The Rejection of the New Birth part 1

Thanks Keith. Well, it is good to see everyone this morning. It's good to worship through song sing truth. I think you know by now we're going to sing truth and learn truth in music and sing our testimony so much and I appreciate Keith's efforts and his ability and what God's taught us and how God's taught us to worship through song. It always blesses me and encourages me and edifies me and I pray that it does the same for you. Take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the Gospel of John. John chapter 3. We are continuing in our series Christ the Son of God. Believe and live.

Now at the onset of the series I told you and I've repeated it numerous times John's purpose in writing this gospel. First of all, he was trying to correct erroneous views and teaching on who Christ was. He was establishing proper Christology. There were those who were teaching in the lives of the churches. They're in Ephesus and some of the surrounding churches. A faulty view of Christ. But John's purpose also was to evangelize and that's why when we get into somewhere like John chapter 3 we see how John has this desire that those who are without Christ may see Christ, hear Christ, and know and believe in Him.

That's why we have this title of the series Christ the Son of God. Believe and live. Now this morning, excuse me, this morning we will be in verses 11 through 21. Again, we're still in John chapter 3 and in our verses this morning we are transitioning from this one-on-one meeting between Nicodemus and Jesus and we are transitioning from that and His response to the teaching on the new birth and in our getting into these verses you will notice that the language shifts in a couple of different ways. First, Jesus changes from speaking directly to Nicodemus to speaking of the Jews as well.

I ran across something that Warren Wearsby says that really grabs what Jesus is doing. Wearsby says Jesus had been involved in a dialogue. That's a one-on-one conversation and now he moves to what is called a monologue. In other words, he does not have just a one-person audience. He's speaking to Nicodemus and also he's speaking about many others, the Jews. But second in the language, you will see a shift from I to we. All through verses 1 through 10 Jesus has said I. Verse 3, verse 5, verse 7. Jesus used the word I in talking with Nicodemus.

Now in verses 11 through 21, which are a one portion of Scripture connected to verses 1 through 10, Jesus shifts from I, we have an I in verse 11, to we all throughout the text and Jesus is speaking of himself. He's speaking of his disciples and some Bible commentators say he's even speaking of John the Baptist. So what am I wanting you to see? Verses 11 through 21 are connected to verses 1 through 10, but there is a shift. There is a change. It's not just this one-on-one conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.

Jesus takes a step back and he speaks about Nicodemus, but the Jews as well, and then he includes those who were part of his following. He moves from I to we. Now, not only do we see this change in language, but we see Jesus revealing Nicodemus' rejection of the teaching on the new birth. Remember the title of the message from verses 1 through 10. It was the mystery of the new birth. We had three messages that communicated that one message and Jesus reveals from verses 11 through 21, Nicodemus' rejection of this teaching, but also the rejection by the Jews as well. This is really a two-sided story.

Verses 1 through 10, Jesus offers to Nicodemus this new birth and in verses 11 through 21, we see Nicodemus' rejection of this new birth. This is basically a classic response of an unbeliever to the gospel. We've seen it in Jesus' day and we're seeing it in our day. And so the verses that are before us are verses 11 through 21. And I will give you the title of the message. It's the rejection of the new birth, the rejection of the new birth. And you see how we're going to break this text down.

We're going to look at the exposure of unbelief, the exposure of unbelief, the answer to unbelief, and the ramifications or the consequences, if you like that word, of unbelief, the exposure, the answers and the ramifications of this unbelief. Now, because of time and the amount of truth that is before us, we will break this down into a part one and part two. This morning we will deal with main truth number one and number two. And then the next time we meet, I will deal with the third main truth, the ramifications and some other truth that tie all of these messages together. So I hope you're taking notes. I trust that you do.

I always encourage you to do that so that you could be a good steward of the truth that the Lord gives you. You can study and pray over the truth and allow the Lord to just sink it down deep into your heart and mind. So let's go to the verses together. And again, this is part of that one through ten, verses one through ten teaching. "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know and bear witness of that which we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

And no one is ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." Verse 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged.

He who does not believe has been judged already because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment that the light is come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come into the light, least his deeds should be exposed. But he who practiced the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." Now I told you we will be in a first portion of these verses and we will this morning deal with verses 11 on now to verse 17.

So let's take main truth number two and I want us to see the exposure of unbelief out of verse 11 and 12. "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know and bear witness of that which we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things, you do not believe. How shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" Jesus was not only interested in revealing the truths of the new birth to Nicodemus, he also wanted to expose Nicodemus for who he was. It was not enough for Nicodemus to hear the message of the new birth.

