Jones back in the 40's he could remember vividly the sermon he heard on a
33:46
Sunday night in the 1940's when he was converted and he's a retired professor of economics from UMass Amherst and last winter he was saying he listens to a
33:57
Lloyd -Jones sermon that's on the internet now he heard the very sermon last winter that he was converted under in the 1940's incredible.
34:09
Doug has written seven or eight theological books besides about 20 books on economics and he wrote these words and this is a very important matter.
34:21
First consider the divine transaction that occurred on the cross we do for that purpose the Apostles explanation for God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
34:37
In short on the cross the guilt of our sin was imputed to Christ or was placed to his account in order that by reciprocal imputation his righteousness might be placed to our account.
34:51
That statement from 2nd Corinthians 521 states clearly that the latter proceeds from in the sense that it is dependent on the achieved righteousness of Christ see it's the righteousness of Christ that is given to us as a gift through faith.
35:08
That follows in the context of reciprocal imputation because the perfect obedience that Christ offered to the demands of the law included the legal act of dying on the sinner's behalf and by that it's meant that in a significant sense
35:23
Christ's act of dying was itself obedience to law for the law said that the guilty must die.
35:32
In then Christ's submission to that requirement submission that is in bearing the guilt of sin as our substitute we see his final act of act of obedience he went forth willingly to obey
35:46
God his father and his law but the terms of the great exchange involved in what have recognized as reciprocal imputation have not always been clearly understood or stated.
36:02
Now this is that this is the nuance here that I want us to understand. When we refer to guilt we do not have in view any subjective notion as the unease of feeling that we may experience because of our default in a particular direction or matter.
36:17
In other words when we talk about our guilt being laid upon Jesus we're not talking about your guilty feelings that's what he's saying here.
36:25
What is involved is not the subjective in other words how you feel but the objective unworthiness that characterizes us because we have not met the requirements of the law of God.
36:37
Most people are clueless as to the guilt that they lie under before God and the
36:46
Gospels been reduced it's not a gospel but it's been reduced to if you accept Jesus you can you can no longer feel you no longer have to feel guilty that's not the gospel.
36:56
We have an actual guilt before God because we haven't kept his law that's the guilt that needs to be dealt with.
37:03
Granted it's so it's good not to have guilty feelings but frankly you know whether we have guilty feelings or not is immaterial.
37:11
What we need to have dealt with is our actual guilt that God is concerned about and that's the failure to keep
37:16
God's law. Now that's important here. We hold to the grand objectivity of the exchange referred to for the essence of the meaning of guilt as now referred to is a guilt of unfulfilled obligation.
37:32
But it is necessary to distinguish between what was thus imputed to Christ and what was not imputed to him.
37:41
What was imputed was the sinner's guilt. What was not imputed was the sinner's sinful state.
37:52
If the latter had been done then Christ on the cross would have been made a sinner. The Bible does not teach that but you'll hear people say it.
38:02
We ask was he guilty we answer yes but he was guilty not of his own sin for he was in every respect sinless but of the sin of his people for whom he died.
38:16
And then he explains further he calls out a man by name who's a good man but he was wrong in this.
38:22
It is unfortunately true that even in purportedly reformed theological circles confusion and misleading errors on that critically important matter have occurred.
38:32
Michael Horton for example so completely misunderstands the atonement as to argue with reference to what he terms the marvelous exchange that Jesus Christ sinless in himself became the greatest sinner who ever lived.
38:47
That's terrible error. Christ was constituted guilty but he was not constituted a sinner.
38:59
Philip Hughes has again seen this important aspect of the atonement clearly. God declares Paul, God declares
39:06
Paul made the sinless one sin for us. It's important to notice that he does not say that God made him a sinner.
39:14
For to conceive of Christ as sinful or made a sinner would be to overthrow the very foundation of redemption which demands the death of an altogether sinless one in the place of sinful mankind.
39:26
Jesus never became a sinner. The guilt of sinners was placed upon him.
39:33
He was constituted guilty on our behalf. And so God the
39:40
Father constituted Jesus Christ as a sinner, didn't make him a sinner and then he died on behalf of his people.
39:49
Jesus did not become a sinner. He bore our sin and when he hung on the cross Jesus was harmless and undefiled still but he bore our guilt.
39:59
He suffered our condemnation and when Moses hung that bronze serpent on the pole and walked through the camp of Israel he portrayed
40:06
Jesus Christ as having been regarded guilty for our sin. J .C.
40:12
Ryle I think read a little bit more into the emblem than he should have but he expressed the truth rightly.
