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, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 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. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeneth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel? and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Let's end our reading there. Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank You this morning for the Word of God. We thank You that You have given us truth, that we do not have to stumble around in the darkness seeking after You, but You have come to us, You have provided for us truth, You have given to us Your holy Scriptures, that we might know You, that we might love You, and that we might serve You. And we pray this morning that You would open our hearts to attend to the things of the Word. God, we cannot open our own hearts, we cannot approach to You except You do this work. And so we pray this morning that You would bless our time together. In Jesus' name, Amen. Why did Jesus come? Why did He come? What was His purpose in coming to this evil world? What purpose did He have in leaving glory and taking on human flesh and coming to us? What purpose is He now carrying on as He sits at the right hand of the Father? How we answer these questions tells us a lot about how we view God. how we understand God. And our text answers these questions in clear and unmistakable terms. Verse 17 tells us, For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Sometimes we hear that. Many of you have been in the church for many, many years, and we hear a statement like that, He came not to condemn, but to save. And we think, oh yes, He came to save those people. He came to save bad people. He came to save rough characters. But I want to tell you about someone that might be more like you than you think. A man named Nicodemus. A religious man. we might say a church-going man. A man who kept the law and avoided sin. A man who, in some measure, must have loved God and he loved the Scriptures and he searched the Scriptures and here's a Pharisee, an upright and a righteous man, a good man. If we saw him on the streets, we might say, here's one who belongs to us. He's our kind of a guy. He's a good guy. He's a good man. Here's a man who in many ways was pursuing God. And yet Jesus says something most remarkable to him. He says, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Now Nicodemus had several wrong ideas about salvation. He had wrong thoughts about how one enters into the kingdom of heaven. He first of all has questions. Who is Jesus? What is Jesus? He makes a pretty bold statement. He says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is willing. Well, there's a pretty good statement about the Lord Jesus Christ. He comes to Jesus Christ, not like the other Pharisees who were ready to cast stones at Jesus, but He comes to Jesus and He says, You are come from God. You are a teacher from God. You couldn't do these miracles except God be with you. There's a good statement about Jesus Christ. Here's a man who knows a great deal about the Savior to come. It's a true statement. Jesus was indeed come from God. He was a teacher. And God indeed was with Him. Nicodemus was right thus far. You see, this is an orthodox statement. This is a true statement. This is a biblical statement as far as it goes. Your works, he says, your miracles are true. Your message is true. And God is with you. You see, Nicodemus is a lot like us. So why do I include this under the heading of wrong ideas that Nicodemus may have had about salvation? Think about it. Nicodemus believed the Scriptures. Nicodemus believed God. He believed that the Scriptures were the Word of God and inspired by God. He looked for the Messiah to come. He was a sincerely religious man. And now he goes even further and affirms that Jesus was come from God. And I include this under wrong ideas about salvation. Because so many people today believe that that is all that is needed in order to be saved. To live right. To be religious. To read the Scriptures. To say good things about God. This is what makes one a Christian, Nicodemus thought. Surely I'm in the Kingdom of God. I believe the Bible. You see, to have grown up among the people of God as Nicodemus did, or as many of you did in the church, to believe in the truthfulness of the Scriptures, to believe that there is a God and that Jesus is sent from God, to have right theology and to think correctly about the Bible, is not enough to make one a Christian. That's right. You see, the fact that we reject Islam Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses or whatever other false religions there are, the fact that we identify as Christians, the fact that we're here this morning in the church, that we sing these old hymns, the fact that we do those things does not make us a Christian. That is a very wrong idea about salvation and Nicodemus had this idea. He had grown up in a God-fearing home among the people of God. He had sung the praises of God. And he thought, surely of all men, I am in the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus displays yet another more serious error in his thinking. Essentially, he says to Jesus Christ, you can't possibly mean that I, Nicodemus, a righteous Pharisee, not