All right, we're here in John chapter 3 and I'll just give you a heads up that we will not get through this entire chapter
Because this chapter is way too packed full of great material. And so this will be a two-week series in John chapter 3
We'll try to get through the first 21 verses tonight
But I'm not sure if we will or not
What I've been planning to do because we talked about John 3 a lot these first several weeks
I'm trying not to cover any of the same materials
So we're gonna focus on a lot of stuff in John 3 that isn't always
You know mentioned because there's so many famous verses here
There's a lot of great material here in John chapter 3 and so just an introduction
I want you to understand something as we're going through the book of John is to always see Jesus preaching to people
One on one, you know, he's not when he's preaching to large crowds. He's not preaching the gospel
Now when he's preaching the gospel
He's preaching to people one on one and see the reason why that is is he's giving us a pattern
You know people say why don't we do street preaching because if you get out there and scream at a thousand people people aren't gonna get
Saved that way. That's not the method that Jesus used. He talked to people one on one
So what we have to realize is this is the method he's given us and we go out soul winning on Saturday Sundays or whatever
Day the method we're doing that's the method God gave us, you know
We're part of the greatest work on earth when we're preaching people the gospel. There's nothing more important than that
He showed us the pattern of how to do it. He did it himself
He led by example and we get to follow the same way and that's what we see throughout the entire Bible
Now a lot of heretics will think that why you know
You go out there to stand on a street corner and just scream at people because you can talk to so many people at once
You know Jesus had people willing to listen to him thousands of people
He preached doctrine didn't preach the gospel because people get saved the best most effective way
It's just talking to them one-on-one where you can ask them questions and pause and see if there's anything they don't understand
Because some people need more than just 10 minutes. Some people might need, you know, 20 minutes, you know
Usually I spend about maybe 15 to 20 minutes on a conversation if somebody's, you know, receptive and wants to hear the gospel
But sometimes need to stop and pause and say wait a minute
I need to give you a few more verses on eternal security before we try to close in prayer
And so there's a reason why just talking to people in small groups or one-on-one is the best way to preach the gospel
Now verse number one is what the Bible reads
There is a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews now
Nicodemus is a prominent person
Religiously, he's a ruler of the Jews. This is a powerful man. Okay, he's powerful and I'm sure
He's very intelligent as well. You wouldn't get to be his position unless you are actually a very intelligent person
So realize this guy is a powerful person. He's a religious leader. He's a very intelligent man
Now look at what it says in verse number two
the same came to Jesus by
Night okay, nothing in the Bible is just an accident or coincidental
It says he came to him by night now think about this
Let's say for example, you got a knock on your door at 10 p.m. Would you be kind of a little hesitant to answer?
I mean, I don't like people knocking on my door once it's dark outside you
No, I mean you expect people to knock on your door at like 2 in the afternoon, right or 10 in the morning
Not 10 at night when it gets really late
You're kind of like why is somebody knocking at my door at this time, right?
Well, Nicodemus is talking to Jesus at night when it's dark you say why is he talking to him when it's dark?
Why not do it during the day because Nicodemus does not want people to know he's talking to Jesus
Okay, see Nicodemus is a prominent person and Jesus is a very controversial man
See some people love Jesus and some people hated Jesus and Nicodemus did not want to be associated with it
You know, we have to realize that when we preach the truth, we're very controversial with the message. We're presenting
There's a lot of people that love our message, but you know what? They're not gonna publicly admit it
They're gonna come by night. They won't admit that they like our message
Why because they're embarrassed and they're worried about the repercussions about what will people think that I was talking to this?
Controversial person so it comes to him by night now realize something else
Being a powerful person a rich person presumably an intelligent person
When you're that sort of person you have more to lose than someone who's your normal everyday person
Say why is it hard for powerful and rich people to get saved?
There's many reasons one reason is because they're increased with goods and have need of nothing. That's their philosophy
But the other thing is because of peer pressure. They're embarrassed. You know, we preach the gospel to the poor
They're not embarrassed to talk to us, but you know the rich people they're embarrassed
They're worried even if they want to hear the gospel they're worried
Uh-oh, if I if I talk to this person people walking by they'll look at me and they get embarrassed about it
You know poor people aren't embarrassed about that and you know a lot of people in this world
I mean everybody everybody wants to be rich, right? There's a lot of blessings with not being rich and not being powerful
You know, yes, you know you have lots of money
You can have everything you want but you know
Would you rather have everything you want to go to hell or are you happy to be serving God?
Being God's keeping you humble. You're working hard just to provide and you're gonna lead multitudes of the Lord in your life
I'd rather leave long multitudes of the Lord in my life and beat some rich person that does nothing for God
See, that's what you see that rich people powerful people
They don't serve God very rarely
Obviously there's exceptions here and there but there's not that many exceptions
Usually it's just your normal everyday person who ends up serving God now
Obviously, we're gonna knock the rich doors too because there's people there that want to listen also
But you know more people are willing to listen that are poor people
More of them are likely to get saved and to serve God than the rich and powerful people
Forgive me for my voice is still a little bit messed up from man, soul winning is tough work this past weekend
But anyways, I want you to see something else though
He comes to him by night and Nicodemus what he thinks about Jesus notice rabbi
We know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him
Now when you read the story of Nicodemus, it's very obvious. He's not a phony
He's not insincere. He's a sincere man. He's not this evil wicked guy like a lot of the Pharisees were
He's a sincere man. He's not mocking Jesus when he says this he believes Jesus is a great teacher
He believes he's a man of God
He knows these miracles that have been done
But what he doesn't believe is that he's the Messiah the Christ the Savior, right? He doesn't say well, you're the Christ
He just says he's a great teacher come from God
He does not realize he does not believe the gospel at this point. He's not a safe person at this time now
I want you to notice something else though in verse number two
Says the same came to Jesus by night and said unto him rabbi
we
Know he says we know he doesn't say I know
He says we know now who is he referring to when he says we know in my opinion from the context of him being a
Powerful person a ruler of the Jews. I think he's talking about himself and other Pharisees
When he says we know because those are gonna be the people that he pals around with and knows and he says we know that
Thou art a teacher come from God now
Here's what's interesting about this in a modern-day application
See Nicodemus was amongst a lot of people that would say hey, we know that you're from God
You're doing these miracles. You must be from God
But you know what? He's the only one who even had the guts to come at nighttime
See there's a lot of others that were too embarrassed even to come at nighttime
To approach Jesus of all these people that knew all the friends of Nicodemus and only Nicodemus even had the guts to come
At nighttime now remember these are unsaved people now. What's our application today?
