The Law & The Gospel | Week 11

Good to see you guys. My name is Kyle.

I served as lead Pastor here. I want to say, welcome to you.

Especially if you're visiting with us extra, thanks to you for

coming and worshiping the Lord Christ with us today.

We hope that you are edified and your spirit today that you're

encouraged in your walk with him and that your love for others.

Grows today just as a part of being a part of this, the spirit

would move in your life. I'm that way.

And anyway, so we're going to dive into God's word.

Now if you have your You can turn to John chapter 3, John

John 3 · chapter mention John 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, we're continuing, however, we are nearing the end

of our series called the law and the gospel.

You must be born again. The idea here is that many

Israelites Jews in the Old Testament and specifically in

the New Testament with the Pharisees.

And what we see in this interaction, in John 3 between

Nicodemus and Jesus many live their life according to

Justin's, there were trying in some way to make themselves

approved before God. And by in some way, I mean by

following the law of God trying to dot every, I cross every T,

make sure they nail it on the morality end of the spectrum and

the relationship we've drawn from that to present-day.

Why do we need this message today?

Well, we believe that in some way, there are many who are

quote unquote. Aegis who would say that they

believe in God and yet have no idea who God is.

They have a basis for Morality because they were raised by

their parents or grandparents to be moral people.

Maybe they attended church and so they are in some way trying

to achieve self-righteousness. They're trying to make

themselves approved before God and the way that they live.

And, and so you see this a lot in what we call the Bible Belt,

right? Which is where we might say, we

live in the Bible Belt, Buckle, right?

We're like right in the heart of this idea of the Bible Belt and

so many grow up in church and maybe professed some belief in

Christ, at some point in their life.

Maybe it was through baptism. Maybe it was during a VBS or

something to that effect. And then they were just a In

that like you've made your decision, you've made a decision

to follow the lord, enjoy your life and there was never really

any follow up with discipleship. There was never any growth and

Faith or growth and love for others.

I didn't understand the things of God, they're not really been

matured in Christ at all. There's been no discipleship,

and so largely for them. Following Christ required

nothing except an initial profession, maybe some

embarrassment, as you went down the aisle or got in the tub, To

be baptized and then that was it.

And so, what we don't want, our people who think they are

Christian because they follow some of the rules quote-unquote.

They're attempting self-righteousness and

self-righteousness is no righteousness at all.

That self-righteousness is of no value for your soul in the

scales of Eternity. But the gospel is, and the

righteousness that comes through the gospel, the righteousness,

that comes from Christ Jesus, that's imputed to us because of

his death burial and Resurrection is of every Eternal

value, amen. It is our only hope.

And so that's what we've been proclaiming here is that the law

while it's good. And it's right.

So I want to obey the laws of God.

Your motivation for obedience is not to gain the love of God,

it's because you have received the love of God.

You understand your operating true obedience, correct,

obedience biblically comes from Grace.

As you have received Grace, it doesn't come from your own mind

so that you might receive Grace. You're not trying to work for

your own righteousness. Amen.

But it's easy to fall into that trap because we are by our

nature. We have this desire to be our

own Lord, and when you want to be your own Lord, you also want

to decide your own destiny. You want to be the Sole Provider

of your own Eternal value. You and this is where we get

mixed up. And this is what we see with

Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, he's a

ruler of the Jews, he's a member of the Sanhedrin, he's the

teacher of Israel Christ causing so he's way on up there in the

religious ranks and yet, in this interaction he's learning I

don't know the way of Salvation that's what Christ is revealing

to him. So will will read this together.

I want to practice something different.

So in previous weeks, I've been having you stand and read

together. I want to add to that now, All

right, so you didn't know, but you were being prepped for an

additional thing here. So this is what this is, what I

want us to start doing. I want us to go ahead and stand

for the reading of God's word, if you're able or unable that's

fine. And when I finished reading

God's word, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,

and I want you to respond. Thanks be to God.

And then I'll pray for us. Okay.

All right, let's read John 3. I'm going to read one through,

thirteen, so we get the context of this.

Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a

ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night

and said to him. 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 and Jesus

answered. Him, truly truly, I say to you,

unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And 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? Jesus answered truly, truly I

say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot

enter the kingdom of God. That, which is born of the flesh

is flesh. And that, which is born of the

spirit is Spirit, do not Marvel. That I said to you, you must be

born again, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its

sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit Nicodemus

said to him. How can these things be?

And Jesus answered him? Are you the teacher of Israel?

