Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Okay, you guys can go ahead and flip over to John 3.
[00:00:07] Starting another new chapter tonight.
[00:00:13] Tonight I want to start by having us think just briefly about a former president, late president, named Jimmy Carter. Who has heard of Jimmy Carter?
[00:00:28] Okay, it wasn't that long ago. So it was the 70s. It was 50 years ago.
[00:00:34] I know that sounds like a long time, but it's not that long ago. Jimmy Carter, one of the names or titles he was known by besides president, was the world's most famous Sunday school teacher.
[00:00:46] He was famous for making popular also the description born again believer. He didn't create it. He made it very well known because he described himself that way. He explained what this means in an interview in 1976 ages ago.
[00:01:05] He said, we believe that the first time we're born as children, it's human life given to us.
[00:01:11] And when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it's a new life. That's what born again means.
[00:01:18] It's simple.
[00:01:19] Now, I'm not necessarily saying we should always agree with President Carter, but what he says here is absolutely true. It's simple, but it's also profound.
[00:01:30] And him saying this was important. It sounded forth to the whole nation, even the world heard him say these words.
[00:01:38] And this thing that Jimmy Carter could understand, that children of understand, oftentimes is something that Nicodemus could simply not grasp in this passage. He just could not get it.
[00:01:54] Now, before this, before we talk about Nicodemus, this conversation he has with Jesus, we've seen how Jesus christ is the Word. He is God.
[00:02:04] He is God who became flesh to reveal the Father and to bring saving grace to his people.
[00:02:10] We've seen that when Christ enters someone's life, their life then changes things happen.
[00:02:18] He is a transformational savior in this way.
[00:02:21] Again, this is a big theme in tonight's passage that he transforms.
[00:02:26] In John 2, which we looked at last week, Jesus does the first of seven signs recorded by John in this gospel. He shows his divine power.
[00:02:36] He makes a radical promise to rebuild the destroyed temple in three days, which he eventually did when he was killed and rose again.
[00:02:46] In this book, John has a clear purpose.
[00:02:50] He wants us to believe in the Word made flesh, believe in the Word made flesh. We see it in John 20:31. He's writing things down so that we would believe in, in the Word who became flesh.
[00:03:04] And this passage in John 3:1, 21 is arguably the clearest passage in support of that thesis.
[00:03:12] If he's trying to say, hey, believe, this is an explanation of what that means.
[00:03:18] So the main idea of this passage is, new birth by the Spirit is how God applies salvation to a person.
[00:03:28] And all who are saved will be kept through their faith.
[00:03:33] New birth by the Spirit is how God applies salvation to a person. And all who are saved will be kept through their faith.
[00:03:39] Let's read our passage. We're reading verses one through 21.
[00:03:44] We read this now. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
[00:03:51] 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.
[00:04:00] Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
[00:04:08] 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?
[00:04:17] 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.
[00:04:32] 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.
[00:04:44] Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?
[00:04:48] Jesus answered him, are you the Teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
[00:04:54] 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.
[00:05:02] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
[00:05:09] No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
[00:05:15] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
[00:05:32] For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in him 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.
[00:05:49] And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
[00:05:58] For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light. Lest his works should be exposed.
[00:06:06] But whoever does what is true comes to the the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
[00:06:16] So in this passage, we see a Pharisee come by night, ashamed of whom might see, in order to inquire, ask questions of Jesus. This is a famous passage with probably the most famous verse in all the Bible. And yet how well do we understand it? How often do we think of it? You maybe learned John 3:16 in Awana or Sunday school or something of the sort.
[00:06:44] But is it as straightforward as we think? Or there's some really difficult parts of this text.
[00:06:51] We're going to read this as what it is. It is God's word. We're going to seek to understand it better, seek to understand it fresh anew.
[00:06:59] So again, the main idea is that new birth by the Spirit is how God applies salvation to a person. And all who are saved will be kept through their faith.
[00:07:11] So in this sermon, we'll see just what this new birth does.
[00:07:15] So point number one.
[00:07:17] New birth is given to the seeing, seeing those who see.
[00:07:23] So in this scene, we have Nicodemus the Pharisee come to Jesus just to fill everyone in. We want to observe. You probably know this, maybe you don't. It's okay. The Pharisees were constant opponents of Jesus.
[00:07:37] This is a shocking thing for him to come to Jesus like this.
[00:07:42] And Pharisees were also religious legal experts in a society that valued highly their religious law.
[00:07:53] So this is a world where the religious legal experts are king.
