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Because he knew the Hebrew Scriptures thoroughly, some of these men, probably him, knew the
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Hebrew Scriptures by heart, had them memorized in Hebrew.
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He endeavored his whole life to live for God. He was devout. He ordered his life in a very strict manner according to the law of God.
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But Jesus tells this man, perhaps the leading teacher in Israel, that he had nothing about him.
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There was nothing in his life to commend him before God. He was spiritually dead. He needed to be alive.
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You can imagine how he received that. And so Jesus told him he needed
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God to impart to him new life, spiritual life.
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Otherwise, Nicodemus would never enter that blessed eternal existence in the kingdom of God. And that was foremost on the mind of the
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Jewish people who were religious in that day. They were expecting the long -promised kingdom of God in which there would be righteousness and peace and joy in the presence of God with God's people.
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And so in spite of all Nicodemus was and all that he had done, unless the Holy Spirit did an internal transformative sovereign work of grace in him so as to transform him into a new person, he would not see the kingdom of God.
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He was a lost man. And just as lost as anybody could be, he needed a work of grace in his soul.
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Now there were some Jews in Israel in those days that were just before God, that is justified by God's grace through faith.
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They lived in the same religious system as Nicodemus, but this was a remnant of the
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Jews. There were not a great many of them, but there were some. Nicodemus was not among them, apparently, at this point.
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They were chosen by God, saved by God's grace, and they were awaiting, as Nicodemus was, the arrival of the promised kingdom of God.
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They would not be disappointed. And so we read, for example, of John the Baptist's parents, Zacharias and Elizabeth.
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The scriptures described them as just. They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the
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Lord blamelessly. These people had salvation, and they were anticipating the coming kingdom.
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And then there was the elderly man, who was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man is described as having been just and devout.
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He was a justified man, waiting for the consolation of Israel. That is the occasion when the
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Messiah would come and remove the curse of God and give peace. Peace, peace to my people,
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Isaiah 40, verse 1 and following. The consolation of Israel. And we read that the
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Holy Spirit was upon him. He was a godly man, a spiritual man. And right after that, we read, after we read of Simeon, we're drawn to Anna in Luke's Gospel.
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We read of her that she did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
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And she recognized the infant Jesus as the promised Savior. And so we read of her and coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the
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Lord and spoke of him to all those who looked for redemption in Israel. And not long ago, we read in John chapter 1 of Nathanael, a true
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Israelite is what Jesus declared of him, in whom there was no deceit. He was a just man before God.
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Not because these people kept the law of God, although they did keep the law of God, but because by God's grace, through faith in what
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God had promised, they were justified before God. But Nicodemus was not one of those men.
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And so there were others, probably many others, but they were actually relatively few among the people of Israel of that day.
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They were but a remnant, a fraction of Jews. For God, in his sovereign grace, had purposed only to save a remnant of that generation.
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And he purposed to do so in order to be true to his promises. He didn't abandon Israel. He saved a remnant of them, as he had done in Old Testament times as well.
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And later the apostle Paul would write of this remnant, that he, Paul himself, was of their number.
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And so Paul wrote of this as he was stating that God was still bringing salvation through Jesus Christ to Jewish people, even though there were few in number, for the majority of Jews refused and failed to believe on Jesus Christ as their
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Messiah, as the Lord and Savior. And so Paul wrote, I say then, has God cast away his people?
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Certainly not, for I also am an Israelite. How could God have cast away the Jewish people?
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I'm a Jewish man and I'm, you know, I have salvation. And so I am an
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Israelite of the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew.
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Or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
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Lord, they have killed your prophets, torn down your altars. I alone am left and they seek my life.
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But what does the divine response say to him? I've reserved for myself 7 ,000 men who've not bowed the knee to Baal.
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And then so Paul makes this statement, even so now, in the same way, just like back in Elijah's day, even so now at this present time, there is a remnant, according to the election of grace,
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God had chosen some from Israel, a remnant, that they would be saved.
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And he went on to say this has to be of grace, therefore. If by grace and it's no longer works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
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As soon as you throw a little bit of works in there, you render grace no longer grace. But if it's of works, it's no longer grace.
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Otherwise, work is no longer work. There can be no mixture of the two. Well, that's the problem.
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Nicodemus mixed the two. He thought it was a combination of God's favor and grace, but also his works of the law that brought him into a good standing, favored standing with God.
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And Jesus dispelled that notion before him. Unless you're born again, you're not going to see the kingdom of God.
