 Our sermon title this morning is you must believe, you must believe, and we're in John chapter 3 and we're working now this morning through verses 9 through 15 where the Bible reads, Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? And Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and you don't know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen and you do not receive our witness. If I've told you earthly things and you do not believe and how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven that is the Son of Man who is in heaven and as Moses lifted up the serpent and the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. So far in John chapter 3 in our interaction with Nicodemus, Nicodemus has been brought face to face with the reality that he must be born again. We saw that in John chapter 3 verses 1 through 8. Nicodemus must be transformed from the inside out. He must be given a new heart. He must be indwelt by the Spirit of God. What he needs is a radical remaking of who he is. He needs an inward radical change, a transformation and that radical change when it happens will be evident by its fruits just like the wind. We don't see the wind but we see the effects of the wind. We see the evidence or the fruits of the wind so to speak and if there is no fruit there is no new birth. If there is no fruit you can be sure you've not been born again. There will be, if you've been born again, if you're in Christ, if you're putting genuine saving faith in the Lord, there will be fruit of hatred for sin, the fruit of godly sorrow over sin, a love for the word of God, a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. These are all fruits that the Bible teaches. There will be a zeal for obeying the Lord, a lifestyle of repentance. There's gonna be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control they're gonna be fruits of the Spirit. These are all fruits that the Bible tells us to look for if we're born again and in him. Peter says if these fruits are yours and abound you'll be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says there if you don't have these fruits, if you don't have these things and you are short-sighted even to blindness. So what does Peter say to do there? He says to be diligent to pursue these things. Be diligent. Because of the terrible influence of terrible teaching, false teaching today, there are many just like Nicodemus who are deceived about these things. They are short-sighted even to blindness and they are missing the kingdom of God. The term born again, that expression, has been hijacked. It's been drugged through the sewer. It's been corrupted, redefined, emptied of its meaning and now presented back to us such that the use of those words tells us almost nothing today. Most professing Christians are depressing Christians. They're so-called Christians that aren't Christians at all. They don't produce the fruit of God's Spirit that you'd expect to see. They are Pinocchios. I'm a real Christian, right? Well, they've got big long noses and they play the hypocrite Sunday out and Sunday out. Walking around with long noses. Apart from being born again, every person, every man and woman outside of the Lord Jesus Christ is dead in their sins and trespasses, as Paul says in Ephesians 2. In the new birth, in the new birth, God sovereignly grants them new life in Christ. It's a new life. So what would you expect? Think about it for a moment. What would you expect to flow as fruits from that new life in Christ? Fruits of a new heart, right? Fruits of a new spirit within you, God's Spirit in dwelling you. Think about it. What would you expect to see as fruits flowing from that? Your desires change. Your interests have changed. Your preferences have changed. Your priorities have changed. Your affections have changed. And now, in addition to that changed nature, that changed heart, those changed affections, you have God's Spirit in dwelling you, strengthening you to live for Him. What would you expect to see? What fruit would you expect to see flowing from your new hatred of sin? Well, certainly, if you're in Christ, you've been born again, you'd expect to see repentance flowing from that, wouldn't you? A turning of sin. A hatred for sin results in a turning from sin, a repentance. You say, you know, listen, I'm in Christ, but I don't hate my sin. You can be sure you're not in Christ. You must be born again. What's the fruit of your new affections for Christ? Seeing Christ is precious. Seeing Christ is a treasure. What's the fruit of that? It's trusting Him. It's following Him. You say to yourself, you know, if not by your words, you'll say it by your life that Christ really isn't that precious to me. Just doesn't mean that much to me. You can be sure you're not in Christ. You must be born again. How would you expect someone who has heard the good news, the good news of faith, saving faith, redemption, justification, the good news of the gospel in Christ Jesus our Lord? How would you expect that person who has been dead in sins, now made alive in Christ? How would you expect them to respond to the good news? You'd expect them to trust Him, to follow Him, to obey Him, to love Him, to be grateful to Him. That's not the fruit of your life. Listen, you must be born again, and as John is going to teach us here, from the words of