[00:07:57] He's even called a ruler in verse 1, a ruler of the Jews. You know, we don't call our elders or our pastors or even scholars rulers, but these men were rulers of the Jews.
[00:08:10] They had undeniable authority to interpret the law of Moses, the rule of life in the community. But we can see in this text that Nicodemus, though an expert, is quite ignorant of the Scriptures.
[00:08:25] And as an aside, now you should trust your leaders.
[00:08:30] But I think this also demonstrates that we should also learn to read the Bible ourselves, Not in isolation, but be able to do it on our own.
[00:08:39] But the Jews in these days, they had a reading culture that was different.
[00:08:43] It said, leave it to the experts.
[00:08:45] Leave it to the experts. Have them tell us. And yet we can see they're ignorant. Their experts don't actually know. They can't even recognize the Messiah.
[00:08:57] That's why Jesus says in verse 10, are you a teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things, even though you might read These things and think these are confusing. Nicodemus should have understood.
[00:09:10] He, he had the word, he was an expert, he was an authority, and yet he did not understand them.
[00:09:18] And so Nicodemus comes to Jesus to ask questions. He comes by night. He did not want to be seen.
[00:09:24] Now we do see him in verse two, admit that Jesus is from God. He says, we know you're a teacher from God.
[00:09:29] This does not mean that Nicodemus has faith.
[00:09:34] We look closer at that verse, we see that the signs are miracles done by Jesus, communicated that Jesus is a teacher from God. But he doesn't see that Jesus is claiming to be far more than that.
[00:09:47] Yeah, he's a teacher from God, but he is so much more.
[00:09:51] He's so much more than that. He has the shallow faith of those at the end of chapter two, those to whom Jesus did not entrust himself. He believes in the signs and he's marveling at them. But he doesn't know Jesus. He doesn't love Jesus for Jesus.
[00:10:09] I mean, just about everyone today, not necessarily, but many people, except maybe the militant atheist, confesses that Jesus was a great teacher. That's not a very controversial thing to say at this point in time, that he was a good teacher, that he was influential.
[00:10:27] And even millions or even more would say he is a teacher from God. Even Muslims would say this. Yeah, he was a teacher, a prophet from God, but that is just not the full truth. There is more about Jesus that we need to know than this.
[00:10:43] That is not the message of salvation. It's not the gospel. There is more.
[00:10:49] And so Jesus responds by mysteriously telling him that without new birth, he says, born again. This is new birth. No one can see the kingdom of God. Look at verse three.
[00:11:03] Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
[00:11:08] To be born again is to be born of the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:14] The theological terms for this are regeneration, which is to be generated anew, to be made a new creation.
[00:11:23] This is new birth, being made a new creation. So it refers to conversion.
[00:11:28] And we'll dive deeper into this shortly. But for now, we need to understand also what the kingdom of God means so we understand what this new birth is. Being made new by the Spirit. But okay, see the kingdom of God, what does this mean? The kingdom of God is quite simply God's rule and reign on earth.
[00:11:50] God's rule and reign on earth.
[00:11:53] Jesus was ushering in this kingdom. He was the embodiment of this kingdom.
[00:11:59] This rule and reign of God over his creation is in Christ.
[00:12:06] He reveals it. He shows a glimpse of it when he's here, and he will bring it to completion when he comes again. So that's what this kingdom of God is. Need to be born again to see it. What does he say about Nicodemus?
[00:12:22] So Jesus is not just saying a matter of fact, he is responding to Nicodemus misunderstanding. So Jesus, sometimes you might read the question and then read the answer and think, how is he answering this question? He is responding to Nicodemus specifically his misunderstanding of who Jesus is by saying, to paraphrase, well, it's not surprising that you would think I'm merely a teacher. You haven't been born again.
[00:12:50] Therefore you cannot see the kingdom of God, though he stands right in front of you. That's what Jesus is saying.
[00:12:58] Nicodemus has not been granted the eyes to see Jesus. He cannot see him. The king of the kingdom. He doesn't have ears to understand him.
[00:13:10] His heart is a heart of stone that hasn't been replaced with a heart by the Spirit that can actually receive him.
[00:13:17] He's unable to do this. He can't see the kingdom of God.
[00:13:24] Recall that Isaiah prophesied this.
[00:13:29] This is Isaiah 6, 9, 10.
[00:13:32] Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
[00:13:38] Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
[00:13:52] Nicodemus is an example of that prophecy being fulfilled. He cannot see, hear or understand or believe.