And yet you do not understand these things.

Things truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know

and bear witness to what we have seen.

But you do not receive our testimony.

If I have told you Earthly things and you do not believe,

how can you believe if I tell you Heavenly things, no one has

ascended into heaven, except he who descended from Heaven, the

son of man, This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Let me pray for his father.

We love you. Thank you for your word.

We pray, Lord now that you help us to understand it to receive

it, rightly God would you create an awesome heart that is of good

soil to use the words of Christ that as your word is planted in

us that it would bear fruit. Lord help us to be receptive, to

your word, help us to be willing to repent, to be willing to be

corrected. Be willing to be encouraged in

to further godliness, or however, you see fit today.

Would you lead us and guide us. Help us to receive that guidance

in Christ's name, we pray, amen. You may be seated.

So the thing that I want to put before you today kind of the big

idea that we're rolling with. As we as we look at this, the

central message I think that Christ is trying to say here in

verse 11 through 13 to Nicodemus is an idea that's actually said

by Christ to Thomas at the end of this gospel as Christ has

reappeared and Thomas is doubting.

And Christ says these words and he says do not disbelieve but

believe and so I might add to that a little bit.

I think that what Christ is saying to Nicodemus right now is

do not disbelieve, but believe in the word and the work of

Jesus Christ. That's the central theme today

and you can write that down. If you're taking notes now, it's

fortunate. I don't want to sound negative.

It's fortunate that we live in a part of the world where it is

culturally normal to profess belief in the Bible.

This comes with all sorts of benefits.

Again, we've talked about this a little bit.

But when you live in a place that is culturally acceptable

towards the word of God or towards bible-believing

Christians to some extent, right?

Well, then that means you get to have your beliefs without much

persecution. That's one giant benefit of this

is you can be a believer in Jesus Christ.

And you might not receive much persecution and tell your belief

start infringing on the beliefs of others, right?

So if you, if you rub shoulders with unbelievers or an atheist

at work, And you start talking about your belief in God.

Well, you might receive some persecution in that moment from

someone but largely, the government's, not coming to take

your head for believing in the Bible, not here, not in States,

praise God, not yet, right? But this is not true for

believers around the world and this is certainly not true.

For believers in first century, to be a believer in the first

century cost you your life sometimes, literally but always

spiritually. And so when someone was Sighs

and the Lord Jesus Christ in the first century they were saying

literally I am being put to death with Christ.

And the life I now live is the life that is in Christ alone.

Right and they were identifying themselves with crossover

staking everything about who they were on Christ Jesus alone.

And they knew that that meant they might become a Lamppost in

narrow streets and by Lamppost, I mean their bodies being lit on

fire. Too warm and light the streets

of first century Jerusalem. All right, and so we were wrong.

Sorry. It was so we want to be we want

to be understanding of what it means to be a believer.

It should cost you something and this is what Christ says when he

says if any of you wants to follow me, you must first deny

yourself. Secondly, you take up your cross

and thirdly you follow me. What does it mean to take up

your cross? You're taking your life on your

back, right? You're carrying your cross.

You understand that. I have denied myself.

My life is not my own and now I'm following my savior.

So Christianity nominal Christianity is really a

relatively new thing as far as history.

Guess it's really, I mean America is really made this

possible in the way that it was established to be a Christian

and for that not to bring persecution, it's brought

tremendous persecution and every generation previously, every

country previously. And so this is largely the norm

for the majority of Christians in the world is that it brings

persecution. So, I'm saying, it's fortunate

that we live in a place that we don't endure this persecution

but that's also a bit unfortunate, right?

When you live in a part of the world where it is culturally

normal to profess belief in the Bible, that's kind of an

unfortunate thing too. Because now anyone can profess

belief in the Bible and it not cost them a thing.

And so persecution has a Way. And this is what Peter writes.

And in 1st Peter, he talks about the fiery trials that you

endure. They have a way of making your

faith real. They have a way of solidifying,

your faith. But when you're not enduring

persecution, when there's not fiery trials, very often now,

there's fiery trials that exists outside of persecution which

comes to you. There are fiery trials that you

will go through right? You lose a loved one, you suffer

the loss of a job, you suffer, the loss of something else.

You suffer in any kind of way sickness.

Um, but there's a myriad of things Church splits

difficulties in your local churches, pastors, who fail you?

Like you can suffer in many ways in the Christian life and that

can be kind of a crisis of Faith, right?