that I must be born again. You can't possibly mean that. Jesus tells Nicodemus that indeed he must be born again. Righteous though he was by the law, as much as he had grown up among the people of God, for all the sins that he had avoided, Jesus says, you, Nicodemus, must be born again. And Nicodemus could not quite grasp this concept. You see, for him to be a Jew, an Orthodox, here's a teacher in Israel, believing the Scriptures. He's just made this fantastic statement about Jesus Christ. How can it be that He must be born again? How can you say this to me? Nicodemus says. I'm a child of Abraham. I'm an heir of the covenant. Surely, I'm an heir of the kingdom of God. How can it be then that I must be born again? Now, we might be tempted to think here that this was a difficult concept to be born again, that this was some new concept to Nicodemus and he didn't quite grasp it. But the truth is that this terminology of new birth and being born again was very common to the Jews. Whenever a Gentile would would come into the nation of Israel and receive circumcision and be a part of the nation of Israel, the Jews always referred to that as a new birth. So when Jesus tells Nicodemus, you must be born again, it's not a strange concept, new birth. The problem that Nicodemus had wasn't that he didn't understand these words. The problem for Nicodemus is he couldn't understand how a Jew would need to be born again. how a righteous man, according to the law, would need to be born again. In other words, Nicodemus' idea about salvation was, I have grown up in a religious home. I am a Jew. I have been circumcised. I am in the kingdom. I am a teacher of the people of Israel. Here I am doing all the things. I avoid all the sins of the Gentiles and I walk in the ways that you have laid out for me. If you tell me that Gentiles need to be born again, very good, I agree with you. But how could you tell me that I should be born again? You see, I'm a full grown man in the Kingdom of God. Should I go back and start again at the beginning? And I suppose that many of us having grown up in the South, growing up in a place that at one point at least was culturally Christian, and going to church is just what we did, and we've all been exposed to the Scriptures over and over again, may be tempted to think like Nicodemus. Surely, if anybody's a part of the Church of Jesus Christ, it's us. All that is really needed for me is that I just learn more of the Scriptures and read my Bible every day, come to church more faithfully, more regularly, be a little more committed, sin a little less, because that's all that's needed is this sort of natural maturity. But that what was needed for Nicodemus was a radical, life-giving change. What a Savior. That seemed to be more than Nicodemus could bear. How can these things be, he said? How? How could you say this to me? How could you say that I need this radical life-giving change? Look at what I have done for God. Look at how long I've been a part of the people of God. But Jesus says to him, Nicodemus, For all that you are and for all that you've avoided, you must be born again. You must be born again. His birth into the people of God, his position as a teacher of the people of God, his family as a family of God, his knowledge of the Scripture, his activity among the people of God could not save him. His continuing to learn more of the Scriptures and developing his understanding to have more accurate theology. His high views of Jesus. None of it could constitute him a member of the kingdom of God. Something more was needed. No, Nicodemus, all of those things will not do. None of those things will be. You must be like Paul and say, I counted all this dung and rubbish that I might be found in Jesus Christ. Jesus is Nicodemus. Not just Gentiles. And not even just Jews in general. Nicodemus, you. You have to be born again. Jesus is very clear about this. His response is very strong. It's very personal. personal. Verse 3, most assuredly, I say to you, Nicodemus, I'm speaking to you, I'm speaking about you, even you must be born again and without this new birth you will not even see the kingdom of heaven, much less enter. You, in particular, must be born again and maybe as old Baptists we tend to think like Nicodemus, and this is strange to us. This visiting creature has come to us this morning, and he's telling us, as old Baptists, we need to be born again. I'm telling you that apart from the new birth, even old Baptists can't be saved. You have to be born again. You must be born again. Wherever you are here today, however long you've been a member of the church, however many times you've read your Bible through, whatever you may think about God and Jesus Christ, you must be born again. Now, this is not just my idea or the idea of some visiting pastor. This is Jesus Christ who's speaking to Nicodemus. This is Jesus Christ who speaks to you This morning, it is Jesus who is calling you to this. It is Jesus who is saying, whoever you are, whatever you are, however good or however bad you may be, it's the same for everyone. Everyone must come into the kingdom through the new birth. And without this, old Baptist or not, you will perish in your sins. That's the teaching of Jesus Christ. You will perish in your sins with your Bibles on your