Jesus Christ’s Idiom

Jesus Christ's Idiom

(No. 3053)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1907.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
JANUARY 19, 1873.

"Jesusanswered, Verily, verily." John 3:5.

THIS expression, "Verily, verily," seems to me to have been the
peculiar idiom of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has absolutely forbidden
His people ever to take an oath. His command upon that matter is most
explicit, "I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by Heaven; for it
is God's Throne: nor by the earth; for it is His footstool: neither by
Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King: neither shall you
swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.
But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more
than these comes of evil." My text was Jesus Christ's strongest form of
affirmation–when He wished to speak most emphatically, He said,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you." Every prominent public speaker has
his own peculiar idioms and very much of the man's character will be
found in the idioms that he uses. And I may add that the attention
which the man deserves may sometimes be gauged by his idioms, for as
his style of speaking will reveal to you the man, you will discover how
far you ought to lend him your ears. If, from his speech, you judge
that he is flippant, or insincere, or that there is something sinister
in his motives, or that he is aiming at the display of himself rather
than at the proclamation of the truth, you may straightway say, "Then
there is no particular reason why I should listen to him." But if, from
the very idiomatic force of the words which he uses, you feel that the
man is true, sincere and earnest, then you say, "I shall be wise to
give heed to his words and to let his thoughts operate upon my own."

There are three qualities which these words reveal to us in our
Savior's teaching. First, there was clearness– "Verily, verily."
Secondly, there was certainty–"Verily, verily, I say this and that
unto you." Thirdly, there was solemnity–"Verily, verily, I say unto
you." We must, therefore, give to Him, in return for clearness, the
desire to understand Him. In return for certainty, the conviction of
the Truth of what He says and, to His solemnity, we must respond with a
deep sense of the importance of His teaching and act in accordance with
what He says.

I. I am to speak, first, upon Christ's idiom, "Verily, verily," as
denoting to US THE CLEARNESS OF WHAT THE SAVIOR SAID.

He knew what He meant when He spoke. Some people, when they speak, do
not know what they mean and, when a man does not make you understand
what he means, it generally is because he does not know the meaning of
what he says. Indistinct speaking is usually the result of indistinct
thinking. If men think clouds, they will preach clouds, but the Savior
never spoke in that style which, at one time, was so common in our
pulpits–a style imported partly from Germany and which was excessively
cloudy and smoky, though it was thought by some people to be
wonderfully profound and to be the very trademark of intellect! But
there was not a sentence of that kind in all Christ's teaching. He was
the clearest, most straightforward and most outspoken of all speakers.
He knew what He meant to say and He meant His hearers also to know. It
is true that the Jews of His day did not comprehend some of His
teaching, but that was because judicial blindness had fallen upon them.
The fault was not in the light, but in their bleared eyes. Turn to His
teaching and see if anyone else ever spoke as simply as He did. A child
can comprehend His parables. There are, in them, hidden Truths of God
which are a mystery even to Christ's deeply-taught disciples, but
Christ never mystified His hearers–He talked to them like a child, as
He was–God's "Holy Child Jesus." He never laid aside the simplicity of
childhood though He had all the dignity of fully-developed Manhood. He
wore His heart upon His sleeve and spoke out

what was on His mind in such plain, clear language that the poorest of
the poor and the lowest of the low were eager to listen to Him.

Now, Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if you wish to imitate
your Master, speak with the same clearness. Say to your hearers,
"Verily, verily, I have to proclaim to you, in Christ's name, this
simple yet sublime Truth of God which I have myself grasped, and which
I would also have you grasp." Never affect profundity among the poor
and never use a theological jargon among the uneducated anywhere! If
you have, in speaking, to show the Savior to your hearers, show Him in
His own dress–do not cover Him up with the tawdry vestments of your
gaudy language, for He will count them only as filthy rags. Tell
sinners, in simple words, first about their sins and then about the
Savior who can wash away their sins in His most precious blood. But go
not a-hunting after novelties, for they will be of no service to
perishing souls. If you are to be like Jesus, your teaching must be
clear!

