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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So I'm going to have us turn in our Bibles to a beautiful passage of scripture. There's no PowerPoint today, so you're just going to have to follow along.
[00:00:08] And John chapter three, probably one of the most beautiful stories of a late night meeting with Jesus, a religious leader by the name of Nicodemus. He discovers some very life changing truths and I believe that those are the same truths that you and I can experience and we can have the same transformation occur and in our lives. It was Soren Kierkegaard, noted Dutch theologian, Danish theologian, who said God creates out of nothing. And you may say that's wonderful, but he does what's even more wonderful when he makes saints out of sinners. How many know that's even a more challenging task? I think, and I think some of us who God has been working on for a long time, we marvel, look, looking back at what God has done in our lives because God is working at transforming us from the inside out. And he brings about healing to the broken places. He begins to restore things in our lives and he begins to fashion us into the person that I believe that God originally intended for us to become. And it's more like who we were originally designed to be. And we begin to reflect the image of God, not a physical image, but, but the very moral image of God. We become more and more like him. More loving, more kind, more understanding, more generous. These are all beautiful things that God wants to do in our lives. Now how many realize that no person ever becomes a Christian apart from the work of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit? And the Holy Spirit has to work in our lives because the Bible says here, the reason is that we have a natural mind. We have a proclivity, a natural disposition, a default switch. If I can say this, that we tend to be rebels. We don't want to be rebels sometimes, but we still are. And I like what Paul says in Romans. He says, you know, the things I want to do, I don't do and the things I don't want to do, I end up doing. He's basically saying I want to be good, but I'm having a problem with that. I tend to do the things I know are the wrong things to do. And then when I want to do the right things, it just seems like I'm weak and I just, I can't seem to pull myself to do those kinds of things in my life. And so the reason is, the reason why we have this hostility towards God is just by nature, we have a Sin, nature in our lives, we have a nature that's alienated from God. There's a great gulf. We talked about that, we sang about that. This chasm, this great divide between ourselves and God. And this is how Paul describes it in the book of Romans, chapter 8 and verse 9. Those who live according to the sinful nature, or another translation says the flesh. It's a Greek word that's literal translations, flesh. But, you know, we could best understand it as a nature that's been tainted by sin. And we have our mind set on what that nature desires. But those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death. In other words, we're alienated from God. Death just means separation. We're. We're disconnected from God. We have no desire for it. But the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. That's an interesting statement. Nor can it do so. This explains really, the rebellion in someone's heart. This hostility to God leaves a person incapable of submission.
[00:03:47] We're dead. Paul says that in Ephesians, we're dead in our trespasses and sins. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, speaking to believers now, are not in the realm of the flesh or the sinful nature, but in the realm of the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they don't belong to Christ.
[00:04:12] So really, the basic difference between a believer and a nonbeliever is God's Spirit living inside of believers. That's the difference. Isn't that an amazing thought? God living inside of us. Now, one expression we use to explain this spiritual transformation in people's lives is conversion.
[00:04:33] Too often we focus on the human side of conversion, the person responding to God's call.
[00:04:40] But conversion actually begins with God. And I'm so thankful God takes the initiative. Isn't this beautiful? As a matter of fact, conversion is not just a human decision.
[00:04:52] It's what the Apostle Paul pointed out in Romans. Our natural state is hostile to God. And conversion requires the wooing of the Holy Spirit, the drawing of God's Spirit. He convicts us, he influences us, he challenges us, he guides us towards his grace. So I want to look briefly at how we get into God's kingdom. I think that's an important question. And you know, we can actually grow up in a church. We can know a lot of things about God. We can have all the facts down, if I can say it that way.
[00:05:23] But sometimes there's something missing. And I want to talk about how we get from being in one kingdom and into God's actual kingdom. So Nicodemus now is a religious person, a religious leader, and he comes to Jesus at night hoping to gain a private audience.
[00:05:39] And he had no idea what to expect.
[00:05:42] I think that's true. You know, when you first come to a new place, you don't know what to expect. You come to church for the first time, you don't know what to expect. And when you first come to Christ, you don't know what to expect. I think people have a lot of wrong ideas.
