In the 9th and 10th verses there is a certain line of thought in connection with the present day. “Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?” How many “Masters in Israel” there are today who know nothing of these things! “Ye must be born again.” When I say “Masters in Israel,” I have before me the instructors of God’s people—the preachers and teachers amongst God’s people.
Just to divert a moment or two as to why the new nature—new birth—is needful: It is because man is so very bad, that he can’t be made any better. That truth is brought before us in different ways in Scripture. The incorrigible nature of man is beyond repair. It must be new from head to foot, and God begins that blessed work by a new nature—new birth. By and by we shall receive a new body, but we have the new nature—new birth—now.
God has demonstrated that man is bad. He had him under trial for four thousand years. Think of that! At last He had to lay the ax to the root of the tree and hew it down. That is what John the Baptist said. Cut the whole thing down. Sometimes we have illustrated it in this way: You are a very good tailor. I bring you a piece of material, and ask you to make me a garment. You say, “This does not seem to be a very good piece, but I will do the best I can,” and you work and work, and the thing won’t hold together. You have to give it up. You say, “I can do nothing with it. It is so bad it won’t hold together, it won’t hold the stitches.” The fault is not with you. It isn’t that you are a bad tailor, the fault is in the material.
That is just the way. Man is bad. You can’t get any good out of him. He has to be made anew. So it says, in another scripture, in another line of things, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” That is not a reformed man. A reformed man is just as bad inside as ever he was. His nature has not been changed; not one bit more heart for God than before he was reformed. Indeed, he is farther from God in the state of his soul than ever before. Do you know why? He is thinking of how good he is. That is what reformation does—it makes people satisfied with themselves—that they are so much better. If you are going to plead that before God, it will not stand at all, not for a moment.
Well, there was this “Master in Israel” (it is not habitual with me to refer to this class of persons), but I seldom read this chapter that I do not think of our own day. Dear friends, how many “Masters in Israel” today are telling people, “Ye must be born again; if not, ye will never see or enter into the Kingdom of God?” How many? Very few, aren’t there?
Then, there is another thing; the Lord Jesus says, “We speak that we do K-N-O-W.” There is one thing that struck people when the Lord Jesus was here and teaching among them: “He speaks as one that has authority, and not as do the Scribes.” Who speaks as one that has authority today? Who can speak as one that has authority, and say, “I know what I am talking about”? The man that has the Word of God can speak as one who has authority, and does; and where there is reality in the soul and a felt need, people welcome those who speak with assurance. Tell them, “I know; and I know because God says so.”
God wants people to say “I know.” Like the man in the 9th chapter of this Gospel. He was blind, and the Lord had given him sight. The rulers of the people get hold of the poor man, and they question him as to how he got his sight. He says, “A man that is called Jesus” (that is the first thought), “made clay and put it on my eyes, and told me to go and wash in the pool of Siloam.” They go to reasoning; they don’t want to know anything about this man, Jesus. It is very beautiful, he can’t speak of what he does not know. That is all he knows at present. That man called Jesus. He says, I went and washed and received my sight. They bring his parents, and say very religiously, Give God the glory; we know that this man is a sinner—he does not keep the Sabbath. The man answered, and said, “Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know (you can talk all you want) whereas I was blind, now I see.” They ask him again. He says, What do you want to know for, “Will ye also be His disciples?” They say, “We are Moses’ disciples.” The poor man becomes a teacher, and he says, “Why herein is a marvelous thing.... Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. This man, hath opened my eyes, and you can’t tell me from whence He is.” What is the result? He became their teacher, and they turned him out of the synagogue.
The Lord Jesus finds him when he is put out. He has been faithful. He had said that Jesus was a prophet. Jesus finds him, and asks him a question: “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” Who is it that is asking that question? It is a man called Jesus. How beautiful that is. “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” “Thou hast both seen Him, and He it is that talketh with thee.” And he said, “Lord I believe.” And he worshipped Him.