But next I need to say to those of you who are still unconverted, how
necessary it is that you should clearly understand this clear teaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ/There are some Truths upon which He spoke with
very wonderful clearness–as for instance, concerning what sin is–how
a look may be a sin and how a longing may be as much a sin as an action
or a word is. Christ has also told us very clearly that sin must and
will be punished. There never was anyone else so kind in heart as He
was, yet He clearly taught the dreadful Truth of God that sinners shall
be punished in Hell forever! There never can be any question about the
Savior's view of sin as being a very evil thing and of the punishment
of sin as being a very terrible thing. How very plainly, too, He speaks
about the new birth! He said to Nicodemus, "Except a man be born-again,
he cannot see the Kingdom of God." And He was equally explicit
concerning the way of salvation. He tells us that just as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness and every bitten Israelite who looked
to it was healed, so He, Himself, was lifted up upon the Cross and
every sinner who trusts Him is saved forever! The teachings of Christ
and of His Apostles concerning sinners being saved through faith in Him
are blessedly clear. The Gospels and Epistles tell us that a perfectly
holy and Divine Substitute for sinners was required–and that Jesus was
that Substitute and stood in the place of all His chosen people–and
bore the punishment which was due for all their sins. If we are
Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, all our liabilities to Infinite
Justice are forever discharged, for Jesus bore all our sins in His own
body on the tree–and bore them so completely away that they shall be
remembered against us no more forever!

I want to ask you who have not yet believed in Jesus, whether you
really understand this Truth of God of which I have been speaking. Lest
there should be anyone here under a delusion upon this matter, let me
say, once and for all, that there is no salvation in any charm or
ceremony invented or performed by men. The common notion is that there
is some kind of charm which operates upon a person, young or old, who
is brought to a font–that some virtue or other goes through the
fingers of the "priest" who sprinkles the water because at his
"ordination" he received something or other, from somebody or other,
who received that something or other from some other body and so on,
and so on, and so on right up to the Apostles! All that is sheer
superstition as base as the witchcraft for which old women were burned
in the

evil days of the past! [See Sermons #581, Volume 10–CHILDREN BROUGHT
TO CHRIST, NOT TO THE FONT and #573, Volume 10–BAPTISMAL REGENERATION,
the sermon by Mr. Spurgeon which has had a larger circulation than any
other in the 3,052 published sermons to date.] How I wish that all men,
women and children could be undeceived concerning it! Then there is a
notion that a piece of bread, or a drop of wine, "consecrated" and
dispensed by properly-authorized persons, will, somehow or other, charm
away evil from a dying person. That is another superstition not a whit
better than the fetish of the pretended rainmakers of South Africa!
Neither the water, nor the bread and wine can convey Divine Grace to an
unbeliever! But if I am a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, my being
buried with Him in Baptism [See Sermon #1627,

Volume 27, BAPTISM–A BURIAL.] reminds me that I am saved through

His death and burial–and if I, as a Believer in Christ, eat the bread
and drink the wine at the Communion Table, those suggestive symbols
help me, as Paul says, to "show the Lord's death till He comes." That
is all. There is no charm in the water, or the bread, or the wine in
themselves, whatever incantations any so-called "priest" may have
muttered over them!

Then, never imagine that we cannot understand what the Gospel of Christ
really is. Someone perhaps says, "Well, you see, Sir, I am not learned.
I am no scholar, so I cannot understand the Gospel." My dear Friend,
there are many people who cannot understand the Gospel just because
they are scholars! They know too much to understand it–they have so
much of what they think is knowledge that they are prejudiced against
it! Knowledge may prejudice a person as much as ignorance does. What
you need to know is simply this–that you are a sinner and that if you
trust in the Lord

Jesus Christ, He is your Savior. The result of believing in Him will be
this–knowing that you are saved because God tells you that you are,
you love God whom you dreaded before and, loving Him, you naturally
ask, "What can I do to please Him?" So you give up your old sins and,
led on by the impulse of love, which is the work of the Holy Spirit in
your heart, you seek after holiness! The things that concern your
soul's salvation are plain enough for a child to comprehend! If you are
lost, it will not be a mystery that damns you–and if you are ever to
be saved, it is the simplicity of the Gospel that will save you! The
Truths of God that relate to your ruin through sin–and the only remedy
for that ruin– through the Grace of God, are "as plain as a
pikestaff," as our common proverb puts it.

