John 3

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Why don't we first open with a word of prayer? Dear God our
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Heavenly Father. We come to you Lord in Jesus name as We open up your word as we come into your presence
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May you O Lord teach us the meaning of your truth and May your spirit work in our hearts
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That we would be changed people by the power of your word We ask all this in Jesus name
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Amen our subject this morning is a rather weighty one
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This week as I was preparing for this message I was Deeply gripped by the content of what we have to look and study it's a subject that I think most of us are very familiar with and Unfortunately, sometimes when we get familiar with some subjects we tend to kind of pass them by More quickly than we ought to and this morning as we study this chapter, we're going to look at John chapter 3.
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I Pray that each of us here would be gripped again by the weightiness of this message that Jesus has for us and That being gripped by it.
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We would act upon this Message that we are going to hear
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I call this the gospel claims the claims of the gospel the claims that gospel has on each and every one and On us in particular.
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I have asked this questions once before in Sunday school if you had to tell the gospel to Someone in say 30 seconds when you were walking from your car to the grocery store and somebody just asked you
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What is the gospel? Would you be able to say that in the 30 seconds you have walking from your car to the grocery store and Then you know you've reached the grocery store and the person is interested and then he says hey, tell me more come
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Let's sit down by this bench I want you to tell me everything that is about the gospel and you have an hour Would you be able to spend that are profitably and clearly explain what the gospel is?
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And I think most of us here as believers know what the gospel is because it is a gospel that has changed our lives
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And I think it is good for us to have it clearly Imprinted in our hearts and minds that no matter what time we have in season out of season
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We are able to quickly come up and clearly present the truth claims of the gospel And that's basically what we are going to be studying today in John chapter 3
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There are six claims that we have from the gospel I'm going to actually quickly show you how this is laid out in John 3 before we get into it
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John 3 verses 1 through 15 you're going to see three statements that this man
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Nicodemus makes and Then three truth claims that Jesus says you'll see each of Jesus three responses begin with truly truly
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He's saying something very solemn about the gospel We're going to see those three claims of the gospel and then in verse 16
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We are going to see the definition of the gospel John 3 16 All of us are very familiar with will take that apart and then versus 17 through 21
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We're going to see yet another gospel claim how the gospel is exclusive and then versus 22 to 36
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We will see a summary of this chapter and the final truth claim so we'll see how much of this we can get to this morning and As we study these claims of the gospel first We want in our minds to clearly grasp what the gospel is and what this truth must do to us as believers
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So if there's anyone here who's not a believer I would encourage you to consider the urgency of this message and what it should do to you
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But for those of you who are believers here, I want you to have one focus in mind What are you going to do with this precious gospel that has been given to you?
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And how are you going to take this out to those who are in need of this message? So with that let's get down into the text before we get into the text
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I want to give you a quick review of chapters 1 & 2 because chapter 3 draws a lot from what has gone on before and I'll try to make those connections as we study chapter 3 and as we go through the verses in 3 if you have any questions, please
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Raise them up whether it is something that I'm Exegeting out of the text and you don't understand why we came up to that conclusion or is that something
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I'm skipping by and you say Hey, I'd like to know what that verse is. We can spend a little time on that and Also towards the end we will do it be doing some application.
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What does this mean to our lives today? How are we going to use this text? When we go out from this church, what are we going to do with this?
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Commands that we have here so very quickly a review of John 1 & 2 John 1 1 to 18 you have a summary of the whole gospel of John the
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Apostle John writes what he's going to teach in the whole book he begins and ends with Jesus and his purpose and what he came to do and Some of these verses here.
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We'll come back and look at its verse 9 through 13 you will see used again in in chapter 3 and then 119 on 234 you have the testimony of John the
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Baptist and Here is where Jesus is first introduced to the public scene He comes forward
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John proclaims Jesus Christ as the Messiah he calls him the Lamb of God and then here is
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John who is Already has a huge ministry in the in around the Jordan and he is now introducing
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Jesus and Jesus becomes known among the people and in verses 20 35 to 51 you see the first disciples of Jesus.
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You see the first five disciples who are called and follow after Jesus and Then in chapters 2 you have two incidents one is the wedding at Cana Where Jesus turns the water into wine his first public miracle?
