John 3

Thus it is before Christ teaches us; indeed, the darkness in which a sinner is, while in an unregenerate state, is worse than natural darkness; for, natural darkness frightens (Genesis 15:12): A horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham. But the spiritual darkness is not accomp…

He knew their thoughts. 3. Is God the Father omnipresent, so is Christ (John 3:13). The Son of man which is in heaven.

To this glorious inheritance has Christ redeemed the saints: an inheritance which cannot be fully described, or set forth by all the lights of Heaven, though every star were a sun: and that which is the diamond in the ring, the glory of this inheritance, is the eternal sight and…

Unbelief affronts God, it gives him the lie; he that believes not, makes God a liar (1 John 5:10). So faith brings glory to God, it sets to its seal that God is true (John 3:33). He that believes flies to God's mercy and truth, as to an altar of refuge; he does garrison himself…

1. Poena Damni: Punishment of loss; the soul is banished from the beatific presence of God, in whose presence is fullness of joy. 2. Poena Sensus: Punishment of sense; the sinner feels the scalding vials of God's wrath: It is penetrating, abiding (John 3:36). Reserved (2 Peter 2…

Faith believes the promise, but that which faith rests upon in the promise, is the person of Christ: therefore the spouse is said to lean upon her beloved (Song of Solomon 8:5). And faith is described to be a believing on the name of the Son of God (John 3:23), namely, on his pe…

Quest. Whether are we justified from eternity? Resp. No; for first, by nature we are under a sentence of condemnation (John 3:18). But we could not be at all condemned, if we were justified from eternity.

Meditation is the bellows of the affections. Meditate on God's love in giving us Christ (John 3:16). God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, etc.

Sons of the earth; they have the serpent's curse, lick the dust. John 3:31. He that is of the earth speaks of the earth: as if all their hopes were here, and they looked for an earthly eternity; these have brutish minds. Seneca being asked of what country he was, answered, that…

Thus we may know God is our Father by having his Spirit praying in us: as Christ intercedes above, so the Spirit intercedes within. 2. By having the renewing of the Spirit, which is nothing else but regeneration, which is called a being born of the Spirit (John 3:5). This regene…

3. A man may be said to be given to covetousness, when all his discourse is about the world. (John 3:31.) He that is of the earth, speaks of the earth: as it is a sign of godliness to be still speaking of heaven, to have the tongue tuned to the language of Canaan. (Ecclesiastes…

4. Unbelief is a wrath-procuring sin; 'tis Inimica Salutis, Bern. Dying so, he is as sure to be condemned as if already (John 3:18): Iam condemnatus est, [illegible]. He that believes not on the Son, the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36).

2. Is God the Father infinitely immense, filling all places (Jeremiah 23:24), so is Jesus Christ. While Christ was on the earth by his bodily presence, he was at the same time in the bosom of his Father (John 3:13), in regard of his divine presence. 2. The same royal prerogative…

We are to prefer God's glory before our nearest concerns: Before there can be a preferring God's glory before private concerns, there must be a new birth wrought. The natural man seeks his own secular interest before God's glory (John 3:31): "He is of the earth, earthly." Let hi…

For illustration I shall show, 1. What a new creature is: 2. What a kind of work it is. 1. What a new creature is: It is a second birth added to the first (John 3:3). It may be thus described: It is a supernatural work of God's Spirit, renewing and transforming the heart into th…

First, here we learn, that though Gods Commandments seem foolish, and unreasonable, yet we must obey them. Christ says; If a man will ever come in the Kingdom of heaven, he must be born again, John 3:3. Saint Paul says; If any man among you seem to be wise, let him be a fool tha…

And this is not only true faith, but even the excellency of faith. For example, God's promise is (John 3:16,) God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son into the world, that whosoever believed in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, when we are…

2. Secondary: all inferior promises annexed thereunto. The main promise is: So God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life, John 3:16. Now true faith, first of all, directly and pl…

He who is afraid to own Christ, has but little love to him. Nicodemus came sneaking to Christ by night, John 3.2. He was fearful of being seen with him in the day time.

And here we must take heed of two opinions: the first is of the Anabaptists, which hold, that the flesh of Christ came down from heaven, and passed through the virgin Mary as through a pipe, without taking any substance from her: the places which they allege for the purpose are…

Their wares and drugs; like the fish in the Gospel that had a piece of money in its mouth. He that is of the earth speaks of the earth (John 3:31). And too often corrupt communication proceeds from the wicked; their mouth being like a sink where all the filth of the house runs o…

Fourthly, in the conversion and salvation of a sinner, the scripture ascribes all to God, and nothing to man's free will. (John 3:3) Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (Ephesians 2:10) We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works.