lap if you're not born again. You will perish in your sins from the very pews of this church if you are not born again. Without this new birth, you will most assuredly perish in your sins. You are already, if you are not born again, under a state of condemnation. You are guilty before God. You see, it was for this purpose that Jesus came. He didn't come to condemn. We were already condemned. Jesus Christ, in answer to the question we asked you at the very beginning, why did He come? Our text tells us in verse 17, He came that the world might be saved through Him. Now it may be that just at this point you have an objection in your mind that keeps you from coming to Jesus Christ for salvation. How can a man be born again, Nicodemus says? I don't understand what you're talking about. How can I be born again when I don't even understand the words that you're saying? Nicodemus here raises an objection. You're telling me I must be born again. I don't understand what you mean. Therefore, I won't come. Nicodemus at this point puts his hands up in effect and seeks to resist the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know what you mean. Stop right there. I don't understand what you're saying. How does it work? Where does it come from? How can this be? How can you tell me of all people that I need this new birth? And what I want to press upon you at this point this morning is that it is not necessary for you to understand all the mysterious dealings of the Holy Spirit in order for you to come to Jesus Christ. You don't have to understand exactly how the new birth works in order to be born again. Sometimes that objection is raised. Many, many times in my pastoral ministry, these sorts of objections are raised when I tell people, you must be born again. I don't understand what that is. Well, thankfully, you don't have to understand it in order to actually be born again. Some people refuse to come to Jesus simply because they cannot fully understand the way in which the Spirit is dealing with them. But notice that while Jesus rebukes Nicodemus for not knowing these things, He says, you're a teacher. How could you not know them? Jesus never actually answers his question. He never actually explains to him the mystery of the new birth or how it works. He simply says, Nicodemus, The Spirit moves how He lives. He comes from this way and that way. We don't know where it comes from or how it moves. We see its fruits. You don't have to understand the new birth in order to be born again. And this is very, very important. Nicodemus does not say to Jesus, Oh, now I understand the reason that You will not come to me to be born again is You need more information. Let me explain to you all the details of the new birth as if we are saved by knowledge. That's not what he says. Ah, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. In other words, Nicodemus, this is mysterious. Don't look to your knowledge. Look to me. Look to me. The mysterious nature of the Spirit's work is no hindrance to your being saved. You don't have to understand all the ins and outs of it in order to look to Jesus. His ways are often different with different people. Sometimes He brings a man low and leaves him there for a long period of time. And for other people, He almost births them in a moment. It's different for each one of us. God deals with us differently as individuals. And sometimes we make objections because, well, my conviction and my approach to Christ didn't look exactly like theirs, so I'll wait a little while. And I fear that this keeps many people from taking any steps towards the Lord Jesus Christ and towards salvation. But Jesus removes this objection out of hand All that is required, he says. All that you need, Nicodemus, is not more knowledge, is not more obedience to the law, is not being a more strict Pharisee. It's not any of those things. All you need, Nicodemus, is to look at me as one lifted up on the cross. And it's just a look at the cross that saves and gives that new birth to you. That's all that is needed. Again, he doesn't sit down and explain to him all these movements of the Spirit. He just says, Nicodemus, look at me. You remember the story that he gives to Nicodemus. The story of the Israelites in the wilderness having been bitten by the serpents. The plague has gone forth. They are dying in their rebellion because of this serpent that has moved through the camp. And he says, Nicodemus, in the same way that Moses lifted up a serpent on the pole and whoever looked at it, whoever saw it there with a believing look was saved from that plague. So it is with me. As I am lifted up on the cross, any who look to Me, all who look to Me will be saved. Nicodemus, he says, look at me, the dying Savior on a cross. Look at me and be saved. You don't need an intimate knowledge of all the ways that the Spirit works. Look at me. I don't exactly know why it is that some wouldn't look at that cult. And I don't know exactly why it is that some don't look to Jesus. But I know that Jesus is telling Nicodemus, and He tells each one of you, if you will look at Me on the cross, with a believing look and a believing heart, you shall be saved. And all that come to Me, I will let no eyes cast about. You see, sometimes we think, well, maybe because we are dying, because