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Where his disciples see and understand that this man is not just saying things, but he has power that they can they now start to believe and verses 13 to 25 you see the clearing of the temple and the clearing of the temple is the background on which you need to look at chapter 3 because here
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Jesus comes into Jerusalem the first Passover that he celebrates with his disciples in his public ministry and You can see the zeal of the
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Lord of his father burn inside him. He sees there is an abuse of worship there are people selling cattle dove and Jesus makes a cord out of whips and he drives those people out and then he says you have turned my father's house
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Into a place of business and there is one verse that Jesus says here. We'll come back to again He says destroy this temple and in three days.
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I will raise it up we will look at the significance of what that has to do with Nicodemus and As we begin into three let's begin with 223
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I want to start reading there so we can see the context of what happens in 3 -1 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the
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Passover during the feast many believed in his name Observing the signs which he was doing
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But Jesus for his part was not entrusting himself to them for he knew all men and Because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man
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For he himself knew what was in man?
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That's a rather solemn statement that chapter 2 ends with here are people Jesus does a lot of miracles. He goes to Jerusalem He clears the temple obviously everybody's looking up to this person who's doing something very radical
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Scary even and is this man a crazy person or is this someone you know you should avoid?
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But on the other hand we see that Jesus does a lot of miracles and signs and everybody is going after him they say okay, this man has a power he's doing something new and strange and These people are starting to believe in him
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But this end of chapter 2 says that Jesus did not trust himself to man because he knew what was in man
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We will find now that the kind of belief that these people had was rather superficial they were looking at the signs and they were thinking that they had faith in him, but Jesus knew what each person's heart was where it was and What the reality of the faith was and with that we begin chapter 3 verse 1
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If you remember in the when the Bible was written there was no Chapter breakages, so this is almost like a continuation of what was in chapter 2 verse 25 in chapter 3 verse 1
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We read now there was a man of the Pharisees named
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Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews and We see that this man came to Jesus by night, and he said to him
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And this is the first statement that Nicodemus makes and I think it's important for us to see what he says here
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He says rabbi. We know that you have come from God as a teacher for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him and Jesus answers this first statement.
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He says to him truly truly I say to you unless one is born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God Before we again take this first statement apart and look at the first claim of the gospel
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It's very clear that John is telling us that Nicodemus is coming here as one of those men who saw the signs that Jesus was
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Doing who thought he had belief in something that Jesus was doing and he is here now to come and find out more about Jesus He is one of those men that is talked about in the end of chapter 2
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Because you look at some of the words that are used in chapter 3 He says here is a man of the
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Pharisees It was a man what was in man that was talked about earlier and the men in the end of chapter 2 were looking at the signs and thinking that they had belief in Jesus and here is
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Nicodemus again coming and saying I've seen all the signs and I I want to know what what you're about and Here when
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Jesus in the end of chapter 2 we read he knew what was in the hearts of men And you're going to see how
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Jesus responds to Nicodemus statements Nicodemus is going to say some words but Jesus is going to get down right to the heart of this man who is coming to confront him and Actually in some senses confront, but in more senses he wants to learn more about Jesus So what does
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Nicodemus say this first statement? It's Nicodemus as you know is a Pharisee He is a ruler of the
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Sanhedrin. He's a very respected person. He comes at night, and he's asking Jesus We've heard a lot about you, and now
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I want to hear something more. He actually comes in a very Nice gentle introduction he says
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His statement was very open. He says we know you are a man sent from God and for actually he says a rabbi sent from God because You know that Jesus didn't have any
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Formal teaching like Nicodemus probably was he's a Pharisee He's learned a lot of things and here he is acknowledging somebody who's just come into the scene and calls him a rabbi and He wants to kind of introduce
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Jesus very gently, but Jesus statement is rather strange Jesus cuts right down to the chase he says
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Unless one is born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God I'm sure this was more like a shock to Nicodemus because the social protocol would be you know you say something nice You hear something nice, and you slowly get into the subject
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But Jesus gets right down to it when you say truly truly. That's our main I mean, this is very solemn
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Nicodemus. You can't play with these subject anymore. You are you've been a ruler of The Jews, but here you need to understand.
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That's very fundamental And that's something that's very important And what is Jesus says here is unless one is born again?
