Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, is presented as a man seeking understanding of Jesus' divine authority, initially recognizing Him as a teacher from God based on His miracles. Jesus immediately redirects the conversation to the necessity of spiritual rebirth, stating that one must be "born again" to see the kingdom of God, and later clarifies this means being born of water and the Spirit. The sermon explains that true understanding and salvation come not from human wisdom or religious status, but from God's revelation and the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, illustrated by the Old Testament account of the brazen serpent. The core lesson is that salvation is a divine work, initiated by God's breath through His Word, leading to a spiritual birth that enables one to enter God's kingdom, a truth Nicodemus, despite his religious position, initially struggled to grasp.
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Now shall we turn in our Bible through the third chapter of John, probably the best known chapter, one of the best known chapters in the whole Bible? John chapter three. I would like to read the last verse of the second chapter as a context. And we'll put the word but in the beginning of the first chapter because the word but is in the original Greek language. We read from verse twenty-three of chapter two. Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did.
But Jesus did not commit or did not trust or believe in them. He did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men. and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, 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 said 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 is, then, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.
So is everyone that is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answers and said unto him, Are thou a master of Israel, and knoweth not these things? Verily, verily, I stand to 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 ye 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. And then just A verse or two, no, I guess more than two anyhow, a few verses in the Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. Corinthians the first epistle, and we'll read from chapter one just a few words. Verse eighteen of chapter one of first Corinthians.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But to us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudence. Verse twenty-one. For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign. and the Greeks seek after wisdom. What we preach, Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Chapter two. And I, brethren, When I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
How be it? We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom of God, which is ordained before the world unto his glory, unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified. the Lord of Glory. May God bless the reading of his own precious word. Shall we pray? Blessed God, we bow before thee now in worship and thank thee for this great privilege of gathering, in the name of our Lord Jesus, in this simple way, according to the pattern of the New Testament, where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst.
We thank thee, we are gathered here under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God, And we pray that he might take charge of all we're going to say this morning. And we might not hear the voice of man, but the voice of God. We ask the Lord, as we survey these wonderful scriptures we have been reading, that the Spirit of God might take the things of Christ and reveal them to our waiting hearts. We thank you for this Bible, the Holy Word of God, perfect in every detail. We thank you, we have it in our hands, in our own mother tongue. O God, we pray that it might become more precious to us, and that thou magnify thy Son in our midst this morning.
We ask it in His precious name. Amen. Now for some who are new here and for some who are visiting this morning, let me say that during the summer months, we have been studying. When I have been speaking here Sunday mornings, we have been studying... John's Gospel. We've not gone very far, but just into the, only done two chapters as a matter of fact, we don't speak so very often here, but we've got down to this third chapter. I just might like to make, for the sake of those that are new here, just a little survey of what we have noticed in John's Gospel.
We talked about the purpose of the Gospel. The Gospel was written. It tells us in the twentieth chapter, John says, many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples. He talks about seven miracles or seven signs, John calls them, seven signs. And he says, the Lord did many, many more miracles. But I have selected, John says, by the Holy Spirit, seven of these signs, seven miracles. We've only dealt with one so far, the miracle of the turning of the water into wine at Cana and Galilee. He says, many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.
But these are written that he might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing he might have life through his name. So the purpose of this gospel was that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life, eternal life, through his name. There's one book I've got that calls John's gospel the gospel of belief. As a matter of fact, the word believe occurs. I believe it's ninety-three times in John's gospel. I love it because It was when God revealed to me the meaning of the word believe that very moment God saved me.
I didn't know what believe meant. But when a man quoted John three sixteen, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth like a flash of light from heaven, God showed me what believeth means. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And there on the spot God saved me. So I love this gospel and I love this word believe. We found out that John's Gospel is divided up, at least we want to study one of these divisions anyhow, at different periods in the Gospel. Of course, there is a prologue, an introduction, which takes up the first eighteen verses of the first chapter, and there's an epilogue, which is the last chapter, the twenty-first chapter.
But the in-between part is divided, and we mention these things, and I'm going to mention them over and over again, so we'll all get them into our heads, that there are periods. There are other ways of studying John's gospel, but this is one way. The period here. God sent his son into this world. John starts his gospel different to the other gospel. John starts not with the birth of the Lord Jesus at Bethlehem, but John starts right back in eternal ages. In the beginning was the word, in eternity. And then he tells us in Chapter one, verse fourteen, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. So the eternal word of God came down out of the glory of heaven and dwelt among us here in this world.
