Salvation 102
Notes
Transcript
Salvation 102
Salvation 102
The ocean is a a rather large body of water
Even is today’s vessels, you can sail for days without seeing anything but water, water, and more water
Imagine that you were to fall overboard in the middle of the ocean with nothing but the clothes on your back
Now - save yourself!
It is impossible to save yourself in such a situation
You must have help from others
The ship must come back, or another ship, or a plane must find you
If not, you will surely perish
So it is with man in his sin
We cannot save ourselves
The wages of sin is death
That is what we have earned
That is what we deserve
That is what we shall get
Unless ...
God Himself intervenes
This is not something we can earn
This is not something we will ever deserve
It must be a gift of undeserved favor from God
Salvation 101 - John 3:1-11 relating the sovereign work of God in salvation
Salvation 101 - John 3:1-11 relating the sovereign work of God in salvation
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night
The question weighing on his heart is this: How can a sinful man be right with God and enter God’s kingdom?
Jesus speaks to that question, which he never actually asks, with 3 Amen Amen statements
Whether your translation has, Most Assuredly, Truly Truly, or Verily Verily, they each are translating Amen Amen
When God says Amen Amen, we had better stop and pay attention
Amen Amen #1 - You Must Be Born From Above to See the Kingdom of God v. 3
Amen Amen #1 - You Must Be Born From Above to See the Kingdom of God v. 3
Just as we did not cause our first birth, we cannot cause our second birth
It is a birth from above
It is a sovereign act of God
Amen Amen #2 - You Must Be Born Spiritually to Enter the Kingdom of God v. 5
Amen Amen #2 - You Must Be Born Spiritually to Enter the Kingdom of God v. 5
Our physical birth does not qualify us to enter the Kingdom of God
We must have a spiritual birth to enter God’s spiritual kingdom
This also is a sovereign act of God that we cannot help Him with
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
This question perfectly captures the consternation of Nicodemus at what Jesus is telling Him
Like Mary confronted with the announcement that she would have a baby without knowing a man
“How can this be?” she asks
The ultimate answer that Mary got, for her miracle, as well as for Elizabeth’s, is so perfectly applicable here
“For with God nothing will be impossible.”
These things can be, because God is God
You don’t need to be concerned with what God is doing
You need to believe what God is saying to YOU!
Amen Amen #3 - Y’all Don’t Believe v. 11
Amen Amen #3 - Y’all Don’t Believe v. 11
Verse 11 is a transitional verse tying:
God’s Part - To Give Spiritual Life to the Dead - verses 1-11
Man’s Part - To Personally Believe God - verses 11-21
Believe is used 7 times in the remaining discourse
Don’t worry about what God is doing
You don’t even really need to understand what God is doing
You do need to believe to have life
This is what John wants to convey
Remember what John’s purpose is in writing this gospel:
but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Focus today is on the - The human REACTION to the work of God in salvation
The “Believing” that grants us life in His name
Rejection of the Truth of God
Rejection of the Truth of God
Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
We speak, We know and testify, We have seen
This is God Himself - the triune God who is speaking all of this Amen Amen truth
You (plural) “You all” do not receive our witness - you do not believe what we are telling you
There is a general rejection of the revelation of God
The broad way leads to destruction, and many are going that way
John is elaborating upon what he introduced in Chapter 1
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
Jesus, the true light and Creator of all, came into the world, and was not recognized
He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
He came to His own world (own is neuter referring to the world)
And His own people (own is masculine here referring to His people) did not receive Him
The Jews, should have recognized, and rejoiced, in their Messiah
Instead they rejected Him
In fact they called for His death by crucifixion
They preferred that a murderer be released instead
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Most rejected, the general rejection, but some received Him
To them, He gave the right, to become children of God
How do you get children?
By birth of course
Those who receive Him, become children of God, by being born from above
Notice the equivalence of receive and believe
As many as received Him - to those who believe in His name
To receive is to believe
It is as simple and as clear as that
Back to John Chapter 3
Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
When we see, “receive Our witness,” in John 3:11, we could also say they do not “believe”
There was a general rejection of the truth of God about who Jesus was
So how do we get out of this group who does not receive the witness of God, and is by default, dead in their trespasses and sin?
A little hint: Believe is used 7 times in the following verses
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
What earthly things has Jesus told Nicodemus?
He has given him earthly analogies to illustrate regeneration
Born from above to see a heavenly kingdom v 3
Born not just physically, but also spiritually, (of the Spirit), to enter the heavenly kingdom v. 5
Flesh is flesh, and Spirit is Spirit, and never the twain shall meet v. 6
The wind blows, and you hear it v. 8
You don’t know where it comes from, or where it goes to
You have no control over it at all
So it is with the Spirit
God comes, and causes some to be born again
You see the effects in believer’s lives
But you have nothing to do with what God did to them
Jesus is telling Nicodemus:
It will not do any good, to tell of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, to someone who is spiritually dead
They will not believe, or even understand it
Right now, Nicodemus is still in that spiritually dead state
That brings us to:
The Remedy for Unbelief
The Remedy for Unbelief
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God! - the Point John is trying to convey through his whole gospel
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven
You want to know about heaven?