[00:05:54] And, you know, our culture has a wrong idea. I think our culture has a wrong idea about who God really is.
[00:06:01] That's the reason they're not running to him.
[00:06:04] Yet in this meeting with Jesus, we find three elements in his encounter with Christ that helps explain the necessary steps that enable us and allows us to enter into God's kingdom. And I want to just look at those three steps. And the first one is just simply the inquiry of a searching heart. You know, I think God creates a hunger, a search, a longing.
[00:06:26] We want to discover something, maybe a remarkable event, a provocative question, a painful experience sometimes piques our interest in spiritual things.
[00:06:36] Sometimes tragedy compels us to seek for ANSWERS. You know, C.S. lewis in his book the Problem of Pain, when he said, God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain. It's his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. And I think that's true many times. It's heartache and brokenness that makes us awaken to a recognition that, you know what? We need help. We need someone. Or perhaps we see something miraculous or supernatural. We had one of the guys this morning sharing how God reached into his life through a very supernatural way. I even had a friend share with me. You know, he was a merchant marine, knew nothing about God. He was in his 50s, you know, kind of a coarse character on the deck of a ship. And he said, I heard the audible voice of God. Just about blew him off the ship. I mean, it frightened him so badly. But he became a follower of Christ.
[00:07:29] Everybody has a different experience, but I think one of the great miracles is what we witnessed, a changed life. And when you see someone go from darkness into light, when you see a transformation in their life, you're going, something's going on here. And I want to discover this. So Nicodemus is a member of a religious sect in Israel known as the Pharisees. They're noted for their zeal for the oral tradition of the elders and their scrupulous observance of purity elements or laws.
[00:08:00] Many Pharisees were more concerned with outward obedience rather than. And they were truly, you know, they were going through the outward things, but they were blinded to their own inward reality. And I think we've all met people who are religious on the outside, but a mess on the inside. You know, their life is incongruent.
[00:08:18] It's not connecting.
[00:08:20] It's actually kind of making a sham because they're saying maybe the right thing, but their lives are just out of order.
[00:08:27] But here's a guy who's probably a moral person. I really do believe Nicodemus was. And he was wondering who Jesus is. So I think there was something intellectually had integrity about this individual. And we pick up the verse here in chapter three of John's Gospel, verse one. Now, there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. And he came to Jesus at night, and he said, rabbi, we know you're a teacher who's come from God, for no one can perform the signs you're doing if God were not with him.
[00:09:01] So something about Jesus drew Nicodemus curiosity not only for himself, but even within his own social circle, because notice he said, for we know who's the we. Well, probably some of his friends. It was a curiosity. I mean, Jesus comes on the scene and there's things happening that are not what I call normal. I mean, people who are, you know, lame from birth are walking. People who are blind from birth are now seeing how many know. This is pretty impressive stuff. It's going to get your attention. How many know that'll get your attention? That stuff starts happening, right?
[00:09:40] So something drew his attention, and he describes these miracles as signs, signs pointing them to God. And so FF Bruce says Nicodemus may have been deficient in comprehension, but at least he was not blinded by prejudice like some of the other religious leaders whose reaction to the words and works of Jesus was to ascribe them or put them down to demonic activity. They just attributed Jesus miracles to the devil. Wow.
[00:10:07] You got to be careful what you're doing there, right? If he did not grasp the significance of the signs, he recognized by their character, they could not have been done except through the power of God. And although Jesus did not belong to one of the acknowledged schools of Sacred learning. This leading teacher in Israel saluted him as an equal with the term rabbi, which was a mark of respect.
[00:10:28] Now John, in describing the interview, gives a detail that has intrigued people. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Why did he come to him at nighttime? And D.A. carson, a Canadian theologian, said this. The best clue lies in John's use of night elsewhere, when he uses the word in a metaphorical or a moral sense and it speaks of spiritual darkness. Or if it refers to nighttime hours, it bears the same moral and spiritual symbolism. Doubtless Nicodemus approached Jesus at night, but his own soul was blacker than he knew. In other words, he was in a night condition and didn't realize it.
[00:11:06] What's implied, as I've already said, is that he spoke on behalf of some others that were inquiring about who Jesus was formerly. Nicodemus had not yet asked anything, though the implied question seems to be something like, who are you?