"Still," says one, "I have often listened to the preaching of the
Gospel, but I have failed to understand it." Then ask the Spirit of God
to guide you into it! He is waiting to instruct sincere seekers. Let me
ask you whether you have ever really tried to understand the Gospel.
"Well, Sir, I have heard Dr. So-and-So and Mr. So-and-So." Yes, but
perhaps they have only muddled you. Have you read the Bible itself? He
who wishes to drink pure water had better go to the wellhead. He who
wishes to find the Truth of God had better come to these sacred pages,
for here he will find it pure and unalloyed. Have you imitated the Jews
at Berea who "searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were
so"? There are many people who condemn the Scriptures, but no man who
has read them in the right spirit ever condemns them. You may remember
the story of the City Missionary who was arguing with a cobbler–a man
who thought himself a very wise skeptic although he had never read the
Bible. He said he never would do so, yet he knew it was a very bad
book! So the missionary said to him, "I bought a pair of boots
yesterday which cost me twelve and sixpence–do you think they were
worth the money?" He replied, "Possibly they were, but I can't say
positively without seeing them." The missionary said, "But, if you are
a cobbler and understand your business, you can certainly tell me their
value without seeing them." "Why you must consider me a fool to think
that I can judge of a thing I never saw." "Yes," said the missionary,
"I did think you were a fool because you have been judging and
condemning the Bible which you have never studied." So I ask you, dear
Friend–Have you read the Bible? Have you studied it? If you say that
you cannot comprehend it, I ask–Have you ever tried to do so? Do not
plead that you cannot understand the Gospel if you have never tried to
understand it! But if you humbly ask the Holy Spirit to teach you its
meaning as you read it, I believe the Light of the Truth of God will
soon enter your soul.

Let me ask you another question–Have you put into practice what you
really do understand of the Scriptures? You know that you are
sinful–have you confessed your sinfulness to God? You know that there
is a Savior from sin and that He is to be laid hold of by faith–have
you trusted Him to save you? With the Truth of God so clear there is no
need for you to perish in the dark! I read in the paper, yesterday, the
notice of a reward to be given to anyone who would furnish information
concerning the injury done to a certain buoy off the coast. The buoy
was described as being on such-and-such a sand and, as it was 20 feet
in height, it must have been injured through sheer carelessness or
willful wickedness. So, if you have rightly read the Scriptures, or
have heard the Gospel plainly preached, it will be impossible for you
to perish by accident–you will perish willfully and your blood will be
upon your own head. When Christ brings the printed Gospel before your
eyes, as it were, in capital letters–if you will not read it and
understand it–you must perish as a spiritual suicide, which may God
forbid!

II. The time flies so quickly that I must pass on to notice, in the
next place, that THE EXPRESSION, "VERILY, VERILY," AS THE SPECIAL IDIOM
OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, SIGNIFIED CERTAINTY.

He knew that what He said was true and, therefore, He said, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you." Untold mischief has been done in our country
by the kind of preaching which was very common at one time, namely, for
the preacher to speak as if he did not knowwhat the Truth of God is and
must be pardoned for intruding his opinions! If a man does not know the
Truth, let him hold his tongue until he does. "I believed, therefore
have I spoken," said the Psalmist. And he alone has the right to speak
who speaks that which he believes and, therefore, knows. The Lord Jesus
never hesitates as to what He shall say, His language never halts! His
"Verily, verily, I say unto you," is the utterance of One who knows the
Truth of God and who speaks it as One who is assured that it is the
Truth of God.

On our part, there should be a suitable response to Christ's certainty.
If we believe Him to be the Son of God speaking the Truth of God to us
with absolute certainty, let us receive with certainty what He says to
us. "But," says one, "there are so many different opinions that I do
not know which to believe." What have you to do with men's opinions?
Supposing there are 10,000 "isms" in the world–what have they to do
with you? If you are lost, it will not abate the flames of Hell if you
say, "There were so many isms in the world I did not know which to
choose." There was but one Truth, for Christ said, "I am the Truth." If
you had believed Him you would have been saved by Him. There are,
today, many persons who raise all sorts of questions–there always have
been and there always will be such persons while this dispensation
lasts–but what have you to do with them? Your business is to trust the
Lord Jesus Christ and leave all those questions alone!