Like mi in this moment going to trust God steel or am I going to

allow this thing to rock my face?

So there's other ways you suffer.

I'm not saying that only suffering comes to you from

outside. I'm just saying when you don't

have that kind of suffering You don't really have to count your

life as lost yet. You can still kind of hold onto

your life in one sense, and let go of your life in another

sense. Does that make sense?

You can you can tow the line to some extent And and so the fiery

trials that do come or the opportunity where you find out

if your faith is real or not, right?

As you're having to walk that line and something comes to you

and you realize okay I can't walk the line anymore.

I'm either going to stake my life on what I believe right now

or I'm going to renounce what I believe to bring on added

comfort for my life. And that happens.

So it's a blessing and a curse to be living in a place that is

culturally acceptable to believe the Bible.

And to say that you believe in the god of the Bible of the

Bible because there's very little opposition to this idea

of the Bible to this idea of God's word again until you start

pushing those beliefs. Trying to live those out, trying

to reclaim those things and then that rubs people, the wrong way.

So it's a curse and that it produces a people who claim to

be Bible Believers. But do not follow its

instructions. So we might rightfully say that

Columbia county is loaded with people who like the idea of the

Bible but who would not die for its message, should the time

call for it? All right, and that's something

you've got to answer in your heart like in your own life.

I like the message of the Bible. I come week in and week out

because I like the things that that Kyle says to us about the

Bible and I trust that what he is saying, is what the Bible

says, and so I like the idea of it, but the answer is yours

alone. Would you die for it?

Have you counted your life, as lost for it or as Paul says, if

you counted your life, as trash, for the gospel that everything

else in this life is incomparable to knowing Jesus

Christ as Lord and Savior. And so you count those things as

lost. The Mantra of such people is

typically a phrase that reflects an idea of values that we hold

dearly God country family, and don't forget guns, right?

And these are all things that I love myself.

I mean, I enjoy these things, but enjoying those things,

loving those things, none of those things necessarily makes

you a Christian being. A Christian is something

altogether, different, and so many people grow up in church,

they're sitting next to Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa whoever's

brought them. They've memorized some

scriptures, especially John 3:16, which we'll get into in a

John 3:16

couple of weeks. They asked Jesus into their

heart, they walked, and I'll, they got baptized early in life,

they vote Republican. And every election within them

is a reverence for religion and her practices, but you will not

find a reverence for God and his commands.

It's a reverence for God. You can see it in their lives.

The lives, they choose to live. I don't think sins real, they

don't think God's Wrath against sin is real.

They don't think judgment is literally coming.

And why do I say that? Because they don't live like

people who think judgment is on the other side of this life.

They're not hiding themselves in Christ, Jesus are not

surrendering their life. Them are not submitting

themselves to his Rule and reign in their continuing to live the

way they want to live. They're neither committed to God

or his word rather, they're committed to the approval of

their culture. They will fight in the voting

booth for the presence of prayer and the Ten Commandments in

schools. But they will not teach them to

their own children. They're not working with her

children on. Here's how we pray.

Here's what the Ten Commandments mean.

And moms and dads. If you don't at least teach your

children to obey their parents and why That then?

What are you teaching them? And so they know some of the

Bible, they Revere it, but they are not students of God's word

themselves, they leave that up to the professionals.

Alright, the pastor's, the teachers ones who get paid to

teach the things. Friends, this is what a culture

of Bible, knowledge. Produces produces nominal

Christians or you might call it cultural Christianity.

And maybe this describes you, maybe you were raised in the

house that practiced religion, right?

You were in church, you were taught not to smoke or drink or

chew, or run with girls who do, right?

You knew the rules, didn't watch rated R movies unless they were

about the death of Christ. All right, you tried to do all

the right things. But I want you to know unless

you were born again, your Bible knowledge, your religious

practice doesn't mean anything. Doesn't mean anything.

I have known in my life. Several terrible.

Sinners. Who knew a lot about the Bible.

It's truly a sad thing to behold once a terrible centers, these

were these are men who would quote scripture.

We try to talk to you about scripture and in no way tried to

live it out. You might say, they're missing

Heaven by 18 inches. As the phrase goes, you know,

they've got the knowledge here but not here.

There's no heartfelt obedience to God.

They have the appearance of godliness but their heart is far

from him. This is the case for Nicodemus.

Though, he knew a lot about the scriptures.

He spent his whole life studying the word of God, he devoted

himself to the fair cycle practices of the day because

that was the original, the religious Elite.

