In Jason Dohm's sermon 'The Serpent in the Wilderness,' he explores the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:9-17, focusing on the necessity of being 'born again' to enter the kingdom of God. The sermon underscores the spiritual rebirth as a work of the Spirit, drawing parallels to Ezekiel's prophecies about spiritual cleansing and revival. Dohm explains the significance of the bronze serpent in the wilderness as a foreshadowing of Jesus' crucifixion, emphasizing that just as the Israelites were healed by looking at the serpent, believers are saved by faith in Jesus' redemptive work on the cross. The sermon highlights the depth of God's love as expressed in John 3:16, which offers salvation to all who believe. Dohm concludes by urging listeners to embrace the simplicity of the Gospel and to marvel at the breadth of God's grace, which extends salvation beyond Israel to all nations.

Our sermon text for today is John chapter 3 verses 9 through 17. I'll begin reading in verse 1. Please follow along. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and 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 it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not 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, 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 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. 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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Amen. Please be seated. The title of the sermon this morning is The Serpent in the wilderness. Jesus in this text takes us to an Old Testament account about a bronze serpent being lifted up in the wilderness as a salvation to people who were dying. So it's really a wonderful centerpiece of the text.

At the end of chapter 2, Jesus, consumed by zeal for his father's house, cleansed the temple. He actually makes a whip and drives them out of the temple. And he performed signs. This is the week of the Passover feast. And the very end of the chapter, The last verse of the chapter says that he performed signs many believed on him, but he didn't entrust himself to those people because he knew what was in the heart of man.

Then in chapter 3, which we began last week, Nicodemus comes and there's an interchange between the Lord Jesus Christ and Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, who comes to him by night. By the way, when we see Nicodemus the next time in chapter 7, he'll be introduced as Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night. So his coming under cover of darkness sticks with him in the Gospel. And it's one interaction, but it's three sermons. So it was last week, and then again this week, and again next week, but it's an unbroken interchange in the Gospel account.

And so last week the focus was, you must be born again. You cannot see the Kingdom of God and you cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless you are born again. And Jesus is so clear, it's a spiritual birth. And so it is a work of the Spirit. You cannot make yourself be born again.

And James I think so rightly took us right to Ezekiel chapter 36 which is the promise that when the people of God are being revived that God will come and he'll sprinkle them clean. He'll cleanse them from all of their filth and from all of their idols. Those are the words of Ezekiel 36. And he'll take out the heart of stone and he'll give a heart of flesh and he'll cause his spirit to dwell in his people. This is what Jesus is speaking of here as he speaks to Nicodemus.

And then in the very next chapter in Ezekiel 37 we have the valley of the dry bones, a valley full of bones that are exceedingly dry, Ezekiel 37 says, meaning they've been dead a long time. They're bleached. They're bleached by the sun and the weather. And Ezekiel sees these and God asks Ezekiel, can these bones live? And Ezekiel has to confess, God you know, I can't make them live.

Bones don't resurrect themselves, only God has the power to raise from the dead. And God actually commands him to speak life into these, and the Spirit gives life to these dead bones. That is what You Must Be Born Again is all about. Being born by water and the Spirit is the sprinkling clean in Ezekiel 36 and the indwelling of the Spirit in Ezekiel 36. It is the raising of the dead in the Valley of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel 37.

There were two quotes from last week that really struck me. I couldn't get them out of my mind. The first was this. James said, Your best deserves hell. Just absorb that for a minute.

Not your worst, not what you're ashamed of deserves hell, but your best deserves hell. If you cannot reconcile yourself to that, that God is so holy, and that even your best things are so tainted that your best things deserve hell, you are not ready to be saved yet. The other thing that he said that I couldn't get out of my mind is, you cannot be rehabilitated. You cannot be rehabilitated. The Gospel is not the Gospel of turning over a new leaf, trying harder, working harder, striving more in order to be saved.

You cannot be rehabilitated. You must be raised from the dead. You must be born again. All the old things must pass away and all things must be made new and it is a work of the Spirit. So now to our text.

As we come to our text, let's ask for the Lord's help. Our God, I thank you for loving this world that you made. You are the Creator, and you love the works of your hands. Even mankind in rebellion, you have loved. Thank you for sending your Son to make a way back for sinners who have strayed so far away, who have hardened themselves in rebellion against you.

