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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Gonna take a look at a guy who's very famous in the scripture for for 1 of the phrases that Jesus said to him, very famous passage in John 3 16. His name is Nicodemus. The title of my message is what0:11 Nicodemus now knows. What Nicodemus now knows. John 3. That's where we're going. Okay. Now how many of you like to get the truth0:23 delivered quickly? Bad news or good news? Anybody? Just give it to me straight. Anybody like that? How many of you like it to be kinda like progressive? That I don't I don't know if I'm0:35 ready for the the hammer to drop. Anybody like that? Well, I heard this story about this lady that went away on vacation, left her husband at home to watch her cat.0:47 She called him on day 3, and she said, how's the cat? He said, dead. She said, honey, why did you do that to me? He goes, what do you mean? She said, you could have broken it to me a little bit softer. He goes,0:59 well, how do you mean? She goes, on day 1, I could have called you and you could have said, well, he's up on the roof. And then day 2, how's my cat? And you could have said, well, he's a little sluggish. And then day 3,1:10 he's a little sick. And then day 4, he's dead. You could have done it like that progressively. You didn't have to you didn't have to say it so bluntly like that. He goes, honey, I'm so sorry. I'll never let that happen1:20 again. Lesson learned. He says, okay. Thank you. How's my mom doing by the way? He said, she's on the roof. I like1:32 that story. This story does have something to do with where we're going today. In John chapter 3, what Nicodemus now knows. Stand with me for the reading of God's word, chapter 3 of John, reading from verse 11:44 right through to verse 16. Now there was a man. Somebody say, a man. A Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man. Somebody say, this man. This man. So1:56 amen moves now to this man. Came to Jesus by night and said to him, rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no 1 can do these things that you do unless God is with him.2:08 Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless 1 is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and2:19 be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless 1 is born of the water and the spirit somebody say water and spirit. Water and Unless someone is born unless 1 is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the2:29 kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it2:41 wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered them, are are you2:52 a teacher of Israel? Are you not a. Are you the teacher? Somebody say, the teacher. The teacher. Just remember that. He says, are you the teacher of Israel, and3:04 yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not3:15 believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No 1 has ascended into heaven except he who is descended from heaven, the son of man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man3:25 be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he what? We should know this 1. He gave his only son that whoever believes in him should3:37 not perish but have eternal life. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we say time out on life,3:50 time out on our schedules, time out on our day for you to speak to us. We thank you for the privilege to be able to come into this house and worship you and hear you and receive in our4:02 hearts the word that never returns void, that always accomplishes the purposes for which you sent it. May our eyes be open, may our ears be open, may our hearts be4:14 receptive to hear your voice and see Jesus. In his name, we pray and everybody said Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. You belong here part for what Nicodemus now4:26 knows. Jesus loved conversations. He is a conversational guy. John4:37 John's gospel in particular deals with several 1 on 1 conversations that Jesus has with different kinds of people, whether they be George Vicente's or Nicodemus's. And then in the sec next chapter in John4:49 chapter 4, he has a conversation with a woman who was 5 times divorced and living with, in fornication, another man. And Jesus5:01 has a conversation. What I love about God, what I love about the scriptures and how they reveal our God is he wants to talk with us, not5:13 just at us. You ever have anybody talk at you and not with you? And what I love about how John reveals the glory of Jesus, that that the point of his gospel is that you might5:25 know who Jesus is and what he did, so that you might believe that he's the Christ and the son of God, and that you might have life in his name. And you have to know that this God, this Jesus is a conversation kind of5:36 God. He wants to talk with you, not at you. And he starts where you are. Nicodemus, who is he? Verse 1, now there was a man. If you got your notes out, underline5:48 the words a man. Because the first thing that we know from John's gospel is that Nicodemus