[00:14:02] Nicodemus, like all other sinners, cannot see what or hear God. Even if he's right in front of him doing works in his midst, he's looking right past Jesus.
[00:14:14] So what is necessary to receive Jesus to see him? We need the converting work of the Spirit in our lives to see the kingdom of God. We need to be born again.
[00:14:27] We need to be born again.
[00:14:30] If you see for the first time now, or you think you've been seeing Christ, understanding who he is better, wanting to follow him and love him, then continue trust him. Because the kingdom of God is here. He has come. We're waiting to him to come again.
[00:14:49] So open your eyes, attune your ears, and hear his word.
[00:14:54] He has come.
[00:14:57] Many of you likely can relate to hearing the gospel countless times before you were converted. Why is that the case? Do you hear the gospel many times? Or at least you're sure you heard it many times, but you never really thought about it. It didn't really do anything in you for years and years. That was true for me and I was converted at a young age. I'd heard it countless times before. Why?
[00:15:21] The gospel and its redemption logic did not change.
[00:15:25] It stayed the same.
[00:15:27] Something in you changed.
[00:15:30] You were made able to see it. You were born again so you could see and understand and appreciate and love the beauty of Christ.
[00:15:40] This is why we pray for the lost to be saved. Because we know that God can do something about it. Because only he can give new birth.
[00:15:49] We cannot give ourselves new birth.
[00:15:54] Now, how can such a prayer look a prayer for the lost?
[00:15:57] This is certainly a good application for us to draw. Well, you can pray for the lost during your quiet times, before you go to bed, on your way to school, while you shower or get ready for the day, you can find times to pray for the lost.
[00:16:13] And so get to praying.
[00:16:17] Pray, because new birth is for those who can see the kingdom of God.
[00:16:24] Point number two, New birth is for the entering, the entering.
[00:16:29] So without eyes to see, given by the Spirit, we cannot see the kingdom. Well, now verses 5 through 8, we learn more about this new birth. To enter the kingdom. This is what happens. The Spirit gives you a new birth. It's distinct altogether. He explains. What is flesh is flesh.
[00:16:46] What is physical is physical. What is spirit is the Spirit. Thus the spiritual birth is holy or completely different and other, as Jimmy Carter says, it's a new life.
[00:16:58] It is not the same. It is something totally new.
[00:17:03] As an analogy, we see in these verses references to water and spirit and wind and breath. Right? You see those verses 5 through 8? I think this points to a number of places. One is again Isaiah 44, 3, 5, which says, for I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
[00:17:29] They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.
[00:17:33] This one will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand the Lord's and name himself by the name of Israel.
[00:17:44] So water and breath both represent life in the Bible.
[00:17:49] Not every time, but often we see a connection between life and water, life and definitely breath all through the Scripture. For example, God breathes life into Adam and Eve with his breath and water. While again often a sign of judgment, like in the flood, also brings life and salvation through it.
[00:18:09] For example, baptism signifies new life in Christ.
[00:18:13] So also note here that spirit, breath and wind words that are used here are all possible translations of the same word. So I think in verse 8 what John is doing is he's using intentional wordplay to make a point.
[00:18:27] He's using the same word to refer to different things. He's trying to draw this connection between the wind and the Spirit.
[00:18:36] The wind blows and is mysterious. Can you see the wind?
[00:18:39] No, you can't see the wind, but you can see its effects.
[00:18:44] We can see its fruit. We see the trees wave. We feel the cool breeze on a summer's night. If it's dusty, we can see the dust blowing, but we cannot see the the wind itself.
[00:18:55] But we know it's there. We know it's doing something.
[00:18:59] And so likewise, we cannot see the Spirit, but we cannot deny his work. We can see him work, we can see him do things. We can see the fruit of the Spirit, the works of the Spirit.
[00:19:13] And Nicodemus cannot deny the work of the Spirit through Christ, though he fails to see it.
[00:19:20] Thus, as verse 5 says, you must not only be born physically, but also spiritually to enter the kingdom of God.
[00:19:29] Regeneration, being made new, is required to be saved.
[00:19:34] Now we do not have to do this on our own. We can't do anything to earn our salvation. It's a free gift. There are no conditions we have to meet.
[00:19:43] But this isn't because God has no status standards, is because he's holy.
[00:19:48] He is gracious.
[00:19:50] He meets the standards. He fulfills the conditions. He gives the new birth that we need.
[00:19:57] He gives it to us. The new birth is completely God's work.
