John 3:1-12

[0:00] Good moment there. I'll admit to my shame that this morning I really haven't been thinking about the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and really just consumed with Sunday school and the second hour and trying to get my thoughts together and some things that have been stumping me that I've been trying to mess with and a flyer and a sign-up sheet and a semi-busted mailbox outside and that was good for me just now, just to get my thoughts back to that and to forget all the rest of that for a moment and to get my mind on Calvary and on the Lord Jesus Christ and the thoughts come to my mind of just how important that is to me, but it ought to be just as important or even more to all of us individually.

[0:47] That's the thing, the only thing that's keeping your soul out of hell is the blood of Christ that He shed for your sins, just like for mine. And if I appreciate it, to God be the glory, but I want you to appreciate it too.

[1:00] I want your heart to be open to Calvary this morning and to remember that this world is, life's but a vapor. This world's a facade and it's going to hell and it lieth in wickedness, but that song there ought to lift us up out of that. Praise the Lord.

[1:15] All right, so John chapter 3 this morning, the Gospel of John, please find it. And while you're there, then let's pray and we'll get into the text this morning.

[1:27] God, thank you for the quick and brief reminder of our Savior and how He bled and died and how He paid in full the price, the cost that we owe, the wages that we've earned.

[1:43] Lord, thank you for loving us and caring about us and not leaving us in our sins. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that dwells within us, that teaches us these things, reminds us of these truths.

[1:55] And God, I pray as we open up this book now that these holy words would just bear witness to truth, would teach us. And Lord, may you open our minds to understanding them.

[2:08] And may they be clear. Help me to be clear. And may the Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up. And we pray this in His name. Amen. All right, so we're in this section on Nicodemus and the new birth and just taking it verse by verse.

[2:22] And we covered some stuff last week. Kind of, we didn't run all the references, but I pointed out why that the Lord Jesus Christ could say in verse 9, or I'm sorry, in verse number 10, Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?

[2:39] So Nicodemus came to Christ calling Him Rabbi, calling Him a teacher that came from God, recognizing that He's doing some pretty special stuff and He can't deny that.

[2:49] And so He's not an unbeliever or a rejecter in the sense that the others were and the Pharisees that would stand to His face and say, Oh, we have Moses to our father and we keep the law and you're born a fornication.

[3:03] Like, He wasn't going at Jesus Christ like that. He recognized this guy, this is real. That's an honest heart and an honest response to what Christ is doing and to the signs.

[3:14] And He says the miracles in verse 2. But in the conversation, of course, we saw already that He brings up this new birth right away, except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God.

[3:25] And that just blows his mind. You can imagine. It completely just goes right over his head. He's blinded to this truth. The Bible says that there's a veil over the heart of Jews as they read the Old Testament.

[3:41] And that's Nicodemus' case. There's Jesus Christ in front of him and a veil covering his heart, not allowing him to see. It's probably his own sin and own personal suppositions about other things.

[3:55] And so Christ says, Art thou a master in Israel? No, it's not these things. And I showed you last week, we kind of just really fastly went through the text of it all or the teaching how Abraham had two sons, but the first one, no good.

[4:08] It's the second one. We saw it with Adam. The first one, Cain, no good. We saw it with then Isaac, two sons. First one didn't get the blessing. It was Jacob that got the blessing.

[4:19] And then from Jacob, his name was changed to Israel. And Jacob is that patriarch of the 12 tribes. And from that, there's a little kind of a transformation of how God dealt then through those 12 tribes becoming what he called Israel is my firstborn son or is my son even my firstborn, as he said to Pharaoh.

[4:40] And out of Egypt, that nation came as a child to God. And so there's their first birth coming out of Egypt as a nation, coming through the water, the whole deal.

[4:50] And the type and the pictures and the language just matches perfectly. You're not going to beat the Bible. It's right all the way through. And so this birth of Israel coming out of Egypt as if it was a mother's womb and coming, passing through the waters in the miraculous hand of God, sustaining them and growing them as a child.

[5:11] Christ says, you've got to be born again. And he says this, and notice again, where's the verse? Verse 7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, singular, Nicodemus, ye.