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Nicodemus. Most Jews who lived during the days of our
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Lord's ministry remained in this spiritual condition as Nicodemus when he came to Jesus that night.
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They were religious, but lost. They were ignorant of their desperate and damned condition.
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They thought they were right with God. They were not. Paul described these unconverted Jews in Romans 10, verse one and following.
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Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
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Sincerity counts for nothing unless it's a sincerity according to truth. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they've not submitted to the righteousness of God.
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For Christ is the end of the law. That doesn't mean the law came to an end. It means if you follow the law, it will end at Christ.
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Christ is the end or destination of the law to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law.
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The man who does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way.
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Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven. It's not through great effort that you put forth.
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That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who will descend into the abyss. That is to bring Christ up from the dead.
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But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach.
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That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God, and here
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God the Father raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Talking about being saved on the day of judgment.
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You will be exonerated. You will not be damned on the day of judgment when your whole life is brought before the bar of God and Jesus Christ judges you, your words, your actions, your attitudes, your speech.
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And then he declares with the heart one believes under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
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For the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
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And that is basically what Jesus was telling Nicodemus. There is no difference between you and a pagan in some far off Gentile land.
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There is no difference. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call on him for whoever calls on the
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Lord. And that is not a one time sinner's prayer or decision. It is described in the
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Christian who calls on the Lord. That is what Christians do. We call on the Lord. We're calling on him today.
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We'll call on him tomorrow. If we're still here ten years from now we'll be calling on the Lord. That's what Christians do.
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And whoever calls upon the Lord, in other words calls upon him in faith, calls upon him as Lord, he will be saved on that day of judgment.
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That's what Paul is declaring. And so here Paul describes the majority of Jewish people during the days of our
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Lord's earthly ministry and on into the Christian era. When Nicodemus came to Jesus that night he was one of these who had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge as intelligent, educated as this man was.
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Well respected, high positioned, he didn't get it. He thought that salvation, that his entrance and participation in the promised kingdom of God would be granted to him because he had so ordered his life in righteousness that it entitled him to participate in the resurrection onto eternal life.
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Paul indicated that Moses had addressed these matters being zealous for the law of Moses and yet being lost in sin.
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And he taught that if you follow the law, again thinking that by keeping it you'll attain a high enough degree of righteousness, then you'll not have submitted to the only righteousness that will enable you to stand in the day of judgment and that is the gift of righteousness through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
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Their own false sense of personal righteousness blinded them to their need of an alien righteousness, one outside of us that is given to us freely by God himself, a gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.
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And so this is one reason Jesus told some religious Jews, assuredly I say to you that tax collectors and harlots will enter the kingdom of God before you.
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Well why is that? Well this is not because more overtly sinful people are more righteous, but because they tend to acknowledge their sin and their need for righteousness because they don't have any of their own.
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But Nicodemus was not this way. The Lord Jesus told Nicodemus it would take a transformative work of the
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Holy Spirit to save him. Only the Holy Spirit could bring new life into this man as religious as he was, as devout as he was.
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Only the Holy Spirit can enable a sinner to see his need, especially a religious sinner, to see
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God's remedy in Christ in order to humble him, to give him the desire, receive this gift of grace whereby he is saved from damnation onto everlasting life.
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So we read of this in 1 Corinthians 2. And sometimes there are words and phrases in this passage that are misunderstood or misinterpreted, so I supplied some clarifying comments in smaller font for clarification.
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However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, and within this context the mature are true
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Christians, every true Christian. Yet not the wisdom of this age, nor the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
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But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, including
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Nicodemus at this point, by the way. For had they known, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.
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But as it's written, eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man.
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In other words, fallen man cannot apprehend or understand the way of salvation. It's never even entered his mind, on the part of Nicodemus, say, at this point in his life.
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The things, and he's talking about the things of salvation here, not just the glories of heaven, but the things of salvation, never even entered their mind, which
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God has prepared for those who love him. But in contrast, those who are Christians, we read in verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through the
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Spirit. That's the only way you can know about true salvation, through the work, through the grace of the
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Holy Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?
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In other words, you can't, we can relate to one another. I can know when you're sad,
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I can know when you're mad, because I'm a man, I know when I'm mad, I'm sad. We've got the same spirit.
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Nobody has the same spirit as God, and so no one can know what God is like. Only the
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Holy Spirit can. That's why we need him to reveal God to us. He cannot be known.
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For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, but except the spirit of God.
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Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who's from God. Why? So that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
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Here you see the sovereign grace of God, don't you? Here you see the work of the Holy Spirit.
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Salvation only comes through the work of grace, not through anything we can do, should do, might do, ought to have done.