We for our parts deny it, as having no warrant in the word of God, which mentions only two places for men after this life — heaven and hell — with the twofold condition thereof: joy and torment. Luke 16:25-26; John 3:36; Revelation 22:14-15; Revelation 21:7-8; Matthew 8:11. Nay,…

Reason 1. (John 3:14-15) As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. In these words Christ makes a comparison on this manner: when any one of the Israelites were stun…

In one case it is lawful to make an image to testify the presence or the effects of the majesty of God — namely when God himself gives a special commandment to do so. In this case Moses made and erected a bronze serpent, to be a type, sign, or image to represent Christ crucified…

But there is a taint come upon the souls of all men by sin, so as this alliance is thereby worn out, indeed forfeited, until it be restored. Now therefore these souls (the only subject of our discourse) being such as God has wrought, and so are become his workmanship by a new an…

Only if it be here asked, what is the reason, why the Prophet does so much insist, in pointing out Christ's sufferings, and the extremity of them, that scarce almost is there one verse, but he has in it some one or other new aggravation of them? We conceive the reason of it is,…

This makes God and them to be at [reconstructed: feud], and lays them open to the stroke of justice. Second, consider the intervening of the law of God, that threatens the curse on sin wherever it is, and pronounces this sentence, that the wages of sin is death, and says to the…

But on the contrary, Christ having suffered, and satisfied justice, it gives us ground to make this proclamation to you: Be it known to you, that through this man is preached to you forgiveness of sins. And these two, put together: 1. That there is a sufficient price laid down,…

And to add here the third branch of the doctrine, we say, that no less will do your turn as a necessary means for attaining the promise and that which is promised. 1. Look to all the promises, whether of pardon of sin, or of peace with God, of joy in the Holy Ghost, of holiness…

Many of us, alas, live as if we were never to be called to an account, and as if there were no tribunal that we were to appear before. Secondly, observe that all men and women, even the elect themselves, are naturally, and as in themselves obnoxious to condemnation, and liable t…

As for the confirmation of it by Scripture, if we look through the Gospel, it is our Lord Jesus Christ his own doctrine, which he preached, and the way which he laid down therein, for justifying and saving a sinner. So, John 3, where it is three or four times repeated, as (verse…

When many other nations will be condemned, because they leaned to their own merits, and made not use of Christ; and many of us shall be condemned, because, though we professed an indignation at these errors, yet we made no more use of Christ, than these, who by their doctrine ex…

Consult the Scriptures, and we will find, that Paul clears both these questions: 1. Who are justified? All that believe. 2. When are they justified? When they believe. Second, consider these Scriptures, that place all men before believing, into a state of wrath, and they will fu…

If so, then it must be a most dreadful thing not to believe. If you would know what is your condition, you may read it (John 3:18, 36): He that believes not is condemned already, and he shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him; and (Galatians 3:10): As many as are…

(1 John 2) We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, where He is held forth in His sufferings, as the propitiation that faith lays hold on. (John 3:14) As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the S…

And therefore it is so often said by divines according to the Scripture, that faith is the instrumental cause of our justification; which we shall make clear in two or three similitudes, which the Scripture makes use of. 1. Christ compares Himself to the brazen serpent lifted up…

The third use is matter of consolation to the believer; who may as certainly conclude an interest in Christ's death, as if he had heard the transaction of redemption read over, and had seen his name in the book of life. For our Lord says (John 3:16), God so loved the world, that…

Think you that faith cannot be a missing, nor mistaken, or that it is ordinary and common, or that it is indifferent whether you have it or not? We are persuaded, that many of you think, that if you have a good mind, (as you call it,) and a square civil honest walk, and keep sti…

4: He knows nothing of the Gospel who thinks not that God by his promise comes under a sweet debt of free grace to fulfill his own promise, and that this debt and grace are consistent. But Antinomians' breath smells of fleshly liberty, for they tell us: conditional promises are…

No man whatever mettle he be of, the finest of men can come, or has power to come to me, and to believe on the only begotten Son of God, except the Father who sent me draw him. We know Christ was much to extol his Father, his Father was ever in his esteem an eminent one, as (Mat…

It is true, the word, the works of God, are not the principal object of faith, nor objectum quod; faith rests only on God, and the Lord Jesus (John 14:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:8). Your faith toward God (1 Peter 1:21; Deuteronomy 1:32; John 3:12; Genesis 15:6; Daniel 6:23; Romans 4:3…

Answer: The thing in question is not concluded; we say not we are to pray for the salvation of none but believers only, and that Christ died for none but those that already believed: we are to pray for all ranks, believers or unbelievers, as Christ died for thousands of both, bu…

Secondly, take this means: as ever you desire to have life in Christ, if you know any sin in yourself, you are much to blame in yourself, if you do not by any means wash your hands of it, cleanse yourself from it. There are many sins which a man lives in, which he might avoid by…

This is true, but yet this is not it, that makes him a new man in God's sight, it may reach to the reformation of his outward man, and to the alteration of several of his former courses, which no means else could have reclaimed; but yet this makes him not live a spiritual life,…

1. Let me open the term that expresses his filiation, that he is God's Son. Christ is the Son of God properly so called, a Son only begotten (John 3:16), God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Eternally begotten (Proverbs 8:22-23), I was set up from everlasti…

2. The dearness between God and him, my beloved Son; Christ is the object of his Father's love, both as the second person in the Trinity and mediator. The one is the ground of the other, for because he loved him, he entrusted him with souls (John 3:35). The Father has loved him,…

After the same manner Christ speaks also in the seventh of John: "The world can not hate you, but me it hates, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil (John 7:7)." And in the third of John: "This is condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved d…

That is to say, I live indeed in the flesh, but this life, whatever it is, I esteem as no life, for it is no true life indeed, but a shadow of life: under which another lives, that is to say, Christ, who is my true life indeed, which life you see not but only hear and I feel. Yo…

Contrariwise, to the sinners he threatens wrath and destruction (Luke 13). Also he pronounces that the unbelievers are damned already (John 3). Moreover, Christ worked many good works: he suffered also many evils, and commands us to follow his example.