[00:20:03] Those of you who have been made new in Christ, you can then rejoice that God has done such a thing. He has done the work.
[00:20:12] Christ died, he rose again and ascended. He covered your sin and paid for it. He declared victory over death and he rules now from heaven.
[00:20:23] He met the conditions for you so that you may not only see, but also enter the kingdom of God.
[00:20:33] New birth is for the entering, and we enter through faith.
[00:20:39] Point 3. Then new birth shows us the lifted up one.
[00:20:45] Who is Christ? New birth shows us the lifted up one.
[00:20:50] So if you look, you see verse nine.
[00:20:53] Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? This records the last part of the scene that Nicodemus has mentioned. These are his last words, words of misunderstanding.
[00:21:05] And from here on out, he doesn't matter to the story because the focus is on the Lord's words.
[00:21:11] Jesus then, referring to himself and the apostles, says that they are bearing witness to what they have known and what they have seen.
[00:21:20] Jesus has been revealed to his followers in a way unlike how he has been seen by the Pharisees. Remember from chapter 1 2, how his disciples believed. And they believed genuinely, but the others believed superficially.
[00:21:37] This is why, as we've seen, Nicodemus doesn't get it, this superficial faith.
[00:21:44] So Jesus then says that there's no way that he'll understand heavenly things if he can't understand the earthly things.
[00:21:53] Now, this can be confusing, right? He's talking about being born again. How is this an earthly thing? Well, what Jesus is saying is that conversion or being made new or generation is an earthly thing. That's what he's saying.
[00:22:07] Earthly doesn't have to mean sinful. That's not what he means in this case. It's earthly because it happens within created human beings. It literally happens to you if you're in Christ.
[00:22:20] But the heavenly things are what Jesus begins to say, speak about.
[00:22:25] Which, as we can see, has more to do with how Christ covers sins. Christ's atonements.
[00:22:33] Jesus dies on behalf of sinners on the cross. It's heavenly because it happens between Christ and God, between Father and Son in the Spirit.
[00:22:43] It is this satisfaction of a penalty that we deserve. The wrath of God being satisfied by being poured out on Christ. This is a heavenly thing, which is what Jesus turns to. This atonement is God's work also, all the way through.
[00:23:01] So how does Jesus turn to his atoning? The covering of sin. That's what that word means, his atoning work on the cross. Well, he calls us to remember numbers.
[00:23:12] Not individual numbers, but the Book of Numbers. You guys know the Book of Numbers?
[00:23:18] Your favorite book.
[00:23:20] It actually is good.
[00:23:21] Specifically, numbers 214 9. We're not going to read those now, but you can read it later. You probably know the story if you've been in church for a while. Numbers 21:4 9.
[00:23:33] So Israel in this passage, complained against God to Moses. And so as a punishment for their wickedness, God sent fiery serpents which were biting and killing them, which is not good.
[00:23:50] But God interceded to save them.
[00:23:53] 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.
[00:24:04] Jesus is referring to this story.
[00:24:07] And in the same way, the Son of man, Jesus, would be lifted up on a cross, a pole, like this fiery serpent, so all who look on it would be healed.
[00:24:20] And so what do we do with this?
[00:24:22] Again, it's simple. We look to the cross.
[00:24:26] We see Jesus hanging there enduring God's wrath. And we believe in him and his work. We have faith in him that this work he's doing would be Applied to you through the Spirit.
[00:24:39] There's no other way that you can be saved from the fiery serpents and judgment unless your sins are taken by Christ on the cross. That is the only way. And when you look to him in faith, the bite of the serpent is nullified by his work.
[00:24:57] It no longer kills you. It cannot. It's done. The serpent from the garden is crushed.
[00:25:05] Christ has been up there in heaven. He came down, was made flesh. He was lifted up again on a cross. He then rose up from the grave and finally went up into heaven where he is now.
[00:25:19] Jesus knows the heavenly things he does because he's accomplished them. And he has been there. He has been up.
[00:25:27] And so as we think about new birth, we look to the lifted up one. We look up to him in heaven.
[00:25:34] We need to look up to the cross.
[00:25:37] How can you look up to the cross?
[00:25:40] You can be more. In fact, you must be more amazed by grace than your sin.
[00:25:47] Be much more amazed by grace than your sin.
[00:25:51] We often don't want to confess our sins. We don't want to bring them to Christ. Sometimes we put off believing until we can make our lives look a little better.
[00:25:59] That is just elevating your sin over Christ's work. He can handle it no matter what it is.