He became a member of the Sanhedrin, the teacher of

Israel, meaning he held the power at times to say, hopefully

rightly what God's word was saying, when there were

questions, he would be the decision.

Maker on what that passage meant coming from the Old Testament.

The dude should have and likely did know God's word very well.

But he had no idea what was necessary for him to enter the

kingdom of God. In fact, he comes to Christ

thinking he's already entered the kingdom of God.

He comes wrongly thinking, that's why Christ immediately

just begins. Listen, unless you are born

again, you cannot even see. The kingdom of God?

No. No, unless you were born again,

you cannot even enter the kingdom of God.

No, no, truly, truly. I say to you, what I say, Say

what we have said. We say because we have both seen

it and heard it, but you will not believe our testimony.

I mean, he's going Christ, is revealing the heart of the issue

for Nicodemus throughout this conversation and he's getting

more and more explicit with it. As he goes, this Pharisee had

missed one of the most essential truths of the Old Testament and

that is the necessity of the new birth John 3:11.

John 3:11

Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear

witness to what we have seen. But you do not receive our

testimony, So Nicodemus stands here before Christ and he stands

on a faulty Foundation, he's trusting in his impressive

resume, he has a great reputation.

He knows many things. He has outstanding, religious

pedigree. However, he is wrong to think

that these things on their own will commend him to God.

And yet he does so again I ask maybe you can relate, was there

a time in your past when you found yourself convinced, That

you were right about spiritual matters with God.

Only to find out later that you were wrong.

I've been there many times. There are many things to know

about our Triune God. For many things to know about

the life that he calls us to as Christians and you will no doubt

grow in that knowledge for as long as you are seeking God.

So we believe here that sanctification happens from the

moment, your saved to the moment.

You breathed your last breath, you were being made into the

image of the glory of God from one degree of glory to the next,

as you behold Christ, Jesus throughout your life, you're not

arriving at some level of maturity.

He than you don't need to grow anymore.

None of us here. I don't think least none of us

in leadership and as far as all the members, I can recognize

none of us here think. That we've arrived, and our

knowledge of God at all. We are going on, knowing we are

going on growing Going On, Believing in the Name of Christ

Jesus. And we're believe in that he'll

continue to train us and but you can be like, Nicodemus and you

can stand on a faulty Foundation.

You can think that you've arrived, you can no truths about

God. You can quote Bible verses, you

can Faithfully attend church or home group, or Sunday school, or

whatever. But not have ever been born

again. Remember the idea of being born

again we said is to be born anew.

It's to be made brand new and then that word, again also means

above. So it's to be born Anew from

above. It's a, it's a birth that comes

to you from God. That makes you brand-new and

that's what we've been looking at.

And so when we say born again, we mean Born Again In Christ. by

his death burial Resurrection, you've been made a new creation

So if your desires have not been renewed, if you have not

embraced Christ by faith, you're as lost as the god hating

atheist. You're as lost as he is.

You must have a new heart from God to truly know him for who he

is and to worship Him is the Lord of your life.

It's only when you humble yourself before him.

It's only when you confess your complete dependence on his

grace, it's only when you repent of your sins and believe in

Christ Jesus that you can truly know him.

That's when we come to know Christ.

And so in our passage today, Jesus is cutting to the chase

here. He's getting to what he wants us

to see. He's getting to Nicodemus the

message that he wants him to hear this morning.

He's saying I think I think what Christ is doing is he's already

spoken very clearly but I think right now Nicodemus isn't sure.

And so Christ is making sure he understands what he's saying.

Nicodemus. A sure after this statement

again, I'll read it to you, truly, truly, I say to you, we

speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen.

But you Nicodemus, do not receive our testimony.

Nicodemus is like so many in the Bible Belt.

He doesn't suffer from a lack of knowledge.

This is a quote from Lawson's book.

He talks about Nicodemus not suffering from a lack of

knowledge, but he suffered from a failure to believe what was

written in the Bible. Once again, Jesus says, truly,

truly, I say to you. Now, we looked at this phrase of

the couple of times. We've seen it already In this

passage, but I'll mention, again, when Jesus is saying,

truly, truly, I say to you. He's saying, you need to listen

to what I'm about to say. He's arresting the attention of

Nicodemus, so that he'll hear the words that follow the

statement. Truly, truly, I say to you.

It would be like me coming to you and grabbing you by the

shoulders saying listen to me, right?