"But," says another, "even good men differ." I know they do, but if you
go into a watchmaker's shop, you find that even good watches and clocks
differ in some respects. Yet that fact does not affect Greenwich mean
time which is the standard for all the watches and clocks in the
country! So, supposing that one good man sees one side of a Truth and
another sees another side of it–what good man ever asks you to trust
in him? You have listened to my preaching–some of you for many
years–did I ever ask you to follow my guidance except just as far as
the Scriptures prove the truth of what I preach to you? With God's Word
in your hand as the map of the road to Heaven, ask His Spirit to guide
you and He will guide you all the way!

All that Christ teaches is certainly true and there are some things
which He tells us which are absolutely essential for us to learn. For
instance, "You must be born-again." Or this, "Except you repent, you
shall all likewise perish." There is no doubt that at the Last Great
Day, Christ "will judge the world in righteousness." We must all stand
before His Great White Throne to receive from Him the final sentence
which shall fix our eternal destiny. If you are an unbeliever, you are
condemned already–and if you live and die an unbeliever, you must be
driven from His Presence into a hopeless eternity. All these things are
certainties. There are many fictions in the world, but these things are
not fictions–neither are they trifles. And I do pray you to believe
these Truths of God and to draw the right practical inferences from
them.

There are also some Truths about which Christ says, "Verily, verily,"
which ought to be a great comfort to you. For instance, it is certainly
true that if you confess your sins to Him, He will forgive you. It is
certainly true that if you trust in Jesus, He will give you rest and
peace, and you shall be, "accepted in the Beloved." It is certainly
true that if you commit your soul into Christ's hands you shall never
perish, and no one shall ever be able to pluck you out of His hands.

[See Sermon #726, Volume 12–LIFE ETERNAL and #2120, Volume 35–THE
SECURITY OF BELIEVERS–OR, SHEEP WHO SHALL NEVER PERISH.] There are
many blessed assurances in the Word of God upon which you may surely
rely. God help you to rely upon them now!

There are other Truths in God's Word which you will find to be sure if
you test and try them. I might address myself to many a man here and
say to him, "Brother, did you not put Christ's Word to the test in the
time of trouble, and did you not prove it to be true?" And I know that
the answer would be, "Yes, that I did!" I might pick out many a humble
man and woman here who have had a heavy task to bring up their children
as they have done and many stern struggles with poverty and affliction,
and I might say to them, "My Brother, my Sister, has not Christ been
precious to you?" And I know that the answer would be, "Yes! That He
has! He has fulfilled every word of promise that He ever gave us to
rely upon." There is no one who can ever convict Christ of a lie–there
is not a friend or a foe who can truthfully say, "He deceived me."
"Verily, verily," is stamped upon every promise, every precept and
every threat–and He will prove all of them to be true to the end of
time and throughout eternity!

Then, as these things are certain, let us act upon them. O Sirs, in a
short time we shall have done with preaching and hearing the Gospel! I
fear that many people come to our places of worship in the same spirit
in which they go to places of amusement and that the main things of
which they think are–how the preacher puts his message, whether he is
fluent and eloquent and whether he interests them or not. Yes, but that
is not the principal matter about which we should be concerned! You and
I will soon be before the bar of God! I shall have to prove that I
faithfully preached what I believed to be the Truth of God–and you
will have to prove whether you accepted it and acted upon it! And I
charge you all, before the living God, at whose bar you must soon
stand, not to treat the Gospel as if it were mere fiction. Go not away
from this building as though you had been watching a play, or listening
to an organ recital which might or might not mean anything to you.
There is a real Hell–will you be shut up in it forever? There is a
real Heaven–will you be shut out of it forever? There is a real Savior
who died upon the Cross for sinners–will you despise and reject Him?
And, above all, there sits a real God in whom we live, and move, and
have our being–shall we continue to forget Him, break His Laws as if
we had liberty to do what we would and despise Him as if He were a man
like ourselves? Oh, by the "Verily, verily," of the Christ of God, I
beseech you to lay to heart the certainty, the reality of His teachings
and let them have their due weight upon your spirits! May the Spirit of
God make it to be so!