was a man. Then he gives us some more qualifiers. He was from the Pharisees, and he was a ruler of the Jews.6:00 Nicodemus. The word Nicodemus comes from 2 Greek words, Nike, Nike, which means victory. K. We have a sneaker brand named for that. Right? Demas, which we get the word6:11 democracy from rule of the people. So Nicodemus means victory over the people. If Nicodemus was in church today, he'd be wearing Nikes and be a Democrat. That's who he6:23 is. Okay? Victory over the people, and this is Nicodemus. That's his name. Who is he? He's a man, but he's a Pharisee. Pharisees there are 6000 Pharisees in Jesus'6:34 day. They lived mostly around Jerusalem. They were absolutely 1000 percent devoted to following the law. They were the religious people of the religious people.6:46 They were the devout Catholics and fundamental Baptists and hearty Presbyterians and and biblically minded evangelicals, all wrapped into 1. They they6:58 they made they made Catholics look like not amateurs When it came to religious practice, they dotted their eyes and crossed every t. In fact, they not only followed the 107:10 commandments, they also lived according to the 613 laws of the first 5 books of the Bible. The first 5 books, we call those the Torah. They call them the Torah. It means law. These are the books of Moses, the books of7:21 the law, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Pharisees, to be a Pharisee, require that you have those 5 books memorized. Memorized. Anybody think they could do7:33 that? Like, take away Netflix and give it a chance. You'll probably do it. But, you know, they they this is what they did. They they believed that this was the word of god, so they internalized and memorized it. They had7:44 to study all of that all the time. And so they followed the laws, and and then they followed not just the laws, but they followed their commentary on the law, the the Mishnah, which was a commentary on how to obey the7:55 law. Because some of the laws, you need a little bit more instruction on how to obey it. Some of them were cut and dry, very simple, like, do not steal. Like, that one's cut and dry. What does that mean? Don't take other8:07 people's stuff. Right? That's simple. Do not commit adultery. It's pretty simple. Like, nobody commits adultery by mistake. Nobody's like, what? You're not my wife. Nobody's like8:18 that. It didn't happen. Right? So so that was cut and dry clear, but there was that fourth commandment, that pesky fourth commandment, honor the Sabbath. That 1 needed clarity because8:30 what does it mean to not work? What does it mean to work? And so they had all kinds of laws, laws on top of laws, tradition on top of tradition for how to obey that 1. And they had some crazy stipulations. Like, 1 of the8:42 stipulations was on the Sabbath, you could spit on a rock, but you couldn't spit in the dirt. Because if you spit in the dirt, you could possibly make mortar, and mortar is how you make bricks, and bricks are how you8:54 make walls, and so you would be unintentionally working on the Sabbath if you spit in the dirt. Crazy stuff. Right? You could walk on the Sabbath 2 thirds of a mile, but you couldn't9:06 walk any further than that. Pity the fool that walked 2 thirds of the mile away from his house couldn't walk back. Poor guy. They had they had stipulations about what you could9:18 eat and and and the produce of your land. You couldn't climb a tree on the Sabbath because you might break a branch, and that could be interpreted as harvesting fruit, which is work. All9:30 kinds of crazy stuff. The craziest 1 was you could eat an egg laid by 1 of your chickens on the Sabbath so long as you killed the chicken for breaking the Sabbath.9:43 How many know religion makes you ridiculous? That's who Nicodemus is. Pharisee. Ruler of the Jews. End of verse 1. Ruler of the Jews means9:55 that he was part of the Sanhedrin. Somebody say Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the Supreme Court of Israel. That's who it was. These were elected officials from amongst the people. They were devout. They were they were10:06 intellectual. They were knowledgeable. They knew the law backwards and forth. Like I said, they memorized it. Nicodemus was in the select group of 71 Jewish men who literally ruled over the entire nation according10:18 to the law. And then there's 1 third thing I wanna tell you about Nicodemus that we pick up from chapter 3 of John, which is that Jesus in verse 10, if you got your Bibles open, you'll see it there. Jesus says,10:30 aren't you the teacher of Israel? Not not a teacher, not 1 of many. No. The. Which means that Nicodemus was not just an intellectual superior.10:42 He was the dean of academics at the University of Jerusalem in the first century. What I'm trying to tell you is you10:54 don't get any more religious, and you don't get any more devout, and you don't get any more serious about being a good person than Nicodemus.11:06 And yet verse 2 says that this man, Nicodemus, amen, this man came to Jesus by night. Why did Nicodemus come to11:17 Jesus