[00:11:22] We know you're a teacher from God, but are you more than that?
[00:11:25] Are you a prophet?
[00:11:27] Are you the Messiah? This was a hope in the nation of Israel that God would send an anointed one that would be a savior for their nation.
[00:11:36] Jesus response to Nicodemus greeting is fascinating. And it really brings up the second point that I want to bring up. And it's simply this.
[00:11:45] Jesus shocks him. You know, you ever had those moments in life where you were just like thrown off guard? I mean, Nicodemus seems to be asking a very simple, straightforward question or an implied question. And Jesus now does not wait for the question. We know you're a teacher from God, but Jesus now says something. Jesus said, truly, I tell you now, this is not what he's going to expect. No one can see the kingdom of God unless they're born again.
[00:12:15] The kingdom of God is spiritual. It's not material. How many know right then? He's already shifting Nicodemus, because in Nicodemus mind, he's part of a covenant group before God. He's part of God's covenant people. It's a material kingdom. And Jesus is now going to shift him away from that whole way of thinking.
[00:12:32] You know, sometimes God has to do something so radical in life, has to shift us away from that thinking. And he now gives us some points of clarity that are going to help us understand the shocking statement that Jesus said to this man.
[00:12:46] First, the Jewish people felt God's kingdom would only come at the last days or the end time. Okay, so in one sense he's correct. Because from the beginning of Jesus first coming. The Bible from that point on describes this age that we're in as the end times. I don't know if you know that in the last days my spirit will be poured out on all flesh. Peter quotes that in what was happening on the day of Pentecost. So I think we have to open our mind a little bit to biblical language and understand we're living in the last days and we have been for 2000 years. So some of us go, that's a long time, boy. Pastor, if that's the last days, I mean, let me point out something to us all. We don't know the hour Jesus is coming back and he could come back so soon.
[00:13:33] You know, a lot of people are trying to figure it out, but I'm going to let you know that. The first century church believed that Jesus could come back at any moment. And there was a heightened sense of living a life that would be pleasing to him because they recognized he could come at any moment as a nation. They also believed that because they were part of God's chosen people, covenant people, that they were already a part of God's kingdom. Okay, Jesus is about to say something that's going to blow this guy away. He's going to shock him.
[00:14:07] He did not know that he was going to shatter his worldview.
[00:14:11] You know, that's what often happens to us. You know, when we first encounter Jesus. It's a shattering experience.
[00:14:18] What he's going to ask of us may shatter us. We may just go, wow, I just never thought of this before.
[00:14:23] Again, I'm going to quote Carson. He said, predominant religious thought in Jesus day affirmed that all Jews would be admitted to the kingdom, apart from those who were guilty of deliberate apostasy or extraordinary wickedness. In other words, if you were a Jew by race, you were in. But here was Jesus telling Nicodemus, a respected and conscientious member not only of Israel, but but of their parliament, of their religious leadership, that he could not enter God's kingdom unless he was born again.
[00:14:54] In other words, neither his Jewish lineage nor his religious activities were the means of securing God's kingdom. And if this was true, then about Nicodemus, he could not help but wonder, how then can someone be a part of God's kingdom? Because I guess I got it all wrong.
[00:15:13] What did Jesus mean by this statement, one must be born again?
[00:15:17] Well, verse four, he asked the question, he says, how can someone be born when they're old?
[00:15:24] Nicodemus asked, surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's Womb to be born. How many can already catch on? He's still on a material level, you know, but Jesus is talking metaphorically. He's talking on a spiritual level. But see, even though Nicodemus could understand that concept about a spiritual level, he's just not able to pick up that he's not already in.
[00:15:49] So Merrill Tenney says Jesus bluntly answers this question before he could ask it, asserting that without a complete change comparable only to rebirth, the natural man cannot enter the spiritual kingdom.
[00:16:02] Cannot implies incapable.
[00:16:08] Cannot implies incapability rather than prohibition. In other words, God isn't saying you can't get there, you're just not capable of doing it. You see the distinction he's making? He said the natural mind is not arbitrarily kept from the kingdom. He is inherently incapable of apprehending it, just as a blind man cannot enjoy a sunset. God's mysteries are not the heritage of the learned, moral or religious simply because of learning morality or religion. They are the heritage of the spiritually transformed.