[5:23] This is very important. Ye. It's the nation that must be born again. Now, as far as being evangelistic and preaching today and trying to lead lost souls to Christ, we'll say that Christ says this personally to Nicodemus.

[5:38] But everybody, ye, everybody needs to be born again. And that's fine. But in the context of it, you're going to see this. If you have a King James Bible, the pronouns are important. And not changing the these and the ye's is important.

[5:52] Because through this context, you're going to see Jesus Christ referring to the nation over and over and over again. And I'll try to get to that later as we go. So, I kind of, we didn't really come through this text.

[6:06] We kind of bounced around just to get to some of those points about why this new birth will be necessary. And specifically in the context of the teaching of Christ to Nicodemus, he's speaking about the nation.

[6:18] And they will be reborn in the second coming of Christ. That will take place in the future. Now, he said this, we'll get to that later.

[6:30] Okay, so verse number three. We'll backtrack. Let's start at verse one again and we'll work our way through the passage. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. And he's a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God.

[6:46] For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. So, he refers to Jesus Christ as Rabbi. Which is a teacher, as it even says in the verse. A teacher come from God.

[6:58] He does not refer to him by his divine title. He doesn't say, thou son of David. He doesn't say, Messiah. Look back at chapter one in verse number 41.

[7:11] And this is Andrew. When he findeth his own brother Simon, he saith unto him, We have found the Messiahs. He didn't say, we found a rabbi. We found another teacher. We found the Messiah.

[7:22] That's the title. That's the one they're looking for. There's faith in that. In believing that this man is the Christ. But Nicodemus is not believing on Christ in that sense.

[7:34] Or he's coming before him as like, you're a teacher. Like, there's plenty of rabbis. Plenty of teachers. Plenty of honored men. Revered men that will tell everyone else how to live.

[7:48] And what the customs are. And how they shouldn't. And this and that. So, he's not coming to Christ in that sense of saying, You are the son of David. You are the Messiah. Just see that in the language.

[7:58] He calls him rabbi. And he sees that he's a teacher that's come from God. He sees that he can do miracles. So, at best, a prophet of sorts or something. But not looking at him as the Christ in his introduction as he speaks to him.

[8:14] So, verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God. And I trust you see this one-on-one exchange.

[8:28] And the compliment or the introductory statements from Nicodemus. And then Christ just comes back with something that he has just no understanding of.

[8:40] And never expected. And so, I'm a teacher. Come from God. Well, then I'm going to teach you something from God. Because this is something that you aren't going to get down here.

[8:52] Nobody's going to teach you this. You need to be born again. If you're not born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. We'll talk about the kingdom of God in a minute. Verse number 4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?

[9:08] Great question. If you can only see things naturally, physically. Remember, Paul said, The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit. Of God.

[9:19] That stuff's foolishness to him. So, it's way over his head. How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? And you'd say, Of course not.

[9:31] So, if you could in your mind, Or maybe sometime, Maybe make a chart. Where you have two columns. And on one side, you've got the first birth. On the other side, you have the second birth.

[9:41] Or being born again. That would maybe be the titles of it. The first birth. That would be your physical birth. Coming, Nicodemus recognized that as coming forth from his mother's womb.

[9:52] And that would be the first birth. But being born again. The second birth. Is something that he can't understand. He says, Is the second birth being born of your mother a second time?

[10:04] And of course, the answer to that is no. But that's all he can understand at the moment. But it really clarifies to us that the first birth is from the mother. Because that's how he recognized the statement. That's what he replied to his mother's womb.

[10:16] So, verse 5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee. He's going to give him a little light now. He's responding to this question about being in his mother's womb a second time. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit.

[10:32] He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Now, I want to point out just a little tiny word in verse 5. It's of. You can be born of one thing. And you can be born of, it just says of the second time without the word born.

[10:48] Except a man be born of water, one. And of, number two, the spirit. And say, why is that important? Well, just letting the scripture teach itself. In verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

[11:02] And there's the first birth again. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And there's the second birth. And if you had a column, you could say from verse number 5, On your first birth, you have water.