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It has to be due to a work of grace. These things we also speak not in words which men's wisdom teaches, but which the
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Holy Spirit teaches. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, spiritual words with spiritual words.
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But the natural man, and here the natural man is the unconverted man, the ones not born again, the naturally born man, does not receive the things of the spirit of God.
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In other words, he rejects them for their foolishness to him. And I have to assume this was
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Nicodemus' first reaction to Jesus. It was foolish to hear Jesus tell him he needed to be born again.
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They reject the importance of them, nor can he know them. See, they're incapable of understanding them, because these things must be spiritually apprehended or discerned.
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And so here, receiving the Holy Spirit sent from God the Father, so that we might know the true way of salvation, is what
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Jesus referred to in John 3 as being born again. This is what the
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Holy Spirit does. It's a work of God's grace. And God is a wonderfully powerful
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God. And we're going to consider, of course, not just today, but later on, the
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Holy Spirit is sovereign in this, like the wind. You can't control the wind, you can't control the
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Holy Spirit, but now he works in Spurgeon in his sermon that I gave you at the end. He talks about this in wonderful ways, and how the
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Lord does a work of grace in people's lives. You'd never expect it. He commented, the last thing
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Israel ever expected was Saul of Tarsus to become a Christian. But it was the power of God that did it and surprised everyone.
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And that's the way God tends to work. I got another handwritten letter the other day from a fellow, this is the third now
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I've received, Leo. He's in jail awaiting prison sentencing.
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He may get as much as five years. He was arrested about a year ago for dealing drugs.
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And so he goes to jail. He gets converted. He's one of our most avid radio listeners.
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He listens to us every day in jail. And he's going to be sentenced before long. He's hoping to be transferred up here to Shirley, to be by family and by the church here.
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And it's a wonderful, gracious letter written from this man who loves the Lord, loves sovereign grace, loves
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Arthur, Pink, and Spurgeon. And wants more, he's reading and learning and growing.
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A wonderful work of grace. Who would have ever thought it? God is sovereign in his dispenses of grace, isn't he?
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If that weren't the case, then we may as well close up shop and go home, because this world is dark, isn't it?
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But God's in the business of glorifying himself through saving sinners. And the greater the sinner, the greater the glory that God receives from it.
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And it just is encouraging when we hear of these things. And we just pray that it would be even more manifested in our midst.
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And so receiving the Holy Spirit sent from God enables sinners to understand the true way of salvation.
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And this was happening in Nicodemus' soul, even as Jesus was speaking to him. Now let's look at John 3, and we come to our text.
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We looked at verses 1 through 3 last Lord's Day, and we'll continue through verse, not 7, but verse 8, hopefully, this morning.
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There's a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, said to him,
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Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
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Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the
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Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh.
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That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
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And I neglected to add verse 8 there. I want to do so. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell from where it comes and where it goes.
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So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Last week we proposed an outline of this entire dialogue which is verses 1 -21.
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Verse 1, Nicodemus comes to Jesus, we addressed that last week. And then last week we began to consider this dialogue in verses 2 -10.
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And we got to verses 3. And so we dealt with the first three verses last week.
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And now we pick up with verse 4. And it's in this second section of this outline.
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And so verse 4 we read, Nicodemus said to Jesus, to him, How can a man be born when he is old?
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Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? It's not clear to everyone the precise thinking of Nicodemus that moved him to respond to Jesus with this question.
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Why did he pose this question to Jesus? And there's differences of opinion.
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One of the majority opinion, Nicodemus responds with a counter question that is often taken as affirmation that he misunderstood the ambiguous adverb.
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And the adverb that he's referring to is the English word again, born again.
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And the reason this commentator mentions this adverb as being ambiguous is that it can also be translated as born from above.
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And it's not real clear, is it above or again? And Nicodemus might not have understood whether it was a born again or born from above.
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And so perhaps that was the reason that he asked this question, because he was ignorant and he just wanted further explanation.
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And so these commentators would take Nicodemus' question posed to Jesus as that coming from a sincere inquirer, but an ignorant man.
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He was simply asking for understanding and clarification. And if this were the case, then
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Nicodemus' thinking, probably, in asking this question to Jesus was this.
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A man, Nicodemus might have said, is the sum of all his yesterdays. He is the man he is today because of all the things that have happened to him through the years.
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I can see Nicodemus thinking this. He's a bundle of doubts, uncertainties, wishes, hopes, fears, and habits, good and bad, built up through the years.
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It would be wonderful to break the entail of the past and make a completely fresh beginning.