Jesus Christ our Lord in John chapter 3, you must believe in Him. Believe in Him. Fruit of the new birth, faith in Christ. Fruit of regeneration, that new nature. It's just to trust Him, to follow Him, to believe Him, to take Him at His word. You must believe. You must believe in Christ because, one on your nose, He is the source of truth. The source of all truth from verses 9 through 11. Jesus said of Himself, I am the way. I am the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The truth about spiritual things. The truth about life after death. The truth about eternity. It does not come from any other world religion. It does not come from religious traditions. It does not come from religious philosophies. It does not come from the Book of Mormon. It does not come from the Catholic It does not come from Buddhism or Hinduism. It does not come from Islam. The truth does not come from within man, or as a result of man's reason, or as a result of man's thinking, or as a result of man's imagination, or as a result of man's intellect. You cannot come to a text of scripture and say, what does this mean to me? It's a surefire way of knowing what the devil intends for it to mean to you. Truth in the hands of men of depraved understanding is corrupted. And as Peter says, it's twisted to their own destruction, to serve their own depraved intentions. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Word who was with God, and the Word who is God, is the source of truth. He is the authority on all things spiritually. We need to know what He says. We need to know what He intends. When you read God's Word with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you need to be going to God's Word, looking for what God intends to say to you. What does God intend to communicate to me from His Word about these spiritual things, about my own soul, about my salvation? We need to be seeking authorial intent. You must believe in Christ because He's the source of truth. Secondly, you must believe in Christ because He is the incarnate One. No one, no one has gone to heaven to gain knowledge of these spiritual things and has now come down to teach us. But one among us came down from heaven. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one among us who has been lifted up, exalted, and ascended into heaven. It is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ who first came down from heaven. And as the song goes, He left the air of heaven to breathe the dust of earth, left the glories of heaven to take on the mud of our humanity. He is the incarnate One, and He suffered and died that sinners might have life. And thirdly, you must believe in Christ because He is the object of our faith from verses 14 and 15. As God in the flesh, as the incarnate One, He is the object of our faith. He is the object of our trust. He's the object, the focus of our worship. And we are to worship Him and He is worthy of our worship, amen? Amen. Let's look at point one on your notes. You must believe in Christ because He is, in verses 9 through 11, the source of truth. In verse 9, Nicodemus, after being confronted with the reality that he must be born again, and after Jesus Christ took pains to explain that to him, Nicodemus answered and said to him in verse 9, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel, and you don't know these things? Most assuredly, Jesus says, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. All that we considered and all that we studied in John chapter 3, verses 1 through 8, brings about now a final question in the mind of Nicodemus. And maybe even a little exasperated, right? He's not getting it. And finally in verse 9, He just says to Jesus, how can these things be? Literally, that word there at the end, it's how do these things come about? How do these things happen? These things are the miracle of the new birth. How does a new birth happen? How do these things come about? It's the mysterious work of the Spirit of God. He wants to know about these things, the desperate need of man for an inward cleansing, a radical inward change. How does God bring about a new creation in Christ? How does all this happen? Jesus made a statement about being born again in verse 3. He explained himself further in verses 5 through 8. And here in verse 9, Nicodemus still does not understand. Now Nicodemus was marveling, wondering over what Jesus was teaching, over what he was saying, so much so that Jesus said, don't marvel at these things. I'm telling you something you should know. But now here in verse 10, it's Jesus' turn to marvel. He says to Nicodemus, are you the teacher? Not just a teacher. Listen, it's the teacher. Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? He's the teacher of Israel and doesn't know. There's certainly a sincere question. How do these things come about? How do these things happen? A sincere question on the part of Nicodemus. He's honest. He wants to know. But there's a tone of sarcasm here in Jesus' answer. It comes in the form of a rebuke. Knowledge of these things should be expected from Israel's teachers. You could say that knowledge of these things should be expected of us with a Bible in our hands. We have the Word of God in our hands. Read it. We have the Word of God. Nicodemus should know them. Nicodemus had his Old Testament. Nicodemus was a smart man. Much of his Old Testament he probably hadn't memorized. And listen to the prophets. The prophets certainly knew these things. Listen to the prophet Isaiah in chapter 59 verse 21. Isaiah said, the Redeemer will come to Zion. And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob says the Lord. As for me, God says, this is my covenant with them. My spirit who is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants, descendants says the Lord from this time and forevermore. Listen to Jeremiah in chapter 31 verse 33. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds. I'll write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord for they all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more. Listen to the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 11 verse 19. Then God says I will give them one heart. I will put a new spirit within them. I'll take the stony heart out of their flesh and I'll give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them. That's fruit. That's the new birth and that's the fruit. They will walk in my statutes. They'll keep my judgments. They shall be my people. God says there and I'll be their God. Listen to David in Psalm 51. Create in me David says a clean heart oh God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. David, David knew the desperate need that he had for a new heart. Back in John chapter 3 verse 9, Nicodemus had all of these witnesses and he's standing before the Lord Jesus Christ and he didn't get it. He's described there as the teacher of Israel, the teacher of Israel. You notice that Nicodemus here is the teacher and yet who's doing all the teaching? Right? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's right. Jesus is teaching here. He's the source of all truth. Nicodemus doesn't realize it yet, but he's being taught by the Lord of glory, the source of all truth. Up until this point Nicodemus hasn't received his testimony. At the end of verse 11, you don't receive our witness. Listen, you must receive his witness. You must believe. You must believe him. The Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate word, you must believe him for absolute truth. Truth doesn't come from within man. It doesn't come from man's imagination. It doesn't come from man's thinking or reasoning or intellect. It doesn't matter what you think. It matters what the Lord thinks. Truth comes from him. Nicodemus didn't understand these spiritual things. The staggering truth is that there are many, many, many men standing behind pulpits all over the world today that do not understand these things. They deny the miraculous in the new birth. They deny the new birth. They deny the necessity of it. If not with their words, then with their practice. They deny the radical nature of regeneration. I remember witnessing to a woman, she'd said she'd been saved for 40 years and had never noticed a change in her life. Listen then, you're not saved. It's a denial of the miraculous work of the Spirit of God in transforming a heart and saving a soul. These false teachers, they don't necessarily say it out of their mouths, but they deny it in their understanding and they deny it in its application. They don't understand the new birth because they've not experienced it for themselves. Long ago, they dismissed the miraculous work of God in the new birth in a brazen act of self-justification because they believe themselves to be saved without a miraculous work of the Spirit of God on their heart. They become the blind, leading the blind, and they both fall into a ditch, and it's most dangerous now when it comes to the application of their depraved understanding to lost people. They've long ago dismissed any notion of the necessity explained in Scripture for fruits of regeneration, fruits of the new birth, fruits of that transformed nature. They don't expect any fruits of genuine saving faith. They themselves are slaves of corruption, right? They haven't seen any of themselves, and so they look at all the lost so-called Christians around them, none of them bearing any fruits of genuine saving faith, and there's no exhortation to holiness. There's no conviction over sin. There's no conviction from the Word of God, and just like those wicked false teachers that we read about in the Old Testament, they win the devotion of condemned people by preaching to them peace, peace when there is no peace. They've not been born again. They're not evidencing genuine saving faith in the fruits of saving faith. They're simply not in Christ. They're not saved. And one day, deceived, they'll stand before God saying, Lord, Lord, didn't we walk in the Isle and say that prayer? God, didn't I mean it when I said it? They find themselves closing their eyes in this life and opening their eyes in torment. There are many, many who profess to know Christ and yet are deceived, believing themselves to be saved. They're walking around in darkness, walking around in their sin. They've not been given a new heart. They're still just as spiritually ignorant, just as biblically illiterate. Today is when they first said they became a Christian and set out, so-called, to follow the Lord. They're still in their sin. No new affections, no new desires, no new priorities, no new preferences. They're simply still the old man. And that deception spread time and time and time