Foley, Phil: You Must Be Born Again ~ John 3 v 9-15-02

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to John chapter three. You know, it doesn't seem to matter where you're at in life. There's always something to be concerned about. Always something to be concerned about. Maybe it's financial concerns, or maybe it's health issues, something related to your job, or maybe it's relational worries. And all these concerns and worries that you have that come up in life can distract you from the one main thing you should be concerned about. One main thing you should be concerned about, where you will spend eternity. You know, the most important question to get right is, what must I do to have eternal life? Because getting that wrong has eternal consequences. In John three, Jesus is talking about how one enters the kingdom of God, and what he means by that is how a person can enter into a right relationship with God so that they can have eternal life. This is one of the most crucial passages in all of scripture. There's nothing more vital than knowing how to obtain eternal life. And this is weighty because the consequences are eternal. Eternity hangs in the balance here. Where you're going to spend eternity. And so we got to listen carefully to what Jesus says here. Now, what's frightening, as we look at this text, you're going to see this, that some people believe they're on the narrow path that leads to heaven when they're actually on the broad path of destruction. That's frightening. There's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. So Jesus is actually addressing a man who thinks this. He thinks he's going to heaven. And Jesus is going to reveal his near fatal mistake. And praise God, he does that, doesn't he? He's going to reveal that to him, and he's going to show how one actually obtains eternal life. For this to happen, for a person to enter into the kingdom, what Jesus is going to say here is something radical must happen to you. Something radical must happen to you. You must be born again. You must experience what Jesus calls a spiritual birth. And so I've titled this, You Must Be Born Again. This is part two. Let's look at verse one. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you've come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he's old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who's born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we've seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. Now, the first thing Jesus stresses here is the necessity of being born again so that you can enter into the kingdom of God. There's a necessity of this. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, who thinks he's on the narrow path and going to heaven. And when you look at his credentials, I think most people, if you would examine Nicodemus here, they would agree, if anyone's going to heaven, it's Nicodemus. I mean, he's a Jew. He's a descendant of Abraham, God's chosen people. He has the right pedigree. He was a Pharisee, which meant he was a religious zealot. He did good. We're told he was a ruler of the Jews. He had position. He was the teacher of Israel, Jesus says. He had knowledge, and he even believed correctly that Jesus was a teacher from God. He had faith. Family ties, good works, position, knowledge, and faith. If there's ever one on the path to heaven, it has to be Nicodemus, right? Wrong. He's still on the path of destruction. See, when it comes to salvation and obtaining eternal life, Nicodemus was missing the one thing that would get him there. The one thing. And so Jesus gets right to the root issue with Nicodemus. To enter the kingdom, Nicodemus, you must be born again. You must be born. Jesus is talking about experiencing a spiritual birth. When someone is born, it results in life, and there's always evidence of life. They breathe, they move, they have relationships. Well, when someone's born spiritually, it results in spiritual life. It's life from above, and there's evidence of that life. There's a relationship with God. And what's interesting, when you look at the language the Bible uses for new birth, it describes it in terms that a radical transformation takes place within that person. And it's so pervasive that it changes their essential nature. There's an essential change of nature of that person that fundamentally transforms them, both in their attitudes and in their behavior for life. It changes them for life. That's what happens. I mean, think about how far-reaching this change is. The Bible describes being born again as being brought from death to life. Now, there's nothing more radical than that. Nothing. Ephesians two, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, and what did God do? God made you alive together with Christ. So it's, uh, coming from death to life. Nothing more radical than that. And when you have this life, of course, you live different. The Bible describes this as God giving you a new heart. And when he gives you a new heart, a heart of flesh, he removes your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh, that new heart has new desires and affections. You have affections for Christ that you never had before. You have a heart to want to obey Christ that you never had before. The new birth is also described as being a new creation. A new creation. You're something you were not before. Paul says the new man has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. So what was before unrighteous and unholy is now fundamentally righteous and holy. See what he's getting at here? God so transforms the core nature of the person