Life and Death

Would you all stand? I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. And those of you who are joining us online, we welcome you. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity this Sunday morning to gather. As believers, Lord, if there be any among us that don't know you, Lord, we pray that you would just encourage them to know that you love them, Lord.

Father, speak to us by your Holy Spirit today as we worship, as we study your word. Just impart your spirit of wisdom to us in the revelation of the knowledge of you, Lord. Enlighten the eyes of our understanding to really know that inheritance, that calling you and that hope we have in you, Lord. And we thank you, Lord. We give you praise this morning. May we worship you from our hearts, Lord, and just be real before you.

Your Holy Spirit, your love.

Your grace, Lord. Your mercy. We thank you for it, Lord Jesus. You may be seated.

For sending your son, Jesus, to die on the cross for us, Lord.

Raised him from the dead, being seen by all those folks, and then ascending into heaven at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us. We thank you for that, Lord Jesus.

We're seeing you, trusting in you. We trust you, Lord, with all our hearts. And we not through our own understanding, but acknowledge you in all of our hearts. And we thank you for that, Lord. Oh, you're so worthy of our praise. You would die for us. You are a sinful people as we. What greater love hath no man than he would lay down his life for his friend?

And you laid down your life for us. You died in our stead, Lord, as we know.

The saints of the Lord.

Which simply means praise the Lord. Glory to God in the highest. We thank you, Lord Jesus. Would you all stand?

Father, continue to bless our service now as we fellowship. And as Jared comes up and teaches your word, Lord, give us sensitivity. Ears, a sensitive heart. Eyes to see what you would have, Lord, today. And give us hearts yielded to you. And we just give you thanks. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's have some fellowship.

You guys hear me okay?

You guys want to go ahead and start locating your seats. Go through some announcements and we'll get started.

So clearly I'm not Pastor Ryan. I got a little bit more hair than he does. But not much. Pastor Ryan is in Wichita this morning filling in for somebody there. So he asked me to fill in for him this morning. So I told him, all right, man. Well, if I screw him up, you get to fix him, you know. So if you got your bulletins, let's go through a couple announcements this morning.

If you look on the left side of your bulletin, those are all the things that we have going on each week. So if you're not plugged into something, just, you know, feel free to look through there and find something to get plugged into.

Let's see. Today, Operation Christmas Child boxes are due today. So if you have those, go ahead and bring them up here. You know, they got, stack them up on either side of the stage and they will load those up. I believe this afternoon after second service and haul those to wherever they need to go. So men's breakfast is Saturday, November 18th. And we're doing a live nativity at Bible.

Christian Church, December 8th and 9th. And I, I believe they're still looking for volunteers. I think we're supposed to be wise men, aren't we? We're supposed to supply the wise men, right? Is that right? Okay. Okay. So if you, if you are, are filled with wisdom, we could sure use you. So I believe that's all we have for, for announcements. Oh, Janet asked me to say we have three spots left on the,

on the Dallas trip to Operation Christmas Child. If you, if you want to go get with Janet this afternoon. And if also, if you've not filled out your rooming slip, if you're going and you've not filled out your rooming slip, get with Janet after service and get that taken care of. Okay. I believe we are in Psalm 12 this morning. So if you want to open up your Bibles or find a Bible there in your row,

open up to Psalm 12, Pastor Allen will come up and as soon as I find Psalms,

Psalm chapter 12, if you'll stand with me in honor of the reading of God's word, I'll read the odd verses. And if you'll follow along with Pastor Allen in the even verses, Psalm 12 for the choir director upon an eight stringed liar, a Psalm of David help Lord for the godly man ceases to be for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another. They flattering lips and with a double heart.

They speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips. The tongue that speaks great things who have said with our tongue, we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us because of the devastation of the afflicted because of the groaning of the needy. Now I will arise says the Lord. I will set him in the safety for which he longs. The words of the Lord are pure words.

As so, over tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. You, O Lord, will keep them. You will preserve him from this generation forever. The wicked strut about on every side when violence is exalted among the sons of men. Yes, Lord, God, we thank you for your word this morning, Lord. God, help us to, to be discerning of those out there with flattering lips,

Lord, who just, who just give out, um, God, just who give out your word in a, in a false way, Lord, God, who just, who just long to tickle our ears. God, help us to, to desire your truth, your word, Lord, God, reveal it to us this morning. God, we love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. You guys can go and have a seat. If you like,

if you got your Bibles, open them up to John chapter three,

John chapter three. Um, as I was studying, uh, I realized that John chapter three is just packed and I mean, packed with a lot of stuff. And so I had to spend quite a bit of time kind of, kind of picking and choosing, but, um, at the direction of, of the Holy spirit. Um, I had to kind of thin it down a little bit to kind of fit it in, in an hour here. So, uh,

I want to start off our study of the word this morning with a quote from Charles Spurgeon. And he says that if we were asked to read to a dying man, who did not know the gospel, we should probably select this chapter as the most suitable one for such an occasion. And what is good for dying men is good for us all for that is what we are. And how soon we may be actually at the gates of death.