40:18
As the serpent lifted up on the pole was an image of the very thing which had poisoned the Israelites even so Christ in himself had no sin and yet was made and crucified in the likeness the likeness of sinful flesh.
40:32
He wasn't made to be sinful flesh he was crucified in the likeness of sinful flesh and counted sin.
40:39
The brazen serpent was a serpent without poison and Christ was a man without sin.
40:46
The thing which we should specially see in Christ crucified is our sin laid upon him and him and and by the way
40:53
Ryle had some mistaken grammar here he said it should have said he instead of him and that's what sick means it's a correction grammatical or spelling correction and he counted as a sinner treated as a sinner punished as a sinner for our redemption.
41:10
In fact we see on the cross our sins punished crucified born and carried by our Redeemer. And then a fourth parallel that can be seen just as God's mercy was extended to those
41:24
Israelites who looked in faith upon God's provision in the bronze serpent which resulted in their instant healing and recovery from certain physical death so the sinner who simply looks upon Christ crucified for his sin will receive immediate pardon of sin escape
41:41
God's judgment of eternal death receiving the gift of eternal life. A simple look is all it takes.
41:54
As again J .C. Ryle wrote the expression should not perish but have eternal life is peculiarly strong as the
42:03
Israelite who looked to the brazen serpent not only did not die of his wounds but recovered complete health so the sinner who looks to Jesus not only escapes hell and condemnation but has a seed of eternal life at once put in his heart receives a complete title to an eternal life of glory and blessedness in heaven and enters into that life after death.
42:23
The salvation of the gospel is exceedingly full it's not merely being pardoned it's being counted completely righteous made a citizen of heaven it's not merely an escape from hell but the reception of a title to heaven it's been well remarked that the
42:39
Old Testament generally promised only length of days but the gospel promises everlasting life amen.
42:48
And so here in John 3 14 and 15 the Lord speaks of the importance of his crucifixion in order to bring salvation to his people the son of man must be lifted up and by the way the
43:01
Greek word which is translated lifted up is very significant he uses it of what
43:10
Moses did regarding that brass serpent he uses the same verb for what Jesus experienced when he was lifted up on the cross.
43:19
The verb carries both the idea of Jesus dying on his cross but also his exaltation to his throne when we say he was lifted up we're not just talking about him being physically lifted onto a cross we're talking about him being lifted through that cross all the way up to the throne of God he was lifted up.
43:44
It shows that through his dying by the way is being lifted up on the cross that he was then qualified to be lifted up to his throne in heaven as King over the kingdom of God.
43:57
It's one movement as one wrote Jesus's own carefully selected term lifted up conveys a rich duality of meaning in the context of the cross the historical strand of the plot what happened the verb is able to speak of death suffering and defeat but in its larger context in other words the cosmological strength the big picture the verb is able to speak of exaltation and majesty and glorification in this one word lifted up the message of the gospel is presented it is only in his humiliation that Jesus can be exalted and glorified and it's at the center of this irony that humanity receives eternal life from above from Jesus to look at Jesus is to understand the necessity of the exalted
44:47
Son of Man on a cross to understand how a crucified God can become for the world the greatest thing imaginable.
44:58
D .A. Carson stated the same thing in a few different words perhaps a little clearer perhaps the deepest point of connection between the bronze snake and Jesus was in the act of being lifted up Moses lifted up the snake on a pole so that all who are afflicted in the camp might look and live in the same way the
45:16
Son of Man must be lifted up the Greek word for lifted up and its four occurrences in this gospel always combines the notions of being physically lifted up on the cross with the notion of exaltation this is a theological adaptation of the literal and the figurative meanings of the verb even
45:36
Isaiah brings together the themes of being lifted up and being glorified and this is the context of the suffering servant.
45:45
If Jesus is the one who came from heaven how shall he return the synoptist that is
45:50
Matthew Mark and Luke think of the crucifixion and the exaltation as temporally discreet that is in time discreet steps.
45:59
John makes it clear that Jesus has returned to the glory that he had with the Father before the world began is accomplished by being lifted up on the cross it is this exaltation that draws people to him.
46:14
If in verse 13 the Son of Man is the revealer the one who came down from heaven here he's the sufferer and the exalted one but it transpires that it is precisely in the matrix of suffering and exaltation that God most clearly reveals himself in the person of his
46:30
Son. We're at the heart of it we're at the kernel of it it's interesting that when you read about the cross in the synoptic
46:42
Gospels and the book of Hebrews by the way the crucifixion is seen as his unjust rejection and humiliation but in the
46:51
Gospel of John the emphasis is different the crucifixion is set forth as his exaltation has been lifted up both things are true of course.