by night? Anybody wanna guess? Because he was afraid. He was afraid that his little religious insider group would see him associating with this obscure Nazarene11:29 carpenter turned rabbi. You have to understand in the geography of Israel, Jerusalem where Nicodemus lived was in the south, and Nazareth where Jesus was from was way up in the north. We're not talking about like this is11:40 the Bible belt. Jerusalem like the Bible Dallas, Texas, or I don't I don't know Tennessee or Atlanta, Georgia. He's he's not from Boston. He's from like Bangor, Maine. That's where Jesus is from. Like that's the11:51 relationship. Right? So so this obscure guy who's doing these signs and wonders, Nicodemus comes to him by night, and his name is Nicodemus, and it makes it very convenient to call every sermon ever12:02 preached on John 3, Nick at night. Stupid preacher jokes. Thanks to Nickelodeon. But that's you know, he's12:14 coming to Jesus at night because he wants to hunt, and and I love the fact that scripture just says, wait a second. He's just a man. He's just a man. Here's what that means. You know what? Strip away all the things that12:23 you think you are. Strip away your titles and your academics and your degrees and your and your knowledge and all the things that all the people and all the groups and all the social clubs that you belong to. And when12:35 you stand before God, you're just a man or a woman. Right? That's what John is saying here. And you have to12:47 know that when you read the Bible, you can't worry about chapter divisions. You know, chapter divisions in the Bible were not a part of the original text of the Bible. So so this was from 1 from chapter 2, read right to12:59 chapter 3, because let's just back up in chapter 2 verse 23. This is how John left off that chapter. He says, Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, and many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he13:09 was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people, and he need no 1 to bear witness about man. For he himself knew what was last 2 words, everybody. What? In man. Jesus knew what13:20 was In man. In man. Don't stop reading. Read right into chapter 3. Now there was Amen. Amen. So when John is talking about the fact that Jesus knew what was in13:32 man, exhibit a is Nicodemus, a devout, religious, intellectually superior,13:45 revered leader of Israel. And before Jesus, he's just a man. And and more importantly, he just he comes to this obscure rabbi13:57 from Nazareth. Like, with all of his clothing and all of it you know, they wore funny hats, and they had the scripture talks about phylacteries phylacteries, which are still a thing in Israel to this day. They're14:08 little black boxes that they would strap to their foreheads and to their forearms, and they would put little Torah scrolls, little parchments of scripture, wrap them up, and put them in there because the scripture says14:18 in Deuteronomy that you shall wrap that you shall write them on your hands and on your foreheads. They literally take it literally that you gotta put the word of God. That would be like a modern day Christian, you know,14:29 sewing the Bible to his forehead and walking around and said, well, the Bible told me to do this. It's like, this religious leader comes to this obscure Nazarene carpenter. And do you know why? Do you know why? Because14:41 apart from all of his religion and all of his accolades and all of his glory in the eyes of man, here's what Nicodemus knew. Write write this down. This is point number 1. What Nicodemus knew is that you can be religious14:52 and not right with God. Put the write that down. Can we get that on the screen? A little bit delayed back there. You can be religious and not right15:04 with God. That's what Nicodemus knew. Let me put it this way in America. You can be a good person and not right with God. America's favorite15:16 religion is not Christianity. It's I'm a good person. Because every time you ask somebody, are you gonna have insurance? Why? I'm a good person.15:28 Well, based on what? Whose standard are you going with? Well, I'm not as bad as Jeffrey Dahmer. Really? We're going to15:40 you only go to hell if you eat your neighbors? That's where we're going? Everybody that doesn't eat people is going to heaven? See, this is the game that we play with15:52 ourselves because we do this as Americans all the time. I'm a good person. Well, how do you know? I feel it in my heart. Your heart is sick.16:04 You have a sick heart. Your heart lies to you on a regular basis. The the person who lies to you the most is you. You're always lying. You're always deceiving. Even your16:16 own thoughts don't aren't true. Your feelings aren't real. They're momentary synapses in the brain brought upon you by the experiences of the moment.16:28 Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9, the heart is deceitful above all else. The heart lies. Jesus said about the human heart, he said out of the out of the heart of man comes evil thoughts, murders,16:40 fornication, lies, adultery. Listen. It's not the r rated movies that make you defiled. It's what's already in here that make you know you're not what you should be. This is what Nicodemus16:52 realized you could be a good person. You could be a religious person. You could be a devout Catholic, a fundamental Baptist, a hearty Presbyterian, and still not be right with God.17:04 That's why he comes to Jesus at night. Something's missing. Something's not right, and he knows it. And this Jesus knows something and has something he doesn't have. So what does Jesus do in verse 3? Drop the17:15 hammer. Cat's dead. Okay. Here's what he says. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless 1 is what? Born again. No 2 words in the English language have more17:27 cultural baggage than those 2. I used to work in secular work. I used to work at a bank, and I I've been born again my whole life, basically, you know, since I was a kid. But that term born again, because the17:39 eighties got a lot of, you know, baggage associated with it. 1 of those born again believers, oh, those crazy people. And I remember I was working with a bunch of people who were Catholics and17:51 devout Catholics. And when the conversation led to the fact that that I was born again, they started laughing and mocking me. And, oh, 1 of your you're 1 of those born again people. I said I said, okay. Just let me just18:02 tell you that the Jesus that your church talks about said that unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. And I'll never forget. 1 of the ladies said to me, shot right back. She said, well, I guess I'm18:13 not gonna see the kingdom of God then. Mind you, this was a devout Catholic. Religion can make you ridiculous. It can blind your eyes18:26 to your need for God. So Jesus says, you can't do it. You can't you can't see the kingdom of God, Nicodemus. All of your religious upbringing and and all of your training and all of18:38 your schooling are nothing before the eyes of God. So Nicodemus has got questions. Verse 4, how can a man be born again? When he's old?18:50 He can't enter into his mother's womb again, Jesus. That would be ridiculous. Wouldn't it have been funny if Jesus was like, no. Duh. That's not what I'm saying, Nicodemus. And the answer from19:01 Jesus is truly, truly whenever Jesus says truly, truly, it's like, pay attention. This is serious. I say to you, unless 1 is born of water and the spirit make sure you just note that. We're gonna get back to that. He19:13 cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is what? Flesh. Flesh gives birth to flesh. Let me put it this way.19:25 Evil gives birth to evil. Bad people give birth to bad people. How many of you parents, every once in a while, you'll see19:36 your worst trait come out of your child? Doesn't it make your blood boil? You're like,19:48 what? How did you become In a denial, you won't admit that they're you.20:01 There's a great commercial in the 19 eighties where the kid was caught by his dad smoking pot. Remember this? And his father breaks into the room and said, who taught you to do this? Where did you learn to do this stuff?20:13 What does the kid say? I learned it by watching you. That's like time to burn the bongs. I gotta get out of this thing. Right? Like, heart20:25 flesh gives birth to flesh. Some of you blame your parents for your bad habits. You know why? Because flesh gives birth to flesh. Some of you, the parents, and20:37 you're tired of your kids blaming you for all their problems. The good news is is that God has a wonderful sense of humor, and he will give your kids that blame you for their bad habits their kids of their20:48 own that will blame them for their bad habits. So the future's bright. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but that which is21:00 born of the spirit is what? Spirit. So 8 times in 10 verses, Jesus says the word born. It's an important point. It's an important point21:12 because this is 1 of the things that John opens his gospel with. In John chapter 1, he says in verse 12, but to all who did receive Jesus, who believed on his name, to them he gave the right to become children of God,21:22 who were what? Born. Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but born of God. Okay. This is gonna be really good. Okay. Let21:34 me ask you a question. This is a simple 1. If you've been to fifth grade, you can answer this question. What did you do to be born21:46 the first time? Good. Nothing. This was the most confident crowd of all 3 services, and you all weren't even that confident, to be honest with you. All21:58 3 service were like, what? Nothing. Your parents did something. They decided to throw on some22:10 romantic music and candles and dinner and then you. Okay? So the point is you had nothing to do with your first birth, and this is the this is22:21 the word that Jesus chooses to talk about how we get right with God. So if you had nothing to do, if you brought nothing to the table to be22:33 born the first time, what do you do to be born the second time? Nothing. Are you hearing what