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You cannot see the kingdom of God so here is Nicodemus Who's a person who's teaching the people of Israel somebody who knows the kingdom of God and is?
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Supposed to explain the kingdom of God to the people But here Jesus says you cannot even see the kingdom of God unless you are born again
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And that my friends is the first claim of the gospel There is something that is very essential.
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There is something that's very necessary for the God for salvation and That is to be born again
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Unless one is born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God Jesus doesn't explain what born again is here, but Nicodemus is going to ask him in Verse 4
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Nicodemus said to him how can a man be born again when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born can he?
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Now before you try to understand what Nicodemus is saying here you want to think about this for a moment
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What is going through Nicodemus mind when Jesus says you cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again?
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Physical birth yes, that's basically what he's asking here. How can I be physically born again, but in terms of?
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The spiritual aspect of it you cannot see the kingdom of God What do you think Nicodemus must be thinking when he says?
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You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you're born again Exactly yeah, so his challenge to Nicodemus is
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Nicodemus You can't even see the kingdom of God unless you're born again all these signs that you see and you think you understand
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What God is doing? You really don't know what is happening unless you are born again Because you'll soon find out
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Nicodemus has no idea what being born again means and that's what he does he first thinks It is physical birth which is very silly nobody can be born physically twice
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And so the statement that Nicodemus says in verse 4 is not just a question of ignorance.
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You know that hey Jesus you're saying something. I don't know what it is can you explain me more. It's more of okay
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You know I thought I knew what I was talking about you're telling me. I have no idea what I'm talking about so There is a minor sense of offense here because here
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I am a teacher of Israel and you tell me that There is something that I need to know before I can even see
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God's kingdom So that's the statement that Nicodemus makes so what do you mean by being born again, so he throws the obvious out he says
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Okay, do you mean I have to be physically born go back into my mother's womb and be born again?
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That's impossible and When Nicodemus throws a statement Jesus now explains what being born again means and in verse 5
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Jesus gives a second claim of the gospel And he says truly truly I say to you
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Unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit
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Do not be amazed that I said to you you must be born again The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it
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But do not know where it comes from and where it is going so is everyone who is born of the spirit
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So here Jesus now explains, okay, you want to know what being born again means This is what being born again means so he first says unless one is born of water and the spirit
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He cannot enter into the kingdom of God, so what does this mean being born of water and the spirit?
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Washing of regeneration so we are talking about the water and the spirit doing a work in you which
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Regenerates you which makes you being born again now This water and spirit for most of us
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Post the 2 ,000 years since having studied the whole of the Bible I think it starts to make sense But for Nicodemus do you think he should have caught what
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Jesus says here when Jesus says you must be born of water and spirit That's right so for a
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Pharisee. You know he was thinking he was already saved. He was already right with God He was not just a
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Jew, but he was a leader of the Jews And so there was not even a question he wanted to entertain But you we will see soon that Jesus was going to say hey you may be a teacher of the
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Pharisees but you were given a message in the Old Covenant that you should have paid attention to and If you had read your scriptures right you would know what
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I'm talking about because if you see in verse 9 Nicodemus is going to say how can these things be you're talking something that is makes no sense to me at all you said born
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Again, you said you explain what born again means and now I don't know what your explanation means and if you look at verse 10
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Jesus is actually saying to him are you a teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Nicodemus was supposed to know what
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Jesus was talking about this was not just a new revelation Jesus was actually going to give him a new revelation later on in this passage
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But right here what he's talking about is something from the Old Covenant something that was foretold
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Which Nicodemus as a teacher of Israel should have been looking forward to and when Jesus said this it should have started clicking in his
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Mind and he should have known aha. This is what the prophets of the old had spoken about So what is it that?