47:03
As one wrote still and this is typical for the fourth gospel the crucifixion is not presented as Jesus's humiliation but as the exaltation of the
47:11
Son of Man the reason obviously is that Jesus's suffering and death were the way in which he would return to God and be glorified by him and that way he would grant eternal life to those who believed on him and the
47:28
Holy Scripture speak of this event of Jesus being exalted through his cross to his throne in heaven.
47:36
Upon our Lord's resurrection from the dead his ascension to heaven he was immediately enthroned as Lord, Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
47:45
He took the scroll out of the father's hand when he came forth from the grave and walked up to God his father sitting on the throne he took the scroll out of his father's hand and that scroll in my understanding was an emblem of the decree of God to accomplish the will of God in history to establish his kingdom in order to accomplish two major goals one was the defeat and judgment of his enemies and secondly thankfully the decree was also to bring about the salvation and exaltation of his people and when
48:22
Jesus received that scroll from his father's hand the father conferred upon him his royal authority as king over the kingdom of God.
48:31
Upon his receiving this scroll that is his kingdom we read of the heavenly chorus in Revelation 5 this is such a wonderful passage and so few
48:42
Christians see it because the futurist view of interpreting the revelation present
48:48
Revelation 5 that's going to happen at the future second coming of Christ no it happened when Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven but as we read these verses once again notice the tie -in between him suffering as the lamb on the cross and his exaltation as the
49:05
Lord in heaven you have the same movement here John wrote the book of Revelation he wrote the gospel of John it's the same theme this is
49:16
John writing I saw on the right this is Revelation 5 I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne that be
49:23
God the father a scroll written inside and on the back sealed with seven seals I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who's worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals and no one in heaven or on earth under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it no one could be entrusted with that kind of authority so John says
49:47
I wept much because no one has found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it but one of the elders said to me do not we behold the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David has prevailed to open the scroll to loose its seven seals here's the king the son of David John looked and behold in the midst of the throne of the four living creatures in the midst of the elders what did he say he saw a lamb as though it had been slain there you have the movement don't you the lifting up of Jesus on his cross resulted in the lifting up of Jesus on his throne having seven horns seven eyes he's all wise which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth and he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne that it was the conferring of kingly authority when he'd taken the scroll the four living creatures twenty -four elders fell down before the lamb there's you your crucified sacrifice each having a heart golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the
50:52
Saints they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals why for you were slain that's what qualified him his obedience to God even on to the death of the cross because you were slain and you've redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation you have made as kings and priests to our
51:12
God and we'll reign on earth and we are reigning with him through grace and then
51:17
I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne the living creatures the elders the number of them was 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb again the crucified
51:29
Savior who was slain to receive power riches and wisdom strength and honor glory and blessing and every creature which is in heaven on earth under the earth such as are in the sea all that are in them
51:41
I heard saying blessing honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever the two go together lifting up on the cross lifting up on his throne and again it mentioned the prophet
51:58
Isaiah speaking of this we won't turn there won't even look at it but that's the fourth servant song in Isaiah 52 verse 10 all the way through chapter 53 talks about the suffering servant but then it declares and he will be greatly exalted you have the same idea this is a good place to stop
52:22
I was kind of intimidated with the amount of time
52:27
I thought we're going to have to how do you address John 3 16 at after addressing what we've already considered and so we'll stand back at this point and Lord willing we'll begin to address it next week and I said begin because it's going to take a couple weeks this is one of the most glorious verses in the
52:48
Bible of course perhaps the one of the most quoted except for maybe that that verse in which
52:54
Jesus says judge not lest you be judged but John 3 16 is quoted by so many and yet it's misunderstood by many too and so we want to examine what it what it says and we want to also consider what it doesn't say because John 3 16 is used to validate a lot of error frankly in the way
53:22
God deals with people and the way God regards people but we'll address this Lord willing beginning next week let's pray thank you father for your word thank you father most of all for the glorious son that you sent into the world to become one with us even one of us assuming a human nature a body and soul and we thank you our
53:46
God that he on our behalf died for our sin and he on our behalf was enthroned in heaven and that even now as Christians we reign with him by grace through grace even on to eternal life help us our
54:04
Lord they have high regard for Jesus and help us our Lord to have a high regard biblical regard for ourselves as we stand in Jesus as disciples and as as children of God sons and daughters of God and help us our
54:22
Lord to go forth from this place living accordingly rejoicing resolve
54:28
Lord to glorify you and to please you and all that we think and do and all we say for we pray in Jesus name