[11:14] But on the second birth, you have the spirit. And in verse number 6, as the Bible interprets itself so clearly, Verse number 6, in the first column of the first birth, You have flesh being born of the flesh.

[11:30] And your existence, humanly speaking, is a birth of the flesh. It is flesh joining flesh. And the male seed and the female egg and the two come together.

[11:42] It is, you were born of flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's all your mother and father can do. Is give you a fleshly birth.

[11:54] That's all that's possible. The idea, what I'm trying to get across, Maybe you can understand it like this, Is a dog can only bring forth a dog. And put anything into that category, It can only reproduce itself from Genesis 1 all the way back.

[12:10] That it brings forth after its kind. And so therefore, in verse 6, That which is born of the flesh, Mom and dad, is flesh. There you are.

[12:21] And verse 6 says, And that which is born of the spirit, Is spirit. And there's the capital S, the Holy Spirit, Being born of the spirit. As we, by the way, You can cross-reference that back to John chapter 1, And the Holy Spirit is God.

[12:35] Because John 1 says, Which were born of God. And here in verse number 6, It's born of the spirit. So there's a good text there, To make the connection of the two, That the spirit of God is God.

[12:47] From John 1, 13, And John 3, verse 6. Now, if you have the category, If you're kind of picturing in your mind, Or even scribbling down these two categories, You have a first birth, Which is from your mother's womb, Which is being born of water.

[13:01] And the evidence is there, And your birthday, When you're surrounded by water, And the water comes forth, And there's even types and pictures of that in the Bible, And I mentioned the baptism in the Red Sea, And all of that for the Jews.

[13:19] And then the flesh, That's the first birth. The second birth is called being born again. It's, as Nicodemus says, The second time, And be born, But of course not the mother's womb.

[13:31] In this case, It's of the spirit, In verse 5. And again in verse 6, Of the spirit. Now what religions do, Is take verse number 5, And they say, Well Christ is saying, Except a man be born of water, And of the spirit, Together, At one time, Which in their interpretation is, Get baptized, And be born of the spirit.

[13:54] They don't really give a clear definition, What that means. Then, You have the new birth, Or are made alive in Christ, Or saved, Or something. And so religions take the water, And make that baptism.

[14:07] Sadly, There's no baptism, In the passage. There's no, Nobody getting dunked, And nobody, Christ not even, If, If he means, The waters of baptism, He surely could have said that.

[14:20] He surely could have clarified that. He surely could have made that very clear. But he says, Except a man be born of water. And then in verse 6, That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And it sure seems to me, That these categories I'm suggesting, Or columns, Kind of helped you to divide, And understand that being born of water, Is a carnal or a physical birth.

[14:41] And the contrast is, The new birth is a spiritual birth. A spiritual birth. So verse 6, Flesh is substituted for verse 5's water. Now, That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

[14:57] And that which is born of the spirit, Is spirit. Now this is the, This is kind of the key verse. I really don't want to go down this road too much, Because it's, I don't know that it's really going to edify, But I'll at least just throw it out to you.

[15:10] I've kind of come to, Not a solid conclusion, But at least, At least a belief, That what is, What is born, And what is, What is dead, From sin, Is not the spirit of man, But the soul of man.

[15:25] And this is just a, It's a biblical conviction, And teaching, But it's one that's not espoused, By a whole lot. And I have to admit though, It's gaining some ground, And some people I talked to recently, And several have, We've discussed this at length, And there's still debate, And argument about this, Because traditionally it's taught, Among our circles of Bible believers, That in the garden, That the day that thou eatest thereof, Thou shalt surely die.

[15:51] And therefore, It wasn't his body that died, And so everyone says, He died spiritually, And it was his spirit that died. And so then they go to, Ephesians 2 and say, And you hath he quickened, Who were dead, And there's your, You're making, Being made alive, In Christ.

[16:06] Everybody says it's the spirit, And there's not real good, There's not Bible references, To say specifically, It is your spirit, That dies. The key verse, That pretty much everybody hangs it on, Is this statement here, That which is born of the spirit, Is spirit.