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Jesus is pointing to Steve rightly point said this water and spirit is talking about the work of regeneration the cleansing that happens
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And there are many references in the Old Testament about the water and how it does this washing effect in the soul and makes it clean and we also have the work of the
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Spirit both in creation and in regeneration in the soul of man most of these
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Work of the water and spirit we don't see them together in many verses But there are a few verses where we see them close enough that we can try to draw this analogy
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I'd like you to turn with me to Ezekiel 36 which is one such passage which talks about this work of the water and the spirit and The foretelling something that God is going to do in the future
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So if you look at Ezekiel 36 verse 25 to 27 here we have
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The nation being gathered up again the nation of Israel being gathered up and here
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God is saying in verse 25. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean
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I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols verse 26 moreover
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I will give you a new heart and a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and Give you a heart of flesh
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I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my
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Ordinances, it's very similar to what we see in Jeremiah 31 31 to 34 where there is a time coming where God is going to work in the heart of each and every individual and there's going to be a
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Regeneration in the individual just as there is going to be in the nation of Israel if you look at Ezekiel 37
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That's where you have the famous valley of dry bones where you have a dead people being brought back to life by the power of the
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Spirit and The rest of this passage back in John chapter 3 talks about this work of the
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Spirit He says in verse 6 that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit
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You have two separate categories. You have the category of the natural the flesh here doesn't have all the
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Connotation that you see in Paul's writing with regards to its sinfulness but here he is talking about just the natural man what you have as a character as an as a natural being is
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Fleshly earthly, but then there is something else totally different that you don't know about which is Spiritual and when you are born in the spirit that is a spiritual life, which is what
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I'm talking about So you have two categories and you need to understand what being born again means This is a spiritual act by God and again in verse 8
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He says the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it But do not know where it comes from and where it is going
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So is everyone who is born of the spirit and Here actually there's something in the
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Greek that you probably want to think about here the wind the breath the spirit All these are the same word in the
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Greek and based on context You can figure out whether it is talking about spirit whether it is a spirit of man or this
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Holy Spirit whether it is the wind making a noise because He's talking about the evidence of the wind that you hear
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It's talking about the wind here, and we have the breath and the spirit closely tied But here he is saying the wind blows where it wishes and you don't know how the wind blows the path and everything
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But you see the evidence of it likewise when you see a man who is born again You cannot say you cannot map out the chart of how he went through all these different stages
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But you can see clearly that there is something supernatural happening in this person and the evidence of it
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You can see in his life when he is born again Now again, that's the second claim of the gospel and the second claim is that this salvation must be externally applied to man
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So the first claim we saw was that being born again is necessary It's important that you be born again before you can be saved
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But second claim is that it has to be done externally this water and the spirit is something that is applied upon man
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It is not something that you can do and especially for a Pharisee such as Nicodemus You can just imagine, you know
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Here is he is he's lived his whole life following the rules of the law Doing everything that he thinks he should do in order to be saved and here comes
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Jesus saying here is something that God must do in you in order to be saved and We'll go to the third point and then we'll come back and look at some applications
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So Nicodemus in verse 9 says to him how can these things be now? He throws up its hands and says, okay
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I've been a teacher of Israel I've been telling people about the law and how to follow the rules of the law and here you're telling me that This it's nothing that I do, but it is something that is done to me
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How can this be and then Jesus comes and tells him in actually this is rather gentle He says are you a teacher of Israel and do not understand these things and then he says his third truly truly
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I say to you we speak of what we know and Testify of what we have seen and you people or you do not accept our testimony
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If I told you earthly things and you do not believe how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
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no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven the Son of Man as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
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Even so much the Son of Man be lifted up so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life
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Now in verse 11 Jesus said we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen and you do not accept our testimony
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Here Jesus is talking about being born again. What does it mean to be saved and When Jesus talks about something that is earthly something that is pertinent to the soul of man
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Right here on earth and the people do not believe he says how will you believe if I start talking about heavenly things?
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In fact, if you look at the Gospel of John verse chapters 1 through 12, you see his ministry to the people of Israel He goes and tells them he does his miracles
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He goes and witnesses to them and then chapter 13 through the end You see his ministry to his disciples and there he gets down to what does it mean to be abiding in the wine?
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What does it mean to be a people of God and there you get to? The heavenly things that you're going to be listening to and here if you don't know what it means to be saved
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There is no way that you can know the things that are going to come in the future But here
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Jesus after having talked about something that Nicodemus should know in verses 6 through 8 he now is going to talk about something that Nicodemus would have had no idea about there were pointers to this too in the future
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But here Jesus is going to give him some new revelation that Who this son of man is in verse 14 we read as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
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Even so must the son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life
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So can somebody tell me what this serpent in the wilderness story is about? What happened in the wilderness?