I know I've done this in a hundred different ways. Thank you for loving and redeeming through your Son Jesus. May Christ be exalted in our hearts as we Look at these words of life today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, we'll be subdividing the text into three parts this week. And the first part is 9-13. So hopefully you still have your Bibles open to John chapter 3. And follow along as I read 9-13. Again, this picks up right in the middle of discourse.

It's ongoing. Nicodemus answered and said to him, to Jesus, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not 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 have 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. In these verses, we have it that Nicodemus does not understand earthly things, But Jesus can teach heavenly things. So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, if that's how you're making notes by filling in the blanks, it's earthly, heavenly. Nicodemus doesn't understand earthly things. Jesus can teach heavenly things.

So we have this massive chasm between the Lord Jesus Christ and Nicodemus, even though he is a man of renown. He is a Pharisee. They are the careful law keepers. They are the ones who actually take the Word of God seriously, give themselves to studying the Word of God and not only is he a Pharisee, he is a ruler of the Jews. There are only 70 in Israel who sit on the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.

Nicodemus is one of them. And Jesus actually in Our text calls him the teacher of Israel, so he is a teacher of renown among the people. Even so, this man knows nothing and Jesus knows everything. There is a gap, a great gap between this supposedly learned man and the Lord Jesus Christ that is brought out in our text. Here is the main point of this section.

Even though Nicodemus is the teacher of Israel, meaning he is your go-to Guy among the professing people of God. You go to him to learn about spiritual matters. Even though he holds that place in Israel, he doesn't even understand the most fundamental things. He doesn't even get the things that are supposed to be the most basic and simple things. He doesn't understand them.

I loved last week how James started in Genesis and he proved from the Old Testament that humanity is so bent and twisted against God that it has to be a work of the Spirit for you to be spiritually alive. This is not a New Testament teaching. Nicodemus should have known it has to be a work of the Spirit for you to have spiritual life. Just starting in Genesis 3 and what is said there, and then Genesis 6 and then Genesis 9, and then he went to Romans chapter 3, not because Nicodemus should know what Paul had written because Paul hadn't written it yet. Of course he shouldn't have known, but because Paul in Romans chapter 3 quotes all these Old Testament verses that just condemns mankind without exception.

Nicodemus should have known that all spiritual life is a work of the Spirit. But he didn't know. Nicodemus was a man who was presiding over a system. And he assumed that if you just did your part in the system, if you just did your part as a cog in that wheel, that things were right with you, but that's not true. That's not what the Old Testament teaches.

That's not what the New Testament teaches. That's not what any part of the Bible teaches. That brings us to us. We have a system. We have a wheel.

We have cogs in the wheel. Is it wrong to have a system? No. I think God has revealed a system for His people so it's not wrong to have a system. It is wrong to think that the system can impart life to you.

It cannot. That's impossible. Don't think that because you're a cog in this wheel, that that's the same thing as having spiritual life, as being born again. Here was Nicodemus, a serious minded man, a Pharisee, giving himself to the studies of the scripture. He was a ruler in Israel.

He was the teacher in Israel. He even thought well of Jesus and spoke well of Jesus and he was not spiritually alive. Jesus says, you must be born again. The implication is, Nicodemus, you're not born again. You're spiritually dead.

You've thought that being in this system, if you just played your part as a cog in this wheel, you would be spiritually alive. That's what it meant to be spiritually alive, but it's never been true. And it wasn't true at the time that Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus, and it's not true today, and it will not be true through all eternity. You must be born again to be spiritually alive. What could be more fundamental, what could be more foundational, than understanding your standing with the one who created you.

What good would any other knowledge do you if you knew all these other things but you didn't know what your standing was before your Creator. What good is it if a man gains the whole world and yet forfeits his soul? That's what Jesus says in another place. And the answer is obvious. It's no good to know anything else, to do anything else, to be anything else if you don't know you're standing before a holy God and that you are defiled and you must be born again.

Nicodemus is marveling at what Jesus is saying, but Jesus is marveling that Nicodemus doesn't understand the most basic things. The doctrine of the new birth is ground level doctrine. It's foundational doctrine. If you don't know the doctrine of the new birth, you don't know anything. Jesus is teaching that in this text.