You know what?
There are so many people so many back to us in the Philippines that are listening to our sermons and paying attention to what we're saying
That's the truth. You know, here's what's interesting about it
Some of them have the guts
To listen on YouTube and a lot don't even have the guts to do that because they're afraid somebody might catch that they listen
To a sermon on YouTube. That's the truth. Yeah, there's there's tons. I mean they're hearing about this message in the Philippines
I promise you that and some of them are interested in what's being said and they're saying I agree with a lot of that
But they do not even have the guts to listen to a YouTube sermon
Why because they're afraid that one of the famous people is gonna rat them out and they're gonna get caught that they listen to a
Sermon now a lot of them are listening to sermons
But honestly, it's the few because Nicodemus had a lot of friends and it was only him who listened and there's a lot that are
Interested but honestly, some of those aren't even listening because they're afraid they might get caught listening to a YouTube sermon
That's reality now some of them are though, you know
I promise you that you know in America people listen to Pastor Mendez and Pastor Anderson that are IFB and they won't admit it
Publicly, but I promise you it happens
Yeah, there are people that listen I promise you they're gonna listen the message here as well because when the truth goes out
People are curious even though Nicodemus is unsaved
He believes he's a man from God and he wants to hear this message
But there's a lot of people that they also think he's a man from God
But they don't have the guts to come to him by night because they're afraid of the repercussions that could happen to them
Yeah, now when you really look at it
Repercussions, I mean it's ridiculous. It's like oh wow, you could lose your job big deal
You know what? I mean, it's like people are so worried about what's gonna happen. Look God's gonna protect us
God is gonna protect us through the trials and the tribulations and the sad thing is that
Nicodemus, although I believe he got saved the Bible doesn't explicitly say but I believe he got saved
He probably had a lot of friends that could have gotten saved
But they were too embarrassed even to talk to Jesus by night and they're in hell right now
That's the truth and there's people out there that are gonna die and go to hell because of peer pressure because they're scared
When we preach the gospel
Sometimes we're trying to talk to someone maybe a group of people and you can tell that one person wants to hear the message
But why don't they listen because of their friend?
They're worried about embarrassment
And you know what? They're gonna probably die one day and go to hell because they're probably not gonna get that other another great chance
Like that, that's the truth
You know before I was saved
I
Remember I had been wanting to know for a couple years how to get to heaven I was scared about where I was gonna spend
Eternity and I remember I was at a football game my freshman year of college before the game started were outside and an independent
fundamental Baptist Church was handing out invitations and they handed me the invitation asked me the question and I was with other friends that
I knew and I wanted to know and you know what I did after my friends threw it in the trash
Guess what? I did bundled it up and threw it in the trash. Why peer pressure?
And it's like right after that that day. I was just like, oh forgive me God
I want to know but it's like, you know what peer pressure gets to people and
Honestly, even though that person didn't leave me to the Lord
I don't remember who gave it to me that really had a big impact on me where I just kept thinking about
Spiritual things that had an impact that they were handing out an invitation to me at a football game
I don't even know if they would have been able to preach the gospel accurately who even knows
But it was something I was wondering about and due to peer pressure
I ended up throwing it away a lot of people are the same way they want to know
But they're too worried what their friends think and that's what it comes down to here with Nicodemus and his friends
And so I want you to understand something else though
Obviously, we know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
He's the Savior he's God in the flesh and obviously we know that he did not hide that he proclaimed that he let people know
He accepted worship. He let people know this now. I'm sure that when the message of Jesus was getting out here
This is towards the beginning of the ministry
There was all kinds of information out there about Jesus and people didn't necessarily know exactly what he had said
I'm sure people were talking about hey, maybe this is the Christ. Maybe this is the Savior. Maybe this is the one
We've been waiting for well, I don't think Nicodemus believed that I mean he didn't believe that
So they probably didn't think that Jesus had actually claimed to be the Son of God was he did claim to be
They just heard a lot of great things in the miracles and they thought with all these miracles. He must be from God
They just didn't necessarily know the exact message. Jesus had obviously here. Jesus is gonna give Nicodemus the exact message that he has
now, you know
It makes sense because in even in modern times and throughout history when there's somebody who's a great man of God
He kind of gets overhyped by a lot of people sometimes and they can start telling stories about him
And so Nicodemus might have wondered well
this is a great man of God but now they're going overboard by comparing him to all these great people from the past and being
The Savior being the Christ will turn to Acts 14, Acts 14
But he knew the miracles were undeniable and truly the miracles of Jesus Christ were undeniable
There's been a lot of frauds through the years through the thousands of years
But Jesus Christ performed so many miracles. It's undoubtedly that he was the Christ. He was the Savior
Now I want you to notice what it says in Acts chapter 14 because remember Nicodemus and his friends
They had heard about these miracles
So they believe that Jesus was from God, but they were not saved themselves
Now notice what it says in Acts 14 verses 11 through 14 and when the people saw what Paul had done
They lifted up their voices saying the speech of Lycunia the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men
So, you know they perform these great miracles these great works and here talks about Paul and it says the gods are come down to us
Verse 12 and they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul were curious because he was a chief speaker
Then the priests of Jupiter which was before their city brought oxen and garlands under the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people
Which when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out
So they're lifting Paul up and basically saying he's like a god, right?
