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“The New Birth, Pt. 2" • 5.26.19
• Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- Last week, we covered the first part of
chapter 3 and we learned about a pivotal Christian doctrine called
"regeneration."
- The scene takes place at a clandestine
evening meeting between a prominent Jewish leader of the Sanhedrin named
Nicodemus and the Lord Jesus.
- Nicodemus has come with questions and is
seeking to discover the truth regarding the Kingdom of God, something that he
believes is quite imminent.
- In Jewish thinking, two of the three
conditions for the Kingdom's arrival were in place. The Jews had been
re-established in their homeland, even though they were occupied by Rome.
- They had also been experiencing a revival in
Bible teaching, the Pharisees leading a nation wide effort in teaching. All
that was left in Nicodemus' mind was the final promise of God.
- The Kingdom of God would one day be the
prevailing political power over the entire Earth, the Messiah Himself sitting
upon the throne, ruling over the nations from Jerusalem!
- Jesus stops Nicodemus cold and tells him the
truth about the Kingdom of God. He tells Nicodemus first, "What He Must
Do To Enter The Kingdom of God."
- He tells Nicodemus and you and I the same
essential truth: In order to see the Kingdom of God, you must be born again!
You must experience regeneration.
- Just as you were born in a fleshly or human
way, you must also experience a spiritual birth! God must endow you with His
own life! Moses had commented about this at the end of his ministry.
- The people to that day, had not been given
the heart to understand. God later promised through Ezekiel that He would
give the nation this heart. This leads to our second point.
- "How Is It That A Person Experiences
The New Birth?" Jesus asserts that it's not related to works of
righteousness that a person does, but is a work of God's Spirit alone!
- God's Spirit sovereignly decides to move in a
person's life and while His presence is invisible, His effect is seen quite
clearly, as is true with sound of the wind.
- Nicodemus is still looking at Jesus with a
blank expression at this point. This is when Jesus lays out His third point and
that is related to "When A Person Experiences The New Birth."
- Jesus reminds Nicodemus of a crazy story in Numbers
21, where the people of Israel complained against the Lord, Moses and the
bread that God provided them.
- In response, God released fiery serpents that
bit and were responsible for killing many of the people of God. In great fear,
they asked Moses to pray to the Lord.
- The Lord gave Moses the single cure, which
was to fabricate a bronze serpent, place it upon a bronze pole and set it up
for all to see.
- Those that simply looked up at the icon upon
the pole lived! Jesus was telling Nicodemus that Israel would have to look in
faith to Him as He was lifted up!
- When a person puts their whole weight upon
the promise of God contained in the person of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice
upon the Cross, he or she experiences the "new birth!"
- That leaves us with our final consideration
and the Lord's fourth point: "Why is it that God makes a way for people
to enter into the New birth?"
- What is God's motive for acting this way
toward humanity? What compels Him? We'll note first "The Love Of God."
Verse 16.
Text
• John 3:16 : "For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." : We could and should take a lifetime
to unpack and appreciate this wonderful verse.
- Some have called it "The
Bible's Message In A Single Verse." As such, I believe that the Holy
Spirit has made it so that it is the best known verse on earth!
- If you've ever watched a football
game or been to "In-n-Out," you've seen the call sign in the endzone or
on the bottom of your cup. You'll see it on electrical poles and in graffiti
everywhere!
- Hard to imagine that this was
once said privately to a curious Jewish leader, late in the evening! Jesus
explains that the new birth issued from God's love!
- God is overcome by love! It is
His love which initiates the process by which men are born again! Salvation
which does not begin with God is not likely to end with Him either!
- His love is centered, focused
upon the World. It's the same world that hates and opposes His decrees and
laws! It's the world dominated by it's own philosophy of self-superiority.
- It's THAT world that God so
loves! He loves them even while they hate Him! This is the essence of agape
love in how it acts. It does not require something to be lovely or deserving.
- It expresses itself in a full
commitment to that object's best interest! That is the love that God operates
in and that He gives to His people exclusively!
- If you have ever wondered how
Christians love the unlovable, it's because His love is in us!
- There is not a man or woman on
Earth that can ever claim that God has not loved them, except by ignorance! How
was that love expressed? What value was assigned to it?
- God expressed His love by offering
His only begotten Son! This is not a theoretical, romantic potential act of
love on God's part.