He calls it an earthly thing. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 15 verse 14. Matthew chapter 15 verse 14. The disciples have just said, don't you know you just offended the Pharisees? And Jesus says this, let them alone.

They are blind leaders of the blind and if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. This is exactly what we have with Nicodemus. He's a Pharisee just like Jesus was addressing in Matthew 15, 14. He's a blind man leading other blind people into the ditch and he doesn't even know it. Why?

Because he's blind. Many of the commentators remark, if the teacher of Israel was in this state of ignorance. What must the people have been?" And this is what we see over and over and over again in the Gospel accounts. The people are in such ignorance of even the most basic things. They are thinking that all is well because they are functioning within the system.

No, that is not the key to spiritual life. In this section, Jesus begins to say of himself what John the Gospel writer has already said of Jesus. Just flip back to John chapter 1 for a minute. John chapter 1, follow along as I read verses 16 through 18. John chapter 1, 16 through 18.

John the Gospel writer says, And of His fullness and of Jesus' fullness we have all received and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. In those verses, John the Gospel writer is revealing Jesus Christ as the ultimate self-revelation of God.

The ultimate, the most complete, most perfect self-revelation. Jesus is God. Jesus is God revealing Himself as He is through His teaching, but also through His life and through His death. Jesus in John chapter 3 in our text, in this section of our text, is claiming to be an eyewitness to truth, to being a primary party of truth. John the Gospel writer in chapter 1 says that Jesus, the only begotten Son, was in the bosom of the Father, meaning He was with God and He was God.

He was in the beginning with God, going back all the way up to the beginning of the chapter. This is how Jesus knows all there is to know. He is God. He has always been with God. He has always been God.

Jesus has spoken to Nicodemus of earthly things. It's almost impossible to conceive that that new birth teaching is an earthly thing. So Jesus says it's so heavenly in many ways, and yet being born again is something that happens to people on earth in their earthly life. Jesus calls it an earthly thing. And Jesus says, Nicodemus, because you don't believe that, you don't have capacity to believe heavenly things.

A lot of commentators spend a lot of time and ink on talking about, well, the earthly things are this, the heavenly things are this. That's beside the point. The point is, the teaching about regeneration, being born again, the new birth is foundational, elementary teaching about what is required to be spiritually alive. And until you apprehend that, embrace that, understand that, you have no capacity for learning greater spiritual things. That's really the point.

Like many things, we must master the fundamental. We have to grab hold of the most foundational things before we have capacity for anything that's more advanced. It's like building a structure. You start with a foundation And all of the problems and errors and faults in the foundations are magnified as you build. So you better build well on the ground floor.

You better carefully lay your foundation, or you might find that you've built and the whole thing collapses because of errors in the very first steps that you've taken. Two final points in this section. One is that Jesus lays exclusive claim to all knowledge. Look again at chapter 3 verse 13. No one has ascended to heaven, no one ever.

No one ever. I'm adding ever, but I want you to see how comprehensive this claim is. No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. No one knows the things that Jesus knows because of his position. From eternity past he has been in the bosom of the Father as John the Gospel writer said in chapter one.

You cannot know all the things that Jesus knows because you weren't there as God with God in the beginning. He is the ultimate teacher. He is the truth. We'll come there in due time. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus doesn't tell the truth. He is the truth. He is the ultimate self revelation of God. He is laying claim to all knowledge because he was with God in the beginning. He was God in the beginning.

The second final point in this section is the singulars and the plurals in verses 11 and 12 are really interesting and just deserve some comments. So go with me to verses 11 and 12 and let's look at the singulars and plurals. Some of them I'll have to point out because the word you can be either singular or plural in English but it's not so in Greek. So go to verse 11 with me. Most assuredly, says Jesus, I say to you, singular, you Nicodemus, you one man I'm speaking to, most assuredly I speak to you singular.

We speak what we know and testify but what we have seen and you do not receive our witness." All these plurals. Jesus is making himself part of a group. Not I speak what I have seen but we speak what we have seen. And not my witness, but our witness. What is this group?