again. Because the predominant teaching from pulpits today, by and large, are that it's just no big deal. Make a decision. Walk the Isle. It's going to be tough to walk that Isle. Get your courage up. That ignorant false teacher, that leader, that blind leader of the blind tells them, you feel convicted? Then respond to your conviction this way. Pray this prayer. Be sincere when you say it. You pray this prayer. Listen, everything's going to be okay. Where does God reside right now? He resides in your heart. Don't doubt it. That's Satan making you doubt. If you're sincere, don't worry about the fruit in your life. Don't worry about a changed life. They'll tell you it may be 5, 10, 15, 20 years before you notice any work of grace in your heart because he that began a good work in you is faithful to complete it, right? Isn't that what the Bible says? They twist that verse out of its context and they comfort you in your guilt all the way to hell. To comfort the sinner in their sin is not love for their soul. It says of biblical preaching. It needs to have two aims. It needs to have the aim of comforting the afflicted, but it needs to have the aim of afflicting the comfortable. These false teachers, this false teaching, this error around the glorious truth of this chapter, that error, that false teaching, produces zombie Christians. They have a reputation that they're alive, but they are walking dead, right? Where are the evidences of life? Where are the evidences, the effects of the wind of God's spirit blowing through your heart? Where's the fruit? Apart from God's gracious intervention, all men outside of Christ, all men outside the new birth, will persist in their ignorance until they die. If you're outside of Christ today, don't you see your great need? Don't you see what your wicked heart produces? Don't you see the bitterness, the anger, the lies, the hypocrisy? Don't you see it? Aren't you weary under the weight of that? Cry out to God to open your understanding. He's done it for countless people, every tribe, tongue, and nation for centuries. Cry out to God for a new heart. That's what you need. Turn from sin. Turn from living for yourself. Cry out to God's spirit for help in doing it. Trust Christ and live for him. He's the only one that can bring about new life in you. You may say to yourself, I've sinned too much. It's just too much. Maybe you feel like you've sinned so much you're past saving. Maybe you feel like you're cold. You're dead. Heartless. You just don't get it. Maybe you're tired. You've been gritting it out in your own strength. Look here at Nicodemus. Don't you see, Nicodemus was an older man. For years, for years he's had it wrong. He's been gritting it out in his own effort for years. A hypocrite. He's not born again. He doesn't understand. Inside, he's been a bitter spring of self-justification, of pride, of hypocrisy. And just now, in John chapter 3 here, just now after all these years, he's just now coming to grips with the fact that he must be born again. Just now, being introduced to these spiritual truths that he needs to hear, everything about him up until this point has been a sham. And at this point, Nicodemus could have turned away in despair, could have turned away in disgust, right? In his pride, in his self-justification, could have turned away. But he doesn't do that. Look how close he is to the Savior. He's standing in front of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look how close he is to the kingdom. After all this time, we have every reason, every evidence from Scripture that Nicodemus was saved, genuinely saved, came to put his faith in Christ. Why don't you? Why don't you? Christ is not far from any person here. Look at the example of Nicodemus, but above all, look to Christ. He's not willing that Nicodemus should perish. He's not willing that you should perish. Look at the grace here in chapter 3 of the mercy and the patience of the Lord. He knows what is in Nicodemus' heart. He wants to see him saved. He didn't come to condemn Nicodemus. He came that Nicodemus through him might have life. If Nicodemus would just believe, won't you believe right now? Right now, where you're seated, take him at his word. Believe in Christ. Back in John chapter 3, verse 11, Jesus said to Nicodemus, he says, most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you don't receive our witness. Up until this point, we know that Nicodemus has believed just like those servants at the wedding in Cana. They saw the miracle, and yet they didn't believe, they didn't savingly believe in Christ, or those Jews in Jerusalem that saw his miracles after Passover, and yet they didn't savingly believe in Christ. The lack of saving faith on a part of Nicodemus at this point in our narrative is evidenced by the fact in verse 11 that he didn't receive their witness. He didn't believe. He didn't receive their witness. The we there? Our witness? Certainly the disciples with him had the same witness, but this is the eternal and omnipresent, omnipotent Godhead who through the works of the Lord Jesus Christ testify of him, and yet Nicodemus didn't receive their witness. It's the witness of God. Jesus testifies here of what he knows, because he is the incarnate Christ. He is God in the flesh who has come down from heaven. That's point two on your notes. He's the incarnate