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But how can this possibly be done? Can physical birth be repeated? Since this lesser miracle is quite impossible, how can we envision a much greater miracle, the remaking of man's essential being, regeneration of sheer impossibility?
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And so they envision Nicodemus simply being ignorant and wanting explanation.
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A sincere man. And this, there might be some merit to this. Maybe this is what Nicodemus was thinking.
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He hadn't yet experienced the new birth, and so he couldn't understand, really, what was being said.
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J .C. Ryle wrote of this, The question of Nicodemus is precisely one of those which the natural ignorance of man in spiritual things prompts a person to ask.
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Just as the Samaritan woman in the fourth chapter put a carnal meaning on our Lord's words about living water, and the
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Jews in the sixth chapter put a carnal meaning on the bread of God, so Nicodemus puts a carnal meaning on the expression born again.
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There is nothing in the heart of man in every part and every age of the world is so slow to understand as the work of the
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Holy Ghost. Our minds are so gross and sensuous that we cannot take in the idea of an inward and spiritual operation.
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Unless we can see things and touch things in religion, we're slow to believe them. Now that certainly is a truism about people.
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By the way, I might just put this as an aside. One of the narrative characteristics of John's gospel is that Jesus teaches something and then somebody listening to it misunderstands.
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And so you have it here with Nicodemus, you have it with the Samaritan woman, you have it in John 6 with the disciples not understanding about the bread of God.
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But the manner in which this question is posed I think suggests something more of Nicodemus' attitude than just him being inquisitive.
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It may suggest that Jesus' comment somewhat confronted Nicodemus, perhaps even insulted him.
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I can understand this. Clearly Nicodemus was ignorant, but he may have also been incredulous.
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What are you talking about? A man has to be born again? Nicodemus asked a rhetorical question which seems to suggest that our
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Lord's statement was illegitimate or at least inappropriate. And so the question may be posed, does
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Nicodemus' response reflect confusion or rebellion? It's most likely a mixture of both.
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And I think that's probably right. Nicodemus wasn't just a curious man who wanted information.
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His entire life, his entire worldview was being upturned by Jesus, and I think it must have struck his pride.
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And this question was almost a challenge.
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How is that possible? A man enter his mother's womb and be born again?
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And so I think that we can see somewhat of a note of hostility on the part of Nicodemus when we consider what the
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Lord Jesus told him. His being born of Jewish heritage, his entire life of achievement and service was just set aside as immaterial with respect or with regard to entrance and participation in the coming of kingdom of God.
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Jesus had been talking, had Jesus been talking to Nicodemus about the entrance of Gentiles or great sinners into the kingdom, well
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Nicodemus might have concurred. Of course they need to be born again. In fact, there was even a saying, there are references in Jewish literature for proselytes,
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Gentile proselytes to enter the Jewish religion. It was like children being born anew.
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And Nicodemus must have known this, and Jesus is telling him that he has to be born again or he wouldn't enter the kingdom.
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Jesus was declaring Nicodemus was no better off than the crass pagan Gentile living in a far off land.
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And so the Lord Jesus told this Jewish man, this Pharisee, this member of the Jewish Sanhedrin that unless he became born again he'd never see the kingdom of God.
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And you can tell religious people that and see what kind of reaction. Would they just be inquisitive and want some further information to inform their ignorance?
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No, they would probably be reacting to it. You know, go up and speak to a priest, you know, of several different denominations who've given their entire lives to a devotion to what they think is true and right.
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And tell them unless you're born again you're not entering the kingdom of God and see what kind of reaction you get.
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Are they just going to inquire of you for more information? Chances are they're going to be rather indignant also.
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And I think that probably reflects what Nicodemus was thinking and how he responded to them.
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And so Nicodemus was no better off than Gentiles. He needed to be born again just like anybody else.
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All of his life, all of his devotion, all of his achievement, all of the recognition meant nothing with regard to entrance to the kingdom.
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As one wrote, to possess the privileges of Judaism a man only needed to be born of the seed of Abraham. In other words, physical descendant of Abraham.
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After the flesh, to possess the privileges of Christ's kingdom a man must be born again of the
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Holy Ghost. The change which our Lord here declares needful to salvation is evidently no slight or superficial one.
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It is not merely reformation or amendment or moral change or outward alteration of life. It's a thorough change of heart, will, and character.
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It is a resurrection. It is a new creation. It is the passing from death to life.
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It is the implanting in our dead hearts of a new principle from above. It's the calling into existence of a new creature with a new nature, new habits of life, new tastes, new desires, new appetites, new judgments, new opinions, new hopes, new fears.