well
Then notice what it says in verse number 19 and there came that there's certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people
And having stoned Paul drew him out of the city supposing he had been dead
This is just five verses later. You're saying he's a god and now you're stoning him now
Here's the thing Nicodemus was sincere and humble and he listened to Jesus, you know a lot of his buddies
They thought Jesus was from God because of the miracles
But if they had actually heard the words coming out of Jesus mouth guess what they would have loved to do
Throw stones at him, right?
See a lot of things we do people love but then we tell them our message of salvation and they hate it
We leave out that word repent. They hate it. They're mad about it
They could like everything we do but because we don't say you got to repent ever since they hate us for that
That's the truth and see these people
Nicodemus friends they saw that they knew about these miracles. They thought Jesus was from God, but a lot of those people
They had actually talked to Jesus they would not have had the same reaction to Nicodemus as being humble
They would have wanted to stone him and kill him just like we see in Acts chapter 14 now turn back to John 3
We see that Paul the Apostle he literally was rocked to sleep
You know
Sometimes I try to rock my son to sleep Paul literally was rocked to sleep in Acts chapter 14
And I'm sure would have been the same way with Jesus with a lot of these Pharisees who at the beginning
See this is at the beginning later on as more information gets out
I mean, it's pretty much like if you're still a Pharisee at that point, you're pretty much a reprobate, right?
You've just rejected completely but at the beginning when this is first happening
There's a lot of different opinions and a lot hadn't formed their opinions yet and a lot I believe were still
Savable at the beginning right but as three years go by as time goes by and they heard the message
You're gonna get saved or you're gonna just become a child of the devil if you hear the message over and over and over
That's the reality when people hear the message over and over and over and over again
They either gonna believe it or they're gonna hate it become reprobates. It's one of those two things
It says in John 3 verse 3
Jesus answered and said unto them verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God
Now notice that Jesus immediately says, you know, if you're not born again, you're not gonna see the kingdom of God
You're not gonna go to heaven now remember that in verse 2 Nicodemus is flattering Jesus
He's saying we know that you're from God
You're doing these miracles and that Jesus response is if you don't get saved you're gonna burn in hell
That's basically what he said now notice that Jesus was not a respecter of persons because this is a prominent
Person that he's telling that if you don't get saved you're gonna die and go to hell
There's a few things that we can learn from this
We should treat all people the same when it comes to hearing the gospel
As long as they're not a reprobate as long as they're just as far as we know just a normal person
We should try to give them the gospel whether they're rich or whether they're poor now me personally and you could have a different opinion
I don't necessarily think the president do territories or reprobate if I ran into him. I would try to give him the gospel
That's the truth. Okay, but you know, I'd also do the same thing for a homeless person that lives in result Park here
I do the same thing, you know why because we're not supposed to be respecters of persons whether it's this
Powerful person or whether it's just your normal everyday person trying to survive. I'm gonna give the gospel
I'm gonna try to see that was the method of Jesus because didn't Jesus give the gospel to people that were poor and destitute
But then he's talking to Nicodemus here
And the reason why he has a sharp response to Nicodemus is because he wants to get him saved
So whether or not it's a powerful person or whether or not it's just some poor person
We preach the gospel if we have the opportunity
Now it says in verse number four
Now people who go to let me just say this that people go to two extremes with this
Obviously we focus on the poor because they're more receptive the Bible tells us that but we don't want to just completely forsake the rich
You know, I mean there's people that have money within our movement
You know in the world that you know what they're serving God and they love the Lord
There's people that do have money that are serving God now
I think the reason why most of us don't get money is because God knows if we had money we wouldn't serve God
That's reality with most of us but there are some people out there that can handle money in the Bible
There's people that can handle money. So just because somebody's rich we don't want to just assume. Well, they'll never get saved now
I understand that obviously they're more likely to get saved for their poor
But let's not just completely reject the rich but also let's not look down on someone that's a lesser status than us
Okay, look, we're all sinners that are saved by grace if we believed on Jesus Christ
Now in verse number four this what the Bible reads
Nicodemus saith unto him
How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? See Nicodemus is thinking about this from a human perspective
He's like, how can you be born again?
How can you enter into your mom's womb the second time see here's a problem with Nicodemus
He was too smart for his own good
Right, isn't that what we see with people when it comes to the Bible people that are really intelligent in terms of worldly intelligence
They don't believe something unless it makes sense to them, right?