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That's exactly right. So at the passages from numbers 21 Verse 8 is where you look at this particular incident, but that's exactly right
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Here is a people a rebellious people the people whom God has taken from Egypt And he's taking to the promised land these people grow impatient, and they complain against God and God sends judgment
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He sends these serpents in the midst of the camp, and they were killing people In huge numbers and then
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God provides the means of restoration and the restoration was a very simple command He asked
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Moses to make this bronze serpent and raise it up and the way that you could be saved Was not going for an antidote was not you know running 20 laps around the camp, but just look up Just look up to this
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Means that God has provided and you will be saved so there is this aspect of believing what God has said
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I mean if you were bit by a snake and said you know you need to look at something to be saved you'd think Come on. You know give me something some something to take inside or cut this piece of flesh off But rather than do something
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God was showing an example of what it means to believe in the way He provides and that's exactly what happens here
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And and Jesus is not really going back to talk about all that that serpent signified But rather to the looking up that happens there
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You know it was by Believing that God could save that these people were saved and likewise when the
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Son of Man is going to be lifted up when he's lifted Up on the cross through which he will be lifted up into heaven
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It is that whoever believes will have eternal life in him and here
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Jesus explains what it means to have this experience of being born again And that's the third gospel claim which is the cross is the only way to be saved
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It is only when you look up to the cross and the work that Christ did on the cross that you can have eternal life so here let's stop for a couple of moments and see what application we have as Believers Taking this message to a world that is
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Lost and dying and needs to hear this message So we've seen the first message the three claims
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The gospel it is necessary to be born again to be saved We've seen that you must this salvation must be externally applied to man
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And third that the cross is the only way you know one thing
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I always struggle with in evangelism when I was a young believer was You know I don't like to talk to people
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I like to just sit in a corner, and you know just pray pray pray and hope that somehow God would
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Supernaturally speak to this person's mind I don't know if any of you are like me But it was very hard to go up and talk to somebody about the gospel.
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Do you know why? Yes, we'll get to that the first reason is you know
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I feel like a car salesman You know I'm going to tell somebody about something that they don't want
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Right they don't want to talk about God They don't want to talk about Jesus you talk about anything else everybody's happy But you talk
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Jesus, and then you become the car salesman everybody's looking for an opportunity to say. Thank you very much
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I'll find the closest door out of here, right? That was a problem because I brought up Jesus people are going to think he's selling something that I don't need but One thing that you're going to find especially in we learn from what
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Jesus does here is Our job is not to sell the car to the person Our job our deal is not closed when the person signs that dotted line and gets a 25 person
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Rate for this loan that he signs up, but our job is to just proclaim the gospel
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And in fact if you see the way Jesus and Nicodemus encounter each other You know if you think about Jesus If you would bear with me the social standing
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Jesus had here is a newcomer on the block and a young guy and Nicodemus the big respected guy coming up, and you would assume that you know you do a little deference, and you know buy into this place and you know
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Here are actually if you look at chapter 2 he Jesus has just had a Encounter with the temple authorities who pretty much kicked him out over there
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They didn't like Jesus and here you would want to build some bridges and develop some strategic planning for the future
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But no no no Jesus gets right down to the chase. He says I have a message for you You're not saved, and this is how he must be saved
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And we don't hear much about Nicodemus in the rest of the chapter actually you'll see only twice later on But I think
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Nicodemus does come to a saving faith later, but this encounter probably left Nicodemus shattered
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He came here hoping to build some bridges, and there are no bridges. There is a message It's very simple you just proclaim it and the job is done
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So what is the problem that unbelievers have with this message? We said that you must be born again in order to be saved if the necessity of the salvation is to be born again
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What does that mean to the person that you're going to witness you know in your minds? Just think about the person this week.
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You're going to meet who is not a believer whether it's your neighbor your co -worker Whoever else that you would meet who doesn't know the gospel
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What is it that they would think when you tell them you must be born again in order to be saved?
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What goes through their mind? What went through your mind when you were when you were saved yes? Because their lifestyle is in con total opposite to what the
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Bible says so that there is an important aspect of being born again Anyone else want to say yes?
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That's right, and so even if they do hear something about this It's hard to believe because here is a material life.