None of us can tell. Um, I've titled the message today, life and death. And I, I know that seems like a super, you know, super dramatic and serious title for, for a message, but in light of, you know, recent events in the world, um, and how Bible prophecy is literally being fulfilled right before our eyes. I feel it's, it's appropriate for our time. Um, I, I'll just say,

I don't believe we have much time left before Jesus comes back for his bride. Amen. Yes. And as time goes on, I feel more and more of an urgency in my spirit to, to give out the gospel, to give out the good news to those. That I love and care about to my friends and family. And so, um, that's what I'm going to do today and understand that, you know, I'm, I'm not a pastor.

I'm, I'm not even a great teacher. Um, I'm just a dude that, that loves the Lord. And I want to use our time this morning to point, to point you to Jesus, to point those, um, who may not know Jesus to him. Um, so if you're watching online or you're here this morning, I would, I would highly encourage you to just to pay attention to what follows because it is in fact a matter of life and death.

So with that, let's buckle up, open God's word and, uh, ask the Holy spirit to, to open our hearts and minds to his truth this morning. Father, we come to you this morning. God, we thank you for your word. God, it is sharp and powerful. Lord God, let it, let it, let it do its mighty work in our hearts this morning. God, cut away anything that shouldn't be there.

And God open our ears this morning to your truth. God, to your truth. God, I know that there's a lot of people out there preaching false gospels. God preaching feel good messages, Lord. And God, while, while it is true, God, that you do love us. And there are, there are things about your word that do feel good, Lord, but that's not all. That's not all that's there.

Lord, there's so much more. There are so much more in your word. God. So help us to be receptive to your truth, to your truth. Lord, we love you. And we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. John chapter three, to give us a little bit of background. Jesus is in Jerusalem and he's just finished cleansing the temple. And if you don't know what that means, just know that Jesus kind of,

went ape crazy in the temple. And, uh, he, he went in there and he saw a bunch of merchants and money changers ripping off God's people in God's house. And so he was filled with righteous anger and just, just know that tables and chairs were flying and it was just total craziness, you know? So, uh, with that as our backdrop, our backdrop, let's start in verse one of chapter three.

Uh, there was a man from the Pharisees named, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And this man came to him at night and said, rabbi, we know that you have come with, uh, come from God as a teacher for no one could perform these signs. You do unless God were with him. Jesus replied, I assure you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But how can anyone be born when he is old?

Nicodemus asked him, can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born? Uh, we'll go ahead and pause right there. So in these first, in these first few verses, we're introduced to a man named Nicodemus, um, who comes to Jesus. And, and I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time, um, talking about who necessarily Nicodemus was, but there are a few things that I want to establish, uh, first because we'll actually revisit these things a little bit later.

So the first thing is, uh, Nicodemus was a Pharisee, uh, which means that he was a religious leader. He was well-educated. He was well-educated in the law, uh, the law of Moses and the prophets. And, and, and to kind of simplify that he was well-educated in the old Testament. Um, the second thing, he was a ruler of the Jews, which means that he was a member of the governing body of Israel,

uh, which is called the Sanhedrin. So he was very high up in stature. And I think it would be safe to say, uh, that he was a pretty powerful man and in terms of, you know, governing power. And the third thing is that he came to Israel, he came to Jesus at night and why he came at night. The Bible doesn't tell us. Um, but remember that Jesus had just finished ransacking the temple,

uh, clearing out the merchants and money changes. So I think it would be safe to say that the Pharisees probably already didn't like Jesus. Um, thus Nicodemus came at night to avoid the risk of losing his position as a Pharisee and the member of the Sanhedrin. So, um, verse two, it says, this man, they came to him at night and said, rabbi, we know that you've come from God as a teacher for no one could perform these signs.

You do, unless God were with him. They could use Nicodemus going to mess his name up all morning. Nicodemus comes to Jesus with a statement and he says, rabbi, we know that you've come from God, uh, as a teacher for no one could perform these signs you do, unless God were with him. So there's a couple of things here that I want us to pay attention to. Number one,

Nicodemus says, we, he says, we know that you have come from God. Who's we, you know, does Nicodemus most likely doesn't have a split personality. So, um, you know, the question becomes, who is we? Well, remember that Nicodemus is a Pharisee and he probably just come from the other Pharisees who are back home, you know, doing Pharisee things and, and whatnot.