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All this and nothing less than this is implied when our Lord declares that we all need a new birth.
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Christianity has been dumbed down even among our evangelical churches. Somebody comes along and they claim they believe and they seem to want to run with us, go with us.
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They're marked down as a true convert. The Lord Jesus didn't deal with Nicodemus in that way.
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So Nicodemus' initial reaction to Jesus reflects the natural and ordinary way in which people who've not yet experienced a new birth react to the words of Jesus or the words of Scripture for that matter.
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They're offended oftentimes. They react. As we read earlier, the natural man does not receive the things of the
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Spirit of God for their foolishness to him, nor can he know them. Because those things have to be spiritually apprehended or discerned.
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So I would argue and reason if your reaction to our words this morning is similar to that of Nicodemus to the words of Jesus, it doesn't bode well for your soul.
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Mark it down. If you think that we're foolish because we believe these things,
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Dave was telling me somebody, he read the Scripture too, yesterday was it or sometime this week, and the reaction was, do you really believe those things?
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And this was from a professing Christian. Do you really believe those things? If you think that what we're saying is foolish, then you're only confirming what the
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Word of God tells us of your inability and unwillingness to hear, believe, and respond to the
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Word of God. If Nicodemus needed to be born again, so too must you.
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You're lost, just as Nicodemus was. By the way, we should realize, and we were trying to keep up, kind of stand back and understand how our story is unfolding, the narrative is unfolding.
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Realize that the reader, that is you and me, the reader has more understanding than this teacher of Israel did at this point.
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Because the reader has already been informed from the first chapter of John about the need of the new birth and how
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God affects this. As many as received Him, to them gave He the authority, the power to become the sons of God, to those who are born of God, not of the will of the flesh, not will of man.
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And so the reader is really coming at this account here in John 3 with a broader perspective and understanding than even
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Nicodemus has. Now the response of Jesus to Nicodemus' comment is in verse 5.
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Jesus answered most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
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Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And our Lord repeated
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His assertion of verse 3, but with a few different words to enhance
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His meaning. And by the way, here again, He opened His statement. It's not conveyed in the
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New King James Version, as it should, I think. But He opens His assertion with the repetition of the word
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Amen or Amin in Greek. Verily, verily, as it's translated in the King James. But here in the
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New King James, it's translated as most assuredly. The expression born of water is found only here in all the
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Bible. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water, this is the only place in the
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Bible that this exact expression is found. And it's not surprising that there's really no agreement as to what the
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Lord meant by these words, unless one is born of water and the Spirit. D .A.
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Carson wrote, these words have generated a host of interpretations. Leon Morris wrote, the explanations of this unusual and interesting expression are many, but most of them fall into one or other of the three main groupings.
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And so of all the proposals, they usually fall into one of these three categories. Some say that born of water refers to purification.
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If so, it would be similar to the idea of the baptism of John the Baptist, signifying cleansing from sin.
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The baptism of the Spirit would then be life imparted by the Lord Jesus, forgiveness of sins and then new life to those who come to him in faith.
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And so there's a need for cleansing of water as well as a need for new life.
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Salvation is more than just the forgiveness of sins. It's the impartation of life, isn't it?
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Secondly, some believe that born of water refers to procreation. They would say that Jesus was saying that to be born of water is a reference to physical birth.
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When you're born into this world, you were born through the breaking of water and birth, natural birth, but also a second birth is necessary, spiritual birth.
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In other words, Jesus was simply saying one needed to be born physically, but also spiritually. And then the third category, some say that born of water refers to baptism.
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Born of water, you have to be baptized in order to be saved. This is Roman Catholicism's position.
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Also, the Anglican Church, the Church of England. Also, by the way, the
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Lutheran Church, Luther's Catechism. There are others too that advocate baptism is essential to salvation and that this is what
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Jesus was indicating here. To be born of water is water baptism.
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To be born of the Spirit speaks of spiritual rebirth. However, Jesus rebuked Nicodemus for he should have understood these things.
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Nicodemus said, I don't understand these things. Jesus said, you should have understood these things. And Donald Carson rightly concluded from this, since Nicodemus should have understood these things, we should look to the
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Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, to find its meaning. And by the way,
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Donald Carson, D .A. Carson, he's a Reformed Baptist. We wouldn't agree with him in every fine point of doctrine, but commentator, he's top notch.
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In fact, there's a website entitled Best Commentaries. It lists all the commentaries for sale on each individual
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Old Testament book, each individual New Testament book. It rates them, zero to 100, and then lists them and describes them.