And men looked upon the Son of God. John says, we have seen him. We've handled him. Even the word of light. are hands of hands, and we gaze upon the Son. He says, We beheld His glory, the glory out of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And we have noticed, at least we want to divide it up this way, that from chapter one, verse nineteen, we get a period running to the end of the fourth chapter, John four, a period that we have called a period of consideration.
God has sent his son into this world, and men are considering him. They don't know who he is. Now, we read just now in Corinthians that the world by wisdom knew not God. So the natural man would never know the son of God. They can't by human wisdom. You can go to universities all your life. You can collect degrees as many as you like. But you cannot learn the wisdom of God by earthly knowledge. It doesn't come that way. It's by revelation from God. So... Here God's Son is in this world, and men are looking at him. A strange person he was to them, a prophet, a different kind of a man, different to others.
Working mighty miracles, and they're gazing at him. And quietly, without any argument or controversy or enmity or quarreling with him, they gazed at him during the first four chapters. So we call it the period of consideration. But when we get into the fifth chapter, and he healed the man who was thirty-eight years down there by the pool, the pool of Bethesda, and he healed him on the Sabbath day and told the man to pick up his bed and walk on the Sabbath day, then controversy started. So we call this next period the period of controversy.
And it runs on. And you'll find all through now chapters five and six and seven and not seven, you get this controversy. When you get to the seventh chapter, it's getting not controversy, but conflict. And from now on, it's a period of conflict. They're openly talking about killing him, putting him to death, a period of conflict. And this develops and goes on and on until we get to nearly the end of the eleventh chapter and now we're calling this a period of crisis. We're reaching the crisis period of the Lord's three and a half years here on earth. It's three and a half years of ministry on earth. And that runs down to the middle of the thirty-sixth verse of the twelfth chapter and then he departed and hid himself.
The conflict had become so great. The crisis had reached a pitch and a point. when he knew very well that they were going to put him to death and it was getting very near. And from now on, there's a period of conference when he calls his own to himself and talks to them in the upper room, a period of conference. And then we get into the eighteenth chapter when they arrested him in the garden and we're calling that the period of consummation. So this is how we hope, I don't know if we'll ever, before the Lord comes back, finish these studies. because we don't speak here very often, but this is the way we're going. So we're in the period of consideration.
Men are considering the Son of God. We saw in the first chapter how the disciples of John the Baptist, five of them, gazed upon him, looking upon Jesus as he walked, they considered him, and then we see how one and another decided and found out that he was the Son of God. And Nathaniel said, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. And it was revealed to them. And that's what the Gospel was written for. That we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And God revealed him. And I love the... There's another way I like to study John's Gospel. And I remember doing this at a conference once, picking out the characters in John's Gospel, to whom God revealed this mighty, wonderful, tremendous fact that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.
John the Baptist was the first. He said, I didn't know him. I knew him not. I knew him not twice, he said. And then he says, the Holy Spirit told me, he said that God told me that when thou shalt see the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on him, that's me. And he says, and I saw and believed that this is the Son of God. John the Baptist, the first to discover this tremendous fact, this is the Son of God. And then in the second chapter, at that marriage at Cana of Galilee, it says, This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him.
This is what the gospel was written for. This is what the miracles were for, that men might believe on him. Then he went up to Jerusalem. We talked about this last time. He did miracles up there. Now somebody might say, now, whoa, stop a minute. Now, what are you talking about? This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory. There, that was the first miracle. And if you look at the last verse of chapter four, it says, when he healed the nobleman's son, that's the second miracle, it says, this is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judah into Galilee. How could that be the second if he did many miracles in Jerusalem?
Now, I don't think there's any contradiction here in Scripture at all. I think that, I'm sure, John selected seven miracles. And this one in the fourth chapter is the second one that he selected. So this is the second of the selected miracles. There's no argument here. And up there in Jerusalem, he did miracles. And it says, When he was in Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast time, many believed on his name when they saw the miracles that he did. But Jesus didn't commit himself to them because he knew all men.
And he knew what was in man. You see, salvation is by faith. I don't think that when you believe because you see a miracle, there's any faith in that you. Faith is believing something you can't see. It doesn't take faith to believe something you can see. It takes faith to believe something you can't see. And although they said they believed when they saw the miracles, the Lord didn't commit himself to them.
As we said in our last talk, the same Greek word is used. He didn't believe in them. They said they believed, but he didn't believe in them. The same Greek word is used. So the Lord has revealed himself to the disciples of John. He made himself known in Cana of Galilee by that wonderful miracle. He went up to Jerusalem and he said, Destroy this temple and in three days I'll build it again. He was speaking about the temple of his body and he was looking on to the place called Calvary where he'd bear our sins in his own body upon the tree. And now he's in Jerusalem, and this man, Nicodemus, appears on the scene.