Well, Nicodemus had done this in verse 2. He said, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God. Nicodemus had indicated in verse 2 that he was not alone in recognizing that the signs said something about Jesus. Nicodemus wasn't alone in that. He was part of a group that recognized you cannot do the things that Jesus is doing unless you come from God.

Jesus here is making himself part of a group. Now our translators have made a decision, the New King James translators have made a decision that the we and the our that Jesus is using is actually trinitarian. That it actually is a reflection that it is God and His three persons in one that is represented here. Other translations don't do that. At least of the five that I checked, the New King James is the only that does that.

I like what they've done, but just know the translator had to make a decision there. There's nothing in the text that says explicitly that. The translator was stuck with the decision. You have to either say, this is Trinitarian or it means something else. They've said it's Trinitarian.

And I think That's right. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus is saying over and over again, I'm saying what my Father is saying. I'm saying what my Father is saying. What I hear from my Father, I speak. So I do think this is what Jesus is communicating here.

But it's not certain. The translator had to make a decision. Next section. Follow along as I read verses 14 and 15. Verse 14, Jesus says, And 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." In this section, we have an Old Testament type of the atoning work of Jesus who is Christ.

So if you're filling in blanks on the handout, it's type, work. An Old Testament type of the atoning work of Jesus who is Christ. What is a type? A type is a picture of a greater reality. It points forward to a greater reality that will be revealed later.

Like the Old Testament sacrifices were a type that pointed forward to a greater reality that would be fulfilled later in Jesus Christ. The Old Testament sacrifices were a picture that pointed to Jesus and His atoning work. This is like that. This is an account in the Old Testament that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of. In other words, historically it really did happen.

These are real events, but the main purpose, God's main design behind the events, was to teach of Christ. We've already seen this in the Gospel of John. We've seen John the Baptist looking at Jesus and saying, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John the Baptist is pointing back to the type, the Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of the sacrifices, the almost sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham that was a type that pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is another one of those.

So turn to Numbers chapter 21. Jesus says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and this takes us to Numbers 21, which is the account that Jesus is referencing. People of God have been liberated from Egypt and their slavery, and now they're in the wilderness. And this is an account from the wilderness wanderings. Numbers 21, I'll be reading 4 through 9.

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. The people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no food and no water and our soul Lows this worthless bread so that the people are in the wilderness, and they're very discouraged in the discouragement Leads them into sin.

I almost said causes them to sin. Actually, it's what's in our heart that causes us to sin. But they are discouraged and they sin out of this. They complain against God and they say that they loathe God's provision. Listen to that.

Our soul loathes this worthless bread. God is feeding them supernaturally and they loathe it now verse 6 the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and They bit the people and many of the people of Israel died. 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 take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people.

Then the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and it shall be that everyone who is bitten when he looks at it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and 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 here's the account that Jesus is referencing.

God's normal pattern, if you look across 6, 000 years of Earth history, His normal pattern is to be patient and long-suffering with sinners, to suffer long with sinners and not to deal with them instantly as their sins deserve. That's the pattern of 6, 000 years of earth history. Patience, long suffering, not dealing with sinners as they deserve. But sometimes God renders wages. Paul says the wages of sin are death.

And sometimes, every once in a while, God renders the wages on the spot. It is sin and death followed immediately by death. And He does this so that people will not forget that He does judge sin. In other words, mankind is so prone to misinterpret the patience and longsuffering of God. And we draw the conclusion, He's not even watching anymore.

He doesn't care anymore. I got away with it. None of that is true. So it's actually merciful for God to occasionally render the wages immediately for sin so that we don't forget that a day is coming when every wrong will be brought to account and made right. So think of the venom coursing through the veins of these people who were dying from their snake bites as the just consequences of sin.

In other words, God was right to do that. These people had been liberated from slavery and they were being carried through the wilderness as a father carries his son. God was supernaturally providing for them, but they loathed his provision and they deserved that venomous, fiery, biting serpents would be sent among them to kill them. They deserved that. No one can condemn God for being unrighteous for doing that.