I mean, you've ever done that with your kids, go ahead and

confess. Yeah, listen to me.

All right. What he's about to say is

important. So he wants the attention of

Nicodemus and saying, you do not receive our testimony Jesus

Likens Nicodemus to all the religious people before him, who

refused to hear the prophets of God that had gone before him.

So they've already addressed the Old Testament.

A lot in this passage and we've done that in the sermons that we

preach through this passage And so Jesus is saying as has been

said in Isaiah about those who would not receive the prophets

and as is said in the New Testament about those who would

not receive the word of either Christ or the apostles or John

the Baptist they have ears to hear, but they do not hear.

They're not hearing aids, and not listening to the message.

Lawson says such unbelief is in scripture.

Long plagued, the entire nation of Israel like hyper religious

people. In our day, the Jews knew the

minissha of the Bible but not its essential message.

They miss seeing the way of Salvation all together.

So Nicodemus is problem is the problem of many he's focused on

the details, but he's missing the meaning of the details,

right? He's majoring on minor points.

He's minoring on major points. And as a result, he's Unable to

see the most important points that is the message of the

Bible, the way of Salvation through Christ.

Jesus alone, Nicodemus is missing this message and John

John 5:39

5:39 Jesus speaking with the Pharisees.

And he indicts them saying, you search the scriptures because

you think that in them in the in the scriptures right now he's

talking about the Old Testament in the Old Testament, you have

the way of eternal life. And then he says, but it is them

that bears witness about me. So the message of the Old

Testament is the law of the prophets, everything contained

in them points to Jesus Christ as the way of salvation.

And these Pharisees are oblivious to the way of

Salvation in Christ, despite having the scriptures, they're

missing the message the remaining in unbelief.

And that's what Jesus is exposing here in Nicodemus.

Jesus says, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have

seen. Now that we know this, we know,

Jesus was in the night alone, Nicodemus comes to him in the

night alone. And begins to inquire about it

because Nicodemus doesn't want to be seen.

We covered all of that right? He wants to remain in the cover

of Darkness. He doesn't want anyone to know

about this conversation. At least, not yet.

And so who is the we that Jesus is referring to when he says we

speak of what we know and we testify what we have seen.

Well, Jesus is identifying himself with the many others who

have testified to Nicodemus concerning the truth.

Who else has testified to Nicodemus, multiple Witnesses in

the Old Testament writers. He studied the scriptures have

testified of Christ. If preach the message of the new

birth, These men were the mouthpiece of God.

Melissa includes men like Moses and Isaiah and Micah and all the

prophets. Jesus, likely has in mind John,

the Baptist also who came preaching proclaiming repent,

for the kingdom of God is at hand of the Kingdom of Heaven is

at hand. He has in mind himself, you're

not listening to me, Nicodemus. In This Moment, these same men

and many other speak to us. Also, when we opened the

scriptures from Genesis to revelation, we have the

testimony of God concerning the way of Salvation.

This testimony is clear. The message is clear.

It's thorough, it's cohesive. There are no contradictions

between the testimonies. And anyone who says that the

Bible contradicts itself, doesn't understand the context

of what's been written. There are no contradictions in

scripture. Together the scriptures tell the

same story about the way of Salvation it is found in Jesus

Christ and this is what Christ is going to go on to say in John

John 14:6

14:6. He says I am the way, the truth

and the life. No one comes to the father

except through me. The message of the new birth is

not new at all. It's been testified from the

beginning of time. Jesus did not burst onto the

scene. Saying something altogether.

New. Jesus comes revealing the

finished puzzle. He's clarifying at all, he's the

culmination of all the prophets. He's what they were speaking

about. There's not one way of entering,

the kingdom of God, in the Old Testament, and an entirely

different way of coming to God. In the New Testament.

According To Jesus, there's not different ways for Jews to be

saved or a different way for a gentile to be saved.

There is only one way to get into the Kingdom of Heaven, the

Old Testament and the New Testament, bear witness to it.

It is the way of the new birth. Boston ads in his book New Life

In Christ. He says, anytime anywhere anyone

has been made right with God, it is always been by the inner

working of the Holy Spirit who gives faith in Jesus Christ.

Those who believe this message in the Old Testament times were

saved by looking ahead to the coming of Jesus and his atoning

work. Similarly those in Jesus day

were saved by looking to him. In like manner those who

believed after Jesus Ascension, which is all of you.