I put in the word, but, because it's in the Greek, he did not commit himself unto them. They were insincere, but there was a man whom I believe was sincere. But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. 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 doeth. I would like you to consider the significance of the pronoun, the plural pronoun we. What's happening? Yeah, but if you turn off the air, we'll all suffocate.
There's no windows here. I would like to call your attention to this plural pronoun we. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know. We know that thou art a teacher come from God. Now, we've always taken it for granted that... Nicodemus came, shall I say, under his own steam. Brother, if you put the air off, we'll suffocate. You'll suffocate.
You'll suffocate. You've got fire back there. Oh, fire? Oh, I didn't know. All right. Don't get excited. Now everything's in order. The future is going to be hard and hot. And John will switch. John and I will go to the age, we're going to switch off. All right. Let's count down. We won't burn up, don't we? Now can we settle down? I was talking about this pronoun.
Rabbi, we know that our teacher comes from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. We know. That little word we tells me that although he came alone, he probably came as a representative of the Jewish panheban. We know that thou, that teacher, come from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. You see, in the first chapter, verse nineteen, It says, this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are thou?
From Jerusalem they sent priests and Levites down to Jordan to ask, John the Baptist, who are you? Blind priests they were. And now it seems as if they've sent Nicodemus, our ruler of the Jews. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. one of the great rabbis, one of the teachers in Israel, and he came to the Lord Jesus and said, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. Here's a novelist thing. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, knew so little. As we were saying this morning, as we are reading this morning, the world by wisdom knew not God.
And Nicodemus, with all his learning, with all his wisdom, with all his religion, he didn't know. He said, we know. But what did he know? We know thou that a teacher comes from God. Do you know what I'd like to have heard Nicodemus say? We know thou a Savior. Do you know what they said in the fourth chapter? When the woman at the well found out, I that speak unto thee, and he, she went to the village and told the men, Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did, is not this the Christ. And then the men of the village came back, and this is what they said, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
I'd like to hear Nicodemus say that, wouldn't you? a period of consideration. The Jewish Sanhedrin now, in the person of Nicodemus, is considering the Son of God here on earth. And their conclusion was, a teacher come from God. I think we can pause here a moment. We're surrounded today by religious people. I suppose there never was an age when so many people go to church as go today in this great country. and they love teaching, you know. They love people with education to come and speak to them. There's some places, unless a man has got a string of letters after his name, they won't have him as a preacher.
And the Lord Jesus didn't have any letters after his name. But these learned people recognize here's a teacher. A teacher comes from God. And that's what people want today, a teacher. But what people need today is a Savior. A Savior. And they turning out of the church is a man that will preach the gospel. He must be born again. We don't want that stuff, they say. We want somebody that will teach us and talk to us and tell us about the great problems in the world today in teaching. We know that a teacher comes from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God doest. But look at the sad state.
Here's the Lord Jesus. It says in the first chapter, it came unto his own, and his own received him not. Here he is amongst the Jewish people, and they didn't receive him. Here he's talking to a leader of the Jewish Sanhedrin. In the first chapter, priests came down, blind priests. He found himself amongst blind men. They didn't understand. In the second chapter, he went to a feast, a wedding feast. And wine is the type and the picture of joy, but they had no wine. The wine ran out. So he came to blind priests, and he came to a joyless nation. And then in the second chapter further on, he went to Jerusalem, and he came to a desecrated temple.
And now he's dealing with a Sanhedrin. And he finds himself dealing with a dead Sanhedrin. He came to his own. What did he find? Blind, joyless. desigrated, a dead nation, knew nothing about the ways of God. Religious, right up to the eyebrows, full of laws they'd made themselves, and added to God's wonderful law, and made themselves rules and regulations far greater and bigger and more fantastic than God it gave them, in their own wisdom and their own knowledge. And today we live in an age when men have their religion. and all their plans and denominations and all the rest of it build up their way.
But what they need is not teaching. They need salvation. They need a Savior. You know, I like to differentiate between the evangelist and the teacher. It says, when the Lord ascended up on High Ephesians four, he gave gifts to men, and he gave. Apostles and prophets, they have passed off the scene long ago, and evangelists and pastors and teachers. Now, in my judgment, the evangelist has a perfect right to go anywhere in the world with the gospel. He can go to the Vatican at Rome and he's in the right spot. He can go into a bar.