I mean, isn't that true with the Calvinists all their arguments are all these big logical arguments
You can show them a verse and it's like well that just doesn't make sense
I mean if if Jesus died for their sins and then they go to hell to pay for their own sins
That's like the sins were paid for twice and that's unjust
Yeah, but you know
We have a thousand verses that prove that that yes
He died for everybody sins and yet people still reject and pay for their own sins. I don't care about your philosophical argument
I'm not into logical or philosophical arguments
I'm into what the Word of God says because you know what people don't get converted with these stupid philosophical
Arguments they get converted through the Word of God
That's what the Bible teaches and see the problem with people that are really intelligent is sometimes
They're just too intelligent for their own good
They won't believe something unless it makes sense and Nicodemus is struggling with this and the Bible says the message of salvation is
Simple enough for a child to understand but Nicodemus doesn't get it. Why he's too smart
It takes him a while because he's just pretty smart. It's tough for him to grasp
Now in Proverbs 14 12, you don't have to turn there for the Bible reads
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death
Before we get saved there is a lot of things that all of us believe that seemed right
But what we have to do is be willing to just shed what we've been taught our whole life
And when we hear the message of salvation say, you know what I was wrong. I was foolish
I've been lied to I would have died and gone to hell
I'll humble myself now believe on Jesus and get saved and that's something that most people are not able to do
Most people are not able to admit that they wasted 40 years in the Roman Catholic Church
Right. Yeah, that's why the older you get you're less likely is it look in this room now
How old is the average per I'm one of the oldest people here. I can't believe that anymore
It's like man, I'm one of the oldest people in this room and it's like, you know what the message that we have
Young people love it. Yeah, because they're still at the age where they're willing to listen
Every once while you get somebody saved who's older but by and large if somebody's a lot older
You know what?
They're not gonna get saved
Yeah, because they've already made up their mind what they believe and there it's it gets harder every single year to humble yourself
It's not hard for a five-year-old to humble themselves if they understand the message of salvation. They will get saved
Yeah, obviously at a very young age it can be tough
You know, you might need to give them the gospel over and over again because sometimes it takes them a little time
We talked to a nine or ten year old and they get it man they will get saved
They're willing to humble themselves
But you know what when you start to get 18 20 25 30 you're less and less likely to humble yourself
I gotta say when I was 18 years old
You know, who knows what would have happened if I'd spent a few more years in college unsaved
I don't know. I might have gotten arrogant and foolish, you know
Like a lot of people because once people get older they just get set in their ways
The Bible says in verse number five of John 3
Jesus answered verily verily I say to thee except a man be born of water and of the Spirit
He cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Obviously, we just talked about this how people say born of the waters talking about water baptism
But it's actually talking about a fleshly birth and we see that in verse 6 that which is born of the flesh is flesh
And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit in verse number 7
Marvel not that I said unto thee he must be born again
What he's saying is, you know, don't be shocked. It's not some great marvel that you have to be born again
You know, here's one thing we can understand from verse number seven when he says ye must be born again
He's not just talking about Nicodemus because ye in the Bible is plural right being thou is singular
Ye and you that's plural when he says ye must be born again. It doesn't include Nicodemus now
Here's the thing Nicodemus was a Pharisee know what that shows us Jews need to get born again to go to heaven
They don't get a free pass into heaven. Oh, they're Jewish. They get a free pass
Well, I mean Jesus is preaching the gospel to Nicodemus. He doesn't seem to think that he is a free pass into heaven
They don't get a free pass automatically into heaven because oh they were born Jewish. I mean, that's ridiculous. God's not a racist
Yeah, right. I mean God's not
INC, right God's not a racist. Yeah, right. It's ridiculous
He says ye must be born again and see that's the same message for anyone around the entire world
Now here's the thing
Nicodemus to this point. I don't believe he has ever heard an accurate presentation of the gospel
I don't believe he had at this point
But even that though he had never heard it Jesus says you must be born again now people have this idea
Well, if you never hear the gospel you get a free pass, right? That's the only thing that's fair not according to Jesus
Jesus says no you need to be born again because once you become a man you must be born again
Now if you're a young child that dies you go to heaven
But if you reach the age where you can comprehend these things
It doesn't matter if you've never heard a clear presentation
You must hear it and then believe it and you can say otherwise you'll go to hell
Say what about those people in those random countries where no one's preaching the gospel?
They need to hear the gospel and get saved and obviously God's powerful
He is the I mean you look at the story of Cornelius how God has the way to get the gospel out to him or the
Ethiopian eunuch
But you know what?
We need more labors because there's gonna be a lot of people that die and go to hell because they've only heard the gospel
You know once or only a few times or never really heard a good presentation. That's the truth
Now notice verse number eight it says
The wind bloweth where it listed and now here's the sound thereof
But canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit
It's funny because this chapter it smashes Calvinism into like 1 million pieces
And you know what they do they just focus on verse 8 why because it's the most confusing verse of the chapter
Right, they go to the one verse. I mean John 3 16 is incredibly clear
You believe you receive everlasting life and so they go to John 3 verse 8 where it's kind of confusing, right?
What Jesus is saying he's talking about wind. He's telling Nicodemus, you know, we don't really comprehend
Wind so much like where it's coming where it's going. He says the same with somebody's born again
You know, if somebody gets saved, I don't see some light shining down from heaven that tells me they got sin, right?
You know, it's like I can tell me based on what they're saying
I can tell that they believe it I can you know
Sometimes you're preaching the gospel and you can just see that look in their eyes that they got it
You know part way through the conversation all of a sudden boom it clicks with them
You can tell that but I mean, it's not something like 2 plus 2 equals 4
And that's what Jesus trying to say in verse number 8 and they'll go to a confusing verse and just say well see here you
Go, it's just like this is the magical regeneration, you know, because nobody understands it so must be no
He's just saying that you know being born again. It's kind of the same thing like when it's like it's not like 2 plus 2
Equals 4 you can kind of see that it takes place
But you know just like when where it comes with or go if you don't necessarily know
Now in verse number 9 is what it says
Nicodemus answering said unto him how can these things be?
Nicodemus is still
confused
really intelligent people
It takes them a lot of time sometimes
Now Nicodemus is a humble person. It's not like he's an arrogant prideful
Instance your person he's actually a humble person
This is the sort of person that it would take more than 20 minutes to preach the gospel, right?
