Talking To A Religious Insider, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, the context of John 6, 3-16 is this discussion with a very religious man. For God so loved, no greater motive than that.

The world, no greater number possible. That He gave His one and only could be no greater gift than that. That whoever believes in Him, no greater offer, shall not perish but have eternal life, no greater outcome. It's all there in one verse. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Think of the wind. You can't control it. You can't summon it. You can't dismiss it.

It's invisible, uncontrollable, irresistible, and unpredictable. And don't we know that in southern Louisiana? See, that's Jesus' point. Nicodemus, this has nothing to do with you.

This is a God thing. Born of the Spirit, born from above, born again. Nicodemus, befuddled now, says the Jesus. How can this be? This is categorically against everything I was raised, categorically against everything I've devoted my life to. I am a religious man.

You see, when you want to look to somebody who is really, really stout in their convictions of religion, I'm the guy. How can this be? You're telling me I can't earn this.

You're telling me it's not deserving on my part. Not much has ever really changed. Bob Diffenbaugh says Nicodemus is so much part of the natural religious world that he cannot fathom the possibility of the spiritual or supernatural.

Nothing has changed. Jesus has had enough right now. He's not going to give up on Nicodemus. Jesus said to Nicodemus, are you the teacher of Israel? And you don't understand this? Wow. And it isn't a teacher.

The article's there. You are the teacher. Whenever the Sanhedrin was trying to settle a dispute and they talked about it, all these Pharisees devoted to the law, they said, look, who's going to be the final word here? Nicodemus. Nicodemus is the one who's the custodian of the word of God in the Old Testament. He is the custodian of the law. And Jesus says, are you the teacher of Israel?

And you don't get this? Nicodemus, didn't you ever study the covenant? The Abrahamic covenant, the Palestinian covenant, the Davidic covenant, they're unconditional.

God is going to fulfill those covenants no matter what, because it's God's business. Nicodemus, don't you understand the Passover lamb? Don't you understand the provision of manna in the wilderness? Don't you understand all the prophecies of restoration?

Don't you get it, Nicodemus? How could you devote yourself to the Old Testament and not see this? One word, religion. Religion blinds you to the grace of God. Religion is the anesthetic that makes you immune to the real disease.

Nothing has changed. Jesus is just so straightforward with this. And now the chapter changes. All we talked about in these first 10 verses was the sovereignty of God and salvation.

But he knows what's going on in Nicodemus's head and how he's thinking. And he says, what am I to do with this? What is our responsibility? You see, what is what is our responsibility then?

Do we have any? What's our responsibility? And Jesus now is going to devote the rest of this discussion to man's responsibility. And it's real simple. Believe. That's it. Believe. Faith. You see, the one main point of this discussion is when it comes to religion, you can be no compromise.

The second one is this, though. When it comes to salvation, it is faith and faith alone in Christ and Christ alone. That's what he's going to say. That's it.

There's no more discussion about anything else. That's responsibility. God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, God's sovereignty and man's free will. Inevitably, by the way, when you study the Bible, especially when you're teaching Bible studies, especially also if you're teaching men, somehow this really gets to men, that ends up becoming a discussion point a lot. Now, Pastor, I'd just like to ask a question. Is God sovereign or do we have free will? Well, my view is that I really deny the question. You just use the word or, and I don't think that's what Scripture teaches. That's what John MacArthur writes about this.

He said, when it comes to God's sovereignty and our free will, it always runs parallel. They always run parallel. They will never come together.

They will never intersect. They will never be diminished. Legitimately, they are what they are. The fact that you don't understand how they go together only proves that you're less than you ought to be. It doesn't say anything about God. Your inability to harmonize those things is a reflection of your fallenness and my fallenness. People ask me all the time, John, how do you harmonize those? And my answer is, I don't and I can't. They can't be harmonized in the human mind, but realize this. You are a puny mind and so am I. And collectively, we are puny compared to the infinite, vast, limitless mind of God. He says, all I can tell you is that in the word of God, these truths run parallel. And the answer is to believe them both with all your heart. He says, and the one divine sovereignty, it will inform your worship and the other human responsibility.

It will motivate your evangelism. He says it well. You see, but Jesus now makes the shift. And when he makes the shift, it's in verse 11. He says, truly, truly, once again, amen, amen, I say to you.

And then there's a little play on here. He said, we speak that which we know. I just love this because my view of it is Nicodemus came and said, we have some questions for you. So Jesus said, okay, then we have some answers for you.