- There is a tangible, historical,
demonstrable event that proves once and for all, that God loves the World! Far
beyond the nation of Israel, God has set His sights upon the Earth!
- Christ is the Messiah of Israel,
but He is simultaneously the Savior of all Mankind!
- God delivered Christ to this God
hating world to be the focal point of mankind's redemption, the One that is
endowed with the same genes as God Himself! He is the unique Son of God!
- When something is unique, one of
a kind, it's value is priceless! The life of Jesus Christ is what God determined
to be the only equal to the sin debt of the world!
- All God requires then is that
people believe upon Him! You will see John use this word repeatedly throughout
his gospel, so it matters that we have a proper definition.
- "Belief" is not mental
assent or an agreement to a group of facts. When John uses this word, he is
speaking of having "confidence in" and that, given the tense of the
word, is a present reality.
- It would read "that whoever
is believing!" It is what you are doing now! You are trusting, putting
your confidence in, believing exclusively in Jesus Christ! What is the result?
- That you would not perish.
Understand that the word is not "die." There are worse things in this
God created universe than dying. The word "perish" speaks of absolute
destruction and ruin.
- What do I think is ruin and
destruction? I'm a person of certain means and imagination. In my mind, ruin
and destruction can only mean a few things. What might that concept mean to
God?
- What does an all powerful,
creative being do with a concept of ruin and devastation?
• Luke 12:4,5 : "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and
after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He
has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!" : I
will say this: What does it tell you about perishing when God offers something
that He values more than anything to keep people from it? How awful is that
reality!?
- God sent Jesus to stand between
man and that destiny! If God had not sent Jesus, that would be every man's
destiny! It would be an inevitability because that is what his actions deserve!
- God's love opens a new offramp
and His Spirit beckons each of us to believe! But notice, not all will avoid
perishing.
- When a person espouses a doctrine
of limited atonement, this is the only place where that limitation is defined.
A person's destiny hinges upon their response to Jesus Christ.
- Only those that believe upon Him
will pass from perishing to the posession of everlasting life! That is what the
new birth commences! It is the beginning of eternal, everlasting life!
- Let me replay this for you in
another way: This is the greatest message that has ever graced the ears of
mankind!
- "For God (the greatest being) so
loved (the greatest motive) the World (the greatest stage) that He gave (the greatest demonstration) His only begotten Son (the greatest Man!).
- "That whoever believes in Him (the greatest offer) should not perish (the greatest threat) but have everlasting life! (The greatest reward!)
- In verse 16, we have made
note of the "Love Of God" that motivated the new birth. As we
move to verse 17 we see clearly the "Need Of Man."
• John 3:17,18 : "For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he
who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God." : Remember that Nicodemus believes that all the conditions are
ripe for God to raise Messiah to be the King.
- Most of the Jewish nation looked upon the
suffering of Messiah as an allegory. "Perhaps the Messiah suffered
vicariously through the nation's woes."
- They couldn't reconcile the thought that
there would two comings of Christ, so In Nicodemus' mind, this was the time for
God to judge the world through His King.
- What a shock then to hear the presumptive
Messiah say that that wasn't what He was going to do at all! He wasn't there to
condemn the world, but rather to save the world!
- This is confusing on a few levels, but it is
cleared up with one statement: Jesus did not need to come to Earth to condemn
the world, because the world was already condemned!
- The verdict was already in! Every person that
has ever lived upon this planet, by virtue of being born to human parents, is
already a condemned sinner in the eyes of God!
- God did not need Jesus to come to render
judgment upon the Earth. He came so that condemned men would have a single
vehicle through which to receive salvation!
- Notice that little phrase that He uses: The
world, if it will be saved, will be saved "through Him!" Jesus is the
exclusive means by which a person can be saved!
- There is no other offer on the table and
there is no other God appointed or approved vehicle through which a man can
receive God's salvation! This is vitally important to understand.
- At His first coming, Christ is the Savior of
humanity. At His second coming, Christ is the Judge of humanity, the living and
the dead! How will that be decided? Again, He is the focus!
- A person who is presently believing upon
Christ is not now nor is he ever condemned! Are you not reminded of Paul's
words that sound as if they were peeled from this verse!?
• Romans 8:1 : "There is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."