And they had just kind of gotten together and agreed on something, you know, that, that Jesus came, from God and just, and honestly, the fact that they actually agreed on something that's probably pretty amazing in and of itself. And, uh, you know, if, if our own government could do the same thing, that'd be pretty awesome. Don't you think? So, um, anyway, the, we here is the Pharisees.

They had actually gotten together and agreed that Jesus, uh, has come from God. And another point I want to make here is that when I read this, it kind of feels like that awkward moment, you know, like when you meet your celebrity crush, uh, you know, like you introduce yourself like, like, Oh my gosh, my name is Jared. Hi. You know, I'm such a big fan. And then it just kind of goes to awkward silence.

Oh no, absolutely not. No, no Taylor Swift. But you know, you, you introduce yourself, you say that you're your biggest fan, but then what, you know, but then what, is that it? Is that all you have to say? No. Like I said, I'm sure the Pharisees weren't exactly Jesus's bigot fan, biggest fan, but it feels like there's a deeper question on Nicodemus his mind here that he's just not getting out there.

And Jesus is waiting for him to get it out, you know, but alas, you know, Nicodemus never does. So I'm going to, I'm going to borrow some of this next little bit from Chuck Smith because I agree with him here. Um, Nicodemus was clearly an expert in all things related to the law and knew the righteous requirements of the law. But yet, something, something had been eating at him.

He must have felt that he wasn't quite there. He must have felt that he hadn't met all the righteous requirements of God's law. He must have felt that he didn't quite measure up and he must have felt that he still lacked something, something in being able to see the kingdom of God. So Jesus, after what I imagine, the appropriate amount of awkward silence, uh, gets right to the question on Nicodemus his mind.

How does a person get to heaven? And he goes on to answer it here. And he says, I assure you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven or to quote more. Uh, hang on here. This is actually a very interesting question to ask today. How does a person get to heaven? How does a person see the kingdom of God? Um, uh, it's a very interesting question.

And and I was kind of reminded of, uh, of, uh, of a segment that Jay Leno used to do on his talk show, um, called Jay walking. And it was really, really, really funny because what he would do is he would take like the most basic questions, say like about American history that or, you know, just about life in general that everybody should know. And he would go find random people on the street and ask him, you know, like, you know, who's who's the president of the United States or, you know, uh, uh, just different questions like that, that people should know. Um, and I feel like this would be a, this would be a really great segment to do.

Like, you know, go around and ask people, Hey, how do you get to heaven? And I guarantee you, do you have, you come up some really, really interesting answers. Um, I don't have time to go through them all, but I, I've wrote down a few, uh, answers that people have, have thrown out there. And, and, and, uh, written down a few different ways that different religions and different belief systems believe you get to heaven.

So number one, Oprah, Oprah believes, and she's, she's been quoted as, as saying, if you're a good person, you'll go to heaven. Okay. Number two, Fleetwood Mac, you can go your own way, you know, sorry, my bad. Um, Hinduism, uh, Hindus, Hindus believe in reincarnation. So they believe you continuously are reincarnated based on how you move up in, in stature levels,

if you will, based on how well you lived your previous life, you know? So if you, if you lived a really, really good life in, in, in this life, in your next life, you'll be elevated to another level of, so to speak. And until, until finally you reach heaven, at some point, um, Muslims believe, you know, faith and good deeds will earn you a ticket to heaven. Um, atheists don't believe in God, much less heaven or hell.

And to be honest, it just kind of gets weirder from there. So we'll, I'll stop right there. But however, Jesus here in verse three tells us there is one way to get to heaven one way. And it says, unless, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. So if you're like Nicodemus, you must be asking yourself the question, how, how does a person become born again?

Actually, the answer will actually answer that question here in a minute, but to kind of address the requirement of being a born again, um, I know I wasn't always the greatest student in school, you know, it was good, good C average student. Um, but I do remember this section, the section in biology class that talks about this, you know, and I'm pretty sure a person can only be born one time. Um, so what is Jesus talking about here? And Jesus' response clearly through Nicodemus for a loop, um, notice verse four, he says, but how can anyone be born when he is old?