I'm saying? Jesus is challenging22:45 Nicodemus at the core of who he is because at the core of who he is, he's a religious guy who does all who does all kinds of religious things that make him think he's right with God. And22:57 Jesus shows up and says, none of that counts. You are not someone who achieves salvation. You are someone for whom God loves and gave his life for so that you might be born23:08 again, and the only thing you bring to the table is your sin. That's it. That's what I brought to the table when I got23:20 saved. Because that's all I had. And God brought his grace, his love, his mercy, his kindness, his compassion, and made23:32 me a brand new person. You're not looking at somebody who achieved. You're looking at somebody who God loved. That's what Christianity is really all about.23:44 See, it's the men and the traditions and the churchianity that clouds it all up with all kinds of layers of gunk that turn people off and say, I don't want a part of that, that's not what I want.23:56 I don't like that, all those rules, it's not that, it's something happened in us that wasn't what we did, it was what God did for us. And I'm born not of flesh alone, but I'm born of the24:08 Holy Spirit of God. Here's what I want you to write down. Number 2, what Nicodemus needed to know was what Nicodemus needed to know was salvation is something that happens to you, not from you.24:20 You don't you don't achieve it. Like, a lot of Christians, and I get it, you say, well, I got saved in 19 82. You got nothing.24:32 Change the phrase. Say, the Lord saved me in 19 82. You said, this is semantics. No. It's not. No. It's theology.24:44 It's imperative that you make God the subject of your salvation story and not yourself. Because if you got saved, you could possibly then get unsaved. Are24:56 you hearing this? But God saves. God, subject. Saves, verb, you, direct object. That so this is important because it's25:08 not my story, it's his story. Yeah. Yeah. It's not youstory. It's not mestory. Mestory is a mystery. I don't know why25:20 I act the way I act. I don't know why I did the things in the past that I did. I could blame my parents for some of it, but most of it's my own stupid fault. It's not my story or mystery. It's history25:31 for mystery so that my story can glorify his story. Are you hearing? Because this is really good preaching, man. And I'm telling you, you gotta wake up a little bit this morning.25:46 It's not I got saved. It's the Lord saved me. If you're finally starting to realize that you had nothing to do with your salvation, just give the Lord a good amen. Amen. This is what Nicodemus needed to know.26:00 Verse 7. And I think Jesus is looking at Nicodemus, and Nicodemus is like because look at verse 7. What does Jesus say? Do not marvel. I can see you're confused. Don't do26:12 that. Don't marvel that I said you must be born again. Verse 8, the wind blows where it wants, where it wishes. If you got your notes out, underline where it wishes, and you hear its26:24 sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's gonna go. You don't know those things. Some of you, that's your story. You don't you don't even know the exact date that you got saved. Like, get there I go. I26:35 used the word. The Lord saved you. You don't even know the day the Lord saved you. It just suddenly, I was talking to somebody between services, I think, last night after service, and and he said, pastor, you'll never26:47 believe where I got I got saved while I was standing in a church. They didn't even preach yet. They were just singing about Jesus, and the Lord saved me. I know that we do the hand raised moment because26:59 we wanna guide you in a prayer to confess Christ, but sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's just a reaction to the fact that it already happened. The wind blows where it27:11 wishes. You hear it's you see the effects of the wind. Yeah? You see the effects of the wind. It's like CS Lewis said, I don't believe in God because I see him. I believe in God like I believe in the sun, not because I27:21 can see it, but because I can see everything because of it. God is the cause, the effects of the evidence. And the 1 thing about us we know is that we can't control27:33 the wind. We can't control the wind. We can't control the weather. Amen, New Englanders? Can't control the weather. Really wish we could concerning this last weekend that we've had.27:46 I've watched back to the future part 2. When Marty McFly went to the future, he went to 2015. Remember that? That's how old that movie is. Went to the Future, that was 7 years ago,27:58 8 years ago. And when he got there, they were controlling the weather. That's what Back to the Future 2 told us, that by 2015, we'd be able to control the weather. Instead, we got iPhones and Instagram.28:10 I'd rather have weather control. Anybody with me on that? Anyway, can't control it. This is the point that Jesus is making because salvation is not your doing. It's God's doing. Write this down so I know you're getting28:21 it. Religion is