REBIRTH PART TWO

 

John 3:1-22

 

Ever since the creation of the first Adam who sinned in the garden, his disobedience has plunged the entire human race into the bondage of sin and death. This one act of disobedience from Adam and Eve who had original state of righteousness, feel into moral corruption and death. This means their hearts and minds were no longer pure, but became defiled and shameful. This was evident when they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, this was their feeble attempt to cover their shame, sin and corruption. This is what sin results too, fear and separation from God. This is the natural man and woman of today. They run from God’s holy presence and fears His righteous judgments. This means at the point of conception you were a natural born sinner.

This title “natural born sinner” wasn’t something you had to work your way up too, or learn over time. By our human nature we are natural born killers/sinners as David wrote in his repentance Psalm. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5. Eliphaz said this Job, “What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!” Job 15:14-16. What Eliphaz is saying, “This is a person who LOVES their SIN, as a thirsty man is for water. He practices it as if it were his very nature; as much so as it is to drink a glass of water.” 

Knowing this or unknowingly this, we are in great danger; this puts us into a considerable amount of trouble with a holy and just God. What’s worse, the lord of lies [Satan] has not ceased to promote that lie by saying “Don’t worry be happy…..you can come to God on our own terms, in your own way.”

People today are still falling and embracing this lie which

comes from the depths of Hell.

 

Everyone outside of Christ lives and continue to live on this road of destruction as Paul said “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” 2 Cor 4:3-4

 

 

Mankind has a serious problem! What do I mean by that? The religious teacher named Nicodemus, has just been confronted with the biggest problem in humanity and he is dumfounded by what he is hearing. There is nothing that you can do in order to enter the Kingdom of God, apart from the sole regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

 

That’s a huge problem in our

culture and society!

 

Why? People don’t believe they need saving, or that there is a Kingdom worth residing in, especially if God is there.

 

Is God gracious and patient with all of His created children? Yes, But sadly, many only believe in a kingdom of self; and if God opened the gates of Hell and said “Come out, those who are there and will be there”

 

Do you know what the natural man

and woman would do?

 

They would run to the gate and slam it shut, because of their rebellious and hateful heart towards the One who sent His Son to save sinners. This is why Jesus reveals this to His disciples, “while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matt 8:12. The Greek phrase for “gnashing of teeth” literally means “grinding one’s teeth together.” But “gnashing of teeth” also refers to their pure anger as it was when Stephen stood before the Sanhedrin. Acts 7:54 reveals their anger. “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.” Psalm 37:12 says, “The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them” And MANY WILL WAKE UP in Hell angrier with God then they ever were before; and they will endure the torment of God’s wrath for it, for all eternity.

 Also, what Jesus reveals to us is that MANY WILL WAKE UP and will be devastated and they will not be able to find enough water to quench their thirst. We get a picture of this in the story of Lazurus and the Rich Man. “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’” Luke 16:22-24

 

Matthew Henry wrote, “The torments of hell are represented by a violent thirst, in the complaint of the rich man who begged for a drop of water to cool his tongue. To that everlasting thirst we had all been condemned, if Christ had not suffered on the cross.”

 

The undeniable fact is that those who do not belong to Christ will suffer a terrible fate; while His born again children, will enjoy heaven with Him forever. Rev 21:4

 

Hell will be a place of anguish, remorse,

pain, and misery.

 

John would later write about those who wake up in Hell. “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” Rev 14:11. Nicodemus was a teacher/ leader who was left stunned, and speechless, after his question “How can these things be?” because he realized who can be saved then. (Here lies the problem in this encounter). Nicodemus was no ordinary Pharisee! Because, he should have known all of this, and what was at stake from the time of the garden. Look what Jesus says after Nicodemus’s question in (v10) “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Jesus using the word “the” indicated that Nicodemus was someone of importance. Nicodemus was a renowned master-teacher in the Nation of Israel [the top dog] “Master teacher of the Jews” Yet! Nicodemus, was ignorant of the ABC of spiritual things.

 

He was ignorant why? Because he lives in darkness, and he is dead to the things of God. “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.” Prov 4:19. Jesus’s response, demonstrates the spiritual bankruptcy of the nation, and Nicodemus as an educator of that system. See! The problem of spiritual bankruptcy results in ignorance, and religious blindness. Augustine said "Involuntary ignorance is not charged against you as a fault; but your fault is this---you neglect to inquire into the things you are ignorant of."

 

What is Jesus saying to Nicodemus?