Nicodemus asked him, can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born? So clearly, clearly Nicodemus and Jesus weren't on the same page here. Um, to answer the question of what Jesus is talking about here, he's talking about a spiritual rebirth rather than an earthly one. He's speaking in spiritual terms rather than earthly terms. The Greek and in my studies here,

the Greek translation of the word again is anothen, which means from above. So to, to kind of put that all together here, you have to be born from above or born of heaven. So how does a person become born of heaven? And again, we'll actually talk about this here in just a second, but, um, to, to answer another question, why, why does a person have to be born again?

Why does a person have to be born of heaven? Um, because in heaven there aren't dead things in heaven. There, there's only life. Understand that when sin entered the world,

death entered the world. In Genesis chapter two, God tells Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. Yes. And when they ate, what happened? They didn't die, at least not immediately. But guess what? Are Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve here with us? No. What happened? They died. So, let me ask you, uh, well,

hang on here, backing up here. So, uh, so the consequences of sin is death and separation from God. Thus our need to be reborn. We have to have new life in Christ. We have to be born again from above without that new life in Jesus Christ. We'll not only die a physical death, but we'll also die a spiritual death. We'll remain spiritually, dead for eternity. And like,

like Adam and Eve, how they were kicked out of the garden of Eden after they had, after they had broke God's commandment, after they broke God's one rule, they were separated from God when they got kicked out of the garden of Eden. So like them, if we come to the end of our life without being born again, we receive eternal separation from God. We receive eternal death. And so to kind of, to kind of tie it all together, it's literally a matter of life and death.

So if you want to see heavenly things, you have to be born of it. And the only way to be born of heaven is to be spiritually reborn. And the only way to be spiritually reborn is belief in Jesus. And John chapter one, verse 11 through 13 tells us this. It says to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who, pay attention here,

believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God. Did you, did you pay attention there to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of descent, not of the will of flesh, not a man who were born of God. That's how you become spiritually reborn. So getting down to the, the root of the question, how does a person become born again?

It takes belief in Jesus. Belief in Jesus, not belief in anything else. The world is going to give you all kinds of fun stuff to believe in. It's going to give you all kinds of things to make you feel good about yourself. It's going to give you all kinds of self-help, but understand that none of that stuff is going to get you to heaven. None of that stuff will allow you to see the kingdom of heaven.

It is only belief in, in Jesus belief in, in, in him born, not a natural descent, not of the, not of the flesh, not a man, but of God. All right. So actually that was supposed to go along with verses five and six. So it says here, Jesus, I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh.

And whatever is born of the spirit is spirit.

You have to be born, of heaven. You have to be born again, spiritually. Verse seven. It says, do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases and you hear it sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Jesus tells Nicodemus, don't be amazed that I told you,

you must be born again. Why shouldn't Nicodemus be amazed? That's an interesting question. Well, the reason he shouldn't be amazed amazed is because he is so hung up on trying to understand the concept of being born again, that he actually missed the point that you don't necessarily have to fully understand. You don't have to fully understand what it means to be born again.

You just have to remember what we talked about. Believe you just have to believe. Notice what Jesus says here. He says the wind blows where it pleases and you hear it sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. Understand that you may not fully understand what happens when a person comes to Jesus,

when a person becomes born again. And that, and that's okay. That is 100% okay. Jesus doesn't want you to get so caught up in the howls and wise that you miss the point of it all. And that's belief in Jesus. I guarantee you that, that a kid, that my kids don't fully understand what it means to be born again. But all they, what they do understand is that if you believe in Jesus,

that if you believe in him, that you will go to heaven. I was so blessed because a couple of weeks ago, my daughter Everly, who is four years old, asked Jesus into her heart. And guys, I guarantee you she has no clue what it means to be born again, but what she does, does know that is that she believes in Jesus. I was 14 when I came to believe in Jesus. I didn't fully understand everything,

but I knew that when, that I didn't want to spend an eternity in hell. I did not want to spend an eternity separated from God. And I knew that I believed Jesus could save me. You don't have to understand it all. You just have to believe. Verse nine. How can these things be? Asked Nicodemus. Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things? Jesus replied,

I assure you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. I won't spend too much time on these next two verses, but there are a couple of things here that I think are important to point out. Jesus told Nicodemus what it takes to see this kingdom of God, which is to be born again. So notice Nicodemus is responding.

He's responding to what Jesus had told him. How can these things be? And Jesus essentially goes on to kind of scold Nicodemus saying, are you a teacher of Israel and you don't know these things? So the first thing I kind of want to point out here is, remember what I said earlier about Nicodemus? What was Nicodemus? A Pharisee. He was a religious leader. He was an expert in God's law.

He was an expert. He was an expert in God's law. He was an expert in God's word in the old Testament. He should have known. He was very well educated in the old Testament. So he should have known what Jesus was talking about because Ezekiel 18, 31 and 36 clearly point out what Jesus was talking about. So you don't have to turn there, but maybe write these verses down in the margins of your Bible.

So Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 31 and Ezekiel chapter 36, verses 25 through 36. Let me turn over there. Just real quick. Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel 18, 31 says, throw off all the transgressions you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. And then turn over a few pages to your right to Ezekiel 36, verses 25 through 26. And it says, I will also sprinkle clean,

water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you pay attention here, a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully serve my ordinances.

Nicodemus being so well educated in the old Testament, should have known what Ezekiel told us about spiritual rebirth, which actually, it brings up an actually a really interesting sidebar here. This, this actually is a fulfillment of prophecy here. Nicodemus being kind of dumbfounded here is, is actually a fulfillment of prophecy because Isaiah five chapter, chapter five, verse 21 tells us, woe to those who consider themselves wise. And later on in Isaiah chapter 29, it tells us, I will confound these people with wonder after wonder.

The wisdom otherwise will vanish. So when Jesus comes on the scene, he absolutely, he just absolutely confounds these people who think themselves to be wise. You know, heaven forbid we ever, we ever get to the point. We think we know everything about God's word. I hope that we, we never get to that point because there is always, there is always something that God can teach us.

Always something that God can teach us. Even the most well-known Bible scholars in the world still spend time in God's word every day. You know why? Because the Holy spirit is still teaching them. The spirit is constantly revealing things to us as we spend time in his word. So that was a sidebar back to what I was saying about Nicodemus, not knowing what God's word says to bring us,

to bring that home to us, much like Nicodemus. Many of us have spent a large majority of our, of our lives in church. We were raised in a church yet. We have no clue what God's word says about certain things. And I'm, and I'm preaching to myself here too, because I had no, I didn't, I didn't think about those verses in Ezekiel. I sure as heck didn't. So I'm talking to myself here as well.

I know, when I get to heaven, God is going to ask me why it is that I know more movie quotes than I do scripture. That one may sting for some people.

I'm, I'm confessing that even though I've spent a large, a larger majority of my life in church, I don't know a lot of scripture. I, at least I don't, I feel like I don't know what I should. And I'd cert, I can certainly sit here and bag on Nick, Nick, a Demas about not knowing this, but I'd be a hypocrite to say that I don't have the same problem. And the second point I kind of want to make here is, is that even though Nick, a Demas was a Pharisee and a ruler, he had no clue what God's word said about spiritual matters.

And John MacArthur pointed out something interesting and somewhat convicting about Nick, a Demas is spiritual state. He was spiritually bankrupt. He was spiritually bankrupt, which, which could be said of the majority of the Pharisees and religious leaders. And by extension, the nation of Israel at large, they were spiritually bankrupt. They were so caught up in religious traditions that they became spiritually bankrupt.

So this brings up an, an interesting question. How spiritual, how spiritually wealthy are we? How spiritually wealthy are you? Have you looked at your spiritual bank statement lately? Are you spiritually, are you spiritually broke or are you spiritually wealthy or are you somewhere in between to kind of simplify that a little bit here? You know, are you, are we spending time in God's word,

allowing the power of God to, to change our lives and to change our hearts? Or is the only time you open God's word on a Sunday morning or Wednesday night? Are you, are you completely spiritually bankrupt? In other words, have you never been born again spiritually? Friends, if, if you are the latter, let today be the day of salvation. Amen. Allow the, allow the precious blood of Jesus to wash you,

to wash you white as snow and begin your new life in Jesus. All right, so moving on here, verse 11, find it. I assure you, we speak what we know and we testify to what, what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony.

This next, this next section of scripture here, verses 11 through 18, um, can actually be divided into three parts, which I, which I borrowed from John MacArthur, um, because it just kind of divides it up nicely for us and kind of puts it all into perspective. So, um, the first, the first one, the problem of unbelief, then there'll be the solution to, to unbelief. Um, to unbelief, and the consequences of unbelief. So let's, let's talk about the first one, the problem of unbelief versus 11 and 12 here.

I assure you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. If I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don't believe, how will you believe? If I tell you about things of heaven, before we talk about the problem of unbelief, I'll kind of want to draw your attention to the word. We hear again, uh, who's we, we aren't told directly, but I think, you know, there are two possibilities.

And I stole this from one of the commentaries I was reading. Um, the first possibility is the apostles and the disciples. You know, these are the, those who bore witnesses to the power of Jesus, to, to Jesus's miracles and Jesus's teachings. Um, and the second possibility is, you know, the Holy Trinity, the father and the son and the Holy spirit, you know, um, and remember that Jesus is in fact, God, in the flesh.