This was just the just consequence of their sin. Make no mistake, friends, if you get nothing else, make no mistake, sin kills. Sin is venom coursing through your veins and it will kill you fast or slow but it will kill you your sin will kill you because God is holy as he can't even look upon sin He could never have you into his presence with your sin because his holiness would consume you. Your sin is killing you and my sin would kill me. God in his mercy gives Moses away for the people who had been bitten and had this Fiery venom coursing through their veins for them to live even though they deserved what was happening to them And it was that he fashioned a representation of the serpent, a representation of the just consequence of their sin.

If they would make a representation of that and publicly lift it up for all the nation to see, anyone who was willing to look to it could see it. Out there in the middle of everyone, up goes the image of the serpent. If you would look to it, you could live. Now notice, notice this is so important, their confession did not heal a single person. It's a good confession.

Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned, We have spoken against the Lord and against you pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us So Moses prayed to the prayed for the people and not one person has been healed yet Confession even good heartfelt confession does not atone for your sin. It does not make you unguilty, not guilty. It never removed guilt from one single person. Something else has to cleanse and remove guilt. So as good as confession is, and as necessary as confession is, does not atone for sin.

But if a person who had the deadly venom coursing through their veins simply believed God and trusted in what He had prescribed. He was saved. She was saved from death. But if you sought an alternative cure, if you said, that makes no sense to me. I only have hours to live.

I'm going to spend my hours with the doctor. I'm going to try these home remedies. I'm going to look for an antidote. Anything else you would die, one remedy for the Death venom that was coursing through their veins, one remedy. Trust what God has said.

Look to his one remedy. You will be saved. If you saw any other remedy, you died. But even if you were almost out of all strength, you were about to take your last breath if you would believe God and look to the serpent, you would be saved. Almost completely without strength, almost dead, but you trusted God and looked to the bronze serpent you would live.

Jesus says his work on the cross, he says lifted up, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. He is going to use this terminology a couple more times in the Gospel of John and It always means His crucifixion. It always means Him going to the cross, lifted up in the sense that He is lifted up on the cross. Jesus says that His work on the cross is the spiritual equivalent of the bronze serpent being lifted up. And the people with the death venom coursing through their veins, trusting God, believing God, it's in simple faith looking to God's remedy and being saved.

Jesus says, my work on the cross is the spiritual equivalent of that. It is the reality that that points to. Friends, your sin is killing you. The death venom is coursing through your veins. God has been patient.

He has not paid the wages for your sin on the spot. Don't misinterpret his patience, his long suffering, that he has not dealt with you as your sins deserve, and conclude from that that he's not watching that you've gotten away with your sins. It's not true. A day of reckoning is coming for every man, woman, and child. God cannot have unrighteousness before Him.

He must render justice. It's only a matter of time before your sin kills you, but God has given a way for you to live. He has made His Son sin. He has made, God the Father has made His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us.

This is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. God the Father made His Son Jesus who knew no sin a perfectly undefiled life. He made him sin for us. When you see the cross, you're seeing the bronze serpent, you're seeing the representation of the just consequences of sin. You deserve that cross, like the people of Israel deserved those venomous bites to have the just consequences of sin rain down on them from a God who is just.

But if you look to Jesus by simple faith, you will live. You will live. The Gospel is so simple. The Gospel is so complete. Jesus saves to the uttermost all who come to Him by faith.

Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man. Even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up. In the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the term Son of Man is used 82 times. In 81 out of those 82 is Jesus calling himself the son of man. It's his favorite self-designation.

He calls himself the son of man more than he calls himself anything else by a long shot. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 47. So this is the Apostle Paul and it's his letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 47. He says, The first man was of the earth made of dust. The second man is the Lord of heaven.

Who is Paul talking about? He is talking about Adam, the first man. And he is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the second man. Here he is setting before us the two representative heads. You are born with a representative head, a head of the race.

Adam is made of dust. He is the man of flesh. Everyone is born represented by Adam. And Adam plunged us into sin and toil and sickness and death by sin so that we have inherited things from Adam that we cannot escape. We have inherited a bent in our nature against God that has set us at war with Him because we want to be God.

Everyone who has been born since shares this in the very core of their being. And it explains how they live. Meaning, you can look in everybody's life and say, they're living that out. But Jesus Christ is the second Adam. He's the second man.

You don't have to live and die with Adam as your representative head. In that state where you are bent against God, at war with God in order to be God for yourself. You don't have to die in that state. There is one who has come. God sent him.