III. The third point was to be that CHRIST'S "VERILY, VERILY" MEANT
SOLEMNITY. Christ was a very solemn Preacher, though He was by no means
a dull Preacher There are some speakers who confound dullness with
solemnity, but Christ's discourses were always interesting. How He
abounded in parables and metaphors! The children listened with pleasure
to His teachings, yet how solemn it always was, and how forcibly the
Master proved the solemnity of His speech by the solemnity of His life!
Those nights of prayer that He spent on the lone mountainside show that
His was no mock earnestness. And that life of untiring labor showed how
real and intense was His zeal. And His death, as with blood-red seals
proved that, "having loved His own which were in the world, He loved
them unto the end." It was the same Christ who said, "Verily, verily,"
who died upon the Cross, rose again and went up into Glory to make
intercession for the transgressors!

The solemnity of Christ's words and work should cause us to listen to
His Gospel with a corresponding seriousness and solemnity. If you are
worldly and earth-bound, you will not attach that importance to the
Gospel of Christ that you should. To many of you, the Truth that you
need to be saved does not seem to come home with power. If I were, in
the middle of a sermon, to begin to talk about the way to get money,
the attention of many of you would be far more intense than it is when
I am speaking about the salvation of immortal souls. If I were to
discuss the price of British bonds, many ears would be at once opened
to catch every syllable! Whereas when I talk of the incalculable price
that Jesus paid for the redemption of the souls of men, the Truth makes
no more impression upon many men's minds than oil would upon a slab of
marble! Your souls, the best part of your real selves, concern you not,
O you foolish sons of men! You treat your souls as if they were dirt,
yet you prize the things of time and sense as if they were all that you
had! You have a notion that these things concern people a long way
off–people who are very wicked and do not go to any place of worship,
or other people in this congregation who are somehow more fitted than
you are to receive my message! But, Sir, the Gospel is for you, and God
is speaking by His Word and by His servant, to you! I wish that you
would end this folly of passing on to others the Gospel that is meant
for yourself.

In closing, I must just mention one or two reflections concerning the
solemnity of the Gospel message. First, remember that the Gospel
concerns our never-dying souls. Most people think a great deal about
that which concerns the body. There is much talk about an operation,
wisely performed by an eminent surgeon upon the poor body which must
soon become food for worms. Yet little or nothing is said about the
soulwhich is so vastly more precious! The soul of an emperor or the
soul of a beggar is of the same value in God's sight. "Where does it
take its flight when its earthly cage is broken?" Is that a question
which is never asked by some of you? If so, what arrant fools you must
be! O blessed Spirit of God, teach us the solemnity of the Gospel which
concerns the soul which must live forever in raptures or in woe!

This Gospel also concerns the never-ending eternity. We are not going
into another time-state that shall come to an end, but into that
eternity which shall know no close. I can make no meaning out of
Christ's words if it is not so–and He said, concerning the wicked,
"These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous
into life eternal." The word is the same in each case in the original.
Oh, eternity, eternity, eternity, who can conceive what it is? A
million millions of years would be less than a moment compared with
eternity–and that sum multiplied by a million millions a million times
told would be but as a drop in a bucket compared with that which is
everlasting! O Sirs, as I know that I am to live forever in such a
state as I shall die in, my first concern is to be ready for death that
I may be ready for my eternal future! Is it not so with you also? Oh, I
do implore you, trifle not with eternity and with your never-dying
souls! Trifle not with the God who can cast you into Hell forever!
Trifle not with Christ whose hands and feet were nailed to the accursed
tree for sinners such as you! Trifle not with His precious blood for
that is your only hope of redemption! Trifle not with the Holy Spirit
for if He should leave you to perish, your case would be hopeless!
Trifle not with your Sabbaths–you will wish to have them back again
when you are near death. Trifle not with the Gospel–what would the
lost in Hell not give to hear another proclamation of mercy? The devil
does not trifle–he is very earnestly seeking your destruction! God,
Christ and the Holy Spirit are not trifling with you–and we are not
trifling with you! We long to preach the Gospel to you more earnestly,
more fully and more faithfully than ever–and we pray to God to help us
do so and lament when we fear that we have failed. Trifle not when
everything around you seems to be in earnest and especially when the
Lord Jesus Christ, speaking out of this chapter, says to you, "Verily,
verily, I of the crown of thorns. I of the pierced hands and feet speak
plainly, certainly and solemnly to you and bid you look unto Me that
you may be saved."