one. Jesus is about to frame all of these things, all these spiritual things in the overarching purpose for his coming down from heaven to earth. You must believe in him because he is the incarnate Christ. He is the one who has come down from heaven. He says in verse 12, if I've told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the son of man who is in heaven. Jesus begins pointing out how tragic the ignorance of Nicodemus is with an argument from the lesser to the greater here. You don't believe these earthly things that we've been talking about, these things which are easy to see in scripture, these things that you should know like the new birth, things concerning the kingdom. If you don't believe these things, how in the world Nicodemus are you going to believe if I start talking to you about heavenly things? He says no one's gone up to heaven. No one has gone up to heaven to be able to get spiritual truth and bring it down so they can talk about heavenly things here, despite the heaven is for real folks, right? Despite every other charismatic you come across. You must believe in Christ. He, the son of man whose eternal home is in heaven, he came down and he has authority. You must believe in Christ. He is the incarnate one. He is the one who has an inhabited heaven. Heaven is his abode and he came to earth. He is the living incarnate word of God, God's supreme revelation of himself. You see Nicodemus and the rest of us apart from Christ have a serious problem. The serious problem is that the things of the spirit, the heavenly things that Jesus mentions here are spiritually discerned, spiritually understood. The natural man does not understand them. Apart from being born again, apart from Christ, every one of us was a natural person. If you're in Christ, you've been made alive in Christ, you can now understand spiritual things. But think about it for a moment. Let's remember from 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14. The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So think about it for a moment. Jesus speaks of earthly things. Nicodemus can't understand without the spirit of God. So Jesus can't even begin to speak of heavenly things because Nicodemus, a natural man, cannot discern them. There are many glorious things that we can know from the Bible, right? A lost person reading their Bible. Maybe many of you remember many glorious truths you learned from the Bible in childhood before you were saved. So many wonderful examples in scripture of godliness, godly living. These glorious stories about the power and work of the Lord. So many great stories. However, in this passage is ample evidence here that the Bible alone is not enough. We love the word of God here, don't we? We value the word of God. We preach and teach, trying to be as meticulously faithful to the word of God as we can. We love the word of God here. The word of God is a tremendous treasure for the believer. However, fallen man is unable to receive their witness. Bible alone is just not enough. We need the regenerating work of the spirit of God in our arts. We need our understanding open. Just like God did with Lydia in Acts chapter 16. We need our understanding open that we can heed the things spoken of here by Paul and the disciples and Jesus Christ himself, the Lord, ultimate author, the Holy Spirit. The truth is, is that at the same time that we're unable in our natural state to receive their witness, at the same time we're unwilling. Apart from Christ, you just don't want it. And it's evident that you don't want it by how little attention you pay to it. That may be true of you right now. If you think that you're in Christ and your Bible sitting on your shelf, collecting dust day in and day out, drop your pride. Receive the witness of God from the word of God against you. Receive his witness of you. Receive the witness of Jesus Christ. Receive the witness of who he is and what he came to do. Bible, everything about the Bible directs us to Christ. You must believe in him. Remember, Nicodemus here was a very, very smart man, very smart man, and he didn't understand these things. He didn't receive the testimony about Christ, and he was unwilling to. And there have been many, many, many brilliant men throughout history who are lost, even many of them leading others to hell, who also didn't receive their testimony. Heard a story about a seminary professor. A man got in a conversation with him and he said, boy, it must be great being a seminary professor. Just, you know, wonderful job being able to serve the Lord in that way, serve the Lord among other Christians. He said, do you ever have a bad day? You know, give me an example. What's the worst day of the year for you? The seminary professor sits back and he says, graduation day. He perplexed by that. He said, graduation day. Yeah, the seminary professor said, on graduation day, I sit in the back of the auditorium, and I just watch the lost men go across the platform to receive their degrees. And they're out, leading God's people. You can be brilliant. There are theologians who pour hours and hours into the Scripture. But apart from the spirit of God, you are hopeless. You are destitute. Apart from faith in Christ, apart from that enlightened understanding that the Lord gives you, when He causes you to be born again, this should