There's people like this that they're not rejecting the Bible, but they just don't fully get it yet
Doesn't quite makes doesn't the parable the sower talk about people that don't understand that's why they don't get saved
Some people they hear the message of salvation
They just don't understand you heard some of the testimonies from some of the pastors in our movement about their wives
When they got saved they heard the gospel over and over and over and over again
What's interesting is those people that heard it over and over again before they got saved
Those those are actually very intelligent women and they probably need to hear it over and over again because the more intelligent you are
You know, it's just hard to fully grasp it
Right, and you know, honestly, there's there's a lot of people out there that we preach the gospel to it's not a failure
if they didn't get saved because some people need to hear it several times and the more they hear it the
More likely they're gonna end up getting saved people probably even in this room and I'm sure in our church
They heard the message of salvation through the online ministry over and over again before they got it took them a little bit of time
Doesn't always click the first time so it's not a failure if we go out soul-winning you say I didn't get anybody saved today
That's I mean if you put out the work you didn't fail some people need to hear it over and over again Nicodemus
He's one of these people, you know when it comes to these people that are intelligent or rich or powerful
It's just harder to comprehend the spiritual things in verse number 10 the Bible reads
Jesus answered and said unto him art thou a master of Israel and know it's not these things
Now Jesus says a lot in verse number 10
One thing he says is this he's like you as a leader as a master in Israel
He's like, you don't know this he's telling him. You know what the Old Testament talked about this thing, brother
He's telling me, you know, the Old Testament talked about this. He's like you're a master of Israel. You don't know this
He expected him to know the idea of being born again
You say why did he expect him to know that because guess what the Bible talks about being born again from Genesis to Revelation
The Bible talks about salvation in the way to heaven and one thing we need to understand is this the Word of God
Was a spoken word before it was a written word
I'm sure during the Old Testament a lot of these verses in the New Testament were used to preach the gospel
Okay, now you can find salvation in the Old Testament. There's no question about that
You can find eternal security you can preach the gospel through the Old Testament, but I'm not going to do that
Because it's a lot easier through the New Testament. Yeah, and I'm sure back in the Old Testament
They had the same scriptures that they could use that we use today, but here's the thing
Nicodemus should have been aware about being born again because being born again being a child of God that was talked about
Throughout the Old Testament. He's telling him you should have known that now one thing that destroys is
Is
Dispensationalism
because dispensationalists
They teach that you were saved by your works in the Old Testament and Jesus telling Nicodemus
No
You should have known the idea of being born again in the Old Testament because it's always been by being born again
now
Another thing that we see in verse number 10 is notice what it says art thou a master of Israel now turn to Matthew 23
Matthew 23
Now it's not really my goal to go out of my way to destroy
Dispensationalism and Calvinism with every sermon but I mean the Bible destroys it like pretty much every chapter
Yeah
And honestly those two doctrines are the cause of so much harm
That it's like I don't mind just kind of kicking them every time I walk by you know what I mean
I mean, there's such dumb doctrines when you look at it in the Bible and there's such destructive ones
Now we need to make sure that we take that dog over and over and over again
But we're gonna have people that come into this church that they have different backgrounds
They could be saved and come out of one of these churches and be wrong on a lot of verses because they've just been programmed
for a while
Right. It's gonna take them some time. So, you know, we're gonna kick this dog over again
We need to make sure all of us understand this from the Bible as well why these things are so false
Now he says art thou a master of Israel
Jesus is kind of talking to Nicodemus kind of mockingly when he calls him a master of Israel
It says in Matthew 23 at verse 8
but be not he called rabbi for one is your master even Christ in all ye are brethren and
Call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father, which is in heaven
Now that does love to park it at verse number nine and rip on the Catholics, right?
And I love to do that as well
Let's not call anybody father
But you know what?
They don't like to do is go to verse number 10 where it says neither be called masters for one is your master even Christ
now the secular colleges they'll give you the
Master's degree right now you expect that from the world. What are the Bible colleges do they give you a
Master's degree. I mean, it's like couldn't you change it by like one letter?
Did you have to do exactly what the Bible told you not to do and people are graduating
Masters in divinity. I
You've mastered the concept of God. It's like are you kidding me?
I mean, it's like man. I feel like I got a long ways to go. They're the masters of divinity. They're these experts
They know everything God and they don't even know what Matthew 23 says God told you don't call anyone
Master it's very clear and yet the Bible colleges follow the pattern of the world
They're just like the world and they're just as unbiblical
Yeah
Probably they're more harmful in the world standards these Bible colleges
they're producing a bunch of masters of divinity and masters of theology and
Doctors and all these fancy titles people that don't even know what the Bible teaches
That haven't even read through the Bible once or twice covered cover
It's like are you kidding the master divinity, but you never read through the Bible cover to cover
I mean, it's like you tell me you're a master of divinity
I'm thinking you got like 40 books of the Bible memorized word for word or something like that
Not well, I read them through the Bible once it's like oh wow. That's that's a memorized on 316. Good job, buddy
Go back to John chapter 3
And
So Nick or Jesus is basically
Rebuking Nicodemus in that way by basically saying, you know his title being a master, you know, it's it's unbiblical
He's also trying to show his the fact that he is God because of the fact remember
He told the only one who's your master is Christ right and he's saying, you know, you're a master
Remember the Bible says that the only one who's your master is Christ and later on he's gonna make make his deity very clear as
Well to Nicodemus, but he's trying to make that clear to him because you know what?