[00:16:44] It's not about being religious or moral. It's about being transformed by God's spirit. And, you know, I think probably one of the classic examples of this is a man by the name of John Wesley.
[00:16:55] John Wesley grew up in a pastor's home in the. What was what century? The 18th century.
[00:17:03] He eventually studied for the ministry along with a group of young men, and they became known as the Holy Club. These guys were very devout. They regularly gathered together to practice spiritual disciplines, prayer, fasting, visitation, giving all the things that the ancient churches have practiced or the church has practiced for all of this time. Here, they sought to reinforce faith through scriptural study and measuring the quality of holiness of each member's life.
[00:17:30] The Holy Club did more than just pray. They went to prison. They brought the message of the gospel to prisoners, even though they themselves did not fully understand it. Although they were ridiculed by their fellow students at Oxford, from their small ranks came men of towering men of age.
[00:17:48] Later on, John and his brother Charles, they go off as missionaries to, you know, North America, take a big sailboat, come over here, going to preach the gospel to the indigenous people.
[00:17:59] It was a miserable failure.
[00:18:01] And the reason being was they didn't really understand what they were preaching. They get back on the boat, Major storm comes up at the sea.
[00:18:10] They're fearing for their very lives. They think they're going to drown in the Atlantic. But here's a small group of people called Moravians, and they are singing and worshiping before Almighty God, and they are the ones that have a genuine faith in Christ. And so much to John Wesley's credit, he could be critical enough of himself to realize there was a distinct difference between what he had in Christianity and what these people had. And so he went over and talked to Peter Bowler who was a Moravian. And Peter Bowler, you know, chatted with John and basically said to him, listen John, you need to preach that you have to have faith in Christ until you personally have it in your own life.
[00:18:52] And so that really spoke to John Wesley. And then as he was thinking about that, eventually got back to London, he was in a Moravian, he went to a Moravian service on aldersgate street on May 24, 1738.
[00:19:06] And something remarkable happened in his life. And to me this is mind boggling.
[00:19:11] There was a guy up there reading a preface of the commentary of the Book of Romans written by Martin Luther.
[00:19:19] No, this is a commentary, the preface, the beginning of it, I've read it, it wasn't that inspiring.
[00:19:25] But I'm just pointing out to you, you know, it's not what's being said, it's how God is working in a person's life. As Wesley was listening at that moment, he had an amazing experience with Almighty God. He said he wrote in his journal, my heart was strangely warmed and, and I knew that I had faith in Christ and in him alone. For my sins were now in my mind forgiven because of the work of Christ and not something I could do. It was a changing turning point in his life. Even though he was an ordained Anglican minister, once he began to preach that we come to God by faith in Christ, in his work and what he's done on our behalf, it brings about this experience and transformation in our lives. And he got kicked out of the church. So he went into the fields and began to preach to multitudes of people.
[00:20:17] And God used John and Charles and another young man named George Whitefield. And God brought about a total transformation through the whole nation, not only of England, but many of the English speaking colonies at that time.
[00:20:33] So Wesley moved from an intellectual ascent of faith religious activities into an experiential practical reality of the faith through what Jesus Christ has done on his behalf and have brought about a change in his life. That's what it really means to be born again.
[00:20:55] What Jesus said took Nicodemus by surprise.
[00:20:59] Nicodemus was certainly aware of the idea of starting over again because many Gentiles, which is non Jewish people, for instance, had become Jewish proselytes. In other words, they embraced the Jewish faith. FF Bruce describes a proselyte in effect, enters on a new life and thus assuming the yoke of the kingdom of heaven. The proselyte, it was said, is like a newborn child. Such a person might fittingly be described as born from above or born anew.
[00:21:24] So you know what Jesus is basically saying to him is, Nicodemus, you're a gentile, you need to get into God's kingdom. Can you imagine how shocking that was to this religious person who thought he was already there?
[00:21:37] He was stunned by that. And on this occasion, Jesus has been talking of proselytes from paganism. Oh, sorry. On this occasion, Nicodemus would have understood him well enough, but it would have appeared that this was strange and mysterious words intended to apply to him. But in what sense?