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And so I happened to notice yesterday on Best Commentaries, the commentaries on John's Gospel, there were 134 listed.
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And they're all reviewed by scholars and whatnot. D .A. Carson's commentary on John was number one.
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And not just number one, but number one by far. They gave him a rating of 100.
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The second place commentary rating was like 83. In other words, people regard, you know, this is just an excellent commentary on the
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Gospel of John. And I think that's legit as I, you know, I'm reading his, the way he deals with matters.
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He's a sharp guy. But he wrote about this, those who advocate, this is water baptism.
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Those who adopt this position, of course, are forced to admit that John's words could have had no relevance to the historical
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Nicodemus. In other words, Nicodemus didn't have a clue about baptism as an ordinance in the
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Christian church. But there's, you know, those who take this position have to say it doesn't matter.
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This part of the account at least becomes a narrative fiction designed to instruct the church on the importance of baptism.
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In other words, Jesus wasn't instructing Nicodemus in anything, he was instructing the church about baptism.
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What is not always recognized is that this theory makes the evangelist, that would be John the Apostle, an extraordinarily incompetent storyteller.
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Since, in verse 10, he pictures Jesus berating Nicodemus for not understanding these things.
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What Carson is saying, how could he have understood these things? They didn't come to pass for, you know, a few more years when
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Jesus commanded, you know, the church to baptize converts. If water equals baptism is so important for entering the kingdom, it's surprising that the rest of the discussion never mentions it again.
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The entire focus is on the work of the Spirit, the work of the Son, the work of God himself, and the place of faith.
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An analogy between the mysterious wind and the sovereign work of the Spirit becomes very strange if spirit birth is tied firmly to baptism.
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Some doubt if there is an explicit reference to the Eucharist in John chapter 6.
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Eucharist is another word for the Lord's Supper. Casting doubt on the supposition that the evangelist is deeply interested in sacramental questions.
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And what he's doing is this. John's gospel is filled with a lot of symbolism, and that's acknowledged.
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But it results in a lot of creativity on the part of commentators. And some commentators that tend to be from those liturgical denominations, they find baptism every place water is mentioned.
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They find the Lord's Supper every place wine is mentioned. They read into it from their liturgical background.
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And this is what he's hitting on here. If he were, it's surprisingly strange that he fails to make explicit connections, neglecting even to mention the institution of the
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Lord's Supper. That's not even mentioned in John's gospel. The Spirit plays a powerful role in John 14 through 16, but there's no hint of baptism.
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Moreover, the allusions to Jesus' baptismal activity, far from fostering sacramentalism, explicitly divert attention elsewhere.
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The conjunction of water and spirit, back in chapter 1, is no support for this position, as there the two are contrasted, whereas in verse 5 of chapter 3 they're coordinated.
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The entire view seems to rest on an unarticulated prejudice that every mention of water evoked instant recognition in the minds of the first century readers that the real reference was to baptism, but it's very doubtful that this prejudice can be sustained by the sources.
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In my mind, he just completely obliterated that position, and yet it's a pretty common position.
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The understanding of our Lord's words in John 3 verse 5 must be based on these conclusions.
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These are certainties. First, Jesus was referring to one baptism, not two. When he said those being baptized, water and the spirit, he wasn't talking about two baptisms, he was talking about one.
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And secondly, the preposition of, of water, of spirit, they're joined together, and therefore they must be seen as two aspects of one work of God's grace.
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And so what's the best way to understand verse 5 as we've talked about these things? The answer is this.
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Our Lord spoke to Nicodemus, the teacher of the Hebrew Scriptures, who should have known about these matters, but he did not.
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The understanding of what Jesus said is found in the Hebrew Scriptures. He should have known these things.
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In Ezekiel, water and spirit are linked together in God's promise of salvation that people would receive in the age of the
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Messiah. And so here again, D. A. Carson, far more important is the Old Testament background to water and spirit.
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That's where you're going to find your answer. The spirit is God's principle of life, even in creation.
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But many Old Testament writers look forward to a time when God's spirit will be poured out on humankind. With the result, there will be a blessing, will be blessing and righteousness.
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An inner renewal, which cleanses God's covenant people from their idolatry unto obedience.
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When water is used figuratively in the Old Testament, it habitually refers to renewal or cleansing, especially when it's found in conjunction with spirit, water and spirit.
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And so, the conjunction may be explicit or may hide behind language depicting the pouring out of the spirit.