Are saved by looking back at his first coming, and his work upon

the cross. So I say to you again, do not

disbelieve, but believe in the word and the work of Jesus

Christ. Our Lord Jesus, addresses and

verse 11, the heart of the issue.

He says, you do not receive our testimony When he says you the

word is plural it, he represents the very least the Pharisees of

the day, but very likely it represents the whole nation of

Israel who are blinded by their religion of Works based

righteousness trying to achieve salvation through their own

works. The heart of the problem was the

same for all of them. They failed to believe the

testimony of these God sent Messengers especially including

the message of the new birth. So we've said it once before in

the series will say it. Again.

The heart of the problem is the problem of the human heart

Nicodemus, fell to lay, hold of the biblical testimony that have

been made known to him. He's Blinded By His

self-righteousness and so he's refusing to receive the message

of the new birth. There are many today who do the

same thing. Blinded by their

self-righteousness blinded by their own vain attempts, to gain

the approval of God. They do not submit themselves to

God, rather, they try to maintain some level of morality

that will approve them before. God, This is the message of our

world today. They want morality but not the

god of morality and so we must ask by what standard do you want

morality? If there is no standard of

truth, then why should we try for Morality?

But we know because God Bears witness in our consciences.

That he is God. And that there is right and

wrong and that we should make judgments on Justice and

Injustice. And so we having in our own

mind, the image of God, we want to Bear witness to that in some

way. Even if we suppress the truth

that God exists, but he does exist and he has said and we

must obey but the only way you will obey the commands of God,

Is to hide yourself in the righteousness of Christ, Jesus.

You will never obey the commands of God fully because you have

already failed to obey the commands of God fully.

So, even if you could from this point forward, you've already

failed. And the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is salvation through Jesus Christ.

Our Lord So unbelief in Christ results, then and divine wrath.

Jesus is going to say in John 3:18.

John 3:18

Which we'll look at in a few weeks, but I'll go ahead and

mention it. Whoever believes in him is not

condemned, whoever believes in Christ is not condemned, but

whoever does not believe is condemned already.

Because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.

So when 312, he says, if I have told you Earthly things and you

do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you Heavenly

things? Jesus just did you catch it?

He just Condemned Nicodemus to judgment here.

He says you do not believe. I've told you Earthly things,

you do not believe. How can you believe, if I tell

you Heavenly things, Jesus is passing Divine judgment.

That Nicodemus was an unbeliever.

Nicodemus didn't see himself as this, but he's an unbeliever

because he has not accepted the gospel.

Nicodemus is not humble himself, he's not repented of his sins.

He did not believe the message of the prophets.

He did not receive the testimony of Christ.

Instead Nicodemus chose to believe in himself.

Again, Lawson is helpful here. He said Nicodemus chose to

remain entrenched in his legalistic approach to

Salvation. He chose to continue to look to

himself to Merit his acceptance before God.

He chose the sin of unbelief leaving him, spiritually lost.

This is what unbelief does? Lawson goes on to say it.

Defiantly refuses to believe the free offer of the Gospel, it

rejects the assessment of Christ concerning what it's true need

is. It denies Jesus, the place of

preeminence and a person's life friends instead of turning to

the Lesser offers of pleasure in this world, to find your

identity, whether that's financial prosperity or

relational security or even good works, you must turn to Christ

by faith. And I urge you not to resist,

his call to surrender your life to him.

But instead to receive his call by submitting to and chasing

after him, if you will repent from a lifestyle of vain

Pursuits, you can then Delight in the Triune God. but if you

remain in legalism, if you remain in loose living, you will

surely perish in your sins. Hebrews 3:12 through 15, the

Hebrews 3:12–15

author of Hebrews says this, he says take care Brothers.

Let's there be in any of you an evil unbelieving.

Heart leading you to fall away from the Living God but exhort

one another every day as long as it is called today, that none of

you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin for.

We have come to share in Christ. If indeed we hold our original

confidence firm to the end as it is said today if you hear his

voice do not Harden your Hearts as, in the Rebellion.

So I urge you again do not disbelieve, but believe in the

word and the work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus says to Nicodemus, if I've told you Earthly things, you do

not believe. How can you believe if I tell

you Heavenly things by saying this Jesus makes a clear

distinction between two different levels of Truth

Earthly, things refers to the basic truth, conveyed by the

Earthly analogy of the new birth and Heavenly things means the

profounder truths of Heaven above where God, dwells those

are the things that are later revealed in your walk with God.