You cannot get saved unless you understand that Jesus Christ is God. That's the truth and he's trying to make it clear
to Nicodemus verse 11
Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness
If I have told you earthly things and you believe not
how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things and
Verse 12 is one of my favorite verses in the Bible actually
because a lot of times people are confused with passages and parables and things like that and
basically what Jesus is saying is I've told you earthly things to explain the spiritual or explain the heavenly and a lot of
times people will see like an earthly example and they don't get that it's an
Example an earthly example to help explain the spiritual and they go way overboard like John 15
Now I preached before on that the first six verses they say we can lose your salvation and it's like no
He's using an earthly example to explain the spiritual and oftentimes
That's the reason why people don't understand passages and they think things are contradictions because they don't understand that now notice what it says in
verse 13 and
No, man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven even the Son of Man
Which is in heaven now Jesus Christ is very clear that while he's on earth
He's in heaven right now. You say well, how is that possible because he's God. Yeah, right
I mean the Bible is just very clear from cover to cover that Jesus both the Son of God and he is God
That's just what the Bible teaches
We believe in the Trinity around here God the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost and I've never even had really anybody
Besides these weird cults doubt this to the last couple of years all these weird arguments are coming up
But the Bible is just very clear Jesus in John 3 verse 13
He's proclaiming his deity why because Nicodemus has to get it if he's gonna get saved
Right now a great thing. I love in the Philippines is most people already get this
Yeah, most people believe in the Trinity they believe Jesus is God unless they tell you they're I and C or on dot ting
Don or something like that
I mean you don't have to spend like a while explaining the nature of God
Which is good because honestly if you lived in a country like India, it's like good luck
He's spending an hour and every single conversation
Because you'd have to explain in depth that Jesus is God the only God and he's also the Son of God
I mean it would be really annoying preaching the gospel over there, right?
It would be difficult because they'd have a lot, you know with their weird religion and the fact they believe in all these
Manifestations of God it would be tough for them
Thankfully, we don't have to worry about that too much in the Philippines now
I want to want to show you a few things though here in the Bible
And when I when I explain this that we have to understand that Jesus is God
I think we're all aware of that that you must understand
I'm gonna I'm gonna preach in that here soon, but that we must understand Jesus is God to go to heaven
But I want you to look at a few verses. Look at Romans 6 23 Romans 6 23
And
I want to show you that even in some of the most famous verses that we know they actually show that Jesus Christ is God
What do you think about because in on all the big salvation verses he's telling us this Romans 6 23
We know this verse the second half where it says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord
Say well, how does that prove that Jesus Christ is God? Well, here's the thing if I were to give Timothy a gift, okay
Who paid for that me or him?
I paid for the person who gives the gift is the one who pays for right
Now who's giving eternal life? Are we giving it to God or is he giving it to us?
He's given to us. So who paid for it us or him?
He paid. Well, how did he pay for it?
Right
God's giving us eternal life. He paid for it
Jesus is God
Gifts coming from God and guess what? Jesus paid for why cuz he is God. Yeah, Roman 623 proves that Jesus Christ is
God and it also says Jesus Christ our Lord throughout the Old Testament
It's like these people if they ever read the Old Testament
Where it over and over again says Jesus Christ or God is our Lord and there's one Lord in the Bible says Jesus Christ
Is our Lord that shows Jesus is God. It's like I don't know what they don't get about that now turn to act 16
act 16
And so even in these famous verses
They just they just show us that Jesus Christ is God now
I don't I don't spend time like proving that because usually it's not needed at the door
I'm just kind of giving you an extra little example
Usually, I mean that they've got Jesus is God already
So when I'm shown in Romans 6 23 is more of a wrap-up verse for me
But I'm just showing you that even in these verses they prove
Jesus is God acts 16 verses 30 and 31 and brought them out said sirs
What must they do to be saved and they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and once again
He calls the Lord and thou shalt be saved. So it talks about being saved which means
Jesus is our Savior and throughout the Old Testament. Guess what? God is our Savior. Now, how is that possible? Because Jesus is God
I mean throughout the Bible
It's like how do these people not get that?
Because throughout the Bible it just teaches that Jesus Christ
I mean the whole book of Isaiah over and over again talks about there being you know
One God one Lord one Savior and we know Jesus Christ our Lord
He's our Savior that doesn't negate the Trinity because obviously we have tons of verses on that and I'm not going to in depth on this
You know in tonight's sermon
I'm just saying to deny Jesus God is ridiculous the Bible talks about that over and over again even in common
Salvation verses now turn back to John 3
And
in John chapter 3
verse 14 the Bible reads and
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up
Now Jesus Christ is talking about how he's gonna die on the cross. He's gonna be lifted up
There's a verse in the Bible where he says if I'd be lifted up from the earth will draw all men
On to me talk about how to be lifted up and die and be crucified for us now turn back to Numbers 21
Numbers 21 he used the example. He says as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
Now you guys might all be aware of this
I'm not sure but I remember a long time ago when I was reading the Bible and no one had ever showed this to me
And I made the connection in John 3 14 when I was reading the book of Numbers and I was like man
This is the most amazing thing because this shows in the book of Numbers. It's proving Jesus Christ
You know a long time before
Numbers 21 verse 7 through 9
Therefore the people came to Moses and said we have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee
Pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us and Moses prayed for the people and the Lord said unto Moses
Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that
Everyone that's bitten when he looketh upon it shall live and Moses made a serpent of grass and put it upon a pole
And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the serpent of brass he lived
This is the picture that he's talking about from John chapter 3 verse 14
Now I want you to notice that it says
Anybody that looks at that serpents gonna be healed
Now does Moses force people to look at the serpent?