Now I think that the latter is most, the is most likely the, we, that Jesus is referring to here, but you know, you're welcome to be wrong. It's okay. I mean, um, but to summarize, Jesus is speaking on behalf of himself and his father and the Holy spirit. And in addition, it's almost as if Jesus is responding to GMS. Goodness, I can't say his name. Nicodemus is use of we to kind of illustrate,

to kind of establish his authority. You know, remember said Nicodemus says, you know, we believe that you have come from God and Jesus's responses as well. We speak to what we know and we testify to what we have seen. Yet you do not accept our testimony. So just wanted to point that out there for you, you know, just kind of to illuminate that. So, um, back to the problem of unbelief.

Jesus has testified, to the things of heaven and performed, you know, miracle after miracle. And yet they refuse to believe, even though they had somehow come to the consensus that Jesus had come from heaven. And it's interesting that they, that they believe that because they will later go on to say that he is from the other place, you know, that, that Jesus was from, from Satan. Um, but like Nicodemus and the Pharisees, many times, I, I, I believe that Jesus could be standing right here in front of us and perform miracle after miracle and, and preach the most amazing life changing sermon in the history of mankind.

And yet there will still be people who don't believe why that is. Honestly, there, the reasons are endless, but however, I think just the root cause comes down to one, one reason. And that's sin. It's sin. We love, we, we love to sin. I'll be honest. You know, let's be honest. Sin is fun. We are sinful by nature and some simply don't want to stop sinning. It's too much fun.

Thus, some will simply refuse to believe. And Jesus actually addresses this problem in verse 12. And he says, if I have told you about things that happen on earth and you don't believe, how will you believe? If I tell you about things of heaven, earthly things, like the illustrations Jesus used, you know, like being born and even to look at Jesus, his own life should have made the point plain to Nicodemus.

If he could not see that he needed spiritual transformation, you know, what more could Jesus tell him? You know, if we hear testimony after testimony of the power of Jesus in our lives, and yet there are, there are still those who refuse to believe. What more can we say? I mean, we'll, we'll continue to pray for you, that your eyes will, that your eyes would be open.

But what more can we say? We'll still continue to preach God's word. We'll still continue to tell you the good news. But if, you know, if we tell you the power of God, you know, and, and we, we witness the power of God in people's lives. And yet you still refuse to believe. What more can we say? There are always going to be, at least some, we could put it as plainly as humanly possible.

And in terms of child can understand, yet they refuse to believe. And honestly, my heart breaks for those people. My heart breaks for those because while they, they may live out the rest of their lives and be fine. Once they reach the end of this life without Jesus, they're going to spend the rest of eternity separated from God. And what's more, they will have no excuse.

They'll have no excuse. They'll have no excuse. Romans one verse, Romans one 20 chapter one, verse 20 actually confirms that for us. And it says, we have no excuse. We have no excuse. You can just maybe write that in the margin of your Bible there. We have no excuse. And we as Americans have absolutely zero excuses to not believe. You know, we have more Bibles and more access to resources than anywhere else in the

world. I've got two Bible apps on my phone right now and access. You know, countless commentaries. We live in what most people refer to as the Bible belt where everyone in their dog has a Bible. And, and at the very least they have access to one. You know, I don't even have to carry a physical Bible anymore. I got two on here. I have multiple Bibles at home and multiple commentaries.

I have no excuse to not believe. We have no excuse not to believe. We've seen God's power. Work in our nation. We've seen God's power work in our lives. And yet there are still some who absolutely just refuse to believe. And for Nicodemus and the Pharisees, they had no excuse. They, they had been entrusted with God's very word. And for those in the Exodus, they witnessed the power of God firsthand.

They witnessed an entire ocean split in half. They witnessed, they witnessed, they witnessed, they witnessed pillars of cloud and fire. They witnessed armies fall right before them. They witnessed food miraculously appear on a daily basis. And yet somehow there were some that still refuse to believe. Friends, God's invisible attributes are all around us. Evidence for God is all around us.

The very fact that you were born as proof that God exists. And that God loves you. Therefore, we have no excuse not to believe the second. The second point we want to talk about this morning is the solution. Unbelief. Verse 13 says, no one has ascended into heaven except the one who's descended from heaven. The son of man, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness.

So the son of man must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world in this way. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world that he might condemn the world, but rather, but that the world might be saved through him.