[00:21:55] What did Jesus mean when he talked about being born again, especially to a person who had already thought they were inside of God's covenant?
[00:22:03] Nicodemus, a moral religious person acquainted with the law of God, knew a lot about God. The problem was he didn't know God personally.
[00:22:12] And I want to just say this. You know, when I was in Bible college, there was an older couple that went to Bible college, and Patty and I got to know them and beautiful couple. Their names were Ralph and Athlean Falstad. And they served in their church for years. They were on the board, they did all kinds of beautiful things.
[00:22:28] And then their daughter, who was married to one of the young men who went over to Vietnam and fought and was severely wounded, I mean, he was in rough shape when he got back from the war.
[00:22:41] And they became believers, both their son in law and their daughter Nancy and these guys, their life was totally radically transformed. They could see the change in Nancy's life, they could see the change in her husband's life. And then one day, Nancy's talking to her mom and dad and she said, you know, mom and dad, she says, I know that you guys think you're Christians, but you're really not.
[00:23:05] Can you imagine how shocking it was? Because these are good people, these are church people, these are people, you know, serving on their church board, doing all kinds of great things.
[00:23:15] But it rattled them and they couldn't get away from the remark and they couldn't get away from the changes they saw in Nancy's life and in their son in law's life. And they realized that their commitment was actually to their church and not to Christ.
[00:23:28] And they really didn't know God in a personal way. And Jesus was not real to them. And so at that point they surrendered their lives and asked Christ to Come in as Lord and Savior, and he wonderfully changed their lives.
[00:23:41] And now as seniors, off to Bible college. Now they were serving God, but they had a new joy, a new empowerment, a new grace in their lives.
[00:23:52] But I like the way DEZ Oakridge, who was working in Papua New guinea, he's a missionary, he was a translator, and he's trying to translate the Bible into a language.
[00:24:05] And so when you get to the translation, a lot of times what you have to do is try to figure out how to say a word in a language in the culture that would mean what the Bible is actually expressing. That's kind of a big job sometimes. And so he came to this word, born again in the John's Gospel. He goes, how in the world am I going to translate this word so these people are going to understand what is being said here? And so then one of his translators, one of the native translators says, I think I know the word you're looking for.
[00:24:39] I think I know the custom we need to communicate to our people so they'll really get this idea. He says, you know, sometimes a person in our tribe goes wrong. They're not going to listen to anybody. They're in a state of rebellion. What we do is we get all together in the village, we put the person in the middle of us, and the elders talk to them for a long time, and then they tell them, you've got it all wrong. All your thoughts, intentions, and values are wrong.
[00:25:03] Now you have to become a baby again and start to relearn to do everything right. In other words, you got to undo in order, you know, another. So you got to lay aside all that stuff, and you got to relive. You got to become born anew. And it was just the exact word that he was looking for. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he becomes like a child, a baby, relearning everything from God's point of view, learning from God's word. And I was just chatting with a couple of ladies in our church before the service, and I just said it this way. You and I don't realize that we're being bombarded with this culture continuously and all of its values. And actually what it's designed to do is squeeze you into a mold that you actually fit into the culture. You know, a lot of people think they're free spirits, but they're not. They're being crushed and put into a mold. And the Bible challenges us. In the book of Romans, chapter 12, it says, you know, we're to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God. And how do we do that? It says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you will not be squeezed into society's values and perspectives. And so every day, you know, and this is one of the reasons why I try to get across to us, how in the world are we going to be renewed in our minds? And how do you renew your mind? Well, first of all, you got to spend time in God's Word. And the moment you and I start spending time in God's Word, we're beginning to look at life through a different lens. We're looking at life through God's lens. We're developing God's perspective on life. And, you know, a lot of times we don't always agree with God. Come on, let's be realistic. Isn't that true? We have a problem. We don't like what God is saying here. But the Bible says now we have to make a choice. And here comes the choice. We can do things the way the world does it. We can do things the way our human desires want it, or we can do things the way God's Word says to do it. And that becomes a little battle on the inside. And when you and I surrender to God and we say, okay, God, I'm going to do it your way, even though I don't feel like doing it your way, I just believe that your way is the best way. And I subjugate myself, I submit myself to what God's saying. Something changes inside of me and I become renewed in my thinking. And later on, I'm going to tell you right now, sometimes at the time, you may not be jumping for joy for doing the right thing, but I'll tell you, you're going to be crying the blues if you do the wrong thing later on. But if you do the right thing later on, you're going to be rejoicing that God spared you a lot of heartache and a lot of pain. So we need to learn what God says about things and see life through a different lens. And it's through the Word of God now. To be born again is to be transformed in our nature.