He desperately needed to know and understand his own condition and Jesus is exposing an unbelief in Nicodemus and the Jews. Let's notice a few things out of this verse. First, notice Jesus' truthfulness. Notice Jesus' truthfulness. Look at verse 11, "Truly, truly, I say to you." Now we are familiar with this language, "Truly, truly." We've seen it in other places. If you look at all of these verses, three times Jesus uses this language. Verse 3, verse 5, and right here in verse 11. Now the King James reads verily, verily. The modern translations read truly, truly. The Holman Christian Standard, it reads, "I assure you." What is this language?

We need to see this. This is simply Jesus affirming the serious nature of the truth that is at hand. We must understand that everything Jesus ever taught was true, was necessary, and deemed our attention. But he is communicating the very serious nature of the subject at hand. It's almost like Jesus is saying, "Listen, everything I've always taught you is true and you need to listen, but guys you really need to listen to this. Nicodemus, you really need to step up and listen to this." This is the serious nature of this message. I've told you before I've heard people say that Jesus only taught like this one time in John chapter 3.

So they minimize the importance of this teaching. That is the very opposite of what Jesus did, and that's why he says, "Truly, truly, verily, amen and amen." This is the truthfulness of the message. The second thing, notice Jesus and their experience. Jesus and their experience. The language here is pluralistic. We and our. Go back to the verse, "Truly, truly, I say to you, now Jesus shifts. We speak of that which we know and bear witness of that which we have seen." Notice how the language changes. Jesus is speaking of their experience. This experience of belief. And there are two key words here. Know and sing.

This speaks of a firsthand knowledge, a personal experience that they could relate to. But notice the third thing, their unbelief. Look at the end of verse 11. He says, "You do not receive our witness." Who's witness? His witness. The disciples' witness. Some say even John the Baptist's witness. But what is he saying? You do not receive our witness. If I told you of earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Notice their unbelief. But notice the language. It is pluralistic. You do not receive our witness.

What we see is Jesus is stepping back and he's speaking about Nicodemus but also the Jews. This indicates that he has broadened his target audience. But notice how Jesus destroys Nicodemus' position. He says to him, "You can't understand earthly teaching, so how can you understand heavenly truth?" This is a great exposure of Nicodemus' unbelief and the unbelief of those Jews, some who were professing to know and follow Christ we saw previously. This is their unbelief and he is exposing that unbelief. Now Jesus is doing two things here in this teaching. First he is exposing Nicodemus. Now notice his meaningless profession earlier.

Remember in verse 2, back in the beginning of chapter 3, what does he say? "Rabbi, we know that you have come from God." And remember when we talked about Nicodemus' investigation, I explained to you that he did have a noble heart and that is true. But just because his heart is noble, it does not mean that his heart is right with God. And Jesus is exposing Nicodemus' meaningless profession. He confessed Jesus was a teacher. He confessed that Jesus came from God. But that does not mean that he is right with God. Second, he is revealing the unbelief of Israel, the Jews as well. They rejected the Messiah on the whole.

There were some that did believe, yes. But what do we see? Jesus is revealing their unbelief. He is exposing it. He is uncovering it. And especially Nicodemus, because did he not come with some of the right, some right words? Truth? Yes. You're a great teacher from God. Many people might have logically deducted, "Hey, this Nicodemus must be a follower of Christ." And Jesus, what is he doing? He's saying, "No, your profession is nothing but unbelief." And I want you to see something. And you must understand this very well. Any confession which falls short of the new birth is unbelief. Let me repeat that.

Any confession that falls short of the new birth is unbelief. Because Nicodemus says, "You're a teacher. You are from God." Is that true? Yes. That is a right profession. Yes. But that does not indicate that he had been born from above. And Jesus is exposing this shallow, superficial faith. And see, we must see that there are people in the life of our churches. They've made professions of faith. They've asked Jesus into their heart. They've committed their life to Christ, but that does not indicate that they have been born from above. And we must understand that. There are throngs of people in the life of our church.

They're exactly like Nicodemus. They do things right on the outside. They have the right professions, but they do not have a new heart. They've not been born from above. Remember the illustration of the wind? The wind of the Spirit of God is not blown through their life and done what only God can do. See, that was Nicodemus' problem. And we must understand that our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, our spouses, our children, our neighbors, our friends, many of them have the right words. They make the right professions, but they've not been born from above because they are not a new creature.

The power of God does not reside in their life. They've not been born anew. And let me tell you something. Nobody, nobody, led an impeccable external life like Nicodemus. No fault. Impeccable in his religion, but yet he had not been born from above. This was an exposure of his unbelief. Remember how I said previously that he unloaded the wagon and he did not placate him in any way. He went right to the heart of the nature and that's exactly what he does right here. He says, "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how should you believe if I give you heavenly things?" Unbelief.