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Here is my car my house my job that I can see Why would I believe in something that I have no interest in I'd rather put my time and my energies in the earthly side of things and if there is a life after it's something
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I don't want to be bothered with and the reason this born again is going to prick everybody you tell is because it means that your life up until this point is worthless
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Here was Nicodemus who had lived his life You know following the rule of the law and Jesus says that means nothing you need to have a total new life from this point on so everything you've done until now whether you've been a ceo of a company or whether you've served all the
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People poor people in Africa or you've given all your money to this particular charity
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You've gone to church every day twice a day It doesn't matter because until now everything you've done is rubbish you need to have a totally new life
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That is going to dictate your relationship with God Nobody likes that because everybody until now they've thought they've done everything that was best for them whether it was in the world or whether it was their pleasure that kept them satisfied and to do something different is not a pleasant thing and To a carnal man.
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He's not going to like it And he won't accept it and that's why we come to our second point which is this must be externally applied to man
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And this external application is of something that actually gets people even more worked up I mean,
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I remember when I was saved you know I wanted to do a lot of things I didn't want something done to me. You know okay.
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I know you know I knew the pleasures that kept me satisfied, okay? Let me get buckled down Repent from the sin do something on my own to Live a life that God would say yeah good
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I'll take you now in you don't tell me that I have to just Look up and believe and somehow be saved that makes no sense
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You know if you want to think about it this way born again is a very good example because when you're born
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You're just one there's nothing you do to be born You know even if you were in jail right and you had to get out of jail
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There is one of many factors that will get you out. You probably do good behavior in jail
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You know you you get out of jail or or somebody you know bills Yeah, you could break out of jail
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Yes Or you know somebody pays you the money because they like you or you're their relative.
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They didn't have a choice There's something in you that causes you to get out of jail But when you're born there is nothing you do and that's that's the most humiliating thing
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For a human to come to grips with is we have nothing to give to God we as believers No, I'll know that but you could go and talk to an unbeliever.
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That's basically what they're looking at is. This is foolish Why should I believe something that makes that I have to do nothing for it and and That's the problem when you say the gospel is something that is externally applied to man
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It is going to make people think this is a foolish thing. You know you need to give something in this world
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It's always you give and you get it's not something that you just believe and it is done for you And then the third one that we have here is the cross is the only way
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Can you think of some reasons why this would be a problem in our society when you went and said this is
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That's right Exclusivity is a dirty word We live in a culture where you know we need to respect every people and the way you respect everybody is by saying
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Well if you believe something that must be right because you know you have your right to your view and therefore whatever view you have should be true and When you say that there is only one way to be saved that's going to make people angry and actually
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I've met a Friend this not a friend a stranger this week, and we're talking about the gospel what it means to be saved
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Told him about you know when they come to church everything was fine, and then when you start talking about the gospel
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The person said well, you know this is something just between me and God You know don't get here, and when we said okay, that's fine
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But is this what you and God have in between you which is the gospel of salvation?
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The person was very quickly turned off as I don't know. I hope that person does come to church, but It's not it's not something that people want to be confronted with but getting back to our job
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Our job is to present the gospel you tell the gospel to the person that you meet these people
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You know I was I did not know what it was that I needed to be saved I did not like the gospel message that I that saved me
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But our job is to proclaim this gospel to people who need it and the Spirit of God as we see
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Externally applies this work of cleansing and regeneration, and it is only through that that we can come to know the truth
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Let's go through one more point here And that will give us the definition of the gospel that I wanted to touch upon But actually before we do that very quickly
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This is something that really held my mind as I studied this when you think of Nicodemus, right?
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here is the leader of the Jews and You try to apply this in your modern life or you come to church now and you think of who is an equivalent for Nicodemus?
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What comes to your mind when you think of Nicodemus? Hey, that's our modern 21st century equivalent of Nicodemus.
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What do you think? Cardinal or a Pope yes, what were you saying?
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Okay, and a priest yes Anybody else who do you think of a person representing
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Nicodemus a Regular churchgoer.
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Yes, I didn't get you.
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Okay, okay
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Right. That's exactly where I was going. Yes a biblical scholar
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Anybody else there's a lot of yes, that's right.