we are sick, because we have been bitten by the serpent, so to speak, because there is an illness in us that we can't be saved until we can see a little healing taking place. Once we've improved ourselves a little bit, then we can present ourselves to Jesus Christ for salvation. Jesus says, don't wait until you see healing. Healing can't come until and unless you look at Me. You see, to look and wait and see if we're getting better and more righteous is all too inward looking into ourselves. We must look out of ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. All they had to do was look at that circle and they were instantly healed. What does it mean then to look to Jesus Christ? I am calling each of you this morning to look to Jesus Christ. But what in the world does that mean? What does it mean to look to Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, you must be convinced. You must be convinced that you are in a dying and dangerous condition. You must be convinced that you will indeed perish, that you are under condemnation already, and that there is no other hope for you. The Israelites would have never looked at that serpent had they not recognized that we are dying in our sins. We are dying in our rebellion. And all around them was the smell of death. And just like for us, we are dying in our sins. Our text is clear. You are condemned already. Your deeds are evil and wicked. Do you know that to be true of you? You see, until you are convinced that you are indeed dying and perishing, you will never look up and look out and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to look to Jesus Christ, you must see that you are sick. Wasn't this just Nicodemus' problem? Nicodemus just couldn't understand how he was sick, how he was dying. He couldn't see that sin was killing him and destroying him. All he could see was all his righteous garments and all his prayers and all his attendance to worship. He couldn't see that he would perish. Surely I will perish, he said. But secondly, a believing look at Jesus rests itself totally and completely on the mercy of God offered in Jesus Christ. It doesn't bring anything with it and say, God, because I've done this or because I have that, for that reason, You should hear me. And for that reason, You should save me. It doesn't come dressed up like a Pharisee saying, look how good I am. Or, they're so good mixed in me. Would you make up the difference? To look to Jesus Christ means that we recognize we have nothing whatsoever to offer to Him. not one ounce of goodness for which He should hear our prayer, for which He should bless us, for which He should save us. All we deserve at His hands is guilt and condemnation. And what faith does when it looks to Jesus Christ to say, I have nothing whatsoever to offer to You, not because of what I am, but because of who You are, O God, Savior. That's what it means to look to Jesus Christ. That's what Jesus was telling Nicodemus. You've got to reject all that you count as good and dear and valuable for you. And come to Me empty handed. Thirdly, faith is sure of the salvation that it seeks. Faith does not doubt that it will be saved. We don't look at Him and say, Oh God, I hope that You will save me. but my sins are so great. You see, sometimes we err that way. We don't think we're so good that we can bring good things to Him. Sometimes we're so convinced of our sins that we think, oh God, our sins are too great. You couldn't possibly save me. How could you deal with this mountain of sin that I have? My sins are too great and therefore you begin to stutter and stumble and doubt God's salvation. But you see, faith is not hope in the modern day sense of hope. Well, I hope that He will save me. Maybe something good will happen if I come to Him. No, faith is a sure, a certain hope. It knows that no matter how great the sin, there is more grace in Christ than there is sin in us. And if I come to Him, I will most surely be saved. Jesus Christ says in our text, whosoever will, however good, however bad, it makes no difference. There is an infinite amount of grace in Jesus Christ. Whoever you are, whatever you've done, whosoever will, He will save you. It's not a might. It's not a maybe. It's not a could be. It's not a, well, I sort of think that He will. Faith says, I am absolutely certain that if I come to the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever filth is upon me, He will most certainly and surely save me. Fairly, fairly. Have you ever considered for a moment what kind of people have looked to Jesus and been saved? Have you ever thought how many awful individuals have been saved and clothed with the righteousness of Christ? How they've been changed, how they've been made new creatures, like the demoniac who once was a raging lunatic and then we find him after an encounter with Jesus, clothed and in his right mind? It matters not how awful you are. Have you considered the Corinthian Christians? How awful they were before their salvation? Listen to the type of people that they were. fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetousness, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. None of those, Paul says, will inherit the kingdom of God. That's a pretty impressive list of sins. Pretty awful sort of way of living. But