 

You are THE master teacher of Israel and you do not know these things? (v10) What a rebuke this was… Nicodemus you are spiritually bankrupt, so abandon everything you have learned when it comes to eternal things, or value, and listen to this one important truth “You must be born again!” This is the heart problem which spreads globally! Like Nicodemus in this moment, the world at large continues in ignorance to the witness, and work, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit. “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor 2:14

 

Spiritually ignorant to the truth of the Gospel.

 

Jesus knew his spiritual bankruptcy, and he knows yours, and mine; that’s why Jesus didn’t stop there! (v11-v12) So, the best way to help those who are spiritually bankrupt is to teach them about salvation. Jesus says! We speak ..... We know.... We have seen.... You did not receive our witness. Here is Jesus’ scolding Nicodemus for his ignorance of Divine truth and misunderstanding of the new birth. This is speaking of Jesus and His disciples and John the Baptist, “we speak”; men who understood and testified to the truth of salvation. Nicodemus you are blinded by your ignorance, your religious speech, it has made you blind to what you thought was true, but only results in unbelief.

 

The Pharisees and their fellow Jews were ignorant of the new birth, but Jesus and His disciples were certain about regeneration., the truth to which they testified to. This rebuke demonstrates how little of what we ought to know. The reason that man does not know the things of God, is because he/she receives not God’s witness concerning His plans of redemption. How blind we are!.....We are so blind that we need to be GUIDED into the truth. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John 16:13

 

The same thing could be said to pew seater in the church today!

 

All your church attendance

All your bible reading

All your legalism

All your tradition

All your busyness

 

These things have left you empty, because you have done this all in your own strength thinking this is how I get into God’s eternal kingdom. And because of your religious works, the God you truly love is yourself and you’re ok with that…… But Jesus came to remove our blinders. All your church attendance is good, if your motivated by the love of Christ and His church. All your bible reading is good, if it’s motivated by knowing Him more intimately. But! All your legalism is bondage and rituals which means Jesus isn’t enough, its Jesus plus this or that. But! All your tradition is just that “tradition” man-centered workings to please a holy God. But! All your busyness leads to a life that misses out on the blessing of Christ. All those things we do are a duty, if it’s not rooted in a passion to know Him more intimately. I must do this or that in order to please and be accepted by God. That’s not the Gospel according to Jesus, that’s the gospel according to man, Paul pens these words, “Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:1-11

 

So, Jesus continues to point out man’s blindness in (v12) The cause of your ignorance to the things of God is your lack of knowledge to understand whatever things that are divine. A W Pink wrote, “God’s law in the spiritual realm corresponds with that which operates in the natural world; there is first a blade, then the ear, and last the full corn in the ear. God will not reveal to us the higher truth until we have thoroughly apprehended the simpler ones first.” This means earthly things are evident and in measure comprehensible, but heavenly things are invisible and altogether beyond our grasp until its divinely revealed to us. This again goes back to the work of the Spirit in the illustration of the wind. (v8). Again, Nicodemus should have understood this as in reference to Ezekiel’s letter. “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Eze 36:25-27

 

This is why like Nicodemus you don’t understand because you are not acquainted with Heaven, because you are blinded by the things on this earth. Nicodemus you can’t even fathom the earthly truth of the new birth, how are to believe such heaven realties as the relationship of the Father to the Son. God’s kingdom, or His eternal plan of redemption. The problem that Jesus is revealing to Nicodemus is that there were two sides to his unbelief. First, intellectually while he acknowledged that Jesus was a teacher sent from God, but was unwilling to accept Him as God. Second, spiritually he was reluctant to admit that he himself was a helpless sinner, since that would be unheard of as a proud member of the Pharisees. Because of his lack of understanding of his own eternal state, this made him not only blind to earthly realties, it made him completely blind to heavenly realties. How can I give you treasures of Heaven when you have no desire for heavenly things, when you don’t understand the simple teachings of what it means to be born again here on earth.

  

So, look what Jesus says to Nicodemus as he explains further about God’ redemption. (v13-15) Here we see the precious gospel being proclaimed by the One who made the gospel possible for bankrupt sinners like Nicodemus, and us. Jesus gives us the only solution or remedy to our spiritual sickness and He uses the illustration with Moses and the rebellious Israelites. Nicodemus you’re talking to the One who has come down from heaven. (v13) You are talking to the Son of Man in person and you don’t understand these basic truths that the Father has revealed in the Old Testament about Me.

 

Jesus reminds him to remember back when Moses was leading His people to the promise land.