that they start living differently. They have life from above. The life of God in them begins to spill out of them. That's what Jesus is talking about. And what he's insisting is that this new birth is what you need to enter the kingdom of God. God has to give you new life. The Holy Spirit has to do a supernatural work in you. And when that happens to you, then and only then are you fit to enter the kingdom of God. Now, this teaching is the exact opposite of what most people believe. It's the exact opposite. Most people, like Nicodemus, placed all their hope in doing good works to attain eternal life. That's what most people do. That's what Nicodemus did. If I just go to church, if I just do good deeds, if I just read the Bible, if I pray, then I can attain life. Nicodemus had spent his entire life meticulously observing the law and the rituals of his religion. And what Jesus is telling him is, you need to forsake all that, Nicodemus. You need to have something happen to you that you can't do. You need life from above. You need the Spirit to intervene. Forsake all your human effort. You can't save yourself because there's nothing you can do to merit eternal life. You must be born again. See how essential this is? So a spiritual birth is something that we undergo. It's not something we can produce. And to enter the kingdom and have eternal life, you must be born from above. So we need to renounce all of our human efforts, and we need to call upon God to do what only he can do. See, if you don't have this, you need to call upon God to give it to you. That's the implication, because Jesus is talking to an unbeliever and telling him how to get into the kingdom. So he's telling Nicodemus, basically, if you don't have this, you need to call on God to give it to you. Now, secondly, Jesus then explains how being born again happens. How does this happen? Look at verse five. Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Born of water emphasizes the need to be cleansed, to be purified. We are sinners. Our nature is polluted and corrupted with sin, which means there's nothing we can do to cleanse ourselves because we can only cleanse the outside. We can't clean the inside, and that's where the cleansing needs to take place. Well, in the new birth, in regeneration, God cleanses us from our moral pollution. He cleanses us from the inside. Listen to how Paul says this. Paul says in First Corinthians six, such were some of you. Such were, and he's talking about how they used to be. He says, you used to be fornicators and idolaters and adulterers and effeminate and homosexuals and thieves and covetous and drunkards, revilers and swindlers. That's what you used to be. But, he says, you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Notice there's a washing which occurs when you're born again. There's a washing, and it results in a practical personal change. You see that? You're not what you used to be. You used to practice these sins so much so that you became identified with those sins. You were an idolater, you were an adulterer. But now that you're born again, an inner washing has occurred to your core nature so that you're not what you used to be. You're no longer those things. See, it's a washing. It's a purification from within. In Titus, Paul writes, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we've done in righteousness, not based on what we've done, but he says, according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration, the washing of the new birth, and the renewing by the Holy Spirit. That's Titus three verse five. So this new birth brings a deep, pervasive change to the whole person. The inner person is purified, they're washed and renewed. Now, Jesus tells us here that this is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit who does this. Verse five, you must be born of water and the Spirit, he says. Verse eight, at the end, so is everyone who's born of the Spirit. So the new birth is a work of God, which he does in us. And the reason why God has to do this is because the only thing that a person of flesh can produce is more flesh. That's the only thing you can produce. Flesh begets flesh. That's verse six. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. If you're of flesh, that's what you are, that's all you can produce. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Only the Spirit can give birth to Spirit. So what he's emphasizing, the only way to be fit for the kingdom of God and have communion with God and a relationship with God is if this new power from without intervenes. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. That's what he sovereignly does. Now, this is contrary to what Nicodemus had been taught, and this is contrary to what Nicodemus had practiced his whole life. And so Jesus has to be very direct with him, verse seven, you must be born again. That's the only way you're entering the kingdom, Nicodemus. God has to do a work in you. So renounce your self effort and ask God to cause you to be born again. Cry out to God. See, that's what he's telling. So that's the necessity of being born again. Jesus insists that the only way to enter the kingdom is if he gives you eternal life through the Spirit, and then we see how regeneration takes place. It's the sovereign work of the Spirit working in you. Now, he moves on here, that was kind of review. He moves on here, and we're going to see the reason why people need to be born again. Why do people need to be born again? We're going to see here, he emphasizes two things. First, our spiritual darkness, and then secondly, it's because of our