[00:26:06] We also shouldn't beat up ourselves over sin.
[00:26:10] We should hate our sin.
[00:26:13] We should repent of it. We must. But we should always be more amazed at the grace of God in Christ crucified, whose love is demonstrated in his death, even while we were still sinners.
[00:26:28] Richard Sibbes reminds us he's a Christian from a long time ago.
[00:26:33] There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.
[00:26:38] There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. And that is true.
[00:26:43] That's what we remember when we look to the cross.
[00:26:46] Another thing we can do as others confess sin to you. If you have that relationship with someone, point them to the cross always.
[00:26:55] Even if someone has offended you, forgive them and point them to the cross.
[00:27:01] If Christ has forgiven your sins, he can forgive the sins that are done against you.
[00:27:09] And then the final point of the sermon answers this question. Why did God do this?
[00:27:14] New birth results in eternal life is point number four. New birth results in eternal life.
[00:27:22] In John 3:16, I'll read again. Says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
[00:27:36] The one and only Son, or the only begotten Son, God the Father, out of his love for the world, sent not just a Son but the Son, his only begotten Son, God himself became man. And whoever believes in him shall live eternally. And that is the result of the new birth. We must believe in Him.
[00:28:04] And then there are these three truths in these final verses to give your attention to that I want to bring up. The first is that Christ's first coming was for salvation, not condemnation.
[00:28:19] Christ's first coming was for salvation, not condemnation.
[00:28:24] See that in verse 17.
[00:28:27] I remember. Maybe you can relate to this occasionally tattling on my siblings growing up and getting absolutely nailed for it by my parents.
[00:28:41] You know, I can remember times sitting there smugly waiting for my brother or sister to be punished.
[00:28:49] But to my surprise, my parents fury turned towards me.
[00:28:55] They didn't ignore them, but they turned to me.
[00:28:58] What I hadn't learned as a child was that my heart was not pure in tattling. I wasn't trying to seek justice.
[00:29:06] I just wanted vengeance on my older siblings.
[00:29:10] Thus I was stunned that I too was in the wrong and deserving of punishment.
[00:29:17] I think that this feeling must have been sort of what the Israelites, like Nicodemus experienced with Jesus and even in the early church.
[00:29:30] So they anticipated a messianic figure, a Messiah to come that was going to come in, destroy their enemies, free them, but not save their enemies.
[00:29:41] Not save them? No. Jesus condemned them.
[00:29:46] They hate you. Don't save them.
[00:29:49] But what does this verse tell us? God loves the world.
[00:29:54] He loves the world, his precious creation and the bejeweled crown of his creation, humans. He loves people.
[00:30:02] He loves the world.
[00:30:05] That's why he came.
[00:30:07] That the world might be saved through Him.
[00:30:11] But that's not the end of the story. The story is still going. We await his second coming. And his second coming will be marked by judgment. It will be different.
[00:30:20] He came that first time to be a light, to present the kingdom of God and to offer Himself as the ultimate sacrifice able to save any sinner from future condemnation.
[00:30:31] This is why Paul writes in Romans 8:1, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The condemnation is gone in him.
[00:30:40] Some Jews thought the Messiah was for them only.
[00:30:43] But the Word is clear.
[00:30:45] The call of the gospel should be proclaimed to all people, to the world, because God so loved the world.
[00:30:53] John 3:16 shows us God's heart in that whoever believes can have eternal life.
[00:31:00] Whoever believes has eternal life.
[00:31:04] There are all these debates about this, and it's not that they're irrelevant, but I find it helpful.
[00:31:09] Then a man named J.C. ryle said, it is a mere waste of time to be constantly asking ourselves whether God loves us and whether Christ died for us. The Bible never tells men to look at these questions, but commands them to believe.
[00:31:23] Salvation, the Bible always teaches, does not turn on the point, did Christ die for me? But on the point, do I believe on Christ now? He says it's not because the Bible doesn't teach us these things, but rather the Bible emphasizes that you must believe in Christ. And that is definitely what John is emphasizing in his gospel. Believe in the Word made flesh. Have eternal life.
[00:31:49] That is why Christ came the first time. For salvation.
[00:31:54] The second truth from these verses. See this in verse 18.
[00:31:59] Unbelief is the unpardonable sin.
[00:32:05] If you believe in him this day, your condemnation is abolished, cut down and destroyed. There are no conditions that you have to meet beforehand either. We've mentioned this.