I want us to move on and I want us to see the second main truth and that is the answer to unbelief. The answer to unbelief. This is how we can solve and deal with this unbelief. Let's look at verse 13. "And no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, even the Son of man." That's Jesus. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of God be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." We know this verse, verse 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him." Now remember I told you previously in verses 1 through 10 that Nicodemus should have understood what Jesus taught in light of his Old Testament understanding and knowledge. That's what's taking place here. Jesus is going all the way back to the Old Testament and Jesus is offering Nicodemus the new birth in light of teaching from the Old Testament. But yet because of his unbelief, because of his shallow superficial profession, he cannot understand. But Jesus is giving him the answer to the problem of his unbelief.

Now we're going to notice several things out of these verses. First, notice the authority of Christ, the authority of Christ. Look at verse 13, "And no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man." That's Jesus. Now what is he talking about? Nicodemus needed to see the complete authority of Christ. Christ is saying that no man can go up to heaven and therefore no man can speak with authority about heavenly things apart from Christ. Christ came from heaven as the Son of God, therefore he has complete authority in speaking of heavenly matters. Now question, what about Paul?

Remember that verse in chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians verse 2, when Paul speaks about this experience of being caught up into paradise or caught up in the heaven. Remember he says, "I don't know if I was in the body or out of the body, but I do know, God knows, but I was caught up and I saw these great heavenly things." Now how does that fit in line with what Jesus said? Paul was able to experience the great vision he had because of Christ's authority. Christ enabled him to see and understand what he saw in glory for Christ and for the kingdom work and for the purpose of the gospel.

But still even in that we see that it is Christ who has supreme authority. The only way Paul could see what he saw was because of Christ. And what do we see? This is the supreme authority of Christ and Nicodemus needed to see this desperately. Second, notice the sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ. Look at verse 14 and 15. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and whoever believes in him may have eternal life." Now these verses are very important in understanding context.

Remember, I've said it earlier, Jesus expected Nicodemus to understand this teaching in light of the Old Testament. So Jesus was going all the way back to the Old Testament. And I want you to notice some things about this sacrifice of Christ. First, there is the Old Testament teaching of the serpent on the pole. Isn't that what Jesus is talking about here? Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. That is a reference of in Numbers chapter 21 verses 5 through 9. Let me summarize what is taking place.

The children of Israel, the Jews, they were rebelling against God, they were rebelling against Moses, and they were grumbling about his leadership. After they left Egypt, they tested God 10 times, and this is part of them testing God and testing Moses. So what does God do? God breaks out in judgment against them, and there were vipers that bit the people. But what did Moses do? He intercedes on their behalf, and God tells Moses to fashion a serpent out of bronze and put it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten by the serpent, the viper, will look at the serpent on the pole, they will be healed.

There were some who did, and they were healed, and there were some who didn't, and they died. Now what is that a picture of? That is nothing more than an Old Testament picture of Christ. Jesus was lifted up as a serpent on a pole. We have been bitten by sin and the nature that we have inherited from Adam, and mankind without Christ is doomed to die, and the only way we can be redeemed is to look towards Christ, and what we see is there is the Old Testament teaching of the serpent on the pole, which is a picture of Christ. Go back to the verse.

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," notice how Jesus ties them together, "even so the Son of Man must be lifted up." But then notice in this sacrifice of Christ, there is the necessity of Christ's sacrifice. Go back to the verse. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so," now notice this word, "must." Must the Son of God be lifted up. This word must places an emphasis on Christ going to the cross, and all of the translations from the King James on down say the very same thing. So what am I trying to show you? Notice the sacrifice of Christ.

It was spoken of and prophesied about all the way back to the days of Moses, and it was going to take place as Jesus said it would. This is the sacrifice of Christ. Now third, notice the offer of eternal life. We see the authority of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ, and now notice the offer of eternal life. Go back to the verse. "And so Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," now notice verse 15, "that whoever believes may in him have eternal life." This is the offer of eternal life, and listen, this hinges eternal life on biblical belief. Have we not studied biblical belief before?

This is not some intellectual assent. Intellectual assent will not do. Jesus has already said you must be born from above. It's not a profession that you make. One of the resources I use is a gentleman named Vincent. He did a volume called "Vincent's Word Studies Years ago." It's a very helpful tool, and I've given you this quotation about biblical belief, and it is extremely, extremely good.

Vincent says to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of his historic life or of his saving energy as facts, but to accept him as Savior, Teacher, Sympathizer, Judge, to rest the soul upon him for present and future salvation, and to accept and adopt his precepts, and example, now notice, as binding upon the life. That's what that word belief means. It's not intellectual belief. It is binding our life to Christ. It is receiving him as Teacher, Savior, Sympathizer, and Judge, the Lord of all from this day forward. That's biblical belief. This is the offer of eternal life. The fourth thing, notice the love of God.