He can go into a tavern. He can go into a prison with the gospel. Go ye into all the world. And there's no place in the world, not included, in all the world. That's the evangelist's job to get out with the gospel. He doesn't teach. He tells men you're going to be born again. He tells men they're going to hell unless they accept Christ as their savior. He preaches the gospel. He says, behold, the Lamb of God which bears away the sin of the world. That's his job, an evangelist. But when he saved them, Then he's got to bring them into the church. And then the pastor and the teacher gets them. And he teaches them the word of God. And he teaches them all the New Testament principles in the epistles.
That's the teacher's. Good to God we can see more of this going on here. If we bred them, of course, we're getting older in years and we can't get to do what we used to do. But if we could only get out and bring them in, we can give them the teaching here. This is a wonderful place for teaching this part of the Bible chapter. A wonderful place for teaching. But we need the evangelical side to get out and bring them in. We know that a teacher comes from God. But the Lord Jesus didn't waste any time whatever with this man, talking about who's the teacher. He said, right away, verily, verily. Now the Lord uses this term in John's Gospel.
In the Greek it's, amen, amen, verily, verily. Truly, truly, this is the truth of the Lord is saying, twice both. This is an eternal verity. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What a shock for Nicodemus. He thought he was in the kingdom of God. like thousands of people around us today. They're church members and they think they're in it and they've got it. But if they've never been born again, they'll never see.
Much less enter. They'll never see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus, with all his wisdom, had very little spiritual understanding, so he didn't understand at all. The world by wisdom knew not God. So he immediately thinks of the natural birth. He says, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? The Lord doesn't waste any time with this proposition at all. The Lord says, verily, verily I say to you, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Born of water and the Spirit. In the Bible, all through the Bible, the New Testament, the Word of God is referred to as water, you know. The water of the Word, the washing of the water of the Word. And to be born again, you've got to go by what's said in this book. It's not man's wisdom. It's not what man thinks or says or does. It's what God says in this book. That's the way to be saved, no other way. I like to meet a man when I see, and this grieves me often, I say to a man, look, tell me, how do you know you're saved? How do you know you're saved? Well, I feel different. Well, that's no way to know I'm saved.
I don't think so. Well, you see, I walked out to the front and I accepted the Lord. Do you know when somebody asked me how I know I'm saved? I said, because God says so. God says he that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life. And God says so. That's how I know I'm saved. Not how I feel. For some mornings I don't feel much at all, I tell you. That's why Mrs. Ely caused me grump at the breakfast table, you know. But we don't all feel too good at breakfast. But I know I'm saved because God says so. So we're born of water. the water of the word.
Do you remember a moment in your life when the word of God enters into your heart? All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. I like to think of creation. You know, Paul in his second epistle to the Corinthians, he likened this salvation, our salvation, to the original creation. He said, God that shined out of darkness. God who said, let there be light. He shined into our hearts. And you think of that chaotic darkness. The world was in darkness, in chaos, encrusted over with ice and snow and darkness. And suddenly God said, let there be light.
And the ice melted and the snow melted. And the light came, let there be light, and there was light. And there was a time in my life and yours when we were encrusted over with the darkness, the blindness of this world. And suddenly God said, let there be light. and light came, we got salvation. The washing of the water of the Word, being born by the Word. And I like to think of this. When God made Adam, he formed him out of the dust of the ground. And there he was, a lifeless form on the earth. And how did he obtain life? God kneeled down and God went, he breathed into him.
and the living breath of God entered into the nostrils of man, and man became a living soul. Now in like manner, Paul says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Theoponustos is God. It's a Greek word. Theos is God. And Ponustos is a word from which we get pneumonia. In Greece, I used to, and I remember once I was ill, the doctor came and he called... I said, what's wrong? He said, Pnevmonia. That's pneumonia. In Greek, Seoponustos. Seos is God, and this Pneur is to do with the lungs. God's breath. There's breath in it. A pneumatic tire is a tire with breath in it. A pneumatic hammer.
Hammer has got air in it. And God breathed into his nostrils the air, the breath of God. What's that? All Scripture is given by inspiration. God breathed. So to be born again, I have to inhale the word of God. It's got to get right down into me. And so some simple verse like John three-sixteen, I say simple but I was stupendous. John three-sixteen, John three-thirty-six, John five-twenty-four. We read these verses and like a flash of lightning, the light comes and we're born again. God says, let there be light and there was light. And poor Nicodemus, in all his darkness, as the ruler of of the Jews and as a great member of the Sanhedrin and a great rabbi who knew the scriptures, he didn't know the first thing.