No one has been there and come back to tell about it
Except One - the Son of Man - Jesus
The Son of Man
Jesus loved this term for Himself
Jesus identifies with us in His humanity
But here we see Jesus as the “Son of Man” in His deity
He is the “Son of Man” who was given an everlasting kingdom in Daniel 7:13-14
“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!
He came to the Ancient of Days,
And they brought Him near before Him.
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.
The Kingdom that Nicodemus is desiring to enter is Jesus’ kingdom
He came down from heaven to tell us about it
He earned the right to rule it by His obedience unto death
He bought the price of admission for those who will serve Him with His own blood
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
His kingdom shall not be destroyed
Jesus is God!!! The Kingdom of heaven is His kingdom
who is in heaven Present participle - is being in heaven
This is a textual variation - Majority text has it, Critical text does not
It does remind us of truth that is settled elsewhere
Even clothed in humanity, Jesus is still God, with all the attributes of God, including being everywhere present (omnipresence)?
In becoming a man, Jesus never ceased to be God
He emptied Himself of many of the attributes of God, to walk as our perfect example
But He is, always has been, and always will be God, our Creator, and now Redeemer
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 should not perish but have eternal life.
John now gives another Old Testament example that Nicodemus would have been very familiar with
The whining, complaining, nation of Israel is once again expressing their unbelief
Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged 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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
That “worthless bread” was the manna that God provided faithfully 6 days a week and kept them healthy for forty years
Do we understand that unthankfulness has to be one of the most hurtful, and offensive, sins that we can commit against our loving heavenly Father?
He loves, and cares, and provides, herds us along to greener pastures, a protects us in so many ways
Do we thank Him?
Or do we take Him for granted, and continually complain, about the most petty of annoyances?
So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
God shows exactly what He thinks of this bellyaching
Therefore 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.
Confession is the appropriate first step when we sin and suffer judgment
Request is made for the removal of the serpents
But God doesn’t do that
Don’t be surprised when God chooses do things His way instead of our way!
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
When bitten
They looked and lived
But they did something else first
They believed God - then - they looked and they lived
Back to John 3
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 should not perish but have eternal life.
The Son of Man MUST be lifted up
Then
Whoever believes in Him shall not perish
They shall not die from the fatal bite of sin
But have eternal life
Not just a temporary physical recovery during this life
But believing, they may have ETERNAL LIFE in His Name
They believe God - then they look to Jesus in faith - and they live
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.
Why? Children’s favorite question - but Why?
Why MUST Jesus be lifted up?
The Son of Man must be lifted up so those who believe might live
Now we see why He MUST!!! be lifted up
It is because God Is Love!
This world that has rejected the God who created it - God still loves it
Only the LOVE of GOD moved Him to give His only begotten Son for us
Only Begotten - Jesus is unique in all of time, and all of the universe
He was Begotten - Not created
He has always existed as God
In the beginning He was with God and He was God John 1:1
The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and Jesus was conceived in her womb
Therefore He was called Immanuel, or God with us
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Why? Why did Jesus come?
Jesus was not sent to condemn
Jesus was sent to save
This is the Love of God
But whosoever, meaning you, must believe
The Condemnation of Unbelief
The Condemnation of Unbelief
“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.
The world always has been, and will be, until the final rebellion, be divided into only two groups
Those who believe God, and those who do not
After the coming of Jesus, each one who believes in Him, is not condemned by God
Those who do not believe are condemned already
The default is unbelief - that is where everyone starts out
A conscious decision must be made to believe in Jesus - the true Jesus - as He reveals Himself to be
Those who do not make that conscious decision to believe in Jesus, are already condemned
There is no other way of salvation
There is no rescue coming from any other place
There are no planes
There are no ships
There is no saving yourself
There is Jesus, and Jesus alone, as the way of salvation
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.
The inherit goodness of man is a myth
Because we are made in the image of God, there are some good qualities in every person
But apart from God, every person is inherently evil
Given enough time and opportunity, the evil in man becomes worse and worse
Our world is not becoming more and more godly, but more and more ungodly
Sin and perversion, has become Main Street, and Mainstream
Men will not come to God, because the light of His glorious presence, reveals every imperfection
Every imperfection, that they do not want to admit to, or have revealed
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Does the truth
This contrasts with the evil deeds of those practicing evil
They are living a lie!
But
He who does the truth
Love the action verb here - does
First - there is recognition of the righteousness and holiness of God
Second - there is admission of sin and helplessness
Third - there is belief in the Savior that God has sent - Jesus
Fourth - there is a turn from sin to Jesus - from darkness to light
He (each individual who believes God) does the truth
Comes to the light Instead of hiding in darkness
These individuals love the light and come to the light
That his deeds may be clearly seen
He comes into the light
The light reveals with clarity the deeds of the life
That they have been done in God
It is God that is at work in these lives
These good deeds are the work of the Spirit which you cannot see just like the wind
But you see that the Spirit has transformed this life and they have entered the kingdom of God
Amen Amen
Amen Amen
You Must be born from above to see the kingdom of God
You Must be born spritually to enter the kingdom of God
The world as a whole does not believe God
But
You have the invitation, and opportunity, to believe God
That’s what You need to do
Let God do what He needs to do
If we receive Jesus by believing in His Name, we have the right to become children of God