 

Your people were complaining about their freedom

Your people were vicious towards Moses

Your people were blinded by unbelief

Your people were speaking out against God

Your people forgot all the promises of God

Your people only saw the present and not future things

Your people stop looking to God and His sovereign provision

 

Because of their blindness and spiritual bankruptcy, they continued to rebel, and refused to rest in the God that said,

 

“I will make you a great nation, I will bless you” Gen 12:2

“I have heard their cries, I have heard their sorrows, their pains” (Exo 3:7)

“If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry;” (Exo 22:23)

“for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."  (Luke 19:10)

 

If we look closely at these verses this describes so many today in the church and outside the church, in so some ways. Where we know so many are…..

 

Impatient

Bitter and backbiting

Angry

Blinded

Gossipers

Ungrateful

Lack genuine faith in the God who saves.

Spiritually blind because of sin and pride and this fallen world system.

 

J.C. Ryle said this to church about the future generations, “I appeal to any old Christian who keeps their eyes open, and knows what is going on in the Churches. I ask them whether it be not true that nothing damages the cause of religion so much as “the world”? It is not open sin, or open unbelief, which robs Christ of His professing servants so much as . . . the love of the world, the fear of the world, the cares of the world, the business of the world, the money of the world, the pleasures of the world, and the desire to remain in with the world. The world is the great rock on which thousands of young people are continually making shipwreck.”

 

What did God do because of their

lack of faith and blindness?

 

We read, “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” Numbers 21:4-6

 

 

God, yes God, sent in venomous snakes to infest the camp and the bible says “many died” The same God who delivered the people from slavery in Egypt, responded by sending a plague to the Israelite people.

 

Who are the one’s that died?

The spiritually blind and ignorant.

The proud and boastful and complaining

The religious who held to the traditions of men.

The self-righteous man and woman.

 

But something amazing happens in (v7) of Numbers 21. “And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people.”

 

Thankfully, God’s chastisement had its intended effect…. repentance. They saw their true hearts being revealed to them, and they responded in repentance and then look what happens next. God provided a remedy, a cure, a solution to their problem. In order to live you must first look at the snake that is on the pole and some did. (v8-9) We read, “And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” Numbers 21:8-9

 

What is Jesus revealing about the

His salvation here?

 

God used it once as a symbol of His grace and mercy in the time of Moses; and He does the same thing here in reference to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

 

Nicodemus, humanity, the sins of the world, has cursed this ground, and every living creature is tainted with sin. Mankind is fallen and completely lost to the things that are eternal. Mankind is dying due to sin and are destined to eternal torment and suffering for all eternity. Mankind has been bitten by the snake of this world; and are one breath from eternal judgement. You are a sick image-bearer of God, and you are going to die, unless you look to the Cross of Calvary. Jesus is referring to the future death of Himself. This is the first of fifteen times we will see in reference to the importance of eternal life in John’s gospel. Jesus died for our wretchedness and our spiritual bankrupt state, and that’s the Gospel truth so that we can have eternal life with Him. Someone had to take your place, my place, in order for us to see the Kingdom of God in salvation. We need to remember; you must look to cross of Christ to see your only way to enter the Kingdom of God.

 

“Lifted up” this is the first of three times we read this phrase in John’s gospel. This phrase has a double meaning which is referring to Jesus’s death and His resurrection and exaltation to glory in Heaven. Jesus must be lifted up and become the substitute serpent, so to speak. Jesus has to take on the sting of death, He has to take on Himself the poison of sin on the cross. Why? (v15) the only remedy to preserve their lives was to look to the cross, this will cure you of spiritual deadness fashioned on by sin, and it would do so for eternity. (v15) reveals mankind is in danger, by nature, of perishing - that is, of sinking down to the pains of hell; of being “punished with everlasting destruction” from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.

We read, “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,” 2 Thess 1:8-9

 

This is the natural state of man; but all who believe on Jesus shall be saved from this condemnation and be raised up to eternal life. (v15) reveals that…..nothing is more foolish than for a lost and dying sinner to “refuse” to look on God’s only Son, who was exalted on a cross to die for the sins of men.

 

What matters is this… Have you looked to the only begotten Son of God though the awakening of the Spirit, who is quickening you to salvation. Quickening you to respond in faith by pleaded with a holy God to save you from your spiritual bankruptcy. Jesus is the only one way you’ll ever see the Kingdom of God, and the only way to be delivered from the precipice of Hell. We have a Saviour and His name is Jesus Christ who takes away the sins of the world, but remember it only benefits those who put their faith and trust in Him. If this isn’t you, then Judgement is standing at the door, and Hell is open to those who love darkness because they are spiritually bankrupt. Mankind has a problem, a pending death that will bring about swift judgement that will endure for all eternity, and Jesus is the ONLY solution to that pending death.

 

Look to Christ, and be saved by His sovereign grace. 

Your eternal life depends on it.