After your new birth, you do not have to understand the Trinity.

You do not have to understand how sanctification works or how

the Old Testament reveals Jesus Christ.

In order to receive the new birth.

There are many profound truths, that go, even beyond the three,

I just mentioned and they reveal to us more about God, but he

reveals those to us through his word as we go closer to him.

Jesus is saying to Nicodemus first things first, you must be

born again by God's grace through faith.

In Christ. Nicodemus must first possess the

knowledge of the New Birth by experience before he can lead

others into it. He cannot continue to teach

others until he has been taught. Truly by God, this must have

been a blow to his ego. Has had two huge, have

humiliated him in that moment. And by humiliate I mean humble.

Not to embarrass. He was the teacher of Israel and

is being told you disbelieve. You do not know.

But its necessary to be humbled by God.

If you were going to receive new life in Christ, in fact, the

prerequisite, the only thing, That you must do in order to be

saved, is to bring your empty hands to God and say, I offer

you nothing but my own sin and I know that I need some patients.

We're not offering anything to God to commend ourselves through

him or to cause his favor, to be honest.

And then Jesus adds here, another statement.

He says no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended

from Heaven, the son of man, Jesus is saying that no one has

ascended into heaven to learn more about God, and then return

to the Earth to tell, what he or she has learned.

However, Jesus is saying there is one who has descended from

Heaven to come to this Earth so that he may tell you about God.

This person is the one addressing Nicodemus, the son of

man, Jesus Christ. And if Nicodemus, or if you, or

if I or to know the way to heaven, we must listen to Jesus

Christ. We must hear his teaching.

We Must come to his call. Because he has come down from

heaven to speak to us again. Lawson's, book is helpful, he

offers a few things here that Christ says about himself

concerning his relationship to God.

To show that he is the one who has come from the father Christ

says, no one knows the son except the father, and no one

knows the father, except the son and anyone to whom the son

chooses through reveal him. Matthew 11:27, Jesus came down

Matthew 11:27

from heaven to reveal God, to men.

This is why he came the son of God.

John 3:16 and 18 as he refers to himself, became the son of man

John 3:16

which we see in John 3 13 and 14.

In his Incarnation, this took place to enter this world and

explain the father to humankind as we see in John 1:18 where he

John 1:18

is the image of the glory of God.

For us, the revelation of the invisible God through Jesus

Christ was so cluster, crystal clear that he later says, in

John 14:9 that whoever has seen me, has seen the father, so he's

John 14:9

sure of where he comes from. Lawson as is Jesus.

Words to Nicodemus must be received as being from the one

who has descended from Heaven to Earth to bring this message

about how to enter the kingdom of God.

But if Nicodemus did not accept the Earthly things as Christ

called them concerning, the new birth, he would certainly not be

able to receive Heavenly things as Christ called them of a more

profound nature. So how then must we respond to

what we have seen? Having been told you do not

believe Nicodemus is now at a Crossroads in his life.

He has lived his whole life to this point saying he's a

believer in God and trying to align his life with what he

thinks the scriptures teach but has failed to see the necessity

of the new birth. It's always stands at a

Crossroads Nicodemus, had never had the truth of the new birth

presented more clearly to him than he has In This Moment.

The sway of the the way of Salvation has never been so

openly talk to him, the Deep questions that Nicodemus.

Now wrestles with require a decision Would he believe what

Jesus said about the New Birth? Jesus is up.

I mean obviously these are tremendous evangelist.

He's a tremendous proclaimer of the good news.

And he has pressed Nicodemus to this point he has done what all

of us must do in apologetics. In defending, the faith and

communicating, the faith, sharing the faith.

He is taken the questions of Nicodemus and shown him.

The questions. He must actually ask so, we've

looked a lot about in the, in Sunday school to even, you know,

the questions of Science and evolution and the new, the arc

And we've kind of walked away thinking at times, I think I

have to know all of these things before I can rightly proclaim,

the word of God because if somebody comes asking me

questions about dinosaurs, I must be able to answer it from

the Bible. But do you understand if someone

tries to trap you in a question about dinosaurs?

What they're really trying to do is to get you to suppress the

truth with them about God. And so your job is not really to

answer a question about dinosaurs is to do what Jesus

has done here to say. Well, unless you were born

again, you can't even see the kingdom of God, quite well.

That's not even what I asked. It's not like what I was saying.

Yeah, but it's the, it's the heart of the matter.