[16:24] Saying that it is your spirit, That is born, Of the spirit. And I would argue, Or take that to believe, That it's, It's not speaking of, The spirit of man, Or your spirit, But rather it's, By saying is spirit, It means is spiritual.

[16:41] And I'm not trying to change the Bible, But I think he's contrasting, Physical flesh, With spiritual. That's what I believe it is, To answer the, That verse being so, The Bible says that, The soul that sinneth, It, And the key there, Is the little two letter word, I-T, It, Not he, Not that, But it shall die, That's a Bible verse.

[17:03] Now, Again, Somebody could argue, I'm taking it out of context, When God said to Adam, In the day that thou eatest thereof, Thou, Thou, Shalt surely, Not your spirit, Shall surely die, He said thou, And who is the thou?

[17:19] And you, Hath he quickened. Who is the you? Is it your spirit? Or is it you? And what are you? And I can show you scripture, With scripture to show you, That you are a soul.

[17:33] You are an eternal soul. What shall it profit a man, If he lose the whole world, Or if he gain the whole world, And lose his own soul? And in Luke it says, What shall it profit a man, If he gain the whole world, And lose himself?

[17:47] The himself is the soul. You are a soul. And so what I believe, From the scripture, One more verse, And back in Genesis, I'll get past this quickly, But back in Genesis, When God says, Thou shalt surely die, No, No, Yeah, Just ten or eleven verses, Before that, There's the first reference, To death, But just before that, Is the first reference, To life, Or at least to the man, It says that, The Lord God formed man, Of the dust of the ground, And breathed into his nostrils, The breath of life, And man became, A living soul, So if you're going to go, From the text, In Genesis 2, In verse 7, Man's a living soul, And then, Ten, Eleven verses later, Thou shalt surely die, The closest thing, To jump back to, Is the living soul, As far as from the text, So, Take it or leave it, You might say, Well how can I have a living, Or a dead soul, And I'd say the same thing, How can you have a dead spirit,

[18:49] You explain that to me, A dead spirit, Because the body without the spirit, Is dead, And the spirit, It is the spirit that quickeneth, The flesh profiteth nothing, Every time you read spirit, You're reading about life, And that's almost to me, A contradiction, Of terms, A misnomer, That a spirit can be dead, But I'm going to leave it at that, You can study that out, Or question that, Or if you want to talk it out with me, Sometime we can do that, I wanted to just hit that, Because of that verse in verse 6, I believe it's referring to something spiritual, Not necessarily, The spirit of man being born, So therefore, The spirit of man is dead, But that just doesn't really, Make sense to me, So, Maybe I'm blind in this thing, Verse number 7, Marvel not that I said, Unto thee, Singular, Nicodemus, Ye, Plural, Must be born again, Okay, Now before we go any further with that, Christ is going to give them, An illustration of something, That is spiritual, And that is verse 8,

[19:51] The wind bloweth where it listeth, And thou hearest the sound thereof, But canst not tell whence it cometh, And whither it goeth, So is every one, That is born of the spirit, They're born again, In a sense, And in a way that cannot be seen, If anything, You can, As he describes, You can hear the sound, But you can't tell much about it, So there is some sensation with it, In the idea that you can, It's discernible, But it is not visible, And so somebody can, It's visible in some ways, It's visible in the look on somebody's face, If in fact, They got victory over their fears, And their burdens, And laid it at the cross, And somebody, A preacher sent out a text yesterday, Of a lady that had gotten saved, That he said she's been coming for six months, And just, Just, Just, Wrestling with, The preaching,

[20:51] And the gospel, And not believing it could be that easy, When, You know, She was raised with some other things, And he sent a picture of her, And her husband, And him standing there, Smiling, And she had just a glow on her face, And he said, This lady finally trusted Christ, And described something about, Her saying like, The burden gone, And like the whole anxiety of, Not understand, Like when she just, Exercised faith, It just all came together, And she could feel, She felt different, And so there's a sensation, In a sense with it, And you can see it, I could see it on her face, I texted saying that, That smile looks like that, Quote, New smile, That, That new life in Christ smile, You just can't manufacture that thing, That's, That's a blessing, Especially if you're searching, And you find what you were looking for, And, Anyway, So there is, There's, The, The illustration of spiritual things,

[21:51] Is that it's very real, It's just not visible, And that's fine, You're going to have to take it by faith, Now verse number nine, Nicodemus answered, And said unto him, How, Can these things be?