sin of unbelief. Now, notice the problem of our spiritual darkness, verse nine, Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? And Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not understand these things? Nicodemus simply cannot understand what Jesus is talking about. How can these things be? How can it be that a person must be born again to enter the kingdom of God? How can it be that this is a work of the Spirit alone? See, he's struggling with comprehending the truth that salvation is a work of God through the Spirit, because for years he had probably taught that interest into the kingdom was by good works and obedience. That's what he had believed, that's what he had lived. He was conditioned to think this way, salvation is something I do. I got to appease God, I got to do good works, I got to try to earn God's favor, and Jesus is basically saying, you're wrong. You're wrong. You can't do anything. You must be born again. Now, Jesus here is astounded that Nicodemus doesn't get this. Because verse ten, he says, you're the teacher of Israel. This man was a student of the Old Testament. He was a teacher of its truths. So clearly, Jesus is implying that this teaching of the need of the new birth comes from the Old Testament. If you study through the Old Testament, you will see that righteous works doesn't save anybody. That's basically the theme of the Old Testament. Doing good deeds doesn't make you right with God. They should see from the Old Testament there's a need for God to intervene and save you. Now that's all over the Old Testament. I mean, just think about just big picture for a moment when we look at the Old Testament. God gave Israel a perfect law. But if you look at the history of, of the nation of Israel, they couldn't keep it. I mean, I'm reading through the Old Testament right now. That's the theme. They can't keep the law. They were constantly in sin. They persistently forsook God, though he was kind and gracious to them. Here's what God told Jeremiah. Jeremiah 32. Indeed, the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in my sight from their youth. That's God's remarks on what he thought of Israel. He says, from their youth up until this day, Jeremiah, that means for hundreds and hundreds of years, they've only been doing evil. And that was their consistent pattern throughout the Old Testament. They couldn't keep the law. God gave them sacrifices, and the purpose of those sacrifices was to make atonement for their sins. It was to remind them, you're a sinner. The Old Testament teaches that there's no one who does good, not even one. There's no one who understands who seeks after God. In Psalm one forty three, it says, in God's sight, no man living is righteous. No one. Solomon tells us there's not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. So you can even take the righteous people, and if you were to follow them around, eventually you would see they sin, just like everybody else. So even the best of men continue to sin. So it should be very plain to a teacher of the Old Testament that unless God intervenes and gives a man a new heart and puts a new spirit within him, he will not be saved. That's Ezekiel thirty six. Nicodemus was an established religious authority. He was a theologian. He knew the Old Testament. He was the one who taught it to others. People came to him to find insight from the scriptures, and yet Nicodemus didn't understand the most basic thing about the gospel, that salvation is not by works. It's not something a person can produce. Salvation is the gift of God. It's received by faith. Even Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Of all people, the teacher of Israel should have known this. See, and what Nicodemus illustrates, I think, so profoundly is the fundamental problem of all people. We are in spiritual darkness. That's the fundamental problem. We're in spiritual darkness. And unless God intervenes, we will remain in darkness. It doesn't matter how much you read the Bible, study the Bible, teach the Bible, doesn't matter how much a person goes to church, unless the Spirit intervenes and causes them to be born again, they will remain in darkness. They're going to remain there. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying you shouldn't read your Bible or come to church. That's not what I'm emphasizing, because God does use those things to enlighten us. But what I'm saying is, by themselves, they do not change anyone. God has to intervene through the word. God has to intervene through the preaching, or you will remain in darkness. That's why, dear saints, we must pray, right? That's why we pray, because we are dependent upon God to do a work he alone can do. And so we need to be a praying church. Parents, you need to pray for the salvation of your children and keep pleading, because that's the work only God can do. So if anything, that's what this stresses. We need to be praying. Here's what Paul says. This is First Corinthians two. The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. The natural man, he's talking about unbelievers. They don't accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. And he can't understand them because they're spiritually appraised. Hear what he's saying? Because they don't have the Spirit of God in them, they don't have the capability of understanding spirit. It sounds like foolishness. Just like Nicodemus. How can this be? How can these things be? It sounds foolish, Jesus, what you're saying. Unbelievers, Paul tells us, they walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them, because of the hardness of their heart. That's Ephesians four. See, unless the Spirit intervenes and changes the heart, they're going to remain in darkness. So the Spirit must come. He must cause you to be born again. That's why you need this. So we have the problem of spiritual darkness. We are blind to the truth. The Spirit must come and help us see so we can enter the kingdom. But there's another problem. There's another reason why we need to be born again, and it's because of the problem of unbelief. There's also the problem of unbelief. Look at verse eleven. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we've seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? So here we see the problem of unbelief. Jesus spoke, and he gave testimony to the truth, but it wasn't accepted. It wasn't accepted. Now, this is the third time in this conversation that Jesus begins with a statement, truly, truly. He's solemnly declaring what's true. We have spoken what we know. We know this is true. And it's interesting that Jesus switches here to the plural, we. He's including himself and his disciples. People who have been born again understand this truth about the need of God to intervene for salvation. They understand that. They can testify to the truth, what Jesus is saying. This is not something that's been made up. We know this to be true. These are the facts. It's our testimony of what we've seen. And yet you, Nicodemus, you're unwilling to accept our testimony. You simply refuse to believe. See, it's a problem of unbelief. And when he says here, verse eleven, at the end, you do not accept our testimony, the you there is plural. It's a plural you. His rebuke went beyond Nicodemus. It included the whole entire nation of Israel, which Nicodemus was a representative. The Jewish people would not accept the testimony of Jesus. We can make that even further now. Nobody accepts the testimony of Jesus. They all refused to believe what he said. Which revealed... Now, this is what it reveals, listen. They didn't believe who Jesus was. You following me? They didn't believe what he said because they didn't believe who he was. If they understood that he's God, then they would have believed what he said, because God doesn't lie. So ultimately came back to not believing who he was. They didn't accept it. Nicodemus saw Jesus as a teacher from God. That's all he saw him as. He didn't see him as God. He didn't see that. Jesus says, I told you earthly things, and you don't believe. How are you going to believe if I tell you heavenly things? Now the earthly things in the context is what Jesus has been talking about, how one enters into the kingdom of God, the new birth. That's the earthly things he's talking about. What he's doing here, he's explaining to Nicodemus the most fundamental spiritual truth there is, how a person receives eternal life. That's the most basic fundamental truth there is. How do you enter the kingdom of God? If you won't believe the truth about that, about how one goes to heaven, there's no point in trying to get into more in-depth heavenly things. Why should we move on? If I start talking about the relationship of the Father and the Son, you're not going to follow that. If I start talking about the realities of the kingdom of God and what it's really like, you're not going to follow that. If you won't believe the first thing, the most elementary thing. See, Nicodemus had a problem with unbelief. He's not accepting Jesus' testimony of what's true. That's his problem. He's not ac- accepting his testimony. He doesn't believe what Jesus is telling him about how to enter the kingdom of God. See, this is a problem of unbelief that everyone has. Everybody has this problem. It says later in chapter twelve, but though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him. Jesus did all these signs, they were still not believing in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, which he spoke. Lord, who's believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? No one would believe it, not even after doing all these miraculous signs. Oh, they believed he was from God, that's all as far as they would go. Now, this theme of unbelief runs all the way through the Gospel of John. It runs all the way through here. People simply will not believe the truth about Christ and how to be saved. They won't believe it. In chapter ten, the Jews confront Jesus, and they say, if you're the Christ, tell us plainly. Just be plain about it, Jesus. Tell us if you're the Christ. Here's what Jesus said. I told you, and you don't believe. I already told you. You don't believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, these testify of me, but you do not believe. Even the works I'm doing, they're testifying who I'm saying I am. They're revealing who I am. You won't believe. Why? Because you're not my sheep. So he had told them, they refused to believe. He did works, they still refused to believe. And the ultimate reason they didn't believe, they were not his sheep. If they were his sheep, they would believe. See, Nicodemus, like everyone, has a problem with unbelief. Everyone has this problem. Nicodemus, he'll acknowledge Jesus is a teacher from God. He won't accept the fact that Jesus is God. And that's what people refuse to believe. They refuse to believe that. Nicodemus was also reluctant to admit he was a helpless sinner who was unable to do anything to save himself. And that's a stumbling block also for most people, isn't it? It's a stumbling block. They don't believe the truth about how one is saved and goes to heaven, that you have to humble yourself and admit you're a