SALVATION OFFERED

SEPTEMBER 22, 2013 

·         Those who are without Christ are without spiritual light.

·         They lie in darkness, void of spiritual light.

·         They are full of errors.

·         God is withdrawn from the unsaved and they wander and stumble upon Satan's snares.

·         They are void of true peace and comfort. 

ARE YOU INTERESTED? (JOHN 3:1-3)

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Him by night, and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." 3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."     NASB 

Verse 1:

·         For Nicodemus to come to Jesus was evidence that some of the Pharisees, however much the malice of other of their number might be, believe that He was working the works of God.

·         So great is the excellency of Christ, that He can convert and draw in the greatest of His enemies whenever He pleases.

·         Even haters and persecutors of Christ may be so convinced of His excellency that they will be forced to see God shining in it.

·         As their representative, Nicodemus demonstrated that the Sanhedrim was void of spiritual discernment and had no understanding in the things of God.

Verse 2:

·         Often, great worldly positions, honor and credit from men prove to be great snares to prevent men from coming to Christ.

·         Nicodemus came to Jesus by night so as not to be seen, perhaps for fear of losing his place and reputation with the rest of the Pharisees.

·         As no bad motive is imputed to him, it is most in accordance with Christian charity to suppose that his motives were such as God would approve, especially since the Saviour did not reprove him.

·         Nicodemus was willing to be instructed.

Verse 3:

·         Jesus had supreme spiritual discernment.

·         He not only cut away all the human trappings and told His listeners what they needed to know!

·         In this verse Christ begins with Nicodemus at the first principles of Christianity by teaching the necessity that all men should have a change by regeneration if they would enjoy the kingdom of God.

·         He emphasized what He was about to say with a strong affirmation, denoting the certainty and the importance of what He is about to say.

·         By teaching this doctrine, we see that Nicodemus is discovering his danger of perishing, so that he will be spiritually motivated to be teachable.

·         The force of what Christ was saying to Nicodemus was.....Except a man be born again, he cannot come to know the things of God or even be a part of it! 

DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS? (JOHN 3:4-9)

4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"     NASB 

Verse 4:

·         Nicodemus immediately dropped the condescending mask of the Pharisee and asked how this could be.

·         The reason he had to ask is that he had no spiritual capacity to comprehend what the Lord Jesus was telling him.

·         Human nature is so far from grace that it not only does not have it but is even ignorant of it and the way of its working.

·         This verse teaches that people may know many things about religion and yet be ignorant of the matter of soul change.

·         It is a great part of the corruption of the judgment on the original sin, which we all bear, that we will cast spiritual things in a carnal mold, and will not believe what cannot be naturally reasoned.

·         It may seem remarkable that Nicodemus understood the Saviour literally, when the expression "to be born again" was in common use among the Jews to denote a change from "Gentilism" to "Judaism" by becoming a proselyte by "baptism."

·         The word with them meant a change from the state of a heathen to that of a Jew.

·         But they never used it as applicable to a Jew, because they supposed that by their birth every Jew was entitled to all the privileges of the chosen people of God.

Verse 5:

·         Jesus wasn't talking about the difference between natural birth and spiritual birth, but He was talking about "HOW" a person could be born "from above" or "born again."

·         Water refers to the Holy Spirit. 

Luke 3:16

16 John answered and said to them all, "As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.     NASB 

John 14:26

 26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.     NASB 

·         A person must be born again by the Holy Spirit using the Scripture.

·         No one can be born again without the Word of God applied by the Spirit of God, making it real to the sinner's heart. 

Romans 10:17

 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.     NASB 

Ephesians 5:25-27

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; 26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.     NASB 

1 Peter 1:22-23

22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.     NASB 

Verse 6:

·         The Lord is directing the attention of Nicodemus to the natural condition of man as he is by nature, from the moment of his birth.

·         Jesus tells him that even if a man could be born when he was old it would not answer any valuable purpose, for the man would still have the same fleshly weaknesses and passions.

·         God does not intend to save the flesh at all.

·         This old nature must be replaced by the new nature.

·         The spiritual birth is necessary so that we may be given a new nature.

Verse 7:

·         It is not the removal of anything from the sinner.