I never go out of this pulpit feeling so utterly cast down as when I
have been trying to deal with the consciences of the ungodly. I wish I
could grip each one of you by the hand and look you in the face, and
say, "Man, Woman, are you going to die without a Savior? Oh, be not so
foolish, so mad!" I would tell every young man here how, when I was
myself a young man, I was led to look by faith to the Savior and I have
found it a blessed thing to rest in Him ever since. And I would say to
him, "Brother, come with me to the Cross of Calvary and rest in Jesus,
and begin to live a holy and useful life–and you shall find yourself
truly blessed among men." I cannot come round and speak personally to
you all, but will you let me follow you to your bedside and, if you
think of getting into bed tonight without a prayer for your soul's
salvation, just imagine that you feel my hand upon your shoulder and
hear me say to you, "What? No offering of a prayer to God?" I was about
to say, "Stepping into your bed," but I thought that it might become
your sepulcher, for you may die there! As many have done who went to
bed as thoughtlessly and prayerless as you have often done. But if you
trust in Jesus and then fall asleep for the last time on earth, you
will wake up amid the splendors of eternal bliss!

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN3:1-18.

If we were asked to read to a dying man who did not know the Gospel, we
would probably select this chapter as the most suitable one for such an
occasion. And what is good for dying men is good for us all, for that
is what we are–and how soon we may actually be at the gates of death,
none of us can tell.

Verses 1, 2. There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler
of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night.We do not know the names
of many other Pharisees, but we do know the name of this one because
God had loved him with an everlasting love and, therefore, with loving
kindness did He draw him to the Savior's feet! "The same came to Jesus
by night." Possibly he was too busy to come during the day. Anyway, it
was better to come to Jesus late at night than not to come to Him at
all! From the fact that after our Lord's death, it is said that he was
the man who "at the first came to Jesus by night," I gather that he did
come then partly out of timidity and partly also out of candor. He
wanted to know more about Christ before he committed himself, so he
came privately to see and hear for himself. It does not matter if any
of you also come to Christ by night if you like. Our Savior has a
night-bell to His door and He is quite willing to be the Physician of
your soul–even if you ring Him up at midnight!

2. And said unto Him, Rabbi.He begins very respectfully, and so far, so
good. But then, Judas said, "Hail, Master," and kissed Christ when he
went to Gethsemane to betray Him.

2. We know that You are a Teacher come from God: for no man can do
these miracles that You do, except God be with him.Dear Friends, if any
of you do not know all about Christ that you wish to know, or that can
be known, make use of what you do know about Him. Nicodemus had not yet
learned the truth of Christ's Deity, but he knew that He was a teacher
sent from God, and that God was with Him.

3. Jesus answered and said unto Him, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a man is born-again, he cannot see the

Kingdom of God. [See Sermon #130, Volume 3–REGENERATION.] Christ s

formula, "Verily, verily, I say unto you," was a new style of speech
for the Pharisees to hear, for they quoted Rabbi this, and Rabbi
that–but Jesus gives Himself as His own sufficient authority, with an
egoism which cannot be blamed and which no true disciple of His ever
questions, for Christ is, Himself, the Truth, and whatever He says is
to be humbly received by all His followers. "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Except a man is born-again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." He
has no notion of what it really is. He cannot even see it, for he is
blind to it until he is born-again. It is for this reason that our most
lucid explanations of the Gospel are altogether lost upon unregenerate
men and women. However bright a light God may make our ministry to be,
bright light is of no use to blind men and they must be born-again
before they can even seethe Kingdom of God.

4. Nicodemus said 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?His
questions proved that he could not see the Kingdom of God. He blundered
over the letter of Christ's message. He misunderstood the metaphor that
Christ used–but did Jesus therefore not give Nicodemus any further
instruction? Oh, no! Listen.

5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man is born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of
God.There must be a purifying operation upon his heart and mind, he
must be spiritually washed and cleansed, and the Spirit of God must
create him anew. Otherwise he cannot possibly enter into the Kingdom of
God.