[00:27:36] Theologians talk about the work of the Holy Spirit changing a person's very nature. The term is regeneration.
[00:27:44] We're being regenerated.
[00:27:46] The apostle Paul says it this way in 2nd Corinthians 5:17. He says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.
[00:27:58] We have been regenerated. God's given us a new nature. What Kind of a nature. Let me tell you what Peter says in his second letter in chapter one. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. And through these he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you can participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
[00:28:30] So Elizabeth Sherrill, in her book Journey into Rest, gives a very insightful understanding of the work of the spirit in changing, in regenerating and transforming our nature. She said, I was reading a book once on osteoporosis prevention.
[00:28:47] Some of you go, what's that? Well, she said, it's the breaking down of your bones.
[00:28:53] And I never realized this as well. But like all living tissue, bone is constantly being broken down and reformed.
[00:29:01] The word seems to apply not only to our bodies, but to the perpetual Christian emphasis on brokenness, repentance, confession, acknowledgment of sinfulness. She said, I grew tired of this continual retracing of steps, impatient for the beckoning road ahead. But it was the living word that leaped out at me. It is living tissue that is continually torn and rebuilt as long as my relationship to God is alive.
[00:29:28] This biological fact seems to suggest the tearing down process will be part of the journey. The confession of sin, the admission of guilt. They go hand in hand with renewal in our lives. And there can be no growth without pruning, no rebirth without death.
[00:29:45] What's she saying? That God's going to keep doing a work of transformation in our lives. That you and I should be continuously growing.
[00:29:54] There's no stagnation, folks. You know, people think, well, I've arrived. There's no arrival.
[00:30:00] You know, I always look at it this way. I look at my life and I look at your lives as congregants. And I say to myself, which direction are we going in? You see, you and I are moving. We're either moving from darkness to light or we're turning our back on light and we're moving back to darkness. We can only be going in one or two directions.
[00:30:20] Nobody's standing still, folks. If our face is towards God, we're moving towards God. It's a beautiful thing. You and I are being changed in a good way. But if we turn our back on what God is saying and we turn away from him and we move away from him, we're being changed too, but in the wrong direction. And we're going to be struggling in our relationship with God and That's why the Bible says God is near to those of a broken and contrite heart. But let me close with the third element. It's simply, how do I acquire this new life?
[00:30:49] And so Nicodemus was curious, and Jesus gave him an image, a story. He took him back to the Old Testament. And in that story, he talked about, well, verse five and six, he says, I tell you, no one can enter God's kingdom unless he's born of water and spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit gives birth to spirit. So this new beginning is really a spiritual thing that happens.
[00:31:15] And so when he was talking to Nicodemus, who already felt they had a right standing with God, but now realized maybe he didn't, Jesus shares a story from their past, and it's a powerful story.
[00:31:29] And it's basically this.
[00:31:32] Jesus said, just like the Israelites were in the wilderness, they were complaining, and something happened. God allowed poisonous snakes to come and bite him. Remember that? And they were dying, and the people realized, you know, we've been complaining against God, and now snakes are biting us and people are dying. And they cried out to Moses, and Moses cried out to God. And God said to Moses, listen, why don't you just build a replica of those poisonous snakes and put it on a pole?
[00:31:58] And he said, all the people that will look to that pole after they've been bitten, they're going to live.
[00:32:05] How many know that's an act of faith?
[00:32:08] It really was. If you look up, you'll live, you know. And then Jesus said, even so, the Son of Man will be lifted up. He was talking about his crucifixion. And when you and I look up to Jesus, he actually becomes the accursed. He becomes the sin offering. He takes our place. He dies on a cross. And the moment we look to him, you and I can have life because you and I have all been bit by sin.