press upon the heart and conscience of every believer, every genuine believer. It should press upon your heart the desperate need for the children of God to be faithful in evangelism. How much error? I have hundreds, maybe more people that I know that are lost in that deception. That if they died right now, they're going to drop into hell. Must be faithful with the word of God. And listen, when you go out and be faithful with the word of God in evangelism, pray to the Lord. It's the Lord who opens hearts. It's the Lord who opens eyes. It's the Lord who transforms the heart. Pray that the Lord would do that sovereign work in them and save them for His glory. A lot of prayer, a lot of evangelism. Amen? Almost as an object lesson on how much we need wisdom from the Lord and help from the Lord. In verse 13, back in John chapter 3, there are a couple of exegetical difficulties here. So if you've been studying this passage, I encourage you to do that. It's two very interesting observational footnotes to think about if you want to look into this verse further, which I encourage you to do. In verse 13, the Bible says that no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven looks there at first blush like the ascent to heaven comes before the descent from heaven. But no one has ascended there is referring to the Son of Man. It's referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself is saying it. Jesus first descended referring to the incarnation, right? And then he ascended referring to his ascension, the glory. But ascension here is spoken of first and spoken of in the past tense by Jesus himself. This is called a figure of speech in Scripture. It's called a prophetic perfect, a prophetic perfect. The ascension and glory and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father is so certain, so determined as to be so unquestionable that Jesus Christ can speak of it as if it's in the past tense. It's already done. It's called a prophetic perfect. You have several examples of that written throughout Scripture. Look at this from Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. This is a verse that you probably have heard written 700 years before the birth of Christ. And here's what it says, For unto us a child has been born, a son has been given, and the government is upon his shoulder. In your English translations, many of them, it'll translate that in the future, but the words there are past tense. It is such a certainty, such a fact that God will fulfill this that it can be spoken of as if it's in the past tense. This is a prophetic perfect. Jude chapter 14, listen to this. It was also about these men that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying, Behold the Lord came, past tense, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done. It's a prophetic perfect. These promises from God are settled. No question. Lord will fulfill it. Amen. The ending of that phrase in verse 13, the Son of Man. This is Jesus Christ talking. That Son of Man is a common title that he uses of himself and he says the Son of Man who is in heaven. Now think about that for a moment. If you're doing some good observation on that text, you've got Jesus Christ speaking to Nicodemus. He speaks of himself, calls himself the Son of Man and says the Son of Man is in heaven. How is it that Jesus Christ can be bodily in front of Nicodemus and in heaven at the same time? Your NASB, your ESV, your NIV, some of those translations don't even have this phrase in there. They've not translated but I think there's extremely good textual evidence for why this should be in there and this is the Lord Jesus Christ revealing about himself attributes of deity. This is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man who is God in the flesh and in his divine nature is omniscient, is omnipotent and he's omnipresent. In his divine nature, the Lord Jesus Christ is omnipresent. He's in heaven and he's standing there before Nicodemus. Just some interesting footnotes for you to study later. All right, enough footnotes. If we're to believe in him because he is the source of truth, we're to believe in him because he's the only incarnate one who came down from heaven with this truth. Lastly, all of that truth, everything that Jesus Christ is saying, all of the scriptures point to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is point three on your notes, the object of our faith. We see this in verses 14 and 15. In verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ in his incarnation left the glories of heaven to come to earth as a man. And just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Jesus here gives us a great illustration from Numbers 21, and I want you to go there with me. Numbers 21. Let's look at this illustration together. As you're turning there, think about this now. The Son of Man is the expression or the title that Jesus most used for himself. It comes from a vision that was given to the prophet Daniel in Daniel 7, where Daniel in Daniel 7 saw God, right, the ancient of days sitting on his throne. And it says there that there came one among the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of Man, and he was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. That glorious one was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ stepped out of heaven. He