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So you have an idea of what you think should be The mandate and you go about doing it without a heart change
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Okay Very quickly, we'll don't want to spend too much time on this but no matter what church you pick up Anything that goes by the name
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Church if you pick up the Catholic Church There is a sense in which the message of God is being given to the people of God But it is cut away from the truth of the gospel
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And in India where I come from there are many mainline churches where they started out Well, they were started on the basis of the gospel
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But in time they've fallen away from the gospel what has happened in those churches is you know
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We have the gospel. We believe the gospel people were saved and as people kept coming to church over and over again
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The future generations of these churches what have happened is oh, we assume the gospel is already there
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Yes That is the foundation on which we're walking on But when you stop talking about the gospel when you stop preaching the gospel to the people that are coming to these churches what happens is you just assume there is something that is keeping you right with God and you start focusing on the externals and Actually when
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I first came to this church, I was surprised at how many times I heard the gospel message And I said doesn't everybody know this
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Yeah, everybody does know it But it is important to hear us again and again because when you are truly saved no matter how many times you're the gospel that is a joy to hear and That one person whether it is your child or whether it is that stranger or even if it is somebody who you thought was saved
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But hasn't been genuinely Regenerated they need to hear the message and it is on the basis of the gospel that we are saved
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It is on the basis of the gospel that we have Sanctification and we have our whole life on the basis of this one truth and when mainline churches
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Want to talk about everything else assuming that the gospel is there there is no gospel.
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We have Pastors and teachers who really are not saved coming and talking about things that they have no idea about just like Nicodemus was
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That and sadly that's the case of many of our evangelical churches now where churches are now starting to build these
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Bridges between everybody else want to have this unity and therefore, you know
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Start cutting down on things that are going to be offensive and what happens you lose the truth you compromise on what the essential is in order to be friendly with the people around you and Last week last
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Sunday school. We heard the false teachers that we now have in many of the churches charismatic and otherwise
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Where the gospel is compromised for other reasons? and so there are many people who are masquerading as teachers in the world today in the so -called churches and it is important to recognize what
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Makes a person a genuine teacher and what makes a person a false teacher like this and The person who is a genuine teacher is one who is willing to stand up for the truth
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No matter what the cost you have one who is proclaiming the gospel message from the Bible and And even our church, you know, it is important for us to be continuously reforming.
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I think was that Luther? Yeah, because you know, there is a time when the churches are strong we have revivals
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But when we think that we can live on the past experience that has happened We can very easily fall away from the truth.
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We as believers must be continuously going back to the gospel message So let's quickly look at verses 16 through 21, but I'm going to look just at 16 closely
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So how many of you know the four W's what are the four W's of evangelism? Who is
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God who is man? What did Jesus do? What is the responsibility of man?
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Can somebody find this is not I said Jesus. This is exegesis Can somebody find the four
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W's in verse 16 of John 3? So that was we have who is man man is in a perishing state that's assumed here because there is a salvation talked about That's exactly right.
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We have a certain aspect of God his eternality and his love Spoken of here and there is other things that will come after 16, but we know there is an aspect of God that is spoken
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So we have God man. We have the
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Son a Son who is given to us. He is the Only begotten
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Son there is an essential nature of this personhood and then Yes, what is required of man?
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What should man do the responsibility is to believe and It's in a it's an almost like a definition form.
