Sermon Tone Analysis

! Dust and Ashes Publications

* Home

* Cart

* About Us

* Contact Us

* Free Books

* Book Reviews

* Publications & Store

*Engaging Chunch History*

*Church History Books Online*

Home » Free Books » Bonar, Horatius » Light & Truth: The Gospels !

Chapter 57 - John 3:2 - The World's Need of Something more than a Teacher Light & Truth: The Gospels by Bonar, Horatius

Quick Access Chapter 1 - Matthew 1:1 - Very Man... Chapter 2 - Matthew 1:16 - Jesus the See... Chapter 3 - Matthew 2:3 - Jesus the Trou... Chapter 4 - Matthew 3:10 - The Desert Vo... Chapter 5 - Matthew 4:23 - Jesus in Seas... Chapter 6 - Matthew 5:45 - His Sun... Chapter 7 - Matthew 8:1-3 - Human Lepros... Chapter 8 - Matthew 8:34 - Man's Dislike... Chapter 9 - Matthew 11:28 - The Rest and... Chapter 10 - Matthew 11:29 - The Three E... Chapter 11 - Matthew 12:41 - Nineveh and... Chapter 12 - Matthew 13:25 - The Two Sow... Chapter 13 - Matthew 19:6 - Herod's Ball... Chapter 14 - Matthew 19:15-16 - Man's Wa... Chapter 15 - Matthew 14:24-31 - The Help... Chapter 16 - Matthew 17:17 - The Graciou... Chapter 17 - Matthew 18:1-4 - The Peerag... Chapter 18 - Matthew 18:2; Luke 19:10 - ... Chapter 19 - Matthew 21:44 - The Stone o... Chapter 20 - Matthew 22:42 - The Things ... Chapter 21 - Matthew 24:12 - The Chill o... Chapter 22 - Matthew 24:42, 44 - True Vi... Chapter 23 - Matthew 25:3 - Religion wit... Chapter 24 - Matthew 25:31, 33 - The Gre... Chapter 25 - Matthew 24:70 - The Denying... Chapter 26 - Matthew 27:4 - The True Con... Chapter 27 - Mark 3:35 - Relationship to... Chapter 28 - Mark 4:39 - The Great Calm... Chapter 29 - Mark 5:36 - Only Believe... Chapter 30 - Mark 6:6 - Jesus Wondering ... Chapter 31 - Mark 6:33, 34 - Christ's Te... Chapter 32 - Mark 6:53-56 - Jesus and Hi... Chapter 34 - Mark 11:13 - The Fruitless ... Chapter 33 - Mark 10:52 - Christ's Recog... Chapter 35 - Mark 11:22 - Faith in God... Chapter 36 - Mark 13:33 - Watch and Pray... Chapter 37 - Mark 13:34-37 - The Master ... Chapter 38 - Mark 14:62 - The Coming of ... Chapter 39 - Luke 4:16-31 - The Gracious... Chapter 40 - Luke 6:19 - Health in Jesus... Chapter 41 - Luke 7:36-50 - Much Forgive... Chapter 42 - Luke 11:13 - How Much More!... Chapter 43 - Luke 15:2 - Jesus Watching ... Chapter 44 - Luke 15:10 - God's Joy Over... Chapter 45 - Luke 15:20 - The Father's L... Chapter 46 - Luke 15:22 - God's Free Lov... Chapter 47 - Luke 17:26, 27 - Noah Days... Chapter 48 - Luke 19:11-27 - The Lowest ... Chapter 49 - Luke 14:40 - Christ Must ha... Chapter 50 - Luke 21:28 - Signs of the T... Chapter 51 - Luke 21:36 - Deliverance in... Chapter 52 - Luke 22:18 - The New Wine o... Chapter 53 - Luke 22:19, 20 - The Heaven... Chapter 54 - Luke 23:32-43 - The Three C... Chapter 55 - Luke 24:29 - The Disciples'... Chapter 56 - John 1:12, 13 - Reception o... Chapter 57 - John 3:2 - The World's Need... Chapter 58 - John 3:14, 15 - Life in Loo... Chapter 59 - John 3:29 - The Filling Up ... Chapter 60 - John 3:34, 35 - The Fullnes... Chapter 61 - John 4:10 - The Living Wate... Chapter 62 - John 5:39, 40 - Bible Testi... Chapter 63 - John 6:17 - Night with Jesu... Chapter 64 - John 6:50 - The Bread of Im... Chapter 65 - John 6:51 - Christ's Flesh ... Chapter 66 - John 7:37 - Come and Drink... Chapter 67 - John 7:53; John 8:1, 12 - J... Chapter 68 - John 8:31, 32 - Truth and L... Chapter 69 - John 8:54 - The Father Hono... Chapter 70 - John 11:40 - The Honour Giv... Chapter 71 - John 12:12 - Inquiring afte... Chapter 72 - John 12:32 - The Great Attr... Chapter 73 - John 12:35-36 - Light and i... Chapter 74 - John 12:46 - Light for the ... Chapter 75 - John 12:48 - The Judging Wo... Chapter 76 - John 14:8-10 - The Revelati... Chapter 77 - John 13:16, 17 - The Abidin... Chapter 78 - John 14:26 - The Mighty Com... Chapter 79 - John 14:27 - The Divine Leg... Chapter 80 - John 16:25-28 - Christ in H... Chapter 81 - John 16:33 - Tribulation, P... Chapter 82 - John 17:26 - The Declaratio... Chapter 84 - John 18:28 - Ritualism and ... Chapter 84 - John 19:2 - The Greater Sin... Chapter 85 - John 20:17 - Christ's Work ... Chapter 86 - John 21:5 - The Tender Love... Light & Truth - The Gospels - Footnotes...