[22:07] I mean, It's over his head, He's, He's speaking to Jesus Christ, Face to face, And hearing for the first time in his life, Things of spiritual, Content, And nature, What he knows is washings, What he knows is, It's written in the law, Don't do it, Don't do it, And don't do it, It's rules, And regulations, And check the boxes, And, And give your money, And, And confess your sins to the priest, And show up to mass, And, And pray for the, It's lists and things, It's, It's every religion, Is what he knew, That's every religion, Right there, And so, And so, And so, And so, When Christ says, That you can be born, Of the spirit, And see the kingdom of God, A spiritual kingdom, Which we'll get to just now, It just is out of his reach, How, Can these things be?

[23:01] It's going completely against everything, That he was raised in, And taught, And so, You know what he has to do, As a man, To receive this teaching, From Jesus Christ, He has to let go, And, Let God unravel, All of that stuff, That was inserted into him, His religion, And it's that simple, It's called repentance, It's, I was trusting in this, I was doing this, I was believing this, And now I see, From the Lord himself, That that's not going to get me there, And this will, Then I'm going to have to let go, Of all of that, And then take what he's offering me, And that's New Testament salvation, Receiving Jesus Christ, And what he says, Versus what you've been taught, All of your life, In this other church, Or in this other cult, Or in this other religion, Or whatever you want to call it, And so Nicodemus is at that point, How can these things be?

[23:58] Now, Christ asked that question, There it is again, Verse 10, Art thou a master of Israel, And knowest not these things, And that's what we kind of, Where it kicked off, I can imagine that it gets a little quiet, Right there, Because Nicodemus is, Mildly getting rebuked, For his ignorance of truth, But he's also just, Very confused, He's just, He's absolutely very confused, Now, Before we go on, Let's take a quick look, At this thing called, The kingdom of God, And just try to understand, A few things about it, Come back to Matthew, We're going to run a few verses here, So get ready, Matthew chapter 6, Matthew chapter 6, What is the kingdom of God?

[24:43] Something that can be entered into, Entered into by the new birth, The second birth, All right, When Christ teaches, Disciples early in Matthew, He primarily teaches them, About a kingdom, Called the kingdom of heaven, And, That phrase shows up, All through these verses, These chapters, 4, 5, 6, 7, But, But there's one mention, Of a different kingdom, In verse number 33, And, To get to the context, Briefly, He starts in verse 25, Saying, Take no thought for your life, Whether, What ye shall eat, What ye shall drink, Nor yet for your body, What ye shall put on, Speaking of raiment in the verse, And he's talking about physical things, The carnal needs, And necessities of life, And he goes on, To tell how God, Can take care of all of his creation,

[25:44] He can take care of you, God can feed, He can clothe, All of that, So take no thought, And he said in verse 32, For after all these things, Do the Gentiles seek, Now in verse 33, What you're supposed to take thought for, Or seek, Is, Seek ye first, The kingdom of God, Notice, And his righteousness, And all these things, Shall be added unto you, Now in the context, We can see that, The kingdom of God, God is not, Meat, Drink, Body, Raiment, Physical, Carnal, Necessities, It's not physical stuff, It's something to do with righteousness, It's a different realm, Now let's let the Bible expound on this a lot more, Look at Luke now, Chapter 17, Luke's gospel in chapter 17, And I'd like to, Hurry up a little bit here, So Luke 17, When you get there, Find verse 20 and 21, Or just write it down, And I'm going to read, In Luke 17,

[26:45] Verse 20, And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, When the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, You're not going to see it when it comes, Neither shall they say, Lo here or lo there, But for behold, The kingdom of God, You see what it says?

[27:09] It's within you, That's not physical, That's not meat, And drink, And body, And raiment, And things that Gentiles seek after, What do Gentiles seek after, Kingdom wise?