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Most important of all is Ezekiel 36, where water and spirit come together so forcefully, the first to signify cleansing from impurity, the second to depict the transformation of heart that will enable people to follow
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God wholly. That is a good, concise and accurate statement.
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In other words, water speaks about being forgiven and cleansed of your sin. Spirit speaks about God giving you new spiritual life.
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Both are essential for salvation. Often times the gospel is only and merely presented as a way to get your sins forgiven.
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That's only half of salvation. The other half is new life that only the spirit can give.
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And we are misrepresenting Christ and we're misrepresenting the gospel if we're promising people forgiveness of sins and yet without the impartation of that new life by the
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Holy Spirit who alone can give that life. In short, what the Lord Jesus was telling
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Nicodemus was that unless he was cleansed from his sin of water and given new life of the spirit he would not enter the kingdom of God.
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In other words, of the three alternative understandings of Jesus' words, those categories we listed above, the first one is to be preferred.
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Now in verse 3 we read of the new birth enabling one to see the kingdom of God. In verse 5 we read the new birth enables one to enter the kingdom of God.
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Sometimes a great deal is made about this change of words from saying you'll not see the kingdom of God, you'll not enter the kingdom of God.
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But actually the meaning is probably much the same. Perhaps the inability to enter may be a little stronger than inability to see.
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But actually the critical difference between verse 3 than the question Nicodemus and then the more fuller statement of Jesus, the actual difference however should be understood in the change from being born again or born from above and to be born of water and spirit.
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That's what it is to be born from above. To be forgiven of your sins and to be granted new life through the power of the
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Holy Spirit. We now arrive to verses 6 and 7 which read that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
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Do not marvel that I said to you you must be born again. I've been anticipating this verse for a number of weeks several weeks thinking that I was going to spend quite a bit of time on this clause that which is born of the flesh is flesh and I realized this week
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I didn't understand it rightly all these years. I understood one aspect of it but not the other.
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So in thinking upon this I was preparing to launch into addressing the sinful nature of mankind and why that renders all people everywhere unfit for the kingdom of God.
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That which is flesh is flesh. That which is born is sinful and that certainly is a truism a reality.
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But there's more here I discovered. What had narrowed my conception of this verse was the word flesh.
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That which is flesh is flesh and I immediately imposed Paul's definition of flesh from a lot of his writings here into John chapter 3 and so I assumed the word flesh meant sinful nature.
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That which is born of sinful nature is going to be sinful. That which we derive from Adam has corrupted our very being and that's why we need to be born of the spirit.
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But there's a broader idea here. The broader idea is reflected in one commentary.
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The further statement by Jesus serves to reinforce the radical nature of the cleansing and renewal of God.
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The concept of flesh is not to be simplistically imported from the apostle
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Paul. That's what I had done. That's what I had assumed. For in John, flesh is merely the body and its limitations.
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We read back in John chapter 1 the word became flesh. Right? And now we have that which is born of flesh is flesh.
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Flesh here in John is sharply contrasted to the source of the children of God which is supernatural entirely from the outside of a person.
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The point is quite simple. Flesh and spirit are different spheres of reality, each producing offspring like itself.
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Now, clearly the idea of sinfulness is being conveyed here. But perhaps more so is the entire different nature between us as finite human beings and God who is infinite and eternal.
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That which is flesh is flesh. That which is spirit is spirit. And the two shall never mix. And so what has to happen is
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God has to make you spiritual by the new birth. Nicodemus asks the question, you know, suppose
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I were to be born again that is physically born anew from my mother's womb.
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Would that do it? And Jesus is basically saying, no, that's not going to do it. Because the fact is human beings cannot enter into a relationship with God who is infinite.
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We're finite. He's the creator. You need to be born again. In other words, we need to be so worked upon that we're brought into a whole new frame of reference, a whole new world view, a whole new ability to know
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God. Because he's spirit and we are but flesh.
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And so we can't know God unless we're born again. And that's what's being conveyed here.
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Now both ideas are here. Alright, yes, there's a sense of our sinful nature but more than that God is
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God and you're not. And in order for you to know God, God's going to have to do a work of grace in your soul to enable you to become spiritual, truly spiritual, that you can know
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God. John Calvin stated it this way and he conveys both ideas if you read it carefully.
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By reasoning from contraries, he argues the kingdom of God is shut against us unless entrance be opened to us by a new birth.
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For he takes for granted that we cannot enter the kingdom of God unless we are spiritual. You see that?
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We're flesh. We're human. But we bring nothing from the womb but a carnal nature and that's human nature, fleshly nature.