sinner and can do nothing, and you got to cling to Christ. And people don't want to believe that. That's why a person must be born again. See, this is a huge problem. The only way it's overcome is that you must be born again. The spirit comes and causes you to be born again so that you now can believe the truth of the gospel. The Spirit comes into the world, and what's he do? He convicts the world of sin. Doesn't Jesus say that in John sixteen? He comes into the world and he convicts of sin. But the sin he convicts people of, listen to this, the sin he convicts people of is the sin of unbelief in Christ. That's the sin he convicts them of. Jesus tells us that, chapter sixteen, verse nine, concerning sin because they do not believe in me. That's the sin he starts convicting them of. You're not believing in who Jesus is. And that's what the Spirit begins to show them. He begins to convict them of their sin of unbelief in Christ. But when the Spirit comes and he causes someone to be born again, he gives them the ability to believe. They see who Christ is, and they believe it. That's what happens. The light bulb goes on, and they see Jesus for who he really is, and they believe. So even the faith to believe is a gift from God, even our faith. Ephesians two, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The faith to believe is a gift from God. Philippians chapter two. for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. It's Philippians one. He says it was granted to us to believe. Otherwise, we would never believe. So the sin of unbelief is overcome only when we're born again. That's the only way it's overcome. So again, I would say, if you're a Christian, that means you must pray. You must pray. Because God is the only one who can give this to people. And so as you're witnessing to people, and as you're talking to your friends and relatives and your children about Christ, you must be praying. Because only the Spirit can intervene and give faith and overcome that doubt of unbelief. Now, as we move into verse thirteen, the discourse changes a little bit. Jesus has been discussing the importance of the new birth, without which you can't enter the kingdom. But any discussion of the new birth must eventually center on the person and work of Christ, for that's the only reason we can be born again and have eternal life. Right? It's the only way you're going to enter into the kingdom is because of the work and person of Christ, what he's accomplished. So notice how it changes here. Look at verse thirteen. No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. Here we see what Jesus did so that we can be born again and have new life. First, he mentions he came from above in verse thirteen. No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. Jesus came from heaven, which is why he can speak authoritatively on the kingdom and how to get there, because he's from there. No greater authority than that. Now, what Jesus is teaching here is that there has never been anyone who's gone into heaven and then come back from heaven and talk about some amazing truths that God has told them. There's no one who's ever done that. That's an impossibility. And yet, all through the ages, there have been people who have claimed to go to heaven and learn something from God. Basically, what Jesus is saying is that's a bunch of baloney. It's a bunch of baloney. That's never happened to anyone. So if somebody claims that, stay away from them. They're not speaking with authority about heavenly things. But there is one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. There is one who lived in heaven, who came to earth, and he can explain to you how to get there. He came into the world, remember, to reveal God. So Christ is the only reliable authority of how one enters the kingdom because he's from there. And that's what he's trying to get Nicodemus to see. I'm not just a teacher from God, I am God. God become man. You know, this was a constant claim of Jesus that he came from heaven, that he constantly emphasized this. Chapter six, I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. I've come from heaven. And they, and the people argued about it. Like, how this guy was born of Joseph and Mary. We know his parents. How can he say he's from heaven? I'm the living bread that came down out of heaven. John six. In chapter seven, I am from the Father. He sent me. Chapter eight, I proceeded forth and have come from God. Chapter sixteen, I have come forth from the Father and have come into the world. So over and over again, that's where he claimed. I've come from heaven. That's where I've come from. I'm an authority on this. You need to listen to me. In other passages, Jesus tells us that he would ascend back to the Father. In chapter six, he says, what then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? I'm going to ascend back to where I was before. In chapter thirteen, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world to the Father. He had come forth from God and was going back to God. So all the way through here, we see this emphasis. He's from heaven. Thus, he's an authority on heavenly things. He's our authority. His is thus a unique authority. He can speak of what he knows and testify of what he's seen, and his testimony is trustworthy. You can believe this. Now, there's a reason why the Father sent the Son into the world. There's a reason. Jesus came into the world and became a man for a specific purpose. And what Jesus is emphasizing here is the incarnation. God became a man. Jesus came into the world, he joined himself to a human nature and became fully man without stopping to be fully God. He's the Son of Man, and he- and the emphasis of this- that title, the Son of Man, is to highlight, he picks that title to highlight what he came to do. And what he does here is he explains what he came to do by way of illustration, and he goes back to the Old Testament, because Nicodemus is a teacher of the Old Testament. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. Now, what he's saying here in th- fourteen and fifteen is really the heart of everything, because he's explaining what he did so that we can be born again and have eternal life. That's what he's explained. So we got to get this, we got to understand this. He says the Son of Man must be lifted up. Now, word lifted up means to physically lift up on high. It's to elevate, but it also carries with it the idea of exalting the one lifted up. Now, what Jesus is referring to here, of being lifted up, he's referring to his death. In his death, he will physically be lifted up on a pole, on a tree. But it's through his death that he will be supremely exalted because of what his death accomplishes, and that's what he's going to explain here. He's going to be exalted physically in his death, but also he's going to be exalted in a much greater way by what his death accomplishes. Now, he explains his death by comparing it to an incident in the Old Testament. Let's turn to Numbers. We got to look at this. Numbers twenty one. He compares the Son of Man being lifted up to the serpent that Moses lifted up in the, in the wilderness. And let me set the context for you, what's going on here. God had brought his people out of Egypt, remember, with a mighty hand and with great power. He delivered them from their bondage. But when he told them to take possession of the land, the people, remember, they rebelled. So they ended up having to wander through the wilderness for forty years until God destroyed all that generation. Well, as they're wandering around, the people became impatient because of the journey, and they started grumbling and speaking against God. Look at verse four, Numbers twenty one four. Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient because of the journey. The people spoke against God and Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. Now, the fact of the matter is they did have water. God had supernaturally provided for them from a rock. And they did have food. You notice at the end, they they do admit they had food, they just didn't like it. They had manna from heaven. They were eating the food of angels, we're told. And the reason why they're wandering around in the wilderness is because of their own disobedience. So they're speaking out here and grumbling and complaining just compounds their sin, so God sends judgment. Verse six, The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. Notice many of them. Verse seven, So the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned because we've spoken against the Lord and you. Intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us. And Moses interceded for the people. So God righteously judges them because of their sin, and when he did that, they saw their sin, and they saw something else. Only God can save us. You know, it's good sometimes for God to send judgment because it puts people on a place where they see, I need God to save me. I need God to save me. And they cried out to God. And what's amazing about our God is that he's gracious, and he's merciful to sinners. Look at verse eight. The Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard, and it shall come about that everyone who's bitten, when he looks at it, he will live. And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard, and it came about that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. So all they had to do was look to this bronze serpent that was lifted up, and they would live. Now God rightly sent judgment upon them. He rightly did that. And these people were bitten by the snakes. Those who were bitten by these snakes had a poison in their bodies that would eventually kill them. So when you got bit, you were under a death sentence. And there's no hope of escaping that judgment because there was no cure, there was no remedy. There was nothing they could do to save themselves. Without God miraculously intervening, they would die. Now Jesus, in in alluding to that, is giving a picture of the judgment all people are under. We have the poison of sin in us that will eventually kill us. And Jesus has tried to point that out to Nicodemus. That's why people are unbelieving. That's why they're in spiritual darkness. They have sin in them. We are under a death sentence, eternal death, and there's no hope of escaping this judgment. There's no cure. There's no remedy. There's nothing you can do to save yourself. See, that's what Jesus has been explaining to Nicodemus. You can't save yourself, Nicodemus. The poison is too pervasive. There's no hope apart from God intervening. There's no hope. So you must look to God. Now, praise God, he sent the remedy. Praise God, he sent the cure for our souls. He sent the Son into the world to save the world. The purpose of Jesus becoming the Son of Man was so that he could die on a cross. Jesus says here, the Son of Man must be lifted up. And when he uses the term must, it emphasizes that Christ's death on the cross was absolutely necessary for our salvation. This is the only thing that can save you. I must be lifted up. The wages of sin is death. If Jesus was going to save us, he had to die. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. So if Jesus didn't shed his blood, there would be no forgiveness. But praise God, Jesus drank all the poison in our place. He drank it all. Now, what's glorious about this, if an Israelite was bitten by a snake, if he wanted to live, all he had to do was look obediently at the bronze serpent, and he would live. I mean, that's simple. All you got to do is look. Nothing else you have to do. There's nothing else you could do. But you know what? If you look at something else, if you look to Moses, he wouldn't be saved. If you look to the tabernacle, he wouldn't be saved. If he looked at the pole, he wouldn't be saved. He had to look at the snake. He had to believe that if he looked at the serpent, he would live. And you know what? He could see that other people had looked, and they were cured. So that would give him encouragement to see, this works, I just gotta look. If you want to be delivered from the penalty of your sin, if you want to escape the eternal death sentence that you're under, you must look to Christ. It's that simple. You look to Christ and him crucified, and you trust that his death alone pays the penalty for all your sin. Friend, all you gotta do is look. It's that simple. You look to Christ. You don't look to something. You don't look to your works. You don't look to your religion. You look to Christ. He alone saves. That's the cure. That's the remedy. You got to believe that. You got to believe and trust that his death covers all your sin. It covers all your guilt. It forgives you and gives you eternal life. The reason why his death is sufficient is because of the one who died in your place. He's the one who descended from heaven. God himself who became man. That's why it's sufficient. When you trust in Christ like this, he promises to give you eternal life. That's what he promises. When the Israelites looked to the bronze serpent, they were healed and were given physical life. But when you look to Christ, you not only be healed of sin's deadly bite, you will receive eternal life. And eternal life is eternal bliss and joy in the life to come. Jesus defined eternal life as knowing the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. It's entering into a relationship with God. And it's a life that believers will fully experience in the perfect, unending glory and joy of heaven. But let me tell you, it is a life that you enter into now. You begin to experience a little of the life to come. You experience the joy of the life to come. Not perfect joy, but soon to be perfect joy. You enter into life now, and the delight of the ages to come, you enter into it now, and you begin to experience it now. All you have to do is look. It's simple, huh? Look. Look to Christ. Now, since Christ's death is the only remedy for man's sin, this highly exalts Christ. It exalts him. That's why the Father sent the Son into the world. He wanted to exalt and glorify his Son. God has determined the only way to enter the kingdom is by looking to Christ. The only way to have eternal life is through the death of his son. That's what exalts the son. Jesus said, when you lift up the son of man, you will know that I am he. When you lift up the son of man, the cross reveals who Christ is, that he's God. And since he's God, he can make full atonement for your sin. When you lift up the son of man, you will know that I am he. I am God. You're going to know that. That's John chapter eight. He also said this, and I, if I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. That's John twelve. If I'm going to be lifted up, this exaltation of me being lifted up in my death is going to result in all men coming to me. I'm going to start drawing people from all peoples, from all nations. It's through his death. See, this is what exalts Christ. At the cross, he's highly exalted above all other. And so what we see here is that the kingdom of God is entered, the new birth is experienced, and eternal life begins through the saving work of Christ on the cross. And all of that is received by faith. It's received by faith, by simply looking to Christ alone. That's how it's received. God's made it very easy. I love what he says here. Whoever believes will in him have eternal life. Whoever. This is for anybody. It didn't matter how ill that Israelite was or how feeble his look was. All he had to do was look, and he was cured. Well, just the same, whoever looks by faith to Christ, he's pardoned, no matter how great his sin was. Doesn't matter how great your sin was. You may be the chief of sinners. If you look to Christ, he'll save you. Doesn't matter how feeble your faith. If you just have faith to look, he says, I'll cure you. I'll give you eternal life, and you'll enter into joy. And you know what? You could see from the other people this works. Right? Other people have gone before you. There's other people in this church who have looked to Christ and have been cured. They've been forgiven. They've been given new life. So that should encourage you to come. It's simple. Just come. What a glorious Savior, amen? He makes it so simple. Come to me. Just come. Look to Christ. Be saved. Let's pray. Lord, this is the ABCs of Christianity. This is the fundamental truth of everything. If we get this wrong, then everything else is wrong. Oh Lord, help us to glory in Christ. To glory in the one who paid for it all, the God who became man. The God who humbled himself to go to a cross, be lifted up so that we could live. Oh, Spirit of God, we pray, apply this to hearts this morning and exalt the Son. We'll give you all the praise, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.