humbled himself. He took on himself the form of a man. He suffered and died to redeem wicked sinners to himself. And that new birth, our salvation, and our eventual glorification is with him. He purchased that for us. It's all possible because the Son of Man was lifted up as a sacrifice for sinners. So in Numbers chapter 21, we're coming to the end now in Numbers 21 of the children of Israel wandering through the desert for 40 years. They rebelled against God. They refused to put faith in God and go in and take the Promised Land. They didn't trust him. So they stayed out and the Lord said in his wrath that every one of those of that generation would die in the wilderness, which is what has happened. At this point, Aaron has already died. It will be soon that Moses dies and Joshua is appointed to replace him. So here they're about to go into the Promised Land for real this time. And they're already beginning to experience the victory of God. Before they cross the river, there's a great victory that the Lord provides for them. He conquers the Canaanites, wipes them out before them. God has this great victory. God has provided for them the land. God is about to take them into the land that he promised to give them. How do the people respond to God? Look at verse four. Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. What in the world do they have to be discouraged about? You think, wow, there's ignorant Israelites? What about you? Listen, God is sovereign over every one of your circumstances. God is sovereign over your job. He's sovereign over your marriage. He's sovereign over your home. He's sovereign on the way to the grocery store. He's sovereign in everything over all of your circumstances. What in the world would you have to complain about? Not only that, but God says that he works out all things for our good, for our good. What in the world do we have to grumble about? Why would you complain? All complaining, all this grumbling, all this murmuring is grumbling and complaining and murmuring against God. That's exactly the way he sees it here. The people spoke against God in verse five and said, and against Moses, and said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness for there is no food and no water and our soul loathed this worthless bread? What's the worthless bread there they're talking about? Manna. This is manna. God in his grace and his mercy drops food for them out of, this is no regular bread. This is like heavenly food, right? This is, this is a good, I can imagine it like lathered up in butter. This is good stuff. The Lord is dropping that out of heaven to them and they're going to complain and grumble against him. My soul loathes this worthless bread. And so how does the Lord respond? Many cases in the Old Testament, you see the Lord angry, righteously angry with the people and he's like, Moses get away from them because I'm about to consume them. Justifiable, right? That's a reasonable response on the part of God. So what does God do in verse six? All their grumbling and complaining against him. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many of the people of Israel died. Fiery serpents. One reason for the use of the word fiery is because it's thought that these snakes, these serpents would bite the people. They would contract a severe fever as a result of the bite and they would burn with the fever and then die. Fiery serpents. For purposes of the illustration that Jesus is giving in chapter three, verse 14 of John, the fiery serpent is illustrating or representing sin. Illustrates sin. The serpent, can you find a better symbol for sin than the serpent, right? The serpent is symbolic of sin. The deathly venom of that wicked snake has spread to all men. All men have been infected and corrupted and defiled by that wicked, deadly venom, such that there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who does good. You say you're a good person? No, you're not. On the testimony of Scripture, you're not. There is no one who does good. There is none righteous. Do you receive their testimony? You must. Verse seven in Numbers 21, Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he takes away these serpents from among us. So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent. Set it on a pole and it shall be that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it shall live. And so Moses made a bronze serpent. He put it on a pole and so it was. If a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. So the fiery serpent that Moses made and he set upon a pole. Who is that a reference to? The Lord Jesus Christ. It's a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. A snake? A serpent? The Lord Jesus Christ. The glorious one. Exalted above the heavens. Who died for you and for me, if we're in Christ. He died to pay the penalty for our sin. He died to take the punishment that we deserve. That one that stepped out of the glories of heaven to live among sinners became like a serpent for us. Became as sin for us. Romans chapter 8 verse 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. Jesus Christ was perfect. Yet it was made sin for us that we, it says there, might become the righteousness of God in him. Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us. That happened at the cross. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. From one perspective, it's a horrible scene to imagine, right? The Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect lamb, his blood shed having become a curse, having become forsaken by the Father. Back in John chapter 3 verse 14, the Lord says that it must be so. The son of man must be lifted up. That's called the divine necessity. Had to be that way, the divine necessity. And what does it say there? Is the purpose for that. Verse 15. So that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God in great grace, in great mercy. God with the great love with which he loved us gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. How is that belief? How is that saving faith depicted in our illustration from numbers 21? It's depicted as a simple look. A look of faith, a look of trust. Trusting in the remedy that has been lifted up by the Lord. When those bitten and dying simply looked to the bronze serpent, they were saved. Jesus himself, the Lord, uses this very illustration for faith in Christ, for saving faith. This is the illustration that he uses. A look in faith. No matter how horribly they were bitten, no matter how many times, no matter how severe the fever, no matter how sick they got, they didn't have to crawl on their hands and knees through the camp to reach the pole. They just had to look. Just trust. That was the remedy that God had provided. Look to the remedy and be saved. This is the very illustration used by our Lord. This is, this is God's illustration. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? Look to Christ. Trust the remedy that God has lifted up. Believe in him. Are you heavy laden over your sin? Are you sick and dying? Do you see yourself as sick and dying? You are if you're outside of Christ. You are. Receive their witness. Then look to Christ in faith and trust him alone for salvation. He is the object of our trust, the object of our faith, the object of our worship. Do you think that your sins are too great? Trust him. When you're tired and you feel beaten up over your sin, trust him. When you are plagued by the same sin that seems to beset you time and time again, trust him. When you think that there is no hope, trust Christ. When you know that you deserve hell and you know there's nothing that you can do to commend yourself to God, that's when you trust Christ. When you feel cold and dead, cry out to the Lord and trust him. When following Christ has gotten hard and you're surrounded by adversity on every side, you think to yourself, I can't lose another friend. Trust Christ. You must believe in him. The tragedy of the human condition is that many will not trust him. Many will not. They don't see themselves as sick and dying. They're fine just like they are. They don't receive his witness of us. That generation of Israelites, prior to those that we encounter in Numbers 21, didn't trust him. They all died in the wilderness. They didn't trust God enough to follow him. It's amazing that a testimony of the depravity of a man's heart is that rather than trusting in God, those Israelites in the wilderness actually turned from God and worshiped the bronze serpent. They called it Nahush 10. Had to be destroyed later because they worshiped that instead of worshiping the God who rescued them out of Egypt and gave them the victory and put them in the land. And they worshiped the serpent on a pole. Unbelievable. That is the wickedness and the depravity of every man's heart apart from Christ. Do you accept their testimony of you? Then trust Christ. You must believe in him. What about you? Right now. Right now. What are you going to do? If you've never turned to Christ, you're not trusting him now. You're not living for him now. What are you going to do right now? Right now you can turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ. Are you going to sit there in your pride? Are you going to sit there in your hard-heartedness? Are you going to reject his testimony? Or will you trust him and be saved? There are mansions in glory. You have an inheritance waiting if you'll but put your faith in Christ. He says that he'll save you. He'll wash you clean. He'll forgive you. He'll pardon you. He'll remove the guilt. You don't have to go to hell? This is a great illustration given here by the Lord from Numbers 21 and it's followed by a great explanation that we'll get into next week. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Will you believe in him today? For the good of your own soul? And for his everlasting glory? Believe in Christ, amen? Let's take a moment of silent prayer and just ask the Lord that he would apply these truths to our heart. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you God for this great salvation. Thank you for Christ. God thank you that it's by faith and not by our own effort. It's our own work and we would be destitute and hopeless if that were the case. But Lord, you in great mercy and your grace with great love sent your only begotten Son that he would be lifted up the perfect Lamb of God sacrificed to redeem sinners to yourself. God, do your great and glorious saving work in the hearts of sinners today, the hearts of your people. God, embolden us to live fervently for you for your everlasting praise and worship. It's the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray these things. Amen.