Notice the love of God. Look at verse 16. "For God sold up the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Verse 17. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him." Now this is the love of God. So notice the the answer to the unbelief, the authority of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ, the offer of eternal life, and now we notice the love of God. Let's break these verses down. First, there is the love of the Father. Verse 16.

"For God so loved the world." This language is clear here that God the Father loved, and he still does. He loved the sinful world, and we must realize that there are three applications for the word world in the New Testament. First, the word world applies to the physical world. Second, the word world applies to the evil world system, which is anti-God, anti-bible, anti-man. And the third application of the word world is the world of humanity. Lost and evil humanity. That's exactly the object of this love. "For God so loved the world." That's lost humanity. I like what MacArthur says about this.

"The free offer of the gospel is broad enough to encompass the violence of sinners." Yes, this is offered to the world. "For God so loved the world." Then there is eternal life through the Son. Eternal life through the Son. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in who?" In Him. Again, remember what Vincent said. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe in facts or of this historical life, or of his saving energy as facts, but to accept Him as Savior, Teacher, sympathizer, judge. To rest one's soul upon Him for present and future salvation.

To accept and to adopt His precepts, His examples, and binding upon one's life. This is the eternal life that is offered through the Son. Then there is eternal life that is secure. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish." Shall not perish. This phrase should not perish is important. Every translation that we look at basically says the same thing. This speaks of salvation which cannot and never will be lost. When one is truly born from above, they will not perish. Now, I want to be careful here.

There are many people in the life of the church and in our culture who profess Christ, but they've never been born again, and those are our cultural Christians. They will perish. But those who are born from above, they have believed on the the offer of God from on the God the Father of the Son, and they will not perish. This is the doctrine of eternal security. Then there is salvation through the Son. Look at verse 17. "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him." This verse tells of Jesus' role in coming the first time. He did not come to judge but to save.

Luke 19.10 says, "For the Son of man came to do what? To seek and save that which was lost." Jesus will come as judge when he returns the second time, but when he came the first time, he came to die, he came to save, he did not come to judge. And when he comes again, that window of grace, that window of opportunity will be closed, and he will come as judge. But what do we see? There is salvation through the Son. This is the answer to that unbelief. We have the authority of Christ, we have the sacrifice of Christ, we have the offer of eternal life, and we have the love of God. And that is the answer to Nicodemus and the Jews unbelief.

And we are seeing Jesus offer an answer to their problem, an answer to their unbelief. This is part of the new birth message. God love lost humanity so much that he gave his only. That is his unique one-of-a-kind son to offer this new birth through his death. This is the offer of eternal life. Now for us, we must understand the only answer for those who are in their state of unbelief is, listen, belief being born again, being born from above through the Son of God, through Jesus. There is no intellectual assent. There is no partial knowledge that will get us there. External religion will not work. That was Nicodemus' problem.

He had an external religion and he had a partial profession and listen, that would not save. This is not a commitment that one makes. This is not asking Jesus into your heart. This is not even praying the sinner's prayer. It is believing in what only God can do upon a wonderful invitation by God. That is the offer to this problem. That is Jesus giving an answer to their unbelief. Now as we move from the text and we begin to conclude, Nicodemus and the Jews were at a place of unbelief. We know at the Passover there were these crowds who profess to know Christ and no doubt many of them had been following him.

They had the law, they had the prophets, yet they did not understand the things of heaven. You know what Jesus said in Nicodemus? I give you earthly teaching, how can you receive heavenly teaching? They had the traditions, they had the rules, they had the standards of the elders, yet they had no new life in them. It was all externals. And listen, people in the church today are just like Nicodemus and the Jews in that day. External religion with no change in one's heart or life. And listen, externals with no power of the Spirit which changes one's actual being is not being born again and made right with God.

The power of God changes and makes one new. And as we move towards the conclusion, I want to leave you with three words, easy words to remember out of verse 12, verse 15, and verse 16. What do we see? Believe, believes, believes. If we continue on down to verse 21, we'll notice that seven times Jesus uses this word believe or some form of believe. What are we seeing in that? That is the title of the message. They have rejected the new birth. They did not believe. But yet we do know that there were some who did. And we do know that Nicodemus did believe because he was identified with the people of God later.

He was identified with the death and burial and resurrection of Christ. And we do believe that he did come to a place of belief. And that's what we see. Jesus is offering, listen, belief in Christ, belief in himself, belief in what he would do on the cross. But right here in this text, Nicodemus, these Jews were rejecting and rejecting and refusing and hardening their hearts and stiffening their necks and refusing and rejecting. This is a rejection of the new birth people. But all along what is Jesus doing? Invitation after invitation after invitation. Believe, believe, believe. What does he do?

He goes through the whole plan of what he's going to do. He's going to the cross. Moses spoke about it. It's the invitation of the new birth. Isn't that wonderful? So what do we see? The rejection of the new birth.