Previous Index Next

LVII.

The World's Need Of Something More

Than A Teacher.

 

"We know that thou art a teacher come from God."-John 3:2.

We take Nicodemus as one of the best specimens of "religious humanity"; educated, moral, of high position and culture; a strict observer of religious rites, and seasons, and ordinances; a "ruler of the Jews," a "master of Israel," and a believer in Israel's promised Messiah.

He ought to have known fully Messiah's errand, and to have recognized Him at once when He came.

But even Nicodemus, this well-instructed religious ruler and master, one of the heads of the straitest sect, fails to understand Him.

He approaches Him only as a teacher.

He accepts Him as such, but as nothing more.

Like the rest of his nation and race, he was in quest of "knowledge"; and for such he went to Jesus.

Like our first parents, he saw that "the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise"; this was all.

He had no deeper sense of need.

"We know that thou art a teacher come from God," was the intimation of his state of mind; it skewed how little his conscience was at work; how superficial, as well as self-righteous, were his views as to his own spiritual condition.

He knew not that he was poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked.

Thus we have in him a specimen of man,-educated, moral, religious man,-unconscious of his own true need, and blind to God's provision for that need.

I.

Man's unconsciousness of his true need.

Nicodemus, with all his religious advantages, has not fathomed the depth of his own spiritual wants.

He knows that he needs something; but he does not know how much; nor does he know what is the real nature of his great need.

He wants a teacher,-that is all!

He thinks that will suffice.

But farther than this he goes not; deeper than this he descends not.

He thinks there is but one empty chamber in his house; unconscious that all are empty, or if filled at all, filled with that which must be cast out and cast away.

He thinks there is but a slight bruise in one of his limbs, when there is poison in every vein; when the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

He needs pardon; yet he is unconscious of condemnation.

He needs reconciliation; yet he is unconscious of distance, and wrath, and doom.

He needs life; yet he is unconscious of the death in which he lies.

He does not know what sin is; what enmity to God is; what distance from God is; what it is to be lost; what it is to be without the favor and love of God; what the world is in which he dwells, and of which he forms a part; what Satan is, his great adversary.

He has no idea of the extent of his ruin, and the greatness of his danger.

He does not see that, apart from hell and wrath, the simple absence of God from the heart would be unutterable wretchedness.

He does not see that simply to be left unchanged and unconverted would be of itself hell.

But of all the evil of sin, the evil of his own heart, he is utterly unconscious.

He is not in the least alive to his want,-either as to its nature or its extent.

Yes, humanity is unconscious of its ruin!

The human heart knows not the vacuity that has been made in it by the absence of God; it knows not the malignity of one single sin,-one single act of disobedience, one moment's insubordination of the will, one moment's ceasing to love God with all the heart and soul.

Unconsciousness of his own need; insensibility to his own sin; palsy of the conscience,-this is man's great evil.

To remove this unconsciousness, and to impart true consciousness in regard to these things, is the first great work of the Holy Spirit in the soul.

That this unconsciousness is voluntary and deliberate we cannot doubt.

This is the aggravation of the evil; this is the consummation of the guilt.

Man shrinks from knowing the worst of himself; nay, he refuses to know it.

He willfully shuts his eyes to the nature and to the extent of his spiritual evil.

He tries to make himself believe that his case is not so very serious after all.

He takes pride in owning himself a little in the wrong, needing some help, some light, some teaching; but beyond that he refuses to go.

Thus far Nicodemus went when he came to Jesus; but at that time he was not prepared to go farther.

But the Lord led him on.

He did not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax.

II.

Man's blindness to God's provision for his need.

He to whom Nicodemus came was God's provision for man's need.

It was the provision of love and bounty; "He spared not his Son."

But man does not appreciate this provision, because he does not apprehend his own need.

He wants a teacher,-that is all.

Not a deliverer; not a priest; not a healer; not a cleanser; not a renewer; only a teacher!

Not a divine teacher; only a teacher come from God. God's provision for our need assumes that that need is unspeakably great; so great as only to be supplied by one who is divine; a divine teacher (or prophet), a divine priest, a divine king.

Man shuts his eyes to this.

He refuses to interpret the provision which God has made for him, and in that infinite provision, to read the nature and extent of his own need.

He shrinks from the acceptance of a Saviour, not willing to see that he really needs one, or at least one that is divine.

He thinks he can do with less than salvation; he cannot think himself wholly lost.

Yet what is the meaning of God sending His own Son, if less than salvation was intended; if less than incarnation will do, less than blood, less than death, less than resurrection?

Oh let us understand the greatness of God's provision for us, and in that greatness, read at once our death and our life, our condemnation and our deliverance.

Jesus met Nicodemus at once with the necessity of being born again.

Mere teaching will not do; there must be the new birth; not a few new and good ideas, but regeneration!

Nothing less.

How this astounded the religious Jew Thou must be born again.

Yet one thing in Nicodemus is praiseworthy.

He came directly to Jesus, and dealt with Him face to face.

So say we to every one.

Go thou and do likewise.

Previous Index Next

* Dust & Ashes Home

* Free Books

* Book Reviews

* Store

* View Shopping Cart

* Auctions

* Join Our Newsletter

* Contact Us

* About Us

Copyright ©2008 Dust and Ashes Publications, Inc.

All Rights Reserved.

Web design by luky.