It's the heart of the matter. And this is what Christ has

done. He is pressed Nicodemus to this

point He must now. Decide how am I going to respond

to this teaching? Well I continue and my good

works. Well I can't in you in my

self-righteousness. I continue trying to prove

myself before God or will I humbly ask God to give me the

new birth so that I might see his kingdom.

Nicodemus must answer that question.

You see Divine truth is never intended to merely be learned or

known. We're not simply to listen to

Divine truth. We're not simply to observe

Divine truth. We are to move on Divine truth.

Divine truth is designed to move your soul.

It must be acted upon truth. Always Demands a response.

You either Believe it or you disbelieve it.

And make no mistake, there is always a response.

It's always a response you see this throughout acts the

apostles would go from town to Town.

Proclaiming the gospel, there would be some who believed and

some who disbelieved That's it. Either a heart is hardened or it

is melted by the message of the gospel, and this is why.

The Puritans had a saying that the same Sun that hardens, the

clay, melts the ice. The gospel has this effect, you

will either Harden your heart and unbelief are, you will

soften your heart and belief. But there are not, there's not a

third way. So the question is, would

Nicodemus continue in unbelief or would he believe the truth

that was spoken to him by Jesus Christ?

So now the question is yours, maybe you stand at the same

Crossroads today, one is the way of self-righteousness and that

leads to Eternal destruction. The other is the way of

Salvation through the new birth and it leads to eternal life.

That's your decision to make you must decide.

Which way will you travel? You must receive this Divine

testimony. Concerning your personal need

for New Birth. You must if you want eternal

life. To die and unbelief will cause

you to appear at the final judgments without an Advocates

without a savior. Without someone to whom you are

looking and saying, my righteousness is not my own, it

is bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.

It's his The entire Bible is speaking to you with one ringing

loud voice and it declares that you must be born again and to

believe in Jesus Christ. You must If you've never

believed in Jesus Christ, never believe the words that he spoke.

Then what he is saying here to Nicodemus?

The way that he is calling Nicodemus to belief He's saying

the same things to you today. He's calling you to commit your

life to him. Repentance is a renunciation of

all confidence in yourself. It's a laying aside

self-confidence. It's a laying aside

self-righteousness and which you were trying to make yourself

acceptable to God. It's the denial of that.

And it is in turn as it's turning from self-worth, self,

confidence, self righteousness. It's turning from that, and

turning to Christ. Jesus.

You're turning your back on your own righteousness, and you're

turning your face upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ

Alone there. And there alone is where you

will find Salvation for your soul. then if you're a Believer

today, you know, the necessity of the new birth, you've sensed

it in your own life. And today, we must Proclaim, we

must not. Look at a Nicodemus, we must not

look into the world or look into our own City and see people who

are trying the self-righteous route and scoff.

We must not look at them with a wagging finger.

We must look at them with broken hearts knowing that we two were

trying the same things. That we too were like that until

the gospel pierced, our heart and saved us.

And saved us. And so I encourage you today.

If you are born again, rejoice in the Lord, today that you have

known the day of salvation, that today is another day where

you're growing in the grace of God, Amen.

But if you have not been born again, act, now without any

delay, do not disbelieve, but believe in the word and the work

of Jesus Christ. Amen, let me pray for you.

Heavenly Father we love you and we thank you Lord for your

kindness toward us. Your goodness toward us that we

have in Christ Jesus just as we've seen today in the message

to Nicodemus. the necessity of the new birth, you have by your

grace drawing Us in zoo and we have been saved, father And so

we praise you for it, and we ask that you would give us the heart

of Christ towards the unbelieving. and, as he looked

out over the landscape of Jerusalem, he was he mourned

because he saw those who were like sheep without a shepherd,

God help us to mourn for the loss.

Not to rejoice in it. Not to gloat over it, not to wag

our fingers. Help us to proclaim the truths

of Christ, the truths of God, the truth, some sin.

And the need for savior. Helps to do that Faithfully

father. with a heart that is broken for those who don't know,

you Father, I do pray for anyone listening to this message today

who does not know you by faith, God would you help them?

Now, repent of their sins, turn from their own

self-righteousness and turned to you by faith in Christ that they

might receive. As their own, the righteousness

of Christ, that they might know the love of God, which saves to

the uttermost, all of those who draw near to him.

Ruis son. Got saved them, help.

None of us. Not one look to our own

righteousness. Look to our own Works, to be

approved before you help us. Trust In Christ Alone, Jesus

name I pray. Amen.