God gave him. And he is a representative head. He can be your representative head. And He is from heaven. He is not of dust.

He is not earthly, fleshly. His nature is perfect and undefiled. He can be your head. This is one of the things, one of the primary things that Jesus means when he says the Son of Man. He is the representative head for all people who are the people of God who have been born again.

He is the second Adam, pure and undefiled. If you look to Jesus by simple faith and you believe, believe is a word that is just all over this text. Believe, believe, believe. We have already talked about it, but I will say it again. Believing has two elements to it.

It is ascent to truth, meaning I recognize and embrace the truth that Scripture gives me about God and about me and about Christ. I ascent to that truth. I place myself under that truth and embrace it and own that truth but it is also consent to the person, meaning it's trust. It is ascent to truth, yes, but it's not only that. It's one part that and two parts more consent to the person.

Trust, entrusting oneself to the person who is declaring the truth. If you assent to the truth of the gospel, and you consent to the person, you entrust yourself to the one that the gospel is about, simple faith you will be saved. Simple faith. There is nothing for you to do. If you do it, it will be stained with sin.

And it will be unacceptable to God. Jesus has done it. There was no stain of sin. Lay claim to his work on the cross. He was made sin.

God poured out his wrath on his son on the cross. Lay hold by simple faith. Let me ask this question. Is it possible that you are clinging to some other remedy? That God has said, Just look at the bronze serpent lifted up.

Abandon going to the doctors. Abandon your home remedies. Abandon seeking an antidote that makes sense to you. Look to the serpent and be saved by simple faith. And yet you're doing that.

You've added something. You're clinging to another remedy other than the only single remedy that God has prescribed and will accept for life. Do you know that your best deserves hell? Have you embraced that? Do you know that you cannot be rehabilitated?

You are beyond rehabilitation. If you are not embracing those truths, you cannot be saved. You are not ready to be saved. If the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, is not your representative head, if he is not standing in your place to represent you before God, repent and believe the Gospel today. It's simple faith.

I am not sending you out to do anything. I am just saying, assent to the truth and consent to the person. Entrust yourself to the great person who is at the center of the gospel and you will be saved today. Would you wait another day? Would you wait another day?

How many people in the wilderness woke up thinking that today was a day like any other day but they were bit by the serpent and they would not entrust themselves to God's remedy And they died that day. They woke up unaware that it was their day that God would call them to account. And they died because they would not believe in simple faith the remedy that God had given. Verses 16 and 17. Glorious, glorious verses.

Back to John chapter 3. John 3. 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. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. In these two verses we have God's love, God's gift, and the intended results.

If you're taking notes and filling in blanks on the handout, it's love, gift. God's love, God's gift, and the intended Result from his love and his gift. This is the hands down the most famous verse in the Bible is John 316 Martin Luther said that this verse is the Bible in miniature. Have you ever thought of it that way? It's a really good description, meaning if you had to boil all the Bible down, the 1500 pages or whatever your Bible is, down to one verse, 25 words, this is it.

It's the Bible in miniature. That man has earned condemnation, but God loved the world and he sent his son that whoever believes in him wouldn't perish, wouldn't plunge themselves into destruction, but would be saved. The verse begins, for as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life for." This is explaining that. The ground for the redemption of sinners is the love of God. Why is God saving sinners?

Why is God rescuing people who deserve the serpent bite? Because of love. And not just love. He so loved the world. Intensity is here.

Intensity of love is here. He so loved and loves the world. The whole world? A humanity unified in its rebellion against him. He loves that.

Yes. Now, who falls within the scope of the world? There's a lot of debate about that. So I'm going to answer this in two steps. The first is the easy one and there is no debate.

The first way is just to step back and ask the question, who is Jesus talking to? Nicodemus the Pharisee. Of all people, make Israel great again would have been the mantra of Nicodemus the Pharisee and the ruler of Israel. That would have been his expectation of the Messiah. The Messiah was coming to show the love of God for Israel.

To restore Israel. To make Israel great again. That's what the Messiah was going to come to do God's love had been special for Israel but it had not been exclusive to Israel. And now the Messiah has been sent to open up the floodgates of the mercy of God to every tribe, tongue, and nation. Revelation says it so clearly, every tribe, every tongue, every nation will be there before the throne, all represented and in an eternal worship service to God.