No, he doesn't. It's the same thing with salvation today. This is an example of salvation
This is an example of Jesus Christ. Look anybody that believes on Jesus Christ is gonna go to heaven
But we have our choice if we're gonna do it or not
God doesn't force us to just like Moses didn't force people to look at the serpent
I mean this Calvinism idea is just retarded throughout the entire Bible
But it's just very obvious that anyone that looks and this also shows us that the picture of salvation is throughout the entire Bible
The picture of Jesus Christ is throughout the entire Bible
Turn back to John chapter 3
And let's read the next three verses where it says that
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but of everlasting life
For God sent not a son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved
Now we talked about these verses a lot, so I don't want to cover them too much
One thing I want to comment on is in verse 16 where it says God so loved the world
Which means it's the same message of salvation for anyone in the entire world. You love the world
Jesus is the Savior for everyone in the entire world
It says that he gave his only begotten Son. We don't have to give God our life. He gave his life
Amen for us. Amen
But there's also this big argument that Calvinists try to use in John chapter 3 and this is a really dumb argument
But what they try to say is this that yes
There's all these thousands of verses that say if you believe you have everlasting life now
Do you know how they answer this they say well those verses aren't stating by believing you receive everlasting life
They're just stating the people that believe have everlasting life, but before that
Before you believe this magical thing called regeneration occurs
And so a Calvinist believe is that the everlasting life takes place before the believing then you believe
And then you get saved. That's what they believe
They say why do they believe that because there's no other way to explain their verses right, but you can still disprove this now
I didn't even know this about Calvinists until I watched this documentary around a year ago
And I'm like what in the world because it's very obvious in the Bible being born again
Being saved being regenerated receiving everlasting life or eternal life. These are synonymous
Okay, they're different ways to explain the same thing that happens at the same time you get saved the same time you receive everlasting life
The same time you receive eternal life the same time you become a child of God it all happens at the same time
Why does he use different words because it gives us different examples?
Right everlasting life being born again being saved. These are different examples
We can use to help explain to people but these things are synonymous now in these verses
Because remember what they say is this they say in John 3 somewhere in this chapter
That's why they like John 3 8 is where the regeneration occurs. So they go to John 3 8 and say well, here's this wind
Here's the regeneration because they have nowhere else to put this right as they say the regeneration occurs
And so in verses 15 and 16 and stuff like that
Yeah, that they believe you have everlasting life these people already have everlasting life
It's you know
Believe comes afterwards
But notice what it says in verse 17 because they say being saved and receiving everlasting life are not synonymous
Verse 17 for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but the world through him might be saved
Right the beginning of 17 for it connects from verse 15 and 16 to verse 17
It's talking about the same thing. It talked about everlasting life talks about being saved. Why is there synonymous?
It's the same thing happens at the exact same time
And so this idea that while this magical regeneration occurs the Bible never talks about throughout the entire Bible is ridiculous
Charles Spurgeon is famous for a quote where he says on
One side of the door it says whosoever believing and on the other side
It says predestined from the foundation of the world what Charles Spurgeon meant by that was if you're unsaved
It looks like anyone who believes goes to heaven. But once you're saved you realize oh, I was just predestined
I didn't used to realize that that's what he meant. That is what he means by he's not saying well, it's confusing
No, no, what he's saying is this that if you're not saved it looks like whosoever believe
But if you are saved you realize I was predestined from the foundation of the world
Yeah, I mean, well good luck for me now buddy Charles Spurgeon. Good luck in and out of hell
John 3 18
Says he that believeth on him is not condemned
But he that believeth not is condemned already
Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God notice the second half of this where it says
He that hath he hath not believed the people that are condemned
They've never believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God
Yeah, now some people have this weird idea that you can get saved and become like this hardcore atheist
That's not what the Bible teaches because the people that are condemned they never believe now
I'm not saying you can never get confused at all
What I am saying is this that when you're saved you're in dwell with the spirit of truth
The Holy Spirit's indwelling you and look if one of my converse one day
Ends up becoming a Catholic priest. I got to realize you know what I didn't get that guy saved, right?
Right now. I'm not saying people can't be confused
I understand people have a lot of Catholic traditions, and you want some people we get saved
They're gonna still stay in their Catholic Church, and hopefully they'll eventually get out
Right because they're used to those vague traditions. They don't seem weird to them
Catholicism has always seemed very weird to me because it's not that common. You know where I'm from
But you know if you're from the Philippines it probably isn't that weird to you when you see idols everywhere
Right it's not that weird to you, so you stay in the Catholic Church
You don't really feel that weird, but you know what if somebody
Gets saved they will always believe the message of salvation
They can be confused by these false prophets and false teachers
But look if one of your converts becomes like one of the leaders of INCE didn't get saved
Right cuz I've heard people say well. You know I led this person the Lord now. He's a Muslim
You didn't lead him to the Lord
He didn't just become a Muslim five years later if he was saved with the spirit of truth inside of him wouldn't have been converted
to Islam later on
Now let's look at verses 19 through 21. We'll wrap it up
And in verse 19 and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deed should be reproof
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God
The Bible says men love darkness rather than light
The reason why is because their deeds are evil
They don't want to come to light why because their deeds are evil say why do people hate this kind of preaching
Because their deeds are evil. Yeah, that's the reason why they hate this kind of preaching
They don't like their toes getting stepped on it reproves them. It shows them the wrong
Why are all these Baptist so mad because of the fact people are actually standing up and saying they're false their families right?
We're exposing that their deeds are wicked. They're evil, and they hate it
Angry about they hate the words that we're saying yeah, that's the truth anyway
They could act like they don't hate the words that we're saying, but the truth is they hate the words
I'm sorry. That's right. They hate them. It's like. Oh, no. You know I love them. They're Baptist
Don't pretend like you do you hate the words that we're saying and honestly this isn't even just
Safe unsaved people even with saved people if saved people a lot of them
They don't want to know the truth most of them
Don't want to know the truth and why because their deeds are evil so they don't want to be near the light
they don't want somebody exposing the wicked deed so they'll go to a church like
Joe Lowstein's church right some lame
Church why because they don't want their deeds to be exposed. What's a good job?