If you want to say I, I'll say we, just like you did. And he says here, he said, we know and we testify what we have seen. You do not accept our testimony.

And he said, now he switches back. And if I told you these things, you would not believe. How will you believe if I tell you heavenly things, if I told you earthly things and you did not believe?

That's his point. Nicodemus is unbelieving right here. Jesus just went through what he did. Now, you may find this strange, but I find those two verses extremely encouraging. Jesus Christ is the most persuasive, powerful, competent, convincing, brilliant, clear teacher who's ever lived. And he spent a conversation with Nicodemus and Nicodemus looked at him and said, I don't believe it.

That was Jesus talking to him. I don't believe it. That encourages me. If people can reject, religious people can reject the grace of God when Jesus is telling them.

I don't mind them rejecting it when I tell them. Earthly things, he means the concept of birth as an earthly thing, such a simple thing. Then Jesus says something amazing, though. He goes, but that's a mistake. He said in verse 13, no one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended from heaven, the son of man.

Why does he say that? When it comes to salvation and getting right with God, there is nobody on this earth that has the authority I have. Nobody. No member of the Sanhedrin, not Gamali, the great trainer of rabbis.

You see, nobody. See, none of them have ascended to heaven. I descended from heaven. When I come and talk to you about how to get into heaven, you ought to listen to me, he said. I have the authority. Who could speak on salvation any greater than Jesus Christ?

You see, that's his point. A guy like Nicodemus is really impressed with credentials, especially religious ones. Jesus just gave his. I just came from heaven. So what do you think of that?

And then what a great offer. He says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. Now we know how this is going to happen.

This is really interesting. I want you to hold your place and go with me back to Numbers 21. Take a look at that passage.

Numbers 21. Jesus now uses a biblical analogy. He has used birth.

He's used wind. Now he's using a biblical analogy. Verse 4 of Numbers 21. He says, then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient because of the journey. And the people spoke against God and Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food. That's the manna that God provided. Now watch how quickly this happens. The Lord sent a fiery serpent among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.

Wow. Now you've got to love God's people now. So the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you. Intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us.

Notice they don't get their prayer request. Lord, please, Moses, intercede so there's no more serpents. The Lord said to Moses, after Moses interceded for the people, make a fiery serpent, set it up on a standard, and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live. And when Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard, it came about that if the serpent bit any man, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. Wow.

That's interesting. Could you imagine being just bit by your friend and you're both laying there? And you're hearing people talk about the word coming down through the crowd. The guy goes, we're going to die. I'm watching people over there. They're dead. As soon as this poison takes place, I'm going to, we're going to die.

The guy said, people are saying that Moses is making some kind of snake out of brass and he's going to put it on the pole and he's going to hold it up and if you look at it, you'll be okay. Right. Sure. You see, does that sound like the best plan? Look, I thought God would bring in mongooses to eat the serpents.

You know, I thought something would happen, do something like that. No, that's not what he said. Just look at this. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Until you looked. Now, I want you to think about that. Now, let's go back to John 3. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life. John's talking about eternal life forever. Fifteen times in this gospel he uses eternal life.

Whoever believes in him will have eternal life. You want the gospel as clear and short as it can be, that's it. That's it. Now, you may say, but you've got to add a little bit of religion to that, don't you?

Absolutely not. Religion kills grace. You say, well, maybe just a little bit of religion. That's what the book of Galatians was written. That's why he wrote it. Paul said, look, see what happened?

The Judaizers followed Paul and said, you know what? You need to believe in Jesus. That's enough.

But something else has to take place. You have to have your males circumcised. You see, you have to have them circumcised.

And if they're not circumcised, you'll be out. Paul said, that's another gospel. Let anybody who preaches that form, and that's just a little bit of religion, he said, let them be anathema, curse forever. In fact, he said, if an angel from heaven came and spoke that, let him be accursed. You see, you can't compromise religion and grace.

You can't. Religion strangles and kills grace. See, that's the point, or grace overcomes the religion. And so we get back here and he says, then in verse 16, and now you know this verse, notice that this verse starts with four because Nicodemus' thought would be, why would God do that? Why? Why would God do that? You see, the word in verse 15 that really bothers Nicodemus is a word you and I would skim right over, whoever.

What do you mean, whoever? What? See, you have to understand something about Nicodemus. He is a blatant racist. Nicodemus views all non-Jews as dirty goyim, pagans. God would never want to have anything to do with pagans.

Not ever. Only the Jews are God's people. That's Nicodemus.