Not one tribe, tongue, or nation will be left out. This is really the main point of what Jesus is saying when He says, God so loved the world. Out of every people, out of every nook and cranny, God is going to show mercy and bring people and make them trophies of His grace. And they will be there before the throne together to worship Him for all eternity for His grace. Now, does God love any sinners outside of the elect?

I'm going to let Jesus answer that question. It's safer. Matthew chapter 5. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5.

End of the chapter. Matthew chapter 5, the end of the chapter, verses 43-48. Matthew chapter 5, verses 43-48. Jesus says, you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor hate your enemy but I say to you love your enemies bless those who curse you Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?

Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. This is the text where Jesus tells us to love our enemies and He grounds it in the imitation of God. Do you see that? Jesus grounds His command to us to love our enemies.

He says it is righteous for us to love our enemies because it is an imitation of God that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. It is an invitation, no, it is a command to imitate God in His love for His enemies. Yes, God loves people, sinners, outside of the elect. If he doesn't, I don't know what words mean in this text.

Now what do we do about the verses that says that God hates sinners and there are a bunch of them? I'm going to give you two, But just believe me that they are representative, meaning for the two that I have there is a bunch behind each of them. The first is Psalm 5 verse 5. The boastful shall not stand in your sight, O God. You hate all workers of iniquity.

Psalm 5.5, God hates all workers of iniquity. How about Psalm 11 verse 5, The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence his soul hates. Psalm 11 5, the wicked, God's soul hates. What do you do with those verses? Believe them.

Believe those verses. They're inspired verses. They are true verses. And don't imagine that God is like you. I think this is a big part of our problem.

In understanding how these things could be true, how it could be true that we imitate God when we love our enemies and that God hates all workers of iniquity. His soul hates the wicked. And we know how broadly the Bible defines the wicked. It's not the worst, it's people with sin in their lives, which is everyone. But God is not like But God is not like me and He is not like you.

In God, hatred is not the evil counterpoint to the righteousness of His love. I am going to say that again. This is really important. In God, hatred is not the wicked counterpoint of the righteousness of His love. Hatred in God is perfect and pure and good.

Hatred in God is good and right. All of His hatred, None of it is tinged in any way by sin or unrighteousness. It is not as falsehood as the evil counterpoint to the righteousness of His truth. No, it is not that. It's not the same analogy at all.

Friends, there is common grace that is in no way saving grace. Do you accept that? Do you accept that God is gracious to sinners who will never receive saving grace when they experience the good things of earth that they never deserve. What is grace? Grace isn't magical.

Grace is receiving something good that you didn't deserve. Do sinners get that every day or do they get what they deserve every day? Do sinners get what they deserve every day? Non-elect sinners, do they get what they deserve every day? No, they don't get what they deserve any day.

God gives them gracious things that they don't deserve, even though it's not saving grace. There is common mercy. God withholds The death that we deserved every day before we were born again Or if you're not born again the death you deserve this second. God is withholding it It is mercy. It is his mercy.

It is His goodness that He gives you another day to repent, but it may not be saving mercy. And there is a love that is not saving love. It is not the love that he has towards his children. But it is love. Psalm 145 verse 9, I couldn't believe you took us to that Psalm.

That was not conspiracy. Psalm 145 verse 9, the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. Sinners who God won't intervene in their lives to sweep them into his kingdom according to his goodness are the works of his hands. His tender mercies are over all his works. Don't feel like you have to explain away John 3.16 to protect election.

No, we don't. We don't. Election is not harmed by this at all. I embrace the doctrine of election with all my being. I've learned to love it.

But I don't want to whittle away John 3.16 to try to protect it. I don't think I need to. I don't think you need to. Because of God's love for His sin sick creation, He sent His son. He gave His son that whoever believes in Him will be held back from the destruction that they were throwing themselves headlong into.

And they will be given eternal life. Eternal life. Think about that. You deserve destruction. You're hurling headlong into the destruction that you deserve, but God holds you back from it.

But that's not all. That's just the beginning. He gives to you, not just withholding destruction from you, He gives you an eternity of joy in His presence. He brings you into eternal life. When does it start?