We learn one truth at a time. We learn about this man, called Jesus, and He leads us on, and we find at length we are worshippers at His feet.
Here this man is able to say, “I know.” “This one thing I know.” The rulers and teachers cannot confound him. How could they take that away from him. Turn to 1 John. There we get some of the things that the believer knows, and the consequences of them.
I wonder if that is true of everyone here. If the Lord were here in the midst, could He go to each one of us and say, Are you one who believes on the Son of God? The poor woman in Luke 8 came and touched His garment. The crowds were pressing every way; she just touched Him—didn’t press—but He knew she had come in faith, and had received blessing from it. He knows the professor; and He knows the one who comes in faith and has received blessing.
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.” What for? What is the object? That ye may believe? No, you do that—but he writes for something else. To tell them of the result, or a result of their believing. What is that? “That ye may know” —what? “That ye have” not “shall have” but “have eternal life.” That is one thing the believer knows. How does he know it? He believes on the name of the Son of God. “He that believeth on Him hath everlasting life.” That is how he knows. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”
Look at John 5:20,20For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and he will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. (John 5:20) “And we” (He includes Himself—that is, all who believe). What is John’s assurance that he had eternal life? It was this: that he believed on the name of the Son of God. So He puts Himself in the same class. “We know” what? “That the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” What a word that is! We know the true God, and His Son has come that we might know the true God. We see Him in Jesus Christ— “God manifest in flesh.” That is another line of things, but it is the speaking with certainty.
There is a passage often quoted rather wrongly—they put in a word— “I know (in) whom I have believed.” That is not what he says, and it really deprives it of its force. He says, “I know whom I have believed.” It is a person. Not “in whom,” but “whom” I have believed, and the result is confidence; “And am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” It is in connection with his service.
In the 11th verse of the 3rd of John, “We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen.” The Lord associated others with Himself. I sometimes say it is like an editorial “we.”
In the 31st verse we have John the Baptist’s testimony, speaking of the Lord Jesus in contrast with Himself. “He that cometh from above is above all.” He is the One that came from heaven. One has come down from heaven, and has testified all He has seen and heard up there. “And no man receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.”
“If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” (verse 12). We have to learn “A,” dear friends, in the things of God—in the school of God—before we learn “B,” and “A-B” before “A-B-C.” It is how we go on.
You say, What is “A?” “Ye must be born again, or you can never see or enter into the kingdom of God.”
The next is “B” —what is that? Eternal life. Do you have eternal life?
What is being born of God—what does it make us? Those born of God are His children. The first chapter tells us that.
What kind of life has a child of God? (I am trying to be simple). Eternal Life. Not only born of God—a child of God—but has eternal life. “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life.” The truth of all this comes out in the gospel.
Not only earthly things, but you are listening to heavenly things, One come down from heaven—One who speaks that which He knows—testifying what He has seen, but to the sorrow and grief of His heart, there was no one to hear it. Man has a deaf ear for the truth of God. He does not like it. Farther down in our chapter He tells why. “His deeds are evil,” and the truth of God shows all up.
Anticipating a little, not “he that doeth good,” but “he that doeth truth” (that is a difficult thing to do—do the truth) “cometh to the light.”
What is doing the truth? When that poor publican went into the temple he did not lift up his head—had his head down—in contrast to the Pharisee who stood there all swelled up. “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men.” He is telling God how good he is—how much good he has done, and is doing, etc., and he casts his eye on the publican, and says, “nor even as this publican.”
The publican doesn’t lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, and said, “God be merciful to me the sinner.” There is a soul doing the truth. Not doing good; that is, he is not saying so, but doing the truth. What is the result? He goes down to his house justified. The other went down to his house worse than when he came into the temple, because he is all filled with himself, and is farther and farther from doing the truth than before going. That is just an instance of doing the truth.
Doing good is all right in its place, but you must do the truth first. When doing the truth we learn that we are sinners in the sight of God, and the need of being born again. Well, we spoke of the manner of it, by the reception of the gospel.
(To be continued)