So we've talked about the problem of unbelief. Let's talk about the solution. Verse 13. Jesus is essentially saying that no one, no one can truly understand the mysteries of heaven except him who came from heaven. Understand that Jesus is the only one whose home was in heaven prior to him being born as a man. Therefore, if anyone is an expert in the things of heaven,

it's Jesus and Jesus alone. He's the only one who's been there and come back to tell us about it. We don't have to understand everything about heaven. We just have to believe in the one who is from heaven. Jesus Christ. Jesus goes on to use an event from Israel's own history as an example to help Nicodemus and help us understand how we will be born again. He uses the event recorded in Numbers chapter 21.

I think it's verses four through nine. If you just want to write that in the margin of your Bible. But Moses and Israel are in the wilderness. And in this account, Moses and Israel in the wilderness, and they've left Mount Mount Horror, I think, believe is what it was. Eventually, Israel got tired of wandering around the desert. You know, they were ready to be where they were at.

And they started grumbling, complaining against God and Moses. And as a result, God sent snakes into the camp of Israel. Now, we'll pause right there for a minute. I, like Pastor Ryan, do not like snakes. To me, the only good snake is a dead snake. And if I, if I see one, I will say, nope. And I will turn around and nope that one all the way to the house. I will make an about face and nope that one all the way home.

So snakes entered the camp of Israel and started biting people and they became sick. And eventually some of them started to die. So the Lord told Moses to make a serpent of bronze and mounted on a wooden pole. And everyone who looked at the snake on the pole would be saved from death. Now, normally the serpent is usually a symbol or is represented as sin. But in this account is the serpent is made of bronze.

And according to Bible scholars during my studies, I found that bronze is actually a symbol of judgment. So the bronze serpent on a pole is thus represented as sin judged. Friends, this is, this is a beautiful picture of what Jesus was going to do for us. On the cross. He was going to take sin upon himself. The sin and judgment that we deserve upon himself and be hung on a cross so that all that,

all that look upon him would believe and be saved. This is a beautiful picture of what Jesus is going to do for us. Understand that it is our heavenly father's fervent desire for all to look upon him and be saved. Resulting in life. Why simple? It's because he loves you. Remember, look at verse 16 here for God loved who the world in this way that he gave his one and only son.

So that pay attention. Everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. It's God's fervent desire. For you to look upon his son. And you will see that the fervent desire of God is God's fervent desire for you to look upon his son. and believe because he wants to spend the rest of eternity with you, with us. Why? Because he loves you. While I was studying, I learned that there are actually over 31,000

verses in the Bible. This is something I never thought to look up, but something I learned, something interesting. And of those 31,000 verses, this is probably the most widely known verse, even among unbelievers. However, I don't want to diminish this verse because it's key to this whole study. And it's key to everyone coming to believe in Jesus. Understanding that God, understand that God loves you. For many of you here or watching online,

you may not feel loved by anyone, but understand that this, God does. God loves you.

This last verse, this last Thursday, Alyssa and I took a few of our kids to see Toby Mac in Tulsa. And during intermission, a gentleman came out on the stage and he was, I think he was from World Vision. I think it was what it was. But he came out on stage and was telling us about a young man from Guatemala, a young kid from Guatemala who at the age of four years old was abandoned by his parents and left. And he was abandoned by his parents and left. And he was abandoned by his parents and

left to live homeless in the streets. Now, it just blows my mind that anybody would abandon a four-year-old to live by themselves and fend for themselves in the streets of Guatemala or anywhere for that matter, but left to survive on his own at four years old. No one wanted him. No one loved him. But I'll tell you who did love him. God did. And God saved that young man. And

he's now a worship pastor. Somewhere in Guatemala. That's amazing. You know that someone that nobody else wanted or loved, God does. God wanted him and God loved him. God loves the unlovable. So if you're here this morning or watching online and you feel unloved and unwanted by anybody, know that God loves you and God wants you. God loves the unlovable. God loves the unwanted. He loves you so much that he

loves you so much that he loves you so much that he loves you so much that he loves you so much that he loves you so much that he loves you so much that he loves you so much that he sent what was most precious to him, sent what was most precious to him to take your sin upon himself and take the judgment that you deserve upon himself and hang on a cross so that if you would believe in him, you would have new life. You would have eternal life. Understand that eternal life isn't just about living forever. People in hell are going to live forever. They're going to have eternal life,

just not in heaven. Eternal life here is more talking about the quality of your eternal life. The people in hell will live forever, but in constant torment. Eternal life is about quality life for eternity. And I don't know about you, eternal life in heaven sounds a lot better than eternal life in hell. God loves you so much and wants a better life. Better life for you so much that he sent his only son, sent what was most precious to him

to die for you so that anyone who looks on him and believes will not die, but have eternal life in heaven with him. That's how much you are loved. That's how much you are wanted for us as Americans. For us as Americans, this is where we would usually ask the question, what do I have to do? To earn this eternal life? You know, we as Americans are taught from a very young age.

