John 3:3 I. The first thing to be observed, as we read this discourse just as it lies before us, is the clear deliverance, by implication at least, on the doctrine of the complete depravity of human nature. It was to Nicodemus with his morality and unblemished life, with his position as a teacher o... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:5 I. By "being born again" is meant exactly the same thing as by "rising again;" or, rather, the same two things are meant by it. In its literal sense it means what is meant by the Resurrection literally; that is, our entrance upon a new state of being, after our present one is over. By being... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:8 The Fruits of the Spirit. I. Such words as those of the text must sound as dreams to those analytical philosophers, who allow nothing in man below the sphere of consciousness actual or possible; who have dissected the human mind till they find in it no personal will, no indestructible spir... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:9 The Christian Mysteries. The Feast of Trinity succeeds Pentecost; the light of the Gospel does not remove mysteries in religion. This is our subject. Let us enlarge upon it. I. Consider such difficulties in religion as press upon us independently of the Scriptures. Now we shall find the... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:13 Resurrection the Key to the Life of Christ. Resurrection is the natural, inevitable issue of the life of the Man of Sorrows, the Lord of glory. Unless the universal life is one great tragedy, that life which from the first moment of its conscious activity had looked on, though it would n... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:14 Consider some of the lessons of Gospel truth which seem to be foreshadowed in the story of the brazen serpent. I. There was contained in it a significant intimation that Christ would die. I say _significant,_because to these Israelites it could hardly be a direct and positive intimation.... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:16 I. A difficulty arises in considering this text. If God so loved the world, why did He allow the fall of man. I answer, Never was a kinder act in God's whole government than that fall of man. For, from what did He fall? A garden. To what does he rise? A heaven. But how can a loving Father... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:16 The Atonement. I. As one of the wisest of the heathens said, everything has two handles one by which it may, and one by which it may not, be taken hold of. The handle by which this blessed truth of the Atonement should be taken hold of is that which Christ Himself pointed out to us. It i... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:18 In this text unbelief in Christ is represented as a positive crime a crime with which, in point of enormity, no other form of human sinfulness can be compared a crime which not only fastens upon its subject the guilt, and binds him over to the penalty of all his other sins, but which is i... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:19 God's Condemnation of Men. Note: I. The principles of Divine condemnation. If we accept these words in honest simplicity we must believe that it is not for being dark, but for being content to be dark that God condemns man. II. Pass on now to the rise of sin into conscious deeds. (1) E... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:20 Notice: I. That the Jews, to whom our text was originally applied, hated the light, and would not come to it because their deeds were evil. Their national rejection of our Lord was the result of their national depravity. We gather enough from the incidental notices of the inspired histori... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:21 I. Let us endeavour to arrive at some distinct meaning of that remarkable expression doing truth. (1) The first thing in it is to be really in earnest. Until a man is thoroughly in earnest about his soul God will have nothing to do with him. But as soon as a man is really in earnest, the... [ Continue Reading ]
John 3:30 Look at these words I. As the language of true nobility of character. Is it not refreshing to come across a really great man, a man who has too much of Christ within him ever to be ignoble? John's language here is not the language of sullen acquiescence. It does not need any grace to tal... [ Continue Reading ]