[00:32:34] And the wages of sin produces death. And death is simply alienation from God. And then there's physical death when we're dead physically. But you know what? Our soul is still alive. And then the Bible says in Revelation, we'll experience the second death. You go, what's that? Eternal separation from God. And I don't know. I would not want any person to ever experience the second death, to be eternally separated from God. You say, why is that so critical, Pastor? Because every good and perfect gift that you and I receive in this life, whether we know God or not, actually comes from God and to be shut out from God's blessings. What an awful thing that would be.
[00:33:11] And so, in closing here, let's stand.
[00:33:14] And I just want you to know that many of these that have. Well, these that have come forward and said, listen, I've given my life to Christ. I want to continue my journey with Him. It's a work of God's grace. You know, God put that desire in their heart, and they're trusting in Christ for their salvation, just like we all are. And maybe you're here today and, you know, you could even grow up in the church. You could be religious. You can be a good person. I'm not negating any of those things, just like Nicodemus.
[00:33:43] But the challenge is for us to turn to him, to look to him, to trust him, that he's the one that saves us, not my good actions.
[00:33:53] You know, even if I did everything right, there's still stuff inside of me that's wrong. How many know that's true?
[00:33:59] It's true. In all of our lives, we could be. If we're really. You know, as you get older, you get more. If you can get more honest with yourself, you go, hey, there's things that need to change. I got to keep growing. I got to keep changing.
[00:34:11] So maybe you're here today and you say, you know, I just didn't understand what it meant to be a Christian. I'm trying to explain it to you. What it means is that God is going to forgive you of all your sins and bring about a change of heart in nature, and then he's going to take you on a journey for the rest of your life to help you to become more like him, the best version of yourself. How's that?
[00:34:33] Because I think sometimes in our lives we're just disappointed with ourselves, you know, when we do the wrong thing. I don't know if you've ever battled guilt, ever battled shame. I've been guilty on both points.
[00:34:44] I've battled all those things. But to know God's forgiveness and to know God's acceptance and to know God's love in your life, what a beautiful thing it is. You say, well, how can I do that?
[00:34:56] By just confessing, I need you.
[00:35:02] Billy Graham said it so beautifully. Just as you are Just come as you are Just come to God as you are. That was the song he chose when he gave an opportunity for people to respond. Just come as you are and God will forgive you. Because you and I are incapable of saving ourselves.
[00:35:17] It's God who saves us.
[00:35:19] But you and I have to come to him, say, lord, I come just like I am. I come and I ask you to forgive me.
[00:35:26] And God says, I will.
[00:35:28] The Bible says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. Isn't that beautiful? He's a forgiving God. Thank God for that. Amen. So I'm just going to have every head bowed this morning. I want to give you an opportunity. If this is you this morning, God's spirit is speaking to you.
[00:35:43] Maybe you're like John Wesley sitting in a meeting and all of a sudden the spirit of God is upon you. I believe it's a work of God. It's not a work of human beings. I'm just conveying a message. It's the work of God's spirit that brings change.
[00:35:57] It's not a human being that's going to change you. It's going to be God himself. God's spirit is going to come and forgive you and bring about a change of heart. How beautiful is that? And if that's you this morning, just raise your hand, say, you know, Pastor, I feel like God is speaking me today. Maybe I thought it was. You could even have thought you were a Christian, but you've never surrendered. You've been doing it in your own strength. How difficult is that? Can't be done.
[00:36:23] Is anyone here this morning? Just lift your hand, say, yep, that's me. I want to give my life to Christ today.
[00:36:29] I want to enter into God's forever kingdom.
[00:36:33] Okay, no response.
[00:36:36] Okay, don't worry, guys, it's not a waste of time. Seeds are being planted. Listen, right now there's probably over 300 people watching this live stream. It's amazing, isn't it?
[00:36:47] So maybe there's some people out there, they're listening to this. And I'm just going to encourage you to respond in the same way.
[00:36:54] You just pray and say, jesus, forgive me. I want you to come into my life as Lord and Savior. We thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