If you want anything, you have to earn it. You have to work for it. You have to do something in return. We can't get something for nothing in America yet. Salvation through Jesus is backwards from our culture. It's backwards from what we are taught. It was certainly was backwards for Nicodemus. He being an Israelite and more than that, a Pharisee, a religious leader was used

to making regular sacrifices. Uh, to make payment for the sin in his life. Excuse me. Yes. Salvation is something that can't be earned. It can't be earned. Israel proved that by constantly breaking God's commandments and constantly making, have, uh, constantly having to make sacrifices so that it so much that it became more of a reflex rather than a sacrifice. It cheapened the sacrifice, if you

will, because after so much time, it really meant nothing. To them, there was no heart change. They thought that if I messed up, I'd just go offer another goat or another dove or another bull or whatever, you know, whatever the, whatever the scripture prescribed for that particular sin. And that would be it. But there was no heart change. There was no spiritual rebirth happening. And that's why Jesus came and offered him

self as payment for our sin once and for all, once and for all. So that all who look upon him and believe would not die, but rather be reborn spiritually and have new life spiritually so that we would be given a new heart. Remember Ezekiel 36, so that we would be given a new heart and a new spirit. We don't have to do anything to earn salvation. We can't. We don't have to do anything except believe. It's that simple. The righteous requirements

for salvation are no longer our responsibility. There is nothing that we can do to earn it. The only thing we have to do believe is to do is believe friends. It's that simple. Do you have to fully understand it? No. Do you have to clean yourself up? No. Do you have to clean up your life before you believe? No, no, because there is nothing that you can do to become worthy of such a gift. God loves you where you are at.

He loves you where you are at right now in your sin and all your blemishes and all he loves you. God loves you where you're at. So come now. Today is the day of salvation. Don't let another day go by without believing in Jesus and asking him to be your Lord and savior. The last thing we want to talk about is the consequences of unbelief. Verse 18, it says, anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe

is already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only son of God. Friends, we are not guaranteed tomorrow. You're not even guaranteed your next heartbeat. And if you come to the end of this life without believing in Jesus, you'll have eternal life, but not with God, not with your creator. You'll have eternal life, but not in heaven. It will be in hell. Your eternal life will be in

condemnation. Your eternal life will include eternal torment and a lake of fire. So my question to you is this, is this something that you really want? Is this something you really want to risk just so that you can have a few extra days of fun? You may think you'll come to belief when you're on your deathbed, but understand you're not guaranteed that deathbed. You're not daring. You're not guaranteed a,

a peaceful, quiet death. Years ago, when I was in it, when I was in youth, um, there was an FCA rally in the community I lived in. And, um, and, uh, the speaker was giving a essentially the same message, you know, just, uh, a basic salvation message and praise the Lord. Two guys came to, came to salvation that night. And on their way home, they got in a car wreck and one of them died. He wasn't guaranteed a

deathbed. He wasn't guaranteed a long life or a peaceful death. He was taken from this life on his way home. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. We're not guaranteed our next heartbeat. So why would you risk it? Why would you risk it? Let today be the day of salvation. Let, don't let another moment go by without belief in Jesus. Don't let another moment, don't let another moment go by without asking Jesus to be your Lord and savior.

Um, I'll go ahead and ask the worship team to come on back up and we'll, they'll play one last song. And as they are, um, if you are here or you're watching online and you've never come to believe in Jesus, meaning you've never believed that he is God's son who came from heaven to pay the price for your sin on a cross that you deserve. Let today be that day. Your new life is waiting for you. Your new life is waiting for you.

Um, I'm also going to ask brother Rick, uh, to come up and we're going to be down front here. If you need prayer or if you want to come up and, and, and ask Jesus into your life, we'd be happy to pray with you. And if you just need some prayer, some extra prayer, we'll be happy to pray with you. Let's pray. Father, we love you. We thank you for your word. God in the world that claims to have all the truth, Lord, your word is true.

God, it is the only truth. Lord, I just pray that. I pray that if there are any here this morning, God, that have not had have never come to belief in you. I pray that today would be that. Father, God, you, your word says you are coming again soon. Time is short. I pray that you would just do a mighty work on our lives this morning. God, we love you, Lord. And we praise you. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.

And so this move Lord by your Holy spirit and hearts today, Lord, may we draw close to you knowing that you love us, Lord. We give you praise in Jesus name. Have a great week, everyone.