He said, have I got to start over and be born again as a little child? No, says the Lord. You've got to be born spiritually. I'm not talking about the flesh. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, says the Lord. Never change it. You can be saved, but you don't change the flesh. We'll have that with us to the end. That which is born of flesh is flesh. But that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. That's what God gives us when we're born again. He gives us His Holy Spirit to dwell in us. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not Nicodemus that I said unto thee. He must be born again. Nicodemus, this is imperative. This is essential. This is basic, fundamental. You must be born again. Without it, you'll never see the kingdom of God.
Then he goes on to explain how it's happening. The wind blows where it listed. Thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every one that's born of the Spirit. Why we read in our newspapers today, suddenly a cyclone comes down, a tornado, and lifts up a house and moves it like a flash. It comes, the wind blows. You can't stop it. It blows where it lives. But what it does, when it blows, And the Spirit of God, when he gets into a man's life, he might be a prisoner in jail, he might be a murderer, he might be a wicked man, but when the Spirit of God blows on him, the Spirit of God blows where he wants to.
The Spirit of God blows where he wants to. The wind blows where it lives. You can't tell when she comes and how it goes, but look at Saul of Tarsus, going down to Damascus to arrest all the Christians, and suddenly like a flash, the Spirit of God breathes on. And that man who was going to stamp out the name of the Lord Jesus bowed at his feet and said, Lord, what would you have me to do? What a wonderful change. The Spirit of God breathed on him. The wind bloweth where it this is. Thou canst thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Oh, friend, let me ask you. Have you had this experience? that wonderful moment in your life when the Spirit of God breathed on you and you accepted the Lord as your own personal Savior believed in him in God everlasting life Nicodemus poor man he said how can these things be you know he only said three things Nicodemus he started and said that a teacher come from God and then he said you must be born again and then he said how can I be born again and then he said How can these things be?
How can these things be? And how beautifully the Lord describes it. You know, the Lord was the greatest soul winner. Oh, what lessons we can learn. We'll be getting into the fourth chapter one of these days. What we'll learn of how the Lord dealt with a woman at well. We wouldn't have dealt with her that way at all. And to the woman at the well, a woman living in immorality and sin, He talked to her about worship. And here a leader of the Jews that should know about worship, he talked to me about being born again. God, oh, how wonderful the Lord was. See what he says? He took the man on his own level.
He was ignorant about the things of God, although he was a ruler in Israel. Maybe there's some doubt, even there's some question, it says, art thou a teacher in Israel? And this is in the, in a very definite, the definite article is there. O the Vasculas to Israel, O, the O is the article for the teacher of Israel. Maybe he was the chief teacher, I don't know. Maybe he was just a teacher in Israel, but that's how it's written. O, the Vasculas to Israel, how are you the teacher, the teacher of Israel?
And know it's not these things. And the Lord took him on his own level. Nicodemus knew the Old Testament scriptures. He had to. And the Lord selected out of all that great treasure of knowledge and wisdom in the Old Testament, he selected one simple story. And this is what he said. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that whose servant believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. The children of Israel were bitten by serpents, and they were dying.
I think it was twenty-two thousand died of the serpent's bites. And they called to Moses. And Moses cried to God, and God said, Make a serpent. Firey serpents bit them. Make a brazen serpent. The sun has gone through the fire, hanging on a pole. And whoever looks at that serpent will be healed. What a picture of the cross of Christ. The serpent had gone through the fire. A brazen serpent had been poured there and hung upon a pole. And the eternal Son of God, this Lord Jesus Christ, is talking to Nicodemus. He was hung upon a pole. He was hung upon a cross.
A brazen serpent, yes, the Lord Jesus Christ. passed through the fire, just like that serpent did. He passed through the fire at the place called Calvary. And he says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. And so this morning every one of us, including Nicodemus, if we gaze at the place called Calvary and gaze at the Son of God upon that cross for us and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. So John adds that wonderful verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe it in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Let me ask you a question. Do you think Nicodemus was saved? He was examining, considering the Son of God. Do you think he found out who he was? There are two other occasions when he's mentioned. And I would say this. If he wasn't saved then, he was offered. Because when all men forsook him and fled, Nicodemus, they say he wasn't a very brave man, because he came by night. Probably quite wise things to do in those days to come by night. But he was a brave man. When everybody else had gone and the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross, it was he that went with Joseph of Arimathea and had the courage and the pluck when all forsook him and said, blessed, he was the one that came and buried him.
with Joseph of Arimathea. Well, our meeting is over. May God bless his word. Shall we pray. Blessed God, our Father, we do thank thee amidst this disturbed meeting with many things coming and going to take our minds off of thy word. We pray, Lord, thou bless thy word and use it now. And we pray it might go home to every heart. We might see some eternal fruit. We ask it in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.