what does Paul say? And such were some of you. the worst of the worst. The most gross and unimaginable sinful lifestyles you can think of. And Paul says, now you are inheritors of the Kingdom of God. Now you sin, clothed and in your right mind in the house of God in Corinth. You have been changed. It matters not what sins you've committed. If you come to Him, He will most certainly save you. Such people He has saved. Such people He still saves today. So what hinders you? Why would you refuse to come? Have you any valid reason that you would not come and fall at the feet of Jesus Christ? You see, there is nothing lacking in Him. Nothing in Him that hinders our coming. I want to answer one last objection and make one last exhortation. I've heard this too many times to count. You sit privately and you deal with people. They say something along these lines. Oh, yes, I know that God is gracious. I know that He's full of grace. And I know that He saves the worst kind of people. But I don't think He'll save me. You don't know what I've done. I've heard it many, many times. You don't know. There's no forgiveness for me anymore. The devil whispers in their ear, God won't forgive you. Surely, you're too awful. Surely, you shouldn't go to Him. And they believe that. But the words of our passage, the words of our text, verse 17, tell us something much different. God sent His Son into the world that the world through Him might be saved. This was His purpose in coming. Surely, you're not exempt from this. Surely, you're not exempt from God's purposes here in sending the Son, in giving you the Scriptures, in hearing the message of salvation. His purpose was that you might give Him the glory due to His name. That you might seek Him and find Him. There is nothing in God. There is nothing in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning that prevents you from coming. There is no lack of promises on this point. He has promised you if you come, He will save you. There's no deficiency in the Savior. There is grace upon grace and more grace and more grace. It is an infinite ocean of grace. It cannot be drained dry. There is grace in the Savior for a thousand worlds of sin. The text tells us there's another reason why people refuse to come. The text tells us that you refuse to come because you love the darkness more than you love the light. The text says, the reason that you're not saved is not a deficiency in Jesus Christ. There's something wrong with your heart. It's that all this goodness is offered to you in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you had rather wallow in the darkness. To a Nicodemus, He's saying, Nicodemus, all that you thought was good and right is darkness. And the reason you refuse to come to me this night, the reason that you put up your hands and say, oh, I don't understand, Jesus, I don't understand, is not because you're neutral towards me. It's because you'd rather have your own righteousness than my righteousness. It's not a neutrality on our part. It's not a carefulness. Oh, I want to just wait and make sure. that what God has done in me is real and true. That's not why we hold back from the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because we love darkness more than all things. Have you ever thought about it in these terms? That the refusal to come to Him is not a carefulness? It's not a neutrality? It's because there's a hatred of God in the hearts of men. Let me exhort you this morning in the strongest possible terms. Come to Jesus Christ. Come to Him for salvation. Don't say, well, I've been a member so long. I've been in the church so long. What will people think if I come now that all before was false and untrue? If that is the case, come. Come to Jesus Christ. Receive salvation from Him. Don't rest in the fact that you've been church members. Don't rest in the fact that you've been living up morally upright life for so long. Come to Jesus Christ. You cannot remain indifferent. You cannot pretend to be neutral about your salvation. You cannot leave here this morning without making a decision about the things that you've heard. You must either accept Jesus Christ, or for God's sake, be honest enough to say, I hate the man. It's a pretty strong contrast, isn't it? If you refuse to be saved today, you are indeed declaring a hatred of the light and a hatred of Jesus Christ. And I want to press you this morning to accept the Christ that is offered to you. To go to hell from the pews of the church is a far greater evil and receives a far greater condemnation than even the heathens in the jungle of Africa who have never heard of it. You have a greater responsibility because you do know the truth. You have a greater responsibility because for so long, Jesus has extended His hands in salvation to you. If you willingly reject the light and love the darkness, you will receive the greater condemnation. You have essentially looked at Christ and said, no thank you. If God did not spare His Son when sin was laid upon Him, do you think you will escape if you refuse the Savior? Jesus Christ has been lifted up. He has been placed upon that cross and God has poured out all His wrath upon Him. He came to save. He came for this very purpose. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, that you,