[27:24] It's power, It's substance, It's wealth, It's dominion, It's ground, Territory, Power, Army, Strength, Military, That's not the kingdom of God, So what is it then?

[27:41] It's something within you, It's something with righteousness, Alright, Let's go a little further, Look at chapter 18, Luke 18, And there's Christ dealing with the child, He brought infants to him, And his disciples rebuke, And say, Get them out of here, In verse number 15, But in verse 16, Jesus called them unto him, And said, Suffer little children to come unto me, And forbid them not, For of such is the kingdom of God.

[28:07] Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God, As a little child, Shall in no wise enter therein. What's he referring, I believe he's referring to faith.

[28:19] So he's using the little child, Saying, No, Let him come, And let me illustrate something to you, Because you receive this, This kingdom of God, You receive a child to yourself, You don't receive them, Because they're going to do something for you, Because they have any power, Or might, Or wealth to offer you, No wisdom, And that's not how it's received at all, But it's also, A child doesn't receive things, Necessarily, They receive things by faith all the time, And that's how you are to receive, It says, Shall not receive the kingdom of God, As a little child, All right, Keep moving, And it's going to get a little more plain, Into the apostle Paul, He's going to help us, Because Paul preaches, The kingdom of God, Look at Acts, Or no, Let's get Romans 14, Romans 14, Romans 14, The apostle Paul,

[29:23] It says in Acts chapter 20, That he is gone, Preaching the kingdom of God, And preached all the counsel of God, That was a theme of his preaching, Is the kingdom of God, All right, Romans 14, And you'll see some familiar wording here, Look at verse 17, For the kingdom of God, Is not meat and drink, Well we already know that, From Matthew chapter 7, Christ taught us that, The kingdom of God, Is not meat and drink, But what is it, But righteousness, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 6 it was, And peace and joy, In the Holy Ghost, In the Holy Ghost, In the Holy Ghost, These are spiritual things, Righteousness, Peace and joy, In the Holy Ghost, So this is a spiritual, It has spiritual qualities, To this kingdom, One more reference, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, So it is not physical,

[30:29] It is not to be observed, Visibly as approaching, It is within you, It is spiritual, It has spiritual qualities, In the Holy Ghost, Now one more, 1 Corinthians 15, And verse number 50, Now this I say brethren, That flesh and blood, Cannot inherit, The kingdom of God, Neither does corruption, Inherit incorruption, Because the kingdom of God, Is incorruptible, It is spiritual, It is not arrived at, By a, In a physical sense, So let's put some thoughts together, And I don't have, Time to run all the verses, On the kingdom of heaven, To contrast, But the kingdom of God, Is spiritual, The kingdom of heaven, Is literal, And physical, The kingdom of God, Is invisible, It is a heavenly kingdom, A spiritual kingdom, That is entered into, By the new birth, By believing on,

[31:30] The Lord Jesus Christ, The kingdom of heaven, In contrast, Is an earthly kingdom, Where God comes down, And rules the world, From a throne in Jerusalem, The throne of David, Now, What's hard, For everybody to understand, About these two kingdoms, Everybody says, They're the same thing, And they're not, They're absolutely not, And they're to be distinguished, The kingdom of heaven, Is taken by force, In Matthew, But that cannot be said, Of the kingdom of God at all, There's definitely, Some division, Or some distinctions, To be made, The trouble is, For people to see, Is that both kingdoms, Kingdom of God, And kingdom of heaven, Are present, In the Lord Jesus Christ, In his appearance, On earth, He is the king of the Jews, He is God in the flesh, The Messiah that would come, And all of those, Old testament prophecies, Of destruction to the enemies, All of that is true, In that man, He is the son of God, He is the Messiah, The Christ, But he's also, The one that can give life, He's the one that said,