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And therefore it follows that we're naturally banished from the kingdom of God, have been living, deprived of the heavenly life, remain under the yoke of death.
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Besides, when Christ argues here that men must be born again because they are only flesh, he undoubtedly comprehends all mankind under the term flesh.
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By the flesh therefore is meant in this place not the body but the soul also and consequently every part of it.
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See, not just our sinful nature but everything about us as human beings. But if the flesh is contrasted with the spirit as a corrupt thing is contrasted with what is uncorrupted, a crooked thing with what is straight, a polluted thing with what is holy, and contaminated thing with what is pure, we may readily conclude that the whole nature of man is condemned by a single word.
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Christ therefore declares that our understanding and reason is corrupted because it's carnal, in other words flesh, that all the affections of the heart, and sinful, are wicked and reprobate because they are too carnal.
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And Matthew Poole, he was one of Spurgeon's favorites, he was a Puritan, wrote a full commentary.
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It's online by the way, I found it last night. Flesh here signifies the whole man, see not just sinful nature, but the whole man whether considered abstractly from the adventious corruption of his nature or has fallen in Adam vitiated and debouched through lust, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, but that man or woman who's regenerated by the spirit of grace is spiritual.
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He is after the spirit, he's one spirit with God, he's made partaker of the divine nature, he does not commit that it's habitual sin.
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Nothing in operation exceeds the virtue of that cause that influenced it so that no man from a mere natural principle can perform a truly spiritual operation from hence it's absolutely necessary that man must be born of the spirit that he may be qualified for the kingdom of heaven.
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In other words naturally born people have to be made spiritual and only the Holy Spirit can do that and that takes place in the new birth.
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The fact is there's an infinite distance between us as creatures and God who is eternal. That which is born of flesh is only flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
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Our confession of faith states it by the way we're running over it's very frustrating but our confession states it and we'll wrap it up.
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The Lord our God is but only one and only living and true God whose subsistence is in and of himself infinite in being perfection whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself.
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You and I are incapable of comprehending his essence but through the new birth he gives us an ability not an infinite ability but some ability to comprehend him in a way we never could before we experienced this new birth from above.
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The fact is God is God and you're not and this vast gulf between God and human beings must be bridged.
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We cannot comprehend God and his essence. So Nicodemus asks the question in verse 4 how can a man be born when he's old?
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Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus basically responded to him even if you could do so and start life all over again you'd still only be flesh for that which is born of flesh is flesh.
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No you need a different kind of birth you need a spiritual birth whereby God enables you to relate with the father though he is eternal
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God through his son and this can only take place if you're born of the spirit.
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The point that we're emphasizing here and we're trying to elevate it in our mind you know the new birth is something that only
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God can produce and it has clear clear evidences when it's present and when it's not present it's pretty clear too if you begin to examine things and so there are certain qualities of the new birth that ought to characterize us.
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We've already mentioned them last week and this week in a measure but we're going to have to spend some time to talk about this.
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What are the evidences of grace? True life in the one who is born again.
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Everybody claims to believe on Jesus and we must believe on Jesus obviously but a faith that is born of the spirit, true saving faith will be evident and manifest in different ways and it's important that we understand what this is.
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Jesus looked at Nicodemus and he said you know regardless of all your effort, of all your life, of all your thinking, of all your religiosity, of all your good works counts for nothing unless you're born again there's no hope for you.
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The new birth is a new kind of life. It's transformative. Sometimes you don't know exactly when that takes place.
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Few of us could recount the details of our physical birth and probably a lot of us can't recount the details of our spiritual birth but we can know whether we're living souls pretty clearly by looking at the biblical evidence and we'll do so.
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Let me encourage you to read the notes and maybe skip over mine and read Spurgeon's. I read it last night, want to throw in the towel, give up preaching, you know.
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Spurgeon is absolutely incredible. He was a one of. There's been nobody like him and it's a wonderful written sermon.
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I encourage you to read it at your leisure. Let's pray. Father help us to see the glory of this new birth.
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We thank you our God that you are sovereign in this matter. Otherwise Lord we would still be in our sin.
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We thank you Father that through the gospel, through the preaching of the word you've created life in us who believe, who love you our
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God and believe on you and it's our desire to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness in our lives and it just frustrates us
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Lord that we do not do so more thoroughly and fully. We pray our God that every one of us would truly be living souls.
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We pray Lord that you would help each of us to understand these things more fully not to be characterized by ignorance as Nicodemus but help us our
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Lord to understand these spiritual truths that must be spiritually apprehended and discerned.