man centered. Salvation is God centered. I got saved as you centered. The Lord saved me as God centered. That's my testimony. The Lord saved me.28:33 Religion is what you do. Salvation is what God does. And, no, they don't work together. They don't work together.28:44 Another pharisee who did not want to be a Christian, his name was Saul of Tarsus. Pharisee of Pharisees, he's called himself. A28:56 religious devotee just like Nicodemus. The Lord showed up, saved him, changed him, transformed him, would write years later these famous words, for we are saved by29:08 grace through faith, and this is not your own doing. Not of works so that no man can boast. It is the gift of God.29:20 Not of work. There is no boasting. There's no there's no boasting in heaven, which means religion you know why people are are prone to religion? Because they like to boast. I go to church. I give29:32 my money. I dress for the occasion. Look at me. Look at them all. And they're gonna put put put stuff on their social media talking about their church, like their faith, their religious practice. Like, what the heck?29:41 Jesus said don't do that to be seen by men. Because when you do that, you're trying to boast of yourself. That's what religion leads to boasting and arrogance. Salvation leads to gratitude and humility.29:54 And the and this is how it should work. The longer you're saved, the more you're grateful that you're saved. Because the longer you're saved, the the more you realize just how much God needed to save.30:07 Are you hearing this? I that's how it is for me. Like, we we want God just to fix the outside of us. Like, fix these things that I do on the outside because I don't like them, and people around me don't30:19 like them. But God isn't just interested in fixing the outside. He wants to fix the motivation inside that produces the outside. And guess what? He wants to go deeper than that. He wants to he wants to30:30 fix the things underneath the motivation inside that produces the things we do on the outside. And Christianity and and walking with Christ is a30:42 lifelong exploration of how much God needed to change about you. Because I don't know if I'm talking to anybody who knows there's some there's still some stuff that's inside, and I'm like,30:54 why is that there? And then the longer you say, the more that happens for you that God saves you. Religion is man say centered salvation is God centered. Hey. Religion leads to anxiety.31:06 Salvation leads to peace. Amen. Religion leads to anxiety. How? Because if you're doing the I'm a good person thing, if you're doing that game, I got I got a great question for31:18 you. How good is good enough? I'm a good person. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. How good is good enough? Do you are you sure you did31:30 enough to get to heaven? Are you sure? Maybe you did some things to undo the stuff that you already did, so maybe you need to redo that stuff and stop doing the other stuff that undid the stuff that you did before.31:42 Anxiety. Are you hearing that? Anxiety. Anxiety. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. That's because you've put your faith in you and not in God. This is what31:54 Nicodemus needed to know. Number 3, what Nicodemus should have known. This is a long point, long phrase. So just we'll leave it up there for a while. Only God can make life come from death, light32:06 come from darkness, and order come from chaos. Only God can do that. God is the 1 who brings this stuff about. Right? Nicodemus32:18 should have known this. Because what did Jesus say? You are the teacher of Israel. You you study32:30 this book, not the old not the New Testament. The I understand. The Old Testament. But you study this. It's your life. It's your occupation. It's everything, and you still don't get it? You still don't get that God is32:39 the source of everything? You gotta be born through the spirit and through the water. And so here's what Nicodemus asked in verse 9. He says, how can these things be? Verse 9. Verse 10, Jesus says, you are32:51 the teacher in Israel, and you don't understand these things. What things let's go back to verse 5. It says this. Unless 1 is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter in the kingdom of God. That's verse 5. Okay?33:02 Verse 5. Unless you're born of the water and the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Water, spirit. Somebody say water. Water. Somebody say spirit. Spirit. Those 2 things go together all over the33:14 Bible. And the reason why Jesus is incredulous that Nicodemus doesn't get it is because Nicodemus, if he studied the Bible, he would have seen it, that God's spirit and33:25 God's water work on water always produce life. Let's take a look. Let's do an Old Testament tour of these 2 phrases going together. Go all the way back to Ezekiel chapter 3633:36 when Israel has been abandoned by God. They've she they've been exiled into Babylon, and they are look. They look hopeless and helpless. And and and God sends Ezekiel, this prophet, this Old Testament