6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit So that the best child who was ever born, even
though he were, like Saul of Tarsus, "of the stock of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews," yet even he, inasmuch as
he "is born of the flesh, is flesh," and not "spirit." Everything which
comes to us by our first birth can be nothing better than flesh–and
what can you get out of flesh but flesh? The only "evolution" that can
come of the flesh is corruption! There must be another birth if you are
to get anything but flesh–"that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit." Fleshly things are understood by the flesh, and spiritual
things must be spiritually discerned. Hence the absolute necessity of a
second birth, a Spirit birth, that we may first see and then enter the
spiritual Kingdom

of God.

7. Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born-again. This ruler
of the Jews was full of astonishment at this strange Doctrine, so
Christ said to Him, "Marvel not."

8. The wind blows.That is, the Spirit blows.

8. Where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell from
where it comes, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the
Spirit This is a great mystery and our Savior connected it with the
most mysterious thing in the whole realm of Nature–the wind–a thing
which has never been seen and which must remain a mystery to us, at
least while we are upon the earth. Christ uses this mysterious force as
an emblem of the Holy Spirit and of those who are "born of the Spirit."

9. Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?He was
puzzled and perplexed, like a man in a maze. The Savior had given him
something to think about–and I wish that when we preach to a
congregation, or when we talk to individuals, we would not aim at
dazzling them with our fine phrases, but would seek to set the Truth of
God before their minds, that it might lie there to be studied, and
thought of, and to be like seed which, in later days, would germinate
and bring forth a harvest to God's praise and Glory! Our Savior is an
example to all of us who preach and, in this instance, He shows us the
wisdom of not keeping back the mysteries of the Kingdom of God! I am
greatly afraid that many preachers would have begun by talking to
Nicodemus of some point that was common to both Judaism and
Christianity and that they would have gone on to apologize for the
peculiar mysteries of Christianity, all of which would have been a
waste of breath and worse than that. Do not so, my Brothers, but speak
out the Truth boldly and leave the Eternal Spirit to make use of it as
He pleases!

10-12. Jesus answered and said unto Him, Are you a master of Israel,
and know not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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? The Savior as good
as told Nicodemus that He did not come to argue or to reason with him,
but to bear witness to absolute certainties of which He Himself was
absolutely sure. So He said to him, "If you do not receive Our witness
concerning these things, which lie on the very threshold of the
Kingdom"–yet, mark you, He had been speaking about regeneration, the
great mystery of the new birth–"it is of no use going on to still
higher themes." So it is evident that the Kingdom of Christ requires
great faith–faith on the very threshold of it–to believe the wondrous
mystery of the new birth and still greater faith as deeper Truths, the
more heavenly things of the Kingdom are revealed to us.

13. And no man has ascended up to Heaven, but He that came down from
Heaven, even the Son of Man which is in Heaven.Now Nicodemus must have
been indeed puzzled! Here was a Man who had come down from Heaven, yet
who had gone up to Heaven and was still there, although He was at that
moment talking to Nicodemus! Without the Spirit of God to explain the
mystery, he could not make heads or tails of it.

14, 15. 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. [See Sermon #153, Volume 3–the
mysteries of the bronze serpent–

.] Mark, dear Friends, the blending of the different Truths of God

in this wonderful chapter! There is no keeping back the necessity of
the new birth and there is no cutting down of the glorious Doctrine of
Salvation by Faith in Jesus! He puts the whole matter as broadly as it
could be put.

16, 17. 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 sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through Him might be saved. If any one of you says, "I
cannot cause myself to be born-again," that is quite true. Yet listen
to this message in the same chapter which speaks of the new birth–"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."

BUT JESUS–SECOND PART.] That is a grand Truth of God!

18. But He that believes not is condemned already, because he has not
believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.His not believing
is the master-sin, the surest evidence of his being, in his heart, an
enemy to God. If he refuses to trust Christ, the matchless gift of the
Father's love, he must be desperately set on mischief and he "is
condemned already." These two Truths of the necessity of the new birth
and of the fact that everyone who believes on Christ is saved, are
quite consistent and in perfect harmony with each other. God grant to
us the Grace to know them both by experience! Never talk about
"reconciling" them, for they have never fallen out with one another!.
God grant that we may find them both true in our own lives, for His
dear Son's sake! Amen.

on Him is not condemned [See Sermons #361, Volume 7–NONE BUT
JESUS–FIRST PART and #362, Volume 7.]