You go to that church your whole life. You'll never have your toes stepped on one time
Right, but you know I want to know what the truth is you know why because my deeds aren't
Like some of these people I want to know the truth when I need to be corrected
I want God to show that to me turn to Ephesians 5
And I want to look at one last verse here, we'll wrap up here in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 13
And
Honestly when when I'm talking about people hating our deeds this this will come with any denomination
Anybody who's unsaved is gonna hate this bridge
Right there's a reason why the world will always link up together
Against the people of God it doesn't matter what their beliefs are they'll be mad at us
Because we're the ones that were the people that are saved are the ones that actually will prove the sin of the world
That's the truth
It's like churches like these that are actually have the truth are the same ones that expose the wicked deeds
They're the same churches that go soul winning and when all these different religions
They're gonna hate us whether it's the Protestants or Catholics or Orthodox or
INC or whatever all those religions are gonna hate our words because we're exposing them for being frauds and being
Phonies and showing them that what they say is wrong
Yeah, you know when you say well
You know you shouldn't call somebody master people would get offended at the preaching that I said there
I mean, it's straight from the Bible now. Are they really mad at what I'm saying no know what they're mad at
They're mad at what God said yeah, but they're not going to admit that they're mad at God
Are they it's anybody gonna say I'm mad at God nobody's gonna say
But they're mad at us because we're speaking on behalf of God we have to realize this that they crucified our Savior
The truth is that if we're preaching the truth
There's gonna be persecution and here's here's the great thing here in the Philippines guess what?
There's not much persecution preaching the truth
There really isn't compared to other areas go start a church in a Muslim country
Let's see how much success you have you're not gonna last that long
But there's not that much persecution in this country now. We're gonna get some persecution for sure especially
We're getting lots of people saying but honestly there's not that much persecution in this country compared to some other countries
There's a lot of countries where you will get executed for saying anything that we've said tonight, right?
There's not that much persecution and yet. There's still pastors that don't have the guts to preach the truth. That's sad
But it says in Ephesians 5 verse 13
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is
Like Bible says all things that are reproved
Everything that's wrong is to be made manifest by the light what that shows us is the closer
We get to God's light the more. We're gonna see problems. We need to fix
Right I mean if I were to look at my life ten years ago when I had started to clean some things up
There were still a lot of things I needed to change, but I didn't realize that
But as the closer you get to the light you start seeing wow I got a lot of things
You know that that need to be reproved things that are wrong you start realizing a lot of things
Yeah, there's certain things that you can't necessarily point to a verse that says thus saith the Lord
This is a sin, but as you get closer to the light you realize you know what this is not something that a Christian should
Be involved in it's there's not a verse
It's not one of the Ten Commandments
But I just don't think it's the atmosphere for a Christian and as you get closer to the light you start realizing that now most
People they don't want to know that so they hate these words coming out
But if you want to know the truth, and you're willing to accept what the Bible says
God's gonna show you things you need to fix and we need to be willing to always
Fix the problems we have because all of us until the day we die we will find new things that we need to fix
New things that we need to change and we need to be humble enough to change it
And what ends up happening is people will make a lot of changes even among soul winners
But there'll be this one thing
That they don't want to change and they get to this one hurdle where God's reproving them
And they say you know what God I do so many every week. I read the Bible every day
I memorize the Bible. I don't want to cut this out
Right, you know here's what happens if you refuse to cut this out
God's not going to show you anything passes and what's gonna end up happening is you're gonna start walking back the other way
You're gonna start having
Things that you used to cut out of your life that are back in your life no matter what it is
We got to be willing to just say you know what?
A
One one prayer I make sometimes when there's things that because there have been plenty of things that I did not want to change
Where I kind of had that conversation. I basically said God you know I've changed so much
I mean that that just seems so extreme. I don't want to do that
You know I asked God to just change my heart change my desires
Say God just please change my desires, so I don't want to do it anymore, and here's the great thing
God answers prayers that are like that right and he will change your heart if you're actually willing to make the change
Now if you're not willing to make that change
You have to be willing to make that change
Most people are not willing to make these changes and see that's why they get mad at the words that we're preaching
They don't want to know the truth even if they are safe
Now one thing I like saying closing is this because as I said at the beginning of the sermon
I want to cover a lot of new information from John 3
You don't usually hear preach. I remember the first sermon that got me hooked on Pastor Anderson's preaching was a sermon on John chapter 3
Yeah, I had heard one of his sermons one time why Billy Graham is going to hell was the first sermon
I heard of this now
I was searching YouTube for stuff on Billy Graham because I knew Billy Graham was a false prophet
But I remember then I came across him online like a few months later
And I went to his website because he had answered some question
And I had already fought the repentance fight before I'd been at a church that was preaching work salvation
And I knew repentance of sins was work salvation
I had been down that road before and so I remember I said well before I'm gonna start listening to this new guy
The first sermon I'm gonna listen to is John 3 because I want to make sure that this guy's even saved
Right and that's a good start if you're gonna listen to someone make sure they're saved
Make sure there's sound on the key things and I remember listening to John chapter 3 and I was blown away
I learned so much stuff from that sermon
I haven't heard that sermon in like like a decade
You know a lot of the a lot of what I said is stuff
I heard in that sermon ten years ago
There's a lot of new stuff as well, but I it just showed me when I heard him preach that sermon
Which is what got me hooked. I was like man the Bible is so
In-depth there's so much information
We need to make sure we read this Bible every single day because as much preaching as we hear online
There's still so much to uncover because this book is infinite and this book will change your life
We need to take the time to read this book every single day, let's close in a word of prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today
Just get to preach your word and just talk about John chapter 3 such a great chapter and famous chapter the Word of God