prophet,33:49 to give them a good good news. Give them good news. And here's what he says. Ezekiel 36 25, I will sprinkle clean, what? Water. On you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. And from all your34:01 idols, I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put in within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you,34:12 and I will cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rule. What is going on? God is saying, I am going to change you from the inside out. I will. I will. I will. I34:24 will wash you with my water, and I will fill you with my spirit. That's salvation. When God washes you of sin and puts his spirit inside so that you don't34:35 obey him because you're following the religious crowd, but because your heart has been changed by his holy spirit. See, a lot of34:47 people talk about in America that Christianity is on the decline. That's not true. That's not true. Do you know what's on the decline?34:59 Fake Christianity is on the decline. People who just follow the religious crowd because being a Christian gains you some points in35:11 the community that was the United States of America. Ladies and gentlemen, those days are over. And everybody who was just following the crowd through religious practices to be35:22 accepted by other people who were following the religious practices, those people have suddenly woken up to the fact that being Christian is no longer cool, and so they've jettisoned Christianity because they were only35:31 doing it for the sake of other people's approval. But God is still working in people's hearts from north to south, from east to west, from LA to Boston, and Chicago to Dallas. People are still coming35:43 to the Lord Jesus Christ as God changes the heart, and not just the habits. It's the spirit changing your heart and washing35:55 you with his water. Let's back up a little further in the Bible to Exodus when the people of Israel are coming out of Egypt and God has saved them out of their slavery. And they're walking into the promised36:07 land, and and they hit a roadblock, and and they come up on the Red Sea. This is a very famous story, and we miss we miss a little detail of the story. And they can't go any further, and they look behind them, and36:18 there's Pharaoh's army. And Pharaoh's army is charging, coming to kill them, wipe them out, because he's got a bit of a case of FOMO. He's missing out now on having his slave labor. So he's coming to get them back, and36:29 they they cry out to God, did you did you just bring us out into the desert to let us die? And and God's like, don't know what to do. And and and the and and I'm sorry. Moses is like, don't know what36:41 to do, and God is like, stop whining. God says to Moses, take your staff and raise it up. Exodus chapter 14, look what happens. Verse 21, then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord36:53 drove back to sea by a strong wind. The word in Hebrew is ruach, which means spirit. Wasn't a natural wind. It was a supernatural wind. And all night and made the sea dry37:04 land, and the waters were divided. And Israel functionally gets baptized. Paul talks about this in first Corinthians 10. He says Israel gets functionally baptized in the water and37:16 in the sea. And they come out of that sea a new nation. And Pharaoh goes into the water, and the water closes up on him, and he's dead. And God destroys their enemies through the water,37:28 through the work of his spirit, and gives birth to a new nation through the work of his spirit upon the waters. That's why you get baptized. That's why you get baptized because you're saying publicly37:40 and visibly that this is what happened to me. God brought me out of my slavery to sin and changed my heart and made a new man and a new or a new woman inside.37:52 Let's go back even further to the Bible, Genesis chapter 8. And poor Noah is floating on the waters. We like to focus on the fact that Noah was faithful. He built the ark, it was a powerful story. And he brought the 2 by38:04 2 animals and the 7 clean animals, you know, 7 of each clean animals. Really cool story. Cute story. We put it on our nurseries for our kids, which is really weird. Anybody paint the nursery in the Noah's Ark theme? We38:15 did this for our first child. I remember I walked into it. I'm like, why did we do this? Is when god killed everybody. Why did we do this for the decorations of my child anyway? So38:27 Noah is on the ark floating, and the water the the rain has stopped, but the the whole planet is covered in water. It's like a Christopher Nolan film sitting on the water with all these animals, and you have38:39 to think, what what went through Noah's mind in that moment? He he might he must have been like, what now? Everybody's dead except my kids and my daughter in laws and my wife and these38:50 animals. And he doesn't know. But verse 1 of Genesis 8 says, God remembered Noah and all the beasts and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made aShow more
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