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You don't have all the details here You can go to earlier parts of John to get more about who this God our
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Creator is to whom we are accountable He is also a judge. We will find verse 17 and 18 and we have
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Man who is in a rebellious state throughout the gospel of John There's only two P type of people one who is right with God and one who is not right with God and this world that it
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Talks about God so loved the world. This world is a world that is in rebellion with him Actually if you go back now to John 1 1 through 18
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You find those pieces where it talks about this light that comes into the world and the and the darkness did not comprehend it
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It rejected it. It did not want to have anything to do with it That was the world to which God sent his gift
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The gift was his only begotten Son and the son what did he do? We just saw in verse 15 he was going to be lifted up and we will see that played out in the rest of the gospel of John and there is an essential
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Responsibility of man and that is to believe and you have here in a nutshell the gospel So if you if you're talking to somebody about the gospel and you have to tell them something just say
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John 3 16 and use those points to get to them about who G God is who man is who
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Jesus is and what should they do and That will give you a 30 -second definition of the gospel
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And if you want to give the one -hour version you can you can go through the whole book
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But but you know what I'm trying to say here and and one thing I think when we talk about John 3 16
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We should never forget is to talk about 17 and 18 because we live in a culture where the believing is rather Intellectual and it is also not
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You know You have one of two states rather than a number of gray areas in between So if you look at 17 and 18 we read for God did not send the
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Son into the world to judge the world But that the world might be saved through him he who believes in him is not judged
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But he who does not believe has been judged already Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
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Son of God There's only two states that you could be in you are either right with God Or you are facing the condemnation and the wrath of God and there's one day when all of us will die and when we die
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We are either going to face eternal damnation Or we are going to be in the presence of God himself on the basis of his work
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Without teaching the rest of the book because we are out of time very quickly 19 through 21 repeats what we see in 17 and 18
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But if the aspect of light and darkness it gets back to your point about how the deeds of darkness
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Keep you away from the light who is God and how the work of God in us is
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Evident by him bringing us to the father and then verses 22 to 30 you see this testimony of John Which is really powerful at that for us as believers
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We need to keep our handle on is you know when we witness people are going to think low of us And that doesn't matter here is
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John the Baptist was very well known But when he starts talking about Jesus and people start going to him his popularity wanes
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But here's what John says in verse 30 He must increase but I must decrease and when we have that attitude of bringing glory and honor to God by sharing
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With others about who Jesus is it doesn't matter if you go lower in the eyes of the people around you
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Because Christ is the one who would receive glory one way or the other and Verse 31 to 36 is a summary of this whole chapter.
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It talks about what Jesus did and how we have faith and salvation through Christ So in closing
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I'd like to Ask just a couple of questions So those of us as believers here when we recollect what
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Christ has done for us on the cross when we recollect the message of The gospel what should be the heart response of each of us here?
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Yes, preach it. Yes It should be to give what we have freely received to those
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Who need who are in need of it? Yes Gratitude yes, because when
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God has done this wonderful work of salvation freely in my life one who didn't deserve it I need to have this heart of gratitude and response of worship back to God and when
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I do that I will go out and tell others of what he has done and Can you think of a couple of practical ways you can do that?
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How would you? Preach it right there is really no one way if you look at the gospel of John There are so many ways in which you see
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Evangelism being carried out in all of your life when you're ready to preach whether it is in your personal life whether it is at Home in your groceries with your neighbors with your friends when you are filled with this
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Joy of who God is and what he has done for you You have the message ready to come out when somebody pricks you and says hey
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Something and you have God on your minds And you're able to talk about him and and there is also ways within the church where you could do that There are specific ways in which we go out and witness to those people who are lost in fact
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I was just thinking of this one example You know at work It's so much harder for me to talk about the gospel because people at work don't think they need salvation
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They are having quotes and ties, and they've got a lot of money, and I think everything is going well
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But when we go downtown The people that don't have any question about the need for a
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Savior They may not want him they may like the pleasures of sin more But here are a people who are thirsty and willing to listen
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I'm so amazed every time we go out and preach the gospel to the people in Worcester because there are people who want to hear they want someone to sit by them and talk to them about Jesus and That is one great opportunity that I would actually encourage all of you here to make use of whether it is in Worcester or In any of your towns actually brother
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Bruce is not here this morning But he's I think talking with some of you men Who live away from Worcester to see if we can do the same thing in your towns also because we want the gospel message to Go out as many as far as we can reach because this is a precious message
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And we have a people who are in one of two states They are either right with God or they are not and if they are not we have a message that brings them back to a relationship
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With Jesus, so I would just encourage you to resolve in your minds to keep the gospel for in the forefront of your minds and to Do what you must which is to freely share the message that you have freely received
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Any questions before we close? Okay, let's pray
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Dear God our Heavenly Father. We thank you Lord for this work of salvation that you have done in each of us here we thank you for your son who who came and died and gave his life as a ransom for many and Help us
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Lord to be so consumed with our love for him and for you that we would go out and Share this message that we would preach it to those who are in need of this saving message
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We ask Lord also that the rest of this morning worship that you would be with us help us to glorify your son
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In all that we do and say and may your word come forth with power and impact our lives that we would be changed people