[00:32:18] Romans 5, 8 tells us that Christ died while we were still sinners. It wasn't because we weren't sinners anymore. We were still sinners when Christ died.
[00:32:28] But lack of belief shall not be forgiven.
[00:32:34] That's what we see in verse 18.
[00:32:37] It says, whoever does not believe is condemned already.
[00:32:41] Already condemned.
[00:32:44] This is pointing us to the fact that we are not naturally good or worthy or acceptable. We're not born good and then we become bad over time. When we are born bad. That's how you could be condemned already.
[00:32:59] To not believe is just to continue in your rebellion against the God of love. It is not a neutral thing. It's not. I'm waiting. I don't know if I want to believe and go. You have already decided. If that's the case.
[00:33:14] That doesn't mean you hang up the hats. You can still turn to Christ.
[00:33:18] But if you do not believe you, you are condemned already.
[00:33:23] Such rejection of God's gracious and free salvation shall not be pardoned or forgiven in the judgment of Christ's second coming.
[00:33:33] And as we can see, God's judgment foretold in how sinners react to the gospel. This is what we see the third truth from these verses. Sinners hide from God. Verses 19 to 21 we see the sinners hide from. From God.
[00:33:49] Who has dogs?
[00:33:50] Who has dogs?
[00:33:53] I'm allergic to dogs.
[00:33:55] So we don't have dogs.
[00:33:57] You know something about dogs? They're the worst liars.
[00:34:01] Is this true? They're the worst liars.
[00:34:04] And they do lie, but they're bad at it.
[00:34:07] In my childhood, dogs would frequently, you know, like normal dogs, get into the trash, eat things off the counter, pee in the house, vomit everywhere, tear something up.
[00:34:18] And what do they do once you notice?
[00:34:21] They tuck their tail, their head, their shoulders. They maybe go into a corner. They hide.
[00:34:28] They know. It's like they know this is bad, I'm in trouble.
[00:34:34] They do what Adam and Eve did after they sinned against God. They hid. They hide from their Master.
[00:34:41] They're ashamed of what they've done in a way. I don't know how much shame dogs feel, but Adam and Eve did.
[00:34:49] Those who do not believe reveal their guilt and sin and shame and their future judgment by their hatred of the Lord and Master.
[00:35:00] The light in verse 19 is Christ.
[00:35:03] Remember, John says in 1:5, the light shines in the darkness and and the darkness has not overcome it.
[00:35:10] The light of life. Jesus lives.
[00:35:13] Sinners who do not believe in the light don't like having their evil hearts exposed.
[00:35:19] They naturally hide them like a dog its tail.
[00:35:23] But God sees our sins. Remember, we're from Psalm 90. Our secret sins even are clear to him.
[00:35:31] So have you been born again of the Spirit?
[00:35:35] Have you believed in Christ?
[00:35:37] How do you react to the light that reveals your sin? Do you run away from it? Do you try to build up more walls to hide from the light? Or do you come near? Open Living a life of repentance.
[00:35:52] Students, confess your sins to God.
[00:35:56] Bring your sins to the light.
[00:36:01] Especially if you're a Christian. Bring your sins to the light.
[00:36:04] You cannot be truly assured of your salvation without genuine repentance in your life.
[00:36:11] Because the more sins you cover up, the more darkness you're inviting in.
[00:36:16] You're living in the darkness, not in the light. And Christians live in the light.
[00:36:20] That's where we live.
[00:36:22] So you must be born again by the Spirit.
[00:36:25] It is God's work alone that can save you. So what do you do?
[00:36:29] Do you hear the good news?
[00:36:31] Then believe it.
[00:36:33] Do you see the kingdom of God?
[00:36:35] Then enter it. Turn from your sinful ways and believe in Christ.
[00:36:40] Trust his love and his perfect works of righteousness and his death on the cross and his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. The work of the Spirit.
[00:36:50] His new birth is mysterious.
[00:36:53] It's like the wind.
[00:36:55] But your responsibility to repent and believe is clear.
[00:37:00] New birth by the Spirit is how God brings this salvation to a person. And all who are saved are kept by him through their faith. Let's pray.
[00:37:13] Oh God, we praise you that you are a God who loves the world, that all who believe in you will be saved and can be sure of that. Lord, we praise you for this wonderful gift of grace that we do not deserve. We have not merited Lord, help us to bring our sins to the light.
[00:37:29] Help us to hate them as you hate them.
[00:37:32] And, Lord, may you bring new birth to those who need it. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.