·         It is not the changing of anything within the sinner.

·         It is the imparting of something new to the sinner!

·         The new birth is the imparting of a new nature.

·         The old nature is still there and will be there throughout the life of this body.

·         But the day will come when the Lord will return and give us a new body that matches our new nature.

Verse 8:

·         Nicodemus was puzzled about the doctrine of the "new birth" because he did not understand how it could be.

·         Nicodemus was trying to understand with his intellect the new birth rather than accepting it by faith.

·         Jesus shows him that he ought not to reject it on that account, for he constantly believed things just as difficult.

Verse 9:

·         Does not this reveal the natural man, the one who has no spiritual awareness?

·         At least Nicodemus was honest enough to admit that he did not understand. 

DO YOU KNOW THE TRUTH? (JOHN 3:10-12)

10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things? 11 "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. 12 "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?     NASB 

Verse 10

·         Nicodemus is reproved for continuing in his ignorance.

·         It was to his shame for a man of his calling to be ignorant of such truths which should be so clear.

·         It is a great shame if teachers are found ignorant; those who should have knowledge to instruct others, especially in the sound principles of religion.

Verse 11:

·         This may be understood to refer to the whole Trinity bearing witness with Christ.

·         It may also be understood as referring to John the Baptist, who was the present public witness with Christ at that time.

·         Christ was telling Nicodemus that "teachers" teach only that which they know and have seen.

·         Pharisee’s accepted the whole Old Testament; so Nicodemus should have been familiar with its teachings about the Messiah.

·         If Nicodemus believed that Jesus was the Messiah then he would have recognized Jesus’ authority to teach and that Jesus knew what He was talking about.

·         Nicodemus was guilty of trying to understand before believing.

·         Christ never asked the sinner to understand, only believe.

·         Though miracles had been wrought, and proof is given that His doctrine came from heaven, yet Nicodemus still has yet to receive it.

Verse 12:

·         When all is done that can be done to bring down spiritual things to the capacity of people, yet there is no power in men of themselves to understand them.

·         To fully answer Nicodemus’ question (“How can these things be?”) would require giving an explanation involving heavenly things.

·         Before Nicodemus could understand heavenly things of the Spirit, he must first understand earthly things of the Spirit.

·         Christ had just told him of earthly things of the Spirit related to the new birth, and Nicodemus did not understand.

·         It would have been fruitless to speak of heavenly things of the Spirit at that time. 

WILL YOU BELIEVE? (JOHN 3:13-16)

13 "And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man. 14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.

16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.     NASB 

Verse 13:

·         As no one has ascended into heaven and returned, so no one is qualified to speak of them but He who came down from heaven.

·         If we understood these words properly, only Christ entered heaven by His own virtue, and all others only through and by Him.

·         He was telling Nicodemus more plainly that before that He had come down from heaven and that knew what He was taking about.

·         Christ is offering Himself as the only remedy to cure spiritual ignorance.

Verse 14:

·         Jesus proceeds in this and the following verses to state the reason why He came into the world.

·         Christ has been telling Nicodemus that to enter into the kingdom of Heaven that he must be born again.

·         Here, Christ tells Nicodemus what must take place to make it possible for the sinner to do this.

·         To illustrate the character, meaning and purpose of Christ's death, He used as an illustration a well known incident of Israel in the wilderness.

·         This verse speaks of the death of the Lord.

·         The Lord is referring to something else that Nicodemus should have known the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness.

·         That serpent represented the sin of the people.

·         And Christ was made sin for us on the cross.

·         Men can now look to Christ and be cured of the sins of the flesh.

Verse 15:

·         As the lifted-serpent was in appearance an unlikely means of salvation, so people today need clear, spiritual eyes to see that salvation would come from a suffering Saviour.

·         This verse shows the fullness and freeness of the gospel.

Verse 16:

·         Implied in this verse is the spiritual truth that the world, of itself, lies in sin and would perish as a natural consequence of that sin; for without the giving of the Son, ALL would perish.

·         God so loved the world that He GAVE His best; His only begotten Son so that we will not perish, but will enjoy the blessings of God forever with Him in Heaven.