[32:30] The father hath given to me, Put given life in him, Has life in himself, And he's given to the son, To give life, So he has authority, Not just over physical things, But spiritual things, So in Jesus Christ, Both kingdoms were present, And so as you go through, The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, You'll see references, To kingdom this, Kingdom that, And sometimes you think, Oh it's talking about, A spiritual one, Or you don't know, To make the distinction, And you got to be careful, But the eternal life, Is through the kingdom of God, And Jesus Christ, Is going to come back, And both kingdoms, Are going to be present, In his person, So which kingdom is, Present or alive today, That we can access, It's the kingdom of God, It's a spiritual kingdom, That we enter by, The new birth, Now come back to, John chapter 3, This topic is actually, It's very involved, To really, Dot all the I's, And cross all the T's, It would take, A few weeks, Of teaching, With probably some charts,

[33:32] Or at least, Something that you could, See visually, To help you really, See the differences, And the distinctions, Between the two, I'm just giving you, A real, Brush stroke, Of rapid, Brush stroke here, Of giving you the idea, That it's spiritual, Because that's what, Christ is dealing with, In John 3, Is a spiritual kingdom, That it's entered, By being born of the spirit, And he illustrates it, By wind blowing, And that's the spirit of God, Or the kingdom of God, Alright, We are in John chapter 3, Again please, And find, We are in verse 10, Art thou a master of Israel, And knowest not these things, So give you a little, A little, What I mentioned about, Nicodemus approaching Christ, Calling him rabbi, And teacher, Christ refers to him, As a master in Israel, And in verse number 1, He's a ruler of the Jews, So Nicodemus is a feared man, And at least revered,

[34:33] In that sense, If you know what I mean, He's honored, Among the Jews, He is a ruler of the Jews, He has position, He is a master of Israel, You might say, He has his master's degree, In the law of Moses, And in knowing the scriptures, And he teaches others, So Nicodemus looked at Christ, And says, You're a rabbi, And a teacher, Christ acknowledged, That Nicodemus, You have a position in Israel, But to really get the relationship here, That position, Christ is not authenticating, He is not bowing down to him, And honoring him, As a ruler of the Jews, And master in Israel, More than a few times, He's gone toe to toe, With Nicodemus' colleagues, And called them, A generation of vipers, Saying, How can you escape, The damn nation of hell, You hypocrites, You fools, And so this is, Nicodemus' company, Like they're against Christ,

[35:33] Now what I'm showing you, Is Christ is not like, Submitting to, This master and ruler of Israel, That's nothing, The Lord Jesus Christ, Shows up, And even though he submits, To the law of Moses, And fulfills that law, He's not looking at these men, As if they're somebody, He's not revering them, He's, They're nothing, Their position is not one, Necessarily, Of God, And so, He says, Art thou a master of Israel, And knowest not these things, It sounds like a, A mild rebuke, As well as a bit of sarcasm there, To acknowledge his position, Yet to acknowledge his ignorance, Or to declare his ignorance, Of these things, Of godly spiritual truth, So I do imagine, It got a little quiet there, Or that Nicodemus, Didn't know how to respond to this, Because he's a guy, An older man by the way, Christ being a younger man, Just 30 years old or so, And Nicodemus, Much his elder no doubt, Having this young man, Say things like this to him,

[36:34] Just doesn't know how to respond, Now in verse 11, And we've got to close on shortly, But I want to point this out, In verse 11 and 12, He says, Verily I say unto thee, Let's start noticing, The singulars and plurals, If you don't have a King James Bible, You won't be able to see this, Because it just says you, All the time, Verily, Verily I say unto thee, Nicodemus, We speak that we do know, And testify that we have seen, Now I think he's, I guess it's just Christ, And his apostles, Or his disciples, I think, But if not, Testifying that we have seen, It's, Sometimes God speaks of himself, In the Trinity, Or in the plural, Like, Let us make man after our image, I'm not sure that that's what Christ, Is speaking there, Of God the Father, Son, And Holy Ghost, All three witnesses in him, I don't know that that is, What he's saying, But nevertheless, To close the verse, Notice the plural, And ye, Not you,

[37:34] Nicodemus, But not thee, But ye, Receive not our witness, If I have told you, Plural, Israel, Earthly things, And ye believe not, How can ye believe, If I tell you, Plural, Of heavenly things?