At your death? No, it starts the minute you are born again. Eternal life has begun for me. I can know God now. We get to the high priestly prayer in John 17, Jesus is going to say, eternal life is to know me.

We can know Him, be satisfied in Him starting today. It's not full, it's not complete until our death, and we're freed from all this load that we're carrying around in the flesh with us. But it starts now. Eternal life has started for so many of us in this room. Praise the Lord for that.

By the way, these verses don't even touch on who can believe or who will believe. Jesus teaches extensively on that in the Gospel of John. But you can't require of Jesus that He says everything about a subject anytime He says anything about a subject. That's not how it works. All we need to know from this verse is that whoever believes is saved.

Jesus will teach in other places who it is who will believe, who it is who can believe. Save that for another day. God did not send his son Jesus into the world the first time to judge the world and to condemn the world. He sent him to save. That's why Jesus came into the world the first time, to save.

Listen to Ezekiel 33 verse 11. It's such a precious verse also. Ezekiel 33 verse 11. God is commanding Ezekiel to speak these words to the people. Say to them, As I live says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

But that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. For why should you die, O house of Israel? In Luke chapter 9, Jesus and his disciples come into a Samaritan city and they reject him. And the disciples say, Jesus, do you want us to call down fire?

Here's what he says, the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them, and they went to another village. They didn't understand what spirit they were of. The heart of God towards humanity is communicated in the sending of Jesus Christ. Don't let the hardness of man sour you on that. The heart of God towards us is communicated and the heart of God towards us is that we would turn from our wicked ways and live.

Why would we die when life is offered? God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Even though they deserve their death, He doesn't have pleasure in it. But know this, Jesus came the first time in humility to save. He will come the next time as a conquering king.

He is coming back and it will be to judge and to condemn. Applications, there are three. I thought for sure I could get this under an hour. Failure. Applications 3.

Number 1. Don't get caught off guard by ignorance of the most fundamental spiritual things. Don't get caught off guard by ignorance when you encounter ignorance of the most fundamental spiritual things. On this side of the cross, having been saved, understanding the new birth and these things, it's easy after a while to start assuming that those basic things are understood by the people you're talking to. This text teaches us that's not safe.

Ignorance of the most fundamental spiritual things is the rule, not the exception. So start your conversations of spiritual things on the most fundamental spiritual things. What God is really like, what man is really like. The new birth. You must be born again.

Don't, okay, the people we're talking to who aren't born again don't want to talk about those fundamental spiritual things. They want to talk about everything but. They have nuances of scripture and why this and why that. They want to talk about fine points. But what they need is the most fundamental spiritual things.

You're going to have to divert to the fundamental spiritual things that they're ignorant of and they don't even know it like Nicodemus. Number two. It's a question. Have you drifted away from by grace alone through faith alone in any way, imperceptibly drifted away. So the gospel to you is not now simply, look to the serpent lifted up.

Look to Jesus Christ made sin on the cross. Period. Yes, when people are born again that must bear fruit or It proves that it's all fraud. Yes, that's true. Don't start there.

The Gospel is not that. The Gospel is simple faith saves you. Have you drifted from that? This verse, this text is calling us back to that. Number three, finally, Marvel, Marvel, Marvel at the grace of God.

You Gentiles, you should rejoice in your hearts today. I am a rejoicing Gentile today. God so loved the world that He has not confined His love to this one nation, this one little nation, but He has sent the gospel to me. His Spirit is working in the world to lay claim to sinners like me. Every tribe and tongue and nation will be there worshiping Him for all eternity.

Marvel at the breadth of the Gospel. Worship the God of the Gospel. Father, Thank you, thank you, thank you for the beauty of this text, for the Bible in miniature here in John 3.16. Let us marvel. God, has the marvel of the Gospel been lost on us because of our familiarity, because we swim in these waters week by week.

Have we lost the luster of what it means that Gentile sinners off so far away from your special people, the Jews, that were just a picture of a special people that you would redeem, that you have a broad plan of mercy that you're working out in the world in places we've never even heard of, don't know of. You're making sinners, you're trophies there. Oh, praise your name, God. Let these things be fresh to us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.