This is exclusive. By the way, religion is almost always in some way exclusive. And so consequently what he says is, look, Nicodemus, it's not exclusive.

Whoever. Why would God do that? Well, let me explain, Nicodemus, for God so loved the world. Wow. You mean Israel.

No. The world. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, the one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish.

Alumi, the word means eternally in ruin, but will have everlasting life. You see, the context of John 6, 3, 16, is this discussion with a very religious man. For God so loved no greater motive than that.

The world. No greater number possible. That He gave His one and only could be no greater gift than that. That whoever believes in Him, no greater offer shall not perish but have eternal life, no greater outcome.

It's all there in one verse. He said, and this is why He came, for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. That'll be later, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You see, you're already lost, he says, without faith, no matter how religious you are, because religion can't save you.

Only God can. He then gives a little bit of insight. He says in verse 19, this is the judgment that the light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. It must have been hard for Nicodemus to hear that. Your religious deeds need, in order to justify yourself, for evil in God's sight.

Wow. A conversation with a religious man. When it comes to religion, there can be no compromise and when it comes to salvation, it is faith and faith alone and Christ and Christ alone.

It is just so simple. Nicodemus was an impressive man, one of 6,000 Pharisees, one of the 70. He was the teacher of Israel. But when it came to the kingdom of God, he was on the outside looking in. But he thought about this.

He really thought about this. Turn with me to John 7. John 7. In verse 45, the officers then came to the chief priest and the Pharisees, back to the ruling class, the Sanhedrin, and they said to these people, these officers, why didn't you bring Jesus? And the officer said, never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.

We don't want to grab him. Now watch. The Pharisees then answered them and said this, you have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in him, has he? He can't be right. None of us believe in him.

You know why? Religion blinds you to grace. And they're blinded because they're the most religious men in Israel. But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed. They turn to their own people. Now by the way, who's supposed to teach them the law? The Pharisees.

They're accursed. Nicodemus, he who came to him before, being one of them, said our law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it? Nicodemus steps forward and says, wait, shouldn't we hear from him? By the way, would that be hard for him to say that as a member of the Sanhedrin?

Well, watch. They answered him, you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.

Everyone went to his home. Nicodemus is thinking, we're not done, one last passage. Let's go to John 19. Jesus has been crucified. Jesus has been crucified. Verse 38. And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, he asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate granted him permission and so he came and he took his body.

Next verse. Nicodemus, there he is. Nicodemus who first came to him by night also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and alloys, about 100 pounds weight. 75 pounds of very expensive spices.

75 pounds. By the way, in the traditional history of the church, it is said that Nicodemus was the third richest man in Jerusalem. He was also extremely wealthy.

Wow. He took the body of Christ and he put the spices on the body so he could bury his Lord. What happened? He was born again. He was born from above.

You see, how did that happen? He realized he couldn't save himself. He realized that he would never get to God through his own religious activity, that God must save him.

But I think something else happened between chapter 7 and chapter 19. I think he saw the Son of Man lifted up. I think he saw him on the cross and he remembered what Jesus told him. Unless the Son of Man be lifted up, you see, there he is. The serpent's on. He's become sin for us.

And Nicodemus converts. Wow. It took a while.

It really did. But you'll meet him in heaven. What a story you must tell. When it comes to religion, there can be no compromise. When you're talking to a religious person about the claims of Christ, stay on the grace of God.

Don't spend your time talking about all the religious activities. When it comes to salvation, it's as clear as can be. It's faith. And it's faith alone. In Christ. In Christ alone. That's the way Jesus told it. And that's the way Nicodemus believed it.

Let's pray. Father, Nicodemus illustrates to us that it is so easy to get entangled in religious activities that you can become so committed to your religious activities that when Jesus Christ is standing right in front of you, you will not believe what he says. Father, that's a warning to us. If there's anyone here that believes that they can justify themselves through their religious activity, may the words of Jesus Christ penetrate their heart and their soul. For some of us, Father, we believe, yes, I know Jesus died on the cross, but now I'm still going to save myself through other religious activities. Father, it may be clear that we do not save ourselves. We are born again of the Spirit of God.

It is your work. You have simply asked us to believe. And there is no merit, Father, as you know in faith. The merit in our faith comes in the object of our faith because we all believe something.

Father, that object must be your son Jesus Christ and his dying on that cross for our sins. That's what Nicodemus finally believed. That's what many of us believe.

And that's what the rest of us need to believe. Jesus Christ, the one and only Son of God. In his name we pray.

Amen. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online. Or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.