[37:54] So, The context, I need to point this out, From back in verse 7, Where I pointed out earlier, He carries it forward, He's not just talking to Nicodemus, One on one, He's referring to the nation, As a whole, When he says, Ye, Ye, All of you, And so that may help you, To see that carries through, That this new birth, Is for the nation, And the preaching, And the teaching, Is for the people, Of Israel, He came unto his own, And his own received him not, And so, That plural thing, Is necessary, You see that, From the King James Bible, I love to point that out, And all the other Bibles, That change the pronouns, From the singular, And the plural, These and ye's, When they do that, They mask a teaching, And they mask, The direct, The, What am I trying to say?

[38:46] The aim, Of his comments, That it's to the people, It's to the nation, Instead, All you do, Is just see it being, Is Jesus and Nicodemus, Having a back and forth, And so, All right, If I tell you earthly things, And ye believe not, How shall ye believe, If I tell you heavenly things?

[39:06] That's a good question, That's a good question, John says something similar to that, I just thought of this, You don't have to turn, But first John chapter, Five, In first John chapter five, In verse nine, He said, If we receive the witness of men, The witness of God, Is greater, And then he goes on, To tell you what the witness of God is, It's about his son, And, And eternal life, And so there's a witness of men, Earthly witness, And we do receive the witness of men, We do all the time, You walk up and say, Hey, Guess what I saw, And you tell him, I believe you, Because you saw it, It's a witness of men, And if we believe the witness of men, John says, The witness of God is greater, Now, Nicodemus has a problem here, Because Christ wants to, Inform him of, Of the witness of God, Of, Of, Heavenly truth, And he says, If we tell, If I told you earthly things, The witness of men,

[40:07] Down here, And you don't believe that, Then how in the world am I going to tell you, About spiritual, Heavenly, Eternal things, You're not going to receive it, And so that's the condition, Of the blind, Lost Jew, That is in Christ's day, That is, Obsessed with the physical, And the carnal, And again, The washings, And the rules, And not even looking, For the eternal, Not even considering, What's outside of, The parameters of Moses' law, And his dictates, And then what it is morphed into, In their own traditions, And customs, They're obsessed with that stuff, But heavenly things, When the heavenly things show up, And later on, Look at verse 31, And we'll close here, 31, He that cometh from above, Is above all, He that is of the earth, Is earthly, And speaketh of the earth, He that cometh from heaven, Is above all, And what he hath seen, And heard that he testifieth, And look at that, No man receiveth his testimony, I wonder why, Because they won't even receive,

[41:07] The earthly things, That he tells them, Now in closing, I'm not going to run these at all, But you know, If you read through your gospels, And you'll see what, A common, Common, Common thing, For Jesus Christ, Was to teach them, With earthly things, With parables, With, We saw it a little bit ago, We passed through it, But with the fowls of the air, And with, God clothing, The flowers, And the field, And things like that, He's always illustrating, With earthly things, And he says, I'm telling you about earthly things, You're not even believing me, How are you going to receive, The truth, And so there's something, You can kind of understand, And take forward, As you try to witness to people, And tell them they need Christ, They need something spiritual, They need a new birth, They're going to be just like Nicodemus, And it's going to go right over their head, And then you try to illustrate it, With earthly things, And sometimes that helps to open the eyes, But it has to be the spirit of God, The Lord has got to deal with their heart, And open their eyes, Or, They'll never see it, And you'll just sit there, And scratch your head,

[42:08] And say, They'll say, How can these things be, And you'll say, Are you a master, You know, Something or other, And you don't know these things, You won't be able to understand, Why they don't understand, They don't understand how you can say these things, It's confusing, The Lord has got to get involved, He's got to open their eyes, Like he opens yours, All right, Let's stop right there, And we'll pick it up next week, evolve my minutes, All right, You know, I think of whoever he can sing, All right, Let's stop right there, That's what I'm doing, What am I doing?

[42:36] Come hereたい, How can the spirit of God do it? And when he starts to open their eyes, As first double hvis the faculties have embedded away, around add on Thomas K2 has always ended. It's very expensive, There's no one, When I did my home done a single day再び, You don't ever know that the spirit of God do it.