- Those that are putting their trust in Him,
those who lean their full weight upon Christ, are not, will not and will never
be condemned! The same cannot be said of the unbeliever.
- "He who is not believing is condemned
already!" Why are they presently condemned?
- Is it because of their horrible sins? Lying?
Swearing? Stealing? No. These actions, these sins, stem from one cause, one
root! They have not believed upon the name of Jesus!
- Nobody is going to hell because they were
wretched sinners. Every person on Earth is a wretched sinner! The only people
in hell are those that refuse to let the Lord pay their balance!
- They refuse to put their trust in Christ and
because of that, they languish in this life, reeling in their sinful stupor,
awaiting the day when their sins will demand a full righteous payment!
- It is hard to imagine why a person would
refuse to trust in Christ, especially given the threat that stands over them of
eternal conscious punishment away from the favorable presence of God!
- Some will attempt to offer God their excuses,
while others will offer some other works of value, but let me ask you this:
What can you possibly offer that would match the value of Jesus?
- That is what a person is saying when they
refuse to trust in Christ! They believe that they have something to offer God
that matches the value of Jesus Christ to God!
- Spoiler alert: God values Jesus Christ and
His righteousness more than any other thing in the Universe! There is nothing
that you or anyone else can offer that wouldn't be an utter insult to Him!
- Why would a person not believe in Jesus? Why
would they not turn to trust Him? This leads us to the third purpose of God in
regeneration, which provides "clarity of judgment." Verse 19.
• John 3:19-21 : "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone
practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds
should be exposed. But he
who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that
they have been done in God.'" : This is the judgment of God. The
world has been given light. It has come into the world.
- Specifically, Jesus has manifested God's
righteousness. He has embodied righteousness and men preferred darkness over
the light because what they did was evil.
- Their actions were wicked and hurtful to
others. They love that. They practice that and as such are haters of the light.
Please consider this. Biblically speaking, there are no neutral people.
- Those that are practicing evil know the
nature of their deeds. That is why such a person goes away from the light.
Otherwise, he will be rebuked by the light.
- That is what the word "exposed"
means. That person will face conviction. He will be ashamed and found at fault.
- A person who refuses to believe in Christ is
not doing so because there is no evidence or because of an intellectual
objection. They have a moral objection!
- They know that believing in Christ will
require them to hate their deeds of darkness as God hates them! They will have
to have a heart that sees actions as God sees them!
- That is how an unbelieving person, one who is
condemned acts. They are running from the light and hoping to avoid it's gaze
landing upon them!
- Their run lasts until their final day, when
their death opens the door to their destiny of acknowledging Christ's worth,
while suffering apart from the presence of God in hell eternally!
- Notice the contrast. There is one who does
the truth! The man who is acting presently and repeatedly according to truth
comes to the light! What is the truth?
- He embraces the truth about Himself. He is
condemned because of His sin. He looks upon THE TRUTH, Jesus Christ, and bows
His knee to Him now in confession not concession!
- And, he does the rest of his life in light of
God's truth, which is discovered in His Word!
- He is always coming to the light in order
that what he is doing will be "clearly seen!" The word speaks of
making something appear, to make it actual and visible! I'd even use the word
"obvious!"
- A person who is always doing the truth is
always coming to the light, making it obvious to the world that God has done
something in his heart! He has been clearly born again!
- In other words, it becomes clear to the world
that God is working through men that have come to the light! They have no fear
of exposure!
- Rather, in their activity, they expose the reality
of their relationship to God and thus all men have the ability to clearly
consider their state before God!
- If I'm continually running from the light,
hoping to escape the sentence of God, I'm doomed. If I'm continually running to
the light, hoping that He might correct my way, I'm destined to be safe!
Conclusion
- God's motive
in regeneration relates first to His love. You could never have earned His
love. The gospel begins with Him and His heartbeat for humanity!
- God's love
moved when He saw the need of man. We are condemned, destined apart from Him to
wallow in eternal misery. He saw a condemned planet and gave a supreme Savior!
- That work
done in human hearts is the advertisement of God's actual achievement! Wicked
men will run and hide from the light, but God's people will always bask in it!
Why has He done this?
- So that the
world, if it will go to hell, will have to step over Jesus Christ and the
people that He has put His heart of love in!